Glibertarians.com 2017 Archive

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  • Pro football No Kneeling Preview

     

    And then there were two. Unbeatens, that it – the Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Falcons. The Chiefs have really looked the part, winning their three games by 12 points per game. The Falcons look a little bit lucky, beating the Bears and Lions by a combined seven points. Granted, they looked more like their first-half-of-Super-Bowl-51 selves at home against the Packers in week two. (Is it weird that their first three opponents have all been from the NFC Central? That’s weird, right?)

    Surprises thus far? Well, we’ve only had three games (Thursday night’s game notwithstanding), so it’s had to get a hold on things yet. But it’s hard to believe the Bengals are quite this bad, or that the Giants would be winless through three games. Individually, Alex Smith leading in Passer Rating would have to be a bit of a surprise. Yes, he’s always been a solid QB, but he has really shined in 2017.

    Let’s see what’s on tap for Week 4:

    AFC WEST

    Washington @ Kansas City

    Oakland @ Denver

    Philadelphia @ LA Chargers

    Good matchups this week. The Redskins are solid, but I don’t see them going into Arrowhead and winning. (By the way, while I’d prefer to avoid politics in football given the events of last week, shouldn’t the left be all over this game? Redskins versus Chiefs? UGH, problematic, they can’t even) The Chargers should get off the schneid at home, while Oakland picks up the in-division road win.

     

    AFC NORTH

    Pittsburgh @ Baltimore

    Cincinnati @ Cleveland

    Both games are divisional clashes this week. Ehhhhhxcellent. Besides the usual emotion that marks a Ravens-Steelers game, both teams are coming off of bad losses – the Ravens got hammered by the possibly-for-real Jaguars, while for the Steelers, losing to the Bears by any margin is an embarrassment. I’m not simply sucking up to Glibs management here; I like the Ravens at home. And Cleveland gets into the win column at the expense of the rapidly decaying Bengals.

     

    AFC SOUTH

    Jacksonville @ NY Jets

    Indianapolis @ Seattle

    Tennessee @ Houston

    One big game and two very little ones. Let’s start with the big one down in Houston: since getting thoroughly outplayed in week one, the Houston Texans have been competitive in a win over Cincy and a loss to New England. Maybe it’s nothing more than the team getting refocused after getting thumped; on the other hand, maybe it’s just that neither the Bengals and Patriots are now lesser versions of them selves, and Houston would have lost to last year’s Bengals and blown out by last year’s Patriots. I think DeShawn Watson is going to use this season as a great learning experience for the future, but it won’t mean many wins now – particularly against the improved Titans. Seattle will take care of the Colts at home, and the Jags will go into New Jersey and defeat the New York Jets. (At least they’re not doing that Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim-type name scheme)

     

    AFC EAST

    New Orleans @ Miami

    Buffalo @ Atlanta

    Carolina @ New England

    Jacksonville @ NY Jets

    This division lacks even more luster than usual. Out of sixteen AFC teams ranked by pro-football-reference.com’s SRS (Simple Rating System) AFC East teams occupy spots 6,7,8, and 10. I’m skeptical that the Patriots are going to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but I’ll go way out on a limb and say that they’re going to be one of the top-three ranked AFC teams when January rolls around. Furthermore, they’re going to be the latest team to remind the Panthers that 2015 was nothing more than lightning in a bottle. The Bills will come up short in Atlanta, and the Saints will win in Miami.

     

    NFC WEST

    San Francisco @ Arizona

    Indianapolis @ Seattle

    LA Rams @ Dallas

    How has Carson Palmer not simply exploded at this point? He’ll be 38 at the end of the year, he’s blown up his knee twice, played through an elbow issue that had one doctor recommending Tommy John surgery for…and he’s throwing a league-leading 44 passes per game this season. If Palmer faces one more team with a top-notch pass rush, he may need to be helped off the field by the cleanup crew. Fortunately for Palmer, the 49ers have three sacks total through three games, which is four fewer than the Cowboys’ Demarcus Lawrence. Take Arizona in that one. Speaking of the Cowboys, they’re going to have a surprisingly tough time against the offensive-minded Rams, but will pull it out at home.

     

    NFC NORTH

    Chicago 14 @ Green Bay 35 (F – 9/28)

    Detroit @ Minnesota

     

    You guys aren’t going to believe this…Sam Bradford is going to miss this game due to injury. I know, I know…I’m stunned too. Lions win on the road.

     

    Let me get a little racist here: generally speaking, white wideouts tend to be either the smallish guys who find seams in the zone (Steve Largent, Wes Welker, Julian Edelman) or extremely fast guys you send deep on fly routes (Don Beebe, Tim Dwight). The bigger white wide receivers simply become tight ends, like Brent Jones, Jason Whitten, or Rob Gronkowski. Green Bay’s Jordy Nelson, like the best black wideouts, can do it all: he’s big (6’3″, 215) and plenty fast, having posted a 4.51-40 yard time. (Compare those numbers to the Cowboys’ Dez Bryant: 6-2, 220, 4.52-40) I’m not the first person to notice this, and maybe Aaron Rodgers consistent success has something to do with having #87 around all these years. It’s hard to recall another white wide receiver who’s more than a “possession” receiver or Hail Mary specialist.

     

    NFC SOUTH

    Buffalo @ Atlanta

    Carolina @ New England

    NY Giants @ Tampa Bay

    New Orleans @ Miami

    Commentariat: give us your best NY Post headlines following the Giants’ upcoming 0-4 start. Here are my submissions:

    GI-AINTS SINK IN TAMPA BAY

    0-4 SHAME: GIANTS IN NFC BASEMENT

    WHO’S MANNING THE STORE? GIANTS IN TROUBLE

    HEADLESS GIANTS FOUND IN TOPLESS BAY

    (I didn’t say I was any good at this, mind you)

     

    NFC EAST

    NY Giants @ Tampa Bay

    Washington @ Kansas City

    LA Rams @ Dallas

    Philadelphia @ LA Chargers

    By the time we get to the NFC East, we’ve discussed every matchup already. So a word about my picks: I’m not a gambler. I’m not a deep researcher. I’m just a fan trying to spark a little NFL talk. Sure I went 9-6 last week, but a blindfolded monkey throwing darts at an NFL schedule could have pulled that off. As David Letterman might have put it years ago, this is for entertainment purposes only so please – no wagering.

     

    Sorry, no links this week – very busy time of the week for me.

     

  • Review – Oktoberfest

    This is my review of what is arguably, the greatest beer in the world, ever.  At least according to this guy.

    https://youtu.be/MyJJZa5Q2Fw?t=25s

    This movie plays on the stereotypes and misconceptions that Americans have about Oktoberfest, particularly the ones that have never attended.  For the uninitiated, it’s pretty much viewed as a bunch of singing drunks served by this lady.

    I have no way of legitimately commenting on the accuracy of the portrayal of Oktoberfest, drinking contests, the German people, the Bier Garden wait staff, or sexual activity among amphibians in this film.  For that, I will direct you to a much better source previously posted by another guest contributor.  Hat Tip:  DEG.

    While Hefeweizen is served at Oktoberfest, I will not get into these.  To be sure, my aversion to German wheat beer has absolutely nothing to do with a drunk Native American that failed to recognize that I hailed from the big tribe in the south, and that I am not a homosexual.   Apparently in Northern Arizona, Hefeweizen is a calling card for gay men; I also happen to be more of a fan of the Belgian varieties of wheat beer.

    That leaves us with Marzen but since this is a somewhat saturated marked, where to begin?

    Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen

    Unfortunately, this is a German entity therefore we must concede the standard must be set by them.  Other well-known German brewers such as Spaaten, Warsteiner, and Becks all put their own version to market and none of them are bad.  As you can tell from what is once again, not my photo, Paulaner’s offering is copper in color, a nice light lager with caramel notes and a nutty finish.  It is lightly carbonated so it will not stop you from knocking back several liters at a time.  The only problem, as mentioned in the comments section at other dark corners of this website, German beer does not travel well, particularly lagers.  German Beer Purity laws may have something to do with that but even given the proviso that it may be a hair on the skunky side, it is still quite good.  Too bad we can’t all go to Germany. 3.8/5

    Since going to the source is not always feasible, that leaves us with the American Craft industry to pick up the slack.

     

    Left Hand Brewing Co. Oktoberfest – Longmont, CO

    As you can tell from what is once again, not my photo, Left Hand’s offering is copper in color, a nice light lager with caramel notes and a nutty finish.  It is lightly carbonated so it will not stop you from knocking back several liters at a time.  Yes, I just repeated what I wrote about Paulaner’s.  Am I really that lazy?  Perhaps, but repeating myself might be the best compliment I can make about it.  This is as good a copy you can get in the mountain west, and for many of us that is as good as it gets.  The reduced travel time and the Colorado snow met make this one slightly more enjoyable than waiting on the import to arrive. 4.0/5

    Tenaya Creek Brewery Oktoberfest  – Las Vegas, NV (Right)

    Another one I’ve had recently is from Tenaya Creek Brewery in Las Vegas.  Not as malty as I like but given its source it is also a fair bit lighter than the norm for this type of beer. If you feel the need to enter a drinking competition this might be a good choice. 3.5/5

    Goose Island Oktoberfest – Chicago, IL (Left)

    The next one is from Goose Island from Chicago.  It could just be the batch I got; this might have been bottled sometime the previous year and left in a warehouse somewhere in Phoenix with questionable climate control.  Whatever it is, this one should be better but it is not.  I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but after briefly researching on ratebeer.com others seem to agree.  If you are in the area, please explain this if you like because I will not extend more mental energy to find out where they went wrong.  After all the definition of pizza in that town is apparently up for their interpretation.  My only regret is I bought a 12 pack. 2.5/5.

    San Tan Brewing Co. – Chandler, AZ

    The last one is a local (to me), from San Tan.  This is probably going to be discounted as bias but I will say my local offering is pretty damn good!  My pick for this genre is still from Left Hand out of CO but it stacks up well.  The biggest difference is the nuttiness in this one gives is a slightly thicker texture than Left Hand’s.  It could also be the local water, as it is notorious for its mineral content.  3.8/5

    Whether it is glass or ceramic, serve in a mug of some kind like above.  Bonus points if you have a boot.

  • Saturday Morning Coffee Does Its Thing Links

    It’s Saturday morning, I’m coffeed up, and I’m thanking Amazon for their delivery of high quality toilet paper, of the sort that Venezualans can only dream of. But enough of that, there’s Links afoot!

    Never let a likely-contrived “incident” go to waste. If you’re a showboater, this sort of thing is GOLD. The good general is assured of a steady supply of cocktail parties, and that when inevitably this turns out to be fake, he will be spared embarrassment by WaPo burying that little detail.

     

    If this is true, I can forgive Trump for all the other really terrible stuff he’s done and his remarkably awful appointments (I’m looking at YOU, Jeff Sessions). TW: Salon, but the moaning and gnashing of teeth is worth it.

    This conservative push hasn’t just been in accordance with economic orthodoxy, it’s a political power move. As Newt Gingrich once put it, if you dismantle unions, you destroy the Democratic Party’s “army on the ground.”

    I call “feature,” not “bug.” And the writer inadvertently makes the case against compelling union dues by acknowledging that these are actually political contributions.

     

    The dog’s breakfast is being prepared, and there will be extra Milk Bones. I’ll lay odds that there’s never, ever going to be actual reform of the horrifically awful tax system so beloved of rent-seekers, regulatory captors, and redistributionists. Nor will the ratchet ever work in the other direction.

     

    This is actually good. Of course the best thing would be to eliminate that department entirely. Not that this will ever happen- we still have the Department of Education, HUD, DHS…

     

    Why did Mogadishu get the works? It nobody business but de Turks.

     

    Finally, Old Man music, a delightful song played by the guy who may be the best guitarist currently walking the planet.

  • Firearms Friday: Vhyrus After Dark

    I wasn’t going to even do a FF this week since there wasn’t much to talk about, but I’m sitting here at work not wanting to work so I figured fuck it, let’s go for it.

    The big story: D.C. will officially be ‘shall issue’ come next week. Unless of course they try to weasel out of it, which they will, so don’t hold your breath. Interestingly not a single judge on the panel voted for En Banc. A sign of the times?

    The big non-story: The SHARE act did not come up for a vote this week (at least not of this writing). So a big fuck you very much to congress, who once again can’t do shit that everyone wants. No link, cause how can you link to something NOT happening?

    The PMag is now authorized for requisition by the US Army at a unit level, putting it one step away from mass adoption as GI equipment for the entire US military. Yes, I know how unimportant this is in the broad scheme of things. It’s a slow week.

    If you look in the dictionary for ‘hypocrisy’, you may find an entry for Camiella Williams, a self admitted juvenile gang banger turned anti gun activist that has her concealed carry license and regularly carries a gun while working to strip other people of those same rights. Can I get a fuck off slaver?

    Who wants a 10mm hi-point carbine? I think I might!

    Bass Pro Shops officially closes the deal on the buyout of Cabelas for $4 billion dollars. I always liked Cabelas more than Bass Pro so I don’t have high hopes for this one.

    Here’s an awesome video of transparent suppressors being used in slow motion.

    Finally today, I leave you with a sad bit of news. It is with deep emotion that I announce that CarnikCon is officially dead. The channel and all of the videos have been officially removed from Youtube by the creator, Dugan Ashley.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84WcNJNkU0Y

    Goodnight, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

    Luckily someone was smart enough to archive all of the videos for posterity. Some heroes don’t wear capes.

     

  • Friday Afternoon Links – You Cannot Withstand Our Linking Powers

    Please don’t fuck this up. Please?

    Amazon is making a Snow Crash TV show

    Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash is one of the great unadapted novels of modern science fiction, right up there with its granddaddy in the cyberpunk genre, William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Given how screen-ready some of Snow Crash’s most famous sequences are, though—most notably, the high-speed, action-heavy pizza delivery chase that opens the novel—it’s honestly kind of baffling that directors have never managed to get a handle on Stephenson’s world of katana-wielding pizza guys, nuke-toting motorcyclists, and virtual reality paradise. The closest Hollywood’s gotten to date is Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Ready Player One, especially since Ernest Cline’s reference-addicted original novel cribs heavily from Stephenson’s virtual worlds.

    That might all be about to change, though; Variety reports that Amazon has started development on a Snow Crash TV series, with Ant Man writer Joe Cornish and Back To The Future producer Frank Marshall shepherding the show to the screen.

    I mean, I already had to suffer through years of worrying about Hayden Christensen fucking up Neuromancer with his terrible acting and dead doll eyes–not to mention the highly questionable casting choices of the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Altered Carbon–so the garbage that could be wrung out of Snow Crash is worrying.

    Gawker Media… Oops… Splinter? Univision Media? Whatever. The Part of the Flock of Shitbirds that Weren’t Sued Off The Internet has started up a new nest just for Nature and Gaia and Global Warming Climate Change Alarmism.

    Welcome Earther to your hate-read bookmarks.

    Earther’s mission is to write impactful stories about how humanity is affecting life on Earth, and what that means for our future. We love geeking out over the weather, sharing the latest conservation success stories, and reminding you that climate change is very real. We strive to make Earther a friendly, inclusive site for everyone interested in the future of life on the Blue Marble, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.

    Fuck, Marry, Kill: Jacksonville Edition

    WNBA Star denies rumors of lesbianism

    Kelly says: “People call me a lesbian a lot … I’m not a lesbian… I’ve heard that multiple times. I guess it’s something to try to get under my skin, but at the end of the day I know who I am.”

    Wow. She looks just like me.

  • What Are We Reading? September 2017

    SugarFree

    Finished the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts. It stayed strong until the end of the books published so far in the series.

    To finally quiet the people demanding that I read it so we could discuss it, I read The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson. I don’t know what is going on with Stephenson anymore. D.O.D.O. is either a horribly-ended book (a Stephenson specialty) or the beginning of a series I’m not all that interested in continuing. It cribbed and remixed a bunch of different time-travel ideas from a bunch of much better books (most notably, The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis,) brewed it in a cauldron with a few characters that are either poorly-written or just uninteresting, poured it into an epistolary framework that did no one any favors and served the concoction indifferently as a competitor to far superior libations. A few interesting ideas flaccidly toyed with. Blah.

    I moved on to something I was more interested in, the new Charles Stross Laundry Files novel, The Delirium Brief.  Delirium Brief brings Bob back to the center of the action and a villian we thought long dead and mixes in the storyline from Mo’s stand-alone book, The Annihilation Score, and the serious political fallout from the events of The Nightmare Stacks. I get that Stross doesn’t want to write the same book over and over again–and I don’t want him to write the same book over and over again–but the mounting themes of middle-age ennui and marital strife are a drag, Chuck; “Less artsy, more fartsy” as Homer Simpson so eloquently put it.

    And then I got to the book I had been waiting for for a long time, the end of the Transformations trilogy by Neal Asher, Infinity Engine. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Asher is just all science fiction high concept, wide-screen, technicolor blowshitupism. Unfolding from the events of Asher’s stand-alone novel, The Technician, the Transformation series covers one man’s war of revenge against an insane Artifical Intelligence implicated in a monstrous war crime of which he is the only known survivor. Complications ensue–wonderful, violent complications that involve vast swaths of the Polity universe, Asher’s playground for fifteen of his novels so far. My only complaint is a small one: the series is not a traditional trilogy and is best read as one long book published in three parts; it should have been one massive tome.

    Action-packed without being dumb, nuanced without being opaque, cosmic without disappearing up its own ass, Asher’s work is simply amazing. Read it. Read it now.

    Brett L

    I did my annual re-read of Taran Wanderer which is just about the most libertarian teen novel ever. If you have kids, or never got around to it, I highly recommend it. I also realized on this reading that I had long ago stolen a quotation from this book: “I’ve heard men complain about women’s work, and women complain about men’s work, but I’ve never heard the work complain about who does it.” I think my oldest is already tired of hearing: “the work doesn’t care who does it”.

    Then I read The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie. Now maybe I’ve just completely burned out on the Sword & Sorcery genre, but I found this a completely inoffensive novel with some fun tweaks of the genre. And I have absolutely no desire to read the sequel. The once great kingdom has fallen to decadence, heroes are proven and gathered, and they are — at the end of the book, ready to set off on a Great Quest. That I don’t care about in the least.

    Old Man With Candy

    Besides the rather dull technical books that I love, I’ve been on an American writer kick. So to get myself out of that rut, I’ve returned to one of my favorite British writers, the one and only Eric Blair. Coming Up For Air was written and set in 1939 England, with the war about to engulf the island. It is structured as a memoir of a man who is living the proverbial life of quiet desperation and attempts to regain at least a small taste of the past. The wonderful thing about this novel is to see Blair becoming Orwell, with now-familiar motifs being presented in beta form. Absolutely delightful.

    Riven

    Well, I finished up the Sandman Slim series, or rather I finished reading all of the books that have been published. The end of The Kill Society would have been fine if there had been another book to pick up after it, but since that wasn’t the case, I was pretty disappointed. It was definitely not what I would consider a “real ending,” where most of the plot is wrapped up, nice and neat. I’ve heard it said that there will be more books to follow, and I do look forward to reading them. I’m hopeful the series will wrap at some point in the next couple/few books because I can’t stand when a series goes on long enough that it languishes. I have definitely enjoyed the ride, though. As I mentioned last month, I really dig the universe in which the story takes place. The fact that God and Lucifer are both just a couple of jerks, more or less, cracks me up, and all of the faith-based shenanigans and tomfoolery have been very entertaining, especially given my already tenuous grasp on the subject.

    I received two recommendations after I lamented the end of current reading material in the Sandman Slim series–one from HM and one from SF. Go ahead and guess who recommended which: The Skinner and Pimp: The Story of My Life. Usually I’m a one-book-at-a-time kind of woman, but I’m trying to read both of these at the same time. We’ll see how that goes.

    jesse.in.mb

    After last month’s WAWR I finished two more Audible audiobooks: Moby-Dick, which was 21 hours of unabridged audiobook…21 hours. I’m glad I’ve checked it off my list, but my interested waxed and waned quite while mainlining this over a few days. Much shorter was Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. After chancing on a collection of essays and short stories, I’ve been not quite on a kick, but paying more attention to Butler. Her works are still fresh and different (Wild Seed came out in 1980) without being so unconventional as to be pretentious or jarring. I highly recommend.

    My Amazon’s Kindle First read was Soho Dead by Greg Keen. The novel was a light murder mystery in a seedy part of town and with seedy people who are trying to go straight.

    Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. So I found out that there’s a potential chain of events that might lead to me moving on short notice right before Christmas and I figured now would be the right time to read a book on debulking. My main exposure to Kondo’s books—and the KonMari method in general—has been the strong responses, both cultish fandom and revulsion to her method. I don’t know that I completely buy into her position but she has decent advice on clearing away the cruft in one’s life and her perspective on our relationship to our stuff is an oddly Shinto-inflected utilitarianism, which keeps things interesting. For those who like more pictures and less text there is now The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story, which I’m half-tempted to read next.

  • Friday Morning Links

    Man oh man, has the NCAA/FBI/Sports agents investigation turned into an absolute shitshow.  The NBA will soon be posturing. And several players are dumping the agents involved, probably hoping to avoid some extra scrutiny of their youth “career” and the money they were given. Look for there to be bigger fish to fry than even Rick Pitino, who I just so happened to call out when the whole thing first started to unfold and who has been unceremoniously terminated, effectively anyway since the school has to formally fire him after 10 days and a meeting of the school admin.

    Across the pond, they played the JV version of the European Championship. Everton continued to be unimpressive while Arsenhole have adjusted well to Thursday matches.  Elsewhere, Bayern have shitcanned Ancelotti after his squad got demolished at PSG earlier in the week. I hope they don’t come calling on Klopp, because even though he forgot you have to defend the last third of the field, he’s brought some excitement to Anfield.

    Texas beat Iowa State. How the hell did such  once-great program get resigned to football on a Thursday?  What strange times are these? Perhaps MENSA Tom will get things turned around soon.

    The Brew Crew won and are now two games back of the idle Rockies with three to go.  They have a series left with the Cards while the Rockies are facing the Dodgers.  Unfortunately, neither of those teams have anything of substance to play for. Especially there Dodgers, who will be playing more to set their pitching staff up for the postseason rather than pad their stats.  The Twinks fell to the Indians. And the Astros won to remain just one game back in the chase for home field and also one game from 100 wins, which would put three teams over the threshold in one season, which is a rather uncommon event.  Yankees lost. Nationals won. Cubs won. White Sox won (for Swissy!). And thats about it.  The regular season wraps up this weekend. Then its on to the sweet, sweet playoffs. Where the Dodgers will do their usual tank job and the Nationals will follow suit, leading to a Cubs-Indians World Series rematch, which I don’t necessarily want to see since I want my Astros there but which I expect because Cleveland are just toying with people now and the Cubs are relatively hot. But I’m wrong more often than not when it comes to picking sports, so we will have to wait and see.

    OK, enough of that rubbish. On to…the links!

    Looks like the left are pissed that Donald Trump’s DOJ have subpoena’d FB info on 6,000 anti-Trump activists. This is almost like weaponizing the IRS and then feeding donor information to interest groups in order to harm political activists that happen to be conservative and wish to remain anonymous in their giving.  I was pissed at that and I’m pissed at this.  Let’s see how Team Red and Team Blue react.  Somehow I doubt it will be with any form of consistency.

    Mel Reynolds: Tax evader, pederast, Democrat

    Chicago politician Mel Reynolds found guilty for a third time on tax evasion charges. He’s also been jailed for being a pederast and for having some serious porn in Zimbabwe.  His pederasty and one of the tax evasion charges were commuted by none other than Bill Clinton, which would pretty much tell you his political affiliation since the Sun-Times didn’t think it was important enough to mention.

    Julian Assange understands how to use leverage.  Sure, he’s become a grandstanding weirdo lately, but you’d do the same if you were stuck indoors in the same building for several years knowing you’d either get assassinated or black-bagged the minute you tried to leave.

    At least 22 are dead as a stampede occurred in a Bombay train station.  People were trying to stay out of the rain on a pedestrian bridge and panic set in when people feared the bridge would collapse.  The Indian government said they expect the toll to rise.

    I’m no super-genius.  I don’t necessarily know what the world needs.  But I sure as fucking shit know what the world DOESN’T need!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Here’s a gift. I hope your librarian isn’t an asshole.

    More social signalling bullshit. This time aimed at Melania Trump who dared to do something as crass as donating some books to a library. FTA (emphasis mine):

    “Cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit are suffering through expansion, privatization, and school ‘choice’ with no interest in outcomes of children, their families, their teachers, and their schools,” she wrote. “Are those kids any less deserving of books simply because of circumstances beyond their control? Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?”

    Lolol. Sure thing there, dipshit.  Its privatization and school choice that’s causing the suffering. No way its the systematic retention of shitty teachers and union-first policies that’s driven the school systems in those Dem-controlled cities for the last several decades.  It’s all Betsy DeVos and her proposals that haven’t even been implemented there.  My guess is the people in those cities’ school boards and local government hope this remains under the radar. Because if Trump gets wind of it, he’ll be hammering the real cause of the problems there: teachers unions, politicians who care more for donations than primary education, and more teachers unions.

    Talk about some bad luck.

    OK, I don’t know what Tundra was hoping for.  I almost went with “You’re the best”, but couldn’t keep from this badass motherfucker of a song (and video!) to end the week.

    Have a wonderful weekend, friends. I’m gonna build a fence and drink some beer. In no particular order.

  • Come See The Evil that Regulation Can Do.

    I have often thought I have burned out all the absolute rage in my life….sometime after leaving Iraq. I heard a particularly powerful sermon at church on, yes, you guessed it….loving one’s enemies. After tears, contemplation and talking to the pastor…the last of the burning rage I felt… left me. But I felt an ominous stirring of the old rage, because of it. What is “it”? A story that illustrates actual evil, made possible by regulation.

    A bit of background – I am from the city of Rockford. I grew up there in the 1970s and 1980s, when it went from a stodgy, stolid middle class town based on tool and die and specialty industry (and the band Cheap Trick!) the second largest city in Illinois….to a shrinking, crumbling city, fighting as hard as it can to hold on. The city had three hospitals – my father worked at one of them (not the one hurt in this story). So I was pleasantly surprised to hear the old home town had a hospital that was going to build:

    The health system unveiled plans in April for a four-story, $70 million structure to serve women and children that would include an intensive care unit upgraded to the highest-rated level of care for newborns. Other upgrades would include the addition of 10 psychiatric beds, an expansion of the emergency department, and additions to the surgery and catheterization lab areas of the hospital.

    But, we cannot have an increase in the ability to heal the sick, care for the newborn or the mentally ill!  Heavens no!

    “The applicants have exceeded the State standard size requirements” for six of 14 expansion-development areas, according to review board documents. Those areas include a nursery, emergency and surgery departments, medical-surgical inpatient unit, cath-angiography unit, and neonatal intensive care unit.

    This was a shock, since:

    The board in June OK’d SwedishAmerican’s plan to develop the highest-level neonatal intensive care unit, which is expected to open in the hospital’s current tower location in 2019, Kirby said. The plan is to relocate it to the new women’s and children’s tower. The board is “asking for a resubmission of our modernization project, which includes our women’s and children’s tower plan,” Kirby said.

    There was no written opposition to SwedishAmerican’s expansion plan and no public testimony in opposition. More than two dozen supporters formally backed the plan, including City Council members and other elected officials.

    Oh, and…

    In 2015, the board approved Mercyhealth’s request to build a 188-bed hospital on 263 acres in far east Rockford. Construction is underway on the $505 million project.

    OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford is adding 78 single-patient rooms as part of an $85 million expansion expected to be completed in spring 2018.

    So how in the absolute rage inducing Hell could this vital boost to a hurting city get stopped? Why, politics, of course!

    The “how” – we see what many libertarians have railed against, Illinois has a “Certificate of Need” law. Want to punch a wall while screaming in rage, vomiting and crying at the same time?  Check this little intro out:

    The Health Facilities Planning Act (Act) (20 ILCS 3960), established Illinois’ certificate of need (CON) program. The CON program promotes the development of a comprehensive health care delivery system that assures the availability of quality facilities, related services, and equipment to the public, while simultaneously addressing the issues of community need, accessibility, and financing. In addition, it encourages health care providers to engage in cost containment, better management and improved planning.

    No, you sanctimonious shitheels, it allows you to stop people from building hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other useful things, so you can protect established players in the field from competition. Period.

    So, if nobody “publicly” spoke out in opposition…how did this get beat (for now)? Well, you need 5 of 7 members voting to approve. In our case here:

    Members Present: Chair, Kathy Olson; Senator Deanna Demuzio; Joel Johnson; John McGlasson, Sr.; Marianne E. Murphy; Richard Sewell
    Member Absent: Senator Brad Burzynski

    So there were only 6 present – Senator Brad Burzynski happened to skip out. Now why would he do that? Maybe, just maybe a good friend of his, Senator Dave Syverson, asked him to skip out? Gosh, why would he want a member to miss the meeting, and reduce the available votes? Maybe take a peek at his biography. See something at the bottom of the page…

     He also serves on the Mercyhealth System Board

    My oh my…on the board of a competitor health system?!  I am shocked, shocked to find this out! He also just may have asked backers of the plan to withdraw their support, so I was told.

    So who voted “no”? The record does not say, and the reporter I conversed with has tried to find out, with numerous calls unreturned. Maybe the chair, who happens to be on staff at local clinic? So why would it matter that she was on the staff of another local provider (other than obvious competition concerns)? Oh, lookie here!

    I am in touch with a reporter (I am going to leave names out for this for now) and will do my best to find out the exact no votes. Right now this is only educated guesswork on my part. But I sure seem to have found some terrible looking coincidences, eh?

    But no matter the who, and the why – the very existence of something like the “Certificate of Need” is a monstrous evil, serving only to hurt.

  • Thursday Afternoon Links of Fun

    Fun links, oh yeah! We have shaken up the batting order here today, so I am pitching in on links this glorious Fall afternoon. Here are some linkseses for you to ponder on the Tree of Woe Joy… consider it a little competition of fun, between media sources:

    • Our first entry is from the always reliable NY Post. See idiot punch sharks! Next time try that crap with some Great Whites or Hammerheads.
    • Next up the always amusing Daily Mail Fail! What did he say? OK, that wasn’t up to their usual standards. Does this one help? OK, not every paper can have a good day, every day.
    • So, maybe it is cheating to have Infowars provide an entry. The unintentionally amusing “Leave Alex Alone!” entry!
    • Reuters chimes in, for our last entry. Clearly this guy is a libertarian!

    A very special note: Tune in tonight, at 6PM Central for something NOT fun.

  • Thursday Morning Links

    Sloopy had to go to Oklahoma today, so he has his own hell to deal with.

    Houston STEVE SMITH’s the Rangers, scoring 10+ runs for the 3rd game in a row. Last 4 games of the season are against the Boston CheatSox, who have a bit more to play for. A split gives Dallas Keichal and others from the 2013 squad the dubious distinction of having been on a 100 loss and a 100 win club. The Twins were unable to give Cleveland that one loss Houston needed to be tied for home field, but they backed into the playoffs. The Cubbies beat the Cards to get in. Dodgers win, Orioles and Nats lose.

    I did not watch hockey or EPL if there was any. And now… The Links

    Hugh Hefner dead at 91. Thanks Hef. I really did read some of the articles after I had, er, exhausted the pictures. At least in the early 90s when I was trading them with other guys too young to buy them, the writing was pretty good.

    Trump gave a speech on the tax plan, and even the WaPo has to admit that the estate tax portion would radically reform the estate tax to the benefit of heirs.

    Usually at Yosemite, people die by falling on granite, not vice versa.

    Man, this statue removal as protest is really catching on.

    Here’s a little something on theme for my little friends.

    EDIT: Totally forgot to announce here: Tampa Bay area Glibs meetup this Friday at Mr. Dunderbak’s Negroni, his new bride and I will start day drinking sometime before 4:00pm and (at least I) will endeavor to stay until at least 10:00.