Welcome back, Sloopy. Its nice to see his return to the links, even if it did cost him his beard. And I’m not talking about Banjos! Heyoooo!
LAZERZ!!!
Wow, real news. Scaramucci, having completed his job of (a) making everyone forget Sean Spicer and (b) firing Rheince Priebus in such a way that even the GOPe was afraid to stand up for him, is going to go see if he can save his marriagespend more time with his family.
I doubt former Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be wearing pink and living in a tent while he awaits sentencing on criminal contempt conviction.
So I guess this rain storm is now a named storm. Like true Flordians, my wife took our two small children to the park. There’s also this, which means nothing. Ask Houstonians or Lousianans how much damage a “minor” storm can do.
Good-bye to the man who played Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff. (The real Gen. Yeager is still kicking ass at 95)
Oh, sure. I’m sure Qatar is going to use the current crisis to reform immigration. Riiight.
Does not chase laser pointer
Jets with frickin’ laser beams! Didn’t Clint Eastwood already steal us one?
What a long 8 days I had. Got to see some important people and my son did ok in his diving thing. But I have never been happier to walk in the door after being gone for so long. My little ones all recognized me even after transitioning back from being a bearded old man to a fresh-faced marginally-younger man. And an absolutely wonderful weekend was had by all.
As for weekends, the Astros didn’t have a good one. Neither did Adidas after the LaVarr Ball fiasco in Las Vegas.Sorry, guys but sexism isn’t a good look. You might want to keep that in mind next time you choose sides between an official and a clown. I wish I’d have gotten a chance to give my thoughts on Spieth’s win at the British Open, but a week later is too much to ask for. I’ll wait till the PGA in two weeks to comment on golf again (at the professional level-I still reserve the right to comment on my own game).
Well that’s about it. Hope the quick sports update wasn’t too much for those of you that don’t like them. I kept it down to a single paragraph just for y’all. I’ll gradually up the dosage, though. So be prepared.
Well, seeing as I was completely checked out from all political news for the time I was gone, I may take a little time to get back into the swing. So bear with me. As for the slack-picker-uppers here at Glibs, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking such great care of the links while I was gone. Every one of you did a better job than I would have done. And I owe each and every one of you a debt of gratitude.
Alright. We all know why you’re here. It ain’t for my rambling appreciation of my friends. It’s so you can get into…the links!
Venezuelan Presidente Maduro
Venezuelans abstain from rigged vote.Socialist paradise State-capitalist hellhole on the brink. Poor bastards. If only they’d have done their socialism harder, I’m sure it would have worked. No word yet from Frank on what he thinks.
This sucks, doesn’t it? No Zardoz, no STEVE SMITH, just some old Jew trying to get by without being tossed in an oven, this time by rebellious orphans, much in the manner of Hansel and Gretel’s witch. No matter, news is rich enough today to stand on its own. And SP and I are celebrating the 200,000th comment in style, which involves alcohol, perfect vine-ripe summer tomatoes, and reruns of hilarious old TV shows (does anyone here besides us remember Buffalo Bill?). Here’s links, you people can do all the work now.
I spent time last night being lectured by a Progressive friend about the superior civilization that the Europeans have, with much more racial and religious tolerance, and none of the bigotry “that runs rampant in the Trump administration.” I suppose he was right.
It’s funny how everything illegal is universal. Drugs, gambling, prostitution. Making a law to fight it doesn’t snuff it out. It’s just a reality. It’ll be done somehow, someway.
I live in Daejeon, South Korea. I went north to Seoul to see my friends off for their going-away party. It’s about an hour away on the fast train.
At the bar we banter and celebrate our friends’ imminent departure. Shockingly fast, the games began.
강남스타일
My friend took out five dice and tossed them onto the pool table. We’re gonna play Threes. I didn’t know how to play but learned fast. Skin in the game incentivizes immediate understanding. You roll the dice up to five times. Low score is the winner. Every roll you have to keep at least one die. A three is worth zero and everything else is face value. A score of four is respectable and under is gravy.
We started out low stakes, a buck a player. The rounds came and went, winner taking seven or eight per. One game went particularly long—twenty bucks to me. I’m up $15.
We ratcheted up. Buy-in went from a buck to ten. It really is remarkable how the changing stakes heightens your focus.
We’re not high-rollers. We’re poor-ish English teachers. Every game now is worth close to $100. Green notes stacked on the felt, this is serious money for us. And I hate losing.
I lost a few rounds and was very near to bowing out. I throw ten bucks in anyway. I played conservatively and won the pot. Eighty bucks to me.
That was the end of my line, for the most part. I had to float my friend $20 for two bets and enough-is-enough after they raised the stakes to $20 a roll. I later learned that one of the players was a bit of a gambling addict. The Madness had set in as I wisely stepped out. I became an accepted spectator. The last few games netted the winner something like $180 each.
The bar turned a blind eye to all of this. They were excited for the business. The game was organic and started of its own accord. The people who wanted to play flocked to the table and those that didn’t did not. People who didn’t want to put money down still could watch and bought drinks to entertain themselves whilst vicariously living through our wallets. No one gave a shit. It was glorious.
It struck me during the game how we all instantly agreed to the rules. People came together to play a stupid game for a shot at making some money. And those that won and lost understood that the rules to play were arbitrary. But they were agreed to. If it’s arbitrary for one and all then it’s not so arbitrary after all. A beautiful system with no leaders, no kings—simply a mutual understanding between blokes, a glint in the eye for some weekend cash.
We self-regulated. There was no muscle involved, but we all understood that if someone tried some fuckery, there were plenty of eyes and arms to make sure the money didn’t flee unjustly. Having money on the felt makes one very mindful.
No police; no guards; no threats; no violence; no force. Just fun.
I ended up $26 even after I gave the twenty to my friend. Damn good in my book, paying for the entertainment and festivity for three hours and still ending up in the green. Another fun foray into the life of “sin” that people wrongfully cast shade upon.
At least half of the fun is the seediness of it all. Adrenaline and cash naturally make up the rest. That’s what the government can’t ever learn: That which is illegal is inherently desirable. Tell people that they can’t do something and a portion of the population is going to say “Fuck off” simply to thumb their nose.
I know I do.
It was a beautifully organic experience. Out of sight from the law, and everyone regulating each other voluntarily. Curious how that seems to work out.
It seems like only yesterday that we and a few of our friends decided to stop whining about not having a place to speak our minds, free of trolls, and with a real acceptance of the principles of liberty and individual rights. We figured, well, if no one reads anything we write or say, no big loss, we’ll have fun and it will entertain us. That was the goal.
We had no idea.
The Internet has redefined “community” is profound ways. Traditionally, it was a concept based on geography, but those limits have been swept away- what do I really have in common with the people in this town (or them with each other) beyond “we all have plots of land nearby”? What do I have in common with all of you? A deep and abiding love of liberty, of individual rights, a curiosity about the history and philosophy of liberty and economics, and a sense of doing the right thing because it’s the right thing rather than having Leviathan telling me what to do. A delight in talking, interacting, and on a few lucky occasions, drinking/eating/whatever, feeling free to say what I’m actually thinking, have fun, not worry about offense or conforming to norms, and not having to slow down to explain sly references.
As of today, after just a few months of operating, we (and that means the big “we,” all of us, the hundreds of people who have registered here and have made this the most interesting, intelligent, and civilized comments section in cyberspace) have created a real community. “Community” in the real sense of the word, “a group of organisms or populations living and interacting with one another in a particular environment.” We organisms have exceeded 800 posts, 200,000 comments (!), and have a staggering number of mutually understood memes, in-jokes, and shared cultural references. We understand what’s going on in each others lives, try to support one another, and are a shining example of the wonderfulness of voluntary association. We’re a community because we consciously CHOSE to be here, not because of the accident of propinquity.
So, 200,000 comments is something we celebrate today. The content, both posts and comments, has been entirely crowd-sourced, and has included some pretty outstanding thinking and expression- we have all the best words, I’m telling you. I really and truly want to thank all of you, commenters, lurkers, contributors, for making this community what it is.
Oh, and we’re Certified Family Friendly.
So, the celebration noted, let’s return to our quotidian rituals.
And finally music. SP and I were at a delightful concert last night, ending with going back to where the performer was staying, sitting out on a patio in rural Wisconsin, under the stars, some fine Bourbon in hand, and civilized conversation. And this was a relatively obscure song from a relatively obscure band that we all loved:
STEVE SMITH DO SATURDAY LINKS AND GIVE BIG FUNNY HEAD TIME OFF. LINKS ARE SHORT, SO STEVE SMITH CAN GET BACK TO FINDING HIKERS. BY “FINDING HIKERS” MEANS RAPE.
Shortly after President Trump’s election there were commentators who bemoaned the effect that the new president would have on free trade. And there were reasons for concern. One of the first acts of the administration was to end the Trans Pacific Partnership- a long negotiated free trade pact. This was followed in short order by the administration threatening economic consequences to businesses outsourcing their operations. The president also took to Twitter attacking China as a currency manipulator and reiterated his desire to ‘re-negotiate’ NAFTA. The president also surrounded himself with noted trade protectionists, such as Daniel DiMicco, who is currently a trade representative in the administration. Through his words and actions, President Trump has shown that he is no fan of free trade.
But the same people who once worried about a revival of high tariffs and onerous sanctions on trade partners are now some of the most vocal proponents of more trade restrictions. To be sure, they are advocating that trade restrictions only be imposed on the right ‘bad guy’ (Iran, North Korea, and particularly Russia) with a bipartisan bill quickly moving through Congress. The bill is unique, in the fact that Congress, which has historically ceded trade authority to the executive branch, has imposed a caveat in this legislation that would prevent the president from unilaterally lifting the trade sanctions. Certainly, the fair weather free traders that support ‘sanctions for me and not for thee’ assert that these three countries pose a unique military threat to the United States and its allies. North Korea is an erratic dictatorship that possesses nuclear weapons; Iran is getting closer to developing its own nuclear weapons (so we’re told); and Russia continues to occupy parts of Ukraine, along with having ‘interfered’ in the most recent presidential election. Respectable society has decided that free trade is important, but not with those who pose an existential threat to our nation.
Ignoring the question of whether or not these three ‘bad guys’ actually pose a threat to the United States, it’s glaringly obvious that the justification for these economic sanctions, coupled with opposition to others, is rooted in pure hypocrisy. These same ‘free traders’ were just recently lecturing the administration that we should not retreat from opening trade with Cuba, even though that country remains a despotic hell-hole and props up the man-made disaster that is Venezuela by providing arms and personnel. These were the same people that were alarmed every time President Trump talked about penalizing China for currency manipulation and supporting the Kim regime in North Korea. If North Korea poses a unique military threat to the United States, then why are we imposing more meaningless sanctions on that state, while ignoring its Chinese benefactor?
The response regarding China and Cuba from these selective ‘free traders’ is always the same: engagement is more successful than isolation. Then why doesn’t that philosophy apply to North Korea, Iran, and Russia? It’s clear that neither President Trump, nor his detractors, are particularly keen on actual ‘free trade’. Each one wants to trade with some, while excluding others. The only difference is in who they don’t want to trade with and why. The president, as if ignorant of David Ricardo, wants to restrict trade with countries that enjoy trade surpluses with the United States, while his opponents want to restrict trade with countries identified as the ‘baddies’ by The Weekly Standard. Even those who have whittled the notion of ‘libertarianism’ down to nothing more than ‘free trade and free migration’ seem to be embracing The Weekly Standard mentality. So, since it is obvious to any casual observer that we are all trade protectionists now, can we stop pretending as if the president is the only one that threatens liberal trade?
I’m just returned from a sojourn to Indiana. I would count it as a successful trip in that when I returned home, SP hadn’t changed the locks.
One thing I noticed was the prevalence of “No Wind Farms!” signs along all of the back roads I drove on. I’m curious about what the local objections are, but didn’t stop to ask. Maybe one of you Indianaians (or whatever the hell they call you) can fill me in?
Some here worry about increased crime and that American soldiers will be on the prowl for local women. The U.S. Army has developed an app so troops can check which bars have been deemed off-limits, either because they’ve been caught serving drinks to minors or because they’re selling sex.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. ZARDOZ IS STILL A BIT BITTER ABOUT HIS EARLY RETIREMENT FROM RACING. BUT HE WILL NOT TAKE THAT OUT ON HIS CHOSEN ONES, SO HE WILL GIVE YOU THE GIFT OF THE LINK.
ZARDOZ SEES SOCIALIZED MEDICINE CONTINUES TO THIN RANKS OF BRUTALS.
BRUTAL DICTATOR KEEPS SHOOTING MISSILES INTO WATER – ZARDOZ THINKS HE HAS FORGOTTEN HOW TO SHOOT BRUTALS ON LAND.
THIS SLAYING OF A BRUTALDID MAKE ZARDOZ THINK HE COULD TEACH HIS ENFORCERS A NEW TRICK OR TWO.
GERMAN BRUTALS NEED THE GIFT OF THE GUN….CHAIRS DO NOT DO THE JOB.
