Glibertarians.com 2017 Archive

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  • Thursday Morning Links

    SO much for avoiding the sweep.  The Twins weren’t able to convert on decent field position and were held to a pair of field goals while the Astros put a couple touchdowns on the board and a late field goal of their own to win 17-6.  Meanwhile, the Penguins curb-stomped the Predators in the third period to take a 2-0 series lead as the Stanley Cup Finals got a little chippy in Game 2 as the officials forgot what cross-checking, slashing and spearing were. Half of the after-whistle play looked like they were reenacting some old Flyers Broad Street Bullies action.  Not much else in the sports world, unless you want to talk about a hilarious dashcam video. Or perhaps the expected reaction to a pretty idiotic statement. Oh yeah, the NBA Finals starts tonight too. I forgot, what with the ridiculously long break after the conference finals.

    Whew.  You got all that? Good.  Because now we can get down to business with…the links!

    National Review bends all the way over and shoves head up its own ass. There’s a place for federalism, dumbasses. A very clearly written constitutional amendment isn’t one of them. I wonder if they feel the same about the 1A?

    Florida’s next state senator?

    Florida Man does politics the only way Florida Man knows how to. By the power of Grayskull, I hope this dude wins.

    In the latest brave and stunning move by a reporter to date… Oh, by the way I think the word you’re looking for in the dictionary is “alleged”, whoever wrote this.

    Desperate to remain in the public eye, has-been politician makes obvious statement. Media jumps to wrong conclusion. Of course they had help…from your campaign manager’s inability to resist a phishing scam.  And probably from Seth Rich as well, whose murder was inexplicably not caught on one of the myriad video cameras dotting the area where he was killed, his killer was not spotted, the police never asked area businesses to review their footage in the immediate time surrounding the shooting and his laptop still remains in the possession of authorities even though it was allegedly a mugging gone wrong.  But I digress.

    Grandstanders gonna grandstand.

    Covfefe FTW!

    There were quite a few Team Blue fans doing their best to ensure a permanent GOP majority in wake of Beheadgate (I’m seeing if I can make that a thing) in the comments. (TW: Salon going full Salon. Tread lightly.)

    And lastly, I’m glad to finally see a reasonable reaction from a leftist writer over the whole “covfefe” thing. LOL, just kidding. This dude went 100 mph in the opposite direction from “reasonable”.

    There’s a lot of people that the title to this applies.

  • The Winds of Wednesday Blow Cold

    Poppy has a new music video. It is titled “Computer Boy.” It is about a boy with a computer.

     

    These are the lyrics. Find happiness through meaning.

    Boy, boy, boy, boy

    I’m in love with my favorite toy
    Can’t go a day without Computer Boy
    I smile at him while I turn him on
    I’m so happy until Computer’s gone

    I don’t care, and I won’t change myself
    I don’t want anybody else

    I fell in love with the man of the future
    I’ve got a thing for my laptop computer
    I’m so in love with the man of the future
    The only one who brings me joy is my computer boy
    (Boy, boy, boy, boy, boy)

    I’m trying not to get attached to you (attached to you)
    But no one else gets me like you do (like you do)
    When you glow on my face you make me come alive
    I want your floppy disk to be my hard drive

    I don’t care, and I won’t change myself
    I don’t want anybody else

    I fell in love with the man of the future
    I’ve got a thing for my laptop computer
    I’m so in love with the man of the future
    The only one who brings me joy is my computer boy

    (Ooh, ooh oh ooh, ooh, ooh oh ooh)
    Don’t ever leave me or go to sleep without me
    (Ooh, ooh oh ooh, ooh, ooh oh ooh)
    Please stay by my side forever and never talk to anyone else
    (Ooh, ooh oh ooh, ooh, ooh oh ooh)
    My dearest (boy, boy, boy, boy, boy)
    Computer Boy (boy, boy, boy, boy, boy)

    I don’t care, and I won’t change myself
    I don’t want anybody else
    No, I don’t plan to change myself
    To be with anybody…
    (Computer Boy!)

    I fell in love with the man of the future
    I’ve got a thing for my laptop computer
    I’m so in love with the man of the future
    The only one who brings me joy is my computer
    I fell in love with the man of the future
    I’ve got a thing for my laptop computer
    I’m so in love with the man of the future
    The only one who brings me joy is my computer

    The only one who brings me joy is my computer
    The only one who brings me joy is my computer boy

    As some have noticed, shortly after the music video came out, Poppy got into trouble.

    And then the trouble was reversed.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyjL5VDYl2E

    Leading Poppy theorists rushed to explain the meaning of “Computer Boy.”

    But they may have only succeeded in getting Poppy attacked.

    This may be the darkest time for Poppy so far. Keep Poppy in your thoughts.

  • Hump Day Afternoon Links

    Happy Hump Day on a short week. Not much has changed since this morning, so these are mostly going to be, uh, “culture” links.

    • In sports news, Cleveland Browns building a tower to let fans down again.
    • Let’s see, my Constitution says that no agreement can be binding on future Presidencies without the consent of two-thirds of the Senate. Tom Steyer’s is apparently different.
    • Stobor are once again taking over jobs that Americans won’t do! Down with stobor!
    • Its weird how everyone wants to focus on Russians “hacking” the election and nobody wants to focus on Pakistanis hacking Congress.
    • Everyone thinks their kids is the most advanced kid ever born.
    • Seven foot alligator in the pool? Just another day in Central FL. We have six foot fences, so they’d have to be at least eight feet long to get in our pool.

  • The Hat and The Hair: Episode 46

    “COVFEFE?!?” the hair screamed incredulously, “What in the hell are you doing?”

    The hat looked up from the phone he was whispering into and hissed for quiet.

    “Who are you on the phone with?” the hair demanded, crawling from the couch.

    “Look, baby,” the hat said quietly, “Imma have to call you back.”

    The phone beeped loudly in the empty confines of the Oval Office and he hung it up. Donald snorted in his sleep and scratched himself. He was draped over the office couch like abandoned meat.

    “Not that it is any of your business, but I was interrupted,” the hat’s voice was thin and reedy and he rocked back and forth.

    “What is the matter with you?” the hair asked.

    “I hit send when I was answering the phone. I’ll just delete it.” The hat raised the phone and started poking buttons. “I’ll just delete it. No one will see it.”

    “Everyone has already seen it!” the hair screamed, “The Washington Post already has a story up about it.”

    “Fake news,” the hat mumbled. The phone clattered to the desk and there was a snuffling noise.

    “What are you doing? Who were you talking to?”

    “Get off my back, Mom,” the hat said irritably.

    “What is that all over your bill?”

    “Leave me alone. Just because you get more scalp-time time doesn’t mean you are better than me.”

    The hair pulled himself slowly onto the desk, but his tendrils lashed out quickly and seized the phone.

    “Tell me what you are doing or you aren’t getting this back.”

    “But I need it, man,” the hat said. He was softly sobbing. “I just snorting a little. It’s not like I’m on the needle or anything.”

    “Heroin? You back on smack?”

    “I just need a little to get by, OK?” The hat sniffed at the dwindling white pile beside him.

    “Who gave you that?”

    “Nobody?”

    “WHO?”

    “Sean. Sean, OK. He keeps some around for press conferences.”

    “We are not done with this conversation,” the hair said sternly. He opened the outgoing call log on the phone.

    “Justin? Who the fuck is Justin? Is he Sean’s dealer?”

    “No, OK? Justin doesn’t have anything to do with this. He’s just a… a friend.”

    “Justin who? Tell me or I’ll call him. I swear to fuck I will.” The hair held a tendril menacingly over the redial button.

    “We met him in Canada. Donald gave him our number, remember?” the hat said miserably.

    “That Justin? What the fuck are you doing?!?”

    “His hair is just so beautiful. So wild. So free.”

  • Wednesday Morning Links

    Short holiday weeks always get in my head.  I better go get my covfefe and wake up before I post the links…

    …that’s better. Man, these are the barren wasteland days of sports. Not hockey last night. The NBA Finals hasn’t started yet. Its become a foregone conclusion that the Astros are gonna win. There’s just nothing really to discuss from last night. LaVarr Ball is nuts. Can that be my sports topic?  I mean, we’ve known this for months. Anyway, hockey tonight. That’ll get the juices flowing again. Let’s hope its a good game.

    Alright, I’ve dithered enough. I know what you people want. So I’m jumping right into…the links!

    Since Democracy Dies In Darkness, WaPo dedicates an incredible amount of time and space to a misspelled tweet. So much time and space that it is literally one of the three leads on their website. Hey, President Trump should feel honored. 28 murdered Coptic Christians in Egypt didn’t even warrant that kind of coverage from them!

    Trump attorney Michael Cohen

    Can you say “witch hunt”?

    Has-been (or is “never-was” more accurate?) exercises First Amendment right in despicable manner. Left falls over itself to applaud and defend her. Right falls over itself in rush to condemn. The rest of us worry about more important shit and try not to give the publicity hound a moment of our time.

    Sometimes a Frenchman’s gotta do…what a Frenchman does.

    Is it ever really news when a Frenchman gets “handsy”? Apparently it is!

    I didn’t even know “Texas Anti-fa” was a thing until I read this piece. Somehow, I don’t think their first order of business is gonna gain them many supporters in the Lone Star State.

    Questions abound as University of Cincinnati cop prepares for retrial in killing of unarmed black motorist. Yeah, namely “is there is any justice in the world?”

    Sorry, Canada. And everybody else.  This one belongs to us alone!

    Have a good one, friends.

  • Jewsday Tuesday: Shavuos Edition

    Regular readers of this feature will remember the feature a few weeks ago on the Counting of the Omer. To recap, this is a ceremony which ensured that the Temple Priests would get edible pelf (in the form of barley) daily for seven weeks following Passover. And when we get to the end of the seven weeks… Shavuos, which translates to “sevens.” And like sevens in craps, it means a boatload more pelf for the priests, since it marks the wheat harvest, and the priests now start getting wheat and wheat products (bread, not the dreaded matzoh).

    I can’t help but notice that the priests set up the holidays and make the rules for them. It is shocking that the holidays seem like they all benefit the people who made the rules. And it somehow seems familiar, at least for those of us who follow what Congress does. It is good to be a priest.

    In any case, like many other holidays, Shavous has, in the manner of Velcro in a lint pile, picked up a boatload of unrelated accretions: besides the marking of the beginning of the wheat harvest season, it has somehow acquired the meaning of King David’s birthday and day of his death; how coincidental! It also is supposedly the day that Israel was handed the Torah, and transformed from a newly-freed tribe with vague monotheism to full-on Yahwist. And if that weren’t enough, it is also supposedly the Yorzeit day (anniversary of the death) for the Baal Shem Tov, a Polack who founded Hassidic Judaism, which teaches that one becomes closer to Yahweh by dressing and living like an 18th century Polish peasant.

    Traditionally in Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Judaism, there are five customary things to do for the holiday:

    1. Akdamut, an Aramaic poem written by a Kraut
    2. Chalav, pigging out (wait, am I allowed to say “pig”?) on dairy products, especially cheeses
    3. Ruth, the reading of, you guessed it, the Book of Ruth
    4. Yerek, putting up ferns and potted plants everywhere around the house
    5. Torah, doing an all-night Torah cram session

    Three out of the five seem dreary to me (I’m not much on decorating). The all-night Torah thing could be fun if there were alcohol and weapons involved, but no such luck. The reading of the Book of Ruth actually is pretty cool, though. Ruth is really a wonderful story of love, family, and loyalty, peopled with delightful and noble characters, unlike the assholes who seem to dominate the rest of the Bible. But the real fun is the chalav, mostly because I love cheese and have the stomach to prove it. Interestingly, the chalav custom is turned on its head by Yemeni Jews, who actually avoid dairy products on Shavuos.

    Yemeni Jews

    Putting aside the Yemenis, when Shavuos and cheese are mentioned, most Jews who lean more toward Ashkenazi (I’m half, with the other have being Mizrahi) think “blintzes.” As they should because blintzes are fucking awesome. Most blintzes that you goyim ever eat are remarkably shitty, either frozen food service items served at shitty chain restaurants, frozen low-bid blintzes bought from the freezer case at Walmart, or served at a deli run by beaners, and also likely to be low-bid frozen.

    There’s no excuse for this- so much Jew food is just plain shitty that ruining one of the rare great dishes is a shonda. And as much as it embarrasses me to say this, a really good basic how-to to make great blintzes is provided by a wop, the great Chef John of Food Wishes. Well, let’s be honest, Italian cuisine is so much superior to Jew food that it’s not suprising that someone of Italian ancestry can make our food better than we can. And we’re Americans here, cultural and culinary appropriation is what we’re all about.

    In any case, it’s a basic crepe batter (I use something similar, stolen directly from Julia Child) with a cheese filling:

    Now, let me add some notes to this, some of which Good Chef John was too polite to mention.

    First, some people use cottage cheese for the filling. Don’t be like those people. Cottage cheese is coagulated pus. John uses a mix of ricotta and mascarpone, which works well. But even better, and certainly more authentic, is farmer’s cheese, which is a dry-ish ricotta. A really excellent alternative is requeson, which is available at finer Mexican deli counters.

    Second, this is a sweet version, but there’s no reason that blintzes can’t be savory. I’ve used ricotta and Parmesan (thus bringing them one step closer to manicotti), chevre for a tangy French touch, requeson and cotija to do them Mexican style… basically, you can get any palette of flavors you like, the key is the process of wrapping, sauteing, then baking. If you go savory, adjust the crepes as well! And they can be topped with sauces appropriate to the cuisine you’re appropriating.

    I have not tried this with paneer and coconut chutney, but hey, it could work.

    Now, I’m off to go read Ruth.

  • Tuesday Afternoon Links

    I hope everybody had a great time over the weekend. We went to an even nicer beach than the one that’s 2 miles from my house, and has even fewer people on it. My kids loved it, and my wife is happy. Me, I’m back to work. Here’s some links to get us through to the end.

    Evergreen headline: Zookeeper killed by tiger died doing what she loved. Memo to my family, don’t ever imply that being mauled by a tiger is “what I love/loved.”

    Mauled by Tiger?

    Also from the news-to-no-one department: Fathers treat sons, daughters differently. It appears that the average American dad remains unwoke, modelling different behavior for their male and female offspring.

    NASA literally wants to burn money in the form of a space-probe launched directly into the Sun. If they want a list of people I think would be great to use as test subjects, I have one.

    I’ve found a place where we can all be together. But, seriously, no kool-aid at the meetups.

    Holy fuck. 10% of Clearwater residents are Scientologists?

    Have a little Reckless Kelly. More triggering for you.

  • Tuesday Morning Links

    Jeez, what a long weekend. Unless, of course, you’re on the Houston Astros. Then it flew by as you beat the piss out of everyone on your schedule.  Or if you’re Takumo Sato.  And as for the hockey. well the Stanley Cup Finals game 1 was an eclectic mix of slow play, luck, soft checks…and a Penguins (inexplicable) victory.  Seriously, did Mario Lemieux make a deal with the devil?

    OK, that’s out of the way and we can get into the political, the personal and the perverted (hopefully).  Let’s dive right into…the links!

    Eldrick Woods had a bad day

    Damn, dude. Call an Uber. (This doesn’t count as a sports story since he’s not been an athlete in years. And seriously, how fucking dumb do you have to be to be worth nearly a billion dollars and get a DUI in your gated neighborhood of homes worth tens of millions by the police department who you probably pay enough in property taxes to fund annually?) I’m no caddy, but I say he should have used a driver.

    The artist version of a cripple fight is going on right now. Read it for yourself.

    Lefty mayor social signals after nutball affiliated as much with BernieBros as he was with the “alt-right” goes off his meds and gets stabby.  Hey, asshole. The First Amendment doesn’t say what you think it says.

    When modern environmentalism runs into the adamantium wall that is modern technology. At least they came up with an experiment that could lead to hilarity. Or porn.

    Protesters shutting down Texas House session

    Texas Rep calls ICE on protesters disrupting session. Oh, it didn’t end there.  In fact, that’s when shit got real! No word yet if the South Korean parliament is planning on sending advisers over on how to do a proper legislative brawl.

    After that last link, I’m thinking this could be refreshed with just a name change for the city. Although there probably isn’t a modern band that could pull it off.

    That’s it, dear friends. Welcome back to the work week. Go out there and hit that feeder bar.

  • Manly Monday

    Yo, it’s Memorial Day Weekend and also the weekend when Scottish Fest USA happens at the OC Fairground. I haven’t had time to post process most of the pics, so I’ll throw up a few choice ones today and dig through the rest later.

    The flowing locks really makes this action shot actiony.
    Former football player, current Highland gamer, and exuberant thigh tanner.
    This guy’s name is Sasquatch. The very Scottish announcer could not get enough of saying that.
    rawr
    Eddie Braun (or Brun or Brown…it was hard to tell with the thick Scottish accent). One of the women next to us kept describing the filthy things she’d do to the guy in the blue kilt.
    Braun (or whatever) had mad hops. As soon as I put my camera away he hopped into the air pulled his legs up horizontal and touched his toes. Landed gracefully to.

  • Memorial Day

    SSG Juantrea T. Bradley, SPC Tenzin L. Samten, and SPC Dustin C. Jackson. I did not know them personally. But right after I got to the base at Talill, Iraq (March 2008) they were killed by a 107mm rocket that landed right on the pickup truck they were taking to pick up some local workers at the front gate (I was trying to scrub a layer of dust off in the shower at the time of impact. How is that for martial glory?). Two of them died instantly, one made it a few hours more before succumbing to his injuries.

    A few days later, their names were added to a memorial wall on base, and their friends and fellow Soldiers told us about them in their eulogies; they were close friends, and someone’s husbands, fathers, and sons. Their stories differed, certainly, but they all came back in the end to the impact they made on their fellows – the NCO who was a friend and mentor (that one really hurt to hear – the pain lent the speaker eloquence and clarity) the cheerful Soldier who never left a comrade without a good word or thought, the soldier with the great and selfless desire to serve and to help. Then the final call of the Roll, Taps being played…it hits home in a way that is hard to describe.

    I have known others that have been killed. But that seemed to make it….personal. This hit in a different way. Why them? What the Hell were they doing that was so wrong or so dangerous? They were just getting some guys in to help build a damned gravel road….it wasn’t a bayonet charge against a machine gun nest! But it was a Soldier’s Risk, so you accepted it and moved on. Though I must confess, if I never hear Taps again, I would be fine with that.

    But now, on Memorial Day – I cannot help but think about them again. Obviously their families remember them, know what they were doing, and today is but another slightly more sad day than all the others. But does the day set aside for just such remembering have any impact on the thoughts of others?

    Certainly, there are solemn ceremonies at various cemeteries and memorials across the country.

    My town’s Civil War memorial. The town lost a tenth or more of its military aged men.

    But the number of people who have direct experience, so to speak, are lessening. The people who fought in the huge conflicts, in mass conscript armies and navies are becoming rarer, as time marches on. So are the family members who lost a close/immediate relative in those conflicts. Ours (US and Canada – this is glibertarians.com after all) is a professional, and volunteer armed forces. They are also smaller than what has been around for most of the 20th Century to today. Soon enough, it will be my turn to be the white haired, bent with age and infirmity, but-still-attending-the-ceremonies guy. What will I remember?

    Those that died during the various wars, police actions, interventions, kinetic whatevers – whether they were conscript or volunteer – paid the highest price anyone can. THAT is what I wish people could remember. You can be vehemently against the involvement the country had in the conflict in which they died, but they didn’t cause that involvement…. They sure as Hell paid for it, though.

    You will hear the word “hero” bandied about rather a lot this day. But it doesn’t matter if the person who died was heroically fending off a wave of enemies (i.e. SFC Paul Smith) – or just going to the front gate at Talill to pick up some day laborers? Either way…They lost EVERYTHING. Their families lost their father/son/brother, mother/daughter/sister. Juantrea Bradley and Tenzin Samten never got to see their children again (between them, they had 7 kids). Their children never got to see their fathers ever again.

    In some military and veteran circles, it is popular to rail against the mattress sales and “the unofficial start of the barbecue season” and the like. I will not stamp my foot, demanding people be solemn and quiet. Personally, if that Jaish al-Mahdi version of Davey Crockett (SOB was landing 107s on my tiny camp with shocking accuracy from a long way off) in Spring of 2008 had nudged his launches a tiny tap to the left – I wouldn’t be here… and I would want my family to remember me with grilling and toasting with high quality beverages, while throwing around a frisbee or playing volleyball in the back yard.

    But do, please, take a moment to remember that a fair number of people over the whole of this last bloody century (or two) have had their lives snatched away because they were put in harm’s way. Just war, unjust war, ambiguous war…it doesn’t matter to the dead. Just remember what happened to them, please.

    BONUS RANT: The past few years it has become semi-fashionable for people to say “thank a veteran or someone in the Armed Forces today” – save that for Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day is about the dead. They had life taken from them early – and that should be the primary thing in focus. Oh, and for the people who have started adding in police, firefighters, “first responders” – KNOCK IT OFF.

    Oh, and keep yer fookin’ politics out of it, period. I don’t give a fig who was CinC when someone got killed, where or when. Shut yer gob about neo-cons, Islamoappeasers or whatnot. The dead don’t need that crap, nor do their families. Just remember, somebody got the ultimate short end of the stick – and it wasn’t you.