Get your hot coffee in? Good!
Well it looks like my focus is gonna drift to college basketball, soccer and hockey for the next little bit. I apologize in advance for those of you who hate real sports. But take solace in the fact that the links will soon be replete with updates on silly shit like ice dancing, cross country skiing and ::gasp!:: curling! But until then…
West Virginia, UVA, Purdue, Kansas, UNC, UK, Auburn, Tennessee and Creighton all beat unranked teams. Seton Hall got drilled by unranked Marquette while Oklahoma prevailed over Texas Tech in a battle of top ten teams.
On the ice, the Jets beat the woeful Sabres, the Crapitals took down the Canucks, the Peredators topped the Oilers, The Panthers topped the Blues, the Lightning struck against the Hurricanes, the Flames beat the Minnesoda WIIIIIIILLLLDDD, and the Blackhawks hung dog balls on the Senators.
Man City just kept on winning in the League Cup, where they prevailed with a b-side in their first semifinal leg against Bristol City. Chelsea play Arsenhole today in their first leg, in what has suddenly become priority number one for the gooners.
That’s the sports update. Now come…the links!
Mudslides in Southern California
13 dead in Southern California as torrential rains following a series of wildfires left the areas vulnerable. Several have been hospitalized, four in critical condition. Many more are unaccounted for, so expect that death toll to rise. Stay safe, SoCal Glibs. You’re in our thoughts and prayers.
New Hampshire and pot: soon to be a legal thing.
New Hampshire legislature, not waiting on a study to be completed, has taken a big step toward legalizing recreational use of marijuana. I’m telling you, the Sessions move will precipitate this getting to Congress before the fall elections and you’re gonna see the right thing done the right way (real legalization, not this quasi-legal, “turn the other way when its convenient but leave the laws on the books” bullshit that leads down a path to rule of man vs rule of law.
Stunning…and brave. I can see it happening at the media’s awards shows, since that entire industry seems to run on sexual favors and rampant abuse. But the State Of The Union? This might have been more appropriate, oh, 20 years ago. But it wound have been part of a right-wing conspiracy then, as opposed to a gallant stand by leftists, who tend to populate the industries in much greater numbers where this abuse is rampant. But somehow I think their target is not the guy or gal looking them in the mirror every day.
Kodak’s shares double in value in one day after they announced the launch of their own cryptocurrency (KODAKcoin) to be used by photographers.
Thankfully it was far enough away from land.
A powerful earthquake hit the Caribbean, with several smaller tremors following. The tsunami threat appears to have diminished.
Exxon Mobil struck back at California communities that had sued the oil company blaming them for “climate change”.
Nice jersey, redneck.
At first, I was relieved when I saw this in a Cleveland paper. Then I realized this idiocy had happened in the Cincinnati area. Way to go Kings, you bunch of dumbasses.
As an aside, I want to note that my first competitive darts team were called the Cleveland Steamers and we won the CVDA (Richmond, what’s up?!) B League in our first year of play. The trophy is still in Breakers West End to this day. After the league “requested” we change our name, we were runners-up in the A League our next two years as…The Shockers.
No time left for more links.
Gotta get to work. Make today the best Wednesday of the year so far. Take care, friends.
Are you trying to get the links off before the refs review the last play?
I went no huddle today so I got it off way before the play clock expired at 7:00.
I wish my shitty teams would actually do that. I’ve lost count of how many times there was an obviously questionable call that went our way and I’m sitting there chanting “snap the ball, snap the fucking ball” while the offense mills around doing jack shit. I can’t believe everyone doesn’t have a quick dive play they can audible to in order to take advantage of shitty refs.
“Democratic women plan all-black fashion statement for State of the Union”
Somehow I’m not surprised. These people will constantly make fools of themselves trying to attack Trump. I wonder if they’ll ever learn to change their strategy at all during his presidency or if it will always be to attack him in the most retarded ways possible?
Nothing will show the Republikkkans the democrats power like coordinated outfits, especially ones that aren’t very different from what they would wear regardless.
Republicans should troll them by wearing all white.
It’s about virtue and victimhood signaling, not about anything of real value.
Overheard a group of legal adults her in the Twin Cities discussing whether they could get away with projecting “FUCK TRUMP” on the side of US Bank Stadium during the Super Bowl. Not technically vandalism or destruction of property, you see, since it would only be a projection.
related, this idea has been done. not with “FUCK TRUMP” though.
The whole dressing in black thing just reinforces the impression that this is Neo-Puritanism in action.
It’s vapid, shallow, meaningless, herd-behavior nonsense.
Why would I do that?
I know right? Coffee is absolutely disgusting. Why in the world would anyone want to get that crap in?
*shakes head, sadly. Heads to coffee machine*
And this my mammal friend is why your species will be dominated.
*sips coffee, sneers*
We will be kept as slaves on giant coffee plantations, for our Lizard, coffee connoisseur, Overlords?
Well that is one facet of our current terraforming efforts on your puny world
Dibs on Kona!
Sorry, Switzy, your number came up as “Civet Shit Sifter”
Allergic to caffeine and coffee would make me go bonkers and lose my job, so I am not doing it either.
Gwyneth Paltrow suggests putting it elsewhere.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/gwyneth-paltrows-goop-wants-you-to-start-2018-right-with-a-135-coffee-enema/
But she’s also insane, so her advice
can be safely ignoredis batshitTaste life UCS.
Do they sell bacon-flavored coffee where you don’t taste the coffee?
Why the #MeToo Movement Disrupts the Creeping Commodification of Feminism
Yeah, I wouldn’t say losing useless HR jobs and frivolous sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits is the “market suffering” sugartits.
But capitalism centers on the production and sale of stupid shit. Someone needs to buy all the stupid shit out there and that means we need more women in the workplace making their own money so they can buy stupid shit. If men were the only economic actors our marketplace would contract to booze, sports memorabilia, and power tools. Ok maybe sharper image could stay.
McKinsey? baaaahahahahahaha
“pierce those veils” Rot row, I don’t think they thought that phrasing through very well. Islamophobia!!1!
That isn’t how they put the holes in the eye grille of the burka?
“Pierce those veils” is patriarchy-speak for busting in a hymen.
“and in some communities, school rooms”
I find that very hard to believe.
I find it very easy to believe, but I have to think of places like Afghanistan.
It’s like they don’t even realize that not all cultures value their western standards.
“Democratic women plan all-black fashion statement for State of the Union”
I hope Trump just tweets it.
Best SOTU ever. Short and sweet.
Not only that, the faces of the media would be hilarious.
Hopefully they’ll do the Haka.
No!!!!!
THIS is a women’s haka.
*Sticks out tongue*
It would be awesome if Trump decided to go back to the old method of just writing the SOTU and submitting it to congress instead of the modern speechifying nonsense.
He should just tweet it out once sentence at a time.
That would be hilarious. The full Congress assembled, everybody staring at their phone, nobody at the podium, and periodically for no apparent reason one faction or another jumps up and starts applauding (or booing, I suppose).
yeah like there is any chance he’s gonna give up a chance to be on all 3 networks at the same time and talk about how awesome he is
from $0.01 to $0.02?
I was about to say – Kodak is still around?
They were absorbed by Polaroid.
That deal developed quickly.
I hope this subthread gets the exposure it deserves.
I think it’s picture perfect.
Like an up skirt.
Color me surprised it was even mentioned
THAT’S ENOUGH.
Fine, we should only focus on the news
I shutter at these replies.
They were framed, Rufus.
OK….for ALL OF YOU!
*narrows gaze*
Perhaps your monocle could use a new lens?
f-Stop. Just… f-stop.
The aperture into my soul has narrowed.
I think he snapped.
Shake it off.
Not sure I like how this is developing.
Animal, don’t be so negative.
*widens lens*
Don’t you mean F stop?
sigh must remember to scroll further down before replying.
Hey Y’all, don’t know if you noticed, but this thread has gotten silly.
It’s how you frame it.
Hold on now. Let’s wait a bit and see how it develops.
It is just a matter of viewing it through the proper lens
The evidence is now clear when women are absent from the marketplace, the market suffers.
Get out there and shop. shop, shop, Honeypie.
My ex sure helped the market.. I don’t miss the monthly $4K or higher credit card bills…
Ouch.
This astronaut has grown 3½ inches in space.
Everything sound bigger in metric.
But how much did his dong grow?
Auto mo beel? Auto mo beel?
+1 Lake
Problem is there is no additional mass, so his cock looks like a rolled out piece of Play-doh. I’m not sure that does anything for him.
He’ll get shorter back at surface gravity
Oh now I have to go by Breakers to look for that trophy!
The Hoos managed to survive the best combined efforts of Syracuse and their partner in stripes, TV Teddy Valentine.
I thought TV Teddy was retiring.
Also, ask Smokey the bartender where the trophies are. Should be in the back room above there darts cabinets. They were last time I was inbound there a couple years ago.
So he claimed, in a pathetic attempt at drawing sympathy
So a San Fran judge has blocked Trump’s DACA move. How exactly can his move be blocked when DACA was put in place by an executive order in the first place? It’s not like it was legislation that was passed through the proper channels, it was a single tyrant deciding to make it so.
Yeah – not sure how this ruling could have any force. But what do I know?
Check which court this supposed judge was part of, then check how often that courts decisions are overturned by the SCOTUS because they are plain political bullshit grandstanding/activism…
It was the 9th, wasn’t it?
There is a class of Judges who think they excercise carte blanche with regards to policy vetoes, even when it comes to ending policy. They do not grasp the role of a judge, nor permit their rulings to be governed by their actual authority.
“There is a class of Judges…”
You just described the entire set of judges. They are petty tyrants. Even the ones that tend to rule the way we like are predominantly tyrannical shithead who view their own wisdom and dignity as a higher authority than law. Ugh. I sincerely hope I can spend my whole life without ever being subjected to the psychotic whims of a judge.
Alas, much of your life is already regulated by the psychotic whims of judges, starting with John Marshall and solidified by the majority in Wickard v. Filburn.
You like that, you’ll love gibbons v. ogden
We are long overdue for a Jacksonian “He’s made his ruling, now let him enforce it” moment.
As appealing as that is on a visceral level, that would give every mayor, cop and sheriff a green light to start ignoring court orders.
“The judge says we owe you damages for that false arrest? Then let him write you a check.”
Except on the federal level, the constitution lays out that the three branches are co-equal, therefore the executive and legislative have just as much right to interpret the constitution as the judicial. Judicial supremacy is not in the constitution.
Ronny racists embrace state’s rights.
Ronny? *Only
Onnry?
Been in Japan too long?
You should hear me trying to say, “Cinderella”.
A judge rules that removing an executive action that suspended enforcement of a law is somehow against the law?
The leftist judges are really trying to remove all legitimacy from the judiciary.
Why didn’t the Stupid Party have any judges to block Obama’s executive orders in the first place?
They did. Obama and his agencies ignored the orders and kept doing what they were doing.
” I’m telling you, the Sessions move will precipitate this getting to Congress before the fall elections and you’re gonna see the right thing done the right way (real legalization, not this quasi-legal, “turn the other way when its convenient but leave the laws on the books” bullshit that leads down a path to rule of man vs rule of law.”
See this is where I disagree. What we are seeing is nullification in action. This isn’t about rule of man vs rule of law, this is federalism in action. Unless your arguing that only the Fed gov makes valid law?
This is at the Federal level – you have a law that was …. selectively enforced, instead of being repealed. Instead of selective enforcement, it is being enforced uniformly. The law is repugnant to many, so now that it isn’t being nodded and winked at, maybe Congress will actually do what the Legislature is there to do – and repeal/amend/revoke/whatever the law instead of pussing out and hoping the Executive branch will give them cover to do nothing.
The Supreme Court has totally fucked things up by somehow deciding that, despite the need for a constitutional amendment to outlaw alcohol, the federal government magically has the authority to regulate other intoxicants. Apparently the FYTW clause in Article 3 is the key, the one written in invisible ink.
The SCT’s abdication of it’s duty is another whole pile of dung…
You are too kind in your choice of expletives brah.
Hooray, Gonzales v. Raich, where the great swing-vote Kennedy and alleged arch-conservative Scalia upheld the U.S. Government’s power to ban drugs under the interstate commerce clause.
N.B. it was the liberal wing that provided the rest of the necessary votes; Rehnquist, O’Connor, and Thomas dissented.
I think it’s the judicially-expanded Interstate Commerce Clause that allows that sort of thing. Wickard v. Filburn was a just long-winded way of saying FYTW. Forever.
I get that, but my opinion is that the winking is preferable to a robotic Fed gov that enforces the law, all of which is inferior to a Fed Gov repealing the law.
I respectfully disagree, because the ‘wink and a nod’ law can be used to arbitrarily go after people the government decides they don’t like. That’s particularly concerning because we’ll be among those it dislikes (but it stinks either way).
If a few more sons of Congress Critters get arrested for weed, maybe they’ll get rid of the stupid law. It certainly won’t happen as long as it’s only poor people in the hood, and rural rednecks suffering.
“Exxon Mobil struck back at California communities that had sued the oil company”
It’s hilariously interesting. Of course the municipalities couch this as Exxon trying to intimidate them, when it really shows how either they are insincere about climate change, or lying to there investors. This may seem small, but I think it’s a big development.
Good for Exxon, stop rolling over for the screaming people.
Found this interesting in the article. Without a ton of investigation, part of their suit is for things that have not happened.
San Fran actually pulled out things that have happened.
I guess by “climate change” they mean “rain”.
Exxon Mobil, headquartered in Irving, believes it could find evidence the officials’ claims of “imminent, allegedly near-certain harm” of climate change risks is undermined by bond offerings in which “none of the municipalities disclosed to investors such risks,” according to court documents filed Monday.
how’s that lawfare working out for ya, California?
fucking dumbasses NEVER expect that shit to be turned on them.
If anyone knows an enterprising securities class action lawyer please let me know, because I’d love to help build a case for the bond holders of these municipalities given the city government’s apparent intentional non-disclosure information material to the offering.
Regarding MJ: Make no mistake, legislatures and congress are seeing dollar signs. This has little to do with what is the right thing.
I wonder what the “Federal Excise Tax” will end up?
$7/per kilo for the first 60000, then $18 after that, unless you grow more than 2MM kilos, then $18 on all.
Dollar signs are the right thing.
I meant tax dollars…
Woman was topless during attempt to rob Uber driver
“When Fillios let go, Kennedy brandished a knife and told the victim to hand over his money. The victim refused and Kennedy punched him.”
I’m glad this guy didn’t have it in him to actually stab the guy, but I must admit I laughed when I read that.
Wait, these are all guys?
Only if you want them to be.
“Anthony Kennedy”
Her accomplice was wielding the knife.
Dude, I have no idea what genitalia represent anymore.
It’s true I did assume some genders.
Hey, can we get him off the Court for this?
Hamas explosives chief blows himself up.
Are you saying this girl is a part of Hamas?
“Parts” of Hamas?
Here’s a mirror for you to narrow your gaze at.
No don’t he’ll turn to stone.
From his glamour shot there, would you say he was the Nick Gillespie of terrorists?
He was something, that’s for sure.
now he’s just Things
Heh.
Cities sue Exxon claiming they decieved investors by not cowtowing to the claim of sea level rise
Cities issue bonds claiming no evidence they will be swamped by selfsame sea level rise.
A sane judiciary would rule in Exxon’s favor and say the cities acted in bad faith with their suit.
Or juicier, allow investors to sue the courts for fraud, because the evidence it’s clear, and let Exxon of the hook, because the evidence is non-existent.
* sue the City officials, not the cities
Tax payers will always foot the bill, which is why these fucks don’t care.
A sane judiciary
Such a thing exists in the parts of California that think they’re going to be inundated by 5 and a half feet of water before the end of this century and it’s all Exxon’s fault? Doubtful.
I look forward to Exxon and the other oil companies saying fine, we won’t sell any oil in Oakland, San Mateo, San Fransisco, and then when the state government inevitably out-derps its own municipalities, all of California.
I think car makers should do the same. Just build to the federal guidelines and stop selling in California. I’ll betcha it’ll drop the costs by a bundle. Maybe even stir up some new sales since they can sell more at the bottom end of the price range.
Right now, they are probably only just beginning to take advantage of the EPA relaxing some rules. The whole California vs. non-California emissions thing was moot by the end of Obama’s second term. That having been said, California is still a massive market for cars and thus gasoline. If the oil companies or the automakers decided to leave California’s market entirely, it would have to be for something bigger than just special emissions rules.
This discussion reminds me of how pissed if California was when they realized that they mean very little in presidential election calculation, because they are available given. “But we use our oversized population as a bludgeon to set policy elsewhere, it’s not fair that we don’t have the power all the time”
BUT BUT WYOMING!
/state has more than 18 times the votes as Wyoming
What’s funny is you know how to decrease that discrepancy? Stop Congress from limiting how many Representatives there can be. Though that solution has its issues as well.
Long term gambit.
But the poor battered spouses of companies won’t do it.
Gun collectors and retailers already are. Go on Gunbroker, GI or Auction Arms and see how many “No sales to California” notes you see.
Or raise their prices and then post a sign on each pump that sells Exxon gas “Due to the cost of fighting petty lawsuits from some California cities, we have been forced to raise our gas prices by $XXX”
The 9th Circuit would slap that down faster than you could say “legislating from the bench”
Yeah I could see that too. I wonder what argument they would make. Besides FYTW. Maybe some tortured profiteering argument?
I don’t see how, unless there is some federal energy law preventing price discrimination across markets.
Why can’t they let us abuse them? IT’S FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!
MUELLER LAYS A TRAP
Zero chance that Trump’s lawyers would agree to an interview with Mueller. At this point, any conversation with the FBI or DOJ is nothing but a trap and an excuse to indict you for lying about the most irrelevant questions.
This is how I picture an interview with the FBI.
How long can a special prosecutor hm go before no results, and be forced to give up wasting our tax monies.
Either 3, or 7 years depending on how long Trump is in office. Also if a Republican wins the next time, team blue will argue they cheated and insist he investigate them as well.
Judge Napolitano was saying that will ignore the advice from his lawyers, and talk to the FBI anyway.
“Under oath Mr. Trump stated he is ‘a very classy guy’. We have determined this to be untrue. Pursuant criminal code we will charge him with perjury.”
Yeah, he should only give written answers to written questions. If he were my client, I would probably tell him I would resign if he did a face-to-face interview with the FBI voluntarily, because I don’t want to be associated in any way the shitstorm that would follow disregarding my advice.
What if the meeting is a ruse, designed only to get Mueller in the same room as Trump? Who will do an in person, “Your Fired” and post a picture of Mueller’s reaction to Twitter.
I’ll stop living in fantasy now.
That would be the best.
It’s all Greek to me:
Economics, religion and culture: how Luther failed, again
“refusal to grapple with the economic realities of the time”
Those indulgences don’t buy themselves.
Well Luther didn’t even believe in freewill so one can only imagine the half-assed economic ideas that would spring from that.
This occurs to me. In the original version of our representative republic, the Senate was specifically intended to represent the interests of the states, right? If that were still the case, there would be a formal venue for negotiation to eliminate discrepancies between state and federal laws governing marijuana use.
Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.
Thanks to the 17th Amendment.
Well, today I signed an extension to my contract. Had to fight my anxiety and push for the in-Korea standard/token raise for re-signing. But I also got two weeks off so I can visit my family and maybe pop in someplace interesting along the way.
Of all the goals I set for myself this year, I’ve really only accomplished 1.5 of them. I don’t necessarily want to live in Asia the rest of my life, and I brutally realized that after living here for 8+ years is that I have no idea what it’s like to be an adult in the States and that I really have no marketable skills to offer to get a decent job back home, though I also can’t really imagine living there. It’s so boring every time I go. I’m not sure how people do it.
I’m finally on anti-anxiety/anti-depression meds that I had been putting off for about ten years. I hope that will start to help some of my issues moving forwards. Another year at least to travel and try to save money and figure what the fuck I’m trying to do after my decade romping around Asia.
Onwards and upwards. And French Onion soup on the stove I must mind…/rant.
Careful. Those 8 years can multiply quickly. Then you end up as the weirdo longtimer.
Like this?
Perfect. That or St. Jack. That book set me straight.
14 years overseas expat work myself, but repatriation was pretty easy because it was in Europe.
No idea how to be an adult in America?
No marketable skills?
This is why graduate school exists….
Too make the situation worse?
*to* curse you mobile devices!
Not at all. Most academic grad programs will pay you to go to school (free tuition plus a stipend or fellowship), so you get to kill time, have fun, and improve your resume all at once. Professional programs are pretty fucking expensive but typically improve your earning potential dramatically.
For someone with a shitload of tefl experience a MA in teaching would easily open the door to a teacher job or doing tefl here in the states.
Any grad degree tends to make you stand out in a crowded applicant pool anyway. Sure most of those degrees are objectively worthless, but much like an Ivy League education they are subjectively valued by the people doing the hiring.
Seconded. Merit-based promotions are going out the door at many companies due to fear of gender and race discrimination lawsuits. Now it’s based on a simple formula: experience + degree = $$ and position.
Also, many large companies offer internal fast-track manager and exec-level programs. They just look for individuals with potential and train them in-house. I bet you could quickly find a place with an American company looking to expand in Asia. Even just understanding the culture is a huge benefit since the differences can have a big impact on business (as I once learned the hard way when communicating with a surgeon in South Korea).
My cousin is in the same predicament. He traveled the world lived in several places and now is in Spain with his girlfriend but feels trapped. I tried telling him, brah, you’re gonna have to come back and lay down some tracks if you do plan to not stay over there – which is the case. Simple things like getting a loan, a solid job etc. gets harder and harder to get as you hit 40 as it did for him. You can’t teach English forever. And if you do, at least try and get a teaching position somewhere and start to earn your roots where you are. He plans to come back and open a restaurant in B.C. (she’s a cook). Typical he’d pick the most expensive place to do that.
Tough bind. He saw the world but now what?
Glad you’re taking care of business. Mental illness ravages my family.
NOT ME! I’m just an ADHD muppet.
I should add, with no savings or credit, I don’t know how they’re gonna get a loan.
Being an Adult in North America is not actually very hard. Someone who’s managed to do so* on other continents should be able to manage here.
If you’re uncertain about killer ‘marketable’ skills, look at what other aptitudes might be transferrable and applicable in other roles. You might not be able to jump in at the same salary level, but a good work ethic and the ability to commit to improvement should allow for growth in the new field.
As for the boredom, I’m at a loss. It could be just where he’s gone an visited.
*My definition of adult includes being able to support yourself, so those stuck on the dole do not count.
Good advice. Got a solid history of work over years. Sure he can find something reasonable.
I think Evan teaches/taught? That’s a great spring board.
I could be wrong.
Seems like a working knowledge of Korean could open a few corporate doors – Hyundai? Samsung?
I’m finally on anti-anxiety/anti-depression meds that I had been putting off for about ten years.
Do those meds work well for you? Depression runs in my family – my brother has it really bad. Just wondering if these are helpful or if they make the world feel “blah.”
I can’t speak for Evan, but my experience with antidepressants had been absolute night and day. I wasn’t diagnosed with depression until figuring out that it runs in my mom’s whole family at 25. Once I got on them, everything improved. It genuinely felt like I had a huge weight taken off my back and I could muster the motivation to live rather than just exist.
In the other hand, it’s a hugely individual thing – I’ve heard a lot of people say that it just kept them from feeling anything. Family history can help tell if a particular medication can help someone, but it’s not a guarantee.
Okay, yeah I’ve heard this from some people. Stories like this are the only reason I’ve ever considered asking a doc to put me on them. I appreciate your input.
The problem with the meds is every person reacts differently, interactions with other meds can have serious side effects, and once you’re on them you may be on them forever.
I have a niece that committed suicide last week. It seems part of the trigger was the interaction with Norco (which she had overdosed on 12 years prior) that she was prescribed after surgery. Now, she really probably DID need depression treatment of some sort – knowing the horrors she lived through as a toddler it would be a miracle if she’d had no adverse affects later in life. She had nervous ticks prior to her OD that after the depression diagnosis seemed to go away (it’s not like I had weekly contact with her). But never in her life did I know of ANY behavioral issues whatsoever – and we were looking out for them – except for the one OD and the recent incident. Never an issue with school work, never an issue with driving, never an issue with money, never an issue with work, never an issue with men, etc. She really seemed like one of the more well-adjusted people in the extended family. A bit introverted and quiet, but never to the point of being unusual (and I have a sister who was unusually quiet as a child). Suicidal thoughts are a side-effect of Norco and after her OD she was diagnosed with depression, had therapy, went on meds etc. Her nervous ticks were gone but her sleepwalking and night terrors remained (if not as frequent) so there was definitely something there, but maybe she was an expert at concealing her problems. I don’t know if she had massive credit card bills, but at Christmas she said she finally finished paying her college loan. Again, knowing what she lived through as a child a depression diagnosis didn’t surprise us, but knowing how she lived as an adult her sudden demise has us baffled.
I’m sorry to hear about your niece. 🙁 I appreciate this info though. I’ve gone to see a therapist before but I didn’t like the guy. He offered to recommend me to a psychiatrist but I was afraid of getting prescribed some meds that I wouldn’t be able to get off of without diving really deeply into depression.
I appreciate everything that you wrote and will take it into consideration.
Seriously Evan, have you figured out why you really left the states in the first place? Most Americans I’ve met living abroad are running from one thing or another. My guess is that it’s usually family issues with those guys. I have no idea in your case, but people don’t usually move thousands of kilometers from a family that loves and supports them. It’s a walking a fucking tight rope living overseas for a long time and a deep understanding of yourself is necessary. Not to sound like to big a downer, but heavy recreational drug use mixed with anxiety doesn’t sound like a good long term strategy. Take care, bud. *Old Fart in Asia*
I graduated in 2009 and couldn’t find shit for work. I remembered a friend that taught in Korea and thought that sounded interesting. I was sick of living dependent in my parent’s basement. So I made the trek over so I could have my own place and do my own shit.
I had always wanted to the Ben Franklin thing of living a decade abroad and traveling and seeing the world. I’ve lived in 4 countries on 3 continents; visited six. Been to 32 countries, some multiple times.
That’s why I did it. To explore. I never wanted to be a teacher–though I am quite good at it. I’ve got to play in several bands and perform, seen all sorts of shit. I love it. I don’t know an adult life in America anymore. I have no clue. You can drop me off in Istanbul and I have a better Idea of how to negotiate my way around better than if you put me back in Indiana.
There’s a big world out there, and I always intended on seeing it. I don’t think I’m done, but now I am worried about the corner that I’ve put myself in. I want to get into freelance editing and proofreading, which is something that most people despise and I am absolutely enthralled by.
As for the meds, it’s a bit early to see how they are working. It seems like anxiety is down but depression is up, which the psych said was pretty normal. There’s a lot of broken shit going on with me, but I’m trying to stand up and deal. I haven’t needed any financial help from my family for about a decade and I’m proud of that. My life is still mine. A short list of cursed lovers and the nagging feeling of inevitability shadows around me, but I’ve got my head up for the time.
My Korean is absolute shit outside of numbers, food, directions and grammatical terms. I mean to endeavor to fix that, but talking to strangers is not one of my strongest abilities nor one that is easy to convince myself of doing.
What are your rates and average turnaround time?
I mean that question seriously. I use freelance editors/proofreaders, and am not opposed to sending business your way as a trial.
I’ve never done it professionally. Both my mother and father are playwrights in their retirement—both were in the newspaper industry and my dad has also written books, plays and screenplays. My mom is currently traveling around as a one-woman show where she plays Mary Todd Lincoln after her husband’s death that she wrote and directed.
I’ve edited many of these projects and they (not just as their son) respected my insight and attention to detail.
I’d be thrilled to do a job for you for free just to get my foot in the door. Tell me what you’re looking for (proofreading/editing/insight/combo) and I’d be thrilled to give it a look.
I’m not even sure what the average turn-around time is, but when I’m given a task I make it my business to make sure it gets done on time.
All right, lets take the discussion somewhere other than the comments. My writing related email is scribe at evcombine dot net. My preference is always for more feedback instead of less (but people charge based on the expected amount of time it will take up, so there’s some negotiation involved to find the right balance of service level)
Sorry if it came off as I was calling you “broken” or something like that. People can run from shit and that only means moving to the next town. I’ve been married to a Japanese gal for a long time and have built up quite the network of personal relationships. That helped immensely. Add the daughter and now I’ve fully hooked into the matrix. I don’t even see Japanese people anymore. It’s just that fucking guy or that hottie. Maybe try getting hooked into the community? From the times I’ve been to Korea, that might be a bigger trick than it is here. My favorite quote, Heraclitus?, is, “You can never stand in the same river twice.” Even if you do go back, it ain’t going to be the same Indiana you knew. You gotta get involved in the community. There’s no way around it if you want to be happy.
Word.
I certainly recognize that I’m broken on many different levels. Working on it. I just got all the bad autistic traits from my dad while my brother got all the good ones.
I’m not running but it just seems like this area is where my life is now. Really, I just need a partner-in-crime. But I’m a bit of a difficult sort. Can’t go out looking for it, it seems. Better to fix myself, be better, and let whatever happens happen.
I’m trying to be a frontiersman and I might not be the best for the role. But my proudest moment in my life was getting the shit kicked out of me and getting back up, so I’m gonna take the challenge with my chin up.
You put yourself where you are so dig it. Amirite?
I do, but I’ve become quite disillusioned with my job. I’m a very good teacher and a great performer.
It’s just very true that I do my job well so that I can travel and explore and do the shit that I want to do. I don’t feel much passion for my work other than the pleasure of doing it well.
I work to Live rather than Live to Work. I consider my job to be something that just needs to be done so I can do what I want whenever I can.
I work to Live rather than Live to Work. I consider my job to be something that just needs to be done so I can do what I want whenever I can.
I never intended to be an engineer, but I’ve been one for 32 years. The work can be entertaining at times.
But the most important thing is that it pays well, and it allows me to live well.
You don’t have to love your job. Just avoid situations where you hate your job.
Seconded Kinnath.
Finding work that ways well and you love is a rarity and a blessing. if you can’t do that – which applies to most of us – find work you don’t hate but pays well so you can afford to do things you like. Doing work you like but getting paid shit IMO is worse than the alternative, unless you are cool being the hermit.
What was your degree in?
Majored in Psych (focused on memory)
Minors in Animal Behavior and German
This was when I was told by everyone that getting a degree would mean employment. So I just took the classes that I was interested in. Oh, dear.
It’s far from the worst thing. You’ve got a BA/BS rather than a bunch of classes on a transcript.
My kneejerk reaction is it seems you feel like you should be something/somewhere you’re not and it bothers you and perhaps you didn’t have good role models in your childhood to adopt patterns from. Hell, I’ve been in the U.S. my whole life mostly and I have no idea how to be an adult either. I just fake it and keep going. If you moved
backto the US, you could easily do the same. You’re not giving yourself enough credit and faith. If you can take care of yourself in XX, YY, ZZ countries, you really can do the same in the U.S.You’ve got a contract for a fixed duration so you shouldn’t have the uncertainty that your job could be whacked tomorrow. That’s time to figure out your next move, even if that next move is you’d like to continue teaching in Korea (if that’s an option; I don’t know).
FWIW, I’m a native Coloradan from the Denver metro area, but I haven’t been back there in something like 15 years. I’m firmly convinced that if I were to go back to Denver today, I would feel in no way familiar. This phenomenon isn’t particular to staying abroad from America.
I can’t speak to whatever “broken shit” you’ve got going on, but it sounds like you thought you needed help and now you’re getting some. I’d say that’s more of a sign of good things than impending doom. Be gentle with yourself.
Hundreds of ‘Boiled’ Bats Fall from Sky in Australian Heat Wave
“They basically boil,” Kate Ryan, the colony manager for the Campbelltown bats, told the newspaper. “It affects their brain — their brain just fries and they become incoherent
So that’s why Australia has a stupid obsession with banning things, all the brains were fried long ago.
*their
They don’t fucking “boil” for Crikey sake, they’re probably just having what we call a fatal heat stroke. Boiled, lol, these people really science.
Australia should sue Exxon for this travesty!
I suspect some wacky 1960s DC villain is behind that heat wave
And the ones who don’t “boil” go on to live happy bat lives and transmit their advantageous trait to their little bat children.
“I’m telling you, the Sessions move will precipitate this getting to Congress before the fall elections and you’re gonna see the right thing done the right way (real legalization, not this quasi-legal, “turn the other way when its convenient but leave the laws on the books” bullshit that leads down a path to rule of man vs rule of law.”
Nope. Not wanting to be redundant, but they will move cannabis to schedule 2 and it will be treated exactly the same as opioids. IOW, prescription only and severe penalties for possession without a script. That will be the end of recreational weed, forever. The best thing we can hope for is that the states continue to act on their own and the feds never get involved.
Not so sure about this. CO, WA, OR, and other delegations will pitch a fit if their states’ recreational revenues are threatened.
Weed will still be legal, as long as your doctor decides it’s right for you. Big pharm companies will be happy, the DEA will be happy, the marijuana addiction industry that springs up, will be happy. Who cares about some silly states and their potheads?
Money talks. We’ll see what happens.
Well, there’s a huge amount of money in pharmco controlling weed, in the DEAs dealing with weed, especially with asset seizure, and in the multi-billion dollar treatment program industry that will spring up. There’s really not much for the feds when it comes to legalized weed, the tax money goes to the states. They’ll move it to schedule 2, a black hole where anything that ever goes in, never comes back out. They’ll celebrate this as a victory in saving the children, and all the winners that I just mentioned will benefit greatly. No one cares about potheads, seriously. The only benefit for them is that instead of going to jail, they go into mandatory court ordered treatment centers owned by government cronies.
I would have agreed before CA legalized recreational. The Feds could have gone Schedule 2 if they had gotten in front of this. It’s too far along now. Too much of the public agrees to legalize and too many states have allowed recreational. The alcohol industry and others have been pumping money into this and they have no interest in seeing it prescription controlled.
Ok, there’s another thing that the feds don’t give a shit about, the public. And I would agree that a majority support legal weed, but it doesn’t matter because the DEA, prison industrial complex, pharmco, and cronies do not want legal weed. And those are all entities that the feds do care about.
Unfortunately, I agree with you. About the only good I see is the removal of legal repercussions (which is big, don’t get me wrong). People won’t magically give up their prejudice for pot users. I think many people have more sympathy for users of other drugs than MJ. Other drug users have a problem that can be corrected. Potheads are just lazy fucks.
It still will be expensive due to massive regulations. The process will be the punishment as usual.
Secondary survey: cleavage, underboob or sideboob? I’m going with cleavage since I’m a tit traditionalist.
http://archive.is/brpzz
5, 15, 36, 37, 50.
26, dayum
Also, gotta give credit to 34 – it’s very difficult to look attractive in cammies. Even good looking chicks I knew in the Marines generally looked terrible in cammies.
I’ve seen a few good looking WMs that looked good in cammies. And of course you always have deployed standards. A 5 in the states is a 10 in country. Basic supply and demand.
And then you have the older female careerists who you can tell were attractive when they were younger but have become a little to butch over the years.
Absolutely true about the deployment adjustment. After 6 months with no other women to look at, those WMs look a helluva lot better.
i’ve been on an under- kick lately. good stuff.
Californian HOA Mandate Forces Residents to Keep Garage Doors Open All Day
This is why I will avoid HOA’s like the plague.
But not California?
That may be the dumbest thing I read today. I know it’s early, but, c’mon.
Esposito: From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now… 16 years old!
Fielding Mellish: What’s the Spanish word for straitjacket?
Heh…..that’s one of my dad’s favorite quotes.
HOAs are evil and need to die.
Yeah! Fuck freedom of association, you should live like I would want to.
Freedom of association died with public accomodation laws.
Bring back absolute freedom to associate/disassociate and you can have your HOAs.
Can you remove your property from the HOA whenever you want? If I want to buy your house but I don’t want to join the HOA and you want to sell me your house and you want to exclude your house from the HOA as part of the sale can you do that?
If the answers to these questions are no then I don’t see how this is freedom of association. If the answer is yes then I have no problem with your HOA at all.
Can I break contracts just because I no longer like the terms? When you buy a home in covered by an HOA you are accepting the rules of that HOA if they don’t allow you to leave tuff shit you made the deal.
if they don’t allow you to leave
They’re in violation of the 13th Amendment, no?
You can leave, move out, whatever. If the deed restrictions, that you agreed to, don’t have a way to remove the property from the HOA rules – again tuff shit. It has nothing to do with slavery.
Under what authority are deed restrictions put into place or removed? Because if it was a private decision, then this would be the dead hand of an individual who no longer hold an interest in that property, and would be about as valid as restrictive covenants which forbid selling to black people.
It has nothing to do with slavery.
Who said it did? The 13A bans slavery and indentured servitude except as punishment. A perpetual contract you can’t leave is akin to indentured servitude. “You can move” is not a sufficient justification since it is saying your only way out is to forfeit the full exercise of your property rights.
I’m with Hyperbole on this one. Don’t get me wrong, HOAs are the devil, however people voluntarily enter into a contract with them when they buy a house. Most people get fixated on “the perfect house” and assume the HOA won’t be a problem. It’s their own fault if they don’t understand the terms. Now, if they want to go fight the HOA in court (as one is wont to do in contract disputes) that is their right. However, buying a house with an HOA and then being pissed that the HOA is upholding its own rules is a bit disingenuous.
Our HOA is quite mild, especially once we took it over 10 years ago. I knew what I was getting into and if it would have been intolerable, I’d have sold the house and split. Instead it’s a very nice neighborhood with generally chill neighbors.
Bad HOA? Move or quit your crying and get on the board.
Bad HOA? Move or quit your crying and get on the board.
I don’t live under an HOA so I’m not crying about anything. I am however strongly of the mind that the HOA should have to justify its existence to the property owners, and not the other way around. If you want stricter control than an HOA should be allowed to have, then you either need to buy up the surrounding properties yourself or lease from someone who has. Leases have to be renegotiated regularly (granted, the property owners has the superior bargaining position), so should HOA contracts.
Under what authority are deed restrictions put into place or removed? Because if it was a private decision, then this would be the dead hand of an individual who no longer hold an interest in that property,.
Except you agreed to them when you bought the property, just like you agreed to the lot lines. You succeeded to the prior owner’s rights and responsibilities as a package, and don’t get to throw off the responsibilities you don’t like and keep the rights you do.
Your full property rights are defined by what you got when you agreed to the purchase. If you can’t unilaterally secede from the HOA, that’s because you agreed not to when you bought.
If you can’t unilaterally secede from the HOA, that’s because you agreed not to when you bought.
Is that in the deed? Because if it’s not in the deed, then it shouldn’t matter. The terms of sale are irrelevant after the sale has been faithfully executed. I agreed to join the HOA. So I did. Now they’ve changed the bylaws, or they misrepresented themselves originally, or I just don’t like the font of their stationery. So I quit the HOA. I own the deed in fee simple, I owe the local government property tax, but I do not owe the HOA my perpetual obedience.
Now, if it is in the deed, then they should be listed as co-owner and I should have the option to buy them out. That at least provides an avenue of negotiation for me. They’ll probably refuse to be bought out, at least for a price I’d be willing to pay. But that recognizes that you must be an owner to exercise rights of ownership.
Is that in the deed?
I own two properties in an HOA (in effect; one doesn’t have an organized HOA but has restrictive covenants that are functionally equivalent to HOA restrictions – actually/technically, HOAs are restrictive covenants themselves). These deeds have “subject to” language that references the restrictive covenants, so yes, it is in a deed. The restrictive covenants make any attempt to sell the property out from under the restrictive covenants invalid, so you can’t get out of the covenants/HOA by just omitting the “subject to” language.
What you bought was the property subject to the restrictive covenants, which are locked in as a matter of real property law. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.
HOAs are voluntary associations by any definition (although they may have been required to develop the property, once they are there, they are voluntary). Outlawing HOAs would be outlawing an exercise of free association. Allowing people to disregard the restrictive covenants would be allowing a breach of contract.
So then is an HOA a form of government? If not, then it should have no such power, and if so, then it should be subject to the consent of the governed (I believe most HOAs have elections), up to and including being dissolvable. Granted, that is a collective rather than individual action.
R C, the problem is the line of decisions which allow the covenants to run with the land long after the owners are gone and the land has been subdivided. Unity of title is now the only way to remove them which in most instance would require purchasing every house in a sub-development. The FHA needs to die along with the Kramer decision.
the problem is the line of decisions which allow the covenants to run with the land
Not sure about that.
The problem is one of reliance, as I see it. The neighboring property owner who benefits from the covenant is relying on it, whether he was the one who negotiated it or not. So the burdened property owner can’t just revoke it, either on sale or at any other time, without violating the neighbor’s justified reliance on it. “Runs with the land” is a recognition that the burdens and benefits aren’t personal to a single owner, but apply equally to any (subsequent) owner, which strikes me as not unreasonable.
You can always get a covenant lifted if the owners of the benefitted properties (all) agree, AFAIK. Getting to unity of title is one way to do it, but I don’t think its the only way (could be wrong). As a matter of contract law, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying that you can’t unilaterally revoke an agreement that someone else is relying on.
Subdivision of a burdened parcel raises issues, as in, is there a benefiting adjacent parcel? If the benefited parcel is no longer adjacent to some of the subdivided parcels, I’m not sure that the covenant is valid. This wouldn’t apply to HOAs, BTW, because all parcels are put under the covenants when the subdivision occurs.
Disclaimer: not a real estate expert. Its been years since I had to look at this stuff IRL.
I see where you’re coming from RC, but the threshold issue here is privity. Covenants running with the land was a doctrine created by courts to get around the issue of privity because they realized it would be too hard to bring back fealty in the new world. The problem is these encumbrances fundamentally distort the market for land by dicking the price away from the equilibrium. Contracts should only bind those in privity and the obligation needs to be split from the land owner to the individual – fealty needs to die a real death. If, for whatever reason, the title holder needs to liquidate the property they shouldn’t be bound by the cost adjustment for a fealty condition only by the contractual promise to perform whatever covenants exist or to pay whatever default on those promises might be at law. Estoppel in and of itself isn’t a cause of action.
Yeah, I don’t think you could make a contract that a party couldn’t decide to leave. Certainly there could be a penalty, but I don’t think even an anarchist would argue that such a contract would be valid.
See above You can leave.
IANAL but I’m pretty sure perpetual contracts are unenforceable anyway so for this contract to be valid there needs to be an end date or an accepted exit strategy available.
You can ALWAYS breach a contract as long as you’re willing to pay the remedy. Yet somehow HOA’s don’t let you do that…
I’m pretty sure perpetual contracts are unenforceable anyway
Only in limited circumstances – “the rule against perpetuities”.
There are probably millions of contracts in America right now without hard expiration dates. There are also probably millions without “no-cause” termination (if this means it is a contract that a party can’t just “decide” to leave, then so be it; they are perfectly valid contracts regardless). Any contract can be terminated for cause, but without expiration dates or no-cause termination, those are effectively perpetual contracts.
Yes. Absolutely. In which case you either pay the agreed upon penalty or adjudicate the resolution in civil court.
Yeah! Fuck freedom of association, you should live like I would want to.
/HOA motto
Do HOA’s force non-members to live a certain way?
HOAs have no jurisdiction over properties not included in the HOA.
Threading fail.
Do members in an HOA have a choice to freely associate with the HOA? In some cases, yes. In others, no. In the latter cases, the HOA is not representing freedom of association.
An “HOA” that fully owns the property is better known as a landlord. If the HOA association does not own the property at least in part, then it should not be able to exercise rights akin to ownership over the property.
Under what circumstances would a member in an HOA not have chosen to freely associate with the HOA?
The only one I can think of is if you inherit property in the HOA. Are there others?
I’ve never seen an HOA that could force a given property into the HOA – all parcels enter the HOA with the consent of their owner at the time (often but not always the developer), and all subsequent owners of any given parcel consent to buying a parc el which is in the HOA.
Under what circumstances would a member in an HOA not have chosen to freely associate with the HOA?
Free association isn’t just a one-time thing. I once baked a cake for gay Nazis; that doesn’t mean I should be forced to bake a cake any time they want thereafter. I joined the HOA once, now I want to quit.
See my comments above. If the HOA is actual co-owner, that is a different story. Maybe that’s actually how it works in practice.
Free association isn’t just a one-time thing.
No, but the free association of joining an HOA is also a contractual commitment. Your choice to enter the contract is the exercise of free association; your decision to end the contract other than as allowed by the contract is a breach of the contract.
If the HOA is actual co-owner, that is a different story.
That’s not how restrictive covenants work. Technically, I believe they are enforcable only so long as they benefit adjoining properties, but as long as they do, they are permanent restrictions on your property.
An analogy:
If your company agrees to a five year contract, without no-cause termination, and your company is acquired by another company, guess what? That five year contract is still enforcable (assuming its competently drafted to apply to successors and assigns) and the new owner can’t just walk away from it. Does that mean the counterparty is a part owner of your company? No. Does that mean the new owner’s free association rights are violated? No.
Any perpetual contract is invalid on its face. You cannot bind an indefinate number of future parties to an agreement based on ‘they knew what they were getting into’.
If your company agrees to a five year contract,
Then at the end of five years you are free to do as you please. I am saying it should be the same way with “restrictive covenants” or any other contract. Every few years, it gets renegotiated. If the members are still in accord, then it will continue for another few years.
And the appropriate analogy is that the previous owners, after selling the company in its supposed entirety still get to veto hiring decisions by the new owners – forever.
That’s really the problem. Its a perversion of real property law to consider the third parties in privity with the developer as to the covenants. That shit shouldn’t run with the land.
Any perpetual contract is invalid on its face.
Maybe the distinction here is between “indefinite” terms (which are very common) and “perpetual” terms (nobody ever says in so many pixels that the contract is “perpetual”). Indefinite terms without no-cause termination are functionally perpetual, I think. But perpetual contracts are only explicitly forbidden if they fall under the rule against perpetuities, which very few contracts do.
Then at the end of five years you are free to do as you please. I am saying it should be the same way with “restrictive covenants” or any other contract. Every few years, it gets renegotiated. If the members are still in accord, then it will continue for another few years.
Well, the five years was just an example of why a property or business changing hands doesn’t automatically mean that every obligation imposed on the property or business when it was owned by someone else just goes away or becomes unilaterally revocable. If people want to enter into indefinite or long term contracts that are, by their terms, binding on successors and assigns, why should we stop them?
And the appropriate analogy is that the previous owners, after selling the company in its supposed entirety still get to veto hiring decisions by the new owners – forever.
I’ve not run into HOAs that have the authority to pre-approve buyers or cancel or void purchase and sale agreements, so I’m not sure this is a good analogy at all.
My analogy with the veto of hiring decisions was the say the HOA has over things like topiaries, the presense of a shed, the color you paint your roof, etc. Decisions they have no business meddling with.
Decisions they have no business meddling with.
Except you agreed that they do when you bought the property.
Maybe the moral is: don’t enter into agreements you don’t want to have enforced against you.
HOAs really only make sense in multi-unit buildings where there are commonly shared components (roofs, exterior cladding, etc.) requiring maintenance. Why HOAs exist where each property is on its own separate parcel of land is beyond me.
I build homes in a gated lake community run by an HOA, the reason it exists is presumably because the people who chose to live/build there want a certain level of consistency in their neighborhood. They don’t want a double-wide next to their McMansion, they don’t want seven sheds on an otherwise empty lot. You might be tempted to say well they should buy the land around them if they want to control it, and you’d be right, however that is in essence what the HOA does, it owns the land and only sell if people agree to their terms.
Some newer subdivisions have “common areas” like playgrounds or ponds, which are kept up with fees collected from members.
Why HOAs exist where each property is on its own separate parcel of land is beyond me.
Well, my HOA exists to:
(a) Enforce its own private zoning code, in effect. Fine by me, since I read it before I bought.
(b) Maintain the roads in the HOA, which are private roads (except where they provide the only access to properties on the other side of the HOA). Private roads sound pretty libertarian to me. Ours are exceptionally well maintained, BTW.
(c) Maintain the gate that keeps the riffraff out and the private roads private.
I got no problem with HOAs in principle or, in my case, as executed. Other HOAs suck to actually live with, I know. Should be part of your due diligence before buying, IMO.
That’s all well and good, as long as the developer or the owner’s decided to voluntarily form the HOA.
If it was forced upon them by the city/state….
Certainly, but that says nothing regarding HOAs only the state’s overreach. That’s like being against seat-belts in general because the state enforces their use.
HOAs are only as evil as the hapless rubes that buy in and don’t understand/care about the bylaws, and the impotent tools that complain and cower, but don’t get political and organise during HOA elections.
Yep. I despise HOAs but you know what you’re getting into. I avoid it simply by buying a house in a neighborhood that doesn’t have one.
Ostensibly. Public schools poorly prepare most people to deal with contracts, understand them, accept the consequences of them, etc.
There does seem to be a problem with an organization that can enforce rules against a sale with no financial stake or fiduciary obligation in that sale, and one which has the ability to place liens against real property despite not being owed any debt. Not all HOAs are like that, granted, but many are.
Replace “There does seem to be a problem” with “I think there is a problem” if you prefer.
I can’t see that standing up to a court challenge. Why such a challenge would be necessary is another story…
Are they going to pay the incremental heating bill, reimburse me for the shit stolen, and remove all the non-human critters that take up residence in my garage? And if I’m out of town?
Fuck you.
The residents could just refuse to do it, not pay the fine, and tell them to fuck off. The problem is, is that it’s commiefornia and I can totally see the county, city, or state siding with the HOA and coming down on the home owner.
I think most anywhere an HOA can slap a lien on the property if fines are not paid. (But IANAL.)
The biggest issue I see with HOAs is that they are often times mandated by the city in exchange for granting the zoning or building permit to the developer. Thus making a majority of homes in an area HOA mandated and forcing people to agree to an HOA if they want to live in a certain area regardless of the residents’ wishes.
The second the government becomes involved in mandating the existence of an HOA, the claim of freedom of association become irrelevant. If permission to build is not conditional on an HOA forming, then I could agree with freedom of association. I don’t think the latter is often the case anymore though.
^This. When government mandates HOAs then those HOAs are illegitimate. Government loves HOAs because they know they can get away with shit that government can only dream about.
I wonder what the overlap is between HOA officers and government bureacrats?
Besides the payoffs and the crony jobs for relatives and post-retirement careers?
If there’s any other Cleveland-area people interested, I’ll be at the Winter Beerfest for the Saturday session.
Woke up this morning with one of those philosophical mini-epiphanies; one’s outlook and behavior is drastically influenced by whether they believe pleasure is fungible. If one doesn’t, one would be much more likely to be a hedonist and impulsive, IMO. If one does, I suppose it would depend on how they view that fungibility. A Freudian might think that it gets sublimated into creative ventures, whereas someone else might delay gratification expecting a bigger pleasure payoff later (call that a long-term pleasure investor). Criticism welcome.
Could you clarify by using masturbation as an example?
I grip, therefore I am?
Sure. Imagine you’re horny and your wife isn’t around and/or not in the mood. If you don’t believe that the pleasure is fungible, your only real option is to rub one out immediately or lose out on its benefits forever. If you think it’s fungible, you could sublimate it into a good workout or save it up for giving it to your wife that much better once she’s available.
Well, on the one hand…
, your only real option is to rub one out immediately or lose out on its benefits forever.
No one has ever assumed I was moral before. *Blushes*
“It is repugnant that oil companies might sue public servants personally in an attempt to intimidate them from protecting their communities and environment,” said John Beiers, county counsel for San Mateo County. “We will not be intimidated.”
Some thing something Lawz of IRON.
Antifa protesters totally against fascism – which is… err, uhh…
So the one woman’s description of fascism is white people and apparently specifically Europeans. I’m confused here, I’ve been hearing the left proclaim for at least a decade that Europe is a super enlightened utopia in which everything is free for everyone and social justice reigns supreme. So which is it? Because I don’t see how it can be both. Or is she saying that a social justice utopia and fascism are one and the same?
I get nastier and ask them to describe the difference between Mussolini or Hitler’s 1930 policies and current DNC policies. (Other than nationalism vs. internationalism there are almost none)
They’re confused by much simpler questions, you’re not going to get anything but deer in the headlights or ‘I don’t want to answer, you Nazi!’.
Yeah, just take a Hitler speech or Nazi Party political statement and substitute “the 1%” for “the Jews” and it reads like a Bernie Sanders speech.
I saw a pretty funny video recently where some troll crashed some left wing rally. He gave a speech that was punctuated by actual (literally!) Hitler quotes, and the crowd was cheering ecstatically after each one.
Oh, and by “funny” I mean scary as fuck.
I’ve been reading Mein Kampf, and modern American “progressives” would find much to agree with in there.
I’m just having a hard time finishing it because it’s so fucking boring and I’m simultaneously reading far more interesting things like Human Action and Boccacio’s Decameron.
Don’t waste your time with the Decameron movie.
Ugh, I had pondered the possibility that there was a film version. Just from reading it, I could tell that it couldn’t possibly be made into a good movie.
Maybe someone could use an individual tale from the book as a basic storyline for a movie script, but the entire book? Uh uh.
Hitler while he was using the legal system to subsume power formed the NSDAP..
Three guesses at what the “S” in their stood for (and you can say it in English if the German spelling gives you pains), and the first 2 don’t count…
Leaderless Dems
Oprah Run in 2020 Entices Leaderless Democrats
Man, oh man, I bet Hillary has flown into a relentless rage over that one. Probably not anything breakable in her home right now that is breakable. Willy probably hiding in the cellar again. Why can’t these disloyal democrats not appreciate their true leader? It’s still her turn!
“Probably not anything breakable in her home right now that is
breakablenot broken.”The plan to run the female mammal with the gift bags is 100% my people
I would advise Oprah against joining the Clintons for a picnic in Fort Marcy Park.
And she should definitely not go jogging.
I guess a great orator always has a spot to run as President for the Democrats.
It’ll be funny if they run Oprah after all their complaining about Trump… “He has no political experience!! He’s a TV personality!!”
I would enjoy throwing it back in their faces even if they don’t see the connection (“progressives” aren’t known for being logically and morally consistent)
This is like one of those sales in TV commercials – call in the next 15 minutes or you don’t get the special price!
+1 Act Now!
+1 red slash through the prices.
So dramatic!
7/10
Hey! That’s my schtick!
/Oral Roberts
SJWednesday: Immigrant Song Editione Us Everything We Want Edition
No idea what happened there. I blame the ice squirrels.
In a perfect world, the entire 3rd world could just come squat in Murika. Then you and I would get arrested for letting them sleep in our garage.
My fave part:
And yet if a ‘bad hombre’ or someone in need of government assistance tried to immigrant legally, they would be denied entry. We’ve elevated illegal immigrants to a status above legal immigrants and citizens. That is my problem with the open border crowd. I’m all for eliminating immigration caps and letting in everyone that wants to come, but we should be allowed to deny entry to those who are just going to live off of the welfare state or who have committed crimes.
My own father was initially denied entry into the US, because he was sick at the time (a common flu). Immigration told him they would give him two weeks to recover and if he was still sick at that time he would go back to the end of the line and wait another seven years.
Yet, if he had entered illegally he’d be just fine.
I’m not too sure what deserve means in that paragraph. My question would be ‘Why doesn’t the person deserve any of that in their own country?’. Because what the person seems to be saying is that these people deserve to come to America and American tax payers deserve to pay for it.
That’s exactly what they’re saying.
Then you and I would get arrested for letting them sleep in our garage.
Or arrested discriminating against them by not letting them sleep in our garage. Your choice, comrade.
Note the conflation of illegals and those with special status with legitimate, documented immigrants who play by the rules.
Of course, this is one of the tricks of the left. Everything is black or white. You’re either for immigration or you’re against it. There can’t be any nuances or gray areas for discussion, that stuff is only for Nazis.
If they were fighting for immigrants from Western Europe as much as they are fighting for immigrants from Mexico and South America, they may have a point. Fuck these people. Racist and sexist assholes.
The entire thing is only about one thing. Democrats want a huge new voting bloc they can control. Murikans are pesky trouble makers and it’s too hard to keep them in the herd. Democrats are racists who assume they are owed loyalty by the ‘lesser’ peoples, who obviously need Democrats to take care of them, in exchange for votes.
What “Muslim ban”? Are they talking about that restriction on travel from a few hotbeds of terrorist activity? The one that doesn’t affect the numerical majority of Muslims worldwide? The one that simply tightened the restrictions on seven countries that had been previously targeted for extra scrutiny by the Obama administration?
It’s not a “Muslim ban”. That’s like if they restricted immigration from France, Italy, and Ireland, and they called it a “Catholic ban”.
SJWednesday: Gender Doesn’t Exist, Except When It Does Edition
Find out why this conversation is a harmful attemptto invalidate trans people’s existence.
learn the difference between dismissing people’s identities and having genuine conversations about how perpetuating gender roles causes harm.
They can’t even have internal conversations to hash out contradictions in their own ideology. What a train wreck. See, bringing up the contradiction is “harmful”… let us guide you to the pre-approved “genuine” conversations over here…
Totalitarianism still exists.
I always wonder: if gender is just a social construct, shouldn’t they be pushing to get rid of all these government programs that are specifically available to women such as the National Women’s Business Council and the White House Council on Women and Girls? After all, if anyone can just step up and say that they’re a woman, these programs are pointless, right? Shouldn’t they at least be renamed and repurposed to apply to “all” genders?
It’s the ultimate trump card, even better than the race card. If you need victim status to get special benefits or treatment, gender is totally a natural thing and is out of control of the victim. If you need it to be a social construct to get special benefits or treatment, gender is a social construct.
Susan Collins, Ed Markey, Angus King, and other cuts want Net Neutrality
At least they understand what it is they’re after.
Loss of control to who though?
The patriarchy, obviously.
More apropos, that was a tell. They are angling for control. The lack of direct control that the market offers is unacceptable.
“the loss of net neutrality means the loss of control of the internet”
I don’t think this means what they think it means.
We need to send someone out to the streets to ask passers by what net neutrality means. That should be pretty hilarious.
My non-tech savvy mom was livid about Trump and net neutrality. So I asked, “Mom, you use the internet to send a few emails every week and watch 2 hours of Netflix. Why should you pay higher rates because your neighbor streams video all day long, plays online games, and pirates movies off the internet?”
Much sputtering ensued.
I have no problem with the concept of net neutrality — I was always more concerned with the use of title II classification to get it done. All we had was the FCC’s promises not to use the other regulatory burdens that come with title II classification such as price control authority.
I’m always reminded of Hayek’s quote in The Road to Serfdom where he states that even if some private company holds a total monopoly on a utility, that’s still not as much concentrated power as would exist if the government controlled it.
I bet that all changes when you remind those millennials that the FCC is the same organization that ass raped the NFL, Janet Jackson, ABC, et. al. over a 3 millisecond nipple slip.
Oh who am I kidding, most people don’t have any idea what Net Neutrality or Title 2 scheduling meant.
They all knew what the people pushing it told them it meant, not what it really meant meant..
I’m telling you, the Sessions move will precipitate this getting to Congress before the fall elections
I really think you’re right. This is the genius of Trump. Everyone’s focused on his Twitter bullshit, meanwhile he’s actually getting things done that have needed attention for a long time.
55-D chess
Part 2 of “sorry you don’t get to control the monster you helped create”.
https://amgreatness.com/2018/01/09/sex-vs-political-correctness/
It’s like the Golem of Hebrew legend.
““What is the difference between harassment and assault and ‘inappropriate conduct’?” she writes. “There is a disturbing lack of clarity about the terms being thrown around and a lack of distinction regarding what the spectrum of objectionable behavior really is.””
When everything is rape, nothing is.
What this douche is saying is that she regrets that they can’t keep using this as a weapon just against the people they don’t like now that it is uniformly enforced.
SJWednesday: Believe Not Thy Own Eyes, Accept My Word As The Truth Edition
The author
I clicked that. You’re a bad man.
I was waiting patiently for a victim, and then you happened along.
Whatever you say, fatty.
Some people are so fucked up you gotta wonder how they’ve managed to live this long.
They find a group of people that accept their delusions as gospel.
While it’s true that genetics can very much predispose you, I don’t really believe the dietary or exercise claims.
“I eat about 1800 calories a day”
Another $1000 for things that didn’t happen, Alex.
Well, if the 1800 is before the nuts, rice cakes and smoothies, I guess it’s possible. ‘Snacking on nuts’ probably doesn’t mean 1/4 cup of raw almonds.
Well, if she’s not going to calorie count the ‘smoothies’, then it’s meaningless. I saw her pictures, 1800 cals would be really low for someone her size, she would definitely lose weight.
I’ve lost 20 pounds in the past three months. I did this by eating more vegetables, reducing meat intake to 5oz a day, cutting down on the booze, and snacking on nuts / sesame crackers. I’m still low carbing – less than 30-40g a day – but it’s also mixed in with calorie restriction. I haven’t been this thin since for a long time.
Did this to get my fasting blood sugar levels down. Went from 103 to 82. I believe I was seeing the effects of gluconeogenesis.
30 lbs here, about 3.5 months. Went to diet that’s probably closest to paleo low carb, not counting the alcohol. Working. Now I’m reducing alcohol as the next phase, 25 lbs to go.
Nice job!
You and Hyp are setting the bar pretty high!
I’ve about come to that dead standstill. Not unexpected at all. I need to stop drinking beer every day and get at least 3-4 alcohol free days a week and reduce the days on to no more than 2-3 beer. Hopefully then the weight loss kicks back in. Can probably still splurge occasionally, but not like I have been. I feel like I’m still in Holiday mode.
Is all alcohol equally problematic if you’re trying to lose weight? Or is it mainly beer?
Beer is worse only in that it is high carb. All alcohol has pretty high calories for the benefit, and must be processed first.
If you are really trying to drop weight, cut out the booze, at least for awhile.
Ask SugarFree.
While only beer has any real amount of residual sugars, alcohol itself does some funny stuff in the blood stream, which is why it causes diabetics problems.
On the other hand, I lost about 30 pounds while my brewery was open.
…And put it back on in the 2 years since.
I lost about 30 pounds while my brewery was open.
Stress is an amazing diet tool.
All alcohol is high calorie, but beer is high carb too. For instance, one 12oz beer would average about 12 gm carbs and 150 calories. So 6 beers is 900 calories. I don’t think vodka has any carbs at all, not sure right off, and probably about 100 calories.
I dropped ~60 lbs while continuing to drink bourbon, gin, vodka, tequila, etc. after going Keto.
So, in my opinion, no.
Beer and sugary mixers are to be avoided.
I mean per shot, about 1.5oz.
You CAN lose weight even while drinking beer because I’ve already lost 30 lbs while drinking alcohol including beer. It’s probably because I was drinking the same amount and eating way too much at the same time. So I’ve probably lost about the max through diet and not it’s time to lose the rest I need to lose through reduction in alcohol consumption. Alcohol also temporarily lowers your metabolism, so cutting way back will have benefits in more than just calorie reduction.
No carbs in vodka or any other straight booze. 7 calories per gram, though. And again goes to the front of the line for processing.
Believe me, I’ve tried to game the system. To really lean out – it has to go away.
Dunno, I’ve had some success skipping meals and drinking. Cheaper, too.
Thanks all.
Snacking on nuts = 4 bags of Peanut M&M’s
She’s the Timmy of EF.
If that is true, then she is inactive.
If she walked 2 miles per day, while eating 1800 calories, she would be losing weight.
If at her weight, 1800 cals per day isnt causing her to lose weight, then her metabolism is messed up, which regular exercise would kick start.
At 1800 a day, even sitting on her ass she should be getting lighter.
I get at least 20-30 comments a week on average telling me that my fatness means I must be inactive, eat poorly, and am unhealthy.
Only because you blather on about it. Try shutting the fuck up!
I, on the other hand, fully accept that my being a fat bastard was 100% my fault. Unlike the whiner who wrote that article, I’ve start doing something about it. (I don’t always succeed…)
Yep. Same here. Now, I will say that I am certain that genetics make it a helluva lot more work for me than for others. When I was active duty and had to stay under 176 pounds, I had to halfway starve myself and I ran all the damned time. Other guys I knew ate like pigs and never did more than the required unit PT and were rail thin. It’s just harder for some people.
But the fact is that, difficult as it was, I DID keep the weight off for those five years (and several more after returning to civilian life), so it IS in my power to be thin. Just hard.
“Try shutting the fuck up!”
I can only assume that to be sound advice, which would doubtless make her life much better even without losing any weight.
Get better genes, pleb.
It’s amazing how every fat person who writes online says they eat a healthy balanced diet with few calories, and are always exercising. Guess the laws of thermodynamics just don’t apply for them. Astounding! Where does the extra mass come from? Some extradimensional source? It could change physics forever!
Also, would STEVE SMITH even rape a fat person?
STEVE SMITH CARRY FLOUR BARREL FOR THIS VERY REASON!
Have you ever seen someone like this “exercise”? They have no clue what the word even means. To them, the phrase “no pain, no gain” may as well be written in Sanskrit.
Also:
She has this exactly backwards.
Exactly. While I am not a fan of Atkins, a few weeks of meat only would get a nice start to the process.
I’m pretty anti-Atkins myself, but I think it and a lot of these fad diets do at least get people thinking more about what they eat and eating adequate amounts of protein, both of which are important for long-term health.
I am a believer in moderate carb in-take.
Back when I tracked, I limited myself to 150g carbs per day.
It was funny, when my wife got gestational diabetes, there recommendation was:
Breakfast 15-30g
Lunch 30-45g
Dinner 45-60g
3 snacks of 15-20g
Which works out to 135-195g per day, or right around what I had done previously. We both ate that pattern during her pregnancy and it worked for both of us.
We are trying to go back to it now. I really think 150-175 is the right spot.
After several years of monkeying around with various combinations of exercise and calorie counters I found that just focusing on macros and doing frequent but moderate weight training works best for me. Basically, I figured out how to arrive at about 225g protein per day, which is no mean feat, and then fill in the rest with whatever I want but just being sure to steer towards moderate carb consumption and more complex carbs than not and just generally stop eating once I’m not hungry. That along with exercise has been a pretty good plan. I haven’t really lost weight, but I’ve gained strength and toned up some, so I’m fitting in stuff I last wore thirty pounds ago plus I look leaner despite weighing more.
The wife isn’t really doing anything yet. She’s fooled around with Weight Watchers but half-heartedly. She’s still got baby weight she wants to lose, but she doesn’t have the time or inclination to exercise like she used to, and her schedule is such that it tends to encourage missing meals and then snacking like crazy. Now that she’s done with her PhD and work has calmed down the weather has turned to shit, so it’s still not looking good for getting back on the fitness horse any time soon. It’s hard as hell to change bad habits, man.
I’m almost certain I don’t have a normal hunger response. I’m almost always never hungry unless A: it’s been a exceedingly long time or B: I’ve started eating. The only way I stop being hungry once I’ve started eating is to run out of food.
I have no idea why this is.
Of course they know what exercise is. They watch videos (when they have the time), and try really hard to follow them (it’s not their fault they can’t do some of the more “difficult” stuff yet), and they do yoga (then go to brunch, because they earned it).
A lot of this..
As I told the lady at the gym that was drinking some concoction with so much sugar in it that it would kill a diabetic while complaining that the two hours she spends in the gym every other have not made a difference: being here 2 hours and basically doing what amounts to actual exercise for 5 minutes are not the same.
It’s cargo cult thinking. They are at the gym, they should be gaining the benefits thereof by being there.
What a load of horseshit.
One of these things is not like the others.
Jesus, that comment got pushed down. I was referring to her bolded comment at the end of the block quote.
Ok, so while she makes a valid point about BMI not being an accurate measure of body fat percentage, and then she botches everything else.
First off, if you’re a size 24 I’m willing to bet $1000 that you don’t eat 1800 calories a day, you count 1800 calories a day. 1800 calories is probably what you’re eating at actual meals, but you’re definitely snacking throughout the day and you’re not counting those calories accurately. Counting calories is like following a budget, and people who have trouble with the one do the same thing people who have trouble with the other do, which is they lie to themselves about their real habits, under-report spending/eating, and then wonder why they just can’t seem to save money/lose weight. And if you work out twice a week, you’re not reasonably active, but that you consider exercising twice a week to be reasonably active goes a long way towards explaining why you’re size 24 while only eating 1800 calories a day, allegedly.
And the gluten and high fructose corn syrup etc. thing. For chrissakes. I’ll leave unsaid my take on the validity of the idea that there are “bad” calories that make you fatter or whatever, and I’ll just say that, in general, weight is a function of calories in versus calories out. If you eat more than you use, your body stores the excess as fat. For most people who are overweight, it’s that simple. I know, there are macronutrients to consider and other more advanced nutritional concepts that are real and valid, but if you can’t see your toes standing up you’re not there yet. It’s like when some guy gets a rifle and buys all kinds of fancy optics and picks out a particular barrel profile and twist ratio and all that shit, then can’t hit the broad side of a barn and blames the gear. It’s not the gun, boss, it’s you. You’re the bottleneck. You’re not accurate enough for the grain of your ammo to make a difference. To use another example, many a set of golf clubs have been sold to people who think the reason they can’t stay out of the rough is because they haven’t spent enough money on clubs yet. The alternative, which people find uncomfortable, is that you have to spend time and effort.
Finally, you can’t bitch about people not finding you attractive and then complain about fetishes. Look, everybody is someone’s fetish. That’s how it works. If enough people share the same fetish, people stop calling it a fetish. Shit, a few hundred years ago men were in the market for fat women with tiny breasts. It’s whatever. Me, I find myself drawn to chicks you’d refer to as “built like a brick house”. I believe the term is “buxom”. Anyway, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say, “Hey, pretend I look like anybody else despite the fact that I can’t fit in a plane seat” AND “Recognize that I don’t look like other people and congratulate me on being different”.
Sorry, there is way too much evidence that calories in/calories out are not how it works. Sure the chick who wrote the article probably isn’t actually only eating 1800 calories a day and she might or might not be getting enough exercise thing is at her weight ANY level of activity and she’d be losing weight at 2500 calories a day if calories in/calories out were all that mattered and I doubt she is miscounting her calorie consumption by 50%.
That said, from her description of her diet it does seem like she is probably eating a bad diet for actual weight loss because it seems way too carb heavy
The Guess Who brings back great memories for me. My dad was a fan, so I grew up listening to them. Probably the only kindergartner to know all the lyrics to this one.
Another trippier version
thanks, great version.
I was a big fan. So yeah, I’m that old.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it here before, but I saw them in concert about 15 years ago. They were amazing. It was a reunion tour so Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman were there. About half way through the show Burton stopped and said, “Give a hand to Randy Bachman, everyone. Now we’re going to play some songs from that other band he was in” and they played 3 or 4 BTO tunes. Awesome.
It was a very fun, high-energy show. I tell people it was the best concert that I’ve ever been to because they far exceeded my expectations going in.
What a blast! I like seeing older acts where they are comfortable in their skins and aren’t trying to be rock stars anymore. You can tell the ones who still love their jobs.
Yep. And these guys definitely did. Burton was telling little anecdotes between most songs. One was how they remembered coming to town with their parents as kids (the show was in Grand Forks) You could tell they were genuinely happy to be playing there. In fact, we were their first US stop.
One other cool story; a lady in the front row brought in a point-and-shoot camera and was snapping a pic every so often. Well, some asshole, couldn’t-make-it-though-cop-school security guard saw her and tried to take her camera. Burton stopped mid-song and berated him. He said something to the affect of that they’ve been around long enough that someone getting some pictures of them for free wasn’t going to hurt them any. The crowd really loved them after that. The security guard, I’m guessing not so much.
Puerile bleating, you say?
This supposed petition, like the relentlessly creepy social media campaign its backers have waged since last August, is a piece of high-level trolling, a progressive answer to the infamous Sokal hoax. It’s not quite as well done, unfortunately. Part of writing an effective parody is getting the tone just right without taking things too far. What experienced reader could believe that a sentence like this appeared in a serious legal complaint filed by adults with college degrees in a real-life justice-dispensing American court of law?
Google employees and managers strongly preferred to hear the same orthodox opinions regurgitated repeatedly, producing an ideological echo chamber, a protected, distorted bubble of groupthink. [Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara]
This is too perfect a specimen of #GamerGate online racist misogyny-bro English, the dialect I like to think of as Redditese. The authors’ attempt to conjure up the atmosphere of mouth-breathing libertarian entitlement — in which commonly held standards of decency are “groupthink” and “orthodoxy” is a dirty word, where women exist for the sole purpose of having boobs in video games and, occasionally, in real life — is admirable but overdone. A real-life Damore would save this gibberish for the bitcoin forums and let his well-remunerated lawyers state his case plainly and on the ostensible merits.
Unfortunately, it would seem to be the case that Damore is for real. He really does believe that he was discriminated against because he is a white man. For a certain segment of the American adult male population between the ages of 14 and 40, in an online world in which a feminist author protesting PlayStation sexism is among the most pressing moral issues of our time and cryptocurrency is more real than Greece, Damore’s fantasies are not only true but of world-historic importance.
Gibberish, through and through.
I don’t even know what this idiot’s point is supposed to be. Something about mouth-breathing libertarians and groupthink. Damore is a poopyhead. Also, Google should be broken up by the Justice Department; or maybe turned into a regulated utility.
“Unfortunately, it would seem to be the case that Damore is for real. He really does believe that he was discriminated against because he is a white man. ”
Damore was definitely discriminated against for being a while male. That part of the story is not in contention.
It’s just that discriminating against white males is currently legal by judicial precedent. Thanks to a ruling designed to make affirmative action possible.
“Libertarian entitlement…”
IT’S HAPPENING!!!
where women exist for the sole purpose of having boobs in video games and, occasionally, in real life
“Sole purpose”? What about the sandwiches?
I’ll take Strawman Arguments for $500, Alex.
Swamp creatures doing swamp creature things: http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/01/10/fusion-gps-admits-used-john-mccain-pass-anti-trump-dossier-obama-era-intel-agencies/
TW: Breitbart
It was not clear from their statement whether McCain knew Fusion GPS was behind the dossier.
I have a feeling McCain still doesn’t know who was behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz.
….ZARDOZ?
https://twitter.com/KimStrassel/status/950860584823676930
CNN last night was going heavy on the idea that Steele was the source for the FBI’s investigation of Trump, not his dossier. See, it’s super important because the FBI was acting on Steele’s concern for America, and not on his shoddy, partisan work product. Apparently the notion that Steele may have been giving the same spiel to the FBI that he gave to the media outfits he briefed, and for the same reason, never occurred to the chimps.
It’s amazing the contortions they’re putting themselves through to excuse the FBI.
Wait… didn’t Democrats just say they released the dossier to the public as their ultimate weapon that will finally do Trump in?
Australian birds have weaponized fire because what we really need now is something else to make us afraid
It’s Australia – OF COURSE the birds are trying to kill you.
Is this really surprising to people? I guess if you really believe humans are the only animals with the ability to affect their environment it would.
Mother Jones isn’t all in on Oprah.
They hate her at DU.
However, Postrel is. I shit you not.
Yes, what we desperately need is another eloquent shill for progressive communism.
That’s just sad.
She’s actually arguing for a ceremonial monarchy, United States style. She’s basically admitting that any opposition to Trump from her brand of libertarianism is purely one of distaste for his persona. Association with Trump would cost her friends in the circles she flies in and she can’t have that.
and represent all Americans
The divide is so strong now that I don’t think is this possible anymore. You have a sizable percentage of the population that is demanding disarmament and communism as their political foundation. There will never be any sort of compromise between them and those who favor liberty.
+1 It’s hopeless. The only solution that doesn’t involve breaking the country up (violently or not) is a return to strict federalism. States can go as Commie as they want with no Federal involvement. People then vote with their feet.
Not gonna happen though.
Um, if a state goes commie, it might not be as easy to vote with your feet as you think. Cuba and East Germany weren’t too fond of people that “just wanted out”.
Well if it goes that way, then we’re back to violent conflict.
I for one say good riddance to the saboteurs, kulaks, and wreckers.
What she is saying is that if her tribe is not the one in power, they would rather burn down the nation than let someone not woke make the calls.
Whoops! Someone got into the tequila again!
She’s trying really hard to thread the political needle. She probably thought she was being really novel by suggesting the separation of the head of state from the executive. To me, it just reveals how bankrupt her commitment to libertarian principles is.
MEAN GLIBERTARIANS TOO MEAN TO FAIR ICE QUEEN, STEVE SMITH CONSOLE FAIR ICE QUEEN ON NEXT COCKTAIL CRUISE AND BY CONSOLE…
But the response to her eloquent Golden Globes speech
Eloquent? Jumping on the #metoo bandwagon after it’s been made crystal clear that it’s the most expedient and self beneficial thing you can do in Hollywood today is “eloquent”. Bitch did nothing while sitting square in the middle of the tempest and with the biggest media platform to boot.
Not nothing. She also promoted quack medicine and anti-vaxxers.
None of it matters. It’s a farce. Trump is/was a farce (I’m coming around to him not being a farce considering the success of many of his policies). Middle age, white, soap opera, mommy porn types would carry her over the finish line on a litter. Never mind the fact that she has no positions to speak of, is empty and vapid and would likely tank the economic gains we’ve seen under Trump. She’s a woman! She’s black! She speaks to issues I care about (read: why my husband won’t take out the trash, which Chardonnay is best when my kid is being a brat, etc.)! She’s just so darn nice! IT’S WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDS IN THE FACE OF TRUMP’S NAZISM!!!!
I head part of that speech because the wife had the TV on the news and I couldn’t help overhearing. It was gawd awful cringe worthy. She makes Hillary sound genuine.
The implicit comparison of a black woman who was brutally gang-raped in the Jim Crow South to the set of well paid attention whores in that room was galling to say the least.
1. Certain people (e.g., progressives) crave total power over humanity and the universe.
2. They attempt to maintain a positive self-image and therefore rationalize this entirely selfish ambition as a desire to achieve altruistic results.
3. If they were to ever admit they were materially morally flawed, it would be obvious that they could not be trusted to wield total power to altruistic ends. Therefore, they cannot ever meaningfully accept they are flawed or corruptible.
4. Because they cannot perceive their flaws, they cannot work to improve them, thus they are incapable of ethical/spiritual growth and are more deeply flawed than most people.
5. Because they are more deeply flawed than most, they have ample opportunity to perceive the existence of evil, but are alienated from its origins within themselves (similar to schizophrenics and the voices they hear, which has been theorized as a false sense of alienation from their own thought processes)
6. To address the cognitive dissonance this engenders, they must find ways to rationalize other people as the source of evil to explain their awareness of evil’s presence (again, similar to the rationales schizophrenics use to explain the voices they hear)
7. Thus, rampant projection (exclusively regarding negative motives or actions) necessarily follows from the pseudoaltruistic totalitarian impulse.
And that’s how someone associated with Harvey Weinstein can explain the problem of Harvey Weinstein to the people who are part of the problem of Harvey Weinstein in terms of ultra-deplorables from 75 years ago.
Ah, the Ice Queen. She’s still alive?
I’m going to be in a house in the mountains of NW Georgia on Sunday when the Vikings play. By dog, there’d better be TV up there!!!!
My uncle lives in Dahlonega. Very isolated area. I went panning for gold there, which was fun.
The time I drove directly from GA into NC was trippy.
For some reason it seemed like I skipped a whole state. I realize they border each other, but they shouldnt.
Dahlonega? Isolated?!? I guess GA-400 isn’t a thing, dude… 😉 (To explain the joke, it is just a multi-lane freeway straight down from Dahlonega (ok, 2 miles south of there) to Atlanta). You have to go up past Helen towards the NC line to get isolated.
[I grew up more in Murrayville/Gainesville than anywhere else. Still consider it home. Wish I could get back there…]
I didn’t mean that it was hard to get to, just that it’s a sparsely populated area in the mountains. Or at least it was the last time I was there, in 2000. Back in the ’90s, I remember my uncle telling me how excited people were about getting a Wal-Mart…..except it wasn’t even in Dahlonega, it was in Cleveland. That became the closest grocery store to them.
Good tweet-thread on modern civics
I was expecting a discussion on Japanese engineering and manufacturing.
Thanks. Good summary of the current clusterfuck.
+1
I think he’s exactly right.
Thanks. That was depressing.
This all comes from Congress becoming a useless entity with, the author nailed it, grievously perverse incentives. The sad part is that I don’t see it changing anytime soon. We’ve degenerated into a state in which we essentially elect a monarch with the courts occasionally playing referee depending on their particular political position on a given policy. It doesn’t bode well for the future.
I still think we need direct representation in the House, using selection rather than election. The Senate is a tougher nut to crack.
Re: Exxon.
Brilliant. The municipalities are fucked. Either climate change is a disclosable risk, or its not. If it is, it is for everyone. The only way Exxon could twist the knife a little harder would be to buy the bonds from these towns so it can front a class action against them for securities fraud – crank it up from an abuse of process case to an actual securities fraud case. I like that they are already on offense, and have brought it in their “home” jurisdiction in Texas.
If they buy now, it’s too late to argue they were defrauded, since they’ve already filed court proceedings.
Good point. They have a massive investment portfolio; they might already have some of these bonds in there somewhere.
It’s a genius strategy. To be fair, though, I have seen some communities begin to disclose the threat of climate change in their bond offering documents.
The attention paid to these disclosures is somewhere between 0% and ‘I’ll believe it when Al Gore stops buying houses on the shore’
It really is funny. Some piss-ant politicians thought they were going to legally harass Exxon for political points and maybe some sweet settlement dollars. Instead, they poked the bear that has some of the best lawyers on the planet. They’re going to get mauled.
GOP take note: good things can happen when you actually fight back. Grow a pair and stop being pushed around. Punch back twice as hard.
‘”It is repugnant that oil companies might sue public servants personally in an attempt to intimidate them from protecting their communities and environment,” said John Beiers, county counsel for San Mateo County. “We will not be intimidated.”‘
In Yoda’s Voice: Oh you will be… you will be…
God, I hate that fucking phrase. They’re not “servants”; they’re people who lord over us with impunity and enjoy wealth, prestige, and supra-legal privilege.
These overpaid desk-jockey politicians act like they’re somehow on the same level as an enlisted man stationed in a Middle Eastern shithole who is getting shot at every day, dodging IEDs in the road, and eating shitty food for years on end.
I doubt it’s just me who vomits a little bit every time I read “public servant”.
What a self serving bunch of cunts. Who the fuck is the private sector serving?
Their shareholders, the savages!
https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/951078972632297472
This all part of Russia’s plan! Russians- under your bed- watch out!
Remember that the election of Moon in South Korea was seen as a rebuke of Trump and a hard line American stance on North Korea.
Watching heads explode over this is beautiful. Some people refuse to acknowledge that the best way to deal with chest-puffing megalomaniacs like Kim is to put your arm on their neck and keep it there until they cave. I can’t wait to hear how they’ll try to twist the eventual success of this policy into a result of groundwork laid by Obama through his enlightened statecraft.
Daddy hits us because he loves us.
https://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2018/01/10/punish-poor-people-n2432150
Stossel is a national treasure. He’s the only guy that bridges the divide among fractious libertarians
The libertarian whisperer?
Doesn’t the horse whisperer get clobbered in the end? Poor Stossel.
I can’t get past the thought that if they are so dangerous, why are they legal at all? Isn’t a gigantic moral hazard to say something will kill you, but tax it to raise revenue?
You’re clearly not cut out for a job as a government lackey.
The bond bull market is effectively over, get ready for some inflation.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-10/china-officials-are-said-to-view-treasuries-as-less-attractive
::Congresscritter rushes away, ignoring the $20T debt::
My google search is having fun. “CNN is …” . fills with “fakes news” at the top spot. “Fox news is…” fills with “fake”. “Zuckerberg is..” a robot. “Edward Snowden is…” hot. And the weirdest one I got was, “James Clapper is…” a Muslim.
“James Clapper is…” a Muslim.
That’s racist towards Muslims.
Seriously. That’s a major insult.
The only way Exxon could twist the knife a little harder would be to buy the bonds from these towns so it can front a class action against them for securities fraud – crank it up from an abuse of process case to an actual securities fraud case.
I would think that would eliminate any question of “standing”.
If “standing” is needed, surely one anti-anthropoclimate change person or entity could be found who already owns the bonds.
Horny women.
http://mashable.com/2018/01/09/porn-for-women-searches-2017/
..are a blessing.
Blue autophagy.
https://pjmedia.com/election/senate-hopeful-challenging-five-term-incumbent-feinsteins-liberal-credentials/
It’s just the left shifting ever leftward, until hopefully one day we can no longer see them from our porch.
“Birth tourism brings Russian baby boom to Miami
MIAMI — Lured by the charm of little Havana or the glamour of South Beach, some 15 million tourists visit Miami every year.
But for a growing number of Russian women, the draw isn’t sunny beaches or pulsing nightclubs. It’s U.S. citizenship for their newborn children.
In Moscow, it’s a status symbol to have a Miami-born baby, and social media is full of Russian women boasting of their little americantsy.
In a twist, as the Daily Beast first reported, condo buildings that bear the Trump name are the most popular for the out-of-town obstetric patients, although the units are subleased from the individual owners and it’s not clear if building management is aware.
There is no indication that Trump or the Trump Organization is profiting directly from birth tourism; the company and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Roman Bokeria, the state director of the Florida Association of Realtors told NBC News that Trump- branded buildings in the Sunny Isles Beach area north of Miami are particularly popular with the Russian birth tourists and Russian immigrants.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/birth-tourism-brings-russian-baby-boom-miami-n836121
Good Christ. FAKE FUCKING NEWS.
Trump assisting the Russian takeover one Russian bastard at a time.
Good god, they’re getting fucking desperate for a Trump-Russia connection…
Hadn’t they gotten the memo? It’s all about the 25th Amendment now. Unless Mueller pulls a rabbit out of his hat, Russia is not to be mentioned!
So they want Mike Pence as president?? I thought they hated him almost as much as Drumpf! I remember fearmongering about how he “wants to send gay kids to conversion therapy”.
Or, do they actually think that Hillary will somehow become president if Trump is removed…?
The latter. Popular vote! Stolen election! Blargh!
Pence will resign, the Ryan will choose Clinton for his running mate, then resign, and the Senate will for some reason go along with all this.
Then the Pats will call me to be their kicker.
Maybe some will now change their minds about “anchor babies?” Or, more likely, only against Russian anchor babies; those from other countries are fine.
Eastern Europeans aren’t a Blue-Vote bloc.
Can confirm. Wife and all of her Russian friends love Trump.
It is funny that they care.
This is obviously not relevant to me personally, but I was having a discussion with a coworker about adoption and I must pose the question: Why in the fuck would anyone ever want to do an open adoption? The whole point of adoption is that the birth parents are out, gone, caput, nowhere, nothing, gene donors and nothing else. If they wanted to be involved, don’t put the kid up for adoption in the first place. That’s my opinion anyway and I’d love to hear opposing viewpoints.
That’s a thing??
I’m not a parent, but I’d imagine that sooner or later, the parental instincts would cause some kind of jealousy and resentment to arise towards the adoptive parents.
That’s what I think too. On top of it being fucking confusing for the kid as it gets older. I don’t get it.
Generally the kids start to be really curious about their birth parents around their teenage years. Those kids often sever contact with adoptive parents who lie or stonewall the issue.
The kids have a right to information about their genetic heritage. This is particularly important if they are planning families and need to know of any genetic risks.
Yes, sometimes this ends poorly if the birth mom tries to horn in. But often the children are happy to merely have their curiosity satisfied.
“The sorority girl who faked cancer and scammed friends out of $10,000 isn’t going to jail
The sorority girl who faked cancer and swindled her friends out of thousands of dollars will not face jail, babe can reveal.
Kelly Schmahl found herself in court last year after she shaved her head and told classmates she had stage-three stomach cancer when she was in fact physically healthy. Her family and sorority sisters organized charity events in her name and raised more than $7,500 in medical donations.
Schmahl, formerly a Northern Kentucky University student, was sentenced to five years of diversion – it’s similar to probation. She will not face jail time or community service. According to a Kentucky prosecutor who spoke to babe, she will be unsupervised as long as she resides in an in-patient mental health treatment facility.”
https://babe.net/2018/01/08/the-sorority-girl-who-faked-cancer-and-scammed-friends-out-of-10000-isnt-going-to-jail-27133
That male privilege in action.
Fine by me. We jail too much. Make her Pay her debts back and get creative on the punishment.
Yeah, I don’t see her earning much money while residing in the loony bin. The taxpayers are going to be on the hook for a lot more than the money she scammed, which is probably already spent.
So?
I once dated a girl from the same sorority at the same university.
I could not stand her sorority sisters.
Washington Post: Why ‘social justice warriors’ are the true defenders of free speech and open debate. I don’t think anything else needs to be said.
The party has decreed two plus two is five.
Was that a 1984 reference?? You completely misunderstood that book – remember, that book is actually a cautionary tale against being skeptical of career politicians and big media, as Hillary tells us.
I read 1984.
Apparently, She did not.
Well, at least the comments were universally trashing the writer. IN THE WASHINGTON POST! That’s how bad it is.
lol, how “complicated” do you really need to make that?
This is me, right now, at work. I am taking a required “gender equality” course. Which, by the way, is way more detailed than the training I took on using the web site’s CMS (which is my actual job).
I am so sorry.
And now I’m reminded that, with the new year, the mandatory ‘training’ has reset, and I have to take the same courses I took last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and…
If only the content would ever change.
The program must work, because the men who take the course are equally bored.
Sorry, KK. Be strong.
I don’t think I could sit silently through that.
Luckily it’s online so I’m not rolling my eyes out loud in front of a bunch of people.
There was literally a picture of side-by-side x-rays of a man’s and woman’s pelvis. You guys.
How could they include such transphobic data!?
just the xray??!
damn.
My thoughts and prayers.
Weiner and Abedin call off their divorce
https://pagesix.com/2018/01/10/huma-abedin-and-anthony-weiner-call-off-divorce/
Spousal privilege?
It’s gotta be.
What horrible people. I pity their kid.