OK, I’m not a big drinker, but I’ll confess to having a few last night. And a few more. But I had an excuse- dinner at an amazingly good Afghan restaurant, where most of the other patrons appeared to be predominantly Afghan and Iranian (the cuisines are similar), and our table was peopled with a fascinating mix. It’s a BYOB place, and we brought indeed. Swiss and two other highly decorated vets of the various Afghan campaigns regaled us with cynical stories of their experiences. RAHeinlein and her husband talked geek science. Webdominatrix and I drank and listened. And coincidentally, yesterday’s news brought us yet more evidence that our 17 year (and still running) war in Afghanistan is a stunning success.
Every time I deal with tiresome progressives who slobber over the vast superiority of Europe in all ways, I always come back to the concept of free speech. “But they have much freer speech than we do!” Bull-fucking-shit. And I speak with some experience, having had most of my mother’s family (who were shut out of immigrating to the US by changes in the laws meant to exclude “undesirables” such as Jews) slaughtered in Polish extermination camps. The two people who survived Auschwitz and were eventually smuggled into South America would never speak directly of their experiences, but carried a deep hatred of Poles and Poland which spoke volumes over who were the culprits. Come on, arrest me for saying that. (I found this in the news this morning, but looks like Chafed sent the tip last night while I was merrymaking, so I’ll be generous with the h/t; or is it yarmulke tip?)
From the Department of Let Them Eat Cake, comes this little gem. Remember all those kids who died from Legos? Yeah, me neither. The whole rush for sexy stories to pull in grant money has made certain areas of science (climatology, toxicology, epidemiology, nutrition) into the sort where the presumption has to be that the “research” is bullshit. I may have more to say about this later this week, since I’ve seen some of my work cited frequently (and mischaracterized) in stories of panic about plastics.
Speaking of eating, the Old Guy music today centers on a theme near and dear to the heart of a Jewish vegetarian. I happened to be sitting in the front row at the recording of this album and the show was as fun as it sounds here.
Comments
499 responses to “Sunday Morning Only Mildly Hungover Links”
At least it’s not a Bosch scene of debauchery.
What are you talking about? I worked at Bosch and there was never any debauchery. Trust me, I did my best to get some debauchery going at any company party we had, but there were always too many uptight Germans around.
I read the books… It is a pretty good series. And the Amazon TV version is pretty darned good too. Titus Welliver is perfect as Harry Bosch.
I had an excuse- dinner at an amazingly good Afghan restaurant
Do they specialize in gut bombs?
Too soon! ?
There is an Afghan place near me. The food is awesome. I never knew pumpkin could taste so good. Although the restaurant does various kabobs, it was a favorite of a vegetarian colleague because of the wonderful side dishes.
Yeah, I love the cuisine. When I lived in the SF Bay area, my best buddy and I were regulars at a really good spot there. In Baltimore, i ate at an excellent place run by Hamid Karzai’s brother.
Kabul is even better, and not just because I was with three guys who spoke Dari. The menu is particularly vegetarian friendly- besides me, webdominatrix and one of the vets are also vegetarian, and we ate well. Very well. Perhaps too well. I have to learn to make aushak.
Is that place as swanky as it’s website makes it look? Or could a fella waltz in and grab a quick lunch?
Both. It’s a new space for them, and bigger/fancier than the old one. But they also have carry-out and nothing would stop you from having a quick sit-down, though that’s more than I’ll usually spend on lunch.
Take out?
Please tell me that I could get my goat kebobs delivered by John Rambo buskashi-style.
Hamid Karzai’s brothers run several restaurants. I ate at the one in Cambridge, MA. It’s pretty good.
Weird connection, but one of Hamid Karzai’s nieces went to the elementary school in MoCo where my wife taught.
buying used stuff is icky and a California grade carcinogen, it is know. How dare people save money buying things not up to the latest environmental, safety and woke standards.
“Lego bricks from the 70s and 80s are the big fail,” said Dr Andrew Turner, of the University of Plymouth, who conducted the study. “Toys in those days weren’t tested and now we’re using them and handing them down.”
I agree. Have you ever stumbled to the toilet late at night and had one these embedded in the sole of your foot?
OMWC is right about the let them eat cake attitude. Per the article, “But experts said it would be difficult to quantify the risk.” Get back to me when you can quantify the risk. Until then you are the embodiment of the Precautionary Principle.
“Without that, the attractive cost, convenience and recyclability of previously used toys has the potential to create a legacy of chemical contamination for younger children.”
So much for “conserve, reuse, repurpose”.
Boy cooties are markers for toxic masculinity.
This message brought to you by Lego.
Bacon song – This video is not available.
I’m in Kanto not Kabul, you bastards.
Jewish vegetarians don’t get the Bacon Song; they get this instead.
Why is this place such a shithole?
Electricity and running water have yet to be restored, schools remain closed and less than 400 of Barbuda’s 1,800-strong population have returned home following September’s mandatory evacuation to the sister isle of Antigua.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne says allowing parcels of land to be sold will raise the revenue Barbuda needs to rebuild.
Under the existing system, Barbudans govern all land communally with no private ownership.
Residents can identify parcels for residential, commercial or agricultural use which are then approved by the Barbuda Council and can be passed on to their heirs.
Many fear the changes will open the floodgates to wealthy foreign investors and transform the quaint, pristine isle into a tourism hotspot.
Nothing says quaint and pristine like no running water.
Obviously it’s Trump’s fault.
“Under the existing system, Barbudans govern all land communally with no private ownership.”
*Rubs crystal ball and stares deeply into it*
‘Sell’ land to wealthy furriners in a place where one cant own land, i.e. take bribes to grant land use. Use majority of bribe money to enrich officials, raise taxes on land use to rebuild some infrastructure. 20 years down the road when various con artists have sold time shares and local officials have blown through the initial money they stole the land use licenses will be revoked and existing structures nationalized. 10-15 more years down the road it will be a shithole with crumbling infrastructure and rampant poverty.
I wonder if I should warn them not to go down that road?
Imy wife is one of those (((vegetarians))) who occasionally cheats whenever I fry up some bacon or sausage.
I was speaking with an old high school teacher of mine, circa 2004. Said teacher having travelled extensively in Afghanistan, India, and other parts of central and Southern Asia in the 1970’s.
He bemoaned the situation in Afghanistan, and specifically recalled a pizza joint that he used to hang out at in Kabul, where one could meet other westerners, hot local females, and acquire hashish for $10 an ounce.
No mention of Afghan deep-dish.
No mention of Afghan deep-dish.
Of course not, it was a pizza joint.
Maybe Afghan Deep-Dish is a way of signaling resistance to the Occupiers.
*could be a way
I like vegetables, but I love meat. (Not a euphemism!)
If I ever contracted that allergic to meat disease…well, I don’t think I could cope.
It baffles me that people willingly go vegetarian.
It doesnt baffle me, I do understand and have nothing against it. I just think they are misguided, and everybody knows that I am 100% right about everything 100% of the time.
Dtto.
A disaster averted. Sometimes a silver lining is what you need on a Sunday morning. Christie Blatchford: Eleven years, 18 witnesses and 100 exhibits later, court concludes boy needs both parents
Funny you should bring up Blatchford in a thread about Afghanistan. She was a pretty full-throated ‘Worship The Troops’ propagandist back in the day, and was a dismissive cunt to many people who questioned the wisdom of Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan.
Never heard of her. That’s too bad because I liked that article.
Blatchford is pretty good on a lot of issues, and is a decent enough writer.
Like many, she caught the patriotic fervor which swept North America post 9/11, and used her position in the media to propagandize for war via playing the ‘Support The Troops’ game.
At least she’s a fan of JBP –
http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/jordan-peterson-on-metoo-were-getting-away-from-intent-its-all-consequence
Better a sheep than a half-assed wolf
In Michigan, when the state senate passed legislation in November that extended concealed carry to high schools, churches, day care centres, and sporting events, former teacher-turned-Democratic state senator Jim Ananich was among a vocal minority who opposed the bill. He said he thought the “overwhelming majority” of his former colleagues would be against the idea.
“Trying to play Rambo just doesn’t fit with the reality of what happens in a stressful situation,” he said. “Untrained individuals are much more likely to shoot a bystander, a police officer, or a child.”
The three days of training administered by Faster – and the legal minimum standard in Michigan of just eight hours for armed teachers – was not nearly enough, he said.
“Pursuing the NRA philosophy that you can put guns into the hands of teachers and untrained individuals, and expect them to make decisions that law enforcement or military are supposed to make, is backwards and it’s dangerous.”
Those fighting to keep guns out of schools say arming teachers is a bad solution to the wrong problem, particularly in states that lack laws around securing firearms in the home.
No guns for school staff is no solution at all. Instead of paying some jackass
school resource officerborderline child molester to sit around at stare at students’ asses all day, arm the janitors.“Trying to play Rambo just doesn’t fit with the reality of what happens in a stressful situation,” he said. “Untrained individuals are much more likely to shoot a bystander, a police officer, or a child.”
Citation needed, or did you just pull that straight out of your ass Jim?
“Untrained individuals are much more likely to shoot a bystander, a police officer, or a child.”
Yeah, we need to rely on highly trained professionals who would never make that kind of mistake.
I’m the only one in this room professional enough that I know of to carry the Glock .40…
Ahgh! I guessed wrong. I guessed the first link would be the story of the cop on a non-violent call who shot the nine year old girl because he missed the little girl’s Pekinese that was viciously charging him.
I remember a similar story some years ago where a cop accidentally shot a little girl while shooting at a harmless dog and then just got in his cruiser and drove away.
And then there was the story from Times Square where four or five cops opened fire on a crazy guy in the middle of the crowd and hit nine bystanders.
Yep, I remember that one. Decided to go with the one most recently in the headlines. There isn’t exactly a limited selection.
One of the reasons we fled Brooklyn to the quiet of Rockaway Beach was the time 5 NYPD standing at the corner of Franklin and Park Place saw a fellow who had been waving a pistol around at the West Indian Day Parade a an hour earlier and they all emptied their service weapons at him from half a bock away. They did not hit the fellow at all but managed to murder the grandmother sitting in her rocking chair on the porch across the street from our building. Fun Fact – a month later,
Handgun Control IncorporatedBrady Center For Violence PreventionMayors Against Illegal GunsEverytown For Gun Safetywhatever the fuck they were calling themselves at the moment came and held a rally on our block. I made a loud spectacle of myself.I have the Norwegian Day Parade in my Brooklyn neighborhood every year. All little old white ladies that must have fled to Long Island decades ago. Not much action for the cops.
You left out the important part of that story. Did the officer make it home safely?
with his pension intact ?
“Untrained individuals are much more likely to shoot a bystander, a police officer, or a child.”
They can’t be that much more likely than the police to do it.
arm the janitors.
From The Phenix City Story
My dad was a teen right outside of Phenix City back in the 50s. I wished I would have watched that movie with him to get his take on it.
“Untrained individuals are much more likely to shoot a bystander, a police officer, or a child”
I’m a rearrange that sentence so that there’s a little truth in it.
“Individuals, bystanders, and children are much more likely to be shot by a trained police officer.”
Just how much training to m do they think police officers get? And it’s especially not training under live fire.
My best friend Michael is that wonderful common sense kind of guy who would be the ideal benevolent dictator if we needed one, but he will never understand freedom.
Setting aside the problem of unconstitutional state restrictions on my rights not yet enumerated federally, including that of defending myself, I answer him: in any act, you have the freedom to participate as well as you are ready based on your perspective, training, and appetite for liability. To wit: if my ancient lady neighbor, incompetent in firearms, finds herself accosted getting into her car, produces a revolver, assesses that the lovely masonry behind her assailant is a sturdy, broad, and satisfactory backstop capable of absorbing or deflating all her incompetent missiles, then
blast away, Gertrude. I know Michael doesn’t think you should carry without a note from the governor and 80 hours of training and a 95 on a small, distant target, but go ahead, Gertrude: blast away. It’s like driving on a gravel road: you’ve got to know how fast you are sure you can handle all the wiggles and slides that might happen; maybe that’s 5MPH, but you must at least use ordinary care to decide and be ready to live with the consequences if you land in the ditch.
I think about bystanders all the time. My answer usually is to turn over a table and hide, retreat thoughtfully, take a shot if you can/must, but basically run like Lee in Virginia until you have the advantage, then take a stand. If I had a room of kids to defend, though, I’d probably have to charge….that could turn out real bad. My mom can outshoot every man I every met, so I came to be tactically competent very early, but a school shoot is just a nightmare to contemplate.
What always occurs to me is – If I run and live, how could I live with myself? I think I would rather charge and take my chances.
That’s a school, kids….like I said: probably charge.
“My answer usually” means a scene at the mall where it’s just too bad: everyone else brought a Bic lighter and lipstick to a gunfight. I am not lowering my odds defending people who should have been ready to defend themselves….I’m checking out….buhbye.
Anyway, you’re probably a better man than me. I’m pure hillbilly: clan first, fuck the rest of y’all. I defend my spawn, my love, and my stuff in that order, and everyone else’s barn can burn. BTW the reason Mom can outshoot any man is that her family was devastated in their war with the McKays; in the ensuing century, they stayed locked and loaded, and their children came to be fairly born with a thousand yard stare. In college I was wary of tall buildings and closed spaces (later I would learn there were books about a concept called “situational awareness”), and my buddies told me I was just crazy, nothing will ever happen, especially at college, and maybe I should get medicated.
Put a uniform on anyone, and they instantly become sniper-level proficient with a firearm, trained in situation de-escalation, and are morally righteous in their position to take down a bad guy.
/ Jim Ananich
“Put a uniform on anyone………”
and they become stockcar drivers, psychiatrists, civil magistrates…..
I can’t convince anyone that the social contract with cops is a one-way street; relying upon them empowers them to foment mayhem with their seldom so much as holding a flashlight while you change a tire.
I could never convince my father that giving cops the benefit of the doubt is a recipe for more lies and easy framing of the innocent.
Relevant
Ima gonna send the good legislator this here linkee.
The NRA Philosophy, such as it is, is to put firearms in the hands of responsible individuals.
Of course, some people (myself included) consider that being a responsible individual might include getting some basic training from more experienced (and possibly even credentialed) personnel.
I’m conflicted over the training and certification requirement which many states have enacted; from a principled standpoint, it’s a unfair licensing cost that you incur thru’ no reason other than deciding that you want to exercise your 2A rights, and has the practical effect of putting yet another roadblock in place to deny protection to the poor and minorities. On the other hand, as an RSO at my local range,
it’s not unusual to see some pretty scary, negligent behavior on public nights that we have to put a stop to, including by LEOs – who get to shoot for free. Our range is made available to local PDs for their officer qualifications, and it’s quite usual to have to spend a few hours afterwards, fixing up target frames, floors, walls and ports afterwards.
This is one that will never cease to get my hackles up. A simple ” take the toys out of your mouth” has been a valid solution, like, forever. I will never get tired of raging about parents phoning it in and blaming harmless third parties for their short-sightedness and neglect.
Most consumer advocates are so far past the prime that they are stenching from deay, so fuck them. Choking hazard is no longer a valid complaint about anything, especially since every single vendor of children’s toys places recommended age levels on them. Happy Sunday.
It’s too bad everyone and everything is so partisan. Now, let me tell you why Trump is an asshole.
Still, there are many parts of the news media that will provide straight, neutral coverage. But even those platforms have analysts and commentators with specific partisan perspectives.
Simply put, the ability of objective journalists to shape coverage of the speech has vastly diminished.
Adding to that, is the Trump effect. The President now has a long and undistinguished record of saying things that are not true. His tweets and his public statements are filled with comments that have no basis in fact or that stretch the truth so far you can almost see the veracity elastic starting to break.
Unlike most presidents before him, he does this with a kind of reckless abandon that we have not seen in the Oval Office. As Eric Alterman wrote in a recent column for The Nation, “Lying presidents are nothing new. … What’s novel about Donald Trump, however, is that he does not lie in pursuit of some larger political goal or to hide a potentially damaging secret. He just likes to lie, often for no discernible reason.”
Given his relationship to the truth, there is just no reason to take his formal public proclamation as a genuine road map for the coming months. It might be that some of things he says should be said at face value, but it is equally plausible to conclude that he has no intention of following through with the statements from the night.
In Trump’s America, the State of the Union is dismal.
Not according to this newly released article by none other than the mainstream media. Of course it’s not CNN or the NYT, but still.
Trump economy blasting off
It might be that some of things he says should be said at face value, but it is equally plausible to conclude that he has no intention of following through with the statements from the night.
If you like your health plan you can keep your health plan. I will close Gitmo on my first day in office. Ninety percent of the budget deficit is due to George W. Bush’s policies. The check’s in the mail. I’ll respect you in the morning. I won’t do it in your mouth.
“Trump lies”
Please do give us examples. I keep hearing this claim made with no supporting evidence. If there is so much evidence let’s please have some of it.
‘There will be no amnesty’. It is looking like that one may turn out to be a whopper.
That’s assuming a lot in my opinion. To start out, it’s assuming that Trump is not going to pull the proverbial football out of the way and laugh at Scmoobz lying flat on his back, again. And it’s also assuming that Shmoobz and poor senile Nancy are going to accept the terms Trump lays out for them, which will be totally intended to make them not accept it.
In Soviet Russia, the State unions you!
Too much vegetarian talk, wifey is frying bacon…
Relevant
I think the lyrics need changed for today’s woman. I’m a snowflake, I can’t cook, and I can’t take care of myself should all be in there somewhere.
From the bacon tree?
(thumbs up emoji for the Bacon Song)
That would be the best tree ever.
here you go
https://youtu.be/zDCNJdeM9PE?t=1m30s
Where’s the beer tree?
Fiddler’s Green has free beer and bottles of rum on every tree.
Where’s this place at? They must need some programmers round those parts.
bacon seed
Mmmmm popplers
Passed a cattle truck on the highway the other day. XX TD (female tax deduction) said, “Nom nom nom.”
We’re DOOOOOOMED!
President Donald Trump won the White House promising a $1 trillion, 10-year blueprint to rebuild America — an initiative he said would create millions of jobs while making the nation’s highways, bridges, railroad and airports “second to none.”
But the infrastructure plan he’s poised to pitch in Tuesday’s State of the Union is already drawing comparisons to the “Hunger Games.”
Instead of the grand, New Deal-style public works program that Trump’s eye-popping price tag implies, Democratic lawmakers and mayors fear the plan would set up a vicious, zero-sum scramble for a relatively meager amount of federal cash — while forcing cities and states to scrounge up more of their own money, bringing a surge of privately financed toll roads, and shredding regulations in the name of building projects faster.
Wait, what? Fix our own roads and bridges? Pay our own bills? That’s crazy.
The Hunger Games is actually the ever greedier maw of Washington which becomes wealthier and wealthier while the rest of the country gets more and more impoverished.
Dammit Ted, you can’t challenge the narrative like that. When the Republicans are in charge it is EXACTLY like the Hunger Games. When the Republicans threaten to be in charge it will be EXACTLY like the Hunger Games.
Well, to start, it’s politico. So you can guarantee that whatever they said, the opposite is true.
And then, I’d like for this hack to come visit Baltimore and explain why Baltimore City, which has been ran by Democrats for the last 5-6 decades cannot fix the roads and other infrastructure despite having the highest local taxes in the state. I would go so far as to say that Trump can give Baltimore the entire trillion dollars we’re talking about here and they still will not be able to fix the roads. Or all the broken water mains that flood the streets every fucking single day now.
Kind of like the time Zuckerberg donated 100 million to the Newark system and that money just disappeared, swallowed by the beat, without a blip.
need more coffee apparently… Newark school system… swallowed by the beast.
I just got another cup and put alcohol in this one.
This guy gets it
Yeah, it’s like that. And there’s no one to question or investigate where the money went since everyone here with any power is a lifetime Democrat. As long as they get their share, nothing happened.
How ungenerous sir! The Democrats don’t keep all of it – they spread some around to their ‘constituents’.
Baltimore City Public Schools have nearly 16,000 dollars per student. The heat’s not working.
My local suburban school system has under 10,000 dollars per student. My local urban school system has 11,500 per student. The heat always works in both these school systems. Oh, and guess which school system the local progs screech is “underfunded” ?
There’s no amount of money that can fill in for corruption, fraud, abuse, and incompetence.
Yes, we are doomed.
But at least the comments are all positive.
Instead of the grand, New Deal-style public works program that Trump’s eye-popping price tag implies, Democratic lawmakers and mayors fear the plan would set up a vicious, zero-sum scramble for a relatively meager amount of federal cash
This is where the Democrats will inadvertantly be right. They don’t want to support this plan because Trump. When is inevitably fails and causes even more debt problems, they can blame Trump, even though he is implementing the same policies that they have been advocating for 10 years.
Yeah, sure. Spike the spending on roads and bridges, but leave your damned dirty paws off our choo-choos!
All of our light rail in Minnesoda has been predicated on the old “for every $1 we spend we’ll get $2 from the Feds and isn’t that smart of us?”
It’s like they think federal money just magically falls out of the sky instead of gee I dunno being extracted from cities and states.
On the bright side, for once someone read a book that wasn’t Harry Potter.
Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel dismissed the plan last week as “fairy dust. … It’s not real.”
Ask the expert.
Dead mayor for life Marion Berry snorts deeply.
Anti-Trump celebs plan ‘People’s State of the Union’
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/01/28/anti-trump-celebs-plan-peoples-state-union.html
***
A cabal of Hollywood elites, progressive groups and social activists are planning a “People’s State of the Union” as a “public alternative” on the eve of President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.
Notable participants in Monday’s scheduled event in New York City include filmmaker Michael Moore, actors Mark Ruffalo, Alyssa Milano, Rosie Perez and Whoopi Goldberg.
They’ll congregate at the Town Hall in Manhattan, the venue where suffragists met in the 1920s. Singer Andra Day and rapper Common will be performing the song, “Stand Up for Something,” from the biopic film “Marshall,” about the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Tickets were still available Saturday at $47 each.
***
Well, it’s better than that time a bunch of celebrities sang I Will Survive after Trump was sworn in.
Celebrities charging 50 bucks to sniff their own farts. Thank god the proles have such noble people to speak on their behalf.
What says voice of the people better than a bunch of self absorbed morons?
Uber wealthy delusional self absorbed morons?
I may have to watch that. I bet it will be 100% total gibberish. Unsupported claims, outright lies, delusions and ad hominems.
When I think enlightened philosopher, I think Rosie Perez.
—-‘People’s State of the Union’—-
I would say that their masks slipped when they used the word ‘People’s’. However, they’ve already torn the masks off, thrown them to the ground, stomped on them until they broke into shards, burned the shards to ash with a flamethrower, and nuked the ash from orbit.
They’re just blatant Marxists and should be treated with all the public scorn that they deserve.
I don’t even think they’re Marxists. They’re just stupid.
Has the term neomarxist been invented yet? No, they’re not Marxist, they’re just people who do not deal with reality every day like most of us do. They have, however, thrown in with a bunch of real Marxists, the political left in this country.
Oh yes. You can be sure that whatever shadowy organization is behind this, it’s some commie front group.
^ This. They may have Marxist puppeteers feeding them ideas, but the people listed above have to belong to the “useful idiot” contingent.
Except for my lifetime crush Alyssa Milano. I believe “they” kidnapped someone close to her and are making her say and do these things.
Yeah, that’s sad, at least she’s hot, which is what makes it so disappointing. I expect the fugly ones to be retarded commies.
+1 Rosie O’Donnell
I just pray that that Eva Savelot will rescue her.
I feel the same way.
They couldn’t get Howard Zinn?
Last summer, the GOP-led Senate Appropriations Committee expressed alarm at Trump’s budget cuts and White House accusations of state and local “overreliance” on federal money. “The administration’s approach is dangerously close to support for devolution of federal funding provided by the Highway Trust Fund,” the committee wrote.
We love federalism and local autonomy, unless we don’t.
Don’t touch the gravy train.
“The administration’s approach is dangerously close to support for devolution of federal control provided by the Highway Trust Fund,” the committee wrote.
There, fixed.
Another hole in the levee. I bet they are shitting their pants.
They tried assembling his coffin using the pictogram instructions, but there seemed to be two missing Allen bolts.
Maybe they shouldn’t have kept the old coffin package around and used a newer one without Allen bolts.
Michael Jennings on Ingvar Kamprad
Dershowitz: I Wouldn’t Have Campaigned for Obama If I Knew About Farrakhan Pic
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/01/27/obama-farrakhan-photo-dershowitz-says-he-would-not-support-him-if-he-knew-about-picture
***
Harvard Law Professor and longtime Democrat Alan Dershowitz said he would not have campaigned for then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) if he knew about the future president’s photo op with Louis Farrakhan.
Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, is a “virulent anti-Semite and anti-American,” Dershowitz said on “Fox & Friends.”
“He has called Judaism a gutter religion. He is a horrible, horrible human being,” he said.
A photographer, Askia Muhammad, showed Fox News’ Tucker Carlson a 2005 picture of Obama and Farrakhan smiling together.
He said that afterward, the Congressional Black Caucus contacted him and demanded to have the photo back.
“I gave the original disk to him and in a sense swore myself to secrecy because I had quietly made a copy for myself,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad said he thought the CBC was concerned a photo with Farrakhan could hurt the young senator’s future presidential aspirations.
***
Yes, Mr. Brilliant Lawyer- Politicians lie.
At least Dershowitz has principles. More than I can say for 95% of the rest of them.
He may be the only sane Democrat left in the country.
Funny, he said nothing about Obama hobnobbing with Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Jeremiah Wright, all of whom are just as antisemitic as Looie. I’m not getting the principles- he’s contrite now that it carries no downside for Team Blue.
I would give him credit to be the only Democrat I know of that doesn’t buy into the phony Russia bullshit.
Add Greenwald to that list, even though Glenn is certifiably insane on some other issues.
The left have disowned Glenn. He’s actually one of the lucky ones, he doesn’t have to live around the rest of them.
Good point. I have heard him interviewed in the past and he seemed to at least not be a full blown Marxist which seems to be current platform for most democrats. He seems to be a small federal government states rights Dem. That is just my impression and I am not a follower of his so I could be totally wrong. Which wouldn’t be the first time.
“states rights Dem. ”
So he’s a racist? /Prog
I think he’s guilty of covering for Obama in service to the Democrat party in the past. So yes, this is somewhat disingenuous, but it seems that’s the best we’ll get from the left these days.
You know who else hobnobs with Al Sharpton?
Damn, that woman has a sixhead.
I am I supposed to believe he didn’t know Obama palled around with Farrakhan types? That he didn’t fuckin’ know where Obama’s sympathies lie? I am not buying that shit for one minute.
I wonder what Dershowitz has to say about the DNC deputy chair Keith Ellison?
Brother Keith X has had some pretty close associations with Louie in the past.
BTW, this statement is pretty bad:
In 2003 Ellison was one of a bunch of Democrats who filed an ethics complaint against a fundie GOP-er who said that Nazis didn’t target gay people. There was no “prosecution”. He wasn’t defending (((them))).
Court Records: Mall of America Stabbing Suspect Pleads Guilty, Calls it Act of Jihad
http://kstp.com/news/mahad-abdiaziz-abdiraham-mall-of-america-guilty-plea-jihad/4760698/
***
On Thursday, 20-year-old Mahad Abdiaziz Adbiraham pleaded guilty to stabbing two men at the Mall of America.
The incident occurred on Nov. 12, where authorities say he stabbed two brothers in a dressing room at the mall’s Macy’s.
At the plea hearing Thursday, Abdiraham’s attorney read a statement — which is public record — to the courtroom, which explained why he attacked the two men.
In the statement, Abdiraham said he went to the Mall of America to answer the “call for jihad by the Chief of Believer, Abu-bakr Al-baghdadi, may Allah protect him, and by the Mujahiden of the Islamic State.”
The statement added, “I understand that the two men I stabbed know and have explained the reason for my attack, and I am here reaffirming that it was indeed an act of Jihad in the way of Allah.”
Abdiraham also said in the statement that Americans will not be safe as long as “your country is at war with Islam.”
Omar Jamal, an activist with a Somali watchdog group, said he is aware of the statement.
“This is a widespread sentiment with Somali youth,” he said.
Jamal said the federal government’s effort to make it difficult for would-be jihadists to travel abroad and join a terrorist group has had unintended consequences locally.
“What is very concerning in this instance, is the fact that youth are exploring more ‘How can I do something here, what weapons are accessible,’” he said.
***
Another clear-cut case of mental illness. Pay no attention to the jihad behind the curtain.
What would some criminal know about their own motivations?
Well he’s mentally ill, so he can’t be trusted.
We know he’s mental because he claims this was an act of jihad. And their is no jihad in his majesty’s realm.
Anyone voluntarily going to the MOA is mentally ill.
BTW, that sounds like fake news. Our local left paper the Star Tribune had a nice write up on the story.
No motive is known! He may just be crazy.
* from the booking photo in the story, it looks like the victims’ family got in some pretty good shots when they subdued him.
From the second-hand toys will kill your children article:
Racist!!1!!1!!!!!11!
Important question, what are the chances of these toys giving my kids super powers.
Mildly is putting it mildly.
Quite…
High school teacher rips U.S. military in profane classroom rant
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/41388/
***
A California high school teacher was caught on audio belittling the US military in class, as well as a student in the class who had worn a shirt emblazoned with a US Marines logo.
El Rancho High School’s Gregory Salcido, also a councilman in the town of Pico Rivera, can be heard calling members of the military “the frickin’ lowest of our low” and a “bunch of dumbshits.”
He also says “we don’t have a good military” because it can’t defeat “guys wearin’ frickin’ robes,” and couldn’t defeat the Vietnamese.
“We haven’t beaten anybody since World War II,” he adds.
The Whittier Daily News reports “Salcido is heard profanely questioning military members’ intelligence and continuing, ‘They’re not high-level thinkers’” … all the while students are chuckling in the background.
The teacher also wonders why, at events like the Rose Bowl, members of “killing machines” fly over head after the National Anthem.
…
The Daily News notes this isn’t the first time Salcido has been in hot water. In 2010 he was suspended for allegedly threatening a female student, insulting parents, and making “inappropriate comments to his summer school class about race.” Then in 2012 he was placed on administrative leave after the Sheriff’s Department received a complaint that he had hit a student.
At city council meetings, Salcido stands “with his hands at his side and does not recite the pledge of allegiance.”
He also isn’t a fan of President Trump as evidenced by this recent Facebook post:
“Check out this Facebook Memory that just popped up. President Barack Obama’s 2nd Inauguration. When the individual occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was qualified, caring, competent, intelligent, articulate, informed, responsible, respectable, decent and just about every other wholesome, positive, and hopeful adjective you can think of. Or in other words, everything the current occupant of the White House is not.”
***
He has a point regarding the lack of victories since WW2. Still an asshat.
Cough : Iraqi Republican Army : Cough
I’m sure a SWAT visit on the little twerp who shot the video complete with dead dogs will fix this issue…
“Check out this Facebook Memory that just popped up. President Barack Obama’s 2nd Inauguration. When the individual occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was qualified, caring, competent, intelligent, articulate, informed, responsible, respectable, decent and just about every other wholesome, positive, and hopeful adjective you can think of. Or in other words, everything the current occupant of the White House is not.”
Ah yes, drone striking children and American Citizens means you are caring and compassionate.
You can’t win a low-intensity conflict in a foreign country.
That’s why I would call it two fights, the initial against the governmental forces, and then a second against stragglers and insurgents.
The insurgents just keep coming, It’s an impossible task.
Crush them and go home is a better option. Make them aware of the repercussions for screwing with us,
No, no, no. You have it all wrong. The way to do it is bomb them almost to death and then bring the survivors here.
Especially the mentally unstable ones who claim to be part of a ‘jihad’ they need the professional help you can only get in America.
As soon as they are adopted by the left and learn they’re special, they’ll be just fine and will love America, apple pie, and Starbucks coffee.
Enough asshats to go around, to paraphrase my great-aunts. The great sin of the day is to over-state; he got started down a road and got emotional….probably his style.
I’m not a veteran; I don’t take orders; I’m a proud civilian, a ready militia-man if ever be there the need. And I’m astonished at the sacrifices that military folk make. My old man did his turn and told his son nothing wonderful about being told what to eat and what to wear, being shot at, military justice, or being lorded over by guys who didn’t finish high school….so I never caught the bug; maybe it’s better in the volunteer army….I’m sure “Trump has restored it” after “Carter ruined it” or some such.
But there is a dangerous a cycle: we’re in perpetual campaigns, so we’ve got to support our troops. Supporting troops vetoes second-guessing the original legislative goals of the articles under which they fight. Amazing devices are conceived and produced to give unworldly leverage to our boys; our boys do amazing things with these devices. The whirlwind loves the devices and the boys and soon forgets to well weigh when and where they should be used at all. And then you can’t register a calm dissent without having your loyalty called into question and risking losing your job. America is a great country with great motives, but this cycle tends to the non-thinking side, we end up with piles of extra elbows and kneecaps and prosthetics we somehow didn’t expect. This kind of emotional leverage has been exploited by the worst governments and places; it deserves consideration. The kid I remember learning to ride his bike in front of my house was blown up, and I have no idea for what goal he was squandered.
There should be a calm, factual discussion of the situation; jets flying over stadia are propaganda that foment mindlessness.
There should be a calm, factual discussion of the situation; jets flying over stadia are propaganda that foment mindlessness.
This.
“….was qualified, caring, competent, intelligent, articulate, informed, responsible, respectable, decent and just about every other wholesome, positive, and hopeful adjective you can think of. Or in other words, everything the current occupant of the White House is not.”
Actually, everything YOU’RE not if what’s reported is accurate.
The lack of self-awareness is strong with this one.
Is it just me or does anyone else find all of those images of Obama with his nose stuck straight up in the air, putting medals on the likes of Oprah and Warren Buffett, to be more than just a little creepy? Obama is one of the creepiest individuals I have ever seen.
Wow. He doesn’t not look like I was expecting him to look.
Looks like a man who has served. Weird.
He does that that “I’m a cop when not serving in the National Guard” look down to a T.
Notable participants in Monday’s scheduled event in New York City include filmmaker Michael Moore, actors Mark Ruffalo, Alyssa Milano, Rosie Perez and Whoopi Goldberg.
I assume they will all be writing big checks to the Treasury Department, to demonstrate their selfless devotion to the common good. If you can’t depend on a bunch of wealthy limousine liberals for ideas, who can you turn to?
These are people who have been begging the government to raise their taxes, but never just voluntarily donate money to the Treasury.
You mean the same people who all of the sudden had the opportunity to pay more taxes because of the loss of deduction on their million dollar homes and then thew toddler like hissy fits? Those guys?
Yeah the very same. And they whine about Trump changing his mind.
No, they beg for the government to raise OUR taxes. They usually get some special item hidden back in the dark corners of the tax code that reduces their tax rate by half.
But they told me they want to pay more taxes. Are you saying they lie?
If you can’t depend on a bunch of wealthy limousine liberals for ideas, who can you turn to?
The guy who has a faded Envision whirled peas bumper sticker on his 1985 Subaru?
It’s a legal requirement to place at least 5 bumper stickers on a used Subaru.
Working in chemicals trying to make their manufacture and use safer, I have always been astonished at the lectures I’ve received about my evil ways (remediating ground water, building exhaust scrubbers, minimizing waste……all terrible) from guys who drive microbuses that get 14MPG and leak a quart of oil a week.
Ferrell returns to ‘SNL’ as Bush, mocks Trump
Will Ferrell returned to “Saturday Night Live” and brought back his impression of former President George W. Bush.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2018/01/28/will-ferrell-returns-snl-george-w-bush-skit-sot.cnn
This reeks of desperation.
On who’s part? SNL or Ferrel?
yes
Jesus.
Don’t blame him for this mess.
He must regret having died for our sins.
It must be one permanent face palm.
I hated Bush and thought his impersonation/depiction of Bush was both awful and unfunny. I don’t get the love for it.
Because he’s Will Ferrell. Everything he does is fucking hilarious!
Cowbell guy was good but Walken owned that skit.
I was being sarcastic. And yes, Walken is what made that skit (really, he makes anything he’s in better). Ferrell’s part could have been played by literally anyone with two arms.
Stewie Griffin disagrees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym_F8O0Usuo
Lemme guess cause I’m not going to watch that cringe: Bush presented sympathetically, Trump’s the devil, and a kind shoutout to Saint Obama, Mr. Competancy and Class Himself, and one to Hillary as well.
Wifey has it on in the background. You nailed it.
It’s really fun to watch in real time the old “The retired Republican President is so much more moderate, humane, and statesman like then current Republican President”
Like, I knew it would happen, because they do it every time, but it is still absolutely hilarious watching progs now talking about George W. Bush who was Literally Hitler only 15 years ago, now being talked up as this Great Statesman of Class and Dignity.
I honestly can’t wait for 15 years from now when Donald Trump is rehabilitated as “gruff, cantankerous, but still a good guy” so they can screech about Current Literally Hitler doing Literally Nazi Things.
Thank (((you))) for the yarmulke tip. I see great minds think alike.
I don’t want to like Trump, but he makes it difficult sometimes.
The horror! *Clutches pearls while staggering to fainting couch*
Speaking of “Raise my taxes Democrats” and the SALT deduction panic…
I wonder how much time Kindly Old Grandpa Buffett actually spends at his “modest home” in Omaha, as opposed to the time he spends in places like New York, or San Francisco, on Berkshire’s dime. Property taxes in Omaha probably are well under the $10k cap.
Damn more than half the toys at my daycare are donated.
Seven years on and not a single incident! /knocks on wood.
But it’s a slow cumulative affect, so hopefully they won’t show any symptoms until they are out of your care!
“Hi Rufus. This is Maureen III heir to the Chocolate Makes You Horny company. Little Tommy’s mother. You may remember him? He was the precocious one? Anyway, I was wondering, is it normal he keeps sticking Legos up his ass? Since we left the daycare he’s been acting really weird lately with his toys.”
Trump: ‘I wouldn’t say I’m a feminist’
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/371070-trump-im-not-a-feminist
***
President Trump said that he wouldn’t call himself a feminist in a new interview with Piers Morgan, Morgan said Saturday.
The British news host tweeted out Trump’s quotes from the interview on Saturday night.
“No, I wouldn’t say I’m a feminist. I mean, I think that would be, maybe, going too far,” Trump said in the interview, according to Morgan. “I’m for women, I’m for men, I’m for everyone.”
***
The chattering classes have a new sound bite to obsess over.
It wouldn’t do him any good to claim the label, they’ll excoriate him regardless.
“Blah blah blah admitted sexual assaulter, etc.”
Wouldn’t the femenists want it that way? And no matter how much the femenists want to frame the term to mean “equal rights for everyone”, that ship has sailed long ago, and no one buys it.
Why on earth would he agree to talk to that mendacious twit?
Birds of a feather?
He’s buddies with Morgan, and Morgan has actually talked Trump up a lot on whenever people have him on their shows. He probably sees him as ‘not fake news’.
Huh. Weird.
President Trump said that he wouldn’t call himself a feminist in a new interview with Piers Morgan, Morgan said Saturday.
Is there no end to his depravity? Next, he’ll say he’s never even been on a date with a tranvestite.
Can you even grab a transvestite by the pussy?
If you refuse to let a trans woman stick her penis in you, you are a bigot.
I’ve seen an idiot on YouTube arguing essentially just that.
#rapeCulture
I was tempted to ask for a link, but my misanthropy really doesn’t need that level of encouragement.
I think you could just search “Riley Dennis” and find the right title. Xe isn’t the only one, but the video is a howler.
The obsession of the left with trans is so strange to me. Not only are they are a fraction of a fraction of the population, but it’s a hard stop losing argument with anyone not hard left.
1) Force schools/stores to allow teenage and and adult men to drop their pants alone in a small room with naked little girls, including open showers. *there’s nothing to prevent stores from allowing this now, I’m talking about being forced to under the law*
2) Consider it now homophobic if men don’t fuck other men
These are hard-stop losing issues and I find it hard to believe the party leadership really can’t see the backlash coming if they keep pushing this inane shit on regular people. Unless they are just so completely co-opted by the hard left fringes in the party that they can’t stop from running off the cliff.
Hey they are on the right side of history.
related
Why Can’t My Famous Gender Nonconforming Friends Get Laid?
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjq99z/why-cant-my-famous-gender-nonconforming-friends-get-laid
***
Alok and Jacob are two of the most publicly visible gender nonconforming femmes I know.
…
But if you think all that would land them a date, you’d be wrong. And nobody is more puzzled than me as to why such obvious catches are having dating problems when so many clamor for their attention.
***
Yep. Total mystery why these folks can’t find a date. Couldn’t possibly be because Bugs Bunny was a more convincing woman.
Bless their heart.
This Saturday Night Live Sketch Is Just an Excuse to Say “Clown Penis” on Television as Many Times as Possible
https://slate.com/culture/2018/01/this-snl-sketch-is-just-an-excuse-to-say-clown-penis-on-television-as-often-as-possible.html
So hilarious. So edgy. How do the writers come up with such creative humor?
Strange, my teachers didn’t think the penis game was very funny when I was in highschool.
And “Ow my balls” seemed so far-fetched.
Chuck Todd is hot on Trump’s tail, this morning. Any day now, his high crimes will be revealed, despite his desperate ongoing efforts to conceal his tracks and obstruct justice in every way imagineable.
Can you even grab a transvestite by the pussy?
That depends. Is it wearing combat boots and a flannel shirt?
“If you don’t like the investigation, undermine the investigators.”
That’s right, Chuck.
Re: Saturday Night Live – I’m enjoying the Hell out of my binge-watch and it seems pretty clear that the overt, highly partisan, politicization comes from Al Franken and Dennis Miller during the second Reagan Administration. Prior to that, the show went after Stupid and Evil Party members with equal gusto but, roughly in time with Iran-Contra revelations, the show went all GOP bashing all the time. It slowed down drastically during Clinton’s tenure; he was such an easy target (Norm McDonald is an American treasure, sorry Canada, he ours now).
Spot the Not: Chuck Todd
1. I played French horn, and I certainly do miss it. I miss it. I wish I had the time to keep up with it. It’s like exercising: You have to keep it up, especially the muscles in your lips to deal with the French horn.
2. Our dreams are like our children; we must cherish them. And the American dream is the most precious child of all.
3. Forget the historic nature of his election having to do with skin color – Obama has an opportunity offered to few presidents: the chance to set the course of the nation for decades, if not generations, to come. Who knows: perhaps in the near future, our grandchildren will spend money with Obama’s face on it.
4. There’s no worse crime in journalism these days than simply deciding something’s a story because Drudge links to it.
5. In the end, Ted Kennedy was a politician, plain and simple. Yet he embodied how politics and public service can be successfully intertwined. You can’t be a good public servant without being a good politician. Kennedy was both.
6. America has a love-hate relationship with celebrity. We love to follow celebrities, but we also love to mock them. And secretly, we believe we’re better than they are.
6
Mostly cause it’s not a secret.
1
I’m gonna go with 3.
The putting Obama’s face on the dollar doesn’t ring.
2 is the Not. The first clause is a line from “My Fellow Americans”.
It’s basically The Odd Couple, but both of them are ex presidents.
It also has a parade of cross-dressing Dorothys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx8HPe1TALE
Can I just kick the shit out of anyone that says any of those things? Please!
$750k. That’s how much he gets paid each year for those profound insights.
Rachael Maddow makes $7 million a year.
Fine, can I kick the loose change out of their pockets then?
Seeing that Vince McMahon is resurrecting the XFL is . . . fucking sweet!
I’ve seen some people argue that certain players would be excellent for the XFL, and Colin Kaepernick’s name came up.
I saw that after watching McMahon’s announcement speech, in which he promised to listen mostly to the fans, who are desperate for some of the kick ass football they remember from . . . not so long ago, you young Turks, I assure you. And my initial reaction was, “you must be nuts about Kaepernick finding a home in the XFL”. One of the things the fans hated about the NFL in 2017 was the exact bullshit he and those like him pulled in the past. Why would a fan-centric league tolerate shit like that?
Then I enjoyed this four minutes of fun, that time Vince McMahon decided to mock women reporters’ access to the men’s locker room controversy (at the time) in NFL by sending XFL reporters where everybody really wanted them to go–into the cheerleader’s locker room!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofpLTH2iI-U
Seriously, watch that if you’ve forgotten how much fun the XFL used to be.
I saw that and started thinking about Kaepernick again. The WWE loves an anti-American heel–to serve as the villain. Kaepernick would make a great anti-American heel–like in the WWE with The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff during the Cold War or Muhammad Hassan in the wake of 9/11. Every all-American hero needs an anti-American villain.
If there’s ever been a time when the NFL needed fresh competition, it’s now. Make Football Great Again!
A Commie Swine Colin Kaepernick versus All American Boy Tim Tebow in the dual comebacks of the year would put asses in the seats.
Hell yes!
Kid Rock could sing the national anthem, porn star cheerleaders, no instant replay-there’s definately some moneymaking potential here.
I believe they used local strippers for cheerleaders the first time.
I see a Todd Marinovich comeback on the horizon.
Yeah, it won’t go anywhere, of course. Just like last time. The money to bring in top talent will just not be there. It might go a little better this time since the NFL are bleeding fans and ratings, and apparently intent to keep doing so.
C’mon even I have to admit there are some great possibilities here: we’re more honestly crooked than the NFL, the heal/face turns and feuds, and you don’t need first-rate athletes (that actually could make it in the NFL) which are way more plentiful – they just need to buy in to the idea that they are entertainment first and sports second.
I watched the video and then got drug into a rabbit hole of twerking videos. I am not sure how that happened but it did and I feel I am a better person for it.
Personally I think Lingerie Football needs to go mainstream. To hell with Kaepernick, he sucks.
I always said you were a good egg.
Oh, how I laughed.
Trump rips Jay-Z for remarks on African-American unemployment
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/28/trump-rips-jay-z-for-remarks-on-african-american-unemployment.html
***
President Trump responded Sunday to recent criticism from rap mogul Jay-Z by citing joblessness for black Americans under his administration, before asking that somebody “please inform” the hip-hop star about the record-low unemployment.
Jay-Z told CNN in a new interview that lower unemployment for the country’s African-American population is not enough, when people in power are still mistreating minorities and others.
“It’s not about money at the end of the day,” he said in the interview. “Money doesn’t equate to happiness. It doesn’t. That’s missing the whole point. You treat people like human beings. That’s the main point.”
Trump returned fire in a tweet Sunday morning, writing: “Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics in January reported that the unemployment rate for black workers was 6.8 percent in December, the lowest rate in 45 years.
The exchange also follows disparaging remarks recently attributed to Trump about African countries. It also comes ahead of Sunday night’s Grammy Awards for music, at which Jay-Z is an awards nominee.
Jay-Z told CNN Trump’s alleged remarks initially invoked anger but are ultimately “hurtful” and “disappointing.”
***
A rapper mad about harsh language? Well that takes the cake.
Trump could walk on water and progs would yell at him for not knowing how to swim.
“It’s not about money at the end of the day”…says the multikajillionaire. For a hell of a lot of poor black people it actually about money and putting food on the table. What an out of touch asshat.
What he said is “Reparations are no longer an issue”
of the day,” he said in the interview. “Money doesn’t equate to happiness. It doesn’t. That’s missing the whole point. You treat people like human beings. That’s the main point.”
Does treating them like human beings mean eliminating barriers to the economy so business can thrive and people of all races make more of their own money? Or does it mean creating a leviathan federal government that stifles private sector growth while giving handouts to an ever-expanding segment of the population, and a segment over-represented by blacks?
Methinks Mr Z would prefer blacks being left on the federal plantation where their basic needs are met for them. Because deep down he thinks black people are incapable of handling their own problems.
That’s a huge assumption. Can you point to something he’s said that would lead you to believe that?
That’s right, Mr Z. It doesn’t, but it arguably adds to the human dignity of the employed, reduces the burden on the state, and provides the now-employed with the means to direct his or her own life and participate more fully in a healthy economy. Given the choice between being oppressed and a ward of state, and being just oppressed, I think any reasonable person would accept the latter, while striving for the elimination of oppression.
What makes you think he believes Blacks should be wards of the state?
Here’s what he’s actually said:
When your food and housing are provided you via an organization with a monopoly on violence from other people, you are – almost by definition – wards of the state.
Your welfare and future is totally dependent on those thugs maintaining the supply of taxpayer-contributed funds, and your behavior can be prescribed as a prerequisite to your continued receipt of those funds.
If that doesn’t render you a ward of the state, what does?
I’m kinda Platonic in this respect. I personally don’t believe that an entertainer literally believes the words that come out of their mouths when entertaining.
I only judge people on how they behave when they aren’t pretending to be someone else, and so, I don’t really care what Jay-Z’s body of recorded entertaining wisdom might indicate.
And that’s different from a politician just how exactly?
I’m not the one citing a politician’s speech as evidence of his inner philosophy.
Except you are accepting prima facie Trump’s soundbite as representative of his inner philosophy in response to criticism of the second and third order effects of his Law ‘n Order fetish. Considering that none of us are telepathic (I think), we have to go by the data we have, and if those data are lyrics from autobiographical songs, so be it. Again, I ask if you know of any public statements in which Jay-Z has argued minorities should be wards of the state?
Sure, I’ll re-cite this:
What Trump may or may not have said is not really relevant. My objection is to the principle being held forth here.
Viz. “Money doesn’t equate to happiness” and “You treat people like human beings”
It is my opinion that LACK of money would, under normal circumstances, make an individual both unhappy, and disadvantaged in many other ways, including dignity, ability to participate fully in the economic sphere and social value, leading some other people to treat you as “less than human beings”.
It seems to me that there is a connection between the two – contrary to Mr. Z’s assertion, and that no matter whether Trump’s assertion is true or otherwise – is an inescapable conclusion.
Unless you want to move on to why being totally economically dependent on the state doesn’t make you MORE subject to state control than someone who is employed, I’m gonna rest my case right here.
I’ll admit to not following your argument that stating government should treat its citizens with dignity is necessarily a statement in support of increased entitlements.
I’ll point you to his silence during the last eight years as the executive created a dependency on government in the black community not seen since LBJ. His silence then and vocalization now, at least in my opinion, says that’s what he’d prefer we go back to: a higher percentage of people, mostly minorities, on government care than ever before instead of the lowest unemployment rate ever experienced in the black community.
Well, it’s also hard to fault the guy since it’s now a mandate that every celebrity on the planet has to shit themselves over Trump. The few who resist must be purged and exiled.
*shrugs*
Not seeing the outrage. Mr. Carter is 110% correct that jobs mean nothing without equality before the law and respect of human dignity. Someone isn’t wrong just because they criticize Daddy.
Let me google all those times he levied the same criticisms at Obama since the same policies at the DoJ existed for the eight years he was in charge.
As for human dignity, I haven’t seen the Trump body count of minorities killed by American drones. Is it as high as O’s yet?
Tu quoque is a fallacy.
Again, taking his statement as is, is he wrong?
I think kbolino below is right, you should have both. Economic opportunity and rule of law.
If I had to choose only one, I’d choose economic opportunity. Every govt in history has had enough corruption that you can pretty much guarantee yourself some “justice” via bribery.
May I also say I think expecting Jay-Z to be a intellectually credible spokesman on politics is the same as expecting Leo DiCapprio to be an intellectually credible spokesman for global warming?
Why do we give a shit?
Is Trump? Black unemployment is down, black LFPR is up, and Haiti is a shithole*. None of these things are wrong on their face.
* = 40% unemployment, 65% literacy, AIDS and cholera at rates far above other Caribbean countries, GDP per capita a quarter of the Dominican Republic which is on the same island as Haiti, etc.
The point is, in response to criticism of Trump’s full-throated support of the Thin Blue Line bullshit, it is a non sequitur.
The point is, in response to criticism of Trump’s full-throated support of the Thin Blue Line bullshit, it is a non sequitur.
I don’t know the full context, since this spat between them spans multiple media, but I thought the comment Jay-Z made which set off Trump was about his (alleged) Haiti/shithole comment. I know Jay-Z is against the drug war and so that would put him at odds with the Sessions DOJ and Trump’s support of the police but I don’t see that playing out in the current discussion.
Yes and no. The remarks were made as part of a larger interview. Jay-Z brought up Donald Sterling incident, saying that he should have been allowed to keep ownership of the Clippers, because when you punish people for thoughtcrime like that, it just encourages closeted bigotry without ever addressing the roots of the bigotry. Jay-Z then brought up Trump’s comments as an example and the interview asked is it OK to “to say terrible things but put money in our pockets” Jay-Z then said “You treat people like human beings. That’s the main point,” he said. “It goes back to the whole thing — ‘Treat me really bad and pay me well.’ It’s not going to lead to happiness, it’s going to lead to, again, the same thing. Everyone’s going to be sick.”
He is specifically referring to the role of executive branch in enforcing laws. And he’s right; it’s not the government’s job to put money in your pocket, it’s the government’s job to ensure that its citizenry enjoy equal treatment before the law. So he’s saying who cares if black unemployment is down when the police are still getting away with shooting folks on a whim.
As an aside, in the same interview, Jay-Z also gave his thoughts as to why many working-class blacks and whites supported Trump.
Reading a bit more, I may not be giving Jay-Z enough credit. It seems that he is actually a bit more thoughtful than the soundbites make him out to be, and he comes off looking like the adult in this verbal altercation. If anything, Trump seems to have fired off half-cocked after reading the baited headlines, rather than addressing anything Jay-Z actually said. I think it’s dumb to attack someone who seems to be arguing in good faith.
N.B. I know that the cholera epidemic is “not Haiti’s fault” in the sense that it came from the UN and other international organizations in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, but Haiti was utterly unequipped to deal with it at the time and has had to depend on international assistance to help stop it (just as they had to depend on international assistance to deal with the earthquake). There are many varied factors why Haiti is this way, not the least being rule by brutal dictators, but that doesn’t change the situation on the ground.
Yes, he’s wrong.
So, you’re saying the government shouldn’t treat people like human beings?
His implication that they’re not being treated like human beings is absolutely wrong.
I’d he wants to find a place where people aren’t treated like human beings, he should go to a shithole like Haiti or the myriad banana republics in Africa or South America.
The U.S. is better than those places, but it’s not good enough. Cops do not treat people like human beings and it’s worse for black people.
Mr. Carter is 110% correct that jobs mean nothing without equality before the law and respect of human dignity.
Upfront disclaimer: Trump can’t claim a whole lot of credit for the current state of black unemployment and labor force participation. These things are not centrally planned from the President’s office, and the trend which has continued since Trump’s election was already in place (since 2010 for unemployment and 2014 for labor force participation).
That having been said, jobs don’t “mean nothing without equality before the law”. You don’t need equality before the law to improve your life. It’s a hell of a lot better than the alternative, but not strictly necessary. People can and do better their lot in life despite oppression and unfairness. One could just as well say that equality before the law means nothing without the opportunity and freedom to succeed or fail on one’s own merits. We can all be equally enslaved.
This is a fight without substance, between two people who are so far off the ground they wouldn’t know a genuine problem from a manufactured outrage if their lives depended on it. It is also one of taking words of context, or imbuing them with greater meaning than either was intended or capable of being intended. Jay-Z spouts nice platitudes and Trump spouts harsh demagoguery. At the end of the day, both of their words are right and also empty.
Well, look at mister I’m-just-not-playing-stoopid-partisan-games-here. Listen, this is celebrity death match serious shit here. Verbal smackdowns are ALL that matters, and Trump wins everyone he is ever in (or denies that it even happened if he loses).
Fuck, some people think we need to be all intelligent and mature and shit. /average-fan-of-either-JayZ-or-Trump
I think Jay-Z is missing the point that class status holds much more weight in legal outcomes than race. He’s not going to trump his own ability to skirt the law over poor white hillbillies in Appalachia or a trailer park in FL.
For me at least, this article is just more race-hustling. It could have been constructive if he had focused on the disparate impact the War on Drugs has on people who can’t afford an attorney or to buy off the arresting officer.
“Jay-Z told CNN in a new interview that lower unemployment for the country’s African-American population is not enough, when people in power are still mistreating minorities and others.”
Well, I mean nothing is stopping him from giving all of his money to the poor.
“people in power are still mistreating minorities”
Examples, please?
Cops aren’t “people in power”?
Of course. And that’s a real example. The thing is, they mistreat everyone, not just minorities. But the majority in most parties are not concerned about that.
Also, I feel that Jay-Z is referring directly to Trump, not cops or really anyone else, maybe Republicans. Probably not Democrats. And he’s wrong about money not being a thing here, as I’m pretty sure giving poor people high paying jobs and letting them escape poor dangerous neighborhoods would go a long way towards making them happy. So he’s being really out of touch there.
From a governmental perspective, you don’t need to “give” anyone a job. You just need to stop keeping them from having jobs and building wealth. From Detroit’s office of compliance bragging about shutting down hundreds of businesses a year, to Baltimore City giving rioters tacit permission to pillage, to the Cleveland City Council refusing to be anything other than corrupt welfare statists, there is a problem of governance in many of the communities where a significant number of black Americans live. But Trump is not in charge of any of those governments. He can only exert so much control over them, and his bugaboo issue is immigration. While that certainly has nonzero impacts, it is not the sole, primary, or even a substantial, reason for the problems faced by people whose ancestors have lived in this country, free or enslaved, for hundreds of years.
There are a lot of factors going into why Baltimore is a horrible shithole, but one of them is a toxic combination of corruption in city government at every level, entrenched poverty and dependency, and racial politics. There is absolutely nothing Donald Trump can do about that. Even the previous president, Chocolate Jesus, couldn’t have helped that, and if anyone could have you’d think it would have been him.
Anywhere one party has a monopoly on power, things can get really shitty really fast.
I’m sure there are many small rural counties where the GOP has lockstep control of the local government. They probably don’t even have publicly funded trans friendly community centers, and the roads are probably maintained without a public sector union labor. They probably don’t even hire environmental consultants to advise them on how to lower their carbon footprint.
Heh, I rarely see any party affiliations but I imagine close to 100% of my county’s elected official vote GOP straight-ticket every state and federal election.
After 4 years, I have yet to run into a single local law or code that prevents me from doing what I want. The code inspector came out once because the electric company required it to restore power and the guy didn’t really care about anything. All you need to start a business is to pay a $50 fee and there are very few restrictions. The county is extremely pro-business, it’s the Fed regs that are crippling the local economy.
I think it also comes down to the professions of the local leadership. All of the County board supervisors here and in surrounding counties work for living and I’d imagine most are business owners. Compare that to Detroit or Baltimore where the local leadership are pulled from the esteemed ranks of community organizers that have never worked an honest day in their lives.
Are there any urban areas that are majority Republican? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. All I can speak to is Maryland, and specifically my area, and that’s overwhelmingly blue. Always has been.
Staten Island?
Salt Lake City?
Never mind, SLC has gone blue since the time I lived there.
The War on Drugs is the prime example that comes to mind. But it isn’t that it targets minorities, it’s that people living in entrenched poverty feel the sting the most (as in most things) and those people tend to be of minority groups in urban places, and those are the places that get the most news coverage. The rural poor are mostly white, and while they get it in the keister, too, it’s a.) not covered as much because those are low population density areas, and b.) it’s easier to avoid encounters with law enforcement when you live in the sticks.
Of course class has a lot to do with the WoD, and criminal justice in general. However, when equalizing socioeconomic status as a factor, racial inequalities in drug sentencing still exist at statistically significant rates. It’s silly just to poo-poo that in support of a Trump soundbite against a Jay-Z soundbite.
What he’s saying in the video can be explained by what I said above, and to the extent that I take issue with what Jay-Z said it’s that he seems to be assigning blame to individual bad actors. What I’m saying is that while minorities are disproportionately affected by sentencing laws it’s not just because white judges don’t like black defendants. Demographic trends and socioeconomics put minorities in contact with law enforcement more frequently, and all else being equal that will necessarily result in more arrests, trials, and presumably convictions. Racism at the individual level doesn’t help, but treating the problem as one of racism in the actors is missing the forest for the trees.
And, frankly, while Trump’s rebuttal is a non sequitur, in his typically ham-fisted way he’s right about the fact that improving the economic outlook in minority communities is the surest way to reduce the extent to which minorities are subject to injustices perpetrated by the judicial system.
Certainly, but Jay-Z’s comment was said in response to a particular question. Referring to both Donald Trump and Donald Sterling as examples, he’s saying that economic opportunity for minorities isn’t necessarily going to lead to a reduction in racist views. And in that interview he argued that in Sterling’s case, there should have been no legal sanction as it was in the private sector, but the public sector is a different story.
Not sure about that. C.f. Jews during the 40’s and 50’s in America, particularly during the Red Scare.
I wasn’t aware of the context of his comment. I think it’s true as far as it goes. And that actually does cast Trump’s tweet in a somewhat different light. It’s still a non sequitur, I believe, but it’s also a little bit of a cop out to pretend that minorities aren’t adversely impacted by things like the WoD, mandatory sentencing, and “three strikes” laws.
That’s a fair point re: Jews in the 40s and 50s, for sure. But I think in general the extent to which a community is engaged with society at large via employment and ownership of wealth is a huge factor in determining the extent to which they’ll suffer at the hands of the judicial system.
I’m just going to make a wild guess, but from what I’ve seen, poor whites in south Baltimore are just as much affected by the WOD as poor blacks in west Baltimore are. Are blacks disproportionately affected by the WOD in this country as a whole? Yes, but it’s only because a disproportionate number of blacks happen to be in the war zones that the inner cities in a lot of American cities, have become. You could also say that the poor are a disproportionate share of the suffering felt under the destruction of the WOD and that would also be true. But I don’t remember seeing anyone in either political party talking about ending the WOD. I see Democrats blaming Republicans for hurting the poor, but I don’t see Democrats doing anything about it. They took the protests about abusive cops and turned it into nothing but more race baiting, thereby making sure nothing is ever done. Thanks, Democrats, you guys sure are helping the poor and abused. To be more poor and abused.
+1 White Mike
Say what you want, but Snow was actually an O.G..
(enlists aid of google)
“straight out of new york projects, bitch.”
It gets better. If MC Shan vouches for you, you’re pretty much a made-man. And he did a bid for murder, which i suppose explains his distaste for informers.
The WOD falls on blacks disproportionately because black drug dealers deal in the open, brag about dealing, write songs and do movies glorifying it. Cops are lazy as fuck, if you have a population of drug dealers who are so fucking stupid that they hang out in the open fucking air, on public property, and deal drugs, that’s the people they are going to arrest.
The white guys I knew who dealt drugs treated it like a clandestine enterprise. They had cutouts, they kept shit secret, they had burner phones and didn’t use their names. I’m not talking about small time guys either. One friend dealt drugs from the age of 13 to the age of 20, and he paid cash for a brand new car and a four year degree. He works in finance now. He was the most successful, but the other white dudes did it the same way: it was about the money, there was no glory in being a white drug dealer, but there was a ton of cash.
The black friends I know who dealt drugs did it basically openly. Everyone knew who they were, everyone knew where to find them, you’d go over to their house and there would be drugs sitting out. They gave away their phone numbers, their fucking actual phone numbers in their names. Making shitty hip hop videos on social media talking about the weight they move.
Very very clear cultural divide. The white kids were in it for the money, the black kids were in it for both the money and the social standing being in the business gave them in their social circles. My white friend got caught once with a lot of weed and a scale in a backpack, so he caught a intent to distribute charge. Cried the blues, pleaded down, and resolved to never again walk the streets with that kind of shit in possession. He started doing dead drops, or meeting only with trusted people. Black dude catches the same charge, hes bragging about it, and doesn’t change anything, because now hes not just a small timer selling a bit of weed to cover his own smoking costs, now hes a player with a real big boy charge on his sheet.
So IMO, that plays a huge role. There’s tons of white guys from nice backgrounds moving product. How else are your soccer moms getting their weed? They ain’t driving their SUVs down to the hood. There is a pipeline, but it’s underground, it’s discreet, and it requires actual investigative work. Cops are lazy, they just drive down to the projects and go to the courtyard or the park and scoop up all the people dealing drugs in the open air.
This is true, but it says nothing about sentencing.
White kids know to come to court clean and a suit and tie, and they know how to roll on their back and show their bellies and say all the right things.
“Oh no judge, I sure have learned my lesson. I fell in with a bad crowd and I’m gonna turn my life around if you just give me this chance. I’ve already started counseling and my parents have taken away my car privileges and my cell phone, and I am now only allowed to go to school, church, and school sponsored events.”
Again, with the black kids on the same charges it’s the social cachet. You sneer at the judge, you give him lip, your buddies in the gallery see you acting tough, sticking it to the man. Then you go to fucking prison because judges love to flex their power in court. But again, that’s fine, because that gives you even more street cred. Yeah you caught the maximum, but no ones gonna say you were a bitch in court.
The assumption that the only thing different between black defendants and white defendants is the color of their skin is a fatal flaw in the disparate sentencing argument. A proper experiment, which is of course impossible, is to give a bunch of black defendants nice clothes, lessons in how to speak to the judge, lessons in diction and grammar, and then tell a bunch of white defendants to dress like shit, talk disrespectfully, roll their eyes, slouch in their seat, and do all the other shit that a black drug dealer does in court to demonstrate that hes a stone cold OG who doesn’t care if he goes to prison.
If Malia Obama gets busted with weed up in Cambridge and is in the court right next to Lizzie Ryan the Southie Irish trainwreck, who do you think’s getting off easy?
I’d like to see sentencing statistics for first-time offenders across racial/ethnic lines at equivalent socio-economic levels. I haven’t looked too hard, but I haven’t seen numbers for that in evidence put forward by people talking about sentencing discrepancies. To me, that would seem to be incontrovertible evidence of overt racism, deliberate or not. Otherwise, race is incidental to other factors.
To be fair, I knew white guys like that. Like you’re saying, you’d go over to their house and there were drugs everywhere, right out in plain sight. Maybe they weren’t bragging about it on the internet (well, there was no internet then) or writing songs, but they weren’t hiding it either.
I don’t understand why everyone is so upset. Sure, we could elect a complete psychopath who might destroy the country and even the entire planet, but relax people, she lost.
Trend line needed. Black unemployment was dropping already, has the rate increased, decreased, or remained the same since last Jan 20th?
It’s been going down steadily since 2011.
Interesting. The one thing that hits you in the face is that for 40 years the ratio of black unemployment to white unemployment remained almost at a constant 2:1.
Thanks for finding that. Looks like Trump is irrelevant except for not actively screwing it up, slope of the trend is constant from 2011-present.
Claims from the executive branch over the economy have always been post hoc.
It amazes me that people eat that bullshit up again and again.
I think that we’re not going to know for a while.
Of course, while the executive is not directly responsible for the performance of the market over the long term, presidenital behavior and posturing can have a psychological effect upon the economy over the short term, which creates arbitrage opportunities for investors, so in a somewhat-micro sense, there is an effect on the economy.
Ask anyone in the firearms business whether elections and press briefings have any impact on their economies.
Sure, but in political verbiage it’s always termed as “X created such and such number of jobs in 2017,” which always irked me. Politicians don’t create jobs (except for prostitutes), entrepreneurs create jobs!
Yep, and going from a President who said his time working in the private sector felt like “working with the enemy” to a President who’s the most openly supportive of free enterprise and getting rich that we’ve had in at least 2 decades has an effect.
Like, honestly, I think sometimes people forget just how staggeringly different a situation this is.
Obama is a straight up parasite, W a silver spoon crony/parasite, Clinton a parasite, HW a parasite, Reagan ran SAG for a while but that’s not exactly being an entrepreneur, Carter inherited his dad’s peanut farm, Ford a parasite, Nixon a parasite, LBJ a parasite, JFK a parasite and a silver spoon, Ike was parasite, Truman a parasite, FDR a parasite/silver spoon, Hoover was a successful mining engineer and manager, Coolidge a parasite, Harding was a newspaper owner for a bit but then went full parasite. So going back 100 years, you’ve got Carter’s peanut farm, Harding’s newspaper, Hoover’s gold mines. That’s it. Everyone else is just a tax leech, whether in uniform or out of it, at some level of the State or the other.
Trump probably has created more actual wealth and contributed more to the US treasury than every single preceding American President combined. This is the first President since Carter who’s ever actually had to make a fucking payroll. He’s the first President since Hoover who’s a genuinely successful businessman. He’s a huge outlier.
Only time will tell if, and to what extent this is true. It is, however, somewhat truthy.
Hopefully, Trump will recognize that his new role only involves “job creation” by getting out of the fucking way of working entrepreneurs. However, his recent tariffs make me less sanguine in believing that he will.
Coolidge a parasite?! A career politician, maybe, but he’s the closest thing to a libertarian president we’ve ever had, at least that I can think of off the top of my head.
Parasite is a neutral descriptor. Coolidge was a career politician, held pretty much every statewide office.
Although he was also a commercial lawyer, and I think New England salaries at the time were still more in the tradition of a part time modest compensation.
Someone with the time and motivation could correct for inflation and dig through Presidential income tax records to check it. I’m pretty confident though.
Hoover was quite rich, he probably paid income tax back then. Harding might have with his newspaper. Possibly Coolidge did with his law practice. But then of course they were paid as President.
Trump’s paid literally millions of dollars in taxes over his life, and has declined to accept his Presidential salary.
Shit, I would lay even odds that the average single year filing of Donald Trump is more money in dollars than every previous President has contributed to the Treasury, on net.
Oh, as an individual, prior to becoming president? Sure, he’s paid more than his fair share.
In terms of what he’s achieved in his current presidency? I’m not making any predictions I’d need to walk back later.
Patently untrue, unfortunately.
Every single federal employee drawing a salary can be traced back to one or more politicians, or someone whose own job was in turn created by politicians, deciding that X would be created.
I won’t even go into the private-sector jobs created by legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley, or all the alphabet agencies created at the direct behest of FDR.
Then at least split it as
X created such and such sinecures and such and such actual jobs in 2017.
I can live with that.
Who knows: perhaps in the near future, our grandchildren will spend money with Obama’s face on it.
Yes! They can buy a “hundred thousand dollar bar” candy bar with a hundred thousand dollar bill with Obama’s face on it.
I’ll say this again: no living political figure should ever have their name or face on a public building, currency or be given a public “honor” that elevates them beyond any other American. If they’re public servants, they’d refuse to accept any of the above and would actively campaign against it out of courtesy to the rest of us.
I think the best thing is to just name public buildings after the city, county, or state they are located in.
Your name shouldn’t be on a building unless you paid for it.
If that was the case, all the buildings would be called “Taxpayer Tower”
I can’t wait until we can change the name of “Nationstar Mortgage Manor” to “Mr. and Mrs. Naptown’s Bungalow of Booze”.
Robert Byrd has a sad.
Also, I was forced to yell at the radio last week when the moderator kept referring to Alan Page as Justice Page. He’s retired! He isn’t Justice Page anymore.
Edward Garmatz would argue.
Well it is better than the Hillary Clinton $3 bill. It can only be redeemed for goods via the Clinton Foundation (after a small “processing fee”). Also can be used with sex workers.
Oh, big, obvious, libertarian observation no one in the media seems to be making . . .
So, I’m reading that Steve Wynn is being forced to step down from his position as finance chairman for the RNC (there goes the push for legalized gambling online?), and I’m seeing that Wynn Resorts lost $2 billion in market cap value on Friday–all because of the sexual harassment allegations that surfaced against him.
In all this #MeToo controversy, have you heard anyone give the credit to the Protection from Sexual Harassment Act of 2016?
No.
And that’s because there is no Protection from Sexual Harassment Act of 2016.
Changing public attitudes, market forces, and good ol’ fashioned sunshine are more than enough to punish wrongdoers. I suspect it’s an extremely important deterrent as well.
We won’t get rid of sexual harassment entirely like we won’t get rid of rape–not even if there were a new, specific, harsh law against sexual harassment. Regardless, the solutions didn’t come from the government–and didn’t need the government. America is throwing sexual harassers onto the ash heap of history, and it isn’t because of and didn’t require the government.
The entire thing is not about sexual harassment at all. It’s an opportunity for a bunch of miserable leftists to get a moment of attention. There’s nothing else there.
I would think that pointing out that the free market has done more to stop sexual harassment than anything else would be worse than being rape-raped to many of the #MeToo movement.
Allegations are just that. People rush to judgement way too quickly.
Nothing like the dregs of a handle of rum to quell a hangover. That’s hair of a dog, right? And also all the interstitial bits.
I put some in my coffee, that helped a lot. But now I want a beer and it’s not even noon.
Start with just a snit of beer.
The story is about the proper way to serve bloody mary’s, but it explains what you need to do (as I slurp down coffee with Bailey’s).
No comment required.
http://archive.is/xyvmd
Just send number 3 with a six pack.
Speaking of day drinking…
http://archive.is/xyvmd
Number 3 and a six pack would make a very nice day.
Where can I donate to pay off the guy’s lawsuit, fix his teeth, and then pay for the next lawsuit after he gets his teeth punched in again?
I’m waiting for the inevitable #MeToo story from the stripper.
“A customer sided with a customer who called me a bad mom. Then my manager took the customer’s side!”
If she keeps her job long enough, it will make for an offbeat “take your child to work” day.
So the secret to becoming a millionaire without ever working is to just go around being an asshole. Guess I’m a sucker.
You’re a Glibertarian. How can you not be an asshole?
Day drinking partners.
http://archive.is/xyvmd
Send number 3 with a six pack.
Let’s try this again.
http://archive.is/xyvmd
Maybe this time it won’t get eaten.
I’m not a James Bond fan by any means (I only sat through one film – the Grace Jones one while on a date) but this video makes me wonder if I missed something.
I can’t believe that the #MeToo brigade isn’t trying harder to get them memory holed.
I can’t believe they left out Octopussy – half of that movie would be problematic today.
Oh, and you’re dead to me.
At the risk of being labeled as having Uncivil Servant taste, I’m OK with your fatwa as long as it means I don’t have to sit through any of those movies.
Those who don’t appreciate Thunderball are uncultured heathens.
Right?! I can’t even.
“Dr Goodhead” Heh
And just for the record, Daniel Craig is by far the best Bond.
GAH!
http://archive.is/xyvmd
Am I the only one whose comments are being eaten?
Why Can’t My Famous Gender Nonconforming Friends Get Laid?
I suspect the real question is not, “Why can’t I get laid?”
It’s “Why don’t the people I think are really really hot interested in getting it on with ME?”
Which is, of course, the very same question I find myself asking all the time. Why didn’t that really hot 28 year old teacher take me home Friday night?
oops-
don’taren’tGAH! Test 2.
http://archive.is/xyvmd
Am I the only one whose comments are being eaten?
Ok, firewood stacked, groceries bought, potato soup made.
Maybe now I can keep up.
I’m late, So I’ll say Hi and just lurk a bit
I apologize for not catching up fast enough in the last week to get my dog pictures to you. I think you were finished before I knew you were asking for them.
I am still amazed at the response, I sent a Submission the the Overlords for something, so send them anyway if you would
So last night I watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO. It was better than I thought it would be. If you hate cops, like to laugh at rednecks and believe Woodyn Harrelson is a savant thespian–you may like it too. Ending left a few questions unanswered.
Whoa. Is this what its like to be Gilmore?
I’m curious, is it worth even going to the Movies anymore?
/Old Man Question
My wife likes going to movies so I’m often dragged along. I always have low expectations but every once in a while I’m surprised by something.
What if you only fit 2 out of the 3?
Not to spoil anything….but you I found myself hating every character. So it has that.
The whole rush for sexy stories to pull in grant money has made certain areas of science (climatology, toxicology, epidemiology, nutrition) into the sort where the presumption has to be that the “research” is bullshit. I may have more to say about this later this week, since I’ve seen some of my work cited frequently (and mischaracterized) in stories of panic about plastics.
What these all have in common is that large, sophisticated statistical models are being used by people who understand them about as much as floor traders understand the Black-Scholes equation. Expect similar results in the long term.
Hi Nassim!
I am the black swan! My name is Natasha. We will get moose and squirrel if it takes all day.
I have a friend who’s a statistician and he regularly goes on rants about people using statistics who really don’t understand what they’re doing.
relevant
https://xkcd.com/882/
figures don’t lie, but liars figure
That’s pretty much how it works. Last time I taught intro stats I showed there was a statistically significant link between the Red Sox’s record and the number of Atlantic hurricanes. Of course, I went through every MLB team to find one.
random thought
What is the split between “I believe A because B” vs. “I believe A because my friends believe A”?
I think the split on that is about 20% vs. 80%.
I think you’re right. People care about fitring into theor social circles.
If my daughter’s fifth grade class is any indication, it’s about 2%/98%
less than 5%
https://twitter.com/MsBlaireWhite/status/957283437978595329
Honestly, that dress seems a bit too trashy.
She keeps that harnessed in pretty well. Seems like pushing the limits with that outfit. Lol.
“Students hold ‘bleed-in’ to demand free menstrual products
University of Florida students walked around campus Tuesday with fake menstrual blood on their pants to protest the lack of free feminine hygiene products on campus.
“Heteronormativity is rampant on this campus,” complained Sophia Ahmed, one of the organizers of the “bleed-in” protest. “Today I held a little protest for free menstrual protects. If you saw my butt that was evidence. And I say menstrual not feminine because menstruation should not be gendered. Some men get periods.”
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10432
Um, heteronormativity is rampant everywhere because the majority of people are heterosexual. (And FTM transsexuals are extremely rare.)
I’m noticing a lot of Arabic names among the SJWs lately. The cognitive dissonance must be overwhelming.
You keep using that word….
Some men get periods?
I assume all the woke ones do.
Depends. Whats the ruling on pissing blood after a night of heavy drinking/bar fight?
You don’t? Maybe you are pregnant. Slut.
Uffda. One time after way too much fiber in my diet, I had a semi-colon. Lots of yelling from the crapper that day.
Shit. A better line would have been “Everyone has colons, but only women have periods. Not fair!”
Yes, I passed a kidney stone. But one time a “period” does not make!
No they don’t. I’m sorry, I’m willing to go along with a lot of the transgender stuff, but if you get a period you’re not a man. That’s what you call a “tell”.
I suspect if your dick is bleeding, you best see a doctor pronto, because that’s not a period.
Next you’ll be saying men don’t need abortions.
The Reproductive Justice Movement Has A Gender Inclusion Problem
https://theestablishment.co/the-reproductive-justice-movement-has-a-gender-inclusion-problem-cf88e3a4ce61
***
Because the Colorado Doula Project strives for intersectionality and accessibility, they talk about their clients and potential clients in gender-neutral terms, referring to “pregnant people” and “birthing parents” so as to encompass DFAB (designated female at birth) transgender and nonbinary people who are not women, but still need pregnancy-related care.
…
As societal acceptance for trans people inches forward, it’s becoming more possible to talk about the fact that pregnancy and birth are not exclusively female experiences. Trans men and nonbinary people can get pregnant too, and have been living these same experiences for as long as humanity has existed. Including them in reproductive care is not actually new; the only thing that’s changing is the willingness of care providers to acknowledge those diverse identities and treat them with respect.
***
i rest my case your honor.
this should make clear to anyone that the main objective of protesting is simply “protesting itself”. Its not to accomplish anything, its to feed the ego and the “look at me” need, and to maintain a steady drumbeat of narrative-reinforcing bullshit that forces young people into their social-herds of either “with us” or ‘against us’
I wish it were that meaningless, but I don’t think so. And this is why I keep pointing out that illegal immigration is not a good idea, simply because there are too many people who feel they can come into your house and demand free stuff, that you paid for. There are enough born and bred Americans who are already like that, we don’t need to import more. Fuck these people. I don’t care if this deranged woman wants to walk around with bloody pants and look like stooge, but when she starts demanding that tax payers give her free stuff, that’s where she’s went too far.
She’s demanding her college give her free stuff, unless i read it wrong.
yes, i get that taxpayers fund U.Florida, but still: i think its more notable that the university *already* provides the free shit, and the kids protest anyway… its not about ‘the stuff’, is my point. its about the act of *demanding*, which these people will keep doing because it ‘works’ on both the material-reward level, and the social-reward it gets them in their retarded little victimhood cult
Even if it’s not a publicly funded organization, she’s still demanding that other people pay for her stuff. Fuck that cunt.
nothing i said was a counterpoint to “fuck that cunt”
It was just clarifying that “protesting”, and “the subject being protested”…
(e.g. in this case the claimed absence of free feminine hygiene products, when in fact they were already quite free and widely available)
…. have a weak relationship, if any at all. Protesting is its own reward, and people will do it even if they’re already being provided free shit. Because protesting allows them to pretend moral-superiority over their claimed ‘oppressors’. Which is why they’re never just content to protest on behalf of their own demands: they’re constantly enlarging the demands to include fantasy-oppressed groups like the ‘menstruating men’ of the world.
You could give them their free shit all day, and they’d still find a reason to march in the streets and screech that the overlords are marginalizing themselves and others…. because doing so both reinforces their own contrived identity-structure, and has tangible social rewards. the ‘stuff’ being demanded is in some senses purely symbolic
Yeah, I know, Gilmore, I wasn’t trying to argue with you, really. I just feel very strongly about the subject.
Not only is she demanding that the college giver her free stuff, but the stuff she wants, not what the college is giving her.
Why didn’t some group plan a counter protest that day?
“Bring your dog to campus day” would have been perfect. My old mutt would have been perfect. He was half shark and could smell blood a mile off and was big enough that he could hone right in on whatever poor mortified woman happened to come by our house at the wrong time.
Ah, beer, that really hits the spot.
Indeed. Lack of football means I have plenty of time to find something called “Earthquake.”
#metoo
I was a little hungover this morning and so spiked my coffee. Then my wife was nice enough to drive me to the store to get beer. She’s a little sassy sometimes, but I think she’s a keeper.
I was pretty sober last night because my wife – out of the blue – asked if she could go ice fishing with me yesterday. So I was on my best behavior in my fish house yesterday and didn’t get a head of steam going last night.
But yeah, despite some of her faux pas, I think she’s a keeper. (I’m also too old and tired to break a new wife in.)
“Heteronormativity is rampant on this campus,”
No shit? You could knock me over with a feather.
And just for the record, Daniel Craig is by far the best Bond.
You misspelled “not the worst”.
David Niven was the best Bond
^ lies
“PUSHING POISON Doc warning as desperate parents force their autistic kids to drink bleach as a ‘cure’ after being duped by sick quacks
The dangerous bleach solution, known as Miracle Mineral Solution, is being sold on at least one UK-based website
A POTENTIALLY deadly super-strength bleach is being sold to UK parents by evil quacks as a cure for autism.
Desperate families are attempting to medicate their sick children with the discredited “miracle” cure which is being marketed and sold on at least one British-based website.
Kids are forced to drink the Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) while others are given enemas with the solution to purge “parasites”, reports The Sunday People.
The bleach is a mix of sodium chloride and citric acid powder which the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned can cause vomiting and diarrhoea – as well as damage to the gut.
And experts and campaigners are warning that the solution could kill comparing the use of MMS to playing “Russian roulette.”
The liquid is promoted by the likes of ex-drug addict and vlogger Danny Glass and US-based Genesis II Church.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5441283/parents-autistic-kids-drink-bleach-cure/
So, not actually “bleach”.
Not that it’s gonna cure anything, of course, and it probably isn’t safe for human consumption – we’d need to see what concentration it’s meant to be administered at – but sure, more wacky pseudoscience that may well harm people’s kids.
Grandson #2 is Autistic and my Daughter, Bless Her Heart, has decided it was the Vaccines what did it.
So now, Grandaughter #2 get’s no shots at all! I told her she’s wrong, but She Believes!
/Idiot kid
Anti-vax, anti-GMO folks are crazy. There’s no evidence to support their claims, I mean none.
Agree there’s none to support cessation of all vaccines.
Jon Poling would argue that there is evidence of a mitochondrial defect in about 2% of the population that interacts with several environmental inputs in a way we do not fully understand that can induce autism. It’s very difficult to read Hannah’s Poling case, the actual published article and not some I Fucking Love Science moron’s butchery of it, and not ask what just happened here?
Vaccines may play a role, but not in the way most people think. My son (Aspergers) has a double copy of the MHTFR defect, which prevents him from generating methylfolate on his own. The lack of methylfolate interrupts several biochemical pathways, including one closely related with expelling toxins, specifically heavy metals, from his system.
As a result, when we finally found a doctor who understood the problem, his aluminum load was well into toxic levels. He was unable to expel the aluminum used as an adjuvant in children’s vaccines and it had been building in his system over a period of years. After treatment for that and a systemic yeast infection, the highly maladjusted kid he was no longer exists. We don’t worry about him killing himself like we did when he was about ten.
So while most of the vaccine hysteria is bunk, there is a nugget of truth to it for specific individuals. It would be worth it to have your grandson seen by someone who understands the biochemistry and the genetics at play.
These are good points. There are complex interactions going on that are not well understood, as you saw with your son. The presence of or a deficiency in magnesium, manganese, and other metals, both in developing fetuses and young children, have been associated with the development of autism in multiple peer-reviewed studies that used control populations.
Well, they will be cured, right? How many dead autistic people do you know?
if you get a period you’re not a man. That’s what you call a “tell”.
Reality is a crutch for bourgeois shop clerks.
Your reality is oppressing me, shitlord.
Working on IKEA Kallax shelves – well modifying them. Adding backstops so my records don’t slide out the back and get “lost”. Also chrome feet to lift them off the floor so they don’t look like college furniture (which it is).
Did I mention how much I hate IKEA? This was just the cheaper route than getting a carpenter to do a custom multi-kilobuck storage solution that can handle almost 1000 LPs.
I would worry about all that weight on IKEA stuff, Flexing Center, shit like that.
I’m looking at my Modular Black Steel and Hardwood Shelf, thinking,1000 LPs? Easily.
Not Just need to figure out how to ship it to you
The little 2X2 Expedits were tough enough – I use multiple of them for storage – three lines up with the stereo on top.
I’m hoping the Kallax – on 4″ legs – is just as sturdy. I added a center leg too to reduce bending in the middle. We shall see.
Worse part? I have a brother-in-law who is a professional carpenter that does business with the local pubs around here. When I mentioned having an all-walnut record storage built, along with a design, he just brushed me off. He thinks I’m trying to get it cheap – which I wouldn’t. And he doesn’t like building anything for “the family”.
So I’ll go this route until I find a good local carpenter.
Ask him who he lost his last 3 bids to, and why.
I built a pretty cool entertainment center out of IKEA junk. I’m always getting compliment on it.
I have a bunch in my office, don’t get me Wrong, but 1000 LPs is a lot of mass in one spot, and MDF has a tendency to sag over time,
in my Experience
Yeah, my entertainment center isn’t supporting anyway near that weight. The wife’s LP collection is in it, but it’s only about 100 albums or so. Lots of other stuff, but It’s also spread out a lot, the thing is 11-12 feet wide.
Particleboard and fiberboard. Don’t let a dog cock its leg against it.
Medium
Density
Fibreboard
MDF
We LOVE our Kallax; we have several 5X5 and 4X2 units and used them to divide our (IMO) overly large living room into a living room and a library/study/computer gaming area. I cut squares out of black foamcore and pushed them to the middle of the shelves and they are now double sided.
Great idea!
Thanks. They are an upgrade from the 100s of milkcrates with which I gleefully built floor to ceiling book cases; spray-gunned gloss black, zip-tied to one another, and anchored to the wall studs they were an inelegant but practical (and damn near free) solution. Wifey finally tired of them… sigh.
“Professors Assume Social Justice Warrior Pose, Say Yoga Is Racist
Shreena Gandhi, who co-authored the article with “antiracist white Jewish organizer, facilitator, and healer” (busy woman) Lillie Wolf, posits that the “(mis)appropriation” of yoga is part of a “systemic racism” and that, whilst white people should not stop practicing yoga, they should “take a moment to look outside of yourself and understand how the history of yoga practice in the United States is intimately linked to some of the larger forces of white supremacy.””
https://www.dangerous.com/40717/professors-assume-social-justice-warrior-pose-say-yoga-racist/
I just want to know what we can do with all those Asians who are appropriating Western culture?
The hippys who first got into yoga in the 60’s and 70’s will be surprised at this. Even the stinky hippys are not safe from the SJW scourge.
L O L
“It’s Time to Wage War Against War Movies That Glorify Outdated Models of Masculinity
The Hollywood Reporter published a surprising story earlier this month about film studios turning away from movies about sex. A biopic about Hugh Hefner is stalled, gone for the moment is a James Franco film about a 15-year-old Russian prostitute, and a remake of “A Star Is Born” is being re-thought, too.
“As Hollywood begins to navigate the #MeToo landscape,” Tatiana Siegel reported, “one of the first casualties appears to be big-screen erotica. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, studios are steering clear of sex.” Alyssa Rosenberg, writing in the Washington Post, hopes that Hollywood’s embarrassed executives are navigating “the end of a very narrow way of thinking about what’s alluring.” Instead of movies that objectify women, she suggests more films that portray sex and sexuality in intelligent ways.
This reckoning is long overdue. And it can be extended to another genre that has distorted how men behave: war movies. Hollywood has shown itself capable of making excellent war movies (think “Three Kings,” “Paths of Glory,” and “The Best Years of Our Lives”), but most are problematic. Some of the biggest war movies of the post-9/11 era don’t just show violence in ways that are often gratuitous and occasionally racist. They model a cliched form of masculinity that veers from simplistic to monstrous.
The time has come for Hollywood to turn away from war movies that, while satisfying to both a studio’s bottom line and a flag-waving concept of patriotism, perpetuate a model of masculinity that does violence to us all.”
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/27/12-strong-war-movies-masculinity/
Wage war against war movies?
The 1939 movie The Women is an excellent example of toxic femininity.
This toxic femininity is oppressing me. I think I’ll have a tantrum. Well, nah, but I’m a drink another beer.
I hear that the comic industry waged a war against masculinity and everything heteronormative and it went really well. Why shouldn’t they go for it? Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Where are you Chesty when we need you most?
Fuck Mattis. Chesty Puller was a real fucking Marine General.
“Where’s the bayonet?”
-General Puller, after viewing a demonstration of a flamethrower
I would also posit Smedley Butler.
I wonder what kinds of movies she would have them make? I am on the edge of my seat…
“THE bullying of Taylor Swift for the egregious crime of not publicly supporting Hillary Clinton or denouncing Donald Trump has entered its third year.
Despite unrelenting pressure, Swift refuses to become an overtly political feminist pet who obediently regurgitates Leftie talking points.
For this sin the singer-songwriter has paid a heavy price.
She has been labelled “aggressively white”, linked to neo-Nazis, and accused of being a “messenger” for a “disturbing new era”. Last week she was criticised by BuzzFeed for not taking part in the second annual Women’s March, aka the world’s longest post-election tantrum.
Another BuzzFeed hit piece blamed Swift for having “white supremacist fans” and claimed that she is “intrinsically linked to whiteness and privilege”.
The media attacks against Swift began in 2016 when members of the US and UK media began writing about her absence from Hillary Clinton’s campaign trail.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/rita-panahi-swift-has-no-fear-of-bullies-of-the-left/news-story/c58420179e32201561307e785c00ddc0
This is exactly what I was commenting about Jay-Z upthread. Celebrities have 2 choices. Shit their pants over Trump or be attacked and purged.
This is why I want to have her babies. It’s the only reason. Honest.
Leftist are evil – film at 11.
“Walking the Tightrope Between Chaos and Order—An Interview with Jordan B Peterson”
http://quillette.com/2018/01/27/walking-tightrope-chaos-order-interview-jordan-b-peterson/
“How campus politics hijacked American politics
Not long ago, tropes such as “white privilege” or “rape culture,” which reduce a vast range of social dynamics to racism and misogyny, were seldom heard outside the radical wing of the academy; today, they’ve joined the mainstream. The term “microaggression,” describing statements and acts deemed unintentionally prejudiced, now shows up without explanation even in business publications.
Opposing bigotry and injustice are noble goals; but the social justice movement, on and off campus, goes far beyond that. It labels people by identity, creating a hierarchy in which being “marginalized” confers status while being “privileged” brings shame. Moreover, given its focus on changing “wrong” attitudes, is almost by definition hostile to free speech: dissent, even counterargument, becomes “microaggression” or “discursive violence.””
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2018/01/26/how-campus-politics-hijacked-american-politics/GsJwJwG78lqq6LPYcKWERK/story.html
Top notch derp here
***
Abolish Money!
Denjiro Shusui Kotoku
When bacteria enter a person’s bloodstream, so that person’s health is gradually undermined.
It is the same with money as with bacteria. Since money has unlimited power in the world, the ways of the world are bound to be increasingly debased. Step by step, morality is bound to be ruined and human nature faced with corruption. In the end, society is driven to destruction.
…
If one fine morning it were put to the test, if money were abolished and the need for it completely eradicated, what a noble place the world would be! How peaceful! How happy!
Bribery, corruption, people selling their principles – all these would completely disappear. Murder, robbery and adultery would be greatly reduced too. There would be no need to call for the abolition of prostitution, nor to advocate the reform of popular customs. All at once it would be just like the Buddhists’ pure land and the Christians’ heaven.
…
But in days like these when money has such power, if we utter the words ‘Abolition of Money’, people look at us as though we are mad. Is it madness, though? Are you prepared to say that the modern European socialists who are spreading everywhere throughout the world (sic) are all mad, then? – because the socialists have the abolition of money and the suppression of the private ownership of capital as their ideals.
…
Why don’t people who want to improve human nature and the ways of the world stop their petty squabbles and put their efforts into achieving socialism? If they did this, it would be the quickest way for them to achieve their objectives.
***
The general pattern of leftist thought is to take a solid truth and pretend it’s wrong.
Abolish money, no difference between men and women, animals have rights, etc
oopsy- forgot link
https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/s4mxdq
About Kate Sharpley
***
Sixty-five years ago Queen Mary was handing out medals in Greenwich, most of them for fallen heroes being presented to their womenfolk. One 22-year old girl, said by the local press to be under the influence of anarchist propaganda, having collected medals for her dead father, brother and boyfriend, then threw them in the Queen’s face, saying, ‘If you think so much of them, you can keep them.’ The Queen’s face was scratched and so was that of one of her attendant ladies. The police, not a little under the influence of patriotic propaganda, then grabbed the girl and beat her up. When she was released from the police station a few days later, no charges being brought, she was scarcely recognisable.
The girl was Kate Sharpley, who had been active in the Woolwich anarchist group and helped keep it going through the difficult years of World War 1.
…
I met her, by chance, last year in Lewisham. Twice widowed, she remembered the anarchist movement with nostalgia, and gave me a fascinating account of the local group in the years before World War 1. Unfortunately, she was already very ill, and a few weeks ago, she died, I was told by one of her neighbours.
I had, though, asked her for a message to the Anarchist movement today. Her answer: ‘Tell the kids they’re doing all right, they don’t need any advice from me.’ Especially she praised the young women of today: ‘I wouldn’t have had to take cover like I did if women of my day had any guts’ she said.
***
Well… someone is going to have to be in charge or distribution of limited resources when that happens. Or does Dingo Sushi Kuku think that all humans are just going to transform into fucking saints the minute this happens? Obviously, that is not going to happen. So who is the one perfect person who’s going to overseee this radical transformation in society? Will it be Sushi Dingo?
“If they did this, it would be the quickest way for them to achieve their objectives.”
And we Know how that turns out…..
It’s almost Carnival time again. My wife likes for me to watch the samba dance contests, where the girls wear the carnival dress.
Just in case, is Glibs planning a braille version in the near future?
From our new local retailer, I’m diving into a bloody delicious Barrel Aged Victory At Sea from Ballast Point. Fine, fine stuff; thank you very much to all of y’all who have mentioned it here.
Try the Dorado, Not the Watermelon
“DC School Employee Doxed by Antifa, Placed on Administrative Leave For Supporting Trump
John Goldman, better known online as Jack Murphy, inadvertently became the subject of controversy when a photo was leaked last week of several right-wing personalities, including myself, and Chelsea Manning. Outraged that their hero was mingling with the right, members of DC Antifa began to dox everyone who appeared in the photograph.
The far-left harassers, provoked by Lacy MacAuley, one of the informal leaders of DC Antifa, then began contacting Murphy’s employer and claiming that he was a white supremacist. They used a photo of Murphy in the same shot as Richard Spencer — but ignored that he has been an open critic of the white nationalist and several left-wing reporters witnessed them almost come to blows during an event last year.”
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/01/dc-school-employee-doxed-antifa-placed-administrative-leave-supporting-trump/
Yale fail: Ivy leaguers sign ‘petition’ to repeal First Amendment
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/16/yale-fail-ivy-leaguers-caught-on-video-clamoring-to-kill-first-amendment.html
***
Looking to understand just how controversial the debate over free speech on our college campuses really is, filmmaker and satirist Ami Horowitz recently traveled to Yale University, one of our nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, to speak directly to students.
“I decided to take this campus free speech debate to its logical conclusion,” said Horowitz, who asked students if they’d sign a petition calling for an outright repeal of the First Amendment. “The result was this unbelievable display of total stupidity.”
In fact, Horowitz discovered a solid majority of the students asked willingly signed the petition, with several expressing their enthusiastic approval for his anti-First Amendment efforts.
“I think it’s really awesome that you’re out here,” said one student.
Watch the video to find out just how many supported the petition, and how willing many students were to sign away their more basic rights of free speech and expression.
***
*facepalm*
Haven’t jokesters been doing that sort of thing for years? Getting random people to sign up for Hitler’s manifesto and such?
Yeah, but these randos are supposed to be the smart kids.
Paging zombie William F Buckley…
Why. Why. Why.
Because it’s funny? People are making way too big a deal about it.
That’s what I’m saying! “We need a woman in the fast food wars” what? Seriously?
All the celebrities being the colonel is funny. But “we have our first female Colonel Sanders” and all the feminists wetting themselves over it is just ridiculous.
I’m sure a trans Wendy is in the works.
Trying again:
My comments have been getting eaten, is anyone else having this problem, or did the Uberglibs finally just have enough of me that I’ve been shadowbanned?
Boobs.
https://archive.is/xyvmd
I had that problem, all my comments were eaten for a couple days. I sent them an email and it got fixed the next morning.
Your boobs came through loud and clear.
Although not necessarily all legal. So let’s say #34, she seems safe enough.
Q, I’m pretty sure it’s because of the more robust security updates that came through last week. The URL in your profile is most likely triggering the spam filter. Not surprising, really.
Like the prev/next posts inline in the posts now. Any way to have a second one at the bottom of the comments so one can know when a new post is available (and the conversation shifts)?
I’ll get rid of it.
Mine got eaten. Then it reappeared. I’m assuming the poor mods are working overtime freeing all our comments from jail.
Holy smoke! Now all the comments have appeared! Sorry all for spamming this thread with garbage.
2 law professors from Rutgers argue against pet ownership
The case against pets
A morally just world would have no pets, no aquaria, no zoos. No fields of sheep, no barns of cows. That’s true animal rights
https://aeon.co/essays/why-keeping-a-pet-is-fundamentally-unethical
***
Conventional wisdom about animals is that it is morally acceptable for humans to use and kill them but that we should not impose unnecessary suffering and death on animals. However we might understand the concept of necessity in this context, it cannot be understood as allowing any suffering or death for frivolous purposes. We recognise this clearly in particular contexts. For example, many people still have a strong negative reaction to the American football player Michael Vick, who was found to be involved in a dog-fighting operation in 2007. Why do we still resent Vick almost a decade later? The answer is clear: we recognise that what Vick did was wrong because his only justification was that he derived pleasure or amusement from harming those dogs, and pleasure and amusement cannot suffice as justifications.
…
We consume animal products because we enjoy the taste. In other words, we are no different from Vick, except that most of us pay others to inflict the harm rather than inflicting it ourselves. And our uses of animals for entertainment or sport are, by definition, also unnecessary. The only use of animals that we make that is not transparently frivolous is the use of animals in research to find cures for serious illnesses.
***
Catching a fish for dinner is no different than forcing dogs to fight each other? That’s some fine analogizin’ Lou.
Yeah, for sures. All of those pets would be better off fending for themselves in the wild.
They own dogs but oppose zoos? I don’t get it and I keep meeting people like that.
Even PETA is OK with pet ownership
***
Contrary to myth, PETA does not want to confiscate animals who are well cared for and “set them free.” What we want is for the population of dogs and cats to be reduced through spaying and neutering and for people to adopt animals (preferably two so that they can keep each other company when their human companions aren’t home) from pounds or animal shelters—never from pet shops or breeders—thereby reducing suffering in the world.
***
https://www.peta.org/about-peta/why-peta/pets/
There’s certainly no moral distinction between torturing animals for sport and humanely killing them for consumption.
If one fine morning it were put to the test, if money were abolished and the need for it completely eradicated, what a noble place the world would be! How peaceful! How happy!
We won the War On Running With Scissors, and this is what it got us.
*snort*
Why don’t people who want to improve human nature and the ways of the world stop their petty squabbles and put their efforts into achieving socialism? If they did this, it would be the quickest way for them to achieve their objectives.
ERADICATE THE UNBELIEVERS
Look, it works every time. Sure a few hundred million eggs need broken to make that noble omelet, but so what, I won’t be one of those poor slobs up against that wall, because…, just because!
Purge the heretic, the mutant and the xeno with the cleansing flame!!!
Sorry, what were we talking about?
“There Are 2 Vacant Investor-Owned Homes for Every Homeless Person in America
The difference between the greed of the wealthy and the precariousness of American workers is painfully stark when looking at vacant homes.
2016 figures from ATTOM Data Solutions — which publishes comprehensive housing data — show that wealthy investors are buying up more and more real estate as a moneymaking venture while housing prices and homelessness continue to skyrocket across America.
According to ATTOM, 76 percent of all vacant homes in America are owned by investors — amounting to approximately 1.1 million vacant residential investment properties. Many of these vacant homes are in economically distressed Rust Belt cities with high poverty rates, like Detroit, Michigan, neighboring Flint, and Youngstown, Ohio. The states with the highest investment property vacancy rate also have high poverty rates. Michigan leads the pack with 10.3 percent vacancy, Indiana at 9.8 percent, Alabama at 6.9 percent, and Mississippi at 6.6 percent.”
2017 was also a record-high year for rent prices, according to housing figures from Zillow. Tenants across America paid landlords an estimated $485.6 billion, with more than $100 billion of that coming from just the New York/New Jersey market, the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim market, and the Chicago market. Approximately 97,000 of America’s homeless persons are in New York City (63,169 homeless) and Los Angeles (34,000 homeless). Cities like San Jose, California and Denver, Colorado are seeing double-digit rent increases on average each year, according to Forbes.”
https://gritpost.com/vacant-properties-homelessness/
[spit take]
The Case for Getting Rid of Borders—Completely
No defensible moral framework regards foreigners as less deserving of rights than people born in the right place at the right time.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/get-rid-borders-completely/409501/
***
The argument for open borders is both economic and moral. All people should be free to move about the earth, uncaged by the arbitrary lines known as borders.
…
Wage differences are a revealing metric of border discrimination. When a worker from a poorer country moves to a richer one, her wages might double, triple, or rise even tenfold. These extreme wage differences reflect restrictions as stifling as the laws that separated white and black South Africans at the height of Apartheid.
…
If the developed world were to take in enough immigrants to enlarge its labor force by a mere one percent, it is estimated that the additional economic value created would be worth more to the migrants than all of the world’s official foreign aid combined. Immigration is the greatest anti-poverty program ever devised.
…
The immigrant who mows the lawn of the nuclear physicist indirectly helps to unlock the secrets of the universe.
…
Is there hope for the future? Closed borders are one of the world’s greatest moral failings but the opening of borders is the world’s greatest economic opportunity. The grandest moral revolutions in history—the abolition of slavery, the securing of religious freedom, the recognition of the rights of women—yielded a world in which virtually everyone was better off.
***
***
Alex Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
***
Yikes.
He’s the co-proprietor of Marginal Revolution along with Tyler Cowen. Cowen lost a lot of my respect when his name appeared on the Niskane Center’s board along with such libertarian luminaries as Brad Delong (a Cowen pal, btw).
Eh, I’ve read stupider arguments for the same thing every week at Reason…
Reason.com- basically The Atlantic, but with more weed and ass sex
WHY COME YOU DON’T LIKE ETHNIC FOOD PAN?
What’s an ethnic food pan?
a wok
Go to your room!
Let me blow your mind: Hamburgers, meatballs and pizza are ethnic food to me!
The immigrant who mows the lawn of the nuclear physicist indirectly helps to unlock the secrets of the universe.
HAWT!
Last week I actually wrote a piece I intended to submit to this fine site but never got around to it due to reasons. I used this New Yorker article as subject material. Since I never sent it in, here is an excerpt:
In the paragraph that precedes the scaremongering I think Kolbert gets to the crux of why many that hate the current administration really have their progressive panties in a wad to the point of many of them needing therapy.
You see, in the eyes of Kolbert they are all the wrong central planners, many of whom don’t believe there should be much central planning. That turns those that worship at the alter of Credentialed Top Men into sobbing and wailing exiles to the soon to be strip mined and oil spill covered wilderness. This has been touched on numerous times here in the comments and I think it is indeed the source of all TDS. They are not afraid of a dictatorship. They are afraid we might finally slip over the edge of the cliff the socialists in both parties (H/T F.A. Hayek) have been pushing us toward and fall into totalitarianism when they are not the ones in charge.
Some are, but the smarter ones know the real danger: If Trump is a successful President who gets reelected, then it stomps on the myth of the Top Man. If Trump gets reelected…..then what happens if it’s not business as usual in 2024? What happens if the Republicans nominate another successful and charismatic American who is a political outsider.
The thing is, the politicians, the bureaucrats and the media…..they all went to the same schools, or at least they married someone who went to the same schools. There is a bubble, an unstated assumption that someone who doesn’t have a degree from either Harvard or Yale is somehow not qualified to actually be a politician or a highly ranked bureaucrat. They have spent 50 years or so successfully convincing the general public that only the Qualified People who went to the Right Schools can be President. Because all the Qualified People agree, you need to go the Right Schools, and study the Right Things.
The biggest danger to the Ruling Class is Trump getting relected, and the 2024 election being contested between two people who are not major political figures. If the 2024 election is Mark Cuban running for the Democrats, vs Nikki Haley running for the Republicans, the Ruling Class will be fucking furious again. A graduate of IU can’t be President, and a graduate of Clemson can’t be President. They didn’t go to school with the Right People!!!!!
I agree with that but I think it all boils down to the people like the author of that New Yorker piece are totalitarians at heart. They have been pushing for making all your decisions for you from what you eat to what you drive to what generates the electricity in your home for years. They are screeching Trump will be a dictator but they are not really afraid of living under a dictatorship and the loss of freedom it would bring because that is what they want in the end. They would have granted Obama life long presidency and dictatorial powers in a heart beat. But yes, the worship of the Credentialed must be saved as well. These are interesting times and it is fun to watch strings unravel.
“A lack of interest in the public interest”
The public interest. That means Trump’s people aren’t picking and choosing who will be sacrificed for the greater good. Well ok then, he’s got my vote.
All the celebrities being the colonel is funny.
Was I supposed to know who those people were? I thought they were just a series of actors who needed money, and KFC was wisely swapping them around instead of making some
nobodypotential extortionist the “face” of their business.I liked the Darrell Hammond ones and was bummed when they replaced him with Norm MacDonald. *shrug*
Google snowflakes have sadz.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/01/26/google-diversity-culture-war/1071107001/
I can’t believe how toxic that work environment is. You could not pay me enough to work there.
The SJWs are all victims.
***
Students who receive honor grades in college-level physics courses are frequently unable to solve basic problems and questions encountered in a form slightly different from that on which they have been formally instructed and tested.
***
Plug and chug strikes again.
If the developed world were to take in enough immigrants to enlarge its labor force by a mere one percent, it is estimated that the additional economic value created would be worth more to the migrants than all of the world’s official foreign aid combined. Immigration is the greatest anti-poverty program ever devised.
But them nigras and whatnot are incapable of creating value in their own home countries? Because… why?
Talk about your “borders are magic” fetishism.
“…additional economic value created…”
This makes no sense to me. They would be creating wealth? Or just receiving paychecks for services rendered? Value changing hands is not the same thing as creating wealth. Redistribution is the only thing the pinkos understand.
The state of Star Wars today
Sounds Like me in a few hours, Hic
Twitter conspired to suppress conservatives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64gTjdUrDFQ
Shocked. Shocked I tell you.
short version
Pro-Trump “Russian bots” were identified by clusters of key words like “America”, “freedom”, “god” and images like American flags and guns.
According to the programmer, real people don’t talk like that, so they’re all Russian bots which must be banned.
Oh, how I laughed.
I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that people are supposedly using Twitter to make voting decisions.
It’s no worse than Facebook or CNN.
I’m just putting this post here so that the count will be an even 499.