ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. ZARDOZ UNDERSTANDS HIS CHOSEN ONES HAVE MUCH TO SAY, AND TO LINK…WITHOUT GUIDANCE FROM ZARDOZ OR ANYONE ELSE. AS ZARDOZ HAS RAISED YOU FROM BRUTALITY, HE WILL ALLOW HIS CHOSEN ONES AN OPEN POST…FOR TONIGHT. GO FORTH AND POST! ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
ZED COOKIES
Hail Zardoz!
Somebody in Colorado really needs to offer those cookies as edibles.
Excellent suggestion.
Not it!
The ZARDOZ fandom seems to be filled with such crafty people.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS MYTHICAL CHOSEN ONE. ZARDOZ DIDN’T ELEVATE NO DUMMIES FROM BRUTALITY. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
THUS SPOKE ZARDATHUSTRA?
You should write some ZARDOZ-inspired YA lit just to watch people’s heads explode.
It would probably be really easy to put some Hunger Games-style spin on it and make bank, actually. That’s a thought…
Well if 50 Shades started off as Twilight fanfic…
Who doesn’t love some Bastiat.
https://fee.org/articles/bastiat-knew-the-proper-limits-of-government-force/
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS BASTIAT CITING CHOSEN ONE. ZARDOZ WOULD OBJECT, BUT HIS BRUTAL EXTERMINATORS ARE NOT PART OF ANY “GOVERNMENT”. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Today, a person in the U.S. will watch either CNN or Fox News but will probably never watch both.
Watch both and be twice as misinformed!
Become completely ignorant with this one wierd trick!
Just one person?
I’ve got Marx, Buckley, Franken, and Nixon all on my bookshelf.
Expertise in twistology and self-aggrandizement spans the spectrum.
“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, It was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that made men to make laws in the first place.”
Printed on my beer coozie.
Meanwhile, the insidious plot of the YA community is nearing fruition.
The correct party affiliation will be helpfully pre-selected.
Everyone knows that children are wiser than adults. At least according to the meme of today. Surely our enlightened youngers would never consider voting out of lockstep.
People will die if they don’t vote Democrat! You don’t want people to die, do you?
What does Zardoz think of Hope and Glory?
Good race down in Daytona. Nice to see the number 3 win on the 20th anniversary of Dale Sr.’s win
And he won it Dale-style. Put a bit tech out not the wall to take the lead.
Bit tech = bitch.
Out not = into.
Fuck autocorrect.
I saw someone hurt Zardoz’s feelings about his links earlier and now no links. Sad!
Also, did this one make the rounds yet? Wasn’t online much yesterday so missed most of the links.
New to me.
Oh my God.
And the whole thing is written like this.
Gag me with a spork.
Armond White: “The media’s enthusiasm for this bland action flick is maddening. The problem isn’t one particular movie, but the celebration of the illusion of “progress.” When Hollywood pegs everything in terms of race or gender, it dictates to the masses and keeps them all in a plantation mentality, mindlessly applauding Black Panther as part of the new segregation.”
I didn’t notice on the way to celebrating girl-power if anyone criticized that Wonder Woman still rocks a bunny suit.
The new principle is identity politics: my guy right or wrong, and your guy sucks.
They should just be glad a minor comic book hero got a movie. Marvel is raping its catalogue for heroes to exploit and hoist into cinema.
Personally, I think it’s time for a Fat-Man reboot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatman_the_Human_Flying_Saucer
They have to do Justin Bieber as Northstar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northstar
“Black Panther and Queer Re”
[tries to figure out what the story is really about without clicking the link]
It’s just ““Black Panther and Queer Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”. No need to figure it out.
The other day I posted this as something that should be sent to TheRoot.
I’m sure hilarity would ensue.
It’s already hilarious on its own, The Root would ruin it.
Fun fact- that site name is owned by Jonah Peretti, of Buzzfeed fame
404
Rick-Rolled this morning and then a no effort evening. Sad!
It’s a sort of holiday weekend. I guess we could cut them some slack. Or, we could be overly critical.
I vote overly critical.
Way to phone it in today, ya slackers!
Who the fuck celebrates presidents day? I’ll be at work tomorrow.
I’ll be at work tomorrow, waiting until I get the formal offer and then get to give my two weeks notice, with an already approved vacation from Wednesday until Tuesday of next week.
golf clap
talent is a market…cheers
We used to get it off until this year they gave us a bunch of (((other days))) instead.
I get tomorrow off. This is the first job I have ever had where I got so called holidays off. Being the smart ass I am I bitched to my boss we didn’t get Ground Hog day off. It is ridiculous but I will celebrate any day they give me off with pay. Until a few months ago I had never had a paid holiday in my life. If you want to get really pissed, let me tell you about the benefits package. Being a tax payer it pissed me off and I get it.
Some of us don’t get Monday off.
Procrastination Monday for me. Tons of stuff to do today, but… Is 9 am too early to start drinking?
not when you can without consequences
Depends on what kind of stuff you have to.
I’m taking a personal day.
I think they are getting tired of us.
This never happened when Postrel ran this, oh wait. Never mind.
Body-positive male model: ‘I’m trying to represent the average-height, fluffy men that get forgotten’
Obviously beautiful. Obviously.
I… Oh my God.
God speed to them in convincing the world that is beautiful.
The Sharpie “eyebrows” are a nice touch. You know, in addition to the rack.
Jeebus H. Christ
Makes me look svelte and cat-like by comparison.
Wow. That guy really has a great….rack?
He’s absolutely right about positive body-image. I feel a million times better about myself after having seen that.
He made boobs unappealing. He’s like the anti-Q.
Thanks for the motivation. Looks like it’s going to be a heavy day at the gym today.
Chucky Schumer will be jealous that his moobs are smaller.
because the GOP is such a manly club?
I nominate Drumpf for best T&A
a pox on both their houses
Guys, you let PB in?
Thicc
Demarco Murray found dead in conway
So… ZARDOZ open post or STORAGE WARS MARATHON? Why not do BOTH!
Brandi. Would.
Yeah, she vibes white trash and her eyes are too close together but, Hell Yeah. Totally would.
But your life, your love, and your lady is the sea.
Yes. I am sad she doesn’t have a boobpedia page. I found this interview where she says her breasts are natural.
Whycome when I post in the near-extant MORNING thread, immediately a fresh thread opens up?
(Note to self- if I ever re-enter the corporate world, stop saying things like “whycome” and “germans be havin’ ill-as-fuck words for shit”
Because FYTW.
As an engineering manager for a firm out of Stuttgart, I learned to stop referring to any design as the final solution.
Later in sales at a Japanese firm, I could no longer “nuke” my lunch.
Then, at a French firm, I learned that humor had been abolished, so that simplified things considerably.
Because you touch yourself at night.
Who doesn’t?
As a guy I once served with at Ft. Hood famously said, “if my cock was a 2×4, and my hands were 80-grit, by now I wouldnt have enough left to pick my teeth”
actually doing something about school shootings
The levitating stone head calling it in eh?
I’m pretty sure ENB is referring to us here
(on being with Reason for 4 years)
A whole contingent of deplorables?
That’s funny. ENB and Robby are totes libertarian AF.
When she makes me a sammich, I’ll believe she isnt pretending.
Also, when Robby changes a flat tire himself.
I was going to reply, “Doxxing people who joke about sandwiches is thoroughly unlibertarian”, but I was afraid she might dox me.
So… right up their alley?
Euphemism?
It wasn’t meant to be. But there’s potential there…
I actually don’t care if people I read are libertarian. Just interesting or funny or entertaining.
The problem with that place is it needs and injection of some excitement. And the comments are a cesspool of drivel now.
What that place needs IMHO is stop trying so hard to lure millenials.
I took a peak today at the gun control article with 300+ comments thinking there may have been something worth reading. Holy shit. It’s bad. really really bad.
I’m not even going to bother because I read that shit Mon through Fri during, uh, work hours and I know exactly what you mean.
the last time I looked @ TOS, 80% of the comments were Hihn arguing with himself.
Has he put himself on his “25 top facists” yet?
I would love to meet Hihn in meatspace.
*Not a threat. He’s just such a nut.
I’ve often wondered if his internet personality is an act….Citizen X linked to his FB once…..37 friends and just as crazy as his comments on TOS
It would have to be similar to hanging out with Andy Kauffman, or Robin Williams
I imagine him as a cross between Grandpa Simpson and Milton (Office Space), trying to be Clint Eastwood.
Don’t thinhk it’s an act. Just a loonatic. His brain has information stored in random locations and thinks any combination put forth on the screen makes for a profound observation.
For some reason, I imagine Exidor from Mork & Mindy
I imagine people who know him in meatspace do everything they can to avoid him whenever possible. “Do you know I was elected as a libertarian? Twice!”
hilarious
@straffinrun I’d love to see the entire crew in meatspace
what would be the appropriate “my turn to talk” token we’d use?
or would such a libertarian moment be constant, incomprehensible babble from 360 degrees?
“Look, you assholes, shut up. Im holding the monocle; its my turn”
but of course
well played
*opera applause*
Yeh but OpenBordersLiberal-tarian almost makes up for it.
Almost.
That guy has to be the world’s greatest troll. He’s amazing.
It is a good performance. Just the right mixture of calm, proper spelling and grammar, and batshit insane lunacy. I called it immediately and tried to guide others but I gave up and my god people are still falling for it every day. I swear I’ve seen it pointed out to John more than once and he still falls for it.
Did John tell you you were monstrously stupid for suggesting it’s a troll?
Haha no. I had already given up on that before John showed up again recently. I do appreciate his contributions but maybe on some subconscious level I want to see him tear the heads off someone over and over again.
-John Pizzagate rant-
Me – “I’m not seeing it”
John – You can’t see what is clearly obvious?
I kind of miss that kind of elbow throwing.
I thought John accepted he was a creative troll?
You may be right, but not the first few times.
Wow, you aren’t kidding. Hihn is like a third of the comments
She needs to take Twittering lessons from Trump.
I don’t think they pretend to be libertarian for a career boost. I think they pretend to keep their current jobs and often fail at pretending.
Yes, a dumb strategy indeed – which is exactly why it is plausible with those two.
Um… considering that that has actually happened in the past there, is it really so beyond the pale?
I’m good. I spent my day playing board games at a brewery, then stopped at a different brewery to grab a bit for dinner. I somehow managed to win all but one of the games played today (and the loss I can blame on the girlfriend)… plus, there was beer.
I’ll call that a win.
Going to a brewery for dinner-
You’re doing something right.
Stopped in at Fat Head’s Taphouse as they’ll be moving soon. Good staff, good service, amazing beer, solid food, and root beer for the girlfriend. It helps that they’re 3 miles from my house.
That sounds good. they opened up a bricktown brewery here a few years ago. I have been several times. It’s pretty damn good.
http://www.bricktownbrewery.com/fortsmith/
Looks really solid. If I get a chance to make it down that way, I’ll check it out. The other one that’s really close to me is the Brew Kettle. They also have very solid beers.
They still make those?
Different Fat Head’s. This one was a brewery that lost one of their investors before they opened, and then went to a bar in Pittsburgh to partner with. Since then, they have won a GABF medal every year since they’ve been opened, on top of a huge pile of other medals.
I know watching the Olympics gets me kicked out of the cool kids cub, but I’m amazed at the figure skating coverage this year. Mrs. Tundra loves it, so normally I just exist to snark, but the team that NBC has working this one is really goddam good. Tanith White? Would and would again.
I have meant to watch but had ribs to cook.
I have chuck roast to season and slow-cook tomorrow to be shredded beef for enchiladas and tacos later.
I made pho today. Froze 4 quarts of broth in single serving portions.
I was a good boy and dutifully watched biathlon and curling.
Now to fast forward through the Daytona 500 with a few Boston Lagers.
Watching 30 people in some backwater, frozen Asian hellhole playing a sport that looks like you’re a dental assistant cleaning teeth doesn’t appeal to you?
Japanese people would call Korea a backwater hellhole….
I don’t remember curling being so popular when I was a kid (the last time I had any interest in the Olympics). It seems to be on all the time.
That’s because you’re not in Canada.
Friend: “Dude, did we just watch two straight curling matches?’
Rufus: Yes.
Friend: This fucken game is mesmerizing when bored.
Saw an interview the other day:
“Curling is the Chess of sports” Western dude.
“No, it’s the Goh of sports!” Japanese dude.
Drumpf was setting up a keen sheet of three-dimensional curling when he started planning the electioneering from Russia years before the campaign even began
/CNN?
God made alcohol so the Irish wouldn’t rule the world, but look what he did to Canadians.
Meh.
It’s not just a rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yBHbmtpHQY
If you geniuses would like to explain how it curls I’D LIKE TO HEAR IT because it’s a MYSTERY.
https://phys.org/news/2013-05-mechanism-stone-revealed.html
I’m great at physics (but I’m not de Grasse, I’m just a mechanical engineer like Nye), but I’m good enough to know that all the explanations I found before the above were wishful thinking (like the garbage ads for miracle self-correcting putters or copper arthritis bracelets in the back of veteran’s magazines).
The explanation linked might be significant.
I vaguely remember this article. Will read it later. Thanks.
You wont be disappointed the race was good but Stages For Daytona is ridiculous
Just about ready to put Awesome Burgers on the Grill, Onion Rings and French fries, Lagunitas Imperial Stout and Double Death Chocolate Brownies,
YUMMY!
Cold Coor’s Light in a paper sack, and fake chipotle burritos.
Heya, YUSEF
BBQ Burgers and Stout! Sup Tres!
stages are retarded
But NASCAR is a capitalist utopia: their game, their rules.
Nothing stopping me from rigging my own racing league rules to suit myself.
I’m pro-labor. Hell, I’m pro-everybody: make your way, take your chances, stand on your own two feet. Younger folk her might not recall that King Richard was part of starting up a drivers’ union, France sent them all packing, and Petty just took his act on the road (drag racing). After a while, he decided that kissing France ass paid better and he came back. I believe in that: everyone takes their stand, plays their markets, and the chips fall where they may.
Along that line, I love Curtis Flood: he’d rather drive a cab than kiss MLB ass. I’m a third generation STL fan and bleed Cardinal red, but Flood stood for something, made his point, and paid the price. That’s totes cool.
So what you’re saying is Kaepernick is like Flood?
I have never followed the NFL and as such
I’ve never heard a coherent platform from Kaepernick;
he might have one; it might be like Flood’s; I defer to your research.
I simply made the case that Flood essentially accepted the market’s ruling. I’m certainly not an expert on sports labor, but I think it’s okay to admire men who stand on principle. Ali went to prison; not many men would; doesn’t make him Jesus, but it’s pretty cool.
Similar story: a firm I’m familiar with built a plant in TX; shortly thereafter, the firm’s TN plant went out on strike. Everyone stood their ground, the firm ramped up production in TX, and the TN plant was closed. I support labor’s right to strike, and I support management’s right to fire them all. I think markets are cool; so are principled folk who respect them.
that’s all I meant
And apparently not too much NASCAR history either, straight to Baseball, Apples and Pineapples,
I was just pulling your leg using Cathy Newman’s logic.
But I do hear people say Kaep is sacrificing his career for his principles.
I’m not so sure. I think his plan just got away from him.
@Rufus I have a lousy sarcmeter and am probably thin-skinned; the affliction is common in Appalachia because intercourse with one’s neighbors is often mortal, and, accordingly, minimized: crippling social skills are the common result.
CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO DON WHO I AM?!
A Canadian puppet with a questionable work ethic?
Allow me.
Don, Rufus is a thick-skinned, non-working Canadian of Italian descent. The father of a one (very tough) little girl and extremely knowledgable about hockey and that sport where everybody dives and cries. He runs a small business in one of the worst business environments on the planet. He knows philosophy, food and music.
In short, he’s a true Scotsman.
And I’m Gilmore.
lol
non-working
Hmm… I always thought the “DO ANY OF YOU WORK?” routine was projection.
I like to joke about Flood kick-starting American income inequality (the timing is actually spot on, and the growth of athlete incomes is actually ridiculous).
Personally I think stages are one of the better moves in the last few years. The only races they don’t belong are on the road courses because the full course yellows eat into an already limited number of laps.
I got back into Nascar in 2015 and watching a lot of races through 2015/2016 it seemed like they would more or less put it on cruise control through the first 3/4 of a race except during a restart.
Those skeleton people are crazy. Head first, 80 mph.
Two-man luge.
Look at those pics.
Too bad they don’t have mixed doubles’ luge.
That would be erotica and not sport.
I can’t take judged sports too seriously.
Plus all those scandals and corruption…blech.
But I know what you mean. Browning, Orser, Petrenko, Stojko, Witt, Yamaguchi, Hamilton, Plushenko, Underhill/Martini…..BRIAN BOITANO…it can be interesting as a spectacle. I’m sure it’s the most watched event.
Oksana. Still would. And she’s a boozer, too.
For a while she lived in Richmond and trained at the local rink(no, I have no idea why). This was around 1997-98. I worked at a nearby Starbucks as a summer job, and she used to come in looking like hell, all hungover with bloodshot eyes.
Soooo…..would?
Those cookies look terrifying.
Here’s a random observation.
Based on what I have seen of the WRC events in Monte Carlo and Sweden, I’d say the predictions of a snowless Europe may have been overstated.
heck yes.
“Big Air Snowboard”?
WTF?
Looks a lot like regular snowboard; boring. If somebody hits that power line, that would be okay.
In 1985 I had recently sold my Burton Elite 150 to a friend. He had hiked to the tower drift jump that was the traditional end of year launch session. I asked him if I could borrow the board and his Sorels (as was the snow boarding boots in the day) and told him to watch my skis. I launched and even grabbed an edge. Much cheering. They didn’t even let us on the lifts back then. What the crazy kids do now is mind boggling. I have nothing but respect.
This. Spawn 1 has slopestyled, boardercrossed and raced. He’s now an instructor and coach. I couldn’t give a fuck that some are judged. These kids are incredible.
Nice. What they do now on a snowboard I never could have dreamed of and I was crazy, dumb as a box of rocks and invincible as we all were in our late teens. Kids these days are eons beyond the early days. Does your kid Kite board? That there is the schnizzle of board sports.
He doesn’t (yet), but I’m sure it will happen sometime. A lot of people here are into kiteboarding on water. Looks like a riot!
I took up snowboarding just a few years ago. I suck at it, but I enjoy it way more than skiing – it’s a much different sensation.
Oh, get him into it. I have used kites and a few boards I would be willing to part with for cheap. I am talking beer money cheap. It is the one sport I have never been able to achieve/even become bad at and remain at just pathetic and I blame age and the loss of balance that comes with it. It is three dimensional and totally awesome. Wind, water, power and moving. It is too cool. Lessons are key in it though. I almost drowned a few times because I can figure anything out so I thought.
Congrats on taking up snow boarding. It is fun. I am ashamed to say I did not go this year.
That’s How I started back in the 80’s, all back country, Banzai shit, it made us better when we were allowed on the Slopes
Yep. I bet you can remember the feel the first time you carved a turn on groomed snow. I can. Nothing but smile.
When my son was competing I was often the first person on the lift. Coming down that hill on freshly groomed snow, something cool on my headphones and having no cares in the world was absolutely perfect.
It is amazing. I was skier, but all my buddies were boarders back in the day. We’d go 100’s of times a year with that seasonal pass that was good for IIRC Breckenridge, Copper and Keystone. One day they built a jump on an off trail. I popped off my skiis and boots and borrowed a friend’s board. First time I’d ever been on one. “Oooh, snowboarding is sooo difficult. Ooooh.” Going straight down to the jump? No problem. Going off the jump and having the board flip over my head? No problem. Falling 10 feet right on my fucking head? No problem.
Breckenridge was the first large CO ski area that allowed snow boarders. They were ahead of their time. Berthoud Pass was the only non hiking snow boarding outlet before that. Hard as fuck riding a t-bar on a snow board though.
Must have been around the mid 90’s they all started allowing snow boarders. Sitting down in the middle of the run was annoying AF. I hope the etiquette has improved since then. Also, the boarders that would slide down horizontally, leaving huge patches of ice was also a problem.
Mid 90’s I had already moved to FL. The same complaints are lobbed today but the areas are doing better segregating the newbie boarders from the general population I think. There is still a huge hating snow boarder in the skier world out there. Being both I don’t much care. I say have fun. I have friends who think all snow boarders should be stoned to death though. It exists.
Pfft. Sky surfing or gtfo. Jump out of a plane with a parachute and a snow board. That’s hardcore.
I saw something earlier about that stupid movie. Which is it? Are black people proud of their rich cultural heritage, or are they completely ahistorical boobs who think some stupid fucking fictional superhero is the first black man they can admire?
If it weren’t for White Superheros on the silver screen, I’d have to admire that drunken salaryman that puked on the platform last night.
One of these days I shall figure out how to link. In the meantime enjoy the antics of your fellow Florida Mammals
http://thesmokinggun.com/buster/florida/naked-gym-rat-caged-382094
Rhywun : What (TOS) needs IMHO is stop trying so hard to lure millenials.
How do you boys find the time to toggle between the sites?
I find this company and this interface to be completely satisfying:
I dare not visit TOS and risk missing something here.
Habit. I still feel I owe Reason for playing a part in discovering a part of me I didn’t realize existed.
I think.
Welch though is starting to lose his footing a tad.
TOS showed me That I was in Fact, a libertarian, so they get that much credit, as well as Rand, Mises, Hayek and Sowell,
YMMV
Glibs is blocked at work so go over there during the week.
*I* go over there
I have a gun politics prediction: if Trump and the legislature put forward some kind of gun control bill based on the pretext of “protecting the children” the left will tear it apart using the same stats we use to show gun control doesn’t do anything. They’ll completely miss the point and will stop short of outright banning and confiscation, but we all know what they really want.
They’d be fools to even try it.
Dems had all the power in 2008 and didn’t do anything. If they cared so much, they would have tried then. Instead they spent their political capital on O’Care.
Make sense?
I didn’t say it would be smart to do it, nor that they would even try. It’s a big “if” but the guy is unpredictable so I’m just making a prediction based on the possibility.
no argument with the 2008 reasoning, but
To borrow from @Juris’s motif: yes, they’d be fools, quite
To borrow from John Cleese: “sense” don’t enter into it
Ascribing logic and principle to the plans and actions of this ruling class is not supported by the data.
I’m just going to program this on a hotkey: a pox on both their houses.
Too many people on both sides benefit from the status quo. Why help alleviate a problem when you garner votes off that problem?
That’s why I said “if”. IF they do propose something, the left will tear it apart as not doing enough.
I’m convinced the end game is full ban and/or confiscation.
Though I have no idea how they could achieve this but it’s their dream.
It’s pretty apparent that’s what they want. My concern is that I’m even seeing some friends and family that were pretty staunchly conservative starting to flip on the gun control thing.
Tell them to stop watching TV news and/or reading the newspaper.
Obviously the MSM hopes the constant drum of “epidemic” and “do something!” Will do the trick. It might even be working?
There’s a reason people still don’t get Bastiat’s “Unseen” even though the concept has been proven repeatedly. You take taxes from A and give it to B, you haven’t created shit. You take guns from A, you no longer have A with a threat to criminals. They’ll look at how many times a person shoots someone in self defense. 250 people in a year? Well, that’s nothing compared to how many people were murdered with guns. It’s willful ignorance. Fuck them if they are so dishonest that they can’t admit that the presence of an armed populace would deter at least some criminals .
It’s part of the willful ignorance that was discussed in my Education post earlier. They don’t see beyond what they’re being presented in the media.
My wife, for the first time, asked about what the deal is about the gun debate in the USA. She has no clue.
So as I began to explain some stuff, she had heard people say about the FF they could not have foreseen the weapons of today and that it was just for the militia.
To dissect the former I explained that was cheap ploy and overlooks if not disregards the ‘universal’ concept of what they meant. That is, at its root, the USA formed TC to stave off tyranny and left a system they thought best equipped to keep it at bay. The second part is even more specious. It implies the 2A was temporary but if you accept the first premise, then it becomes clearer they meant what they wrote. Right to bear arms shall not be infringed – indefinitely and not just during the Revolutionary War.
I just pulled my copy of the Constitution off the shelf to go over the Second Amendment with the wife. I think it’s pretty clear that the Founding Fathers did envision that firearms technology would continue to be improved upon. In fact, when you look at the whole thing:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
You can easily imagine that they foresaw armaments becoming more lethal than ever and in order to keep the Militia capable of standing against enemies of the free State who possess those lethal weapons, the citizens who formed the militia must have access to the most modern firearms available.
I agree, but it would have been nice to simply say:
“Every human being has the right to defend themselves however they see fit. The State is forbidden from limiting, infringing, regulating, or in any way fucking with this right.”
It doesn’t help my pro-gun (pro-freedom) stance to say so, but I think 2A merely means the militia can keep military weapons for the purpose of keeping the central army at bay; that does, however, mean universally maintained full-auto “armor-piercing” bazookas or whatever under your bed and during drill on the town green. I don’t believe it has anything to do with personal defense.
Defense is a natural, un-enumerated right such as is anticipated in 9A. It’s not written that I should be able to carry a gun on public ways and where permitted on private property: that is obvious to any reasonable person that I have the right to defend myself. I do not believe that normal Americans respect any of this notion or even believe that rights belonged before the Constitution was written, so I don’t rely on this argument.
Reasonable folk aren’t making or enforcing the laws in the US these days, so I am happy to let 2A tote the gun-rights water.
That’s an interesting take on it Don and seems reasonable to me. I always kind of figured it meant both personal defense and defense against standing armies, but it’s always been that way in my lifetime.
I don’t think they would have any issue with private armies.
that argument also implies that they had never seen any technology get better in their life, and expected no improvements over time in the future.
It also ignores that guns other than muskets existed before the second amendment was ratified.
And that they’d be pushing for common sense musket control even if they got everything else banned. They’ve proven over and over again they can’t be trusted. Defense of 2A is one of the few that is actually defended vigorously. I wish they’d defend the rest of the constitution the same way.
It’s a willfully naive argument. The idea that the Founding Fathers, many of them directly involved in combat, would look at the battlefields of the Revolutionary War and think “this is as good as it gets” is absurd on its face. One of the backbones of American strategy at the time, guerilla warfare, would necessitate one individual having as much firepower available to them in as short a period of time as possible and I’m quite certain anyone involved in it knew that and were trying to improve their weaponry.
Conversation I had with my Canadian nephew last year:
Nephew – Seriously when is the US going to have some real gun laws.
Me – We have real gun laws.
Nephew – No, I mean like we have.
Me – We have a constitutional right to own firearms.
Nephew – Why?
Me – To be a last resort against a totalitarian government.
Nephew – Oh, ok that changes things and makes sense.
Smart kid
I agree. They will put something together and it probably won’t even make it out of committee, let alone to the floor for a vote. The Dems are acting like they are a tiny party in a multi party system. They’d rather have a small group of rabid supporters than a large group of Meh supporters.
The problem I have is that whatever lameass legislation gets talked about, and then forgotten, will be picked up by the CT legislature and passed, then signed into law by our shitstain Governor as a “Fuck You and Goodbye” law a few weeks before he steps down at the end of his term.
The New Yorker is not happy with Clint Eastwood’s new movie.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/we-could-be-heroes-clint-eastwoods-the-1517-to-paris-reviewed
***
The boys are moved to a Christian middle school, where, once again, they are constantly in trouble, and where they meet the young Anthony on the basketball court. “I had no idea you guys were so cool,” he says. Me neither. In one peculiar sequence, he goes round to see Spencer, who opens his closet and hauls out an entire arsenal of toy guns, tossing them onto the bed. “You never been hunting?” he says, adding, “Let’s go and find Alek and play war.”
As I watched the scene, I thought, You could cut it out of this movie and paste it, unchanged, into another one, about a nice suburban kid who grows up and carries out a mass shooting. Eastwood, however, plays things straight, without a shimmer of unease, preferring to frame Spencer’s obsessive hoarding of weapons as a healthy pastime and also, naturally, as a preparation for the hour—or the seconds—of crisis that will define his adult life. The toys will save lives. To be fair, such an argument will make perfect sense not just to members of the N.R.A. but to countless families in Middle America, especially those who are sending their sons and daughters into the military. But you can’t help recalling Eastwood’s “American Sniper” (2014), which is no less respectful toward true-life valor than “The 15:17 to Paris,” yet far more tensed and unhappy, and touched with deep anxiety about the zone where children and violence meet. Think of the sniper’s expression when a kid, squarely in his sights, prepares to fire a rocket-propelled grenade. Think of the Iraqi boy and his mother, also armed with a grenade, whom the sniper shoots when they approach a U.S. tank. Think of the creepy scene in which, back in Texas with his wife and children, he pretends to be a cowboy, prowling his own home with pistol drawn.
Some viewers hailed that film as a waving of the flag. Others saw the price that was paid by the soldiers and their kinfolk, in body and mind, for the sake of a questionable cause, as uncomfortably high. No such discord hovers around Eastwood’s new movie. It’s a hundred per cent endorsement of a cultural rescue: natural-born warriors, made in America, take down the Muslim fanatic and, not for the first time, save those lazy-ass Europeans from a fate they can’t themselves defeat.
***
You can’t make a movie anymore unless it treats war somewhere between “Hurt locker” or “the Green zone”
iow, the point should ALWAYS be the futility, the tragedy, and/or the psychological tragedy it causes. there can never be good guys and bad guys. the bad guys, you see, need to be humanized while the ‘good guys’ need to be shown as victims of ‘toxic masculinity’ and evil corporate rethuglican nazi types.
most of all, war or violence can NEVER be shown as actually accomplishing anything positive. that’s a myth! even if there’s some putative victory, it must be couched in some very-somber Hans Zimmer music, with the ‘hero’ staring around at all the death and destruction with a look on his face which clearly says, ” it probably wasn’t worth it”. Think the end of Black Hawk Down, or Lone Survivor, or Dunkirk.
What you’re absolutely not allowed to do is stuff like “Generation Kill” which depicts soldiers actively yearning for combat, and having mixed feelings about causing death – or none at all. where some have sympathy for the natives, where some dont, and some don’t think about it much. its not sending the right ‘message’ if you don’t put everyone in the same mold.
The NY’r will always hate Clint Eastwood movies because he never got the memo on any of this shit.
“Generation Kill” is easily one of my all-time favorites. I would add it to the list of required viewings for all new military personnel.
I went and saw that movie. It’s a complete waste of time. Literally 20 min of backstory, 10 min of the actual action, 10 min of the aftermath and 1 and a half hours of watching a strangers vacations videos. Two thumbs down.
Much better. Back to two man bobsled. It’s amazing how subtle and smooth and early the steering inputs need to be.
“Black Panther” and the Invention of “Africa”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/black-panther-and-the-invention-of-africa
***
I visited Gorée Island in 2003, with a group of black academics, just days after George W. Bush had come to the island and offered platitudes about the cruelties of human history but stopped short of apologizing for the United States’ role in the transatlantic slave trade.
…
There is a great deal more that differentiates “Black Panther” from other efforts in the superhero genre. The film is not about world domination by an alien invasion or a mad cabal of villains but about the implications of a version of Western domination that has been with us so long that it has become as ambient as the air. When Shuri, Wakanda’s chief of technology and the irreverent younger sister of T’Challa, is startled by a white C.I.A. agent, she says, “Don’t scare me like that, colonizer!” When I saw the movie, the audience howled at the inversion, “colonizer” deployed as an epithet rather than a badge of cultural superiority.
***
Damn, I guess I have to stop affectionately referring to all my wypipo friends as “colonizer”. YOU GOT US!
PS. This movie sounds really too woke to be at all enjoyable.
As a Marvel fanboi, I’ll say that Black Panther was a solid film. The most SJW character was the villain (and he was one of the people calling people colinizer).
“for the United States’ role in the transatlantic slave trade.”
What role was that exactly?
It started before the US existed. The US and the UK banned the slave trade in 1807, but Brazil and other places continued to buy slaves into the 1860s. Incidentally, about 40% of slaves went to Brazil and another 27% went to the Caribbean. Only about 3% went to North America.
So clearly, the US is uniquely responsible for slavery.
IT’S JUST A FUCKEN COMIC.
They’re really pushing this crap aren’t they?
Ok. This week my favorite review so far has been the Breitbart very positive Black Panther review which suggested the main villain was basically black lives matter and the hero was basically a Donald Trump metaphor.
Drew so many progressives offsides.
I still haven’t gotten over this blatant cultural appropriation of white men’s intellectual property by a black film crew and actors.
The US didn’t colonize Africa. It makes zero sense.
Time to take a moment to reflect on half naked ladies.
http://archive.is/XLtq7
Orgy.
But especially 22.
I vote for 30 with her mojito in hand and 36 for the smile and gold bikini.
The bikini ones are far superior to the other collections. Better composition, backgrounds and – best of all – more smiles. Orgy is the obvious answer, but I like the challenge of choosing one.
So…
Congrats, number 4! Nice everything.
#4 is beyond cute. She is cute^3
Orgy
YAY!
#75 looks like a bartender I like.
Nice. Germans cross the finish line on their lid to move into first.
I thought the Canadians might have tried that stunt to one-up ’em. Given their time, maybe they should have.
“Don’t scare me like that, colonizer!”
*guffaws, slaps knee*
Ah Hihn. Was that guy ever sane and did he ever do what he says he did? Was he ever Anyone?
As far as I can tell he thinks that the LP is shit (broken clocks and all that) and that libertarians need some actual policies. What those policies are I can’t see through his babbling. Also he liked Johnson/Weld until he didn’t. And he bemoans the lack of coalition building while insulting everyone.
And he bemoans the lack of coalition building while insulting everyone.
He’s Hillary.
this week’s worst political cartoons
honorable mention
3rd place
Do they really want to play the correlation game when it comes to gun violence? I don’t think that would go in a direction they’d like.
2nd place
Alternate word balloons: Make a list. Strip them of their rights. Lock them up.
1st place
lo.l. They showed Canada’s women’s curling coach walking in the stands with two beers in his hand.
My favorite is the Russians getting busted for doping this week…. in curling.
Lol wat?
Maybe it was that frenetic sweeper guy.
I love a sport that allows drinking. When I did a half marathon, they gave you a beer when you crossed the finish line. I screwed up my ankles and haven’t been able to run for nearly two years. I kept trying too soon and re-injuring them. Physical therapy was a total waste of time. My massage therapist suggested exercises that actually helped and today I went for a short run with NO pain. If I take it slow, I may actually be able to run again. YAY!
Did your massage therapist suggest beer? I am pretty sure that fixes everything.
Sadly, no.
I would normally suggest getting another opinion but if the advice got you in a condition to run, well they may be on to something. I suggest beer after every run though.
One of the cycling teams I joined is sponsored by Left Hand brewing. It meant that there was copious amounts of Left Hand beers available after every training ride, and fund raising event. At the end of the MS Buckeye Breakaway, other riders get three pints of Left Hand beers, any team riders had an unlimited amount of beers, and after the after ride party shut down, we went to drinking in the dorms.
For those who live in the South-East corner of Ohio, it looks like the cabin the girlfriend rented for Ravenwood castle has extra beds. If there’s any board game geeks in the area, let me know, I should be able to swing extra passes to the convention this coming weekend.
“Chasing down fleet-footed 18-year-old criminals through the rough parts of Chicago on a cold February evening? That’s work.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/florida-shooting-fire-fbi-chief-christoper-wray/
I thought everyone decided fleet of foot was racist after the newsletters thing.
So Wolk
Human sheep are nothing new. Just look at the general populace.
The Narrative of Defining characteristic: The dialectic paradigm of
consensus and the preconstructive paradigm of reality
Wut?
Dude.
lol…..exactly!
+1 staring at hands.
Wut.
Is that the result of some random thesis generator?
I think it is the shit the long haired dude spewed before Will tore him apart in Good Will Hunting.
MATT DAMON!
Good call. It’s hard to recognize. Making more sense than most postmodern theses tip you off?
It looked like random words strung together.
Holy shit that’s pure gibberish. Someone got into a prominent state school Phd program with that weapons-grade nonsense, no doubt.
The new wife wants to know why I love this site and why I am libertarian. Aside from the stellar humor of this place,
I simply say that I prefer to live, work, and die according to how my ideas and efforts perform in the marketplace as to let the theories, laws, bureaus, and needs of others dictate my choices. At worst, I prefer to suffer my own mistakes as to have others’ mistakes imposed upon me.
I offered her the choice between the authoritarian dystopias of 1984, Venezuela, Animal Farm, and Cuba to a sort of me, my gun, and my dog Mad Max world. I insist one or the other will eventually dominate the planet.
Then I point out that the success of the American experiment is unparalleled for comfort, property, or safety. She’s smart enough to know that the limbic system wins, and she’s stunned but accepts how peaceful America is by any objective, historical measure.
But, in her sweet heart, she probably still feels the massacre in FL should have been prevented.
So do I, dear girl, but not at the cost of some animals being more equal than others.
It’s entirely possible that it could have been but not through gun control. Someone posted a blog here the other day that had some good thoughts about the crushing confines of public schools and their possible effect on the psyche. There’s a lot more involved here than just “OMG GUNZZZ!”
Just finished 1984 for the second time in 20 years. It really is a different book today than it was in 1998 because society is different and so am I. When Winston is being tortured by O’Brien to purify him before they execute him, it reminds me of today’s belief that you can identify as whatever you want. 2+2=5? That’s a tough one to accept, but looking at a cock and saying that it belongs to woman is even more of a stretch.
I reread Catch-22 every five years or so; here’s what I thought at age
12: hookers….you can buy sex…and I identify with Yossarian the put-upon misfit
17: I’m as old as some of the guys who saved the world and identify with Yossarian……
24: I’m a college alumnus and would have been an officer/pilot and understand Yossarian’s situation……
30: I have a kid like the chaplain, and I’m worried about everyone, especially Yossarian
35: Managing all this equipment, orders, bureaucracy, and people is heavy stuff, and Yossarian is a challenge
40: This book is awesome: predicts the helplessness of the individual in the bureaucratic machine
45: Fucking Yossarian: just put on your G/d uniform and behave and drop the bombs where the maps say….or I’ll have you shot
I went from being Yossarian to being General Dreedle in about 30 years.
80: Get off my lawn or AGGRESSION!
What do Libertarianism and Rush have in common?
But, in her sweet heart, she probably still feels the massacre in FL should have been prevented.
She is right. It not only should have been prevented it could have been prevented but for people missing it. I am all for living and dieing according to ones abilities and I have done that several times over as far as financials and lines of work go and I blame nobody but my choices in life. But we set up a government to protect our rights and then the government fails at it is when the failure should be shouted from the roof tops that they fucked up and the people who fucked up should be nothing but sack cloths and ashes in their hair. Fuck the FBI and fuck the Broward Dade Sheriffs dept. We already have more equal animals and the more equal animals dropped the ball and a bunch of kids are dead.
Ok Late nighters you once again get to be my guinea pigs. Does this voice work for the hat?
and does this work for the hair?
I couldn’t understand what the hat was saying.
“It’s the fuck you that’s why clause!” I’ll try another clip.
Kind of a Daffy Duck/(((Jew))).
Well, given I stole Daffy Duck’s mouth to create the hat, that seems fitting.
Hat phrase 2.
I still can’t understand him but this was in the lineup on the youtube feed.
I think the Trump voice is the worst of three.
Did Weigel cover these guys in his prog-rock book?
I’m not a big prog-rock fan but the A&R at ESP-Disk had excellent taste , even outside the free jazz.