Monday Morning Links

This was me Thursday at 11 am:

This is the year my bracket comes through!

Full of hopes, dreams…and 64 teams. This was the year I’d win it all and let everybody know I could pick with the best of them.

This was me at 10 pm last night:

Dreams: shattered

This is one fucked up tournament. From UVA getting boat-raced by (basketball nobody) UMBC. To North Carolina following that up with a soul-robbing beatdown at the hands of aTm. Cincy, Xavier, Michigan State, Ohio State, and then Michigan winning at the buzzer.  I can’t fucking take this kind of abuse.  Its not fair.  Its like God is trying to punish us.  Well thanks a lot, Big Guy. It’s working. I’m a broken bracketer. My March Madness has turned into March Madness. I may not watch any more of this three-ring circus. I don’t know if my constitution is up to it.

You want to know what really churns my stomach?  The leader of the Glibs March Madness Pick Em Extravaganza is…Banjos.  That’s right. My wife, who watches jack shit for basketball all year except for the odd Buckeyes game I’m watching while she sits and twits with the twitterers, is winning the damn thing. But I don’t see it holding up.  Her total of 45 points (with Tennessee cutting down the nets) is one ahead of a solid group, T&T’s boring bracket is in second (with UVA winning it all). Gbob sits tied for third (with the Buckeyes as champs) and is tied with Pie (who is an asshole because he has Duke winning it all). In fact, the bracket with the greatest max possible is MikeS, way down tied for 7th. I’m gonna be watching him even though his possible champ (Texas Tech) has no chance. Except of course, that they have a great chance.

Look, I’m actually having a good time with this year’s insanity.  Its just…if Duke win it all, I will smash the fuck out of something very valuable.  I can’t stand the thought of that rat-faced creep and/or that cheap-shot artist he has in the low post winning anything. That would truly make for an awful Easter weekend, only surpassed by the death of Jesus Christ himself. But at least with that, we get the rising from the dead part. If Duke wins, we get just the misery.

Ugh, I can’t bear to think of it anymore. I’m gonna quickly point out that Liverpool bounced back pretty well by thrashing Bournemouth over the weekend.  Now they need to get ready for Man City in the UCL quarterfinals. The rest of the EPL squads that were in it can sit home and watch what the big boys can do on the biggest stage.

OK, no more sports. The rage is subsiding and the bile is creeping back down my throat as the thoughts of Duke hoisting the trophy go away. Let’s talk about something else.  I know…the links!

Another bombing in Austin set off by tripwire, injuring two. Police appeal to bomber to stop (sensible). Also order residents to stay inside until 10 am (what the fuck for?) I do recall this being blamed on racism by HuffPo early last week and I haven’t followed it since. Can somebody please explain to me what’s going on or if the bomber’s motivations have been made clear?

Judge Dredd ain’t got shit on this guy

The National Review can be douchey. But occasionally they publish a (pretty long but quite readable) piece that is pure brilliance and sums up the state of affairs wonderfully. Seriously, if anybody thinks that what Mueller is doing is a good thing, they need to read this and shut their pie hole for the duration of this witch hunt.

Texan Good Samaritan with knife meets California crook with shotgun. Guess how this one ends up?

Two trains derail and collide in Kentucky. Four people are injured.

Betty Boyner had just laid down when she heard what she thought was something exploding. “We thought, what the hell was that? Was it a train? Was it a trailer? We didn’t see any smoke,” she said. She then got a call from her son in Missouri asking if they were being evacuated. He’d apparently gotten a text from a friend who saw the accident on Facebook, she said. She grabbed her purse and a pillow and headed over to the elementary school. “I’m supposed to be up at 6 a.m. in the morning to go to work,” she said. “That ain’t happening.”

Here comes the mocking condescension from coastal elitists about the grammar of these hill people (although Lex is hardly hill people country). Then they’ll trot off to work (after a buttered roll!)  and call the guy who bumps into them on the subway, during their 90 minute commute from their 600SF apt to their job in a 6×6 cubicle, a “fucking cocksucker”.

Cocaine’s a hell of a drug

OK, this is seriously the funniest news story you’ll read today. LOL, how did this not happen in Florida?

I was gonna find one more thing, but I have to end ::takes off glasses:: on a high note.

This goes out to all of those whose bracket is busted.

Have a great day, friends!

Comments

558 responses to “Monday Morning Links”

  1. To finish a conversation from yesterday rudely interrupted by the day job. No, I don’t know you at all.

  2. PieInTheSKy

    Two trains derail and collide in Kentucky. Four people are injured. – no they didn’t not according to the link

    1. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Its right there with a quote and everything.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        They collided and derailed?

        1. Thanks for that.

    1. Brochettaward

      Also, this Fact Check from Polifact came up in my search and made me laugh:

      Trump’s comment oversimplifies donations to the Clinton Foundation to make a quick attack against his Democratic rival. He makes it sound as if Clinton personally received money from foreign governments with poor records on human rights. But political candidates cannot accept donations from foreign governments.

      However, several countries with harsh rules for women and that kill gays have contributed to the Clinton Foundation both before and after her tenure at the State Department.

      1. leonadasiv

        And during… It’s fun to see ‘fact checkers’ twist themselves up to make sure the right facts are presented

        1. AlexinCT

          PLEAZUH!

          These cunts are not fact checkers. They are dnc operatives with fucking bylines.

          1. Count Potato

            This is CNN.

  3. PieInTheSKy

    You want to know what really churns my stomach? The leader of the Glibs March Madness Pick Em Extravaganza is…Banjos. That’s right. My wife, who watches jack shit for basketball all year except for the odd Buckeyes game I’m watching while she sits and twits with the twitterers, is winning the damn thing. – tells ya something about predicting things about the future

    1. Pie, could you do more to differentiate quoted text from your comment in the future? It took me a while to figure out that Banjos had not developed a bigamous relationship with a Romanian night owl.

      1. PieInTheSKy

        Meh seems like a lot of work there…

      2. I am sure he will get right on that. God knows, I would.

        UCS is having difficulty reading?! I MUST CHANGE WHAT I DO!

        1. I was trying to ask politely. If I do nothing he remains a plagarist.

          1. If you do nothing, we remain pleased.

          2. PieInTheSKy

            I generally put a – after the quoted part. Assuming people read the text above they should realize it is quoted. But I am to lazy to put actual italics and the like

          3. I don’t mind. Honestly, if people can’t tell that it was something I wrote just a few moments before, then they either don’t read what I write and go straight to the comments (which is fine) or they’ll figure it out after a response or two refer back to me (also fine).

            Plus, plagiarism is the kindest form of literary flattery.

          4. PieInTheSKy

            I assumed the plagiarism bit was a joke. No one could consider copying a bit of an article and pasting it in the comments plagiarism.

          5. Los Doyers

            “No one could consider copying a bit of an article and pasting it in the comments plagiarism.“

            No one human, at least.

          6. TK

            Are servants human, really? Civil or uncivil

          7. AlexinCT

            Wait wut? People are expected to read the post instead of just the comments?

          8. I mean, I’ve never had trouble separating one from the other, but whatev; the mileage of others may vary. There are a fair number of Glibs who don’t conform to the APA Style Guide for Internet forum posts, but the content’s worth a second or two of mental re-calibration to me.

          9. commodious spittoon

            Assuming people read the text above

            OH, I’M SORRY, I THOUGHT THIS WAS A LIBERTARIAN WEBSITE.

      3. He was giving you bland tect, not those fancy italics.

  4. Private Chipperbot

    MSU scored one bucket in the last six minutes of their game. They shot like 25% for the day. What a miserable thing to listen to on the drive through Ohio yesterday.

    1. Imagine being a Cincinnati-area resident? Two huge choke jobs and now the entire metro area, except those inbreds from “Covington, y’all!” who pull for the Wildcats, are on suicide watch.

      1. Noodlez

        Akshually Florence (where I live and a bit south of Covington) is the city with the “Y’ALL” painted on the water tower.

  5. Mr Lizard

    “and call the guy who bumps into them on the subway, during their 90 minute commute from their 600SF apt to their job in a 6×6 cubicle, a “fucking cocksucker”

    Well at least they have a sense of propriety

    1. a 6×6 cubicle

      *sighs wistfully, returns to fondue mines*

      1. straffinrun

        Oh, yeah? I work in a bento box. With no airholes.


        1. *point awarded to straffinrun*

        2. Pope Jimbo

          That would be great. At my last job I was surrounded by airholes. The developers were the worst. They were huge airholes.

          1. straffinrun

            Gerbil or Hamster?

          2. Hey, wait a sec…well, shit, fair cop. I’m a notorious curmudgeon with a sarcasm problem.

          3. AlexinCT

            What? You one of those coffee chugging, powerpoint & visio diagram shitting architects or something?

        3. bacon-magic

          You don’t know bad til your aitting on a cast iron skillet.

          1. bacon-magic

            Sitting*

          2. AlexinCT

            Did you miss the letter “h”?

      2. Mr Lizard

        a 6×6 cubicle

        *sighs wistfully, returns to fondue mines*

        Ha ha, that’s like the size of my hot rock. You poor corporate-enslaved mammal!

        1. …at least I got moved up from wrapping individual Ricola lozenges.

          1. straffinrun

            Hey, that was Freedom Rock!

          2. Oh, sorry.

            *plugs rock back in to wrong outlet*

          3. Mr Lizard

            You guys are dicks

            *slowly freezes up*

          4. Not news.

            *moves plug back to correct outlet*

  6. Old Man With Candy

    although Lex is hardly hill people country

    It’s worse. Much, much worse.

  7. straffinrun

    Not to be deterred, Ildefonso “insisted that she really wanted a sandwich,”

    She wound up getting the McSplit Wig.

  8. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. I go from wild indian to reservation indian today. Have to report for a new job at 9 today.

    Well it was a good run while it lasted and ice fishing is almost done anyhow.

    1. I just want to say “good luck. We’re all counting on you.”

    2. At least they pay you, right? In second hand rifles and whisky, I presume.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        That was their initial offer (plus squirrel pelts), but my wife said it was a bad deal and insisted on wampum.

        1. MikeS

          “I’m supposed to be up at 6 a.m. in the morning to go to work,” she said. “That ain’t happening.”

          I’ve been there too. Of course, for me it had more to do with alcohol than train derailments.

          1. MikeS

            DAMMIT!

          2. I wondered where that off-track comment belonged.

          3. MikeS

            With a little training, I can get better!

          4. Just watch how you conduct yourself, or the swiss might stare at you.

          5. Los Doyers

            Now Mike is just being railroaded.

          6. Bobarian LMD

            Not to be pouring on the coals, but that is a real kick in the caboose.

      2. mexican sharpshooter

        At least they pay you, right? In second hand rifles and whisky, I presume.

        See, this is why I look forward to the upcoming alien invasion. Sure they may exploit our knowledge of the planet in order to build the start to a small colony, and ultimately subjugate us to reservations in the middle of the high desert.

        That firewater though, will be epic.

    3. bacon-magic

      Condolences?

  9. WTF

    News flash: Teaching kids that no culture can be judged and all actions and mores are equally valid results in them becoming amoral little shits.

    1. “I was stunned: This was the [young] woman who wrote so passionately of saving the whales, of concern for the rain forests, of her rescue and tender care of a stray dog. ‘I really don’t know,’ said Beth; ‘If it was a religion of long standing, [who are we to judge]?’”

      ‘Wherever There Is Animal Worship There Is Human Sacrifice’

    2. Wait a minute. They teach The Lottery in a college literature class? I read that in Jr High.

      LOL, nice system of higher education you got there, California.

      1. WTF

        Yeah, I originally assumed Jr. High as well, because that’s when I was taught it.

      2. Chipwooder

        At first I thought that was a story we had read in 6th grade, but then I realized it was a different but similar one.

    3. Hey, if everything’s relative and there are no absolutes, then received, external standards of conduct are irrelevant. Who are you to say murder is wrong for everyone? We’ll just have to reinvent moral codes via utilitarianism every generation and hope for the best.

      1. AlexinCT

        This precisely was the agenda of those that wanted to create a society where nobody would stop the gulags/reeducation camps..

    4. Count Potato

      This turn off your adblocker crap is getting annoying.

  10. straffinrun

    Bowman said she could not confirm what the substance was but once officials determined there was no safety risks residents were allowed to return home.

    IOW not your average traffic stop.

  11. Trials and Trippelations

    I share your fears Sloopy except things will be even worse in my house where my wife is a Dook fan. Damn it if Dook hasn’t won the last few National Championships due to injuries on better teams or better teams losing early, thus allowing them to skate through easy victories over high seeded teams (although they barely even managed that in 2010).

  12. WTF

    Who could have seen this coming?
    “A man with a violent criminal record is suing a battered women’s shelter for refusing to take him in…after getting drunk and becoming belligerent. So he went to a battered women’s shelter and demanded entry, claiming he identified as a woman. The battered women’s shelter is a faith based organization and it denied him entry. The man, you should know, does not appear to have taken steps to legally change his name nor to have surgery to conform to his supposed gender identity.”

    1. straffinrun

      In fact, if the Hope Center had to admit men, it would not have the physical means to segregate them from the women.

      Hmm, condoms?

        1. Mr Lizard

          Well I doubt they are all that small, but ahem…feel free to keep looking. NTTAWWT

    2. That’s not even the craziest “violent man and battered women” story I’ver seen lately. Not even close.

      Take a ganders at Charlize Theron decrying how she lost her father to gun violence.

      1. WTF

        Confirmed: Charlize Theron is an idiot. Her mother was only able to defend herself against a violent drunk because she had a firearm, so Charlize concludes “gunz r bad!”

        1. I really want to see the idiots at HuffPo dissect that story. They might literally consume themselves. That goes double for the feminist sites.

          1. wdalasio

            They might literally consume themselves. That goes double for the feminist sites.

            I’m not so sure. I’ve never seen anything on any of the feminist or leftist sites that leads me to think they consider even women’s self-defense legitimate. They’d be happy to lionize Theron’s battered mother with their most prestigious award – victim. And they’d be happy to contend that the fact that Theron’s father was a bastard means that all men deserve collective punishment. But, I’m not sure that they’d extend that to the belief that her mother had the right to defend herself like some deplorable.

          2. ^This. Guns are tools of the patriarchy. The most feminist thing Charlize’s mother could have done was to scream “Uterus!” as she is martyred by the drunk male shitlord oppressor.

          3. Psycho Effer

            This story is the perfect opportunity to watch progressives disappear up their own assholes trying to justify why the mother should have allowed herself to be martyred rather than defend herself.

          4. I don’t think so. Progs are at least consistent when it comes to firearms in that way. They won’t bend on the “police are the only ones that should have them” narrative. If faced by a situation like that, you’re supposed to die like a good little prog for the sake of everyone else.

          5. AlexinCT

            Agenda and narrative uber alles!

      2. MikeS

        I read an article where she said that she (Charlize) was also there that night. Her dad was drunk, waving a gun around and threatening both of them, and her mother defended them, with a gun. She credited her mother with “saving her life many times.” But guns are bad, m’kay?

        1. WTF

          Yeah, Charlize’s conclusion based on the facts is so far off-base it isn’t even wrong, she didn’t come up with “2+2=5”, she came up with “2+2=Potato!”

        2. Meh. I can see how one might take away that if Daddy didn’t have a gun then Mommy wouldn’t have had to kill him so guns caused the loss of Dad not the saving of Mom, of course you have to ignore the possibility that Dad may have just beat the shit out of Mom, but at least Charlize would still have an abusive father figure around.

          1. WTF

            Dad could have also beaten Mom to death, and spent the rest of his life in jail, then Charlize wouldn’t have either parent around. A man generally doesn’t need any weapon to kill a woman.

          2. Better her mother die than have to put her hands on the devil weapon.

          3. That’s what kills me dead about the “if there weren’t guns everything would be great” argument. To the best of my knowledge there were no white male shitlords waving AR-15s around during the Thirty Years’ War othering PoCs and wamminz, and yet it wasn’t what you’d call the salad days of central Europe.

      3. invisible finger

        Well I’m sure South Africa has all that shit fixed now so it’s safe for her to go back.

  13. Mustang

    What the fuck, Austin? Can’t even make speculation about that, that’s just pure insanity. I only hope they stop that lunatic soon and that it doesn’t lead to an even bigger right somewhere.

    1. Mustang

      Right = rift.

    2. Mustang

      I’d set up a 24 hour citizens patrol for the neighborhood. Anyone unrecognizable comes near it with so much as a blank stare gets put on the pavement. Fuck that.

      1. A curfew is a panic move when the local PD doesn’t have a plan.

        I’m with you. I realize it’s Austin, but that’s still technically Texas. Let folks do some armed neighborhood watch patrols. No police powers or anything, just people in the neighborhood openly carrying for their own defense in case they come upon a violent nogoodnik. Walk around, chat with folks in the street, and if you see something suspicious, take notes and call the cops.

    3. straffinrun

      Have no idea. How hard is it to create a bomb with a trip wire? Seems like it would take some specialized skill. *And Sat. is cool. I can’t get my mail from my phone.

      1. leonadasiv

        Think of IED’s. They take very little skill too create. Just some creativity.

        1. Atanarjuat

          The survival rate of the unskilled IED fabricators is a bit unenviable, though.

      2. Mustang

        Don’t know. I know setting up trip flares and warnings stuff is pretty straightforward so I imagine an explosive is too.

      3. Old Man With Candy

        It’s easy. I hear that someone in a Boy Scout troop back in the 1960s rigged something like that up. I just heard this, of course, I wouldn’t have any personal knowledge, nossirree.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          *checks OMWC’s nightstand for a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook, finds it sitting under a copy of Tiger Beat*

      4. I mean, a simple one is just an interrupted circuit that completes when the wire is removed, say by someone catching it with their leg as they walk by. Or it’s friction-based, with the wire pulling at something like a bundle of matches between two strike surfaces.

    4. LJW

      Ring doorbell sounds like a good investment right now.

  14. PieInTheSKy

    Millennials replacing engagement rings with diamonds embedded in their fingers

    http://q13fox.com/2018/03/16/millennials-replacing-engagement-rings-with-diamonds-embedded-in-their-fingers/

    1. leonadasiv

      Makes the divorce even more embarrassing.

    2. straffinrun

      Hey babe, you want nine carrots in ya?

      1. trshmnstr

        Neigh

        1. Los Doyers

          ::leads trshmnster behind the barn with 12 gauge::

          1. Hey! It’s not as if he broke his leg.

          2. mexican sharpshooter

            Like a proper Doyers fan, Los Doyers will break his legs first.

    3. Something tells me this “trend” is a miniscule number of people who are already prone to perforating their bodies with metal implements.

      1. Rasilio

        This one guy with like 32 followers posted about it on twitter so that like totally makes it a trend and newsworthy

    4. Old Man With Candy

      Mine were on the soles of her shoes.

      1. Chipwooder

        Yeah, but people say you’re crazy

        1. Bobarian LMD

          But it’s one way to get rid of those walkin’ blues.

  15. leonadasiv

    Got a ‘survey’ from the state asking about my recent home purchase. From what I can tell it’s not compulsory, so fuck that shit.

    1. If you didn’t sign for it, shred it.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Like I do with my jury duty summonses.

        1. AlexinCT

          Meh, I solved that problem by going there and then saying bullshit when the judge instructed the crowd that the People’s Republic of Connecticut didn’t allow jury nullification. I told everyone it was our constitutional right to tell these uppity fucks to shove it if we thought they were fucking someone over for no good reason, and while she threatened me with contempt of court only to make me laugh at her, I have never again been asked to come in again.

          1. mexican sharpshooter

            OOOOOOOOOH. Threaten me by throwing me in jail overnight? Thank you for making my point.

          2. Number.6

            “Come and see the violence inherent in the system!”

    2. Bobarian LMD

      I got something like that… but it actually was something from a refinancing company. Microscopic fine-print on the back.

  16. Drake

    The Mueller fishing expedition is out of hand. Rosenstein or Sessions had better put some scope limits on the guy or just fire him. I think it has turned into a stalling operation. Obviously their needs to be a complete house-cleaning at Justice and the FBI but it can’t happen while Mueller is politicizing everything.

    Saw CNN over the weekend at the gym. They have completely lost their mask and won’t even mention why McCabe was fired. If You Are a Fed Official, Perjury Is ‘Lacking Candor’

    1. straffinrun

      “I answered questions as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me.”

      Sounds like the excuse a husband uses when his wife comes in and busts up his orgy.

    2. AlexinCT

      I think it has turned into a stalling operation.

      Actually what it is, is a scam to keep the whole Russia collusion that the deep state needs to undermine Trump-Putin from running the country the way Obama did.

  17. PieInTheSKy

    Male contraceptive pill reports successful results from Phase 1 clinical trials

    https://newatlas.com/male-birth-control-pill-clinical-trial-results/53859/

    1. straffinrun

      Tell them you’re a drummer?

    2. Mr Lizard

      Make em jump up and down afterwards?…

    3. I call that beer #6. Whiskey dick has cost me some short-term embarrassment but provided countless bad decisions mitigated.

    4. Juvenile Bluster

      There are sometimes “positive results” form Phase 1 trials, but Phase 1 trials are just for dosing and safety. You can’t prove efficacy from a phase 1 trial.

    1. Trials and Trippelations

      The worst part of the bracket challenge after the first weekend is seeing your rank is one or two and knowing that it only goes downhill from here

      1. That’s me in my family’s pool. I was #1 for about two hours yesterday, and that’s with UVA going all the way.

  18. Monday morning can only be salvaged by tits.

    http://archive.is/876zi

    17’s outfit turns me on for reasons I don’t understand.

    1. Evan from Evansville

      There are some true gems in there….and a significant number of them have killed before and will kill again.

      See also: 9, 16. 32 is actively trying to murder me. I’d let her (try).

      Also. Ten is absolutely intoxicating to look at. 42 is a pro. Hit Me Baby One More Time, indeed. 40 is a modern Audrey Hepburn with a rack.

  19. Drake

    THE HIGHER ED CRACK UP BEGINS

    My son is in High School and views much of the news on colleges as pure madness. He wants an education but not at an insane asylum.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      To which I would say, you’d be astounded at how politicized some foreign language departments are.

      No shit, this was true 30 years ago. I got into it with one of the Hispanics Studies profs because I was taking Portuguese as an elective. I wasn’t serious enough about Hispanic Studies in general for her tastes, a crime for which she proceeded to rant at me for in front of the entire class.

    2. Well, the social sciences have completely embarrassed themselves by jettisoning any semblance of objectivity and Enlightenment-style rational inquiry. It’s a tired bromide, but they really have just become indoctrination factories.

      It’s a shame because it is possible to have courses of study in the humanities and social sciences be useful and non-politicized (psychology, political science, philosophy, literature, linguistics et. al.) but they have been subsumed by radical “(blank)-studies” departments that only teach grievance mongering and Marxism.

  20. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I educated my wife and son on the legal obligations of the police to protect you this weekend, namely that there aren’t any. They were in the middle of a Judicial Watch video talking about proper training for police concerning school shooters. I was a little surprised that Judicial Watch was taking the position that police need better training, etc… and not mentioning that the police don’t have to protect you.

    My wife was not a believer at first, but a little googling and a few minutes later she was mortified.

    1. straffinrun

      Yeah, that one always throws the normies for a loop. “You mean they don’t have to help me?”.

  21. Rufus the Monocled

    This year I had to hastily get my picks in and noticed I messed up by picking ‘Nove twice. My plan was to take Duke or Kansas in the other.

    I also hate myself like a millennial for letting myself be talked into Arizona and MSU. I hate no intentions of having those two in the FF. But there they are.

    I also wasn’t crazy about sending Virginia into the final in one of my brackets but holy moss peat did they talk them up. My worst performance yet.

    THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!

    These are one-offs and we should pick accordingly. That’s why more often than not people who don’t follow the sport do well. There’s no analysis by paralysis.

  22. Rufus the Monocled

    Norm MacDonald on comedy in the age of Trump.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olkgPzlh5A8

    As usual, Norm meanders seemingly aimlessly and then crystallizes it like no other at the end. Basically, anyone who does is a lazy hack idiot.

    1. straffinrun

      I was watching some of his old stuff today. He killed me with two words: “Justifiable Genocide”.

      1. He killed me with two words: “Justifiable Genocide”.

        So you’re saying you got what you deserved?

    2. straffinrun

      I’ve never seen him serious the almost the entire interview. Amazing. Thanks for the post.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        Just a guess on my part but it sounds as though he called out the late night comedy crew.

  23. I’m bringing this back up from yesterday:
    List the people who would be on the Mt Rushmore of your college’s athletics dept. gotta have multiple sports (3 or more) and it can be 4 or 5 people.

    1. Drake

      O. J. Simpson
      Reggie Bush

      Randy Johnson
      Fred Lynn
      Marcus Allen
      Carson Palmer
      Matt Leinart
      Ronnie Lott

      1. Drake

        Or:
        Mark McGwire
        Cheryl Miller
        Clay Matthews (either of them)
        Junior Seau
        Anthony Muñoz
        Lynn Swann

    2. Red Grange, Dick Butkus, George Halas, Ray Nitschke, Johnny “Red” Kerr.

      1. ^^this^^ is a solid list.

    3. robc

      Coaches:

      Heisman, Dodd, Cremins, Shelton.

      Football, football, basketball, women’s tennis.

      As the NCAA doesn’t award any football national titles above FCS level, the only NCAA team national title GT has is women’s tennis in 2007. Our golf coach would go up there if he could ever get over the hump and win it all.

      Players:

      Bobby Jones (suck it Tiger, that is the real Grand Slam), Calvin Johnson, Dennis Scott (there are probably better players in basketball to choose, but this is my list), Clint Castleberry.

      1. That’s a good golf choice. Let’s see how I match up:

        Jack Nicklaus (the GOAT)
        Jesse Owens (5 world records and tied a 6th in a 45 minute span. Plus the 1936 Olympics)
        John Havlicek (or do I go with George Lucas?)
        Archie Griffin (only man with two Heismans)
        Kyle Snyder (already might be the greatest American wrestler ever)

        Thanks for playing, everybody.

        1. robc

          Jack Nicklaus (the GOAT)

          You know, except for the golfer I listed.

          1. robc

            Just a followup question — how many times did Nicklaus win the US Open and British Open AS AN AMATEUR?

          2. He won his first US Open when he was the same age as when Jones won his first. But he’d already won the US Amateur two times before the age Jones was when he won his first.

          3. Yeah…gonna have to agree to disagree. Bobby Jones was awesome, but the level of competition wasn’t nearly as great.

          4. robc

            By that standard, how does Jesse Owens rank against modern sprinters?

          5. robc

            In other words, that is a stupid standard.

            In every sport the athletes are better today than they were in the 1930s. But they can only compete against what they are up against.

            The golf fields were the same size then as now. You compete against what you compete against.

          6. Comparing golf and track are different animals. One you have to compare people relative to their competition level (golf) because they play against a field. The other you can compare them against a stopwatch.

            Jones played in an era when many of the best in his sport remained amateur. And overseas travel wasn’t convenient and kept fields from being filled with the best players. Jack played when more players traveled to the British Open and the overwhelming majority of the best players were professional.

          7. robc

            Plus, The Masters >>>>> The Memorial

          8. Nicklaus won his professional tournaments against the best of his generation every time he played in a major. Jones played some watered-down fields, especially in the British Open and amateur championships because a lot of the best Americans didn’t make the trip or had turned pro and weren’t eligible
            for one of the two.
            Jones also got to count his US Amateur wins as majors even though Sarazen, Hagen and many others were playing the PGA tour and not eligible.

            Jones was one of the three greatest golfers of all time but I still think Jack edges him out based on the level of competition he had to beat relative to Jones’s. But your arguments are valid and the difference between the two is paper-thin.

          9. Am Sock

            Gonna have to disagree with both of you slightly. Nicklaus and Jones are both iconic figures to the game of golf and I’m a big fan of both, but Tiger is the GOAT in my opinion. I’m not even much of a Tiger fan but I truly believe he is the best to ever play, or at least was before his life fell apart.

        2. robc

          Castleberry finished 3rd in the Heisman as a freshman, then left school to fight in WW2 and his bomber disappeared over North Africa.

          Only retired football number at GT.

          Its a freakin tough standard to reach.

        3. robc

          Do you get negative points for having to claim Bobby Knight?

          1. Are we supposed to hate Knight because some pussy claimed he choked him?

          2. robc

            No, that was one of the few things I liked about him.

          3. robc

            Inflicted Coach K upon the world might be his biggest sin.

            The fact that they don’t get along is just because they are too similar.

        4. spqr2008

          Jerry Lucas. And you should go with him over Havlicek, because Lucas is the only basketball player to have won a championship in high school, college, the NBA, and the Olympics.

      2. F. Stupidity Jr.

        Bobby Jones (suck it Tiger, Jack, Player, Hogan, Sarazen, that is the real Grand Slam)

        Fixed for completeness.

    4. LJW

      Terrance Newman
      Jordy Nelson
      Darren Sproles
      Ryan Lilja
      Mitch Richmond
      Lon Kruger
      Rolando Blackman
      Earl Woods

    5. MikeS

      Phil Jackson
      Dave Osborn
      Eddie Belfour
      Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux (might be NSFW)

      I thought about adding Jonathan Toews and/or Zach Parise instead of the Lamoureux Twins, but they get the edge for being hometown girls. And for being twins. And for posing in the 2017 ESPN Body Issue. And would.

    6. Trials and Trippelations

      Michael Jordan
      Mia Hamm
      Vince Carter
      Julius Peppers

      1. Creosote Achilles

        Lawrence Taylor
        Dean Smiith
        Anson Dorrance

        replacing Vince and Peppers on your list.

    7. Pope Jimbo

      Golden Rodents
      Myhal Thompson
      Kevin McHale
      Carl Eller
      Bobby Bell
      Lindsey Whalen

      1. Chipwooder

        No Dave Winfield? Drafted in three sports!

    8. Chipwooder

      Ralph Sampson, Henry Jordan, Claudio Reyna, Ryan Zimmerman, Steele Stanwick

      1. robc

        You should put Chaminade and UMBC on your Rushmore.

        1. Chipwooder

          Go to hell and take Scott Sisson with you!!!!

    9. trshmnstr

      Drew Brees/Bob Griese/Rod Woodson (Football)
      Glenn Robinson/Rick Mount/John Wooden (Basketball)
      David Boudia/Steele Johnson (Diving)
      Neil Armstrong (Moonwalking) (Yes, we consider space exploration a sport at Purdue)

      1. F. Stupidity Jr.

        Who hit the golf ball on the moon? That’s the true lunar sportsman.

    10. Old Man With Candy

      Ilya Smirin
      Alan Sherman
      Richard Tan
      Ewa Harazinska
      Tanguy Ringoir

      1. F. Stupidity Jr.

        Every time I hear or read Smirin’s name, I think of this incident.

    11. Red Pill Matt

      Earl Campbell
      Kevin Durant
      Roger Clemens
      Ben Crenshaw
      Mary Lou Retton

    12. KibbledKristen

      Some swimmers, soccer players, basketball. As for names? No fucking clue.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Did some Googling:

        Sergio Lopez (swimming)
        Fred Hviid (swimming)
        Avery John (soccer)
        Garrison Carr (basketball)
        Stephen Lumpkins (basketball)

    13. Bobarian LMD

      Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard, Pete Dawkins?

    14. B.P.

      Hmmm….

      Byron “Whizzer” White
      Rashan Salaam
      Chauncey Billups
      Hale Irwin
      Billy Kidd

      1. robc

        Byron “Whizzer” White

        IIRC, he was the highest paid player in the NFL in his day.

  24. Drake

    Australia Welcomes African Refugees

    Skilled refugees who will assimilate, work, and contribute to the economy. Sounds like a great idea.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Good on Australia, now if we could just do the same.

      1. AlmightyJB

        Do we really need more “farmers” to pay not to grow things.

        1. Drake

          You could just let them growth stuff. Maybe sell it to Africa since they won’t have any farmers.

          1. AlmightyJB

            In a few years at most, they’re not going to have anything to buy food with. South Africa is the next Venezuela. I hope to hell we don’t give them a dime. Let the commies starve.

          2. Drake

            Gold, diamonds, coffee and cacao. I assume those industries will continue while the sub-continent sinks into per-historic conditions.

  25. robc

    Order is important. It looks like the trains collided then derailed, although I was amused at the possibility of the other order. The odds of that happening would be like, oh, UMBC beating UVA.

    1. Given the low casualty numbers I’m guessing the trains were going the same way and the one in back went “This other guy is driving too slow” and tried to push him.

    2. robc

      I see Pie beat me to it by a bunch. Stupid Europeans and their time traveling ways.

    3. Chipwooder

      You’re not a nice person.

      1. robc

        See upthread, I am even worse than you think.

  26. Banjos

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

    1. AlmightyJB

      Lol

  27. PieInTheSKy

    The Guardian view on free speech online: let law decide the limits
    Editorial

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/18/the-guardian-view-on-free-speech-online-let-law-decide-the-limits?CMP=twt_gu

    The standards by which the internet is controlled need to be open and subject to impartial judiciaries – not left to advertisers – what is an impartial judiciary I wonder

    The revelations we publish about how Facebook’s data was used by Cambridge Analytica to subvert the openness of democracy are only the latest examples of a global phenomenon . – I never saw any evidence this Cambridge Analytica had any effect whatsoever

    All over the world, governments are coming to grips with the destructive power of social media. In recent weeks, Sri Lanka, Britain, Indonesia and Myanmar have all seen measures taken against hate-speech campaigns – great examples there . Sad britain is in that list

    1. “Hate speech” = anything the current government doesn’t like, usually criticism of it or a favored voting bloc.

      1. AlexinCT

        This man won the internets..

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Wylie oversaw what may have been the first critical breach. Aged 24, while studying for a PhD in fashion trend forecasting, he came up with a plan to harvest the Facebook profiles of millions of people in the US, and to use their private and personal information to create sophisticated psychological and political profiles. And then target them with political ads designed to work on their particular psychological makeup.

      “We ‘broke’ Facebook,” he says.

      And he did it on behalf of his new boss, Steve Bannon.

      “Is it fair to say you ‘hacked’ Facebook?” I ask him one night.

      He hesitates. “I’ll point out that I assumed it was entirely legal and above board.”

      In other words, Cambridge Analytica was lawfully advertising targeted political views using personality profiles. This isn’t news. In fact, I would bet money that Democratic sponsors did the same thing, and if they didn’t, they’re slapping themselves over not doing so.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        This is an incredibly dangerous trend, where governments are actively calling for the cultivation and weeding of political thought on the prevalent media venue of the day.

        1. Just Say’n

          The more dangerous trend is that those who benefit from a liberal interpretation of free speech, mainly the news media, are openly cheer-leading this nonsense

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        There seems to a slight clarification. Cambridge harvested that data using robots, which is probably in violation of Facebook’s TOS. The only potential crime here is that Cambridge violated a contract, and that contract is only applicable if they entered into an agreement with Facebook, which they may not have. Facebook, however, has let their users get harvested because they didn’t protect their data well enough. Given that Facebook users have a very poor definition of privacy, which is defined by posting personal information on the internet and expecting everyone else to not look at it, this just seems to me to be a case of lost revenue for Facebook.

        1. robc

          Still wouldnt (shouldnt) be a crime, it would be a civil offense at worst. Facebook and/or users could sue for damages if they violated TOS.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Yes, the DNC bragged incessantly about their massive database of voter preferences.

          This is sour grapes of the worst sort.

          1. Pope Jimbo

            As I told a friend the other day, if people were completely helpless to resist marketing, we’d all be guzzling New Coke while driving around in our Edsels.

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            *hides Veg-O-Matic*

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Australia Welcomes African Refugees

    Such racist. So privilege.

  29. Drake

    Prince Harry is a fucking retard, although I doubt the British courts would side with an American divorcee when things go south.

    1. I wouldn’t bet 15 mil on it.

    2. Floridaman

      Doesn’t really matter who they side with, she’ll just die in a car crash.

      1. Drake

        Heh. She better keep that in mind.

    3. spqr2008

      You never know, he might go back to the Tudor ways…. Off with Her Head!

    4. Gadfly

      Buried in the article was this key fact:

      Prenups are not legally enforceable in the UK, but are increasingly taken into account during divorce cases.

      So, yeah, there’s no point in signing something that’s not legally enforceable, and when you’re royalty the courts are probably going to be favorable to you anyway.

      1. Number.6

        This is hardly revolutionary. In the event of a divorce, the government pays a stipend to former royals by marriage.

        If Sarah Ferguson hadn’t been an utter fuckwit, she could have lived comfortably if not opulently from her government-paid settlement from Prince Andrew.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          C’mon now, everybody knows drunken gingers are good with money.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    All over the world, governments are coming to grips with the destructive power of social media.

    Oogah boogah!

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Everything I know about Lexington, I learned from watching “Justified”. I bet Boyd Crowder put a bomb on the tracks as a diversion. Was there a bank robbery across town?

    1. Plinker762

      I thought the Germans bombed the Lexington?

  32. PieInTheSKy

    Female orgasm and the emergence of prosocial empathy: An evo-devo perspective.

    Abstract

    In human females, direct or indirect stimulation of the clitoris plays a central role in reaching orgasm. A majority of women report that penetrative coitus alone is insufficient for triggering orgasm, puzzling researchers who expect orgasm to be an outcome of procreative intercourse. In the present paper, we turn our attention to the evolutionary role that such unreliability of orgasm at coitus might have played in human evolution. We emphasize that we do not thereby attempt an explanation of its origin, but its potential evolutionary effect. The present proposal suggests that the variable female orgasm, the position of the clitoris remote from the vagina, and the mismatch of the male refractory period with the female capacity for multiple orgasms, may have contributed to the evolution of human prosocial qualities.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29537732?dopt=Abstract

  33. The Late P Brooks

    This is an incredibly dangerous trend, where governments are actively calling for the cultivation and weeding of political thought on the prevalent media venue of the day.

    They don’t call it “totalitarianism” for nothing.

  34. Just Say’n

    https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/975370837565018113

    Rand Paul says “what of it?” Trashing Brennan, the new media darling.

    1. Chipwooder

      It amazes me how much people like to nitpick Rand constantly when he’s in the right so much more than the wrong. Only senator worth a shit and yet some people do nothing but contort themselves to find minor things to criticize him about.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Intellectual consistency is difficult and incompatible with TEAM.

        1. Count Potato

          This is true.

      2. Bob Boberson

        What amazes me is libertarians need to nitpick Rand. I mean, I know the cosmos never had any real use for him because he’s icky but it drives me crazy how ‘right-libertarians’ will talk about his Dad like he was the second coming of Christ but act like Rand is insufficiently pure and therefore only worthy of scorn. I get really tired of hearing Ron Paul get interviewed and wondering how the hosts have the balls to ask him “So what now that we have no liberty minded politicians in Washington?”

        1. Just Say’n

          Look, let’s just face it, the ‘libertarians’ that criticize Paul are the same ones that get upset when the Republicans try to de-fund Planned Parenthood or when Trump trashes NATO. They are neoliberals. Let’s just stop referring to them as ‘libertarian’. Let’s just be honest. Defending Uber and food trucks is not enough to justify your contention that you want smaller government when you cheer lead the expansion of government everywhere else.

          1. Bob Boberson

            So cosmos….I get it and I don’t consider them ‘real’ libertarians. I’m talking about the Ron Paul cheerleaders who like to act like his son doesn’t exist or was forever lost on the 2016 campaign trail. It really bothers me how he’s been labeled as ‘insufficiently pure’ by the Mises crowd.

          2. straffinrun

            They were disappointed that he didn’t come out with both barrels blazing like his Dad did for decades and I understand that disappointment. As much support as his Dad got in 2008 and 2012, it was tough for them to understand why he didn’t stay with his Dad’s strategy. It’s unfair because he isn’t his Dad and if he were from some unknown family I think they would’ve loved him. They are coming around, though. They’ve been gushing about him all week.

          3. Bob Boberson

            I’ve noticed that too. I hope they do come around. I agree that his campaign strategy obviously did not generate the enthusiasm we all hoped for but I chalk that up more to the (IMO intentionally) crowded field, the media deliberately treating him as a minor candidate, Trump stealing every debate highlight with junior-high insults, etc.

          4. Chipwooder

            Same here.

      3. Count Potato

        Has anyone seen Ken lately?

        1. R C Dean

          I haven’t noticed him around.

          We tend to give him a hard time, but (a) I think its been mostly good-natured and (b) I’ve always appreciated his willingness to lay out his thinking in detail. Hopefully its just a temporary distraction, like work or a bad illness, and nothing serious like he got pissed off for some reason.

          1. Rebel Scum

            He’s been over at Reason.

      4. Just Say’n

        Fonzie: Ron Wyden is the most libertarian-y senator ever. Despite the fact that he behaves like a partisan hack and only cares about government abuse and war when a Republican is in the White House, he’s pro-choice and that’s all this neoliberal cares about. *Thumbs up* Ayeeeeeeeeeee

        1. WTF

          Ron Wyden is the Nick Gillespie of libertarian senators.

      5. Endless Mike

        He’s my fave, but I think Mike Lee and Steve Daines are also worth a shit.

    2. straffinrun

      Go get him, Rand.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Police kept residential streets on lockdown, gradually expanding their barricades and closing off all roads into the neighborhood.

    Before daybreak on Monday, Austin police pushed another alert to cellphones advising residents to continue staying indoors and to call 911 if they needed to leave their homes before 10am.

    AUSTIN STRONG.

  36. AlmightyJB

    Coke chick has some cute dimples. Would.

  37. Rebel Scum

    Also order residents to stay inside until 10 am (what the fuck for?)

    Control.

  38. Evan from Evansville

    I got to play one last song with one of my old bands as my friend and his wife are leaving in a week. We’ve been playing together since 2010. Sad.

    More sad is that I didn’t play very well. Played Say It Ain’t So by Weezer, an old standard from the day. I nailed it in practice but playing live for the first time in 3 months (and except for that practice the first time even behind a kit) and playing live and that loud/hard meant that I had to forego many flourishes that I had in my head. I didn’t fuck up, tho. Just not as good as I wanted.

    Another long night with hot British dreadlock girl. I’m officially absolutely confused. We hung out until 2:15pm just talking in her apartment after leaving the show at like midnight or 1am. Didn’t make a move, cuz last time I got firmly rebuffed. I was determined to not make one. Maybe that was stupid.

    I did get her to handshake agree to come with me to some islands of the west coast this weekend. Not sure if she will renege or not. Purposefully doing The Opposite and not asking. Will have to soon. Very tiny place with no foreigners and a beautiful sunset. Almost no cars and you bike over bridges from island to island. Could be pivotal.

    Fuck this crushing on someone shit. It’s been a long time. My brain is literally broken and it’s very hard to think about anything else. It’s also really weird because I haven’t been lusting after her, though she is gorgeous.

    These pretzels. Are making me thirsty!!!

    1. Private Chipperbot

      I think it’s time to just ‘take it out’.

    2. Number.6

      I hear and sympathize. Part of the answer is how far she let you get before she shut you down. Part of the answer lies in how self-absorbed she is.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    In the present paper, we turn our attention to the evolutionary role that such unreliability of orgasm at coitus might have played in human evolution.

    Practice, practice, practice.

    1. Pope Jimbo

      Maybe the lack of predictable orgasms gave women the edge in sex negotiations?

      “Sure we can have sex, but I get to stay back in the cave and talk with my friends while you and the other guys go out to poke big animals with pointy sticks. Whoever brings me back some food gets more sex.”

      If the cave women were dick whipped the same as the guys, they would never have been able to sell that bargain.

  40. PieInTheSKy

    The zen of hens: the rise and rise of chicken-keeping

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/18/zen-of-hens-rise-of-chicken-keeping

    Thousands of people across Britain now keep poultry as pets – and it can be life-changing

    “People are looking for a pet that’s a bit different. But eggs are still the big draw, as people don’t trust the food chain and this gives them the chance to really connect with where their food is coming from.” For now, he says, “keeping chickens is overwhelmingly a hobby for southerners, although the city with the largest growth is Glasgow, with sales up 1,400% in the last 12 months.” Like Raymond, Paul, too, has given up eating chicken. “It would be like eating one of your colleagues,” he says.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      It would be like eating one of your colleagues

      Is that wrong?

      And, obligatory

      1. AlmightyJB

        Now I’m always going to think my food is cold.

  41. TWIMC, As a precaution against another drunken rant, a little heads-up – I resubmitted the article proposal, so ‘check your spam folder, yo.’

    1. AlmightyJB

      Lol

    2. Pope Jimbo

      ::snort::

      1. AlmightyJB

        I’m having nightmares.

  42. The Other Kevin

    Great sports weekend (mostly) for TOK and friends. While my wife’s roller derby team lost their home opener, my sled hockey team went 4-0 this weekend and we won our league championship. A far cry from last year, when we only won 1 game in this tournament. Team USA won gold in sled hockey, with a 2-1 OT nail biter. A Canadian player hit the post on an empty net, then USA scored to tie the game with :40 left in regulation. Crazy.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      That player is gonna be haunted for the rest of his life. Missing an open netter is sin.

      Shit, I’m still haunted by having missed a spot kick in shoot out that could have won us the championship in soccer when I was 14.

      1. Spartacus

        That’s one of the reasons I liked playing GK. No pressure on penalties…if you save one you’re a hero, if you don’t everyone just shrugs.

    2. The Other Kevin

      After the game they showed one Canadian player crying his eyes out, and I’d guess it was that guy. Sucks that he worked hard for 4 years to get to this point, and this was his defining moment.

      Earlier this season I put the puck in my own net and that still haunts me. It doesn’t help that my teammates still mention it at least once a weekend.

  43. MikeS

    This popped up in my “you might like” picks on Amazon (I have no idea why) and I thought of you people…

    1. AlmightyJB

      Ewwww…. / teenage girl

  44. The Late P Brooks

    So triggering

    Many of the young people protesting guns right now seem to have very little knowledge about gun rules and regulations. Guns can be used safely. My family and I talk frequently about firearms and how they should be used. I have a younger brother, and we teach him the rights and wrongs of firearm safety — and, of course, never to use guns to hurt people.

    It’s hard to talk about guns, as well as about hunting and farming, at school because no one there knows much about those three topics. They’ve been told not to touch or talk about guns, and some of the kids think it is just absolutely wrong for people to own them.

    ———-

    Also, if we can teach students about sex and about drug and alcohol abuse, why can’t we teach them about firearm safety? If we can be shown pictures of penises and vaginas, why can’t we have a couple of police officers come in and show us an unloaded gun and talk about how to keep us safe?

    That class would be for high school students, but if the school district thought it was working it could be spread to younger students. When I was 10, I took a hunter safety class through the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department at a nearby elementary school at night. It was free to everyone who was interested, and it was very safe because guns were not allowed to be loaded while on school property.

    I think the people who are afraid of guns should talk to the people who are familiar with them, and both should keep an open mind. Even if people on the other side don’t agree, they need to be respectful, listen, be honest and not get upset with the other person.

    Dakota Hanchett is a junior at Hanover High School.

    NYT publishes high school deplorable.

    1. AlmightyJB

      “why can’t we have a couple of police officers come in”

      Cause that really would be dangerous. How about Valor Ridge instead?

    2. Amazingly, the comments are only half dumpster fire.

      Probably because even typical smug, provincial know-it-all NYT readers are not 100% comfortable shitting all over a 16 year old and calling him a Nazi. If this had been written by a 25 year old, it would be a completely different story in which the commenters would be calling for him to be led up to the guillotine.

      1. Rebel Scum

        I perused the comments a bit and I saw a lot of “why does anyone need” or “my hunter father never needed”. It ain’t about needs. That is, in a sense, anyway. I do need a modern technology rifle to be an adequately armed citizen in the militia.

    3. Rebel Scum

      Many of the young people protesting guns right now seem to have very little knowledge about gun rules and regulations.

      You don’t say.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Aaaaaand… the comments-

    Monica Berserk NYC 36 minutes ago

    We need to hear more from the oppressed but blameless gun-hugging minority who, paradoxically enough, have had carte blanche in setting gun policy for more than a decade.

    Indeed.

    1. spqr2008

      Appropriate last name.

    2. Rebel Scum

      gun-hugging minority who, paradoxically enough, have had carte blanche in setting gun policy

      It’s almost like the guys with the guns make the rules…

  46. The Late P Brooks

    PattieH Vermont 37 minutes ago

    1- Shooting students with an automatic assault weapon is NOT a request for help.

    2- Do you hunt cows and chickens? I don’t believe that’s common practice. If you hunt cows or chickens with assault weapons, then perhaps you need help.

    3- Gun dealers are in the business of selling guns to make their living. They want to sell guns. They are not mental health experts and don’t have the knowledge or expertise to know if a potential buyer is mentally ill, nor would they want to be responsible for making that judgement.

    4- Hunting with a shotgun is very different from using a weapon of war. Assault weapons should be banned, except for private use.

    There’s a well thought out, rational response.

    1. Semi-Spartan Dad

      Assault weapons should be banned, except for private use

      So they are saying private individuals should be able to buy ‘assault weapons’ but not any government services (including military and police)?

      1. AlmightyJB

        I approve

      2. Just Say’n

        Hey, if that’s their point than I agree. WTF- I love progressives now!

    2. Just Say’n

      Judging by this person’s comment, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that they’ve never shot a gun and they know no one who owns a gun. Why in the world would someone hunt cows and chickens? The last time I saw a wild cow was in a small town outside of Rome where they just wander around the mountains.

      1. AlmightyJB

        It’s always funny how they think of of these guns as some sort of super weapons. You are not permitted to hunt deer in most states if not all with an AR, not because its so powerful but because it’s not powerful enough. .223 is a varmint round designed for woodchucks and coyotes.

        1. Just Say’n

          “Shooting students with an automatic assault weapon is NOT a request for help”

          I also think it’s funny that they believe automatic weapons are currently legal for purchase and widely available. I say everyone just shut-up and just have Congress pass the exact same existing law related to automatic weapons. Our news media is so ignorant that they wouldn’t even realize that it’s a useless law and all the gun grabbers will be elated.

          But, we all need to shut-up and not tell them that this law already exists. We can just snicker when the President signs it

        2. The Other Kevin

          That’s a great idea. For example, I’m all for a ban on automatic machine guns, except when the buyer has a special, hard to get license. We should pass common sense gun laws like that.

      2. The Other Kevin

        I read an article recently where the interviewed a firearms expert, and he said we were lucky these kids are choosing their guns because they look cool. He’s afraid that if they start banning things, the next shooter will stumble into using something that’s more effective.

        1. Chipwooder

          I can believe that. Once someone goes on a spree with a Vepr, they’re going to wish he had stuck to an AR.

          1. ^^^This. A Vepr-12 or Saiga and multiple magazines filled with 00-buckshot would be an absolute killing machine in close quarters like a school hallway.

    3. Drake

      What students (since Beslan) were shot with an automatic weapon?

      Never heard of the M1014 shotgun I take it.

    4. Chipwooder

      A shotgun is not a “weapon of war”? Coulda fooled the doughboys who fought in the trenchs with Winchester 1897s.

      1. AlmightyJB

        If you go to Camp David, soldier at gate has an 870.

        1. Chipwooder

          When I was stuck on gate guard duty for a few months at MCAS Yuma in 2004, I carried the Benelli M1014 Drake mentioned above.

          1. AlmightyJB

            How did you like it?

          2. Chipwooder

            Didn’t really get to fire it but a couple of times of “fam firing” because I was TAD, it was only going to be a couple of months and I’d have no reason to have a shotgun after guard duty ended.

    5. Drake

      Didn’t Richard Farley use a shotgun? At least John Boy did in the movie version.

    6. Rebel Scum

      different from using a weapon of war.

      I suppose I can’t get that Brown Bess I have been wanting seeing as it is a weapon of war that was used in a lot of war for at least a century…

  47. Rasilio

    Two trains derail and collide in Kentucky. Four people are injured.

    Wait, is this some of that common core math? How am I supposed to solve this without knowing what time they left the station and how fast they were going?

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Engineer Rasmussen is driving his train eastbound at 100 mph. Unfortunately, Engineer O’Malley, who may have had a few Guinesses for lunch, is driving HIS train on the same track westbound at 95 mph. They are currently 2 miles apart and heading toward one another. But they do not crash.

      Explain.

      1. The doctor was his mother?

        1. Old Man With Candy

          Peacocks don’t lay eggs? They don’t bury the survivors?

          C’mon, you can do better.

          1. “I was talking to the chicken.”?

      2. There are switching points a half mile in from either train that shunt both to parallel tracks because the computer wasn’t drunk.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          Nope, it’s straight track, no switches or spurs, try again.

          1. Rasmussen is dead and driving a ghost train – he passes right through O’Malley’s train, and no one believes O’Malley, as he’s a known drunk.

          2. Old Man With Candy

            Cue Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter joke here.

      3. KibbledKristen

        The dress was blue!

        1. Old Man With Candy

          You’re the closest so far.

          OK here’s the answer:

          Because Norse is Norse and souse is souse, and never the trains shall meet.

      4. Timeloose

        Trains have brakes. Engineers have eyes and can see the other train.
        Both engineers apply brakes at 2 miles away-> Assumes trains 1 and 2 can both brake from 100mph to 0 in <1 mile.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          My answer was better.

      5. One switches tracks before the collision point.

        1. He already rejected that sort of common-sense response.

          1. Wait you guys aren’t giving joke answers? You’re seriously guessing, I thought this was one of the oldest brain teasers out there.

          2. If the question calls for a serious response – answer witha joke. If the question calls for a silly response – answer it seriously.

          3. Bobarian LMD

            Hitler?

            No, wait, I mean… Hitler.

  48. Just Say’n

    A helpful hint on voting. If a candidate has been endorsed by a teacher’s union, vote against that person.

    *This has been a public service announcement*

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Charlotte united kingdom 49 minutes ago

    you say that people are the issue, not the guns, but please tell me why the only thing that the shooters have in common is ownership of a deadly firearm. if guns aren’t the issue then why isn’t there another common denominator other than them. I also understand why other kids are scared of you for owning guns because in this day and age, I would be too.

    Those mass murderers all grew up wearing shoes, didn’t they? Let’s ban shoes, just in case.

    1. WTF

      I bet this same person fails to see any connection between Islam and terrorism, though.

    2. Ok, I’ll suspend the snark long enough to treat the argument seriously. Shooters by definition at least possess a firearm, and firearms are all deadly in the sense that any of them can be used to kill someone. Charlotte’s positing that there is no other common denominator. Let’s look at that last point.

      If we’re talking about all shooting ever, then yes, having a gun is the only common denominator, but that’s a truism that doesn’t do us much good. Let’s look at mass shootings, which is probably what Charlotte means. Now we have a few more items in common. For one, there’s the issue of mental health; many mass shooters have had at least intermittent mental health issues. For another, there’s the “outsider” factor; most if not all mass shooters were socially isolated for at least some period of time up to the point of the shooting, having some quality about themselves that they felt made them unwelcome among their peer group and that drove them to take revenge against that group. I believe all of them have been men.

      Now, unless you’re a lunatic feminist, you wouldn’t say that maleness made these people kill. For one thing, there’s no causal link, which is to say there’s no mechanism by which the property of being male could compel a person to kill multiple people. Let’s look at the gun, then. On a gut level, it feels right, because a gun shoots bullets. The gun is the murder weapon. But, again, there’s no causal mechanism. There are millions of gun owners in America who never have and never will fire a weapon at another living creature, never mind a human being. A gun is just a thing, and it doesn’t make sense to say that a gun made someone do anything any more than it would to say that a car made you drive it.

      1. Semi-Spartan Dad

        Exactly. I read it using cars and deadly DUIs as replacements for guns and mass shooters. These people are retarded.

    3. EvilSheldon

      The only thing they have in common? What horseshit. Spree killers could be cast from the same psychological mold. Socially isolated (frequently by choice), poor coping skills, history of violent outbursts, fascination with mass murder.

      From a personality standpoint, they may as well be clones.

    4. EvilSheldon

      Also, inculculating this kind of unreasoning fear among children is a form of child abuse.

    5. The Other Kevin

      Another thing almost all the shooters have in common is a fascination with other shooters, especially the Columbine killers. They are trying for a higher body count. They find photos and details about other killers in traditional and social media.

      As an experiment, substitute “social media” for “gun” in any of these arguments.

    6. Ban portable air compressors and framing nail guns quickly, before the next massacre can happen!

    7. Rebel Scum

      another common denominator

      No father figure. Psychotropic drugs. But, no, it HAS to be the gun.

  50. Rebel Scum

    Hillary Clinton Is Sorry You ‘Misunderstood’ Her Quip About Husbands Forcing Wives To Vote Trump

    During an interview last week with an Indian news publication, I was asked about 2016, and whether Trump is the “virus” or a “symptom” of something deeper going on in American society. Like most Americans, people overseas remain shocked and dismayed at what they are witnessing daily.

    My first instinct was to defend Americans and explain how Donald Trump could have been elected. I said that places doing better economically typically lean Democratic, and places where there is less optimism about the future lean Republican. That doesn’t mean the coasts versus the heartland, it doesn’t even mean entire states. In fact, it more often captures the divisions between more dynamic urban areas and less prosperous small towns within states. As I said throughout the campaign, Trump’s message was dark and backwards looking. I don’t need to list the reasons, but the foundation of his message, “Make America Great AGAIN” suggests that to be great we have to go back to something we are no longer. I never accepted that and never will.

    Defend them by attacking them. When you’re in a hole, keep digging I guess.

    1. AlmightyJB

      I think she’s going to run again.

      1. Semi-Spartan Dad

        I hope so, if for nothing else than just the entertainment of it all.

        1. AlmightyJB

          Oh yeah. I want to see all the vapid Hollywood dolts come out in full support and then backtrack when the sjws shame them. Should be quite the shitshow.

          1. straffinrun

            Not me. We dodged a massive bullet once and I don’t want to play Neo bending over backwards again.

          2. Semi-Spartan Dad

            I would agree if there was any chance at all of her winning. There’s no way she would make it past the primaries.

          3. straffinrun

            You have confidence I don’t share. She still sends shudders down my spine and I just want her to GTFA.

      2. I’ll bet your right. I’ll also go on record and say that if she runs again, gets the nomination, and wins, there will be blood in the streets. That would be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back.

        1. AlmightyJB

          “blood in the streets.”

          Not going to happen. The benifits would have to outweigh the cost which they don’t for most everyone.

          1. Trump getting elected triggered Antifa and BLM knuckleheads. I’m not saying it’s a lock, but I would be the least surprised person on Earth to find that an obvious snowjob like Hillary being handed the nomination by the Dems in order to drag the country back to the track Obumbles put it on would set off riots on both the right and the left.

          2. AlmightyJB

            Some protesters are violent assholes no doubt but that is a far cry from civil war. You would need a large segment of society giving up everything they have to play Rambo. Mass confiscation if wealth/property would do it.

          3. spqr2008

            AlmightyJB, I believe that she would at the very least consider mass confiscation of wealth and property from Republicans as punishment for not allowing her to rule, as was her right.

          4. I don’t mean there’d be a civil war per se, I mean something more like Berkeley and even Charlottesville becoming the new norm. Armed protesters mixing it up with casualties up to and including death, and a resulting crackdown on civil liberties. A resurgence of domestic terrorism.

            The state of political discourse is pretty much in the toilet right now because nobody’s especially interested in compromising their position and someone decided that reasoned debate is a tool of the white cisgendered patriarchy. Trump was a protest vote in many ways; a Clinton election basically says, “Yes, we think you are irredeemable deplorables and your opinion doesn’t matter. Now shut up and let your betters run the country. P.S., if you BernieBros know what’s good for you, you’ll tow the goddamned lion.”

          5. trshmnstr

            Gems in Trashy’s inbox :

            From line “Pipe Hitters Union”

            Protests and school walk-outs. A news reporter asked a man what he thought about the students walking out of class. The man said, “It’s nice to see them stand for something.”

            What the hell does that mean? If you’re going to stand for something, we say stand for what’s right. As most of you already know, we recently took some heat for taking a stand. The lame-stream media attacked us and then scampered off to their next target. Did we change our minds? Nope, not even a little. We know who we are, what we stand for, and…it is unbreakable. We took an oath to stand against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that oath has no expiration date.

          6. trshmnstr

            It’s in large white letters on a black background. Idk who signed me up for the mailing list for the right wing response to Antifa, but it amuses me.

      3. Rasilio

        She certainly may be thinking about it but seriously, what are the odds that she will be physically able to get through the primaries without a major health incident?

        She might run but she has no chance of winning because she is not healthy enough to get through the election

        1. Best case: She rigs the primaries enough through hook or crook to get the nomination, then has a serious health crisis a week before the election leaving the Dems with no one else.

          1. F. Stupidity Jr.

            then has a serious health crisis a week before the election leaving the Dems with no one else.

            No one else? What’s Tim Kaine, chopped liver?

          2. Sean

            No one else? What’s Tim Kaine, chopped liver?

            That dude just oozes creepiness. How has he not been at the center of a sex scandal by now?

    2. Just Say’n

      “I said that places doing better economically typically lean Democratic and places where there is less optimism about the future lean Republican”

      And again, that is just not true. She made wild exaggerations and now is using wild exaggerations to defend her wild exaggerations. She specifically said that the states that Republicans win are poorer and less economically vibrant than the states that Democrats win and that is just not true. Flordia, Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina are winning in the 21st Century, while California, New Jersey, and Illinois are losing in the 21st Century.

      Her existence and dismissive attitude will forever comfort me every time I roll my eyes at the president’s most recent Twitter fight

      1. It’s in part because the Progressives have a blind spot for success occurring absent the big, conspicuous hand of government. You listed a number of states where growth has been driven by stuff like right-to-work legislation, light tax burdens, and favorable business regulations. The party of FDR can’t believe that such a thing is possible without the very foundations of their ideology crumbling, so they just pretend it isn’t happening.

        1. R C Dean

          There’s definitely a lot of “if government didn’t do it, it didn’t happen”. Fits like a charm with their fascist/totalitarian mindset.

      2. KibbledKristen

        South Carolina and North Dakota also.

    3. WTF

      Like most Americans, people overseas remain shocked and dismayed at what they are witnessing daily.

      Record low unemployment among blacks and Hispanics, greater than anticipated job numbers, labor force participation rapidly increasing, historic low unemployment, tax breaks resulting in extra money in people’s paychecks and generating higher revenues, North Korea agreeing to talk about de-nuclearization, rolling back federal regulations…..the horror, the horror……

      1. spqr2008

        The horror of those people whose livelihood depends on an ever growing federal government and crony handouts that their gravy train might be at risk. Although, with the stupid party in charge, I doubt it. They don’t have the balls to cut spending.

        1. AlmightyJB

          “They don’t have the balls to cut spending.”

          No one wants to be eviscerated by the media. It’s a sad situation.

          1. spqr2008

            It’s pretty simple to not be eviscerated by the media. In response to each question, ask: What are your credentials as a reporter? And why should we trust you, you’re a reporter? I had some asshat local journo try to interview me once, and I remembered him being a prick, so I simply asked, “Why should I trust you, you’re a reporter?” (to be fair, I plagarized that from Tom Clancy). He stopped bothering me at that point.

      2. B.P.

        I’m sure some of these shocked and dismayed people overseas are nonetheless exploring every avenue to move themselves and their families to the U.S.

    4. KibbledKristen

      I said that places doing better economically typically lean Democratic

      Citation?

      1. Just Say’n

        Citation: white liberal urbanites who wouldn’t be able to locate North Carolina on a map, let alone visit the state, beyond a layover in Charlotte

        1. Just Say’n

          Real Talk:

          Charlotte has the worst airport in America. Whatever you do don’t ever change planes at Charlotte unless you have a minimum of an hour and a half layover

          1. Juvenile Bluster

            Charlotte airport is wonderful, provided you have time for lunch.

            Though there was this one time I had a 30 minute layover on the other side of the airport. I was recovering from knee surgery and was on crutches, and US Air didn’t have a cart for me like I’d requested multiple times, so that was fun.

          2. Just Say’n

            I had a 45 minute layover there once and I had to get to the other side of the airport. I almost missed by connecting flight. It’s a very poorly designed airport, in my opinion. It’s probably great to fly out of, but for a layover it is awful

          3. Bob Boberson

            Detroit…….having to sprint along that stupid colored tunnel to get to the terminal on the other side of the runway was not a pleasant experience.

          4. WTF

            Second on Detroit – I missed a connecting flight there having to sprint through that stupid fucking tunnel.

          5. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Never had any problems in Charlotte that weren’t weather related.

            JFK is my favorite US airport to hate on.

            And Heathrow is the worst of all.

          6. spqr2008

            DFW is terrible for Delta layovers. When I was 10, my family had a layover on the way to Hawaii there, and the flight to Hawaii was literally on the other side of the airport. They had a connecting flight from the same carrier on the exact opposite end of it.

          7. Hrmm, maybe a connecting flight to the other end of the airport is in order.

          8. straffinrun

            I’m with Scruffy on the Heathrow call. Had a layover there for a couple hours and wanted to go to the bathroom, so I asked a guard where the toilet was. He points at the restroom right over his shoulder about 5 meters away. I walked past him and use it, but when I try to go back into the holding area he says, “You can’t come in this way. You have to go back through immigration” (or whatever security check they had set up). Fucking asshole. Same guy that sent me through in the first place. I didn’t have my passport or even my wallet on me because my buddy was with our baggage. Long story short, missed my connecting flight. Luckily, my friend saw me waving at him from outside the holding area after an hour or so.

          9. Spartacus

            Last time I was in Charlotte they had two gate changes for my flight. Both changes were to different terminals. Assholes.

          10. Spartacus

            In Atlanta you don’t even pay attention to the gate until about 45 min before departure because it will change.

          11. KibbledKristen

            DFW is the owner of Worst Layover Experience for me.

          12. Old Man With Candy

            I’m with you. Worst plane changing has been DFW and Atlanta. Of course, they are models of speed and efficiency compared with Heathrow….

          13. R C Dean

            I think DFW’s trams work a treat. For longer layovers, the international terminal (can’t remember which one) has much better chow, shopping, etc.

  51. KibbledKristen

    That Duke kid’s name is Grayson. Grayson. His only choice was to grow up being an entitled brat.

    1. Raston Bot

      funny. i know two kids by that name. i’ll have to subtly warn their parents.

    1. AlmightyJB

      What the…lol. That’s funny.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    Betsy DeVos, right hand of Satan!

    Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made clear even before taking office last year that she was more interested in protecting the companies that are paid by the government to collect federal student loan payments than in helping borrowers who have been driven into financial ruin by those same companies.

    Ms. DeVos’ eagerness to shill for those corporate interests is apparent in a craven new policy statement from the Education Department. The document claims that the federal government can pre-empt state laws that rein in student loan servicing companies if such a law “undermines uniform administration of’’ the student loan program.

    ———–

    What’s striking is that the Education Department released the pre-emption statement even after leading regulatory experts had condemned the idea as harmful and legally unsustainable. Earlier this month, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, which represents regulators in all 50 states, shredded the legal arguments behind the pre-emption idea, pointing out that education officials were not empowered to strip the states of their traditional — and primary — authority over debt collection and other aspects of the financial services industry.

    How odd, that they neglect to mention the special (and federally dictated) status of student loans in their “States’ Rights” argument.

    And, of course, no mention of the absurd cost of financially valueless degree programs.

    If the NYT were truly as socially responsible as the like to portray themselves, they wouod be telling 3/4 of high school graduates to stay the fuck away from college, and learn a useful skill.

    1. WTF

      …helping borrowers who have been driven into financial ruin by those same companies.

      The loan companies forced the students at gun point to take out loans and agree to pay them back with interest? Or was it just bad decisions on the part of the lendees?

    2. Just Say’n

      Remember, it’s the companies that are giving you the loan that are evil. Not the company that is price gauging you, because they know that your purchase is being subsidized and therefore price is not a deciding factor for you. Most Ivy League institutions have endowments that would rival the largest mutual funds on Wall Street, but, sure, let’s continue to pretend like they’re some noble ‘non-profit’ that are motivated by something other than money.

      1. commodious spittoon

        But those endowments are used for socially valuable purposes, like losing tons of money betting on sustainable agriculture efforts.

      2. invisible finger

        Might be a good time to bring up the fact that Harvard is building a second campus (in the Allston neighborhood of Boston) that will be larger than their campus in Cambridge.

    3. commodious spittoon

      You don’t prop up your Potemkin credentialism scheme by alerting future suckers.

    4. Hyperion

      But what about the comrades who cannot afford indoctrination? They might become deplorables.

    5. The Other Kevin

      That’s funny, I remember that when she took office last year she was MOST interested in giving parents and students the ability to choose the best way to educate the students. We all see things through a different lens.

    6. TK

      If the NYT were truly as socially responsible as the like to portray themselves, they wouod be telling 3/4 of high school graduates to stay the fuck away from college, and learn a useful skill.

      But the college experience is what cements the indoctrination. Without college, how can we ensure that everyone thinks The Correct Thoughts?

  53. KibbledKristen

    I don’t think my colleagues understand what image alt text is. I gave them a list of images that need alt text, and I get back stuff like “Sally visits her next patient”. Boy howdy! That sure does do a grrrrreat job of describing what is in the picture!

    Just close your eyes and picture an older lady waiting at a city bus stop in scrubs. Oh wait, nope. That actual picture is a young woman walking on a dirt road with cloudy mountains in the background.

    1. AlmightyJB

      Would both

    2. R C Dean

      Sounds like the set up for a STEVE SMITH joke.

    3. KibbledKristen

      Can you imagine if pr0n was ADA Section 508 compliant? Alt text would read like a SF story.

      1. Not Adahn

        None of MY porn involves shitting dick nipples.

        1. Just Say’n

          You need to up your game then

    4. KibbledKristen

      Oh. I see. The mistook the words “alt text” for “captions”. Even though I specifically said “alt text” and gave them some examples.

    5. Bobarian LMD

      Alt text: “Nice mountains, How’d ya like to go up her dirt road?”

  54. AlexinCT

    Look, I’m actually having a good time with this year’s insanity. Its just…if Duke win it all, I will smash the fuck out of something very valuable. I can’t stand the thought of that rat-faced creep and/or that cheap-shot artist he has in the low post winning anything.

    Here is me hoping Da Cuse – where in fairness and as a full disclosure is where I got my Masters in EE – takes them down for ya Sloop..

    1. AlmightyJB

      I was doing well until NC who I had winning it all. Other than them I had only one other loss from my Big Eight (Miami) and no other final four losses. Should have gone with the freshmen I guess.

    2. I’m pulling for Nova because of family, but, like the recent election, I’ll support whoever takes Duke down.

  55. Drake

    Thousands of illegal migrants protested on the streets of Athens against racism and they demand the opening of all borders in Europe.

    Hungarians reply with a giant fuck no.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcqBjqK0Mt4

    1. PieInTheSKy

      what makes these people think they can just demand opening all borders?

      1. Drake

        In my experience, showing weakness to Arabs is an invitation to all sorts of stuff.

        1. WTF

          +1 Strong Horse

  56. F. Stupidity Jr.

    Any JFK assassination buffs here? I haven’t seen the topic come up much around here. I ask because I’ve been watching a bunch of YouTube videos recently.

    Personally, I think it was a deep state operation.

    1. Drake

      The shot that killed JFK was ridiculously easy from Oswald’s position. That has always kept me from indulging in the conspiracy theories.

      1. WTF

        Yeah, if you actually stand in Oswald’s location, you realize the Kennedy car was a lot closer than people realize. It almost seems like you could hit it with a rock.

        1. Chipwooder

          People who think the shot was some kind of awesome sniper job, I’ve noticed, tend to have no idea what kind of shooting Marines do in rifle qual. The assassination shots were taken at ranges from 175 to 265 feet. Not yards, feet. The shortest distance Marines shoot on the range is 200 YARDS, or 600 feet. Oswald was shooting at a slowly moving target at close range from a supported firing position (the windowsill). It’s an easy shot for a Marine, quite frankly, even a lowly pizza box like me. Oswald had qualled as a sharpshooter, so he was better than average. The notion that a Marine sharpshooter couldn’t have made those shots is ludicrous.

          1. R C Dean

            It is really interesting to visit the actual spot where it happened and see it with your own eyes. Its just not what exactly you imagine even from seeing it on camera.

            I think one thing that misleads people is that the car wasn’t travelling at “normal” speed. It was traveling at “parade” speed, basically walking pace. You don’t even need to lead the target at that pace from that range, regardless of the angle.

            And the grassy knoll? No way. A harder shot, IMO, and you simply cannot shoot a rifle within a few yards of that many people without everyone knowing you just shot a rifle. Suppressed or no, there’s still a definite sound and the smoke.

          2. F. Stupidity Jr.

            A harder shot, IMO, and you simply cannot shoot a rifle within a few yards of that many people without everyone knowing you just shot a rifle.

            FWIW, there were witnesses who testified to that effect. And some witnesses smelled rifle smoke after the shots were fired. If they did smell smoke, there’s no way they smelled it coming from Oswald’s gun. Smoke from a gun fired 150+ feet above you?

          3. Mad Scientist

            150 feet!? He was on the 6th floor, so not even half that.

          4. F. Stupidity Jr.

            Derp on my part.

          5. Number.6

            Humans make notoriously bad witnesses.

            The lack of consensus on a far more concrete observation – the number of shots heard – is an excellent example of this.

          6. F. Stupidity Jr.

            Hence my FWIW preface.

          7. Raven Nation

            One of the things that the conspiracy people jump on is that Oswald didn’t take the shot when the motorcade was closer to him. But, when it was closer, it was moving across his line of sight whereas, as you point out, when it was further away from him it was basically a straight shot.

          8. MikeS

            The assassination shots were taken at ranges from 175 to 265 feet. Not yards, feet.

            I never realized how close he was. I’ve hit a running deer from about that far. Standing and unsupported. And I’m no sharpshooter.

      2. The detail that cinched it in my mind was the fact that the road curved.

        I’ll explain. Before I knew that, everyone going on about the angle of the lethal bullet still left some lingering questions, but once I knew the road curved, and that the front seat of the car was both low and offset towards the center, a straight-line trajectory from the window, through Jack’s head into the poor sod in the front seat became quite obvious, as the car had begun to angle away from the book depository along the natural curve of the road.

        1. Drake

          Yep – as soon as the car was moving straight away from Oswald instead of laterally, he plinked him straight in the head.

      3. F. Stupidity Jr.

        I’m not saying Oswald didn’t do it, mind you. I think he was part of a larger operation.

      4. Stinky Wizzleteats

        Who was pulling Oswald’s strings though? He almost certainly was the shooter but his possible motivations are numerous.

        1. Oswald was being controlled by… Lee Harvey Oswald.

          Dun dun duh.

        2. WTF

          Sometimes a lone nut is just a lone nut. But people don’t want to believe shit is that random.

          1. Stinky Wizzleteats

            You’re right about that, most conspiracy theories are just manifestations of a psychological compensatory mechanism for an innate fear we have of bad things happening for no reason.

          2. Raven Nation

            “If you put the murder of the president of the United States at one end of the scale, and you put that waif [Lee Harvey] Oswald on the other end, it just doesn’t balance. And you want to put something on Oswald’s side to make it balance. A conspiracy would do that beautifully. Unfortunately, there is no evidence whatever of that.”

            William Manchester

    2. MikeS

      By buff, do you mean fan? If so, then yes, I am.

      1. No, he means naked. Like you do JFK assassination recreations naked.

        Then the orgy is afterward.

        1. MikeS

          I thought that was implied.

        2. F. Stupidity Jr.

          How dare you speak for me, sir. We are libertarians. We don’t do things naked.

          1. That guy has a grade 2 panniculus.

        3. Count Potato

          No pink Chanel suit? You’re doing it wrong.

    3. Old Man With Candy

      One of the erstwhile commenters at Reason sent me a link to a FPS game where your POV is from the book depository window as the motorcade comes by. It was ridiculously easy, and after seeing how many people I could nail in the car (really, if you can’t kill JFK and Jackie both, you’re an amateur), I started working on alternatives that used fewer bullets and had a higher body count. One key is timing and hitting the car’s driver in time for him to plow into other people.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    A comment on that DeVos article-

    steve nyc 25 minutes ago

    I’m an educator, not an economist, but I predicted the student loan crisis 15 years ago. Aside from fraud and greed, the system was built on a false set of assumptions. For decades the premise was that a college education would, over time, pay for itself and that the borrowing would accompanied by rising compensation. The debt rose sharply, the incomes flattened dramatically and a generation is left with a mass of debt that is fundamentally un-payable. It is not significantly different that the mortgage crisis that nearly brought the country to its knees. Houses were sold to those who couldn’t afford them, based on both deceptive credit analysis and meaningless optimism about future income. There too, the rates went up, the debt became unmanageable and the income never materialized.

    Both of these schemes are intentional and represent the extent to which our nation allows greedy capitalists to fleece ordinary people. All in the name of opportunity and free enterprise. What a shame.

    “I got it! I got it! I got! ….. I don’t got it.”

    1. WTF

      Missed it by that much!

    2. AlexinCT

      He has everything right except for the cause he has to use as a woke asshole at the end..

      I have often pointed out that the student loan crisis could be solved in a jiffy if the colleges and universities telling kids it is a wise investment to put down $70K a year for a degree in some kind of idiotic studies program or over saturated liberal arts market were held responsible for half the money the student borrowed. I bet you we would no longer have them suddenly change their practices that allow anyone to go to college – especially the people everyone can tell will be dropping out in a year or so because they were unprepared or simply not college material – and college admissions suddenly would consider the real likelihood the student would graduate and be able to earn a living and pay back the loan..

    3. Drake

      I like it. Make the college the loan co-signer instead of Uncle Sam.

      1. WTF

        Just make the loans dischargeable in bankruptcy and no federal guarantee. Problem solved.

        1. R C Dean

          Exactly. Why slather on artificial requirements, when the market can handle it all by itself?

        2. AlexinCT

          So you want the taxpayer to foot the bill for this shit then?

          I prefer to make the college/university/trade school have financial skin in the game, and I guarantee you it solves a slew of today’s problems. all the diversity, need to prog hard, need to be activist shit that permeates college acceptance criteria today would die an ugly death along with any institutions that put the left’s agenda and their own pockets ahead of the need to educate properly so the student can go get a job after the oft worthless degrees they charge an arm and a leg for.

          1. R C Dean

            Not following, Alex. If there’s no federal guarantee, there’s no federal taxpayer footing the bill.

            If there is mandatory school participation in the loan, then state taxpayers are exposed to defaults via their funding the school.

            I think you get to the same place as you want to go with the market. Let banks price the value of a degree/risk of default, and the money for Progtopia U will dry up.

        3. robc

          Only for loans going forward. I guess we could lose the federal guarantee on the past ones too, but I think the banks might throw a fit over that.

          1. straffinrun

            Fuck the banks then. You make a deal with the devil, you don’t get play all innocent when he leaves you in the lurch.

          2. robc

            I agree, I just want to make sure that we don’t

            1. Keep the federal guarantee on past loans
            2. Allow all student loans to be bankruptible

            The two have to go together to prevent a major problem.

          3. straffinrun

            That’s fair. Turning a giant percentage of a generation into modern day serfs is evil. Everyone involved needs to take their lumps, but my guess is the entire mess will wind up on the students because government will never admit they were wrong.

          4. spqr2008

            I kind of see it like Sir Thomas More: Cronyism is the devil

    1. Count Potato

      “The movement has also re-energized the debate over whether campus rape culture is an epidemic or a myth.”

      It’s neither. It’s deliberate political propaganda.

    2. Rasilio

      Um, that is not backfiring, that is how they want it to work

  58. Watched Rufus’ interview with Norm MacDonald:

    Is there something wrong with him? He seems very slow and slurring his words, uncomfortable and shifty eyed. It almost seems as if he had a stroke.

    1. Just Say’n

      Rufus interviewed Norm MacDonald? When does this guy ever work?

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        THEY WISH!

    2. straffinrun

      He’s getting old and hasn’t lived a stress free life. Also, he knew he was pushing the envelop of what he could say and not become a total pariah in Hollywood. My take, anyways.

    3. Private Chipperbot

      It was like someone off camera was pointing a gun at him.

  59. The Late P Brooks

    Paging Mister Lizard-

    Donald Seekins is a trusted commenter Waipahu HI 13 hours ago

    Betsy DeVos is someone who could have been created by a science fiction writer: a carnivorous reptilian alien from outer space who plots to turn the human race into hamburgers, and disguises herself as a human female.

    Unfortunately, she’s not fantasy. She’s real.

    1. Time for someone’s Haldol…

      1. Raston Bot

        lol. had to search “haldol”.

    2. God, what a fucking freak. Jesus, these people.

    3. Mr Lizard

      Nope sorry buddy, although by my mere existence it doesn’t rule other space-faring species

  60. Just Say’n

    http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/378794-time-for-the-us-to-end-democracy-promotion-flim-flams

    Stop the federal funding for neoconservative pressure groups overseas.

  61. The Late P Brooks

    From Q’s metoo link:

    Last December, a student activist at Middlebury College published a “List of Men to Avoid” in the campus newspaper. It brandished individuals as “physically /emotionally abusive,” “physically violent,” and even as a “rapist.” Elizabeth Dunn, the student author, “evidently took no steps to verify any of the claims she posted,” according to one of the men accused as a rapist.

    While Dunn, the author of the list, lacked any compelling evidence, many students at Middlebury jumped to conclusions. The fallout from the published piece was brutal for the students accused.

    This raises a question, for me. My school (THE Colorado College) had an Honor Code. Cheating was strictly proscribed, and could be punished by expulsion. I wonder if this person would be found guilty of an Honor Code violation and bounced out of school for publishing false accusations against fellow students. I would hope so.

    But I doubt it.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I think a libel lawsuit is more appropriate

      1. R C Dean

        What I was thinking. You’d be cashing garnishment checks from this bint for the rest of her life. You wouldn’t even have to climb the “public figure” wall.

      2. Rasilio

        followed by a title 9 suit against the college for creating a gender biased environment against men

    2. B.P.

      Whoever wrote that doesn’t know what “brandished” means.

  62. The Late P Brooks

    I have often pointed out that the student loan crisis could be solved in a jiffy if the colleges and universities telling kids it is a wise investment to put down $70K a year for a degree in some kind of idiotic studies program or over saturated liberal arts market were held responsible for half the money the student borrowed.

    Fuck it, make them the primary lender, responsible for the whole thing. Then, when the borrower does this, they get meaningful feedback and an incentive to provide an economically remunerative education.

    1. robc

      I like what about 1/2 the Ivys have done: No student loans allowed, up to $X (based on parent’s finances and etc) is the students responsbility to pay, everything above that waived. If you can’t afford the semester up front, you can’t afford it.

    2. R C Dean

      Not even that. Just end the nationalization of student loans, period. Let banks set rates based on risk of repayment, and let borrowers declare bankruptcy if they can’t pay.

      Ordinary economic incentives would not only end the student loan crisis, it would end the higher education disaster.

      1. straffinrun

        Well, that would end a modern day slave to Team Blue. Ooooh….

      2. robc

        This. Of course, student loans used to require a cosigner with collateral back in the day. It’s almost like they didn’t trust making a loan to an 18 year old without any assets. Weird.

    1. R C Dean

      Its a shame he’s already dead.

      Honest to God, shit like this is why I just can’t quite say the death penalty should never, ever be used.

      1. Save it to execute the cops that sat on their hands while girls were being gang raped for decades.

        Political correctness kills.

        1. R C Dean

          Good point. Why can’t they both lose hang?

      2. AlmightyJB

        I’d at least like to see some evidentiary requirements for the death penalty. That notwithstanding, I would definitely pay for the rope to hang some scumbags.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Burn the police and council houses down. Lynch a couple of them for ignoring it and the rest will begin to change their tune.

      1. straffinrun

        Did you see Tommy Robinson’s interview with Laura Southern? Yeah, I’m not a fan of either, but if even a fraction of what Tommy says the government did to him is true, not many people are going to be sticking their heads up any time soon.

      2. No shit. I would really, really like to think that if something like this happened in the US, parents would go and kill these fucks.

        1. Drake

          If there were fathers around, most definitely. After killing the last one I could find, I would cheerfully lay down my evil rifle and turn myself in.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Jesus Christ

      The Home Secretary is stalling the investigation

      Nevertheless, Home Secretary Amber Rudd MP is steadfastly refusing demands from Telford’s MP and members of the public for an inquiry into the scandal, while Telford police Superintendent Tom Harding has dismissed it as “sensationalised” and claimed: “I don’t believe Telford is any worse than lots of places across England and Wales.”

      But go to her twitter and she’s pushing on this…

      Today is National Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Day. This Government is tackling online child sexual exploitation by supporting law enforcement as they pursue offenders, developing new technology to protect victims & working to ensure tech companies remove illegal content.

      1. F. Stupidity Jr.

        Telford police Superintendent Tom Harding has dismissed it as “sensationalised” and claimed: “I don’t believe Telford is any worse than lots of places across England and Wales.”

        So kids in multiple towns are preyed upon by grooming gangs? This is okay, Harding?

        1. Number.6

          “It could be worse, miss. You might have been raped in Barnsley. Those guys won’t even drive you to the abortion clinic!”

        2. Stinky Wizzleteats

          Sargon of Akkad on this-pretty detailed:

          https://youtu.be/3hpnzak0-YQ

          1. Christ, watching that and seeing how spaghettified it all is proves that the bureaucracy functioned perfectly; creating such a layered morass of bullshit that it effectively shields anyone from actually being held accountable.

          2. Stinky Wizzleteats

            The parents of these girls and the British people in general need to clean house in the worst way (if you know what I mean and I think you do).

  63. Just Say’n

    https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/975380345695719434

    “Mining social media for a political campaign is fine, if it’s woke.”

    The purpose of the media is to condition you to be outraged about only the things that offend their biased sensibilities

    1. Count Potato

      “It’s different when we do it.”

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I remember all of that. When NPR started in on the Cambridge Analytical reporting like they violated some holy tenet, all of the adulation over the DNC and OFA’s data mining came immediately to mind. Now, it’s not only distasteful, it’s treasonous.

      And the ignorati will lap it up.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I blame the Jews

    2. Count Potato

      I’d give Kate Blanchett a penis facial, if you know what I mean.

  64. You’re late to the party bud.

    https://areomagazine.com/2018/03/11/a-liberal-who-remembers/

    “Liberal” discovers, to his great surprise, that his movement is actually totalitarian.

    1. Raston Bot

      also on Areo..

      The Reality of the Rise of an Intolerant and Radical Left on Campus

      sounds like click-bait but damn if i may just have to commit the $3 on Patreon to read it.

  65. WTF

    Uh, oh. Could the FIU bridge be the result of “women’s ways of knowing”?

    950 tons on a single 174 foot span.
    A concrete ROOF.
    5.5 tons of dead weight per linear foot.
    For a pedestrian walkway.

    The really, really fancy icing on the cake? This company prides itself on how many women they hire, saying that it’s a big step towards gender equality.
    The article mentions that one of the companies involved with the bridge project has been sued for hiring unsuitable employees. Even worse is that one of that firm’s executives said that her main priority was to make that the bridges she builds look nice.

    1. F. Stupidity Jr.

      Check out Mr. I-Hate-Women-In-STEM here.

    2. Why did the bridge call for a roof?

      Why wouldn’t you make the roof out of, well, roofing materials?

      1. *My mind’s eye sees a metal roof, but there are multiple possibilities that are lighter, and cheaper and less prone to making the bridge fall down.

      2. B.P.

        Concrete roof… focus on aesthetics….

        They wanted it to look as nice as the Seattle Kingdome.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m going to bet FIU put a lot of bullshit requirements on the structure.

      That said, FIGG bears responsibility for the design and its structural integrity. I’m very interested in how this case proceeds.

    4. The last thing you want is your 747 pilot to be an affirmative action hire.

      1. I thought the 747 could mostly fly itself.

        1. Gadfly

          Fly, yes. Land, no.

          1. Dr Mossy Lawn

            CAT IIIc autoland?

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFehfJ4kkvE

            Modern airliners were designed to be flown by the worst “certified” pilot, with a hangover, in the middle of a divorce and custody battle. You also get two of them.

            The training isn’t really how to fly or land them, but systems and emergency procedures. Engine failures at critical speeds. Hydraulic system problems, pressurization, FMS computer errors. You need to go from having the autopilot doing everything to “the computer just got confused, it is your plane now”.

      2. Number.6

        Nobody needs taffeta drapes and tassles on the engine nacelles.

    5. commodious spittoon

      I think bridges that are standing and didn’t crush a bunch of people look pretty nice, but maybe that’s just my masculine fashion sense.

      1. WTF

        Oh, man, that’s brutal.

      2. DesigNate

        “We’re able to put in an artistic touch and we’re able to build, too.”

        The history of men in architecture would like a word ma’am.

  66. commodious spittoon

    That McCarthy piece is worth reading in full, but the gist of it, at least to my layman’s interpretation, is pretty hair-raising. The DOJ appears to be forgiving serious financial crimes in order to build an entirely speculative case against Trump. Mueller came upon two men drowning in improprieties, and threw them, not life preservers, but a party on a superyacht. Both Gates and Manafort faced allegations that would have warranted under their respective statutes hundreds of years’ imprisonment. Rather than plea either down to conspiracy charges tailored to the variety of financial crimes they were accused of conspiring to commit, Mueller opts to charge them under Section 371, a “catch-all” statute which, as McCarthy explains, “embraces categories of minor crime that do not contain their own separate conspiracy provisions”–not, in other words, the gravely serious, nine-digit money laundering and bank fraud cases the indictments described.

    Why would Mueller do this? Well, McCarthy speculates, to construct a circuitous conspiracy angle by twisting the statutory language of Section 371. It starts with a little bit of disingenuity by eliding the word defraud from the indictments and leaving it to the lay public to work through the implications of a “conspiracy against the United States.” But that’s only optics: the meat of Mueller’s probable gambit here lays in theorizing, as prosecutors have tried in the past, that a conspiracy to defraud the United States might include a conspiracy to deprive the peoples of honest services–expanding the commonsense definition of “defraud” to deal in intangibles as well as property and money. One such intangible might include obstructing the Justice Department’s ability to do justice for the American people–by, say, firing a federal prosecutor from his job during a vital investigation.

    Mueller may be banking on getting his obstruction and conspiracy charges by twisting the language of the statute in a way that past courts have slapped down, but with senior agents now revealed to be consorting with federal judges on the sly, who knows what will stick this time?

    1. Raston Bot

      senior agents now revealed to be consorting with federal judges

      the Page-Strzok affair is the gift that keeps on giving. i’m still trying to figure out why U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras isn’t in hot water over this.

      1. R C Dean

        Those emails where our li’l lovebirds are conspiring to meet with a federal judge ex parte have a big fat [REDACTED] co-conspirator. I wonder who that is. My money is on McCabe, as he is already flagged as being in on the conspiracy by the references to “Andy’s office”.

        I read an interesting analysis of some of the recent maneuverings that indicated that there were clues that there was already a federal prosecutor and perhaps grand jury working the criminal cases against FBI and DOJ people in conjunction with the Inspector General. That would require Sessions to be a whole lot more capable than he looks, but hey, a guy can dream.

        Among the tidbits: Congress can see the full unredacted everything, but they can’t take copies. What is produced to Congress is generally scrubbed to not ruin a potential criminal prosecution. The reason Congress is getting such limited information sent to it is because there are criminal prosecutions being worked. This would also explain why Trump and/or Sessions haven’t just ordered full disclosure of the info on this conspiracy/scandal.

        Sorry, link to the blog tracking all this is on another device.

    2. Count Potato

      To me the whole ridiculousness of the whole thing is trying to prove that Trump colluded with the Russians, when colluding isn’t a crime.

      Meanwhile, it’s already been shown that the Clinton campaign colluded with Russians. And that’s ignoring all of the pay for play through the Clinton Foundation such as the Uranium One deal.

      1. commodious spittoon

        It is bananas. Here’s the money shot in the article:

        Think about how bizarre this is. For public consumption, the special counsel alleges breathtaking felony offenses — bank fraud, tax fraud, and money laundering, crimes involving over $100 million when aggregated. Yet, to obtain a guilty plea from one of the allegedly serious felons, Mueller finds it necessary to abandon the hair-raising felonies he purports to have found. If these felonies are readily provable, as Mueller has claimed in his indictments, they are supposed to form the basis of any plea under Justice Department policy. If Gates is the mega-criminal nine-digit fraudster the special counsel has portrayed, he is not supposed to get a slap on the wrist. Yet Mueller accepts a plea to minor charges, including a Section 371 conspiracy that is a prosecutorial invention — designed to shield the allegedly serious felon from penalties Congress has decreed for the misconduct involved.

        It’s safe to assume that neither Gates nor Manafort are close personal friends of Mueller, or anyone in Department, and they aren’t so charismatic that a slate of DOJ veterans had a collective “Aw, shucks” moment when it came to drafting their plea deals. If Mueller wanted to toss scalps to the left which is baying for blood, here are a couple ripe for picking. He could have nailed the two with decades of prison time even if he wanted them to cooperate, such is the seriousness of their indictments, and he could have done so in keeping with his statutory authority under laws passed by Congress rather than fabricating charges under Section 371. But I think what Mueller wants, far more than prosecuting a couple scumbags for financial improprieties, is to keep the word “conspiracy” floating about in a way that is vaguely applicable to Trump.

        1. Count Potato

          Just like the media continuously repeated the phrase “hacked the election”.

      2. R C Dean

        I read an article awhile back arguing that Mueller’s appointment is actually invalid, as special counsel are only supposed to be appointed to investigate named crimes, and no actual crime is named in his appointment.

        1. Count Potato

          Trump is guilty of beating an old lady.

          1. Number.6

            Trump is guilty of beating off over an old lady.

            FTFY

  67. Count Potato

    “Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon confirmed on Twitter that Cartoon Network has not renewed the show for a fourth season.

    Replying to a fan that demanded Harmon finish writing the next season of the show, he wrote that it’s hard to write a show that had not been ordered.”

    https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/rick-and-morty-season-4-not-renewed/

    1. spqr2008

      Time for Netflix to pick up the ball on that.

  68. The Late P Brooks

    Of course, student loans used to require a cosigner with collateral back in the day. It’s almost like they didn’t trust making a loan to an 18 year old without any assets. Weird.

    Which is, of course, why the thumb of government ended up on the scale. Making an unsecured loan against what is little more than a bet is not how banks make money.

  69. Count Potato

    “Op-Ed | Should White People Wear Supreme x UNDERCOVER x Public Enemy?”

    https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/supreme-undercover-public-enemy-white-people/

    1. Raston Bot

      PE’s stuff was overrated. EPMD, Slick Rick, De La Soul, 2 Live Crew were where it was at. shit even Audio Two was better than PE. probably the only “big”, i.e. national, rap groups that PE beat was Stetsasonic and MC Hammer.

      1. l0b0t

        Perhaps it’s just this delicious 8-Maids-A-Milking Imperial Milk Stout, perhaps it’s misdirected anger over the fact that one of my wife’s microbead pillows exploded in the washing machine (seriously, I’ve been toiling all day trying to get these infernal beads out of clothes and drain) but them’s fightin’ words son! It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and Yo, Bum Rush The Show are phenomenal. Fun Fact – my very first tattoo was the B-Boy In Crosshairs on my chest. At one of the Cow Palace dates on the Fear Of A Black Planet tour, I was all the way up to the front and flashed it at Chuck D; he did a double take and a pregnant pause when he saw this pasty white-boy so decorated.

        1. Rope Snake

          That’s awesome.

  70. Count Potato

    “no idea what I said but stated i was inciting racial hatred”

    https://twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/975719155755376646

    1. WTF

      Kind of like when you ask a lefty with TDS what exactly has Trump done that is racist.

  71. Zunalter

    LOL, how did this not happen in Florida?

    Honorable mention from the article:

    In January, a Florida man attempted to order a burrito from the drive-thru lane of a bank. A bank manager found Douglas Francisco, 28, sleeping in the drive-thru of a Bank of America and woke him up, police say. Police say Francisco asked the man for a burrito, then drove away when told he wasn’t at Taco Bell.

  72. Count Potato

    “First transgender activists made a splash when men identifying as female invaded the women-only pond on Hampstead Heath.

    Now feminists have hit back by attending a men-only swimming session in protest over proposals that would make it easier for people to change gender.

    Amy Desir, 30 – one of two women to gain access to the South London pool last Friday – caused particular consternation by wearing just trunks and a pink swimming cap.

    Another woman, who would only give her name as Hannah because she is afraid of reprisals from trans activists, told staff at Dulwich Leisure Centre that they had every right to join the session because they ‘identified as male’.

    Both women used the male changing rooms before joining around 20 men in the 25-metre pool. Ms Desir, a mother of two from Luton, said: ‘We are doing it to highlight the ridiculous and dangerous move towards self-identification.

    ‘We are clearly not men but by saying we are, we were allowed to join in men-only activities.’”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5514231/Feminists-self-identify-males-infiltrate-men-swim-session.html

    1. commodious spittoon

      ‘We are clearly not men but by saying we are, we were allowed to join in men-only activities.’

      They clearly missed the point of the movement, then. By identifying as men they have demonstrated their masculinity, and to deny it now only affirms the extent to which they are oppressed by the patriarchal structure which segregated swimming pools in the first place.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Also, what is their angle in horning in on the turfs of men-who-don’t-pretend-to-be-women? The men still swimming in the males-only pool aren’t guilty of invading the women’s space, so why “inconvenience” them? All I can think of is the white feather movement whereby women shamed men into enlisting for the war effort. “We’re suffering, so you should go fight for us.”

    2. AlmightyJB

      I’m not sure they understand how protest work.

    3. Gilmore

      mmm titties

    4. Who could possibly have seen such a thing happening?

  73. Gilmore

    A group of statistician-folk from… some super-smart-math-school (or something) did an analysis of NCAA office-pool results once. i heard about this anecdotally so i have no idea how true it is, but the headline was this: the winners (and the people who come closest to winning; the top ~5 or so ‘most accurate’ bracket-picks) are more likely to be utter sports neophytes than sports experts.

    iow, if you’re ignorant, you have an advantage. because you’re actually making genuinely random choices rather than being biased by foreknowledge. and

    i think i heard this from a stats-training guy our company had brought in to do some professional development seminars. the reason i particularly remember it is because we did our office pool that year, and it was won by a 60yr old administrative assistant from Chile who had never seen a basketball game in her life

    1. WTF

      Years ago a woman won our office pool by picking the teams based on which mascots she liked better.

      1. Gilmore

        This is similar to my horse-race picking methodology: go by “whichever name is more badass”.

      2. I once picked a bracket based on which teams mascot could kick the others ass, to weight it the 1 seed got 16 of their mascots against 1 of the 16 seeds, 2 got 15, 15 got 2, an so on. I ended up right in the middle of the pack if memory serves.

  74. Count Potato

    “Anti-Israel Students at UC-Santa Barbara Endorse ‘Armed Resistance,’ Share Images With Pistol, AK-47

    The anti-Zionist group Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) published a series of images on Monday that appeared to condone violent terror attacks.

    The Facebook post included a photo of a Palestinian woman holding a pistol, as well as a cartoon — drawn in an outline of Israel and the Palestinian territories — depicting a woman with an AK-47 assault rifle.

    Another photo featured an armed Leila Khaled, who helped hijack two planes in Europe on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The Marxist-Leninist group is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States.

    “Solidarity is the weapon and armed resistance is the catalyst,” SJP captioned the post. “Support all mujeres taking arms against imperialism.”

    In response to criticism, a moderator of the page appeared to defend “the justified methods of those Palestinians seeking liberation from fascist Israeli occupation & apartheid.”

    SJP said in a comment published below the post that it did “not condone bigotry against any group of people no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, class position, and/or gender & sexual orientation, etc.””

    http://www.algemeiner.com/2018/03/16/anti-israel-students-at-uc-santa-barbara-endorse-armed-resistance-share-images-with-pistol-ak-47/

    Unless they are jews, apparently.

  75. Count Potato

    “D.C. lawmaker says recent snowfall caused by ‘Rothschilds controlling the climate’

    A D.C. lawmaker responded to a brief snowfall Friday by publishing a video in which he espoused a conspiracy theory that Jewish financiers control the weather.

    D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) posted the video to his official Facebook page at 7:21 a.m. as snow flurries were hitting the nation’s capital. The video, shot through the windshield of a car driving west on Interstate 695 through downtown Washington, shows snowy skies while White narrates.

    “Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” he says. “And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.”

    The Rothschilds are a famous European business dynasty descended from Mayer Amschel Rothschild, an 18th-century Jewish banker who lived in what is today Frankfurt, Germany. The family has repeatedly been subject over the years to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories alleging that they and other Jews clandestinely manipulate world events for their advantage.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-lawmaker-says-recent-snowfall-caused-byrothschilds-controlling-the-climate/2018/03/18/daeb0eae-2ae0-11e8-911f-ca7f68bff0fc_story.html

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Somebody’s got to keep up the Barry traditions.

    2. R C Dean

      The video, shot through the windshield of a car driving west on Interstate 695 through downtown Washington, shows snowy skies while White narrates.

      What a dumbfuck – running his phone right in front of his face to take a video while driving. He’s lucky he didn’t wreck.

      And seriously, dude – vertical video?

  76. The Late P Brooks

    we did our office pool that year, and it was won by a 60yr old administrative assistant from Chile who had never seen a basketball game in her life

    “Charlie don’t surf.”

  77. Count Potato

    “So teachers are racist and want to kill your kids, but you trust them to mold their minds for 8 hours a day everyday? What is this logic?”

    https://twitter.com/elisabethlehem/status/975586987687243778

    1. “Everyone is racist now. Except old, rich, white liberal politicians who take money from minorities, but don’t better their lives.”

      Rekt.

    2. thepasswordispassword

      That picture is taking glocksplosion to a whole other level.

      1. Count Potato

        “Oh my gosh. They loaded the mag backwards.”

        https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/975576230744543232

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          That’s awesome.

  78. Count Potato

    “This new report on Trump’s state of mind should alarm you

    A new report on Trump’s state of mind from the New York Times underscores why this should worry us a great deal. Relying on numerous people close to Trump, it says he decided to attack Mueller over the advice of his advisers because he “ultimately trusts only his own instincts,” with the result that Trump is “newly emboldened” to “ignore the cautions of those around him.””

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/03/19/this-new-report-on-trumps-state-of-mind-should-alarm-you/

    If you used tarot cards or something, you could probably save money on phone calls.

  79. Count Potato

    “Deputy Scot Peterson and two school counselors recommended Nikolas Cruz be involuntarily committed in 2016”

    https://hotair.com/archives/2018/03/18/ap-sro-school-counselors-wanted-nikolas-cruz-committed-2016/

    1. Count Potato

      “Counselors, deputy wanted Nikolas Cruz institutionalized long before Florida school massacre”

      http://www.kron4.com/news/national/counselors-deputy-wanted-nikolas-cruz-institutionalized-long-before-florida-school-massacre/1056298125

    1. thepasswordispassword

      Hentai Kamen did it better

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder
    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Look at it this way, they’re making it easier to identify them so you don’t accidentally stick it in crazy.

  80. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Looks like Merry o’le England isn’t the only European nation throwing in the towel on free speech:

    https://hotair.com/archives/2018/03/19/spain-two-rappers-heading-prison-insulting-king/

  81. The Late P Brooks

    Teen suicide is soaring. Do spotty mental health and addiction treatment share blame?

    Yes, of course. What we need is more mopey scab-picking and emoting.

  82. The Late P Brooks

    NPR will save us from ourselves

    As the visible cloud of pot smoke took shape, so did Springer’s idea to study the effects of secondhand marijuana smoke.

    He started thinking: San Franciscans would never tolerate those levels of cigarette smoke in a public place anymore. So why were they OK with smoke from burning pot? Did people just assume that cannabis smoke isn’t harmful the way tobacco smoke is?

    ——–

    All this research takes time. Meanwhile, Springer worries that people might come to the wrong conclusion — that the absence of research means the secondhand smoke is OK.

    “We in the public health community have been telling them for decades to avoid inhaling secondhand smoke from tobacco,” Springer says. “We have not been telling them to avoid inhaling secondhand smoke from marijuana, and that’s not because it’s not bad for you — it’s because we just haven’t known. The experiments haven’t been done.”

    Antismoking campaigners say we can’t afford to wait until the research is complete. Recreational pot is already a reality.

    Cynthia Hallett is the president of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, based in Berkeley, Calif. The organization was established in 1976, before there was a lot known about the health effects of secondhand smoke from tobacco.

    Now that cannabis is becoming more common across the country — more than 20 cities or states have legalized it in some form — her organization is taking on the issue of secondhand marijuana smoke, too.

    Never let a “potential health risk” go to waste.

    1. R C Dean

      the absence of research means the secondhand smoke is OK.

      I seem to recall that the research actually showed that secondhand smoke is, in fact, OK (in the sense of “not posing a public health risk”).

      1. thepasswordispassword

        Same type of science lovers who believe that vaping or dip must be eliminated from public places because of the second hand smoke risks.

      2. Gilmore

        “”I seem to recall that the research actually showed that secondhand smoke is, in fact, OK””

        the question is always, “what is your benchmark risk-level”?

        the people who do these sorts of things routinely cheat by pretending that the benchmark is “zero risk”, when the real benchmark should be “the unavoidable risk” (i.e. the amount of ‘potential carcinogen’ exposure that a person gets through normal, everyday life.)

        no one lives in a risk-free vacuum. but articles claiming ‘risk levels’ of things like secondhand smoke regularly pretend that “anything other than zero” is cause for concern and justification for regulatory intervention.

        the risk levels of secondhand smoke exposure are certainly not ‘zero’, but probably no more significant than taking a walk through times square during rush-hour traffic-levels. you’re going to get ‘some’ monoxide and pollutant exposure regardless. is that level of exposure ever significant enough to warrant attempts to control it? hardly.

        Exposure to stuff like ‘car exhaust’ is often ‘involuntary and required’ (i.e. you can’t choose not to walk down x street; you work or live there); whereas exposure to cigarette/weed ‘exhaust’ is often ‘voluntary and optional’.

        If there’s no compelling govt interest in regulating the former, then there’s sure as shit no compelling govt interest in regulating the latter.

        99% of people i’ve made this very same argument to literally glaze over at the very beginning and go, “but you’re saying tobacco smoke is like sucking on a car-exhaust?”

    2. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Good God do I hate public health busybodies. Restrict people’s rights based on an unproven possibility? Fuck you.

  83. KibbledKristen

    The Georgian Mountain Resorts Development Company, a government body under the economy ministry

    Well, there’s your problem right there.

    1. commodious spittoon

      I wondered if you’d seen that. Pretty upsetting video even without any gruesome injuries.

      1. Plinker762

        Pretty typical of an uncontrolled rollback on a ropeway. In the US there are four independent systems designed to prevent/stop a rollback. During acceptance tests, we test them one at a time, usually with two mechanically disabled and the third held off manually. The one being tested is released and then set as the lift rolls backward. I haven’t lost control yet, but it is always at the back on one’s mind.

  84. Number.6

    OT: Hahah

    God: Welcome to Heaven, Steven
    Steven: Finally, I can get out of this wheelchair
    God: Uhhh, sorry… that would be ableist…