This is going to be short, since for the next twelve weeks or so, I’ll be decontaminating, packing and moving a few megabucks worth of analytical equipment to a new cleanroom, while not reducing my fab support capability. It’s demands like this that make me feel zero guilt about fucking around reading Glibertarians.com when I’m not required to be panicking over generating good data.
Unambiguous good news: For Taurus-folk (Taurans? Tauroids?) this week is going to be awesome. We have both geocentric and heliocentric indicators pointing to the same outcome. With the change-driving effects of Mercury being made positive by the effects of the Sun, you have good luck. By having a Four-light alignment also in your sign, you have better luck. By having those four lights being the most important ones in the sky, you have even better luck. By having one of those four lights being Jupiter (even retrograde), well, let’s just say you’re gonna have a good time.
Relationships continue to be unstable (Mercury-Venus-Sol) but without last week’s good luck effects, this week’s might be a bit less pleasant. You were using protection, right?
In non-lovin’ news, there are indicators that martial belligerence will lead to good things. Also, this is a good week to bet on buzkashi.
This week’s money-maker
In more astrology-vindicating news, world-renowned sciencey star-person Neil Degrasse Tyson is so made of science that he can be duplicated by a computer program! Science! Astrology is just as much Science as IFLS leader NdGT!
Astrology music (not the right time of year, but oh well):
Hmm. Marital belligerence. I think I can arrange that.
Oh, martial. Nevermind.
THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!!!!!
Great episode. One of the funniest things I’ve heard is, “Will Wheaton is the Jar Jar Binks of SNG”.
I don’t follow my horoscope, but I like fortune cookies. Here’s what I’ve been getting lately:
***
Assert yourself- Your ideas are worthwhile.
…
You will display great bravery when faced with adversity.
…
Success and wealth are in your future.
***
I meant to put this in the bondage thread, but never got around to it:
Female wombats indicate fertility by biting males
***
Female wombats bite the rumps of males to let them know they’re fertile and ready to mate. The revelation could help conservationists improve the captive breeding programs.
Strong and temperamental, hairy-nosed wombats aren’t easy to work with. But the future of the species’ declining northern population, may depend on their ability to breed in captivity.
***
rump biting? captivity?
kinky
“Female wombats bite the rumps of males to let them know they’re fertile and ready to mate. The revelation could help conservationists improve the captive breeding programs.”
Well, that explains my first wife.
My favorite fortune cookie line:
“Being an able man, there are always.”
“Know your limitations, but don’t over estimate them.”
I don’t follow my horoscope, but I like fortune cookies.
I thought Walter Matthau was great in it.
Also, this is a good week to bet on buzkashi.
I bet the guys in the funny hats win.
Yeah, a good week. Thank the stars; do I have to make any kind of sacrifice?
Burnt offering. The (REDACTED) BBQ has you covered.
Feel free to sacrifice Mary Stack.
I’ll be decontaminating, packing and moving a few megabucks worth of analytical equipment to a new cleanroom,
Do you guys do any electrochemical measurement?
We have electrochemical-adjacent analysis equipment (redox electrodes, etc) but the CVS equipment has been moved directly into the plating module.
My branch does all analyses of non-solid samples, metallic contamination on wafers, FTIR, and thermal desorption techniques. Another branch deals with electron microscopy and anything that can be mounted as an accessory to an electron microscope. The third does solid samples not having to do with structure/morphology. The fourth deals with finished dies and packaged product (mostly electrical tests). We don’t have an NMR, but that’s about it.
Wut?
We’re gonna need some 30 weight motor oil, some gauze pads, and ball bearings. No, make that 40 weight.
C’mon guys, it’s all ball bearings now.
True story: I saved the company $16k by fabricating a replacement part out of a ballpoint pen.
They gave me a $50 appreciation award.
Hey, fifty buck is fifty bucks.
Don’t forget the duct tape and baling wire.
Thanks- we have a bunch of that (FTIR, EDX, SEM, DSC/TGA…), but I’m looking at adding electrochemical capability (EIS and polarization) and am seeking advice on equipment vendors.
I badly want an NMR but can’t quite get a capital request for one past the green eyeshade types.
ECI: this company has gotten better ever since one of the founders murdered the other one.
Anything eaten by the Thermofisher conglomerate seems to have maintained their original quality, except for their service departments that got merged into Unity. Note that “maintained” precludes “improved” if you’ve been unhappy with FEI etc.
PVA TePla disappoints me, but I’ve only dealt with their VPD side.
I formerly worked at one of the companies absorbed by Thermo, as it happens. But I’ve found some relatively inexpensive versions of the Ametek electrochemical instrumentation I’m craving, and wonder if it’s false economy…
I’ve only got one Ametek standalone piece of equipment (MS), but I’ve been pretty happy with it, though it’s not used very often.
I find the idea of using Dionex’s chromatography software on GC-MSs to be intriguing, once I have the budget for it.
You guys are sciencing the shit out of this thread.
SP, I’m trying out writing HHH part 4 in the dashboard, and having formatting issues, is there a best practice guideline/”how-to WordPress for Dummies” type manual thing that I could reference?
I’ll take a look at your post and shoot you some tips.
There’s not much there right now, as I deleted the stuff that wasn’t working. I’ll give it another go later and leave whatever mess I end up with, so you can learn me.
It was mostly when I tried to add a picture it threw off all the text formatting, and I didn’t see where/how you adjust text wrapping.
In that case, the left has your back. By working hard to destroy science.
Der Spiegel takes a shot at Trump, but, of course, Trump is just a stand-in for America generally.
Yeah, fuck us for expressing some concern for yet another European crisis brought about by the Germans.
Link.
I think I broke my brain reading the comments……twitter is a toxic mixture of mendacity and baffling stupidity.
I award most nauseating comment to this guy”
FUCK. OFF. SLAVER.
Poor perspective on what other countries and the past are like. If only people like him were in charge it would be a utopia.
Then he should stay home.
“This matters. When America First actually means America Alone, the United States is significantly weaker.”
Offers breathless fact without evidence present. Also fuck off
The Smedley Butler doctrine required no stinkin’ Germanz.
We’ve been much too indulgent with these provincial shitheads. They want to offer up their countries as satraps for the Arabs, or to stuff their fingers in their ears and pretend Putin isn’t an acquisitive militant at their back door, whatever, but not on our dime.
Yeah, technically we are weaker. The next time the shtf we will have to do it without foreign troops helping…all 12 of them.
I dont know why anyone pays attention to them.
Where’s this “America Alone” already? Sounds great to me.
Sounds like ‘Fuck You, Cut Spending’ made flesh. Bring it!
“@incohetur
May 12
More
Why do you find Trump shitting on our allies a positive advancement of American diplomacy, while at the same time he praises dictator Kim and dictator Putin?”
Jesus Christ.
Epic projection. Sure, your electric bill has tripled and you can’t visit the Christmarkt any more but boy that Trump sure is a meanie.
Despite America being so horrible there’s somehow inexplicably still a big brain drain on. Half a million a decade of their best and brightest coming our way, very few the other way.
Lots of “fascist” in the replies .
It’s always amazing to me how ignorant Europeans are of their own history.
Seattle needz moar socialismz
Q: So far we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars; there are people angry that they are not seeing improvements. They directly blame City Council members like yourself, for mismanagement of funds?
A: “I think the media is paying too much attention to the few very, very loud right-wing NIMBYists who showed up to the council meeting at Ballard.”
Q: Is it fair to call them right-wing NIMBYs? Many of these people voted for (fellow City Council member) Mike O’Brien?
A: “I think the people who went to Ballard and spewed anti-homeless slurs, that is a right-wing approach.”
She was referring to a town hall meeting last week in Ballard, where angry homeowners say campers are stealing from their homes and defecating on their property.
Property is theft, Man.
Also, all that money they throw at “the homeless problem”? Not enough.
Being angry that ‘campers’ are stealing your stuff and shitting in your yard is totally right wing. Suburban lefties never complain about that stuff.
Each according to his own ability comrade. “Your” yard was underpopulated and not carrying it’s fair of shit.
Those damn right-wingers are ruining everything that was great about Seattle.
They truly are evil. It’s exactly how the Blue Caps running the gulags twisted reality.
“Anything I don’t agree with is (((right wing)))).”
“I think the people who went to Ballard and spewed anti-homeless slurs, that is a right-wing approach.”
We know they are right wing because they behave badly. That is some fine circular reasoning.
I have no clue what the money will do, but we need it! Also, big businesses!
From another article
So let me get this straight. The Mayor proposed a $250 head tax. Still dumb, but has Amazon’s approval. This would raise $40 million a year.
The people in favor of the $500 a head tax (and it’s only $500 a head until 2021, when it becomes 0.7%) say that’s not enough, because they need $400 million a year.
So in order to do that, they’re fighting for a tax to make $75 million a year.
Leftists eating their own, Time Machine edition –
Nearly 60 years after it dissolved, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the party of farmers, labourers and socialists that gave birth to the NDP, has (sort of) risen from the ashes.
It was resurrected by Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir, in his latest move to prove how much he still hopes to be welcomed back into the NDP fold after he was expelled last week by Leader Jagmeet Singh.
On Friday, Weir received approval from the Speaker to list his political affiliation as the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). “It’s no secret that I would like to be part of the federal NDP caucus,” Weir said in an interview. “Of course, the CCF merged into the NDP in 1961, so perhaps that could happen again.”
Gives new meaning to the term ‘regressive left.’
Tommy Douglas. Not dead enough.
Could you imagine retarded Canadians retardedly named him the greatest Canadian in history during a CBC poll?
CBC poll
Ahem.
Hi. This is Wilford Brimley. Welcome to Retardation: A Celebration. Now, hopefully with this book, I’m gonna dispel a few myths, a few rumors. First off, the retarded don’t rule the night. They don’t rule it. Nobody does. And they don’t run in packs. And while they may not be as strong as apes, don’t lock eyes with ’em, don’t do it. Puts ’em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming “No, no, no” and all they hear is “Who wants cake?” Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.
Did I mention the people who voted for him are fucken retards?
That far left progressive twat gave us a splendidly mediocre and rigid public health system! Woooo! Better than the Americans!! Wooo!
Fuck off.
The only sign that matters is Aquarius.
All the others just take up space in the universe.
This is correct.
/high five.
Mister_Sunfish
18 points
·
25 days ago
What’s the difference between an asteroid and a meteorite?
Share
neildegrassebotnik
Predictive Text Neil deGrasse Tyson
69 points
·
25 days ago
The universe is full of Jupiter’s eggs. Asteroids are eggs that were present for the birth of Seattle. Meteorites are eggs with British friends. I thought that was obvious.
Oh my, that’s funny.
Man, that entire thread is da bomb filled with gems!
What’s Mexican for “woodchipper”? Cops try to pass off gruesome murder as “accident”, get caught.
That’s standard in Mexico, especially in the resort areas.
Standard for them to “lie about how people died”? or to be complicit in the murder/robbery
A little from column A, a little from column B
I like going to Puerto Vallarta, but I seriously questioning how smart it is. It’s all peaceful and quiet until it isn’t.
I’ve read ~3 books by Nicholas Taleb (Black Swan, antifragile, fooled by randomness)… but not his latest (‘skin in the game’)
Someone recently fwded me an excerpt from a chapter in that book
Its worth a read.
I’m not the hugest fan of the guy; but i think he’s got a good analytical mind, and is helpful at explaining some (not necessarily groundbreaking) analytical ideas to laypeople in a way that they can apply to wider real-world situations.
most of the time his point isn’t as super-clever as it seems; its generally more about showing how people are stubbornly oblivious to certain characteristics of the world
in this case, he shows how the dynamics of an “intransigent minority vs. a heterodox, tolerant majority” tends to result in Dictatorship of the Minority;
because the costs of concession to an intransigent minority are lower than the costs of ignoring it, or trying to operate in parallel.
he gives multiple examples, some better than others. the basic idea is that in a contest between Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy – it is the Heterodox which movies in the Orthodox direction, because it is the only side which is capable of compromise.
a cute example:
” “Once you have ten percent or more women at a party, you cannot serve only beer. But most men will drink wine*. So you only need one set of glasses if you serve only wine — the universal donor, to use the language of blood groups.””
I suppose in some ways this is similar to”Conquest’s Laws of Politics“, but with some statistical theory behind it.
the most obvious insight is in political-party dynamics follow this pattern: dogma is enforced by small minority, and the more-moderate party majority generally goes along with the more-extreme version, because it is ‘cheaper’ to maintain unity by making those concessions.
It may also help explain why heterodox libertarianism has problems in the political sphere.
I’d read that before and was struck by it. Here’s the whole chapter from “Skin in the Game”.
https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15
same link, fwiw
Duh
Anyone who’s ever been married already knows this intuitively.
And I’m convinced Taleb is actually Warty.
The cute example is false. I served beer only at plenty of parties that wete 40+ percent women.
I’m not the hugest fan of the guy; but i think he’s got a good analytical mind, and is helpful at explaining some (not necessarily groundbreaking) analytical ideas to laypeople in a way that they can apply to wider real-world situations.
That is a perfect summation of Taleb. I was a bartender for years in my youth. Whenever there was a confrontation at the bar, people around would often try to step in and try to de escalate. Invariably, they would appeal to more reasonable party to “just let it go” because it would be a waste of time to use reason on the other party. So they basically punished the dude who didn’t do anything wrong because that is the only path to peace.
Honest Mike Bloomberg
That commitment to honesty is, I believe, a patriotic responsibility. As young children, one of the first things we learn about American history is the story of George Washington and the fallen cherry tree.
“I cannot tell a lie,” young George tells his father. “I cut it down.”
That story is a legend, of course. But legends are passed down from generation to generation because they carry some larger truth. The cherry tree legend has endured because it’s not really about Washington. It’s about us, as a nation. It’s about what we want from our children — and what we value in our leaders: honesty.
We have always lionized our two greatest presidents — Washington and Lincoln — not only for their accomplishments, but also for their honesty. We see their integrity and morals as a reflection of our honor as a nation.
However, today when we look at the city that bears Washington’s name, it’s hard not to wonder: What the hell happened?
———–
Today, those in politics routinely dismiss inconvenient information, no matter how factual, as fake — and they routinely say things that are demonstrably false. When authoritarian regimes around the world did this, we scoffed at them. We thought: The American people would never stand for that.
No shit. Oh, wait, “present company excepted”? No bait and switch, no egregious misrepresentation, no torture of statistical data to push your agenda, no puritanical bullyboy tactics; just old fashioned honest concern for the welfare and embiggenment of the common man.
If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
There is nothing more dishonest than the push for gun control. Mikey.
Attn : Creosote Achilles
Kinkworld isn’t my cup of tea, but I thought enough of your article to send it to a girl I knew in high school who now runs her own dungeon, complete with a cross onto which she ties her clients. She dug it quite a bit, and said to pass along this link of where ‘her calves’ are featured. At present, due to issues with her ex-husband, she does not maintain her own site.
Anyways, probably NSFW but not overly gratuitous for a Sunday.
https://iwantclips.com/store/9749/Anika-and-Friends-Cock-and-Ball-Trample
Holy moly. That looks painful.
Thanks, that means a good deal that you thought that much of it. Ouch! I’m not a CBT or trampling person as I tend to play on the other side of the slash, but good for her having her own space. I know a number of Femdoms and they are quite popular.
A question I’ve been curious about: when/how did the BDSM uniform come into being?
Assuming you mean the whole leather outfit of various types? The roots are in what sometimes is referred to as Old Guard Leather communities, in particular gay leather stuff who took inspiration from the motorcycle gangs or were coming out of that culture. Leather is tough, stain resistant, and looks and smells bad ass so it sort of migrated out into the straight kink communities. There are other trends, kilts are a big thing here esp. for riggers/rope tops and has almost become a uniform.
Well, leather/latex (black) and then there’s the dominatrix merry widow/stiletto thigh boots combo. That in particular should mean something since the Merry Widow didn’t exist until the 20th century.
I know boots were an erotic focus in Weimar Berlin, but I have no idea if that is the origin point.
Yeah, it comes indirectly from the early biker gangs of the early 40s. At least for men. The woman in high heeled boots thing I’m not sure about other than, women just look good in those kind of boots and the black leather/latex conveys power and control. There’s lots of fetishizing of boots. One of my play partners is a boot black and having her polish my boots and then lick them is a helluva rush.
Who engineered the purge of the Leather Old Guard?
It’s not so much a purge as that Old Guard Leather is partly mythic (as in, there was never a single set of traditions and protocols, just lots of different ones that had various similarities like, you couldn’t be a top until you had bottomed), and partly it’s a different part of the larger community. There are still Old Guard folks, and a couple of my friends, the boot black I mentioned included, follow those traditions, but they are sort of like neo-pagan reconstructionists. Since it’s all fantasy anyway…
How about pirate outfits with pointy hats, ruffled shirts and fake parrots? I might be into this tying chics up thing and never knew it.
I don’t know about fake parrots, but there’s a large overlap between the Pirate community and the kink community. There’s an event here in the summer called Tortuga that is explicitly an adult pirate weekend thing. The pirates broke away from the SCA (society for creative anachronism) over the SCA being a bunch of uptight political jackasses that forget the fun in the midst of their dressup. Which was fine with the SCA cause they wanted rid of those idiots who ruined the fun by not staying period gone.
But yes, get good at rope and dressed as a pirate you will have plenty of wenches willing to be tied up.
Erm, a little weird maybe to put this comment here, but congrats Gordi on your first kid!
Remember sleep is for the weak
The seeds have to be planted somehow.
Thanks …. she’s been sleeping ~20 hours a day since birth. Everyone has said that this honeymoon won’t last long, so yeah, hopefully my many years on the road have trained me for many sleepless nights.
Congratulations!
Rebuttal = “Ugh. Read a Book. And do some research. We can’t be expected to enact this labor for you“
In my experience, “progressives” are not very well read. They form opinions based on emotion, then invent logic to justify those opinions. They isolate themselves to magazines and inane books written by politicians (Obama’s books, etc.) which only serve as a pat on the back for having the “correct” opinions.
Conservatives are of course not much better, but at least some of them actually have a philosophical base from which all of their opinions are derived.
A few of the comments made good points, (I didn’t read far in) such as he should not use the word liberal. Many people who call themselves liberal don’t even know what that word means. Ya they are for individual rights as well as your right to be compelled by force to donate your property to fund someone elses right to have more. Name one liberal in Congress with a D behind their name today. The progressives have driven all the liberals out of that party or shut them up. Democrats I know who used to be solidly liberal in the classical sense have turned full on Bernie Bro commies now. Liberalism is dead in the DNC and he wasted his time writing that article. They won’t ever stop because they are progressives/communists who don’t give a shit about liberalism and or liberty.
“”he should not use the word liberal.””
The word is in a particularly bad place because its both a generic term in the media for “left wing”, yet its also a sneer term within the left-wing for those people who disagree w/ socialist ideas or identity-politics.
basically, it means completely different things depending on context
No one is as smart as they think they are but none more so than lefties. If I recall Barry O was the greatestest genius in the history of the world yet listening to the boneheaded shit that came out of this mouth made me think the guy cant put his shoes on the correct feet.
Taken from my bedroom window, today around lunchtime
Is it still alive?
He said, “Taken”, and that it was “lunchtime”, so obviously he’s making it into a sandwich right now.
The neighbors at the bottom of the hill have set up traps the last two summers and haven’t caught it. 😡
Huh. I saw one of those IRL for the first time this week.
We had one two years ago; I didn’t see any on the property last year.
We used to have a huge garden. Our lot was a clearing in the middle of forest, so we had lots of wildlife and I didn’t mind donating 20-30% of the produce to the local critters. Most seemed cool with that. Then along came the fucking woodchuck. The fucker would DESTROY whole beds of lettuce and veggies. It wasn’t clear that he was even eating any – just wanton destruction.
My wife was a disciple of Rodale – THE organic gardening guru. We had marigolds mixed with the tomatoes to keep the worms away (didn’t work). So the wife looks up ground hogs in her Rodale library and he says you either put up with them or shoot them.
So, I get out the old .22, set up a sniper position in the bedroom window and shoot it.
Best part was Monday at work during the usual what did you do this weekend discussion my wife mentions her husband shot the ground hog that had been giving us so much trouble. Her co-workers reactions were (this was Massholeistahn) “Shot it? Like with a gun?” “You have a GUN?” “How does he know how to use it?” “You have a GUN?” “You shot a GUN?” “He KILLED it?” Simply shooting a varmint was something totally outside their understanding. And this was twenty years ago.
My wife was a disciple of Rodale – THE organic gardening guru.
Are we boring you, Mr. Rodale?
I missed that son of a bitch last night. Easy shot. Guess the new glasses don’t help so much. He ran to hide in my woodshed. I’m guess Northern MN is a long way from you house, Ted. If he shows up again post a picture of the dead one.
Thinking about hanging a screech owl house this afternoon. Either that or taking a nap on the back patio. The benefit of frontloading mothers day festivities to the morning.
I had an owl outside the front window once, and when I showed my sister a photo she insisted owls are super creepy, thanks to the movie The Fourth Kind.
It’s become a running joke now. Last year for her birthday I texted her a photo of an owl with a birthday cake.
We have a mated pair of Great Horned Owls living in the oak forest that is our backyard. I will admit to just sitting and listening to them call on many, many nights. I love them.
One of the good things about working renfairs is getting to know the falconers. I got to pet an eagle owl!
Owls are one of the coolest birds; they are not particularly fast (or smart, despite appearances) but they are stealth. They are completely silent when they fly, and don’t disturb the air even right next to them. That is their bag.
Not very popular for falconry, though, I think, although that may be changing. More popular than eagles though I think, which are a real handful to work with.
They are also involved in raptor rescue and rehabilitation.
What? The owls? Now that is interesting! How does that work?
All the rennie falconers I’ve known had day jobs in some version of wildlife management or wildlife rehab. I think there are raptor sanctuaries for exotic pets that are abandoned by their owners, which is where the eagle owl came from. (That one was at the Muskogee fair).
So.Envious.
When I was young I had a great desire to become a falconer, but the only one I knew well had a travel schedule that just didn’t mesh with mine, so it never happened.
You’ll like this:
A 13-year-old eagle huntress in Mongolia
A photographer who snapped what could be the world’s only girl hunting with a golden eagle says watching her work was an amazing sight.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26969150
There’s a documentary about her called The Eagle Huntress.
Wow! Super cool. Thank you!
I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.
[Benny Hill salute]
Taken from my bedroom window, today around lunchtime
How much wood can he chuck?
The “rock chucks” or marmots out here have huge bushy tails, like a fox’s. I saw one from about a hundred yards away (from my window) and wasn’t sure what it was, until good old google image came to the rescue.
My brother in semi rural northern New Jersey has woodchucks in his back yard now and then. He shoots them. I think he uses .22 shorts, with the bolt action rifle that was my dad’s when he was a kid. Some day, if I think of it, I’ll ask him if he knows about subsonic ammo.
In my browser, with my OS, maximized on my screen, before you scroll down that Der Spiegel cover tweet looks like an orange dick and balls wearing a little suit jacket and Trump wig. That is all.
neato
Bradley Fighting Vehicle Urban Experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXzaUXIUkfA
gist- using cameras to provide better visibility
Vehicles like this in the NATO forces (M-ATV, etc) started to be produced by BAE and Oshkosh with Chinese air-conditioning compressors years ago.
I have no words.
From Gilmore’s NYT link:
This judgmental tendency became stronger during the administration of President Barack Obama, though not necessarily because of anything Mr. Obama did. Feeling increasingly emboldened, liberals were more convinced than ever that conservatives were their intellectual and even moral inferiors. Discourses and theories once confined to academia were transmitted into workaday liberal political thinking, and college campuses — which many take to be what a world run by liberals would look like — seemed increasingly intolerant of free inquiry.
To be sure.
No smug condescension ever crept into the pronouncements of the slayer of racism.
I think his point tho is correct; it wouldn’t have mattered who was president
(tho it certainly helped it was a black guy, because it fueled the “You disagreement proves you are a racist” reactions)
I think it mostly created this sense, particularly among millenials, that Obama certified a sort of permanent moral-authority on the left.
iow, that any return to the Dark Times of Bush II (whose first admin would have been the formative years of many millenials) was no longer possible. The world (in their view) had grown up (along with them), and now that the world had seen what enlightened progressive rule looked like, no one would ever desire any alternative.
the fact that obama wasn’t really at all progressive in *policy* matters was irrelevant; he signaled-correctly, and reinforced their faith.
which, i guess that latter part is what you mean. My point is just that Obama’s style of condescending, moral-authority, had little to do w/ his actual policies.
Oh it is very easy to see that Donald Trump might have changed not one iota of his policies (except maybe his judicial appointments) and could have won the adoration of the centrist two-thirds of the self-imagined progressives by ladling on the proper rhetoric. Fuck, he could probably be doing it alongside the stuff he currently spouts–just look at Joe Biden, that crazy rascal!
It probably wouldn’t hurt if Trump were young and handsome in addition as he spouted the prog-boner smoothness, but for more evidence that Obama’s race per se is not the be all and end all factor, look at the American reaction to Trudeau Jr. The one sector for which it is, is the left wing of the left–the people who are not like those who, for all of their ostentatious #BLM and pitchfork-rattling facebook virtue-signalling, would like nothing more in their barely-concealed hearts than to hear the words “President Mike Bloomberg.” The true lefties, the sincere Bernie crowd, have been bizarrely muted for almost a decade over a guy they should have been denouncing like a bunch of Red Guards to an effigy of a young Deng Xiaoping. And it’s not hard to conjecture why that might be the case.
Double-Amputee Vet Turned Away From VA Without Treatment
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/05/13/johnny-joey-jones-double-amputee-veteran-turned-away-va-without-treatment
***
After a 5hr wait I was turned away form @AtlantaVAMC at 2:30am this morning without treatment or explaination. Here’s what happened..
…
And asked when I would be seen. They told me that they close at 2am and I would be moved to a different part of the hospital. I showed my frustration so the nurse walked me straight back to the on duty doctor. He was preparing to leave at 2am (end of his shift)
…
He was rude, desmissive and said “I’m leaving I’ve been here all day, you’ll have to wait” to which I replied “I’ve had no legs for 8 years I feel so bad for you” he then changed his demeanor and looked at my script. He smirked and said “I can’t fill this here”… I lost it.
***
Just make Percocet OTC already.
Single-payer FTW!
LOL good luck with that. Like I’m always bitching about, while we’ve been busy patting ourselves on the back that “the drug war mentality is over” because we can now smoke (ever more heavily taxed and regulated) weed in more and more states, we are standing still or moving backward on every other vice except alcohol (mixed bag but inching forward). The “opioid crisis” is a huge setback, since it supposedly puts the lie to antiprohibitionist claims of “the greater harm to society” and shows us what a regime of legalized drugs would really look like. It’s even won drug war opponents back to the prohibitionist side.
Don’t look at one of those periodic news reports on global narcotrafficking unless you’re sitting down. So much violence, death, destruction…trillions of dollars that people could have used to better their lives…all for the sake of trying to control what a few Americans put into their own bodies.
People who point to the opoid supposed crisis as a reason to turn against drug legalization are hopelessly misguided. Addicts wouldn’t be checking out so often if they weren’t forced by circumstances to seek out fentanyl laced heroin.
Taurus.
https://www.gunsamerica.com/UserImages/3220/919627192/wm_2086666.jpg
This is the one I have been lusting after. My Dad has one and it is a sweet little item.
Hmm. Black and hard-bodied, I’ll admit, but overall not of a particularly high caliber. Sorry Q.
I like this one:
https://www.ganderoutdoors.com/product/details?pdesc=Beretta-Pico-Handgun&i=203628
less is more
But the others were on topic. 😉
What’s next? P Brooks using threaded comments? Cats and dogs living together?
Now that’s just crazy talk!
I have a vague memory of a month or so ago, P Brooks screwed up and threaded his reply.
Of course we scientists have our little secrets. For instance, the moon is in Spain. Another: stars aren’t real. Also, cells are huge. One cell is roughly the size of a marble.
NDT mk. II rules.
What makes something art?
If something is 100 percent accurate and the government is okay with it — that’s art.
In non-lovin’ news, there are indicators that martial belligerence will lead to good things.
What good things? Orgy? Booze? Bales of cocaine falling from the sky?
Apropos for the article shared the other day about Seattle’s proposed new tax to “solve” homelessness:
Clueless in Seattle by Bruce Ramsey on Seattle:
Good article.
A bit of old news which might have made the rounds here: Leland Yeager died. I remember reading his contributions to Liberty and liking them.
There’s something pitiful about this woman and I’m having difficulty putting my finger on it. She reminds me of my friend’s bipolar mother. She was always very sweet, if a little scattered, for all of about half an hour, until she started picking clothes up off the floor or tidying the kitchen, and then she turned into a frantic lunatic. She’d get agitated and panicked, try doing everything at once, attempt to co-opt her kids or husband to help her, until she finally had to lock herself in her bedroom and cry it out. This happened more times than not when I visited. And the thing is, the house was always a wreck. Always. She hadn’t fixed herself well enough to keep a handle on her household, I guess. And the same obtains with this woman in Seattle: there’s something inimical to progress within the foundation of the system you’ve built, and encrusting it with more programs and funds and outreach isn’t going to address the sickness at the heart of your city.
today’s lesson from alternet- how to argue like a moron
Here’s Why Self-Indulgent Libertarian Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds
https://www.alternet.org/heres-why-self-indulgent-libertarian-hypocrisy-knows-no-bounds
***
I once had a conversation with a libertarian friend who insisted that freedom was the answer to everything, ironic since he was getting married the following week.
“Freedom to have sex with others while married?” I asked.
“Of course not,” he said.
“Freedom for your children to do whatever they want?”
“No, that’s different,” he said.
“Freedom for everyone to have a nuclear bomb?”
“No, that wouldn’t be good.”
“Freedom for people to steal?”
“No, that has to be controlled.”
“You don’t really think that freedom is the answer to everything,” I said. “The real question is what to constrain and what to let go free. The question in social engineering is the question in all engineering. It’s a question of tolerances: What to constrain with tight tolerances and what to let run free with loose tolerances. That question is built right into the paradoxical declarations that we should all, “be intolerant of all intolerance,” or “tolerate all intolerance.”
“Sorry, that’s not my question,” he said.
“But why?” I asked.
“Because it’s hard and I don’t want to bother with it.”
***
Non-aggression principle? What’s that?
[head desk]
Yeah, considering he managed to nail all the anti-libertarian strawmen in one fell swoop, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that conversation only took place in the author’s head.
Exactly
You must have TBI by now from your desk.
I did not read it thoroughly through, but it seems from the very second line that this libertarian either hails from the same dimension as all those precocious toddlers asking journalists why Donald Trump is how he is, as well as Tom Friedman’s cab drivers; or else they are real but one of the many people who are none too bright but just proclaim themselves to be something. Like asking a suburban high-school freshman with a circle-A bandanna about Lysander Spooner.
I know not every libertarian is prepared to hold forth in a discussion of tax incidence, but I am damn well sure most can come up with a proper response to “Freedom to have sex with others while married?”
“You must have TBI by now from your desk.”
According to the search function, I have made about 140 [head desk] posts.
I see no mention of self-ownership in that.
Just arriving-
Making predictions is hard, especially about the future.
Can I go off topic now?
Everything is written in the stars. No topic is off topic, they are all simply non-obvious correlates of those topics presented.
Today on the smoker: “Fenched” Drumsticks and a rack of ribs. I love that I can sit outside…burn evil fuel and cook good food while consuming beer or whatever libation is available.
How do you “French” a drumstick? Stab it when it walks out of the subway?
Hah! I don’t know the correct term. you trim away the lower portion basically making a lollipop.
You were correct.
And they are fantastic. I’m so shy but I might make a OBE Smokes article
Hey, nobody knows you’re a dog, so go for it!
The greatest thing to me about the website and community here is the variety of voices.
I will only encourage everyone to contribute their thoughts.
Ya, I know how to do it I just wanted to make the subway stabbing joke because I am a horrible person and I heard you get points for making on topic comments about the previous links post in the current active post.
If we all save our on topic comments about a link until the next post is up we would give Swiss an aneurysm.
Well played. At least I got your inference
Just pulled a brisket from the smoker. Looks like it turned out really well. I’ll know in an hour.
I read Current Affairs for the same reason G Gordon Liddy would hold his hand over a candle for as long as possible. It is a test of will and pain tolerance.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/05/the-dismal-frontier
***
But I suspect the fans want what they’ve always wanted: a more justly structured society, a more egalitarian world, a vision of the future where human beings possess a solid standard of living and behave ethically toward one another, and the galaxy unfolds before us as a place of wonder, adventure, and continuous moral development. Star Trek was never about space battles, even if space battles occurred; it was always about the ethics of being, how we would look as the best possible versions of ourselves. It was about the theory that human beings aren’t mired in our viciousness; we don’t just “respond to strength,” and we’re capable of cultural evolution. It suggested that in the distant future, we might look back on this era as a regrettable period where humans were childishly, tragically wrong about so much, especially capitalism and the necessity of violence.
And then we’ll go on dorky space adventures.
***
[head desk]
These types always seem to forget that the Federation was a military organization.
I like Star Trek and it can be interesting to see how they have dealt, and failed to deal, with various issues. For instance, there was an excellent episode of DS9 in which Jake and Nog concoct an elaborate, entertaining, and ultimately heartwarming series of barters (akin to the “swops” advertised until 2013 in that special classified column in Yankee magazine) in order to acquire a baseball card for Capt. Sisko’s birthday. It is not done tongue in cheek, but almost seems like it has to be trolling the diktats of their universe’s economic system.
Then of course there’s Quark. He’s a bit like the Worf of the Ferengi–on the one hand, an ultratraditionalist, a far more earnest and principled believer in his society’s values than anyone actually in the midst of it. On the other hand, he can maintain such a purity of purpose in large part because he’s exiled from it in our world; and he’s written to appeal to us as virtuous–not just because of said principles, but in other subtler ways that make him worthy of respect to human values despite his inherent conservatism. In any case, into Quark’s mouth are occasionally put some surprisingly awesome rhetoric…
…on behalf of the canonically ridiculous Ferengi.
Overall, though, the Star Trek Utopia is a bust. It’s not so much socialist (lord knows there has been plenty of good sci-fi by socialists, starting with the man who wrote the original Utopia itself) as it is a cowardly evasion (and thus objectively poor universe-building) of the question entirely. It’s supposed to be a “post-scarcity” society because not a single person wants for food, shelter, medical care, entertainment technology, etc. of a quality beyond our current wildest dreams. But of course there is plenty of scarcity in the Federation. Who gets transport rides, those beautiful old large houses or apartments with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, handcooked meals at Sisko’s, treatment from the best doctors in the Federation, and so forth? The best we can tell does not seem to be particularly “progressive”; it seems to be issued according to who you know in this extremely military- (okay because it’s not “military”) dominated, aggressively expansionist society. The deliberate focus of the show on the military sector itself allows it to mask the fact of what would be an extremely unsettling prominence of the military within society as a whole. Underneath it all we’re far, far worse than even the Klingons–the Athenians to their Spartans, you might say–a fact that, again, the sharpest Trek writing gives us awesome little aware nods to.
Addendum: The swop episode ends with a heartwarming montage showing how Jake and Nog’s long barter string, done at no point with any deliberate altruism, ended up ultimately improving and bringing joy to the lives of everyone it touched. (Imagine if there were some device, some social convention, to facilitate such actions and make them common instead of rare and laborious…) Again, this shit was totally seamlessly in tone and in tune with the ethos and atmosphere of the universe and within the spirit of Trek but it has to have been done with at least a little wink.
I clicked the link just to confirm it was NJR and much to my surprise it was not.
The one thing Star Trek never did was explain how they got to this new society. They got to this non-scarcity society and them some sort of magic happened and then they lived in utopia.
What the mainstream media will not tell you is that wombats have extremely tough rumps. They are a wondrously “designed” multilayered shield of thick cartilage, thick fat, thickened and toughened skin callus, and thickened fur; there is nothing else quite like it in nature. When their burrow is under attack they just plug it up with their butts facing out, and predators cannot penetrate. Or they can even slam their butts into the predators’ skulls against the sides of the burrow, crushing them. Popular YouTube nature daredevil heartthrob Andrew Ucles, who spends most of his YouTube videos catching poisonous snakes and the like with his hands, freaked the fuck out when a fat little wombat entered the pipe he was in and started to show him who’s who. (The comments are entertaining.)
Also, they have upside-down pouches (so the joeys don’t get dirt kicked in their faces while burrowing) and they shit cubes.
Weaponized twerking? Only in Australia,
*claustrophobia intensifies*
Aren’t wombats basically small bear-pigs? Would do they taste like?
Porcine forequarters are much the same, javelina in particular.
Rents drop when the free market is allowed to thrive, and in NYC no less:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-12/new-york-rents-plunge-12-queens
Now to keep DeBlasio et al from screwing it up.
I really need to move. I’m getting absolutely fucked in my current apartment. But moving ain’t cheap, either.
Now to keep DeBlasio et al from screwing it up.
Aaaannnnnd it’s gone.
this is pretty good
Elizabeth Warren: “I’m an Indian Too” Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN2FGuYgtlY
I do not maintain strictly-dogmatic* views on many things…. but one of them is:
– You can not and should not walk a cat on a leash Just no. Dogs, yes. Cats, no. Just stop for the love of all that is holy.
Seems like a recipe for a severe injury and a possible trip to the emergency room.
Many years ago, another family visited mine. Their younger girl decided to put a leash on one of our cats. The cat ran away and was MIA for a few days. I found it in the woods a hundred yards away by banging on a can of cat food with a fork and listening for the meows.
When the cat bolted, the leash got tangled up in the tree and it was stuck. It had a donut shaped callus around its neck when I took the leash off.
obligatory: Pinky the Cat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR_LHlFwlhk
Who wouldn’t want such a wonderful pet?
Seriously, dogs are available, people.
Webdom had a cat who loved to be walked on a leash. The area was teeming with coyotes and owls, and it was the only way the poor thing was allowed outside.
Silkies on leashes in the wide arroyo near the housing development at dusk when the coyotes are lurking. The three legged pitty had a look like Hey, I’d love to help you, but if shit goes down, you’re on your own.
I used to take Sous Chef Oscar for walks on a leash. He has no fear and no sense – as a kitten, he tried to jump off a fifth floor balcony. I barely caught him by a back leg. These days he doesn’t want to wear the harness or even go outside. Outside is scary to him.
I had a cat, also named Eddie, who took to a leash quite well. Except she kept dragging me into back alleys so she could eat the cobwebs behind dumpsters, apparently it is a delicacy among members of her breed. So, agreed, walking cats on a leash is a bad idea.
I’ve thought about leashing my cats, considered the chances of bringing fleas into my house, and quickly gave up on the idea.
It does mark one, though, as wildly eccentric. I may revisit the idea.
dogmatic*
Your dad punning called to mind for some reason a comic strip, I think it was Mother Goose and Grimm, that I have not seen since it ran more than 30 years ago. “He’s a ‘legal beagle,'” brags its owner in the first panel. “Fido, bring your leash.” Then the dog goes and comes back with a document in its mouth. “No, no!” cries the owner. “That’s a lease!” Newspaper funnies, ladies and gentlemen. There was no golden age.
Dogmatic? It’s a dog without a clutch.
Ok, I am caught up. I’ll toss in two owl stories because of the raptor discussion upthread.
I went squirrel hunting and left before sunup. I knew where I was going so went straight and plopped my ass down in the pre-selected location. As the sky began to light up I could hear something scurrying around in the leaves not five feet from my boots. The noise was minute but I could hear it. Eventually it was light enough, barely, for me to see a small mouse flitting around on the ground. It was mostly silent but occasionally made a tiny bit of noise.
Then I heard an owl hoot two or three times 20 or 30 yards away. The mouse disappeared. Just as I was thinking that was funny, that the mouse would make itself scarce at the mere sound of an owl that was obviously too far away to hear it or see it in the thick brush the owl lit on a branch about three feet to my right and exactly even with my head. People here call them screech owls but they aren’t. It’s called a Flammulated owl but it looks very much like a screech owl. They are only about 6 inches tall. It stared intently at the leaves where that mouse had been for a half a minute or so while I froze to keep from scaring it off. Then it slowly rotated its head towards me and made eye contact. From its body language and the look of it’s face I couldn’t help but get the impression he was thinking “You asshole. You scared away my breakfast” Then it flew away. Pretty cool.
It is incredible to me that it knew that mouse was there from so far away.
Second story – I am standing outside by the shed seeing a man about a dog and I look up to discover a great horned owl about 30 yards away staring at me from a perch in an oak tree. I dont think I would have seen it if it hadn’t blinked. It looked like it was 4 feet tall and had eyes the size of saucers. I haven’t seen one of those for several years. No wonder all of the rabbits disappeared from around here.
The only owl story I know isn’t very romantic… some species used to dive bomb highway traffic at dusk when the headlights started coming on and the insects were out. Well, one unlucky sod connected with dad’s headlight at 60mph. Busted the light.
Thats not uncommon, sadly.
Owls are dumb as fuck; a particularly majestic and noble looking one stood blankly, just staring at me, on the road just to the side of my vehicle’s path as I pulled onto an on ramp in New Jersey one night, then suddenly decided to panic and flew right at me, knocking my side view mirror right the fuck off and slapping me hard in the face. If he meant to do that shit owls have my respect more than any other bird now, but I suspect it was no more cleverly deliberate than the attacks done to vehicles by America’s far-deadlier-than-all-others-combined creature, deer.
One flew past our windshield as we were approaching Devil’s Tower to camp at about 3 in the morning.
They are incredible creatures. We had a pair at the very large, wild, property I administered in the mountains in New Mexico. We had very few varmint problems.
They are that. Those saying owls are dumb are correct. If they can find a tiny mouse thirty yards away in dim light under thick brush from a treetop they dont need to be smart.
We occasionally have a barn owl perch in the top of our very large willow tree. It’s the only time I see the frickin’ squirrels walk softly.
To be honest, I’m not too happy with the way the Iran situation is being handled right now. That being said, someone needs to yank the leash on their dog:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-13/john-kerry-spotted-secret-meeting-iranian-officials-bolton-threatens-eu-firms
Who the hell does this guy think he is?
Ted Fuckhead Kennedy went to the soviets when Reagan got elected and told them not to pay any attention to Reagan, that the establishment would get him under control and towing the lion.
The left leaning Democrats have no compunction about committing sedition. Judging from Hillary’s and Obama’s behavior they have no compunction about committing any crime.
I forgot…Ted also straight-up sold us out to the Russians to help him win election. He should have been shot instead. Want Russian collusion? look no further than the Democrats. These allegations against Trump are just more proof that they are all projection, all of the time.
Wasn’t the left raising hell about supposed Logan Act violations recently? You can’t get a much more clear violation than this.
I believe it is one of the charges against Flynn for talking to the Russian Ambassador during the transition.
The theory was floated, stupidly, given his authority as iconic National Securities Advisor, but also attempting to prosecute him for it probably would have gotten the act overturned by the courts, since from what I’ve heard, it’s a pretty blatant 1A violation. But not even Comey was dumb enough to try it.
Instead, they went with the tried and true charge of lying to the FBI about a perfectly legal interaction, which came as a surprise to everyone involved, including the agents who interviewed him, none of whom suggested he’d lied… until it became necessary to drum up something, anything, to nail a Trump confederate.
Iconic = incoming
JUKING AUTOCORRECT
I cant believe anyone is dumb enough to talk to the FBI. Martha Stewart is the poster child for “Keep your fucking mouth shut”, yet people keep doing it.
“Hey, we just want to find the truth. We didn’t bring you in to trap you or anything like that. You scratch our backs and we’ll scratch yours. Just tell us what you remember, as you remember it.” *All the while searching for the tiniest inconsistency to nail them to the cross*
“I want a lawyer” is the only thing anyone should say to them without a lawyer present.
There’s a lot of doubt about how the Bureau represented the interview to Flynn. They arranged it with his secretary, not inviting him to come in for an interview. They didn’t alert the White House counsel. Flynn may have thought it a routine meeting with agents about transition business. I’m not sure whether he’s said as much himself, but that’s how I’ve heard it described. And even then, his interviewers didn’t think he’d been dishonest. The “lie” about discussing sanctions with Kislyak didn’t come about until later. Pure scalp-hunting by the Bureau.
It’s amazing how many people will talk to the cops. This includes lawyers, and other people who should know better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMZrdyCWu7M
Never talk to the FBI. Ever. Not one word.
I have heard it argued it is probably unconstitutional as well, (and Flynn being the incoming it does not even apply imo) but the thing that confuses me with the likes of Kerry and how that law could be unconstitutional is that foreign diplomacy as to treaties is an enumerated power of the President. The Iran deal is by all honest evaluations a treaty that Obama did not get consent of congress for and probably should have been null and void on Trumps first day in office. Private citizens are not allowed to negotiate treaties because well, they are not the fucking president so what is Kerry doing?
He is telling them how to try and best Trump. At least how he thinks they can.
That is not sedition; Ted Kennedy can tell the Soviets whatever the fuck he wants and you can too. It’s their problem if they believe him, and our problem if we continue to elect him.
se·di·tion – conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.
Why is this supposedly a bad thing?
Good or bad has nothing to do with it.
I thought about that a bit before posting. In our country it is true that most of what has historically been called sedition is (by design, even if the Federalists simply did not give a rat’s ass) perfectly legal. But there are a few narrow crimes still called “seditious” that have survived the two world wartime periods’ backtracking on civil liberties and the restoration of speech protections afterwards, as well as a military crime called sedition, so in the American context “sedition” could naturally be taken to refer to the narrow way we have come to conceive of the offense. Much like “treason,” or “libel” for that matter, both of which are much narrower here than traditionally and elsewhere.
Looking at the history of prosecutions it is clear that, as you say, it would be used to prosecute people for exercising their civil liberties. I dont know what Lurch is telling the Palestinians and the Iranians and whoever else he has been talking to but I have a pretty good idea what his game is. It’s sedition but prosecuting him for that is not the way to go. I dont know what other way to leash that dog is but someone needs to find it. As you said the guy is not a representative of the US and it is their problem if they buy any of it. Surely by now they have figured out that the one person who speaks for DT is DT. I am still worried that he can stir up some mischief.
Probably the best leash is to do what Trump did, cancel Obama’s promise of personal fealty to the mullahs and explain, as senate Republicans did at the time, what everyone already knows: Obama’s personal commitments have no bearing on American law, and you’d be an idiot to pretend otherwise.
I believe that it is. He is undermining the authority of the sitting president in a deliberate and calculated way. However, I am not in favor of prosecuting him or even attempting to. That is a dangerous road to go down.
Yes except there is no such crime in our country, as indeed there should not be since (despite our clear yearning for one) we do not have a king.
He meant to say tradition tradition. It’s a Democratic tradition.
Autocorrect is a treacherous mattress.
Now you are cracking me up
It’s not even autocorrect, tbh. It’s Swype, which is a pleasure to use if you keep an eye on your output.
A Democrat?
In other news, my adaptation of my English muffin recipe to vegan seems to have worked!
Those look great. What do they taste like?
Great! Also,Less Filling!
They are sourdough with whole wheat. I’ll post the recipe one of these days. They do not suck.
I need to start a sourdough starter. I keep forgetting. I am on it now!
Shoot me your mailing address and I’ll send you some. sp@ this website.
Starter, not muffins. 😉
homemade English muffins?
Have you considered trading in your husband for a newer model?
If she has learned anything from him, when she does it will presumably be a hell of a lot newer one than you.
Isn’t that OMWC is going to do when SP hits prepuberty?
Way to blow your keto diet. 😉
This is why we’re not around much during the evening. She puts food together like she does with websites.
Salty?
filled with malware?
With labels in Comic Sans.
Now those look tasty.
Yeah, you’re familiar with my baking “skills,” so you know why I married her: it was self-defense.
Is yeast vegan? What about lactobacillus beet?