Thursday Morning Links

Well tennis went a little more to form last night. Especially for those who had tickets for the evening, or should we say overnight, session?  Djoker and Nishikori advanced on the mans side, as did Osaka and Keys on the ladies. And in baseball’s small slate of games, the results were: Cleveland over KC, Boston ripped the heart out of Atlanta, St Louis squeaked by Washington, Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati, Team Canada topped Tampa Bay, Miami beat Philadelphia, The New York Metropolitans beat the Dodgers, the Cubs were two better than the Brewers, the Angels pounded the Rangers, the Tigers beat the White Sox, the Rockies topped San Francisco, the Mariners beat the Orioles, the Athletics took down the Yankees and the world champion Astros demolished the MINNESOOOOOODA TWIIIIIIINS! There wasn’t really much else going on in the sports world. The NFL season starts tonight though. So these sports updates will get a little longer on Monday for the next couple months.

Image may be enhanced for effect

Today we remember the birth of the Marquis de Lafayette, pacifist Jane Addams, rum runner Joseph Kennedy, singer/Texan David Allen Coe, dumbass anti-semite but brilliant musician Roger Waters, comedic actress Jane Curtin, redneck-exploiter Jeff Foxworthy, human sound effects machine Michael Winslow, fat man Chris Christie, Dutch politician Geert Wilders, woman with an annoying voice Rosie Perez, actor Idris Elba, and musician Scott Travis.

Its also the date on which the following happened: Magellan’s ship returned to Spain from the first global circumnavigation. Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” opened. Oberlin College went co-ed (in 1837, that was a big deal), San Francisco began cable car service, William McKinley was shot, the first Battle of the Marne began, the first Piggly Wiggly (and first supermarket, really) opened, the Indo-Pakistani war began, Martina Navratilova asked for political asylum during the US Open, Princess Diana’s funeral was held, and Cal Ripken Jr broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played.

And now…the links!

The New York Times prints an un-named Op-Ed allegedly from a “resister” inside the Trump administration. I’m shocked the person was able to write it. I assumed he/she had a broken arm from patting him/herself on the back so hard.  Well, either that or this is another elaborate hoax carried out by Trump insiders against the media. I’m genuinely not sure what to think anymore, seeing as posting anonymous first-person tell-all Op-Eds is new territory from what I can tell.

What a weird lady

Looks like Asia Argento’s accuser is going to file a criminal complaint against the actress after all. So either he wants some more money or he genuinely believes he was assaulted. Anyway…the plot thickens.

Congratulations, India. Welcome to the 21st Century. We’re glad you finally made it.  Now let’s see if your neighbors will start tolerating peoples’ personal choices that have no effect on others.

Shit. I know I should have patented “HoboTracker 2000” when I had the chance. I won’t post much info, but I will quote the story:

San Francisco’s new tracking system could soon identify the history and future needs of every homeless man, woman, and child in the city.

The platform is a much-needed solution to the city’s outdated and inconsistent databases.

I can’t imagine what could possibly go wrong with entering all of the personal information and physical needs/history into a central database that the government controls.  Hell, they might want to consider giving them something to wear on their person or even a tattoo of their number to cross-reference when they need it.

I hope all you Jap-glibs (or Nip-glibs?) are safe. There was a large earthquake there while we in America were sleeping. Let’s hope that wasn’t a precursor of more to come.

Only in Chicago would it be news that a judge convicted for fraud had decided not to run again.

Ride the lightning, asshole

Are tendencies towards greatness/malevolence hereditary or based on environment?  That’s the age-old question Randolph and Mortimer Duke found out the answer to the hard way.  Well, here is some evidence that shows shitheads may be passing their shithead psychopath genes down. Jesus, can we get this trial done and roll out Ol Sparky please? That fucker needs to die already.

In today’s “Nothing to see here. Move along” news… I have no problem with the research being done, although I would rather it be done by private companies. But why the fuck all the secrecy?

Well today’s easy. And yes, you get three songs (from three different albums!) again! Let me know your favorite in the comments. Here is the first one.  And here is the second. Finally comes the third song of the set. And it is without a doubt their greatest song, in my humble opinion.

Now go out there and live your day well, friends!

 

Comments

541 responses to “Thursday Morning Links”

  1. Chafed

    Asia Argento scares me. Those tattoos tell me there is more than a little crazy in there.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      There ain’t no crazy like Italian crazy.

      1. AlexinCT

        Avoid Italian crazy… That never ends well..

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Usually gets a little stabby before it’s over

          1. AlexinCT

            If you are lucky it ends at stabby… As someone with that heritage I tell you that that demographic quickly ended up in my “never again” bucket. No matter how hot.

          2. The Last American Hero

            +1 foxy Knoxy

    2. Winston

      Well her dad was Dario Argento and she was in a Vin Diesel movie.

    3. PieInTheSky

      So as far as I can tell it is one of those they raped each other kind of situations…

      1. Atanarjuat

        Apparently (I saw a glib point this out, didn’t click through myself) Argento is going to claim *he* raped *her* to get out of it. So maybe he decided to get out front of it first. Or maybe they both are terrible people.

        1. slumbrew

          The whole “sure, we had sex” text messages that were leaked will make that claim difficult.

          1. The Last American Hero

            In a court of law, yes. Good thing they aren’t in front of a university tribunal.

  2. Slammer

    San Francisco began cable car service

    From horse dung to human dung. PROGRESS

    1. Well, the SanFransiscans do have a pining for fuedalism via marxism…

      1. AlexinCT

        Funny how marxism and feudalism seem to have so much in common, huh?

      2. Drake

        They just made plastic straws illegal and shitting on the street legal.

        1. AlexinCT

          Plastic straws kill Gaia, while shit in the streets grows Gaia… Maybe Gaia needs to be bitch slapped…

  3. Tonio

    That picture, Sloopy…

    You trolling me, bro?

    1. AlexinCT

      The one for the morning links? I didn’t know Rugby was that, erm, physical…

      1. Tonio

        Yes, that one. I wasn’t aware those lads were playing rugby until you mentioned it. [wink]

        But, yeah, rugby involves much more tussling than US football; no pads, after all. And that’s why the sport has such a large gay following.

        1. I’m pretty sure that’s soccer. The “pitcher” in the photo is trying to help the “catcher” up because he’s probably been feighnjng an injury to slow play down or convince the official to give a card to the guy who “tackled” him.

          1. And I thought it was a Man United player, but I may be wrong. I’m on my phone now and can’t go find the source data for the pic.

          2. AlexinCT

            WTF, yeah that are soccer players… And yeah, that just is not erm, an appropriate move to get the ballerina faking an injury to give up the fact he is faking it, but you got to give the guy points for quick thinking….

      1. Evan from Evansville

        Ooooh, you got a Sensible Chuckle from me, at least.

        Alright, alright alright. I might have also made finger guns.

    2. ElspethFlashman

      I thought you meant the one of Chris Christie where he’s leading the band playing selections from “The Music Man,” with his ice-cream-cone-baton. At least that’s how it looks to me.

      1. AlexinCT

        I knew that was photo shopped because Christie eats ice cream from 55 gallon drums only.

        1. ElspethFlashman

          Ok, that still works with my idea of him leading the band . . . I approve.

  4. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Quote of the day:

    We know that by simply organizing and planning for human needs rather than private profit, we can solve our societal problems. We have but to shake off these mooching, leeching, capitalist parasites, like a dog shaking off fleas.

    1. People have a damn good track record of planning for their own needs, so there is no ‘we’ needed to cover that.

      1. AlexinCT

        Every time we let top men plan for societal problems in lieu of letting individuals plan for their own needs, we ended up with camps, deaths in the millions (70+ by the fascists and over 120 million by the communists), billions living in a system that made feudalism look like a noble way to rule the peasants, and misery for all. Of course, when you are driven by envy and you really feel everyone needs to be prevented from having more than you, this stuff remains appealing.

    2. PieInTheSky

      We know a lot of things. Most of them are wrong and stupid. Be the knowledge is there.

    3. Brett L

      You can’t fool me, that’s lifted from Atlas Shrugged.

      1. slumbrew

        I was assuming Das Kapital or maybe The Little Red Book.

    4. Rebel Scum

      human needs rather than private profit

      The profit motive is responsible for facilitating/providing for human needs and desires.

      mooching, leeching, capitalist parasites

      Trading with others for mutual gain is “parasitical”. I don’t think words mean what socialists think they mean.

  5. WTF

    “Anonymous source inside the White House” = NY Times editors made that shit up.
    Just guessing, but that’s what it looks like to me.

    1. Drake

      Mine too. A pile of rumors and tall tales fictionalized into a fake story.

      1. Enough About Palin

        Dear Penthouse Forum,

        I work in the Whitehouse and I’m still amazed that something like this would happen to me, but I assure you every word is true…

    2. AlexinCT

      I honestly can’t believe these morons admitted this. If there really is someone undermining Trump’s admin from within, Trump’s follower’s arguments that we have a deep state now undermining the will of the people is basically validated. If this is more of the same – the resistance makes up shit hoping to undermine the guy fighting their deep state – Trump’s follower’s arguments that we have a deep state now undermining the will of the people is basically validated. As WOPR told Matthew Broderick’s character in War Games: “The only way to win is not to play”. but these morons will never get it.

    3. Suthenboy

      I agree WTF. They fabricate bullshit every day. Why should we believe this is any different. They are trying to sow discord in the WH.

    4. Evan from Evansville

      I think it is such obvious BS.

      Protip: If you are “undercover”….you don’t reveal that there is someone is undercover. Why would someone in the WH, who ostensibly wishes to use their position to undermine the Prez, reveal the leak? You keep your mouth shut and do secret shit. You certainly don’t admit to taking papers off of POTUS’ desk and publish it in the fucking NYT.

      I could see an ex-WHouser doing this, but if you actually work there and want to fuck with the presidency as much as possible, why in the fuck would you go out of your way to tell the opposition that something is up?

      That’s like 7-year-old criminal “logic.” Totes fake. I’m kind of flabbergasted that the paper would publish such a thing. (Yeah, yeah I know. My dad (and mother for a time) were both honest newspaper folk for a combined 50 years. I grew up in a newspaper office. Hard for me to believe this shite.)

      1. PBRstreetgang

        If this piece is true (I actually think that it is), your comment is the reason Don McGahn is the only person that makes sense. He’s out the door already, accomplished what he wanted (load the judiciary) and gets to protect is inside-the-Beltway legacy by dropping a grenade in the Oval Office as he walks out.

  6. Tundra

    Good morning, Sloop!

    Not sure about favorite song, but Wish You Were Here is definitely my favorite album. I saw The Wall when I was a youngster and was pretty impressed. Until I grew up a little and realized the album was just OK.

    1. Spartacus

      I saw The Wall concert in LA back in 1980.
      We brought in a pan of brownies…it was a great show.

      I spent most of my 40th birthday driving (to a job interview in GA) and decided it would be appropriate to listen to the album again that day.
      I don’t remember what I did for 50.

      Generally, i prefer earlier Floyd. Careful with that Axe, Eugene is good for scaring the shit out of people if they don’t know what to expect.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        I love the Floyd, but picking a favorite song is folly.

        Besides the fact that much of there music isn’t intended to be stand-alone, but part of an arc, and that my mood makes a huge difference in which album I prefer at any given time.

        Sometimes , the Final Cut is actually my favorite album, but usually I vary between Animals and Wish You Were Here.

        I love The Wall, there is something I find emotionally cathartic about it, but musically not as enjoyable as those above.

        1. Gustave Lytton

          Wish You Were Here would be among my top three, along with Dark Side. Number 1 is Division Bell. I wish there had been another after it.

          1. whiz

            All of these are good (Division Bell is underrated), but my favorite is Momentary Lapse of Reason.

  7. Chafed

    I used to enjoy Pink Floyd but Waters anti-semitism ruined it for me. It’s like all the actors who think they are politicians. I no longer see the character they are playing, I see the annoying actor. With Waters I no longer hear the music, I’m listening for the bigotry.

    1. Drake

      I never did drugs so I never enjoyed Pink Floyd.

      1. I never did drugs either. And I am a fan of theirs. Their music was groundbreaking, the same as Queen’s (I missed that argument yesterday).

        1. Don Escaped Texas

          Yesterday I argued for Queen as great arrangers: Mercury and May are a perfect match.

          Today I must say I don’t give a damn about Floyd except David Gilmour: a Pink Floyd tune is just so much my waiting for him to soar. If I implied yesterday that endless repetitive pentatonic minor tunes shrink the brain, I’ll at least say that no Brit has a better handle on it than Gilmour. For example, the outro on Comfortably Numb simply soars; Gilmour’s tasteful confidence doesn’t require flash, hardly any peddles, or pointless, mindless speed; he howls along at the pace of the heart with a fat tone and smooth attack largely unknown since Albert King. I’ve burned years copying the licks in Cocaine, Stairway, Brown Sugar….lots of greatness in Britain….but I never felt quite the blend of original and authentic emotion listening to the others that I sense in Gilmour.

        2. Pat

          Well, you’re a lot closer to correct about Floyd, I’ll give you that.

      2. PieInTheSky

        I did drugs but very few…

      3. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Listening to The Dark Side of the Moon at high volume in your car while parked in the middle of the night is the functional equivalent of doing drugs.

        1. Spartacus

          I do that in my office in the middle of the day. My boss thinks it’s great, although he usually can’t hear it because he has Judas Priest going.

        2. Gadianton

          Try listening to Brain Damage sitting in a planetarium as they are adjusting the projector. The night sky is swooping all over the place. Who needs drugs?

        3. deadhead

          So a friend of mine had a graduation party that involved … mushrooms.

          We put them in gel caps so people wouldn’t have to taste them. Before people got there the host and I ate a bunch in an effort to gauge just how strong they were.

          Probably because of the gel caps, impatience and youthful ignorance, they didn’t kick in soon enough, so we ate more. We both had too much, but my buddy, who had taken a lot more than I did, threw up. I kept mine down, so although he may have had the strongest hit, mine lasted the longest.

          Anyway, I was mentally battling with the question of whether things were always this fucked up and always will be or whether I really had just taken a bunch of drugs that would wear off in a few hours. I couldn’t figure out which, but I did know more or less how long Dark Side of the Moon was and figured that if I listened to it N times (where N was something like 5 or 6), I should start to come down, if I really was just high on drugs, so that’s what I did. Boy was I relieved as it started wearing off.

          ‘course that was nothing compared to the trip that started not too long after replying “how much you got?” When this cute girl was selling LSD. I don’t even want to imagine what would happen to someone who took off all his clothes and kicked a cop in the jaw nowadays.

          Glad I’m done with doing things to excess.

          1. R C Dean

            Yeah, the lag time that psychedelics have before really kicking in has led to a lot of unfortunate dosing.

      4. straffinrun

        I never did crack. That’s as far as I’ll answer.

        1. Crack is Whack!

          /Dead singer

          1. AlexinCT

            Speaking of crack..

            What do Magic Johnson and Len Bias have in common?

          2. ElspethFlashman

            They both love corndogs?

          3. Drake

            They both disappointed Larry Bird.

          4. AlexinCT

            Come on! The answer is in the lead to the question/joke…

          5. Both black men trying to navigate Whitey World?

          6. AlexinCT

            All right then, the answer is that they they both had some bad crack….

        2. ElspethFlashman

          I know way more about drugs, thanks to reading lots of police reports and talking to my clients, than I have ever done drugs.

          That being said I know too many people who OD’d, at least one who lost parental rights because of her drug habit, and/or have spent hard time due to their habits.

          1. Tundra

            ^^ buzzkill

          2. straffinrun

            I knew quite a few that went overboard back in the day. They’d have been huffing glue if they couldn’t have gotten their hands on the hard shit. Or they’d have become hardcore alkies. Some people just have that self destruct thing going on.

          3. ElspethFlashman

            Yeah, I had no idea, at certain parties I went to, that there was a lot of white stuff around – I just didn’t realize that’s what people were up to in those rooms (I can be gullible). It wasn’t until another friend told me that I knew.

          4. AlexinCT

            Snorting coke of the back of hookers?

    2. Charlie Suet

      It’s always been priced in for me that Roger Waters’ politics are stupid. The best you can say about him is that he isn’t actually a commie like his dad.

    3. Bob

      He’s anti-Israel in the same way half our country is anti-Russian, Venezuelan, South African, etc. Anti-Semite is another buzzword for simpletons like “homophonic” and “anti woman.”

  8. Old Man With Candy

    Well, either that or this is another elaborate hoax carried out by Trump insiders against the media.

    That’s my bet.

    1. WTF

      To fire up the base? Maybe.

      1. Or just to show that they’ll print anything without corroboration so long as it fits their narrative.

        1. AlexinCT

          The fact remains that nobody has done a better job of destroying their credibility and their claims to impartiality than these very people pissed at the plebs now telling them to fuck the hell off.

    2. If they revealed that I might actually, literally die from laughter.

  9. Tundra

    Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., a co-sponsor of the “Kitten Act,” which would limit experiments on cats, said this was testing “only a government bureaucrat could have come up with in the first place.”

    “This has been going on for half a century,” he said. “It’s time to bring this type of practice to an end. The basic details of kitten testing have been hidden.”

    My congresscritter. He of ‘common sense gun control’ and pretty much nothing else. Until now. The fucking ‘Kitten Act’, FFS.

    A perfect establishment R.

    1. Tonio

      Yeah, that’s not the purview of the federal government. “Something, something interstate commerce, communicable livestock diseases” is about as far as I’d go in that direction.

    2. Slammer

      Why would they have to do the experiments 100s and 100s of times a year?

      Genuine question.

      1. To see if new strains of the illness mutate. Also probably because they’re limited to doing it on that many cats annually. So they can’t do a single study on a few thousand cats at once because the optics would be bad.

    3. LJW

      So no testing my Kitty catapult in Minnesota?

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Best to go the WI/MN border and fire the cats into MN from the WI side.

        1. ChipsnSalsa

          *begins design of kitty trebuchet*

        2. Democratic Hitler

          Then it’s interstate commerce.

        3. A Leap at the Wheel

          But if you do that, in which state do you bury the survivors?

      2. Gustave Lytton

        Kittypult ™.

  10. Winston

    Smalldeadanimals resident pro-free trade libertarian on that NYT article:

    IOW, the Deep State consists of sane people protecting us from an insane president who is so deranged that his own people are against him.

    1. WTF

      IOW, the Deep State consists of an entrenched bureaucracy that will thwart any attempt by voters to overturn the status quo.

      1. AlexinCT

        People lacking in the ability to do things are loath to have others threaten their ill gotten gains. This is why these people always love the marxist bullshit claiming others that have stuff must have gotten it through nefarious ways.

    2. Winston

      On immigration:

      Immigration reduces welfarism. Indeed, in the US the illegals are actually bailing out SS by paying into it with no hope of ever drawing out.

      1. WTF

        Citation fucking needed, sparky.

      2. Well, three problems with that. One, nobody knows how many illegals are actually paying taxes, either by filing returns or through withholding. Two, most illegals who actually do file taxes (and a significant number do) wind up not owing anything. Three, the illegals paying taxes and filing returns do so in the hope that if/when they get hauled in front of an immigration judge they can point to a history of paying taxes as proof that they demonstrate good moral character and so should be awarded citizenship, which would of course result in their becoming eligible for Social Security.

        1. RAHeinlein

          And, thanks to EIC, those who actually do file actually pull SS funds from the coffers.

          1. Yup. I recently wrote a bit on illegal immigration for a class I was taking and I did some reasonably deep dives into the economic data. To say the waters are muddy is the understatement of the year. It’s every bit as politicized as climate science and every bit as complicated by variables. But one pattern that seems consistent is that for every ostensibly positive economic effect there’s a negative that either mitigates or overwhelms it.

            I think the biggest factor that gets overlooked is that, by law, children in the US can go to public schools from K-12 regardless of citizenship status. Illegal immigrants tend to live in poorer areas, which typically have struggling schools to begin with. And because of the way Title I works, those schools become eligible for a bigger slice of the budget pie. Plus, you’ve often got kids coming into, say, 4th grade, who don’t speak a lick of English and may have never had a formal education whatsoever, going into understaffed schools that are already struggling. All this comes out to a huge cost increase, not to mention the effect on kids in those classes who get short-changed because resources are being diverted to teach a 9-year-old basic English and arithmetic at the same time.

    3. Spartacus

      I think the Times is going to eventually regret this (of course, they will never say so publicly). They have just opened the door to a massive shitstorm of people of all types demanding their own right to run anonymous op-eds. There are about 211 good reasons credible newspapers don’t do this, and the Times is about to rediscover every one of them.

  11. PieInTheSky

    The New York Times prints an un-named Op-Ed allegedly from a “resister” inside the Trump administration. I’m shocked the person was able to write it. I assumed he/she had a broken arm from patting him/herself on the back so hard. Well, either that or this is another elaborate hoax carried out by Trump insiders against the media. I’m genuinely not sure what to think anymore, seeing as posting anonymous first-person tell-all Op-Eds is new territory from what I can tell.

    Is anyone taking bets on who it is? My vote is for Baron Trump

    1. WTF

      My vote is for The Hat.

    2. Chipwooder

      The Hair

    3. Slammer

      The Daughter

    4. Spartacus

      Sessions

      1. AlexinCT

        Was what I was thinking too.. That guy has deep state written all over him.

        1. straffinrun

          This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.

          Not the deep state. He tells us so.

        2. Spartacus

          He’s the one who (a) knows enough of the higher-ups at the Times to get it approved to run, and (b) has ample motivation.

          I don’t even think this a Deep State thing, just a great big middle finger before departing right after this election.

    5. straffinrun

      Some dude from Tampa that visited the White House on vacation?

    6. Slammer

      Tulpa

      1. straffinrun

        Clearly this is true. Too bad it wasn’t Hihn. That’d have been fun.

    7. Rick C-137

      MyBookie.com odds on the NYT op-ed author:

      Vice President Mike Pence (3-to-2)
      Education Secretary Betsy Devos (2-to-1)
      Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (4-to-1)
      Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (4-to-1)
      chief of staff John F. Kelly (4-to-1)
      Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (5-to-1)
      Attorney General Jeff Sessions (5-to-1)
      Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (6-to-1)
      Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (6-to-1)
      Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (7-to-1)
      Labor Secretary Alex Acosta (7-to-1)
      HHS Secretary Alex Azar (8-to-1)
      HUD Secretary Ben Carson (8-to-1)
      VA Secretary Robert Wilkie (8-to-1)
      Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (10-to-1)
      Ivanka Trump (12-to-1)
      Jared Kushner (12-to-1)
      Someone not listed (1-to-3)

      1. Rick C-137

        Official odds if you’re interested

        1. Nephilium

          Are they going to pay off in the case of an uncorroborated source claiming someone was the author?

      2. PieInTheSky

        I saw people on the webz guessing Jon Huntsman for some reason or other

        1. Nephilium

          I will still always think of this Huntsman whenever I see Jon’s name.

      3. PieInTheSky

        For some reason I don’t see someone like Mattis doing it like this. But what do I know?

        1. Raphael

          Mattis seems like he’d be the straight forward kind of guy. He wouldn’t do this passive-aggressive bs, unless that was his plan.

          *galaxy brain expands*

          1. PieInTheSky

            He wants to be emperor? Who will he get to stab trump? Maybe Jared Kushner..

      4. Bob

        4Chan 1-to-1

    8. Bobarian LMD

      It is obviously John Bolton’s mustache.

  12. Tonio

    “I can’t imagine what could possibly go wrong with entering all of the personal information and physical needs/history into a central database that the government controls.”

    Yeah, me neither.

    And I’m old enough to remember when the absolute last thing that LGB and particularly T people wanted was to end up in a government database somewhere; now movement homos (etc) are wringing their hands about the absolute need to get counted and enumerated on the census.

    1. AlexinCT

      Yeah, me neither.

      Especially one government demands the rights to look at. No wonder why I feel compelled to tell people to f-off when they ask me ridiculous questions like “Do you own firearms”…

    2. Pat

      movement homos

      For some reason that really hit the funny bone.

  13. straffinrun

    But his biological family’s history of violence could actually help Cruz — who is charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder — get a lighter sentence if he’s found guilty.

    By “lighter” they better not mean anything other than life without parole.

    1. PieInTheSky

      250 years and hope no radical life extension becomes available

    2. Chipwooder

      Can’t this guy just get shivved so we’d be done with this?

      1. WTF

        Seriously, because of this twat we’ve been burdened with Hogg and the other insufferable Parkland attention whores.

  14. Winston

    In the name of balance….

    A Canadian
    September 5, 2018 at 4:49 pm
    The left don’t even care about non-whites. What they want is slaves to do all the drudge work.

    The plan long-term is to replace the human proletariat with robots, who will be assigned to rounding up and finally exterminating the wretched of the earth, once their job of slaughtering everybody who was a meaningful threat to their masters’ rule is accomplished.

    Globalism, liberalism and socialism are in nobody’s interest, save that of the few thousand people who look forward to their increasingly disturbed heirs and successors’ inheriting a robot empire that leaves them free to spend their days furiously masturbating to sadistic pornography and drinking and drugging their way to madness and an early grave, while armies of slaves do all the work. For everyone else it’s a recipe for extinction, with all men sharing the equality of the grave.

    The robots will make better socialists than we ever did, I’ll give them that.

    1. Bobarian LMD

      Cytotoxic’s Mom gave him his keyboard back?

  15. PieInTheSky

    I hope all you Jap-glibs (or Nip-glibs?) are safe. There was a large earthquake there while we in America were sleeping. Let’s hope that wasn’t a precursor of more to come. – so in the end do earthquakes mean more earthquakes in the future or fewer as pressure is released?

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Earthquakes also mean jail sentences for Italian Seismologists.

    1. straffinrun

      I’ve heard that the quakes indicated further quakes imminent and I’ve heard they release pressure so… All I know is that Tokyo is overdue for a big one. Every 70 or so years is the standard and the last big one was over 80 years ago. Market crash or catastrophic earthquake, which comes first?

      1. PieInTheSky

        Sell both real-estate and stock, just in case.

        1. straffinrun

          I have a map of all the rich widows in the neighborhood. It’s my bug out plan.

    2. Tonio

      More earthquakes surely a result of climate change.

      1. Rock expands when heated. Expanding crust leads to more pressure. More pressure leads to more and stronger earthquakes!

        SCIENCE!

        /warmist.

        1. PieInTheSky

          Actually the one they go with is melting ice causes land to shift.

          1. Don’t be Silly, the ice all melted by 2010, there is none left to melt!

            /warmist

          2. AlexinCT

            But it is still causing earthquakes!

            (Warmist are all for circular & contradictory logic)

      2. AlexinCT

        You should tell Gore he owes you royalties for stuff like that Tonio…

    3. Rhofulster

      I first read that as “pleasure is released”

      1. PieInTheSky

        I mean if that is what gets you off, I don’t judge

        1. Bobarian LMD

          You thought those were gopher holes in his backyard?

    4. Don Escaped Texas

      Pro tip I read somewhere: when you feel an earthquake, but hotdogs in your pocket so the dogs will find your body first.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        So you’re saying I should carry hotdogs with me at all times?

        1. Don Escaped Texas

          YMMV

          I live on a sandbar in the Mississippi, so when our next big one > 7.5 hits, I won’t be a distraction: no hotdogs, no corpse, no island…..I’ll just sweetly disappear into the general liquifaction, feed some catfish that week, muh bones quickly settling into the Gulf.

          1. Enough About Palin

            “I live on a sandbar in the Mississippi”

            Sabula, IA?

            Serious question.

    1. straffinrun

      Got me to click on the story. Well played, Mercury News.

    2. Not that I’m a fan of Peter Lawford, but he was prominent enough in his own right to get a mention in the headline.

      But no, the fucking Boomers are still obsessed with the Kennedys.

  16. Raphael

    That deal with the earthquake sucked. I live on the northern tip of the main island so I was okay, but I had some kids go on their yearly class trip to Hokkaido just yesterday. Luckily and thank God they are all okay and the only bad thing was that they had to come back home today.

    1. AlexinCT

      Happy to hear all is well bro.

      1. Raphael

        Thanks broham, much appreciated!

    2. straffinrun

      Blue Moutain, eh? Maybe Autumn rice field?

      1. straffinrun

        Blue Forest. Dammit.

        1. Raphael

          It’s all daijouboobies man.

      2. Raphael

        Blue Forest muh dude.

        1. straffinrun

          Worked in Blue Mountain today, so I had it stuck in my head.

          1. Raphael

            It’s all good, I think I’ve only been in those parts once, but nice fancy area.

  17. Drake

    The Democrats are cazy. When they get this crazy and abandon all rules and customs I get that old late Roman Republic feeling.

    1. PieInTheSky

      Except less cool orgies. Orgies are always easier when there are lots of slaves about.

    2. Slammer

      There was a guy dressed as a penis in a condom. What that has to do with Kavanaugh I have no idea. I’m surprised Sloopy didn’t post the pic.

      1. PieInTheSky

        Kavanaugh will ban all contraceptives.

        1. AlexinCT

          And if all he does is agree with people that say government should not force tax payers to subsidize this shit for lazy sluts, he is still as evil as they come…

        2. Pope Jimbo

          Uffda. Would he even ban the most effective contraceptive of all (abstinence is the answer you degenerate glibs are looking for)?

          If so, I’m all in on him.

      2. Pat

        I have a feeling that link was just a fakeout to see which of us were weird enough to click. Well played, sir.

        1. PieInTheSky

          I didn’t even try to click as I had seen the pic

      3. A Leap at the Wheel

        What a shitlord. All that one-use plastic is going to end up in the ocean. I bet he doesn’t even turn it inside out to use it a second time.

  18. Scruffy Nerfherder

    My objection to the anonymous tell-all is that it is anonymous.

    If you’re going to protest the situation, own it. If you care that much, put your name and career on the line for it. It may very well all be true, but unless you’re willing to back up your allegations with some real risk to yourself, it counts for nothing and you cannot expect the rest of us to believe it unquestioningly.

    1. Raphael

      But Drumpf is Literally Hitler, he’ll just have whoever reveals themselves sent to a prison camp or executed in the White House basement. /prog

      1. Rebel Scum

        Getting lambasted on twitter is literally the same as being sent to a concentration camp!

        1. Raphael

          The absolute horror.

    2. PieInTheSky

      While that is true, anonymous sources are not new and can have a role. Many don’t want to put their name on the line and it is a valid choice.

      1. Drake

        True – or it could just be made up bullshit.

        1. PieInTheSky

          Reminded me of this letter of note between the emperor Trajan and Pliny the Younger where the instruction is not to execute Christians based on anonymous accusations.

          http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/09/a-degenerate-sort-of-cult.html?m=1

          “But pamphlets circulated anonymously must play no part in any accusation. They create the worst sort of precedent and are quite out of keeping with the spirit of our age. “

        2. AlexinCT

          And these days it has been bullshit every fucking time we have had a breaking story attacking trump, so you will pardon me for going with what the odds dictate this is sure to turn out to be.

    3. Pope Jimbo

      Fuck, looking at the fact that Strok got $500K, this fucker should come out just to collect.

  19. Slammer

    If you’re going to burn your Nikes, remember to take them off your feet first

    1. LJW

      That’s a joke right? If not the asteroid can’t get here soon enough.

    2. I’m not going to buy Nikes just to burn them.

      I have a whole bucket of coal that was much cheaper.

      I have no idea why I bought the coal.

      1. PieInTheSky

        To support the miners? To give out as treats for Halloween? You just like the smell of it? Research for a book? So many possibilities.

        1. AlexinCT

          To spite Obama when he said he would destroy the coal industry?

        2. Bobarian LMD

          He clearly gives it out at Christmas.

      2. Democratic Hitler

        You were probably genetically disposed to do so.

      3. Gustave Lytton

        Get Xmas shopping out of the way early this year?

      4. It was a Christmas present.

  20. Winston

    http://www.econlib.org/archives/2006/11/the_mirage_of_l.html

    In a modern democracy, not only can a libertarian be elitist; a libertarian has to be elitist. To be a libertarian in a modern democracy is to say that nearly 300 million Americans are wrong, and a handful of nay-sayers are right. So how can you be one of the nay-sayers, unless you think you and your fellow nay-sayers have exceptionally good judgment?

    My big problems with libertarian elitism is twofold: firstly the current elites aren’t libertarians. Establishment Republicans have been very opposed to the more libertarianish elements of the GOP. And the Democratic Establishment is not a hotbed of crypto-libertarianism.

    Secondly a libertarian elite would have to be installed in the first place and be libertarian and be selfless and incorruptible and stay that way.

    1. PieInTheSky

      To think someone is wrong is not elitist. Also Americans are split in what they vote so they can’t all be right.

    2. Pat

      To be a libertarian in a modern democracy is to say that nearly 300 million Americans are wrong

      Apparently, to be a libertarian is to make up ridiculous figures to justify your being an insufferable prick.

      In the first place, a fraction of the population that is of voting age actually votes. In the second place, the way people vote is not always perfectly reflective of their fundamental values – voting is a two-outcome game, and some people play it strategically.

      1. A Leap at the Wheel

        How to Brian Caplan:

        Step 1 – Redefine some term with a negative connotation into a different meaning.
        Step 2 – Don’t tell anyone.
        Step 3 – Make a plausible sounding argument that that word is a virtue.
        Step 4 – Profit from the controvery.

        He’s written a book against education (or is it just systematic distortions against the current education system.) He’s written a book to say that parenting is selfish (or is it just that raising kids is easier than you though, if you don’t stress the small stuff.) He’s come out in favor of living in a bubble (or is it just a recasting of the old-timey wisdom that you should spend your time in alignment with your values.)

        Step 1 may or may not be intentional. I do believe that he has publicly mentioned that he has (real, honest to god, diagnosed before it was cool) Asperger’s Syndrome. He may just not be very good with connotation.

    3. WTF

      To be a Heliocentrist rather than a Geocentrist in modern science is to say that nearly everyone is wrong, and a handful of Heliocentrists are right. So how can you be one of the nay-sayers, unless you think you and your fellow nay-sayers have exceptionally good judgment?

    4. Brett L

      Whereas to be a Progressive is to merely say that 250M people are wrong. Yes. You’re wrong. I’m not an elitist, I’m also not a toady. I disagree with the world about the proper size and scope of government and lack the pack/herd instinct that tells me I should let the loud people who think they are alphas tell me what is right.

    5. Chipwooder

      The point of libertarianism isn’t who is right and wrong. The point is that people should be left to their own choices, whether the outcome is right or wrong.

      1. WTF

        Libertarians believe it is right to leave other people to their own choices, while others believe they should have the authority to control others. So in that way it is a matter of who is right and who is wrong.

      2. Suthenboy

        ^best answer^
        The herd animals cant understand this. For them everything is about who is on top.

      3. R C Dean

        The point of libertarianism isn’t who is right and wrong.

        You aren’t free unless you are free to be wrong.

    6. commodious spittoon

      I don’t think elitism is quite the way to put it. Remnantism is the better term, especially in an era marred by rabid illiberalism on the left and nationalism on the right. (With a healthy amount of cross-pollination in between, to be sure.)

    7. Democratic Hitler

      That’s a lame-ass definition of “elitism”.

    8. invisible finger

      “To be a libertarian in a modern democracy is to say that nearly 300 million Americans are wrong, ”

      Now tell me your opinion of free market economics. I’ll bet it’s along the lines of “300 million Americans can’t be trusted to make the proper decisions for themesleves.”

  21. Rebel Scum

    I assumed he/she had a broken arm from patting him/herself on the back so hard.

    Yea I am going to call bs on this and the recent book release. But, speaking of patting oneself on the back

  22. Rufus the Monocled

    “Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., a co-sponsor of the “Kitten Act,” which would limit experiments on cats, said this was testing “only a government bureaucrat could have come up with in the first place.”

    Lol.

    What a an awful story.

  23. Raphael

    https://twitter.com/JasonOverstreet/status/1037527088067035136?s=19

    I have no idea what the hell is going in this hearing. Please don’t read the comments unless you want to see all the fellatio for Sen. Harris.

    1. straffinrun

      Ask an unanswerable question and then insist it’s very specific. Yes or no? Someone watched A Few Good Men last night.

      1. Winston

        Aaron wrote that and the West Wing by the way…

        1. Winston

          Aaron Sorkin I meant.

      2. Raphael

        It’s like what the hell did she mean by discuss? Like mentioning it in passing, actually having a conversation about it, like what?

        1. Raphael

          And with who exactly? Cause afaik, in that clip she only mentioned just anybody. The janitor counts too I guess?

        2. Drake

          It sounds like a set up. If he says “no” she produces some junior lawyer there who had a passing conversation with him months ago without ever saying where s/he worked.

          1. If I were him, I’d have said “I discussed it with my wife and perhaps others. If you want me to speak of a specific individual, you’ll need to give me their name. Bring a prosecutor, you of all people know how unethical it is to proceed with this kind of gotcha questioning.”

          2. Raphael

            Hell it probably is, I don’t even know man.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Standard prosecutorial line of questioning designed to introduce doubt in a jury. A good judge would have told her to get to the damn point and be specific. I watched the longer clip and she dropped it with “Clearly you’re not going to answer the question.”

      My money is that she won’t ever clarify the question, but will lean on his “refusal” to answer.

      1. Raphael

        Oh yeah, and all the lovely commentators are leaning on that too. Obviously this is a sign Kavanaugh was giving Trump’s personal lawyers play-by-plays on how to elude investigators and the charges. /kiff sighs

      2. straffinrun

        Have you ever talked about a sandwich with a guy named “Jim”? Huh? Well, have you?

        1. “Have any of your associates been convicted of a crime?”

          “Can you be more specific?”

          “Answer the question!”

          “Ok, um no. Not that I can recall.”

          “You’re lying. A kid who lived next door to you as a teenager recently got convicted for selling drugs. And I have to question someone who associated with a man who was later convicted for poisoning our children with drugs, sir.”

          1. Chipwooder

            Same way they brought down Roman Moronie

    3. If she tried that shit in a courtroom, whoever is on the bench would hold her in contempt.

      1. Raphael

        Sadly no bench, just madness on free rein.

        1. Evan from Evansville

          I know it’s “free rein.”

          I don’t know if I’m bothered or linguistically intrigued that “free reign” makes an equal amount of sense.

          1. Raphael

            I actually first typed it as free reign, but then I did that over-analyze/self-doubt thing and went with free rein ’cause I wasn’t sure in the end.

          2. Brett L

            A horse on free rein can do whatever it wants. A person on free reign is an absolute dictator in their own space. I prefer the horse analogy because then you can also “rein in” the proceedings.

    4. Juvenile Bluster

      Here’s the best (factual, non-political) read on that shitshow I’ve found.

      https://twitter.com/bmelton/status/1037679549532856320

      1. Raphael

        Thank you, the tweeter, and the other people here for helping me figure this out. For real, this is why I come here. I always learn something new.

  24. PieInTheSky

    Higher levels of childhood intelligence predict increased support for economic conservatism in adulthood

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289618300552

    1. The Last American Hero

      Silicon Valley disagrees with your study.

      1. A Leap at the Wheel

        Does it? The comparison shouldn’t be between Sil Valley and the median american, it should be between Sil Valley and a cohort of people with the same level of education and socio-economic status. Compared to puppetry department in Oberlan or the a graduate in Grievance Studies with similar education, background, and lower childhood IQ, I bet people in Sil Valley are in fact more “economically conservative,” whatever that is supposed to mean.

        1. AlexinCT

          They certainly are more economically conservative with their own money, but are totally fascist/marxists drones when it comes to believing/wanting others to pony up (and pony up as much as possible) to finance the social justice crusade…

          Show me someone from Sil Valley that isn’t a real small startup, and I will show you someone that loves the fact they can use the corrupt cunts in government to protect their monopoly and gravy train by using the law to fuck over others…

  25. Pat

    Does ‘lodestar’ guide us to anti-Trump op-ed author?

    Defined as a “star that leads or guides”, does the word “lodestar” in the anonymously written op-ed attributed to a senior Trump official itself help reveal the writer’s identity?

    Some suggest the outlandish theory that it could be Vice-President Mike Pence, because he has used the word – otherwise rarely heard – with some regularity. Others argue that the word might be a ploy to divert attention from the real author.

    1. straffinrun

      You’d think that’d point to Stormy. Was it spelled “loadstar”?

      1. Raphael

        *crowd applauds*

      2. Evan from Evansville

        HaHA!

        More finger guns!

    2. WTF

      The real author possibly being the NY Times editors.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that a guy who won’t even be alone with women other than his wife would do.

    4. Chipwooder

      I don’t know, Pence doesn’t strike me as the NYT suck up type.

      My guess is that it’s some deputy undersecretary of something or other who no one has ever heard of.

      1. AlexinCT

        I would not be surprised to find out that it is someone that never was at the WH at all (if they really exist) and like Woodward just did in his recent book, passed off a whole bunch of fiction that the left gobbled up like it was banana split toppings covered cock.

        1. Chipwooder

          Eh, as low an opinion as I have of the NYT, I don’t think they’re THAT stupid. They have some anonymous midlevel drone to pin this on.

          1. AlexinCT

            Whether they have someone to pin it on or not, the thing here is that they did exactly what they have done with every other anti-Trump story: publish it without checking the claims for accuracy, and then when they get called out and we get the real story, they will stand by the story even though it is all false and bullshit.

    5. First of all, who the hell publishes an anonymous op-ed? I could’ve written the damn thing! That’s shitty journalism. I get it, it’s the NYT, but still, even for them.

      My bets on the source are as follows, in approximate order of likelihood:

      1. Someone within the NYT who combined tidbits picked up from interns, staffers, FedGov employees at happy hour, shit like that
      2. Whole cloth from Bob Woodward to generate hype for his book
      3. A disgruntled mid-level bureaucrat left over from Obama’s admin
      4. Jeff Sessions

      1. R C Dean

        Its (3). I’d bet my own money on it.

        I don’t think the NYT would outright lie about who the author is, so (1) and (2) are out.

        Sessions may be a dolt, but I don’t think he would risk being exposed as the author of a backstabbing NYT editorial against Trump.

        1. A Leap at the Wheel

          This is where my money is too. And I bet (3) considers him or herself “senior” in their heart of hearts, but no one else does.

          1. Brett L

            SES payroll designation.

        2. I mean, the NYT has been caught playing fast and loose with the truth before. And how’s that saying go? “He who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.”

  26. Winston

    A few days ago someone posted a CATO piece attacking populism. I found it very interesting that the end included these sentences.

    We have now not only these bad examples, but we also have the best allies we could possibly have: the people….who want to get rid of an
    interventionist state, who want to get rid of institutions that are easily con-
    trolled by elites.

  27. Rebel Scum

    The poisoned apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

    In the nature/nurture debate, nature wins.

    1. Bob

      Nature wins a lot. This isn’t really news. Criminality is heritable, it’s been known for a long time.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Fucking Hell. Arne Duncan is on Bloomberg right now, blabbering hysterically about how “we don’t value our children”.

    Now he’s on to Trumphitler. Totalitarian authoritarians don’t want an educated people looking over their shoulder. Why don’t we shovel more money to the teachers’ unions? What a steaming pile of noxious lies.

    1. WTF

      Totalitarian authoritarians don’t want an educated people looking over their shoulder.

      True, that’s why the left was diligent in taking control of the education system and turning it into a leftist propaganda machine.

    2. AlexinCT

      Griffters making opportunities for more graft..

  29. Pat

    Sandberg’s ‘alternative facts’ comment won’t help Facebook’s cause

    Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, addressing social media’s role in election meddling and their platforms’ efforts to combat it. When discussing misinformation, Sandberg described Facebook’s use of fact checkers, saying that once third-party fact checkers mark a story as false, the platform then shows related articles next to the original in order to provide readers with additional and more factual coverage. But her choice of words was rather telling. “If it’s marked as false we dramatically decrease the distribution on our site, we warn you if you’re about to share it, we warn you if you have shared it, and importantly we show related articles next to that so people can see alternative facts,” she said (emphasis added).[…]

    Sandberg may have meant something more like, “additional information,” but that she instead said “alternative facts” highlights part of the problem with Facebook’s largely hands-off approach to fake news. The company has put on a very public show of looking like it’s fighting misinformation on its website over past months. Since the 2016 presidential election it has taken a number of steps to try to stem its spread including demoting news deemed false by fact checkers, banning fake news websites from generating ad revenue, blocking ads that link to fake news stories and prohibiting Pages that spread fake news from advertising. It has also written multiple blog posts about its efforts, highlighted its work in numerous Congressional hearings and even put out a short film about its fight against fake news.

    But for all of its work to make false stories less visible on its platform, what Facebook hasn’t done is actually taken fake news head on.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      addressing social media’s role in election meddling

      This aggravates me to no end. That’s like saying unsigned letters to the editor are election meddling.

      1. Mr Lizard

        Or paying off your side piece is a campaign violation

        1. AlexinCT

          This demand it amount to something illegal only applies if you don’t have a (D) next to your name, though.

          1. Mr Lizard

            You know else flourished with a D next to them?…

          2. AlexinCT

            Stormy Daniels had Double Ds…

          3. Old Man With Candy

            JW?

          4. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Monica Lewinsky?

          5. slumbrew

            Winston’s mom?

            (we’re still doing that, right?)

      2. Winston

        If those letters are opposed to the editor’s views than I can see them saying that…

    2. PieInTheSky

      addressing social media’s role in election meddling – I would say their role was 0.

      1. Tundra

        Actually, if they continue to be such ham-handed fuckups with their censorship, I think they will have a major role in re-electing The Donald.

    3. Democratic Hitler

      If Facebook can’t do the job of sorting out real news from fake news, the government must step in and do it. We need some sort of agency, or maybe a Ministry.

      1. AlexinCT

        of Truthyness?

    4. R C Dean

      Facebook’s largely hands-off approach to fake news

      While that’s actually true in large part, I don’t think its true the way they mean it.

      Facebook has been on a jihad against opinions it disagrees with, true. Much of what is often referred to as fake news strikes me as really being opinion or analysis that the reader disagrees with. Actual fake news, as in assertions of fact that are false, not so much, really.

      And, of course all of their efforts are driven not by a desire for accuracy, as a desire to promote one ideology.

    5. Count Potato

      “Facebook’s largely hands-off approach to fake news”

      Bullshit.

  30. A Fuggin White Male

    I’ll post the link later (I’m phone-posting while waiting for an oil change), but apparently there’s an column in HuffPo saying that impeachment isn’t enough, Donald Trump must be convicted of treason and – yes – executed.

    No joke. Read the thing myself.

    1. A Fuggin White Male

      Jesus, it’s from well over a year ago… which makes it even crazier.

      http://archive.is/5VvI5

    2. Pat

      Gee, the left thinks a Republican president should be executed for treason. That’s 4 Republican presidencies in a row!

      1. Winston

        Only four?

        1. ChipsnSalsa

          We’ll dig up the rest and shoot ’em!

    3. Raphael

      What a fuggin nut case. And they wonder why less people are taking them seriously.

  31. Pat

    Study: If Trends Continue, All Men May Be Infertile By End Of Century

    For decades, some scientists have been arguing that men are producing less sperm than they used to, but these studies were plagued by small sample size, non-randomly selected men, or other methodological problems.

    Last summer, however, a research team in Israel (the country at the forefront of reproductive technology) assembled a massive dataset, combining hundreds of prior studies, creating a sample of tens of thousands of men across decades. They found that male sperm counts are indeed in decline.

    While their findings aren’t universally accepted, they have succeeded in persuading a large number of former skeptics. The sample sizes are sufficiently large, the extra checks for possible counterarguments sufficiently robust, and the findings sufficiently clear in the data that it’s time to take seriously that men really may be losing some degree of their biological fertility.

    Considering the kids we’ve been cranking out, I think it’s for the best.

    1. Winston

      Nikki and the Greens have a happy.

    2. PieInTheSky

      Libertarian men must preserve the purity of their bodily fluids and will repopulate the earth with a more robust population of libertarians.

      1. Raphael

        +1 General Jack D. Ripper.

  32. Pope Jimbo

    The best spoof of the Nike/Capernick ad to “Believe in something”

    Too bad Nike didn’t go with that instead. Given the current SC hysteria, that extra news might have killed a bunch of proggies.

    1. Tundra

      Ouch.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nice

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      There’s one of Jay Cutler going around that’s hilarious. Same with Tyson.

      And a million others. I made a few myself for kicks.

      I think Nike just damaged their brand.

      1. Certified Public Asshat

        I am a big fan of the Jay Cutler one.

        1. Chipwooder

          Yep, that one got legit laughs from me.

          Just do it. Or don’t do it. Either way, I don’t care.

    4. Democratic Hitler

      Oh that’s gonna leave a mark.

    5. R C Dean

      My fave, featuring Anthony Weiner.

    6. Creosote Achilles

      Last night was delightful fun, showing my wife these at dinner, because as a Swoosh employee she is unable to comment. Watching her try not to laugh and biting her lip was fun. The Thanos one was the one that finally got her to ask me to stop.

  33. Just Say’n

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/opinion/i-am-part-of-the-resistance-inside-the-new-york-times

    The most smug article that you may ever read: “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the New York Times Opinion Page”

    From the article:

    “Ross Douthat has smuggled fringe ideas like religion onto our pages and, worse, engaged in conversation about it with strangers on the internet. Michelle Goldberg has given voice to the opinions of young women barely graduated from the Seven Sisters.

    We have even witnessed unseemly boasting in our publicity materials about recruiting new writers from disreputable websites like Buzz-feed.

    But what our readers must know — what all serious people must know — is that from the inside, we are resisting this dangerous trend in ways big and small. We come in every day and make sure that the vital voices are still heard, and that the energy of new political movements, such as Andrew Cuomo’s inspiring underdog run in the New York governor’s race, are brought to the forefront of the conversation. We promise you that if any of our columnists ever get high, they will freak out and write about it.”

    1. Just Say’n

      How the hell can a person like this exist.

      1. Just Say’n

        “Ross Douthat has smuggled fringe ideas like religion onto our pages and, worse, engaged in conversation about it with strangers on the internet.”

        This isn’t parody? Come on

        1. Tundra

          It is.

          BuzzFeed News today is taking the rare step of publishing an entirely satirical, and anonymous, op-ed essay.

          1. Just Say’n

            This is what I get for ignoring italics at the top of articles. Stupid disclosures. Gets me every time.

          2. Raphael

            It’s okay, the article still provided a good laugh.

        2. Just Say’n

          Scratch that. Poe’s Law

          “BuzzFeed News today is taking the rare step of publishing an entirely satirical, and anonymous, op-ed essay.”

        3. WTF

          I think lines like ” Andrew Cuomo’s inspiring underdog run in the New York governor’s race,” give it away as parody.

    2. straffinrun

      A New York Cuomo as an underdog? I’m confused.

      1. The Last American Hero

        Well between his “America was never great” and getting outflanked by Nixon on the left, he just might be vulner….oh, who am I kidding.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The Take — the sanctity of an exquisitely mixed Tom Friedman metaphor, which rings like a thunderbolt as it breaks the surface of the bottomless pit.

      Sen. John McCain explained our Opinion pages best in his farewell letter. “We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history,” he wrote — and our support for the liberation of the Iraqi people was indeed one of this page’s finest moments. “We have acquired great wealth and power in the progress,” he wrote, and we are, indeed, rich and powerful.

      LOL, this is satire. Nicely done.

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      I think…..

      “Andrew Cuomo’s inspiring underdog run in the New York governor’s race,”…

      Gave it away.

  34. PieInTheSky

    Pretty Much Everybody Cries at Work
    It can be mortifying, but here are some tips to handle a crying episode gracefully—without feeling ashamed about it.

    https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/09/crying-at-work-can-be-mortifying-but-pretty-much-everybody-does-it.html

    I have yet to make so much money that it brings me to tears

    1. Pat

      Pretty Much Everybody Cries at Work

      No, they really don’t.

      1. Certified Public Asshat

        I’m 10 years out of college now (God damn it). I have maybe 3 instances of people crying at work (all womenz).

        1. The Last American Hero

          20 years out and the number is about 3 – all women – one who got canned, one who just learned of the death of a long term friend and colleague, and one who had miscarried and was going through a very tough time.

          But young people today believe that speech is literally violence, so there is more crying.

          1. Tulip

            I have cried once at work. Just after learning my Dad died, while explaining why I needed to leave to make arrangements to go to Minnesota.

          2. R C Dean

            Kinda where I am, only I’ve seen more crying, all but one or two women. Hospitals provide ample nut punches to reduce all but the most jaded and callous to tears.

      2. Bobarian LMD

        As pointed out yesterday, if you worked at Slate, you’d probably cry every day.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      Back when I was a Lotus Notes programmer, my old saying was “you haven’t learned anything about Notes until you have been reduced to sobbing in frustration.”

      But I never did actually cry. I guess that was why I was a bad Notes programmer.*

      *Actually I was a great Notes programmer. I just hated the language so much.

    3. In my experience, pretty much nobody cries at work. I’ve literally never seen anyone have an emotional incident, even in private sector employment.

      1. straffinrun

        Had a chick that would cry all the time in my old office. She would cry at her own incompetence.

        1. commodious spittoon

          If you’re going to cry over something, that’s not a bad reason.

      2. Chipwooder

        I’ve seen tears after someone in the office dies. Other than that, no, I haven’t, and my co-workers are about 75% women.

        1. Tundra

          I’ve seen tears after someone in the office dies.

          Whoa. Tough place.

          1. Chipwooder

            Evaluation time is a bloodbath.

      3. Pope Jimbo

        On one of my contracting gigs, the customer service floor was right below where I worked and it was pretty common to see someone on that floor crying.

        The company was in the middle of dealing with a big defect and had decided to not accept any blame for it. There was a fix, but it cost about $200 for the kit. This was after people had paid over a grand for the product. So people taking calls on it were getting abused beyond belief by customers.

    4. Chipwooder

      I have never cried at work, unless you count time in training at Parris Island as “work”.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Fucking Parris Island WM’s….

        Real Marines at MCRD San Diego never cried.

        1. AlexinCT

          Uffda!

        2. Drake

          Never saw a Hollywood Marine stub a toe?

        3. Chipwooder

          Because Hollywood is a piece of cake in comparison. Duh!

      2. Taps. Memorial Service at Tallil for 3 guys killed right as I got there.

    5. Just Say’n

      I teared-up when I had to take the dog that I grew-up with to be put down. That was sad. I mainly fart in my office at work, not a lot of crying

      1. Pope Jimbo

        I mainly fart in my office at work

        So you bring tears to the eyes of your coworkers?

        1. AlexinCT

          Only on the good days…

        2. straffinrun

          He has basic etiquette down. He lights them first.

        3. Just Say’n

          Let he who has not farted in his private office cast the first stone

          1. There you go, flaunting your door privilege.

      2. Timeloose

        Fart in a coworkers office and just leave.
        Power play.

        1. commodious spittoon

          Crop dust it down the cubicle aisle.

    6. invisible finger

      Clutching objects I can stab stupid people with yet resisting the urge to actually stab them is not the same as crying.

  35. Pat

    Chuck Todd: It’s Time for the Press to Stop Complaining—And to Start Fighting Back

    there’s a new kind of campaign underway, one that most of my colleagues and I have never publicly reported on, never fully analyzed, and never fully acknowledged: the campaign to destroy the legitimacy of the American news media.

    Bashing the media for political gain isn’t new, and neither is manipulating the media to support or oppose a cause. These practices are at least as old as the Gutenberg press. But antipathy toward the media right now has risen to a level I’ve never personally experienced before. The closest parallel in recent American history is the hostility to reporters in the segregated South in the 1950s and ’60s.

    Then, as now, that hatred was artificially stoked by people who found that it could deliver them some combination of fame, wealth, and power.

    Some of the wealthiest members of the media are not reporters from mainstream outlets. Figures such as Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, and the trio of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham have attained wealth and power by exploiting the fears of older white people. They are thriving financially by exploiting the very same free-press umbrella they seem determined to undermine.

    It was the faux news what done it!

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      “…Figures such as Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, and the trio of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham have attained wealth and power by exploiting the fears of older white people. ”

      Todd is a piece of shit.

      Fuck off and die for being so insulting.

      1. Just Say’n

        This article could be named “Ignore the Clinton e-mails that showed a lot of reporters as being nothing more than political shills- it’s Fox’s fault for weaponizing our dishonesty”

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          “CHUCK TODD is a contributing editor at The Atlantic. He is the moderator of Meet the Press and the political director of NBC News.”

          The place that’s been repeatedly caught lying and employs….Brian Williams.

          Yeh but Rush Limbaugh and Fox.

          To think people actually believe this tripe and trash.

          1. Chipwooder

            The place that employs Brian Williams, employed and covered up for Matt Lauer, and buried the Harvey Weinstein story.

          2. AlexinCT

            PRO-JECT-SION!

      2. Chipwooder

        As Ace of Spades noted yesterday, a guy high up at the network that employed Matt Lauer and tried like hell to kill the Harvey Weinstein story has some balls spouting off about journalistic integrity.

        1. AlexinCT

          He is doing it for a good reason!

          RESIST!

    2. WTF

      there’s a new kind of campaign underway, one that most of my colleagues and I have never publicly reported on, never fully analyzed, and never fully acknowledged: the campaign to destroy the legitimacy of the American news media a legitimately elected president because our side lost.

      Fixed

      1. Democratic Hitler

        When I got to “campaign to the destroy the legitimacy of” there was a fleeting moment that I thought that’s where he was actually going.

    3. Pope Jimbo

      Well that was hard to lookup.

      Hannity was #3 on that list. Cooper and Diane Sawyer made more than him.

      And WTF with the salaries for people who read off a teleprompter? That more than anything wrecks any argument Todd might want to make about the “media”. All the people on that list are good looking people who can read what is put in front of them convincingly.

      A few other quick searches and it appears Drudge is $15-20M/year and Rush is $50M/year. So Todd is blowing fake news out his ass.

    4. “the campaign to destroy the legitimacy of the American news media”

      No campaign necessary compadre; you’re doing a bang-up job all by yourself.

    5. Don Escaped Texas

      I agree that most of those people publish a sort of jumpy drivel that doesn’t do anything but hop up the blood-pressure of my toothless cousins; most of the “conservatives” I know can’t even repeat the narrative or make a case because the content they’ve heard isn’t based on any meaningful, consistent economic or political theory; indeed, most of these populists can’t even stay on the same subject for more than 90 seconds. It’s largely unhelpful drama, an industry of leeches.

      But, of these, Rush Limbaugh earned his keep. In 1988, he was absolutely the funniest thing on radio; I couldn’t wait to hear what fresh framing he would dream up next: FemiNazis, Alan Cranston as the “Cadaver,” Environmentalist Wackos complete with Andy Williams crooning Born Free in the background while machine guns raked and elephants trumpeted their death squeals. It was light, new, blow milk out your nose irreverent….exactly what everyone needs. I was never a Mad Magazine type, but there’s definitely a place for this kind of humor. I turned Rush off when he stopped being funny: when WJC42 was elected; he became whiny and disappeared into the Gingrich machinery, the kind guy who can’t shoot and never had owned a gun but gets NRA man of the year type accolades…..no thanks, team Red.

      As for the partisan rake-mucking and pseudo-conservative hornblowing, I find these guys no better than MSNBC. The bullshit industry cranks on in both flavors.

      1. R C Dean

        But, of these, Rush Limbaugh earned his keep. In 1988, he was absolutely the funniest thing on radio

        He was a heck of an entertainer through the Clinton years and into the early ’00s. I enjoyed him. Haven’t really listened in probably ten or more years.

        The bullshit industry cranks on in both flavors.

        I have never been able to tolerate Hannity and his ilk, any more than the CNN/MSNBC crew.

    6. Democratic Hitler

      the campaign by the American news media to destroy the legitimacy of the American news media
      – and we’re winning!

    7. Rush Limbaugh is not a reporter.

  36. Rebel Scum

    ‘CRAZYTOWN’: RNC Releases Campaign Ad Showing How Unhinged Leftists Are

    The campaign commercials have been writing themselves lately.

    1. Chipwooder

      Goddammit, now I have this stuck in my head:

      Come my lady, come come my lady, you’re my butterfly, sugar, baby

      I hate you.

      1. Pat

        Dammit, I was gonna post the video too.

        Oh well, it would still make a pretty good campaign ad

        1. Tundra

          That’s… awful.

          1. Pat

            Shame too, the original tune was a pretty little ditty…

        2. Chipwooder

          Hah….from the comments

          Christian Kulas1 month ago

          Crazy Town is Limp Biskit if Limp Biskit took shrooms instead of meth.

          They could have at least gotten better looking girls for the video.

          1. Tundra

            No, they probably couldn’t.

          2. Chipwooder

            *BING*

            Sometimes I look back and refuse to believe that 1998-2003ish ever happened in music. My God, what a revoltingly awful era. These clowns, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Staind, Nickleback, Evanescence, Slipknot….the hell was all that about?

          3. Winston

            Have you worn out your voice yelling at the clouds?

          4. Chipwooder

            For a guy who does a fair bit of that yourself, I applaud your chutzpah.

          5. Just Say’n

            Apparently you’re not a System of a Down fan

          6. Raphael

            What a load of Chop Suey.

          7. System of a Down is the musical equivalent of a fecalith.

          8. To be fair, I didn’t mind Disturbed.

          9. Just Say’n

            You’re ragging on System of a Down, but you like Disturbed?

            Oooo-waaa-ah-a

          10. Pat

            Limp Bizkit had a cheeky self awareness that made it kind of endearing. The rest of the numetal cohort were way too far up their own ass to release an album entitled Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water. Durst wore his mediocrity on his sleeve at least.

          11. Chipwooder

            Oh, and I knew there was another one whose name I couldn’t remember – Papa Roach. I knew a guy at the time who listened to Last Resort about every fucking day.

          12. Trolleric the Goth

            fin-de-siècle america, pre-9/11 is a wild, wild time.

            I hope people look back on it more and analyze the nuttery that was being floated around back then – remember the “Amero”?

          13. Just Say’n

            The Amero is real, bitch. I saw a YouTube video about it or something.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hiPrsc9g98

          14. Certified Public Asshat

            Numetal was during my teenage years, so I have a soft spot for it, even it is terrible.

            Papa Roach is also still around somehow.

          15. Just Say’n

            PS: I was just kidding about the Amero

            But, System of a Down is still a good band

          16. Chipwooder

            System of a Down was OK, which is why I didn’t mention them in my rant. Not a huge fan, but they had some decent songs despite their communism.

          17. Winston

            For a guy who does a fair bit of that yourself, I applaud your chutzpah.

            Heh. Personally I don’t care too much for music. I do get amused at how rock ‘n’ roll and punk are now Old Man Real Music that that Teh Yutes ignore.

          18. A Leap at the Wheel

            That was the era that officially pushed me out of mainstream music and into non-mainstream metal. That was the height of Opeth, Amon Amarth, the phase of Amorphis that I liked most, and In-Flames hadn’t completely shit the bed yet.

        3. Ironic DARE shirt? How original.

      2. Just Say’n

        I was at Ozzfest one year, many moons ago, and when Crazy Town took the stage everyone started pelting them with mud and trash. People booed throughout their short set. I was amused

    2. Raphael

      Like others have said before, The Stupid Party only has to sit back and just show everybody how insane it’s gotten. These commercials have never been so easy to make.

    3. straffinrun

      They could have done much better than that. Perez used the “Sh*t” word? OMG, OMG.

      1. Raphael

        Maybe they’ll release and extended director’s cut version with all the unhinge.

        1. straffinrun

          Hate to be a downer on that thing, but our own CPRM could’ve spliced together a more effective montage in an afternoon.

          1. Raphael

            CPRM, this is your cue buddy. This is your chance to make your break as a campaign ad creator.

          2. I’ve often dreamed of running some kind of workshop/boot camp for the RNC on marketing. They desperately need it.

            Not because I believe in their politics or their goals, but just to make a shit ton money.

          3. Raphael

            Ain’t nothing with that. There’s gotta be a hidden gold mine there just waiting to get tapped.

          4. R C Dean

            To this day, I believe that Mittens could have beat Obama by mostly running ads featuring . . . Obama.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    there’s a new kind of campaign underway, one that most of my colleagues and I have never publicly reported on, never fully analyzed, and never fully acknowledged: the campaign to destroy the legitimacy of the American news media.

    Is this an admission that nonstop whining is not actually the same as reporting?

  38. Bodacious bikini-clad babes brighten your day.

    http://archive.is/bzi3l

    I’m not greedy. I just need eternal devotion from 23 with a little side action from 33 and 73.

    1. Raphael

      29 would be some nice fun in the shade, and 23 definitely lights some fires.

    2. Tundra

      14 wins.

    3. Pat

      I’ll have 21, with an additional 21, and a side of 21 please. Thank you.

    4. slumbrew

      86, please.

    1. AlexinCT

      People ignored Charles Manson’s rantings too, and look how that played out….

    2. straffinrun

      He goes on about “disgust”. That is exactly how conservatives feel about the type behavior the dems are exhibiting. You know what you want to do when you’re “disgusted” by something? Get and stay the fuck away from it. The dems are “terrified” of the reps. You know what you want to do when you’re terrified of something? Kill it. Fun to see how this plays out.

      1. Well, considering how the guy that tried to assassinate vast swaths of Republican Congressional representation at a softball game has been memory holed we know it’s gotta get a lot worse before it gets better.

        1. R C Dean

          Well, considering how the guy assault rifle that tried to assassinate vast swaths of Republican Congressional representation at a softball game has been memory holed we know it’s gotta get a lot worse before it gets better.

          I guess the lack of a body count meant there wasn’t a good platform of corpses to stand on.

    3. Raphael

      I know this is an anecdote, but when I’ve talked to members of my family who go from a bunch of places on right, not once have they ever mentioned death on anyone from other parties. On Trump, they just think he’s a twitter clown who’s a blow-hard, but it’s not like they liked Obama or the predecessors much either. A good number of my actual friends on the left were more than happy to wish death on boomers, trump supporters/voters, but the left to them are all the good guys who have to “fight dirty”. It’s just so damn tiring.

      1. A woman on a FB Screenwriting group was answering a question to “Would you work with someone you hated/disagreed with?” Her reply was “I can work with people I don’t get along with or agree with, but actual racists and sexists I think should be murdered.”

        WTF?

        1. commodious spittoon

          “Actual,” like “literal,” being a worrisomely mutable term.

        2. Raphael

          That’s gonna be a yikes from me, man.

      2. AlexinCT

        Politics replaced religion for too many on the left. They are so invested in their ideological dogma – personally – that when anything challenges those political views they feel personally challenged and insulted. When said challenges to their dogma proceed to prove what they believe to be idiotic – something that easily and frequently happens when you have adopted murderous, envious, shitty marxist ideas as good-think – it basically is received as calling their intelligence into questions. And since they are totes invested in thinking they are incredibly intelligent because they believe the good-think marxist shit they do, anything that proves that to be otherwise is fighting words. Especially since with these weak-minded morons their identity is totally wrapped around them believing they are smart and capable when nothing could be further from the truth.

        1. Raphael

          I’ve been thinking about that myself. These people definitely would’ve been the good ol’ inquisitors back in the day.

  39. PieInTheSky

    Is Brett Kavanaugh the problem, or the US supreme court itself?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/06/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-left-democrats

    Some fear Trump’s nominee would do too little, others that he would do too much. Maybe we should not entrust our fates to elites in the first place

    Mob rule with no checks and balances. Nothing could go wrong.

    1. Just Say’n

      Let’s just start murdering each other already and get it over with

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I read the article. I’m not sure what his point is other than the left is confused and lacking real direction.

    3. Winston

      Mob rule with no checks and balances. Nothing could go wrong.

      Problem is judges have to be installed, somehow, and get some sort of legal education somewhere.

  40. Slammer

    Glenn Greenwald

    Verified account

    @ggreenwald
    Follow Follow @ggreenwald
    More

    Hey! You know that ideology – old-school Republicanism – that 16 GOP candidates advocated in the primaries and which got rejected by voters in favor of Trump? Don’t worry! We, The Unelected, formed a cabal inside the WH to impose that ideology anyway. Liberals: that is fantastic!

    1. Just Say’n

      Greenwald isn’t wrong, but I prefer when he focuses his criticisms on the emerging alliance between progressives and neocons (I’d add beltway libertarians, but I’d rather not quibble)

      1. Chipwooder

        beltway libertarians

        The Niskaninnies are the worst.

        1. Just Say’n

          My favorite parody website

      2. invisible finger

        Beltway libertarians, too? BOTH of them?

        1. Raphael

          *spills his Cosmo drink in utter shock*

  41. Gadfly

    Looks like Asia Argento’s accuser is going to file a criminal complaint against the actress after all. So either he wants some more money or he genuinely believes he was assaulted. Anyway…the plot thickens.

    The article says that Asia reneged on paying the hush money, only paying part of the agreed amount, so I’d say that explains why this has all been made public. The moral of the story is keep your contracts people.

    Also, the article says that Asia’s attorney tried to flip the script and claim that the accuser is the rapist, so it makes sense that the accuser would go ahead and file a criminal complaint to tamp down on that. She’s pretty blatantly guilty of statutory rape (age of consent in Cali being a bit high at 18), so I’d say she and her lawyer have handled this situation poorly.

    1. Pat

      If the facts are on your side, pound the facts. If the facts aren’t on your side, pound the intern. Wait, that’s not right…

  42. The Late P Brooks

    I finally broke down and read that NYT thing. What a steaming pile of chicken shit. From the intro: the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.

    Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.

    “We are a noble band of patriots whose concern for, and devotion to, the abiding principles which have made this county great do not actually extend to accepting the consequences of our petulant backstabbing and treachery. Our preferred candidate, a person whose devotion to the expansion of government power was always well known to us, lost, and we got stuck with this other guy, who doesn’t play by our rules. That makes us sad and angry. We have had a good racket going for a long time, and we don’t need some low-class upstart putting his stick in our spokes.”

    Your job would be jeopardized if the person you work for knew what a shit-gobbling little weasel you are, so you have to hide in the shadows and lob a lot of accusations without providing evidence? You’re a regular Patrick Henry.

    1. I am 98% convinced that the NYT editorial team fabricated the whole thing.

      That excrement is the journalistic equivalent of finding ballots in the trunk of your car.

      1. Chipwooder

        Even Hillary dead-ender Jennifer Palmieri says the same thing I said earlier – their supposed source is likely some relatively low-level nobody.

        Jennifer Palmieri
        @jmpalmieri

        Fwiw, based on my experience with NYT sourcing rules for Administration officials, this person could easily be someone most of us have never heard of & more junior than you’d expect. Like a deputy at legislative affairs or NEC.

        9:32 PM – Sep 5, 2018

      2. Chipwooder

        Additionally:

        David Nakamura
        @DavidNakamura

        Most DC journalists, incl. me, have quoted a “senior administration official” in stories. But I feel as though an op-ed like this should have an editor’s note explaining what an SAO is. There are 1,212 Senate-confirmed positions, incl. 640 ‘key’ jobs

        So, yeah, it’s a nobody.

        1. AlexinCT

          But that nobody is resisting, so that makes him somebody, right? RIGHT? You just crushed that poor SOB’s ego…

    2. Rebel Scum

      I put it on par with ‘Fire and Fury’. IOW, it’s probably bullshit.

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        I think it’s likely mostly true (exagerrated here or there), but it’s written by a low level nobody and will do nothing but make things worse.

    3. R C Dean

      The Founders put their name on a document that put their actual lives in very serious jeopardy. And this clown won’t even resign his position, publish an op-ed, and move on to a much better paying engagement as an analyst for the DemOp Media. Real balls, there. Let’s face it – whoever this is values their job more than they do the supposedly moral stance they take in the op-ed. I’m sure its rationalized as “I can do more good by burrowing from within”, but that’s all it is – a rationalization.

  43. Just Say’n

    Glenn Greenwald is spitting hot fire today. Take it down, brah.

    More Glenn Greenwald Retweeted David Frum
    Just so we’re clear on platforming rules: it’s immoral to hear from Steve Bannon, but not from the person who literally wrote George W. Bush’s lie-filled speeches that led to the invasion & destruction of a country of 26 million people, a worldwide torture regime, & Guantanamo?Glenn Greenwald added,
    David Frum
    Verified account

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      He’s in his manic phase again. Good.

    2. Chipwooder

      Frum also wrote a column for National Review saying something along the lines of anyone opposed to the Iraq War was a traitor. That’s who the establishment champions as their idea of a “good conservative”.

      1. Just Say’n

        That article is to National Review what Brink Lindsey’s article in support of the Iraq War is to Reason: humiliating in retrospect.

        Look at some of the names that Frum denounces.

        https://www.nationalreview.com/2003/03/unpatriotic-conservatives-david-frum/

        1. Just Say’n

          The cover picture is Lew Rockwell. LOL

          “You may know the names of these antiwar conservatives. Some are famous: Patrick Buchanan and Robert Novak. Others are not: Llewellyn Rockwell, Samuel Francis, Thomas Fleming, Scott McConnell, Justin Raimondo, Joe Sobran, Charley Reese, Jude Wanniski, Eric Margolis, and Taki Theodoracopulos.”

  44. Another good rant.

    https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2018/09/06/i-really-dont-feel-like-submitting-to-socialist-tyranny-do-you-n2515865

    The problem here: what Schlichter misses is that the neo-Commies aren’t going to up and try to seize your stuff right away in a militant fashion, they’re going to continue the strategy that’s been working for decades; incremental, small changes that accumulate until there’s no liberty left.

    It’s like the discussion we have on here fairly often, when is enough enough? The current state of the country is already light years off track from where the Founder envisioned it. We’ve given up huge amounts of liberty but it didn’t all happen at once. If the, as he calls them, “Normals” had the same cojones as the Founders, they would already have risen up. The Founders had brass balls in that they knew perfectly well that if they failed, they were toast. They were all in and ready to die because of… the Stamp Act. Meanwhile, we get our stuff stolen by the government with no due process because inanimate objects are criminals, we get locked in cages for smoking a plant, we have to ask “Mother may I?” to purchase weapons, we get the fruit of our labor stolen and redistributed to people that don’t contribute, etc. etc. etc.

    The Founders are spinning in their graves.

    1. Raphael

      When is enough enough?

      I don’t know and to be quite honest, I don’t want to see or know what’s going to happen when we hit that point. I’ve been reading more about the Founding Fathers and their principles and we really have lost our way.

      1. AlexinCT

        We live in an age where what created the greatest nation this planet has ever known – where the individual finally was able to actually pursue happiness and succeed or fail based on his own god given abilities and effort – is not just frowned upon, but dismissed, so envious evil people can peddle the ideas and beliefs of the most murderous and evil ideology ever to take a giant shit on mankind: collectivism outside the family unit.

        1. Raphael

          And that’s one of the things that hurts about all this the most. All I pray for is that I can just be a stronger man in these times and be able to stand by the principles I’ve learned and cherished.

    2. Trolleric the Goth

      easy answer to this – guns. RKBA is the breaking point and I think that’s well established

  45. Rebel Scum

    What a weird lady

    Hawt.

  46. Stillhunter

    To trshmnstr from yesterday’s links: Whether a logger will cut the trees is a local question, but generally, no. Production loggers who cut mostly for mills typically have contracts to fill so don’t want to mess will small jobs. However, there are usually small guys with small (possibly portable) sawmills that you may be able to work a deal to get them cut for free or drastically reduced. But those tend to be different skill sets. Taking trees down near improvements is a high liability task, possibly requiring climbing or a bucket truck. If they are able to fell them away from the house without much complication (e.g., heavy branches, leaners, rot) that makes it all the better and more likely to find a willing party. Good luck!

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Trumphitler and the Kochtopus are working hand in hand to destroy democracy!

    An April 2017 Gallup poll, conducted as Congress began consideration of the Koch-backed tax bill (which was passed in December) found that 63 percent of voters believed that the rich paid too little in taxes and 67 percent believed that corporations paid too little. In other words, they were directly opposed to what the bill actually did.

    Similarly, a Reuters/IPSOS poll earlier that year found that 61 percent of voters wanted Environmental Protection Agency regulations either strengthened (39 percent) or maintained (22 percent). Nineteen percent backed weakening E.P.A. rules — a prime objective of the Kochs, much of whose wealth derives from the petroleum and chemical industries.

    If public opinion were the guiding force, key elements of the Kochs’ policy goals would be dead in the water. And without Trump’s ethnonationalist appeal, these proposals (for the most part) would not survive either on their merits or on popular support.

    Put another way, the Charles Koch-Donald Trump collaboration has been productive, despite the distaste of the two men for each other.

    Eight out of ten six-year-olds want ice cream for breakfast. There oughtta be a law!

    1. Direct democracy is perfect when it arrives at the proper solution. When it doesn’t, then we need republicanism and limitation.

    2. Brett L

      Similarly, a Reuters/IPSOS poll earlier that year found that 61 percent of voters wanted Environmental Protection Agency regulations either strengthened (39 percent) or maintained (22 percent). Nineteen percent backed weakening E.P.A. rules

      And 95% of that 61% could not cite a single regulation they wished to see strengthened, not discuss effects of doing so.

      1. The Other Kevin

        That was my thought. I’d bet good money that those numbers would change if the people polled actually had some facts in front of them. As it is now, they want to make major policy changes based on polling ill-informed people.

    3. Just Say’n

      The Kochs cannot catch a break. They come out against Trump and even decide to fund some Democratic senators and they’re still the source of all evil.

      1. Winston

        That’s what you get when you try to appease people who hate you.

  48. Winston

    From the Granudain comments:

    7
    So many of America’s systems seem bizarre, electoral college, Supreme Court, Bail system and second amendment rights spring to mind.

    ….

    Two of them (2nd Amendment and Electoral College) being there as sops to the slave-owning states, and still wreaking havoc in the US of 2018.

    …..

    This man is a wiley liar. He will destroy freedoms and make America into a religious third world shithole. He must not ever be placed on the court.

    The extreme right wants to dismantle each and every institution of our government. The first step is to destroy the legitimacy of SCOTUS.

    I disagree. Draw borders around the most oppressive parts of the South and Midwest and put all the republicants in there. Keep them happy and productive in their own little isolated Gilead.

    1. Just Say’n

      “Two of them (2nd Amendment and Electoral College) being there as sops to the slave-owning states, and still wreaking havoc in the US of 2018.”

      That doesn’t even make any sense

      1. kbolino

        Meh, the arguments as I understand them are as follows:

        1. Due to the 3/5 compromise, the slave states had extra representation in the House. The EC extended that disproportionate representation to the Presidency, as well.

        2. The 2A ensured that non-slave-owning whites in slave states were armed, and so no slave could safely escape the plantation because everywhere they went was an armed white man who would stop them.

        The problem with 1 is that, as far as I can tell, the EC was already decided before the 3/5 compromise. And calling it a “sop” ignores the fact that it was a compromise between the two sides. The country was in an unstable position with the real possibility of slave states leaving the union and allowing a divide-and-conquer strategy for its enemies. The threat of British invasion was real, and came to pass in 1812, and so was the threat of slave states leaving, which came to pass in 1860 but was credibly threatened prior to then. However, I will grant that this one at least has some truth, versus:

        The problem with 2 is that it relies on the animosity between slaves and poor whites that hadn’t fully developed yet in the 1780s. It also depends upon the Southern states passing laws abridging the 2A for anyone they deemed unfit, and it assumes that absent a Federal amendment on the matter, the slave states couldn’t have just done it through their own constitutions. No one was proposing a Federal ban on arms at the time, and while there are a couple of occasions post-ratification when it might have happened absent the 2A, it would have just triggered the Civil War earlier. FFS the country’s first real “test” under the Constitution was a rebellion over whiskey taxes. This one is just implausible and contrived.

        1. R C Dean

          The 3/5s compromise was adopted to limit representation by the slave states. The alternatives were to deperson slaves entirely and say they didn’t count for anything, or to count them as a whole person and give more Reps to the slave states.

          The 2A had nothing to do with slavery. Have we forgotten that the entire Revolutionary War started over gun control, the attempt by the British to seize arms at Lexington and Concord?

          1. kbolino

            Not counted for representation != depersoned. Illegal immigrants can’t vote and shouldn’t be counted for representation but they still have life, liberty, and property rights (although, particularly, not the “right” to avoid deportation). Contrariwise, slaves were depersoned a priori and the question of representation was entirely about the slave states not the slaves themselves.

          2. R C Dean

            Fair enough.

      2. Raven Nation

        The Electoral College was more an olive branch to the so-called “small states”: New Jersey, Delaware, New Hampshire, Connecticut.

        1. Just Say’n

          No. The Senate was an “olive branch” to the smaller states. The electoral college is just an outgrowth of our bicameral legislature. Two votes for each state, plus one vote for each House member

        2. R C Dean

          The Electoral College and the Senate are direct descendants of the Revolutionary War and the desire by the Founders to avoid repeating the error that led to the Revolutionary War.

          They knew then something that is still true today – that without the Electoral College and the Senate, the government would be controlled by a handful of large cities/states, and the smaller states and rural areas would be effectively shut out of government, leading to unrest, conflict, and possibly a new war of secession. They had just fought a war because they weren’t represented in government, and they wanted to avoid their new country fighting wars because large swathes of it weren’t represented (effectively) in government.

    2. kbolino

      There’s nothing a slaveowner likes better than the thought of his chattel being able to fight back.

  49. Democratic Hitler

    Mozilla you fuckers, what’s the point of resetting all my toolbar customizations as part of a version upgrade?

    1. commodious spittoon

      Do you hate gays? That’s probably why. Oh, you don’t hate gays? Then why’d your toolbars reset, hater?

  50. commodious spittoon


    They got him. Just as I feared they would.

    My nephew Kyle came to live with us this summer after his freshman year of college. Apparently he’s now a deputized member of the cultural-appropriation police.

    My wife told me to leave the poor boy alone. But hey, as his uncle, I feel it’s my job to help him live out his passionately held core values.

    In the summer our family eats most of our dinners on the deck which is conveniently located off our kitchen. Well convenient for most of us. Not for Kyle. Once I pointed out that modern architects got their inspiration for the sliding glass door from the Japanese shoji, Kyle stopped using our sliding door. You know, it having been appropriated and all.

    At dinnertime Kyle now goes out through the garage, runs down the hill on the side of the house, jumps the fence, cuts through the hedges, and climbs the stairs to the deck. I get exhausted just watching him.

    Once when it was his turn to help prep for dinner, he made seven trips. One of them after we’d all sat down. I pointed out he’d forgotten to bring the salt shaker.

    1. AlexinCT

      I would fucking make him do 40 trips and see if he still sticks with this idiocy…

    2. Democratic Hitler

      Very Twain-esque piece of writing.

    3. None of this happened, but it was a fun read.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Yep. It’s good to laugh genially rather than derisively, sometimes. Silly, borderline-segregationist ideas about race and culture are worth mocking, but when the progs s start screaming in people’s’ faces and assaulting white girls with braids or hoop earrings, the laughter sours a little.

    4. Just Say’n

      The article should have been titled: “Your Generation Sucks Ass So Hard”

  51. Rebel Scum

    Booker vows to ‘knowingly’ violate Senate rules to release secret Kavanaugh email

    New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker injected chaos into Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing Thursday as he vowed to release a confidential Kavanaugh email with the backing of Democrats in violation of Senate rules, calling it an act of “civil disobedience” and drawing condemnation from the Republicans on the committee.

    “I am going to release the e-mail about racial profiling and I understand that the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate,” Booker said at the beginning of the third day of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.

    The New Jersey Democrat said he would “knowingly” violate the Senate rules to release the email. Some of the other Democrats on the committee expressed their support for Booker’s effort.

    A day earlier, in a dramatic exchange, Booker implied Kavanaugh had been open to racial profiling tactics, citing an email exchange between Kavanaugh and a colleague. However, Booker did not provide Kavanaugh a copy of the emails to review while questioning him about it, prompting another objection from Lee, who charged that it was inappropriate to “cross-examine” Kavanaugh about documents that he “can’t see.”

    An interesting strategy. Let’s see how it plays out.

    1. AlexinCT

      Because the end justifies the means, and they are resisting!

    2. Rebel Scum

      Top Republicans mocked and denounced Booker, thought to be considering a 2020 campaign for president, for the move.

      “Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate or of confidentiality of the documents that we are privy to,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn told Booker.

      Heh. ///Burn

    3. Just Say’n

      There is nothing braver than violating the rules that you know will not be enforced while you wait for glowing profiles from a partisan media that is cheering on your efforts

      1. Democratic Hitler

        Looks, he’s believing in something, even if it means sacrificing everything nothing.

    4. RAHeinlein

      From the WSJ:

      As other Democrats chimed in to defend his plan to release documents, Sen. Cory Booker gets off the one of the hearing’s most notable lines: “I appreciate the comments of my colleagues. This is about the closest I’ll probably ever have in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”

      Booker likens himself to Sparatcus – so brave to take a stand with no repercussions.

      1. creech

        Could we rename Pennsylvania Ave. “Appian Way?”

      2. Spartacus

        I reject his comparison.
        If he really wants to be compared with me, he needs to spend a decade or two as a gladiator first. Or at least do something that requires actual courage.

    5. Raston Bot

      so when is that confirmation vote? this stuff was funny at first, now it’s just tiresome.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Hopefully they drag it out closer to the midterms with increasingly histrionic fits over increasingly picayune details.

        1. kbolino

          I don’t think they can drag it out, procedurally, which is part of the reason they’re acting so crazy. They took the filibuster off the table and they don’t have a majority. It’s not their decision to make.

      2. creech

        Yeah, my popcorn supply is getting low.

    6. Pope Jimbo

      Why didn’t Booker take Grassley up on his earlier offer to make docs public?

      In a letter to his committee colleagues, Chairman Grassley offered to help facilitate access to specific confidential records that members wish to discuss during the open session of the confirmation hearing. Sen. Klobuchar was the only committee member to submit a request.

      What makes this doubly funny is that Klobuchar is running around implying that she has seen all these secret documents that show how horrible Kavenah is, but she can’t tell you about the contents.

      Why didn’t she just ask for more to be released? Grassley didn’t reject any of her requests as far as I can tell.

      Of course she looks like a work horse compared to Booker.

      1. Raston Bot

        are you implying that Booker is lazy?

  52. KibbledKristen

    I discovered yesterday that the Los Angeles ABC station’s helicopter reporter is named Chris Christi.

    1. Just Say’n

      Is he a disappointment to everyone around him too?

      1. KibbledKristen

        Possibly…I mean, I switched channels once CBS LA came on air (yes, it was a police chase)

        1. Private Chipperbot

          Is the news helicopter a Chinook?

          1. KibbledKristen

            Mi-26

          2. AlexinCT

            Armed and armored?

          3. Private Chipperbot

            Now I’m picturing Christi slung under a helicopter with a go pro and a microphone. Time to get back to work.

    2. Trolleric the Goth

      hopefully doesn’t resemble the other one, the poor helicopter wouldn’t be able to take off ;-;

  53. KibbledKristen

    Asia Argento is now claiming the kid assaulted her. Fun times.

    1. commodious spittoon

      Seems like he’s mugging her in the press for money.

  54. Tres Cool

    Hot local news- someone shoots up 5/3 Bank offices in downtown Cincinnati:
    https://www.wlwt.com/

    Naturally, the brief interview I saw with the “conservative” counsel member, the reporter directly asks what she proposes for legislation to prevent these sorts of things.

    1. kbolino

      It’s a pity armed robbery isn’t illegal.

      1. Tres Cool

        The news says the guy came in from the loading dock, so Im guessing Mr Pissy-Pants former-employee or something.
        However, as someone that once used 5/3 for personal banking, I can understand if he was fed-up with their shitty service.

    1. kbolino

      Jesus. Not only should Booker be censured and removed from the Senate, but barred from ever returning. These are executive privileged documents. If the Senate cannot be trusted to maintain their confidentiality, then the executive will refuse to provide them. Congratulations, Cory Booker, for creating a constitutional crisis.

      1. kbolino

        That having been said… why the fuck did Booker release these? There’s nothing in there that looks bad for Kavanaugh. If anything, it makes him look good.

    2. R C Dean

      Two thoughts:

      (1) Booker should be removed from the committee, immediately, for breaking Senate rules.

      (2) That’s it? Emails where Kavanaugh says “people (such as you and I) who generally favor effective security measures that are race-neutral” and “these DOT regulations use a lot of legalisms and disguises to mask what is in reality a naked racial set-aside” that SCOTUS will overturn? That’s a bombshell?

      Alright, one more: I would be chewing subordinate ass if they went off on an extended email exchange like that. Pick up the fucking phone and talk it out, already.

      1. Rebel Scum

        I haven’t gotten a chance to browse through it. Is that all it is? I wasn’t really expecting a bombshell anyway.

        1. R C Dean

          Its kind of the middle of a technical legal discussion that lacks a whole lot of context. But looking for soundbites, on a quick review I only saw stuff that makes Kavanaugh look good.

          Lacking context, the only thing that I can see in there that might be used against him is a discussion about whether to incrementally reduce race as a security factor (the “interim” solution) on the road to race-neutral, or whether to try to jump to the end.

          1. Breet Pharara

            It doesn’t matter what’s in it though. Let’s be honest, the media will twist and selectively quote to make it look awful, and no one will actually read for the full context. It will “prove” to the Dem base teh Racism and that’s all that matters.

          2. kbolino

            Depending on the context of the first discussion, it’s possible that they will also try to hang him on not being gung-ho about race-based decisions. Remember, the new progressive position is to be race-conscious not race-neutral. If Kavanaugh is unwilling to right racial wrongs then he is a crypto-white nationalist.

          3. R C Dean

            Yeah, but support for “naked racial set-asides” is going to be pretty narrow.

            I hope he gets questioned on these. Because I think it gives the Dems opportunities to step on their dicks again, and gives him the high ground (with most people) of race-neutrality.

      2. kbolino

        I would be chewing subordinate ass if they went off on an extended email exchange like that. Pick up the fucking phone and talk it out, already

        There are four different email threads in there, about (at least?) three different matters.

        1. R C Dean

          My rule is that if you are about to make your third (or maybe second) reply on an email chain, don’t. Pick up the damn phone.

          1. kbolino

            You may feel that way, and I certainly don’t think anyone should be penalized for using the phone, but the government is required to keep records (not, necessarily, release them to the public) and emails make for better records than phone calls.

          2. R C Dean

            I don’t think there is any requirement that you engage in email discussions rather than face-to-face or phone discussions.

          3. kbolino

            I didn’t say there was. However, from a records-keeping standpoint, emails are better. They are already text and they contain a lot of contextual metadata that recorded phone conversations don’t have.

          4. invisible finger

            You’ll never make it as a bureaucrat with sensible rules like that, RC.

      3. commodious spittoon

        chewing subordinate ass

        And kicking subordinate bubblegum?

        1. Heroic Mulatto

          No, Dean is just saying he too likes to eat ass.

          1. R C Dean

            Not at work. I never fish off the company dock.

      4. invisible finger

        “Pick up the fucking phone and talk it out, already.”

        LOL. I worked with someone who got fired BECAUSE he wanted to have a design meeting instead of having an inefficient drawn-out string of emails. (Technically he was only reprimanded – and then “laid off” at the comapny’s earliest convenience. All because the other party in the email string was a woman the head honcho was banging and was “offended” that he yelled over the cube walls. The bitch would rather write emails for hours than walk 20 feet to the other guy’s desk and get it resolved in fifteen minutes.)

      5. R C Dean

        Maybe this is the bombshell? TW: NYT.

        I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so.

        Context:

        Judge Kavanaugh was considering a draft opinion piece that supporters of one of Mr. Bush’s conservative appeals court nominees hoped they could persuade anti-abortion women to submit under their names.

        Even the NYT admits:

        Still, his email stops short of saying whether he personally believed that the abortion rights precedent should be considered a settled legal issue.

        Or, it could be they want to trip him up on previous statements about who he knew or what he worked on. There’s some of that in there, too.

        1. kbolino

          I stand by my above comment about emails making better records but one should not be judged for failure to recall the exact content or participants in a 16-year-old email thread. Hell, I couldn’t recall the contents or recipients of emails I sent a year ago.

    3. CPRM

      “The people who favor some use of race/natl origin obviously do not need to grapple with the interim question. But the people (such as you and I) who generally favor effective security measures that are race-neutral in fact DO need to grapple –and grapple now–with the interim question of what to do before a truly effective and comprehensive race-neutral system is developed and implemented.”–Dated Jan 17th 2002, presumably discussing new airport security after 9/11.

      Um, so they are saying he is racist because he didn’t want racial profiling?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I don’t get it. What’s the issue?

      2. invisible finger

        Racial profiling is good when it puts money in the pockets of protected non-white races. So anyone wanting to be race-neutral is evil.

      3. CPRM

        For further context, most of the emails seem to be about Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña

        1. RAHeinlein

          Thanks for this link!

    1. Just Say’n

      I could have sworn that the West already paid them to do something about that in the 70’s

      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30040790

      1. Just Say’n

        I guess eugenics wasn’t offensive enough to warrant a “right to privacy”

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I had no idea

      3. kbolino

        authorities still don’t seem to realise that it is an important reproductive health concern

        I’m pretty sure the people performing forced sterilization–whether botched or not–are pretty damn well aware of the “reproductive health concern[s]” since that’s the whole fucking point of the procedures.

        There is also a strong undercurrent in that article that they should be sterilizing more men, for equality or something. Fuck, why does evil always have to be rationalized?

      4. +1 Union Carbide.

        1. Trolleric the Goth

          that’s what’d we’d call a MIC drop, right there

  55. l0b0t

    OT question for those who may know. I have a few pounds of red grapes; can those be made into delicious preserves in the manner of the Concord? Does anyone have a recipe or idea for what I might do with them foodstuffs that may be crafted?

      1. AlexinCT

        Only fun to drink with your prison bitch…

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          I prefer the Toilet Merlot

  56. AlmightyJB

    Step right up folks, for just $1 you can actually punch a “white supremacist”. Probably will be including many more people you can assault in the near future.

    https://hotair.com/archives/2018/09/06/man-assaulted-jason-kessler-fined-one-dollar/

    1. R C Dean

      Though Winder could have received up to 12 months in jail and $2,500 in fines from a jury, he received a $1 fine.

      Sounds like a felony conviction, which carries lifetime penalties (insert SLD here). I thought the judge, not the jury, set the punishment, but I’m not familiar with Virginia courts.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Jury decision. I may disagree, but I can’t call it a mis-application of the law

      1. R C Dean

        A quick Google shows you are correct, sir. Eh, this smells like jury nullification-lite. Can’t really complain.

    3. Heroic Mulatto

      If it only cost me a dollar, I’d punch Jazz Shaw in the face, just for wearing that fucking stupid fedora.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I wouldn’t vote to convict you

      2. Raston Bot

        $1 plus a felony conviction on your record.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          And likely, legal fees.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    Hang on to your hats

    This facility is run by the Civilian Marksmanship Program, or CMP, an understated pro-gun group with a quarter-billion dollars in assets. Most of that wealth—far more than the National Rifle Association Foundation has—effectively comes from the continuing generosity of the federal government. CMP is the U.S. Army’s designated retailer of cast-off weapons, making it a nonprofit with a very profitable franchise. The next big payday will come later this year when CMP starts selling thousands of M1911s, the U.S. military’s sidearm of choice for more than 70 years.

    Talladega Marksmanship Park, as the Alabama site is known, sits within the same 15,000-person town that’s home to a Nascar Superspeedway. Although visitors pay as much as $30 to get inside, the park hasn’t made money since it opened in 2015. The complex is an embodiment of CMP’s self-declared purpose: “To promote firearm safety and marksmanship training with an emphasis on youth.”

    ———-

    A missionary sensibility has been at the center of the organization since its founding as a civilian-preparedness division of the U.S. Army at the turn of the last century, but the emphasis on children is a modern-day shift. The young people who today participate in air rifle competitions and take the group’s junior shooter safety pledge and make pilgrimages to its resplendent marksmanship park will grow up to be adults who know guns, shoot guns and amass collections of guns. Some, naturally, will join the CMP’s cousin, the National Rifle Association.

    If CMP accomplishes this mission, every child touched by its outreach programs will do his or her part to participate in gun culture across the country for decades to come. And we, the people, will have helped pay for it, regardless of our views on guns, through the highly unusual gift of second-hand military rifles and pistols.

    ——–

    At a time when Americans are sharply divided over the place of firearms in society, the U.S. government has, in effect, subsidized the metamorphosis of CMP into a deep-pocketed, nationwide evangelist for youth gun culture. The group has survived and thrived, despite repeated attempts by politicians to shut off its gun pipeline.

    It’s a plot to poison the minds of American children by providing them with knowledge and understanding of how a tool works. Not fair!

    1. R C Dean

      The complex is an embodiment of CMP’s self-declared purpose: “To promote firearm safety and marksmanship training with an emphasis on youth.”

      So now gun safety is a bad thing? I thought the gun controllers were all about increasing safety with reasonable regulations. Don’t they push mandatory training for gun owners as part of their licensing and registration plan?

      1. kbolino

        The goal is to go after gun culture. Teaching gun safety reduces the fear and anxiety people might otherwise have over guns. This is not acceptable. If, in the interim, more people get maimed or die from improper gun use, they are just the eggs that must be broken to make the omelette of stamping out civilian gun ownership.

    2. slumbrew

      The young people who today participate in air rifle competitions and take the group’s junior shooter safety pledge and make pilgrimages to its resplendent marksmanship park will grow up to be adults who know guns, shoot guns and amass collections of guns. Some, naturally, will join the CMP’s cousin, the National Rifle Association.

      That all sounds good to me.

      1. One could effectively argue that this limits gun violence. Virtually none of the people who go through the program will end up mass shooters.

    3. kbolino

      If the government can spend money on providing constitutional penumbra and emanation-protected contraceptives and abortions, then it can also spend on providing explicit constitutional amendment-protected use of firearms. Personally, I’d prefer neither (although the military should still be able to sell its surplus stock to civilians), but let’s stake out a consistent position on this matter, at least.

  58. The Late P Brooks

    Don’t they push mandatory training for gun owners as part of their licensing and registration plan?

    Not if it’s voluntary.

  59. Pat

    Ex-Muslims banned from Houston Hilton Starbucks for Atheist shirts

    Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA) volunteers were forcibly expelled from a Starbucks within a Hilton hotel in Houston, Texas. They went back to ask why, this time with a camera, they were informed it was due to their T-Shirts stating “ G̶o̶d̶ Love is Greatest” and “I’m an Ex-Muslim, Ask Me Why?”.

    1. kbolino

      I wonder how the rationalist, skeptical atheist community will respond to this?

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The sign clearly said “No pets, smoking, or apostates allowed”

      1. invisible finger

        Ex-Christian T-Shirts were not banned.

    1. I see the argument that Kavanaugh is not in favor of racial profiling, but he’s hinting there are ways to do until you have the race-neutral apparatus in place. However, he’s just offering legal advice, is he not? He doesn’t actually write and vote on the laws of the country — he’s not a legislator. He’s just being asked his legal opinion on something.

      1. R C Dean

        It gets into the nuance of context, which naturally will be willfully ignored. My quick review shows that the emails are mostly advice to other people on how to make whatever they are working on more effective.

        On racial profiling, he is saying that supporters of racial profiling aren’t interested in any reduction of it, but that opponents should have a plan to get rid of it without crippling the effectiveness of security (the “interim” solution). Its hard to tell, but I read that as implying that, without an interim solution, you aren’t going to make progress. It could be his personal view that we should go slow, as well, but who knows?

        On the abortion op-ed, he’s giving advice on how to make it an op-ed that anti-abortion women will actually be willing to sign onto; thus, removing the “settled law” language (and giving a reason not to include it) is in the context of getting the target audience on board.

        On the racial set-asides, that is firmly in context of not getting your ass kicked at SCOTUS, since he calls out five Justices who would vote against the regulations.

        What I take from these is that the guy is almost painfully reasonable even when dealing with hot-button issues.