I hope your Christmas was as enjoyable as mine and I hope you got everything you wanted or at least were given a gift receipt.
Hard to follow the news when you’re busy playing with your three young children who are in a state of mania, but I’ll see what I can dig up for you.
For those battling whether or not we are on the verge of a recession due to the massive stock market correction, put this bit of news in the “not” column.
I feel bad for journalist’s families and that’s about it. Maybe they should be doing what these condescending cunts told the coal miners to do and learn how to code.
Did someone say Disney? I had a summer internship there.
Willie Sutton robbed banks because that’s where the money is and pedophiles work for Disney because, well you know.
Man shoots own dog out of fear it would attack young children while at a park.
Smallest premature baby to ever survive now 4 years old.
New York Times celebrates a terrorist organization.
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with my middle child’s favorite song.
I have never worked for Disney
What if I asked you if you had ever been employed by Disney? Would the answer still be the same?
I think your answer was semantically correct, but factually misleading since you don’t consider kiddy diddling work.
It’s back to work for me, with year end accounting tasks and last minute capital decisions. I hope everyone had a good Christmas.
Everything was closed, I had to stay home.
At least you could finish your Christmas special story
It’s entirely possibly that my capital decisions are going to be made for me.
I had peace and quiet, and spent a lot of time shooting giant robots.
How is that different from normal?
Normally I don’t spend an entire day at it. I had been planning to write more.
Well look, you’re writing now.
There’s a difference between monetizable writing and internet shitposting.
Also, today can’t count towards the totals for yesterday.
I disagree.
*This comment brought to you by Pepto Bismal®*
I’m surprised their favorite song wasn’t Bitchin Camaro.
The Dead Milkmen played my town when I was a junior in high school. The singer (Wikipedia says his name is Joe Jack Talcum? I never knew that) started telling this funny story about how he’d been pulled over by the Wilmington, NC, cops earlier that day for speeding. He used local street and place names so it sounded completely believable, and threw in lots of asides about the local donut shop and so forth. He was at least 3-4 minutes into the totally ad-libbed and hilarious story when it started to dawn on people what was happening, and by the time he got to the end and everybody in the audience shouted “Bitchin’ Camaro” at the same time.
I came away totally impressed he’d gone to that much effort to get local details right, for a town he’d probably never been in before and might never be back to again. I don’t know to what extent he varied the story for different towns on their tour, but it was completely different than the story on the record.
In a development that should surprise nobody, McCain’s usefulness has come to an end.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/25/john-mccain-senate-office-building-push-fizzles-ch/
Did it ever start?
He provided a useful service to the plants around him as he converted oxygen into carbon dioxide for their use.
I’ve always assumed he expelled sulfur rather than CO2
There’s actual utility and political utility. They are not only not the same, they are nearly in diametrical opposition.
“McCain, who often confounded colleagues in life, continues to do so in death as senators search for an acceptable honor.“
Mix his ashes with preparation H and send ISIS a pallet of the stuff.
Nah, I hear Pfizer purchased the rights to his ashes. Working on a product “Waragra”.
*polite applause*
FFS. How about naming it “Senate Office Building”?
Call it the trough
21 weeks. What trimester is that?
2nd which goes through the 26th week.
“I hope your Christmas was as enjoyable as mine and I hope you got everything you wanted…”
I got a sinus infection for Christmas…fa la la la la, la la la la.
*high five*
Early signs are pointing towards that I caught the flu my wife had!
This is what we get for interacting with the rest of humanity face to face. Much safer here in front of the glowing pixel god.
Sends the Hippie cybergerms
Getting ill at Christmas is a time honored tradition.
Wishing you both health and chicken diumplings!
Sorry.
Trigger Hippie, I hope you get well soon!
Hope you both get better.
Thanks, man.
Appreciate that.
Amen – speedy recovery.
From the times story that Banjos link referenced:
Yeeeah…OK.
They keep saying they’re for the resistance and against authority, but as far as I know, they just want more authority over the rest of us and no resistance to them. What a bunch of rubbish and nonsense.
Clue: Authoritarians use the word ‘freedom’ a lot. Liberty minded people use the words ‘fuck off’ a lot.
That metric hasn’t proven me wrong yet, good sir.
Huh. You’re onto something…
It’s funny you assume an American said that. And by funny, I mean sad that it would be considered not only possible, but likely. It was actually a quote from some big-shot in the Iranian government.
Did you mean to reply to yourself?
Yes!
Um…no. That was for Raph’.
I hear it enough from my former friends. And that’s hilarious it came from a big-wig up there.
“with social justice”
It’s true, i talked to the purple haired person and xe said that Burkas are totally Anti-Patriarchal, as it eliminates the Male Rape Gaze.
More effective would be a 45 Auto on the hip but their politics seem to be allergic to reality.
They’re savvy as hell for using ‘social justice’. They know what’s happening with the clowns here.
I applaud them for helping speed the demise of that term.
Good morning and happy Boxing Day (is it Boxing Day? My knowledge of it is confined to that one episode of M.A.S.H.). My dad was briefly an illustrator for Disney in the ’60s but the institution of a facial hair ban clashed with his bohemian sensibilities and Southron stubbornness. Just home from work at my wonderful, union mandated, holiday double overtime rate. I tried quite hard to find ways to busy myself despite my boss (it was just the 2 of us) urging me to relax, maybe take a nap. I cleaned things and binged on early ’90s SNL. Cheap prime rib has me ready to experiment, would y’all sear the beast before the sous vide then blast it in the oven or salt it and sous vide then pan sear afterwards? Also, does 130°F for 10 – 24 hours sound about right for a 6lb. cut?
Well on my rib roast I separated the bones and tied them back on with string so I did not sear before sous vide because I was afraid the string would break. I said a couple of days ago I had a 2.4 kilogram piece – 3 bones – which I did 5.5 hours at 60 C adding rosemary and garlic to the sous vide bag followed by brushing with egg white doing a herb crust and 10 minutes in the oven at 250 C. Turned out quite nice. I had salted 24 hours before the bagging. For sauce I put some butter in the pan added what juices were in the bag, then cooked the liquid down to almost nothing and added a glass of wine which I then reduced.
Thank you. That sounds yummy and lovely and is likely the path I’m on. Except for the rosemary. It is one of the several things that my wife won’t touch. It hurts my soul. I haven’t a good Herbs D’ Provence in years. Also, she won’t eat cooked fruit so many pies are off the table as well. Sigh…
This is the recipe I used as a general guideline
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/win-the-holidays-with-herb-crusted-sous-vide-prime-rib-rib-roast
The delightful guys at Sous Vide Anything have answered your question (hint: no pre-sear).
I sous vide an 8lb prime rib roast for Christmas and it turned out great. I set it to 135 for 6 hours and then put it the oven for 40 minutes to finish and it turned out great medium rare.
40 seems a lot 10 was enough for me
If I was going to do 10 minutes, I would have set the temp at 136.
What I have found with pork ribs is that the sous vide cooks the meat perfectly, but the heat isn’t hot enough to really break down the fat in them. So it is important to have a fairly hot finish to melt off some of the fat.
I had never done a prime rib roast with sous vide before, so I wasn’t sure how the fat in there would act and decided to go for a longer finish. I think you are right though. I think I could easily have done a 10 minute finish in the oven.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/12/perfect-prime-rib-with-red-wine-jus-recipe.html
‘In a statement, police said that Walter Haller was walking his pit bull off its leash Sunday when another man entered the park accompanied by a dog on a leash and three children. Authorities said the pit bull attacked the other dog, causing “serious injuries.”
Haller told police that he was worried that his pit bull would attack the children, so he shot the dog with a .22-caliber handgun.’
This sounds like a story about a shitty dog owner who shockingly had an aggressive, shitty dog, knew it, and decided to seek out a dangerous situation so he could kill it in a shitty way. What I’m saying is the dog owner is probably a piece of shit.
This part just enrages me. I once had a roommate with an aggressive dog that needed to be muzzled when walked in public. I hated having to muzzle the poor thing; he was most lovable and sweet but was an adopted rescue from an abusive environment and would bite strangers if they came close enough to reach him. People like Mr. Haller make me want to bring back public stocks, shame, and rotten veggie pelting.
I agree. And I wasn’t blaming the dog by any stretch of the imagination, to be clear. I worked on a house over the summer who’s homeowners had an old rescue. It was so traumatized that five years after they took it in it still growled and snapped at anyone within ten-fifteen feet of it if you were not in the household. But the owners were wise enough to either keep it leashed at all times or locked in a room. Not stroll around in a park with it loose while you so happened to be armed. That person knew what the fuck would happen. If not he’s a colossal idiot.
I can see malice or outright stupidity being the source of the problem. Also, they aren’t mutually exclusive.
Fair point.
People around here walk their dogs off-leash all the time. I may have to get a walking stick or similar to protect myself and my family since so many dog-owners are not sensible or considerate towards others (especially those with small children).
Where did all the comments go? It says there are 27 and I even saw a few of them. And now that I’ve logged in I’m the only one here….
….test…..
Same here but I am seeing ten.
I see the whole lot of them.
I’ve heard that sometimes monocle users experience comment loss due to options there. But I don’t know if either of you use the extension.
HahaHA!
I had hit the “hide old threads” button, which is something that I’ve never done before!
Take that
Yeah, it’s the “Hide Old Threads” button
I tried to read that Atlantic story about the delivery boy, and I decided I just didn’t care whether he got a nice truck to drive. He got some lovely reinforcements for his preconceptions., and that’s what matters.
I don’t believe most of that – I.e. tires so old and bald they’re shedding 4 and 5 inch strips.
Yeah I can tell you from personal experience that is 100% authentic. Those small package companies Amazon is hiring is something of a family business. When I was younger at one point Me, Mr Brother, Father 2 Uncles, a Cousin, and a couple of our family friends all drove for the same small package delivery company. Since then most of us moved on to other things but my Brother stayed in that industry and now owns 2 different delivery businesses, one of which is in business with Amazon.
This trucks get 40k – 60k miles a year put on them and the profit margins are way too small to do all of the maintenance exactly on schedule
It was insanity. You can’t make ends meet on the savings from a 33 year career at SI, royalties from 6 books, and your attorney wife’s salary?
And he kept using the phrase “how far I’ve fallen”. Mike Rowe he ain’t.
Most book royalties amount to pocket change.
And I suspect they spend more than they can afford.
I suspect the only reason he took the job was for article and -if everything goes “right”- book fodder.
Maybe. He does bitch about Bezos a few times. It’s possible that after SI laid him off, he applied at WaPo and was solidly rejected, so he concocted a plan to work for Amazon and write a tell-all to get back at Bezos for the injustice to his ego.
Or he’s just a dumb fuck like many sports writers, who wasted all his money, somehow made no connections in the business, can’t find a writing gig that strokes his ego as much and deserves to piss in Gatorade bottles for the rest of his working life. Wash your hands after handling Amazon packages.
Yes, and if he had any talent and was reasonably likable, he could easily get a job writing PR for a team or some sports related business. I know several former newspaper people who have taken the corporate writing gigs and are paid much better than their news jobs. This sounds like he’s doing it just to get the woe-is-me story, or a book like someone suggested. And look! There’s the Atlantic, already eager to publish the drivel.
It reminds me of the occasional story every few years from a noble journalist who tries to live on food stamps, and by day two they write it’s impossible and they go to McDonald’s.
This was the part that was driving me crazy. Lern 2 safe.
So his wife’s a lawyer and he’s selling freelance stories to Atlantic. Cry me a fucking river.
>I didn’t feel like admitting to casual acquaintances, or even to some good friends, that I drive a van for Amazon.
I like it when the whinging-for-sympathy uses his opening line to let me know that he’s a piece of shit and not worth any sympathy. Bitching about honest work. What a fuck. If your friends make make you feel bad for the job you hold, they are pieces of shit. If you feel like your current job is beneath you, you are wrong.
Yep, that’s where I stopped. He can go fuck himself.
I noted this part. He’s too good to drive a delivery van!
If I’m at a dinner party or something I would far rather talk to somebody like this (not this person in particular, though) with an actual interesting job than yet another office bee who does the same boring stuff I have to do every day.
Two more days of work left. Eleven more classes.
I have to move out by Monday and I don’t really want to do anymore dishes or shopping of any kind, as I’ve already got the kitchen clean enough to hand off. I do have a can of black beans and a can of tomatoes. I do indeed have taco seasoning.
*Rubs chin*
Is there a way to make that into a fairly respectable meal? I might buy an onion or something but I really don’t want to have to add too much. Is this a terrible idea? Or is it just so crazy that it might
still be crazybe a viable solution for the eve’s culinary quandary?Come forth my children. Let he who illuminates this, illuminates me.
Just buy some cups of ramen and put the black beans and tomatoes, it’ll be great, if not the greatest.
Please do not take my advice
*Chin rubbing intensifies*
I had thought about pasta, but I hadn’t thought about ramen. I started twisting my non-existent mustache. But then I got your final line and I am now once again filled with potent self-doubt!
I shall finish my appetizer of peanuts nestled gently in the salt bed where they currently dwell, and then make my decision.
You can always do it for science! Good luck with your last days at the job.
I was thinking about Tortillas…
…but I suspect the only way to do that would be for me to appear in your vicinity and get you on a US military base. So close but so far.
Shocking–about six months ago my corner market actually started stocking tortillas. They’re just way to expensive to justify them if I’m making my own food and minimizing waste.
Watch the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves.
Get an onion, a pepper, a bit of cheese and some tortilla (or tortilla like wrappings) and make burritos.
That’s normally what I would do. But tortillas are $4.50 a package and there’s no way that the vast majority of that won’t be wasted. I could just do a bowl. Still the pepper is going to cost probably $3.50 for 2 and the only cheese available is slices of American. Which. Not the worst. But tragic.
The home cooking situation that I have here is one thing I will not miss in any way.
the only cheese available is slices of American
So there is literally no cheese available
If you just eat fast food until you move, there’s no reason for anything in your kitchen to get dirty at all.
Note – by ‘fast food’, I’m also including sandwich shops where you can have veggies added, so the nutrition isn’t as dismal as, say, Mickey D’s.
Only fast food near me is Korean stuff, which haha, no thank you. Restaurants here are bullshit because they make you order at least two portions. All my friends live in the same area in another side of town, and seeing that I eat like a 12 year old girl, I can’t even finish one portion by myself–let alone two.
At night McDs is my only walking-distance option. I think I’ll bite the bullet with the Mexican bowl. Should have enough leftovers for 1-2 more meals justifying the cost.
The thing that kicked me in the balls as I was coming to get to grips with last relationship ending, was that I was getting so angry at myself because I was wasting so much chili that I was making. For some idiotic reason I couldn’t figure it out for the longest time: I was still using my internal recipe–the one that also fed the ex for the week.
I don’t need that 6L pot anymore. Sigh. (I still cook for current Lady, but she lives about an hour away and we only see each other on weekends (which is awesome)).
Hey, if they have something like Doritos get a bag of those, mix them in, and call it Chilaquiles. Close enough.
If that doesn’t work get some chile powder and some eggs. Heat what you have then mix that in until the eggs are done.
I don’t know about the 12yos you know, bit mine could eat a horse at that age.
Who’s this Lady? Not the clingy sort, obviously.
Do you even soju tent?
I could easily live off soju tent food for two days. Sure I might need to sacrifice a few orphans to use their livers to replace my soju soaked one, but I could do that pretty easily.
My favorite soju tent of all time was when I was driving from Pohang to Yeachon to resupply a squadron detachment there. I was with the squadron Sgt. Major and in the middle of nowhere there was a soju tent at a crossroads. As we passed the Sgt. Major told me to stop because that must be the best soju tent in Korea if he could make a living way out here. It was pretty good in fact, but I’ve been in better.
*For those of you who don’t know, a soju tent is a popup restaurant in Korea. It is usually a tarp thrown over a crude pipe frame and inside is a guy with a crude grill who will cook bar food and sell you soju – a potato based wine that is total rotgut. I love those places, but my wife frowns because I tend to get my beak way into the soju.
@ Pope: I do not soju tent, as I despise 95% of Korean food. I’ll go to drink with friends in warmer months but what’s the point? 7-11 Drinking is Best Drinking.
And again, the stuff I do like requires you to buy at least two portions, which I can’t come close to doing.
@Mojeaux: Perhaps think “physical size of stomach” on a short, but grown man. I also have weird issues with food. If I get hungry then I get nauseous about eating and put it off longer. Then I’ll eat just a bit to make it go away but the idea of actually settling down and tackling a big meal when I’m hungry is something that I can’t do. It’s like when someone is starving and they have to be careful about their reintegration to food. Only with me it happens like twice a day.
I also eat annoyingly slow. A sandwich (that doesn’t need to be hot) will be usually be consumed very leisurely, frequently being nibbled on for at least an hour. (BECAUSE I ACTUALLY *ENJOY* MY FOOD RATHER THAN JUST VIEWING AS A MEANS OF SUSTENANCE!!!!…..I’m sorry it’s my problem I’ll deal with it…..)
@Atanurjuat: Lady is colored South African girl. We are very different people but we both enjoy our space and privacy. Her living an hour north has proven to me to be such a perfect solution for both of us. She’s moving to Thailand with me in a few months. We will be getting separate places.
@Straff: I’d rather trade them for some dope, frankly.
Evan , I can relate to the hunger nausea.
Also, I wasn’t sure if you were still in Korea.
OK. I like a lot of korean food, so I don’t have that problem. The only thing I’m not a huge fan of is kimchi. I will gradually start eating more and more of it until one day I get a particularly rancid piece and then I’m off it for a while.
The only problem I ever had with Korean food is the spiciness (I grew up in Norwegian land where we have extra mild salsa). I learned over time to deal with the heat, although, I’m still a sissy eater compared to the natives.
My biggest problem with eating there is the fact that Koreans think nothing of sniffling up the snot caused by spiciness. Sniffling is one of the biggest crimes you can engage in where I grew up (handing a sniffler a kleenex and telling them to use it is a major shaming event here). Eating at a table with a bunch of snifflers is like nails on a chalkboard for me.
“Norwegian land where we have extra mild salsa”.
Hey, we have that same stuff, ours is Ketchup brand
Kimchi is a gift from God. The hotter, the better.
That is all.
*Expands thousand yard gaze*
Every meal. Every day. For the rest of your life.
The smell is a cloud of toxicity pervading the entire atmosphere of everywhere you go.
And the air never clears.
I can get behind a few bits grilled up, and I don’t mean to yuck another’s yum. But goddamn. Every fucking meal? It’s not even the spice, is the *taste* of the spice. It’s what happens when a society is so homogenous and cut off from society that their universal idea of breakfast is kimchi and rice. I swear it’s Allegory of the Cave shit. They’ve lived it so long that they don’t even know it’s fucked up.
*Throws hands up*
Not my problem–for much longer any way.
Got north of the DMZ and trade those cans for someone’s daughter.
If he eats the daughter he’ll just be hungry again in an hour
Glibertarian moment.
Less than that I think — he’s young. Maybe 15 minutes.
By north of the DMZ, I don’t think straff meant push all the way to the Yalu River.
*nods sagely*
/MacArthur’s Ghost
As part of yesterday’s pajamas optional movie marathon, I watched this: an H G Wells story brought to life in glorious black and white in 1936. In addition to the inevitability of mankind’s eventual slide from feudalistic warlordism into authoritarian paternalistic communitarianism combined with shockingly tasteless costumery, I learned this: The future ain’t what it used to be.
Yeah, it’s like when I read some of Verne’s stuff and man, he had some amazing dreams about the future.
Wells was a nasty eugenicist.
I assume you were watching “Things to Come”?
I don’t believe most of that – I.e. tires so old and bald they’re shedding 4 and 5 inch strips.
The narrative will be maintained. Resistance is futile.
“Maybe they should be doing what these condescending cunts told the coal miners to do and learn how to code.”
Hahaha, That got a good laugh out of me.
I’ve always told everyone that if they want to learn to code, they can. It’s not incredibly difficult, but it takes a lot of dedication to prove that you are worthwhile. You can’t just learn a few things and then be ready to go. And finally, coding isn’t for everyone. A lot of people could program. Not as many would enjoy a career doing so.
A lot of people also can’t grasp basic logic, which is a key element for making anything substantive, and to figuring out why the copy-pasted code from the internet isn’t doing what you want it to.
I do some coding as part of my job. I hate it. I do it to get to the interesting stuff.
*stares blankly*
Does not compute.
“I do some coding as part of my job. I hate it. I do it to get to the interesting stuff.”
This. Most people think “Learn to code” => Web Dev. But for the most part a lot of people who are learning to code these days is so that they can automate/do something to get on to doing something else more important.
Back in the day I was a fairly good Fortran programmer at a time when you could get paid for such skills. It wasn’t really what I wanted to do so I got a masters in something else and took a different path.
35 some-odd years later I kinda wish I had just stuck with it. Why? – IT skills are usually judged by IT people. A lot of other technical skills are judged by finance/accounting looking at what your overall department function brings in. If you are good at IT everyone else kinda has to pay your wages based on what your manager says.
I’m such a dinosaur I had to program 8088 processors in assembly code.
That’s why I prefer kilovolts and megaamps to this day.
I&m such a dinosaur, when I started programming 4-tran it was still 3-tran.
Everyone should learn to code. Also, everyone should learn how to balance a budget, how to look at art, how to sharpen a knife, how to plant a garden, how to do your own laundry and stock your own pantry, etc.
But no, not everyone should aspire to coding as a profession.
I assume you were watching “Things to Come”?
Very good. You win a cookie.
*whose line was that, in what film?
All he had to do was hover over the link…just sayin’.
Don Rickles in “Kelly’s Heroes”. Now where is my cookie?
“I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open,” he said. “I can tell you, it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want.”
Intersectiowall?
“wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want”
would it be cheaper to give everyone shock collars and set up an invisible fence?
He’s setting them up. If they approve any border security, he’s gonna put up SOMETHING and call it a “wall”.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
They still have that banner you think? That would be perfect.
Please send that to the hat as soon as possible.
I’m working on it, but I lost my days off this week, so we’ll see.
Let’s make it out of stone, with attractive crenelations and towers, and make tourists pay for it all like the Chinese did.
I still say put a 2% fee on all individual wire cash transfers to Mexico. So many of those are from illegals sending their money back home. This way Mexico really would be paying for it.
Well attempting to preserve your economy by blocking funds from leaving the country is a Spanish tradition. Of course it directly led to collapse of Spain from premier power on Earth to a virtual third world country.
Oh come now, they screwed up in many others ways too! Credit where credit is due!
@banjos, when you were at Disney, which dwarf were you?
Punchy.
Ouch, that’s at ball level for a guy of normal height.
You were Gropie right?
The Politicization of Everything, ch 7,208
Even a holiday greeting from newly-elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sparked controversy when she compared refugees to the baby Jesus.
“Joy to the World! Merry Christmas everyone – here’s to a holiday filled with happiness, family, and love for all people. ?(Including refugee babies in mangers + their parents.),” the self-described Democratic Socialist wrote in a Christmas Day tweet referencing the myth of Jesus’s birth in a manger.
Gulag Barbie
getskeeps her name in the paper. Did she hire one of Trump’s cast-off media consultants?It’s obnoxious when lefties, who care not for Christian values, nor intellectual consistency, use both as a rhetorical bludgeon.
McCaskill asks the same question as you.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/422851-mccaskill-on-ocasio-cortez-im-a-little-confused-why-shes-the-thing?amp
She’s a thing because she looks like Arnie struggling for air on Mars.
Hey, you’d look like that too if you were her – in the spotlight needing to come up with some rational explanation for anything that put you where you are – but with her total dearth of logic or reason.
Rekt. I’ll never see anything else when her face appears. You have a gift. Use it for good, not evil.
Good, always. Except for this. My first and last attempt at animated GIF.
Love for them at the payment and expense of everyone else by force. What a noble and gentle soul.
Also what Atanarjuat said, hilarious for people who like to say Christianity and its practitioners are hot garbage and shit then use it as a moral cudgel.
It’s almost cute when people who have no understanding of Christianity believe they hold some sort of moral authority over those who practice the religion. Most Christians do a “bless your heart” in response then go about their day. While the silly progs high five each other.
100% this is always how it ends up going down in the end.
Not even news. Prog Christians and Progs have been posting this on FB for a few years.
She does occasionally have an almost Trumpian gift for tweeting to call attention to issues.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1076509651104133122
But I had to wade through a dozen boring, forgettable standard lefty or sjw nonsense tweets to find that one.
We actually indirectly had this come up on Christmas Eve.
Driving around the DC Beltway on our way home from getting Korean BBQ we ended up behind a car that had a bumper sticker on it that said
Which I went off on because I am not aware of any version of the Jesus story in which he was a refugee, my wife however was somehow convinced that the reason he was born in the manger was because Joseph and Mary were o the run trying to escape persecution.
Maybe Gulag Barbie somehow got this same story too?
Or she read the same bumper sticker. If its on the internet or a bumper sticker it has to be true.
They fled to Egypt when Herod went around killing all the babies to prevent this “new king” from overthrowing him. This part happens post-manger scene. In the manger scene, they are in Bethlehem for the census when Mary goes into labor.
They really should make bibles more readily available for people.
Yeah, the G decided everyone had to be accounted for, so they could set the tribute high enough to pay for 25 permanent legions, splashy public works and the grain dole and games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhicDUgXyNg
Good morning everyone and I hope you had a perfect Christmas.
Mine was almost perfect except the wife put the movie ‘Avatar’ on last night. Worst movie ever made. I hope Cameron suffers bankruptcy and has to panhandle in a poop and needle infested alley somewhere. Jesus that was bad. I hardly paid attention the first time I saw it. I made the mistake of paying attention last night. My wife thinks I am a shithead for hating it but she doesnt get it. I will set her straight later. I have been there and done that, I know how it goes.
“We have come here to show you how to take the resources you have and create wealth. We are going to build you a bridge, pave your roads, build a school for your children, a clinic so your children will stop dying from worm infestations, build you a soccer field, a new town hall and offer you all jobs in the mine. Jobs that pay real cash money paychecks. You can use that pay to build yourself a real house and move out of that mud hut infested with bedbugs and lice, send your kids to college and buy yourself a television and a car. We are going to make life better for you in every way. Poverty is a thing of the past.”
Response: “You aren’t going to raise your head over us. You think you are better than we are. Fuck you. We are going to do everything we can to shit on everything you try to do. ”
Fuck those blue monkeys. Kill every goddamned one of them. And their pets too.
I’ll give it some credit though. The mech units and helicopters were REALLY COOL.
And completely misued.
*sheds the single Native American tear*
This comment is perfectly appropriate. It makes me want to shoot someone in the face.
I may have mentioned this before. I am a lifetime member of the John Wayne School of Indian Affairs.
Why do I feel guilty for chuckling at that?
Avatar is in the bucket of Movies We Didn’t Bother To Watch And Never Will.
And it didn’t even have a giant rubber fish in it.
You just cant help it, can you?
*laughs heartily*
Never change OMWC. I am going to send you a rubber shark next Xmas.
And a gallon of muscadine wine.
Now THAT is something we’d love.
I haven’t seen Titanic or Avatar. I’d rather see a Kirk Cameron movie, and I don’t really want to see one of those either.
Exactly this.
“. I hope Cameron suffers bankruptcy ”
Magic 8 ball says… “Doubtful”
Dances With Wolves. Last Samurai. All of them the same movie.
Hey, Give the Last Samurai some credit – they stuck with the historical ending.
The massacre of the overgrown smurfs would have been a better conclusion to Avatar.
His new one “Avita” looks even worse than “Avatar”. That would be a feat in itself.
“Avita”
Of course he did.
Alita. Autocorrect got me.
But at the end of Dances With wolves, someone literally wiped their ass with Costner’s hopes and dreams.
Never saw that movie.
Beautiful cinematography, maudlin score, cliche-ridden. Better than The Postman or Waterworld.
Yesterday or day before I remarked that a lot of people romanticize about life in the past, all people who never had to live like that.
Anyone here know the phrases “Root hog or die”? “If you didn’t work you didn’t eat”? “We were in the fields when the sun came up and stayed until it went down”?
I only ever heard the second one.
I second that. I’ve only heard the second one too. IIRC it was also from The Bible.
At least, that’s where I first came upon it.
How about “every grain of rice equals ten drops of sweat”?
I grew up with “Get working and earn your salt.”
Mojo Nixon has a sad
I have also only heard the second one. It reminds me of a line in.the book Smilla’s Sense of Snow, which is set in Denmark. Smilla is part Inuit and recalls talking to her grandmother about the changes the white man brought. She asks if it is better now and her grandmother says “Of course, the people don’t die of starvation anymore”.
It’s been at least ten years since I read that book, so I probably have details wrong.
That is one of the best things about a trip to the Boundary Waters. You canoe in. No motors, no canned goods, no electricity, have to purify your water. All camp sites are ultra-primitive. By the end of your trip, you realize how lucky you are to live in a time when even the poorest have porcelain thrones, running water and electricity.
Yeah, I’m with you Suthen. Anyone who romanticizes the primitive in nature has for sure never had to live that life.
That is another thing about living as a grunt for a few years. Knowing how to organize your life in a rucksack you carry all day for weeks. To where you can get anything you need out of that rucksack in a moment… in the dark or a downpour. You really learn what is necessary and what isn’t.
Hahah. I used to loose crap all the time. Then i had to live out of a rucksack and quick figured out how to make do with taking as little shit out of it as needed and putting what i used back.
My high school graduation gift from my parents was a black lunch bucket. ( Had to buy my own thermos).
I loved, loved, LOVED. The Hunted.
Standard “gaijin trains for a couple of weeks with drunk guy, becomes better swordsman than someone who’s been training since they were five” trope. Except it fails, and gaijin has to win by clubbing Samurai in the head with a rock, like the gorilla he is.
Many awesomes.
Is that the one with Christopher Lambert
Yup.
Wait. Are you saying that gaijins can’t miraculously become super-human martial artists after a few months of training? Next you will tell me that a 100 lb waif of a girl can’t use martial arts to beat the tar out of 100 men at one time.
Are you dissing my beloved Kill Bill?
So… Afghanistan…
Never had any desire to see that movie.
No comments on the Delvon link? Worth every second.
Hippie science fiction. I HATE IT.
He’s setting them up. If they approve any border security, he’s gonna put up SOMETHING and call it a “wall”.
Bring us… a SHRUBBERY!
So, instapot yes or no? I just can’t decide.
We’re enjoying our’s. One day we forgot that we were planning on cooking ribs that day and dinner was in an hour, so we busted out our instapot and all was well.
How often do you use it?
Not often as Sloopy loves to cook. But it’s a great backup for us when we’re short on time or Ken is out of town and I have to cook.
I use mine lots. Some of that however is because I have I subscription to a veggie service, and an answer to the question “WTF do I do with this vegetable?” can always be “into the pressure cooker with meat and broth and hit the ‘soup’ button.”
My college kid loves his. He and his three roommates use theirs all the time. I think they love the ease of cooking the most, but say the food comes out good too.
We bought one on Black Friday, but haven’t really used it a lot since. Seems OK so far.
Yes.
My gf loves hers.
YAAAAAS!!!
It will change the way you cook.
I’m in the process of adapting my Indian dishes that used to take hours to cook into Instant Pot versions that take 40 minutes.
I have one on my Amazon wish list, for when I’m a little more flush. It’s seems too splurgy for now.
It could possibly save you more money than it costs.
Do you eat takeout rice?
Instant makes perfect rice every time.
No, I cook my own already. 15 minutes in a sauce pan with some chicken stock.
+1 Hainanese chicken rice.
I don’t need it for rice either. I always use the same pan and it always comes out perfectly. I’m putting it on my list, but will just watch prices.
Definitely worth buying. My kid sister tossed a whole frozen chicken and some seasonings in hers; came out perfectly. Mrs. Mind and I whopped up great beef stews from scratch. Good every time.
Evidently it is totes appropriate to get puking drunk and ride the train as long as you hook the handles of a plastic bag around your ears and the bag hangs in front of your face. Nice suit and he has the bag only a quarter full. He isn’t using his hands at all. I’m impressed. Bonenkai season is the best.
Oh jeez, I’ve been fortunate not to come across that up in my neck of the woods. Speaking of which, I got my last bonenkai of the season on Friday. Did you already have yours?
Only 2 this year. Skipped the rest.
All right sounds solid. Well, there may be a third one if you’re still down to clown on the 30th.
*grins*
Yep. Should be all good to go.
Capital, good sir. I’ll be passing out for the night now, but take care.
Company drinking extravaganzas are largely a thing of the past in the States since the lawyers are waiting around every corner.
Plus that awkward touch of the hand at the punch bowl quickly turns into sexual harassment claims.
Yep, my company soldiered on until it got acquired about five years ago. New company – no parties of any kind. In the early days some of the parties were legendary.
I’m confused. Are you mocking this drunk guy? Or just spreading an awesome idea?
Frankly, I’m impressed with the ingenuity of Mr. Plastic Bag.
I’m not approving or disapproving. Knock yourself out.
I probably shouldn’t have, but I laughed.
Surprise! after careful consideration and deep soul-searching, Tom Friedman (remember him?) has come to the inescapable conclusion Trump has got to go.
Up to now I have not favored removing President Trump from office. I felt strongly that it would be best for the country that he leave the way he came in, through the ballot box. But last week was a watershed moment for me, and I think for many Americans, including some Republicans.
It was the moment when you had to ask whether we really can survive two more years of Trump as president, whether this man and his demented behavior — which will get only worse as the Mueller investigation concludes — are going to destabilize our country, our markets, our key institutions and, by extension, the world. And therefore his removal from office now has to be on the table.
———
It has to start with Republicans, given both the numbers needed in the Senate and political reality. Removing this president has to be an act of national unity as much as possible — otherwise it will tear the country apart even more. I know that such an action is very difficult for today’s G.O.P., but the time is long past for it to rise to confront this crisis of American leadership.
Trump’s behavior has become so erratic, his lying so persistent, his willingness to fulfill the basic functions of the presidency — like reading briefing books, consulting government experts before making major changes and appointing a competent staff — so absent, his readiness to accommodate Russia and spurn allies so disturbing and his obsession with himself and his ego over all other considerations so consistent, two more years of him in office could pose a real threat to our nation. Vice President Mike Pence could not possibly be worse.
It’s not personal, mind you… no wait it is. Trump is a despicable monster, as any reasonable, rational person must agree. He must be stopped, because he is tearing asunder the fragile foundations of our glorious march toward a globalist communitarian dictatorship. H G Wells couldn’t have said it better.
I have been reading Free to Choose the last couple of days, and man that paternalistic misguided self-righteousness rings ever true today.
“that paternalistic misguided self-righteousness” Milton Friedman spoke of.
Did Tommy crib that argument form the Chinese opinion pieces he loves so much?
This is the same asshat that thinks we should be more like China, the country that is currently running concentration camps with a million people in them? The guy is a waste of skin. Why does anyone publish him?
Oh, NYT. Never mind.
Oh i doubt he wishes we were “efficient” like china now. Not with a mad-man at the helm. We need our God-Emperor back, oh why did we turn our backs on the anointed one?
“Up to now I have not favored removing President Trump from office.”
The most shocking part of what he is writing.
” But last week was a watershed moment for me, and I think for many Americans, including some Republicans.”
Tom was okay with him until Trump decided to stop having our kids die killing brown people’s kids.
“Removing this president has to be an act of national unity as much as possible”
I’m sorry, but no matter who the fuck is president, this will never be possible, so don’t bother paying lip service to it. It makes you look even more retarded than you do.
“spurn allies”
I mean technically we have only 1 ally in the region and that is Turkey (unfortunately) so pulling out of Syria is actually the opposite of spurning allies.
The Dems’ talking point heads have slowly been amping this up for a few weeks now. It’s all in preparation for the House Dems take over and the impeachment proceedings for Trump that will soon follow. I’m nearly convinced they’ll go through with it because the Evil Party has shown they’re now willing to out-stupid the Stupid Pary. 2020 is going to be a slaughter
*grabs popcorn*
How dare he not choose from the limited options the permanent government places before him! Doesn’t he know who runs the place? He’s just a temporary figurehead.
I hope Friedman chokes trying to suck the cock of Top. Men.
More:
The last time America disengaged from the world remotely in this manner was in the 1930s, and you remember what followed: World War II.
You have no idea how quickly institutions like NATO and the E.U. and the World Trade Organization and just basic global norms — like thou shalt not kill and dismember a journalist in your own consulate — can unravel when America goes AWOL or haywire under a shameless isolated president.
——–
People wanted disruption, but too often Trump has given us destruction, distraction, debasement and sheer ignorance.
And while, yes, we need disruption in some areas, we also desperately need innovation in others. How do we manage these giant social networks? How do we integrate artificial intelligence into every aspect of our society, as China is doing? How do we make lifelong learning available to every American? At a time when we need to be building bridges to the 21st century, all Trump can talk about is building a wall with Mexico — a political stunt to energize his base rather than the comprehensive immigration reform that we really need.
Chaos, anarchy, warlordism. Trump offers us dog-eat-dog kkkapitalism, when what we need is a unified Inner Party to mold us into better, more productive cogs in a vast centrally planned economic machine.
How do we integrate artificial intelligence into every aspect of our society, as China is doing?
Why would we want to emulate ANYTHING China is doing?
Deplorables need to be re-educated. They vote against their own interests, the dumbasses.
And it’s destroying democracy!
He really, really wants the US to institute a Social Credit Score. That is his idea of “innovation”.
Rhywun, your score is currently 3. This entitles you to 1 bowl of gruel a day and 3000 sessions with Bubba the reeducator and his Marathon Man dentistry.
Yes, yes, the U.S.’s disengagement was the cause of WWII. I just…where do you even start with this jerk?
It’s also funny how people say American Exceptionalism/Specialness doesn’t exist yet say if it isn’t for the U.S. being involved in things, the world and all these other countries would devolve into chaos and war.
White man’s burden. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Is that where rich white people tell others that they have to help brown people by getting involved in onerous wars and increase the government power?
Historical illiteracy is a necessary skill in journalism these days.
“you remember what followed: World War II.”
Wow. Yup. World War 2 was a direct consequence of the US Isolationist policies. Nothing to do with that other war. You know the one that Preceded World War II. What was it called again?
One might even argue that if the US hadn’t gotten involved in WW1, it might have been more permanently settled, thus avoiding WW2.
We used to read Washington’s Farewell Address that had a LOT to say about foreign entanglements in schools every year on his birthday. I think I remember Dan Carlin saying that the tradition ended during Wilson’s administration because he wanted to get us into that war so badly. Don’t have a cite though.
We should bring that back.
This right here. I’m sick of these people saying “Not getting ourselves involved in every foreign conflict” is the same thing as “isolationism”. As you said, return to the Washington Farewell Address when?
I’m ashamed to say i have actually never read his Farewell address. I’ll have to go google it and read through it.
Add Eisenhower’s warning about the military industrial complex.
My xmas was wonderful this year. Just a quiet day with the family – opening presents, tied up a bunch of no-sew fleece blankets with the kids while watching Zach Scott play video games, dinner was literally cookies and candy. Wife took a nap, I started the end-game farming in Path of Exile. Read a few pages of Beowolf to Thing 1.
And holy monster fuck did I need it. Work up until Sunday evening was nuts – I think I pulled two all-nighters a week and didn’t have a single day I left the office before 9:00 in the last three weeks. And also my mom was in town the week before xmas, which is always a treat. And by treat I mean she announced that she really isn’t a gambling addict, she was just meeting up with a married man at a casino, and he died of a heart attack a few months ago while in the process of leaving his current wife. Unstated – all her recent self improvements such as losing weight and getting off the (medically necessary, I’m assured) amphetamines are out the window. Oh and she’s laying the groundwork for another financial bail-out from my brother, who may actually have learned his lesson and may actually be cutting her off this time.
So yeah. Behind every pipe smoking, cardigan wearing, Bing Crosby update is the specter of the kind of family I’m escaping from.
Also, I look forward to bitching about the last two books I read, which were both major disappointments. Buy you’ll have to wait until Friday for that.
Sorry to hear about your family situation, but glad you at least had a good time with the wife and kids. Best wishes to you and your family.
Yeah, but X-mas is about family. Right.
I feel for you. I stopped contacting my mother 9 years before she smoked herself to death. It was just more drama than I could deal with. I’ve read buttloads of screed from people saying you shouldn’t do what I did but to this day – more than 12 years later – I don’t feel any problem with it.
Yeah, people are pretty stupid. Some people just need to be excised from your life if your life is going to normal. Each of my siblings moves at least half a country away as soon as they get the chance. Somehow, we each have turned out pretty ok, but only because we got the fuck out of Dodge.
Ouch.
Sorry ’bout that. Family is what it is.
Sorry.
21 weeks? Yikes! God bless Lyla.
Planned Parenthood would have chopped her up and sold for parts before that!
My thoughts, exactly. What’s the term…viable?
Wanted=precious tiny human life
Unwanted=clump of tissue
I’m not advocating for changing laws, mind you, but to me the logic is lacking.
Ah the New York Times. A paper by and for retards.
What’s the surprise here? They’re useful idiots. Like they once loved commies now they love Islamists.
They haven’t lost their love for commies.
It’s an awful institution. Stupid commenters, Dowd, Friedman, Krugman…..fricken racists like Sarah Jeong.
Just incredibly pathetic.
My favorite NYT comment: “We should take all of the minerals and materials we have mined and bury them back to heal the earth.”
That is a special kind of stupid crazy.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that “leave it in the ground where it belongs” is a talking point they’re pushing hard lately. They do hate them some humanity.
Lol. With carveouts for their iPhones, I assume?
Don’t forget Tesla cars.
I’ve seen previews forMars where scientists are trying to stop companies from colonization, “exploiting” resources and therefore saving the Martian environment. That’s right, taking the viewpoint that a lifeless planet’s environment shouldn’t be altered by humans.
(They might have something in the storyline about there actually being some forms of life on Mars, although I’m not sure how much difference this makes to the anti-humanity of the show)
*barf*
Environment? Vapor-thin carbon dioxide atmosphere and dust storms? What’s to damage?
Christmas was good. My wife an I have been trying to establish to our extended family that we do christmas by ourselves. It’s nothing against our families, we love em, but we want to enjoy Christmas as a family. Growing up we were never very close to cousins so i got used to Christmas being a thing with just my siblings. Also i live ~ 1 1/2 hours away from family. Close enough that we can get to seeing them once or twice a month but far enough that it’s a pain to do so, especially on a holiday. So we spend Christmas Eve between the two grandparents houses, and then enjoyed a nice quiet day at home.
So I got my laptop back, without the VPN connection I need in order to do any work from home. Now to see if someone on my team can get me the info to configure the VPN client so I can do some work today.
Tell them not to try too hard, though.
I’ve already got one ticket in my queue with someone complaining that he didn’t get a response for two days (he put in a request on 12/24, and it was put in my queue).
I’m thinking that’s going to be the last one of my open tickets I’ll be working on today.
<a href="https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/2376154002"These vehicles will be killed in 2019: Say goodbye to Chevrolet, Ford, Nissan cars
I’m going the opposite direction of everyone else. I traded my SUV for an Accord. Forgot how easy it is to zip in and out of traffic.
404
They killed the cars AND removed any reference to them. Their going about this Stalin style.
*Telogreika covered F-150 rolls forward into camera view, blocking sight of Focus*
Working link
I think the MPG Fatwas are partly to blame.
The Korean automaker pivoted its luxury efforts toward an altogether new brand called Genesis, which is struggling to gain sales traction.
I have a Genesis from before Hyundai split the Genesis line off under a separate brand. It’s not a bad car but it has some quirks that drive me up a wall. I also suspect that Lucas Electronics made the electronics for this car.
Brain fart… Lucas Industries not Lucas Electronics.
Lucas hasn’t had a decent product since The Empire Strikes Back, or arguably the serviceable Return of the Jedi.
Oh, so you’re one of those assholes. Stop trying to commit vehicular manslaughter on your quest for a grisly end.
Enjoy your post-Christmas posteriors!
http://archive.is/F6LFw
8, 11, 16, 27.
Happy Boxing Day!
Christmas is a time for envy
Let’s take a moment to pity the Internal Revenue Service. Yes, to many Americans, it’s a money-grabbing ogre siphoning hard-earned cash to the faceless federal bureaucracy.
But the nation’s tax collector today is an enfeebled enforcer. Its budget has been bled dry by a Republican Congress in service to wealthy donors and businesses aggressively pursuing tax avoidance, leaving uncollected 18 percent to 20 percent of potential tax revenues annually. That’s the conclusion in articles by the journalism site ProPublica, co-published by The Atlantic and The Times.
————-
Our ability to keep the $1 trillion deficit created by the Trump tax cuts from deepening depends in part on collecting taxes to which the government is legally entitled.
Think of it this way: To protect our nation, we have the most powerful army in the world. To protect our tax base, we have an army on the order of Liechtenstein’s.
The lack of deterrence will only encourage more cheating. The I.R.S. needs to be capable of doing the job for which it was created — from answering taxpayers’ questions to chasing down the richest cheats, even if they occupy the Oval Office.
The rich are nothing more than parsimonious traitors, stealing from the government to fund their lavish lifestyles. They swim in pools filled with gold doubloons, while the rest of Trump’s America fights over scraps in the gutter.
“it’s a money-grabbing ogre siphoning hard-earned cash to the faceless federal bureaucracy.”
Yes. And?
Legally, yes. How about morally?
Assholes.
“tax avoidance,”
Not a crime. In fact i’d argue it’s a Civic Duty to avoid paying taxes as much as you can.
“Our ability to keep the $1 trillion deficit created by the Trump tax cuts from deepening depends in part on collecting taxes to which the government is legally entitled.”
Fuck off Slaver, Cut Spending. Deficits are not a revenue problem they are a spending problem. The US has consistently collected more and more revenue, but still has deficits.
“Think of it this way: To protect our nation, we have the most powerful army in the world. To protect our tax base, we have an army on the order of Liechtenstein’s.”
Add this to the Asinine Analogies Anthology. What is that supposed to mean? And how is it supposed to reflect well on you at all? I think i’m sometimes so deep in the libertarian mindset that i forget that there are people out there who actually revere the government as some benevolent and good institution. It’s crazy to me.
In my career experience, it is the wealthy and prominent who take extra care to hire tax accountants, etc. to make sure their taxes are prepared in accordance with the law. It is the average guy who doesn’t feel there’s a target on his back, who takes chances that he’ll never be audited beyond making sure all his W-2s are accounted for. The worst offenders I ever encountered were small businesses with substantial cash receipts: corner groceries, dry cleaners, bars and restaurants. In other words, all the “salt of the earth” types that Wal-Mart is accused of putting out of business.
Aren’t tax revenues higher than ever? If so, then the deficit is caused by spending.
You’re expecting fiscal literacy from the NYT?
Maybe if they hadn’t decided to go after Team Red, they wouldn’t have gotten their budget slashed when Team Red took over Congress in spite of the meddling by the IRS. You want to jump in and play politics, be prepared for blowback when you lose.
I traded my SUV for an Accord. Forgot how easy it is to zip in and out of traffic.
Hear, hear. Makes parking a lot easier, too.
Meh. I always park my truck in the furthest reaches of the lot. Good exercise!
Same with me, I can use the exercise, truck looks like new. I’m so far away I could be an employee.
Fourscore; you ready for the storm? Sounds like it might be a good one. Global warming!
I did my routine exercise this morning, probably the last for awhile. Got the snowblower ready, extra can of gas. By the looks of the temps its gonna be wet and heavy, fortunately I don’t do much shoveling but a whole lot of driveway/paths around the house for the snow blower.
The TC fellers gonna need raincoats.
I got the chains on the 318 w/snowblower and got it and the big tractor w/loader gassed up. We’re not supposed to be any warmer than the mid-teens, so I it shouldn’t be heavy here. One and only good thing about the cold temps.
Those TC guys sure do have it rough down there in the Banana Belt, don’t they? I hope they don’t get too wet.
Add me to the park the truck a long walk from the door gang. I don’t walk near enough during the day, so I get a little bit of exercise then.
Same here.
I hope your Christmas was as enjoyable as mine and I hope you got everything you wanted
Pretty good day in the Grummun household. The wife’s (early) present (black and tan longhair Dachshund pup) has more or less figured out that bodily functions take place out in the yard, and the adult Dachshund is moving from abject loathing to grudging tolerance. The day they figure out that they can team up against the bipeds, we’re in trouble.
The wife’s whole family went in on a homebrew starter kit for me, which at first I though was a little strange, since it’s largely redundant with my existing kit. On closer examination, however, the stuff in the new kit is better than what I have, and I think I’ll really appreciate it when I go to brew a batch: stainless 8 gal. kettle instead of the enameled 4 gal. from Wal-Mart, primary fermenter with a ball valve, so no more siphoning, other goodies. And my first keg, which I’m really excited about, bottling is the worst part of brewing, by my reckoning.
Now, off to order in some ingredients. The kit came with a pale ale package, but I think we can do better than that.
That’s not your everyday “starter kit”. Good for you!
Yeah, it’s not a bare-bones kit. When the wife gets it in her head she’s going to buy something, she puts in the time to research and gets the good stuff. She got it from morebeer.com, I’d go looking for the specific kit to provide a link, but I’m not sure I want to know what they spent on it.
Good plan.
She sounds like a keeper. And she is not only accepting your beer making hobby, she has now moved into actively encouraging it territory. Excellent!
Unwrap your present.
https://www.studyfinds.org/seventy-percent-have-sex-christmas-day/
As a libertarian, I am quite used to being in the minority!
Good morning, Banjos!
Christmas with little ones is the best. Having older kids, though, has one redeeming quality: no one gets up at the crack of dawn anymore!
Mine didn’t either, seriously. We had to wake them and force them downstairs by 8:30a. My children are weird.
They obviously got that from Sloopy.
Who will save us/a>
From my perspective, the best case scenario for market participants is this: Powell steps down as chair and governor and is replaced by Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida. Equities tumble – maybe even go into free fall – while Treasuries surge. Clarida and his remaining Fed colleagues react by slashing rates at the January 2019 FOMC meeting, and maybe even sooner in an emergency meeting. The markets rebound, and the transition happens quickly enough that Main Street remains untouched by the gyrations on Wall Street.
————
Even in the best case scenario, the Fed becomes another damaged institution. Arguably, it already is. There is a risk that at this point any action taken by the Fed to cushion markets or the economy will look as if policy makers are simply yielding to Trump’s demands. In other words, the appearance of independence may disappear if Trump’s antics create the uncertainty that necessitates a Fed response.
———-
Indeed, Trump appears to be both setting in motion a crisis while undermining the institution that responds to that crisis. Don’t underestimate how tense the situation has become. The risk that this downturn in stocks and other risk assets bear turns into something worse rises with each angry Trump tweet.
Without the Fed to steer the economy away from the shoals, we will surely crash. We need a strong, wise hand on the tiller, now more than ever.
Because the Fed has done everything right in the past.
Someone save us from that link
Yes. We must do everything to fix the Stock Market. No way that it should be let to go to its own devices.
“It is not obvious that the government has the capacity to respond effectively to a financial crisis. That means that the Fed would have to shoulder an even greater role than in the last crisis.”
How hard is it to shoulder thin air?
Say what you want about the Fed, but they could at least close their link tags….
Edit Faerie, cleanup on aisle 7, please.
So much problematic in just one sentence:
““Bleeding” examines the fact that uterine fibroids are especially prevalent among black women, a phenomenon that could be linked to structural racism.”
This comes to us from “The Atlantic” feature on the 50 best podcasts of 2018. This one really did make this old Libertarian say “I can’t even with these people”
Why do insane people get coverage from The Atlantic? Mental diversity?
That was just one level of the …. what label to use?… stupid? Stupid doesn’t really cover it, but let’s run with it anyway.
There’s the “where the hell is the reporting” aspect… as in, why would anyone repeat something about fibroids being linked to “structural racism” – something that seems medically impossible. Then there’s the “where the hell is the editor” aspect, as in “not only did we repeat a medically impossible statement, we labeled it as “the fact”, thereby giving it “The Atlantic” seal of veracity….. from this date forward, The Atlantic has declared that fibroids in black women are caused by structural racism.
Then there’s layers of mundane questions, like “how the hell did they review enough podcasts to pick a “50 best” list. I mean, good lord, how the hell would you even listen to a representative sample of 50 different podcasts in one year? That alone would be impressive, requiring literally thousands of hours to complete. But to pick the “50 best”, one would expect that the reviewers would have to plow through several “not best” podcasts for every “best” one chosen, unless they are just listing “these are the podcasts that people on our staff listen to” and calling it “50 best”.
But for me, there was a personal aspect. My first marriage was ended by a fibroid. Yeah, sounds kinda silly, but it is also kinda true. After about a decade of a really great relationship that included a really great sex life, my wife developed fibroids, which often made intercourse uncomfortable for her. But we managed. Then we decided to have children.
All went reasonably well with the pregnancy – she was monitored as “high risk” due to the fibroids though. And then it didn’t go well. A large fibroid caused a placental abruption, killing the baby 2 weeks before the due date and nearly killing my wife. The subsequent grieving period was interrupted by an induced menopause to shrink the fibroids, allowing for surgical removal so that we could try again to have children…. then back through puberty when the hormone block was removed….. all of which served to completely wreck her psyche and 5 more miscarriages later, our relationship.
So yeah, I’m familiar with the fact that fibroids are prevalent among black women. Really familiar. And the notion that someone feels like making a stupid point like “institutional racism causes black women to have more fibroids” hits a little too close to home. So thanks for bringing that up, Atlantic. And thank you, Allison Behringer, for making the idiotic point in the first place. You managed to be offensive on several levels without a purpose, so well done!
My wife had a latge fibroid removed/hysterectomy back in March. It was gross. She’s black, but I don’t think she’s the victim of institutional racism. We live a fairly “white” urban, hipsterish, middle-class lifestyle. But we don’t read the Atlantic, so what do we know?
You can only write something so problematic because you failed to check your white privilege.
California and TCU are in the Cheez-It bowl tonight.
The Cheez-It bowl.
At some point, isn’t it better to end the season and not participate in a college bowl at all?
My favorite is MLS (that’s USian soccer for the rubes here) used to have “Hot-Pockets Half Time”.
Brought to you by Pornhub?
I hope Cal doesn’t jack it up.
Obligatory reference.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH CHEEZ-ITS?!?! HUH?!
HOLD ME BACK, BRO!
I admit they are my favorite vending machine lunch-of-desperation food.
But “Cheez It Bowl” just sounds silly.
What, you’re just supposed to eat them straight out of the box.
That s/h been a question.
Take a look at this cracker, getting all fired-up over Cheeze-its.
Seems kinda cheesy to me
I think i’m sometimes so deep in the libertarian mindset that i forget that there are people out there who actually revere the government as some benevolent and good institution. It’s crazy to me.
They have shifted their reverential salvationist idolatry from the heavens to political organizations.
Sad.
Look what I got for Christmas! SFW
I’ve never been this close to looking forward to bug season.
OOooo…. Will that work on mosquitoes?
I saw those at Bass Pro during our Santa visit. Looked really fun… and really messy.
Also, ’round these parts “bug season” implies boats, tanks, regulators and later that night, drawn butter and wine to go with the boiled bugs.
“….Elysa Braunstein also told the newspaper that her father implied that Trump did not have a foot ailment.”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/26/politics/trump-bone-spurs-vietnam-war/index.html
Imma go with bull shit.
Haha remember when Being A “Draft Dodger” was the cool thing for a presidential candidate? At least this guy is trying to wind down some wars.
Even some of those that did go, and perhaps serve with distinction, threw their medals away in protest.
Kerry? He confessed to being a war criminal. Why not take him at his word?
In regards to the dog story, I find it infuriating where people bring their dogs these days . Last week I was in Home Depot with my seven year old and this nitwit is walking his uncut male Presa Canário down the aisle past us. I put my kid behind me and glared at the ejit. “Oh, he is friendly”. Sure, until he is not, and you are not going to stop that dog if it decides it wants to do something. The thing was the size of a small horse. Some years back a girl I used to go out with got killed by her own (male, unneutered) pit bull. I like dogs well enough, well trained ones can be absolutely amazing, but I am wary of large ones, especially when they are brought into close contact in public spaces.
He has that particular dog because it shows how macho he is. I wouldn’t count on that person’s judgement at all.
I like dogs, but rule number one for my kids is not to approach a stranger’s animal.
Some hipster sat next to me on a crowded train with his dog in his lap. I got up and moved. I am not a dog person really, but I’m OK with friends’ dogs or the dogs I see in the pet store. But on a subway car? Ugh. I would have been OK if it was in a carrier. But just holding the squirming thing inches away – no. Not acceptable.
Yeah, people have become much more likely to bring their dogs into stores and close contact with random strangers. I think if dogs like I do people; there is a small percentage that I really like, a smaller percentage that I really dislike, and the vast majority that I tolerate.
On the “ejit” front, I am travelling for the holidays and ran into a similar scenario at the airport.
There was an aging “look at how hot I am” type chick that came up as we were checking our bags curbside. She wasn’t all that, but she was in pretty good shape and had big fake ones, along with over-permed and damaged hair and a “whoa there’s a lot of rough miles” kind of face to go with her “way too young for her” outfit. We were just leaving as her girlfriend dropped her off, but she still managed to push in front of us and generally give off enough of an entitled jerk vibe for all of us to notice.
Fast forward to the TSA line, which was long, but not overly so…. And here she comes….. “Excuse me… Excuse me…” pushing her way up the line. “My boyfriend is up here…. I had to park the car… excuse me…”
It was an interesting example to watch, people being polite for the sake of being polite and avoiding confronting crazy. You could see that most of the people in line were momentarily OK with the imposition, but then noticed that there didn’t seem to be a boyfriend ahead. So by the time she got near the front, probably 30-40 people were watching and whispering. And then there were my kids… not whispering at all…. They were observing rather loudly, “Hey, that lady is cutting in line!” Elementary school kids haven’t learned about getting crazy all worked up.
Anyway, you can predict the ending…. at the X-ray line she pulls out a tiny little dog from it’s little dog-purse and loudly declares to all around her that this is her service animal.
Thankfully, she was on another flight. The only thing that kept us from calling her out was the presence of the kids. But I don’t think that would have held up if crazy entitled lady had been sitting nearby for a few hours with her little rat-dog.
We’ve even been seeing them at the supermarket lately. At least 4 different times in the last 2 months. Who the hell brings a dog into the supermarket? And …. here’s the tie-in…. there was even a dude at Home Depot with his dog in the shopping cart seat. Come on, man, have a little pride! Even if you do need an “emotional support dog” to face the day, you don’t admit that stuff at the hardware store….
Yup, I have seen more than a few dogs in supermarkets and in store shopping carts. I even saw one take a leak in a department store. It’s annoying as hell, but it crosses the line to negligent when you have a dog capable of easily killing someone and under scant control.
I found out the hard way that Home Depot and Lowes lets you bring in dogs, period. No “service animal” requirement.
I don’t like dogs, and I have a touch of PTSD.
So I’m standing there minding my own business looking at framing nailers. I am aware there is a person behind me across the aisle. Suddenly there’s a small dog near my legs barking at me frantically. I jump sky high and if I were a cat, my tail would’ve been all bottle brushed. I glare at the owner, who acts like it was cute and gives me this shit-eating grin. I damn near kicked the little fucker.
THEN I say this on FB and forgot about my MIL’s dogs (who took a shit in my kitchen once), wondering why there was a fucking dog at Home Depot, and she informed me they dogs are welcome there.
I used to take my GSD into the hardware store because the guy who owned it also had one there and they were pals. If she had barked at or annoyed a single person, it would have been her last trip.
She was a sweet dog who actually helped a lot of people get past their anxiety of dogs. In general, I won’t bring my pup into public establishments unless invited.
I wonder how that happened. We’ve come full circle…. 50 years ago, it wouldn’t be unusual for someone to have their dogs wandering about. Then we got all sanitary and banned animals from places like groceries and restaurants. Now we live in a world where most places won’t let you have your dogs running around loose.
But you can bring them in the grocery store…..
It certainly looks like it was Paris Hilton that did it… making hot-chick wanna-be girls think that getting a little tiny dog and putting it in a purse is the thing that hot chicks do. 20 years later, everyone is doing it.
Paris Hilton’s dog
lolperfect
Did you get a framing nailer?
Oh, yes. Not the one I would’ve really liked, but I’m not that strong and I have small hands, so I had to get something more manageable.
I do take my greyhound to Lowe’s, to the garden center. I can’t take her inside, she pees on stuff.
Burning the last few days of vacation – and of course the server that is my bread ‘n’ butter decided to go nutso. It’s like it has a sensor that knows when I’m not around. Everything runs fine for weeks ‘n’ weeks… and then blah!
Oh well – off to do some chores: painting mostly.
I went and bought an acoustic guitar for myself. I need to learn something new – a nice middle-age hobby. Ya know I never thought I would be knocking on 50. I mean WTF just happened? Old people, when I was young, seemed to be made that way; like out of a human-making machine, not actually just like me but older. These days I feel like I’m in a weird time machine where everyone I knew is either dead, fat, or just plain craggy/coarse. I look in the mirror and still see that dumb 18yo staring back at me – just a few more lines around the eyes and a more worn out expression.
Anyways – I hope everyone and their families had a mighty fine Christmas.
Hey, don’t know if you saw my thanks LH, but thanks for the speaker/stereo recommendations. Got those Wharfedale Dentons and they sound awesome. Cheers!
Those are absolutely fab speakers for the money – best I’ve heard in that price range, for sure. Enjoy them!
Yeah, the weirdest part is when the mental picture of yourself as that 19 year old collides with reality.
For me it happened on the basketball court. I was 41, almost 42 and running with a bunch of mostly early-30’s loading dock workers – plus a couple of 19-ish dudes. I was having a great day, blocked a couple of attempts at the rim by 19 year old dude and really feeling full of myself when it happened….
I blocked a shot and caught it, racing up court. 1 on 3 and 19 year old dude is squaring up to stop me at the free throw line… so I go for my crossover move… sorta a eurostep set up by a crossover dribble…. right, then left, then strong back to the right and up for the finger-roll… unstoppable when you are backpedaling.
My mind told my legs to go left and step around the first guy…. and my legs said “screw you, we are going straight!” I plowed right into the guy, full speed. Everyone was looking at me like “what the hell was that?” And I was looking at my legs like “what the hell was that?” I was sooooo confused as to what had just happened. My body doesn’t do that! It should respond the way it always did!
That was the end… I had already lost a couple of inches off of my vertical leap, so I could barely touch the rim, but within a month or so I was barely able to touch the net.
And then there was the “can’t read the menu” moment…
Still, every morning I wake up with the notion that I’m still that 19 year old kid, only to have reality slap me upside the head at some point…..
“Can’t read the menu moment”
I totally relate. Nowadays all the young guys I hire at work use the tiniest font for EVERYTHING even when there’s plenty of room.
It simply doesn’t occur to them that near vision gets worse with age.
I’m ok with aging in general but my joints are the worst. Thank goodness for Naproxen.
That can be kind of hard on your bod, though. Have you tried CBD?
Yeah, I had the same attitude back then. I would print manuals 6-up, double sided and read them no problem. One of the sales executives was in his 40’s and had me order him a 20″ monitor (back when 20 inch monitors were huge).
He set it at 640×480 with large fonts and large icons. I had a hard time comprehending what the hell he was doing. You don’t spend that kind of money on a high-end monitor and make it look like the cheapest piece of crap on the market…. you just don’t! But now I get it. He didn’t want to keep putting on reading glasses all day. So huge font it is. But boy, did it look like crap. Everything was so big that you could the jagged aliasing on everything.
I finally caved and got glasses.
Horn rim naughty librarian glasses of course.
I have glasses for driving. I now have to take them off to read the menu.
Ugh. An expense report for work just got rejected by some idiot in accounting who demands an explanation for why I took an earlier flight back home and incurred a $155 change fee.
Got news for you, bitch, it’s going to cost the company more than that to pay for my time resubmitting the report.
And I came home early because we got the work done early. I’m not going to hang around in Utah one more friggin minute than required.
Just shows how out of touch the bean counters are from those of us doing the work that makes the company money.
Happy Boxing Day!!
“I’m not going to hang around in Utah one more friggin minute than required”
I have a sad. But yes those bean counters can be retarded sometimes. I’ve seen them complain about taking a shorter series of flights that was slightly more expensive. Listen asshole. You are either paying me to travel all day, Or paying me to get home and get some work done. I can tell you which is a bigger waste of money.
Ok, didn’t mean to diss all of Utah, just Dugway.
And yes, it is amazing that bean counters cannot remember that time is money. It tells me that their time is not particularly valuable and their imaginations are not particularly flexible.
To underline your story, I was catching hell from accounting about some of my team leaving their computers on after hours, wasting electricity. (they were running big queries and such – as developer types are wont to do)
At the same time, one of the guys from the capital markets group got a last minute flight back from Dubai – one way, business class. It cost $18k, and he had a ticket for the next morning already paid for – as well as a $500 night at the hotel already paid for. So for 10 hours or so, he blew nearly 20 grand.
Yeah, I wasn’t real happy with that conversation.
Preach it.
I was at a meeting years ago when my rank and leverage was practically nil with some executives and managers debating about whether we should buy a piece of equipment I was advocating that would improve our capability and prevent costly failures.
After obediently listening to them try to out-do one another in being frugal, I blurted out, pointing at my watch and waving the purchase request, “WE JUST SPENT THAT!”
You could hear a pin drop.
Meeting adjourned and purchase was approved.
Apparently at our company IT must overrule the bean counters; We are all told to leave our computers on 24/7 so if IT needs to apply any updates they don’t have to have someone physically go the machine and press the On button.
Or, wake-on-lan. That’s kinda what it is for….
I was wondering with modern power management, I’d it really drawing that much when in sleep/standby mode?
I use my laptop as my desktop machine, and just lock it away in my desk at the end of the day if I don’t take it home with me. So I get the software pushes when it’s most inconvenient now.
*if it’s really drawing
Ugh. Is that employee still employed?
It’s Christmas.
I walked away and let her live.
Sorry, cyto’s $20K oops colleague.
Which reminds me, there’s an expense report I forgot to fill out. Thank you glibs for reminding me of it!
Dugway in the winter… :Shudders:
Frozen mud. Cold portajohns. Only generators for electricity. Officers club closed in winter.
Yeah, sometimes I feel guilty for drawing my salary; other times I say, “Fuck it, this is why they pay me the big bucks.”
My company’s genius idea was travel should be done out of hours (essentially on the employees time, but salaried so…). Yeah right.
Yeah, my previous employer took that approach in the last couple of years as part of their morale destruction program.
1. Lure employees with appealing compensation package and semblance of community
2. Change pension plan so employees have to contribute 1% salary
3. End Pension plan
4. Start excluding spouses from holiday party
5. Holiday party? What’s that?
6. Travel on Sundays doesn’t count as hours worked.
7. $100 Target Christmas gift card is now $50
8. Now $25
9. Gift card? Bah humbug!
10. Change conference room names from battles like Saratoga and Iwo Jima to “Minnehaha” and “Itasca”
There were 1-2 years between each step.
Then they had meetings handwringing about the attrition problem. So they painted the walls in hideous primary colors and turned one small conference room into a “huddle room” that couldn’t be reserved in advance; it was for impromptu chats. I called it the Cuddle Room because they’re trying to make everything for Millennials and yet we’re a defense contractor.
We kill people and break things for a living. Deal.
Ha!
I saw the writing on the wall when my company went from an 8 hour day to 8.5 to 9.
Then we got acquired and suddenly everyone started going home at 5pm again without any further mention of it. So I stuck around.
Glad they recognized that good people really are the main asset of a company.
Not when they canned me.
“morale destruction program”
“we’re a defense contractor. We kill people and break things for a living. Deal.”
Working as expected and within spec. This is a feature, not a bug. Closing ticket.
” Change conference room names from battles like Saratoga and Iwo Jima to “Minnehaha” and “Itasca””
I hate the stupid trend of naming the conference rooms stupid things. Our new HR Manager wants to change the Conference Room names. Currently they are “Upper Conference Room”, “Lower Conference Room”, and “Board Room”, Simple enough, But Noooo. They have to be national park names.
We have a “war room”, I don’t like to even go in that room because of the name.
We are a fabrication company, not planning the D-Day invasion.
Lolz! We have a War Room too, the placard proudly proclaims it.
At least it’s somewhat relevant in this line of work, but it does sound a bit harsh.
“Hey, honored customer, come join us in the War Room where there will be no conflict or tension whatsoever.”
Hahaha! I’m working from home today, and just opened my work e-mail, and a bank I did some work for sent me a pissy e-mail about my expense report. A couple of slow days at work, and the bean counters finally dig in to the expense reports. And my report wasn’t wrong. I felt like it more accurately reflected my billable hours and broke down my actual work performed more accurately. They didn’t like that, apparently.
I hate expense reports. Hate, hate, hate it.
I used to put it off as long as possible. Until I ran into one of those idjits. I put in a few thousand bucks worth all at once, and they didn’t want to pay a bunch of it because it was over 30 days old. I didn’t manage the transition from “startup where I’m one of the top 5 people in the company” to “publicly traded company that has a bunch of corporate types who don’t give a rats ass about anything but their rules” very well.
Accounting department tyrants are the worst.
Try this: “Listen shithead, the only reason you have a paycheck is because of people like me. While you are sitting here shuffling your papers, we’re out there generating actual, real money. So until you are ready to put on your big-boy pants and join us, I want you to do your fucking job and cut my check. Have a nice day.”
I might try that sometime, but as a less than one year employee, I feel decorum is required.
Yeah, and some day you might need a favor.
Like you, this is why I never successfully made the transition from small, fast company to publicly-traded nighgmare full of Brazil rejects.
Uh, you’ll need to file that complaint on the pink form….. keep the blue copy. The puce goes to HR.
The yellow form goes to your supervisor, the goldenrod copy goes to archiving, and the white form must be countersigned by a manager of at least director level.
As a bean counter, I can guarantee that someone on up the chain – perhaps to top man or woman – is demanding that spending and reporting policies be enforced. All kinds of stories that could be told here – like the salesman who submitted expense reports late yet took umbrage when the booking folks delayed his order a couple days and took him outside his commission contest period.
All I’m saying is “don’t be a dick to the folks in accounting, or marketing, or IT, or any other department.”
sales. Those guys suck.
And they shouldn’t be a dick to the people whose work is the reason they have a job.
I just want to fly the effers out to Utah in boiling summer or freezing winter every other week and see if they still want to pick nits about coming home early.
They’ve never complained about the change fee for when I have to stay an extra day.
Well, since I’m working from home today, I may as well go for a run along the beach and through the marina. Toodles, y’all!
Working from home just took on a new meaning.
(Fun fact: autocorrect changed my first attempt to type “working from home” into “working for men”. Seems a bit odd. Occasional-Cortex, can I get a ruling?)
Submit to the patriarchal society
All this talk about incompetent employers…
We should have say a crime called 4th degree murder. You kill someone above you in the chain of command. But your defense is if you can prove by clear and convincing evidence that your superior is a douche,. Then 6 months max jail doable at home. The jury shall only be of peers. Anyone with a title with “vice” in it, gets fisted before voir dire, just fir good measure
RC Dean hardest hit.