A year passes like nothing. I can’t decide whether to be snarky or maudlin. OK, I’ll be maudlin and save snarky for the links. In any case… we all had a lot of fun in 2018. The Glibertariat is an assortment of intelligent, foul, irreverent, rebellious, supportive, caring, indifferent, kind, and thoroughly engaging individuals. SP and I were lucky enough over the past year to have several of you pass through our area and to actively travel and meet a bunch more of you (as well as a lot of my old friends from the Hit & Run days, who are now SP’s friends as well). And I seriously cannot imagine a more fun group of people. Thank you, from the bottom of our black libertarian hearts, for making our comments section the nightmare that Virginia Postrel always warned us about.
And of course, this will be our last New Years in Illinois. There’s not much we’ll miss about the place, other than the propinquity of cheese curds. But most of all, we’ll miss hanging out with an old friend from HyR days, Swiss Servator. If it’s not evident from his postings and the hard work he does to keep this site fun, he is the finest human being SP and I have ever known. Intellectually, physically, and morally, he’s on the six sigma tail of the human distribution, and it’s been a real privilege to spend time with him and to be able to call him our friend. Other than a missing kidney, we just can’t find a single flaw in him. We’re honored to know the guy.
/maudlin
Oh, and while we’re at it, we wanted to thank our resident Romanian for turning us on to Feteasca Neagra- we had a bottle of a very slightly off-dry version made with carbonic maceration with our pizza last night, and it was an absolutely delightful pairing. Cheap and cheerful, and 11.5% alcohol makes it easy to drink.
Birthdays today include burdened white man Rudyard Kipling; ultimate (((leftist))) Sandy Koufax, whose last game I got to watch (Orioles won); Americana music pioneer John Hartford; multi-talented singer/songwriter/producer/bassist Felix Pappalardi; multi-faceted STEVE SMITH; funny woman and Simpsons discoverer Tracey Ullman; and expert at the most boring game in the world (and also apparently expert at the most interesting game in the world) Tiger Woods.
On to the news.
Surprise, surprise, cops are deadly and incompetent idiots. Back in the ’60s, there used to be a joke that, “If you don’t like cops, when you’re in trouble, call a hippie.” I can think of many hippies that would have actually been useful.
My old home town has famously gone down the toilet. And news flash: it’s not coming back.
And speaking of Baltimore, it’s not even safe to fly there.
Qu’ils mangent de la brioche. Or roast pig stuffed with truffles and foie gras.
When assholes interact, expect that it will be the latest racial outrage. Even if it’s just assholes being assholes and lawyers being lawyers. Which is not mutually exclusive.
Occasional Cortex does her best to imitate Trump. If I were dictator for a day, I’d send a fleet of B-2s to bomb Twitter out of existence. But I’m not, so all I can do is marvel at the attention paid to dimwits.
TRUMP WANTS YOUR CHILDREN TO DIE!!!!!
Everything is bigger in Texas. Including at least one vagina.
One more piece of data to indicate that Alice Cooper is the greatest living rocker– at least as a person. “I want my shows to take you as far away as possible from politics. It’s supposed to be an escape from the world we’re living in. And you know the next president is going to be worse than Trump, right?”
Team Blue begins throwing elbows and body checks. So once again, we’ll be faced with no good alternatives. Nice job!
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. And of course, the cynic in me notes that the “coordinators” of the last caravan faded away when there were no more news stories and fat donations. I’m sure Team Blue will fix the horrifically awful immigration syste… HAHAHAHA, I knew I couldn’t keep a straight face. Or maybe it’s the Jews.
Apparently, it was a slow news day.
And the last Old Guy Music of the year, featuring birthday boy Felix Pappalardi, whose death was Florida Man worthy, but who left an amazing musical legacy. Here’s a terrific cover of a Jack Bruce song, where Felix’s vocals just absolutely sell it.
I see Swiss hacked your account. 😉
He’ll be embarrassed as hell.
But it’s true.
Having had the opportunity to share a meal with you, SP, and Swiss, I’ll confirm that Swiss is a pretty good guy. But then all the Glibs I’ve met (including the Philly contingent at a big gun show a couple of weeks ago) have been pretty good folks.
And knows his Afghan food.
Damn, that was a fun evening. And ditto, all of the Glibs we’ve met have been really good folks.
Mrs. Animal is still very proud of the narrowed gaze she received in person.
Afghan food is wonderful. They do amazing things to pumpkin.
Damn, I missed that. Oh, I was probably in Texas that weekend.
“He’ll be embarrassed as hell”
Yes.
“But it’s true”
I obect!
multi-talented singer/songwriter/producer/bassist Felix Pappalardi
And victim of domestic violence.
(Of course, wives never hurt their husbands, do they?)
whose death was Florida Man worthy
Being shot by a pissed off wife doesn’t seem all that Florida Man-ish, pretty run of the mill actually,
*Phil Hartman’s ghost nods thoughtfully*
You can’t be violent to husband’s because the historical oppression levied by men against women.
>Gay Navy sailor recreates iconic New York WWII kiss photo.
Gay as a descriptor of someone in the Navy is redundant. It’s like saying canine dog.
+1 Village person
Hey now!
I am the straightest straight guy there ever was….
+1 Poop Deck
From anonymous internet shitposters! OMG TREMBLE!!
Superior:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOcB31YmIvQ
Apparently, it was a slow news day.
Yeah, that bride should have the courage to identify herself.
I’m sure CNN will track her down and dox her.
And capture the brutal backlash for posterity.
‘Disenfranchised areas are expected to see new investment via federal “opportunity zones” and a public-private Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund, created by Mayor Catherine Pugh earlier this year in part with $55 million from city-owned garages. Other grants and funds aim to boost affordable housing and foster what Pugh touts as an inclusive “new era of neighborhood investment.”
Throw some more taxpayer money at it, boys! It will totally be different this time.
Later in the article I get a chuckle at the concern of any possible success to this project causing ‘gentrification’, thus pricing the current residents out of the area. Well, what the fuck do you want then, exactly? FIX MUH NEIGHBORHOOD! But keep it ethnically and culturally exactly the same as it was. Got it.
Shoulda refreshed before commenting below. Sadness.
They want more welfare payments so they can stay in an area they can no longer afford.
Like everyone, they want to live in a nice area. They can’t afford it on a single minimum wage job and SSDI, so they want the nice area to come to them. They then want squatters rights because they were here first so you can’t push them out.
The annoying thing, is there is an easy way for them to do this. Buy one of the abandoned fixer-uppers for cheap (in my city houses in these types of areas were going for ~$500) and put some sweat and tears into it.
You have to be able to prove you have the substantial financial resources to fix it up properly or you can’t buy it, so it’s no different from buying it turnkey.
If you have $500 cash, then you don’t need to prove anything. Why would I get a loan for a property like that? The closing costs would be more than the house.
I’ll amend.
In KC, your cash will not be taken until you can prove to the city you can invest a substantial amount of money to rehab it.
Sorry. I am thinking of city-owned and foreclosed properties.
My bad.
No worries, you are correct that the cities sometimes actively stands in the way of redevelopment, and also opportunity for low-income people.
Of course a lot of those concerns could be alleviated by abolishing property taxes in the area but we all know that would never happen. I’m curious if the city’s cost of upkeep for the neighborhood in question outweighs the tax revenue generated. I’m willing bet that’s a yes. And wonder if any credible actuarial work has been done to get an educated guess on projected revenue benefits from a no/very low property tax versus the current rates. I’m betting that’s a no.
Some of that mapping has been done. In general, poorer urban areas actually pull their own weight better than richer suburban areas.
Of course, rich urban areas do the best. And poor suburbs really suck.
The best way to fix these problems is to eliminate zoning. Traditional mixed use neighborhoods built incrementally do the best.
Property taxes are the devil, but that’s been debated on this site ad nauseam.
Regardless, how anyone can claim to own something when they’ll lose it if they don’t make regular payments to some other entity is beyond me.
I “own” my home, but multiple levels of government still demand money from me annually if I’m to retain that privilege.
Read the fine print. Government reserves the right….
I’m pretty sure if you have oil on your land, the government can figure out a way to get it.
Government reserves all rights. It’s in the FYTW clause of every agreement. And once all branches agree the FYTW clause overrides all the others, all limitations on the powers of government end until something something tree of liberty something something.
A trip across America sees the small towns are a shadow of their former selves.
“Time, they are a-changin'”. Been going on for 50-60 years, since country folks discovered running water and TV.
/country guy
Agriculture has become EXTREMELY automated and rural America is feeling the pain. It’s a shame too, Farm boys and girls make for very grounded hardworking people.
I haven’t seen automated, rather much, much bigger. Fewer farm boys and girls growing up wanting to be farmers means more and more land is being owned/rented by fewer farmers. Bigger farms means bigger tractors and implements, and the more land one person can cover in a day.
A few years ago at work, (I have no idea how the subject came up) I had mentioned that an aunt and uncle first got running water to the barn, then years later, to the house. I have a colleague that now likes to ask applicants to explain why. He thinks we should avoid any that can’t explain it as he considers it a basic reasoning test.
Even before they got running water in the barn, there was a pump in the kitchen.
“It’s the latest high-profile incident in which black people have been removed from businesses.”
That article is written by an asshole. It mentions the other ‘incidents’ where buisinesses asked black people leave as if racists run the country.
It’s the system I tells ya!
“As if”?? *faints*
OMWC what are you looking for in a new Bio?
Something interesting and totally fabricated.
“Old, Male, allegedly in possession of Candy”
I’m on the bride’s side. If the invitations explicitly said don’t bring your kids, then those people are dicks.
Agreed.
Beat me to it. The couple who brought an infant and a toddler are the assholes. Full stop.
I think the whole idea of no-kid weddings are dickish, but that of course doesn’t excuse disregarding your host’s request.
“Thank you for your invitation, we will see you at your next wedding.
With regret,
-Parents of kids”
Perfect response. You know a divorce is coming with someone that requests a non-kid wedding.
Another story with all assholes.
I’m not seeing the dickishness in no-kid weddings. It’s not like kids really just love them some quiet church sitting, Is it because people who might want to come may have to find sitters? Seems a low standard for dickishism.
There was a time, not long a go, when this was the norm. Now, it’s like parents want to be their kids’ best friends and take them everywhere with them.
And anyone who objects shall face the collective wrath of the internet.
I agree. It’s gauche to bring your kids to a wedding, especially small ones. It’s too bad people have to specify not to.
It depends on what the wedding is supposed to represent. If it is a celebration of bringing two families together, then yes, kids are a part of that.
Kids in the family (most likely nieces and nephews of the bride or groom), or random children of guests?
The latter group aren’t my family, thank you very much.
Agreed. I understand not wanting to deal with kids, but a wedding, particularly a reception, is a celebration of the joining of two families. A wedding without kids is just an excuse for young people to have a party, as my father-in-law says. Besides, it’s important for kids to learn how to comport themselves in formal settings, and parents have a responsibility to handle their children accordingly. When I was a kid I went to a few aunts’ weddings, and I was never given the option to misbehave. I learned very quickly that boredom was not an acceptable excuse for impolite behavior.
Nail on the head Bill.
Some fear success could breed gentrification, which could push them out.
Gentrification is the revitalization of blighted neighborhoods. Making dilapidated areas nice requires money that welfare recipients don’t generally have, so a successful effort will necessarily entail those people being pushed out.
Its the tragedy of Democrat run cities. Formerly nice areas slowly die as people with means flee bad governance, leaving only the impoverished who can’t maintain their neighborhoods. They cry foul and want more of that sweet sweet Other People’s Money to fix it, but at that point so much money is required to rebuild (especially with all that added government demanding their cut) that prices afterwards must rise substantially for it to be economical. The poor can’t afford it and cry foul again to prevent being “forced out”.
All the while these same people vote for the degenerate politicians who caused the decline-gentrification cycle to begin with.
Making dilapidated areas nice requires money that welfare recipients don’t generally have, so a successful effort will necessarily entail those people being pushed out.
Only if you lack imagination. See, we take money from the productive and successful, fix up the neighborhood, then control all the rents so that no-one has to leave.
Hence the need for Other People’s Money, but that’s hard when those people whose money would be used have already moved outside the reach of those who would take it. That’s the whole problem and why the neighborhood collapsed in the first place.
Obviously the solution is a bigger government that can redistribute Other People’s Money from a broader base that’s harder to move away from. That’ll do it! It couldn’t possibly just make the problem bigger.
Yes, in an equitable world, people fleeing a city or state would be required to hand over all assets earned while living there.
California actually tried something like this on me- they demanded I pay taxes on income I earned for two years after leaving that godforsaken place; because there was no reported income to them, they imputed what they thought I would be making and billed me accordingly. I managed to get out of that, but the fact that they even tried was horrifying.
5 years ago I lived in Virginia. About 3 days before moving out of state I bought a new car and sold my old one. That car was in Virginia maybe a total of 48 hours.
This year we got a bill for years of delinquent car taxes to the tune of several thousand dollars. We talked to a few lawyers and apparently Virginia law allows them to assess local property taxes on cars wherever they actually are if they were ever registered in that locality.
There’s a lot of BS taxation regimes that get upheld by the courts (can you say conflict of interest?). I hear S-corp owners have to pay personal income taxes to California if they have any employees in the state, even if the owners don’t live there.
The Franchise Tax Board, so inept and corrupt that even the IRS quakes.
Indeed. So far, my wife and I have been on the winning end of their ineptness. Fingers crossed that it stays that way until we can get out of this horribly run, but beautiful, state.
Horrifying accurately describes California tax agencies. I have been horrified by them many times. Try owning a business here. After about 5 years, they intentionally terrify you and threaten you into giving them whatever they ask. It takes no small fortitude to stand up to them. They are evil in a way that most couldn’t even fathom.
My first taste of this was about 15 months after moving to LA. I was working with a college friend of mine, at a tiny indie film production company. Around tax time, I had to catalog all of the office equipment his company owned, calculate its worth, so the FTB could get their cut of taxes on the equipment. This, after the company had already paid sales tax when the equipment was first purchased. This royally pissed me off.
At the time, I considered myself an Objectivist. It would be about 8 – 9 years before I became a full fledged Rothbardian libertarian.
As I like to point out, the Irsays moved in the middle of the night because Maryland was threatening to take the team via eminent domain. The next morning, there was nothing for the state to take.
Uh-oh. Now you’ve done it.
You have to be understanding of Ted. Dropped on his head repeatedly as an infant, fed paint-chip-flavored baby food.
Hateful.
“Done what?”
“You tore off one of my chests!”
I would have supported the death penalty for Robert Irsay.
So…does this mean we aren’t getting a relocation quote from Mayflower?
(And you have no idea how much it disturbs me that I know these details.)
By the way, this is the single biggest incompatibility in OMWC’s worldview. However, like so many inconsistencies in others’ belief systems, the Baltimore Colts were the true religion of his family, so this is a religious exception.
So the Colts are his cross to bear with Irsay in place of Judas?
Well, as the Philly suburbs turn increasingly Democrat, the problem will solve itself as these newcomers vote to start taxing suburbanites in order to throw more money down the Philly school rathole. One hopes that sooner or later they realize they can’t outrun the tax farmers unless they stop voting them into office.
This model has been “successful” in NYC only because there are still lots of fantastically wealthy people here. Unfortunately, those projects are now falling apart and there is literally no money to fix them. Surprise – the city seems to have misplaced all the money spent on them over the years. How this unfolds is going to be popcorn-worthy but I think I might want to skedaddle first.
Don’t forget racism. You’re a bigot when you move to the suburbs so your kids don’t get killed in a drive by or have to deal with gangs in your high school, your a bigot when you move back into the neighborhood and plow 3 years of salary into renovating an old home formerly occupied by crackheads.
‘Disenfranchised areas are expected to see new investment via federal “opportunity zones” and a public-private Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund, created by Mayor Catherine Pugh earlier this year in part with $55 million from city-owned garages. Other grants and funds aim to boost affordable housing and foster what Pugh touts as an inclusive “new era of neighborhood investment.”
There was a story not long ago about how some government run “investment fund for disadvantaged businesses in economically depressed areas” made a below-market loan to somebody in Bozeman to build a new building on Main Street right in the middle of downtown. Restaurants, stores, offices, luxury apartments, that sort of stuff; because it would never have been possible to obtain a bank loan for that without help from Big Sister. But let’s keep talking about how wild west dog-eat-dog capitalism is causing income inequality and squelching economic opportunity for the lower castes.
I’m on the bride’s side. If the invitations explicitly said don’t bring your kids, then those people are dicks.
I didn’t RTFA but I’m with you. If the invite says, “No kids, no dogs” leave your goddam pets at home.
Interesting aside…
I went to my niece’s wedding in the US and of course brought my family. The wedding was adults only so my niece very thoughtfully helped to arrange a Japanese lady baby sitter (as my boys operate primarily in Japanese).
After the wedding we drove back over to pick the boys up. The babysitter’s family (two teenage daughters and husband) are all home by then so there’s a bit of social time. Turns out the (Japanese) husband and I worked in the same company, on the same product, decades ago on opposite sides of the Pacific. Small world.
I likewise didn’t RTFA, but who the hell thinks it’s appropriate to take a dog to a wedding?
Then again, some people take their damn mutts everywhere. A few years back I witnessed a shouting argument in a California grocery store when some asshole wanted to put his 50-pound dog in a shopping cart and wheel it through the store. The manager was called, tried to explain that it was actually against state law and FDA requirements to have the damn mutt in a grocery store, and the guy with the dog flew off the handle and started yelling. I didn’t stick around to watch but understood later the cops were called.
No word on whether the dog became shot.
Our dog would be perfect at a wedding. Female wearing white.
Ooooo…competing with the bride. Recipe for disaster.
I see that here too often. Dogs in grocery stores. I definitely want animals who might poop/gnaw/paw my food at the grocery.
Their owners are right next to the people who don’t hold their dog’s leash in public parks* as holding a special place in my heart. Just yesterday I came across 2 doofuses and their 7 (!) dogs, all left to run wild.
*SLD- public parks shouldn’t exist, but if I’m paying for it anyway…
Hence the need for Other People’s Money, but that’s hard when those people whose money would be used have already moved outside the reach of those who would take it. That’s the whole problem and why the neighborhood collapsed in the first place.
Obviously the solution is a bigger government that can redistribute Other People’s Money from a broader base that’s harder to move away from. That’ll do it! It couldn’t possibly just make the problem bigger.
If I recall correctly (based on things I was told by friends) Indianapolis was extremely aggressive about annexation of outlying areas in the 50s-60s-70s for precisely that reason.
Kansas City has been doing the same shit for years. In some places you can be two minutes outside a small town a county away from downtown and see Kansas City city limits signs while driving past a cow pasture.
My dad used to work for the city. One big reason for that is because if you worked for the city, you had to live in the city limits. If they wanted to hire someone badly enough, but they lived outside city limits and wouldn’t move, the city annexed that land so the employee. Voila. Moving without moving.
So permanently implemented eminent domain just to hire people who’ll stay in the city’s employ for at best a few decades? There’s something seriously wrong with that.
So is a requirement that employees must live within a city.
Of course, there’s no chance people would just move to the other side of the annexation line.
This thinking is why the federal government was set up to have very limited, enumerated powers which explicitly forbade direct taxes.
The Liberland constitution assigns a 3 year jail sentence for any public official who acts in violation of the constitution and forbids them from ever holding office again. We need a clause like that in the US constitution. If anything you voted for gets struck down, you go to jail and can never hold office again.
Damn. I read all of the articles in the first two links. Depressing stuff.
Extremely poorly worded. I meant to say; I read both of the first two linked articles in their entirety.
Better.
‘Extremely poorly worded’
Quit stealing my schtick, man.
Hey, so Baltimore is #1 in something! And apparently the whole urban homesteading was a tragic mistake?
I guess the lost “working class neighborhoods” is our generation’s nostalgic bullshit, like the old family farm was before it.
Their government let a bunch of people riot and burn down the neighborhood.
EVERYONE STOP SHOUTING!
Damn I’m hungover… last night a neighbor couple came over to play Euchre and other games. I can highly recommend “The Sexton Single Malt” Irish Whiskey, which we managed to polish off along with two bottles of red wine. And now that MJ is legal, I got to watch others partake – my employer still doesn’t allow its workers to smoke da devil weed, enforced by random drug testing. Holy hell did Lady Humungus get high – which only seemed to help her Euchre game. Second round the ladies were getting all the cards. Luckily the guys managed to not get locked out of scoring, otherwise we would have had to run around the house sans clothing.
Go on…
I’d have gotten naked if the cards required it.
Doonesbury explained gentrification quite well several decades ago. I think he was trying to snark, but accidentally told the truth.
There is hidden truth there in that the low income people devalue the properties. Not because they’re low income, but because they make choices which tend to both lower their incomes and property values. But we like to pretend bad personal choices don’t factor in to these situations.
tag fail
You mean stoop sitting and failing to fix your roof or pick up your trash lowers your home value?
That’s one of my biggest problems with Leftist ideology. They pretend that things like poverty, obesity, and drug abuse cannot possibly be a result of bad personal choices; they’re just conditions randomly bestowed on people by the cruel hand of fate. It’s like a game of SimCity.
But I guess it makes sense if you believe that it’s the government’s job to rescue people from the consequences of their own bad choices, incentives be damned.
Despite political rhetoric to the contrary, policymakers have often ignored the deterioration as fewer households meant a smaller tax base. Meanwhile, speculators bought cut-rate row homes and sat on them, waiting for a payday.
Speculators are the scum of the Earth. They should all be hanged.
Now I’ll have to sell my Sear stock. I was hoping, hoping, c’mon Mr Lambert, you can do it, I have faith. Still tryin’ to buy low, hope to sell high (er).
Is that sarcasm? I ask because speculators actually serve a very useful purpose. Take oil prices , for example.
Speculators are why we’ll never run out of oil, or any other fossil fuel, for that matter.
The Franchise Tax Board, so inept and corrupt that even the IRS quakes.
Not the Board of Equalization?
“We’re from the government, and we’re here to keep you crabs in that bucket.”
The Board of Equalization collects property taxes and sales tax. So they keep the lobsters in the bucket, leaving crab-herding to the FTB.
By the way, the irony of the Tax Board being tied to the Franchise?
RE: Baltimore.
The irony here is that if the city actually did experience a renaissance and start growing and thriving, the self-same bleeding hearts lamenting its decline would immediately start REEEEing about “gentrification”.
Yep. They admit as much in the article.
Get out of Syria!
We’re getting out of Syria!
But the Kurds!
You never cared for the Kurds before why now?
Because Trump!
Ah, you’ve seen my FB friends.
Slutty Sunday presents canyons of cleavage!
http://archive.li/e9bp0
Some of these girls really need to up their selfie game.
As in many of your postings, a fair number of these women appear challenged with buying the proper size bras and tops. I bet we could round up any number of Glib volunteers to examine, evaluate, and properly fit these clueless females. While charity begins at home, I, for one, would be willing to travel around the region and give selflessly to help resolve this crisis.
Notre Dame playing in a BCS/College Playoff game was, is, and will be for the foreseeable future, a complete waste of everybody’s time and energy. Them making it to the national title game only to get slaughtered by BAMA was several years ago was nothing short of a miracle. They’ve been a paper tiger at best ever since Lou Holtz left the program and I’m sick of seeing them displace more deserving teams.
/end rant
Thank you for ending your rant without a demand for Big10 representation.
I don’t think there is much doubt that Bama would beat several of the bottom end NFL teams. The college game is ridiculously lopsided.
That’s an exaggeration.
Remember that every nfl team is made up of the elite of the entire college game.
If your statement were true every starter for Alabama would get drafted.
The lower tier nfl teams are still made of the elite college players.
But in West Baltimore’s Harlem Park, Rollins is among those watching the urban deterioration all around them with indignation, exasperated that her child is growing up in a harsh environment with no easy escape hatch. She wants to see some genuine transformation, not cosmetic brushstrokes. She’s concerned about the psychological impact of living amid ruins.
“People around here want real changes, real opportunities,” she said, watching her little girl play in the yard of her public school. “I say a prayer every day we walk out the door and face those empty houses: God, please keep us safe.”
How will this happen? The government should step in, and provide a solution. Government housing which is clean, and safe, and equitable. Something like this, perhaps.
I think I drove by once, before demo, and I never saw anything more depressing and frightening in my life.
The future Baltimore skyline.
The Workers will have their Paradise.
Pikers. We’ve already done better than that.
You don’t pay them for the sex, you pay them for the therapy.
https://pjmedia.com/drhelen/are-sex-workers-the-only-safe-people-for-men-to-talk-with/
A trip across America sees the small towns are a shadow of their former selves.
“Time, they are a-changin’”. Been going on for 50-60 years, since country folks discovered running water and TV.
“How’re ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm, now they’ve see Gay Paree?”
Or Karl Hungus.
Good morning Glibs. I got a update yesterday afternoon… I’ve been accepted into a PhD program. It’s a nice way to end 2018. I’ll finish up my Master’s this spring, take the summer off, and then dive into the PhD next fall.
It’s a lot of work to take on but the lack of those 3 little letters are really holding me back professionally in my field. It’ll be expensive too. At least I should be able to advance quickly now and make the cost back in a few years. I am really looking forward to it. It’s an interesting program that will greatly help improve my work-related skillset. Here’s to 2019.
That’s great! Congrats!
Thanks!
You could’ve saved yourself a lot of time and effort if you just bought yours from the Universal Life Church for $30 like I did.
SSD, Ph.D is a lot of letters
I don’t know if that would fly at work, but now you’ve gotten me interested in the ULC.
Let me help!
https://www.ulc.org/minister-store/doctor-of-divinity-degree
My condolences.
(j/k… sort of)
Yep, full time courseload plus full time workload. At least I might be able to make my dissertation work-related so I can work on it during work hours.
the lack of those 3 little letters are really holding me back professionally. It’ll be expensive too.
I despise credentialism.
I always wonder if some of the “lack of upward mobility” (to the extent that it exists) is because of 1) occupational licensing schemes that mandate a degree, and 2) the largely government-created degree saturation that has led to the stigmatizing of anyone without a degree.
I would love to see a job market with more employer-administered skills testing and promotion from within.
I would agree with both of those points. It’s also a problem that the licenses required by law are often kept by private union/guilds/organizations that act as gatekeepers to protect their monopoly.
All of those, plus a CYA. If a hire turns out to suck, the hirer can always point to the credential. “See? How could anyone know, ze has the diploma!”
Congrats! Adulting and school is a big challenge – you can do it !
Thank you!
Congrats. I forewent that route in my twenties because I didn’t want to live like a pauper anymore. Now I’m too old and disinclined to do so.
It’s basically a union card. In hard sciences, it’s often useful so that you learn how to structure a research program. And you can live off grants, so it’s not expensive. Outside of that… SSD nailed it.
As I moved into the professional world, it became apparent that PhDs in engineering were often viewed with suspicion. So that pretty much settled any inclination I had to going back for one.
Exactly OMWC. Despite my ability to get results, my boss told me my career was going nowhere without the credentials. Promotions are based on years of experience plus credentials plus political pull. Results are irrelevant except how that affects your political pull. Even years of experience doesn’t really matter if the credentials aren’t there.
It’s a problem across the medical community though, not just at my company. I can’t talk with Journal editors or medical doctors with just a BS. Doesn’t matter how many authored publications I have in peer-reviewed medical journals… all they see is your credentials.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not negging your decision. I wish you luck in the effort. I hope it all goes well for you.
No no, I didn’t take it that way at all. I thought I was done with school and had no intentions of returning. Gotta overcome these life obstacles though.
What Scruffy said. My cynicism outran my congratulations.
The guy who would do great to replace me in my current job is ineligible because of a lack of that union card.
That’s along the lines of what my boss told me. One of the supervisors in our warehouse quit. There was a guy with 25 years experience, did great work, and got along well with everyone. HR deemed him ineligible because he didn’t have a BS. He registered for courses the next day and eventually got his BS and a subsequent promotion.
I applied for my MS program within a week of hearing that story.
HR departments are actively evil in just about any company. Yet they think their shit smells like roses.
Results are irrelevant except how that affects your political pull.
So which govt do you work for – state or feds?
Political pull with the executives. The infighting among the fiefdoms makes the Balkans look peacefully united.
Congrats!
Thank you!
Fuckin-a! Congrats!
Pelosi, who has put blame squarely on President Donald Trump for the current government shutdown, was spotted Thursday vacationing in Hawaii at the Fairmont Orchid resort, where room accommodations range from $899-a-night for a standard room to $4,899-a-night for the presidential suite.
What do you want her to do? Sleep on the floor in her office? Spend her vacation at Motel 8-Ball? She needs to be rested and revitalized when the impeachment debate is brought to order.
I would think the blood of a youthful virgin would be enough to sustain her.
Nearby (actually decent) pizza place is closed. Oven-baked frozen stuff for us tonight. Have to clear out the apartment. Got an Air B&B for the next couple of days with Lady closer to downtown.
The reality that I don’t have to go to work tomorrow is orgasmic.
Packing up your entire life into two suitcases puts things into perspective. Lots of things will be thrown away. Memories are better than things.
Wish a happy new year upon all of y’all.
You too!
Man, I feel ya. Been there way too many times.
Surprise. Jerry Brown is on Meet the Press. Sounds like the kick-off for 2020.
BROWN/GAIA ’20, motherfucker.
Brown’s butthole tastes like candy, right, Chuck?
Irony, more plentiful than dark matter.
I’ve been saying this for years. Starting with FDR (probably before but my experience is somewhat limited) because the new guy builds on the old guy and has to out promise his opponent/predecessor. As evidence the debt always grows. Those wishing for a change will get it, good and hard, according to Mencken.
I am strongly considering the expatriation option after the ’20 election. Because 4 more years of Trump would be bad enough and I really do shudder to think of what comes after.
Where would be better? (serious question)
NBC poll says global warming will kill us all. Save us Mommy!
Chuckie slipped a nice little subliminal reacharound to the “muh dumocracee” crowd. Something about “Polls consistently show the people want action on vitally important issues, but our two party political system thwarts effective action.” Nothing about the Constitution, or the practical limits to government effectiveness. Just stand back, and let the TopManocracy work their magic.
That Baltimore article is chock full of stupid. They want their cake and to eat it too, twice.
If course they never stop to wonder if decades of one party time had anything to do with it. My son was surprised by all the rainbow flags on display in Baltimore. I responded that they don’t have any risk in doing so anymore even though they pretend as much. A risky endeavor would be putting up a Trump sign.
If course they never stop to wonder if decades of one party time had anything to do with it.
Something, but not everything. Don Schaeffer (Team Blue) really brought the city back. Of course, that brand of politics is long dead in urban Team Blue administrations; Baltimore has since been cursed with mayors and councilmen who are both incompetent and corrupt. One or the other is OK, both together is fatal.
What are you looking at?
/Bill Deblasio
I’m fairly certain there are some more…diverse…parts of Baltimore where there’d be a lot of risk displaying those rainbow flags.
I would get a snicker if someone held a pride parade thru Leakin Park at night.
There’s a guy on YouTube named Dan Bell (channel name: “This is Dan Bell”). He lives in the Baltimore area and does a lot of urban exploration. He did a video in Leakin Park; they left after hearing gunshots.
Baltimore is truly terrifying, and it should put to rest any perception that unopposed Democrat Party rule will usher in utopia.
PS: Dan Bell also does a more light-hearted series called Another Dirty Room where him and his crew investigate hotel rooms and find some truly appalling conditions. They bring a blacklight with them – ’nuff said.
Reality is, Leakin Park is rarely where people get shot. It is, however, where people’s bodies are regularly found. If you randomly ask anyone from Baltimore, “I’m on a scavenger hunt. The next item on the list is ‘corpse.’ Where would I be likely to find one?” the answer will immediately be, “Leakin Park, of course!”
I can only read that as “Leakin’ Park”.
/completely unfamiliar with Bal’mer
OMWC is right, though. It takes more than just unopposed Democrat Party rule. If that were the case then NYC would still have 2300 murders a year instead of 300.
My kid’s daycare did a field trip to Port Discovery, a “children’s museum” in Baltimore close to the Inner Harbor. Think big indoor playground with the occasional reference to dinosaurs or archaeology or physics. It’s not in a “bad” part of town, and we left at 2:00 PM on a sunny Thursday afternoon, but in the three block walk to the parking garage you couldn’t swing a stick without hitting a homeless drug addict. It’s been a few years since I’ve been in Baltimore, but even in five years the place has noticeably declined. Like even places that used to be ok are down the shitter. We’ve got friends who live in the northern part of the city where it’s not so bad yet, but it’s on the way; they’re doing the smart thing and moving down our way.
It’s sad. Twenty years ago Baltimore was scuzzy and had a lot of bad parts of town, but there were some redeeming areas. Now even those are on the way out. The city government is and has been wildly corrupt, and they’ve killed every golden goose they’ve accidentally found. At this point I honestly don’t know how you’d bring the city back.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is on CBS bemoaning the loss of common dreams. FDR was the most awesomest President.
“common dreams” = tax-n-spend socialism
It makes me sick to my stomach to hear Democrats always waxing nostalgic about FDR.
Trump gets called “literally Hitler” because he wants to enforce immigration laws as they’re written, but FDR is absolutely wonderful despite literally putting people in concentration camps based on their ethnicity.
C’mon racist white liberals don’t have to be nice to Asians – those fuckers can compete.
How is that old fraud still getting those gigs?
OT: personal protection orders. I am in two cases right now where there’s somewhat frivolous PPOs that were filed. One case has a PPO which the parties mutually agreed to dismiss if certain conditions were met – done. The other case has two PPOs, girlfriend v. boyfriend making accusations against each other (oddly enough, neither PPO is on my client).
But I spotted a trend: to help get your possibly frivolous PPO accepted, accuse the respondent /defendant of non-consensual anal sex. Both the PPOs filed by the females in these cases have similar story: We had an argument, we started to make up and got intimate… later he forced anal on me.
Ooooohkay….
This one word trick to get a PPO…
weird
I hate typing on phones
No apparently “anal” is the one word.
Isn’t all anal non-consensual?
Does it have to be anal? I figure it would be the “non-consensual” part.
I’m guessing it has something to do with the laws on rape/sexual assault and shady family lawyers.
I don’t know about that. PPOs in Michigan are obtained ex parte – petitioner goes with affidavit of at least two instances of being “harassed, stalked, threatened, assaulted” by respondent.
Petitioner’s affidavit is reviewed and approved or denied by a judge the same day – no lawyers allowed or involved until respondent decides (if needed) to object to the PPO. But a respondent can do that without attorney representation too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zHVW7Zy_vg
Ah, the “Last Tango in Paris” technique.
Girlfriend, boyfriend, *and* your client? Interesting….
She’s the ex-wife of the boyfriend. It is a bit interesting.
But I spotted a trend: to help get your possibly frivolous PPO accepted, accuse the respondent /defendant of non-consensual anal sex.
Ooh, a plot twist- I thought you were working toward an increase in “red flag” gun confiscation orders.
Yeah, both of the PPOs also have a gun use scare. Respondent owns and has guns around the house, etc…. if anything these PPOs are both too detailed, which makes them seem less plausible to me. The lady doth protest too much, sort of thing.
“Why all you’ve been told about these polar bears could be WRONG: Animals driven to the edge of their natural habitat by shrinking ice have become one of the defining images of climate change, but Inuits who know the predators have a very different story”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6539067/Why-youve-told-polar-bears-WRONG-Inuits-different-story.html
Animals adapt. It’s what they do.
For every animal species that has been driven to extinction by human activity, there are several that have adapted and survived. They can find new food sources and/or habitats.
And if the climate change argument was about how WE should adapt, I’d be cool with that. Instead it is plain old Malthus-cum-Ehrlich doomshittery with the inevitable “you must behave as we dictate (and ignore that we don’t behave that way ourselves)”.
And the climate change industry has left a path of failed predictions from the same “experts” using the same methodology.
If someone claimed to have a model that would predict the movements of the stock market, and they were constantly predicting catastrophic crashes that never came to pass, nobody would call you “anti-science” if you were skeptical of this guy’s predictions.
“Miley wore an $8,600 Vivienne Westwood made-to-order ivory silk satin corseted draped gown while her Australian 28-year-old groom donned a black suit and sneakers”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6539213/Miley-Cyrus-copied-parents-marrying-age-26-Tennessee-living-room.html
“Former Wilfrid Laurier TA Lindsay Shepherd, who released audio of meeting, sued by profs: lawyer
Former Wilfrid Laurier University teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd is being sued by two professors who say she should bear the responsibility of a defamation suit against them, according to her lawyer.
Nathan Rambukkana and Herbert Pimlott, who teach at the university, were sued by controversial University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson in June, after it was revealed that they compared his opinions to those of Adolf Hitler.
The statements by Rambukkana and Pimlott, made during a closed-door meeting, were recorded by Shepherd and subsequently released to Global News.
Shepherd’s lawyer, Howard Levitt, told Global News that the Laurier professors say Shepherd had control over the recording and the distribution of the conversation — so she should be responsible for any damages the statements caused.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/4799671/wildred-laurier-lindsay-shephard-sued-professors/
Novel idea – I said these defamatory things but this other person should be responsible for publicizing them.
“The WAR ON WOMEN: Top Fake News Stories of 2018”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5N2rAhhcaU
Submitted without comment.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/750296/tattoo-addict-full-body-tattoos-penis-inking-pain-healing-ray-houghton
Sheesh… I hope he didn’t put that rolling pin back in the kitchen drawer when he was done with it.
Not clicking.
Nope.
“Alright lads, so why is it worth it to make a thread about the SPLC? It’s simple. They were a catalyst in the Mastercard situations back in August with @jihadwatchRS and David Horowitz
But YES I can **confirm** a link between Soros and SPLC thanks to a Form 990 for period ending December 2015 from George’s Foundation to Promote Open Society.
This is relevant because in the last thread I mentioned how George Soros and Mastercard were working together and how that dynamic worked.
But the MAIN CRUX that pulled me into this thread is the fact that I mentioned George’s role was CHANGING THE DEFINITION OF “HATE” to suit his needs.
And SPLC IS APPARENTLY PUSHING TO DO THAT with their “Change the Terms” campaign.
AND in this handy article summarizing the tactics of SPLC, you’ll notice a PARALLEL between people the SPLC targets and people deplatformed by Mastercard/PayPal/Patreon, etc.
I mean, I’ve talked about who SPLC has ATTACKED. But let’s look at who SPLC **DEFENDS** too. ….. and that’d be…… MS-13? http://archive.li/sIBh0 Proves the point. SPLC has made American society’s treatment of race COMPLETELY INVERTED. COMPLETELY BACKWARDS.”
https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/1079146042350858241
The SPLC exists to enrich Morris Dees and his cronies. If you understand that, then you’ll stop looking for anything resembling a principled consistency.
Any Glibertarians in Atlanta? I will be there later this week.
Public Domain Day is coming!
http://www.openculture.com/2018/12/public-domain-day-is-coming.html
Interesting – I forgot about that. What a disgusting act of cronyism that was.
It was shameful. So much so that Bono killed himself by smashing head first into tree while “skiing “. http://www.cnn.com/US/9801/06/bono.accident.pm/
We could use more like Sonny
Wasn’t this Bono a paid politician as opposed to the other one named Bono that likes to hang around with politicians?
Yes. Better known to kids these days as “Cher’s husband”.
For every animal species that has been driven to extinction by human activity, there are several that have adapted and survived. They can find new food sources and/or habitats.
Not far from my house in Indianapolis, there was a railroad line which headed to Clermont and points west. It was infrequently used, but not abandoned. I saw coyotes trotting along the rails innumerable times. They used it as their own little suburban commuter highway.