ZARDOZ SATURDAY EVENING LINKS

GO FORTH AND COMMENT!

ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. FRIEND STEVE SMITH IS OFF VISITING HIS COUSIN, SEA SMITH – SO ZARDOZ WILL BE GIVING THE GIFT OF THE LINK. REMEMBER, ZARDOZ HAS RAISED YOU FROM BRUTALITY – SO BRING YOUR COMMENTS “A GAME”.

  1. NO! STOP! THE PENIS IS EVIL! NOW ZARDOZ MUST HOPE THE BRUTAL FOOTBALL TEAM OF CARNIVOROUS RAPTORS WINS YOUR ATHLETIC CONTEST TOMORROW.
  2. THIS IS MORE LIKE IT! ZARDOZ WONDERS WHY ALL BRUTALS CANNOT BE SO TREATED?
  3. ZARDOZ BELIEVES THIS LEAD TO A LARGE AMOUNT OF CLEANSING.
  4. WOULD IT SURPRISE THE CHOSEN ONES THAT ZARDOZ FINDS THIS OF LITTLE CONCERN?

ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.

Comments

374 responses to “ZARDOZ SATURDAY EVENING LINKS”

  1. Juvenile Bluster

    NOW ZARDOZ MUST HOPE THE BRUTAL FOOTBALL TEAM OF CARNIVOROUS RAPTORS WINS YOUR ATHLETIC CONTEST TOMORROW.

    THANK YOU, HALLOWED ZARDOZ.

    I am also pleased to inform ZARDOZ that the most brutal enforcer from the team of carnivorous raptors, Brian Dawkins, has been elected to the Hall of Fame.

    1. Heroic Mulatto

      1. westernsloper

        BOOOOO!

        1. C. Anacreon

          How many of you Eagles fans know that one year, during WW2, the league was so depleted that the Steelers and Eagles merged briefly into the Steagles? You can look it up.

          1. DEG

            I don’t like football and I knew that.

          2. westernsloper

            I am not an Eagles fan I just hate the Patriots more than I hate the Eagles. I am one of those.

          3. trshmnstr

            +1

          4. DenverJ

            Yes, I think hating the lying cheating Patriots is pretty common in Bronco’s country. That kind of behavior may be acceptable in a town named after beans, but not here, it ain’t.

          5. Denver cheated on the salary cap in the run-up to Super Bowl 32.

          6. hayeksplosives

            Hating on the Pats is wicked common in the hinterlands.

  2. Hyperion

    And I thought it was gonna be Steve Smith.

    1. Gustave Lytton

      Would ZARDOZ and STEVE SMITH’s love child bring the gift of rape to farmers or deliver guns to hikers?

      1. Sean

        Why not both?

  3. Hyperion

    So, am I the only one who believes that Trumputin will once again fix the game for the Patriots because white privilege? Obviously if they do win again, Mueller will have all he needs and will be closing in on Trump, again, for the 375th time.

    1. westernsloper

      It won’t be Trumputin fixing the game. Brady cheats all by himself. Cheating cheater he is.

    2. Nephilium

      I had the misfortune to be in the Philly suburbs this week. They did not take kindly to me stating that I was cheering for SMOD to win the game.

      1. C. Anacreon

        Oh, sweet meteor of death at last I’ve found you….

        /Frankenstein’s fiancee

      2. Tundra

        Christ, no. We’re still on the hook for that ridiculous stadium!

  4. westernsloper

    Flu pandemic in Mass? I thought they had state funded health care so it didn’t matter if people got sick.

    1. Chafed

      And it will work with just a little more of your money.

  5. Gustave Lytton

    Serviced the saws this afternoon. New plug, filters for mine and filled bar oil in both. All set for cleaning up for spring!

    https://imgur.com/6UHVlys

    1. westernsloper

      Are you going to service your wood chipper tomorrow?

      1. Gustave Lytton

        Sadly I don’t have one. A DR chipper isn’t big enough for my needs and don’t feel like spending $K’s when I can just burn it or dump it at the bark place.

        1. westernsloper

          I had never used one until a few weeks ago. We had to clear some trees for a new parking area. The one we used would eat 12″ diameter trees. It was awesome in numerous ways.

      2. RBS

        I service my wood chipper daily.

        1. Private Chipperbot

          That’s not even a euphemism!

    2. Tres Cool

      Ive got an old 041AV “Farm Boss” that needs some screws for the engine cover, and little stuff like that. Know a good resource that isnt direct-from-Stihl for pieces/parts?

      1. PudPaisley

        From my experience I’ve found it’s better to stick with Stihl replacement parts for the most part. I’ll buy after market air filters and trimmer heads, but mostly I stick with Stihl. The screws and spark plugs can probably be found at hardware stores or automotive stores.

        I’ve been running Stihl commercial equipment for 30 years and most aftermarket parts just don’t last as long. I have around 25-30 saws, trimmers, and blowers and mostly stick to Stihl replacements. Even most of the tree service guys I know use all Stihl parts aside from the occasional specialty chain. I just find I get more bang for the buck even though the parts are more expensive. I also usually recommend using the exact plug that is recommended and not a crossover brand.

        1. SP

          My name is SP and I’m a Tenuta’s addict.

          (Pud is an enabler.)

          1. PudPaisley

            Haha! That place has so much yummy goodness it’s ridonculus. I dropped another $180 there on Sunday on my way out of town and made a couple employees really happy with some treats. It’s pretty much all I’ve been eating since Xmas.

            Let me know when a weekend works to come up and visit. I’ll be gone the next two weekends but free after that. Still gonna make another trip down your way in late February or March. I’m bummed that there are two really good music shows tonight but it’s snowing and I’ll be heading out to work in about 7 hours.

          2. Old Man With Candy

            We spent ridiculously there. Lots of pasta, cheeses, preserved peppers, herbs, wine, vinegars, relishes… oh, and canolli.

  6. Rhywun

    “We still fall so short in our response to this annual menace,” Markey said. “Flu season shouldn’t be Groundhog’s Day for our universal health community.”

    A universal vaccine — which would cost taxpayers $200 million a year — would be able to treat multiple mutating strains of virus, doctors said.

    Oh, fuck off.

    1. If the pharmaceutical companies could come up with a universal flu vaccine for $200M, they’d have made a killing long ago.

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        It could happen if a little of the red tape was loosened.

        Y’know, instead of now, when it costs that much to come up with an orphan drug for a disease with 5,000 patients (followed up by the inevitable complaints of “it just takes $10 for them to manufacture the pill!)

        1. Caput Lupinum

          I worked at Sanofi Pasteur, they spend billions as it is manufacturing the existing flu vaccines every year. $200 million wouldn’t cover their operating costs for a single week, let alone find the development of a universal flu vaccine. That’s even assuming that a universal flu vaccine could be created in the first place, due to how fast it mutates.

          I remember one time everyone higher up was incredibly pissed off. Found out that during the routine FDA inspection, the inspector got a bug up their butt about something and purposefully took their mask off in a clean room and sneezed, and forced the company to sterilize it. Sterilizing it entailed shutting down all operations associated with that clean room and liquidating all the stick currently inside it. The whole episode cost the company a few billion in lost stock and productivity. $200 million my ass. They spent over 5.7 billion dollars on research in 2008 alone, the latest year I could find numbers for.

          1. Rhywun

            the inspector got a bug up their butt about something and purposefully took their mask off in a clean room and sneezed

            That’s… astonishing. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

          2. Some asshole cost your business a few billion? I gotta call bullshit here, if it happened he’d be disappeared unless said business can afford to eat a few billion and in that case there’s more’n likely some cause for concern in the ‘government imposed monopoly’ sense.

          3. Caput Lupinum

            The clean room in question was incubating stock for vaccines. A few vials can be used to create a seasons with of vaccines. Depending on how you calculate the value, it could range from a few hundred thousand for the actual stock, or a few billion because it would have been used to create a whole seasons worth of vaccines. Angry execs given to hyperbole will tend towards the bigger figures. However, leaving potential profits out of the equation, there was still the loss of current stock, full decontamination of the clean room, and the list productivity of replacing the stock, and the bill is still very large.

            Yes, the problems are mostly caused by the way that the government buys vaccines and regulates the production of them. I worked on the help desk, and the story was told to everyone to emphasize why the campus went on lock down whenever the FDA came on campus, but the numbers aren’t as unjustifiable as you seem to believe. Call bull if you want, I have no horse in that race anymore.

          4. Tres Cool

            If the bug was up their butt, they were in the wrong lab.

          5. DenverJ

            And that wasn’t a sneeze.

    2. And a herd of unicorns that shit gold would make us all rich, but it doesn’t exist and isn’t likely to in any of our lifetimes, so let’s not spend a bunch of money on unicorn stables.

      1. SP

        Unicorn stables. Stealing that.

  7. Gustave Lytton

    Snarked about this at the end of morning links just before the thread died so reposting just the link to the story tonight:

    http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2018/02/fbi_told_oregon_state_police_n.html

    1. peachy rex

      I made the mistake of looking at the comments. Oh dear.

      1. westernsloper

        White Christian terrorist deserved what he got apparently.

      2. AlmightyJB

        People suck

    2. Gilmore

      that is freaking horrible

  8. DEG

    U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey called on Congress to commit $1 billion toward the development of a universal flu vaccine to help wipe away the terrifying surge.

    Massachusetts Congresscritter does not disappoint.

    1. C. Anacreon

      Wipe away, like with a cloth?

      1. trshmnstr

        +1 BleachBit

        1. Tres Cool

          You’re awesome.

    1. Rhywun

      Americans consider deferral of gratification unnatural, which it is.

      It is?

      Anyway, who replaced the George Will I remember with this idiot?

      1. trshmnstr

        To the extent that deferring gratification is unnatural, nature is wrong.

    2. Lackadaisical

      Christ, what an asshole.

    3. westernsloper

      George must be a hoot at parties.

      As of 2013, 45 percent of working-age households had no retirement savings. Social Security (average annual payment, $15,500), which provides 33 percent of seniors’ annual income, and 90 percent for the bottom third of retirees, but only about 35 percent of a typical household’s pre-retirement income, last year became America’s first trillion-dollar-a-year program. Absent reforms, its trust fund will be exhausted by 2035 and benefits will have to be reduced 23 percent.

      What trust fund? (Lock Box! -Al Gore) SS, which never should have been started, now covers Disability Insurance and SSI which is a significant part of that trillion. It is no longer old age insurance. What are Georges reforms? Mine would be to remove the wage cap on contributions/theft. If those assholes want this idiotic program, pay for it even across the board. Quite making lower income people pay a higher percentage of their income to support a failing program than the wealthy are required to pay. This is the only thing I have an issue with on the class warfare shtick. Everybody should keep their money and if you look at the trillion dollar link and see what the fed gov spends money on and weigh that against what is an enumerated power things come into focus. Maybe George should write an article about that. Just think of how much money people could save if we weren’t paying for stuff we were never supposed to be paying for through the federal government in the first place.

      1. Spartacus

        Lloyd Christmas: Listen, Mr. Samsonite, about the briefcase, my friend Harry and I have every intention of fully reimbursing you.
        Nicholas Andre: Open it up. Open it up!
        Lloyd Christmas: [Motioning to Mary] Go ahead, open it up. Do what he says. Hurry.
        Nicholas Andre: What is this? What is this? Where’s all the money?
        Lloyd Christmas: That’s as good as money, sir. Those are I.O.U.’s. Go ahead and add it up, every cent’s accounted for. Look, see this? That’s a car. 275 thou. Might wanna hang onto that one.

  9. AlmightyJB

    I’m not sure if I”ll even watch the Super Bowl tomorrow. If I feel like hitting a bar and pounding some Miller Lites then, of course, it will be on there, but may just stay home and find something else to do.

    1. I listen to the games on the radio. It’s easier to do that and be on the computer at the same time.

      1. RBS

        I think listening to sports on the radio is very enjoyable. I listen to more Clemson games on the radio than watch them on tv these days.

        1. RBS

          Also, I pretty much only listen to baseball games anymore.

          1. KSuellington

            +1 for listening to baseball on the radio. I’ve always loved it and the sport really lends itself to radio. Plus we have awesome announcers (Kruk, Kuip and Jon Miller).

          2. Old Man With Candy

            Jon Miller: best baseball announcer ever.

          3. KSuellington

            Miller is my favorite. For the three Giants World Series wins I found it unbearable to listen to Buck instead of Miller and company. Unfortunately there was a ten second delay between radio and tv.

          4. Private Chipperbot

            You’re wrong. Ernie Harwell. And not even close.

          5. Tres Cool

            Joe Nuxhall & Marty Brennaman.
            But for comedic value, tough to top Harry Carey. Or Uecker.

          6. Old Man With Candy

            Ernie Harwell, jesus, smdh. Might as well eat deep dish and pretend it’s pizza.

          7. DenverJ

            There is a reason that the golden age of baseball and the golden age of radio overlapped. Baseball is boring as all hell to watch, and many others sports just aren’t fun to listen to. But with baseball, the timing is perfect for radio.

          8. hayeksplosives

            I love listening to a good radio sportscast.

            Jeff Joniak calling a Bears game is a wonderful thing. (Better when they don’t suck, of course). Joniak calling “TOUCHDOWN BEARS!!” fills me with joy.

            In related news, Brian Urlacher is a first-ballot Football HOF-er. Woot!

          9. Tulip

            I love baseball on the radio. I also love going to minor league games. In Fargo, they used to have a hot tub in the outfield. Awesome! So silly and fun.

          10. SP

            When we lived in (north) Austin, we were regulars at the Round Rock Express games. Fabulous community feeling. And great frozen margaritas!

            The first time we went and a Round Rock player hit a homerun, we were very confused by the old guys walking up and down the stairs with their baseball caps held out. We didn’t know it was common to throw in a buck or two for a homerun.

          11. Lackadaisical

            Better to sleep to them that way, right?

          12. Tres Cool

            “baseball is fun to play, but horrible to watch”
            -some guy on 700WLW radio

            I concur.

        2. Raven Nation

          Ahh, I spent many a night as a wee child with a transistor radio under the pillow listening to cricket broadcasts from England.

          3,2,1…snark away

      2. Tulip

        I only watch puppy bowl.

        1. Rhywun

          Poppy Bowl?

          1. Tulip

            Aww!

          2. Tulip

            Fucking autocorrect! Eww!

          3. RBS

            Hahahaha.

    2. SP

      We will eat and drink well while watching and hoping for a career-ending injury for a certain cheating quarterback.

      1. commodious spittoon

        I’m hoping the Patriots win. The NFL may never recover.

        1. SP

          When I lived in San Miguel County, everyone I knew was inexplicably a Steelers fan (like me at the time). Several friends down in Bernalillo County were Broncos fans. When I lived in Santa Fe, people didn’t watch football. It was weird.

          1. commodious spittoon

            I know fans of several teams–Packers, Saints, Cowboys, Dolphins, inexplicably, and one lone Pats fan.

            The Steelers fans at Uptown are by far the worst.

        2. Hyperion

          I have to admit that I hope the Pats win also, even thought I basically hate them and am not or ever have been a Brady fan. But because I know that the left want them to lose because of some social justice bullshit is enough for me.

          1. Hyperion

            Also, fuck the NFL. If you don’t respect your fans and want to engage in some leftist bullshit, you cannot go broke fast enough in my opinion.

        3. I have become quite the contrarian — I am rooting for Patriots to win 63-0.

      2. RBS

        TB12 has made him invincible.

      3. grrizzly

        I never liked you. Now I know why.

    3. Nephilium

      An old friend of mine has a party every year. I don’t get to see him often enough, so the girlfriend and I go over there. Tomorrow I’ll be making up a batch of chili to bring over, and filling up a growler with home brew to bring.

    4. Rhywun

      Super what now?

      I’m not even on a squares game this year.

      1. KSuellington

        It really seems like a whole lot less enthusiasm this year.

        1. RBS

          Yeah. Earlier my wife asked me to text a friend to ask what we needed to bring to the party tomorrow and I had to ask “what party?”

        2. Lackadaisical

          You mean don’t want to see the Cheatriots win for the umpteenth time?

    5. Ken Shultz

      I’m not that into it either, but what are you gonna do?

      What, you wanna know how Muslims feel on Christmas day?

      You gotta watch. Everybody watches. It’s practically obligatory.

      1. Tulip

        Nope, you don’t have to watch.

        1. Ken Shultz

          Yes, you do.

          You can resist, but why would you want to?

          There isn’t going to be anything else to do.

          It’s Sunday, and the Olympics don’t start until next week!

          1. Tulip

            Read a book.

          2. Ken Shultz

            You can’t do that.

          3. Tulip

            Who is stopping me?

          4. Ken Shultz

            The laws of nature.

          5. Rhywun

            Davis Cup if you’re into tennis.

          6. Ken Shultz

            No one’s into tennis.

          7. trshmnstr

            You cannot be serious!

          8. Number.6

            I’ll just do my taxes.

          9. Ken Shultz

            Why not just pull your fingernails out with pliers instead?

          10. Number.6

            Big men with bad haircuts and firearms don’t turn up in the wee hours of the morning if I neglect to pull my fingernails out with pliers.

          11. DenverJ

            The Olympics are the boringest, most over hyped sporting event ever. They are the Metallica of sports, and the Nick Gillespie of world events.

          12. Ken Shultz

            That’s what Nick Gillespie says

            The Olympics are actually full of capitalist awesomeness.

        2. Rhywun

          And when everyone starts blathering about the game at work on Monday, just smile and nod.

    6. DEG

      I received some party invitations. I’m going to skip them to work on my guns. I don’t like football. I like my guns.

      1. Ken Shultz

        No you won’t.

      2. Number.6

        Sunday will go something like this:

        2pm-3.30 Down at the range
        4-5 Gun cleaning
        6- Do Taxes.

        1. DEG

          Except for taxes, that sounds like a good day.

          1. KSuellington

            A stupendous day for having a place all to yourself. I have often skied happily Supre Bowl Sunday with sparse afternoon crowds. I can still see the second half.

          2. Jerms

            I have cousins that live in Connecticut. All big Pats fans, i have no problem with this except for the fact that they are also Yankee fans. Isnt this against the rules? You cant have the Pats AND my Yankees.

          3. Gustave Lytton

            Depends. Are they also Lakers fans?

          4. Rhywun

            The mayor of NYC is a fucking Patriots fan. But that D next to his name means he’ll never, ever have to answer for it.

      3. I’m going to skip them to work on my guns.

        #metoo #curls

    7. J. Frank Parnell

      I’m only watching it so that on Monday my son won’t be an outcast if all his friends are talking about it at school.

  10. Ken Shultz

    I like me some scifi as much as the next guy, but . . . I just finished watching the latest Blade Runner installment and . . .

    SPOILER ALERT!

    Was the whole point of Blade Runner 2049 that men shouldn’t presume to be as important as women?!

    I dunno, maybe I’m a little sensitive after they turned the last Mad Max into a lecture on feminism, but, on the other hand, maybe turning every great franchise into an SJW lecture series genuinely sucks like the producer’s grandmother, too.

    I’m just sayin’.

    1. Rhywun

      I was thinking about this a little, since I’m bingeing through BSG again and reading all the detailed synopses etc. The producers freely admit they and all the writers are liberals but, even as late as the oughts, they could crank out material that wasn’t expressly SJW bullshit. Those days seem to be over.

      1. Ken Shultz

        Mad Max was a right wing diatribe against a liberal criminal justice system.

        Ya know?

        The original Blade Runner is hard to understand unless you understand the populist backlash against Japanese manufacturing, the Japanese buying up American real estate, and how the Japanese were going to take over because they were buying all our debt.

        All those impulses seem to have gone out the window.

        It’s the golden age of television, but we can’t trust them not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in the movie business.

        1. Ken Shultz

          The Japanese were going to start building people to replace us, see?

    2. J. Frank Parnell

      If they were trying for an SJW lecture I’d say they failed given the reaction of the SJW crowd.

      1. Lackadaisical

        To be fair, is there anything SJW’s are actually happy with?

        Short of androcide of course?

        1. J. Frank Parnell

          Female Ghostbusters, maybe?

          1. Akira

            I remember some kerfuffle about how they made the three white chicks the nerdy, sciencey ones, but the black woman was the “sassy, streetwise” member of the group.

          2. J. Frank Parnell

            Crap, I don’t know then. I’m sure there’s something problematic about the new Star Wars, right?

          3. J. Frank Parnell

            In fact, Poe’s arc is highlighted by its racism, as Poe’s character is reduced to a mere stereotype of his ethnicity.

            To be fair, the scene where he lowered his X-Wing and started bouncing the hydraulic suspension was a bit odd.

          4. What in the actual fuck. They shit up the last movie with a ton of SJW bullshit to appease the little crybullies and it’s STILL not enough?! Hell with it. Han’s kid should crush the rebels and turn Mary Sue Kenobi to the dark side by sending her dick pics.

      2. Akira

        even in 1982 they should have steered clear of including a rape scene

        Why? Are they not allowed to portray ugly aspects of reality? Are movies supposed to be nothing but glitter and rainbows?

    3. Funny, I just watched it last night.

      I didn’t pick up any SJW vibes, and my detector’s pretty sensitive to it. I actually really enjoyed it. I thought they stayed very true to the feel of the first movie, and I liked that they kept it in the canon universe, so to speak, instead of updating it to mesh with the amount of time that’s passed.

      As for the SJ bit, are you talking about the twist? I liked that, actually. I think it would’ve been too pat, maybe even a little trite, if it had gone in the direction the movie hints towards up to that point. It also kind of went with the general tone of the movie, sort of a not-quite-noir downer. Besides, given the Big Thing about the one replicant, IYKWIMAITTYD, I think it’s biologically significant that the person in question is a woman.

      1. Ken Shultz

        Are you kidding?

        The twist in the first is that the guy looking for machines is a machine himself.’

        The twist in the second is that the guy who thinks he’s important isn’t important because he isn’t the female? Even his memories are stolen from a woman?

        He was tricked into thinking he was important. But that’s okay. It’s just a stage in development we all go through. Until the women can assume their proper roles as our progenitors across the universe.

        Even the male bot who serves as the leaders of the resistance had no use for women–who couldn’t procreate. And their ability to procreate is what makes them dominant.

        That’s the whole crux of the movie. The rest of it is mood and action.

    4. “after they turned the last Mad Max into a lecture on feminism”

      It was a fairly awesome lecture on feminism, though.

      1. Ken Shultz

        The part that was awesome wasn’t the lecture.

  11. DEG

    Stock maintenance time. I’ve neglected a lot of maintenance on my guns, so I’m going through them all and putting things right. Tonight is my Schmit-Rubin M1889’s turn. I took it apart and oiled the stock, following this guy’s advice. The stock wasn’t all that dry. The Swiss put their trigger guards on damn tight. I thought I was going to snap the trigger guard, so I left it on the rifle while I oiled the stock.

  12. Lackadaisical

    Mass. doctors fear flu pandemic after over 1,600 cases confirmed this week

    Is it just me, or is 1600 cases in one week not a whole lot? >.>;

    1. Hyperion

      In a country of 350 million, it’s apparently an epidemic. Call out the national guard.

    2. Tulip

      I don’t know, but I will say that this strain is horribly nasty. It does seem worse than recent years.

      1. Hyperion

        I guess it depends on how old you are, but I remember far far worse strains of flu than this one when I was younger.

        1. Tulip

          I’ve always been susceptible to the flu. Most Xmas pictures show me in a bathrobe, obviously sick. I don’t remember one that hit me this hard.

          1. Hyperion

            This one seemed especially mild to me considering some of the ones I had in the 80s and 90s.

          2. RBS

            Listen, Tulip, get off Hyperion’s lawn.

          3. Hyperion

            Damn straight. Everyone get off my lawn!

          4. You should have flashed the camera.

        2. Playa Manhattan

          I’ve had all the “first responder” vaccines going back to… a long time ago.

          When this is all done, I sincerely hope that I’m wrong.

      2. I’m not sure if it’s worse, but it definitely sucked. I’ve just gotten over the lingering effects.

      3. Grummun

        My nephew, who works in a pediatric cardiac unit, reports that this year’s flu has been unusually hard on their patient population.

      4. DenverJ

        Just be immune to the flu, like me. It may be the copious amounts of alcohol, or perhaps a diet of mostly prepackaged and microwaved “food”, or maybe it’s genetic. Whatever it is, you should do it.

      5. hayeksplosives

        All I can say is it’s certainly the first time I was in the hospital for 4 days for a freaking bug. And I am in my mid forties.

        That shit (plus pneumonia and asthma) was ready to escort me off this great orb on which we live without intervention that only a hospital can provide.

        And yes, I had the flu shot. 10% effective this year.

        1. SP

          Pneumovax. Get it.

  13. J. Frank Parnell

    Did anyone cover this yet?

    Rose McGowan cancels her book tour after failing to recognize that women with penises are higher up on the victimhood hierarchy than women with vaginas.

    1. Hyperion

      What about Muslim women with penises who identify as Otherkins? Does she really know how low she is? She could be on suicide watch if she kept up!

      1. Lackadaisical

        As a white woman, she has the second most amount of privilege, and needs to make space for POC and QWERTY people.

        1. J. Frank Parnell

          White women are the white men of women.

      2. KSuellington

        Stop othering dragonkins that identity as buildings.

    2. Lackadaisical

      Anything that results in fewer people seeing that is probably a good thing?

    3. Rhywun

      Holy shit that was epic. Prog brainwashing is literally destroying everything and kudos to her for calling bullshit on it.

      1. Rope Snake

        +1

    4. straffinrun

      ” a male who identifies as a woman”

      2018 USA.

      1. The plot of screwball comedies for fifty years is now actual, everyday, serious life.

        1. Rhywun

          Haha you’re right. And “humor” is dying with it.

          1. Yeah, it’s really sad and more than a little scary. I think American culture has become a lot more accepting, which is a good thing in the balance, but somehow not thinking gay people are insane perverts and not caring about mixed-race couples and so forth has turned into behaving as if every single interaction is like walking through a minefield. Now the standard for tolerance and mutual respect is apparently never saying or doing anything that might remotely be construed (or misconstrued) as offensive. There’s not much room for comedy if you have to give a public confession for breaking someone’s balls.

        2. Billy Wilder hardest hit.

    5. Basically, because McGowan has the privilege of not being trans (even though that distinction is not supposed to exist, according trans activists)…

      That’s an excellent point. If trans people are the sex that they feel, then a trans woman is a woman, but a woman is also a trans woman, right? Otherwise, you’re saying that a trans woman is not a woman, in which case Rose McGowan is right. And obviously she is right.

      1. straffinrun

        Can a woman woman identify as a trans woman?

        1. J. Frank Parnell

          I don’t see why not.

        2. Rhywun

          My brain hurts.

        3. I guess she’d have to, right? Or, more accurately, there’s no such thing as a trans woman. If you’re a woman because you feel that you’re a woman, then you’re a woman, not a trans woman. And by the reflexive property of equality a woman must therefore be able to identify as a trans woman. And since the two things are the same, then they aren’t actually two different things. Which means trans women are no better or worse off than women.

          1. Just Say’n

            It would appear that this whole trans stuff is actually cementing gender roles. If your sex organ doesn’t define your gender than only you conforming to the roles associated with a particular gender are what make you that gender. So a man that wants to be a woman should wear dresses and use a purse in order to be identified as a ‘woman’.

            Isn’t that somewhat different than the argument that feminists were making not too long ago?

          2. You mean the feminists who got all cised about a play called “The Vagina Monologues” and who wear “pussy hats”? Yeah, it’s an interesting conundrum, because with the whole #MeToo thing you’ve got people like Rose McGowan who are vocal feminists but who obviously are having a hard time playing along with the trans community. I just picture a room of Rose McGowans sitting in a circle talking about how hard it was to grow up as a girl, and then some dude that looks like Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds with a sun hat and a purse chimes in with, “Yeah, tell me about it,” followed by someone snarling, “Why don’t you go wait in the car, Bruce!”

          3. trshmnstr

            you’ve got people like Rose McGowan who are vocal feminists but who obviously are having a hard time playing along with the trans community

            It’s even more complicated than that. There’s a contingent of traditional feminists who are starting to regret #MeToo, because it turns out that men are more than happy to tell women to fuck off in the workplace if it means avoiding accusations of sexual harassment.

          4. Rhywun

            I’ve been saying forever that lumping all the “others” in one category (à la LGBTQ++) was bullshit.

            Gay men and lesbians have little in common other than being “other”. Same with women and men who identify as women. Lumping them all together and playing at kumbaya was never going to end in anything other than Rose McGowan telling a trannie to fuck off at Barnes & Noble.

          5. Number.6

            Rhy.

            That’s why ‘people like you’ are being pushed to the back of the LBGTQOwhateverewhateverwhatever bus. And you’ll continue being “only one rung up on the ladder” from the people not included in the ever-growing, increasingly insatiable lunatics’ alphabet-soup list.

            Eventually, whatever individuality the alphabet-terrorists grant you will be stripped away, and you’ll get the bullet too. Just like us.

          6. Rhywun

            The only way to win is not to play.

          7. J. Frank Parnell

            Gay men are the white people of LGBTQASDFJKL;

          8. westernsloper

            Which means trans women are no better or worse off than women.

            Wrong. Pre-op trans women can stand up and pee. They have piss privilege.

        4. DenverJ

          I’m a lesbian trapped in a man’s body

          1. Akira

            So you walk around in Birkenstocks and cargo shorts and drive a Subaru?

          2. Tres Cool

            Tres Sr. drunkenly made that joke, quite often, 25 years ago.

          3. DenverJ

            Well, I’ve been making that joke for at least that long, maybe SR and I knew the same people, or maybe even drank together. Here’s to your dad!

      2. Rope Snake

        Idk if ‘queer/trans theory’ makes for a reduction ad absurdum of feminist theory or the other way around, but it’s nothing cognitive dissonance and po-mo verbiage can’t wave away

        1. Cognitive dissonance is the lifeblood of intersectionality, third-wave feminism, the whole lot. How else can you say on the one hand that trans genderqueer PoC are no less capable than anyone else while simultaneously maintaining that straight white men are so disproportionately powerful that society itself is engineered to benefit them while oppressing other demographic groups.

          1. trshmnstr

            something something vast right-wing conspiracy inborne systems of oppression.

          2. DenverJ

            I begin to suspect an Orwellian plot to make words mean nothing, a la Orwell and Alice in wonderland

          3. DenverJ

            “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

      3. Count Potato

        That’s just bad set theory.

      4. Nephilium

        And I’ve gone cross-eyed.

    6. DenverJ

      These people are literally insane. Now, as long as they are no threat to themselves or others, we should be supportive. But at some point, they’re going to need electroshock therapy, and there’s nothing we do to stop that.

      1. trshmnstr

        Now, as long as they are no threat to themselves or others, we should be supportive. mind our own damn business.

        FIFY.

        Live and let live =/= libertarianism.

        1. DenverJ

          Shut up Tulpa

  14. Why have just one?

    http://archive.is/Q8KlJ

    14, 14, 14 and 14.

    1. straffinrun

      J Frank Parnell? NTTAWWT.

      1. J. Frank Parnell

        whut

        1. straffinrun

          Comment #14. Maybe I misunderstood Q.

          1. Gustave Lytton

            Whoa! Meta man.

    2. DEG

      I’ll turn over a new leaf and just go shooting with #45.

    3. J. Frank Parnell

      25 looks very promising, but they need to turn around to verify. In the meantime I’ll take 46.

  15. Rope Snake

    I’m watching the 30 for 30 “Happy Valley” about the Penn State / Jerry Sandusky episode, and it’s striking to me that these sociopathic media actors can with straight faces chastise anyone else for behaving unethically—in terms of not reporting something, or going far enough in reporting—as if they have any scruples at all in this respect. In fact, they’re often outright immoral and malicious.

    The conduits for ‘proper’ social signaling and moral outrage are people and organizations with no moral sense whatsoever. And people fall for that shit, presumably because they haven’t any either. And those who seem to have any can easily be pressured into forgoing them, see: TOS.

    And somehow I’m not supposed to be a miserable misanthrope.

    1. commodious spittoon

      I’m still not clear on how the guy was molesting underage kids at a state university, and so far I’ve been pretty happy staying unclear.

      1. Rope Snake

        I think I’m more frustrated watching documentaries and seeing slimy reporters upheld as great moral paragons and pontificating about doing what’s right when we know how at-best squishy and willfully ignorant and at-worst outright mendacious and vile most of them are. Even documentaries where the crux is that reporters lied and omitted important facts and stories—there’s never any self-reflection.

        And everyone conveniently continues to respect them by believing what they write and say. It depresses me.

        1. commodious spittoon

          Peter Robinson on the Ricochet Podcast was talking about The Post sweeping up award nominations at the same time the Washington Post has been crying about releasing the Nunes memo. Spare me the crocodile tears, you miserable bunch of hypocrites.

          1. DenverJ

            I saw one today that was critical of releasing the memo, just inches below that insufferable “democracy dies in darkness” motto. I wonder if the editors can spell hypocrisy?

      2. IIRC there were a bunch of like at-risk kids programs, shit like that, that he used to get underage kids on campus and more or less at his mercy. Sandusky is a vile piece of shit who deserves to be tortured to death, and as far as I’m concerned everyone who turned a blind eye because of kindly old Coach Joe should have to look each of the victims in the eye and explain why they did nothing to help them.

        1. DEG

          Sandusky’s spare time was spent running a charity for at-risk kids. At some point the investigation into Sandusky went to the state AG’s office due to a conflict of interest on the part of the County DA. The County DA’s brother-in-law was one of Sandusky’s adopted sons. The state AG that received the case was Corbett, who would later become governor. Corbett accepted donations from board members of Sandusky’s charity. Corbett’s successor as AG, Kathleen Kane, cleared Corbett of political influence on the investigation.

          1. Rope Snake

            Moral paragons

  16. Yusef drives a Kia

    Aaand I just got back from Condemning a Compressor for Manila Sunset, Saturday night restaurant work, yay, I still need to cook dinner

    1. straffinrun

      CBS needs to hire a proofreader or maybe they were trying to give that article an Italian American immigrant feel.

      1. Rufus has a sad.

  17. westernsloper

    Here is one for you Baltimoreianites

    A third of Baltimore Police recruits set to leave the academy and hit the streets lack a basic understanding of the laws governing constitutional policing and are being pushed through by the department nonetheless, according to the academy’s head of legal instruction.

    Some of the recruits, he said, have not been able to master basic material. Four have been in the academy for 18 months, having been recycled back from previous classes to continue their training, and still haven’t grasped the legal concepts, he said.
    “With 18 months of training, they’re still failing to meet very basic legal standards,” he said. “Don’t illegally arrest people. Don’t illegally search people. These are not high standards.”

    1. commodious spittoon

      Baltimorons isn’t the going term? If not, why not?

      *scratches Baltimore off list of places to visit. Scratches rest of Virginia off list, just to be safe.*

      1. Baltimorons is alive and well. And yeah, there’s not really a compelling reason to go to Baltimore. There are a few places that might be worth a twenty, maybe thirty minute drive, but that’s about it.

      2. KSuellington

        At this rate you may have to scratch off Maryland.

  18. Gilmore

    Mentioned in previous thread…

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/world/middleeast/israel-airstrikes-sinai-egypt.html

    pretty significant; and wonder if exposing the relationship is motivated by desire to scuttle it.

    1. Just Say’n

      How long before Sisi’s government is overthrown?

    2. straffinrun

      “Iran and political Islam have quietly brought the leaders of several Arab states into growing alignment with Israel — even as their officials and news media continue to vilify the Jewish state in public.”

      Win/Win. This has been happening for decades, no?

      1. Gilmore

        i think since the Iraq war and the arab spring, there’s been a sea change in the way arab states look at their own continued-existence, and its not “keep the population frothing about israel”. They’re more worried about ISIS and iran than the jews.

        1. straffinrun

          Isn’t there some theory floating around the Arab world that ISIS is actually a Jewish plot?

          1. Gilmore

            Isn’t there some theory floating around the Arab world that ISIS everything that has gone wrong in the arab world for the last 50+ years is actually a Jewish plot?

            FTFY

            I suspect a lot of the problems with arab resentment w/ israel might be generational. the people who grew up in the shadow of the asskickings they received in ’67 and 73 and the lebanon war and the intifada. and…. basically, they’re old now. and the young ones haven’t seen quite the same “24/7 images of palestinians being butchered by israelis” propaganda.

            there is still certainly enormous amounts of anti-israel propaganda, but things like ISIS make it harder to blame everything on ‘the jew’.

    3. Gustave Lytton

      Shut down the MFO mission.

  19. CPRM

    RedLetterMedia seems to have merged ZARDOZ and STEVE SMITH to make XANDU! I’m telling yas, these guys would fit in around here. (They literally had gay wedding cake).

    1. commodious spittoon

      They’re not at all attuned to social justice horseshit. I think it’s Stoklasa keeping a firm hand on the rudder. All that Wisconsin earthy sense. GO PACK GO.

  20. Private Chipperbot

    So as no one gave a shit when i was trapped at MSP yesterday, i can say that tomorrow starts with nude hot tubbing with wife and friend before kids soccer. We’re supposed to get six inches of snow as well. I also understand there is a football game on later.

    1. straffinrun

      Nude hot tubbing with wife and friend. What is this, 1977?

      1. Right!? Will cocaine and Fleetwod Mac albums be involved?

    2. trshmnstr

      i can say that tomorrow starts with nude hot tubbing with wife and friend before kids soccer. We’re supposed to get six inches

      I stopped reading there.

      1. hayeksplosives

        LOLZ.

    3. J. Frank Parnell

      nude hot tubbing with wife and friend

      There’s a key piece of information missing here which we will need to be able to calculate how jealous we should be.

      1. hayeksplosives

        Truth.

        Or maybe he’s awkwardly expressing that his wife is also his BFF.

        1. straffinrun

          That was how I interpreted it in order to preserve my Victorian sensibilities.

          1. I’m something of a Victorian myself. Also, I’ve never heard of a marriage that has survived swinging, at least not amongst my friends and acquaintances. For my part, I don’t have the attention span or the focus to handle two women, and, frankly, I have a jealous streak supported by a homicidal temper.

          2. straffinrun

            Just to be fair to Chipperbot, he didn’t say he was swinging. But, yeah, I don’t see how swinging would add anything of real value to a marriage. Think it was Jane Fonda that claimed it ruined her marriage.

          3. hayeksplosives

            Man, I hear you. The mental / emotional energy required would just simply not work.

            If I had a side piece “just for fun”, I know it would get emotions attached (that’s part of what sex does, regardless of what you think it does: Repeated sex with a person builds a chemical/hormonal/emotional bond that evolution has driven us toward over millenia) whether I wanted it to or not.

            And I would be more enraged over a spouse’s emotional affair than over a drunken one-night-stand. Jealous streaks aren’t all bad.

          4. Private Chipperbot

            No swinging. Just no kids fun. Wife is very comfy nude and is smoking hot so no complaints.

          5. Pics or not real.

            [I’m only saying what everybody else is thinking.]

          6. Private Chipperbot

            And i don’t have the energy to entertain anyone more than the Mrs.

          7. hayeksplosives

            Well, OK then. Cheers!

          8. J. Frank Parnell

            If I had a side piece “just for fun”, I know it would get emotions attached

            Yeah, I knew one couple that had an open relationship, and it seemed to work out okay when they were just swinging with other couples. Then the wife got into some kinky shit that the husband wasn’t really interested in, so she found a side guy. Husband was fine with it because it was just sex and it made her happy. After a while she started going on dates with the guy, and they divorced pretty soon after that.

          9. trshmnstr

            I just don’t get the point. It’s not like shacking up with a girlfriend/boyfriend and having an unmarried family is frowned upon these days by society. Why bother with the marriage if you’re gonna be screwing around outside of the relationship? It only complicates things if the relationship goes south.

            If I hadn’t had a literal come to Jesus moment, I wouldn’t be married today. Too little upside to it in modern secular relationships.

          10. hayeksplosives

            I hear ya clucking, big chicken. No way I would be able to go for the marriage + one (or two or whatever).

            The marriage is a pact, for better or worse, in sickness and in health. So when the actual husband needs a colostomy bag and some help with his oxygen tank, does the side action do her shift in taking care of that?? No way I would feel the same loyalty as a wife to deal with the “in sickness” stuff if my hubs had been banging someone else over the years either.

            Commit to me or GTFO. You will be richly rewarded, or you get NOTHING. Those are my terms.

          11. Nephilium

            I know of at least one polyamorous group (3-5 depending) who have been together for over a decade at this point. For certain people, it can work. I do have a temper (that I’ve been working on for the past couple of decades), but I don’t get jealous.

            /not a member of the group

      2. Private Chipperbot

        The extra is a she and it will be boozy funtime. ?

    4. Mustang

      *begins raucous cheering for Prviate Chipperbot*

    5. nude hot tubbing with wife and friend before kids soccer.

      I’m glad you’ve compartmentalized those.

      1. Private Chipperbot

        Sorta.

  21. trshmnstr

    So, my wife has had a few interesting occurrences in the past week or so with her iPhone. Something will come up in a phone conversation, and then she’ll start getting targeted ads for that thing. When she brought it up to me, I blew it off as confirmation bias. However, it happened again tonight, this time in a conversation between her and me in person. We were watching a recording of Young Sheldon on our DVR, and the show Mom comes on after that. We had a conversation about how the girl in that show seems to have gotten a ton of work done, and she’s barely recognizable as the pregnant girl in the last season of Friends. My wife started typing an internet search to make sure it was the same girl, and started with “tv show”, to which the iPhone’s suggestion was “tv show mom.”

    I can still be convinced that this was another coincidence, but it sure seems like her phone is taking data from the microphone and using it to improve search results and target ads.

    1. straffinrun

      I totally watch a show called Winston’s Mom.

      1. westernsloper

        Pornhub?

    2. westernsloper

      I think you must do an experiment. Start talking about the super bowl and food and see if she gets ads for chicken wings. Or, talk about her being cranky and see if she gets ads for feminine products.

      1. hayeksplosives

        talk about her being cranky and see if she gets ads for feminine products.

        Just don’t tell her that’s part of the experiment, because if you make the observation that cranky and “when Aunt Flo comes to visit” are related, heads will roll.

        TW guys, I am about to talke about lady stuff. Avert your gaze.

        BTW, Glib women who are done having kids but don’t want a hysterectomy, an endometrial ablation is an easy peasy way to end the visits from Aunt Flo forever. Did it 11 years ago, and it was the best medical decision of my life.

        1. In our house it’s “Shark Week”. My wife worked for Discovery for a minute.

          1. hayeksplosives

            🙂

        2. westernsloper

          I am triggered in a big way by lady plumbing talk. I do the fingers in the ears “nanananana” thing. It is very juvenile but it works for me.

        3. Progressive Flo is cranky?

          1. Tulip

            You have no idea.

          2. At night she goes home and fucks the brains out of the Geico gecko.

          3. Mustang

            *shoots water out nose from laughing*

          4. trshmnstr

            I’d have taken her more for a uniform chaser. What’s The General up to when not cruising with Shaq?

          5. hayeksplosives

            The debut year of Progressive Flo, before we were oversaturated with the commercials but when quite a few people had seen them, I went as Flo to work for Halloween. Got the brunette wig and blue ribbon, white apron with Progressive iron-on, button with “I heart insurance” and the nametag.

            It was awesome, because the people who got it really got it and cracked up like we had an inside joke, and the others had no idea and experienced the fear of missing out.

            Now you can buy the dang costume. But why bother?

        4. My wife had one for medical reasons. However, she has now returned to getting a small period.

          1. hayeksplosives

            They said at the time a rebound period was a possibility. I also had my ablation for medical reasons. I had asked my doc if it was crazy to demand a hysterectomy in my 30s to stop the freaking ridiculous and unsustainable loss of blood, and he offered up the ablation rather than a not-so-minor surgery.

            So far so good. Next up now that I’m in my 40s will be menopause, although I’m not sure how I will notice other than a growth of facial hair or something.

          2. straffinrun

            Flash?

          3. hayeksplosives

            I did offer up a trigger warning…

          4. hayeksplosives

            If “the change of life” makes me into a harpie feminist, y’all have permission to hunt me down and kill me.

            No, you have the sworn duty to do so. For humanity.

          5. Nephilium

            So… are you asking for Kraven to hunt you down, or Stalker?

          6. CPRM

            Nephilium you’re such a nerd. Stalker? It’s clearly Cathy.

          7. hayeksplosives

            Yikes. Y’all are a lil bit scary.

          8. straffinrun

            I scroll from the bottom up. Thought you were responding to the swinging comment. Whoa.

    3. J. Frank Parnell

      Interesting… Internet search using Safari or some other browser?

      1. trshmnstr

        Yep, Safari.

      2. J. Frank Parnell

        So just now I said “Hey, I wonder who plays the main character in Young Sheldon” right next to my iPhone, then opened Safari and started typing in “who plays the main character in” and it didn’t autocomplete to Young Sheldon.

        “tv show” offers “tv show 911”, “tv show mom”, and “tv show tickets” as suggestions.

        So, IDK.

        1. trshmnstr

          Yep, sounds like a weird coincidence is all.

    4. Rhywun

      Maybe “Mom” is popular? I wouldn’t know; never heard of it.

      Anyway I’m not sure “search suggestions” is the same thing as “targeted ads”.

      1. trshmnstr

        Maybe “Mom” is popular?

        Possibly, but the search suggestions went:
        “tv show mom”
        “tv show funny”
        “tv show new”
        etc.

        If the algorithm was putting popular shows in the suggestions box, I’d expect more than one show. Also, unless Mom was on live 20 minutes ago, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be the top search suggestion, I wouldn’t think.

        Anyway, who knows.

        1. Nephilium

          Just checked on my PC using Google, and I have never watched nor mentioned the TV show Mom, and it was in my autocomplete list as well. Along with “on Netflix”, “911”, and “Taken”. The only one of those that makes matches anything I’ve searched or watched before is on Netflix.

          1. whahappan

            Late reply, but maybe that particular show was suggested because it was on at the time?

    5. Akira

      It seems like you should do some kind of testing on this theory by purposely talking about some oddball TV show that you would not otherwise discuss.

    6. hayeksplosives

      This does not surprise me. There is a reason they won’t let us have our phones in a classified meeting at work, even if they are turned off.

      Our annual security training tells us they can listen even if it’s turned off. You have to take the battery out to be safe.

      We can’t even use the same printer or overhead projector to connect to classified PCs as we do to regular, because data siphoning and storage is everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

      1. mikey

        I always thought the classified projector thing was like requiring a classified pencil.

        1. hayeksplosives

          Nope, those suckers have memory and wifi capability.

          If it has a microprocessor, it can cause trouble.

          There is a reason (OK, several) that I implement most of my control systems in 15 volt CMOS CD4000 real time combinational logic. (I am famous for saying derisively “Stop the war; I have to reboot” when I see a demo of software driven systems. What utter crap.)

      2. Not an Economist

        USB devices are pretty much outlawed on government computers. Only in specific cases and specifically approved.

    7. straffinrun

      Seems possible anyways. Reminds me of This Target story.

      1. straffinrun
    8. Devil’s advocate, it could be the timing. You’re probably not the only people watching that show on DVR on a Saturday night, and people watching that show might be searching for the Mom show to look at reviews, or just because the ad inspired them to think of something related.

      Oh, and it’s the first suggestion on mine, and I don’t watch Young Sheldon or Mom.

      1. trshmnstr

        Yep, I noticed the same suggestion on my computer, too. I’m running Linux on a 5 year old laptop, so it’s definitely not snooping on my conversations to updated my suggestions.

        Weird coincidence.

        1. Rhywun

          My Google suggestions for “tv show”, in Safari on my Mac:

          tv show
          tv shows
          tv shows 2017
          tv shows on netflix
          tv shows 2018
          tv show mom

          I haven’t talked on my iPhone in at least a week, Siri is disabled everywhere for whatever that’s worth. And the only tv shows I search for I put in the exact title and “Mom” was never one of them.

          Someone’s bumping up that “Mom” thing, somehow.

          1. Number.6

            Not so surprising. The search engines aggregate search strings and subsequent clicks for everyone. All you’re seeing is everyone* else’s interests after they typed the same thing.

            * where ‘everyone’ includes inbuilt faked searches that skew the results.

            Incidentally, duckduckgo has the same ‘suggestions’ as google. StartPage.com doesn’t. I’ve been looking at SP for about a week (no, not our glorious webmistress, but the search engine).

        2. Akira

          It may be an odd coincidence, but how many times have you been talking about something and gotten ads completely unrelated to that topic?

          When I was a teenager, I remember pondering the possibility that my presence would cause street lights to go out… Until I considered how many times I passed by a street light that didn’t go off.

          1. straffinrun

            I was reading about Jungian synchronicity at the coffee shop the other day when a Muzak version of a certain Police song came on.

          2. Rhywun

            I saw that X-Files.

          3. straffinrun

            People laugh at the Vikings for screaming at an eclipse, yet think screaming at the sky to protest Trump is totes logical.

          4. I laugh at the Vikings for 38-7.

          5. straffinrun

            You’re welcome for the set up.

          6. hayeksplosives

            I lent an Amazon kindle to a friend who just wanted to check it out over a 4 day weekend. It was registered in my name and had my content, which he wanted to read anyway. But even after he returned the kindle to me after merely having it in his house, he was bombarded with ads for the Kindle. We theorize that Amazon “knew” a kindle owner was in the house of a friend, so they went for targeted advertising.

          7. I’d guess it was the IP address.

          8. hayeksplosives

            Would have to have been the telephone towers triangulation, because he just let it run on 3G. I didn’t give the WiFi password since he was just reading downloaded books.

          9. Number.6

            Ahem. MAC Address

          10. trshmnstr

            I don’t doubt for an instant that they have usage models for that exact situation. Kindle visits new place on same account? Target new place for ads because either they borrowed the Kindle or they had a houseguest who showed off their Kindle. Heck, when I interviewed with Amazon in 2010, they had me diagram out a simple system for capturing and leveraging product interests/preferences for their shopping site.

          11. hayeksplosives

            Yeah, that seems reasonable. Amazon knows their “early adopter” crowd loves to share our new and old kindles with friends.

  22. Yusef drives a Kia

    This slapped me in the face and said sit down,
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/AnxfxXizviqKEn1J3

    1. straffinrun

      What beer is that?

    2. Nephilium

      So what’s your opinion of it?

    3. DEG

      It’s a good one isn’t it?

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        Yes, Yes and I’m night night now, Ho Lee Fuk,
        Ty for the advise

  23. CPRM

    TOS had a good video yesterday for groundhog day. The Braggs, Heaton, Remy and Stoessel are are the only good things they have more.

    1. trshmnstr

      ReasonTV >>> Reason.com

      1. hayeksplosives

        So right. Remy and Stossel will always keep me coming back for MOAR.

        1. Tres Cool

          I like Stossel, but that moustache be fierce AF.

          1. Yusef drives a Kia

            Porn Stache Man!

        2. Festus

          So sorry to hear about your kittah last week. We had to do the same with our Burmese short-hair last spring. She was almost twenty. When they weighed her she was 4 lbs. Time to go. I cried like an eight year-old girl.

          1. Rhywun

            Aww. My fat cats are giving me the eye right now. Feed me…

          2. hayeksplosives

            Thanks.

            Old kittah went out with dignity. She was still a happy girl in short stints, but it was time.

          3. Akira

            We had a cat named Samantha who lived to be about 20. When I was too young to remember, I’m told that she chased a stray pitbull out of our yard. Around age 10, she had cancer in her hind leg, and it had to be amputated. But she was still a fucking tough cat. We got a dog, and the dog learned very quickly not to screw around with Samantha. Despite being a total hardass cat, she still loved to be picked up and cuddled by her humans.

          4. hayeksplosives

            Hats off to Samantha! Sounds awesome.

          5. Number.6

            Yeah, this one of ours, Frosty, faces down an 80lb mutt that almost took down a deer last year.

            The dog is cowed and gives ground when Frosty advances. The daughter claims that Frosty hasn’t needed blood for 10 or more years, he has pure evil pulsing thru’ those veins.

          6. Number.6

            My almost-20 y.o. Tuxedo Tom is still hanging in there despite his gimpy leg. Appetite’s OK, mobility is basically OK, not in outright pain, but for him, Winter is Coming.

            Sad.

          7. hayeksplosives

            Sad indeed. Get in some extra scritches and photos.

            When Sassy was ready became obvious in the last 2 weeks when she shoved her face into the couch cushions or into the crook of my elbow. Cats shoving their faces into something is often a sign of pain.

            🙁

          8. Festus

            My boys are 12 and 10 and I’m such a fatalist that I hear the clock ticking.

          9. Rhywun

            I have two girls around 12. I’m kind of freaking out about the “end” – all the cats we had growing up either ran away or had to be given away so I haven’t been through it.

      2. Rhywun

        Enh. I don’t do videos. Sorry, reason.tv.

        1. commodious spittoon

          It’s like a child saying “I don’t do Santa Claus.” It’s there for free, some attention required.

          1. Rhywun

            I’d just rather read an article, that’s all. More info, less time. Plus videos mean I can’t split my attention between reading articles, programming work that I’m always doing, and whatever’s on my TV.

          2. Unreconstructed

            I’m with ya on that.

          3. commodious spittoon

            Showoff.

          4. Rhywun

            Don’t be jelly.

          5. Akira

            and whatever’s on my TV.

            Oh, so now you DO watch videos, huh?

            /smartass

          6. Rhywun

            Damn… tough crowd.

          7. DenverJ

            I’m with Rhywun: gimme text

  24. Mustang

    Is it wrong for me to be cheering for the flu in Massachusetts? I hated living there.

    1. commodious spittoon

      *strikes Massachusetts off places to visit*

  25. Not an Economist

    The New York Times wrote a story how the FBI was informed about Larry Nassar and his proclivities towards molesting children. The FBI did very little.

    By criticizing the FBI on this subject, this proves the New York Times supports Donald Trump.

    What?

    1. Not an Economist

      Link to article about the problematic New York Times.

    2. Mustang

      Ow. My brain.

    3. Gilmore

      it feels like the country has had a partial lobotomy sometimes.

      1. Rhywun

        I read that Stephen King story.

  26. Festus

    Ugh. Whatta weekend. We had to give up our foster cat because she just didn’t gel and then I was too sick to work this morning so I have to compress two shifts into one tomorrow. Going in and doing a bang-up job is made harder by accusations of theft. Imma drink a little more but in the meantime – https://youtu.be/kzoN-CvH0qU

    1. CPRM

      I just wanted to say, Festus was the poor man’s Walter Brennan.

      1. Festus

        Not sure if I’m insulted or flattered by the comparison but it’s attention so I’ll take it! Double plus points for the obscure reference, I tip my toque to you, Good Sirrah!

          1. Festus

            My late Mother loved Red Skelton.

          2. CPRM

            If I were a normal person I’d probably say sorry for your loss; but since this is Glibs I’ll say, aren’t you a bit old for your mom to be having more kids. /rimshot

          3. Festus

            Doesn’t ruffle my feathers at all. My Mom was a venomous creature.

  27. Yusef drives a Kia

    All 4 G kids at once, I’m already burnt out,WHEEE!

    1. Festus

      My g kids are buried in their smart phones. Every once in awhile I break out the Legos and watch with satisfaction.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        9 and 8 boys are Tablet whores but the Girls 8 and 2 are just so sweet,

    2. hayeksplosives

      That sounds like good memories in the making!!

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        I am an absolute sucker for any of them, any time 🙂

    3. commodious spittoon

      Recently heard on a British gameshow I like: EE is a Brit telecom. 4G is what they’re advancing. “Gee” is Irish slang for vagina. The Irish are pretty smitten with the 4GEE posters getting plastered around the place.

      1. Number.6

        Like an ad campaign for Volkswagen Audi Group was a wonderful sign of ad agencies’ inability to comprehend modern slang.

        1. commodious spittoon

          So 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. I love it. Love Jimmy Carr, Jon, Sean, every guest they have, Susie Dent is a treasure, Rachel Riley is a crown jewel. Does it do anything for you?

          1. Festus

            Speaking of British humour, this is one of the funniest clips that I’ve seen in awhile https://youtu.be/yRujuE-GIY4

          2. Festus

            I love the way he plays against type. I only knew these guys from Peep Show.

          3. commodious spittoon

            Wooo! Admiral Dönitz was a high… low… high point? of his. “Darling, yeah, it’s me. You’ll never guess, they’ve made me the new Fuhrer!”

  28. CPRM

    Maybe the #Meto against James Franco is overdue? I don’t know, I haven’t seen the film. Just watching a Half in the Bag I don’t remember watching.

  29. DenverJ

    So, my GF wants me to try new foods. We go to a Mediterranean place. I get some kind of cake made from chickpeas. She wants to know if I like it. “Well, says I, it wasn’t great, but you know, it wasn’t falafel, either.”

    1. SP

      We are having homemade falafel tomorrow for the game. /ignores bad pun because she likes DenverJ, or used to at any rate

  30. RAHeinlein

    STRAFF: If you’re still here, I responded to your Friday evening post. We are in Room 4308 at the Park Hyatt until Thursday if you want to leave a message.

    1. RAHeinlein

      Sorry – Room 4803 at the PARK HYATT.

  31. Akira

    OT: Any opera fans here?

    I’ve started watching them on YouTube lately. So far, I’ve watched a few works by Verdi, some Gilbert and Sullivan (which are very silly but good for a few laughs) and a few of the other most famous works.

    My favorite so far has been Tannhauser by Wagner. There’s a great version on YouTube (Bayreuth ’78) with a very beautiful yet freakish production of the opening ballet sequence at the Venusberg.

    Plus, the whole opera thing kind of goes hand-in-hand with the monocles and orphans.

    1. SP

      You know WHO ELSE liked Wagner!

      1. Natalie Wood?

      2. F. Stupidity Jr.

        A housepainter?