Friday Morning Links

This has been one hell of a long week, I ain’t gonna lie. Some ups, some downs and some shit gone sideways too. But we’ve finally reached the end of it. Together. And the Super Bowl isn’t going to Boston!

There’s some olympics stuff going on. I heard a little bit in the background last night as I was getting some work done. Some dude was going berserk over a dude skiing moguls. And while skiing them is a hell of a task, I couldn’t figure out the scoring so I turned the volume down and zoned back out.  I mean, life is so much easier when things are scored by who is faster, goes higher or scores more points (by an objective measure like putting the ball in a basket or a puck in a net or touching a plate). I don’t deny that people competing in sports that are judged rather than scored, and there is a difference, are fine athletes. I just have a hard time getting as excited when I think it can easily be manipulated…as every single judged olympic sport seems to have been at one time or another. And I know referees can manipulate games, but the chances of that are much lower than a few judges scoring one particular person a quarter point better than they should in every dive, cumulatively impacting the event.

But that rant is for another day. Even though it was almost Shultz-like in length. So let’s get some scores, shall we? Dickie V, the most reviled man in college basketball by a mile in my opinion, is probably weeping this morning after his beloved Dookies fell to their rival Tar Heels.  Suck it, you one-eyed bastard.  UCLA took down Arizona. Gonzaga and St Mary’s rolled to wins, as did Clemson. And on the ice, your winners were Buffalo, Calgary, Philly, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, St Louis, Dallas, Phoenix (a surprise whenever it happens), and Army.  Well done guys!

That’s it for sports. Now…the links!

Hey, grope #metoo!

Giving a speech on the merits of the #metoo movement, I yield the floor to Assemblywoman Grabby McGropeyhands.  Awk-ward!!!!!!

Well congratulations Rose McGowan and Harvey Weinstein. Your little war of words can finally claim its first victim. And while I believe in self-ownership and personal responsibility, I do think these two assholes owe her family an apology for using her as a tool to fight each other with.

Oh CNN, never change. I remember you decrying Rand Paul’s actions years ago when decrying deficit spending. Now you’re on his side?  And while I’m point out hypocrisy, I need to give a nod to the idiots in the GOP who finally have a chance to pare down the size of our leviathan government on the heels of great employment news and tax breaks putting a lot of money in more Americans pockets.  You dumbasses shit the bed again and the sooner you’re all expelled and more Paul-ites (and Massie-ites and Amash-potatoes) join the party, we can pull our country back from the bring of fiscal ruin.

Is this man becoming likable?

Shut the fuck up, Elon Musk! Your actions the past week are almost making you likable, and now you call out the UAW? Stop it! Also, you’re never gonna reach production goals with the Model 3, so none of what you wrote really matters.

You want to know how a stranger ends up getting beaten to within an inch of his life? Try this with my kid instead of this guy’s. Seriously, I would go fucking apeshit if this were my child.

Even haters gotta cry sometimes

And just in case you weren’t hip to the current hate symbols being used out there, the ADL has compiled a list of them for you to identify. 1. The Pepe as a hate symbol thing is absurd. 2. I know Coors sucks, but come on! And 3. I think the Michigan State Spartans deserve a little credit for the good they occasionally do (like beat TTUN two of the three years Harbaugh has been in Ann Arbor).

Anyway, read it for a few laughs and to see some actual hate symbols, because some of them are legit, even if the number of people that would display or use them in America is incredibly small.

It doesn’t tie in to any of the links. I just really wanted to hear this song this morning and to share it with you.

Go finish the week strong, friends.  I’m gonna work like a dog again for half a day then try to play golf.

Comments

633 responses to “Friday Morning Links”

    1. That has its place in my catalog as well.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Is it the part of the catalog that you have tied on a string on the outhouse door?

    2. Festus

      The only redeeming factor of the movie Grease. We went as a group and the girls insisted upon it. We wanted to watch Jaws II.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      You will not besmirch Xanadu. Next you’ll be picking on Sheena Easton, and I will not have that.

      Ten year old me thought it was roller skating heaven with spandex and hottie Australians.

      Plus, it introduced me to the Tubes. Six guys wearing electric orange, synthesizer, heavy percussion electric guitar….

      1. Festus

        Heh. I actually saw the Tubes opening for Peter Gabriel opening for David Bowie. I was there for Gabriel and had actually hitched 500 miles just because “Why Not?” Fuck, I was eighteen, had a knife in my boot, fifty bucks in my pocket, a cardboard sign and the feeling that my Father had really disowned me, this time for certain. It was awesome! Experiences are to be lived and not wished upon.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          The Tubes opening for Gabriel opening for Bowie.

          Mind blown

          1. Festus

            The first full concert at BC Place Stadium. I was pretty shit-faced because we pre-pubbed (I was underage) 55 thousand people. One of my better memories from kid-hood.

        2. Gordilocks

          Great story.

      2. Count Potato

        I saw the Tubes. I think they were opening for Todd Rundgren. Lots of arena-rock stage show gimmicks.

        1. Number.6

          Lots of arena-rock stage show gimmicks.

          Uh, yeah. And your point is?

          I think I was at the Hammersmith Odeon on the night they recorded most of “What Do You Want From Live”.

          Awesome. Unforgettable. Retarded (in a good way)

  1. Politico reported Thursday that two men said Garcia made improper advances toward them. One, a former legislative staffer, said Garcia groped his back and buttocks and attempted to grab his crotch during a legislative softball game in 2014.

    Party girl!

    1. I need a full body shot to see how offended I am by all this. That rack is saying I should be ok with it, but I don’t know until I see the rest.

      1. I’ve found a few. She appears to be on the verge of gaining a lot of weight at any moment.

        1. Festus

          Chicks are always finding an excuse to touch my arms, hell, guys too. No hugs allowed though.

          1. Stop kissing your own biceps in front of people so much, and they will stop thinking your arms are a couple of easy tramps.

          2. Festus

            “The beach is *flexes up* that way!”

    2. Just a thought not a sermon

      Here’s her official Assemblywoman site:

      https://a58.asmdc.org/

      I don’t think I’m feeling it.

      1. Festus

        Bah! Bent over her desk there are no cowards. She’s definitely a “twenty beer would”.

        1. I mean, all things being equal…probably would. But I think it’s been established by now that I’m not necessarily what you’d call a picky eater in these regards.

        2. R C Dean

          She breaks the rules for coming on to the opposite sex:

          (1) Be attractive
          (2) Don’t be unattractive

      2. DEG

        She looks worse than a typical Boston area Proglodyte. I’ve been passing on them for a while. I’ll pass on her too.

    3. Akira

      My theory is that “sexual harassment” by females is equal to or greater than sexual harassment by males, but most males just don’t care if a woman makes a pervy comment or touches their ass.

      1. The statistics breakdown shows that cases raised and found substantiated are close to parity, but women raise more claims that are found to be lacking in substance.

        There is no data on events not leading to raised claims.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          UCS doesn’t consider it harassment if it doesn’t ‘raise his claim’.

          /ufemizzums

      2. AlexinCT

        The only time I would care is if she was able to screw me over financially, mess with my ability to stay employed, or looked like the type that would respond to rejection by accusing me of being rapey…

        1. Akira

          That’s the scary thing: if you’re alone with a woman at work and you rebuff her advances, she’s in a perfect position to fabricate a story about you harassing her. And most people – especially HR types – are conditioned to “believe the women” (despite the Leftist claim that the US is some kind of Islamic-style patriarchy where rape is never prosecuted). For once, I’m actually glad that my workplace is an open office where I would never be alone with a female co-worker.

          I’ve heard rumors that a lot of men in the tech sector have taken a Mike Pence policy towards women in the workplace, and that’s totally rational at this point. The downside for women will be that they’re less likely to be selected to go on business trips or work on special projects with men since that would entail the two of them being alone together.

          1. Festus

            Hayeksplosives shakes her head and double G rack in consternation.

  2. Trials and Trippelations

    Go UNC!

    1. Creosote Achilles

      It is a GDTBATH. Fuck them dookie fucks. That was a great game.

  3. just in case you weren’t hip to the current hate symbols being used out there, the ADL has compiled a list of them for you to identify.

    Why is the Glib monocle and tophat man not on there?

    1. Give it time, we are only about one year old.

    2. Bob Boberson

      I was expecting to also see the Gadsden Flag, Free State Project symbol and the Betsy Ross Flag mixed in. Oh well, the SPLC will send them an updated list soon.

      1. dbleagle

        The only people that I know that can even identify the “Vinland” flag that was shown are either SCA types or Scandi history types.

        Bob is unfortunately probably correct about the updated list.

        Finally, color me shocked that there were no antifa, islamist, la raza, nation of islam, or socialist symbols or pictures of Che, fidel, Mao, Lenin or Marx.

    3. I have seen exactly 3 of those in my lifetime.

  4. The libertarian case for drug prohibition
    If we respect freedom we must also protect freedom.

    Now, freedom cannot flourish unless certain background conditions are met. Consider an analogy with markets. If a government wants to protect and promote markets, then it must safeguard the conditions that make a market economy possible. These conditions include the protection of life, exchange, contracts, and private property.

    Without these prerequisites in place, it would be all but impossible for markets to flourish.

    The same is true of freedom. If the government has a responsibility to protect and promote freedom, then it must also protect and promote the conditions that make it possible. On this point, one essential ingredient of personal freedom is rationality. Choices can only be free if they are made by a person whose cognitive faculties are functioning in the right way.

    1. “You want to take drugs for recreational purposes, therefore your cognitive function must be impaired, so you are unable to make the decision to take drugs for recreational purposes.”

      1. Just a thought not a sermon

        But presumably there was a point before you were high when you made an informed decision?

      2. dbleagle

        “There was only one catch, and that catch was Catch-22.”

    2. Suthenboy

      You made a decision we dont approve of so you must not be sane. Same rationale as Soviet mental health system. You made a poor decision/came to the wrong conclusions so off to the sanitarium with you.

      Seems legit. Smells like freedom to me.

    3. Accordingly, since the government has a responsibility to protect personal freedom, it must also protect and promote a culture that is conducive to clear thinking and discourages impaired thinking. The government, therefore, has a responsibility to restrict activities that impair, destroy, or otherwise undermine clear thinking.

      So you’re saying the government should censor EverydayFeminism, CNN, and the Young Turks?

      Oh wait, sorry, the government would actually have to censor media that supports wrongthink, so the above would be ok.

      1. Promote.

        He keeps using that word. I don’t think it means what he thinks it means.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          By using it like this:

          In the beginning was the Plan.

          And then came the Assumptions.

          And the Assumptions were without form.

          And darkness was upon the face of the Workers.

          And they spoke among themselves, saying, “It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh.”

          And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said, “It is a pail of dung, and none may abide the odor thereof.”

          And the Supervisors went unto their Managers, saying, “It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it.”

          And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying, “It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength.”

          And the Directors spoke amongst themselves, saying one to another, “It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.”

          And the Directors then went onto the Vice Presidents, saying unto them, “It promotes growth and is very powerful.”

          And the Vice Presidents went unto the President, saying unto him, “This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company; with powerful effects.”

          And the President looked upon the Plan, and saw that it was good.

          And the Plan became Policy.

          This is How Shit Happens.

          1. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            I’m nailing this to my door.

    4. SugarFree

      Christ, what an asshole.

    5. Here’s the libertarian case for drug prohibition:

      Got all that?

    6. Zunalter

      Also, who decides what is rational? A group of atheists could make the case that religion is irrational and therefore a threat to freedom. Religious people could do the same for atheism (or any “not our brand” religion).

      And, if you are banning drugs for their effects on rationality, surely alcohol prohibition is not far behind. What about strong emotional attachments like love? Those often cause people to act irrationally…surely for the good of freedom those should be heavily regulated.

  5. Old Man With Candy

    ADL is a fucking (((embarrassment))), approaching SPLC levels.

    Note that they carefully avoid any mention of the major sources of contemporary antisemitism, because Team Blue.

    1. straffinrun

      Do I really want to know why Coors is a hate symbol?

      1. Coors.
        Coors.
        Adolph Coors.
        Adolf …. you know the rest.

        Actually, and it may have been an urban legend, I remember hearing that Adolph Coors was a white supremacist.

        1. straffinrun

          Oh. *Takes swig off Mengele Malt Liquor*

          1. The Mengele Effect!

    2. Well it would be hard to list the student government of every University in the Cal State and UC system individually. So they’ll just post Pepe instead.

      1. Festus

        That Roger Waters bullshit makes me look at my forty-odd year fandom of Pink Floyd like I’ve been played for a chump. I can understand (somewhat) his whiny bitch-fest about DaDa go bye-bye but his full-throated embrace of an anti-semitic movement leaves me baffled. My Grandad got brained a few times falling trees and he had some pretty “out there” ideas at the end of his life, too.

        1. spqr2008

          Learning about the Roger Waters bullshit from an acquaintance in high school (huge Pink Floyd fan, and Jewish) made me feel justified in simply handing him a portable hard drive and receiving WAV. files of their whole catalog from him for free.

          1. Festus

            I listen to them via pirated sources so Yay me?

  6. Just a thought not a sermon

    Government shutdown set to end as House passes sweeping budget bill

    “The bill would reopen the government while showering hundreds of billions of dollars on defense and domestic priorities, speeding disaster aid to hurricane-hit regions, and lifting the federal borrowing limit for a year. “‘

    “Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)… delayed the Senate vote past midnight to mark his opposition to an estimated $320 billion addition to the federal budget deficit”

    Spend it! Spend it all! Why not? Every dollar from this and every possible future time stream!

    “The deal includes more money for areas including child care, college affordability and infrastructure.” … “About $7 billion will be spent on…community health centers”

    Great, why not?

    “The deal would funnel $6 billion over two years to fight the opioid crisis with new grants” … “The deal includes funding for more abstinence education”

    Perfect.

    Oh God, I just noticed the icing on the cake– this was in the article’s byline: “David Weigel, Ed O’Keefe, Damian Paletta and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report.”

    1. PieInTheSKy

      Look the money hole is there for a reason…

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Money for the Money God!

        Skulls for the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee!

  7. Festus

    OT- There’s some hoopty-doop and a whole lotta Jungian mish-mash but this is a pretty good takedown of the Jordan Peterson/Newman thing. Sorry for the intrusion but I just watched it. https://youtu.be/ZyggRvJUOxQ

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I don’t agree with the psychologist. She’s trying to ascribe collective rage as a rationale for Newman’s behavior, even if she acknowledges that rationale is wrong. Newman’s rationale was hers and hers alone.

      1. Festus

        True, but she’s a Jungian and therefore kind of a weirdo. I liked the fact that she called bullshit on Newman, regardless. Have you ever dated a chick that wears bracelets and bangles like she does? Intense!

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Oh, I do get a kick out of her. I bet she’s wild in person.

          1. Count Potato

            “Channel 4 News style (Gangnam Style) | Channel 4 News”

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk1yAVOVJsg

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Not Newman. Jesus, do you think I’m a masochist?

            Mazanti

    2. Old Man With Candy

      She’s got the Crazy Eyes.

  8. straffinrun

    My poorly done homage to Rand.

    1. Just a thought not a sermon

      Sweet. That’d look great on a t-shirt.

    1. Tundra

      Or, you know, retarded.

      *coffee*

      1. Suthenboy

        I dunno, retread kinda works too.

    2. They love violence so much. Not that they have the balls to try and carry it out on their own, but they sure do see it as the solution to all their problems.

      Goos thing those aren’t the ones with all the guns.

    3. Suthenboy

      Pinko calls for violence. News at 11

      Didn’t her crowd just have a People’s State of the Union wherein many of them made barely veiled calls for gulags and firing squads?

      1. Festus

        “That’s Different!’

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      Of course, when it’s justifiably pointed out about the double standard, suddenly progs wonder why snowflakes can’t take a joke anymore!

    5. The Elite Elite

      Remember, that’s perfectly okay. But when Sarah Palin puts crosshairs on a congressional district to call for targeting that election, that’s a LITERAL CALL FOR VIOLENCE and is not acceptable and needs to be condemned by all good thinking people!

      1. Once again the left justifies the 2A.

  9. PieInTheSKy

    Goddamn it Lakers traded Nancy. They gonna regret that. Fuckin’ Magic and Pelinka

  10. This Weird Toy Lets You Pop Fake Pimples and We Can’t Stop Watching

    In today’s WTF-please-make-it-stop news, a new toy exists that will make you want to both vomit and cry tears of something (joy? Happiness? Fear? Who knows!). Meet the Pop It Pal, a silicone brick of fun with 15 “pimples” in it that you can squeeze fake pus out of. Wanna die yet? Good.

    The toy was created by a wife and husband, Summer and Billy Pierce, who set out to satisfy their picking obsession without destroying their skin. And, apparently, the Pop It Pal was their solution.

    1. I suppose it’s a good thing I never had faith in humanity.

    2. Just a thought not a sermon

      I’ve heard this is a common compulsion with some OCD folks, so maybe a good thing for them?

      1. Festus

        I’ve heard that there are entire Youtube channels devoted to this. Maybe if I steer Wifey that way she’ll leave my back alone.

    3. Michael

      The toy was created by a wife and husband, Summer and Billy Pierce, who set out to satisfy their picking obsession without destroying their skin. And, apparently, the Pop It Pal was their solution.

      Crystal meth is a helluva drug.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    I know Coors sucks, but come on!

    That’s Adolph Coors.

    ADOLPH.

    I rest my case.

    1. Tundra

      I don’t hate Coors.

      1. straffinrun

        Got a live on here, ADL. *Van pulls up in Tundra’s driveway*

      2. Just a thought not a sermon

        When my step-dad was in a rock band in high school in Iowa, they used to travel summers to play clubs. One year they got a booking in Colorado, and took the opportunity to fill their van with Coors so they could re-sell it at a huge profit when they got back home.

      3. Drake

        Coors lite is basically water. Regular Coors is okay – better than Bud. I kind of like Killian’s Red.

        1. l0b0t

          I love Killian’s Red but I haven’t been able to drink it since my mid-20s, gives me the wind something fierce. I do still enjoy it in a beer-batter bread though.

          l0b0t’s quick, yet rather impressive, bread

          This recipe is dead simple, can be made in a flash, and works particularly well as a breakfast food. You likely already have all of the ingredients. Except perhaps the self-rising flour. Frankly, this is the only use I have for self-rising flour; I vacuum seal it and it keeps for long time.

          3 Cups self-rising flour (I’m a King Arthur fanboy as their products have a high gluten content but use what ya like.)
          3 Tablespoons sugar (Turbinado works nicely here but who am I to tell you what to do?)
          12 Ounces beer (The possibilities here are endless so get crackin’. One caveat, I tried it with Guinness and it wasn’t pleasant; a gummy, bitter mess resulted.)
          1/4 lb. butter, divided

          Heat oven to 350°. Mix beer, sugar, flour. Pour into greased 9×5 inch loaf pan. Melt butter, spoon 4 tablespoons over dough. Bake for 20 minutes. Pour remaining butter over dough, bake for another 40 minutes. Remove pan to wire rack for about 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan; slice and enjoy.

          1. Too much work, not enough garlic cheddar.

      4. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

        Coors Banquet is great year round, Coors light is great when its over 100 out.

    2. You know who else was named Adolph?

      1. mexican sharpshooter

        Adolph Rupp?

    3. There’s a chef who’s pretty well-known in town named Adolph. Black dude. American. Go figure.

  12. Derpetologist

    ‘Member when journos at least pretended to be civil? I ‘member.

    Journalist calls for profs to drown conservative students
    https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10486

    1. PieInTheSKy

      is okay to call for violence against the wrong people

      1. Zunalter

        Are they even really people anymore when they believe in the things they believe in.

    2. Suthenboy

      Damned. You beatme to it. I had that one saved

      The mask is off.

    3. straffinrun

      And burn them if they float?

      1. We all float down here

      2. Festus

        Salt the water.

    4. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Farrar is a bloated neckbeard asshole who’s going to die an early death from heart disease and despair. Fuck him.

  13. Derpetologist

    Muslim students want classmate expelled for criticizing hijabs
    https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10485

    1. Drake

      The potato sack of freedom.

  14. PieInTheSKy

    Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to be the coldest for 20 years

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/09/pyeongchang-winter-olympics-set-to-be-the-coldest-for-20-years

    I feel sorry for the norks sort of… Say what you will about commie shitholes, cold winters make em worse. I was rather young but heard my parents stories about comming home every day to a cold apartment

    1. straffinrun

      There’s no problem in feeling sorry for the victims of that regime. I don’t know what I’d do in a similar circumstance. Watching Fox News slobbering all over the sanctions is disgusting. Sanctions are nothing other than a less bad option that will crush dirt poor peasants.

      1. Gadfly

        I think the US should try the radical idea of offering the Norks an out. Tell Kim or any of his generals that whoever surrenders the country to the South will get to live the rest of their life on an all-expense paid luxury island. No international tribunals, no judgment, just living in house arrest in a mansion in the tropics, with all the fine dining, drugs, hookers, and recreation they desire. Establish it as a sort of “Villains Island” and use it as an option whenever you want to give some dictator an out. Currently dictators have the option of retaining power or facing punishment (Milošević style if they’re lucky, Gaddafi style if they’re not), to which option the obvious answer is cling to power. If they’re given another option, perhaps some might take it. Probably not, since most love power, but I don’t think it would hurt to have such an option on the table in an attempt to avoid conflict.

        1. The only time I’ve heard of that being done was with Bonaparte – and the first time they were too lenient, so he returned from exile and started a new war.

          1. Jarflax

            I would not worry too much about Kimmy boy returning from Elba. Napoleon was popular with the army, and the people, The Bourbon’s were inept and heavy handed upon their return to power, making a restoration of the empire appealing, and one final difference:

            Napoleon was actually good at the whole emperor thing. Kimmy boy not so much. Every socialist jackass is Alexander, Genghiz, or Napoleon, in their mind. In actual ability they are more Claudius, Caligula, or Nero.

        2. Why would Kim ever trust us to keep our end of the bargain? Our government basically undergoes a soft coup every 4-8 years, and several of our presidents have a nasty track record of bombing/assassinating people to distract from domestic issues, or backstabbing tinpot dictators when politically convenient. After Gaddafi, I certainly wouldn’t trust the government with that deal.

          1. Akira

            After Gaddafi, I certainly wouldn’t trust the government with that deal.

            That’s why that whole intervention was one of the dumbest fucking foreign policy ideas ever. It will have negative effects that go way beyond the borders of Libya.

            Obama and Hillary thought this was just a stroke of pure genius.

          2. Gadfly

            True, the US has pissed away a lot of credibility over the years, which makes it a harder sell. Maybe get someone else to run the island while we just finance it? Like have Sweden run it, or something, since they are fairly neutral and known for leniency towards criminals.

        3. Count Potato

          McAfee Island?

          1. KSuellington

            Now you’re talking.

  15. Rebel Scum

    Assemblywoman at forefront of #MeToo movement accused of sexual misconduct

    “When you’re an assemblywoman you can walk right up to a lobbyist and grab them on the d*ck. They let you do it.”

    1. Festus

      Snort/Giggle!

  16. I heard the cries of millions of young men: “I can’t fap to this!”

    Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit edition is dedicated to the #MeToo movement

    Entitled ‘In her own words’, editor MJ Day says that the shoot has been designed to combat the objectification of women.

    The models, she says, ‘are as much participants as objects’.

    Photographer Taylor Ballantyne says the project is about female identity.

    ‘Its purpose is to offer a platform for the participants to speak their truth by choosing positive words that represent who they are and what they strive to embody,’ she says.

    ‘I challenged these women to stay positive with their word choice regardless of what they were feeling in the moment to demonstrate that if we change our perspective, we have the ability to change our outcome.

    1. WTF

      Who does Sports Illustrated think is their target audience?

      1. Festus

        The Editor is a blind man in a hall of mirrors. Who the fuck faps to Sports Illustrated anyway? The Amish?

        1. How are they even still in business anyway?

        2. ::much younger version of LH is about to raise hand, considers otherwise::

          1. Festus

            TV Guide or Sears Catalogue, son. That’s when you know that you have truly become a man.

          2. Does National Geographic count? Those poor woman of the pygmy tribe, male glazed without even knowing it! 😉

          3. straffinrun

            Sears Cat or Nat Geo I get, but WTF Festus, TV Guide?

          4. Festus

            Any port in a storm, Staff. WKRP and Soap were very popular shows when I discovered my fap powers.

          5. straffinrun

            Ooooh. I thought you were doing your business to the programming schedule. Keep you regular, anyways.

          6. fried

            male glazed without even knowing it!

            +2 stuck together pages

          7. SandMan

            JC Penny’s >> Sears

      2. Sports Illustrated, the rich man’s Sears Catalog.

        1. Wait… the models are for sale?

          1. Festus

            Drone delivery. You might not like the results.

          2. If you are rich enough …

      3. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Morons

    2. I’d laugh so hard if one of the gals painted words like “callipygous” or “ophthalmophobic” on herself.

    3. Gadfly

      Entitled ‘In her own words’, editor MJ Day says that the shoot has been designed to combat the objectification of women.

      Hmm… I reserve judgment until I see their methods of combat. If they are fighting the patriarchy by wearing burkinis or including pictures of Lena Dunham, then no thanks. But if they’re standing up against objectification by taking pictures of fit women in scant swim suits, then I approve: keep fighting the power ladies!

    4. Count Potato

      Nothing against naked women, but a “swimsuit edition” should have swimsuits.

      1. People swim in their birthday suits.

  17. Derpetologist

    Dartmouth, a former university

    Dartmouth student accused of ‘violence’ for op-ed on diversity
    https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10487

    ***
    Ryan Spector alleged that the Trips Directorate selected 15 women and 4 men because of its “extreme application of a diversity policy,” earning him condemnations from more than 30 campus organizations.
    The statements mocked Spector for his “white male tears,” calling his op-ed an “attack” that “invisibilizes” those with “marginalized identities” and “perpetuates the culture of toxic, male, white supremacy.”
    ***

    1. WTF

      “invisibilizes”

      Quite the education you’re getting there, snowflake.

      1. So wait, is Oswald Bates a professor there now?

        https://youtu.be/O7dPprbzNSc

        1. WTF

          Sadly, he actually makes more sense than the intersectional post-modern jargon gibberish spouted by actual professors these days.

      2. Festus

        That thesaurus that they left on their bed at Mom’s house would have come in handy right there.

      3. It’s a perfectly cromulent word.

        1. They’re certainly not niggardly when it comes to making shit up.

        2. Festus

          I allied this agreedition.

          1. Festus

            I got banned from another, shittier web-site for using the word “Sniggered”.

          2. Wait, are you calling us shitty, but just less so?

          3. Festus

            Ipso facto, Sloop. Fuck that you guys can party at Caso Festus anytime you like!

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dartmouth

    3. whiz

      Dartmouth has never been a university (it’s Dartmouth College).

  18. PieInTheSKy

    Science or silence? My battle to question doomsayers about the Great Barrier Reef

    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/08/science-or-silence-my-battle-to-question-doomsayers-about-great-barrier-reef.html

    Not sure how true this is but it is sad for science that it is very plausible

    1. The Great Barrier Reef is in fact in excellent condition. It certainly goes through periods of destruction where huge areas of coral are killed from hurricanes, starfish plagues and coral bleaching. However, it largely regrows within a decade to its former glory. Some parts of the southern reef, for example, have seen a tripling of coral in six years after they were devastated by a particularly severe cyclone.

      Reefs have similarities to Australian forests, which require periodic bushfires. It looks terrible after the bushfire, but the forests always regrow. The ecosystem has evolved with these cycles of death and regrowth.

      But bleached coral looks so ugly!

      /econut

      1. Count Potato

        Starfish Plague is like glam death metal?

        1. It does sound like a band name.

      2. Rasilio

        of course it’s ugly, it is white.

        We need more Coral of color

        1. trshmnstr

          *applause*

          *jazz hands*

        2. Bobarian LMD

          Something about brown starfish?

    2. Just a thought not a sermon

      Excellent article. Dr. Ridd sounds like an Australian national hero. Another case of “worst disaster ever (since we started keeping records in the 1970s).”

    3. spqr2008

      And this is true. My mom’s best friend from Grad school still works where they got their PhDs, at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. She is pretty far left, but actually agrees with my mom that the most pressing pollution issue regarding coral reef systems is acidification of the oceans, and that we can combat that by making artificial reefs with certain types of coral colonies, and kelp farms with certain breeds of kelp that will help reduce the acidification from human activity if strategically placed. She thinks a lot of the bullshit the media puts out about doom and gloom and the great barrier reef (which she was studying for 5 years in the early 2000s) is just sensationalized crap put out to sell advertising.

  19. OK, I guess it is Day of The Commenteriat’s Own Link Spamming.

    1. PieInTheSKy

      Wait isn’t that every day?

    2. So, a day that ends in Y?

    3. Just a thought not a sermon

      “Commenter’s Own Link Spamming”

      Which commenter?

      1. *narrows gaze*

        *gets coffee*

        *edits*

    4. Not Adahn

      My bosses boss has declared that on Fridays we are allowed to make jokes.

      1. I thought Friday was Hawaiian shirt day?

        1. Rasilio

          Hawaiian shirts are kind of a joke so there is that

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Now, freedom cannot flourish unless certain background conditions are met. \

    Your so-called freedom is nothing more than servitude to Beelzebub.

    1. WTF

      You’re not free unless you’re free to be wrong.

  21. Rebel Scum

    Shut the fuck up, Elon Musk!

    Speaking of, someone in my office building recently got a Tesla Model S. I have been trying to figure out who so I can silently scorn them.

    1. Festus

      It’s not real silent scorn until you apply the eye-drops to their coffee.

    2. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

      Cheap maintenance and free trips in the HOV lane, why scorn them? Insurance premiums kinda suck though.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    is okay to call for violence against the wrong people

    Nazi-punching is everywhere and always self-defense.

    Every body knows that. Everybody who isn’t a Nazi, anyway.

    1. straffinrun

      Sounds like the lost Phillip K. Dick novel, Majority Report.

    2. PieInTheSKy

      Nazi-punching is everywhere and always self-defense. – so is giving socialists helicopter rides to be fair

  23. Collusion!!!!

    Democratic Sen. Mark Warner texted with Russian oligarch lobbyist in effort to contact dossier author Christopher Steele

    Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who has been leading a congressional investigation into President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, had extensive contact last year with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch who was offering Warner access to former British spy and dossier author Christopher Steele, according to text messages obtained exclusively by Fox News.

    “We have so much to discuss u need to be careful but we can help our country,” Warner texted the lobbyist, Adam Waldman, on March 22, 2017.

    “I’m in,” Waldman, whose firm has ties to Hillary Clinton, texted back to Warner.

    1. Rebel Scum

      He apparently also said he did not want a paper trail.

      Remember kids, any time a leftist accuses you of something, it is likely that they are guilty of that which they accuse.

    2. Count Potato

      I’m so sure CNN will make a big deal about this since they are so concerned about Russian collusion.

  24. Derpetologist

    UMich presentation appears to ‘dignify and redeem’ sex between men and boys
    https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/41816/

    ***
    Women’s studies professor seeks to reject ‘overly idealized imaginaries’ of ‘queer kinship’
    ***

    English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?!

    1. No, if they spoke English, people would realize they’re awful people and full of shit.

    2. Walter, what’s a pederast?

      1. A homophobic queerphobic bigoted term violently seperating true love due to anachronistic and unscientific views of “age” which is really just a social construct? #lovewins #thinkofthechildren

        1. trshmnstr

          *revs chainsaw*

          *probably just created a new gender identity… chainsawkin*

    3. Brett L

      Did she steal it from Penn State?

    4. Gadfly

      I had been expecting the professor to be an Achilles Papadopoulos, but from the article the professor is apparently a Kadji Amin, so my stereotypes are still safe for today.

      In all seriousness, you have a male professor giving a potentially positive lecture on pederasty, you might want to keep an eye on him.

  25. Pope Jimbo

    Another instance of book banning by progressives has happened in Duluth. The school board has dropped the teaching of To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn.

    Stephan Witherspoon, president of the Duluth chapter of the NAACP, called the move “long overdue.”

    The literature has “oppressive language for our kids” Witherspoon said, and school should be an environment where children of color are learning equally. There are other novels with similar messages that can be taught, he said.

    “Our kids don’t need to read the ‘N’ word in school,” Witherspoon said. “They deal with that every day out in the community and in their life. Racism still exists in a very big way.”

    Anyone want to bet whether Witherspoon has read either of these novels himself? He does realize that both novels are powerfully anti-racist?

    1. straffinrun

      In Duluth the only `N` you’re going to hear is “Need a push?”

      1. Tundra

        “‘Nother beer, Vern.”

      2. cyto

        Seriously.

        Duluth racists are racist against Indians. Everybody knows that…

        1. Pope Jimbo

          Hey, don’t sell us short!

          Duluth can lynch with the best of them.

    2. Just a thought not a sermon

      “Our kids don’t need to read the ‘N’ word in school,” Witherspoon said. “They deal with that every day out in the community and in their life. ”

      Yeah, they shouldn’t be reading the n word, they should encounter it in rap lyrics like God intended.

      1. To Witherspoon – This is the exact kind of behaviour that turns sounds into hurt fee fees. Words only have as much power as the listener grants them. You are empowering the very verbiage that so frightens you.

      2. Private Chipperbot

        “Our kids don’t need to read the ‘N’ word in school,”

        I guarantee they hear it hundreds of times a day from their classmates of the same racial persuasion.

        1. Our (lily white) failed adoptee was from a really small country town and considered himself as gangsta as someone from Compton.

    3. Suthenboy

      “both novels are powerfully anti-racist”

      Exactly why the purveyors of identity politics want them banned.

      1. WTF

        To Kill a Mockingbird also has the unfortunate theme of a woman lying about being raped, which sails against the current #metoo #believeher propaganda.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          Uffda. I hadn’t even thought about that. Double-plus ungood!!

          1. WTF

            Atticus Finch was a Rape Denier!!

          2. Festus

            According to the reviews, Atticus was a big ole bigot in the “torn from her dying grasp” prequel. Some folks just like to take a dump on the coffee table.

          3. Some folks just like to take a dump on the coffee table.

            … What does German porn have to do with this?

          4. DEG

            … What does German porn have to do with this?

            It could be Japscat.

          5. It could be Japscat.

            Would need moar tentacles.

          6. Not Adahn

            It could be Japscat.

            Shibbi dibbi doo-wap, desu ne?

          7. l0b0t

            Shibbi dibbi doo-wap, desu ne?

            That’s funny; I’ve been listening to weird Japanese Country/Western music all night.

            https://archive.org/details/OTE_20031204_Japanese_Jamboree

    4. “they deal with that every day out in the community and in their life.”

      Only from others of their own race, I suppose.

  26. DEG

    Musk wrote that as soon as the Model 3 reaches volume production this year, there will be “free frozen yogurt stands scattered around the factory” as well as a “Tesla electric pod car roller coaster.”

    I hate when companies set up toys at the office. Just give me more money instead.

    1. cyto

      You’d think. But only libertarians actually think that way.

      I have a friend who was an executive at Anheiser Bush back in the 80’s and 90’s. They had a couple of meltdowns with the union, not over money, but over perks. See, they used to have free beer in vending machines in the break room. It was a part of the union contract. Well, and you’ll be shocked to hear this, there seems to be a bit of trouble that can result from operating machinery after drinking copious amounts of alcohol. So the company wanted to cut them back to only 2 free beers per shift. They were prepared to strike over this provision.

      Second example: I used to work in a sales organization. A new director came in and offered up cash prizes of $1,500 for the person who did the most deals that week. It didn’t really increase sales. So she was considering bigger prizes, like $10k for the monthly leader, etc. I told her that sales guys don’t think like that. They want to look like a big shot in front of their buddies. So I told her to offer up a nice bottle of booze for the guy who has the best week. Pull the whole floor together and make a big deal out of presenting him with the bottle. She thought I was nuts. Who would prefer a hundred bucks worth of booze over a few thousand bucks?

      Well, two weeks later she comes to my office and says “You were right! They were so fired up about the stupid bottle, we increased sales by almost 10% this week. ”

      People respond to emotional cues much more than rational cues. Free soda in the breakroom says “we are family. we care” an extra grand in the paycheck says “they probably should be paying me even more”.

      Libertarians are not normal people. Regular people don’t think like we do.

      1. Number.6

        A firm I worked at played both ends.

        Lowest sales guy was presented with the nastiest, cheapass-est tie that Jane, the Sales Director’s Assistant could find. They had to wear it 5 working days in the following month, after which it was retired to a glass cabinet. Given that about 80% of their time was office-based, it wasn’t hard to enforce. Man, those guys fought hard to stay off the bottom.

        1. Compeditive personalities are drawn to sales-type roles, so it makes sense that a visible competition is more motivating to sales staff than simple, hidden, remuneration.

          As for Tesla’s office toys, that is a sign of a different spot in the corporate decay lifecycle. It’s not a good sign, because it’s indicative of managers who don’t know how to retain the best people and accept retaining any people.

    2. Rasilio

      Sales is a very different world than IT.

      Nearly every single person I have worked with in the last 15 years (there have been maybe half a dozen exceptions, all female) has looked at that kind of stuff and said “screw that just give me the money”.

  27. Derpetologist

    Elementary principal comes out as transgender … in middle of the school year
    https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/41794/

    I feel sorry for the guy. How is this not a mental illness?

    1. Rasilio

      It is but there eventually comes a point where you have to recognize that some mental illnesses will not ever go away and cannot be cured so you have to work on coping strategies and just going ahead and acting as if you were a woman, maybe even getting surgery hormones to transition might be the best course of action for the poor soul afflicted this way.

    2. Private Chipperbot

      Maybe plan to come out during the summer. You know like how teachers generally plan for pregnancies.

  28. Rebel Scum

    I know Coors sucks, but come on!

    Only white-supremacists drink Coors. It is known.

    1. And Midwestern lesbian softball enthusiasts.

  29. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Link to Paul’s full speech for anyone interested. It’s a long one but good.

    https://youtu.be/RgI7eJX5dQE

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Actually, and it may have been an urban legend, I remember hearing that Adolph Coors was a white supremacist.

    Back in the day, the Coors family (Peter’s dad, I think) were the KochBros of Colorado, donating money to right wing political groups and generally trying to turn back the clock to the 1840s.

    1. And the ADL hath worked Corruption of the Blood…so for 5 generations, they are GUILTY! Suitable donations and public confession will shorten that to 3.

    2. thepasswordispassword

      They’re still back scene power players in the Colorado GOP. There’s a family split between the brewing company and the manufacturing company. Lots of lingering resentment in the party over Pete Coors buying his way into the Senate nomination (and then losing) over the more popular with the base Bob Schaffer. It led to this amusing primary spot:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6OVvs2Ft98

  31. In Y.A., Where Has All the Good Sex Gone?

    We are by now quite familiar with young adult works that use sex as a go-to for danger. On the Y.A. shelf of any bookstore or library, there are books about rape, abortion, molestation, sexual shaming that leads to social isolation. Some books are about all four. The works are not sensational, and many are great literature. But nowadays, far more scarce on the ground are books like “Forever,” in which sex is a natural privilege for teenagers, like getting the keys to the car.

    In today’s Y.A., the new attempts to get back into sex have been fumbling and awkward, like a first time. Consider a novel published last fall, Laura Hopper’s “I Never,” an explicit homage to “Forever.” “I Never” unfortunately combines the breathlessness of adolescent romance with some of the vulgarity of porn. (At one point the protagonist, Janey, revels in the dissonance of helping her boyfriend’s mother with dishes only seven minutes before feeling the boy’s erection “practically tearing a hole” in her dress.) Janey frequently wonders what the popular track star Luke, who has all the character development of an American Eagle hoodie, sees in her. At least Jessica Wakefield was confident in her powers of attraction.

    1. The New York Times actually asked “Why has our neopuritanical push resulted in neopuritanism?”

    2. straffinrun

      Some books are about all four. The works are not sensational

      Speak for yourself.

      1. PORTRAIT OF THE STEVE SMITH AS A YOUNG RAPESQUATCH

    3. Private Chipperbot

      many are great literature.

      I’m going to need a citation or two.

    4. Festus

      Yeah, my female pom likes to hump pillows and cats. Riddle me that YA critic.

      1. cyto

        I’m wondering about their premise.

        Or does Laurel K. Hamilton not count as Y.A.? She’s definitely targeting young women, but is that enough to get into the category?

        1. Rasilio

          No she is definitely not YA

          YA literature is more stuff like Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, The Maze Runner, Hunger Games, Heinlein’s Juvies, VC Andrews, etc.

          Basically books targeted at 12 – 17 year olds and generally have main characters in that age range

    5. Gustave Lytton

      Since when was it necessary to have sex in Y.A. literature in the first place?

      1. The reviewers at the Times only read it for the prurient interest…

      2. SugarFree

        It depends on what you think YA literature is for. If it is to entertain, why not? Young adults are sexual creatures. If YA lit is to exists only for pedantic purposes, then you get into the war we’ve been having over sex education since the 1960s.

        1. Festus

          “Button, button, who’s got the button?”

      3. Rasilio

        Heinlein says never since there was never any sex in any of his Juvies.

        That said it is not exactly out of place in YA lit either because teens are generally the main characters of YA lit and teens are typically beginning to explore their sexuality

      4. The Last American Hero

        As always, I blame Twilight. It showed authors and publishers that there was a huge untapped (pun intended) market for soft core teen porn.

        1. Are we sure the teens were the ones actually buying that series? Anecdotally it always seemed to be adult women.

          1. Number.6

            Lots of 14 year olds were reading that when LSD was that age.

            Maybe they just picked up their mom’s copies, but I doubt it. Lots of parents around here lauded the series as being ‘nice, grown up fiction for the girls’.

        2. Rasilio

          And what was VC Andrews in the 80’s and 90’s?

  32. Derpetologist

    Navy SEAL who killed Bin Laden calls Trump’s military parade ‘third-world bulls—”
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/09/navy-seal-who-killed-bin-laden-calls-trumps-military-parade-third-world-bulls.html

    ***
    The U.S. Navy SEAL who killed Usama bin Laden is not a fan of President Trump’s call for a military parade in Washington, and he made his opinion clear on the commander-in-chief’s favorite social media forum.

    Robert O’Neill, who is also a Fox News contibutor, tweeted Thursday that the idea floated by Trump, whose campaign he supported, is not something the world’s lone superpower should soncider.

    “A military parade is third world bulls—,” O’Neill tweeted. “We prepare. We deter. We fight. Stop this conversation.”
    ***

      1. WTF

        It’s just incredible that every time Chucky Moobs comes out against a Trump position, shortly thereafter someone finds a record of Chucky Moobs previously taking the same position. It’s like he still hasn’t learned that the internet is forever.

        1. It’s like he still hasn’t learned that the internet is forever knows that the MSM will play interception for him and the people voting for him won’t care because #resistance.

  33. Drake

    Grabby McGropeyhands – I think I dated her in college. Good times.

  34. Pope Jimbo

    Oh, oh. Minnesoda taxes may be going up soon. How else will we be able to replace the loot $5B of revenue that we were going to get from 3M in a pollution lawsuit?

    That lawsuit doesn’t look so good after a study showed that there was no unusual increase in rates of cancer of birth defects where 3M allegedly contaminated the groundwater. It is especially damning because the study was done by the Minnesoda Dept of Health, not some hack institute hired by 3M.

    1. PieInTheSKy

      The study was flawed, corporate money was probably involved. Minnesoda needs that $

      1. Akira

        Sadly, this line of reasoning works with “progressives”. They will immediately blow off the results of any study if even one cent of funding came from a private corporation, but of course, studies funded by the government are totally unbiased.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      The first story didn’t have much of the back story on this dispute.

      So in short:
      1) 3M made some stuff and dumped legally
      2) Minnesoda decided to clean up the dump sites
      3) 3M paid a lot of money ($100M) to Minnesoda, not because they had to but because they wanted to be good neighbors and avoid litigation
      4) Minnesoda decided to bleed them dry
      5) 3M finally said, “we’ve paid enough”
      6) Minnesoda decides to sue for $5B
      7) Minnesoda’s own report shows no adverse health effects.

      The problem for the state is that 3M has been a beloved institution here for decades. It is going to be hard for the bureaucrats to paint them as greedy corporate fascists.

      1. Gustave Lytton

        8) 3M becomes T2M when they relocate to Texas..

        1. Gadfly

          They don’t even need to move that far. Literally everywhere else in the Midwest except Illinois is trending rightward and is more business friendly as a result. They could just move south and become W2M or east and keep the 3M.

          1. Pope Jimbo

            Huh? East is Wisconsin and South is Iowa. West is one of the Dakotas.

            Actually they have threatened to move to Texas a few times in the past to extort money from the state. At this point they have so much money invested in local pols that I doubt that they would move.

          2. Gadfly

            Lol, you’re right, I fail elementary school geography. I was placing Minnesota where northern Wisconsin is.

          3. The Last American Hero

            I’m sure Detroit would throw some relocation money at them, now that Amazon is locating elsewhere, and they could poach employees from Dow Chemical.

    3. Rebel Scum

      Minnesoda taxes

      My gf’s parents are from there (the gf was born there). Her mom once commented to me about how the taxes were higher in Minnesota. She said it was ok because there were “so many services”. My response: “Wouldn’t it better for people to buy just the things that they want and not hold them at gunpoint to fund things they do not use?” She brushed that off and changed the subject.

  35. Rebel Scum

    Feminist business school teaches people the opposite of how to do business.

    The Feminist Business School, founded by Evergreen State College graduate Jennifer Armbrust, teaches that capitalism is an “economy that values masculine traits” such as “meritocracy,” “competition,” and “individualism.” The California-based site recently launched two more online courses to coach aspiring businesswomen on how to “topple the patriarchy” and promote a more “feminist economy.”

    Shunning the “profit seeking motive” of traditional commerce, the Feminist Business School advocates that businesswomen adopt more “feminine traits” such as “gratitude,” “intimacy,” and “connecting with nature.”

    “The feminine economy proposes a new set of values and redistribution of money and power based on feminine principle,” argues Armbrust on the program’s website. As PJ Media reported last month, the school’s first offering was a “Concepts and Conceptions” course dedicated to helping women give “birth” to a feminist business.

    The Onion is real life.

    1. Mojeaux

      That would totally work, though, if it weren’t for that meddling “human nature” thing.

    2. Great thing about the free market. They can go ahead and try this. When it flops, I suppose they can blame patriarchy.

        1. So this woman never spent any time around other women before trying to start thise venture?

        2. Number.6

          Dude, that’s a fuckin’ Samantha Brick article. You gotsta give us a warning when you do that.

          But it’s no surprise. I remember a recent poll that reported that both women and men have a strong preference for male bosses.

          1. Very well. TW: Samantha Brick article.

          2. Pope Jimbo

            I was disappointed to find out that Samantha Brick’s company was creating TV shows.

            An all women company owned by Samantha Brick should be making and selling plumbing fixtures.

            Brick Shithouse would sell tons of products.

        3. I don’t know how the myth that women are more cooperative and nurturing and less competitive and argumentative than men got started, but it’s utter bullshit and proven to be so time and time again. Jordan Peterson’s explanation seems to make sense. Men generally will get into arguments with each other and are willing to fight, so points of conflict get resolved one way or another pretty quickly, and then they move on. Women in general tend to be much less violent and much less aggressive, and so conflicts simmer over time until they solidify.

          1. I don’t know how the myth that women are more cooperative and nurturing and less competitive and argumentative than men got started

            People looked at it superficially and went “Look how men fight, and women do not”, and missed the difference between acute conflict and chronic conflict.

          2. …acute conflict and chronic conflict.

            That is an excellent way to describe it.

    3. Akira

      Wow, that seems kind of insulting to women. I’ve known more than a few female business owners who did a great job of generating profits and promoting efficiency.

      The premise of this class seems to be suggesting that women are just sugar, spice, and everything nice and that the basic laws of economics need to change so that these delicate little creampuffs can play bizness just like the boys.

      1. Here’s the problem.

        Women able to compete successfully in the existing structure don’t need feminism, especially not these professional feminists. So the professional feminists need to make women think they are weak, uncompeditive and victimised so that there continues to be a market for professional feminists.

  36. Derpetologist

    so shines a good deed in a weary world

    Republican Senator Rand Paul Single-Handedly Shut Down the Government Just to Make a Point
    https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/republican-senator-rand-paul-single-handedly-shut-down-government-just-make-point

    ***
    Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning Republican from Arkansas, used a procedural mechanism to temporarily shut down the government as an act of protest against the fact that this spending bill will cost almost $400 billion over two years.

    “I can’t, in all good honesty, in all good faith, just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits. But really who’s to blame? Both parties,” Paul said. “We have a 700-page bill that no one has read that was printed at midnight. No one will read this bill, nothing will be reformed, the waste will continue and government will keep taking your money irresponsibly and adding to a $20 trillion debt.”

    By the time you read this, the shutdown could be over. But Paul’s action is notable because it finds a member of the Republican Party, which controls both chambers of Congress, shutting down the government without any serious legislative ask during a midterm election year.

    This shutdown was pure political theater at the possible expense of working Americans. Voters are unlikely to forget it later this year.
    ***

    1. Not Adahn

      Arkansas?

      1. They used the wrong state on purpose, to show how unconcerned they are with anything that concerns Flyover Country.

      2. The Last American Hero

        Hey now, Hillary mistook Michigan and Wisconsin for California and decided to concentrate resources there rather than in the Great Lakes region during the election. Mistakes happen.

      3. mexican sharpshooter

        I stopped reading there. Sorry Derptologist.

      4. JaimeRoberto

        Forget it. He’s rolling.

    2. Mojeaux

      Voters are unlikely to forget it later this year.

      Wishful thinking, voters remembering anything.

      And Arkansas?

    3. Rebel Scum

      This shutdown was pure political theater at the possible expense of working Americans.

      Did Rand, in the course of his speech, manage to shut down open air monuments and parks?

    4. Suthenboy

      Senator from Arkansas….

      *sigh*

      It’s good to have enemies like these

    5. Gustave Lytton

      Ask is not a verb.

      1. Gustave Lytton

        Noun! Ask is not a noun. Screwed the pooch on that one.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Wrong, axe is both

    6. Rasilio

      Voters are unlikely to forget it later this year.

      Indeed and the fact that Paul was largely alone in his protest is going to cost some other Republicans votes and will boost Paul’s vote totals

  37. Someone Tried to Express-Mail a Tiger Cub

    Mexican inspectors have found tigers in all sorts of situations: on leashes, in neighbors’ yards and wandering the streets.

    But the office for environmental protection announced a new twist Wednesday: Someone tried to express-mail a tiger cub.

    The cub was sedated and packed into a plastic container. Nobody realized it was there until a sniffer dog looking for contraband detected it.

    The cub was mailed in the western state of Jalisco to an address in the central state of Queretaro. It was dehydrated but otherwise well, and was handed over to an animal management center.

    1. Private Chipperbot
      1. Festus

        This one is funnier and more pithy. https://youtu.be/KBhru5nLpGE

    2. Rasilio

      Someone?

      Come on we all know it was a Drug Lord

  38. Drake

    Right under the grabby hands article – California would bar organized tackle football before high school under new bill

    1. No more coach Snoop Dog?
    2. High School sized kids who don’t know how to tackle are going to get seriously hurt
    3. Maybe they’ll start playing rugby?
    4. Liberals really want to turn boys into pansies

    1. Pac-12 (10, 14?) football will shrivel.

    2. Festus

      I got hurt pretty bad playing football, twice. That being said there is nothing wrong with the sport but you can’t police the on-field play. The first time that i was injured was by an offensive tackle that I kept mowing down. He speared me in the ribs after the play was over and cracked three of them. I think that was the only time that I was a little unconcho. The second time was when I tried to punish a much bigger player and low-tackled him(basically suplexed him), coming out on the bottom. Fucked my shoulder, fucked my baseball dreams, fucked my life. Shoulda stuck to baseball.

      1. The Last American Hero

        Admit it, you still wear the varsity jacket on a regular basis, proudly emblazoned with the school letter and the ’87 on the shoulder, don’t you?

        1. Festus

          Hey if the Jacket still fits… I’ll have you know that it sports an ’82 on the shoulder.

  39. This budget mess reminds me – I meant to ask if there was a reason you don’t sell a “Fuck you, Cut Spending” bumper sticker.

    1. straffinrun

      C’mon. Just print out the hackey meme I linked to upthread. I’m sure you could stick it to your bumper with some of that leftover cake you made.

      1. It’s too topical. just the phrase alone would be relevent more or less indefinately.

    2. Mojeaux

      Does a “Who is John Galt?” bumper sticker count?

      (Funny thing. A whole lot of people stop me to ask who John Galt is. They really want to know. My auto-response is “It’s an existential question,” which makes them more curious. Then I say he’s a character in a book. The “book” part makes them immediately uninterested.)

      1. Not really. I’m not a fan of Ayn’s work, and it’s the bluntness of the message that’s appealing.

        1. Mojeaux

          I have come to really appreciate The Fountainhead. It’s a much better work than Atlas Shrugged, with better storytelling and a more human protagonist than Galt, whom I did not like. I thought Rearden was a much better character, more well-rounded and with depth to him. Galt was an idea, not a man, and I personally would rather bang a man than an idea.

          Then there’s Anthem, which I love. My kid read it when she was 12.

          1. I’ve never read the Fountainhead, but I still have one question from the plot synopsises I’ve read.

            How on Earth does the jury justify letting the guy go for dynamiting the property of a third party because of a side agreement that the property owner was not a party to? Even if you don’t call it terrorism, it’s still destroying the property of someone who was in violation of no agreement because of “artistic integrety”. It wasn’t his to destroy.

          2. Mojeaux

            I don’t remember. There are a lot of philosophical inconsistencies in her work which delight me to no end.

            I got torn apart (still do) for suggesting Roark (The Fountainhead) can be seen as analogous to Christ. A friend on Twitter finally presented me with an argument I could also believe while not cursing me to hell for being such a heretical blasphemer.

          3. Festus

            I got to read Atlas Shrugged for a couple of days when I was in jail. Almost all of the other books were Louis Lamour. Her prose is the epitome of turgid.

          4. Number.6

            I’d have thought you were more a soulful, mouth accordion kinda guy …

          5. Festus

            Nope, a giggler and a scoff-law. Sorry to disabuse of your fantastic notions.

          6. Mojeaux

            Her prose is the epitome of turgid.

            You know who else …

            Never mind.

  40. PieInTheSKy

    Bioluminescent waves light up Big Sur. And what a sight it is

    http://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/07/us/big-sur-bioluminescent-waves-trnd/index.html

    Is this global warming?

    1. If so, theres a bay in Fajardo, PR that’s been getting a lot of global warming since…forever.

      1. Festus

        Tiny coves off the BC coast are like that. You turn the lights out and the sea glows. Porpoises are the cat’s ass, too!

    2. Rasilio

      You can actually see them in most oceans albeit at smaller quantities if you know where/what to look for.

      A few years back we lived in Newburyport Ma right on the coast and at night my wife and I would go down and walk on the beaches and watch them wash up on the tide. Basically if conditions were calm enough as each wave retreated there would be little blue flashes in the sand. if it was warm enough we’d wade out to our knees and see them by swishing our hands gently through the water

  41. Derpetologist

    misuse of the word “racist” continues

    Prominent Newspaper Under Fire for Running Racist Cartoon Targeting Dreamers
    https://www.alternet.org/media/prominent-newspaper-under-fire-running-racist-cartoon-targeting-dreamers

    The cartoon shows an ISIS guy and an MS-13 guy mugging a white couple. The man says “now honey, they prefer to be called dreamers…or future Democrats”.

    1. WTF

      The shrieks of “Racist!” means he hit the target.

    2. leonadasiv

      What race is being disparaged?

      1. Don’t you collectivise, bro?

        By showing any criminal who is ethnic, clearly they’re saying all ethnic people are criminals!

        1. Suthenboy

          Everyone is an ethnic type person.

          1. “Except white people!”

            /SJW

        2. Akira

          Case in point: Every single advertisement for a home security or self-defense product always features a Caucasian villian. No company would ever depict a black or Hispanic criminal; they’d be crucified for it.

      2. Lackadaisical

        The democrat race.

        1. The only true race. Any non-whites who go against them are Uncle Toms with internalized racism. It is known.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    ‘Its purpose is to offer a platform for the participants to speak their truth by choosing positive words that represent who they are and what they strive to embody,’ she says.

    Yeah, okay. That “run faster, jump higher” stuff is all so tedious.

    1. WTF

      I hate this “their truth” bullshit. There is no “their truth”, “your truth”, “my truth”; there is just “the truth” or “not the truth”.

      1. An absolute model of truth does not advance their agenda.

        1. Rebel Scum

          And to think that I have been repeatedly told that “reality has a liberal* bias”.

          *”liberal” meaning progressive meaning regressive.

          1. The facts don’t bear that claim out, and more often show a more conservative bias.

          2. Akira

            “reality has a liberal* bias”.

            I hate that line. If reality had a liberal bias, you wouldn’t be able to find so many instances of media outlets reporting things that can be empirically shown to be false. You also wouldn’t find media outlets colluding behind closed doors to coordinate their favorable coverage of Democrats (JournoList) or even being in direct communication with Democrat candidates (Clinton campaign’s emails).

          3. Also Mitterand wouldn’t have had to adopt Thatcherite policies to salvage what was left of France.

      2. Suthenboy

        You dont even post-modernism, do you? Shitlord.

  43. Lackadaisical

    I saw it in the links, but will put Reuters take up here too.

    https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1FS232

    Interesting to see republicans taking a principled stand on an issue which might hurt the party. Do you think there will be repercussions for those who opposed the bill, come November? I guess this is reason #765787 why republicans are slightly better than dems. stress on the slightly, but I think it’s definitely there.

    1. straffinrun

      “Republican majorities in the House and Senate have turned the (budget) process into an embarrassing spectacle, running from one crisis directly into the next,” said Democratic Representative Nita Lowey prior to the House vote.

      Needs moar rubber stampz.

      1. Lackadaisical

        Why do we need a congress anyway, the president has a poem and phone. /dems

        1. The Last American Hero

          It’s really more a bit of doggerel than poetry.

          1. That is a verse
            in need of a hearse
            or do you mean a puppy
            owned by a yuppie
            and kept in her purse?

  44. San Francisco Bay Area Experiences Mass Exodus Of Residents

    “You can’t even contemplate getting into the housing market here,” Hancock said. “And I don’t mean just service workers, but highly skilled professionals. The tech elite are having a hard time affording reasonable housing in Silicon Valley. That makes it difficult for employers to recruit.”

    Operators of a San Jose U-Haul business say one of their biggest problems is getting its rental moving vans back because so many are on a one-way ticket out of town.

    Dabak cites crowding, crime and politics as the reasons for her own exodus.

    “We don’t like it here anymore. You know, we don’t like this sanctuary state status and just the politics,” she said.

    She plans to sell her home for about $1 million, buy a much larger place near Nashville for less than half that and retire closer to family and friends.

    1. straffinrun

      The number of people packing up and moving out of the Bay Area just hit its highest level in more than a decade.

      It seems like just yesterday when they were packing in.

    2. Mr Lizard

      Proggie winter is coming…

      1. WTF

        Unfortunately they will migrate to non-proggy states and proceed to ruin them by voting for the same shit that ruined the places they left.

        1. The Last American Hero

          Like Seattle.

    3. Lackadaisical

      That lady’s plan is hilarious, and I am surprised even more Californians aren’t following suit. Incidentally, I saw that some liberal activist/academic or something had now got the radical idea to build more housing to make out affordable.

      Tried finding the link, but digg doesn’t have it anymore, must have been too much wrong think for them.

      1. Gustave Lytton

        Yeah, but it’s got to have twenty layers of cronyism in it like only certain connected developers, set asides for city approved & sponsored applicants, and acceptable subcontractors.

    4. robc

      She plans to sell her home for about $1 million, buy a much larger place near Nashville for less than half that and retire closer to family and friends.

      And by much larger, she means MUCH larger. 500k “near” Nashville will buy you a freakin mansion (small scale).

      I don’t understand why more people don’t do this kind of thing. Especially as telecommuting becomes more of a thing. A friend of mine has worked in Silicon Valley, NYC and Seattle all while living in Louisville. Getting paid coastal rates while living in the middle works out really good.

      1. robc

        Just quickly checked Gallatin TN. It was hard to find something 500k. Found one, 2900 sq ft on 1.88 acres, asking price is $575k, zestimate is $474k. New construction, ready to move in in March of 2018.

        1. Brett L

          Wow. TN has come up. I live 2 miles from one of the nicest beaches in America and that is within $100k of what I would expect to pay here for that — only downside is new construction is hard to find. Yeah. $600k will buy you a completely re-done 3200sqft house on 2/3rd of an acre with a screened in pool.

    5. The Sleeper

      She plans to sell her home for about $1 million, buy a much larger place near Nashville for less than half that and retire closer to family and friends.

      No no no no no no no go away! You’ll bring your proggie bullshit over here and ruin this city even faster than Karl Dean and now Megan Barry are doing with your shit. God dammit.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Nashville is already ruined. She should move to Memphis instead. I can’t even imagine the palace you could buy there for $500K.

        1. Gustave Lytton

          Graceland?

        2. robc

          3500 sq ft, 3 years old.

    6. B.P.

      So, people are fleeing because the prices are too high. You’d think the prices would come down at some point if that were the case.

      I think Yogi Berra said, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

  45. Lackadaisical

    “yield the floor to Assemblywoman Grabby McGropeyhands”

    The guys quoted sound like true believers, she must have really done it.

    1. AlmightyJB

      A women initiating sex and these whiney bitches want to shut her down.

    1. I’m sorry, but I can’t take anything from the BBC seriously, they’re a racist, sexist institution that literally robs people to pay for their biased reporting.

      1. AlmightyJB

        Same story was on local radio here

      2. Gustave Lytton

        *looks for pidgin version of the article for UCS*

    2. Drake

      The tie always goes to the brownest person possible.

    3. straffinrun

      A US Speedskating spokesman said Davis had not originally planned to march in the parade of nations, but would have made an exception if he had been chosen as flag-bearer.

      That doesn’t sound so principled.

      1. Private Chipperbot

        How do you dishonorably toss a coin?

        1. Suthenboy

          Every brat whines “No fair!” when they dont win. He didn’t win, that’s all.

        2. cyto

          Yeah, I didn’t get that at all. With his #blackhistorymonth response, I suppose he thought the only honorable thing to do was to give it to the black guy. Because February? Because racist America would never celebrate the achievements of an athlete of color?

          I suppose a reporter will ask him at some point and we’ll learn what the “honorable” course of action would have been.

          1. I am not going to fall for any #whiteguiltmonth shenanigans.

      2. Gustave Lytton

        Fine. US Speedskating has admitted through their spokesman that they knew about this in advance. Toss his ass from the team and send someone else go instead. Actions have consequences. You want to run your mouth? Hit the bricks.

    4. Lackadaisical

      Here sounds like an asshole, lucky he is in an individual event.

  46. We got approximately 2″s of snow last night… which was apparently enough for the majority of the nearby schools to close for the day.

    So I’m working from home… son is watching Wonder Woman. Many things annoy me in this movie but Gal Gadot isn’t one of them.

    1. Lackadaisical

      She made it very watchable, I watched with the sound off …

      1. Private Chipperbot

        “Lack, what is that thumping noise?”

    2. The snow is really coming down. And of course my lovely wife took my car, which has the newest winter Pirelli tires.

  47. Rufus the Monocled

    MacLean’s magazine charges more for men because…..pay gap!

    http://www.macleans.ca

    It truly is astonishing how they don’t see how this is more discriminatory than helpful. And if you’re man and you buy it, you’re an idiot.

    1. Never heard of them. If they keep up this type of business practice, they won’t stick around long, so I won’t bother to learn who they are.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        One of the biggest and popular magazines up here.

        1. So… it’s got what, ten readers?

        2. Just Say’n

          What’s going on up north? That woke pretty boy has turned everyone into college kids in Canada

          1. Just Say’n

            I disagree with the necessity of all American wars fought in the 20th Century, but I’m seriously thinking that we may need to invade Canada to save them from themselves

          2. We have until the 2070s.

          3. Lackadaisical

            If, if, if, climate really is changing, and there’s good reason to think it may… we soul annex Canada for national security reasons alone.

          4. WTF

            Does Canada still have an army?

          5. Just Say’n

            Yes. They are based in the US and wear american uniforms. Also, their nuclear weapons are kept in the US. It’s weird, but I guess you can say their military is basically the same as Europe’s military- all located on US bases and wearing US military uniforms

          6. I laughed. Then I saw our military budget and cried.

            Then I laughed again.

          7. They’re already pretty much an American protectorate. Might as well make it official.

          8. No citizenship until they’ve had five generations on an absolutist interpretation of the constitution – have to clear out the rot lest it infect us.

          9. Yes – it is small and under-supported. They also ran them ragged helping us in Afghanistan. I have much respect for them.

          10. Gustave Lytton

            War Plan Red is a go!

          11. Festus

            Fuck, I was pushing 40 and they were eager to recruit me, We have an an army, of sorts.

          12. The Last American Hero

            I would have thought by now that Quebec would have become a state as a way to tweak Canada and be largely left alone to print signs in whatever language they deem proper.

    2. straffinrun

      26% more? Give a sammich of the month and you got a deal.

    3. Idle Hands

      Isn’t price discrimination illegal?

      1. Idle Hands

        usually it’s next to impossible to prove, but they literally just came out with that as their stated goal.

        1. straffinrun

          They’re “asking”, so I guess that’s their out. First we get sin taxes and now guilt taxes.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Incidentally, I saw that some liberal activist/academic or something had now got the radical idea to build more housing to make out affordable.

    Tried finding the link, but digg doesn’t have it anymore, must have been too much wrong think for them.

    I don’t have a link, but I did see a couple of stories about a proposal to radically alter zoning rules in “mass transit corridors” which would fast track higher density development to ease the housing shortage.

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      Digg still exists?

      California will never go for that. Especially the big cities.

    2. Lackadaisical

      I think they scooped that on reason? Oor maybe someone in their comments did.

  49. Gadfly

    Amash-potatoes

    +1 LOL
    I hope he gets a fan club and they start calling themselves this.

    1. Lackadaisical

      I, too find this humorous.

  50. PieInTheSKy

    Women launch £4BILLION lawsuit against Tesco for equal pay

    The claimants calculate that men are making £5,000 more a year for the same hours than women thanks to different pay for male-dominated jobs

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/women-launch-4bn-law-suit-11983600

    Leigh Day has launched legal action against the company on behalf of shop assistants who claim they are paid up to £3 an hour less than their male warehouse workers.

    It said distribution centre workers – who are predominantly male – earn in excess of £11 an hour, compared to the largely female-staffed Tesco stores where the common grade sits at £8 an hour.

    So they do not even pretend less pay for the same job. And there can be no reason warehouse workers are payed more than shop assistants except because they are mostly male.

    “”In terms of equal worth to the company there really should be no argument that workers in stores, compared to those working in distribution centres, contribute at least equal value to the vast profits made by Tesco” – yes because that can be surely demonstrated and that is precisely what determines wage. Supply and demand is patriarchy.

    1. Girl, go workj a day in the distribution center ans schlepp the same number of boxes.

      Don’t even pretend front end and distro staff are doing the same job.

      1. Lackadaisical

        They’re not, that’s the crazy part, it’s some labor theory of value shit.

        If this lawsuit succeeds, ooh wait its England, I guess they’ll still be a shithole.

        1. WTF

          I guess actually working in the distribution center if you want distribution center wages is somehow unreasonable?

          1. They don’t want to earn more, they want to be given more.

          2. Lackadaisical

            Equality!

        2. Pope Jimbo

          If this lawsuit succeeds, English majors will rejoice. Now they will get paid the same as those snotty engineering majors!

  51. The Late P Brooks

    The literature has “oppressive language for our kids” Witherspoon said, and school should be an environment where children of color are learning equally. There are other novels with similar messages that can be taught, he said.

    “Our kids don’t need to read the ‘N’ word in school,” Witherspoon said. “They deal with that every day out in the community and in their life. Racism still exists in a very big way.”

    You can’t let those kids read about Huck’s moment of truth on that raft, where he decides he’d rather go to Hell than abandon Jim.

    That’s totally crazy and completely unbelievable. It would take a team of social workers and psychologists, working around the clock for years, to bring an ignorant hillbilly like Huck up to that level of enlightened social consciousness.

  52. Drake

    What the hell? Jimmy Garoppolo is now the highest paid player in the NFL after 7 starts for the 49ers.

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      Every time a top (or potential top) QB signs a new contract it’s the highest paid contract in the NFL.

      Jimmy GQ will be the highest paid QB in the league until Cousins signs. Cousins will be the highest paid player in the league until Rodgers and Matt Ryan sign their extensions.

      1. Drake

        And because of those monster contracts, none of them will ever win a Superbowl.

        1. +1 Matthew Stafford

        2. Juvenile Bluster

          Except they all have to do it. You need a QB. The reason the Pats have been so successful is that Brady’s wife is richer than he is so he’s been giving the Pats well below market rates all this time.

          1. Drake

            The Eagles just won the SuperBowl with a mediocre back-up.

          2. Count Potato

            Nazi gold?

      2. Idle Hands

        Rodgers deserves 50 million dollars a year.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          Not with those weak girly collar bones of his…

        2. Drake

          #Metoo

  53. Mojeaux

    So, sports. Scott Boras may have priced my beloved Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas right back into the Royals clubhouse YAY!!!

    1. Idle Hands

      The baseball free agent market has been hilarious thus far. My favorite casualty is the baseballcentric sports writers who are all having a complete melt down out calling out ownership groups for “collusion” for not handing out the type of contracts costing them the page clicks they normally get by openly mocking said deals. My second favorite is Boras having a meltdown because owners aren’t lining up this year to break out the brinks trucks for the nominally talented free agents that are available this year.

      1. Brett L

        Everyone is a data guy now. Clubs have a much better idea of (a) what they want in a lineup and (b) what the difference is between the best choice and the 2nd or 3rd best choice. Its going to be tough for anyone who isn’t a pitcher or an MVP candidate to land the 10 year, $100M deal.

      2. Mojeaux

        A theory I saw floated yesterday was that it’s because the Yankees aren’t spending barrels of cash and therefore, it has become a buyer’s market.

        1. Idle Hands

          That’s dumb, the yankess are still spending barrels of cash they just took on the largest contract in the league in Stanton.

          1. WTF

            True, but they are not bidding up the price on free agents heading for the downside of their careers they way they used to.

          2. Mojeaux

            That. ^^^

      3. Juvenile Bluster

        This free agency slowdown, along with teams getting smart, is all about 2019.

        2019 is Harper and Machado, among other big names, hitting free agency. The Dodgers and the Yankees are getting their payrolls under $189 million this year because that resets the luxury tax repeater penalty. So next year when they hand those guys huge contracts (except Harper is going to the Phillies), the tax penalty will be a great deal less.

        1. Idle Hands

          I don’t know how smart teams are. Is their a single top end free agent without his share of question marks this year? Arrietta had a bad year, Darvish never not hurt, Hosmer’s bat inconsistent every year/is a first baseman, Moustakis does not consistently get on base and might not age well, Martinez plays terrible defense and will either play 1st or dh very soon and is also always hurt. The only guy top end who plays a premium position and had a decent bat got signed for a very hansom deal in lorenzo cain. So maybe it’s more the free agents suck than teams getting smart. But like you I believe it’s a combination of things with 2019 looming large.

    2. Drake

      Unless Boras has priced J.D. Martinez out of the market. Then maybe the Red Sox go after Moustakas.

      1. Mojeaux

        I do not understand why the players themselves aren’t telling the guy to back off. Surely they want a job?

        1. Idle Hands

          Because he usually wins. This is the first time in a while that hes come up snake eyes. But it’s the perfect storm in that teams aren’t overpaying over thirty, injury prone black hole defenders who can hit the coveroff the ball. The one young guy is Hosmer who plays the least premium position by far at first and is inconsistent as hell.

          1. Idle Hands

            But also theirs still time, we may yet see some team panic and pay what some of these guys are asking for.

          2. Mojeaux

            Royals got badly burned on Alex Gordon post World Series, too, so they aren’t going to cave this time around. There’s no World Series ring 6 months ago to wave around.

        2. Drake

          2 years ago Martinez was no better offensively than Jackie Bradley (and not nearly the fielder). Now he thinks he deserves a commitment of 7 years somewhere north of $25M per. I don’t think the Red Sox should sign him for more than 2 or 3 years.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    Jimmy GQ will be the highest paid QB in the league until Cousins signs. Cousins will be the highest paid player in the league until Rodgers and Matt Ryan sign their extensions.

    You know what occurred to me in the Stupor Bowl? What if Tom Brady had a rider in his contract saying he’d get an extra million dollars or so if he scored a touchdown by a pass reception?

    *I doubt Foles or his agent would be crafty enough to stick something like that in the contract, but Brady might.

    I found it extremely amusing when Foles caught that TD pass after Brady blew his chance.

    1. creech

      Foles didn’t have the clout when he signed for two years with the E-A-G-L-E-S. He has another year left on his deal so Birds have him unless they allow him to be traded for high draft picks or something.

      1. Private Chipperbot

        I may have heard he is the highest paid backup in the league. That’s something, I guess. Or not.

        1. Certified Public Asshat

          Mike Glennon and Sam Bradford should make more than him.

        2. creech

          Foles got $11 million from the Eagles this year and will be paid same next year. His endorsement revenue should soar, however.

  55. TK

    Got a random call from my brother last night – he had just found Jordan Peterson and was absolutely enamored with him. My bro is an artist, surrounded by prog-types (his roommate insists that modern technology has its roots in colonialism). He told me “I’ve felt like something has been wrong in our culture for a few years, and this guy is hitting the nail on the head!”

    He also asked me how he should go about broaching these subjects with someone that, for example, is black and gay or a black woman that is gay. I told him it depends on the person, their openness to new ideas and the issue being discussed. I also told him that the SJWs don’t represent all gay/black/etc. people like they claim they do.

  56. Gadfly

    Since some of those “hate symbols” are just memes used by trolls, I hope the trolls up their game and try to turn the logos for the Democratic Party, SPLC, and ADL into hate symbols.

    I’ll give a try: the Democratic Party logo is a “D” in a circle, in blue and white (which parts are blue and which parts are white vary by application). The D in the circle is symbolic for dominance (“D”) over the world (circle being a 2D representation of a globe), and the colors being only white and blue stand for whites dominating the world from sea to sea, with no other colors present. There, now the symbol of the Democratic Party is a symbol of white supremacy. Run with it, trolls.

    1. cyto

      I thought it was a symbol of white supremacy because of , well, all the white supremacists in the party.

    1. Just Say’n

      Seriously, though, I know that the skull and cross bones is an old Prussian symbol, but it does make you look like the baddies

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          NEEDS MOAR SKULLZ!
          Very nice work!

          1. I had debated adding a skull to fill the gap between the pairs in the middle. I don’t know why it comes with four when it clearly should have five.

    2. commodious spittoon

      4chan should try to get a rat’s anus on the next ADL list.

  57. Just Say’n

    https://twitter.com/Bmac0507/status/961818786247553024/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fbrettt-3136%2F2018%2F02%2F08%2Fthe-tolerant-left-bette-midler-wonders-where-rand-pauls-neighbor-is-when-you-need-him%2F

    The Left hates Rand Paul, because he threatens their God- government. It’s time to admit that that is the only thing they care about is an ever expansive government. Rand Paul is the only truly non-interventionist and pro-transparency senator in either party (sorry Fonzie, but Wyden is a hack). You would think that would gain him some good will with the Left, but it doesn’t because now they are being honest with themselves- this is all just about expanding government, pushing their beliefs, and profiting off of government.

    1. Rebel Scum

      I, for one, stand with Rand.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Absolutely

        *puts on shitlord hat*

      2. Just Say’n

        I’ve yet to find a time when I didn’t Stand with Rand. He gets a lot of shit for not being a purist, but overall he draws the line on the right issues

        1. cyto

          We are the only ones. In addition to the proggies, my conservative friends were up in arms yesterday, saying he had lost his mind.

          Nobody likes a man of principle. Even less so if his principles involve less free stuff.

    2. creech

      The trouble with Rand is his spine isn’t always stiff.

      1. You know what else isn’t always stiff?

        1. Non-Newtonian Fluid?

        2. Number.6

          Thixotropic gels?

          1. Number.6

            ::Looks suspiciously at UNC::

      2. Just Say’n

        How stiff would you want it to be? He can either be like his father (pure in principle, but ineffectual in terms of policy) or he can pick and choose his battles and get modest victories here and there

        1. Lachowsky

          Serious question. What moderate victories has he achieved?

          I like rand, but I’m not seeing him win anything.

          1. Just Say’n

            (1) Repeal of individual mandate

            (2) Executive order allowing businesses to join together to purchase insurance

            (3) Getting more Republican Senators to vote against FISA renewal

            I’m not saying he’s been wildly successful, but he has definitely made in-roads

          2. Just Say’n

            Also, he stopped Bolton from joining the administration

          3. Lachowsky

            That’s pretty slim pickins. Not nothing, but maybe if he was as good at outreach as his father he could have accomplished the same and kept his spine.

          4. Just Say’n

            What has he been spineless about? Voting for Sessions? Endorsing Moore?

            He has to play nice with the party. On policy I don’t think he’s ever betrayed principles

      3. STEVE SMITH IS STIFF ALL OVER.

    3. Lachowsky

      “The Left hates Rand Paul, because he threatens their God- government. It’s time to admit that that is the only thing they care about is an ever expansive government.”

      I beleive this morning we saw clear evidence that an ever expanding governemnt is not just a lefty thing. It a truly bipartisan effort.

      1. Just Say’n

        I can’t argue that point

      2. Suthenboy

        Means to an end. Power. Power for power’s sake.

        “Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

    4. CPRM

      That Bill Madden guy complaining that Rand voted for the tax cuts which add to the deficit…complaining that Rand won’t vote for a budget that adds to the deficit. I don’t think you can be that stupid without trying.

  58. TK

    Funny coincidence about Jordan Peterson being discussed here for the past few days – my brother randomly called me yesterday to tell me he just found this awesome guy on YouTube called Jordan Peterson. My brother is an artist and surrounded by prog-types (his roommate tells me that modern refrigerators and other conveniences are the direct result of colonialism).

    He said that he felt like something has been wrong in our culture for years, and that its obvious that men and women, on average, are very different. He said he feels like he’s been taking crazy pills for years and now is finally hearing some truth.

    He wasn’t big on some of the more theological stuff that Peterson talks about.

    1. Number.6

      We’re all shitlords now.

    2. Tell him welcome to the Nazi club from us.

    3. Just Say’n

      “his roommate tells me that modern refrigerators and other conveniences are the direct result of colonialism”

      His roommate sounds profoundly retarded

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        If so, thanks be to God for colonialism.

      2. TK

        His roommate is in his 50’s and unemployed. He spends his days in his room painting. My brother said that his roommate’s parents pay for his stuff. Pretty sad.

        1. 50s? That would mean his parents are at least in their 70s or older.

          What’s he going to do when they croak and it turns out they left their stuff to charity (other than him)?

          1. Number.6

            “I’m broke, because of the pater-iarchy and the mater-iarchy”

          2. *symphony applause*

          3. Number.6

            ::takes bow, throws baton out into the audience, exit stage left::

          4. TK

            Yep, apparently they have connections to the Biden family… as in Joe Biden. Weird.

          5. Number.6

            “Where did Uncle Joe touch you, Bob?”

      3. Gilmore

        modern refrigerators and other conveniences are the direct result of colonialism

        Air conditioning was invented in England, but put into first practical use in a hospital in Florida. To help w/ Malaria patients.

        . In 1842, Florida physician John Gorrie used (Faraday’s) compressor technology to create ice, which he used to cool air for his patients in his hospital in Apalachicola, Florida. He hoped to eventually use his ice-making machine to regulate the temperature of buildings

        for the record, no, there was no rapid expansion of air-conditioners to ‘Colonies’. nobody other than hospitals and gazillionaires could afford the shit for another 70+ years

    4. Number.6

      He’s probably finding it hard to get enough poon, and wonders how he became a rapist.

    5. commodious spittoon

      modern refrigerators and other conveniences are the direct result of colonialism

      Did you tell him “You’re welcome”?

    6. Number.6

      One article I watched was a critique of what makes Peterson so persuasive – and an issue that was pointed out was that Peterson goes out of his way to demonstrate that the counterargument he’s crushing has some level of merit in order to provide the crushed opponent to maintain some feeling of self-worth.

      i.e. unlike our arguments.

      Also – I was impressed by this when I went searching elsewhere – Peterson uses his faith as a mechanism for illustrating a point, rather than *being* the point.

      1. I can’t lie that effectively to pretend that the drivel people have pushed as an argument has merit.

        1. Number.6

          If you want your enemy to fight like a cornered rat – corner him.

          1. Once I have a rodent trapped, I can finally line up the kill shot.

        2. Pope Jimbo

          Dude, once you can fake sincerity you have it made….

      2. R C Dean

        Peterson goes out of his way to demonstrate that the counterargument he’s crushing has some level of merit

        Ah, the Soave Maneuver.

        1. Except with actual principles and a thoughtfully worded counterargument.

    7. So he’s saying we should organize our society like lobsters? /sarc

      I would like to thank this moment to thank Cathy Newman for sending Peterson back into the spotlight with that interview.

      1. Number.6

        At exactly the right time to promote “12 Rules For Life”.

  59. How ’bout a military parade with these ladies’ weapons brandished and ready for action?

    http://archive.is/ONoNd

    1, 4, 10, 17, 20, 21, 22, 42.

  60. Since I identify as a ghost relentlessly pursued by a pie chart, I don’t have to worry about any of these gangs; but why is pretty much every single racist gang in that list Aryan Nation or Neo-Nazi in some way? It seems that as long as you’re cataloguing racist, ethnic gangs, groups like Latin Kings and Black P Stones would probably fit the bill. But what do I know?

    1. Just Say’n

      I don’t know. Latin Kings doesn’t exist explicitly to harass other ethnicities (although, the bigotry between Hispanics and African Americans is often ignored in our society). At first Latin Kings was founded in the late 70’s in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago to protect against the white gangs like the Gaylords and the Popes (“Protecting our People Eliminating S…”). Those white gangs were also not explicitly motivated by race hatred. And the Black P Stones went through a brief period of embracing the Nation of Islam, but that was always a front to hide its criminal enterprise. So, those street gangs, while overwhelmingly associated with one race or another, are not singularly motivated by some racial ideology like the Aryan Nation and such.

      1. wdalasio

        Of course, you can’t really count out the extent to which the racism of groups like Aryan Nation is a front to cover for their criminal enterprises.

      2. When I was the ASA at the Aurora Branch court, the LKs and BGDs had a nice little race war. It wasn’t just turf or drug sales.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Our moral superiors in action….

      1. They learned by watching the UN…

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Another Uber story. This one is about how politicians plan to tax a desired product in order to fund an undesired product.

      A Senate panel has endorsed extending state and regional sales taxes to ride services such as Uber and Lyft in order to raise more than $21 million a year for mass transit systems across Virginia, replacing the use of state-backed bonds to pay for new buses and other capital needs.

  61. commodious spittoon

    At least their shakedown operation is self-funding. Costs spiral for CFPB’s lavish new headquarters as Congress fumes

    Renovation costs for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new headquarters building have doubled, soaring from $55 million to $95 million, the Washington Examiner has learned.

    Such costs are at least twice the typical renovation expenses for the most luxurious commercial office space available in downtown Washington, D.C., according to architectural experts.

    Moreover, the $95 million is nearly double the General Services Administration’s $50 million annual budget for construction, acquisition and renovation for all federal buildings throughout the country.

    The skyrocketing renovation costs translate roughly to $80,000 for each of the 1,200 CFPB employees working at the agency, which is located one block from the White House. The building at 1700 G Street NW is new by Washington standards, having been built in the 1970’s.

    No wonder Mulvaney turned down new funding.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Burn it down.

    2. Pfft. That’s nothing. The new VA hospital in Aurora has had an *800%* budget overrun and it’s still not finished. And it’s 5 years late.

    3. It’s the cost of civilization, you shit lord!

    4. Pope Jimbo

      Meh, this sort of waste is nothing new. Anytime some idiot gets appointed to some new position, don’t they spend a ton of money on new drapes/carpet/furniture?

      You think that could be the first thing anyone would do when trying to cut a budget. You get the office of the person you replaced. No improvements.

    5. R C Dean

      No wonder Mulvaney turned down new funding.

      Pretty sure Mulvaney can shut it down because of the weird funding mechanism that was put in place for CFBP, where he just requests money rather than having a Congressional appropriation. SCOTUS said that the executive has to spend appropriations (can’t recall the case), but if he just doesn’t request any money and their bank account runs dry, what happens then?

      Once again, the Progs reap the whirlwind of breaking an Iron Law: Me today, you tomorrow.

    6. Gustave Lytton

      It’s not the Taxpayers’ Financial Protection Bureau.

  62. Lachowsky

    This budget that just passed sucks huge balls. Fuck the republicans. You have all three branches of givernment under your control and you can’t come up with something even mildy fiscally sane. Honest to god, I don’t think the Dems would have been thus bad on the budget. Our political class is hell bent on bankrupting the country and turning our dollar into bolivar. I hate everyone involved.

    1. I think it was trsh that said yesterday something along the lines of:

      “Bipartisanship is when the Dems want to increase entitlement spending while reducing defense spending and Pubs want to increase defense spending while reducing entitlement spending. So they compromise and increase everything.”

      1. Lachowsky

        The whole thing sucks. I was on here last night talking about wanting my money to be worth something 40 years from now. Of the self serving asshats in Washington continue down thus course, the U.S. dollar will be good for wiping my ass with, and not much else.

        1. It’s good you’re already invested in your land. Hard assets like that are going to be more important when the dollar finally takes in the starfish at some undetermined future point.

          1. Suthenboy

            Two words:

            Land

            Reform

          2. Are you talking about redistributing Q’s vast tracts of land?

          3. That, along with gun confiscation, would probably be the two most likely candidates to push the US into civil war.

          4. Suthenboy

            FDR got away with it. You just target the right people and pay off the right people.

          5. Lachowsky

            If they ever try land reform, Kulak Lachowsky with come out shooting. Seriously.

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        I always liked “There are two parties in Washington, the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. Once in a while, they do something that’s both stupid and evil and call it bipartisanship”

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          That’s a good one, because it’s true

  63. Oddly, Groupon doesn’t offer a deal on anal beads. That’s how you kick Valentine’s Day into high gear.

    https://nypost.com/2018/02/08/a-lot-of-couples-say-valentines-day-is-boring/

  64. This study/survey was probably done before #metoo also.

    https://nypost.com/2018/02/08/one-third-of-office-romances-end-in-unemployment/

    Take home message, don’t dip your pen in the company ink.

    1. That’s always been my rule – had one or two chances with ze lady co-workers, but never made a move since I didn’t want to deal with the fall out.

    2. Number.6

      On a long-enough time horizon, we’re all unemployed.

    3. wdalasio

      don’t dip your pen in the company ink.

      That’s always good advice. At this point, though, I’d suggest even creating the appearance of being interested in dipping your pen in the company ink is something you need to at least think twice about. Really, Mike Pence looks prescient.

      And now feminists are throwing hissy fits that men aren’t interested in mentoring them. You didn’t consider this possibility, ladies?

      1. hate_speech

        When you’re used to getting what you asked for without suffering consequences, you end up not being able to predict consequences.

    4. commodious spittoon

      Trexler: Well, the lovely Framboise from HR has some paperwork for you to sign. So why don’t you follow her on down to your big new corner office.
      Archer: Okay.
      Trexler: Where the sofa is soaked in Scotchgard.
      Archer: It, uh–
      Trexler: lf you know what I mean.
      Archer: Yeah, I think I do.
      Trexler: It’s resistant to stains.

    1. Rebel Scum

      the sun is growing colder

      If the Earth is heating up, then this makes a wash, no?

      1. Private Chipperbot

        That’s what they’d like you to believe, except the sun will never get cool enough to offset the warming.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          But I like it warm…. I WANT MY SUN BACK!

  65. The Late P Brooks

    It’s a man’s work

    This dynamic plays out in workplaces of all classes and crosses partisan political lines. But it is particularly stark in the blue-collar jobs that once scored a kind of manly trifecta: They paid a breadwinner’s wage, embodied strength and formed the backbone of the American economy.

    As Christine Williams, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, pungently put it, women in so-called men’s jobs are labeled either “sluts or dykes,” each abused in their own ways. Although statistics are spotty, some studies have concluded that sexual harassment is more regular and severe in traditionally male occupations. And a Times Upshot analysis of blue-collar occupations showed that women’s presence in these jobs stayed static or shrank between 2000 and 2016.

    Women are so scarce in these trades that some men refuse to see them as women. The only woman in a repair crew at wind-farm sites charged in a lawsuit that her co-workers called her by male nicknames, from common to obscene, because they thought only a man could handle the job. Men suggested she must have a penis or be a lesbian.

    Oh, boo hoo hoo, them mean old boys won’t let Cousin Mary in their secret robbers’ lair tree house.

    We need to destroy civilization in order to save.

    1. “women in so-called men’s jobs are labeled either “sluts or dykes,” ”

      Citation needed.

      1. I’m certain the women not doing those jobs would use those terms to describe them…

        1. commodious spittoon

          Yeah, that’s the only group of people I could see making that crack. That’s a crab bucket insult, total status envy.

        2. Festus

          I had an extremely butch supervisor at work named Glenda. I’d use the tag “Glen or Glenda” and nobody ever got the joke. These are not sub-literate people.

    2. wdalasio

      Reading this, I couldn’t help but wonder how particularly capable the women were at the jobs in question. My guess is that a lot of guys in blue collar jobs don’t have a lot of patience for a woman who thinks she’s entitled to the job because equality and then expects to be carried because vagina.

      1. Number.6

        A far better measurement would be to look at the experiences of women in established industries such as telecom.

        How many female linemen with 5 years’ experience have modern anecdotes that demonstrate this kind of behavior? How many new male linemen are called names? My strong suspicion (apart from the article being mostly false) is that any noob of any gender in a ‘trade’ profession gets this kind of treatment.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          We shred Noobs for Years before they “make” it, I got it, everyone does, it’s part of growing up

        2. Gustave Lytton

          Best version I could find
          https://www.insulators.info/pictures/?id=258143791

          I first saw this ad ripped from a magazine and hanging on the wall of an all male crewroom.

        3. SugarFree

          New librarians just get a quick blanket party. We ain’t got time to haze them for 5 years.

  66. Such tolerance and bravery.

    https://www.infowars.com/bette-midler-jokes-about-rand-paul-being-violently-assaulted/

    I guess standing by your principles makes you a legitimate target for violence.

    1. wdalasio

      standing by your principles makes you a legitimate target for violence.

      Simply disagreeing with them makes you a legitimate target for violence. That’s the thing so many libertarians and conservatives simply don’t understand about progressives. They don’t want a compromise. At best, they’ll only settle for one as a temporary tactic. Any time anyone takes a stand they don’t like, they’re a legitimate target. No matter how much good will that person has made an effort to build with them.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        Sounds like you’re talking about the Mooslims

        1. spqr2008

          It’s why the largely atheist left, the USSR, and Muslim terrorists get along so well. Each cannot have compromise with its perceived enemies.

  67. Juvenile Bluster

    This stupid spending bill has me incredibly pissed off.

    Fuck the Republican Party. When the other team’s in power, they’re all willing to repeal Obamacare and talk about cutting spending, but when they get into power? Fuck no. And fuck Trump for going along with it.

    Is there a woodchipper big enough to just dump all of DC into?

    1. Number.6

      ::Prays for SMOD::

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        If SMOD hit DC directly it would go quick. I want them to suffer.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          If only there could be some disaster that totally cut off the region from the rest of the world. It would be wonderful trying to watch the swamp try to feed itself as well as find power and other necessities.

          Meanwhile the rest of the country would grow and prosper.

  68. In my experience, men who self-identify as “nice guys” and lament that they can’t get women are usually just very passive and are secretly hiding rage, feelings of inadequacy and awkwardness. They typically aren’t actually very nice.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BU-Beof9hU

    1. Number.6

      Says the girl whose boyfriend is Armored Skeptic, part-time fedora-owner.

      Although she’s not wrong.

    2. Idle Hands

      Self pity is incredibly unattractive. I hate whiners, so I would imagine other people do too. And that probably includes women.

  69. Juvenile Bluster

    What in the ever loving FUCK.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/high-school-coach-ignored-boys-screams-as-teammates-raped-him-lawsuit-claims

    Now, a new family has filed a lawsuit against the school district, claiming that a La Vernia coach witnessed and ignored two violent sexual assaults suffered by their son while he was on its basketball team.

    The complaint alleges that a boy, listed as John Doe, was sexually assaulted more than 30 times between October 2016 and February 2017 in the La Vernia High School locker room, a shower at the school, during basketball practice, at other schools’ gyms, before and after basketball games, and after team dinners at other families’ homes.

    All the while, according to the documents, Doe says he was threatened by teammates between assaults that they were “going to get you.”

    In February of last year, a La Vernia student told local police he was sexually assaulted by varsity athletes. Ultimately, police found that the alleged abuse—perpetrated by players on the high school’s baseball, football, and basketball teams—targeted at least 10 victims and spanned more than three years. The full scale of the assaults is not yet publicly known, but it has roiled the tiny town about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio.

    (The Texas Rangers and the State Attorney General’s Office have said the investigation is ongoing, but provided few other details.)

    Varsity players on all three teams were accused of sodomizing younger teammates with baseball bats, flashlights, and carbon-dioxide tanks. A total of 13 students—six of them legally considered adults—were arrested and charged with either sexual assault or sexual assault of a child.

    1. Just Say’n

      I played sports in high school and was in a fraternity in college. We did hazing, but we never had any interest in raping one another. These kids are sick

      1. wdalasio

        These kids are sick.

        Yes, they are. And the fact that the coach let them get away with it because they were varsity athletes tells me he should be run out of town on a rail.

      2. The Last American Hero

        You were in the summer season of the hazing cycle.

        Hazing always follows a cycle of steadily increasing hijinx until someone dies or gets ass raped. Then after the investigations and arrests, a new organization forms, and the cycle begins again.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s reminiscent of the first news broadcast I listened to when I moved to Baltimore. They were talking about how some 15 year olds sodomized a 12 year old with a broomstick in the boys bathroom at school. As a relatively naive student, I was slightly taken aback by my new surrounds.

    3. Pope Jimbo

      The complaint alleges that a boy, listed as John Doe, was sexually assaulted more than 30 times

      “Son, you aren’t here for the basketball are you?”

      1. Sean

        “Son, you aren’t here for the basketball are you?”

        Damn it Jimbo, I feel bad for laughing at that.

  70. The Late P Brooks

    Simply disagreeing with them makes you a legitimate target for violence. That’s the thing so many libertarians and conservatives simply don’t understand about progressives. They don’t want a compromise.

    A lot of people are nothing more than religious fanatics. Disagreement is perceived as an existential threat, and will be responded to accordingly.

    1. wdalasio

      But, as I said, a lot of libertarians and conservatives seemed bound and determined to ignore it. They sell out principle thinking they’re getting some grand bargain. But, it’s with people who will happily set mobs on them the next day

      1. commodious spittoon

        Sign your name to the confessions so they can hang you with a clear conscience. Otherwise they’ll have to torture it out of you.

      2. Just Say’n

        True

        1. Just Say’n

          My favorite example of this is when ENB and Robbie got shutdown on college campuses. They embrace the Left’s identity politics and call anyone who doesn’t a racist and the Left still won’t let them speak

          1. wdalasio

            You could say it about columnists and pundits. And you could say it about politicians. How many GOPers (McCain, Flake) make all these surrenders to the left. And they’re still surprised when the left hates them.

            They aren’t your friends. They’re never going to be your friends. Stop trying to win their favor. And stop betraying the people who are or can be your friends to curry their favor.

          2. Just Say’n

            True, but in McCain’s case, I think he actually believes the bullshit that he spouts. I think Flake is desperately in need of a job and the best way to do that is to sellout hard to the Left

  71. The Late P Brooks

    Well… huh

    It was almost 4 p.m., and the boys started to gather their backpacks to head to a class known as Porn Literacy. The course, with the official title The Truth About Pornography: A Pornography-Literacy Curriculum for High School Students Designed to Reduce Sexual and Dating Violence, is a recent addition to Start Strong, a peer-leadership program for teenagers headquartered in Boston’s South End and funded by the city’s public-health agency. About two dozen selected high school students attend every year, most of them black or Latino, along with a few Asian students, from Boston public high schools, including the city’s competitive exam schools, and a couple of parochial schools. During most of the year, the teenagers learn about healthy relationships, dating violence and L.G.B.T. issues, often through group discussions, role-playing and other exercises.

    But for around two hours each week, for five weeks, the students — sophomores, juniors and seniors — take part in Porn Literacy, which aims to make them savvier, more critical consumers of porn by examining how gender, sexuality, aggression, consent, race, queer sex, relationships and body images are portrayed (or, in the case of consent, not portrayed) in porn.

    Maybe I’m crazy, but sex ed taught by a woke sociologist seems likely to create more problems than it solves.

    1. Jarflax

      teenagers learn about healthy relationships, dating violence and L.G.B.T. issues, often through group discussions, role-playing and other exercises.

      This sounds like something NAMBLA would come up with. What “other exercises?”

    2. commodious spittoon

      To think I go to class to learn architectural drafting in AutoCAD and Revit. Fuck me for wasting my time, I could be learning about queers bumping uglies.

    3. Despite every single instinct and belief, I increasingly think sending my daughter to Catholic school is a pretty good idea.

      1. trshmnstr

        My decision to avoid public school like the plague was made quite a while ago. Public school is the single most retarding force against the development of emotional maturity.

        1. Yeah, I think at this stage, especially in MD, there isn’t a public school I’d send my kid to. There’s a Montessori place nearish by and there are a few good private schools in-town, but St. Mary’s is comparatively inexpensive AND wins points with the overwhelmingly Catholic in-laws. Weighing indoctrination into a religion I don’t follow against immersion in Progressive social justice propaganda I tend to take the nuns.

          1. Akira

            I know absolutely nothing about Catholic K-12 schooling, but if they teach the Trivium (which I think has traditionally been associated with Catholic theology) then that alone would put that curriculum head-and-shoulders above whatever kind of Common (Wh)ore shit they’re teaching in government schools these days (then again, watching Beavis and Butthead for 12 years would probably produce more intelligent people than government school curricula).

          2. Number.6

            Catholicism != Scientology. I can’t count the number of people I know who were educated in a parochial school who reject the theology by their mid-20’s at the latest.

            As bad habits go, Christianity ain’t heroin.

          3. My wife has bad memories of an elementary to middle Catholic education. For me, the two draws are that it’s cheaper than secular private schools and I’m pretty confident that by the time she’s at school age the Catholics still won’t have much truck with intersectionality.

    4. creech

      I always thought high school students learned about sex in the back seat of an automobile?

      1. A lot of them don’t have cars or licenses these days.

        And the back seats are getting more cramped.

      2. If the links here are any indication, high school get firsthand field education on sex from the teachers.

  72. commodious spittoon

    Single Payer is doomed from the start.

    In England, this process is reaching a tipping point. A couple of years ago people were waiting many hours in the Emergency Department just to be seen by a doctor. So the NHS ruled in 2004 that 95% of all patients would be seen within four hours of arrival. In order to avoid breaking the rule, Emergency Departments refused to allow ambulances to unload their patients until the ED could meet the time standard. So patients were stuck in ambulances outside the ED door, and there weren’t enough ambulances left to answer calls. Now the rule has been scrapped.

  73. wdalasio

    Pretty good article My favorite quote:

    We’re supposed to pass each individual bill, and what would happen when we pass the bills, they would go through committee and each committee would look and see, well, this spending seems to be working. We’re getting a great result, and we want some more next year. And this spending appears to be, have been put in a closet and lit on fire, and so next year we’re not giving that person who put the $10 million in the closet and lit it on fire, we’re not going to give them any money.

    Guess what? That doesn’t happen. So people keep putting your money in a closet and lighting it on fire.

    1. Count Potato

      SF’ed

  74. The Late P Brooks

    We don’t have many specifics on what kids actually view, in large part because it’s extremely difficult to get federal funding for research on children and pornography.

    *goes to get rag to clean coffee off monitor*

    1. Jarflax

      Can we get back to a world where it is not ‘extremely difficult” but rather ABSOLUTELY @#$%^&*ing IMPOSSIBLE that federal funding ever be used for watching kids jack off to porn? And, I am not generally in favor of search warrants without direct evidence of a specific crime, but anyone who wants federal funding to study kids watching porn needs their hard drive searched.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      JUST STOP

      The appetite for data on our behaviors will never be sated, and feeding it only increases it and encourages them to try to do something with it.

      JUST FUCKING STOP

  75. egould310

    Anyone be interested in a knowledge-dump article about running/jogging/walking for Glibfit? I’m planning on spewing all of my experiences, knowledge, and philosophy of running into an article. I’m also a lazy badtard, so before I sit down this afternoon to write the damn thing, just wanted to gauge interest.

    Meantime, I’m gonna eat this Indica edible, finish my coffee, and set out on a 10 mile run.

    1. Festus

      I can feature a fifty mile bike ride but running unless in short explosive bursts is anathema to this guy. I run for anything rather than fun.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Okay, I’ll bite: how is running high?

      1. egould310

        Pretty fun, bub!

        1. Count Potato

          Do you feel like you’re starving when you get back?

    3. Yusef drives a Kia

      You should write it, I’m sure the Overlords will post it.
      I don’t run, but I climb a lot, and walk a lot, just on massive roof tops, and that’s plenty for me,

    4. Akira

      I’d love to read it, and I would be glad to leave some rants in the comment section about the “barefoot” / zero-drop running philosophy.

      I’ve been doing 20 miles a week in my Xero huaraches, and I love it. The only time I wear shoes is if it’s below 36 degrees with snow on the ground; that’s the precise temperature that my unshod feet can handle.

      1. Where do you live that the pavement is free of trash, debris, and broken glass?

        1. Akira

          I live in a town of about 26,000 in southwest Ohio. I do wear those sandals, which are only about 4mm thick; I haven’t yet done the totally barefoot thing.

          But the streets and public parks around here are pretty clean*, and the sandals do protect against small hazards. However, I do watch where I’m stepping and steer clear of broken glass or the giant thorny things that fall off those locust trees.

          * Do I lose my libertarian license for using not only ROADZ but also a government-funded park?

          1. It’s not unusual for people to discard things on my sidewalk. I’ve had things ranging from food containers to four foot long steel pipes to window* screens just randomly tossed on my walkway.

            *automotive windows, so it was likely thrown out of a parked car.

          2. Tres Cool

            I’m “that guy” that wears socks/sandals.
            Yeah, thats me.

      2. Tundra

        I don’t run anymore, but switching to zero drop shoes changes my sporting life. Chronic ankle, knee and hip issues disappeared. Huuuuuuuge fan.

        1. So I have no interest in running but I walk all the time, and I’ve got crap knees and plantar fasciitis that comes and goes. I’ve got a pair of Salomons that have done well for me, but they’re about to give up the ghost. At any rate, my knees and sometimes hips still ache at the end of the day, especially if I’ve been doing a lot of walking. Are the zero drops really worth it? I’m looking at pairs online and I’m a little hesitant to take a flyer on $80+ shoes unless they’re really worth getting.

          1. Tundra

            I’ve had Salomon, Merrell, Vibram and Innov8. Didn’t really like the Vibrams, but the rest are terrific. I have hiked many, many tough miles in the Salomons with zero turned ankles or injuries. I ran in the Merrells and the Innov8s are my gym shoe.

            They have really strengthened my feet, calves, etc. I live in flip flops all summer and can walk 10 miles with no discomfort. For me, they are worth every dime. Besides, they last forever. I used to buy new running shoes 1- 2 times a year.

          2. trshmnstr

            Go into a shoe store and get your gait looked at. They’ll tell you what to look for in a shoe based on how your feet land. Good shoes are worth their weight in gold. I used to have hip, knee, and foot pain until I got the right pair of shoes.

          3. Akira

            The DIY Xero Sandals kit costs under $30 (and it’s easy to DIY.. If I can do it, anyone can).

            It would be a great way to try out minimalist/barefoot-style walking without spending a ton of money. Just remember to ease into them. If, for example, you walk 10 miles per session, put these sandals on and just do 1 or 2. There are muscles and tendons that are atrophied from a lifetime of wearing “normal” shoes, so your feet, ankles, and calves will get a workout like they’ve never had. The first time I ran in my sandals, I had killer soreness in my calves for a week.

            I can’t diagnose your knee and foot issues or give you a guaranteed solution, but many, many people report that they’ve had lifelong foot pain disappear after switching to minimalist footwear.

    5. trshmnstr

      If it’s long enough to make into a full article, talk with the Admins. I’ll be happy to skip writing the generic checkin thread for a week to let you feature something with more real content. I know there are some distance runners in the glibertariat, so there is an audience.

      If you’re thinking more like a 2 or 3 paragraph blurb, you and I can coordinate. Just send me an email at fbff819b [at] opayq [dot] com

    6. Interested – I’ve returned to running, doing ~10 miles a week, even in the snow (Yax Tracks – thank goodness).

  76. Rebel Scum

    How many of you are in this Florida Man documentary?

    1. Drake

      Holy crap. Is anyone ever sober there?

    1. Festus

      I walk ten miles a night on a safe day. Twenty in the winter from time to time.

  77. Festus

    OT – I have a neighbour with a bobcat. He cleared every driveway up and down the street except for mine during the last snowpocalypse. Should I feel bad about making clucking noises and feather-ruffling gestures at his wife and the other neighbour when they were obviously judging my Wife because she didn’t take her bird feeders down last fall. Maybe I’m just an asshole? ZARDOZ?

    1. Warty

      Why would one take down bird feeders in the fall?

      1. CPRM

        Bears?

        1. trshmnstr

          I thought the bears were more interested in Vermont bed and breakfasts than birdwatching.

          1. Shit, it took me three reads to realize that the neighbor didn’t have a tame bobcat as a pet.

          2. I just thought it was a cat well trained at snow removal.

          3. MikeS

            Ha! It only took me two reads!

          4. trshmnstr

            I was wondering why he’d make fowl noises anywhere near a feline that specifically hunts such animals.

          5. Festus

            I really have to work on my skillz… Fuck you and you’re not invited to the party!

    2. spqr2008

      My parents’ old neighbor ended up getting a huge promotion at his job, and bought a snowblower. He’d go from the house on his right, all the way down to the corner and back with it to clear our sidewalks. It was great of him to do it, and he mainly did it because he and his wife were too busy at work to support the neighborhood associations beautification efforts, that my dad mostly led.

      1. Festus

        So basically, a cunt.

  78. Yusef drives a Kia

    Regarding Space X, the Government is putting things in orbit, Space X gets the job because they are cheaper than ULA, how is that cronyism?
    I get the whole Solar City/ Tesla Cronyism, but not Space X, IMO

    1. Number.6

      Without my knowing anything about the issue, you could still be seeing cronyism if government were placing barriers to entry in the path of other companies to benefit Space X.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        Boeing, Rockwell and the rest of ULA have zero barriers, if anything Space X had to clear a bunch of hurdles to get where they are, and the make the Biggest Rockets the World has ever seen

        1. MikeS

          make the Biggest Rockets the World has ever seen currently has

          1. WTF

            Yeah, the Saturn V was bigger with more powerful engines.

  79. thepasswordispassword

    Libertarian moment?

    Welcome to Monowi, Nebraska: population 1
    Eighty-four-year-old Elsie Eiler pays taxes to herself, grants her own alcohol licence and is the only remaining resident in Monowi, Nebraska.

    1. Couldn’t she just grant herself an exemption from property taxes?

      1. Number.6

        She’s not a scofflaw, dammit!

        Who else is gonna pay for the roadz?

      2. trshmnstr

        It’s all about that SALT deduction. Although, that scam is done with the passage of tax reform.

  80. The Late P Brooks

    you could still be seeing cronyism if government were placing barriers to entry in the path of other companies to benefit Space X.

    Nobody needs 27 different kinds of heavy lift rocket!

  81. Tres Cool

    Coor’s Light is a gift from G_d, and the ADL needs to shut it’s filthy whore mouth.
    That’s all I have to say about that.

    1. CL takes like fuzzy aluminum foil.

      1. Tres Cool

        I happen to know that each bottle/container of that crisp, refreshing, cold-gold, is individually filled by micturating angels.

  82. CPRM

    Straiff is prolly in bed, but I made this for him.

    1. Tundra

      Very nice!

      1. CPRM

        I respect the other glibs too much, but I’m tempted to post this in the glibfit thread.

        1. Tundra

          You absolutely must.

    1. Rebel Scum

      I’ll take “opinions that are literally racist” for $1000.

  83. The Late P Brooks

    I’ll do it, but I’ll hate myself in the morning

    As for the guilt: I’m an economics writer. Like many of my peers, I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about how America seems to be developing a monopoly problem (or, if you want to get technical, an oligopoly problem). Profits are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of powerful companies, particularly in tech. There’s growing evidence that this industry consolidation is disempowering workers and maybe even making the U.S. less entrepreneurial. I can’t escape the feeling that by buying my groceries at Jeff Bezos’ everything store, I’ll be helping to usher in a future where our lives are even more thoroughly dominated by a few corporate behemoths.

    Yeah, Amazon is why new business formation is down.

    TW: Slate

    1. CPRM

      Profits are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of powerful companies, particularly in tech

      No, the problem is the most well known tech companies aren’t profitable or are barely profitable; and if we change our entire way of life to depend on these things and someday investors wake up and realize the profits aren’t there that could be one hell of a collapse.

  84. Akira

    OT: There was a discussion on last night’s thread about shaving with straight blades and other non-modern shaving devices. I didn’t sign into this chatroom until about 2 AM, so I missed it, but I thought I’d offer some old-school shaving tips in case anyone is reading this today. I don’t use a straight razor but a shavette, which is basically a straight razor where you insert a fresh razor blade every time. The technique is essentially the same.

    1. Don’t try to get it perfect the first time. If there’s a bit of stubble left on your face, just leave it. When your hand is not experienced in guiding the blade, you’re just going to hack yourself up. Once you get more skilled at shaving without little bits of blood oozing out, then you can focus on getting it perfect.

    2. Don’t press hard. I think the cartridge razors have conditioned people to press hard in order to get a close shave, but you definitely don’t want to do this with a straight blade. That’s how you get scars (which would normally be really badass if you got them in a knife fight with terrorists or something, but not so much when you just cut yourself shaving). Just let the blade glide over your skin; it should be barely close enough to slice off the hairs.

    3. Don’t rush. When you first start out, it may very well take you 15 minutes to shave your whole face. This is normal. But with experience, you can get the whole job done in less than 6 minutes, maybe even less if your facial hair doesn’t grow particularly thick.

    4. Learn the directions in which your facial hair grows. It doesn’t all just grow perpendicular to the skin; it leans in some direction or another, and no two men have facial hair that grows in exactly the same directions. When I first started shaving with a straight blade, I couldn’t figure out why the “neckbeard” area always felt stubbly no matter how many times I went over it. Then I realized that the hair in that area is actually angled to the right, which requires me to drag the blade horizontally across my chin in order to get that baby-bottom smooth feeling. It goes without saying that you should watch some YouTube videos to get the basic technique down, but nobody else can teach you how your hair grows; you just have to figure it out yourself. You may have to invent some creative ways to hold the blade.