Monday Afternoon Super Links!

Hooray for working from home this week. My pessimism regarding FSU finally paid off after a lackluster showing Saturday night. I have links for you all today and how the hell is your Monday? Give up on pretending to work and come play in the links!

When America needed to test a supersonic ejection pod, we stuffed a goddam BEAR in there and tried it out. But as this is an American story and not a Russian one, the bear survived.

While collusion between the Trumps and Russia continues to lack evidence, the FBI continues their reputation for colluding criminals who murder people rather than arrest them.

P.T. Barnum reincarnated

Kim III makes a run to China. My favorite part of the article: “Nobody answered the telephone at the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday evening.” Probably too busy not being the first one to stop applauding at Dear Leader’s speech.

In keeping with the traditions of British Socialism, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is accused of anti-semitism in open letter. He responded by blaming the Rothschilds for Brexit*

*That last sentence is completely fabricated and untrue, but would be funny

Hey look, new Monster Magnet. They’re still fun.

 

Comments

571 responses to “Monday Afternoon Super Links!”

  1. Florida Man

    It’s seems like using a bear as a human analog is a bad idea. Bears are a lot tougher than humans and better people than most humans.

    1. Way to disappoint Jesse.

      1. Tonio

        Ahem!

      2. Florida Man

        My statement works for both types of bears.

      3. jesse.in.mb

        Wait, why am I disappointed here?

        1. Bobarian LMD

          It was a female bear?

          1. Florida Man

            The second was male. Wait..,we have a legitimate first female!

          2. SugarFree

            Was she full figured? (Asking for a friend.)

          3. jesse.in.mb

            I’m reminded of this classic Drudge

    2. grrizzly

      No shit.

    3. Bobarian LMD

      They were gonna use a lawyer, but were worried that the testers wouldn’t try to have a successful test?

    4. Damn right.

    5. Homple

      Timothy Treadwell might quibble with your last clause there.

  2. The Other Kevin

    While collusion between the Trumps and Russia continues to lack evidence
    – So are you saying it’s still too early to bring that box of “Hillary for President” memorabilia down from the attic?

    1. Dr. Fronkensteen

      You know for all the Trump is a threat to democracy whining from the left. The Trump supporters are not the ones trying to overturn a legitimate election.

    2. The Other Kevin

      There was that whole “Obama birth certificate” thing, but I remember that being pretty fringe.

      1. Dr. Fronkensteen

        To be sure(TM) there were the birthers when Obama was elected. It’s the Russia colusionists this time around.

      2. Number.6

        Don’t forget who came up with the original Birther claims … the Clinton Oppostion research guys.

        1. The Other Kevin

          I think I’m starting to see a trend here.

    3. I’m with Herd.

  3. Gojira

    Hey I wasn’t able to comment when the article ran last week about our donating money, but I wanted to give a quick vignette on the IJ being a real class organization.

    When I was making the donation, there was a bit of a technical issue, which was quickly resolved. Well it made it look from their end as if we had made two donations. Within a day, I had an email from a director over there asking me if I was sure we had donated the correct amount, if we needed some amount refunded, etc. They did this unsolicited, and even at the expense of my possibly saying, “Yeah that was an error, please send us $x back”.

    I just replied thanking them for their diligence, but I thought it was a good example of an organization being run in a way one rarely sees. Real class act.

    1. Brett L

      Nice.

    2. Chafed

      Good for IJ.

  4. mexican sharpshooter

    Hey look, new Monster Magnet. They’re still fun

    Whos gonna call you what a lame, dope smokin, slackin little sucker, you are?

    1. Threedoor

      Love these guys. The side project The Atomic Bitchwax is sweet too. The last album and it’s remix were nice and mature but this new song looks like a Dopes to Infinity/ power trip throwback, let’s hope.

      1. MikeS

        I like the quote:

        Dave Wyndorf about the song: “Magnet aren’t religious guys at all, really, but we like to bring the hell-fire when we can. Plus it’s fun to sing ‘Im Godddddd! And I’m riding a river of flame!’ You should try it, too!”

        1. Chafed

          Link?

          1. MikeS

            It was in the description of the video that Brett inked.

    2. Hyperion

      I’ve been stuffed in your pocket for the last hundred days
      When I don’t get my bath I take it out on the slaves
      So grease up your baby for the ball on the hill
      Polish them rockets now and swallow those pills
      And say ohSpace Lord mother mother

      You’re floating there you’re handing me, a snake inside a jar,
      It’s just to cool, I do believe, you’re what you say you are,
      How many days was I in that psychotic submarine
      I stumbled out, I took my turn, and now I’ve made your scene

      Some of the most awesome lyrics ever. Has anyone seen Agile Cycorg lately?

      1. MikeS

        And the video has some nice sexy ladies.

      2. DEG

        No. On the other hand, I haven’t been over at H&R in a long time. I miss Agile Cyborg, I like him.

  5. F. Stupidity Jr.
    1. The Other Kevin

      Remember, the Russians are good at chess: 2D, 3D, 4D, all the D’s. This is just a smoke screen to lull us into a false sense of security, before KGB agent Trump makes his big move!

      1. Tonio

        Rustles tinfoil headgear, offers roll to TOK.

    2. grrizzly

      The second Russian consulate is ordered to be closed: in Seattle. The San Francisco one was closed earlier.

    3. LJW

      I thought I noticed the Glibs comments section was a little less Russiany today. Russianish? Russianly? Putinish.

      1. Я с этим не согласен.

  6. Brett L

    Secretary of Interior says, “Fuck your diversity, Tonto.”

    Just kidding. He actually just said that he doesn’t think diversity is more important than having the best people work for him.

    1. Threedoor

      Good

    2. Endless Mike

      How else are women or minorities going to get jobs unless we make it a priority to fill a quota percentage of said group members regardless of their qualifications???

      /notracist

  7. A bevy of busty beauties for your male (or female) gaze.

    http://archive.is/mXBxN

    9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 23, 24, 30, 38, 41, 42, 44, 45, 52…

    but for simplicity 19, 19, 19.

    1. 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, and 52 a lot, because she almost made me fall out of my chair. 5 is especially milftastic, although at my age that’s my peer group. 53 looks like Oona Chaplin, which is generally a good thing.

      Overall excellent work sir, with a minimum of duckfaces and a good balance of bolt-ons and OEMs.

  8. Gilmore

    File under: How rude!

    White House disparages porn star

    I’ll have you know she’s one of the most honest, trustworthy, and has the highest level of integrity of people currently in the dick-sucking-for-money business

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      I trust people who suck dick for money far more than politicians. For one, they’re more honest about what they do.

      1. Hyperion

        Well… that’s a valid point.

      2. Gilmore

        “”they’re more honest about what they do.””

        And they get results! PROVEN results

    2. The MSM is a fucking joke. A FUCKING JOKE.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Not a very funny one.

    3. Hyperion

      Oh muh gawds, a ho has been disparaged. What has this world come to? Cats and dogs left the river and rabid locusts as their pets?

      On a more serious note. Who the fuck watches so called professional pr0n? Really? Get out a here!

      1. DEG

        I considered buying some Angela White videos.

          1. MikeS

            Huh. What a silly mistake.

        1. Hyperion

          That shit be free, bro.

          1. DEG

            I know. But I was tempted.

  9. mexican sharpshooter

    Eagles of Death Metal’s Jesse Hughes Slams March for Our Lives Protests

    “As the survivor of a mass shooting I can tell you from first-hand experience that all of you protesting and taking days off from school insult the memory of those who were killed and abuse and insult me and every other lover of liberty by your every action,” Hughes wrote.

    The Whitney Houston song about letting the children lead the way wasn’t actually had operating paradigm for life … And when the truth don’t line up with your bull—t narrative just hold your breath and stamp your feet and refused to except it … then take multiple days off of school playing hooky at the expense of 16 of your classmates blood … it might be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic and disgusting,” Hughes added.

    I like this guy.

    1. F. Stupidity Jr.

      I suddenly want to buy all their albums now.

      1. ^^^This. I’ll buy them using Amazon Smile and choose the NRA as my charity.

    2. Sean

      “disgusting vile abusers of the dead”

      Spot fucking on.

      Good on him for calling out the students on it.

    3. The Whitney Houston song about letting the children lead the way

      Learning to sex yourself, it is the greatest sex of all?

      And of course, it’s a George Benson song.

      1. C. Anacreon

        I always get Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey confused. Is Whitney the one who couldn’t stop smoking crack and masturbating for days at a time?

        1. Enough About Palin

          No. That was me.

    4. And the media hate him because he’s not the right type of victim.

      1. In addition to being a white mail shitlord, he doesn’t say the right things.

        1. Dr. Fronkensteen

          You’re just mailing it in now.

          1. I’m not a mailman, I’m a personperson!

          2. Bobarian LMD

            Prime minister?

        2. invisible finger

          He has doubleplusungoodfeelz.

        3. Hyperion

          Dog say ‘there is no white mail shitlord. All mail beings for bite!’. I hear this in STEVE SMITH voice.

    5. J. Frank Parnell

      Certainly more of a rebellious rock’n’roll spirit than these guys.

      1. Number.6

        Why does “The Machine” need to draft kids to do its foul work?

        1. J. Frank Parnell

          Because the old-ass adults can’t fucking democracy right?

      2. What a miserable looking bunch of sadsacks. Just give them all full rides to Evergreen University so they’ll shut the fuck up already.

  10. Winston

    https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/fifty-years-after-cultural-revolution

    I am hopeful that the 100th anniversary of the CCP in 2021 will be of interest mainly to historians of China’s past and that the Chinese people will by then enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness under a government that derives its powers from the consent of the governed.

    David Boaz master prognosticator.

  11. LJW

    Army’s live-ammo training ignited fire that burned homes

    I’m sure it was an accidental fire. * Tightens tinfoil hat*

    1. Bobarian LMD

      I have, on two separate occasions, shut down the training area on both Fort Knox and Fort Reilly by doing something just like this.

      Tracer fire from .50 cal (Knox) and from M60 machine guns (Reilly).

      The Fort Reilly event burnt down a set of bleachers and a metal shed.

      No houses though.

      1. LJW

        I have fond memories of waking up hungover in Manhattan to Ft. Riley doing live round training.

    2. mexican sharpshooter

      It’s illegal in some states to shoot tracers, due to the fire hazard.

      Owning them is another story.

      1. Threedoor

        API is fun. I don’t like how tracers shoot.

  12. Juvenile Bluster

    I’m not sure there’s anything in my lifetime, even 9/11, that’s made me more misandrist than Parkland. I hate everyone involved. Everyone involved in the activism and everyone involved in the anti-activism and everyone involved in the anti-anti-activism and everyone involved in the anti-anti-anti-activism.

    1. Hyperion

      I already hated all lefties, so nothing has changed. See how easy that is?

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        I hate the right here, too Mostly because they’re relying just as much on dumbass herpy derpy arguments than actual logical ones as the left is.

    2. All I can say about it is: fuck everyone you’re not getting my guns.

    3. Brett L

      Wait, so you’re giving the women a pass?

    4. Florida Man

      I thought about counter protesting but just bought another 1000 rounds of 193 instead.

  13. Hyperion

    “Hooray for working from home this week.”

    What? You don’t work from home every week? What sort of barbarism is this?

    1. Where’s Rufus to be shocked that any of us here even work?

    2. The Other Kevin

      Ironically, Rufus is too busy at work.

      1. R C Dean

        . . . on his wedding day?

        1. I thought it was work when he already paid.

      2. Rufus the Monocled

        /licking ice-cream cone staring.

  14. Winston

    Re: Nazis and SJW

    Yes the Nazis did claim the Jews were victimizing them so they had to be killed:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posen_speeches

    we had the duty to our people to do it, to kill this people who wanted to kill us.

    or this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism_versus_intentionalism

    Hitler’s “Prophecy Speech” of January 30, 1939 before the Reichstag where Hitler stated if “Jewish financiers” started another world war, then “…the result would be the annihilation of the entire Jewish race in Europe.”

    1. People will commit the worst atrocities imaginable if they believe they are righting a wrong.

    2. Hyperion

      Maybe it’s just an odd coincidence or it’s just me. But I’m starting to wonder how much difference there is in the JEWS! rhetoric in Nazi Germany and the ‘Deplorables and White people!’ rhetoric in today’s America. At some point, shit like that can turn very dangerous. I’m not sure I’m really seeing a difference. Did the Nazi’s just start out saying they were just going to execute the Jews? I bet it just started out as ‘Jews are causing all the problems’. That’s now these things get started.

      1. “I bet it just started out as ‘Jews are causing all the problems”

        That’s exactly how it worked. Remember that the death camps were the Final Solution after many other more “moderate” proposals for solving the (((Question))) were considered.

      2. The Other Kevin

        The best way to make people open to violence is to convince them that their enemies are not really human. You see that in any genocide, and in any war.

      3. Tonio

        Not only do they view us as subhuman, but also a clear and present danger. Just like you-know-who viewed (((them))).

        Who will fix their plumbing and HVAC systems once we’re all in reeducation camps?

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          I’m not Jewish, I will….

          1. MikeS

            You are worse than Jewish…you’re a…Deplorable!!!

            *cue scary music*

          2. I mean, shit, man’s gotta eat!

      4. Bob

        Good chance if the USA was majority minority in today’s climate it would end up like South Africa.

    3. R C Dean

      I’m curious – did the Nazis, who hated the Soviets, base any of their anti-Semitism on the Jewish leaders/thinkers in Soviet Communism?

      1. Winston

        Yes, “Judeo-Bolshevism”

      2. grrizzly

        Absolutely. The term was Jewish Bolshevism.

      3. R C Dean

        Those wily Jews – running both the international banking cartel and the Soviet Union. Talk about hedging your bets!

        1. Winston

          Well the Nazis did ally with them when it was convenient to do so. And so did the USSR.

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          Jews are accused of both controlling capitalism AND having started communism.

          And now for my next trick!

          /Bullwinkle pulls hat out….

        3. DEG

          Stalin, near the end of his life, planned a purge of Jews.

          1. Winston

            And to think quite a few Jews in the West were Commies since they thought Stalin was their protector from Hitler.

          2. Yeah, (((they))) kinda get it coming and going throughout history.

  15. Hyperion

    “When America needed to test a supersonic ejection pod, we stuffed a goddam BEAR in there and tried it out. But as this is an American story and not a Russian one, the bear survived.”

    Putin would have just gotten in there with the bear and wrestled it, without even a helmet! Without even a shirt!

      1. Apparently my office blocks vevo and vimeo so I am reduced to using ShitTube.

      2. Hyperion

        Ok, maybe we should be a little more concerned about whitey than what I was thinking.

      3. My boner has a confuse.

      4. I temporarily lost 12 IQ points, one for each of the seconds I watched that hot mess while fumbling for the Close Tab button.

        1. No shit, I paused a perfectly rocking Al Stewart song to listen to that garbage, I try to give all genres (both country and western!) a chance but the cookie monster voice thing is a automatic nope for me.

        2. MikeS

          If she had been properly attired, I could have hit mute and watched for a while. But her pantsuit wasn’t quite doin’ it for me.

    1. LJW

      Can’t get the image out of my head! Shirtless Putin riding a bear that is riding an ejection pod.

      1. SugarFree

        It’s like a turducken of sexy.

  16. Gilmore

    “”New Jersey lawmakers advance bills to tighten gun laws””

    Same state that threatened a man w/ 10 years in prison for ‘firing prop gun in film‘, and single mother w/ jail for mistakenly crossing state lines while armed, still clearly too-soft on guns

    1. LJW

      “A sixth bill would require residents to show a “justifiable need” to get a carry permit.”

      That will go to the Supreme Court.

      1. R C Dean

        For ratification as just the kind of reasonable regulation that the Founders obviously had in mind, right?

        1. That’s the high stakes game gun rights folks play. If you appeal up to the Supremes you risk losing everything. Need for RBG to kick off and get one more originalist on there and it would be a safer bet.

        2. C. Anacreon

          So many loudmouths I’m hearing recently — friends and co-workers, no less — are suddenly experts on the Founders, they say. And the Founders only wanted people who are actively serving in a formalized, well-regulated, government-approved militia should be allowed to have guns, don’t you know.

          1. Direct them to Heller.

            Heller does have holes big enough to drive a truck through, however it did settle the question of “militia” and the right of individuals to own firearms.

          2. R C Dean

            Just tell them that, by law and pretty much since the founding, every military age male is a member of the militia, which is currently divided into the organized militia (National Guard) and the unorganized militia (everyone else). The unorganized militia is government-approved and formalized in statute.

            Tell them you understand that the current definition of military age males is too narrow, and you are sure they would agree that it needs to be updated to include every adult.

          3. Rufus the Monocled

            Next dey-gonna say the Founders didn’t want free speech that hurt people.

            Watch.

          4. Tacit Rainbow

            You know, if only someone had thought to write down the rationale and debates behind the Constitution and the BoR, we wouldn’t have to wonder. A pity this is all lost to antiquity.

          5. Number.6

            ::Considers doing a Roy Batty Blade Runner soliloquy a la ‘Downfall’::

          6. J. Frank Parnell

            the Founders only wanted people who are actively serving in a formalized, well-regulated, government-approved militia should be allowed to have guns muskets, don’t you know.

            FIFY

          7. kbolino

            Fine, we’ll must in the town square twice a year. That’s about the extent of what “well regulated” meant at the time they wrote it.

          8. Bob

            After having just fought a revolution with a civil militia the founders made such a militia illegal in the constitution. Even more tricky they put that restriction in the bill of rights. There’s nine rights and one restriction on a right.

            Very tricky those founders.

      2. TIL there are Republicans in New Jersey, and the People’s Republic of Maryland has stricter gun laws than New Jersey.

        We’ve been limited to 10-round mags, and it’s been the law for decades that to get a carry permit you need to demonstrate immediate and justifiable need. It’s not even like you have to prove you aren’t likely to commit a crime, or even that you have a reasonable need to carry that exceeds other people (you’re a convenience store manager who deposits the day’s earnings in a bank drop box at night, say). You’ve got to prove a specific, time-limited threat, and you have to re-apply every year I believe. So “I live in a dangerous neighborhood” or “I deliver pizza to crack houses” doesn’t cut it. You’ve got to come with something like “This one guy Jeff wants to kill me and he’s been on the lam for years, nobody knows where he is, and he’s a ninja, but I think he has cancer and won’t live much longer.”

        1. Tacit Rainbow

          There’s a pending legislative action to eliminate the Handgun Permit Review Board, which has been overturning the Maryland State Police determinations of the “good and substantial” requirement for concealed carry permits. It’s HB819.

          The game is rigged.

          1. Here I thought with Hogan we’d get some positive movement on getting rid of that fucker O’Malley’s gun regulations.

  17. The Other Kevin

    The left has been screaming like children for years. We shouldn’t be surprised that they’ve graduated to using actual children to do their screaming.

    1. Tonio

      Golf clap.

    2. Hyperion

      That’s been a lefty tradition since lefties first existed. It’s just more difficult to find enough adults that stupid.

      1. trshmnstr

        The left is the ideological instantiation of a victim culture. They live on the emotion of oppression.

  18. Gilmore

    CNN Poll: 42% approve of Trump, highest in 11 months

    President Donald Trump’s approval rating has rebounded to its highest level since the 100-day mark of his presidency, according to a new CNN poll

    This makes sense. He banned bump-stocks, signed omnibus bill, and picked Bush-era hawk for National Security advisor. Clearly he is owning the libs harder than ever.

    1. “He banned bump-stocks”

      What’s the status of this? I thought it was subject to some kind of comment period? In any case, I can’t see it standing up to any kind of challenge.

      1. Gilmore

        “”What’s the status of this?””

        Tremendous. The best ever.

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        They didn’t have to pass anything! The DOJ just changed their view on bump stocks, and thanks to Chevron deference we can’t question it.

      3. DEG

        The 90 day comment period is running.

        1. Can’t the NRA judge-shop some 2A friendly Federal Judge and put a TRO on it? The Left did it with the refugee bans.

          1. DEG

            Probably (full disclosure: I’m not a lawyer). I won’t bet money on it happening.

          2. R C Dean

            Absolutely the NRA could do that. Just have your complaint drafted up with a nominal plaintiff in that judge’s jurisdiction and bingo bango – nationwide injunction, because that’s how District Judges roll now.

    2. invisible finger

      Clearly CNN is just fearmongering to improve viewership.

    1. Hyperion

      Let me guess, paid vacation upcoming?

      1. LJW

        Yes until it made the news.

    2. jesse.in.mb

      “Shrimping” for obvious reasons.

      1. Tonio

        +1 Fluorescent pink pocket hanky.

    3. invisible finger

      Wow! They’re REALLY mad that Kansas State lost to Loyola.

  19. grrizzly

    Some authors are advancing their career.

    Also new to The Atlantic is Kevin D. Williamson, who joins the masthead after a decade at National Review and several years as a theater critic for The New Criterion. At National Review, he wrote on many of the most contentious and urgent topics in America—from the opioid crisis to poverty and pornography. His writing on American politics and on the rise and meaning of Donald Trump gained him an international following. Earlier in his career, he worked for the Indian Express newspaper group, and for newspapers in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. He is the author of The End Is Near and It’s Going To Be Awesome. Williamson will bring his prolific writing to both TheAtlantic.com’s ideas section and to the magazine.

    1. Tonio

      Whoa, that’s a surprise.

    2. gbob

      Wouldn’t mind if the magazine went back to where it was two decades ago.

      I grew up with Atlantic. Diverse views. Great fiction.

      Since Michael Kelly died, it’s been a shit show of a rag.

  20. Rufus the Monocled

    It’s amazing how criticizing Muslims can land you in hot water and is not permitted, but Jews are still fair game among the retarded left.

    1. Hyperion

      I really have no idea what is up with the left’s problem with Jews. Unless it’s the Palestinian victim thing.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        I think it’s correlated to that on the surface but there has to be something deeper at work.

        My guess is even if Palestine got their shithole county so they could shithole it even more, they’d still want to kill the Jews and the left would be all for it.

      2. Number.6

        Historically, the social unity and the separation they maintained from the rest of the public makes them an easily identified, easily maligned target for ‘othering’.

        Just like the Romany, although they’re more challenging because they move around.

      3. Brasidas

        Cold War leftovers? Soviets supported the Arabs against Israel so all the useful left idiots are still against Israel due to nothing more than intellectual inertia?

      4. Bob

        I don’t think it’s a deep meaning. Jews are wealthy white people. Muslims are oppressed brown people.*

        They see the world as oppressors and oppressed. Everyone is in one category.

        * obviously the people in and around Israel have similar racial and genetic features regardless of religion but reality isn’t a big feature in leftist thought.

  21. So today I got in a bit of a row with an office prog on the topic of gun control today. Basically it started when I overheard him telling another person in hour working group about his amazing idea involving, instead of arming teachers that are trained to use firearms, teachers and administration be allowed to have, I should you not, access to armed drones (lol) in the event of an active shooter situation at a school. I laughed in his face, you know because recoil is a thing. I suggested at that point then that you might as well just allow teachers to carry concealed, as that would be a less dangerous situation than armed drones.

    He then began to talk about how important the protests on Saturday were. I quickly piped up that they seem to be aimed at “solving” a problem that is about as common as some freak accidents. Then he started to lose his shit, ask me if my 7 year old daughter goes to private or public school (??). I stated that I am paying extra money for private Catholic School despite not being religious, and I am not taking advantage of the property taxes that I paid to fund the local public school. Further I said that his question was immaterial to the discussion, since private and public schools alike are soft targets since they are all generally gun-free zones.

    I stated that due to the statistical unlikelihood of school shootings and historically decreasing violent crime rates, I proposed that nothing new “be done.”

    He then goes on an angry tirade about how I should have to face the parents of the school shooting victims and tell them that I don’t think something dramatic needs to be done about the problem, and that in the future I would understand. (????) Then he tells me that I hate children. Chortle.

    Then I said that the Saturday demonstrations were clearly a cynical new voter registration efforts, and nothing else. He got really pissed about my usage of the term cynical, and started to say something along the lines of ” you want to hear about cynical??”

    I then said ” you’ve already said it all, clearly I hate children.” And he didn’t say another word after that. Just completely awkward silence.

    Laws are magic.

    1. Number.6

      Rube Goldberg School Safety.

    2. R C Dean

      The drones idea is possibly the stupidest thing I have heard since the shooting.

      I should have to face the parents of the school shooting victims and tell them that I don’t think something dramatic needs to be done about the problem,

      Sure. I’d be happy to.

      Starting with “Your child is more likely to die in your car during an accident than in a school shooting.” Perhaps ending with “The irrational reactions to school shootings in the past have likely made things worse by deeming schools to be gun-free soft targets. I don’t see any reason why more irrational reactions now will make things any better. We all want to make schools safer – I think making them hard targets is more likely to work.”

      1. Number.6

        Your child is more likely to die in a swimming-pool accident.
        Your child is more likely to die in a hospital through improper medical attention.

        Your child has a 1 in 637 billion chance of dying in a school shooting tomorrow.

      2. What really struck me as quite remarkable is how quickly he escalated the conversation from completely cordial to highly personal ad hominem attacks and extremely venomous.

        It’s also worth noting that he thinks corporal punishment that results in permanent bodily damage is a good idea as apply to drug dealers. As a result of this, I have coined a nickname that I regularly use for him to the deride him and bust his balls: “Singapore [ ]”

        He’s quite the creepy little authoritarian.

        1. R C Dean

          Your workplace sounds just wonderful.

          We’re still kinda old school around here. Praise Allah, we don’t talk politics, except as it directly affects the hospital.

          1. This guy and another guy with a “CREDO STOP THE NRA” bumper sticker on his Prius are the only hard left outliers in the firm. Everyome else is pretty “normie” or conservative.

            Durterte Lite is a far outlier: sad loser who is lorded over by his domineering wife.

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      “ask me if my 7 year old daughter goes to private or public school (??).”

      I FUCKEN HATE when they throw that shit in my face. I want to rub a lime in their eye. It’s a slimy, lazy tactic.

      1. R C Dean

        if my 7 year old daughter goes to private or public school

        “If you’re fishing around to find out whether my daughter wears one of those plaid skirt school uniforms, the answer is you need help.”

      2. F. Stupidity Jr.

        Another one they like to throw out there is “Are you willing to send your kids to fight a war?”

        The only acceptable answer: “American soldiers are at least 18. If they decide to go fight in a war, it’s not my business.”

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      “He then goes on an angry tirade about how I should have to face the parents of the school shooting victims and tell them that I don’t think something dramatic needs to be done about the problem, and that in the future I would understand. (????) Then he tells me that I hate children.”

      Apparently we hate Natives if we don’t watch Aboriginal TV or support every single one of their demands.

      Apparently, Rufus hates a LOT of people according to their standards.

      1. They’re not first nations. They ethnically cleansed the actual first nations, who are now in South America.

    5. Hyperion

      “He then goes on an angry tirade about how I should have to face the parents of the school shooting victims and tell them that I don’t think something dramatic needs to be done”

      I openly admit I think something drastic should be done. Shut down public school and privatize it. Then hire armed security for the private schools with all the damn money we save. And that has the added huge bonus of stopping leftist indoctrination in our supposed education system. So which do you think a good lefty would choose, that or more school shootings? I can already answer that question.

      1. The implication that he made without realizing it was that private schools are completely safe, while public schools are nightmare death factories that are completely unsafe. Clearly the solution is to disband all public education because after all the schools are so dangerous.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          My daughter’s Catholic private school hasn’t convinced me they can protect the students in such an event. There was a lockdown last year but thankfully the cops arrived within minutes.

          The other thing is they’ve neglected Catholic instruction too much over the years. I digress.

          Bah.

          As long as she’s happy.

          1. Since the odds of an active shooter are insanely low, I haven’t given efficacy of lockdown a single second of thought. An abduction is early more probable.

          2. Number.6

            The best thing you can teach her to do in the event of one of these atrocities is to exit the building with as many kids as can be convinced to go, and imitate a load of cockroaches when the light goes on. Out the nearest exit, run in all directions and carry on until they’re as far away from the school as they can get.

    6. Bobarian LMD

      If he doesn’t talk to you anymore, I’d consider it a win.

    7. You’re a domestic terrorist with a thirst for children’s blood.

      Obvi.

    8. Count Potato

      Drones will be a good defense against shoot shootings after the technology advances and the price drops.

      1. You might as well have gun turrets on the walls. Everywhere.

    9. Which parents? The ones who are active NRA members? At any rate, I’d be happy to. I’d express my deepest and most sincere condolences, and then I’d explain that school shootings are so statistically rare there aren’t laws that would prevent them any more than the Gun Free Zone sign did anything but let the shooter know he wouldn’t meet any resistance. Although, come to think of it, maybe that’s why Barney Fife didn’t enter the building. It would be pretty embarrassing if a cop went and violated the law like that, right?

    10. Bob

      The grandstanding about facing parents gets old. Sounds like he’s a fan of gun free zones. You should say he should have to answer for all the children he murdered by supporting gun free zones.

      It will just piss them off but that’s better than ceding the moral ground.

    1. Massachusetts? Oh yeah they’re completely boned.

      1. DEG

        Yep.

        Times have changed in Massachusetts.

        Two former co-workers told me a little about growing up in Massachusetts in different times. One would have gone to high school in the 1950s, and the other in the late 70s/early 80s.

        The first told me about taking his .22 with him to school, leaving it at the principal’s office, then after school riding his bike around the area (Wayland/Weston area) to shoot crows and other vermin for bounties from local farmers.

        The second told me about his high school rifle team. He went to high school in Boston, I don’t remember the school. He was a member of the team. He said they stored the rifles in the school and had a shooting range in the building for practice and meets.

        1. Hyperion

          I’ve said it many times before here, but when I was in high school, there were pickups in the parking lot with racks full of guns. No one thought anything of it. No one was ever shot. You could walk right down the street with a rifle and no one would even look twice at you.

        2. Drake

          I’ve told it before but I grew up in central MA. Went to the Police Department to get me Firearms ID card when I was 17. The Chief said “Hi” and asked after my Mom and Grandparents as he wrote the thing out on the spot.

          Was in the Revolutionary War reenactment group that practiced at the local High School. Practice consisted mainly off marching around with working muskets and blasting volleys of blanks occasionally. The kids on the fields thought it was cool.

          I’ll be up there next week for Easter and our families will ask when we’ll move back – the answer will still be “fucking never”. I would live in New Hampshire if the opportunity presented itself.

          1. What happened with that NH job opportunity you talked about before?

          2. Drake

            Nadda.

          3. What industry? I can keep my eye out.

          4. Drake

            Guns! Sig Sauer.

          5. My wife is thinking about applying for a quality engineering position there. Obviously they are big, but what specifically do you do? Sales? Supply chain? Engineering?

          6. Drake

            Project / Program Management.

            Mostly with the Commercial and Strategy groups these days.

    2. Number.6

      “Infernal Machines!”

    3. Hyperion

      What, like a gatling gun? Can someone just tell these tards that ALL modern guns are semi-automatic, unless it’s a single round bolt action rifle? I owned a rifle with a magazine at least 30 years ago.

      1. R C Dean

        In fairness, I think double-action revolvers meet any reasonable definition of semi-auto, but single action, pump action, lever action, and bolt action do not. The former is “goes bang every time I pull the trigger”; the latter require me to do something before pulling the trigger for it to go bang.

        1. Hyperion

          I also would consider a revolver semi-auto. I do actually recall one of the left’s past talking points ‘When they included a 2nd amendment in the constitution, we were talking about muzzle loaders!’. Yep the 2nd should be restricted to muzzle loaders today because that’s what everyone else has, including criminals and would be tyrants.

          1. Drake

            three counts of possession of an infernal machine

            Is this real?

            Patriots Day is only a few weeks away. I wonder how many people drinking while watching the marathon and the Red Sox will remember that the is supposed to commemorate the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. You know – the one where the British tried a gun grab and the local Yankees decided to use them for target practice.

          2. Number.6

            WE WUZ KANGZ MEN AN’ SHEIT!

          3. Hyperion

            “three counts of possession of an infernal machine

            Is this real?”

            What? Was there pitchforks and torches involved? Was I asleep when the luddites won?

          4. Gustave Lytton

            Not just a rifle gun grab, but seizing cannons. The kind of thing that the Feds would currently put you in prison for and no one, except for the most 2A “extremist”, would defend you.

      2. All modern guns? My pump shotguns and lever-action rifles disagree.

    4. Drake

      19 counts of possession of a large-capacity feeding device

      ladles?

      1. It’s pretty sick that mea culpa will result in zero fucks given.

  22. Derpetologist

    Barack Obama Hopes for a ‘Million Young Obamas’ to Lead ‘Human Progress’
    http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/03/26/barack-obama-hopes-million-young-obamas-lead-human-progress

    ***
    Former President Barack Obama said Sunday that in order for society to progress effectively, it’d be beneficial to have at least a million people like him and his wife.

    Obama noted how he wants to create an online platform where young leaders can discuss ideas together.

    “If I could do that effectively, then – you know – I would create a hundred or a thousand or a million young Barack or Michelle Obamas. Or, the next generation of people who could take that baton in the relay race that is human progress,” he said.

    The discussion in Tokyo went over his most important post-presidential goals, specifically for the Obama Foundation.

    According to The Washington Examiner, Obama said that his foundation is working to find ways to “bring people from different perspectives to start having a more civil debate and listen to each other more carefully.”

    He also said that most of today’s problems are caused by “old men.”
    ***

    [head desk]

    1. Tonio

      Nope, not a bit creepy.

      1. C. Anacreon

        It sounds like Obama wants to create Reddit.

        Anyone told him there’s no need to ‘create a special platform’, Mr. Smartest-man-in-the-room — there’s already plenty of ways you can organize a place where certain people can get together and communicate. Hell, show him Glibertarians.com.

        1. R C Dean

          No, for Obama, nothing happens unless the government does it, and nothing is worth doing unless it lines his crony’s pockets.

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          I’d love to have a go at him.

      2. Hyperion

        Just one Obama is super el-creepo, I don’t want to imagine one million. It would be like one of those zombie flicks.

    2. Stinky Wizzleteats

      I was starting to get turned off by Trump’s raging narcissism and Obama brings me back to earth with this jewel. Thanks Obama.

    3. Bobarian LMD

      We’re gonna start importing Kenyans?

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      If I wasn’t so lazy I’d write an on-going series on these two.

      They’re LOADED with hooks and stories to mock.

    5. Gadfly

      According to The Washington Examiner, Obama said that his foundation is working to find ways to “bring people from different perspectives to start having a more civil debate and listen to each other more carefully.”

      He also said that most of today’s problems are caused by “old men.”

      Because that’s how you properly call for civility: start off by insulting a class of people.

      1. Number.6

        Silly man(man?) – that’s not a class of people, it’s “the other”.

      2. Suthenboy

        Isnt that the who said elections have consequences? Conservatives can go along for the ride but sit in the back and shut up?

        If he is going to be civil now I will too. I wont call him a weaselly little cocksucker.

      3. kbolino

        They want you to quietly, calmly, and civilly agree with everything they say.

      4. Libertesian

        I wonder what he considers “old”… 1 year older than him?

  23. The obvious answer to the question posed at the end of the article is “start alternative platforms” but that’s easier said than done.

    http://blog.heartland.org/2018/03/silicon-valleys-anti-conservatism-is-getting-really-ridiculous/

  24. Gilmore

    Starting to suspect that claims that “Cambridge Analytica did voter research on X, therefore that vote is invalid” is just sort of a bullshit, one-sized-fits-all narrative being used to undermine any shit the left wing doesn’t like.

    That, or maybe i just don’t trust anything involving pink-haired men? meh.

  25. Gilmore

    Also: I think whomever the AP hires to do their story pics is bored today, or really dislikes NASCAR at least

    1. R C Dean

      That’s funny.

      The race was scheduled for yesterday, but got snowed out. I don’t ever recall a NASCAR race getting snowed out before. Damn you, global warming! Damn you to hell!

  26. Derpetologist

    FBI Can’t Find Motive of Muslim Who Drove Burning Minivan Onto Travis Air Force Base
    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/03/robert-spencer-fbi-cant-find-motive-of-muslim-who-drove-burning-minivan-onto-travis-air-force-base

    ***
    “Motive a mystery in car explosion at Travis Air Force Base” was the Los Angeles Times headline, and this one is indeed a real mystery. A Muslim named Hafiz Kazi, according to the Times, “drove a burning minivan filled with propane and gas tanks into the front gate of Travis Air Force Base in Northern California.” After scrutinizing all the evidence closely, the FBI just can’t figure out what could possibly have been Kazi’s motive. And that in a nutshell shows what’s wrong with today’s FBI.

    Sean Ragan, FBI special agent in charge of the Sacramento field office, stated: “We don’t have any nexus of terrorism at this point. Now the question is, why. Why was he there? What led him there? And we don’t know answers to that, quite frankly.”

    The Times noted that when emergency responders approached the burning van after it crashed, “they found five propane tanks, three plastic one-gallon gas cans, several lighters, three phones and a gym bag with personal items, Ragan said.”

    Yes, what Kazi could possibly have been up to is a complete mystery.

    The Times added that “the dead man’s religious beliefs and affiliation are not known at this point, said Ragan, who debunked a rumor that some sort of ‘jihad’ video was found on Kazi’s phone.”
    ***

    FBI: Famous But Incompetent

    1. Tonio

      Probably a peaceful Buddhist immolating himself as a protest against gun violence.

    2. R C Dean

      Gosh, he has a Muslim name and is a from a country that still has a shitload of Muslims and a pretty serious beef with some of their Muslim neighbors. No way he could be a Muslim with a grievance.

    3. mexican sharpshooter

      In all fairness, I know a number of people who were stationed at Travis that would’ve wanted to burn it down.

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      Even Shaggy stoned to the max can figure out the motive.

      1. F. Stupidity Jr.

        Zoiks!

      2. Drake

        Wasn’t me!

    5. jesse.in.mb

      You really have to stop reading this stuff man, it’s not good for you.

      The FBI’s bafflement here is part of its deep, deep corruption. The FBI doesn’t acknowledge that there is a global jihad, or that Islam has anything to do with terrorism. It doesn’t admit that there is a war going on, and treats each act of Islamic terror as if it were a separate and discrete criminal event, unrelated to all the others. So each time something like this happens, they’re back at Square One, trying to figure out motive. It’s as if the U.S. Army stopped to interrogate every German soldier who crashed through the Ardennes Forest at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, to see if each one’s actions had anything to do with the German Army and Adolf Hitler’s war aims.

      Authorities are also investigating whether or not Kazi was suffering from any mental health issues. Here again, this is just more of the general refusal to acknowledge the 800-pound gorilla sitting in the living room and screaming “Allahu akbar.” Sean Ragan might explain to us that authorities are also trying to determine whether the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 was motivated by Nazism, or by mental health issues among the German High Command.

      The FBI isn’t a military force performing military operations on domestic soil… it’s a law-enforcement agency. Their job is to investigate the event, establish a motive and figure out if there are connections to past (or ideally future) attacks. The muzzie next door is secret Hitler shit is depressing.

      1. Drake

        The FBI is also supposed to be our domestic counter-intelligence agency. The guys who could supposedly stop the KGB in their tracks now seem baffled by anyone who yells Allah Akbar!

        1. mexican sharpshooter

          Makes you wonder about all the hoopla around the KGB.

          1. Drake

            I have heard that many of the agents they trained up to blend into American society (like that silly TV series) simply disappeared and were never heard from again. Once they got here, the just decided to lose the KGB and stay. The FBI had nothing to do with it.

        2. jesse.in.mb

          The general Muslim population in the US is now both secret Hitler and secret Stalin!

          Rejoice, our Emmanuel Goldstein has reached its final form.

          1. Rope Snake

            The general Muslim population in the US is now both secret Hitler and secret Stalin!

            No one ITT has made a claim even close to that.

      2. Derpetologist

        Spencer has an advanced case on Godwin’s Law Syndrome. He needs to find a new analogy. On the other hand, I keep seeing headlines like this:

        Driver’s crash, fiery death at Travis Air Force Base have investigators stumped
        http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/24/drivers-crash-fiery-death-at-travis-air-force-base-has-investigators-stumped.html

        This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened. See Fort Hood and Chattanooga for examples.

        I think Spencer defends himself well here:

        ***
        The charge: Robert Spencer blames all Muslims for the crimes of Islamic jihad terrorists who are condemned by the vast majority of peaceful Muslims.

        The facts: This charge is never accompanied by any quote from Robert Spencer, because it has no basis in reality whatsoever. He has never blamed all Muslims for the crimes of jihad terrorists. He has called upon peaceful Muslims to acknowledge the fact that Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism, and to take action to mitigate the ability of these texts to incite violence. This call has not generally been heeded.

        The charge: Spencer has argued that there is no distinction between American Muslims and radical, violent jihadists.

        The facts: What Spencer actually said was that U.S. Muslim organizations have been slow to expel violent jihadists or report their activities, and so they move freely among peaceful Muslims. He was referring to the fact that there is no institutional distinction between Muslims who reject jihad terror and those who embrace it, so jihadis move freely in Muslim circles among those who oppose them and claim to do so. In other words, there are no “Islamic supremacist” mosques and “moderate” mosques. There are just mosques, and there are both peaceful Muslims and jihadis in some of them. The Tsarnaev brothers, who bombed the Boston Marathon in April 2013, were members in good standing of the Islamic Society of Boston. The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s most vocal Muslim organization, has counseled Muslims in the U.S. not to speak to the FBI.
        ***

        https://www.jihadwatch.org/rebuttals

        1. jesse.in.mb

          I’m not really excited by the sophistry of writing an FAQ about oneself. The issue is this guy doesn’t seem to have been shouting Allahu Akbar or have a clear connection to Islamic militancy. I mean great, he’s clever enough to not say anything that will get him put up on charges of incitement to genocide, but “It’s as if the U.S. Army stopped to interrogate every German soldier who crashed through the Ardennes Forest at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, to see if each one’s actions had anything to do with the German Army and Adolf Hitler’s war aims.” makes me think it’s not *too* far from his thoughts.

          Ask questions later, or better off never, to the global counter-jihad!

          1. Derpetologist

            He’s not allowed to speak in his own defense when people make baseless accusations against him? If people were telling lies about you would you just shut up and take it?

          2. jesse.in.mb

            Speaking of sophistry, how does “I’m not really excited by the sophistry of writing an FAQ about oneself.” = “He’s not allowed to speak in his own defense”?

            At this point he’s playing word games though. If reason for existence is a counter-war on jihad and you say “He was referring to the fact that there is no institutional distinction between Muslims who reject jihad terror and those who embrace it” then everyone automatically looks like an enemy combatant. So it doesn’t matter one iota if you then state that some, I assume are moderates.

          3. Derpetologist

            You said it is sophistry for him to write his own FAQ. That means (in your view), that the only valid way for him to respond to criticism and accusations is for someone else to write it for him. So by your logic, he is not allowed to defend himself in his own words.

            Is he allowed to dictate his thoughts to someone else or do you require it to be done via telepathy?

            His words are clear: militants and the rest often hang out in the same mosques. That’s all that means.

            There is no need for mind-reading here.

            ***
            Jihad Watch is dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology play in the modern world and to correcting popular misconceptions about the role of jihad and religion in modern-day conflicts. By shedding as much light as possible on these matters, we hope to alert people of good will to the true nature of the present global conflict.
            ***

            That’s it. He has never advocated internment camps, mass deportation, travel bans, etc. The message is only here’s what the Qur’an says, here’s what the imams preach, and here are the results.

          4. jesse.in.mb

            You said it is sophistry for him to write his own FAQ. That means (in your view), that the only valid way for him to respond to criticism and accusations is for someone else to write it for him. So by your logic, he is not allowed to defend himself in his own words.

            If you spent as much effort thinking critically about the content of jihadwatch you’d probably give it up. A softball interview is not a rigorous defense of one’s position. A self-generated FAQ is the epitome of a softball interview. He controls both the questions, which he has in advance and can structure as carefully as he wants to give the most wiggle room. He is more than allowed to defend himself that way and it has clearly had it’s desired effect on his audience.

            I didn’t find reporters giving Obama a beej during their interviews a compelling argument for his policies and I don’t find Spencer performing autofellatio particularly compelling here. I have at no point said that he cannot defend himself thusly, I just don’t find a one-side conversation compelling…at all. Is that clear enough or do you imagine you’re doing some mind reading?

            Jihad Watch is dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology play in the modern world and to correcting popular misconceptions about the role of jihad and religion in modern-day conflicts. By shedding as much light as possible on these matters, we hope to alert people of good will to the true nature of the present global conflict.

            Ummm sure, which is why he sources a Breitbart echo chamber or goes on screeds about the Germans in the 1940s. Are you a baby bird and he’s chewed up your news and fed it to you? If I quote CAIR’s about us will you accept it as the most holy truth that requires no critical analysis or intent or comparison to what they’ve said or who they hang out with?

            CAIR’s mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

          5. Derpetologist

            It’s not one-sided. He says “this is what they said about me and this is why it’s wrong.” And in any case, there are many videos of him debating on YouTube.

            Here is pretty good one:
            Does Islam teach to fight against non-believers?
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YnaCi8m8P0

            Spencer does nothing except quote from Islamic scholars, the Hadith and the Qur’an. The other dude is whataboutisms all the way down.

            Yes, from time to time, he reposts stuff from Breitbart. So? If Breitbart says 2 + 2 = 4, does that mean it’s something else?

            In any case, I can assure you I know a thing or two about Arabic, Islam, and the Middle East and plenty enough to judge the reliability of news stories about it.

            You keep implying he has some nefarious agenda. On what basis? Can you give me a single example of a policy he’s advocated?

            You can’t. Here’s what he actually says:

            ***
            I have never said that the terrorists’ interpretation of Islam is the accurate or correct one. But I have pointed out that the terrorists portray themselves quite successfully among Muslims as the exponents of true and pure Islam, and moderates have mounted no successful response as yet.
            ***

            With your CAIR analogy, you are implying that just as CAIR has links to terrorist groups, so does Spencer. OK. Where’s your evidence? Who are these evil people Spencer is linked to? I know CAIR is linked to scumbags because the scumbags wrote checks to CAIR.

      3. kbolino

        Yeah, I’m with jesse on this one. These often play out as:

        Perp: “Allahu ackbar”
        Authorities: “Motive unclear”

        But in this case, the first part is missing. Maybe the FBI is suppressing something but “guy from India blows up truck” is only indicative of possible motive not definitive.

        1. kbolino

          I did not mean to exclude the fact that he blew the truck at a military base, nor that it was a suicide bombing. Those facts are relevant to motive, but again not definitive.

          1. kbolino

            blew UP the truck

        2. Derpetologist

          He wasn’t just a guy from India. He was a Muslim who attacked a US military facility. This happened before at Fort Hood, Chattanooga, and Little Rock. He used the same method as the would-be Times Square bomber in 2010: a vehicle filled with propane tanks and gas cans.

          So what we have is a guy using the same method on the same kind of target who shares the same background as the others. Isn’t that enough to infer from? Do we really need a video of him shaking Osama bin Laden’s hand before considering this might be terrorism?

          When the 3rd mail bomb exploded in Austin a while back, it seemed fairly safe to assume it was the same guy doing it. And yet in this case that kind of very basic logic is being ignored.

          1. kbolino

            His age is atypical for this profile (Hasan, the oldest, was 39; the Chattanooga attacker was 27 and the Little Rock attacker was 24). His name indicates that he was born into a Muslim family but the FBI says he has no “religious affiliations” here. I’m not saying Islamic terrorism isn’t the most likely explanation, and I hardly expect a direct line connecting him to OBL, but so far no statements or connections of any kind have been made public by the FBI or found by reporters.

          2. kbolino

            For comparison, the 9/11 hijackers were aged 20-33 with an average age of about 24, and the next oldest after 33 was 28. John Allen Muhammad, the elder of the two beltway snipers, was 42, but he didn’t seem too keen on dying after he got caught.

      4. Bob

        He didn’t say the Muslim next door is secret Hitler, so not much reason to get depressed. Or pretend to anyway.

    6. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

      Strictly speaking, if I guy is trying to attack a military facility by unconventional means that doesn’t fit most definitions of terrorism. Unless you consider terrorism to be any attack with potentially political motives conducted by a non-state actor.

    1. TK

      Oh what the fuck Gilmore? why

      1. Gilmore

        Just thinking of what that kid will feel like in 15 years when they google their own name and discover the baby pics dad put on twitter.

        1. Pan Zagloba

          “Sweetie, if anyone gives you shit over this, just grab the family AK and teach the little fuck a lesson. Peace!”

    2. You get congratulated for shitting when you’re a toddler and that expectation goes with you for life.

  27. AlmightyJB

    Sounds like their Mastermind Album.

    1. Threedoor

      Certainly not Last Patrol.

  28. Winston

    https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/554375/

    In January 2013, The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof predicted the newly anointed Chinese Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping would spearhead political and economic reform, remove the body of Mao Zedong from its hallowed mausoleum, and release the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo from prison. His “hunch,” Kristof added, “may be wrong entirely.”

    Readers: It was.

    In 2004, the day before the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, Kristof wrote that Chinese leaders “knew that after the Chinese could watch Eddie Murphy, wear tight pink dresses and struggle over what to order at Starbucks, the revolution was finished. No middle class is content with more choices of coffees than of candidates on a ballot.”

    1. F. Stupidity Jr.

      No middle class is content with more choices of coffees than of candidates on a ballot.

      With so many starving kids, how can anyone live with numerous coffee choices!?

      /Sanders

    2. Gadfly

      No middle class is content with more choices of coffees than of candidates on a ballot.”

      A brief survey of history should be enough to dispel this idea. Culture plays a heavy role in how people view choice and freedom, and there have been many middle classes that were more than content to gain economic freedom without political freedom.

      1. Winston

        Reason and Cato and quite a free pro-trade libertarians did not read that.

      2. Winston

        James Mann says that China is still very rural (though not as much as before) so the urban middle class is still very reluctant to embrace democracy since they will be outnumbered by the poor yokels.

    1. Bobarian LMD

      Pornstars who abuse drugs?

      I have a hard time believing that!

      “Heh… he said hard”

      1. AlmightyJB

        I’d also be shocked if anyone there was missing their wallet later.

    2. But Enough About Me

      If I had to be interviewed by 60 Minutes, I’d probably go in stoned too.

    3. Suthenboy

      Ugh. It is not uncommon for people who want to be seen as attractive on camera to dilate their eyes.

      1. Count Potato

        Some people just like the way cocaine smells.

      2. C. Anacreon

        “Dial M for murder. Dial 8 to look attractive on camera.”

  29. Winston

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/27/xi-jinping-what-is-behind-the-chinese-presidents-power-grab

    With a climate sceptic occupying the White House, there are even those who hope Xi will emerge as the world’s most despotic eco-warrior, a tree-hugging tyrant willing to use his authoritarian powers to save the planet.

    “If you postulate that the world needs leadership, that America is in disarray and that Europe is a dish of loose sand, then maybe Chinese leadership has some virtues, particularly in areas like nuclear proliferation, climate change [and] pandemics,” says Schell. “Whatever you may think of his authoritarian kind of leadership, at least he can lead.”

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Nevermind the pile of dead bodies behind me , I’m, LEADING!>>>>>

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      It could be a Great Leap Forward for the world.

    3. R C Dean

      “Save us, Xi Jinping! You’re our only hope!”

      Christ, what an asshole.

      1. Number.6

        Thomas Friedman can be heard pounding his meat enthusiastically.

        1. Hyperion

          Him and Bruni were in the bunk together pounding each other’s meat. Ewww!

          1. Number.6

            Probably playing “soggy fortune cookie”.

      2. Winston

        I’m sure quite a few libertarians thought so after his Davos speech last year.

    4. Drake

      He’ll keep building coal-plants to power the factories to keep selling you suckers solar panels.

    5. Dr. Fronkensteen

      What about the trains? Will they run on time?

    6. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Everybody’s a sub these days

    7. Hyperion

      Yeah, yeah, right. The country who has cities where people have to wear gas masks outside to not die. That’s a real eco warrior guy you got going there. There really is no cure for stupid. And if the USA really wanted a trade war with China and China really wanted it, it would go very badly for China.

    8. Suthenboy

      Always willing to bring the boot down for the greater good. It is always that with them.

      1. Hyperion

        Well, they tried nudging. It didn’t work. Gotta make them omelettes for the greater good!

      2. juris imprudent

        Only because they have great confidence they won’t be staring down the business end of a gun barrel. How delightful it would be to see that shocked look when they realize how misguided that confidence was.

  30. AlmightyJB

    Nice article. At what point does the whole victim game become a broken record though?

    1. AlmightyJB

      Was supposed to be on last thread. Oops.

      1. Hyperion

        There’s never an article that we can’t talk about victims, it’s all the rage, all of the time.

  31. “When they give us that inch, that bump-stock ban, we will take a mile”

    http://freebeacon.com/issues/march-lives-speeches-focus-new-gun-ban-magazine-restrictions/

    Dumbass dipshit Trump playing along with Marxist LARPers.

    1. Winston

      We got kids dying!

      1. Suthenboy

        It isnt just you.

    2. AlmightyJB

      “the Parkland shooter used 10-round magazines during his attack”

      He also could have killed just as many people with a handgun at those ranges ie inside a building. But hey, did we expect facts to get in their way?

      1. Drake

        He could have run over more kids with a truck when school let out.

      2. Let’s assume the gun-grabbers achieve their wet dream and all semi-autos everywhere are magically gone. Then the next mass shooter asshole goes into a gun-free zone with a brace of cut-down 12-gauge doubles and pockets full of buckshot, and racks up an even higher kill count.

        What then? “Ooooh, people can’t be trusted with breechloaders!”

        1. R C Dean

          Wouldn’t even need to go double-barrel. Pump action shotguns aren’t semi-automatic. Get a tube extender, load with 2 3/4″ shells, and you’ve got 7 + 1 (I think, might be able to get to 8 + 1). Pretty sure there are magazine fed pump actions, too.

          1. A .410 is pretty good for shooting sparrows, or maybe rabbits in the garden. Otherwise, they aren’t really worth much.

          2. Now we’re talkin’.

    3. AlmightyJB

      “The speakers encouraged the crowd, of which a third or more appeared to be made up of school-aged kids, to register to vote throughout the event. Volunteers from the League of Women Voters and the Democratic Party of Virginia were stationed outside of different Metro stations helping register any attendee who was interested in voting.”

      Another good reason to require voter ids.

      1. R C Dean

        These people supposedly drove in from all around the country. Did they have voter registration forms for all 50 states?

        Its certainly possible, of course. But I bet the voter registration was more “Give us your contact info so we can help you register when you get home”. Now you’re in their database, ripe for fundraising etc.

    4. DiegoF

      He’s not a dipshit; what makes you think he ever cared about the Second Amendment? He probably has a few core things that he feels he believes in, all but one or two which can change practically from day to day, and otherwise just thought it would be fun being president and he would be good at it.

  32. Winston

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2018-02-13/china-reckoning

    Growth was supposed to bring not just further economic opening but also political liberalization. Development would spark a virtuous cycle, the thinking went, with a burgeoning Chinese middle class demanding new rights and pragmatic officials embracing legal reforms that would be necessary for further progress. This evolution seemed especially certain after the collapse of the Soviet Union and democratic transitions in South Korea and Taiwan. “No nation on Earth has discovered a way to import the world’s goods and services while stopping foreign ideas at the border,” George H. W. Bush proclaimed.

    ….

    As U.S. President Bill Clinton put it, “Without the full freedom to think, question, to create, China will be at a distinct disadvantage, competing with fully open societies in the information age where the greatest source of national wealth is what resides in the human mind.” Leaders in Beijing would come to realize that only by granting individual freedoms could China thrive in a high-tech future.

    ….

    As China joined multilateral institutions, U.S. policymakers hoped that it would learn to play by the rules and soon begin to contribute to their upkeep. In the George W. Bush administration, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick memorably called on Beijing to become “a responsible stakeholder” in the international system. From Washington’s perspective, with greater power came greater obligation, especially since China had profited so handsomely from the system. As Obama emphasized, “We expect China to help uphold the very rules that have made them successful.”

  33. AlmightyJB

    That China pic looks like the start of a good porno.

    1. Gustave Lytton

      Great. Now HM is going to post more of his Cultural Revolution cheesecake photos.

      1. AlmightyJB

        Mmmmm…cheesecake.

      2. MikeS

        IIRC, HM has already used that photo.

      3. Hyperion

        Now with more tentacles!

  34. Gadfly

    Question: Why is there a picture of Musk in the links? None of the articles are about him, so it seems out of place. Unless this is some sort of commentary, that he’s being compared to bears or FBI agents or Jeremy Corbyn. If so, it’s too subtle for me.

    The other picture is A+ work: topical in multiple dimensions.

  35. MikeS

    Kim III makes a run to China.

    They’ll kill him, won’t they? I mean, they gotta be thinking about it. He’s just as much a pain in China’s ass as any other country’s. Probably more since they have to prop him up. Obviously doing it in China wouldn’t look good. But couldn’t his plane get shot out of the sky have mechanical difficulties on the way back?

    *adjusts tinfoil hat*

    1. Hyperion

      What? Where? Did I miss something?

      1. MikeS

        Just Kim visiting China. It was *ahem* in the links.

    2. Derpetologist

      There’s a good chance he’ll eat/drink himself to death in a few years. Not sure who would take over in that event.

      1. Unreconstructed

        That might be the trigger that sparks change in NK. Loss of a strong leader with no clear succession has been known to splinter far stronger societies.

        1. AlmightyJB

          I’m sure the Generals will find a “son” somewhere.

      2. MikeS

        His hot, media-darling sister?

        I know very little about the Norks. Would a female Dear Leader be possible?

        1. Raven Nation

          Best I could figure out is that all male descendants from Kim Il-sung would have to die first but then it could go to a woman. Apparently there is something called the “Paektusan Bloodline.”

    3. DEG

      Will anti-aircraft guns be involved?

  36. AlmightyJB

    John Kasich is such a sack of shit. He’s now calling politicians cowards if they don’t support gun control. He only started supporting it after he decides he’s not running for re-election. Never mentioned it prior to that. Talk about a spineless weasel.

    http://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/kasich-continues-crusade-to-strengthen-gun-laws

    1. Suthenboy

      He has always been a weasel. How shit like that gets elected over and over is a mystery to me.

      1. AlmightyJB

        By lying. His mini me DeWine will probably be the next governer which is going to suck.

    2. MikeS

      I’m a layperson when it comes to firearms, but even with my limited knowledge, this paragraph is just infuriating:

      The recent comments mark a continued departure from Kasich’s previously staunch pro-gun positions. Last month on the same program, Kasich had questioned the need for civilians to purchase high-powered, military-style rifles, asking rhetorically whether anyone would be offended if they “couldn’t buy a god-darn AR-15.”

      Again, no expert, but the .223 (and whatever caliber the NATO equivalent is) is one of the least “high-powered”‘ long gun rounds out there, right? How many centerfire rounds have less “power?” The exist, to be sure, but I don’t know what they would be. OK, one; the .17 HMR is centerfire, right?

      Oh, and to answer John’s “rhetorical” question; yes.

      1. Suthenboy

        There are zillions of calibers. Every possible niche has been filled ten times over, but you are correct; .223 shoots pretty hard but not what i would consider high-powered. Medium at best.

        1. MikeS

          Good point, there’s a squillion calibers. But let’s say “common” calibers, even using a fairly liberal interpretation of “common,” there can’t be many with less snort than a .223, right? Hell, in many states it’s not heavy enough for deer hunting.

          If they want we can talk about the need for pistol grips and things that go up, but for fucks sake; quit with the every single gun is “high powered” bullshit.

          1. mexican sharpshooter

            Exactly, .223/5.56 is a varmint round. In AZ the largest thing you can legally hunt with it is Coyote.

          2. Suthenboy

            There are 5 or 6 -17 caliber, 5 or 6 -20 caliber, and half a dozen 22 calibers. The 223 is near the top of that lineup and certainly the most popular.

            They tried this nonsense on the 9mm luger. The gun makers just adjusted the length of the cartridge one or two millimeters over and over so that it wouldn’t be whatever cartridge they were trying to ban that week. If they ban 223 we will just chamber in 224, 225, 6mm, etc.

            These lying sacks know damn well that the only way they can accomplish what they want is an outright ban on all firearms. When they say they aren’t coming for our guns they are lying their asses off. That is exactly what they are doing.

          3. AlmightyJB

            Diane Feinstein said pistol grips were dangerous because you could shoot from the hip. Evidently thats more lethal than using the fucking sights. There are your gun experts on the left.

      2. mexican sharpshooter

        .17 HMR is a Rimfire.

        1. MikeS

          Thanks, MS, my mistake.

      3. Badolph Hilter

        The fact that anyone can use the phrase “military-style” and not IMMEDIATELY be laughed out of the room is a fucking travesty.

        1. R C Dean

          Good point. Now, if they wanted ban tacticool shit, I’d be tempted to support them.

        2. Ditto for the advertisers that use “military-grade” to describe the materials they use. (Ford trucks, I’m looking at you….)

          1. Badolph Hilter

            These are the kinds of hot takes that keep me coming back here instead of some place more reputable.

    3. Winston

      How about Libertarian hero Jeff Flake?

      1. C. Anacreon

        Wish I was a guy named Jeff Flake
        Floating in my bowl taking movies,
        Relaxing awhile, living in style,
        Talking to a raisin who occasionally plays L.A.,
        Casually glancing at his toupee.

        /Paul Simon

    4. Sean

      I wish these assholes would just shut up. Every time one of them talks, my credit card Jumps out of my wallet. Today I joined the GOA.

      1. Ha, I’m about to do that myself.

    5. AlmightyJB

      You would think that someone this frightened of woodchippers would learn to stfu.

      https://www.vox.com/2015/7/21/9010095/john-kasich-fargo

  37. CPRM

    I wonder if China is asking Kim to make getting rid of the tariffs against China part of the Nork negotiation demands when he meets with Trump.

  38. juris imprudent

    Not even bothering to see if this has been linked.

    I can understand why he was upset. He was,

    [dons sunglasses]

    short-changed.

  39. Count Potato

    “A far right Canadian activist has been banned from entering the UK for distributing posters that said “Allah is gay”.

    Lauren Southern was detained trying to enter the UK at the Port of Calais after her previous trip saw her distributing the leaflets in Luton at an event broken up by police.

    Southern, who described her stunt as a “social experiment of sorts”, has received a “lifetime ban” for distributing the racist material.

    The event saw her handed out leaflets that read “Allah is gay” and “Allah is trans” on a street in Luton town centre, quickly prompting a police response.”

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/far-right-canadian-woman-gets-12248235

    1. AlmightyJB

      She should have just raped some kids if she didn’t want the UK to ban her.

    2. Maybe it says something about my own views, but I don’t really think of Lauren Southern as “far-right”. Conservative, yeah, but not particularly extreme. Frankly, I think the UK government is the one that’s moving towards a political extreme.

    3. Rope Snake

      Actually, I think they said “Allah is a gay god.”

      Would they have banned her if the signs said, say, “Allah is Beyonce”?

      There’s your next experiment!

  40. Winston

    https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2018/02/14/young-stupid-virtue-signaling-olympics/

    we’re supposed to hate Kim Yo Yong, those North Korean cheerleaders, and anyone who isn’t in a tizzy about “North Korean propaganda” supposedly broadcast by the media

    We’re not?

    That’s up to the Korean people – and certainly neither Jake Tapper nor Nick Gillespie should have anything to say about it.

    So merely commenting on Korea is warmongering?

    If East Germany could unite with West Germany then North and South Korea are not fated to be eternally sundered. When the ultra-Stalinist “German Democratic Republic” fell, its surrender was led by the ruling Socialist Unity Party, which soon changed its spots and become a social-democratic “left” party that, today, competes in German elections. In other words, stranger things have happened.

    Rather simplistic. The regime fell thanks to a revolution and the Soviet decision to not intervene and a new democratic government won elections and decided to reunite with the approval of The Soviets.

    1. AlmightyJB

      A rather optimisric view but damn do those people deserve an end to that hell.

      1. Rope Snake

        optimisric

        You’re supposed to switch the L’s with R’s, not the T’s.

  41. Gilmore

    Is it possible to merge this technology with Glibertarians.com?

    I want to empower women, i just don’t want to have to think about it. this might help.

    1. Gilmore

      if you type in “women”, the app suggests words such as “lead”, “smart” and “strong”. Type the phrase “you look so” and it suggests words like “confident” and “smart”. “Beautiful” changes to “happy”.

      It also replaces popular phrases. When you type “my little”, the keyboard suggests “adventurer” before “princess”, and if the texter commits to using the phrase, Sheboard offers solutions to make your little princess more empowered, such as “good” and “leader”

      I blame the fact Hillary lost on the absence of this sort of technology

      1. Suthenboy

        So basically electronic language police that tells you what to say.
        That’s a joke, right?

      2. MikeS

        Any word on how whether it allows “sweet-tits?”

        1. Badolph Hilter

          strong-tits | leader-tits | smart-tits

          1. Gilmore

            (applause)

        2. Hyperion

          It’s sugar tits. Morning sugar tits, make me some bacon and eggs, eggs over easy, bacon crisp. Got it, sugar tits?

          1. MikeS

            Hey, thanks sugar tits! That’s a good girl.

          2. AlmightyJB

            Quite an improvement over the Beta version.

          3. Hyperion

            So, I bet you guys just think I made that up, but when I was just out of high school, I worked for a construction company and the foreman would take us all out to breakfast at this little cafe. He talked exactly like that.

    2. I try to empower people by convincing them to get the state out of the way.

    3. Hyperion

      I mean if you mean by empowering women, making them more chained to the cooking stove and the bed, and sending them to sammich making classes, who am I to argue against progress?

      1. Badolph Hilter

        “Why don’t you make me a …”
        proposal| fortune | sandwich

    4. Derpetologist

      Doesn’t the idea of female empowerment strongly imply that women are weaker than men? Otherwise, they would not need to be empowered.

      Here’s the best cartoon I could find for that:
      http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-03-03

      1. Hyperion

        You don’t get it! The patriarchy! It’s a force that transcends all logic and science! It’s…. unfair! Stop mansplaining! There is oppression of the more capable by the less capable! WHY COME YOU NOT SCIENCE!?

  42. Not an Economist

    Read this twitter thread.

    Emma Gonzales, bullied shooter.

    David Hoog, after hearing of shooting, rode his bike to school to get as much video as possible and to get on as many interviews as he could.

    I wonder if anybody will really ask these two hard questions. Nah….

    1. Hyperion

      What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? What do you think about during your frequent walks in the wood? Was you mother a nice woman? You mean like that?

      1. AlmightyJB

        Now I want Black Raspberry ice cream. Dammit.

    2. DiegoF

      Don’t forget about the influence of their civics teacher. This was the well-meaning initiative that anyone familiar with the school swamp could have known was an open invitation to constant inculcation with the “civic values” common to the sorts of people who would jump at the chance to teach such a thing. Apparently this teacher was that one (you recall from your own childhood) who had a sort of cult of student admirers that he encouraged, and even then it may have struck you as a bit sick and pathetic on his part. He’d talk endless prog propaganda. And he was the point man for AstroTurfer communication between them and the students.

    3. Chipwooder

      I had mentioned on a thread yesterday that I had seen Kyle Kashuv say that the biggest spokeswhores weren’t even in the building during the shooting but couldn’t remember where I saw it. Glad that turned out to be correct.

      I had better not see Piggy referred to as a survivor again.

      1. DiegoF

        Like I mentioned in a previous thread, by their standards even Gilmore is probably a childhood “gun violence survivor.” Fuck, by Paul McCartney’s I bet half the people here are. Did one of your former co-workers from eleven years prior get shot while you were halfway around the world? Maybe you can participate in the 2056 March For Our Lives, when that generation’s brave kids work to finally pass more Common Sense Thought Control.

    4. DiegoF

      Incidentally, her Official High School Lesbian Surplus Store Uniform had the honor inspiring one of our side’s dumbest tweets. “Look closely. That patch isn’t an American flag. It’s the flag of Communist Cuba!”

      Doesn’t really have the staying power of the game of speculating on David Hogg’s real age (median consensus appears to be 26), but I like it just the same.

    5. Not an Economist

      UPDATE:

      Apparently the professionalism of our mainstream media strikes again.

      They screwed up the quote.

  43. DEG

    I found this older Bloke on the Range video where he takes part in a Swiss shooting competition.. I like it.

    1. AlmightyJB

      Looks like a fun day

  44. Derpetologist

    In case of dumb Trump tweet on climate change and snow storms, read this
    Global warming is heating the ocean waters that make nor’easters more intense.
    https://thinkprogress.org/climate-change-makes-east-coast-snow-storms-more-intense-00e7b0853960/

    I thought the heat was hiding in the deep oceans?

    Heads I win; tails you lose.

    1. juris imprudent

      One of these days instead of “I gouged my eyes out because of meth” it will be “I gouged my eyes out because of the derp”.

    2. Suthenboy

      I wonder if anyone has bothered to actually look at a thermometer and if so, how badly they cooked the data.

    3. Hyperion

      Get real, denier! If it rains, that’s global warming! If it doesn’t rain, that’s global warming! If it’s too hot, that’s global warming! It if’s too cold, that’s global warming! Why is this so hard for you to understand!? Do you even science!?

      1. Badolph Hilter

        I’ll have you know I follow Neil Degrasse Tyson AND Bill Nye!

        1. Hyperion

          Well, then you be total woke.

        2. C. Anacreon

          Did you know Neil Degrasse Tyson is Mike Tyson’s estranged half-brother?

          1. RBS

            Can’t tell if serious…

          2. C. Anacreon

            Way to go Quincy! At least someone else on this board watches the Mike Tyson Mysteries, an amazing show.

          3. Badolph Hilter

            Big if True

          4. DiegoF

            And to think; he grew up in Riverdale, presumably enjoying all the money from the family chicken empire, even as his neglected half-siblings Mike and Cicely suffered abject poverty in Brownsville and Harlem.

          5. DiegoF

            Also, for realsies, Mike Tyson is Michael Steele’s brother-in-law. Which must lead to a lot of family tensions, since Iron Mike is a hardcore Trump supporter.

  45. Gilmore

    Why its very hard to ever say, “I’m a libertarian” without people giving you the fish-eye, example #289058902589

    Ellison for Senator @Ellison4Senate
    Replying to @Jason_Stapleton

    I want to give shotguns to the homeless through voluntary charity, in accordance with law, including background checks and training. If you can’t understand the libertarian principles at play here, you need to reevaluate your career choice. Or, just admit you’re a bigot.
    4:25 PM – 26 Mar 2018

    running for public-office in MI

    1. Why is it that radical libertarian ideas are universally considered crazy even by libertarian-minded people, while radical prog shit just moves the Overton window?

      1. Hyperion

        2 words. Public.Education. I rest my case.

      2. Suthenboy

        That depends on which ideas you are referring to.

        1. Suthenboy

          Radical ideas are radical. On the other hand most of the ideas held around these parts aren’t radical. The only one I can think of offhand is open borders and that idea is subscribed to by a minority, I think. It is the giant straw man Ellison shit out that gives the bad name. Good God that is one of the worst ones I have seen.

          1. Suthenboy

            Wait. I went and read the actual tweet. Is he serious? I cant tell any more.

    2. That’s why I use the term “minarchist,” which just makes people look at me with a confused expression.

      1. juris imprudent

        Jeffersonian Democrat used to be pretty good.

        1. DiegoF

          I probably qualify as one but avoid the label to avoid the label drama. Does being pro-life, pro-border, pro-death penalty make me “not a libertarian”? Fuck if I care. You’ll have to show me how it conflicts with actual principles that I hold.

    3. DiegoF

      What a sellout! Where is the charity to give them free CP?

    4. Derpetologist

      Libertarian pols only get attention when they say/do stupid things- homemade silver medicine that turns you purple, shotguns for the homeless, racist newsletters, Aleppo moment, fat guy strip tease at the convention

      The tradition formula for success in politics is blandness and agreeableness. Libertarians tend to fall short on that.

      1. DiegoF

        Well the Freedom Caucus gets a bit of press–though again, too little. Rand Paul, too. Amash and Massie specifically, not very much–but they aren’t particularly politically powerful as individuals.

        If the media really were a force for civic engagement, though, you might think they would be paying more attention to actual elected Congressmen who adhere to an ideology entirely out of the political spectrum and openly profess zero loyalty to the party whose line they ran on. What a story! Instead, their idea of “unusual politics” is a fat man doing a burlesque routine.

        Political parties are merely pragmatic devices for influencing policy. If you are not doing that at the time, you will attract “hobbyists.” (Even major-label local parties that have been shut out to zero influence for decades exhibit the same phenomenon.) That is where the LP is right now–one of many tools of the libertarian movment in this country and a rather minor one in terms of effectiveness; the Free Staters, for example, are “movement libertarians” much like a party, and they have a lot more to show than the LP does in the entire country.

  46. quincy

    This amused me:

    “While working,” Glass recounted to The Guardian in 2001, “I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. ‘But you’re Philip Glass! What are you doing here?’ It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him that I would soon be finished. ‘But you are an artist,’ he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish.”

    1. Hey, anybody who’s spent a few days without running water can tell you that indoor plumbing is a thing of beauty.

  47. KibbledKristen
  48. Gilmore

    Apropos of absolutely nothing:

    i am open to hearing suggestions for “Best looking state-capitol building” in America. (exterior only)

    i’ve really only seen a few, i think. a dozen at most. Most seem to follow the same basic template (like the US capitol – marble, domed cupola, roman columns, ‘winged’ layout)

    They seem to vary slightly between a sort of ‘british’ model, which is more monotonously marble/granite, looking more ‘bank-ish’ really… and a more “french” model, which gets a bit more flourishy with the windows, adds arches, peaked rooves, etc.

    NY and NJ are both pretty, but easily forgettable. they certainly outrank their tenants. MA is also particularly ‘meh’ (see what i did there. eh? eh??). VA is nice but undistinguishable from the DC architecture.

    Connecticut is the one that prompted this comment. It is holy-shit beautiful. I recall thinking that the last time i was in hartford, and just saw a picture of it recently and was reminded.

    Strong competitors look like… Texas (traditional, but seems like the best of that type), Iowa, …

    Can’t find any place which provides a nice slideshow of them all, but this has a dozen

    I think a big factor in how successful those sort of ‘monumental’ style of architecture are has to do with “location”. It benefits if its set above and apart from its surroundings (CT is up on a hill if i recall); NY is sort of slapped in the middle of ugly albany. If you can’t see it in whole, from afar, and see from many angles up close, it sort of undermines it.

    1. trshmnstr

      Texas’ is more red than it looks. It’s quite striking.

      The original Indiana capitol is quite different, but not in a good way.

      1. I like it, it’s quaint.

      2. Brochettaward

        I prefer that immensely. I don’t want anything going on in any capital being glorified. A wooden shack is too good for the people who gather there.

    2. Actually, ugly Albany was built around the state capitol. Nelson Rockefeller wanted that fucking Empire State Plaza, and wanted people to be able to drive into the underground parking lot from the Hudson River side, so we got a whole bunch of hideous bridges.

      1. Gilmore

        makes sense

    3. Gilmore

      I confess: i probably lean towards more-flashy, gaudy architecture in this category. i don’t like modern or too-classical. I suppose the stuff i like would be classed “romantic”.

      this is my favorite building of all time. (i doubt i’d normally like anything else that was that crazy-looking, but if you actually see the thing in person it takes your breath away)

      nominee for “lamest state capitol building”: currently “new mexico” Hawaii was strong contender, but NM edges them out for sheer boredom.

      1. Gilmore

        I think it would be fun to put a sign in front of the new mexico building that said, “State Capitol and Waterbed Sales Center”

      2. MikeS

        Well, then North Dakota probably falls into your “lame” category, but I like it. The original burned down in 1930 and in 1934 this was completed.

        The second and present Capitol was completed in 1934, in the depths of the Great Depression. Much of the exterior ornament was eliminated from Holabird and Root’s design. For instance, a 50-foot statue intended for the entry plaza in front of Memorial Hall was reduced to a simple obelisk and eventually was removed altogether. Also deleted from the design was the decorative etching from the cornice stones of the Legislative wing and from the metal panels between windows of the administrative tower.

        The cool part is that it towers over everything else around it. And the interior, while muted due to monetary restraints, is still pretty damn cool and has a lot of Art Deco touches.

        1. Suthenboy

          Oops. I was wrong.

          1. MikeS

            Yep. It is however, a fitting tribute to the hard working, no-frills, black-pepper-is-too-spicy Norwegian and German immigrants who make up something like 90 percent of the original white settlers.

      3. Suthenboy

        I am sure that is supposed to be inspired by pueblo architecture. Speaking of lame, have you seen this one?

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Capitol

        The image doesnt really do it justice. In person it is much less impressive.

        1. Libertesian

          But it’s the yugest! The view of the muddy Mississippi from the top is not very impressive, either.

          1. Suthenboy

            Part of the reason for that is that the scale of the Mississippi is hard to take in. Looking at it from the I-10 bridge or the top of the capitol is deceptive. You look and think Meh until you realize how long you have been driving over water and those little toy things down there are 500 foot barges.

            If you walk down to the water’s edge it will begin to sink in just what you are looking at.

        2. Gilmore

          “” have you seen this one?””

          Lousiana State Capitol and Mausoleum

      4. Not an Economist

        this is my favorite building of all time. (i doubt i’d normally like anything else that was that crazy-looking, but if you actually see the thing in person it takes your breath away)

        Where is that?

        1. Gilmore

          Sintra, Portugal.

          its a small town slightly northwest of Lisbon. its a day-trip away.

          The building is called the Palace de Pena. There is another official royal palace in the city of sintra, but its just…weird looking. I think its a hotel now.

          But up on the hill overlooking the town is the Pena palace which is fucking crazy and was like the Portuguese royalty’s “Summer Party House” or something. The road which leads up to it is also one of the most beautiful walks/bike rides ever, and passes a moorish castle and some of the best-looking rich-people’s country homes ever. Roman polanski’s movie “The Ninth Gate” has a scene where Depp drives down that road and goes into one of the houses. I’ll see if i can find it.

      5. the stuff i like would be classed “romantic”.

        It’s been a while since Arch Hist 204 with “Lydia, oh! Lydia”, but I’d say perhaps Baroque is the term you’re looking for.

        1. Gilmore

          yeah, that’s probably right.

          tho if i jump between image-searches for “romantic” vs “baroque” architecture, its hard for me to tell the diff.

          seems “Romanic” means, “more towers with pointy roofs”, and “Baroque” means, “gaudy statuary on the corners, and lots of filigree”

          I don’t have any ideas about the subject, i just generally know what i like when i see it.

    4. Derpetologist

      fun fact: 3 capitols were designed by Cass Gilbert. That’s why they all look the same.

      I learned this in my 8th grade WV history class, and went on to earn the title of Knight of the Golden Horseshoe, one of the many meaningless awards I have received. But I did get knighted by the governor and the cake and the luncheon was pretty good.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Gilbert

      1. Gilmore

        Everyone has always said the Woolworth building was the prettiest in lower manhattan.

        similar, random trivia: the empire st building was basically supposed to be an exact copy of the Reynolds tobacco headquartrs in Winston Salem NC. They ended up adding like 30 more floors after the fact and the design got…. just bizarrely stretched.

        1. KibbledKristen

          The Chrysler Building has got to be my all-time favorite in modern architecture. I have an idea in my head for a beaded necklace shaped like the top of the building upside-down. I just gotta learn beading.

          1. Gilmore

            that’s my fave in midtown. there’s not a lot of competition, frankly. NYC doesn’t have many ‘historic’ buildings, they just knock em down and put new ones up.

    5. KibbledKristen

      Montpelier

      1. Gilmore

        hm

        I see your point. it definitely benefits from the setting, and comparative smallness

        1. KibbledKristen

          Dat gold, tho. It really is noticeable approaching the town in real life – very striking.

    6. Chipwooder

      Down as I am on my stats lately, I’m still partial to Virginia’s. I think it’s much more subtle than DC buildings and the location and view are awesome.

    7. straffinrun

      The Italians build this about a decade ago and the locals lost their minds. “How dare you not have the building zombie gray or diarrhea brown!”.

    8. Raven Nation

      You can take something that’s somewhat Click classy

      1. Raven Nation

        …and make it something awful with modern photography.

        1. Gilmore

          that is unfortunate. i like the drawings of the Queensland parliament more than the photos. I think because it doesn’t have the office-tower in the background breaking up the profile

          I think Parliament buildings are a slightly different category from capitols, at least in their conceptual design.

          they’re not the actual “seat of power”; they’re adjacent/consultative, and they’re meant to look it. Capitols sometimes tend to look more like ‘castles’, parliaments look more like “courts.”, tend to be wider and more boxy. tho obviously there’s no rules, afaik.

          one extremely impressive parliament building i remember seeing (tho dirty at the time) was Budapest’s. it seemed like the built it so you could only look at it from the other side of the river tho. (which is where the capitol is; basically, one side stares at the other) in fact each side of the Danube is called “Buda” and “Pest”, like 2 different cities. I didn’t know that until i visited.

    9. I’m a homer, but I like ours: this is the view from “lawyer’s mall”, with a statue of Thurgood Marshall on the left. It’s actually on a hill surrounded by a circle, and the back is actually a little more interesting. Couldn’t find a decent picture though. I believe it’s the oldest state house still in active use. The grounds are pretty. There’s a bunch of statuary, a cannon from the first Maryland colony (St. Mary’s City), and it’s convenient to local bars.

      1. Gilmore

        Yeah, thats a third category which seems to be common on the east coast. “Colonial” . Delaware, MA, ME, i think are all like that. Very UVA-ish

  49. Brochettaward

    So, not sure if it’s been addressed yet, but Storm Daniels is claiming she’s totally not a victim while claiming that Trump sent some shadowy agent to threaten her in front of her daughter in a parking garage. Media says she totally proved her credibility last night.

    1. AlmightyJB

      How do these people think that all this porn star stuff does not help him with his base.

    2. She made it clear that she wasn’t a victim in the #MeToo sense, i.e. while she didn’t want to have sex with Donald she felt she owed it to him, or something, so it wasn’t rape-rape or even regular rape. She wasn’t saying that she was never-ever a victim of dirtbaggery, just not in the forced to have sex sense. It wasn’t an exoneration of every action Trump ever made, it was a one off acquittal, so to speak.

    3. Derpetologist

      My favorite part is that the I Fucking Love Science crowd have suddenly decided polygraph tests are legit.

      https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/politics/stormy-daniels-polygraph-donald-trump/index.html

      They posted a skeptical take on polygraphs the same day, but it was not on the main page.

      1. Lachowsky

        Younger Lachowsky took a polygraph. When I was 20 or so, my father’s house was broken into. Several tens of thousands of dollars worth of gold coin and guns were stolen from his safe. He filed a police report. The police made a half ass effort at pretending to find the thiefs. I was questioned. I told them, truthfully, that I didn’t even know that there was gold in his safe. When challenged, I agreed to take a polygraph.

        Long story short, I passed the polygraph. But, before telling me that I passed, the detective told me that I failed, called me a liar, and tried to pump me for information that I didn’t have. I eventually got my hackles up and called the detective many choice words and walked out.

        A few days later I recieved a call from the detective and was informed that I did indeed pass the polygraph, and that he was just trying to see if I knew anything else.

        I told him to go fuck himself. Mostly because he told my father that I had failed the polygraph. This planted a seed of suspicion in my father’s mind that i was somehow involved. In the intervening time i had several pretty ugly rows with dad.

        1. trshmnstr

          Never ever ever ever ever ever ever talk to a cop without a lawyer present. Doesn’t matter if you’re the victim, a good samaritan, a passerby, their next door neighbor, or actually the criminal they’re looking for. If the cops latch onto you as their suspect, they will lie and manipulate you until you slip up and give them what they want

          1. Lachowsky

            That is something that I know now that I didn’t know then. You couldn’t make me talk to a cop now.

          2. Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

            If only you had heard Tom Segura’s advice back then.

            Watch the whole video for some laughs.

        2. Derpetologist

          The only real benefit of the polygraph is that it can get people to confess to other stuff. The border patrol is having trouble with hiring because people keep confessing to various felonies.

          https://www.thedailybeast.com/on-polygraph-tests-would-be-border-patrol-agents-confess-to-crimes

    4. gbob

      Rich guy bangs porn star.

      I’m not rich, but I had many a fun time with sex workers.

      I hate the cheeto fuck, but I can’t get upset about banging a whore.

  50. gbob

    Depressive nostalgia to drink too. Jesus. What a good hour spent with a bottle of bourbon. Then candidate Ronald Reagan with William F Buckley Jr.

    Fuck. Why don’t we have public intellectuals like Buckley anymore? A diverse group of people who were erudite, informed, and intellectually curious? People who liked to debate with intelligent people of an opposite view?

    Next, candidate Reagan was a wet god damned dream. 35 years later and every single fucking talking point was validated by history. Not everything, but damned if he wasn’t the best we’ve had in over half a century.

    Jesus. I can only imagine if punk rock me, back in the eighties, with mohawk and nose chain, seeing myself going on about how great the Gipper was. I imagine the real truth is somewhere in between.

    1. DiegoF

      I was never wholly impressed, unlike our friends at TOS, with the social aspect of punk or hardcore.

      It was genuinely and thoroughly DIY, which is impressive as fuck. It was a thoroughgoing culture. Being DIY it was of the youth through and through, and it really was a middle finger up at the squares; back then you didn’t go around like that and not pay any social consequences with respectable society.

      But it never really was “just do your own thing and fuck what anyone else thinks of you; that’s punk.” The scoffing adults were right; it always was just as conformist in its own way as jocks or cheerleaders or whatever. What do you expect when the repeatedly professed attitude of an art movement is explicitly not “it’s all about what you create” but it’s all about the scene? I mean, they said that again and again; it was a core value of the movement!

      Frankly, Juggalos seem to do a far, far better job of being a place where the marginalized youth of society can find acceptance of their individuality without social pressure to conform than punk ever did. It may be painful to admit but it’s true.

    2. C. Anacreon

      The biggest recent change in this regard is losing the possibility of actually having open, honest debate with people. I’ve always liked getting in a good political argument, trying to state my case, where at the end of the night we are still friends, but the world has one fewer bottle of whiskey, and maybe each of us have scored a point or two. But no, nowadays if you have an opposing view, it’s all ad homina from you, and from the start you won’t talk to me because I am a __________.

      What happened to informed discussions? Have we lost them forever?

      1. DiegoF

        In Brooklyn we prefer the ad homina homina.

  51. gbob

    Not to start a fight….

    I’m not a deep dish guy, but cooking pizza in a cast iron makes for the perfect pizza to eat half now and some for breakfast. As a bachelor, it’d the perfect lazy, be stoned and drunk, kind of meal.

    1. straffinrun

      Looks good except for the yellow rubber bands you have on top. I tried to make naan for the first time last night. My curry, as always, was excellent, but the naan turned out like biscuits. My favorite Indian curry restaurant makes delicious naan. I always hear a loud slapping sound from the back while they’re prepping it. My imagination tells me the dude is smacking the Indian lady in the face saying, “Make it even better next time.”

      1. gbob

        Don’t you fuck with banana peppers, you bastard

        1. trshmnstr

          I love banana peppers on my pizza, but if I put too many, they make the middle soggy.

          1. MikeS

            I’m not a big fan of them on pizza, but I love them on a sub sandwich. Along with a handful of jalapeno slices.

          2. Lachowsky

            Banana peppers are good on almost anything.

            Banana peppers are proof that God loves us.

          3. Are you dumping them onto your dough right out of the jar, juice and all? give them a good draining, hell tamp them down with a tea towel, unless your talking a solid edge to edge layer I can’t see how pepper rings could soggify your pizza.

          4. MikeS

            I dig the Stroh’s shirt.

          5. trshmnstr

            I’m just plucking them out of the juice and tossing them on the pizza. Next week I’ll dry them out a bit and see if that helps. I par-baked the crust this week and went easy on the banana peppers, so it wasn’t soggy. I’m experimenting with doing thin crust using my normal dough. I liked the cracker crust recipe I put up here a few days back, but I can’t keep all my dough balls straight in the freezer anymore, so why bother making two recipes when I could just roll out the normal dough super thin?

          6. westernsloper

            Where is this cracker crust recipe? I liked your article I late read by the way. Interesting times we live in and I don’t see a way out as someone pointed out in the comments.

        2. straffinrun

          I can always pluck those things off. The crust, sauce and cheese are what count.

      2. westernsloper

        The key to good naan is greek yogurt in the mix. I haven’t made it lately but I have a great recipe laying around here somewhere. The best naan I had was in Thailand.

        1. straffinrun

          If you dig up that recipe, post it. Naan is something that you can’t just wing.

          1. westernsloper

            Will do. It is in the pile of sticky notes and small notebook pages somewhere.

    2. westernsloper

      The crust is too thicc for my preference, but I would eat it. Nice work. And don’t listen to the banana pepper haters.

  52. Lachowsky

    Hey Glibs. I’ve been off the intertubes a couple a days. I think last time I was on here I was kinda drunk and was a dick to winston. All apologies winston. I didn’t mean it.

    Has anything happened the last couple days? I heard some porn star totally brought trump down.

    1. trshmnstr

      Something something brought down or went down something something.

    2. MikeS

      Huh. I was a dick to Winston’s mom. She liked it.

    3. Suthenboy

      It has been the usual stuff.

      How are you and the wife coming along?

      *shakes finger at Lachowski because I have never been drunk on here or been a dick to anyone

      1. Lachowsky

        we’re good suthen. Took the boy to T ball practice this afternoon. He is going well. I have been working on ground balls with him for the past few weeks. He’s really getting good at fielding and throwing. Wife is back in the knocked up position. We have fingers and toes crossed that this one makes it to term. Life is generally good. The grass is getting green. A heifer I was afraid wouldn’t ever calf spit one out this week. Life is good.

        1. Suthenboy

          I am really glad to hear that. I was hoping she would get back on her feet quickly.

          1. Lachowsky

            Life goes up and life goes down. I was pretty down a few months ago. everything is back up now. I do appreciate the emails I got from the gilbs, lurkers and commenter both, that gave me advice on how to help the Mrs. through. Yall are good people.

          2. I was hoping she would get back on her feet quickly.

            Barefoot and in the kitchen?

            [Sorry, Lachowsky. The jokes write themselves sometimes.]

      2. C. Anacreon

        *shakes finger at Lachowski because I have never been drunk on here or been a dick to anyone

        hahahaha good one Suthen

    4. westernsloper

      Whatever at apologies to Winston, we need to work on you taco making skills. You offended the entire taco eating world with the flour tortilla comment.

      1. Whoa, I missed this. Is someone casting aspersions on flour tortillas?

        1. Lachowsky

          Flour tortillas are vastly superior to corn tortillas.

          That is all

          1. mikey

            And here I thought you were a straight-up guy.
            Steamed corn tortilla with a little butter and salt then dipped in salsa – mmmmm

          2. Lachowsky

            Sounds great. I love good nachos.

        2. westernsloper

          YOU DO NOT MAKE TACOS WITH FLOUR TORTILLAS!!! THEY ARE FOR BURRITOS!!!~

          1. Lachowsky

            corn tortillas are undercooked chips. Tacos made with corn tortillas are nachos.

            Sorry man. They are tasty. They are legitimate food. But they ain’t tacos.

          2. westernsloper

            You are a lost soul. I have pity. Have a good night, I have to eat some proper tacos now and go to bed.

          3. DiegoF

            OK now you are just trolling. Mods are you listening?

        3. DiegoF

          A few taco stands homemake their flour tortillas but use store bought corn. I’m a corn man myself but I certainly make an exception for those.

          1. Timeloose

            Nothing better than hand made four tortillas kinda thick and chewy. Use them to sop up the bean and cheese.

          2. Lachowsky

            Time loose gets it.

            Corn tortillas have their place. Flour tortillas are where it’s at.

          3. Timeloose

            I found my love for Mexican food in South TX. It’s all flour tortillas down there. Use them like a mit.

          4. DiegoF

            Yes and that is why it’s authentic. It’s authentic borderland cuisine. The newer Mexican immigrants often come from places that use corn, so they come here and see flour and think it’s some kind of gringo abomination. That’s all the permission snobbery-seeking gringos needed.

            I am a corn guy but I will happily go with whatever is stronger. Both are very tasty.

          5. R C Dean

            I’m with Lacy et al on this one.

          6. R C Dean

            I’m with Lach et al on this one.

      2. DiegoF

        Anyone ever have liver tacos?

        1. Lachowsky

          I like battered amd fried chicken livers. I have never put them on tacos. Sound pretty good though

          1. Suthenboy

            Ditto. Soak livers liberally in Tabasco . Sprinkle a handful or so white flour over them and mix. Continue until the livers have a thick red wet sticky coating. Flop them around in a bowl filled with white flour for the final coating. Some add cajun mustard to the tabasco to make the dough. Some grind black pepper over the soft final coating. Never add salt. All of the salt comes from the tabasco.

            Deep fry at375 for 5 minutes for crispy outside, soft juicy inside / 375 for 7 minutes for crunchy all the way through. Eat hot with generous amounts of ketchup.

            I fry up a gallon bowl full an the wife and I sit at the coffee table and pick ’em out by hand while we watch TV. Invariably we over consume.

          2. Lachowsky

            Sound good. I saved this post.

            Do you reckon the same method would work on the livers of other critters?

            Specifically:

            Pig, deer, turkey,

          3. Suthenboy

            Yes but use the crispy method. Nobody needs trichinosis or black water fever.

            Method also makes excellent fried fish, shrimp and oysters. For them use cornbread mix as the final coating instead of white flour. It stays crispy longer and the corn taste with the seafood is fantastic.

          4. Suthenboy

            And shistosomiasis. Nobody loves liver flukes.

          5. DiegoF

            The only fluke I like is that one that swims into your dick when you pee into a lake.

    1. trshmnstr

      Lemme guess, just based on the URL. Children have a special wisdom that comes from not having to live in the icky disgusting compromise-ridden real world, so they’re better spokesmen for truth and love and happiness.

    2. Suthenboy

      Do any of the commie rags still allow comments? I have noticed that most have no comment sections anymore. I guess they got tired of people calling them out on their bullshit and telling them to go sit on a sharp stick.

      1. DiegoF

        Slate has a very active comment section that used to be one of the better prog dominated ones I have seen (despite one of the most buggy and frustrating interfaces in existence)–rather ideologically diverse and interesting as far as things go. The atmosphere shifted after the election, for reasons I don’t know. (Why did Spiked‘s suddenly, and apparently randomly since nothing in the content would remotely encourage it, become dominated by people obsessed by the Jewish plot to destroy the white race? Still don’t know.)

        It may have something to do with the fact that Slate, after the election, decided to explicitly declare itself a crucial part of the fight to stop Trump (it always was going for a “objectively good analysis source that happens to be skewed towards the left in the perspectives of its contributors” thing) before.

        The cause of many of these rags turning from “a source of analysis and opinion journalism,” however little or much openly skewed in their perspective, to advertising themselves explicitly as a part of the movement to overthrow Trump, is money best I can tell. They are hemorrhaging, and now they pimp for donations (or subscriptions) like a political lobby.

    1. straffinrun

      A youth ran campaign. Lol. Also, your interview was incoherent anyways. I suppose word salads can offend some people.

    2. I watched the full NRA TV interview and he seemed pretty god damn direct, forthright, and confident in his positions in the interview. The “apology” seems like damage control, but what do I know?

    3. westernsloper

      Damn you for making me read a Slate article and who is Killer Mike?

      1. straffinrun

        Killer Mike is a rapper that is against violence, evidently.

        1. westernsloper

          Ok then. No he shouldn’t have apologized.

  53. Derpetologist

    Bloomberg strikes again. How I hate that man.

    http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2018/03/who-runs-march-for-our-lives.html

    ***
    Everytown for Gun Safety was formed out of two other groups: Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Both are actually front groups for Michael Bloomberg, the lefty billionaire and former boss of the Big Apple, who used New York City resources to host at least one of its websites.

    So Everytown is really New York City.

    March for Our Lives is on every cable channel, but who runs it? The photogenic teen fronts are out front. But it’s obvious to everyone that a bunch of teens don’t have the resources and skills to coordinate a nationwide movement. Instead it’s the experienced activists who are actually running things.

    The March for Our Lives Fund is incorporated as a 501(c)(4). Donations to 501(c)(4) groups are not tax- deductible. And they don’t have to disclose donors. That’s why they’re a great dark money conduit.
    ***

    1. DiegoF

      Yes. This whole thing is Bloomberg. That is the quickest way to summarize everything about the recent return of gun control to American politics. He is not really “behind” everything, in a foil-hat sort of way, but he is atop of everything.

      1. DiegoF

        Enjoy your “unhealthy” personal choices while you can, btw, because he is pouring billions into fighting them worldwide too.

        1. Gustave Lytton

          Fucker needs to hit by a taxi.

    2. Lachowsky

      A
      S
      T
      R
      O
      T
      T
      U
      R
      F

      Seriously, these gun grabbing groups are way out of touch with how most of America feels about guns. Money does not equal political majority. See election 2016 for an example

      1. DiegoF

        Aw you were just a couple letters away from ASS TAROT TURF, which sounds a hell of a lot more fun than Marching For Our Lives.

        1. Lachowsky

          There is nothing organic about this fucking March
          The marchers are nothing but useful idiots repeating tired, disproven, anti-liberty, statist talking points. They can all go choke on a cock.

  54. straffinrun

    “Last week my father was brutally murdered. It’s only now that I can look back and laugh.”

    Norm is a national treasure.

  55. CPRM

    Where the white women at?

    1. Lachowsky

      Around here, the available ones are in the trailor parks

      1. CPRM

        Well, if we lived in a paliandrous society, your wife would count, why you gotta be shitlord!?

        1. Lachowsky

          I shitlord because I care.

    2. hayeksplosives

      I am at my computer drinking a gin and tonic. Generally dreading work tomorrow, but busily helping my new employer help recruit/poach yet another person to the team. I don’t even work there yet!

      Time zones are a bitch, because they were bright eyed and bushy tailed while I am ready for freaking bed.

      1. CPRM

        It’s only 2hrs difference, not like you’re crossing the international date line.

        1. hayeksplosives

          Yeah, but one of the guys is from the east coast and a young dad, so he’s fucking done.

          I love being a relatively young empty nester. I do what I WANT!

          (Nother G&T coming right up)

          1. CPRM

            Pussy. Not you, that guy. Although…

          2. hayeksplosives

            BUT MINE HAS NEVER BEEN GRABBED BY TRUMP!! Or anyone for that matter. For surprises, I prefer to be nibbled on the neck from behind, receive an unexpected smootch at about any angle, or a subtle low hand-on-waist-to-hip hug. Then if all else goes well, no need to grab, the correct signals will lead where they should.

          3. CPRM

            I think this is the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen on Glibs…Tell me more!

  56. Lachowsky

    While today we marvel at the extraordinary accomplishment of our Founding Fathers, their own reaction to the US Constitution when it was presented to them for their signatures was considerably less enthusiastic. Benjamin Franklin, ever the optimist even at the age of 81, gave what was for him a remarkably restrained assessment in his final speech before the Constitutional Convention: “…when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views.” He thought it impossible to expect a “perfect production” from such a gathering, but he believed that the Constitution they had just drafted, “with all its faults,” was better than any alternative that was likely to emerge.

    Nearly all of the delegates harbored objections, but persuaded by Franklin’s logic, they put aside their misgivings and affixed their signatures to it. Their over-riding concern was the tendency in nearly all parts of the young country toward disorder and disintegration. Americans had used the doctrine of popular sovereignty–“democracy”–as the rationale for their successful rebellion against English authority in 1776. But they had not yet worked out fully the question that has plagued all nations aspiring to democratic government ever since: how to implement principles of popular majority rule while at the same time preserving stable governments that protect the rights and liberties of all citizens.

    1. CPRM

      ‘Logic’ is a tool of the patriarchy!11!!!1!

    2. C. Anacreon

      Nicely stated.

      As a counterpart for today, I give the following meme that showed up in my Facebook feed today, almost causing nausea:

      “Only 22% of Americans own guns. What kind of democracy allows 22% of people to have their way?”

      1. CPRM

        What kind of society protects the rights of the minority!?!?!?!

      2. Lachowsky

        This is why democracy is not a good thing.

        Why should the 78 percent have rule over the 22 percent?

        A constitution that enshrines rights is necessary for a democracy. Otherwise, a democracy turns quickly into a tyranny.

        1. CPRM

          Well, as long as those rights are actual rights. Progs rave about ‘the right to housing’, ‘the right to food’, the right to healthcare’ and those have all been ‘enshrined’ in constitutions.

          1. Lachowsky

            Positive rights are not legitimate. Period.

            Negative rights are the basis for my entire philosophy.

            That’s the difference between us and the progs

          2. CPRM

            But, that’s why you have to be specific. Me, I am a Constitutional Property Rights Minarchist (get it? CPRM)

          3. DiegoF

            We’re almost ideologically identical then, basically. I am a Constitutional Property Rights Monarchist, your stuff belongs to me ultimately but I rule over it benignly and mostly just let you use it yourself.

      3. KSuellington

        Wow, that is some horrifyingly stupid and evil shit right there.

        1. KSuellington

          (If that wasn’t obvious it was about C Anacreon’s facethingy feed.

    3. DiegoF

      I am skeptical as to how central “democracy” is to the concept of popular sovereignty invoked by the American Revolution. Many (though certainly not most) parts of the Declaration of Independence’s complaints against George III do deal with the issue of the distribution of political power rather than quarreling with the contents of a specific policy. Even these, though, seem to fall in the framework of violations of British political tradition, an unConstitutional usurpation by George III, an offense to the rule of law. It would be interesting to look further into this.

  57. DiegoF

    Anyone remember that (fairly) recent Dr Who where the Scottish doctor whatever his name is states to the female Prime Minister (who fucked him over in some way I don’t remember) that he (and presumably anyone else who cares to) can end her career simply by publicly broaching the suggestion that she looks old? And indeed he does; she is then thrown out of office by her own party. That was some weird shit.

    1. CPRM

      He said tired, not old.

      1. Homple

        He said “low energy”, not old or tired.

        1. CPRM

          No, that was The Hat that said that.

      2. DiegoF

        Any woman knows the connotations of “you look tired,” and that was clearly what was being referenced here by the show. It’s not in this context, “You should get some rest; you’re working yourself into the ground lately in service to this country.” It’s about female politicians operating under a constant cloud of fatal vulnerability to this particular type of appearance-based misogyny. That was the point being made, and it was a stupid one.

        1. hayeksplosives

          One time when I was 16 or so and going over to babysit for some neighbor’s kids, I decided not to put on makeup because, Eff it, they’re kids.

          The older one (6 yrs?) says “Wow, you look tired.”

          I’ve worn make up everyday since then, even if I am not leaving the house.

          1. DiegoF

            Jesus Christ, 16? Y’all start thinking about it that early? At 6 if I’d known I already wielded that kind of mindfuck power over older women, maybe I’d have tried to use it to get a few extra ice cream scoops at the beach.

          2. Brochettaward

            This seems more like one of those female insecurity things rather than something actual men dwell on. You’re talking about a 6 year old used to seeing you one way. A six year old. The societal pressure may be there, but it isn’t coming from the patriarchy and Merkel kind of proves that “looking tired” isn’t going to end a female politician’s career.

        2. CPRM

          Glad you could give me a woman’s perspective. I didn’t know you were a woman, but I will respect your life choices and refer to you by your chosen pronouns from now on. I apologize for my cishet ways. For I only thought that line referred to him playing on her insecurity, Thus why no one else heard it, but forced her government to crumble. I didn’t know it was an attack on an entire sex, of which you are clearly part of and offended on behalf of a fictional character.

          1. DiegoF

            You never asked my pronouns, shitlord. They are q’e, q’im, q’is.

          2. DiegoF

            More to the point, your reading of that scene is as ridiculous as the notion that I said anything to suggest that I was “offended on behalf of a fictional character.” Quite clearly I said utterly nothing to suggest that you, the Doctor, or Doctor Who was making “an attack on an entire sex”; to the contrary, my claim was that Doctor Who was parroting a common feminist talking point about the burdens of female politicians.

            Did you watch the same scene that I did? Because the one I linked to sure seemed to depict the Doctor walking away from the PM to whisper the six words to her staffer, who then looked quite intrigued and concerned; and then the PM repeatedly begging the staffer to reveal the contents of the whisper to her and he repeatedly refusing to do so and keeping it secret. And the next thing we hear, the PM’s government is falling due to concern about her competence. (Perhaps the rumor simply spread from the single staffer, without any further action from the Doctor; it’s not clear.) One would assume such concerns were about being “looking tired” in a way a bit more serious than something that might be solved with a nice sleep-in on Sunday morning.

            I haven’t really done much “getting in people’s heads” since youth pickup sports, but I kind of remember it being rather important to deliver your message to the person whose head you’re trying to get into.

    2. Gotta love the unsubtle propaganda.

  58. CPRM

    This is a song I think about often when I think about politics.

  59. Yusef drives a Kia

    Hello! Life is good

    1. CPRM

      Are you suing the cops?

  60. straffinrun

    The media seems to have slid nicely from gun grabbing to Stormy cock sucking. Talk about undermining your own message.

    1. KSuellington

      The elite media are just shit flinging monkeys at this point. Anything that sticks. Their relevance fades by the day, yet they have already bought their ticket, they are taking their ride.

      1. Akira

        I don’t get why Lefties insist that the mainstream media is comprised of valiant truth-tellers.

        Lefties rant all day about corporations focusing only on profit, but they forget that CNN and HuffPo ARE corporations, and their incentive is to crank out the kind of content that gets clicks, which is not necessarily that which is true.

  61. westernsloper

    Finally, artwork worthy to adorn the Glib head office. I would not be opposed to the use of the $2.76 I donated be used to acquire this.

    https://twitter.com/AP/status/978589963003531264

    1. straffinrun

      I want to buy it and put up where the state of Robert E. Lee stood.

      1. westernsloper

        If I had the money, I would buy it as well as the property next to HRC’s house and put it up like it is looking over her fence.

    2. Mr Lizard

      I think I see the hat and hair skulking about in the background

  62. straffinrun

    I know everything. OK, I don’t know shit. I know everything. Damn, everybody knows more than I do. I may not know everything, but at least I know something about this thing. Look that! There are principles in this thing that I know about that can be applied in other fields. Hmmm, I can apply those principles to everything and so, again, I know everything. That didn’t work out as I had expected, so now I’m back to thinking that I only know about this one thing that I know pretty well. I’m gonna learn more about things that I don’t know well and have avoided all my life for various reasons. But I’m getting old, so I’m gonna take a short cut and smuggle a few of the principles I do know well into this new field even though I know they don’t really apply. Now I’m beginning to forget the inner workings of the things I did know well in the past. Do I trust that the hard work I had put into figuring stuff out when I was younger is actually correct? C’mon, Dude. You were full of shit before and you’re gonna trust that guy? They way I see it, I’m going to come back as the same race and gender as I am in this life, so I should support my race and gender. Makes sense.