What’s up, hosers? I just found out its supposed to snow next week while I’m in Dearborn. That’s a whole fucking pile of fail. But it will make my kids happy if we can FaceTime some snowflakes. (No jokes about going down to the local college!) My wife started Spring Break last night after taking a test this morning. She’s got a happy hour with her PT assistant class friends. She Ubered up, so I expect her to come home pretty well lit. I have to pick the kids up, so I can’t start really catching up until after that.
You know what I want to give a company with a reputation for poor corporate citizenship? Time and location of all my medical appointments. But not to worry, its B2B so it will really be your insurance company giving that information away.
Ladies and gentleman, these are the people who think they are qualified to run the economy. Look at the chart. These guys are getting 7.5% annually over the last decade. About what the S&P has returned. Smarter than the market my ass.
Did Dark Matter affect the early universe? I remain a skeptic of anything that can only be inferred and not measured.
Back in September, I posted about an act of actual evil. Where an anonymous vote of a State body stopped a hospital expansion, including addition of services that did not exist in the area. Despite the efforts of a local reporter and yours truly, we never were able to pin down who torpedoed the approval.
I wanted to update everyone on the situation. It got better. And the best part of the story is that the scum who opposed this have now come out in the open:
A representative for state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, who also serves as a Mercyhealth board member, spoke against Swedes’ expansion plan on Tuesday. So did other representatives of Mercyhealth, including its CEO Javon Bea.
So the dirtbag politician with the conflict of interest (he serves on the board of a local competitor health group) that had been opposing this from behind the scenes, has now stepped into the light, to show his true asshat colors. And the CEO of the same competitor came in to throw around some slander and BS in an attempt to avoid competition:
Bea said he is “against unnecessary duplication” of SwedishAmerican’s 10-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. “They have higher death and disability rates because for 10 beds they cannot employ the entire range of pediatric subspecialties on-site,” he said after testifying before the Review Board.
Bea said SwedishAmerican will send its sickest babies to Wisconsin, forcing parents and families to travel. SwedishAmerican is a division of UW Health.
“Families will have to figure out how to take care of babies for months at a time,” Bea said.
Mercyhealth has 52 NICU beds that are part of its $505 million new hospital campus at Interstate 90 and Riverside Boulevard, which is expected to open in January.
Born said the claims that SwedishAmerican would operate a substandard Level III NICU are “insulting and absurd.”
“It’s insulting because of SwedishAmerican and UW Health’s long-term commitment to quality and safety,” Born said. “It’s absurd because a Level III NICU at SwedishAmerican would be held to the same standards of any other Level III NICU in the state.” [emphasis added]
Allow me translate Mr. Bea’s complaint…
“Hey, competition?! Dammit. I guess having a State Senator in our pocket wasn’t enough to stop it….so here, let me throw out a defamatory smoke screen and run away.”
So justice was delayed, but denied, in this matter. I have to give credit to the Rockford Register Star reporter – Georgette Braun – for shining some light on the dirtbags in this story. (This was the reporter I had contacted and found out we had both been stymied in our attempts to find out who had voted which way last year).
And an extended middle finger to both of you, Dave Syverson and Javon Bea.
This is a bittersweet result – while this individual injustice has been rectified, the intrusion of the State into this field is still there, ripe for continued abuse by preventing of medical care being expanded.
Way to go Big Ten. Your conference isn’t playing meaningful games because the league brass just had to have the conference tournament in that hotbed of Big Ten country…Madison Square Garden? Seriously, what the fuck? Everybody is playing rivalry games this week as you get set to kick off your conference tournament nowhere near a single Big Ten school that is worth a shit. I hope the whole arena sits empty as you get set to finish your tournament the same day as conferences like the Atlantic Sun and MEAC rather than when it traditionally ends when its played at a venue that makes fucking sense.. Stupid bastards. Meanwhile, Villanova, Clemson, Nevada, Kentucky and Xavier were among the winners last night.
On the frozen ponds, Les Canadiens beat the Islanders, the Sabres topped the Lightning, St Louis took care of Detroit, Colorado was better than Calgary, and five goals wasn’t enough for Vancouver, as the Rangers put up 6 to win in overtime. And in case most of you haven’t noticed, spring training is well underway and games are being played. Oh what a glorious time of year!
OK, maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement. Many of you are still dealing with shitty weather and snow. All we’re getting is rain, rain, rain. But at least I’m indoors except for the fact that I’m scheduled to move into my new office this weekend. SO I need it to stay away at least half of the day Saturday. Everybody pray for me that I doin’t suffer first-world problems this weekend. I will thank you for your prayers in advance by providing you this sweet ass edition of…the links!
This is how you’ll all be forced to defend yourself if they get rid of “assault weapons”. With nothing but air.
Trump puts his foot in his mouth. Although his words are being wildly mischaracterized and its being implied he means in general, what he said is still a terrifying prospect. As a bonus, I’m sure this will cause the left to have a renewed interest in defending the Fourth Amendment. Still, he needs to choose his words much more carefully. There would have never been a need to secure a warrant to arrest that idiot. He had the cops called during enough active crime situations that they could have easily arrested him on the spot and then secured a warrant while he was sitting in a jail cell awaiting a bond hearing. That actually would have followed the due process requirements and would have also gotten the guns out of the hands of a sociopathic nut job who regularly made threats and acted like he was about to do exactly what he did.
The religious atheists on the left continue to make efforts to win the hearts and minds of America the only way they know how. Chris Pratt makes a harmless gesture that he believes, as do hundreds of millions of Americans probably, will make a positive difference in someone’s life and those assholes go bonkers. Christ, what a bunch of assholes. Also, poor headline choice, Fox. It sure didn’t sound like Smith was “forced” to defend anyone. He did so willingly and graciously. And FWIW, Mallrats was still probably his best work.
For all those geniuses who say average Joes shouldn’t be walking around with guns and that only trained police officers should have them: I’d love for them to explain this and tell me they’re gonna stick with their position. Also, if we ban guns, this will never happen because people won’t have them. Except, this was in SF, where guns are essentially outlawed. So there goes that bullshit talking point too…unless he went across the border into Indiana and got one and then went back into the city to carry out his mayhem. Can they use that bullshit talking point in California? Sure seems to work for the grabbers in Illinois that want to blame their violence problem on everything but the individuals carrying their daily shootings out or the failed government system in their fair city that disenfranchises large segments of their population.
Dorothy Brown: endless purveyor of graft without consequence
Speaking of Chicago politics, I see its business as usual. The federal investigation into the office has gone on for five years and the abuses have been chronicled with detailed precision. Yet somehow, the machine that brought us Barack Obama has yet to bring anyone to trial. But that has to be a coincidence.
I guess I could have put this in sports, but I’m gonna count it as news. Hey, listen, I think the coach is completely justified in his position here, with the exception of his last couple of sentences. If he recruits players who can’t pass the NCAA-mandated drug tests and can show where that’s happened, he is making a sound decision that will make sure he’s able to field a team that won’t run afoul of antiquated NCAA rules. Too bad he’s not venting his anger at the NCAA instead of Colorado pols. Because in my opinion, that’s where he should be directing it.
Glad Sloopy did the links this morning. All I want to talk about is Spring Training and nobody cares about that. (Tim Tebow went 0-2 with a K on 4 pitches. Even Jesus don’t mess with the Astros)
First and foremost — Congratulations to our own Gordilocks — whose article about trucking regulation here at glibertarians.com made the links at Marginal Revolution. Number 6 in the screen-cap. Look, glibertariat: We, the people who run this place are only smart enough to keep the site up and post links. You, the people who actually know and live stuff make this more than just a chat room, and we’re grateful. Please, if you’ve been considering submitting something, do. Here.
Narrative: Teachers don’t even WANT to be armed. Reality: Sheriff offers free firearms training to teachers and has to turn some away after over 300 sign up.
Broward County Sheriff discovers the spotlight is pretty hot. He’s just so darn proud of those officers who shot a black man with an unloaded air rifle. I really hope that the state Supreme Court throwing the SYG ruling back holds up. Under no circumstances should a LEO responding to a call be able to use the same standard of force as a private citizen going about their legal business.
An interesting attack on Obamacare. Now that the “constitutional” penaltax is repealed, the rest of the law is unconstitutional. Do I think this effort will succeed? No. But if it does, it will be seen as the moment the Stupid and Evil parties switched designation.
And the irony of this is so achingly beautiful I have to post it: Singer’s career destroyed by G-men, no larger lesson to draw at The Progressive. Good article about Billie Holiday.
Lady Day may be gone, but at least we still have Lou Reed!
One was my escapades in the Arctic was clubbing baby seals for kicks. Alas, I found the on-going costs of this natural libertarian activity to be expensive. Renting a dog-sled is way too expensive, plus I don’t feed them so they always end up dying or some shit, driving my expenses higher. I experimented with orphans but I couldn’t get much mileage out of them; plus I didn’t feed them, etc., etc.
Moreover, the price of baseball bats are just too high. I use wood; not that aluminum stuff.
But one feature that could be fun are songs that may offend the perpetually outraged. Songs that, given the state of current cultural affairs, could be up for censorship.
Let me begin with an obvious one.
Lola. We should all be so lucky it hasn’t been singled out…yet.
If Lou Reed is a target, then nothing is literally safe anymore. Nuffin.
All I know is, thank God we still have him.
The Kinks? Not so much:
Lola 2018.
“Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls It’s a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world Except for Lola, lo lo lo lo Lola”
What a bunch of uneducated, cis-normative toxic men they are! Science has proven gender is fluid and a social construct. Can we update these lyrics already?
And if you think that’s it….
Me singer, she meat.
I bring you the songs and lyrics of Faces (Small Faces/Rod Stewart – whatever they’re called. Let’s just call them The Ronnie Lane Band) and The Rolling Stones. I mean, come on!
“In the morning Don’t say you love me ‘Cause I’ll only kick you out of the door
I know your name is Rita ‘Cause your perfume smelling sweeter Since when I saw you down on the floor Guitar
Won’t need to much persuading I don’t mean to sound degrading But with a face like that You got nothing to laugh about”
/jaw drops. That’s cold.
There are no safe spaces big enough for the snowflakes.
“She said, my breasts, they will always be open Baby, you can rest your weary head right on me And there will always be a space in my parking lot When you need a little coke and sympathy Yeah we all need someone we can dream on And if you want it baby, you can dream on me Yeah, we all need someone we can cream on Yeah and if you want to, you can cream on me“
This is why we need strict sexual speech control.
*Int. Night. Rufus’s Pontiac Chevette (draped in Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind). Teases mullet, fiddles with radio searching for curling scores, tosses bottle of hootch out of the window, inserts ‘Let it bleed‘ with wide grin. Winks and turns to girl with tongue sticking out.*
Onto Australia, who really have the art of sexual innuendo perfected:
“I’ve got big balls I’ve got big balls They’re such big balls And they’re fancy big balls And he’s got big balls And she’s got big balls But we’ve got the biggest balls of them all”
Tremendous.
Bon Scott.
Hoo-kay.
And how about ‘Girl Watcher‘ by The O’Kaysions?
I mean for fuck sakes:
He’s a girl watcher.
“I’m a girl watcher, I’m a girl watcher Watchin’ girls go by, hey, my my I’m a girl watcher, I’m a girl watcher Here comes one now”
Here comes one now? Are we not more progressive than this? Way to go objectifying women, jerks.
Meeeow! In Welsh.
I know what you’re thinking. When it comes to outright offensive music, the Welsh immediately enter your mind. I know it does for me.
“What’s new pussycat whoa What’s new pussycat whoa oh Pussycat, pussycat, I’ve got flowers And lots of hours to spend time with you So go and powder your cute little pussycat nose”
Other than this is a song made for Pepe Le Pew (Teep toe, to thee weendow…), I’d say this is pretty bad given our current elevated and enlightened cultural discourse, no?
Let’s continue since I’m on a roll.
Under a boardwalk USA
“Oh when the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof And your shoes get so hot you wish your tired feet were fire proof Under the boardwalk, down by the sea, yeah On a blanket with my baby is where I’ll be (Under the boardwalk) out of the sun (Under the boardwalk) we’ll be havin’ some fun (Under the boardwalk) people walking above (Under the boardwalk) we’ll be falling in love”
Sounds like rape culture to me. Do people know what happens under the boardwalk? Hint: THEY’RE WORKING.
Fun fact with Rufus: The mayor of Wildwood was a client of my father’s tailoring service in the 1970s and 1980s. When we visited one summer, he gave us a personal tour of Wildwood (it was just like Venice, I swear) and regaled us with stories of the real “fun and games” under the boardwalk. Hint: It wasn’t always fun and games.
Thus we arrive at the other feature for Glibs called ‘Spotlight on Bios”.
“Nicholas Matte is a politically-conscious interdisciplinary historian who curates the Sexual Representation Collection and teaches in the Sexual Diversity Studies program. In his classrooms, Dr. Matte builds learning environments that foster creative thinking and he encourages students to grapple with new and difficult ideas, particularly those they find most interesting and relevant to their interests, lives, and goals. As a historian who works with living memory and marginalized communities, Matte connects historical contexts and efforts with present-day experiences through oral histories and other interactive and engaging interdisciplinary methods.”
If you want to see this paragon of intellectualism; a deluge of scholarly magnificence, soak in his passive-aggressive interaction with the ‘infamously controversially obscure’ Jordan Peterson.
Wow, what an arduous journey the last week and a half has been. Its still not showing any signs of slowing down, but I felt honor-bound together back to links duty. I’m imposed enough on my friends who so graciously (and most likely did a better job) in covering for me these last several days. But in the words of Frank Costanza, “I’m back, baby!”
Will Oklahoma even make the tournament? The appear to be on an express elevator to the basement of the Big XII after getting rolled again last night. This time by Baylor. Elsewhere, Rhode Island got boat-raced by St Joes, Auburn fell, Tennessee won and the Tar Heels got beat at the buzzer by Miami (FL).
On the ice, we are nearing the trade deadline, which should generate some extra action as well as tension. Anyway, the Bruins, Capitals, Devils, Panthers, Predators, MINNESOOOOOOODA WIIIIIIIILD, Stars, Kings and Sharks all won. Congratulations, eh.
Of course I’ll kill his family for him for not medaling, ma’am. I know what my job is.
The Olympics are over, I guess. I have absolutely no idea what happened beyond Ms Kim stealing the show. Hey, I wonder if NBC will glowingly cover her and her brother when they have the families of the Nork Olympians who didn’t medal (read: all of them) fed to dogs or something equally barbaric.
Soccer happened too, with Swansea beating Sheffield Wednesday in an FA Cup match, while in Spain Real Madrid once again faltered. More games on tap today, with Spurs playing C-Level Rochdale. And in Spain, several big games.
I agree, bubbe!
That’s the sports update for the day. And now we get to…the links! And I’ll apologize in advance if I end up re-linking half to all of these. I have seriously been out of touch other than trolling a couple cards on twitter over the last couple of days.
Man tells truth, gets pilloried. “Sorry it doesn’t fit the narrative, buddy. If you were on our side, you could make all kinds of Nazi comparisons and we’d be ok with it.” -the left
Camille Paglia unloads. I don’t think this is gonna go over well. Not that she gives a shit.
The next time some left-wing dickhead holds up California as being an ideal place to live and mocks your state, just link this piece to them and tell them to STFU. L O freaking L. (Full rankings in all categories linked in the article.)
On the same day as the Parkland shooting, something else happened that is not getting the coverage it deserves. I suspect it won’t either. Quick recap: good guy with gun foils possible mass shooting at church and gets popped by trigger-happy cop for his troubles. But let’s at least give these cops credit for one thing: they didn’t sit outside playing with themselves while something potentially terrible was about to happen.
Well, I hope I’ve not disappointed anyone. But I’ve got no more words for ya. Just a very 80’s video with bad lip-syncing and a message…of hope.
There seems to be some interest in Romanian wine. Now, one can probably write 100 posts on such a topic, so where to start? There are grapes, there are wines, and there is history. I will try a quick general introduction, and then will get more specific in potential future posts. Wine, like most things in this world, was invented on the present day territory of Romania by the dacians, although this fact has been covered up historically by other jealous people wanting to steal our legacy. Georgians and Armenians and middle easterners and the like. All lies. Romanian had the first and the best wine. It is known. That being said … to procede.
I could start with a bit about red wine. Red is the colour of the blood that was spilled defending the land and such pseudo patriotic nonsense. I will not. Although Romanians, believe you me, are very patriotic about their wine and consider it among the best. This may have been somewhat true for some wines 150 years ago, before it stagnated significantly and others – especially New World producers – had a bit of aggressive growth going on. This feeling has decreased somewhat in recent years which in turn has led to more imports – a good thing, because more wine variety and a bit of extra competition made the locals pick up their game.
This may break the hearts of some of our fine readers, but communism was not exactly beneficial to the wine industry – or any other. I have to be honest with you guys, communism sucks on all possible levels. Quality wine is bourgeois, comrades. The wine industry was devastated and reduced to producing cheap, low-quality wine, often with added sugar and artificial flavoring, which along with Bulgarian wines were drunk in Western Europe as wine for students with a very tight budget and a non-existent palate.
Map from revino.ro
The state controlled the wine, and while there were, like in all fields, a few passionate and honorable people who did a good job, because it was their nature, more were not thus. There were some wine research institutes that actually did great work, it must be said. But alas, they were in the minority. And, like in many areas in communism, there was laziness and theft. When it came to working, well, it is not my vineyard. When it came to taking, well, it belongs to all of us. Wine was not easily found in stores, nothing was, so people developed their home wine-making, a legacy which persists, producing bad wines in large quantities.
Then communism fell. And things, at first, got worse, which is to be expected in case of massive social upheaval. Many vineyards were abandoned. Many were split in minor parcels as part of distributing land to peasants. Many were simply uprooted. The wineries were closed or privatized. Many times the former workers of the agricultural cooperatives stole everything they could, and stainless steel – quite used in the wine business – was high on that list. It was mostly a disaster.
But then, after the first 10 years, slowly, too slowly if you ask me, things got better. There was a bit of a renaissance in the last 15 years or so, with more and more good wines produced. This was due to a significant inflow of both private investments, from Romanians and companies from the EU alike, and European Union funding. This led to a lot of replanting of vines and rebuilding wineries.
Some of the first doing quality were foreign. S.E.R.V.E was among the first, owned by a French count named Guy Tyrel de Poix since 1993. Oprișor is another, owned by the German Reh Kendermann group. Vinarte was created by a joint group of Romanians, Italians and French. Davino, probably the top producer, was started by a Romanian. Prince Stirbey was a continuation of an old Romanian noble family, but Baroness Ileana Kripp-Costinescu lived in Germany during communism and came with funds from there. Halewood is a British company that came here to make wines for England. Mihail Rotenberg was among the Jewish Romanians who was allowed to leave for Israel – probably after the Government got paid, made his money in engineering, and came back to Romania to make wine.
Rotenberg
While you may say many a things of the EU, the point I would make is this. If you happen to be in it, subject to all the rules and such, you might as well make the best of the funding available. This may split libertarians, but I am of a view that if the state is going to tax and spend, it is better to at least get something out of that spending. And the wine industry is one of the few areas where Romania, notoriously bad at getting EU funding due to massive corruption and incompetence, got 100% of available funds.
There was, in truth, some over-investment, as often happens in high growth areas, and also excessive expectations. Many expected to get their investment back fast and make a profit. They did not take the view we are building a multi-generational business, like many quality wineries are. Hoping to make a quick profit, most new vineyards wanted to make wine for the so called premium sector, which meant expensive rather than you know… good. There was a lot more premium wine than the market could bare. It was also hard to compete with outside producers, which had been investing for hundreds of years.
There were other issues. It is difficult to make great wine off 5 year old vines. Many of them talked of terroir when the vineyard was on its first wine. If we accept the terroir thing, we must also accept it takes time, years, to understand the soil, the micro-climate, to experiment and find a way to express the terroir. This is why talk of terroir is bullshit in at least 90% of cases.
In the last few years a sort of balance was achieved, more and more good wine appeared at reasonable prices. Most new entries in the last 5 years were not “premium”. It is still hard to compete with the old world for tradition and the New World for quantity and popularity, but things are moving in the right direction.
One mistake, in my view, with all this replanting was that mostly international grapes were planted. It is very hard to compete in the world market making one more Cabernet. It would have been much better to focus on local grape varieties. Some do, but not as many. Planting Touriga Nacional in Romania when you have yet to master the local varieties may be a bit of a rush.
Overall, Romania is a decent country for wine, geography wise. The soils, the climate, the sunshine hours are all pretty good. There is a risk of late spring frosts, but that is true for most of Europe. There is also, compared to counties like Chile, more variability from year to year, which means the wines are vintage dependent, not the same, but this is not always a bad thing. In most areas, summers are generally of the hot and dry varieties, which can limit the range of wines you can make. But there are a few cooler zones here and there.
Most of the wines regions of Romania are currently in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains and some plateaus in Transylvania. This all covers a good bit of the country. Other regions are along the Danube, in Dobrogea close to the Black sea. And pretty much all over, really. To drop some names based on Romanian regions, in Muntenia there is Dealu Mare is one of the main red wine areas, close to the cities of Ploiesti and Buzau. In Oltenian is Drăgășani on the Olt river, Samburesti and a few others. There is Murfatlar and Ostrov and Sarica in Dobrogea by the sea. Vrancea, Cotnari and Odobesti are in Moldova. In Transylvania there is Tarnave and Miniș-Măderat and more. In Banat the main one is Recas. There are dozens more besides these, and not the time or space to cover them all.
Some people, in a case of being amusingly very wrong, claim Dealu Mare as the Bordeaux of Romania, as it is on the 45th parallel, same latitude as Bordeaux. Let’s ignore the different soil, different exposure, different accumulated heat, different sunshine hours, different rains, lack of the oceanic influence Bordeaux has and more. It is the same, really.
To close this long post, I will give some Romanian wine producers I like and some I do not. Producers I like are Davino, Stirbey, SERVE, Vinarte, Bauer, Ferdi, Oprisor, Rotenberg, and Wine Princess. Second tier producers Avincis, Petrovaselo, Vitis Metamorfosis, Corcova, Licorna, Segarcea. I would avoid Murfatlar, Jidvei, Cotnari, Vincon, Ostrov, Pietroasele and others I will not list.
So I guess this is it for the first one. Let me know if for the next you want something about grapes and actual wines or a bit more history and culture.
Just you watch where you fry eggs in Ukraine! Not just anywhere, says the European Court of Human Rights!
The bad soap opera that is the Bronx District Attorney’s Office might actually be getting worse. Or, rather, we are just finding out how bad it truly is…somehow this isn’t the “ripped from the headlines” stuff you see on police procedurals like the various Law & Order franchises.
Speaking of cluster&*$% law enforcement. Not surprising, really.
Huh. Global Warming, Climate Change, Climate Chaos or whatever they are calling it these days was supposed to have made snow a thing of the past in the UK, right?
Don’t forget to add the “large shrimp neck pillow” to your shopping cart to complete your collection. At the time of this writing the shrimp pillow has a coupon for 10% off.
If you had any questions about its quality, let your mind be put to rest. It’s been awarded Amazon’s Choice for “shrimp pillow“, which is a larger category than you might think.
Most of the wines regions of Romania are currently in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains and some plateaus in Transylvania. This all covers a good bit of the country. Other regions are along the Danube, in Dobrogea close to the Black sea. And pretty much all over, really. To drop some names based on Romanian regions, in Muntenia there is Dealu Mare is one of the main red wine areas, close to the cities of Ploiesti and Buzau. In Oltenian is Drăgășani on the Olt river, Samburesti and a few others. There is Murfatlar and Ostrov and Sarica in Dobrogea by the sea. Vrancea, Cotnari and Odobesti are in Moldova. In Transylvania there is Tarnave and Miniș-Măderat and more. In Banat the main one is Recas. There are dozens more besides these, and not the time or space to cover them all.
