Greeting friends. Its good to be back to the normal flow. I was happy to find some internets my last day in Detroit, but its much better being home in the sun. My two lovely spawn convinced mommy that they wanted to swim yesterday. she convinced me I was needed. How did it go? Mommy jumps in, screams “oh god its cold!” Daddy spends a full minute thinking about how small his sack is going to get until Mommy’s taunts get to him. Daddy jumps in. Kids put a foot on the first step. “Its too cold!” I made my four year old swim to the wall, just to try to see what his level of swim comfort is. He got out after that. “I don’ like it. Too cold on my eyeballs.” Moral of the story — even in sunny FL, pool swimming in February is for Canadians. And now… the links!
Oh, sheep fighting? That’s never going to take off in Scotland. I thought it was a different way young men have of bonding with sheep.
CDC employee calls in sick, vanishes without wallet, phone, or dog. Time to prep for the zombie apocalypse.
Will the Supreme Court find public unions are substantially political activists and forcing someone to pay union dues is forcing them to subsidize a political process? Odds are yes, as this came up and deadlocked 4-4 in the time between Scalia and Gorsuch. Gorsuch will probably join Roberts, Thomas, Kennedy, and Alito in this, but who knows? I thought the penaltax was a slam dunk.
Here’s a feel good story about a pig finding its way to the dinner table. Just kidding. Its a horror story about breach of contract.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. ZARDOZ DID NOT LIFT THE CHOSEN ONES FROM BRUTALITY, ONLY TO HAVE A BRUTAL ADVICE COLUMNIST TURN THEM SOFT. NO! YOU ARE STRONG, THAT YOU MAY SNARK AT THE BRUTALS WHO POISON THE INTERNET WITH A PLAGUE OF DERP. THEREFOR, RECEIVE THE GIFT OF ADVICE, MUCH BETTER THAN THAT OF THE BRUTAL “MISS MANNERS”:
Q.In today’s “sharing” economy, there seems to be a level of expected niceties. I frequently find myself in a car on the way to an airport, wondering how to escape a lengthy, forced discussion. I imagine that the driver is also tired of the same conversations and would enjoy a chance for a moment or two of silence.At times, I am working. At other times, I am communicating with whoever will be expecting me at my destination, or am coordinating my ID, boarding pass, etc.Earlier this week, I found myself forced to explain the medical details of why we were heading to a health care facility! Is there any polite way to avoid the awkward and unnecessary conversations that come with the conveniences of today’s economy?
A. WEAK AND FOOLISH BRUTAL! IF YOU WISH THE BRUTAL PROVIDING YOU TRANSPORT NOT TO SPEAK TO YOU – HAND THEM THIS:
AVAILABLE AT FINER GIFT SHOPS
THUS THEY SHALL KNOW YOU ARE A SERVANT OF ZARDOZ. IF THIS DOES NOT QUIET THEM (VIA MIND-NUMBING FEAR) THEN CALL THE VORTEX FOR ASSISTANCE. WE CAN HAVE SOMEONE WAITING TO SUPPLY A “BAD RATING” AT THE END OF YOUR DRIVE.
YOU RECEIVE ZERO STARS!
YOU SECOND FAILING WAS NOT TAKING THE PROPER RIDE-SHARE SERVICE TO BEGIN WITH. CORRECT YOUR ERRONEOUS WAY – USE ZEDCART!
APPROVED TRAVEL MEANS
ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Q. I have been in my line of business for about 10 years, and am increasingly dealing with higher-level management clients at large companies. Clients can be more or less agreeable, but there have been only two instances in my career that a client has crossed a line firmly into the unprofessional, becoming verbally abusive or shouting at my team and me.
Both times, I was so surprised that I did not know what to do, so I just stared at the client in great surprise, waited a beat, and then kept talking about the business issue. One time, the client apologized afterward; the other time, the client issued a half-apology.
I do not anticipate many such situations in the future, but does Miss Manners have a better way of responding to situations such as this? In retrospect, I wish I had told the client something that indicated I would not tolerate this behavior. I do not mind losing business if that is the outcome — my team (often young women) and I deserve professional treatment at all times. I could try practicing proper responses, just in case.
A. ZARDOZ DOES NOT THINK MISS MANNERS HAS THE ANSWER – BUT ZARDOZ DOES. HAVE YOUR TEAM RESPOND WITH BOTH THE GIFT OF THE GUN, AND THEIR MENTAL POWERS:
SHOUT THIS, BRUTAL CLIENT!
WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO A GIBBERING, FEAR SOAKED HEAP ON YOUR CONFERENCE ROOM FLOOR – THEN INFORM THEM THEY JUST GOT SLAPPED WITH A PRICE INCREASE.
HOW MUCH MORE AN HOUR?!
IF YOU TRULY DO NOT MIND LOSING THE BUSINESS – CALL THE VORTEX. WE CAN SEND SOMEONE OVER TO FIND THEM AN ALTERNATIVE…
Monday…not a big fan here. But the daily workout is over, the coffee is now at hand…no sluggish start to the workweek is going to stop the links from going out to our readers, dammit!!! Sports – the Olympics are over, and THANK GOD. I can NOT be subjected to hours of figure skating on the living room big screen. Well, at least for a few years now. Get yerselves ready for March Madness – I am unsure if we are going to have a Glibs Bracket Challenge…I will speak to the fellow cabal…er, site admins.
Right. Now, links:
A boom in England. Not the good kind. Information has been slow to get out – but in a situation like that, my first thought is “gas leak”. Rergardless, I hope nobody else is trapped in there.
I had to check the date on this story. It seems to be a recurring theme for the UN. At this point, I am wondering why anyone would take the blue helmets in – I guess sheer desperation. They stood aside and watched Rwanada, Bosnia, etc. They actively screwed up Haiti and have been too rapey all over the place.
Hey, look what a real authoritarian state looks like. If that happened here, we wouldn’t have jail cells enough for everyone who insulted the orange tinted Hat n’ Hair carrier. Wait…I didn’t mean that..HEY WATCH IT! Those cuffs hurt! Where are you taking me?!?!?!
OK, since I am subbing in for sloopy, a real music link – no Rickroll.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. IT HAS BEEN A BUSY WEEK FOR ZARDOZ….AND NO THANKS TO MANY EXTRA MILES AVOIDING THE SPEED TRAP THAT IS DISGUISED AS THE BRUTAL CITY OF FORT DODGE, IOWA. ZARDOZ’S BRUTAL SUPERVISOR AT THE GRAIN ELEVATOR, BOB, SUGGESTS ZARDOZ TAKE A COUPLE OF DAYS FOR MAINTENANCE. ZARDOZ IS NOT SURE WHAT ROBBY OR PETE – THE BRUTALS DOWN AT THE GARAGE – ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO WITH GRAVITRONIC DRIVE….BUT ZARDOZ IS WILLING TO TRY.
HOWEVER, THE CHOSEN ONES ARE NOT HERE FOR ZARDOZ’S PETTY TROUBLES. NO, YOU WHO HAVE BEEN LIFTED FROM BRUTALITY, ARE HERE FOR LINKS. READ THEM, THEN GO FORTH AND COMMENT!
IT APPEARS TIME FOR MORE HASHTAG ACTIVISM. IT WORKED WELL, IN PAST IF ZARDOZ WAS NOT MISINFORMED. THE TABERNACLE DOES NOT MONITOR SOCIAL MEDIA – TOO MUCH OF A STRAIN ON ITS LOGIC CIRCUITS.
ZARDOZ DOES NOT WISH TO STEAL FRIEND STEVE SMITH’S THUNDER – BUT THE CHOSEN ONES NEED TO KNOW OF THIS CONDITION. THE CHOSEN ONES WILL REMEMBER THAT THE PENIS IS EVIL, AND SLEEPYTIME ATTEMPTING TO CREATE NEW LIFE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
ZARDOZ BELIEVES THIS IS THE PLACE FOR HIM TO CITE THE OLD MOVIE LINE “OH, THERE YOU GO BRINGING CLASS INTO IT AGAIN.” ZARDOZ BELIEVES THAT THE VORTEX IS AN ANARCHO-SYNDICALIST COMMUNE.
Not that SP and I over-indulged yesterday. Nosirree, we would never do anything like that. We’re too mature and classy, at least she is- and I have proof, it was on her report card last semester. In actuality, while drinking, we watched the DW Griffith version of “Abraham Lincoln,” mostly because it was DW Griffith’s first talkie and had Walter Huston in the title role. It needed more alcohol, but there were definitely a few fun spots, including some actors in blackface, and some scenes with Walter Huston made up to look like The Joker. Surprisingly, the screenplay was by Stephen Vincent Benet, one of my favorite authors, who demonstrated that hagiography was apparently his only weakness as a writer.
OK, what’s the news today? Of course, the Big Story is Team Blue demonstrating that they can lie just as effectively as Team Red, just at greater length. The idea that the people paying for all this shit ought to be able to actually see the court filings is crazy talk. The idea of secret courts and domestic spying being unconstitutional is even crazier talk. I mean, that sounds crazy enough to come from libertarians!
Fuck California. Seriously. I lived most of my adult life there and couldn’t imagine going back to that authoritarian shithole. I don’t often root for law enforcement to actually come to personal harm, but in this case (as with drug and vice cops), I wouldn’t shed any tears if it did happen.
Not satisfied with using taxpayer-funded land and receiving massive subsidies to produce dead animals parts for human consumption, the US Cattlemen’s Association (that name is problematic!!!!) is trying to get the government to play whup-ass on producers of meat imitations, rather than compete in a free market. Because millions of times a day, people mistake veggie burgers for ground up cow, and it’s all about protecting the people rather than rent-seeking. This is my shocked face.
Music Time! From Dead Kennedys covers to Sibelius in 24 hours. This is a brilliant composition, and the buildup from the start of the Intermezzo to a stunning march gives me chills every time I hear it.
SEA SMITH HERE, BACK FROM CONFERENCE. NO NEED USE OTHER PEOPLE SIGN ON… SP NICE ENOUGH GIVE SEA SMITH OWN ACCOUNT! SEA SMITH NOT THIS HAPPY SINCE FIND STRANDED CRUISE SHIP IN ’13. SEA SMITH WORK WAY THROUGH CREW AND MANY PASSENGERS BEFORE TUG BOATS SHOW UP. BY WORK WAY THROUGH, MEAN RAPE.
SEA SMITH SO HAPPY, HIM DO LINKS. COUSIN STEVE SMITH GET NIGHT OFF. HIM WORK TOO HARD LATELY. LINKS, RAPE HIKERS, LINKS, RAPE CAMPERS, ETC. WOULD ASK BIG STONE HEAD DO LINKS TONIGHT, BUT HIM MUTTERING ABOUT “CLEANSING BRUTALS” AND FLYING AROUND HAULING GRAIN.
COME ON IN, WATER LINKS FINE!
GOOD NEWS ABOUT SHIPCREW IN GULF OF TONKIN?! FIRST TIME IN WHILE. SERIOUS. SEA SMITH NO MIND SHIP SINK, HIM WORRY ABOUT CREW.
SO…IF YOU ON SHIP THAT SINKING – ESCAPE. “Shock may set in, causing everything to become surreal and to prevent you from doing your best to survive. If shock doesn’t set in, mental distress is a highly likely possibility, with nothing but water everywhere, right to the horizon, and not knowing when rescue will arrive.” WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE, AND ALL THE BOARDS DID SHRINK. WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE, NOR ANY DROP TO DRINK….SEA SMITH ALL-TIME FAVORITE! OH, ALSO, SEA SMITH MIGHT APPEAR! THAT GIVE TRAUMA, IYKWSSMAHTYD!
SEA SMITH HEAR YOU LIBERTARIANS. SO HIM SAY “SOMALIA!” HA HA HA HA! SEA SMITH NO MIND BULLETS – TICKLE SOME. BUT THINK PIRATES NO LIKE!
SEA SMITH LIKE YOU. WANT YOU STAY SAFE ON WATER. YOU GO HERE. LEARN. WANT MORE? GO HERE.
It might surprise you to know that I have travelled to 32 states. By travel I don’t mean pass through. By that definition, I’ve been to over 40. In that time, since I’ve been an adult at least, there has been one thing that comes up up from time to time, is some states are shall we say, lacking.
This is my review, of Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale.
Where were they lacking? At 7.2% abv this is over twice what some states will allow for sale in grocery stores.
Thankfully, Arizona does not participate in such asshattery. As it turns out Arizona has lax laws regarding alcohol with the exception of hours when you can purchase: 6AM-2AM the next day, 10AM-2AM on Sunday, but nobody seems to enforce Sunday. They also defer to Federal laws as far as what you can purchase. So anything approved by BATFE is legal for sale at a grocery store. Drive through liquor stores are also legal. Some restrictions were in place in terms of the volume a local brewer could produce and distribute but was lifted a little over a year ago. Overall, not bad for a state overrun by socons who kept John McCain in office for over 30 years. See how your state compares, here.
Other states? Some of them are pretty weird.
The fourth Friday of every October is dedicated to teaching kids about the dangers of overindulgence in the Palmetto State. They do this in honor of Frances Willard. She was a temperance reformer who helped pass the Eighteenth amendment to the Constitution. I’ll give her some credit though, as she at least recognized an amendment was necessary for her to impose her stupid ideas over everyone. I will concede, some of her stupid ideas included allowing women to vote. Thankfully, the Air Force moved me when they did, because among other reasons, had I stayed there I’d have no money on account of putting three kids through Catholic School.
Not to be outdone for stupidity. Colorado where you can’t make it over a mountain pass without tripping over another brewery does not allow the sale of beer in grocery stores. Well, it does but it must be 3.2% or less, which explains Coors light. It has spawned a common practice of having a liquor store on nearly every corner. Which is convenient when you run into your squadron’s Chief Master Sergeant and he says something to the tune of, “yeah, I got a….retirement to attend. Need to bring a gift.” I can reply with, “you don’t need to explain anything to me, Chief” and find a new booze merchant.
Finally, the dumbest alcohol law comes from where else? Florida. Where after a week of Silver Flag the blonde bartender asked, “So, you boys from Silver Flag?”
“Oh yeah.” Where she immediately went from bubbly girl from the panhandle to scaring the hell out of five guys that spent the last week running around with guns, training in MOPP4 and building a BEAR base in the woods in the middle of June.
“You’re not EOD are you!?”
See! Look how much fun they are having.
I replied, “Can I get the shrimp po-boy?” I woke up a few hours later on the bus back to Hurlburt. In Florida, establishments selling alcohol can be fined $1000 for allowing or participating–in a dwarf throwing contest. Well done, Florida.
This beer has the distinction of quite literally, telling it’s customers not to buy it. Reading the back of the label brings to mind Larry Correia’s infamous rant about the German arms company, Heckler and Koch. Click at your peril, it is a tad dated and Larry is a professional rant artist, so this will take a while to read.
They are right though, its not for everyone. It has a high malt complexity and is balanced out by an obscene amount of hops. It is as about as balanced and flavorful as it gets without going into the barleywine category. Once you get past the stage where this is truly intense and it begins to be just another beer, Stone has you covered with the Double Bastard.
When researching themes for the links, I occasionally find out interesting tidbits. Today marks the anniversary of the death of Dr. Thomas Bowdler, the original Family Friendly guy, who brought the world a cleaned up version of that notorious pornographer, William Shakespeare. He also was the inspiration of the word “bowdlerize,” a successful physician, and a master-level chess player. Oddly enough, it is nearly impossible to find pictures of him- apparently he never rated a portrait. So I can only use my imagination.
In any case, I need to roll out links as discussion points amongst you folks with an unusually close relationship with your maternal parent.
Billionaire offers to save taxpayers a chunk of money. Outrage ensues. I would have thought that having a rich guy pay for government over and above his mandatory taxes would delight progressives, but I suppose that my search for and shred of intellectual consistency will have to continue.
Saludos compañeros Glibs! Dos cosas ocurrieron a los administradores en este fino sitio web.
– Nadie lee los enlaces. – mexican sharpshooter no se ha encargado de proporcionar los enlaces de la tarde …
Así que hoy, obtienes lo que llamaré, “Enlaces mexicanos”. No es como si fuera a leerlos de todos modos, y en este caso si no estás a punto de dar un paso más en la traducción para descubrir si te estoy insultando en español. Cuál soy yo Todas tus madres usan botas negras del ejército y deberían avergonzarse de sus terribles tacos.
Aparentemente, El Trumpeñero es amigo de un prominente político mexicano, a quien una vez se refirió como “el peor candidato” en Twitter. Él probablemente tenga razón. Utah podría hacer algo peor que reemplazar a Orrin Hatch con un Orrin Hatch más blando, después de que todas las personas del sur sigan eligiendo a John McCain.
No fuí
13 personas murieron en el sitio de recuperación del terremoto en Oaxaca debido a un error del piloto. Investegaciones preliminares han determinado que el piloto no era el Capitán HM “Howling Mad” Murdock.
Don Winslow – The Force. Is the story of a cop who thought himself good and spent his entire career methodically crossing line after line until he was really a villain. Maybe. Winslow seems unsure if this is going to be elegy or indictment and I found the damn thing an infuriating listen. There’s some unironic patter about his first duty is to get home to his family. Seriously.
James S. A. Corey – Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse Book 1). It was fun dipping my toe back in hard sci-fi. I wish I’d read this before watching the first season of the show as the show was a fairly faithful retelling of the book with some alterations so that you saw more of Earth’s politics from the beginning, primarily from the view point of Chrisjen Avasarala (Shoreh Aghdashloo), who does not appear in the first book. It cannot be stated enough that I would listen to Shohreh Aghdashloo read an intro to chemistry text book for all eternity and be content.
Richard Phillips – Mark of Fire (The Endarian Prophecy Book 1). Fantasy, a little on the generic side, but well paced. The magical system was a fun departure from most of what I’ve read, and while not exactly unique, it was well fleshed out. The second book just came out in January and the third on 02/20, so I may just continue on with the series.
SP
I’ve been driving around the country helping elderly relatives with various health stuff this month. (Pro tip: Don’t be the oldest-female-child-and-only-child-with-medical-training in a huge family.)
But, hey, I don’t mind driving. And I love my elderly relatives. Interstates, however, get on my nerves. Yes, I’d prefer to take the “blue highways” but time hasn’t allowed.
What to do? Listen to an audiobook, of course!
On this last drive, I started listening to the somewhat lengthy Shooting Victoria. The length – 19 hrs and 54 mins – would normally be off-putting for me, but when one has endless, mind-numbingly-boring hours to fill…feature, not bug.
Shooting Victoria tells the stories of the eight(!) failed attempts to assasinate Great Britain’s Queen Victoria over the course of the 19th century. Although perhaps a bit dry for some, it’s quite interesting to me from a social history standpoint. I’m only 8 hours in or so and we’ve already had much discussion of Bedlam, Chartism, the state of the judiciary, the plight of the Spitalfields silk weavers, and the Irish Potato Famine. Also fascinating-yet-not-surprising are the machinations of the political figures and those within the Queen’s household.
I am enjoying the book and will likely finish it on my next driving trip. Webdominatrix and I are headed to Florida soon to check in on OMWC’s elderly relative, with stops to visit Brett & his family and SugarFree & his bourbon (not a euphemism) along the way. Nothing good can come from this. No, there will not be pics.
Old Man With Candy
For sheer thrills and excitement, there’s nothing to match C.D. Motchenbacher, and I managed to score a copy of an older edition of Low Noise Electronic Design, sent to me as a gift from one of my favorite technical authors. It may be old, but so am I, and the basic physics that are discussed are still valid. It’s comprehensive and readable, everything a technical book should be.
For fun, I realized that it had been years since I picked up my copy of The Annotated Alice, the Lewis Carroll classics thoroughly annotated in a witty and scholarly style by the late polymath Martin Gardner. The fact that the author may well have been a closeted pedophile wasn’t the main attraction, I swear. I’m not a poetry kinda guy, but The Walrus and the Carpenter and Jabberwocky still speak to me in a way nothing else has, other than the works of Don Marquis. As someone whose professional career has been tied to molecular physics, I am particularly delighted by the insights of Through the Looking Glass and Gardner’s commentary. Everyone should own this.
Riven
All of my reading time since last month has still been dedicated to this sole book. The good news is that I should be testing on it in a few weeks. The bad news is that, until then, it’s going to be the only book I’m reading and I will continue to be scarce.
Brett L
I read The Shadow of What was Lost by James Islington, which Amazon’s AI has been pushing on me for a long time and reviewers compare to Robert Jordan. I like Mr.Islington’s writing, but the plot is very reminiscent of Jordan, which is to say that there probably is one but I can’t discern it. The plot of the book — two young men who are destined to be magic users are set on a quest. Along the way they meet a 3rd young man who may be a mass murder as well as a wizard who is probably a mass murderer, but the men he killed were probably going to kill one of the original two young men. These 4 men meet a princess who turns out to be the 2nd young man’s cousin. Eventually an army is defeated, much wrong is righted, the young mass murderer turns out to be The Highlander — an immortal with a super-sword who has killed more people than dysentery.
Oh, and a shit-ton of Microsoft Azure and DevOps training. DevOps sounds cool if I ever work on a team of more than 1 or have clients who actually can be arsed to test what I write.
SugarFree
I have read so much. So bigly of the reading. Yuge reading.
Read The Iron Druid series. I liked it quite a bit, unlike some [cough]Brett L[cough]jesse[cough]. Basically Dresden Files Lite crossed with American Gods. Druids and shit. A talking dog. Hot redhead bartenders. The ultimate in “don’t stick it in crazy Death Goddess” sex. Will say… I thought the series was finished or I would have avoided it until it was. Between Planetary and GRRM, I have literary battered wife syndrome: I never want to get into that sort of abusive situation again. The final book of the series is supposed to be out in April. I’ll believe when I see it and not before, mofo.
I have this urge to read the book before I see the movie, and over the years I have built up a large backlog of movies I’ve been waiting to see. My project for the next few months is to finally do something about it. So far I’ve read/watched The Other by Tom Tryon, The Fury by John Farris, The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin and I’m working on reading The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley.
The Other was a bit of a bust since the movie hews so closely to the novel. Kind of pointless if you’ve read the novel. But the novel was very good. The whole thing goes down like a fever dream.
De Palma’s film of The Fury is better than the book, honestly. The novel introduces better characterization and motives but is so disjointed it feels like maybe the copy you are reading had some chapters torn out at random. Time shifts back and forth, plot threads weave and unweave at random, and whole character arcs will have the important middle bit excited. Also, filming the novel as written would have had De Palma up on child porn charges.
I had already seen The Stepford Wives a couple of times, so it was a bit of cheat. In this case, both the novel and the film are worth it. The plot doesn’t make much sense–if you can make realistic sexbots, just sell the sexbots, make a ton of cash and buy young hot wives; lather, rinse and repeat every ten years or so President Donald style. But the feminist paranoia of the piece is so palpable and so–for the lack of a better term–hysterical, it creates excellent tension. And I’m pretty sure there’s not a single scene of Katherine Ross or Paula Prentiss wearing a bra for the first 3/5ths of the movie. It was the 70s, man. Can you dig it?
And that font. I’m not a font nerd or anything, but could that font be more 70s?
JW
So I was reading the milk carton at breakfast, and discovered something interesting. Besides it providing me with the minimum daily adult requirement of Vitamin D, it turns out that Mary Margaret Cameron, age 9, is missing. She was last seen on October 13, 2007 in the company of her noncustodial father, and they had a cool picture of what she looked like with age progression. She’s developed well, and I’m sure he’s a proud daddy.
Disclaimer: Contributions not necessarily actually by the author whose name appears above them.
Web Dominatrix
I have had a slow reading month. I too have been enjoying Shooting Victoria at SP’s recommendation. I am currently reading Salt: A World History and I find this far more fascinating than I expected. It is, as you might have guessed, the tale of how salt has shaped civilisation.
I am also reading/listening to (Thanks, Amazon, for allowing me to switch between Kindle and Audible!) Uncertainty about Heisenberg’s principle.
Where were they lacking? At 7.2% abv this is over twice what some states will allow for sale in grocery stores.
They are right though, its not for everyone. It has a high malt complexity and is balanced out by an obscene amount of hops. It is as about as balanced and flavorful as it gets without going into the barleywine category. Once you get past the stage where this is truly intense and it begins to be just another beer, Stone has you covered with the 
