Glibertarians.com 2018 Archive

Blog

  • ZARDOZ VS. DEAR ABBY

     

    ONCE AGAIN, ZARDOZ IS BACK TO RAISE HIS CHOSEN ONES FROM BRUTALITY, AND BRING PROPER ADVICE TO THE PATHETIC BRUTALS SEEKING ADVICE FROM THE WRETCHED BRUTAL THEREPIST:  DEAR ABBY

    DEAR ABBY: I’m a millennial, and it seems these days people stay at jobs for only a few years before moving on. That has been my experience in the past, but now I’m in a position that’s fulfilling and where I am creatively satisfied.

    All my friends are always looking for their next gig, but for once, I don’t feel that way. They keep sending me job postings they think I would be interested in, which would be right up my alley if I was looking, but I’m not.

    How should I respond? Does it say I’m lacking motivation or goals if I don’t have the desire to leave the company where I am currently working? In this day and age, is it OK to stay longer at a company, or does that actually hurt your resume? Does it show a lack of drive? — SEEKING GUIDANCE

    ZARDOZ TAKE $100 FOR “THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED, ALEX”.

    ZARDOZ HAS IT ON HIGH AUTHORITY THAT MILLENIALS ARE AMONG THE FILTHIEST OF BRUTALS AND ARE INCAPABLE OF MAINTAINING ANY MEANINGFUL EMPLOYMENT.  BRUTAL SEEKING GUIDANCE THEREFORE IS A TROLL, A FALSE FLAG, AND THUS IS BEST SUITED TO TOILING THE GRAIN FIELDS FOR THE VORTEX.

    ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN

     

     

    DEAR ABBY: I’ve had it up to here with my crabby next-door neighbor. She grows vegetables in her garden — squash and pumpkins at this time of year. Our properties are separated by a wire fence.

    A few days before Halloween last year, a friend brought her two grandsons, who are 4 and 6, for a visit. They were excited to find a pumpkin in my yard that weighed about 10 pounds and managed to get it into my house because they wanted to make a jack-o’-lantern. No sooner did I reach for the phone to tell my neighbor what they had done than she came banging at my door accusing the boys of theft! To make peace, I handed the pumpkin to her with my apologies.

    This morning I noticed two pumpkins have tendrils that have crept through the fence and are now growing on my property. More than one person has told me, “They’re on your property, so they belong to you.” Another has said that if my tree grows over her property, she has the right to trim the branches. Ergo: I get to keep the pumpkins. I think a fair solution is to keep one pumpkin and give her the other. But “Crabby Cathy” might have other ideas. Before this gets ugly again, what do you say? — PUMPKIN PILFERER IN PETALUMA, CALIF.

    BRUTAL OBSESSION WITH PUMPKINS IS AGGRIVATING.  IT IS PUMPKIN SPICE EVERYTHING THESE DAYS AND ZARDOZ NO LONGER  ACCEPTS BRUTAL FIXATION ON PUMPKINS.  THE ONLY THING ZARDOZ HATE MORE THAT PUMPKIN ARE THE DISGUSTING BRUTALS THAT PERPETUATE BRUTAL INFATUATION WITH THE FLAVOURLESS GOURD.  ZARDOZ ONLY ADVICE, IS TO SEEK BRUTAL NEIGHBOUR AND CLEANSE ALL WHO INTEND TO SPREAD THE SCURGE OF PUMPKIN MANIA.  PUMKIN SEED SHALL NO LONGER PLAUGUE THE EARTH IF ZARDOZ HAS ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT.

    ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN

  • Friday Afternoon Tired Links

    Ugh. So tired. Have some links.

    I hope everyone on this site will take a deep breath at the arrest of Florida Man, broke, bad at being a criminal, and apparently living in a Trump-bestickered van down by the river for the attempted bombings of several Democrats and decidedly pro-Democrat news outlets and personas. Angry, earnest and idiot won again. As much as it would confirm our own worldview to suspect dirty tricks and false-flag operations, every time those start circulating it degrades the credibility of actual conspiracies and cover ups. Like the Las Vegas shooting.

    Important PSA from Warty

    Speaking of Florida Men, the worst part about our electoral system is that I almost always have to choose between two of them* to decide whom I will be ruled by.

    Oh, Hell. Let’s just make it Florida Man Friday. Here’s one who tried to beat a gator to death with a shovel. There’s a reason Swamp People use a gun, Florida Man.

    Florida Man substitute teacher drops gun from pocket while teaching kids to do a backflip. One the one hand, that’s too bad, because those kids will be less safe, on the other hand, its definitely not safe gun handling to perform manuevers that cause it to drop from wherever you were storing it.

    I guess I didn’t know until today this guy was Florida Man, but it totally makes sense.

    *I usually write someone else in, vote for another Florida Man who is never going to win enough votes, or refuse to choose entirely

  • What Are We Reading – October 2018

    OMWC

    Geek books and real books. My fun real book this past month was by H.L. Mencken, who was incapable of writing anything uninteresting. Although we love him for his short and cynical essays, chock full of quotable and meme-able sentences, his scholarly work is equally enjoyable. The American Language is a study on how our version of English developed and on the taxonomy of American vocabulary, grammar, and usage. It delights my inner geek, amuses and informs on every page, and gives a fascinating insight into Mencken’s inner thoughts on the language that he used so brilliantly and effectively. I was less thrilled with a lot of the updates added by editors after Mencken’s stroke and eventual death, but at least they were kind enough to set their portions off in brackets.

    My geek book for the month is High Fidelity Circuit Design, by Norman Crowhurst and George Cooper. This is a book from the 1950s that has recently been reprinted. If you want to understand Nyquist stability criteria, feedback, and the finer points of tube amplifier design (I told you it was a geek book!), look no further. These days, engineers use computer modeling to determine gain and phase margins for stability and sims to predict performance, but back in the stone ages, they actually plotted stuff on graph paper and used rulers and protractors. I confess that reading this covered my with waves of anachrophilia.

    SugarFree

    October is the month for horror. I went back to the classics: Dracula, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde. Old friends to cuddle up with.

    If you’ve never, Frankenstein plays out far differently that pretty much every movie adaption. The Monster is made over just a few pages of grave robbing and surgery, no electricity and no cackling, and Frankenstein is young, only about 21, and while full of hubris, he isn’t a mad scientist, just a mildly full-of-himself student. It would be interesting to see a film adaptation actually tackle the book.

    SP

    Let’s see, what have I been reading this month. I’ve just started The Pattern of Evolution by Niles Eldredge, which our European guest had selected from our library for bedtime reading and left laying on the table upon his departure. (One of the great benefits of marrying another extreme reader is that there are always books that I haven’t read, and I don’t even have to venture out to the library or pay Amazon.)

    I’m revisiting The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart. Stewart has put together a pretty comprehensive look at the major plants, herbs, spices, that are made into various potent potables. There are interesting historical notes about the discovery and use of the different ingredients, and some geeky botany stuff, too. Oh, and recipes for drinks. This isn’t really a book one reads straight through, although I am. But I also read cookbooks cover to cover just for fun.

    Just picked up the book mexican sharpshooter has recently reviewed, Data in Decline: Why Polling and Social Research Miss the Mark by Steve Wood. I expect a throughly interesting read.

    In fiction, I’m still working my way through the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly on Kindle. I haven’t viewed the series which is based on the character, but I might add it to my watchlist.

    In audio, I was listening to A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett, but I’ve kind of lost interest about halfway through. Plot: Horrible people do horrible things. Less horrible people also sometimes do horrible things. Especially in 19th century banking empires, British politics, and banana republics run by thugs. Eh. Probably won’t finish it unless I end up having another long, tedious drive alone.

    jesse.in.mb

    I don’t have much to report. I went on a bit of a binge of buying cookbooks including Mormioto’s Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking which is accessible enough and got me to make my own dashi from scratch (god damn did my kitchen stink of fish for days, but it was very tasty). I found the content personal, but I was hoping for more…I dunno, context for the food I was preparing. I also grabbed Maangchi’s Real Korean Cooking more to kick money her way than anything as I’ve been scraping recipes from her website for years (The Boyfriend does not approve of how much I gravitate to her more gochugaru-centric offerings).

    I burned through the available issues of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina which started off with just the right level of twisting to the character I was first introduced to by Melissa Joan Hart, but I’m not sure it is living up to its promise so far.

    Started but not finished: I circled back to The Lies of Locke Lamora, and pushed through until it found its groove. I’m a little more than half-way done at this point so maybe by next WAWR I’ll have a final opinion. I’ve been chipping away at just the introduction to James R. Walker’s Lakota Myth, which has been unskippably interesting, but also too academic for the naked-poolside-reading I was hoping the main contents would be while Iwas in Palm Springs…perhaps next time I’ll have more.

    JW

    A wise man once screamed “NO! You must not read from the book!“and I have followed that advice ever since.

    A Leap At The Wheel

    Books on Audiobook:

    The Wizard of Oz: Or so I thought.  It was actually a 2 hour radio broadcast will a full cast.  Not recommended.

    Till We Have Faces: I didn’t realize this was fiction, based only on the name I assumed it was non-fiction.  But it was one of the few Lewis books left that I hadn’t read so I threw a hold on it in the library’s audiobook application.  It is in fact fiction, and it is fantastic.  In addition to being written by an expert craftsman, this is a novel that would be pretty impossible to write in this day and age.  The concept of having a female protagonist who takes up some masculine role in society would inevitably become bogged down in the current simple-minded discussion of gender issues.  But being written in the 50s actually allows Lewis to write a stronger, more interesting female character that provides a clearer analysis of gender roles.  Nothing turns me off of fiction faster than weak women, and between this book and That Hideous Strength, its nice to see my literary hero doesn’t fall into my literary pet peeve. Also, this not really a book about gender roles.  Its not a book about any one thing, because it is about nine or so different things.  If I had to pick one thing it was about the most, it would be about how you would get along in a world where the divine is real and doesn’t really love us.  Highest Recommendation.

    Democracy in America: Ufda.  I find historical books about history and political economy really interesting, but they require a lot of concentration because you need to both consider the words on the page and the frame of reference that they were written in.  Kind of like the Screwtape Letters.  In any case, 34 hours of that is just too much for me this month, when I’ve either been too sick to do productive work (fucking strep, fucking high-false-negative strep tests), or working 7 days a week to catch up.  Only made it through about the first third, I’ll come back later.  Incomplete.

    Whitepapers: I don’t normally list all the whitepapers and journal articles that I read, but there were some interesting ones that might be of interest here

    Why Suburban Districts Need Public Charter Schools

    Honestly, there isn’t much groundbreaking here, but it lays out the argument for charter schools in the suburbs.  Just the kind of thing you would expect to find from some shitlord conservative think-tank like… *needle scratch* the Progressive Policy Institute?  Interesting for that reason alone.

    Hidden Tribes

    You know all those people saying “80% of the US is opposed to political correctness?”  This is the research that they are pulling from.  Its generally a pretty interesting look at the electorate, though I think it has some shortcomings.  It’s interesting because the categorization they propose feels truthy, and it seems to be a better signal than party affiliation for predicting opinions of the tribes.  It’s limited because it doesn’t spend a lot of time on meeeeeeee and my tribe.  Political opinion is a high dimensional space, and this projects that space onto a single axis.  It puts me in the moderate camp, which is probably right in that I’m pretty close to center on the left-right axis.  But I’m a huge outlier on a bunch of other axes on the political space.  A model is only as good or bad as its predictive power, and this seems predictive for a lot of people.  “Bad for outliers” is hardly a reason to reject a model.  And I found it to be very helpful to see the divisions within the right wing and within the left wing.  Its not news that the right and left disagree, but disagreements within the wings are pretty important these days.  Highly Recommended.

    Truth Decay

    The truest thing I’ve ever read was the argument that Killmonger was the protagonist in Black Panther, which is an Alt-Right parable.  The second truest thing I’ve ever read was this paper.  This paper documents and discusses the reduction in faith in information provided by institutions like media, government, and academia.  The interesting thing though is that this paper is *incredibly* careful to present the case in a way that doesn’t turn off anyone from any political orientation.  One of my hangups is that a lot of this distrust is the result of these institutions becoming untrustworthy because they are becoming self serving, partisan, and/or low-quality shitholes.  Guess what, it talks about that (maybe using different terminology…)  One of the hang-ups of a friend of mine is that the Right has a financial incentive in developing an ecosystem of alternative news outlet and those with the biggest financial incentive are the loudest talking about how you can’t trust the MSM.  Guess what, it talks about that too.  It is pretty clear that this has been heavily edited to take into considerations the thoughts and objections of reviewers with a very wide array of intellectual orientations, and its a very, very strong document because of that.  I told this friend that this is exhibit A for why educational institutions need intellectual heterogeneity.  While this progressive friend is not yet ready to admit that academia is a stifling monoculture, this paper is helping me change his mind. Highest Recommendation

    Podcasts: I just wanted to call this one out because it is really, really interesting

    So to Speak Podcast with Don Verrilli. Verilli was the Solicitor General in the Obama administration.  He is, quite possibly, the most skilled Supreme Court lawyer alive.  I probably don’t agree with him on anything policy-wise, but when the guy talks about how to argue in front of the Supreme Court, there aren’t too many living people with more to say.  And when he makes an admission against interest, well, that’s worth taking a note of.  He makes two here.

    First, Verilli says that he thinks the Roberts Court really does support the 1st amendment because they have an ideological commitment to it.  Its not just a tool for achieving a partisan end of being pro-business or owning the libs.  I think this too, but its nice to hear it confirmed like this.

    Second, an more importantly, Verilli comes out and says that there’s not an Originalist argument for campaign finance laws.  He talks about how the Founders had a broader understanding of corruption that the modern court does.  But even if that’s true, they didn’t think that there was an exception to the 1A to combat this.  I don’t think he says it, but this is consistent with the idea that it was the structure of the government that was supposed to prevent this type of corruption, not restrictions on civilian action.  Recommended if you follow the SC

  • ¿El Jueves por la Noche? ¿Mañana de Viernes? ¡Enlaces Mexicanos!

    Buenos Dias!  Okay how does Sloopy normally do this….

    The Texans won!

    So the news today…Legions of third world barbarians are gathering in large number around the US/Mexico border—but enough about LA Dodger fans.  Game 3 of the World Series starts tonight at 1700 hours (Arizona Time).  

    Speaking of caravans, they’re going to walk right into a Category 4 hurricane.  Nice timing.

    A ICE detention facility in Phoenix reaches max capacity.  So ICE does the sensible thing and lets them out.  Thanks ICE!

    Good news for Brett!  It seems Columbia has a record harvest for coca, the primary plant used to make cocaine.

    Here in America, we’re used to being lectured by musicians on the proper way to think.  That may not fly well in Brazil.

    However, many Brazilians resent outsiders interfering in their politics. Humberto Miranda is 54 and plans to vote for Bolsonaro. He acknowledges Waters is a political activist who campaigns on many fronts, but thinks that in Brazil, the musician should be wary of broadcasting his opinions.

    I swear everything is marching hammers to this guy.

    Last but not least…man who won’t go away yells at us on CNN.  John, let me break it to you gently:  nobody gives a rats ass what you think.

    Sad news for this band, their guitar player found dead.  I am rather fond of his work.  Here’s a tune to help you kick Friday’s ass!

  • Everyone’s Preferred Pronoun

    Hello, my name is CPRM.  Everyone’s preferred pronoun is everyone.  Everyone thinks it is a crazy idea to have to conform to anyone else’s self identity.  Everyone identifies as a cismale.  If everyone wasn’t such a nice guy, everyone might feel compelled to use the force of law to make other people refer to everyone as everyone.  Everyone means, everyone does feel like everyone, you can’t deny everyone’s lived experience. Everyone once hallucinated everyone was Spider-Man after playing Spider-Man 2 on the PS2 for 20 hours straight before going to work. Everyone wondered why everyone couldn’t shoot webs and swing from the ceiling until everyone realized what was going on in everyone’s head.

    It is true, everyone is fat. Everyone has manboobs. Everyone has had manboobs for a long time.  Everyone needs to lose some weight. Everyone thinks low carb diets work the best; but everyone loves beer too much.  Some people think everyone might be an alcoholic.  But everyone agrees everyone isn’t.  Everyone is a libertarian.  Everyone thinks people shouldn’t be forced to do anything against their will. Everyone is happy. Everyone is everyone’s proffered pronoun and if everyone doesn’t use it everyone will be pissed.  Everyone agrees with everyone on this. So everyone is in agreement that everyone should give everything everyone owns to everyone. Everyone is very pleased with the results of this policy and everyone agrees.

  • BakedPenguin’s NFL Pick-’em for Week 8

    I went 6-7 last week, so I’m still doing crappy. I put in  a lot more effort last week, and got the same result as when I was half-assing it. You can probably guess what’s going to happen this week. That being said, I’ve added the moneyline odds. Moneyline odds are based around 100 – if there’s a plus in front of them, it’s the amount you’d win from a $100 bet. If there’s a minus, it’s the amount you’d have to bet to get $100. So in the first example, a $100 bet on Miami would win you $290, where a $360 bet on Houston would win you $100.

    If anyone wants to know, I got my odds here, on 10/25.

     

    Here are this week’s picks:

    Miami (+290) at Houston (-7.5 / -360). The Dolphins haven’t been so bad, and the Texans haven’t been so good to normally support a spread over a TD, but Ryan Tannehill is out. And while he’s not the greatest QB around, he’s the best the Dolphins have. HOU – give the points.

    Philadelphia (-3 / -165) at Jacksonville (+145). Cody Kessler seemed to breathe new life into the Jaguars in the second half of last week’s game. After screwing up for an entire month, however, they still have a lot to prove. PHI – give the points.

    Cleveland (+320) at Pittsburgh (-8.5 / -400). Cleveland has shown that they are a much better team than last year. Tough defense, decent running game. I’d be very surprised if the Steelers can meet that point spread. CLE – take the points.

    Denver (+400) at Kansas City (-10 / -520). Again, a point spread I’m not sure that the favorite can meet. The Chiefs have shown they are a strong team, but the Broncos displayed their own skills last week. Even if it was just the Cardinals that they stomped. I wouldn’t take the moneyline, even at 4 to 1, but I’d take the spread. DEN – take the points.

    NY Jets (+280) at Chicago (-7 / -340). Chicago has shown a great talent for letting me down. I think they’ll win, but again, I think it will be close. NYJ – take the points.

    Washington (-110) at NY Giants (PK / -110). The Redskins showed some toughness in their win over the Cowboys. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t paid enough attention, but I don’t see the Giants beating them. WAS

    Seattle (+135) at Detroit (-3 / -150). I’ve been underestimating the Lions all season. At home against the Seahawks, I’ll stop that. DET – give the points.

    Tampa Bay (+170) at Cincinnati (-4 / -200). Tampa isn’t a bad team, but Winston throws a lot of passes to people in the wrong jerseys. Cincinnati is a good enough team to take advantage of that. CIN – give the points.

    Baltimore (-2 / -130) at Carolina (+115). Baltimore is a good enough team to beat Carolina. Cam Newton is a good enough QB to be a pain in the ass for the Ravens, but I don’t think he’s quite good enough to get the win. And with a 2 point spread, it’s basically a pick’em game. BAL – give the points.

    Indianapolis (-3 / -155) at Oakland (+135). Oakland has lost a lot of close games, but the Colts have a good offense. A really good offense. IND – give the points.

    San Francisco (-1 / -110) at Arizona (-110). Ah, the suck bowl. Does anyone care? Meh, ARI – take the point.

    Green Bay (+350) at LA Rams (-9 / -450). I think the Rams will probably win, but again, I also think the Packers are a good enough team to cover the spread. I’d feel better about that prediction if the spread was 11 points, though. GB – take the points.

    New Orleans (-110) at Minnesota (-1 / -110). The Vikings are a good team, but I don’t know if they’re as good as the Saints. NO – give the point.

    New England ( -14 / -1250) at Buffalo (+800). Okay, now that is a point spread. Still, I think the Patriots will make that. NE – give the points.

  • SPontaneous Thursday Afternoon Links

     

    Hey, kids!

    I might just possibly be procrastinating on handling more important things, but when Brett L sent up a flare to have someone rescue the afternoon links, I volunteered sharpish.

    However, it was kind of last minute, so you get no fancy formatting, no theme, and undoubtedly links you’ve already seen. Since you only want the new post for a blank page on which to enshrine your bon mots, I figure this will do.


     
     

    • I can see my dog doing this. But it would be Lou Malnati’s.
    • Nobody needs this many species.
    • More of a press release, but having lost a Great Pyrenees companion animal to this disease, I am glad to see this development, if a decade too late. And…fuck cancer.
    • Really? Shouldn’t the people who purportedly have the same goal be working together on this proposition? Wait, you mean several of these groups just want press and money? Dude, you’re cynical. (Which doesn’t make you wrong.)
    • Do you or don’t you? I don’t. But you do you.

     
    Don’t let them work you like a dog this afternoon! Later gators. (I guess I had a theme, after all.)

    Obligatory, predictable music.

  • Kitbash: Circus of Errors

    Well, the kit containing the animals arrived. It was made by the same folks who made the main model, but is an older kit for their fantasy line. It’s supposed to make a chariot that can be pulled by either horses or lions. Since our IFV model is far, far larger than the chariot, we’re going to use both horses and lions. They did recruit the aid of a traveling circus after all.

    Ragnmar: “Um, won’t the lions eat the horses?”
    Dorian: “We just put the horses in front. That way the lions motivate the horses and the horses motivate the lions.”
    Circus Lady: “I told you earlier, they’ve all been lobotomized, and had override chips implanted. The controller is built into the handle of my whip.”
    Dorian: “Sure, spoil the fun.”
    Ragnmar: “You’re a dick, Dorian.”

    Don’t Worry, They’ll be Fine

    The chariot kit also has a heap of bitz that will be perfect for adding character to other pieces. My army in the actual game has a lion’s head ensign, so it won’t be hard to find homes for the lion-themed decorations from the chariot. Lets clip all of the animals off the chariot sprue and assemble them. I specifically picked the chariot because the animal were posed to be pulling, and had an attachment point on their harnesses where a simple loop shackle could be fitted. We will eventually attach our chains to these shackles, but we’ve got to get them made first. The base model had the animals attached to a yoke, but has only one yoke in the set. To provide consistency, I want all four to be attached by a similar system.

    My first idea was to drill into the attachment point and fit these staples. The loops of the staples proved to be too wide for the model as built. I’d made the mistake of buying the staples before I had the chariot model, and guessed wrong. When I tried to squeeze it narrower to fit the model, I started to realize it was going to be a good deal of work to get it to fit. Not only that, but in the end, it was going to be rather ugly and not fit properly. Oh well, $1 lost. Not really, since the staples are still perfectly serviceable in their original function.

    An alternative came along when my first shipment of plasticard pieces arrived and it turned out I’d ordered the wrong size. I’d been buying axles for the main carriage, and these pieces of tubing are way too narrow for that role. But, if I can bend them into a hundred an eighty degree turn, they would fit almost perfectly as shackles for the chains to attach to.

    So now we get to our first piece on working with plasticard. What is plasticard? In short, it’s high density polystyrene. Yes, the same material they make styrafoam from, only without the foamy airspace. I have straight tubes of the stuff and I need to bend it. Best way to do that is to apply heat. We’ve ventured into something I’ve never actually done before, but I’m too far down the rabbit hole to stop now. So, the first source of heat I tried is hot water. I took my Japanese kettle, set it to boiling, filled a coffee cup with hot water and rested a plasticard tube in it. I got a gentle bend in the part of the tube in the water after quite a few minutes of waiting. This did not make me happy, as I needed a rather severe bend, and I’m an impatient sort. So I dumped the now cooled water into my brush-washing bin and went to get my hairdryer.

    My hairdryer has never been used on hair. I got it when I first needed to put plastic up to the windows on my house. It has only ever been used on plastic, and today would be no different. Now, if you do the math, there is probably more energy trapped in that cup of hot water than I’ll be getting out of the hair dryer. But the problem was, it wasn’t conducting into the polystyrene, but evaporating away with the steam. The hot air moving past it at high rate of speed will transfer more of its heat into the polystyrene than the water did. One thing to note with as thin a work piece as I’ve got here – the airflow out of your standard consumer hair dryer is not even in temperature. There are hot spots directly downwind of the heating elements. These hot spots are what we are looking for, as they will render the plasticard the most malleable. There may be some trial and error involved in finding these spots, but in the end, I got a loop. With the air of pliers and a mandrel, I was able to refine one of those bends into a shackle shape. Some trimming and cleanup later, and it glued neatly to the attachment point on the first horse. That’s a second benefit of switching from metal to plasticard – we can glue it and paint it using the same glue and paint as the rest of the model. The day is saved, we can now get our draft animals modeled. Sadly, as always happens, I get the technique perfected on the last shackle I need to make.

    A lot of frustrating time went into this.

    They will need a base, as they were not balanced to stand without being attached to the rest of their original kit. I can get some bases from the game store when I pick up sheet plasticard for something else I plan to do. Fast Forward a Week, and we have a plethora of plasticard options. Except there’s still a problem. I underestimated the diameter of the plasticard tube yet again. On the bright side, the new tubing is of the perfect diameter to serve as an axle for the wheels. So, I’m going to adjust my mental plan for the design. Not by much, mind you, but I had originally planned the MDF axles that came with the wheels and pinning them to the tubing, which would have required tubing wide enough for the axle to fit inside. Did I just say MDF? Yes. When wheels I got are Medium Density Fiberboard. While I can’t glue them to the polystyrene using plastic glue, I can paint them using the same paints.

    I’m going to be perfectly honest. Scratch-build is new ground for me. So I’m going to start with a proof of concept and put together a caisson. Since there are multiple definitions of ‘caisson’, lets be clear – I’m talking about the two-wheeled cart for hauling ammunition. The wheels came in packs of four, and I only needed six for the main build. So I have a pair free for this proof of concept. I also have in my bitz collection a great many ammo boxes and fuel cans. As such can build the caisson and heap it with appropriate cargo without any additional investment. Is this a part of the main kitbash? Well, yes, it’s simply going to be towed behind the vehicle.

    Ammo Boxes

  • Thursday Morning Links

    The Red Sox doubled up on the Dodgers for the second night in a row and I’m gonna say right now that I’ll be somewhat surprised if the series returns to Boston.  They’re just too much for anybody in these playoffs.  Their pitching has been more than adequate, but their hitters just grind pitchers into dust creating long at bats and forcing pitch counts that push them out of games early.  They’re just too damn good this year, the bastards.

    Keep winning the big ones. Or tying at least.

    The UCL slate yesterday was interesting. Bruge and Monaco played to a draw, as did PSV and Spurs (which effectively takes the latter out of advancing to the knockout stages).  PSG and Napoli also drew as did Galatasary and Schalke. Meanwhile, Barca beat up on Inter 2-0, Dortmund demolished Athletico 4-0. Liverpool boat-raced Red Star Belgrade by the same score, and Porto derailed Lokomotiv 3-1. Those we’re some serious ass-kickings.

    A small slate on the ice last night. Winners were Florida, Toronto, Tampa Bay and Vancouver.  Also, the NBA played.

    James Carville (left) and unnamed associate plan another Dom election push.

    Famous birthdays include: composer Georges Bizet, automobile pioneer John Francis Dodge, artist Pablo Picasso, aviation pioneer Richard Byrd, hurler Smoky Joe Wood, notorious asshole Klaus Barbie, the last Shah of Iran Mohammad Pahlavi, “Happy Days” mom Marion Ross, “Little Rascal” Porky Lee, basketball coaching legend and Buckeyes player Bobby Knight, singer Jon Anderson, lizardp-person/Skeletor impersonator James Carville, guitarist Glenn Tipton, football player/actor John Matuszak, cricket legend Imran Khan, hockey player Mike Eruzione, guitarist Robbie Macintosh, hockey tough guy Wendel Clark, retarded person and Canadian Samantha Bee, other retard JA Adande, one of the greatest pitchers of all time Pedro Martinez, and singer Katy Perry.

    Its also the day the Dutch discovered Australia, John Hancock became the first governor of Massholechussetts, Clemenceau became the PM of France, Otto Graham fumbled the ball four times in one game, the first microwave over was sold, John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Boredom, Vikings player Jim Marshall ran 66 yards the wrong way for a safety, “Halloween” hit theaters, the US invaded Grenada, and Windows XP his the shelves.

    Those updates were awesome! But now…the links!

    Seems legit.

    In what has to be the greatest coincidence in timing ever, the Post Office delivered supposed pipe bombs to several different Democrat leaders and CNN on the exact same day. None of them worked, of course and bomb experts scoffed at their alleged design, but they’re legit from Trump supporters and in no way should ever be considered to be a false-flag or a hoax.  The most interesting thing, to me anyway, was the efficiency with which the USPS delivered multiple “bombs” on the exact same day in multiple cities and states with at least one of the packages bearing no visible postmark on the stamps. But I’m just a dumbass rube.

    Megyn Kelly was excommunicated from the church of progressivism yesterday. Her crime? Saying people, including white people, should be able to dress up and color their faces as other races for Halloween.  The left has gone completely retarded.

    Look, I’m not one to post stories from ZeroHedge. So I won’t pull a Drudge and do so. Instead, I’ll post the original story as it appeared at the Mises site. You can click here for the ZH link and the inevitable stupidity that follows in their comments section.

    Unfortunately, the San Francisco government thinks the biggest problem here is the size of the cup from BK.

    San Francisco newspaper goes to the source for an expose on the homeless issue. I hope they didn’t step on any piles of human shit as they were walking the street.  Well, maybe just one or two piles.

    Teachers place students first…until they don’t. Pubsec unions are a black eye and need to be abolished.  I’m for free association, but public sector unions aren’t free association for the employers (the taxpayers) because they cut them out of the loop when the unions are negotiating their contracts with the people whose campaigns they fund rather than the people who are actually footing the bill.

    The ECB still plans to end its stimulus plan at the end of the year. Good.

    Song 1. The Second song. And then this.

    Now go have a super day. Mine will be mostly on the road.

  • Subaru Horror Theatre, Vol. 4: Trying New Things

    Note: The YouTube link for this commercial went dead, but you can watch it at the following address:

    https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7nfu/subaru-trying-new-things

     

    Still unsettled from the hot springs foursome with the overweight desert couple, Jim and Jane drove in uneasy silence.

    “We shouldn’t have done that,” Jane whispered again.

    “We shouldn’t have done that,” Jim agreed. He thought about the hairy maw between to the woman’s legs and the unfortunate glimpse he caught of the man stubby penis being awkwardly jabbed into Jane’s mouth as she cried.

    “Stop the car,” Jane said. Jim grunted.

    “STOP THE CAR!” Jane screamed.

    Jim slammed on the brakes and the Subaru screeched to a halt. Jane scrambled out and began vomiting, bug parts and rank, yellowed semen spraying forcefully. Jim noticed dully that her heaving was oddly timed to the beeping the car was making for the door being ajar.

    “Get it all out, baby,” he said. He ignored the rush of blood into his sore penis as he listened to her. He had hidden his emetophilia their entire marriage.

    Jane stood up and spat and gagged and then spat again.

    “Do we have any water?” she asked hoarsely. Jim rummaged behind her seat until he came up with a bottle.

    “Sorry, it’s warm,” he said, leaning over to hand it to her.

    With shaking hands, she got the top off and took a long drink. She turned to the side as the water came right back up.

    “Just wash out your mouth, maybe,” Jim said. He rode out the glare she shot back at him with a weak smile.

    Jane rinsed and spit and rinsed and spit. Jim ground the heel of his hand into his crotch, forcing his erection down the leg of his pants. She threw the empty bottle into the scrub by the side of the road and got back in.

    “You OK?” Jim asked.

    “No, but I’ll live,” she said. “Drive. Just drive.” She pulled the door shut and the dome light went off.

    Jim took off too fast, the tires spinning in the loose gravel and dust of the road shoulder before the car jumped forward onto the road. They rode in a grim silence.

    After a few miles, Jim ventured: “Scuba diving and falconry. Logrolling and bug sushi. Lots of new things we tried today.”

    Jane coughed and shook in her seat.

    “What?”

    “I know something you didn’t try,” Jane said laughing.

    Jim laughed too.

    “It tasted worse coming up than going down,” Jane said.

    “Don’t try and tell me anything about something tasting worse,” Jim said. Jane howled with laughter.

    “I’m going to brush my teeth for a week when we get home,” he said.

    She waved at him to stop because she was laughing so hard and slapped playfully at his arm.

    “Oh god,” she said, leaning over to hug his arm when she got her laughter under control, “I think peed a little.” She rubbed his thin chest through his shirt.

    “It’s getting dark,” she said.

    “The day of trying new things is over,” Jim said sadly.

    She sat up and kissed his cheek. “It doesn’t have to be,” she said.

    “It doesn’t?” he asked in mock innocence. He looked down at her, but her eyes were locked on the road ahead.

    “Hold on,” she said and jerked the wheel to the left with her free hand. There was a meaty thump from the front bumper.

    “What the fuck?” Jim shouted and hit the brakes. “What was that?”

    “A coyote, I think,” she said. She ran her hand down his faded erection as the car stopped and then trailed it along him as she undid her seat belt and slipped out of the Subaru.

    “Where are you going?” he yelled but she only laughed.

    He put the car in park and looked ahead of them and behind them and didn’t see any lights of approaching cars. He got out and walked back to where she was standing in a pool of light from her cell phone.

    “See? I told you it was a coyote,” she said. She sounded giddy.

    Jim looked down at the mangled form in the road, bloody and twisted. Its back was bent the wrong way and its belly had burst. More intestines and organs were trailed out on the asphalt than he thought could have fit in the skinny little body. He bent over to get a look at the tongue hanging from mouth. An ear twitched and he jumped back.

    “It’s not dead,” he said.

    “Nope. He’s a tough little fucker.”

    “How is he not dead?”

    Jane began to circle the coyote, snapping pictures to get from every angle.

    “I guess I should get a rock or something,” Jim said. The bug sushi was threatening to come back up on him as well.

    “Don’t bother,” she said. She walked back toward the car and squatted down, trying to capture the trail of blood and viscera leading to the coyote.

    “Step away, babe, you’re in the shot,” she said.

    “The smell,” Jim said. He stumbled to the brush beside the road and swallowed hard a couple times.

    “Go check on the car,” Jane said. “I just want to get a few more shots for Instagram.”

    Jim walked away on stiff legs, his hands beginning to shake. He turned on the flashlight app on his phone and inspected the front of the Subaru. There was a streak of blood and half of one of the ears was stuck in the grill.

    “Doesn’t look too bad,” Jane said right beside him and he had to stifle a scream. It came out eek eek eek, like rubbing a blown up balloon, and he sat down hard from his squat.

    Jane laughed at him and helped him to stand. As he brushed himself off and tried to regain some dignity, she worried the half ear out of the grill.

    “You ready?” she asked. He nodded.

    After getting back in, he sat for a moment to let his hands stop shaking.

    “You OK to drive?” she asked.

    “Yeah.”

    “The day of new things,” she said as he started driving. She fished around in a sack of trash from the back floorboard and came up with a hamburger wrapper. She folded it around the half ear tenderly and tucked it into her purse.

    She snuggled up to him again and kissed his cheek. He could smell the vomit on her breath.

    “Let’s find something bigger,” she whispered.