So, anyone else here not make it a dry January? I mean, DTs are a real hassle, amirite?
Medicare for All == Healthcare for fewer, but I doubt they care.
Although these problems with blood pressure medications are certainly working to keep the cancer numbers up and heart attack numbers down.
Phone app to detect depression in teens. Uh, lemme see… “Have you been laid recently?” Man that was hard.
This was a hot topic in early 19th century literature in the US. Women detail sexual abuse by nuns. Used to be floating around for all good Protestants to be scandalized by.
A little something to celebrate the Chinese Moon landing.
“Medicare for All == Healthcare for fewer, but I doubt they care.”
At least it would be better than Medicaid for all.
America has guaranteed primary and secondary education for all, and doesn’t do it in a cost-effective way. Why would healthcare be any different?
If we get the same health outcomes as we get educational outcomes we’ll all be quadriplegics.
Finally, equality!
Because healthcare is simple, unlike teaching 6 year olds reading and basic math.
You want a scary thought? Think about how much more fucked up the healthcare sector would be if every doctor and nurse were in a government employee union. And oh god, when they decide to go on strike??
My state has a law against public sector unions going on strike. Guess what – they ignore it.
Castle Anthrax is real!
Oral sex!
But first the spankings!
Yes! Yes! First the spankings!
Anthrax never looked so good.
Well it hasn’t rained so yea pretty dry
First
Or third
It’s the opposite for me, it’s rained all month!
Silver lining: a wet month weather-wise gives more of an excuse for a wet month in the sense Brett speaks of.
I lied. It’s not too stupid for afternoon links.
When he broke his leg at a National Park, strangers had to carry him to safety because of the government shutdown
If there’s been a Ranger on duty, they could have put him down like a lamed horse.
From the article:
Chan Ho Park?
If you go hiking/climbing/boating/back country skiing etc. anywhere it is your responsibility to have a plan for self rescue. If your first plan is for others to help you then you are wrong.
Hugh Glass crawled over 200 miles after being mauled by a grizzly bear and abandoned with no weapon by his companions. Granted Hugh Glass was a bad ass mofo. If you get hurt on a trail 1.5 miles from the trailhead, then get your ass back to the car.
Of course they had to spin a story of people helping out someone in need into a tale of woe. Charity is wrong because it shows people might not be 100% dependent on government.
But then, This Is CNN.
“Won’t somebody think of the first responders” is just as irritating as “Won’t somebody think of the children”.
So basically, we identified a superfluous government worker or workers.
THE HORROR. The horror…
I’ve also seen stories about the national parks being “full” of garbage because apparently the forest service is just a glorified trash company.
Imagine if Trump contacted one of his goomba buddies and gave them the contracts to clean all national parks.
Just had the local news on for a couple minutes and it was wall-to-wall fed-park garbage porn.
Another crop of stories highlights furloughed federal workers and their need to choose between groceries and paying the mortgage due to the loss of income brought about by the federal shutdown. Three of the stories I’ve seen all featured a person who has held a federal job for at least 30 years. I understand times get tough, but if you’ve held a job at the same place for 30+ years and one late paycheck sends you into a financial spiral, it might be time to look at budgeting better.
I could stop paying the mortgage for a couple months and the bank wouldn’t care (my next due date is far in the future). I have enough credit to feed myself for even longer. And I don’t have 30 years of seniority.
enough credit to feed myself for even longer
Most of these government workers must be uninformed of how emergency credit cards work.
Heck, I work in a private sector job with compensation that is frequently referred to as a “starvation wage”, and even if I lost my job tomorrow, I could pay all my expenses for at least five months. I’m sure I could stretch it much farther if I got ground beef instead of steak and cheap beer instead of craft
(yes, that’s correct, I already afford craft beer and steak on a wage that is allegedly too low for anyone to survive on).
Especially when these shutdowns are a semi-regular occurrence. Trump should put one of these on his desk.
That sort of non-planning makes the Bogleheads cry.
Might be even harder if they were laid off permanently.
/wishing
Are these furloughed people eligible for unemployment benes?
No they are all dead from the end of Net Neutrality, just like you!
Well I’ve already died from overpopulation, Reagan’s nuke war, global cooling, global warming, the ozone layer, acid rain, second hand smoke, too much salt, not enough salt, and Russian bots, but the Lord of Light keeps bringing me back.
You know this is literally not a decision ANYONE needs to make.
If you have a mortgage you can easily go 2 months without paying before the bank is even going to call you. It will be at least 4 months before they even start to think about foreclosure proceedings and possibly up to a year before they get around to eviction and all of that is if you don’t work with them. Instead you call the bank say “hey I’m a government worker who has been furloughed without pay” they will gladly give you a forebearance of at least several months”.
That doesn’t fit the Narrative of the selfless public servant struggling to get by while Republicans feed on the tears of their starving children.
Another crop of stories highlights furloughed federal workers and their need to choose between groceries and paying the mortgage due to the loss of income brought about by the federal shutdown.
How fucking often are they paid? I am every two weeks and I do just fine. How can they possibly not go a week without pay (that is going to be reimbursed anyway)? This entire characterization is dishonest as fuck, but people will still eat it up.
Yeah, because the local government first responders were covered by the shutdown. Idiots.
I got injured in a national park a couple years ago. Tripped, fell, hurt my knee. Thought I could walk out on it, I walked down the mountain, made it less than a mile from a paved road and then it gave out entirely. Girl I was with hiked the last mile, knocked on a door, rangers showed up maybe an hour later, three of them in 20 minute intervals.
First one there was a ranger/EMT who would not even give me an aspirin because TEH RULEZ. Didn’t carry a cold pack or anything. Basically she was able to stand there while my knee swelled and throbbed and hurt.
Second ranger was a trail maintenance guy. First thing I said to him was “I don’t think we will need the chainsaw today.”
Finally third ranger comes up, hes got these two tiny little crutches that were like child sized. I am 6 foot 2. So I hopped it out over a rocky path, crossing a creek three times, on tiny crutches. The ambulance that met us at the park boundary was private. I had to basically shame the rangers into driving the girl I was with back to my car. The ambulance attendants were two pretty fit looking dudes. They could have absolutely followed that girl back to me carrying a stretcher, and carried me for most of the trip, with me crutching the creek crossings. But MUH FEDERAL JURISDICTION!!!!
People think of the Park Rangers as these absolute outdoor machines, that can rappel down a cliff and then swim a raging river before administering ER level trauma care and then carrying out hurt people on their backs, in between hunting down poachers and leading the best damn nature programming you ever seen. It’s not exactly the truth.
I know a couple of park rangers. They’re mostly kids avoiding getting a real job after college. And they’re about as useful.
Blah blah blah…was she hot?
She was cute, kind of had a plain face. Teeny tiny thing, like to the point where people would shoot me odd looks in public because at a glance it looked like I was a better looking OMWC. But a lot of fun.
?
That’s what this crowd wants to hear about.
When I was at the hospital, I asked the nurse if I could have an ice pack or something because my face hurt. She told me I had to wait until my blood test came back. I said for an ice pack? Took over an hour to get an ice pack. Just because you’re at the hospital or the ‘first responder’ is there, it doesn’t mean you get actually get care.
I’m reminded of schools that call the cops if they catch you with an Advil.
I always keep a bottle at work – but on the DL. I will offer one to a trusted colleague but no way do I want HR to get wind of my stash.
In junior high, I used to buy No-Doz at the convenience store then take them to school and sell them for 50 cents each. I even removed the ink tube from some ballpoint pens so that I could store the pills in there and carry them around the school.
I thought I was a total badass at the time… But they would basically treat No-Doz the exact same as crystal meth if they ever caught you with it, so can you blame me?
Had they suspected, they’d have checked your underwear for contraband aspirin.
Having not had a drink in over a year (thanks to medication), I really don’t miss it.
(But shockingly, I can believe in somebody’s right to do something even if I don’t choose to do it myself! Take that, all you people who think I’m a heroin addict because I advocate for the legalization of all drugs!)
Unpossible. It is a well known fact your personal beliefs should be implemented by force.
What medication? Asking for a friend.
Lexapro. Some SSRIs I’ve been on in the past allowed for some social drinking, but a single drink on this will fuck me up mentally.
But it works better than any antidepressant I’ve been on, so I’ll live with it.
It’s great you found something, I never liked the 5-6 I tried.
That’s a concept I’d guess 90% of people don’t get.
I highly doubt I have consumed even a gallon of alcohol in my 49 years on this planet and the 2 times I have been drunk I was under 5 years of age. All of the remaining alcohol I have consumed since then has been the result of one toast where they gave me the wrong glass and I drank to be polite and my wife making me take sips of her drinks in front of others so she can show off the face I make when I taste alcohol.
Similarly I fully support your right to drink whatever you want whenever you want with possible exceptions for drinking while or prior to operating heavy machinery (i’m on the fence if Drunk Driving should be a crime or not).
I quit for 30 years. Only been back at it for about 8.
About 35 years now, I look longingly at some of new bourbons but only for a second. Not even an interest anymore. I never had a drink I didn’t want though, no one ever held a gun on me and forced me. Over 40 without a smoke. My health got better or at least I hope it did.
OT: My buddy Bobby (69 years old) beat my friend Vlad (40 YO) 315.991 miles to 314.942 in the Across The Years six day race. Fucked up sport for fucked up people, FTW!
Wow.
That’s fucked up
Some 50 year old woman did 450 miles in 6 days?
Holy hell do I feel inadequate.
Not Through the Years?
At first I thought your 69-year-old friend Bobby might be Bobby Weir.
Nope. Only met Weir in passing. I knew Barlow and he knew me. His first words to me were “You’re an asshole.”
As much as the spousal unit and I like our booze, particularly wine, yeah, we’re calling time out on drinking said libations for a while. The holidays were unusually hard on our livers this year, and we’re both feeling it. It’s also affecting our sleep patterns, which is worse.
I had a Moscow Mule for the first last night. Was pretty good, but went back to bourbon after that one.
We had a sale on seasonal gift boxes at the liquor store, and a handle of Stoli with 4 cans of ginger beer was about $20.
Will likely drink again, because I have it.
I’ve seen some mule recipes that use bourbon (or whiskey). Haven’t tried one, but they look pretty good.
That would be a Kentucky Mule. I like the vodka version better.
I have decided give up drinking for the next couple months, not intended as a NY resolution but it jus made sense to start after the holiday season. If I’m going to seriously pursue this whole stoic virtue thing I figured it’s a good vice to start reigning in. So far so good, but wondering when the first strong beer craving will hit.
The hardest thing about not drinking is filling in the time. For heavy drinkers anyway. You don’t realize how much time you kill drinking until you stop.
The best thing about stopping is all of a sudden you seem to have all kinds of money in your pocket.
Drinking hasn’t been a ‘problem’ for me so much but it is one of those pleasures that has started to creep a little. A beer after work is thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing….but then it becomes two or three or maybe a couple mixed drinks…..it’s not like I’m Jim Lahey or anything but I figure it’s probably wise to quit cold turkey for a bit and ‘reset’ back to zero. Like you said I’ll save $……at least $20-$30 a week that otherwise would have gone toward alcohol. Plus I want to see if I can stay leaner and stronger sans booze.
Today in articles you shouldn’t read, Jessica Valenti has already entered the competition for “dumbest column of 2019”
Any time you say you won’t vote for a particular woman, it’s sexism! https://medium.com/s/jessica-valenti/ill-vote-for-a-woman-just-not-that-woman-9ed2db07321
She is reliably tendentious. So there’s that.
Tediously.
Thought experiment for Ms. Valenti: it’s 2008. Your options are Condoleeza Rice (R) and Joe Biden (D)? For whom do you vote?
I’ll vote for a woman, just not tha…hey now.
Let’s update that thought experiment a bit: it’s 2024, and your options are Nikki Haley (R) and Beto O’Rourke (D), who’s winning that “female solidarity” vote?
Well, you’re choosing between two women in that case, so Beto, obviously.
Do you choose the woman with the penis or the woman with some balls?
It’s not about the sex the candidate identifies by. It’s the sex she identifies them by and Beto is clearly more of a woman than Nikki.
It’s whatever year Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is eligible to run for president, and she is running against a male Democrat who is not insane, and then wins the primary and runs against a male Republican, also not insane.
Still voting for crazy all the way?
Democrat who is no insane…
Mock the silly prolefeed! Do you believe in the toothfairy also?
Thought experiment: It’s 2006 in what appears to be Ms. Valenti’s congressional district — which way do you think she’d vote?
Democratic Mike Capuano 125,167 91
Socialist Workers Laura Garza 12,390 9
Do the numbers seem off? It appears to have some extra digits.
I read this as: Slaver Wanttabe 125,167
Outright Slaver 12, 309
The last number in each line is the percentage. 91+9 = 100%
We know that American voters — men and women — hold female candidates to different standards. Studies show that women who are running for office need to be “likeable” in a way that men do not. They are also judged on their appearance and attractiveness, as well as the tone of their voice (God forbid they sound “shrill” or “loud.”)
Weird, that doesn’t explain Warren or Hilary…or Barb Mikulski.
Lower standards are different?
And despite all this sexism, there are now over 100 women in Congress, including one who wears a hijab.
Amazing they were able to overcome so much and still get elected. I guess there were no men available in their districts.
“If progressive men want to walk the walk, they can start by examining their unconscious biases, and asking themselves why it is that every female candidate just doesn’t seem to cut it.”
Maybe, Ms. Valenti, their “bias” against shitty candidates like Warren isn’t the least bit unconscious — nor sexist.
I didn’t even realize Warren announced she will run. The week between Christmas and new year’s is a good time to be ignoring everything.
Wouldn’t.
“As much as I’d like to be optimistic going into the new year, Elizabeth Warren’s announcement that she’s running for president reminded me of an immovable fact about America: There is no woman who will ever be seen as good enough, smart enough, or qualified enough for most men in this country.”
Know what Jessica? Go eat shit and fuck yourself.
“Fact”. What a cunt.
Who doesn’t want to vote for a less sincere and principled Bernie Sanders with a vagina?
Oof. Already broke my NYR. I promised myself to write c**t out of respect.
/shrugs shoulders. Shuts off hot water in orphans bathroom.
“There is no woman who will ever be seen as good enough, smart enough, or qualified enough for most men in this country.”
Hmm so you know how most Men feel about their relationships. :rimshot:
I’d vote for Margaret Thatcher if she were alive and American. I bet most Republicans would too. Would the Democrats? Do I even have to ask?
That’s just because you want to snatch milk from children, especially orphans.
To quote Old Man With Candy: “Fuck the children.”
She compounds her problems by misciting a poll. Here is the money quote “A comfortable majority of Republicans—59 percent—responded no, they don’t hope to see a woman president in their lifetime, according to YouGov. In comparison, 89 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents responded that yes, they hoped to see a woman president before they died.”. Not hoping to see a woman president is not the same as opposing a woman president.
But I suppose reading polls is hard or mansplaining or something.
That was too easy. Valenti on Sarah Palin:
Did you know ending U.S. involvement in Syria is about money? The illiberal logic goes along the lines of:
“Trump only cares about money. There’s no money to be made in Syria. He doesn’t care about Syrians. That’s why he’s leaving. He’s crazy.”
And why exactly should we care about Syrians anyway?
That’s the key: They couldn’t care less.
They’re just reacting because Trump like the true NPCs they are.
Humanity?
Normal humans have a limited capacity to care for people and things. You can “care” about everything, but not really care. Usually caring for one thing means not caring for another, as the capacity to care is used up, so most people probably don’t care about the Syrians. That’s humanity.
Agreed. Opportunity cost and finite resources.
Thoughts and prayers aren’t finite resources.
Yes they are, Hyperbole. No one has enough time to generate both thoughts and prayers for an infinite number of incidents. It dilutes to “And the rest of those folks”
I’m half thinking you’re being tongue in cheek. If so, well played.
If not…
Sure they are. When there are a trazillion people on the planet who each needs thoughts and prayers, one cannot spend all one’s time thinking and praying for them. One can think and pray for humanity as a whole or Syrians as a group, and South Africans as a group, and Kurds as a group, but at what point does one say, “Okay, I gotta think about my work now and bring home some bacon”? Shoot, I can barely keep up with thoughts and prayers for my friends and family, who all have their own problems.
Thoughts and prayers aren’t finite resources.
Even that, the least amount of caring, is finite, as it takes time and time is finite for a human. The amount of misery and strife in the world far surpasses the amount of time any single individual has to care about it, even in the most superficial way.
How much time does a prayer use? Do you have to explicitly pray for each individual? I was being tongue-in-cheek, but now that I think about it, the gist of my missive is that caring ‘about’ someone/thing is not the same as caring ‘for’ them. We all can and probably do care ‘about’, if not an infinite number, a really effing large number of things, why not the Syrians?
I challenge anyone’s claim that they care about “X”ians for any value of X. It is possible to care about individuals. It is even possible to care about imaginary individuals you create as images in your mind when you here about Xian suffering, but actually caring about a group of people who you know only as an abstract noun… Not so much.
Also from context I would read Scruffy as not espousing callousness but rather speaking short hand for “Why should we kill, die, and bleed treasure for some abstract Syrians?” To which I would ass “, when there is no evidence we are in any way helping them by doing so.”
In my mind and practice, true caring means that yes, I do pray for each individual, and enumerate their woes. Not that God doesn’t already know, but that I am expressing concern for them in the only way I can, if I can’t materially assist.
Also, enumerating others’ woes out loud a) takes my mind off my own and b) sometimes gives me some good ideas of how I can assist.
We all can and probably do care ‘about’, if not an infinite number, a really effing large number of things, why not the Syrians?
Perhaps we have a difference of definition. What you call “care about” I would call “have an opinion about”. To me, care requires an expenditure of energy, even so little as to provide the occasional thoughts and prayers. “Syrians shouldn’t be oppressed” is an opinion. Offering regular prayers, lobbying for, sending money, or fighting for the Syrians would show that you actually care (in increasing degree). I have millions of opinions, but only a few dozen cares.
We all can and probably do care ‘about’, if not an infinite number, a really effing large number of things, why not the Syrians?
For certain values of “care about”, this is true. However, we see what happens when people are bombarded with too many thing that they’re supposed to care about in the context of news. They either rein in their scope of what they devote anything but a nominal amount of emotional effort to or they go insane.
I care about the Syrians to the extent that I hope they are treated fairly and that they live happy and successful lives that lead them to God. I don’t have the emotional bandwidth for much more than that. It’s not a situation that I can involve myself in, let alone control, so the best I can do is emote (and pray). Without the emotionally voyeuristic news media being beamed into my life 24/7, I’ll admit that I’m not sure whether this is still fallout from Trump withdrawing or if something new happened there.
Or I should’ve read the entire thread where Gadfly makes the point better than I did.
add not ass
Offering regular prayers, lobbying for, sending money, or fighting for the Syrians
Again that’s the difference between “caring about” and “caring for”. Semantics? sure. But the OP asked why we should “care about’ and that’s what I answered. And I stick by my answer…Humanity.
Jessica Valenti is a spoiled dilettante brat.
It’s medium so… Glorified Letter to the Editor, Shitty Ad driven website Edition,
I thought about making it a dry January, but then I had some drinks so that’s right out.
Is ‘dry January’ a thing? I’d never heard of it before these links.
Big in the UK: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-42878531 (from last year).
Tha fuck?
Any they have the nerve to call us puritanical?
I misread ‘Veganuary’ as ‘Vaginuary’. That sounds much better.
Wat?
*clicks link*
Oh FFS. I want no part of the ritual shaming culture these types are trying to set up.
I hope you’re properly shamed, and disgusted with yourself. That is the point of the exercise after all.
I hope you’re properly shamed, and disgusted with yourself.
So much so that I’m driven to drink.
Otoh, enough alcohol makes one immune to criticism.
“This was a hot topic in early 19th century literature in the US. Women detail sexual abuse by nuns. Used to be floating around for all good Protestants to be scandalized by.” I wish I were surprised by something other than how long it took for this to surface.
Medicare for All == Healthcare for fewer, but I doubt they care.
You see, it’s like so many consumer goods these days: they are looking for the brand name without regard for the quality of the item. “Free Healthcare for All” is a great looking tag to hang in your closet, even if the jacket it’s attached to is crap.
even if the jacket it’s attached to is crap.
But at least it’s really expensive.
“Free”. LOL.
These are same people who a week ago were going apeshit over Trump’s tax cuts.
It makes sense when you realize that these people are really bad at math and think that all the cuts can or will come from the military budget.
“Rates among teen girls doubled from 2007 to 2015, climbing to 5 per 100,000. And among boys, rates jumped 30 percent, to 14 in 100,000.”
Once again, girls are falling behind.
“When Trish Cahill was 15 years old she said she confided in Sister Eileen Shaw at a convent in New Jersey. Cahill said she told Shaw things she’d never revealed to anyone about her now-deceased uncle – a priest – whom she claims sexually abused her, starting at age five.
“I would have done anything for her. I would have died for her,” Cahill said. “She gave me everything that was lacking that I didn’t even know I was lacking. I was so broken. She filled in all those pieces.”
She now describes that process as “grooming,” saying Shaw plied her with drugs and alcohol while teaching her how to have sex with a woman.
“I’m with my friends during the day. And I’m with this pedophile nun on the evenings and on the weekends, and in the summer,” Cahill said.
The Catholic Church has been plagued with high-profile abuse scandals but “pedophile nun” is a phrase many people have probably never heard before.
“That’s really a shame. Because there’s a lot of them out there … it’s the secret not yet told,” Cahill said.”
Again, women not getting the credit they deserve.
When Trish Cahill was 15 years old … I’m with this pedophile nun
15 y.o. means the nun isn’t a pedophile – a creep, an abuser (given the relationship appears to be that of custodian/ward), and possibly a criminal, but not a pedophile. Words mean things, and a 15 y.o. is, while not an adult, not a child either.
She filled in all those pieces.
That’s how you start the opening paragraph of your Nun Erotica.
Working title — ‘Sister Act 3: Fuck Like a Rabbit’?
Not with Whoopi Goldberg in this one too, I hope. Gross.
Isn’t the term ephebophile at that age? 15 = definitely not a pedo, but we love to expand the definitions of horrid crimes to include lesser offenses. See ‘rape’, which was expanded to include drunk sex, then unwanted touching, and now can even mean asking a woman out who says no.
“In traditional societies, the age of consent for a sexual union was a matter for the family to decide, or a tribal custom. In most cases, this coincided with signs of puberty, menstruation for a woman, and pubic hair for a man.[3] The ancient Greek poet Hesiod in Works and Days (c. 700 BC) suggests that a man should marry around the age of thirty, and that he should take a wife who is five years past puberty.
Reliable data for ages at marriage is scarce. In England, for example, the only reliable data in the early modern period comes from property records made after death. Not only were the records relatively rare, but not all bothered to record the participants’ ages, and it seems that the more complete the records are, the more likely they are to reveal young marriages. Modern historians have sometimes shown reluctance to accept evidence of young ages of marriage, dismissing it as a ‘misreading’ by a later copier of the records.[3]
In the 12th century, Gratian, the influential founder of canon law in medieval Europe, accepted the age of puberty for marriage to be around twelve for girls and around fourteen for boys but acknowledged consent to be meaningful if both children were older than seven years of age.[4] There were authorities that said that consent could take place earlier. Marriage would then be valid as long as neither of the two parties annulled the marital agreement before reaching puberty, or if they had already consummated the marriage. Judges sometimes honored marriages based on mutual consent at ages younger than seven: in contrast to established canon, there are recorded marriages of two- and three-year-olds.[3]
The first recorded age-of-consent law dates from 1275 in England; as part of its provisions on rape, the Statute of Westminster 1275 made it a misdemeanor to “ravish” a “maiden within age,” whether with or without her consent. The phrase “within age” was later interpreted by jurist Sir Edward Coke (England, 17th century) as meaning the age of marriage, which at the time was twelve years of age.[5]
The American colonies followed the English tradition, and the law was more of a guide. For example, Mary Hathaway (Virginia, 1689) was only nine when she was married to William Williams.[6] Sir Edward Coke “made it clear that the marriage of girls under 12 was normal, and the age at which a girl who was a wife was eligible for a dower from her husband’s estate was 9 even though her husband be only four years old.”[3]
In the 16th century, a small number of Italian and German states set the minimum age for sexual intercourse for girls, setting it at twelve years. Towards the end of the 18th century, other European countries also began to enact similar laws. The first French Constitution of 1791 established the minimum age at eleven years. Portugal, Spain, Denmark and the Swiss cantons initially set the minimum age at ten to twelve years.[7]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent#History_and_social_attitudes
“Ephebos” specifically refers to an adolescent male in the original Greek, but there isn’t a corresponding term in use for females. Thus I nominate “Glibophile”, in honor of our commentariat.
Nubile works
…in honor…
*squints suspiciously*
Finally, schools teaching practical skills!
Mother. Fuck.
I posted a few days ago asking HVAC advice. The tech finally got by the house today. The good news is that it is just the fan, most likely which is relatively cheap and it needs a cleaning. The bad news is that the fucking thing is illegally installed, a fact that was not in our inspection. And it looks like the heat exchanger is likely to need replacement this summer. Only, if we do that we’re looking at $15 grand in charges for redoing the ducting in order to move it to a location that’s legal. On top of the cost of the new heat exchanger. Fuck that, I’ll get space heaters. $15 large buys a lot of electricity.
What’s illegal about the location?
It’s in a utility closet. And the clearance around it is /way/ below the minimum. Like minimum is 30″ and it probably max of 6″ on 3 sides, and the other side has the piping for the gas. So they can do basic repairs like the fan, but anything they remove and replace that’s a major component will require bringing it up to code. Which will mean moving duct work, moving gas plumbing and Og only knows what else.
Just spitballing here, but can you move the walls instead? If possible, that may be much less expensive and quicker.
Unfortunately, no. We have a town home so the back wall of the closet is the wall to the town home next door. The wall to the right is against the stairwell to the second floor. So neither of those two could really be moved.
We do have a gas fireplace we never use that can probably be used if it is serviced, and use space heaters upstairs next year. And we have some Long Lost Crazy Dead Uncle money coming as well sometime this year. I’m mostly pissed that I could have gotten 10-20k off the house when I bought it if the inspector had done his job.
Unfortunately, most home inspectors are useless twats. I have always insisted on using my own and not the one recommended by the realtor.
I asked my realtor (as well as friends) for the most hard asses inspector that she ever dealt with. The property was for sale by owner, so I didn’t have to worry about a conflict between my realtor and the property.
At the risk of making enemies, Realtors are as a group moronic, overpaid, lazy sales people. They tend not to even know much about real estate, much less be of any use as advisers on peripherals.
This has come up before, that inspectors have no liability in these cases amazes me. Why hire an inspector if he can miss some glaring issue and just go ‘meh’ later when it comes up.
Government or private inspector?
Apparently both, Ted. The gov’t inspector when the place was built, and at least 1 private inspector when we bought the place 2 years ago.
Hyperbole, I’m not sure what the libertarian answer is on that, and whether the home inspector really should be liable or not. Though given it is a government regulation and inspectors have to be gov’t certified.
And if the place burns down because the government inspector screwed up, there’s no way nohow the government is at all liable.
I’d say it’s a case of negligence. They failed at what you hired them to do, and not in a questionable way, like missing some rot in the far corner of the attic under twenty inches of insulation, but in an obvious, you can’t jam a furnace into a closet way. Now I don’t know if they should be on the hook for the entire replacement/repair cost, but they should at least have to refund their fees (and I think they would be insured against this kind of thing and should bite the bullet and make it right) If they had to rely on reputation and not gov’t mandate to earn a living they couldn’t get away with this kind of bullshit.
Spit-balling here. How long have you been there? Assuming this was never disclosed. Title insurance?
You say town home, I think condo? Master Agreement?
Inspection was completed – what does that agreement look like? Thinking errors & omissions.
Dec. was the 2 year anniversary of buying it. And no, it wasn’t disclosed in the inspection report.
We did get mortgage insurance, but that was only for the first year, maybe 2. Either way, passed that point.
It’s a town home/row home. But there is no HOA or any of that.
I’m going to look at the inspection agreement, but I’m pretty sure here in Oregon the inspector doesn’t have any real liability and wouldn’t be worth going after.
Creosote, How old is your structure? The heating may have been within code when it was installed and is now out of code. That is what happened to me a couple of years back. We had some electrical work done. Most of the house had to be completely rewired because the original wiring was from 1952 and the newest wiring was from 1970. All the wiring was out of code and I don’t have the ability as the “home owner” to assume risk and the electrician was prohibited from leaving the house out of code.
At first I thought I was being BS’ed about the amount of replacement required but after research it turned out to be correct.
It was built in 2002, so 16 years give or take. So it is possible it was in code when built, but has since been made out of code. Though I’ve only owned it 2 years.
I suspect the technician is being honest with us and isn’t trying to get more money out of us. It’s one of those situations that it is only nominally the inspectors fault and is mostly part and parcel of living in an imperfect world.
“The heating may have been within code when it was installed and is now out of code”
Yeah, we get a lot of that with our 1941 house: you don’t have to do anything with the wiring or plumbing.
BUT, if you do ANY renovation in any part of the house, then you have to update the entire house to today’s code. That is, your house is perfectly safe unless you change something and then it’s not safe.
Is it possible to use baseboard electric in the upstairs? Installation is fairly easy, some are 110V, turn them on when you need them?
It probably is.
I’m inclined toward using space heaters upstairs though. It’s just the two of us, and the upstairs is a bedroom, and my office and the wife’s studio for sewing. With ours being the middle house in the row, and gas heat downstairs from the stove, I don’t know that we even need heating upstairs other than a few odd days out of the year.
The extension cord running from the neighbor’s house?
Did you check the thermostat first?
Yup. That works just fine. It was making a terrible racket and needed to be serviced.
Dude, I’m feeling $4K of your pain. I am truly sorry.
Joys of home ownership, amirite?
*looks at quotes for the new roof, grumbles agreement*
One bad purchase and your whole financial life starts circling the drain.
Speaking of circling the drain, I don’t even want to look at my portfolio.
My portfolio got sunk into the infrastructure of this #$(*&#$ house.
Literally. This morning, my basement got jackhammered up and new pipe laid to replace the cast iron that had broken (where it hadn’t disintegrated).
If you didn’t spend so much time on your phone, you could have laid pipe 16,000 times last year. So this is all your own fault.
It sounds like you have had far more difficulty than we have.
My sympathies.
laying pipe
Seriously, that sucks.
*hangs head in shame*
We went 3 weeks without waste water access from the kitchen and laundry room HOWEVER…XY tax deduction had the idea that we could run a dishwasher drain hose outside, so…we did. We’ve had a dishwasher.
That said, we swung the cost and CA, I’d be freaking out more over your situation than we did ours. I don’t know how cold it gets in OR, but we would not be able to heat this house sufficiently with space heaters.
It doesn’t get that cold, Mo. rarely does it drop below freezing here. The tech said we should be fine the rest of this winter. Only that it’ll need replacing before next year.
But the gas fireplace/stove we have in the living room will be more than enough for downstairs, and the bedrooms aren’t huge so we’ll be fine.
Partly I’m also able to be pretty calm about this because a good friend from high school just posted pictures on facebook of his amputation. He made it through 3 tours in the middle east as a marine infantry guy, only to last year fall off a ladder at work and give himself a spiral fracture so severe that after 9 months of rehab the recommendation from multiple doctors was to amputate below the knee. So he went under the knife yesterday. that has helped me keep it in prospective.
My NYR was to not compare myself to others, meaning, generally, not look at others’ highlight reels versus my blooper reels and allow myself to wallow in my loserness, but I’d be lying if I didn’t occasionally notice others’ misfortunes and say, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
Last night I was thinking about the conversation here yesterday about how fortunate we in the US really are. I thought, “I live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood with 3 cars that run and are paid for, and can provide for 2 kids (though not in the style to which they want to become accustomed). There’s plenty of food in the fridge. We’re warm. We have toasty warm beds to sleep in. We have family nearby. Each of us has our own cadre of electronics.” And so on and so forth.
And now our pipe–which we knew for years we were going to have to deal with–is fixed.
No, you don’t.
Hmm, 4.5% loss since Q4/Q3. Not terrific, but I was somehow expecting much worse.
Are you in Oregon? I’m in VA, and I’m 90% certain that’s how the system is set up in the townhouse I rent. Downstairs utility closet, very tight space (maybe more than 6″ on one side, but I have to bend the replacement air filters just to fit them in to the unit based on the way the door opens.).
Yup. In Oregon. And it sounds like the same basic setup. The closet is really an enclosure for the hot water heater and the HVAC. Honestly, I don’t think the setup is wrong or unsafe. It’s just that the HVAC contractor’s license is on the hook if they pull out the old one and put in the new in a way that is out of compliance with code. It’s mostly a government over-regulation problem.
Where are the furnaces located in your neighbors’ town homes?
I’d imagine in the same basic place. The contractor that built them…let’s just say over the two years of doing various home improvements and repairs they took any number of shortcuts.
We get our LLCDU money and we’re finishing some upgrades, selling the place for a profit, and moving where we have more space.
Also planning to sell the pot farm soon. that business is finally gonna wrap up.
It might be cheaper to move.
“Women detail sexual abuse by nuns.”
Clickbait.
I think I’ve seen that porn before.
Relevant
I don’t think there is enough nun porn.
Is that even possible?
There is none porn like the nun porn where the nun chucks nunchucks.
Now I’m really lost.
Wasn’t Obamacare supposed to solve whatever health care/service problems there were? Medicare for all now? Isn’t this redundant?
Those dastardly Republicans sabotaged it despite having no power in the federal government whatsoever when it was passed.
Such is the Republican’s evil. So great it overpowers a Dem supermajority. Alternatively, those dastardly Rs at the state level who refused to set up state exchanges doomed it.
Either way, its dastardly Rs all the way down.
You sound like my California friends.
Californians know better than anyone how powerful Republicans are – even when they have zero power they somehow still manage to screw up the coming Demtopia.
It must be because there’s Republicans that exist anywhere. As long as a single Republican exists they will prevent utopia. They must be cleansed.
Meanwhile, our new Governor, Trudeau-wannabe fuckface former husband of the ex-Fox News host, is talking about single-payer for our state, covering all illegals as well, at a mere lowball estimate of $400 billion a year, or double the state’s existing budget alone. We already pay 13.3% state income tax — think many will want to stay around when the fed income tax is 38% and the state income tax is 38% on top of that, plus you pay the federal income tax on the money you pay to the state income tax (as is now the case?) Enjoy your 20% of your income, but we haven’t even talked about your property tax, sales tax, gas tax, etc, etc, etc yet. You might get to try to live off 5% of your total income. But the rich won’t notice!
Yeah, they are flat-out lying to the public with their claims that only “the rich” are going to be footing the bill for universal everything.
I always thought we should apply Hillarycare’s proposals to lawyers first.
Does HillaryCare involve chaining people to the bottom of the ocean?
That was then. This is now.
Are the Democrats in complete control of your health care? Cause they won’t stop until that happens.
Nor even then. At that point they’ll demand complete control of your eating, sleeping, and exercise habits.
Touch your toes, Montag! You can do it!
… and then when they deplatform you, it’s the real deal.
That wasn’t real Obamacare.
There’s this movie on Netflix called Anon. I generally think Netflix content is very SJW heavy but this one resonated with me as a libertarian in an authoritarian world.
Q would like it for the boobies, but it does a good job showing how we’re destroying privacy for convenience (which is mostly convenient for law enforcement). Anonymity cannot be tolerated anymore.
This was a hot topic in early 19th century literature in the US. Women detail sexual abuse by nuns. Used to be floating around for all good Protestants to be scandalized by.
Chick Tract! The only difference between a Chick tract and a Tijuana bible was the anti Catholicism.
From the wiki on Tijuana bible (since I had to look it up):
So today I learned that Rule 34 preceded the internet by quite some time.
In my youth we called them Tijuana 8 pagers ’cause that was how long it took before Blondie was ravished
See You in Hell.
Note: that statements for the nuns, not the women.
I knew what it was before clicking.
I love Monster Magnet, And the song fit.
That’s my president folks:
https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1080858959404240896
Kinda funny but the first reply makes me want to hang myself in the shower when I get home.
Something something cats something laser pointer….
LOL
The best reply, no contest:
https://mobile.twitter.com/moneyguy1975/status/1080931229757853696
More proof the left can’t meme.
Why hang yourself? Fuck that idiot.
I LOL’d
“Selfie time! Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez turns her first session in the House into a photo shoot with other Democrats – before planning to rebel against Nancy Pelosi’s constraints on massive new spending”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6555141/Selfie-time-Alexandra-Ocasio-Cortez-turns-session-House-photo-shoot.html
It’s a party!
I caught exactly one sentence.
*severe eye-rolling*
This shit is just ramping up, folks.
I’m currently wearing shoes, which everyone knows is a tribute to the brave men throughout time who have killed politicians.
HERE! HERE! The Tree of Liberty is looking quite parched if you ask me.
Why do some of you around here think she is attractive? She looks like my avatar in those photos.
I think she’s actually pretty cute when she’s not making those hideous facial contortions as prog women often tend to.
Damn. I hate to admit it. But…yeah, I’d like to bang the socialism out of her
She does seem to have a real talent for photographing poorly.
HM put it best months ago: She’s a reverse centaur.
https://twitter.com/AnonymousQ1776/status/1080594276831047680
Still would.
Oh, here’s the original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj2Xald7NYQ
My god, the boomer is strong in that one.
I don’t get it. What was the point of the video?
The full video looks like some promotional schtik from Boston U that AOC was part of. The point of the edited twitter one appears to be an attempt to make her look stupid, like the leftist mocking Trump for eating burnt steak with ketchup the right seems to think mocking AOC for being goofy in a college video is a good tack. It’s not like she has any policy positions they could go after. Everyone is stupid. Everyone.
I agree. I don’t see the value in mocking her here. That’s not right. It wasn’t even cringe.
There’s plenty to mock her about but that’s not one of them.
I don’t know man, that Green New Deal appears to be pretty bulletproof.
Challenging, but not impossible?
And her first act after being sworn in was to flip flop and vote for Pelosi.
“If you gave up your smartphone for a year, you would have time to make love about 16,000 times”
https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1080122878744506369
Math is hard.
Assumes levels of smartphone usage not in evidence among normals.
I don’t know about that. “Normals” are constantly on their phones, at least the millennials and gen-z ones. In class, at work, in traffic, on public transit, walking around, while watching TV… everyone I know under 40 is constantly staring at their pocket computer.
8 hours every day is 175k minutes. Divide by 16k and that gives you 11 minutes to do the deed. Yeah, that’s still a lot of banging, but the back of the napkin math seems viable.
Subwoofer, 16,000 rounds of lovemaking per year is roughly 44 times per day.
If you can manage that, my hat is off to you.
Not saying I can do it, but the numbers work out that this is what would be required to make up for not using your phone by banging instead.
SNOO SNOO!
51% of Americans are over 40.
*neener neener*
There are 8,760 hours per year. Assuming an 8 hour day with a one hour commute (total) and two weeks vacation, we work 2,250 of them. Assuming we sleep six hours per night, we sleep 2,190 of them. Assuming we take a total of two hours a day eating and preparing meals, we spend 730 hours a year doing that. Two hours per week doing household chores (I’m including shopping and managing finances in that)? Take off another 104 hours. An hour a day grooming (including shower, shave, dressing), that’s another 365 hours.
That leaves a total of 3,121 hours. To get to 16,000 bouts of lovemaking, that translates to approximately 12 minutes per round. Including foreplay. No wonder the folks at the Times have so much pent up frustration.
An hour a day grooming (including shower, shave, dressing), that’s another 365 hours.
A person can make love (to him or herself) quite effectively during that grooming period, so add that to your hours.
You don’t make love 44 times a day?
You know, after the 40th time in a day, it just starts to lose its luster.
At that point it’s more blood that comes out than anything else.
Because I’m fast.
The case against tattoos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzJZlbIGWhU
They’re stupid?
TL;DW
“This is legitimately the most insane Twitter suspension I have ever heard of. My business partner, @JeremyDBoreing, was just suspended for 12 hours for this tweet. Why? Because it was supposedly “promoting or encouraging self-harm.” IT’S A JOKE ABOUT BRUSSELS SPROUTS. WTF @jack”
https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1080845675946901505
https://twitter.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1080533121525702657
WTF??
Penny Pretty? They got to Penny Pretty?!?
Noooooooooooo!
/starts frying up Brussels sprouts in preparation to committing seppuku.
I meandered into Ellen Barkin’s twitter account.
Don’t visit Ellen Barkin’s twitter account.
I saw some of that today…
Raging Dumpster Fire.
Twatter;dc
So, I’m back home after spending 2 weeks visiting the in-laws over Christmas. I said it here, but I really need to find a way to move back up there (central North Carolina). Probably not until the kid is out of college though. And that’s another 15 years.
They live in a pretty rural area. I’m pretty sure judging from the sounds that every one of their neighbors does nothing all afternoon but target shoot in their backyard. Which is probably another positive for the area.
Yeh be careful of those pretty towns. They drink Nilbog.
Thot Thursday is here to make you feel inadequate!
http://archive.vn/6rGvq
15… lawdy, lawdy.
Who introduced that dead-eyed, soulless stare into glamour photography, and why weren’t they flayed alive?
Heroin dealers.
I was thinking it started with the “heroin chic” modeling fad.
Those things bolted on to 10’s chest look painful.
Another awful thing from 2010 rears its ugly head/
Just… wow.
Well, there goes the indie game business. I hope everyone likes Ubisoft.
Well, there goes the indie game business. I hope everyone likes Ubisoft.
Well if those
employersindies can’t turn a profit whilepaying a living wageproviding inclusive accommodation, they don’t deserve to be in business.Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
It plays out by game manufacturers moving outside the US. Then the FCC requires any imported game to to include the accessibility BS. Then video games are only sold on the black market. Then the FCC creates an armed police division for game interdiction. Rules requiring console manufacturers to prevent bootlegged games from running drives all the games to PCs and the console companies go out of business or drop the product line. But that’s only if the government is actually interested in putting accessibility options into games. Since they absolutely don’t care the alternate timeline is: large game manufacturers agree to some number of “diversity” hires. Smaller game manufacturers go out of business.
It’s more liekly to fall into a selective enforcement where they levy fines against unfavored developers rather than everyone (because no one can make a salable game that meets those requirements)
Sadly, UCS is probably right here.
75 versions of tic-tac-toe
Here’s my suggestion for an accessibility option: you check a box and the service sends over a millennial to play the game for you. Only $15 an hour too!
Don’t read the comments.
There are no comments on any site but Glibertarians.com
I was just going to make a comment along these lines.
“spicy”
I know nothing about all this but the first one seemed okay and I liked this one for its liberal use of the word ‘retard’.
Avatar
Angra Mainyu • 8 hours ago
Ironically, the word retarded came to mind as I read that. Try that inclusion crap in other domains and see how retarded it is. Not everything is for everyone. And trying to punish those that can access something others can’t is again retarded.
Scroll down enough and you’ll think you’re reading ZeroHedge.
“I have a 14 year old son with Level 2 Autism…And even with all this experience I have, I think this legislation is..” more retarded then he is.”
Gold Jerry. Gold.
Okay I’ll continue….
Has anyone never heard of TOMMY?
Don’t tell me the deaf, dumb and blind can’t play pinball.
Can you hear me?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXTe3K7BllM
He required no accessability options.
I’m not much of a gamer myself and don’t have time to read the article, but it seems that the gaming and software communities have had disabled gamers on their radar for quite some time now. In fact, Microsoft to great acclaim just introduced a piece of hardware that aims to tie together many of the disparate specialty accessories that already exist in this market.
https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-xbox-adaptive-controller/
I guess things just aren’t moving fast enough in this realm to satisfy certain people.
It won’t be enough. And it won’t stop all but the top two or three development houses from being sued out of existence.
Des Moines crime update: Assault Banana
NO, I’M NOT GONNA CONGRATULATE ‘RICH’ FOR HIS ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY WORKING AT STICKICUM INDUSTRIES LINKEDIN!
Stealing.
Women.
“Authors.”
That’s libellous!
If it was libelous, she would’ve said “Realtors.”
*congratulates Rufus on his one day rage chip*
Huh, looks like PayPal is denying service to death metal record companies now:
https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/01/death-metal-label-shuts-down-after-paypal-credit-cards-pull-out-due-to-doj-fdic-initiative/74398/
I’m not sure about all of the Operation Chokepoint speculation but it looks like PayPal dropped them for promoting hatred and violence. It’s the second death metal label they’ve dropped in three or so months apparently.
Herpetic Monkey would make a great band name.
Stupid monkeys. They know they’re not supposed to be living in Florida, right?
Just ran a bum off using the dumpster area as his latrine. Free port a potty right across the street but nope. Fuckers aren’t scared of calling the cops anymore either. Fucking 9th Circus and the goddam leftists are doing their best to make life as unpleasant as possible to gain control.
Years ago I managed a small shop and had an issue with an urban camper miterating on our premises. I asked him to stop. Hey offered a “fuck you” as he wandered off. The next morning, a pile of excrement was left at the entrance. I came back at 3:00 a.m. the next morning and found him sleeping between the flower boxes on our walkway to the enterances. I “gently” nudged him with my right foot, to which he responded “what the fuck do you want” I pulled out my Glock .45 and kindly told him I’m not paid extra to clean up his excrement and that if he could relocate, I would be appreciative and probably not shoot him. Never had a problem again.
“Violence really isn’t the only way to resolve a conflict, but it’s the only way to win it”- Jerri Blank
One of my old apartments overlooked an alley that was popular with the domicile challenged. They would congregate at the end of it in the parking lot of a fried chicken place to drink cheap liquor and talk about whatever it is that bums talk about. One day I looked out my living room window only to see one of them crouched between the dumpsters with his back against the wall. At first glance I thought he was – ahem – laying some cable, but it turned out to be far worse. At around two in the afternoon on a Saturday this guy had his trousers around his ankles and was enthusiastically rubbing one out. I felt like Ralphie in A Christmas Story in that I desperately wanted a Red Rider pellet gun to just magically materialize in my hands for target practice at that very moment. I would have had to be impossibly quick on the draw though, because the guy bolted right when he heard me opening the window.
LiveScience sciences the fuck out of science!
Study: You’re Going to Keep Aging Until You Die
I . . . I got nuthin’.
Study Shows Statistical Studies Seriously Suck.
John Grisham just lost a couple of bucks. I like him for easy reading. Just saw his new paperback. Reading the summary it starts out interesting and then turns into boilerplate TDS where I already know the whole book without reading it.
It’s about 3 disillusioned law students realizing they were duped into going into huge debt and are pissed. Sounds promising. But wait, it’s a “for profit” school. (Cue scary backround music) And oh noez!! it’s owned by an evil hedge fund bankster from NYC!
It’s fascinating to me how much this guy is in people’s heads.
Average cost per credit for profit $647, non profit $1039. Yep once again the woke have their fingers right on the cause of every problem
What’s the average return on investment?
The return on investment for college in general is probably negative if you really compare apples to apples. ie. compare college students lifetime earnings to non college students with similar worktime/effort expended seeking employment. The college is worth x% in lifetime earnings studies always compare college students/graduates to all non-college students, which is a group which by definition includes the never do anything population.
For me the ROI has been huge. I went to a cheap SUNY school. Without my degree I wouldn’t even be considered for all of the ass sitting jobs I’ve had.
Cheap to you, but someone paid 🙂 Also, betcha 4 years of apprenticing as a plumber, pipefitter, welder, or mason would have netted you more.
No doubt, and I wish I had.
On January 1, I became a criminal in my hometown of Boulder
They aren’t going to take your guns – except they really are.
“this is some crybaby bullshit. take your murder weapons to texas (or wherever) and tell your daughter to grow a pair.”
He sounds nice.
Only well trained law endorsement personnel should have guns.
Cops are trigger happy racists gunning down innocent minorities every day.
Hi Mr Prog, please reconcile the above 2 statements that you np doubt agree with
I mentioned this guy before, but he finally resigned.
There are four previous excessive force-related allegations involving Comitale. The city has paid out more than $174,000 in settlement fees.
*checks pic*
Yeah, I don’t think I’d want to get pulled over by that guy.
Reminds me of Sipowicz
I say it all the time to leftists – that they’re the most intolerant people I know. You can have a reasonable conversation with a right wing religious fundamentalist, but any disagreement with a lefty and they act like toddlers being denied cake.
I heard on hate radio on my commute home that Trump wants to tap Jim Webb (heh..) to be defense secretary. I fully support this decision.
As an aside, Webb is a test I use with leftist acquaintances. I point out that there is at least one Democrat* that I can think of that I could see my self voting for for president (or other elected office) and that is Jim Webb. I ask them to name just one Republican that they could see themselves voting for. They never have an answer, even when presented with conservative-in-name-only schmucks like Mitt Romney.
*There may be others that I am not aware of, but I think blue-dog Democrats are a dying breed.
If they’re Marylanders, they would say Larry Hogan. He is very popular. He’d make a 1/2 way decent GOP Prez candidate except for the cancer. I think that would scare a lot of voters away
Bill Krystol? He’s a smarmy self-important snobbish prick who overestimates his own ability. The left should love him.
They only like dead Republicans. I would practically puke every time a lefty would talk up Reagan after he died. They do the same with BushHitler.
“If only (current Republican)Hitler were more like (dead Republican)”
Is RC Dean around? Paging RC Dean….
I’ve been meaning to ask, where in the world do your Dean people come from, back in old timey times? I have been researching Deans in my own family tree for a while. They come from Dorchester, MD originally, but lots of them settled in southern Indiana.
Steubenville OH?
No love for Traci Lords, also a Steubenville alumnus ?
She’s not a Dean AFAIK.
Lots of love for Traci. Even the stuff she did as an adult.
Man, she still looks good.
http://www.zimbio.com/Celebrities+Who+Turn+50+in+2018/articles/-OR9jcZ4IxM/Traci+Lords
https://youtu.be/JnUPuq6EH10
Medicare for All == Healthcare for fewer
I can, anecdotally, attest to this. The gf has worked in home care for the elderly. Apparently clients are often left to themselves far longer and in less than good (to say the least) environments because of lack of affordability, even on medicare/caid.
So after having a cell phone for ~ 23 years, I finally got a smartphone. At this point, I’m not overly impressed. I downloaded some apps. Woooo, I can turn on my home theater receiver with my phone and change the radio station. Yay, I can check on my car. Sure, it has a better camera than my kindle and more emojis, but I’m still kinda meh on it.
What apps (ios) might wow me?
Can’t help you; I’m on Android.
I’ve got the local TV station’s weather app; VLC to listen to streaming audio, and if Akira’s around he might like GoQuest.
Sure you can. Other than the pre-installed apps, pretty much every 3rd party app is released for both platforms.
Goodrx
LiveATC + MyRadar + FlightRadar24 are my most used apps. Your mileage may vary, especially if you’re not an AvGeek
I’ve got a number of sports apps, GasBuddy, Waze, New Zealand & Australian news apps, local news station for weather & traffic, and of course Reason.
Waze seconded
Waze is mandatory in los Angeles.
Oh! Shazam for those times you’re all, like, “WTF song is that?” when in a restaurant or watching TV
I thought that was SoundHound?
There’s some star-gazing app I’ve heard good things about. Other than reading and music I mostly enjoy that emails and reminders and notes and such are synched with my computer.
GoogleSky is pretty nifty in that you can hold it up and move it around and it shows you where the constellations are based on the direction you aim the camera – so you can align the actual constellations based on what you see on the screen – no matter where you are geographically.
That would require taking the phone out of its faraday cage for an extended period of time to get positional data.
I mostly use it for reading and internet stuff. Reading in particular, having my entire library in a pocket is an absolute game changer. Any time I have a spare moment, or am waiting in line, or anything, I am getting a few pages in.
Books and music. Having a library and a jukebox in my pocket* is almost priceless.
*written 10 years ago
Ok…added local news, waze, myradar so far.
See if your local public library has an affiliation with an app. I get my audiobooks through Hoopla
That’s a good one, plenty of free movies and TV shows too.
Very interesting. Looks like mine has an afilliation.
Signal. Use nothing else to communicate.
President Twitter-Troll
Joyce Alene ✔
@JoyceWhiteVance
This is a serious matter. If the GOP feels it’s appropriate to have a President campaign at a name-calling, bullying level an elementary school principal would feel compelled to shut down, they should let him keep on. Otherwise, hold him accountable as the leader of your party.
It is JOKE. Lighten up, Joyce.
*standard libertarian disclaimer about the wall*, but…
Moar: The Wall is Coming
At least he has a sense of humor.
I like how they cyberbully Melania for not cracking down on her husband’s (alleged) cyberbullying.
Hi Canucks. I have just been told that as someone with more than 1 Dui, I am banned from Canada. Is this true? If so, I find this hilarious.
You don’t even need more than one to be banned.
After some research I see that if you have one Dui you are banned for 10 years. More than one it’s a permanent ban. Also listed were tons of minor crimes/arrests. How does anyone get into Canada now? Who doesn’t have an arrest or conviction on their record? Even reckless driving = banned.
*raises hand, hesitantly*
OT: There was a great discussion in the morning links about people in technical fields (sciences, IT, mathematics, etc) and a propensity towards Leftist thought.
I’ve actually thought about this a lot because I have a relative in one of these fields who is also a pretty hard “progressive”. He often talks about how “we need more standardization” in some area or another (the latest topic where this came up was high school education). He views the free market as uncoordinated, unstable, and unreliable and government institutions as stable, permanent (got that one right, at least), trustworthy, official, and legitimate.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like these career fields are environments where things are usually designed from the top down by an expert or group of experts. Some TOP MAN comes up with the idea, and the functionaries below him work out the details of implementation according to his orders.
I think that can influence their worldview and cause them to view society as a construct rather than an organic growth. Some tenets of “progressivism” start to make sense if you imagine society as a skyscraper construction project where there’s nobody leading it and every worker is just putting rebar, girders, and concrete wherever he wants. In that situation, it would definitely make sense to have someone step up with a master plan and start telling everyone where the materials need to go in order to build a skyscraper.
But the error is in thinking that society is a skyscraper. Society is just the result of individuals pursuing their own various ends, and it has no leadership committee. The closest thing to a leadership committee is the government, which would explain two things: 1) Why “progressives” tend to think of government and society as one in the same, and 2) Why all of their policies drive towards dictatorial government.
Society more resembles a forest than a skyscraper. It would be utterly nonsensical to look at a forest and complain that it’s irregular and uncoordinated.
It amazes me that anyone in tech can believe such rubbish when surrounded by evidence to the contrary. My computer’s power supply can fail and I can have it replaced in just a few hours by driving to the store and picking one up right off the shelf. Aside from finding one that supplies ample wattage and internal connectors for my needs, I am confident it will fit due to industry standardization. That USB connector that enables me to securely transfer data from my phone to my newly functioning computer? It isn’t a result of a government decree but, once again, industry standardization. That airport Wi-Fi to which I can seamlessly connect my tablet so I can read an article while waiting in the excruciatingly slow TSA security theater line? No politician willed it to existence by executive order. It came to fruition by – you guessed it – industry standardization. Anyone that sees all of this with their own eyes and still believes otherwise must at best be mildly retarded.
It’s truly strange.
I’d be curious to know the political belief breakdown in technical fields (engineering, IT, architecture) versus biological fields (anatomy and physiology).
I wonder if those who work with living organisms rather than manmade objects would have a greater understanding of how incredibly intricate and effective systems can come about without some human planning it out and overseeing the whole development process.
Allow me to corpse-fuck this thread a bit, but my multi-decade experience is that the pure software types tend to be left to raging left.
The systems folks – the ones who actually have to deal with hardware or have to deal with multiple software products that need to be forced to work together – tend to be more libertarian-to-rightish (still plenty of lefties, but it’s not a monoculture).
I suspect it has something to do with the idea of perfectibility in the pure software world vs. the dirty reality of making things work on the systems side.
Disclaimer: I’m a systems engineer so my tribe is naturally the best (read: liberty-loving) tribe. I’ll note, however, I have always had a bunch of co-workers who were in the military, and that’s almost never the case with the pure software development types. I suspect that’s a factor.
I’m a pure-software type and the idea of “perfectibility” is laughable to anyone who’s been doing it for more than a year or two. It is every bit as quick and dirty as your side.
(this is mostly hand-waving by me)
I’m referring to the _idea_ that X can be made to work perfectly, not the hacky reality. I’m something of a tweener and write non-trival amounts of software, so I’m well aware of the reality.
Do you find the other software type cover a spectrum (not _that_ spectrum) or are they left to hard left, in general?
Honestly, I don’t pay the slightest attention to their politics. In 20 years I’ve only ever had one colleague go on a political rant (yeah, it was leftish). That tells me we’re either apolitical or keep-to-yourself types.
OTOH, I have only worked in the insurance industry so that might have a profound influence on this. I hear things are little, uh, different at Google and the like.
That’s a good point – I’m at a pure tech company now. My impression might be different if I had stayed at, say, State Street Bank (that place sucked).
I’m not a computer guy myself; I rank my own competence slightly above “grandparent”. But let me bounce an idea off you software people:
Would you say that people in software development might think of problems (either in software or in society) as things that have to be resolved by knowledgeable people? In other words, nothing happens in software development unless somebody sits down and writes the code; no error resolves itself naturally.
Do you think this could be part of the reason that they have an aversion to “letting the market sort it out” and instead favor big, bold plans by allegedly smart people?
I can’t answer that; frankly I don’t see most of us transferring our day-to-day work over to our politics in the manner you describe. It seems kind of… simplistic, for lack of a better word.
I will say that such a person tends not to last very long in an “entrepreneurial” business environment of the kind I’m used to.