Poll: New Year Resolutions?

I have an unexpected dinner guest arriving imminently for whom “family rules” don’t apply. So instead of expounding on the topic, I’m crisis cleaning. But you can still play!

 

Do you make New Year Resolutions?

If so, care to share it here?

 

Don’t have too much fun without me! Happy New Year, my dear Glibs!

 

 

Comments

249 responses to “Poll: New Year Resolutions?”

  1. Yusef drives a Kia

    Make more money and get out of Cali
    First

    1. Fourscore

      Dammit, so close.

      Good luck on both counts, Yusef.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        Thanks old man
        /Respect!

    2. Yusef drives a Kia

      My first first of the year, yippee!

    3. juris imprudent

      I made good on that one going on 5 years ago!

  2. Fourscore

    No new resolutions this year

    (searches trash can for last year’s)

  3. Is this guest the “weird” Glib?

  4. Same resolution as last year…Try to take over the world!

    oh, and make more Animaniacs references.

    and be more meta.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Lake titicaca!

      1. J. Frank Parnell

        2019 resolution:
        More titi
        Less caca

    2. Mojeaux

      Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        Between Bivia and Peru?

      2. Yusef drives a Kia

        Yes Brain but rubber changes me so…….

        1. Mojeaux

          ??

  5. But Enough About Me

    Just one, which I’ve already shared — to make my French functional enough to visit my cousin’s widow sometime in April or May so’s I can express my sorrow about her husband’s passing to her without the help of an intermediary. Wish me luck, I’m gonna need it.

    1. Je suis désolé que ton époux est mort?

      1. But Enough About Me

        Hopefully slightly more involved and nuanced than that, but yeah, that would be a decent start.

    2. Tres Cool

      #1 obtenir une fille au pair délurée qui parle les deux langues
      #2 ????
      #3 profit (personally)

  6. Mojeaux

    To not compare myself to others (including my imaginary friends).

    Possibly to be more mindful about counting my blessings, but can’t guarantee I’ll remember to do that, like, ever.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      You’re a Glib, no comparison needed, it’s nice to have mojeaux

      1. Mojeaux

        Thank you, Yusef. I enjoy your posts and comments.

    2. Count Potato

      “To not compare myself to others (including my imaginary friends).”

      Couldn’t you just imagine them worse?

      1. Mojeaux

        Comparison is a component of aspiration, which do not seem achievable at this time.

      2. straffinrun

        I imagine my wife is Amy Shumer when we make love.

        1. You can’t just imagine her in a Japanese schoolgirl uniform?

          1. Gustave Lytton

            Maybe she’s already wearing that?

    3. blackjack

      You mean like Prince? Or that crazy bald lady?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpGA0azFdCs

      1. Mojeaux

        I’m not as dead as Prince, nor as bald as Sinead.

        Oh, wait…

        Dammit!

  7. Count Potato

    “Do you make New Year Resolutions?”

    Nope.

    If I shouldn’t do something come January, then I probably shouldn’t have been doing it in December.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      So no more Demi?

      1. Tres Cool

        praises to David Koresh!

  8. Akira

    I absolutely hated the dumbass writing assignments that I was forced to do in K-12 school, so I just wrote snarky bullshit 90 percent of the time. In 4th grade (the year 1998) I was told to write about my new year’s resolution. I wrote that my resolution is to not make any more new year’s resolutions. I’ve stuck it to it since then. Every year after that, if I were assigned to write what my resolution is, I would write, “I’m currently following a resolution from 1998 to give up new year’s resolutions, therefore I cannot write anything more than this.”

    I was just being a shitheel. But now that I think about it, I do think that the convention of new year’s resolutions just gives people an excuse to put off positive changes until the end of the year, by which time they may have lost motivation or gotten sidetracked with other things. To each their own, though.

    1. Fourscore

      You were a 10 year old lib in training. Way ahead of some of us, someone else had to encourage us and help us through our late life trainee period. That’s why we need this site and all those that make it possible.

      1. Akira

        Haha!

        Really though, I do think the conformist* environment of school gave me a strong individualist streak, a compulsion to question authority, and a revulsion to “for your own good” mentality. Ever since I was in pre-school, I remember finding something seriously wrong with having to come to that place, even though I couldn’t articulate it until many years later.

        * I know I sound like an edgy 13-year old when I use that word, but I can’t think of another term to describe a place where they start the day with a government loyalty pledge, participate in creepy “school spirit” activities, and the principal, guidance counselor, and other dickheads harass any student who looks or acts in a non-standard way.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Whippersnapper

  9. Spudalicious

    My resolution was to not make resolutions. So yeah, I’ve already failed.

    1. Fourscore

      But you were successful in your failure. That counts as a win.

      1. Spudalicious

        *sips bourbon…ponders*

        1. Sean

          Your lawn looks better than Fourscores…only way to find a winner is via fight club…

          1. Fourscore

            Faint praise. I wouldn’t take that, Spud. The lawn that OMWC/SP will be getting will look better than mine.

          2. Spudalicious

            I think the two of us should go find Sean and beat his ass. It’s only appropriate.

  10. Sean

    I don’t do NY resolutions. Nothing wrong with them, just doesn’t fit my personality.

    1. Akira

      That’s my view. If there’s some positive change to be made, why wait?

      The exception is if there’s some practical reason that you have to wait… For example, I planned my last day of smoking cigarettes about a month ahead because it was going to be my two-week vacation from work. I wanted to be all by myself at home so that if I got irritable and flipped out, I wouldn’t do something stupid and lose my job. Complete isolation while I flushed the nicotine out.

      1. Tres Cool

        Exactly. I started doing a faux-keto diet back in august cause I knew autumn was coming, and I couldnt fit in any of my pants. And aside from being waste(waist)full, buying a new portly wardrobe wasnt an option.

    2. blackjack

      Yeah, I don’t do New York resolutions either.

      Ima try to be less of a smart ass. Not really off to a good start….

      1. juris imprudent

        Thanks, you saved me from that one. Hope I can return the favor.

  11. straffinrun

    It’s important to admit when you were wrong. I let my bias and hatred cloud my judgement which led to being overly critical and hasty. Sometimes you have to look at the whole picture before you jump and declare that you know exactly what it’s all about. I was extremely unfair. So, all that being said, I apologize to my new friend pancreatic cancer.

    1. Winston

      I take it you’re not a Harry Reid fan.

      1. straffinrun

        No. I just love pancreatic cancer for no good reason.

        1. Winston

          How could you hate the Swayze?

          1. straffinrun

            Of course I don’t wish it on good people. But, please keep making me explain a joke.

          2. Spudalicious

            If you have to explain a joke, it’s a bad joke. A fail, if you will.

          3. Winston

            Did you get the results of the test back?

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtMQhTxR6t4

    2. juris imprudent

      I have two friends that I dearly hope kick [pancreatic] cancer’s ass; this round I give to cancer.

      1. straffinrun

        ^Gets it.

      2. Fourscore

        I lost two friends recently from the PC, one about 10-12 days ago. Neither responded to chemo/radiation. Its one of the worst. Good luck to your friends, JI.

      3. J. Frank Parnell

        I think my wife’s grandmother died from pancreatic cancer.

        But it’s fine. They weren’t close and she was actually kind of a bitch.

    3. Brochettaward

      It’s now my unofficially my second favorite cancer.

  12. Do you make New Year Resolutions?

    If so, care to share it here?

    Kinda. New Year is a good time to regroup and refocus. A few goals and priorities have risen to the surface, but they all sort of revolve around a theme:

    -Everything has its place and its boundaries

  13. leon

    TW: Atlantic

    America isn’t a democracy because of the senate

    Here are a few gems:

    Indeed, Article V, in describing the amendment process, stipulates that “no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”

    This seems like a showstopper, and some scholars say it’s “unthinkable” that the one-state, two-senators rule can ever be changed. But, look, when conservative lawyers first argued that the Affordable Care Act violated the Commerce Clause, that seemed unthinkable, too. Our Constitution is more malleable than many imagine.

    First, consider that Article V applies only to amendments. Congress would adopt the Rule of One Hundred scheme as a statute; let’s call it the Senate Reform Act. Because it’s legislation rather than an amendment, Article V would—arguably—not apply.

    We should keep in mind that the original one-state, two-senators rule was written and ratified by property-owning white men, almost half of whom owned slaves, and that the voting-rights amendments were adopted after a war to end slavery.

    If a Democratic wave continues into 2020, then who knows, a Senate Reform Act could make America a democracy again.

    How could America be a democracy again if it has always had a senate apportioned by state.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Woodrow made us safe from democracy

      1. dbleagle

        Whenever II hear someone say that the icky flyover states further emasculate their political clout I keep advocating for a return to the pre- XVII Amendment Senate. Get the states more involved to better ensure that the considerations of the 48, 50, 57(?) states are incorporated into Federal laws.

        If there are no good comedies on when I get off of work I might RTFA to get a good hate laugh on.

    2. Rhywun

      How could America be a democracy again if it has always had a senate apportioned by state.

      Oopsie!

      We should keep in mind that the original one-state, two-senators rule was written and ratified by property-owning white men

      And? Oh, I get it. The only possible rationalization for the senate is to keep down women and minorities. Someone should tell other countries with a federal system similar to or even modeled after ours that they’re doing it wrong too.

      1. Its 2019 and bald faced racism is considered a thoughtful debate tactic.

      2. Representative democracy is a tool of white oppression.

        Also, not counting absentee ballots found in trunks or asking for identification before someone votes is Nazi fascism, which is also a tool of white oppression.

        Basically, elections or not elections are both tools of white oppression.

        1. Basically, elections or not elections are both tools of white oppression.

          It’s almost like their goal isn’t to be logically consistent, but rather to say and do anything that will aid them in acquiring power.

          1. juris imprudent

            If they don’t acquire power how can they fight white oppression?

    3. Winston

      Isn’t it those property owning white who created the vaunted Liberal Democracy and World Order that Trump is bad for destroying?

      And didn’t those property owning white men create the Bill of Rights or do they not matter anymore?

    4. Akira

      Today the voting power of a citizen in Wyoming, the smallest state in terms of population, is about 67 times that of a citizen in the largest state of California, and the disparities among the states are only increasing. The situation is untenable.

      Good god, it gets fucking tiresome listening to all this whining about each state getting two senators regardless of population.

      It’s almost like those old white slaveholders had something in mind that would balance a popular vote with a requirement to appeal to a broad cross-section of Americans rather than just focusing on the big population centers. It’s almost like a 100% popular vote system for the legislature would result in those population centers ruling over the peasants. It’s almost like that aristocratic system would quickly lead those rural peasants to revolt or secede and tear the country apart. It’s almost like there’s already a chamber of Congress where each state gets allotted representatives based on population. It’s almost like absolute democracy has problems that have to be guarded against, and it’s almost like they figured this out way back in ancient fucking Greece.

      1. Rebel Scum

        allotted representatives based on population

        Not only that, as an additional division of power, the House is supposed to be the house of the people whereas the Senate is supposed to be the house of the States. Direct election of Senators made it into two houses of the people, removing one of the aspects of division of power.

        1. Rhywun

          The root of this stupidity is that the left cannot abide the notion of the next state over being even slightly different from their state. The whole point of “federalism” is lost on them. So then when they get everything set up they way they like in their current state (with them holding maximum power), they want everyone else to “enjoy” it too. It’s their way or the highway.

          1. Winston

            Yes and right now the Senate is holding them back. How many 2010-2014 articles did they write extolling the virtues of the senate?

          2. Harkening back to the really good article the other day, its not about jealousy. They already got theirs.

            It’s about envy. Its about depriving everybody else.

          3. kbolino

            The root of this stupidity is that the left cannot abide the notion of the next state over being even slightly different from their state.

            I don’t think that’s quite it. I think it’s more that people, left and right, want the government to right the wrongs of the world. When the perpetrators of those wrongs were states, they crushed the power of states. When it was individuals, they had them all shot or thrown in jail using every trick the law could muster. When it was reality itself, they invented scapegoats to rob so they could bribe the masses and split the spoils among themselves. I think jealously and envy are ultimately less potent than a sense of righteousness, and it is in the name of righteousness that so much evil has been done.

        2. juris imprudent

          Worst progressive fuck-up so far. I do have faith they can do worse.

      2. Rhywun

        just focusing on the big population centers

        And?

        /Atlantic writer

      3. But Enough About Me

        . . . it’s almost like they figured this out way back in ancient fucking Greece.

        Well, it’s almost like that until some fucking imbecile writing for The Atlantic puts fingers to keyboard.

    5. Rebel Scum

      Our Constitution is more malleable than many imagine

      It is not supposed to be.

      a Senate Reform Act could make America a democracy again

      Changing the composition of the senate requires an amendment like changing the selection of senators did. And such an effort would be more along the lines of making America a democracy, but not “again”, as it never was one.

      These ignoramuses never consider the reasons the US is not a democracy (2 wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.). I suppose this is connected to the nature that none of them consider the Constitutional question as it relates to their socialist ideals. No one asks “is it legal for the government to engage in this, that, or the other program/policy/action/etc?”.

      1. Winston

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

        The Wharton School [….] is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, the Wharton School is the world’s oldest collegiate school of business.[4] Furthermore, Wharton is the business school that has produced the highest number of billionaires in the US.[5][6][7]

        Wharton has over 95,000 alumni in 153 countries,[4] with notable figures such as Donald Trump, Jeremy Rifkin, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sundar Pichai, Aditya Mittal, Steven A. Cohen, Jeff Weiner, Anil Ambani, John Sculley, Walter Annenberg, Leonard Lauder, Laurence Tisch, Michael Moritz, Ruth Porat, Kunal Bahl, and William Wrigley Jr. II. Its alumni include the CEOs of Google, Apple, LinkedIn, CBS, General Electric, Boeing, Pfizer, Comcast, Oracle, DHL, UPS, Pepsi, Time, Inc, BlackRock, Johnson & Johnson, UBS AG, Wrigley Company, and Tesco.[17]

        Huh.

      2. blackjack

        They believe they are wolves and that they have a 2-1 majority. Burn it all to the ground just to win this once.

      3. No one asks “is it legal for the government to engage in this, that, or the other program/policy/action/etc?”.

        “Legal, Illegal, We’re the mob with the guns” — Communists when they take power.

    6. But, look, when conservative lawyers first argued that the Affordable Care Act violated the Commerce Clause, that seemed unthinkable, too. Our Constitution is more malleable than many imagine.

      This is weapons grade stupid. Hey idiot! Your ideological forebears, who were more open about their disdain for the Constitution, gutted the damn thing in pursuit of their technocratic utopia. It has nothing to do with a “living Constitution” and everything to do with a concerted attempt to replace the constitution with something objectively worse.

      1. Akira

        I’m seriously going to fly off the handle if I ever hear Leftists bring up the Constitution to justify what they want.

        When it comes to something like the Second Amendment, they’re the first ones to argue that we should literally just ignore it because “the Founding Fathers couldn’t have foreseen what would happen” and “the Constitution is not a suicide pact”.

        I’ve recently designed an elaborate devil’s advocate position where I argue in favor of a Muslim registry because “the Founding Fathers could not have foreseen 9/11” and “the Constitution is not a suicide pact”.

        It makes me fucking sick that there are people out there who want the government to blatantly violate the Second Amendment but would have a conniption fit if they did anything remotely approaching greater scrutiny on Muslims. It’s 100 percent subjective, based on groups they like and don’t like. Muslims are friendly, forward-thinking people, and gun owners are stupid, icky rednecks. That’s all it comes down to.

    7. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Written by a Wharton school professor…

      Jesus…

      1. Brochettaward

        There’s things I see law professors say or argue over that baffles me. I mean, things that you’d think someone who studied the constitution should know. Like, the history of the commerce clause maybe.

    8. juris imprudent

      The author needs to make a New Year’s resolution.

  14. leon

    Not generally. I’ve made a few, rather personal ones this year, but generally things i think i can stick to.

    Two years ago i resloved to tell people they were wrong when i saw it (particularly on Facebook).

    Last year i resolved to be less honest, as being overly honest was giving me trouble (nothing serious).

  15. Rebel Scum

    Do you make New Year Resolutions?

    Used to but it turns out I am not resolute about them.

  16. Count Potato

    https://twitter.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1079295830530523137

    I should say I’m surprised she was attacked for retweeting this, but I’m not.

    1. @Zemyla
      30 Dec 2018

      More
      Replying to @RealSexyCyborg @kukuruyo
      First they came for the Nazis, and I cheered, because Nazis suck.

      Then they didn’t come for anyone else, because the Nazis were gone.
      ——————————————————————————————————

      @N7Kopper
      30 Dec 2018

      More
      Replying to @Zemyla
      And you couldn’t celebrate, since you were dead. The Commissars decided you were a Nazi.

    2. Heroic Mulatto

      Libertarians and Kekistanis find common cause when it comes to free speech, both as a legal doctrine and as a societal ethic. However, when the Kekistanis start advocating for the government to force social media executives at gunpoint to allow them to post their anime nazi and cuck memes, we libertarians be all like:

      1. Yup. Property rights exist or they don’t. Wrongthinkers don’t deserve having their property rights taken away from them, even if they’re doing really stupid and evil stuff with their property

      2. Tres Cool

        Nice use of Price

        /approves

      3. Winston

        Someone tell RC Dean

        Also whatever happened to the notion that Big Tech and Social Media would bring about the Libertarian Moment?

        1. Heroic Mulatto

          Also whatever happened to the notion that Big Tech and Social Media would bring about the Libertarian Moment?

          9/11 and the PATRIOT Act happened.

          1. Winston

            Well Social Media didn’t start to get big until after the Patriot Act.

            Also big Tech is filled with progs as opposed to neocons…

          2. Heroic Mulatto

            Well Social Media didn’t start to get big until after the Patriot Act.

            Right. I was saying it was dead in the water from the start.

          3. Rhywun

            China figured out a way around the Libertarian Moment too.

          4. Winston

            I have a read some interesting things suggesting that the main problem with China is that the population is still very rural and the urbanites have benefited the most from the post-Mao reforms so they are not willing to embrace democracy since they fear being outvoted by the poor and the rural people.

          5. Count Potato

            There is no democracy in China.

          6. Heroic Mulatto

            This was exactly the case in Thailand that I observed first hand during the early to mid 2000’s. After a populist was voted into power by the northern rural poor, the middle class and nobility of the central regions and the south caused so much civil unrest that 2 coups d’etat later, representative democracy is dead in Thailand for the foreseeable future as Chan-o-cha has basically become prime minister for life.

          7. Winston

            I know that but the urban-rural split might be a reason why the urbanites aren’t fighting for it since they do not think they would benefit if China were to ever become a Democracy. Hence why economic prosperity has lead to Democracy.

            Another issue was that these “economic prosperity leads to Democracy” examples were often US-backed authoritarian regimes that the US pressured into Democratization so they might not be the best example.

          8. Winston

            My 9:29 was a reply to Count Potato, not Heroic Mulatto.

          9. Winston

            Doh *Hence why economic prosperity has not lead to Democracy*

          10. Winston

            After a populist was voted into power by the northern rural poor, the middle class and nobility of the central regions and the south caused so much civil unrest that 2 coups d’etat later, representative democracy is dead in Thailand for the foreseeable future

            So how likely is going to happen in the US?

          11. Heroic Mulatto

            So how likely is going to happen in the US?

            Well, the US has some things going for it that Thailand didn’t. The primary one is an unbroken tradition of having a strongly held cultural belief in civilian control of the military. In Thailand, the military see themselves as only answerable to the monarch, and feel empowered to act “in his name”. Thus, that has led many opportunistic generals to act in the name of the King since the end of absolute monarchy in the early 30s. A secondary consideration is that “harmony” is a key value of Thai culture, whereas, American culture is more comfortable with the ordered conflict that is the democratic process. Finally, Thailand is only approximately the size of the west coast of America; it would be extremely difficult for a coup to seize power so quickly that the entire country would capitulate at once. Thai generals don’t have to worry about insurgencies as a result of their coups (except for the one in the south that has raged for 40 something years, but that’s Muslim hissy fit related, not political).

            Just a standing on one leg analysis.

          12. Gustave Lytton

            Citizens United is prohibited under lese majesty rather than campaign finance basis?

          13. Winston

            Fair points. I was however interested in the whole coup against a populist what with many people here think that the Mueller investigation is trying to be one and all those articles calling for a coup to keep Trump from power.

          14. Winston

            Said populist also being accused of being a corrupt, foreign backed autocrat.

          15. Winston

            Also I do find interesting that it takes just one man to kill the Libertarian Moment: Bin Laden in 2001 and Trump in 2016. Maybe libertarianism is in fact a lot weaker than we would like to think?

          16. blackjack

            Well, libertarianism is in fact a lot weaker than I would like to think, but I somehow doubt Trump killed any libertarian moment. I mean if he’s the enemy, what about ALL the rest of them?

          17. Winston

            There was quite a lot of talk about the Libertarian Moment happening in 2016, until Trump that is.

            I mean if he’s the enemy, what about ALL the rest of them?
            Reply

            This is the sort of thing I am talking about. “Libertarian Moment” seems to imply that there are significant societal forces moving in a libertarian direction and that there are powerful people who support libertarian goals. However as we have seen in 2001 and right now this is clearly not the case.

          18. blackjack

            Yeah, Trump major moves have been to cut taxes, cut regulations and appoint freedom oriented judges. Yeah we got the stupid trade war crap and some needless immigration stuff, but most of what we did get we should party in the streets over. Imagine if Mrs Clinton was in charge…..

            For that matter, just look at every other modern President. None have come close. Not even Saint Ronnie.

      4. Count Potato

        The thing is is that neither the social media companies, nor the banks and payment processors, operate within anything close to a free market.

        So it’s not an issue of advocating for the government to force social media executives at gunpoint, it’s advocating to allow people to distribute media and handle money without having 37 government agencies with guns crawl up their ass with a microscope.

        So unless living off the grid in a shack in Montana, you are so owned by Mastercard it’s practically a violation of the 13th Amendment.

        1. Winston

          I hate to sound like a left-libertarian but I should also point out the trade agreements and the economics that the Deplorables complain about weren’t very free market either.

        2. Heroic Mulatto

          The thing is is that neither the social media companies, nor the banks and payment processors, operate within anything close to a free market.

          Two wrongs, something something, a right.

          it’s advocating to allow people to distribute media and handle money without having 37 government agencies with guns crawl up their ass with a microscope.

          I don’t get that from the comic at all.

          So unless living off the grid in a shack in Montana, you are so owned by Mastercard it’s practically a violation of the 13th Amendment.

          Hey, I liked Fight Club too, but that’s being a tad dramatic. Besides, how do we go from government agencies to Mastercard? Believe it or not, there are plenty of people who live just fine outside of the credit web using just cash. They’re called Asian immigrants. The average personal savings rate in China is about 47% of income; the average rate in the US is 3%. Live truly within your means if you want to hop on the Underground Railroad.

          1. Count Potato

            “Two wrongs, something something, a right.”

            I have no idea what you mean. I’m advocating for a free market, not more government regulation.

            “I don’t get that from the comic at all.”

            It’s that starting your own bank that can do what it wants is impossible

            “Besides, how do we go from government agencies to Mastercard?”

            Regulatory capture.

          2. Heroic Mulatto

            I have no idea what you mean. I’m advocating for a free market, not more government regulation.

            Sorry, I had originally read your post as defending the advocates for regulation, but I see what you are saying now.

            It’s that starting your own bank that can do what it wants is impossible

            Is it or is it “impossible” like competing with Amazon impossible (i.e., possible, but extremely difficult until someone finds a way to disrupt online retail before Bezos catches on). If it’s the former, then that’s a matter of government intrusion on the market; if it’s the latter, then, well, that’s how the free market works.

            Regulatory capture.

            You’ll have to help me out here. What’s to stop something like gab from finding a hosting service that accepts cash, or crypto? Or finding someway to form KEK Credit Union? Hell, starting a credit union isn’t even Amazon impossible, the government even has a whole agency to help you do it!

          3. Count Potato

            “if it’s the former, then that’s a matter of government intrusion on the market”

            It is government intrusion — corporatism — where huge companies use government force.

            Crypto is difficult for most people, since their money is in U.S. dollars. And the U.S. government has been increasingly cracking down on cryptocurrencies.

            “the government even has a whole agency to help you do it!”

            Yes, a whole agency that burdens everyone with arcane regulations.

            What you don’t seem to get is most people are going to use credit cards — not cash through local credit unions — that would keep any “KEK Credit Union” from accepting money. Paypal and Patreon are not cash businesses. It’s 2018, almost all money is electronic. These transfers are national and International through the internet, where it is is impossible to operate without the approval of companies such as MasterCard.

            Nick Monroe, who you dismiss as an autistic geek, did a massive exposé how MasterCard forced Patreon to ban numerous creators that MasterCard determined to be politically unfavorable.

          4. BakedPenguin

            Please remember, Winston’s a dick

          5. BakedPenguin

            Also, Count Potato is right.

          6. kbolino

            Don’t worry, the IMF is hard at work trying to drive China into the same idiotic fiscal position as the U.S.

            More to the point, people don’t save in the U.S. because all the incentives favor the opposite. It’s only recently that you can get a savings account paying more than 1% interest and to get it you have to be fairly savvy, as opposed to just walking to your local bank. Apart from debts owed to the government, there’s not a lot of penalty for accruing debt except that eventually, after a long while, you can’t take on any more debt. Old school mechanisms to save wisely, like money market accounts and certificates of deposit, have been gutted by incentives and regulations. Even savings bonds don’t pay much, because the government that’s issuing them has the fiscal sense of a toddler.

  17. Count Potato

    https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1080279836512452608

    “that’s why it’s called Victoria’s Secret.”

    1. straffinrun

      Oh, that’s gonna be my new year resolution. Use air quotes when I call a chick with a dick “ma’am”.

  18. Rhywun

    No, I don’t make resolutions of any kind, at any time. I know what I need to do and it’ll get done when I feel like it. Resolutions just strike me as setting myself up for disappointment and who needs that.

    1. Sean

      People who use question marks?

      1. Rhywun

        I stand by my use of the rhetorical question-statement. I mean, who doesn’t defend themselves against baseless accusations.

        1. You know who else didn’t defend themselves when accused of things?

          1. Spudalicious

            Dietrich Bonhoeffer?

  19. No. I live every day just exactly as I see fit. If I see need for a change, I don’t wait for an arbitrary date, I just do it.

  20. Count Potato

    “They’re Lying about Louis C.K.

    ‘Transgressive’ is good, except when the Left gets offended

    Is there any precedent for the outpouring of loathing and contempt from former admirers and peers that landed on Louis C.K. as 2018 ticked to a close? Fellow comics and comedy writers broke an unwritten rule and attacked one of their own, joining the usual Twitterati and culture cops in a rage-fueled online stoning. A bit C.K. had performed at a Long Island night club on December 16, with no intention that a national audience hear it, and that leaked online without his permission, was mentioned on the front page of the New York Post and New York Times.

    The prototypical C.K. routine will be shocking (in that it ventures without euphemism into an area we don’t like to talk about), subversive (in that he stakes out a contrarian position), and funny (because its premise is nevertheless true, or at least true-ish). If you don’t agree with the premises, you’re not going to find them funny. But the premise of his Parkland bit is that surviving a school shooting doesn’t make you an expert on any public-policy question. This is not only true, it’s obvious. C.K. is doing the same kinds of bits he has always done.”

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/louis-c-k-comedy-routine-not-off-limits/

    1. Count Potato

      “Shout out to everyone who thinks Louis CK, who recorded this in 2011, spontaneously became an offensive comic 2 days ago.”

      https://twitter.com/JustinWhang/status/1079834404615278596

    2. Count Potato

      Louis CK NEW SET 12/16/2018 Governor’s Comedy Club

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Nc3x_TkF4

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        The idiot laughing drove me nuts

        1. commodious spittoon

          FUCKING NO KIDDING. Jesus, I was HATING Louis because of that braying fucking jackass jerkoff. I was tickled by the humor but soured into thinking, “It’s not THAT funny.” UGH.

        2. Count Potato

          Yes, that’s just bad mic placement.

    3. straffinrun

      It bugs me that the supposed IDGAF comics like Bill Burr are silent on this. Fine, but you’re not the badass you’re portraying yourself as.

      1. juris imprudent

        Well it shows you who really runs the entertainment industry.

        1. straffinrun

          Some comic was making the point on Rogan’s Show that if you’re a good comic you’ll be able to sell out a garage. The good ones just need to rent a space and the fans will show up.

      2. Sensei

        OT:

        I haven’t thought about this in years, but given straffinrun’s fondness for “manko” jokes I just remembered Oruchuban Ebichu. I’m still amazed that it was ever broadcast in Japan.

        Mad props to the guy that fan subbed this. It has so many double entendre and plays on words that he felt compelled to give it 5 minutes of exposition for English speakers.

        https://youtu.be/IPWFwoyc5FU

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

        1. commodious spittoon

          One of my favorites. My ex was learning the language, so we used to watch.

          1. Sensei

            Highly recommended!

        2. straffinrun

          I’ll check it out later. Thx.

    4. commodious spittoon

      When National Review is opposite the moral scolds of society…

      And when Andy fuckin’ Richter pretends to some perch in the comedy firmament…

      We’ve reached a cultural nadir, and I’m not sure there’s any upswing. We’re on a forever trajectory downward.

      1. Brochettaward

        This Tweet basically sums up the left’s principles:

        I’m more so disappointed in how overdone and lazy the jokes are. He sounds like every conservative edgelord on twitter.

        1. kbolino

          I think the greatest gift Jack Dorsey could give to humanity would be to torch Twitter to the ground.

  21. The Bearded Hobbit

    None. Why should an arbitrary date force me to change?

    Fact: I’m short, fat, and ugly. I can only change one and I’ve been struggling to do it for my entire life.

    What should the new year have to do with any of that?

  22. Brett L

    Like someone said above, I more try to regroup, refocus, and think about what I could do differently. Trying to make the switch from goal-driven to a more process-driven — lifestyle? orientation? life? Anyhow, rather than saying I want to get in shape to run a 10K, I’m trying to look at “other people who run 10Ks successfully do this every day/week” and try to focus on just doing that day’s work. And then in six or eight weeks, check to see if the process seems to be getting me substantially closer to the outcome I want or not.

    For example, the week before Christmas, I set up an exercise process. I’m going to exercise every day. A “successful” day looks like putting my gear on, showing up to the appointed place, and doing something. (I think I totally stole this from Scott Adams). At work, I’m going to spend 1 hour a day working on something that makes my work-life easier. Since I’m mostly doing software architecture and data integrations right now, that looks like an hour a day working on process automation, documentation, templates, and error-handling. And then I can check back in six weeks and see if work has gotten easier, and if I’m making the sort of gains I want in my fitness.

    At home, it’s more like this.

  23. I actually don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions.

    You should resolve to live as best you can each and every day.

    /maudlin and cliché but true.

    1. creech

      Just keep the cuties coming. Then I can continue to fantasize (like most of the rest of you) that such women would even look twice at me, or that they all are going to show up as delegates at the next LP convention.

      1. Gustave Lytton

        Tits for Weld? If that’s your thing, ok..

        1. Winston

          How about for his cousin Tuesday?

  24. Rufus the Monocled

    My resolution is to ask ‘DON’T ANY OF YOU WORK!?’ more often.

  25. kinnath

    I resolve to get older. And crankier. And drink too much on club night.

    1. Count Potato

      At least you are young enough for club night.

  26. dbleagle

    No NY resolutions for me either. I have already been assured by people where I live that I am “worst than Alof HITLER!!!!”.

    So I have that going for me.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Worse than Hitler huh.

      One would have to, in order to be worse, match killing millions of retards, gays, Gypsies and Jews and then….what? Kill more? How much worse can one do?

      Looks like to stupid people all you need to do is disagree with them.

    1. commodious spittoon

      YO WAIT A MINUTE YOU KNOW I CAN’T TOUCH YOU. Brilliant.

  27. Akira

    I guess I can talk about a goal of mine even though I’ve been working on it for months:

    Use time in productive ways. Years ago, my daily routine was this:

    Get up and exercise for one hour (either jogging or lifting weights). Eat a healthy breakfast. Spend the morning and early afternoon writing paid articles, reading something worthwhile (history, philosophy, classic fiction, or books on how to write better). Go to work. Come home and read or write some more, eat dinner, and go to bed. Weekends would include some “downtime”, but most of the day was still spent on productive things.

    I need to get back to something like that, where most of my activities are driving towards something – either physical fitness, mental enrichment, or bolstering my skill and reputation as a freelance writer.

    I’ve done pretty well on keeping up the exercise, but I missed some running due to overtime at this stupid job and put on some weight. Now I’m in a sort of dilemma where I have a pain in my foot – likely from running with the extra weight – and now I can’t run the weight off. I’ll have to do indoor cardio and diet down to lose the weight, then take up running again once the pain has completely subsided. I can also add reps on my weightlifting routine so that I’m burning more calories and losing that fat quicker.

    I have about nine different books that I’m “reading” right now, but I’m barely making headway. I’m going to start knocking them out ONE at a time. I used to simultaneously read one fiction, one philosophy, and one history or some other educational topic. That was an acceptable number and type of books to be reading at once. What I’m doing right now is just starting shit and not finishing it.

    As far as the freelance writing, I’ve actually finished a number of books on composition, which I’ve found very helpful. I need to get back on this Internet marketing forum where I used to hang out and start meeting some people who need sales/advertising articles written. I should probably also go back to the freelance writing website; even though it doesn’t pay a lot, it will keep my skills sharp.

    Hell, just typing that out has helped me get my thoughts in order and see the way forward.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Set a schedule and stick to it, and don’t be afraid to nap, just try to keep it at 2 hours or less. I learned that from Churchill, I always thought napping was a waste of the day, how wrong I was

      1. Akira

        I usually do take naps on my breaks at work of about 14 minutes (don’t bother asking how I can even fall asleep during that time; I don’t know either. I just do).

        If I’m at home on a weekend, I’ll lay down for a nap without setting a timer, but I usually wake up naturally after 45 minutes tops.

        Last summer, as some of you may remember, I tried that thing where you get up at the same time every day, but it just made me miserable and I gave it up. Fuck dat shit; a man needs to sleep 12 hours now and then, especially if he runs on 4 or 5 hours Monday through Friday.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          Up at 5 sleep by 9, sleep is good

          1. leon

            Yup i’m up at 4 bed at 9:30, usually a 15-30 min of lying down when i get home from work.

          2. blackjack

            I get up at 4, sleeping by 9:30. Every day no matter what.

          3. The Bearded Hobbit

            Up at 5 sleep by 9, sleep is good

            With all due respect, fuck you and your kind.

            I am a life-long insomniac. The statement, “I fall asleep the instant my head hits the pillow” is as offensive to me as the the person who says, “I don’t know, I can eat all I want and not gain an ounce.” I cannot begin to fall asleep until at least an hour and a half after I go to bed, regardless of the time. Every morning at 3AM my eyes pop open and I lay in bed until it is light enough to get up. I am lucky to get 8 hours of sleep per week.

            Everyone should get 8 hours per sleep per night and every child in Biafra should get a large slice of chocolate cake every night.

            Real world vs ideal world.

          4. blackjack

            For what it’s worth, I can eat whatever I want and not gain an ounce.

            I have a hard time getting to sleep, though. I wake up automatically, regardless of when I go to sleep. If I stay up late, I lose sleep. I cannot nap at all, ever. I just can’t. Sometime I take antihistamines and that helps.

          5. The Bearded Hobbit

            And I walk past a bakery and gain three pounds.

            Sorry about coming across as such an asshole. I’m short on sleep.

          6. Rhywun

            Never apologize! I don’t have it as bad but I hear you about food and sleep.

          7. Heroic Mulatto

            I have an honest to goodness, doctor diagnosed, sleep-lab confirmed circadian rhythm disorder, myself.

          8. The Bearded Hobbit

            Is there anything that you can do about it?

          9. The Bearded Hobbit

            Asking in case I have something similar going on.

      2. I always thought napping was a waste of the day

        I struggle with that.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          I did too for 50 plus years, then I learned about Churchill, and it worked, like a second wind,just time it

          1. When I first started working a desk job, I worked the 7-4 shift and would nap from 4:30-5:15 every evening. Felt so much better the rest of the night. Maybe I need to recapture the lost glory.

          2. Yusef drives a Kia

            Churchill live to be 95, and his monthly liquor list would kill us all, and cigars, great food and prific writing, worth a shot to me ?

          3. Akira

            I think I’m a second shift creature by nature. I used to get up at 9:30 AM and go to bed by 3 AM (2 AM if I was lucky) and I felt completely fine. You know that part of the day where you are just on and getting things done one after the other? That occurs between 8 PM and midnight for me.

            I loved my old second shift job, but they moved it to another state. Now I’m on day shift and hating it more every day.

    2. Fourscore

      I was never good at multitasking. I could one thing at a time and do it fairly well through to completion. If I was interrupted and given another task I might lose interest in task 1 and find it tough to go back. If I pre-programmed the dividing of time I was OK . I’m the person that eats all his salad first, eats all the soup second and so on. In other words, I’m boring as hell.

  28. Rufus the Monocled

    Stop pretending.

    All of you.

    1. commodious spittoon

      It’s true. I’m merely pretending. I’m not ordained by God to sit on the throne of England.

    2. Spudalicious

      Fuck off, Tulpa.

  29. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Resolutions were never really my thing. I just try to change basic behaviors as I can. It can be surprising how much resistance you will receive from people who are accustomed to how you are currently.

  30. I’m already branching out into new areas.

    Unfortunately the audiobook I decided to record has too many female characters. It’s bad enough my voice has the emotional range of a brick, but to try to provide a more feminine cadence and inflection distinct from the other ones that still reflects the personality of this character…

    Carol I can manage, She’s upbeat and cheerful and oh so I want to beat her brains in with that emotional brick just so she’ll shut up.

    Erin… not so much I can hear in the performance so I forget what I was aiming for.

    Now Stephanie has shown up and I have to somhow convey the professionalism her character is defined by.

    It’s not that the male characters are easier, but I don’t have to worry about my vocal registers being what they are. Except for Xiv, but trying to make Xiv sound young, he turned out whiny.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Software might help, I can change my voice at will in FL11, and its not autotune, just some pitch and timbre

      1. Oh I plan to change the pitch of each track in Audacity when I finish recording it. The problem is I just found out I lost the record of how much I’d planned to pitch the tracks. (I typed it in a document and never hit save)

      2. What I’m talking about is the base performance before it gets pitch-changed.

        Example – in the story there is some text written by Carol that gets read by the third person omniscient narrator. When I did my early pitch change tests, it sounded wrong. When I moved them to Carol’s track and applied her pitch change, they still sounded wrong – because they were read in the matter-of-fact narrator voice rather than the upbeat Carol voice.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          Find someone to help do vocals, some things need different timbres that one voice just can’t do, we are all different that way

          1. Nein! Nein!

            Ist my project!

          2. Yusef drives a Kia

            I’m the same, but I have some long time backing vocalists so I guess I’m spoiled

    2. Xiv is the dragon boy thing correct? If it helps I heard him as kinda like a whinging puppy anyway.

      1. Yes, Xiv is the dragon boy. I had been aiming for ‘innocent’ in his dialog.

        1. Yeah, I got the ‘innocent’ thing but the ‘puppy dog’ vibe came off stronger. Merely my opinion obviously, and maybe there’s not much difference. I think you got the character’s essence across either way.

    3. I think I just stumbled on an easy way to give Shiva the synthetic sound he needs. I opened two versions of the test files, one unchanged in pitch, and one with the pitch changes. The audio is perfectly synchronized, but for everything escept for Floyd’s dialog (unchaged pitch) has this wierd mutipitch output. So if I double Shiva’s dialog and give them two different pitches, it’ll sound artificial and still be understandable.

  31. Winston

    https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-clears-way-for-ex-pats-to-vote-in-canadian-elections

    Gee I wonder why Turdeau Jr. Wants Neil Young and Donald Sutherland to be able to vote?

  32. Tulip

    I have spent too much time focused on all the things wrong with me. Therefore, I make my resolutions pleasant things to look forward to, like try new restaurants. This year, I want to find and try more hobbies, so I will try a new meet up every month.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Painting, writing, music, building stuff,
      Above all be creative, it’s good for the mind and soul

    2. Mojeaux

      Re hobbies: You should browse Pinterest. That place could be a hobby all on its own, but you might find something you really want to try that you’d never have thought of yourself.

          1. Chafed

            Wow!

  33. Rufus the Monocled

    Elizabeth Warren grabbing a beer. More cringe is hard to find.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjDEPtS68CM

    1. straffinrun

      Indian Pale ale?

      1. straffinrun

        Dammit. Should’ve been “Pale Indian Ale”.

        1. Rhywun

          *thud*

          1. straffinrun

            It’s better to get it right. Anyway, I hope someone gets a picture of Warren standing in front of a cigar shop.

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          It’s not nice to talk about her hubby that way.

  34. Yusef drives a Kia

    And keep your dogs and kids out of the shopping carts, it’s fucking disgusting and dirty ,scum

  35. Chipping Pioneer

    Fanciest. Team. Canada. Ever.

    1. Rhywun

      Sore-y.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Not one of our better editions that’s for sure. The lack of star power was plainly obvious.

      It was a ridiculously unlucky tying goal but they didn’t seal the deal and weren’t good enough.

      You never got the sense this team had the usual ‘it’ factor and swagger that comes with Team Canada squads.

      1. Rhywun

        They swaggered the hell out of Denmark. OK, so did everyone else but still. As a casual observer I didn’t see it going down the way it did the last couple games.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          The Russia game was meh. They beat each other all the time and quite honestly I always prefer to lose to them in round robin because it builds the resolve and revenge factor in a short tourney.

          Finland is always a tough game. Canada usually has the firepower to overcome but they just lacked the punch.

          Like I mentioned, Russia and USA had an edge.

    1. Chafed

      It’s amazing to me it has come to this. If the press did its job then this would be unnecessary.

    1. Rhywun

      social media stars

      And… I’m out. And BTW, a couple assholes does not make a “trend”.

    2. straffinrun

      Jackass was slightly amusing because they hurt themselves. This just shitty humor. You can tell by the way people laugh when they watch it.

  36. CPRM

    I, like don’t limit myself, man. That being said 2 days into the new year and it’s been more than 24hrs since I had a cigarette. (although I’m vaping instead, so nannies do not approve)

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      Good deal, good luck

      1. CPRM

        Thanks. Christmas bonus and gifts paid for it, so it was the right time to try it without losing anything. And it’s worked out way better than I expected, given my past attempts with e-cigs, but the variable watt mod is hitting all the points I need.

    2. kbolino

      The reaction to vaping, while I guess ultimately predictable, has been very illustrative. It is the nanny-scold instinct and not any sincere interest in public health that motivates people to regulate the behavior of others.

      1. CPRM

        The nanny state of mind has been illustrated here greatly with the meme ‘Someone, somewhere is doing something I don’t approve of, therefore it should be illegal.”

      2. Rhywun

        It’s a little of that, plus a little of “tax the shit out of the drug addicts”, if the price increases I’m seeing are anything to go by.

        1. CPRM

          But,at the same time, give free needles to junkies. I’m baffled.

          1. Rhywun

            All drugs are equal, but some drugs are more equal than others.

            … Yeah, I don’t get it either.

          2. Rhywun

            OTOH, I totally get it because – for now – vaping and smoking are still legal, and therefore a perfect target for extracting tax dollars from those who are hooked on them. See: marijuana legalization.

  37. CPRM

    Things you find out when you’re an adult that you never wanted to know: My Grandma used to go to the stripclubs with my Grandpa, and invited my Aunt and her husband along. Did not need to know that.

    1. Sir Digby’s Contrabulous Faptraption

      Damn that TMI generation!

      Seriously, though….damn.

      1. CPRM

        And my aunt, now 79, just kind of drops in conversation, like ‘haha’.

        1. Rhywun

          Everyone gets a little DGAF by that age. It’s one of the privileges of growing old.

          1. Sir Digby’s Contrabulous Faptraption

            It’s one of the privileges of growing old.

            It is known. Hell, I have it (somewhat) at 47.

            Of course, few want to be the recipient of that.

        2. Sir Digby’s Contrabulous Faptraption

          Maybe that could be your NY resolution: To wear earplugs/gain sudden, temporary deafness around older family members.

          Of course, SLD: Adults can adult as they see fit. But familial relations that start talking amorous activities with younger family members certainly brings on an, “Oh, dear God” response.

          1. CPRM

            Well, it was just a few years ago when the same Aunt talked about when my uncle tried took her to a porno theater when they started dating. She taught at a Catholic school. And I’m such a sexually repressed Catholic I’ve never even talked to any in the family about my dating life unless I was drunk. This has been some world shattering stuff. Not to mention when I was helping her clean house and we found a beta tape porno and she was all ‘haha, yeah the guys at work used to exchange those.’

    2. straffinrun

      Blew my mind when I found out blow jobs began before 1990.

      1. Sir Digby’s Contrabulous Faptraption

        What you did there? I see it.

    3. Gustave Lytton

      My grandpa’s military file has VD in his entry medical file.

      1. Sir Digby’s Contrabulous Faptraption

        “Thanks, Doc!”

      2. straffinrun

        Damn. What were they using his file as?

      3. Chafed

        Now you can admire him even more.

      4. Gustave Lytton

        So much for an unmarried Catholic greatest generation guy.

        Sadly he was an alky and dropped dead of a heart attack before I was born. Wish I had a chance to meet him.

    4. Tejicano

      I dunno. My grandparents are long gone. Parents are gone too. I have one aunt and my step-mother still here. I don’t think I would care much either way if I found out some unusual history about any of them.

  38. hayeksplosives

    I told my Secretary i would submit my expense raw materials to her in a timely fashion going forwrd,

    She approved.