5 years ago I would proudly pronounce that I was a Libertarian to anyone who would listen. I still remember how good it would feel to be an enigma during political debates. Just as someone would think they had me figured out as a conservative, I’d drop drug legalization on them. If someone thought I leaned left, I would quickly bring up the need for fiscal responsibility.
This was all well and good until one day at work 5 months ago. I was out to lunch with some co-workers, when we started talking about a recent firing. One of my co-workers remarked that she knew about the firing beforehand, the CEO had told her about it a few months in advance. I was disgusted. My co-worker was not a manager and had no business knowing about the employment status of my fired friend. Not only was this unprofessional, it was morally wrong.
That night I met up with my cop friend and asked him about it. When he said that there was no crime in what the CEO had done, I was incredulous. “Aren’t you a libertarian?” he asked, “Don’t you believe that the CEO is free do do what he wants?”. Almost immediately my heart filled with dread. I quickly said goodbye to my friend and went home.
For the next few days I struggled with my beliefs. Had I been wrong all along? I liked a lot of what libertarianism is about, but I hadn’t realized that it meant people could do anything, including things I really didn’t like. After many painful hours I came to the conclusion that I had to cast off my erroneous beliefs. Just as a scientist must discard a theory once it has been proven wrong. Clearly libertarianism can’t be right if it could be used to justify things I knew were wrong.
Unfortunately libertarianism is growing in popularity, and becoming ever more powerful. It permeates our political and social lives. Many people feel disoriented arguing with them, so I want to provide them with 3 arguments that will shut-up any libertarian.
1. We live in a Libertarian Utopia:
This is quite a powerful argument, as it quickly puts the perennially whining freedom lovers on defense. Libertarians like to say they have little to no political power in the United States. But as soon as you point out that there are thousands of things you don’t like that are still legal, they will be scratching their heads. Some libertarians are adamant that the United States is not a libertarian paradise. Very well, quietly point out that places like Libya, Syria and Iraq had their governments destroyed, and now they are terrible places.
2. Libertarians don’t have a plan:
Everyone is a critic, but only the truly inspired can come up with a plan. This is a good argument to bring up when you are talking about a plan to right an injustice in the world. Often a libertarian will bring up hypothetical issues or highlight some imperfections (as if we ever thought our plans would be perfect). But if you challenge them to come up with a solution they will often dodge the question by saying we should “Leave it to individuals to work out voluntarily”. Don’t they see that’s what got us into the mess in the first place?
3. Libertarianism is Irrational:
This is a fantastic argument. Most libertarians deem themselves the most rational people in the world. Well quickly point out to them that by leaving things to Individuals they are advocating the least rational plan. Clearly just letting the chaos of the market “sort it out” will result in inefficiencies, but if we take a step back and look at what is going on we can come up with a rational plan to fix the things we don’t like in society. Rationalism requires that we abandon libertarian thought.
Comments
398 responses to “I Used to be a Libertarian, but then someone did something I don’t like”
5 years ago I would proudly pronounce that I was a Libertarian to anyone who would listen
I hope you weren’t as insufferable as the vegans.
Or the pedants.
Haha! Someone get Ted some Aloe. He just got a sick burn!
LOL
Heh. He should of seen that coming.
Or those Crossfit fucks!
Applause
Thank you. I was worried, but excited all week to see it come out.
Good stuff:) Everyone knows there is only one Libertarian and that’s me!
You know who else was excited all week to see it come out?
Peter North?
You should get
thea clap for that one.*
fromfor thatExcellent!
Thanks!
Submit this to Salon. They’ll probably run it.
^^^^^^
I am triggered by your picture of a drink with a straw.
A STRAW! For shame.
The thought of paper straws sends a chill down my spine. That texture in my mouth is like nails on a chalkboard.
What? Who doesn’t like the feel of wet cardboard in one’s mouth?
You guys talking about Little Ceasar’s?
JB is on fire tonight!
He’s drunk.
Nope that was last night. Now I’m just tired. Need a snack and some shut eye.
Well, if you got $5….
/”Hot and ready” is not my offer
I knew I should have worn a condom.
5 bucks is 5 bucks.
Very nicely done, leon….including the alt-text.
Lol Alt-text was a nice editorial touch, not me.
Team work! Excellent.
*waggles eyebrows*
You may have a disdain for puns, but you always bring great alt-text, which is a great type of humor.
Disdain? The narrowed gaze is high praise to a punster. Second only to pinching your nose and running away. Most of us only pun to please Swiss.
“*waggles eyebrows*”
I still have no idea what that means. I figure it must be one of those European things.
It means he alt texts and thinks he is Karl Marx, or is it Zeppo?
Wait, what is Azeppo?
::readies votes for Tripacer in the next election::
I promise pot in every pot, and an orphan in every garage
So many things are morally wrong. So. Many. Maybe I should lobby for outlawing bacon…?
I can look past your child molesting but that would crossing a line.
Well that’s taking it a bit far. I mean, I know a lot of people don’t like him, but I thought Tremors was a cinematic masterpiece. And who can forget, “Thank you sir, may I have another?!”
Who else can you play six degrees of separation with. Also, who would teach the town of Bomont to loosen up?
Erdos
Indeed.
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is a good read on Erdos.
My gf has a very specific set of skills…should bacon be outlawed…she would be very upset.
These skills mostly involve a .270 winchester.
That cartridge seems disproportionately popular among women. Maybe they like the long case?
It’s a great round.
7mm-08
7×57
Killed more elephants than any other cartridge.
But the .270 just might be the best round for game in NA.
Or the .30-’06.
.308
Count Potato confirmed as hunting humans.
“These skills mostly involve a .270 winchester.’
n.b. – Sean, sure you know this already, but don’t piss her off.
Fake news. You’re not a practicing jooh.
Insert how do you practice being Jewish joke here.
I don’t need to practice, I’m quite good at it.
Uh, no. You actually suck dick at it. Literally.
Fuck off, shaygetz.
Literally, he sucks dicks. Of goyim children.
I thought he drank the blood of the goyim children? Or wait…these aren’t mutually exclusive things.
I need to take a shower now.
I recommend lye soap.
He’s a mohel that goes around sneak circumcising?
Ah, nothing like friendship….
I wish I could sit down with the both of ya, and get ya both drunk and just sit back and watch the banter.
By “friendship”, you clearly mean “sexual tension”.
You wouldn’t have to get us drunk, it just sort of happens naturally when we’re cooking.
We’re actually much more boring in person. Has to do with using all of our mental faculties to focus through the haze.
I refuse to read anything written under your slave name.
That’s why I refuse to read Trotsky.
Slave Name, Nom de plume.
On a Trump to Hitler scale of wrongness how wrong is it that this comment made me picture a black man whipping another black man, while saying “Your name is Kunta Kinte, say it!” while the whippee plaintively cries “but my name is Toby”
Well, the first slave owner on this continent was black…
A similar thing used to happen at a factory where I worked. These two black dudes had this running joke where one of them would grab a cable and start mock-whipping the other guy while shouting “yo name is TOBY!”. They would both be laughing their asses off while any non-black people in the area would be uncomfortably stifling their own laughter, unsure if they were “allowed” to laugh at that spectacle or not.
You left out the feelz attack. Otherwise, good show old sport.
I was a libertarian until someone ran a stop sign and hit me in my car. It was then that I realized that an all powerful state was necessary.
I’m staying a libertarian until they make me King. I flirted with being a Libertarian, but there aren’t any libertarians over there; I’ll go back if they give the nod to McAfee.
Thanks for the laugh, Leon. Made my morning pleasant.
Thanks. I aim to please
Morning? It’s just getting dark. What are you? Some communist contrarian?
A Gaijintarian.
We’re taking the joint over.
Seriously, how many of you are there?
Rapha, Tejicano, Mustang and myself are the four I know of.
What about Sensei and Akira?
Sensei is in NY(?) and Akira in Ohio(?).
Sorry, no idea.
Also, quick question for the glibs.
Say that you were the general manager of a steel mill that employed about 500 people. Say that as the manager of said steel mill, you had a “for cause” drug testing policy in place that resulted in immediate termination of any employee who fails a test.
Would you want to expand you policy to random drug testing?
Randomization of occurrence, not of persons would be what I would do.
Although, me personally, I would try to find the most accurate tests to tell how recently, as within a time frame that would affect work, not just usage at some point.
Was this^ run through google translate?
A lot of random drug tests only test a few random people at a random time. If you’re going to implement it randomization should only be when it’s done, everybody should have to do it.
I see what you meant. Never had a drug test, so not familiar with the types of testing.
I negotiated the drug testing policy for my department. Admin wanted an annual, mandatory test. By the time we were done, it was a “reasonable cause” policy that required other factors instead of “just because”.
Posting here was cause right?
Fortunately, this was many years before this site existed.
I wouldn’t want to, but possible financial carrots hung in my face for implementing said program may be too tempting for me to pass up.
Are you one of those football player guys?
Twenny bucks is twenny bucks.
So you would be sort of an anti-crack whore?
I would get rid of drug testing altogether. If you do a good job great, if not, you’re fired.
In dangerous work with high potential for injury I’m more ok with this.
Corporate America less so. My stodgy financial service company finally put an end to it for hiring.
This^^ I don’t care how functionally alcoholic you are if I’m relying on you to hold my ladder you are not going to be having a few tall cans at lunch. Same goes for stoners and tweekers, If it’s your own ass or cash on the line then knock yourself out, otherwise out of respect for those around you have some couth.
None of us want to work with an asshole who is fucked up at work. On the other hand, none of gives a fuck what people do on their time.
A steel mill has the potential for some really really big “oops, sorry I was high moments.” I’d kind of put it up there with airline pilot in the testing might make sense realm.
Fair enough. However; If you do a good job great, if not, you’re fired. sounds like ‘no harm no foul’ and puts me up against one of my libertarian conundrums. I agree that traffic rules are arbitrary and in many cases useless but I don’t want people doing 100 down residential streets, ‘no harm no foul’ isn’t much comfort to the eventual victims of people acting ‘criminally’ recklessly. When exactly the criminal aspect comes into play isn’t always obvious which means we sometime may have to err on the side of caution, ie traffic rules.
Usage rules for the commons make sense. So do rules promulgated by a private company for accessing their property. Roads pretty much have to be either commons or private.
Nope. For cause is ok.
This. Anything else is evil.
For programmers or bankers…maybe. But in a steel mill, the “cause” may be that Stoner McShroomy accidentally dumped molten steel all over you.
Then test everyone every single day. I’m sure no one will object to that.
Yes, that’s exactly what I was implying.
Im stealing Stoner McShroomy for my next alias.
My thought as the one of the people currently trying to keep this from being implemented-
Random drug screens mostly catch people for pot, because it’s the one that stays in your system so long. Its damn near universally accepted now that pot is at the very least less harmful than alcohol. There is already an Avenue to fire people who show up to work impaired. Ramson testing will result in either weekend pots heads who otherwise do a fine job getting fired or those same guys switching to a different preferred intoxicant that stays in your system for a lot shorter period of time.
Perhaps allow a non zero level of THC?
I never understood how drug testing passed the Fifth Amendment.
If you’re obviously high or drunk at work then it should be an allowable reason for termination. But you smoked a joint two weeks ago an it shows up on a random drug test? Fuck that, my time is my time.
It’s legal under the FYTW Clause.
The fifth amendment has/should have no hold over private employers (Steel Mills, Fly by Night Construction Companies, etc). Root for the wrong NFL team and you’re not working for me.
What hyperbole said. I work for a private company. They can implement whatever destructive policy they want.
That said, if the state is doing random drug testing (like they did I’m my high school 15 years ago for the football team) then yes, you have a point.
Also, DWI checkpoints are unconstitutional as fuck.
I’m sure someone in Washington is working on a plan to fix that.
Ahem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youngstown_Sheet_%26_Tube_Co._v._Sawyer
That was something some white guys said like 50 years ago. It has no bearing in current year.
In North Dakota right now, there is a bill working it’s way through the legislature to ban DUI checkpoints. It passed the house 79-14. We’ll see what the senate does.
I worked for a company that that legally mandatory drug testing. Me and this other guy, who everyone called “Cheech”, were smoking a joint outside the building one morning. When the supervisor told us we had to take a drug test. So Cheech took a company truck, and drove me an him to the lab, where we both took a piss. We never heard the results.
I have a customer who owns a factory with a similar amount of employees. It’s not as dangerous as a steel mill, but there are plenty of jobs that could cause injury.
He said he drug tests all new employees to weed out potential drug or alcohol abusers. He figures if you can’t go a few weeks without before the test, you probably got a problem. The only other time they drug test is if there is an accident. I think it’s either required by the insurance company or by law.
He said if they have a drug or alcohol problem, they’ll get themselves fired by not doing a good job. Even though he is a very conservative, law and order guy, he doesn’t think it’s any of his business what they do outside the job.
My wife was a bit (alarmed … not the right word) that I was against random drug-testing of high school athletes. I said it was unconstitutional and that it would take some sort of just cause for them to do such a thing.
Of course, it’s all a scam anyways because the schools know this and the tests are rarely random as they only screen the kids they know are clean.
OT: Live tweeting!
OK, that’s pretty funny.
Lovin’ these.
Dude, don’t cut out the zero likes and zero retweets. Makes even better. Thumbs up!
No Agent Orange returns to Viet Nam?
Fun article, Leon. I’m more conservative that Libertarian on some things because fuck you, I can.
Thanks Leon. Enjoyable stuff. One thing that does drive me nuts is when libertarians say, “I don’t care what you do in your own bedroom!” Really? You find out that your neighbor shoves Barbie dolls up his butt every night and cries himself to sleep and you “don’t care” AT ALL? C’mon. I’m not saying it should be illegal, but saying you don’t care is BS.
This explains much about our new neighbors.
I’d only care if our apartment building had thin walls.
Easier to make a glory hole with?
20 bucks is 20 bucks.
Same as downtown.
From the land a paper walls…
HM as a kid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZQYQML30Ds
The music is what makes it.
I’ve seen similar videos with cats.
Fuck, that’s disturbing. And I hang around here.
I wouldn’t care if he was careful to secure his Barbies. But if he leaves them around where kids can get at them… Will no one think of the Kids!
Talking to my conservative dad about how the government should get out of marriage he asked, “What if some guy wants to marry his horse?” And this not being an actual debate where I had to lay out how horses can’t consent to marriage, I just said, “Well then I know he likes to fuck his horse and I know to stay away from him.”
True. You don’t want to fuck with a clan of centaurs.
Deka drachma is deka drachma.
From what I recall of the myths, the Cenatur’s didn’t generally take no for an answer.
Neither the Senators, nor the centaurs were known for caring about consent so I am sticking by my typo.
Fuck that guy and the horse he rode in on.
*NARROWS GAZE*
Get a load of this neigh-sayer.
Probably has the trots.
Rein it in before Swiss sees it, OK?
Feeling your oats?
That’s why you’re your dad’s favorite.
Bahahahaha, my dad uses that EXACT same argument.
Kinkshaming in #TheCurrentYear. What a shame.
Oh great, another person hacked my web cam.
… is that a Nipponese thing?
No, but this is.
Not clicking.
You would ask if you could join in, amirite?
Yatsuatari. (Taking out your anger on the wrong person).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjFFBRDJuXg
No really, I don’t care.
I don’t care either. Why should I? I don’t interact with my neighbor at all.
*Takes deep breath*. My point is that saying you DGAF about behavior of your fellow man is not my version of libertarianism. Meth, heroin, suicide etc.. Yes, those are personal decisions and the state has no business restricting them, but I do care if people I know are doing harmful things. I suppose you could say you don’t care at all and then the next thing you know some naked fat guy is dancing across the stage at your national party convention.
People you know. I don’t know my neighbor.
Point taken. I know the neighbor guy next to my condo. We make small talk all the time in the parking lot. His wife? Every time I see her in the morning, I greet her with, “Ohayogozaimasu!”. She’s never returned it. It’s been ten years and I refuse to give up. I think I’m driving her insane.
+1 gambariya+san!
On the other hand you live in a country simultaneously known for being home to a highly obedient, very conformist, terrified of shame population. Who have popular entertainment largely centered around putting people in horribly humiliating settings.
I actually agree with you as I have said many times. I almost never think there should be a law, and I really don’t care about people’s kinks (in private), but I hold a low opinion of many faiths, many beliefs, and daily stoners, and heroin users, drunk drivers, and mimes can diaf. (full disclosure I have done some of the things I now hold in contempt. I was stupid to do them and lucky they didn’t ruin me.
but I hold a low opinion of many faiths, many beliefs, and daily stoners, and heroin users, drunk drivers, and mimes can diaf.
is meant to be
but I hold a low opinion of many faiths, many beliefs, and daily stoners,
new thought
and heroin users, drunk drivers, and mimes can diaf.
“Hey man! Don’t judge me!” Fuck that. I’m judging you. Stop me.
Planet Earth: The Swamp
https://twitter.com/My_Power_Tie/status/1100572054712213504
ALOL
The Hillary part was good.
I don’t feel no way tard. LOL.
OMG. That’s great:)
LOLOLOLOL
The cop friend was a nice touch.
Well done, Leon!
Thanks!
A pic from last night’s Glibertarians meetup:
This is why I can’t scroll glibs on the train.
The land of sumo has a problem with side-butt?
OK. On the morning train.
wasn;t that a Juice Newton song?
Manhattan Transfer. Never could tell the two apart.
Oops, Sheena Easton, well some Ozzy female.
straffin, no one cares anyway. Konichiwa, bro
He’s in the women only carriage and trying to stay inconspicuous.
ANGEL OF THE MORNING GOD DAMNIT.
Do you people even pop culture?
No.
But you can still join us in the active threads… only a couple of us bite.
This is why embedding images is restrict to the elect.
Imagine if all of use could embed images?
“restricted”
JFC, I’m getting worse.
Shit like this is why we’re never invited to the nice cocktail parties.
I like the over the seat hover. He’s obviously very fastidious.
Germaphobe.
Like I knew who sat there before!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=cbhQKffugNk
“but then someone did something I don’t like”
Yeah, but you have the solution all wrong. Zardoz offers the correct advice. You must cleanse all of the people who said things you don’t like.
I recently had a discussion with my best(ish) friend about politics/policy; an individual who is a dyed in the wool prog and has developed a major case of TDS.
In the middle of the discussion he declared that libertarianism is a “bullshit philosophy”. Oh. Ok. This was his trump card. Discussion over. He wins I guess.
Libertarianism makes the flowers grow?
Yeah, but it also gives you ecoli.
+1 Pigeon shitting and strutting over the chessboard
or
+1 that guy taking a dump in HM’s picture
I know that guy too, and his brother..
I always did (largely) like Obama’s advice to the “urban” contingent. It was one of his few bright spots.
http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/27/obama-promotes-conservative-ways-life-young-black-men/
Didn’t Bill Cosby do that, too?
And look what happened to him!
You agree with Obama that you don’t need 8 girls twerking around you? Q has been replaced by a Ruzzian Bot!
I’m not sure what’s so bad about twerking. It’s a style of dance. It doesn’t mean that those 8 girls are automatically making themselves sexually available to you. It’s like all the people who misread West Indian Carnival traditions. Yes, the outfits are skimpy and you dance with your hips, but it’s really more about just dancing to music and having good clean fun than anything sexual.
Only for them coloreds. They can’t control themselves and fly into primitive lust-driven rage.
Ok. Makes sense now.
Elder Gods help you if they get their hands on that Devil’s Lettuce too before the act. (shudders)
Can you imagine the shitstorm if Trump said that?
OT: has anyone tried Stockard Oatmeal Stout? It’s the right price at Trader Joe’s. Not sure if it’s worth trying.
I love Oatmeal Stout. Let us know how it is:)
Thanks to Neph, MS, Kinnath, and whoever I’m overlooking, I’ve gotten quite the beer education here. I tried it for the first time several months ago and really enjoyed it. I don’t know if it’s the type of beer or the brewer. So… I was hoping someone would let us know if this is worth picking up.
This should help.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/10707/5688/
Thanks Spud. That’s really helpful.
Hey trash, if you’re around, I had a question about Eyepiece. Is there any way to turn off the auto-load of new comments?
Not yet. I was planning on doing that tonight right after I get tophat integrated (about 5 more minutes). It’s top priority.
Oh! I’ll try again later, then. It really messes up my current workflow 🙂
Excellent!
What does Tophat do?
Adds a PREVIEW COMMENT!!!11!! function. It works just fine separately, but it’ll be nice to wrap it into Monocle.
*cough* If you want tophat and don’t want to wait until I finish the options menu *cough*
I have Tophat, I just always try and let everyone else know about it when they mention Monocle because it kicks ass. (as does Monocle)
Question; Eyepiece is intended for mobile right? I’m not 100% clear on that…
Eyepiece is mobile friendly, but it works on desktop, too. The only inferior part of eyepiece is that I took out the options menu, so stuff like dynamic comment load can’t be shut off yet.
Should be resolved tonight.
Monocle is stable, but I havent updated it in a year. Whenever I get time to code, I work on eyepiece.
So Eyepiece (with Tophat integrated into it) is a replacement for Monocle that is also mobile friendly.
Fair statement?
Yep.
Hey Rhy, if you’re still around, this link updates eyepiece to give you a toggle for dynamic comment loading. It’s in the options menu (the top button)
Got the update, thanks! Will play around.
One quick comment – I think your added buttons could use the same hover effect as the existing buttons.
2nd comment – you really play around with style classes, don’t you? It’s borked up my custom Stylish settings. Just an observation 🙂
Build the Wall!…
https://pjmedia.com/trending/rep-tlaib-blows-up-cohen-hearing-racist-for-republican-mark-meadows-to-bring-a-black-prop/
…around DC and then fill it with water.
Calling the kettle….
Yeah, she done fucked up by insulting the chairman’s best friend.
Though, if I were Meadows, I would have shot back by asking why a vocal antisemite was chosen to sit on the committee to question Cohen.
Derail the whole meeting with a big fight a la Preston Brooks
I case you missed it from the last thread:
http://boards.4channel.org/a/thread/185070729/bigbreasted-girl-makes-manga-about-bigbreasted
https://twitter.com/blueBORG16/status/1100644976965365761
Newsletter?
Mangaka author? I now know the pain TedS feels.
Like you’ve never said Mount Fujiyama or ATM Machine.
That’s Mount Fujiyamasan. *Pushes glasses up on nose*
That is hilarious when you think about it.
I take it yama means mountain?
And san in this case too (different kanji than san as as a title/salutation for a person).
Fujiyamasanberg.
PIN number
That one I have said. You kinda need “number” with it, though.
I think PIN works alone just fine. However, “code” is an excellent suffix if one feels that it needs one.
Whats’ wrong with Any Time Money Machine?
Dear Xenu that was my first thought too.
Right there is why Japanese gives gaijin fits. And as straff busts right back below – it’s “-san” when attached to a mountain and “yama” by itself.
Castles follow the same convention. “Shiro” by itself or -“jou” when attached to a name like Matsumoto-jou
Or “Rio Grande River”
I’ve never heard anyone say that, but verbal redundancy, including double negatives, is common in Spanish.
Then again, people say “round circle”, “blatantly obvious”, “mental outlook”, “sum total”, etc.
Assault weapon
“And to indicate that I asked someone who is a personal friend of the Trump family, who has worked for him, who knows this particulate individual,..”
I hope that is the fault of the transcription and not what Meadows actually said.
I’m pretty sure Meadows said particular* but I was in a half-awake daze when I first saw a clip of the exchange.
Speaking of big tits…
http://archive.li/gMzZ6
You’re late. 1 sent me straight to my bunk.
A really great selection of pics.
23 for me:
God’s done some nice work here. As have quite a number of plastic surgeons.
Watching Band Of Brothers tonight. I forgot how good it is. Aged well too, hard to believe it’s almost 20 years old.
Dang. Now i’m looking up other movies @ the 17 year mark. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring also came out in 2001.
That’s insane. It feels like I just watched those. I’ve only seen them once and it wasn’t *that* long ago (less than 10 years) so they will still feel fresh when I eventually pick them up in hard-copy form.
Well, if you started watching the extended cuts of the LOTR 10 years ago you probably only finished a few days ago.
I don’t think I was able to watch a single regular length LOTR all of the way through. I can’t imagine extended cut
Heh. I’ve only seen the extended versions. I obtained them via, um, not the usual channels. I may have mentioned somewhere that Woodchippergate closed that channel at least for me.
But yeah… I was engrossed the whole ten hours or whatever it was. I need to get them (hopefully they’re on Bluray?) and confirm that they’re really as good as I thought.
Having read the trilogy oh, at least a dozen times, the Director’s Cut satisfied me quite well.
It was one of very few times in my life that a movie of a favorite book did not disappoint me. Although, I am the one person who thinks Tom Bombadil was an important episode in the books, and I’d have liked to see that done well on screen.
I haven’t read any of the books. There, I said it. I was more interested in the appendices.
Hard hitting J school stuff:
According to Vietnam’s weather agency, it is currently 73F (23C) in the capital with a grueling humidity of 93%. Both leaders are wearing full suits.
And yet no one is willing to admit that we all just want to see them in their bathing suits.
T H I C C?
Momo Challenge May Be Appearing on Peppa Pig, Other Videos
This weeks moral panic.
Satanists run your local daycare!
I don’t know about Satanist daycare, but those reprobate cartoonists being allowed to make shows for kids is a BIG problem
If you removed all reprobate cartoonists their would be no cartoonists, this has been clear from the beginnings of animation.
I regard reprobate as the noun and cartoonist as the adjective in that construction. All cartoonists are reprobates, not all reprobates draw.
Don’t know enough about steel mills to know if random drug testing is a good idea or not. Might prevent a few accidents, but might cause them by having the best employees quit and get replaced by incompetent people.
My views on this are “The owner, or his designated subordinates, can instantly fire anyone at any time for any reason or none at all, including asking any employee at any time to take a drug test. The employees can quit working for the owner if they feel his policies are too onerous, or for no reason at all, at any time, including if asked to take a drug test.”
Yeah, despite my visceral hatred for the idea of drug-testing, I have to agree with this.
I get a lot of flak for saying businesses are in business to make money for the owner. They aren’t there to provide you with a job.Jobs are the byproduct of the owners desire to make money.
I fucked up and listened to a couple of hours of the Cohen thing today, two thoughts…
A. The Republicans learned the wrong lesson from the Kavanaugh debacle. Righteous indignation worked then, today it sounded scripted and irrelevant.
B. The “admitted Liar” thing seems like a Star Trek logic puzzle- He lied about lying so now we can’t believe him which means he wasn’t lying when he lied about lying which means we believe him when he said he was a liar which means he wasn’t lying so he’s not a liar but that means he’s lying now about lying about lying….ad nauseam.
My thoughts:
1. Cohen has zero credibility. The man oozes sleazy liar from every pore, so I give no weight to anything he says, and think anyone honest would admit the same.
2. Trump trusted him to do confidential work. That is a far more damning indictment of Trump than anything Cohen accuses him of.
Lie with dogs, you get fleas.
Is falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus not a thing anymore?
Mens Rhea. Or something
Everybody lies. It’s a three felonies a day type thing. Cohen may be an untrustworthy son of a bitch but to say ‘once a liar always a liar’ is partisan happy talk, Find me the guy who will look me in the eye and admit that he’s full of shit and I’ll show you the most honest man in America.
It’s a legal principle, not a partisan talking point. Lying under oath – in Congress, in this case – is different than “everybody lies”.
Okay, and this is where I get the head spinners, He lied about Trump, so now we shouldn’t believe anything he says about Trump, even if what he says is about his lying about Trump, so if we don’t’ believe him about lying about Trump than we must believe him about lying about lying about Trump so he wasn’t lying and now we have to believe him about lying about Trump so he’s a liar again and so on and so on and scoobie dobbie doo. My point (roundabout as I made it) is that there is a built-in paradox about questioning a liar when he’s fessing up to lying. You can’t use his being an admitted liar as proof that he’s lying, because a liar would lie about lying thus he was telling the truth. It’s the Spock- if you tell the truth we stone you if you lie we hang you bit.
You’re over complicating it – he lied under oath before, maybe he’s lying now, maybe he’s not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You can’t trust his testimony either way. There are no conclusions to be drawn from what he says, pro or anti Trump.
Well he said under oath he didn’t ever want a job in the Trump administration. Almost immediately, Donald Trump Jr and others tweeted that he spent months saying he was going to get a high ranking job in the administration.
From what I heard of it, even if you took every word of his at face value as true – there was nothing there. And since all I heard of it was filtered through the legacy media, you know they cherry picked the most damning statements.
Agreed, and to be clear without corroboration or other evidence noting he says should be accepted on its face, of course, that should be true whether we’re talking about a P.T. Barnum or a Fred Rogers, at least as far as testimony goes.
I was flipping through the radio stopped on Ben Shapiro. He was shocked how semi intelligent AOC sounded with her question. It’s easy to sound smart when someone is feeding you the question and you don’t have to think of one yourself. Although I kind of wish she did come up with her own question.
Convicted of:
Tax evasion
Bank fraud
Lying to Congress.
And he was the first witness called by the Democrat majority. It was a big, yawning shitshow, whose total purpose was to distract from Trump meeting with the fat kid and not going to war.
and not going to war
No one in DC supports your evil non warboner gheyness! We haven’t had an anti war party since the USSR folded and being anti war stopped meaning surrender to the communists.
The fact that the Democrats have become the war hawks because Orange Man Bad, is one of the most bizarre political transformations I’ve seen. God bless fly over country.
The Democrat war-boner was nice and strong during the Obama admin as well.
When I was in high school and starting to form political opinions, I actually thought the Democrats were the good ones. I saw them on TV talking about what a terrible waste this war was, and I agreed.
Unfortunately, the anti-war Left packed up camp and disappeared as soon as Chocolate Jesus stepped into office. I was absolutely disgusted to see all these anti-war people suddenly zip their lips and accept the senseless destruction just because they like Obama’s fucking dumbass, overblown speeches and “muh historic president”.
We The Internet addressed this.
Two out three of those things he did for Trump. It’s like some bizarro world Menendez brothers defense, instead of ‘take pity on these kids who killed their parents because their orphans’, it’s ‘ take pity on Trump because these guys who broke the law for him are criminals.’
I didn’t watch, it was a show trial. I only have a few thoughts on it, some may be conspiratorial, but are still thoughts I have:
1. His testimony was delayed several times, and the actual date just happened to be the date set for the summit.
2. “He is a racist. He is a con man. He is a cheat,” Just rings too much as scripted to hit all the marks. I mean he is probably at least the latter two (although probably no more than the people in that same committee) but the ‘racist’ thing just seems to be written to please an intended audience. The man has been in the public spotlight for almost as long as I’ve been alive and yet this charge has never been shown to have any good proof.
3. The ‘He’s a felon, we can’t trust him. he was already lied to congress…” I get that same feeling with Reps yelling that at the rafters, but at the same time, he did it once for personal gain, why wouldn’t he do it again?
4. The other side’s logic, “Well, he only lied to Congress because Trump told him to!” Well, then perhaps he may now do it if someone else now asked him to?
5. The only thing he testified to that was heresay was his testimony that Trump repayed him for paying off Stormy Daniels. He has a copy of the check. But, unless that check (as I said earlier in the day) proves is he paid a bill from his attorney unless it says ‘To shut that whore up’ on the memo line.
This isn’t to say I’m a fan of Trump. I think he’s comedy gold and an idiot. He’s done some things I like. He’s done some things I’ve hated. He most likely broke some law at some time, but I believe the same of everyone in congress (even the ones I like) But this just wreaks of desperation and if investigating him since before he won the election hasn’t turned up anything more damning than this he may just be the cleanest politician in the shitshow.
Lanny Davis. ‘Nuff said.
“The only thing he testified to that was*n’t* *hearsay*”
Nice summation. Thx for following it so I don’t have to.
To whomever first started bringing up the topic of Rome: Total War,(A fuzzy memory thinks it was Hyperion)curse/bless you. I haven’t owned a gaming console since 2006(original XBox) and have generally stopped giving a shit about video games since then but after seeing this game and it’s sequel brought up here on numerous occasions I decided to download load the first game onto my phone as a lark. Well, fuck me. Down the rabbit hole I went.
After a couple of failed ventures due to overextending my territory without enough family members to control it all I tried a little restraint with the house of Julii and managed to conquer all of the territories of Gaul, Spain, Britannia, most the Mediterranean islands while also taking lands from Egypt in modern day Turkey. That took about ninety years. During the completion of that run I had a wildly successful and popular with the people of Rome reign of thirty seven years under one faction leader. A few years before he died I was popular enough with the people to try to begin overthrow the Republic but I held back. At that time the house of Scipio controlled all of northwest Africa and the house of Brutus controlled all of Greece and most of central and eastern Europe. So, seeing that being declared an enemy of Rome due to my popularity was imminent, I started building up my navy and began evacuating/abandoning my territory in Turkey. Soon enough, my faction leader died. But right before he died I sent his fresh from the academy grandson to his city to take all of his best retainers. After he got them, I sailed him to Sicily and began training more praetorian guards. It was at this time that my faction leader died. His heir ruled for a year and I had him proclaim the kid/grandson as his heir immediately. Just as I thought, the Senate demanded the suicide of my faction leader. I compiled knowing that the heir/ grandson of the prior leader could buy me a few years of time to maneuver troops before his suicide was demanded by the Senate. So I used that time to move my eastern armies out of Turkey to invade Brutus controlled Greece and send my newly reinforced navy to blockade the African ports controlled by Scipio. Sure as the sun sets, the Senate demanded my faction leader’s suicide once again. Fuck that, I was ready this time. I refused and sent my Sicilian armies, lead by my faction leader(by this time a Victor) into Italy and took all its cities including Rome itself. While doing this I sent another general(also a Victor) to invade Greece while my navy destroyed the Scipio navy and blockaded all their ports; leaving their vast armies stranded in Africa so that their only option was to invade Egypt to acquire new ports. This afforded me the luxury of attacking the house of Brutus while they were cut off from any military assistance from their allies. It worked like a charm. Seven years after I rebelled I was proclaimed the Emperor of Rome and have now ruled the empire for twenty two years.
Fun stuff. A complete waste of mental time and energy but fun stuff.
Is a great game. Put a lot of good memories into it.
It is the only computer game I own and I spent entire days falling into the time hole.
Don’t bother with the version two. The few minor tweaks to rule and the better graphics are completely undone by the clunky changes. To me a dream version would be to incorporate the graphics of 2 but retain the system of the original.
I’ve played a lot of Civilization and got into Tropico 3 when it was mentioned here. But both after a lot of playtime lead to the same frustration, there is no option to just let the people be. I mean, that might be a lazy and boring game mechanic, but just as in real life it just gets too boring for me to have to micromanage everything.
‘But both after a lot of playtime lead to the same frustration, there is no option to just let the people be.’
And therein lies the rub of empire. Top down, centrally controlled government that sets arbitrary rules and standards for a widely dispersed and culturally diverse populace always alienates people. Leading to rebellion and violence. The mechanics seem to IMHO, unintentionally reinforce a libertarian talking point: no single person has the ability to fairly and objectively control millions of people.
No wonder I hate those games. I must not be a control-freak.
I like the challenge of beating the algorithms set to combat your path to victory but once victory is assured the appeal of day to day management is pretty much nil. You can up the difficulty but once you figure out how to effectively change your strategy your back at square one. Still, I’ve spent ten bucks on far dumber shit at a much quicker pace.
Yeah, I get if you’re playing as Rome that can’t be a play feature, but in Civ you can be in 2776 and with all the liberty friendly options chosen for your civilization, but you still have to decide from the top down which buildings get built where and when, who builds them…It gets so boring in game play, I ca’t even imagine how boring that is in real life.
Victoria 2 is perhaps the best game to play for that. If you don’t want to manage the economy, just leave it to the capitalists.
Pretty much. When I was playing a session of Europa Universalis, I was all focused on my original territory/country (Castille, Spain) until I got the entire eastern coast of the United States, Canada, and South America 100 years before any of the other European powers. Then all my assets were focused on making Los Estados España. Cue the poor French, British, and Portuguese explorers/settlers trying to land anywhere in the New World. Ended up losing the Old World, but it was worth it to acquire total supremacy of the New World.
I always play Civilization as bloody minded world conqueror. The very idea of the game militates against a libertarian approach. libertarian (screw (L) even if grammar demands it (can you tell I am mad about Sarwark and Weld?)) cities are not founded by god emperor planning his empire, wonders are not selected, buildings not ordained etc. But that doesn’t keep me from enjoying the game, there is nothing libertarian about running around shooting people either, but I play Far Cry (3 and 4, still not sure about 5), Just Cause (the last gen, current gen makes my computer freeze), Fallout, all the Elder scrolls single player etc.
Morality demands I leave other humans to live their lives and enjoy their property; it has nothing to say about how I treat NPCs.
I try to play the games the way the are designed, but I get bored with micromanagement. Mods save them from that. Too bad there aren’t any games published with that in mind. It all had to be done ad hock by users after the fact.
Nice work, Emperor Hippie. It’s always great when a plan comes together.
https://youtu.be/SWMjh2phAuY
So Justin Trudeau is a libertarian after all…
Can’t say I would be surprised if this is true:
https://mobile.twitter.com/KenWhyte3/status/1100898947130777600
O.T.: If this isn’t the funniest shit you’ve read today, I’ll refund your price of admission to this here chat room.
https://twitter.com/BriannaWu/status/1100538787120197632
READ THE WHOLE THING FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT.
Is there a Glibs exclusive Twitter feed I haven’t been told about? (a comment on how these random tweets seem to be posted dozens of times by different Tulpae)
I’m not Tulpa! You’re Tulpa!
Seriously though, I’m pretty sure there’s some significant follower overlap in relatively like-minded groups like ours, and many of us Not Tulpas seldom have the time to check if someone has already posted something.
Fuck off Tulpa.
I’m Poppy.
Go wash your hands.
*places electrical tape over web cam, slinks away to the bathroom in shame*
That is exactly what I figured a “Brianna Wu” would look like.
He does not make a very convincing woman.
This is already obvious, but Wu’s a mendacious tool. This reply killed me though:
What is that thing?
a snowflake that finds ‘the wind’ of a 5.56 passing (in front of xer as xe fires it no less,) from 3 feet. Honey it’s a souped up .22, it ain’t Ma Deuce,
Do the Marines even still use M16’s?
The US armed forces have largely replaced the M16 with the M4, a carbine length updated version of the M16; though I think there are efforts to replace that too.
Of course, someone needs a new government contract. Otherwise the economy dies.
Not even close to the dumbest thing she’s said. In case anyone missed this gem.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/28/brianna-wu-claims-companies-could-destroy-cities-b/
She’s AOC only instead of charisma, she has a dick.
So you aren’t a Heinlein fan I take it?
Holy shit, the eyes….
Pizzagate gets a much needed boost.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MikeUehlein/status/1100868901045440513
Pizzagate hit it’s crescendo with my Chuck E. Cheese scene. It is no longer relevant.
Alternate headline: Hack director haz sadz that it’s so easy to shock people.
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/j57b9b/french-director-gaspar-noe-on-americas-fear-of-the-penis
And it’s not a fear; the vast majority of women (and even gay men) think that penises are ugly and ridiculous looking. They are revered for their utility, not their aesthetics.
I’ll wait for some of them to chime in before I endorse this view. Me personally, dicks are ugly, but I’m not the intended demo.
?
I suspect that straight women and gay men align exactly on this issue. Make of that what you will.
Huh…Frenchy wants to talk cocks.
My shocked face.
Genitalia is great, and all. Some people, though, treat ’em just as ridickulously as those on other side of this…well, “issue”, I guess.
*In a hushed tone* The meeting is all set.
Public restroom at the park. Second stall from the left.
Bring rubbers.
LOL, this just went up, kizmet.
*whispers through still lips* Ok, you go capture Swiss, SP, Sloopy, Banjos, and Web Dom. I’ll distract HM with Thicc Asians, and push Brett into the ‘gator pond.
1. Seize the means of posting!
2-7 ????
8. SOMETHING SMITH
Hmm, on second thought you are on your own gaijin!
I watched a little, tiny, itty bitty bit of this today and I have to say, it ranked pretty high on the “pointlessly embarrassing DC kabuki theater horseshit” scale.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/826210/republican-questioning-cohen-might-backfire-democrats-are-overreaching
Why do they even need to try? The current denizens of PubEd are totally simpatico with ChiCom theories and would gladly carry their water.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-infiltrating-u-s-education-system-in-propaganda-coup/
I dunno, I think the NEA regards the current Party leadership in Beijing as hopelessly counter revolutionary and far too soft on the Kulaks and Wreckers.
So the new Red Guards?
For some reason I was reminded of this incident that happened almost 15 years ago.
http://archive.li/obejM
I remember when it happened and being sickened by it. The guy was convicted of two counts of First Degree Murder and got two life sentences without parole.
I did a bit of research today and was happy to see that his appeals have been denied and he remains in CSP-Max (23 h/day lockdown). Have fun rotting you piece of shit.
So what is the libertarian view of life imprisonment?
look that highschool girl wants to be in my basement for the rest of her life
Next STEVE SMITH post?
STEFAN FAURAR
COUNT SMITH
Whoa. That escalated quickly.
I don’t know what the “libertarian” view is, but absent sanctioned vigilante justice, I think it’s proper under certain circumstances.
I do not support the death penalty however.
Are you sure?
http://www.fox29.com/news/officials-conduct-death-investigation
5 dead in an apartment in Morrisville, PA.
Re: life imprisonment, I think we need to look at exile as a form of punishment again.
Hello Leon I work for Slate and would like to offer you a job.
Good morning glibs
Wallachia Forever!
Romania’s economy really has gone back to the stone age huh?
I’ll have you know Romania invented stone
Dacians had stone, but proto Hindus had nukes.
You’ve been playing Civilization I see…
No reading articles online. The BHP lunatics are claiming references to weapons of great power in the Vedas refer to nukes that the ancient denizens of the Subcontinent had.
Is that you Shikha or Justin Raimondo?
Also I read your earlier post and you do indeed play Civilization. LOL!
LOL, I thought about that after I replied. Yes, I do, and I have since they first made the coding error that made Ghandi more bloodthirsty than Attila.
I’ll have to mull it over. My last opinion gig at Huffpo ended abruptly, and I’ve been learning to code since.
and by code you mean charting the excessive number of white men working in tech and preparing a walk out to protest?
Yes, but first I have to get a job. Did you know that tech is so thouroughly entrenched in patriarchy that you have to complete coding challenges to get a job.
GO LAKERS
They will always be the Minneapolis Lakers to Me.
So you’re like 50? That makes your mom…*shudders*
More like 65. I’m 49 and I had to look that up.
The Montreal Maroons were the Best.
The name suddenly makes more sense.
Right?!
Back when men were men and they played in the Minneapolis Armory.
By the way, what happened to Lew Alcindor? I thought he had a pretty good chance at a career in professional basketball.
Loved it!
Thanks!
Did Niskanen hack your account?
No because then it would be, “I used to be a libertarian, but then I realized I hated freedom”
What would the Economist hacking look like then?
Old Economist used to have Glib level snarky picture captions. I miss those.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist
You are so old…
I was thinking about just 15-20 years ago, not when the magazine was printed in cuneiform.
Back in my day we read our cuneiform tablets and liked them!
Newfangled cuneiform. Hmph. This ‘writing’ fad will never catch on.
Alright, prolly call it a night soon. Lunch is about to be served in Hanoi, so this:
Donald Trumputin
@CPRMglib
More
Lunch Menu:
Starter: Apple foie gras jelly
Main course: Snow fish
Dessert: Banoffee pie
With candied ginseng and ginseng tea
I’m having the Secret Service bring me an emergency Big Mac. #HanoiSummit -Donald
What does Jane Fonda think of this Vietnam summit?
Trick question. For any value of x, “Jane Fonda thinks x” is false.
Check out her blog and twitter feed to see.
(Spoiler alert: nothing there but vapid wokeness)
So she hasn’t changed?
What would Juror No. 8 think?
I, I finally get to start this, job, I show up the lead man tells me to hang out, his helper wants to go home, one hour each way, sad
Wait – fucking wait. Leon (and anyone else who agrees, ) what specifically is wrong about libertarian thought? I don’t have a problem with someone who deviates (because I do to some extent), but I would like to know what exactly do you question?
Hmm it’s a good question. I’m sure I have some free deviations, but for the most part is couch them in libertarian thought.