I’m part of a circle. We’re going to have to go back eight years to understand what that means. My daughter was two and the wife was itching to return to her company. So we found a decent nursery school in our neighborhood. Finally, I could cut down on the 50 and 60 hour work weeks.
Orientation for the nursery school was on a Saturday morning. We tried to dig out a dress for the kid that wasn’t covered in snot, puke or whatever that last stain was. The wife was smoking hot in her navy blue business suit. I was smoking not in my jeans and sweatshirt. The nursery was only a five-minute drive away, so of course, we were five minutes late.
While my wife looked for a parking spot, I stuffed the kid under my arm and sprinted into the lobby. “Orientation 2F”. The room was packed with parents sitting on the wood floor, black-haired rugrats perched on their laps. With a Sumimasen, I squeezed my white butt into a gap between two families. In the front of the room, a buck-toothed lady with perky breasts was leading the orientation.
A couple of minutes passed before my wife slid the door open and slithered inside. “Your shoes!” she whispered in my ear. In my haste, I hadn’t realized I was supposed to change into slippers at the genkan. I discretely covered my feet with my jacket, hoping no one had noticed. My kid farted. I hoped no one had noticed. It smelled really bad. I hoped…
The room was decorated with finger paintings of elephants and monkeys. The gulag rules were being emphatically explained by Ms. Perky Breasts. “I can handle this”, I thought to myself. I leaned back on my elbows, enjoying the show. A boney hand squeezed my shoulder. I turned my head and was met with the mole-covered face of a bald father in a rumpled business suit. “I translate for you.” This I definitely could handle. A deftly delivered Kekko desu, despite being polite, is remarkably similar to the English “F*** Off” and I must’ve nailed it because he pouted and turned back to listening to Ms. Perky Breasts.
An hour and a half later, we rose from the floor and tried to rub life back into our seized up knees. A formal group bow of gratitude to the leader and orientation was finished! I got the kid bundled up in her coat and scarf as she squirmed and protested. But we weren’t ready to leave yet. My wife had disappeared. I scanned the room looking for her and Ms. Perky Breasts captured my gaze. “Mama,” my daughter squeaked, as she tugged on my jacket sleeve and pointed. In the corner of the room, there was a cluster of women yapping away, one of them in a navy blue business suit. These were mothers that had run into each other at the pediatrician and playground a few times, and now they were shooting the breeze with the intimacy of veterans at a Normandy reunion.
They were forming a circle. There are university circles, high school circles, and retiree circles. A university circle will often have a common theme like skiing or karaoke to unite them, but the main point is just to share time with others. At a nursery school, a circle is simply a group of parents that agree to support each other and plan activities for their children to do together.
That was eight years ago. The same six women that formed that cluster in the corner after orientation are now close friends. Our kids play with each other after school. We go camping, hiking, and grape picking together. We have dinner parties at each other’s houses where the women engage in boisterous conversations well past midnight over empty wine bottles and half-eaten plates of fried rice and gyoza. They are united by the desire to help each other become better parents. It was a support network that formed organically and voluntarily.
There are no laws requiring diversity or inclusivity in our circle. In fact, at times we are discriminatory and intolerant. One mother tried to join our circle a few years back. Her mistake was demanding that I only speak in English to her child. One of the mothers in our circle overheard the conversation and iced her out from that moment forward. It was their turn to say, “We can handle this.” And they shunned her in the terribly effective manner that only Japanese females can. The point of the circle is to bring us together and that woman’s demand was a thumb in the eye of our unspoken charter. I’m grateful to be part of a group of people that treat my family as equals and not some resource to be exploited. My gratitude runs deeper than the gratitude I had for those perky breasts eight years ago in orientation.
Here’s a link to my kid and one other kid from our circle jamming on the electone.
*Thanks to Couch Potato for the editing help.
Comments
222 responses to “The Jerk in the Circle”
Sushi!
That’s actually pretty cool. Unless you’re the one getting frozen out.
Yes and no. I’d rather be frozen out than begrudgingly accepted into a group that didn’t actually want me.
It is a double edge sword. Depends on attitude and ego.
I thought the Japanese favored single edge swords.
I want to eat your avatar.
Enjoyed your tale and dig the new avatar as well.
Great write up. Humans are so much the same all over. Also, link no worky.
Works if you massage it a little.
Shortened link that should work:
https://youtu.be/muaLs9z1ZiY
Vertical video, Straff is dead to me now.
Sumimasen, I no edit failly, but I fixee.
You are definitely a fairy.
Fluc you, Mickey Looney.
Well, being a fairy, you would want to. Fortunately for me, I’m over the age of ten.
And you have Japanese penis, such small penis. Not like American penis.
that and Mongowian bastards will never not be funny
Well it is true that you’re so worn out, you need a bbc before you feel it.
Very nice. We haven’t made those kind of bonds, although we do have 3 other houses on the street with little kids that are growing into that.
So was it Count Potato that helped you link to the Home Improvement channel on YouTube instead of your kid playing music?
I think that link is big in Japan.
I got my cable provider’s search page that shows up when the link is borked.
There’s a colon missing following the “https”.
You know who else is missing a colon?
That girl who had an anal train run on her until she nearly died?
Colon Blow
https://youtu.be/Ku42Iszh9KM
Hey Playa, I know you ski. I just bought the Ikon pass a few days ago because we’ve been up here in Tahoe. It’s a pretty damn good deal and it includes Mammoth, Big Bear and a ton of other places. It’s 160 for kids for the rest of this year and all next which I think is a pretty smoking deal.
The Ikon pass is almost like buying futures. Buy now; could luck out later.
I have one for each of the kids, because it’s a good deal. Didn’t get one for myself because I don’t know my work schedule yet.
If it’s shitty snow next season, they can ski the groomers while I work.
It’s going to be tough to beat this season, though. I put on skis for the first time in 22 years (I switched to snowboarding when I was 16) and got the first tracks on Dragon’s Back.
Right on. I’ve skied Tahoe since I’ve been 12. The past days were the first for me this year. Had an absolute blast with great spring skiing, stoked that our 8 year old finally figured it out and got the bug. Might have to hit Mammoth next year.
Muammar Gaddafi?
My freshman year roommate. Had it taken out because of UC.
Good for you, straffin’. You seem to be on our time more often than on TOS, you working nights?
Same issue with the link. Thanks for sharing.
I’m amazed how politely the Japanese can try to force you to do something. It’s part of the ritual of refusal and grudging acceptance. And since I have the vocabulary of a middle school child it gets really frustrating trying to refuse something. At that point I finally also have to use “kekkou desu” and I feel like I’ve failed and had to cheat. For exactly the reason you mentioned. It can be interpreted as “fuck off” and that wasn’t what I wanted to say but was forced to say.
I’m also not surprised about the mother who wanted free English lessons for her kid. It’s really nice how your group stood up for you.
Straff could have responded by teaching the kid how to swear like a sailor.
This.
Delightful story.
It’s interesting to me how the wives tend to be the social leads on this stuff. Besides a few coworkers that I’d label as acquaintances, I don’t really have any friends here locally. My social life consists of a bunch of acquaintances who happen to be married to my wife’s friends.
I don’t know whether it’s that I’m a guy, or that I’m an introvert, or that I’m overworked, or that I have a young family. Something about that mix makes me not care all that much about establishing friendships. If it happens, great. If not, great.
Same thing for me. My wife knows everyone in town. Me, I take the train into NYC every day where people come from every direction.
I’m not into sports, that’s generally the activity the men in town tend bond over.
PROTIP: Playa Manhattan and I are the only extrovert Glibertarians
Ahem.
I don’t think predatory is the same thing as extroverted.
Shit. Busted.
is there a form? Require references?
Stop living my life!
I figured you for Circle 10.
That was shorthand for:
Scouting is big in north Texas. I met my best friends there (I don’t do work buddies, so what else is there?). Other than the over-reaching church ladies, it was an excellent experience.
I did a year of scouting (not counting cub) before I washed out. Evidently I picked the sucky troop in town. Too many arts & crafts, book reports, memorization & recitation, and asshole kids given run of the place. Didn’t really jive with middle schooler me, who needed less structure, not more, and who was more interested in sports and nature than in homework dressed up as fun.
My mom was big in girl scouts and ran my sister’s troop into high school. I always hated it. My brother was an eagle scout and my sister-in-law actually worked for the girl scouts. But me, blech!
I simply don’t understand girl scouts or why anyone would want to do it. It’s all about National.
It’s all about that
NookieCookie.Just about the opposite for us- SP is almost painfully introverted, whereas I tend to be rather gregarious. That’s sorta what sucked her into doing this site, getting introduced to (and becoming close with) folks like Swiss and JW and SugarFree.
DONE WITH SPRING TERM. Final project turned in!
*shotguns beer, shoots tequila, does keg stand like I haven’t been drinking all term anyway*
Internship starts Monday and when I graduate in December I’ll be a professional drafter with a commanding salary of just barely acceptable for a man my age.
*goes back to read the article*
Congrats!
It beats professional drifter. Congrats and good luck.
What are you getting into for drafting? I am a VAD admin for an OEM / custom fabrication company and also program Autodesk Inventor to meet our needs.
My brother runs pro-E as a job shopper. He’s worked for some big names for brief periods. Been doing it for prolly 25 years.
I can make training videos, with much subtext.
If the internship leads to something, it’s drafting structural steel engineering documents. I don’t know much more than that.
Neat stuff.
Back when I did my own drafting, cut-and-paste meant, literally, cut-and-tape. Hard to imagine an engineering department without ammonia drifting down the hall. The last AutoCAD I was competent in was R11 or 12 circa 1997.
I opened up AutoCAD this week after eight months or so of Revit instruction and thought Oh Jesus. I should probably brush up on it, but man.
Fuck yeah! ???
Kekko desu
“It is a kid”
??
You say it while waggling your penis in their face.
But you have to waggle it at the right angle depending on the age and social status of the other person, or it’s terribly rude.
息子, むす子, 息: むすこ, そく
(P, n) son, (P, n, vulg) penis
Jim Breen’s JMDict
No silly, that’s “musko”
結構: けっこう
(P, adj-na, n, n-adv) splendid, nice, wonderful, delicious, sweet, (P, adj-na) sufficient, fine (in the sense of “I’m fine”), (by implication) no thank you, well enough, OK, tolerable, (P, adv) quite, reasonably, fairly, tolerably, (P, n, arch) construction, architecture
The “desu” makes it formal and also makes it a full sentence.
Not to say Google Translate is normally dead on, but why’d it come up with that very specific, highly divergent translation?
Because of transliteration between alphabets.
結構です could be rendered in Latin characters as kekkō desu or kekkou desu or kekko desu. The last latinization is less formally transliterated (which have their own errors and rules) but pretty much accurate phonetically and understandable to people not named Google Translate. Machine translation can provide a whole host of amusement and confusion.
LOL same time!
Google translate sucks when it comes to Japanese.
In this case the main reason for the failure is that straffinrun shortened the romaji – you can either make the final “o” long with a line above it or you need to use the “u” sound as in kekkou desu.
Google translate sucks.
You’d know better than I would, but it seems tolerable with Romance languages.
It works remarkably well for Asian languages in their native scripts.
In my experience it frequently mixes kunyomi and onyomi readings of kanji. (Chinese / sound versus Japanese.)
It also screws up verbs with surprising regularity.
I recommend reading Hofstadter’s essay on Google Translate and machine translation in general.
Google translate is awesome – you play the game where you translate a passage through a couple of intervening languages and back to English, and it can be hilarious!
Although it did pretty good on “Jack and Jill” through arabic, galic and swahili:
Jack and Hill went to get a bucket of water. Jack fell and broke the crown and came the generation after the fall
Hickory, dickory, dock.
Azerbaijani > Galician > Nepali > English.
Hickory, dickory, dock,
Mouse ran on the clock;
He walked for an hour,
And he,
Hackery, Dori, Duck.
It’s like “Telephone” for millennials.
Hickory, dickory, dock
is a variant of counting 8, 9, 10 in a traditional British system (there are several regional variants), maybe Lincolnshire’s.
The Welsh wyth, naw, deg are sufficiently different to avoid Rhywun’s notice?
Ŷn nhw ddim.
kewl
hovera, dovera, dik for my kin
And the u(う) still lengthens the “o” as I understand it. It bugged the shit out of me at first when the textbook spelled all these “o” sounds with “u”.
That’s correct. It took me bit to figure that out. You’ll note you don’t deal with that crap in katakana.
There are the occasional oddball words, however, For example Osaka is oosaka.
Thanks straff for another entertaining glimpse into your everyday world. I think I would have gone nuts even sooner long ago.
I know the feeling, but our circle in Illinois was actually only a triangle, with SP, Swiss, and me. Damn, we miss Swiss. Here, we see Mexican Sharpshooter from time to time, but he’s a pretty decent haul from where we live and work.
So you’re saying that Mexi is no Swiss?
Swiss has the chin, Mexy has the hair. Magnificent hair. Museum-quality hair.
The best hair? Bigly?
https://images.app.goo.gl/z95LuLH7QNBC4te48
I think he was fishin for this.
Ok, I’ll concede
In keeping with the theme…
It is subversive
Ah, the hair is to draw attention away from the nose and the teeth.
Ever see the Leningrad Cowboys?
Wow. That IS museum quality hair.
Fantastic hair
Any of our Nihon contingent care about baseball? What teams? What rituals do you like? Which differences from MLB do you enjoy or dislike?
Um
I missed Miss Perky Breasts (the video). Great article, gave me a little Japanese cultural info. I doubt that I’ll need much on details of nursery school but if I do you’ll be my Go To Guy.
My wife will start conversations with any one that looks VN. She will ask personal things that we would never discuss on first meeting someone. Like where do you live? How much rent do you pay for your store space? Are you into fishing or hunting, then you have to visit us so my husband can take you.
If someone does accidentally visit us she will have them out in the garden giving them our stuff away. She never visits the garden any other time though. I really don’t mind her gifting, we suffer from abundance.
Great story Straff. There are many ways to create and form strong groups. I have my own friends separately from my wife and our combined friends. Both are great for different reasons.
OT. I am in the Seattle area for a week or so. Any other Glibs passing through?
Great story.
We have the identical circle. For us it was “Mommy and me”, an otherwise insipid and useless ritual where mothers of infants come together to do a craft and play with their babies together in an organized manner. I rolled my eyes when the wife told me what she was doing (and I was paying for), but I later learned that the entire point was so that the moms could hang out with other moms of kids of the same age and development stages.
She came back from the first couple of classes telling me about this clicky group that had sticks up their butts and kind of excluded her. Yeah, that became her group. They didn’t really exclude her – in fact they were “wear your religion on your sleeve” Christians who ended up dragging us to church with them. So that’s how we ended up going to the Baptist church instead of the Methodist church.
They are great people and it turned out to be an important part of our lives. We vacation together, our kids are growing up together – we all had second children at about the same time, and a couple of us
made the mistake of havinghad a third child in sync.In addition to the other support aspects, it has been good for the dads because we can make that eye contact that says “yeah, me too buddy” when one of the wives is being… well, you know how they can be. That’s our version of #MeToo, I suppose.
In fact just this weekend one of the group had a big change. They invited the two closest families over for a pool party – which was really an excuse to announce that they were having to take in the cousin’s kid (mom is an addict, dad is unknown, grandma was taking care of the kid until diabetes cost her a foot and then Oxy addiction took hold). So they have a new kid added on and were looking for support from our extended family. And they are gonna need it – kid has had a rough go, born addicted, abused and neglected, one of the cousins stopped in to check on them and the kindergartener kid was missing – mom and grandma were wasted on the couch and didn’t even know she was gone. Some homeless guy found her and walked her home a while later.
These circles of support are critical. Ours has truly been a blessing, even as things loosen up now that our oldest kids are entering middle school.
Hey, we’re a family friendly site!
Seems pretty family friendly.
executive action good!
To quote Lord Helmet…”Keep firing assholes!”
Maybe she can Demsplain why she deserves a pistol for self-defense and I don’t.
She’ll give her guns as soon as she gets armed secret service protection for life.
(Which should be retroactively stripped from all ex-presidents just like the Lautenberg Amendment or sex offender conditions, and scaled back for the current office holder)
Does anyone remember the Stalin quote posted in the last few days where he compared the west as castles surrounded by a ditch?
I don’t have any ‘friends’ and I don’t have any kids, I usually have to fix my nieces and nephews after some other grups fuck them up. Fuck the world! *downs another beer* Now this is podracing!
Boy Scouts go woke, now do they broke?
Some people will do anything for a merit badge.
I… what? You can purchase sex abuse liability coverage??
But yeah, they’re toast. I think a conversation is due (as Kamala Harris would say) over what exactly such victims “deserve” – millions? But that conversation won’t happen.
Removing statutes of limitations likely means the accused is no longer alive to defend themselves, great way to run an org out of business.
People have this weird misconception that the length of the statute of limitations is set by how important the crime is.
While that is one factor, another major factor is how hard is it to get at the facts. If you find a corpse, there are ways to figure out what happened to it and bring a killer to justice, even 25 years later. How does that work with sexual assault? Unless you pull a lewinski and save the DNA, its at best a he said he said situation. At worst, it’s a he said he dead situation, which basically means “I found some big pockets and I want my cut”
Not anymore. It’s based on the level of outrage towards the crime. Kiddy diddlers get no slack. Hell, most get convicted with nothing more than a strongly worded accusation. They don’t even bother with the junk science for that charge.
How the fuck are those bills constitutional?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stogner_v._California
Oh, they aren’t.
Fuck you Chase
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calder_v._Bull
You and your old white dead slave-owning hundred year old Constitution can go fuck yourself, the Woke are in charge now!
Duterte makes Trump seem reasonable.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/duterte-philippines-canada-garbage-declare-war
Duterte gives Canada a week to come get their garbage or he’s going to declare war. This could be fun.
He’s kind of been slipped under the rug, could it be because that could who how bad things could get and they aren’t that bad yet here on the mainland, but they want it to get that bad? Or am I just drunk philosophizing? You decide!
I’m not sure who to root for.
I want to see live footage of the Philippine military hitting the beaches of Vancouver.
I’m guessing this is the same situation where China won’t take our garbage any more either. Maybe the Philippines can ship it to some lowlier country that wants it.
We made friends with other parents in pre-school, but those relationships mostly fizzled out. Kids grow and change.
Now that my kids are a bit older, they pick their friends, and we become friends with the parents (within reason). I don’t want to force my kids to be friends with someone they don’t like just because I like the parents. That leads down an ugly road.
Case in point; there’s a guy who keeps trying to set up play dates with kid #2. They don’t get along. There’s no reason for them to be friends, and also, no reason for us to be friends. This guy, somehow, is banned from Chili’s. I’ve done a lot of dumb stuff in my life, and I didn’t really start growing up until I got married. In spite of that, I have no fucking idea how someone gets a lifetime ban from Chili’s.
I have no fucking idea how someone gets a lifetime ban from Chili’s
That sounds like the idea for a running gag and credits outtake for Super Troopers 3.
I’ve only ever been to Chili’s once. This wreaks of white
middleclass privilege. Only proving we need apollracewealth tax.All Chili’s or just a specific Chili’s?
Because ‘all Chili’s’ sounds like something to witness.
Not enough flair?
He’s no longer allowed at Chili’s 2620 N. Sepulveda Blvd, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266.
I don’t know the story because I don’t want to know. He seems like an asshole, so my conclusion is that he was banned for being a complete asshole.
That seems like a safe bet.
I’m banned from that Chili’s too. Maybe they’re just assholes?!?
Sorta like a dog whistle thing, maybe?
Sorry,e-couldn’t resist
I struggle because I’m 53, my kid is 6.5, all his friend’s parents are 30 ish and plain vanilla people. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I’m kinda course and unrefined by comparison. For example, they start telling holiday horror stories about the turkey got burned or the dept. store accidentally switched their presents at the wrapping desk, etc. Then my story about us all dropping acid and watching with fascination as the candles burn all the way through the wall before being ushered out by the fire dept. and then all having to run from the cops who were just arriving outside and my fuckup brother being the only one who got caught because tried some smart assed shit on them, etc. Fucking x-mas candles.
Anyway, they seem kinda freaked out by stories like that…
Oh, and I’ve never been even asked to leave a Chili’s much less banned from one..
The median age seems to be a bit higher at my kids’ school. I see people at pickup who I assumed were grandparents, and yes, I put my foot in my mouth.
If I have to listen to a story about a burned turkey or switched gift at Macy’s, I’ll listen politely, but only once. That’s a firm no from me.
I think that you’ll find that the other dads have some stories, but are skittish about telling them to people they don’t fully trust yet. I’ve been hit with some crazy shit straight out of left field, multiple times. A story about burning down a place on acid is maybe 3 out of 10 on some of the “Dad’s Nights” that I’ve been to.
I have three kids of that age range and I, for one, love your acid story. I also spend time here, so there’s that.
The acid stories are funny. Everyone does dumb things, and then they grow up.
One of the dads I met claimed that he used to be a sex addict. I’m thinking: OK, mediocre looking guy, not very outgoing, he’s trying to sound like a baller. Then he explained it to me. Holy shit, I had no idea that sort of thing existed. But he has it sorted out now, so good for him.
The guy banned from Chilis? Happened after he had kids. I have no interest in that, and I feel sorry for his family.
Yeah, if having kids doesn’t calm you down, there’s not much hope.
Yep, I hear you. Getting banned for life from Chili’s when you are a 22 year old goofball is probably a hilarious story, but after you have kids it is just sad. I also have a number of crazy and stupid stories from the Before Kids time, but that shit has to take a back seat after.
Meh, round here being 22 and having kids means you’re on track for life.
Yeah, that screams roid rage.
You annoy other customers by refusing to stop singing that stupid jingle.
+1 Austin Powers. So not woke.
https://youtu.be/B6P-G86u0_g
You didn’t even link it as cool as me, loser!
Dammit! Who does Number 2 work for?
I noticed friendships fall apart when some kids go sideways because everything must be a competition (and because I get caught rolling my eyes while others make excuses). Then there’s the video games and television versus real life standoff, organized or trip teams (soccer, lacrosse, whatever) vs football vs scouting, and, of course, the conspicuous consumption contest (my kid went to school with pro athletes’ kids: their high school parking lot was unspeakable). Parents going sideways is a fraction as well, of course.
Again I’ll say: I cherished scouting. Still keep up with a lot of the parents and boys online.
and because I get caught rolling my eyes while others make excuses
A coworker of mine is an excuse maker. I have to actively concentrate on not rolling my eyes when she starts weaving some oppression narrative along with excuse making as to why her 3 year old can’t count to 5. As if I care that you think your kid is behind but it’s not your fault.
Top to bottom, she’s a walking SJW stereotype. Chip on her shoulder the size of a pussyhat. Embodies every bad coworker trope from stealing credit for projects to constantly miring projects in bullshit, to talking down to younger colleagues, to blatantly mischaraterising what people say right after they say it, to femplaining about oppression. She’s a #metoo time bomb waiting to detonate.
Only thing I can do is smile and nod and try to interact with her as little as humanly possible.
Best thing to do. Those coworkers are poison and best avoided as much as possible.
Banned from CHILI’S? that takes some effort I would think. lol
But yeah, that was more my experience with the Mommy and Me group – once the kids are in school, it’s more their school friends you keep up with. The preschool friends fade away because the kids don’t remember unless you see them a lot, and that doesn’t happen if they go to different schools. hell, our old house one of the Mommy and Me kids lived just down the street but since they went to different schools (and ended up a grade apart, because my kid’s a Dec b’day), they never played together on their own. So I gave it up.
There was a lot of what I would call “pseudo-bonding” in the mommy and me classes. We did a night one so we could both go. OMG someone bought a bottle of wine so crazy. I guess it was a great starting off point for new parents, but it’s take-it or leave-it, mostly the latter.
Playa works for Buzzfeed.
Every Chilis has a dozen pictures of Terlingua and not a single thing on the menu one would eat in Terlingua.
We have a doggie play group. Does that count?
If you call it Mommy and ME, it’s probably illegal in several countries.
Dogging is normally a group th—OH.
That just seems like getting together for drinks but with extra steps.
No, you were right the first time.
All the degeneracy and indiscretion is why I’m saving myself for marriage.
How old are the dogs?
In human years, or in dog years?
Which is sexier?
For OMWC, dog-years – makes them seem younger.
Which means he’s banging dogs that are actually middle aged.
Mind. Blown.
Lotta titties on a mom dog. Just sayin.
I’m livestreaming tonight’s Glibertarians meetup.
I survived the HM link of 2019 !!!!
Seriously, though: where are the gas guzzlers, hookers, personal hand cannons, and scotch?
Look at his fingers. You can tell Tommy Hilfiger gets the whole “no homo” thing, letter and spirit.
I noticed that, and apparently the spray-painted, “faded”, ripped jeans uniform is still a thing.
Mr. Pegged-nut-hugger-jeans and all-white sneakers? I’m not at all sure he gets the “no homo” thing. NTTIATWWT.
(theory: there are some looks that are so ghey that no actual gay man would ever dress like that).
OMG you, like… sneeze glitter.
So great. Even better that was voiced by Thomas Lennon
(forever props to The State)
Fake News. They’re coordinated.
The rule of law is a thin thing if a thousand wrong-think statutes can be trained on you or a legitimate statute stretched and twisted beyond recognition:
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/23/716571375/drug-distributor-and-former-execs-face-first-criminal-charges-in-opioid-crisis?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20190423
conspiracy to distribute controlled narcotics — oxycodone and fentanyl — for non-medical reasons and conspiracy to defraud the United States will never be proved, but lets jerk these people around.
I don’t know all of the facts, but lots of people and their doctors decided to take something; those consequences are theirs. I’m so sick of blaming gun manufacturers, social platforms, and even the lowly police for the things they don’t control, didn’t plan, couldn’t manage if they even wished to regarding the mis-use of their products and services . . . when proximate causes are unambiguous. The flakiness of this means there’s no real system or merit, that all of us are just an instant from the mob’s turning on us and the government following suit in prosecuting anyone for simply being unpopular; how is that different from France or Egypt or Pakistan?
Southern District of New York…
The entire purpose of the $outhern Di$trict is ka-ching. It’s one $hakedown after another.
Remember being a kid and reading the fine print which says not available in list of states including your state and you’d get so pissed.
What’s NY going to do with no one to pay their taxes and no one willing to sell them anything?
I dunno. For now, there’s no shortage of new luxury condos and old office buildings being turned into luxury condos. Doesn’t seem like a viable long-term strategy to float your city’s fortunes on the whims of the global elite but what do I know.
Thanks to the ‘Opioid CRISIS’ my clinic made me sign a contract where they can randomly drug test me as a condition of being prescribed ‘controlled’ substances. Great way to help me deal with my ANXIETY, asshats! I fucking hate people.
Drug test to detect opioids…that you’re prescribed?
No, to make sure I’m not taking any of the ‘illegal’ drugs, because that would be bad, M’Kay
Yep, the Wife is on dilaudid and they test for weed, legal in Cali BTW
Because druggies don’t suffer from pain like normies? Christ on a crutch.
I think it comes from that old drug warrior attitude, that if you abuse one drug, you’ll abuse them all. I fucking hate people, especially when ‘abuse’ is watered to down to ‘use’. Fuck sake. Vaping is still considered Tobacco use for ‘reasons’. Science really has been mangled into a cult.
My buddy is on that same thing. He is, in fairness pretty overly keen on the opiates. He actually brings in clean pee in a small bag that he warms against himself to make it pass, sometimes. I told you, he’s enthusiastic about them. He had a leg amputated, so he has/had some pretty serious pain to start with.
uhm: health care, education, and housing are NOT SPECIFIC GOODS !!!!1! They are ranges of goods and services that require markets so that vendors and buyers can match content and price to deliver the mostest to the mostest.
As I ask CommieMommie: is hip replacement for centenarians “healthcare?” If healthcare is a specific good and a right, what possible service would you the taxpayer not be asked to pay for?
There’s so many people who could set a broken arm and apply a cast, It should be available at 7-11 for a hundred bucks. Instead, it’s a grand or more. My mom used to do stitches, lance boils and all kinds of stuff on us. She would sterilize implements and dress the wounds afterwards. Hospital visits were an extreme measure when all else failed. That’s in a regular southern California town in the seventies, btw.
Insurance ruins every industry it’s universally (or mostly universally) applied to.
Oh, you know my coworker’s wife who goes to the ER for migraines, and similar?
We got a PatientFirst around the bend maybe two years ago, and it’s replaced pretty much every medical service I’d ever use. It’s a MinuteClinic with doctors on staff and a pharmacy in-house. Takes cash and/or insurance. No appointments necessary, in and out in a jiff. I mean, if you were bleeding from a gaping chest wound or on fire, probably not the place to go, but for anything from standard check-ups to non-emergency medical stuff, it’s the absolute shit. My wife broke her foot and went there instead of the hospital, which is maybe a mile further. They saw her right quick, x-rayed, gave her a boot and some pain meds, and on her merry way after maybe an hour and a deductible.
So, it’s highly subsidized by government? Sliding scale based on oppression index? Has a Loyalty Officer on at all times??
C’mon! You expect us to believe that this isn’t run by the government? It’s probably only open to whites…
/AOC
“Nice tits hun!” “I came in for a kidney transfer!”
So, this was an unexpectedly delightful post. It’s shitty thunder-storming around my area, and I’m rather pissed off, as it’s my anniversary, and I’d like a little nice weather, please…
Anyway, Going through your commentary, I was laughing increasingly more and more:
I figured blackjack won the internets with that one, but then I saw:
My boyz cs and slumbrew FTW!!
/I got nuthin’
I mean, how can that not be a post of its own? Oh, yeah-PM doesn’t want to know… Can’t say I blame him. Then, of course, the laugh-out-loud bits:
Fucking hell–what happened to my ordering?!? That’s crazy, all-over-the-place fucked up!
Word Press, or whatever the hell got updated recently: Get your shit straightened out!!
Death and taxes
You’re just trying to bring me back down, aren’t you?
https://youtu.be/z9nkzaOPP6g
You did not disappoint with that.
/love me some ELO
Have tickets to Nashville
Is that in July?
Damn, I don’t watch much hockey, but this game 7 with the Sharks comeback is insanely fun.
Gotta be more interesting than the Leafs collapse.
It was 3-0 Knights until the last part of the third period. Overtime now.
Cool. I have no skin in that game. So I’m going to put in another Expanse DVD.
This keeps getting more interesting.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/04/23/yes-her-emails-senior-official-confirms-fbi-found-hillary-clinton-email-records-in-the-obama-white-house/
Reason # 153,248,936 to home-school your children.
I may silently judge you based on what you wear. Then again, the only place I will keep you out of is my personal property. And, even then, maybe not.
I hate everyone involved. Objections based on supposed class and race grounds, yet no one putting forth the radical notion that school is subservient to the public and parents.
QFFT, good sir Gustave.
While I can understand some authority given to judges to “rule” their courtrooms–let’s call it a moderate leash on them, this power trip by government workers (and I am one) trying to tell other adults how to dress in a public building is infuriating.
It was only a matter of time. Have you seen the way people dress?
Yeah. Hell, I do some of that, myself. That’s why I silently judge others. 😉
Wow, EST + finishing an MBA project = West Coast Glibbin’!
Anyway. I’m with Gustave on this. I’m as snobby as you’ll find. I’m borderline George Will in his infamous anti-denim screed. I firmly believe that you ought to put your best foot forward at all times, and that means not leaving the house looking like you missed laundry day. Or not going into public looking like you woke up on a bench. That’s not to say you should wear a grey flannel suit to buy a lottery ticket at a convenience store, but at least look like you care about your appearance. And it’s not just a class thing, because soccer moms will pull up to the grocery store in a BMW SUV and then get out in flip flops and a pair of “yoga” “pants” as if they’re the Queen of Sheba. Have some class, for Christ’s sake.
But on the other hand…if I’m coming to pick my kid up from somewhere I’ll be damned if I’ll be kept away for any reason whatsoever. I don’t care if I’m wearing boxer-briefs and riding a mule. And also, last I checked a public school is not a private establishment.
I fully embrace judging the hell out of people for not dressing well, but I do so as a private citizen, and the worst thing you’ll get from me is a scowl and a disappointed shake of the head. Once the word “public” or “government” is involved, all bets are off.
If you’re upset that soccer moms are going out in public wearing yoga pants then I’m not sure we can be friends anymore. You go too far, sir.
I, for one, believe in the rule of comfort: If you are physically comfortable in what you are wearing, you are probably going to be easier to deal with. In most situations, that is what I will adhere to. In Target, or, Trader Joe’s, I’m not particularly concerned with what others think of my wardrobe, though I don’t usually go out of my way to be insulting or provocative. I have my standards, and, as long as they don’t violate a place’s rules, or, break some legislation (not calling that shit ‘Law’), I’m satisfied, and that’s that.
So, the idea of a public school getting uppity over what other adults wear, all because “Think of the children!”, sticks in my craw, and makes me want to start kicking said bureaucrats in their respective junk.
/soccer moms in yoga pants = YUM
Given the extreme examples I heard a principal claim in an interview I lean towards the school. Yes, as you said rule of comfort and not offensive but the principle was describing moms showing up in nighties and house slippers, bathrobes, one in sexytime underwear, another with one breast actually out of her robe.
I know the type, I have seen them many times. They have crossed the line.
I’m going to try to be very careful in the line I walk here:
As much as I/we tend to shun law enforcement involvement in any kind of vice/community standards issues, there are indecent exposure ordinances/legislation on the books pretty much everywhere. If these people could, in theory, be arrested/cited for what they were wearing, they did actually cross a line. Not calling for the police to be involved, mind you. And, how are these admins supposed to know? Well, actually, that stuff is typically given an outline as to what constitutes violations (the Codes in Texas do), but I digress.
The problem I see is that State actors are actually keeping parents from kids in some of these situations, all because of what the parent is wearing. Not because of abuse or neglect, which is another matter. And, while I’ve got no actual dog in the fight here, I do, personally agree with the overall sensibilities of the staff–these unnamed parents were being loutish/shitty.
In the end, this is just another problem created because the Government is enmeshed in the raising of children, by virtue of mandated education*.
I’m going to throw one more in here and then off for a few hours of sleep. Replacing traditional social institutions with government ones, removing stigma and shame, and protecting antisocial behavior have all contributed to that current manifestation.
Tldr; government breaks legs, hands out crutches.
^ Agreed with all of that.
You are both right. There is a problem in some communities and government is the worst possible actor to solve it.
Another thought: Power hungry control freaks are attracted to institutions that are powerful. If we handed over the power to enforce propriety to churches the assholes in govt would just start attending seminaries. Solving this problem might be more sticky.
The obvious solution is to spread power out as thin as possible and pit those types against each other. We could try that but we would have to keep a close eye on them to prevent them from accumulating more power.
I forgot to add the Sarc tag to the last half of this comment.
I haven’t had a wink of sleep <—thats my excuse
Nice article Straff. I am not a Circle person but I appreciate the concept.
It involves human interaction. I am at an immediate disadvantage.
Good morning glibs and gliberinas. I’m early with daughter #1 to fly to DC for admitted students day. I think she is trolling me by picking a college in DC but love conquers all.
Early = up early
Also, where are the morning links?