Tuesday Morning Links

What a hell of a comeback by the Texans.  Too bad it happened too fast.  also, if a guy catches a pass with two seconds on the clock and you’re the defender, just don’t touch him for a few seconds and let the game clock expire…then down him.  The Raiders also won after their week(s) filled with drama.  And that Davis son sure is a goofy-looking dude.  I mean goofy as shit.

Go home team!

In other football news, it looks like Texas didn’t have A/C in the visitors locker room for LSU and didn’t bother telling them about it. Fortunately the Tigers were tipped off by La Tech and brought some coolers in. But that’s bush league when its in the 90s.

The Braves, Mets, Yankees (put a fork in Boston, its over), Brewers, Pirates, Indians (hanging in there!), Cubs and Houston Astros all won last night.  The Astros scored 15 runs, bringing their total from the last two games to 36.  One of those runs came from this. I bet the last thing that guy was thinking when he got that ticket was “I might catch a homer”.

Cool dude on and off the course

Top-ten (maybe five) golfer and certainly top-five coolest guy of all-time Arnold Palmer was born on this day. As was slugger Roger Maris, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, terrible co-worker Bill O’Reilly, rockers Joe Perry, Johnny Fingers and Siohban Fahey, actor Colin Firth, director Guy Ritchie, rapper Big Daddy Kane, and Canadian baseball player Joey Votto.

Hey-ho! Let’s go. To…the links!

Alaska rarely makes the news. But since its a chance to point out that this always looked like a dysfunctional family gets them back in today.

America’s first credit union for the gays and trans people clears a major hurdle. I’m glad the government recognized people have the right to associate with who they want to associate with. Even if it excludes others.  That’s what freedom of association is.  I wish them well.  I also wish well other groups that wish to choose who they associate with. (No snark)

Ooh, sweet, a three pack!. Now google can see what’s going on in more than one place any time they want.

If you’re dumb enough to buy one of these devices after reading this, you get what you deserve. Seriously, why not just go live in a clear box in Times Square? Or downtown Los Angeles or San Francisco, were you’ll be able to blend in and as an added bonus, shit in the street without anyone noticing?

California passes the strictest vaccine bill in the country. This is certainly a point of debate among libertarians.  Share your thoughts below.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  Just wait a day, ffs.

Now that we have this out of the way, we can start asking the question “what the fucking fuck happened” to the dudes who loaded the ship.

Here u go.

Now go have a great day, friends.

Comments

590 responses to “Tuesday Morning Links”

  1. Rebel Scum

    That’s and interesting pizza party.

    1. Rebel Scum

      an*

      1. Below Sea Level Hell Centro

        That chick is definitely into deep dish.

      2. Not Adahn

        Sausage and clam pizza?

      3. Slammer

        Why would you even waste a decent frozen pizza on some thot who can’t even keep her booger hook off the trigger? And those bros are gay NTTAWWT

        1. decent frozen pizza

          No such thing.

          1. Slammer

            More for me

          2. Rebel Scum

            It’s not delivery an orgy, it’s Digiorno

          3. Slammer

            Something rises, and it ain’t the crust

          4. Cacciatore

            *golf clap*

          5. The Sleeper

            There should be enough yeast in there to get it going.

    2. Festus

      There has to be one hell of a backstory for that photo.

      1. AlexinCT

        Agreed…

        Does anyone know what that nekked frozen pizza fetish is called?

        1. Jarflax

          Diporno?

  2. PieInTheSky

    America’s first credit union for the gays and trans people clears a major hurdle. I’m glad the government recognized people have the right to associate with who they want to associate with. Even if it excludes others. That’s what freedom of association is. I wish them well. I also wish well other groups that wish to choose who they associate with. – I am sure it will be fabulous.

    1. leon

      The thing is that this is not some revival of freedom of association. Credit unions are required to be exclusive so as to keep competition from the Banks.

      1. Huh.

        Then why did I get accepted to the two I’m a member of? I mean, just because I was working for a particular employer doesn’t mean anything…

        1. Bobarian LMD

          Paraphrasing Groucho — “Any credit union that would have me as a member shouldn’t be in business?”

  3. PieInTheSky

    If you’re dumb enough to buy one of these devices after reading this, you get what you deserve. Seriously, why not just go live in a clear box in Times Square? Or downtown Los Angeles or San Francisco, were you’ll be able to blend in and as an added bonus, shit in the street without anyone noticing?

    Some guy here had a house with a huge window in the bathroom and my parents asked whether they are not concerned about privacy and the answer is this is my mother in laws bathroom, that is the neighbors problem. Point is, you know people have different views on these things

    1. Old Man With Candy

      people have different views on these things

      I see what you did there.

    2. Fourscore

      Same way I feel about my leaves, that’s my neighbors problem.

      My wife would scold me for walking around with no clothes on. My answer was that anyone that would watch an old man naked was far more sick than me.

      1. Festus

        Fourscore = Naturist! I’ll bet that little tidbit isn’t engraved on the invitations to the honey harvest…

          1. Festus

            I almost went there but I knew someone would complete the tap-in.

          2. wchipperdove

            “Seeing me naked won’t bring back your honey!”

          3. AlexinCT

            That’s what she said?

      2. MikeS

        I’m starting to second guess this Honey Harvest thing…

        1. Social Justice is Neither

          So you think it’s some sort of honeytrap.

        2. Fourscore

          I picked a bucket of hot peppers this morning for Tundra et al. See if he wants to share with ‘friends’.

          1. MikeS

            He better share!

    3. Pope Jimbo

      But if you have a doorbell camera you can totes be a junior detective.

      *Full disclosure, if I was deranged enough to have a doorbell camera and there was a shooting between gangsters out front, I probably would share the footage.

      1. AlexinCT

        By “gangsters” do you mean the uppity teenage kids that live next door?

  4. PieInTheSky

    If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Just wait a day, ffs. – this happened here but it was worse, first time the cops suspended the driving license so the second time was drink driving and driving with a suspended license.

    1. Sean

      Morning Pie.

      I’m still getting spam emails from these people:

      Inedit Agency SRL – Aleea Socului no.6, Office no.30, Bucharest, 050088, Romania
      © 2019 | JustViral | All rights reserved

      Can you swing by there and punch someone for me? Much appreciated.

      1. PieInTheSky

        Aleea Socului? With the traffic in this city ? Can’t you be harassed by someone next to a subway station?

        1. Hire a bike messenger to go over and hit them?

          1. PieInTheSky

            a punching telegram?

          2. Not Adahn

            *submits business plan to loan officer*

          3. Sean

            I’ll be your first customer, as long as you set up a franchise in Romania.

    2. Festus

      Happened to a buddy of mine back around 1980 or so. Got booked at a road check trying to get into a bush party. They didn’t impound vehicles or licences then so he went back to the party after his processing was done, hopped in his car and tried to drive home. Cops had set up another road check. Two DUI’s in the span of four hours.

      1. AlexinCT

        Do the popo call this double-tap approach the “Prison Bitch” trap?

        1. Festus

          Ehn, penalties were still pretty lenient then. Probably just the “Dumb-Ass ” trap.

          1. Bobarian LMD

            In the ’70s, my old man was the first person in the county to get the new DUI. Previously it was a $60 ticket and “stop driving, Dumb-Ass!”. Maybe a ride home.

            All of a sudden it was $300 and a trip to the hoosegow.

            He made his trip harder by throwing coffee at the cops.

            He also made the local paper for being the first guy in the county.

  5. PieInTheSky

    California passes the strictest vaccine bill in the country. This is certainly a point of debate among libertarians. Share your thoughts below. – I am split on this. On the one hand…. on the other…

    1. Drake

      No libertarian in his right mind would live in CA.

      1. Below Sea Level Hell Centro

        Thanks for reminding me that I’m not in my right mind.

        1. blackjack

          I’m certainly not.

      2. KSuellington

        Or Illinois, or New York, or New Jersey, or Massachusetts, or Oregon, or Hawaii, or …

          1. Drake

            He better hang his head in shame.

    2. I’d just say that laying the mandatory vaccine issue to the side, it’s a fair bet that if California’s state government does something it’s likely either a bad idea or a bad implementation of a good idea.

  6. PieInTheSky

    Australian teachers among highest paid

    Australian school teachers are among the highest paid in the OECD, earning 22 to 36 per cent more than the average – a finding that comes just after NAPLAN results showed reading, writing and grammar scores have fallen in the past 10 years, and international PISA results in science, maths and reading have collapsed since 2000.

    https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/naplan-and-pisa-down-but-teacher-pay-among-highest-20190910-p52prj

    The Centre for Independent Studies said the data showed the problem in Australian education was not that teachers were underpaid.

    1. PieInTheSky

      I looked at the data for the US and it does not seem education is so underfunded / teachers so underpaid as I was led to believe. Teacher salaries are generally lower than Switzerland, Korea, Canadia, Luxembourg and, depending on position, sometimes Denmark and Netherlands. But overall US seems top tier in teacher salaries, spending per pupil and spending as % of GDP. Off course, these are PPP adjusted salary averages for countries. I assume in most there is quite a difference between regions in both salaries and purchase power, and I assume a large country such as the US has bigger differences, so not sure what conclusion can be drawn. But in my reading, simply more funding does not seem to be a solution.

      1. blackjack

        In CA, they make 75k and up for 9 months of work. Seems like plenty to me. I’m sure there’s some who make less, but not many.

        1. Akira

          Teachers get massive pensions as well (so generous that they’re bankrupting state governments everywhere) and that is probably not reflected in teacher pay data.

      2. Our problem comes from not being able to fire bad teachers and excess administrators.

        1. Tonio

          In the case of the deadweight, do-nothing HQ staff (ie, all of them), the answer is not firing but eliminate their positions.

          1. AlexinCT

            ^^^THIS^^^

          2. Bobarian LMD

            The Teachers Union would like a word with the two of you, right here in this dark alley.

          3. Jarflax

            Fortunately they are afraid of guns.

      3. ruodberht

        How many of those places with higher-paid teachers track students?

        1. Like, with a chip?

          /deliberately clueless

          1. Not Adahn

            “Computer, locate Student Jeffrey Palmer.”

          2. Timeloose

            I worked with my wife to create a hall pass location system for her engineering certification. It would alarm her and the student if the pass holder was not in the designated area for the pass or if it was out longer than the time allotted for the bathroom. Used Bluetooth sensors in the hallway with Tile trackers. It worked well.

          3. Bobarian LMD

            You are a monster.

      4. wchipperdove

        Yeah, but do those other countries have an abundance of highly-paid Diversity Counselors and suchlike?

      5. Akira

        But in my reading, simply more funding does not seem to be a solution.

        US school funding has doubled or even tripled by some estimates, but there are few demonstrable indicators of any improvements, and in fact a lot to suggest that things are worse. Remember that a lot of districts try to paper over this embarrassing fact by dumbing down the curriculum so that basically anyone can pass with flying colors. Colleges are now teaching things that used to be required knowledge for anyone to get a high school diploma.

    2. Fourscore

      ” NAPLAN results showed reading, writing and grammar scores have fallen in the past 10 years, and international PISA results in science, maths and reading have collapsed since 2000″

      So the system works the same everywhere. I do feel bad for the American teachers though, how can we be # 1?

      1. PieInTheSky

        I did mention that in my second comment

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          I probably missed it because I hadn’t refreshed when I posted the above comment dedicated to your original response.

          /flicks Pie’s ears.

      2. PieInTheSky

        But looking at the excel data there are some inconsistencies between tables, and there is difference between starting salary rankings and 10/15 years experience as well.

      3. Festus

        And oh how they bitch and moan… A high percentage of my High School class went into the profession and when I was still on Facestalk it was all they ever wanted to talk about. That school seemed to be set up as a Teacher mill.

        1. Tonio

          ^This. I’m working about an article on the entitlement mentality of the American government school teacher.

          1. Rufus the Monocled

            For the fun of it, go look at the Ontario Teacher’s Union Pension Fund.

            Go see how powerful.

  7. Rufus the Monocled

    Imagine if Mark Davis ordered everyone on staff have the same hair cut? That would make for one creepy sideline.

    1. “Sideline of the Damned”

    2. The Broncos staff wore almost all white on the sidelines. Made the team look like extra from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Of course, they played like mental patients.

  8. Tres Cool

    Mornin’

  9. Suthenboy

    Since the advent of vaccines large numbers of people have been fighting tooth and nail against that sorcery. Really, this is a self solving problem.

    1. Festus

      The Polio that doesn’t cripple or kill you can only make you stronger!

    2. Bob Boberson

      ^This mostly. The funny thing is though it’s interesting to see how statist the pro-vaxer crowd is (at least judging by social media), many seem enthusiastic to see anti-vaxers charges with child abuse and hauled off to jail which I find repugnant.

      1. cyto

        What I find interesting is that this, like several of the science and politics intersection points, is largely far-left against far-left.

        The anti-vaxxers are mostly wealthy, all-natural granola crunchers. And the vehemently pto-vaccine advocates are mostly far left as well.

        The same goes for the GMO crowd. The anti-gmo people are mostly of the far left all organic type and in addition to Farmers, the pro GMO crowd is mostly far left as well.

        1. Bob Boberson

          The only solution is far-left thunderdome

          1. Two Xer enter one Xer leaves?

  10. Not Adahn

    Guy Ritche was known to cast the women he was fucking in starring roles:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfGkY4UfNnU

    1. AlmightyJB

      I pretty much thought that’s how it works

      1. Jarflax

        Is there any other reason to make movies?

    2. cyto

      In other news, smoking hot young women use their sexuality to gain economic advantage.

      And while we are talking about shocking things that nobody could have seen coming, your dog will eat food from the table if you hand it to him. And if you have food at the table, your dog will beg for it.

      I know, controversial take. Also surprising. Random guy on the internet says something controversial in the comment section.

  11. PieInTheSky

    Marxistm is gun rights. Checkmate libertarians

    https://twitter.com/MaoistRebelNews/status/1169572947264245766

      1. It instead just forced everyone to provide slave labor.

      2. leon

        Can’t tax what the government claims it already owns.

      3. Tres Cool

        Glory to ??, ?? and ??. Fuck TERFs. Death to the Fascist States of Amerikkka.

        Well, he seems nice.

        1. kbolino

          I didn’t think you could fit that many contradictions in so few words, but hey everybody’s gotta have something they’re good at, I guess.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      I don’t think the message is conveying what he thinks it’s supposed to.

      To me anyway.

  12. Slammer

    America’s first credit union for the trans people

    I have a feeling that bank is hiding something from the customers

    1. Your money identifies as theirs.

      1. Akira

        Sounds like a real drag.

    2. Sean

      You think it’s a trap?

    3. Tres Cool

      Almost like they have something tucked away ?

      1. WTF

        * Cues up Goodbye Horses

    4. Tonio

      What you did there…

    5. invisible finger

      You can only withdraw in change.

    6. I’d have also accepted any joke about $3 bills.

    7. MikeS

      The Loaning Game

    8. Rebel Scum

      Someone is in for quite a surprise.

    9. Bobarian LMD

      Your deposit is not going to end up in the account you thought it was going to?

  13. Rufus the Monocled

    We ended up taking the decision to not accept unvaccinated kids because other parents began to complain. We ain’t jeopardizing a sudden drop in spots for ‘fake-woke-urban-granola’ parents who think vacs lead to autism. Screw that.

    The market spoke.

    1. leon

      Look at you promulgating cancel culture.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        The funny part is the last parent who called for a spot said her kids weren’t vaccinated. We explained her why we can’t take her. Two days later she called back saying she was going to vaccinate them.

        We also got tired of listening to parents ‘vac-splain’ us their bull shit.

        1. Festus

          It really is a generational thing. There are quite a few of us on this site that knew people that were crippled by polio and quite a few that knew of people that died from the German measles. They may have been somewhat older than my cohort but close enough to leave an impression.

          1. Rufus the Monocled

            It’s the same thing with those of us who witnessed communism in real time. It left an impression and we knew how bad it is.

            But this bunch is disconnected so they think they’re cool ‘rebelling’ against ‘the machine’.

          2. KSuellington

            Raging, even.

  14. Timeloose

    I’ve been listening to Devo since yesterday afternoon exclusively. You are the second person today that I interact with regularly to reference them.

    Am I in a simulation? Booji boy?

    My favorite Devo song on one of the best sketch shows from 1980-82.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBoj-JzQDnc

    1. l0b0t

      I could hug you right now. I knew what the clip was gonna be the moment I read it. Yes, Fridays is a criminally underrated show. Here is my favorite Devo song – Going Under.

      1. Timeloose

        I watched Fridays as a 10 year old. My best friend and I would walk around saying “take a pill…. take a pill” and “Gimmie Ganja”. Our mothers were very worried when we started hiding ziplock bags of flour under the couch and looking out of the drapes for the cops.

        going under is a great one. Like most Devo songs it is happy and dark at the same time.

        1. Ozymandias

          Michael Richards got his start there, I believe. Great show. We loved it as kids.

          1. Bobarian LMD

            He was like Andy Kaufman on that show.

  15. Can’t wait for Mojeaux to write Glib-themed medieval erotica in which I am the degenerate smut-peddler who ends up getting publicly executed for moral turpitude.

    http://archive.li/9k4TI

    Enjoy these yonge cuntes.

    1. Festus

      Yes! Let’s help make “Cunte” part of the Glib-speak lexicon!

      1. leon

        Towing the Lion is still one I don’t get.

        1. Well, are you just going to leave it stranded?

        2. WTF

          It’s sort of a homonym, for all intensive porpoises.

        3. Jarflax

          It is part of the general meme of annoying Switzy via judicious use of of homonyms and homophones. Get with the program leon! or should I say Tow the lion.

          1. Nah, “Tow the lion” was from old HyR.

          2. But, just in case…

        4. Uh it’s a mish mash of “Toe the Line” – Johnism?

          1. “The most likely origin of the term goes back to the wooden decked ships of the Royal Navy during the late 17th or early 18th century. Barefooted seamen had to stand at attention for inspection and had to line up on deck along the seams of the wooden planks, hence to “toe the line”.[1] The first mention of this use in literature stems from a story about navy life widely published in 1831 and written by Captain Basil Hall RN.[2] Hall served in the Royal Navy from 1802.”

          2. Festus

            “Pedant, Ahoy!” You are correct, Sir!

        5. Nephilium

          Well that’s because you left out part of it. It’s Toe, the Blue Lion. He was created when people kept mistyping tow the blue line in regards to “officer involved fatalities”.

        6. leon

          Thanks. I knew the original phrase, just not the origin of why you all fuck it up every time.

        7. Suthenboy

          I don’t see what is so difficult about it.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1evM5B0gg8

      2. Tonio

        It already is. I’ve seen a lot of people use that here the past several days.

        1. Festus

          I know this but it needs to reach critical mass! A nice welcome back present for our favorite Mormon pornographer, I would think.

          1. our favorite Mormon pornographer

            This might explain why I’m never asked to speak, pray, or hold callings at church.

    2. wchipperdove

      Looking forward to the plotte twists.

      1. Festus

        “I’m doing my part!” Would you like to learn more?

      2. Jarflax

        The juxtaposition of your comment with your avatar is disturbing.

    3. Done.

      *copy/paste into comment box on book 2 manuscript*

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Don’t fall for that hooey about going to college to prepare for a career. That’ll show those corporate assholes.

    The argument for yeomanship also fails to acknowledge that the high cost of college makes it an iffy proposition if the only purpose is to find a well-paying job. The economists John Schmitt and Heather Boushey found that among 24-to-35-year-olds, almost 20 percent of college graduates “actually do no better than their counterparts who left school after high school,” even before taking college debt into account.

    The argument for yeomanship also denies the turbulent job market graduates will face. Jobs are much less secure now than they were in the post–World War II decades, and they are likely to become even less so in the future. College students will enter a world in which many jobs are designed to be temporary. Although the corporations of the mid-20th century depended on a stable workforce of long-term employees, capitalism in the U.S. today works by assuming that a “flexible” workforce accustomed to temporary and insecure employment will be at corporations’ disposal.

    Because the growth of temporary employment has coincided with massive technological changes, such as the development of the internet, this social reorganization has appeared to be largely a natural consequence of innovation and competition rather than the outcome of human choices. But as the historian Louis Hyman demonstrated in Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary, the shift was an explicit goal of business leaders. Beginning in the 1970s, corporate heads and their consultants began to look for short-term profits, cutting their commitments to their employees. Workers who might stay for years or decades required promotions and benefits and were protected by unions. Disposing of expensive workers became a key to meeting profit targets. In their place, corporations began to rely on short-term employees who would stay for the job at hand and then leave.

    Seems like a lot of after the fact rationalization and “what works for me will work for you” self-justification, heavily sprinkled with ass backward and upside down “logic”. And then it degenerates into whining abut evil kkkorporations.

    Go ahead and study any goddam thing you like , as long as the cost is absorbable. By all means, expand your horizons, and explore what it means to be you. Heaven knows, you could never do that anywhere but on a college campus.

    1. leon

      “cost of college makes it an iffy proposition if the only purpose is to find a well-paying job”

      College is a lot of things. But if you get into debt for it, then you should get into a field that can give you a return to pay it off.

      1. Sounds like a racist fascist thing to say you racist fascist.

        1. “All right Mister… Q, when exactly did this individual break your fist with his face?”

          1. Jarflax

            Fake news! Q knows enough to use a forearm.

          2. Festus

            Elbows and knees, like a whirling dervish!

          3. leon

            Did someone ask “who wants cake?”

          4. That reminds me, I bought the ingredients to bake and haven’t actually made anything yet.

    2. Not Adahn

      has appeared to be largely a natural consequence of innovation and competition rather than the outcome of human choices.

      This is what happens when you start believing mental shortcuts are real.

      1. How are innovation and competition not human choices?

        1. Not Adahn

          In the same way in which “Society” is an anthropomorphic being with needs, wants and the ability to take actions.

    3. The Last American Hero

      24-35 year olds. Well, there’s your problem. Around the time they become management, there is….some divergence in the figures.

      1. Jarflax

        Yeah, they sag after 35.

    4. cyto

      I learned this lesson back in the 80s.

      I had encouraged a friend of mine to go to college After High School, but he insisted that he was going to go to the local Technical College. You see, he had this program in automobile mechanics all scouted it out. Just two years and he could start working.

      Well, I thought he was a bit of an idiot for that, but I wished him well.

      Fast forward a few years and I ran into him with one of our buddies at the mall. I had just gotten a big Fellowship to graduate school and was feeling pretty good about myself.

      So he asked how I was doing and I explained about my fellowship and how I would be working on a transgenic Mouse model. He listened politely as I explained how I was getting paid to go to school.

      So then I asked how he was doing. Well, they were getting ready to head up to his lake house. They had just taken his race car to the track the night before and they were going to take the fishing boat out that day.

      Turns out that he went through that technical program and got a job at the local car dealer. He was already a Master Mechanic making $110,000 a year. This is in 1989.

      At that point I was hoping to get a job as an associate professor once I had finished my PhD and postdoctoral training. I would probably be making somewhere around $60,000 once I completed all of that.

      It made me realize that everything I’ve been told about school and education was incomplete at best.

      1. WTF

        The idea that everyone must go to college has resulted in a serious shortage of people in the skilled trades, resulting in higher compensation.

        1. Only losers go to college

          /Bachelor of Science.

        2. And I’d like to thank you all for that, send your kids to college folks, The Hyperbole likes his 4- 6’s a week. Couldn’t do it if I had competition.

        3. invisible finger

          One thing that caused that was the draft. You could get a deferment going to university, but not if you went to trade school.

      2. invisible finger

        “he had this program in automobile mechanics all scouted it out. Just two years and he could start working.”

        Good for him that he knew this on his own or knew someone who told him of this. The vast majority of 17-18 year olds need guidance of some kind to figure out what they want to do and high school guidance counselors are completely useless (in my experience) that steer people to 4-year colleges or the armed services and provide no other options.

  17. PieInTheSky

    Competitive Countries in Travel and Tourism (2019)

    https://twitter.com/theworldindex/status/1170909048872611841

    I call bullshit

    1. ChipsnSalsa

      What is that even supposed to mean? Like the compete in the travel olympics? Unsure of what they are ranking

      another.

      World most polluted cities 2018:

      https://twitter.com/theworldindex/status/1171046056810954752

      You won’t believe number 6. Wait, yes you will.

      1. Wow. Remember when I had to go to India a couple of years ago? My destination was #1. My incoming flight had to be cancelled because the air pollution was so bad that the pilots couldn’t see the runway.

      2. No Beijing? I call BS.

      3. Rhywun

        Is that one of those “unscramble the words” puzzles…?

    2. PieInTheSky

      No way US is in top 5 anyway.

      Spain I get, cheapish, sunny, good food and wine.

      1. Nephilium

        In the US you can get cheapish, sunny, good food, good wine, and good beer. Just probably not in the same place.

        1. If I’m reading Pie’s sentence correctly, he doesn’t need good wine, just wine and good food.

          1. PieInTheSky

            Oh haha

        2. PieInTheSky

          Yeah but hotels are expensive, and I assume health insurance, care rentals, international phone calls.

          1. Your care rental should be covered by the health insurance.

            Cars are a different matter.

        3. PieInTheSky

          I expect better cocktails in decent bars in the US. The food I assume is horrible in the states. Although I think US restaurants are more willing to customize things, so I assume you can get a steak and ask them to skip the pound of sugar that goes into everything

          1. Sugar-infused steaks are the best thing about America.

          2. Combine with booze and you get bourbon glazed beef.

          3. Sean

            Sugar-infused steaks are the best thing about America.

            *falls out of chair*

            You’ve been out in the wasteland too long.

          4. Gah I didn’t even know that was a thing. And a quick search says – WTF?

          5. WTF

            The food I assume is horrible in the states.

            You assume wrong.

          6. And yet he keeps declining our invitiations to come visit and find out.

          7. WTF

            For all the hooha about how uninformed Americans are about other countries, it’s quite interesting just how ignorant most people are about the US.

          8. it’s quite interesting just how ignorant most people are about the US.

            Got in a huge argument on a romance novel review blog with non-USians making fun of something deeply US (Crimson Tide,FWIW).

            An Englishperson had written a football romance that takes place there. A) She dint know nuffin bout American football, so that was stupid. B) She didn’t understand the rivalry. C) She didn’t get how college ball works.

            ANYWAY, I don’t give a shit about it but for whatever reason, I was pissy about the non-USians ridiculing it. I almost never get into those spats.

            Finally, I said something about the fact that A) “crimson tide” is not about a girl’s period (where most of the confusion lay), B) that just because you think Americans have no culture doesn’t mean they don’, and C) most USians have heard of Crimson Tide and in context know what it means and D) you feel slighted anytime any American does not have perfect understanding of your country and culture, but you also perfectly free to trash Americans for having no culture. We don’t have YOUR cultural quirks or know of them, but we have ours and generally we dont care what other countries think of us because we do not have to. So STFU.

            I got hammered, but fortunately a bunch of people who know more about the finances of college ball came up to air their grievance and basically worked over the non-USians with hoe it all works and why having some knowledge about how it all works is kinda important if you are writing a romance novel.

            Point being that the author did not give a shit and thought it was some throwaway device to use American football in general and Crimson Tide in specific.

            She could have used a sensitivity reader.

          9. AlexinCT

            +1 Mojeaux bitchslaps uppity foreigner!

          10. PieInTheSky

            It is all to sweet and sugary

          11. When’s the last time you were here and had any American food?

          12. WTF

            I’m guessing “never” based on his comments.

          13. Nephilium

            Where’s the sugar in this?

          14. Suthenboy

            I keep a 50lb bag of sugar in my kitchen. Bees and hummingbirds are the sole consumers. Wife and I use only sugar substitute and that goes almost exclusively in coffee.
            We don’t eat sugar. A lot of people here don’t eat sugar.

          15. Jarflax

            Despite Trump’s efforts McDonalds is not actually what all Americans eat. We have good food also.

          16. Nephilium

            Hell, I live in Cleveland, not exactly a destination of world travelers, and there’s at four high end cocktail bars that I can name off the top of my head.

            We have plenty of options that don’t have a pound of sugar, sometimes it’s just a pound of french fries, or a sandwich on inch thick bread. There’s a new place opening up in the area soon that intrigues me, an Indian family is doing a fusion of Indian and Mexican food.

          17. l0b0t

            Here in NYC, Chinese/Tex-Mex hybrid restaurants are ubiquitous. I had never seen them before moving here but damn if it isn’t a great combo – 2 fish tacos, some shrimp toast, and a pork bun? Yes, please!

          18. Sean

            A local restaurant has even taken to adding “Keto friendly” to their menu item descriptions.

            And yes, most restaurants are very willing to make changes/substitutions to your order.

      2. WTF

        Yeah, nobody would ever want to come see the US, there’s nothing to do or see here, and it’s just a poor, undeveloped backwater.

        1. Worse, it’s a literal shithole in many places.

          Stay away, far, far away

        2. Pat

          I live here and there’s precious little of it I’m interested in seeing.

    3. I call bullshit, no way I’d risk going to most of those “top ten” places. Too unsafe and unfree.

  18. Rebel Scum

    Todd Palin files for divorce from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin

    So what you are saying is that Sarah Palin is available.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Her I picture a total pig.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Her I picture a total Trig

        FTFY

        1. Festus

          *snickers at the nerd table*

      1. Tres Cool

        Wood.

      2. AlmightyJB

        Would

      3. Rufus the Monocled

        Photo shop?

        1. AlmightyJB

          That’s not nice enough for a Photoshop job.

        2. Festus

          yes

        1. AlmightyJB

          You ever see Jamie Lee Curtis without touch up?

          1. A little makeup and paint will make a girl what she jolly well ain’t. /some old limerick

          2. Festus

            Jamie Lee isn’t the same now as she was in Trading Places, much as we wish it were so.

          3. Jarflax

            Jamie Lee had a nice rack. Her face was always too mannish.

          4. Festus

            Face?

          5. That’s because she’s a hermaphrodite.

          6. Not Adahn

            Yes, but the extra testosterone gives her a higher sex drive.

        2. Slammer

          Face down, ass up

        3. Festus

          Meh. She’s exactly my age and keeps pretty fit. Not bad after what, four or five kids?

          1. cyto

            Seriously folks. You got a grade on a curve. Look around you at the other women in her cohort.

  19. RE: Vaccines.

    This is indeed an interesting libertarian problem. You have the confluence of several different things seemingly at opposition to one another. Clearly the biggest problem is loss of herd immunity once enough people stop vaccinating, thus putting in jeopardy third-party bystanders.

    However, what most interesting to me about this is how the self-ownership angle dovetails so nicely into the circumcision debate. Since we’re talking about infants/toddlers, the same arguments made against circumcision apply IMO, yet people will drop their principles and take contradictory positions because of (again, IMO) “feelz”.

    One could argue that the herd immunity problems override self-ownership considerations, but wouldn’t that be a prog-like application of the precautionary principal? I don’t know what to do with this problem. I think people who don’t vaccinate are hopelessly stupid and probably should be called out by peers; public rejection and ridicule can be a powerful weapon. Also, like Rufus said above, private institutions can just exclude people who aren’t vaccinated. Like anything else, I start getting uncomfortable when Big Daddy starts putting his dick in the punchbowl.

    1. PieInTheSky

      I think it is not just heard immunity but the issue of children being neglected / abused. And this goes to the definition of abuse, the libertarian views on child abuse, and how much parents get to decide. I see this different to circumcision as I see circumcision is much more clear than vaccines and is not in any way medically necessary.

    2. I don’t want to rehash old arguments (especially about herd immunity) that get a little emotional and a little dogmatic at times, but I would say that while I’m against mandatory vaccination I also am about to drop my kid off at daycare, where she will be exposed to a petri dish of infectious disease, catch a good chunk of them, and bring them home; I’ve gotten her thoroughly vaccinated, will get my son vaccinated when he’s born, and would actively avoid environments where unvaccinated kids will be concentrated for lengthy periods of time.

    3. leon

      I’ve gotten into long arguments on here about this, but I’ve never found the “Herd Immunity” to be incredibly convincing as an argument for why we must force innoculation. If it is truly a concern for people, they can disassociate with people who don’t vaccinate, like they already are.

    4. Tonio

      The problem is that vaccines do not always work, for whatever reason. The unvaccinated are only putting themselves at risk. If you’re vaccinated and somehow contract the disease against which you have supposedly been vaccinated, then it’s a product liability problem or a fraud problem — things for which there are civil remedies. I’m totally pro-vax, but the fact that vaccinations don’t always work is a problem for the pro-vax movement and one which they refuse to properly address.

      1. Good point, and on the flip side, there are people (for whatever reason) that legitimately can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons. Now, they’d be at higher risk no matter what, but their risk increases the more people that voluntarily don’t vaccinate.

      2. WTF

        Vaccines don’t always work because some people’s immune systems do not respond to them, while this is fairly rare, it is not a product liability or fraud problem.

        1. leon

          Liability, probably not. But I think the point that he’s making is that a lot of the rhetoric seems to push people into thinking it’s 100% effective. But also I’ll be told that they are completely useless unless everyone gets them.

          1. WTF

            Yeah, they are neither 100% effective, nor are they useless unless everyone gets them.

          2. Tonio

            ^This. Thanks. Yes, the mysterious failures are a credibility issue for people like me. My conclusion is that the failure rate is probably higher than the medical industry knows about or wants to admit. With universal vaccination those failures are less obvious – theoretically vaccinated people are less likely to get exposed to the disease. When you add unvaccinated people to the mix, the high failure rate becomes much more obvious and harder to explain in the case of the theoretically vaccinated.

          3. Ozymandias

            This issue was front and center in the anthrax kerfluffle. I believe there’s a chapter in there that deals with this. What do you do, for example, with conditions that seem to be unique (maybe genetic) to a particular race (sickle cell, G6PD deficiency, etc.) and for which there exists little to no safety data, or relatively high numbers of adverse effects from the vaccine? Fuck (((those people))) doesn’t seem like a good answer to me from the “EVERYONE MUST BE VAXXED” crowd.

            And by the way, it’s worth taking a real close look at the numbers of kids who got polio as compared to the numbers of people who were killed/harmed by the mass vaccination program. These numbers are not nearly as compelling as everyone seems to believe, in my opinion.

      3. Rufus the Monocled

        That’s now way how we saw it too. In fact, it’s a position I myself took. We didn’t know what to do as it slowly became a small issue. In the end, we let the market decide.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          Edit: That’s how we saw it too.

      4. Jarflax

        things for which there are civil remedies.

        at the risk of making an emotional argument, the existence of a legal ‘remedy’ does not allow us to simply say “Oh you’ll be fine, just sue Smith Kline when your toddler gets polio and ends up a paraplegic or your teen gets mumps and ends up a eunuch. Damages generally work well in redressing contract violations not so well in remedying medical injuries. How much money would it take for you to voluntarily give up the use of your eyes? your legs? your dick?

        1. kbolino

          Well, if you don’t get vaccinated, and you get the disease, you’ve got no legal remedy whatsoever. Being able to sue GSK at least gives you something.

    5. Pat

      The irony is that the safety obtained by several generations of mostly-compulsory vaccination has provided the necessary space for navel gazing about the morality of compulsory vaccination.

      1. Festus

        See above. Rufus made the point that it’s akin to all of the cool kids embracing Communism when their generation has never seen the dire effects.

      2. kbolino

        That’s true, to a large extent, although the level of compliance largely mooted the question of compulsion.

  20. Slammer

    Goddamit, Chewy. Why the hell do you have Lasership dealing with my package?? They are clearly the worst delivery company in America. I have seen more bad reviews for those fuckers than any company in America. Everybody knows this.

    1. Tonio

      Whoa, are they nationwide? I live in Richmond and they deliver a lot of my Amazon orders. Never had anything lost, but some really odd delivery patterns.

      1. Nephilium

        I think I saw a couple of things from Lasership (and other shipping companies) here in Ohio before Amazon got their distribution centers up and delivering.

        1. Tonio

          Yeah, I’ve seen Amazon branded delivery vehicles. I was surprised they were able to get away with that; some regulator somewhere must be having conniptions at the thought of them both selling stuff and delivering it.

          1. Like a restaurant that delivers?

            *ducks*

          2. Fatty Bolger

            It won’t always be just their own stuff being delivered. Amazon’s actual business is building platforms, and shipping is going to be a big one.

    2. l0b0t

      Lasership handles all of Amazon’s same-day and 2-hour deliveries here in NYC. In my experience, they perform better than UPS, FedEx, or USPS but YMMV.

  21. Donation Not Taxation

    “The National Rifle Association is suing the city and county of San Francisco and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for declaring it a domestic terrorist organization earlier this month through a resolution passed by the board.”
    NRA sues San Francisco for declaring it a domestic terrorist organization

    By Drew Costley, SFGATE Published 5:27 pm PDT, Monday, September 9, 2019
    https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/NRA-sues-sf-bos-domestic-terrorist-lawsuit-14426455.php

    1. Great. Now start suing over red-flag laws and other real abuses of 2A rather than pointless symbolic acts by lunatics.

      1. Tonio

        Not sure how symbolic this is when government actually labels you as a terrorist. Hopefully the BoS will get smacked hard, but don’t count on it happening unless it reaches SCOTUS.

        As to the other potential suits, remember the shell game of “legal standing.”

        1. Pat

          Meh. If it was a federal designation it might be concerning. What’s the SD city council to do, dispatch their counter-terrorism unit?

          1. Stinky Wizzleteats

            If you’re an NRA member in San Francisco, and I guarantee you there are some, I can see why this would be concerning.

          2. Tonio

            Domino effect, Pat. If this doesn’t get smacked down hard and fast other municipal legislators will pull the same shit.

          3. WTF

            Or just maybe the city could use this to deny business to companies that have members or contribute to the NRA?

          4. Isn’t the NRA’s main bank Wells Fargo? Aren’t they based in SF?

          5. Donation Not Taxation

            They don’t have one anyone.
            sfgate.com/crime/article/SFPD-to-suspend-collaboration-with-FBI-10902116.php

    2. Slammer

      SFGate also throws these 2 “related” links/clickbait in the article.

      Murder suspect on US Marshals 15 Most Wanted list

      GILROY SHOOTING: 4 killed, including suspected gunman, in Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting

    3. The Last American Hero

      No. What the NRA should have been doing is combing their membership lists for “the right sorts of people ™” and calling the cops and the FBI nonstop and demanding they arrest high ranking members of law enforcement and bodyguards for Team Blue politicians. This shit doesn’t end until the issue is forced.

      1. kbolino

        The cop-lovers at the NRA are not about to do that. They need to clean their own house, first.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Dewey grounded his political philosophy of education in an admiration for human “plasticity,” the ability of young people to develop themselves in ways unanticipated by their elders. “The most precious part of plasticity,” Dewey contended, “consists in ability to form habits of independent judgment and of inventive initiation.” In his philosophy, environment is key, and so is difference. Young people learn, Dewey averred, in interaction with their surroundings, with teachers who conduct themselves with established habits of mind and peers whose ideas and habits diverge. Dewey exhorted his readers to recognize the importance of young people’s “potentialities,” and that these inchoate abilities are more than personal. They transcend the private realm. Democracy is a system that thrives on the renewal that young people will bring if they are taught to fashion themselves, together.

    What would Dewey have to say about the system of k-12 public education which currently exists, I wonder. Would he pretend they were achieving any of those lofty goals? “Independent judgement and inventive initiation” are not what you’d call highly prized attributes in the modern sit-down-and-shut-up classroom.

    But go ahead, dear, and argue from a set of completely fictitious premises.

    1. Jarflax

      Dewey was a socialist bordering on communist. I think he would look around and smile at how successful his plan had been. Much of what we attribute to stupidity actually should be credited to malice.

    2. Rasilio

      The educational system set up by Horace Mann never intended to foster independence or innovation among the students. It’s entire design was to train compliant factory workers and clerks while identifying the 1 in 100 who were exceptional who would then be prepared for college where they would be trained to be the top men who ruled the world

    1. Tonio

      Not with the dem base, but she doesn’t appeal to them anyway. That will attract a lot of independent and swing votes.

    2. Raston Bot

      last i heard she was out of the next debate and Joe had a brain aneurysm. it’s all flaming leftists from here on out.

    3. Rasilio

      “I think the third trimester. Unless a woman’s life or severe health consequences is at risk, then there shouldn’t be an abortion in the third trimester.”

      I appreciate the far more thoughtful and nuanced take on this than pretty much any other politician however this quote shows she still really does not know much about the issue. There are only a handful of medical issues which would require termination of the pregnancy past the start of the 3rd trimester and almost none of them would require an abortion rather than inducing labor or an emergency C-Section.

      The 3rd trimester starts at 27 weeks of gestation, while it is technically possible for a fetus born that early to survive it is extremely unlikely and even if it does it is likely to have lifelong mental and health consequences. By the 30th week of gestation however odds of survival are quite good, especially if the doctors know that there is a high risk of having to deliver early as the mother can receive a steroid injection that greatly speeds up lung development in the fetus. Past the 30 week mark I have yet to hear of any medical condition which the mother could have which would result in a better health outcome for her having an abortion vs delivering the baby. So you have maybe 3 weeks into the 3rd trimester where there is any logic for having a “medically necessary” abortion.

      The real cause for most medical 3rd trimester abortions, in fact based on the statistics we have the cause of somewhere around 95% of all 3rd trimester abortions is the discovery of severe birth defects in the fetus

  23. Old Man With Candy

    Sometime during the third or fourth quarter last night, I pointed out to Spud that Flacco only had 56 more points to go to equal his replacement.

    I felt a bit sorry for him. Yeah, he’s still a stationary object, but he had a couple of pretty first-rate passes dropped.

    1. PieInTheSky

      who is his replacement? or is that a statistical category?

    2. PieInTheSky

      Also who is Flacco ?

      1. Slammer

        He’s the generic skinny Puerto Rican heroin dealer

      2. Not Adahn

        He wrote a number of hit ’80s pop songs, including Der Commisar

  24. wchipperdove

    Here’s something nice to brighten everyone’s day.

    (Don’t worry, it’s not a Rickroll or horrible porn thing. But then, if it were, I wouldn’t tell you, would I?)

    1. Sean

      Don’t they have leash laws in NYC?

    2. Tres Cool

      I was wondering how long it was gonna take…..but just 13 comments.

    3. WTF

      That is just too damn cute.

    4. Slammer

      That’s so great

      1. Festus

        Sounds like the little white gelfling has two Daddies.

    5. Rhywun

      That’s exhausting just watching.

      /I think the coffee’s ready

      1. cyto

        If I had ever let my 3 year olds get that far away from Arms Reach with traffic that close by, my wife would have strangled me.

        1. That’s what I was thinking.

  25. TW: Salon

    Welcome to ‘Kochland’: We all live in the brothers’ libertarian utopia
    Reporter Christopher Leonard on his “secret history” of the Koch brothers’ empire, and the world they created

    Fred Koch was the co-founder of the John Birch Society, which was a secret society convinced that the American federal government was a Communist front group, essentially. They actually believed that Communists had infiltrated the federal government. The Birchers thought these Communists were “stealing” liberty. Fred Koch and the Birchers also believed that labor unions were a thuggish force that were also stealing liberty. Of course this had a profound influence on Charles Koch’s thinking. But he took it in a different direction when he goes to college and starts studying the work of the Austrian economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises.

    As influenced by those thinkers and others, Charles Koch subscribes to a view that basically the only way you can organize society is around a voluntary market exchange system. Government is a type of state-sanctioned thievery. Koch believes that the federal government is intervening in the free market and stealing money through coercion from one group of people and giving it to another. Koch believes that it is not the government which has sovereign power in a society, but rather price which has that ultimate authority.

    For example, Charles Koch believes that Medicare puts a fake price on health care. That is destructive, toxic and must be done away with. In Koch’s view, the United States should have a federal government that is basically scaled back to the size of what it was in 1776. I am not sure what Koch believes the federal government should do, besides protect property rights.

    Nothing better than straight, professional journalism

    1. PieInTheSky

      labor unions were a thuggish force – sorry but weren’t there like 100 cases where the mob controlled labor unions?

      Also these people must have some good drugs if they can actually call the US libertarian.

    2. Pat

      But remember, criticizing the guy who is literally funding guerrilla campaigns in unstable states resulting in thousands of deaths, with money he won speculating with inside information on political and central banking instability in Soviet bloc countries during the collapse of the USSR is literally Nazism.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        Criticism of Soros is de facto antisemitic.

        1. Festus

          Almost de jure, now…

    3. Pat

      In Koch’s view, the United States should have a federal government that is basically scaled back to the size of what it was in 1776. I am not sure what Koch believes the federal government should do, besides protect property rights.

      Yeah… that would be real kooky.

      1. Certified Public Asshat

        Kochy?

      2. The Last American Hero

        They always could, you know, amend the Constitution to expand the Fedgov’s power. I mean, if the need for a national government to engage in a given activity is so obvious and so great, then surely it would be easy to pass an amendment.

    4. Tonio

      “I am not sure what Koch believes the federal government should do, besides protect property rights.”

      IOW, you were too lazy and mendacious to actually engage libertarian thought. That notion is not unique to Koch, and is something libertarians talk a lot about. Let me do your homework for you; libertarian model federal government: President, Congress, Courts, DOD, NOAA/NWS (although vastly scaled back and short leashed), USCG, ICE, Border Patrol, US Dept of State.

      1. Pat

        I mean that’s also leaving aside that the dreaded Kochtopus model of so-called paternalistic libertarianism is indistinguishable from what was considered completely mainstream Third Way politics up until the American political left lost its fucking mind when Al Gore lost in 2000. They don’t want a government as scaled back as it was in 1976, let alone 1776.

      2. Donation Not Taxation

        The Constitution of the United States of America (which dates to 1787, not 1776) mentions a few other things and says nothing about ICE.
        As long as you are enacting labor for the author, don’t forget to let the author know your findings about what the dead Koch believed.
        An author who apparently is willing to write ill of the recently deceased.

        1. cyto

          I was pretty surprised at that. I suppose I shouldn’t have been, but I was still pretty shocked to see so many of the far left Dancing with Glee at news of his death.

          Not writing a soliloquy in his honor is one thing, but laughing and joking and celebrating that this guy died is beyond anything I’ve seen from The far-right Who supposedly live their entire lives motivated by hate.

          1. Donation Not Taxation

            Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals, Saul D. Alinsky, 1971
            “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
            Make the man icky and people won’t even look at what he had to say.

        2. Caput Lupinum

          The constitution gives Congress sole authority on immigration, customs, and the enforcement thereof, so ICE is one of the few alphabet soup organizations that has actual constitutional legitimacy. There are certainly plenty of problems with the way it currently functions, but unlike something like the FBI, ICE would still exist even with the most dramatic curtailment of the federal government back to 1787 levels.

          1. Donation Not Taxation

            Naturalization, not immigration. Numbers for Article, Section, Subsection or Paragraph, and Clause that says otherwise?

          2. If you have no say in who can enter your country – you don’t have a country.

          3. Donation Not Taxation

            By that logic, if the FBI does not take over a case, then the offense(s) will go unpunished.

          4. You’ll have to show your work on that leap to conclusions.

    5. robc

      property rights.

      That would be a damn good start.

    6. “I am not sure what Koch believes the federal government should do…” Too bad there’s not some policy document to refer to.

    7. Jarflax

      Fred Koch was the co-founder of the John Birch Society, which was a secret society convinced that the American federal government was a Communist front group, essentially. They actually believed that Communists had infiltrated the federal government. The Birchers thought these Communists were “stealing” liberty.

      Ok, I get that the Birchers went off in conspiracy fever dreams, but they were not wrong about their core conspiracy theory… The USSR had just about complete penetration of the US Government from FDR through Truman, and despite decades od vitriol hurled at Chambers, when the KGB archives were available after the wall fell everything he said was confirmed. Hiss was a traitor.

    8. kbolino

      All libertarians are radical anarchists, so we have to continually expand the state lest we end up in total, lawless anarchy.

      I’ve heard this before…

    9. Akira

      Koch believes that the federal government is intervening in the free market and stealing money through coercion from one group of people and giving it to another.

      I love how this is implied to be some kind of wacky belief when it’s literally an exact description of the situation that nobody even denies (they just make up moral justifications for it). You ask any “progressive” about it, and they’ll tell you that the government must intervene in the free market to prevent us from reliving those horrible 1890s, and they’ll also insist that the government must take money from one group and give it to another to “fix inequality”.

      But Koch is a total nutjob for believing such an absurd thing. Right.

      1. cyto

        Yeah, I found that to be the theme of most of that excerpt. Simply stating the obvious truths as if they were malevolent, evil, insane lies.

        In fact, the only word in there that anyone would quibble with is the use of the word theft. They would take great exception at that descriptor, but not argue at all with the mechanics of what is happening or what should happen.

  26. PieInTheSky

    What the hell is a Fanged Noumena ? Hmmm lemme google that

  27. UCS pron:

    Cerys Matthews: ‘I wear my driving gloves to go round the corner to the shops’

    This was taken at the Asian awards a few years ago – I love saris and all the extraordinary silks in traditional clothes, but I think that, for my heritage, a suit and a panama hat suits me just fine. When it comes to clothes, I think it’s important to feel like yourself, more than anything. I have become a little bit attached to hats, but I don’t have that many. I had always been a big fan of Clint Eastwood, the suffragettes and Bob Dylan, and they all seem to have hats on in their best photos, so I just started wearing them, too. I find it cuts corners in terms of not having to worry too much about your hair. You don’t even have to worry too much about your outfit if you have a good hat on.

    I’m also wearing my driving gloves; they are ace. I’ve worn them so often I need to replace them. There are so many iconic films where actors wear driving gloves – I put them on just to drive round the corner to the shops and it makes it feel a bit more adventurous and exciting. The pearls were just next to the door, so I put them on, too.

    1. robc

      I agree on hats. I am not a hat person. But I wish I was. I should have picked out a hat style in college and stuck with it the last 30 years.

      1. Festus

        Baseball cap for nigh on fifty years. Wore a felt flat cap for a time in the eighties. Balding, now.

  28. Pope Jimbo

    I’ll tell you what it is, it is an inslut to child development!

    Now, state corrections officials are mulling alternatives to incarceration that could keep mothers and their young children together.

    The talks have been driven by years of pressure from advocates and a growing body of research that shows separation can have a lasting impact on children who are not guilty of their mother’s crimes.

    “That separation of maternal-infant relationship and bond is such an insult to child development … and it has lifelong consequences for that child,” said Rebecca Shlafer, a University of Minnesota pediatrics professor and national expert on incarcerated mothers. “What are the ways in which we can make sure that justice is served without doing an injustice to the next generation?”

    State Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said the agency is looking at alternative release options for pregnant women and mothers of young children. The department is working with advocates to craft a proposal that could be brought to the governor and Legislature next year, he said.

    “When we look at who is pregnant in Minnesota’s prisons, the vast majority would be better served … by not having them in prison,” Schnell said, noting that most of the women are locked up for nonviolent crimes. “The goal certainly is to move this along and to find solutions where we don’t have to do separation because we know all the data about impact (on children).”

    I’m sure locked up fathers will get the same leniency?

    1. Slammer

      Just identify as a pregnant woman

    2. Tonio

      in-slut?

      1. WTF

        Excellent John-O

        1. Pope Jimbo

          Uffda. That was a bad one.

    3. Akira

      Great – let’s incentivize women becoming pregnant in jail while awaiting trial (yes, it can be done) so that they get off with no time.

  29. For 10 years, I have avoided penetration because of pain

    I am a 32-year-old woman and for 10 years I have been struggling with vulvodynia and vulvar vestibulitis, which means I feel pain when the entrance of my vagina is touched or stimulated. So I have been avoiding penetrative sex for all these years. I have never been confident with my sexuality, even though I experienced a short period of happy sex before getting ill. I also have a lot of difficulties getting aroused because I know I will experience pain.

    My friends say that I am a special person with so many other qualities. I am sure that with the right person I could slowly get my confidence back but I find it hard to believe that I will find a man who can be understanding about this aspect of me. Sometimes I see myself being lonely for ever. I would like you to let other people know of this condition that is ruining many young women’s lives.

    1. Florida Man

      ACE chat rooms?

    2. Rasilio

      So just date women, no penetration required

      1. cyto

        Back door ain’t got no vulvar vestibulitis.

        Just sayin’

  30. Banjos

    My take on vaccinations is that it is retarded to not vaccinate your children at all. I took the precautionary Rand Paul approach and spread the schedule out when mine were infants. At the same time I think the hysteria over measles and chickenpox outbreaks are equally retarded.

    1. leon

      Got my kids vaccinated. They got the chicken pox vaccine cause why not, but I do agree that it’s a bit more of a convinence than life saving.

      I always thought measels was fairly serious.

      1. robc

        On chicken pox, the bigger deal, to me, is that if you have never had chicken pox, you can’t get shingles.

        So now I am looking at having to get a shingles vaccination instead.

        1. Florida Man

          This. My mom purposely infected my siblings when I got chicken pox so we could get it out the way. Now I know that shit can come back to bite you.

    2. LJW

      You have the anti-vaxers on one side screaming you’re gonna die and the left wing on the other side screaming you’re going to kill us! I’m in the middle saying kids, you’re both stupid.

      1. cyto

        Except if you look up things like how many people did measles kill a hundred years ago, you get a bit of a different take on it.

        Take a look at it photos from the 40s of iron lung wards. Before vaccinations wiped out smallpox and nearly wiped out polio, those diseases literally killed and maimed Millions.

        There’s a reason we picked these diseases for vaccination. They are no joke.

        There’s also a reason they didn’t get around to chickenpox until half a century later. It isn’t in the same league, that’s for sure.

        For the last 50 years, infectious disease has mostly seemed to be an inconvenience. With the exception of AIDS, there hasn’t really been a killer run-amok. At least not here. And AIDS was never real for the majority of us, not being gay or intravenous drug users. And now even that threat is remote As drug cocktails have removed the 2-year death sentence.

        You want everyone to get vaccinated. Make no mistake about it. Eradicating these diseases changes the quality of life for everyone on the planet.

        The only reason we still have to get vaccinated for polio is that a few small pockets in Africa are refusing to go all in on vaccinating, so the disease is still hanging around. If health workers could just get in there and wipe it out once and for all, we could toss those vaccines in 2 deep storage just like we did with smallpox.

  31. Rebel Scum

    Woke Virginia.

    Dr. Janice Underwood will join Northam’s administration as Virginia’s first-ever Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

    Governor Northam announced Monday that Dr. Underwood, former Director of Diversity initiatives at Old Dominion University will take on the senior-level position.

    The position was announced in May after Northam’s office said the idea came from talking to community leaders throughout the state.

    As the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Underwood will be tasked with creating inclusive practices for state agency employees as well as looking at inequities in how state policies are implemented. …

    “In fact, one of the things that attracted me to this position was Gov. Northam’s unprecedented commitment to rebuilding the trust we have in him,” Dr. Underwood said. “He hasn’t always gotten it right. But what I respect the most is that he’s willing to learn and do the work.”

    When asked by a reporter if this hire would have happened if the events in February did not take place, Gov. Northam said Virginians have a heightened awareness about equity issues.

    “There’s a higher level of awareness in Virginia right now,” Dr. Underwood added. “I have said all along, I have listened, I have learned a lot, and I have a lot more to learn,” Gov. Northam added. “The more I know the more I can do and the thing I have learned especially is that there are these inequities that exist in our society today.”

    1. Slammer

      As the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Underwood will be tasked with creating inclusive practices for state agency employees

      Nothing says equity and fighting racism like creating another government gravy train

      1. Rhywun

        Dr. Underwood will be tasked with creating inclusive practices quotas

        FTFY

        1. R C Dean

          And a bureaucratic empire. That will be job one. MOAR MUNNEEZ. For more staff and perks.

    2. “Dr. Janice Underwood will join Northam’s administration as Virginia’s first-ever Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Voodoo.”

      1. Jarflax

        Zampolits do not use voodoo. They use gulags. Gulags are a much more effective curse.

        1. Festus

          Dat’s baaad Ju-ju!

    3. Raston Bot

      another race-baiting social justice grifter who found out those jobs don’t exist in the private sector except at woke megacorps. lemme guess.. it pays $280K per year. digging around..

      salary “will be commensurate with other senior positions in the administration,”

      okay, that’s in the $150-160K range.

      1. Festus

        That’s more than Wifey and I make combined and you can add a few tens of grand to that. Ah well, it’s what plants crave!

  32. robc

    Re: Vaccines.

    I am pro-vaccine.

    Also, fuck off slavers, I will make the decision for my own kid.

    Also, also, fuck you, I am not a herd animal.

    1. Jarflax

      Damn straight! Humans are much too busy blindly following our teams down to hell to ever form into a herd.

      1. cyto

        And yet you live in one. At least for the purposes of disease transmission.

        Strange how things like that work out.

    2. invisible finger

      ” I am not a herd animal.”

      You are a college football fan, so you are definitely a herd animal.

  33. Don Escaped Texas

    The Astros scored 15 runs, bringing their total from the last two games to 36.

    STL has a 5% shot at winning the Series

  34. You’re Catholic?

    Sex: If So Many Of Us Are Doing It, Then Why Do I Feel So Guilty?

    I’ve had a strange relationship with sex my entire life. I grew up in suburban Florida, then later suburban Hertfordshire, where virginity is virtue – so naturally, I rebelled. I never had ‘the chat’ with my parents – the subject alone was enough to make my father spit out his drink, which only added to my (mostly teenage) defiance. For as long as I can remember, I’ve equated sex with dissent, correlating each shag with some skewed form of empowerment. But it was anything but empowering. I went from person to person, bonk to bonk, in the hope of reaching some kind of sex-positive feminist utopia where women are free from societal oppression and taboo, yet ended up crying on the floor of my windowless room in Peckham over Andy from Bumble’s (disappointing) shag, dash and subsequent ghosting.

    It all kind of started when I was 17, the age I discovered and started to read about feminist theories. For me, being sexually promiscuous meant that I was being a good feminist, rejecting the oppressive doctrines of previous generations. I searched for potential sexual partners in aim of repossessing my body and narrative as a woman, hoping that each encounter would liberate me from societal restraints and stick it to The Man. This was around the same time that sex-positive tropes began to permeate mainstream media and online communities, a time when sexually liberated women on Cherry Emoji Twitter thrived. Many of these women seemed so cool and carefree to me – in an Effy from Skins kind of way – and I, being 17, wanted to be just like them. I’m not sure I actually craved sex or pleasure most of the time, I just did it because I felt I should be doing it. All of the “yasss girl” tweets I was seeing on my timeline only encouraged me further.

    After a spell of essentially expending myself in pursuit of sexual sovereignty, I began to feel negative emotions after sex. I felt guilty, messy, ashamed and embarrassed

    1. robc

      This is what happens when you throw away all of history and tradition.

      Even if you think that the historical push for monogamy is too extreme, she would benefit for waiting for someone she has an intimate relationship with outside of sex.

      But feminism has sold that as a lie too. And pushed for extremism in the other direction.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      For me, being sexually promiscuous meant that I was being a good feminist, rejecting the oppressive doctrines of previous generations. I searched for potential sexual partners in aim of repossessing my body and narrative as a woman, hoping that each encounter would liberate me from societal restraints and stick it to The Man.

      Uffda. The Man is definitely the master of tricknology. This poor gal seriously thought that letting The Man repeatedly stick it inside her was a good way to stick it to The Man?

      “No the briar patch!”

    3. Rhywun

      being sexually promiscuous meant that I was being a good feminist

      Whatever you have to tell yourself, honey.

    4. There’s got to be some middle ground instruction between “fuck like a man and deny your female feelings of lack of post-coital pair bonding” and “nobody likes a cupcake with the icing licked off.”

      (Me: Romance novels taught me to save it for when you found the right man. Then he will masterfully seduce you so you don’t have to bear any responsibility and the only reason he did that was because you’re the one for him.)

      1. Rasilio

        Oh there most certainly is but in the culture war there is no room for nuance or shades of grey, you are required to be a complete prude only having sex in the missionary position for the purposes of procreating after you get married or a slut who will fuck anything regardless of gender or species

    5. “stick it to The Man”

      Sounds like The Man was sticking it to you; repeatedly.

      1. Further: if your behavior is only in service of proving some abstract political point, it’s no wonder you’re miserable.

        Try doing what you actually want minus the social signaling and you’ll be much happier.

        1. Try doing what you actually want

          Sometimes, figuring out what you want to do (or, in my case, how to survive in the world doing what you want to do) is the difficult part.

  35. has anyone ever read this description?

    Vulgar libertarianism

    No, this isn’t about Libertarians cussing.

    “”The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
    —John Kenneth Galbraith

    Vulgar libertarianism (otherwise known as “LOLbertarians”, “brogressives”, or “glibertarians”) is a term used to refer to libertarians who approach that political philosophy with an altogether cynical attitude[1] or more generally as a term that describes libertarians who exist for the purpose of justifying unfair socio-economic hierarchies using appeals to laissez-faire capitalist and socially liberal ideology. It was coined by the “free market anti-capitalist” blogger Kevin Carson.

    Kevin Carson on vulgar libertarians

    In georgist tradition, vulgar libertarians are known as royal libertarians, a term coined by Dan Sullivan.[2]

    Vulgar libertarian apologists for capitalism use the term “free market” in an equivocal sense: they seem to have trouble remembering, from one moment to the next, whether they’re defending actually existing capitalism or free market principles. So we get the standard boilerplate article arguing that the rich can’t get rich at the expense of the poor, because “that’s not how the free market works” — implicitly assuming that this is a free market. When prodded, they’ll grudgingly admit that the present system is not a free market, and that it includes a lot of state intervention on behalf of the rich. But as soon as they think they can get away with it, they go right back to defending the wealth of existing corporations on the basis of “free market principles.”

    1. Pat

      I remember encountering the term on blogs years and years ago. I think it fell into disuse. It’s a more or less apt description of the Koch/Reason variety of libertarianism.

      Of course, it is extremely useful to break down an already minuscule and loosely defined political philosophy into infinitesimal sub-categories lest you actually popularize your ideas and use them as the basis of a real political coalition.

      1. Florida Man

        A political philosophy based on radical individualism has failure baked in. Embrace the hopelessness, Pat. Let apathy wash over you like a warm Caribbean wave.

        1. Pat

          Done and done. To be completely honest I really don’t even care about libertarian politics anymore. Kinda why I’ve been more scarce lately.

          1. Florida Man

            I’m just here for the guns & booze talk.

    2. R C Dean

      “free market anti-capitalist”

      Sounds legit. Like “libertarian socialist”.

    3. The Last American Hero

      As opposed to the selfless philosophy of taking other people’s stuff, JKG?

    4. kbolino

      they seem to have trouble remembering, from one moment to the next, whether they’re defending actually existing capitalism socialism or free market Marxist principles

      Seems like a disease common to many ideologies…

    5. Suthenboy

      I cant read all of that. Geez. Collectivists simply cant grok individualists so their attempts to suss out individualism comes out as gibberish. Not worth the effort to read.

    6. What reason has politics given to me to *not* treat it cynically?

    7. Not Adahn

      rationalwiki is a haven for lefties who were too spergy for wikipedia. I’m not kidding.

  36. Why am I so sensitive to the sound of people talking in the office? The endless chatter of even work-related crap spilling over the cube walls has made me almost shout and endless stream of “shut up”s at all and sundry. It’s really driving up my tension and stress levels.

    1. Don Escaped Texas

      is it just the noise itself

      or is it a creeping anxiety because you can suss out the discussion and the issues and know what to do but because you’re not situated to take over and tell them what to do they’re going to stand around and mull over a string of predictable solutions, each of which you already know is inept because of client interests, financial viability, or technical span, but you hear the first line and you know the next line and the next line and you dread the dull Hooterville predictability of the next line and you just can’t pop over there and tell them all to

      SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GO BACK TO YOUR DOGHOUSE AND DO YOUR FUCKING JOB!!11!!

      I mean, just guessing, not that I feel that way often, saw it in a Lifetime movie or something, so, maybe there’s that, but, I mean, who knows

      1. They’re talking about the state of various pieces of hardware moved out of unused spaces and what can and can’t be reused. It’s desktop support – which is a different unit, and nothing they’ve said is actually wrong or inept. But they just won’t shut up.

      2. ChipsnSalsa

        financial viability has nothing to do with it, he works for NY state.

        Also, get out of my head Don.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      I’d take talking in Cubeville in a second. The person just over the wall from me spends the first hour or so sniffling the same wad of snot over and over again (pro tip: blow your fucking nose!). Then she rounds out the morning with some impressive hacking coughs. That clears her afternoon up for chewing gum with her gob wide open and popping bubbles.

      Thank doG for noise canceling headphones. I keep them cranked up and going all day. What kills me is when we have teleconferences from our desks. That means I can’t crank the volume up and during dead spots during the conversation I have to listen to her. It is also makes me sound super professional when it is my turn to talk and in the background you can hear her hacking up a lung.

      Why don’t I complain? Because she’s a loud aggressive chick from Nigeria who has complained to HR already about how her team mates treat her. No way I want any part of that. Besides she works from home a lot so there is that.

      1. Strychnine on the chewing gum with a cyanide chaser.

        Totally a case of self-defense.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          The guy next to me grew up in the southern part of the state (mostly Germans) and her sniffling doesn’t bother him at all. From a very unscientific survey of other coworkers, it seems like the people that grew up in Norwegianville have a insane hatred for sniffling.

          What about you other normies? Sniffling deserves a slap to the back of the head? Yes or no?

          1. Yes.

            The gum cracking deserves a gut punch.

          2. MikeS

            As someone with allergies who often fights (and loses) battles with the sniffles and coughs -despite medicine and nose blowing- I say cut her some slack.

            Now, the gum thing…

          3. Pope Jimbo

            Yeah, but even a NoDak like you knows enough to blow your nose. When you sniffle that mucus just goes up into your sinus and then gravity makes it come right back down. The rest of us aren’t impressed with your snot yo-yo abilities.

            I’m not talking about every sniffle. I get that sometimes you get a bit of snot and don’t have a kleenex nearby. But when you sniffle the same chunk of snot all morning, you clearly need a slap.

          4. MikeS

            No, I get it. There’s a difference between “I’m really trying not to”, and, “I don’t give a shit *snif*”

    3. Akira

      Why am I so sensitive to the sound of people talking in the office? The endless chatter of even work-related crap spilling over the cube walls has made me almost shout and endless stream of “shut up”s at all and sundry. It’s really driving up my tension and stress levels.

      I hate that shit too. And for some reason, the attempts at whispering annoy me more than talking at regular volume. I think it’s because my instinct is to try to listen to whispering, but I can just block out regular talk.

      I used to have this fucking job where I was apparently the only one in the office who actually had to be at the computer doing work all day. Everyone else rolled in at 9, spent the first hour chatting with all their friends and scavenging for donuts, took a two hour lunch, and left before 5. It was aggravating to try to do my mountains of work while everyone else was just yammering about getting little Susie ready for picture day, the dog’s latest anal parasite infection, or falling off an ATV last week. I quit that job very quickly. I think it’s actually the shortest tenure I’ve ever had at a job (four months).

  37. Certified Public Asshat

    It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges

    Bringing elite athletic talent back to black colleges would have potent downstream effects. It would boost HBCU revenues and endowments; stimulate the economy of the black communities in which many of these schools are embedded; amplify the power of black coaches, who are often excluded from prominent positions at predominantly white institutions; and bring the benefits of black labor back to black people. In the general culture, prominent figures such as Beyoncé, LeBron James, and the recently slain rapper Nipsey Hussle have argued that African Americans should be using their talents not just to enrich themselves but to help strengthen and empower black communities. “Gentrify your own hood before these people do it,” Jay-Z rapped at the concert that reopened Webster Hall in New York City in April. “Claim eminent domain and have your people move in.”

    If promising black student athletes chose to attend HBCUs in greater numbers, they would, at a minimum, bring some welcome attention and money to beleaguered black colleges, which invested in black people when there was no athletic profit to reap. More revolutionarily, perhaps they could disrupt the reign of an “amateur” sports system that uses the labor of black folks to make white folks rich.

    God help me, but I think Jemele Hill make sense here.

    1. robc

      “No one can reach the NFL from an HBCU” — Jerry Rice

      1. ChipsnSalsa

        I could see that being different now.

        1. robc

          Nope. The NFL will find you if you have talent.

          1. robc

            Tytus Howard was the 23rd overall pick this year from Alabama St.

          2. ChipsnSalsa

            I think we are agreeing. Jerry’s statement, I’m presuming, was from a long time ago. Now, with scouting budgets and tools that would make politicians think it was real money. NFL teams sniff out talent from anywhere they can.

          3. robc

            No, I was being sarcastic, Jerry never said that. Because he came from an HBCU.

          4. ChipsnSalsa

            My depth of football knowledge was shown wanting there.

          5. “Come on!”

            – Steve McNair

      2. Don Escaped Texas

        +1 Walter Payton

        / also from Mississippi via HBCU

    2. Nephilium

      South Park did it already.

    3. Pat

      Marcus Garvey agrees.

    4. Rhywun

      black coaches, who are often excluded from prominent positions at predominantly white institutions

      I don’t believe that’s accurate for coaches any more than athletes.

    5. SugarFree

      Hill is reversing cause and effect, again. Alabama football fans aren’t watching for the elite black players, but because of brand loyalty. If it was just a bunch of white kids bumbling around and the HBCU’s had this high level of gameplay, most of the attention and the money is going to stay with the bumbling white kids at the giant state school.

      1. Certified Public Asshat

        I think Alabama would still be pretty good by recruiting the best white kids in the country, and they would likely remain successful as a result, but it would impact other college programs. The five best basketball players in the country getting together and playing for a HBCU would be huge for that school.

        It’s a decent idea in theory, but overlooks better options.

        1. invisible finger

          “The five best basketball players in the country getting together and playing for a HBCU would be huge for that school. ”

          Not likely. The only reason the five best 18-year old basketball players are going to college is because of the NBA Player’s Union.

          But let’s not ignore the elephant in the room: the only thing more corrupt than NCAA Division I sports is Congress.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    coined by the “free market anti-capitalist” blogger Kevin Carson.

    That guy is a fucking moron.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Atlantic chin-scratcher about population decline in major metro areas

    Is this the age of the great metropolitan exodus? In 2018, the New York City area lost more than 100,000 people to other cities and suburbs—that’s 277 people leaving every day. The Los Angeles and Chicago areas lost, respectively, 201 and 161 residents each day. It’s quite a change from the post–Great Recession period, when an urban renaissance was supposedly sweeping the country and all three metro areas were experiencing a population boomlet.

    What’s going on? And where is everybody going?

    ——-

    But in many ways, Chicago’s problems make it a canary in the metropolitan coal mine. Immigration to the area has declined by half since the early 2000s. High earners have swarmed the Chicago River banks, revitalizing the downtown area, but the more diverse middle class, especially the city’s African American population, is evacuating Chicago’s suburbs. During the Great Migration of the 20th century, when millions of black Americans moved to northern cities, the population of Chicago went from 4 percent black in 1920 to nearly 40 percent black by 1990. But this century has seen a “Reverse Great Migration,” as the metro black population is on pace to halve from its peak of 1.2 million by 2030. This could reflect a flight from high-crime neighborhoods and the racist legacy of redlining throughout Chicagoland. Less pessimistically, it might be a sign that a lot of young black families would just rather live where they can afford more house, like in the suburbs of Atlanta and Houston.

    Each of these Chicago phenomena—declining immigration, revitalized downtowns coinciding with a middle-class exodus, and the specific decline of the black population—has spread from the heartland to America’s largest coastal metros.

    The racist legacy of redlining. That’s it.

    1. It certainly isn’t the sky high property taxes, high cost of living, crime, miserable schools, heavy sales taxes and dysfunctional government. Nope. Must be something insidious and racissss.

      1. Jarflax

        Well pretty much everything you list is directly attributable to the Democratic party. So yes, something insidious and racist is to blame.

        1. But Chicago had a Rethuglican mayor in the 1920s!

    2. invisible finger

      “What’s going on? And where is everybody going?”

      Baby Boomers (largest number of births) start dying off, outpacing the number of births. In other words it’s a mathematical certainty, well-known in 1964 by anyone who gave a shit.

      Still, one would think the environmentalists and ZPG’ers would be happy with the way the math is working out.

    3. invisible finger

      “The Los Angeles and Chicago areas lost, respectively, 201 and 161 residents each day.”

      And how many government FTE’s are they losing each day? My guess is less than zero.

      1. “Lose”? You mean “has the growth in gubermint employment slowed much?”

  40. dumb enough to buy one of these devices after reading this, you get what you deserve.

    FIFY

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Democracy is dying

    The last half of the 20th century was the golden age of democracy. In 1945, according to one survey, there were just 12 democracies in the entire world. By the end of the century there were 87. But then came the great reversal: In the second decade of the 21st century, the shift to democracy rather suddenly and ominously stopped—and reversed.

    Right-wing populist politicians have taken power or threatened to in Poland, Hungary, France, Britain, Italy, Brazil and the United States. As Rosenberg notes, “by some metrics, the right wing populist share of the popular vote in Europe overall has more than tripled from 4% in 1998 to approximately 13% in 2018.” In Germany, the right-wing populist vote increased even after the end of the Great Recession and after an influx of immigrants entering the country subsided.

    A brief three decades after some had heralded the “end of history” it’s possible that it’s democracy that’s nearing the end. And it’s not just populist rabble-rousers who are saying this. So is one of the establishment’s pioneer social scientists, who’s daring to actually predict the end of democracy as we know it.

    Rosenberg, who earned degrees at Yale, Oxford and Harvard, may be the social scientist for our time if events play out as he suggests they will. His theory is that over the next few decades, the number of large Western-style democracies around the globe will continue to shrink, and those that remain will become shells of themselves. Taking democracy’s place, Rosenberg says, will be right-wing populist governments that offer voters simple answers to complicated questions.

    And therein lies the core of his argument: Democracy is hard work and requires a lot from those who participate in it. It requires people to respect those with different views from theirs and people who don’t look like them. It asks citizens to be able to sift through large amounts of information and process the good from the bad, the true from the false. It requires thoughtfulness, discipline and logic.

    Thoughtfulness, discipline and logic; all liberal traits. Not like those narrow minded authoritarian populist Nazis.

    1. It couldn’t POSSIBLY be that the self-anointed Masters of the Universe began blatantly ignoring the will of the voters and pursuing policies that were detrimental to their constituencies. No siree Bob. Unfortunately, when your only two options suck (Technocratic Neo-Monarchy vs. Right Wing Populism) you will probably go with the new, shiny one instead of the one currently screwing you over.

    2. Fatty Bolger

      So typical. It’s not really democracy unless left-wing socialists are in charge. You know, like in Venezuela’s thriving democracy.

    3. Donation Not Taxation

      Notice that the author is not talking about countries such as Turkey which face the possibility of electing a government that will end fair elections. This prima facia appears to be (except for the last paragraph) defining “democracy” as ‘when the choices I agree with win.’

    4. Rhywun

      Right-wing populist politicians have taken power or threatened to in Poland, Hungary, France, Britain, Italy, Brazil and the United States.

      OFFS.

      1. leon

        Also isn’t it telling. They are saying any right wing party (winning democratic elections) is a threat to democracy.

    5. leon

      “It asks citizens to be able to sift through large amounts of information and process the good from the bad, the true from the false. It requires thoughtfulness, discipline and logic.”

      It requires the average man to have an above average understanding of political questions.

      I like how 1945 marks the beginning of the “golden age”. By that time democracy/ republicanism had been completely superceded by facisim. But now that we have SNP we have to pretend that democracy is faltering now.

    6. Akira

      right-wing populist governments that offer voters simple answers to complicated questions.

      Yep, those damn right-wingers and their simple answers. It’s not like the Democrat Party’s answer to every single issue is “tax the rich and make it freeeeeeee!!!”

    7. B.P.

      “Right-wing populist politicians have taken power or threatened to in Poland, Hungary, France, Britain, Italy, Brazil and the United States.”

      And they took power how, again? Oh, that’s right; through democratic elections. It’s only democracy when the right people are elected.

      1. B.P.

        …or what everyone else said.

    1. Pat

      Eh, consumer preference and all that. Nobody cares as much about some general conception of freedom as they do some particular freedom that is subjectively more important to their overall quality of life. Like it’s awesome if you can get buttfucked by a Mexican budtender in the middle of town square while you’re both high on peyote, but if you’re a white supremacist straight edge fag hater those freedoms don’t really affect you personally, and you might be OK with living in some backwater where public anal fornication and recreational drugs are illegal as long as you can fly a Nazi flag and preach the gospel on the street corner without a permit.

      1. Crusty Juggler

        You said nothing about ciggies.

        1. Pat

          Every character in that story smokes ciggies, just to be clear.

  42. Donation Not Taxation

    Is it a fair reading of this that an elected Republican said that the US government should be in charge of “orchestrating” nongovernmental and governmental “recovery efforts” for somewhere that is NOT part of the US?

    Florida Republican “Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.

    DeSantis, who along with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott received an aerial tour of the Bahamas on Friday from the U.S. Coast Guard, said the U.S. Department of State is responsible for orchestrating recovery efforts for the foreign nation, which got slammed last week by the deadly Category 5 Hurricane Dorian.” — Jim Turner, the News Service of Florida on Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 12:01 AM
    orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/09/10/florida-gov-ron-desantis-says-the-federal-government-should-pay-up-for-hurricane-dorian-prep

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      Yes. But Florida. Caribbean immigrants are a huge voting block, and they’re going to pander as much as possible.

    2. Pat

      The goddamn Hispanics are stealing our White Man’s Burden.

    3. Fatty Bolger

      Not quite. He’s saying any assistance from the United States to another country should come from the federal government, not his state.

      1. Donation Not Taxation

        Including nongovernmental as should be gone to a US government borrow-and-tax financed monopoly?

  43. Crusty Juggler

    Vols’ homemade T-shirt design seeing brisk sales

    The story began last week when the teacher of the fourth-grade student in Altamonte Springs, Florida, posted what happened on Facebook. Laura Snyder wrote in her post that the boy, whom she did not name, was a huge Vols fan but did not have a shirt to wear for college colors day. He told her he had an orange shirt he wanted to wear. When he arrived for school that day, he had attached a piece of paper with his own UT design clipped to the front. But after lunch, he came back to his classroom crying. Snyder wrote, “Some girls at the lunch table next to his (who didn’t even participate in college colors day) had made fun of his sign that he had attached to his shirt. He was DEVASTATED.”

    Molyneaux is right – girls are evil! NO MORE GIRLS! NO MA’AM!

    Bring back the National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood!

    1. What happened to fourth-graders who would just punch or push down other kids that pissed them off?

      1. Crusty Juggler

        Boys can’t bully anymore – only girls can bully! THIS IS WHAT THE LIBS WANT!

    2. Rhywun

      college colors day

      The hell?

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        My kid’s school’s doing it today. Just a day to get out of the school uniform and wear a t-shirt with your (parents) favorite college colors.

        1. Rhywun

          Western NY was not a hotbed of interest in college sports, TBF.

        2. Chipwooder

          Mine do it too, a couple of times per year. It’s a southern thing. Probably Texas too, I’d guess.

  44. I miss the days when lunatics would just write manifestos nobody read instead of posting online.

    https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/friend-tv-show-criticism-trump

    1. Pat

      Friends sucked ass under Clinton, Bush and Obama and will continue to suck under Trump, Harris, Warren or whoever wins the US presidential election for the rest of eternity.

      1. Chipwooder

        The Seinfeld episode where Jerry frets than Kenny Bania’s career is only taking off because he’s always following Jerry was such an awesome fuck-you to Friends.

        There are some exquisite tidbits in that link:

        It also happens to be the neighborhood near where I work, and even though it’s mostly European tourists who are ambling along SoHo’s famed cobblestone streets when I come up from the subway in the mornings, I’m still relatively aghast at how the only black and brown people seem to be the folks selling coffee and danishes from the confines of their little portable coffee carts.

        IOW, the show was an accurate depiction of the neighborhood in which it was set?

        Those of us who write and talk about race for a living, and not just in New York, but all over the country, have been screaming outright in critical theory, journalism, cultural criticism, live events, political commentary, on social media

        Sounds very normal.

        My absolute favorite bit, however, is the author bio blurb at the end:

        Rebecca Carroll is a cultural critic and Editor of Special Projects at WNYC, where she develops, produces and hosts a broad array of multi-platform content, including podcasts, live events and on-air broadcasts. Rebecca is also the author of several interview-based books about race and blackness in America, including the award-winning Sugar in the Raw, and her personal essays, cultural commentary and opinion pieces have been published widely. Her memoir, Surviving the White Gaze, is due out from Simon & Schuster in 2020.

        Man, she is a tough cookie – she actually managed to survive the white gaze!!!!

    2. Rhywun

      To be fair, the pop-up event is happening in SoHo, the neighborhood in New York that, after the Upper East Side, probably most closely reflects the city where Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Joey and Chandler lived.

      And by a strange coincidence, also the location of the building used for exterior shots of their home.

  45. Crusty Juggler

    Pleasant Valley woman killed at home in dog attack: Police

    She was home alone with two pet coonhounds, according to police.

    Your dogs will turn on you. They aren’t your friends.

    1. “coonhounds”

      RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!eleven!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      1. Pope Jimbo

        I think that was a typo. I’m pretty sure it should have been “poonhounds”

    2. Jarflax

      A Pleasant Valley woman was killed in a dog attack at her home, according to state police.

      Arlene Renna, 67, suffered life-threatening injuries, which police determined were consistent with a dog attack. Renna died at the scene.

      For the love of all that is holy, will journalism and English teachers stop progging and actually teach people the basics of writing?

      1. Social activism >> learning.

    3. Tundra

      Tragic and sad, of course, but I’m a little disappointed in You People

    4. Rebel Scum

      Usually it is cats that you have to worry about.

    1. Fatty Bolger

      I think we can assume that Soros has a lot of money invested in Huawei’s competitors.

  46. Crusty Juggler

    Quad Webb Had Her Ex’s Imprint Steamed out of Her Vagina & We Have All the Details

    Dr. Heavenly Kimes is one of the most sought-after dentists in the nation, but she isn’t only an expert in oral healthcare — she also knows what’s good waist-down.

    In the Season 7 premiere of Married to Medicine, Heavenly brought Quad Webb with her to SweetSpot VTox Boutique in Atlanta to try one of their SweetSteam treatments that focuses on vaginal hydratherapy. (Watch the video above to relive that moment.) Heavenly explained that she has “to keep it tight and right” and wanted to open Quad up to “new things.” One thing in particular was a treatment that is basically a steam room, but for your vaginal tissues.

    What’s the point of this? In Quad’s case, Heavenly wanted to help cleanse her of her ex-husband, explaining that “when you are with a man, they put an imprint on you” and the goal of that session was to “remove that imprint.” They joked that they would steam it right out of there, making the treatment just as much of a spiritual healing experience as it was a physical one.

    As for the other benefits? Dr. Heavenly explained, “When you have a great vagina, it actually cures all the pain you have in your life!”

    Men, when next in the throes of passion with a lucky lady (remind her she is lucky – they love that) let her know that you are imprinting her vagina – she will love it.

    1. Good on that dentist for branching out into fleecing rich morons with snake oil. A fool and his money and all that…

      1. Further: if I imprint a woman’s anus, what happens to that imprint the next time she takes a shit?

        1. SugarFree

          Y.T. aims herself at the curb, hits it at a fast running velocity, the spokes of the smartwheels see it coming and retract in the right way so that she glides from street to lawn without a hitch. Across the lawn, the feet leave a trail of hexagonal padmarks. A stray dog turd, red with meaty undigestible food coloring, is embossed with the RadiKS logo, a mirror image of which is printed on the tread of each spoke.

    2. Jarflax

      Imprinting like baby birds? or imprinting like branding cattle?

      1. Embrace the power of “and”.

    3. ChipsnSalsa

      Dr. Heavenly

      come on now!

      1. Crusty Juggler

        She is one of the most sought after dentists in the nation.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    So why is Rosenberg, who made his name back in the 1980s with a study that disturbingly showed that many voters select candidates on the basis of their looks, predicting the end of democracy now?

    He has concluded that the reason for right-wing populists’ recent success is that “elites” are losing control of the institutions that have traditionally saved people from their most undemocratic impulses. When people are left to make political decisions on their own they drift toward the simple solutions right-wing populists worldwide offer: a deadly mix of xenophobia, racism and authoritarianism.

    The elites, as Rosenberg defines them, are the people holding power at the top of the economic, political and intellectual pyramid who have “the motivation to support democratic culture and institutions and the power to do so effectively.” In their roles as senators, journalists, professors, judges and government administrators, to name a few, the elites have traditionally held sway over public discourse and U.S. institutions—and have in that role helped the populace understand the importance democratic values. But today that is changing. Thanks to social media and new technologies, anyone with access to the Internet can publish a blog and garner attention for their cause—even if it’s rooted in conspiracy and is based on a false claim, like the lie that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring from the basement of a Washington D.C. pizza parlor, which ended in a shooting.

    Democracy was better when it was a charade perpetrated by the Right People.

    1. B.P.

      Reminder from excerpt upthread: Rosenberg, “the social scientist of our time,” has degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Oxford.

    2. Akira

      anyone with access to the Internet can publish a blog and garner attention for their cause—even if it’s rooted in conspiracy and is based on a false claim, like the lie that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring from the basement of a Washington D.C. pizza parlor Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election which ended in a shooting millions of dollars wasted on an investigation that turned up absolutely no evidence of that claim.

  48. Crusty Juggler

    Many U.S. farmers fume at Washington, not Trump, over biofuel, trade policies

    Instead of directing their anger at Trump, dozens of farmers interviewed by Reuters blasted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other Washington institutions they believe are thwarting his true agenda. Unsubstantiated conspiracy theories involving USDA staff are circulating in farm country and gaining traction online.

    That damned Deep State has seized the means of food production!

  49. The Late P Brooks

    if I imprint a woman’s anus, what happens to that imprint the next time she takes a shit?

    The turd looks just like you?

  50. Crusty Juggler

    Guys Are Reporting Women on Tinder for the Crime of Not Being Into Them

    That was that. Like many a Proud Boy, George Zimmerman and numerous catfishers before me, I had been banned from Tinder. It turns out, though, I’m far from the only woman to have been kicked off the app for no other reason than I rejected the wrong guy. Indeed, without the need for any apparent proof of wrongdoing, a new breed of scorned men have stumbled upon a particularly passive-aggressive way to say, “If I can’t have her, no one can” — tapping the report button.

    Case in point: Last year, 33-year-old Amy declined to go out with a man she’d been messaging with when he started insulting her. The insults, of course, only intensified from there — with him telling her she was shaped like Slimer from Ghostbusters and that her fertility was declining. Stunned, she put her phone away. After taking a moment, she went to block him, but when she opened Tinder, her account had been banned. Like me, she assumed that it was an easily correctable mistake. But when she reached out to Tinder to correct the issue, she was met with the same exact response as I was.

    “If you are seeing this error message, it means your account has been banned from Tinder for violating our Terms of Use or Community Guidelines in some way. We take violations of our policies very seriously, and do not offer an appeals process at this time. Therefore, your account will remain banned from Tinder, and you will not be able to create a new Tinder profile using your Facebook account and/or phone number.”

    He persists.

    1. Pat

      Passive aggressive dudes get you banned from Tinder. Passive aggressive chicks get you arrested and charged with rape. Men are from mars, women are from venus.

    2. Shorter article: People Suck, Dating Sucks.

  51. Winded

    Also in sports, team USA beat Brazil at the FIBA World Cup yesterday, advancing to the quarterfinals and clinching a berth in next year’s Olympics. Considering this is a team with mostly second- and third-tier players (just two allstars) that was not necessarily automatic. And despite his accomplishments and advanced age (and wokeness!), Popovich is not mailing in the job of coaching these guys. Don’t have the same offensive skill sets as some of the European players? Capitalize on their advantages of depth and athleticism, defend hard and get out and run off turnovers and misses. They’ve got a quarterfinal game against France tomorrow morning USA time when their run might come to an end, but it’s been a different sort of team to watch this year, maybe most like the 1998 team that was thrown together without NBA players at the last minute (because of the lockout) that went on to win bronze.

    1. Crusty Juggler

      Will the USA be able to defend Fournier/Gorbert pick and roll – remember they had trouble with two Brazilians in their late 30s?

      Will Kemba Walker – clearly the USA’s team leader – have to put up thirty?

      Even if the USA beats France, do they even have a chance against Australia?

      1. Winded

        Nothing between first and seventh would surprise me about team USA. They should finish ahead of Poland or Czech Republic if they end up in the losers bracket. Australia and France were pretty evenly matched in their last game of group play, and the US split with Australia in a pair of warm up games. But I don’t know if Australia will get by Spain in that semi. I also expect USA (if they beat France) would get by Argentina in the other semi. It’s a lot less certain than their games from 2007-2016 were though.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    “If you are seeing this error message, it means your account has been banned from Tinder for violating our Terms of Use or Community Guidelines in some way. We take violations of our policies very seriously, and do not offer an appeals process at this time. Therefore, your account will remain banned from Tinder, and you will not be able to create a new Tinder profile using your Facebook account and/or phone number.”

    They’re saving you from yourself. Be grateful.

  53. Crusty Juggler

    The Mystery of the Missing Husbands

    A startling number of young women are unable to find a spouse, and new research from a group of economists suggests their would-be partners are just not up to snuff.

    The new paper—the work of economists from Cornell, Brigham Young University, and Southern Utah University—explores why today’s young women are marrying later or not at all, linking the trend to a series of changes in American society: mass incarceration, economic inequality, and women’s arrival on the college campus.

    Today’s young adults are opting to both marry later and less often than their parents and grandparents did. The share of women aged 25 to 45 who are married has declined more or less continuously since about 1970, dropping from more than 80 percent to about 50 percent in half a century

    See men, they won’t have us, so start smoking ciggies becausee you may as well live it up.

    1. Florida Man

      Maybe it’s because marriage is a bad deal for men and they aren’t buying anymore.

    2. Rhywun

      I can’t imagine why decades of policies designed to lead to these results led to these results.

      1. hayeksplosives

        Boggles the mind.

    3. “synthetic spouses”

      I see your problem. If you’re comparing to some abstract ideal, you’ll never be satisfied.

    4. Urthona

      Got a kick out of this earlier.

      So despite feminism and the sexual revolution women still look for the exact same damn thing in a husband.

    5. Gustave Lytton

      less often

      So they’re staying married when they do, or they’re not getting remarried as frequently?

    6. wdalasio

      and new research from a group of economists suggests their would-be partners are just not up to snuff.

      Or maybe, they’re expectation that a husband be financially “up to snuff” suggests that to potential husbands that they aren’t morally up to snuff.

      1. WTF

        It’s been pretty common knowledge that most women would like to “marry up”, to someone of higher (or at least perceived higher) status. Since women are now something near 60% of college graduates and also get the “diversity” advantage in hiring and promotions, that leaves relatively fewer men who are of sufficient economic and social status to be considered prime marriage material. Add to that the inherent risks to men if a marriage goes bad, and this is really unsurprising.

        1. SHUT UP MRA-TARD

          HYPERGAMY IS A MYTH

        2. wdalasio

          Hypergamy is understandable and acceptable in the context of the traditional relationship between the sexes. But, feminists in particular, and women more generally have decided that relationship isn’t something they find acceptable. Well, okay, but that implies, or at least should imply, a fundamental rearrangement of the contract. And the response from most women, at least according to this study, seems to be “That’s not faaaaiiiirrrr!!!” Well, no, it’s precisely fair. If women want absolute equality to men (and I can accept that), to turn around and say the guy’s got to be the provider and financial protector and the rest means they want the guy to sacrifice himself to their desires and advantage.

        3. B.P.

          I was in briefings with some administrators at a couple of university campuses last week, with legislators present. When asked the male-female ratios of the enrollment, the brass at both said “two-thirds female.” This was met with shrugs.

        4. Akira

          Many people – particularly a lot of women – still consider it the man’s job to earn most of the income. If you ever overhear women talking about potential mates, you’ll always catch a number of phrases intended to convey the fact that the dude is broke (“he’s a loser” or “he has no ambition”).

          I think that casts an interesting new light on this gender pay gap hoax: A lot of the lower-earning females could be women who are married to a high-earning man and therefore have the luxury of taking the job they enjoy rather than the job that pays a lot. It’s aggravating that this whole issue gets boiled down to one single statistic (75 cents for every dollar a man makes!!) with absolutely no interest in other facts that could explain why there appears to be a gap.

          1. ^THISTHISTHIS

            Looking around my extended social group and especially at places I’ve worked, I’ve found that, overwhelmingly, women tend to either be less interested in developing and maintaining a career at all and/or make career decisions based on the assumption that there will be a man in the picture making at least as much money if not more. Several women I’ve known who described themselves as feminists have become stay-at-home moms. With one exception, all of the “soft skill” non-technical roles where I work are filled by women, especially young women, and most of the people who work for a nonprofit are women, both of which result in lower salaries and lower, less rigid time and effort commitments. And this is true even in organizations that are helmed by women, with women in management and in hiring positions.

            I have never, ever met a man who ever entertained the notion of being a stay-at-home dad or a kept man or anything, and never even heard of a woman interested in making the offer to anyone, including other women.

          2. I have never, ever met a man who ever entertained the notion of being a stay-at-home dad or a kept man or anything,

            My brother is, though not voluntarily. He has a few mental disorders that make him basically unemployable except as a freelancer and his industry, freelancing is almost not heard of. My SIL is a programmer and makes really good money, and could never be a stay-at-home mom, so it doesn’t actually make sense for them to switch to proper “gender roles.”

            (And now, her company went public so they went from sorta struggling to “very well off” almost overnight, after 20 years of her work.)

            Further, their kids have health issues that preclude both of them having full-time jobs. So he’s a chauffeur most of his non-“working” hours.

            That said, he is a hobby farmer and can do a lot of construction work on his house, maintains everything, clears his land, etc. He also just bought two properties here in KC to rent so he has set his sights on becoming a slumlord.

            They live on the outskirts of Seattle, so the house and land they bought many years ago is now worth half a gazillion dollars, but they can’t afford to sell because they’d have to pay more for less.

            I do not have a problem with stay-at-home dads necessarily, but it either makes one look at the monetary value of homemaking differently or it makes one think “what a loser.”

          3. He has a few mental disorders that make him basically unemployable except as a freelancer

            I have the same ones, so I am empathetic.

            However, I CAN freelance.

        5. wdalasio

          I’ll also note that traditional hypergamy was more prospective, as opposed to the more immediate gratification orientation of the modern hypergamy described here. People married younger. So, the guys didn’t really have a lot of opportunity to amass wealth or status. The prospective was “He will be a good provider.” or “He will make a good father.” What we see here is a demand that the guy already have wealth and status.

      2. Yeah, it’s interesting that so many women respondents are unwilling to “marry down” but see nothing strange about expecting that from a man. And then will proceed to reject every “traditional” female role in the home or in a committed relationship. To hell with Captain Marvel, wake me up when a majority of women with college degrees and six-figure incomes are marrying men expecting them to stay at home and take care of the house and kids.

        1. Urthona

          Captain Marvel had to suffer through the horror of someone once wondering whether a girl would be good at baseball. It was basically her own personal holocaust.

          1. I don’t see why that would distress Billy Batson, but *shrugs* who knows with Comics writers these days.

  54. Crusty Juggler

    How the Hell is White Claw Hard Seltzer Outselling Budweiser?

    This is no joke. Millennials are drinking staggering amounts of hard seltzer instead of beer. In the most recent reported sales figures, White Claw and Truly outsold every craft beer brand put together. In July, White Claw claims it outsold Budweiser. Yes, Budweiser.

    Reminder: a bunch of geniuses on posting here had no idea what tha Claw was.

    With 90 percent of the market, and the solid savvy of Mike’s Hard and Boston Beer behind them, White Claw and Truly are the story, and the other brands are playing catch up. (There’s one exception: Four Loko is about to enter the market with a 14-percent ABV “sour blue” seltzer, which should stir up the waters, at least in the shallow end.)

    the Loko is an about-to-be-banned game changer.

    I have to, of course, mention the vodka-soda, which is the most frequent drink ordered at bars and nightclubs. Given its popularity, any bartender you meet will tell you that vodka-soda pays the bills. Hard seltzer is the canned (or draft, if you can find it) equivalent of a fizzy vodka-soda, with its crisp snap, “healthy” vibe, and light flavor.

    Lysyj pointed out to me two other significant trends that helped the growth of hard seltzer, the “growth in the consumption of carbonated water in the U.S. and an overall interest in low-calorie alcoholic beverages.”

    Vape pens and vodka soda < ciggies and bad American beer imho

    1. Raston Bot

      fascinating. i’ve never heard of hard seltzer before now. and it’s outselling Bud? holy shit that’s a massive market dominated by two players??

      1. Jarflax

        Zima round two.

        1. Raston Bot

          that shit ended up causing babies with tiny heads.

          1. Jarflax

            AOC Zima connection?

        2. Gustave Lytton

          And Mikes has been doing great business for twenty years. Isn’t this just carbonated Mikes?

          1. No sugar so it appeals to the skinny sluts mentioned below.

          2. Gustave Lytton

            Mikes Light?

      2. Nephilium

        It first started being launched ~ 2 years ago. White Claw and Truly were the first movers, with several other brands jumping in. It was also something that some of the craft breweries (such as Platform) started dabbling in too. I have hope it’s a fad, like the hard pop bubble was. Yeah, you still have Not Your Father’s, but you don’t see a dozen different brands of hard pop sitting on the grocery store shelf anymore.

        1. MikeS

          NYF Rootbeer is very good, once in a while. As in, a six pack lasts me all summer.

        2. invisible finger

          So you’re not old enough to remember the wine cooler fad?

          My nieces drink hard seltzer. I tired some – not for me, way too sweet. Might as well just pour some Coke into a mug of whiskey.

          1. Tundra

            I don’t mind it, but I can’t imagine having a bunch of them.

          2. Nephilium

            I remember the wine cooler fad as well. But that was before I really started getting into the craft beer/alcohol scene. There’s even an alcoholic flavored still water that’s out now. You’ve also got the current trend towards premixed cocktails coming back again.

    2. Two words: skinny sluts.

    3. Chipwooder

      Zima apparently was just brought out before its time.

      1. Nephilium

        They brought Zima back last year (or so).

        1. Urthona

          And I know people with fond memories of college parties who went and bought some.

          1. Rhywun

            I liked Zima. $3 for a six-pack once it became unfashionable didn’t hurt either.

    4. B.P.

      I was at a tailgater over the weekend and a guy had a cooler full of White Claw. He said it fits into his low-carb diet.

  55. Gustave Lytton

    Breakfast time at the hotel. Some asshole thinks his outdoor voice is appropriate for a conversation with his table mates. At least the tv has the volume off.

    1. Playa Manhattan

      Did you ask him to get off of your lawn?

    2. R C Dean

      Just join in their conversation. Apparently its intended to include everyone.

  56. Crusty Juggler

    Holes poked in CNN report blaming Trump for alarm that led to extraction of Kremlin informant

    Hours after CNN reported Trump’s handling of classified information was the inciting incident leading to this spy’s extraction, a follow-up story from the New York Times cited sources who insisted media scrutiny alone is what jeopardized the safety of this source.

    I don’t know who to believe!

    1. Gustave Lytton

      Attempted undermining of Trump and removal of a spy, and who wins? It doesn’t take much tin foil to believe that CNN is working, knowing or unknowing, on behalf of the Russians.

  57. Pope Jimbo

    You female Glibs are so lucky that we aren’t into generalizations. Otherwise, we’d be lumping you in with this wacky lady who thinks that Trump’s biggest failing is that he lacks empathy. And then we’d be lamenting giving women the vote (even though I’m sure you are splendid Glibs and don’t vote voluntarily).

    Those rules are so mean! Why doesn’t Trump just make an exception this one time? He is such a boogerhead!

    In my opinion, the quality that most disqualifies him for a leadership role is his lack of empathy. And I have believed for a long time that one way he got this way is because he has experienced so few of the hardships most of us have endured by the time we reach our 70s.

    1. See: principle-based vs. care-based morality.

      1. leon

        Is care based morality like: “I don’t care, so it’s not wrong?”

        1. It’s basically letting feelz override rational sense of right and wrong.

          “What about the children?!?” elevated to a moral philosophy.

    2. Cooper’s a Vanderbilt, so I have little empathy for the comparison between him and Trump.

    3. Rhywun

      LOL now do Hillary

      1. Tundra

        *projectile vomits*

      2. Playa Manhattan

        *Evil Laugh*

        WHY AM I NOT 50 POINTS AHEAD????

        1. You took the “Unlikable” trait three times to offset the “Criminal Mastermind” Perk.

    4. ChipsnSalsa

      I felt such a powerful human connection to both of these famous men (because they shared an experience of their parents dying young). Simply put, I felt empathy.

      That seems pretty light on “empathy”. If you both have a very similar experience it doesn’t take much empathy to understand the emotions the other person is/may be going through.

      Maybe you should empathize with Donny two scoops who didn’t have the same experiences that you did as a child.

    5. Rebel Scum

      Empathy is meaningless without results. But this position is unsurprising. I have long observed that leftists care more about their feelings and how they perceive the feelings of others as opposed actual, tangible actions.

  58. Crusty Juggler

    Bill Burr Wants to Remind You, His Words Have No Power and Comedy Doesn’t Matter in His New Special, Paper Tiger. So It’s Okay to Laugh.

    So he’s not worried about all the PC culture and the reaction he anticipates he’ll get from the media. He refers to the phenomenon as “Chicken Little” insisting that the media is blowing the outrage response to comedy out of proportion. He says that night after night when he performs, everybody shows up, laughs and goes home. “And then once every couple of years, somebody has an issue, and then it’s just, “Oh, my God.” The contrast between reality and the way outrage is reported in the news has made him question everything he reads. “It’s just simply not the case” he says referring to the supposed anger at edgy comedy.

    He doesn’t just blame the media for the problem, he’s also blaming “certain comics” for fueling the fire. They need to get over themselves, he says. “I probably shouldn’t say this”, he tells me, “certain comics like to think that they’re dangerous, so then they just fan the flames. Like, “Hey, man, I don’t give a fuck with this fucking political correctness. I’m going to talk about whatever … ” It’s like, you’re not dangerous, okay? You’re not. You’re telling knock-knock jokes. Get over yourself.”

    BUT IT IS IMPORTANT!

  59. Rebel Scum

    Oh, Tulsi…

    RUBIN: So immigration, I think there’s a general sense that the candidates, the Democrats are basically trying to outdo each other for open borders, something like that … do you think that’s a fair way to start the question and … where do you sit on that?

    GABBARD: I think it’s fair … I don’t, I don’t support open borders. Without secure borders, we don’t really have a country. And while some of the other Democratic candidates will say, ‘Well, open borders, that’s a conservative argument and that’s not really what’s being advocated for,’ if you look at some of the practical implications of some of the things they are pushing for, it is essentially open borders.

    I think there are a few things we got to do when we’re talking about immigration reform. One is we’ve got to have secure borders. This is not Trump’s wall from sea to shining sea. It’s about seeing again what makes sense. I look at things from a practical, objective-oriented standpoint; I’m a soldier. So I look at, secure the borders, what’s our objective. In some places, it may make the most sense to have a wall or some kind of other physical barriers in place; in other places it won’t make sense. So you use technology and you use all the other tools that you have ultimately to accomplish that objective of security at the borders.

    1. leon

      She’s angling for the weld memorial VP slot on the libertarian ticket

    2. Urthona

      She needs to run third party.

      1. cyto

        It would be interesting to hear her positions Unleashed from the party.

        She still sounds like she’s pretty statist on some of the spending side things. But then, who isn’t these days?

        1. The immigration stance above is pretty standard to the genpop (and was Dem policy as recently as 5 years ago); the only thing that really sets her apart is foreign policy. She seems pretty shitty on most other things.

    3. If you keep mentioning “I’m a soldier” – you really aren’t, at heart.

      1. Ozymandias

        This guy gets it. (Checks Tulsi’s bio out… OHHhhhhhhh, she was in the state guard. I see now.)

    1. Which is it, toxic or readioactive? They use the terms as if they’re interchangable.

  60. PieInTheSky

    I say US food is bad on average, compared to Europe, and am sticking to it.

    Americans who visit Europe often say so, Europeans who visit the US often say so.

    I am quite aware that there is all sorts of stuff in the US, good stuff included. But. Some people from a US company my company works with from fuckin Portland Oregon were at a workshop with us in Germany and they praised the quality of fruit and vegetables compared to the states. German fruits and vegetables are not particularly good. I understand the bread in Europe is generally far superior.

    Whenever I watched a old recipe youtube like Townsends there were always Americans in the comments saying the added sugar to the recipe “for sweetness”. Also in Europe the rule is you use a US recipe cut the sugar. Reading recipes in the past on Serious Eats almost anything with a sauce had unnecessary sugar in it. I have relatives married to Americans and when the visited they always added sugar to stuff. So based on my pattern matching experience, having never been myself, this is my conclusion. Also sugar in meat rubs or meat sauce is unnecessary

    1. PieInTheSky

      Also even for an European I do not like sweet things.

    2. Rasilio

      Also sugar in meat rubs or meat sauce is unnecessary

      Try my Chocolate Ribs and you won’t be saying that

      1. PieInTheSky

        honestly, i doubt it

          1. ChipsnSalsa

            Maybe he likes them Schweddy

    3. Based on my pattern matching experience, people who comment on the quality of fruits and vegetables generally do not consume fruits and vegetables. And the comments section on YouTube does not reflect reality. The only recipies I see with sugar in them are Pastries/confectionaries (which need sweetness) and lazy tomato sauce (which needs to cook longer).

      My personal experience with food in Europe was that it was generally ‘meh’, but I’ve only been twice. The best German food I’ve had was in Alabama. So come to this side of the Atlantic and we’ll show you around.

    4. Tundra

      Wow.

      You really need to visit.

      First off, there is a weird dynamic in US/European travelers. Many of us are only a couple generations from the Old Country, so we grew up eating what they ate. Also, it’s very fashionable to revere all things Euro.

      I enjoyed visiting Italy and enjoyed the food immensely. However, I can’t think of one dish I liked more than my grandmother’s cacciatore over polenta. And don’t even get me started about the UK!

      As far as meat rubs, you are just dead wrong. For some I use rubs with no sugar, but when I do ribs I always use a rub with sugar. It makes a dynamite bark and absolutely adds.

      1. Playa Manhattan

        Most Americans visiting Europe don’t actually visit the real Europe. Eating at a beachfront tapas place in Barcelona is not representative of Spanish cuisine.

        1. All the more reason a guided tour by locals works best.

    5. Urthona

      The quality of meat and produce in the stores here is pretty high in comparison to most places I’ve visited, but we also have a ton of empty calorie options.

      1. Tundra

        Options.

        This is what galls visitors, it seems.

        1. Urthona

          I live in Texas, and I have yet to visit a country where the quality of beef you can buy in general circumstances is any where comparable. What I learned is never order anything with beef in it abroad.

          1. Just because they process the cow on-premesis…

          2. Playa Manhattan

            The beef in Europe was disgusting. The steak and frites was an abomination. Still didn’t stop me though.

          3. Florida Man

            I was about to argue, then I remembered I was in Peru when I had the most amazing steak sandwich.

          4. I’m pretty sure that was Cuy

          5. Florida Man

            That’s a sore spot. One of my 2 regrets from Peru is not getting to eat cuy.

          6. What’s the other regret?

          7. Florida Man

            Not getting to fish the amazon river.

          8. Nephilium

            I was entertained that in Dublin, all the places were advertising their corn fed beef, as opposed to the US where we advertise grain fed beef.

          9. “corn” means different things in different dialects of english.

          10. B.P.

            I was entertained that in Dublin, my wife order lasagna and it came with a side of french fries.

          11. Akira

            @ B.P.

            The guy on this YouTube cooking channel (Glen and Friends Cooking) said that he once ordered beef stroganoff in China, and it came with fries and a steaming hot Coca Cola. Bizarre.

          12. That’s just not right.

      2. PieInTheSky

        I would assume beef is better, I doubt fruit and vegetables are, compared to the Romanian farmers market if you know what to pick.

        1. If you know what to pick, you can find the quality pieces in any market.

        2. Urthona

          I don’t know. We get pretty top quality fruits and vegetables from all over the world.

          1. PieInTheSky

            well produce aint that good if it aint local…

            I will give you stuff like avocado. Hard to get good avocado in Europe.

          2. That’s because there’s no such thing as good avocado.

        3. MikeS

          And the US doesn’t have farmer’s markets? You’re either on one of you annoying “the US sucks” trolls or seriously misinformed. Or a little of both.

          1. PieInTheSky

            one of my annoying trolls? Really? after every fucking time I was trolled on this site? fuck right off.

          2. MikeS

            Sensitive about the Dracula thing?

          3. Let the record show that I severely limit any vampire jokes.

            Also Pie, there are some huge regional differences in US cuisine; some of which I think sucks too. When you come visit, I’ll take you to New Mexico which objectively has the best food in the known universe.

            Further: don’t let these philistines try to convince you that Texas and/or Southern BBQ is best. Kansas City is superior.

          4. There are differences in taste, and I’d probably eat any variety of BBQ put in front of me.

            But the most effective means of settling the matter is to convince Pie to come over. But I seem to recall he declined even when we offered to try to fund it.

          5. PieInTheSky

            Look. I am obviously exaggerating. But from everything I know from both Europeans and Americans, they consider European food better. And I particularly don’t like sweet and was under the understanding the Americans do. that is all. Off course I don’t know, I haven’t been.

          6. Kansas City is superior.

            Generally, yes.

            BUT! There is a caveat. We have such a wide array between sugar-sauce and vinegar-sauce that IMO, it’s starting to get hard to pin down.

            I like the vinegar sauces (husband says “straight vinegar”). He likes the sugar sauces (I say “molasses and ketchup”).

            The only one we can come to any consensus on is Jack Stack.

          7. I particularly don’t like sweet and was under the understanding the Americans do.

            Tangentially: In my research, I have learned that medieval people didn’t necessarily have bad teeth because they didn’t have sugar.

            Sugar is the only socially acceptable drug ever. We’re all hooked.

          8. MikeS

            I am obviously exaggerating.

            How are you “obviously exaggerating” when you repeat your assertion all through this thread?

            And for the record, I’ve never seen any American add sugar to anything other than bland breakfast cereal. Do we have more of a sweet-tooth than Europeans? Which Europeans? Romanians? Swiss? Italians?

            And fresh, local fruit is good no matter which continent you are picking it on.

          9. Sugar is the only socially acceptable drug ever

            Maybe in your corner of the world, but around here, it’s caffiene.

          10. Florida Man

            Embrace it, Pie. People troll about my state/people constantly, so I adopted FM as my handle to show I can take it.

          11. PieInTheSky

            I don’t mind. At all. and my so called trolls are obvious jokes so I doubt most count as trolls and I do them rarely.

          12. MikeS

            rarely

            Ha-ha.

          13. PieInTheSky

            you know I am not going to continue this Mike. From my point of view you can fuck of from now on.

          14. MikeS

            WTF, Pie? I am very sorry for calling your repeated joking trolling. Poor choice in words that I had no idea would set you off so badly.

            I don’t think I’ve ever shown you anything but respect. I believe I’ve only made a vampire joke once, many months ago. I apologize for that. I’m sure it gets old for you.

            You keep telling me to fuck off. I refuse to do the same.

    6. Generalizations about cuisine are pointless and stupid given the diversity of both food and individual taste.

      I have traveled pretty extensively and found good and bad stuff everywhere I went.

      1. PieInTheSky

        well things to big to avoid generalization

        Also if your taste in food is like your taste in tits you take quantity over quality, which is probably quite American of you 😀

        1. If it’s being eaten off the tits, so much the better.

    7. I think it depends. I don’t add sugar to things generally, but you’ll find people who will put sugar in damn near every recipe, even chili. As for meat sauce, I must beg to differ and cite barbecue as my evidence to the contrary. Although, truth be told, I prefer either Alabama white sauce, a nice cider vinegar and pepper sauce, or nothing at all on pulled pork.

      1. Akira

        The only savory recipes where I use sugar are gyudon and other Japanese dishes and BBQ sauce. I do like the sauces you mentioned, but I like to change up my BBQ a lot, and sometimes I make a pot of that nice goopy sauce with molasses in it.

        I never understood people putting sugar in tomato sauce. I guess I just enjoy the acidic/spicy aspect of it more than the sweetness.

        And sugar in chili? Is this a thing??

        1. CampingInYourPark

          Balancing sweetness, acidity and spice is pretty old hat for cooking.

    8. Donation Not Taxation

      Were the fruits and vegetables the only things about the United States that the people from Portland dissed?
      Note to Glibs: Pie typed “Portland Oregon”

      1. See, here’s the problem. He thought they meant Oregon, but they really meant Maine. And that’s basically Canada.

        1. Donation Not Taxation

          There is a Portland, Oregon.

          47 Reasons Not To Move To Portland Oregon 2019 @ portlandmofo.com

          Portland Oregon Sucks @ Facebook

          thingsaboutportlandthatsuck.com

          Portland Oregon area truly sucks – YouTube

          13 reasons it’s time to leave Portland @ oregonlive.com

          And so on.

          1. Donation Not Taxation

            Something nice about Portland, Oregon: It has Hale Pele. https://critiki.com/location/hale-pele-portland-815/

    9. CampingInYourPark

      Some people from a US company my company works with from fuckin Portland Oregon were at a workshop with us in Germany and they praised the quality of fruit and vegetables compared to the states. German fruits and vegetables are not particularly good. I understand the bread in Europe is generally far superior.

      Does Europe export fruit? I’ve never seen any.

        1. CampingInYourPark

          Olives

          1. Tundra

            Hugh Grant?

    10. CampingInYourPark

      I understand the bread in Europe is generally far superior.

      Having married a mail order bride I have come to the conclusion everybody thinks their native breads are superior. Even the ones that crack tooth enamel when trying to chew.

      1. Your palatte prefers what you grew up on.

  61. MikeS

    Insane Guy Shouting He’ll Buy Back Your Stuff With Your Own Money Becomes Popular Democratic Candidate

    TROUTDALE, MI—An insane man who is known for stumbling through the streets of Troutdale shouting at people that he’ll buy back things from them that he never owned after he takes money from them that he does not possess has become one of the leading candidates in the 2020 presidential election.

    1. Not really satire.

      1. Playa Manhattan

        The “popular” part is.

  62. Donation Not Taxation

    Trump Fires John Bolton
    politicalwire.com/2019/09/10/trump-fires-john-bolton/

    1. cyto

      Bout damn time