Tuesday Morning Links of Bob Frank

He likes to run over children.
A poem.

 

Ahem.

I need a butt shine,
Right now
You are holy,
Oh, sacred Cow
I thirst for you,
Provide Milk.

Buff my balls,
Love the Cow,
Good fortune for those that do.
Love me, breathe my feet,
The Cow has risen.

Wax my ass,
Scrub my balls.
The Cow has risen,
Provide Milk.

– Robert Francis O’Rourke

Comments

542 responses to “Tuesday Morning Links of Bob Frank”

    1. WTF

      Yes, masterful links game!

  1. Tres Cool

    Well, its already been mentioned, it sure is similar to Vogon poetry.

    1. “Now, tell Mr. O’Rourke how you are going to vote for him, or it is out the airlock you go!”

      1. *steps out airlock*

        Hey! This ship is on the ground!

  2. Brett L

    So how often do you think he gets his ass waxed?

    1. AlexinCT

      Too often, if it happened even once?

    2. Old Man With Candy

      Beto or Spud?

      The latter lets his ass hair grow long, then brings it up over his head in an anal comb-over.

      1. AHEM!

        glutial combover thankee very much!

        1. Jarflax

          Do you speak from direct knowledge? or are you assuming! You know what happens when you assume! You have to go trace each hair from the combover to its root and then plot each one by distance from the anal opening. Only then can you determine whether a combover is anal or glutial.

          1. Sometimes he hides a ceremonial dagger in that combover.

    3. Not Adahn

      What his sugar mama wants, his sugar mama gets.

  3. Atanarjuat

    Just another Glasgow rhinoplasty.

    1. Slammer

      MFW can’t smell curry takeaway and whisky 🙁

  4. The mid-flight brawl began because of ‘drunk and disorderly’ behaviour, the witness said.

    Wait…on a flight from Glasgow?!!! Shocking!

    1. Atanarjuat

      Glasgow Man

      1. AlexinCT

        That worse than Florida man?

        1. You don’t want his kiss, that is for sure.

          I think they might be distant relatives.

          1. Not Adahn
          2. WTF

            You don’t want the smile, either.

  5. Slammer

    That CNN guest has this crazy Groucho Marx look going on with those eyebrows and glasses

  6. Tres Cool

    Scrub my balls?
    Seens Lewis Black covered it.

  7. Rebel Scum

    “Until today, I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semiautomatic rifle,” one gun owner, farmer John Hart, wrote on Twitter. “On the farm they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesn’t outweigh the risk of misuse.

    Did you misuse yours?

    “We don’t need these in our country,” he added, sharing an image of a police form registering his weapon for “destruction.” “We have make sure it’s #NeverAgain.”

    They will be in your country but only the gov’t will have them. And it will happen again. Only next time it will be an explosive or a semi-trailer.

    1. Slammer

      I’ll turn my elvish dagger in right after Second Breakfast

    2. Drake

      The guy who did it spelled out exactly why he chose guns instead of bombs or vehicles.

      1. Like they’re going to pay attention to facts.

        1. AlexinCT

          Only when it furthers the narrative of making sure the sheep have no way to fight back. Then the people in power can give it to them good and hard, and they won’t be able to do shit about it. But hey, they can all go around pretending they are somehow safer, until the next evil fuck kills people and they end up talking about banning knives or coffee mugs.

      2. Rebel Scum

        Yes, he did. And they are giving him exactly what he wanted.

    3. Drake

      The Las Vegas shooting comes to mind as well. Whatever actually went down there…

      If that guy really wanted to kill himself and the most people possible, he would have packed his plane as full of fuel as possible and crashed it into the crowd.

      1. AlexinCT

        Most people are ignorant to the fact someone really hell bent on a large body count has failed if they chose firearms as the means to deliver on that want. If you really wanted to kill a ton of people you would do better if your choice of murderous means was something flammable, explosive, or poisonous. The hardcore campaign against fire arms is done by an elite that is worried that an armed populace might eventually get them for their craven evil and ineptitude preying on the fears of idiots. Have no doubt that the anti-firearms campaign is about making sure the elite can shear the sheeple without the sheeple having a means to make it costly.

        1. +1 Happy Land

          1. First thing I thought of. $1 gallon of gas.

      2. robc

        9/11 wasnt going for body count either. For body count, you crash the planes on a Saturday where Michigan and Tennessee are both playing home games. You can take out 200k that way.

        1. cyto

          And as far as terror goes.. they are not with their A game there either.

          You want to sow terror? Attack the basics of life. Attack the water supply. Attack the food supply.

          That would do it.

          They’ve done the “transportation system” thing quite a bit, which does have a pretty broad impact.

          But taking out the power grid would have a much bigger and more wide-spread effect.

          Especially the water supply. Poisoning New York City’s water supply would be fairly easy. And there is no easy work-around once it is done. New York essentially becomes uninhabitable almost immediately if you cut off the water supply.

          And the power grid… you can attack that the way the US air force did in desert storm. You drop a bunch of carbon fiber conductors onto power transfer stations. You could do it by drone pretty easily. 50 guys driving around the country could wreak havoc on the power grid, blacking out large swaths of the country for weeks.

          1. Rasilio

            I’ve laid this out before. You want to take out America, Showy attacks like 9-11 ain’t going to work, they will just piss us off.

            Get 100 dedicated guys spread around the country and have them start randomly attacking high school events, shopping centers, and movie theatres. Don’t do it in ANY major cities, target mid size suburban towns, preferably the affluent ones. Also your attackers can’t be suicides, no they need to be smart about it, have a plan to get away so they can carry out multiple attacks before they get caught and then there are multiple in the same area so that when the authorities do catch them the attacks don’t stop.

            Once the Soccer moms come to realize that their children could be attacked anywhere at any time and there is nothing the authorities could do to protect them then it is over, a new government will be voted into office with the next election that will sue for peace at any price.

          2. cyto

            Yeah, but that would require a country with lax immigration enforcement so you could get all those guys into the country…

          3. R C Dean

            That would go one of two ways:

            (1) Peace at any price.

            (2) Authoritarian crackdown.

            Peace at any price only happens if the attacks are sponsored by an organization that can control them and make them stop. If that’s not the case (and I bet it isn’t), then even if its tried, we will wind up with “authoritarian crackdown” after it fails.

    4. Rebel Scum

      “It’s not a big deal not having it anymore. I couldn’t, in good conscience, say they shouldn’t be around if I still had one,” he said. “Once you accept that these things can be harmful, in the wrong hands, the trade-off is a small inconvenience.”

      Let’s start a list of things that can be harmful in the wrong hands. I’ll go first: a computer with internet access

      1. AlexinCT

        Any idiot that believes any of the stupid shit the left peddles.

      2. pistoffnick

        “a list of things that can be harmful in the wrong hands”

        Political power
        Wrong ideas
        Books
        Newsletters

        My grandpa lost his hand to a corn picker. Ban corn pickers! He was also run over by his own tractor. Ban tractors!

        1. Did he survive the tractor?

          1. pistoffnick

            No. John Deere took his hand (he could still roll his own cigarettes on the stump) and a different John Deere took his life.

        2. Tundra

          Was his nickname Lefty or Lucky?

    5. Pope Jimbo

      I’m sure that farmer will also give up his diesel fuel and fertilizer too. His convenience is secondary to ensuring that each and every person in NZ is able to live a long and happy life fucking sheep.

      1. Drake

        The safety team will be along shortly to ensure compliance.

    6. Suthenboy

      I am calling bullshit on the ‘I am a gun owner and even I think…’ arguments.
      Gun grabbers are such fucking liars.

      1. I’m a gun owner and even I think rifle safety and marksmanship should be a required course at all levels of schooling.

        1. Jarflax

          Rifle safety is important! Always use a clean soft cloth, or chamois to wipe down the barrel after cleaning the bore. Using a dirty cloth can scratch the finish. Wood stocks require care as well. If stored in excessively humid, or excessively dry conditions warping or cracking can occur. Gun blankets protect the finish, but you need a hard case for transport to avoid the risk of damage from accidental impacts. Know the characteristics of the steel in your barrel and chamber before upping the powder in your load.

      2. AlexinCT

        She owns a bb gun…

    7. If you own a gun and you think you shouldn’t because you’re afraid you’ll gun down innocent people for no reason some day, then yes, you should give your gun away.

      To me.

      I’m going to start a service. Any time any of these legitimate, really-are-gun-owners gun owners feel like their AR is going to wander off unsupervised and kill a school full of children, I will happily accept their guns. I’ll take them in. Naptown Bill’s Home for Wayward Firearms, I’ll call it. Because I have it on good authority I will never commit random, or even very deliberate and pattern-rich, murders or assaults with firearms or anything else.

      1. Cy

        “Because I have it on good authority I will never commit random, or even very deliberate and pattern-rich, murders or assaults with firearms or anything else.”

        AND MORE IMPORTANTLY…

        You’ll do everything reasonably within your power to stop someone trying to do so. The scale of “reasonably within your power” is much greater when you’re armed.

        I feel like this is the part that a lot of people miss.

      2. JaimeRoberto: Gentleman, Scholar, French Tickler

        Is that next to the Naptown Bill Home for Wayward Girls?

        1. I mean, I’m not saying it couldn’t be…

  8. Cy

    Your links game is quite impressive.

    1. Yes, I like the Spud &Links breakfast.

  9. AlexinCT

    So, why are people not hammering the fact that we have a indisputable proof that the whole college admissions process is basically a leftist racket to gatekeep access to their credentialing process, while pretending that they champion equality of opportunity for the oppressed? If it is not obvious to people with more than 2 firing neurons by now that the college admissions process is a racket that allows connected leftist elite to buy favors while pretending to exist to help the less fortunate that the left tell us where held down by evil whitey, then we are in deep doo-doo.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      Why aren’t people more outraged by what Judicial Watch has been posting about their FISA findings on YouTube? Obama’s admin. was basically lawless.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        Or by these states signing the National Popular Vote Compact?

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

        1. Subwoofer

          Apparently there have been calls for the new Colorado governor’s impeachment over signing onto the NPVIC.

          I guarantee you that compact will backfire stupendously on the Donkeys when blue state Republicans suddenly start voting because they can influence the popular vote, which ends up forcing California, New York, and Illinois to give Trump their EVs.

          Heads will rolls. Its supposed to rig the game FOR the Ds! Not help those evil rethuglikkkans!

          1. “Apparently there have been calls for the new Colorado governor’s impeachment over signing onto the NPVIC”

            We should be so lucky. Thanks for outsourcing my vote to LA, NYC and Chicago you shitstains.

        2. Rebel Scum

          Way for States to represent people other than their own citizens.

      2. AlexinCT

        Anyone that actually didn’t realize Obama’s grades – like so many other important indicators – were withheld from the public because they made GWB look like an academic genius, deserves the current academic admissions system.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          Is there a link to his grades?

          I don’t doubt he was one of those students I saw often: They were good at yapping in class soaking up time but sucked when it mattered most.

          1. AlexinCT

            No Rufus. Obama’s academic record is still under seal. And nobody has felt compelled to leak them. You know, like they did with the GWB grades because they could then claim since he was a C student he was stupid. I suspect that if Obama was anything better than a mediocre C student, we would have had that information leaked by now to show us how shmath he was. I am going to go out on a limb and say that the guy is nothing but a smooth talking Fredo Corleone wannabe.

          2. Rufus the Monocled

            Oh what I’d give to have been in on one of his lectures.

          3. AlexinCT

            Not me. The guy is dumb as a post.

          4. Are we talking as dumb as a New York Post, or as dumb as a Washington Post?

          5. AlexinCT

            CT Post… Pure yokelry.

          6. I was a C student. I never felt compelled to put in the minimum required to pass. Why? Pride? I learned what I wanted to learn. Grad school? Didn’t have plans to go, and the program I’m in now didn’t require a minimum GPA. There’s the old joke about the “gentleman’s C” but the reason it became a thing is that gentlemen of a certain class thought that if someone did *too* well in school it was because they were overly focused on academia and not very good at things like athletics or social pursuits. A grade above a C was like bragging about drinking a handle of gin in a sitting on the regular.

        2. R C Dean

          He got better grades in law school than I did, and Harvard graded based solely on anonymous written exams. Harvard’s admissions were no joke back then, either – they turned down JFK Jr. He’s academia smart.

          Naw , his school records are sealed because he claimed to be Kenyan to get aff ac points.

          1. My mistrust of essay grades was seared deep when I got my highest marks on the worst work that happened to flatter the instructor’s biases.

          2. AlexinCT

            ^^^THIS^^^

          3. Rufus the Monocled

            If his grades are sealed, how do you know he did better than you?

          4. R C Dean

            He graduated with higher honors than I did.

          5. AlexinCT

            Yeah, I am sure he “earned” those too…

          6. R C Dean

            See above. Anonymous grading. I really don’t think anybody altered his grades.

          7. AlexinCT

            I believe Obama was groomed by the people that wanted to push him into politics. The same kind of people that are part of these admission scams and the academic scams I am sure happen regularly to push through morons that are great at peddling leftist tropes. As UCS said: Obama was treated with velvet gloves and I suspect he got inflated results especially since he likely wrote shit that not only met, but likely exceeded his teacher’s own biases.

            Based on how he pissed on the constitution and the (il)legal activity in his administration, I am baffled this guy was considered a constitutional scholar of any kind. His views make Paris Hilton look like a rocket scientist.

          8. R C Dean

            Alex, in law school there was no way to know which tests were his, so what you describe couldn’t happen. The reason they didn’t admit JFK Jr. is because they knew there was no way to push him through, and they were afraid he would flunk out. I know this because my buddy’s wife worked in the admissions office. If they wouldn’t/couldn’t do it for a freakin’ Kennedy, there’s no way they would/could do it for a non-entity (at the time) like Obama.

            He’s book smart. Like a lot of academics. That doesn’t mean it translates outside of the ivory tower.

    2. Subwoofer

      Why would people be outraged at what is a widely known phenomenon?

      This is just par for the course. Everyone knows you can bribe your way into a top tier school. Its not news. Its only in the news because its being written about by people who benefited from the process that feel guilty and want to defect blame. Its like how most legit sexual harassers Ann’s predators in top positions are avowed feminists.

    3. straffinrun

      A racket that creates indentured servants.

    4. Spartacus

      Number of college students in the U.S. : 19.9 million
      Number of people indicted in admissions scandal: 50

      If you want to claim an act of .000025% of a population represents the entire population, well, ok. But this is almost literally one in a million.
      I know lots of admissions officers, and I can safely say that they do not systematically work together toward any larger end whatsoever–including sometimes at the same college.

      The worst part of this whole episode is that it promotes the ridiculous claim that USC is somehow an elite school.

      1. straffinrun

        There was a college entrance exam scandal here a few years ago. Some kid brought his cell phone and posted the questions during the exam in a public chat room and then choose the best answer. It worked. Amazingly, many complete strangers busted their asses to solve the answers for him even though they knew he was cheating.

      2. AlexinCT

        So you want to dismiss this because they threw some token people under the bus, and that number is low? Shit, I have had to deal with some of these people coming out of these elite schools and with a really small exception of cases, they are dumber than shit but think they know it all. The thing they have in common is that they all are socialists for really well to do families. My bet is that some kind of pay-for-play happened there for sure. That or these institutions are just as retarded as I wonder if they sometimes are.

        1. Jarflax

          Envy is bad when the left does it. It is also bad when the right does it. This whole scandal is based in envy. People are mad that rich people used their money to buy their kids advantages. That is the whole point of amassing wealth, to make your kids lives better. This is an epic nothing.

          1. AlexinCT

            Except I suspect that rich leftists get far more advantage from these practices (while also being the loudest virtue signalers against them) and tax payer dollars are used to prop up this cabal of illegal shit. I want the tax payer funding for this shit to stop. After that, I could give a rats ass how corrupt the admission process is.

        2. Ahem. I went to an elite school.

        3. Spartacus

          OK, let’s review.

          My response was to a post that said: “we have a indisputable proof that the whole college admissions process is basically a leftist racket to gatekeep access to their credentialing process, while pretending that they champion equality of opportunity for the oppressed?”

          So, the assertion is that an incident involving 50 people out of 19.9 million is “indisputable proof” of inherent rottenness with “the whole college admissions process”. That seems a bit of a stretch, even if we allow Pat’s comment that there are some unknown number of additional people who did not get caught, which reminds me of the statement “we don’t have good data but we know it’s a huge problem.” The only thing I am dismissing is the idea that we now have proof that the entire process is a “racket”, leftist or otherwise.

          My point is that there is no grand conspiracy of admissions officers. Some private colleges have a corrupt process because their seats are valuable, and people in the admissions process can sell access, just like they do anywhere else that a few people are gatekeepers to stores of loot. The vast majority of private colleges live hand-to-mouth and 15-20 students can be the difference between meeting payroll or not. The ones of these that are corrupt are that way for the opposite reason: they desperately need students and will lower or ignore standards for anyone who can pay full retail price for tuition. In both of these situations, people with money have an advantage, like they do everywhere else in the known universe. The current scandal happens to involve mostly people from liberal areas, so their kids are socialist dimwits. The next scandal (and there will be another one eventually) may involve oilmen and ranchers, so their kids will be conservative dimwits. I would not be surprised if a close look at SMU or Baylor uncovered a few of these.

          Admissions officers are no doubt trying harder to recruit minorities; this is because they are being told to by presidents and trustees. This is only a problem in the case of a college–and there are lots of them–that only admit a fixed number of new students. In that case, an underqualified student can certainly squeeze out a clearly more qualified one, and that shouldn’t happen. Personally, I think they should find a way to let both in, but my opinion is worth about as much as these electrons I’m using up here. Also, “clearly” is important, because one persistent myth is the idea that there is a neat linear ranking of applicants, and a bright line between “qualified” and “unqualified”. There isn’t: test scores and other measures have error bars and nothing is a perfect predictor of success. Colleges that limit their freshman class would solve a lot of these problems if they would be flexible enough to enroll 50-100 additional freshmen as the situation requires, in order to accommodate that group of students who are essentially equivalent. Most could do this without any real difficulty.

          Maybe I’m just more blase about this particular episode because I’ve been embedded in college for 30 years. But cheating on standardized tests has been around for as long as there have been standardized tests. Most of the responsibility falls on the proctors at test sites, and these are highly variable. I have been grading AP Calculus exams for many years, and I have personally seen several instances where solutions on free-response questions look suspiciously similar. It’s really hard to prove, though, so rarely is anything done beyond reminding test administrators–who are often low-level office staff–to follow the rules and be vigilant. Unless ETS is going to start sending out their own missi dominici to investigate test sites, nothing much is going to change.

          1. Spartacus

            Well shit, that turned into a text wall.

      3. Not Adahn

        I know lots of admissions officers, and I can safely say that they do not systematically work together toward any larger end whatsoever–including sometimes at the same college.

        This is the same kind of strawman used to “debunk” the “myth” that there is no left-wing bias in media.

        If you have self-selected group of individuals who share worldviews, you don’t need formal coordination to achieve coordinated actions/results.

        1. AlexinCT

          This is the same kind of strawman used to “debunk” the “myth” that there is no left-wing bias in media.

          Or massive cheating during elections by one party…

      4. Pat

        Number of college students in the U.S. : 19.9 million
        Number of people indicted in admissions scandal: 50

        The number of students at elite schools is an infinitesimally small subset of that 19.9 million total, and the number of people indicted in this particular investigation is an infinitesimally small subset of the total number of people participating in pay for play.

        Mind you, none of this should be criminal.

        1. Cy

          “Mind you, none of this should be criminal.”

          I’d agree with that if you could remove every single dollar of government money from colleges… Good luck.

          1. Pat

            Right, I mean in an ideal world it shouldn’t be criminal, because you should be able to sell seats to whomever you wish for whatever price you can attain without regard to any other consideration.

          2. Rufus the Monocled

            Yet Hillary using an unsecured private email with sensitive material and then destroying evidence doesn’t face justice.

          3. AlexinCT

            Funny you bring that up Rufus, because the other day I read an article where someone I unfortunately can’t recall right now pointed out the salient fact that the during the Obama administration’s rule, the DOJ/FBI clearly saw Clinton’s whole server thing was a real serious crime but wanted nothing to do with actually bringing her to justice and actively sabotaged their own investigations there, while going overboard to find, and if they couldn’t find anything, make up criminal activity on the part of the political opposition – Trump – in order to benefit the democratic party.

          4. Rufus the Monocled

            Is it me or have she and Barry been awfully quiet lately?

          5. AlexinCT

            Oh, with Mueller not managing to somehow create a crime to take Trump down, Pelosi basically saying she will not risk her cushy political grip on power to keep the shitshow the left has been engaging in to protect the Obama admin perps from their due, and people starting to wise up this all was a ruse and the criminal activity was what was done by the people in the Obama admin, I am not surprised Obama & Clinton have decided to avoid any sort of public engagement where the enemy press – the non-dnc operatives with bylines – might get them.

            This shit is going slow, but the stall tactics have all backfired and the orange guy will somehow end up again winning eventually it looks like. Obama and Clinton might avoid their just criminal justice rewards, but a lot of others in that administration will be hiring criminal defense lawyers sooner than later…

    5. Brett L

      Meh. Maybe at the Ivies or in the social sciences. Its hard to see how states like Florida and Texas — who have multiple good state universities that basically allow entry to anyone who graduates high school and meets a minimum standard (and yes, I get it – they cheated USC, but don’t conflate idiots with systems) are “leftist rackets to gatekeep access”. This is, to me at least, demonstrably untrue in the undergraduate hard sciences, accounting and engineering. You know, places where undergraduate training allows you to graduate and work productively.

      1. AlexinCT

        Brett, I am willing to bet good money that the people “cheating/paying” to get their retarded offspring into these prestige schools are not doing it so their kids can study engineering, real hard sciences, real accounting, or anything requiring any sort of real brain power. More likely than not, their kids will go into the easy humanities tracks and study something that if done elsewhere than an Ivy league school would leave you qualified to work only in the fast food industry.

      2. Not Adahn

        This is, to me at least, demonstrably untrue in the undergraduate hard sciences, accounting and engineering.

        What percentage of political and cultural “leaders” have degrees in the the hard sciences, accounting or engineering?

        1. AlexinCT

          It is smaller than the number as a percentage of people attending higher ed schools vs. those indited that was claimed made this story no big deal, is my guess.

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          Get rid of AA and quotas.

        3. Brett L

          So the gatekeepers aren’t really in college? I guess I don’t follow the thread. Lori whatsername’s Instagram model daughter was going to be a political or cultural leader?

          People with more money and connections ALWAYS have more opportunities. Always. And every group that doesn’t go out of its way to not do so will select members it views as like itself. There’s no left-wing conspiracy to gate-keep. There doesn’t have to be. I would be far more interested to know if the staff directors of say, Kevin Brady’s appropriations committee or Marco Rubio’s office are working to hire staff with degrees from the University of Texas, or Georgia, or Iowa. And if not, where is the conspiracy? Its just the HR problem writ large. Nobody ever got fired for hiring the Yale grad over the Iowa grad, regardless of the future performance of the two individuals.

          1. AlexinCT

            People with more money and connections ALWAYS have more opportunities. Always.

            Brett, nobody is disputing that. The point of contention was the moral crusade these very people now being unmasked as frauds engaged in and continue to engage in about how they should be allowed to rig school admissions processes to account for the very behavior they were engaged in. The left creates a crooked system, then demands the ability to “fix it” because it is crooked. Only thing is that the fix is what makes it crooked in the first place.

            I want the whole thing to crash and burn. Take fed money away from schools, hold these academic institutions accountable for people they admit that can’t find work after they throw away a ton of money at worthless degrees, and then let them use whatever criteria they want to let people in. But we don’t want the status quo to remain in a system that is not just broken and stupid, but which we then have to subsidize too.

        4. Old Man With Candy

          Angela Merkel, Jimmy Carter, Herbert Hoover… and Maggie Thatcher.

          1. The only work Hoover did that I am both aware of and found useful was his translation of De Re Metallica.

          2. AlexinCT

            Wait, he didn’t invent the vacuum cleaner?

          3. invisible finger

            No, he just sucked in general.

  10. Rufus the Monocled

    I thought identity of Jack the Ripperowski was already settled?

    1. It’s better off as a mystery.

  11. Rufus the Monocled

    I heard on the radio gun sales shot up in NZ after the government (predictably) said it was going to tighten up gun laws.

    Crazy how they just go to the guns and forget to consider other reasons why these shootings may take place.

    Lazy as it is stupid.

    1. Subwoofer

      For every publicized story of some fool turning in their guns over something like this, 5-10 others run out and buy more of them without anyone saying a word.

      The narrative must be that everyone is having attacks of conscience and surrendering to big brother, or people might question the wisdom of doing so.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        Which is completely irrational. I would NEVER surrender shit to the government.

        It’s like saying ‘Hey, I don’t trust myself after what I’ve seen. I hand over not only my guns but my agency.’

        People doing this are fooling themselves.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      Some enterprising Kiwi should start a non-profit organization that would offer to take in any evil weapons that guilty people want to turn in. No questions asked. When they do, you would print them up a nice certificate that they could frame and hang on their wall. Maybe put their names on your FaceBook page. Total virtual signaling galore.

      Of course, you would solicit donations to help run your operation (because it is very costly making sure those evil assault rifles don’t go SkyNet on you and start shooting innocents).

      Once the donations dry up, you could auction off the guns to homes that would appreciate them. Sure the dummies that turned their weapons in would complain, but you’d show them the fine print where they agreed that they gave you the weapon free and clear and you can do anything you want with it.

      1. Hi, see my post above. Getting them from the Kiwis might be tough, but I’m totally willing to go through whatever FFL process necessary to accept foreign gun adoptions.

  12. Sensei

    I don’t have any siblings, but for those of you that do?

    Do you frequently share dick pics?

    National Enquirer paid brother of Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend $200,000 for text messages: WSJ

    1. AlexinCT

      Erm, nah. I don’t think any of my two brothers have ever done that, and I certainly have not done it with them. In the spirit of transparency and honesty, I did share erm the real deal with a third cousin removed that I dated once before I was informed we were distantly related, if that gets close enough. of course, back when dick picks would have required a Polaroid camera and a non-electronic means of delivery…

    2. Cy

      In an odd abstract way, I could see someone wanting to know what Mr. Bezo’s Mr. Winky looks like…

      Not me of course… but you know, I could see the curiosity.

      1. Just look at his regular head, and then imagine it smaller.

      2. Suthenboy

        Some guy: “Do you want to see a picture of my dick?”

        Me: “No”

        Some guy: “Why not?”

        Me: “Because it is a dick.”

        1. AlexinCT

          The picture you paint, if you will pardon my use of that imagery in a discussion about dick pics, is worth 100 words, sir!

          Now if it was a purdy lady showing her wares…

          1. Old Man With Candy

            Ladies generally don’t have dicks, except the ones in Los Doyers’s special collection.

          2. AlexinCT

            So you are saying it’s not chix with dicks, it dudes with tits? Wise words there old one.

          3. Not Adahn

            Still would Blaire White. And that one Miss Universe.

          4. Yeah, ditto. My motto is, “If I can’t tell until your pants come off, you win.”

    3. straffinrun

      That’s absurd. My brother would never do that. He’d give them to Enquirer for free.

      1. Frankly I’d be insulted if someone wouldn’t pay money to look at my dong.

        1. AlexinCT

          Same here… This thing is a work of art and while they can bronze it and put it in The Louvre or wherever the Guinness World Record displays go after I die so the masses can experience the 8th or 9th wonder of the world, before then, I plan to capitalize on it.

    4. JaimeRoberto: Gentleman, Scholar, French Tickler

      According to PornHub, siblings do more than share dick pics.

  13. Pope Jimbo

    I look forward to the future hearings where legislators investigate the unexpected rise in opioid costs.

    Everyone knows that once this new bill passes, the evil drug companies will simply have to fork over their obscene profits to the good pure hearted pols here. No way they would ever raise their prices and pass the costs on to the customers.

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota House voted Monday night to hold drug manufacturers responsible for the state’s growing costs for dealing with the opioid crisis.

    The bill passed 94-34 after around four hours of debate that split mostly along party lines. It would support a wide range of prevention, education, intervention, treatment and recovery strategies. The state would pay for them by sharply raising its currently low annual registration fees for pharmaceutical manufacturers and drug wholesalers that sell or distribute opioids in Minnesota.

    The fees would bring in $20 million a year that would go into a new “Opioid Stewardship Fund.” A new advisory council would then make recommendations to state officials on how to spend it. Any settlements that the state reaches from opioid lawsuits against drug companies would also be deposited into the fund.

    1. WTF

      The state would pay for them by sharply raising its currently low annual registration fees for pharmaceutical manufacturers and drug wholesalers that sell or distribute opioids in Minnesota.

      I guess chronic pain sufferers in Minnesota can just get fucked when the manufacturers stop distributing there due to the high cost.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Well it isn’t like opioid users need them. They are a luxury item that is very easy to give up using.

  14. Slammer

    Poll: 74% of parents admit to making appointments for their adult children

    The poll surveyed young adults ages 18 through 28, as well as parents with children in that age group.

    76-percent of parents admitted they still remind their adult children of deadlines, including schoolwork.

    74 percent said they made appointments for them, including doctors appointments.

    22 percent said they helped their college age student study for a test.

    16 percent helped write all or part of a job or internship application.

    15 percent of parents said they texted or called their child to wake them up.

    11 percent of parents said they would contact their adult child’s employer if he or she had an issue at work.

    The findings may support the idea that there’s been a rise in what’s being referred to as “lawnmower” or “snowplower” parenting.

    It’s different from the “helicopter” mom and dad who hover over their child to swoop in to come to their kid’s aid whenever there’s trouble.

    A “lawnmower” or “snowplower” refers to the mom and dad who will mow down any obstacles or challenges in their child’s path to prevent them from having to experience any discomfort or difficulties.

    1. Who did they ask?

      And does ‘reminding them of deadlines’ include nagging them about things they have not forgotten about?

    2. Gustave Lytton

      28 year olds are young adults? SMH.

      1. Sean

        I’ll bet there is some overlap with the same group who think 16 year olds should vote…

        1. I’m Here To Help

          My wife surprised me a bit by agreeing that 16 year olds should vote. She left it there a minute before adding the “if.”

          Her point was that if they are old enough to vote, they are old enough to drink, consent, and enlist. I’d love to see that get added as an amendment to the voting age law when it inevitably comes up…

    3. AlexinCT

      I admit I once had to reschedule an appt for my kid, but that was cause he texted me to tell me he had to work overtime at work to deal with some emergency (car mechanic) and couldn’t call the dentist himself. I do have to remind the little shit that it is time to pay rent every month, but that is cause he wants to hang on to his money for as long as possible. I do know several people that have called their kid’s employer. If I ever wanted to shame the fuck out of my kid or ruin his job, I would do that.

    4. straffinrun

      That is not what a “lawnmower mother” mean.

      1. AlexinCT

        Where is your link to some Japanese lawnmower MILF, huh? You’re game is slacking today brah…

    5. Private Chipperbot

      16 year olds should vote!

      1. And whoever wins the 16 year old vote should be disqualified from office.

        1. straffinrun

          That’s actually a really good idea.

    6. Pat

      The script is flipped here. I have to make most of my mom’s appointments.

    7. CPRM

      helped write all or part of a job or internship application.

      My handwriting is shit, I usually ask someone else to write it for me.

    8. JaimeRoberto: Gentleman, Scholar, French Tickler

      I don’t think it’s that unusual to schedule doctor appointments for kids while they are home on break from college. My wife does that for my son, and my mom did that for me. In the old days it would have been a long distance phone call to make the appointment, and being young I probably wouldn’t have bothered to see a doctor unless someone pushed me to.

  15. straffinrun

    First SF’s Pie pic and now Beto poetry. This place is really testing my gag reflex.

  16. Don Escaped Texas

    Glib bracket: http://glib.mayhem.cbssports.com/e/7e8393fea35ba29ec9c72c50b56c2dc4?ttag=BPM19_cpy_invite_new

    Three of us so far, free, just for funsies and bragging rights

    Privacy: go to the header, pick options, set your nom de guerre and hide your email address, enjoy

    sorry for the OT: just jumping on the thread for a second . . . now back to work!

    1. Private Chipperbot

      In. And I picked three big ten teams in the final four as a F U to the selection committee ACC bias.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Last night as I was driving home from the gym, the ESPN chattering idiots were speculating about what an insane first round matchup it was to pit the Golden Rodents of Minnesoda against Louisville.

        The premise is that the Rodents are going to rise up like the Hoosiers to beat Louisville so Pitino Jr. can avenge the ignominy heaped upon his father for just hiring a few strippers. (or maybe he was going to tell his players to sweep the leg, it was hard to tell because they were all so stupid).

        1. “Sweep the stripper!”

          1. AlexinCT

            Erm… OK..

          2. Pope Jimbo

            Uffda. That is a seriously old stripper if you have to dust her off before she dances.

            No wonder the blue chip recruits are going to Duke and Kentucky.

          3. Not Adahn

            It’s just to knock off some of the glitter.

      2. The Last American Hero

        Dude, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Minnesota just aren’t all going to the final 4 this year.

    2. Brett L

      I’m in.

    3. Chipwooder

      I’m in.

      Man, some of you guys are predicting REALLY low scoring title games.

    4. Done. I’m going to take all of your pretend money, suckers!

    5. In. I’ve got absolute mayhem happening in the West.

  17. Pope Jimbo

    Well that is a relief. Turns out that while the Somali day care providers were robbing the state, it wasn’t for $100M and they didn’t fund terror groups.

    Well at least they didn’t fund terror groups directly. The story didn’t say it, but I have read other stories where the Somalis were sending money back home from the day care subsidies the defrauded the state of. I guess this guy just didn’t find any checks made out directly to Al Quaida.

    Also how about this gem:

    While fraud in the program is a known problem, “we couldn’t find evidence to substantiate that there is $100 million in fraud in CCAP every year,” Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles told lawmakers following the report’s release.

    “In fact, we couldn’t really find a reasonable estimate of fraud,” he added. “We don’t have one, the department doesn’t have one.”

    Sure give a department $250M a year even if they can’t define what that money should be properly used for.

    1. Pat

      “In fact, we couldn’t really find a reasonable estimate of fraud,” he added. “We don’t have one, the department doesn’t have one.”

      Welp, there must not be any fraud then. That’s good news!

      1. If you are unable to measure the amount of fraud, assume it’s 100% and shut down.

    2. invisible finger

      Joke’s on them. Once the state is broke, they’re never gonna be able to fund that terrorism.

  18. Rebel Scum

    Andrew Yang, Upstart Democratic Presidential Candidate, Comes Out Against Circumcision

    The anti-semitism runs deep.

    1. straffinrun

      Don’t Yank Wang’s Yang.

      1. Rebel Scum

        Just the tip.

    2. Slammer

      His new party mascot logo is an aardvark

  19. Slammer

    World’s oldest semen still viable
    Ram sperm frozen for 50 years successfully used to impregnate 34 ewes

    Semen stored since 1968 in a laboratory in Sydney has been defrosted and successfully used to impregnate 34 Merino ewes, with the resulting live birth rate as high sperm frozen for just 12 months.

    “This demonstrates the clear viability of long-term frozen storage of semen.

    “We believe this is the oldest viable stored semen of any species in the world and definitely the oldest sperm used to produce offspring.”

    Well done, Sir Freddie. With a sack like that I always knew you were going places

    1. Cy

      I’d be curious to see what differences, if any, the offspring might have from current livestock.

      1. Well, they’ve already started yelling at other lambs to get off their lawns.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      An enterprising reporter would have gotten in contact with those three guys who got rung up on several thousand counts of bestiality and asked them for their opinion on this. Since they didn’t I’ll have to guess it would have been:

      “Fuck ewe? Fuck me!”

    1. Gustave Lytton

      Lt Col Nicholson?

  20. Pat

    People don’t become ‘adults’ until their 30s, say scientists

    People don’t become fully “adult” until they’re in their 30s, according to brain scientists.

    Currently the UK law says you become a mature adult when you reach the age of 18.

    Scientists who study the brain and nervous system say the age at which you become an adult is different for everyone.

    Research suggests people aged 18 are still going through changes in the brain which can affect behaviour and make them more likely to develop mental health disorders.

    Professor Peter Jones, from Cambridge University, said: “What we’re really saying is that to have a definition of when you move from childhood to adulthood looks increasingly absurd.

    “It’s a much more nuanced transition that takes place over three decades.”

    He added: “I guess systems like the education system, the health system and the legal system make it convenient for themselves by having definitions.”

    1. Clearly we need to lower the voting age to 12.

      1. Chipwooder

        that was my reaction to it, yep.

    2. Private Chipperbot

      The Black Prince would have a word.

      1. Look, not everyone can invade France.

        1. leon

          Why not? Everyone else already has.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Then it’s all downhill

    4. Brett L

      People become adults when they have to. Twelve year olds who live in shitty homes without responsible adults take on adult responsibilities at twelve. Thirty year olds who have no reason to be responsible aren’t.

      1. Rasilio

        This.

        Anyone who spends 20 minutes reading about the exploits of teens in past eras that while adulthood is a partially physiological process that process is triggered as much by environmental phenomenon as it is by simple age. Drop a 13 year old in an environment where they need to be an adult to survive and they will have a fully adult brain by the time they are 17 or else they will be dead. Keep someone from ever being in an environment where they need to adopt adult responsibilities in order to survive and it may very well take 30 or even 40 years for their brain to finish maturing

        It isn’t that it takes 30 years for a brain to fully mature, it is that the majority of today’s youth are never really required to act like adults before they are in their mid 20’s

    5. Tundra

      “There isn’t a childhood and then an adulthood. People are on a pathway, they’re on a trajectory.”

      Oh, so then your 30 claim is bullshit.

    6. I. B. McGinty

      I dunno, Mrs. McGinty constantly says “oh grow up.”

    7. ElspethFlashman

      I call 18 -26 the “stupid age” of manhood.

      1. Can confirm. In some of us it extends into the early 30s.

        1. Fourscore

          …and then it declines… known fact

      2. Jarflax

        I don’t think we get smarter after 26, just more tired and worn down. The impulses are still there, but there is a countervailing impulse to lie on the couch.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Hangovers got particularly more intense somewhere around 25.

        2. Cy

          The shit doesn’t stop hitting the fan; you just get used to the smell.

        3. mindyourbusiness

          “Isn’t it amazing how ‘mature wisdom’ resembles being too tired?”
          -R. A. H.

      3. Brett L

        I got started early making stupid decisions, but the end is pretty much right on.

      4. JaimeRoberto: Gentleman, Scholar, French Tickler

        I’d lower the range to start at about 14. When my brother and I started going through puberty my father said we had “gone stupid”.

  21. Titty Tuesday showcases fantastic funbags and females with fabulous fronts!

    https://thechive.com/2019/03/17/is-it-hot-in-here-or-is-it-just-me-31-photos/

    PS: Did Beta really write that?

    1. Pat

      31>3>12>1

  22. Atanarjuat

    Master Beto is the Demi Rose of politics.

    1. AlexinCT

      Roh roh Shaggy…

    2. Pope Jimbo

      I’ve always thought he was a bit thick

  23. Nephilium

    I have returned from St. Patrick’s Day. A cold Sunday morning slowed it down a bit (there weren’t crowds on East 4th, and we found a bar where we were the only customers). But by the time we left downtown before the parade to go elsewhere, the bars were getting packed. The seaweed stout from Great Lakes was strange but good for a pint, and several people seemed interested until learning it was brewed with Seaweed. In case it wasn’t shared here yet, Dick Dale passed yesterday, may the crazy surf rocker be in a better place.

    The friend’s party was a strange and interesting time. I had a 19 year old thinking I was a wise old man (after her mom cut her off from more alcohol). Beer was plentiful, corned beef was good. And the day ended with people covered in body paint and glitter (I’m still trying to get some of the paint off my coat).

    1. straffinrun

      For some reason, that holiday isn’t very popular here.

      1. Nephilium

        Start the cultural appropriation! If Japan can do KFC for Christmas, imagine what insanity you could teach for St. Patrick’s Day!

        “Well of course all the American’s eat snake on St. Patrick’s Day, it’s part of the symbolism.”

        1. AlexinCT

          When you say “eat snake” you are not referring to the post above on dick pics, are you?

          1. Nephilium

            We could roll March 14th (Steak and BJ day) into the St. Patrick’s Day appropriation as well.

          1. straffinrun

            They jumped in that filthy water after winning a World Cup game. Strange area. It’s filled with delicious restaurants along the nastiest stretch of water.

          2. Sensei

            Yes – I visited Dotonbori with my friend in Kansai.

            I can highly recommend it for fun and food.

          3. straffinrun

            食い倒れ!

          4. Sensei

            新しい言葉。勉強になりました。

  24. Scruffy Nerfherder

    *beatnik applause*

  25. Rebel Scum

    No freedom of association for you!

    Phyllis Young, owner of Aloha Bed & Breakfast in Honolulu, Hawaii, refused to rent a room to Diane Cervilli and Taeko Bufford in 2007 due to her Christian beliefs with regard to sexuality. While Young pointed to the First Amendment to evidence her protection in practicing her religion without government prohibition, a state court found the business owner in violation of Hawaii’s Civil Rights Commissions’ public accommodation law.

    So-called “public accommodations” include privacy-owner restaurants and hotels and are defined as “places of business, accommodation, refreshment, entertainment, recreation, or transportation facility of any kind whose goods, services, facilities, privileges. advantages, or accommodations are offered, sold, or made available to the general public customers, clients, or visitors.”

    The law says that it is “illegal to deny a person access to or to treat them unequally in a place of public accommodation” because of a person’s “religion,” “sexual orientation,” and “gender identity or expression,” among other factors.

    According to a report from Reuters, “Litigation will now continue that will determine what penalty Young might face.”

    Sure, she violated the law as written. But the law is an ass. And by “ass” I mean unconstitutional and antithetical to freedom.

    1. Any judge worth their gavel should take one look at Public Accommodation Laws and strike them down with scathing rebuke.

      Sadly, we have few judges worth their gavels.

      1. Pat

        No judge is going to upset that apple cart and risk being branded Roger B. Taney for the next couple centuries.

        1. Who?

          Nevermind, appoint me to the judiciary. I’ll do it. Words have meaning dammit, and not whatever meaning divined by judicial auguries completely disconnected from the common tongue.

          1. Pat

            Chief Justice of the court that wrote the majority opinion in Dred Scott.

    2. She only lives streams straight sex from the nanny cam hidden in the room.

    3. CPRM

      So, um, how did the inn keeper know this person’s views on sex? Was it a question asked? Was it a crazy rant by the person booking the room? Did they know each other previously?

      1. prolefeed

        Taeko is a female name. Same sex couple. Dunno if the couple discussed their plans to fuck in the room they were seeking.

        1. AlexinCT

          They brought a see-through Tupperware trunk full of lesbian sex toys and plopped it in the lobby?

  26. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. Who’d a thunk that those trendy sit/stand desks are a crock?

    Here’s a new idea for the “scientists” who dug into this: How many of the people who demand ergonomic desks/chairs/keyboards/etc are just giant whiners who will complain about anything?

    1. Nephilium

      Based on my sample size of supporting call centers for over a decade: 99.9%. FFS, you would have people complain about the color of the bezel on their monitor.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      meh, I use one, not for weight loss, but to get me off my ass.

      I’ve had issues with the L5/S1 joint and extended sitting is miserable.

      The only real issue I’ve run into is it’s more difficult to perform calculation intensive work while standing. I suppose that’s from decades of learning to sit and concentrate.

    3. AlexinCT

      I have a erm, lady that has one of those desk next to where I am situated at work, and she spends more time adjusting it than she ever does doing actual work…

    4. Suthenboy

      My brother ran the design office for a major steel company. After a couple of months he put a suggestion box on the wall just outside his office door. There was no bottom to the box and underneath it he put a trash can.

      1. Even with the volume of complainers, that sort of display reeks of arrogance that declares “None of you have anything to contribute” that makes me want to bludgeon the guy. Whatever his intent, that is the vibe I get.

        1. Cy

          “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”

          ― Albert Einstein

        2. Pope Jimbo

          Curious, UCS, have you ever been a manager or someone who was supposed to listen to the ideas of underlings?

          I agree with you that it does reek of arrogance, but I totally understand the motivation behind Suthen’s brother’s suggestion box.

          The worst part of managing is listening to people try to convince you that the process needs to be changed so they don’t have to do the shitty part of the job. Someone else should do that and they should only have to do the easy/fun part of the job.

          After a while you really start hating people.

          1. I already hate people. It doesn’t change the message being sent.

          2. Fourscore

            “After a while you really start hating people”.

            Or ignore them or remind them who the responsible person, i.e. boss, is.

          3. I always just assumed suggestion boxes were only there for show and only ever emptied into the trash.

          4. Jarflax

            Sometimes they are read and mocked before going in the trash.

          5. Not Adahn

            or are compiled into a spreadsheet, then ignored.

        3. Suthenboy

          When you have a bunch of supposed adults bitching about childish things like who has a better office chair or the temperature of the water in the cooler….yeah, no thanks. What he did put a stop to a lot of nonsense.

          “I dont like the coffeeeeeeee…we should get…” Fuck that.

          Do your work, cash your paycheck and go home. If you want to play a part on a soap opera, go somewhere else.

        4. People who have something to contribute do it outside of anonymous “suggestions” stuffed in a box.

          1. Even when there’s a very, very clear message that contributions are not welcomed?

          2. I’ll rephrase. “I have an idea about how we can improve this particular business process” or “We’re wasting money by doing X; if we do Y we’ll save money/time” or “These hour-long meetings are hurting productivity and morale; is there some way we can accomplish the same thing in a different way?” are contributions that merit more than an anonymous index card in a box if they’re meant seriously. “I think we should have Taco Thursday” or “You’re being a dick” are the kind of things you’re going to get in a suggestion box.

          3. Fourscore

            I always tried to explain the reasons why certain things were done in a certain way, during the training period. Usually it was because we had did them in other ways and had already learned the errors of our ways.

          4. AlexinCT

            People that lack the benefit of the experience will just assume that like them you don’t know better…

          5. A: We print documents from the eFax system
            B: We scan documents into the file warehouse
            C: Documents that have been scanned into the file warehouse are shredded.
            D: So to get a file from eFax to the file warehouse we print it, scan it, and shred the paper.
            E: If you’d simply asked ‘why are we doing this?’ IT would have said “You can import files directly from the fax system to the file warehouse.

          6. Not Adahn

            Does that at least prevent your file warehouse from being hacked?

          7. Nope. They’re on the same systems, accessable from the same desktops. The print-scan-shred process came about because no one bothered to think.

    5. I agree the health benefits would be minimal, but I started standing at work and got used to it and actually liked it. I don’t have one of those at home now (where I work 80% of the time) and I do miss it a bit.

    6. Tundra

      I love them. But I have trouble sitting still anyway.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        I admit that I am prejudiced against them because of a few people in the past who demanded that the only way they could work is to have a specialized ergonomic sit/stand desk.

        Then one of them sat the entire fucking time and the other dude fiddled with his constantly (like Alex said).

        Even after they got the desks they would complain constantly about carpal tunnel and other ailments.

        Just do what I do. Get up and walk around every hour or so. It isn’t that hard.

      2. Drake

        Better than the adjustable desk is my wireless headset. Now I can take a conference call while I pace around, which actually helps me pay attention.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          At my last job I worked out of my house and had a lot of frustrating conference calls with Germans.

          My wife would laugh because I’d be storming around the back yard throwing my arms around in frustration and literally giving the birds the bird.

          1. You know who else was frustrated with Germans?

          2. AlexinCT

            Anne Frank?

      3. AlexinCT

        Stop doing so much cocaine brah!

    7. The Last American Hero

      First Baby Einstein and now this? What’s next, global warming?

    8. ChipsnSalsa

      It can be nice to change positions from time to time, but lets not fool ourselves into thinking it’s going to counteract the bag of chips and soda your eating while standing.

      Also, those adjustable desk companies had gin up some sweet data to justify how much those things cost. To use the parlance, Uffda

    9. JaimeRoberto: Gentleman, Scholar, French Tickler

      I have one. Even if there are no health benefits, sometimes I just want to stretch my legs and it helps combat the post-lunch drowsiness.

    10. Rhywun

      I hate those fucking things. I can’t concentrate when my neighbor is standing and talking on the phone, over the cubicle wall and in my ear.

  27. You’re late to the game Laura.

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/laura-ingraham-activists-are-in-our-schools-and-their-numbing-generation-e-to-socialism

    It also explains why Lefties so virulently hate home-schooling and charter schools.

    1. ChipsnSalsa

      My wife is reading The Underground History of American Education, Volume 1 by John Taylor Gotto

      If you want to get pissed at some arrogant people who want to shape and mold the youth of the country (and by extension the whole country), read that book.

      School, as we do it now (public, private, charter, & homeschool), is pretty crappy for exciting kids about learning and encouraging them to pursue their interests.

      1. My wife’s thing is education, specifically science education, and she’s done a lot of research on pedagogy. She’s a big advocate for a guided, what she refers to as “constructivist” approach, where the teacher is there to present students with a phenomenon or problem and then turn them loose to figure it out. There aren’t wrong answers per se, just answers that are more or less useful, and the teacher doesn’t tell you whether you’re right or not, just gets you to ask questions and see where they take you. It bothers me in some respects because I think time gets wasted reinventing wheels, but I’ll admit it gets students engaged as hell, and what they do learn sticks. Also, it gets them recognizing systems and patterns, which is a useful thing for acquiring new knowledge.

        1. ChipsnSalsa

          If you tell the kids; this is what something does, this is why it does it, this is what should be thought about it. You are creating the perfect students / future employees that was originally envisioned by many of the thought leaders in compulsory education.

          What your wife is talking about isn’t the teaching of the outcome of the process it’s establishing the process of learning and being curious in those kids. Those are scary attributes to a lot of people.

          1. Fourscore

            Don’t teach me what to think, teach me how to think-

            Fourscore

          2. AlexinCT

            The left finds that anathema.

          3. Not Adahn

            They will teach you how to think… the appropriate thoughts.

          4. That’s exactly right. As a counterexample, we have a web dev internship that we fill annually. The biggest problem we have is that we get these kids who have great academic backgrounds and then have absolutely no problem-solving ability. So, they can whiteboard a bubble search algorithm no problem, but they can’t debug their own code, they can’t write original stuff to solve problems they’ve never encountered, and their first inclination when they’re presented with an obstacle or problem of any magnitude is to ask one of us what to do. They learn math and “computer science” but they never learn the engineering mindset.

          5. Brett L

            Maybe your interview process should have them solve a problem that isn’t a textbook problem?

          6. R C Dean

            My interviews generally have something that came over the transom for real within the last week or two. “So, you get a call from women’s surgery that a sixteen year old wants to be sterilized. Her parents aren’t with her, but she’s standing at the desk and a Planned Parenthood physician with admitting privileges wrote the order. What do you tell the admissions clerk in women’s surgery? Go.”

            I like to spring it on them as the first or second question. Lawyers a bitch to interview, and I like to get them off their feet right away.

          7. We don’t do those at all. We look at resumes and portfolios, then we have them come in and walk us through a project or two that they’ve completed. Obviously that’s not working. What I’d like to do is have them work through a test project beforehand, but that idea hasn’t picked up much steam unfortunately.

        2. This is the exact opposite of an effective teaching strategy for me. I also don’t do well in group work. Show me how to do it and the goal, and I’ll take it from there. My mind will backward engineer the whys and wherefores and may or may not find them irrelevant. All I care about is getting the job done. By myself.

          I had a history class once that was based on drawing correct historical conclusions (prior consensus from existing historians) from first-hand evidence. I did not have enough information to process first-hand evidence myself. No context. I hated that class.

    1. Gee whiz, I have a PhD in Physics too! “Science” is not a religion you believe in dipshit. It’s a method of inquiry that involves formulating and testing theories with, if you’re doing it right, a heaping pile of skepticism. It’s also a process that never ends.

      Take your confirmation bias and shove it up your cloaca.

      Christ I hate the IFLS! crowd that uses “SCIENCE!” as a political cudgel.

    2. Pat

      #YangGang2020

      1. When’s the Yang Gang Bang?

    3. MikeS

      Am I supposed to know who this jackass is? And what is with the jokes in the (mostly very good) comments? Something about him “holding the bag” or being a “bag man”…

      1. straffinrun

        He’s the Herman Cain of the Democrat field. Only smaller dick.

  28. Gustave Lytton

    Has that cowardly POS NZ PM released any statement about ending armed protection of herself and other politicians? No?

    1. Shut up peasant and do as you’re told.

    2. prolefeed

      Disarming the proles is meant to protect the political class from people pissed off by actions of said political class. D-oh.

      But they’re not allowed to say that, and inadvertently remind confused people about why the 2A exists in America, written shortly after a shooting war sparked by a gun grab.

  29. Tundra

    Genius, Spud.

    Thanks for the lynx and laughs.

  30. MikeS

    Very fun links presentation, Spud. Well done. However, I dock you one Beto-Buck for no alt-text. Please try harder.

    OT, but not really, considering the audience;

    A Dark Sense of Humor May Mean You Have a High IQ

    There’s no shame in letting out a little smirk after reading a borderline disturbing meme online. Having a morbid sense of humor doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a twisted psychopath (keyword: necessarily). According to a study published in January 2017 in the journal Cognitive Processing, understanding dark humor may be indicative of high intelligence. The study found that those with the highest preference and comprehension of dark humor also had the highest verbal and nonverbal intelligence, as well as emotional stability.

    Now, who all wants to hear my favorite dead baby joke?

    1. I don’t think that’s a good idea, we should abort this discussion.

      1. MikeS

        Should we all just sit here and natal gaze?

        1. Fourscore

          Only if it will give birth to some live-ly ideas.

    2. Tundra

      Does it involve a blender?

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Root beer?

    3. straffinrun

      We’re more along the lines of Dork humor.

    4. Pat

      Intelligence is distinct from personality traits and any correlation is meaningless, if you ask me.

      1. MikeS

        ^doesn’t like dark humor^

        1. Pat

          I’ve been posting R6 Siege memes of the NZ shooter literally since the evening it happened. Just sayin’.

          1. MikeS

            *looks up R6 Siege memes*

            *feels old*

          2. Pat

            You’re probably not that much older than me, I’m just a perpetual adolescent.

      2. ruodberht

        The former seems unlikely on its face and there’s probably a lot of data showing it’s wrong.

        Can’t disagree with the latter, though. The robust correlations that do exist – what do I care?

    5. Pope Jimbo

      I’m more partial to gay frogs in a blender jokes myself. But that is to be expected because everyone knows Minnesodans are more culturally refined that you hick NoDaks.

    6. That “antique farm equipment” comment was something that someone, somewhere might smirk at.

    7. Scruffy Nerfherder

      In that case, my son is definitely brilliant and he comes by it genetically.

      For example, I’m snickering at the thought of a hydraulic line failure in this scenario.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Are you saying that the guy who impregnated your wife is smarter than you?

        I guess that makes sense. He got to have all the fun sexy times and you get stuck raising that rugrat.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          OK, that was humorous.

          *cries*

          1. AlexinCT

            His Holiness will be here all week… Try the veal!

          2. straffinrun

            Look on the bright side. You can’t commit incest. (Maybe over the line).

          3. Do we have a line here?

          4. Yes. It’s the banhammer threshold.

            It’s pretty darn high.

          5. straffinrun

            Yes, and you’re last. “Next!” says Winston’s mom.

    8. Cy

      I have a really dark sense of humor… All of those jokes were really simplistic and not very dark at all.

      1. And the timing was terrible. Whoever wrote them rushed to punchline, mitigating the remaining comedic potential.

    9. Nephilium

      Having a morbid sense of humor doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a twisted psychopath (keyword: necessarily). According to a study published in January 2017 in the journal Cognitive Processing, understanding dark humor may be indicative of high intelligence.

      Why not both?

    10. straffinrun

      So do we get the dead baby joke or what?

      1. You did. It wasn’t a joke about dead babies, but a very young joke that died.

      2. MikeS

        I assume the majority (and likely most of the staff) would prefer that I don’t.

        1. Cy

          Some of us thought “The Serbian Film” was a comedy.

          1. MikeS

            This would be a good time to recommend The Aristocrats to any who have not seen it. Doug Stanhope’s appearance might be the best. His straight man makes the whole thing.

          2. Cy

            I’d forgotten about that. Thank you.

    11. Rebel Scum

      as well as emotional stability

      That explains how my stoicism conflicts with my gf’s hyper-emotionalism.

  31. I guess the rights that felons get restored are only ones that benefit Lefty talking points.

    http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2019/D03-15/C:18-1478:J:Flaum:aut:T:fnOp:N:2309276:S:0

    TL;DR – Dood gets convicted of mail fraud (about as milquetoast of a Federal crime you can commit), loses his 2A rights, sues to get them back and, predictably, the courts say NO SOUP FOR YOU. Amy Coney Barrett dissented.

    1. straffinrun

      That’ll teach the guy not to lie about shoe inserts. *SMDH*

    2. prolefeed

      If Ms. Barrett was a Trump SCOTUS nominee, I might reconsider my decision to never vote again on moral grounds. What a magnificent dissent:

      BARRETT, Circuit Judge, dissenting. History is consistent with common sense: it demonstrates that legislatures have the power to prohibit dangerous people from possessing guns. But that power extends only to people who are dangerous. Founding-era legislatures did not strip felons of the right to bear arms simply because of their status as felons. Nor have the parties introduced any evidence that founding-era legislatures imposed virtue-based restrictions on the right; such restrictions applied to civic rights like voting and jury service, not to individual rights like the right to possess a gun. In 1791—and for well more than a century afterward—legislatures disqualified categories of people from the right to bear arms only when they judged that doing so was necessary to protect the public safety.

      1. R C Dean

        such restrictions applied to civic rights like voting and jury service, not to individual rights like the right to possess a gun

        Interesting distinction. individual (human) rights exist regardless of the society/polity you live in; civic rights are very much contingent on the society/polity you live in.

  32. Drake

    People are starting to notice that voting doesn’t seem to do anything these days. That’s kind of dangerous.

    https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2019/03/ruling-on-behalf-of-people-or-against.html

    http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=16806

    1. Rhetorical question: at what point do people begin rioting and burning cities to the ground to forestall such a thing?

      1. Drake

        Now if they are French?

  33. SugarFree

    This is how you link, people.

    1. Pat

      I thought, this was how you link people?

      1. SugarFree

        Pay attention to commas!

      2. Tundra

        ^^ High IQ ^^

      3. MikeS

        *sensible psychotic chuckle*

      4. straffinrun

        How I felt at my wedding.

        1. AlexinCT

          #MeToo

          Lucky for me, I got out after 23 years…

  34. Pat

    Why we need to reinvent democracy for the long-term

    One problem is the electoral cycle, an inherent design flaw of democratic systems that produces short political time horizons. Politicians might offer enticing tax breaks to woo voters at the next electoral contest, while ignoring long-term issues out of which they can make little immediate political capital, such as dealing with ecological breakdown, pension reform or investing in early childhood education. Back in the 1970s, this form of myopic policy-making was dubbed the “political business cycle”.

    Add to this the ability of special interest groups – especially corporations – to use the political system to secure near-term benefits for themselves while passing the longer-term costs onto the rest of society. Whether through the funding of electoral campaigns or big-budget lobbying, the corporate hacking of politics is a global phenomenon that pushes long-term policy making off the agenda.

    The third and deepest cause of political presentism is that representative democracy systematically ignores the interests of future people. The citizens of tomorrow are granted no rights, nor – in the vast majority of countries – are there any bodies to represent their concerns or potential views on decisions today that will undoubtedly affect their lives. It’s a blind spot so enormous that we barely notice it: in the decade I spent as a political scientist specialising in democratic governance, it simply never occurred to me that future generations are disenfranchised in the same way that slaves or women were in the past. But that is the reality. And that’s why hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren worldwide, inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, have been striking and marching to get rich nations to reduce their carbon emissions: they have had enough of democratic systems that render them voiceless and airbrush their futures out of the political picture.

    The time has come to face an inconvenient reality: that modern democracy – especially in wealthy countries – has enabled us to colonise the future. We treat the future like a distant colonial outpost devoid of people, where we can freely dump ecological degradation, technological risk, nuclear waste and public debt, and that we feel at liberty to plunder as we please.

    TEH CHILDRUNZ!!!!!

    1. Gustave Lytton

      Chicago at least works to enfranchise the dead.

    2. SugarFree

      Or the future will look upon our moral panics and catastrophism with the same sort of bemused disdain as we view medieval debates about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

      1. commodious spittoon

        “Can you believe people used to think Earth would end up like Venus,” your grandson asks, picking ice flakes out of his Cheerios.

        1. SugarFree

          Within my lifetime, they’ve gone from saying the Earth would die under ice to saying it will be consumed by fire.

          Although the climate change panic is more self-reinforcing. If a glacier doesn’t scrape Manhatten down to the bedrock, at least the hypothesis is disproven. As is, any disagreeable weather is proof of climate change, like Roman priests beating a basket of doves to make them fly at the right time for the auspices.

          1. AlexinCT

            Within my lifetime, they’ve gone from saying the Earth would die under ice to saying it will be consumed by fire.

            You miss the reason they do all these doom predictions: they want bigger, more tyrannical global governments that run wealth redistribution scams that benefit the top men and the connected. With old religion dead, they prey on the need of shallow people to have an apocalyptic future event they can help change to rob all of us of our freedoms.

          2. SugarFree

            Catastrophism has always been a money scam, all the way back to the first apocalypse cult.

          3. AlexinCT

            Works well to make idiots line up to be ass fucked and accept that they are getting done hard, though…

            Was my comma in the right place?

          4. SugarFree

            Don’t get salty about punctuation.

    3. PieInTheSky

      . Politicians might offer enticing tax breaks to woo voters at the next electoral contest, while ignoring long-term issues out of which they can make little immediate political capital, such as dealing with ecological breakdown, pension reform or investing in early childhood education. – I think it is much easier for politicians to promise pensions in 30 years. Also I am not really sure early childhood education has any purpose.

      Add to this the ability of special interest groups – especially corporations – to use the political system to secure near-term benefits for themselves while passing the longer-term costs onto the rest of society – what about public sector unions hmmmm?

    4. SugarFree

      Roman Krznaric is a public philosopher, former political scientist, and founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum. He is currently writing a book on the power of long-term thinking.

      I hurt my eyes rolling them that hard.

      1. How does that even work?

          1. SugarFree

            I was “encouraged” to participate in a local one of these:

            Human Library
            Human Library is “like any other library but instead of borrowing a book you can borrow a person for conversation”. The library presents a selection of “Living Books”: people who tell a story about their life and discuss it with a member of the public visiting the installation.

            Sadly, I was out “sick” that day.

          2. The most interesting people are those least liable to volunteer to do that.

          3. commodious spittoon

            “When do we get to hear the guy who shot thousands of animals in Africa?”

          4. Fourscore

            “The most interesting people are those least liable to volunteer”

            ‘Cause they’re drinking Corona with the interesting ladies

          5. Scruffy Nerfherder

            *barf*

        1. commodious spittoon

          You grip both handles of the box and witness Mercer’s struggle as he ascends the endless, pitiless mountain slope.

          1. SugarFree

            [plays mood organ]

  35. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Tard Tuesday: Unrealized Sooper Genius

    @BetoORourke appears to be absorbing information like a sponge on the campaign trail. He hears and processes everything, forgets nothing. Reminds me in that way, even apart from the charisma, of my brilliant former student, someone you may have heard of: President @BarackObama

    1. Pat

      Sounds like a straight shooter with upper management written all over him.

    2. straffinrun

      From the responses. “@PeteButtigieg has the same qualities. He is even smarter!”

    3. Drake

      He’s a like an almost Latino Kennedy who never killed anyone!

    4. Atanarjuat

      I really like Beto’s stance on his signature issue, which is…um…

      That’s why he’s the Demi Rose of politics. No one asked for this guy, but the press is going to jam him in our faces anyway.

      1. Jarflax

        It worked for them with Obama.

      2. JaimeRoberto: Gentleman, Scholar, French Tickler

        He’s the Olivia Jade of politics.

    5. ChipsnSalsa

      That guy has a serious case of TDS, I wonder if we can get that added to the DSM-5 or whatever the crazy nutso classification book is.

      1. Drake

        He says whatever the audience wants to here. He’s probably dumb enough to believe some of it.

    6. He’s an Obama cover band. Tabula rasa that idealistic morons can project their fantasies onto.

    7. wdalasio

      Honestly, I don’t get the left’s jeans creaming over O’Rourke. This iis a guy whose entire career has been city councilman. And they want to promote him to the White House? Hell, he lost his Senate run against Cruz. Usually “can’t win in his home state” is usually a dis qualifier, even if from simple vote counting.

      1. AlexinCT

        At least if he had served as a community organizer, he would be ready for the job of POTUS…

    8. CPRM

      An empty vessel fills quickly?

    9. B.P.

      One of the reply comments calls Beto the “intellectual leader of the Democratic party.” Under which chapter does an organization file for intellectual bankruptcy?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Empty suit = intellectual leader

        Makes sense to me.

  36. Given the discussions on this board, I’m wondering if this is even the place to ask for a volunteer or so to do a ‘Normie check’ because I’m unsure of how regular people will respond to a story. I don’t want to find an actual normie, because that could go badly if the disconnect exists between intent and effect.

    1. Chipwooder

      Normie in what way? I wouldn’t call myself “normal” exactly, but if you’re talking about things like sci-fi and anime and such, I have no interest in any of those things.

      1. The story takes place in a fantasy world in a region that draws inspiration from precolonial africa. As such I know an SJW will call beyond the pale simply from that description. I want a sanity check to make sure the parts cribbed from reality don’t read in a manner other than intended. Simply because so many things dubbed as racist are exaggeratons of actual cultures, and I don’t have a good idea of where that line sits for the general audience.

        I don’t think there is, but I’m aware that my perception may be skewed by the fact that I’ve been looking at historical records during the research phase that most people won’t have fresh in their minds if they saw them at all.

        1. Chipwooder

          Ah, so you’re not really looking for a normie so much as an SJWish person.

          1. Hell no, I want a normie perspective.

            I already know what anyone poisoned with socjus will say. I mean just writing black characters as a white dude is an evil act and I should give my pen to someone with victim points.

    2. straffinrun

      I’m probably the most healthy person here mentally and spiritually. Fire away.

      1. Just for the record, I’m still in the process of writing the story.

        1. PieInTheSky

          ain’t nothin normie bout Japan

          1. straffinrun

            Hate to pull the “Well axchully….” card, but it really isn’t that weird in meatspace.

          2. AlexinCT

            I love the way Japanese dudes always find horny chicks they can fondle and bang on trains…

          3. Not Adahn

            Then how come you have to go to one bar to fondle titties, but a completely different bar for a blowjob?

    3. PieInTheSky

      You need a sensitivity reader? I know just the half black half asian trans gender-queer budhislam folower

    4. Tundra

      I’m way more normal than the rest of these freaks.

    5. robc

      I am in no way a normie, but you are writing about 1% of my ancestors.

      1. robc

        I would just like to add on despite my obvious extreme whiteness, I am (apparently) 10x more black than Warren is native american.

    6. Drake

      Are you asking us to kidnap somebody?

      1. Hrmmm… *contemplates*

      2. MikeS

        Oh, whew. I was afraid he was getting into kink and was looking for a submissive.

    7. I was looking closely at the construction of the hinges to see if I had missed something when Tesesse entered the tent. He sat cross-legged before my cage.
      “So, where were we?” I asked.
      “Zuberi wants to make sure you will fight and not come for him.”
      “I’m guessing he was the man with the gold armbands.”
      Tedesse tipped his head in acknowledgement.
      “Is there a reason both he and Sefu shave their heads?”
      “Zuberi has gray hair and Sefu is going bald.”
      “That’s it?”
      “Need there be any more reasons?”
      “No, I suppose not,” I said. “While on the topic of appearances, why do you wear that mask?”
      “They think a Zombi Man should be as crazy as he is cunning, so I give them what they think they should see.”

      1. AlexinCT

        Tim and I a hunting went
        We met three hookers in a pup tent
        They was three, and we was two
        So I bucked one and Timbuktu

        1. And the poor hunters are still undergoing treatment for antibacterial resistant syphilis

    8. R C Dean

      I’m thinking you don’t like introductions, but that might come in handy – explain a little on where the setting came from, give your sources, tell people its a fascinating topic and they might look into it themselves, and leave it at that.The SJWs won’t be satisfied, but as you note, there is no satisfying them. The normies will go “Huh. OK. If this is interesting, I might look into some of that.”

      1. It’s immersion-breaking, and the story is only a chunk within a larger work. There’s also the principle of the thing. I don’t have to drop a disclaimer and bibliography saying “Here I cribbed wholesale from the Holy Roman Empire” why should I draw extra attention when I do the same thing from the Swahili Coast?

  37. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Tard Tuesday: I Thought Progs Loved the Illegitimates

    How radical has Mitch McConnell’s strategy of court-packing been? So much so that Democratic candidates for president are seriously considering options for dealing with it when they get to the Oval Office.

    Sens. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand have all told Politico that they would be willing to consider proposals to add more seats to the Supreme Court. “We are on the verge of a crisis of confidence in the Supreme Court,” Harris told reporters Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine. “We have to take this challenge head on, and everything is on the table to do that.” The fact that these three are all current senators could be key in bringing a potentially Democratic-majority Senate to the same conclusion.

    That all three women are considering an “equally bruising” response to McConnell’s machinations is important—they need to be prepared to be as creative and as ruthless as he’s been to restore the court. Not for retaliation, as Warren says, but “it’s about depoliticizing the Supreme Court. […] It’s a conversation that’s worth having.” Gillibrand added that the Senate should work to immediately make the Supreme Court justices subject to the code of ethics the rest of the federal judiciary has to abide by. The seat stolen by McConnell from President Obama for Trump and now occupied by Neil Gorsuch and the farce of a vetting and hearing process that led to Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation add to the delegitimization of the court. Impeaching them as the illegitimate justices they are would be nearly impossible—it would take 67 votes. But diluting their power by adding additional seats would be possible. Another possibility under consideration is setting term limits for justices.

    1. Gustave Lytton

      “I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability”

    2. Chipwooder

      So then, this fella doesn’t know what the term “court packing” means? That’s the only thing I get from that.

    3. Pat

      Obama appointed an equal number of justices to the supreme court, and substantially more to the appellate courts than Trump has. You can’t really “pack” a court of fixed size by filling vacancies as they occur. Unless Mitch McConnell is strong arming retirements and deaths out of the judiciary, in which case I’ve just gained a lot more respect for him.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        They view the Supreme Court as their end run around everything else. Roe v Wade cemented that approach.

        To some extent, the GOP doesn’t mind a leftist court either. It gives them something to campaign against, and it absolves them of responsibility for legislation since the court does it for them.

    4. I concur. Let’s have 25,001 justices drawn randomly from the phone book.

      1. invisible finger

        The Wyoming phone book.

      2. Fourscore

        With minorities and women being given bonus points plus 2 phones to outside experts of their choice

    5. Raphael

      Sure, I’ll take more judges if they’re like Napolitano and Amy Barrett.

    6. Juvenile Bluster

      If these idiots thought for a second they’d realize that Gorsuch is far better for them than the alternative would have been. Gorsuch is probably the biggest skeptic of goverment power on the Court (wait, that’s probably their problem) and there’s been those dissents on 4th amendment cases with Sotomayor…

    7. Raven Nation

      “We are on the verge of a crisis of confidence in the Supreme Court,”

      Yeah, I think we crossed the verge some time ago.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Sounds like somebody has a manifesto he wants proofread. Eh, UCS?

  39. Certified Public Asshat

    It’s Happening…Again!

    Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony announced a concert marking the 20th anniversary of their 1999 live LP, S&M. The show, dubbed “S&M²,” is scheduled for Friday, September 6th, and will be the debut concert for the city’s Chase Center venue.

    1. Tundra

      *barf*

      Scrolls down and sees cover of RS

      *dies*

      1. Certified Public Asshat

        I like Whiskey in the Jar and the S&M album. *shrugs*

        St. Anger and Lou Reed collaboration were terrible though.

        1. Chipwooder

          St Anger….woof.

          Metallica pretty much died with Cliff. Never the same after that, although I do like ….And Justice For All more than most people.

          1. MikeS

            I think Justice is a fucking masterpiece…but I concede I am biased due to an almost emotional attachment to it and Appetite For Destruction since they came out right when I was really getting into hard rock. Those two albums blew me away.

            St. Anger is complete garbage.

        2. Not Adahn

          The S&M version of “No Leaf Clover” was pretty great.

      2. MikeS

        *scrolls down*

        *eyes roll hard enough to give whiplash*

        1. Chipwooder

          Actin like a maniac?

    2. Pat

      Well at least Lars won’t have to worry about anyone pirating it.

    3. Cy

      Tickets start at $5k….

      Just guessing.

  40. Chipwooder

    So last night I watched The Wrestler for the first time. Happened to stumble across it on Starz, and had never seen it before – I’m not a wrestling fan so I hadn’t bothered before. It was better than I expected, but I have to ask – he died at the end, right? That was the ending, him dying mid-move?

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I never got past Marisa Tomei naked.

      1. Chipwooder

        That was a nice bonus to watching, yes. Pretty jaw dropping for a 45 year old (or whatever she was at the time, I’m just guessing.

      2. Sean

        *adds movie to watch queue*

        1. AlexinCT

          Same…

      3. Raphael

        She’s a very fine wine of a lady.

    2. straffinrun

      Yeah, he’s clutching his heart as jumps off the top buckle. I loved that film. Reminded me of “Crazy Heart” which is another great flick.

      1. AlexinCT

        What hawt woman was nekked in that one?

    3. CPRM

      Who the fuck knows, it’s a Darren Aronofsky film. He also directed this I guess.

  41. Juvenile Bluster

    Holy shit, y’all.

    I was told that libertarians are a bunch of selfish bastards. After all, why would you do good for someone else when you can force the government to do it instead?

    From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you for all the Walk MS donations.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      You’re very welcome. MS sucks.

      1. Cy

        MRS do to… but they’re usually a bit more stingy.

    2. Nephilium

      Mind resharing the link? I did the Buckeye Breakway with team Left Hand a couple years back. Missed it last year due to new job cutting my time to train to almost nil. I’ll have to make the decision soon if I want to sign up again this year.

    3. Old Man With Candy

      I was told that libertarians are a bunch of selfish bastards.

      You were told correctly.

    4. R C Dean

      The Kiva thing some of TPTB (and even some of us Tulpas) is really interesting. I haven’t quite got around to doing any loans, but I will. It scratches my nano-capitalist itch. Y’all should check it out.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Memoryholed

    New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in her first speech to her nation’s Parliament after last week’s terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, said the gunman should be denied the publicity he was seeking.

    “That’s why you will never hear me mention his name,” said Ardern. “He is a terrorist, he is a criminal, he is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless.”

    The alleged shooter had written a 74-page screed promoting his white supremacist views and had livestreamed his attack on the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch.

    “He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing. Not even his name,” she said.

    ———

    The prime minister also said her government “will look at the role social media played” in the publicizing the attacks.

    Ardern said it is no longer acceptable for companies operating social media platforms to shirk their responsibility for what is published on their sites.

    “They are the publisher, not just the postman,” she said. “There cannot be the case of all profit, no responsibility.”

    If we could just eliminate profits, nothing like this would ever be possible.

    1. straffinrun

      Enjoy your fucking internet hell New Zealand. You’re competing with China as the biggest assholes out there.

      1. Cy

        But… THE CHILDREN!

        1. straffinrun

          Let’s lock ’em up for looking at something on the internet!

    2. Pat

      It’s one thing to say, “Hey we aren’t going to publicize this guy or give him a platform in our official communications”, quite another to think you can make that the official policy of the global internet.

    3. Raven Nation

      I can’t find the story right now, but there was a report in NZ media yesterday about some kid who streamed the video could be facing 14 years in prison for doing so.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Democracy, or else

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday called for abolishing the Electoral College as part of an effort to expand voting rights, making her one of the first Democrats running for president in 2020 to propose such a radical shift in how U.S. presidents are elected.

    In a CNN town hall in Jackson, Mississippi, Warren (D-Mass.) noted that deep red states like Mississippi and deep blue states like California or Massachusetts are rarely campaign stops for presidential candidates during the general election because of an overwhelming focus on swing states with the most Electoral College votes.

    “We need to make sure that every vote counts. And you know, I want to push that right here in Mississippi. Because I think this is an important point,” she said. “My view is that every vote matters. And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College.”

    Proposals to eliminate the Electoral College have gained steam in the years since President Donald Trump’s 2016 defeat of Hillary Clinton, when Clinton bested Trump in the popular vote by nearly three million votes but lost the Electoral College by a wide margin thanks to close defeats in a handful of key states.

    It’s good to know we have such wise, knowledgeable people lined up and waiting to save us from the Constitution.

    Save us from the tyranny of the minority, Liz.

    1. Chipwooder

      These are the people continually harrumphing about how Trump is destroying the traditional norms of the American political system, right? The people who want to eliminate the Electoral College and pack the Supreme Court?

      1. It’s not the norms or institutions, but their own power they care about.

    2. wdalasio

      In a CNN town hall in Jackson, Mississippi, Warren (D-Mass.) noted that deep red states like Mississippi and deep blue states like California or Massachusetts are rarely campaign stops for presidential candidates during the general election because of an overwhelming focus on swing states with the most Electoral College votes.

      That’s some grade A chutzpah right there. Eliminating the Electoral College would pretty much render Mississippi irrelevant.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yep. You’ve got to be a special kind of stupid to be in a flyover state and swallow that crap.

      2. Drake

        Why would Mississippi stay in that kind of a union? Just to be ruled by LA, NY, and few other big cities?

    3. Juvenile Bluster

      Fine, Liz. 2/3rds of each house of Congress and 3/4 of states. That’s the way the Constitution says. Good luck.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        They just need to get the SC packed enough to determine that the Electoral College is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.

        1. Hell, just rule the Constitution unconstitutional and nullify it. Think of how many boxes they could check at once!

        2. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          “The electoral college has made winning elections difficult for Democrats which violates the imaginary clause in the Constitution known as the “cocktail party clause”. Much as gerrymandering is suddenly a concern now that Democrats struggle to win the House (which was not an issue for the forty odd years when Republicans struggled to win the House) we have evolved to find the electoral college to be unconstitutional for reasons.”

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            And Roberts writes the decision to make it even more delicious. All the Republican teeth gnashing and the glee of being proved right that this is all a facade and a piece of paper means nothing if no one abides by it

    4. SugarFree

      OK, Lizzie. Get an amendment together. I’m sure 3/4 of the states would love to diminish their power in the presidential election process.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Shibboleth for her Team, nothing more.

    5. We need to make sure that every vote counts

      By implementing stricter anti-fraud measures and voter ID so that the actual votes of citizens get counted instead of whoever can run up the most fraudulent ballots.

      1. JaimeRoberto: Gentleman, Scholar, French Tickler

        She didn’t say every legal vote. Just every vote.

  44. straffinrun

    Biden considering early announcement of running mate

    Hopefully she’ll pass the smell test.

    1. Wow, even Lefty Hill twatters hate him.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Maybe Kamala’s willing to bend the knees and take the subordinate position. She has a thing for older statesmen.

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        *projectile vomits*

        1. commodious spittoon

          It could be a real legs up for her career.

      2. I think we need to find some really high quality knee pads and send them to her as a gift. Y’know, it’s gonna be a long, tough campaign and she needs to make sure she stays in top shape.

    3. JaimeRoberto: Gentleman, Scholar, French Tickler

      She did. He smelled her himself.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    These are the people continually harrumphing about how Trump is destroying the traditional norms of the American political system, right? The people who want to eliminate the Electoral College and pack the Supreme Court?

    The end justifies the means. Whatever it takes to bring enlightened leadership to the unwashed, unruly plebs.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Monstrous

    President Trump said Monday that he was donating $100,000 from his salary to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

    Trump tweeted a photo of the check he wrote to DHS and said the media doesn’t “doesn’t like writing about” him donating his salary. He also claimed there would be “hell to pay from the FAKE NEWS MEDIA” if he didn’t do so.
    “While the press doesn’t like writing about it, nor do I need them to, I donate my yearly Presidential salary of $400,000.00 to different agencies throughout the year, this to Homeland Security,” he tweeted.

    This is why wealthy businessmen should not be President. He stole that paycheck from a deserving lifelong servant of the people, and now he’s giving it away. It’s a slap in the face to America.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      He’s giving away our money to an organization that spies on us. What a stupid tool

    2. CPRM

      It might sound like a TDS thing to say this, but sure is a nice tax scheme. He’ll be able to deduct his entire salary to protect his other assets from the IRS.

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        That’s not TDS- that’s a rational point. I didn’t think of that.

      2. Jarflax

        What? He gave the money to the government to keep from having to give another, smaller amount to the government? This is the mindset that has people refusing to pay off their houses so they can keep that mortgage interest deduction. I better spend that dollar to save that 40 cents!

      3. Gustave Lytton

        Are donations to the federal government deductible? He will still owe taxes on the salary regardless of how he disposed of it I would imagine.

      4. Certified Public Asshat

        Income yes, he still pays payroll taxes on it. Not sure how it protects his other assets from the IRS?

        1. CPRM

          Don’t know, don’t care. Just wanted to stir the shit. You guys have to ruin it by being all logical and shit! No fun!

          1. I thought you knew us better than that.

    3. Brett L

      IIRC, he’s been donating all of it back to the FedGov one agency at a time.

  47. Erhm, maybe because it was never about sexual harassment, it was about seizing more power and painting all men as predators by association?

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/metoo-movement-starts-to-fade-men-desensitized-to-the-issue

    And honestly, when were men “sensitized” to this issue? Creeps who wanna grope female co-workers are unlikely to be deterred by the hashtag woke squad anyway. All this did was make decent men fearful of the women in their office.

    1. CPRM

      The predators that used it to find new prey I’m guessing are also finding out the prey is wising up.

    2. Pat

      The main reason it’s fizzled out is because the wrong people kept getting busted.

      1. commodious spittoon

        They really wanted a Mike Pence or a Jerry Falwell Jr. or a Ben Shapiro. Instead they got Harvey “I’m going to give the NRA my full attention” Weinstein, and a couple #MeToo mothers found out their sons are violent rapists caught up in this questionable movement.

    3. Rasilio

      The problem with #metoo is that it was never anywhere near as big of a problem as the activists tried to claim it was. The number of men who actually had the power AND the desire to truly prey on women and get away with it is exceedingly small. As in literally no more than a couple of dozen of them in the entire country. After that you have a far large group of guys who maybe had 1 or 2 questionable relationships which may or may not have been abusive but it is hard to tell because they are basically he said she said with no larger pattern of behavior backing up the claims and then a shit ton of allegations which are highly subjective as to whether the woman has anything to complaining about and even if her allegations are completely true don’t amount to anything more than slightly creepy behavior.

      The fact that there were not thousands of men put on trial for rape and hundreds convicted as a result of #MeeToo proves the problem was never anywhere near as serious as the women’s groups claimed and so after the initial wave of predators got taken down and people started noticing all the new allegations were either minor issues or highly suspect that any wrongdoing occurred and so the entire movement died out

      1. commodious spittoon

        They derailed themselves when they went hard on Aziz Ansari and Louis CK, as if being a creepy pervert or bad at distinguishing social cues (or simply unfortunate enough to hook up with the wrong woman) rises to the level of Weinstein or Eric Schneiderman.

      2. AlexinCT

        The problem with #metoo is that it was never anywhere near as big of a problem as the activists tried to claim it was. The number of men who actually had the power AND the desire to truly prey on women and get away with it is exceedingly small.

        I thought so too Rasillo, but I really believe those that pointed out that the top people that all got hammered by this were woke leftist power brokers had a serious impact on the whole thing. The people peddling this shit did it in the age of Trump, because they hoped to get him and conservatives. It fell apart because most conservatives will learned long ago not let themselves end up in a situation where they are alone with a woman that can accuse them of shit falsely (remember how they mocked Pence and others that said they wouldn’t meet alone with a woman other than their wife/daughter?).

        All these leftist scorched earth moronic movements start off looking to hurt the other side, then burn out because it ends up as a blue on blue engagement (friendly fire).

      3. wdalasio

        The number of men who actually had the power AND the desire to truly prey on women and get away with it is exceedingly small.

        I tend to think that the activists pushing it sort of extrapolated their world to the larger world. And it just doesn’t fly. I tend to think that they tended to figure that, if enlightened Hollywood and elite journalism were that full of the kind of bastards who wouldn’t hesitate to force themselves on a woman, surely the troglodytes in the rest of the country must be an order of magnitude worse. Except, no. That’s not really the case. Enlightened Hollywood and elite journalism were more the outliers that kind of behavior being seen as acceptable.

        1. commodious spittoon

          I expect we’re stuck with the canards forever, because, like the wage gap myth, acknowledging the mistake means acknowledging having put a lot of innocent people through the wringer. By the same token, they have to believe that a Christian baker is indistinguishable from an SS officer, because admitting otherwise means facing up to the fact that they’ve become the intolerant ideologues they claim to abhor.

      4. R C Dean

        As in literally no more than a couple of dozen of them in the entire country.

        There’s more than that. Hell, I would bet there’s that many in Congress. But the problem was definitely exaggerated. And I think it is worse in government, academia, and media, because the demand for those jobs is so high, and the criteria for success is often quite subjective, that a subordinate is in a very weak position when their boss gets out of line. Piss off your boss, and there’s a line out the door to replace you and your odds of getting back into the industry are low.

  48. I’m no fan of standardized tests, I think in general they’re a shitty way of measuring intellectual potential.

    https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/03/18/cornell-and-harvard-english-departments-drop-gre-requirement

    HOWEVER, their reasons for doing it smack of “darkies aren’t doing well enough so we need to drop the requirement to get more of them.” It’s one thing if they’re using grades in lieu of the GRE, but I think we all know they are using “intangibles” instead.

    Soft bigotry of low expectations.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      This is a none controversy. The real problem is that NYC, like most northern cities, ghettoizes the poor and minorities by restricting access to schools to only those within their immediate community, while decent schools that their tax dollars also support are forbidden to them. The whole notion of magnet schools was to benefit the poor, but a simpler solution would just be to allow kids to attend any school within the city. A poor kid who is an average student is still trapped in a garbage school, test or no test. Why debate whether or not a test is racially biased when the entire public educational system is racially biased and highly discriminatory toward the poor?

      1. Colorado is one of the best states in the country for school choice and charters; several severely underperforming schools in shitty Denver neighborhoods have either had to redistrict or shut down completely due to plummeting attendance.

        To Dems this, of course, is evidence that school choice ruins education and charter schools are akin to slaughter houses. The screeching from Dem reps about the state’s school choice laws is endless. No matter that the Dem party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NEA.

        They know on which side their bread is buttered.

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          I got confused with your link. It’s my fault.

      2. Gustave Lytton

        GRE so I assume its grad school.

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          Yeah, for some reason I assumed this had to do with the selective schools in NYC dropping their standardized tests

      3. ruodberht

        Mysteriously, wherever the low-IQ students go, their schools get worse. It’s a damn shame.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The English departments

      The English departments at most Ivy Leagues are largely progressive institutions steeped in critical theory thanks to Stanley Fish and his cohorts. There’s barely any actual English and plenty of identity group lunacy and political advocacy.

      1. I’ve found the people most responsible for crushing interest in literature to be English and Literature instructors.

    3. Pat

      They’ll happily admit a candidate they like regardless of GRE score anyway, this is just CYA so they can avoid direct, objective comparisons between candidates to dodge lawsuits like the one they’re fighting off from the Asian students claiming discrimination.

    4. ruodberht

      The tests correlate well with g, so not sure why you hate them so much. Grades are an absolute shitshow. You need SOME objective measure.

    5. Brett L

      Let’s be honest, the math portion of the GRE is WAY too hard for most people looking to go to grad school for English*.

      * I signed up for a GRE course my senior year in college. When I realized that 90% of the course would be devoted to math, I quit going. I was getting plenty of math practice in my courses. Much to my shame, I missed a question on the math section.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Climb up on on those bodies, Barbie.

    Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, tweeted that Trump’s comments were a “deliberate” message to white supremacists.

    “White supremacists committed the largest # of extremist killings in 2017,” she wrote, quote tweeting the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization whose focus is civil rights and public interest litigation.

    “What the President is saying here: ‘if you engage in violent acts of white supremacy, I will look the other way.’ Understand that this is deliberate. This is why we can’t afford to sit on the sidelines.”

    I guess she’s not merely an empty headed clown. She’s promoted herself into mudslinging cunt territory.

    1. “White supremacists committed the largest # of extremist killings in 2017″

      Utter, unmitigated horseshit. What kind of absurd cartwheels did they do with their data to arrive at that?

      1. Easy, killings by other groups were not marked as ‘extremist’.

        Or, you could take the Karla Marx playbook and just make it up.

        1. AlexinCT

          A little bit of both..

      2. R C Dean

        The Muslims who kill people are mainstream, so their killings don’t count as “extremist”?

    2. CPRM

      Um, the SPLC link she gives doesn’t say anything about “# of extremist killings”, it’s a count of what they designated ‘hate groups’

    3. Cy

      Another line in the long list of “why Occasional Cortex is an Idiot” She clearly misspelled “Eco Terrorist Proggy.”

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Are sitting Congresspersons immune to libel/slander law?

    1. MikeS

      I was wondering the same, she (and others) seem to have gone well past political mudslinging and deep into spurious accusation territory.

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      All of this is very likely still classified as opinion, which means it wouldn’t be libel/slander for anyone.

    3. CPRM

      As long as it’s said I house floor, I think they are immune from most things.

      1. Gustave Lytton

        Except good caning.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          I want to see that comment Brooksed.

      2. R C Dean

        They are.

        The distinction between fact and opinion is extraordinarily mushy. If I say “You are a racist.”, is that a fact or an opinion?

  51. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

    https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1106952515793403909

    “Short-sighted politicians & media pundits who’ve spent last 2 years accusing Trump as a Putin puppet have brought us the expensive new Cold War & arms race. How? Because Trump now does everything he can to prove he’s not Putin’s puppet—even if it brings us closer to nuclear war.”

    Oh man, the replies from progressives to this obviously true point is something to behold

    1. Gustave Lytton

      A Putin puppet would say that.

    2. Principals not principles.

    3. I’m a little shook up about her comments at SXSW, but I suppose that’s the game if you’re running as a Dem. But I think she’s absolutely right here. Those comments are, shockingly, idiotic, because they’re suffering from the fallacy that what TG is saying can be true AND Russia can be a threat.

      1. Wow, I should stop getting up to do something else mid-comment. I meant to say that both of those things can be true, but the Twitterati are treating them as mutually-exclusive.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    Are donations to the federal government deductible? He will still owe taxes on the salary regardless of how he disposed of it I would imagine.

    That was my question. It’s not like giving that money to DHS would be likely to qualify as a “legitimate business expense”.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Flat out

    Consumers have contacted the Detroit Free Press over the past year, saying the wait for their vehicles is unbearable. And then the same consumers, months later, report the wait has been worth it. Full-size SUV passion seems insatiable.

    Ford is meeting this demand by using 3D printers to speed up the manufacturing process, so when a tiny tool piece breaks, it can be replaced immediately without a delay in assembly. As a result, the integrity of production is not compromised and the company is seeing thousands of dollars in savings, the company said.

    Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of the global operations, reached out to his manufacturing team of salaried and hourly workers in Kentucky to figure out how to improve production. Some jobs couldn’t be done in the needed time, so they added more workstations and split up tasks. Ford changed the use of its space, adding pits and platforms so more line operators working in the same area can complete tasks with varying height requirements as the products go down the assembly line.

    “We had to get creative,” Savona said during a briefing at world headquarters in Dearborn.

    Ford is killing the earth, one monster SUV at a time. And the rubes are snapping them up as fast as they can make ’em.

    They had better put Billy Ford on suicide watch.

    1. Gustave Lytton

      Todd Hoevener, chief program engineer of the Ford Expedition, talks about the new gigantic console that responds to what focus groups have said for years: Women need and want purse space.

      And men want space for a full size truck gun.

      1. Since elephant guns are guns for hunting elephants, I keep thinking truck guns are guns for hunting trucks.

        1. Not Adahn

          That does require a bigger gun than you’d think:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcUO4y9d1dg

    2. Tundra

      Ford highlighted key Expedition gains from 2017 to 2018:

      Retail sales are up 35 percent to 41,795 vehicles
      The large segment share up 5.6 percent to 17.5 percent
      The average transaction price grew by $11,700 to $62,700

      Wow! That’s pretty fucking solid.

      1. Brett L

        I love my (2013) Expedition. Will buy another if it dies before I can get back to only needing a 4 door truck.

  54. Raston Bot

    http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2019/D03-15/C:18-1478:J:Flaum:aut:T:fnOp:N:2309276:S:0#page=27

    reading through Amy Comey Barrett’s dissent. it’s good but it’s a slog. she’s no Thomas.

  55. Any other Maryland Glibs get a letter saying that the Libertarian Party has been kicked off the ballot? Apparently they didn’t meet registration requirements and have been booted. They’re filing a lawsuit to get back on. In the mean time, I’m apparently being listed as “Other/Libertarian” pending the result or their reinstatement. It came with a handy form to change party membership. I’m tempted to sign on as a Republican, although the “Bread and Roses” party sounds kinky.

    1. Oh, of course. It’s a Socialist party. Of course it is. Fuck this state. And fuck the Libertarians for not being able to get their shit together more than a bunch of idiot socialist cat ladies.

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        “Bread and Roses”? I guess the Wobblies have their own political party now. Historically, the Wobblies called themselves anarcho-syndicalists, which is marginally better than a socialist so long as they emphasize the “anarchist” part.

        Good song, too.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8nvHJiPKZ4

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          You got to give the Wobblies props for writing some catchy tunes. “Solidarity Forever” is probably their best known. Unions today just chant terrible slogans that make no sense, at least back in the day they wrote actual songs.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mok_2xZ8iLU

        2. I guess they’re trying to appeal to that homespun, prairie-type poor-but-proud worker image, and move away from that soul-crushing, murderous, enslaving image that’s been the result of every single socialist government in the history of socialism and governments.

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Folksy murderers are the most amiable murderers. Socialists realize that

      2. Cy

        Where are you running? No links to your campaign donation page?

        1. I’d run but I’m not sure my marriage could survive my wife voting against me.

          1. Cy

            You’re making me consider it now. Whenever anything goes wrong I could just turn to my wife and say “You should’ve voted for me honey! None of this would’ve happened!”

        2. But in all seriousness, I’ve attempted to volunteer for the Maryland LP a number of times over the years. Crickets. I have never seen so much as an ad in a newspaper or a spot on the radio from them, and I’ve certainly donated enough money to cover the $5 for an ad in The Capital. I have seen more stickers for the band my high school friend made up twenty-five years ago than stickers, shirts, flyers, signs, ads, ANYTHING, from the Maryland LP. The last post on their website was from August 13th, 2018. There isn’t a single word about being booted from the ballot. I don’t know why they’re even bothering to sue to get back on when it appears that it’s more of a hobby than anything else.

    2. Rasilio

      I have not that I know of but then I don’t check my mail all that often

  56. Sensei

    We’ve outed straffinrun!

    Non-Japanese people are poorly represented in Japanese media: That needs to change

    I believe he mentioned he would never appear on this show. I watched it approximately two times and found it cringe worthy.

    1. commodious spittoon

      Or we could let go our pearls and learn to enjoy harmless stereotypes again. Hey, guess what? Outlandish people who clash against backgrounds we consider rote are funny. Incongruity is the heart of comedy.

      1. Sensei

        Oh Japan Times is fully woke.

        More that particular show isn’t funny. But I’ve no issues with it.

    2. The page wants me to enable scripts before it will load content.

      *rolls up newspaper, hits monitor*

      Bad website! Bad!

  57. The Late P Brooks

    Evil kkkapitalists

    “Kids aren’t getting the education they need to get a job,” Dimon said. “And I’m talking about a real job.”
    Dimon pointed to an overemphasis among employers on candidates with four-year college degrees, and said more value should be given to those who graduate from community college, or receive other types of training. Some positions shouldn’t require college degrees at all, he added.

    ——–

    Regulations have historically made it “very hard” for financial services companies to hire ex-convicts, he said. But JPMorgan intends to make a targeted effort to develop “specific programs for specific jobs” to make the process less difficult.
    “These are not necessarily violent, lifelong criminals,” Dimon said. “These are people who made a mistake when they were young. I tell my friends, you made a lot of mistakes when you were young too, you just didn’t get caught.”
    For Dimon, these efforts aren’t just about philanthropy. In his view, they can also boost the economy.
    More effective job training programs would make those who have been released from jail “much happier and much more productive,” he said. “And that would be good for society.”

    What a devious bastard. He only wants those people to have jobs so they will need banking services.

    1. Rasilio

      It is good business on his part. Find a pool of capable workers that other companies are ignoring and hire them at lower waged than the pool that everyone is competing for. They will be more loyal to the company who gave them a chance when no one else would and the company cuts payroll expenses.

  58. cyto

    NEW ZEALAND GUN OWNERS ARE VOLUNTARILY HANDING OVER SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLES TO POLICE: ‘WE DON’T NEED THESE IN OUR COUNTRY’

    “A number of gun owners have turned in their semi-automatic rifles”

    Well, I suppose 2 is in point of fact a number. So there ya go.

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      When Australia decided to confiscate all semi-auto guns after a shooting in 1996, they got about 10-12% of them. I’d guess New Zealand will pull in a similar number.

      1. prolefeed

        The Australia thing was 10% or so compliance with a law.

        The NZ thing was a suggestion with no force of law — for now.

        Based on the number of people quoted, we know at most one person who has voluntarily surrendered their firearm. One.

    2. Raston Bot

      speaking of firearms, the latest organized talking point is that an AR15 is the same as an M16. it was very briefly even more powerful than an M4 but that talking point withered precipitously. fire control group differences are dismissed as irrelevant. a third hole in the lower receiver is irrelevant. facts are irrelevant.

      1. cyto

        “More powerful than a .22 rifle your kids would use for plinking cans!!!”

  59. The Late P Brooks

    He generally expressed skepticism of the federal government’s ability to manage money, and said Democrats and Republicans need to do more to justify spending decisions. This should be part of the broader political conversation about increasing individual tax rates, he said.

    “No one believes that just sending more money to Washington is going to fix the … problems we got,” Dimon said.

    Why does Jamie Dimon hate America?

  60. The Late P Brooks

    NEW ZEALAND GUN OWNERS ARE VOLUNTARILY HANDING OVER SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLES TO POLICE: ‘WE DON’T NEED THESE IN OUR COUNTRY’

    “It’s the weirdest thing. As I was sailing over here to turn in my guns, they all fell overboard.”