How do I top SP’s announcement from yesterday? I can’t, any more so than I can top her formatting. So fuck it, since I’m the equivalent of the Shabbos Goy for the actual goyim who run links on weekdays, let’s just get to the (vegetarian and kosher) meat of the post.
Auspicious birthdays today include Jack Russell, of the eponymous dogs; ventriloquist extraordinaire, Paul Winchell; true genius and sorta-libertarianish Frank Zappa; stunning mentalist Max Maven; and one of SP’s favorites, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.
The House voted to continue tax-money-wasting boondoggles, with Trump’s favorite one included. There’s at least one reliably principled vote against.
This is what I would call a good start. And of course, cue the concern trolling. Now appoint a non-interventionist but strong defense guy who will support getting us the fuck out of Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen… and put resources toward actual national defense. What amazes me, or maybe doesn’t amaze me, is the sudden rush of pro-war sentiment from the Left, which reads exactly like the excuses for Vietnam. Sigh. I remember the days when I was a liberal, and that included opposing wars of choice.
What’s worse than the naming of highways to “honor” dead authoritarian big-government pieces of shit like Ronald Reagan or Lyndon Johnson? Naming them after alive authoritarian big-government pieces of shit like Barack Obama.
SP and I feel partially responsible for this.
Could it be… could it be… SATAN?
One thing I’ve warned many people over the years: never piss off a chemistry major. It will not end well.
The thing that amazes me about this story is that people still have photos developed.
What happens when STEVE SMITH uses ancestry.com? THIS.
There are things which, for me, surpasses all understanding.
Old Man music has no choice today. The “video” actually starts with a minute of Latex Solar Beef (with vocals by The Turtles), then segues into Willie. Zappa shreds his way through some insane guitar solos with his very distinctive tone and phrasing. And then bonus fuzz box and wah wah in Part 2. If you love electric guitar, you need to hear these.
“Long Weekend”? I have work on monday.
in Romania government drones get extra days off… unless essential like firemen and whatnot. although maybe there is essential IT guys i dunno
We have Shroedenger’s Essentiality – essential when it suits the state, nonessential when it doesn’t.
I wasn’t supposed to work on Monday, but the company I work for sent out an e-mail on Tuesday telling all of us remote employees we had until 12/25 (nothing like some lead time during the holidays) to get our laptops upgraded to Windows 10. I was going to go to a local office today to do the upgrade (which the service desk drone I spoke to said would be fine if I just showed up), but the person there who would be able to do it is doing a half day today, and asked me to come in Monday.
At least I’ll be saving those 4 hours of vacation for next year.
Why are they downgrading you to Win10?
The presense of that grabage pre-installed kept me from replacing my Vista machine until I concluded I don’t actually need any windows on the laptop, given the applications run on it.
My guess is security or client mandates (not all of our clients are the brightest in the IT world). My home machine will stay on Windows 7 until it’s no longer supported by games, and then I decide if I want to try gaming on Linux, go console, or see if MS released a decent OS again.
We’ll see. Maybe non-MS gaming will start to become viable. I don’t see Microsoft learning the error of their ways until they lose market share, and that’s a ways off.
I must have missed it.
*checks archives*
So, you’re not going to be around when I reach Milwaukee?
And there goes my chance of meeting SP & OMWC – I rarely make it to the SW in my travels.
You have a month before the AP equipment gets packed. Git goin’.
Depends. What was the date?
Early June 2019
Yeah, we’ll be long gone. Sorry, it would have been a lot of fun. I had even started saving up spices to use in your dinner.
Kosher Salt, Vanilla, Celery Salt …
Vanilla is way too strong for him.
I have some double concentrated vanilla in the cupboard… Talk about strong!
Once upon a time when film was still more common than digital photos I was picking up some prints from a Wallgreens. These were photos of a few of my firearms I had – the woman behind the counter handing me the packet commented on “the cool guns” I had (mostly military grade semi-autos).
I love New Mexico.
You didn’t comment back about the big gun you carry in your pants?
The timeless art of seduction
Frank has you covered as well.
Well, my MOS in the Marines was Mortarman – carried a 30 lb. tube – but she seemed more into small arms.
What, like, baby arms?
The ones holding an apple.
The thing that amazes me about this story is that people still have photos developed.
They do passport photos, I think that’s the only thing left of their photo department.
I know photo processing isn’t the fastest, but surely you could have come back for your pictures before a whole year was out.
I still use my old really good film camera sometimes. The pictures are still better than the fancy digital camera. I use Old School Photo Lab.
“I had to hold back tears talking to pregnant women, telling them to take care of their pregnancies when I couldn’t take care of mine,” she said. “It made me jealous.”
…
JUST ABORT THE HORRIBLE, UNWANTED THING!
/Ghost of Margaret Sanger
JUST ABORT THE HORRIBLE, UNWANTED THING!
That’s what all of my teachers used to tell my parents about me.
TOO LATE!
Yeah, he probably knows algebra by now.
Dammit, I am responsible for making the PKD jokes on abortion threads!
I will never give up promoting that story. NEVER!
I remember a rumor from years back that the story came about because Planned Parenthood commissioned PKD to write a short story on abortion, and they didn’t check his beliefs first. I can’t verify it, but it entertains me.
Abortion is a right! If PKD is going to offer his services for hire, he must serve and respect all clients. Write the story, bigot!
“sorta-libertarianish” indeed on Zappa. I remember from his book something about wanting a director of information at the Cabinet level, said role to be held by NPR’s Daniel Schorr. The intent was for more free speech, though.
Saw him twice during the Does Humor Belong In Music? tour. The answer, then as now, was yes.
“This video is graphic and may be disturbing to some viewrs [sic]. Viewer discretion is advised,” the message reads. As the women in the video tend to their children or wash their cars, they purposefully show off their underwear for extended periods of time, and the camera often stays trained on their panties as they go about the task. “This shit is odd, to say the least,” said PaymoneyWubby in his video.
Well, okay. I mean, you can’t expect the guy to just say, “I don’t care to watch that” and go on about his business. That way madness lies. And anarchy.
Apparently nobody’s ever seen “Cool Hand Like”.
And the scene of the men ogling was done in a different day from the girl’s scene, so the stand-in was wearing a heavy coat.
Luke, not Like, fucking auto-correct.
Cool Hand Like…
“Sometimes a hand full of nothing is a real room temperature hand”
I thought Cool Hand Like was a reboot. A guy is put on a chain gang for drunkenly approving doubleplus ungood naughty posts on Facebook.
Best movie ever made, excepting Jaws.
QUINT BLESS YOU!
Farewell and an adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and an adieu to you ladies of Spain. For I have received orders for to sail back to Boston. And soon never more will I see you again….
“Viewer discretion is advised”
8-year old me in the 70’s figured out that meant “YOU REALLY GOTTA SEE THIS! VIOLENCE! SWEARING! TITS!”
For Emmanuel Macron, How Did Things Get So Bad, So Fast?
So, Macron is in fact a contemptuous plutocrat. Like Obama.
Long story short – professional, career politicians are useless, and measures should be taken to prevent it.
I suggest a term limit of two terms across ALL government positions, local, state, federal, or ambassadorial. If you were dogcatcher one term and citycouncilman another, you’d be barred from ever going back to government postings of any sort.
I vigorously endorse this comment.
Hear, hear.
Throw in “Prosecutors cannot run for any office for 10 years after leaving their positions” and I’m in.
a person with very little life experience beyond elite institutions, who has a largely intellectualized approach to government.
Do you know who else?
Intellectualization MUST come with real, life experiences. If you never ran a business or held a solid job or actually did ‘yeoman’ work, you’re nothing more than an elitist wagging their finger.
“As late as last April, Politico was titling a story “How Emmanuel Macron Became the New Leader of the Free World.”
That’s how stupid these people are. They don’t realize it’s not the 18th century anymore. The idea that a spent French nation could ‘lead’ a free world is preposterous given their exaggerated bureaucratic culture.
It’s beyond stupid and Politico should be embarrassed.
It’s like when some publication or someone (I can’t remember) said Merkel’s Germany is leader of the world now because Trump.
They’re just plain derelicts with deranged optics of the world. They start with TDS and move from that point on.
Macron and Trudeau. Handsome will lead the world!
Fucken idiots.
Fact: The median age of the developed western nations is going up.
Fact: Women outlive men.
Fact: Macron is into old chicks and they dig him.
How can you possibly dispute he is the leader of the free world?
Good article. All I had heard about the reason for the protests was the opposition to the gas tax. A good thing, from a free market perspective. But it seems they’re also pissed about labor reforms, deregulating railroads, removing a tax on the wealthy, etc., which would, in my view, benefit the economy in the long run. Not a good sign.
a president who not only seemed systematically to be taking from the poor to give to the rich, but to be doing so in an intolerably disdainful manner.
“Let them ride scooters.”
What amazes me about old (and tottering) welfare states is the amount of rioting that happens. Threaten to pull any goodies away from your vassals, and they get upset. It’s like the sweet candy of socialism has bad side-effects; ones that only worsen as more lucre is spread along with ever bloated spending.
But who looks at England and France, etc and says – “You know I want more of that!” ?
Here we are in America – trillions in debt – and there isn’t enough money to buy our way into the fevered dreams of the left… but they’re going to go for it anyways. I’m sure there will be enough money in the sofa cushions to pay for it all. Or some of the most damaging tax policies we’ve ever seen.
Mattis quits, says his views aren’t ‘aligned’ with Trump’s
It seems Mattis wanted to maintain our illegal wars in the middle-east. I wanted to like you, but good riddance.
Pelosi: I am shaken by resignation of Mattis
Weren’t you also shaken by his appointment?
the sudden rush of pro-war sentiment from the Left,
They’ve always been pro-war.
They’re pro-war so long as it’s their guy in charge, though that’s kinda like a lot of Republicans too.
“Weren’t you also shaken by his appointment?”
Yeah, I haven’t been actually taking score but just about every voice I seem to hear speaking about how bad Mattis’ resignation is seems to be from somebody who two years ago was expressing grave doubts about his assuming the post to begin with.
I assume she shakes from old age related conditions.
Pelosi: I am shaken by resignation of Mattis
*Anal beads roll across floor*
Mattis was a legendary Marine, but thoroughly marinated in leftist nonsense ideas like global warming and trannies in the military. You just don’t get past Colonel these days without the right politics.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/mattis_was_no_good.html
I wouldn’t say he was so much “marinated in leftist nonsense” as he knew he had to go along with all that if he expected to stay on and make the difference he thought was needed.
I would agree if he had stopped going along with that shit as soon as he started working with Trump – he didn’t.
The entire US military has, for one reason or another, gotten on board with that political platform already. If Mattis tried to shut it down he would just be confusing a few hundred thousand people who would only have to get back on board once he inevitably did retire. May as well get done what really has to get done and let the people you leave in your wake as stable as possible.
8 years of your advancement being delayed until you jumped on board can do that.
Mattis’ statement about the reason for resigning seemed heavier on the “don’t say mean things to allies” than withdrawing from Syria.
“Now appoint a non-interventionist but strong defense guy who will support getting us the fuck out of Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen… and put resources toward actual national defense. ”
Does one of those exist?
I will come out of retirement to be SEC DEF.
/LTC off
Your split loyalties from working for foreign nationals means… well, there is a phone message from the FBI.
dbleagle may be free of the foreign encumbrance, and I suspect he’d do well.
“My first act as Secretary is to put eleventy zillion dollars into R&D of a massive scale Narrow Gaze Weapon”
Pie Industries International is available. Cheap high quality Romanian products, NATO compliant from an ailed country
Excellent Freudian typo.
Sorry. You seem to have not received the memo. That would be a “Knife Hand” weapon.
They already did it.
The Narrowed Gaze MK 1 is free… after I retire again, I will be happy to work with DoD on the MK 2. For a small fee. And a Scotch allowance.
Sorry Swiss, but since you were an officer, I can’t support your nomination.
What we need is someone like ME. Never got beyond E4. I’d pull back from all those wars and demand that generals and admirals come personally wax and buff my office floors.
Yes – another E4ever!
Just a lance coolie with a light duty chit.
Ha ha! I was still an E-4 in the reserves – first promoted to E-4 in March 1979 – until I made Sergeant last year. I was the godfather of the E-4 mafia.
I made E-5 before I turned to the Dark Side. And I was an Infantry guy to boot – 11B.
Mustang gaze?
You’ll need a good XO.
The Sec Def we need, not the Sec Def we deserve.
How about Jim Webb?
He seemed like a good Sec. of the Navy when I served. Also, if this story is true, he is the kind of guy I want in the cabinet:
I have a new hero.
The last sane Democrat.
Speaking of, Trump/Webb 2020 would be interesting.
Skipping the line for the photo, fine. being a dick afterward not so fine.
Tax junk food high in sugar and salt, says top doctor
Tax tax proposals and ban banning.
England’s top doctor wants to repeal the law of supply and demand.
Aren’t they also advocating for rationing food? However bad the authoritarians here are the limeys will always say “Hold my beer and watch this”.
Doctor wants to get paid for not working.
more and more evidence shows the salt thing is given to much wrong blame
Yes, only 20% of people are salt sensitive. For the rest of us, our kidneys do a great job of keeping our salt balanced, and you can pretty much eat all you want. A bigger risk is actually inadequate salt intake.
The anti-salt brigade is absurd and only matched by the continued advocates of high carb, low fat (I’m looking at you Mrs. Obama!)
Longest life expectancy is like 5600 mg of salt intake a day, IIRC. If everyone ate 2000 mg of salt like the fed gov and the AHA recommend, the reduction in life expectancy would be something like if antibiotics dissipeared.
My body my choice.
Lol, that only works for murdering babies. You are a slave to the state in all other contexts
What amazes me, or maybe doesn’t amaze me, is the sudden rush of pro-war sentiment from the Left, – it is almost as if they got no principles whatsoever… but that would be crazy talk
*cues up John Lennon song*
All weeeee are saying,
Is give War a chance!
(repeat ad naseum)
Anybody got Chapman’s number?
465 1382
I’m upset that they are so incensed in their hate for Trump that one of his unambiguously good decisions is being criticized because the powers of warboners present are pissed.
Trump stunned U.S. allies by ordering the withdrawal of U.S. forces and contradicted U.S. diplomats and military officers who as recently as last week said the United States would remain in Syria to finish off the Islamic State.
Something something phoney baloney jobs
“contradicted U.S. diplomats and military officers ”
Well I guess he’s wrong,I forgot the part of the Constitution where we have to commit to illegal wars if some officer says so.
Stretch Of 134 Freeway Gets ‘President Barack H. Obama Highway’ Signs
Not as bad as the creepy, cringe-inducing, idol-worship movies being made while he is still alive.
92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/southside_with_you
If someone gave me money. I’d do a spoof movie on the Obamas. There’s so much material there it’s a crime comedians left that on the table.
Trump is right to withdraw US troops from Syria
Trevor Timm
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/21/trump-syria-withdrawal-us-troops
What amazes me, or maybe doesn’t amaze me, is the sudden rush of pro-war sentiment from the Left
Why should it amaze you? After eight years of them continuing the very wars they decried for the previous seven and launching a couple of new ones to boot, it should be clear that they aren’t anti-war, They’re just opposed to wars that don’t serve their agenda.
Why should it amaze you?
Back in my younger days, when I had a draft card, a 1A status, and a draft number of 5, it was the Left that was antiwar and pro-free-speech. I suppose some of us can never shake off the things we experienced as youths.
It used to be the left that said you can’t judge a person by the color of their skin. Turns out that’s just fine.
it was the Left that was antiwar and pro-free-speech.
That’s where they fooled you. They weren’t anti-war. They were pro-Viet Cong. Some of them were quite open about it. Also, I’m sure you realize that the same “pro-free-speech” leftists were the first to institute speech codes once they were in power. They weren’t pro-free-speech. They were pro-their-free-speech.
^This – the left is all about promoting whatever will result in more power for themselves.
https://patriotpost.us/pages/80
Jane Fonda probably secretly still thinks she did nothing wrong.
Just like when they were open about communism and their love of people like Stalin and Castro.
They’re just plain anti-West; anti-American I’m afraid.
They’re contrarians, stuck in the terrible twos of their childhood when they start to realize they can’t have everything they want. They’re still lashing out at authority, at reason, never wanting to hear nor caring that their self-centered worldview is wrong.
Those obstinate plebes in Minneapolis won’t fucking get with the program! After 10 years of fancy Minneapolis food laws, researchers find almost no change in consumer buying habits.
In 2008, Minneapolis passed a shit ton of laws to require non-traditional food stores like gas stations and corner stores to carry fresh produce and other healthy foods. Some data from researchers at THE U of M has leaked out and shown that people still like buying bad food that tastes good.
Nontraditional grocer? Would that be a white guy?
Yeah when I’m on a road trip and stopping at the gas station, the first thing I think of is: “Boy I sure hope they have some fresh fruit!” (as he reaches for the not-so fresh donuts)
If I am so desperate as to buy food from a gas station, I want something that has been hermetically sealed against the environment of said gas station and contains enough preservatives that having sat on that shelf for years won’t have caused issue with it.
-1 Hotdog on rollers
On a recent road trip to my cousin’s funeral, I stopped at a gas station /bait shop / hunting license / party store / sandwich counter. They did everything except take the mail or UPS. The sandwich counter was all grilled subs .. . not a Subway either, it even looked fresh. I was shocked.
Did the party store include liquor sales?
I still have an unopened bottle of fireball I got at a gas station in Vermont just because I was surprised to see them advocating drinking and driving.
To be fair, living east of the hudson, they needed something to take their mind off the Miskatonic feeling of wrongness that permiates the area.
Yes, it was a large part of the store – liquor, wine, cold beer.
This is what happens when people who have never visited a gas station or grocery store decide they have better insight into those markets than the people operating and patronizing them.
As usual the left reverses cause and effect; they assume the reason people don’t buy healthy things at gas station markets is because the markets don’t stock them. It doesn’t occur to them that the markets don’t stock them because there is little demand for them.
It also doesn’t occur to them to try to open just one of their ideal stores near the deplorables to see what happens.
That’s silly, why should they take the risk when they can force others to do what they want?
Actually, they do that in North Minneapolis. No one shops there, and they would all lose money except for the fact that they are all funded by grants and don’t actually have to make any money.
When I’m a road trip, hungry, and gassing up the car I always think “damn, I wish this gas station had all the ingredients for a nice arugula salad”.
According to one of the maps, I technically live in a partial food dessert. Within a 2 mile range of my house I have:
An Asian grocery store
An Indian grocery store
2 Giant Eagles
2 Marc’s
A Save-A-Lot
A Ukranian Deli
A little corner store (which is terrible)
Just outside of that range are at least four more grocery stores I can think of off the top of my head. The only places I don’t have an easy trek to are Whole Foods (20 minutes away), Trader Joe’s (2 of them 30 minutes away), and EarthFare (20 minutes away). That’s not counting all of the farmer’s market stands, butchers, bakeries, and such.
The giant eagles make going out for food sound like a risky affair.
*applause
Giant Eagles are nothing to worry about this year. Last year sure.
The Vikings will have to go full on Viking for the Eagles to even get into the playoffs this year.
*narrows gaze*
To be fair, you are talking about the Vikings.
+1 Almost Heroes
I don’t go to the closest food stores, because the better ones are just a little further on down the road. Plus some of the technically closest are on the other side of the river, and no one sane goes east of the hudson.
I go to different stores depending on what I’m looking for. As an example, one of the Giant Eagles stocks Chorizo, the other does not (but they’re reversed on Andouille). One has a liquor store in it, the other does not.
While I have a list of practical reasons to visit certain places, there’s also the ineffable feeling that for whatever reason I do not belong in some stores. As though at any moment one of the customers or employees is going to turn and yell at me for even being there. I get it in Target, and especially strongly in Publix. I haven’t yet worked out what causes it.
In Target it is caused by you not having a vagina. I dunno about Publix
Over the years I’ve grown used to not fitting in. I’ve found being polite and soft spoken in most stores generally works, and if it doesn’t I don’t go back.
I lived in a food desert once. Within 4 blocks there were 2 produce stores, a butcher and 4-5 bakeries, but it qualified because you had to walk out the door of one to go to the other so it didn’t count.
Now it’s not a food desert but most of that is gone and there is a Whole Foods at twice the price with stuff almost nobody in the neighborhood wants (it’s aimed at the “revitalization” inhabitants not the existing middle-class inhabitants).
One of our local “citizen reporter” websites ran a weepy story lamenting the “food desert” status of a neighborhood I actually lived in previously. I called the reporter out on this in the comments section and even posted a photo of the pins on Google Maps indicating locations of not one but two giant grocery stores that exist literally six blocks from the allegedly deprived area. She became livid and doubled down on her assertion by arguing – and I shitteth thee not – that six blocks was too far to expect poor people to walk with groceries.
New York Court Order Concludes Gun Permit Insufficient Cause for Car Search
Nice.
Why does the Susu family thing surpass your understanding? There are a lot of lonely men out there in the world for whom simple ‘ intimate life with a woman’ videos hold a lot of appeal. For whatever reason they are unable to form intimate bonds with the fairer sex. I find it very sad but perfectly understandable.
“The modern human brain owes a lot to these small, hairy human ancestors,”
“They were hairy. This one’s name was Fred. He liked sunday strolls on the savanna with Suzan, tubers roasted over acacia wood and star gazing.”
“How do you know all of that?”
“Well, just look at this tooth chip!”
As for the chemistry major there are many ways to mess with people without getting yourself in too much legal trouble. My favorite is (disclaimer – I have never done this, nor would I) breaking into their car and slipping some fresh catshit down into the air vents on the dash. No special knowledge of chem needed for that.
See, a chemist would use butyric acid, or even better, 1,4-diaminobutane. At that point, all the victim could do is sell the car, that smell is never coming out.
*Makes note never to piss off OMWC*
Why would you do that to the poor car? It’ll end up parted out because no one can get rid of the odor.
Cash For Stinkers.
Ok, this made me laugh.
Lena Dunham’s used douche water in the radiator.
Why do you hate the car?
Not mercaptans? 1,4-diaminobutane and cadaverine are toxic so you might get into more serious legal problems. The idea is to make them miserable without actually endangering them. The big plus is that it is funny as hell.
You do get points for those suggestions. You are correct that the smell would never die. Those compounds would bond with or penetrate the plastic in the ducts and no amount of washing would remove them.
* I had the chance to buy a candy apple red ’79 T-top Trans-AM for 1000 bucks. When I checked the car out the smell of cadaverine in it was unbearable. I mean choke and take your breath away unbearable. Turns out they were basically giving the car away because a couple of guys died in it and it was 6 months before they were found. They had parked in the woods and partook of the wrong kind of mushrooms. I took a hard pass.
Mercaptans? I’m not a pussy. Piss me off and I go to the big guns.
Once again, it only looks big because you only use on 8 year olds.
Can confirm about butyric acid. Probably the worst off flavor ever.
Had a friend who walked natgas pipelines in the 90s for a summer job. Apparently, at the height of a feud between two of his coworkers, one guy put about 50mL of the concentrated mercaptan they use to make natgas smell in the cab of the other guy’s truck. It was a total loss.
One of the big bullys in my high school found out, after a dance, that someone had smeared shit all over the seats in his unlocked car.
Wasn’t such a turd after that.
I was out walking my dog on an October night. I come around the corner and see a bunch of kids stealing pumpkins from the church. I sauntered up to the passenger side window and asked the driver if he was going to pay for those pumpkins. He sneered at me, “Whacha gonna do about it, old man?”
So I opened the bag of warm dog shit I was carrying and emptied it into the cab of his truck.
Did he ever figure out that it was McFly?
So Mattis is bailing. That leads to the question, who is advising Trump on this turnaround? Is it Rand Paul? Tucker Carlson? Jill Stein? Whoever it is, I’m thankful.
Duh, It’s Medvedev, carrying orders from Moscow.
I would guess that Rand had a hand in this, but it’s just a guess.
Most Planned Parenthood offices do not provide paid maternity leave
That’s like a punch in the stomach.
Well it makes sense, encouraging anyone to have a live baby is anathema to them.
Not true. Isn’t their motto, “We do much more than kill babies!”
“We also part them out!”
England’s top doctor has accused the food industry of “failing the public”
The greatest crime of capitalism…
Is a female lead now key to box office success?
Anecdotally, it seems that films featuring women – in front of the camera or behind the scenes – gain serious critical acclaim.
If we browbeat them enough, they finally begin to listen!
“Critical acclaim” Okay, what about audience acclaim? I’ve seen heaps of those screenshots from Rotten Tomatos where the critic and audience cores are inverse of each other. And while being lauded by critics might fluff the ego, it’s the audience that fills the pocketbook.
They got that covered too. They did a study, and it seems that huge blockbuster superhero movies with female co-leads do okay at the box office. So men are obsolete.
Part of me suspects that the upcoming one starring the plank of MDF won’t do so well.
But part of me also suspects that sheer momentum means a lot of people will stop in because they liked the previous entires – so the damage won’t be seen for a film or two.
To be fair, Three Billboards was excellent.
Yes, there are still people who can make good movies.
No, it doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman in the lead so long as the script and acting are good.
So very often one or both of those are sorely lacking.
3 Billboards was the last good movie I’ve seen in a year. Wife wants to seen Cameron’s new creepy robot flick. Looks worse than Avatar.
Anecdotally, it seems that Anecdotes are not data!
Tits and ass sells. News at 11.
At Thanksgiving three of my sisters were talking about how god-awful “A Star Is Born” was. Two nieces said “Why would you even go to a theater?”
And in related news:
Box Office: ‘Star Wars 9’ Must Prove That ‘Last Jedi’ Didn’t Ruin ‘Star Wars’
That ship has
sailedjumped to hyperspace.So it makes money. What roots does it put down? In ten years, do you think we’ll have anything like the cultural nostalgia that A New Hope will, fifty years out? I imagine there’s a moment of parity coming when Boomers are replaced by the Michael Bay Transformers generation, and the “nostalgia gap” for the new movies closes with the original trilogy. But unless the next movie does some serious course-correction from TLJ, TFA will have to do all the heavy lifting for the trilogy. And it just doesn’t have the umph to see out a generation of post-millennial viewers as a cultural touchstone. It wasn’t a bad movie. I enjoyed it more than I rolled my eyes. But I’ll die having seen effing Phantom Menace more than I will TFA. What roots did it put down? It set up some intriguing threads that TLJ singed off entirely. Gorgeous spectacle is a dime a dozen these days. The interesting, likeable characters were either killed off or sorely abused in TLJ. There’s just not much there to give it longevity.
TFA is absolutely a bad movie. It looked pretty at points, but it’s riddled with bad characters, bad acting, continuity errors, incoherent story-telling and an insane amount of coincidence. It’s a really bad movie. You can see it all summed up pretty nicely at the end when Leia walks past Chewbacca, her friend of 30 years and Han’s closest friend, to hug and comfort Rey, a girl she just met.
I guess I should say it wasn’t revolting. Natural Born Killers is revolting. Most slashers are, to me, revolting. The Majestic Seven was revolting for being such a simplistic, formulaic, identity politics moralizing piece of shit, and boring to boot. TFA is tolerable.
^Majestic Seven remake
A while back, someone linked to a long form criticism of the Last Jedi by a Star Wars fan. It was probably 10-20 pages, and epic. I can’t find it, and Google isn’t helping, as all of the results are commentary about the criticism of Last Jedi.
At the risk of starting a shitstorm, none of the movies are actually particularly good. The original trilogy were spotty, but they were not pretentious and self aware so their flaws were easily forgivable. They were (light) sword and sorcery adventures of the most formulaic type. Young chosen one hero, scary over the top monsters, lovable rogue sidekick etc. They were entertaining, and in the 70s when cinema was doing its damnedest to always be soul crushing and depressing they were upbeat fun escapist fare.
The follow on prequels were pretentious, retconned crap trying to make the whole thing into some significant cultural epic. This crushed the fun escapist life out of the movies and led to Lucas selling the franchise to Disney who decided to double down on the ‘significant cultural epic’ idea so we ended up where we are now, with Gilgamesh for SJWs. Of course the point of cultural epics is to illustrate and symbolically teach the underlying truths of the culture, and since SJW culture is based on lying about human nature and trying to force people to be things they are not its epics suck.
I’d say you’re pretty spot on. The OT pretty much stuck to archetypal stories and focused on having well done characters. They were far from perfect movies, but they were still really good, and their place in cultural memory is secured because of that. Everything you say about the later movies is pretty accurate.
Define “good.”
The dialog was stilted. The acting ranged from wooden to fantastic, depending on which actor you are talking about. The plot was formulaic. The technical direction and practical effects were groundbreaking. The folly work was the best in a generation.
But they were wildly, wildly entertaining. My art teacher used to bag on Bob Ross because his brush strokes were ragged, his perspective was crap, and his range was infinitesimal. But he painted pictures that people liked to look at.
In the end, the original trilogy is one of the greatest works of art of all time because people liked to look at it.
But that’s my point: the Fortune article makes hay of the fact that TLJ is a net earner, if only to bag on all those misogynist racists who hated it, and so maybe Star Woke isn’t struggling as much as haters want to think. But that’s about as intellectually bankrupt a case to make as appealing to the Oscars as the decider of cinema excellence. Transformers continues making money; that’s why they keep letting Michael Bay make them. And the Oscars keeps virtue signaling to itself. Neither metric tells us anything about the impact a movie is likely to have.
The box office returns from the Last Jedi are an example of momentum. The fact that it turned off enough fans for the next movie to actually lose money despite being merely middle of the road indicates that. A franchise killer can still turn a profit when it lands.
Star Wars transformed the movie business. Prior to American Graffiti (1973) the industry’s attitude was “we release our cheap junk in the summer because the only people that go are teenagers or people that will see anything because the theater has air conditioning.” That movie gave an adventurous studio the willingness to experiment with a large budget “teenager flick” in 1975 (Jaws). That success led to the budget and release date of Star Wars which totally proved the concept that B-movie scripts with big budgets will create box office. Star Wars turned the phrase “summer blockbuster” from a contradiction in terms into the industry expectation, and started the trend of “high concept” at the expense of good screenplays. It took exploitation films out of the grindhouses and into suburban multiplexes and forced the grindhouses to transform into art houses.
Damn, Jarflax! Succinct and accurate.
Star Wars, like Indiana Jones, was a reaction in my mind against the more artsy/edgy/gritty whatever you want to call it turn of moviemaking in the late ’60s/ early ’70s. They were consciously throwbacks to “pulp” fiction of the previous era.
So, yeah, they were formulaic and all that, but they were fun, dammit.
change in gender relationships in the film industry
Personally I prefer men to play male parts and women to play female parts.
But some actors play pussies better than dicks and some actresses are really good at playing dicks.
I guess what I meant is characters. I.e. don’t make a part that is clearly male (like the Gyn in Rogue 1) and make it a female character.
I couldn’t possibly give less of a fuck.
TW: Vox
A new theory for why Republicans and Democrats see the world differently
yeah because believing in an outdated political belief that has failed countless times and led to the death of millions of people is “fluid” thinking.
This isn’t a “new” theory at all. It’s literally just the observation that the right tend to be moral absolutists (for better or for worse) and the left tend to be moral relativists (for worse).
yeah the fact that people disagree on fundamental values is well known. nothing new
J. Peterson would say it is about openness vs disgust
I can’t verify that. The man has a voice that induces narcolepsy in me.
He writes books you know.
My ‘Reading’ is done in audiobook form. I don’t know if A: there is an audiobook of his work or B: if he narrates it.
So wait… you the conservative curmudgeon’s curmudgeon, the opponent of all that is new and flavorful and champion of the traditional past, eschew the holy guiding light of the intellect (reading) in favor of the modern abomination of turning books into background noise?
When I have time to sit and read, I have time to sit and write.
When I am driving, I can’t read or write books, but I can play audiobooks.
the right tend to be moral absolutists (for better or for worse) and the left tend to be moral relativists (for worse).
This.
That’s not new at all.
I don’t think they see irony here.
Oh Vox. The illiterate class. No wonder they think it’s ‘new’.
“fixed” versus “fluid.”
I’m not necessarily inclined to disagree, although I’d suggest the distinction is “being right” versus “being clever”. If your focus is on being right, you’re going to tend to pay attention to how well an idea works in practice and tend toward conservatism or libertarianism. If your focus is on being clever, your attention is going to center on the intellectual or emotional appeal of an idea.
You could substitute “stable” v. “unstable” for “fixed” v. “fluid”, and that would leave a very different impression.
“support changing social and cultural norms, are excited by things that are new and novel, and are open to, and welcoming of, people who look and sound different.”
IOW, they want this country to be, what’s the phrase? Oh, yeah: “fundamentally transformed”. You don’t fundamentally transform something unless you really don’t like it.
I am also reminded of the adage against building your house on a foundation of sand.
Some people work from evidence to conclusion, some the other way about. That is a very fundamental difference.
more comfortable with the familiar and predictable
There is nothing inherently wrong with this. Healthy skepticism may save your life.
Case in point: welcoming of, people who look and sound different
This is fine if they are peaceful and culturally compatible. But the thing is that not all cultures are equal.
Or else. See: the entire history of the left in the 20th century.
So where does the fear of Climate Change fit into this?
Damn climate relativists.
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.
Piaf and Garland smash to bits all the posers of today.
But they dead
ALL THE MORE WHY THE LIVING SHOULD BE ASHAMED!
Yep.
The 100 best male footballers in the world 2018
Our panel of 225 experts from 69 nations have had their say and Luka Modric has been crowned our No 1
https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2018/dec/18/the-100-best-male-footballers-in-the-world-2018-nos-100-71
No way is he better than Tom Brady. I’ve never even heard of the guy.
you’re thinking hand egg
No, that’s Lance Armstrong.
Don’t mind him. He thinks Ken Linseman wasn’t a rat.
I don’t think any of those guys play in the NFL.
It seems unlikely that at least 90 of the top 100 wouldn’t be in the NFL.
Fuck, I don’t have time to explain to all of you why Moss is better than Rice again today.
Easier to catch without all those rings? (Still take Prime Moss over Prime Rice any day)
Do you get a prize for being the most wrong of all wrong things in history?
Jimbo, next you can explain to me why Jaws is better than Dr. Strangelove.
That is an easy one. Jaws is the best movie of all time. Therefore Dr. Strangelove (and any other film) is not better than Jaws. If they were, they’d be the best film of all time.
As much as I think Jaws is a perfect film, Dr Strangelove is even more perfecter.
Such a transcendent, prescient and hilarious film.
I love and interview with James Earl Jones, when he said that he and the other actors were wowed by Slim Pickens and thought he was such a brilliant character actor. Then after a couple of days they realized that he wasn’t acting. That’s just how he was on and off-set. Magnificent.
How could it be “ever more perfecter” if it was only a mediocre film?
What? What about Dr. Strangelove doesn’t resonate with you?
It’s hilarious, topical, satirical.
My favorite type of humor is the most insane situation played perfectly straight. I suppose I’m more British than Bugs Bunny (the most American character of all time) in that respect.
It’s a brilliant insight into MAD and its madness, with the rising stakes and increased instability squeezing out ever more guffaws from my Chuckle-Meter.
For a comedy it had one funny line (No fighting in the war room). The satire fell flatter than a crepe.
If there were british humor, there would be more wit and wordplay.
For the record, Bugs Bunny is a villain, not a comic entity.
Actually, Bugs was a trickster. Different animal.
Tricksters are villains. Their actions are far too disproportionate to the affront given. And I hate that they never get their own karmic due for it.
He had some yokel who couldn’t even talk right firing a rifle at him 24/7. I think his actions were entirely justified under the circumstances.
Elmer started out as a wildlife photographer. It was the torments he suffered that led him to take up hunting.
Tricksters are not villains. They are tricksters it is a separate archetype characterized by moral complexity. Prometheus, Coyote, Loki, Anansi, Bre’r Rabbit etc. are the the evil that good comes from. They are the exploding cigar that teaches you not to steal, the monkey’s paw curse that teaches you not to look for short cuts to happiness.
You can have morally complex villains, but your own examples are still monstrous individuals who are villains none the less.
To further attempt to explain why I classify them thus, it boils down the a simple axiom – The ends do not justify the means. their own vile actions preclude them from from claiming another spot elsewhere, even if the goal of the creator is to use the character to teach the audience some lesson, that does not make the tricksters less villainous for their deeds.
This is some sort of deliberately anti intellectual schtick right? You are ironically being as wrong as you can be?
“Intellectual” is uaually just a masochist who rationalizes away their self-abuse as enlightenment.
He had some brain trauma during his time in service. Ok, more than “some.” We try to be nice and play along just out of consideration.
Sometimes it’s difficult, though. But I try to remember what it must be like going through life like that and my sympathy wins out.
But they killed the rubber fish with an exploding scuba tank. I understand that brain damage plus hot dish can have horrible effects and we should be sympathetic, but RUBBER SHARK and SCUBA BOMB…. There are limits.
You’re making the movie sound better and better.
I suspect you actually enjoy it and pretend to hate it for hipster points.
I am not against stupid entertaining schlock. I enjoyed all of the fast and furious movies, even Tokyo Drift (Asian schoolgirls cover a multitude of plot holes), but Jaws was stupid boring crap.
If anyone is pretending, it is you and Jarflax.
My theory is that OMWC loves Jaws. But he needed to drive traffic to Glibs so he came up with this gag of pretending to not like the best film ever. A cheap ploy. Desperate.
You could say, that was the day Glibertarians.com jumped the shark.
“They see me trollin, they hatin.”
-Pope Jimbo
Right on Leap.
In an attempt to extend an olive branch I think we can all agree on this….
Me:Jaws::OMWC:Dr. Strangelove
Jimbo:Brain Damage::Me: Genius and fine taste
9/10 children confirm OMWC tastes like Fun Dip
What? No Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers?
/ducks
Man, I need to refresh more often.
Salah overrated. There, I said it.
Watching the establishment on both sides come at Trump for wanting to stop fighting useless wars is going to be a huge redpill moment for the general public. This is a major win for Trump, even if the media doesn’t portray it that way. I suspect he has a few more of these political moves up his sleeve for 2020.
Being on this and other libertarian forums leads to a bit of a skewed view. The American public as a whole doesn’t hate war and is actually pretty indifferent to it so I’m not so sure this will help him later. I do hope you’re right and I’m wrong though.
I know plenty of Veterans who have no idea why we are still there. They know damn well we’ll never “win” or accomplish anything more than we already have. Meanwhile we are importing grain and feeding a country that will double it’s population – including it’s terrorist population – every 25 years.
Maybe. But even my normie friends have been lamenting for years about why we are fighting these wars. A lot of them are pretty progressive and would make up excuses for why Obama “couldn’t” get out of these wars.
I think they will be shocked/embarrassed if their leadership opposes Trump for wanting to pull out of these wars.
I think they will be shocked/embarrassed
This would suggest introspection, which I have never know a leftist to be capable of. One time I acknowledged Barry’s middle-east record and how we were militarily involved in more countries at the end of his terms than at the beginning to my lefty gf’s die-hard lefty Democrat mother and aunt. It was scoffed off.
“The American public as a whole doesn’t hate war”
Correct, but politically irrelevant.
Trump has a solid 35% who would follow him to hell. The Democrats have a solid 40% who would do the same for them, and though they preach peace, they love war when Obama does it. Those 75% of voters firmly aligned with Team Red or Team Blue love war when it’s Their Guy, but they also love peace when it’s Their Guy who does it.
As for the middle… I do not believe that the 25% in the middle likes endless war in the Middle East. At least not most of them. And that’s the 25% of persuadable voters who decide elections.
He needs to make the case as to why this isn’t a national security issue. Many people are still under the misconception that our military is over there killing would-be 9/11 hijackers on a daily basis
No he doesn’t. He needs to say that he’s finally doing something Obama should have done in 2013 and if people disagree they need to write their Congressman and tell them to support a declaration of war.
I tend to agree with Stinky. It doesn’t directly impact most Americans anymore and after BOOOOSSHH we stopped seeing the body count odometer every day on every major news station, so your average American I think skews indifferent to mildly supportive of foreign intervention. That being said, I couldn’t be happeir. This is a huge moral victory and I’m really hoping Trump has realized that all his concession R picks are working against him. He seems to be saying, “fuck it, I’m going back to Plan A.”
Yesterday, I texted a friend “MAGA”, unironically.
Orange man done good.
“he has a few more of these political moves up his sleeve”
Nah, he’s just a chimp who typed out a few lines of Hamlet. Feces flinging will return shortly.
I never tire of pointing this out: he’s not a principled man. He didn’t campaign on Syria; he can’t spell Syria or find it on a,map.
No one is more glad than I to hear we’re un-choosing wars, but it’s a mere randomness, the throes of a child in a candy store, a show of power. When Trump uses this same wild look-at-me impulse in some ignorant authoritarian impulse (more tariffs, anyone? ), will we celebrate that spate of 6D chess?
Sure, Trump isn’t going to begin the new year by implementing Rand’s agenda, but I don’t care if he adds more tariffs. Ending overseas wars is a higher priority, in my opinion, then trade or even immigration. Ending a conflict is so unprecedented in modern times. War is the health of the state.
I’m not going to sit here and act like he’s the most principled person or has any sort of coherent political philosophy, but Trump has been pretty consistently opposed to overseas adventurism. You can read his tweets on Syria dating back to 2013. He also opposed the Iraq invasion (after nonchalantly saying on Howard Stern we “may need to go in there”, he later took a more firm stance against it).
Also, his views on trade – as dumb as they are – have been pretty consistent, at least dating back to the 80s and 90s when he was writing op-eds opposing NAFTA.
I don’t care if it is random or whatever – nobody else has managed. I know you burn with nuclear hot hatred for Cheeto Mussolini, but cripes – he managed to do something right (for now). We’ll cheer that – when he steps on his dick again (inevitably) we will jeer.
^this. Trump does a lot of crap that I oppose, tariffs, no trace of spending cuts etc. But compared to the last 28 years of Bush Clinton Bush Obama he is fantastic. It is still a sea of anti liberty and poor econ, but under Trump there are islands of good in that sea. If we don’t celebrate those islands why should anyone listen to our wishes?
So what you’re saying is, Trump will do the right thing 50% of the time?
…that’s quite an improvement.
More like 15%, but still an improvement.
Remember when that jerk off Obama lectured sputtering on like the faux-intellectual douche that he is about ‘how much is enough’ and all that?
Well, apparently Michelle sporting $4000 boots is okay. Their tackle opulence is fine. And the idiot-asshole sycophants in the media eat it all up.
I hate everyone in this story. Hate them for their naked hypocrisy.
https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/422281-michelle-obama-makes-a-splash-with-4000-designer-boots
They’re trolling us with a literal troll. Why anyone cares what any politician’s wife is wearing is beyond me.
Especially when they refuse to talk about a politician’s wife who was an actual fashion model. (Unless she wears a coat or hat that they think is inappropriate).
I have ONE more week of work left. ONE. And we have Christmas off so only four days. I have to get all my shit out of the apartment by the end of the month. Gonna burn through it tonight with a movie or doc tonight. Open to suggestions if you’ve seen anything good recently.
I had a tremendous “Asians Doing English Badly” occurrence recently. Little girl had some weird piece of paper that was all decked out with Shiba Inu (Huh. I didn’t know that was a breed–the character is drawn and I assumed it was a cartoon name. Maybe it is.) cartoon imagery. Just a hopping mess of this dog in different poses–I think they’re meant to be cut out and used as stickers or something.
It’s got dozens of catchphrases on it. “Oh, that was fun!” “WHAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE IS ONLY LIMITED BY YOUR IMAGINATION!” “Thank you for being there!” “When do we eat?!” “Good night!” “Attitude contagious…is yours worth catching?” “YOU CAN BE ANYTHING!” “You make me happy!” “I can’t Believe It!”
And so on.
And then in huge letters right in the middle, it just says “BOO, YOU WHORE!”
so she was coming on to you?
I love those poor English shirts. I have a cap that says stuff like GRORY MACHINE and You Will Never Find A Dream. Shit kills me every time.
My favorite: Part-timer is walking around with a shirt with the outline of Virginia. Whose state logo is “Virginia is for lovers.”
Straight up said “Vagina is for Lovers.”
The foreign staff couldn’t handle it. Snickers all around, all day.
Umm…. Ginny might need some reconstructive surgery if that’s the shape her nethers are in.
Better ask OMWC about that call.
Holy crap, I’d have a hard time keeping a straight face.
Mean Girls.
One night my wife and I were leaving a Memphis State b-ball game and the guy in front had a really fancy leather bomber jacket that had a picture on the back of it of some document with a lot of hangul printed on it. My wife started giggling and said it was a North Korean propaganda tract that was supposedly a confession of a captured American flier. It said something like “I came to oppress the free people of North Korea”
I’d still wear that.
That’s fucking hilarious!
Makes sense. Shiba dogs are assholes.
Of all the “Engrish” (purported ‘English’ verbiage produced in Asia which falls a bit short) that kills me is an announcement on the trains here in Japan where they obviously took pains to have an English native speaker read the announcement – but some shipdit Japanese edited it into something different/wrong.
And the rout continues with Asian markets down another 1% today.
More facts that will cheer your weekend:
In Europe, more than $9T of debt securities were issued at negative yields (interest rate below zero) over the past few years.
1,271 stocks hit their 52 week lows yesterday and decliners outnumbered gainers by 5 to 1 on the NYSE
DJI Transports (an excellent indicator of market health) has blown through all theoretical support levels.
So my dollar cost averaging strategy will finally start working?
Its been on the wrong side for most of the last year.
Rate hike for now, but we’re bound to pop the zero bound ourselves eventually.
Not even my suggestive milf? vids are safe on youtube anymore. What has this cruel world come to?
Relax, you can still watch Nicole Curtis stretch carpet on the DIY channel.
GEORGE SOROS NAMED ‘PERSON OF THE YEAR’ FOR FIGHT AGAINST RACISM, PUTIN AND ‘TRUMP’S AMERICA’
The Financial Times editorial board laid out the 88-year-old Hungarian-American investor’s life-long support of international liberal causes and his daily fight against “the forces of nationalism and populism” attempting to delegitimize him and destroy the “liberal democratic order.” The board specifically cited “the values he represents” as the primary factor behind his top “Person of the Year” pick.
“He is the standard-bearer of liberal democracy and open society,” writes Roula Khalaf in the profile of Soros published Wednesday. “These are the ideas which triumphed in the Cold War. Today, they are under siege from all sides, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia to Donald Trump’s America.”
“For more than three decades, Mr. Soros has used philanthropy to battle against authoritarianism, racism and intolerance. Through his long commitment to openness, media freedom and human rights, he has attracted the wrath of authoritarian regimes and, increasingly, the national populists who continue to gain ground, particularly in Europe,” The Financial Times continued.
Um, ok…
They actually believe the opposite of reality. It’s quite amazing.
Rupert Murdoch is totally next for Person of the Year right? Right?
Weird, when you fund every left-wing publisher and cause in one way or another you get praise and honor heaped upon you by the people who benefit…
What a fucking joke, goddamn has Trump’s election ripped the masks off.
Soros isn’t in the mood. His macro team lost 5% on the markets this year.
Wow.
Just…..
/nods head in disbelief.
Wanna gag?
How about Maclean’s trying to rewrite the narrative on the trade spat between Canada and the USA?
Fweewand stood up to de big bad Amewican boowies.
https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/chrystia-freeland-and-the-art-of-the-deal/
You’re welcome? I didn’t thank you you incompetent and embarrassing boobs.
The arrogance of liberals disgusts me.
Wanna gag?
A+ pickup line.
Chrystia Freeland
Would. And yea too much fawning adoration.
“Mr. Soros has used philanthropy to battle against authoritarianism”
Huh… Could have fooled me.
I’m surprised it wasn’t Xi Jinping. I guess his turn is next.
As a St. Louis Cardinal fan, I must add this birthday to the list: Stan “The Man” Musial. And since he’s also a H-o-F-er, Ken Griffey, Jr.
And they were 2 of the 4 MLBers born in Denora, PA. Griffey Sr also. Steve Filipowicz spends 3 years in the majors and cant even make the all-time Donora outfield first team (unless you move Stan to 1B).
Um, think about playing in youth b-ball in St. Paul when you had Paul Molitor and Dave Winfield playing at the same time (and for a brief time overlapping with Jack Morris).
You couldn’t even choose another sport, because Winfield was dominating it too. I guess you could try hockey, he wasn’t drafted in it.
They were born Nov 21st, not Dec, according bot baseball-reference.com
s/bot/to/
Damn, I looked at the wrong list. Oh well, they weren’t mentioned last month, either.
Thats okay, I misspelled Donora.
Basic competence and decency are basically gone. The only flaw with Stan Musial was that his name didn’t take the same number of beats as “Missus Robinson.”
There is one Stan “The Man”. And his last name isn’t Musial.
no one sane goes east of the hudson.
And you’re dyslexic, too.
Or maybe I’m dyslexic; or unable to read. Or just d-u-m dum.
The anti war left is… somewhere, I’m sure.
This is a confusing time, having the same people who called for bush to be tried as a war criminal suddenly want to keep at a war we never declared, started by-ohhhh I get it.
More Obama legacy removal at the hands of orange man.
Sure, when a black man takes us to
warkinetic action, suddenly Republicans are standing shoulder to shoulder with Eugene Debs.Once a week, in Bristol, VT a group of people have a little rally and wave signs calling for the end of all wars.
I remember seeing them since I was a kid. They must’ve had something come up, because they took an 8 year long sabbatical. They should be there tomorrow, I’ll have to ask them what they think about all this.
https://www.lp.org/religious-persecution-in-china-and-in-arizona/
The LP seems to be moving away from the statist “bake the cake” position.
“Religious persecution may not be as obvious in the United States, but it still happens here. Five years ago in Arizona, the Phoenix City Council adopted an anti-discrimination ordinance for businesses that offer services to the general public. The law forbids discriminating against customers based on factors that include sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. For the vast majority of businesses and types of service, this causes no issue. Clashes arise, however, when some business owners find themselves required by law to create messages that violate their religious views.
Joanna Duka and Brianna Koski, the owners of Brush & Nib Studio, risk six months in prison and a $2,500 fine each day they refuse to comply with the Phoenix law requiring them to create custom-made invitations for same-sex weddings. Duka and Koski are more than happy to sell pre-made invitations to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. They are unwilling to violate their own religious beliefs, however, by creating custom invitations for same-sex weddings.”
More:
“Freedom of religious conscience and freedom of sexual orientation do not inherently conflict. The Libertarian Party has championed gay rights since its founding in 1971, running the first openly gay candidate for president of the United States in 1972 and advocating the legalization of gay marriage in its party platform decades before either Democrats or Republicans would touch the issue at all. Libertarians also champion freedom of association and individual conscience. People should live their lives as they choose without harming others. That includes both the freedom to celebrate or decline to celebrate somebody’s sexual orientation.”
And
“There is little we can do about religious persecution in China other than make our views known about the freedom of religious belief and practice. We can, however, look to China as a cautionary example about the dangers of imposing a worldview onto others. We can also urge the justices of the Arizona Supreme Court to uphold the First Amendment — or, failing that, urge the people of Arizona to replace them with justices who will.”
Kudos to the LP. This makes me rethink my growing hostility toward them.
Comparing American public accommodation laws to Chinese gulags is a REALLY strong statement that I think is hyperbolic. This is a massive rebuke of Gary Johnson and his supporters who thought that they could just adopt Republican talk about taxes and merge it with the Democratic social agenda and somehow everyone would be pleased.
Comparing American public accommodation laws to Chinese gulags is a REALLY strong statement that I think is hyperbolic.
Krystalnacht comes before Auschwitz. Once you decide some people are unfit to participate in the society you are on a path that leads to killing them.
As you know, I am a pretty strong supporter of conscience protections for the religious and the non-religious, but we’re still a long way away from gulags.
I guess I shouldn’t complain, because it’s good to see the party correct its presidential candidate’s previous apostasy.
…but we’re still a long way away from gulags.
“A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”
Best to never head down that path to begin with.
Children of the revolution.
https://quillette.com/2018/12/18/the-children-of-the-revolution/
I always make sure to bring up the various historical records of the communist states with my younger cousins (my aunts are much farther left than my family, and the 3 youngest live near DC, where my uncle works for the Smithsonian, and my aunt is a regulatory auditor for lobbying firms), especially when they go off on Conservative people as being intolerant. It helps that I grew up Unitarian universalist, where the SJW strain was strong in our youth groups, and the non hippie types treated my parents poorly soley because they were moderate, not full on leftist. So I understand, if not fully, the manner in which social ostracism works for the left, and how they will eventually morph it into reeducation camps, and pass that knowledge on when they spout off.
they go off on Conservative people as being intolerant
Which is weird, because progressives are overtly, loudly, and proudly intolerant. And not just of dissenting views, but of white people, males, etc.
GayJay and his Weld minions complete overlooked the ‘cat herding phenomenon’. You can’t take over a movement that no one can even get together to start with.
The LP seems to be moving away from the statist “bake the cake” position.
We’ll see
Just so the can fully endorse their true desire to kill minorities/ ANTIFA looser
Stop wasting ‘o’s on losers.
As long as we’re making China comparisons, this is nothing better than a Hundred Flowers campaign as long as they’ve still got Sarwark in charge.
Moving away? I don’t think GJ’s convoluted position was ever “the LP’s” position.
Yeah, true. But, a lot of the leadership defended the position
Once I catch someone in a lie, they are a liar. If they steal once, they are a thief. If they kill, a killer. It’s the ol’ just suck one dick bit.
The LP isnt going to redeem themselves in my eyes. The masks are off and I see who is who.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/criminal-justice-reform-yemen-syria-this-week-is-a-major-libertarian-moment
“Criminal justice reform, Yemen, Syria: This week is a major libertarian moment”
IT’S HAPPENING!
So they must be praising Trump to the heavens at TOS?
Believe it or not. Of course there’s a few ‘to be sure Trump is worse than Hitler’s in there, but still.
In even more shocking news, The Jacket and Robbie over at TOS are praising Trump for the effort. The world is ending. For what it’s worth, Trump has been the most libertarian president of our lifetimes, pretty much from the start. Unintentional, or not, and whether it makes him a libertarian or not (he’s not).
ENB is praising him profusely for the effort. These are end times.
Julian Sanchez and Balko are still playing the “well this is good, but it’s dangerous because he hasn’t thought it through”.
There is no legitimate argument against ending an unauthorized and thereby illegal war in Syria. End of story.
“There is no legitimate argument against ending an unauthorized and thereby illegal war in Syria. End of story.”
Well, the democrats are about to invent one.
‘PEACH FOHTYFIVE!
30 Rock‘s “MILF Island” was prescient.
Facebook is reportedly developing a digital currency
Had a vehicle tail-gating me on the highway while driving to work last night. Right up on my bumper so I speed up some (already speeding) and then he lets off for a bit and does it again. I’m thinking “Jesus, dude! There are two lanes just go around!” Then he does it again right before I make my turn and lo and behold, it’s a fooken cunty cop. He was trying to bait me into a ticket. I never mentioned the fact that we got 4 inches of sloppy wet shit yesterday and the roads were pretty bad to start with. I remember the guys from high school that became cops. I ‘member…
Fuvkers.
I know, right? The were like a swarm of bees last night. I was doing 80 in a 70 and he prompted me up to 90. Visibility was bad, there was freezing slush on the road and probably a myriad of other things that Officer Peckerwood should have been devoting our time and resources to.
Why stop being a punk when you can just become a cop?
Shoulda slammed the brakes in a just world and drove away.
I think I’ll be getting a dashcam after Christmas.
Yeah, slam the brakes, claim there’s an animal. The cop cam wouldn’t be able to disprove that, and then you get a nice payout for your whiplash!
Oi! I may be a punk but don’t call me a fooking pig!
Classic move right there. Continue to reduce speed (rate of deceleration left up to the user) until they pass or you get rear ended.
“Saw a deer on the shoulder”
When I was in college I was driving home from a party when a car started tailgating me. They were driving a dark colored charger that looked like a police car. I kept driving they kept following. The entire time I’m thinking just pull me over already, but they didn’t. Finally I get home and they flash a spot light on my car. I sit in my car waiting for a few minutes and nothing happens. Finally I say fuck it I’m getting out to figure out what the problem is. Turns it out it wasn’t a cop it was some off his rocker guy. He starts screaming at me I know who you are! You can’t track me anymore, I found the implant! I’m standing there in a panic having no idea what to say. Then he just speeds off leaving sitting there thinking what the hell just happened.
Well, look at the bright side! At least he didn’t shoot you.
… yet.
*tightens foil cap*
Pfft, you and your foil caps. I know the Swiss are frugal, but isn’t paranoia worth a buck or two?
Back when I was younger and still in touch with my old high school classmates, I remember hearing some scuttlebutt about one classmate who had become a local cop pulling over and giving another classmate a DUI ticket because he “knew Rob always was drunk”. The official line was that Rob crossed the fog line, but the cop classmate knew he was a chronic drunk driver and just pulled him over.
This is the reason why I never want our city to go to a local Police force. The RCMP usually transfer members in and out so there is less chance for bad cops to be stuck in one location for too long. Of course there are always the malcontents that make everything shitty for everyone but they leave after awhile. I’d hate to be under the whim of some fucker that I struck out at a baseball game or maybe fucked his sister.
He was trying to bait me into a ticket.
Same thing happened to me once. Statey in an unmarked car tailgated me from the time I entered the highway. I kept notching up my speed until I was doing 75-80 in a 65. All I wanted was a buffer zone between cars. He hit his lights when I signaled to get on an offramp. I kept going until I found a parking lot to pull into, which wasn’t far from the interchange. I did this because this was rush hour and the ramp was busy. This didn’t sit well with him. I explained my actions, particularly calling him on his tailgating. He just scoffed it off and wrote the ticket. Cops are not your friend.
When somebody tailgates me, I just start slowing down.
Makes it easier for them to pass, but its even better when, for whatever reason, they can’t.
If the tailgater is a cop that’s a searchin’.
“Do you know why I pulled you over, Officer? I’m afraid I’m going to have to cite you for tailgating and attempted entrapment.”
TW: Soave
Mount Holyoke, a Women’s College, Can’t Find a Logo Gender Neutral Enough to Please Its Trans Students
Consistent with our modern understanding that the term “woman” includes those who were not born with female sex characteristics
Robby Soave.
And here is a quote from the VP at the college: We listened to feedback regarding the use of the Venus symbol as an option for the brand identity and logo, as proposed by the consultants. It is now evident to us that this symbol has a long history of exclusion connected to movements that, while trailblazing for some groups, represents the erasure of others.
We have thus determined that the College cannot move forward with a word mark that references this symbol as we rethink how we will distinguish Mount Holyoke College. While it is always disappointing to realize that our creative work has not achieved its goals, it is deeply upsetting to realize that the work is seen as offensive and damaging.
“If you were actually women, you wouldn’t be offended. Thus I must conclude that you are trans-posers and are hereby expelled from this women’s college for fraud.”
The Venus symbol is hate speech. Not heritage.
All have fallen short of the glory of intersectionality.
Funny, they don’t find it offensive that Holyoke is named after Elizur Holyoke, a settler dude who took advantage of the local Indians back in 1650s. Why does MHC support Native American genocide?
Soon my Pet, Soon….
Reading is hard. Pictures are easy. Pictures in books let you skip the reading. Logos are, like, pictures for ideas, so if you go after the logo, you don’t have to do all the reading about icky people.
It’s going to devolve to pictograms. There was a more “Sciency” name for them back in the 80’s but the idea was that you’d teach retarded people a concept with flashcards and such what not. Never seemed to take but with the dumbing down of the electorate, maybe Skinner’s ideas will make a comeback.
Does this kind of language both anyone else? Did the trailblazers somehow cause the ‘others’ to cease to exist? The terminology the SJW’s use seem to be tailor made for firing squads and disappearing dissenters.
The terminology the SJW’s use seem to be tailor made for firing squads and disappearing dissenters.
I’m thinking that’s probably not a coincidence.
The left’s brains are so broken that their institutions are beginning to seize up.
I thought moving forward was a concept invented by cis-shitlords.
Useful idiots heads are full of scrambled shit and so they cant function.
Take them out to a dead end road and drop them off.
Happy Friday Glibs!
http://archive.is/JYPDb
Kick your weekend off with a healthy dose of cleavage.
14 looks like she’s getting trashed, so that’s a definite yes. 21 looks like she’s already trashed, so that’s also a definite yes.
“He was arrested in April and charged with ethnic intimidation….”
What kind of Orwellian nonsense is that?
I wonder if the geniuses behind all this hate crime nonsense understand that when you criminalize insults you are equalizing the consequences for cussing someone out with those for putting thallium in their snacks.
We listened to feedback regarding the use of the Venus symbol as an option for the brand identity and logo, as proposed by the consultants. It is now evident to us that this symbol has a long history of exclusion connected to movements that, while trailblazing for some groups, represents the erasure of others.
They should adopt the image of a broken egg as their logo.
How about a penis since that’s gender neutral.
Nice. I mean, if a penis isn’t gender neutral, I guess that means we can call anyone with a penis “he”, right?
Harlan County Hypocrites
Surrounding counties are similarly dependent. Part of a coal-mining region in long, inexorable decline, this pocket of the nation exemplifies a political paradox: Why are so many American voters hostile to the government hand that feeds them?
“The SNAP card works every month; the kids eat two meals a day, but people don’t think about where the food comes from and go vote for Republicans,” said Larry King, a farmer who is chairman of the Democratic Party in nearby McCreary County, whose residents get 55 percent of their income from federal transfers.
Maybe there’s more to this than bribing your constituents with other people’s money.
Oh, who am I kidding?
Why are so many American voters hostile to the government hand that feeds them?
The only people capable of writing something this fucking stupid have never spent a day in a welfare office.
I hate the logic of “you’re a hypocrite if you vote Republican and are on food stamps”.
I’ve heard this argument any number of times before. It’s the old “What’s the Matter with Kansas” line. The thing that strikes me is how utterly contemptuous a view of the poor and lower middle class it presumes. In effect, what it assumes is that these people’s fondest wish in life is to be wards of the state. It doesn’t occur to them to even consider the possibility that they might actually want to be self-sufficient and able to provide for themselves, so that they can look at the world as men. It doesn’t occur to them to even consider the possibility that they view the federal government as having played a key role in putting their coal-mining region in “inexorable decline” and them into a state of dependency.
Yep.
“We regulated your industry out of existence, and we’ve been stealing 30% of your income your entire working life, and we are destroying the value of the dollar through inflation, why won’t you love us for the crumbs we toss you?”
GOP Prez vote percentage in Harlan County:
2016 84.9
2012 81.2
2008 72.3
2004 60.2
2000 47.3
1996 33.0
1992 32.5
So yeah, over the last 26 years it has completely reversed its voting. The welfare rate hasn’t changed greatly, so maybe there is another factor? Maybe something else about the Dems has changed?
“Am I so out of touch?”
“No… it’s the children who are wrong”
*hands and feet clapping in a synchopated rhythm, Baby!*
The Dems all moved to cities where there is no shame in being dependent on “the government hand that feeds them”. (Absolutely disgusting line, BTW – well done, NYT.)
Take Daniel Lewis, who crashed his car into a coal truck 15 years ago, breaking his neck and suffering a blood clot in his brain when he was only 21. He is grateful for the $1,600 a month his family gets from disability insurance; for his Medicaid benefits; for the food stamps he shares with his wife and two children.
“Every need I have has been met,” Mr. Lewis told me. He disagrees with the governor’s proposal to demand that Medicaid recipients get a job. And yet, in 2016, he voted for Mr. Trump. “It was the lesser of two evils,” he said.
OMG cognitive dissonance.
I live in coal-country. This is very much the mentality. ‘Gub’mint get out!…. but leave the EBT, food-stamps, and any other goodies I got coming to me before you go.”
It’s one of the Left’s talking points now, claiming there the Republicans are the real welfare parasites. See also, their contention that blue states subsidize red states.
I say let’s do it. Constitutional amendment: no one who is a government employee, government contractor, or recipient of government benefits can vote. Let’s see who starts winning elections when only the ants get to vote, and the grasshoppers can’t.
I remember that was the shtick of the original “American Socialist” over at TOS. I forget who but somebody did a great job at handing him his ass when he claimed the US couldn’t exist without California’s tax $. Turns out they are net-takers.
This is a few days old but apparently I missed it
Top Patreon creators, of the ‘Intellectual Dark Web,’ say they’re launching an alternate crowdfunding platform not ‘susceptible to arbitrary censorship’
Be interesting to see how long that lasts before they lose their hosting and payment processing.
Hillary Clinton
@HillaryClinton
Actions have consequences, and whether we’re in Syria or not, the people who want to harm us are there & at war. Isolationism is weakness. Empowering ISIS is dangerous. Playing into Russia & Iran’s hands is foolish. This President is putting our national security at grave risk.
Just a reminder- we dodged a MAJOR bullet by not electing this horrible human being.
We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
As if we needed any further proof that Trump is making exactly the right move.
Remember, this woman openly stated that she wanted to shoot down Russian warplanes over Syria.
Yup. That’s why I always roll my eyes at the “ERMIGAAAD!!! TRUMP IS GONNA START A NUCLEAR WAR!!!” bullshit. The people throwing these tantrums mostly supported the candidate who was an active proponent of the one policy advocated durig the campaign that actually could have started a nuclear war.
The media even gave her a chance to walk it back. She was going to declare a no fly zone over Syria, and then enforce it against the Russians.
This crazy bitch just openly talked about shooting down Russian warplanes, but the smart set was concerned with Trump.
Of course, this is not a new thing. Wilson ran as a peace candidate, so did FDR. LBJ painted Goldwater was a dangerous warmonger. Reagan was going to preemptively nuke the Soviets.
Playing into Russia & Iran’s hands is foolish.
You know what would have been even more foolish? Trying to dictate a “no-fly zone” in territory where one of the world’s two nuclear superpowers is flying sorties.
As you say below, this country dodged a bullet when she lost.
His anti-war with Russia stance is what got him my vote. Clinton’s position was overly aggressive and stupid, nuts even.
I remember overhearing a group of students before the election in a conversation where things were being said like ‘Just imagine what she’s going to be able to do in 8 years!’. Ice water ran through my veins, it’s literally one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever heard.
The mental gymnastics her followers go through in the replies. I’m now fully convinced a majority of this country is unfixable stupid.
^This. Public education is working exactly as intended.
I am wondering if the people that accessed these marxists of having a mental disorder are actually right. Nobody is this stupid and driven by envy that they would be content to live in hell as long as the condemn everyone else to it as well.
It’s like Boberson is saying above, public education has done the job it was intended to do and it’s followed up by a lifetime of media echoing and reinforcing the exact same narrative ‘socialism good’. It has to be destroyed or we’re screwed. Look at the current manifestation of the plan. Left wing kooks like Cortez being elected to Congress. That’s your future leaders if nothing changes. Just think about the horror of that.
“Isolationism is weakness. Empowering ISIS is dangerous.” Ignorance Is Strength. Freedom is Slavery.
Christ, what an asshole.
She has managed to fuck up everything that she has attempted over a fifty year long political career so what could possibly go wrong he asked redundantly.
Erm, what has she really accomplished other than marrying a guy whose coat tails she has used to demand she be given the highest office in the land? That and a shitload of criminal activities that the deep state not only turned a blind eye to, but protected her from being punished according to the law for?
I work at a union shop and every lunch-break these people go on and on about the latest Trumpasthrophe. They sit and chuckle about covfefe and get all het up about poor chillens being fed to the dogs at the border but I will one hundred percent guarantee that they have not one clue about why they hate him or his policies. I just keep my head down. They are decent people but why are they so invested in what the fake president is up to? We live in Canada fer fuck’s sake. Save your vitriol for the dearly departed Harper or that clown prince Trudeau.
I’d be pissed too if I lived in the 51st state but didn’t get to vote.
See, here’s the conundrum…
>>Isolationism is weakness.
Fuck you, Hillary. I’m an isolationist – why the fuck should we be expending blood and treasure for a pile of sand?
More of my “weak man” theory in action.
Hillary was always been worried about being painted as soft. So she enthusiastically pushes every war cooked up in the past 20 years, because it shows she’s just as tough as any man. Because real toughness is killing people for no good reason. Obama, that slump shouldered pile of tofu wrapped up in daddy issues was desperate to show how much of a hard man he was by personally approving the murder drone list.
I’ve worked for women like that. They don’t understand that the foundation of being a strong leader is the ability to actually kick someone in the ass and then ask if they want seconds. Every good boss knows that he can jump into the fray and acquit himself admirably. She does not have that talent.
Do we need bricks for the wall?
Seriously? Granted, I was young during his presidency and can’t recall any specifics of his policies, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone -other than some partisan progs- call Reagan those things before.
My guess is that since he was a big fan of the drug war, and that doesn’t play well with many here. All things considered however, I think there is nobody that succumbs to politics that would get 100% approval from people that value freedom above all else, but Reagan IMO was a lot less of an asshat than any other option we have had so far. Just like the orange guy is not perfect, but all other things considered not close to as bad as the other options.
He’s the best option we’ve had so far, except the orange one. I’ll take the orange one, no contest. I mean, it’s not like we’re going to get Rand Paul, so I’m afraid orange man might be the best we see for a generation, if ever.
I bled sorta Red back then and we were sure that PEOPLE WOULD DIE but in the grand scheme of things he mostly was able to stop himself from tripping over his own dick. Mostly.
President Ryan.
I was young also, but even I could see my family’s financial lives got much better once he was in office.
Drug war and massive expansion of federal budget maybe? I wasn’t even alive when he was president, and am completely ignorant of history, so I can’t claim any authority.
He signed off on the budget to get his tax cuts. He had a Dem House to work with for 8 years and a Dem Senate for about 6.
“Drug war and massive expansion of federal budget maybe?”
So no blame for Tip O’Neil whom basically used the fact Reagan wanted to rebuild the military and US economy to start spending like drunken sailors? Reagan himself said he voted for some real shitty budgets because it was the only way to get what he wanted. Maybe I am old fashioned and blame the house – you know the entity that according to the constitution is responsible for spending money – for the predicament we are in. And I blame it regardless of what party was in charge. granted when the executive and the house are both in the hands of the same party things always get worse spending wise.
Did he actually ramp up the drug war? Or maintain it? I don’t know.
Even if he did, it’s not like he was all alone in his zeal to end drug use. That was, and still is, a very bipartisan issues.
“Did he actually ramp up the drug war? Or maintain it? I don’t know.”
Nancy Reagan was a big fan of the drug war, and she pushed hard to ramp it up. Remember all the “This is your brain on drugs” commercials?
I thought it was nice of them to give those junkies jods doing performance art while high. But I still don’t get what the message was supposed to be, rewarding those users in front of everyone.
*listens to whispers*
Wait, that girl wasn’t strung out, she was just fucking nuts?
Oh absolutely. “Just Say No” was part of the fabric of my youth. But I would argue that isn’t part of the WOD. Or it is at least not the evil part of it. I mean, discourage drug use with PSA’s and such is much preferable to armed DEA agents.
Radley Balko
@radleybalko
Today in Both Things Are True:
— The US is mired in global conflict, nearly all of which is futile and counterproductive. Disengagement is a good thing.
— Trump’s flip, impulsive, foreign-policy-by-tweet ought to scare the hell out of you, even when he sometimes gets it right.
I’m sorry, but this is a REALLY REALLY stupid talking point that a lot of the people who look foolish today are clinging to in order to pretend as if they still care about a non-interventionist foreign policy.
THERE IS NO LEGITIMATE ARGUMENT FOR NOT ENDING AN UN-AUTHORIZED AND THEREBY ILLEGAL WAR IN YEMEN.
Trump could have thought up the idea of ending the war in Syria while taking a shit. IT DOESN’T FUCKING MATTER.
It’s the usual with these people. Aesthetics are everything. It’s all about the appearances.
Obama had a perfectly creased pant leg, thus he was Presidential material.
Balko has no leg to stand on here. He is spinning as hard as he can and looks like an even bigger sellout than he did before. This week was the single largest advancement of liberty in modern times.
“This week was the single largest advancement of liberty in modern times.”
BUT TRUMP BAD, MUH BUTT HURTZ!!!
I don’t even know how someone could make a counter argument. We just got:
– criminal justice reform
– a pull out of an unauthorized conflict
– and a draw down of troops in Afghanistan
I can’t think of a single week within the last hundred years that has yielded so much of the advocated policy objectives of libertarians.
I get it, Balko looks like a clown. But, what he could do is say “I don’t care about my other objections with Trump, this was an unequivocally good week.”
Is Balko actually a libertarian though? I thought he was just a liberal who used to be very good on police and criminal justice issues.
You may be right. I just assumed so, because of his work with Koch-funded outlets.
But he’s impulsive and unpopular and therefore makes the things we like look impulsive and unpopular!!!
Never mind the people who are so flip and partisan about supposedly deeply-held beliefs that they’ll turn on a dime as long as it GETS TRUMP, the problem is still Trump.
People do their best thinking on the toilet, bad example.
Fair point
“— Trump’s flip, impulsive, foreign-policy-by-tweet ought to scare the hell out of you, even when he sometimes gets it right.”
Someone had to come up with an alternative to ‘To be sure, he’s worse than Hitler’. At least Balko got original there.
Let’s try following this argument to its conclusion:
Trump got this right but he is inconsistent.
Inconsistency in foreign policy is destabilizing.
Consistency is in and of itself stabilizing.
Destabilizing foreign policy is the ultimate evil.
Hillary would have been consistently wrong.
Therefore Hillary by always being wrong would have been better than Trump who is sometimes right
And to follow completely through to the logical conclusion, give Obama another peace prize.
You know everything you need to about people in the media when you see ending an illegal war given slightly more weight than the indecency of the president’s flippant use of Twitter.
At least you can enjoy the NYT upcoming list of articles, titled something like:
No, Trump shouldn’t have pulled out of Syria.
No, Trump isn’t right on Syria.
No, Trump didn’t win in Syria.
No, Trump wouldn’t…
No, Trump shouldn’t…
Funny thing is, I got turned into a Trump supporter by constantly defending the fabrications in the press. As much as I hate politicians, I hate journalists more. I almost became one, once upon a time, only to give it up in the weeks before I graduated with my degree. Best decision I ever made.
I voted against Hillary Clinton. The press and the despicable deep state it is helping protect made me a Trump defender. We can kiss our freedoms goodbye if the deep state (both left and right) win this fight against the will of the people (which is the real objection that the deep state has to Trump: he represents the will of people they believe are stupid, should just shut up and know their place, and let them do whatever the fuck they want).
Yeah, I was gonna go GayJay at first, because I’d never vote for HRC. GayJay kinda lost me though, and seemed like he’d be pretty ineffective. I liked that Trump wouldn’t let himself be browbeat. I honestly didn’t think he’d be as good a president as he has so far. Granted, my standards are pretty low.
You’re spot on about the deep state / entrenched bureaucracy. It’s a problem.
If we are not going to fight to win – that means we kill everything that moves and break the fuck out of everything they have – lets avoid wars. The shit we are stuck with today because some people have pretended that sanitizing war somehow makes it morally more acceptable is just galling to me. War is supposed to be something ugly and brutal. War is a means to break the enemy’s will to fight. You can only do so when the enemy realizes they either surrender or they are all killed off. These wars with stupid ROEs that protect the asshat political class while sacrificing the young people willing to give it all are not justifiable. They are downright evil.
One of the many ‘unintended’ consequences of ‘progress’ that occurs over time: removing much of the barbarism of war, unfortunately serves to encourage more of it. Ameliorating many of the most devastating effects of poverty, lessens people’s motivation to avoid it. Living longer, healthier lives, necessitates expending far more resources per hour lived just to survive.
There’s no answer to any of it because you’re less than human if you don’t sympathize with the lessening of pain and suffering. Only that when it comes time to do the calculus of these types of things, you better take it into account.
— Trump’s flip, impulsive, foreign-policy-by-tweet ought to scare the hell out of you, even when he sometimes gets it right.
Why? Are you saying that we have to suck up to our over sensitive neighbors because they’ll do something rash and damaging because of a tweet? Isn’t that their problem, not ours?
Looking back nearly forty years, the jingoism was jarring. We were in the midst of the cold war and Reagan seemed like a loose cannon at the time. I used to have nightmares about the missiles taking off. Mind you, I was 16 and pretty left-leaning. Scared the shit out of me but I got better.
He was called an ignorant cowboy by every right-thinking person around the world. The only difference from GWB and DJT is they didn’t carry 49 states.
Say what you want about Reagan, but he was right to challenge the USSR and basically bankrupt it. Had we had another decade of Cater politics and kowtowing to the fucking marxists, we would all be living in a global collectivist state. Granted, these days I wonder with the marxists basically still trying to grab power and doing very well at it here, if we just delayed the inevitable. Humanity will always choose evil tyranny if it promises a paradise it can never deliver.
I would say that ramping up the military to oppose the Soviets was qualitatively different from making war on the emotion of terror. When you have an expansionist communist movement actively undermining you from within and snapping up trouble spots around the globe, engaging them is at least arguably an act of defense. When you have tribal goat herds ranting about how God hates the West less extreme measures than Global War seem called for.
A moral quandry for those here: My GF and I moved to North Carolina a little over a year ago, and she made a career from from being a school guidance counselor to getting her license and working as a child counselor (in schools). One of the big things in NC vs Maine is people are really into beating their kids here. So much so there are counties where the teachers are allowed to hit your kids. Anyway, one of the kids she sees recently told her he was being hit to the point of leaving marks (apparently if it doesn’t leave marks its totally legal, so if you bring your kids here, make sure you have a bag of oranges handy). He also said he was afraid to go home every day because of the beatings he would get. As a counselor, my GF is required to report suspected abuse to Child Protective Services, and so she did. Needless to say the mother is angry at her, and her boss is also kind of pissed at her. And the kid isn’t able to see her anymore, either. She’s been pretty twisted up about it these last few days because all she wants to do is help the poor kid the best way she can.
So the quandry: Is it wrong for her to have reported the mother to CPS? One the one hand, it’s CPS, and that’s probably argument enough in favor of not reporting. On the other hand, what other recourse does she have to help the kid out? And would it be right to knowingly ignore a child being abused? It seems like a no win situation to me in terms of being able to live with her libertarian principles.
Oh man, that is a stuff spot. I have no idea what the answer to that is, because I was not involved in the conversations with the kid. This sounds so sad. I hope everything works out for your gf and this kid.
Thanks for the support. The whole thing has taken the wind out of my GF’s sails. I think the truth is, there really is no right answer.
I feel so bad for all of these kids. My GF works at a couple of public schools in Durham, and their basically just schools full of poor black kids getting yelled at all day long. The abuse these kids put up with is almost never ending. They get yelled at all day at school, then go home and get yelled at or beat. It’s fucking brutal.
Goddam, that’s depressing.
Yeah, it blows my mind. She sits across the hall from a woman she says just yells at the kids all day long. I don’t know how you even manage to do that. Must’ve been a drill instructor in a past life.
No. She is a bully. The drill instructor actually serves a useful purpose in reorienting the civilian mind in a martial direction. This lady isn’t instilling discipline or teaching squat.
I was speaking purely for her capacity to yell all day. It’s definitely not intended as an indictment of drill instructors. I’m in no position to comment on the usefulness of their techniques.
School vouchers is the answer. I’m sorry. This is so sad.
When it comes to minors, it gets tough to argue that the state shouldn’t be involved in extreme cases (child protective services). Someone with the legitimacy of force needs to protect minors from dangerous physically harmful situations.
I agree, the problem is just that the government is just so goddamn useless, that there’s just as good a chance they’ll make the kid’s life worse rather than better 🙁
Given the brazen incompetence and corruption of CPS everywhere, I don’t think they should be the ones to wield that force either.
When I was wee the best we could hope for was a one-on-one with the gym teacher that saw the lash marks. Mom used to make us stand against the wall and whip us with a cord from the coffee pot. Bruises were raised, blood was spilled. Good on your Wife and fuck the powers that be, she is doing the right thing!
Spanking does not equal abuse. Siccing the government’s thugs on a family should be based on pretty solid evidence that something abusive is happening. What kind of marks are we talking? Blood filled welts are marks but so are red spots on skin.
I didn’t see the kid so I don’t know what kind of marks. He is afraid to go home every day, which says enough I’d think.
Leaving marks is arbitrary anyway. I was beat as a kid, quite a bit, over mostly petty bullshit because my mother was unhinged. While I oppose spanking, parents who spank shouldn’t have their kids taking away. But if you’re hitting your kid so much they live in fear of you, there’s a problem. Does that warrant CPS? I dunno.
She’s also required by law to report these things, otherwise she risks losing her license, and basically her career.
If she doesn’t report and a kid ends up with a broken bone, or worse, she’ll be pillaried as incompetent, uncaring, or dumb. She’ll lose her job, her career, and might face charges when the state throws her under the bus. It succors no libertarian sentiments to say this, but she’s under no obligation to correct the flaws of our deeply dysfunctional society.
Yeah, the course of action was clear just for that reason alone. I guess, the question is more: if that one detail was absent, which path should be taken? I just don’t see a good answer and was curious if anyone here had something interesting. So far, I’ve just been told I don’t know the difference between spanking and abuse 🙂
Spanking is a swift swat to the butt when a toddler runs into traffic. Abuse is waiting for the opportunity.
I know the difference. I’d even say it’s okay to occasionally be more severe than that. If you’re striking your kid in anger though, you’re probably dancing on a fine line.
My mother used to scream and swear at us, hit us until she hurt her hand, hit us with shoes, throw stuff at us. I know what abuse is.
Kids are one of those libertarian tough spots. They’re not responsible adults will a full suite of rights, but they’re also not chattel.
Personally, if there is a clear objective standard of “Beatings that leave marks must be reported”, I think that’s just fine.
Perhaps she could have talked with the parents first to gauge how much of what the child was saying was true? That could be against the rules, I don’t know.
Yeah, this is one of the areas she might have slipped. She’s had to do this in the past, and had cases where she talked to the parents. In this case, she’s met the mother before, and she’s pretty awful. I guess she didn’t think it would do any good.
You won’t hear this from your pediatrician, the police, or CPS, but in behavioral psych literature, there’s a pretty clear distinction between abuse and child-rearing techniques that involve physical punishment. One of them has life-long negative effect on outcome (even after accounting for things like genetics, food consumption, family composition, etc.) One does not. The Dr Spockeque no-spanking-never is a product of bad research that doesn’t account for either genetics or co variants.
Anyone in the South really needs to be able to spot the difference. Maybe your GF did, but it sounds like maybe she didn’t.
You are from Maine. You lump both abuse and reasonable punishments into the same “beating” category. My guess is that you don’t have the perspective to discriminate between life-effective abuse and things that the objective literature have shown to be a valid child rearing technique. GF probably doesn’t either, and she should get that sorted out right the fuck now.
You’re making some heavy assumptions about me here. I oppose spanking, but think it has its place for some people and some kids. Some kids just aren’t gonna get it until you spank them.
I was pretty heavily abused as a kid, and was hit a lot. As well as lots of other, not-relevant abuse. It’s fucking awful, and children shouldn’t suffer it. If the child is afraid to go to their home, don’t you think there’s a good chance we’re going to see long term effects? Do we need to wait until the kid is 18 and fucked up to see how she should have acted?
The law here is pretty clear — hitting that leaves marks is abuse. That’s what she saw, and she acted in accordance with the law. That’s pretty fucking sorted on that front I’d say.
1) Yes, I did make assumptions based on what you wrote about yourself. You were exposed to abusive punishments. Do you know what non-abusive physical punishment looks like? And PS I was subjected to a childhood of (non-physical) abuse too. I know exactly what its like, and I know what its like to get the fuck out of that world.
2) Do I think your GF should wait till he’s 18? NO. She needs to get a better understanding of the new culture she’s in so that she can leave alone the situations that need left alone AND SO SHE CAN INTERVENE IN THE SITUATIONS THAT REQUIRE INTERVENTION.
3) The law may be clear, but you posed this as a moral quandary. As you point out, the law is at best a blunt instrument for guiding your GF, and realistically it is operating orthogonality to morality. I think your GF has a moral responsibility to educate herself more on the lives of the students she is attempting to help. (This isn’t to suggest that your GF was wrong to take this job or anything)
1. Yes, I know all about it. I had a pretty shit childhood. I’m well aware that you can hit people and not fuck them up, and fuck them up without hitting them. I’d generally contend that, barring extreme cases, it’s not the hitting per se that’s doing the real damage. It’s the betrayal from people who are supposed to love you and protect you.
2. You’re also assuming a lot about her and this particular situation. It sounds like you’re saying this situation didn’t warrant intervention, but how could you possibly know that? Also, please stop assuming she doesn’t know what she’s doing and isn’t learning what’s appropriate for our new home. She does, and is. She had made a mistake with this earlier on, using the criteria she’s used to, and has since corrected for that.
3. Okay, so assuming the abuse is happening, and pretending she has no legal requirement to report it, what should she have done? You keep saying we should educate ourselves and not actually addressing the moral quandry, or rather, seem to be implying no action was necessary because no abuse was present.
2) I have no idea if the situation warrants intervention. I have a third-hand report of facts that, if they were being relayed through me, would have been distorted based on my own personal history. That’s why I don’t know what your GF should do in this situation.
But you said “She’s been pretty twisted up about it these last few days because all she wants to do is help the poor kid the best way she can.” Based on that, I do know what I think her moral imperative is – become more educated so that she can confidently help the kids who need it without bringing the eye of Sauron onto the families that shouldn’t have it.
3) For these givens, she should force the abuse to stop in whatever way is most beneficial for the kid. That probably means getting CPS (or whatever arm of the state is appropriate) on the case. She should also take any other non-state actions that can help the kid out. Doesn’t sound like she has any power over or social ties with the rest of the family, but if/when she is able to have direct interactions with the kid, she should be working to ensure he has the physical and emotional support he needs.
I get the impression you think I’m pro-abuse. If that’s the case, I don’t have anything further to say to you.
“I get the impression you think I’m pro-abuse. If that’s the case, I don’t have anything further to say to you.”
Really, you’re going to take a condescending tone with me that whole time, then get huffy at the end? I don’t think you’re pro-abuse, I think you’re assuming I’m some crunchy granola northerner coming to the South and trying to tell the yokels they don’t know how to live. I think that lens was causing you to assume she (and I) were calling something abuse that a non-hippie would consider normal activity. I was trying to correct that and also not be too annoyed with your tone. Some annoyance must have slipped through.
I apologize if my tone was annoying. That wasn’t my intent, and I’m sorry if that was the result.
No worries man. I meant no offense, and (mostly) took none.
Yep. As I stated above some parents look for the chance to beat on their kids. We got beaten until we grew too large to beat and then the worm turned. I shed nary a tear when my Mother died and the ones for my Father were sporadic. And bitter. Fuck them. Now I only have to wait my brother out and I will truly be “The One”.
I am with Leap here. Unless you have a clear and total picture don’t assume abuse simply because the kid comes from a background where we all have been conditioned to expect apathy or abuse. I have heard horror stories about outsiders that got involved in these things only to end up being the ones getting shafted. I hate child abuse and bullies, but I am also very keen to the fact that not all corporal punishment is abuse. I myself was a real hardcase as a kid, and I know that had my mom not been willing to put a beating into me when I deserved it for my defiance and trouble making, that I likely would have turned out a totally different person, and not for the better.
I’m not assuming abuse. My GF is required to report cases that meet certain criteria, which is what she did.
My question posed for you guys (which was maybe unclear): In her position, if you have a kid you know is being abused, what do you do? It seems like a shitty decision with a shitty outcome either way. For the sake of the hypothetical, just take it as a given the kid is being abused.
If the abuse is an objective fact, you do what you can to stop it.
I guess so. It’s just, when you’re only tool of action is CPS, it feels like trying to put out a fire with a handful of uncooked spaghetti.
Well, you also have to recognize that you are not personally in a position of power such that you can magically make it stop on your own. You just have to use the options that are reasonably available to you.
That is where I draw the line. I accept spanking your own kids but nobody else has the right to touch your kids (except in self-defense), period.
Yeah, exactly. I can see being pro-spanking, but the idea that I would ever let someone else decide when it’s appropriate to hit my kid? No fucking way. If they’re bad, tell me and I’ll handle it how I see fit.
Even if they are acting as your agent? Meaning, if the parents give the teacher the authority to use corporal punishment on their child, would that be different?
And I wonder what “hit” means here. Spank? Ruler across the ass? Open hand slap across the face?
Everyone is different. I’d never give the government permission to hurt my (theoretical) kids in my name.
To your second point, that’s a great question. I don’t know what it looks like. Honestly, I don’t want public employees using any degree of violence on my (theoretical) kid. If they need their ass beat, I’ll be the one to do it, thank you.
No, I wouldn’t give them permission either. Not a chance. However, in the South, I assume many do.
That’s just asking for trouble. Clear-cut rules in this situation would prevent any abuses and misunderstandings. Moreover, I would say it is *your* responsibility to raise your kids so they don’t act in a manner that deserves a spankin’ when you’re not around.
OTOH, I was a (mostly) good kid who didn’t get any kind of abuse beyond a spanking now and then myself – so my perspective may be colored by that.
That describes me as well. And I agree with everything you say, I guess I’m just pointing out the -obvious- fact that many people -especially in the south- do give that permission. Whether expressly or just by considering it to be “the way it is”.
IMO, it’s a generational thing. I’m of the opinion that all discipline goes through me and my wife for our kid.
However, how much of that is a trust thing? If I was a 4th generation member of the same community, and everybody in the entire community was a cousin or an aunt or a family friend, maybe my comfort with Aunt Nellie swatting my kid at school would be higher.
Such a community is much more rare today than 50 years ago.
Obviously CPS is vilified around here. Yes, CPS are a bunch of assholes when they show up at someone’s door because the neighbor saw the 8 year old was Home Alone. CPS showing up because you let your kid walk to the park? Fuck ’em.
But there probably should be a (small) place for some kind of authority to investigate abuse on a child. I wouldn’t think less of her for reporting it appropriately.
If your girlfriend is a mandated reporter due to her job, it is her legal obligation to contact CPS regarding anything that she believes raises a reasonable suspicion that a child is being abused or neglected. This only applies if she was alerted to the information in the performance of her job, so something she observed while engaged in her personal life would not carry that requirement.
When you contact CPS, it’s the hotline personnel who determine if the case is “reportable.” They might, based on answers to their questions, decide that it isn’t reportable. If they think it isn’t, there will be a record of your call but there will be no investigation and neither the family nor your employer will never know you called, unless harm happens to the child down the line; then you could be found out and fined.
Anyone in a job that makes them a mandated reporter is at risk of having to make one of these calls, and possibly in a situation in which they don’t really want to.
I’m a mandated reporter. Based on my experiences, you’re more likely to be told something is not reportable than having your call trigger an investigation. I once had a parent and child tell me things that would clearly trigger an investigation – which led to a determination that that there was no evidence to support the things I was told. Even when I made the call, I suspected they were trying to get the father’s visitation rights terminated, and apparently I was right. But I had to make the call. Basically, if you take a job that makes you a mandated reporter, you might have to make such a call. I sincerely hope I never have to do it and find that CPS takes a hard line on a family when something less severe is more appropriate.
My real fear though, is being in an emergency situation that leads to a 911 call, because my clients are developmentally disabled, and we know that cops can mishandle the developmentally disabled leading to tragic outcomes.
Regarding your girlfriend, she probably made the right decision if the child was regularly being left with marks and was afraid to go home.
I think the big question you’re all missing is how does this affect the Ghost of Warboners Future? I guess we’ll find out in less than 15 minutes.
Goddammit. Just when my delusional faith in humanity is almost restored I come here and try to catch up. A million to be sure’s from people who hate Trump but like most of what he is doing. I dont get that.
*facepalm*
I found a tree planter. Now I cant find saplings. For some reason the state nursery wont let me contact them. Fuckin’ state. Any of y’all have about 50,000 saplings laying about?
You should be able to find 50K saps in any of your large NE universities.. Oh wait. You asked for saplings, not saps.
That’s definitely me.
To be sure.
Hate his ass. I think. Maybe.
This withdrawal from overseas military action is just a huge Xmas present for me though.
..
God, the media dicksucking on the Syria conflict is killing me today. All of a sudden, it’s the poor innocent kurds.
Let me tell you, I love the kurds. I’m ethnically related to them and I get their plight completely. Reasonable people in a religious shithole.
We had no plan to help the kurds whatsoever. Couldn’t. No timeline. No plan. None of what we wanted to accomplish could be accomplished without real political will.
It’s sort of like the Paris Climate Deal, which very expensively didn’t do anything. Pretending to be concerned about things is not doing things. Unless we were willing to tangle with Russia or Assad (which we weren’t), we weren’t doing anything. I request a timeline and a concrete plan when we do things overseas. Very simple.
“I request a timeline and a concrete plan when we do things overseas. Very simple.”
Get a load of this guy.
Just out of curiosity, what is it you hate about Trump?
My #1 issue is economic freedom and always has been. I think it’s the straw that stirs the drink for our way of life. It’s everything. Tariffs and backwards logic on protectionism irks me to no end.
Every president protects certain bases — it’s politics — but I think what drives me the most nuts is the open defense of it.
I should also add: While I am ok with reasonably enforcing immigration law and especially think closing loopholes that give welfare to immigrants is important, I do not give a shit about a wall. Never have. I think it’s a very stupid thing to pin your entire presidency on and may cost him dearly.
Fair enough. I never cared one way or the other about him until he won in 2016. Hillary was so poisonous I would have a rattlesnake in the office before her so I was glad to see him win.
He has done more in the first half of his first term that I always dreamed of but had no hope of ever seeing than I could have believed. Mostly that amounts to a war of attrition on the bureaucracy and shit-canning an ocean of regulations. Drawing down the endless wars that feed cronies and cripples and kills our troops is….a dream come true.
Aside from protecting shipping in the Red Sea I cant see that we have any interest whatsoever in the ME or central Asia. Bring our troops home.
The truth is I would actually love to help these people if we could.
I don’t think we can or have the political will.
What, are we gonna create a second Israel for the kurds?
Give me the business plan. These wars drag on three times longer than WWII and do absolutely nothing.
Do absolutely nothing? What about the poor contractors raking in billions? You call that nothing?
Judging from the last week or so, not much. Opinions may differ but if he’s gonna troll like that, troll harder Donny Two-Scoops!
Meh, I voted for him in 16 and likely will in 20. I did not like him before late in the campaign because I have read his books and had some peripheral interactions with people involved in his real estate school who I consider snake oil salesmen, but fair is fair and he has been better than any president in my lifetime except for 1st term Reagan. I am more conservative than many here, but am not a fan of the anti intellectual schtick many conservatives (including people I am very close to) seem to delight in. The fact that the left has coopted the universities does not mean that larnin’ is bad and it does not mean that stupidity is a virtue. Trump sometimes plays to the lowest elements in his base and pandering to stupid people is bad no matter who does it.
I like learning.
Shame you can’t do that in school anymore.
You can.
We can easily return higher learning to places you go specifically to acquire skills and knowledge instead of mostly extended public schools/daycare, however.
Start with a cap on federal education loans.
You can learn that there are 33 genders and that you’re a racist and rapey wrong thinker.
It’s gone down to 33? Progress!
It should be a lesson to a tired and jaded country that federal power is perhaps a tad overbroad when the man in office is either Satan incarnate or a messianic avatar of hope, and no nuance is allowed. Either you hate our guy and stand for everything that is evil and rotten in this world, or you embrace him like a father gone to war and treat him as proof that humanity has at last lifted from the muck.
But, no. The problem isn’t a system in which the constant tussle for power between The Holy Light Of Goodness and All That Dwells In The Sulfurous Marshes Of Evil makes us all miserable and bitter. The problem is that sometimes we have to share power with those evil, smelly cretins, and once we can really put the boot to them, utopia will finally obtain.
What’s especially amazing is everyone in Congress seems to be bipartisan against this pullout of Syria.
So wait? Don’t they have the power to do something then? Why is no one condemning them?
Yup, this could all be solved by not giving the president this power in the first place.
I’m just digging on the push back. When he has both “sides” of Congress twitter-pated, this is a good thing.
Ginsberg is probably toast. Trumputin to strike thrice.
She’ll hold onto her seat until her phylactery is destroyed. If she had any honor, she would have retired after the first time she fell asleep during oral arguments. I’m not really a fan of the impeachment process for Justices, but (and I say this as non-partisan as I can) but in this case the Senate should impeach her. They should do the same to any other Justice that demonstrates that they can’t keep up with the job any more.
But she hulks more weight than any noodle-armed millennial manlet can. Her vibrancy and health make women swoon and soyboys despair of their feebleness. She’s a tenacious fighter, more resilient and willful than the mixed-sperm baby of Achilles and Hector carried by Athena herself, had they only a modern view on gay marriage.
Awestruck silence. Rousing Ovation!
Reading today’s announcement, I note that it refers to two “malignant nodules”, that were completely unsuspected and discovered accidentally while treating her broken ribs. IANAD, but more than one nodule means “metastasizing”, and likely therefor “aggressive”.
They also said there were no signs of cancer anywhere else. Of course, last week they were telling us her health is fine.
IANA Oncologist, but it is my impression that a round of chemo is pretty routine even after surgical removal. Maybe she’s getting chemo and they aren’t telling us, maybe she should get chemo but she’s too frail, or maybe they don’t think she should get chemo at all.
She’s old, frail (just look at her – that crap about how fit and vigorous she is, is obvious BS), has busted ribs, and lung cancer. I’m not sure how long her hatred of Trump can keep her alive, but in another year we’ll be into the zone of “Presidential primaries underway, no SCOTUS appointments”, so she probably doesn’t need to stay not-dead for much more than another year. Unless Trump wins re-election, of course.
I wonder if anyone at all is making the case to her that the right thing to do is step down, because she can’t really do the job anymore.
Third of Americans are going to leave, they swear it!
99% of that third have never been in another country, do not speak any other languages, have no idea what living in any of those countries involves, and have no means to emigrate there. So actually, no, no they aren’t. It one thing to anonymously say on the internet you are just packing up and leaving, quite another to actually do it.
“Researchers found that people who don’t feel “very strongly” about their national identity were most likely to consider life outside the U.S.”
That would change very quickly for the vast majority of them if they tried it.
Oh, Cabo is just gorgeous this time of year! You really should! Reminds me of the dense fuckers that believe that they were some Duchess in a past life and not the maid-servant that wiped her bum.
So, you admit to posting blatant click-bait? Well played.
Why life outside the US is better! Reason#5 will curl your toes in ecstasy!
the simple desire to explore the world
“I’m bored. Let’s sell everything we own, quit our jobs, and move someplace where we know nobody, have no means of support, and don’t speak the language.”
So Trump legalized marijuana. Yeah sure it is only hemp. But 30 years ago hemp plants would have gotten you the same pound me in the ass prison as regular weed.
A some criminal justice reform. Pulling out of Syria. Mocking Macr8nand Tredeau for the fucking pussies they are
Got rid of do nothing sessions. And if a the reports are true and a shit load of People ate gonna follow Mad Dog Poodle cuz bad man orange man want no war,. Well I am ok with that too