Yesterday was one of the lightest sports days I can remember. The Fins beat the Pats. LaVar Ball is sending his boys to…Lithuania to play for a club in a town with 10,000 people. The NFL Network suspends three analysts, including Ike Taylor and Marshall Faulk, over #metoo. A couple other guys were named in the suit including Donovan McNabb, but they don’t work there anymore. And lastly, Greg Schiano’s Tennessee deal was going to be worth over $27 million. And the memo of understanding, which was signed by the school’s AD, doesn’t say anywhere on it that the school president, CFO or any other party is required to endorse it. Dude is about to get paid for wrongful termination. And rightfully so.
Marshall Faulk gets #metoo’d
On the ice, there were six games. The Panthers beat the Red Wings. The Islanders beat up on the Crapitals. The Dallas Stars beat the Rangers. The Avs beat the Pens. The Jets drilled the Canucks. And the Anaheim Mighty Ducks bested the Hurricanes.
Like I said, it was a light day. Which probably pleases some of you to no end. ::sigh:: But I digress.
Well, this is what you waited for! I present to you…the links!
President Trump calls for an end to “chain immigration” in wake of botched NYC terror attack. Apparently, the guy got in, according to my friend Simone, because his best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who got the guy a green card at a 31 Flavors. That might be a little elaborate. Actually, he got in because his aunt or uncle became a citizen and could then sponsor parents, children, siblings, nieces or nephews. Which I’m just sure there’s no way to abuse when we’re talking about third world countries with dubious record-keeping at best.
Late San Fran Mayor Ed Lee
San Francisco mayor Ed Lee dropped dead overnight. The first Asian-American mayor of the city began public life in 1991. He had been elected twice. Board of Supervisors president London Breed will take over his office for the time being.
Trump vows to send man back to the moon and even to Mars. Does not explain how our broke asses will pay for it.
Chicago makes it rain to the tune of a $31M settlement for four men coerced into making a confession and spending 17 years in jail for a crime in which DNA evidence exonerated them. The FOP issued a statement about rewarding bad guys. So I guess they mean the animals who are probably getting pensions after sending people to prison for 17 years due to coerced confessions and questionable police practices. Meanwhile, the residents get hit with a $31M kick in the nuts and those pensions are still safe. What. A. Shitshow.
Want to know why a lot of those Disney kids grow up to be train wrecks? Shit like this might have something to do with it. I’m not saying that’s the only reason, but I wouldn’t be shocked if this kind of thing is rampant in the kids entertainment world.
America’s best hope for a Korean solution. Seriously.
Dennis Rodman: Statesman. Seriously, he’s probably do better than anybody else that’s tried to intervene with that lunatic in a Mao suit.
Just make sure to leave all that tax money at the door. KTHXBAI.
I know I won’t be leaving here with you.
That’s it. Enjoy. And have a great day!
First! And it feels so good.
Is anyone really surprised that the folks you brought you Hannah Montana are kiddie diddlers?
I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until I read “Disney Concerts and living to glorify God in all things”.
I wouldn’t be shocked if this kind of thing is rampant in the kids entertainment world.
I never really thought of this site in that way, but hey, whatev.
*OMWC books flight to Orlando*
In mouse years, those girls were totes legal.
And they were fucking Goofy to boot.
I find your line of reasoning daffy.
This whole thread really bugs me
Pooh on all of you.
Don’t be such a Scrooge, McDuck.
*narrows gaze*
These puns? Por que?
Somebody slipped a mickey into these girl’s Apple juice, and now they are suffering from minnie problems.
Daffy and Bugs aren’t Disney IP. Disqualified!
True, they’re producers and writers were too proud of their drinking to be proper knee-touchers
Like we’re gonna let a Floridian make the rules. I’d rather live on Pluto!
Pst. That’s not even a real planet.
You are all loony.
Hey! Look who finally tuned in!
I’m still lurking just can’t comment as much.
*looks up*
/to self: yep, this is the pun thread
*stares blankly at bacon*
Chain immigration should be seriously curtailed IMHO. Why we have a system based on anything other than merit boggles my mind.
They have have one point if they can prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) that they are a blood relative of a citizen. Provided useful skills are weighted at 10-50 per.
You have just doubled my knowledge of immigration law.
This is not the system we have. This is the system I propose.
And I’m back to square one on immigration law. haha
But yeah I agree with your points rating. Personally I would also propose an English language requirement, which I suppose is racist or whatever, but I’m operating off the theory that it’ll be easier for all of us to get along if we all speak the same language.
Well congrats, you just doomed my grandparents to extermination.
Funny thing, though, like every other generation of immigrants, their kids and grandkids picked up English just fine.
Did your grandparents know any English at all? My great grandparents ran from Germany/Poland right before WWII. I don’t know what their English skills were, but I can assume not great.
Funny thing, though, like every other generation of immigrants, their kids and grandkids picked up English just fine.
Just like Asian and Latino/Hispanic immigrants of today. The difference is, every day new Asian and Latino immigrants come to our shores. Travel back 130 years ago and you’ll hear a lot of people complaining “Why can’t these kikes/wops/hunkies/pollacks/etc. learn English?” It’s not that they weren’t learning English, but that you still had an influx of people coming to refill the population of those who hadn’t learned yet.
Being hot is a useful skill, right?
Yes. Always yes.
+100 points
Rufus at immigration office.
Rufus: I hear you guys have gone meritocracy BABY!
Agent: Yes?
Rufus (passes hand slickly over hair): Check this out, Jack!
Agent (to another agent): What’s he doing?
Agent: Is…..he….OMG!!!
Because who the hell are you to tell me that my wife has to pass some arbitrary rubric before I can earn the right to cohabitate with her at the place of my choosing?
Do I get to have veto power over your intimate relationships?
That’s a different situation though, isn’t it? A better analogy would be you marrying a woman who then gets US citizenship, and proceeds to bring in her 3rd cousins, who shouldn’t necessarily step ahead in line of others.
I wrote a longer response to you, but I was Blue Screened.
The standing-on-one-foot version is that, not really, since both cases require the same process and form (I-130).
For good or ill, the framework of American immigration policy is family reunification, which I find no more or less arbitrary than a point-based merit system. If we’re going to consider marriage a right to be granted by the Federal government at its pleasure to certain approved populations, then why did I have to go cap-in-hand to the government to request the privilege of cohabiting with my spouse merely because I had the audacity to be betrothed to one not of the Body? In order to do this, I had to sign an Affidavit of Support in which, even if I divorce, I sign away my rights to certain government assistance. Meanwhile, you can marry any domestic deadbeat to your
heart’spenis’ content.Again, the government should neither prohibit or subsidize entry.
Because who the hell are you to tell me that my wife has to pass some arbitrary rubric before I can earn the right to cohabitate with her at the place of my choosing?
Well, maybe you chose a place that has some rules about who all can live there?
I don’t remember voting on those rules, much less signing a contract to abide by them.
Just busting your balls, HM. I got no real problem with immediate-immediate family (wife and children), but anything beyond that shouldn’t get any kind of preference, period.
A nephew? Gimme a break.
Well, you can’t sponsor a nephew directly. A US citizen can sponsor immediate relatives (spouse, parent, unmarried child 21 or younger) without limit. Other than that, in order of preference and based on country quotas, a citizen can also sponsor unmarried children 21 or older, a green card holder can sponsor spouses and children, a citizen can sponsor married children, and finally a citizen can sponsor brothers and sisters. This last one is called an “F41”. Now, from what I understand, the Port Authority bomber came in on an F43, which means that he was sponsored by someone who came in on an F41.
Again, I have no strong feelings either way concerning whether or not brothers and sisters of immigrants should be sponsored as accepting or prohibiting them isn’t any more or less of an injustice than basing that decision on a points system. In either framework, you run the risk of letting in a bomber. In general, I am leery of using the DoS and INS as a Division of Precrime, as that way lies tyranny.
My take is based on the idea that immigration policy should serve American interests, not the interests of foreigners. That points me to only letting people immigrate if they are likely to be functional productive citizens. Letting in the spouse and kids is consistent with this, I think – we’re going to be more likely to get functional citizens if they have, and keep, their immediate family.
Beyond that, though – nope. Everybody else goes through the same process, no shortcuts for being a relative of somebody.
This isn’t about keeping about bombers, particularly, except that they generally seem to come from the group of “not likely to be functional productive citizens”.
Aye, but here’s the rub! Who determines what Americans’ interests are? I’m American, and let’s say I own a factory. It’s in my interest to have a steady supply of cheap labor. “American interests” is a code-word for communitarian utilitarianism.
Who determines what Americans’ interests are?
Indeed. Note that I did not refer to “Americans’ interests” but to “America’s interests”. Put in ye olde Constitutional terms, immigration policy should serve the “general welfare”. Which is not always easy to identify, I grant. But saying its too hard to try to identify and advance so we shouldn’t bother sounds to me like a recipe for giving up on a government that is anything other than a cronytastic collection of corrupt sycophants.
“American interests” is a code-word for communitarian utilitarianism.
“General welfare” was originally, I believe, understood as more of a Pareto-optimal concept. However we define it, though, what else should guide national policy (understood not as “what should the Total State do” but rather “what should a Constitutional semi-minarchy do”)? I don’t think “What’s good for GM (or Tesla) is good for the country” is a good guide, which could be how “I own a factory. It’s in my interest to have a steady supply of cheap labor” is justified. I note that “I own a factory. It’s in my interest to have a steady supply of cheap labor” could also be justified by communitarian utilitarianism, based on the lower prices your factory charges.
This shit ain’t easy, no question. I kind of hold to the idea that the US should be sovereign, that its government should serve the interests of the citizens, and that restrictions on immigration are a natural and inevitable result of those two concepts. From there, its arguing about details of what kind of restrictions.
I admit that I don’t follow this argument. To me, it seems no different than claiming that if we promote laissez-faire because we admit that we can’t accurately identify economic trends in advance, then we are doomed to a corporate kleptocracy. For me, at least, limited government means that we should recognize a healthy dose of epistemological humility in our legislation and not attempt to control complex, dynamical, and chaotic systems (like weather or the economy, of which human migration is a sub-system) through law.
I understand that point of view, but I have to part ways when I recognize that most restrictions on immigration violate the NAP in that their enforcement inherently involves threats of force against peaceable people. Indeed, the parallels to taxation are clear in that it, too, is often justified as a natural function of sovereign states in order to serve the public interest. We can imagine a miniarchist night watchman state with minimal taxation, so why wouldn’t the night watchman state also have minimal restriction on migration (I’m talking emigration as well. I would argue that the Founders would spit blood over the fact that for approximately 40 years a passport for a citizen is mandated to leave the country.)
the economy, of which human migration is a sub-system
Migration implicates more than the economy. But, point taken – humility in setting the rules is always a good thing.
And I do think we need some control on immigration. The fruits of basically uncontrolled immigration are on display in many border states, and I don’t think it has been conducive to the general welfare of American citizens. The border states are kind of a mixed bag economically – Texas is thriving, California is kind of a mess in many ways, New Mexico is the same scenic craphole its always been, and Arizona is kind of in the middle. The adverse impact of millions of illegals shows up more culturally (debatable, I know, but the inward-looking barrios in Tucson, Phoenix, etc. are not leading the pack in social functionality) and in the criminal justice system, where illegals are highly over-represented and not just for breaking immigration law.
most restrictions on immigration violate the NAP in that their enforcement inherently involves threats of force against peaceable people
So do laws against trespassing.
Immigration is definitely one of those areas where I am happy to lob spitballs from the back row. I would not want to actually be in charge of setting immigration policy.
I’m not sure I would agree. I’ll defer to your understanding as a lawyer, but in NH, at least, criminal trespass requires the trespasser to both knowingly enter property after having notice it was forbidden to do so (e.g., a no trespassing sign) and after having received a request to leave, refuse to do so.
I know this because once Lemmy Kilmister walked into my backyard. The police refused to charge him with trespass because I didn’t have a no trespassing sign; however, Lemmy also threatened to take my stuff, so they were able to charge him on that.
Well technicalitied, sir. Your understanding of trespass law is correct.
However, I would respond that it is vanishingly rare to unknowingly immigrate to another country.* So the malum in se necessary for trespass is equally present, in fact, for illegal immigration. The illegal immigration laws are written, I think, as a “status” offense that does not require criminal intent, but in practice, I think a sufficient level of intent is present.
*Leaving aside the possibility that you crossed an unmarked border accidentally, which virtually no immigrants to the US actually do, and also leaving aside the people who fall out of being legal immigrants because of our insane immigration bureaucracy. These people may not have the requisite intent to be an NAP violator, but they are very much exceptions/edge cases.
Somebody help me out here. That name is crying out for a joke but I can’t find it.
Because you are one of the lesser breeds, without the Law!
And she doesn’t even have pasty skin, a ski slope nose and big, ol flappy white tits. So she’s definitely not London Breed.
Don’t forget the bad teeth…
Sounds like a type of dog.
Brexit opponents in London breed disunity.
The view from my cube is depressing. Row upon row of cubicles. Is it any wonder I spend my mornings with you degenerates?
Cubicles can be a bummer sometimes.
At my work, it helps that everyone – males and females, supervisors and subordinates, even the HR guy – makes a lot of dirty jokes.
I also find a cubicle farm a lot less depressing than a factory assembly line.
I like my cubicle better than a bomb shelter.
We installed a kegerator in our bomb shelter, along with the couches and big screen TVs.
Sounds like where I work. Except the cubes are empty.
It’s nice.
The Nerd Crew is back
Not excited about this Episode at all. It might be great, but I don’t think I’ll be rushing to the theatre. Don’t care if that means I’ll hear spoilers too. Too many let downs with these films.
smdh
Mike and Rich have made no secret that they think Star Trek is Superior.
Libertarianism and Heavy Metal: Two Peas in a Pod?
Whenever I think of Libertarians, I think of Gallium, which also melts when it comes into contact with human beings.
My company moved, took away my office, and didn’t assign me so much as an admin cube. Now when I go in to the office I have to drive over an hour to sit in a borrowed cube.
Is your real name Milton?
Did they take away your Swingline too?
I have a box of office crap in my garage that I left with. I’m also looking at this on a monitor I walked out of there with. The last week in the old office had an LA riot feel to it.
Burn that place down
No more keys to the executive washroom?
He decided to play cards with a young, hot Shirley MacLaine, instead.
Of course you found this, Humungus. You are the Ayatollah of RocknRollah!
Thanks man, good little read.
That describes me.
This whole diatribe is based on one Twisted Sister song, isn’t it?
Dee Snider telling congress to mind their own fucking business.
Not sure about that. What I learned from Metalocalypse is, if you want to be metal as fuck, you must violate the NAP at every show in the most theatrically gruesome ways possible.
meh. anyone who identifies with a single genre of music is inherently looking to conform to something. libertarians are normal-looking freaks.
You did easily say the same things about punk rock, and in my early days the Dallas scene was fairly polyglot politically, but afaict the national scene (which is really the NE and LA scenes) is overwhelmingly left. So…ymmv
Shit like this might have something to do with it.
I think that’s probably accurate. My sense of it is the whole business is based on a model of “Obey these skeevie people unconditionally and you will have everyone else around you (including the parents who are supposed to be raising you) will say yes to your every demand”.
That would be an incredibly destructive way of life for an adult, let alone a child.
Lucky for him they didn’t find kiddie porn on his computer.
Look at sports. Star athletes become just as pampered. Coaches, teachers and parents all let the elite kids pretty much run rampant in the hopes that they might get some money from the kid when they turn pro and sign a big contract.
The difference is that they don’t get abused to even a tenth of what these kid musicians/actors do. I would suggest the difference is that an athlete possesses a rare and unique skill. If an athlete’s parents won’t let you molest him, you can’t easily move on to the next candidate who will.
We need more shaming of parents of these kids. I don’t believe for a second they are in the dark about this nonsense.
The parents are going to ride their kid’s victimhood train to more publicity. And the media will indulge them.
With the exception of the gymnastics doctor and another one associated with the swim team (I think), you’re pretty much right.
Part of that may also come from sports being a competitive environment where achievement is based almost exclusively on performance. In entertainment, more of it is based on likability and ingratiating oneself to the right people. And that means making oneself malleable to those people’s wants.
Not the fastest kid with good hands? You don’t get to be the star receiver. Not the best voice or best actor? That’s ok, if you sit on creepy producer dude’s lap.
That explains Chelsea Handler.
Seriously. How many pipis did she suck to get where she’s at?
I tend to be pretty forgiving in giving people the benefit of the doubt but it’s beyond perplexing how she keeps hanging around. She’s not funny and she’s an insufferable leftist twit. Not a good combo.
That’s exactly what Joan Rivers said about her, that everyone knew she only got on TV because she fucked the right people.
I miss joan. 🙁
You left out a certain football coach at a certain B1G university.
I
He wasn’t molesting players. He was molesting kids he brought there to watch. Different dynamic than what we were talking about.
And FWIW, they should have given them the death penalty, razed the stadium and built a center for victims of child sexual abuse in its footprint. I don’t care about the “none of the people involved are there anymore” or “you can’t punish these kids” bullshit. There’s plenty of other schools those kids could have gone to without a penalty. That school should be a constant reminder of what enabling and then actively covering up serial child sexual abuse by a person with an office on your campus results in.
I assumed some of the kids were youth players.
They were all “at-risk” boys who were involved with Sandusky’s charity, The Second Mile. I believe most of them didn’t have fathers in their lives.
Any of those kids being football players would have been a coincidence. The charity was ostensibly to help local kids in bad home environments, usually meaning no dad around, get some mentoring and attention they needed to develop normally.
That fucking situation makes my blood boil. The whole thing is just disgusting beyond belief, from what he did to that coward seeing him rape a kid and turning around and walking out of the room. No to mention the aftermath.
But then tOSU wouldn’t have one more team it “owns” in big games.
Part of that may also come from sports being a competitive environment where achievement is based almost exclusively on performance.
I think the competitive nature also explains another aspect – there’s a lot more people willing to tell one another “No”. In addition to meaning the actual kiddy-diddling attempt gets shot down, it probably also means people don’t get the sense of entitlement and need to get along that creates the environment in which people become so divorced from reality that they even think of going there.
I’ve seen up close the competitiveness in high school theater. You’d think there’d be similar competitiveness in high school orchestra but there isn’t.
There’s a whole weird narcissism going on with most of the kids attracted to theater that simply isn’t there in orchestra at all. Sports is somewhere in between (and I’m not distinguishing between team sports and individual sports.)
more narcissism less narcissism
theater sports orchestra
Crap, the thing assumed my chart was hashtags.
more narcissism less narcissism
+———————————————————————————————————————————————————-+
theater sports orchestra
fuck it
This?
“The difference is that they don’t get abused to even a tenth of what these kid musicians/actors do.”
I would say the difference is for every Jerry Sandusky there’s a hundred parents doing the abuse. And it’s probably not physical abuse, as that would affect the athletic performance. It’s more psychological abuse. (Which is what created the opening for Sandusky.)
Brittney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Christina Aguilera (sp?)…they were all Disney girls, werent they?
Did Annette Funicello go crazy insane?
On a related topic, don’t fret about leftists; they are living miserable lives, you know
I fret that they want to make my life as miserable as theirs.
I owe you a coke.
An article so nice, it’s linked twice!
That was all too depressingly a realistic look. It’s pretty much what I’ve observed within even my own family.
And there’s not a single thing you can do about it.
Yup, I see my sister headed down the same path. It’s not great.
My cousin laments my life with my wife and our house and kids and pool, etc.
But she drinks and doesn’t work very much, so …
Parents upset over Hitler-themed homework
*waves frantically for SugarFree*
8th graders should definitely learn about Hitler and the perils of fascism (as well as Communism, socialism and other types of despotism). What concerns me is the fact that educators feel the need to incorporate Spongebob and MLP in order to make their lessons engaging to 14 year olds.
I’ll let you in on a secret. Public school teachers aren’t our best or brightest. Sorry to burst your bubble.
“Anyone who doesn’t understand the problems in our nation’s public schools never dated an Elementary Education major in college.”
-P. J. O’Rourke
Bikini Bottom uber alles.
I bet Sponge Bob would look sharp in a Hugo Boss suit.
Nazi SpongeBob, if you give Hitler a cookie. Add magic the gathering and that’s me in middle School.
I’m substitute homeschool teacher today! Still in my pajamas.
At least you’re wearing *something*.
What he considers pajamas.
I’m tired of food deserts. I want something new.
How about child care deserts? Thankfully, fixing them will be the same as food deserts. Throwing a shit ton of money around by the government should patch things up.
I’m guessing that every rural area is going to be a child care desert based on that definition. I wonder if the braniacs at the CAP rethought their definitions when almost all of North Dakota was a “desert”?
* New York Mills was just down the road from where I grew up. It has a soft spot in my heart because of a few gals I know back in the day of questionable morals and unquestionably bad taste in guys.
“Licensed day care seats”, there’s your problem.
DAMMIT!
Oh, of course that is the only way to take care of children!!!!!
Well, it’s not like their parents should take responsibility for their care! It’s clearly the responsibility of the State!
Gov. Mumbles also pushed really, really hard to make day care workers join a union.
Wonder why there are less day care providers now?
^This
I live in a Chinese food desert.
So you only have small, locally-owned chinese restaurants, but no PF Changs?
Because that is how the normal food desert rules work.
I have a PF Changs. I still go to Mr. C’s, because Mr. C is a FREAKING BOSS for converting a bunch of Taco Bells into a dog and cat house. The food isn’t that great but when my kids notice the out of place Jaguar XF and ask who’s car is that–I tell them that’s Mr. C.
I tell you what I really liked in Phoenix. Ono Hawaiian BBQ. My mom grew up in Hawaii, and Ono has plate lunches like you can get on the island. So good, plus they even had Hawaiian Sun Guava Juice (My favorite, and you wouldn’t believe the margaritas it makes).
Lots of unlicensed homes to have kids I suspect.
North Dakota is also a palm tree desert. And a deep dish pizza desert. And a black person desert.
Coincidence? Yes. Yes it is.
The rural town I live in has about 10,000 people and a net migration in daily of about 4,000 workers (two factories/corporate headquarters in the town).
As far as I know there are only two licensed daycares in the town so I don’t doubt that my small town would be deemed a ‘childcare desert’
The thing about the two licensed daycares are they rather expensive. Even though it costs us parents a lot, because of the state mandates, compliance costs, and all the other expenses that go into operating the center, they can’t pay their people much at all so there is constant turnover. The younger teachers who are just marking time till they find a K-5 spot to fill are especially prone to leaving abruptly. (Last year my kid in the 3 year old room had 4 different teachers come and go)
There’s no shortage of childcare though.
Probably a couple hundred ladies in town who watch their friends and neighbors kids for a few extra bucks, charging less per kid but assuredly keeping more pay than their licensed counterparts even while watching fewer kids than the State would allow them to.
Of course none of these ladies are ‘licensed’ so as far as CAP is concerned they don’t exist, and to the extent they do exist they are dangerous and probably ought to be forbidden.
I thought you meant New York Mills, NY and I would have to come up with another mullet joke. Whew.
Trump vows to send man back to the moon and even to Mars. Does not explain how our broke asses will pay for it.
He will make the Moonmen will pay for it, obviously.
I would just ask him a one word question… “Why?”
Because it’s there.
It is to distract from the fact that he is now colluding with Russia to steal the 2020 election away from Hillary.
not because it is easy, but because it is hard?
*throws moonrock*
I heard on the moon nerds are spanked with moon rocks…
Prior to that speech, Rice had a very good record vs Texas. Afterwords, they sucked.
He heard they were offering great proffers on hotel development.
As long as he and the rest of our government are the first to go there, and on the provision they stay on The Moon or Mars and never come back, I would approve that addition to the debt.
Well, Elon Musk said, He wanted to die on Mars, so can we add him to the list?
Goodbye, Moonmen!
Was a black Bigfoot seen in Henry County?
*ahem*
“Bigfoot of Color”
ONCE YOU GO BLACK STEVE SMITH RAPE, YOU NEVER GO BACK!
Nope, can’t top that one…
Does not explain how our broke asses will pay for it.
We’ve still got checks!
I swear that Wife 1 actually pulled that line on me.
They’re going to ride this old broken horse until she can’t be ridden no more…
Is This the Week #MeToo Turns on Donald Trump?
I like to listen to the old semi-nut Michael Savage on occasion and he predicted this weeks ago. He’s wrong more than he’s right but he was dead right with this one.
Some of the same Democratic senators who were instrumental in forcing Al Franken to step down last week have recognized the “irony” the Minnesota senator spoke of in his resignation speech,
What resignation speech? You see when you make the resignation speech, you’re supposed to resign. That’s what a resignation speech is. You make it…then you resign. It’s right there in the fucking name! Re-sig-na-tion.
So I don’t want to hear about that fuck doing the right thing and gaining the moral high ground or anything else applauding his decision until the mendacious little grandstanding fuck actually resigns.
He got confused, and gave a re-signing speech.
Precisely. It wasn’t a resignation speech, it was a “I’ll resign at some unspecified time in the future, maybe, even though those women are lying and I did nothing wrong” speech.
These allegations were determined to not be very credible before the election, and the voters already decided on their importance. And some of the allegations such as the supposed incident on the airplane were directly contradicted by an eye witness. This is just another lame and dishonest attempt by the left to overturn the results of a free and fair election because they don’t like the outcome. They are basically telling the country that your vote doesn’t count unless you vote they way the left wants you to. Fuck these little fascists.
No it isn’t the week. Nor is next week. Or the week after. The profile magic only works when the victim consents. Donald Trump doesn’t give a shit. Your priggish powers are impotent against him. #thepoweofnotcaring
Should read “the proggie magic…”
As soon as they try directing sexual misconduct toward Trump, it will boomerang right at Bill Clinton.
OT: But, this article calls to mind an argument I’ve been considering for a while now. I contend that libertopia would, all in all, be a pretty socially conservative place. Sure, there wouldn’t be any laws against indulging in the most extreme hedonism imaginable. But, the absence of subsidies would create one of the more dramatic disciplinarians I can imagine, reality. A lot of socially conservative behaviors are essentially just smart behaviors. Getting an education in a practical skill, working hard, staying clean, remaining loyal to your spouse and family, having an active spiritual life, living modestly and saving, and all the rest are behaviors that socons would define as “good”. But, they’re also behaviors that make it a lot more likely you’re going to have a nice, happy, healthy life.
Wow. That makes a perfect companion piece to the “Awesome Power Of Not Caring” article I posted yesterday. Most of the lefties I know are rich and refuse to see the pain and suffering their beliefs inflict on others.
– CS Lewis, The Great Divorce
I guess it depends on your definition of social conservative. I don’t know if it would make more people religious. There wouldn’t be less homosexuality. There might be less drug addiction, but there might be more drug use. The amount of gambling, prostitution, abortion — things social conservatives want illegal — might not change. In regards to living modestly, working hard, having an active spiritual might, etc. People would be way richer, so they could work less or spend more, and afford to be more materialistic.
Science BITCHES!
New study finds that the surge in gun buying after Sandy Hook resulted in an additional 57 accidental deaths in the following 5 months. And a lot of them were The Kidz!
The study seemed totes legit. They used CDC data AND Google searches. Only some fucking NRA monster would question it:
If by astounding they mean horseshit then I agree completely.
That whole “study” stinks of massive overconfidence in “big data”. Also, I think some guy named von Mises said something about how it’s not good to use natural science methods for social sciences or something. It’s almost like societies and the individuals that comprise them are not just molecules in a lab that can be studied in total isolation with experiments repeated with different variables as many times as you want…
Also, if the fear of new gun legislation sparked this alleged uptick in gun ownership, why don’t they just stop proposing new legislation? Every time they do that, it just puts more guns “on the streets” (read: in non-government hands) so why bother? Aren’t they just making the problem worse?
That could be the headline, couldn’t it?
“Proposed Gun Legislation Caused 57 More Accidental Deaths”
That is how I am going to spin it any time they try to grab more guns.
i guess “astounding” works here but i’d probably go with “incredible” or “unbelievable” to really drive the point home.
it’s been reported that new gun owners are primarily women and minorities so i guess this isn’t completely far-fetched.
The Deep State seems to be more incestuous than the Hapsburgs. The DOJ guy who just got demoted for TDS has a wife who worked for Fusion GPS last year during the campaign.
Just a wild coincidence to be sure.
The moon landing, brought to you by Red Bull.
Watch it on NBC on Sunday when there aren’t any sports people care about on.
I’d watch it over football right now. As long as it’s after the 11:30am EPL match. Which brings me to a life changing conversion I had this year. I used to think soccer was unwatchable until my kids starting playing. Now I enjoy it, and I think the reason is that there are about 90% fewer commercials and I can count on the game being finished in a specific time frame.
I find soccer unwatchable. I used to be a big NBA fan – haven’t watched an entire game in over a decade – it’s too boring to watch and I find myself unable to care about any of them.
The NFL is headed there quickly. The games just suck. After the college football bowls, Spring Training can’t come soon enough.
Try watching women’s soccer. Far more watchable.
N.H.L.
*glares*
Glare Ice? It’s hard to skate on anything else.
*icy glare*
NBA is only decent during the playoffs.
FALSE.
NBA is never decent.
I’m warming up to soccer, but ice hockey has all the same elements and is faster with more scoring.
My son’s played soccer for years. It’s still unwatchable.
I will say, though, that FIFA on PS4 is a surprisingly fun game to play.
Which button makes the player flop around and pretend to be injured?
Me as well. I also coach, so what I’ve learned of the game has made me appreciate watching it even more. Especially when you see the really good teams and players do things that seem unimaginable. The lament is that there is so little offense in soccer, but when in fact, the game is practically all offense. It’s just that scoring is difficult.
I’ve heard it’s way more about defense now than it was in the old days. But yeah, if someone doesn’t like watching the action that may or may not lead to a goal, it’s not the game for them.
Welcome to the dark side.
If I wasn’t a baseball fan, I would likely find soccer unwatchable. Turns out I am a baseball fan and both games have that dynamic where you can see the play forming, visualize the outcome, anticipate it and deal with the mad rush of disappointment.
Three million guns represent only 1 percent of the total number of firearms in the U.S., one of those critics told Science reporter Meredith Wadman. So the fact that the study found those added guns led to a 27 percent increase in unintentional firearm deaths is “astounding,” he said.
Just wait ’til they run the numbers and include progressive activists who bought guns to defend themselves from Trump’s Brown Shirts.
I’m putting my faith in capitalism and hoping that enterprising gun stores sold toy guns to the proggies (for the same price as real ones). It isn’t like they would know the difference and would be way less dangerous for them (and for us).
They could tell them that the orange tips on their pistols are for extra Trump stopping power.
My cousin’s wife is from Boston and was terrified of guns, so I took her to the range 3 weeks ago and let her shoot some 22 shorts our of my rifle. After 10 minutes she was shooting my 300 BLK and loving it. Already been back to the range and looking for a rifle of her own. Funny how quick people warm to guns if they are introduced to them correctly.
Are you the real estate king, Buddy Kane from “American Beauty”?
Um, nooooo….I don’t get the reference.
Annette Benning’s character had never shot a gun before and he took her to the range and she loved it too.
After he gave her the royal treatment.
Nyoce.
“FUCK ME YOUR MAJESTY!”
I’ve said it before, but the #1 place my Japanese nieces want to go when they visit is the gun range.
They don’t shoot anything too crazy, but they a) have fun and b) freak the shit out of their friends back home when they see the pics.
I agree, once people start shooting, they tend to love it. And doubly agree that they should be introduced correctly.
She was giggling when she shot 22 short because its so quiet. I bought the marlin XT-22 specifically to teach people to shoot. I put a bipod and red dot on it so its hard to miss, no recoil and minimal noise. After 50 rounds or so most people feel comfortable to step up to another caliber. I didn’t really expect her to shoot the AR, but she wanted to and liked it the best.
“My cousin’s wife…”
Go on
“My cousin’s wife” beat “my Japanese nieces”?
RACIST!
Yeah, I like Jim’s fantasy better.
I think you mean, “That’s LACIST!”
So solly
“After 10 minutes she was shooting my 300 BLK and loving it.”
Euphemism of the week right there.
300 BLK — He makes up for his lack of length in girth?
Uffda.
Maybe TOS is right. There are things we can agree with the liberaltarians.
Like getting rid of polluting wood chippers for green energy biomass (aka turkey crap) hoppers.
You know what? I think the guy who died had the second worse job that day. They guy who had to give mouth to mouth to the turkey crap covered victim had the worst job.
C’mon guys!
This was my favorite story of the day. I keep giggling about it. I can just see them dragging the poor bastard out of the hopper filled with turkey shit and then the two EMT’s fighting over who has to give him the “kiss of life”.
Why Was Food So Weird in the 70s?
It wasn’t just the 70’s
Maybe it would have been better to reference some actual dishes instead of making up something that sounds weird to push the article.
Well, shit. Those are real things after all. I was fooled!
In your defense, ham-wrapped bananas slathered in hollandaise sounded like a weekend with Jesse.
*slow clap*
Uffda.
I hate to be the one that tells you this, but that wasn’t hollandaise. You have to think a little bit more critically before you just start putting things in your mouth that Jesse gives you.
It wasn’t a banana…
Was it an apple?
That wasn’t ham either.
I don’t know where this writer came from, but we didn’t have anything like that crap in our traditions, nor did any of the older generations (who love to tell pointless stories) even hint at any analogue. I think it might just be that their office comes from odd stock.
*checks link*
Vice… Odd Stock confirmed.
Lileks already did it better.
That man is a national treasure.
In hindsight, it’s easy for our generation of foodies to find this stuff weird, or downright gross.
Really, it was nothing more than a more primitive version of the same oikophobia and social signaling that motivates so many foodies today. Then it was hollandaise slathered bananas and Jell-O/tuna pie. Today, it’s locally sourced artisanal mayonnaise and organic, fair-trade charcuterie. Food wasn’t as cheap as it is today. So, the dismissals of traditional food patterns were more modest. But, the same inclinations drove both.
“charcuterie”
I think I’m actually physically allergic to hipster foodies.
A little unfair, as charcuterie has been around forever. It’s just more popular now.
Charcuterie is lunch meat with a French accent.
I’ve got nothing at all against platters that consist of a selection of delightful cured and processed meats. Put such a selection next a platter of delightful cheeses and pickled vegetables and crackers/toasts, and I call that dinner.
Yeah, pretty much an average supper in Germany.
’bout the only weird thing my mom made – for summer family reunions – was mandarin oranges inside of orange jello with whip cream layered on top. I always thought it was a good waste of mandarin oranges.
Uffda. A proper jello salad should be a can of fruit cocktail inside a jello (any flavor) formed in a bundt pan.
Your mom was putting on airs by having an all mandarin orange fruit selection.
^This^
Had that all the time, growing up.
My mother still makes jello salad for Thanksgiving. Served on a leaf of iceberg, natch.
I think the reason most every family has a jello-based dish in their “traditions” is that powdered gelatin was one of the first packaged/processed/commercial foods that let them get out of the boundaries of a home-grown-only table. Before that you’d have some meat and some vegetables that were definitely local. With cheap and available gelatin, and some coloring and canned fruit, Mom and Grandma could do something new/sweet/colorful that was quite different from the old standbys.
Our version is pistachio salad – aka “green stuff”. I think it’s pistachio jello powder, little marshmellows, and pineapple.
Pistachio surprise. Of all the things my wife stole from my mother’s cookbook.
*barfs*
Roy Moore Emerges From Hiding for Election Eve Rally, and Good Lord, Was It Weird
Only through a SugarFree narrative…
Aw, crud; that article.
“Roy Moore, who is an alleged jaywalker, graffiti artist, and serial killer…”
quite the euphemism
Just this one time but we were both really drunk…
Until I lived in Alabama, I had no idea how many actual dirt roads there still are down there. Official type roads, with street signs and mail service and everything.
To many lefties, the South is one giant banjo-strummin’ Deliverance movie.
This is clearly false. Parts of the South are clearly Cool Hand Luke-like prison camps.
Sometimes a hand full of nothin’ is a real purty mouth?
A man first learns this at the tender age of 13.
*bows to his sensei*
Are you throwing shade on folks who live on gravel roads? MikeS is gonna get you….
No, not gravel – dirt. Hard-packed red clay.
I think that’s common in localities that aren’t close to gravel deposits. Western ND uses crushed scoria* instead of gravel.
*Scoria is actually a misnomer. But I forget right now what the actual term for it is
I have always heard them called scoria too.
Works pretty well when dry, but fuck the roads around Medora are bad if they have had some rain for a few days.
That is what happened to our hunt out there this year. Rained for several days and it was impossible to get back up in the badlands on a lot of the roads. (and the rain kept the sharpies from flying at all).
Or not-always-hard-packed sand.
When I was driving through Kentucky to the Maker’s Mark distillery, I was supposed to find some county road. I was driving along this one-lane dirt path (almost overgrown with weeds in some spots) and I kept thinking, “Where’s that damn county road? It’s gotta be around here somewhere…” Then I pulled out my phone and looked at the GPS… “Oh… THIS is the county road…“
*Looks out front window at gravel driveway*
Hmmm.
You’re clearly in an overdeveloped region.
#metoo
You need to get out of the city once in a while.
Make sure you get him out of the city for a bit before you explain the section line roads in NDak.
Section line roads. Sure to cause an issue somewhere every hunting season.
And also sometimes a good place to “run out of gas” if you know what I mean…
The flaw in the “run out of gas” plan is that all the guys I am hunting with are armed. Sort of takes the fun out of weinsteining them. Besides after a few days out in the wild, they don’t smell daisy fresh.
nohomo. Think those blind, slutty, New York Mills girls you used to talk into your car.
Aren’t some areas of Nebraska reverting to dirt or gravel roads?
Reverting to, or always have been?
Not trying to be snarky; serious question. There’s a LOT of gravel/dirt roads in flyover country.
I should have been more specific – Omaha.
Ahhh. If so, I blame Warren Buffet.
My house is on a dirt road. We have stop signs and mailboxes and everything. Every rural area has dirt roads.
It’s just like the Congo.
Safer for women than college campuses?
Ladies, this is how you handle men who violate your rights.
Given the picture, I’d say Hoggsbreath was the perfect place for her to be drinking.
GAH!
IT’S COMING RIGHT AT US!
C’mon guys. You are looking at her sober (well except maybe Straffin).
Imagine that firecracker about a half hour from closing after you’ve had about 13 barleypops.
Break out the yohimbine!
*stares in astonishment, begins slow clap*
The reason for the stun gun was that someone was gonna get the female version of STEVE SMITH.
“TIFFANY LIKE SECURITY GUARD; GONNA LOVE HIM UP!”
One of the many things that irritated me about TOS toward the end was when they mocked the GOP convention for…its lack of celebrities.
I wonder how many gun owners were at the Democrat convention.
What still drives me insane is how they hold up liberal featherweights as paragons of liberty, but then attack libertarian radicals, not for their ideas, but because their views could be maliciously construed to be yucky.
Didn’t they also complain before about Clint Eastwood’s bit with the empty chair in 2012? Seems like you can’t win with them.
Meh. Closet pinkos. I could smell it on them from a mile away.
They always stabbed right.
Titty Tuesday!
http://archive.is/4rgpc
1-10, 14, 17, 19 all the others… I dunno about the rest of you pervs, but this collections is one of my personal favs.
*shifty look around, clicks*
Oh my…
Lord Almighty 31…
18.
1.
3
Bunk.
I’ve seen 2 before.
That’s not a complaint.
7. Mostly because she has learned how to breath through a tube stuck in her mouth.
Is 11 in the middle of a magic trick?
Hide the salami?
Nice set!
7 wins.
Quick question for those that work in the insurance world. My sister in law has named my wife and me guardian of their child if they die. Can and should I get life insurance on the parents in case we have to raise their child?
Not necessary – the hubby and kids should be on the policy. If there is no hubby, or he predeceases, then the kids get the $, and you would be custodians of it until they reached age. It would be available for their support whilst growing up, of course.
I guess the first order of business is to ask if the parents have life insurance. I’m not exactly sure how you ask that sort of question without coming across materialistic. If they don’t have any life insurance, then should I take out a policy?
Also – Who would be administering the estate? A lawyer, bank, you?
I’m not really familiar with estate planning. By administering the estate you mean who is in charge if my SIL/BIL die and leave their child to my wife and myself?
Usually a will names an executor – the person who takes a will through probate, pays off all the creditors, disposals of property, etc…
You might want to know who that is.
” I’m not exactly sure how you ask that sort of question without coming across materialistic.”
I don’t know what the right answer is, but “Hey, how much are you worth dead?” is definitely the wrong way.
*cracks beer* So bro, um…, how much cheddar am I looking at if you bite the big one?
Better?
Do it while cleaning you gun at the kitchen table.
It’s easy:
“If I’m gonna look after your kids if you die, which I’m honored that you want, I’m gonna want to make sure they’re financially secure. Would you be offended if I took out an insurance policy on you guys and established them as beneficiaries should something terrible happen? Oh, and hold this electrical wire while standing in this puddle for a minute, I want to try something.”
“Let me hold your beer….” is how the natives would say it.
I don’t think it’s materialistic to ask. It should be something the parents have thought of and taken care of on their own. Kids are expensive and it’s important to set up that funding when asking someone else to take on that awesome responsibility.
When my wife and I asked someone to be the guardian of our children if something happened to us, I let him know there would be money to take care of them so that wouldn’t be a worry for anyone. The money would be controlled by the estate executor though, a completely different relative.
Yeah, Im not looking to get paid, so I’m fine if the money is administered by a lawyer or someone else, I just know kids are expense to raise and haven’t budgeted for a child.
I would assume that designating a trust as the beneficiary of the policy would be a safer idea, particularly if their are multiple kids involved.
A trust would would follow the child no matter whom the guardians are? That would make the most sense.
Yes, and you can place legal limitations on the money so when the first kid hits 18, they can’t raid it and leave the others high and dry, as well as any other considerations you might have. An estate attorney could help you with this, and I recommend you use one. There are a lot of legal ins and outs to this kind of stuff that vary by state and even locality.
Naming Florida Man as your kids’ guardians doesn’t trigger an automatic intervention from Child Welfare?
To be fair, they named Florida Man’s wife…I’m not sure if that is better or worse.
hey now, someone had to teach the new generation how to make meth, drive in the nude, and go python hunting.
It’s Florida, dude – pretty sure you just listed the entirety of the kindergarten curriculum. (Plus shooting German tourists who wander into the wrong part of town.)
Thanks for the advice everyone.
You can quitclaim kids right?
Fuck the FOP. These guys aren’t the ‘Bad Guys’ they were exonerated. Seriously the FOP is in competition with Planned Parenthood for being one of the most evil organizations in the US, that masquerade as some simple plain Jane org.
When you find yourself in a hole, step one is to stop digging.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5169223/Moore-dismisses-accusations-explains-left-town.html
“Oh well,” we said, “Sessions is going to suck as AG, but at least the next senator in his place won’t suck as bad.”
And then we laughed and laughed.
What an idiot
ROY MOORE: We’ve gotta definitely write a song about how we do not diddle kids.
So what I’m getting out of this is that Moore is an anti-Asian bigot.
He was not loved, long time.
In other news, Roy Moore was once invited to a Satanist blood ritual but politely declined, and he once, very unexpectedly, found himself in a gathering of Serial Killers Anonymous with no idea how he got there.
At this point I have to assume that the Moore campaign is a false flag operation run by the Democrats.
See Robert Conquest.
One-party dominance leads to all kinds of idiots emerging out of hubris, like Roy Moore and Kamala Harris.
Don’t forget the Kennedys – Roy Moore didn’t leave a woman to drown.
If he really is a plant but still ends up winning, this will be the greatest crescendo in the Democrats’ “Stepping on Rakes” symphony yet.
“Moore has faced accusations that he PRAYED on teen girls” .
Moore is in to some weird shit.
To be fair there have been a few times when a girl has taken off her shirt and I’ve been tempted to drop to my knees and start thanking G-d.
maybe b/c my dad and two uncles were drafted into nam and thus i was raised in an anti-authoritarian household full of cussing and B-level Vietnam war movies but that shit strikes me as equal parts credible and hilarious.
and it was a war-torn country before we even got there. and we sent draftees. of course they went to a brothel and of course there were underage girls there. do critics think there was some functioning bureaucracy that went around to all the brothels and carded all the prostitutes? holy shit progs are soft.
I don’t think that’s the point as much as Moore and his entourage aren’t really the best public speakers.
oh i can’t argue with that. this is the intersectionality of brutally honest speech and PC culture.
Is ‘Man Flu’ Real? Men Suffer More When Sick, Study Suggests
Weird LH Trivia: I haven’t had a flu for over 20 years. The last one I had was apparently so bad that I’ve been immune ever since. Or else – I was a sickly kid – I had ’em all and just ran through the gamut. 😉
Unpossible. There are no differences between men and women. Report to re-education now.
Errr, no in this case it passes muster, as men are obviously inferior to women. But they shouldn’t get extra sick days from work because of this.
Differences are allowed when they reflect well on women’s superiority.
And in the extraordinarily rare event that some kind of evidence shows a difference that is not favorable to women, it must be chalked up to “societal conditioning” and “imposed gender roles”.
Sounds like I need to start identifying as female, then. That should boost my immune system, right?
It actually would make sense that natural selection has favored women with stronger immune responses given their role as caretakers of infants and the breastfeeding and the constant close contact that comes with being a mother. Also, the female genes that have survived over time are those that had a natural inclination to fight off infection from all of the yucky germs kids tend to drag in with them.
I wonder if it was considered that men are more likely to fight it out and go to work, thus extending the time needed for the immune system to respond to the flu.
arrived at a barn in the woods to find Steve Bannon, Representative Louie Gohmert, Sheriff David Clarke, Roy and Kayla Moore, a woman performing an interpretive dance in front of a tree, and several inflatable alligators?
I hope there was at least one junior high “pep squad” in attendance.
“morale boosters” “comfort girls” “joy division” etc.
obligatory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuuObGsB0No
…and the day Roy Moore gets elected to the Senate is also the day the alien invasion begins in earnest.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5167821/Astronomers-scan-alien-comet-Oumuamua-ET-signals.html
*yawn, blinks eyes, checks calendar*
Nope, not today. Calm down
I dunno…
*checks Swiss Mountain Hideout Plan*
NYT opinion article headline:
It’s Pretty Crazy to Be a Young Woman in Roy Moore’s Alabama
“Roy Moore’s Alabama”
Trump’s America”
I’m literally quaking with fear.
I knew a lot of young women in Alabama. They seemed to get by just fine.
So does that mean there’s also Franken’s Minnesota? Conyers’ Detroit?
More importantly, how come every report about something bad happening between the years 2008 and 2016 was not prefaced with a rant about “Obama’s America”?
#MTAGA just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
“It’s tough being an ambassador in Obama’s Libya”
Just avoid Jerry Brown’s California.
I have a telephone interview on Friday; this is for that work-from-home IT job. Not really nervous about it since I’ve been in this game for a long time. If they don’t want me, it won’t be because of my experience, but my Asperger-like personality.
Also: one of my fellow office workers decided today was a good time to be “too much cologne man”.
Pretty sure “Asperger-like personality” just means you’re a good ol aspie, bro.
I’m just shy… and sensitive… but at least I can tell when I’m boring people to tears when I’m discussing my hobbies.
Good luck on the interview, I had three (two with the same company) last Friday. I’m hoping to hear back from one of them by the end of the week.
Trump is gonna make the Martians pay for it the same way he’s making Mexico pay for the wall
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/12/11/russia-collusion-investigation-suspend-robert-muellers-bias-democratic-investigation-robbins-column/938619001/
Is anyone surprised that we seem to have seamlessly transitioned from the Russia conspiracy to sexual assault? Probably, because the Russia conspiracy has only shown partisan collusion between the FBI, Democrats, and the news media. All because they couldn’t handle the results of an election
If you look at the pattern, the funny thing is that everything they accuse the president of turns out to be things Democrats have been doing…
Once again, it’s all projection with the left. You can be sure that whatever they accuse others of doing, it’s what they themselves are actually doing.
Again. Doing it again.
Its been the same thing for years. Remember when the left got all hot and bothered about evol conservative vote manipulation? What was that based on, do you think?
“The FBI has historically had a well-earned reputation for competence and integrity. ”
What planet am I on again?
The only federal agency that I can think of that behaves with more integrity than the FBI is the IRS. Well, and maybe the ATF too. Wait- ‘integrity’ is code for ruining the lives of average Americans, right?
Good point. The IRS never failed to get MLK to commit suicide.
murder. it’s code for murder.
Victor Davis Hanson disassembles Mueller’s Merry Men.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454543/mueller-investigation-too-many-anti-trump-coincidences
Very nice article.
In Trump’s America, we’re all drama queens, now
At the beginning of this semester at Auburn University, in Alabama, where I am a senior majoring in philosophy, a friend started a Bible study focused on Christ’s relationship with women. Though open to all students, the group drew mostly young women. It formed before this season of sexual assault allegations began, before #MeToo, before the stories about Roy Moore’s treatment of young women came to light.
As the semester progressed, the Bible study members couldn’t help talking about the news around us. The group — five or six college women and a few allies from across the political spectrum — became united on one very important point: We would not settle for Roy Moore as the face of Southern Christianity. We would not let Alabama go down in history as the state where people of faith elected a credibly accused sexual predator in favor of a Democrat.
It’s pretty crazy to be a 21-year-old woman and native Alabamian right now. Almost every woman I know has been sexually harassed or has a friend who has been assaulted. That’s not something that is unique to me or my friends. Clearly, it is everywhere.
———-
I’m disappointed that this Senate race is so close. I have lost sleep at night wondering whether my fellow college students will vote, given that most of us have final exams to take. Still, we are coming of age in strange times, and more and more of us are getting politically involved. My friends and I are excited to be involved in an election with so much on the line. For once, Alabama is a swing state.
Voting should be just the beginning for us young millennials. This is a time for passionate outcry across the political spectrum. It is time to throw aside party lines and disentangle the moral from the political. We must demand better.
Apparently, they don’t teach history at Auburn.
Yeah, bullshit.
When I was in college there was only one woman that I knew who had been raped. She would tell everyone in earshot about it. Her boyfriend told me it was driving him crazy.
If this rape epidemic was happening to anyone else, it certainly wasn’t traveling through the rumor mill.
You didn’t realize it was bullshit with the Bible study members….five or six college women and a few allies from across the political spectrum
Yeah, because every Bible Study group I’ve ever heard of refers to “allies from across the political spectrum”.
When it’s a proggy “Bible study” group, sure. They probably were really studying Dreams of my Father or something like that.
When it’s a proggy “Bible study” group, sure.
So, they were studying how the Bible contributes to the cis-hetero-patriarchal oppression of wymyn.
No one except leftists call people “allies” unless they’re talking about Eisenhower and Montgomery in WWII.
But don’t you see! Society is a big war of us vs them!!!
Yeah. These girls aren’t Christians, they’re feminists. The “few allies from across the political spectrum” are male feminists. These was no Bible study group, that’s for sure.
*this, not these.
Clearly, this anecdote is scalable.
My cousin is a hardcore internet feminist. One time she was telling me about her awful experiences getting catcalled and such. When I suggested that her year teaching English in Morocco might skew the results, she insisted that no, men are just like that everywhere.
No it isn’t.
She made the category so damn broad that the proper way to phrase it is EVERY HUMAN has been sexually harassed or has a friend who has been assaulted.
But that is how they do it. They dumb down the definition to the point where it has happened to pretty much everyone but then act as if that dumbed down accusation is only referring to the most rare and severe acts
It’s pretty crazy to be a 21-year-old woman and native Alabamian right now. Almost every woman I know has been sexually harassed or has a friend who has been assaulted. That’s not something that is unique to me or my friends. Clearly, it is everywhere.
Agreed. I too would expect to find sexual harassment everywhere when the definition now encompasses a man saying good morning and holding the door open.
I’ve noticed that those who bitch about #metoo tend to be the ones constantly putting themselves in unsafe situations. Some that I know were the girls who, in college, tended to drink themselves in a stupor and end up waking up in some random place around campus. One morning, it was in some fratboy’s bed. The next it was with some random they ran into on the street while stumbling home from the bar.
Standard “nobody deserves to be violated” disclaimer aside, it’s amazing how my conservative, religious friends have much fewer harassment stories.
And it’s unfortunate that advising young women to avoid situations like that are considered “victim blaming” and banished from the narrative.
Yes, in a perfect world, women could drink themselves to the brink of consciousness at a frat party, but here in the real world, that behavior is unwise. It may be unfair, it may be unjust, but it’s reality.
I don’t get it. This kind of logic doesn’t exist with regards to any other type of crime.
Cops in my town will ticket cars on public streets if they’re unlocked, which they establish by trying the door of every car on a slow day. The argument is that leaving your car unlocked makes it easier to steal, which would require the police to get involved, which would waste valuable time and manpower (seriously, that’s the argument). Imagine taking that rationale to sexual assault. “Ma’am, I’m going to issue you a citation for that third margarita, since you clearly aren’t noticing that the guy next to you is creepy AF…”
You don’t get it because you aren’t wedded to utopian thinking.
These people are obsessed with changing the world to the way they believe it should be, rather than working on improving their lot in the real one, which will continue to be real until the heat death of the universe.
It’s the same mentality as those Bern Victims who sent their college loan scraps to his campaign because they believe they can only be saved with radical political change, not personal improvement.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Kids are educated to think like this.
the stories about Roy Moore’s treatment of young women came to light.
She’s missing an “alleged” in there.
Why don’t you believe the women, WTF?
Clearly, he’s a sexist misogynist that wants to enslave women!
Though open to all students, the group drew mostly young women.
Smart. His friend has game.
Almost every woman I know has been sexually harassed or has a friend of a friend who has been assaulted.
” credibly accused sexual predator”
Did I miss something?
allies from across the political spectrum
That’s a headscratcher, considering, their definition of ally only includes those fellow cultists pushing civilization toward an egalitarian socialist utopia. Maybe what it really means is they begrudgingly accept Hillary Clinton supporters.
“The fake media says that we don’t like Joows. Well, one of our lawyers is a Joow!”
Roy Moore’s wife actually said this (not verbatim). What kind of perverse parody reality are we living in? Roy Moore is like a caricature of what a Republican is to people like Lena Dunham. I’m starting to think that the Republican Party’s entire strategy now is to troll the Democrats.
Also, I don’t recall anyone accusing Roy Moore of being an anti-semite, but now I kind of think he might be.
Haha, yup I think in PR school they probably just focus on “don’t even aknowledge spurious allegations”.
Quite frankly, Moore is fortunate that after Trump’s election, people seem to be wising up to the Dem’s BS tactics for slandering Republicans. I think this is the second time his wife has spoken, and both times she seems to be trying to cause more damage to her husband than the false allegations would do if people believed them. He really should get her to shut her mouth.
If she only has one black eye, clearly he needs to tell her again.
That was… weird. Yeah.
“We love our Jewish lawyer and we’ve tried to be as respectful of his culture as we can be. In fact we even pay him in gold bars, as we know the affection that the Jewish community has for gold. We’ve also been praying for his soul and the soul of all those Jews who bear the blame for condemning Christ to death. So, those greedy media people out in Hollywood and NYC with their hooked noses and curly hair are all a bunch of liars. We love Jews.”
– Roy Moore’s wife, probably
“And we also love the Matzo he brings around on Hannukah, even though he probably makes it with the blood of Christian children!”
– Also Roy Moore’s wife, probably
Fake quote- there is no way that she would pronounce Hannukah correctly. She’d say “cha-na-kah” like a good parody
“Chuh-NOO-kuh”?
Unorthdox Jew lowers interest rates.
Why abandon a winning strategy? Seriously, I don’t recall who said this but whether or not it’s a strategy or a side-effect, Trump is smashing the Overton window to pieces. Whatever Moore is, and I’m not a fan, he’s saying things that people want their elected representatives to say, and that they haven’t been able to say for a very long time without being ostracized.
My sample size of native Alabamans is small, but they’re all blood relatives and generally fairly close family. In my limited experience, none of them dislike specific Jews or dislike people because they’re Jewish, but they take for granted that all Jews have secret stashes of money. A saying I used to hear from my grandfather pretty regularly when I was younger: “(((They))) sure do stick together, don’t they?” Mind you, he also believed that an ancestor of ours was a secret Jew who immigrated to the US via Galveston in the 1800s. His evidence was that both he and his father were circumcised in an era when that wasn’t common among Christian men, and that his great-grandfather refused to attend church. So did my grandfather, but that wasn’t factored into the theory.
ROLL DAMN TIDE
Yup. Everybody went to ‘Bama. One cousin teaches at UAB, but nobody really talks to her.
And here is where I go on a cold-hearted rant that’s going to make me look like an asshole….
I’m going to Vegas for a few days at the end of the month to see the Misfits show with a couple of old friends from my LA days who I haven’t seen in 15 or years. Been saving up to pay for the trip, $400 to cover the hotel and walking-around money. And then…..Saturday night, the husband of a friend of my wife’s dropped dead suddenly while sitting on his couch. Sad story – two young kids, just started a new job so their health insurance hasn’t even started yet, the wife has been a stay at home mom for years and was a hairdresser before that so she’s not going to come close to making what he was making, etc. It seems that their finances are a mess – I was floored when my wife told me that the van they bought a few months ago has a FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR payment. For a minivan. Anyway, on top of all that, the funeral bill is $12K, so their friends are taking up a collection to help pay……and of course my wife gave the $400 I had saved for my trip.
Failure of these two grown adults to be financially responsible is the problem here, and it’s not one of my making, yet apparently I have to make a sacrifice here. Which I am less than pleased about.
That’s a sad story. If it was the Misfits without Danzig, though, I don’t see what you could be all upset about
But it’s not – it’s the actual Misfits with Danzig!
Damn, that’s a kick in the pants
I’m still going – already have the plane tickets. Just won’t be able to do anything other than go to the show and sit around in the hotel.
I already missed their reunion show last year at Riotfest because my grandfather’s health had taken a sudden turn for the worse, so I decided that I’d hate myself for going to see the Misfits rather than a last visit with Grandpa……and then they put him on dialysis and gave him a pacemaker, and he’s doing better than he has in a decade. Which is wonderful!! Except I wish they had figured that out before I had to cancel my trip.
Why don’t you pawn off some of your wife’s belongings? /Not a Marriage Counselor
Hah….we already pawned most of her good jewelry years ago when we were both out of work at the same time
I hear giving handjobs to Asian businessmen in dark alleys can be lucrative.
No dark alleys needed. He has a hotel room. Make it work for you.
Why don’t you ask your friends to pay it forward since you did?
Well, since your wife did.
Seriously, I have little compassion for poor planning. But I’m also the kind of sucker that would give them money in that situation. I’ve done it before.
You could spend your lunches strapped to a dialysis machine selling plasma at $50 a day for 8 days in a row.
“You could spend your lunches strapped to a dialysis machine selling plasma at $50 a day for 8 days in a row”
Sloop gets it.
I was at the Denver show. It was quite crowded.
“I’m going to Vegas”
The guy did you a favor.
I don’t blame you. All I can say is that if my wife took 400 dollars from a shared account, for whatever reason, without consulting me there would be hell to pay. That just ain’t cool.
^This. That sort of thing is not a unilateral decision.
“Oh, ok, honey, let’s talk about it now. I want to give $400 to our friend the widow to help pay for her dead husband’s funeral. Is that ok, or do you still want to use it to go to a concert with your friends?”
This is what we call “checkmate” in marital discussions.
“What does he need a nice funeral for? He’s dead, he doesn’t care. I, on the other hand, care deeply about my long-planned trip with the money that I earned for that purpose.”
Actually get your point, but have the damn decency to ask.
But at least there was a discussion. If I have to pay 400 dollars for a “Prevent Frigidity” tax, then at least I want some representation in parliament.
Now that’s a euphemism.
Well, the way it usually goes in my house is, “Hey, I told So-and-So we’ll be at their barbecue tomorrow. Is that alright?” I’m thinking of trying, “Hey, I just spent $600 on an upper. That’s fine, right?”
You died on purpose!
That is how I see Chip talking to his wife about her donating his fun money to the dead guy’s funeral fund.
I once had neighbors – at my first house – who bought a brand new Saturn CUV, even though neither of them were working. The guy had been unemployed for over a year. WTF?
He did eventually get another job – in another state – and since their finances were so tight, they couldn’t pay off the second mortgage on the house. So it ended up being a rental with ever shittier tenants. Wonderful people.
Our chronically underemployed neighbors (lots of time on unemployment) traded in their beater that ran fine for a new car with big payments in the Cash for Clunkers debacle.
When you asked them about it, they had completely rationalized their poor decision making in their own heads.
Not one but two mentions of Cash for Clunkers! What an absolute fiasco that thing was, and yet somehow (snicker) the media didn’t hang that massive failure around Obama’s neck. The kicker is that the negative outcomes associated with it were almost entirely borne by the poor, or at least the working class, by destroying the stock of used cars and thus driving the prices of remaining used cars through the roof.
The avg used car price is something around $18 or $19k. It’s crazy.
Hey! I have some of those too! No one in the family works, but somehow they drive really nice cars.
I saw that at the church food bank up north, where the now-sold family homestead resided. Lots of brand new 4X4 trucks in the lot.
My gut feeling: lots of people earning money under the table, but getting government and private assistance to make ends meet, especially during the winter.
Sporadic employment, maybe. You land a well-paying gig, get all excited, and buy a new truck. Six months later you get laid off.
Err, my minivan payment is $675 a month.
Mini vans ain’t cheap, especially since Cash for Clunkers as they were one of the most commonly crushed vehicles creating a severe shortage of cheap family transportation
We were paying $700 for a Highlander. It was a nice Highlander, but still. More expensive than a well-appointed entry level Mercedes sedan. Shit’s expensive, boss.
Sweet Jesus you two, there’s gotta be a better way!
There is. Until recently I drove a 2003 Tahoe with over 200K on the clock. Ran like a top and cost next to nothing to insure.
07 Commander with 165k miles. Great shape, fully loaded. Just had to change out the throttle position sensor last month. Things runs like a top.
Yeah that is the dickhead’s advice.
Sure it is accurate in many cases. Tons of people think they need/deserve a new car every few years but you know what that 2003 Tahoe is gonna die some day and then what?
The last cars my wife and I had were 12 and 16 years old respectively and both had north of 250k miles but they both died within 4 months of each other and given the reality of the market at the time buying a new car was better than buying a used one.
Dude, who pissed in your coffee? I drove way less vehicle than I could, put money away and bought the next one for cash.
It’s fucking option, that’s all. Craigslist is packed with decent used vehicles.
That all depends on where you live
*slowly raises paw*
2006 350z purchased new. Has 98K miles.
2009 Forrester purchased new. Has 138K miles.
2014 Xterra purchased new. Has 60K miles. The only reason we bought this one was I gave a 2002 Xterra to my daughter and needed another one.
Yeah that’s a lot of hobby money to be drained away. I buy used cars, usually never more than $15k. I could afford a lot more vehicle, but there are records to buy, amps to be built, art to purchase, and vacations to be had.
I used to drive a Toyota T100 4X4 that I had bought for $1800 cash. It was dependable as all get out, even with 210k miles and some off-road abuse.
Those old Toyota trucks are damned near indestructible.
We recently bought a four year old Mazda CX-9 for $18,900 with a five thousand down payment. Monthly comes to $270, very affordable. That’s the car we take everywhere as a family. My daily driver is a Versa I got for nine grand several years ago. It’s cheap in every sense of the word. Gets me where I need to go, very good MPG, very spartan and borderline uncomfortable inside. I’m planning on driving that thing until it flat out dies.
Granted, I have a different car every 1-3 years. The longest I’ve ever drove a vehicle was ~4 years. I just get sick of looking at the same piece of sheetmetal every year so I like to try out different cars.
I’m already eying a ’71 Chevy truck to use as a daily. *rolls eyes*
Might I suggest a ’72?
’72 was the best Chevy truck ever… but I buy what I can get and what I can afford 😉
https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/ctd/d/1971-chevrolet-c10-pickup/6402422259.html
Pretty sweet. Can you keep it from rusting out?
Lots of car washes?
When I was younger I always had the plan to drive whatever I wanted – like vintage muscle cars – even during the winter. I would live with the consequences of that bad decision.
These days? I would feel bad if something nice ended up rusting away.
Chrysler Town and Country here. Was over $40k brand new.
When I bought it 4 years ago I actually looked into getting something 2 years old just off a lease but once financing costs were included (they charge higher interest rates for used vehicles than new ones) it was literally more expensive to buy a 2 year old minivan with fewer options and more than 40k miles than it was to just buy a brand new one
^Exactly. I have often heard the argument that you’re burning money buying new, but I’ve run the numbers every which way, spent months searching for good used cars, and it’s just doesn’t add up. I bought a new Accord this year and they had many used accords that were actually more expensive despite fewer options.
I don’t think the cost savings for buying used starts materializing until you are buying a 10+ year old car. But then you are gambling on it not developing problems. A great deal though if you can do mechanical work yourself.
Depends on the vehicle, but yeah the price of used can be significant. As far as the age of the vehicle, one huge advantage of buying an older one is the relative simplicity of the vehicle. My 15YO Tahoe didn’t have all the whiz-bang gizmos, but it did have a bulletproof motor, transmission and suspension. For some reason it ate water pumps, but those were $100 and an hour or so of my time.
If you are ever looking for older vehicles, real trucks and SUVs are a great option.
I should have added for vehicles that hold their value well. The depreciation for Hondas and Toyotas barely drops each year (~1/3 drop after 10 years and 100k miles around here). I imagine you could get a great deal on other used types that don’t hold up as well, but didn’t look at those. I also blame Cash for Clunkers because I remember used Toyotas being a much better deal 15+ years ago.
I agree on the older trucks and SUVs. I’m looking at getting a tractor soon and the market is similar. You might as well buy new if you are buying five years old used. But there are some tractors for a fraction of the the price 20, or 30 years old that run like new and are much easier to work on. There’s still a surprising number of tractors for sale from the 50s and 60s for sale that run great and look good.
You realize that advantage goes away over time right?
In 2025 a 15 year old car will have everything a 2010 car had in it and the reality is the service life of cars has grown from ~150k miles to 250k miles in the last 25 years so there is far from any guarantee that the 15 year old car will be any easier or cheaper to maintain than a relatively late model one.
You’re right on. 4Runner was on my short list, but they don’t depreciate at all.
My preference for older vehicles has a lot to do with the fact that they don’t have all that i-shit and driver assist garbage on them. FJs are pretty bare-bones, and I like that.
Less to break. Less to annoy me. What’s not to like?
Eh, I think you’re overstating. As I said above, we got a 2013 CX-9 with 45K miles for $18.9K. New ones start at about $30K.
I think it depends on your location and the type of car. I just took a quick look through Craigslist and there’s not many Pilots < 8 years available. One was a 2012 with 85k miles for $22.5k. A 2011 for $14k (half off), but with 165k miles.
We paid the premium on a Honda once……ONCE. Seven years ago, bought an Odyssey for $14K with more miles than we would have liked, about 90K IIRC, because it was a Honda and hey, they’re really reliable!
So of course we were the reverse-lottery winners who were stuck with a lemon of a Honda. All kinds of electrical problems on that one, culminating in the repair shop telling us to just get rid of it because they would have to tear the entire vehicle apart and replace most of the wiring to fix it.
My one experience with a Honda was a stick shift that love to stall out going between first and second, had a very picky clutch and ate starter motors to the point where you wanted to park on a hill in case you needed a rolling start. I was glad when the frame rotted to the point where it wouldn’t pass inspection. Milage was not as high as those people have been throwing around here. Somewhere around 100k.
I’ve had bad lucks with used Hondas. Over the years:
2001 Accord V6 coupe bought with 90k miles. Terrible automatic transmission that slipped all the time. Also made the V6 felt as powerful as a 4cyl. Spent more than I expected on repairs to keep it running. It’s replacement, a BMW 325i was a better driving car by every metric.
2004 Honda Element bought with 64k miles. Started making some horrid screeeeech noises from the suspension/wheels. I couldn’t figure it out nor could the mechanic. It was a base model with no cruise control or ABS brakes. That, and the lack of a center elbow rest, drove me crazy.
1986/1987 Accords that I owned in the mid-to-late 90s – these were $2k cars but I ended up throwing a lot of money to keep them running. First time and only time I ever had a clutch cable snap.
The hell?! The payments on my wife’s loaded Ford Edge are under $500/month.
Toyota. The thing I’ll say about it is that we’ve never had any issues with it, we’ve used the hell out of it, and it’ll probably go for another ten years. But there were definitely more than a few times I thought to myself, “Self, what if we just bought a Civic, left the dogs at home, and only camped in cabins?”
Yeah, I drive a 2008 Toyota 4Runner with 140,000 miles on it. Still runs great, nothing but routine maintenance over the years.
I had a 2008 Rav4 that was great, paid off, everything, running like a dream cross country multiple times. Then I got rear-ended. Now I have a pre-owned 2012 Rav4. Should be paid off in a year or two – but something like .5% or 0% on the loan – not too bad.
In-laws just picked up a new one of those. Awesome cars, man. Comfortable on long trips, can handle less-than-perfect road conditions, and you can do a little bit of light towing.
Bought a USED 2016 Honda Pilot. It’s maxed out with all the goodies. Only paying about $525.
My payment on a new Pilot was a little over $500. Granted that was for the base model, though that did include 4wd and a tow package which I have been thankful for on multiple occasions. The Odyssey minivans are the exact same price, and I remember asking the salesguy why the hell anybody would buy an Odyssey over the Pilot. Turned out he owned one, and said it’s much easier getting young kids in an out (here’s to you OMWC).
Slight tangent, I’d would have liked to get a Sequoia or Yukon, but those are close to $60k! That’s crazy.
I don’t need to tow anything and will never be scaling a mountain in my Odyssey. Getting kids and a dog in and out of a mini-van is much easier than in a Pilot.
I bet. My wife complains about how difficult it is to get our kids in their car seats, and I have to lift our GSDs to get them in the back, which isn’t fun when they are struggling.
I had an Element years ago when I was childless. Goofy fucking car? Sure, but so practical and indestructible.
*Looks out window, tear rolls down cheek*
I hear ya, I miss my 84 Impala. That thing was a boat, yet still accelerated like a bullet. Stainless steel bumpers and a trunk big enough to store a prius (kidding, slightly). I think it got 10 mpg.
I lucked into an internet special from a local dealer. Not a good car, but for a Chevy Aveo (had 9700 miles on it, bought it at $8900), I haven’t spent more than $5K in repairs/ regular maintenance on it, so the cost of ownership was quite low, and at the time, I could not have afforded much more. Hopefully it keeps going for another two or three years, then I might be able to afford something else (looking at RAV4s and CX-5s).
Praise Allah that I haven’t had a car payment in nearly 20 years. Mrs Dean’s tricked out FJ is probably good for 5 more years, and mine should be good for 10.
I’ve made poor choices in the past regarding my finances, but I have no children that I need to take care of. I can’t even imagine living paycheck to paycheck with children that I’m responsible for.
Reminds me of my brother and sister-in-law; constantly playing financial catch-up, constantly needing bailouts from family members for unplanned expenses. Continually falling on hard times and further into debt which would be preventable if they ever prioritized long-term savings over immediate “needs.” My parents passed the hat for them last year when they needed $ for a new roof. I lost my shit. I’d clear out my bank account for him if it was truly what he needed but the constant bailouts are just enabling the same behavior that keeps them in debt.
My sister and her husband used to be the same way. Irresponsible with their finances, then always needing me to bail them out when some “emergency” came up. I finally told my sister the last time there would be no more bailouts unless they got their finances in order, which they have managed to do for the most part.
I’ve stopped giving them money entirely after the last “loan” was somehow just forgotten about and repayment never even mentioned. I hate the idea that every time things get tight they just keep running up their credit card debt but I’ve come to the conclusion that you could give them 500K and five years from now they’d be back in debt. It ultimately just boils down to the fish proverb.
I think every single person knows at least one person who handles their finances in this way… Which is why it pisses me off so much to hear Lefties bemoan that poverty is some kind of “systemic” problem caused by KKKapitalism.
Lol it is; “Capitalism- God’s way of proving who is smart and who is poor” -Ron Swanson
I could accept that there are some people who are poor despite making good decisions and attempting to work hard… People who are fucked out of their livelihoods by over-regulation of industry, people who are priced out of the labor market by minimum wage laws, etc.
But the “progressive” view seems to be that 100 percent of poor people are completely blameless for their situation. And of course, they also believe that poor people are entitled to a unconditional free money by virtue of the fact that they’re poor.
Just spend one afternoon listening to the Dave Ramsey show (I do not endorse all of his advice, but most of it is solid).
“I have $200k in student loan debt and $20,000 in other debts. Should I file for bankruptcy?” No better way to feel better about your own financial situation.
“Don’t file, you’ll only be able to discharge the 20k.”
To Akira- yeah I 100% agree with you. The Poor through no fault of their own do exist but are much more rare than progs would have you believe. In my experience most poverty can be chalked up to learned behaviors of poor impulse control, lack of foresight, inability to delay gratification, etc. The marshmallow experiment was pretty telling.
No matter how much Dave yells at them to not file bankruptcy, I always get the feeling they are going to do so anyway.
Do you call in your loan at every opportunity possible?
Never mentioned it once after I handed him the cash. I’d hoped he’d just pay it back of his own accord but it’s been years and I think he’d say “what loan?” if I asked him. It’s the same story with plenty of other relations he’s borrowed from. It family so I don’t begrudge the money but I’m not doing it again.
I once had a very good friend who called me out of the blue asking for a thousand dollars so she could save her house from foreclosure. It turned out that her boyfriend was spending his unemployment checks at the bar instead of making the mortgage payments. He hid this information from her. She got frantic and started calling everyone she knew to get the money they needed.
I decided not to help out since I knew it would just be a temporary stop gap. I also didn’t want to bailout a fuck up of a boyfriend. Apparently no one else stepped up to help and they lost the house to the bank.
The good news? They moved to an apartment that they could actually afford, her BF went to college to get an associate degree in accounting, and they are – amazingly – still together. I know if my wife was hiding bills from me there would be hell to pay.
The first thing we did when my wife tested positive for motherhood was to both buy life insurance. It’s term, ’cause we’re both broke as fuck, but it’s enough to pay off the house, handle bills for a good ten years, and get a running start on college tuition for our daughter (or a nest egg, or whatever she wants to do with it). Whether jobs get lost, or one or both of us get crippled, or killed, or what-have-you, our kid’s taken care of.
Not to be a dick, but marginal utility is your friend here. $400 gets you most of a full experience that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. $400 gets you pretty much dick when you’re looking at a $12k funeral. That’s 1/30th of the cost. That’s a rounding error.
We just added additional policies to our life insurance recently – had to face that the policies we already have would not be adequate over the long term. It was then that I first felt major regret for not living a healthier lifestyle – tobacco use doubled the damned payment.
Yeah, they nail you with the tobacco. I quit regularly smoking a few years ago, but this coming year I age into the next older cost bracket and my rates are going to go up. Luckily I’m in shockingly good health for the utter lack of attention I’ve paid to it over the years, so at least I don’t have any whacky conditions to deal with in the price. The hope is that once we’ve gotten our financial house in order in the next five years or so we’ll transition into permanent plans. But shit, for about $200 a month we get something like $750k apiece. There’s just no excuse to not do that when you’ve got kids. Hell, that doesn’t cover my monthly bar tab.
My existing policy was permanent because it’s the VGLI program you get as a veteran. I have $180K with that, and my wife has a $150K term policy. We’re adding a $250K policy for her and a $370K policy for me.
My suspicion is that they needed the $400 not for the funeral but for the car payment and food.
If they had no life insurance and she was a Stay at home mom then the income just stops and since it doesn’t sound like they had anything in the bank putting food on the table for the next few weeks while they wait for social security and welfare applications to work their way through the system is going to be a problem.
and your sons best friend, no sure how old the kids are but you did say young kids, not only did he just lose his dad but Christmas, yeah that is fucking outright canceled for him so I am pretty sure the $12k is more of a stretch goal and the immediate need is keeping the kids fed and the lights on
The son is 10, daughter is 4. The little girl was alone with the dad when he died – the son was at a sleepover birthday party and the wife was at a friend’s house where they were baking cookies for a school bake sale. She said he made a strange noise and then went to sleep. It really is a heartbreaking story.
If he had some sort of condition that just randomly kills young people, maybe not having life insurance wasn’t really a voluntary status?
That could be true. In that case, though, you’d think you’d try to accumulate more savings.
I ran into a similar situation. An individual I know lost a kid in accident. From my understanding they got a substantial amount of money from life insurance and a settlement from the accident. They still setup a GoFundMe for funeral expenses.
Doesn’t seem like your problem. I’d be pissed if my SO gave my fun money away without asking me. You should CLEANSE her.
$12k funeral!?
Now my turn to sound heartless, there is nothing special about burying a dead body. Save some money and do cremation.
I told my wife that, when I die, just drag me out back and plant me in the backyard in a cardboard box. No sense in wasting money just to stick my body into the ground.
Seriously.
For Chipwooder…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUxFY0N_X4w
Outstanding! Great song.
I think you probably should help them some but there was no reason for your wife not to tell you and it didn’t have to be all $400.
So there’s a Kickstarter to save Gawker.
Yeah, no.
It would be more poetic for Peter Thiel to buy the carcass.
Sounds like he might. Oh, the sweet, sweet tears…..
that would be fantastic
Its an auction. I’m pretty sure Thiel can outbid their kickstarter. And I hope he does.
They’ve already had 5 people pledge $1000+. What on earth…
A fool and his money are soon parted.
At least it’s kickstarter, last I knew, a project that failed to hit the goal would not collect from donors there.
It won’t. But I’m pretty sure it will hit the goal.
a cold-hearted rant that’s going to make me look like an asshole….
Not really.
This is why I belong here!!!
If I remove myself from the scenario and say “Poor widow facing financial ruin needs money to pay for husband’s funeral, guy doesn’t want to give money earmarked for concert and gambling”, it sounds much worse than when I see it with me personally involved in it.
You have perfectly illustrated the modern progressive’s relationship with Big Government. The only thing you forgot to add was “I’m sure the government will take care of it.”
Well, when you put it that way…..
She’s a sweet girl and I feel terrible for her. She’s a fair bit younger than us, in her 20s still I think, and rather naïve and maybe a bit dim. Our son and her son are best friends. It’s not that I don’t want to help her, but I’m hardly wealthy myself.
“Guy who’s saved money all year to see beloved band for first time in two decades has trip ruined when acquaintance’s husband dies broke.”
Hope that helps.
Yeah, no you sound like an asshole. Because I am sorry no couple with young kids could be “responsible” enough to be in a position to weather the sudden death of the primary wage earner.
Sure your wife should have consulted you before giving the money away and yeah we get your being upset that you can’t go see the concert and you obviously aren’t required to help them out but here is the thing.
You just proved the progressives right.
Your attitude is what lets them get away with saying we just want to burn the poor. Private Charity is what lets our ideals about government work and if we reject private charity then we are betraying our small government ideals.
So do what you want but you sound like an asshole and you can’t get out of that by bashing them for not having the foresight to see that the husband was going to suddenly and unexpected keel over.
Fair enough. By “responsible”, I meant that they apparently have next to nothing saved and he didn’t have life insurance.
You can make up untrue stories about her late husband to make yourself feel better! Pick 3:
1. He was having an affair with an HIV+ transsexual prostitute
2. He was sexually aroused by torturing small animals
3. He beat her
4. He liked pineapple AND avocado on his (deep dish) pizza
Hah!
He was an odd guy. Not a bad guy, but kind of antisocial in a polite way. I didn’t really know him at all – other than coming to our Super Bowl party two years ago, he’s never come along with the family when they’ve done things with us (camping, trips to Kings Dominion, cookouts, etc)
Yeah, having a family and not having life insurance is beyond irresponsible. While I think you’ll be glad you made the sacrifice in the end I think you are right to be annoyed.
Yes, as soon as they had a kid they should have gotten life insurance.
I think that’s a little harsh. While giving the money is the right thing to do (which he did), I don’t blame him for resenting the fact that other peoples failure to plan has now become an burden on him. See my post above post. if my brother passed away I would most certainly drastically damage my own financial well being to help out my family but that doesn’t mean I’d feel good about it being that their own choices helped to bring about that outcome.
This.
I’m half of a couple with a toddler, and as soon as my wife got pregnant we both bought life insurance. Insurance being the operative word, which is to say we had the foresight to prepare for the eventuality that one of us might suddenly and unexpectedly keel over.
Giving the wife a hand is a fine thing to do, but the couple’s failure to behave responsibly–two young children without health insurance (!?) never mind life insurance–does not prove that government is necessary to save people from poor decisions any more than my getting hit by a truck because I wander into the street hunting Pokemon on my phone proves that cell phones need to be banned.
THIS IS WHY WE NEED MEDICARE FOR ALL
Seriously, how can you be so irresponsible as to not have life insurance in that situation? Same as you, as soon as my wife got pregnant we bought life insurance. If I keel over at least I know they’ll be taken care of.
My thing is that I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck pretty much my whole life. Call it poor decisions in my twenties with consequences that have echoed down through the years. Then I married someone who’s as bad if not worse with money than I was. The reason my wife and I waited until we were well into our thirties to have kids is that, despite the terrible advice of some relatives (“Oh, when you have kids you just find the money somehow, don’t worry!”) we didn’t want to have a child and then try to spend hope and wishes at the grocery store. Fucking our own lives up through our own poor decisions is one thing, but forcing that on a child with no choice in the matter is unconscionable.
You realize not everyone can get life insurance right?
Or sure you can get it but the premiums are so high there is literally no point in it.
I looked into getting it at one point. a $250k 10 year term insurance policy would have cost me $800 a month
Bullshit.
This family has no claim to Chip’s money. And the rest of us have no standing to tell Chip he should give the money to them either.
It is a shitty situation. The young family didn’t expect the guy to die suddenly. They aren’t deadbeats, but they also aren’t entitled to anyone else’s money.
“And the rest of us have no standing to tell Chip he should give the money to them either”
Au contraire…
-Uncle Sam
Page 69 of the Soshul Contract?
Nice.
And no one said they did or he did.
That said actions have consequences and one of those consequences is to alter peoples perceptions of you.
Sure he is free to not help, they have no claim on the money and only he can decide whether he values the concert or helping a family in need more BUT we (each individually) get to decide how we view him in light of the decision and sorry but we are talking about a mother and 2 young kids who not only just lost the most important person in their lives but are now staring down the barrel of homelessness and hunger and he’s worried about a concert?
Sorry that makes you an asshole, sure you have a right to be an asshole but you can’t avoid the label if you are going to think this way.
Starting to think somebody needs an email from the mods…….
I would gladly let them stay at our house as long as they needed to if it came to that. I doubt they’d want to because my house is hardly spacious, but if need be the offer will be there.
Extending this line of thought ends up with no one ever being justified in spending time or money for their pleasure. There is literally ALWAYS some tragedy that you could donate your money to alleviate.
Actually, as you point out in your comment, that makes you think he’s an asshole, which of course is your prerogative. Speaking for myself, I don’t fault him for being bitter that money he shares with his wife was spent without consulting him to offer financial assistance to someone for whom it seems to me won’t do very much good. Handing someone a check is not the only or even the best way to help them emotionally, certainly, nor is it the only or best way to address any impending homelessness or other straits. I’m assuming she or her deceased husband have living family who would also be able to help in cash or kind.
Hard times hit everyone, sure, and maybe this just the latest in a line of terrible luck for them. Maybe before they had two children they had a stable financial situation and everything was taken care of, but bad things started happening and all of that went away. It happens. It still doesn’t make Chip an asshole for wanting his wife to have consulted him first, nor would it make him an asshole if he decided not to give the money. If he opted to, that would be a generous thing, yes, but the opposite of that isn’t assholery. Of course, in this instance, he didn’t get the chance to make the choice to begin with. Also, the situation I described doesn’t sound like what was actually the case, making his position even more sympathetic.
Of course all of this is just my opinion.
IMO I think the $12k funeral and panhandling friends to cover it is a major dick move, but that’s just my opinion as an outsider. That’s +$10K that could go toward the kids.
Sorry Rasilio, you are off base here. How much did you give them? Why won’t YOU HELP THE POORS!
Don’t know them and I don’t have $400 saved up to give them.
That said, I do routinely feed my kids friends because I know their parents sometimes can’t (my daughter has a habit of attracting all the broken people), and we go out of of our way to do things for them where and when we can. Oh yeah there have been about a dozen acquaintances we have taken into our home over the years and given a place to stay let them live room and board free while they were getting on their feet. Some for a few weeks, some for a few months whatever it was they needed.
So yeah I might not be in a position to help THIS family because I don’t know them, and I can’t save everyone but I am pretty secure that I live my values and actively put myself out there to help families in need wherever I can and I never once worry about the cost.
So how’s the weather way up there at the peak of Mount Moral Superiority?
That’s a pretty silly way to dismiss Rasilio’s point. I suppose if someone said “Homophobia is wrong” you would respond with the same line of thinking?
I’m not one for calling out others on their own beliefs, but when your only response to Rasilio’s point is to claim that he is being too moral, you’ve clearly lost the argument.
What argument? I’m specifically criticizing his tone.
“Too moral” and “self-righteous” are not the same thing
He shouldn’t have passed judgement, but his underlying point is that people who believe in less government should be the most apt to support private charity. Like I said, I’m not one to pontificate or pass judgement on others, especially not on Glibertarians, but he makes a fair point about private charity. Attacking him because he’s a goody too-shoes, does not engender me to the opposing argument.
Anyways, I don’t care. My main reaction from Chip’s original post is that I got screwed because I’ve only seen the Misfits without Danzig.
Read up through Rasilio’s other comments. If his intent is to point out that voluntary charity is something libertarians should support it gets distracted from by plenty of condescension and ad hominem. His treatment of Chipwooder is particularly unfair because he attacks his motivations (which he is very humanly struggling with) rather than his actions (which there is no fault in). He called Tundra a “dickhead” for nothing more than espousing an opinion on used cars. He’s not arguing in good faith and clearly believes he is morally superior because someone dare raise the rhetorical question of where charity should stop and where personal responsibility should begin. He deserves to be called out.
No, he didn’t. He, consciously or unconsciously, misrepresented the OP. What he is upset about is that his wife made a major financial decision without consulting him. Calling him an asshole for being upset about that stems from same unwarranted sense of the moral righteousness that made Chip’s wife believe she could give away 400 dollars without consulting him. The whole point of charity is that it is voluntary. Ras’s preening here obfuscates that issue. In this context, it’s particularly tone deaf to list all of the actions one has taken voluntarily. Furthermore, not knowing the financial situations of either Chip or Ras’ it’s particularly galling to pin a star on ‘one’s chest for not worrying about the cost.’
Sorry, Chip may be an asshole, but Rasilio is being a dick.
“Sorry, Chip may be an asshole, but Rasilio is being a dick.”
Clearly I must not have read his comments from the beginning. I apologize for the mistake.
No worries.
Actually I did not call him an asshole.
His original post said
To which other people rose to his defense and that is what I took issue with.
No Chip is just bitching about losing out on something he was looking forward to and I don’t blame him for that one bit.
Where I have a problem is when everyone jumps in and starts spouting off how irresponsible the couple was and saying no it doesn’t make him an asshole.
Look, bitching because you didn’t get to go to a concert because you helped out a family in pretty dire straights does in fact make you look like an asshole. It doesn’t make you one but it gives you the appearance of one and Chip even owned it so good on him but shame on everyone else who tried to excuse it by pointing out how irresponsible the couple was. Sure they were likely irresponsible thing is it doesn’t matter how responsible they were they were younger, still starting their lives out, apparently had a kid fairly young and faced a devastating loss that even the most responsible among us could not have handled. Now is not the time to be beating them up over it.
More importantly however you know how you guys are saying how every time progressives talk about social justice Trump wins even more? This is the same thing for us, Chip blowing off steam and intentionally looking like an asshole is one thing but for everyone else here who has been attacking that family for being irresponsible…
Yeah, that is how Progressives win elections. This entire fucking thread could be a campain ad for Liz Warren 2020, not because of what Chip said but because of what most everyone else has been saying
You’re still missing the point. Chip didn’t help out the family, his wife did, and she did so without his consultation. Different couples come to different agreements about how they handle finances, but from his description, that’s not how they seem to usually handle things. That is what Chip is upset about, not the fact that some kids get to eat. All of your browbeating is moot.
The whole situation is a shitshow. However:
-It’s your money you can do whatever you damn well please with it
-It was kinda fucked that your wife gave it away without asking you
-Shit happens. Puppies get abused, good people get cancer… life is chaotic and unforgiving
If you feel like helping someone out voluntarily, financially or otherwise, good on you. But, if you choose not to, you should not be shamed for that. That’s what freedom is.
“If you feel like helping someone out voluntarily, financially or otherwise, good on you. But, if you choose not to, you should not be shamed for that. That’s what freedom is.”
So this is my question: by accepting freedom we should view everything within the bounds of moral relativism? I’m not speaking specifically about Chip’s situation or any one in particular, but if a man is able to donate to charity and he just chooses not to, no one should pass judgement? Does this also apply to people who hold bigoted views? Can we not pass judgement on people with bigoted views, because that’s what freedom is?
I feel that sometimes proponents of liberty swim too closely to moral relativism, which is ironic because most liberty minded people seem to accept some moral truths, at least as it applies to individual liberty and choice.
In the words of Mistress Ayn, “Judge and prepare to be judged!” I see no reason why I can’t judge a judgement.
Of course you can pass judgement. But why? How you conduct yourself is really the only thing that should matter. My moral code is mine alone. I don’t expect anyone else to follow it.
Why do I care whether you give a dime to charity? It won’t affect me or my decisions in that regard.
How is that moral relativism?
I’m just trying to determine what is the moral center of this argument. We can all criticize someone who is an anti-semite or some other bigot, because his ideas are irrational. But, some find it difficult to criticize another person of means who does not donate to charity. One is an opinion, whereas another is an action. Aren’t actions more significant than opinions?
Maybe, I’m missing the counter point here.
Also, I’m surprised that someone called you an ‘asshole’ Tundra. I guess Minnesota passive aggressive is not translatable everywhere
‘Dickhead’, not ‘asshole’ (this time, anyway). It’s a fair cop either way.
I agree that actions are more significant than opinions generally, but again I come back to who cares? The guy not donating to charity isn’t causing harm.
Actually I said the argument was a dickhead argument. Very different from saying you personally were a dickhead.
Your argument about buying cheap old cars and driving them forever is the dickhead argument because it is the very essence of moral superiority and judgement.
You are literally telling people who do not follow your preferred car purchasing strategy that they are foolish spendthrifts at best, it is a moral judgement coached in the form of “advice” even though the advice by definition could not work for everyone because if everyone followed it those reliable old cars would cost nearly as much as new cars. It also does not take into account individual skill to repair the vehicle and individual tolerance for the risk of a breakdown.
That does not make you personally a dickhead but one need not be a bad person to make a bad argument
Really? I thought it was simply an option for those who can’t or won’t make monster payments.
Not sure what’s going on with you today, man.
– Rasilio, upthread
Jarflax made a really good point along these lines to the effect that if you follow the line of reasoning that spending on anything but the bare necessities when there’s someone in need who could use the money is wrong, then you get down some really strange rabbit holes. Where do you draw the line? Can it possibly be true that Rasilio can’t scrape $400 together? What if he knew them? What does the charity amount / social closeness matrix look like? How does the desperation of need factor in, and who determines that? What if any role does the history of the charity recipient’s decisions play?
I don’t have a good answer for that. It’s like a lot of moral stances; I have a personal inclination, but I can’t even really come up with a hard and fast rule for my own life in that regard, much less someone else’s. I have a vague, general sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, but that’s about as close as I can get.
I don’t think there can be a hard and fast rule and it is up to every person to evaluate every situation independently.
Lets do a hypothetical.
You and I don’t know each other. We have only ever interacted here but never indepth. We however live within about 15 miles or less of each other.
Are you part of my social circle? If you had some crisis and needed help how far should I go to provide it? And the answer is I am not sure. I do know that no one else could decide for me and the nature of the crisis would very much define the amount of help I would be willing/able to provide.
So to bring it back to the original post why do I say that makes him look like an asshole?
Because while there is no hard and fast rule the specifics of the situation are one where nearly everyone says you should do what you can in the short term to help. You are looking at a relatively trivial personal expenditure (spending money at an upcoming concert) vs an extreme tragedy (sudden unexpected death of the sole breadwinner of a family with young children) and at least a moderate level of personal association (your sons best friend).
Why does what nearly everyone says matter? Because the definition of asshole in this context is “behaves in a socially unapproved manner”. Taking it back to our pre-human ancestors you didn’t help a member of your tribe and so that means you might not help me when I need it so it will lower your standing within the tribe. In other words an asshole is what other people will perceive him to be for even making the argument.
He doesn’t owe them the money and only he can decide whether he has a duty to provide it but if he doesn’t help where he could have with these facts in place it is going to be seen as an anti social act and a betryal of the tribe in most peoples monkey brains
I see what you’re saying, and it makes sense as far as it goes. I think maybe there’s some context missing that would shed some more light. But also I think there are two issues, with the lack of consultation issue preempting the question of whether or not the donation ought to be made, since the one obviated the other.
I draw a line between arbitrary impersonal charity and personal charity to people in your physical/social sphere.
What is the difference?
Arbitrary impersonal charity is donating money to the United Way or Red Cross or even a local homeless shelter you never set foot in.
Personal charity is being part of a community and personally helping individuals in need whether it be financially or with other forms of aid
The first form of charity is of little moral value IMO. If you choose to do it, that is nice but it doesn’t make you a good person and refraining from it does not make you a bad person
The second form is of huge moral value because it is one of the defining characteristics of our species. We are a social animal who used community building and mutual aid as one of our key survival mechanisms and so helping the people around you where you can when you can is a moral imperative
“so helping the people around you where you can when you can is a moral imperative”
I’m not sure I agree with this. Helping people that you care about/have some stake in is certainly a good thing to do, but I wouldn’t call it an imperative. A moral imperative implies that not taking said action makes you immoral; I don’t think voluntarily refusing charity makes you immoral, it might make you kind of a douchebag for a particular situation, but not immoral. Furthermore, saying charity is a moral imperative comes dangerously close to the prog “indiscriminate forced altruism to everyone!” line of reasoning. The main thing is being able to look yourself in the mirror each day and know that you lived up to your own standards. Those standards will be different for everyone.
Maybe, but I cannot think of a better term of it.
I also look at it the other way. If it is not a personal moral imperative to help those close to you in need then it WILL become a forced imperative via taxation and welfare but because it will be handed out through bureaucracy it means there will be no effecrtive vetting of what help is actually needed and would be beneficial
But, if you choose not to, you should not be shamed for that. That’s what freedom is.
Freedom is doing what you want and accepting the consequences. Those consequences may include other people disagreeing with you on moral grounds and shaming you. Their decision to disagree and shame you may also have consequences, such as other people disagreeing with them, etc.
Basically, freedom is being disagreeable, I guess.
Yes. I will modify my statement to “you should not, but may be, shamed for that”. If he’s a fully self-actualized individual, what other people are saying about him shouldn’t matter anyway. It’s his choice and if people give him grief for it, he can tell them to fuck off.
On the Chicago police story, a little background. The Police Union official (and the rest of the police union lackeys) were elected on a “how dare they ever say police do anything wrong?” ticket.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-fraternal-order-police-election-met-20170412-story.html
I went to school with some of the union lackeys. Chicago is a city of gangs- the police are just one other gang.
Mostly OT:
I am amazed by the lack of culinary awareness up here. My workplace’s cafeteria is run by a major local restaurant chain that specializes in Italian food. But still, this is NYS, there should be some awareness about the other cultures here, right?
The first St. Patrick’s day, they served corned beef and red cabbage (cooked with vinegar and caraway) . They have since corrected that error in subsequent years.
This morning’s breakfast special was “The Canuck,” an eggs Benedict variant with streaky bacon, avocados and sambal olek. I haven’t been north of the wall all that many times, but I’ve yet to encounter either of those last two ingredients there.
streaky bacon
ewwww /teenage girl
Since NAFTA, mexican avocados should be available in Canuckistan.
Avocados and sambal olek are as Canadian as back bacon and maple syrup!
Watched the Rodney Carrington comedy special on Netflix last night and man is that guy funny. I is to recommend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo5r2RzU40s
Heard something on the radio today that made my laugh in that cynical glibertarian way. They said Chicago police are stepping up security in light of the bombing in NYC. But officials said they have no indication there is any bombing planned. Pardon me, but I don’t think they had any indication of a planned bombing in NYC either.
Terrorist 1: “Ok, so we sent a suicide bomber to NYC. Maybe Time Square or something”
Terrorist 2: “I’ve been looking at this atlas and there are other cities in America besides NYC. I say we try one of those”
Terrorist 1: “No, we stay with NYC. No one will expect it”
Terrorist 2: “Are you kidding me- they’re totally expecting more attacks in NYC. Why don’t we try another city, like Jacksonville or something”
Terrorist 1: “You don’t get it. All the Jews live in NYC- there are no Jews in Florida. We’re going to hit NYC again”
Terrorist 2: “Come on- let’s just try some place else. Why not LA- there must be Jews in LA”
Terrorist 1: “No, we don’t have enough miles to send someone to LA. We stay with NYC.”
Terrorist 1: “What about this Boca Raton? I’ve heard that there are Jews there”
Terrorist 2: “Mahmoud, are you daft? That’s a Spanish place – do you know any Spanish Jews???”
Apparently, terrorists have no experience with Monroe-Dade counties, or with Maitland (Orange), FL.
The hyper focus on NYC proves one thing.
The purpose of the attacks has nothing to do with the US. The purpose of the attacks is demonstrate how powerful the terror group is to other potential jihadis.
If they really wanted to cripple America with terror attacks they would be attacking a shopping mall in Columbus and a high school football game in Des Moines and similar targets
I don’t know why they don’t play more small ball. It would be more psychologically damaging.
Because they’re imagining being in the line in front of Allah as he deals judgment.
“What did you bomb?”
“The Empire State Building”
“Good. You? What did you bomb?”
“I almost got the capitol.”
“Good. You? What did you bomb?”
“Sunnyvale Shores Little League facility”
The issue with small ball is that it could not be played within states that have good concealed carry laws as easily. Martyrdom by blowing oneself up is what is preached as the goal, martyrdom by being shot to pieces by concealed carriers is not the goal.
Chicago has been clamoring for a terrorist bombing to call its own since 1886.
Second city.
August Spies hardest hung
And south of 63rd Street doesn’t count.
[double checks address on front of house] Let’s make it south of 47th Street, shall we?
How about Mrs. O’ Leary with an Irish Cow Bomb?
Even terrorists are afraid of getting shot in Chicago.
I honestly don’t care about the specifics of the case beyond the fact that the guy who roofied her is aliased as “Man Bun”.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/39880/
Our best and brightest.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-top-intel-official-rethinks-maybe-we-shouldnt-have-attacked-a-new-president/article/2643208?platform=hootsuite
…says retired high-ranking US intelligence official.
Because Hillary’s deliberate mishandling of classified information in order to enable her pay for play schemes while SOS was just fine and not at all damaging. Good to see the CIA is still run by incompetent idiots.
Yeah, that is such a load of horseshit. Among military and contractors (y’know the people who actually do all the work) the numbers in support of Trump were North Korean. Only brainless bureaucrats sucking the big dick of government could possibly think that Libya Hillary would be better for national security.
Because Hillary’s deliberate mishandling of classified information in order to enable her pay for play schemes while SOS was just fine and not at all damaging.
Well, yeah. But, for all her faults, Hillary was part of the Club. And, really, that’s all it came down to. Sure, they might have rather had different Club members running things. But, it’s not like there was any off chance she might upset the apple cart. But, someone like Trump? He might decide we had too much brass at the top. He might question why we’re pissing away blood and treasure trying to one-up everyone else on the block when it doesn’t get us anything. He might spend time listening to people on his team, rather than the Club.
This is a local story, but it may be of interest to Glibs that have been following Chicago’s 2nd Amendment saga over the years. Oak Park is a very progressive collar suburb that had some of the strictest firearms regulations in the entire state just prior to the Heller ruling. If this had happened five years ago, the clerk in this story may very likely have ended up as worm food.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-oak-park-shooting-20171212-story.html
That warms my cockles.
“Oak Park is a city of wide lawns and narrow minds”
– supposedly Ernest Hemingway
I remember going to see a movie in Oak Park once, where the ‘Daily Worker’ was being distributed to people in line. Oak Park epitomizes the stereotype of the rich white liberal.
That’s a nice little Examiner article about the intelligence community and their efforts to torpedo Candidate Trump.
It never even occurred to them that Hillary could lose. “Intelligence community” indeed.
These are the same organizations and, in some cases people, that failed to foresee the fall of the Soviet Union.
The “Deep State” conspiracy theories are seeming much less like theories by the day. These organizations are extensions of the Executive Branch, why can’t Trump just clean house and fire the shit out of these people? Or at the very least give them new jobs that consist of digging holes, then filling them in? It’d be really easy to terminate these people by pulling their security clearances; just say their judgement is no longer reliable and they can’t be trusted with sensitive information. That requires basically no justification.
why can’t Trump just clean house and fire the shit out of these people
Beats me. He may be just giving them enough rope.
I also don’t know why he doesn’t just order the release, or release himself, all the FBI etc. stuff that Congress is asking for and the FBI is refusing. The application for the warrant on his campaign should also be released immediately.
What do you think is happening at the Dept. of State?
why can’t Trump just clean house and fire the shit out of these people?
Because these people work for the government. You can’t fire them, you have to make it look like an accident.
*searches Craigslist for “wet work”*
(To whichever dooshy bureaucrat is monitoring the site today: Just kidding!)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/n-y-subway-suspect-akayed-ullah-had-baby-son-june-n828671
NYC subway suspect Akayed Ullah had baby son in June
More evidence that we need a new federal policy on family leave.
The SEC put out a statement yesterday afternoon on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. It’s a little difficult to read if you’re not a securities lawyer, but it’s a matter of time before government regulation comes into play. Bitcoin probably does meet the definition of a security.
A couple of things to note:
In other words: Even if bitcoin isn’t a security, they’re still going to look at how it’s traded. What that means is a look into firms that offer trading in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — and extrapolating from that, a potential regulation requiring any organization trading in cryptocurrencies to hold a broker-dealer license from the SEC.
That last paragraph is a warning: Better be damn sure what you’re doing when you facilitate a trade in cryptocurrency. Because they’re watching.
That reminds me, the tax division at my firm just put out a newsletter that deals with cryptocurrency, where they breakdown a case between the IRS and coinbase. I’ll try and track that down.
Please do post if you find it. I don’t have any crypto holdings, but it’s interesting.
Ok, found it. I can’t access glibs on my work computer, so I’m rewriting the email on my phone; expect errors.
On November 28th, the district court for northern California upheld a summons from the IRS to Coinbase to turn over transaction details of Coinbase users. The summons is IRS notice 2014-21. Coinbase challenged the summons, but the court upheld it under the Powell test. To pass the Powell test, an order must be;
1. Issued for a legitimate purpose;
2. Seeks information relevant to that purpose;
3. Seeks information that is not already in the agencies possession;
4. Satisfies any administrative steps set forth for the agency
The court only heard arguments on the first two points, as they held that the IRS already satisfied the third and fourth.
I can post the details of how the court found that the IRS satisfied each requirement and Coinbase’s arguments against them if you want, but in summary the court held that Coinbase had to turn over the following to the IRS:
For any account that had the equivalent of $20,000 dollars in any one transaction type (buy, sell, send, our receive) in any one year between 2013 and 2015, Coinbase must provide the IRS with the:
1. Account holders tax ID number, name, birthdate, and address
2. Records of account activity that identify the date, amount and type of transaction, post transaction balance, and the names of the counter parts to the transaction
3. All periodic account statements or invoices or equivalent
Oh, and I’m not a lawyer, I just work at a law firm. That’s a summary of a summary. Any in depth questions are best handled by one of our resident legal beagles.
That’s pretty much what I recall. What the court got wrong was that this was a Constitutionally prohibited general warrant, as it was not directed at a particular individual’s account that they had sufficient suspicion of, but swept in thousands of accounts that the IRS had zero reason to suspect of doing anything illegal.
Oh yes, the late November IRS matter with Coinbase.
You guys and your cars and your car payments- I was going to say, “You’re all nuts” but I’m the one who’s nuts. I have never paid more than $1500 cash money for a car. That doesn’t mean I don’t maintain them, or put a pot of money into them, but….
The everyday car is a 1990 Honda Civic wagon I bought for $1100 in 2004. I just keep fixing it, because every time I look at what’s out there to replace it with, I start ordering parts. I do all my own work, but to me, spending a thousand bucks on a car you owe nothing on seems like a bargain compared to a $500 monthly payment.
The Porsche was dead in a back yard outside Helena. The guy told me, as I was dragging it up onto the trailer, “Yeah, a whole bunch of guys came and looked at it, but they all said, ‘I know I said i was looking for a project, but not *that much* of a project. Sorry, ‘bye.'” I made a car out of it in a few weeks.
Cue theme music
’96 Suburban with 250k miles.
It ain’t gonna get me laid, but that wasn’t happening anyway.
The ’74 Bug I had over a decade ago got me more pussy than any car since.
Funny, isn’t it? I’ve had some pretty sweet cars that girls gave no fucks about, but my light blue 1974 Super Beetle was a magnet.
MY Bug was light blue too! *soul brothers*
*passes joint*
I have better things to do with my time than spend it fixing a piece of shit beater of a car to save a few dollars.
I have 2 kids and 3 dogs. I have certain automotive parameters that negate driving beaters.
How many miles on it? I had a ’92 Civic Hatchback that had over 400,000 on it. We only sold it because I crashed it (but the engine wasn’t damaged). Some guy bought it and planned on fixing it up; it may very well still be running. Hondas run for fucking ever if you take care of them.
I have five cars but spend most of my time in my 1997 4Runner with over 250K miles on it. Oil and tires, and it’s good to go. I’m in a family way too.
So I noticed the bike lane thread last night, and came across this article.
And you can add me as another cyclist who is not a fan of poorly placed/maintained bike lanes.
Hey people:
Kid is getting very interested in tinkering with electronics and “coding”. Was thinking of getting a Raspberry Pi 3 kit, helping her put it together, loading Raspbian on it, and downloading Minecraft Pi edition. Any other programs out there? Or should I just buy something like this and not have to deal with other pains?
Look at the multitude of arduino kits. It’s more like actual programming.
adafruit.com
This. The free arduino IDE is really great and incredible compared to the Microchip IDEs you could get 10-15 years ago.
You can get the Kano OS for free and get a Pi kit for around 60 to 70 dollars.
Start ’em out on C++, then punish severely for each missed semi-colon.
Fuck that. If you want your kid to be a Java developer, you have to start indoctrinating them early that Java is THE ONLY LANGUAGE FOR ALL TASKS!!!!!
Beat them with a wire coat hanger if they ever even think about using some other language.
how old? my 8-year old tinkers with Scratch and Lego https://scratch.mit.edu/wedo which i’ve found to be ideal b/c it’s beginner programming but still allows the kid to create something mechanical.
My son took a little three day coding class where they used Scratch. I know nothing about this stuff, though, so I’m not much help to him. I know a bit about putting together electronic hardware, but little of its uses.
yep, same dilemma here. mine are rapidly exceeding any knowledge/experience i have in that arena.
i send mine to week-long Lego/Scratch camps in the summer in between sports camps. i assume it’s working. any unsolved Rubiks creations in our house typically get solved <minute now.. which, honestly, sort of intimidates me.
She’s 8. Scratch looks interesting.
True story: I bought my daughter a Kano when she was 8. She went to coding camp last summer and, when not cosplaying Harui Suzumiya, has pink hair.
Are you sure this is the path you want to follow?
Wait, Kano will lead her to cosplay Haruhi Suzumiya?
Well at least I’ll know she has good taste in anime.
Raspian should come pre-installed with a bunch of coding software already on it (scratch, python, sonic, etc). I helped a friend build one for emulation a month or two ago and I think Raspian has Minecraft installed on it now too.
The best way to teach your kid how to code/script/hack computers is to put in a clunky firewall to “protect” them from porn. Teenage boys will do anything to get their porn fix.
The only interest my boys ever showed in IT was when they were learning how to jailbreak their school provided iPads so they could do what they wanted with them instead of using the lame apps provided by the school.
How many miles on it?
Hasn’t even topped 300k yet.
I have better things to do with my time than spend it fixing a piece of shit beater of a car to save a few dollars.
YMMV. As I said, I’m the one who’s nuts.
It pleases me to bring a dead (or nearly dead) thing back to life and usefulness.
Not nuts, just tuned differently.
My DDs are all pretty new, now. Thank god for the Triumph, just to keep my hand in.
Did someone say DDs?
https://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/25ec5062498f04c39f885664648634a6.jpg?quality=85&strip=info&w=600
Yowza!
Look out Tundra, those things turned her hair green!
*looks again*
Nope, worth the risk.
OK, but when Mrs. Tundra calls me, I’m not going to lie for you again and tell her that the reason your beard is green is because we started St. Paddy’s day early.
Come on, man! Remember the time with the midget stripper? I took the bullet for you then, dude. You owe me.
ixnay on the idgetmay!!
NSFW
+1 Bob Dole’s Viagra
You’ll want to read this: via Insty, a column at Counterpunch that puts the #RESISTANCE through the ol’ woodchipper and then pisses on its remains. At a far-left site, no less. There’s so much good stuff in there that it’s difficult to excerpt because I want to keep adding more, but here’s a few tastes:
There’s much, much more.
Oh, hell, what’s another one?
Holy fuck, this.
Neo-Nazis and the KKK are tiny groups nowadays. The media did them the absolute biggest favor in the world the way they covered Charlottesville.
I don’t think think there were even 500 of them.
Damn.
That was a righteous rant. Thank you.
Your quotes, by the way, do not do this article justice. It needs to be read in its entirety.
Agreed. It’s chock full of great lines. Like this:
Now that Robert Mueller has proved that Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin by obstructing an investigation by Comey into Michael Flynn’s lying to the FBI about not colluding with the Russian ambassador on behalf of Israel at Kushner’s behest, the dominoes are surely about to fall.
This is one of the best things I’ve read in a long long time. Suffice it to say, minus the raging Hard Left Corporate Conspiracy thought, I can’t find that much to disagree with. Fantastic read. I may post this on Facebook to watch heads explode.
Shoot, I may have to go to a library and see if I can find this guy’s book. He’s a very entertaining writer.
This deserves a pulitzer.
State Satirist Stephen Colbert
Oh, man. That’s pretty good.
i missed that on the first pass. nice catch.
this is quite good
Trump was using special fascist code words like “global elites,” “international banks,” and “lobbyists” to signal his virulent hatred of the Jews to the millions of Americans who, according to the media, were secretly Hitler-loving fascists.
Honestly, that’s the part I don’t get. We’re supposed to believe that a New York real estate developer with a Jewish son-in-law hates Jews? Really? And how is it that, after years of hearing the same old voices denounce lobbyists and Big Banks, we’re now supposed to believe that denouncing them is a sign of anti-semitism?
So much of the left’s paradigm, at this point, requires so intense a willful suspension of disbelief that I don’t understand how anyone can honestly believe it and not know they’re being a hack.
when you believe you’re part of a moral crusade battling evil, you will countenance anything.
this is a good sentence:
Pack it up. No one needs to write anything anymore, that encapsulated it all.
So I read an excerpt from Zone 23, his novel. It reads a lot like David Foster Wallace; I think I’m going to have to buy it.
This extends, for example, to securities firms and other market participants that allow payments to be made in cryptocurrencies, set up structures to invest in or hold cryptocurrencies, or extend credit to customers to purchase or hold cryptocurrencies.
That must be a shot across the bow of people talking about Cryptocurrency futures instruments.
In regards to the chain immigration thing: My wife became a citizen two years back and while going through the process we found out that to bring her 80 year old mother over here to get a green card and live would be a piece of cake. She could immediately sign up for MediCare. Her forty something sister with twenty years of work experience on the other hand would be a difficult process to get a green card for. Our immigration system is totally fucked up.
“Our immigration system is totally fucked up”
Something pretty much everyone can agree upon, the solutions, however are pretty drastically different depending on who you ask.
It is weird that it’s easier to bring in an old person than a young person into the country. It’s even easier for the old person to get citizenship, since the naturalization test can be administered in other languages other than English if the applicant is over sixty years old or something like that. I know this from personal experience
One of the people I supervise at my other job has a nephew that has an Engineering Process (I think it’s what they call Industrial Engineering) degree from a Tech university in France (He’s from the Ivory Coast), and the US won’t even consider his green card application, where it’ll just bring over any refugee from the Middle East (and we work with a few Iraqi families without any of that kind of education, although all the kids are currently in school, working towards degrees). It’s frustrating as hell, considering the nephew would likely live with the guy I supervise (who loves the US, is a devout Christian, and had a stroke a year back, so could use the help from a younger relative).
Our system is set up to make it tough for those who could really be a benefit and easy on those who would suck at the gubmint teat in some way.
Why do you want to steal American STEM jobs, spqr?
More Conchitas- less Sanjays
I know more than a few women (and some guys) who would literally cut you if you tried to stop this guy at the border.
Also, the poster to his first movie, submitted without comment.
They got it wrong, jism is the white side of desire.
I don’t believe he’d be stealing anyone’s STEM job, because he’d probably have a very different Engineering education than someone educated at the standard schools in the states (My brother literally has a job with an Indian consulting firm because he has an American Engineering education, and they hired 5 guys we knew from high school to the same position for the same reason, he now consults for FCS).
They are not sending us their hottest women.
Is anybody else getting severe horizontal scrolling?
It’s making the thread unreadable on my smartphone.
No horizontal scrolling, but also on a PC.
The smartphone scrolling only started since the 8:30 break.
Didn’t see any oversize photos embedded, either.
The thread is very light on images of any kind. Which mobile browser are you using?
Corey Feldman has long alleged that regular sexual abuse of minors was Hollywood’s worst kept secret.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/11/14/corey-feldman-says-kids-club-owner-alphy-hoffman-molested-him-in-1980s.html
Shouldn’t be surprising. The film industry, Hollywood street kids/street walkers, the circuit parties, and porn industry must all have had some overlap somewhere. They’re all within a few miles of each other. They all go to the same bars and clubs. That James Dean was gay for pay or that River Phoenix got into heroin isn’t surprising. What’s surprising is that people like Robert Downey Jr. and Charlie Sheen somehow came out the other end in more or less one piece.
I was reading the other day about how the Bolshoi Ballet worked like a brothel–according to a former prima ballerina.
Anytime power and sex get in close proximity, you have to actively discourage any transactions whatsoever, and I mean that from a management perspective. If you’re not actively policing it, bad shit will happen.
was Sheen the alleged rapist of the other Corey? the one that suicided.
Genius or madness?
Canned spinach with lots of shredded cheddar, pepperoni, jalapenos and Greek dressing microwaved for 1 minute.
Is this what they call “hotdish” in the hinterlands?
No. It doesn’t have any pasta or tater tots in it.
Why the greek dressing?
It comes in 55-gallon drums.
For the cultural appropriation.
I just assumed you were a Mexican-Italian sailor named Popolopadus who lives in Wisconsin.
Here.
Canned spinach
Madness.
CannedspinachMadness.
i presume you then eat it with Nachos or Pita?
Spork.
Canned spinach? Going all Popeye on us?
You could at least use frozen spinach…
I have no idea who this is, but still.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5170671/Madison-Beer-shows-abs-West-Hollywood.html
[/insert pun:
“Beer”
“head”
/end pun]
She has 10 million followers in instagram. Never heard of her. But, would.
Just got word from my company that I am all set to (fucking finally) start tomorrow! The person who is going to get me started is my former boss/friend. Also, I hear tomorrow’s the day of the office Xmas party. I hope it’s not potluck, because I’m shit-out-of-luck on that.
Good to hear it finally got sorted.
Just pick up a terrible cheese platter at Costco to cover your bases. And if it’s not potluck, mmmm, 64 slices of American cheese.
1 package of little frozen meatballs
I bottle of barbeque sauce
1 small jar of grape jelly
Crock pot
Voila.
Sounds good. My ex had a recipe for Swedish meatballs that had grape jelly in it. They were quite good, actually.
Freedom is doing what you want and accepting the consequences.
You’re not free if you’re not free to be wrong.
*Not sure if that’s the Official Iron Rule formulation.
You can always check the the Glibertarian FAQs/Resources.
Minorities hardest hit.
http://dailysignal.com/2017/12/11/fewer-blacks-hispanics-go-jobless-trump/
“Tump has slashed unemployment payouts to Minorities!”
“In Trump’s America, an increasing number of minorities are finding themselves in undesirable jobs.”
Maybe her unfamiliarity with the English language, being Cherokee and all, was the problem here? Emphasis is mine…..
Elizabeth Warren
@SenWarren
Are you really trying to bully, intimidate and slut-shame @SenGillibrand? Do you know who you’re picking a fight with? Good luck with that, @realDonaldTrump. Nevertheless, #shepersisted. https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/940567812053053441 …
11:14 AM – Dec 12, 2017
Or maybe it’s her way of trying to sideline Gillibrand? I know I hadn’t associated Trump’s comment with sex before Warren accused him of “slutshaming”. Warren’s comment got me from “hadn’t occurred to me” to “Holeee Shit! What the hell does Gillibrand do?” in one tweet.
I have no proof Gilibrand isn’t just a puppet being controlled by Chuck.
She’s a Democrat – that’s all the proof you need.
Pretty sure that if you accuse someone of “slutshaming”, its because you think they are talking about an actual slut.
Which leads me to conclude that Warren thinks that Gillibrand was giving blow jobs for campaign contributions. If I was Gillibrand, I’d be kinda pissed about that. Unless it was true, of course.
Kirsten does seem like a cock-hungry little minx…
If you’re down with getting accused of rape.
I would rather gouge my eyes out than read any of that. What the hell is wrong with people? I know why Trump does it but why the hell is everyone falling for it?!
I hate all of these people and hope they get cancer.
Now I can’t stop reading that as “nevertheless, sheep resisted”
Lysdexia for the niw.
Kirsten does seem like a cock-hungry little minx…
She does that Senator Sorority Girl thing like a champ.
Which leads me to conclude that Warren thinks that Gillibrand was giving blow jobs for campaign contributions.
Just look at her. Looks like a slut, walks like a slut, wears slutty clothes, wears slutty makeup….
Would