LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
The Bruins: gone. The Lightning: gone. The Avalanche: gone. What a wild first round of the NHL playoffs. And it’s not even finished yet. Meanwhile the NBA is still playing. The early MLB season has been a roller coaster for some teams, including the Astros. But things will stabilize. Nobody could touch Checo in Baku. And only one non-Red Bull car was within 20 seconds of the winner. It will take a lot of mechanical failures or a serious rule change to make this season enjoyable for fans of Ferrari, Aston, or Mercedes. And across the pond, Liverpool played great. It was an absolutely perfect way to beat Spuds. Sure, I liked the 3-0 start, but letting them claw back to a draw 3 minutes into extra time only to rip their hearts out a minute later was a masterclass. Simply awesome. And that’s it for sports.
The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last. No, seriously. I hope it lasts forever.
The American banking system
Wow, that was fast. You’d almost think JP Morgan was actually running the show since they get all the assets. One quick question: who assumes the debts?
“You want a toe? I can get you a toe. There are ways, Dude.” I don’t get the fraud charges. Are the feds saying she wasn’t planning on sending the parts? Because I bet she was.
There’s a better solution: hand out free guns and let people stop those who would rob them of their livelihoods.
It reads like a who’s-who of scumbags. Color me unsurprised.
“Next stop The Windy City.”
How about…no. You’re a Sanctimony City, not a Sanctuary City. Now reap what you’ve sown.
Well…no shit. It’s been this was for some time and really ramped up starting in 2008, by my estimation. And it’s gone to 11 since 2016.
This seems logical to me. If the fuel taxes are there to maintain roadways, one would think electric car users would stop getting a free ride. I’d certainly prefer no taxes, but if you’re gonna impose them, the least you could do is make everybody who uses the roads pay something.
Here’s an absolutely lovely song for you. Such a great melody. And this bass line is magic. Enjoy them both.
And enjoy this lovely Monday, dear friends.
“The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last. No, seriously. I hope it lasts forever.”
Agreed. Hope this just lasts forever.
What will I do without a stream of new morality plays?
Don’t they do this every 3 years or so?
And certainly given the current trend of doing nothing but recycling, can’t see why they need new writers anyway. Just dust off the old scripts and flip some ethnicities and/or genders and they’re good, they seem to think.
Do you want more Three’s Company? ‘Cause this is how you get more Three’s Company.
We do not need that crap coming around again!
This time Jack will really be gay and Mr. Furley will be ticked at him cause he stole Furley’s husband?
And the entire cast will be “diverse”.
The new Krissy will be a Lizzo look alike with a serious sex addiction to sucking donuts held up by man meat?
The truth is writers do get the shitty end of the deal in that town.
Everybody sooner than later gets it in the end in that town…
That’s what the producer’s couch is for.
Ask that guy Weinstein.
On the other hand, if Ben Affleck and Matt Damon can win Oscars for writing, how hard can it be?*
*Something I heard Jay Mohr’s character saying on some show I don’t remember.
They had some uncredited help from William Goldman.
Based on their product, I am pretty sure Disney/Marvel/LucasFilm writers have been on strike for several years now.
Perhaps the latest films, but much of the Disney+ Star Wars content is incredibly good.
“Wow, that was fast. You’d almost think JP Morgan was actually running the show since they get all the assets. One quick question: who assumes the debts?”
There is something more than just ineptitude and horrible monetary policy going on with this whole debacle.
If the fuel taxes are there to maintain roadways
Well, that’s not a true statement. Fuel taxes are diverted for all sorts of non-road uses even though public transit pushers scream that cars are heavily subsidized.
In my state, despite the fact that the law says the fuel taxes are only to be used on roads, they keep diverting it to vote buying shit and then tax us for other things and keep talking about bringing back toll booths so they have more money to not spend on the crumbling infrastructure.
Up in NoVA they used tolls on the Dulles Toll Road to pay for extending MetroRail to the airport.
Yeah, I get that. But that’s still the primary justification many states use for continually raising them. So if they’re gonna make the claim, it’s only fair to use their argument against them.
And they damned well aren’t going to lose that income stream just because folks go EV. 😉
More seriously — if they’re going to keep the money flowing to the state (and you know they are), annual fees tacked onto registration is a damned sight better than per-mile tracking. Mandatory odometer reporting at annual renewal (on penalty of fines / whatnot) would be second. Anything but “we get to track your vehicle all the time and charge you different prices for different roads because we can… oh, and sell the data to whomever we feel like!”, which should never ever be allowed.
Bob Poole has a sad.
Or they could do excise taxes on tires like was done many decades ago. Would be much less overhead.
Making tires more expensive likely has a side effect that people delay getting new ones and drive around on dangerous old tires. Still, a tire tax may the least bad option, and would seem to line up at least somewhat with road wear.
I wouldn’t put it past them to just increase fuel taxes to coerce drivers to switch to EVs.
“There’s a better solution: hand out free guns and let people stop those who would rob them of their livelihoods.”
How would that solution help the people that gain from making honest citizens unable to defend themselves from the criminals (which includes the political and bureaucratic classes), huh?
Wasn’t there some big SCANDAL! because someone used an airtag to find their stolen vehicle and the thief got shooty?
https://nypost.com/2023/04/02/texas-man-used-apple-airtag-to-track-down-kill-car-thief-police ?
I guess NYC is relying on nobody having guns. ‘Cuz they’re illegal there, you know.
Maybe NYC wants some wealth redistribution: https://www.pcmag.com/news/car-thieves-are-using-airtags-to-track-vehicles
The F2 race was good — Bearman pulled off the win for both races, be nice if he can pull off some wins at other tracks so this doesn’t look like just a good weekend / right car for the track.
For F1 — well, I got a good nap out of the middle of it. And whoever manages the pit lane security should be fired. Ocon coming in on the last lap right into that flock of turkeys photographers could have been really bad.
Agreed. I would have felt bad for Ocon if he’d run over a bunch of them.
If the $200 is in addition to the regular registration fee then its a bit too much.
Texas gas tax is 20c a gallon
12,000 miles annual driving / 20-25mpg * 0.20 = roughly $96 to $120 a year for the typical driver
But how long have the EV folks been free-riding?
Also, the concept of driving a mere 12k miles a year is mind-boggling to me. I know it’s probably close to the national average, but I can’t imagine driving that little.
I drive less than 3,000. I stay within the county as much as possible.
In the aggregate of all miles driven the last 10 years, “EVs” have been freeloading less than 1% of total miles. So double the average is not.
Further, probably 80% of EV drivers have owned their EV less than 3 years.
Texas is kinda late to the EV fee party. Iowa began charging such a fee in 2020.
Honestly I’d really like a scaled ‘annual mileage’ option. Say $10 per 1000 miles (enter your odometer at re-registration time)
I currently have one vehicle that I’ll only drive 1500-2000 miles a year. I work from home and only use this vehicle for getting around town.
Be nice to not have to pay the full $130 annual ev fee for so few miles.
Virginia let’s you do a mileage based fee instead of a flat rate but you have to install a tracker in your vehicle. I don’t know why they can’t go odometer based.
these programs make me feel like the tracker is the point.
Eventually it won’t be an option.
Odometer based: People might lie. No tracking all your movements.
Live here.
Nobody discusses mileage between points we only discuss time.
Our primary car averages just a bit over 10k a year. My Tesla half that.
my average is close to 12k. I’ve had years that were as high as 30k and as low as 5k. But this is per vehicle,
last year the commuter car picked up 12.5k.
Inflation. With all the mandatory minimum wage hikes — it takes more and more money to pay someone to shift some cones around so the cops can pull people over for driving too fast in a construction zone every 3 miles out of 10 with no one perceptibly near by. Plus, their cronies wanted a little extra wetness on their beaks this year.
Aren’t EVs heavier? Thus causing more wear and tear per mile?
Yes, but it’s really relative.
They are far outnumbered by passenger car registered full size pick ups and SUVs which are just as heavy if not more so.
But those also have lower gas milage, so already pay more in the gas tax.
Anyway, I’m in favor of directly punishing people for diverting highway funds to other uses instead of raising more revenue.
“I’m in favor of directly punishing people for diverting highway funds to other uses instead of raising more revenue.”
^^^THIS^^^
They already have all the funds they need. It is just being pissed away on vote buying rackets because just fixing the roads/infrastructure from this fund doesn’t allow for enough graft and vote buying.
Hear hear!!
It’s a wealth transfer to “the poor” so good luck with that.
And those vehicles use more fuel than passenger cars, therefore they pay more in fuel taxes.
Do they pay the same rate as passenger vehicles?
They pay the same fuel tax per gallon, yes.
My Cadillac gets about 28 mpg and weighs about 3,800 lbs. My Yukon gets 14.5 mpg and weighs about 6,000 lbs. The math works out pretty well on the fuel tax on those for the Yukon paying for what damage it inflicts.
Yes, that’s the crux of the issue. EVs free ride in many states if roads are supported by fuel taxes.
Also the gas guzzler tax, though that goes to the Feds.
And yes, gas guzzler is cars only. Forgot about that.
Passenger vehicles are not the drivers of road damage
The damage difference between a Camry (900lbs per tire) and a Tesla (1100lbs per tire) is really insignificant.
Big trucks are what break road surfaces
I literally changed the channel in disgust over that last goal they gave up but relented a minute later for some reason.
You had a feeling the guy who shouldn’t even be on the field would score the winner.
The guy he fouled should have been sent off in the first half, making the comeback all but an impossibility.
Yes, there is getting your ankle stepped on and then getting kicked in the face. One of those plays did actually result in the player leaving the game.
I wouldn’t even care, I am a Spurs fan after all so I am accustomed to losing games in unique and stupid ways. But Jurgen Klopp is the biggest cunt in football and can’t even win a game without whining that Paul Tierney hates him.
That leg-breaking tackle by Skipp gets a red card 9/10 times. It’s easily as reckless as a high boot where you don’t even see the opposing player coming in.
He didn’t “step on” his ankle. He went full force into it with his studs.
Skipp won the ball and got him on the follow through, Jurgen.
If you touch the ball first and shatter a guys leg on the follow through with your studs, it’s still an a foul.
Oh well, Diaz and Skipp luckily didn’t get seriously injured and the good guys won and moved into fifth.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/english-premier-league/story/4935873/the-var-review-red-cards-for-liverpool-diogo-jota-tottenham-oliver-skipp-richarlison-penalty-claim
Nice. Stealing that.
The Bruins gave that series away so many times.
Noam Chomsky huh? Didn’t have that one. And why does he look exactly like Treebeard now?
The Epstein leaks have been used as a type of selective warfare by multiple factions.
Why aren’t we getting all of the data?
Because its another tool for deep state to control people.
Rhetorical question, but yeah…
Note that this release is Epstein’s calendar of who he had meetings with and not the actual participants in his sex ring of which a grand total of two people were ever publicly identified and prosecuted…
Exactly. Many of these meeting seem potentially legitimate… Dude with access provides access – for fundraisers, lobbying, etc.
Meanwhile, it is hard to justify multiple flights to his private island. And with Former President Bill Clinton anchoring that group with a score of visits, I doubt we are ever going to see that list.
The Bruins: gone. Oh woe to me.
The Lightning: gone. Where is my fainting couch?
The Avalanche: gone. Eh, I have no strong feelings about the Avs.
Yeah, agree on all counts.
“sold 20 boxes of stolen body parts from medical school cadavers to a Pennsylvania man for nearly $11,000”
That just seems like a lot of risk for very little reward.
I’m just wondering what the Pennsylvanian needed $11k in body parts for.
Maybe he has a lot of fava beans in his pantry? And enjoys a nice Chianti.
It’s pronounced Fronk-en-steen!
It depends. Were the cadavers big through the hips? Roomy?
How much skin did he want? and was his online handle BuffaloBill?
EdGein
His assistant’s hips were nice… so he cloned her once or twice?
Have you seen the price of meat at the grocery store lately?
and I thought the public sector controller who made 10k from selling stolen cell phones was taking an insane risk for little reward.
That’s no way to get a head.
I’m still struggling with what the crime was in the body parts thing. A quick skim didn’t show any reason to charge her for fraud. If the med school was done with the parts and they were going to be red-bagged, well, is it really theft to pull something out of the trash?
Not theft to pull something out of the trash, since it has been discarded and is therefore no longer under ownership. I think charges along the line of improper disposition of biological/medical waste would probably be realistic.
That depends on the state.
Depends, do you have your racooning license?
“If the med school was done with the parts and they were going to be red-bagged, well, is it really theft to pull something out of the trash?”
She would have been fine if it was sold at a wet market?
Two different angles of charges.
1) Bodies are big business. City morgues, hospitals, and funeral homes are actively courted for their bodies. I don’t see in the article where the waste was red-bagged. Generally, there is a contractual condition for what happens with the remains after donation. For organ/tissue donation, this includes return of the body for optional burial in a casket. I had thought med school donations include cremation and return of ashes. This may not apply for the homeless, a common source of cadavers for med schools, though I imagine the contract with the sourcing cities must include some sort of clause for disposal of bodies. Most certainly still cremation and possibly a paupers burial at a cemetery.
2) Trading in human tissue is illegal in the United States. There’s a slew of charges right there. So a tissue processor can sell medical-device tissue to hospitals for their surgeons to use, but not to a surgeon directly. In contrast, we’d sell human tissue directly to Mexican surgeons. Much more informal. They could just walk up to a distributor and buy a box of human tissue like we’d buy a box of ammo.
From the article they were to be cremated.
No idea where the remains were supposed to go after that. If they were supposed to go to somebody or someplace other than disposal I can see that as a theft.
They weren’t a licensed Planned Parenthood Franchise. Gotta pay the vig if you want to sell the parts.
I know my WCC updates were mostly ignored, but if you like seeing experts wrong in real time, check out this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSxNZix1Xwc&t=16000s
The announcers discussing how the game is an obvious draw, Caruana (#2 America, #7 in the world) saying that Rg6 might be a loss as Ding plays it and it effectively wins him the world championship (well, Nepo’s make right after).
There were a lot of negatives talked about this match before hand, with world #1 Mangus Carlsen giving up his title and refusing to defend again (he won the last 5 WCCs going back to 2013). But they delivered. They both played to win all along. There were lots of “even” positions that were extremely complicated and double edged, where it wasn’t clear who was going to win. Positions the computer analysis said was just fine but was actually not fine at all. It was a brawl. As much as chess can be a brawl.
“Nepo’s make” was supposed to be “Nepo’s mistake”.
Could it be that we just don’t have anything to add?
When has that ever stopped any of us?
How am I supposed to know if someone doesn’t say something because they had nothing to say versus if someone ignored the content they didn’t respond to? It is literally impossible to determine. I know I’ve refrained from commenting on threads because I had nothing to add (and didn’t have a viable joke)
There’s your problem. Viability has never stopped me.
Of possible interest to Pie: Ding’s 2nd for the tournament was Richard Rapport, who is Hungarian born but plays for the Romanian federation. A lot of the crazy positions were straight out of his playbook. The difference being Rapport manages to lose in these positions, but Ding could play them more solidly. Rapport is ranked #13 in the world, so that last sentence was a bit harsh on him.
There is a great photo from after the match, Ding Liren posing with the Chinese Federation officials, everyone in suits, and Rapport wearing the silliest t-shirt possible. But I can’t find it to link.
I enjoyed the exposure to something that normally would be way off my radar.
It was the first time I have followed it. I knew what was going on 2 years ago, but didnt really follow.
And I followed the candidates tournament last year closely that determined who would be in this.
One last thing, the complete unlikeliness of Ding being the new champion.
Because of China’s covid policies, he couldnt play any of the tournaments to win a spot in the candidates. Any “extra” spots go to highest ranked unqualified players, but there wasn’t any. Until Russia invaded Ukraine, and a player got excluded over his explicit support for the war (Nepo, who is also Russian, was smarter). So the last spot went to the highest ranked player who had played at least X Fide certified classical matches over the last 2 years. Ding was highest ranked, but was 30 short of X. X may have been 30. China arranged a bunch of tournaments, so he could play 30 matches in the 2 months before the deadline.
In the candidates tournament, Ding started slowly. He charged back in the 2nd half of the tournament, and in his final match was a 1/2 pt behind Hikaru Nakamura for 2nd place. Nepo had already clinched first and the right to challenge Carlsen for the title. Ding won that match with Hikaru. After the tournament, Carlsen confirmed he wasn’t going to defend (he had already hinted at it, but hadn’t finalized his plans), so Ding got the 2nd spot.
Fuck off slaver!
Whoops. Sorry. Reply fail.
An even better link, starting at just the right moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03v2-VKVFnc
The important question is.. what are they doing to bring diversity to the sport?
“Epstein’s VERY tangled web: Pedophile met with current CIA Director William Burns, Obama White House lawyer, Noam Chomsky and music director for the American Symphony Orchestra in the years AFTER his sex offence conviction”
I am more and more convinced that this guy was working for the deep state doing honeypot traps so the intel world could control our political class. Once he became to hot to handle, they disposed of him. Priority was to make sure he would be taken out without collateral damage to all the D.C. movers & shakers whom they still plan to blackmail into compliance.
It’s amazing to me how much of an idiot Chomsky is.
The man is obviously not unintelligent, but he’s got ideological blinders that are phenomenally huge.
Brilliance in one area doesn’t necessarily translate to even passable intelligence in another and don’t get me started on common sense. Some of the smartest people I’ve ever met can barely tie their own shoelaces or pay their bills on time.
That is a very efficient explanation of the known facts.
That was an immediate suspicion. Subsequent stories filling in details about the pre-existing honeypot scam make it a near certainty.
‘Orning ‘ordles — FUBAR is the word of the day.
Daily Duotrigordle #425
Guesses: X/37
Time: 04:13.32
https://duotrigordle.com/
Daily Quordle 462
5️⃣7️⃣
🟥4️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle
Daily Quordle 462
4️⃣5️⃣
7️⃣3️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle
Blossom Puzzle, May 1
Letters: C E O R P S T
My score: 330 points
My longest word: 11 letters
💐 🌹 🌸 🌺 🌼 💮 🌻 🌷 🏵 💐 🌹
Play Blossom:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/blossom-word-game
Didn’t even get a start on UL while compiling a rhyming dictionary on BL.
Daily Quordle 462
🟥5️⃣
🟥3️⃣
I havent played Quordle since December, but your double failure makes me want to check today’s out.
Go ahead – make me look bad.
lol
Daily Quordle 462
8️⃣4️⃣
6️⃣5️⃣
Daily Quordle 462
3️⃣6️⃣
9️⃣4️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle
Same rhyme scheme problem. Could’ve had my first 6 in months (Also missed once on UR). Instead, barely avoided chumping. So I won’t be making fun of you today.
Well, not about Quordle, anyway.
Daily Quordle 462
6️⃣5️⃣
9️⃣3️⃣
Daily Quordle 462
7️⃣5️⃣
6️⃣4️⃣
lineage
Daily Duotrigordle #425
Guesses: 36/37
1️⃣5️⃣ 0️⃣5️⃣ 0️⃣7️⃣ 0️⃣8️⃣
0️⃣9️⃣ 2️⃣5️⃣ 3️⃣4️⃣ 1️⃣6️⃣
0️⃣6️⃣ 1️⃣7️⃣ 1️⃣8️⃣ 2️⃣4️⃣
2️⃣9️⃣ 1️⃣4️⃣ 3️⃣5️⃣ 3️⃣0️⃣
2️⃣3️⃣ 3️⃣3️⃣ 3️⃣1️⃣ 2️⃣6️⃣
2️⃣8️⃣ 2️⃣2️⃣ 3️⃣2️⃣ 2️⃣7️⃣
1️⃣2️⃣ 0️⃣3️⃣ 1️⃣9️⃣ 2️⃣1️⃣
1️⃣1️⃣ 2️⃣0️⃣ 1️⃣3️⃣ 3️⃣6️⃣
https://duotrigordle.com/
Thanks for sharing that monstrosity.
Daily Quordle 462
5️⃣8️⃣
6️⃣4️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle
Blossom Puzzle, May 1
Letters: C E O R P S T
My score: 423 points
My longest word: 11 letters
🌹 🌻 🌷 🌺 💮 🌼 💐 🏵 🌸 🌹 🌻
Play Blossom:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/blossom-word-game
Daily Quordle 462
3️⃣6️⃣
8️⃣4️⃣
quordle.com
Looks like the people that constantly harp about racists, misogynists, and Nazis had to fake another instance so they could complain about how evil America is….
Looks more like Spider-Man larping.
See? Only Nazis oppose drag shows for children.
Now sit down and shut up, Nazi – no more protesting drag shows/grooming for children.
All that matters was that it was a teachable moment/started a conversation/etc.
The fake runic face tattoo is icing on the cake.
It is the first of May. Do you know what that means?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRhPeJ3uzOc
*NSFW lyrics
Commie New Years?
All my off-shore people have the day off?
🎶 First of May, First of May… 🎶
Our April showers were much delayed, so it’d be a mud-covered affair today.
Glenn Ford’s birthday?
whaddup doh’
whats goody
And since Im off tonight (its kinda my Friday evening)…..TALL CANS!
A Hollywood writer’s strike? There’s literally no downside, everything sucks now anyway and I can do without more superhero movies and woke TV crap for a while.
Last major strike led to an infusion of reality shows.
I’ve decided that I like Netflix’s Kleo.
It’s about a Stasi assassin out for revenge after being betrayed during the last days of the GDR. With occasional absurd humor. Some of the bits land imo, (there is a scene where Kleo and guy she’s going to kill next are fighting, and the gun gets knocked into the next room. The two of them are on opposite sides of the doorway and are going to need to push past each other to get the gun. They both drop into a deep squat and perform shiko, the Sumo stomp before charging). Others do not (a VERY extended in-camera POV shot as it gos tumbling off the embankment).
I don’t know how realistic they’re portrayal of the GDR is, but it’s fascinating just how German the Ossies are. Yes, they’re commies, but that just changes the lyrics to their bund singing.
I watched Kleo, i liked it quite a bit. Very entertaining.
Evidence that communism can infect any society. We certainly aren’t immune here.
Also, the code switching is interesting. It’s not called out in the subitles, but I heard German, Russian, Spanish, English and Mandarin.
Going back to the overnight thread, talking about sci-fi books that depend entirely on weird-ass settings with no plot or character development, I’d like to bag on 30000 Leagues Under The Sea. Listened to that book (thanks to Librivox), and at least half of it is family-genus-species descriptions of the various aquatic life that does nothing to advance the story. Meanwhile we don’t learn nearly enough about Nemo, the source of his wealth, why or whence comes his fanatically loyal crew.
As someone else pointed out, that was par for the course back in the day. Bunch of Aspies writing about cool settings don’t need no character development.
That doesn’t fly anymore.
I’m working on another travelogue style book and I’d be pilloried if I skipped character and plot.
The thing about text that you don’t notice until you’re forced to sit through the audio is how much editing your brain does. You’ll reach a block like the family-genus-species designation and go ‘skip’, eyes darting ahead without feeling like you’ve missed a beat.
I can’t read that way. I have to read every word even if I’m bored by some passage.
I’m more likely to just throw the book down and pick up something else.
If I were compelled to ready every word, I’d never have made it through some works. Lord of the rings comes to mind. I had to skip those songs.
And that’s why I’ve never read LotR.
There is also a certain 65 page speech in Atlas Shrugged that about 3 pages need to be read, then you skip ahead.
I have read AS 3 or 4 times. I have read the speech once.
And you were worse off for it. The songs tell you about the races that wrote them. Also, do a breakdown of rhyme and meter on those poems. It wasn’t just indulging a whim.
I disagree. There was a lot that needed to be struck with the red pen in those books.
You probably think the movies made the right choice cutting Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire.
Bombadil needed to go, but the return to the Shire was part of the main characters’ arcs and should have stayed.
Bombadil need to go, the Scouring could have stayed, but they need to pick just one ending and stick to it, not the 3-4 they had. Also, they needed to either drop the army of the dead or rewrite it. I just didn’t work in a film, and became a Deus ex machina that made the major battle just before it silly. Which, speaking of fixing the damn thing, needed to have all of Legolas riding elephant tails removed along with any other silliness. It just broke the mood of importance, and made into something like a Wayans movie.
The essential problem is that it wasn’t a book, but a film, and it needed to work on that level. Trying to make it something that it wasn’t really screwed the whole pooch.
It should have been six 2 hour movies, instead of 3 3.5 hour movies. To align with the 6 “books” in the trilogy.
In which case, Bombadil is an integral part of the first movie. And Farmer Maggot is more than just a pitchfork.
Amen.
Likely story…
Russians are baiting U.S. jets after they attempted to “dogfight” in Syria, according to the three-star general in charge of U.S. air operations in the Middle East.
Tensions were high over the weekend as the latest maneuver of Russian troops grew confrontational toward America and its allies as they crossed paths over war zones in shared airspace.
Col. Joe Buccino told CNN that Russian pilots were not trying to shoot down U.S. jets but rather attempting to “draw us into an international incident” or “provoke” the U.S. into war.
Whose airspace are they in again?
Who’s territory is the airbase in?
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the Russians were fucking with us but the idea that they want a war with us is silly.
But fucking with us leads to confrontation which can escalate to actual shooting. Are the Russians really in a position to be able to take those risks? It only takes a little miscalculation to set things off.
I heard last week that direct military skirmishes between America and Russia have not exactly been uncommon in proxy wars over the past several decades. It’s just not reported by the MSM. Don’t know if it’s true.
It supposedly happened in Syria under Trump.
Or maybe it’s the national equivalent of reminding someone you are armed and not going to be bullied.
What would the Russians gain by provoking a shooting war with US forces? Because they can afford such a fight while they’re bogged down in Ukraine?
*Shrugs*
On the other hand, we seem to be fresh out of friends in the Middle East. A fight there would be a logistical nightmare now.
WE CANNOT LEAVE SYRIA. HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST SUCH ANTI-AMERICAN SENTIMENTS!
/averagecongresscritter
It could be an attempt to create a US public panic.
I would imagine that the Russian perception of US public opinion is that the Average Joe is not concerned about escalation or the potential dangers. But I don’t think it would work because our media is wholly in the tank for WW3.
Or it could just be pilots being stupid.
First Republic bank collapses, JPMorgan to take over, FDIC says
JPM’s history of good financial stewardship speaks for itself.
“A musical climax! Mystery scream during packed Tchaikovsky concert in LA was female audience member experiencing ‘full body orgasm'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12032383/Moment-concertgoer-lets-body-orgasm-listening-Tchaikovskys-symphony-performance.html
“What it’s REALLY like being married to a healthy-eating fanatic: Dr Chris van Tulleken banned ready meals, tuts at his wife’s favourite Pret sandwich – and then he came for her peanut butter”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12031207/What-REALLY-like-married-healthy-eating-fanatic.html
Some people really like classical music and nut butter.
My pistachio butter habit is $40/month, but at least I get free shipping and a discount code each time.
Busting a different kind of nut.
If you are keto, what do you put it on?
Celery?
*shrugs*
I bet that guy doesn’t eat Dinah’s pussy either…
You can see the divorce coming from here.
Ooo boy. That is unpleasant.
City Hall said the NYPD’s Crime Prevention Unit within the Community Affairs Bureau was working on a plan for equitable distribution of the devices, focusing on the precincts with the highest number of grand larceny auto thefts.
Not sure how that’s equitable, as the word is currently used. But we have to get our buzzwords in, so….
Equitable means giving it to his political base and making the rest of us pay for it.
Well, if “equitable” means “the darker your skin the more you get”, then I suspect it will be equitable.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults say the news media is increasing political polarization in this country, and just under half say they have little to no trust in the media’s ability to report the news fairly and accurately, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Obviously the culprit is FOX.
+1 Faux News
That breakdown in trust may prompt many Americans to reject the mainstream news media, often in favor of social media and unreliable websites that spread misleading claims and that can become partisan echo chambers, leading to further polarization.
You’re listening to the wrong echo chamber. That’s why you’re confused.
Unreliable, misleading, and partisan echo chambers all strike me as good descriptors of the “mainstream” media.
The solution (according to them) is working more closely with government to ban that harmful “disinformation” and force everyone to listen to just one echo chamber.
No echo chamber here!!
https://youtu.be/ksb3KD6DfSI
And more Republicans think the news is strongly influenced by the U.S. government and the political views of journalists.
Preposterous hogwash.
TMITE
New York City will give out free Apple AirTags to residents as part of an effort to pump the brakes on rampant car thefts, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday.
Ventilating people that try to steal from you works as well.
Deposits are liabilities, not assets, on a bank’s balance sheet. For the depositor it is Accounts Receivable, for the bank it is Accounts Payable.
AAAAAAGGHH! Managerial Accounting!
You’re right, but for some reason I hated that class & sucked at it. Meanwhile, Financial Accounting was a breeze.
Links appropriate music https://youtu.be/d4gypiuQt5E
Ah, The Stone Roses. One of my favorite bands of all time. I was lucky enough to see them live once in the early 90’s. It was amazing.
“Mercedes-Benz to charge EV owners $60 a month for 60 extra horsepower in their cars”
https://notthebee.com/article/mercedes-benz-to-charge-ev-owners-60-a-month-for-an-extra-60-horsepower-in-their-cars-
That’s not good.
You’ll own nothing and you’ll be
happypoor.“One or more subscribed features have run out. Please input your CC number for further access to the following feature(s):
* Engine”
* Brakes *
*Door*
I didn’t find Baku as terminally boring as what some of the F1 fan base has been describing it. It wasn’t as exciting as some of the last few in Azerbaijan, but I’m also rooting for Perez to bring the fight to Verstappen this year and they are now very close in points. Red Bull have a car that is in a class of its own this year, so I’m enjoying seeing how the mid pack shakes out. That Ocon pit near miss was indeed inexcusable, very lucky he didn’t hit someone. In reading about it last night I ended up seeing footage of the Tom Pryce accident at the 1977 South African GP. He basically disintegrated a Marshall who shouldn’t have been on the track and got killed himself by the fire extinguisher the guy was carrying. Of course back then they just kept on racing.
This year’s hockey playoffs have been great. Lots of close series and upsets. Last night at hockey practice we were huddled around a phone watching the Boston v Florida overtime. Looking forward to Rangers v Devils game 7 tonight.
*sigh* I was hoping to be done with Devils much earlier. But NOOO…
I’m rooting for Kane and Panarin. Unfortunately those to have been pretty quiet lately.
Zibanejad needs to step up too.
Today’s Reddit fun.
Personally, I think I take the seatbelt off, but I’d have tried harder not to get into this situation in the first place.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/134cxj4/hawaiian_tourists_take_a_wrong_turn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Ummm, yeah. How do you just sit there, get the seatbelt off and get out, the car is lost.
That’s gotta be a “the GPS says this is the right way” situation. How in the hell you keep driving a vehicle down a boat ramp into the marina in broad daylight while sober is a mystery to me.
I hope she got the extra insurance.
I’m impressed that the electrical system continued to work without shorting out.
Do make sure to film the entire thing instead of actually helping. Not that they seemed to want to be rescued.
LOL
“I’m not a biologist.”
CHUCK TODD: Are you confident that you know that gender is as binary as you’re describing it?
@VivekGRamaswamy: I am.
TODD: Do you know this as a scientist?
RAMASWAMY: There are two X chromosomes if you’re a woman and an X and a Y…
TODD: There is a lot of scientific research that says gender is a spectrum.
This is such a stupid conversation that we find ourselves needing to have because leftists are insane.
And doesn’t Vivek have a degree in biology?
Yes.
But see… he’s the wrong type of biologist.
Gender isn’t sex except when it is.
The incessant word games are maddening.
I was wondering if Vivek botched the answer by not firmly saying shut the fuck up about gender, but then again everyone until about 2015 seemed to agree sex and gender were synonymous.
They’ve clouded the issue by asserting that those who are uncertain about their gender should mutilate themselves in a perverse attempt to change their sex, which is impossible.
The left is all about playing Gotcha! with this stupid shit. No way that idiot isn’t going to keep pressing the issue.
The simple retort is “Why do you want to cut off kids’ genitalia or sterilize them?”
I’m tired of the dancing around it. What they’re proposing isn’t some murky moral issue, it’s straight up evil and it needs to be stated in that fashion.
“t’s straight up evil and it needs to be stated in that fashion.”
And a lot of it is done so the “responsible” adults can let other “responsible” adults know how cool they are.
I think about 30% of the public is on board with the lunacy. The rest of us are good with Vivek’s answer. Indeed, we are happy to hear someone not get trapped in the BS.
If we treated anorexia the same way we’d be telling starving girls that they could be their true selves if they only lost another 15 lbs.
Isn’t race a spectrum Chuckie? If you feel your true self is black, are you black?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_chromosome_anomalies
It’s a lot simpler than that. If you have a Y chromosome, you’re male. If you don’t, you’re female.
Many, most, some, kids learn this at an early age. Boys have short hair, girls have longer hair. The science is settled. Todd may not have learned that but it works most of the time. Later, as teenagers, this was confirmed.
A couple of tests, years apart, same result. That’s enough confirmation for me.
Now, do intelligence. There’s a spectrum and Todd is confirmation.
Goddammit, does that mean I have to get a haircut?
Yes, Ma’am.
Only when some dude tries to “buy you a drink”
Oh, he knows.
He and his ilk just pretend not to in order to accumulate power.
That is funny.
When I was really young, like maybe 4 or 5, a family next door had a litter of puppies. He kept saying “he” and “she” referring to individual pups, so I asked how you could tell which was which.
He said “the same way you tell with people”… So I immediately looked for boobs.
I wound up more confused than I started out.
Words have gender.
Mammals have sexes.
I am fucking tired of the left’s war on language.
So they are both wrong.
Gender is a spectrum between masculine and feminine, but that’s not science. If you can’t see that Janet Leigh was more feminine than Janet Reno without putting on a lab coat, then I don’t know what to tell you.
Being “feminine” or “masculine” is not germane to the conversation. The actual part that is important is reproductive capability*. Everything else is informed by society, and is secondary or tertiary to that one aspect.
*This is different than having working functionality in that regard.
I think you mean sex, not gender.
Did I use either of those two words there?
No.
Youtube has been serving up old F1 clips for me. Yesterday there was one from Long Beach in ’78 or so. Villeneuve in a Ferrari vs Rosberg in a Williams, I think. Villeneuve out brakes himself at the end of the straight, slides into the escape road at about a thirty degree angle, snaps the car around with the throttle without ever coming to a full stop, and drives off. Stone age aero. No driver aids involved.
Bring that back.
I’d have tried harder not to get into this situation in the first place.
Siri told them to go that way. It’s a shortcut.
I remember being in rental car in a small town in Italy. I had my GPS that I brought with me and it lead me down an absolutely tiny road that there was no way was going to pass two way traffic.
I was in a tiny Fiat Punto and I still parked the car, got out and walked to the end of the road to make sure it was a legitimate road.
It was and we avoided using it again for the rest of our stay in town as there was another road that everybody used instead.
Google maps tried to take me across a foot bridge when I was driving once. I stopped using it then.
Speaking of cars, a new Binky vid popped up. That project had a lot of promise in the beginning. Those guys completely disappeared up their own assholes a long time ago.
One of these days I’ll go back and watch the first three or four again. At this point, I’m more interested in the frame table they built than that stupid car.
I was in a tiny Fiat Punto
One of the Goodwood races I watched featured a Mini (real Issigonis Mini) and a first gen VW GTI going at it for the lead. Compared to the Mini, the VW looked huge.
We had a Riley Elf in the shop for an extended period of time (it’s a Mini with a trunk and a fancier grill) and they are amazingly roomy on the inside, but absurdly tiny.
Contractor starts work on my condo today. Estimate is 2 and 1/2 weeks.
🤞
I thought you’d moved on to the RV life. Is the plan to rennovate then sell?
What are you having done?
…if you don’t mind my asking?
I hope it goes well KK and you can dislodge your albatross.
These euphemisms….
TODD: There is a lot of scientific research that says gender is a spectrum.
What the fuck does that have to do with anything, Chuck?
Happy May Day everyone: https://www.econlib.org/how-many-of-marxs-interim-goals-have-we-accomplished/
Good morning, Sloop!
Definitely a crazy start to the NHL playoffs. And since my primary and backup both got bounced I will have a lot more free time!
Enjoy them both.
I did. Thanks for those!
Nazis or glowies?
Nazis showed up at a drag queen brunch in Ohio and leftists were there to film it. Seems like a complete LARP.
Same.
OFFS, straight out of central casting.
Note that they’ll be treated with kid gloves, but the mom who shows up to the school board meeting will not.
So there was a brunch of a-holes there?
Speaking of Minis-
I recently became aware of these guys.
Starting at $200k. Where the fuck do they find these suckers? Are there really that many people out there with that kind of money burning a hole in their pockets?
“Hey, Honey- let’s get one for Maddy for graduation so she’ll have a nice car to drive at college!”
There is so much else I would buy at that price.
I predict youtube crashes will be fantastic with those.
Nazis showed up at a drag queen brunch in Ohio and leftists were there to film it. Seems like a complete LARP.
I’m starting to think all of this stuff is completely choreographed. The 21st century is just one giant mockumentary.
The supposed leadership class no longer bothers to do things to make things better or less horrible. All their time is spent on managing perception that they are doing things while making it all worse.
Yes. As I’ve said before, the problem is no longer the problem, the problem is someone pointing out the problem.
That’s why they so desperately want to censor contrarian views under the guise pf labeling it “misinformation” which basically means any information they don’t want you to know about because it will bear negatively on them and what they are doing to all of us.
Yep. It doesn’t feel like Feds, but I have no doubt these are all Leftists pretending to be “Nazis”. Not Larpers either. More like paid or volunteer actors.
In contrast to say Ukraine, American neo-Nazis are poor white trash and lack organization. Ratty clothes, missing teeth, heavily tatted. They don’t show up to events with color matched jackets and sunglasses like an audition for a musical performance. Or with an expensive banner complete with elaborate calligraphy. It’s farcical.
I’ve seen the real thing and mostly they look like mean bikers.
It’s all narrative and story telling. The story they are pushing is anyone who opposes anything they do is a Nazi. And everyone agrees it’s fine to punch Nazi’s.
“Don’t forget your Oakleys!”
“BREAKING: A transgender representative in Minnesota has introduced a bill that will remove the exclusion of pedophiles from the protected class of “sexual orientation.”
This means it will be illegal to discriminate against child rapists.
This is what we have been sounding the alarm on. There is a concerted effort to normalize the sexualization of children and to legalize pedophilia. This is just one more step toward that end goal.
We need everyone to join in this fight before it is too late.”
https://twitter.com/againstgrmrs/status/1652794080106086400
They WANT to normalize fucking kids..
They’ve been at it for a while. Remember all those Slate and Salon articles from years ago?
I can no long deny this. As much as I want to believe it isn’t so, it’s so.
Sounds like a great plan to expose the kind of fuckwit legislators who will vote in favor of this.
“Ireland is about to pass one of the most radical hate speech bills yet. Merely possessing “hateful” material on your devices is enough to face prison time.
Not only that, but the burden of proof is shifted to the accused, who is expected to prove they didn’t intend to use the material to “spread hate”. This clause is so radical that even the Trotskyist People Before Profit opposed it as a flagrant violation of civil liberties. Dark times.”
https://twitter.com/KeithWoodsYT/status/1651917024342294530
They had to import thousands of non-value-adding immigrants into Ireland,just to get this kind of shit passed.
We are watching Western civilization is crashing down in real time.
They had to import thousands of non-value-adding immigrants into Ireland,just to get this kind of shit passed.
Hah hah, no. Europe was already passing this crap before the current wave.
In a sane world, my fellows from the old country would have a new legislature after the current one “died suddenly from unexpected medical conditions” over the weekend.
I remember when Ireland was one of the more sensible countries in Europe.
The 2A is more important than the 1A.
Back to this nonsensical “Gender is a spectrum” bullshit.
If that is the case, why is the Gender Industrial Complex so hell bent on forcing their patients into rigid categories? You don’t have to have your balls chopped off in order to bake cookies or plant flowers. Nor do do you have to have your boobs hacked away to rid a dirt bike or swing a hammer.
It’s arguably the only way they can eliminate homosexuality.
If they believe that, they’re crazy — the number of FtM bottoms I see on Grindr is not small.
FTM used to be extremely rare. For the longest time, almost all trans were MTF.
Teenage girls are not allowed to be who they are, and when I say “not allowed,” I mean, if she likes girls (maybe she’s butch, maybe not), she’s a boy. If she likes “boy” things, she’s a boy. If she wants to hide her femaleness from boys/men, she’s a boy. Throw in a dash of depression and anxiety (both probably partially hormonal with puberty), and the girls are ripe for picking. None of these things are just left alone. Nothing wrong with being a lesbian. Nothing wrong with liking girls, nothing wrong with wanting to do “boy” things. And if she wants to hide from boys/men, she probably has a reason and needs serious therapy.
My middle school daughter is dead center in the eye of that storm. A tomboy, she plays sports with the boys. Several of her friends have flirted with claiming lesbian status or boyhood. One looks to be a possible lesbian – or maybe just weird. Another is very pretty but only wears men’s clothing. Like dress shirts and slacks. I doubt there is anything other than a cis-het girl in there, but who knows.
The rest are clearly just talking the talk for the attention.
But it is odd to my ears to hear pretty much all of the middle school girls openly flirting with the idea of being either trans or lesbian or both.
We have handled it by “no big deal”-ing the whole thing. Robbing it of the allure of forbidden transgressions. Luckily, my girl is exceptionally centered. Nobody is going to move her off of her own sense of self. Not friends, not mom, not dad…
I do worry about the weird one a bit. She has all the hallmarks of someone who will develop sizeable mental issues as she hits her late teens and early 20s. I could absolutely see her dying her hair purple and getting a nose ring and claiming non-binary status so she can fit in with a group.
We should be able to affirm kids right to be weird without shoving them into a genderfluid box. This kid is a single parent kid with a mom who is kinda broken by whatever happened, so I could easily see her needing affirmation from a peer group.
It is tough out there right now.
They want and need labels so badly. I don’t understand it. Isn’t “weird” a good enough label?
My daughter hated high school and didn’t like her peers anyway. She dresses very androgynously because she doesn’t feel like she looks good in girl clothes. If she thought she looked good in girl clothes, she’d wear them.
Anyway, she looked upon the whole trans and furry (yes, in high school too) thing with great disdain.
I didn’t really realize it, but the girl was born an adult.
I’ve seen a few of those TikTok videos and yes those categories are rigid as hell. I don’t know if it’s a Marxist thing, or a leftist thing, or a “people with too much time on their hands” thing, but they sure like to create elaborate sets of rules and then get pissed when people don’t follow them.
“Back to this nonsensical “Gender is a spectrum” bullshit.
If that is the case, why is the Gender Industrial Complex so hell bent on forcing their patients into rigid categories?”
Because ignoring that gender is a spectrum suits their goals.
I am going to claim that if they can label gender a spectrum, I can label race one too. So now I identify as a black lesbian with too little melanin.
The documents contain emails and scheduled meetings with now-CIA Director William Burns, Bard College president Leon Botstein, Obama’s White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler and professor Noam Chomsky.
They were just getting the band back together.
From the sidebar of the Epstein article: Who knew Little Richard was one of us?
OT: I watched The Bounty with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson this weekend.
Thought it was a great movie, but I didn’t know much about the actusal events.
I watched it because History Buffs did a segment on it and I had never seen the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXiedmOUq5I
A long time ago I read “Mutiny on the Bounty”. My recollection is that Bligh was quite a good navigator and sailor, but a shitty leader.
Bligh had two mutinies and one land Rebellion against him during his tenures.
The movie showed it as he was tyrannical, but also, the crew lost their discipline in Tahiti.
I will check out the book.
Bligh’s navigating without charts and only losing one sailor to an attack of natives is an amazing feat.
You are weaker than an 11 year old girl.
Amazing.
yikes, probably. that’s bad.
I’m not going to perform a clean and jerk (the Olympic lift) but she had good form.
Shot across the bow of the lefty SCOTUS leaker?
Shot by which team, though?