Welcome to the last Friday links of the month, I’m sure you’re all wondering what the theme for the cocktails was this month… it was “girly drinks“. I’m manly enough to order a pink drink out in public, and I don’t care who talks shit.
Reminder note from our very own Mythical Libertarian Woman:
📢 REMEMBER 📢
Today is the boycott day where all the leftists are boycotting shopping because of muh fascism or whatever.
So make sure to go out and do a bunch of shopping!
In local news…
I’m not sure if this is more phrenology or astronomy, but regardless, it’s entertaining. [Bonus old story link that relates]
“The Browns fans seem to have moderate self-esteem, and moderate extroversion, but low honesty, moderate emotional stability, low adventurousness and moderate self-control;”
Speaking of Browns fans…
This is a take, that’s for sure.
Fuck it being clarification for games, let’s get the clarification that if I have a license to a digital copy of a movie/song I have the right to download it.
EA doing something… good? I’m suspicious.
Maybe this time they’ll base it on the book?
Maybe this time they’ll base it on the book (Part the Second)?
Yeah, that worked out.
“Indirect cost funding is the primary way in which the U.S. government directly subsidizes its higher education system, which cannot possibly run on tuition alone.” Again… Why the fuck not?
Yes, because this is the only way to move forward.
I have an alternate reason why the men she’s with may be miserable.
So, the plan for the Democrats is to keep putting up these terrible government worker sob stories.
My carefully considered response? Fuck you, cut spending.
I requested among a small, select group of people, a suggestion for the mother of all girly drinks to cap off the month. I’m going with an expanded selection on the winner (Vodka Cran). The Cosmo, which traces its creation all the way back to the halcyon days of 1988. As a bonus, I’ll provide an elevated version if you want to pretend you’re too good for something popularized by television.
The Cosmopolitan
- 6 parts (1.5 oz) citron vodka
- 3 parts (0.75 oz) triple sec [Cointreau is recommended, but we’re slumming here]
- 3 parts (0.75 oz) lime juice
- 2 parts (0.5 oz) Cranberry juice cocktail [note: This is not cranberry juice, but the Ocean Spray style)
Go ahead and toss that into a shaker with ice, shake until chilled, and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wheel if you’d like.
The Classed Up Cosmo
- 6 parts (1.5 oz) gin
- 3 parts (0.75 oz) Cointreau [or triple sec if you want to slum it]
- 3 parts (0.75 oz) lemon juice
- 2 parts (0.5 oz) grenadine
All of this gets added to a shaker with ice, shook up, and strained into a chilled glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel if you’d like.
With that, I’m open for requests for a theme for the March cocktails, and hope you all enjoy the remainder of your weekend.
Drink: 2 men, one muppet
Add 2 patriots 2 the oval office, mix in a European war puppet. Shake vigorously and then discard the puppet.
Enjoy!
Are you calling Zelensky a muppet of a man or saying JD would be a mighty mighty muppet?
Girl drink drunk!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C4TGGtPzBU
KitH is so damn underrated
So they give Girl Directions?
No one wants to talk about it…but people that I need to interact with in which I have months, if not years of outstanding voicemails and emails out to…are suddenly ‘getting around to it’.
Incentives…how do they work?
Thanks for the dispatch from the trenches.
Anything for you Tonio
I’ve been assured that Musk and Trump are not qualified enough to get the government to run more efficiently and that this is just slash and burn nonsense.
I mean, our purchase card was set to $1. So some slash and burn is affecting some of us doing real work. Its not like planes need ILS to land or anything…
So you are saying just a fair weather friend?
Let’s not argue about ‘oo killed ‘oo or ran what franchises into the ground that used to be money printing machines! This is a ‘appy occassion!
But yeah — “Think of all the good movies she had something to do with!” (I can think of…. one. Rogue One. And I strongly suspect she had nothing to do with that one. Pretty much everything else makes me fondly miss the prequels and their indepth storytelling built on trade disputes. (Ok… to be fair, I actually *do* like the manipulations of Palpatine up until Episode 3 when Anakin flips in the DUMBEST fashion ever… “I must save my wife! … Go kill some younglings! … Duuuh… okay, boss!” But since I hang out here, y’all already know I’m weird and all…)
“I’m manly enough to order a pink drink out in public”
But do you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain?
As long as its not a Zima
Nope. I have a strong dislike for coconut.
Well, that is surprising.
Rogue One is the only memorable film in the Star Wars universe in the last thirty years.
I call these people fucking morons…. but okay. (Last Jedi literally killed my interest in Star Wars. And Force Awakens was only tolerable but annoying as hell since it was way way too much a retelling of A New Hope).
This. Aside from Rogue One and the first two seasons of Mandalorian, I haven’t watched anything Star Wars since I walked out of The Force Awakens shaking my head in disappointment.
TFA wasn’t even tolerable.
a retelling of A New Hope
What, you expected originality?
I loved those games (Even Renegade). Wish someone would patch the “creashes on modern windows” bug and “hates multiple monotirs” bug
There’s always the Remastered collection.
Which I own – which still has those problems.
I doubt there’s a genre of games more carefully constructed to interest me less than “real time strategy”.
I’m glad there’s something for everyone 🙂
Your mouth to God’s ears. The Era of Perpetual Renting because the Internet made it easier and cheaper to “publish” needs to f’ing stop.
I’d also toss in that the whole stupid precedent for EULAs of “you have to copy from more permanent media to RAM, hence copyright licensing comes into play” should also be legally burned at the stake as it is part of what opened this Can of Abuse for the world.
I decided long ago
never to walk in anyone’s shadowto heed the advice of various authors — once the book rights are sold, the film / TV folks will endeavor to put their stamp on things, there is no way to control them — and you shouldn’t expect the same story.As such, I’m not disappointed — but I’m also rarely interested. And being married for decades, the prospect of more shower scenes between bug fights isn’t something I can publicly push for anyway.
“and you shouldn’t expect the same story”
The irony is that Heinlein said that explicitly in The Rolling Stones Hazel Meade (grandma) and her son (can’t remember name) swap writing duties on some space opera whose scripts they radio back to Earth for production. IIRC, the line is, “they’ll rewrite it in New York, anyway.”
The shower scenes will stay but be genderqueer af, and the bugs will be sympathetic indigenous peoples getting brutalized by the troopers, who will be private security for a megacorp rather than public servants.
I honestly expected that to be a Zelensky story. Yes, I’m cackling quietly to myself over that little asshole being shown the door. Do the EU next, guys.
But on topic — no surprises, really… a lot of modern computing was invented in the UK back in the day. Doesn’t mean they’re going to use it properly or that it really means anything in the context of letting them backdoor everyone now.
Because people might actually care where their personal donations are going instead of allowing slush funds?
Because it isn’t as much fun if you don’t know you’re forcing the Flyover States to fund their own cultural destruction?
Because you don’t think the FedGov should let people keep enough of their money to be able to donate?
There are so many possible lines of illogic in that question…
I took the wife out for cocktails a couple of weeks ago, and the bar’s Valentine’s Day menu had what was basically a Brandy Alexander with a touch of Creme de Noyaux added for pink coloring.
She said it was delicious, but a one-and-done — essentially an alcoholic milkshake.
A Pink Squirrel?
That seriously sounds like one of those “Shouldn’t look up on Urban Dictionary” terms. Right up there with a Dirty Sanchez.
SDF-7:
I was contemplating using the Pink Squirrel to round out the cocktails for the month, but I try to avoid hard to find/rare/bottles that will linger (such as creme de noyaux).
It is interesting looking… I don’t drink myself — but I’m thinking I should see if I can make it once I’m back in Georgia and surprise my wife and mother one afternoon visit with them. I bet they’d like it.
(We tease my mom on alcohol — she does drink sociably and not at all to excess — but she also seems to correctly answer every alcohol related question when we play Trivial Pursuit even as she insists she doesn’t know much on the topic…. so a nice cocktail surprise for her seems like a natural fit…)
Crystal on early “Roseanne” consoled her heartbreak with those.
The Pink Squirrel was my mom’s favorite tipple (along with the Grasshopper), because that was the “girl drink” back when she went to college, and she never changed.
Introduction to BAs is how Lee Remick’s character falls into alcoholism in Days of Wine and Roses.
Fodder for OM in the morning
My mom and both sisters are nurses. They would have called the Pope’s recent improvement “the rally before the finale”.
Yeah, 88, pneumonia, respiratory infection – once you go on the ventilator, you’re not coming off.
I was expecting something about Greta Thunberg.
Past her best-by date.
Yes, but she assures us that she’s thought about it a lot and it can’t be her. Because. Just because.
Either she’s really good at driving men into emotional seclusion somehow… or she’s a ridiculously terrible judge of character. Hope her kid (I saw “son” in there, but I was skimming… don’t know if there were more) comes out okay…
Buh bye, tiny dancer…
https://x.com/CilComLFC/status/1895562770348982370
Wow, didn’t see that coming.
An interesting summary of the meeting.
https://x.com/RichardHanania/status/1895562922593841557
That helps explain Lindsay “bomb them” Graham’s disgust with Zelensky.
My hunch is that Zelesnky is the one who staged the confrontation, thinking he’d win the PR battle and force Trump to give in.
I don’t understand this AT ALL. Dude’s a straight up dictator, but you admire him?
Didn’t watch the whole thing, but that’s the impression I got too. Trump was very cordial at first, met him at the door and all that.
I’m fed up with the whole thing. I want us out of it all. I would rather just wash our hands of the whole fucking thing and let the principles go at it than try to “get our money back” by plundering the place.
That’s much better news than I expected from your wording. I thought Elton John was going to be the third after Hackman and Trachtenberg.
That was quick.
Hold me closer Tony Danza.
Said MP is under indictment for treason I believe, so it isn’t like he doesn’t have an ax to grind.
But since the 1970s, we have drifted toward a much more convoluted system of federal subsidies wrapped into student loans and competitive research grants. The current crisis is an opportunity to recommit to direct, unembarrassed funding of American colleges and universities, so that they may continue to serve as beacons of progress and opportunity.
Fucking neoliberal economics, how we hate it. Unabashed communism is the way to go.
How about – we eliminate all government funding of any institution, and revoke tax exempt status for hedge funds with attached schools.
“The current crisis is an opportunity to recommit to direct, unembarrassed funding of American colleges and universities”
Because the current crisis isn’t fueled by widespread revulsion for what universities have become.
Yup… “There are too many of you, and no way are you all John / Jane Q. Dashing Into Danger Public Servant. Plus we saw what you did to the elected President in 2016-2020, what you bawlingly want to do with your “Resistance” now and that you all leeched off the country under PPP while the rest of us were in an economic depression and y’all escalated DC average net worth to 3 times NYC and Manhattan. So spare me your tears now that the dance is over and it is time to pay the orchestra.”
Yours is much more succinct, obviously.
The real gall is that the letter is being sent to John/Jane Q. Public, not FROM them. They’re being sent by Frank/Francine E. Drone.
The signature line currently reads “Sincerely, Jane and John Q., public servants.”
I don’t know whether they changed that, but “public servants” is pretentious, and just as galling.
“We are members of your neighborhood watch, serve and distribute food at local food banks and missions, and serve on the boards of our local homeowners’ associations and the PTA.”
Yeah, that’s not the sympathy-getting thing they think it is. In the former case these are exactly the type of people you don’t want on your HOA, but who gravitate there like flies to a pile of cow flop. These are the Karens, the literal petty bureaucrats who give HOA boards a bad name. In the second case, these are exactly the type of people you don’t want on your PTA because they will side with their fellow government employees and probably push for woke bullshit.
When they say they are not the enemy I think of every story I’ve ever read about bureaucrats fucking people over financially and regulatorily, even to the point of death.
The tone of the whole article is lacking in humility and empathy. There is no effort to understand why normal people might lack sympathy for them.
They think they’re these guys, instead of realizing they were the ones who were being terrorized by those guys.
I’m just starting to read it, and they of course picked to lead the letter by talking about how they protect people on foreign fields of battle. Without naming their actual occupations.
It’s that simple.
Look at the 36.5 trillion-dollar debt, John and Jane, and then go fuck yourselves.
“Maybe this time they’ll base it on the book?”
When I read the article I thought of the fictional and pretentious “Shoot Poop” filmsnob website invented by Kevin Smith. World of Reel assumes that nothing could possibly be better than Verhoeven because nobody can imitate Verhoeven, leaving aside that there might be other ways of telling the story and that the story exists apart from Verhoeven in the minds of the Heinlein fanbase.
Yeah, I like Verhoeven’s version well enough based on the Something is Better than Nothing principle. But I also fear that Hollywood will make it a propaganda piece.
What’s next? Reimaginings of “Showgirls,” and “Basic Instinct.”
Actually, that’s more amusing than the fawning on his untouchable film making instincts – particularly in the first case.
This – and I’ll bet my house the remake isn’t based on the book.
https://www.screengeek.net/2025/02/26/starship-troopers-remake-sony/
Fuck you, cut spending
“What we have here, is, failure to communicate.”
They fail to realize that being fired is the compromise.
The traditional alternative features lampposts.
nothing could possibly be better than Verhoeven
Wrong. NOTHING is infinitely better than Verhoeven.
Oh, c’mon. ST is fun. So was his King Arthur film.
Buyer’s Remorse
She hoped Trump’s victory would change her life, but not like this
Ryleigh Cooper is normally more focused on motherhood than politics. Then came DOGE.
TL:DR — Low-level bureaucrat votes for Bad Orange Man thinking that she’ll get free shit. Instead she gets to find a job in the productive sector.
Archived link ’cause WaPo.
Too bad, so sad…
🙄
Yet another “Finding a job after being laid off is for the rest of you!
WaspinatorShe has plans!”She probably had one of them non-essential jobs.
The article cites her marking trees for logging (so I assume either planning thinning out or diseased ones?) while going for her masters in Forestry — so “Job anyone can do while interning with the Forestry Service, getting the taxpayers to pay for my graduate degree so I can then settle in to a cushy promotion chain in the Forestry Department” is how I read it.
There’s probably an actual need for her job on some level for proper forestry management — but it can almost certainly be done as part of the logging licenses or whatnot. (I do wonder if there are any plans to re-hire once they’ve lopped out the useless idiots and are sure jobs are actually needed… but obviously they can’t say anything about it until they get to that point.)
Probationary…
Shades of the Obamacare supporter who was shocked that he had to pony up.
I can tell you when I was probationary, I did what was minimum of my life to get to Vegas and thats it. We were hammered that at that point we were at will.
It seems we drifted from that, or other agencies are assuming, but you dont go dropping big bills right away
Disclaimer: The authors are career federal civil servants and wish to be unnamed out of concern for retaliation.
We’re brave and noble but we’re terrified of the people we ostensibly “serve”. Fuck you and the broom you rode in on.
Changing my behavior in reaction to some performative progressive bullshit sounds like performative bullshit, thus I’ll just ignore it all and do whatever it was i was gonna do otherwise.
I’m doing it to personally spite every single cunt in my publisher, so it’s personal for me
I view boycott days as opportunities to shop with fewer people. Bonus that the particular group of people who will be shopping in reduced numbers are among the shoppers I find most annoying.
The wife went out all day, didn’t see a difference.
There will be no wider boycott.
These dumb fuckers have become a parody.
I’m too lazy to boycott or not. Like, what do I care if I’m going to shop there again once the boycott is over? We’re just dollar-shifting.
Having McDonald’s for lunch. My stomach isn’t going to be happy, but it’s the least I could do for the cause
I did too. And the wife went furniture shopping.
Having McDonald’s for lunch. My stomach isn’t going to be happy, but it’s the least I could do for the cause
I went Arby’s for fish sammiches the other day. Better than Mcd.
Too close to Lent to have fish.
Yeah I said to Mythimom that she’s a week early to have a McFish today 😂
That drink gets shaken?
https://x.com/Matt_Pinner/status/1895430542205833425
Well, Matt, you moron, that’s not a barista.
When they say they are not the enemy I think of every story I’ve ever read about bureaucrats fucking people over financially and regulatorily, even to the point of death.
The tone of the whole article is lacking in humility and empathy. There is no effort to understand why normal people might lack sympathy for them.
When was the last time we heard a story about a government bureaucrat who looked at a situation and said, “I don’t even know what I’m doing here. You just keep doing what you’re doing, how you’ve been doing it.”
Biden, Blair, et al. wanted to ban encryption… where is my shocked face.
Because then politicians wouldn’t have their say on winners and losers duh
That also offers a false choice by ignoring private funding. Cue all the whining about evil corporate influence and turning our beloved ivies into little more than trade schools.
Don’t forget about the colleges with endowments.
Yeah I had private funding in mind there… government types hate private funding because it undercuts their ability to put their thumb on the scales for political purposes.
Yep. No way to fund a DEI Dean in every College on campus, fully staffed ready to hear every micro aggression muttered, without sending in money through less than transparent avenues.
I was under the impression that Harvard’s endowment could support the entire operation just on annual proceeds.
Here’s the funny thing. The people who argue for just making the whole enterprise government funded, like in Europe, would never accept the gatekeeping of acceptance to schools that takes place in Europe. Like with healthcare, higher education is rationed in places like Germany to where only the top students get in. Crazy, I know.
It’s unlike the system we have here where pretty much anyone can go to school as long as they want.
Of course not because here we’re paralyzed by the need for “diversity” and “equity”.
But I have a feeling that Europe is inching closer to experiencing that fun for themselves.
Yeah, that’s one of the points I make to my gen ed students. College education in Europe is “free.”* But most of you sitting in this room wouldn’t get admitted. Not for gender or racial reasons but because you wouldn’t make the intellectual cut. And, TBF, neither would I.
* for some values of free
I’m having a hard time believing European colleges have intellectual standards. Extremely selective admissions policies, yes; intellectual standards, no. Maybe if we dont count the British schooos….
So destroy all the Walmarts and everyone’s a millionaire, or something.
Yes, clearly the economic decline in an area is tied to the WalMart, rather than the WalMart being a symptom of the decline.
JUST IN: The next boycott called for is to stop using Meta for a few weeks. While I’d like a little retribution for their censorship, I don’t think I could resist Facebook without any of the pants shitters. I might just log in and post nothing but Trump memes and revel in the Likes.
Few weeks? These people are addicted. I give them 24 hours
My mistake, it was 5 days.
“I’m only checking in to see how successful we’ve been!”
I haven’t used it since before they kicked Trump off it.
Man.
I still remember those times vividly.
They were so convinced they had defeated Trump once and for all.
Trump is like Herpes. Just when you think it’s gone it’s back stronger than ever.
From the article Sean posted on the US cutting off funding for the Ukrainian energy grid:
That stupid Trump guy doesn’t get that he should be throwing good money after bad because we’ve already squandered so much of it.
It is quite apparent that these people have never negotiated much of anything.
The gnashing of teeth in the “But tuition will go up!” article is fucking stupid.
Yes. Tuition will go up, and people will be forced to bear the cost of the own educations and not deflect that cost. That will lead to fewer students. That will lead to lower tuitions.
It’s easy to go get some made up degree about queer studies and climate change when it doesn’t cost much. But when you have to pay for the shit yourself, you tend to be more selective about what you’re getting in return.
Ultimately it’s not my job as a taxpayer to ensure that a Physics lab in Utah is up to snuff.
But it’s NOT FAIR that only rich people can major in queer studies and climate change!
How can colleges and universities operate like private luxury resorts without hidden government subsidies?
What, you think students will stand still for “cafeterias” when they now have very upscale restaurant quality food courts? How can they get along without Olympic swimming pools and workout facilities? Single person dorm rooms?
I remember 50 years ago when the community college by my house had over 20 quonset hut buildings because enrollment was so high they couldn’t expand the main building fast enough.
Yeah, that was mostly due to 18-years ago olds trying to avoid the draft but it isn’t like students today are any more serious about advanced education; they’re just trying to stave off reality as long as possible just like their boomer counterparts did.
This South African whaling video might help UCS with his research project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATLe41T3D7c
It’s a documentary from the 1940s.
Dear Neph:
I am having a Cosmopolitan with sushi. Might have a Mai Tai next.
A proper Mai Tai is a work of art.
Since it’s Carnival season, the drink I made at home was
3 oz aged Puerto Rican rum
1 1/2 oz King Cake syrup
juice of half a lemon
Shaken briskly with ice. A little sweet and very seasonal.
I’ll be certain to have some Mai Tais next weekend.
Dirty martinis, ’cause I’m lazy.
I may switch to wine – I’m on the cusp of the “too many/never enough” line.
Me: You know, you were 6787 days old when we first started dating.
Wife: Hey, I don’t throw the mistakes you made as a kid in your face!
Me: Now, you’re 19,571 days old. That means 12,784 days* have passed.
Wife: So?
Me: So you’ve spent 65.32 percent of your life with me.
Wife: You don’t have to rub it in, fella.
*35 years
At this point, I think she’s
plotting to make my demise look like an accidentjust waiting me out.@RCDean from dedthred because I wasn’t paying attention:
Mom and Susie co-own the property as joint tenants. It can’t be sold without both of them. That’s the problem. Now, if the court sells it off on the courthouse steps, that becomes irrelevant.
And you have started the process to have it sold on the courthouse steps. That’s your plan/action. Ignore the CA unless and until she comes forward with a proposal that leads to the outcome you want. That keeps you in your act/don’t react zone.
I’m shocked. The NYT isn’t bashing Trump.
Zelensky, Seeking a Diplomatic Victory With Trump, Leaves With a Debacle
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had hoped to secure U.S. support in any cease-fire talks with Russia. Instead, his curdled relationship with President Trump was revealed in the Oval Office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/world/europe/zelensky-trump-ukraine.html
Yeah, I saw the picture of the Ukrainian ambassador with her head in her hands – I don’t think it was because of Trump.
I mean I thought Zelensky’s argument to ask for a security guarantee was entirely reasonable.
In fact, that’s what I thought was the purpose of the mineral rights thing. To give the US an interest there and reason to protect Ukraine.
Claiming enemy troops would be landing on our shores if we didn’t support Ukraine?
Does not know his audience.
In the end, I find myself not caring all that much though.
Mind you the European press is.
That’s more what I expected from the NYT.
He came in surly but it’s obvious that Trump and co. are hell bent on getting us out of the Ukraine fiasco. May as well be a dick and appeal to the neocons in the US and the Eurotwats like Starmer and Macron who want to repeat Napoleon’s capture of Moscow. Maybe sort of a contrived Hail Mary on his part but he fumbled the ball and then got hit by Lyle Alzado.
That being said, I wonder what his Azov heavies will think about his performance. After that I’d be looking to retire to the south of France after that debacle.
If I were Trump, I’d be tempted to ask “what exactly is your plan to win this thing? Just holding out for decades hoping Russia gives up?”
I’d demand a plan to win.
Basically Graham said keep your mouth shut a cash the check to him over breakfast.
He decided to pick a fight with Vance and Trump jumped in. The rest is literally history.
The fact that Graham dumped him speaks volumes.
His plan is obvious: get the Europeans to commit, get their asses whipped, and then have the American calvary ride in to bail them out. Might’ve worked with the prior administration but it won’t fly with this one.
Urthona, peace with honor.
My lefty friends are shocked when I say “Not our circus, not our monkeys. Not our money, either.”
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/28/kim-reynolds-signs-law-removing-gender-identity-protections-from-iowa-civil-rights-act-sf-418/80576830007/
Reynolds signs law ending trans civil rights protections; Iowa 1st state to repeal rights
Transgender and nonbinary Iowans will no longer be shielded by state law from discrimination in housing, employment, education and more after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law Friday removing gender identity as a protected class in the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
The signing makes Iowa the first state in the country to take away civil rights from a group it has previously protected in law.
“It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women,” Reynolds said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “In fact, it’s necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls.”
First in the nation!
We were one of the early states to legalize gay marriage. Couples used to travel here to get married.
It’s amazing what a few murderous rampages from trans peeps can do.
When was “gender identity” added, like five minutes ago?
It wasn’t.
The law, which was first enacted in 1965, prohibits discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion and disability.
Until July 1, when the law takes effect, the Iowa Civil Rights Act also forbids discrimination based on gender identity.
At least one stolen base in there.
oops
pulling up the actual law
12. “Gender identity” means a gender-related identity of a person, regardless of the
person’s assigned sex at birth.
It’s in the current law 30 times.
I don’t recall when it was added.