ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. AS ZARDOZ HAS NOT SHOWN HIS OVERAWING POWER LATELY, HE IS HERE TO PROVE THAT HE GIVES THE SUPERIOR ADVICE – EVEN TO THAT OF SYNDICATED BRUTALS.
GO FORTH AND READ!
Q: I was married for 19 years. We are divorced and have no contact. Divorce was a good choice. Now, two years later, I am in love with a new man whom I’ll call “Grayson.” We have been together for four months, and things are going really well.
Grayson is gentle and loving in every respect. He’s the only man who has never raised his hand to me. We do a lot together and never argue. We both work. We have talked about marriage. I have met his family, and I was easily accepted. Is this fate, destiny, and should I say yes? — STRUGGLING WITH LOVING A MAN
A: FOOL OF A BRUTAL. YOU NEED A MAN WHO CAN DELIVER A KILLING BLOW TO THE BRUTALS THAT PLAGUE THE EARTH!
ZED WILL BE BY TO COLLECT YOU FOR GRAIN SLAVERY IN A SHORT WHILE.
ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN!
Hey Swissy, any word on my little tale in pending?
Save the books is set for June 2nd. Random seems …incomplete? Is that all there?
From the linked advice:
DEAR STRUGGLING: Because you have a history of choosing men who have “raised a hand to you,” let me advise you that you and Grayson are in the honeymoon phase of your relationship. It’s a little early to be talking about marriage. Whether this is fate or destiny, I can’t opine. As to whether you should say yes, assuming he has proposed, you would be wise to have a long engagement to be absolutely sure that gentle, loving Grayson is exactly who he seems to be.
I’m surprised Abbey didn’t just call him a closeted psycho.
Zardoz’s advice is better.
Yeah, he could still turn out to be a Dick.
*golf clap*
They could have a dynamic relationship.
For dim people who don’t know their own minds, a long engagement is probably a good idea.
Or even better, maybe, “No intimate relationships at all until you get a clean bill of mental health from your shrink…”
Well there goes my love life.
“So, you’re interested in who? Have you considered voluntary commitment?”
got a stupid math problem to log in as if I am a US college student who cannot add.
Would YOU want this place to be full of US college students? Other than Pi-Phis, I mean.
Then you should be fine.
He’s the only man who has never raised his hand to me.
You must work harder to provoke him.
I’ve raised my hand to women when I was in the Army.
You know who else was known for raising their hand?
Horshack?
Elon Musk?
Those who were sure?
Faith healers?
Soccer players?
Hockey goalies?
How had I missed this up until now? Philly really never changes.
Alleged ‘Delco Pooper’ held for trial after teen who filmed incident testifies
https://www.inquirer.com/news/christine-solometo-delco-pooper-hearing-20250519.html
Klayman also argued against the disorderly conduct charge, saying intent is required and there was no proof Solometo intended to cause a disturbance.
Chen disagreed.
“It requires some level of intent to defecate on someone’s car on demand,” Chen said. “I don’t think you can accidentally do that.”
Somebody has never had explosive diarrhea.
Of your diarrhea is ‘on demand’ in not sure that fits the bill of explosive.
And now I’m analyzing poop way too much, and it’s not even Wednesday.
Can’t we send her to CECOT?
Some people pay good money for this treatment.
“Just because it’s not your best day doesn’t mean that you should be harassed continuously,” Klayman said. “All people may do things that they’re not proud of at certain times in their life.”
Yeah, but I hope most of us haven’t done an Amber Heard. At least not since we were 3.
OJ Simpson had a bad day, too.
I’ve raised my hand to women when I was in the Army.
Nazi style?
I didn’t click my heels at the same time.
You thought there *is* some place like home?
Speaking of abusive relationships
Both tax exemptions are structured as deductions that workers would claim when they filed their taxes the following year. That means employers would still withhold money for tax payments on tips or overtime through their regular paychecks, but the income would be deductible from their final tax bills when they filed their annual taxes.
Another tax simplification project. Who doesn’t want that?
What in the everloving fuck? How about you don’t withhold tip money taxes? Should be pretty damn simple.
The government wants a no interest loan.
Seriously. A non-taxible source should be simple – It is not included in the numbers at the start of the form and does not need to be accounted for.
As I understand it it is still subject to FICA, just not income tax, which probably half of tip receiving workers or more don’t really pay. 🙂
No Tax Means No Tax, means No FICA Tax.
Anything else is a lie.
and your point? It’s Congress; you already knew it was lying because it was speaking.
You can file quarterly.. easy peasy. Lets provide a service to automate that and only take a 20% cut of the returns (as a Tip) … Who is in?
Tax simplification always lengthens the tax code and adds forms. That is how one simplifies a thing isn’t it?
I do a fair amount of filling out federal forms for one of my gigs. All the forms have a lengthy disclaimer under the Paperwork Reduction Act, and it always appears on a separate page.
That’s just perfect, BP. Reminds me of the “This page intentionally left blank” that we had to put on some legal filings. I always wanted to say “Well, its not fucking blank any more, is it?”
That’s terrible. The biggest effect should be that people who are not reporting their tips should be able to go about their lives without worrying about the tax man coming for them.
I blame Big Tax Prep.
I’m expecting more of this as many people younger than Gen X have far less interest in cars. Muscle cars had quite the bubble.
This Plymouth Superbird Sold for $1.65M in 2022. It Just Brought $418,000 at Auction
https://www.thedrive.com/news/this-plymouth-superbird-sold-for-1-65m-in-2022-it-just-brought-418000-at-auction
Re men raising hands to women.
I’m constantly amazed that women fail to protect themselves in any aspect of their lives.
Abusers, rapists, and generally evil dudes wander around knowing women aren’t armed and can’t fight their way out of a blanket. Gunfu needs to be a thing.
They move in with dudes they’re not married to, commingle finances, and support their lazy asses while also doing the housework. Maybe kids are involved.
They have sex and don’t take care of birth control, like, oops, how did THAT happen?
When a man and woman love each other very much …When a twenty-something woman goes clubbing …Or, you know, you could just raw-dog it. “I’m on the pill, so I’m good.”
Can’t say much about women who marry sociopaths because they hide really well until they’ve got you trapped somehow. (I’ve been on the wrong end of a narcissist gaslighter, knew it was happening, had no idea how to combat it, dad didn’t believe his mother would do such things). But that’s why God made PIs (except those cost $$$$).
I’m not man-bashing here, but there are a lot of evil men out there. I’m not woman-bashing either, but there are a lot of stupid women out there.
(Obligatory: “and vice versa,” and NAMALT/NAWALT.)
It’s the female version of the hot/crazy mix for men.
There is the attraction along with the I can change him thing.
You are describing 2/3 of my kids.
Youngest is married to the sailor, so far he’s been great although they’ve spent 50% of their first year apart. Neither of of them is super outgoing, but they do get out for day trips and such. I think they’re pretty similar and he treats her well.
Middle is living with a very possessive boyfriend who’s spied on her and set traps for her in the past (he got one of his friends to flirt with her at work to see what she did). He is an asshole, we’ve made it known that we don’t like him, and that’s a big reason she doesn’t talk to us. We are getting receipts for her therapy in the mail, so who knows what she’s talking about.
Oldest is desperate, she tries to meet men online and just assumes that if someone is nice to her, they’re safe. We’ve had several arguments about how she’s putting herself in potentially dangerous situations but she doesn’t see it that way.
I don’t know why it’s like this, but I remember in high school hearing girls complain about how badly they’re treated, and say they should leave their boyfriend, but they don’t.
I’ve been dragged into far too many conflicts by someone in our group stepping up to stop a guy from hitting a woman only to have the both of them turn on all of us.
I was guilty of this, and I will admit I was very lucky, but at some point, if you’re paying attention, you can start to sift out red flags.
I’ve come to a conclusion over the decades: Some women, for some reason, would rather be treated like garbage or even abused to avoid a “boring” relationship where the guy treats them well. Humans often consciously believe they want one thing, but some subconscious part wants something different, and the latter part is holding the steering wheel.
I’ve known women who date assholes, complain about them, then when they get with a decent guy, they still complain about him. They just have to redefine his relatively mild transgressions as the most awful, horrible, cruel-hearted thing that a man has ever done to a woman.
XX has a boyfriend. She has been reluctant to speak of him, but I delicately pushed hard enough to get a, “He’s got a good head on his shoulders.”
I had to be content with her judgment for a while, but yesterday she opened up a little more and he does, indeed, seem to have a good head on his shoulders. He treats her well, which I hope she expects because she’s seen how her father treats me.
I’ve been dragged into far too many conflicts by someone in our group stepping up to stop a guy from hitting a woman only to have the both of them turn on all of us.
Or to see them split up and then get back together.
DEG:
As the joke (overheard from some daytime trash television show while working fast food back in the day) in my friend group goes… “He shot me in the head three times, but he still loves me.”
“Or to see them split up and then get back together.”
I’ve been through this before which made me realize that whenever someone complains about how shitty their bf/gf are, I just stay quiet and try to move to another topic. It’s not that I don’t care but experienced that people know they aren’t being treated well but would still rather stay because they are sadly insecure and scared of being lonely.
As the joke (overheard from some daytime trash television show while working fast food back in the day) in my friend group goes… “He shot me in the head three times, but he still loves me.”
I’m a bad person. I laughed.
Ed:
Ahh, that lovely awkwardness when you tell your friend what you really thought about their ex, only to see them get back together a week later.
He’s at least 30. She’s what, 19?
Ladies like the bad boys.
This is what fiction is for.
Ah, but some fiction features
a very good man just acting badly in the circumstances.
I’ve heard this described as all women want prince charming, but if push comes to shove over a ‘ nice’ guy versus strong guy then they’d rather have a strong guy.
Nice in the absence of power just isn’t attractive. (Prince charming is both nice and strong)
It Just Brought $418,000 at Auction
And still egregiously overpriced.
Yes. For the same money I’d rather have an air cooled Porsche and a house.
It’s doubtful that the car realistically leaped half a million dollars in value during those six months, but he wanted his badly enough to knowingly overbid for it.
It’s “worth” exactly what a willing buyer and willing seller agree it is. Your prissy opinion doesn’t enter into it.
Correct.
And the next seller/buyer combo will set a different price.
Today’s example of “AI fucks things up so I don’t believe them but it provides sufficient clues that I’m able to find out.”
Unpossible, a Mini-14 clearly fires a .14 caliber round.
I thought it was 14mm.
No, clearly that is the M-14, not the Mini.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/canada-s-arctic-rangers-need-expensive-rifle-stock-repairs-44821003
Mosin Nagant says “what?”.
Why even use laminate? Why not nylon or something cheaper and more common in such environments? Oh wait, I answered my own question.
I mean…laminate does look cool.
It totally does. But it would suck going from cold to hot and wet to dry all the time. Also why bolt action? Do semiautos malfunction or do they consider it a bad look for the military?
IIRC, the first laminate stocks were because proper wood wasn’t available during whichever war was then ongoing.
Having said THAT, surely there are no end of companies that make polymer/composite stocks for 7000 rifles that could handle the cold.
Since this is a military contract, I can only assume these were made before Colt was bought by CZ.
I’m a little confused too, by the idea that they originally procured Tikka T3 CTR rifles (excellent rifles, BTW) for $4500 each, when I can grab one at Vienna Guns for $1150 off the shelf (with a full synthetic stock, natch.)
IIRC, the first laminate stocks were because proper wood wasn’t available during whichever war was then ongoing.
Yes.
And my recollection is that testing of laminate stocks showed that they were plenty strong enough assuming the laminate was built up correctly.
The Germans and Soviets used laminate stocks during the Second World War. They would have been used in a variety of conditions.
I’m a little confused too, by the idea that they originally procured Tikka T3 CTR rifles (excellent rifles, BTW) for $4500 each, when I can grab one at Vienna Guns for $1150 off the shelf (with a full synthetic stock, natch.)
I suspect some of that price difference is due to the procurement rules. The procurement program to replace the No. 4 stipulated that the replacement had to be manufactured in Canada and could not be identical to a commercially available rifle. Tikka doesn’t produce the Canadian Rangers’ rifles. Colt Canada makes them under license from Tikka.
Stupid.
Extremely stupid. But that’s government procurement for you.
With a receiver sight, removable 10-round box mags, stainless finish and a laminate stock, this was supposed to be a big improvement over the old World War II-era Lee Enfields in .303 British.
Hmm…
The No. 4 rifle has a rear mounted aperture sight just like the C19; however, the C19 sight is probably simpler to make and maintain. The C19 also has rails for mounting optics. So improvement overall.
The No. 4 rifle has a removable 10 round box magazine. Though the modern ten round box magazine is probably a bit better. The Lee-Metford was originally issued with spare magazines. They were originally intended to be swapped as part of reloading, but, given the enemies the British were facing and magazines were, for the time, expensive, the British decided to only issue one magazine. When Paul Mauser invented stripper clips, the British decided to go with those for fast reloading when they retired the MLE in favor of the SMLE. Serial numbering magazines to rifles didn’t start until the Second World War, and I suspect reported interchangeability problems are more due to the variety of different magazines than anything else. The SMLE had four or five magazine types thanks to ammunition changes and other reasons not, as far as I can tell from references, related to interchangeability of magazines. The No. 4 and SMLE magazines have different locking ribs are not interchangeable but look the same. Anyways, yeah, the newer version is probably better.
Stainless is probably a better finish than the oil blackened finish or the Suncorite used during rebuilds.
A one piece stock, especially a modern design, is going to be less fiddly than any Lee-Enfield stock.
So, OK, the C19 is an improvement.
This is the kind of insight we need around here.
<===
Let’s not overlook the (slight, and thus probably debatable) upgrade from .303 to .308, either.
“Canada’s military procurement wonks went on a long and painful process to find a replacement.”
I guess everyone’s got to make a living somehow.
Long=expensive
I don’t know why it’s like this, but I remember in high school hearing girls complain about how badly they’re treated, and say they should leave their boyfriend, but they don’t.
There are people who cannot bear to be alone, and will endure almost anything to avoid it.
I don’t get it, but there you are.
Jay Leno has some thoughts on “collector cars”
There’s that old saying about how “It doesn’t matter how hot she is, somebody is sick of her shit.”
For some people, “It’s just a fucking car” holds true no matter what it is. I used to know a guy who (before I knew him) had a Ferrari 250 GTO as his daily driver. He sold it for 8 million dollars.
I put that in Cuntes & Cods.
“Sir, we’ll sell you the car, what you do in it is your business.”
From dedthred:
I remember when “right wing terrorism” was the biggest threat to safety in America. When was that? All of 6 months ago?
The rule of thumb is thus: Whatever it is that the left is accusing the right of doing, is what the left is already doing or is about to do.
You right wingers will thwart democracy! *proceeds to invalidate elections and disqualify candidates*
That any American can feel so strongly about whatever it is happening 1/2 a world away that murder is an option is exactly what’s wrong with the left.
20 years and 10-15 staff? And what exactly do we have to show for this Dr. Whitehead?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/us/harvard-chan-school-public-health-federal-funding-cuts.html
https://archive.fo/7CWIU
“And what exactly do we have to show for this Dr. Whitehead?”
That’s what should be asked of every taxpayer funded project or initiative. We constantly let the Left get away with their word games and allow them to frame the discussion as, “We have given X amount towards this initiative and employ X amount of people, so therefore cutting funding hurts (some downtrodden group).” What should be asked is if we’ve given this X amount for this initiative, what were the objectives and where they met?
(We shouldn’t be giving them money in the first place but force them to explain their shit and expose them for the frauds they are.)
The fact that his first thought was his staff, not the research or the people he is supposed to be helping, pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
Bonus – https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/us/harvard-university-trump-international-students
They usually pay full tuition too.
“I’ve worked in the private sector, they expect results. “
RO
1976: BIG JIM’s Big BOOZY Bike Trip to Braemar | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZk2jV5gJbM
no Lycra visible
No helmet either. And it looks like that seat is a real nutcracker. No wonder he drinks so much.
And what exactly do we have to show for this Dr. Whitehead?
If it saves one scientist!
More gun links:
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/bucks-county-mobile-ltcf-permit-program-2025/
My county!
I was able to do PA’s process entirely online.. but only certain counties would allow out of state residents to use the online system even though everyone was using the same web app provider.. So I didn’t use the two local counties, but one about 1 hour drive who did it all online.
Another casualty of the War on Science
Had I used one of those “new bad words”? I ran a search on my proposal. Did it mention “equity”? No. “Inclusion”? Also no. The word “diversity” appeared only once, in the subtitle of an article in the bibliography about radiation fallout. “Neo-Marxist”? Again, no. Sure, I’d read Marx’s original texts during my graduate training in philosophy, but my NSF documents hadn’t tapped him or his followers as essential to my project.
Then I remembered a sentence in my proposal. “Well-established scientific findings,” I wrote, “have been rejected by activists and politicians, distorted by lurid headlines, and fuelled partisan agendas.” These lead in turn to “conspiracy theories, fake facts, science denial and charges of corruption”.
Was that it, I wondered? Had the NSF officials thought that I had meant to refer to the administration’s attacks on climate change science, vaccines, green energy and other issues? If so, that was outrageous! There was not a shred of truth to it – no truth at all!
Trump pulled the plug on his vital, yet utterly innocuous, research project.
The store of knowledge lies in ruins. Just like when Caesar burned the Library of Alexandria.
This project focuses on the social and political dynamics between large US scientific facilities and
neighboring communities. The project begins with events after 1976, when the Department of Energy (DOE)
began operating US national laboratories. It will study the flow of expertise in social controversies involving
scientific knowledge and public concerns. It will contribute to public understanding of national laboratories,
the training of national laboratory workforce and local and national scientific facilities decision-making.
The project will advance knowledge of lab-community relations at large scientific facilities. The research will
include historical research, interviews and document analysis to study stakeholder-science relations. It aims
to find the differences in the interplay between the labs and neighboring communities by tracking the
historical backgrounds of the labs, the media coverage, the political support, community groups, and other
factors. The outcome of this project may affect how community groups and scientific facilities structure their
communications, relationships, and interactions.
Or we could have used that quarter million for something useful.
Like burning it for warmth.
He avoided the worst trigger words, but the lefty wokism just oozes out of his proposal anyway. Who gives a fuck what stakeholders think about community relations with labs?
“Just like when Caesar burned the Library of Alexandria.”
Wut? I thought that was when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
“Social and political dynamics of lab-community relations”
$263,266. Small potatoes. That is just a small dent. What difference does that make? <— That is how we got here. Does this guy know what a peen surface is? It is millions of dents. Also, it's not about 'deserves'.
How about this…every example he uses – climate change science, vaccines, green energy and other issues – are absolutely junk science. What I see published, claimed and lied about today would have gotten me kicked out of school 40 years ago.
On top of that the nebulous subject and goal will mean money down a bottomless pit. No one is going to read it. Ever. It will do nothing, accomplish nothing, be stored away in an Indiana Jones style warehouse forever.
Lets try this: Academic researchers – Stop lying. Start using the scientific method. Do peer review. What is the percentage now of unreproducible studies paid for with tax money? They aren't doing research, they are gaming the system for money. Most of all STOP LYING.
This guy makes a hell of a good argument for taking an axe to govt funded research. It's a good thing we have him on our side.
In fact, I’d spent all but $21,432 of the $263,266 of cash.
That may sound like a lot for a humanities researcher, but it barely covered a year of my salary and included indirect costs (to which my grant was subject like any other), along with travel and so on.
That seems a lot for one researchers in humanities. Inflation, I guess.
I do have to say that eliminating things solely by certain words is a half-assed way to do it (if indeed that is the case) and can lead to a lot of stupid actions, which then just invites criticism. A principled analysis would be so much better. But that’s Trump being Trump (and DOGE being DOGE).
Oops, one researcher.
What the duck. What a waste of money.
Zardoz’s column. “He’s the only man who has never raised his hand to me. ”
I am reminded of the ol’ story of gringo married to latin woman story-
Her: “You dont love me!”
Him: “What? I love you! Of course I love you. Look at all I have done for you and given you. Why would you say I dont love you?”
Her: “You never beat me!”
The Late P Brooks comment on taxes above: I heard some other government slug on TV this morning explaining some other new tax rule that made taxes even more ridiculously confusing. Even as it is the IRS cannot even figure it out and that is by design.
“You cant rule innocent men. If there aren’t enough criminals, you make them. You make so many laws that a man cannot live his life without breaking them. ” <– description of and reason for the tax code.
GET RID OF THE FUCKING INCOME TAX. The whole thing. The whole tax code. Get rid of that shit. The amount of accounting citizens are required to provide the FedGov about their personal finances should be ZERO. Zilch. Nada.
It's none of their fucking business and they are not entitled to know or to skim some portion of it. Get rid of it.
I could probably entertain some form of income tax, but I will not support any “tax reform” that doesn’t begin with the sentence “The Internal Revenue Code, and all appurtenant regulations, are hereby repealed in their entirety.”
The abuse mostly comes from the calculation of “net”/“taxable” income. Make it a gross income tax, with very few rates (if not a single rate), and we can talk.
And get past the idea that you can meaningfully reform taxes without creating winners and losers. You can’t. There will be losers. Get over it.
National sales tax capped at 15%. That gives it some aspect of voluntary and no one has to take pictures of their dirty underwear and what they had for dinner every night to prove it.
The people writing, administering and collecting the taxes the way they are now have the entitled attitude of criminals and their behavior reflects that.
Repeat comment from a while back: If I had a time machine…. I would go back to the debates over the bill of rights and say -” The agency that will administer this tax will become the most hated agency of this government. It will be the source of endless dread and fear. The tax code will become an indecipherable encyclopedia that not even this agency understands. It will gobble up your hard earned wealth then cast it to the wind to lunacy and nonsense. It will impoverish countless people, imprison us and ruin lives. A president of the country will mock us to our faces that the tax code is not and never was a source of revenue but rather a cudgel to be used as a weapon by this government against the very people that elect and employ them to cow them and control them. This government, using this tax code will become a bottomless pit into which your lives and sweat will be wasted. We will be chained to it as slaves and the people we hire into service will see themselves as our masters. They will hire swarms of armed agents to harass us. They will despise us, mock us and tell us no other way is possible or imaginable. ”
Would we have the income tax today?
Dont bother. I know, the answer is yes.
Single rate, high standard deduction.
If I had a time machine…. I would go back to the debates over the bill of rights and say -” The agency that will administer this tax will become the most hated agency of this government.
That won’t help. The Founders already knew what an avenue for tyranny income tax would be and prohibited it, and other direct taxes in the Constitution.
“No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”
The XVIth Amendment is what you need to stop.
Jarflax: I am showing my ignorance. I forgot about that. Like all of the other prohibitions laid out for the government they are ignored.
Prohibitions are only for the lowly citizens in their minds.
It’s only important as a matter of history. The XVIth amendment wrecked it
It really bothers me that a majority of us pay for an accountant, tax expert, or software just to comply with the law every year.
Yes, and that is where the majority of opposition to getting rid of the IT will come from: The industry that has grown up to administer it. Parasites.
The abuse mostly comes from the calculation of “net”/“taxable” income. Make it a gross income tax, with very few rates (if not a single rate), and we can talk.
Exactly this. No social engineering or “fine tuning” the economy with targetted tax breaks and adjustments to income. Large base exclusion, single digit flat rate.
I wouldn’t even go that far.
On March 15th, everyone in the United States gets a bill for the total national budget, divided by the population of the United States over the age of 18. Payment due on April 15th. If you don’t pay, you don’t vote.
I am fuzzy on the dates. Bill should arrive day before Election Day.
Local memorial day story.
https://www.nj.com/eagles/2025/05/nj-man-survived-a-nazi-labor-camp-now-he-works-with-his-hands-to-honor-american-soldiers.html
Remind me again about our current crop of snowflakes.
Ran across this today: https://www.insidehook.com/internet/please-dont-refer-women-females
The fact that “women” is a noun and “female” is an adjective was enough to convince me — don’t ruin it by making those other arguments.
“…wont leave us alone at the gym…”
Ya dont say.
Isn’t there a whole genre of porn devoted to that? I know an old man who goes to the gym for the sole purpose of leering at the women there.
I keep telling him not to speak to them because those girls are pure poison. That is why they go there. He wont listen.