Welcome everyone to the return of the OG linker. I’ll be taking this slot back from SugarFree so that he has more time to plumb the sewers of the collective American unconscious. By which I mean, more Hat & Hair’verse. I may actually stutter-step into this, as I am taking the family to Gatlinburg next week. I’m looking forward to a fist fight with a boy named Sue… which I guess is not as unlikely as 50 years ago. Kidding, we’re just doing boring shit like Dollywood, and the ski resort up there is opening the tubing slope this week. My kids have never seen snow, and I’m anxious to see the 15 minutes of wonder, followed 20 minutes later by bitching about being cold and wet.
Anyhow, let’s get to what we do best. Sorry, lets get to what we do best in public that won’t get us arrested… the links!
Chuck Norris can still kick your ass. Probably with fewer head kicks.
It looks like Florida Man is going to have another shot to legally smoke the reefer.
I’m conflicted about this one, but I’m starting to think (with apologies to Tonio and some others who are the 1% getting a bad name from the other 99%) trans-people are like cyclists. They want to be treated like whatever lets them ignore the actual laws and do what they want. Trigger warning: blurred out pictures of she-him.
This sort of shit blows my mind. I don’t know how you see light from 13B years ago in 14B year old universe from a star system that has been around for 5B years. Even with superluminal expansion, shouldn’t the light have spent enough time in non-expansive areas to have passed us already?
Music selection: Hard to believe I’ve been listening this for 20 years.
I would like to visit Dollywood while Ms. Parton is still alive.
Me too.
Not to worry, her, uh, “assets” won’t biodegrade anyway.
Artificial Dolly
Aren’t they real, but a spectacle?
I went there this year. It’s a nice park. More variety of food and shopping than our local park. They will take your purchases to the entrance so you don’t have to lug them around.
The company that owns Dollywood just bought out Silverwood.
I’m not happy about that fact.
Prices are going to go UP UP UP.
It looks like Florida Man is going to have another shot to legally smoke the reefer.
Never ceases to amaze me that in 2025 that Republicans are still dying on this hill. And even if the plebiscite legalizes it through referendum there is still the shitbaggery and foot-dragging to actually implement legal sales.
It’s not all of them. There’s a big chunk of Republicans here who are fighting against the socons trying to pull back the recreational marijuanas here in Ohio.
Not just (R)s. MA and NY have a deep puritanical streak.
Ugh I hate dope culture expanding everywhere in public – keep it at home, please – but I suppose I have to be principled and support legalization.
@rhy: I’d say the former illegality is what makes it popular to do in public. Having said that, acting like an asshole in public should still be frowned upon, and in a sane world, private property folk would have power to evict those who continue to be assholish, and venturing into disruptive territory, the cops would have no fear of arresting those who continue to be assholish.
The big reason assholery continues? Flaunting, to daring the cops to enforce the law. <– We've gone too far down that path to go back withOUT looking and acting like dicks, very publicly. See also: ICE deportations.
lol And I won’t pretend I’ve never made an ass of myself on a different legal intoxicant or two.
Meh. Poorly phrased on my part. It’s not the ‘why,’ but if it’s suddenly ok to do in public, I expect more people to do it public. And then gather, cuz social primates be social. See also: Drinking 40s w paper bags.
Not at all – I was poorly agreeing. Maybe over time the novelty will wear off.
It’s gross.
The more it’s seen as harmless the more common it will be.
Give me OTC opioids and a Narcan and dope ban.
I like to point out to some of my left-leaning acquaintances that it took adding a Hemp/THC ban to get Dems to finally vote to pass a budget.
The budget bill killing off the THC loophole from the Farm Bill pisses me off.
It was fucking bullshit snuck in by Cocaine Mitch at the behest of his pharma sponsors. I have family members who take that stuff to sleep so they don’t have to me on prescriptions.
Me as well. Nobody asked for that ban. Just serious Neocon bullshit all around.
That’s me as well. Although I won’t get a prescription when they fuck this up, I’ll just go back to antihistamines and booze. Just put in an order for about a year’s worth of gummies.
Well you got til Nov 2026…hopefully Congress corrects this
I’d be very surprised if they did. I’ll put in another order when we get closer to doomsday as well, but I imagine a lot of the companies selling these products will be disappearing over the next year.
As mentioned above, the Republicans here in Ohio are talking about legalizing hemp derived THC (while putting some restrictions on it as well).
State laws don’t mean anything to me.
The federal laws matter, because I own guns.
I have not been able to confirm that legal, hemp-derived THC does or does not get you into trouble with gun ownership. Now, it will clearly be illegal again. No more questions.
Especially when it comes to mail ordered gummies
kinnath:
Isn’t there a case about that in front of the Supreme Court now?
United States v. Hemani,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19DZsKzwk0&t=295s
Very, very unsympathetic defendant.
Good for Chuck Norris. We have a 70 year old woman taking cardio classes at our gym. She does that 5 days a week, takes water aerobics, does tai chi, and walks every day. I told her to keep that up, I know that once you stop moving you start having serious health problems. She is in great shape and her quality of life reflects that. Someone told me she enjoyed my “pep talk”. Which is funny, because I find her to be more of an inspiration to me.
But that is the best sort of friendship, one based on mutual respect and admiration.
Good for her. That’s impressive.
My 76 year old racquetball partner just put my 38 year old racquetball partner in the hospital last night.
It was a head to head hit, and the 38 year old got a split eyebrow out of it. The 76 year old still managed to split the next 4 games with me.
There’s a little old Chinese woman who I occasionally see on my annual jaunt up and down Old Rag Mountain. We got to chatting one time (after stopping to help out a couple of amazingly unprepared college dumbasses), and she revealed that she’s been hiking Old Rag twice a year for the past three decades. She’s probably in her sixties and moves like she’s 30.
“My client was protesting the current presidential administration’s Executive Order, which basically put in place that under federal law that there are two genders, and that…every person is the gender that they were assigned at birth,” defense attorney Brian Pruett told the judge, according to Upliftlocal. “That’s highly offensive to my client, and as a result, on the Fourth of July…[she] chose to protest in a way that clearly addresses that issue.”
Reality is a bummer, man.
Shouldn’t the law be for sex not gender for the purposes of identification? In that case it’s male, female and yes, please.
“trans-people are like cyclists”
Just because I wear tight shorts and leg warmers doesn’t mean I’m trans.
it doesn’t mean you’re not.
Different chamois padding.
It’s gotta be pretty hard to ride when you’re tucked…
I would think it would have to be soft to get it tucked, especially when biking, but I’ll defer to those who know better
“trans-people are like cyclists”
But it’s a lot worse when you get your pants caught in the chain.
A different Florida Man (by way of Airstrip One) had something to say about Dollywood.
(archive link ’cause NR is stoopit)
We went to the titanic museum in Branson a couple weeks back. Basically the same thing. I also highly recommend it.
With Branson, you never know if you’re getting cringe or cool. So many of the attractions are $125 of half functioning early 2000s technology and style gussied up with a cheap plastic facade. When you find a well designed, well maintained attraction, it’s a gem.
Pigeon Forge definitely has mini-Vegas vibes along the main road through town.
It’s not just talk, either. In summer 2024, Norris posted a video – filmed by his son – of himself ‘warming up’ with what appeared to be a 140kg barbell curl. (They may have been fake plates, but who’s going to call him out on it?)
I am. Those are fake weights. Plus half range of motion.
Agreed. Those are not arms that can do 140KG curls. That looks like twice his body weight.
I wish Andy Rooney were still alive. “You ever notice trans people?”
This is likely the very first time this phrase has ever been uttered.
The stars in question are visible via lensing from massive foreground bodies, which means the light didn’t travel here on a direct path, but took a parabolic arc, which increased the distance the light traveled to reach us.
Maybe it’s the reflection from the giant mirror at the other end of the universe?
Maybe that light is just taking a Star Trek?
Boo! Boo this man.
The revenge of the entitled
Wherein Brendan O’Neill discovers that the “cultural Marxism” he’s been calling a right wing conspiracy theory is actually a thing…
The idea that supposedly pious Muslim Zohran Mamdani is all aboard the “tranny rights” train is ridiculous but here we are.
Taqiyya. Well, that and he is a politician.
I see no reason to presume that Islamic politicians are any more sincere about their faith than Christian ones.
I hear tranny’s are all the rage in Iran right now.
Yeah, in that spirit, I don’t believe there is any sincerity in either position.
Two old school pictures from Springfield Armory:
Racks of Garand rifles in front of the entrance
Stock making
Respect to the machinist making stocks standing in cap toe Oxfords all day.
Bring back manufacturing!
I’m guessing that would be automated, one person making 5 times as many with greater precision.
We had those style rifle racks in basic training, about 70 years ago.
Speaking of Springfield (sort of) I just ordered a parts kit to finish the barreled Krag receiver I picked up the other day.
ooooo….. pics?
Pics? Post!
Oics will come!
“Have you talked to them about their politics?”
In recently obtained video of an
@NHDems
messaging conference, a participant complains that Free Staters trick people by being decent human beings, “nice families,” and “good neighbors.”
Can we talk about the Mormons now?
Funny how Ars now sees a need for local control.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/gop-overhaul-of-broadband-permit-laws-cities-hate-it-cable-companies-love-it/
#4 will shock you!
Lol. Yeah, after their authority-slurping decade long campaign for federal net neutrality legislation they can fuck off and die.
If I am reading this correctly, the Senate unanimously voted to release the Epstein files moments ago.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/11/house-overwhelmingly-votes-to-release-epstein-files/
Trump should use an autopen to sign it, and then just sit back with a Diet Coke and a bag of Doritos.
The Senate voted last night through unanimous consent to pass the ball as-is.
Speaker Johnson wanted the Senate to make amendments, but Thune said no.
Trump should have the bill by now.
To add on, I haven’t heard anything about whether or not Trump has signed it. Johnson, in the linked video, says both he and Trump have concerns about the bill.
Doesn’t really matter if he does. He could veto it and if the vote doesn’t change, his veto would be overridden.
Yep. That said…
So… 6,000 pages of “a” “an” and “the” between black blocks.
“classified national security information.”
Shit, if that’s really in there, it should be blasted from the mountain tops.
I’m expecting thousands of redacted pages telling us things we already know. Just like every other document dump we’ve seen this year.
In the dedthred, Common Tater’s linked to the Guardian article on 1.3M more heat deaths due to Trump’s policies. They supposedly did an analysis with the help of “independent researchers.”
Well, there have been a number of peer-reviewed articles in Lancet that have analyzed deaths due to heat and cold, and deaths due to cold are uniformly an order of magnitude worse. So a warming planet will decrease deaths overall. And of course deaths due to climate disasters has decreased by 98%, thanks to technology and improved infrastructure made possible by fossil fuels.
I guess being anti-Trump is more important than doing things like fixing roads, improving schools or increasing the water supply.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/11/19/bay-area-congressman-eric-swalwell-california-governors-race/
If California elects him, they will have really shit themselves.
Today is World Toilet Day
I will celebrate with a visit.
America, fuck yeah!
https://nypost.com/2025/11/18/us-news/fully-functional-18-karat-gold-toilet-sells-for-12m-at-sothebys-auction/
Give me a Ferguson.
I remember that.
Woo hoo. I’m flush with excitement.
I will flush excrement.
Today, billions of people still live without a safe toilet — with the poorest, especially women and girls, worst affected.
Sigh… because of course they are.
To be fair, men can pee off their balconies. Women, not so much.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l01AMCBG0Wk
Dear Plex,
I’m fucking tired of seeing Spanish commercials for Medicaid.
Speaking of television I just discovered I get a bunch of channels I didn’t the last couple years.
FXX, Tennis Channel, Fox Sport 2, NFL Network, NHL Network, one or two others.
Double the Bob’s Burgers!
I can’t recall which service had rotating McDs commercials in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, …
https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1990294106460086603
Are they going to demonstrate the proper way to wear a crucifix, next?
I lived in the Arab center of NYC for 16 years (Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) and more of the ladies there don’t wear one than do. Unless things have changed greatly since I left a couple years ago.
TW: Sad puppy news.
Sad moment with Peabody, 15, yesterday. He needs carrying up and down the stairs, now. I was picking him up to take him down for his walk, and he wasn’t pleased. He’s scared of the stairs now cuz he hasn’t learned how to not fall up/down ’em. In my arms, he thrashed around a bit and accidentally got his tooth right into my eyebrow. Drew blood and rather hurt; a half inch inward woulda popped my eye.
He’s still mostly ok, but the decline is accelerating. Feb 7, 2025 he and I were alone on a walk and he stayed with me in the woods during a seizure. He didn’t leave me and somehow alerted folk to get me.
Predictably, I will ball my eyes out when the time comes. But that right there? Exhibit ∞ why Dogs > Cats. They give a shit.
Awww great name BTW.
I’ve got two 15 year olds. One is too dumb how old he is and anybody would say he’s 8 years old, not 15. Doesn’t even have that much gray on his muzzle.
The other is too stubborn to, well, anything. She’s on painkillers and steroids for her arthritis and has to wear a diaper all day, but that food bowl better hit the floor on schedule. Of course, they are both deaf as posts (beyond the, err, situational deafness they’ve always had) and don’t see that well either. The Big Dumb One has always been nearsighted, but, cataracts.
This is going to get rough before much longer. 15 is absurdly old for the breed (Staffordshire Bull Terriers).
@rhy: Thank you! His full name is MR. Peabody, Mom’s choice. I don’t give him the honorific. “No “sir” for you, pup!”
No one uses it, cuz, duh, but he’ll get full-name credit near the end.
@RC: It’s his legs, really. He’s had a cancerous belly growth for a while but it hasn’t bothered him. His back left, esp, it frequently gives out on him. Pissing has become a righty thing for him, now.
The cleaning ladies came yesterday. (*head pounds desk* MY door remains shut so they don’t go in. Yuck. Yuck.) He always wants to run up and smell ’em, etc, and watching him yesterday was heartbreaking, seeing him chest-plant, like that. But! I’m done with the sad talk. Such a good pup, and I mentioned his pretty legit heroism. Always nice to everyone, def a pup you’d want on your team.
(Not for sports, though. He’s fit, but damn. He don’t give no shits ’bout chasing no ball. Never has. He’s real good at ignoring cyclists, runners, good. But also chipmunks, to my frustration. But so it goes!)