Have you heard of romantasy? If you haven’t, I am extremely jealous and would like to live in the world you inhabit. You see, fantasy romance/romantic fantasy has existed for decades. This latest genre is not that. What is romantasy?
It
is
PORN
It is specifically fantasy written to get women off. It’s wildly popular on TikTok (“BookTok”), where “readers” admit to only reading dialogue, which is how they can get through hundreds of books a year, and reviewers tell their rapt audiences specifically what pages “the good stuff” happens on and about the snail trails left behind after reading said scenes and all that.
Romantasy is the genre where the monster porn is happening.
Romantasy is also known for being extremely rape-heavy. Because uhhh women seem to like that. A quick search for “ethical romantasy” will get you dozens of Reddit threads and Facebook posts of people requesting romantasy books that are, you know, still hot and heavy, because these women are all still gooners, but without the rape part, please.
So Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association, put together a listicle article on their blog with some popular romantasy titles for librarians to recommend their patrons if they’re looking for something that doesn’t have rape.
Read it one more time: THE ONLY QUALIFICATION FOR THIS LIST IS THAT IT DOESN’T HAVE RAPE
Want to guess how Bluesky reacted?
The Original Post
The Response
And there you have it, folks. Want to be able to optionally choose not to read rape in your fantasy porn books? Congratulations, you’re worse than Hitler and are literally committing genocide.
If you haven’t, I am extremely jealous and would like to live in the world you inhabit.
It’s not all rainbows and kittens.
Did the rainbows rape the kittens?
“Not having rape in your porn is MAGA coded” – h/t PanZagloba
Brandi Love says she supports Trump.
So these people would enjoy being gang-raped by the Muslim invaders of Ceuta. Got it.
I somehow doubt it.
Anything less vibrant is MAGA-Hitler adjacent.
UC you’re likely right. But they would (A) either feel it’s their fault because of past colonization or (B) blame Trump. Possibly both.
Does this mean SF moonlights as a romantasy writer?
“She doesn’t mind the language, it’s the beatin’ she don’t need”
The beatin’ or the baitin’?
AK Faulkner gets right to the point.
Thanks, MLW, I always enjoy your articles, even this one that made my head hurt.
Now I have heard of it, so we both inhabit the same world.
I was blissfully unaware until today.
Same here. Now we’ll both have something topical to discuss at our next cocktail party.
Let me introduce you two to something called “The Internet”.
you’ll hate it. It’s disgusting and depraved.
It’s made me aware of some many things I wish I did not know.
That’s exactly why I depend on all of you to fill me in. My mind is fragile enough.
Correction, I had heard of it because I started to watch the video you linked and the book she starts with, Morning Glory Milking Farm had been mentioned here, but I didn’t realize it was a whole category of books.
Same. And am extremely pleased to have no truck with those nasty people.
THE ONLY QUALIFICATION FOR THIS LIST IS THAT IT DOESN’T HAVE RAPE
STEVE SMITH HAVE SAD.
AND BY SAD, MEAN RAPE…
How can you read a book by only the dialog?
That’s like ordering a pumpkin pie and only eating the crust.
I was baffled when I heard people openly confessing to doing this, because how are they not confused as to what’s going on? But they also say that if the book isn’t full of so much dialogue that you CAN figure out what’s going on without reading anything but dialogue, they don’t want to read it anyway 🙃
😵
Words not deeds. The modern mantra loses something the original version had…
So are the, uhh, participants in the porny stuff calling it like a football game? Because I’m not sure how else you can get the porny stuff without reading something other than dialogue.
“Oh my God…. yes, yes, YES!!!”
I think they can get the gist of that 🙂
I don’t think that stuff is called “gist”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shijJmRYnEg
George V Higgins tells much of his stories through dialog. Instead of describing a poker game getting robbed, he has one character telling another about how the poker game got robbed. So it’s probably a cheat but you could you could read only the dialog and still grok the story.
Arthur Conan Doyle seems to revel in expository stories from characters, and yet it still works.
How long until one of you degenerates suggests I compose a steamy story? Happens every time this topic comes up.
If it’s scalding hot steam, nope. Second and third degree burns do not appeal.
IMO if you need gratuitous sex to attract the reader, you don’t have much of a story to tell. “Dim the Lights, you can guess the rest” works much better.
Altered Carbon was a really interesting book series, but the sex scenes were awkwardly written and unnecessary.
Steam those hams up like they do in Utica.
I hate Utica.
Whoops. That’s an Albany expression.
I’m in Albany.
and about the snail trails left behind after reading said scenes
A MLW version of Sugarfree?
Though I’ll confess to this having a decidedly different effect on me than SF’s prose…
It reminds me of a fake commercial from GTA V radio stations about a 50 Shades of Gray parody.
One of the quotes from a woman reader was “I’m throbbing like a steam train down here.”
I always like this story… When that book came out, Mrs. TOK’s friends went on and on about how good it was. One showed up at our door with a paperback copy and handed it to her. She read about one chapter, then threw it in the trash because the writing was so bad.
Heh.
The wisdom of the women of Archer
“Oh my god! I’m so turned on I actually think I’m getting dehydrated!” – Cheryl Tunt
“I swear to god you could drown a toddler in my panties right now!” – Pam Poovey
Never read that book, but from what I’ve heard that is the proper response.
But the writer sleeps on mattresses of money, so what do I know?
“Sploosh!”
“Well, at least *my* ex-boyfriend isn’t a noose I made out of an extension cord.”
Would these people get off if you forcibly restrained them and read non-rape-fantasy stories to them?
🤔
They probably would cry in pain at the non-dialog verbiage.
Depends, are you a handsome, tall billionaire?
Those Bluesky responses are reminding me of an expression I can’t quite recall exactly. Is it “whatever is not forbidden is required,” or is it the other way around?
See, the thing is, Avid Beader, Booklist is a publication for librarians, so the purpose of this article is to give librarians a list of books off the top of their heads for if anyone asks them if they have any recommendations for romantasy that doesn’t have rape in it
Obviously, the only appropriate response to such a request is to scream, “Fuck off, weirdo pervert!”
Is it “whatever is not forbidden is required,” or is it the other way around?
I prefer EVERYTHING NOT MANDATORY IS PROHIBITED
Interesting to see the strict stereotypes of Christians still alive and well when many churches are all for getting down with your spouse.
And just showing ankles? When is the last time they have stepped into a real church not made up in Hollywood or in their religous-fascist fantasy porn anyway?
Never.
“Be Fruitful and Multiply” is an early command from God. You can’t do that multiplication if you abstain from your spouse.
The ankle thing dates to the Victorian mores where the amount of skin allowed in public was almost Islamic in restriction.
A lot of these people think stuff that came from the Victorians is Christian stuff. Wait until they learn that many of them were pushed by the women’s movements of the time. (They will never learn/accept this.)
Hiding from the male gaze?
It’s funny is that they want to be treated like Victorian era women (the idealized version at least) while also acting with zero sexual restraint.
They have the sexual mores of the Victorians, but only when it comes to straight men and their impulses.
I’m glad one of the token women around here is doing the explaining on how awful women are. I was kind of alone on that beat here of late.
That’s totally what I’m taking from all this.
There is a meme on right wing X
Gentlemen i am sad to inform you… Women
Wasnt that number 1 onlyfans chick a virgin a devout christian?
My wife got me a stack of books for my convalescence.
First two Wool books and Dungeon Crawler Carl.
No idea what the first one is but shes good at gifting.
The Wool books are pretty good, the earlier ones were more interesting to me.
I found as he explained how the Silos came to be it made less and less sense.
Wool is an indie (or used to be indie? It was one of the first hits of the digital self-publishing era, but it may have been picked up by a publisher) scifi series, I have heard good things about it.
The Silo books are great. Wool is followed by Shift and Dust. IIRC Wool was televised on some stream I won’t pay for.
Sand by the same author is also very good.
Sadly he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.
The Wool books are good.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is great; I bought the next 7 as soon as I finished the first and don’t regret it at all.
I recommended it to a friend a few weeks back and he instantly bought the second as soon as he finished the first (he got actual books vs. my digital copies).
I’m about a third of the way through the first one now.
Very silly.
I like it.
He ramps up the stakes in later books and it gets a bit more serious / darker. Not in a bad way, at all.
That keeps popping up. Maybe I’ll check it out.
Previewed the intro – I like. Purchased. Under 5 bucks why not.
To get off the gooner wagon for a moment:
Thanks (??) for staring into the abyss for us and reporting on it so we don’t have to. I’m blissfully only vaguely aware of the field of female-centric romance/porn. I suppose it’s… good… to see what’s going on in other peoples minds sometimes. But only sometimes and even then maybe just a partial representation, like Plato’s Cave. A full exposure to reality may scar one for life. This came close.
Are these the replacement for the Bodice Rippers (we called them Hysterical Romance)of old (30-40 years ago).? The cover had to have a Mandingo or Hulk Hogan
lookalike to sell. As I remember, some white women preferred the Mandingo cover, others stayed within their racial lookalikes. Little old ladies bought the Harlequin
Romance that had wholesome love stories of a young widow that finds romance in the church choir. We sold a lot of paperbacks to the discriminating shopper.
In theory they should be a lot like bodice rippers, but I’ve been hearing that they’re… well… a lot more violent, if you catch my drift? Hence the reason for this article needing to exist. It’s not even just BDSM, either, it’s like… the kinds of violent things that can you can imagine happening when you’ve got monsters, demons, and other non-humans involved. And apparently if you are uncomfortable with that, you’re a *checks notes* MAGA-adjacent boring Christian prude who hates blacks and queers.
They are voyeurs. Reality would likely make them poop their pants (to start with).
It is pretty easy to imagine it, what with SugarFree running around the place.
Context – I’m a guy, of highly questionable sexuality and preferences, who *loves* erotic fiction. Seriously, I’d much rather read smut than watch it.
So the existence of romantasy, even very spicy romantasy, bugs me not at all. It’s fantasy, and distinguishing between fantasy and reality is a bedrock requirement for being considered a functional adult.
This to me, is more a demonstration of why you never, ever give a Progressive anything. Nothing you do for them will ever be good enough, and they will let you hear about it endlessly, because whining and complaining gets them off.
(Hmm. I wonder if some of the suicidal empathy that Progressive women have for third-world retards is in fact actual empathy, because both groups have trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy? I bet with enough liquor and cannabis, I could take this logical thread almost anywhere…)
Hello… FBI…
They know already, and don’t care.
Seriously, you know about J. Edgar Hoover and his dress-up sessions (emphasis on the ‘dress’), right? You think anything’s changed other than the length of the skirts over there?
I read that women’s fashions, in the days of yesteryear, followed the economy. In the good times, as the stock market went up so did women’s skirts. As the economy slowed down skirts got longer.
WW2 and earlier had long dresses, after the war shorter skirts, including the mini-skirt, became the fashion.
I don’t know if that’s still true, I don’t get out much and I care less these days.
The underage girls are all wearing Jean shorts made to look like cutoffs that let their bits hang out now FourScore.
I don’t object to the existence of romantasy at all.
I merely object to the disdainful claims of “men don’t read anymore, just women” when this is what’s being read by many women.
Stop acting like women are out there crushing down Ulysses when they’re just reading porn.
Ulysses made my head hurt.
What’s the point of a story if you need an interpreter to explain what’s going on?
Part of the point is that many aren’t really even reading the full book. They just get some creator who skims the book to let them know where the juicy parts are.
I don’t think most of the women I know could put their phones down long enough to grab a book and read it through.
So I should read a court of thornes and whatnot cause i have to say i was on the fence.
Women online who shriek about safety have ensured me that no woman is turned on by a violent man. Or if they are it’s only because men abused them in the past and they now lack agency apparently.
I remember old school dragon riders of pern had a sort of rapey scene. grrm had plenty but not like sexy rape, for the most part. But i spose boddice rippers have been woth us a while.
But i spose boddice rippers have been woth us a while.
So many typos. Typing with one hand are we?
I suppose that, as a child of the night, you are the beneficiary of this particular element of the female psyche?
Phone beer still tired. Two night ago could not sleep at all. Last night got 4 5 hours.
Two night
Last night
I think I see your problem.
More seriously, get some rest. To state the obvious, lack of sleep is one of the worst things you can do to yourself. I would even go so far as to say “Don’t drink for a day or two, get some sleep”. Extreme, I know, but getting that sleep is important.
Vampire porn is 100% a thing. Reference the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series – tons of human/vampire/werewolf/fey sexy times, in truly bewildering combinations. This was a New York Times Bestseller series.
(I bring this one up in particular, because the series has a devoted following among gun nuts as well. Ms. Hamilton is apparently something of a gun nerd herself, and the heroine uses good shooting technique, carries a duty and compact pistol with identical manual-of-arms, and even references Massad Ayoob. Truth is stranger than fiction, even when the truth is about the fiction.)
I am trying to get rest. I spent 9 hours in bed two nights ago. could not sleep. Got up walked a little. Read some pages of a boring book. Had a scotch. Back to bed. Nothing.
Vampire porn is 100% a thing
*Anne Rice has entered the chat*
(but those weren’t as porn-y as Exit To Eden)
I believe i referenced an Anne Rice book in a different comment.
Try melatonin Pie. Your body produces less melatonin as you get older. It regulates the circadian rhythm. It is essential for getting to sleep without depressants.
Do you have a recipe?
Melatonin did not do much for me in the past. In this case i hope it was just the jet lag though i thought i had that beat when i slept the first night.
You need one Romanian, a bottle of Melatonin, a syringe, and insomnia.
If not (or in addition to) melatonin, you might try 500mg. of Magnesium Citrate, half an hour before bed. I’ve been on that lately and my sleep quality has been amazing.
I used to take heavy doses of melatonin to combat jet lag. I speeds up the resetting of the body clock to normal time.
GT: trying and nearly failing to resist the urge to make some terrible cream pie joke.
I take citrate a few days a week. Had biglycinate in the past. Some sources magnesium threonate is the best for sleep and nervous system in general.
Yeah. Pern.
Dragons are telepathically bonded to their riders sharing thoughts and emotions in both directions. Most dragons are male. Gold dragons are female and their riders are female. Green dragons are female but their riders are male. So when green dragons go into heat and the male dragons (and their riders) take notice…
I seem to have utterly blocked out that sub plot.
That detail is the only thing I know about the series and it made me stay away.
McCaffreyitis.
I read two or three Pern books and said no
More.
i think i saw news about an tv adaptation of fourth wing or somesuch which i believe counts as romantasy
Yup, Fourth Wing is one of the big ones right now.
Woke Charmed, My Lady Jane, Bluesky?
You really are a glutton for punishment, MLW.
Thanks for taking several for the team.
That (and a couple of other comments above) put me in mind of a song… (NSFW)
Wait until they learn that many of them were pushed by the women’s movements of the time. (They will never learn/accept this.)
Forcible male-on-female rape is the ultimate manifestation of female empowerment and self-actualization.
I randomly remembered back in the day when i was still getting books off bittorrnt i downloaded a scify and fantasy bundle which had a so called scifi book called Interstellar Service & Discipline that was right down porn.
Then i remembered the existence of the Gor books.
Also there was The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty.
Lotsa porn in literature romantasy fits right in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Couch_of_Silistra
I could not make heads or tails of that setting summary in one read.
I don’t want to reread it to parse the mess.
Fertile women rule, but they only ovulate in response to getting banged by the right dude.
The series does have the precursor to GRRM’s Maester’s chains though.
Confession: I’ve apparently become a girl. No op, neither pre nor post. I’ve been playing with Grok, prompting it to write out certain fantasies. I’ve even started paying ElevenLabs.io a few measly $6 per 25000 characters for text-to-speech. It only can process 5k at a time, but it’s easy enough to make chapters and space ’em out. (Usually ~6min audio.) You can change the voice and also the ‘similarity,’ ‘exaggeration,’ speed and something else to alter the delivery. So I’ve officially added erotic stories to my basket of bunk-time merriment.
I also tell Grok to add …, — and other punctuation marks to alter the timing for the audio delivery. (It calls it PPT or PTT, IIRC, which I don’t, or I’d know which one it said.) Last night it was a tryst w a British girl I really did know in Korea. A couple of Korean gals were added to it, as well. I used locations in Daejeon that made sense (to me) and fleshed it out. A cable car up to then-nearby Expo Park was involved. I will likely get further into this ‘kink’ outlet.
I want Grok to mostly surprise me, but it also tried once to surprise me by having Seon Yoo finger MY ass in a stairwell for some reason. So I had to tell Grokster to not have ANY butt stuff. I certainly don’t want any and I don’t want to give any, either. (Never have IRL. I *would* if a girl were into it and that’s what she wanted. It wouldn’t be my idea, but I’d be game for her end. My end, OTOH, is not game to that endgame.)
“Romantasy is also known for being extremely rape-heavy. Because uhhh women seem to like that.” Closest for me? Ex long ago wanted me to choke her out. Also liked being slapped. (So, baby stuff.) We did it a few times, and I get the breath thing, I s’pose. I actively didn’t enjoy the slapping. (Spanking’s ok to an extent.) I do get and enjoy women getting off on wanting to be “taken,” though it can get creepy.
W̶o̶m̶e̶n̶ People be strange, yo. *shrug*
Wow. All I can say at the moment, I must get back to work.
Still busy, but I will channel Rufus, our Glib Philosopher with his most famous teaching:
“Don’t any of these people work?”
I cannot imagine being so hateful, so spiteful to waste energy commenting on a suggestions list like that. If you don’t like it, shut up!
No. As a rule they will tend to have part time or gig jobs, or style themselves as influencers. They have a lot of spare time but not much disposable income. So they use that time to be a monster to people online.
Apropos
https://youtu.be/ejklu1OvWFs?is=jUwnOATEz1EWl-qI
The ghost of Ayn Rand makes the sign of the dollar over the field.
I’m pleased to report that my experience in the MM romantasy genre has been unspoilt by rape or power difference/domination. About half is sports oriented (hockey and soccer dominate) and half mostly royalty related.
The steamy smut level ranges from the almost chaste (and excellent) sci fi novel, A Matter of Oaths (1988!), to the fairly restrained Red, White, and Royal Blue (also a quite lovely movie) to the full-on Game Changers series. Game Changers includes Heated Rivalry, much of which was made into the Crave/HBO Max award winning 6 episode series of the same name. Episodes 3 through 6 are, imnsho, must sees, regardless of your orientation.
All of these are charming and heart-warming, so all may not be lost.
Most if not all of the authors of these are women. So is a huge chunk of the audience ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’m waiting for the Pervert Omlet Community to weigh in before I pass judgement.
I’m intrigued…like the omlet is a device or like whipped cream and smeared about in some weird Evan play 😉
I’m assuming a reference to this?
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2018/09/15/the-greatest-value-a-woman-has-to-offer-a-man-is-her-sexuality-and-eggs-twitter-weirdo-explains/
It’s a reference to our poet laureate’s second offering yesterday.
Ah well..that link uh…was random then
Just had that lying around, did you?
Oooh, I have a play! I’m glad my introduction of that strange ‘acceptance and welcoming’ ritual, involving a guac-covered rubber cock to suck, welcome and accept ‘others’ left a m̵a̵r̵k̵ bite.
(Or you might be referring to something else..? Oh, aHa! 😉)
So… many…. anime… icons.
Hey!
A pattern recognized on Social media is that awful people tend to have Anime Avatars.
There are non-awful people with Anime Avatars, and awful people without, but the correlation is strong.
Don’t you go implying that I’m not awful, UnCiv. I’ll have to raise my standards.
Truly awful people have niche anime adjacent video game icons.
I read somewhere the worst ones use characters from their own books.
Some of us bad people just steal other peoples IP.
“except you can’t steal what I judge has already ruled is public domain”
That’s the kind of response a guy with Truck kun as his avatar would make!
I know the video game where ES’s avatar comes from. I wouldn’t call it anime-adjacent.
Mine is
@Jar – I thought you were just the Cheshire cat.
The Cheshire cat from American McGee’s Alice
We’re just talking anime, right? Surely not cartoons in general.
We don’t discriminate, Slumbrew – all sources make you awful.
Seriously? I’m impressed, that’s a fairly obscure game.
I would argue that the art style has some anime influences. Not very hard though, I picked the avatar because it looks a bit like (younger) me.
Unepic, right? I dig it.
Most of the games I play are pretty obscure, on PC at least.
What’s the game?
It’s called UnEpic. Sort of a Metrovania-Isekai spoof of fantasy game tropes. Not groundbreaking, but it was fun.
There you are!
https://static0.gamerantimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/mixcollage-31-dec-2024-09-05-am-5537.jpg
He is the game’s protagonist and a bit of a snot but endearingly so.
Added to Steam wishlist.
I hope you have either a big screen or a magnifying glass cuz you’ll need it.
I can plug my Steam Deck into my tv.
I don’t use an avatar. Does that make me good?
Anything that looked like young me, and you would think Zuckerborg entered the chat.
You talking to me?
YAY, MLW is back…
*reads post*
JHTFC. These posters make me hate books. I want to go on their forums and post under the name Ray Pitler.
Ray Pitler, the Analrapist.
Uri Tahdid
Phyllis Steen
Cody Pendent
It would appear folks are not happy at the USS Abraham Lincoln. CNN is reporting a sailor “went overboard” which I assume means jumped off the boat.
-The U.S. is preparing to send the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln.
– he USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed for over 250 days and has set a record by not making a port call in 200 days.
– Lawmakers raised concerns about living conditions and deteriorating mental health aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during its extended deployment.
U.S. Sending Fresh Aircraft Carrier to Middle East Amid Iran War Strain
USS George Washington is set to replace USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed for more than 250 days
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/u-s-sending-fresh-aircraft-carrier-to-middle-east-amid-iran-war-strain-d0d6e98d?st=SnSdNy&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
What is the rate of navy people going overboard per person hour at sea? How does this compare to the rate this carrier specifically has demonstrated?
Accidents happen, and I need more than “Someone went over” to say “there’s a serious problem.”
Admittedly, 200 days without port I can imaging them more than a little stir crazy and sick of their coworkers.
did the person choose to jump or was there encouragement from fellow sailors?
From memory it’s not that uncommon an occurrence. Both while working and as suicides unfortunately.
Lots of questions but the next 1000 articles will be ‘suck it up pussy, you’re in the military’ and ‘Even soldiers, sailors and airmen are abandoning Trump!’
I’ve heard the inside stories from a certain other ship of that class, and none of this surprises me. Those ships are old and constantly have problems. Sometimes the power goes out, sometimes there is no hot water, sometimes there are fires.
The Lincoln has completed all regular maintenance and overhauls and still has years of service remaining. As a Navy vet, I feel for sailors on long deployments (particularly with no shore leave), but the incessant whining of spouses to outside media/legislators is disturbing and inconsistent with military readiness.
That said – if individuals expressed suicidal thoughts which weren’t addressed there may be a leadership issue onboard. I’ve seen many cases of “I want to hurt myself” as a means to get home or get out of service so sometimes easy to ignore.
My grandfather spent days in the wild on Okinawa, eating freshly-killed raw chicken because to dare cook it over a fire would give away position.
Kindly fuck these pussy sailors.
War is hell as the astute Ohioan once sort-of said.
The USS Lincoln has been getting a lot of headlines. Don’t know if it was discussed here or not, but it definitely does a lot to contribute to my own suspicion that we are not at all equipped as a country in any way to fight a protracted existential type conflict with anyone.
Doesn’t matter whether you support a war or not. This is an aspect of warfare and especially if you are part of the Navy. And I don’t want to hear spouses back home piping in at all but I’m an asshole in that regard.
I’m not saying it’s happy fun times aboard that ship or that I think this is a good reason to endure hardship. But I have no reason to believe that if the cause was greater that we’d have any more stomach for it.
When you factor in the divided political bullshit that dictates so much of how a war gets covered and who supports it with the high tech and ridiculously complicated systems we rely on that are completely going to fail in short order if its anything but short and sweet on top of being easy to overwhelm through much cheaper options like drones and cruise missiles and we’re kind of a giant paper tiger in many ways. And can’t forget to mention our hollowed out manufacturing capabilities.
I don’t think there’s any military of comparable size that is better trained or equipped, but that’s not going to tell the whole story. The political will and common sense are going to win out.
And I don’t want to hear spouses back home piping in at all but I’m an asshole in that regard.
Oh, you’re an asshole in a lot of regards. 😛
From the def thred:
I own a cassette player from the 70s. It’s been rebuilt, but it’s awesome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakamichi_Dragon
I need one of these. I only have about a dozen cassettes left and nothing to play them on however.
I could also probably live with this.
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/nakamichi/bx-300.shtml
It physically pushed the tape out and flipped it over rather than running in the opposite direction. That way it only had to have perfect alignment in one direction.
Sorry the 300 was the single direction model. I’ll have to try to remember the model with the funky reverse.
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/nakamichi/rx-505.shtml
This is the one with the funky flip.
Accidents happen, and I need more than “Someone went over” to say “there’s a serious problem.”
There has been whining on the part of sailors and their families, gleefully amplifies by the “everything Trump does is wrong” media.
Soldiers, complaining?
Unprecedented!
200 days at sea does sound like too much, though.
Imagine a war taking place where American personnel are surrounded and cut off from all supplies in a town or city for months.
Do Americans have the will to watch them (because it’d probably include men and women now) starve slowly?
They may be skipping a meal out there at sea. This may be a record for modern times. But they’re living in relative luxury compared to what sailors of the past have had to endure.
Maggot infested hardtack fueled the Civil War.
Maggots never infested the hard tack. The whole point of hard tack was that nothing could eat it. The problem with hard tack was that nothing could eat it – including the humans.
“In 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant declared in an advisory to the federal government, “I will not move my army without onions!” “
Grant believed that onions would save his army from being ravaged by disease. Right or wrong, he actually had strategic reasons for his demand beyond it just being a comfort.
There’s and a time place in war for morale boosting and rewarding the people fighting it. In the olden days of history they would just let their men off the leash to rape and pillage and generally maraud. We don’t allow that sort of thing anymore because we like to pretend that young men going off to fight wars are doing it as a “calling” and out of a sense of service rather than anything else.
But like missing your ordinary scheduled lunch during a war because the supplies aren’t there is part of war. Not saying that’s all these guys were putting up with in a confined space like that.
Grant was probably concerned about his soldiers coming down with scurvy.
See my comment above. Those ships are falling apart and are constantly having issues. HOWEVER… they are able to launch planes and sail and that’s what matters. I think it’s just always sucked to be on a ship at sea, the only difference is to what degree. This is not a Glibs Cruise.
Yes, the Glibs cruises have far more of the rum, sodomy, and the lash.
(I’m just killing my chances of finding a roomie for the 2027 Glibscruise, aren’t I?)
https://x.com/WarPath2pt0/status/2087933848042553367?s=20/
My schadenboner may never have been harder.
That takes brains!
Playing off the avatar discussion upthread I think itis time to post a thought I have had that I think will piss people off.
Both Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz, are Isekai with Loli protagonists.
Meh.
Why? It’s accurate. The new trend in anime is to have female protagonists transported to otome game worlds.
It cracks me up because they usually have multiple male suitors and the antagonists are generally other women.
*bangs side of internetese to English translator*
These older works of literature fit a genre conventions of something formalized more recently, and have protagonists who are young girls.
Isekai yes. Loli no because they’re specifically written for an audience of kids aged 6-10. Even if modern adults are doing Bad Things with the IPs, that doesn’t change the target audience of the original.
I regret to have to state that both series are popular for romantasy retellings.
The Wizard of Oz, sure. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ehhh, maybe not? Maybe the Disney movie version, but the original Lewis Carroll? Certainly not as much, I would argue.
But loli is a trope that goes considerably far beyond merely having a young girl as a protagonist, so I guess you’re right anyhow.
I am reminded of an old Donald Westlake crime novel (Why Me, maybe?) where a character referenced, “…the fag community, which thinks Alice in Wonderland is a documentary.” We lost a lot when Donald Westlake passed away…
Isekai sounds like “The Dragon Lives Again,” where a fake Bruce Lee is sent to Hell where he enlists Popeye the Sailor Man to battle James Bond, the Man With No Name, Emmanuelle, and Dracula.
Yes.
200 days at sea does sound like too much, though.
It’s not like they’re stuck on the USS Constitution.
To be honest, I suspect boredom is their biggest complaint. They’re not out there playing tag with a sub fleet.
That is true. Most of the crew isn’t on the flight deck. They’re below doing a normal job like cooking, washing dishes, repairing aircraft, unclogging toilets, day after day.
I occasionally get 403 errors and then have to log in where I get the bot check. FYI.
If you’re using Monocle, the newest version (v4.16.4) with the ‘low impact’ refresh comment count selected seems to help, but doesn’t totally eliminate getting marked as a bot.
Using a VPN will greatly increase your chances of being marked as a bot.
It has definitely calmed down.
I just switched to a mesh network from a single router, and I think that slightly bumpy transition was causing me problems. I am still getting them occasionally, on IOS running Firefox with no add ons and with Windows/Firefox with many add ons.
I get the bot precisely once a day first thing in the morning on each machine. It doesn’t seem to matter what I choose for the polling.
I updated to the latest Monocle release posted last night or the other night whenever it was.
Like Rhy I get the bot check like once a day and no other issues (even prior to the Monocle update). I’m on Firefox as well if that’s factoring into anything.
Romantasy Island would be a great show. Especially if you start with a guy dressed in white and a midget ringing a bell.
*raises hand* Hey, hey! I can play both of those parts!
I ring my bell! *gush*
“Here comes dee plane, boss!”
The dude is a master troller.
Kennedy Center board OKs new way of adding Trump’s name to building
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6028439-kennedy-center-approves-added-trump-name/
Well folks, it’s time. In about 4 hours, the GlibFlick 5th Anniversary show will drop.
You know what do to, gird your own loins* and prepare to party with The Ramones in “Rock ‘N’ Roll High School!”
*Girding someone else’s loins without permission has been proven to be a moral hazard.
I want to be Firsted so hard that my great-great-great-great-great First children will feel it.
It may be the master of all Firsts. Because we have no idea when it will actually post.
I’ll be there. And First. Together we will make sweet, sweet, Firsts together RJ.
I will grid my lions.
I don’t think this made a week.
https://nypost.com/2026/08/13/us-news/mamdanis-pied-a-terre-tax-unpaused-but-legal-showdown-not-over/
No surprise he found a sympathetic judge.
*maniacal smile, hands frothing against each other, but more handsy than the Jew thing, just rubbing revenge*
All of it needs to be delayed and delayed. It really is nice for The People (of NYC) to see just how eager and willing Mumdaddy is to put out his list, many of whom those who voted for him, and to openly work to wrench all the money from ’em he promised he would…
Just a fun, slow-motion, but visual and painful way for them to get what they voted for.
Anticipation: No lessons will be learned, shit flung at Trump.
His name is pronounced “Mommydummy.” Get it right!
The tax was approved by Gov. Kathy. The opponents can bless their hearts but there is not going to be any overturning it.
Exactly.
Of course. And the exodus will go into warp drive. The asshole published names and locations of people who will owe more taxes!!! WTF?
So, surprisingly, the NY Courts are being the ‘sensible’ ones in this bullshit?
It’s kinda surprising to see the entitled eagerly vote in the Commies openly coming for them. Not like it wasn’t predictable, but in Internet 2.0 speeds on the sidelines? Damn.
‘It wasn’t supposed to happen to me!!’ And other Left voting blocs. I’m glad I don’t live there and I’m sorry for the unwilling, esp those present.
This popped up in that article and is of similar nature. Dems are taking aim to tax Taylor Swift in Rhode Island. She apparently built a vacation home there and they used her as the poster girl for a new tax. They’re going to charge an annual levy for vacation homes over $3 mil.
See every income tax ever put in place. Or any tax. They almost always start with the rich if they are sold as revenue generation schemes at all and then expand outward. But they don’t teach much of anything about the history of taxation in our public schools of course. Most people don’t know when or where the income tax started and just assume it was always so.
Article also mentions Cali’s planned wealth tax which…let’s be real, that thing is passing. Cali voters are going to rubber stamp the shit out of it and even if they didn’t they’d find another way to ram it through.
Curious to see if celebrities like Taylor Swift keep towing the party line for the Dems when they are being subjected to these ridiculous taxes.
Meanwhile, ask the average person on what basis the government has the right to tax money that has already been taxed let alone unrealized gains that only exist on paper (because Cali’s is based on total net worth). Look into the abyss behind the blank stare they’ll give in return.
Who are we to stop California from destroying its economy? At least they’ll have utopia when all is said and done.
It starts in Cali, but they are already pushing for a national wealth tax so that then the wealthy can’t just jump to another state.
I would rather read some wholesome SugarFree than this please.
WOW, I watched the video from the article.
It is so much worse than I could have imagined.
And just like that…the USS Lincoln has been relieved and will be headed home.
Great precedent to set. You end the negative headlines, but at what cost exactly?
Well you do need HVAC and refrigeration and the electricity for them in a supermarket.
A Wisconsin city spent millions on a grocery store. It didn’t go well.
https://archive.fo/TTfmQ
And this totally wasn’t a sweetheart deal for some politically connected real estate developer…
Wow, when you’ve lost WaPo.
Daughter who drunkenly mowed people down on their wedding day asks her father why this had to happen to her. He says because good things happen to bad people honey.
Let me give you the real answer. It’s because your father raised an entitled, retarded little shit with no accountability.
Saw that and thought the same.
Could you please link to where you saw it?
https://nypost.com/2026/08/13/us-news/jamie-komoroskis-dads-astonishing-words-of-sympathy-in-jailhouse-call/
https://www.glibertarians.com/2026/08/the-absolute-state-of-romantasy/#comment-3199653
I Gilmore’d the link. That’s the right reference, right?
Also, saw another Post headline where some actor wished Perez Hilton well after his suicide attempt and dared to show empathy. The batshit woke types went all in on him because he made their celebrity besties feel bad at times.
Not saying Perez is a great guy, but maybe we can not attack someone who just hopes he doesn’t off himself and survives whatever he’s going through. Crazy thought.
Thanks! 🙂
I had a few of those phone calls when my kids were growing up/learning to drive.
“Dad, there’s a problem. Can you come down to ___ and get me?”
“What’s the problem?”
“There was this accident”
“Anyone hurt?” Fortunately there never was any injuries.
Probably 4-5 times. Of course, it was always the other drivers’ fault, even if my car had front end damage.
OTOH they’ve been pretty much accident free the last 30-40 years.
The article talks about her behavior while still drunk at the scene. I can wrap my head around that for obvious reasons. You are incredibly drunk and barely comprehend what’s going on or what happened. Doesn’t excuse the event itself or remove culpability, but you can understand why someone may act like an asshole there.
She is sober and has had time to reflect on what it is she’s accused of in that video. And the father knows the details. She couldn’t give two flying fucks about the lives she’s ruined/ended. I couldn’t imagine being that big of a piece of shit.
When I was having issues I caused a car accident. No one died thankfully. I was out of mind at the time, barely could comprehend what it meant to be First even. Regardless, even in that state I knew that if I had hurt someone that I’d never actually be able to forgive myself.
Glad to see she won’t have that particular problem over the next 25 years or her life.
Testing my view on the death penalty…
https://www.whio.com/news/local/3-arrested-charged-connection-with-death-7-year-old-ohio-boy/55UPYJQTD5DTXIGEZOHPCOUJDA/
Been following this since it broke. Absolutely horrendous
Not really relevant, but for anyone who wants to read up on some real horrid shit you can look up the “The Fifth Nail.” I’m not squeamish by any means let alone easily creeped out. that one really did it.
Hurting children is the first item on my list of death penalties. Justice needs to be swift, no appeals.
There are irredeemable people in the world, fortunately not many. We don’t need any.
We saw this one yesterday.
“Three women”
No mention that two of them were actually men, the poor kid’s father is also “trans”, and all of them were in some twisted “poly” relationship and grooming the kid.
Top notch journalisming there.
I read that article and thought it was just the usual child abuse thing. Was wondering why three women were involved like that and what was going on, but there was no there there to explain it in the article.
The propaganda has gone from spinning the truth to just omitting it. It’s like the story last week of the black dude who was running around punching white women in North Carolina/Charlotte. The local news media painted it as just a random act of violence when it was clear something more was going on there from his ranting on video (which was not provided in the article, funny enough).
This morning one of you gave me the sage advice to take care of myself, because while I’m not directly affected by a disaster it can still be stressful. And so here we are. About 6 people have pissed me off to no end today. I’m wishing I had one of my buddy’s homemade edibles for tonight.
Curious to see if celebrities like Taylor Swift keep towing the party line for the Dems when they are being subjected to these ridiculous taxes.
I thought Swifty Primus had been outed as a crypto-fascist John Bircher.
Obvious crypto-fascist.
But nah, she came out against Trump years ago after staying quiet about politics for a while. The whispers were getting too loud for her to continue to fence sit.
I know some portion of you whine everytime a video gets posted. I just ran into this guy’s content. No idea if it’s all good, but he looks at Enshification. And rather than just blame capitalist greed he actually traces the origins of the growth mindset fueling so much corner cutting and subscription toasters/everything. He looks at government incentives and policies rather than just blame greedy capitalist pigs.
Cory Doctorow is a Canadian lefty, but his book does a pretty good job of encapsulating a lot of what’s been happening in tech. The book is even called enshitification (He coined the term) I’m listening to the audiobook and his voice sounds exactly like you would think it does. He obligatorily hates Elon and Reagan and Trump, but that does not disqualify the arguments he makes about these problems.
We may have finally achieved full post-irony.
I went to Smith’s (owned by Kroger) a while ago, because it’s close-ish. The deli had cold thick sliced pork loin, which I do not remember seeing before. Quite tasty right out of the box, a nice afternoon lean protein snack. I might fry some up with eggs tomorrow for breakfast.
Truth to power, comrades
The Public Employment Relations Board notified the California Gig Workers Union last week that it had signed up at least 30% of active drivers, a threshold allowing it to represent ride-hailing drivers statewide.
Drivers and Service Employees International Union leaders spoke at a press conference in Los Angeles, saying they expect to bargain over issues such as drivers getting kicked off the apps, low pay and the effects of the companies’ algorithms on drivers’ work.
Thirty per cent?
When it’s three wolves and seven sheep the math makes sense.
I will say the algorithm pay trickery is pretty shitty.
And just like that half of them can’t get work because the prices they have to charge just doubled.
You go 1099 to get away from unions.
What fools.
I’m not seeing the movie post.
I think wurdpres has decided that RJ is an alien robot sex maniac. It’s probably all the talk about loins.
What’s wrong with being an alien robot sex maniac?
Darn. And I did a new portrait for the 5th anniversary show too.
I think it’s this
https://tubitv.com/movies/456065/rock-n-roll-high-school
It is.
No afternoon links post either , this is apparently the end. I know we’re not going back to Reason, so if any of you know of another republican talkin point site posing as libertarianish where glibs can hang out let me know.
[ gives hyperbole URL where nobody hangs out, while all of us cool people go to the popular site ]
“Cool People” now that is funny Ted’s
Don’t make me cry.
Everything is broken and we’ve surrendered. Like the French.
I tried to email Neph. If he is home he could help.
🥖🇫🇷🍷
I’ve got to be up early tomorrow so I’m going to join the surrendering.
I have the movie queued for later viewing.
Sorry RJ that the post isn’t up. Five years is still a good run. Thanks for putting those movie posts together.
Saw a Triggernometry clip with Peter Hitchens talking about WWI and how stupid it was for the Brits to get involved in what was essentially a Russo-German war. France of course was hot to fight Germany so she could get Alsace back.
Stand by! Help is on the way!!!
Mon Dieu!
So none of the people who could fix it have been here since noon.
We can’t all be perfect and sinless like you. :-p
We should demand our money back.
I just remembered SP gave me some rights, such as writing articles.
Went in… I can see what’s coming but I don’t seem to have any ability to read or publish them. 🙁
Rhy – that would be “Contributer” level – same as I have.
The squirrels have finally rebelled.
Hoping R.J.’s anniversary drops soon.
South Korean news: Incheon International Airport is now the world’s busiest international passenger hub, overtaking London Heathrow and Singapore Changi in the first half of 2026. Huh! Changi Airport remains the best in the world, unless things have drastically changed.
Odd, ‘elderly’ thought yesterday from this young man: I lived in SG from Sept 2014 – Sept 2016. DAMN. It is bogglin’ my brain to think I left there fucking ten years ago. Speaking of Sept., The Incident’s *seventh* anniversary is in five weeks. DAMN DAMN.
Must be nuts to witness time’s hustle through your own spawn. Especially with my youngest nephew, the temptation to freeze them between ~5-6yo is remarkably powerful. Were I God Emperor, I’d have a few preserved for this, and they’d be given a startling amount of power against my enemies.
The post is up!
Three cheers for Mojeaux!!! 🥳🥳🥳
It’s up!