About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

Wife of sloopy, mother to three bright, curious, and highly active young girls. Perpetually exhausted.

409 Comments

  1. slumbrew

    The front page image looks Lovecraftian, the way it’s cropped.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s an armadillo gunslinger.

      • slumbrew

        Yup, but took me a bit.

      • Cowboy

        Yeehaw

      • db

        Armadillos really ought to consider abdominal carry

    • slumbrew

      Thanks for the links, tho!

      Some good news in there, for a change. Hopefully Ozy is getting some kudos.

    • Tonio

      You tell them, and tell them…

    • Brawndo

      The right to keep and bear armadillos shall not be infringed.

    • Lackadaisical

      Armedadillo

  2. Scruffy Nerfherder

    OBE better step it up and fix that shit.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      Pretty sure it’s his fault to begin with

  3. Scruffy Nerfherder

    So the question is whether the pullback of the vaccine mandate is an attempt to remove standing from all the lawsuits.

    • Brochettaward

      The damage is already done.

    • Rat on a train

      Didn’t the NDAA require rescinding the mandate which the DOD reluctantly complied?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yes, and I recall Ozy said it didn’t fix all of the issues and the lawsuits were still going forward. The implementing memo seems to address discipline but there’s enough qualifiers on it that I’m not sure something isn’t getting left out.

  4. Count Potato

    Is there anyone in Congress who should be on an intelligence committee?

    • Rat on a train

      We can rule out the low hanging fruit like people sleeping with spies.

      • mock-star

        …..and threatening to use nuclear weaponry on their constituents.

      • Brawndo

        No he threatened other congressmens constituents

  5. Brochettaward

    Guess whether I have pants on and what kind of day it is.

    • slumbrew

      ‘No’ and ‘baitin day?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Good luck with your fishing? Whatcha using? Minnows, shiners, leeches, worms?

    • SDF-7

      You’re not my supervisor!

    • Ted S.

      For you, it’s Last Day.

  6. WTF

    Pro-life pregnancy center hires private investigators to look into attack, blasts FBI: ‘Where’s the manhunt?’

    No need for a manhunt when they probably already know the perpetrators.

  7. Nephilium

    At least Ohio has declared natural gas as green energy. So we aren’t using fossil fuels to power our stoves, furnace, and hot water heaters, but clean green energy.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Yeah, but childhood asthma!

  8. juris imprudent

    Meh, would’ve rather seen Massie than Jordan in charge.

    • Penguin

      Agreed, but it’s still a massive upgrade.

  9. Not Adahn

    AIEEEE!

    SidebarsidebarSIDEBAR!

    • SDF-7

      Slimming!

    • R C Dean

      Meh, use a phone, run out of screen space. What did you expect?

  10. juris imprudent

    City Hall has refused to say how much it pays to rent out the Row or any of the scores of other hotels being used to house migrants.

    But Rodriguez said he’s “heard from management it’s between $400 and $500 a night, per room, depending on how big the room is.”

    Well no wonder NYC is complaining about the impact of being a sanctuary city. Only the luckiest of immigrants should be enjoying that!

    • rhywun

      Why not $800 or $900. It’s not like anyone’s keeping track.

    • SDF-7

      They should get tickets to Broadway shows while they’re at it… I hear Broadway is hurting, might as well have the rest of the state / country subsidize them while they’re at it. (Hell, that’s probably somewhere in the screw-you-omnibus already…)

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        Now I am picturing a bunch of Guatemalans’ who came up here to work, being told “you job is to sit here and watch a revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. AND LIKE IT!”

    • Tonio

      Hopefully someone will file a FOIA request to get that info. Then we can enjoy the FYTW comedy of “it will take us years to compile that data and we’ll charge you $100 per page.”

  11. SDF-7

    ‘Orning ‘ordles — decent for me, low bar for the rest of you snazzy wordsmiths to clear.

    Daily Duotrigordle #315
    Guesses: 37/37
    Time: 06:40.22
    https://duotrigordle.com/

    Daily Quordle 352
    5️⃣7️⃣
    3️⃣6️⃣
    quordle.com

    • Sean

      Daily Quordle 352
      6️⃣3️⃣
      7️⃣4️⃣
      quordle.com

    • Cowboy

      Daily Quordle 352
      3️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣5️⃣
      quordle.com

      Almost.

    • Penguin

      Daily Quordle 352
      7️⃣3️⃣
      6️⃣8️⃣
      quordle.com
      Huzzah.

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 352
      3️⃣4️⃣
      8️⃣7️⃣

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 352
      5️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣6️⃣

      Line.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    For years, every time I went into a Bed Bath and Beyond, I’d ask myself, “How are these people still in business?” Kohl’s is another one.

    Cheap money, I guess.

    I wonder how many stores like this are going to dry up and blow away.

    • Sean

      Fuck Kohl’s.

      I stopped going there when they were selling BLM stuff.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Got the cutest ever sofa blanket there; the pattern is dogs in Halloween costumes. Don’t go often enough to have noticed BLM merch.

      • Sean

        I don’t know if they quietly stopped or what. I just know I stopped giving them money.

    • Cowboy

      I think BB&B lives almost entirely off of shower registries: wedding showers, engagement parties, baby showers etc. That, and I guess rich older people that dont know how to use the internet to get the same thing for half the price.

    • rhywun

      Heh. Used to love that place before I figured out Amazon.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Kohls is a convenient spot for Amazon returns though.

      • db

        Our local Kohls is no longer listed as an Amazon return location.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Sad!

      • Nephilium

        That’s about the only reason I’ve gone into one in the past several years.

      • rhywun

        I meant BB&B. Never been to a Kohl’s. I guess there is one a long drive away but the UPS store is like a ten-minute walk so I will do that for returns (I have a couple right now as a matter of fact).

    • CPRM

      There are a lot of stores where I marvel at the fact there is an entire building filled with things I have no interest in buying. To each their own. I can’t believe Kohl’s is still alive while Shopko is a corpse.

      • R.J.

        There are stores that sell nothing but bobbleheads. How can they afford rent and employees?

  13. Rebel Scum

    The FAA on Wednesday morning delays the departure of all domestic flights until 9 a.m. as a result of a system failure.

    The computer problem was first reported at about 6 a.m. ET.

    Is this one of those cyber-hacks that Dr. Evil Klaus Schwab was talking about?

      • Nephilium

        Well, he never did catch Spider-Man, and he eventually went rogue and became a villain. And it wasn’t CBS, it was JJJ.

      • The Last American Hero

        It’s what old people watch after they come home from shopping at Kohl’s and Bed Bath and Beyond.

    • juris imprudent

      Funny, I would’ve thought the White House would want to blame evil white redneck cyber terrorists. Because the alternative is, this is just our standard govt screw-up.

      • Nephilium

        I would be willing to wager that it’s a self-inflicted outage. But that would require them to own up to that.

    • Chafed

      I’m Buttigug will get right on it.

  14. Rebel Scum

    A major cyclone is set to hit the US state of California with up to seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said, after tens of thousands of people were placed under evacuation orders due to a barrage of storms that killed at least 17 people.

    It’s going to rain. Significant rain. Atmospheric river. Bomb cyclone.

    • Rat on a train

      Surfs up on the LA River.

      • Rat on a train

        The Los Angeles basin is a flood plain. Before channelization the rivers would overflow their banks flooding wide areas.

      • CPRM

        I was expecting Snake.

    • juris imprudent

      They had bomb cyclone jealousy? [Since that’s what the local weatherfolk call a winter Nor’easter]

    • PieInTheSky

      A major cyclone is set to hit the US state of California with up to seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain on Wednesday,

      Two things: one, no one needs 7 inches, 5 is plenty. Two, I find the centimeters strange, here rain is given in millimeters not centimeters.

      • Michael Malaise

        Probably because 7 inches of rain is a massive amount, so they switched over the CM. Millimeters would probably suffice in most normal rainfall totals.

      • Fourscore

        I knew that was coming

  15. Rat on a train

    Biological males blocked from competing in women’s school sports in West Virginia: federal court
    Either ban trannies from women’s sports or ban women’s sports.

    • Michael Malaise

      I favor completely open competitions.

      • Lackadaisical

        Same, we’re all equal, right?

        Let’s play that out to the 9’s.

      • Lackadaisical

        Dana White had nothing to apologize for, that was just self defense.

  16. Rebel Scum

    A federal judge in West Virginia has upheld a state law preventing male athletes who identify as female from participating in female school sports.

    JuDiCiAl AcTiViSm! – the left

    • Tonio

      I suspect that the woke 4th Circuit will overturn that.

  17. Certified Public Asshat

    “The fact is, however, that a transgender girl is biologically male and, barring medical intervention, would undergo male puberty like other biological males. And biological males generally outperform females athletically. The state is permitted to legislate sports rules on this basis because sex, and the physical characteristics that flow from it, are substantially related to athletic performance and fairness in sports,” Goodwin ruled.

    You mean, the reason we have sex segregated sports in the first place is the reason why we should keep sports segregated based on sex.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Or, you know, just hear me out here…

      IT’S NOT THE FED’S BUSINESS

    • Rat on a train

      Next up, declare your weight class.

      • Shirley Knott

        FAT-PHOBIC!

      • Nephilium

        HeaLTHy aT aNy SiZe!

      • Shirley Knott

        Rolling for Prizes. It’s no longer necessary to imagine a spherical contestant.

  18. Rebel Scum

    House Creates Church-Style Panel on ‘Weaponization of the Federal Government’

    Republicans are always threatening the selfless civil servants in the government.

    • juris imprudent

      Pray we don’t alter it further.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Helping

    Ukrainian troops are set to begin training on the Patriot missile system in the United States as soon as next week, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday.

    The training program will take place at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where the US conducts its own training on operating and maintaining the advanced air defense system. Fort Sill is one of the Army’s four basic training locations and home to the service’s field artillery school, which has been training service members for more than a century.

    ——-

    During the war the US has trained Ukrainian troops in Europe, but the decision to conduct patriot training on American soil could increase tensions with Moscow further as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has constantly warned western nations against further involvement in the war.

    The training process and eventual deployment of the defensive weapons system, which had long been requested by Kyiv, will take months and won’t impact the course of the war in the short-term though once it’s completed it should provide better protection against Russian missile attacks that have devastated the country’s infrastructure.

    On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that 90 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers would be arriving in Oklahoma for the Patriot training as soon as next week. He was unable to give an exact time frame for how long the training would take – typically it takes up to a year for US soldiers to be trained on it – saying only that it would last “several months.”

    I guess we’ve settled in for the long haul.

    • juris imprudent

      How common is familiarity the english language in Ukraine? On the other hand, we don’t demand a high level of proficiency of our own soldiers.

      • juris imprudent

        s/b familiarity with

        Blog commenters not too proficient either.

      • Gustave Lytton

        *memories of a Puerto Rican sgt talking in heavily accented English about going through airborne school without understanding what was being said*

    • Timeloose

      How long before the Ukrainians are shooting down Russian planes in Russia with these missiles. Wasn’t the Patriot a anti Aircraft missile battery, but with enough range and accuracy to take down ballistic missiles like Skuds? These are long range missiles that were intended to shoot down high altitude fighters and bombers.

      It had a range of 70 km (43 mi), and a speed in excess of Mach 2

    • Brawndo

      Slightly related, but I seem to remember that in the wake of the Boston marathon bombing, it was revealed that Russian intelligence had warned US agencies about the Tsarnaev brothers because they were Chechen extremists. Obviously the feds did nothing about it, but that seems like a real bro thing to do. Meanwhile, America is still pretending we’re in the Cold War.

      • Brochettaward

        They helped with the terrorism bullshit a lot despite Iraq.

        I think it was a real bro thing to do to tell us not to go sticking our dick into Iraq. Or Libya. Or Syria, frankly.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Russia effectively torpedoed the US efforts in Syria for yet another “color revolution” or “Arab Spring” or whatever the CIA was calling them at that point.

        I think that was what tipped the scales in favor of helping/staging a coup in Ukraine. The neocons were pissed that the Russians had started cock-blocking them. The Russians appear to have adopted that stance after Clinton flat-out lied to Medvedev about our intentions for Libya. it was just going to be a no-fly zone, and then we basically blew up the country and threw it into years of civil war.

      • cyto

        Well, we are now….

    • Fourscore

      She must like dogs

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said in a statement Tuesday that the decision to train Ukrainian servicemen on the system in the US is a confirmation of Washington’s “de facto involvement in the Ukrainian conflict.”

    But we have a gentlemen’s agreement, right? Only the dogs in the pit are allowed to get hurt.

  21. Rebel Scum

    Bed Bath & Beyond lays off more employees as it struggles to survive

    Pretty soon they will have to close the beyond section.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      SNU SNU

      • db

        Just after the year 1000 AD, she gave birth to the first European baby in North America.

      • Brochettaward

        That would make her the first colonizer. Proof positive that women are to blame for the rape of the new world.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Hold on a minute Cochise!

      She’s been called “the greatest female explorer of all time,” and the “best-traveled woman of the Middle Ages.”

      Are we forgetting the real greatest female explorer? Especially galling considering that they are trying to dump her for a fucking colonizer!

      • Tres Cool

        Reminds me of an episode of Two and a Half Men, when Jake’s dad is reviewing a poor history test:

        “Sacajawea is NOT a “bag of Jawea””

    • juris imprudent

      So Gudrid is Norse for Mary Sue.

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        Mary Suedottir.

      • Lackadaisical

        A viking named Sue?

        Too bad Johnny cash isn’t with us anymore.

  22. Rebel Scum

    Massive Government Spending Will Exacerbate 2023 Economic Downturn

    Duh.

  23. Rebel Scum

    Biden admin moves to ban gas stoves in war against fossil fuels

    They want you destitute and starving.

    • juris imprudent

      Or, this is the distraction and they’re doing something they really don’t want us paying attention to.

      [I’d like to think that’s really just paranoid, but I’m not sure it is.]

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You’re not paranoid.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Why not both?

  24. Rebel Scum

    Pro-life pregnancy center hires private investigators to look into attack, blasts FBI: ‘Where’s the manhunt?’

    You have the “wrong” politics.

  25. Rebel Scum

    POCs can only learn from POCs.

    The Environment Agency — Britain’s version of the EPA — funded research that concluded that white, male narrators on nature programs could make minorities feel excluded.

    “The tendency for environmental documentaries to be voiced by white, male voices was given as an example of how the environment and the sector can feel inaccessible to people from ethnic minorities,” The Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) claimed in a Feb. 2022 study.

    The study focused on “ethnic minority environmental professionals” in a “challenging environment.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      For our next study, we will crawl even further up our own buttholes.

    • WTF

      So, if you are “excluded” by voices other than your own race and sex, then having POCs as “voices” excludes a far greater portion of the population. So logically shouldn’t we want to exclude as few people as possible, and emphasize white voices, to actually be inclusive?

      • Nephilium

        RACIST!

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      All of these narrators are off screen and speak in Received English. So, in other words, there is no way to tell what skin color they are.

      JHTFC

  26. PieInTheSky

    Andrew Tate to remain in Romanian jail after losing appeal – Based on the local press, I am not sure what the case is against him. All that was released was a few lines of alleged discussion between him and some chick. His lawyers say they did not receive full access to the prosecution evidence yet and that the accusers are already opt of the country. I tend to think that Tate definitely did something illegal – I mean he would not have been in Romania otherwise, but what and how bad and what evidence is a mystery.

  27. hayeksplosives

    Damn, Banjos. Great job on the links.

    But it makes it painfully clear that we’re living in clown world.

    Bloody Mary, anyone?!?

    • Shirley Knott

      Two. Keep ’em coming.

    • pistoffnick

      Bloody Mary, anyone?!?

      +1 Zing Zang

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      Bloody Mary Sue, it looks like.

  28. PieInTheSky

    France’s health system under pressure of increasing demands

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64216269

    After years of Covid, and with inflation biting, many say chronic staff shortages and increasing demands are making their work impossible and threatening the French health system.
    Some hospitals are reporting up to 90% of their staff on “sick leave protest” at the conditions.
    And France’s second-largest health union has called an “unlimited walkout” this week, following a fortnight of strikes by French GPs.

    The causes of France’s healthcare crisis are complex, but the long-term pressure of an aging population alongside a shortage of medical staff was brought starkly into focus by the Covid pandemic.

    Most people including in Romania do not realize how collapsed western Europe systems would be right now without the massive influx of eastern doctors and nurses who worked for less money and longer hours. They all say why isn’t the Romanian government making a good healthcare system like France. Although where the resources for that would come i don’t know. Off course the local system would be better without corruption, but that is like saying if disease did not exist.

    • PieInTheSky

      Julia Venturini, eight years into her medical degree, joined a rally of GPs in Paris last week. – seems long, here a medical degree is 6 years

      • Michael Malaise

        Maybe she’s a bad student?

    • juris imprudent

      A French labor protest? Unheard of!

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      The reasons for the “crisis” aren’t complex, in fact they are really simple; trying to more with less. There is a reason health care is so expensive in the US, even with all the gov’t BS. And when you start stripping away all the doctors in nurses from emerging nations, which is what most western nations due, it is still freakin’ pricy and you are fucking over the rest of the world.

  29. Rebel Scum

    She persists.

    Abrams, who lost the gubernatorial race to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp twice, said she was planning on launching another bid.

    “So what’s next, are you gonna run again?” Barrymore asked. “Are you going? Do we get to look forward to this and galvanize again?”

    “I will likely run again,” Abrams said.

    “Yes!” Barrymore gushed as the audience cheered.

    • juris imprudent

      Third time’s the charm, right?

    • WTF

      As long as the grift is still working, may as well keep it going.

    • Rat on a train

      Georgia doesn’t have term limits?

      • juris imprudent

        Harold Stassen and Pat Paulson hit hardest.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Another one

    Shortly after an article this week quoted a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission saying the agency was considering a ban on gas stoves, GOP lawmakers seized on the remarks by arguing President Joe Biden and government bureaucrats were reaching into America’s kitchens and trying to dictate meal prep.

    ——-

    But it turns out much of the rhetoric may have been overheated.

    Using our own words against us is not fair. We won’t be sending stormtroopers into your neighborhood to confiscate your stove. Not yet, anyway.

  31. Rebel Scum

    This story is radioactive.

    A major counter-terrorism investigation has been launched after several kilograms of uranium was seized at Heathrow airport.

    The deadly nuclear material – which could potentially be used in a ‘dirty bomb’ – arrived on a flight from Oman, in the Middle East, on December 29.

    The shipment was addressed to an Iranian-linked firm in the UK, it is understood.

    Sources said the uranium was ‘not weapons-grade’ – and so could not be used to manufacture a thermo-nuclear weapon.

    • juris imprudent

      So dangerous it wasn’t even shipped as a hazardous material?

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        Really, the Omani’s should have slapped an ORMD sticker on the side of the box. I mean, what were they thinking?

    • R C Dean

      Love the way they try to minimize a shipment of several kilos of uranium to England for what is very likely an Islamist terror attack. I posit that the term uranium refers to uranium refined to some level, and not uranium ore, which makes it quite suitable for a very large dirty bomb.

      • Brochettaward

        Islamic terrorism is out of fashion, even with the neocons, I guess. A dirty bomb was like the ultimate threat we were all warned about.

        Unless they try to tie it back to the Russians somehow. I mean, would you put that past our leadership?

      • Brochettaward

        And there was one, if not two terror attacks just recently. So, these chumps are starting up again.

        The Chicago cop who was attacked by an ax-wielding man – never saw a follow-up on that. But if the perp was named Muhammed, it wouldn’t really surprise me based on what we see of him in the video. The one in NYC.

  32. Pope Jimbo

    The rest of you posers better recognize! Minneapolis once again leads the way

    It’s not easy to be a first on the Minneapolis School Board. The board has had Black and Latino members for decades. It has had Asian, Muslim and LGBTQ members, and the country’s first elected Somali official. Its first Native American director, Peggy Flanagan, is now Minnesota’s lieutenant governor.

    All this diversity notwithstanding, Sonya Emerick is a first, elected as the board’s first autistic director in November. When Emerick, who is transgender, took the oath of office Jan. 3, they became, it’s believed, the second autistic school board member in the United States and one of four transgender people elected to a school board in 2022.

    That’s right Autistic AND Trans! What more could a voter ask for?

    • Pope Jimbo

      I think you will have to agree that the taxpayers are getting their money’s worth:

      Autistic people can do many things, but we can’t do many things. I can do 10 things, but only two of them today. The other eight I have to outsource, because I run out of processing power, because I get tired, because I need a lot of recovery. That’s hard to assess.

      • Penguin

        Pope J, you night like to check out this home page. Scroll down to the “viral” category. It might make your self-chosen job ‘easier

    • Brochettaward

      Not easy to be a First, you say…?

    • Count Potato

      “Its first Native American director, Peggy Flanagan, is now Minnesota’s lieutenant governor.”

      Irish are native to America?

      • UnCivilServant

        A lot of us are. I mean the famine was before the civil war.

      • Rat on a train

        + Irish Brigades

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      But when do we get our first Asian Pacific/Bulgarian mongoloid director?

      THIS IS AN OUTRAGE

    • Michael Malaise

      “Its first Native American director, Peggy Flanagan, is now Minnesota’s lieutenant governor.”

      We welcome Big Chief Paddy O’Furniture!

      • R C Dean

        She doesn’t look quite as lily white as Fauxcahontas, but you’d never look at her and even wonder if she had appreciable Native American ancestry. Unlike my CNO, who has Native American ancestry and absolutely looks the part.

        So, I have to wonder if she’s another scammer.

      • juris imprudent

        We had someone in our dog group out in San Diego who had no known NA ancestry, but she looked like she did. She moved to somewhere in New England, coincidentally near a tribal casino and everyone there asked her about the tribe. Even she admitted she looked like she belonged. Go figure.

      • R C Dean

        A guy I knew in Dallas adopted a couple of, I think, Laotian kids (it’s been awhile). To look at them, you’d think “pure-blood Apache, not a drop of anything else.” So it happens, but I’m still suspicious of anyone promoting their supposed NA ancestry who looks white as can be.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Nope. She’s legit Ojibwe. Member of White Earth tribe (where I grew up). Her father was Indian and he left her to be raised by her mother in a suburb (same suburb as Frankin and Friedman). So she never grew up on the res. She’s a classic person who has legit dna to claim she’s Indian, but no cultural claim. (Although, I’m sure she’d claim she’s as red as anyone).

        She’s always been a classic proggie and her ancestry has helped her climb the greasy pole of politics.

  33. Certified Public Asshat

    Neil DeGrasse Tyson is claiming that the Covid-19 vaccine stops the transmission of Covid. pic.twitter.com/iQ14zhEw7B— Cernovich (@Cernovich) January 11, 2023

    It’s 2023 Neil. Even Fauci doesn’t argue this anymore.

    • UnCivilServant

      I suppose by killing the recipient, you prevent future transmission by that person.

      • R C Dean

        Well, we took cues from the ChiComs early on, why not from the Norks now?

    • WTF

      I feel excluded from anything he has to say, because he is a different race than me.

    • Brochettaward

      To be fair, I don’t think anyone can actually articulate what the vaccine is supposedly supposed to do at this stage. I don’t know what the current talking point is besides that you should take it.

      • Nephilium

        It’s supposed to be a sacrament to the faithful, and provide a steady flow of money to the pharmaceutical companies from the federal government.

      • The Other Kevin

        I know this is anecdotal, but I know plenty of people who are done with the vax because it didn’t prevent them from getting sick, and it didn’t prevent them from getting really sick. One of my friends is all boosted, but has had COVID three times and all three times it was terrible. He’s done with the vax. At this point, they can’t keep up with the variants. I can’t think of a good argument for it either.

      • juris imprudent

        PROFIT damn you, PROFIT!

      • Raven Nation

        This is incorrect. Please repeat after me: “I have tested positive for covid-19. I am grateful that I have been vaccinated and double-boosted as I know that otherwise I would have been much sicker.”

        Alternative take: at some point, the uniparty is going to shift, and publicly announce that “Trump’s vaccine is worthless and yet another fraud perpetrated by the ex-president. We are currently considering indicting him for fraud and manslaughter.”

      • juris imprudent

        Alternative take requires too many of them to admit they were wrong, and a party to it all. Alternate timeline, maybe.

      • DEG

        I remember when the usual suspects wouldn’t take the vaccine because it was Trump’s poison.

        I remember when those usual suspects then switched on a dime to “vax up bigots or else!”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Shorter Neil: TRUST THE SYSTEM

      Why wouldn’t he say that? The system made him, a blithering idiot, into a famous man.

  34. Not Adahn

    Apparently Apple+ is making a play for The Expanse. I guess I need to get the series on physical media.

    • Penguin

      I guess I need to get the series on physical media.

      Oh good, before you wrote that, I was wondering how they were going to convert that for the stage.

      • Not Adahn

        Well, they used roller skates to simulate trains, so maybe trampolines for the zero-acceleration scenes?

    • cyto

      Uh.

      I think that society requires that I not notice that this is a severely mentally ill person. Skip the whole trans thing entirely. Just… wow.

      Are we really doing a professional job in the mental health industry if this is where life altering surgery lands? Because I would think there might be a few indications that something more is going on here.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Autistic people can do many things, but we can’t do many things. I can do 10 things, but only two of them today. The other eight I have to outsource, because I run out of processing power, because I get tired, because I need a lot of recovery. That’s hard to assess.

    I am not qualified for this job, nor can I perform the duties required. I hereby submit my resignation</strike Thanks, suckers!

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Pretend I closed that strike tag.

    • PieInTheSky

      Are you telling UCS what to do?

    • UnCivilServant

      Albania wasn’t all that independant prior to the 20th century, and isn’t that big. Plus 20th century academia is cancerous.

    • Not Adahn

      I hear the University of Tijuana has excellent schools of dance and animal husbandry.

      • UnCivilServant

        Don’t forget their Alternative Theology programs.

      • cyto

        An array is a matrix?

        Someone smarter than me care to explain where she is going with that?

      • juris imprudent

        Well, if it isn’t fake, the complaining woman sounds incredibly like she stepped right out of a Monty Python sketch.

      • Raven Nation

        Hah! I was about to post the same comment.

      • cyto

        There definitely was something with a “there’s a penguin on the telly” vibe to it going on there.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Burma!

      • Rebel Scum

        Don’t tell her that fish eat other fish.

      • Tundra

        People need to be punched in the face more often.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Mike Tyson agrees

      • Shirley Knott

        He’s going for ears now. You probably didn’t hear.

      • ruodberht

        Is that a pepperpot from Monty Python?!

        ah dammit you guys already said that

    • cyto

      That is stunning.

      I didn’t know that was an option.

      We didn’t buy a beautiful house on a golf fairway precisely because of all the people in your back yard. It was just lovely, but when you were swimming there would be a parade of drunk sales executives who were former athletes walking by, perhaps coming into the yard looking for balls… blech

      So we didn’t buy it.

      How was I to know I could have bought it and had them bam golf?

    • Pope Jimbo

      Here it is the locals who bought a house next to the airport demanding more money to add noise proofing to their house. Every 10 years or so, they go back and demand more.

      • juris imprudent

        If I were on the board that had to respond to them, I’d hand them a cheap pair of earplugs. We’re done here.

      • Nephilium

        /waits for the 3M level lawsuit

      • juris imprudent

        /plants suitcase bomb under plaintiffs bench

    • juris imprudent

      I believe there are two different rules in play here. If the ball drops in your yard out of the sky, then clearly it is a gift from the gods and shall be honored. However, if the ball simply rolls into your yard, you may claim property rights to it and insist on payment for returning it to the cricket players.

  37. cyto

    Someone said I just had to watch the Golden Globes opening.

    Apparently they hired a world renowned comedian. Kerrod Carmichael. I never heard of him.

    For you uncultured masses who didn’t know there was another award show …. https://youtu.be/P9OwwVAaWFU

    Two observations…. the laughter. I get that it is an uncomfortable setting, watching someone totally bomb. But come on, have a little pride. What are they laughing at.

    Second… how does this cut for him? I would initially think it makes him unhireable. But…. antiracism might mean that this makes him a heroic figure.

    So does he get work in the future?

    • PieInTheSky

      I honestly had no idea the golden globes happened till this morning when I randomly saw a news item. Does anyone care for these things anymore? Besides the actors

      • Brochettaward

        NBC’s video of its supposed highlight has 50lk views about 12 hours later.

        No. No one cares.

      • PieInTheSky

        the video above is blocked to me

      • Nephilium

        The girlfriend watched the whole damn award ceremony last night. Thankfully, she was kind enough to watch it downstairs. I still heard cheers and yelling at the screen.

    • Brochettaward

      I commented on that last night/early morning. People were actually trying to spin it as the guy was bold and brave. Showed Ricky Gervais how it was really done. They don’t seem to get that the idea of comedy is to be…comedic first just to start with.

      Not only wasn’t he funny, but he didn’t say anything that would actually bother anyone in that crowd. None of those people see themselves as the problem. It’s all those other people in Hollywood. His message was tired and trite. He took zero risk here and he’ll be lauded and praised and fellated by the people who he is supposedly trying to criticize. Gervais legitimately made them uncomfortable by telling them the things they don’t want to hear and by speaking for the audience that had already stopped watching this bullshit.

      Regardless, the entire notion that the Hollywood foreign press is racist because it lacks black people is so fucking stupid that it doesn’t even deserve to be commented on. But here I am talking about the Golden Globes in the first place so who I am to talk.

      • cyto

        Yeah, that made me laugh. The German press should send black people. The reps from Sweden should be black. The Chinese press should be black….

        I suppose the real problem is that there isn’t a large Hollywood press contingent from Africa.

      • juris imprudent

        About as large as the Hollywood contingent in Africa.

      • cyto

        I tried to get box office numbers to go with that.

        Box office MOJO will tell you the US total, worldwide totals, china…. but nothing specific to Africa.

      • Brochettaward

        Just a quick Google search says the film industry in Africa generates $5 billion or so annually. Don’t know how much of that is from Hollywood and I don’t care to.

        The Hollywood foreign press is European and Asian. There are less than ten million black people in Europe. Even the “diverse” countries are like 90% white in general. It’s probably absurd to have 6 black reporters part of the group now based on demographics.

        But it’s not really any more absurd than turning on the BBC and how much “diversity” you see on there.

      • R C Dean

        I wonder how many black people in England aren’t actors.

      • juris imprudent

        Tokens must be OFFERED!

      • UnCivilServant

        @RCD

        I ran into one who worked at a Tesco. I’d been lost for two hours and decided to buy an atlas. She mumbled her question about whether I also wanted any petrol and mistook my “What?” (I couldn’t hear you) as a “What?” (I don’t know what Petrol means).

      • UnCivilServant

        In fact it was This Tesco. I remember how straightforward the route to the hotel from there was once I had a map in front of me, so backtracking from the hotel to the gas station was just as easy.

        (And the google street view still looks just the same as when I was there. I could point to where I parked the rental Skoda)

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Utterly boring…

    • SDF-7

      They just meant you should look over the next Q links.

  38. Brawndo

    Nice to hear about the military getting rid of the mandate. Not sure if Ozy is lurking today, but thank you for all your work with that.

    • robodruid

      No news on DOD civilian employees yet.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Pie’s obviously trying to warm us up for Sugarfree later today.

    • Michael Malaise

      It was released under the title “Tusken Raiders Made From Hot Dogs”

  39. Count Potato

    “IT’S HAPPENED.

    Oklahoma has introduced a bill that is effectively a de facto ban on ALL gender affirming care in the state. It bans all state and federal funding for any provider that performs gender affirming care is effectively a ban on all care.”

    https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1613012718931546113

    “Update after a more thorough search query and parsing of the data.

    75 anti-LGBTQ bills”

    https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1612938785251000320

    This is the reaction to going after kids.

    • Not Adahn

      I could have SWORN that there were private, cash-only clinics in OK.

      • R C Dean

        Paying your own way is oppression.

        I have to wonder how many parents would sign on for hormone treatments and surgery for their little snookums if they had to pay full freight out of their own pocket. I believe the OK Commissioner of Insurance could also ban commercial insurers from paying for those “treatments”, as well.

      • Mojeaux

        I believe the OK Commissioner of Insurance could also ban commercial insurers from paying for those “treatments”, as well.

        That would be bad. If they can do it for things we don’t like, they can do it for things we do like.

      • R C Dean

        I assume they already have the authority. It’s a question of how they use it. The insurance market is in no way a free market as things are. Without a structural reform that strips that power, I’m not sure using it for “stuff we like” is a bad thing. The power can already be abused, and are we really making that abuse more likely if we use the power for stuff we like?

      • juris imprudent

        We must destroy power or be destroyed by it.

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah, NY banned the NRA’s CCW insurance product, then used that as an excuse to disband them. The case is still pending.

      • Penguin

        Ultimately, sex change is some form of cosmetic surgery. People don’t need it to live, only because they think it will make them feel better than themselves. If they say they need it to feel okay with themselves, I think the same argument can be made by some women about boob surgeries, and by some men about dick lengthening. If they want to bring in the high rate of suicides among the trans, the stats show it doesn’t go down after successful sex changes. Unless I’m going out with her, I don’t want to pay for some woman’s boob job. I wouldn’t expect anyone to help foot the bill for a dick enlargening.

        The general public shouldn’t have to pay more because of this. I think we all know that would wind up being the “consumer” in the end. I think the standard should be “is this coverage necessary for life? Is it needed for the person to function?

      • R C Dean

        It’s more than purely cosmetic surgery. It permanently changes basic bodily functions and messes up your hormones. Unlike, say, a nose job.

    • cyto

      This was the entire point.

      Keep pushing more and more extreme stuff until you get an extreme reaction.

      The playbook is becoming really obvious to me now. I never saw it when I was a teenager or in my 20s.

      But as I got older, seeing things come around multiple times it became more obvious.

      And finally, the mask is off.

      Clearly they have become much more transparent and obvious in their game, but the public apathy tells me that some of the obviousness is that I am getting older and other people who are younger really can’t see it.

      This should get a lot of play. They got exactly what they were hoping for. Let’s see if the media can make a national narrative out of it.

    • juris imprudent

      This is the start of the reaction to going after kids.

      The backlash is going to go a lot further.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        👆

    • Tundra

      I don’t see the Boats on that list.

      Seems like a glaring omission.

    • rhywun

      Didn’t the UK also put a stop to hormones and surgery madness?

      When you’ve lost the UK….

      • Count Potato

        It’s complicated. So not entirely.

  40. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    The White House says President Biden was informed about the matter and that there is no indication the problem was the result of a cyber attack.

    So, a cyber attack then?

    • Not Adahn

      The same h4xx0rz that planted Trump’s classified documents in Biden’s office, no doubt.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Winner take all politics

    Good morning, Chicago.

    Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Tuesday night a comprehensive measure that supporters called one of the nation’s toughest bans on military style firearms, immediately prohibiting their sale and giving current owners until Jan. 1 to register gun serial numbers with Illinois State Police.

    Pritzker signed the bill just hours after House Democrats led final passage of the measure on a 68-41 vote, and a day after Senate Democrats approved it 34-20. Pritzker and legislators acted amid warnings from most Republicans and gun-rights advocates that the new law was unconstitutional and would face a legal challenge.

    Compromise? Negotiation? Fuck those downstate chumps. Democracy means ramming our agenda right up their asses.

    • PieInTheSky

      I would think any firearm is military style

      • Rebel Scum

        Muskets were never used in warfare. It is known.

    • Rebel Scum

      Seems to me that doing this immediately after a supreme court decision comes down that directly prohibits it should have tangible consequences for the legislators and governor that passed it.

    • Drake

      How does it affect Smith & Wesson and other manufacturers still making “military style” firearms for civilians? They must have plans to move manufacturing and even the headquarters to a free state If required.

    • rhywun

      Finally, Chicago achieves utopia. I can’t wait to watch those murder numbers fall to zero.

    • Tundra

      Fake news!

      Where are all the fat people?

      • Sean

        At the snack bar.

      • Ownbestenemy

        There Muslim terrorist? Oh…snack bar

      • Ownbestenemy

        Sorry Teds’

      • Tundra

        What the fuck did you do to the system?

        You worked all weekend just to crash it?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Nearly all we have in terms of systems and services have multiple redundancy…so this one, which is maintained more “centerally” is a big blindspot as a single source failure for the entire nation.

        That is insane.

      • Tundra

        Truly.

        And inexcusable. Let me guess: no one gets fired.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I am looking through the logs and it is….interesting. All our equipment is accountable, we have QA/QC and this…this seems like little oversight.

        I am sure thr FAA will sweep that under the rug.

        It sucks cause my side of the house never makes the news, good or bad and we like that. This changes that

  42. Michael Malaise

    I don’t think Andrew Tate has lost his appeal, but that’s just me.

    • PieInTheSky

      well there needs to be a trial first, and after the appeal

      • PieInTheSky

        I now see the word appeal in the news item but I think is wrong… The lawyer contested the 30 day arrest warrant and a court rejected that but it was not an appeal per se.

      • Michael Malaise

        >———- Joke ————>

        Pie

    • rhywun

      I always found him kind of revolting myself.

    • rhywun

      Ask the Greeks. But two m’s makes sense in English too. Otherwise it would be pronounced diLEEMa which ain’t right.

  43. Ownbestenemy

    The NOTAM system isn’t in our responsibility. Our ‘enterprise’ folks, or rather glorified IT handle that.

    It going down causing a ground stop is…suspicious. Meaning a couple bodies on OT making calls and AT extra hands issuing the NOTAM would have kept planes flying

  44. The Late P Brooks

    It going down causing a ground stop is…suspicious. Meaning a couple bodies on OT making calls and AT extra hands issuing the NOTAM would have kept planes flying

    Proof we need to quadruple the FAA’s budget.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Oh…it was the whole system….that…okay a ground stop was probably warranted.

  45. Gustave Lytton

    https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/klxwh-w-costa-navarino/overview/

    W Costa Navarino marks the debut of the W Hotels brand in Greece. The new Escape, exclusively for adults and young adults over 12 years old, opened in August 2022 to bring contemporary design and inspiring energy to the Navarino Waterfront 13-hectare beachfront site by the Ionian Sea, the newest integrated area of Costa Navarino.

    Ok, groomer.

    • R C Dean

      So what’s the end game here for the left? Assuming they are pushing more extreme positions in order to get an extreme reaction, do they really think they have a realistic chance of leveraging the pro-tranny, pro-pedophilia, pro-fringe freakshow ideology and supporters into a permanent power base? Do they think they can win a political (or real) street brawl with that?

      • Gustave Lytton

        I think there’s overlap, not necessarily the same. The tranny/fringe is a sop to the extremists, permanent revolution/keeping things perpetually changing, and a fuck you to normies. The pedo seems to be cover for elitist debauchery.

      • Brochettaward

        If we were to ascribe any rational motives to it, the only one that makes any real sense is demoralization and the destruction of Western culture.

        They are breeding a generation of really fucked up little people. Most of the left are just useful idiots going all-in on protecting the newest victim group. The powers that be who go along with this shit? Yea, I don’t see the motive. It aint about acceptance and love of humanity, though.

      • rhywun

        “Smash the system”

        Straight from the playbook.

        The actual details don’t matter so much.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      WTF?

    • PieInTheSky

      Maybe I am confused but what is the issue?

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah, “no screaming babies allowed” is a normal thing I thought.

      • R C Dean

        Referring to 13 year olds as adults. In the current climate where pedophilia is being normalized, if not promoted.

        It could be a moral panic/paranoid overreaction, but since we’ve gone from “keep your mitts off kids” to “arrest parents who object to their kids stuffing dollar bills in drag queen’s thongs at school” in the space of a couple of years, I’m going with “not an overreaction”.

      • juris imprudent

        I’m going to agree that I don’t think that was the intent, and with you reading it the way you do. That’s where we stand as a society these days.

      • rhywun

        Young adults”

        Yeah, you’re reading too much into it.

      • R C Dean

        Adults. 13 year olds. Maybe I am over-reading it. But a few years ago I wouldn’t have thought we’d have drag shows for elementary schools, either.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      12 and up, eh? How high exactly does the “and up” part go?

    • Rebel Scum

      Cunte.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      LOL

      Even after that video, I doubt she’ll have any trouble getting dates.

      • PieInTheSky

        every minute a simp is born

      • Count Potato

        — P.T. Barnum

      • PieInTheSky

        I mean I would tap that but no relationship.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      You ain’t the boss of me!

    • Rat on a train

      “Where are all the good men?”

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        Dating strippers

      • Count Potato

        Sad!

      • Lackadaisical

        You have a very different definition of ‘good’.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Oh…it was the whole system….that…okay a ground stop was probably warranted.

    Plugs were pulled.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    W Costa Navarino marks the debut of the W Hotels brand in Greece. The new Escape, exclusively for adults and young adults over 12 years old

    I read that as “free of small noisy running children” as opposed to “Pedo Paradise”.

    • Gustave Lytton

      The choice of “young adults” over “children” seemed out of place. I wouldn’t describe 12 year olds as young adults. But I guess the book industry has used YA for that age grouping for years.

      • Michael Malaise

        Forget it Jake, it’s Greece.

    • R C Dean

      Then why not say “children over 12 years old”?

      A year or two ago, I wouldn’t have looked twice, but the combo of (a) large (and presumptively woke) corporation and (b) normalizing pedophilia being the Current Thing, well, 2 + 2 generally equals 4. These days, it seems that thin edge generally has a wedge behind it, waiting to be pounded in.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        👆👆

        Young adults over 12 aren’t footing the hotel bill.

      • Not Adahn

        If I had to guess it was to imply that the 12 year olds were supposed to act like adults rather than hellions children.

    • PieInTheSky

      I still think there is a bit of moral panic about the groomer stuff… I would not interpret that text test way but as no small children. There are already adult only hotels and this may be of extension of that concept using young adult.

    • The Last American Hero

      The young ladies will be OK, but it’s Greece, so the lads had better keep their wits about them.

      • EvilSheldon

        Disco Stu was talkin’ to you!

  48. Tundra

    Scott Horton’s twitter got suspended.

    Lame, Elon.

    • PieInTheSky

      I am not sure he supervises every single ban

  49. juris imprudent

    Whoa, whoa there with the crazy talk!

    Ukraine will need up to a trillion dollars’ worth of aid for reconstruction. The West should furnish the bulk of this, provided Ukraine adopts and implements reforms that will defeat that old enemy and ensure that aid is well used. Alternately, massive infusion of funds could refuel the corruption that has long pervaded the Ukrainian government, economy and daily life, in which case reconstruction will suffer.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      provided Ukraine adopts and implements reforms that will defeat that old enemy and ensure that aid is well used

      OMG my ribs hurt from LOLing so hard

    • PieInTheSky

      trillion dollars’ worth of aid for reconstruction – seems a bit rich like 25k per capita and the existing infrastructure was not top shelf anyways

    • Brochettaward

      One day, Ukraine can aspire to be as virtuous a democracy as the good’ol USofA.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      You know how I know “foreign aid” is the most corrupt sector of the USG?

      https://www.usaid.gov/anti-corruption

      No different from all the anti-gays being gay AF.

      • juris imprudent

        Our broad stance covers the globe?

      • Sensei

        Nice.

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘massive infusion of funds could refuel the corruption that has long pervaded the Ukrainian government, economy and daily life, in which case reconstruction will suffer.’

      Why are they trying to make it sound like massive fraud isn’t already happening.

      Also, let them rebuild themselves. We could use that trillion ourselves…

    • Rebel Scum

      Ukraine will need up to a trillion dollars’ worth of aid for reconstruction.

      I doubt that.

      The West should furnish the bulk of this

      Why?

      ensure that aid is well used

      Lol…

      • rhywun

        The West United States should will furnish the bulk of this

        Amended for accuracy.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      We’re going to pay for the reconstruction of the what will be before too long newest Russian oblast? Now that’s a waste of money.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    A new front in the war

    The 6-year-old boy accused of shooting his Virginia teacher Friday with a gun he took from home is unlikely to be charged, but his parents could be criminally culpable depending on if they properly secured the weapon, experts said.

    The student’s mother legally purchased the gun used in the shooting, according to Newport News police, but officials haven’t specified how the boy got a hold of it or if it was safely secured.

    Virginia, unlike Massachusetts and Oregon, doesn’t have a law that specifies how to secure guns in a home, said Allison Anderman, senior counsel and director of local policy at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

    Obviously the only way to securely store your guns is off-site, at the police station, where you will be required to show all permits and licenses and provide a legitimate reason, verified by secondary sources, prior to obtaining timr-limited and supervised access.

    • PieInTheSky

      Is it possible to consider it properly secured if a 6 year old got it?

      • juris imprudent

        First off, experts said – is American for some morons. Second, they obviously did not. Third, paint my ass green if this kid actually had a home with both parents.

      • PieInTheSky

        what shade of green? do you provide the paint or do we need to bring it?

      • Trigger Hippie

        I remember the days when many parents kept firearms out in the open on a gun rack and by God if a kids touched one without permission they’d get beaten within an inch of their lives…what I’m trying to say here is beat your child more often.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh yes. Oh YES, boy howdy do I remember.

        We never touched without permission but I do remember the threat of a beating if we did.

        You don’t childproof guns. You gunproof children.

      • Rebel Scum

        You don’t childproof guns. You gunproof children.

        Word.

      • juris imprudent

        I didn’t have to get beaten within an inch of my life – but I certainly believed that was possible.

      • Drake

        High school in the late 70s I’d still see farm kids park their trucks in the school lot with a hunting rifle or shotgun in the rack. Nobody cared.

    • Not Adahn

      Provided a supervisor is available of course. What with police budget cuts and all, there really is a shortage of supervisory-qualified officers these days.

    • Michael Malaise

      “unlike Massachusetts and Oregon”

      What is the purpose of this clause?

      • Drake

        In case you wanted to know where the most virtuous people live.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Both have laws requiring locked up storage so they’re inaccessible to defend yourself against a criminal.

    • Rebel Scum

      doesn’t have a law that specifies how to secure guns in a home

      Because such laws are unenforceable, tyrannical, unconstitutional horseshit.

  51. PieInTheSky

    Asking the tough questions on gewnder…

  52. The Late P Brooks

    As with the story yesterday about the soldier who worked as a bouncer in a bar bringing “underage” girls to parties, I naively assumed they were 18-19, not 14.

    Silly old me.

  53. PieInTheSky

    Lori Lightfoot
    @LoriLightfoot
    When it comes to addressing crime in our city, I’ve got a plan — and it’s working. I won’t quit until we’re the safest big city in America.

    https://twitter.com/LoriLightfoot/status/1612857470178705409

    What is the over/under on how long that will be?

    • PieInTheSky

      I mean unless the plan is nuke it from orbit, that may work

      • UnCivilServant

        You could always redefine “Safest” Or pay the criminals to commit crimes in other cities.

      • Count Potato

        I’m in favor of that plan.

    • cyto

      Pretty good perpetual employment plan!

      Nope, still not the safest city! Ya’ll wanna make sure that paycheck clears now?

    • Lackadaisical

      ‘I won’t quit until we’re the safest big city in America’

      Even teachers don’t have this level of job security.

    • Rebel Scum

      I’ve got a plan — and it’s working.

      By creating more crime?

    • Drake

      Once the murder rate is above the birth rate, it’s just a matter of time.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    Is it possible to consider it properly secured if a 6 year old got it?

    To be honest, I’d say it depends; lying in plain sight on the kitchen table? No.

    In a closet or drawer where the kid is reasonably expected to be nosing around is a different matter.

    • PieInTheSky

      Unless locked, I do not think there is a closet or drawer where a 6 year old is not expected to be nosing around. Kids nose around anywhere they can. So if it was in an unlocked drawer / room, or the key was somewhere a 6 year old can find, it is unsecured.

      • Lackadaisical

        Strongly agreed.

        I think the fact the kid had it and the parents presumably didn’t know is de facto proof of unacceptable storage.

      • Tundra

        My grandfather kept his guns in a rack in the basement.

        We knew the penalty for touching them without permission. They were secure as hell.

      • Lackadaisical

        Exactly, and your not touching then was proof of that.

    • kinnath

      Loaded weapon . . . .

      On your person or in a quick access safe.

      The parent in this case is an idiot.

      Whether or not she is criminally liable for the shooting is an entirely different issue.

      • juris imprudent

        Honestly, I’m going with the mother bought it for whatever guy with a felony rap sheet was living there with her.

      • Mojeaux

      • ron73440

        I keep mine laying on the end table or nightstand.

        Have for many years.

        If I had a young kid over, I would put them away, but I never worried about my kids getting them.

  55. DEG

    Mornin’

    The Department of Defense (DOD) officially scrapped the requirement that all members of the armed forces be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on Tuesday.

    Good.

    Other outspoken proponents of the subcommittee include House Intel Committee chair Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) and Freedom Caucus member Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), another key player in last week’s speaker negotiations.

    Turner said Tuesday as a preview of the subcommittee’s work, “Sadly, we already have very troubling evidence to begin our investigation to ensure that our intelligence community and law enforcement agencies are not violating Americans’ constitutional rights.”

    Turner, being on the Intel Committee, is certainly vetted and approved by the intelligence community, which says he will shank any attempt to actually expose wrongdoing by government agencies.

    Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy confirmed Monday night that Democratic California Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell will be removed from the House Intelligence Committee and the House will vote on the removal of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee.

    🙂

    • cyto

      I still cannot believe that this country watched a member of the intelligence committee get caught having a long-term sexual affair with an employee who was also a foreign spy….. and we left him on the committee. And nobody said boo.

      Holy crap. This is some politburo level crap.

      • juris imprudent

        Are you kidding me? The politburo would’ve liquidated his ass and erased his name from history. There were some things they did right.

      • R C Dean

        And he has been re-elected.

        Democracy at work.

      • cyto

        Which really makes me question “election integrity”

        You have a lobotomized senator, a guy banging an employee (should end the career) and she is a spy… it doesn’t seem possible that these people are attracting real voters in large numbers

      • juris imprudent

        Don’t you ever have a conversation with the average American voter? This shit shouldn’t surprise you in the least.

      • The Other Kevin

        One of my hockey teammates is a Team Blue guy from Chicago. He’d vote for a runny turd if it had a (D) next to its name. This is what you get when you gerrymander “safe” districts.

      • juris imprudent

        a runny turd if it had a (D)

        And tell you how bad Republicans are on top of that.

      • ron73440

        You’re forgetting that a Republican would be worse!

  56. The Late P Brooks

    ..reasonably NOT expected…

  57. Ownbestenemy

    Alright…this failure in the NAS (national airway system) has lit the fire I needed to do my FAA – Air Traffic series.

    • Rat on a train

      COBOL on mainframes?

      • cyto

        They modernized. It has a FORTRAN interface now. It can even move data using fixed field text files for true connectivity.

      • DEG

        FORTRAN 77 right? Not that fancy FORTRAN 90 because that would be a bridge too far.

      • Lackadaisical

        We wouldn’t want to use untested technology in our most secure systems.

    • juris imprudent

      That was a case study in failed IT projects when I was in grad school, in 1987. I shit you not.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      My money’s on a hung grand jury or whatever the terminology is. Doubtful they’ll get a trial for this in Texas but stranger things have happened.

      • cyto

        If anything other than no bill comes of this, it is tar and pitchfork time.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        From what I understand he moved the weapon away after he shot him and then put a couple in the guy’s head. If that’s really the case it might happen but I’d certainly let him walk.

      • juris imprudent

        One allegedly, not a couple. Let’s not go all J6 here.

      • cyto

        Well then. I guess I should have read the whole thing. The clip on the news didn’t show that part.

        Ok, carry on then.

    • cyto

      What in the world would lead a prosecutor to bring this case to a grand jury?

    • Sean

      Even the DA says it was legit.

      • Tundra

        Just once, I would love to see a family member come out and say: “He was a piece of shit criminal who was never going to stop. Good shoot.”

      • Brochettaward

        That would look bad for the inevitable lawsuit.

        Like that guy in Minnesota who the cop shot when he was going for the knife at the house of the woman who claimed he had raped her a few weeks prior. She suddenly changed her story, told everyone what a great guy he was and got back with him, if I’m not mistaken.

      • juris imprudent

        I think that was Kenosha WI and precipitated the Rittenhouse mess.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Wasn’t that Jacob Blake in Kenosha? He’s just lucky Rittenhouse wasn’t in the area.

      • Lackadaisical

        Just maybe criminals don’t arise in such families.

    • Rebel Scum

      who was killed in Houston restaurant by vigilante

      Vigilante?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        British newspaper, they get arrested if they throw fists to get 40 year old Pakistanis to stop raping their kids.

      • ron73440

        Wouldn’t a vigilante be if he had gone to the robber’s house and then shot him?

      • juris imprudent

        When being a victim confers sainthood, there are going to be a lot of sinners.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yeah, that bugged me too.

    • Lackadaisical

      Why are hero and protected everyone in quotes?

      It’s still true, even if in this case he brought a fake gun.

  58. J. Frank Parnell

    Biden admin moves to ban gas stoves in war against fossil fuels

    I don’t understand why you people need stoves at all. Your BugPaste™ and SoyPaste™ packets will be microwave safe, and studies show they can be consumed at room temperature when your electricity is off.

    • Tundra

      He’s actually pretty damn lucky.

      • R.J.

        Holy crap. He is lucky his arm or head didn’t end up under there. Restraining belts when rock crawling!

    • The Other Kevin

      +1 Jeremy Renner

    • slumbrew

      As it started I was thinking, “you should probably wear a seatbelt if you have the doors off like that”

    • Lackadaisical

      His wardrobe malfunction makes it even better.

      • R.J.

        “Man found dead with pants off, under Jeep”

  59. Sensei

    Welcome to the game of liquor licenses in NJ.

    New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is proposing a major rethink of how the state approaches liquor regulation – by easing restrictions on liquor licenses that have created $1 million-plus barriers to entry for would-be bar owners in some communities.

    In his State of the State address on Tuesday afternoon, Murphy proposed the state “gradually relax” a population cap on liquor licenses — local governments are only allowed to issue one license per 3,000 residents – until it’s eventually eliminated completely, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. Eventually, the restriction would be eliminated in its entirety, Murphy planned to say.

    • juris imprudent

      That’s mean – eliminating that sweet, sweet graft for future generations of officeholders.

      • Drake

        This. I did like the BYOB many restaurants allowed when they couldn’t afford the playoffs.

    • Sean

      “Now let’s up DUI enforcement!”

  60. The Late P Brooks

    In his State of the State address on Tuesday afternoon, Murphy proposed the state “gradually relax” a population cap on liquor licenses — local governments are only allowed to issue one license per 3,000 residents – until it’s eventually eliminated completely, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. Eventually, the restriction would be eliminated in its entirety, Murphy planned to say.

    This was a recurring theme in Montana. Somebody would suggest raising the cap on licenses, and the tavern owners’ association would spring into action to defend mom and pop from having the artificially inflated value of their license stolen from them, and the political contributions would roll in from every angle.

    • Not Adahn

      “Strengthen.”