Saturday Forty Days and Forty Nights Links

by | May 31, 2025 | Daily Links | 203 comments

In most parts of the world, when it just rains and rains nonstop for weeks on end, and it does so year after year, we give it a name. Often “monsoon.” But for some reason, it has not been named such here in Glibs Gulch. They just call it “normal weather.” I managed to get about 4″ of water in my basement, my back yard is unmowable because the lawnmower wheels sink into the mud, and our park is now a lake. I hadn’t planned on beachfront property, so I’m hoping they don’t reassess me and kick my property taxes up again.

Despite the deluges, there’s birthdays, including a guy with a beard who jacked off excessively; a guy who tried to make clowns respectable, which is like trying to exceed the speed of light; possibly my favorite comedian and comic actor (WC Fields is the only thing keeping me from being unequivocal; a guy whom I always wished would have a bad day; everyone’s favorite bad cop; the only Nobel Laureate that I ever knew personally who ended up in jail (and I’ve known more than a few…); a major figure in the Mormon church who just happens to be the son and brother of my PhD advisors; a brilliant cartoonist and major influence on me; a hilarious comic actress whose character SP aspires to be; and another terrific comic actor, whose megaflop TV show was delightfully surreal (explaining the floppiness).

And if Links flop, ah well.

As with Saint Ronnie Reagan, “cuts” means “increases.”

They don’t even pretend to be anything but an arm of the DNC. This really verges on parody, but that’s kinda how contemporary politics is.

Things were so much better when the UN-Hamas cooperative was doing this.

And on the same subject, the propaganda machine continues to be fueled by the useful idiots.

I love academia.

The AAP is a continuing clown show.

OMG WHAT WILL WE DO NOW???

This is a seriously stupid idea.

If you like omelets, put your hand on your wallet.

And finally, this bullshit scare has now gone too far!

The Old Guy is a sucker for bluegrass harmony and the whole pickin’ and grinnin’ thing, especially when cute young girls are doing it. But cute young girls isn’t enough, the music has to be there. The music is there.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

203 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    Buy fish that eat grass?

    • SDF-7

      In honor of Loretta Swit’s passing yesterday — rename the Gulch to The Swamp?

      Morning all…

    • Sean

      🤔

    • juris imprudent

      Then what would he carp about?

  2. Pat

    a guy who tried to make clowns respectable

    Happy birthday John Wayne Gacy?

    • SDF-7

      Better than Jack Napier.

    • Pat

      a guy whom I always wished would have a bad day

      Happy birthday Daniel Powter?

      • SDF-7

        (To continue the theme…) At least that wasn’t a killing joke.

    • Pat

      a brilliant cartoonist and major influence on me

      Happy birthday Gary Larson?

    • Ted S.

      Ruggero Leoncavallo.

      Or maybe Heinrich Böll.

  3. SDF-7

    a guy with a beard who jacked off excessively

    Gorram it, Old Man…. this wasn’t supposed to be a SF morning…

    “Oh… Captain! My… Captain! OH CAPTAIN!!!!!”

    Where’s the brain bleach..

  4. Common Tater

    “One of the videos that allegedly depicted child pornography was displayed on Haddad’s TV as the FBI executed a search warrant on his apartment,” federal officials stated, as noted by The New York Post.”

    No knock or retard?

    • Common Tater

      “It is unclear why Haddad was arrested nearly four years after authorities conducted a federal search warrant…

      Following his arrest, a UTSA spokesperson told KSAT that Haddad has since been placed on paid administrative leave “pending the outcome of the case.”

      Double WTF?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Let us see, what has changed after four years?

  5. SDF-7

    everyone’s favorite bad cop

    Happy Birthday to my favorite trainer of very serious mules.

    • juris imprudent

      How does everyone forget he was a sexy but kinda wimpy DJ. And he wasn’t a truly dirty cop either.

  6. Jarflax

    It’s good to see Spain holding tight to their traditions! Rabid anti-semitism is probably not the one I’d have picked though.

    • Sensei

      NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…. Our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency…. Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as fear, surprise…

    • Mojeaux

      Spain has never liked Jews any more than they liked Muslims.

  7. SDF-7

    As with Saint Ronnie Reagan, “cuts” means “increases.”

    At least 2020’s spending keeps me from being surprised. Just disappointed. Still think given the stupid spending of the COVID years, just re-running the 2019 budget should be the baseline… that’d chop what — $1 f’ing trillion out of the deficit? Then we can start cutting (say… the ICs) from there.

    (Hums never gonna happen… never ever gonna happen… to himself)

    • Pat

      I don’t know what you’re all on about. A 10% increase when you expected a 20% increase is a catastrophic cut to the bone. Apparently you just want PEOPLE TO DIE!

      • SDF-7

        Wait… who let this guy in here?

        (That’s definite a classic, Pat… thanks.)

  8. SDF-7

    They don’t even pretend to be anything but an arm of the DNC

    I’m sorry have they been to Memphis? Especially the part with the huge FedEx transshipment point? Barring being Rust Belt in the ’50s, I can’t imagine it possibly making anything worse.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      It’s Memphis. They need to nuke it from space.

  9. Pat

    NAACP calls for emergency shutdown of Musk’s supercomputer in Memphis. The civil rights group alleges that the project’s pollution could be harmful to nearby residents.

    Mark Cohn hardest hit.

    • Ted S.

      Good, since that’s a shitty song.

  10. SDF-7

    The AAP is a continuing clown show.

    Saint Fauci handed down the divine guidance and no heretics shall sway them. (ugh… if that wasn’t clear)

    • Common Tater

      All of medicine is now a political clown show.

    • rhywun

      So proud of the rEsIsTaNcE at CDC!

      • The Last American Hero

        And this is where serious firings need to begin. In the corporate world, if the HQ says “We’re not selling widgets in the stores anymore, we only sell gadgets”, you don’t get regional managers and store managers saying “fuck corporate, order me up more widgets”, and if you do, those managers are standing on the roadside with a box of their personal effects the next day.

  11. SDF-7

    OMG WHAT WILL WE DO NOW???

    Start their own high tier racing championship since they can’t test in Barcelona?

    Stop making paellas?

    Oh wait, no… I got it… say farewell to the Spanish ladies like your favorite movie of all time!

    • rhywun

      Form yet another communist party? Jeebus how many were even listed in that article??

    • Mojeaux

      Barcelona doesn’t care what the rest of Spain thinks. It’s got an entirely different culture and a sorta different language.

  12. SDF-7

    This is a seriously stupid idea.

    Which idea? Because if the throttling CCP student visas… I have to say given the espionage rate and my general contempt for the CCP, there’s an argument to be made there.

    If we try a counter-argument about “exposure to Western values and culture” — you’d have to be sending them somewhere else than our universities anyway.

    • juris imprudent

      a counter-argument

      Counter indoctrination maybe?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        That was the argument before, and we see how well it worked out.

      • juris imprudent

        Well with what they’d be indoctrinated with now at our universities – maybe it should be stated as counter-demoralization?

    • Old Man With Candy

      I don’t think it’s a particularly good argument.

      First, the vast majority of university research is meant for publication. So “espionage” seems rather pointless.

      Second, most of the very best Chinese, Indian, and Iranian students I’ve known (in science and engineering, to be clear) ended up trying to stay here, which would be a massive gain for us. The ones who succeeded have had terrific and productive careers in the private sector. I’ll admit to being an acolyte of Julian Simon’s economic and philosophic views.

      The ones who didn’t, ended up having a lot of collaboration with American colleagues, which was a great benefit to us.

      Third, the needs of the tech industry are not imaginary. There really aren’t enough US-born technologists (competent ones!) to fill those needs. These companies create wealth, and having the very best from the rest of the world is of incalculable benefit to us.

      • Sensei

        Second, most of the very best Chinese, Indian, and Iranian students I’ve known (in science and engineering, to be clear) ended up trying to stay here, which would be a massive gain for us.

        My experience on Wall St as well. All were engineering or math majors who remained here in the U.S.

      • R C Dean

        “These companies create wealth”

        Honestly, I have my doubts about how much. The rate of growth of GDP, for example, is actually somewhat less after the information technology arrived on the scene.

        “having the very best from the rest of the world is of incalculable benefit to us”

        I don’t think missing a few cohorts of Chinese students will be the reason our society declines.

      • SDF-7

        Not really worried about published research, no. More worried about grad students (and even post docs) who seem to crop up in “Worked at national lab, stole defense data” and “Here on student visa — forced by CCCP to commit espionage” (yes, any visa would work… but we’re just talking about this one). The ChiComs have made it very clear any and every one of their citizens sent abroad can be called upon to do their spying, and I’d rather limit their opportunities.

        And given the fucking ageism and hiring practices of the tech industry I’ve observed from the inside over the last 20 years (hello IBM / RedHat layoffs over the last 5 years being some of the most blatant)… I’m sorry if I don’t really buy that there aren’t enough Americans. There aren’t enough to keep wages down, sure. There are brilliant people around the world and it behooves us to have them do startups and cutting edge tech along with us? Yeah… no argument. I dislike the H1B program for the abuse. I’m in favor of making green cards / path to citizenship easier for high skill people / students, sure. I just don’t think the ChiComs should have unfettered access until they change their ways.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Oh, and I should add that while they’re here, the Chinese and Iranian students I know have been immensely helpful in accomplishing US based-research and teaching American students, whether formally or just through working research interaction. The very best grad student in the department where I work shows originality, deep knowledge, great leadership, and does wonders in managing department assets and services. He’s Iranian, would love to stay, but is pretty much being shown a brick wall by the US.

      • rhywun

        I’m sorry if I don’t really buy that there aren’t enough Americans.

        I do actually buy that.

        There is a lot of dead weight in America – just look at the abysmal performance of our K-12 victims. And there are large numbers who would rather sit around and be dependent on the government than get an education and better themselves.

        So yes, filling tech with foreigners is an understandable workaround to our lack of homegrown talent.

      • PieInTheSky

        I’ll admit to being an acolyte of Julian Simon’s economic and philosophic views – that fellow seems overly optimistic imo.

      • PieInTheSky

        also Chinese and Iranian are not the same.

      • juris imprudent

        And there are large numbers who would rather sit around and be dependent on the government than get an education and better themselves.

        If we don’t fix that problem, it won’t matter how many foreign-born we accept, we will flush ourselves down the toilet.

    • PutridMeat

      A perspective from a different angle.

      • rhywun

        Too long but I watched a few minutes.

        It is certainly the case that China wants to be top dog and they will stop at nothing to make that happen, including shameless propaganda aimed at stirring division in the US.

      • Suthenboy

        Bingo. That is the first I have heard anyone ask why the students and the Chinese govt want them here in the first place.
        They dont have universities in China?

  13. Pat

    This is a seriously stupid idea.

    I can’t be fucked to care about Chinese oligarchs’ crotch goblins losing out on their opportunity to advance their social credit while fetching business intelligence for the CCP, tbh.

    • rhywun

      Same. It might even be nice to see schools cut the monstrous bloat that overseas students have enabled in recent decades.

      “It’s going after the primary way that we are recruiting talent, and it is going to significantly reduce the amount of talent that we are able to recruit.”

      Oh fuck off. Poor Big Tech. Whatever will they do??

      • PieInTheSky

        western countries have an oversupply of so called “educated”useless people who want a high status sinecure with no accountability so the Uni systems needs to grow.

    • PieInTheSky

      so in this case the chinaman is the issue…

    • R C Dean

      Pretty much. The moratorium doesn’t have to be until the sun burns out. Once (hah!) we get our house in order, no reason we can always crack open the spigot again.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I’m sorry if I don’t really buy that there aren’t enough Americans.

      As a long-time hiring manager, this was exactly what I dealt with.

      Ironically, I did hire an old guy once, and he was terrific. Gujarati.

      • Suthenboy

        That has, is and always will be a problem in every field with every organization.

  14. Gender Traitor

    It’s (finally) sunny and beautiful here at Tranquility Base, so I’ll try to send some of it your way. I will say, though, that torrential rain in DC last night made the UFL game between the hometown Defenders and the St. Louis Battlehawks amusing to watch after the lightning delay. For a while it was like water polo on a Slip ‘N Slide.

    • SDF-7

      We just left our short “sunny and beautiful” phase and are now in the “close to highs of 100” phase before the subsequent “multiple months at 115 or so”. Yay.

  15. juris imprudent

    Vaccine experts said maintaining a “shared clinical decision-making” recommendation for childhood coronavirus immunization should preserve parental choice and compel insurers to cover the shots. But they cautioned that it can lead to more confusion than a blanket recommendation, leading to some parents paying out of pocket or prompting some doctors to not vaccinate their patients.

    So much to hate in that one paragraph and so easy to start with vaccine experts. Are those the ones directly employed by Big Pharma, or indirectly in the govt branch?

    • Sensei

      The whole issue here is getting insurance to pay for it. If it’s not recommended, but your pediatrician is willing to give it, it won’t be covered. Also, of course, the medical guild wants to run cover for doctors who recommend it, but that’s secondary to making sure nobody directly pays for the clot shot.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, that was the next part that I hated. Must make someone else pay no matter the health benefits or risks.

      • Pat

        Products so unbelievably good that they have to be made mandatory and offered without direct payment because no one would buy them otherwise.

      • DrOtto

        Don’t forget they’re so good they need to waive liability indefinitely!

    • R C Dean

      Can you imagine what honest informed consent disclosure would look like.

      “Never tested in a completed clinical trial.”

      “Risks unknown due to low quality of data reported.”

      Etc.

    • Suthenboy

      As with most. politically charged issues each battling side is not arguing about the wisdom of any position but arguing on behalf of their own best interest.
      Given what we have seen out of the govt and the medical community the best advice I can give someone is to not trust those fuckers as far as you can spit. Personally I chose not take the vaccine and wife agreed with my assessment. Just a few days ago something came up and she slipped in “Thank God we didnt get that vaccine.”

  16. Common Tater

    “Roughly 250 million bees escaped into the wild when a commercial semi-truck rolled over in Washington state, prompting officials to warn locals to stay away from the area.

    The truck was hauling 70,000 pounds of honey bee hives when it overturned in a rural part of Whatcom County, just north of Seattle near the Canadian border, around 4 a.m. Friday, according to the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office.
    Millions of bees broke free after a semi-truck overturned in Washington state.”

    https://nypost.com/2025/05/31/us-news/250-million-bees-escape-after-semi-truck-overturns/

    I’m no entomologist, but that’s a lot of fucking bees.

    • Sean

      Jail break!

    • Ted S.

      Fourscore hardest hit.

    • robc

      “Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!”

      Although, actually, I think the bees will do okay.

    • EvilSheldon

      Sending that to my brother now.

    • Suthenboy

      Aw fuck. That is horrible. This makes me very sad.

      robs: The bees wont be fine. Those bees are moved around at peak flowing time for crops when there is a huge surplus of food for bees. For most of the year there is already more or less a maximum of bees that the area will support from feral hives and the occasional backyard beekeeper. Most of them will die.

  17. Common Tater

    “The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Northwestern University recently held a training session that urged students to “destroy Amerika.”

    The anti-Israel group distributed a pamphlet featuring a quote from an official within terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). According to The Washington Free Beacon, it called for students to “build an Intifada” to “destroy Amerika.”

    “A message to the student intifada: Let us not dialogue with our persecutors,” the pamphlet continued. “In the words of Ghassan Kanafani, we must reject the ‘conversation between the sword and the neck.’”

    https://www.campusreform.org/article/-northwestern-sjp-chapter-urges-students-destroy-amerika-controversial-pamphlet/27946

    “Northwestern University appears to have agreed to demands of pro-Palestine students by hiring a professor who allegedly holds positions in groups linked to Hamas.

    Through striking a deal with anti-Israel student activists, the Northwestern administration agreed to hire two professors from Palestine, one of whom is named Mkhaimar Abusada, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

    According to his profile on Northwestern’s website, Abusada is an expert on “Palestinian political attitudes,” and is also a professor at Al-Azhar University of Gaza”

    https://www.campusreform.org/article/northwestern-hires-professor-tied-pro-hamas-organizations-part-student-protest-deal/27991

    This shit is way out of hand.

    • Jarflax

      Justice in Palestine would be much bloodier than what Israel is doing now, and damn sure wouldn’t include letting idiot leftists resupply Gaza.

    • Sean

      And it’s why we need to crack down on the commie infestation problem we have. Kick them all out.

    • rhywun

      Can we finally stop pretending this has anything to do with Israel or Gaza?

      They are just straight up commie ratfuckers.

      • Q Continuum

        With a healthy dose of Naziism thrown in for good measure.

      • EvilSheldon

        The whole Palestinian thing started out as a 50’s KGB foreign influence op, so you’re close to correct.

    • PieInTheSky

      the system is rotten.

    • R C Dean

      “a training session that urged students to “destroy Amerika.”

      The anti-Israel group”

      Sounds more like an anti-American group.

      • Common Tater

        porky no-doz

      • Pat

        Sounds more like an anti-American group.

        Make America [the] Great [Satan] Again!

      • Suthenboy

        They are anti-western, anti-christian. They are not civilized people. Beleive it or not lately the Islamic world has a tendency to try and subjugate other cultures.

        “Archaeologists have found ruins of a city in North Africa that is over 10K years old. From the evidence they have found life for those people was short and very violent. My, how things have changed there in only 10K years.” – Jay Leno joke from some years back.

  18. Common Tater

    “A troubled father fatally shot his autistic son and the family dog before turning the gun on himself inside their Oklahoma home — where his wife had taken her own life three years earlier, according to police and reports.

    Rodney Shippy, 58, who was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, allegedly killed his 10-year-old son, Logan, in an apparent murder-suicide at their ill-fated Broken Arrow residence, the Broken Arrow Police Department announced…

    The 20-year-old’s lifeless body was later found inside the disheveled home…

    The grim discovery marks the latest in a series of tragic deaths that have haunted the family since August 2022, when the disturbed father’s wife, Lisa Shippy, 41, killed herself at the same West Roanoke Street house, KJRH reported.

    Five months later, Lisa’s mother, Diane Carpenter, 56, was stabbed to death by her husband, 66-year-old Kenny Carpenter, who then shot himself during a four-hour standoff with police in South Broken Arrow.”

    https://nypost.com/2025/05/31/us-news/oklahoma-dad-rodney-shippy-kills-son-with-autism-and-dog-and-self-in-apparent-murder-suicide-in-home-where-missing-daughter-20-was-also-found-dead/

    • Pat

      Not to be a prick or anything, but maybe it’s for the best that gene pool just dried up.

      • Sean

        How do you know it’s genetic? Maybe they had a poltergeist? Demon possession?

      • juris imprudent

        ♫♪ “Tiii-iiii-iiime is on my side, yes it is” ♫

      • SDF-7

        That’s a severely underrated movie, in my opinion. Nice ref, JI.

  19. Pat

    Is it now a crime to make fun of Hezbollah terrorists?

    The recent arrest of a Jewish man for holding a placard mocking Hezbollah’s now deceased leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has triggered outrage. It has also raised serious questions about the Metropolitan Police’s approach to policing protests in London, particularly those involving extremist or anti-Semitic elements.
     
    According to the Telegraph, the man was arrested and charged at a demonstration in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, in September. His ‘crime’ was to be in possession of a sign depicting Nasrallah alongside text that read ‘beep, beep, beep’ – a reference to an Israeli operation days earlier, where dozens of Hezbollah fighters were killed through the remote detonation of pagers. The man was charged with ‘causing racially or religiously motivated harassment’. The charges were later dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service due to insufficient evidence and the Met have issued an apology.
     
    Hezbollah is not a race or a religion, but rather a designated terrorist organisation under UK law. Criticising its leaders cannot reasonably be considered ‘hate speech’ – some might, in fact, consider it a civic responsibility. Yet the Met decided to arrest a man for doing precisely this. Understandably, the question many are now asking is: whose side are they on?

    • Gustave Lytton

      The side of Airshit One’s thought police?

    • Jarflax

      Once you cross the threshold of passing a hate speech law you’ve already lost the argument for any limits to its reach. The same is true for laws against private discrimination. In both cases you have extended the reach of the law inside the human heart and mind, and at that point arguments that a particular application is overly harsh, or that some exemption should exist have lost their axiomatic footing. Either a person has autonomy or they don’t, and once you have conceded that certain thoughts are crimes, they don’t.

      • PutridMeat

        Succinct and to the point. Well stated.

      • Suthenboy

        Very well said Jarflax.

    • rhywun

      And Hezbollah is not even in charge there, yet.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      ‘whose side are they on?’

      given that half of them are Muslims, and the other half storm troopers you just go ahead and guess.

    • juris imprudent

      He’s too old for that other shit? He can restate that line about how people forget he was once a fine, dramatic actor?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Have you seen Excaliber?

    • DrOtto

      Ok, I watched the trailer and it was hopeful. It is Seth McFarlane so it will probably be hilarious and terrible, which is on brand for both Police Squad and The Naked Gun.

    • The Last American Hero

      coming August 1 or thereabouts. The OJ reference in the trailer was pretty good.

  20. rhywun

    Animal rights activist group herpity derpity doo

    Because I’m sure the radical leftist point of view is of great interest to readers of that website 🙄

  21. Tonio

    Gilbert Shelton rules. For those of you who who have never experienced the pleasure of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, I pity you. Fat Freddy’s Cat, the feature-within-the-feature, was the progenitor for Breathed’s Bill the Cat. And the roaches…

    If you read only one story, read the “Fuckbooks” story where Fat Freddy goes to the library.

    • Old Man With Candy

      …and this library will never have fuck books.

      Now get out.

    • EvilSheldon

      I can’t agree with this hard enough.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Cut my teeth on the Freak Brothers. and Fat Freddies Cat.

      Took a shit in his headphones, he did.

  22. PieInTheSky

    And here I was just about to apply to Harvard

  23. Common Tater

    “Defying the odds, a car flew off a roadway and smashed into the roof of a military veterans hall in Missouri — the second such incident in just three months….

    The 56-year-old driver, who was delivering food for a volunteer organization, had suffered a seizure and lost control of his car, according to the Excelsior Citizen.

    The silver vehicle landed front-first into the roof around 7:30 a.m. and went about half-way through, photos show.

    The crash was violent enough that the car’s engine ejected and landed near a flagpole, ABC reported.

    Miraculously, the driver suffered only minor injuries and was able to walk away from the scene….

    The previous crash involved a police chase involving a 22-year-old registered sex offender with two teenage girls in his car, according to the Excelsior Citizen….

    That crash caused significant structural damage after it went completely through the roof, forcing the building to shut down.

    Repairs on those damages had just started when the second car hit.”

    https://nypost.com/2025/05/30/us-news/car-flies-off-road-lands-on-veterans-hall-roof-for-second-time-in-3-months/

    What are the odds?

    • PieInTheSky

      50%, it either happens or it doesn’t

      • Jarflax

        Just like sunrise every day!

      • R C Dean

        That sounds like plausible reasoning, Pie.

    • EvilSheldon

      The odds for anything that’s already happened are 1:0.

    • Old Man With Candy

      That is a… novel interpretation.

      • PieInTheSky

        for Europe that is a solid meat to bread ratio. They recommended a glass of Medoc as a pairing.

        next time i’ll try the smoked salmon bagel

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Medoc? You should have a He-brew with that!

    • SDF-7

      Interesting… is that brisket? It looks almost like it. Not really what I’d call a Reuben… but looks worth a try all the same.

      • PieInTheSky

        i think they call it pastrami…

      • Pat

        Pastrami’s adjacent to corned beef, in all fairness.

      • Gender Traitor

        Oh, I would be in a world of hurt if I ordered a Reuben and got pastrami. I like it, but it REALLY doesn’t like me, as I discovered after two experiences of a severe bellyache after eating it. I accept no substitutions for corned beef.

    • R C Dean

      Regardless of the label, was it good?

      • PieInTheSky

        the mean was very tender and it was tasty but just a tinsy bit bland. The bread was good and held up well. The cheese was there but not a major influence. the pickles and sauerkraut were good.

      • UnCivilServant

        Corned beef, pastrami, whichever they used, the meat in a Rueben isn’t supposed to be bland.

    • EvilSheldon

      Not a Reuben, but it doesn’t look bad…

    • Suthenboy

      Food, like jokes, dont cross cultures well. The only way that works is if the adoption of a food comes with the cooks.

      I find myself wondering now if there is a spoiling effect from one culture adopting the food of another country that has adopted that food from yet a third one. Is there a diluting effect that at some point it becomes no different from what they were already eating?

    • Mojeaux

      I’m gonna tell Theeee Hyperbole on them!

      That is NOT a Reuben sandwich in any way whatsoever. Print this list and take it to them so they’ll do it right.

      toasted rye bread
      grilled sauerkraut
      Swiss cheese
      grilled corned beef (not brisket or pastrami, but DEFINITELY not brisket)
      Russian dressing (Thousand Island will do in a pinch)

      But don’t feel too bad. I went to a New York City deli that put YELLOW MUSTARD on it. Mind, I LOVE yellow mustard, but a) not on a Reuben and b) not on a Reuben and c) not on a Reuben. Rubes.

    • Pat

      A bit hit or miss, but 41 and 43 came in clutch at the end.

      • Ted S.

        Bush 41 and Bush 43?

      • juris imprudent

        That’s a bit presumptuous these days isn’t it Ted?

      • Pat

        Man, talk about an unfortunate numerical coincidence.

  24. DrOtto

    I liked Get a Life if for no other reason than I too had delivered papers for the St. Paul Pioneer Press (that was the morning paper) and Dispatch (that was the afternoon paper).

  25. Common Tater

    “THE oldest Ferrari car in existence has sold at auction for a record price of £6.3 million.

    The 1948 Ferrari 166 Spyder Corsa was Enzo Ferrari’s first car, designed to compete in circuit racing and drive on the road.”

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/35198481/oldest-ferrari-sells-6-m/

    • R C Dean

      First Ferrari ever made, restored after its racing career by Enzo himself. You would think Ferrari would have bought it (and maybe they were the anonymous winning bidder).

    • slumbrew

      … a record price of £6.3 million.

      That’s not even close to the record for a car at auction.

      *reads*

      “The motor set the record for the most expensive 1948 Ferrari 166 Spyder ever sold.”

      🙄

      Technically correct, I imagine.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    He makes Vlad the Impaler look like Mother Theresa

    Technically, his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) campaign was always billed as temporary, but less than six months into this administration, the man who came in like some sort of MAGA rock star, who was jumping around at Trump rallies, appeared at Cabinet meetings and spoke to adoring crowds at CPAC is now slinking out the side door.

    By every conceivable metric, Musk’s stint in government has been an abject failure. On the substance alone, it has been wildly destructive. A lot of lifelong experts in key positions have lost their jobs. Important medical research has been set back, possibly indefinitely. Government agencies are functioning worse than they were before.

    There are also huge ramifications for the Global South, where cuts to foreign aid will lead to needless suffering. Musk’s fellow billionaire Bill Gates warned that cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the agency Musk bragged about putting through the “woodchipper,” could cost millions of lives throughout the world. Experts have also cautioned that tens of thousands of people could die as a result of cuts to the AIDS relief program PEPFAR.

    So it’s clear Musk did real, substantive damage that will be hard to repair, but even by his own standards, his so-called cost-saving, efficiency program failed to achieve what it set out to do.

    The nation and the world may never recover.

    • rhywun

      There are also huge ramifications for the Global South, where cuts to foreign aid will lead to needless suffering.

      OFFS!

      Cut them a check yourself, asshole.

    • EvilSheldon

      Musk should, and probably does, understand that making a company efficient isn’t gonna happen though playing around with the budget and eliminating fraud and waste.

      – Sit down with a small number of stakeholders and decide what your core competencies are going to be.
      – Shut down the company and fire everyone.
      – Spin up a new company around the core competencies in step one.
      – Hire back the top performers from the old company.
      – Repeat every ten years at a minimum.

      This is MBA 101, but it’s going to be difficult to pull off if you don’t have real executive control over the old company. The president should have that power, congress absolutely should, but we’re finding out once and for all that the real power rests in the bureaucracy.

      • Pat

        we’re finding out once and for all that the real power rests in the bureaucracy

        I’d argue we’re finding out the real power rests in the judiciary, which is running legal cover for the bureaucracy such that it can never be reformed even at the margins, let alone eliminated as it should be.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        Even if he’s on fire?

    • Suthenboy

      Oh my. Whatever shall we do.

      Anyway….

    • Mojeaux

      The world owes Tepes an apology.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    The world’s richest man promised to cut federal spending by $2 trillion. But, by his own website’s shoddy math, he managed to cut just $175 billion. He barely made a dent. Even the libertarian Cato Institute, which is ideologically very supportive of DOGE’s mission, wrote that Musk “has overpromised and underdelivered on verifiable spending cuts.”

    And yet the outraged mewling and wailing have been deafening. Once again, we hear, simultaneously, it was a pathetic failure and he ripped the heart out of civil society.

    Get your story straight, children.

    • rhywun

      Because Chris fucking Hayes would be thrilled if 2 trillion were cut.

  28. Common Tater

    “The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday released over 100 pages of writings from Nashville Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale, who killed three children and three staff members in the 2023 shooting at the school.

    Per Fox 17, the 112 pages that the FBI released were found by law enforcement in Hale’s car. The release comes after a long legal battle by The Tennessee Star and the Tennessee Firearms Association to make the documents available to the public. ”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/we-are-all-f-gs-fbi-releases-112-pages-of-writing-from-nashville-trans-school-shooter-showing-maps-faculty-lists-anti-christian-diatribes

    Don’t know if this was posted.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Earlier this month, The Atlantic reported on an expletive-ridden screaming match between Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that spilled out from the Oval Office into more public areas of the West Wing.

    That same article also quotes the general counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees as saying, “We kicked him out of town … If he had stayed in the shadows and done his stuff, who knows how bad it would have been? But no one likes the guy.”

    “No one likes the guy” might be the best summation of Musk’s foray into American politics I’ve encountered.

    Nobody in Washington likes him. That’s a heavy cross to bear.

    • Pat

      Everybody I know voted for McGovern!

    • rhywun

      lol A union flunkie says everyone hates him.

      I am shocked!

    • Suthenboy

      “The Atlantic reported on….”

      I stopped right there.

  30. Common Tater

    “The California Supreme Court has declined to hear a petition for review by Christian baker Cathy Miller, who says her Tastries Bakery is limited to custom wedding cakes and refused to make one for a lesbian wedding in 2017, leading her lawyers to promise to petition SCOTUS. It didn’t give a reason for the denial.”

    https://justthenews.com/nation/religion/scotus-redux-california-courts-reject-christian-baker-punished-lesbian-wedding-cake

    Not this shit again.

    • Pat

      That’s just going to keep happening until Roberts sprouts a nut in his sack and actually issues a ruling that addresses the substance of the issue instead of carving out individual exceptions based on particular agencies on a municipality-by-municipality basis.

    • creech

      One guess how they would rule if a Muslim baker refused to bake a cake for militant Jews that said “Genocide Hamas?”

      • Common Tater

        It’s going into a kosher deli and demanding a ham sandwich.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    As Musk leaves the government worse off than he found it, it’s clear his tenure in Washington was a complete failure, substantively and politically. Musk got high on his own supply and convinced himself the American public would fall in love with his antics. But it turns out, they would much rather he just go away.

    So say all the prissy sanctimonious inside-the-beltway twats. And those are the only opinions we should care about.

    • rhywun

      Actually, they wanted him to stick around. He was the best punching bag the left had in a generation. Whose cars are their shock troops going to key now??

      • slumbrew

        Someone around here has a Model 3 where they’ve replaced the Tesla badge with a Honda badge & added an ‘Accord’ nameplate on the back.

        (still has the Tesla wheels on it)

        I don’t know whether that’s genius or the most pathetic thing imaginable.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Sounds like every dude who owned a Camaro and put Ferrari badges on it.

      • Common Tater

        I knew someone who had a VW Beetle with a fake Rolls-Royce grill. Actually looked pretty cool.

      • slumbrew

        I’m unclear if he (and it’s gotta be a dude) is ashamed of driving a Tesla or just trying to avoid getting keyed by lunatics.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Some not soon enough

    Republican Sen. Joni Ernst was met with shouts and groans when she said “we all are going to die” as she addressed potential changes to Medicaid eligibility at a town hall in north-central Iowa on Friday.

    She had been consistent in her message throughout the contentious forum at a high school in Parkersburg, Iowa, as she defended the tax and immigration package that has passed the House and is now under consideration in the Senate. Facing several constituents concerned about cuts to Medicaid, she defended the $700 billion in reduced spending, saying it would keep immigrants in the U.S. illegally and those who have access to insurance through their employers off the rolls.

    Then someone in the crowd yelled that people will die without coverage.

    “People are not … well, we all are going to die,” Ernst said, drawing groans. “So, for heaven’s sakes. For heaven’s sakes, folks.”

    The Constitution guarantees a right to cling tenaciously to those last few weeks of misery at the expense of others. Everybody knows that.

    • rhywun

      would keep immigrants in the U.S. illegally […] off the rolls

      Well, off federal rolls.

      I have no doubt that the taxpayers in more caring states will continue to generously support anyone who shows up.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      The less mature oldies don’t like to be reminded that they’re not long for this world.

  33. Common Tater

    “The O’Keefe Media Group on Friday released part two of its undercover footage of Nevada DHHS Official Deshaun Mack admitting to ‘bending the rules’ to get Medicare to pay for transition surgeries for minors.

    Deshaun Mack admitted he helps transition children and hide the castration surgeries from parents. He also said he uses a loophole to get Medicare to pay for the transition surgeries.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/omg-parents-dont-need-know-that-youre-transitioning/

    Does he mean Medicaid?

    Anyway, straight to jail!

    • rhywun

      Straight to hell.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Video of Ernst’s comment started making the rounds among Democrat elected officials and candidates. Ernst is up for reelection in 2026.

    “This morning, Joni Ernst said the quiet part out loud:” Republicans do not care “about whether their own constituents live or die as long as the richest few get richer,” said Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, in a statement.

    That’s what she said, by golly.

      • slumbrew

        Man, I forgot about that asshole.

    • rhywun

      Democrats pounce!

    • juris imprudent

      I would enjoy driving a set of brass knuckles into his jaw – hopefully shattering it. Then saying “see, lying does hurt”.

  35. The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

    Most of new York is supposed to be swamps, so yeah. Enjoy.

  36. Suthenboy

    As Jarflax pointed out regarding freedom of conscience, once you have crossed the threshold of declaring that self-ownership has limits, that not everything you have is yours there is no limit to how far it can go.
    They are taking your shit. Most of what we see is them fighting over what they are going to do with it.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Urgent desperation

    California House Democrats on Friday demanded that the National Weather Service restore some terminated workers and begin hiring new forecasters after it halted around-the-clock operations at its Sacramento and Hanford weather forecasting offices, among others.

    In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Laura Grimm, the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 23 congressional Democrats decried recent cuts to the weather service, saying they represented the “beginning of a public safety crisis with potentially catastrophic consequences.” The weather service is a division of NOAA, which is overseen by the Commerce Department.

    “We demand that you immediately reinstate all terminated workers at these offices, lift the federal hiring freeze for NWS, and ensure that the Sacramento and Hanford weather forecast offices are adequately staffed to maintain 24/7 operations,” the congressional members wrote.

    You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

    This is the same sort of ass backward upside down thinking which leads people to imply testing prevents food contamination.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      ‘recent cuts to the weather service’

      As usual this is probably malicious compliance as well…

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Independent meteorologists have said cuts could lead to less effective forecasting and slower severe weather warnings. The public safety concerns have become a political pressure point for the administration.

    It’s hard to imagine those severe weather warnings could be any less effective than the ones preceding the Pacific Palisades fires.

    • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

      Eh, it’s more like no one heeded the warnings, least of all the government which for 25 years has cared more about’environmental’ issues than water supply and proper fire control

      • Suthenboy

        ’environmental’ issues = taking people’s money
        water supply and proper fire control = spending money

  39. Beau Knott

    Hey JI — many thanks for linking to The Gossip Trap. Excellent article; well written & meaty.
    I’m recommending it widely.

    • juris imprudent

      Yeah, he sold (me) a subscription on that one.

  40. Common Tater

    Looks like the 11 AM MS post got scheduled for 11 PM??

    • Common Tater

      Anyone? Bueller?

  41. hayeksplosives

    What in the actual fuck is up with Americans and other westerners kissing Gaza ass??

    They’re barbarians who FA and are now FO.

    • Jarflax

      We have prioritized empathy and mercy so heavily that they have crowded out resolve and justice leaving us paralyzed with fear of our own strength.

      • hayeksplosives

        Well put.

      • Common Tater

        Or they are a bunch of psuedo-Marxists trying to tear down society.

      • Gustave Lytton

        All of the above. Also, reflexive anti-Western/anti-US government/anti American culture. And large numbers of Muslim immigrants and “refugees” have been imported into this country, along with other non-westerners.

        Also, good to see you HE.

      • Jarflax

        Maybe there are pseudo-Marxists behind it, maybe it’s Lucifer’s plan implemented by demons, maybe it is feminism driving a historic power imbalance between the sexes, or maybe it is just happening as a side effect of our success effectively insulating us from knowledge of our mortality, but the mechanism inspiring college kids, especially women, to wholeheartedly support a movement that explicitly wants to reduce them to chattels is an overload of empathic compassion.

      • Common Tater

        Modern feminists are pseudo-Marxists, and they don’t seem to have much empathy.

        Also, young people are often confused and ignorant.

  42. hayeksplosives

    A free 5 minute clip from one of the best “ Yes Minister” episodes.

    So freaking true.

    https://youtu.be/MzCy5mffw8E

    • UnCivilServant

      one of the best “ Yes Minister” episodes.

      “Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?”

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Game over, man

    The stated goal of the major AI companies is to build artificial general intelligence, or AGI, defined as “a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work.”

    This isn’t empty rhetoric—companies are spending over a trillion dollars to build towards AGI. And governments around the world are supporting the race to develop this technology.

    They’re on track to succeed. Today’s AI models can score as well as humans on many standardized tests. They are better competitive programmers than most programming professionals. They beat everyone except the top experts in science questions.

    They don’t sleep, they don’t get bored, they don’t drink on the job. Just sit back and watch them solve the world’s problems.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Among insiders at the top AI companies, it’s the near-consensus opinion that the day of most people’s technological unemployment, where they lose their jobs to AI, will arrive soon.

    Phew. I was kind of worried, for a minute.

    • slumbrew

      The cyclist one was excellent. My wife would not find it as amusing as I did.

    • UnCivilServant

      Why did they use AI for their last picture? I am disappointed.

    • dbleagle

      I thought the first one was a good distillation of the debt crises as well.

  45. Mojeaux

    Somebody set his Sat 11a post for 11p. *koff Mexi koff* Fixed now.