Saturday Morning Hot Hot Links

by | Jun 28, 2025 | Daily Links | 126 comments

I moved here to get away from the heat, so Nature obliged with a massive heat wave. Well over 110° in our kitchen. 10b0t has lost 20 pounds from sweating. Sweet Baby James has taken after his grandfather and despises warm weather. I knew I liked this kid. Big event of this week was a meeting with the village Planning Board to get permission to put up a fence in my back yard. There’s no HOA here, but the village can be just as nitpicky. Fortunately, I’m on friendly terms with most of the people on it (small town everyone-knows-everyone) and SP’s mother was the long-time chairman and greatly beloved, so some of the shine is on me. It got approved, but the punchline was that they asked me to be an alternate for the Board. WebDom’s reaction was, “Do they have any idea what they’re getting into???”

Well, let’s change the subject to birthdays, of which today’s include Tres Cool’s hero; a rather brainy fellow; a pioneer of integration; a guy whose movies will be canceled any day now; another argument for term limits; the guy who wanted you to mention Lucy; the punchline of my favorite Milton Berle story; a guy whom I had the pleasure of helping to boo off the football field; and a bullshit artist who was the best part of the Trump regime.

And the best part of these posts is the Links.

Don’t look at ME, I never got an award.

“He may be a vicious bigot, but he’s OUR vicious bigot.”

“Democracy is the theory that common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Oh, you wacky goyim!

Israel has its own MSNBC.

If you read Jackson’s dissent, you’ll be convinced that she actually is stupid.

A nice summary, but still doesn’t justify US involvement.

The Turtle pops his head out briefly to remind us that he’s a dunce.

A good time for Israel to, ummm, “accidently” have a bomb or two go off.

Africa appears to be fracturing.

The Old Guy tends to jump around from jazz to Prog Rock to bluegrass to folk/Americana. But every once in a while, he strays to the exotic. And this is as exotic (and spectacular) as one can get. Enjoy, but be ready to calm your pets.

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.

126 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    These clickbait headlines are getting out of hand.

    • Common Tater

      “Country Attacks Military Base”
      — December 7, 1941

      • Ted S.

        “Mostly Peaceful Attack”.

    • Common Tater

      “Famous Politician Assassinated”
      — November 22, 1963

      • Ted S.

        CS Lewis wasn’t a politician. Or assassinated.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Found the N.I.C.E. apologist.

  2. Ted S.

    I remember Yma Sumac from crossword puzzles.

    • Chafed

      It’s easy to understand why her music isn’t remembered.

  3. juris imprudent

    WebDom’s reaction

    I second that, but follow up with the entertainment opportunities for you should make it impossible to pass up.

    • rhywun

      I find such matters interesting (to my shame, I almost majored in city planning) and one of the few bright spots here in Beserkeley East is that the local lefty rag has a columnist who writes regular features that go into great detail on the local planning board meetings.

      In short, they are just as bad as the worst HOA you could imagine. All the locals who bitch about the cost of living should read this stuff to open their eyes.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I was once an official Bus Commissioner in my town. In my defense all I had to do was fill out an application and I was in. I didn’t have to politic for my seat.

        The local bus commission was simply there to rubberstamp whatever the govt planners came up with.

        My downfall came during a meeting where they proposed adding an earlier express bus from downtown out to my suburb in the summertime. The express buses already started running at 3pm. The last bus was around 5:30pm. If you missed that there was a catch-all bus that you could take but my 30 minute ride would be over an hour.

        Ten of the twelve bus commissioners were 100% for it. The other bus commissioner and I proposed that instead of an earlier bus, why not have a 6pm bus? It would make it much easier to work a bit late.

        Guess what caused the split? It was govt workers (10) vs. private industry(2). The govt workers all wanted the early bus so they could get home and enjoy themselves. Waiting until 3 was just too bothersome!

        When the other private sector person and I told them that it was career limiting to have to leave just after 5 to catch that last bus, the govt drones were all shocked. How could anyone expect someone to work past 5?!

        Needless to say, we went with the early bus. I tendered my resignation soon afterwards.

      • rhywun

        Huh. I wonder if there is anything like that here. They could get an earful from me. Such as, why does the bus to the dead mall run every 15 minutes while the bus to the other side of town where all the stores are now and which are closer to downtown only runs once an hour?

  4. UnCivilServant

    If you read Jackson’s dissent, you’ll be convinced that she actually is stupid.

    I don’t need to read her dissent to know she’s stupid.

  5. Common Tater

    I was already convinced she was stupid. Just like I was convinced Kamala Harris was stupid. If you start with must be a woman of color, in a field of mostly white men, you aren’t going to get the best and brightest.

    • PutridMeat

      If you start with must be a woman of color, in a field of mostly white men, you aren’t going to get the best and brightest.

      Actually, one might *think* it would be exactly in the opposite. If there is a field where there is/was indeed systemic discrimination and exclusion or just natural preference selection, then the rare member of the ‘excluded’ (whether externally or sefl-excluded) group would like be amongst the very best. The self-selected group of rare individuals would be either too good to ignore/exclude or very personally driven and passionate so as to pursue that field ‘against all odds’.

      That we end up with the likes of KBJ tells you all you need to know about how the system actually works.

      • Nephilium

        You’re not supposed to notice that.

        BTW: Got a response from WebDom about new registrations. I was correct, we were getting enough attempts at registering fake accounts that it was causing some of the web site disruptions, and it was taken back down. We’re (by “we” here, I really mean “WebDom”) is looking into alternate routes of registration.

      • Common Tater

        What’s a fake account?

      • PutridMeat

        Re: Registration. Copy, thanks for following up. Will keep an eye on this space and let her know if/when an option manifests.

      • R C Dean

        Alternatively, when you limit your selection pool to a small percentage of the total available based on entirely arbitrary criteria, its pretty unlikely that the 0.1% top candidates will be in the 3% selection pool.

      • rhywun

        We got Jackson not (just) because she is a black woman – we got her because she is a flaming leftist. That was always going to be the case for Biden (or whoever was operating him).

      • PutridMeat

        R C Dean – Agree and true for a pool that is somewhat in proportion to the population with some roughly equal distribution of talent or proclivity for the work.

        However, if that 3% is self-selected in a field where there truly are high barriers and/or active exclusion of that particular demographic, you might expect that in the 3% that actually ‘make it’ you have a higher chance of finding the best in the field, drawn from the high tail of members of that demographic (ignoring that the high tail of that demographic may be the median of other demographics, depending on the demographic and the field).

        That’s the theoretical. That empirically we don’t see that and, in fact, often the exact opposite, might tell you something about how the system works in reality – it’s actually worse that random selection.

      • (((Jarflax

        You are assuming that underrepresentation is due to external factors, and that there are no aptitude factors at work. If the under represented group is being artificially kept out of the profession by prejudices and external barriers, sure, you’d expect those who do get in to be exceptional specimens, but if it is internal, with fewer members of the group being interested in the profession, or interested in the subjects required for success in the profession, or possessing the aptitudes necessary, then the sub group will generally be less apt over all. If 30% of Group A are interested in a profession and only 10% of Group B are, and you take 10% of each group into the profession, you are choosing 1 in 3 applicants from group A, and all the applicants from group B. Which group is getting more carefully vetted?

      • PutridMeat

        Partially “Them” Jarflax – I agree. I’m not claiming that you will find the best in that small group. If you assume the conditions that people pushing selecting from that small ‘under-represented’ are claiming, you might expect a bias in that direction. That it manifestly does not look that way in the real world tells you that they are wrong either from ignorance or self-interest and malice. The group self-selection (things vs people, cultural heritage, whatever) and fingers on the scale (promoting regardless of demonstrated proclivity or skill) result in biasing the result even further in the direction of incompetence from just the raw numbers of restricting your pool.

      • (((Jarflax

        Ahh, sorry I was mistaking your meaning.

  6. Common Tater

    Bombing weddings and funerals is too Obama.

  7. Common Tater

    A summary at Tablet?

    • Common Tater

      “A billboard with the “doomsday clock,” counting down the days until Israel’s destruction, is pictured in downtown Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 2024. Israel bombed the clock on Monday.”

      LOL

    • Common Tater

      “to prevent the Iranian Wizard of Oz and his legions of flying monkeys”

      Tell me you didn’t watch the movie, without telling me you didn’t watch the movie.

      • trshmnstr

        In the book, Dorothy wrests control of the monkeys from the witch and uses them to defeat her. They’re also enslaved much like a genie, and she releases them after the witch is killed.

      • Common Tater

        That still doesn’t make them Oz’s monkeys.

      • Gdragon

        Chris Keller will tell you who Oz’s monkeys are if you hit up Chris Meloni on Cameo

    • Common Tater

      “Similar to Iraq, the American nation-building enterprise in Lebanon was also a condominium with Iran designed to protect Tehran’s holdings.”

      It wasn’t worth the common charges.

    • Common Tater

      “A new and improved JCPOA, after having destroyed all their centrifuges and facilities?”

      No one knows that.

  8. Gender Traitor

    It got approved, but the punchline was that they asked me to be an alternate for the Board.

    That’s what you get for reminding them of your existence. Next time, send your attorney.

    Then again, it promises great potential comic material while most of the students are gone for the summer…

  9. Ownbestenemy

    “[Trump’s] got some pretty rabid isolationists over at DoD—you could argue the vice president is in that group,” McConnell said, skewering Vance in the Politico interview. “None of those people who’ve read history.”

    Okay crypt-keeper. Heaven forbid we look inward for even 4 years.

    • Drake

      JD, Gabbard, and probably Hegseth to a lesser extent are fairly anti-forever-war. But word is that Trump was fairly surprised how anti-war his base on X was once outside the Fox News bubble.

      • DrOtto

        A couple of generations of seeing your kids, other family members and friends permanently altered by war, and not in good ways, will do that.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        If he concentrates on Fox for his news we’re fucked. The morons there haven’t ever met a forever war they didn’t cozy up to. That he even likes the format and the talking heads there doesn’t say much for him either.

      • Gustave Lytton

        FNC isn’t even principled pro war. Their talking heads are mostly kabuki actors and actresses acting out an own the libs/ultrapatriot show.

  10. Common Tater

    “A housing policy document on Mamdani’s official website includes a pledge to “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

    So straight up racist.

    • Grumbletarian

      This is the good kind of racism. When rich white people flee his socialist paradise, it will be the bad kind of racism.

      • DrOtto

        And it will tax people “acting white” since they are race traitors.

      • Derpetologist

        Come? Gentrification.

        Leave? White flight.

        Stay put? That’s racist.

    • Drake

      So taxes in rich NYC neighborhoods are low?

    • (((Jarflax

      As California and New York are already demonstrating (but apparently not learning) socialist policies in an open bordered system run out of Other People’s Money fast, because it gets up and leaves rather than waiting to be drained. We really need the 2030 Census to be conducted honestly. If it is, the idea of a blue wall may be gone forever.

  11. Tres Cool

    +1 Rubenesque

    I’ll be in my bunk.

    • Chafed

      You won’t be able to get out.

    • Pope Jimbo

      For the love of all that is holy, please tell me that you and your Best Big Gal will be on the bottom bunk.

      Think of the poor soul trapped in the bottom bunk while you guys are doing the dirty on the top bunk.

  12. Plinker762

    So is Africa going to break up in Toto?

    • Ted S.

      I have a feeling they’re not in Kansas anymore.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      They are as Afar from that as possible.

  13. Common Tater

    ““We don’t have a lot of traditions that we’re keeping,” she explains. “I mean, I love traditions, but for a 55-year-old woman, it’s a little different.” There are, however, a few conventions that will be honored, including the one about the groom not seeing the bride before the wedding day. Also, the Dolce earrings will be her something borrowed. Her something blue? “Well, Blue Origin,” Sánchez says. “It’s something from my space flight.” She explains she carried a secret souvenir up in the rocket so she could bring it back for Bezos, “because it was literally one of the most profound experiences I’ve ever had in my life.”

    https://www.vogue.com/article/lauren-sanchez-and-jeff-bezos-are-married

    https://pagesix.com/2025/06/27/celebrity-news/lauren-sanchez-changes-name-wipes-instagram-after-marrying-jeff-bezos/

    • R C Dean

      “the one about the groom not seeing the bride before the wedding day”

      Pretty sure that’s not a tradition.

      • Common Tater

        She’s not a bride until she puts on the dress.

    • Gdragon

      “She explains she carried a secret souvenir up in the rocket so she could bring it back for Bezos”
      ——————–

      A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh?

      • (((Jarflax

        Strap-ons in Spaaaaaace!

  14. Common Tater

    “The journalist, who has worked at the Washington Post for 18 years, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.”

    That’s sounds like a fair punishment for working at the Washington Post.

  15. Ted S.

    Does this qualify as a daily ray of sunshine?

    • Chafed

      Ugh. No.

      • Gender Traitor

        Indeed. That’s a terrible way to prepare that meat. Grilled slowly would be much tastier.

      • Pope Jimbo

        GT-sy:

        I would have hoped that they sliced it up first, but bison shabu-shabu would be great.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      About as good as can be hoped for.

  16. Derpetologist

    The comment section on this video is a great illustration of groupthink:

    Why you definitely SHOULD NOT share this JD Vance meme
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eEz_oVNhak

    It’s sad that millions of otherwise sane adults believe that a meme can be a magic totem.

    Yes, and if they all clap together and say “I do believe in fairies” Tinkerbell will live, and Orange Man Bad will be banished to Never-never-land and eaten by a crocodile.

    • R.J.

      It had nothing to do with the fact they found pictures of a crack pipe on his phone. It was definitely the fat JD meme.

      • Derpetologist

        The customs guys said it was because he admitted to smoking marijuana twice. Which, along with having a picture of a pipe, crack or otherwise, should not be illegal either.

  17. rhywun

    Schumer stopped short of endorsing Mamdani, a democratic socialist, when asked at the press conference.

    Rep. Nadler – of the wealthiest and most D district in the country – did not stop short; in fact gave an enthusiastic endorsement.

    • Chafed

      I have run out of words to scorn Nadler.

    • Chafed

      I accept my sentence.

  18. Common Tater

    “New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s platform proposes free buses and day care, rent control and city-owned grocery stores to make city living more affordable.

    Mamdani’s platform is not akin to communism, a system of government which calls for government takeover of private property and control of industry.”

    So how is he going to get the grocery stores?

    • R C Dean

      Pretty sure the busses are already government-owned. The grocery stores will be. So that just leaves day care.

      • Pope Jimbo

        the busses are already government-owned

        When did this happen? Do you have to pay the city to kiss your wife now? I shudder to think of the cost your 14 year-old son and his new girlfriend could run up during one of their makeout sessions.

    • DrOtto

      They’re going to compete! By bringing the DMV experience to grocery stores.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        A dozen eggs? Fill out this form and wait over there, there’s thirty people ahead of you.

    • (((Jarflax

      Ok, it’s not communism, it’s just socialism. Socialists deserve helicopter rides as well. If you wait till the communism goes public you waited too long anyway.

  19. rhywun

    Trump’s ‘Worst Nightmare’ Running for NYC Mayor

    An antisemitic commie is going to keep Trump up at night. 🙄

    lol Never change, Newsweek.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I hope the guy wins, it’ll be an interesting real world experiment in unmitigated disaster that’ll be plain for all to see.

      • (((Jarflax

        How many do we fucking need? If Pol Pot wasn’t enough to teach the lesson I think it’s pretty clear that lessons don’t get learned.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Maybe but how many Americans think Pol Pot is some kind of pho dish? They know what New York is and it’s currently a somewhat functional city. If this guy was in charge of Baltimore they could blame the failure on the preexisting shitholeness but not here.

      • (((Jarflax

        Maybe, but New York has already been a dystopian hellhole in my lifetime, and now it’s voting its way back to that state, so don’t expect the lesson to stick.

      • Chafed

        The could just look at Chicago and LA to see what’s coming.

      • Pope Jimbo

        The True Believers will just blame the rich, white racists for leaving.

        Everything would have worked out just fine if they would have stuck around for the shearing.

  20. Suthenboy

    “…a meeting with the village Planning Board to get permission to put up a fence in my back yard.”
    Your back yard? It doesnt sound like it.

    • Old Man With Candy

      What’s worse is that I’m paying nearly $1000/month to the government just to keep “my” property.

      • PutridMeat

        $1000/month

        Ho-lee FUCK!

      • Sensei

        Up that 40% for me because I live in NJ.

      • slumbrew

        Dang. Mine’s about $100/month. Granted, it’s a small place but I’m guessing yours isn’t 10x larger.

      • Old Man With Candy

        No, it’s a small (1800 sq ft) and very modest place. Our tax rates are stunning, partially because of all the exempt property owned by the colleges.

    • Pope Jimbo

      How I wish I was connected enough to snare the peanut butter concession at that event.

  21. Suthenboy

    It’s unfair to pick on MSNBC. For most lies and distortions the competition is fierce.
    “… a case brought by President Donald Trump seeking to expand his executive authority by limiting the power of federal judges.”
    That is not what it was at all now is it.

    Ketanji is a DEI hire and in keeping with the spirit of DEI, a moron. I especially like “Justice Jackson, however, chooses a startling line of attack that is tethered neither to these sources nor, frankly, to any doctrine whatsoever,”

    • Q Continuum

      If you choose people solely based on their complexion and plumbing, of course you’re going to end up with dummies.

      It’s not hard to understand.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      That’s the very definition of a cuck. Also, her husband should be tarred and feathered and run out of town or, given that it’s the UK, drawn and quartered.

    • Chafed

      Antifa supporters love them some terrorists.

    • rhywun

      Virtually all soccer “supporter” groups in Western countries are Antifa.

      The Pali flags are a new twist, though. Usually it’s tranny flags.

  22. Suthenboy

    The Mamdani character is a two dimensional comic book stereotype of the third world marxist. In that vein his defenders keep telling me ‘that’s not what he means’ when I point out what he said.

    • Derpetologist

      It amuses me to think that hip-hop among many other musical styles associated with black people were banned in communist countries.

      Anti-jazz Soviet cartoon from the 1930s:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRx5-U0Re2s

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music_and_the_fall_of_communism

      ***
      Rock music played a role in subverting the political order of the Soviet Union and its satellites. The attraction of the unique form of music weakened Soviet authority by humanizing the West, helped alienate a generation from the political system, and sparked a youth revolution. This contribution was achieved not only through the use of words or images, but through the structure of the music itself.
      ***

      • Gustave Lytton

        Jazz is a symbol of western degeneracy. Also not a little old fashioned racism.

    • rhywun

      He learned it at the foot of his Marxist college professor father. You can be sure he was groomed for this day his entire life.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    I didn’t need to be convinced.

  24. Q Continuum

    This tracks perfectly with the results of Commie Mamdani’s win.

    https://nypost.com/2025/06/27/opinion/eye-popping-analysis-of-trumps-win-shows-democrats-are-in-serious-trouble/

    He won because guilt-ridden Whites voted for him; “POC” (or, if you prefer, the Donks’ traditional base) did not. If the party keeps pushing in that direction, you really are going to end up with the principal Dem demographic being blue-haired single White women with personality disorders. And you can’t win elections on that.

    • (((Jarflax

      AWFLs and their cucks are the problem; they are the bulk of the votes for socialist crap; they fund all the media shills promoting it, they organize and staff the NGOs; they spearhead the long march.

      • Common Tater

        Also, the CCP.

    • Sensei

      Pay no mind to his opponent being a sexual harassing grandparent killer.

    • rhywun

      And you can’t win elections on that.

      My town begs to differ. But nationally, yeah.

  25. The Bearded Hobbit

    I told my uncle about Annie Haslam (of Renaissance) and her five-octave voice range. He put on Yma with her seven-octave voice range. He was always good about one-upping someone.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    In ur government, stealin ur weather

    The U.S. Department of Defense will no longer provide satellite weather data, leaving hurricane forecasters without crucial information about storms as peak hurricane season looms in the Atlantic.

    For more than 40 years, the Defense Department has operated satellites that collect information about conditions in the atmosphere and ocean. A group within the Navy, called the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, processes the raw data from the satellites, and turns it over to scientists and weather forecasters who use it for a wide range of purposes including real-time hurricane forecasting and measuring sea ice in polar regions.

    This week, the Department of Defense announced that it would no longer provide that data, according to a notice published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.

    How will we prevent hurricanes?

  27. Derpetologist

    Militant Islam gets most of the attention in discussions of Iran strategy, but other important forces are Iranian nationalism, Anti-Zionism, and Anti-Americanism.

    The easiest way to get Iranians of all ethnicities and religions to band to together is the “death to America, death to Israel” slogan. That’s why that message is ceaseless.

    Non-religious people in Iran are severely undercounted because atheism/agnosticism/apostasy is illegal there. Even so, I suspect even most non-religious Iranians are anti-Israel and anti-US if not necessarily pro-ayatollah.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Other satellites, operated by NASA and NOAA and by other countries, collect similar data, Tang says. But hurricanes form and intensify so rapidly that forecasters need near real-time information, which requires as many satellites as possible since no one sensor is always pointed at a given storm. Without the Defense Department data, there will be bigger gaps in time when forecasters will not know the current conditions inside a storm. That could lead forecasters to be surprised when a hurricane suddenly intensifies.

    That’s particularly concerning because, as the Earth heats up, large, rapidly intensifying hurricanes are getting more common. Storms that gather strength quickly right before they hit land are particularly deadly because people have little time to prepare and evacuate.

    Okay, Shirley.

    • Chafed

      +1

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Sea ice data is important for a lot of reasons. Permanent sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic is shrinking rapidly because of climate change, and the exact amount of ice fluctuates dramatically over the course of each year.

    In any given year or season, the amount of sea ice in the Arctic informs international shipping decisions, because when there is less sea ice around the North Pole, ships can take shorter routes across the globe.

    On the other end of the planet, sea ice helps slow the melting of glaciers in Antarctica, which threaten the planet with catastrophic sea level rise if they collapse.

    Now, as a result of the Defense Department’s decision, six widely used datasets about sea ice at both poles will be interrupted, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

    Doom porn never gets old.

  30. Derpetologist

    I haven’t shared anything from this site for a while, so here’s one of their real-men-of-genius moments:

    https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2017/01/for-a-luxury-leftism

    ***
    Our revelers like Karl Marx very much. And yet there they sit, fondling their pearls and sipping their brandies. How laughable their devotion to the cause of the workingman! What poseurs, what impostors!

    And yet: perhaps our little cadre of caviar commies are not so indefensible as they seem. For our revulsion at them surely stems from their failure of principle: they talk of revolution as they clink their glasses, they gobble gazpacho as the world burns. They are sippers, flitters, dilettantes.

    But what if the world does not burn?
    ***

    Yeah, what if climate change is a hoax and a trojan horse for socialism?

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Those poor alligators

    Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday to block a migrant detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” now being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades.

    The lawsuit seeks to halt the project until it undergoes a stringent environmental review as required by federal and state law. There is also supposed to be a chance for public comment, according to the lawsuit filed in Miami federal court.

    Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

    Environmental review is totally about protecting mother earth, and not a means to obstruct anything we don’t like.

  32. Pope Jimbo

    Dressing the kid in pink elephants?

    C’mon OMWC! You are setting the poor kid up for serious bouts of the DT’s.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Nana Prime bought them. I think she likes him better than she likes ME.

      • Ted S.

        That’s not hard. :-p

      • Pope Jimbo

        Ted-sy:

        That is exactly the problem with OMWC and kids. It is hard.

  33. Derpetologist

    From the BB link:

    ***
    Vice — I Took Fentanyl And Slept With A Penguin
    ***

    Hints of Sugarfree there.

    Werner Herzog and the nihilist penguin:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTU_hJoByA

  34. The Late P Brooks

    One must always be careful not to go too far in the direction of the hedonistic, however. Again, the central principle here is: the good must be shared, not hoarded. Loving yourself is acceptable, but loving only yourself is not. It is very easy to develop a series of convenient justifications for one’s indefensible acts, and one of the central problems of liberalism is that it has allowed rich people to think that being rich in a time of deprivation is morally acceptable. (It is not.) But it is also true that we are attempting to lift everybody up into elation rather than drag them down into equal opportunity misery.

    “Hey, this ditch is full of dead people. Why did you bring me here?”

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Surprise

    The name “rare earth elements” is a bit misleading — the elements themselves are not that rare in nature. What makes them “rare” is the complex and difficult process of separating them from the rock they are embedded in, and from each other. China controls about 90% of the world’s rare earth processing, and has a total monopoly on the processing of heavy rare earths.

    Since at least 2023, China has been tightening its grip on several of the key critical minerals it provides for the world, Baskaran said.

    Still, the April 4 export restrictions shocked the automotive world.

    “It came out of nowhere,” said Dan Hearsch, managing director at AlixPartners. “Nobody had any time to react to it. I mean, within a matter of weeks, all of the material in the pipeline was out.”

    European automakers shut down factories. Ford had to idle production of its popular Explorer SUV.

    But we prefer those icky filthy processes to be done by poor colored people far from our line of sight.