Item the 1st – Why is it such a disaster when politicians are targeted?
With the recent murder and attempted murder of a couple of Minnesota state representatives and the subsequent somewhat overwrought reaction, I once again confronted my Oppositional Defiant Disorder. What the hell is it with the lionization of politicians? How many people were murdered that week in Minneapolis? How about Chicago? Did we get over-wrought ‘analysis’ of what it means and how unconscionable it was to target those people? It happens in war too, how national leaders are off limits – which seems thankfully absent in the Israel-Iran conflict. I don’t know how much of it is the people in charge instantiating ‘the rules of war’ in such a way so as to advantage themselves, and how much is innate in our evolutionary path. But my willingness to dismiss the later – a sort of Chesterton’s theory of assassination – has waned over the years so I try to temper my gut reaction of “fuck you and your worship of political ‘leaders'”. It’s still there, a strong sense of ghoulishness of dismissing the deaths of a 100 ‘normies’ while rending ones garments when a ‘leader’ gets a paper cut.
Item the 2nd – A.KA. “Jam the Little Bastards with Whatever you Find Lying Around.”
I was thinking about pregnancy the other day, but since I don’t have a womb, it remained largely theoretical and symbolic. This was triggered by seeing some discussion of the complete lack testing of the mRNA injections on pregnant women while still recommending them. This runs contra to a long established cautionary principle that, owing to the very strong coupling of the mother and baby in the womb, one must be extremely cautious recommending any medication to a pregnant women; the evidence of benefit and complete lack of harm to the baby must be very well established. The precautionary principle is, rightly, in full force for pregnant women and even, to a lesser degree, women of child bearing age. This is evidenced in the absolute demonization of a women who drinks or smokes during pregnancy, to the degree of criminalization in some cases. What struck me was the observation that, to a large degree, those very people who will zealously demonize a woman for having a beer at 6 months are in the same group that will support mandating an mRNA injection for that same woman with no evidence of any value to either the woman or baby. And then subsequently demand that a baby get stuffed with 70 vaccinations over the course of 6 months, many stacked on top of each other, most with no long term placebo controlled studies of the effects individually, let alone any analysis of what that stacking of multiple shots does to a baby. And get furious and indignant if it’s suggested that you might want to at least look at that question a bit more carefully than has so far been done.
Item the 3rd – Entitled “Academics”
I was in the office recently, I believe it was the day before a holiday and was leaving at my normal time in the late afternoon, heading towards a certain death as I was about to defy the lights of THE Intersection. I encountered a colleagues wife parked out front; they had just swung by to drop something off. After the brief round of pleasantries – to the degree I’m capable of pleasantries – I got the “why are you working today?”. Remember that this was not an actual holiday, just close to one. “You’re an academic, take advantage of it!”. While a particularly egregious example, this, along with people in the top 20% of wage earners complaining about how underpaid they are, is not an uncommon sentiment and indeed manifested behavior. Keep that in mind next time you hear someone squealing about grants and funding cuts to academic scientists, even before considering the ridiculous credential-welfare that is overheads or thinking about exactly what benefit said academics are actually providing.
Item the 2nd – A.KA. “Jam the Little Bastards with Whatever you Find Lying Around.”
Relevant: https://x.com/EM_RESUS/status/1947024538404815110
LOL
Ya that got a chuckle
Wait is that what butt chugging is?
Once again, Amazon has a wide selection of safe, hygienic ass-penetrating instruments, with Prime free next-day shipping. Stay away from the improvised stuff, unless you have a humiliation fetish involving hospital techs and nurses…
I do not wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Good to know, I guess.
Oddly specific EvilSheldon…
I feel that it’s my duty to prevent things from getting stuck where they don’t belong.
I don’t blame you. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Million to one shot, doc, Million to one.
I’m more insulted that they think sticking a glass (or plastic) bottle into the sand is a good idea. There’s nothing wrong with modern cans, koozies exist, and reusable cups of a wide variety are available for purchase.
Neph, haven’t you ever seen something advertised as ‘for entertainment purposes only’, ‘for display only’ , ‘for educational purposes only’, and so on?
When they were making those someone noticed and ….
“What the hell are you doing?”
“These are beer bottles”
“They dont look like beer bottles. Why would. you make beer bottles like that?”
“They are for….uh….”
“Yeah, go on. They are for what?”
“They are for sticking in…..uh….”
“For sticking where? Just say it.”
“For sticking in…..uh…the sand! Yeah, they are for sticking in the sand.”
“Why the fuck would anyone want to stick a beer bottle in the sand?”
“Well, you might want to do that. People do that.”
“Who does that? Nobody does that.”
“Yeah they do. People do it all the time when they are….uh….at the park? No no no they do it all the time when they are at the beach! Yeah! That’s the ticket! They are for sticking in the sand when you are at the beach!”
“Sure they are. Y’all cut that shit out.”
Just returning the glass to its natural environment Neph.
And to slice off your toes
Instructional videos available at no cost.
Wait, so that bottle isn’t for sticking between two dunes?
I art confussed.
Instructional videos available at no cost.
Just gotta be able to navigate past the age verification stuff.
age verification stuff
not a problem here in glorious Iowa.
Entitled “Academics”
But you repeat yourself.
I see what you did there with the first picture.
Hey, if they weren’t special people they would not be in the Ivory Tower! How dare you criticize your betters!
If I am paying for your research I should get rights to the results.
I was thinking “will support aborting the fetus”.
My long out of date knowledge about that is 6 months isn’t really an issue for one random beer. The issue very early in the pregnancy it was shown to an adverse impact on fetal development.
The problem is that point the “birthing person” may not be aware of the pregnancy that early.
The issue was that very early in the pregnancy heavy, regular drinking (think, a fifth a day) had an adverse impact on the li’l parasite.
Academics sound like they complain as much as teachers. Teachers get every summer off, more holidays than anyone else (including a week for spring break), and personal days, but they complain more than any other profession.
Without teachers we’d run out of trans middle schoolers.
After dealing with them as a student and a parent, I hate teachers.
When I meet someone and they tell me they are a teacher, my initial instinct is to be skeptical of them.
Norm is still my favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7az23QCJBnQ
When they, inform you that they are, in fact an “educator.”
As a kid, I thought teachers were stupid. But now that I’m an adult, I have to say, I never knew the situation was this dire.
Don’t forget inclement weather days. They really hate snow-free winters.
Teachers spend so much time not working, that there is an entire job class of ‘substitute teachers’ who exist to cover their duties. There are no ‘substitute doctors’ or ‘substitute diesel mechanics’, but he have ‘substitute teachers’. Ponder that on the tree of woe…
in the case of mechanics or doctors, their peers take the cases that can’t wait.
But you’re comparing a coverage-based occupation with a case-based profession. “Teachers” provide coverage, and are better compared to call center or retail employees than case-based professionals.
Fair. But there are no ‘substitute call center drones’ or ‘substitute retail salesmen’ either…
Yes there are, they’re just given the same title as the regulars.
/Hides college diploma
Not to mention that in most states, teachers can retire at either age 60 or with 25 years of “service” and get a lifetime pension so good that states are going bankrupt from it.
My mom is a prime example of that. She worked as a substitute teacher, and managed to get a pension large enough that my parents are living on that for their day to day. My dad has… opinions… on this (while admitting that he’s not turning down free money).
I love the periodic ritual of “We need to improve our educational results. If we pay the exact same people more, to do exactly what they have been doing, results are bound to improve!”
The more funding they get, the more gets siphoned off by the teacher’s unions. Some of it will get spent on flashy programs that don’t actually improve or even detract from learning (I think the “Chromebooks for every student” has done that, especially in the age of AI that can do homework for you).
Only in the public sector does the formula:
Our performance is dismal therefore give us more money to improve things
convince people.
The world would devolve into chaos and anarchy if all the politicians were killed off. And that would be…
Only from people panicking. In terms of actual function, politicians do little on average that would impact the day to day if they ceased to do it.
Ask any person when Congress is in session and when they’re off. Besides a tiny fraction that are really into politics, nobody will have a clue. They could be off for a year and you’d never know.
So, you want New York City?
Your number 1 has always irritated me as well.
Cops are just as bad if not worse at this.
I remember the Chris Dorner roadblocks after he killed 3 or 4 people, but because they were cops, they went all out.
It’s backwards. Killing a helpless person is just a an ordinary murder (unless they are ultimately helpless because they are in womb, in which case it is fine), but killing an armed, or guarded person is cowardly and deserves an enhanced punishment?
Some animals are more equal than others.
That always bothered me a lot – “Do you know who I am? Do you know how important I am?”
“You are nobody.”
“You are nobody, and that is what bothers you.”
There’s a story about when Al Capone was at Alcatraz, he cut in line for the prison barber, and one of the other cons objected. Capone tried on the, “You know who I am?” thing, and the other con grabbed the scissors out of the barber’s hand, stuck them in Al’s throat, and replied, “If you don’t get your fat ass back of the line, I’m gonna know who you were.”
For some reason that line always stuck with me…
“No, I don’t. Don’t you know who you are?”
“Apparently not, and neither do you.”
His number two is pretty bad, also.
The 1st item relates to the 3rd – it’s a hugely entitled sense of self-importance.
Ask any person when Congress is in session and when they’re off. Besides a tiny fraction that are really into politics, nobody will have a clue. They could be off for a year and you’d never know.
Bring back Congressional
junketssex tourism.This was triggered by seeing some discussion of the complete lack testing of the mRNA injections on pregnant women while still recommending them.
We’re all lab rats now.
I’m not.
Of course we are – we’re the control group.
Have been for at least a generation.
When you dig into the drug and vaccine trials you’ll find that hardly any of them are worth a damn and are not long term.
Surprise tactics
Facing backlash from MAGA supporters about the handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump and his administration have released a flood of information on old grievances and issues popular with the base.
Overnight, Trump used his Truth Social social media platform to attack Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., post a fake AI-generated video showing former President Barack Obama being arrested by the FBI and share AI-generated mugshots of a variety of Democratic officials who have served as Republican bogeymen over the years.
Trump also weighed in on another MAGA favorite — the names of sports teams — and threatened to try to block a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., unless the Commanders changed their name back to the Redskins. The team dropped that name in 2019, after years of criticism that it was racist.
——-
By Monday, many prominent MAGA social media accounts appeared to have moved on from the Epstein issue, focusing instead on some of the other topics that the Trump administration has been pushing.
“Saying Trump posts random stuff to distract is like saying the sun rises to mess with your sleep schedule,” a former Trump adviser said. “It’s just what it does.”
It’s not fair for him to derail the news narrative.
Chase the laser pointer. Chase it.
It’s hilarious.
The MSM still doesn’t know what to make of him.
He’s been in the public eye for decades.
His personality, agenda, and tactics should be well known by everyone.
But they all chase the laser pointer anyway.
It’s because they’re all intent on scooping the story that will finally do him in.
“Teachers” provide coverage, and are better compared to call center or retail employees than case-based professionals.
They’re babysitters. And not very good at it.
I think Colbert falls under the heading of “Entitled Academics.” He was given ten months on air to maybe redeem his wretched show, and he squandered them last night. Good. If he keeps doing that, he can get pulled off air immediately.
https://x.com/greg_price11/status/1947503584977031450
Could you imagine if people started telling Barack Obama to go fuck himself?
Yes, yes I can and it is glorious!
Started?
I’ve been hearing people tell him that for years now.
Or do you mean media types?
Yeah. I do it all of the time.
I don’t ever think about Barry or what ever people might say to him. Why would you do that?
I suspect he was given ten months because that’s when the contract expires and it’d be cheaper than whatever penalties were baked in to just run it out.
I’d wager that not everyone has a contract; they could just tell him to stay home and pay out the rest of his contract while airing re-runs of Matlock & save themselves a bunch.
Keep is contract. Cut the budget down to one camera guy and one makeup artist. Schedule the show for 3 am in the morning.
Enjoy the next 10 months Stephen.
The contract could easily be for the whole show and not the one guy.
No staff, no crew. Make him tape it as a selfie on his phone.
Shocking that sort of wit isn’t earning CBS megabucks annually.
“Shocking” 🙄
How is it that Jon Stewart had so much more class and humor 30 years ago when he had a show cancelled?
https://youtu.be/S1Y8egU_McA
Jon Stewart ruined late night television with The Daily Show. What I couldn’t stand about him the most was when he was called out, he used the excuse that he’s a comedian and not a journalist.
I’m not sure I even remember that existed. Granted, that couple of years were kind of chaotic.
I remember that clearly Ed. I remember not liking the guy because it was clear he was a leftist and had contempt for the smelly plebes.
Oh to have those days back. He was a piker compared to the naked hatred the current crop is showing. On top of that Stewart could make me laugh now and then. These guys now…nothing they do resembles humor in any way and their politics make Stewart look like a John Birch lifetime member.
Ed, Jim Treacher nailed him way back in the day: “Clown nose off, clown nose on”
https://web.archive.org/web/20160308055511/http://jimtreacher.com/archives/001068.html
The guy that makes a living mocking people can’t stand to be mocked.
They are all thin skinned.
I’m technically a Boomer myself, but holy shit, the Boomers can’t shuffle off the cultural stage fast enough for me. The Colbert kerfuffle is a bunch of Boomers soiling their depends because some Boomer with an audience of Boomers got his show cancelled.
Who. Fucking. Cares.
Ozzy dies, Jerome Powell resigns. Shaping up to be a busy news day.
https://x.com/DefiantLs/status/1947721628651237730
#fakenews on Jerry
OTH – the Ozzy news is true.
It’s fake. See the comments. I checked the wires too.
It appears to be true.
See if you can find a real source. I have CNBC on here at the office and would be breaking news.
I’m having the same problem confirming 100%. A few accounts I consider reliable posted that, but the Tweet I linked to has been deleted. I’m not seeing it on any news sites. Fog of war I guess.
Fog of War Pigs today.
So what shit is about to hit his fan?
If parents don’t discipline their kids, they misbehave in school to the extent that it becomes a waste of time for everyone.
Charter schools are a partial solution, but the real problem is compulsory education.
I don’t expect the system to change much. It’s shame that after doing well in all those math classes, I most likely won’t teach again, though it’s still a possibility. Oh well. 3 weeks til welding school starts.
There was a case where a low IQ couple (66 and 72) had to lawyer up to keep custody of their kids. There was no abuse or neglect, the justification was their intelligence. They both graduated from high school despite being below the 10th percentile for IQ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDhxLsjMhbs
***
Amy and Eric love their two children, Christopher and Hunter, more than anything, but they claim to have lost custody of the boys, not because they were neglectful or violent, but because their IQs are too low. The Oregon couple was allegedly deemed incapable of caring for Christopher when he was a newborn. As part of the state’s investigation, they said they were given IQ tests. The couple is now in limbo, waiting for a court to decide whether their children can come home.
***
If people with IQs that low can graduate a US high school, the whole thing is a charade. A very expensive one.
My own high school education was pretty good. I took all the hard classes that were available. I took calculus in high school, and I now live in county where no one even takes trigonometry in high school.
Most children 12 and up could probably be left safely at home. I suppose in other areas, keeping teens cooped up for most of the day is a matter of crime prevention.
Buck v Bell revisited…
Charter schools are a partial solution, but the real problem is compulsory education.
Yep. Public K-12 schools are fucked due to (among other things) the ideas of “universal access” and hesitancy to remove kids who are being major disruptions or safety threats.
If a movie theater never kicked out the loud hecklers on the grounds that “seeing movies is a human right”, the result would be that nobody gets to truly see the movie because the disruptors are not only not watching it themselves, but preventing others from doing so. Such a theater would go out of business quickly.
And some quote (can’t remember from where, unfortunately) stuck with me: “For a majority of people, public schools are the only place where they will ever experience physical violence.”
I hated high school so much partially because the district (Chicago Public Schools) wouldn’t allow the shitty students to be expelled, so us who wanted to learn, had to deal with their constant disruptions and shitty behavior.
Neph . . so much truth packed into that paragraph.
Mrs. Davenport who was probably one of the best high school teachers I’ve had, absolutely refused to grade us on a curve. She was pressured by the school’s administrators but told us that we were just as capable of performing well as the students at New Trier High School, which was a high school in the wealthy North Shore area. She was this short Greek lady who demanded our best and despite us all complaining about it at the time, we all remember with reverence because she never used the excuse that our school was in the hood and therefore should be judged differently. Even the gangbangers had some respect for her.
“Tracking” solved a lot of those issues but that’s probably unequitable or some shit now.
Somebody to a wrecking ball to some big high tech defense boondoggle.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/lockheed-profit-dives-80-16-billion-charge-shares-tumble-2025-07-22/
Ozzy passed away.
https://www.newsweek.com/ozzy-osbourne-dead-76-black-sabbath-live-updates-2102547
I saw that. Rest in Peace.
Shame Trick or Treat (1986) isn’t available for free. Would make for a fitting tribute this week.
Boy it would.
https://archive.org/details/trick-or-treat-1986
It’s far right populist bomb-throwers all the way down
Japan’s far-right populist Sanseito party was one of the biggest winners in the weekend’s upper house election, attracting many voters with its “Japanese First” platform that included calling for tougher restrictions on foreigners and the curtailment of gender equality and diversity policies.
Sanseito added 14 seats in Sunday’s vote to the one seat already held by its leader in the 248-member upper house, the less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament.
The surge in the party’s popularity came amid the backdrop of a historic loss by the long-governing conservative coalition of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, with Sanseito attracting frustrated voters struggling with economic woes.
Shogunate revival, next stop.
Always “far-right”, never “far-left”…
What would qualify as far left to Maoists? Hoxhaism? Pol Pot?
I can use it to explain WTH Japan still uses Chinese characters.
There are far too many homonyms in Japanese. Any guesses which “sansei” characters this party uses? (It’s actually rather obviously, but the birth control jokes write themselves.)
酸性: さんせい
(P, n) acidity, (P, adj-no) acidic
三省: さんせい
(P, n, vs, vt) frequent reflection (meditation)
三世: さんせい
(n) three generations, third generation immigrant, sansei, the third (e.g. Henry III)
参政: さんせい
(n, vi, vs) participation in politics, suffrage, voting
産制: さんせい
(n) birth control
産生: さんせい
(n, vs, vt) production
三聖: さんせい
(n) three enlightened men (Buddha, Confucius and Christ; Lao-tzu, Confucius and Buddha; etc.), three sages, three virtuous men, the three most accomplished people (of a particular craft or trade)
lol Really? How many could they possibly have…?
If you search for “reddit” in search engines the description most give is
but Google gives
People still use google?
How sad is it that a Microsoft product (Bing) is superior to Google?
Google rode their insane market share and took it for granted and did nothing to make their product better when real competition emerged.
Fuck em
And this is becoming the real use of AI: cutting through all of the crap on Google et al to find what you are looking for.
It’s probably showing you whatever the most recent posting to reddit was as shown on their home page. I got something entirely different.
This is the kind of curmudgeonly cane-shaking that I come to Glibs for.
Yeah, so when Gabby Gifford got shot and I got a mention at Fox News, my tweet got mixed up in a video of death wishes on Palin. I even made Fox News. Had to have Patterico to dig me out of that hole. Didn’t hurt me any, but I was stressed for DAYS.
Yikes. Shades of the Great Woodchipperening.
Sad trombone.
NPR news chief says she’s leaving, days after federal funding cuts
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/07/22/npr-edith-chapin-steps-down-congress-funding/
I got a quick glimpse before the “subscribe” popup but she looks just as you’d expect.
Yes, she does, although I was kinda expecting the oversized “smart girl” glasses. Worked at CNN for 25 years before joining NPR.
She can devote all her time to her HOA now.
https://media1.tenor.com/m/SQat8PlhhzMAAAAd/well-bye-later.gif
“According to recent data, she was compensated $307,444 in 2023 as VP, News and Editorial, and $283,632 in 2022 as VP, News and Editorial.”.
I’m guessing they kept giving themselves those fat 8% raises, so north of $350k by now.
I’m sure she’ll go right to the private sector and double that.
It was worth every penny so my lefty teammate can hear stories about how bad Trump is while he’s driving his Subaru.
The things those in the public sector feel entitled to do compared to those of us in the private sector #1,001.
DoJ staffer sacked ‘in retribution’ for husband’s anti-ICE app
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/07/22/doj-employee-sacked-ice-app-husband/
A DoJ committee apparently contacted Ms Feinstein to ask her about her interests in the app. She is a minority shareholder of All U Chart, Inc., the company that holds the IP for ICEBlock.
So, not really “your husband’s” anti-ICE app – you’re a shareholder, so it’s _your_ anti-ICE app.
The poor dear.
Maybe Jerome Powell “retired” as in “took a nap”.
I once mentioned that our most basic perceptions shape the way we see the world. The example I gave was that we perceive the world all around us and us being at the center of all of that. No matter where we go we are always at the center of the world we perceive around us.
Another thing to keep in mind:
I place an object on the table. You have never seen this thing before. How do you learn what it is?
You compare it to things you already know; how are they alike? How are they different? You keep categorizing it into narrower and narrower categories until it is in a category all by itself.
Now, trace that backwards. Those other things you already knew, how did you learn about them? By the same process of course. Keep tracing it back, all the way back. What was the first thing you knew?
Yourself
You began getting information about yourself by squirming around, kicking, sucking your thumb etc while you were still in the womb. What does this mean? It means that your entire body of knowledge is based on yourself, directly or indirectly. There are no exceptions. Every entity you know about, your every explanation for everything – you use yourself as a template for creating explanations of EVERYTHING.
What are the most basic things you know about yourself?
You are an entity separate from the rest of the universe. You have a finite size, a border or skin between you and everything else. You have a birth, a life and then a death. Those are two important things.
This kind of thinking works well for us, it has made us very successful. In other ways it leads us astray. Not everything is an entity. Not everything is finite. Not everything has a beginning, an existence and then an end. The more a thing is like you the better that template works. The more unalike it is the less well that template works.
What does every wise man ever always say? Know thyself. They are right.
I think this goes a long way to explain why we, as a species, are not civilized and so many people are completely insufferable assholes.
I have to go start supper.
It’s funny how Epstein was a nothingburger story until somebody decided they could hang him around Trump’s neck.
and also funny how the Epstein story was the big deal that was going to rock Washington until Trump’s people decided it was a nothing burger, after promising to rock Washington.
Let’s be fair here, this whole debacle was the administration shooting itself in the dick, see also having a public feud between Trump and Musk. Pretending everything is fine, and angry tweeting isn’t going to keep this crap from torpedoing the political turnaround Trump started. Someone in the White House needs to start acting like an adult and get to work mending fences or we’re headed straight back to Obama Biden.
We are seeing just how the FedGov is truly a Hydra.
Trump and team came in and sliced off a head, declared a win, while the other heads just laughed and laughed.
The punishment stemmed from violations that occurred in May, when students took over the Butler Library during a pro-Palestinian protest, and from an illegal encampment students established on campus during Alumni Weekend in the spring of 2024, according to the university.
“The speed with which our updated UJB system has offered an equitable resolution to the community and students involved is a testament to the hard work of this institution to improve its processes,” the university said in its statement.
It only took one year. Definitely some amazing speed. Give ’em the $400m!
https://abcnews.go.com/US/columbia-university-disciplines-70-students-seeks-deal-trump/story?id=123964822
That is because the university dragged its heels for months – because the vast majority of the staff are on the side of the pro-Hamas students – until Trump played the only card that was ever going to work.