I’m focused on a certain topic today, because reasons.
SHIT THAT GOES FAST AND BLOWS UP: Before we get into the outrage, rot, and moral turpitude, here’s something you can read to feel good about things. Don’t forget to contemplate how the A-10 is just an awesome aircraft, and how many US servicemembers owe their lives to A-10s for taking out threats.
WHAT’S THE ARABIC WORD FOR CHUTZPAH? Post-ceasefire trend sees Gazans claiming: ‘I am a Holocaust survivor.’ There are no words to adequately express my anger and outrage over this.
NOBODY WANTS A FAKE SAUSAGE ANYWAY: Beyond Meat slumps as shareholders agonize over debt exchange offer. Someone at Reuters had fun writing that, even though they didn’t use the above illo. For those of you fans of real sausage who are in or passing through the RVA area I’m giving a plug to local artisanal sausage maker The Mayor.
ORIGINAL SIN AS REPURPOSED BY PROGRESSIVES: Except we rather suspect that Kermit Pattison of Harvard will be one of the last ppl to be driven from the Garden of Eden (*cough* last up against the wall when the revolution comes *cough*).
THE ROOTS OF THE ROT: Okay, this person only has a few million direct readers, but those readers buy her brainrot at the distributor level, then others wholesale it, and yet another larger group retails it to your neighborhood AWFLs. And it’s not just this person, but a thousand more nattering nabobs of negativism.
THE MALE GAZE IS BACK: And the usual suspects ain’t liking it none at all. Come for the shrill, foot-stamping scolding. How had these discarded ideas made their way back into circulation? Didn’t we all agree we were through with them? Why no, we didn’t all agree to that, Toots. Stay for the unintentional comedy. The culprit, I have learned, is the male gaze. It was always there, but now it has stepped back into the spotlight. Let’s all give TMG a big Glibertarians hand, folks.
AND SPEAKING OF FEMINISTS COMPLAINING: Crikey, they’re on to us! Over at ZeroHedge, Tyler Durden hits the nail on the head. Feminists seem to have recently discovered “nose ring theory” and they are not happy. They admit that the theory is somewhat accurate, but they also argue that men are not being honest about why they are avoiding feminists. They say that men are scared away by the septum ring (feminism) because it represents “freedom” and a “woman who will not be controlled”. In reality, it simply indicates a women who has succumbed to woke ideology, a form of insanity that very few men are interested in dealing with (and these women then wonder why they are living alone with their cats). See, it’s always about female victimhood and males trying to control women. Because nothing says wanting to control women like leaving them the fuck alone. Kudos to TD for not going off about (((you-know-who))) for once.
EVERYTHING HIKERS KNOW ABOUT LIGHTNING SAFETY IS WRONG: Backpacker gives us this vital explainer. I had never heard of the “lightning crouch” but have ridden out a huge thunderstorm in a tent, inadvertently using that position. It also has the effect of keeping you and your stuff as dry as possible.
THE PENIS ANATOMY SONG: Yep, that’s what it really is. With anatomical drawings.
SKY SMITH ALWAYS LIKE WHEN HE CAME… TO THE SENATE.
Enjoy your couples time, Tonio… on to your actual links. Good afternoon to all and sundry.
SKY SMITH COME A LOT!
I thought they dropped the A 10. It’s definitely an idea stupid enough to be true.
*I had a friend in Livingston who had spent quite a bit of time in Afghanistan. He was a big A 10 fan.
No argument from me — and I find it laughable that from time to time I seem to recall people pitching the F-35 as a viable replacement. Absolutely no way.
A highly-survivable, long loiter weapons truck for close fire support is such an obvious asset I’ve never understood why anyone would want to get rid of the A-10 without having a seriously solid replacement on deck. Fantastic plane for meeting its mission.
Because top of the AF hates it with a passion.
The pilots of the A10 and the grunts are the exact opposite.
The AF hates ground support but they won’t let the Army do it.
Exactly.
Then give the Air Force an ultimaitum – give the ground support back to the Army, or we’ll give the whole Air Force back to the army instead, and fire all the flag officers as redundant.
Really? That does not match my experience with women with septum rings. They generally like to be controlled.
I assume I, like most men — see it as a cattle ring, which I assure you… does not say “freedom” in any way, shape or form. “Mindless cow preparing to be slaughtered”… well, that’s a more likely take.
Daddy issues often turn into a desire for submission, but they also tend to turn into deep seated ambivalence and an inability to accept responsibility. Or, put more plainly, she’ll ask you to spank her, then get mad that you did, and tell her friends you’re abusive.
Tonio is taking a trip to Langfield?
Ha!
The A-10 is an *awesome* aircraft. By rights it would have roughly the same service life as the B-52.
Things like this are why I so want an economy with gas+nuclear and domestic petroleum sufficient for the products we need… and to be able to just decouple and ignore the Middle East (and what Israel does at that point is up to it). I really just don’t ever want to hear from these brazen brainwashed buffoons for the rest of time.
And yes — I know it is a fantasy.
Mamdani is debating tonight. I hope one of the also-rans asks his opinion of this.
He has already weighed in
He didn’t call for Hamas to give up their weapons. Which doesn’t square at all with his demand that all NY’ers be disarmed.
This is a lie, of course. He absolutely does have an opinion on the future of Hamas.
“Human exceptionalism is at the root of the ecological crisis,” Webb told a Science Center audience of more than 100 people recently as part of the Harvard Science Book Talks. “This pervasive mindset gives humans a sense of dominion over the rest of nature, set apart from and entitled to commodify Earth and other species for their own exclusive use.”
Egghead hair-shirt-ism. These people are so fucking tedious.
We do have dominion over the rest of nature — if you must have an areligious reason: “We won” should suffice. We clawed our way to the dominant life form position and we can certainly act like it.
So fuck off and go commune with nature like the hippie you obvious are if you must — the rest of us will do what every other life form does (we just do it quite well)… use resources to survive and reproduce.
Humans are exceptional.
The big mistake we made was giving people who believe otherwise a seat at the table.
What ecological crisis?
Show your work, with examples.
I’ll start listening to her when she starts walking the walk and not just talking.
Actually, I think she better give up talking too. Not fair of her to communicate with other humans when the rest of the animals can’t.
See, it’s always about female victimhood and males trying to control women.
Or alternatively, it’s about the feminists’ barely disguised fetishes.
Not its fault — it is cold in the meat department!
Let it warm up and hang around the Beyond Cheesecake a bit and it would firm right up…
If only it had some animal fats to make testosterone.
From her home in Maine, the Boston College professor
Maine to Boston College? In traffic? I guess she doesn’t teach many classes in-person.
it represents “freedom” and a “woman who will not be controlled”.
I thought the septum ring was where you were supposed to hook the leash.
I’ve known quite a few who even linked the chain to ear rings themselves.
I always have to suppress an innate instinct to yank when I see folks like that. I suppose my inner child is a vindictive little weasel.
“I always have to suppress an innate instinct to yank when I see folks like that.”
Are we not doing phrasing? Thanks for sharing your fetish!
Hot take – the A-10 Thunderbolt II is the most overrated aircraft in the DoD inventory, and is the NATO equivalent of the Soviet MiG-25 – kluged together in a panic to combat a threat that never actually materialized, then shoehorned into a number of unsuited roles for lack of anything better to do with it.
In any combat theater where the NATO/US forces don’t have absolute 100% undisputed air superiority, the A-10 is nothing but a target. Full stop.
Any slow, long loiter plane capable of close ground support would be a target. At least the A-10 can take some hits. I still think it is an awesome plane for what it needs to do.
Any theater- or operational-level ADA/ADM will knock an A-10 out of the sky like a clay pigeon. Against fast-movers? Not even a prayer.
The A-10 was a pretty good COTS solution for slowing up hordes of T-72s charging through the Fulda Gap, limping back to base after being shot full of holes, and getting rapidly patched up for another sortie or two before finally buying the farm. We don’t really need that capability anymore (not enough to pay the maintenance, anyway,) and the A-10 is no good for anything else.
In a contested battlefield, an F-15E, F-16, or F-22 is going to be more effective and infinitely more survivable as a CAS platform, and can also fulfill other roles.
Well, most every person I’m aware of whose been in a combat theater supported by them has nothing but praise for them. People who have no problem calling out crap for being crap if they think so. People planning operations seem to come back to them again and again, even if they’re supposed to have been retired. I’ll take that real-world evidence over the theoretical stuff any day of the week.
In the roles it’s been deployed for, seems highly functional. Maybe there’s a better solution, but I haven’t seen it demonstrated in the real world yet, theorizing aside.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you’re gonna somehow use it to turn screws, and the people who really needed those screws turned are gonna praise it to the heavens. That doesn’t imply that a hammer is the best tool for turning screws.
We don’t have any real-world evidence. The last conflict that the US was involved in where we didn’t have complete air superiority was Vietnam.
I don’t think that it’s ‘theorizing’ to state that the A-10 won’t survive in contested airspace – more an observation of reality.
We don’t have any real-world evidence.
Agreed. But if the F15e, F16, F22 would do a better job, won’t they do it with air superiority as well? i.e. why did we (and continue to) deploy the hammer even if we had platforms that would do it better? It’s not like the F15 or 16 are brand new platforms that haven’t had the opportunity to prove their superiority in those missions.
If contested airspace isn’t a thing, then maybe the fast-movers wouldn’t do as good a job at CAS*. But that question ignores two really important factors:
1.) Contested airspace *IS* a thing, and…
B.) We exist in a world with limited resources**. Having a specialized close-air support platform that is only usable in conditions of total air superiority, and is completely useless for anything else, is just not economically viable, especially when that platform is old and starting to suffer from a badly extended logistics tail.
Like it or not, but modern combat aircraft need to be able to fill multiple roles.
* – In a controlled airspace CAS role, I question whether there’s anything an A-10 can do that an AC-130J can’t do better and cooler.
** – This is not meant to imply that the Air Force is any paragon of fiscal responsibility.
The U.S. needs something like the Skyraider.
Longer loiter than the A10
I just put 4 new shocks on in under an hour!
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.
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On my 20 year front loading washing machine. It’s such a pain to get it out of the basement and a new one in that I elected to spend $130 in parts. I could have paid half that for non OEM, but didn’t want to do the job twice. Fingers crossed I get a few more years out of it…
4 shocks? I guess Tonio’s backpacking link was a day late and a dollar short.
I…. thought it would be a bit more subtle. I should not have clicked that (thank goodness for Private Tab!)
“Exactly What It Says On The Tin” indeed…
My daughter has a nose ring. She’s not Glib material yet, but she’s also not terribly woke. I don’t like it, but at least it’s not a tattoo.
I think people are past being tired of the left’s lunacy. I am hearing a lot of noise about the R’s picking up as many as 19 seats in the mid=terms. It makes me feel tired already just thinking of how badly they will fuck up that opportunity.
I am also hearing a lot of talk about we need to follow the antifa money blah blah blah. It has already been done. We know who the financiers and organizers are. It was all over the news two days ago. The dems are sticking with the ‘antifa doesnt exist’ bullshit?
The memo has gone out. “Antifa doesn’t exist”, and isn’t it crazy and funny how those MAGA idiots think it’s real?
Remember these are the same people nodding along when Biden called “white nationalists” the biggest threat to our country.
And the same people who said Biden has never been sharper….ok, maybe that one was true.
Still, the ‘dont believe your lying eyes’ schtick isn’t working.
IMO that’s why they lost the last election. The gaslighting was just so obvious. And they’re still doing it.
Goebbels would applaud their technique.
Would be interested in hearing about those sources. My “insider GOP acquaintance last told me their internal polling predicted loss of 17 seats. Yeah, this may be overstated for fundraising purposes but a difference of 36 seats is unlikely.
From memory one of the large prediction markets.
lightning crouch
In the before times, the long long ago, on Mt. Whitney. We (myself and 2-3 other people) had stayed over at Trail Camp, got up very early in the morning, gone up to the summit and were back down around 1-2pm, just before the afternoon storms started threatening to pop up.
We were watching the switch backs up to Trail Crest and saw a group come up from the Muir Junction side. They came down relatively quickly as the clouds built. We were talking to them when they got down and said they had been planning to summit, but it was too late in the day and they were worried about the building storms. But one guy had decided to go for it.
Right about then, we see this figure scrambling/glisading down the shoot (?) just to the north of the switch backs as lightening and clouds build. He finally got down, looking all disheveled, hair standing straight up. He holds his hands up next to the sides of his head, wiggling his fingers while making crackling noises and, in his best stoner Southern California voice (I think it was his real voice), says “DUUUUDE!!!! My hair was like!!!!”
Lucky to be alive. And he didn’t make the summit.
For me, it was Dolly Sods, WV.
Tonio, I always knew you had great taste. Dolly Sods is my single favorite backpacking spot east of the Mississippi.
[fist bump] for EvilSheldon.
I have not been bitten by a rattlesnake or hit by lighting.
Yet.
Like other Substack success stories, Richardson came in with institutional credentials. She attended Phillips-Exeter Academy, arguably the country’s most prestigious prep school, before earning three degrees from Harvard, teaching at UMass-Amherst, MIT, and finally becoming a tenured professor of history at Boston College. Along the way, she published five books with mainstream presses (and a sixth in 2023), hosted a podcast on NPR, and built a wide readership.
Bless her heart.
The personification of what Bertrand Russell termed ‘learned ignorance’.
“NOBODY WANTS A FAKE SAUSAGE ANYWAY”
As a fellow maker of encased meats, I approve of this Mayor and hope to visit his establishment some day. Maybe when my kid moves out that way next year.
“THE ROOTS OF THE ROT”
We have people among us who live in an entirely different reality. I wish I knew what to do about it.
“THE MALE GAZE IS BACK”
The past few years I have been into figure drawing and pinup style work. I haven’t drawn much in the last few months, I think it’s time to get back into it. This might be a “right place right time” sort of thing.
Never heard of that person myself but she sounds like a bog-standard present-day Democrat. They are almost to a person batshit insane.
I try to be at least a little self-aware, and I occasionally ask, am I the one who’s crazy? And then I remember, these people still believe all the hoaxes. Trump called Nazi’s “fine people”. He told people to drink bleach. He worked with Russia to rig an election. All demonstrably false, yet they still believe every word of it.
Richardson was the historian who wrote in her column after the first Trump debate that Biden was confused because Trump used a version of the “Gish gallop.” Biden, she assured them was mentally fine.
And, of course, there are the progressive followers who pass her words on across the fruited plane because she’s an historian and therefore “objective.” I feel like every time I see one of those posts I want to post a column from Victor Davis Hanson. “See, he’s an historian and, by your metric, objective. How do two objective historians come to two diametrically opposite views.”
Thanks for mentioning the GG.
Just browsing X, and Trump is having a press conference. He called on a reporter, and just casually said, “Yeah CNN, fake news.” LOL
A Single Lightning Bolt Just Killed 34 Cows in Colorado. Here’s What Hikers Can Learn.
The tragedy offers some sobering lessons for anyone who spends time outdoors.
Oh.
The press will milk anything for clicks.
They do tend to toot their own horns.
Don’t you dare call it bullshit
Including minotaurs?
Including minotaurs?
I’m looking at you Mandy Marcotte
Oh please don’t Trashy! Every time you look at her we get 5 articles about the male gaze, and I think we’re approaching a derp tipping point.
None of this would’ve happened if someone thought to ground the beef.
That is… BEAUTIFUL! I don’t even think a gaze can be narrowed narrow enough to counter it.
Swiss will say nothing, he’ll just quietly shunt you.
I can’t resist! Nothing will impede my applauding you for finding the best potential pun!
These criticisms underline the same point: Richardson has a strong bias, but she presents it as neutral.
I get it. One of those staunchly pragmatic independents who would rather be boiled in oil than vote for a Republican.
Tonio sent you an email
Was it a dick pic?
He said email, not emale
Phallic in nature it was not
Thanks.
“how many US servicemembers owe their lives to A-10s for taking out threats.”
Or making them lay low. Way low.
Either way, I am gladdened.
Canadians shake fists at the sky when they see F16s.
Man, that picture is really worth a thousand words (and probably 10,000 finger wags.)
That’s what happens when you spend decades up your own ass.
Man, that picture is really worth a thousand words
Are we sure that’s not “Richardson, in THEIR study”?
With a candlestick.
Same with any currently fashionable identity group, not just women.
It’s always about nothing other than getting more power.
Every one of the ‘equality’ movements boils down to ‘I am more equal than you are’.
Drunken Zoom cover of the Penis Anatomy Song is in the Glib future.
State-level Democrats try to stop tech merger after DoJ settlement happened in June
I read the initial DoJ complaint earlier this year, and it was trash. The settlement was the best way for DoJ to save face. Now the state AG Democrats pick up where the DoJ left off.
Grrrr
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/hpes-14-billion-juniper-acquisition-could-face-state-challenge-2025-10-15/
I thought this already was approved. I have a friend at Juniper who officially became an HPE employee this week.
DoJ approved it. I haven’t read the new complaint, but I’d assume it’s some sort of undue influence claim.
The left hasn’t been happy about the merger in the first place. Their DoJ swamp creatures got canned for insubordination because they held up the deal and they’re frothy about it still.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/senate-democrats-call-probe-doj-193244784.html
Most nations Dont have good air defense if any at all, so keeping a few dozen A10s around for specialty work is still a good investment.
/Maduro?
New Dungeons & Dragons art just dropped:
https://x.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1978551451401036123
For their next update they should just hire the dude from Oglaf to do the illustrations.
love is in the eye of the beholder
WTH?
There truly is nothing that the Care Bears can’t despoil and ruin.
(Full disclosure – my last campaign did have a friendly Beholder NPC. He was the town mayor and the proprietor of a thriving bricklaying business.)
New state definition of “voluntary”.
https://nypost.com/2025/10/15/us-news/nassau-wont-have-to-pay-back-400m-in-illegal-red-light-fees-as-judge-oddly-claims-payments-were-voluntary/
In a way they were….
Anything that falls under the umbrella of, “Do this or go to jail,” is not voluntary. Anyone who says, “Well, you could just not drive!” should be beaten with a claw hammer.
Did a ghost make them run a red light?
EvilSheldon:
May I suggest beating them with a tire iron instead?
You voluntarily file your 1040 each year according to the Court. So there are no 4th Amendment concerns, no matter what they ask.
The Anglican schism is official.
SPLITTERS!
Nobody expects the Anglican schism.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/john-bolton-indictment-10-16-25
JUST IN: John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, has been indicted. He faces eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information.
I can’t wait for hat and hair to comment.
Some reports that Ace Frehley has died.
Confirmed.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-10-16/ace-frehley-kiss-dead-74
The Anglican schism is official.
Is that anything like the Vatican Rag?
I got an ASUS with Window 11, but NOT Windows 11 S (or Pro?) that disallows you from using anything other than the Windows store. So I can still get apps from elsewhere, and thinks are running well. Old computer is fucked, but has resumed basic functionality. So it’s now a monitor when it works, nestled carefully for my Gentleman’s Sleep Enhancement in the eve.
Got a surprise hiring msg today for an Editor – Reporter gig from the Carmel Current, the local (mini) newspaper, print and digital. I may have erred in interview with the dude a couple years ago, but this is fairly serendipitous.
They want three stories and two features for an application, which I can easily acquire (tho I’m not sure how good they’ll look). I’ll have to see what I can scape together. My old paper replied to me when I asked about getting pro-looking online copies for portfolio, and apparently there’s a newsroomy thing called “etear” which papers use to document bylines and such. She got back to me awfully fast. That’s rather nice of her.
Munchkin in MN barked some good sense into me. Much bigger fish need fryin’, and this is a (most likely unsuccessful) push in that direction. *shrug* I do think of Gretzky frequently: Ya miss 100% of the shots ya never take. Putting my self-depreciation aside, this gig’s wheelhouse is spinning right up my ass. And I live right in the middle of it. (My zip is a requirement.)
I suppose I shall have to see, but I’m absolutely throwing my best hat into that pile. (It’s special. It ingratiates itself with the others, then eats the other unsuspecting headwear, then transmits the vanquished souls’ power to me. It’s why I throb in persistent showers.)
Remind anybody of another US band from CA?
https://youtu.be/i4AzvZKQPiM?si=Oq7lDqWXCsGwZEz2
Hey guys!
Old time commenter, back from a long hiatus!
Anyone know if the Discord is still active?
Remember that the only way to access it was a link from here…