266 Comments

  1. Ownbestenemy

    Scrubs girl… sweetheart, you tailored those…not that I’m complaining.

    • The Other Kevin

      Correct. Off the shelf scrub tops don’t fit like that.

    • Tonio

      Never figured you for the cottage core type, OBE. I are impressed.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I don’t know what that means but any day I impress you is a good day.

  2. SDF-7

    Nicely done, sir. Nicely done.

  3. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Biden calls climate crisis a ‘clear and present danger;’ House panel considers assault weapons ban

    Because guns ruin the climate.

    • SDF-7

      Biden also calls Murder She Wrote a clear and present danger — people keep dying wherever that Jessica Fletcher shows up!

      Then he smooshes his pudding cup into his face….

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        She was one of the most prolific serial killers in US history.

    • Rat on a train

      Warming slowed during the 90s assault weapons ban.

    • Count Potato

      Well, they do make CO2.

    • Ownbestenemy

      It’s okay…the signal was lit that gaffes are okay now, until 2024.

      • db

        Is cancer OK?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Joe is gonna cure it.

        Like a ham.

      • Penguin

        Well, I’d be more than happy to chip in for some sodium nitrite for the guy.

      • Tonio

        I imagine that real cancer survivors would view that the same way combat vets view the valor stealers, ie with complete and well-deserved contempt that cries out to heaven for a lightning bolt to descend upon them.

    • SDF-7

      “I got cancer and was at the top of my queue for chemotherapy at… MIT. Yeah, that’s right… then I got two scholarships and cured cancer before my law degree and running for Senate.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Now imagine if Trump had said this and the ranting that would ensue.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Already spinning he meant his non-melanoma skin cancer he had removed

      • Drake

        So he’s Irish.

  4. Rat on a train

    Quidditch changes its name to distance itself from JK Rowling
    So? Nerds are often kept at a distance from normal people.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Further cementing my view of Harry Potter fanbois as the dumbest fanbois.

      • juris imprudent

        Really? What’s dumb about running around on a field with a broom jammed between your legs

        [oh shit, I can’t even finish typing that without busting up]

      • Tonio

        I’ve seen those idiots running around with broomsticks between their legs at a couple of parks in Richmond. They look every bit as idiotic as you’d expect them to, and are completely unaware of that.

      • EvilSheldon

        As much as I want to say, “Let people enjoy things,” at some point you can take your tolerance too far…

      • Tonio

        Well, at least they are engaging in some form of physical activity that has a competitive aspect. But part of the uniqueness of Quidditch is that it’s a 3D game; what they are doing is just another field sport with the added silliness of pretending they are flying.

      • Tonio

        I have more respect for the people who play bicycle polo and do bicycle jousting. And I say this as a person who plays disc golf.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Yay disc!

  5. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York criticised Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia for his call to pause discussions on climate negotiations, saying he has no authority to discuss climate change.

    Why is Manchin still in the DP?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Phrasing….but not far fetched.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Especially after the AOC – Hunter conversation last thread.

    • SDF-7

      Manchin’s too classy to ask that she try the invisible ball gag as well next time, unfortunately.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Because the Bolsheviks haven’t culled the Mensheviks yet.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      She really is a shitbag.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Never gets old

      • The Other Kevin

        “Raising taxes on big American corporations and the wealthy would not fuel inflation. It would slow inflation by reducing demand – and do it in a way that wouldn’t hurt lower-income Americans (such as those living in, say, West Virginia).”

        WTF? If increasing prices reduce demand and thus slow inflation, we don’t need a tax. Just wait for the rising prices from inflation to slow down inflation?

    • The Other Kevin

      Was Manchin around during Obamacare? He can give her a quick history lesson about what happens to politicians who cater to the extreme wing of their party and ignore their constituents. Maybe Liz Cheney can join the zoom call.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I would think that AOC or any of member of Congress urging the President to issue emergency orders would be in violation of their oath of office.

      You are supposed to be part of one part of our government. You are supposed to tangle with the other two branches. How the hell can you advocate that one of the other branches spank you and send you to bed without dinner?

  6. Tundra

    Warty!

    The story about the childhood vax deficit is awesome news!

    Using sodium nitrate to kill yourself seems kind of dopey. A pathologist I know once told me that helium is a simple, painless and non-messy way to go.

      • SDF-7

        “Misinformation” cited repeatedly in the childhood vax article… can’t imagine how weaponizing the media and the health care industry into pimping pharma profits proactively would possibly perplex parents.

    • Warty

      Any non-CO2 asphyxiation is supposed to be painless, isn’t it? And I’m pretty sure I’ve read that breathing CO2-enriched air is one of the most horrifying experiences you can have.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’ve always wanted carbonic acid for blood.

      • Count Potato

        Would you also like to get Sigourney Weaver pregnant?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Well…. yes?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Keymaster confirmed.

        There is only Zuul.

      • Rat on a train

        vampire’s soda?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        breathing CO2-enriched air is one of the most horrifying experiences you can have.

        Depends on the concentration. A little bit of CO2 is bad in that it causes extended suffering before you succumb. A lot of CO2 knocks you out too fast to feel it for more than a second or two.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The story about the childhood vax deficit is awesome news!

      Wait, is it?

      • Tundra

        I think so. The fact that parents are putting on the brakes is a good thing. Too many vaccines, too soon.

        I used to think the anti-vaxxers were nuts, but now I think I might be one.

    • Nephilium

      I’ve always heard Nitrogen is the one you won’t even realize. Look up the transportation guidelines for canisters of Nitrogen sometime.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Refrigerant is silent but deadly as well, never feel a thing

      • R.J.

        Heh heh. You said “Silent but Deadly.” Way to tie in that Schwarzenegger story.

    • EvilSheldon

      Nitrogen or nitrous oxide asphyxiation is the way to go. Both supplant the oxygen in your bloodstream, neither affects your breathing reflex. You get loopy, fall asleep, then die, about that fast.

      • R.J.

        There are not any good commercials for whip its on YouTube. I will leave it at that.

    • Animal

      Yeah, but it makes your last words sound really weird.

  7. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Meh, I have a 1942 manufacture Mosin Nagant that’ll defeat just about any body armor. Nothing new there Daily Beast.

    • Warty

      I love when dorks discover that full-power rifles do full-power rifle things.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Body armor doesn’t stop nukes!

    • R C Dean

      “This is a weapon that could defeat any body armor, any planned body armor that we know of in the future,” then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the Army Times in 2019. “This is a weapon that can go out at ranges that are unknown today.”

      Well, the second claim is obvious horseshit. And I have my doubts that it can penetrate Level III and up, since those are supposedly protection against .308.

      So, basically, Milley’s full of shit. Quelle surprise, non?

      • Mustang

        It’s my understanding that velocity defeats body armor, to an extent. You can get plates rated for 308 that won’t stop M193 (5.56) because of the velocity difference.

      • EvilSheldon

        Velocity and projectile hardness, and it further depends on the armor. M193 will cut right through your cheap AR500 plates, but M855 will melt through my very expensive ultralight UHMWPE plates…

      • Mustang

        Correct answer: load both.

      • EvilSheldon

        Ugh. Dutch loading is for schmucks. And there are lightweight composite plates that will defeat any commercially available 5.56mm, including the M855A1 and Mk.318 MOD-0 SOST.

        The correct answer is, “Shoot them in the fucking face.”

      • Animal

        How do they do against a .338 Win mag?

      • Animal

        I’m not being flippant above. I’m actually curious, and I know very little about the commercially available body armors. I’m launching a 270-grain Barnes extruded-copper expanding bullet at about 2850fps. How would that stack up?

        Not that I have any intent to buy any body armor; it probably won’t be much protection against moose or bears. But I like knowing stuff.

      • EvilSheldon

        Animal,

        The highest NIJ rating for individual body armor is Level IV, which is rated to defeat a single hit from a .30-06 M2 armor piercing bullet. That’s a 166 grn. jacketed hardened steel penetrator, going out at about 2800 fps.

        Given that your .338 Win Mag is about 50% more bullet at about the same velocity, it may well defeat NIJ Level IV armor. Then again, the M2 is a hardened steel penetrator, and the Barnes TSX is a solid copper hollowpoint designed to expand…it might not. I wouldn’t bet more than beer money either way.

      • Animal

        Thanks Sheldon. I kind of doubt I’ll have to ever find out for myself, but it’s interesting either way.

        I’m guessing that even if it doesn’t penetrate, getting hit by something that generates two tons of muzzle energy wouldn’t exactly make you want to dance a buck and wing.

      • Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

        I have a .30 luger, and that caliber will punch holes in the steel plates used for NotAdnans competition.

    • Mustang

      Damn near any rifle above a 22 will shoot through most LE vests already unless they’re wearing hard plate. Way to scaremonger, but it’s the media so it’s expected. The new 6.8 is specifically targeted at Level IV plates and higher. The increased pressure (I believe it’s at 68k PSI) means more velocity from a larger bullet over a longer range compared to 5.56, while still being able to carry more ammunition than a 308.
      I’m on the fence about the whole program and it’s supposed benefits, but I don’t think incorporating modern bullet tech is a bad thing considering our current 5.56 and .308 is mediocre at best and the current stopgaps (M855A1) are not readily available. Velocity defeats armor. The 6.8 has a lot of it.

      • Rat on a train

        I believe it’s at 68k PSI
        I thought it was 80k. The velocity isn’t greater than 5.56 but the extra mass provides greater energy.

      • Mustang

        Yeah I think you’re right.

  8. Count Potato

    ““Certainly that has worked in Sri Lanka, where there was a lot of suicides using pesticides,” says Thompson. But restrictions on other substances haven’t had the same impact, she says. “In Britain, for example, where you can’t buy more than 30 acetaminophen at a time, that didn’t decrease the number of acetaminophen poisonings.””

    OFFS!

    • SDF-7

      WEF folks — “SEE! That’s why Sri Lanka had to go organic! If it prevents just *one* suicide, starving the lot of you peasants is WORTH it!”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      30 acetaminophen at a time

      That’s plenty to kill yourself with.

    • Gustave Lytton

      At least I can buy paracetamol in any quantity, right?

      • Rat on a train

        Only 200mg of ibuprofen?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Gotta make sure your liver and stomach go at the same time.

    • Tundra

      Truth.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Hey Drake, have you seen anything out of that Patrick Lancaster guy lately? He didn’t get himself killed did he?

      • Drake

        Nothing from him for the past 2 weeks. Hope he’s on vacation and nothing bad happened. Last I saw he was hanging out with “Chechen Special Forces” who didn’t seem very special but didn’t lack courage.

      • mikey

        He put out a short thing that he was taking a break with his family. Had a picture of, I guess, his kid at the beach.

    • Warty

      Precisely.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Cris Christie has hit the gym now that he’s out of office?

  9. Count Potato

    “All of a sudden, people will be able to kind of live out their fantasy of becoming a long-range sniper with an AR-15-style gun.””

    Or they could just buy an AR-30.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Yes, the rifle is the only factor when it comes to shooting.

      If you buy this magic rifle, you will be able to kill people miles away automatically. Just like drinking Bud Light will automatically get you laid at any party.

      • juris imprudent

        Advertising – what can’t it do?

      • pistoffnick

        Just like drinking Bud Light will automatically get you laid at any party.

        THAT’S what I’ve been doing wrong!

        /rushes out to buy a case of Bud Light

      • Bobarian LMD

        drinking Bud Light will automatically get you laid at any party.

        Worked for my sister.

        Ba-dum-tiss

      • Ownbestenemy

        Wait…I have questions

    • Drake

      The Daily Beast is shocked to discover battle-rifles.

    • EvilSheldon

      Losers. I regularly shoot my 20″ 5.56mm AR out to 650 yards at the QPS gas gun matches at Quantico.

      • Rat on a train

        With this new rifle you will be able to shoot over the horizon.

    • pistoffnick

      …long-range sniper with an AR-15-style gun.

      This is why I like my AR-10. I has 5 fewer ARs of dangerousness. Also it uses .308 boolits instead of those elephant killing 5.56 inch canon shells.

      • Don escaped Texas

        5 fewer ARs of dangerousness

        ** blows beer through nose **

        hey, warn a guy, wouldja ?

    • Rebel Scum

      Bro, an ASSAULT RIFLE 15 has a hyper power, heat seeking missile and that thing that goes up.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    The country’s police unions are either unaware of the potential threat or blinded by politics. Requests for comment from The Daily Beast brought no response from the unions representing cops in Los Angeles, Chicago, and even Dallas—where five officers were killed with an assault weapon in 2016.

    I been to one World’s Fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that’s the stupidest thing that ever come over a pair of earphones.

    • juris imprudent

      The cops don’t know about the new, ultra-powerful and super-deadly .277 FURY! [Not even going to ask for the pedantic deconstruction of the stupid acronym, just going to assume that Nick signed off on it.]

      • Pope Jimbo

        They will learn about them this fall when they try to start hassling people for violating Mid-Term Rona Lockdown Mandates.

      • Mustang

        I don’t think it’s an acronym.

      • Rat on a train

        It’s all caps because it is super powerful.

    • Grummun

      Can you even buy the 80kpsi military loads? When Gun Jesus did his review of the Spear, he pointed out that everything on the civilian market at the time was all-brass, “low” pressure loads, what the military will use as training ammo.

  11. Gustave Lytton

    …but identity of ‘superhero’ components still a mystery

    By Hiroshima University…

    Maybe they should consult with a fat man?

    • Ownbestenemy

      He wasn’t available, still waiting for Little Boy to respond though

    • SDF-7

      Look, little boy — don’t you go second guessing them. They be twenty nine times wiser than you!

  12. Tonio

    Loving the links format, Warty. Classes the place up.

    • Warty

      ICH HABE KULTUR

    • Ownbestenemy

      Meh he somehow retained support from blacks after shitting on them.

  13. juris imprudent

    And the Bee is just perfect.

    AOC Still Handcuffed As Capitol Police Misplaced The Invisible Key

    • JasonAZ

      Instant classic.

  14. grrizzly

    Meanwhile in Russia
    People ride a public bus with their own reindeer.

    • Rebel Scum

      Better hope they don’t hit a rut.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Bag-Man-in-Chief

    “Since Congress is not acting as it should … this is an emergency and I will look at it that way,” Biden said. “As president, I’ll use my executive powers to combat the climate crisis in the absence of executive action.”

    The initiatives include providing $2.3 billion in funding for a program that helps communities prepare for disasters by expanding flood control and retrofitting buildings, as well as leveraging funding to help low-income families cover heating and cooling costs.

    A slush fund in every garage.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Provides 2.3bn from where?

      • Sensei

        Whip Inflation Now Nixon slush fund.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Abracadabra, $2.3 billion…zim zam shabam!

    • Ownbestenemy

      The news glossed right over this?

      “As president, I’ll use my executive powers to combat the climate crisis in the absence of executive action.”

      Uh….

      • slumbrew

        Damn that lazy executive branch!

      • Trigger Hippie

        If only…

  16. Trigger Hippie

    I feel no desire to look like that. Sure, we have the same haircut but still…

  17. UnCivilServant

    *Grumble*

    I’m trying yet againto get my desktop to accept more memory. Can’t figure out why thd damn thing hates all more recently manufactured DIMMs, despite the facf that they are made to the same spec as the ones it happily runs on normally. So I’m griping on my tablet while yelling at thd machine to post so I can see how much memory it thinks it has.

    • SDF-7

      Did you check your motherboard’s thermostat? 😉

      More seriously — my money would be on it not detecting the timing profile correctly and you’d need to either adjust the timing profile or bump the DIMM voltage slightly if you’re just increasing density in the same banks — if you’re fully populating banks where you weren’t before, all bets are off… some boards just suck at that, no matter how stupid it seems — that’s when you check the memory compatibility guide and see if there’s any chance.

      Of course, if it isn’t detecting *anything* at boot, that’s when you check the seating of the DIMMs. And go to the minimum bank configuration first, get that stable then add banks.

      But I strongly suspect you know all this, and wouldn’t have gone on about it if I couldn’t pass up the cheap joke I started with. Good luck (we’re all counting on you…).

      • UnCivilServant

        Of course, if it isn’t detecting *anything* at boot, that’s when you check the seating of the DIMMs. And go to the minimum bank configuration first, get that stable then add banks.

        I’ve been getting that, I’ve been trying that. Why 1 or 2 DIMMs don’t post anything If and only If they’re the new sticks is an enigma.

      • SDF-7

        This is about when I’d try the new sticks in a different board as well — because it is starting to sound like they’re garbage if they don’t work even at 1 bank when your others do.

        (Or that DDR4 and DDR5 have the same bank config or something stupid I’m unaware of and these are same freq, same timings but different tech — but I’m assuming you would have noticed that).

      • UnCivilServant

        I checked and they’re all DDR4. But I have a hard time believing twelve DIMMs are all DOA, because that’s how many I’ve gone through at this point.

        I don’t have another motherboard which takes DDR4. At least I don’t think I do. I’ll have to check my Linux box, but I think that’s still running DDR3s.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Well obvious question….can you mb support more memory?

      • UnCivilServant

        Theoretically, I’m using half of it’s capacity.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Bios isn’t recognizing it? Or your OS?

      • UnCivilServant

        BIOS.

        I’ve set it to autodetect on all memory variables in the settings to avoid uncertainty, but it still only detects the old ones in use.

    • Sensei

      Will it run just the new sticks?

      Sometimes motherboards get flaky fully populated even without mixing brands.

      • UnCivilServant

        I have gone down to using just a single stick to verify, it boots off the existing ones, but won’t post with the identical brand capacity and frequency new ones.

        It makes no sense.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Dead bus?

      • UnCivilServant

        Please elaborate.

        It’ll boot off of any or all of the four sticks I currently use populated up to the four slots for that number of sticks. If I try to boot from any new sticks, even using the same slots, it refuses to post.

        I can’t believe that tweleve separate DIMMs over the course of two years were all DOA (This is my third try). I should theoretically get some post message from using one or two of the new DIMMs in the appropriate slots as per the manual (I do have to double check, because those turn out to be C_1 and B_1, which are one step in from the middle on either side of the CPU)

      • Ownbestenemy

        Meant bank, but doesn’t sound like it. 🤔 nuke bios back to default?

      • UnCivilServant

        I might try that at some point. I just got it back to pre-attempt settings so I could do research without fumbling with a tablet.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Provides 2.3bn from where?

    Never you mind.

    He’s got a pen and a phone checkbook.

    • mikey

      My public school education was wrong? I taught only the House could appropriate funds. I want my money back.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. were joined by seven Democratic legislators in an effort to urge Biden on Wednesday to immediately decare a climate emergency to unlock the powers of the National Emergency Act (NEA) and pursue regulatory and administrative actions to curb emissions.

    “Declaring the climate crisis a national emergency under the NEA would unlock powers to rebuild a better economy with significant, concrete actions,” the senators wrote in the letter. “Under the NEA, you could redirect spending to build out renewable energy systems on military bases, implement large-scale clean transportation solutions and finance distributed energy projects to boost climate resiliency.”

    Biden has vowed to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% by the end of the decade and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. But without major climate legislation, the country is on track to miss the president’s target, according to an analysis by the independent research firm Rhodium Group.

    “A historic climate-emergency declaration is exactly what we need from Biden to match the scale and urgency of this crisis,” said Jean Su, Energy Justice program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By unlocking crucial climate powers, Biden can put Manchin’s gaslighting behind us and get busy getting us off fossil fuels and building the renewable-energy powerhouse we desperately need.”

    Welcome o Cloud Cuckoo Land. May I take your hat and coat?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Manchin’s gaslighting? Goddamn, the balls on these fucking people.

      • Ownbestenemy

        The other 50 senators are thankful that the WH and media is chock full of morons.

      • Rebel Scum

        It’s a gift, really. Like they can’t control it.

    • slumbrew

      Biden has vowed to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% by the end of the decade

      So 7 1/2 years from now.

      Nope, that won’t explode the economy, nosiree.

      • rhywun

        All that matters is that the trillions of dollars wasted on this shit go to the right people.

      • Don escaped Texas

        dumb as Bush vowing to accept Kyoto; they seem not to understand that

        emissions ∝ fuel ∝ energy ∝ work ∝ production ∝ jobs ∝ GDP

        committing to reducing emissions faster than technology would naturally deploy is tacitly committing to destroying the economy

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This. More energy equals more human flourishing.

    • Gustave Lytton

      We don’t need an Enabling Act! We’ll just do it.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      This is what authoritarianism looks like.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    “By unlocking crucial climate powers, Biden can put Manchin’s gaslighting behind us and get busy getting us off fossil fuels and building the renewable-energy powerhouse we desperately need.”

    He stated, without evidence.

    I love how the steno pool lets these outlandish claims pass completely unchallenged.

    • Nephilium

      “By unlocking crucial climate powers

      Let me guess, Biden is Heart?

      • SDF-7

        They used Ted Turner, but at this point I could see Biden acting out Robot Chicken, yeah.

  21. Mustang

    Declaring a climate emergency and bringing the full might of the US government to bear on everything that entails sounds like the final step of the Great Reset. Yeehaw.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Wonder if one of those climate powers involve oh…say voting.

      • Mustang

        Voting, the energy grid, transportation, farming, supply chains, racial justice somethingorother…

      • The Other Kevin

        Of course! No need to burn all those fossil fuels driving to a polling place. Why not just text your vote?

      • Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

        TEXT “LIKE” to noclimat.gov/vote!

  22. Shpip

    Police said Dicken had no police training or military background. He told them he learned to shoot from his grandfather.

    That explains why he calmly put rounds on target at range instead of mag dumping, ducking behind cover, and waiting a half hour for backup while people bled out.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Deliberately placing rounds downrange…kid has no future in law enforcement.

  23. JasonAZ

    Hey Scruffy Nerfhearder, you posted this below on Sunday. Can you point me towards some good resources to learn more? I believe this, but I wish to become more educated on this topic.

    Fun fact: There are only a couple of scientific papers dating back to the fifties on the warming effects of CO2, everything else since has been extrapolation on that research with nobody challenging the original assumptions.

      • JasonAZ

        I thank you sir.

  24. Winston

    https://www.aier.org/article/are-you-in-a-state-of-emergency-mid-july-2022-covid-threat-free-update/

    The 2020s seem to be the Decade of Forgetting Everything We Used to Know. We’ve forgotten about the human immune system. We’ve forgotten you can’t fight price inflation by printing more money. Now we’ve forgotten when something is an emergency and when it’s not. Since when is an endemic virus an emergency? That term should be reserved for natural disasters, cataclysms, acts of war, and untold many other instances of sudden threat to life and limb. If a troubled young man enters an elementary school armed and intent upon horrific violence, that’s an emergency, and the time calls for immediate action, not milling about dispensing hand sanitizer.

    You know for people who embrace progress they sure seem to be upset by Current Year beliefs and attitudes…

    • Swiss Servator

      Go harangue them, leave us out of your feud.

    • grrizzly

      LOL. A significant chunk of the US political class launders money in Ukraine. And then somebody is surprised that the Biden regime “ignores” corruption in Ukraine.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Most of our political corruption and graft moved overseas where it was harder to track and we got less pushback.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      They aren’t exactly a bastion of democracy either.

    • Sensei

      I was forced to watch the video of that thanks to it playing on the TVs at work.

      Those costumes are a PITA to see out of. The children are fairly small. The character actually does look like it is ignoring the kids, but I wonder if the person inside just didn’t see them very well.

      It doesn’t matter of course. The story is already set in the media.

      • EvilSheldon

        “Those costumes are a PITA to see out of.

        Confirmed for furry.

  25. Winston

    https://arnoldkling.substack.com/p/keeping-up-with-the-fits-717

    Before 9/11, libertarianism appeared to be on an upswing. The Internet seemed to point the way toward decentralization. But 9/11, the Financial Crisis, and the virus crisis all turned out to produce Higgsian ratchets, expanding the role of government.

    Good, can we finally admit that Things Are Not Fine?

    I’m not optimistic about the future though. Most of what I see is either hoping for some TOP MAN to fix everything and do everything the author wants him to do or that “cultural antibodies” will fix everything and do everything the author wants them to do..

    • Rat on a train

      Did they use the invisible cuffs on him?

    • tarran

      So if I was a quarter mile away from a massacre can I also call myself a shooting survivor?

      • UnCivilServant

        That would make me a survivor of a lot of gang violence.

        I don’t think that metric works too well.

      • Sensei

        Absolutely. I was 5 miles away from WTC on 9/11 and also stuck in the city overnight.

        That has to make me a 9/11 survivor. OTH, my neighbor three doors down got witness the jumpers, get covered with the dust after the collapse and hosed off on the NJ side after taking a ferry across the Hudson River.

        I’ll let you be the judge who experienced more trama.

      • Tundra

        I drove across the Mississippi River bridge the morning of the collapse. I think I’ll start adding “Bridge Collapse Survivor” to my bio.

      • SDF-7

        My body contains heavy elements that could only be produced in a supernova…..

      • Rat on a train

        I survived Pearl Harbor.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You too?

      • Swiss Servator

        I am a multi time survivor!

  26. Tonio

    I will be kicking off the Glibs Humpday Zoom at 8:00 PM Eastern tonight.

  27. Winston

    https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5669/5669-h/5669-h.htm

    In any future Reform Bill which lowers greatly the pecuniary conditions of the suffrage, it might be a wise provision to allow all graduates of universities, all persons who have passed creditably through the higher schools, all members of the liberal professions, and perhaps some others, to be registered specifically in those characters, and to give their votes as such in any constituency in which they choose to register; retaining, in addition, their votes as simple citizens in the localities in which they reside.

    LOL at Mill thinking there was no way that University Grads or High School grads would adopt terrible ideas.

    An employer of labor is on the average more intelligent than a laborer; for he must labor with his head, and not solely with his hands. A foreman is generally more intelligent than an ordinary laborer, and a laborer in the skilled trades than in the unskilled. A banker, merchant, or manufacturer is likely to be more intelligent than a tradesman, because he has larger and more complicated interests to manage.

    Do we agree with this?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Do we agree with this?”

      It’s irrelevant.

      • Winston

        It’s more that this is what a major Victorian liberal actually said and what sort of evidence lead Mill to these conclusions besides his own preferences?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Probably a product of his environment in that regard.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Or rather, it has a tinge of Social Darwinism to it.

      • Winston

        Not to mention a proclivity for TOP MEN is seen here

  28. Winston

    https://fee.org/articles/sri-lanka-crisis-reveals-the-dangers-of-green-utopianism/

    As Ted Nordhaus and Saloni Shah from the Breakthrough Institute point out, “there is literally no example of a major agriculture-producing nation successfully transitioning to fully organic or agroecological production.” We must never take the relative rarity of starvation in modern times as a given nor romanticize and seek to return to farming’s all-organic past. Unfortunately, the delusion seems to be spreading, helped along by the global shift toward ESG.

    Our elites literally want us to starve..

    • Rebel Scum

      He asked the men for identification, which the agents and trooper produced. They admitted they did not have a search warrant.

      “Have nice day, commie cuntes.” *closes door*

      Agent 1 – “The idea is that when you purchase more than two guns at a time it generates a multiple sales report and it comes to us and we have to check them out. That’s all that is. You did nothing wrong – absolutely zero. I noticed you were stopped in Philly though with one of your guns?”

      “Then why are you here? Have nice day, commie cuntes.” *closes door*

      “Going forward, officials said, U.S. attorney’s offices and ATF agents will seek to prosecute more straw purchases — focusing not only on major cities, but also the neighboring towns and states that supply many of the guns used in crimes, including along the Interstate 95 corridor and in Indiana, Nevada and Arizona,” the story states.

      Best to go where the crime isn’t.

      The fact that neither the ATF nor the Delaware State Police were willing to answer questions, much less defend the actions of their officers, speaks volumes

      They don’t answer to you, pleb.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Of course, if he did that, they’d use that as justification for getting a warrant, harassing him, or subjecting him to further scrutiny.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Fucking criminals, part of a criminal enterprise.

    • Sensei

      That is enraging.

      • Sensei

        Mind in NJ the judges would grant that warrant without any questions.

      • Don escaped Texas

        this

        we are fucked at so many levels

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      So many agencies to nuke, so few available nuclear devices.

    • Tundra

      Rollo was causing me great anxiety with his gun handling.

  29. Winston

    Aged like fine wine:

    https://reason.com/1992/04/01/new-world-man/

    In this climate of division, Fukuyama’s book is an audacious declaration that we are right, that freedom is in the nature of human beings, that the Whig historians were not fools or apologists but prophets. Progress is possible, despite the sins committed in its name.

    Those who find a Golden Age in the past, whether in the 19th century or the 1950s, will not agree. Nor will those who see only the Other in the name Fukuyama.

    But I believe the claim to be true. I believe it because in my lifetime I have seen the death of Jim Crow and of the Soviet empire, systems that seemed eternal before they collapsed and seemed impossible afterwards. That impossibility, and that collapse, suggest that Fukuyama is right—that it is our fate to be free.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Postrel, of course

      • rhywun

        those who see only the Other in the name Fukuyama

        Good grief. I barely remember her but that’s ridiculous.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        She’s always been a pretentious asshole.

      • Tundra

        She sure thought we were top-notch commenters, though.

        I’m kinda proud to have been part of her meltdown thread.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        She exemplifies the “desperate to be socially accepted among the elite” libertarians.

      • Winston

        Are you surprised? That is literally what “progress” means: whatever the elites of today think is the Current Thing.

      • Winston

        Context please?

      • Tundra

        We pissed her off. She whined.

        It’s what pretentious assholes do.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        She publicly pitched a fit about the uncouth commenters at Reason.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ahem, glamorous pretentious asshole.

      • Tundra

        Oddly sensitive about her tequila intake, as I recall.

      • Gustave Lytton

        As long as it’s something like Casamigos and not something down market like Horny Toads. Or worse, pedestrian mainstream like Cuervo.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Before the unwashed commentariat made her question her assumptions of human progress.

      • Winston

        I love how many believers in human progress have always had a very authoritarian and collectivist view of this progress: not only will everyone agree on everything but they will agree with me on everything.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        not only will everyone agree on everything but they will agree with me on everything.

        Jeez, Winston, that may be the most coherent thing that you’ve ever posted.

      • Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

        She has a Substack now, and I told her off this morning. Some BS about Trumpist this, and Trumpist that. All about immigration, and how the right hates people.

        She liked my post. Weird.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        How deep and thoughtful.

    • Tundra

      LOL. My neighbor uses DoorDash a lot. It’s amazing to me how many times they have tried to deliver it to my address.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        We tried to do doordash last night. I gave up after it had been an hour. The Chipotle was 2 miles down the road, it should take like 20 minutes. To be fair, it was 100% Chipotle’s fault, and their online system is hot garbage.

  30. Count Potato

    “The social media movement around Depp/Heard was, for many, a continuation of Gamergate. That’s why it’s important that we continue to explore what happened, because it didn’t end with the trial.

    Depp/Heard was, I would argue, even WORSE than Gamergate because the people who accepted the conspiracy at the heart of Depp’s defense were oftentimes the demographic that would have OPPOSED Gamergate. It included a demographic of women, DV survivors, and liberals

    Most people don’t know what Gamergate is outside very online circles, but EVERYONE knew about the trial and saw the anti-Amber propaganda. It also caused a huge population to lose faith in the mainstream media, because they didn’t understand why MSM questioned the conspiracy

    This was the people’s QAnon, and it’s still going, just like QAnon kept going after Trump lost. Now we have an even bigger media-hating, conspiracy-primed population. It’s not gonna end well.”

    https://twitter.com/kattenbarge/status/1549504226862284806

    I can’t wait to hear how World War III is Gamergate.

    • rhywun

      I can’t wait to continue blissfully ignoring both “gamergate” and anything to do with those two.

      • R.J.

        I know. Why did I click on it and read it? Now I need to watch cat videos.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      blah blah blah yada yada yada…

    • Trigger Hippie

      It may comes as a shock to the article writer but 99.5 percent of the adult population in this country couldn’t give less of a fuck about those people or the verdict of their civil trial.

    • Cowboy

      Today on reddit someone claimed that gamergate was directly responsible for Trump, domestic terrorism, and roe v wade being overturned.

      I really wish there was a good reddit alternative.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That reminds me, I need more mags.

      • Count Potato

        You’re an engineer? Get working on those nukes!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *starts scouring ukraine.craigslist.org for components*

      • Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

        Psst, try AliExpress.com

    • rhywun

      a racist belief known as the ‘great replacement theory’

      Also known as something that multiple Democrats are recorded on camera promoting but let’s brush that aside.

    • Tundra

      Lol no.

  31. Tundra

    Holy freaking tacos!

    Might be time for Dr. Jill to take a break for awhile.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If my anecdotal survey of my Hispanic customers is in any way accurate, that’s high.

    • Count Potato

      What’s wrong with 61% of black people?

      Anyway, that might help some people here from saying Hispanics are going to vote in socialism.

    • Ted S.

      I was hoping you’d have it mounted to a piece of meat.

  32. Winston

    https://reason.com/2016/03/08/hong-kong-and-the-power-of-economic-free/?comments=true#comments

    Today, Hong Kong is one of the most prosperous places on earth. While it has its share of problems—not least the Chinese government’s recent crackdown on freedom of speech—Hong Kong’s success has been astonishing. In 1950, an average citizen of the city earned 35 percent as much as an average citizen of Hong Kong’s colonial master, Great Britain. In 2015, an average citizen of Hong Kong earned 37 percent more than a typical Briton. The poverty that Gellhorn bemoaned is gone—thanks to economic freedom and peace.

    Aged like milk…