A Festivus for the Rest of Us Forum

Let the grievances be aired.

“Festivus” is licensed under CC BY 2.0
FILED UNDER: Open Forum
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Monala says:

    Yesterday, Jax posted on the open thread about a trial for an oral Covid vaccine. Quoted from the link:

    Vaccines work by triggering a safe immune response, so your body will produce antibodies to the virus. The problem is, if it were ingested, it would be killed by your stomach acid before being absorbed.
    “It has the advantage of the protein that stimulates the immune process is covered with a substance that avoids the stomach acid. So it’s passed on to the small intestine, and it’s absorbed mucosally. Mucosal absorption increases the IGA and the T-cell content, so it should last longer,” said Poling

    This made me wonder, how did the polio sugar cube vaccine survive stomach acid, and why didn’t vaccine developers continue to use sugar cubes?

    1
  2. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Mitch McConnell.

    Oh hell, the entire GOP.

    2
  3. JohnSF says:

    @Monala:
    IIRC it’s because the polio vax was not an inactivated virus but a reduced virulence bred but still active version in a low dose.
    So with intact coating it could be given orally, but with downside that about one in a million would get a serious infection, illness, and polio paralysis effects.
    Also, the attenuated virus could be excreted and then revert back to its virulent form.
    So it’s a problem if you had poor sanitation and large numbers of unvaccinated people, as was the case in some areas.

    Just checked “polio virus” on wikipedia, looks like I’m almost right; but as usual the whole thing is more complicated.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine

    4
  4. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Judges are airing some grievances too:

    Capitol rioters hit with severe sentences and sharp reprimands from judges

    Judges across the US have been handing down stiff sentences and hard words in recent weeks for extremist supporters of Donald Trump who took part in the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.

    Since a federal judge sentenced Jacob Chansley, the US Capitol rioter nicknamed the “QAnon shaman” for his horned headdress, to 41 months in prison last month, more US judges have been delivering strict sentences to defendants charged over their roles in the attacks earlier this year.

    Since the riots, federal prosecutors have brought cases against 727 individuals over their involvement in the deadly riots. With hundreds facing criminal charges, Trump has come under growing scrutiny from the House select committee investigating the attacks.

    The longest sentence so far was handed down to a Florida man who threw a wooden plank and fire extinguisher at police officers during the riots. On 17 December, Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Robert Palmer to 63 months of jail time, describing the prison term as “the consequence of those actions”.

    According to Chutkan, individuals who attempted to “violently overthrow the government” and “stop the peaceful transition of power” would be met with “absolutely certain punishment”.

    9
  5. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Somebody hit a deer right at the top of our driveway. Our dog can smell it and has been driving us nuts all night with wanting to go out. So now I get to tie it to my hitch and drag it a mile or so away. Great way to start my day.

    5
  6. OzarkHillbilly says:

    More CRT for dummies:

    “The FBI wanted me to gather as much information about these individuals and confirm their identities,” Moore said of law enforcement officers who were active members of or working with the klan. “From where I sat, with the intelligence laid out, I can tell you that none of these agencies have any control over any of it. It is more prevalent and consequential than any of them are willing to admit.”

    The FBI first asked Moore to infiltrate a klan group called the United Northern and Southern Knights of the KKK in rural north Florida in 2007. At klan gatherings, Moore noted license plate numbers and other identifying information of suspected law enforcement officers who were members. Moore said he noted connections between the hate group and law enforcement in Florida and Georgia, coming across dozens of police officers, prison guards, sheriff deputies and other law enforcement officers who were involved with the klan and outlaw motorcycle clubs.
    ………………………………..
    His years as an informant occurred during a critical time for the nation’s domestic terrorism efforts. In 2006, the FBI circulated an assessment about the klan and other groups trying to infiltrate law enforcement.

    “White supremacist groups have historically engaged in strategic efforts to infiltrate and recruit from law enforcement,” the FBI wrote. The assessment said some in law enforcement were volunteering “professional resources to white supremacist causes with which they sympathize”.
    ……………………….
    Over his decade inside, Moore said his list of other law enforcement officers tied to the klan grew. The links, he said, were commonplace in Florida and Georgia, and easier to identify once he was inside. Moore said the three current and former prison guards implicated in the murder plot case operated among a group of other officer-klan members at the Reception and Medical Center prison in Lake Butler, Florida, actively recruiting at the prison.

    Florida’s department of corrections said that’s not true.

    Of course they said that. If they acknowledged the bad apples, they might have to admit the whole barrel is rotten.

    7
  7. OzarkHillbilly says:

    US conservative parents push for book bans – and unintentionally make reading cool again

    Just as true as it ever was. The surest way to get a teenager to do something is to tell them they are barred from it.

    5
  8. Jen says:

    Rep. Madison Cawthorn is getting divorced after eight whole months of marriage.

  9. Jen says:

    As I was saying the other day, the national ICU bed numbers aren’t useful.

    In highly vaccinated New England, hospitals are under unprecedented strain as coronavirus surges

    On a recent morning, Neil Meehan opened a spreadsheet he has come to dread.

    It showed the number of intensive-care beds available in an area of New Hampshire that is home to 350,000 people: two.

    A day earlier, there was just one. Very often there are none.

    Meehan, the chief physician executive at Exeter Hospital, has worked in emergency medicine for nearly three decades. He has lost track of the number of unprecedented things he has witnessed during this second pandemic winter as virus cases and hospitalizations in the state hit record highs.

    His hospital has canceled elective surgeries and placed adult patients in pediatric wards. There are members of the National Guard carrying out support tasks. One seriously ill patient had to wait a week for a transfer to a larger hospital that could treat his condition, a move that normally would have taken hours.

    “You have duress in the system that I have never seen before,” said Meehan, 56.

    Anyone saying that it’s time to act like there’s no pandemic needs to sit down and chat with some doctors or nurses in New England.

    2
  10. CSK says:

    @Jen:
    I wonder what the “irreconcilable differences” are.

  11. steve says:

    We currently have about 100 pts waiting in an ED for a bed. Been that way for over a week. We were down to 2 ICU beds for a network of 12 hospitals but it is back up to 12 now. However, EMS and transport services have been hit hard. We started the transfer process to send a pt from a lower level ICU to a higher one at 7 AM and pt did not arrive until 1 AM.

    Also, just for fun if you are really bored. A conservative linked to the following article as proof that covid is no worse than the flu. Just skim through it until the update. In short, the article used numbers that I thought didnt make sense to prove covid is just like the flu. Well, read the update. The author used wrong numbers and admits he was wrong. Covid is much worse than flu. This is just one in a long series of conservatives citing literature that says the opposite of what they claim.

    https://medium.com/microbial-instincts/clarifying-the-true-fatality-rate-of-covid-19-same-as-the-flu-8148e38b9ab5#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20Dr.%20Fauci%20refers%20to%20the%20case%20fatality,number%20of%20people%20that%20have%20the%20disease’s%20symptoms

    Steve

    6
  12. mattbernius says:

    @steve:
    TY to you and the rest of the medical professionals and medical support professionals who are part of our little community. I know the last two years have been unspeakably difficult for you. I just want to say that I am thankful for all you have given and hope you can get some rest and renewal at some point soon.

    5
  13. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Jen: Reading his tweet, I’m thinking that they probably realized that the union was… …irrational? …not conforming to the expectations of reality? …doomed to fail? but decided to go on with it because “we can’t just cancel; we’ve already paid the caterer.” At least this way, they can fight over keep the presents.

    3
  14. CSK says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    Didn’t Cawthorn advise young conservatives to drop out of college and get married young?

  15. Kathy says:

    @Jen:

    Who knew some many people were being attacked with anthrax?

    1
  16. mattbernius says:

    After this thread from Twitter from the chair of UCSD’s school of medicine for a metered and sobering read on the state of Omicron, the good and the bad news– https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1473787861056901124.html –my grievance is with the poor state of my math thinking abilities.

    It wasn’t until it was pointed out in that threat that I internalized the reality that while Omicron may in fact be less severe than Delta, its increased level of transmissibility could still overwhelm health systems due to the sheer volume of cases.

    In other words, I completely did not grok how a lower percentage of a high volume of cases could, in fact, be greater than a higher percentage of a lower volume of cases.

    6
  17. CSK says:

    @Kathy:
    As I said last night, the QAnoners want to believe someone poisoned them with anthrax spores, because it makes them feel important, as if the Deep State recognizes what a threat they are and wants to eliminate them ASAP.

  18. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    Can someone who follows college football more than I do explain this?

    The talk of the town in college football on Wednesday has been about which team will replace Texas A&M in the Gator Bowl after the Aggies dropped out due to COVID-19 complications.

    It looks like Wake Forest has found a new opponent.

    According to James Kratch and Keith Sargeant of NJ.com, Rutgers is positioned to receive and accept a last-minute bid to the Gator Bowl. The Scarlett Knights will now head to Jacksonville to take on the Demon Deacons on New Year’s Eve.

    Rutgers emerged as a late contender to fill the open spot after a number of teams expressed interest in slotting in for Texas A&M on Wednesday. Because the Scarlett Knights had the highest “Academic Progress Rating” score among the 5-7 teams that are available, they had the strongest claim to play No. 17 Wake Forest.

    When did “academic progress” (whatever it may mean) become a criterion for selecting bowl game participants? And why?

    Mind you, congratulations to Rutgers on their selection and happy times for the residents of NJ who will find themselves able to make the trip away from Northeastern winter–even if only to Jacksonville. But still, while I followed college football, the criteria for being awarded a bowl berth was 1) having a record that made you a credible opponent and probably more importantly 2) having a fan base rabid enough to fly to whatever small to medium city with a desire to become a tourist destination was hosting the game and willing to fill restaurants and hotels in the region. (Seriously, I remember one time where a relatively highly ranked team was passed over for a much weaker opponent because the high-ranking team’s fans lived in the area of the stadium, so they wouldn’t need to rent rooms.)

    But I digress; anyone know why academic progress became a criterion?

    2
  19. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK: Not a subscriber to the Wisdom of Madison Cawthorn blog, so I can’t speak to that, but considering that he was 26 when he abortively tied the knot, why would anyone take his advice about marrying young? Or is 26 considered young to get married in the contemporary world? (We can see that it was too young for Mad and his squeeze, but they might well be outliers for whom any age is going to be “too young.”)

    1
  20. CSK says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:
    Well, 32 was the average age to get married in the U.S. during 2020, but I think Madison was advising 19-year-olds to drop our of college and tie the knot. In any case, did you expect logic or consistency from him? Of course you didn’t.

    1
  21. Jim Brown 32 says:

    Im fed up with substandard Democrat messaging. I knew it was bad–but after almost a year in Desantistan–its worse than I thought.

    For instance, the connotation of “Poor” here is different than what Democrats intend to convey when they say they want to help.

    A large percentage of the “poor” here and in rural-ish areas like it don’t have a money problem–they have substance abuse, emotional impulse, and values problem. Money would exacerbate their problems without them getting life skills help–which very few of them want. So while Democrats raged at Manchin’s off the record comment about people using paid leave to go hunting, etc. I get where was going with that–and the long-time residents of these areas are in complete agreement.

    Most of the disadvantaged people here who are what we think of when we think of the poor–left these opportunity deserts for better pastures. What’s left behind are mostly scammers and frankly, lazy people, who will call off of a job because it was a good day for fishing. Now that employers are paying out the ying-yang, at least, in North Desantistan–we are seeing that it ain’t about the money.

    The Grand irony is that ALL these people vote GOP, but the people I consider working class, or even the few working poor, can’t stand the other group who would mostly take the benefits of any program and not use it to improve their lot long term. The other irony is that the later group is populated with very few black people. They are in the former group and don’t participate in politics outside of voting for President. If the GOP ever swallowed their dog whistles–these black people would vote GOP all day.

    So at the end of the day it comes down to white disdain for lower class whites. I’ve listen to many of them–its not the money. A lot of these people actually ARE low / no class in their way they live and treat their neighbors and fellow citizens in the community–and they LOVE DJT

    Why do I point this out? 1st read in any messaging campaign is to look for a “red on red” issue and put factions against each other. There is a seam to be exploited between the poor rural who simply lack money from the larger pool of sorry excuses who lack a clue. Democrats have to reframe helping “poor working families” into something else. The people left in these places that are poor and working–don’t see themselves as such. You can’t make Tiger Woods see himself as a Black Man…and you can’t make the rural working poor see themselves as poor. The “poor” here are seen as the other folks I described. Its hard to even WANT to help them. These are the people that are going to smoke up the child tax credit money. These are the people that got 150K in Covid money to keep their “salon” in bumfukistan afloat during Covid. My wife is from rural South Carolina and its the same thing there (not as bad as it is here in N. Desantistan)–a real moral erosion. Im not the moral police-but I do believe if are going to provide government programs to otherwise healthy people–the endgame is for them to bring their families out of poverty and not use the help to engage in more self-defeating behavior that keeps people in poverty. The segment of people that lack the ability to reach that endgame is a lot larger than I believed it was.

    8
  22. Michael Reynolds says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Indeed. And we are not happy with not being banned. Clearly we’re going to have to include some explicit non-binary sex in our next books. Which will be tougher for my wife writing younger books often involving animals. Are otters ever non-binary? If not, can they be convinced to give it a try?

    3
  23. CSK says:

    Breaking: Trump has asked the Supreme Court to block the January 6 committee from obtaining access to his records from the National Archives.

  24. CSK says:

    @Michael Reynolds:
    Well, frogs and green sea turtles, plus a few other fish and reptiles, can change their sex, so…

    1
  25. CSK says:

    Joan Didion has died of complications of Parkinson’s Disease. She was 87.

    2
  26. gVOR08 says:

    @CSK: I suspect it’s more a reluctance to admit it’s COVID. There’s a large discrepancyj between excess deaths and a smaller number of reported COVID deaths. The Right wants to say it’s suicides from depression over your stupid shutdowns, stress from isolation, something, something. LGM links to a USA Today story investigating this. They find Trump Country coroners and MEs are under reporting COVID. Partly they’re under-resourced so for deaths at home they accept what the family says, and there’s a stigma against COVID. And if there wasn’t a test, it’s not VOVID. Home deaths from heart attacks appear to have doubled from 2019 rates around Jackson, Mississippi.

  27. gVOR08 says:

    @Michael Reynolds: I’ve read that male sea otters will hump pretty much anything, including raping seals. Hope that’s helpful.

    2
  28. CSK says:

    @gVOR08:
    Oh, reluctance to admit it’s Covid no doubt a big contributing factor. But don’t overlook the fact that these birdbrains definitely want to be seen as powerful and thus threatening to the globalist communists.

  29. Kathy says:

    @CSK:

    Of course. It’s perfect, foolproof, and has no flaw. I mean, if you need someone killed ASAP, you naturally attack them with a perishable biological agent that may or may not infect them, and for which there is a vaccine and drug treatment available.

    You wouldn’t use, say botulinum toxin, or, you know, a bomb or a bullet, because that’s too chancy.

    2
  30. CSK says:

    @Kathy:
    Precisely.

    1
  31. Jen says:

    I think Charlotte Clymer best expresses how I feel about these “brb, got anthrax” morons.

    https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1473771902854483976

  32. JohnSF says:

    @Kathy:
    Use ninjas!
    With sharp stabbing knives, going stab stab, stabbity-stab!

    Which reminds me, my heartfelt festivus wishes go out to Boris Johnson and the ERG MPs!
    🙂

  33. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    Normally a team has to be 6-6 or better to be eligible for a bowl, but there is an exception that if there are no more 6-6 teams left, a bowl can choose a 5-7, but only if the team meets certain academic criteria that normal bowl teams don’t have to meet.

    It’s intended to reward schools for not taking a “well, we suck anyways, who cares about academic compliance?” attitude.

  34. Michael Cain says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    When did “academic progress” (whatever it may mean) become a criterion for selecting bowl game participants? And why?

    Special case… Normally a team in the Bowl division has to have six wins in order to be eligible to play in a bowl. There are so many bowls these days that sometimes there aren’t enough teams with six wins. (Or this year, who can field the minimum number of players.) In that case, the NCAA takes all the 5-7 teams and sorts them based on academic progress. Progress is based roughly on some time window and percentage of athletes on the team given financial aid who remained in school and remained academically eligible. Teams are offered a chance to participate in a bowl in that sorted order.

  35. Jen says:

    Airing a grievance here, since I cannot in person. My ex-SIL is out and about with her son, who is under 5. She’s taken him to Christmas parties, school gatherings, and so on, all without masks–because–surprise!–it’s all evangelical church activities. This child will be at Christmas dinner with us on Saturday. It almost feels like she’s trying to infect him at this point. I’m upset, angry, and irritated.

    1
  36. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Michael Cain:

    If I were emperor of College Football, scoring would be based on a teams Cumulative GPA. A field goal is worth 1 X the Cumulative GPA and a touchdown is worth 2 X the Cumulative GPA

    1
  37. CSK says:

    @Jen:
    Perhaps she using him to infect the rest of you.

  38. Kathy says:

    @JohnSF:

    Nah. Ninjas always get taken out quickly and just kill secondary characters.

    Better hire The Joker.

    Oh, wait.

  39. JKB says:

    With the Omicron, many of the most diligent vaccinated are having to face the shame of infection.

    “For two years now, Aline, a 30-something graduate student in Ohio, has diligently — desperately, even — protected herself against the coronavirus.”

    “Vaccinated and boosted, she took a test last week ahead of holiday travel to Atlanta. She was stunned when it came back positive…. ‘I feel very embarrassed and dumb,’ she says, and upset that she’s causing her family stress. ‘It’s eye-opening that I feel so much shame from it. I’m realizing how much judgment I was secretly harboring against people who got it before.'”

    –From “Thousands who ‘followed the rules’ are about to get covid. They shouldn’t be ashamed” (WaPo).

    On the other hand, make Atlanta a town like Blue Ridge and you could get a nice Hallmark movie out of that. The warmth and acceptance she receives from the unvaccinated of the town helps Aline to see life doesn’t end with infection for almost all.

  40. Michael Reynolds says:

    @JKB:
    Um. . . WTF are you on about?

    4
  41. Jen says:

    @CSK: That did cross my mind.

  42. Jen says:

    @JKB: That post is pretty gibberish-laden, even compared to your normal levels of incoherence.

  43. JohnSF says:

    @JKB:
    Ashamed?
    Of course not.
    Unlike the wilfully unvaccinated and scorners of precautions.
    They should feel ashamed indeed.
    They won’t, of course, being generally sociopaths, or fools, and frequently both.

    Incidentally, the vaccinated appear far more likely to get omicron in its mild form.
    The unvaccinated, not so much.
    Sucks to be them, eh?

    Festivus wishes to them, and to you!

    2
  44. senyordave says:

    Joe Manchin Said Constituent Complained Of ‘Crackhead Daughter’ Wasting Child Tax Credit

    What’s next, Manchin complaining about welfare queens buying filet mignons?

    1
  45. dazedandconfused says:

    @Michael Reynolds:
    JKB reflects a commonly begged question in anti-vaxer propaganda: Pretend infection and serious disease are the same things. In his mind, there’s no difference between a positive test and getting very sick.

    It’s an aspect which the media in general does a poor job of explaining. Requires long-form journalism, and the TV people and their ilk are conditioned to avoid that whenever possible. Scaring people is easier and scared people are less likely to channel surf during commercials.

    3
  46. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Kathy:

    That’s because of the Law of Inverse Ninjitsu: the combat threat of a group of ninjas is a constant, so the more ninjas there are in a group, the weaker each individual ninja becomes.

    1
  47. senyordave says:

    @Jim Brown 32: Seems like a good argument for eliminating most social welfare programs. Simple test – is there a significant moral hazard? Almost any aid program has significant moral hazard risk (and that goes for most aid to business)

    1
  48. Kathy says:

    @Michael Reynolds:

    He must have smoked some bad covfefe.

    1
  49. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK: I don’t think that original with him (nor am I assuming you think that). I recall a defrocked and discredited mega church pastor in Seattle advocating for both marrying young and having lots of babies during the couple’s lifetime. He was basing his teaching on the command in Genesis to “be fruitful and multiply” with an accompanying notion that “Christian” families of large size would overwhelm the communities in which they lived. restoring the nation to its former Godliness.

    And no, to the best of my knowledge he had no awareness of the old evangelical/fundamentalist saying about God having no grandchildren.

    1
  50. Kathy says:

    @Stormy Dragon:

    See, that’s very useful info. If you come across a ninja trying to kill you, you can honestly say “No, wait. go get a hundred of your buddies so it will be a fair fight.”

  51. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Michael Reynolds: You don’t NEED real otters to be willing to try being non-binary. Just make the otters in your wife’s next book non-binary and let willful suspension of disbelief take over. If Ayn Rand could make it work with economics, you can make it work with wildlife biology.

    2
  52. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Kathy:

    If you know a ninja is trying to kill you, they’re already pretty bad even by themselves. =)

    1
  53. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Stormy Dragon: @Michael Cain: Thank you. That explains it well.

  54. Mister Bluster says:

    Straight outta’ the Swamp
    The Okefenokee Swamp…

    2
  55. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @senyordave: Well, yeah. I thought we’d all come back to realizing that helping people only makes them dependent on the help and that the only way to lift people out of poverty was to ignore them so that they lift themselves.

    1
  56. Kathy says:

    @Stormy Dragon:

    If a ninja is trying to kill me, they are what’s left in the barrel after you’ve scraped the bottom clean.

  57. Jen says:

    Small study out of the UK seems to point to booster effectiveness waning after about 10 weeks.

    Bummer. Was hoping it would carry us through to spring. 10 weeks takes me to around mid-to-late January, which is better than nothing.

  58. Mister Bluster says:

    Silent Night
    Rotary Connection featuring Minnie Riperton.
    1947- 1979
    Minnie Riperton was 39 when she died of breast cancer.
    Gone way too soon.

    Encore

    1
  59. Kathy says:

    @Jen:

    There does seem to be something about the coronavirus family that makes lasting immunity difficult. Add the crazy vaccine averse, and we have a recipe for a long pandemic and a new form of viral pneumonia to take root.

    I’ve been giving some thought on how to handle the next pandemic, and I’m afraid we’ll be screwed in that one, too. Thus far, my best solution is to make the vaccine, then travel back in time and alter the MMR vaccine to include the future pathogen (then kill Wakefield).

    1
  60. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Michael Reynolds: Well, you could have your daughter write one.

  61. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: Fck.

  62. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Jen: In Laws… Boy do I remember those days with a lack of fondness. And I had good in laws.

  63. Gustopher says:

    @Michael Reynolds:

    Are otters ever non-binary? If not, can they be convinced to give it a try?

    Compared to the love lives of actual otters, even the right wing would agree that is just tame and wholesome.

    Raping baby seals to death, and then continuing to rape their corpses and defending their dead baby seal from other otters… worse. Your wife would probably run into #metoo issues if she depicted that, and no amount of “We do not condone the behavior of Otto, The Pedophile, Beastophile, Necrophile Toxic Male Otter, we merely wanted to bring a bit of reality to children’s books, and teach children about consent by drawing a contrast” is going to help.

    Otters are very cute though, so there’s that.

  64. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: an accompanying notion that “Christian” families of large size would overwhelm the communities in which they lived. restoring the nation to its former Godliness.

    Like the Duggars have?

  65. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Jen: I’m not so worried about catching it as I am about getting sick.

    1
  66. Mister Bluster says:

    @Mister Bluster:..Minnie Riperton

    Correction: She was 31 when she died. Not 39.

  67. Jen says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: At this point, I’m worried about catching it because I’m supposed to be visiting a friend I haven’t seen in years next week. I will be furious if my plans are scuttled by someone else’s carelessness.

    1
  68. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: In fac t, the Duggars were pretty much exactly what he was thinking in terms of, yeah. And from what I recall, his problems were, in fact, very similar to those of the more famous Duggar children. Hmmm…

  69. Gustopher says:

    @CSK: I was trying to remember which one was Cawthorn, went to Wikipedia, and good lord is he even more of a scumbag than I assumed.

    I am sorry that he and his wife are not able to work out their differences, since someone willing to marry such an obvious shithead is no great prize, and at least together they mostly meant other people were safe from them, at least romantically.

    Ugh. I hate him. I had no idea who he was 10 minutes ago, and Wikipedia of all places made me hate him.

    3
  70. Kathy says:

    Speaking of grievances, is it too goddamn difficult to open the department server, find a clearly labeled folder, and open a clearly labeled file?

    At work, all documents relating to a proposal are saved in the proposal’s folder in the department server. That’s so we can all look them up or, if need be, work on them. So why do lots of people who know and follow this procedure keep telling me”email me the price list”, or whatever other file they need?

    I swear one of these days I’ll store a whole proposal in an encrypted folder in my desktop PC, just so they’ll be justified in asking for files rather than just looking them up.

    Ok, reading back it sounds petty. But when you’re juggling price lists with 350-500 items, and answering customer questions, and doing expense reports, and pressing purchasing for costs, you don’t need a lazy idiot adding to the work load. It’s so annoying.

    1
  71. Monala says:

    Latest Republican outrage on Twitter: a group of singing nurses performed Christmas carols at the White House. link

    Tucker Carlson, Newsmax, Townhall, etc. and their followers are all over Twitter criticizing this. A couple of criticisms have some validity: 1) it’s cringe (yeah, kinda); and not everyone is masked.

    The other criticisms are less on point through totally ridiculous: 1) “why are they singing at the White House if hospitals are supposedly overwhelmed?” Like nurses never get time off. 2) “even if they get time off, why are they using it like this rather than resting at home?” IDK, because they enjoy it and can use their free time however they wish? 3) “it’s pro-vax propaganda.” Nothing about vaccines is mentioned or even hinted at. 4) “it’s cult-like worship of Joe Biden.” President Biden doesn’t appear to be present, although Jill Biden is there. 5) “It’s Communist propaganda.” They’re singing Christmas carols. 6) “the group is discriminatory because there are no white men in it.” ??!!! The group is made up of 18 nurses from a NY medical center with 19,000 nurses. Maybe these members are friends, or are the ones who wanted to join.

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  72. Kathy says:

    @Monala:

    5) “It’s Communist propaganda.” They’re singing Christmas carols.

    “A Christmas Carol” victimizes the heroic Scrooge. Why wasn’t he comforted by the ghost of tax-cuts future, to let him know how great he’s doing under such a heavy burden of taxation? He was a jobs creator, for crying out loud!

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  73. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kathy:

    …is it too goddamn difficult to open the department server, find a clearly labeled folder, and open a clearly labeled file?

    Ooh, ooh, I know the answer to this one. “Well yeah, but we have you here so that I don’t have to be able to do that.”