Tuesday’s Forum

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. CSK says:
  2. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Anthony Weiner says he’s given ‘informal advice’ to New York mayoral contenders

    Weiner, who was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2017 for sending explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl, told the New York Times naming the campaigns he had advised “would hurt them”.

    Do tell.

  3. CSK says:

    Would someone remove my comment from limbo?

  4. OzarkHillbilly says:

    McDonald’s chicken nugget shaped like Among Us character sells for $100,000

    According to bidding records of the 184 placed bids, the nugget was first listed for only $0.99 by user polizna on 28 May. After receiving no bids for two days, the nugget received an initial bid of $14,969, kicking off a bidding frenzy among other users. Bidding ended last Thursday after the chicken nugget reached a final bid of $99,997. The final auction winner will receive the sole nugget, frozen and air sealed to “ensure freshness”, as noted by the item description.

    It is unclear whether users’ interest in the nugget is because of its resemblance to an Among Us crew member, the nugget formerly being included in the McDonald’s BTS meal, or both. Regardless, the recent purchase has been trending on social media, with many mystified by bizarre bid.

    Words fail.

    1
  5. sam says:
  6. charon says:

    Apparently COVID has variants that partially evade immune response, making vaccines less effective.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/health/covid-alpha-uk-variant.html?smid=tw-share

    https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1402062059890786311

    Troubling—the worst variant to date, the #DeltaVariant is now the new fastest growing variant in US. This is the so-called “Indian” variant #B16172 that is ravaging UK Flag of United Kingdom despite high vaccinations because it has immune evasion properties. Here is why it’s trouble

    2
  7. CSK says:

    I put three links in one comment. My mistake. To start:

    http://www.rawstory.com/trump-facebook-phony-lockboxes/

  8. Bob@Youngstown says:

    This is the way representative government works?

    Link

  9. Jay L Gischer says:

    @CSK: Hey according to that, Trump doesn’t like Bitcoin. So that’s something we have in common.

    2
  10. CSK says:

    @Jay L Gischer:
    I don’t think Trump has any idea of what Bitcoin is.

    2
  11. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Woman opens fire on family of 6 heading to vacation in road-rage attack, MO cops say

    When officers arrested Fouche, they found two small children in the car, including a 2-year-old, outlets report. According to KSDK, the 2-year-old is Fouche’s child.

    Fouche is facing 10 charges, including assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and armed criminal action, the outlet reported. She is being held at the Jefferson County Jail without bond.

    Jefferson County because, of course it is.

    1
  12. CSK says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Shanyka Fouche, the shooter, was a passenger in the car, thus giving new meaning to the term “riding shotgun.”

    She also seems to be from Tennessee, so perhaps this wasn’t entirely the fault of Missouri?

    4
  13. CSK says:

    Raw Story is just chock-full of goodies today:

    http://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2024-2653276703/

  14. gVOR08 says:

    Re the Osaka Federer discussion of a day or two ago. Paul Campos at LGM has a good post up on the disparate treatment of Osaka and Federer. He accepts that Federer entered Paris intending to test his knees, get in a little warmup match play, and probably pull out. Despite being a tennis fan I haven’t followed the story enough to judge if that’s established. If it’s true, it’s egregious behavior. As Campos points out, denying someone else a slot in the draw.

    1
  15. Teve says:

    @CSK: if old movies about Wells Fargo stagecoaches are to be believed, that was the original meaning of riding shotgun.

  16. CSK says:

    @Teve:
    That was indeed the original meaning. Now it means the front passenger seat.

  17. Teve says:

    Holy shit Ford’s coming out with a hybrid pickup that’s going to get 40 miles City and cost barely under 20k.

    5
  18. Kathy says:

    @charon:

    IMO, even with vaccines, it’s still a good idea to keep wearing masks.

    BTW, today I drove past the route of the line for vaccinations, and was surprised to see a long line of cars waiting in line. Vaccination for the under 50 group has started here.

  19. Mikey says:

    @charon: Fortunately two doses of Pfizer is still showing 88% effective against the Delta variant, which is not as good as against the non-variant but still very effective.

    I’m not that worried here where vaccine utilization is very high and the 7-day moving average of new cases is 2 per 100,000 and dropping, but there are parts of the US where Delta is going to lay waste.

    1
  20. Kylopod says:

    @CSK:

    I don’t think Trump has any idea of what Bitcoin is.

    Mark my words, there’ll be a purported Trump cryptocurrency (Trumpocurrency?) before long. You pay him a certain fee, he sends you special cards with his picture on them.

  21. inhumans99 says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It sounds like a publicity stunt and I suspect the public will never get confirmation if the sale was actually completed (I would not take the sellers word for it that they got paid). This type of sale reminds me of the folks who put things on eBay like water cup used by Elvis at one of his concerts with a picture of the water cup supposedly on the edge of the stage where Elvis performed as proof of the item’s provenance. Pretty funny, and hey…those listings do get a ton of page views so it helps draw people to whatever else you might be hawking on eBay.

  22. CSK says:

    @Kylopod:
    Maybe he can peddle it through this outlet:
    http://www.trumpstore.com/pages/corporate-inquiries/

    Nothing, absolutely NOTHING, says “class” like Trump napkin rings.

  23. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @CSK:

    I don’t think Trump has any idea of what Bitcoin is.

    If it’s potentially a way to launder ill-gotten gains, trust me – he knows about it 😀

    6
  24. HarvardLaw92 says:

    In other news, we have crazies here too.

    Our president was slapped by a looney tune earlier today. Looney and companion were promptly arrested, and Macron (apparently unharmed) continued pressing the flesh.

    2
  25. CSK says:

    @HarvardLaw92:
    He thinks Bitcoin should be regulated “very, very high.”
    @HarvardLaw92:
    Sacre bleu.

    2
  26. Kylopod says:

    @HarvardLaw92: I’m sure he gets the “principle” of cryptocurrency, but I still maintain his version of it would be a cheap, low-grade version, something along the lines of those fake $5,000 checks that can’t be redeemed until you make some payments of your own.

  27. sam says:

    Trump: Craptocurrency

    5
  28. Mimai says:

    @Kylopod:

    Would you be willing to specify “before long”?

  29. CSK says:
  30. Jax says:

    @CSK: Funny, I did not have Newsmax pegged as having “standards”. 😛

    7
  31. Teve says:

    Just as a public service here are the 12 people responsible for 2/3rds of the vaccine disinformation on social media:

    Per the research, the ‘disinformation dozen’ behind almost two-thirds of anti-vaccine content shared in the study window includes Joseph Mercola, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Ty and Charlene Bollinger, Sherri Tenpenny, Rizza Islam, Rashid Buttar, Erin Elizabeth, Sayer Ji, Kelly Brogan, Christiane Northrup, Ben Tapper, and Kevin Jenkins.

  32. CSK says:

    @Jax:
    There’s always OAN.

    Anyway, if you kept up with the MAGAs, you’d know that Newsmax, like Breitbart, is officially on the Trumpkin shitlist now.

  33. Scott says:

    @Teve: On the downside, they aret calling it Maverick.

    THE ALL-NEW 2022 FORD MAVERICK

    Let’s hope it is better than that piece of junk.

  34. dazedandconfused says:

    @Scott:

    Not sure it merits the term ‘truck’. Trucklet?

  35. Teve says:

    Business books written by business people are often terrible. They’re usually drunk on their own bullshit. But business books written by journalists are basically my favorite genre. Whether it’s Ashlee Vance about Elon Musk or Michael Lewis about the stock market or housing crash, or this new book from Brad Stone, I wish I had a hundred more of this type.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/books/review/amazon-unbound-brad-stone.html

  36. Teve says:

    @dazedandconfused: because of the size, or the unibody? There were some small Datsun trucks, and of course the Chevy S10, back in the day.

  37. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @inhumans99: On the other hand, an item “said to be” the transaxle from James Dean’s Porsche was sold for $375,000 on Bring A Trailer recently–and it wasn’t ever the lead item on the auction from what I saw the days I visited. And Bring A Trailer is different from Ebay in many ways.

  38. CSK says:

    @Teve:
    Business books are almost invariably ghostwritten. The great majority of ghosted books aren’t particularly good, largely because the voice is so artificial.

  39. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kylopod: I would think that Trump Cryptocurrency would probably turn out to be something more along the lines of a non fungible token than anything else.

  40. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Teve: Your post reminds me of something from yesterday’s substitute teaching job. In a video about GMO foods that I showed to the culinary arts students yesterday, the narrator pointed out that one study linking GMO foodstuffs to tumors in rats used rats that regularly grow tumors at rates 100% higher than average rats. In some ways, that’s really cool! Who knew that you could order specific rats to skew your research results?

    Data R Us.

    2
  41. Teve says:

    @CSK: I think some of it, too, is that a lot of people who are considered successful business people are a lot stupider than we give them credit for. I’ve read of decisions made by Jack Welch and Marissa Meyer and Steve Ballmer that didn’t just turn out to be wrong, they were idiotic from the beginning. If I live to be 500 I don’t know if I’ll ever hear of a management practice stupider than Stack Ranking. If a malicious Board put me in charge of a company with the express instructions to destroy it, that’s the first thing I would implement.

    1
  42. EddieInCA says:

    @dazedandconfused:

    @Teve:

    If you can’t carry a 4×8 piece of plywood or drywall in the bed, it’s not a truck. I don’t know what it it, but it’s NOT a truck.

    2
  43. steve story says:

    @EddieInCA: years ago I spent five years working for both Home Depot and Lowe’s, and I don’t know if I’d say that people were creative about hauling lumber, but they were certainly very stubborn about it. I’ve seen lumber tied to the roof of a Datsun b210.

    In the break rooms at jobs like that, there is often posted on the wall a famous internet photo of some kind of compact car that has had an entire bunk of lumber forklifted onto the back of it, and it is now smooshed into the ground.

  44. Teve says:

    Two paragraphs of this comment were eaten by my phone and I’d sooner just delete the rest then retype it all.

  45. CSK says:

    @Teve:
    At the Harvard Business School, it was an article of faith that a quick decision was always better than the right decision. The logic of this escapes me. I suppose it made the decider look strong and, well, decisive.

    HBS was, at the time anyway, concentrating on turning out management consultants and investment bankers, so perhaps they never had to live with the consequences of their quick decisions.

    1
  46. Mu Yixiao says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    Who knew that you could order specific rats to skew your research results?

    I used to joke that laboratory rats cause cancer. You mean I was right??

    1
  47. Mu Yixiao says:

    We have a pair of turkey vultures that enjoy our factory roof. They hang out right next to the clerestory windows that overlook the lobby. It’s right across from my current office, and I’ll see them standing at the windows looking inside.

    https://centerofthewest.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/TV-open-wings-Angelskiss31-detail.jpg

  48. Mimai says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    I have a colleague who breeds high alcohol preferring mice. He’s a good scientist and uses these models to understand genetic and behavioral interactions vis-à-vis alcohol use/abuse. No Data R Us shenanigans in his lab.

  49. dazedandconfused says:

    @EddieInCA:

    My granddad once addressed the issue: “If you gave a f%#k that you put a little dent the back while positioning to hook up a trailer, it’s not a truck.”

  50. Mister Bluster says:

    @EddieInCA:..but it’s NOT a truck.

    I bought a new 1979 Datsun Pick up with an 8 ft bed in April of that year. I used a 4×8 sheet of plywood to raise the floor and store tools under it. The only cut outs I had to make were for the rear wheel wells. Ran it for 200,000 miles. I believe that it was December of ’79 that I paid $1.00 for a gallon of gas for the first time.

  51. DrDaveT says:

    @Kylopod:

    Mark my words, there’ll be a purported Trump cryptocurrency

    Gitcoin?

    1
  52. DrDaveT says:

    @Teve:

    Just as a public service here are the 12 people responsible for 2/3rds of the vaccine disinformation on social media

    Jenny McCarthy is on vacation? Or too busy filming The Masked Singer…?

    2
  53. CSK says:

    @DrDaveT:
    Shitcoin.

    3
  54. Kurtz says:

    @gVOR08:

    Re the Osaka Federer discussion of a day or two ago. Paul Campos at LGM has a good post up on the disparate treatment of Osaka and Federer. He accepts that Federer entered Paris intending to test his knees, get in a little warmup match play, and probably pull out. Despite being a tennis fan I haven’t followed the story enough to judge if that’s established. If it’s true, it’s egregious behavior. As Campos points out, denying someone else a slot in the draw.

    John McEnroe seems to think it’s established.

    It’s nearly impossible to establish intent in this case. Federer is my favorite player, and seeing him play in person gave an even greater appreciation for just how special he is as a player. I’m not inclined to think ill of him.

    But. . .it seems pretty clear to me that he never expected to go deep in the tournament, “I won’t make it through [Djokovic].” I think it was a little about testing his knee, but even more about his conditioning.

    He would have needed to win the next round for a match against Nole. But I don’t think he counted on getting a night match with only one day’s rest. That match went 3.5 hours.

    Not only did he take an initial slot from someone, but he denied an unseeded player a fourth round match. Even assuming that Koepfer subsequently lost, it’s a difference of ~$70k in prize money. Not to mention the chance at an upset in Quarters.

    But now, there’s more…Musetti. I haven’t watched the match, but by all accounts he played some dazzling tennis in the first two sets. But Djokovic did what top seeded players do. And down 0-4 in the fifth set, he retired. Then explained his reasoning:

    “It’s not an injury,” began Musetti in his post-match press conference.
    “It’s, well, just a little bit of cramps and a little bit of low(er) back pain. I was not any more able to win a point, and so was not really grateful also for the crowd that was there, so I decided to retire.”

    The issue I have with all of this is that where are the threatened sanctions for conduct that is unambiguously flagged as potentially being judged as “aggravated behavior?” These affected matches. The threats directed at Osaka were over a violation that only affects the meta, not the actual integrity of competition.

    1
  55. EddieInCA says:

    @Mister Bluster:

    I had a 1980 of those trucks, and yes, I could do a 4×8 piece of plywood in the back. I drove that truck for almost 200K miles.

  56. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Mu Yixiao: When I was young there was a researcher from, I think, Johns Hopkins who opined in a satirical article that cancer was caused by being kept in a cage and force fed. 😉

    3
  57. George says:

    @gVOR08:

    How common is it for tennis players to pull out of tournaments for various reasons, including injuries that hadn’t healed properly? If its common then what Federer did is normal. If its uncommon then it might be worth a closer look.

    However, its hard to see in practice how they’d force players to compete injured without subsequent lawsuits if the injury worsened.

  58. Teve says:

    @DrDaveT: McCarthy (and Jim Carrey, and Bill Maher, and Jessica Biel, and Charlie Sheen, and Jenna Elfman, and…) promote anti-VAX nonsense, but those 12 terrible people listed have made an industry of it and make millions of dollars a year off it.

    1
  59. de stijl says:

    I kvetched / commented on how Youtube decided to offer up ads for actual autoclaves for sale when I was just searching a song title (The Mountain Goats – super awesome song)

    Lately, I have been getting inundated with ads for Ninjamas which are bed-wetting underpants for kids. Like one ad out of every four for weeks and weeks. I am single and have no age appropriate children for that product. I have never searched for anything like that ever.

    It’s kinda annoying and kinda cracks me up because googleadservices is having an obvious AI hiccup.

    About one in ten is for Pella windows. I have never searched for windows. I understand Pella is known for pretty high quality, but it is puzzling.

    Every now and again I get ads in Dutch because of my handle which I use on multiple sites / platforms. I literally cannot understand it. Someone paid good money for an ad I cannot understand.

    I was a SQL person mostly where A equals A always and there are no fuzzy matches unless you go bonkers with wildcards in the WHERE clause. I never had to deal with fuzzy logic.

    It is very interesting to monitor what ads get served to you and why.

  60. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: DAWG dammit, don’t you rain on my parade. Truth is something happens to people when crossing the JeffCo line. They get stupid. They get drugged. They get violent. Not sure why, it’s JeffCo.

    3
  61. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Teve: I’ll buy it.

  62. MarkedMan says:

    The vote to end slavery is too important so it must get support from both the North and the South and since the South won’t support it, I guess we’ll just keep having slavery.”

    –Joe Manchin, on the Civil War.

    6
  63. CSK says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I’ll make sure to keep my distance from Jeff. Co. Don’t want to turn into a homicidal, rage-fueled moron.

  64. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @inhumans99: I wouldn’t know. I am ignorant of a plethora of things internet. I report, you decide. Jus’ sayin’….

    I know that there is no bottom to the well of human stupidity.

  65. de stijl says:

    @MarkedMan:

    Ouch! Manchin is very naive and deserves it. But still, ouch.

    A meme that needs to live and grow because it is so on point.

  66. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Teve: I had a couple of 2wd S10s back in the day. My wife called them the “Goats” because they would go anywhere*. Including many places big macho 4wds wouldn’t dream of.

    * A number of people swore it was because of my driving skills. Truth is I think it was because I wasn’t afraid of getting stuck/breaking something. “Guano happens”.

  67. Jax says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: I concur. I was in charge of the “Midwest” set of newspapers back in my “reading newspapers for a living” days, and the “crime blotter/actual articles written as a result of violent crime” for that area was above and beyond anything that happened in similarly-sized areas throughout Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, and Nebraska. That was the mid-90’s, when meth was just getting started. By now it’s generational.

    2
  68. de stijl says:

    @Jax:

    Newsmax does have lawyers.

    Lawyers that dislike big settlements against their employer. It is their job to prevent that.

    1
  69. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @EddieInCA: While agreeing with your sentiment, you’d be surprised what one can get in the bed of an S10. Well, what you can get mostly in the bed of an S10.

  70. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: You have no idea.

    While most folks in Jeffco* are perfectly sane individuals who would fit right in at an Applebee’s salad bar, there is a subset of psychotic individuals who revel in violence as performative art.

    *I live in Washington County, next door to JeffCo. We have our own particular brand of insanity. You don’t want to know.

    3
  71. Teve says:

    @owillis

    [MT] Greene says she knows COVID-19 is a ‘bioweapon’ because evolution doesn’t exist

    Video at the link

    https://twitter.com/owillis/status/1402382977838071809?s=21

    1
  72. de stijl says:

    @CSK:

    I am cautious about Raw Story. It is click-baitey. Designed to be.

    It is a re-write aggregator focused on stories designed to inflame and outrage a certain audience. Afaict, they do no original reporting.

    It is on the spectrum of sites I visit to ascertain what is what is bugging out the left-leaning folks today. Illustrative, certainly. To a discernable extent, it is designed to provoke outrage which makes me a bit uncomfortable.

    It’s not Gateway Pundit sketchy, but not straight news.

  73. de stijl says:

    @Teve:

    Hey! Olliver Willis is still bopping around? I love that dude. Good truth teller.

  74. Teve says:

    @de stijl: He’s a good follow on Twitter.

    1
  75. de stijl says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    If there is a market, a potentially savvy buy. Your disdain is immaterial. If then can sell it on to a private buyer for more, then money well spent.

    Is it ludicrous, yes. Is is lucrative, perhaps. Speculative investments are often high risk by nature.

  76. de stijl says:

    @Teve:

    He had a blog in the aughts.

  77. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Jax: Jeffco was at one point the “Meth capitol of America.”

    True story: Shawn Hornbeck had been missing for some years when the family consulted a psychic who had a vision of a pit. Jeffco was known for it’s pit caves. Cavers were contacted to investigate JeffCo pits. I don’t think any of us believed in the psychics vision but it was a good excuse for going to see some pits/caves which were otherwise posted “no trespassing”. A number of folks in my grotto said, “Sign me up!” I wasn’t much interested and only did a couple of the more significant ones.

    Of course we never found Shawn, but a multitude of meth labs were discovered.

    The twist: At that time my grotto had our meetings in Kirkwood at the Powder Valley Nature Center (MDC facility) and we always had our meetings after the meetings at the Kirkwood Imo’s Pizza. (last I knew, they still do) (I don’t get to many meetings these days… Too old, too fat, too tired.)

    I have to admit I never paid any kind of attention but on more than a few occasions I must have ordered my pizza from Michael J. Devlin

    It’s a bit of “full circle” that I now live halfway between Sullivan and Richwoods Misery, Richwoods being where Shawn was kidnapped from.

    Life is weird.

    1
  78. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @de stijl: If then can sell it on to a private buyer for more, then money well spent.

    I just have to say, “There is even a dumber fuck than me out there!” does not strike me as a savvy investment. The fact that it just might be true only reinforces my point: “Words fail.”

    In other words, there is no end to the stupidity of humanity. I mean c’mon, what real world value is there inherent in a single Chicken McNugget?

    2
  79. de stijl says:

    @Jax:
    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Missouri is the Florida of the midwest. Odd people doing odd things on the regular.

    Missouri woman / man deserves to be up there with “Florida Man” as a meme.

    1
  80. de stijl says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    What the market will bear, my friend. Speculation is high risk, high reward. Arguably, you want a portion of your dollars chasing that, but I am a medium conservative investor. Adjust that to your means and outlook.

    I am highly reminded of Randall “Tex” Cobb’s monologue from Raising Arizona.

  81. Kurtz says:

    @George:

    Relevant section of the grand slam rulebook:

    Physical Incapacity
    During a match, if there is an emergency medical condition and the
    player involved is unable to make a request for a Sports
    Physiotherapist, the Chair Umpire shall immediately call for the Sports
    Physiotherapist and Tournament Doctor to assist the player.
    Either before or during a match, if a player is considered unable
    physically to compete, the Sports Physiotherapist and/or Tournament
    Doctor should inform the Referee and/or Grand Slam Supervisor and
    recommend that the player is ruled unable to compete in the match to
    be played, or retired from the match in progress.
    The Referee in consultation with the Grand Slam Supervisor shall use
    great discretion before taking this action and should base the decision
    on the best interests of professional tennis, as well as taking all
    medical advice and any other information into consideration.
    The player may subsequently compete in another event at the same
    tournament if the Tournament Doctor determines that the player’s
    condition has improved to the extent that the player may safely
    physically perform at an appropriate level of play, whether the same
    day or on a later day.
    * It is recognized that national laws or governmental or other binding
    regulations imposed upon the event by authorities outside its control
    may require more compulsory participation by the Tournament Doctor
    in all decisions regarding diagnosis and treatment.

    As @HarvardLaw92 explained in the original Osaka thread, per French Law, it would depend on the wording in the actual contract signed by the player. In his words, “we are unlikely to ever see that text.”

    I think McEnroe probably has a decent idea of what’s going on with Federer and the mechanics of non/discipline. That doesn’t mean his view isn’t debatable, of course. But I imagine he is one of the few people in a position to have a truly informed view.

    Regardless, the Musetti situation is egregious, because he admitted his reasons for retiring. He said it wasn’t injury, stumbled a bit, and then added lower-back pain and cramps before stating he didn’t think he could win any more points.

    The procedure for cramping is very specific. Except in the case it is an indication of heat stroke, players are required to immediately return to play.

  82. Teve says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    what real world value is there inherent in a single Chicken McNugget?

    48 calories. 😀

    2
  83. Mimai says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    you’d be surprised what one can get in the bed of an S10.

    Crabs?

    3
  84. Mimai says:

    @Teve:

    Hahaha! Excellent timing.

  85. CSK says:

    @de stijl:
    Raw Story amuses me.

    And nothing, absolutely nothing, is as ludicrously, abysmally bad as The Gateway Pundit.

    4
  86. Jen says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Truth is something happens to people when crossing the JeffCo line.

    I worked several special elections in JeffCo and can concur.

    1
  87. Jen says:

    @Jax: This was because Missouri was the number 2 producing meth state, just behind California. Lots of rural areas to hide a portable meth lab, and easy access to both north/south and east/west highways for distribution.

    The cleanups had to be done by the state because it was so volatile and so toxic. The costs were astronomical.

    1
  88. Jen says:

    @CSK: Following on the Missouri theme…guess where Gateway Pundit is from? 😀

    2
  89. de stijl says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My caving experience got cut short because I semi-freaked out when it got tight. I could feel the tons of rock and soil above me and I froze for a half minute or so. I barrelled through and tried to hide my panic.

    Others folks barely noticed, but it was a clear sign. I am not cut out for this. It would be unfair and dangerous to others to pursue this.

    It shocked me a bit because I was a regular at urban exploration and had done a lot of underground stuff. Like hundreds of hours.

    Sewers and tunnels are apparently different to caves to me. It was a very tight passage that convinced me of that. Once in, there is no way back. Forward is all you can do.

    You never want to be the weak link.

  90. Teve says:

    @CSK: If I were a writer, and my writing earned me the nickname “The Stupidest Man on the Internet”,…I’d find another hobby.

    3
  91. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @de stijl: My sense is that some ads that appear are default ads for companies that have purchased large blocks of ad space. You or I get them when some targeted ad doesn’t have enough leverage to elbow the big-purchase ad out of the cue. I think it also explains why my streaming TV sometimes gets Zaxby drive-in ads even though the nearest Zaxby’s is about 3000 miles away.

    2
  92. de stijl says:

    @Kurtz:

    I am convinced that Osaka was in the right.

    She declared her purpose and intent clearly.

    I get that high profile tournaments do not want half-assed entries by the big players, but Osaka was making a point that many miss.

    Anxiety, and anxiety related symptoms can be truly devastating.

    Alpha boy “push through it” does not always work and often back-fires until you have the tools to “push through” and even then chancey. I prefer to not take psychological advice from a sports regulatory boards.

    I had a huge set back because I thought I had a better control of my tools than I actually did, and kneecapped myself a bit for awhile.

    I cannot describe how devastating a public panic attack is. How it feels. Not even mostly the then, but the after. It is utterly shaming.

    1
  93. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: Nah. Being fearless helps, but you have to be a good driver, too. Blind luck isn’t that reliable.

  94. CSK says:

    @Jen:
    I should have guessed.
    @Teve:
    Or kill yourself.

    1
  95. de stijl says:

    @Teve:
    @CSK:

    Jim Hoft is honest in his effort. Blind, and stupid, but honest. He believes what he says.

    He lacks the wits to dissemble effectively.

  96. CSK says:

    @de stijl:
    Really? I’m inclined to think he’s an opportunistic dimwit who gladly seizes on scraps of misinformation and blows them up into BIG STORIES that somehow never pan out.

  97. de stijl says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    The Ninjamas ad experience for me is notable and extreme. I kinda like the ads – little dude is freaking awesome. Big ass karate kick when he wakes up. Dude is hardcore.

    There is no rational way I should served that ad at all let alone dozens and dozens of times.

    We used to buy services and data from ChoicePoint.

    Not exactly sure why, because we were not in the business of selling ongoing services. Once you have a mortgage you have basically exhausted the market. ChoicePoint got bought out by LexisNexis I believe. Seller of aggregated consumer data. One of the first data miners of note.

    I did have a notion of cross-selling services. Moving companies. Utilities. Cable providers. Lawn service. Renovation contractors. Dog walkers. Things that could make the moving process easier and better.

    I built out a structure which had to accommodate local service providers because moving house can be from anywhere to anywhere. Pitched it around internally but no one bit hard enough for it to go anywhere.

    This was in the aughts. Nowadays, that level of integration designed to make moving way easier would be desirable.

    I could pitch it again now.

    Something went wrong in my profile. It has been weeks. Something like one in four ads is for Ninjamas. It’s bonkers. Funny, but stupid.

  98. de stijl says:

    @CSK:

    He does it lamely. Look! Please look, at new evidence I cherry picked from other sources at how the Left is your enemy.

    That man is incapable of high strategy.

    It’s vile, but honest. It’s on the tin straightforward.

  99. CSK says:

    @de stijl:
    He knows his audience. Though even some of the folks at Lucianne.com have become leery of him.

    2
  100. Kurtz says:

    @de stijl:

    I read a NY Post op-ed… Check that, I started to read it and stopped. The “hole” they pointed to was that she did a media appearance for a Japanese show for which she gets paid.

    Someone willing to commit to that kind of false equivalence isn’t really worth the time.

    I get why she did what she did. People who don’t experience anxiety have no legitimate basis to understand how it manifests. And even if one does, there is no cure-all for it. One may be able to handle pressure on the court but experience a severe reaction in a similar, but different context.

    I can speak in front of a lot of people in a debate or for a speech, but freeze around crowds or at a party. It’s rarely, if ever, a one-to-one.

    I get what people are saying about violating the contract and the importance of the business side of sports in terms of making it a lucrative living. But when old business arrangements get eroded by changing circumstance, it’s pretty common for those benefiting from the old model to take punitive action rather than adapt.

    @HL92’s caveat about none of us seeing the text of whatever contract is actually signed may be important. But I have a hard time believing that it’s much different from the rulebook published by the ITF for the media.

    The thing is, based on the text we do get to see, ITF over-reached in their threats toward Osaka. Like most issues, people immediately aligned with whatever they wanted to think rather than being judicious based on context. Well, more like…took pieces of context and ignored others.

    I’ve said that some criticism of Osaka is warranted. I’m less sure now, after I’ve thought a bit more. I at least see how some of those criticisms make sense. But after absorbing all the stuff I read about the business of tennis, I’ve kind of moved toward Osaka’s side.

    2
  101. de stijl says:

    @CSK:

    Very true.@CSK:

    An uninteresting easily peggable guy as a purveyor obviously cherry picked “news” was one of the most influential RW “news” providers for years.

    In a certain way, he influenced how I saw them – slip-shod and unintelligent. Obvious.

    In a way, Hoft was particularly effective because he taught me I could dismiss these folks as utter fools and not react more forcefully. The front-loaded idiot backdoor plan.

    Savvy!

  102. Mimai says:

    Warmer weather has me thinking about fishing.

    Muskies are a freshwater fish. They are notoriously difficult to bait. No matter what you throw at them, no matter how you entice them, they are just not that interested in taking the bait.

    Despite being apex predators, muskies are vulnerable to being overfished. Indeed, because they are so hard to snag, a lot of folks like to keep them as trophies. I say give them back to the ecosystem and let them propagate. We need more muskies.

    Crappies are also a freshwater fish. But they are easy to bait. So easy that it seems like they practically throw themselves at you. No skill required. This makes crappies very popular, giving the angler a sense of power and self-satisfaction.

    Crappies are also rather tasty, which further contributes to their appeal. My take: we need fewer crappies…..or at least few people fishing for them.

  103. de stijl says:

    @Kurtz:

    I appreciate your reconsideration.

    Obviously, I cannot speak for her, but anxiety is not something to be dismissed. I especially did not cotton to big-sports tv blow-hards saying she needed to muscle through.

    That is not how anxiety works. At all.

    I hope this becomes a learning moment.

    Osaka, Michael Phelps, Kevin Love, Chris Kluwe.

    All these people and many, many more have things to reach us about public performance and anxiety.

    I tipped over relatively late in life due to chronic over-work, exhaustion, and stress due to a work project gone very wrong.

    But the potential genesis was always there lurking. Haunting me.

    Not saying that SAD always tips towards that, but the likelihood is higher.

    Some would say I am sharing too much. I reject the notion. Shame makes us silent too often. I understand self-shame. I am weak. I cannot take it.

    I took it for months on end without cessation. 40 fucking phone calls a day each one capable of changing my task-list at a moments notice. 100 hours a week at work is very fucking disruptive to well being.

    I absolutely hate incoming phone calls now. They spook me.

    Extended high stress is really bad for your well-being. Like, really bad. Health. Sleep. Appetite. Everything.

    I am going to stand with people of anxiety. I know what they are going through.

    1
  104. de stijl says:

    @Mimai:

    I have never caught a muskie ever. I have had two follows. Close as I got.

    There is the 10,000 cast meme which is perhaps true. That was taken as truth in N Wisconsin and the UP.

    I’m even not all that stoked on fishing as a concept. I’m cool hanging out on the boat watching the fish finder and fetching beers when folks go dry.

    Mostly, fishing is boring and I always let’em go anyway so I do not get any physical nutrient based benefit.

  105. Jax says:

    @de stijl: You could, actually, if you could integrate it really hard in the rural areas. In the urban areas right now, I think it’s called Nextdoor. Dog walker? Baby sitter? They got you!

    Me, I just want to know which part of the state the food trucks are in on any given day.

    YES, I said STATE. Want cowboy fries with philly cheese steak toppings, will travel. 😛

    2
  106. Kurtz says:

    @de stijl:

    Yeah, I was never against her. I staked out a bit of a middle ground. Fought with both sides a bit.

    I’m reflexively on the side of workers, you know that. But I also am willing to listen in the sense that the players definitely benefit from the business infrastructure. I just try not to do the line up on a side thing automatically. But that’s why I look into things. And ask questions about what I can’t find.

    But you know all that.

    Anxiety…it turns you into corners all the time. And you turn around to find your way back and find nothing but mirrors that distort you. Each one with a different effect; your affect reflecting different ones. Much of the time, you can’t tell. Even after you figured out the existence of trickery, it really fucks up reality.

    2
  107. de stijl says:

    It is hard to describe the full concept of Minnesota cabin culture.

    It is definitely extremely white.

    It arose from an imported Swedish and Finnish paradigm. But morphed over time and place. As it should.

    It depends utterly if it is a friends weekend or a family one. Friend weekends are way rowdier.

    I only got invited usually to the friends weekends.

    You take a half day and drive up Friday afternoon. Btw, this culture also extends into N Wisconsin. Brad had a cabin outside of Hayward. It’s primarily a Scando thing, but not certain. Brad was a Bohunk and gay as the day was long.

    A lot of it is water focused. Swimming. Boating. Fishing. Water-skiing. Playing with dogs and little kids while waist deep. Then you need food. And a fire. An adult drink or six of your choice. Eventually sleep. Everybody grabs a sofa or a day bed or a bit of floor. I always go for right in front of the fireplace. Toasty.

    Inevitably some couple makes a bit too much noise in a romantic tryst – that is to be expected. It’s a pretty sexy place and time.

    Next morning, Saturday morning, everyone is a bit beat and hung-over, coffee, more coffee, but there is a day-trip planned everyone is basically obligated to do.

    It really does not matter what it is: local museum, some oddball local roadside attraction, you do it or you are lame. Inevitably, some folks stay at the cabin and lay-out on the dock. Their choice, but I say boo to that.

    Then you go back and monkey around in the water some more. Adult beverages and weed, not my thing, I always decline.

    Food. Fire. Drink. Weed. Sleep.

    Sunday morning is harsh. Everybody has to get home by nightfall in prep for Monday morning. The whole sail suddenly deflates and we are adrift. Real life intrudes. Adulthood and responsibilities.

    Sunday morning coming down.

    Sunday morning at a cabin is both super uncool and very cool. I am obligated to be at work this time tomorrow weighs suddenly very heavy, but I had this huge amount of fun and silliness and utter frivolity since last I had to be normal. Cool, because things got real.

    Totally worth it.

    There is a The Jayhawks or a Golden Smog vid that shows a smidge of the joy of a cabin weekend. If I can find it, I will post the title if you are interested.

  108. de stijl says:

    @de stijl:

    This will sound like I am not valuing women’s company but hardcore dude weekends are freaking awesome where the goal is to get wrecked, do dangerous and silly shit, and shroom very hard.

    One time I brought Soviet era gen 1 night vision goggles and we all ran around and played basically a version of tag all night.

    We were in our upper twenties or low thirties and ran around like idiots all night.

    It was fucking awesome.

  109. de stijl says:

    @Kurtz:

    One thing I want to obliterate (at least here, because my reach is only so wide), is the reflexive thought that anxiety is weakness.

    That it must not be discussed if you experience it, because then you are admitting to weakness, softness, and non-masculinity.

    I reject that. Facing up to obvious issues related to anxiety was me at my strongest. That is a hard step. Wicked hard.

  110. de stijl says:

    @de stijl:

    Found it:

    I’d Run Away by The Jayhawks.

    They blunt the concept but it contains most of the elements of a cool Minnesota cabin weekend experience. This is not what you should codify as the experience. Twas but a snatch of it. Never trust media. They will lie to you relentlessly.

  111. de stijl says:

    When you get up North near Duluth you get into Finnish sauna culture. Up Nort’ near Dulut’ in the local parlance.

    A sauna changes everything.

    A sauna cabin is waay different than a non-sauna cabin.

    Btw, “cabin” is really relative. It can be a basic shack or it could be a fancy ass place better than your house. It depends.

  112. de stijl says:

    Settled Down Rain

    Your words /

    Hung high in the rafters /

    Settled down like rain /

    Remain /

    Happy ever after

    A song meant for somebody like @Jax who can appreciate cool ass songs.

  113. de stijl says:

    Can you predict my reaction when it says “volume lowered to protect your hearing”? Not for the faint of heart.