Full of Nothing, Signifying Sound and Fury

The sad thing is I could probably do a variant cover for every Fox News bobblehead and still not have enough for all the cookie-cutter blonde cylons that are chunked out of the lab.

Katherine Timpf, National We Will Literally Hire Anyone Who Has Made a Failed Wingnut Product in the Last 20 years:
Feminists Blame Patriarchy for Not being Able to Skateboard

Wingnut language is weird.

I mean, I’ve already commented ad nauseating on the weird way right-wing rants have begun to form almost an entirely separate language made up of only dog whistles and desperate pleading requests for continuing tribal protections. And such habits have only gotten worse in the era of Teabagger purges and the predictable cost of training an entire political movement in nothing but paranoia and conspiracy theories.

But I don’t think I’ve fully driven into the ground the equally laughable quirk of wingnut language of reacting to every usage of common words that the right-wing has decided are scary with the sort of mind-numbing terror one’d expect from a skimpily-clothed teenager who’s just had her boyfriend murdered in the car next to her.

We’ve seen it flare up here and there over the years. Rapture-fetishists freaking out over the notion of peace and loving one another because they’ve decided that’s the secret code for the antichrist. Wingnuts freaking out over the notion of empathy because they didn’t like a brown woman nominated by a black man talking about it. Every single bitter old rant about some aspect of youth culture that stick-in-the-mud squares want to pretend are single-handedly destroying the great nation that totally existed in the television shows of their youths.

But I think my hand’s down favorite incarnation of this bizarre rabid response to every loud noise has to be the thrashing, attempted mockery angle that occurs whenever wingnuts encounter a bit of banal standard “no shit” bit of reality. Argle bargle, this thing exists or these everyday commonplace ideas or words we’ve decided are bad because… because are totally GNASH GNASH GNASH amirite, ha ha…

It’s just one of those things that’s like looking into the eyes of a person in the final stages of syphilis try and comprehend the world dimming around their eyes and it becomes a train wreck I can’t hope to look away from.

And on the subject of train wrecks, let us introduce the author of our lovely little triptych of tripe.

I wouldn’t blame you for not knowing who the fuck Katherine Timpf is, seeing as how the show she was programmed to be the designated eye candy for was Greg Gutfield’s sad attempt at creating a “libertarian” Daily Show, known as Red Eye, which seeing as how the title already is a Pot joke, you can pretty much guess just how “sophisticated” the humor on display was.

Now, despite that show improbably remaining on air in what I must assume is some form of horrific Tartarus-esque eternal punishment for the poor crew involved, Katherine has been brought on board the National Review’s Flying Dutchman in order to flood the front page with as many variations of her best Emily Litella impression in what I can only assume is a pointed commentary on Jonah Goldberg’s work ethic… or a testament to the “creative” power of cocaine. One of the two.

And it’s honestly all kind of magical.

Shorter (or the last port before Jungle):

  • Feminists! Skateboards! Internet! It’s still the early 90s right and the notion of punk rock girls is still as terrifying now as it was 20 years ago, right? Right? I mean, patriarchy! Patriarchy! It’s a spoooooky word! Ooooooh!

No. It’s as dumb as you think it is. I promise you that.

Feminists in Philadelphia have started a skateboarding group called “Shred the Patriarchy” because skate parks are male-dominated, misogynistic places that they can’t go to alone.

Now see, you, like me, may be wearing the freshly harvested skin of a sane person and thus, having your neurotransmitters effected by that brief elucidating blast of normalcy, may balk at first to this opening paragraph with responses like “And…?” or “Okay… yeah…” or otherwise the aching silence of really being unable to give a fuck.

But let yourself slip back into the chemical-induced madness of an all-mango diet, and you’ll see clear as day that the words “feminists” mentioning the word “Patriarchy” is your red-alarm call to freak the fuck out, scrawling “Misandry iz Real” on the walls with your own blood. And even more so if the subject is young folks. Which must be the case, because skateboarding hasn’t been a popular fad since at least 1985.

That last point is rather key to the freakout. Old, usually white, usually male, misogynists love pitching an utter shit fest over the existence of young women not serving as silicone-injected masturbation material on their internet box and new stack of porno DVDs. As if young women who won’t fuck them exist solely to taunt their bitter libidos. And it comes through loud and clear in every rant about the supposed whorish ugly sluttitude and monstrosity that is associated with everything from tattoos and dyed-hair to not being straight or having basic common-sense standards when it comes to dating.

Hell, I’m willing to bet cash-money that the fact that Zoe Quinn has tatoos, dyed-hair, and is queer is like 90% of what was fueling the initial hate-on for her in the first place.

But hey maybe I’m judging too early. Maybe she has really good reason to hate these dastardly serial killers who want to shred the limbs of patriarchs.

“I wasn’t comfortable skating here by myself,” said Sky Kalfus, the Oberlin College philosophy student who started the group this summer.

You know, anti-feminism, for a movement that is so invested and dependent on women’s fear, they seem to despise nothing more than a woman showing any signs of it. Whether it be the roaring condemnation of Rebecca Watson for admitting to being creeped out from being approached in an elevator, the violent rape threats that fall on any woman who admits to not feeling 100% safe walking around in public with sexual assault and harassment being so common, or just the cries of misandry when someone like Sky wants to hang with some people with shared interests because it’s not fun having something you love spoiled by d-bags making one feel uncomfortable, the general cry is that it is somehow a deliberate act against all men to react to the world as is.

I mean, Katherine doesn’t even bother to lay out the case why we should hate this woman. It’s just, she’s a feminist and she’s not comfortable. And she’s named Sky and liberal arts college and philosophy and beep fellow robots, beep in outrage at the existence of people we’ve decided we arbitrarily hate.

Kalfus clarified that it is not only skate parks she considers misogynistic, but “the entire world.”

You know, as a feminist who runs in feminist circles online and in life, it’s always been kind of quaint to see dedicated anti-feminists trying to make the no-duh of people noting that a shit ton of things in the world are misogynistic into some clearly laughable radical bizarrity that one shouldn’t even dare dignify with a response.

I mean, half the idiots currently backing up the assholes sending death threats to Anita Sarkeesian are dickheads who seem to think that misogyny can only mean chopping up women while screaming “all women must die”* can possibly qualify so recognizing anything less than that as sexist is some clearly death threat level of “imposition” and madness.

Which I suppose is perfectly consistent with the denials of racism as only meaning the Klan so noting that the modern lynching of an unarmed black man or Ferguson police re-enacting the worst hits of police reactions to the Freedom Marches as racist is the real unforgivable crime and radical position.

The group is for “female identified folks” as well as “queer/trans/genderqueer people,” according to its Facebook page.

Those monsters! Already hand-in-hand with the Flubert Illuminati! When will mankind learn to resist their complex personal identity charms?!?

The feminist slant of the skate group is obvious throughout the page.

… Heh. I know it used to bug me, but I’ve started to be genuinely amused every time wingnuts pull out the conspiracy theories to “prove” shit that could just as easily be deduced by pointing a fucking finger. And while scouring their facebook page to find evidence that a feminist group has GASP a feminist slant may not be at the level of Cashill’s epic weave of conspiracy to prove that Bill Ayers knew his own father, it nonetheless leaves me giggling like the loon I am.

“celebrate fathers day by shredding the patriarchy!” states a post from June 14. “buy dad flowers instead of a tie, and learn to skate at paines park from 4 – 6 pm! xoxox.”

Heh. I sometimes wonder what these sorts of statements must sound like to the sorts of people so married to gender roles that the notion of a woman working outside the home in any other field other than shitting on other women is seen as a crime against nature. It must be like the sounds of screaming children played over the screeching of nails on a chalkboard to them.

Unfortunately, for some women, even a feminist group isn’t enough to make them feel comfortable enough to skate in such a misogynistic place.

Temple University theater major Meridian Lowe said she really would like to skate, but her fear of men keeps her from trying.

“There’s all these bros and dudes,” she said. “And I have a lot of insecurity about taking up space and learning how to do something that involves my body, falling and making mistakes.”

SHYNESS AND SELF DOUBT ARE MISANDRY!

I mean, how dare you feel awkward about learning a skill in public when every single woman making rookie mistakes is seen as proof that all women everywhere suck at it! That’s somehow chopping the penis off of every cisdude on the planet!

Luckily for Lowe, Kalfus started the group not only to be able to skateboard, but also to meet other “Internet feminists.”

CAN YOU HEAR THE BLARING OF THE DOG-WHISTLE ENOUGH?!? I FEEL IT WAS A LITTLE SUBTLE, LET ME JUST CRANK IT UP SOME MORE!

But hey, sexism is a cheap enterprise these days. How about some douchebro capitalism fetishism and racism for ol’ timey sake.

Katherine Timpf, National Without Shame:
Federal Complaint says Hog Farms Are Racial Discrimination

You may have noticed that the least flattering interpretation of the post are kindly summed up in “are you kidding me?” style in the titles of Katherine’s little droppings. Now, if you foolishly think that this is so that the majority of the tigers who infest the comment threads can scan the title briefly before jumping straight into the demonstrating tribal loyalty phase of the call-and-answer well then, you’re just- Hey, shouldn’t we have a shorter right about now?

Shorter (or the last port before Jungle):

  • Silly environmentalists, talking about race. Don’t you know you are two entirely distinct categories of hate object? I mean, how could companies deliberately putting polluting factories in positions where they befoul the drinking water of only poor black people in a country with a long history of placing the least regulated and most polluted buildings near neighborhoods with a high number of poor minorities be at all noteworthy?

And to be fair to her, she may not actually be aware of what the complaint cont- What’s that? She’s actually going to summarize it more or less accurately, trusting that her intended audience has already freaked out at the double scare words of “racial” and “federal”?

…okey dokey.

Environmental groups have filed a civil-rights complaint against hog farmers in North Carolina, claiming that by maintaining farms near neighborhoods where minorities live, the pork producers are engaged in illegal discrimination against minorities.

The 48-page complaint explains that the farms create problems for surrounding neighborhoods such as foul smells and runoff in the water.

The crux of the complaint, which was filed by Washington-based EarthJustice and three other environmental groups in the Tar Heel State, is not these problems themselves, however. The four environmental groups object to seeing these problems occur in neighborhoods where “people of color” are more likely to live.

Gosh, hog shit in the drinking water, I have no idea why environmental groups are appalled, especially when it is clear the companies are deliberately trusting that people won’t give a literal shit if it happens to minorities instead of rich white suburbanites. It’s almost like brown people are human beings or something.

I mean, for fuck’s sake, she tries some last minute hand-waving like evil environmentalists wouldn’t care a whit if the pollution was happening to rich white CEOs… one sec, I’m in my happy place where CEOs are drowning in pig shit… and back, but fuck, the majority of the post is just her going “oogedy boogedy with her hands trusting her lazy seal of an audience to jump at the least amount of provocation.

It’s honestly kind of impressive in a sort of minimalist experimentation sort of way. Like, what is the bare minimum one needs to do as a hack to get the perpetual entitled rage machine all wound up?

The groups also cited issues such as not being able to hang laundry outside and the humiliation that comes from family members’ not wanting to visit.

I couldn’t imagine why.

Fuck, this bit of fuckwittery doesn’t even make sense unless you think poor black people deserve to live in misery-inducing climes for the crimes of being poor and black. I mean, I used to live in a suburb. I got to witness the absolute chaos that happened when somebody’s barbeque smelled a bit funky. Imaging the sensitive whiners of that hellhole dealing with even a temporary dose of the nose-wateringly toxic fumes that a factory farm produces pretty much forces my brain into a hard reset.

The complaint was filed against the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources by EarthJustice, along with the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, the N.C. Environmental Justice Network, and the Waterkeeper Alliance.

The suit requests that the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Civil Rights investigate the issue before giving federal funding to the state agency.

Oooooooooh, governmental…..ooooooooooohhh…. scaaaaaarryy.

But again, that’s easy mode. Sure, this minimalist style can tackle the standard bugaboos, but can it handle the full journey into Crazytown that is the right-wing’s bread and butter?

Well…

Katherine Timpf, National ALL ABOARRRRRRD! Ha ha ha ha!:
Catholic University Program Will Ask High School Kids to Question Their Genders

Let’s see, we’ve got the Evangelical right-wing slant of keeping a hand in the anti-catholic shin kicking while also using it as an example of “HOW FALLEN WE ARE, OH NOES”… And the “OUR PRECIOUS ARTIFACT CHILDREN ARE BEING TAINTED” spin that seems to be the standard tactic for wingnut articles about school. We’ve got good ol’ fashioned transgender panic… But is it truly nucking futz enough to be a true Wingnutistan production?

Wait! The accompanying picture… could it be?!? YES, it’s a bunch of stock photograph students with baffled expressions and a million question marks making sure that even the illiterate understand why they should be panicking!** Oh, yes, Katherine, your zero-effort method can adapt to any potential topic.

Shorter (or the last port before Jungle):

  • Evil feminazi college professors are going to turn your precious artifact children trans* with their voodoo gender studies hypnotic powers.***

And to be fair, that’s totally how it works. I mean, I was once a proper white male manly man doing superior ultra manly stuff and not having people already smell the queer on me and treat me accordingly and then boom, a gender studies professor with a big pointy hat jumped out from behind a bush and BAM! just like that I was sporting a rack and choosing to live a life of disownment, discrimination, and the ever-hanging spectre of death.

AND IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU DO NOT HEED MY WARNING!!!

The University of Notre Dame will host a “Gender and Culture in American Society” program for high-school students next summer, which will ask them to explain how they know for sure whether they are male or female.

THE HORROR! THE HORROR!

I mean, think! Children actually applying critical thinking to the cultural assumption of their gender, actually confirming what they are, thus saving many from the dysphoric hell of trying to force themselves into a mold that only brings them suffering? And like figuring that stuff out early?

I mean, what if they learned as early as middle school about this stuff? I mean, it’s not ever going to happen and this program is only for advanced high schoolers taking a special college level course and the whole “questioning your gender” thing is just standard brochure ad-copy to make an intro level gender studies class seem as exciting as the ad-copy promoted engineering and writing courses, but hey, imagine that unholy hell.

Like kids may even figure themselves out early enough to save them from having to go through the wrong puberty and that would be… bad… somehow… because… oh right, trans* people were invented by super gay homos to destroy the American family and aren’t actually real people. Duh, how could I be so silly as to have forgotten that. Silly nonexistent me!

“Are you male or female? How do you know?” asks a description of the program on the school’s official website. “When you were a baby, did your parents dress you in pink or blue? Who dressed you, fed you, changed your diapers – your mother or father?”

Oooooh, fear the ad copy, oooooh. Gender roles are totes sacred and natural, why would we even think about that? We don’t think about anything else that’s natural in college, which is why biology classes are just smoking ruins that hide the terrible physical cost that anything other than computer science and engineering have on our society.

The program will also ask students what disadvantages there are to traditional gender roles.

There are no disadvantages to the system. Sure, a lot of men feel that always being expected to bury their emotions and be strong all the time and never be able to break down and cry is really exhausting and frustrating and then there’s all the ways “proving yourself to the lads” interferes with having the fulfilling emotional romantic relationships you want, but I mean, it at least puts all men above all women, so it’s not like it’s affecting anyone too much… what was that evil harpy skateboarder ladies? Oh, you silly bitches, women aren’t people, so they don’t count either. Unless they are Stepford Bots in mint condition.

And we’re all happy rotting to death in the eternal suburbs, so much so that the majority of us married to the system are literally trying to hurry up the Apocalypse because the pain of trying to force themselves into the tiny and ill-fitting roles is hurting them that fucking much…

But seriously, even if we cut out the damage to women, queer folks, anyone less than 100% straight and those with non-traditional gender presentation or ideal gender presentation, and just focused on the straightest of bro dudes, it’s clear that the demands of “traditional roles” is just a cycle of absolutely misery. The constant need to prove “manliness” or be considered just another woman or a “fag”, the endless posing, the self-censoring of all different types of emotions and self-hatred of any traits that don’t quite fit the mold is something no one should have to live through.

This shit hurts everyone.

And it’s only the fucking right-wing assholes who think that’s A-OK as long as it hurts non-traditional people worse.

The program promises to give the teenagers an “understanding of current theoretical explanations of gender, including femininity, masculinity, sexualities, patriarchy, and feminism.”

On its official website, Notre Dame defines itself as “an independent, national Catholic research university.”

How dare a famous university have a standard Intro to Gender Studies class in their “hey high school students, why don’t you think about what major you want before you come here” style classes!

Participants will have the opportunity to receive a college credit for participation in the course.

Almost like it was a college course and not eldritch magicks to weave foul perversions on our most precious commodity, “teh chillun”. Weird.

Abby Palko, director of undergraduate studies in the school’s gender-studies program, will lead the program.

Palko did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

Seeing as how she rapid fired all these articles and more in a day, I doubt there existed enough turnaround possible to respond even if she wanted to.

But overall, these articles really hit home the sleaze inherent in the perpetual hate machine. Katherine knows that a minimum effort is needed to keep the proles that are National Review’s bread and butter churning so she provides it with enough winking dog whistles and plain descriptions so as to appear to be saying nothing at all worth noting. A sort of toxic red meat thrown to the tiger pit usually ending with a list of relatively powerless organizations and people with enough pretending distance so as to feign shock if the right-wing hate machine should choose to follow the bait and harass the target.

And no points for guessing how the tigers in the comment threads ate this shit up.

I’d give a warning about jumping into that foul nest, but if the warnings on the side of the boat weren’t enough, then well, nothing is.


‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. Laziness weaponized, refined, and made into efficient mass-producible drivel. A synthetic dream, expertly designed in the tale of an idiot. We are aware of all Internet traditions.™


*And not even that. I mean, the majority of the professional sexists won’t even admit that Eliot Rodgers was a misogynist. So… yeah.

**I haven’t been mentioning it, but that’s been Katherine’s main shtick for these posts. Making sure it is made as clear in the pictures as it is in the dog whistles that you are supposed to be reacting in anger and fear to these little flecks of nothing and who cares as if your last surviving relative was just shot in front of you. The skateboard one was illustrated with a picture of the woman throwing up the horns and doing the standard punk rock thing with skateboards because that image of tame as fuck is suddenly terrifying when WIMMINFOLK are doing it… because it’s apparently 1994.

And to be serious, it’s kind of a brilliant strategy from the standpoint of a hack paid by the article. Most of the assholes reading this shit aren’t really looking for long rambling pieces coddling their ego. They’re looking to feel smugly superior to dem dum liberal scum ruining our great nation by suddenly existing for the first time and that’s something as simple as a clickbait article title and a picture designed to get the haters all riled up.

It’s like the ultimate manifestation of what J-Load put into place with his “I dunno, someone look it up for me” style posts.

***Now some of you may be asking, Cerberus, you asexy vixen, do you think you’ll ever get tired of having your various identities be used as one-stop jokes and “but whaaaaa” moments, especially since the cycle of rights means that something you are will probably be in that shitty state for your entire life?

And I want to assure you that no, it never gets fucking old. Ever. I just fucking love this endless repetitive shit.

 

Comments: 142

 
 
 

you, like me, may be wearing the freshly harvested skin of a sane person

After a while it goes stiff and starts cracking and you have to start looking for a new one.

 
 

The cynical part of me says that Notre Dame is just trying to jump start that critical bit of self examination before the students get to college and find out that a catholic university and seminary may not be the most supportive environment for lgbtq students. They wouldn’t want to invest the time and money that it takes to train up a brand new priest or jesuit if that person is just going to discover something about themselves that will make the enforced poverty and celibacy that much harder to deal with.

 
 

I have always been impressed by wingnut economy of language. I mean they can express “the world in grain of sand” as William Blake and Lara Croft have put it (in a different context). They can, with one sentence, express more error than a fourteen page worksheet of advanced calculus given to a slow kindergartener. But this:

“Sky Kalfus, the Oberlin College philosophy student”

is a masterpiece of the form. I mean hippie first name, non-English surname, super-liberal college founded by abolitionists and the first co-ed college in the United States, eeeeeveeel liberal [dark] arts, and a student. The only word with no conservative subtext is “the.” If Ms. Kalfus had never done anything more than create a Facebook account, Timpf would have been trying to work her into a post.

 
 

Ah, Cerb, bringerr of the literary buffet of comment inspiration. I mean, where do I start? It all looks so go- um, well, not GOOD, but you know what I mean.

those with non-traditional gender presentation or ideal gender presentation

What’s fun when being surrounded by knuckle-draggers is when you’re straight but perceived as gay because you’re insufficiently “masculine”; you’re not LGBT but you’re still harassed because you’re assumed to be gay; you get to live in a wonderful half-world where you’re not fitting ANYONE’S stereotypes. Whee. It’s so fun.

the sounds of screaming children played over the screeching of nails on a chalkboard

So, like Creed, then.

 
 

The sad thing is I could probably do a variant cover for every Fox News bobblehead and still not have enough for all the cookie-cutter blonde cylons that are chunked out of the lab.

I get that reference. Haha, apparently so did PolitiFact.

Not meant to derail, but I found an interesting GamerGate article.

 
 

To be fair, misandry does exist. There are people who do hate men. The question is whether that hate is of equal concern compared with heavily-institutionalized misogyny.

 
 

Who’s mom does a Dragon-King need to appease in order to get out of moderation?

 
 

No rush – they weren’t important linkees.

Like this one PENIS.

 
 

The Twitter account for Fox 5 DC provided a similar image to give you an idea of what this vandalism may have looked like.

Because god knows 49% of use couldn’t just lift our waistbands and look.

Yes, folks, it’s FAUX – 50% adolescent giggling about sex, 50% stern Guardians of Morality harrumphing at sex.

No WONDER their audience is all fucked up.

 
 

After a while it goes stiff and starts cracking and you have to start looking for a new one.

that’s why it’s important, nay, vital to rub the lotion on it’s skin…or not only does it get stiff and cracky, it also gets the hose again…

 
 

Katherine is 3 times as oppressed and angry today.

 
 

To be fair, misandry does exist. There are people who do hate men. The question is whether that hate is of equal concern compared with heavily-institutionalized misogyny.

this is just like the spanking/beating/discipline argument that is currently setting the intertrons ablaze…mostly conflating spanking with whipping and assuming that just because parents don’t spank or whip, that equals no discipline…

i don’t mean to beat a dead horse*, but i am now truly concerned for not only for the average wingnut mind, but especially for the juggernauts of wingnut welfare** who keep the base at a constant blathering froth…

*of course you see what i did there…
**no, i’m not really concerned fort he wingnut juggernauts because i’m almost convinced that they don’t actually believe any of the wingnuttery they propagate…and just evilly laugh and stroke their hairless cats while they count the wingnut dollars that roll in…

 
 

from the online faux news story:

Landscaper Dave Baumgartner is the boss of the moss, he volunteered his landscaping skills and staff to help his alma mater get its football field back up and looking right.

so, dkw’s real name is dave baumgartner?

 
 

Who’s mom does a Dragon-King need to appease in order to get out of moderation?

I liberated your comment. Stay away from my mom.

 
 

I am normally a non-violent person, but anyone calling themselves the “boss of the moss” is really looking for a knuckle buffet.

 
 

oh, jeez you guys, i’m getting so mad…i went mango diving again…

femi-skateboarders: i went to their facebook site…seems pretty inocuous and is mostly, ‘hey! we’re skating here today–you’re welcome to join us!’ so, pretty much NOT the hotbed of feminazism that the nro-ers (who either did NOT ‘do the research’ as they so strongly admonish others to do or just have a pavlovian response to ANYthing written on nro) are all claiming…

hog farms: OHMIGODSHUTUP! IGUARANTEE THE HOGFARMS WERE THERE FIRST SO MOVE IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT AND QUIT WHINING AND TRYING TO RUIN AMERICA! also, they are assuming the ‘minorities’ are muslims, which NONE of the articles claim…again, serious lack of research, kids! most of the people who live there have been there for generations…hog farms went from possibly one per county (and were somewhat largish) to more like 9-10 per county with a metric shit ton more pigs per operation…and the complaint have been going on for years and years with nothing being done about it…

notre dame: didn’t mango dive that one…too annoyed by this time, but heaven forbid, we should teach kids to think and be empathetic and inquisitive and accepting of others…but, one commenter on the skateboard story kinda sums up not only their superior and perfect life skills as well as their complete and utter constipation with this:

If you’re still skateboarding or riding those funny little bicycles when you’re over 16 or 18 max, you might start to think about growing up.

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Applies to women too. Try becoming an adult. When did people stop growing up and remaining juveniles in America?

When I was 19, I left home, moved to another city and got a job. (There used to be lots of jobs available to the young in those days.)

ticks all the boxes: if you don’t do as i do, you are WRONG…biblical reference…i was such an a+ specimen and model citizen, i became an uber-responsible adult as soon as i hit 19 which right after i singlehandedly raised myself, earned straight a-s while being captain of the football team, most popular boy (but still married to my high school sweetheart) all while doing chores, going to church, mowing old ladies’ lawns and doing actual manual labor for a part time job, not like you wussy kids nowadays…blech…they are all the same…

 
 

oops…my bad! it’s not 9-10 hog operations per county (duh!) it is:

Today the North Carolina hog herd, all told, numbers around 9–10 million animals annually, according to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

pretty interesting read actually:

 
 

Thanks kindly OBS.

LEAFS SUCK Update. Rob Ford withdrew from the mayor’s race last week when they found an abdominal tumour. Biopsy diagnosis is back – it’s a rare form of malignant liposarcoma. I am the opposite of a Rob Ford fan, but this just sucks massively hard. I wish him well with his treatments and his upcoming battle. I honestly am hoping for him to win.

source:http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/toronto/rob-ford-to-undergo-chemotherapy-for-treatment-of-malignant-liposarcoma-1.2768498

 
 

When did people stop growing up and remaining juveniles in America?

About the same time we started not giving a damn for grammar.

More power to anyone over 18 who’s fit enough and tough enough to skateboard. One should perhaps not piss off people who are inured to face-planting into concrete.

 
 

The skateboarding thing is funny. I’m 45 and still skate (occasionally). Hell, most of my skater friends from back in the day still do it in one form or another, some of them are still really fucking good at it.

And yeah, some of them are still kinda softheaded losers (like they used to be), but plenty of them are “successful” people that have their own houses and can build their own pool or half-pipe in the yard.

Hell, plenty of the bastards I know probably vote Republican.

 
 

This gem of an anonymized tweet: “my biggest problem with anita, is that if i used her logic i could see sexism everywhere.”

 
 

I made the mistake earlier this evening of listening to a thing called Mark Levine on the radio… I may have to air the car out tomorrow to get the stench of rotten mango out of it.

“Best” part was his crying about going to the mall and seeing women in hijab; somehow this led him to the obvious conclusion that America was going to fall under Sharia law any day now, because shut up. ‘Taint no religious freedom to him either; he whined that how dare he be forced to see that and yet anti-abortionists are restricted.

So wearing a head scarf = blockading women’s clinics and screaming insults at them. Yeah. Equivalency. *vomit*

Oh, and corporations shouldn’t hire immigrants when they could hire Americans but I’m sure he’d whine if they were forced to by law because free market bargle.

 
 

After a while it goes stiff and starts cracking and you have to start looking for a new one.

Bag Balm.
.

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

Shouldn’t conservatives applaud this woman for her self-reliance, and her desire to find a non-state solution to the problem she encountered?

Ah, who am I kidding? They have no ethical standards whatsoever.

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

If you’re still skateboarding or riding those funny little bicycles when you’re over 16 or 18 max, you might start to think about growing up.

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Applies to women too. Try becoming an adult. When did people stop growing up and remaining juveniles in America?

Betcha actual folding money this guy watches professional sports. It’s bad to participate in “juvenile” activities while it’s good to watch them? Riiiiiight.

For the record, I was thirty when I first rode a skateboard. A friend of mine who was always a hyper-mature, responsible kid decided that he needed a long board. It was a sweet ride, and I did pretty well on it, but when I started going down a hill, I said to myself, “Hey, this thing doesn’t have breaks…” No, didn’t wipe out, just had a “moment of clarity”.

 
 

“Hey, this thing doesn’t have breaks…”

It didn’t have brakes.

If you stayed on long enough there indeed would have been breaks, possibly of the compound variety.

 
 

>liposarcoma

Damn, does that mean no more fat jokes? ‘Cause fat jokes and Rob Ford go together like gin and tonic.

 
 

Oh yes, righties. Please attack Notre Dame for being insufficiently conservative. Also, skateboards are planning to castrate you and seduce your pick up truck. BE AFRAID!!

 
 

Also, skateboards are planning to castrate you and seduce your pick up truck. BE AFRAID!!

i love how up in arms they are over that fact that a group of young women decided that they felt better skating as a group…FEMINAZANARCHISTS!

 
 

Sounds like they’re starting to view women (or at least women who are or could be feminists) with the same amount of fear and pants staining traditionally shown towards African American men.

1 woman = A crowd.
2 women = A gang.
3 women = A riot.

p.s. FYWP, right in the ear.

 
 

I’m old enough to have actually owned a skateboard with metal wheels.

Now get off my lawn!

 
 

castrate you and seduce your pick up truck. BE AFRAID!!.

They’re likely afraid of having their trucks castrated. They seem to be quite invested in their truck nuts. Why that is I will not speculate.

 
 

Sounds like they’re starting to view women (or at least women who are or could be feminists) with the same amount of fear and pants staining traditionally shown towards African American men.

which they are masking with dismissive attitudes, condescension and derision…mostly in the looks department, cuz ewww…what normal man would want to screw THOSE chicks?!?!

also, too…who wants to be regaled again (read: bored) by my one and only skateboard story?

 
 

I had a red wooden skateboard w/ metal wheels, no damn flexible axles or trucks or anything. At least one of my friends had a board w/ roller skate wheels nailed into it.

 
 

castrate you and seduce your pick up truck. BE AFRAID!!

They might be afraid the eeeevil libruls will castrate their trucks. They are mightily invested in their truck nutz. Why that is I will not speculate.

 
 

M. Bouffant
September 18th, 2014 at 9:21 pm

He had a board??!? LOOXURY! We had to nail the (clamp on type) roller skates directly into our feet. AND WE LIKED IT.

 
 

If you’re still skateboarding or riding those funny little bicycles when you’re over 16 or 18 max, you might start to think about growing up.

So saith the authority on what is grown up and what is childish, as demonstrated by the very adult comment.

 
 

So this is a pretty awesome lesson in freedom of religion and the establishment clause that will send the Christian Supremacists into hysterics.

 
 

who wants to be regaled again

That would be “reregaled”.

 
 

Cancer is never a good diagnosis. Aggressive cancer is exactly as Holy Shit terrible as it sounds. In a horror movie, aggressive cancer would be the invisible knife-handed sadistic serial killer who can walk through walls and gets bigger and nastier every time you attack him.

Good luck, Mr. Ford.

 
 

I was never galed in the first place. I DEMAND MY GALING!

 
 

I got yer galing right here! Wait, no, right…here, no… dammit, where did it go? I had it just a minute ago.

 
 

Arrrr, me maties!

 
 

I was never galed in the first place. I DEMAND MY GALING!

my one and only skateboard story involves a gangly me at 10 years old…my cousin who was obsessed with KISS and skateboarding…a very steep road…and me getting halfway down the hill and thinking ‘holy shit, i’m going really fucking fast! bail!’ also, multiple road rashes and wounds…

 
 

hey, i know it’s a totes boring story, but i didn’t think it was a thread killer…or are you all busy coloring in your new satanic temple coloring books?

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

Anybody else hold a Scottish wake for the Scottish independence movement?

 
 

my cousin who was obsessed with KISS and skateboarding

So, basically, every teenager in 1975.

 
 

So, basically, every teenager in 1975.

damn, nailed the year of the great skateboarding incident pretty well!

 
 

I was about the same age, bbkf, and unfortunately my loss of neurons hasn’t wiped out that part of my memory yet.

 
 

I for one and speaking only for myself am hoping someone will tell us how their doggie is doing.

AHEM.

 
 

Let’s see, I was 11 I think, on a steep hill and going pretty fast. But I thought I could go faster so I gave it another kick with my right foot. The problem was, my right foot didn’t come back while my left foot, happily racing downhill on the skateboard, kept right on going. That was the first and only time I did the splits.

 
 

I DEMAND MY GALING!

Fair reredos for Pupienus!

 
 

Oh, joy: Green-baiting bus ads, courtesy Pam Gellar.

 
 

The proprietor of Atlas Sharted had a similar campaign in D.C. I saw it on exactly one bus. WMATA has a huge fleet so I have to wonder if it puts controversial ads on buses, as required by the contract, runs a couple of buses for a few days and then shoves them all in mothballs for the duration.

 
 

Our Saudi, ahem, allies are quite fond of beheading people but nobody’s ever made a fuss about it.

 
 

Our Saudi, ahem, allies are quite fond of beheading people but nobody’s ever made a fuss about it.

That’s because the do it for the right reasons!

Like, you know… umm…

hmm…

SHUT UP IT’S FREEDOM AND STUFF

(like liberating those Kuwaitis shed freedom all over the Middle East. Remember how well that worked?)

 
 

like liberating those Kuwaitis shed freedom all over the Middle East. Remember how well that worked?

Nice people. Sure glad I almost got my butt shot off saving their sorry asses.

 
 

Katherine Timpf, National We Will Literally Hire Anyone Who Has Made a Failed Wingnut Product in the Last 20 years:

Katherine Timpf is such a nobody she hasn’t even made it into the American Encyclopedia of Loons which is up to like 1100 loons listed so far.

http://americanloons.blogspot.com

 
 

Anybody else hold a Scottish wake for the Scottish independence movement?

I drank some Scotch, does that count?

I for one and speaking only for myself am hoping someone will tell us how their doggie is doing.

AHEM.

My dog is doing great, thanks.

 
 

And here I was, convinced that “how their doggie is doing” was S,N!-speak for some awful prevert sex act.

 
 

Bagoas has a booboo on his paw. Went to vet last week who said they didn’t know what up, maybe a puncture wound of some sort. He HATED the cone of shame. Just went apeshit wouldn’t sleep wouldn’t stay still drool running down and sogging up everything. He also kept running into stuff, mostly the furniture but also doors and shit. Pain meds and antibiotics (pain meds only for him, not me, damnit) and Epsom salt soaks. We got (expensive) booties (REI prices) and that at least stopped the licking. But one week later it’s still swollen so back to the vet we go. Fucking dog.

 
 

Iwas petting the cat the other day. No, I was really petting my cat. It’s not a metaphor for anything. Get your minds out of the gutter.

Anyway, when I stroked the cat’s tail, my hand came away wet and brown. Eeeeeeeeeewwwww!!!!!!!

Apparently she’d had a touch of Montezuma’s Cat’s Revenge and it had collected on her tail. After boiling my hands I had to chase the cat down and clean off her tail. Mind you the cat thought this was all part of the game and kept hide and seek.

Once that little chore was accomplished I then had to clean everything in the house that her tail had touched. In some spots the walls had been painted with cat poop.

Just what I wanted to deal with first thing in the morning.

 
 

that right there is a sad doggy.

 
 

I’m entirely convinced that house cats exist solely to fuck shit up.

 
 

http://imgur.com/W1kiPlY

“My foot hurts, but this indignity is a step too far!”

 
 

And here I was, convinced that “how their doggie is doing” was S,N!-speak for some awful prevert sex act.

what’s to say that it isn’t?

maeve is still a brat…but g-dang it, she’s still so adorable…

also, major? that is so gross! although humorous beings it didn’t happen to me…

and i hope bagoas’ paw gets better…cute boots, though…

 
 

oh, yeah…i meant to say that i put the only recent pic of her i have on my sad and lonely blahg…

 
 

I suppose I should be glad the extent of my cat’s perfidy is sitting on my laptop keyboard for attention and pulling keys off when I lift him off.

 
 

She’s usually a great cat. When I’m leaving for a trip she’ll actually sulk. She knows what the uniform and suitcase means.

 
 

Mmmmmmmm, tasty PENIS!

 
 

Bagoas stayed at vet. Probable migrating foreign body. Little shit got into something nasty. What a bad boy. They’re going to slice up his paw, see what’s in there. They’ll send him home with more antibiotics and more pain meds. And the vet STILL won’t get any pain meds for me. Heh, he doesn’t know that I know all about Tramadol which I just might steal from Bagoas.

 
 

I hope your cat feels better Major K. Otherwise you’ll have to burn the house down and go live in a field.

Perhaps I could interest you in a cat that opens the refrigerator while the humans sleep.

Now I have 2 dozen eggs that were sitting right under a 40 watt bulb all night. It would be a shame if they fell into the wrong hands.

Hands that carefully buried them in the compost pile until an emergency, such as drunk people who won’t shut up.

Mwahahahahahahaha!

 
 

Perhaps I could interest you in a cat that opens the refrigerator while the humans sleep.

Now I have 2 dozen eggs that were sitting right under a 40 watt bulb all night.

Maybe the cat was trying to make you an omlette and couldn’t figure out where the pans were kept.

 
 

I dunno, thinking this cat is pretty much the coolest.

 
 

I was on hotel standby in Indianapolis. Got a 3:00 AM wakeup call to go to Milwaukee.

Went about as smoothly as I expected:

Of course we were late getting out of Indy and there was no ride to the hotel when we got to Milwaukee.

Things tend to go great when everything’s running by the schedule. Once they start changing things around it all falls apart.

 
 

If you were going to be in Milwaukee for longer than a couple hours, on pretty much any other day, I would be tempted to drive over and say hi. Today, my sister in law and my brother are at the hospital where she is in labor with their 3rd child. So I will wave to the east instead.

 
 

Our current cat will be our last. Guaranteed.
I still love him fine but I just can’t do it again.

 
 

The cremated remains of my last cat are still in my car where they’ve been since I picked them up at the vet months ago. My wife won’t let me bring them into the house because the demons they contain might be released and contaminate it. And I haven’t yet found a place vile enough that needs a proper desecration so I can dump them there. I’m open to suggestions.

 
 

Our current cat will be our last. Guaranteed.
I still love him fine but I just can’t do it again.

i often wonder if maeve will be our last…can’t imagine life without a critter in the house, but damn! they can be a lot of work…i have a feeling that as long as hubbkf can hunt, we’ll have a dog…if so, my only demand is that it doesn’t shed…

 
 


And I haven’t yet found a place vile enough that needs a proper desecration so I can dump them there. I’m open to suggestions.

I was just in Richmond. I’d be happy to show you where Jefferson Davis’ is buried.

 
 

I’m open to suggestions

They might add a certain je nais se quois to beer. Couldn’t be worse than the extreme over hopping that is epidemic around here. Hell, likely they would _improve_ the brew.

http://imgur.com/5KQ80LZ
He’s not happy about the cone of shame but he’s getting used to it. He’s a lot happier now that the foxtail that worked itself an inch deep into his paw, and brought a nasty infection with it, is gone.

 
 

They might add a certain je nais se quois to beer. Couldn’t be worse than the extreme over hopping that is epidemic around here. Hell, likely they would _improve_ the brew.

Some hops are known (and renowned) for their cat pee or catty odor. Three Floyds and Surly actually collaborated on a beer they called Urine Trouble.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26/92555/

 
 

Some hops are known (and renowned) for their cat pee or catty odor.

So, maybe my last batch of beer was SUPPOSED to taste that way.

Also, Apollo 13 revisited…
http://craftmike.com/2014/09/23/problem-solving/

 
 

Well isn’t this a goddamn shame

 
 

Any opinion on Bobo Brooks’ latest watery excretion?

 
 

Oh goody! Brian Aldiss’ Galaxies Like Grains of Sand for Kindle is $1.99 today at Amazon. I lost my copy loooong ago so I’m looking forward to rereading it for the first time in more than a couple decades.

Bobo is wearing his rose colored glasses again. And blinders also too. What a twatcicle.

 
 

Oh dear FSM. In my Amazon “Sci Fi and phantcy newsletter” today they had “A collection of the genre’s funniest books:” Slaughterhouse Five? Really? Darkly comic, sure, but funny?!?! FUNNIEST? Why do I suspect the kid in charge of assembling that ad hasn’t read most of the books listed in it.

 
 

Why do I suspect the kid in charge of assembling that ad hasn’t read most of the books listed in it.

or he could be a sociopath…

 
 

Any opinion on Bobo Brooks’ latest watery excretion?

Second, the elite we do have has to acknowledge that privilege imposes duties. Wealthy people have an obligation to try to follow a code of seemliness. No luxury cars for college-age kids. No private jet/ski weekends. Live a lifestyle that is more integrated into middle-class America than the one you can actually afford. Strike a blow for social cohesion.

of, for fuck’s sake…seemliness?!

 
 

Jesu Christos, Bobo is actually lecturing the wealthy that they need to spend less money to “integrate” themselves?

I mean, the FUCK? “Gosh, Mr. Brooks, we had no idea that our lavish displays of obscene wealth made us appear like outsiders! We’ll get on liquidating our assets right away! After all, it’s for social cohesion!”

Fuckers can’t even pay their goddamn taxes; as if they’re going to give a good flipping goddamn about “social cohesion”.

 
 

for fuck’s sake…seemliness?!
Nothing but shallow substancelessness from them. All that matters is surface. (Especially w/ Brooks, whose primary output mode is shallowness.)

“Is he wearing a flag pin?” “Reagan always wore a tie in the Oval Office.” “Recite the Pledge & then sign the loyalty oath.”

 
 

Ooooh, nice. Comment posted immediately & page refreshed to comment.

“Now,” he typed, “lessee if I get the ‘too quickly, slow down’ screen.”

 
 

Some asshole hit us with a green laser when we were going into Indy this morning – twice.

Because I don’t have enough to worry about already at that point.

That’s a federal crime, by the way.

 
 

Once that little chore was accomplished I then had to clean everything in the house that her tail had touched. In some spots the walls had been painted with cat poop.

See, this is why people want to to get in on the ground floor of my grand grifting scheme that is CatopiaTN.com! They’ll be able to SEE episodes like this LIVE! 🙂

I added a new feature for those who were bored with a catless scene-scape (which is, oh, 60% of the time).

Hate me, I grift! (ahem)
.

 
 

Those assholes with the green lasers piss me off. They have a very real chance of blinding someone or causing permanent vision damage. They have a very real chance of causing a crash. I read about someone they caught in LA who was doing this, and the reason he gave is because he hated the noise from the airport.

The companies that market and sell these overpowered lasers to exactly the demographic that thinks this kind of shit is funny need to be held accountable too.

Also FYWP I am not posting too fast.

 
 

Fortunately it was 5-10 miles away so the beam was diffused a bit and he didn’t get the cockpit directly.

We got a pretty good fix on where it was coming from and passed it on to Air Traffic Control.

 
 

Nailed a guy here come years back. Stupid shit kept firing it from his back porch. He went to jail.

I have a high powered hand held laser. It’s nice to exercise the dog with a martini in the other hand.

 
 

No offense to you, pup, but the high powered ones are really more trouble than they are worth. Any laser with a strength of a mW or more can cause retinal damage, sometimes even reflected light can be damaging at wattages routinely sold to consumers. And, truth be told, I too, think they are kinda neat and want one, but from an eye safety standpoint they are no safer to hand to a child or an untrained user than any other power tool.

I have done my share of fiber optic cabling, and I have seen the only half joking sign “Warning: do not look at laser with remaining eye”.

 
 

we just have a eensy laser thingie that i bought at the $ store…drives maeve absolutely wild…we learned, however, that for a hunting dog, while it is extremely amusing to watch her chase it, it is actually detrimental…after a while, they get a little wigged out that they can’t catch the prey and just give up on it…

 
 

We have a laser pointer but our cat thinks she’s much too cool to chase it.

 
 

Second, the elite we do have has to acknowledge that privilege imposes duties. Wealthy people have an obligation to try to follow a code of seemliness. No luxury cars for college-age kids. No private jet/ski weekends. Live a lifestyle that is more integrated into middle-class America than the one you can actually afford. Strike a blow for social cohesion.

It’s cute the way he thinks anyone, much less the rich, give 2/5ths of a fuck about what he thinks. If his theory was the rich should tone it down so they have a chance to escape the ride in the tumbril, that would make sense. Sort of, “No private jet/ski weekends” is just plain gibberish.

But what makes this current bout of finger-wagging extra funny is this the same fucker who just maundered on about how if he had $500 million dollars he’d start a bunch of camps where adults can spend two weeks (or at least adults who can afford to spend two weeks at camp) making friends.

That wouldn’t be an ostentatious display of wealth!

 
 

We have a laser pointer but our cat thinks she’s much too cool to chase it.

maeve flips a tit even if she just thinks the laser is coming out…

if he had $500 million dollars he’d start a bunch of camps where adults can spend two weeks (or at least adults who can afford to spend two weeks at camp) making friends.

would it start with him? poor bobo…no friends! what about those teens he hit it off with in the wilderness?

 
 

As a more enjoyable elixir to cleanse your palate of the swill that Bobo feeds us, try this McSweeney’s article.

Also, too: there’s a pending comment in moderation that calls us all “leftist scum” — I’m almost tempted to let it through.

 
 

Also, too, two: d r i f t g l a s s takes Bobo down quite well today as he usually does.

 
 

Also, too: there’s a pending comment in moderation that calls us all “leftist scum”

I suspect that anyone slightly to the left of Augusto Pinochet qualifies as “leftist scum” in this person’s world.

 
 

Anybody got a spare $20 million (+) laying around?

 
 

Porsche 917 DROOL

I saw the 917 in action. Fucking awesome.

Have I ever told y’all my Ford GT-40 (this particular car finished 2nd at LeMans) story?

 
 

re-regale us

 
 

Way back in the day I lived in San Antonio and knew a guy, L, who had more money than God. He owned, among other things like a B fucking 17, a Ford GT40 which had raced at LeMans. L used to go out in the wee hours to Loop 410 on the south side of SA where at that time there was mostly nothing. And open that fucker up. He had it geared for a top end around 220.

I was with him one night (he did let me drive it once but I didn’t take it over 150) having fun and when the sky started to get some color we decided to call it a night and get some breakfast. Coasted it into a greasy cantina and parked along the side where we could keep an eye on it. Shortly before our huevos rancheros arrived a cop came in and sat at the only open table which was next to ours. The tables were separated only by a steel structural post – they were basically side by side. Just after digging into our breakfasts another cop entered and sat opposite the first.

We couldn’t help but hear their conversation which started with small talk. Then … the one cop lowers his voice, leans forward and says “Damnedest thing happened this morning.” We thought nothing of it and continued to eat our excellent huevos and house made tortillas. And refried beans. Very good refritos. Anyway, the one cop says “I was sitting in that little dip out on 410, you know [exact spot]. We started paying attention because we went through that exact spot. I was half dozing and figured with luck maybe I’d get to write a cite. I saw some light in my rear view mirror over the crest of the hill so I looked at the radar gun to make sure it was set to lock. Then I heard something really loud and when I looked up I saw lights disappearing over the hill in front!”

We were paying VERY much attention now. The cop then says “I think I saw a fucking UFO!” Trying not to spew that last bite out my mouth we looked at each other, rose simultaneously – L tossed a twenty on the table for our under ten dollar meal – and made for the exit as quickly but inconspicuously as possible. Outside, we rounded the corner, quietly climbed in and burst out laughing.

That thing was LOUD so I’m sure when L fired it up and we blasted out of there the cops figured out the deal. We laughed about that for years.

Then L died.

The end.

 
 

Then L died.

Dammit, that’s not how this was s’posed to end! Did he at least leave you the car?

 
 

Did he at least leave you the car?

We weren’t THAT close. Damnit.

 
 

Porsche 917 DROOL

I’m told that those were pretty scary to drive.

 
 

The first ones were all but undrivable. There was no downforce on the rear. Simple expedient of shortening the tail made all the difference and they immediately stomped all over everyone else.

‘Course, with 1100+ horsepower in a sub 2000 pound car it could be terrifying in any case.

 
 

I told my friend by text that I didn’t want to see him again. He text back: “Expected, so be it”. I told him it wasn’t just because of the MRA thing, I didn’t have fun with him. He said I needed to grow as a person and a friend and he tried to be a good friend while I didn’t. I need to write him a long email.

 
 

I need to write him a long email.

Or… not. I’d go with not, but what the fuck do I know.

 
 

HT: I’m _very_ careful with the laser. Only use it in our neighborhood (private) dog park. I too know a former coworker who has the remaining good eye.

FA: Your obligations are over. Just put it out of your mind and move on. Better not to spend even one more picogram of emotional involvement on it.

FYWP I haven’t posted in hours and that last was from a different computer.

 
 

Well, I probably won’t be able to change his MRA viewpoints but I can let him what things he’s said over the years have hurt me. I would feel better if I did it.

 
 

FA : Hon, this person does not deserve one more moment of your attention. Write down in a letter all you want him to know about your hurt and then DON’T send it to him. Print it then delete it.Put the printed copy away somewhere locked or burn it. This is how I once wrote a letter to my Dad and it helps, IMO.
You could maybe show it to your shrink. The letter was my shrink’s suggestion but he never read mine.
Just a suggestion.
You have friends right here – OK, we are only virtual but now is the time to cultivate online friends who can be just as valuable as RL ones – I know that for a fact.
Now, we move on.

 
 

Just wanted to stop in to let y’all know, my beloved Curly is no more. He passed this afternoon from what appears to have been a fast and massive stroke. It was about two minutes from the time I knew he was in trouble to him dying, limp in my arms.

I’ll miss him, that is certain. :-/
.

 
 

What Suzeboo said. Any time you spend on him now is just a waste of your own, IMHO.

It’s very hard to let go sometimes, but it’s an example of the “sunken cost” fallacy, that by spending a little more time/effort, you can redeem all the time and effort that went into this relationship. It rarely works out that way, and you don’t need a MRA in your life, even if he’s just ‘dabbling’ in it or whatever.

And, in advance of it, FYWP, I’m not posting too fast.

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

Some asshole hit us with a green laser when we were going into Indy this morning – twice.

Someone should develop missiles which automatically home in on that wavelength of light.

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

Wealthy people have an obligation to try to follow a code of seemliness. No luxury cars for college-age kids. No private jet/ski weekends. Live a lifestyle that is more integrated into middle-class America than the one you can actually afford.

This could save your asses when the proles finally break out the torches and pitchforks.

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

Just wanted to stop in to let y’all know, my beloved Curly is no more. He passed this afternoon from what appears to have been a fast and massive stroke. It was about two minutes from the time I knew he was in trouble to him dying, limp in my arms.

NOT CURLY! I loved that cat- he reminded me of a cat we inherited from my grandmother. We called him “Tank” because he was so big. My grandmother called him “Jennifer”, because he reminded her of an old cat of hers, another “great wall of tabby” sort. By the time she had Tank, she wasn’t at the height of her faculties, hence the confusion about his identity and gender.

My condolences. As Smut put it, such is our deal with the kitties. RIP, GWoT!

 
 

Sorry to hear about Curly. Such a nice cat.

 
 

Wealthy people have an obligation to try to follow a code of seemliness. No luxury cars for college-age kids. No private jet/ski weekends. Live a lifestyle that is more integrated into middle-class America than the one you can actually afford.

This could save your asses when the proles finally break out the torches and pitchforks.

Manners and some discretion would be a nice change, but ultimately what we need out of rich people is not that they quit acting spoiled in public, it’s that they quit making things worse. Quit outsourcing any complex job and quit automating every simple one. Quit fighting efforts to raise the minimum wage, quit trying to rig the tax system so they never have to pay a fair rate on unearned income. Quit engineering ever more complex ways to screw people out of their investments. Quit trying to sabotage social security and Obamacare.

All the decorum and discretion in the world is just window dressing if they keep waging economic war on the rest of us. Also what the fuck is the point of wealth if they can’t enjoy it? The last thing America needs is another sourpuss billionaire whose only goal is to gather his next billion or two and doesn’t even spend a few million on yachts or airplanes or mansions that at least offer some employment to the people that maintain them. If they are going to live a middle class lifestyle, why the hell do they need billions in the bank?

 
 

Is it just me or do people like the Kochs seem to be very unhappy despite their insane amount of wealth?

If I was worth half what those guys are worth I’d be hanging out on the French Riviera instead of sitting in meetings with Grover Norquist and Karl Rove about how to take Congress.

 
 

I don’t know at what point in one’s life and/or wealth accumulation it becomes more fun to meddle in politics than it is to try and get speeding tickets in as many separate jurisdictions in the world, or learn to fly a wingsuit, or eat at the best restaurant in the world or build a full scale model of the eiffel tower out of nougat… or of the infinite ways they could use the power available to a billionaire to live a life of silly extravagance, adventure and philanthropy, but clearly the Koch brothers are on the wrong side of that point. If we can guess anything about the Koch brothers from their actions on the political stage, it’s that they are world class bores.

let’s try that again and FYWP, I am not posting too fast.

 
 

Is it just me or do people like the Kochs seem to be very unhappy despite their insane amount of wealth?

If I was worth half what those guys are worth I’d be hanging out on the French Riviera instead of sitting in meetings with Grover Norquist and Karl Rove about how to take Congress.

Not sure happiness comes into the equation. I think they’re true believers, and that they feel that burning down the US government IS philanthropy. Making the world safe for the robber barons, who are robber barons because they’ve found favor with God.

It seems silly to people who aren’t greedy, insane crooks, but that divine right bullshit has been around since the beginning of civilization and isn’t showing any signs of going away.

 
 

I got to go give my magnificent, spoiled brat of a kitteh a hug now.

Condolences, Jeffraham.

 
 

Jeffraham; Sorry, man.

 
 

i started to post that i am home in a sickly way and as it’s day 2, i am bored to tears…before i could even finish the thought…an instant cure for boredom!

two dogs, home from a morning romp and covered snout to tail in mud and cockleburrs…

also, too…sorry to hear about curly, jp…want a dog?

 
 

JP-
*Appropriate gesture of physical comfort* That’s rough. That’s really rough.

Also new post, everybody.

 
 

JP – I am sorry. You gave Curly a lovely life, though, and even at the end he knew he was loved.

 
 

My name is Norman Bates,
I’m just a normal kind of guy
My name is Norman Bates

 
 

Sorry about Curly JP 🙁

 
 

Truly sorry about Curly, JP. I know how hard this is, I’ve been there too. At least it was quick and he was with you, the one he loved.
Sincere sympathy and virtual hugs.

Also, my first Too Fast message. WTF, FYWP?

 
 

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