Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The words do not have to be perfect.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Let there be snark.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Balloon Juice Bunker Standoff Update: KGW’s Interview with Ammon Bundy

Balloon Juice Bunker Standoff Update: KGW’s Interview with Ammon Bundy

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elftx pointed me towards KGW’s interview with Ammon Bundy very early this morning in the embers of the comments thread from yesterday’s post.

Part 1:

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Part 2:

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Reader Interactions

211Comments

  3. 3.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    If a sizeable percentage of your immediate family is in custody awaiting trial, been named in felony indictments or are serving felony time, you might want to re-evaluate the teachings of the family patriarch and start questioning the wisdom of his statements.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodinger’s cat: A lot of them are. The 12 they picked up yesterday were all part of the Bunkerville/Bundy Ranch standoff in 2014. There are probably still folks from both the Bundy Ranch standoff and the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff that have not been arrested. A lot of those folks are very small timers, so they may just let them go or try to lean on them and flip them.

    Personally, if it was me, I’d leave as much of the known, observed, and mapped network that I can in place at this point. I’ve got the big names, so if I can leave other parts of the network in place, specifically if there is no reason to believe they pose a meaningful and immediate threat, then I can see how the network reforms itself.

  13. 13.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    This is what our nation does? Seriously? Ammon Bundy is afforded the privilege of living at peoples’ expense because he is white. Had MLK and SCLC showed up at a demonstration armed like these militia folks were we all know how that would have ended. Look what authorities did to an unarmed group of protesters at the Edmund Pettis Bridge.

    Lavoy was a hero? Bitch, please …

  14. 14.

    Prescott Cactus

    “They attacked us like we were domestic terrorists or terrorists, even foreign terrorists”

  18. 18.

    benw

    @redshirt: I really hope Hillz or Bernz wins in November. I’ve got a sweet new pair of liberal jackboots I’ve been saving. My Obama jackboots are getting pretty scuffed up after 7+ years of stomping liberal oppression on freedom, apple pie, American flags, and True Patriots.

  19. 19.

    scav

    Huh. Posting about locked up Bundys may have some sort of weird quantum entanglement effects on the Supreme Court and abortions: SCOTUS Puts Hold On Law That Would Close All But 1 Louisiana Abortion Clinic. It’s another of those admitting privileges at nearby hospitals tricks. and they effectively reversed an order by the federal appeals court in New Orleans. Calling on all lawyer fight action commenters and tea-leave readers! Legitimately with appropriate subclauses Hopeful?

  21. 21.

    John Cole

    IMHO, his kids dodged a fucking bullet. They are probably much better off growing up without him around, although I haven’t seen much better from the family that will fill in while he is occupying federal property for the the next 5-20 years.

  22. 22.

    Cacti

    Here’s a list of the charges and maximum sentences the Bundy clan faces from the superseding indictment:

    Conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States: up to 5 years

    Conspiracy to impede and injure a Federal law enforcement officer: up to 6 years

    Use and carry of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence: minimum 5 years served consecutively with underlying offense

    Threatening a Federal law enforcement officer: up to 10 years

    Obstruction of the due administration of justice: up to 10 years

    Assault on a Federal law enforcement officer: up to 20 years

    Interference with interstate commerce by extortion: up to 20 years

    Interstate travel in aid of extortion: up to 20 years

  23. 23.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Ancient Randonneur:

    I kind of get where you were going with that, but I really don’t think that “Bundy Ranch” and “Edmund Pettis Bridge” are places that should be linked together in any form, ever.

    Criminals are going to jail. The Civil Rights Movement prevailed against death threats and murder. Not on the same moral plane.

  24. 24.

    LAO

    @John Cole: if he is convicted of all of the charges in the bundy ranch indictment, Ammon is looking at @ 42 years (best case scenario.)
    PS. I know I have to let this go Adam but I can’t. 32 years on the gun charges alone.

  26. 26.

    Miss Bianca

    @LAO: @Adam L Silverman:

    So, Fiore’s capable of moments of sanity under duress from the Feds, but not otherwise?

    I don’t know if I can listen to the Bundy interviews right now. I’m gonna force myself eventually, (Sagebrush Rebels, I just can’t quit you!) but after beguiling my afternoon with that HCN piece on the “constitutional sheriffs” I don’t know if my stomach can handle it right now. Thanks, Adam! : )

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    Totally random bleg, but there’s always someone here who’s an unexpected expert: does anyone know of a good brief book about the War of 1812, particularly from the British perspective? I’m more interested in diplomacy, negotiations, and culture rather than specific battles. TIA.

  28. 28.

    LAO

    Adam, it just occurred to me that I am reaching Bella level obsession with the bundys. I may need a timeout.

  29. 29.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @LAO: I admit to having entirely too much pleasure when I calculate the minimums on the charges. No doubt the dopamine rush of a junkie.

    The Feds played this as well as they could have, and now the building gets dropped.

  31. 31.

    schrodinger's cat

    OT blog pimping

    A new trend that warms my cynical heart, women headlining movies in the traditionally male dominated Hindi film industry (Bollywood). Two new releases one a biopic on a brave flight attendant Neerja Bhanot, who died saving passengers when her plane was hijacked and a tough cop (Badass Priyanka Chopra khaki) trying to bring order to a fictional lawless district in central India. Women of substance.

  35. 35.

    Mj_Oregon

    Tomorrow might be an interesting day around the country. Thirty five gatherings to protest LaVoy Finicum’s shooting are supposed to take place around the country, including three here in Oregon. If I had any gumption, I’d get up to Salem and take a look at these people but eh, it’s Saturday after all and supposed to rain. Here’s the article on the Oregon Live site with an interactive map of them all.

  38. 38.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mj_Oregon: The rallies seem to be following the strategy of a second tier department store or fast food chain: not in the major cities, just in small to mid size places. Not say that militia is the Hardee’s or Belk of movements….

  40. 40.

    Mj_Oregon

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Actually, the most of the ones I checked are to be held at or near federal or state government buildings. Two of the three here in Oregon are at the Federal Building in Portland and the State Capitol building in Salem. The one in Bend seems to be scheduled for the Baja Fresh Mexican Grill though so your reference to Hardee’s may not be too far off.

  41. 41.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @LAO: LOL. And like you, only the RW terrorism crew can make me cheer for the US Atty.

    @Steve in the ATL: Maybe we could have a support group.

  42. 42.

    Eric S.

    OT: Adam, thanks for the restaurant suggestion in Tampa. I’m only in town for a little over 48 hours and we won’t make it this trip. My lady’s mother lives in Largo so we make it down a couple times a year. We have it on a to do list.

  44. 44.

    chopper

    @benw:

    I have to hang my Obama jackboots up. all those years of throwing liberals under a bus has really fucked up my back.

  45. 45.

    sm*t cl*de

    “They just took him and went,” Arden Bundy said, describing his brother David’s arrest in Utah. “They’re tearing our family apart.”

    I can’t see the problem. If anything, the Feds are doing their best to bring the family together.

  46. 46.

    Mj_Oregon

    @John Revolta: I guess, but a Mexican restaurant seems an odd choice for people whose views of our southern border security include private use of arms against the supposed brown horde flowing over said border. Irony, however, seems to be lost on most of the movement’s members from what I’ve read in the past few months.

  50. 50.

    Roger Moore

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I can leave other parts of the network in place, specifically if there is no reason to believe they pose a meaningful and immediate threat, then I can see how the network reforms itself.

    And try to infiltrate the new network.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thanks! If it helps, the character is an American who’s forced to relocate to England around that time. From what Origuy’s link says and other things I’ve read, it sounds like the British reaction would be, “War of 18-what now? We had troops over there, too?”

  65. 65.

    japa21

    One of the charges:

    Obstruction of the due administration of justice: up to 10 years

    Wouldn’t that also apply to the GOP senators who are obstructing the due administration of justice, Supreme Court style?

  69. 69.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @JPL: I’ll apologize for my snappishness last evening on the autoimmune topic. If you know of a surgical fix for R/R MS, I want to sign up.

    @Adam L Silverman: Don’t forget Steve in the ATL! What could we possibly have in common, other than our habit? We can be strong (or indulgent) together.

  71. 71.

    LAO

    @Roger Moore: fair enough. Speaking for myself, as a defense attorney, it very difficult for me to root for the doj criminal division. Maybe if one as ever arrested, I could test my resolve. Lol

  73. 73.

    patroclus

    Ammon Bundy is funny, but I still prefer Jon Ritzheimer, with the “Daddy Swore an Oath” and “Stop sending us Dildos” viral videos. He’s hilarious!

  76. 76.

    LAO

    @redshirt: I did. But then I have a weakness for men in tights. Lol. Seriously though, I used to live in Hell’s Kitchen and I am a practicing defense attorney . . . resemblance ends there -not blind and female.

  78. 78.

    Technocrat

    I just watched the first part of the video. What kind of man leaves his wife with 6 children so he can support a Cause?

  79. 79.

    Technocrat

    @LAO:

    rresemblance ends there -not blind and female

    I notice you left out “no radar vision” – hmmmmm

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Eric S.: No worries. The food is excellent, its family owned, and the prices are excellent. It doesn’t have quite the number of choices as the big chains like Brazos de Texas, but it also doesn’t cost as much. Also, the flan is excellent and the sangria is very good.

    There’s an excellent, traditional Vietnamese restaurant about 1/4 mile north, on the west side of the same street wright next to the Pinellas Park Police Department Special Policing District Station.

  82. 82.

    Steve in the ATL

    @LAO: There are a lot of people in this world who need to find better gods. Mine, for instance, is totally not an asshole.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: I just sent you a PM with a couple of suggestions. Its not that the British would have looked at it as “we have troops there too?”, but rather that for the US it was primarily a Naval war.

  85. 85.

    LAO

    @Steve in the ATL: neither is mine. She’s pretty laid back, her motto is don’t be a dick. TBH, She having a tough time with the republican presidential candidates.

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: You could do She-Hulk. She was an attorney. Can you lift a lot of weights? How do you think you’d look with green skin?

  88. 88.

    Technocrat

    @LAO:

    Same here – couch. I love/hate the way you can/must binge series nowadays. It’s great – until you find an older series that runs to 8 seasons.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: Only in the US do we take people who claim that their understanding of the Deity told them to do (what they wanted to do anyway) something seriously, rather than putting them under a 96 hold for evaluation. I don’t mean to disparage anyone’s sincerely held religious beliefs, but if you made these types of claims in any other advanced/developed country at best you’d be laughed at, at worst you’d be put away for your and everyone else’s safety.

  90. 90.

    LAO

    @Adam L Silverman: I used to work out religiously before my last Crohn’s attack and most people who know me would probably agree I’d look better green (I’m the palest white person ever). I could use a career change. God knows, I’m angry enough! Lol

  92. 92.

    redshirt

    @LAO: The Punisher is one of the greatest comic characters opposed to the justice system ever created; why shouldn’t he just kill all the bad guys?

  93. 93.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Adam L Silverman: I have been following Twitter feeds of some journalists and politicians in India. People insult each other using mythological characters from the Puranas and Ramayana and Mahabharata, also too Hindi movies. Its quite funny actually.

  94. 94.

    LAO

    @Adam L Silverman: When I was in college (a thousand years ago) I wrote a thesis around the idea that most of the greatest evil or atrocities were committed in the name of God/religion. I always regretted not studying that further. What really bothers me today, is that religious beliefs are used to inflict harm, sometimes petty, sometimes great, on the weakest or least protected in our society. Like the great bathroom witch hunt direct at trans folk. If I were queen of America, I would ban religion.

  101. 101.

    Technocrat

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Here’s a baffling question about the first cover…what outfit, worn as a normal woman, would rip that like when she Hulks out?

    It has to be a onesie. Why was she wearing a onesie under her clothes?

  102. 102.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: What I think is so interesting about religion in the US is:
    1) its a mile wide, but only a few inches deep.
    2) By (partially) separating religion and state, the Framers created a free market for religion. This required religious groups, especially the Protestant ones, and even more especially the made in American ones, to really hustle to sell their product. All those that argue we should entangle religion and the state don’t seem to understand that by doing so, they’d destroy the largely unregulated free market for religion that allows them to thrive.

  103. 103.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mnemosyne:

    The British response was mainly irritation, because it distracted the Army and the Navy from what they considered the real theater of war in Europe. Also some trauma, on the part of the Royal Navy, because until the Shannon took the Chesapeake in 1813, the American Navy was thumping the RN in one-on-one actions, which was, shall we say, psychologically damaging to the British, who were very used to being the lords of the sea. And on the part of the Army as well, because some of Wellington’s best troops were in America at the time that Napoleon escaped St Helena.

    If it weren’t going to be starting you in the middle of the series, I’d suggest one of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin books, The Fortune of War, to get a taste of British reaction – or at least, British Naval reaction. Yes, it’s fiction, but its historical accuracy is matchless.

  104. 104.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: She usually starts out in matching skirt and jacket suits, but they don’t often remain intact for very long.

  105. 105.

    redshirt

    @Technocrat: Well, this touches upon the greatest enigma in all comics: Hulk’s pants.

    Realistically there’s no way the Hulk should ever be wearing pants. But modesty forbids the harsh truth.

  106. 106.

    Technocrat

    @LAO:

    Not that it alters your point, but I’d argue that a certain degree of fervor in any cause is effectively religious. Tell me people on the right don’t treat The Flag and Eagle as religious symbols.

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: @redshirt: Or you can watch the Thomas Jane movie of him. Filmed, by the way, in Tampa. It was not too bad an adaptation.

  109. 109.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Technocrat: I think it was a woman’s fitted dress shirt/blouse. The type she’d wear to court with a matching jacket/skirt.

  113. 113.

    GregB

    I read By the Dawn’s Early Light by Walter Lord. Pretty readable and informative.

  117. 117.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Happy to help. I’m better with the Great Rebellion, know d/b/a The Civil War, and Vietnam, and the Revolutionary War, but these would be the two I’d start with.

  119. 119.

    LAO

    @Technocrat: absolutely. It infuriates me. Symbols should never replace or supplant the ideals they represent. example: flag burning, you may not like it but it is an expression of the 1st amendment. And we are a better country when we tolerate unpopular political speech.

  123. 123.

    Technocrat

    @Adam L Silverman:

    If that’s a fitted shirt, we’re talking about a Gamma-irradiated Basic Instinct situation. So it’s probably not a shirt. Maybe she was headed to a pool party after court?

  126. 126.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Technocrat: Oops, you’re right. Went back and looked at it. That’s from issue #1, so its not one of the women’s fitted dress shirts. I think you’re correct that its a onesie.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: I think the real problem with the whole thing is that they’ve been telling women that six inches is actually a foot for decades, so their ability to actually measure anything is skewed.

  132. 132.

    LAO

    @Adam L Silverman: Now I’m thinking about dicks! You’re really messing with me man. First God and religion and now all the deluded men I’ve encountered over the years. Lol?

  133. 133.

    Technocrat

    @LAO:

    At least in the John Wick movie it was about revenge for his puppy.

    You don’t mess with a man’s puppy.

  137. 137.

    Mnemosyne

    @Technocrat:

    They actually did used to make women’s onesies that were a dress blouse sewed to panties so your shirt always stayed tucked. I don’t know if that’s supposed to be one of them or if they just needed a way to keep all of the bits covered so as not to incur the wrath of the Comics Code authorities.

  139. 139.

    Technocrat

    @Mnemosyne:

    Probably the second explained away as the first :)

    BTW, I’d buy one of those in a hot second. I hate retucking with the tucked shirt.

  141. 141.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Sadly, psychiatry provides a specific religious exemption:
    The DSM IV:

    A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith)

    .

    DSM5:

    A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly held despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture (i.e., it is not an article of religious faith). When a false belief involves a value judgment, it is regarded as a delusion only when the judgment is so extreme as to defy credibility. Delusional conviction can sometimes be inferred from an overvalued idea (in which case the individual has an unreasonable belief or idea but does not hold it as firmly as is the case with a delusion). (DSM-5, p.819)

  142. 142.

    redshirt

    @LAO: Maybe, but a comics character who’s just straight up killing everyone is a different type of “hero”.
    He’s not a hero at all, of course, even if he’s only offing mob or ninja mob guys.

  145. 145.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Adam L Silverman:

    By (partially) separating religion and state, the Framers created a free market for religion.

    Interesting thesis. There is no problem that market forces can’t solve, not even religion!

    While there are myriad religions out there with endless variations, I fell like the one thing everyone agrees on is that the Book of Leviticus is the greatest and most important of all.

    (yes, that is sarcasm. It reads like the micromanaging rant of the most petty, strict, irrational asshole priest in the whole church. Though I could be wrong–perhaps wearing a wool/cotton blend is in fact evil enough to damn your soul to Hell for eternity.)

  146. 146.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    All those that argue we should entangle religion and the state don’t seem to understand much that by doing so, they’d destroy the largely unregulated free market for religion that allows them to thrive.

    Fixed.

  147. 147.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @LAO: Isn’t it? My excuse is a nasty head cold and Mr. Q forgot to grab tea on the way home from the office. So I’m drinking hot water, lemon, honey, and salt.

  149. 149.

    Adam L Silverman

    @redshirt: I know that her Fantastic Four uniform and the purple and white workout singlet are, if I’m recalling correctly, made from Richard’s unstable molecules. The shirt from She-Hulk #1 would definitely not be made from unstable molecules.

  152. 152.

    Technocrat

    @LAO:

    Pfft. They have merely postponed resolution of said mystery. The truth shall be known.

  154. 154.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Steve in the ATL: Its the one with the bulk of the commandments. And the majority of them had to do with what the priests and their assistants were supposed to do in the Temple. All of it is completely superfluous today as we have no Temple. And the ultra, ultra devout nutters that think rebuilding it is a good idea, all of whom are ultra zealous devotees of rabbinic Judaism cannot seem to understand that rebuilding the Temple means abandoning Judaism and returning to Hebraic sacrificial practices. This is not a viable option.

  155. 155.

    Zinsky

    I just keep coming back to the fact that if a group of armed Black Panthers or an armed Latino street gang would have taken over a federal building, they would have been turned into a pile of goulash within minutes by federal marshals and SWAT teams. This is white privilege in its most sickening form and these reptiles need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

  156. 156.

    LAO

    @redshirt: ninja mob guys? I’ve really been missing out. The guys I know are all fat, wear Fila sweat suits and are largely dumber than a box of rocks.

  163. 163.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @LAO: The geek stuff is well out of my wheelhouse. Thanks for the good wishes. I’ll soldier on, and may perhaps add a shot to my sorta tea in a bit.

  170. 170.

    Mnemosyne

    @LAO:

    If you liked “American Gods,” you would also like Gaiman’s Sandman series. He does a lot of similar play with myths and archetypes, though a little more specifically focused on Greek mythology.

  175. 175.

    Zinsky

    @Adam L Silverman: Adam – thanks for the link. Well, I guess they weren’t reduced to goulash, but the black squatters weren’t armed either. Still, you get my point. The Malheur assholes aren’t patriots – they are criminals.

  176. 176.

    Adam L Silverman

    @redshirt: Also:

    Q: Did you ever try to make sense of the Hulk’s magical purple pants? Why did they always conveniently remain intact while the rest of his clothes were ripped to shreds?

    Stan Lee: I just figured that Bruce Banner had probably been a friend of Reed Richards [Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four], and Reed had given him some elastic trousers. There’s an explanation for everything, but you may not be technically advanced enough to follow me on all of this.

    http://www.comicbookmovie.com/other/the-man-gives-another-great-interview-a31834

  179. 179.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: All it took was a keyword search of: “are bruce banner’s pants made by reed richards?”

    This isn’t rocket science or anything…

  181. 181.

    Adam L Silverman

    @redshirt: We aim to please… Can’t have your weekend start off on the wrong ripped, purple pant leg now can we?

  182. 182.

    Miss Bianca

    @redshirt: @LAO:

    Library. Get it from the library. “Sandman” has been put into a single-book volume. (I bought it for our library, but sadly, it got borrowed and…never returned. Same with Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman, the bastids. But I digress. Some library will have it.)

  183. 183.

    LAO

    @Adam L Silverman: not laughing because I thought it was difficult to find answer. Laughing because you felt compelled to look for the answer. I admire your perseverance and wide body of arcane/odd knowledge. Seriously, not mocking.

  185. 185.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: I know you weren’t poking fun at me. I have research OCD. Its partially what makes me good at what I do, but it also means I want to know everything and I want to know it now.

  186. 186.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @LAO: And he’ll arrange support groups! Happy weekend all. Time to guzzle some cough syrup and rack out.

  193. 193.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: Why? I knew you weren’t poking fun at me, and even if you do, like the Hulk, I have a thick skin – though a much more even temper. So no need to feel bad at all.

  196. 196.

    Mnemosyne

    @redshirt:

    Dude, I have Sandman comics that I purchased in first run. You are not the only one who’s read them. Mix in a glass of water once in a while.

  197. 197.

    LAO

    @Adam L Silverman: I would never poke fun at the man who supplies me with my regular bundy fix. Thanks again for an interesting post and very entertaining (geeky) thread. Have a good night!

  204. 204.

    Technocrat

    @redshirt:

    Accessing a global library from a handheld device was literally science fiction when I was a teenager. Weird that I take it for granted now.

  208. 208.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: Hey, the highlight* of my grandmother’s funeral a couple of years ago was the tendency of people to assume that I was the younger of my dad’s sons. I am the elder by more than six years.

    *You know what I mean.

  210. 210.

    karen marie

    tl;dr all the comments but searched them for “welfare” and didn’t find it, so I will mention that the thing the Bundys accomplished was providing the general public with at least some degree of understanding that they and their fellow travelers are a bunch of welfare queens complaining they can’t use land they don’t own for free instead of a steeply discounted rate. The lack of self-awareness and degree of selfishness is oversized.

  211. 211.

    Steeplejack

    @Miss Bianca:

    I second the recommendation of the O’Brian novel, even though it is in the middle of the series. Also of interest to Mnemosyne would be O’Brian’s Jane Austen-level depiction of British society at the time.

    The Aubrey/Maturin series is a towering achievement.

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