Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I really should read my own blog.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

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

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Republicans in disarray!

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

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

This really is a full service blog.

Let there be snark.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by | 250 Comments

This post is in: 

I removed (experimentally) the culturalconvergencemedia.com ad. It was causing some security issues and performance issues. Let’s see if things are better for folks.

That said, Open Thread.

I’m off to an actual, physical locksmith. I can’t believe how many locksmiths have fake addresses and are mobile-only. I don’t want a bloody mobile service, I want to walk into a shop, get my work done while I oversee it, and pay them and get on with my day! For some shopping/service things, search tech is good but in this case, if it wasn’t a mobile service, it was a freaking hardware store or – get this – those kiosks at Wal-Mart!

Kvetch over, enjoy the open thread, folks.

Republished from 1:02 – sorry to bigfoot you, Doug!

 

Update:

The comment issue should be fixed. I’m sorry it bugged so many and I’ll try to be quicker on things like that. In my defense, there have been a number of issues relating to comments caused by WordPress having changed the way they handle them due to the new European GDPR,  and so it wasn’t clear to me that saved info was being “unsaved”. Even earlier today, I thought it was a behavior-triggered bug and not a setting on the server side.  You see enough flies that the next black flying insect you see, you think “fly”, even if it’s a beetle.

The site’s “been off” for a few weeks in a few ways, some more obvious to you the user (comment info save box on mobile site and then saved info going away, wacky comment number issues) and some to me, seeing the backend not work and the server crash, for example.

I’ve been trying to keep that from happening without knowing what caused it. Similarly there was a very bad few days at the end of last week and the beginning of last weekend. For many folks (including me for many times over that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) the site was unusable (front or back end). So we dusted off the caching plugin and made things better but it had a setting that prematurely expired commenter cookies for some folks.

At this point, I think comments are ok. This does not mean that there aren’t other comment issues, so if you have them, please speak up.

At this time, the only issue I know of or relating to comments is the lack of Pie filter and Commenting help. I’ll coordinate with Majorx4 on that one soon.

 

That said, the ad I removed is back and that’s so it can be debugged and fixed.

I had tried using the Cloudflare CDN over the weekend, but it had some major issues and so I turned it off temporarily. I will likely turn it back on Friday to see if it behaves this time. Once fully engaged, it should greatly speed up site loading for folks while reducing server load.

And with that, I bid you all adieu – a demain!

Reader Interactions

250Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    uh huh

    When asked on Fox News about bringing the country together, Trump threatened to use his political base violently against Democrats. t.co/KehiDqYNTz pic.twitter.com/RTjL9s0rgf

    — Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) July 1, 2018

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    But, of course….

    CoreCivic has placed profits above people by forcing detained immigrants to perform manual labor for next to nothing. It has padded its pockets by violating anti-trafficking laws. We filed suit.t.co/xrhLOcemOj

    — Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) July 1, 2018

  4. 4.

    The Dangerman

    It’s 11am (PST) in the small city; do you know where your nym is?

    /Fedex?

  5. 5.

    Calouste

    @rikyrah: Reading that makes me pretty certain that Melania was in the hospital because she was beaten up by the shitgibbon. Exactly the same behavior.

  6. 6.

    MattF

    A neighbor, who is a retired psychiatrist, once told me that locksmiths are notorious for having psychiatric ‘issues’. I know I’ve probably just insulted a significant section of the readership here– but it’s what she said!

    And, btw, the name/email info boxes are still broken.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    that’s right

    If Trump & McConnell are able to ram through another Supreme Court appointment, the reason is simple: Democrats tend to act w/ civility & play by the rules, while Republicans are willing to fight dirty & rip up the rules when it benefits them.
    ?DO DEMS WANT TO WIN, OR BE NICE?

    — Jon Cooper ? (@joncoopertweets) July 2, 2018

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    Betsy DeVos delays student protections – says discrimination ‘not necessarily’ cause of racist policies
    July 2, 2018

    Betsy DeVos has placed a two-year postponement on an Obama-era rule that would have gone into effect July 1. The rule was designed to protect minority special needs students from racist polices after some studies show minority students are placed in special education classes at a higher rate, and are disciplined at a higher rate than their non-minority peers.

    A notice posted on the Federal Register said the department believes “the racial disparities in the identification, placement, or discipline of children with disabilities are not necessarily evidence of, or primarily caused by, discrimination.”

    Still, states can still go ahead with implementation this summer if they choose. POLITICO reported in May that at least 15 states plan to move forward with the rule, even if it’s delayed.

    Critics of the regulation — such as AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and the Council of the Great City Schools — argued the Obama administration overstepped its bounds and wrote a regulation that was too ambiguous.

    But the delay was criticized by advocates such as the National Disability Rights Network. “Rather than support the education of students with disabilities and listen to the advice received from educators working in the trenches, the Administration today has told both groups they simply do not matter,” said Curt Decker, executive director of the the organization, in a statement on Friday.

  9. 9.

    HRA

    Thank you, Alain! I need to know how to change my email address to a new one and ditch the present one. I tried doing it few a days ago and was smacked with an error message that would not let me get back to my comment. I will check back later for your answer.
    I have a locksmith story. Our state labor dept. office had a locksmith shop next door that offered lessons to become a locksmith. One od our clerks came to tell me she had was able to get a claimant into the program and showed me the paper work. I was stunned. This claimant had been arrested years ago and jailed for breaking into a safe where a relative was an employee. Have a good day, Alain.

  11. 11.

    MattF

    @trollhattan: It’s the ‘Trump Effect’. Racists are disinhibited. Happens a lot these days.

    It is pretty remarkable, though, that Paul thought a display of unreconstructed antisemitism is just AOK. (Hint: It’s not.)

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    Wow.

    I keep thinking, Okay, I’m finally unshockable, nothing anyone does or says can shock me ever again.

    And I keep being wrong.

    (On balance, I think that’s a good thing. I don’t ever want to take any part of this shit as normal.)

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MattF:

    unreconstructed antisemitism

    Also, unreconstructed anti-Black, unreconstructed anti-Asian, and unreconstructed anti-Latinx.

  16. 16.

    TenguPhule

    “Every country is calling every day, saying, ‘Let’s make a deal, let’s make a deal.’ It’s going to all work out,” Trump said Sunday, echoing his remarks earlier in the year that trade wars are “easy to win.”

    Despite Trump’s rhetoric, concerns are growing that Trump’s appetite for tariffs only appears to be expanding as trade tensions escalate. Many who argued that Trump was just threatening tariffs as a negotiating tactic and would never let the skirmish intensify are now saying they may have miscalculated.

    Via Wapo.

    Buckle up folks. Its all downhill from here.

  17. 17.

    Noah Brand

    I have been trying for a while to find a way to volunteer to register voters in a state that is not my own. It is surprisingly difficult. The major organizations like Rock The Vote just have forms to express interest in local opportunities, and Spread The Vote gave me a flat no.

    I have vacation time coming up in August, and I would like to spend that time registering people to vote in one of the states that needs it. My state does not need it; there’s nowhere I can volunteer that will flip congressional seats here. It is driving me crazy that I am having such a hard time finding opportunities. Does anyone have any suggestions?

  18. 18.

    MattF

    @TenguPhule: Just keep repeating: “Lies about everything all the time.” I guess it’s possible that Kudlow is telling him this– but more likely, it’s just another lie. The important thing is– don’t believe any of it.

  19. 19.

    MattF

    @Noah Brand: I guess everyone is sensitive about ‘outside agitators’.

    ETA: And I have a similar problem. My county hasn’t elected a Republican for fifteen years.

  21. 21.

    cynthia ackerman

    My understanding is that many of the mobile locksmith services are scams.

    If they advertise incredibly cheap deals, beware.

  22. 22.

    zhena gogolia

    Fingers crossed, whatever you just did seems to have fixed things for me. Thank you.

  24. 24.

    zhena gogolia

    @Noah Brand:

    Swing Left doesn’t have any option for this? I’ve “adopted” a district in a neighboring state via them, and set up a monthly contribution for the D candidate. I can’t believe they haven’t worked on voter registration as well.

  25. 25.

    LAO

    It is so damn hot here in NYC and the air conditioning in my office is non-existent, that I’m going to stop by my favorite ice cream shop on my way home. Tipsy Scoop. The dark chocolate whiskey salted caramel is my favorite, but it may just be a sorbet kind of day.

  27. 27.

    Steeplejack

    @MattF:

    And, btw, the name/email info boxes are still broken.

    Try doing a “hard” page refresh (Ctrl-F5 in Firefox and Chrome) to also refresh the underlying caches. Alain tweaked something about an hour ago that may help.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    @Noah Brand:
    Perhaps there really is no shortage of in-state volunteers for voter registration anywhere in the US. Maybe you could ask these organisations where they do need help, and repurpose your volunteering as appropriate.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @Noah Brand:

    Did you try Vote Riders and Let America Vote?

    You may also want to try and contact either the local Democratic Party office or the Swing Left group in that specific city.

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @MattF:

    It’s the ‘Trump Effect’. Racists are disinhibited. Happens a lot these days.

    Ron Paul has never been terribly inhibited in his racism. I suspect no longer needing to run for office has done more to remove his remaining inhibitions than Trump has.

  33. 33.

    efgoldman

    I got a long, but generic email response from one of my (Dem) senators after I asked him to join the Dems who pledged not to vote for any SCOTUS nominee.
    He DID say that the next nominee deserves the same consideration McTurtle gave: ie not during an election year.
    I’m sure he won’t vote for whatever piece of crap Weasel Face horks up, but there’s not a lot the minority can do, anymore.

  36. 36.

    efgoldman

    @MattF:

    It’s entirely possible that Paul is the genuine article

    In the sense that he hates everybody? Not only possible, but probable.

    ETA: FUCKING NYMS HAVE STUCK FOR QUITE A WHILE

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    It’s up to 96° here in Threadkill Lane, but “only” 47% humidity, which counts as sort of a win here in the swampy D.C. environs. The A.C. (thermostat set to 74°) is coming on only occasionally, a tribute to this big brick building’s resistance to outsized temperature changes.

    I need to make a grocery run, but I think I’ll hold off until tonight.

  40. 40.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Marshall doesn’t get it
    talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dems-at-goldilocks-fight-club

    What Democrats need now isn’t training sessions on civility or better ways to finesse language.

    That’s just back to being polite while the other side throws shit all over the place. Biologists went threw this with the Creationists – you can’t can’t a measured discussion when the other side is refuses to accept the truth. You have to call them on their lies constantly, give them to no sanctuary from being called a Lying Sack of Shit until they are willing to deal with reality.

    The “Moderates” are going to call us radicals anyway even if the Left just sits there and take it, the last 100 years of American politics proved that much, just well make make the other side hurt. Just consider Martin Luther King’s experience were he was beyond the pale and murdered in cold blood for saying “wouldn’t it be nice if we could be nice to each other”

    Good lord, this immigration kidnapping thing is the first time ever I have seen the right wince and our Liberal betters want to give that way.

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    But, of course.

    #MourningWhileBlack: Priest Calls Cops on Black Funeral-Goers, Tells Them to ‘Get the Hell Out’ of Church

    Michael Harriot
    Today 9:48am

    Despite having ample evidence that Jesus will work it out, a Catholic priest halted a homegoing service in Maryland to have a black family removed from the church. The servant of God even kicked the dead body out of the funeral, proving once again, there is no sanctuary when it comes to racism.

    Aside from the fact that she was no longer alive, Agnes Hicks’ Charlotte Hall, Md., mass was going along perfectly fine on Tuesday until an attendee of the funeral went in for a hug and accidentally knocked over a chalice at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, angering pastor Michael Briese.

    “There will be no funeral, no repast, everyone get the hell out of my church,” Briese reportedly told the family. According to Fox 5, Briese then kicked the family out of the place of worship, telling them to remove the body of the woman who wished to be laid to rest in the church where she was baptized.

    But Briese wasn’t done. Yea, though he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, the priest feared no evil, but he was a little bit scared of black people. Instead of getting Jesus on the main line, Briese decided to call his Lord and Savior from whom all white things flow: the police.

    After the police responded to the call, the officers determined that the family had done nothing wrong and escorted the family to another church in a nearby county where they finished the service.

  44. 44.

    Alain the site fixer

    @rikyrah: I just added a combo control which should hopefully not be as hard on the system. It’s not perfect but perhaps it will do at least temporarily.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    I’m PAYING money for them to do this to my child?

    PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.

    Private School for Rich Kids Announces Plans to Segregate Students By Race
    Michael Harriot
    Today 12:57pm

    If you’re reading this thinking it is one of those clickbait-y headlines for a perfectly reasonable policy, you’re probably going to be disappointed because a New York City private school for the children of wealthy parents has announced that it will begin separating its students based on their race. And, according to numerous reports, for the Little Red Schoolhouse, “will begin” is a euphemism that describes something they have already been doing for years.

    The Little Red Schoolhouse in Manhattan’s West Village charges $45,485 per year and teaches the children of David Schwimmer, Christy Turlington Burns, and Sofia Coppola. Parents recently learned that the school officially implemented an ethnicity-based segregation policy last year, according to the New York Post.

    During the 2017-2018 school year, 7th and 8th-grade students were placed in homerooms determined by their race, where they spent 30 percent of their classroom time. The plan worked out so well that the officials informed parents of plans to expand the new Jim Crow education initiative to the 6th grade in the fall.

    “Research points to the academic, social, and emotional benefits to being in a classroom with others who share racial, ethnic, linguistic, and/or cultural backgrounds” explains the student handbook for the 97-year-old institution.

    Although the school claims the practice was limited to 2 grades, one parent said she realized that all but one of the students on her child’s grade level were assigned to the same class throughout their elementary years. Another parent said his child noticed the school had been quietly segregating students by color as far back as kindergarten.

    “It was my daughter who immediately noticed that all the kids of color were in one class. If you’re going to have that policy, you need to be upfront,” he said. “We realized she was placed with all the minority students, but none of her friends. It was peculiar that they didn’t spread everyone out.”

  46. 46.

    efgoldman

    @rikyrah:

    “There will be no funeral, no repast, everyone get the hell out of my church,” Briese reportedly told the family.

    Wonder how may kids he got away with molesting.
    Some fucking priest
    Maybe he ought to go back to the seminary and refresh the “love thy neighbor” lessons.

  47. 47.

    Calouste

    @TenguPhule: There are people who have very large amounts of money who are going to lose very large amounts of money in a trade war, like the Koch brothers. They are not going to let this happen quietly. We’re going to see a fight between the trade & manufacturing billionaires on one side and the FIRE billionaires on the other side.

  48. 48.

    efgoldman

    @Calouste:

    We’re going to see a fight between the trade & manufacturing billionaires on one side and the FIRE billionaires on the other side.

    Let’s you and him fight!

    ETA: For some of them, ideology even trumps (oops) money.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Marshall doesn’t get it

    You might want to avoid selectively quoting him. The sentence immediately after the one you quoted is:

    They need to find the most effective ways to fight and then throw everything into it.

    That doesn’t sound like somebody who doesn’t get it and wants to capitulate to moderates.

  50. 50.

    Alain the site fixer

    Ok folks, cleared the cache, and we’ll see how the site sits for a few days now. I will not be changing anything unless a problem comes up so that I can observe things. The ad I removed may return as John wants it, but not until a couple of days of stability. I will do a few things on the test server and will observe this main site, but I’m expecting a 5 day holiday commencing Tuesday afternoon (really, Tuesday morning as Switzerland play and, win or lose, I won’t be in the mood for work!).

    On a side note, I just realized tomorrow is the anniversary of my mom’s day visit for some good food and good times; on walking her to her car, I thought she looked a bit off, color- and steady-wise. Abnormally, she’d declined a glass of wine with my family-favorite grilled lobster tails because she felt a bit off. She returned home that night to an urgent message from her doctor, and the rollercoaster began. We will be making those lobster tails Wednesday in her absence.

    Love ’em while ya got ’em!

  52. 52.

    efgoldman

    @Alain the site fixer:

    Love ’em while ya got ’em!

    My mom would have been 101 yesterday, but she made it to 93 – a good run. She saw her (only) grandchild graduate high school college, grad school, and get married. Unfortunately she didn’t live to meet her great granddaughter, who she would have adored.

  53. 53.

    satby

    @Alain the site fixer: just wondering if all this grief started after the last WP theme update and if we could just roll back to the old one. I miss editing typos, buttons for quotes and links, and my nym info lasting longer than 30 minutes. It would be nice for those to come back.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    I have to say, it’s starting to feel like cops in some places are waking up to how they’re being used by white assholes:

    After the police responded to the call, the officers determined that the family had done nothing wrong and escorted the family to another church in a nearby county where they finished the service.

    Also, that priest needs to be relieved of duty and sent to a monastery in the middle of nowhere where he won’t have to be bothered with actual parishioners anymore, and vice versa. Asshole.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    Hey Mods – in the previous thread (gimme all your gold) all three of my comments went into moderation.

    I dint’ even use swear words this time, promise!

    Halp!

  57. 57.

    efgoldman

    @satby:

    I miss editing typos, buttons for quotes and links

    Never lost the edit buttons or the edit function. So far today nyms are sticky

    Win10 desktop

    Speaking of which: Did the weekly g-talk video call with granddaughter yesterday. No audio.
    Turns out microfuck, without telling anybody, changed a microphone setting in “privacy settings” Found it and fixed it, but what a pain in the ass. Who asked them to? (I know – I probably did in some end user agreement)

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    @Rich2506:

    I saw another thing online where a bunch of old white people in Philly deliberately got themselves arrested for blocking access to an ICE office. Go, Philadelphia Old White People! ?

  59. 59.

    Calouste

    @efgoldman: A lot of them are Libertarians ideologically, so opposed to tariffs on principle (as far as Libertarians have principles besides IGMFY).

  60. 60.

    jacy

    My nym was still here and I hadn’t even commented on this thread. So that seemed to work! Unlike my air conditioning, which has decided to randomly turn off. The kids claim they are melting,

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    OK, I’m a little slow sometimes. I still find it hard to believe that conservative politicians absolutely believe that citizens must prove that they are worthy of basic rights. So, a breaking news item.

    Ky. governor cancels Medicaid dental, vision benefits after losing work requirement ruling

    Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s (R) administration is canceling dental and vision benefits for thousands of people on Medicaid in the state following a judge blocking the state’s Medicaid work requirements.

    The cancellation of dental and vision coverage for almost 500,000 enrollees in the state’s Medicaid expansion is “an unfortunate consequence of the judge’s ruling,” Doug Hogan, a spokesman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, told the Louisville Courier-Journal.

    Democrats denounced the move and said they did not think Bevin had the legal authority to cancel the benefits.

    “He said he wants to take dental and vision coverage away,” Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), said Monday at a press conference. “We don’t think that’s legal either.”

    Under Bevin’s Medicaid proposal, along with work requirements, enrollees would have had to earn dental and vision benefits through completing activities like taking classes or searching for a job.

    With the proposal blocked in court, Bevin’s administration is now canceling dental and vision benefits altogether.

    I don’t know. Seems to me that a person might be better able to find work if they already have health care. And I would think that the net costs to the community would be less if you have healthy citizens, but I guess the governor here is incapable of using logic or even common sense.

  67. 67.

    Major Major Major Major

    Alright, I’m willing to try typing out my whole nym on mobile…

  68. 68.

    Spanky

    @Mnemosyne: That’s St. Marys County. With not only the first settlement in Catholic Maryland, but for years there’s been a good-sized Amish community right around Charlotte Hall. IOW, the county is diverse n many ways and the cops are relatively adept at negotiating it all, given that it’s part of Confederate Southern Mayland.

    The priest, not so much. I’ll be watching to see what the fallout is.

  70. 70.

    JPL

    @trollhattan: The Guardian has good coverage also. I guess it will still take days before they are able to leave, but company and nourishment will help.

  72. 72.

    efgoldman

    @Brachiator:

    I guess the governor here is incapable of using logic or even common sense.

    They
    Don’t
    Fucking
    Care!

    Logic and actual calculation do not impinge on their “thinking”

    Just like Snotty Walker canceled a new factory because it was gonna’ make [gasp] trains

  73. 73.

    Aleta

    @MattF: That’s pretty interesting.

    My GP once told me that when she was in med school/internship, many of the interns who chose to go into psychiatry had the most disordered personalities in the group.

  74. 74.

    jacy

    @efgoldman:

    If they were lizards they wouldn’t be whining so much, and perhaps instead be sunning themselves on the back patio……..

    My children, fortunately or unfortunately, have never dealt with much physical adversity and think everything in their environment can be immediately repaired if they ask mom enough times.

  75. 75.

    Spanky

    @Steeplejack: MSN tells me it’s 99 up here in the wilds of Central MD, but the dew point is at 75.

    IOW, it’s moist. Still not gonna delay the long walk to the car since that gets me the hell away from work.

  77. 77.

    Mary G

    Test comment. My teenaged employees are helping me clean out a bookcase to get rid of excess books and because I’m going to have the house painted. We found a stash of greeting cards and two booklets of McDonalds’ gift certificates, each with five $1 coupons, dated 2002. I had bought them for his older brother, but didn’t tell him that.

    They were fascinated – I was like “you’ve never heard of gift certificates? – no. I told them that is what we used before gift cards. You would have thought they’d found a horse and buggy. I said they could have them and they’ve shown all their friends to the point where he was told to stop flashing his wad. They say there’s no expiration date and I told them to use them. “But they’re older than we are!” Told him the kid cashier would probably turn them away, but to ask to speak to the manager. I think they’d rather just keep them to laugh at.

  78. 78.

    Roger Moore

    @Aleta:

    My GP once told me that when she was in med school/internship, many of the interns who chose to go into psychiatry had the most disordered personalities in the group.

    My understanding is that this is the conventional wisdom: many people go into psych because they want to understand their own problems.

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    @jacy:

    My children, fortunately or unfortunately, have never dealt with much physical adversity and think everything in their environment can be immediately repaired if they ask mom enough times.

    You’ll miss this once they decide mom is a mere mortal and find every damn occasion to point that out. Supermom ain’t a bad gig, even if it’s endlessly exhausting.

  82. 82.

    efgoldman

    @JPL:

    He’s just mean.

    He fucking TOLD THEM what he would do when he was running. Before Tangue jumps in, leopards / faces etc

  84. 84.

    efgoldman

    @jacy:

    think everything in their environment can be immediately repaired if they ask mom enough times.

    And that extra whining works?

  85. 85.

    trollhattan

    @Mary G:
    Funny!

    I found my stash of Kodak prepaid film* processing mailers. Pretty big damn dead investment.

    *Don’t you whippersnappers dare make me ‘splain “film” to you.

  86. 86.

    Aleta

    @Roger Moore: I can understand that, including as the reason for interest and commitment to help others. This conversation came after my family member had two in a row with untreated addiction and anger problems, and lying. One had lost his license in two states (patient harm and stockpiling drugs for himself) before coming here to practice.

  87. 87.

    JCJ

    @rikyrah:

    My wife has been watching the stories on Thai TV for the last few days. I saw that they were found safe this morning and called her. A ray of good news in the middle of this ongoing shitstorm. I had read earlier that the hope was that the kids had made it to a prominent sandy area in the cave called Pattaya Beach. Kind of funny in that Mae Sai is about as far away from Pattaya as you can get in Thailand. It is way up by Myanmar.

  88. 88.

    rikyrah

    The circumstances of Justice Kennedy’s resignation must be investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee before any replacement is considered. The Constitution does not give Trump the power to use underhanded means to induce Supreme Court resignations.t.co/S6m5oLg9mV

    — Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) June 30, 2018

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Spanky:

    Up to 97° now. Dew point is 74° here. Still surprised at how infrequently the A.C. is coming on.

  91. 91.

    rikyrah

    GOP senator: Trump can name SCOTUS pick despite criminal investigation
    07/02/18 10:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    One of the more compelling arguments against Donald Trump being able to fill the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy is the president’s possible conflict of interest: Trump is currently the subject of a criminal investigation, and there are key questions associated with the probe that the high court may soon adjudicate.

    Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), among others, has made a persuasive case that until the special counsel’s investigation into Trump has been resolved, the responsible course for the Senate would be to wait. The alternative would be to allow a president facing an ongoing federal probe to choose a justice who may decide his own legal fate.

    I’ve been eager to hear the Republican response to the argument, and on CBS’s “Face the Nation” yesterday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) presented the GOP’s case.

    “I think that is a ridiculous argument that is made as just an attempt to make way for their real position, which is that President Trump should never be able to confirm a vacancy.

    “Look, I don’t remember hearing the Democrats making that argument when President Bill Clinton was in fact personally under investigation when a vacancy occurred.

    “My understanding is that President Trump is not himself personally the subject of the investigation even. So, I think that is a non-argument. And we needn’t pay any attention to it.”

    It was an interesting response – which Toomey likely prepared in advance – so let’s unpack it a bit.

    First, when Bill Clinton filled Supreme Court vacancies in his first term, the investigation at the time was into a small Whitewater land deal in which he lost money. Trump, meanwhile, is being investigated for obstruction of justice and for possibly having cooperated with a foreign adversary during its attack against the United States.

    If Pat Toomey sees these two as roughly parallel, I’d suggest he take another look.

    Second, the Pennsylvania Republican said it’s his “understanding” that Trump is not the subject of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Again, Toomey apparently isn’t paying close enough attention to current events: Mueller notified the president’s lawyers months ago that Trump is, in fact, a subject of the investigation.

    Given the fact that he’s mistaken about this key detail, perhaps Toomey might want to reconsider his position on the issue?

    As for this being “a non-argument” that Americans “needn’t pay any attention to,” I was glad to see the New York Times publish this piece from Paul Schiff Berman. a professor at George Washington University Law School, which made the opposite case. Berman explained, “People under the cloud of investigation do not get to pick the judges who may preside over their cases.”

  94. 94.

    Aleta

    @Major Major Major Major: I know there are some single chamber bee homes (people can buy and put up) to help preserve the species, to give lone bees without a group hive a chance to survive. I wonder if they moved the hive and are using that to collect bees who were off foraging and missed the move?

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    They were fascinated – I was like “you’ve never heard of gift certificates? – no. I told them that is what we used before gift cards. You would have thought they’d found a horse and buggy.

    All right, here’s one that I will throw to the crowd.

    Some schools are proposing that kids no longer be taught how to “read” a clock. You know, big hand on the 12, little hand on the three, etc. Should we call time on analogue clocks? Some teachers think so

    The story came about after comments from a former headteacher, Malcolm Trobe, now deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, who said “the current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations”. To help minimise stress in important exams, he has suggested switching to digital clocks.

    Digital time is everywhere. Clocks, phones, even your microwave.

    Some teachers argue that learning how to tell traditional time sharpens mental skills. Or something. My sister kinda agrees with this. My brother hasn’t quite made up his mind about it.

    I say it’s time to leap into the new era and leave useless pseudo knowledge behind.

    BTW, how many of you know how to read a sun dial?

    Time’s up.

  97. 97.

    efgoldman

    @rikyrah:

    The circumstances of Justice Kennedy’s resignation must be investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee

    Mr Painter, whoever he is, better not hold his breath as long as there’s even a slim RWNJ majority.

  98. 98.

    Aleta

    @Alain the site fixer: I remember that my body/inner mind used to remember anniversaries connected to my mom’s final illness before my logical brain would register the approaching date.

  99. 99.

    Jack the Second

    Are you seeing bad locksmiths on Google Maps, or are you finding the locksmith spam somewhere else?

  100. 100.

    thruppence

    Hey Alain – the lower left corner of Firefox shows the activities the browser is performing. On Balloon Juice there is a constant reads, requests, waiting… the page never stops loading. You can see this screen capture clip. Is this supposed to be happening? Why? Anyone else have any insights?

  101. 101.

    efgoldman

    @Brachiator:

    Digital time is everywhere. Clocks, phones, even your microwave

    My granddaughter is being taught, by her parents and her pre-k school, how to read analog time. I assume my almost grandson (10 weeks out) will be, too.

    A sun dial is another matter altogether.

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    @Brachiator

    Have an analog clock on the coffee maker. It’s digitally generated but is nevertheless an analog clock face, complete with a second hand.

    Chose the analog clock as screensaver for the Roku box.

    BTW, how many of you know how to read a sun dial?

    (raises hand. waggles fingers)

  105. 105.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OT, but racist scumbag Ron Paul is claiming some staff puke posted the graphic that might as well have been lifted from Der Stürmer on his twitter timeline.

  106. 106.

    Yutsano

    @Brachiator: To be fair, there are still a lot of analogue clocks everywhere. Especially on clock towers and doctor’s offices. Many medical professionals needs to know analogue time since they judge biological movements by the second hand on the clock. So there are still good uses for what’s an old fashioned way of keeping time.

    Also: should we adopt the European/military standard of 24 hour time? It’s actually more intuitive. Or something I’m accustomed to as a military brat anyway.

    EDIT: even my 2016 Passat has an analogue clock in it. So yeah they’re still in use in quite a few places.

  107. 107.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Brachiator:

    I say it’s time to leap into the new era and leave useless pseudo knowledge behind.

    I say how stupid does someone have to be to not be able to figure out how to read an analog clock? It’s not that difficult. And digital traditional clocks exist as well.

  109. 109.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: And the MSM goes ho hum and continues to inform Democrats that if they aren’t civil to Trump and his supporters, we’ll lose in November and henceforth forevermore.

  110. 110.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Aleta: ah, could be!

    @Brachiator: I think people should know how to use technology that is still widespread, for the most part. Sundials are not still widespread. Clocks are everywhere. For example people should know how to use a fax machine, but you can get by without knowing how to feed a typewriter.

  112. 112.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    Counterargument: it can be easier for a lot of people (including kids) to “picture” time in the form of a clock. My husband went back to using an analog wristwatch because he was doing a lot of tasks in 30 or 60-minute increments and it was easier for him to glance at his analog watch to get a picture of how much time remained than it was to look at a digital clock and then do the math.

  113. 113.

    efgoldman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Eh, wuts film?

    I wish I had saved the “when I was your age” rant with which I introduced myself to this blog many, many years ago.

    The telephone was big heavy black plastic, and it was plugged into the wall, by a long cord so you could take it into another room to talk to your girlfriend. And it actually belonged to the phone company – own a phone? Don’t be silly. And the goddamned thing was unbreakable, and if you whacked your brother with it, it really hurt.

  114. 114.

    Paul T

    Look for locksmiths that AAA uses. They are mobile because cars. They can do everything from the back of their trucks. I just bought a house and changed every lock, and the AAA person was perfect.

  115. 115.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah: Good for him.

    I also saw this idea on the internet: that the story was about to be printed about the connection between Kennedy’s son and T’s billion dollars in loans from D Bank (where the son works). (It did come out two days after the resignation, so those involved had probably been alerted at least the week before.)

    It was then said that the son actually works in a different area of the bank, maybe not involved. So I wonder whether T is the one who leaked the story to the press, without Kennedy’s knowledge. And then pressured Kennedy to resign early, telling him that the story would be bad for everyone.

  117. 117.

    efgoldman

    @Yutsano:

    should we adopt the European/military standard of 24 hour time?

    Every clock I have that can be adapted, runs 24-hour time.

  118. 118.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Sites been loading much faster and more smoothly this afternoon, my mother and email are sticking across numerous threads and time-outs (times-out?), and my keyboard isn’t jumping around they way it has been. So yay, Alain!

    One the chronic annoyance front — this has been true for months, not just during the latest site kerfuffle — the Quick Links remains empty. No FP contact links, no BJ Lexicon, no nuthin. Would really like to have that restored.

    But overall, I’m pleased. Thank you, Alain.

  120. 120.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman: When I went with the Glendale Photo Group on their first trip to Joshua Tree, there was a young Asian woman who kept on saying “I’m not that young, I’ve used film”. The key, of course, to know that she was indeed young is that she used the phrase “I’m not that young”.

    P.S.: My comment was sarcasm, of course; I had a darkroom back in the 70’s.

  123. 123.

    efgoldman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    “I’m not that young, I’ve used film”.

    I don’t remember how many rolls of film i sent for processing (to the cheapies) when my daughter was very young (80s and 90s).
    We have boxes and boxes of pictures.

    I had a cheap Casio digital that I still have, that I haven’t used in years.
    My kids take all the pictures (of the grandchild) on too-expensive, high quality smartphones. His is an i phone, hers a google android.

  126. 126.

    JCJ

    @Amir Khalid:

    Alain is truly the Chewbacca without whom this ship could not make the Kessel run.

    I enjoyed seeing this again. But do you think Alain is that hairy?

  132. 132.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    It’s so nice to see so many commenters!

    The packers are coming tomorrow. The truck is coming Thursday. By Friday, we’ll be in our new place in Barrington , IL.

    Now I just need to sell this house.

  133. 133.

    Origuy

    @Brachiator: This was specifically about reading a clock during an exam. The UK has a lot of exams with strict time limits and under the pressure of taking a test that can decide their future, kids were having difficulty knowing how much time was left. Several articles have pointed out that reading analog clocks is still being taught. It’s like metric is here, though. You don’t use it every day.

  134. 134.

    Mnemosyne

    I was finishing the last couple of bites of my outdoor lunch when a giant green beetle decided to fly in and declare me done. Since it was a very pretty bug and not dangerous, I put the container on top of the garbage can and let him have at it.

  135. 135.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yutsano:

    Also: should we adopt the European/military standard of 24 hour time? It’s actually more intuitive. Or something I’m accustomed to as a military brat anyway.

    I’m not from a military background, but I do like the 24-hour clock. When I worked on setting up itineraries for visiting Canadian officials, we always used 24-hour time to list events. Avoids any kind of ambiguity over whether a given meeting or meal is at 7:00 a.m. or 7:00 p.m.

    That said, I adore analog clocks and have them in every room of the house. Can’t avoid digital on electronic devices, in the car, and so on, but digital numbers simply don’t have the romance of a nice watch or clock face with Roman numerals.

    ?⏰⏱

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    @thruppence:

    Looking at your movie, I see that at least one of the problems is the Connatix autoplay ad, which is interminable. Instructions for neutering it are here.

    Also, do a “hard” page refresh with Ctrl-F5 so that the underlying cache pages also get refreshed. Alain made some changes this afternoon that may improve things for you.

  138. 138.

    TenguPhule

    If Bolton is right about his boss’s toughness, Trump will play hardball with Putin, pushing back on Russian war crimes in Syria, its illegal occupation of Crimea, its poisoning of defectors in England, its killing of journalists and its continuing support for Iran. If he does not, and instead goes to his default position with Putin (eager subservience), Bolton should seriously consider resigning. At this point, Bolton is enabling a president who favors foes over friends and is simply too foolish to be left in the room alone with an enemy of the United States. In short, he’s become a purveyor of the foreign policy he’s spent his life decrying.

    Jen Rubin is complicit. Nobody is this fucking stupid or naive.

  140. 140.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:

    *Don’t you whippersnappers dare make me ‘splain “film” to you.

    Can you explain the difference between C-41 and Kodachrome, please?

  142. 142.

    Mary G

    2018 generic ballot (new Q-Pact poll):

    All voters: D+9
    Men: R+8
    Women: D+25 (!)
    Was R+2 w/ men & D+17 w/ women in June.

    These differences are inside the MoE, but could suggest the type of trend we’d expect if ppl r sorting around #SCOTUS, esp Roe v Wadet.co/vfykk5wqUi

    — G. Elliott Morris??‍♂️ (@gelliottmorris) July 2, 2018

    Hey, my name and email are still here. Thanks, Alain.

  144. 144.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    If Bolton is right about his boss’s toughness

    The Mustache is wrong if he says today is Monday. He is never right about anything.

  146. 146.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @NotMax:
    It was ok. The cultural subtext, as explained by a helpful YouTube comment, was the funniest part, aside from the physical comedy. Also, I noticed that the minute hand was always a few minutes off.

  147. 147.

    NotMax

    @Spanky

    Back when occasionally did that sort thing as a hobby, developed a roll of that color slide film at home.

    Once.

    Fumes enough to render insensate a charging rhino.

  148. 148.

    MisterForkbeard

    @TenguPhule: “You mean, he’s actually going to do the stupid self-destructive shit he said he was going to do? But he wouldn’t do that!”

    Thank you, the entire republican party. You racist fucks.

  149. 149.

    Spanky

    @Spanky: I should also add that the (young) teacher sponsoring the photo club at our local high school is all-in on film, and has been searching out old cameras in the community. But they can pry my Spotmatic from my cold dead hands.

  150. 150.

    efgoldman

    @Steeplejack:

    It’s basically a moderately inaccurate clock with only an hour hand.

    When you drive somewhere, do you use a sextant or your car’s GPS?

  152. 152.

    Amir Khalid

    @Roger Moore:
    Kodachrome gives us those nice bright colours, gives us the greens of summer, makes you think all the world’s a sunny day. I don’t know about C-41, Paul Simon never wrote a song about it.

  154. 154.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    Counterargument: it can be easier for a lot of people (including kids) to “picture” time in the form of a clock. My husband went back to using an analog wristwatch because he was doing a lot of tasks in 30 or 60-minute increments and it was easier for him to glance at his analog watch to get a picture of how much time remained than it was to look at a digital clock and then do the math.

    He should use the timer feature on a digital clock or smartphone. ;)

    Hell, the 60 minute time increment is ancient.

    THE DIVISION of the hour into 60 minutes and of the minute into 60 seconds comes from the Babylonians who used a sexagesimal (counting in 60s) system for mathematics and astronomy. They derived their number system from the Sumerians who were using it as early as 3500 BCE.

    And Americans balked at changing over to the metric system.

  155. 155.

    Aleta

    @Mnemosyne: Was that where the 85 yo rabbi was arrested? I remember an 85 year old woman arrested at a protest against fracking in PA a while ago.

  158. 158.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    OT, but racist scumbag Ron Paul is claiming some staff puke posted the graphic that might as well have been lifted from Der Stürmer on his twitter timeline.

    Probably the very same staffer who for years and years wrote all those racist Ron Paul newsletters that had Ron Paul’s name as author but that Ron Paul claimed — once he was running for president — to know nothing about.

  159. 159.

    efgoldman

    @Spanky:

    the (young) teacher sponsoring the photo club at our local high school is all-in on film

    Years and years ago (I’m talking the 50s) my dad used the darkroom at the on-post service club in Germany to develop and print B&W pictures.
    My brother built a darkroom in our basement; he did all kinds of things with dye transfer and also manipulating images.

  160. 160.

    frosty fred

    @Steeplejack: I was having that problem with the page never stopping loading in Firefox, until I did that fix for the specific ad.

  164. 164.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Just checked, and all the Quick Links stuff is there for me (desktop site, Firefox, Win10).

    Have you done a “hard” page refresh lately (Ctrl-F5 in Firefox and Chrome) to also refresh the underlying cache pages?

  169. 169.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Amir Khalid: I learned the hard way a few years back with my mom. We didn’t make our connection in Beijing so spent the night at an airport hotel and I set my alarm for 5 am. I thought. It was for 5 pm of course. We jumped awake at the door banging and were out the door leaving nothing in 8 minutes. Ever since then my phone and watch and tablets are all on 24 hour time

  170. 170.

    Brachiator

    @Yutsano:

    To be fair, there are still a lot of analogue clocks everywhere. Especially on clock towers and doctor’s offices.

    Clocks on towers and in buildings are becoming decorative. Increasingly, people carry time with them in their pockets. Clock towers are from an era when most people could not afford any kind of time piece.

    Many medical professionals needs to know analogue time since they judge biological movements by the second hand on the clock. So there are still good uses for what’s an old fashioned way of keeping time.

    I’m not sure you need a device with a second “hand.” The last few times I’ve gone to the doctor, a nurse has used digital devices to check my vitals.

    Also: should we adopt the European/military standard of 24 hour time? It’s actually more intuitive. Or something I’m accustomed to as a military brat anyway.

    Interesting question. Works for me. But I note that I flip between 24 hour time and “standard” time depending on the task.

    BTW: How are you liking the proposed new Form 1040, if you’ve seen it. We’ve been wondering whether the IRS will have to buy new equipment to process this postcard form, and if that would be money wasted since most returns are e-filed.

  171. 171.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    So sorry to hear about the terrible fire that destroyed your house. I’m sure the insurance will cover it.

    . . . Oops, sorry! That was supposed to autopost next week.

  172. 172.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:

    Can you explain the difference between C-41 and Kodachrome, please?

    Sure, C-41 uses chemicals and Kodachrome uses magic. E-6, I’ve done. Do that enough and I think you sprout a third kidney or something.

  176. 176.

    JCJ

    @Alain the site fixer:

    I once booked a domestic flight for 7:00 pm instead of my intended 7:00 am. I found the error about a week later and had to pay to change the ticket. I was annoyed with myself, but I was also annoyed that Midwest Express had two flights to LGA from MKE that were scheduled like that. Most of the flying I do is to Bangkok so I often have flights around 7a if leaving from MKE.

  178. 178.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    Welcome to the leafy northwest suburbs !
    You are mere miles from me in Arlington Heights.
    Please let me know if theres anything I can help you find here.

  179. 179.

    Steeplejack

    @efgoldman:

    The question was “Can you read a sundial?,” not “Do you use one every day?”

    Are you getting enough blood to your brain, or is it all going to your rage glands? I thought you’d ease up now that nyms are sticking.

  182. 182.

    trollhattan

    @Steeplejack:
    Sundial Bridge is the only reason to go into Redding, CA farther off of I-5 than the first Chevron. We just happened to stop there at midday on the solstice a couple years ago and darned if the shadow didn’t cross the noon (standard time) mark as we watched. It’s scaled up enough to watch the shadow move.

  184. 184.

    efgoldman

    @Steeplejack:

    is it all going to your rage glands?

    I have lots of rage that’s got nothing to do with this site or the intartoobz.
    Becoming an invalid is no fucking fun at all.

  186. 186.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Amir Khalid:

    Me too, with all my digital devices. The analog clocks all have 12-hour faces, although one of them indicates both possibilities (i.e., the big “1” has a small faint “13” next to it).

    Also, “Tick-tock, motherfuckers” is much, much more effective in analog than in digital.

  187. 187.

    Mnemosyne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    That’s not too far from where I grew up, but we were closer to the lake (family has a lot of connections in Highwood etc). Enjoy being able to take actual public transit to cool places like the Art Institute!

  191. 191.

    NotMax

    re: clocks

    One of these hanging on my wall since forever. Sadly, after more or less 60 years of service the minute hand now flops to the 30 minute mark and stays there. One of these days gotta have it repaired.

    Incidentally, the guy talking in the video is way off base. 1950s, not 1960s. And definitely not a promotional item, was readily available for purchase by the public. There was also a basic model without the rotating dial and the underlying scroll work. Never experienced the clanking sound he does with the one he’s demonstrating.

  192. 192.

    Alain the site fixer

    Ok I really am done this time: I tweaked a couple more settings for caching which should improve things. Now I really will leave it alone for a few days.

  193. 193.

    Brachiator

    @Mary G:

    My teenaged employees are helping me clean out a bookcase to get rid of excess books and because I’m going to have the house painted. We found a stash of greeting cards and two booklets of McDonalds’ gift certificates, each with five $1 coupons, dated 2002

    Years ago, when I moved, I found an old gift certificate for $50 at a local supermarket. The company I worked for would give these out as a Christmas gift. It was undated, but was years old.

    By California law, it was still valid. So I took it to the supermarket and the manager came over, did a little hocus pocus at the register, and honored the gift certificate.

  194. 194.

    trollhattan

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Yup. IIRC is was the first color photographic material besides dye transfer prints considered archival by Library of Congress. Amazing stuff; amazingly complex processing. Hard to believe they could make it so cheap–if anybody resurrects it it’s going to cost fifty bucks/roll to buy and process.

  195. 195.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    And I sort of wonder about the legality of this, because the pictures could be argued to be of Melania as First Lady, a quasi-official position, not private citizen Melania.

  196. 196.

    efgoldman

    @Steeplejack:

    the pictures could be argued to be of Melania as First Lady, a quasi-official position

    So sue her and add it to the pile.

  197. 197.

    germy

    @Brachiator:

    Some schools are proposing that kids no longer be taught how to “read” a clock. You know, big hand on the 12, little hand on the three, etc.

    What happens when those kids are elderly and their doctors want to test them for dementia?

    Will they ask them to draw digital clocks?

  198. 198.

    JWL

    Deadspin: “After a complicated days-long rescue mission, divers on Monday found 12 boys from a Thai soccer team and their coach. The group had been trapped in a cave in Northern Thailand for nine days”.

    What’s really great is that not a single one of them ate any one the other guys. Soccer has come a long way since that tragic crash in the Andes all those years ago..

  199. 199.

    NotMax

    @Brachiator

    Somewhere in the back of a drawer is half a booklet of coupons for Mid Pacific Air, an airline which went belly up early in 1988.

  200. 200.

    germy

    @Alain the site fixer:

    Ok I really am done this time: I tweaked a couple more settings for caching which should improve things.

    I’m still having certificate verification issues with culturalconvergencemedia.com.

    Anyone else?

  212. 212.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Maybe try one of these:

    1. Close Safari completely and reopen it.

    2. Delete Balloon Juice cookies.

    I’m on Windows or Android. Maybe another iPadawan will be able to help.

  214. 214.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack:

    The question was “Can you read a sundial?,”

    I suppose that people can easily learn to read a sundial. I’ve never met anyone who did so. Even a couple of gardening friends who had decorative sun dials in large gardens, never referred to them.

  215. 215.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Rich2506:
    Thank you for this. This was a great read that knocked down a lot of stupid arguments by dumb people (not necessarily RWNJs), such as Trump having anything to do with the current economy and squarely laid the blame on Trump and the GOP for what’s going on with immigration. Democrats are justified to be angry because no one in actual power is giving a shit about what we want.

  216. 216.

    Steeplejack

    Okay, I’m going to fix myself a big drink and watch the first episode of the new season of The Tunnel.

    (Was it national last night—after Endeavour—or just on my two flagship PBS stations here in the DMV*?

    * DMV = D.C./​Maryland/​Virginia. Phrase that the local TV talking heads have decided to make a thing.

  218. 218.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Some schools are proposing that kids no longer be taught how to “read” a clock. You know, big hand on the 12, little hand on the three, etc.

    What happens when those kids are elderly and their doctors want to test them for dementia?

    I’m sure the doctor will use a medical tricorder to make the diagnosis.

  219. 219.

    Roger Moore

    @Teddys Person:

    What is it with soccer teams and tragic travel?

    There are more of them than any other sport, so the odds work out that way.

  224. 224.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Major Major Major Major: My guess is it’s meant to prevent woodpeckers or other insectivores helping themselves to a free meal. The bees can fly in and out of the small pipe, the shield stops woodpeckers breaking into the hive. Do you have bears in the vicinity?

  227. 227.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Brachiator: Its not that difficult to read an analog clock or use the slide rule. I am teaching myself a dead language and script in which no one writes anymore.
    Analog is useful to relate time to the unit circle, degrees, minutes, seconds, radians etc, useful in astronomy, engineering etc.
    I also like writing in script using a fountain pen.

  228. 228.

    satby

    I see that on the desktop site everything looks normal, complete with all the buttons for text, quote, and links. It wasn’t on the mobile site on my Kindle using Silk browser. But in this view I don’t have the side arrows to go from post to post, and no nym info stuck in the change from mobile to desktop. Based on other comments I assume it will, but I hope the mobile version gets fixed at some point because it’s easier to read for me anyway on this tablet. Thanks Alain. Happy 4th.

  232. 232.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steeplejack:

    ‘Scuse my ignorance, but I have no idea how to do either of those things. Safari I can figure out, but where would I find BJ cookies to delete them?

  234. 234.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Rugby players eat their dead.

    Actually that’s a bit of a slur. Severed body parts are not consumed by the winning side any more, but must be returned after the match. Sometimes they’ll even stop a match to search for things like missing eyeballs. (viz. a match played during the infamous Lions “99” tour of Serf Efrica in 1974).

  235. 235.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Then never mind. I don’t have Safari, so I can’t walk you through it. We should wait to see if other Safarians weigh in.

  237. 237.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Its not that difficult to read an analog clock or use the slide rule. I am teaching myself a dead language and script in which no one writes anymore.

    I agree that reading an analog clock is not difficult, but it is increasingly becoming unnecessary, a vestige of old technology.

    I used a slide rule in high school. Was pretty adept at using them. Later on, I worked for Times Mirror, which also owned Pickett, one of the leading slide rule companies. I remember when the chips used for calculators became ridiculously cheap in the 1970s. I watched the market for slide rules collapse almost over night.

    Obviously, they are still in use. But I’ve never seen any students using them in recent years, and this includes the science and engineering students at Caltech.

  238. 238.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Hey come on now! You know that those symbols of the golden calf are far more important than the black folks. They broke something, in his church…..

    For those who don’t know me, That’s fucking snark.

  239. 239.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:
    When you elect a spoiled 4 yr old to fill in until you can elect a proper adult, stomping his feet and holding his breath is what you are going to get.

  241. 241.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I also like writing in script using a fountain pen.

    Also, I used to love different types of mechanical pencils, but was never big on fountain pens.

  247. 247.

    Ruckus

    @Aleta:
    I was on a jury once for a doc that was writing fake prescriptions and filling them for himself for steroids so he could bulk up.
    The state board that over sees that type of crime was all over it. The judge told us after the trial that they didn’t show us well over 1/2 the stuff they had, and it was a slam dunk as it was. Dude spent 4 yrs in college, 4 yrs in med school and an internship, gets his license and is a resident and does that. He didn’t seem that stupid but the evidence said moron.

  248. 248.

    Ruckus

    @Yutsano:
    We have analog clocks at work. The kids that work there seem to know how to read them just fine. How do you think I know when break time is?

  249. 249.

    Aleta

    @Ruckus: I looked up the state records and board decisions for one of the doctors. He had lost his license in CT, after being found to have a personal stockpile of controlled substances “larger than any pharmacy in the state” + to be writing prescriptions for his family members that he filled. His lawyer got the charges reduced to something like “poor record keeping” and “failure to keep track.” He had to pay a fine and give 6 or 8 talks to addicts during one year. Meanwhile he got a job and a restricted license in MA, where he was later found to have harmed patients, lied to his employer about his restrictions, and continued to write prescriptions illegally. So he moved north where there was very short supply of drs, got restrictions lifted, has moved cities twice, and is still in practice.

  250. 250.

    J R in WV

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Try Googling “Cookie management in Safari” …? It would be a start. All browsers use cookies as state management devices between sessions of a web site. That’s how commercial sites recognize previous customers, from the cookies they set as you surf a catalog or make a purchase.

    That’s why the EU made rules about privacy and cookies, because cookies have your personal data in them. Like your B-J Nym and email address, which is super squirrel sekret! ;-)

    Anyway, that’s where this whole mismash started, EU rules about privacy in cookies.

    You can delete cookies by using an edit preferences tab in Firefox, and I’m sure there is a place in Safari to do the same thing. If you do, all your sites will need to put NEW cookies on your device next visit. Which happens in the background, except for asking for your user name and password, sometimes.

    I’m not a web guru, but this is my user level understanding of this stuff. Major^4 and Alain could tell us more….

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