Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A consequence of cucumbers

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

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

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

… among the most cringeworthy communications in the history of the alphabet!

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Second rate reporter says what?

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Reader Interactions

124Comments

  1. 1.

    ruemara

    *looks at this headline a few times*

    As a booby-American, I support the rights of other boobied-Americans to serve their spawn in the manner they prefer with proper facilities..

  2. 2.

    laura

    From just the looks of that feller I’m going to assume that the “property rights” are a man’s as has been the tradition since for fucking ever.           I’d appreciate being proven wrong.

  5. 5.

    M31

    why are so many white men just not OK?

    I was trying to think of a parody of that but I just can’t top it.

    “WHERE ARE THE FREE TAMPONS FOR MEN?”

  6. 6.

    ns

    There’s a debate about breastfeeding?

    Coase’s theorem is some of the most pernicious BS in all of econ, but it explains the breastfeeding “debate” well:

    Person A: your breasts are visual externalities that I find negative

    Person B: Go fuck yourself

    No need for regulation or torts, the parties worked it out just fine on their own.

  7. 7.

    Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix

    @laura:  Unfortunately (or, probably, fortunately), I couldn’t read his almost certainly very enlightening commentary, since it’s behind a paywall.   Apparently, he’s going to mansplain the decision by a Chik-fil-A in Fargo to eject a nursing mom, which is in conflict with a ND law giving mothers the right to breastfeed in public.

  8. 8.

    Alison Rose

    Okay……..I had to look this up because I was like please tell me this chode is not claiming property rights over his (fake) wife’s breasts. Apparently it’s from a couple years ago about Chick-Fil-A, home of the homophobic chicken sandwich, kicking out a woman who was breastfeeding.

    The author is predictably mealy-mouthed about it, insisting he totes supports breastfeeding but also SLIPPERY SLOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Fuck him and the gay-bashing chickens

    ETA: It’s not paywalled for me, for some reason, but here it is in all its glory:

    The decision made by the management of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Fargo to eject a breastfeeding mother has caused some controversy in the region. That, in turn, has inspired some scrutiny of state law which gives mothres the right to breastfeed in public.

    The statute, enshrined in section 23-12-16 of the North Dakota Century Code, is pretty simple. “If the woman acts in a discreet and modest manner, a woman may breastfeed her child in any location, public or private, where the woman and child are otherwise authorized to be,” it reads.
    But for all its simplicity, it’s problematic in a couple of ways.
    Using words like “discreet” and “modest” make the law all but useless. After all, whose definition of modest should we use?
    Mine?
     
    Yours?
    Your grandmother’s?
    But the larger issue is that the law grants the right to breastfeed on private property, and that’s probably a bridge too far. When I was reading about the controversy from the incident at Chick-fil-A, I wondered why people were invoking this state law at all.
    After all, if a private person wants someone removed from their private property, the reason for the removal shouldn’t matter.
    I should say, at this juncture, that I’m a supporter of breastfeeding. Those who get up in arms because a mother might expose her breast while feeding her child in public are obnoxious and juvenile. I would be critical of any business treating breastfeeding mothers with anything less than respect and deference, and would likely back that criticism with a personal boycott.
    till, I have a problem with the idea of the state instituting a breastfeeding policy for private property.
    To illustrate, let’s consider a related question of public policy. In other parts of the country women are fighting for the right to go completely topless in public. A suit challenging New Hampshire’s prohibition on topless women is currently before that state’s Supreme Court.
    If women win the right to go topless in public, does that mean private businesses must also allow it? Will places like restaurants and grocery stories, which already implement a universal dress code requiring things like shoes and shirts for all, be forced to allow toplessness too?
    Our society’s changing mores are creating questions policymakers probably never thought they’d have to answer. Balancing the rights and desires of citizens is complicated stuff.
    The easy solution is to lean back on a very traditional concept, that of property rights.
    While policymakers will always have to grapple with issues related to behavior in public spaces – in schools, in public parks, in government buildings, etc. – they should leave questions about behavior on private property to the property owners as much as possible.

  9. 9.

    dfh

    The article from the North Forks Herald is almost three years old, from January 17, 2018.

    I hope they’ve learned to spell better, or have re-hired the copy editor, because the word “mothers” is misspelled twice as “mothres”.

    Maybe Mothra lives nearby.

  11. 11.

    laura

    @Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: sadly you’ve reinforced my take. Breasts are for men for the sexy. Breastfeeding is not male sexy centered and therefore icky and off putting. Same as it ever fucking was. I’m guessing that the chic fil a offered a toilet stall as a reasonable location for feeding a child.

  12. 12.

    RSA

    The author writes (paraphrasing from memory): “After all, if a private person wants to remove someone from their property for any reason, it should be allowed.”

    The words “public accommodation” don’t appear in the piece.

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    Pro-choice means the woman decides. Period. This is pure clickbait, and that guy has a face demanding to be punched by all women struggling with all the problems breast feeling can cause.

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    Apparently it’s from a couple years ago about Chick-Fil-A, home of the homophobic chicken sandwich, kicking out a woman who was breastfeeding.

    Chicken breasts vs mother’s breasts.  Too much irony.

  15. 15.

    Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix

    @Alison Rose:

    Okay……..I had to look this up because I was like please tell me this chode is not claiming property rights over his (fake) wife’s breasts.

    “My wife is not fake, I keep telling you that she lives in Canada!” — this guy, probably

    Thanks for posting the article, it was every bit as Freshman Poli Sci as I imagined.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    Babies get hungry. They need to eat. Mothers need to be able to feed them, wherever they are, without hindrance. Only a bad person would have a problem with that.

  17. 17.

    Ruckus

    I belong to the half of humanity without the operational parts being discussed and I still do not have a fucking clue how this is any of this douchebags business or why it is being discussed in the 21st century. This is not politics, it is fucking ridiculous, made up religious bullshit.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    @RSA:

    The author writes (paraphrasing from memory): “After all, if a private person wants to remove someone from their property for any reason, it should be allowed.”

    Tiresome purity libertarian argument.

  20. 20.

    Jinchi

    found this while googling for pictures of Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers

    We all have our types, I suppose.

  27. 27.

    Citizen Alan

    I’m kind of conflicted about this story. Because on one hand I fully support a woman’s right to breastfeed wherever and whenever she wants.  But on the other, I’m almost to the point of thinking that anyone who walks into Chicken Fucking A deserves what they get. If every decent person had just boycotted the bastards when they came out against gay rights, they would be out of business and we wouldn’t have to worry about them.

  28. 28.

    M31

    and here I was hoping it was more like “I paid for my wife’s fake boobs and now that’s she’s leaving me I should get to keep one”

    and not “oh noes boobs being used for WHAT THEY’RE FOR we can’t have that whar FREEDUMB WHAR”

    guy clearly never looked up the word ‘mammal’

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    @laura:

    I’d bet they weren’t that considerate. Notice that state law allows breast feeding. She was not in violation of the law, but the Crap-fil-Ass was.

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:

    And if a self-styled “grown man” is freaked out when he sees a woman baring a beast to feed her baby, he is clearly not yet all the way grown up. He needs to learn that his comfort must yield to the baby’s need.

  32. 32.

    Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix

    @Baud: In this Ohio diner, everyone agrees that the election was stolen from Trump and that women can breastfeed in the toilets or out in their cars.

  36. 36.

    boatboy_srq

    @laura:  I’m guessing that the chic fil a offered a toilet stall as a reasonable location for feeding a child.

    Sadly a toilet stall in a restaurant still falls under the private property portion of this debate and would still be vulnerable.

    My Mum was once nearly evicted from a restroom while breastfeeding (her classic response: “Where would you have me go – the men’s room?” still rings in my ears from the first time she told the tale). I would not be the least surprised that the FascistsRUs Chik-Fil-A in question was guilty of similar behavior.

  39. 39.

    Tony Jay

    “Why should non-tax paying infants get to enjoy unlimited boob-play while free, white males are unfairly restricted in our access to the milky mounds of man-fun by the frankly unconstitutional concept of ‘consent’? What about the genuinely constitutional requirement for equal treatment under the law? Who, truly, are the victims of oppression here?”

    What a hero.

  44. 44.

    Hoodie

    @Alison Rose: The easy solution is to lean back on a very traditional concept, that of property rights.

     

    Yep, the old hammer that shows up whenever needed to nail up the hierarchy.

  45. 45.

    Suzanne

    @Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: One of the things that grosses me out really hardcore is when adults “joke” about baby boys being “boob men” when they’re hungry. The lactation consultant made that joke to me (even though I had a baby girl) when Spawn the Youngest was born. It’s so fucking gross.

  46. 46.

    The Other Bob

    But the larger issue is that the law grants the right to breastfeed on private property, and that’s probably a bridge too far. When I was reading about the controversy from the incident at Chick-fil-A, I wondered why people were invoking this state law at all.
    After all, if a private person wants someone removed from their private property, the reason for the removal shouldn’t matter.

    Slippery slope argument?  You mean like if we allow people to kick out breastfeeding mothers, we will then allow people to kick out other based on religion of skin color?

  49. 49.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @The Other Bob: I was under the impression that is what the real agenda behind the Sacred Property Rights argument from the Libertarians – so they can have the right to treat other people like shit. As some else comment it’s really no surprise that Holomorphic Chicken is at the center of this breast thing,

  51. 51.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Argiope: Tell that to the minimum wage worker who gets the bus that table. OR are they just little poor people who can mind their place with their middle class betters?

  52. 52.

    Just One More Canuck

    backpfeifengesicht means ‘a face badly in need of a face’ – is there an equivalent German expression for ‘someone badly in need of a kick in the nuts’?

  54. 54.

    Chetan Murthy

    As appalling and disgusting as this idea that somehow men get to decide where & how women can and cannot feed their children is, there’s worse.  I read recently about a “fertility rights” movement, wherein men are agitating for state support for paying surrogates, purchasing eggs, etc.  Yeah: your image that you want to wash away with brain-bleach is exact.  Ugh.

  55. 55.

    Mike Adamson

    Best column Rob Port has written since his “Maoist books in the Obama White House” opus. Rob was the first conservative blogger I ever conversed with, way back in 2002. Simpler times in many ways although it’s interesting how grievances was and wane o er time. Anyway, go Riders!

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    And by extension: “We* need to reexamine granting voting rights only to property owners.

    *”We” who own property at this point in time. And also, what’s this nonsense about “renters’ rights?” If you rent, you clearly aren’t working hard enough to own your house and have surrendered your rights.

  57. 57.

    LeftCoastYankee

    His follow up editorial “Women laugh at me, and I don’t know why”, is also a must read.

  58. 58.

    trollhattan

    Somebody on the beach at Christmas Island might be surprised, otherwise not one other human is.

    “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday stymied Democrats’ long-shot bid to immediately increase direct stimulus payments to $2,000, leaving the fate of bigger checks in limbo as this Congress comes to a close at the end of the week,” Politico reports.

    Bloomberg: “McConnell objected to a motion by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to approve by unanimous consent a stimulus-checks bill that passed the House on Monday. He also blocked a motion by Senator Bernie Sanders to vote on the stimulus checks immediately after the Senate votes on overriding Trump’s veto of a key defense policy bill.”

    “Floor requests to immediately pass legislation are frequently criticized as stunts, but this episode highlights how unlikely it is that the Senate will pass a bill increasing the payments before Congress adjourns Sunday.”

  59. 59.

    Eunicecycle

    @Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: I’ve done both (toilet and car) back in the olden days. It wasn’t comfortable for either of us!

    And the private property thing reminds me of Rand Paul’s argument that business owners should be able to exclude anyone for any reason, including race. So fuck that.

  60. 60.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Mary G: and that guy has a face demanding to be punched by all women struggling with all the problems breast feeling can cause. by any sentient being within a 20 light-year radius.  (First priority given to all women struggling with all the problems breast feeling can cause)

  61. 61.

    JDM

    When that guy is willing to let the females in his life have “property rights” regarding his penis, along with a democratic vote for issues like possible castration, we can talk about his “property rights” to a boob.

     

    although he looks chubby enough he may well already have legit property rights to a pair of ’em.

  63. 63.

    Han

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Tell that to the minimum wage worker who gets the bus that table. OR are they just little poor people who can mind their place with their middle class betters?

    As someone who spent their formative years bussing tables, firstly let me say “fuck off” with this bullshit. Secondly, I would point out that if by some rare chance a drop of breast milk got onto the table (more likely if you’re feeding breast milk via bottle than directly from the breast), it is a food-grade liquid despite also being a bodily fluid, and probably one of the least-disgusting things I’ve had to wipe from a table. And thirdly, which restaurant employees do you think are the ones that are having to deal with the piss, shit, and puke in the restrooms? The actually disgusting and potentially harmful body eliminations?

  65. 65.

    sdhays

    @Citizen Alan: But their chicken is just sooooo good!1!! Who could go without it long enough put them out of business????

    I haven’t eaten there in years, but I recall it being like eating a donut – tasty enough, but in a half-hour, it’s as if you didn’t eat anything at all.

  66. 66.

    Ksmiami

    @Baud: is he another example of Rick Wilson’s Incelbeitung brigade? Trust me that man is unfuckable on all multiverse earths

  67. 67.

    leeleeFL

    @ns: It SHOULD be this simple,  but I am sure this shithead has figured out ways to say how viewership of the feeding process gives him some kind of proprietary  rights?  On second thought, he really can go fuck himself!

  68. 68.

    Kent

    Right wing political thought in this country ca. 2020

    A woman breast feeding an infant within a public space like a restaurant is a violation of the constitutional property rights of the corporation that owns the restaurant and must, therefore, be STAMPED OUT because of creeping SOCIALISM and the erosion of property rights.

    However, a store or restaurant that asks a MAGA man to “mask up” or leave is violating his constitutional FREEDOMS and must be not be allowed to do so because of creeping AUTHORITARIANISM and the erosion of personal freedom.

    Did I get that right?

  71. 71.

    sab

    @Amir Khalid: Also too hungry babies shriek loudly even in restaurants. Usual solution is to stuff a nipple attached to a bottle or a breast in the baby’s mouth. Otherwise it shrieks. If there were actual complaining customers or employees they deserve what they will get, shriekimg babies

    ETA: I suggest shrieking baby sit-ins by nursing mothers until the policy changes.

  72. 72.

    The Moar You Know

    After all, if a private person wants someone removed from their private property, the reason for the removal shouldn’t matter.

    This is correct.  If I want to throw one of my female acquaintances out of my house for breastfeeding on my patio, I can do that.  No problemo.  Until my wife finds out.

    The decision made by the management of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Fargo to eject a breastfeeding mother

    Awww, silly conservative.  A Chik-fil-A is NOT private property!  That’s a law 101 failure right there.  “Public accommodations” are not treated the same under the law as private property.  At all.  We’ve been trying every workaround for that one since the late 1800s in this country.  Hey, Americans just don’t like black people!  But no dice, the law, it cares not about your taste in skin color.  Or boobies.  You serve the public, you’re serving any jackass who’s got the cash in their wallet.

    An interesting reason, by the way, that hookers as a trade group don’t want to be legalized.

  73. 73.

    Baud

    @The Moar You Know:

    An interesting reason, by the way, that hookers as a trade group don’t want to be legalized.

    I never thought of the possibility that they would be common carriers.  Interesting.

  75. 75.

    The Moar You Know

    And thirdly, which restaurant employees do you think are the ones that are having to deal with the piss, shit, and puke in the restrooms? The actually disgusting and potentially harmful body eliminations?

    @Han:  Oh man.  Jesus, you bought back a memory.  Quit my second dishwashing job as I could overhear a heated discussion between the manager and a couple of employees and the very clear words “who’s gonna clean up the shit fight”.  I knew who they had in mind.  Just grabbed my stuff and walked out the door.

    Found out when I came back for my last check that yes, two individuals in the men’s room had a combat duel with feces.  And that they were going to make me clean it up.  And that they were extremely unhappy with my walking out, to which I could only respond that I’d taken the job to wash dishes, not clean up after psychopaths who decided that shit could adequately take the place of snowballs.

  77. 77.

    Scout211

    I’m not sure if this has already been posted, but it is a really satisfying and fun read about Trumps temper tantrums and whining.  CNN has been quite sharp in their reporting lately.  No balancing both sides anymore, just all out Trump criticism and highlighting his flaws.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/29/politics/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-renovations/index.html

    (CNN)His mood darkened as soon as he walked into his members-only club Mar-a-Lago, three days before Christmas, according to multiple sources. The changes to his private quarters, many of which were overseen by his wife, first lady Melania Trump, were not to President Donald Trump’s liking, and he was mad about it, according to a source familiar with the President’s response.

    Several weeks in the works, the renovations, undertaken to make the approximately 3,000-square-foot space feel larger and updated in preparation for the Trumps post-White House life, didn’t appeal to Trump’s aesthetics, according to his reaction. Trump was also displeased with other renovations at the property, the source said, not just in the living space.
    “He was not happy with it,” said the source, who noted several loud, one-sided conversations with club management almost immediately ensued.

    It was Melania Trump, and her interior decorator, Tham Kannalikham, who selected many of the details on the renovations, however, not Mar-a-Lago staff, a fact of which Trump was well aware.

    This is not the first time the President’s personal taste has clashed with that of his wife. Trump was also not thrilled with some of the decorative updates to Camp David, another project of the first lady, when he saw them during the Thanksgiving holiday, according to another source familiar with the President’s reaction after the visit.

  80. 80.

    The Moar You Know

    I never thought of the possibility that they would be common carriers.  Interesting.

    @Baud:  I’ve known a few over the years from working in bars.  They are interesting people.  Vehemently anti-tax, anti-government, anti-regulation of anything,  Born libertarians.  Like all born libertarians, the ones I knew who voted, to a woman, GOP.

    So they really don’t want to go legal for two reasons; taxes and the prospect of not being able to turn down clients.  You will not be surprised to find that race is the biggest reason for turning down clients.

    It’s a wild world.

  81. 81.

    Brachiator

    @Scout211:

    This is not the first time the President’s personal taste has clashed with that of his wife. Trump was also not thrilled with some of the decorative updates to Camp David, another project of the first lady, when he saw them during the Thanksgiving holiday, according to another source familiar with the President’s reaction after the visit.

    Trump probably wants Ivanka.

  82. 82.

    Roger Moore

    Why do I have the suspicion that this same dude is out there this year demanding to be able to shop maskless regardless of the company policy of the store he’s shopping in?

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    @The Moar You Know:

    I’ve known a few over the years from working in bars. They are interesting people. Vehemently anti-tax, anti-government, anti-regulation of anything, Born libertarians. Like all born libertarians, the ones I knew who voted, to a woman, GOP.

    Most criminals are anti-tax, anti-government and anti-regulation.  No surprise here.

    And don’t fight me. I am not against sex workers.

    So they really don’t want to go legal for two reasons; taxes and the prospect of not being able to turn down clients. You will not be surprised to find that race is the biggest reason for turning down clients.

    Reminds me of adult video stars who, at least as far as screen work was concerned, were racist. However, sex work involves intimate activity. You cannot reasonably tell a sex worker who they must let inside their body.

  87. 87.

    Ian

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Every decent restaurant I have ever worked in has informed the wait staff/bussers that any and all manner of things could be on a table they are bussing, including feces, vomit, and saliva.  I see what you are saying that there is not a lot of concern for these people in this situation, but adding breast milk as a potential bodily fluid on the table does not make there jobs substantially different than it was before.

  88. 88.

    Roger Moore

    @Amir Khalid:

    And if it’s a bad reason, and they get called an asshole for it, they should accept the consequences.

    They will never agree with that. They not only want the right to be assholes, they want protection from criticism for being assholes.  What they love about Trump more than anything is his outspokenness.

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @Ian:

    Every decent restaurant I have ever worked in has informed the wait staff/bussers that any and all manner of things could be on a table they are bussing, including feces, vomit, and saliva.

    One of the many reasons that I have avoided any job where I have to clean up anyone’s bodily fluids.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    Can I just say that I think it should be illegal to post that face – combined with any topic about what women should or shouldn’t do – on the internet?

    That should seriously come with a warning label.

  96. 96.

    jl

    @The Moar You Know:

    ” A Chik-fil-A is NOT private property!  That’s a law 101 failure right there.  “Public accommodations” are not treated the same under the law as private property. ”

    Were you able to read the thing? It’s behind a ‘register wall’ and I passed because seemed too silly, and I have too much junk coming my way as a result of wanting to read more important articles about covid. Anyway, thanks for info. I guess the guy should write a follow-up that consists of ‘Never mind.’

  97. 97.

    Roger Moore

    @WaterGirl:

    I went ahead and looked him up to see, and he was apparently in favor of a mask mandate and critical of Republican politicians who refused to wear masks.  He also readily accepted that Biden had won the election and was highly critical of Republicans who were resisting reality on the point.  It just goes to show that you shouldn’t assume you know everything about someone’s politics from one position.

  99. 99.

    jl

    @Roger Moore: If he is a certain kind of libertarian-curious policy economist, then high probability he has to deal with some typical problems of that tribe. Devotion to silly assumptions, such as defining property rights and hand waving about some kind of ill-defined market, and that property rights can always be unambiguously assigned, solves all problems. And if Moar is correct, never doing any homework before spouting off.

    Kind of like that law econ guy who early  in the epidemic, spouted that evolutionary  theory applied to infectious disease bugs guaranteed that covid would evolve itself into a mild disease in a matter of a few months, or a year. I forget the guy’s name, but his time would have been better spent explaining that fact to measles and rabies.

  100. 100.

    jl

    If that bit a commenter mentioned about the columnist worried about filthy breastmilk is true, he is also guilty of accusing nursing mothers of being slobs.

    I recently read research that said beards were dirty beds of bacteria. Where are the property rights there if I decide to kick bearded men out my burger joint (if I ever run one of those)?

  101. 101.

    Ohio Mom

    Except for the brief moment before the hungry baby latches on, a third person can’t see really see much of the mother’s breast, the baby’s head (and often, hands) is in the way. They certainly can’t see the nipple, which the baby’s mouth covers.

    Much better views of breasts at the pool and beach, which is something that always amuses me: we suspend all societal rules about appropriate dress anywhere swimming is a possibility. People walk around almost completely naked and everyone’s cool with it. Including jerks like the one in the twitter photograph in the post.

    Also, I would not worry about drops of breast milk landing randomly in a restaurant. Generally it’s work getting the milk out — ever notice how hard babies suck? Why do you think breast-feeding mothers who want the option of using bottles use pumps? Because a breast is not a spigot.

  103. 103.

    jl

    @Scout211: Going by  WH pix I’ve seen of FLOTU’s idea of innovative interior design, hard to imagine weirder taste than she has.

    But… well… Trump. Case closed. He better be careful about being too much of a raging ass. He’ll need that prenup money after he’s out of office.

  104. 104.

    Poe Larity

    On the topic of Real Men issues, I have to rec the Regular Cars review of the 2004 RAM Cummins truck.

    Even the Redneck comments are hysterical and a couple of ex manly bearded men sheepeshily admitting they owned one.

    The official truck of guys who say “I would’ve served, but if a drill sergeant got in my face I would’ve kicked their ass”!!!

  105. 105.

    Roger Moore

    @Ohio Mom:

    Much better views of breasts at the pool and beach, which is something that always amuses me: we suspend all societal rules about appropriate dress anywhere swimming is a possibility.

    That’s a bit of an exaggeration.  Most places still require some kind of minimal dress even in swimming areas, and swimming attire is frequently allowed in other locations, e.g. sunbathing in parks, working out in minimal attire.

  106. 106.

    trollhattan

    County refreshed the COVID dashboard data and while new case numbers are well down I’m dubious, since the latest date posted is the 25th. But, ICU bed capacity is rising, not dropping, which is both a reliable data point and an important one, because much of California is maxed out. The first of our two cases-reported peaks was ten days after Thanksgiving. Not looking forward to the data for ten days after Christmas, and then New Year.

  107. 107.

    The Pale Scot

    @Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:

    I googled it and was able to read it, basically it’s a libertarian whine that the owner of a property can throw anyone off his property, doesn’t need a reason. Totally ignoring that public accommodations have different laws

     

    Add, I should read further down before I comment

  108. 108.

    Shana

    @ns: I haven’t read through all the comments yet, but wanted to mention a perfect example of how that gets fusked up. Today’s WaPo has a story about White’s Ferry which has been transferring people from the Maryland side of the Potomac to the Virginia side since 1783. They shut down yesterday, presumably for good, because the owner of the wedding venue adjacent to their VA landing spot wants an ungodly amount of money for the small encroachment of the landing onto their property.

  110. 110.

    Shana

    @Citizen Alan: There’s a location in my local mall right next to the door to the building and every time I’ve walked past it it seems to be full of evangelical moms with their ever expanding broods. I suspect that’s all that’s keeping them in business. I guess none of them breastfeed?

  115. 115.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @The Moar You Know:

    hookers as a trade group don’t want to be legalized.

    Maybe I’ve just talked to different hookers than you, but my understanding is they want very, very much to be legalized.  The most touted reason is no legal protections from anything job-related – like being physically attacked by their customers, which is a major risk – if they have to also be afraid of the police.  Many of them understandably don’t want their job to be a crime, period, just that fact alone.  And there’s the more subtle issues that it’s a lot easier to get society to stop treating sex work like it makes a woman degraded and inferior if it’s legal.

  119. 119.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Shana:

    They shut down yesterday, presumably for good, because the owner of the wedding venue adjacent to their VA landing spot wants an ungodly amount of money for the small encroachment of the landing onto their property.

    Thus removing several reasons a couple would use that venue for a wedding (historical, picturesque, and practical come to mind).

  121. 121.

    Matt McIrvin

    He looks like the asshole with the “FUCK OFF WE’RE FULL” T-shirt whose picture they keep posting on LGM.

  122. 122.

    Victor Matheson

    @The Moar You Know: yeah, but public accommodations only apply to officially recognized protected classes. You can’t kick me out of a restaurant because I am black or Scottish or Lutheran or a veteran – all protected classes. But you can kick me out for not wearing a mask or being loud or eating too slowly or being rude to the servers or being a vegetarian. Behaviors are generally not part of being a protected class.

    There is certainly no explicit federal law designating nursing mothers as a nationally recognized protected class. Maybe there should be, and maybe the courts can infer some sort of protection to nursing mothers from other existing classes (like the USSC did extending gender discrimination laws to cover same sex rights), but simply appealing to public accommodation laws is not sufficient to condemn the author or Chick Fil A here.

  123. 123.

    Victor Matheson

    @jl: public accommodation laws typically don’t apply to behaviors. Private places are generally allowed to discriminate against people based on their behaviors or actions but not about their fundamental natures.

  124. 124.

    The Pale Scot

    @WaterGirl:

    I thought about saying that, it’s so true.

    Also the reply field that usually has a direct link to your comment, the link is just code. I’ll click submit and hope for the best

     

    Worky! Yay!

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