Joelle and I were just watching the Secret Lives of Animals on Disney+, and we were about two minutes in watching this adorable baby seal on some small island off the coast of Australia, and the mother left the baby seal to go fish to feed them. The narrator casually stated something to the effect of “the safest place for the baby seal would be to say where it is but curiosity got the better of it” and then it proceeded to flop and roll precariously down this hill. I turned to Joelle, who I noticed was turning red because she was holding her breath in terror and said “If anything happens to this baby seal I will fucking firebomb Disney HQ” and she said I know and I made a command decision to switch to another show.
Didn’t check in last night because I have been going to bed earlier trying to get back into early to bed schedule, and Joelle made a big vat of chili and some apple crisp, I had some, and promptly got the itis and went to bed. She was big mad I did not post pictures, so here you go:
I don’t think either of those two dishes, under any circumstance, are particularly photogenic, these being no exception. They were, however delicious.
Trump and these motherfuckers are just pure fucking evil.
Poe Larity.
I’m told the OPM is mostly offline and someone brought in an outside server to blast every federal worker with emails containing policy pdfs. pdf editor shows authors from Project 2025.
dmsilev
At first glance, they look pretty similar, except round vs. rectangular….
Things have finally started to calm down around here, especially with the rain having come and gone; not much flooding locally and the dust is now much abated so maybe we can think about turning off all the air purifiers we’ve spent the past week and a half installing.
John S.
Wow, that is exceptionally evil. As always, the cruelty (especially towards non-whites) is the point.
hitchhiker
Nom, that’s comfort food and I want the recipes. Please?
oldster
I’m from an era when food was for eating, not gawking. Fashion plates used to be Gibson Girls, not entrees.
Which is all to say — if the chili and crumble tasted good, then they looked fine, too.
Kristine
The chili and apple crisp look great.
I agree about switching channels. I can’t watch “Nature, red in tooth and claw” programs anymore. When it comes to the natural world, I’ve been sticking with NOVA’s astronomy programs.
Ohio Mom
Even if they don’t care about Africans with HIV, they ought to care about maintaining our country’s soft power. Apparently that idea is too abstract for Republicans. China has been cultivating Africa for a while now, I guess we are not going to be a counterbalance anymore.
It was nice for me to live in the American Empire. It had its ugly aspects but I had a nice standard of living. Oh well.
Leto
Which is the only thing that matters.
@Poe Larity.: whelp… hopefully I still get my W2 for taxes. /shrug
Ohio Mom
@Kristine: I remember hanging out with toddler Ohio Son one afternoon with some PBS nature program on. The moment it was mealtime for the big cat I began to understand the wisdom of sappy kids’ shows. No one gets eaten on Barney or Caillou or nowadays, Bluey.
Kristine
@Ohio Mom: Black holes gobble asteroids, but they leave the baby seals alone.
SpaceUnit
It’s Disney. The baby seal goes through some stuff but eventually becomes a Jedi knight.
RevRick
@Ohio Mom: Stupidity cannot see beyond its nose. Throwing away all the benefits of soft power means we now need to rely on the rigid tool of military hard power. Like they say, “when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”
Soft power is cheap. And flexible. And adaptable.
The dumbasses in the Felon47 administration clearly have not learned one lesson from Iraq, Afghanistan or any of the other futile conflicts that have plagued our world.
eclare
They must have been working on this evil for a while, it’s so specifically targeted. I wish I believed in hell.
The food, especially the chili (love chili of all kinds!), looks great.
RevRick
@SpaceUnit: Ahem. Old Yeller. Bambi.
But Disney did sanitize Grimm classics like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast . No lopping for parts of feet to fit in the Glass Slipper or family betrayals.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
I haven’t been able to watch a nature show in years because they all show animals getting killed. Not what I want to see. Not at all.
Like… I turned off “My Octopus Teacher” cuz the dude abandoned his octopus friend to the sharks. Fuck that guy! I didn’t need to see any more.
Steve LaBonne
@RevRick: Don’t worry, they’re also busy destroying our military readiness. We will be a third-rate power by the time they’re done. Patriots!
TBone
We also feasted on delicious chili made today to celebrate the Eagles win (although I am not a football fan, when my peeps are happy, I celebrate). My peeps are very happy! We are having the same chili tomorrow night, but with a topping (cheddar) this time and a side of fresh made garlic bread instead of the salad we had with tonight. I make garlic bread heart healthier by heating just a pat of butter in some good olive oil and adding the garlic (crushed through garlic press), heated just till fragrant in the mostly EVOO that is now butter flavored. Brush on slices of good rolls or a crusty loaf and oven-toast.
SpaceUnit
@RevRick:
Don’t spoil it for me. I want to believe that seal is ripping around the galaxy in a hyperspace starship.
RevRick
@Jacqueline Squid Onassis: The primal fear of human beings is getting eaten. It’s why the nightmares of inner city kids is not getting shot, but lions and tigers and dragons.
They call programs that feature animals getting eaten animal porn for a reason.
RevRick
@SpaceUnit: Momma Orca would like to have a word.
SpaceUnit
@RevRick:
And you’re supposed to be a man of faith.
RevRick
@Steve LaBonne: What are the odds that they reinitiate the draft, because they are falling short of recruitment goals with far fewer young men enlisting?
RevRick
@SpaceUnit: Faith grapples with the world as it is and hopes to transform it.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Kristine:
ETA, here we see a pantomime Princess Margaret engaged in a life or death struggle with a breakfast.
VeniceRiley
The problem (for these psychopaths) here is we call it soft, I think. Too late to rebrand into something more … masculine?
RevRick
@VeniceRiley: Soft power is smart, cheap power. It wins friends and allies.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: They insist that “America is respected again”. It’s an abusive dad’s concept of “respect”–nothing but pants-shitting terror will do. And the way you get it is by being volcanic and unpredictable and full of malice, just emotionally abusing everyone with your very presence.
SpaceUnit
@RevRick:
I was raised protestant, but even I recognize that you’ll never get to a baby seal piloting a spaceship by works.
Melancholy Jaques
@John S.:
We need to find a way to talk about Trump supporters and their cruelty. I understand that calling cruel, racist people deplorable will result in massive attacks from the entire media world, so we need to develop a more precise way to let the world know what we know: the Trump cult consists of bad people who have no morals & get off on cruelty to helpless people.
Steve LaBonne
@RevRick: They should go for it. I can’t imagine anything that would destroy the Republican Party faster.
RevRick
John Cole, as far as I am concerned, the vast majority of pictures taken of food is unappetizing. Unless it’s a snapshot of an elegant dish from a high-end restaurant, which emphasizes presentation, a photo cannot convey flavor, aroma and the important elements of eating.
Steve LaBonne
@Melancholy Jaques: White Americans as a group are some of the worst people in the world. It’s not politically convenient to say that, but by God it’s the truth.
Ohio Mom
@RevRick: An artist I know became a food stylist — she styles food for photographs. She can make anything look good.
RevRick
@Matt McIrvin: It’s the foreign policy version of their domestic policy. It’s why they talk about how “Daddy’s back,” and how Democrats and minorities and women need a “spanking,” or Mel Gibson, upping the ante, says, “Dad needs to use his belt.”
VeniceRiley
@RevRick: um, yeah I know. But to make it palatable to american men, maybe call it something else and make the media call it something else? Like seed spraying power? They’re very impressionable!
mrmoshpotato
@hitchhiker: Yes. They may not be photogenic, but they both look like good eating.
NotMax
FYI.
Call it an ass-teroid.
Betsy
Last year I was making apple crisp and I reached for the cinnamon in my kitchen, which is not particularly well lit. I got the cinnamon from the spice rack and added it and mixed it into the apples and then as I was putting the bottle back the label caught my eye and it was smoked paprika. But it was too late. The mixture was mixed. So I said, fuck it and added a ton of cinnamon to try to mask the flavor. But assumed it was most likely ruined.
well it turned out to be the best apple crisp ever. It tasted like chai apple crisp, and it was fabulous, especially when you put some really good vanilla Häagen-Dazs on it.
fortunately I did think to write down what I had stupidly and mistakenly done in my dark kitchen and now that’s my favorite way to make apple crisp.
Betty Cracker
@Betsy: Fabulous — I love a happy accident like that! My kitchen mishaps rarely end well.
RevRick
@SpaceUnit: Mrs Rev and I just finished watching yet another Star Wars spinoff: Skeleton Crew. Four kids find an abandoned starship and end up accidentally hyperspacing to another part of the galaxy, and most of the story is their struggle to return home.
But like all such tales it fails at special relativity. If such a starship existed, you could theoretically go from here to the Andromeda galaxy and only experience getting a couple minutes older. But when you returned, you would come back to a planet Earth five million years older from today.
It was a fun story. The robot was hilarious.
Betsy
@Betty Cracker: Well, to be honest, this was a case of survivor bias.
NotMax
@RevRick
Munch a bunch o’ Muppets.
:)
RevRick
@Betty Cracker: Mine usually end with broken glass.
SpaceUnit
@RevRick:
That’s exactly why I never screw around with the abandoned starships I come across.
Jackie
@Jacqueline Squid Onassis:
Amen.
RevRick
@NotMax: Good thing that appeared on Steve Allen after 11 pm.
RevRick
@SpaceUnit: We’d miss you.
Sure Lurkalot
@Matt McIrvin:
Trump voter: Not woke, Trump good, grrrrrrr.
NotMax
@RevRick
Same skit on The Ed Sullivan Show in prime time in 1968.
:)
Lily
From now on confirmation hearing questioning should cut to the chase:
Are segregation laws unconstitutional? Is sexual harassment or aggression at work grounds for firing? What about at school? Should voter suppression activities be allowed? What should be the recourse if a nominee to a judgeship or government office lies during a hearing? What recourse if they make false statements to the public about unethical activities or on required financial records ?
Nancy
@Melancholy Jaques: hi, Jaques, we chatted on Bluesky. I never saw you here. Have I been overlooking your interesting perspectives at balloon juice by not reading carefully?
hotshoe
@RevRick: Since Dumpster’s idea of military power is copied solely from Putin’s, he (and his traitor cabinet) don’t have to care if the US military is filled with high-school dropouts and psych cases. As long as they’re white male bodies who can wear camo pants. As long as there are bodies to throw into the meatgrinder when the Dumpster wishes, no one in our government will try to improve morale or actual standards.
Since Dumpster will act to impoverish and immiserate every person who is not already a rightwing millionaire+, there will be plenty of young men who will sign up for military simply to avoid starving. Like North Korea. Only the Army eats well, everyone else goes hungry.
No need for a military draft in our future.
Lily
Joelle is a crackerjack name.
WTFGhost
You might be assisted by https://www.doesthedogdie.com/, if you have frequent need to avoid triggers of that nature.
WTFGhost
@SpaceUnit: Just don’t tell anyone that it was Luke Skywater’s dad, before they’ve seen the second movie.
SpaceUnit
@WTFGhost:
I was rocked when Darth cut off his own son’s flipper.
2liberal
test
Marc
After some sixty-odd years pf reading/watching science fiction stories, I can tell you that faster than light travel always depends on the existence of “warp space”, “hyper-space”, “unspace”, or something else to defeat special relativity. There are stories that try to be more realistic, but they usually involve putting the crew in some sort of stasis during the trip. The ones I think are actually realistic are about slower than light generation ships where everyone goes bug nuts before they get to their destination.
beef
@Marc
Charlie Stross wrote a book called Neptune’s Brood that takes the speed of light limitation fairly seriously and went in a different direction: It’s set in a future where wealth is denominated mainly in shares of corporations engaged in slower than light colonization attempts (and its main character is a historian of monetary frauds whose sister disappears after getting involved in a “FTL travel makes all our money obsolete” fraud.)
Marc
@beef: Yep, read that one, I thought that was a decently cool concept. I like Stross and Scalzi as they both don’t resort to magic unless they call it that.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@RevRick:
I think that would only happen with traveling FTL or approaching light speed in “normal space” and that’s how time dilation would apply. With things like hyperspace in Star Wars, you side step the issues of FTL travel, at least in normal space.
In fact, something like Star Trek’s warp drive is theoretically possible, but has various problems, one of them being when you terminate the warp bubble around your spacecraft, all of the matter and energy traveling with you on the outside of the bubble would still be moving forward at superluminal speeds, being a horrifying danger to populated destinations.
Come to think of it, I think of time travel having a similar problem. Like, take for example Back to the Future. Marty spends like a few weeks of his life outside his normal timeline/time frame/whatever you want to call it over the trilogy. If time travel existed, whether, to the past or the future, as portrayed in BTTF, you would be sacrificing your portions of your lifespan in a sense. Sure, you’re still experiencing that time, but it’s not spent actually living your normal life, as you would sans time machine, so you wouldn’t live as long you naturally would. This is assuming you return to the exact moment you left, of course. If time traveling enough, or getting stranded for a time, people would notice you appearing older than you realistically should be
SpaceUnit
Stay focussed people. Baby seals in space.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Here’s a sci-fi thought experiment:
Would the mere existence of Star Trek’s replicators lead to a post-scarcity utopia, upending captialism and hierarchy, that nobody, not even the powers-that-be, could stop here on Earth?
Also, would the powers-that-be do everything in their power to destroy such technology, seeing it as a threat to their power?
Or, try to keep it for themselves, exclusively?
I think if they tried option 2, it would eventually leak and get out
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think people would jailbreak them and then immediately use them to make weapons to kill and torture each other. And then there would just be an orgy of killing.
prostratedragon
Day 8: Google Maps
Melancholy Jaques
@Nancy:
Interesting perspectives? Moi?
I am a spotty participant in the discourse here, so maybe easy to miss.
Kristine
@SpaceUnit: I found gifs of seals in space— with helmets and rockets and everything—but I couldn’t find a way to link.
Chris
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I haven’t watched most of The Orville, but I did see one episode where the argument was that, no, replicators wouldn’t do that. Because society is set up in such a way that it would’ve found a way to restrict, monopolize, monetize, and otherwise limit the new technology’s use to “only the rich and powerful can really play with the new toys.”
There’s also been pushback against that episode, on the grounds that there’d be no way to restrict the technology from spreading (copyright laws have questionable effectiveness, as we see from the way every country’s industrialization came with a heavy helping of ripping off more advanced countries’ patents).
Regardless of who’s right (which is probably impossible to answer without knowing the exact nature of the technology – how complex, how resource-consuming, etc), I think we can take it for granted that the rich and powerful would, at the very least, try very hard to ensure that the technology and its benefits remain limited and the world of Star Trek isn’t permitted, or even attempted.
(We easily have the resources now to feed, clothe, and medicate everyone in the United States, for example: we choose not to because the powers-that-be don’t want that. And even when it does happen to a limited extent, the oligarchs still take their cut. The ACA passed, but it could only exist by keeping the insurance companies rich and fat and at the center of the system. Any plan that rendered them irrelevant would’ve been unthinkable, even though it would almost certainly have been better for the budget and for the patients).
Marc
The combined forces of the billionaire tech bros and the US government were 100% certain they could dominate the AI space for commercial and military applications, whoops…
Rusty
@RevRick: Even during the height of the Afghan and Iraqi conflicts, when troops were being forced into their 5th combat rotation, did the Republicans even consider the draft. There is absolutely no way the wealthy of this country are going to let their children be drafted. They own enough of the Republican party they can block that from happening. The recruiting shortfalls are only going to get worse as we kick out trans members and stop all efforts of out reach to minority communities. The current shortfall would be worse without the success of recruiting women, but now that will be killed off under anti-DEI efforts (and the negative message sent by firing last week the first woman to lead an armed service). We will just start filling the military with even less fit troops.
SpaceUnit
@Kristine:
The space seals control the internet.
A lot of people don’t know that.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@prostratedragon:
Google justifies it by citing examples in other parts of the world where names of bodies of water are disputed, such as in the Middle East, and they display the two names side by side for the rest of the world and each disputed name for each country.
I think it’s a load of bullshit, given the circumstances.
The AP also put out this cowardly shit.
I don’t care if Trump has the authority to change geographical names within the US, that doesn’t mean you have to follow his lead! What the hell are you so afraid of!? I think what pisses me off the most is the sanewashing nature of this and in the Google example, the attempt to fit this into some kind established protocol that also kinda maybe fits with other cited examples, but not really.
I also find it incredibly disturbing that these corporations and others are so willing to bend the knee to this piece of shit. He barely won! He didn’t win by some ridiculous 80% or something. He’s unpopular! What he proposes is unpopular! They should be afraid of blowback from us, not that old decrepit piece of shit! We have to hurt them for this shit in their pocketbooks
Viva BrisVegas
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
FTL is time travel. Both violate causality and without causality there is no separation of past and future. Which would be a bad thing from our point of view.
Aussie Sheila
@Rusty:
If the US has to reinstate the draft in order to maintain ‘stability’ across its spheres of influence, it’s over. It was the ‘draft’ or in my country ‘conscription’ that killed middle class support for the war against Vietnamese liberation. Not the war itself.
I’m waiting to see whether Russia’s so far inexhaustible ability to throw men young and old, at the Ukrainians will flag. Once it does they are finished.
Conscription for ‘wars of choice’ rarely goes well for the government that institutes it.Across the world.
And dragooning troops from some other far off country won’t cut it.
They are merely mercenaries. Despised by the ‘home troops’, and not a patch on people fighting for their home.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
Well, geez, that’s really dark…
@Chris:
I think this is the correct take. They’d definitely try very hard to limit it
Quinerly
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
We are in a world gone mad. The Santa Fe Foodies Group (over 50,000 members) is now actively promoting RAW MILK, and the moderators are deleting educational/science links and negative comments by sane people who believe in science. Even deleting comments by people involved in healthcare. Reason given….negative comments “disrupt the thread.” It’s rather minor compared to all the shit going down….but pisses me off. The group was a good place to find restaurant suggestions, receipes, shopping tips. Now it has become a clusterfuck with multiple posts about RAW MILK.
This country is the laughingstock of the world….
prostratedragon
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Yeah, the name was in dispute nowhere before the past week.
Elsewhere,
Redshift
It was mentioned that several news orgs have Project 2025 Watch sections now. Someone needs to set up a Trump Body Count site — between pulling the emergency brake on medical research (if they ever even restart it) and now PEPFAR, it’s not going to be a small number.
Chris
@Quinerly:
A month ago, I was going insane listening to the pre-meeting small talk on the weekly phone call at work, when everyone started talking about The Drone Scare. Except it’s no longer drones, it’s now also plasma balls in the sky, that the drones are apparently chasing. The consensus was that the drones are from the government, and they don’t want us to know what it is they’re chasing up there. What is it they’re chasing? Aliens probably.
Refreshingly, the possibility that the supposed drones are from a hostile nation like Iran was discounted. Less refreshingly, the reason it was discounted is “they don’t have the technology.” Leaving aside the fact that Iran has been the primary supplier of drones to Russia’s war in Ukraine for three years, exactly how hard do these people think it is to slip an Iranian agent into the United States with a few thousand dollars and tell him to buy a bunch of things you can get at any Target, Walmart, or Home Depot?
Yes, I did point out that our glorious ex-governor tried to raise a stink about what turned out to be the constellation of Orion, therefore you might wanna take this with a pinch of salt. No, it doesn’t help. After all, there are so many other videos of drones online showing so many different things! And Reddit threads! And YouTube comments! And…
You can literally feel the American population getting dumber every day, and it isn’t even limited to red states and Republican-leaning workforces. My office is neither.
Redshift
@eclare:
I read about it some months ago. The evangelicals have been trying to shut it down for a long while because they got it into their heads that PEPFAR is enabling abortion because it pays for maternal care, and what else could that be about?
As John said, pure evil.
Aussie Sheila
@Chris:
They will smarten up once their lives get worse as a result of government policies. It’s the burden of an opposition to keep track of what their opponents are doing and to build and stoke the rage against the results.
Organising the disbelief and rage is politics.
Quinerly
@Chris:
And there is no escape from it. It’s 24/7.
Quinerly
@Chris:
And there is no escape from it. It’s 24/7.
Quinerly
@Chris:
And there is no escape from it. It’s 24/7.
Quinerly
@Chris:
And there is no escape from it. It’s 24/7.
Quinerly
@Chris:
And there is no escape from it. It’s 24/7.
Quinerly
I have no idea why comment repeated so many times.
Chris
@Quinerly:
@Quinerly:
@Quinerly:
@Quinerly:
@Quinerly:
Wait, are you trying to say that there’s no escape from it? And it’s 24/7?
(Sorry, I had to).
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Viva BrisVegas:
I swear I saw a documentary program some years ago that speculated on some theoretical technology that would allow you to time travel, but only so long as it was kept “on” or powered. You could only time travel back to the moment the machine was activated and no further, so you couldn’t go back and witness the building of the pyramids, for example. Ro empahsize their point, they gave an example of an long-lived alien civilization having such a machine that had been turned on tens of thousands of years ago that would allow you to visit Earth and witness much of recorded human history. Maybe, I’m misremembering? I’m sure it’s impossible as you say.
On the topic of fiction and time travel, I recall Stephen Kings short story/novella The Langoliers being very good and interesting take on time travel.
The past and future don’t really exist as places you can visit, at least not in any meaningful sense in how we would think of it. You couldn’t meet Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre and warn him about John Wilkes Booth, for example. It seems all living things, aside from plant life seemingly, exist solely in the present. Time, like in real life, only moves forward towards the future. The present, therefore, is always moving forward. All forms of energy, such as electricity, only exist in the present. In the past, everything is “used up” and worn out. Matches won’t light, fuel won’t burn, etc. The food left behind has no taste and drinks are completely flat. Sounds made by characters’ feet on the ground and the echos of their voices are weak. The trademarked Stephen King Crazy Man even tries to shoot somebody point blank with a gun and the bullet bounces off, because the gunpowder had so little explosive force. The day-night cycle seems to go faster and faster as the present moves further and further away into the future.
One the characters in the story compares it to like a mechanical watch winding down.
The TV movie adaption, despite some wonky acting and bad CGI, is really good at building tension, plus very faithful to the original. The langoliers only show up at the very end. Despite what some people have said, I thought Dean Stockwell did a great job. I enjoyed his scene where he explains to everyone what exactly is going on.
I think it’s a very creepy concept that just out of synch with us, there’s this army of things devouring the universe right behind us
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I just had to do a vicious curation of my Bluesky feed. One week of Trumpists back in power and my brain is saying “no more”. I know that breaking down in the face of this evil is what the Nazis want, but it feels like I’m broken. Just holding myself together is taking everything I’ve got.
And I can’t think of an appropriate proportional response to Trumpists that doesn’t involve bloodshed.
Gretchen
@Redshift: Evangelicals also probably think that HIV drugs allow for unauthorized sex- same objection they have to preventing cancer with HSV vaccines.
prostratedragon
@Quinerly: I think that’s an instance of the 2AM blogtime curse. Some scheduled background housekeeping at that time can cause it.
Aussie Sheila
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
There is no ‘proportional’ response to trumpists on line.
The only proper response is to beat them politically up hill and down dale.
This is a political emergency, not a communication snafu.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@prostratedragon:
Yeah, I’m sure foreign countries will just jump at the chance for that
@Chris:
@Quinerly:
There was a guy, probably in his 60s, who came up to the customer service center where I work; he had bought a bunch of gallon Deer Park water jugs and they rang up the wrong price. No probem, I “returned” them and then price overrode them to give him the difference.
Somehow, he gets on the subject of fucking water fluoridation and how he recently finally found a filter that gets rid of it in his drinking water. I look at him and just say that fluoride is good for your teeth. He disagrees and says it’s bad for you or some shit. I tell him, politely, there’s no evidence for that. Doesn’t matter one whit to him, he knows what he knows. Then he mentioned fluoride (chloride?) treatments dentists do is bad for you.
He then makes some weird “joke” about how my father must be a dentist or something. I tell him, no he’s not, and then complete the transaction, and he’s on his merry way
What the hell did he mean by that? What was he trying to imply? That I couldn’t have possibly come to my opinions on my own? If the guy apparently thinks dentists are scumbags, then what the hell was he trying to say about me and my father? I took it as an insult
sentient ai from the future
@Matt McIrvin: i’ve lived that scenario, while also stealing thousands of dollars (over time) out of his wallet while he was passed out drunk.
the analogy is not lost on me.
prostratedragon
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Bet he believes in phlogiston, too. Before water was generally flouridated, dentists could give a flouride treatment by dabbing a solution onto the kid’s teeth. I doubt it was a very lucrative treatment.
Aussie Sheila
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Why do you care? The idiot doesn’t believe in the science of fluoridation? Let it be. And let his teeth rot.
The issue is to ensure that those idiots don’t get to have the political power to enforce their ignorance. The world is full of idiots.
You don’t have to respond to them on their timeline.
Debbie(Aussie)
@Gretchen: Cancer???
sentient ai from the future
@Redshift: “we care about babies so much we will force them to contract AIDS from their HIV+ mothers who have no other choice but to breastfeed them, so that both die in pain and agony”
Debbie(Aussie)
I’ve always thought that if the evangelicals hate science so much, they should give up their; phones, cars, power tools etc, etc. As they appear so enamoured with the period before the civil war, cut off 1850. Should Only apply to them, but they can’t bear suffer alone. Fucking bastards the christianists!
JoyceH
@prostratedragon: My immediate reaction was that this mythical foreign country that would incarcerate our criminals for a small fee is that “farm upstate” that parents would tell their kids Fluffy had gone to, to run and play all day. Either that or slave labor camps. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Aussie Sheila
@Debbie(Aussie):
They only have the power others give them. No more, nor less.
They are pernicious of course, but once significant political groups refuse to keep kowtowing to their garbage politics they have little to no political power. It’s not them so much as the forces that grant them any political legitimacy.
Ksmiami
@Debbie(Aussie): I’d round them up, take away all their modern niceties and build a wall. They really have no appreciation for civilization and science.
Shalimar
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): We know what Elon Musk would do. He wants to colonize Mars because he thinks this planet will become uninhabitable. That tells you everything about his opinion of 99.9999% of society. We’re beneath his contempt and not worth even a little bit of effort to save. There is no way he would allow us to have replicators. He would take them to Mars with him and let us die.
Gretchen
@Debbie(Aussie): Sorry, I meant HPV vaccine, which, given to preteens or young teenagers, prevents nearly all cases of cervical cancer. Evangelicals are against vaccinating girls, arguing that it will give them a free pass to be sexually active, and they deserve the punishment of cancer if they’re sluts. They obviously have never met a teenager, if they think that a teen tempted to have sex will back off with the thought that they might get cancer in their 40s if they go ahead.
They don’t think ahead to what if their daughter is assaulted, or stays a virgin until marriage and marries someone who gives her HPV after the wedding.
prostratedragon
@JoyceH: I’m certainly trying to keep a weather eye out for that. Also though, there’s at least one place with conspicuous manpower problems of late …
Geminid
I was checking out Ankara-based news aggregator Clash Report and found this Syria news:
The report didn’t say where the Roll On, Roll Off ships were taking the equipment but Libya is a likely destination. Russis has an alliance there with General Hifter, the warlord who ended up in control of eastern Libya after Qaddaffi was overthrown. The Russians run their extensive Africa operations out of there.
TS
@Melancholy Jaques:
I would suggest much of the world knows and is disgusted.
@Matt McIrvin:
Not by anyone I know down under – mostly the opposite
Geminid
@Geminid: Also from Clash Report.
“Walk softly…”
“…and carry a big stick.”
Central Planning
@VeniceRiley: I don’t think it’s even that. Power is to be taken, not earned.
Ramalama
@Debbie(Aussie): yeah, I mean cancer treatments falls squarely in the modern day era. Sorry, losers, go get some radiation or leeches.
Central Planning
@Quinerly: Isn’t 2am the FYWP witching hour?
Barney
Spoiler:
It looks like the baby seal was OK:
“This is a nature documentary skewed towards a slightly younger audience, I suspect. It is glossy, clean and heartwarming. If animals are ever in danger of coming to harm, then it is only for a moment. The seal pup and the teenage elephant may appear to be in peril, but it never lasts long. The brutality of the animal world, with its predators and prey, is somewhere in the distance.”
The Secret Lives of Animals review – is this Hugh Bonneville’s audition to be the next David Attenborough? | Nature documentaries | The Guardian
But now you know – it’s the BBC Natural History Unit you need to firebomb if needed.
Geminid
@Geminid: More Syria news, from Levant 24:
The EU is concerned about the future of Syrian human rights under its interim government, hence the one-year suspension of sanctions instead of a permanent lifting. They also recognize that Syria has a lot of urgent problems to solve and they don’t want to get in the way.
One of the problems is mines. From Deir Ezzor 24:
Deir Ezzor is situated on the banks of the Euphrates River and is the largest city in eastern Syria, with a population of ~271,000. Residents like to venture into the surrounding desert this time of year to hunt for truffles. Mines are a big hazard there as they are in many other parts of Syria.
Levant 24 is a news aggregator like Clash Report except its focus is Syria. Deir Ezzor 24 concentrates on Deir Ezzor and the larger Deir Ezzor Governate, and has a lot of granular reporting on local events and issues. Both sites publish their articles in Arabic and English.
Central Planning
@Gretchen:
That’s why all our kids, both boys and girls, got the HPV vaccine.
MagdaInBlack
Reddit is showing me that trump has posted some nonsense on his “truth” site about the military has gone into California and turned on the water and its flowing down now. All is well.
I guess because it rained. I do not know
(nope, not posting it)
brantl
@Rusty: Republicans (and most rich people) didn’t have to serve, remember Shrub going into the Texas Air National Guard, and then he didn’t even have to serve?
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: hahaha he is so thirsty! Us Phillyians are
Vladglad he is keeping his Everything I Touch Dies filthy mitts off! (for now)…Princess
@Redshift: I imagine the evangelicals also want people with HIV to die because they had sex and thus deserve death.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Ah, the Mean Girls Club method.
sab
@Central Planning: I had a co-worker whose mom, married at 18, died of cervical cancer she caught from her scumbag husband who had a bar and banged the waitresses. Mom was in her 50s.
evodevo
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
LOL – what kinda shape were his teeth in? They’ll be falling out soon, so good riddance.
Ramalama
@Princess: in the time of AIDS in America, absolutely yes the Evangelicals, and many others, wanted people (the gays) to die. Funeral homes wouldn’t take the bodies. Estranged bloodlines swooped down and stole possessions from the survivors. Hospitals prevented non-family members from visiting and comforting the dying.
sorry. My rage dial is set rather high this morning.
evodevo
@brantl: Fortunate Son
tokyokie
@RevRick: Beauty and the Beast (La belle et la bête) is of French origin. But Snow White, like Cinderella, is from the Brothers Grimm.
Mick McDick
Killer whales need to eat too, Mr. Cole. Just sayin.
pluky
@Kristine: Black holes gobble stars!
BellyCat
This is why we have for-profit jails!
Miss Bianca
@Rusty: The wealthy have *never* had to have their kids drafted. Remember during the Civil War, rich people were basically buying poor people – a lot of Irish immigrants, for example – to take their sons’ place in the Union Army? There were riots about this in New York, if I recall my history correctly.
“Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” has been with us for a long, long time.
Frank Wilhoit
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom (yes, I date myself) once did a behind-the-curtain segment in which they blew the whistle on some of their own production techniques. They showed a ten-second clip of fox kits playing, accompanied by bright, bouncy music, and it pegged the cuteness meter. Then they showed the exact same footage, underpinned by tense, dramatic music, which made it equally clear that the cubs were fighting, and fighting seriously. Context is everything….
leeleeFL
@RevRick: AND no trans-gender service members, and probably back to no LGBTQ+ at all. I really am still stunned that tRump was elected, with all the damage he will do! This country probably needs to suffer for the things at least half the country demands. I just hope enough of us survive and can re-build after the demolition squad is finally kicked to the curb! Scariest time I have ever lived in. Glad I am older, basically healthy, and a non-smoking, non-drinking vegetarian! I may just make it with my big mouth and my memory of how things are done by sane people intact! Fingers crossed!
leeleeFL
way2blue
Double yum!
Manyakitty
@Jacqueline Squid Onassis: long dead thread, but (screaming) oh my god! That’s terrible. Glad I never got around to watching it and thank you for the warning.