Let’s start with some well deserved schadenfreude:
The FBI said on Wednesday it cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish group that tracks antisemitism, after conservatives criticized the group for including slain activist Charlie Kirk’s organization in a glossary on extremism.
In a social media post, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau “won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”
The ADL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Patel’s announcement followed criticism of the ADL by right-wing activists and leaders, including billionaire Elon Musk, over its inclusion of Kirk’s Turning Point USA in a “Glossary of Extremism and Hate” on its website. Kirk was assassinated on a college campus in September.
After that criticism, the ADL removed the entire glossary from its website. The glossary had said that Turning Point USA had a history of “bigoted statements,” a charge the group rejects.
The ADL website says it “works closely with federal, state and local law enforcement” in fighting extremism and hate. It also notes
, opens new tab the FBI had turned to it for data and research since the 1940s.
The ADL has done nothing but polish MAGA knob for the last decade, and it just cracks me up how there is not one single instance of any person or group capitulating in advance to Trump and not getting fucked over worse than if they had just shut the fuck up and done what they were supposed to do. Instead, the ADL joined with the “free speech” MAGA clowns to attack anyone who spoke on behalf of Palestine, and have not, in my book, been a reliable judge of anti-Semitism for a long time. As far as I am concerned, the current ADL is to fighting anti-Semitism what the Bill Donohue Catholic League is to Catholicism. So enjoy the fruits of your labor, Mr. Greenblatt.
So the government shutdown is underway, and maybe it is just me, but the Republicans seem to be a little panicked about this one:
JD Vance, the US vice-president, used false claims to blame Democrats for the government shutdown as the White House warned that worker layoffs were imminent.
Federal departments have been closing since midnight after a deadlocked Congress failed to pass a funding measure. The crisis has higher stakes than previous shutdowns, with Trump racing to slash government departments and threatening to turn furloughs into mass firings.
Making a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, Vance told reporters: “We are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues. We don’t like that. We don’t necessarily want to do it, but we’re going to do what we have to do to keep the American people’s essential services continuing to run.”
Trump administration suggests layoffs ‘imminent’ as some federal staff told to ‘blame Democrats’ in out of office email notes – live
Read moreVance denied workers would be targeted because of their political allegiance but acknowledged there was still uncertainty over who might be laid off or furloughed. “We haven’t made any final decisions about what we’re going to do with certain workers,” he said. “What we’re saying is that we might have to take extraordinary steps, especially the longer this goes on.”
About 750,000 federal employees are expected to be placed on furlough, an enforced leave, with pay withheld until they return to work. Essential workers such as military and border agents may be forced to work without pay, and some will likely miss pay cheques next week.
There is a reason they sent panicked emails to every single government employee. I think they realize that the American people are fucking dumb as a sack of hammers, and the MAGA 30% will believe anything, but the other 70% of the voting public knows the Republicans run everything. Also, kinda hard to catch 3,000 illegals a week when you aren’t paying ICE.
I keep thinking about this picture:
All those Sergeants Major in one room is just making me sweat. And what is killing me is all the people trying to make political statements about their silence. Their silence is because they are trained and disciplined, unlike the two fucking idiots who spoke to them. Most people have no fucking idea how many masters and Phd’s are in this room, and I am just talking about the enlisted. Every officer in that room had, and I guarantee this, at least one and probably multiple Masters, and there are a ton of Doctorates in that room. These folks really are the best and their brightest, and they understand the civilian and military worlds, and are more political astute than half the dimwits in Congress.
They know bullshit when they see it. It’s what they are trained to do. Seek advantage, expose weaknesses, and charlie mike. Not one general in there would even think about having a washed up mouthy know nothing drunken halfwit like Pete Hegseth as their driver or aide de camp let alone their choice as Sec Def. They’ve seen full of themself shitters their entire lifes, watching them faking it through soldier of the quarter and year boards, promotion boards, AAR’s run by fucked up junior officers, etc.
And as an enlisted man, that picture is straight up nightmare fuel. I took one look at all that brass and I wanted to rush to the motor pool, put on coveralls, get some grease on my hands and clothes and face, and pretend to work on my tank for however long it takes for all those motherfuckers to leave. Or my other favorite, grabbing a garbage bag and a reflective vest and walk around pretending to pick up garbage, which you can get away with for hours as long as you don’t make eye contact with any NCO’s you know.
I had another full day of finding things left by revelers around the house, including an apple cider 16oz bottle with one sip taken out of it and hidden behind a picture, already fermented and just waiting to explode in a month or so. Gotta get all the eight bottles of whatever out of the shower, too. Being a woman is fucking full time- the amount of bullshit they have to own and lug around with them everywhere is no joke.
Oh, and adding someone to your bank accounts and usaa is a total pain in the ass. She wants to change her name, which I think is bonkers, but whatever. Mailed her a bunch of certified copies of wedding certificates so she can get that done. I’d just leave her last name if I was her, but it is up to her.
Oh well, nothing else to add. TTYL.
War for Ukraine Day 1,315: A Brief Wednesday Night Update
Cliosfanboy
Here’s a question for Cole. What was the seating arrangement in that room? By rank? Military branch? Horoscope?
sab
Who wouldn’t change to a four letter last name? My maiden name had seven , my married name eight.
Danielx
For various reasons I couldn’t attend. All the best and many years of happiness to you and Joelle.
waspuppet
My wife wanted to take my last name, and so did my first wife — maybe it’s a generational thing, but I thought it was weird and talked them both out of it. For one thing, they both have very common last names, and if they took mine they’d have to spell it every time they told it to someone over the phone.
satby
You know Joelle’s been using Mrs. Cole for nearly two years on FB. Let her have her fun.
Edit: FTR, I kept my original name. I didn’t have the confidence in my former husband that Joelle has in you.
Old School
I don’t know them personally, but I have on occasion come across the name of a local family named The Hitlers.
I’ve joked that it must truly be love if a woman is taking that last name.
MobiusKlein
When I got married, we debated merging our last names – not with the hyphen, but smashing the phonemes together. But all the options sucked, so we just kept our originals.
Your results may vary, so Mazel Tov
Jackie
Now Joelle will have to update her enhanced DL and passport, if she has one, and THAT’S expensive.
BUT, also a sign of true love!
MattF
Just looking at the attendees in that room with all the stars on their shoulders made my blood pressure spike— they were not pleased to be there. A lot of intensely focused non-attention. Trump deciding he wanted to join the party was the sugar sprinkles on top.
TONYG
@MobiusKlein: My older son and his wife decided to do that when they got married five years ago (during the height of the pandemic). Pretty cool. Some day their daughters will realize that, most likely, nobody else in the world has that last name.
NotMax
The two of you still planning on moving to (IIRC) Michigan?
gratuitous
Anybody notice that the administration’s Face of the Shutdown is Shady Vance? I find that curious. Apparently Elon’s streaking away from the scene of his crimes, and the felon knows how badly the shutdown is polling. You’re up, Johnny boy!
TONYG
I have zero military experience, but that photo reminds me of a time in my I.T. “career”. A new manager had been hired to “lead” the department. He knew nothing and understood nothing, and enjoyed barking orders and making threats to fire people. The rank and file software people looked like that when he’d call one of his meetings. It took about four months for the guy to piss off the wrong people and get fired. The office literally broke out in applause when people heard the news.
TONYG
@gratuitous: Elon has already stolen the personal data for millions of Americans. His work is done; now he’s out of there.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Old School: Yeah, I’ll bet ten bucks it’s not anything near as noble as that.
hitchhiker
I’m confused by the “common knowledge” that the majority of people in the military vote for Republicans, even now. The men in this picture don’t look like idiots, so why on earth would they vote for a fool? Especially a fool who is also a thug?
Is their contempt for Democrats really that intense? Why?
stinger
I look at that photo and out of 50+ faces I can probably identify 2 as women. I know it’s not the entire 800 (The 800 — sounds like a movie title) but still.
Sister Golden Bear
I wonder how Naziferatu’s rant to ICE goons in Memphis will go over with the normies:
MagdaInBlack
I’m seeing news appearing, slowly, on the edges of the media, that Howard Lutnick gave an interview on the NY Post podcast in which he called Epstein “the greatest blackmailer ever.” Lutnick was Epstein’s neighbor.
Howard, I think you may have just given the game away.
NotMax
Class with a capital ASS.
MagdaInBlack
@Sister Golden Bear: Yes, Stephen, you’re a tough guy. We get it. stfu.
FFS
Mike E
@sab: I hear you, my mom went from 5 to 9 when she married and when my parents and sister became naturalized citizens, her name was 5 letters again. When my parents divorced she kept the name since it was not my dads to begin with! I’m pretty grateful for that.
Peale
@Sister Golden Bear: I think it was always going to be in the cards that they were going to try mass roundups in the cities as revenge for BLM. Miller seems like the kind of guy who gets mad when he hears hip hop on the radio. But he knows the word gangbanger. It’s that one word they know. But it’s pathetic when they use it.
eclare
@Sister Golden Bear:
It doesn’t go over well with this Memphian, but I’m not a normie, and I really don’t know anyone who is.
Lapassionara
@Sister Golden Bear: ouch. What an asshole!
Suzanne
@hitchhiker: I don’t know if the officers vote differently than enlisted, but overall, veterans are a strong GOP cohort:
As for the name change thing….l didn’t change my name with ex-Mr. Suzanne, but I did with Real Mr. Suzanne. It felt more real that way. I use both my maiden and married names in almost every context, just as it reads on my Book of Faces page.
Gretchen
@sab: We have a 3 syllable name with non-obvious Italian pronunciation. Daughter took a few years, but went to her 4 syllable Indian husband’s last name. Once nobody can say the name you’ve had all your life, I guess it’s no big deal to go for an even longer one.
Oldest daughter went from unpronounceable Italian to 5-letter English, back to Italian after divorce, then changed to another easy 5-letter name after 2nd marriage. All that changing seems a lot of trouble to me, but keeping my own name didn’t seem an option when I married 48 years ago.
Jeffro
One of my high school classmates is in that very pic, and many of us in the alumni group are cheering for him (and we’ll eventually get word to him)
fuck trump, Vance, Hegseth, and every one of these extremely low-quality (as Kay used to say) hires that would abuse these folks’ time (at best) and put our nation’s security at such risk unnecessarily (at worst)
dc
@NotMax:
I know it doesn’t matter to these Assholes, but isn’t that illegal?
Jeffro
@gratuitous: Vance is lying furiously about it all, but then again, that’s just kind of what he does all day every day
Minus trump’s decades of fame, public misperception of him as a strong leader, etc…I don’t think ol’ JD’s going to be able to pull off the fourth or fifth Reich or whatever it is those kkklowns are up to now
Gretchen
@gratuitous: I didn’t until you pointed it out, but it seems promising that the train wreck that is the shutdown will have Vance’s face all over it. Good catch!
Jeffro
@NotMax: what’s amazing is, we used to have an Office of Special Counsel that would have been all over shit like that.
Maybe we can do it all retroactively, once trump is forced from office*?
*this applies to the 2028 election as well as impeachment/removal as well as his imminent coronary, so I’m just covering the bases here
hitchhiker
@Suzanne:
Right.
What I want to know is why. I’m old, so I know there was a time when Democrats were seen as anti-military, dirty hippies, wimps, draft-dodgers, whatever.
Is that still the problem? My daughter married a guy who went to Iraq twice after joining the service for the college benefits. He’s as blue as they come, as are his friends from that time in his life.
Maybe it’s just that the service people he knows well are all from the PNW, whereas the majority is from southern states, where it’s rare for anybody to be a Democrat.
Tim C
John. She loves you. This is hard for many men like us who know all our failings and problems. She loves you. Just accept it. Let her have your name, let her have her 50-something life that she didn’t think she would get. You are a good dude.
Let the fear go and accept it.
Jeffro
@Suzanne: 60-40 is not great but a) it’s consistent across decades and b) it’s not as bad as many other splits in our country’s various demographic categories
Hey, flip just 5% from R to D and we’re probably talking near landslide for the D, all things considered.
Socolofi
I’m very curious on what I’ll call “normie signal.” Meaning, do normies care about the gov’t being shut down, and if so who do they really blame.
My bias, which I admit, is they’ll blame the GOP. Again. I also doubt that normies will believe the “Democrats want to close the gov’t unless we fund illegals getting benefits” line – because that just sounds bullshitty. But would love to see any signal here, or a place to see it.
Gretchen
@Suzanne: I love the designation of Real Mr. Suzanne.
Glidwrith
@sab: Uh, seventeen letters here….
MagdaInBlack
@Socolofi: The “normies” I work with are oblivious. I am their news source. When they do ask, they get the truth, as far as I know it to be.
My maga body tech and I have a truce. We do NOT discuss anything political. But I know he watches nothing but FOX, so I know what he believes.
frosty
My sister changed her name twice. And after the second divorce she went back to the name she was born with. Ms F took my name. My twin brother’s wife kept hers. Both of our wives were named Jones. Go figure.
If I was a girl getting married, I would keep my maiden name.
Suzanne
@hitchhiker: I mean….. most of the military is still dudes. And much of the enlisted cohort doesn’t have a degree, yeah? Those two groups strongly go for FFOTUS, so I assume military voters would vote similarly to the rest of their demographic.
If you are asking a more spiritual “WHY THE FUCK WOULD ANYONE VOTE FOR THIS CLOWN” kind of question….. come sit by me and we can lament together.
ETA: I dated a dude in the Air Force for a while, went to a couple of events with him and his colleagues. Was grossed out by the retrograde and toxic attitudes toward women, especially those they referred to as “dependents”. Don’t know if this is still the case, but many of my classmates enlisted and some of them turned into MAGA assholes.
MagdaInBlack
@frosty: I would too, now. But it was 1977, a small town, and my MIL would have lost her freakin’ mind.
That last bit now makes me wish I had kept my maiden name.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Suzanne: my personal experience on this topic is limited to Bemused Senior’s father who was an Air Force officer (WWII fighter pilot!) and confirmed Democrat. He was a rare counter-example. Remember Tailhook?
Redshift
@Sister Golden Bear:
I think we all knew Miller’s instructions to ICE goons from the beginning have been “let your violent racist freak flag fly, as long as you make quota no one will be disciplined for anything.”
I sure hope it sinks in for the normies. All the normies I know, including my parents, have been freaked out for months, for what it’s worth.
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack: Me thinks Lutnick is on the list.
mrmoshpotato
@Peale:
You’re probably right.
MagdaInBlack
@mrmoshpotato: I’m not so sure. He was pretty squidged out by Epstein, per the interview.
Betty
@gratuitous: I like Kimmel’s nickname for him: J-dog.
Scout211
We’ve had this discussion on name changes after marriage several times before here in the comments and I find it really interesting to read everyone’s story.
We’ve been married 47 years but I’ve had my husband’s surname for 44 years. I kept my family name when we married for several reasons, including the fact that his first wife kept his surname. It was great until our daughter was born and suddenly my husband, daughter and 2 stepkids all had the same last name and I had a different one. They all wanted me to have the same last name as they did so I changed it. It felt right for me and my family.
Plus, my family surname has a weird combination of letters that should be pronounced a certain way in German but my father’s ancestors changed the pronunciation over the years of being here in the US so no one got the pronunciation right unless I corrected them. I was ready to leave that surname behind.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@MagdaInBlack:
Well, be fair. Is anything Howard Lutnick says credible? /S
eclare
@Suzanne:
When I was in my 20’s I dated a Ranger from Georgia. He was very much a Democrat, and his theory was that Republicans kept going after Clinton because they were jealous.
Leto
@Cliosfanboy: Easy: Joint Chiefs, Chiefs of Staff of each branch followed by their senior enlisted advisors/SEA (Chief Master Sgt of the AF; Command Master Sgt of the Army; Chief Master Petty Officer of the Navy; Chief Crayon Muncher of the Marines), then theater level commanders (USAFE/AFRICON/CENTCOM/etc) and their SEA, and you just go from there. Start at 4 stars and work your way to 1. And if we need more tie breakers can always fall back on Time in Service, Time in Grade, Promotion Date, date of swearing in, then we can break it down further if needed: age, birth date, etc. But overall not hard.
MagdaInBlack
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Yeah, I’m waiting for more information, but I’m not above watching the Epstein pot be stirred up some more.
Eyeroller
@satby: I never considered changing my name and my late husband never had a problem with that. It didn’t matter to us and I had a (modest) publication record in my name. And I like my name (though didn’t dislike his). But if other women want to change their names, I don’t care and it’s not my business. I just wish it weren’t so asymmetric.
Decades ago I had a coworker who melded his name with his wife’s, because he was German and Germany required married couples to have the same last name. That she was American wasn’t a factor; they wanted it to satisfy the rules in both countries. It worked out for them.
coin operated
Cole,
I served as a medic in 3/6th BAT, 5th ID during Panama. Went on to become an Army nurse…where crossing the black, female E7s training you would be the end of your service. Everything you express in the 3 paragraphs following the pic of all those CSMs and Flags completely cover my experience in my 8 year Army career. You don’t fuck with senior NCOs or Field Officers (Army equivalent of Flag) and expect your career to go any further. Trump and Hegseth (who should know better) will eventually pay for it somehow.
Mr. Bemused Senior
I’m with you. The more the better.
Sister Golden Bear
@MagdaInBlack:
Gotta wonder just how many times he was swirlied in high school.
bbleh
@Socolofi: I think it’s too early to depend on any signals. There was one obvious push-poll by the Vichy Times blaming Dems pretty strongly, and there have been multiple others from various sources blaming Republicans very narrowly, but it’s only been a DAY. Even the primary effects — offices closing, phone lines going unanswered, etc. — are only just beginning, and the secondary effects of those — especially general awareness on the part of the public — haven’t even begun. I’d say we won’t know about “public reaction” with any reliability for at least a couple weeks.
What I’d like to see more signals on is how the DC pols are reacting — how the Dems’ nerve is holding, and how panicky the administration is getting. So far, I’m hopeful: Dems’ nerve DOES seem to be holding, Senators are leaving town, and they’re all making rah-rah noises, and meanwhile Republicans are making very nervous noises indeed.
Sigh. Remember the boring Biden administration? Everything was working smoothly, the economy was absolutely humming, and people claimed to be worried about … uh … egg prices? Or something? Boy, these times certainly are more interesting!
RevRick
@MattF: That gathering of brass did not go the way Hegseth and Trump hoped it would. They expected fawning admiration and got stony silence. It was certainly reflected in Trump’s low-energy delivery. But if nothing else, the brass got to see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears what utter buffoons the civilian command is.
As for sending the military into our cities, I’m willing to bet all my assets that two words crossed the minds of all those brass: war crimes. They know the sacrifices and valor of hundreds of thousands of Americans who died defending this nation and are certainly not going to piss that away to satisfy the anti American desires of Hegseth and Trump.
Suzanne
@Gretchen: LOL. I think he does, too. Our kids have my maiden name as a second middle name, too, Lots of name fun.
bbleh
@Sister Golden Bear: Isn’t he the one whose wife is having an affair with Elmo? Or do I have them all mixed up? (And they say Hitler’s inner circle were a bunch of incestuous weirdos…)
MagdaInBlack
@Sister Golden Bear: …stuffed in a gym locker…oh so many things like that. And here we are, he gets to get even.
Leto
@Suzanne:
No, depends on the service. Air Force has more overall because we’re a technical service. Also if you want promoted past E5 you need to have education. Most of our senior NCOs have degrees because we want to be promoted and our education path has changed to match our officers. While there’s some benefit to that, there’s also drawbacks but that’s a longer discussion that’s outside the remit of you guys.
Craig
@Peale: these are people that have been watching Law and Order, CSI, and Criminal Minds marathons for decades. Otherwise they’re watching Fox News. Reality is something they don’t understand.
Suzanne
@eclare: The airman that I dated was a Democrat and still had old-fashioned patriarchal ideas of life. Many such cases, I suspect.
Betty
@bbleh: He was, but apparently the affair is over and she’s back with Stephen. She’s as nasty as he is.
Craig
@hitchhiker: Republicans cosplay being friends of the troops, while fucking over The VA.
Suzanne
@Leto: That’s interesting. My cousin was an Air Force officer, and he had a BS degree when he entered, and he got a master’s after getting out. The airman I dated did not have a degree. But those are the only two Air Force guys I know. I have oodles of HS classmates who enlisted straight out of high school, but they all went into the Army.
Matt
They love the taste of Palestinian blood so much that they’ll kiss the assholes of Nazis to make sure it keeps flowing.
Sister Golden Bear
@MagdaInBlack: Fundamentally Miller is still pissed at the world that his father went bankrupt and that meant he had to switch to a <gasp> public high school.
Sally
@Suzanne: Oh I did that too. All our kids have my family name as their middle name. Which happens to be Cole! I took husband’s name because kids and travel, and olden days. Apparently genealogists love it when people do that.
mrmoshpotato
Generals gathered in their masses…
mrmoshpotato
@Sister Golden Bear:
What’s the story there?
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne:
Veterans covers a far larger generational area than active duty.
Leto
@Suzanne: you said you dated a pilot a while back, so he had to have a degree. If you also dated an enlisted airman, yeah. It also breaks down by job occupation. Oh, also forgot that we now have Warrant Officers in the AF again, so more degreed people.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. I haven’t found any data about active duty specifically, though. I am curious if it differs significantly.
ETA: Here’s what Google AI barfs up:
Suzanne
@Leto: Dude I dated wasn’t a pilot, he was an airman.
Eyeroller
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know whether this is accurate or I have just imagined it, but I thought I’ve read that, though the military still leans Republican, they tend to break along lines of education much like the general public, so the brass, who are generally college educated (and officers at this level often have advanced degrees) are less Republican than the enlisted. Maybe more Independent than Democratic, but not so much MAGA.
Redshift
@Scout211: Ms. Redshift and I discussed the various options before deciding on hyphenating. It was fairly unusual at the time we did it unless you were English and upper class. Some people were pretty surprised that I also changed my name, less as the years went by. But having the same name was important to us.
eclare
Now that I think about it, my cousin was in the Air Force. He enlisted with some college, but not a degree. When he left he had a security clearance and a master’s degree.
He is definitely not MAGA, the last time I saw him he went out of his way to let me know. He has a trans stepson, and his wife is in no way a tradwife.
dnfree
@sab: Yes, I made my marital name decision based simply on number of letters. Eight in my last name, four in my husband’s last name, both had to be spelled every time. One syllable, four letters, vs two syllables, eight letters. It just made sense.
One of our daughters went from one syllable, four letters to five syllables, ten letters, and for sure has to be spelled. But to each their own!
twbrandt
My 77-year-old brother-in-law is an Army vet and retired cop. A genuinely compassionate man, he hates Trump even more than I do, which I didn’t think was possible. So there are good people even where you don’t expect them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Eyeroller: Actually conservative, but not MAGA is probably a good description of the median military officer. But I think a lot of people would be surprised at the number of Democrats, if not liberals.
Parfigliano
@MagdaInBlack: Fire the Fox watcher. Employ a human.
Eyeroller
@Suzanne: Maybe due to historical beliefs in the officer corps that Republicans were “better for defense” and also the obvious support for defense contractors who could be employers for post-retirement officers. But I still think it may be a soft support based on personal interest and general cultural background.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: Hegseth and Trump assume they’re all a bunch of William Calleys itching to commit war crimes and are pissed off that some DEI hire is keeping them from doing it.
Eyeroller
@Omnes Omnibus:True “conservatives” seem to be endangered recently, since MAGA is a reactionary revolutionary force.
Redshift
@Peale:
Miller wrote a racist screed in high school complaining about people speaking Spanish in the halls. There was a person who was there at the same time talking about it (now), pointing out that there had been Spanish-speaking students there at least since her *mother* had gone there, so it wasn’t even a conservative “I hate change” bit, it was just open “I’m a racist asshole.”
Suzanne
@Eyeroller: That seems likely. Also… the military is over 80% men. Men are significantly more GOP than women, and there is a gender gap within every racial group. So it is unsurprising to me that the military is more Republican than Democrat.
Redshift
@Matt McIrvin:
And believe if they were, it would make them real men and fearsome warriors, instead of the reality that an army of psychos would have no discipline and would frag each other without hesitation if they thought it was to their advantage.
dc
How often do men change their name to their wife’s because theirs is too long, hard to spell, hard to pronounce, has bad memories related to it, etc.? It seems like only women have these issues with their last names. And kids, why do kids automatically get the dad’s last name?
dc
@Redshift:
Is he not from southern California? People have been speaking Spanish there longer than English.
Tim C
I have never….in my life… been so proud to live in Portland Oregon. When Trump sends in the troops… how does the city of roses respond?
oregonlive.com/portland/2025/10/emergency-world-naked-bike-ride-planned-in-portland.html
THE BEACON IS LIT! PORTLAND CALLS FOR AID!
Indycat32
@Redshift: The cute Hispanic girl wouldn’t go to the prom with him.
eclare
@Redshift:
Didn’t he also have the opinion that the kids should not have to put litter in trash cans because cleaning up was the janitors’ job?
Matt McIrvin
@dc: Good questions.
My wife let it be known early on that when we married she was not changing her name, and so it was. We did bow to convention and give our daughter my last name, but her middle name is my wife’s last name, so they’re both in there.
I answer to “Mr. [wife’s name]” when addressed–happens a lot with restaurant reservations and such. I took some photos for her band’s website and I think they credited me with her last name in the caption.
I know someone who got divorced and someone told him that his first wife not changing her last name “should have been his first warning”. I thought that was pretty obnoxious.
Trivia Man
@waspuppet: I had always planned to take my wife’s name, long before i knew what it would be. Mine is a fairly recent Ellis Islandish creation so no huge loss. A small statement against the patriarchy and a sign of support for women. But when i actually met her, she had a recent death in the family of a family member with my name so i never mentioned the idea.
DAstronomer
I mean, you’re not wrong, but now I have that image stuck in my head. Thanks buddy.
satby
Well, in my case I kept my name because I was a feminist. Also because I would have been the 3rd Mrs. Sweet. Nope.
Funny story, I was admitted in my 8 th month of pregnancy with severe asthma complications. The lady registering me said something like “well what name will your baby call you, Mrs. —- or Mrs. Sweet?” I said “I assumed the baby would call me mommy”.
frosty
@Scout211: I had a friend on her second marriage who kept her maiden name. She, her husband, and her son all had different last names!
NotMax
@Glidwrith
At a nearby bank branch the manager has a nameplate on her desk, which is behind where the tellers are, with her first and last (unhyphenated) name on it. One day while waiting for the teller to process my business there I took the time to count the letters on it. 32 in all.
Trivia Man
@MobiusKlein: Reminds me if a great Simpsons throw away gag. Krusty and Bette Midler own a racehorse together. Its called KRUDLER! If only they had thought to switch the order and get MI (dler)(kru) STY instead.
Martin
@dc: Can we count gay couples? Friends of mine discussed that and they went with the last name that required the least explanation/correction of spelling, and rejected my mashup name that sounded like a the name of a kaiju.
In academia changing name is quite a bit less common if both partners have academic careers and publications based on their unmarried name, and it’s not unusual for kids to get a hyphenated last name.
Dakota expat
Okay Cole, you got it! I did not serve, as you and so many others did, but I was an Army Brat for 15 years and there’s a kind of service there. Living on army bases the whole time except for the years my Dad was overseas in Korea & Vietnam. But the thing is, he retired after 22 yrs and he was one of those Sergeant Majors that gave you the sweats, a CSM to be precise. And seeing that picture of the assembled at Hegseth’s little hootenany, I saw enough of those oak clusters around that star to get me thinking: these are the guys I grew up admiring; these are the guys who brought themselves and their families over to our army base residence to play pinochle and drink beer and eat barbecue on Fridays and Saturdays; also the people whose houses we went to. I remember them well, as I remember my Dad. There’s no way I can imagine that any of them didn’t see through the bullshit, didn’t see through the sweaty insecurity and wannabe-ism of that Hegseth dude. I would not ever want to be judged by them as I’m sure Hegseth was.
prostratedragon
@Sister Golden Bear: There must have been a couple of kids who had it on their daily to-do list. That guy’s a temptation for people who normally would never do such things.
frosty
@Matt McIrvin: Hegseth and Trump assume they’re all a bunch of William Calleys itching to commit war crimes and are pissed off that some DEI hire is keeping them from doing it.
That sounds about right to me. Fits their personalities and the information bubble they’re in.
dc
@Martin: The difference is the lack of man-woman dynamics in a still very patriarchal society. So it’s not the same with a same sex couple. That’s why I erased “spouse” and put “wife” instead.
Sasha
The ADL did good work but they are a early example of that increasingly proven iron law: Everything Trump Touches Dies.
The moment the ADL began to embrace Trump rather than call out his closeness to extremist and supremacist and hate groups, the decay was all but inevitable.
Lyrebird
@hitchhiker:
I think that may still be the problem, but even in an opposite corner from the PNW, I heard that more active-duty military people voted for Kerry, but the VFW vote went for Bush.
There were numerous vets in the Portland protests last time the orange menace tried to take it over, that was awesome. And northern VA has been voting very very blue lately… there’s that five-sided building there, can’t all be voting R.
re: JC’s post, I used teh Google too look up Charlie Mike and found this organization that’s trying to protect older vets’ mental health. (Continue the Mission, if you also didn’t know.)
cain
@waspuppet: I told both my ex-wife and my current wife that they did not have to change their last name and that having their own name is perfectly fine with me. Nope. They still changed it.
Funnily enough, my ex-wife got remarried but still kept my last name. lol. I think most of that is it is now her professional name.
cain
@Sister Golden Bear:
That punk is too scared to come to Oregon. Gotta stay in his safe red state.
cain
@NotMax: You got to admit that he’s good at that shit. He takes credit for other people’s good stuff and blames them for his shit work.
Redshift
@dc:
He is, and it’s likely it’s been spoken in schools there forever. The first-person generational aspect made a good story, though.
Martin
@Redshift: He went to school in Santa Monica which was founded shortly after California was annexed from Mexico. There was an estimated 800 whites living in the territory when it was annexed. So not only when her mother had gone there, but for a hundred+ years prior to that. The state history curriculum is built around the construction of missions up the state in the late 18th century by Spanish missionaries. Kind of funny he complaining about the lack of sufficient colonization of the prior colonizers. There were more indigenous people (by a lot) living in CA in 1848 than Spanish Californios and way more of them than white Americans. Just to show what can be done through social engineering, which of course the GOP claim to abhor, and yet absolutely demand.
Trivia Man
@Martin: If you like Kaiju, you might be interested in a new book series. My friend is way into the old fanzines and showed me some books he just bought. It has reproductions of the old Fanzines like Japanese Giants. Printed n mimeograph in the 70’s, somebody is preserving them in book form.
Jay
bsky.app/profile/ericcolumbus.bsky.social/post/3m25ux2w6rc2o
Greenblatt and the ADL must be so proud of themselves.
eclare
@cain:
He was at staging grounds in Memphis, surrounded by people from various agencies. Same as with Oregon, he is scared to venture into Memphis.
bbleh
@Tim C: LOL!
“And the naked of [insert city] will respond!”
marklar
@Matt: “They love the taste of Palestinian blood so much that they’ll kiss the assholes of Nazis to make sure it keeps flowing.”
Care to explain, Matt. I mean, I don’t want to think you are peddling in Anti-Semitic tropes of Jews using gentile blood in their recipes.
cain
@Tim C:
hahaha!! I actually suggested that on reddit that we need to have an naked bike ride as a protest. lol – I’m glad someone picked up on that!
Matt McIrvin
@Socolofi: “The vaporizations will continue because the Radical Left Democrats have once again refused to kneel before Zod. HAIL ZOD. KNEEL SON OF JOR-EL”
cain
@Jay:
They have wholly failed in their mission.
I guess there is still AIPAC.
mrmoshpotato
@Tim C: LMAO! Awesome.
cain
@eclare: Such a snowflake.
Sister Golden Bear
@Trivia Man: John Scalzi “The Kaiju Preservation Society” is worth checking out. Not necessarily his best work, but even second-tier Scalzi is good fun.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
“[F]alse claims”… Does it physically pain the press to call these things “lies”? Because that’s what they are. Lies. They’re lies. Why are they so scared shitless to call a lie a lie? I’m so sick to death of reading about or hearing “false claims” or “falsehoods” or “misleading claims”. Call them what they fucking are, you gutless weasels. I mean, I know the Guardian is better than a lot of outlets, but they still can’t bring themselves to say the word. Fuck…
Fair Economist
I think the Republicans are panicking, because there’s a critical tactical component to the Democrat’s choice of insurance subsidies as the hill to die on. In just one month, insurance companies need to release their pricing for 2025. When people see their insurance premiums rise by hundreds, or even thousands of dollar per month, they are going to go *ballistic*. And a month is not that long for a shutdown.
Even the lapdog MSM will be hard pressed to ignore the firestorm that will set off. It will be very difficult for the Republicans not to give in when the phone lines start ringing off the hook.
Trivia Man
@Sister Golden Bear: Fiction? Ill check it out
Sister Golden Bear
@Trivia Man: Fiction. In this and some of his other novel, Scalzi has a fun bit of snark at various targets, including MOTU types. One of my favorites is “Starter Villain.” “Red Shirts” and “When the Moon Hits Your Eye” start out light, but take some interesting philosophical turns towards the end.
Scalzi also does more serious novels, most notably the “Old Man’s War” series. Space opera, but well done space opera, with deeper undertones.
Kayla Rudbek
@NotMax: The Patent and Trademark Office appears to have received a similar message, according to Reddit: reddit.com/r/patentexaminer/comments/1numcim/doc_email_about_lapse_in_funding/
Karen Gail
Trump mentioned “Victory at Sea;” his ideas about the military come from documentaries and war movies.
I think Hegseth was channeling “Patton” the movie and pictured himself as being an inspiration the way that George C Scott did in front of flag in that movie.
Trivia Man
@Sister Golden Bear: we read starter villain and enjoyed it a lot
Kayla Rudbek
@dc: yes, it’s a violation of the Hatch Act (which saved me from going to pro-life rallies as a kid)
narya
@Sister Golden Bear: also: the Interdependency trilogy and the two Locked In novels (with a main character whose gender is never specified).
Jay
@marklar:
The Anti-Defamation League went off the rails quite some time before 9/11.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Defamation_League
cain
@Fair Economist:
I hope so because this country needs to turn hard against republicans.
I was reading some scary shit in Chicago about ICE detaining everyone in an apartment regardless if they were citizens or not. Just breaking down the door, no warrants, etc.
ICE has the ability to do anything they want, whenever they want. Without any kind of paperwork. This is unconstitutional and I am hoping that Dems spend this shutdown time to start putting a case together to the SCOTUS.
Sister Golden Bear
@Karen Gail:
Gotta make sure all the warfighters go into combat with their uniform ties properly tied. /s
narya
@cain: a homeless shelter, no less…
Kayla Rudbek
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Tailhook was what convinced me not to even try for a ROTC scholarship, as the only branch that would be interested in talking to me was the Navy (too much competition for the slots at my undergrad; if I had been at a different school as a hard science major, I probably would’ve had a chance for the Air Force)
Glidwrith
@NotMax: Wow, must be a record!
Jackie
@frosty:
My stepdaughter’s mom married twice after her dad – my husband – and had two half brothers, each different last names. At eight years old, she was THRILLED everyone in her family had the same last name.
I remembered that when I divorced her dad, and kept my married name so my kiddos and I would have the same last name.
Sister Golden Bear
@narya: Scalzi recently posted on Bluesky that he intentionally chose a woman to narrate the Locked In audio books because the main character’s gender wasn’t specified and women narrators are underrepresented in SSF audio books. He also made a point of doing the same for some of his other books.
Glidwrith
@Fair Economist: Got a friend that says insurance companies are already sending out letters saying there will be premium increases.
prostratedragon
@cain:
Reliable, maybe. Not good.
Never good.
moonbat
@dc: I didn’t change my name when I married, though my partner sorta, kinda wanted me to. I was in grad school when we met and had decided that the “Dr.” I was earning was going in front of the name I’d had most of my life. I don’t regret it because I was more “married” to that lovely man than most of my friends were to their husbands whose names they’d taken.
narya
@Sister Golden Bear: I saw that! He seems to be, and seems to try to be, a mensch. His “Being Poor” blogpost permanently affected how I see things and I would have used it if I’d taught college (or high school, for that matter).
eclare
Dammit. Bluesky thinks I’m in Mississippi again.
Melancholy Jaques
@Fair Economist:
I’d have preferred if Democrats just said over and over that they refuse to support that asshole because he is breaking the law, ignoring the constitution, and ruining America.
It’s an argument with a lot of a facts to support it.
prostratedragon
“What they were thinking”
There’s a recurrent theme in there that’s what I’m also thinking whenever I see|read about the bastard.
Matt McIrvin
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): I think it’s lawsuit protection: they can prove that a statement is false but they can’t prove the intent in the mind of the person who said it, so they could argue that calling it a “lie” is defamation because that requires intent.
prostratedragon
@Melancholy Jaques:
The medical cost framing they chose might play better beyond our faction.
Sister Golden Bear
@narya: Scalzi’s “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is” and its follow-up essays are also classics.
And yeah, by all accounts he’s a mensch, and adorkably truly madly deeply in love with his wife.
prostratedragon
What a relief!
BarcaChicago
@marklar: Thank you for addressing that vile post.
mrmoshpotato
@Karen Gail:
The fat, orange, fascist shitstain doesn’t understand which side of that war he would be on.
NutmegAgain
@Sister Golden Bear: Sounds like he would throw up a Heil salute after that.
prostratedragon
News Eye:
Yahoo:
EuroNews:
Shakti
@Fair Economist:
I was waiting for the day when the prices are released for my brother’s fiscal year insurance at his current job. With Marketplace insurance, I’m not sure he can count on subsidies if he decides to change jobs, (thanks Florida) and the non-Obamacare plan he’s on is XXXX for every two months. Which I pay. It’s not like my insurance is actually cheap either.
These goobers aren’t panicking. They clearly want to destroy health insurance as it exists and they assume Voughtwankerdogetrump will freeze/recission premiums anyways.
I suspect even the subsidies are still there; the premiums will go up by hundreds of dollars anyways because the insurance company and the actuaries will want to price that uncertainty into the premiums.
Democrats are fighting this because it’s pretty much the only social program/accomplishment of theirs that’s still standing that’s of recent vintage. Obamacare did and does help a lot of people, but it is a Republican kludge that constantly got chipped at.
Gretchen
@Matt McIrvin: My daughter’s father in law said that he didn’t care if she took their name, but he really wanted the kids to have theirs. She was fine with that, but once the kids were in school she decided it would be easier for her to change so they all had the same name. It turned out that the easiest way to do that was to have a second civil marriage ceremony? So there were some sweet pictures from that. No idea how a second marriage for the same couple works, but they looked charmingly happy.
No One of Consequence
@Tim C: AND
GondorNAKED CYCLISTS WILL ANSWER!!!I love this in ways words cannot fully expressed and am very, very proud of Portland. How fucking cool is this response?
Bravo. Brava. Bravix(?)
-NOoC
divF
I am married to one of three sisters. The other two took their husbands’ names, each trading in a long and difficult-to-spell last name for a much shorter and common one. Madame divF kept her last name, rather than taking mine, which is equally difficult to spell. On the other hand, all three marriages have passed the 40 year mark, so the last name thing seems not to be an issue on that score.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Sister Golden Bear: To elaborate on the audiobook thing, there are actually two audiobook versions of both of the books in the Lock In series, one narrated by Wil Wheaton, one by Amber Benson, specifically because the first-person protagonist’s gender is never revealed (and is functionally irrelevant because the protagonist interacts with the physical world only through remote-control robot bodies). Readers sometimes have a game in which they ask what gender they perceive the protagonist to be, and why.
TS
@waspuppet:
I changed my name the first time (everyone did) and I couldn’t handle having the 1st husbands name when married the 2nd time – if I had my time again I’d still be known by my original name.
VFX Lurker
I loved the “offscreen” roommate who proposed firebombing all their problems.
I also liked the magic trick Scalzi pulled off with “Jaime” — it’s up to the reader to assign a gender to the first-person narrator.
Sister Golden Bear
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Ah right you are! Out of coffee error.
Spc
@hitchhiker: yeah, demographics of the enlisted are a big part of it – a bit more Southern and more rural than the general population.
Betty Cracker
@mrmoshpotato: Ha, that’s a good use of the Oz.
TS
@dc: I have a cousin who changed to his wife’s name because they both thought it was the better name to have
And in another family, both adults kept their own names – daughter took mother’s surname, son took father’s surname – a genealogists nightmare.
Matt McIrvin
@Gretchen: For what it’s worth, we’ve had absolutely no bureaucratic or other actual trouble with having different last names.
I’ve heard tales of fathers traveling with minor children of a different last name getting regarded with suspicion by airport security, which I confess was one of the reasons we went with mine for our kid.
Gvg
@hitchhiker: it used to be true. Keep in mind that old school republicans used to fund the military and defense very well, excessively well at the expense of social programs and the deficit was a real problem once. Democrats wanted to cut back on nuclear bombs which could wipe out all life 10 times over and I think scared them…..old republicans were real conservatives which meant keep things mostly the same.
Currently polling is not working well, but wish correcting works worse. The latest polls I saw have seen trends that have Veterans shifting to I think slightly democrat and actual active duty still majority republican but not by much and both did used to be very republican. There was always a difference between officers and enlisted. Officers tended more republican. Currently if I were them I would not answer polling questions, especially active duty or collecting benefits. This administration is treacherous and vengeful. So that means we aren’t going to be sure except maybe if some base or military town goes blue by a huge margin. Unlikely. Habits change slowly.
Matt McIrvin
@Gvg: During Reagan’s terms in office, the Republicans funded a huge military buildup and didn’t actually send them into war very much. Ideal situation for them. The Bushes were bigger on war, but for a while, that also got the military tremendous respect.
I recall hearing about a lot of Vietnam-inspired resentment for Bill Clinton and I imagine that extended to Hillary. And the Democrats figured John Kerry’s war-hero status would neutralize that kind of attack, but of course it didn’t: Kerry’s role as an antiwar figure in the Winter Soldier investigation meant there was still a lot of resentment for him among some veterans and military, and that fueled the Swift Boat smears.
Logically they should all despise Trump, but I suspect there’s some political inertia going on.
Matt McIrvin
…Anyway, my big concern isn’t so much how the military will vote, it’s whether they will obey orders to kill us. I want to know whether this ends with the US military exterminating the US population. At some point, they WILL get those orders if they haven’t already gotten them.
That situation the other day is slightly heartening in this regard, suggesting that whether these guys politically support Trump or not, they still care about the rules they were trained to follow. But it’s an open question how far that goes. How many people do you need to launch a missile?
marklar
@Jay: “The Anti-Defamation League went off the rails quite some time before 9/11.”
I don’t disagree. The definition of Antisemitism that they use is extremely problematic.
That does not justify dusting off the trope of blood-libel. Even unintentionally. That needs to be called out, and I gave Matt and opportunity to explain himself, which they chose not to do. People can draw from that what they wish.
Layer8Problem
@marklar: That particular individual is a shit-stirrer who comes by every once in a while to say something stupid and inflammatory and leave. I pied him ages ago. He’s looking for engagement.
Paul in KY
@waspuppet: My wife wanted to change to my last name, but hers is just a better sounding name. I wanted to change my last name to hers, but she said it is a name only used by women in East Africa.
Paul in KY
@TONYG: We had one that came and went and for years on the anniversary of her firing, they’d be a party.
Paul in KY
@hitchhiker: General officers make alot of money. Could be tax reasons.
Paul in KY
@Sister Golden Bear: Was he able to restrain his furhrer salute when finished?
Paul in KY
@Sister Golden Bear: Hopefully 277 times.
Paul in KY
@Redshift: From what I’ve read about young Mr. Miller, he was lucky he made it out of HS without having some kind of crippling ‘accident’.
Paul in KY
@Indycat32: The ugly Hispanic girl or any girl for that matter wouldn’t either.
Paul in KY
@Dakota expat: I would assume all of them had a very low opinion of Kegsbreath and TACO before this. I can’t see how their opinions were raised in any manner whatsoever.
That is probably a good thing.
UncleEbeneezer
@Jay: This isn’t wrong though. Anti-Zionism (what we actually see in reality/practice, not the theoretical Anti-Zionism that wouldn’t necessarily be antisemitic that no one actually practices) is absolutely littered with antisemitic tropes that are nothing but recycled bs from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and double-standards that are applied only to Israel and no other nation. It uses Soviet propaganda dressed up as post-colonial theory. We can simultaneously call out ADL for its bullshit, which has gotten really bad since Greenblatt took over and aligned with Trump, while also admitting there is still a very serious problem with Anti-Zionism.
There are a lot of people who are not Trump-humping assholes like Greenblatt, who make the very same point about the toxicity of Anti-Zionism and how it completely misrepresents Zionism, obscures crucial parts of the history of the conflict and gaslights everyone who tries to bring more context, nuance and honesty to the conversation. Most Jews I know (all of them devout Dems and Trump-haters) have been complaining for quite some time about the low-key antisemitism in Progressive spaces and in Academia that gets a pass because of the social pressure for everyone to be on the side of Palestine as the great progressive Monocause. Is it possible for Anti-Zionism to NOT be filled with antisemitism? Sure. But in three years of listening to Jewish scholars, friends, community leaders and watching very closely the words/actions of Anti-Zionists in the real world I gotta say that it almost never is free of toxic shit that even my gentile ass can see as obviously-recycled antisemitism. Just like you can, in theory, argue for men’s rights without misogyny…it’s nearly impossible to find anyone who actually does that. I can think of a handful of people who oppose the way Zionism gets weaponized by assholes like Netanyahu, while still respecting the concept and importance to Jewish identity. But the vast majority of people who make Anti-Zionist arguments make no such effort/distinctions, (and only get defensive and point to the ADL/AIPAC when they get criticized) which is precisely the result that the Soviets hoped for when they began this propaganda campaign in the 1950’s. This is why online Nazis and Russian bots absolutely LOVE to signal-boost every Anti-Zionist statement they see. It’s worth noting that there used to be a handful of commenters here at BJ who pointed these things out regularly and would explain why so many Anti-Zionist talking points are rooted in antisemitism. But they were endlessly gaslit, accused of making bad faith arguments, being “pro-Genocide” etc., and have all disappeared. I’ve seen this happen in numerous Progressive spaces, it is wrong and shameful and frankly it’s sickening that so many people are okay with it. If chasing away all the liberal Jews who won’t renounce Zionism isn’t an obvious example of antisemitic marginalization, I don’t know what is. I don’t know how anyone can see liberal Jews reluctantly exiting these spaces and not be bothered by that. To me that is the opposite of what we should want in liberal/progressive spaces.
But the bigger question is how on Earth is the progressive stance that we should listen to all the haters/critics instead of actual Jews when we define Zionism? Is there any other group that we do this to? Do we let TERFs define what it means to be Transgender? Do we let the KKK/GOP define Blackness? Do we let Incels define Feminism? Yet when it comes to Zionism, the Progressive Left is happy to let everyone but the Israeli Jews/historians define it. The fact that Hamas (and Hezbollah and Iran and ISIS, and Stormfront and the Proud Boys) talks about Zionism in exactly the the same terms as Progressives do, should be a major stinking red flag that there is something rotten at the core of Anti-Zionism.
Paul in KY
@UncleEbeneezer: I am against what I call ‘Likud Israel’ and the Settler movement. I support a 2 state solution, with a viable Palestine. If Israel wants to annex some portion of Palestine for security purposes, they need to replace that land with some other from another portion of Israel, same amount. Also, no destroying stuff that was built on land that will become Palestine, once the state is created.
1,000 flouncing lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@MagdaInBlack:
Epstein’s day job, so to speak, was in the financial sector. I suspect you & I are making some of the same calculations.
Nettoyeur
@bbleh: The fact that Vance was out on day 1 of the shutdown saying that he is open to talks on the health insurance premiums if the Dems will just vote to re open the govt first is a tell. That’s called “negotiating with yourself” and it means the GOP is worried they are going to have to wear this. Premium hikes of 100-300% combined with inflation and job losses is a sign that the country, like POTUS, is unwell.
Geminid
@UncleEbeneezer: I consider myself Pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian.
And pro-Paragraphing too. Paragraphs help focus one’s arguments, and make them more accessible to readers.
Mick McDick
The reflective vest and garbage bag play is one helluva pro tip which I’m adding to my repertoire! Thanks Cole!
Used to work in a chem lab and I would suit up in goggles, gloves and chem vest and go read books hidden behind a thick lab manual.
Go team shirk!