Cartoon-of-the-day:

http://alphagameplan.blogspot.ca/2016/07/government-incentives.html

That was meen, Tangy.

Driving your car thru a #BlackLivesMatter protest in the streets? I knew it had been done, but this many times?

https://www.youtube.com/results?q=car+driving+through+black+lives+matter&sm=3&app=desktop

Twinkies: saved from bankruptcy by automation and streamlined practices.

Where the company just five years ago had 8,000 employees — 75 percent of whom were represented by unions — the company now says in filings that it has a “streamlined employee base” of roughly 1,170 workers. That workforce is the shadow of a once-vast empire, which shortly before its troubles totaled 22,000 workers across more than 40 bakeries.

The company has invested $130 million to upgrade production lines and industrial ovens in its three core bakeries in Indianapolis; Emporia, Kan.; and Columbus, Ga. Its other bakeries have disappeared: The company in 2014 announced it would shutter its long-running bakery in the Chicago suburb of Schiller Park, where the Twinkie was first baked. About 400 jobs were affected.

Based in Kansas City, Mo., the company has closed all 600 or so of its Hostess outlet thrift stores and now delivers directly to warehouses, helping avoid the inefficiencies of regional bakeries, small distribution lines and direct-to-store delivery.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/07/05/what-it-took-to-save-the-twinkie/

"Based in Kansas City, Mo., the company has closed all 600 or so of its Hostess outlet thrift stores and now delivers directly to warehouses, helping avoid the inefficiencies of regional bakeries, small distribution lines and direct-to-store delivery."

We'll have to see how that works out in the long run. Dunkin' Donuts switched to a centralized bakery model in the mid-1990s, and started getting a lot of complaints about stale donuts. They responded by switching their marketing focus to coffee. That probably isn't an option for Hostess.

Dunkin' Donuts switched to a centralized bakery model in the mid-1990s, and started getting a lot of complaints about stale donuts.

Dunkin Donuts donuts are rather disappointing, but that shouldn't be a problem for Hostess. I don't think it's possible for a Twinkie to go stale. Ever.

The Twinkie is dead.

Its smaller, it tastes different, its not the same shade of yellow anymore, the creme filling tastes different and has a different texture.

The Twinkie is dead and unions killed it

Hostess dropped their workforce from 8,000 to 1,170. Incidentally their unionized workforce was ~6,000 and their non-union workforce was ~2,000. Coincidence? Are they still paying the old pensions or did those default to the government with their bankruptcy? Clearly they now carry multiple products on a single truck, which was a major sticking point with their union. They used to have one truck for twinkies, another for ho-hos, and another for ... Most of their truck left half full and sometimes they had multiple partially filled trucked going to the same location at the same time.

I agree with JFP. I doubt that shelf life is an issue with most Hostess products.

Open-minded girls.

File this. with the "but it's a religion of peace" mantras.

STACY McCAIN: Make America Hate Again — Liberals surrender to fear as polls show Hillary losing ground:

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/238769/

Viking v. US Coast Guard. I'm putting my money on the Coasties.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/news/a21836/viking-ship-might-be-defeated-by-us-coast-guard/

A housing bubble that makes me yawn:

The reasons for the slowdown, as noted above, are numerous, but all point to one direction - the demand so prevalent in recent years is no longer there: It’s not just the volatility of financial markets that has big spenders sitting on their wallets. Other global trends that have put the lid on high-end spending include China’s tightened restrictions on capital outflows, uncertainty surrounding Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, lower oil prices curbing wealth in the Middle East, and tax increases and other measures that have driven up property transaction costs in some countries.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-12/manhattans-billionaires-row-death-knell-just-tolled-luxury-real-estate

The New York Times ran an op-ed today by Adam Sobel, an “atmospheric scientist at Columbia.” The gist of Sobel’s article: Since 2005, the United States has been experiencing a hurricane “drought” (i.e., no category 3 or higher hurricane has made landfall in 11 years.) But don’t worry, Sobel says, there will be more hurricanes soon, and the fact that they will be coming is proof of man-made climate change.

Yes, that’s what he’s saying.

The question is whether Sobel is writing the op-ed to buck himself up, or hoping to cheerlead the rest of the alarmist crowd. After all, the computer models that have predicted global warming have also predicted more hurricanes. But real-life observations continue to diverge from what computer models have actually predicted.

http://climatechangedispatch.com/climatologist-tries-to-justify-11-year-hurricane-drought-in-new-york-times-op-ed/

Today, in Spanish slangs:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mosquita%20muerta

How many do you know that fits the description?

"The question is whether Sobel is writing the op-ed to buck himself up, or hoping to cheerlead the rest of the alarmist crowd."

Probably a bit of both. But he's also setting up a logical fallacy that he can exploit later. Sooner or later, we're bound to have a stretch of at least a few years where hurricanes return to historical norms. When that happens, he will be crowing about "an alarming and sudden increase in hurricanes" as "proof" of global warming. But all it will be is regression to the mean.

I feel like we could have fun with this.

Sixclaws, the most sadistic and insidious bullies I ever met were beloved by parents and teachers.

Sixclaws, the most sadistic and insidious bullies I ever met were beloved by parents and teachers.

The charming psychopaths of the world disagree!

Curious, I looked around at the difference between the psychopath and the sociopath, and across this:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2015/02/12/differences-between-a-psychopath-vs-sociopath/

The common features of a psychopath and sociopath lie in their shared diagnosis — antisocial personality disorder. The DSM-51 defines antisocial personality as someone have 3 or more of the following traits:

1. Regularly breaks or flouts the law
2. Constantly lies and deceives others
3. Is impulsive and doesn’t plan ahead
4. Can be prone to fighting and aggressiveness
5. Has little regard for the safety of others
6. Irresponsible, can’t meet financial obligations
7. Doesn’t feel remorse or guilt

In both cases, some signs or symptoms are nearly always present before age 15. By the time a person is an adult, they are well on their way to becoming a psychopath or sociopath.

*looks at the two big party presidential candidates* Oh. Check please!

turkey military coup in pictures:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/turkey-military-coup-in-pictures/

Interesting...

Curfew in Turkey. Military is disarming police. Tanks in the capital F16 flying overhead @JaredWyand @Uncle_Jimbo t.co/Qu6k3i8v4a

— Kaldor Draigo (@Nacht_krapp) July 15, 2016

British MRA and psychologist "Angry Harry" died at age 64, in February, of a brain aneurysm. Many consider him to be the first online MRA.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/eyDLsL5owpU

What's his real name? I don't know - and I'm surprised his enemies didn't manage to find out even BEFORE his death, since you can see him on YouTube. Of course, maybe they figure that the less publicity they give him, the better - and they could be right.

From the above:

(From the) anti-MRA website by David Futrelle - often funny - this article talks about Angry Harry's blaming the massacre in Norway on the LEFT wing, not the right, as the media claimed)

Angry Harry: "MRAs need to get to grips with this type of situation because it won’t be long before they are being blamed for something or other – perhaps a family court judge being murdered."

David Futrelle: "Why might this be a particularly sensitive issue for Harry? Perhaps because in another posting of his, he offered a justification for doing just that — murdering family court justices and those involved in enforcing their decisions."

Angry Harry: "To put it bluntly: If someone is taking away your home and your children then I think that you are quite justified in behaving violently towards them."

Elsewhere, MRA Glenn Sacks called Harry "an idiot."

Most MRAs don't, though.

I mentioned (in the above post) one MRA who got kicked out of here by Amy, BTW.

I usually like Carolyn Hax, but she goofed this time...(about kids in restaurants).

If you can afford a restaurant, you can afford take-out food - and NOT bother anyone trying to have a quiet meal! Even McDonald's is not appropriate for screaming or running - what if some frail person gets knocked over and breaks a hip - or what if someone has a migraine AND really needs to eat?

There is no excuse for risking either of those things.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/please-pass-the-crow-taking-kids-out-to-dinner/2016/07/07/fa74f596-42f7-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html

SPOILER:

randomnickname
7/9/2016 1:04 AM EST
"I can't help feeling the LW took the wrong lesson home.

"The lesson should not be that it's wrong to be upset when parents take three screaming preschool children to a sit-down restaurant, and let them disturb everyone else. The lesson is two-fold. First, that getting small children to behave in a civilized fashion in not nearly as easy as they had assumed. Second, taking two three year olds and a five year old to a Chez Okay is a terrible idea, unless you have first hand experience that they are capable of behaving there.

"The first is worthy of an apology. The second is a firm commitment to practicing at House of Mayhem until the kids can handle Chez Okay without attracting glares of death from customers who paid for a scream-free night out."

@IRA,

Choosing to vote between Clinton or Trump is like God asking you on which end do you want to have Herpes sores: One will be a pain in the ass while the other one will turn you into a social Pariah.

Good Turkey background starting at 6:50PM.