GOP lawmakers demand that 'alarming' memo on FISA abuses be made public -

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/18/gop-lawmakers-demand-alarming-memo-on-fisa-abuses-be-made-public.html

Yes, there is a paper on the aerodynamics of large breasts in anime titties.

https://twitter.com/Tipsycaek/status/954095153509122048

On the Twitter replies this comment is golden:

I used to laugh at this shit but then I got close to graduating...

Now imagine eyeing masters and the PUBLISH OR DIE (read: starve) state of all academia is really starting to get to me.

Some cool pictures of tanks. These date from Fort Knox in 1942.

Military geeks will note the hulls on the earlier M3 tanks were riveted together. This was a design problem. One hit from an enemy shell, even if it didn't penetrate the hull, would often dislodge the rivets and cause them to ricochet through the crew compartment. The problem was solved in later models.

Welp. Murray = Sen. Patty Murray, (D-WA).

During a meeting on November 28 with Sarah N. Stern, a former colleague of Marcus and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a senior adviser to Murray on the HELP committee told Stern the committee does not "care about anti-Semitism in this office."

"We don't care about anti-Semitism in this office," Murray's senior adviser said. "We care about transgenders, we care about blacks, we care about Hispanics, we care about gays, we care about lesbians, we care about the disabled."

"We don't care about anti-Semitism in this office," he said.

Stern's aide Jennifer Dekel confirmed the comments and said she was taking notes during the meeting.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/senior-democratic-staffer-not-care-anti-semitism/

I wonder what he means by this. Remember, no one can be legally employed unless they have a tax payer ID, and a lot of that information is already shared with the IRS. Of course, that isn't voluntary, so who knows.

Speaking at a press conference, Becerra said, "It’s important, given these rumors that are out there, to let people know – more specifically today, employers – that if they voluntarily start giving up information about their employees or access to their employees in ways that contradict our new California laws, they subject themselves to actions by my office."

https://www.dailywire.com/news/26080/watch-california-ag-threatens-prosecute-private-ryan-saavedra#exit-modal

An artistic interlude.

http://www.kimdutoit.com/2018/01/15/fun-with-art-9/

ESR has thoughts on the meta discussion raised by the Grace v. Ansari scandalette.

“Grace” behaved as she did because she doesn’t have a realistic option to hold out for romance before sex; women who do that put themselves at high risk of not getting second dates, there are too many others willing to play by the new rules. So she has to do sex instead and hope lightning strikes.

Couple this with the fact that as women get on average more educated there are fewer hypergamically-eligible males at every SES, and you have the jaws of a vicious vise. It’s especially hard on high-status women and low-status men. The main beneficiaries are high-status men, who often behave like entitled assholes because the new rules tilt the playing field in their favor even more than the old ones did.

(That last is not aimed at Ansari, who seems to me to have behaved quite like a gentleman, acceding to every request “Grace” actually made. It’s not his fault he couldn’t read her mind.)

http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=7816

You can have California. The real action is in Florida.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/01/17/alligator-fights-python-on-florida-golf-course.html

"women who do that put themselves at high risk of not getting second dates, there are too many others willing to play by the new rules. So she has to do sex instead and hope lightning strikes."

Yeah, I keep hearing that. "We're powerless! We have to give men whatever they want! Make them stop!" I can absolutely guarantee you that there are a whole lot of young men out there who are getting no interest from their female cohort whatsoever. What seems to be happening is that at least half of the young women are all pursuing the top %1 men. And for this, you can put the blame squarely on post-modern feminism, because it has taught young women that life should never, ever disappoint them. In the world of post-modern feminism, it is better for a woman to be a concubine in a high-status man's harem, than it is for a woman to have a decent middle-class or working-class man all to herself. "Grace" ditched her (presumably) non-celebrity date at a party to pursue Ansari. What is his story? Nobody seems to be interested in it.

Remember, Harvey Weinstein didn't happen out of the blue. Harvey Weinstein happened because he, and other man like him in Hollywood, are the ones that the women of Hollywood chose.

In the world of post-modern feminism, it is better for a woman to be a concubine in a high-status man's harem, than it is for a woman to have a decent middle-class or working-class man all to herself. "Grace" ditched her (presumably) non-celebrity date at a party to pursue Ansari. ~ Cousin Dave at January 19, 2018 10:51 AM

Peggy Noonan, in her column today, notes on the Ansari scandalette, "They had one thing in common: They were impressed by his celebrity. He deploys it to get what he wants, she wanted to be close to it."

More from Noonan:

All the stories we’ve read the past few months about predators—not those accused of rape and sexual assault, which are crimes, but of general piggishness, grabbiness, manipulation and power games—have a common thread. The men involved were not gentlemen. They acted as if they’d never heard of the concept.

We have lost track of it. In the past 40 years, in the movement for full equality, we threw it over the side. But we should rescue that old and helpful way of being. The whole culture, especially women, needs The Gentleman back.

A person of the cultural left would say that is a hopelessly patriarchal thing to say. But one thing the #MeToo movement illustrates is that women are often at particular risk in the world, and need friends and allies to stand with them. That would be men. And the most reliable of them are gentlemen.

Via Cosh.

Also, Los Angeles in January is the world's finest weather. We laugh at the south of France in Springtime

> You can have California.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

Muffin, who hurt you?

What exactly is the nature of the sorrow you're hoping to cast into the world?

This is not a habit with you. You're unending spillage in this regard is a symptom.

Coney, how do you do the archive thing?

> ESR has thoughts on the meta
> discussion raised by the
> Grace v. Ansari

I missed the 'meta' part. And—

the fix, if there were one, would have to be imposed on all women. Good luck with that; religion has lost the power to do it and there is no other institution even positioned to try.

I think I know why: People are shits. No matter how rich our dreams of personal success, or how handsomely we might be individually rewarded by a well-tuned society, each of us understands that we'll never truly be able to take command of the lives of others without an institution. And when people dream of a position of relative authority, they dream of being the twitchy monarch, not the unwashed pauper. Or being the beautiful, impulsive princess, and not the toothless, conscientious charwoman. Raymond's locution "imposed on all" is the moistest phrase in the piece.

And no example of our splendid social dynamism can diminish this loathsome human impulse. People have already forgotten that gay marriage swept (or at least sweeps) the Western world with essentially zero institutional nourishment.

That was a fucking brilliant blog comment.

Send checks to Amy's office, she sends them over in a bundle on Monday afternoons.

Also, it was Amy's team that pooched the spelling of "your" at January 19, 2018 3:59 PM.

Anyone else imagines Crids house as a never ending series of mirrors for him to admire himself in?

Coney, how do you do the archive thing? ~ Crid at January 19, 2018 4:03 PM

Copy the URL for the site you're trying to unlock. Go to a archive.is and paste the URL. Click the SAVE THE PAGE button. It will unlock the URL or let you know if it was already saved and you can read it unlocked.

Pretty handy. One of the regulars here sent me there a while back.

Anyone else imagines Crids house as a never ending series of mirrors for him to admire himself in?

lujlp at January 19, 2018 4:43 PM

I see Crid’s house as loaded with books, read and unread, a classic guitar collection, a first rate audio sound system, and loads and loads of media.

If I ever go to LA, he will be the first person I ask to lunch. My treat.

I am really, really going to have to clean the place up and move the books (many unread) stack upright on stairs and sideways on endtables.

In the world of post-modern feminism, it is better for a woman to be a concubine in a high-status man's harem, than it is for a woman to have a decent middle-class or working-class man all to herself.
_________________________________

Just because some women might BEHAVE that way doesn't mean they'd call themselves feminists. Does anyone even CARE if groupies call themselves that?

And do most self-described feminists (even before 2016) imply that any self-respecting person should have an affair with Trump, just for money? I doubt it.

I DO know that average feminists believe in women's earning their own money, and usually, going to college in order not to earn just minimum wage. They will also agree with the late novelist and Planned Parenthood executive Sheri S. Tepper, who wrote, in a 1970s pamphlet:

"KEEP YOUR OWN BANK ACCOUNT.

"And keep something in it. That 'Everything we have is ours' routine is cute and romantic, but it's most practical for a truly compound organism - like a jellyfish.

"In that bank account you need enough money to pay a deposit and first month's rent on a place to live. You need enough to pay all outstanding bills, AND a little extra for emergencies. Unless you've got that in the bank, you're not independent. If you live with him and spend all your pay every month, and then you're not living with him any more, what are you going to do?"

(end)

Not to mention, that, as many have pointed out: "It's not just divorce. People die, too."

"You can't keep pointing to men as a source of your problems – not when I see women backstage at a concert with their toothbrush and panties in a bag, ready to sleep with somebody because he's an entertainer." ~ Sister Souljah

"... women are often at particular risk in the world, and need friends and allies to stand with them. That would be men. And the most reliable of them are gentlemen."

Ah, yes. When it became "sexist" to refer to a woman as a "lady", the feminists killed the reciprocal concept also. Oh, well. Too, bad, so sad. You don't know what you got 'till its gone.

Women, I got news for you. With all of the "nasty" proud-sluttery being presented as the face of modern femininity, it would appear you have the men you deserve. Just sayin'.
_____________________

"KEEP YOUR OWN BANK ACCOUNT."

Well, Lenona, if it's a secret bank account, and is at all funded by community assets, that's fraud, and a really shitty thing to do. If a man advocated using the same tactic, "just in case," he'd be a real scum, now wouldn't he?
But if it's a woman, well ....

Tepper did not say "secret." Good lord. She never would have advocated deception.

If you want more proof of that, here's the rest of what I quoted from that pamphlet, in 2014:

"...Or suppose you want to buy your sister a gift, and he hates your sister, but you end up spending (a lot) out of the joint account..."

And from pages 18 & 19:

"Don't be a victim of the college student syndrome. This is the simplistic view that 'I need X for rent and Y for food, and the rest I can blow.' You can't blow it. When you were in school someone else was paying the insurance, for clothing, your medical bills, the taxes...

Page 19:

"Never co-sign a note for ANYONE, including your brother. Only poor credit risks need a co-signer. Give him the money if you want to and if you have it, but don't co-sign a note. Ever."

The rules in the pamphlet are:

1. "Don't expect anyone to MAKE you happy."

2. "Make up your mind about sex."

3. "Get paid what you're worth."

4. "Consider yourself first." (Subdivided into "Make your own plans." "Do things for yourself." "Keep your own bank account." "Work out agreements.")

5. "Don't try to play it both ways." ("Don't play poor little me." "Don't mistake courtesy for patronage." "Don't fall into the rhetoric trap." "Don't let them get away with it." "Don't allow stereotypes to continue." "Don't cheat." [That is, don't get pregnant 'accidentally.'] "Don't blow it by bad management." [Financial
management.])

6. "Don't expect it to be easy." ("Be patient." "Don't be afraid of feelings." "Don't use feelings as a weapon.")

7. "Take care of yourself." (Your health, in particular.)

I just realized I should clarify what Tepper meant in #4 - by "Do things for yourself," she meant "don't wait for men to carry your bags or move your furniture." (Unless the woman is over 60 AND the men are young - and there was no way to pack more lightly.)