Ahem. While going through the old stuff, I'm proud to have (obliviously) taken note of the forces which would compel the election of Donald Trump (among other unpleasant eventualities).

Man... Arguing with Tressider was terrific fun.

Time after time after year after time, this point from Hitchens illuminates public affairs.

That thing where sometimes your phone starts squealing with an unfamiliar alarm....

If you follow this link, you'll either cackle like a hyena or never sleep again.

Sorry for busted link, here's the Amber Alert of your dreams! (Note drone footage.)

More about the zebra stripes.

A daredevil's catastrophic ̶m̶i̶s̶t̶a̶k̶

…Never mind.

Huh? About 5'7".

Eh? Well, yeah, some old girlfriends have used the word "clingy"....

Mel's interesting take on the ChiNBA.

Wondering if a car alarm would have saved you all the bother of having to find your pink Rambler...

But nobody cares about other people's property there. It's an inconvenience.

Out here, a house alarm went off, and when our deputy arrived to investigate, he greeted a dozen or so people at the property line with rifles and shotguns, who arrived because their neighbor's alarm was going off and lest something happen to our deputy.

Don't mean to shock anyone, but free candy:

The program would be funded through a combination of employer and worker payroll contributions and also through a tax increase on companies and wealthy earners. The proposal didn’t include a cost estimate.

We're told that this-or-that video game is more popular than any number of sports, with conventions and tournaments outperforming the Superbowl, etc. And that the industry has about three times the revenue of Hollywood.

So this, posted just an hour ago, could be more consequential than the NBA cave-in.

By the way, blow out your cookies and history after (if not before) visiting that link. Verge is carnivorous.

Verge is carnivorous.

Brave browser blocked 21 thingies, and uBlockOrigin added another 19. I wonder how many dozens of more thingies would they bring in, had they not been blocked?

Crid, thanks for that blast from the past. My friend who held the city HVAC license #1 has since passed on. I wish I knew a tenth of what he knew about HVAC systems. The unit he worked on at our house, I had to get replaced a few years ago. The indoor coil was hopelessly corroded, and it was a contractor-grade unit anyhow, so it wasn't worth an expensive repair.

I had speculated about how quickly jobs for unskilled labor would disappear from the service sector. It isn't happening as fast as I thought it would, but it is happening.

The other Biden.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/07/biden-brother-scandal-hemingway/

Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriche... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062569376/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_uUjNDbC7ZSAKA

I had speculated about how quickly jobs for unskilled labor would disappear from the service sector. It isn't happening as fast as I thought it would, but it is happening.

The push for $15 should speed things along nicely.

You'll need one of these to fly. But requiring one to vote? that's raaaaaaaacisssssssttt!

https://nypost.com/2019/10/04/you-have-1-year-to-get-a-real-id-or-you-cant-fly-heres-how-to-do-it/

I was assured this was unpossible?

Duke Energy, a North Carolina energy company, has asked for a waiver of the state’s emission standards because their solar power production spews more pollution into the atmosphere than its natural gas production.

https://lidblog.com/solar-power-pollution/

Oh. I have to report to a re-education camp soon.

Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of this bootlicking, without the express written consent of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and its National Basketball Association subsidiaries, is strictly prohibited

https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1181545731380908033

I think this guy hates women and wants to see them dead. Emphasis mine.

Leaked slides reveal the catastrophic failure of the Army Combat Fitness Test. If 84% of women are failing your physical fitness test (72% in a single, preposterous event!), you're not trying to make a stronger Army; you're trying to force women out.

https://twitter.com/dwbwriter/status/1180976708717092864

I am so getting a laugh out of the TERF vs. TA thing. Apparently both sides have prejudices so deep-rooted that they just can't help themselves. The feminists have been accusing the trans activists of being a false-flag operation for heterosexual white men. Now the TAs are accusing the TERFs of the same thing. Bow down to us white guys -- we control everything, even the revolution!

Is this the product of shitty parenting?

https://twitter.com/celinedryan/status/1181343426111066112

Bow down to us white guys -- we control everything, even the revolution!

Of course. If we were doing the things they accuse us of doing, they'd be begging us to stop and be merciful because they're surrendering. Hail the conquering patriarchy!

Which is why they feel comfortable throwing the most vile insults our way, while at the same time walking on eggshells around Islamists.

If you want to stop Donald Trump from making unilateral decisions regarding war and peace, then stop letting all presidents make unilateral decisions about war and peace. It’s really quite simple. Trump can abruptly pull back U.S. troops from northern Syria because Congress, having abdicated its foreign policy responsibilities long ago, has no leverage to stop him.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/08/hey-congress-take-back-your-war-powers-or-shut-up-about-syria/

This type of movie would never be made today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTBaBxc4crw

Maybe the "gifted and talented program" is a bad idea? Who knew?

http://www.indexjournal.com/lifestyles/columnists/john-rosemond/john-rosemond-put-the-monkey-on-your-child-s-back/article_fa2e393d-3423-5e13-a3e0-98550c9e91e5.html

This is a great example of intellectual dishonesty:

https://twitter.com/SophNar0747/status/1181632495500058625

PSA: Keep an eye on any suspicious credit card transactions:

https://twitter.com/campuscodi/status/1181655861749538816

What's the difference between intellectual dishonesty and regular old dishonesty? Which is most evil?

What's the difference between intellectual courage and regular courage? Which is better?

There's no difference whatsoever. This is people trying to pretend their degrees are worth more than they actually are.

@IRA Darth Aggie: Which is why they feel comfortable throwing the most vile insults our way, while at the same time walking on eggshells around Islamists.

This is exactly why this week's meme is "Islam is Right About Women."

Most of us on the right don't believe any such thing. But toss that in the water around SJWs, and whether they object loudly or not, they're sure to drive away either their Muslim allies or their feminist ones. Because it baits them into taking one position or the other.

Re: car alarms - I once sent my city council a proposed law that would allow someone awakened by one at night to take a hammer, axe, or crowbar to the offending vehicle until it stays silent.

My brother had a neighbor with one of those car alarms that cycles through about a half dozen different sirens/klaxons for a few seconds each, and a mockingbird living in his back yard. The car alarm went off enough times that the mockingbird started performing an uncanny imitation of it early every morning. He was amused just enough not to shoot the bird.