Offsite Comments

The curse of the people who can't stop making puns
...a medical condition called Witzelsucht...
BBC
http://bbc.in/21IZ4wX

h/t Bird Dog @ Maggie's Farm

It's a real Seamus when people suffer from Witzelsucht.

Not to egg y'all on, but when folks start feathering the thread with avian puns, it's a sure sign the thread is past its best laying years. Time for a nood to which everyone can fly. Nest paw?

Plowed through the morning thread, the headlines thread's 600 comments, and I was thinking, huh! the quality of commenting here today seems great.

Which is when I realized, well, sure, I wasn't commenting.

Howdy, y'all.

All quiet and peaceful on the overnight front tonight, I pray? Read back a ways, and looks good.

Had a long day myself, so I'm just checking in to say I'm not here tonight. Got to have dinner with my mom, so that was great.

The day was long, but on the whole, I'd say that it was dandy.
Now I'm home, but I forgot to bring home any brandy.
At least I raided momma's pantry and brought home some candy.
So I can have some with my morning coffee.

(Hey, I know that last line doesn't work, but I didn't want to get randy handy sandy.)

See how tired I am?

Good night, y'all.

Oh, yeah... Nice post, Mr Maetenloch - without you I might never have known about the hairpins.

What this blog really needs... is more 1000-comment threads.

Howdy & later, y'all.

kbdabear: I wonder if it would work if the blog went into "Weekend Mode" during the week for a while....

Happiness threads, middle of every afternoon. They can be a "safe space" for those fleeing polyticks and arrghyoumeants.

♦

Crutz, Kaxick, Drump, and Uncommitteed still tied in American Samoa, according to the DDesk. Hot race!

♥

Thought for the night, considering the blog wars:

In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?...

This is my stop. Disembarking for the night. Be well.

Pixy and the Hamsters: ...I'm planning to have a beta version of a new comments system up in the next few days. I'll drop a link here so that people can log in and play with it...

Is that site a sample of what this would work like? Because, first thing I noticed was, getting to comments from the main page required javascript. Why complicate things?

Pat Condell in his usual sedate, genteel form.

The brief description doesn't do it justice.

Feminist Whores For Islam
Pat Condell, YouTube 5:53
http://bit.ly/1XJbhk5

Twitter's new 'Safety Council' makes a mockery of free speech.

Maetenloch: ...Most of the best commenters have already fled the blog or just lurk these days.

[best Jack Benny imitation voice:] Well!

I always knew I wasn't a "best commenter." Still here because I've got nowhere better to be.

♦ So... ♦

America's Socialist Origins
PragerU, YouTube 5:38
https://youtu.be/7dAmroKyzGY

Was America once socialist? Surprisingly, yes. The early settlers who arrived at Plymouth and Jamestown in the early 1600s experimented with socialist communes. Did it work? History professor Larry Schweikart of the University of Dayton shares the fascinating story.

Howdy, y'all.

Don't know where the line got finally crossed today, before or after I quit reading comments, but when I gave up, I commented to Milady, felt like I was wasting my time.

Not the usual enjoyable waste of time, but a serious, distressing waste.

The trolls (several, rightly called out by regulars, but that didn't deter them), troll-like strange nics, and even a few regulars who seemed off their meds, just made the usual discussions and debates difficult-to-impossible. And that was just the morning threads.

Hope it cools out, because the AoS blog - boss, cobs, and commenters - is, as a rule, the best on the web.

♥ So... ♥

Here's some ONT-appropriate content, as an offering of hope for better peace for the future and a happier Maetenloch - one of SciShow's best videos ever:

Why Do We Have Butt Hair?
https://youtu.be/BgsdhmLrLPA

Le sigh! Ace's video embed requires Flash. The only Flash I allow on my computer is episodes of the TV show.

Somebody on a previous thread said the subway bomb went off at a crowded stop. Somebody else said it was in the tunnel to make rescue harder. Ace's description of the video suggests the latter. 72 hours rule on the slightest details, but wondering which is true(r).

Howdy, y'all. Had to finish reading the ONT and the EMT (yay, Vic News is not dead) before I got here. Haven't caught the comments here yet, but did peruse the headlines.

Feel Good Story of the Day is a mixed bag of feelz, actually. The little girl was found safe, yes, thank heaven and an alert citizen. However, her mother is murdered and the father is the murderer-kidnapper who will never (God willing) see the light of day again.

Tough start on life.

Now to check out y'all's comments...

All my ills are of my own making.

All my goods are gifts.

Funny about that.

*fades suddenly*

Man, 27, Who Was Arrested for Having Sex With a Stranger on a Las Vegas Ferris Wheel Before Planned Wedding Last Month is Murdered in a Carjacking While Driving his Stripper Fiancée Home From Work

Still just as fraught with irony and dark humor - or something - as when I saw it in the morning.

Thanks for the work you do, Mr. Maetenloch. Another amazing post. You should get twice what you're paid.

Girl, 6, To Be Taken Away From Her Foster Parents of 5 Years

Soopermexican posted a link to a petition to (possibly?) help on this issue:

Soopermexican page:
http://bit.ly/1LCWnew

Petition:
https://www.change.org/p/keep-lexi-home

Howdy, y'all.

Checking in late. Won't be here long.

Just in case nobody's posted it, Barry posing in Cuba in front of .... waitaminnit... what, b worry? (Funny pic)

http://bit.ly/1MyUzye

Now to go read the post.

I had been thinking, maybe the Obamas will come back ridden with Cuban bedbugs, but I reconsidered because they would infest the White House.

But there are other possibilities...

Center for Disease Control
http://1.usa.gov/1o1Nv6Q

CDC is working with other public health officials to monitor for ongoing Zika virus transmission. Today, CDC posted a Zika virus travel notice for Cuba....

h/t: Bill, Weasel Zippers
http://bit.ly/1Mxm0bt

Visit Historic Cuba, because... it's not North Korea!

Cuban Dissidents Beaten, Arrested Before Obama Visit
Frances Martel, Breitbart
http://bit.ly/1T458zQ

Hours before President Barack Obama landed in Havana to meet with high-ranking members of the island's repressive communist regime, more than 50 pro-democracy dissidents were beaten and arrested, shoved into buses to be shipped into the nation's jails to prevent them from disturbing official activities.

At least 50 of those arrested are members of the Ladies in White, a mostly-Catholic dissident group comprised of the wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters of prisoners of conscience....

Business as usual in Coo-bah.

And reportedly, those " high-ranking members" don't include Castros. O just doesn't rate. They may pay him thirty pieces of silver...

Re Gunman & 2 workers killed at PA toll plaza

The Yahoo/Reuters article just says "gunman."

The Fox News article, as Vic noted, says the gunman was a "retired state trooper." And lots more details.
http://tinyurl.com/h4je8wf

Point, Vic.

What an awful, bungled robbery attempt. Toll-collector had just been on the job three months.

I always try to be cheery and thankful to those folks, because I know they have an often-lonely and frequently-thankless job.

Wait... Vic News is back? After all the beautiful remarks at the wake, it rose from the dead? Thaaat's gratitude for you.

Naturally, when he chooses to come back, there's no morning thread for them. Like clockwork. Broken clockwork.

Be right back. Gotta go check Vic's headlines.