Offsite Comments

A cat's weight doubles when asleep at the foot of your bed. Startling but true scientific fact.

Andy was so punctual for a couple of days, I expected to see a morning thread, at 6 on the dot again.

I see now it was all just a trick.

Evening, folks. Another hearty ONT, Maet. Thanks.

You may have read about the guy here in Oklahoma who awoke to find his lady-love trying to chomp off his manhood?

I found where he went wrong.

"...the victim said he and his girlfriend were out drinking and began arguing while walking home 'about how needy she had become....'"

Jessica Remer, KJRH
http://tinyurl.com/kv4f5lm

I have the strangest sense of deja vu because I already wrote this comment, but somehow it just vanished.

In response to the James O'Keefe investigative film, Sharpton said:

“Not only do I think the video was taken out of context, there is nobody in that video that said I did anything with money."

(Dan Butcher, Pundit Press, from the Blog Heap.)

Reality goes beyond parody again.

WND… I used to go there. I wasn't gonna click… I was gonna let chrissythebrilliant digest it for us… I have no self control! I clicked.

"Total eclipses don't take place on any other known planet, point out intelligent-design scientists."

I quit reading at that point. Scrolled around looking for a byline; found none. The last line suggests it's all an ad. WND resistance reinforced.

Hope my opinion isn't hurting anyone's feelings or stepping on any toes.

5 Years: A good beginning.

Congratulations to the Crew. Glad the place is here.

Pete: "…the attachment you could put on your record player to drop 45’s one at a time"

Had one of those on my first turntable, fit over the 33-size spindle. For all I know, I may still have one, deep in the catacombs near the stack of 78s, 16mm films and 5" floppy discs.

About government getting all up in your bong:

When Prohib was initiated, drinking went up. After Repeal, drinking went up.

Prohib increases the lure for those for whom "forbidden fruit" is part of the attraction. Repeal opens up use (with the threat of abuse) to those who would have otherwise obeyed a prohibition.

Under Prohib, you have those who follow the law, and those who shop in the black market. It doesn't actually stop anything, just alters the markets. The numbers from the Great Experiment are hard to parse as far as which had what social effect upon how many, Prohib or Repeal, encouraging or discouraging use and abuse, because it's so difficult to separate the impact of Prohib & Repeal from the other dynamic changes going on in American society in the same period.

Those of us who would obey the law but want to enjoy a cider at the end of the day would be deprived of that luxury under Prohib. If all one wants is to grow a plant and smoke it, is that a prison-worthy offense?

I hold thus:

- Substances are not behaviors. Adults should be legal to do whatever. When you can't handle it, you will be tried on the crimes you commit. It is unfortunate, but we really should have a society that has to wait for a real transgression to be committed.

- Taxes should be flat on all sales. No luxury tax, gas tax, vice tax, or other special rates. Government should not be in the business of attempting social changes or modifying behaviors through force of taxes.

Taxes suppress what is taxed, so savings taxes, property and investment taxes, income taxes, all discourage what we ought to be doing, saving, investing, owning, earning. While taxes of any kind must suck, and we can never stop cheating, seems like the best tax is a flat sales tax; whatever exceptions there might be (e.g. basic foods), anything that's sold is taxed the same. People will pay sales taxes that are within reason, especially if society is healthy and thus sales will happen a lot, and the government you're paying the tax for is what it ought to be.

Yeah, I know.

/dismounting soapbox because I Can't Breath

I look out over the wall, in the pasture, and I see cattle. You know what they're grazing on? Plants.

All food is plant-based.

Except mushrooms. Which I'm not sure really should be considered food, anyway, despite the excellent mushroom sauce Milady made for the salmon patties a few days ago.

"...when suddenly his mother walked in."

Branco depicts Hector at home
http://liberallogic101.com/?p=22088

Adam Baldwin - ComiCon threat, or something

"In the wake of Supanova's announcement that Adam Baldwin would be attending Supanova - and organiser Daniel Zachariou's statement explaining the decision - a number of high-profile artists and cosplayers have officially announced they will not be attending the show in protest. The Ledger Awards, a non-profit organisation designed to reward the best work done by Australian comic book artists, has announced it is dissolving its sponsorship relationship with Supanova following the decision."

kotaku.com.au
http://bit.ly/1EMyYPt

h/t: Miss CJ, Chicks on the Right
http://bit.ly/1MOCcYk

Those awkward minutes when folks trickle in to the latest thread, while others continue to thrash about in the dying previous thread; but each thread has its own life and manners. Watch a fresh new culture emerging from a doomed old one: Conversations in Transition, next on National Blogographic Explorer.

Congratulations to Willow on not being willowed.

Hey! Dump! I remember these!

Insomniac: "Your link doesn't work anyway"

I may have messed it up when I broke it across several lines. Perhaps I should've just inserted spaces. Or skipped it entirely. Near top of WZ right now. Later, what difference will it make?

I'm all for cops behaving civilized. (Would help a lot if laws and most citizens were civilized.) Don't think much of rules of engagement brought forth from flakes who have no idea what cops face or how, really, to do the job.

Hey, there's a dump!

NY post via WZ: "Cops should 'take a deep breath' - and close their eyes - when dealing with angry people, according to the NYPD's new 'retraining' program."

http://weaselzippers.us/
215156-de-blasios-smart-policing-program-
advising-nypd-officers-to-take-a-deep-breath-
and-close-their-eyes-when-
dealing-with-angry-people/

(For some reason bit.ly won't let me shorten that one.)

Close their eyes. Right. That wouldn't have improved Officer Wilson's aim one bit.

I have some similar suggestions. Carry fresh flowers to offer to angry people. Give them backrubs. Lie down and ask them to put a bullet through your head if it would make them happier. We wouldn't want officers to seem threatening in any way, like they were the armed arm of the Law or anything.

Morning, Glories!

I was awake at 5am and I thought, I could check the blog! Then, wisely, I thought, "naww. I need a little more sleep." So, running late, playing catchup.

Thanks to the AoS News Network for the news, commentary, and features, Vic, JJ, Fen ((and MPPP again someday they say).

Says here that in our little NE corner of Okla, 22 feels like 22, so I guess Muldoon is right. Going up to the forties today and tomorrow, then back to February.

Oklahoma has Winters. They're just sprinkled with bits of Autumn and Spring so they're not utterly intolerable like further north, nor too warm and dry like further south. But they do seem to be getting colder, darn that glow-ball worming.

Hey Pete, here's one for the nostalgia / childhood memories collection. Check out this kid's ninja throwing stars!

c/o Cracked: How Today's Culture Will Baffle Our Kids/Grandkids

Hey, BoB, local photographer captured some of your relatives enjoying the winter weather down here. Thought you might like to see 'em.

Doesn't eating your gold sort-of defeat the point?