Mon. Dec. 18, 2023 – one week to go!

By on December 18th, 2023 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

Cold and clear. Supposed to be dry. It was cold and clear at the BOL until it warmed up, and then it got to mid 70s. It was pretty cold again as soon as the sun went down.

I spent Sunday doing the things I’d gone up to do. Took longer to unload the truck than to winterize. It’s much easier if you plan for it when doing the construction. In this case, I’d put all the hose bibs on a separate loop of pex that I put a valve on. Close the valve, open the hosebibs, and no worries about them freezing.

I also did what I could to drain the irrigation system, and opened the valves, and disconnected the hoses from them. I hope that’s enough to prevent damage. Of course, it might not freeze this year.

Or it might.

I spent about an hour chatting with my fisherman buddy up there, and his wife, before I drove home. Meatspace.

———-

Today is half day for the kids, so that cuts my day short. I’ve got a couple of pickups, and a drop off at my auctioneer. Some shopping to do. Some cleaning. And maybe some more decorations in the yard… I really like colored lights better than white.

Oh, and I need to re-bait all the poison boxes for the rats. There was evidence they’ve returned in the attic.

Later my sibling will come over and we’ll trade gifts. Won’t open them but we’ll have ours and he will have hers… or she will have his. Or “they” will have “theirs” to take home and open on Christmas.

There were roses on the rose bushes at the BOL, so even though I missed most of the color in the tree leaves, I did see that… take your joy where you find it.

Keep it close, nurture it, and stack.

n

72 Comments and discussion on "Mon. Dec. 18, 2023 – one week to go!"

  1. SteveF says:

    he will have hers… or she will have his. Or “they” will have “theirs”

    Zir will have zirs.

    Last Friday was the last day of school for The Child. I need to find things for her to do and I’ll also need to ride herd on the lazybutt as, absent monitoring and motivational boots to the butt, she’ll accomplish about 5% of her daily tasks … and that includes items like feeding her pets and brushing her teeth.

    Do any of you have experience with using shock collars on lazybutt teens? Uh, asking for a friend.

    The Indian government blamed the disaster on UC

    Has any Indian government since 1947 taken responsibility for anything? It’s like a nation made up of nothing but spoiled women, that way… an observation which greatly annoyed some Indian co”work”ers who were whining about the problems in their wonderful nation, all of which were caused by the British. Right. Tell ya, cupcake, if a couple hundred Brits employed by a private company were able to tear through and conquer your noble nation of hundreds of millions, that might possibly indicate that the nation had a problem or two before the Brits got there.

  2. Denis says:

    We had a beautiful clear, starry night. Orion the Hunter greeted me in the small hours like an old friend. Maybe he also had to get up for a pee…

    There was a hard frost this morning. Scraping it off almost made me late for the doctor. My blood oxygenation is a bit low and I have a cold, so at least the diagnosis is official.

     He reluctantly approved ex post of my starting the antibiotics, and re-prescribed them so I will again have a course on hand.

    Codeine-based cough medicine is sold out at the pharmacy, so there must be a lot of the crud about, and supply chains are not working as they ought. Get stacking!

  3. brad says:

    whining about the problems in their wonderful nation, all of which were caused by the British

    It is so easy to blame others for your problems. Heaven forfend people should take responsibility for themselves. I’m sure we can all think of numerous other groups where that is a problem. It also happens on an individual level, as in “my parents screwed me up” or whatever. Ultimately, it’s their country (or their individual life), and they can either whine about it, or they can fix it.

    Speaking of the British Empire, obviously British museums have a lot of artifacts from days of yore. There is periodic whining that they ought to return the artifacts to the original countries. Why? The British Empire existed and the artifacts are part of that history.

    – – – – –

    Ah, the semester is winding down. No grading this week. No real lectures, just reviewing. Probably not even a lot of that – the week before Christmas, the classrooms will be pretty empty.

    I’ve been doing AdventOfCode, but I found yesterday’s really difficult – just finished part 1 this morning. So now I’m behind. Ah well, happens every year, I haven’t ever done all 25 days. Back in my younger days, I would have competed. Now? I just do it as long as its fun…

  4. Greg Norton says:

    Yep, and still not a BILLION dollar settlement.

    If that is an award against Alex Jones is from a Texas court, I wonder how they around the Texas judgement limits of actual damages plus $250,000 pain and suffering.

    Federal Court. Austin jury pool.

    I’m sure the Texas judgement limit has exceptions. I see a half dozen commercials for law firms during “Hogan’s Heroes” and the local Faux News every night, and the ads sometimes feature the numbers on the settlements.

    As the property tax “reform” deal demonstrates, Texas isn’t a Republican state anymore.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    I’ve been doing AdventOfCode, but I found yesterday’s really difficult – just finished part 1 this morning. So now I’m behind. Ah well, happens every year, I haven’t ever done all 25 days. Back in my younger days, I would have competed. Now? I just do it as long as its fun…

    I couldn’t get the second part of Advent of Code Day One to work right, and I haven’t had time to look at it since.

    1
    1
  6. Greg Norton says:

    Christmas bloodbath! As Cruise and Spotify lay off HUNDREDS of workers… here’s a full list of companies culling staff

    – bbut I thought the economy was booming… /sarc

    None of the companies on the DM reporter’s list are particularly surprising. Lazy. Rachel Bowman worked for CNN prior to The Mail.

    Splunk is not just a security company. I didn’t know Cisco bought them. Not many people understand how important that protocol is to a bunch of critical systems, particularly financial transactions.

  7. Greg Norton says:

    “One user on X, formerly Twitter, asked Elon Musk about the feature, to which Musk replied that it’s an “optional pack that fits in about 1/3 of the truck bed. Still room for plenty of cargo. It’s meant for very long trips or towing heavy things up mountains.””

    Impressive.

    Expensive both in terms of added weight (660 lbs) and price $16,000.

    Hand waving.

    I’ve yet to see a Jesus Truck in my neighborhood, and we have a bunch of Tesla employees living up here for the schools.

  8. Greg Norton says:

    None of the companies on the DM reporter’s list are particularly surprising. Lazy. Rachel Bowman worked for CNN prior to The Mail.

    Hasbro’s fate is tied to Disney’s. Plus, they’ve let too much Wokester management from Wizards of the Coast infiltrate the C-suite at the parent company.

    Wizards of the Coast is a specialized publisher, not a manufacturer of physical items.

    I’ve seen reporting on D&D fan sites that Hasbro dumped that line’s Christmas campaign at Ollie’s, their usual liquidation partner, at some point last week.

  9. MrAtoz says:

    Speaking of the British Empire, obviously British museums have a lot of artifacts from days of yore. There is periodic whining that they ought to return the artifacts to the original countries. Why? The British Empire existed and the artifacts are part of that history.

    Please tell that to plugs:

    Erasing History: Arlington National Cemetery Removing Civil War Reconciliation Monument

    The FUSA is as bad as any Caliphate. “Let’s erase anything we don’t like.” A hundred years from now, historians will look upon the FUSA as the New Eden.

  10. MrAtoz says:

    I don’t think passengers will see a cent. SWA did pay out a lot of money already:

    Southwest Airlines is fined record $140million for December 2022 holiday meltdown where they canceled 16,900 flight leaving 2million passengers stranded

    I wonder what will happen when the old moldy FAA system fails? Will ButtPlug fine himself?

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    By erasing the Civil War monuments, they erase the idea that former combatants can stop fighting, and find a peace.   (yeah, I know, still goes on, and the atrocities need to be remembered, but in general, and as a matter of policy  )  

    They want endless war and division.

    —————————

    44F this am, sunny and mostly clear.   

    ————————–

    WRT British imperialism in particular, last week there was a meme about the most common holiday  celebrated in the world, once every 6 days, on average– and it’s independence from the British…

    Worth remembering only one lifetime later for most of the countries.

    n

  12. dcp says:

    I have a cold, so at least the diagnosis is official. He reluctantly approved ex post of my starting the antibiotics

    I would not expect antibiotics to help with a cold.

  13. brad says:

    I would not expect antibiotics to help with a cold.

    Definitely not.  My understanding is that antibiotics work against bacterial infections, because they interfere (in one way or another) with the bacteria’s metabolism or reproduction. 

    Viruses live inside your cells, so you don’t want something that attacks cellular function. That’s why anti-viral medicines have proven so hard to develop. In the end, your body has to ramp up the antibodies to the point that it can swamp the viruses when they explode out of one cell, before they can infect the next one.

  14. Greg Norton says:

    By erasing the Civil War monuments, they erase the idea that former combatants can stop fighting, and find a peace.   (yeah, I know, still goes on, and the atrocities need to be remembered, but in general, and as a matter of policy  )  

    They want endless war and division.

    Driven by Hollywood. The constant rumor on film geek sites this week is about the “People of Color” press screenings for “Aquaman 2” several days ahead of the non-segregated screenings.

    Warner may beat Disney to Bankruptcy Court, but “Wonka” numbers were ok.

  15. Greg Norton says:

    I would not expect antibiotics to help with a cold.

    Definitely not.  My understanding is that antibiotics work against bacterial infections, because they interfere (in one way or another) with the bacteria’s metabolism or reproduction. 

    A huge contributing factor to antibiotic resistance is the widely held belief among certain demographics that antibiotics will work against a virus. 

    The belief is widely held among the migrant agricultural workers in the US, for instance, and anywhere you find them along with the underground pharmacias supplying their medical needs, you will find high rates of resistance in the community as well as resistant E. Coli issues wherever the produce goes across the country.

    I saw a friggin’ scary report on resistance in Tampa at one drug company event 25 years ago. What saved the area from a disaster was most likely the tomato fields in Ruskin being plowed under for Amazon warehouses.

  16. Greg Norton says:

    Has any Indian government since 1947 taken responsibility for anything? It’s like a nation made up of nothing but spoiled women, that way… an observation which greatly annoyed some Indian co”work”ers who were whining about the problems in their wonderful nation, all of which were caused by the British.

    Among the colonists here, the women hold the financial power in the household through the dowry used to crush local competition in the real estate market when buying a home. The male typically holds the work permit, but the wives can get jobs through the spousal visa rules.

    A big problem at the local VA my wife frequently deals with are the Subcontinent female providers who just want to work part time. The management has even gone as far as firing – Imagine! A government job! – providers hired with the understanding that the position is full time but resort to threading-the-needle interpretation of sick leave, minimum patient load, and vacation hours to cobble together a part time schedule for themselves.

  17. Geoff Powell says:

    @greg:

    A huge contributing factor to antibiotic resistance is the widely held belief among certain demographics that antibiotics will work against a virus. 

    I have seen reports that another contributor is the widespread use of antibiotics as growth promoters to bring livestock to marketable size/weight earlier.

    G.

  18. Greg Norton says:

    I have seen reports that another contributor is the widespread use of antibiotics as growth promoters to bring livestock to marketable size/weight earlier.

    Antibiotics are definitely used in the factory farming of animals where communicable disease is a concern. Pigs and chickens are raised in massive barns across the Ozarks into Appalachia in the US.

    Hormones and steroids would be growth promoters.

    If you think it isn’t done in the EU, take a look at the bone the next time you have a chicken drumstick. If the bone developed normally, without any acceleration, you won’t see a curve.

    A curve is a sure sign of a factory farmed chicken.

  19. Denis says:

    I would not expect antibiotics to help with a cold.

    Whatever I have, it certainly is responding to the antibiotics, so I suppose it is bacterial. Could well be a bacterial infection piggybacking on a viral one while the immune system is busy elsewise. I had that after getting COVID – a hideous sinus infection, which was much nastier than the WuFlu itself.

    Anyhow, I am glad to live in a time and place where antibiotics are available and effective. Death by the crud or of sepsis is not a pleasant prospect.

  20. nick flandrey says:

    There is a lot of upper respiratory crep going around, some in combinations…

    If things are bad, they used to give ABX to kill the ‘ride along’ crap that took advantage of the viral infection…

    n

  21. MrAtoz says:

    I’m installing some wireless Eufy cameras to replace my aging Arlo cameras.

    Arlo wouldn’t offer any discounts. Arlo also has an annoying feature if you use Apple HomeKit. After any OS update, Arlos won’t work in HomeKit. You have to have Arlo send a new “token” to the base station. After iOS/tvOS 17, I had to try to token reset. It didn’t work and the solution is to reset the whole Arlo system. Some users on the forum are reporting that didn’t work unless you tried it a couple of times. New tokens issued inbetween. Arlo doesn’t have an online self issue token, so you may have to wait days to get one. The app still works fine, but having cams on the TV are convenient. But a reset after every update is rediculous.

    Dang, there are a million security cam systems out there now. I wanted one that has stand alone recording and Eufy does that with there base station with no additional fee. HomeKit only works with individual cams, with Eufy promising base station integration for all cams at once. I’m not holding my breath. I’ll probably just put the front doorbell cam on HomeKit.

    The outdoor cams have solar, so I’m going to see how well they keep the battery charged. The backdoor cam (LOL, hi Mr. Ray) is under a roof, but some people report they are still getting some charge. Install and connecting the cams was easy, four cameras up in about an hour.

    Eufy is owned by Anker, which I like, but Chinese.

  22. Alan says:

    Right place, right time… 

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/goodwill-vase-sold-at-auction-100000-jessica-vincent-wright-carlo-scarpa/

    BRB, gotta run to…umm….Goodwill, before @nick sees this…

  23. SteveF says:

    It’s that time of year where we need to start sharing Christmas music. And how better to start with this classic?

    Or this one, though not everyone views it as a Christmas song. (Like how some heathens say Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie.)

  24. Geoff Powell says:

    @stevef;

    Or this one,

    Thanks for the rickroll, SteveF.

    G.

  25. SteveF says:

    There’s a special place in hell Moochelle’s underwear drawer for people who spoil jokes.

  26. Ray Thompson says:

    Arlo wouldn’t offer any discounts

    I have four Arlo Pro 2 cameras and the base station. With those cameras I get local recording and no fees to Arlo. I bought two Arlo Pro 4 cameras. Well, what do you know! Those cameras will only record IF a person pays a monthly fee to Arlo. Even for local recording. Those two Arlo Pro 4’s are now just sitting on the shelf. Up yours Arlo.

    I have not been terribly impressed with WYZE cameras. I have my cameras set to activate at 11:00 PM and turn off at 06:00 AM. I have never seen anything on the cameras, even when I was walking in front of the cameras. I am obviously missing some settings and don’t fully understand what must be set to only record during those hours.

    I want to be able to record locally and with no monthly fee. I also don’t need HomeKit interfacing of the cameras.

  27. Lynn says:

    “BREAKING: Pope Francis publishes norms for clergy to ‘bless’ homosexual couples”

        https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-pope-francis-publishes-norms-for-clergy-to-bless-homosexual-couples/

    Wow, the Pope’s Bible must be different from mine.

  28. Greg Norton says:

    It’s that time of year where we need to start sharing Christmas music

    The all time favorite from my days working at the Death Star.

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

    The classics never seem dated.

  29. Lynn says:

    It’s that time of year where we need to start sharing Christmas music. And how better to start with this classic?

    No, no, no, no !   It is time for “Vince Vance & The Valiants – All I Want for Christmas Is You”.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HWHd0EYJA

    Vince has the world’s best hairdo.  And I do mean the awesomeest. I’ll bet that there is wire in that thing.

  30. Greg Norton says:

    “BREAKING: Pope Francis publishes norms for clergy to ‘bless’ homosexual couples”

    Wow, the Pope’s Bible must be different from mine.

    Big money for the church.

    I could have easily ended up married to my friend from engineering school who was somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum but she still wanted the big Catholic wedding experience paid for by Daddy.

  31. Denis says:

    “BREAKING: Pope Francis publishes norms for clergy to ‘bless’ homosexual couples”

    The turbine-like noise you hear is probably OFD spinning in the grave.

    It will be interesting to see what happens with the clergy who object to performing such blessings. Lawsuits, excommunication, Anglicanism?

    Unrelated: SteveF, you are a bad man. 

  32. Lynn says:

    Do any of you have experience with using shock collars on lazybutt teens? Uh, asking for a friend.

    The wife says that I need to step it up or else.  She did not specify what or else is.  Of course, here I am at work and she is at home bingeing “Young Sheldon”.

    I did bring her some chili cheese fries from Whataburger last night to share with me.  I got a small attaboy for that.  They were good !

  33. Lynn says:

    I could have easily ended up married to my friend from engineering school who was somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum but she still wanted the big Catholic wedding experience paid for by Daddy.

    She ???

  34. Lynn says:

    Oh, and I need to re-bait all the poison boxes for the rats. There was evidence they’ve returned in the attic.

    You know, they should bottle the “dead rat in the attic” smell.  It is way nastier than doe urine.  Try sharing that one with your buddies.

    Ah, the memories of shoveling insulation in the attic trying to find the dead rat in the summertime. Alternately gagging from the smell and swearing XXXXXXX sweating like a longshoreman.

  35. Lynn says:

    The Indian government blamed the disaster on UC

    Has any Indian government since 1947 taken responsibility for anything? It’s like a nation made up of nothing but spoiled women, that way… an observation which greatly annoyed some Indian co”work”ers who were whining about the problems in their wonderful nation, all of which were caused by the British. Right. Tell ya, cupcake, if a couple hundred Brits employed by a private company were able to tear through and conquer your noble nation of hundreds of millions, that might possibly indicate that the nation had a problem or two before the Brits got there.

    And they are all moving here.  I have many of them living in my neighborhood, all three and four generation families in the same 6,000 to 10,000 ft2 house. We have a rumor that there is a five generation family here but I do not believe it.

  36. Lynn says:

    I’ve been doing AdventOfCode, but I found yesterday’s really difficult – just finished part 1 this morning. So now I’m behind. Ah well, happens every year, I haven’t ever done all 25 days. Back in my younger days, I would have competed. Now? I just do it as long as its fun…

    No Advent Coding here, just real Fortran code that the customers are sending me daily emails for.

  37. Denis says:

    I got a rude surprise today. The garden shed at the BOL is dilapidated, to the point that panes of glass have started falling out of the “orangerie” window on one side of it. It is due for replacement, but not until next summer and/or when the household budget can provide.

    I went to the local building materials place to get three sheets of exterior 12mm (+/- ½inch) plywood to stop-gap the problem before it gets worse, and before the wind gets in and lifts off the roof too. Unbelievable – 100 (euro) bucks a sheet! Inflation is real. I am glad not to be building a house.

  38. Lynn says:

    If you think it isn’t done in the EU, take a look at the bone the next time you have a chicken drumstick. If the bone developed normally, without any acceleration, you won’t see a curve.

    A curve is a sure sign of a factory farmed chicken.

    Hey, I just figure that the chicken had scoliosis.

  39. Lynn says:

    “The real impact of inflation: another view”

        https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-real-impact-of-inflation-another.html

    “The article goes on to cite the well-known example of inflation from the movie “Home Alone” – read it at the link if you haven’t already heard it.  Because it relies on official inflation rates, it obviously underestimates cost increases;  but the numbers for the period 2022-2023 are much closer to the truth.  The article points out:”

    In 2022, that same basket of groceries would have cost around $44.40 based on a shopping trip by a West Virginia mother. That’s a 123.9% increase. (Keep in mind prices vary somewhat depending on the store and location.)

    This year, Kevin would have to fork out a whopping $72.28 for his provisions at a Chicago store. That’s another 62.8% increase in just one year.

    Yup, that is the inflation that I am seeing. HEB is desperately trying to keep the prices down but Kroger has given in to them.

  40. SteveF says:

    Unrelated: SteveF, you are a bad man.

    I graciously acknowledge that I just plain suck as a human being. I probably also suck as an AI or a space lizard wearing a human fleshsuit.

    they should bottle the “dead rat in the attic” smell.  It is way nastier than doe urine.

    Two teenage boys in Texas (?) were arrested and charged with felonies for spraying Fart Spray in school. Reportedly dozens were “sickened” and a handful were taken away in ambulances, while the custodial crew is working “frantically” to decontaminate the site. This per a clip from a news program which I saw late last night or early this morning, though I didn’t notice if it happened yesterday or five years ago.

  41. Lynn says:

    Dilbert Reborn, Dec 18, 2023

         https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/comments/18labjo/dilbert_reborn_december_18th_2023_posted_for_free/

    Yeah, Dave is milking it for all he can.

    Oh wait, I presumed a pronoun for Dave.  My bad.

  42. Ken Mitchell says:

    Francis is the Anti-pope, whose aim is to destroy the Catholic Church. 

    But the Queering of the Church has been going on for 50+ years, which is part of the “child sex abuse” problems that has been widely reported. 

  43. Greg Norton says:

    And they are all moving here.  I have many of them living in my neighborhood, all three and four generation families in the same 6,000 to 10,000 ft2 house. We have a rumor that there is a five generation family here but I do not believe it.

    Who is the big Subcontinent employer out there beyond HPE at the old Compaq campus?

    And, yeah, they love those big houses.

    My house was originally built by an Indian family, and the layout could easily accomodate another master suite made from the living and dining rooms with two more bedrooms upstairs possible by splitting the bonus room.

  44. Greg Norton says:

    I could have easily ended up married to my friend from engineering school who was somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum but she still wanted the big Catholic wedding experience paid for by Daddy.

    She ???

    She. Genetic female who presented as feminine.

    We haven’t spoken since graduation.

    It was the 80s – we never talked about her preferencess, but I assumed.

    She and the girlfriend took me to “Truth or Dare”, probably just to see if it shocked me.

    Nah. I don’t think she had any idea of what I liked.

    The girlfriend is now a producer on the Today show. I don’t know if they are still together.

  45. Greg Norton says:

    Nah. I don’t think she had any idea of what I liked.

    I’ve worn a “Robert Culp circa 1980 ”Greatest American Hero” haircut for decades. People just assume.

  46. Brad says:

    Christmas Songs? Twisted Christmas. Also the classic: Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

  47. Ray Thompson says:

    Fart Spray in school. Reportedly dozens were “sickened” and a handful were taken away in ambulances

    As Mr. Atoz would point out, there is an opportunity for Mr. Ray to get classified as a deadly weapon. Dead Rat Smell? Rookies.

    I could have easily ended up married to my friend from engineering school who was somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum

    I dated a girl in high school who eventually turned out to be gay. The burning questions are:

    Did she turn gay because she thought I was the best possible and another male would be a letdown.

    Did she turn gay because she thought I was the best possible and surely there were better options.

    Did she take one look at the one-eye-wonder-worm and get frightened never to encounter again.

  48. Greg Norton says:

    Christmas Songs? Twisted Christmas. Also the classic: Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

    Jacor/Clear Channel in the 80s further twisted that into “Grandma Got Dismembered With A Chainsaw” which circulated on their stations well into the 90s.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfDUKfHN4Nk

  49. Greg Norton says:

    OFD isn’t around to post this so I will do the honors.

    With all the talk about Texas and swimming naked, I’m sure Dave would have put this one up today.

    https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/in-the-game-of-strip-poker-someone-ends-up-naked/

  50. Greg Norton says:

    Yeah, Dave is milking it for all he can.

    Oh wait, I presumed a pronoun for Dave.  My bad.

    The correct ESG consulting term for Dave’s event is a “POC” party.

    I wonder what happens if a white critic shows up at Warner’s POC screenings of “Aquaman 2” this week. Are they asked to leave?

  51. Lynn says:

    “EPA Targets Vinyl Chloride and Four Other Chemicals for TSCA Priority Risk Evaluation”

        https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/industrynews/news/33016440/epa-targets-vinyl-chloride-and-four-other-chemicals-for-tsca-priority-risk-evaluation

    We can probably make do without PVC (poly vinyl chloride) pipes and other plastics.  Or just let China make it all.

    2
    1
  52. Lynn says:

    “Maher: “It’s Hard To Negotiate When The Other Side’s Position Is – You All Die And Disappear””

        https://www.zerohedge.com/political/maher-its-hard-negotiate-when-other-sides-position-you-all-die-and-disappear

    Yup.  It is called genocide and has been used liberally throughout the ages.

  53. Lynn says:

    “A Record Number Of American 40-Year-Olds Have Never Been Married”

       https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/record-number-american-40-year-olds-have-never-been-married

    “But interestingly, it isn’t just a case of more people cohabiting without getting married: Analysts found that many of the adults surveyed in 2021 were living alone, with just 22 percent of those who had never married between the ages of 40-44 reporting that they were living with a partner.”

    “Looking at a breakdown of the 2021 data by different demographic groups, men were more likely to be unmarried by 40 than women, at 28 percent and 22 percent, respectively.”

    When you don’t get married for religious reasons and you are not having kids, why get married ?

  54. paul says:

    When you don’t get married for religious reasons and you are not having kids, why get married ?

    How about, When you don’t get married because she can divorce you at will and take half, if not most, of everything you own?  And Heaven help you is there is a child or two involved.

    Oh, and tack on alimony.. Because her living on your dime for a few years somehow destroyed her career so you have to pay for lost wages.
    Or something like that.

    12
  55. Greg Norton says:

    Yup, that is the inflation that I am seeing. HEB is desperately trying to keep the prices down but Kroger has given in to them.

    Kroger is publicly traded where HEB is privately held.

    The Gieco Gecko holds a big chunk of the stock along with the usual suspects of Vanguard, Black Rock, and State Street.

  56. Lynn says:

    Kroger is publicly traded where HEB is privately held.

    Also, Kroger is Unionized whereas HEB is not. Labor costs are higher for Kroger.

  57. Greg Norton says:

    Also, Kroger is Unionized whereas HEB is not. Labor costs are higher for Kroger.

    If your Kroger has general merchandise – clothing, electronics, light hardware – those Kroger employees are not unionized. At least, they weren’t in the Fred Meyer subsidiary in WA and OR, both big progressive states.

    That made for interesting in-store politics with laws favoring unions.

    Fred Meyer general merchandise was usually decent and that area of the store kept spotless. When we lived in WA State, I bought all of my jeans there.

  58. Lynn says:

    If your Kroger has general merchandise – clothing, electronics, light hardware – those Kroger employees are not unionized. At least, they weren’t in the Fred Meyer subsidiary in WA and OR, both big progressive states.

    That made for interesting in-store politics with laws favoring unions.

    Fred Meyer general merchandise was usually decent and that area of the store kept spotless. When we lived in WA State, I bought all of my jeans there.

    My 100,000+ ft2 Kroger is about 80% grocery and pharmacy.  Very few clothes.

       https://www.google.com/maps/@29.5415885,-95.7505524,19.54z?entry=ttu

  59. drwilliams says:

    from yesterday:

    @lpdbw: “Burn a flag?  I agree, free speech.  Trucker or biker knocks your teeth out for doing that inflammatory act?  Also free speech.” 

    @dcp: “I disagree.  His right to swing his fist ends at anyone else’s face.”

    The Fighting Words Doctrine:

    Fighting words are spoken directed to the person of the hearer which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the person to whom, individually, the remark is addressed. The term fighting words describes words that when uttered inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.

    from Chaplinsky (1942):

    Chaplinsky, a  Jehovah’s Witness , had purportedly told a New Hampshire town marshal who was attempting to prevent him from preaching that he was “a damned racketeer” and “a damned fascist” and was arrested. The court upheld the arrest and wrote in its decision that:

    There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any Constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or “fighting” words – those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality. — Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 1942 (9-0)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_words

    Fast forward to the present, and half the country is calling the other half “fascist” [leave, for the moment, that it’s an Alinsky charge and those doing the calling are, by definition, the fascists]. 

    As @lpdbw made explicitly clear, burning a flag is considered by some to be inflammatory “speech”.

    I believe it is implicit in the statement that it is an American flag, and burning it is an act of extreme disrespect to our country. Note that during the Vietnam era the protesters doing the burning chose the American flag, not their state flag. 

    Whether burning the flag is sufficiently inflammatory to justify a punch in the face is a good question. I submit that it could be, but law enforcement is going to arrest the puncher (if they can), not the flag burner.

    except…

    What there is a peaceful counter protest to one of the illegal rallies for the murdering Hamas scum and they proceed to burn a Palestinian flag? Who do you think the police are going to arrest?

    What if the protesters also believe in open carry and defending themselves when their constitutional rights are violated?

    town marshal who was attempting to prevent him from preaching that he was “a damned racketeer” and “a damned fascist” and was arrested.

    Chaplinsky spoke the truth.

  60. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    “We can probably make do without PVC (poly vinyl chloride) pipes and other plastics.”

    The EPA will put in the regulations and make 2″ PVC $10 a foot and require scraps to be placed in a hazardous waste landfill. The price of housing will go up another 1%. The alien invaders will have their housing subsidized.

  61. drwilliams says:

    “I wonder what happens if a white critic shows up at Warner’s POC screenings of “Aquaman 2” this week. Are they asked to leave?”

    A: “I identify as POC”

    Let’s make “Caucasian” as popular as another term from the era “negroid”. Every time you see it, check “Other” or “Multi”, fill in Pink Norte Americano, and file a civil rights complaint.

    Reminds me of a joke:

    Did you hear about the moron that moved from State A to State B? Raised the IQ of both states.

    HTH did that joke pop out?

    Knew a guy from Dubuque, Iowa that moved to another state in the 1970’s. He introduced himself as an Iowegian.

  62. drwilliams says:

    “Video of the Penn Station incident. 500 Hamas supporters shouting slogans surrounded us. I put on an Israeli flag I carry with me. The cowards hid behind their masks. NYPD insisted I remove the flag as situation was getting dangerous.”

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/12/pro-palestine-rioters-disrupt-travel-grand-central-port-authority-bus-terminal-and-penn-station-in-new-york-city/

    “Fascist”

  63. Ken Mitchell says:

    Whether burning the flag is sufficiently inflammatory to justify a punch in the face is a good question. 

    I would say “Yes”, but there’s another point to be considered.  Who brought the flag? Who OWNS the flag? If a protester buys a flag out of his own pocket and then wants to burn it, that’s one thing.  If the protester takes down a flag from a flagpole, then the additional matter of theft of the flag comes into play, and if it’s MY flag, then I’ll hit the little twerp with my cane and feel FULLY justified in doing so. 

  64. nick flandrey says:

    Germans to defend the Lithuanian border from Russia.   Holy shite.   

    n

  65. Nick Flandrey says:

    Somehow I missed that Sandra Day O’Conner died?

    Flags at half staff tomorrow in Texas…

    n

  66. Nick Flandrey says:

    I won’t be going to sleep, but I’m going to read for a bit.

    It would be nice to get some extra sleep…

    n

  67. brad says:

    Defending a border from people crossing illegally – arresting them? No, because then they are still on the wrong side of the border. Don’t let them cross in the first place. Use deadly force as required – it won’t be required past the first couple of idiots.

    In Europe, Russian and Belarus are playing weird games. Bringing illegal migrants way the heck up north, to send them into Lithuania. Previously also Latvia and Estonia, but they have finished their border fences and apparently successfully defending them. What do Russia and Belarus gain from this? No idea…

    You do feel bad for the migrants, in the sense that they are being used as disposable pawns in an ugly political game. Still, they could have stayed home. As it is, they can stay in Russia and Belarus.

  68. Alan says:

    So TX LEOs are going to start shooting anyone heading towards the TX border while they are still on Mexican sovereign territory? Could get interesting…

    Though, how about we send our border czar-ina (the Kamel) there and equip her with a high-power laser pointer and she picks the “targets”?

  69. Denis says:

    Christmas Songs? Twisted Christmas. Also the classic: Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

    Don’t forget the Kevin Bloody Wilson classic, “Hey, Santa Claus”.

  70. brad says:

    So TX LEOs are going to start shooting anyone heading towards the TX border while they are still on Mexican sovereign territory? Could get interesting…

    What’s the current figure? 10k/day? That’s 3.6 million/year? And those are the ones they know about. That is simply not sustainable.

    Illegally crossing a border must be so dangerous that people stop trying to do it. On top of that, you need to remove the reward: when an illegal immigrant is found, you must immediately deport them.

Comments are closed.