What nonsense. Lego doesn’t destroy children’s souls. Now, My Little Pony, on the other hand … The ATF: as corrupt as they are cruel and incompetent. The 10 states people are leaving. Some surprises at the bottom of the list. No surprises at all at the top. Our glorious ally in freedom, Saudi Arabia, has declared all atheists to be terrorists. Of course, Christians were already on their naughty list. Good infographic on militarization of policing. Does it worry anybody besides me that this list of most popular (actually, just most populated) U.S. jobs contains not a single position in…
Category: Money
Posts about being frugal, getting out of debt, staying out of debt, spending practically and splurging joyfully. This category may also contain posts about hard money and what the government is doing to all that “soft money” it creates.
Beaded guns. Yes, very, very weird. Cops in Hawaii assert that they really, really, really need that law that allows them, and only them, to have sex with prostitutes. So what exactly did Erdogan think would happen when he tried to ban Twitter? Didn’t somebody say something about “can’t stop the signal”? I see the point. Larry Page would rather leave his billions to Elon Musk than to charity. Dog names (per jed in comments). Belladonna Squishypup. Definitely beats Maggie. Or Max. Okay, now I’ve gotten some fabulous deals at garage sales, yard sales, estate sales, rummage sales, or jumble…
Man now living in the house of the lawyer who ripped him off. Sweet revenge. Boeing makes smart phones??? Who knew? Apparently this one self-destructs if tampered with. I’m not a sports person and I never heard of Dean Smith. But this is a touching tribute for a good man. Do seven people really control the security of the Internet? (H/T JB) Antimatter beams. Ho hum. So commonplace. (H/T JB) The most expensive eviction in NYC history. It involved the Mayflower Hotel, a cranky old hermit, and a room with a view. Quite a tale.
Inside Her Majesty’s Listening Service. Britain’s GCHQ, NSA’s partner in crime. (H/T JG) Are Bitcoins really just two-bit tulips? Arizona city to checkpoint operators: Get out of town. “Where’s their nerve? Today’s comics mock poop, not the powerful.” Truth. Well spoken. The 15 best movies that didn’t win Oscars. Some good ones in there.
Good bad attitude
Thursday, I went to that place I inaccurately refer to as The Big City. Mostly it qualifies as The Big City only if you’re used to places like Chicken, Alaska, or Rabbit Hash, Kentucky.
Still, despite not being as cosmopolitan as Casper, Wyoming, or as bustling as Pocatello, Idaho, our Big City has its metropolitan moments. Not all of them good.
To wit, we were at a stoplight, third in line to make a right turn, when an elderly gent started hobbling across the street with the aid of a cane. He was moving at a pretty good clip for a bent old guy. But that wasn’t good enough for the jerk whose truck was first in line for the turn.
Honk! Honk! Honk!
Said cretin laid on the horn. Hoping to accomplish what, I can’t imagine. Did he expect the old guy to hop on his cane and fly the rest of the way across the street?
My friend L. and I were indignant and feeling very bad for the harrassed octogenarian. But he didn’t need our sympathies. As he stepped to the curb, he raised an arm high over his head and gave the truck jerk an emphatic “friendly finger” before striding onward.
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Bad good attitude
The occasion for the Big City expedition was birthdays. Two friends are about to have them and a third missed hers a few months ago because she was in the hospital wishing she were dead.
So I told the three I’d take them to lunch at a lovely winery near the Big City. We’re blessed to have a gorgeous winery in this otherwise dreary working-class area and it’s always a treat to go there.
OMG, there may be a Velveeta shortage during the Super Bowl! … which would be especially awful when you consider whose teams are playing. What will happen when all those fans get the munchies? Dunno whether this bullying from a TSA thug is for real or not. Wouldn’t be surprised, though. Abramski case. I’d love to see the ATF get its arse handed to it on this one. Just in case you had any doubts about who the fedgov really works for. Judge rules sperm donor to be responsible for child support. Strange ruling. Governmentthink. Dogstuff: sweet and heartbreaking. (H/T…
Just when you think anti-gunners couldn’t make themselves sound more obviously stupid. Good reason to get a Finnish passport. 🙂 Four minutes. Four. To crack Obamacare “security.” Eh. No surprise, really. Fools. I became a writer by accident. For two years, I wouldn’t admit I was one because in my experience, they were mostly a bunch of drunken ne’er-do-wells. But maybe that’s a good thing. This focuses on what will trigger the next stock market mess. Implications (about triggering effects) go way beyond that. You’ll see what I mean. How to get rich and stay rich Again, not what you’re…
David Gross (a longtime reader and quiet contributor to this and my earlier blog) has just published his new book on successful tactics for tax resistance. I read an early draft of the book and contributed a blurb. I haven’t yet had a chance to read his final edit. The draft I saw was primarily directed toward groups who may use, or contemplate using, tax resistance as a form of protest. But even us lone wolves can take heart, inspiration, and ideas from the many, many historic examples of successful tax resistance campaigns Gross writes about. His book is a…
First thing: Thanks for your patience. Thanks for your support, both moral and material. Thanks for keeping the conversation going while I was away. Thanks to you most awesome people for fixing Joel’s eyeballs (even if he’s not feeling so good about it at the moment).
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Now, that said, I’m afraid I have to go ahead and have my existential crisis right in front of you. Which is, as I say up there in the headline, embarrassing.
It’s embarrassing having the crisis at all. It reminds me of my senior year in high school during which I was not only in a perpetual E.C., but pretentiously name-dropped Sartre and Camus to illustrate just how Deep and Profound my teen angst was. (I won’t do that on you now, I promise. Nevertheless, if you hate maundering confessionals, you might just want to skip this post.)
It’s even more embarrassing having an E.C. in public now that I’m a grownup. But I’m a writer and I find that the process of being a writer sometimes involves dumping out the contents of my brain in print.
This week I’ve got an article due. I’m halfway through it. But I’m not going to be able to finish until I empty all the brain junk and sort out what’s worthwhile and what’s not.
This judge wins the Ultra-Statist of the Week prize for excusing the NSA while kicking Snowden. I’ve been asking myself this question, too. When will insurance companies say, “Enough’s enough!”? We need more judges like Donald Beatty. (H/T Hobbit) Going “offshore” … in South Dakota. A sign of the times? And another sign of the times. Great one! College shooting ranges are on the rise. (Tip o’ hat to L.A.) The president of Uruguay. No matter what else you may think of him (or not think of him, since I’m guessing you spend a very, very small portion of your…