“I don’t know how to explain to somebody what it feels like when your own military that you volunteered to fight for your country doesn’t want you.”
“It’s shark-infested waters to procure moms, to then procure their children, to then broker the baby to an adoptive parent. People are competing for women.”
“The raw milk movement didn’t start with leftist hippies. It started with cranky individualist farmers and their conservative customers, who fought against government regulators for their right to do as they pleased. From there it spread on both left and right, but even now it’s mostly a right-wing cause. The MAGA embrace of raw milk (and later RFK Jr.) is its natural end point, not a sudden embrace of crunchy hippiedom.”
Please enjoy the Royal Society Publishing Photo Competition for 2024.
“Millions of people are turning to AI for companionship. They are finding the experience surprisingly meaningful, unexpectedly heartbreaking, and profoundly confusing, leaving them to wonder, ‘Is this real? And does that matter?’”
“Normal people noted with satisfaction that all the Kennedys got together to denounce their relative for his conspiracism. For those inclined to believe in things like QAnon, that’s RFK’s best feature—not a bug. Those other Kennedys were frauds. RFK Jr., the only one with the courage to keep the faith, was Camelot’s true heir. That is his Kennedy magic: that he alone can defeat the Unspeakable.”
RIP, Merv Rettenmund, former ML player and coach who won two World Series and was an ace pinch-hitter.
Gifts for people you hate, 2024. If you are the type of person who needs this type of advice – and you know who you are – then this is the advice that you need. Also very funny regardless, and I’ve added a couple of the books it mentions to my Amazon list. There are lists from previous years as well.
“What is a boob?”
Three cheers for Armani Latimer.
“But the point is that you can’t cede the efficiency and reform brand to people whose real aim in cutting people’s Medicaid and Social Security. Because that’s pretty much where we are at the end of 2024.”
The reason why so many new shows on streamers get cancelled after one season is that the streamers have huge catalogs of older shows that perform really well for them.
“This is because conservatism isn’t Fox’s core brand. Outrage is. And the outrage isn’t just aimed liberals; it’s aimed at big government, big medicine, big banks, and anywhere else that outrage can be mined. This outrage naturally produces pessimism—why else would so many gold scammers advertise there?—and that pessimism is ultimately directed toward authority figures of all kinds.”
“Fog Data Science is a location tracking company that takes data harvested from smartphones and makes it accessible to cops. A document obtained by 404 Media shows the company explicitly says it will use doctors visits to unmask a target if needed.”
“What’s more, David Sacks’ appointment unambiguously indicates the tech vision that will win out under a Trump presidency: that we should disregard the very real dangers around crypto A.I.’s energy use and pollution and environmental plunder and copyright infringement and horrific output, for the direct benefit of the guys whose riches are fueling this dystopia—uh, sorry, for the good of the world or something.”
RIP, Rocky Colavito, former MLB player, coach, and broadcaster mostly with Cleveland, one of only 18 players to hit four home runs in a single game.
RIP, George Kresge, magician who performed as The Amazing Kreskin.
I have no idea how Bill Belichick will do as a college coach, but I’m fascinated by the idea.
“Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com, is required to remove a controversial login checkbox from WordPress.org and let WP Engine back into its ecosystem after a judge granted WP Engine a preliminary injunction in its ongoing lawsuit.”
“She’s full of shit and her prop of a sling is a pathetic ploy for attention.”
RIP, Janis Scott, longtime public transit advocate who was known as the “Bus Lady”. She was one of the first Black graduates of Rice University, in the class of 1974.
“The Trump transition team wants the incoming administration to drop a car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Elon Musk’s Tesla, according to a document seen by Reuters, a move that could cripple the government’s ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles with automated-driving systems.” What could possibly go wrong?
Kreskin maintained that he was a mentalist, not a magician or a psychic.
Why contradict him?