Walden Ponderer

Side note -- Mrs. Ponderer's mother is a real piece of work; I'm kinda lucky, I suppose, given that my gawdawful mother-in-law is estranged from her child. Anyway, a few years ago, an attempt was made at reconciliation, and it predictably failed because my wife, in her glorious forthrightness, asked via email if her mother could name some regrets for which she would like to apologize and atone. The answer? "I shouldn't have let you read so much." Is it any wonder Mrs. Ponderer is even more of a leftist than I am? I don't marvel at it. Coming from her background would make anybody rebel. Well, first puke, and then rebel.

I'm used to collecting my own, but you're right -- I may need to just bite the bullet and buy some. They favor sweet woods over savory around here. Kinda goes with the theme of "pork is bbq" I guess. There's a few decent brisket joints, and I've asked --- they have their oak shipped to them.

The pine talk has me thinking. I have done a lot of grilling since moving to NC, and it's just fine for burgers or fajitas, but this 4th of July, I'm planning to smoke a brisket. I could travel a couple of hours to pick up some post oak, but all I have locally that might suffice is some shagbark hickory, or maybe a downed fruit tree or three. What say ye, Surly? What's the "next best thing" if you don't have oak to smoke with?

I'm making a trip to Charlotte tomorrow to pick up some furniture. Whataburger is in my future after more than a year now; I'm watching the clock.

Huh. Anybody know if there was a "Little Miss Insurrection" pageant that day in D.C.? Could tell us for sure where dear old dad was....

When it became obvious that Germany was losing WWII, Hitler made cuts the budget pretty much across the board, with the exception of concentration camps. Because hateful people hate other people more than they love themselves.

You'd think we'd elected Caligula the way these morons talk. Oh, wait, we did. We just kicked his ass out of office in January, too...

The more I think about it, this is the urban equivalent of a country phenomenon -- "Do not trespass" signs are almost always on the property you'd least feel like trespassing on anyway. Cardboard homes got nothing inside 'em I would consider worth stealing, just like country "estates" with rusted tractor chassis in the front yard don't do anything for me other than make me grateful for my last tetanus booster.

You'll forgive me if I have PTSD over head coach speak. It's really, really hard to heal from it.

I would hope having even one negative play would cause this kind of reaction from the head coach.

Meanwhile, Fetterman looks like "Bull" from Night Court.

Interesting thought -- if an aggy tried to make menudo, would they save the chaff, and throw away the intestine?

Wait, wait, wait... so you're saying Texas had the talent all along to do better...?

IRS: So long as it's not just the Jewish ones, Bob. Bob: Fuck.

Universal Computer Systems, aka Dealer Computer Services, which bought Reynolds & Reynolds via Vista Equity Partners (a slush fund Bob trumped up) and claimed it was a merger. His paper tiger figurehead at Vista sold him out and turned state's evidence, which is how we ended up where we are. Anyway, the sad irony is, the product Bob was pushing at UCS really was the superior product in the market at the time (dealership software is an unusual vertical market, but I won't bore you with details), but his inherent crookedness kept it from really taking off, as the big players had zero interest in having their data stored by a crook. So, the chump version of his Ferrari of a software platform is now the industry standard. He won't be remembered for any of his actual contributions, because his fundamental character flaws are all anyone will think of when they think of him at all.

Grad school at Yale, not Harvard?

We did a mock diplomacy exercise in my South Asian Politics GOV class at UT in '86 or '87 or so. I was part of team Russia, and we were giddy over getting the Americans to commit ground troops to Afghanistan while we left the region altogether. Funnest class I had during the three semesters I was a GOV major.

Jason Caviness: Seriously, WTF. Of course, the same complaints used to be made about Emmitt Smith, and I'm willing to bet Bijan's top speed puts Emmitt in his prime to shame, but what the fuck ever. CRACK: Not even once.

Bob's got a June competency hearing. I'm gonna make popcorn. I worked for him for more than 15 years; salary didn't suck, exactly, though the health insurance sure did. Anyway, having done software QA for one of the most dishonest men ever to have lived is really an eye-opener. The things we did for internal security so not only did no data ever get out, but no information about how we kept data from getting out ever got out, were measures that took paranoia to an eleven. We weren't allowed to have artwork on the walls, ostensibly because it made us behave in a more professional manner. I used to think it was because he was just a dick, but I'm now realizing he didn't want any surface that could conceal any sort of wires or cameras. Seriously. Dude isn't just a selfish, evil git, he's also paranoid to a degree that has to be seen to be believed.

I'm not advocating giving in a single inch on policy. I'm advocating punching them in the fucking nuts, but wearing American flag t-shirts while doing so.

Don't know if this has been posted (either this thread or elsewhere) but there was a really good article in Foreign Policy in February that dives into why the GQP is the way it is: How to Live With Authoritarians Democracies have to learn how to manage some people’s innate fears of change. The recommendation for dealing with them is to go ahead and push for progressive change, but do so in a way that is not overtly threatening. "Defund the police," for example, is a really, really stupid advertising gimmick, because it promulgates a GQP response to a clear existential threat. "Put social workers on the police force" is a much more sensible slogan, and effectively accomplishes the stated goals of the "defund" movement. Of course, on some issues, there's just no way to salve the wounded feelings of the Trumpkins: no amount of rebranding would have changed Barrack Obama into anything other than a black man, and that was just too much for these dingleberries.

I can't say I'm surprised that this thread is active and alive, but I did just want to stop by and say that if you're not actually trans and you still claim to care about this issue, it just proves you're a moron, and all your shit's regarded.