A different way of fighting addictions. Article is a little vague on whether these newish ways are more effective than the old. But it’s certainly good to see the old “you’re helpless, forever sick, and dependent only on a higher power” model of treatment getting some competition.
Kim Jong Un is terrified of … poor-quality imitation Moon Pies??? Well, take it with a grain of salt, but stranger things have helped bring down tyrants.
Obama The Great. Or why he thinks he is and is expects us peasants to acknowledge it. (Presidents do tend to be a scurvy lot, but I don’t believe we’ve ever had one more narcissistic than this guy.) UPDATE: G**gl* cached version, H/T. M. Original article has slipped behind a paywall.
It figures. There are actual scientists studying that great (and I really mean it) problem of modern life: why the heck all those electrical cords tangle into Gordian knots just by being left lying around.
Via jed: Order restored to universe as Microsoft gives back all those other-people’s domains it managed to crash.
It has been so freakin’ BUSY! I’m sorry for the “lite” posting, but when I do have some time, summer tempts me to spend it elsewhere than the computer.
While articles are being written, doors are also being painted, junk heaps reduced, and projects planned.
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I even (I blush to admit) spent time last week prepping artwork to submit to the county fair.
This week’s video of two pathetic gangsta wannabes trying to rob a jewelry store inspired me to doggerel poetry. Over at JPFO, I celebrate several notable acts of self-defense (and defense of others) from the last several years.
There were so many to choose from the only trouble was winnowing them down.
I thought the Hobby Lobby decision was the right one. I also think the owners of Hobby Lobby appear to be flaming hypocrites on the subject of contraception.
Right from the moment of legalization, Washington state authorities have treated cannabis use with gentle good humor. The latest: a series of ads about things that it’s now legal — but not necessarily smart — to do while stoned.
It might be no surprise the Microsoft security people just broke a chunk of the Internet The surprise (to me at least) is why the fedgov would give one private company control over another private company’s e-turf in the first place.
The way various govs have been treating Uber and Lyft is such a perfect example of the real agenda of government: protect the cartels.
So apparently Chris Christie still thinks he has a shot at running for president. He’s playing pro-gun this week.
Dog just hanging out in its own backyard. Cops canvassing neighborhood for a lost toddler (who turns out to be snoozing in his own family basement). Guess what cop does? Yeah. Again. But once again, the dog’s dad is on a take-no-prisoners quest for justice. (H/T furrydoc)
Okay, let’s have some better dog stories. Including this happy cop and “vicious” pit bull story via naturegirl.
New study warns against trying to cheer some folks up. Yeah, I can see that, for sure. Sometimes you just need validation and sometimes those cheery platitudes are just plain grating. Still … where comes the point where you just tell Debbie Downer to quit whining and fix her own life?
So former shooting hotshot and alleged historian Dick Metcalf. still hasn’t bothered to learn the meaning of the term “well-regulated.” And now the left is loving on him. (H/T RC) Bob Owens gives the useful idiot a touch of what he deserves.
Forget that. Cartoon time. Here’s one for Joel (via Never Yet Melted):
And one for all us makin’-a-livin’ arty types lost out here in Cyberland:
Is anybody surprised by the latest creepiness from F*c*b**k? And why do so many people not get that when the service is free, you’re not the customer; you’re the product?
During those horrible late-teen years of not knowing what I wanted to do with my life but knowing I needed money to do it, I managed to grind my way through three weeks as a door-to-door salesthing.
My one good memory from those endless years of days was (tellingly, I suppose) a hand-made No Soliciting sign. It said:
If you’re selling something
GO AWAY.
I don’t want your magazines, your cookies, or your religion.
I was tempted to knock on the door just to tell the people how cool I thought it was. I figured I have my own someday.
Most of my life since then I’ve lived in places where few commercial peddlers and only the most determined religionists dare venture, so I’ve had no need for a No Soliciting sign on my various hermitages.
Now, however, I live where we have mobs of door-to-doorists. It’s time to take defensive measures.
Ninety-nine things that make people happy. The article itself is short. Following the links will take you down various informational rabbit holes.
After several decades of increasingly warlike violence against Americans, the ACLU finally takes serious note (pdf). (H/T RL)
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Bonus read (to cheer you up after the ACLU report): My latest at JPFO, “What We Owe Ourselves Alone.” That one comes with a hat tip to MJR, whose comment here the other day inspired it.
I guess this has been around a while, but I just saw it: David Codrea’s Physician Liability Form. Print this out and hand it to any boundary-violating doctor who tries to poke into your gun ownership!
I found that via Kurt Hofmann who delivers a hearty smackdown to Mike the anti-gun “Gun Guy.” Anti-gun Mike’s latest BS is that the doesn’t think disabled people should be “allowed” to defend themselves.
Speaking of people who want to determine what’s good for you, the push to data-mine more of our health info is getting stronger and creepier.
Larry Page of the increasingly Don’t Be Evil Google thinks he could save “100,000 lives” a year if we’d all just trust him more. This is the same Google that’s basically an arm of the NSA. The same Google that just announced plans to ban all “dangerous” advertising. Which (she sighs with weary resignation) of course includes ads for you-know-what.
Oh yes, and it’s the same Google whose already-creepy surveillance products can be hacked so pathetically easily that real hackers wouldn’t even consider it a challenge.
But that ain’t nothin’, folks. Ain’t nothin’. You want to see real fanboy worship of Total Control Through Technology (TM)? Read this Economist article on birth-to-death e-ID. Wow. Such glowing. Much foolish. (Doge meme for anyone who thinks I’ve just lost all sense of grammar.)
You’ve decided you need to say no. To new volunteer obligations. Impositions on your privacy. Visits from relatives. Extra projects at work. Co-workers who crowd you. Whatever. (Maybe even to government, but more about that another time.)
But somehow no never quite ends up meaning no. Because this request for your time is so vital. And that request is just one small thing. And because it’s easier to just do it than to put all that energy into refusing again …
Real change has to begin with an ultimatum to yourself: No means no. No exceptions. No special cases. Above all no “Just this one time, please?” No. Means. No.
Because the first time you make an exception, you are dead. After that, everybody knows they can get what they want from you. And worse, you know you won’t stop them.
If you haven’t given yourself an ultimatum even stronger than the ones you’ve probably been trying to give other people, you’re doomed. You might say no once. You might say no twice, but in the long run “Just this one time, please?” is going to win because you haven’t effectively said “no means no” to yourself.
I know this. I am an expert in this subject. I have a Ph.D. in the field from long years of failure.
