The Frankish Reich

It's old school ethnic politics with new school ethnicities. For years and years Buffalo was that way. The Italians voted for the Italian. The Irish for the Irishman. The Poles for the Pole. Then the blacks for the black candidate. And now in LA, the old school hispanics see a threat from the new arrival Oaxacan hispanics, and worry that the spoils of office will be sucked away from them by the black council members and their allies. I've always believed that the lower the level of government, the higher the level of corruption and pettiness.

People should pay attention to what Herschel Walker saying. It's kind of a run of the mill scandal - John Edwards + abortion politics. But what are we to make of this response in a friendly interview by Republican hack Hugh Hewitt: And although he has campaigned in support of a national abortion ban at 15 weeks of pregnancy, Walker suggested to Hewitt that there would have been no shame in having undergone the procedure. “I hate to say I’ve been born again, but I have a new life. And I’ve been moving forward, and had that happened, I would have said it, because it’s nothing to be ashamed of there,” Walker said. This reveals a great truth. The anti-abortion stand has always been that it's taking an innocent human life, or at least a potential life, such that it's akin to murder. Who would say there's nothing to be ashamed of in having aided and abetted a murder? No one. But Walker has no problem with the "hey, it's legal, nothing to be ashamed of there" response. So maybe it's not akin to murder. Maybe it's something else entirely. Maybe this "abortion is taking an innocent human life" is something people instinctively say without really thinking it through. I suspect that deep down everyone (everyone but the Pope?) thinks this way. Hence JD Vance, running for the Senate, also saying that he would allow abortion if the pregnant child is 10 years old. Or maybe 11. Or maybe 12. Or maybe ... 17? Or maybe if the pregnancy is the product of forcible rape? Or unforced ***** [that one got censored - it's the word that means relations with close kin] (because of eugenic reasons? I never got that one). Hey, if it's murder, it's murder. This is a profoundly inconsistent position, and no one is really calling these would-be Senators on it.

You know how everyone likes to use the term "binary choice" these days? Well, that's what it was. The Mad King vs. The Last Chance Career Mediocrity. When I voted against Trump (and that's what it was, a vote against him, not for Biden) I didn't even know the full scope of his power mad insanity that was to come. And thank God 81 million people did the same thing.

As old Joe would say, c'mon man. Is that for one week? $300 per person? What the heck are you eating? Ain't nobody spending that much for eating at home.

Didn't know the Duggar Family were Bills fans.

No. The black Republican politicians I mentioned are all jokes. Senator Tim Scott is a black Republican who is a serious man with an inspiring background. But he’s no longer considered a leader on the national stage because he isn’t all in on the Great White Fraud. You know, Trump.

Interesting pro-life sentiments from the latest Great Black Hope of the GOP, Mr. (Kan)Ye (West), who seems to draw the line on right to life not at 12 or 15 weeks, but rather at Gentile v Jew. Keep looking, Repubs. Somewhere there’s a Ben Carson who can keep his eyes open, a Herman Cain who isn’t a serial sexual harasser, a Herschel Walker who isn’t the minor league Travis Henry, a Ye who doesn’t call for the killing of Jews ….

Here we go again, as if anyone has any doubt about the party affiliation of basically every single member of a city council in any major US city. EDIT: for those who don’t get all their “news” from fake outrage Twitter mills, here’s the headline on the NYT site right now: ”President Biden joined a growing chorus calling for the resignation of three Democrats …” This is how your Twitter fools operate. It’s not the story itself. It’s the meta story! The mainstream media is ignoring the fact that a Democrat did/said stupid/bad thing! Except once again it takes like 3 seconds to find out they’re wrong.

Classic stupid question. From the National Institute of Aging’s definition of dementia: ”Dementia is the loss of cognitive function—thinking, remembering, and reasoning—to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.” My parents are elderly. I’ll be the first to admit that they’re not quite as quick as they used to be. Sometimes I have to ask a question or repeat a series of instructions a couple times in order to make sure they understand. But they live alone, pay their bills on time, never have problems requiring special assistance in their day-to-day lives, etc. In other words, they are not suffering from “dementia.” Just some typical old age slowing down. Should they be President? No. I mean, not at 80-something. My dad used to run a complex logistics operation. Should he try to do that today? Of course not. Is he demented? No. There’s a reasonable answer to a stupid question. Feel free to solicit my opinion on the other members of our gerontocracy or gerontocracy in exile.

Because it’s still a federal crime, and being convicted of it has some major consequences: eligibility for student loans, subject to drug testing not related to job performance (eg, not drug testing a truck driver or pilot entering on duty, but randomly drug testing an accountant or prospective federal employee). If we are not enforcing the law by charging a crime, we need to go the next step and make it not a crime at all.

Thanks. I had forgotten about that. People often mention Rich Gannon as a late bloomer, which is true in that his best seasons (by far) came in his mid-30s, but he did have some modestly effective seasons with the Vikings long before that. Whereas Geno was pretty much trash until this season. I keep waiting for the bubble to burst, but …

As I’m sure everyone’s seen, there are precisely ZERO persons now in the federal pen for “simple marijuana possession.” I support federal legalization. Not just “decriminalization” but actual legalization. With a regulatory system similar to alcohol. I also support pardons/expunging the criminal records of many convicted of marijuana crimes. On the federal level, think “caught by a Park Ranger with weed in a National Park.” Seriously, that’s what simple federal MJ possession charges often are. What I don’t support is the wholesale pardoning of ALL simple possession offenses. Historically, many were pleaded down from more serious trafficking offenses. This takes us further down the silly road where we’re talking about giving a preference in getting legal weed distribution licenses to those who previously had weed convictions—in other words, since you have experience in circumventing the laws we should especially trust you to comply with all the new rules in the highly regulated legal industry. It is idiocy, but today people have a hard time drawing the obvious lines.

Up until last month I was ready to take on all comers who wished to debate me over my proposition: that time has proved that EJ Manuel was, in fact, the best QB available in the 2013 draft. I stand corrected. All we needed was Geno + 9 years of patience, thereby depriving Buddy Nix of his one claim to Bills draft fame.

Please do this Panthers. Why the hell not? At least you get someone other than the opposing team’s fans to pay attention to you for one sports news cycle.

November 17, 2009 - January 4, 2010. More of a Perry Fewell epoch. But what a memorable epoch it was.

Well, there was that. But if that was Josh he’d be trying his hardest to fake his way back into the game too. I never want to gloat over a team’s misfortune caused by a potentially serious injury. (Brady’s knee injury excepted, of course)

Funny, yeah, opening the thread to see that banner. But I do feel a little bad about laughing since it’s three concussions to two QBs that got them to this point. Are you certain we would’ve beaten the Jets with a QB signed off the street if Allen and Keenum went down? (I’d feel pretty good if Matt Barkley could be signed off the Falcons practice squad though)

But with that one … maybe he is?

I imagine there’s a lot of gentlemen’s agreements out there — you’ll agree to take a spot on the PS, and if we don’t elevate you by [date] we won’t get in the way of you finding another home. And maybe even give you a good rec…

Rather than being somehow better suited to the left side in the abstract, I’d guess that Bates benefitted from playing next to a really good LT (Dawkins) rather than a still-developing RT (Brown)

Thank you for reminding me of the bad old days. The chaplain who was consulted on 4th down decisions like he was more of a voodoo priest.

I love it. And if Daboll/Dorsey did it you'd love it too.

I think it's actually calculus. You need to find all those inflection points: - Tampa vs. the Jets. Is it o.k. for me too root for the Jets to beat Brady? They are no threat to us, so I guess that's o.k.? - Tampa vs. the Raiders. A very minimal threat. O.K. to root for the Raiders? That feels o.k., but I'm not sure. - Tampa vs. the Chargers. Now it's getting complicated. Or maybe we can just enjoy a damn football game and not have someone telling us how we're supposed to feel when we're watching it.

My wife loves the look of the Stelvio. I've been the boring husband blabbering on about reliability issues. What's your experience?

Silly fanboy stuff. The same stuff we dealt with a generation ago with Kelly is better than Marino and Elway. Two future no doubt Hall of Famers, we've got one of 'em, and people still have to find a reason to split hairs.