Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (7/26/17)

Quote I

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. Epictetus

Quote II

Doesn't matter what you say or do; people can always find a way to call you a dick. Dave Attell

Quote III

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death. Leonardo da Vinci

Snowflake. Real or Fake? h/t ibguy.

Another victory for law abiding citizens in Washington, D.C. Another victory for gun rights.

A federal court struck down the District of Columbia's gun-carry law as unconstitutional on Tuesday.

In a 2-to-1 ruling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the city's requirement that those who apply for a gun-carry permit must show "good reason" beyond the desire for self-defense or residence in a high-crime area before being granted one runs afoul of the Second Amendment. The court said the Constitution guarantees a right to carry a firearm for self-protection for the law-abiding, even outside of the home. The ruling is the latest in a series of federal court rulings rebuking the nation's capital for unconstitutional gun laws that stretch back more than a decade and include a half dozen decisions against the city.

Well, this explains a lot. Jimmy Carter had an E.T. moment before becoming president.

Believing anyone who claims to have seen an unidentified flying object is a tricky proposition. For most of us, seeing is believing, and unless we were the one who spotted it with our own eyes, it can be hard to take someone else’s word for it.

But what happens when the source claiming to have seen a strange object hovering in the sky is the President of the United States of America? That might make some believers out of us all, right? In 1969, a young Jimmy Carter—then just a Georgia politician—reported having seen a UFO, though people were largely skeptical of his claim.

Don't care about your kids or anyone else? Don't vaccinate your offspring.

With firm vaccination campaigns, the US eliminated measles in 2000. The highly infectious virus was no longer constantly present in the country—no longer endemic. Since then, measles has only popped up when travelers carried it in, spurring mostly small outbreaks—ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred cases each year—that then fizzle out.

But all that may be about to change. With the rise of non-medical vaccine exemptions and delays, the country is backsliding toward endemic measles, Stanford and Baylor College of Medicine researchers warn this week. With extensive disease modeling, the researchers make clear just how close we are to seeing explosive, perhaps unshakeable, outbreaks.

OMG, the sky is going to fall. People will die. Doctors and nurses will be unemployed. Hospitals will go dark. Well, that's what the left says.

The likeliest option is that senators will vote on a bill that gets rid of just parts of Obamacare—the individual and employer mandates, which impose penalties on individuals and businesses above a certain size that refuse to buy health insurance. Abolishing these mandates is considered a “skinny repeal.”

What will that mean?
Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute, says it would be catastrophic. Canceling the employer and individual mandates would, according to a CBO estimate, lead to 15 million people losing health insurance over the next decade. That’s not as bad as a complete repeal (32 million) or as the various proposed versions of the Republican health-care bill (22-23 million). Indeed, notes Bivens, the skinny repeal preserves Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, the government health program for the poor, and “most of the people who got coverage [under Obamacare did so] through Medicaid expansion,” so those, the most vulnerable, are protected.

Adam Carolla and Dennis Praeger.

Part Mad-Max, part The Gauntlet, ISIS cars.

And here you thought they only banged goats.

Firefighter rides hose.

14 common features of the eternal fascist. Right or wrong?

July 26, 1943, Born on this day, Mick Jagger, vocals, The Rolling Stones, (1969 UK & US No.1 single 'Honky Tonk Women', and over 35 UK & US Top 40 singles and albums). Solo (1985 UK No.1 single with David Bowie 'Dancing In The Street'). 1985 UK No. 6 solo album 'She's The Boss.' In 2003 he was knighted for his services to popular music and in early 2009 he joined the electric supergroup SuperHeavy. via thisdayinmusic.com

July 26, 1986, Peter Gabriel went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Sledgehammer', a No.4 hit in the UK. The song's music video has won a number of awards, including a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards. Gabriel was also nominated for three Grammy Awards. As of 2011, 'Sledgehammer' is the most played music video in the history of MTV. via thisdayinmusic.com

Jamey Johnson.

Jamey Johnson stands up to House of Blues. And House of Blues cancels his concert.

ut they found an obstacle between them and the stage. And it was all in the name of ‘safety’.

What they were looking for, of course, was the band to be disarmed.

Jamey Johnson had no interest in being disarmed, not for them, not for anybody.

Bill Burr NSFW

Gavin McInnes NSFW

Everyday we are bombarded with Transgender stories/links. What is their goal?

he transgender issue is evolving into the pursuit of a more radical cultural agenda as well. You might be surprised, given how often transgender kids issues appear in the news cycle these days, that they only make up less than .5 percent of the population. If the mainstream media were to tell it, parents are encouraging more and more kids to embrace their transgender nature and transition from the gender they were born with to the gender that aligns with their feelings—psychiatrists say this begins with gender dysphoria. From Jazz Jennings, who now has her own TLC show, to Corey, Elizabeth, Jackie, and Jacob, a steady stream of these stories are featured on primetime shows like Nightline, Good Morning America and the evening news.

Despite increasing news coverage, evidence shows that encouraging kids to transition at a young age, before hormones kick in, ultimately hurts kids. For example, this pediatrician describes finding after finding—from increased risk of suicide to the harmful effects of puberty blockers—that show how the push to encourage gender transition can harm children.

Maybe we don't want to reproduce anymore. Perhaps we have said "Fuck It!". Sperm count down-Big time.

Sperm counts among men have more than halved in the last 40 years, research suggests, although the drivers behind the decline remain unclear.

The latest findings reveal that between 1973 and 2011, the concentration of sperm in the ejaculate of men in western countries has fallen by an average of 1.4% a year, leading to an overall drop of just over 52%.

“The results are quite shocking,” said Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist and lead author of the study from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Psychopaths have feelings: can they learn how to use them?

Psychopaths have long captured the imagination. The names of famous psychopaths, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, evoke a morbid curiosity. The crimes committed by these men are so vicious, so unfathomably cruel, that it’s impossible to imagine how someone could do such a thing. The severed heads kept as mementos in Bundy’s apartment or the partially eaten body parts stowed away in Dahmer’s refrigerator are the result of simply inexplicable personalities. So it makes sense that the psychopath is often portrayed as cold-blooded and fearless, and, most of all, as a predator incapable of human emotion. However, research is growing to suggest that this might not be totally accurate.

Coming to a village, town, city near you. Listen To America Tour.

Why anyone would care about the opinions of a basket of deplorables is beyond me; Clearly, the Huffpost's “Listen to America Tour” never would have happened had Hillary Clinton been elected.

Just another reason to avoid Face Book like the plague. Mom. Pot. Bong. Breast. Baby. Some assembly required.

And here we have the trash bag of the week.

There are a lot of great moms out there. But then of course there are a lot of crappy moms as well. And this article here will focus on the latter. And who has the spotlight? An Oregon mom named Kayla Marlow who thought it would be a brilliant move to breastfeed her baby all while smoking from a bong. Oh, and she shared a photo of it as well on Facebook.

Suspicious vehicle? Really. Genius Award Winner.

To serve and protect. And to hike the football on 2. Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Pizza.

Notice: Posted with permission by Ace Corp, LLC. Reading The ONT may cause restlessness.

posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:05 PM

| Access Comments