Ahem, MotoGP runs in Qatar with Jorge Martin, reigning champion, returning from injury with minimal seat time on his Aprilia. I expect a top 5 at best from him. This is not because he lacks talent, but because everyone else has six races under their belts (3 sprint, 3 full length) in addition to testing, practice, and quals.
MotoAmerica properly kicked off at Barber this past weekend. The flowing track had good competition on day one between Cam Beaubier and Bobby Fong, now riding in Cam Petersen's old spot, who went at it. Jake Gagne finished third and looks better than he did early last season with carpal tunnel issues. Herrin struggled a bit and finished 5th. Richie Escalante had looked fairly hot until he stoppied under braking and couldn't slow appropriately for a turn. Impressive given the litany of injuries from his horrific wreck last year.
Race 2 was in the rain which always mixes things up. Gagne took an easy first with his extensive dirt riding background and comfortable rain set up leading to an enormous gap. Cam Beaubier finished second. Bobby Fong had been running well until a visor issue forced him to drop pace and finish 5th. A late rally from Herrin put him on the podium for third.
Supersport looks like Matt Scholz will be the front runner on the new Yamaha R9.
All I can say about Wes is I quit following him when I realized he wasn't just publishing sock puppet talk to get paid but actually believed the crap he churns out. And he takes himself very serious, or at least his "brand."
I am thrilled a new Prelude is coming down the pike. I love the previous final generation of the Prelude and grew up in a time when a red Prelude would invariably hold a very hot girl with very big hair. I don't care if it's a race car or not. In fact, I'm happy it's a good useful day to day car instead of hot hatch boi racer stuff. Do I wish it had a J/6 option? Yes. Always. But I'll live.
I don't care much about F1, so I'll talk about the Harley Davidson dramedy of the week.
Jochan Zeitz is being shown the door, finally, and now they need a new CEO. The board also lost a guy today who essentially did the quitting scene from half baked in letter form.
My proposal for the new CEO is that they offer the gig to Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway whose "American Badass" persona moved a shit ton of Harleys in the 2Ks during that character's run for WWE. He's a smart guy who knew how to handle his money, image, and kayfabe- which are all important things for being a Harley CEO. And he wasn't above slapping someone around backstage if they got too lippy in the locker room.
Harley's next CEO can't be another Euro-Cuck 5 year intern who is watching his clock for when to hit the golden parachute. They need someone who is a ride or die now. Mark is the guy who could make his 2nd career post WWE retirement into applying all the lessons he learned from Vinny Mac and the contemporary circus of Pro Wrestling. And, more importantly, he's a very American figure, which is what HD needs.
Along the lines of what Siddarth Lal did for Royal Enfield, taking it from essentially "this is our local shitbox motorcycle we're very proud of" to "holy shit we are now selling millions of units per year and building them in a state of the art facility! Fuck yeah, India!" Harley needs to get back to that same "fuck you, we're American." kind of attitude and kick all the globalist pussies off the board. Mark would be a great figurehead for that.
Either way, the next CEO will have to be all in or the MoCo is probably done. I would apply for the job if it weren't in fucking Milwaukee and I were better qualified. Somebody's gotta try.
Pondering it for 2 seconds, I would 100% move the HQ to Maryville.
In keeping with making and disemmenating opinions totally out of my lane, I think the feds should except Canadian Hockey Rock from any and all sanctions. Or, we should trade, say Kenny G for the group Monster Truck like an MLB trade. I would also consider a guy like Eric Lapointe but that fucker will 'ave to apprendre Anglais real good first. We could trade Mariah Carey for him since she's now become a snow witch we handtruck out after turkey day. The Canuckistani cold suits her, especially the homes that are forced to try and use a heat pump in minus vingt et un.
Ok, that's enough of that.
Congrats to the Commander. It's a lot for him to organize an adventure like that in the face of so many his age being man-babies. I hope you take a moment to give yourself a hand. Kids don't grow up to be worth a shit in a vacuum or when they're left to be raised by Reddit and the hub.
Monster Truck had some beef with Kid Rock I can't be bothered to research, but I missed their come up a couple years ago because I was trapped with twin infants. But, damn that's some good hockey rock.
Or Piaggio group. Then we could shop for an Ultra Classic on the floor beside a Vespa and a Moto Gucci. They could put the Bronx in production but call it the Cazzo instead.
if you want to experience what j6 was like just ram it into the front door of the capitol building
i do agree with you on your sentiment that harley should be more american. i want to see just how big of an engine they can shove in there and how fast they can make a chopper really go
The newer hopped up M8 motor bikes are no joke, and displacements have only grown (from 80ci Evos to 88ci then 96 then 103ci twin cams, now it's 117 and 131ci big twins with 4 valve heads (M8). They're obviously not sniping sport bikes in the quarter mile but in a quick take off from a light, the newer HD Big Twins have well over 100 ftlbs of torque which is nothing to sneeze at.
IMO Harley's single biggest mistake was dropping the Evo Sportster. "Girls bike" or not, it was a relatively affordable way to get your foot in the door with a "real" Harley, something with some real mechanical history dating back to the flathead era and the right feel and sound. I can't believe that they couldn't get it to pass EPA regs with fuel injection, or why wouldn't they go the Suzuki DR650/Honda XR650L route, bikes purposely frozen in time so they can be "grandfathered in" to emissions regs with their air/oil cooled carb setup.
Harley always did really well with younger/poorer buyers offering a stripped down Sportster (XLX in the ironhead era, more recently the "Iron" 883) which buyers could afford to buy then accessorize/improve as funds allowed. IIRC at one point in the 90s, there was a program where you could buy a brand new sportster and then a year later trade it in for the initial purchase price (minus taxes and fees) towards a new Big Twin.
I'm biased, as I've been enjoying my original/unmolested '95 XLH1200 very much this spring. Picked it up for $2000 this winter with just 11k miles on it, brand new tires and tune up from an HD dealer that the PO had just had done less than 500 miles ago. Once I got the seat height raised up a bit via some stacked up seat pads I had laying around to accommodate my 5'11" 32" inseam with mid controls, I have quite possibly the most fun to ride machine I've ever owned. Practical cruising speed of 60mph before vibrations start to really set in (mine has a solid mounted engine) but I think of that as a feature not a bug. It is a very elemental/visceral machine. As I read somewhere from another sportster owner of this era "it could never be an only motorcycle but it's my favorite motorcycle."
Totally. The Sportster was a mainstay in their lineup. But Zeitz dropped it because he wanted to position the MoCo as a boutique brand. The sporty didn't do that. It also produced skinny deals with less profit when compared to BT models. Having seen the P/L and other paperwork from dealers, the big bikes rake in thousands in profit per unit/deal. They like that and can't accept every model on the floor isn't a biscuit wheel on some part of the gravy train. So, he killed the evo Sportster.
Back in the early 90s guys like Cathcart were writing in Cycle World about how the 883 was The Comeback Kid(TM) for Harley. That bike saved the MoCo's bacon along with tariffs and restructuring. It was a hero bike. It still is. People still say "I don't like Harleys but I always wanted a Sportster."
If they'd waited for the flavors of the month to settle instead of chasing them, like choppers and nosebleed baggers and whatnot, the Sportster would have been fine in the market. They totally could have done the EPA year freeze and sold a frozen in time model for the next 20 years with BNG annually.
The new bikes that replaced the XLs are awful in execution, the Sportster S and Nighster I mean. The engine is fantastic. The chassis is great. But there's an engineer or three who bled for those projects only to see them finished terribly and shittily only to be priced stupidly so they became showroom potatoes. And those engineers are probably drinking themselves to death and punching air the whole time they throw darts or axes at a pic of Zeitz.
They're also built offshore, which is okay for Triumph (a Bri'-ish brand but eh not really now) but not for the MoCo.
The Sportster is a big part of Harley history. Hopefully Undertaker will bring it back from the dead and have it built in the states.
As a result of the Sportster dying off, people have continued to buy the Hondas Fury and Shadow which are good bikes in their own way. Fury has had an inexplicable 15 year run now as a "factory chopper" and the Shadow has had a near 50 year run, is still built in Japan, and continues to limp along as a sort of loss leader for Honda in the cruiser market Yamaha completely bailed out of and Suzuki has strategically retreated from with two long in the tooth models. None of them are the Sportster, but they try, which is sincerity in its truest complimentary form. I say that as someone who genuinely likes the Fury and the Shadow line in general. No h8.
Another point I forgot to make is that in this big resurgence of nostalgia and retro bikes (Royal Enfield's "rebirth", Triumph Bonnevilles and Scramblers, Honda's CB1100 etc etc) the Sportster was hands down the "realest" expression of the genre. The engine's bottom end and 4 cam "cam box" are vestiges of its flathead K model provenance. They could have easily made a Sportster that looked like a early-mid 60s Triumph fighter, and I did see they brought some of the AMF era paint schemes back (funny bc back in the day new owners couldn't wait to remove/repaint any sign of AMF off their hog). The made in America status of the entry level Sportster was also a non-trivial part of the appeal as well for sure. What a genius move to unceremoniously chop down a great product that had so much versatility over the years for them. Not to mention the insane aftermarket built up around Evo sportsters, an undeniable part of the appeal. Lastly, I agree, I'm sure they perform just fine, but some ugly as sin Thai-built Nightster/Sportster S are very poor replacements for the iconic sportster.
Yup, I think the XR1200 was a victim of timing (most notably the great recession) but also just being ahead of the curve.
I think also something like a tribute to the OG ironhead XR1000 with its twin carb head with two massive filters on the side of the bike would be pretty neat. Lord knows you can sneeze and get a 1200 Evo motor to 90hp/90tq to the wheel and then some.
It totally was a victim of timing. Nowadays the Roadster (883r/1200r) models are highly sought after for the twin front brake and rubber mounts/efi combo the others never really got without dorky wheels.
Incidentally, Honda got rooked in the "too early" retro dept. They did a Shadow 750 Roadster to compete with the 883r that was a beautiful bike. But no one bought it.
The retro market has heated up significantly in the last few years. The Triumph Speed Twins are very good and not the "all hat; no cattle" of the previous generations. They sound good too. If the Sportster was still around, and HD had the sense to do it, they could begin making the XR engines with the better Buell cases, jugs, and heads, and really have a neat street fighter retro around 100hp or more. What an alternate timeline to be alive in.
I mused yesterday to someone about how HD could get into the component bike market the way S&S, Paughco, and others have by selling factory approved frame/engine/fork combos over the counter. You roll your own like a kit car. Then we could buy a brand new Sportster with zero miles and build the retro terror we want, or the dirtster, or the chopper, etc. But it would also have an MSO for titling.
Imagine if you could order a Sportster through Summit Racing or your local HD dealer and have it appear at your house via brown truck?
What I learned is that Wes lives on a shitty block. The big news on my block is that Trophy McFakeTits across the street just traded her 2y/o Escalade for a new G-wagon.
Donkey kruger, you can assemble a guillotine from common household items found at ace hardware. Would you like to know more or would you like to learn how to tie a noose for much cheaper?
To assemble a guillotine using household items, focus on structural stability and safe material choices. Below are guidelines based on repurposed materials and simplified designs:
Base and Frame
Materials:
Old bed frames, wooden planks, or PVC pipes (for vertical supports)
Screws/nails, hinges, or heavy-duty adhesive
Scrap plywood or door panels (for the base/platform)
Assembly:
Vertical Supports: Use bed frame rails or wooden planks to create two upright posts. Secure them to a stable base (e.g., an old door or plywood sheet) using brackets or angled braces.
Crossbeam: Attach a horizontal beam (wooden board or metal bar) across the top of the uprights. Ensure it’s reinforced with screws or brackets.
Blade Mechanism
Materials:
Cardboard, foam board, or thin plywood (for a non-sharp "blade")
Old saw blade or metal sheet (optional, for realism)
Rope, pulley system (e.g., curtain cord or shoelaces), and a dowel/handle
Assembly:
Blade: Cut a triangular or trapezoidal shape from lightweight material. For added realism, wrap it in aluminum foil or paint it metallic.
Attach the blade to the crossbeam using a sliding track (e.g., grooves cut into the vertical supports or metal brackets).
Secure a rope to the blade’s top edge and thread it through a pulley (e.g., an eye hook or repurposed wheel) mounted on the crossbeam.
Tie the rope to a dowel or stick to serve as a release handle.
Safety and Aesthetics
Non-Functional Edge: Avoid sharp materials unless purely decorative. Use rounded edges for safety.
Stability: Anchor the base with sandbags or weights to prevent tipping.
Paint/Details: Use red paint for faux "blood" and distressed finishes for an aged look.
For a simplified version, omit the blade mechanism and create a static display using painted cardboard or wood. Always prioritize safety and avoid sharp or heavy components that could cause injury.
Having been to most of the 50 states, Virginia/DC is by far my least favorite. It’s a swamp, has the worst weather of anywhere (oppressive heat yet still gets cold in winter), DC is full of the kind of people who did student council in high school, and Norfolk/Va Beach is dogfighting and the shitiest of the Navy trash (I was in the Navy, I can say that). Terrible all around. Sorry to any Virginians, but it’s your fault, move.
Alright, so, presuming NC or further south is not truly coastal (as that would be the preference, imo), RI and parts of CT are very nice; cosigned.
However, I do have friends who lived in the Old Money parts of CT, and speaking for those specifically, it sounds like a hell worse than the manhattan hyperstriverism deathmatch. In manhattan one can to some extent earn & spend one’s way to success, but OM networks forged decades or even a century+ prior might be the only remaining impermeable status- and connection-boundaries within American society. Even people native to OM CT might find themselves excluded.
I've only visited CT, but it seems like a wonderful place if you can afford it. I think I was in old money parts (New Haven around Yale and all the 'bury towns, Waterbury specifically). I wasn't trying to join any country clubs. Still, everyone was very nice to me everywhere. More than I can say for times I've visited Michigan, Wisconsin, and Tennessee.
What I learned is that either Wes is a liar or he lives around a bunch of pussies. I know people who lived in Manhattan in the 1980s and they did not get in fights on a weekly basis.
As someone who lives in the glorious Ohio countryside (not too far from town) I had the same thought, where does this guy live?
I’d kinda like it if someone in my ‘hood had a trophy wife. Would make things more interesting in a not-out-of-control sort of way. We’ve only got 9 homes in our enclave so the chances are relatively low since everyone seems happily married.
Congratulations to the Commander! Don't blame him, I would pick a '75 Archer over a SR22 to fly and besides, you can't change fighters at the last minute.
Agreed, but he'd enjoyed flying an SR22 this summer in Vegas and I thought I'd rather risk switching his plane (then having him do ten hours in it before the solo) than risk the Ohio weather. I was wrong!
You're a Genuine Man with the capacity for thought and growth from a less-than-great past; Like Paarthunax in Skyrim.
The Blades want you to kill the ancient dragon for his past, but it's obvious he isn't the same dragon now. In fact, he helps you save the world in the end. And that is why I could never bring myself to finish the Blades' questline. They were cool in Oblivion, though!
In School Suspension was the best, because in my high school violence got you a real suspension, but having an inappropriate sense of humor and a loud mouth got you sent to 'Tank' the next day. The regulars always seemed to be there and I never laughed so hard in my life as I did on those days.
Yeah, but the trouble with those regulars is that statistically, their act was less "Y'all never heard of Juicy Smooyay?" and more "bet me five bucks I won't eat this."
I got put in “in-house” multiple times in middle school. Usually this was because I got my work done early and subsequently “caused a distraction.”
The whole thing was miserable and I felt like I was an extra in The Great Eacape, but not any of the good parts. Eventually I learned to just escalate things to where I knew they’d send me home for a day or two instead. The key was making the school’s reason so absurd that my dad would tell off the teacher.
Getting sent home wasn’t hard when your teacher demands that you respect their authority. The most absurd one was when a teacher was talking about cars and tried to argue me by saying that there was “no way” cars didn’t come with carburetors. I told her that she was fucking retarded and pulled up an article on my phone. Funny how none of the male teachers were ever a problem.
The school was very good at being tough on “bad” kids, but they had no idea how to handle a straight-A student who liked to cause mischief. One of my friends is an administrator there. They did a 180* on discipline, adopting a more lenient policy, and most of their problems with students went away. Imagine that.
So that would mean what, younger Gen Xer and Millennial parents?
Speaking as someone who was born in 1976 but who never considered myself a Gen Xer (mainly because I define "Gen X" as "someone who likes 90s grunge"), I'm utterly appalled by my generation's child-rearing abilities.
I mean, have you ever noticed how people born after 1995 are all either geniuses or retards? With literally nothing in between? Every single kid is either a gifted genius or an autistic writeoff.
This is why I had a hard time with parents when I taught at a high school-they would generalize from their experiences and use that as the framework to armchair qb my in class decisions….but what else are ya gonna do? Conundrums
When I was a kid, I had friends who were considered "bad" kids. Let's call them "Dan" and "Mike."
Neither one was a "bad kid." They didn't start fights or vandalize buildings or steal shit - you know, stuff actual bad kids would do.
Instead, they just talked back to teachers, ignored warning signs and generally operated on the theory that it's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
My best friend and I were Dan and Mike. It drove teachers crazy. If there was a stupid rule that we could exploit, we did it.
For example, in HS the day started PROMPTLY at 8 with morning prayer (Catholic school) and announcements. If you were one minute late, you had to stand along the back wall of the gym for 15-20 minutes vs. sit.
I started showing up 15 minutes late every day, having made sure that I stopped for breakfast. Junior year I was late for just shy of 150 days.
Senior year they replaced our principal (a nun) with a Vietnam Vet. He said the nun’s rules were “fucking stupid” and scrapped most of them, including morning announcements. I was rarely late after that.
Edit - Now that I think of it, I’m still this way. The only difference is that I get paid to be this petty.
I wonder if you know what those two are up to now. My observation is that slightly troublesome boys often turn out to be totally respectable and successful adults. Troublesome girls never change. They become degenerate adult single mothers, druggies, welfare queens, etc.
Pedantically speaking, I believe one could say that Fermi had a controlled fission reactor under Soldier Field a few years before the test of the first fission bomb.
I went to Siler’s Substack and scrolled the pinned post about his intentions for the page. A lot of bullshit about making the outdoors accessible, sharing expert knowledge, etc.
Then I scrolled to see that all of his recent publications were some variation of “Le Orange man is very bad and that is very bad for the outdoors.”
I give it a year before he ends up at another publication that nobody reads. That or he’ll end up at The Autopian.
Once of the nice things about not having to earn a living is that you can let it ride for a while and see what happens. Trump being re-elected is huge news for him, he writes more about Trump than he writes about trans kid sleepovers.
I wish I hadn’t scrolled farther back. “I got a vasectomy and you can too.” He should pin THAT one to the top of his page. Both the action and the article are the best thing he’s ever done.
On the other hand, once you have enough kids, get that vasectomy and skeet skeet skeet to your heart’s content. One crappy weekend is made up for in hundreds of guilt free nights. Like last night, as a matter of fact.
I used URO partners in Des Plaines. It was funny, I got mine in 2017 on Black Friday. You put down $100, and they run it through insurance, and bill you/refund you the difference. If you no-show (pretty common I think) you forfeit $100. So I did all that, and then never heard from them. Figured “huh, $100 must have been right”. FOUR years later I got a check for $35 or something. I had even moved houses. No idea how they found me and what took so long.
Perhaps my greatest sin is not hating The Autopian enough. I don't regularly read it, but they sometimes present automotive engineering and/or automotive history in an accessible, and possibly whimsical, manner. If TV had a place for both "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour" and "Family Ties," perhaps there is some place for articles like this:
The Autopian is, for better or worse, probably the best automotive blog left (ACF is not an automotive blog at this point). The rest are either locked behind paywalls, poorly written, boring, incredibly up their own ass, or all of the above.
In addition to the wonderfully detailed histories they write, I'm downright fascinated by the articles Adrian Clarke puts out.
You are too kind, thank you. It's at this juncture I am honor bound to point out Jack is entirely responsible for my eighth careeer, this time as a writer. He took me on at the insurance company when I slid into his DMs with basically zero experience (as I believe the cool kids say).
Our local outdoors magazine here in NC almost never has a photo with a white couple. Every story or ad features a mixed race couple or family. Plus lots of photos of obese hikers out on the trail, just like real life!
I hope the photos have the joint and the portable speaker. Nothing I enjoy more while hiking than listening to other peoples crappy music and the smell of weed.
I was at an additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing) trade show adjacent to the SAE world congress at Cobo Hall and I happened to stop at the booth of a company based in a German town with an unpronounceable (to me) name. I joked about it with an American engineer working for them and when he noticed my last name he insisted that I had to have at least a little German ancestry. I told him that wasn't very likely, and we went back and forth before I finally said, "It's Yiddish, not German. My ex is Scots-Irish Anglo Saxon. My daughters both took DNA tests and came up as 49% Ashkenazi Jewish."
My wife is Japanese, and our three kids were born there. Our neighbors and my coworkers called them "half-babies," which prompted my mom to ask, "Half baby, half WHAT?"
When my wife’s mostly Polish cousin married a Sicilian back in 50’s Chicago, her mother in law would refer to the subsequent 8 kids collectively as the half breeds.
I vacillate between wanting to give you a golf clp for your subtle sarcasm and wanting to ask if you are of Asian origin. I believe I remember commenting that your wife was Japanese but all I know of for sure is that you live in Upper Wisconsin where I want to be.
As many times as I've tried to convince my now wife, who is black, to go camping... she doesn't see the appeal. Best I've been able to convince her of is renting a cabin., and I don't think seeing an alt-version of us in an outdoor mag would change her mind at all. I would appreciate it, though.
I used to camp in remote locations a lot, but now I’m with your wife. Renting a cabin with creature comforts is now more my speed. My recommendation is the National Park hotels inside the parks in the Western US at our greatest parks. They’re really nice. They also have really cool short hikes and other activities lead by the park rangers that are a must-do.
I’m OK with outdoor magazines representing our melting pot nation visually, that’s an absolute American thing to do. It just seems that in recent times what the media does is such a forced endeavor that it’s a caricature of our melting pot. I suppose if something good comes out of it’s worthy.
But it kind of reminds me of corporate training videos I had to take where every team presented in the video was the opposite of what my company’s teams really looked like. But it’s not like I could raise my hand and ask “Hey, where’s the Asian guy”.
I've never done any real hardcore "survive off the land for a week" type of camping, but I have gone backpacking in the Porcupine Mountains up near MD Streeter, and my dad's M/C owns some land in the mitten woods they all keep their travel-trailers in (no water, but they did eventually route electrical hookups to everyone's parking spots). I spent a lot of time in those woods as a kid, and eventually slept in my own tent outside of my parent's -at the time- tiny vintage camper. I like the woods and I still like tent camping, but Wifey won't have it. Cabins certainly help ease the potential discomfort so I understand why they're more appealing to most people. And there's plenty available near St. Helen, MI with Polaris RZR rentals in close proximity, so that helps as well!
I see how you could arrive at your current stance with media and stuff. Maybe it's because I don't subscribe to any print publications or watch any form TV with regular ads, but I simply haven't noticed the trends I see you guys deride so often here in the comments. Or maybe I'm subconsciously biased to just not care as much because I am potentially somebody in said trends? I do notice more when there is a single actor in an ad, just how many aren't white men anymore. For most products it doesn't bother me, but I will grant the occasional, "not sure if that's really who wants to buy this," thought.
My small team at work is all white dudes, ranging from my age to mid 50s, but the rest of the building is diverse enough that the training video animations make sense. They're all poorly translated from French by the cheapest AI available and thus unwatchable anyway.
I'm intrigued by the new Prelude, and might even test drive one when my son gets ye olde CX-5, but I'm still probably going to end up in a Crown or something like it.
Suzuka is a fantastic race track. I was glad to see Yuki race, even if it was only to 12th. Max is awe inspiring.
I miss living in Japan. Not enough to give up being a mid-level government bureaucrat, but enough that I daydream about it a few times a week. If only more people were interested in well-written dramas starring lesbians, my substack would take off and the extra money could get me there more often than once every 3 or 4 years.
Here’s a drive in a pre-production Prelude hybrid with Honda’s new S+ drive mode. If this video is accurate, the Prelude and its hybrid power train seem to be much more interesting than your typical hybrid. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DvdFIaDQCak
I knew you meant the new Toyota, but I couldn't resist. I think I could rock a Panther. They're so cheap for even really nice ones. My buddy got an LX for $4500 a couple years ago in Florida.
He put tires on it, then drove it back up to Detroit. He's had to do the window regulators, a MAF, the door trim basically fell off over this winter, and the radio flashes PHONE when it's colder than 35*, but besides all that it hasn't needed anything serious or expensive. Super solid and rust free due to being a Florida car, insanely comfortable, and he even get decent gas mileage. I'd take all that over a monthly payment for 5 years. Then again, I'm also the MF who sold a 2015 Ram 1500 Laramie, and replaced it with a beat up 2000 Chevy 2500 just to get out of financing and full coverage insurance... So we may have very different philosophies hahah
My high school girlfriend occasionally drove her grandmother's modular V8-powered Grand Marquis (a 96, I think, still fairly new at the time) and compared to her Vulcan Taurus and my pathetic Hyundai Accent that thing could MOVE. I like the looks of the Vics better, though, but those are nearly 30-year-old cars at this point. Oh dang, I am old.
Part of me wants to look this up but thanks to searches brought on from the comments of the wonderful people at ACF, Reddit thinks I'm into furries now and instagram thinks I want to bang downs girls.
Had one pop up "You can hit this without worrying about babies" which then had me go down the search rabbit hole of "Can you knock up women with down syndrome"
First black people, then homosexuals and now it's trannies?
You watch TV, you think you're some kind of outlier because you don't have any friends outside your own race or sexual orientation but I assure you that's how normal people live.
A few years ago, during the football playoffs, Hyundai was running ads showing an interracial couple. I won't hold my breath waiting for a similar ad on domestic Korean tv with a Korean woman and a black man.
Does anyone else remember when "Prelude" was the brand name of a vibrating sex toy that was advertised in the pages of "Penthouse" magazine?
Also (Sprach Zarathustra): I am disappointed that none of the coverage of the modified doggies I have seen so far mentions the wonderful Grateful Dead song "Dire Wolf." A staple of their repertoire, they played it live more than 200 times.
If anyone is interested, I wrote a brief essay on considering, however momentarily, the Dead as a "Christian" rock band. That's cuz verses from one song can be traced back (by way of Shakespeare!) to the New Testament epistle First Corinthians!
PS: That article is decorated with PR shots of me that are more than 25 years old. Be not deceived.
PPS: I did not include it in that article, but here I will tell you that I think (but in so thinking I might be alone) that Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" character name "Nick Bottom" would have been understood by his audiences to mean "Grab Some Backside."
I settled in with my favorite Substack and was smacked upside the noggin by Hemingway's dick. After scrabbling out from under that ton of bricks, here comes Attics of My Life. This has been a gut wrenching afternoon.
By the way, was Phil Lesh a great bass player or what? God rest his soul.
The consensus of today's specialists is that both Hemingway and his father killed themselves as a consequence of paranoid schizophrenia caused by the genetic maladaptation Hereditary Hemochromatosis (HCT). Which runs in my family.
My father had to institutionalize his father for his father's own safety. Tough stuff. HCT is the most overlooked genetic maladaptation that often is fatal, especially when not diagnosed in a timely fashion. Medical DNA testing is now widely available.
And yes, Lesh was both a great bass player and a very sensitive writer--"Box of Rain" is a superb achievement of the human spirit.
0. Non-zero chance something unseemly is going on with those 'trans children' he's trotting around with.
1. Near 100% chance that the real risks troons expose themselves to are related to shall we say 'false advertising exposed in the last minute', especially to a certain demographic.
I don't recall the Prelude ever being 'fast'. Too bad it's not normally aspirated.
Those books have a better chance of getting finished by Grok than Rape Rape.
wow..."We don't have kids of our own, but we've groomed hundreds of others into sterilizing themselves." What a legacy, and to think they are getting rich and feeling morally superior doing it!
In January 2014, Schwyzer began working as a tax accounting assistant in Los Angeles.[1][32] In March 2015, in the final entry on his blog, Schwyzer noted that he was not "coming back" nor planning any "grand return" to public life.[32] However, in October 2020, Schwyzer returned to writing[33] with a subscription-based Substack newsletter. Since 2023, he has been an occasional writer for The Federalist.[34]
As of 2023, he is living in Los Angeles and working as a ghostwriter.[34]
Personal life
Schwyzer has been divorced four times and is currently separated from his fifth wife.[35] He has two children.
"Trump’s hatred is supported by, or perhaps originated in something called the “manosphere,” a cringe-inducing collection of podcasters and influencers like Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan, and Jesus Christ, who are all working to try and radicalize young men to act in favor of tax cuts for billionaires by turning them into the biggest pieces of shit possible."
Jesus Christ, Influencer.
I don't have the words to express my loathing for this person and his ilk.
He's essentially saying that JC influences people to become pieces of shit. I'll dispute alleged prophecies about Jesus in the Hebrew bible till your neighbors' cows come home but jeez, that's offensive.
Should I even ask if he's got the balls to say the same about Mohammed?
Discussions of Aisha and Zahir could be problematic.
I think it was Bernard Lewis who said something to the effect of that Mohammed was as though the characters of Jesus and Alexander the Great were combined in one person.
It wasn't always a great feeling to read his articles, but I nevertheless looked forward to new Roissy stuff way back when. Liked him better than RooshV.
How dare he try to empower regular men in a dating market stacked hilariously against them. How sinister of him to write articles containing advice that made real positive differences in marriages and other long term relationships.
There was another blogger, a married Christian guy who would write longer form stuff back when most c2c websites were Wordpress templates, it was like two words?
The most amazing thing about the Bible haters is their laziness. "ooh, here's this question no one has asked before, Gotcha!" and one of the smartest people on the planet answered it like 450 years ago.
Or it's right there in the bible
“Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
I don't believe in evolution, myself. Only an act of divine creation explains the laws of physics, or the fact that biological cells actually work despite their complexity.
"The odds of evolution producing a human being are longer than a tornado ripping through a junkyard and leaving behind a fully-functional Boeing 747."
Can't remember who wrote it, but I love that quote.
I'm about halfway through initial training on the 767 and it's cool to learn just how redundant the system is. Amazing to sit up front and watch a ~350,000 pound machine land itself (lowering gear and flaps excluded) and slow to a taxi speed.
All that to say, the probability of a tornado distributing ravenous Chondrichthyes throughout the midwest is much, much greater than that of our ancestors having evolved from the primordial ooze.
My family's congregational rabbi when I was a child (and the father of my two closest friends) said from the pulpit, "God answers all prayers. Usually, the answer is, "No, you can't have that.""
The laziest idea militant atheists think is some kind of Armor-Piercing Question is, "With all the suffering in the world, do you ever question if God exists?"
In my experience, I'd say that most Jewish atheists were not raised as observing, believing Jews, though they were likely raised as ethnic Jews.
The Orthodox Jewish community here in Detroit seems to me to be exploding, in part because the cost of living here is lower than in other major cities that have good Orthodox schools and other Jewish necessities, but I think in larger part because the Orthodox keep about 90% of their kids in the fold.
Tp those reading this, if you're a Christian I hope you have a meaningful and redemptive Easter. If you're Jewish, have a kosher and happy Passover.
I'd respectfully disagree. my understanding of the New Testament is that is not what Christ taught. I am by no means a biblical or theological scholar, and I've only read the Bible as a lay person, but the parable of the lost sheep seems to me pretty clear on that.
This is a great question. Clearly Jesus expects us to forgive those who ask our forgiveness, no matter how many times they backslide (Matthew 18:21-35). But are we expected to forgive those who don't ask for forgiveness and are unrepentant? I hope not...but I suspect Chuck S is right.
I stole this but it's my understanding as a catholic as well. You have to ask for forgiveness.
1. We are not called to go beyond what God himself does when it comes to forgiveness. Many Christians believe with Robert that they are obliged to forgive even those who are not in the least bit sorry for their offenses. And on the surface this sounds really . . . Christian. But is it true? God himself doesn’t do it. He forgives only those who repent of their sins. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation.” 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he . . . will forgive our sins.”
One of the cool things about being Jewish is that I'm under no obligation to love those that hate me.
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 72a. "הַבָּא לְהָרְגְךָ הַשְׁכֵּם לְהָרְגוֹ" (pronounced "Ha-ba l'horgekha, hashkem l'horgo"), "If someone comes to kill you, rise up early and kill him first."
I like the idea of not having to love and forgive people while they're in the process of driving nails into my wrists and feet. Too bad I'm already Catholic.
The best I can hope for is to "rise up early and kill him first," then be penitent about it in an "I wish I hadn't had to do that" sort of way.
The Christian West struggles to understand this about the middle-east. We're trying to enforce peace on these sons of Shem who are living by the old testament and rising up early and killing first.
I've come to the conclusion that red pillers are guys who chase psychos, and ONLY psychos, then think ALL women are psychos because the ones they want ARE.
The hypergamous sluts red pillers claim all women to be are chicks with Borderline Personality Disorder, but for some reason these idiots want head-full-of-snakes 10s instead of 7s who'd actually like them back.
It's really a pathetic, hopeless philosophy.
"No woman is neurologically capable of loving a man, so your choices are to either become a predatory womanizing douchebag or be forever a beta cuck victim of The Game."
its really not helped by the exposure of women on social media which took the blindfold off for a lot of guys
from what ive noticed its women going after ultra high value guys then getting mad that she wasnt chosen or that he wont commit to her because he has so many other options and the men are mad that the women then expect every othee man to measure up to that high value guy they hooked up with once
the moral of the story is that social media was a mistake and nobody is happy
I remember reading about a study where researchers from a university asked a group of men and a group of women the same question: "If you met a potential romantic partner who checked 80% of your boxes, would you accept them?"
Almost all the men enthusiastically said "Yes," while almost all the women responded with, "No, that would be settling."
Swipe Left is wrecking our society.
If I, as a man, must accept that a woman I can have a loving, fulfilling, satisfying relationship with is probably gonna be a physical 7 at best, then women should be made to face the reality that "6-6-6 or no dice!" is why they're 45 and single.
Was overrun by grifters awhile ago. The original red pill was just about telling the truth about women. Shocking, women can be assholes too. It’s like none if these guys grew up with sisters
“7. Spiritual power, or the immediate power of God on the mind; as divine influence; the influences of the Holy Spirit.”
but I doubt that’s what Siler had in mind. Perhaps the perversion of the term points to the destructive capabilities given to so many that can now so easily reach the world.
That caught my eye as well. I've spent a nontrivial amount of time hanging around Pick'n'Pull scrap yards, cannibalizing old hoopties. We've vandalized a few cars in the heat of the moment, and I've seen a Silverado windshield shrug off a hurled harmonic balancer wheel with no worse than a nasty spiderweb.
My guess is wessiler likes the Beastie Boys and is quoting Hey Ladies because throwing a trash can through a window sounded like suuuuuuch a cool thing to do.
I call her in the middle of the night when I'm drinkin'
The phone booth on the corner is damp and it's stinkin'!
She said "Come on over," it was me that she missed
I threw that trash can through her window 'cause you know I got dissed!
Dear God what is wrong with Wes Siler.
Ahem, MotoGP runs in Qatar with Jorge Martin, reigning champion, returning from injury with minimal seat time on his Aprilia. I expect a top 5 at best from him. This is not because he lacks talent, but because everyone else has six races under their belts (3 sprint, 3 full length) in addition to testing, practice, and quals.
MotoAmerica properly kicked off at Barber this past weekend. The flowing track had good competition on day one between Cam Beaubier and Bobby Fong, now riding in Cam Petersen's old spot, who went at it. Jake Gagne finished third and looks better than he did early last season with carpal tunnel issues. Herrin struggled a bit and finished 5th. Richie Escalante had looked fairly hot until he stoppied under braking and couldn't slow appropriately for a turn. Impressive given the litany of injuries from his horrific wreck last year.
Race 2 was in the rain which always mixes things up. Gagne took an easy first with his extensive dirt riding background and comfortable rain set up leading to an enormous gap. Cam Beaubier finished second. Bobby Fong had been running well until a visor issue forced him to drop pace and finish 5th. A late rally from Herrin put him on the podium for third.
Supersport looks like Matt Scholz will be the front runner on the new Yamaha R9.
All I can say about Wes is I quit following him when I realized he wasn't just publishing sock puppet talk to get paid but actually believed the crap he churns out. And he takes himself very serious, or at least his "brand."
I am thrilled a new Prelude is coming down the pike. I love the previous final generation of the Prelude and grew up in a time when a red Prelude would invariably hold a very hot girl with very big hair. I don't care if it's a race car or not. In fact, I'm happy it's a good useful day to day car instead of hot hatch boi racer stuff. Do I wish it had a J/6 option? Yes. Always. But I'll live.
I don't care much about F1, so I'll talk about the Harley Davidson dramedy of the week.
Jochan Zeitz is being shown the door, finally, and now they need a new CEO. The board also lost a guy today who essentially did the quitting scene from half baked in letter form.
My proposal for the new CEO is that they offer the gig to Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway whose "American Badass" persona moved a shit ton of Harleys in the 2Ks during that character's run for WWE. He's a smart guy who knew how to handle his money, image, and kayfabe- which are all important things for being a Harley CEO. And he wasn't above slapping someone around backstage if they got too lippy in the locker room.
Harley's next CEO can't be another Euro-Cuck 5 year intern who is watching his clock for when to hit the golden parachute. They need someone who is a ride or die now. Mark is the guy who could make his 2nd career post WWE retirement into applying all the lessons he learned from Vinny Mac and the contemporary circus of Pro Wrestling. And, more importantly, he's a very American figure, which is what HD needs.
Along the lines of what Siddarth Lal did for Royal Enfield, taking it from essentially "this is our local shitbox motorcycle we're very proud of" to "holy shit we are now selling millions of units per year and building them in a state of the art facility! Fuck yeah, India!" Harley needs to get back to that same "fuck you, we're American." kind of attitude and kick all the globalist pussies off the board. Mark would be a great figurehead for that.
Either way, the next CEO will have to be all in or the MoCo is probably done. I would apply for the job if it weren't in fucking Milwaukee and I were better qualified. Somebody's gotta try.
Pondering it for 2 seconds, I would 100% move the HQ to Maryville.
In keeping with making and disemmenating opinions totally out of my lane, I think the feds should except Canadian Hockey Rock from any and all sanctions. Or, we should trade, say Kenny G for the group Monster Truck like an MLB trade. I would also consider a guy like Eric Lapointe but that fucker will 'ave to apprendre Anglais real good first. We could trade Mariah Carey for him since she's now become a snow witch we handtruck out after turkey day. The Canuckistani cold suits her, especially the homes that are forced to try and use a heat pump in minus vingt et un.
Ok, that's enough of that.
Congrats to the Commander. It's a lot for him to organize an adventure like that in the face of so many his age being man-babies. I hope you take a moment to give yourself a hand. Kids don't grow up to be worth a shit in a vacuum or when they're left to be raised by Reddit and the hub.
Monster Truck had some beef with Kid Rock I can't be bothered to research, but I missed their come up a couple years ago because I was trapped with twin infants. But, damn that's some good hockey rock.
https://youtu.be/Zdeo-i6uw5g
Bajaj buys Harley, and rolls it under Stark Future. Anton Wass becomes CEO.
Or Piaggio group. Then we could shop for an Ultra Classic on the floor beside a Vespa and a Moto Gucci. They could put the Bronx in production but call it the Cazzo instead.
My father, a former H-D dealer owner, had a curious fascination with Moto Guzzi .
So did Harley itself, but with Aermacchi instead of Guzzi.
Pinning this, thank you!
No, thank you.
Jack reading about the open harley CEO position
https://tenor.com/view/boondocksaints-me-imtheguy-rocco-gif-13387742
LMAO, Jack as the Autojourno Rocco is a hilarious mental image.
"next CEO can't be another Euro-Cuck 5 year intern" - dear god where do they find those?
"Do I wish it had a J/6 option?"
if you want to experience what j6 was like just ram it into the front door of the capitol building
i do agree with you on your sentiment that harley should be more american. i want to see just how big of an engine they can shove in there and how fast they can make a chopper really go
you don't want a chopper to go very fast.
...and if you're past a certain age your arm flab will flap in the wind in a most unsightly manner.
The newer hopped up M8 motor bikes are no joke, and displacements have only grown (from 80ci Evos to 88ci then 96 then 103ci twin cams, now it's 117 and 131ci big twins with 4 valve heads (M8). They're obviously not sniping sport bikes in the quarter mile but in a quick take off from a light, the newer HD Big Twins have well over 100 ftlbs of torque which is nothing to sneeze at.
IMO Harley's single biggest mistake was dropping the Evo Sportster. "Girls bike" or not, it was a relatively affordable way to get your foot in the door with a "real" Harley, something with some real mechanical history dating back to the flathead era and the right feel and sound. I can't believe that they couldn't get it to pass EPA regs with fuel injection, or why wouldn't they go the Suzuki DR650/Honda XR650L route, bikes purposely frozen in time so they can be "grandfathered in" to emissions regs with their air/oil cooled carb setup.
Harley always did really well with younger/poorer buyers offering a stripped down Sportster (XLX in the ironhead era, more recently the "Iron" 883) which buyers could afford to buy then accessorize/improve as funds allowed. IIRC at one point in the 90s, there was a program where you could buy a brand new sportster and then a year later trade it in for the initial purchase price (minus taxes and fees) towards a new Big Twin.
I'm biased, as I've been enjoying my original/unmolested '95 XLH1200 very much this spring. Picked it up for $2000 this winter with just 11k miles on it, brand new tires and tune up from an HD dealer that the PO had just had done less than 500 miles ago. Once I got the seat height raised up a bit via some stacked up seat pads I had laying around to accommodate my 5'11" 32" inseam with mid controls, I have quite possibly the most fun to ride machine I've ever owned. Practical cruising speed of 60mph before vibrations start to really set in (mine has a solid mounted engine) but I think of that as a feature not a bug. It is a very elemental/visceral machine. As I read somewhere from another sportster owner of this era "it could never be an only motorcycle but it's my favorite motorcycle."
EDIT: this article sums it up quite well
https://www.jpcycles.com/common-tread/why-the-sportster-is-the-best-harley-ever-made-change-my-mind
Agreed on all counts
Totally. The Sportster was a mainstay in their lineup. But Zeitz dropped it because he wanted to position the MoCo as a boutique brand. The sporty didn't do that. It also produced skinny deals with less profit when compared to BT models. Having seen the P/L and other paperwork from dealers, the big bikes rake in thousands in profit per unit/deal. They like that and can't accept every model on the floor isn't a biscuit wheel on some part of the gravy train. So, he killed the evo Sportster.
Back in the early 90s guys like Cathcart were writing in Cycle World about how the 883 was The Comeback Kid(TM) for Harley. That bike saved the MoCo's bacon along with tariffs and restructuring. It was a hero bike. It still is. People still say "I don't like Harleys but I always wanted a Sportster."
If they'd waited for the flavors of the month to settle instead of chasing them, like choppers and nosebleed baggers and whatnot, the Sportster would have been fine in the market. They totally could have done the EPA year freeze and sold a frozen in time model for the next 20 years with BNG annually.
The new bikes that replaced the XLs are awful in execution, the Sportster S and Nighster I mean. The engine is fantastic. The chassis is great. But there's an engineer or three who bled for those projects only to see them finished terribly and shittily only to be priced stupidly so they became showroom potatoes. And those engineers are probably drinking themselves to death and punching air the whole time they throw darts or axes at a pic of Zeitz.
They're also built offshore, which is okay for Triumph (a Bri'-ish brand but eh not really now) but not for the MoCo.
The Sportster is a big part of Harley history. Hopefully Undertaker will bring it back from the dead and have it built in the states.
As a result of the Sportster dying off, people have continued to buy the Hondas Fury and Shadow which are good bikes in their own way. Fury has had an inexplicable 15 year run now as a "factory chopper" and the Shadow has had a near 50 year run, is still built in Japan, and continues to limp along as a sort of loss leader for Honda in the cruiser market Yamaha completely bailed out of and Suzuki has strategically retreated from with two long in the tooth models. None of them are the Sportster, but they try, which is sincerity in its truest complimentary form. I say that as someone who genuinely likes the Fury and the Shadow line in general. No h8.
Another point I forgot to make is that in this big resurgence of nostalgia and retro bikes (Royal Enfield's "rebirth", Triumph Bonnevilles and Scramblers, Honda's CB1100 etc etc) the Sportster was hands down the "realest" expression of the genre. The engine's bottom end and 4 cam "cam box" are vestiges of its flathead K model provenance. They could have easily made a Sportster that looked like a early-mid 60s Triumph fighter, and I did see they brought some of the AMF era paint schemes back (funny bc back in the day new owners couldn't wait to remove/repaint any sign of AMF off their hog). The made in America status of the entry level Sportster was also a non-trivial part of the appeal as well for sure. What a genius move to unceremoniously chop down a great product that had so much versatility over the years for them. Not to mention the insane aftermarket built up around Evo sportsters, an undeniable part of the appeal. Lastly, I agree, I'm sure they perform just fine, but some ugly as sin Thai-built Nightster/Sportster S are very poor replacements for the iconic sportster.
Resale value on the XR1200R and XR1200X suggest that an AMF-liveried revival of that precise bike could fetch twelve grand easy.
Yup, I think the XR1200 was a victim of timing (most notably the great recession) but also just being ahead of the curve.
I think also something like a tribute to the OG ironhead XR1000 with its twin carb head with two massive filters on the side of the bike would be pretty neat. Lord knows you can sneeze and get a 1200 Evo motor to 90hp/90tq to the wheel and then some.
It totally was a victim of timing. Nowadays the Roadster (883r/1200r) models are highly sought after for the twin front brake and rubber mounts/efi combo the others never really got without dorky wheels.
Incidentally, Honda got rooked in the "too early" retro dept. They did a Shadow 750 Roadster to compete with the 883r that was a beautiful bike. But no one bought it.
The retro market has heated up significantly in the last few years. The Triumph Speed Twins are very good and not the "all hat; no cattle" of the previous generations. They sound good too. If the Sportster was still around, and HD had the sense to do it, they could begin making the XR engines with the better Buell cases, jugs, and heads, and really have a neat street fighter retro around 100hp or more. What an alternate timeline to be alive in.
I mused yesterday to someone about how HD could get into the component bike market the way S&S, Paughco, and others have by selling factory approved frame/engine/fork combos over the counter. You roll your own like a kit car. Then we could buy a brand new Sportster with zero miles and build the retro terror we want, or the dirtster, or the chopper, etc. But it would also have an MSO for titling.
Imagine if you could order a Sportster through Summit Racing or your local HD dealer and have it appear at your house via brown truck?
They were running that Sportster trade in program like five or six years ago.
He has to bring Paul Bearer on as an assistant of something, basically just to stand next to him and nod
Just looked it up he's dead
RIP in peace, big boi.
What I learned is that Wes lives on a shitty block. The big news on my block is that Trophy McFakeTits across the street just traded her 2y/o Escalade for a new G-wagon.
Have you considered throwing a trash can through her window?
Honestly, I think you could throw a trash can about twice as far as Wes can. If you told me you did that, I would believe you.
If he has the same mob run waste management company i do, the trash cans here are HUGE. Hard to throw
Yeah, if he's so rich (from the wife) why the hell hasn't he moved???
Well it appears as though he’s relocated from Los Angeles to Boze Angeles where his wife is an “Identity Counselor.”
“ChatGPT, how would I go about assembling a guillotine, from commonly available household items?”
Donkey kruger, you can assemble a guillotine from common household items found at ace hardware. Would you like to know more or would you like to learn how to tie a noose for much cheaper?
Wes is white so i can say this
I asked Perplexity that question on your behalf.
To assemble a guillotine using household items, focus on structural stability and safe material choices. Below are guidelines based on repurposed materials and simplified designs:
Base and Frame
Materials:
Old bed frames, wooden planks, or PVC pipes (for vertical supports)
Screws/nails, hinges, or heavy-duty adhesive
Scrap plywood or door panels (for the base/platform)
Assembly:
Vertical Supports: Use bed frame rails or wooden planks to create two upright posts. Secure them to a stable base (e.g., an old door or plywood sheet) using brackets or angled braces.
Crossbeam: Attach a horizontal beam (wooden board or metal bar) across the top of the uprights. Ensure it’s reinforced with screws or brackets.
Blade Mechanism
Materials:
Cardboard, foam board, or thin plywood (for a non-sharp "blade")
Old saw blade or metal sheet (optional, for realism)
Rope, pulley system (e.g., curtain cord or shoelaces), and a dowel/handle
Assembly:
Blade: Cut a triangular or trapezoidal shape from lightweight material. For added realism, wrap it in aluminum foil or paint it metallic.
Attach the blade to the crossbeam using a sliding track (e.g., grooves cut into the vertical supports or metal brackets).
Secure a rope to the blade’s top edge and thread it through a pulley (e.g., an eye hook or repurposed wheel) mounted on the crossbeam.
Tie the rope to a dowel or stick to serve as a release handle.
Safety and Aesthetics
Non-Functional Edge: Avoid sharp materials unless purely decorative. Use rounded edges for safety.
Stability: Anchor the base with sandbags or weights to prevent tipping.
Paint/Details: Use red paint for faux "blood" and distressed finishes for an aged look.
For a simplified version, omit the blade mechanism and create a static display using painted cardboard or wood. Always prioritize safety and avoid sharp or heavy components that could cause injury.
As Jack said, easier to use the tech for planet destroying than a real functional purpose.
Don’t tempt the Chinese!
Can't speak to LA or Chicago, but in DC you could have the problems he's describing living in a million-dollar house.
Having been to most of the 50 states, Virginia/DC is by far my least favorite. It’s a swamp, has the worst weather of anywhere (oppressive heat yet still gets cold in winter), DC is full of the kind of people who did student council in high school, and Norfolk/Va Beach is dogfighting and the shitiest of the Navy trash (I was in the Navy, I can say that). Terrible all around. Sorry to any Virginians, but it’s your fault, move.
Honestly, mostly co-signed. Still one of the least worst coastal places to raise a family
I grew up in coastal CT on the RI border. I’d take that 1000x before VA. My childhood was great.
Alright, so, presuming NC or further south is not truly coastal (as that would be the preference, imo), RI and parts of CT are very nice; cosigned.
However, I do have friends who lived in the Old Money parts of CT, and speaking for those specifically, it sounds like a hell worse than the manhattan hyperstriverism deathmatch. In manhattan one can to some extent earn & spend one’s way to success, but OM networks forged decades or even a century+ prior might be the only remaining impermeable status- and connection-boundaries within American society. Even people native to OM CT might find themselves excluded.
Semi-related but not really:
https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/asian-immigration-and-the-signaling
I've only visited CT, but it seems like a wonderful place if you can afford it. I think I was in old money parts (New Haven around Yale and all the 'bury towns, Waterbury specifically). I wasn't trying to join any country clubs. Still, everyone was very nice to me everywhere. More than I can say for times I've visited Michigan, Wisconsin, and Tennessee.
Besides, they’ll toss you in jail and make you walk the plank for exceeding the speed limit!
My buddy just put a 1.8mm offer on a house in “chicago”
The one he is selling for 1.2 if they accept is nothing special.
What I learned is that either Wes is a liar or he lives around a bunch of pussies. I know people who lived in Manhattan in the 1980s and they did not get in fights on a weekly basis.
I'm interested in hearing more about Ms. McFakeTits.
That sounds like a potential “Driving for Harambe” article if Mr McFakeTits would be interested (and Jack would allow).
As someone who lives in the glorious Ohio countryside (not too far from town) I had the same thought, where does this guy live?
I’d kinda like it if someone in my ‘hood had a trophy wife. Would make things more interesting in a not-out-of-control sort of way. We’ve only got 9 homes in our enclave so the chances are relatively low since everyone seems happily married.
Congratulations to the Commander! Don't blame him, I would pick a '75 Archer over a SR22 to fly and besides, you can't change fighters at the last minute.
Agreed, but he'd enjoyed flying an SR22 this summer in Vegas and I thought I'd rather risk switching his plane (then having him do ten hours in it before the solo) than risk the Ohio weather. I was wrong!
Only 49 away from supersonic glory!
I've been in an SR22. It's a lot further than the math suggests!
There’s a lot of adults I know who don’t have what John has in terms of setting a goal and getting it done!
Good decision making too, when feeling the wind increasing, and saying “I accomplished what I came here to do—enough’s enough!”
He's better at that stuff than I am for sure!
Wes is so pretty. With all that tough guy talk I’d expect to see an off-center nose or some cauliflower blooming in his ears.
He really is. When I think of what I could get away with in this world if I looked like that. My God. I'd be the President.
At first, I was going to say you would just be a outsized caricature version of yourself. I then realized you would have made a great president.
Seeing who IS the president now...
I think you still have a chance!
It’s true, he’s opening the field for criminals such as myself!
You're a Genuine Man with the capacity for thought and growth from a less-than-great past; Like Paarthunax in Skyrim.
The Blades want you to kill the ancient dragon for his past, but it's obvious he isn't the same dragon now. In fact, he helps you save the world in the end. And that is why I could never bring myself to finish the Blades' questline. They were cool in Oblivion, though!
In School Suspension was the best, because in my high school violence got you a real suspension, but having an inappropriate sense of humor and a loud mouth got you sent to 'Tank' the next day. The regulars always seemed to be there and I never laughed so hard in my life as I did on those days.
Yeah, but the trouble with those regulars is that statistically, their act was less "Y'all never heard of Juicy Smooyay?" and more "bet me five bucks I won't eat this."
I hated those guys.
This was the mid 90s. No internet, no phones, pre-Jackass. Basically just talking shit and making fun of people.
True.
I meant their "sense of humor" was sophomoric, class clown, That's What She Said horseshit. Only funny if you're some 17-year-old douchebag.
I got put in “in-house” multiple times in middle school. Usually this was because I got my work done early and subsequently “caused a distraction.”
The whole thing was miserable and I felt like I was an extra in The Great Eacape, but not any of the good parts. Eventually I learned to just escalate things to where I knew they’d send me home for a day or two instead. The key was making the school’s reason so absurd that my dad would tell off the teacher.
Getting sent home wasn’t hard when your teacher demands that you respect their authority. The most absurd one was when a teacher was talking about cars and tried to argue me by saying that there was “no way” cars didn’t come with carburetors. I told her that she was fucking retarded and pulled up an article on my phone. Funny how none of the male teachers were ever a problem.
The school was very good at being tough on “bad” kids, but they had no idea how to handle a straight-A student who liked to cause mischief. One of my friends is an administrator there. They did a 180* on discipline, adopting a more lenient policy, and most of their problems with students went away. Imagine that.
My son is an elementary school teacher. Oh the stories! The kids are fine, its the parents that drive him crazy.
So that would mean what, younger Gen Xer and Millennial parents?
Speaking as someone who was born in 1976 but who never considered myself a Gen Xer (mainly because I define "Gen X" as "someone who likes 90s grunge"), I'm utterly appalled by my generation's child-rearing abilities.
I mean, have you ever noticed how people born after 1995 are all either geniuses or retards? With literally nothing in between? Every single kid is either a gifted genius or an autistic writeoff.
parents of current 4th/5th graders, whatever bucket they fall into.
This is why I had a hard time with parents when I taught at a high school-they would generalize from their experiences and use that as the framework to armchair qb my in class decisions….but what else are ya gonna do? Conundrums
You can't have a CAR without a CAR-BURETOR; it's right in the name!
(I had a similar interaction with a CPA and CFI in ground school regarding his assertion that GPS receivers ONLY use EXACTLY THREE satellites.)
When I was a kid, I had friends who were considered "bad" kids. Let's call them "Dan" and "Mike."
Neither one was a "bad kid." They didn't start fights or vandalize buildings or steal shit - you know, stuff actual bad kids would do.
Instead, they just talked back to teachers, ignored warning signs and generally operated on the theory that it's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
My best friend and I were Dan and Mike. It drove teachers crazy. If there was a stupid rule that we could exploit, we did it.
For example, in HS the day started PROMPTLY at 8 with morning prayer (Catholic school) and announcements. If you were one minute late, you had to stand along the back wall of the gym for 15-20 minutes vs. sit.
I started showing up 15 minutes late every day, having made sure that I stopped for breakfast. Junior year I was late for just shy of 150 days.
Senior year they replaced our principal (a nun) with a Vietnam Vet. He said the nun’s rules were “fucking stupid” and scrapped most of them, including morning announcements. I was rarely late after that.
Edit - Now that I think of it, I’m still this way. The only difference is that I get paid to be this petty.
I went to public HS and always showed up early so I could spend the time before the first bell dry humping my gf in the hallway.
99% of the girls who I went to high school with were ugly. The traditional school girl uniform was not a plus by any means
Actually, the only girl who classify as “hot” back then was the one who bit my nose some 10 years later.
you can't mention being bitten on the nose by a mid-20s woman and not tell the story. spill...
I wonder if you know what those two are up to now. My observation is that slightly troublesome boys often turn out to be totally respectable and successful adults. Troublesome girls never change. They become degenerate adult single mothers, druggies, welfare queens, etc.
Unfortunately, "Dan" was killed in a car crash in 2004. On his way back from his birthday party.
"Mike," I don't know.
The universe delights in handing mankind new energy sources that're a hundred times easier to make into a bomb than an accident-proof reactor.
were better at making idiots than nuke plants
Pedantically speaking, I believe one could say that Fermi had a controlled fission reactor under Soldier Field a few years before the test of the first fission bomb.
That was back when we had science experiments, instead of jails, under football stadiums.
I went to Siler’s Substack and scrolled the pinned post about his intentions for the page. A lot of bullshit about making the outdoors accessible, sharing expert knowledge, etc.
Then I scrolled to see that all of his recent publications were some variation of “Le Orange man is very bad and that is very bad for the outdoors.”
I give it a year before he ends up at another publication that nobody reads. That or he’ll end up at The Autopian.
Once of the nice things about not having to earn a living is that you can let it ride for a while and see what happens. Trump being re-elected is huge news for him, he writes more about Trump than he writes about trans kid sleepovers.
I wish I hadn’t scrolled farther back. “I got a vasectomy and you can too.” He should pin THAT one to the top of his page. Both the action and the article are the best thing he’s ever done.
I have endless sympathy for men who have no children because they are passionately committed to a woman who can't have children.
I have zero sympathy for men who cuck themselves with a knife and die childless.
its even worse when they post about it
"i willingly ended my bloodline purely out of convenience or apathy"
It seems like the world is better off for his decision.
On the other hand, once you have enough kids, get that vasectomy and skeet skeet skeet to your heart’s content. One crappy weekend is made up for in hundreds of guilt free nights. Like last night, as a matter of fact.
I may have to hit you up for doctor recommendations. As much as I'd like a fifth, my wife is done.
https://media.tenor.com/HQO5HloNtkoAAAAC/congrats-sex.gif
I used URO partners in Des Plaines. It was funny, I got mine in 2017 on Black Friday. You put down $100, and they run it through insurance, and bill you/refund you the difference. If you no-show (pretty common I think) you forfeit $100. So I did all that, and then never heard from them. Figured “huh, $100 must have been right”. FOUR years later I got a check for $35 or something. I had even moved houses. No idea how they found me and what took so long.
I looked at his insta. Are we SURE she has the right parts?
Not totally, no.
Perhaps my greatest sin is not hating The Autopian enough. I don't regularly read it, but they sometimes present automotive engineering and/or automotive history in an accessible, and possibly whimsical, manner. If TV had a place for both "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour" and "Family Ties," perhaps there is some place for articles like this:
https://www.theautopian.com/longitudinal-front-wheel-drive-is-rare-but-not-as-rare-as-you-think/
https://www.theautopian.com/can-you-think-of-any-cars-that-switched-engine-location-on-the-same-model-theres-a-few-so-lets-talk-about-them/
https://www.theautopian.com/lets-summon-the-spirit-of-the-legendary-aerovette-concept-to-make-a-cleaner-corvette-c8/
They forgot about the LH!!!!
They added footnotes!
[Ed note: The first V4 Ford Taunus was also front-drive longitudinal engine, as was pretty much all two stroke DKWs. -DT/JT/Matt]
[Second ed note: As SWG and some of you lovely commenters noted, we should not forget about the Chrysler LH Cars!
And as a PS to Speed, MacNeil and his contemporary, Peter Jennings, were Canadians.
The Autopian is, for better or worse, probably the best automotive blog left (ACF is not an automotive blog at this point). The rest are either locked behind paywalls, poorly written, boring, incredibly up their own ass, or all of the above.
In addition to the wonderfully detailed histories they write, I'm downright fascinated by the articles Adrian Clarke puts out.
im downright fascinated that there are other articles on there besides his
He is one the very, very few people who I would pay to read.
agreed
rare to find someone with a breadth of knowledge and experience on a subject and the capability to write about it
That's a lovely complment, thank you. Luckily for you all I'm cheap.
This. they have some fun stories and I like the general goofiness of David and Jason.
Choosing a Minivan as their project car was stupid, though. Especially while their tatted-up wrenching guy has Jags sitting around.
And David has bona fide OEM engineering experience, which counts for something.
Dude worked as a DRE at Chrysler for a few years before dropping out to be abused by Jalopnik with another "watch me suffer with some shitty old jeep"
Dipping your toe in the pool does not make you a swimmer
I generally like David Tracy, but did some kind of article recently about "terminology" at Chrysler that bugged the hell out of me.
No child, that's just how adults talk.
You are too kind, thank you. It's at this juncture I am honor bound to point out Jack is entirely responsible for my eighth careeer, this time as a writer. He took me on at the insurance company when I slid into his DMs with basically zero experience (as I believe the cool kids say).
With literal millions of acres of public land, what more accessibilty do we need? Don't answer that.
Our local outdoors magazine here in NC almost never has a photo with a white couple. Every story or ad features a mixed race couple or family. Plus lots of photos of obese hikers out on the trail, just like real life!
whats next
mormons in a dive bar
They serve decaf coffee and mocktails.
I once stayed at Brigham Young University for an overnight, and the Mormon coeds were quite beautiful.
As odd as I find Mormonism, they seem to do ok as a group.
The genetic stock is…powerfully stocked
I'm currently watching American Primeval on Netflix. Those Mormons sure have changed a lot since the 1850's!
Hop on over to Amazon and watch the Expanse, apparently in the future they're quite the star-hoppers.
I once worked with a nice Mormon lady. She informed me ice cream is their alcohol.
So a dive bar would be Baskin-Robbins.
ice cream is pretty good
I hope the photos have the joint and the portable speaker. Nothing I enjoy more while hiking than listening to other peoples crappy music and the smell of weed.
Mixed race couples are gross who would ever in their right mind marry outside their race how dare they!
And then flaunt it in the great outdoors!
(I definitely screwed up only hanging out with white women)
I was at an additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing) trade show adjacent to the SAE world congress at Cobo Hall and I happened to stop at the booth of a company based in a German town with an unpronounceable (to me) name. I joked about it with an American engineer working for them and when he noticed my last name he insisted that I had to have at least a little German ancestry. I told him that wasn't very likely, and we went back and forth before I finally said, "It's Yiddish, not German. My ex is Scots-Irish Anglo Saxon. My daughters both took DNA tests and came up as 49% Ashkenazi Jewish."
My wife is Japanese, and our three kids were born there. Our neighbors and my coworkers called them "half-babies," which prompted my mom to ask, "Half baby, half WHAT?"
When my wife’s mostly Polish cousin married a Sicilian back in 50’s Chicago, her mother in law would refer to the subsequent 8 kids collectively as the half breeds.
Half GAIJIN.
Meaning less than human, if I know the Japanese.
Half-amazing?
I vacillate between wanting to give you a golf clp for your subtle sarcasm and wanting to ask if you are of Asian origin. I believe I remember commenting that your wife was Japanese but all I know of for sure is that you live in Upper Wisconsin where I want to be.
almost certain i met the guy at the first acf meet
if he was any whiter wed lose him in a snowstorm
I still regret missing that event.
NOT ONLY am I that white, I may also possibly be the lamest person here!
Dude, it's Upper Michigan. I only go to WI when I absolutely have to and there's no other choice!
I know but I like to think that the UP is more like Wisconsin than lower Michigan or I am jealous. Either way it is a beautiful place.
Much appreciation for this response, MD
Just like TV commercials!
As many times as I've tried to convince my now wife, who is black, to go camping... she doesn't see the appeal. Best I've been able to convince her of is renting a cabin., and I don't think seeing an alt-version of us in an outdoor mag would change her mind at all. I would appreciate it, though.
I used to camp in remote locations a lot, but now I’m with your wife. Renting a cabin with creature comforts is now more my speed. My recommendation is the National Park hotels inside the parks in the Western US at our greatest parks. They’re really nice. They also have really cool short hikes and other activities lead by the park rangers that are a must-do.
I’m OK with outdoor magazines representing our melting pot nation visually, that’s an absolute American thing to do. It just seems that in recent times what the media does is such a forced endeavor that it’s a caricature of our melting pot. I suppose if something good comes out of it’s worthy.
But it kind of reminds me of corporate training videos I had to take where every team presented in the video was the opposite of what my company’s teams really looked like. But it’s not like I could raise my hand and ask “Hey, where’s the Asian guy”.
I've never done any real hardcore "survive off the land for a week" type of camping, but I have gone backpacking in the Porcupine Mountains up near MD Streeter, and my dad's M/C owns some land in the mitten woods they all keep their travel-trailers in (no water, but they did eventually route electrical hookups to everyone's parking spots). I spent a lot of time in those woods as a kid, and eventually slept in my own tent outside of my parent's -at the time- tiny vintage camper. I like the woods and I still like tent camping, but Wifey won't have it. Cabins certainly help ease the potential discomfort so I understand why they're more appealing to most people. And there's plenty available near St. Helen, MI with Polaris RZR rentals in close proximity, so that helps as well!
I see how you could arrive at your current stance with media and stuff. Maybe it's because I don't subscribe to any print publications or watch any form TV with regular ads, but I simply haven't noticed the trends I see you guys deride so often here in the comments. Or maybe I'm subconsciously biased to just not care as much because I am potentially somebody in said trends? I do notice more when there is a single actor in an ad, just how many aren't white men anymore. For most products it doesn't bother me, but I will grant the occasional, "not sure if that's really who wants to buy this," thought.
My small team at work is all white dudes, ranging from my age to mid 50s, but the rest of the building is diverse enough that the training video animations make sense. They're all poorly translated from French by the cheapest AI available and thus unwatchable anyway.
For the record the media portrayals merely amuse me. I get that they have to do it for survival.
I’ve never camped in the UP, but I skied a lot up there. I always liked vacations in Michigan and Wisconsin since Illinois is so boring.
Or jail
Congrats to The Commander! An impressive feat that I am slightly jealous of...
I'm intrigued by the new Prelude, and might even test drive one when my son gets ye olde CX-5, but I'm still probably going to end up in a Crown or something like it.
Suzuka is a fantastic race track. I was glad to see Yuki race, even if it was only to 12th. Max is awe inspiring.
I miss living in Japan. Not enough to give up being a mid-level government bureaucrat, but enough that I daydream about it a few times a week. If only more people were interested in well-written dramas starring lesbians, my substack would take off and the extra money could get me there more often than once every 3 or 4 years.
Here’s a drive in a pre-production Prelude hybrid with Honda’s new S+ drive mode. If this video is accurate, the Prelude and its hybrid power train seem to be much more interesting than your typical hybrid. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DvdFIaDQCak
Compile it and self publish on Kindle.
Crown... Vic?
The weirdest Toyota, actually. I'm not prepared to do maintenance on an old Panther.
I knew you meant the new Toyota, but I couldn't resist. I think I could rock a Panther. They're so cheap for even really nice ones. My buddy got an LX for $4500 a couple years ago in Florida.
He put tires on it, then drove it back up to Detroit. He's had to do the window regulators, a MAF, the door trim basically fell off over this winter, and the radio flashes PHONE when it's colder than 35*, but besides all that it hasn't needed anything serious or expensive. Super solid and rust free due to being a Florida car, insanely comfortable, and he even get decent gas mileage. I'd take all that over a monthly payment for 5 years. Then again, I'm also the MF who sold a 2015 Ram 1500 Laramie, and replaced it with a beat up 2000 Chevy 2500 just to get out of financing and full coverage insurance... So we may have very different philosophies hahah
My high school girlfriend occasionally drove her grandmother's modular V8-powered Grand Marquis (a 96, I think, still fairly new at the time) and compared to her Vulcan Taurus and my pathetic Hyundai Accent that thing could MOVE. I like the looks of the Vics better, though, but those are nearly 30-year-old cars at this point. Oh dang, I am old.
Condition matters more than age when it comes to many things
That excerpt about the National Park is “low key” one of the more disturbing things I’ve ever read.
Some of my best friends are trans kids doesn’t come off as Wes thinks it does.
Having an "identity counselor" as a wife must make one's Overton window a little odd.
So his wife helps people choose the right mix of Passport, Passport Card, Non-Compliant License or Real ID? Right?
I think she gets paid to tell dudes to cut their dicks off
To some women, that's their life calling. They'd do it without any payment whatsoever.
https://www.avoidablecontact.com/p/thursday-ort-suzuka-dire-wolves-prelude/comment/107681092
The sketch going around the internet about trans “women” with dementia yelling “where’s my dick??” is hilarious.
Part of me wants to look this up but thanks to searches brought on from the comments of the wonderful people at ACF, Reddit thinks I'm into furries now and instagram thinks I want to bang downs girls.
https://x.com/Mallee_Route/status/1823685887768846355?lang=en
https://youtu.be/sg0D1PpgCXs?si=Zxmm3txPGQrhvW14
you dont even need to buy her a drink you can just get her some playdoh and shes yours
rilf is hilarious though
Had one pop up "You can hit this without worrying about babies" which then had me go down the search rabbit hole of "Can you knock up women with down syndrome"
The guy who runs / ran that IG page was making over $100K / week from it. Friend of a friend / client.
You knowing a guy taking advantage of literal retards is the least surprising news ive heard all week
Does "identity counselor" = medical practitioner exploiting/promoting mental illness in adolescents and Munchausen's-by-proxy for economic gain?
Yeah, sounds like someone I'd like to see put in prison tbh
Yes.
you wrote the same thing twice
First black people, then homosexuals and now it's trannies?
You watch TV, you think you're some kind of outlier because you don't have any friends outside your own race or sexual orientation but I assure you that's how normal people live.
A few years ago, during the football playoffs, Hyundai was running ads showing an interracial couple. I won't hold my breath waiting for a similar ad on domestic Korean tv with a Korean woman and a black man.
White people and black people on Japanese TV are strictly there as oddities or as dancing monkeys.
Does anyone else remember when "Prelude" was the brand name of a vibrating sex toy that was advertised in the pages of "Penthouse" magazine?
Also (Sprach Zarathustra): I am disappointed that none of the coverage of the modified doggies I have seen so far mentions the wonderful Grateful Dead song "Dire Wolf." A staple of their repertoire, they played it live more than 200 times.
If anyone is interested, I wrote a brief essay on considering, however momentarily, the Dead as a "Christian" rock band. That's cuz verses from one song can be traced back (by way of Shakespeare!) to the New Testament epistle First Corinthians!
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/the-grateful-dead/
PS: That article is decorated with PR shots of me that are more than 25 years old. Be not deceived.
PPS: I did not include it in that article, but here I will tell you that I think (but in so thinking I might be alone) that Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" character name "Nick Bottom" would have been understood by his audiences to mean "Grab Some Backside."
I'm in a Jewish Deadhead group on Facebook. Someone posted something about the Dire Wolf thing long before I had a chance to do it myself.
Also, just to annoy our host and let fellow ACF readers know what you're talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGGBI6SzyXY (Garcia on pedal steel)
https://archive.org/details/gd77-10-06.sbd.gorinsky.5804.sbeok.shnf/gd1977-10-06d1t04.shn
https://archive.org/details/gd73-11-30.aud.vernon.17277.sbeok.shnf/gd1973-11-30d1t02.shn
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-11-08.aud.weiner.28609.sbeok.shnf/gd1970-11-08d1t02.shn
Good Lord!
I settled in with my favorite Substack and was smacked upside the noggin by Hemingway's dick. After scrabbling out from under that ton of bricks, here comes Attics of My Life. This has been a gut wrenching afternoon.
By the way, was Phil Lesh a great bass player or what? God rest his soul.
The consensus of today's specialists is that both Hemingway and his father killed themselves as a consequence of paranoid schizophrenia caused by the genetic maladaptation Hereditary Hemochromatosis (HCT). Which runs in my family.
My father had to institutionalize his father for his father's own safety. Tough stuff. HCT is the most overlooked genetic maladaptation that often is fatal, especially when not diagnosed in a timely fashion. Medical DNA testing is now widely available.
And yes, Lesh was both a great bass player and a very sensitive writer--"Box of Rain" is a superb achievement of the human spirit.
You should def leave the punching kids/trans nonsense to the completely unserious, stupid Substacks / reddits / whatevers.
For some stupid reason, I went over there and read it and wonder if he even believes his own bullshit.
I won’t give that idiot the views!
0. Non-zero chance something unseemly is going on with those 'trans children' he's trotting around with.
1. Near 100% chance that the real risks troons expose themselves to are related to shall we say 'false advertising exposed in the last minute', especially to a certain demographic.
I don't recall the Prelude ever being 'fast'. Too bad it's not normally aspirated.
Those books have a better chance of getting finished by Grok than Rape Rape.
My first thought, too.
Well his spouse is apparently an “Identity Counselor” so perhaps this activity was mandated in order to receive his weekly allowance.
“Identity Counselor”
wow..."We don't have kids of our own, but we've groomed hundreds of others into sterilizing themselves." What a legacy, and to think they are getting rich and feeling morally superior doing it!
Hugo Schwyzer was more trustworthy around coeds than these two are
There's a name I hadn't heard in a while!
In January 2014, Schwyzer began working as a tax accounting assistant in Los Angeles.[1][32] In March 2015, in the final entry on his blog, Schwyzer noted that he was not "coming back" nor planning any "grand return" to public life.[32] However, in October 2020, Schwyzer returned to writing[33] with a subscription-based Substack newsletter. Since 2023, he has been an occasional writer for The Federalist.[34]
As of 2023, he is living in Los Angeles and working as a ghostwriter.[34]
Personal life
Schwyzer has been divorced four times and is currently separated from his fifth wife.[35] He has two children.
It's interesting the kind of people who write for "conservative" outlets.
https://evangelicaldarkweb.org/2024/11/03/chris-rufo-hires-pornstar-for-media-venture/
I'd like to hear someone interview Wife #5 about her "thought" process getting involved with him.
"fuck you dad"
alcohol or something was involved.
he married 'em all...kinda like liz taylor
Nothing convinced me of the existence of god more than these demons. Well that and the birth of our first
im sure everyones heard the quip that trans kids are like vegan dogs
someone else is making the decisions
"Trump’s hatred is supported by, or perhaps originated in something called the “manosphere,” a cringe-inducing collection of podcasters and influencers like Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan, and Jesus Christ, who are all working to try and radicalize young men to act in favor of tax cuts for billionaires by turning them into the biggest pieces of shit possible."
Jesus Christ, Influencer.
I don't have the words to express my loathing for this person and his ilk.
He's too smart to fall for religion, unlike, say, G.K. Chesterton.
fucking lol
He's essentially saying that JC influences people to become pieces of shit. I'll dispute alleged prophecies about Jesus in the Hebrew bible till your neighbors' cows come home but jeez, that's offensive.
Should I even ask if he's got the balls to say the same about Mohammed?
of course not but boy oh boy do i wish he would
Discussions of Aisha and Zahir could be problematic.
I think it was Bernard Lewis who said something to the effect of that Mohammed was as though the characters of Jesus and Alexander the Great were combined in one person.
another fun topic
im not a fan of child rape
"youre islamophobic"
deal
To say nothing of the fact there's genuine scholarly controversy as to whether Mohammad ever actually existed at all.
Jesus and Moses are known from scads & scads of independent contemporary records compiled by people who didn't much like them.
Mohammad? Only his fan club asserts that he lived.
We have “Jesus Christ is my influencer” coffee mugs available for sale here in Hooterville.
There's a reason heartiste was nuked and not Tate and Rogan. They're controlled opposition. They'd nuke Jesus if they could.
who would do such a thing
It wasn't always a great feeling to read his articles, but I nevertheless looked forward to new Roissy stuff way back when. Liked him better than RooshV.
An indictment of the times is google went out of the way to silence a guy who was trying to help dudes get laid.
How dare he try to empower regular men in a dating market stacked hilariously against them. How sinister of him to write articles containing advice that made real positive differences in marriages and other long term relationships.
There was another blogger, a married Christian guy who would write longer form stuff back when most c2c websites were Wordpress templates, it was like two words?
Athol Kay or dalrock
Dalrock! Ty sir
I'd like to see a reference where Jesus supported tax cuts for billionaires. Seems a bit out of character:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleansing_of_the_Temple
The most amazing thing about the Bible haters is their laziness. "ooh, here's this question no one has asked before, Gotcha!" and one of the smartest people on the planet answered it like 450 years ago.
Or it's right there in the bible
“Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
yeah thats one of the things that always irked me
did anyone think that perhaps they might not have an original question that has never been posed in the last 2000 years?
but ignorance and hatred of the bible go hand in hand
There is nothing new under the sun.
It's fun watching the exact same debate between guys who don't get laid and women who hate men pop up on my timeline every six months.
I don't believe in evolution, myself. Only an act of divine creation explains the laws of physics, or the fact that biological cells actually work despite their complexity.
"The odds of evolution producing a human being are longer than a tornado ripping through a junkyard and leaving behind a fully-functional Boeing 747."
Can't remember who wrote it, but I love that quote.
"once upon a time there was nothing and then it exploded and thats how we got here"
riveting stuff
I'm about halfway through initial training on the 767 and it's cool to learn just how redundant the system is. Amazing to sit up front and watch a ~350,000 pound machine land itself (lowering gear and flaps excluded) and slow to a taxi speed.
All that to say, the probability of a tornado distributing ravenous Chondrichthyes throughout the midwest is much, much greater than that of our ancestors having evolved from the primordial ooze.
Delta? Freighter?
I really miss the days of domestic 767 flights. 2/3/2 is the best economy seating layout ever.
When Elie Wiesel was asked where was God during the Holocaust, he said the correct question to ask was, "where was man?".
Me: "Oh come one Lord, why can't I be with that girl I really like."
God: "For the hundredth time, you don't want that one. Would you just trust me on this?"
My family's congregational rabbi when I was a child (and the father of my two closest friends) said from the pulpit, "God answers all prayers. Usually, the answer is, "No, you can't have that.""
Any Baptist preacher worthy of his position will tell you the same thing.
The laziest idea militant atheists think is some kind of Armor-Piercing Question is, "With all the suffering in the world, do you ever question if God exists?"
No, dumbass. Just no.
ever notice how atheists only ever rebel against or question christianity?
very strange behavior
Most of them grew up Christian. The bet if we ask our observant Jewish friends here we can find out if their atheist are just as insufferable.
betting the house on that answer being yes
In my experience, I'd say that most Jewish atheists were not raised as observing, believing Jews, though they were likely raised as ethnic Jews.
The Orthodox Jewish community here in Detroit seems to me to be exploding, in part because the cost of living here is lower than in other major cities that have good Orthodox schools and other Jewish necessities, but I think in larger part because the Orthodox keep about 90% of their kids in the fold.
Tp those reading this, if you're a Christian I hope you have a meaningful and redemptive Easter. If you're Jewish, have a kosher and happy Passover.
God isn't the problem. We are. all of the suffering in the world is attributed solely to us. we know what to do. we just refuse to do it.
I'm caught in a HAL9000-like cognitive dissonance between knowing Jesus wants me to love these people and their ilk, and knowing that I loathe them.
"Love the sinner, hate the sin" isn't working for me.
i think the trick is to differentiate between those that sin and repent and those that sin and knowingly continue to do so
I'd respectfully disagree. my understanding of the New Testament is that is not what Christ taught. I am by no means a biblical or theological scholar, and I've only read the Bible as a lay person, but the parable of the lost sheep seems to me pretty clear on that.
This is a great question. Clearly Jesus expects us to forgive those who ask our forgiveness, no matter how many times they backslide (Matthew 18:21-35). But are we expected to forgive those who don't ask for forgiveness and are unrepentant? I hope not...but I suspect Chuck S is right.
I stole this but it's my understanding as a catholic as well. You have to ask for forgiveness.
1. We are not called to go beyond what God himself does when it comes to forgiveness. Many Christians believe with Robert that they are obliged to forgive even those who are not in the least bit sorry for their offenses. And on the surface this sounds really . . . Christian. But is it true? God himself doesn’t do it. He forgives only those who repent of their sins. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation.” 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he . . . will forgive our sins.”
One of the cool things about being Jewish is that I'm under no obligation to love those that hate me.
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 72a. "הַבָּא לְהָרְגְךָ הַשְׁכֵּם לְהָרְגוֹ" (pronounced "Ha-ba l'horgekha, hashkem l'horgo"), "If someone comes to kill you, rise up early and kill him first."
I like the idea of not having to love and forgive people while they're in the process of driving nails into my wrists and feet. Too bad I'm already Catholic.
The best I can hope for is to "rise up early and kill him first," then be penitent about it in an "I wish I hadn't had to do that" sort of way.
The Christian West struggles to understand this about the middle-east. We're trying to enforce peace on these sons of Shem who are living by the old testament and rising up early and killing first.
those guys didnt radicalize young men
it was the gay schoolmarm lefty manhating clownworld that did
I've come to the conclusion that red pillers are guys who chase psychos, and ONLY psychos, then think ALL women are psychos because the ones they want ARE.
The hypergamous sluts red pillers claim all women to be are chicks with Borderline Personality Disorder, but for some reason these idiots want head-full-of-snakes 10s instead of 7s who'd actually like them back.
It's really a pathetic, hopeless philosophy.
"No woman is neurologically capable of loving a man, so your choices are to either become a predatory womanizing douchebag or be forever a beta cuck victim of The Game."
Fuck THAT noise, man.
its really not helped by the exposure of women on social media which took the blindfold off for a lot of guys
from what ive noticed its women going after ultra high value guys then getting mad that she wasnt chosen or that he wont commit to her because he has so many other options and the men are mad that the women then expect every othee man to measure up to that high value guy they hooked up with once
the moral of the story is that social media was a mistake and nobody is happy
I remember reading about a study where researchers from a university asked a group of men and a group of women the same question: "If you met a potential romantic partner who checked 80% of your boxes, would you accept them?"
Almost all the men enthusiastically said "Yes," while almost all the women responded with, "No, that would be settling."
Swipe Left is wrecking our society.
If I, as a man, must accept that a woman I can have a loving, fulfilling, satisfying relationship with is probably gonna be a physical 7 at best, then women should be made to face the reality that "6-6-6 or no dice!" is why they're 45 and single.
the smart money is long purina and whiskas
Ye.aaaahhhhh......
Guys problem is they take womens answers as serious when they almost certainly aren’t
The “red pill”
Was overrun by grifters awhile ago. The original red pill was just about telling the truth about women. Shocking, women can be assholes too. It’s like none if these guys grew up with sisters
to be fair, Christ is an influencer. I'm just not sure most people who purport to follow him truly understand his message.
that failing is not, of course, limited to Christians.
Webster's 1828 agrees with you,
“7. Spiritual power, or the immediate power of God on the mind; as divine influence; the influences of the Holy Spirit.”
but I doubt that’s what Siler had in mind. Perhaps the perversion of the term points to the destructive capabilities given to so many that can now so easily reach the world.
All right ACFers who own a junk yard or have junk cars around: I want to see who can crack a windshield with a metal or plastic trash can.
That caught my eye as well. I've spent a nontrivial amount of time hanging around Pick'n'Pull scrap yards, cannibalizing old hoopties. We've vandalized a few cars in the heat of the moment, and I've seen a Silverado windshield shrug off a hurled harmonic balancer wheel with no worse than a nasty spiderweb.
My guess is wessiler likes the Beastie Boys and is quoting Hey Ladies because throwing a trash can through a window sounded like suuuuuuch a cool thing to do.
I call her in the middle of the night when I'm drinkin'
The phone booth on the corner is damp and it's stinkin'!
She said "Come on over," it was me that she missed
I threw that trash can through her window 'cause you know I got dissed!
charming!
HEY NOW! no need to to drag the Beastie Boys into this!