Wednesday Morning Rant

Not Just Trust

It's old news that nobody trusts the press. As of late last year, Gallup breathlessly reported that for the third year in a row, more people had "no trust" in the media than had "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of trust. The level of trust has been bouncing around the same levels for a long time, but distrust is skyrocketing. This is a surprise to nobody and the only problem with such findings is that around a third of people claim to trust the media.

But there is more wrong with the press than the fact that they're inveterate liars and propagandists. That's a tale as old as time. Another problem with the press that doesn't get much attention, though, is crashing quality. They don't even have ability to clearly communicate their lies anymore. All their prattle about "editorial oversight" and "newsroom controls" and the like doesn't amount to a hill of beans. These people write for a living, and do a bad job of it. The lies sting even more when they're delivered so poorly.

I went looking for coverage on the Spain/Portugal power outage early this week to see if there were any early findings about causes. At the time of writing, there weren't. It has come down to "not terrorism or cyber attack" and the quote about the weather has been denied by authorities. My nickel is still on "Spain's unreliable 'green' grid failed" but time will tell. When I searched the web for articles, a top-5 hit from various search engines was from CNN. CNN may be grossly incompetent overall, but their SEO people are doing a good job.

The article is unalloyed garbage.

The blackout’s impact was dramatic: transport hubs were shuttered and governments in both countries, which share a population of around 60 million people, hastily arranged emergency meetings to coordinate a response.

I am sure the citizens of Spain and Portugal will be surprised to learn that they're a "shared population."

These people write for a living.

But travel was hit harder. Flights at major airports in the region were suddenly delayed or canceled, with travelers scrambling to adapt; online flight trackers reported that several airports saw their frequent departures suddenly halted after midday. Portugal’s flag carrier TAP Air Portugal told people not to travel to the airport until further notice.

It's curious that several airports saw only "their frequent departures" halted. I don't know what a "frequent departure" is or why "frequent departures" would bear the consequences of a power outage, but that's what's reported.

These people write for a living.

Trains were also suspended in Spain. And darkness suddenly descended in subway tunnels; video posted on social media showed blackened train cars stuck in standstill on platforms in Madrid, where the metro was suspended and entrances to stations were taped off.

I didn't know that Spanish trains are suspended from above instead of being on the ground, nor that a power outage can cause trains to levitate. Surely the writers didn't mean that service was suspended. If they meant that, they'd have written it. Added to the list of things I didn't know is that a power outage can make subway cars change color, but it's right there. They cars "blackened." Maybe they caught fire and it was char? I also didn't know that in Spain, trains stop on platforms, rather than at them. Foreign countries sure are odd. Next time I'm stuck in traffic, I will describe it as being "in standstill" so I'll sound all erudite like those wordsmiths at CNN.

These people write for a living.

Sporting events were impacted too. Tennis fans at the Madrid Open filed out of courts after the outage caused play to be suspended.
Some parts of southern France, near the Spanish border, felt a more sporadic impact.
...
Spain’s transportation minister said medium and long-distance trains won’t resume service until at least Tuesday, and the impact of a huge backlog in flights could stretch throughout the week.

Ah, so play was suspended, not the tennis match itself. I guess Spanish trains really do hang from wires! Also, affect vs. effect: learn the difference. Quit misusing "impact" as a crutch, you professional writers, you.

These people write for a living,

By Rob Picheta, Vasco Cotovio and Michael Rios, CNN
...
This story has been updated. CNN’s Jack Guy, Kara Fox and Saskya Vandoorne contributed reporting.

Six professional writers, and not even one of them can write.

It would be bad enough if they were just unscrupulous liars, but it's far worse when you realize that the self-impressed propagandists in the newsrooms are also sub-literate idiots - and so are the people who exercise all that "editorial control."

Posted by: Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 BOING!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at April 30, 2025 11:00 AM (qFAfu)

2 OK

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:00 AM (KHnV4)

3 oh no, not tennis

Posted by: brak at April 30, 2025 11:01 AM (jGJov)

4 I am sure the citizens of Spain and Portugal will be surprised to learn that they're a "shared population."
These people write for a living.

=======

It's not like there's a prominent separatist movement in Spain itself, or anything.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:01 AM (GBKbO)

5 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:01 AM (Zz0t1)

6 Our Elites are naked. And we know it!

https://tinyurl.com/cbva5z3e

DON'T LOOK, ETHEL!!!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at April 30, 2025 11:02 AM (qFAfu)

7 >>Six professional writers, and not even one of them can write.

Yeah, I've noticed this, too.
Most stories have at least three authors.
Why is that? All these J School grads can't write a silly article on their own? Is the MSM now story factories where one person starts, then multiple people massage it until it fits the narrative?

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:02 AM (KHnV4)

8 It's not like there's a prominent separatist movement in Spain itself, or anything.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:01 AM (GBKbO)
-

Spain basques in separatism!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at April 30, 2025 11:04 AM (qFAfu)

9 Oh gross. Got some ad of a pot-bellied lady pinching her own belly fat.

Immediately drained of the joy I usually experience upon seeing Mannix' chimp.

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:04 AM (77rzZ)

10 Low hanging fruit, Joe. Geez. I mean, it's like you expect journalists to be educated or something........

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:04 AM (Zz0t1)

11 "I am sure the citizens of Spain and Portugal will be surprised to learn that they're a "shared population."
These people write for a living."

---

Are we sure this isn't AI writing? I'm not joking.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:05 AM (dGCAG)

12 'Play was suspended' is a phrase that's been used forever in tennis and golf.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:05 AM (VofaG)

13 I mean, it's as if there's no one possible to keep score in a tennis match without electricity.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:06 AM (Zz0t1)

14 > Spain basques in separatism!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at April 30, 2025 11:04 AM (qFAfu)

Don't forget us.

Posted by: The Catalans at April 30, 2025 11:06 AM (W5ArC)

15 the impact of a huge backlog in flights could stretch throughout the week

My son is supposed to fly back on Sunday. Hope he can get out on time.

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:07 AM (77rzZ)

16 I love blackened train car with a little andouille sausage.

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:07 AM (M/gGe)

17 Which of the six authors is which layer of fact checker?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:07 AM (GBKbO)

18 I remember being told when I was a kid that newspaper reporters were to write their stories based on whether a 4th grader could read and understand it. I don't think they said write like a 4th grader.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:08 AM (VofaG)

19 > 12 'Play was suspended' is a phrase that's been used forever in tennis and golf.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:05 AM (VofaG)

I remember seeing a set of ground rules for a British golf course during WWII. Special rules applied if the course was bombed or strafed during play, rules for what happened if the ball went into a bomb crater, etc. It was written in humorous tone.

Posted by: The Catalans at April 30, 2025 11:08 AM (W5ArC)

20 9 Oh gross. Got some ad of a pot-bellied lady pinching her own belly fat.

Immediately drained of the joy I usually experience upon seeing Mannix' chimp.
Posted by: Bulg

Weird. I got the same ad, and immediately "drained" something else, with the usual joy from the experience (although seeing Mannix's chimp at the same time made it extra special).

Posted by: Admiral Ackbar at April 30, 2025 11:08 AM (JCZqz)

21 I betcha that’s AI reporting.

AI can report, and the AI bots will move the markets, which will be duly reported by AI. Which will cause a nice feedback loop.

Let’s pray AI isn’t in charge of the nuclear triad

Posted by: Common Tater at April 30, 2025 11:08 AM (8pbdy)

22 Speaking of bad writing, I know Ace loves him some MXM News, or whatever the hell it is.

I can't stand the "Key Details," and "Diving Deeper" headers to the paragraphs.

It's like approaching a pool, and having signs telling us the key details, that the water is wet, wet water makes you wet, and you get your clothes wet, if you are wearing any.

Down there, diving deeper, is the deep end, where it's safe to dive, because it's deeper.

Kindergarten level.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:09 AM (dGCAG)

23 At the time of writing, there weren't. It has come down to "not terrorism or cyber attack" and the quote about the weather has been denied by authorities. My nickel is still on "Spain's unreliable 'green' grid failed" but time will tell."

Remember that the most important job of modern media is to KEEP you from knowing about unfortunate facts that do not fit the narrative. This will be swept under the rug, and only after it begins to happen once or twice a month for a couple of years will anyone in the media say "hey maybe there's a problem with this new system we built".

The most important fact, which I think should be obvious, is that the grid crashed for no real reason at all, which is why they can't (won't) explain what happens. What that means is that they now have a grid that is prone to crashing anytime due to a hundred trivial reasons that can never all be foreseen. Rather than a system that works even when under stress, they now have a system that *only* works when every thing is exactly perfect.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 30, 2025 11:09 AM (uWKK8)

24 Imma call it 'Humpty Dumpty journalism.'

When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:09 AM (Zz0t1)

25 I love blackened train car
Posted by: ...

*fistbump*
-- Godzilla

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:09 AM (77rzZ)

26 The journalists are the foolish, stupid tools of leftist bureaucrats and politicians, but they are just part of a wave of stupidity roaring through the public and private sectors. As part of a transition to post-age 65 medical coverage, I need to select a Medigap policy. The company from which I retired is supposedly expert in employee benefits and one of their services is helping in the selection of such policies. In a consultation with one of our experts, I asked about the differences between age-based, community rated and issue age premiums and the "expert" answered me by saying not to worry about these details.

Posted by: Oglebay at April 30, 2025 11:09 AM (2ap+5)

27 mean, it's as if there's no one possible to keep score in a tennis match without electricity.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:06 AM (Zz0t1)

They don't have any lines people and all matches are electronic line calling.

Like playing a baseball game without umpires.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:09 AM (VofaG)

28 >>What the Internet has done is give the layperson access to the guild’s knowledge at a deep enough level to know WHEN THE GUILD WAS WRONG.

That’s what’s new, at least since the Internet, the WWW and AI became ubiquitous.

I would say it's that+ "the guild getting dumber and lazier." They could churn out a lame, poorly researched story, or better yet, reword a press release from some organization, and pretend to be writers. How would we know unless it was about our particular area of expertise (Gell-Mann

Not only do we have the tools to access a lot of the same information, we can see how little of their work is actually valuable and worthy of their degree/professional license.

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:10 AM (KHnV4)

29 I betcha that’s AI reporting.

AI can report, and the AI bots will move the markets, which will be duly reported by AI. Which will cause a nice feedback loop.

Let’s pray AI isn’t in charge of the nuclear triad
Posted by: Common Tater at April 30, 2025 11:08 AM (8pbdy)

And the six names attached to it are just the people feeding the "key details."

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:10 AM (dGCAG)

30 Reporters don't write good.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:10 AM (W/lyH)

31 Quit misusing "impact" as a crutch, you professional writers, you.
____

"Impact" is so pervasive that I often have to catch myself before using that word when writing work emails and replacing with "effect" instead.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at April 30, 2025 11:10 AM (Dv3i1)

32 30 Reporters don't write good.
Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:10 AM (W/lyH)

=======

Do they read good?

Because I know of a school they can attend.

They must be the size of ants, though.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (GBKbO)

33 What with all the cuts to newsrooms everywhere, it won't be long before the people who write for the legacy media join their reviled brethren in the basement, clothed only in their pajamas.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (s8j++)

34 When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
Posted by: Sponge

Like "first?"

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (77rzZ)

35 34 When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
Posted by: Sponge

Like "first?"
Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (77rzZ)

======

I don't get it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (GBKbO)

36
They don't have any lines people and all matches are electronic line calling.

Like playing a baseball game without umpires.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:09 AM (VofaG)

Impossible to overcome......quite impossible.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (Zz0t1)

37 "Impact" is so pervasive that I often have to catch myself before using that word when writing work emails and replacing with "effect" instead.
Posted by: Chuck Martel

That's impactful.

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:12 AM (77rzZ)

38 Journalism requires a lobotomy. Evidence is conclusive.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (Q4IgG)

39
Activists repeating word for word the "Journo-list" narrative they have been sent.

Rush had a riot exposing this 20 years ago.

Posted by: Auspex at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (j4U/Z)

40 Impossible to overcome......quite impossible.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (Zz0t1)

It literally is in a professional tennis match.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (VofaG)

41 What you'll notice more than anything in these article excerpts is the emphasis on keeping it light and airy. That already tells you they know the cause. If the cause was "right wing austerity" as opposed to leftard green energy bs, the articles would be heavy and dark and visceral and apocalyptic.

These OTOH are written like the blackout was a mild inconvenience to all, like the restaurant not quite having the reservation table ready for several minutes, or one's shoelace becoming temporarily untied.

I would say this is the most frequent and dishonest game played by the media, as it is baked into everything. The use of language - especially emotional language - to convert hell to heaven and heaven to hell, depending on what is beneficial to the Left. Insidious.

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (M/gGe)

42 >>. . . Down there, diving deeper, is the deep end, where it's safe to dive, because it's deeper.

Kindergarten level.

I haaaaaate the new "explainer" label instead of story, and the "[something], and Why This Matters" headline.

Isn't it the job of the story to inherently include this?
And by putting that in the headline is like adding a flashing light announcing bias and/or politics ahead!

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (KHnV4)

43 TV news is also in the crapper. All the reporters look like they're 23 years old, they used to have a news truck with a cameraman, at least. Now the reporter sets up their phone on a tripod. Youtubers do a better job. I expect it will only get worse, because no one watches newscasts any more. Going the way of print media, I expect.

Posted by: Downward Spiral at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (G5+As)

44 This post dovetails nicely with an article I just read about Deniro's kid coming out tranny.

I read the words, I think they say Deniro had twin sons, one went homo, and continued on to trans. She is now a proud black woman...or something.

Posted by: Francis at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (bbuBP)

45 When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
Posted by: Sponge

Like "first?"
Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (77rzZ)

======

I don't get it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:11 AM (GBKbO)
----------
Hmph.

Posted by: Humpty-Dumpty at April 30, 2025 11:14 AM (6YdsJ)

46
It literally is in a professional tennis match.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (VofaG)

Because there was no tennis before the 'cyclops.'

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:14 AM (Zz0t1)

47 Problem with the "journalists" and other scum in the news media is they want to "change the world", "make a difference", "speak truth to power".

All these nonsensical word salads mean is they are anti-family, anti-Christian, anti-male and anti-white.

Anything else, especially the muzzie, the gay and the black, is great! They never want to "change" the muzzie terrorists, or the damaging gay lifestyle which preys on the young or the violent culture among blacks in Da Ghetto.

Posted by: Yoko Ono's Dildo at April 30, 2025 11:14 AM (979V4)

48 Ackshually, “affected” would be correct. Effected/Affected is probably why “Impacted” is used now anyhow. AI can’t keep all those silly rules straight.

Posted by: Common Tater at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (I69X4)

49 It would be bad enough if they were just unscrupulous liars, but it's far worse when you realize that the self-impressed propagandists in the newsrooms are also sub-literate idiots - and so are the people who exercise all that "editorial control."
=====================
At least you still layers and layers of fact checking

Posted by: Huck Follywood at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (nRMcW)

50 Reporters can string words together to form a coherent sentence, sort of.

But it's no better than AI can do because reporters--being uneducated in most things--simply don't understand the *context* of the words they are stringing together.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (7fElN)

51 13 I mean, it's as if there's no one possible to keep score in a tennis match without electricity.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:06 AM (Zz0t1)
----
You forget all the electronic gizmos that check for in/out ball impacts, net, etc.

Posted by: Ciampino - all I could do by hand at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (sPQoU)

52 Because there was no tennis before the 'cyclops.'
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:14 AM (Zz0t1)

It's not called cyclops and before that they had professional lines people just like the MLB has umpires.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (VofaG)

53 ‘My nickel is still on "Spain's unreliable 'green' grid failed" but time will tell.’

Maybe time will tell or maybe Spain will prefer to let the cause stay a mystery rather than admit they screwed up on a grand scale.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (jbnUc)

54 Heh... a friend used to work for an organization largely staffed by PhDs (real ones in real sciences). They hired a "public affairs" person with a journalism degree, who hit on the idea of publishing a staff newsletter -- in itself not a bad idea. She solicited articles from the rest of the staff, which she promptly proceeded to dumb down to about a fourth grade level, adding her own fucktarded "explanations" of things she didn't understand.

Neither the contributors nor the Big Boss were amused.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (W5ArC)

55 You'd think there would be meetings like this throughout the media:

The Boss: Our ratings and readership are in the toilet. Ideas?

The Ink-Stained Wretches: I know. We could stop being so obviously deceitful. Perhaps we could...oh, I don't know...give it to them straight.

The Boss: Brilliant! Let's do that.

You'd think, but you'd be wrong.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (s8j++)

56 ----
You forget all the electronic gizmos that check for in/out ball impacts, net, etc.
Posted by: Ciampino - all I could do by hand at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (sPQoU)

No tennis matches were ever played before the 2000's then.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:16 AM (Zz0t1)

57 Diogenes
Meant to touch base earlier.
What flimsy excuse are you using to avoid the MoMe in Yakima this year?

Posted by: Winston, trying to think up a new nic at April 30, 2025 11:16 AM (wlv8N)

58 Off egg sock.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 11:17 AM (6YdsJ)

59 My point is missed, yet again.

Imma go stretch my spine.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:17 AM (Zz0t1)

60 When young Diogenes was a freshman and taking a class at the Edward R. Murrow Skool of Journalism at Washington State University, he took Journalism 101. The prof was a retired editor from the Clarkston Gazette. Actually a sharp guy and I liked his class.
We spent a whole class session figuring out ages based on dates, figuring if the subject had had his birthday yet or not. Even after an hour, half the class was still getting it wrong.
The final was to write an obituary based on the information he provided. It was actually damned hard.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:17 AM (W/lyH)

61 I just call them "Pravda Press" or (Media)-American Style as the case may be. Both Don Surber (who was an editor of some Southern paper) and Robert Stacy McCain have articles saying how bad they are at asking actual questions of "Who, what, why, When "

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at April 30, 2025 11:17 AM (42Vb+)

62 I read the words, I think they say Deniro had twin sons, one went homo, and continued on to trans. She is now a proud black woman...or something.

I...have no words.

Posted by: John Howard Griffin at April 30, 2025 11:17 AM (s8j++)

63 Spain is getting 100% carbon green energy...sure that means some times none...but if it saves the earth their problems don't matter right?

Posted by: 18-1 at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (t0Rmr)

64 No tennis matches were ever played before the 2000's then.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:16 AM (Zz0t1)

Now you are just being obtuse. There were no lines people . They were replaced by electronic line calling.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (VofaG)

65 I haaaaaate the new "explainer" label instead of story, and the "[something], and Why This Matters" headline.
____

I skip the "Why This Matters" part and go straight to lighting my hair on fire.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (Dv3i1)

66 Headline writing is also a lost art. Here’s why.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (bWcp9)

67 63 Spain is getting 100% carbon green energy...sure that means some times none...but if it saves the earth their problems don't matter right?
Posted by: 18-1 at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (t0Rmr)

========

"I want to go green, unless it negatively affects me in any way shape or form."
-like, everyone

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (GBKbO)

68 >>But travel was hit harder. Flights at major airports in the region were suddenly delayed or canceled, with travelers scrambling to adapt; online flight trackers reported that several airports saw their frequent departures suddenly halted after midday.

Ah, what would they do without the passive voice?
And "a bit harder," seriously? Was air travel "a bit harder on 9/12/2001?

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (KHnV4)

69 I haaaaaate the new "explainer" label instead of story, and the "[something], and Why This Matters" headline.

Isn't it the job of the story to inherently include this?
And by putting that in the headline is like adding a flashing light announcing bias and/or politics ahead!
Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (KHnV4)

The Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor (Why This Matters)

Key Details: Planed bombed, ships burned.

Diving deeper: Ships sank.

Here's a tweet from someone who says they know someone who was there.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:19 AM (dGCAG)

70
Now you are just being obtuse. There were no lines people . They were replaced by electronic line calling.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (VofaG)

Fully meaning that it's NOT impossible to have a tennis match WITHOUT electricity.

F*ck......I'm out.......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:19 AM (Zz0t1)

71 65: or Ace’s favorite, MXM.

“Key details”. “Diving deeper.”

Report the damn story and quit treating your readers like they are blithering idiots.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:19 AM (bWcp9)

72 I hate the "Here's What You Need to Know About _____"
articles.

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:19 AM (77rzZ)

73 I skip the "Why This Matters" part and go straight to lighting my hair on fire.

Posted by: Chuck Martel

Wise. That's very efficient.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:20 AM (s8j++)

74 71 Report the damn story and quit treating your readers like they are blithering idiots.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:19 AM (bWcp9)

========

Remember, nearly half the population is below 100 IQ, and 100 IQ ain't what it used to be with our education system.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:20 AM (GBKbO)

75 57 Diogenes
Meant to touch base earlier.
What flimsy excuse are you using to avoid the MoMe in Yakima this year?
Posted by: Winston, trying to think up a new nic at April 30, 2025 11:16 AM (wlv8N)

It's pretty flimsy I'll admit.
It's anniversary weekend and I will be floating down the Columbia (hopefully not face down) with Mrs D on a dinner cruise.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:20 AM (W/lyH)

76 They don't even have ability to clearly communicate their lies anymore. All their prattle about "editorial oversight" and "newsroom controls" and the like doesn't amount to a hill of beans. These people write for a living, and do a bad job of it. The lies sting even more when they're delivered so poorly.

---------------

"AI" Bot ChatNPC FTW!

Posted by: ShainS at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (TuuEq)

77 31
‘Quit misusing "impact" as a crutch, you professional writers, you.’

This is an impactful point.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (jbnUc)

78 Loved the link to Publius. Thanks, Biden's Dog.

Posted by: creeper at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (zFwIe)

79 The massive overuse of “provider”: for example, I have heard of insurers. Or insurance companies, or insurance agents, WTF is an “insurance provider”?

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (bWcp9)

80 The maddening part is that a competent writer that researches the facts and reports them can't get a line of print.

Posted by: Ben Had at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (oXfCm)

81 Fully meaning that it's NOT impossible to have a tennis match WITHOUT electricity.

F*ck......I'm out.......
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:19 AM (Zz0t1)

It's impossible to have a professional tennis match without a medium to call lines . They had none.

Not that hard to understand.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (VofaG)

82 >>Here's a tweet from someone who says they know someone who was there.

Hate that, too.

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (KHnV4)

83 Report the damn story and quit treating your readers like they are blithering idiots.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:19 AM (bWcp9)
----
These stories are being written by blithering idiots. Of course they're going to write for that audience.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (7fElN)

84 What happened to the "lines people"? Were they placed on an ice floe and set adrift?

Posted by: Oh, The Huge Manatee! at April 30, 2025 11:22 AM (G5+As)

85 The one that sets my teeth on edge is "insurances". I'd rather see "providers" than "insurances", myself.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at April 30, 2025 11:22 AM (W5ArC)

86 Headline writing is also a lost art. Here’s why.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (bWcp9)
----------
The late, lamented Los Angeles Herald Examiner had some crackerjack headline writers. When Orel Hershiser pitched a no-hitter, the front page headline was "000-000-00Orel!"

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 11:22 AM (6YdsJ)

87 I can't stand the "Key Details," and "Diving Deeper" headers to the paragraphs.

It's pernicious. It presumes that you, the reader, are simply too ignorant to understand all the grown-up words and concepts in the story, so here are some easy, bite-sized chunks of instant information you can use to sound smart.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at April 30, 2025 11:22 AM (Dg2sF)

88 Our Elites are naked. And we know it!

https://tinyurl.com/cbva5z3e

DON'T LOOK, ETHEL!!!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at April 30, 2025 11:02 AM (qFAfu)

They should print out cards with a QR code to direct people to that Xeet which you could hand to anyone who ever says "I have an (insert letters) from (insert name of overpriced college)" as an explanation for why you should accept their utterances as worthy of your consideration.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at April 30, 2025 11:22 AM (ExV1e)

89 Remember, nearly half the population is below 100 IQ, and 100 IQ ain't what it used to be with our education system.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:20 AM (GBKbO)

Maybe, but I have read a book or two. I see that crap, I instantly stop reading.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:23 AM (bWcp9)

90 Well, that will be a nice cruise.
I mean you could just bring her along. Take her to the, "Palm Springs of the Northwet".
There's a sign and everything.

Posted by: Winston, trying to think up a new nic at April 30, 2025 11:23 AM (wlv8N)

91 Now you are just being obtuse.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (VofaG)

I'm pretty sure there are no obtuse lines in tennis.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:23 AM (dGCAG)

92 I like headlines like this one from the NYT and really miss James Taranto highlighting them in his WSJ columns:

"Trump Turns on R.F.K. Jr.

Amid Concerns He Could Attract Republican Voters"

Posted by: Oglebay at April 30, 2025 11:23 AM (2ap+5)

93 31
One of my pet peeves.

Also
impact -- effect -- NOUN
impacts -- affects -- VERB

Posted by: Ciampino - hate bad English when I do it at April 30, 2025 11:24 AM (sPQoU)

94 Flights at major airports in the region were suddenly delayed or canceled

Ah, what would they do without the passive voice?

Actually, the passive voice is OK here. The flights were suddenly delayed or canceled by the outage.

It's not like a person ordered the delays or cancellations. It was a power outage, and thus low "in animacy," as the linguists say. So the passive voice is more acceptable here.

It might be overused, but the passive voice exists for a reason, and gets a bad rap.

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:24 AM (77rzZ)

95 Now you are just being obtuse. There were no lines people . They were replaced by electronic line calling.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:18 AM (VofaG)

*steps in front of Sponge*

Hey now - I'M the obtuse one around here, not my man Sponge!

Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:24 AM (vf0Y9)

96 Well, that will be a nice cruise.
I mean you could just bring her along. Take her to the, "Palm Springs of the Northwet".
There's a sign and everything.
Posted by: Winston, trying to think up a new nic at April 30, 2025 11:23 AM (wlv8N)

If the sign says Palm Springs then I'd have to bring my golf clubs and that would go over like a fart in church.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:24 AM (W/lyH)

97 >>>CNN may be grossly incompetent overall, but their SEO people are doing a good job.

It's not SEO, it's institutional corruption of the institutions formerly known as search engines.

I use FreeSpoke, the "search engine" which touts itself as "The search engine built to be unbiased." (I also use qwant, yandex, DDG to varied results.)

Here are the top results for "Spain Power Outage."

"The Guardian, CNN, NY Times, BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, Sky News, NBC News, AP News, BBC, AP News, . . . ."

I shit you not.

I can't put my finger on a specific date, but sometime ca. 2006-2010, Search Engines began abandoning their role as unbiased fact crawlers and rankers based on search terms, and they began to take on their current role as propaganda delivery services, tools of the established order.

I don't have a catch name for it, yet, but I propose stopping the practice of calling them search engines and begin calling them ministers of truth or something more accurate.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 11:24 AM (i24o9)

98 >>Trains were also suspended in Spain. And darkness suddenly descended in subway tunnels; video posted on social media showed blackened train cars stuck in standstill on platforms in Madrid, where the metro was suspended and entrances to stations were taped off.

Passive, passive, passive.
Who suspended the trains in Spain?
Who taped off the tunnels?
And blackness just. . . descended. From where?

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (KHnV4)

99 Ike beats Tina to death is an all time great.

Posted by: Ben Had at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (oXfCm)

100 What happened to the "lines people"? Were they placed on an ice floe and set adrift?
Posted by: Oh, The Huge Manatee! at April 30, 2025 11:22 AM (G5+As)

They were replaced . Laid off. Not available. Probably sitting at home in another country.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (VofaG)

101 But they are PROFESSIONALS !!!!

And they have degrees that prove it. So their information is reliable, unlike us lying liars with our dismalinformation.

Posted by: Eeyore at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (1bNHn)

102 60 When young Diogenes was a freshman and taking a class at the Edward R. Murrow Skool of Journalism at Washington State University, he took Journalism 101. The prof was a retired editor from the Clarkston Gazette. Actually a sharp guy and I liked his class.
We spent a whole class session figuring out ages based on dates, figuring if the subject had had his birthday yet or not. Even after an hour, half the class was still getting it wrong.
The final was to write an obituary based on the information he provided. It was actually damned hard.
Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:17 AM (W/lyH)

You actually had a journalism professor who knew his stuff and taught it. Mine recounted his exploits with the AP and flirted with the girls in class. I learned more about writing a newspaper article in fifth grade than anything in this required course.

Posted by: Moki at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (wLjpr)

103 The NY Post classic: Headless Body in Topless Bar

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (W5ArC)

104 94 Actually, the passive voice is OK here. The flights were suddenly delayed or canceled by the outage.

It's not like a person ordered the delays or cancellations. It was a power outage, and thus low "in animacy," as the linguists say. So the passive voice is more acceptable here.

It might be overused, but the passive voice exists for a reason, and gets a bad rap.
Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:24 AM (77rzZ)

=======

The main use of the passive voice is to emphasis who is receiving the action. In an article about a blackout, highlighting the victim of a blackout several paragraphs in is fine.

It's very different from paragraph one: "Pedestrians were hit yesterday."

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (GBKbO)

105 Another irritant: cops and firefighters are “first responders”. Um, no they aren’t. The poor sunofabitches on the scene are in fact the first responders. Which is why you must train for such situations.

Read Weasel’s gun thread on Sunday evenings.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:26 AM (bWcp9)

106 Nope. Not a. Jimmy Olson among them.

The reporters have no respect for the profession. Sad.

Posted by: Case at April 30, 2025 11:26 AM (OrSPY)

107 I'm pretty sure there are no obtuse lines in tennis.
Posted by: BurtTC

But they're everywhere in pickleball. Or so Doof tells me.

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:26 AM (77rzZ)

108 "Woman Beats Off Attacker"

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at April 30, 2025 11:26 AM (W5ArC)

109 I didn't know that Spanish trains are suspended from above instead of being on the ground, nor that a power outage can cause trains to levitate.

--------------

Something Lost In Trranslation?

Posted by: ShainS at April 30, 2025 11:26 AM (TuuEq)

110 79 The massive overuse of “provider”: for example, I have heard of insurers. Or insurance companies, or insurance agents, WTF is an “insurance provider”?
_____

U.S. taxpayers?

Posted by: Chuck Martel at April 30, 2025 11:27 AM (Dv3i1)

111 >>It might be overused, but the passive voice exists for a reason, and gets a bad rap.

Agreed, I am not picking a good example, but it is overused. When I see passive voice it's generally an alert that they are finessing something.

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:27 AM (KHnV4)

112 I've learned to trust the media. You always know that the truth is something other than what they're reporting.

Posted by: t-bird at April 30, 2025 11:27 AM (JUV6P)

113 Rather than a system that works even when under stress, they now have a system that *only* works when every thing is exactly perfect.
Posted by: Tom Servo

Serious question: have Spain and/or Portugal ever had an electricity grid that met the description "Works even when under stress"?

Posted by: FeatherBlade at April 30, 2025 11:27 AM (hB7mE)

114 "I want to go green, unless it negatively affects me in any way shape or form."
-like, everyone

There was a survey a few years ago the FNM touted, with the question "Do you believe people should be willing to make sacrifices to reduce global warming?" And YES won by a lot.

But there was a second question in the same survey the FNM ignored, "How much are you personally willing to sacrifice in dollars to reduce global warming?" The average answer to this one? $7. Not a month. Total.

Posted by: 18-1 at April 30, 2025 11:27 AM (t0Rmr)

115 Agreed, I am not picking a good example, but it is overused. When I see passive voice it's generally an alert that they are finessing something.

Sooo...you're saying mistakes were made?

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:27 AM (s8j++)

116 Remember the old Gallagher bit: What TV really needs is a knob that lets you turn up the intelligence. There's one called "brightness", but it doesn't work.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at April 30, 2025 11:28 AM (W5ArC)

117 >>Six professional writers, and not even one of them can write.

They can write but all stories must comport with an approved narrative and so stories as big as this must be distributed to many people in order to ensure compliance.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 30, 2025 11:28 AM (XV/Pl)

118 Spain needs a Francisco Franco.

Posted by: Pudinhead at April 30, 2025 11:28 AM (pZ64F)

119 There was a survey a few years ago the FNM touted, with the question "Do you believe people should be willing to make sacrifices to reduce global warming?" And YES won by a lot.

Question 1 should be "do you think global warming is happening?". The next question should be "if so, how much would you sacrifice?".

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (s8j++)

120 Okay Diogenes.
I was going to bring some Bud Light ir White Claw for you.
Some Swishers for you to enjoy.
Sigh ...
Maybe next time.

Posted by: Winston, trying to think up a new nic at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (wlv8N)

121 How deep will the submarine go?

Posted by: Francis at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (bbuBP)

122 You actually had a journalism professor who knew his stuff and taught it. Mine recounted his exploits with the AP and flirted with the girls in class. I learned more about writing a newspaper article in fifth grade than anything in this required course.
Posted by: Moki at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (wLjpr)

Yes...I did and was a better writer for it. He also taught us how to ask questions. No simple yes or no answers but designed to draw the speaker out. It was fun.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (W/lyH)

123 >>Sooo...you're saying mistakes were made?

Heh, no! I made the mistake!!
You could say I pounced on it, like a typical Republican

Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (KHnV4)

124 The main use of the passive voice is to emphasis who is receiving the action. In an article about a blackout, highlighting the victim of a blackout several paragraphs in is fine.

It's very different from paragraph one: "Pedestrians were hit yesterday."
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (GBKbO)

So "some stuff was done by some people" vs "some people did some stuff"?

Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (vf0Y9)

125 115 Agreed, I am not picking a good example, but it is overused. When I see passive voice it's generally an alert that they are finessing something.

Sooo...you're saying mistakes were made?
Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:27 AM (s8j++)

=========

BY WHOM?!?!?!

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (GBKbO)

126 My nickel is still on "Spain's unreliable 'green' grid failed"

The, umm, Sun went down unexpectedly...

Posted by: Spanish Officials at April 30, 2025 11:30 AM (Dphv/)

127 Six professional writers, and not even one of them can write.

-----------------

Teaching "whole word reading" rather than phonics has had at least two generations of sub-literate consequences ...

Posted by: ShainS at April 30, 2025 11:30 AM (TuuEq)

128 118 Spain needs a Francisco Franco.
Posted by: Pudinhead at April 30, 2025 11:28 AM (pZ64F)

They need an Augusto Pinochet. Why waste time with with half-measures?

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at April 30, 2025 11:30 AM (W5ArC)

129 The trains in Spain mainly on the plane

Posted by: Hatari Somewhere on Ventura Highway at April 30, 2025 11:30 AM (WF/xn)

130 Six professional writers, and not even one of them can write.
---------
Give us some time.

Posted by: One Million Chimpanzees at April 30, 2025 11:30 AM (6YdsJ)

131 Again, as noted, the paradox of so-called renewable energy sources is that as your reliance on them grows, so too must other more reliable forms of energy generation grow to back stop the shortfalls.

Because if 75pct of your energy relies on the sun and the wind, well, the sun don't shine all the time and the wind don't blow all the time, and unicorn farts are in very limited supply.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 30, 2025 11:30 AM (XV/Pl)

132 124 So "some stuff was done by some people" vs "some people did some stuff"?
Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (vf0Y9)

======

Yeah.

I had a college professor who so hated the passive voice that he took off a point for every instance of the use of "to be" and its variants in any paper.

Now, you may wonder..."I am a good writer," is not passive, but it does also contain to be.

Didn't matter to this guy.

I had to write sentences like this: "I exist as a good writer." It made my writing SO much worse.

But I got my A.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:31 AM (GBKbO)

133 I'm pretty sure there are no obtuse lines in tennis.
Posted by: BurtTC

But they're everywhere in pickleball. Or so Doof tells me.
Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:26 AM (77rzZ)

There was tennis, and racquetball, and then there was ping pong. There's also badminton.

I'm not sure why we needed pickleball.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:31 AM (dGCAG)

134 I've been noticing lately that practically every article has three authors in the byline. How does that even work? Poorly, obviously, but I'm wondering at the process that entitles multiple people to be mentioned. I think six is a new record though.

Also, they clearly use autocorrect, why don't they use Grammerely or something like that to stop making so many grammatical blunders?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 30, 2025 11:31 AM (lFFaq)

135 Okay Diogenes.
I was going to bring some Bud Light ir White Claw for you.
Some Swishers for you to enjoy.
Sigh ...
Maybe next time.
Posted by: Winston, trying to think up a new nic at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (wlv8N)

I appreciate that but gotta tell ya...last time I smoked a Swisher Sweet I spewed my MRE lunch all over the Saudi desert.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (W/lyH)

136 I learned more about writing a newspaper article in fifth grade than anything in this required course.

Posted by: Moki at April 30, 2025 11:25 AM (wLjpr)

A required course in news reading? I think I'd slit my wrists.

I took an elective logic course, which was largely facilitated by an DEI grad student in some basket-weaving discipline. More than once I was correcting her proofs as she delivered her explanations.

It was an eye-opening experience.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (i24o9)

137 The main use of the passive voice is to emphasis who is receiving the action. In an article about a blackout, highlighting the victim of a blackout several paragraphs in is fine.

It's very different from paragraph one: "Pedestrians were hit yesterday."
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

Yes, agreed.

We say things like "TJM got bitten by a dog" because we know who TJM is, and he's more important to us than the dog. But if it's my dog who bit some stranger that I don't know, I'm going to say, "Fido bit a man yesterday," because Fido, as my dog, is more important to me than the guy that he bit.

Also see the most frequently-used passive in the English language -- "I was born," "you were born," he/she was born," etc.

Posted by: Bulg at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (77rzZ)

138 Serious question: have Spain and/or Portugal ever had an electricity grid that met the description "Works even when under stress"?

It's what they had before candles.

Posted by: t-bird at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (cSMYS)

139 Some Swishers for you to enjoy.
----------
I'll be there.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (6YdsJ)

140 VOTE VANCE!

Posted by: MAGA LOL just wants to vote for Vance at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (E1whe)

141 I'm not sure why we needed pickleball.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:31 AM (dGCAG)

For oldies to break their hips.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (i24o9)

142 Antonio Salazar is the best politician Portugal has ever had. He might be the only one who wasn't completely useless.

Posted by: Oglebay at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (2ap+5)

143 Not that I disagree with your premise, Joe. I don't. But there are some glass houses around here...

"They cars "blackened.""

You meant "the", not "they". A lot of COBs (and Master Ace) have typos in their blogs. I often wonder if they're being dictated, as I find it faster to dictate text messages and revise errors than type it all out by hand, and the errors I don't catch til after I hit send look like the typos on here. Not complaining, just saying, is this all due to the corrosion of education and/or culture and/or the journalism industry, or does the evolution of technology have a hand in writing standards dropping as well (as the population as a whole values speed over form, now that it's an option to get information in minutes instead of waiting for tomorrow's paper)? And if the latter, it affects us all; not really fair to take 'journalists' to task on it. Though there's plenty else to take them to task on...

Posted by: bearski at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (Bhsk7)

144 The massive overuse of “provider”: for example, I have heard of insurers. Or insurance companies, or insurance agents, WTF is an “insurance provider”?
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:21 AM (bWcp9)

Front desk drone: Who is your insurance provider?
Me: I am.
Front desk drone: You self insure?
Me: No.
Front desk drone: I don't understand.
Me: I pay the insurance company with my money. They issue a policy based on that payment. I have provided my own insurance.
Front desk drone: May I see the card from your insurance company?
Me: Sure, hands over card.
Front desk drone: *under their breath* Asshole.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at April 30, 2025 11:33 AM (ExV1e)

145 134 I've been noticing lately that practically every article has three authors in the byline. How does that even work? Poorly, obviously, but I'm wondering at the process that entitles multiple people to be mentioned. I think six is a new record though.

Also, they clearly use autocorrect, why don't they use Grammerely or something like that to stop making so many grammatical blunders?
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 30, 2025 11:31 AM (lFFaq)

=======

There's an interesting bit in a British movie about journalism and Iraq, Official Secrets about Katharine Gun.

The newspaper did a spell check on a leaked US memo, and it changed the American spelling of words to British spellings of words.

Apparently based on real life.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (GBKbO)

146 Posted by: Lizzy at April 30, 2025 11:13 AM (KHnV4)

All simple mind control tricks. Once they get people used to needing them, it's easy to "teach" through them. The labels also give the writing that follows much needed "gravitas". It's like a shortcut to imprint stuff without having to do the heavy lifting of actually being persuasive, honest or even consistent.

Why it Matters = What to Think
Key Takeaways = Lies to Remember
Diving Deeper = Unproven Conclusions

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (M/gGe)

147 Dumbass going to school for a journalism degree:

I want to make a difference in the world!!

Anyone with sense:

Picture that gif of the Witcher "F********ck.

Posted by: Seems Legit at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (PMtkd)

148 I'm not sure why we needed pickleball.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:31 AM (dGCAG)

For oldies to break their hips.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 11:32 AM (i24o9)

So you're saying it's an insurance racket?

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (dGCAG)

149 I took an elective logic course, which was largely facilitated by an DEI grad student in some basket-weaving discipline. More than once I was correcting her proofs as she delivered her explanations.

It was an eye-opening experience.

You failed to address the question which was on the minds of all of the morons (at least the male ones).

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (s8j++)

150 56 ----
You forget all the electronic gizmos that check for in/out ball impacts, net, etc.
Posted by: Ciampino - all I could do by hand at April 30, 2025 11:15 AM (sPQoU)

No tennis matches were ever played before the 2000's then.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at April 30, 2025 11:16 AM (Zz0t1)
----
You think they would be able to find qualified and still competent line judges at very short notice?
Would the losing player possibly raise post-match (legal) objections?

Posted by: Ciampino - too much fame & fortune is on balance at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (sPQoU)

151 "Fido bit a man yesterday,"

There are unsubstantiated reports of an alleged and possibly justified dog bite yesterday!

Posted by: Fido at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (AJ8yr)

152 Anyone know of a good subway to find a dead guy to rape? Asking for a friend.

Posted by: DJ Jazzy Mel at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (ZTJjv)

153 At least it was the Saudi desert.
I was going to bring the grape flavored ones.
I don't think there'll be any MRE's on the menu, if that helps.

Posted by: Winston, trying to think up a new nic at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (wlv8N)

154 Also, affect vs. effect: learn the difference. Quit misusing "impact" as a crutch, you professional writers, you.
***
Great catch. Unfortunately, I do it all the time. I must have been sick the day we learned the difference. Even now, I frequently look it up but it doesn't stick. Unless I'm 90% confident I have it right, I use "impact." (*hangs head in shame*)

Posted by: LASue at April 30, 2025 11:35 AM (lCppi)

155 Six professional writers, and not even one of them can write.

Serious education has been abandoned. On purpose. Younger people have not been taught basic skills involving reading and writing. This is going to be a long-lasting problem.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at April 30, 2025 11:35 AM (4/BuS)

156 So you're saying it's an insurance racket?

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (dGCAG)

If the tennis shoe fits.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 11:35 AM (i24o9)

157 How will the greens explain away the frequent, and probably longer lasting blackouts that will undoubtably occur with this sort of horseshit?

Posted by: Martini Farmer at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (Q4IgG)

158 This thread is too ripe to not be invaded by the grammar nazis.

*stands alert*

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (g8Ew8)

159 John has a long mustache.

Phil Holloway @PhilHollowayEsq
Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”
He said he was the "permission structure" for White men to vote for Democrats
I guess I don’t speak his “code”

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (3kLUZ)

160 143 Not that I disagree with your premise, Joe. I don't. But there are some glass houses around here...

-----

I want to make it clear, I am not throwing stones around my glass house.

Posted by: Seems Legit at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (PMtkd)

161 And if the latter, it affects us all; not really fair to take 'journalists' to task on it.

I disagree. Writing well is a basic skill for a journalist, and they should be proficient. It would be like me saying I'm a chemist, but not understanding pH.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (s8j++)

162 I think this corrosion of the language accelerated if not started when NFL commentators started referring to injuries simply by the body parts: "Tom Brady is out with a knee." That's been happening for 20+ years... Next thing you know, "The metro is suspended."...

Posted by: bearski at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (Bhsk7)

163 Seems to fit here, so here goes...

Anyone else bothered by the use of "pairs with" or "paired with"?

A pair is 2 similar things. Like a pair of 2s in poker. Or a pair of shoes which, aside from being left and right, look like each other.

What bugs me, for example, is when I see "pairs nicely with" on a menu - usually a suggestion for a beer or wine to have with an entree. A food item and the suggested beverage are NOT a pair.

OK, I'm done. There are some yutes approaching my lawn.

Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (vf0Y9)

164 I guess I don’t speak his “code”

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (3kLUZ)

Need more sexually confused young boy in your presentation, maybe?

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (i24o9)

165

livestream of President Trump:

https://is.gd/oe8UXd

Posted by: Soothsayer at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (1onUH)

166 Writing to a rigid agenda must make it hard to write well.

Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (kTd/k)

167 I'm not sure why we needed pickleball.
Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:31 AM (dGCAG)

Pickleball is great! Blah Blah and I get all dressed up like pickleball warriors and hit the courts out for blood like we are teenagers again. You don't move a lot in pickleball and as far as athletics go it's pretty minimum, but we hang with our pickleball buddies and it fills the empty holes which we call our lives and gives it meaning when we are not trying to wring another dollar out of some government handout program or another. Pickleball Rules!

Posted by: Harriet And Blah Blah Nyborg, Lifelong democrats and moochers at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (979V4)

168 Best class I had on writing was a "Technical Writing" course in college (for my engineering degree) taught by a Professional Technical Writer in 80s ~~Silicon~~ Surveillance Valley.

It greatly helped me stand out vis-a-vis others throughout my career -- from compliments by coworkers & managers to job performance reviews.

Posted by: ShainS at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (59/4m)

169 Walz, when batshit crazy and drunk just isn’t enough.

Posted by: DJ Jazzy Mel at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (ZTJjv)

170 How are polls conducted nowadays?

Posted by: Serious question at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (bRtkC)

171 How deep will the submarine go?
Posted by: Francis at April 30, 2025 11:29 AM (bbuBP)

Assuming it is intended to restore its submerged / surfaced ratio to 1, that would depend on the class of submarine. If such is not the intention, the answer would depend on the depth of the local water.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (ExV1e)

172 Anyone else bothered by the use of "pairs with" or "paired with"?

Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (vf0Y9)

It's obtuse, but we'll allow it.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (i24o9)

173 Copulates > Pairs

Posted by: Oglebay at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (2ap+5)

174 Also, affect vs. effect: learn the difference. Quit misusing "impact" as a crutch, you professional writers, you.

Rein and reign are frequently misused. It happens so often that I stop and think about it every time I use one or the other.

See also; underestimate vs overestimate.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (s8j++)

175 150
Also spectator facilities - bars, food vendors, souvenirs, etc., as well as bathroom facilities would be affected by lack of electricity other than porta-potties.

Posted by: Ciampino - too much fame & fortune is on balance? at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (sPQoU)

176 159 John has a long mustache.

Phil Holloway @PhilHollowayEsq
Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”
He said he was the "permission structure" for White men to vote for Democrats
I guess I don’t speak his “code”
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (3kLUZ)

======

Which is why white men voted for Trump 60-38.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (GBKbO)

177 Posted by: Tom Servo at April 30, 2025 11:09 AM (uWKK

On Twitter someone used the metaphor of two hyper Chihuahuas (wind and solar) set off by a Corgi ( what ever the almost certainly minor incident was) with the fat grumpy cat (basic nuclear or coal) who usually kept them in line being out of the room.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (lFFaq)

178 Seeing a fake word like”overpriced” instead of real words like “expensive” is grating.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (eNdzY)

179 Not a. Jimmy Olson among them.

The reporters have no respect for the profession. Sad.
Posted by: Case at April 30, 2025 11:26 AM (OrSPY)

When I was in Somalia I was ordered to give the daily briefing to the Press. The Boss wanted to put an Intelligence guy in front of them to make them feel like they were getting "the real stuff!" I hated it and only did it once. They media folks (about 20) were complete and total assholes. The only guy there worth a shit was a writer for some paper in Rome. The rest were scumbags.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (W/lyH)

180 You think they would be able to find qualified and still competent line judges at very short notice?
Would the losing player possibly raise post-match (legal) objections?
Posted by: Ciampino - too much fame & fortune is on balance at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (sPQoU

No it's not logistically possible. This is not just a pick up match in the park. They are playing for a million dollars and more. Again it's like an MLB game that suddenly had no umpires. They wouldn't just continue with the game or go search for competent people to take over the umpire duties. They would cancel the game.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (VofaG)

181 Writing "funny" is a skill too. This place taught me that.

Posted by: Francis at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (bbuBP)

182
Rein and reign are frequently misused. It happens so often that I stop and think about it every time I use one or the other.

See also; underestimate vs overestimate.
Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (s8j++)
---------
"Hones in on." It's "Homes," like a missile or a pigeon.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (6YdsJ)

183 Which is why white men voted for Trump 60-38.
--------------
Snort.

Posted by: Pudinhead at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (pZ64F)

184 I'm not sure why we needed pickleball.
Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:31 AM (dGCAG)

Pickleball is great! Blah Blah and I get all dressed up like pickleball warriors and hit the courts out for blood like we are teenagers again. You don't move a lot in pickleball and as far as athletics go it's pretty minimum, but we hang with our pickleball buddies and it fills the empty holes which we call our lives and gives it meaning when we are not trying to wring another dollar out of some government handout program or another. Pickleball Rules!
Posted by: Harriet And Blah Blah Nyborg, Lifelong democrats and moochers at April 30, 2025 11:37 AM (979V4)

*resists bait*

Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (vf0Y9)

185 So you're saying it's an insurance racket?
Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (dGCAG)

I think Pickleball uses paddles

Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 11:40 AM (D7oie)

186 AI can report, and the AI bots will move the markets, which will be duly reported by AI. Which will cause a nice feedback loop.

Let’s pray AI isn’t in charge of the nuclear triad
Posted by: Common Tater

Where would you get an idea like that?
And what was your address again?

Posted by: Skynet Uber Alles! at April 30, 2025 11:40 AM (vcOmj)

187 How will the greens explain away the frequent, and probably longer lasting blackouts that will undoubtably occur with this sort of horseshit?
Posted by: Martini Farmer at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (Q4IgG)

They have zero intention of doing so. So more lies I would guess since that seems to be their fashion.

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:40 AM (M/gGe)

188 It's obtuse, but we'll allow it.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 11:38 AM (i24o9)

Well played

Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:40 AM (vf0Y9)

189 115 Agreed, I am not picking a good example, but it is overused. When I see passive voice it's generally an alert that they are finessing something.

Sooo...you're saying mistakes were made?
Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:27 AM (s8j++)

Several pedestrians were killed by a car. .

Posted by: LASue at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (lCppi)

190 *resists bait*
Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (vf0Y9)
----------
Manfully, I'm sure.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (6YdsJ)

191 The newspaper did a spell check on a leaked US memo, and it changed the American spelling of words to British spellings of words.

Apparently based on real life.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla

That's one way to give the US plausible deniability.

Posted by: FeatherBlade at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (hB7mE)

192 "Impactful."

Posted by: Don't get me started at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (bRtkC)

193 Thx Joe. I'm a lawyer by training and the same kind of crap writing exists in the media when they try and discuss legal matters. The stripping of Perkins Coie's security clearance was not appealed by the law firm , but other parts of Trump's EO were appealed . It was almost impossible to find this fact in any of the writings about the appeal.

Posted by: Smell the Glove at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (Er3Q7)

194 You think that's bad? Have you looked at "sports" articles lately? Those guys are subliterate imbeciles. After attempting to read and decipher them, you're still left trying to figure out exactly what the subject of the article is, who did what to whom, where it happened, and why it would matter to anyone.

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (7aURE)

195 Seeing a fake word like”overpriced” instead of real words like “expensive” is grating.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (eNdzY)

Are those the same thing?

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (M/gGe)

196 161 I disagree. Writing well is a basic skill for a journalist, and they should be proficient. It would be like me saying I'm a chemist, but not understanding pH.
Posted by: Archimedes

-------------------

That's if you still confer some sort of educational standing to the title of "journalist".

Sure, this is a fair bone to pick. Just pointing out the irony of a post critiquing people for poor grammar / typos in a post that itself has typos...

Posted by: bearski at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (Bhsk7)

197 You think they would be able to find qualified and still competent line judges at very short notice?
Would the losing player possibly raise post-match (legal) objections?
Posted by: Ciampino - too much fame & fortune is on balance at April 30, 2025 11:34 AM (sPQoU)

Tennis would be a far more interesting sport if they drafted line judges from the spectators and each player could execute one line judge per match.

Still not interesting enough to watch, but closer.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (ExV1e)

198 SUV runs over pedestrians.

A Stephen King novel.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (VofaG)

199 more and more in books i read, capital letters are not used for proper nouns. it looks like crap.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:42 AM (eNdzY)

200 Spain, Portugal, and France lost power? BUT WHAT ABOUT FUTBOL?!

Posted by: pookysgirl knows what the score is... and it's tied at April 30, 2025 11:42 AM (cscNe)

201 Let me guess, Spain doesn't use Air Conditioning?

Posted by: Pudinhead at April 30, 2025 11:42 AM (pZ64F)

202 The spot is hit by Pepsi Cola.

Posted by: No that doesn't work at April 30, 2025 11:42 AM (bRtkC)

203 199 more and more in books i read, capital letters are not used for proper nouns. it looks like crap.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:42 AM (eNdzY)

=======

It used to be that every noun was capitalized.

The subtitles in Assassin's Creed III use that casing.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:42 AM (GBKbO)

204 >>171 How deep will the submarine go?

Just below the sonic layer depth

Posted by: one hour sober at April 30, 2025 11:42 AM (Y1sOo)

205 @166

>>Writing to a rigid agenda must make it hard to write well.

That's generally why most things in the cultural zeitgeist suck.

Literature, movies, books, news reporting, etc.

For instance, the last culturally important book series were The Harry Potter Books, and the last of the books was published 18 years ago.

Let's not get started on movies or television.

As South Park Sagely put it, everything is woke, lame and gay.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 30, 2025 11:42 AM (XV/Pl)

206 194 You think that's bad? Have you looked at "sports" articles lately? Those guys are subliterate imbeciles. After attempting to read and decipher them, you're still left trying to figure out exactly what the subject of the article is, who did what to whom, where it happened, and why it would matter to anyone.
Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at April 30, 2025 11:41 AM (7aURE)

-----

When you mentioned subliterate imbeciles I thought you were referring to sports announcers/reporters.

Posted by: Seems Legit at April 30, 2025 11:43 AM (PMtkd)

207 The next time Ford hits $25 I'm selling!

Posted by: Oglebay at April 30, 2025 11:43 AM (2ap+5)

208 Phil Holloway @PhilHollowayEsq
Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”
He said he was the "permission structure" for White men to vote for Democrats she's retarded. And he accepted because he's retardeder.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at April 30, 2025 11:43 AM (ExV1e)

209 "Hones in on." It's "Homes," like a missile or a pigeon.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (6YdsJ)

Hmm. Just the other day I learned that it's "all told," not the more logical (at least in the usual context) "all tolled."

Posted by: LASue at April 30, 2025 11:43 AM (lCppi)

210 Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”

You did great among antifa, pedos, and gov't employees. You sure you used the right code book?

Posted by: t-bird at April 30, 2025 11:43 AM (pvvko)

211 >>>It has come down to "not terrorism or cyber attack" and the quote about the weather has been denied by authorities. My nickel is still on "Spain's unreliable 'green' grid failed" but time will tell.

Or: A friend suggested to me that maybe the problems were created by an internal testing of the system; attacking it to practice putting it back up. And then I saw this, at BBC:

The impact of the outage was not as great as it could have been, they add, as yesterday's incident happened midweek and airliines are in a quiet period after Easter--so they have capacity. It would have been more problematic if this had happened at the weekend.

Posted by: m at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (CQE5S)

212 145
The newspaper did a spell check on a leaked US memo, and it changed the American spelling of words to ~~British~~ English spellings of words.

Posted by: Ciampino - edited for consistency at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (sPQoU)

213 210 Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”

You did great among antifa, pedos, and gov't employees. You sure you used the right code book?
Posted by: t-bird at April 30, 2025 11:43 AM (pvvko)

=======

Also, VPs don't bring in votes on any material level.

Never have.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (GBKbO)

214 Seeing a fake word like”overpriced” instead of real words like “expensive” is grating.

Those words mean different things. "Expensive" just means "costs a lot." "Overpriced" means "costs more than its worth" (in the speaker's opinion of course). Some things, like say a house, can be expensive but worth their price. Some things can be inexpensive but still overpriced, like a bad fast food burger.

Posted by: Oddbob at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (/y8xj)

215 I think this corrosion of the language accelerated if not started when NFL commentators started referring to injuries simply by the body parts: "Tom Brady is out with a knee." That's been happening for 20+ years... Next thing you know, "The metro is suspended."...

Posted by: bearski at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (Bhsk7)

----------------

Magic Johnson's NBA announcing career -- after retiring with HIV -- didn't last very long, especially after he kept using and being publicly mocked & ridiculed for the phrase "mo' better."

Posted by: ShainS at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (59/4m)

216 A media created absurdity that now permeates the civilian world: "First Responders" aka cops, fire, para medics, etc. are conflated with military personnel. No. They are not soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines. No. They are not. Show me one f ing cop or fireman who can be deployed to any place on the planet at a moments notice and, while there, be killed, crippled, or missing by some 3rd or 4th world asshole.

Also, cops, firemen, etc. can QUIT and go home any time they want.

Every Memorial Day, some idiot of a news reader, school teacher, or preacher will equate "first responders" with killed, wounded, or missing servicemen. F. U.

Posted by: Going deep. Out. at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (9X60i)

217 So the media are having an orgasm about gdp growth being negative. Why is it it negative? Because of a rush of imports to avoid the Tarriffs.

So lots of imports is bad for the economy. OK cool. But Trump wanting to slow down imports is also bad for the economy.

It’s a neat trick they came up with.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:45 AM (S4ZTs)

218 People say they don't trust the media yet they keep listening to them. People are just stupid.

Posted by: Tinfoil Dispenser at April 30, 2025 11:45 AM (ERYKL)

219 Phil Holloway @PhilHollowayEsq
Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”

I just love the way that Democrats approach Flyover Country as though it's an anthropological expedition to Darkest Africa, or something.

Posted by: FeatherBlade at April 30, 2025 11:45 AM (hB7mE)

220 Phil Holloway @PhilHollowayEsq
Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”
He said he was the "permission structure" for White men to vote for Democrats
I guess I don’t speak his “code”
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at April 30, 2025 11:36 AM (3kLUZ)

If by "code talk" he means offer to suck their weeners, then yeah.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:45 AM (dGCAG)

221 SUV runs over pedestrians.

A Stephen King novel.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 1

Also, a recent WSJ headline.

Posted by: LASue at April 30, 2025 11:45 AM (lCppi)

222 American Heritage Dictionary

3 (hone in on) [no object] another way of saying home, (see home): the detectives honed in on the suspect | I started to hone in on the problem.

2 (home in on) move or be aimed toward (a target or destination) with great accuracy: more than 100 missiles were launched, homing in on radar emissions.
• focus attention on: a teaching style that homes in on what is of central importance for each student.

USAGE
The traditional form for the verbal phrase meaning ‘move accurately toward a target’ is home in on, not hone in on. More than a third of citations for this expression in the Oxford English Corpus are for hone in on, however, and in the US this form has become common even in edited text. Nonetheless, hone in on is still regarded by many as incorrect, and it remains relatively rare in British use

Posted by: m at April 30, 2025 11:46 AM (CQE5S)

223 Also, VPs don't bring in votes on any material level.

Never have.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (GBKbO)

Rules always have exceptions. Palin probably brought votes to McCain . Just an assumption on my part.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:46 AM (VofaG)

224 223 Rules always have exceptions. Palin probably brought votes to McCain . Just an assumption on my part.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:46 AM (VofaG)

=======

And McCain lost in a landslide.

What's your point?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:46 AM (GBKbO)

225 118 Spain needs a Francisco Franco.
Posted by: Pudinhead at April 30, 2025 11:28 AM (pZ64F)

Hola! It needs me!

Posted by: Queen Letizia at April 30, 2025 11:46 AM (eNdzY)

226
American Heritage Dictionary
-->
New Oxford American Dictionary

Posted by: m at April 30, 2025 11:46 AM (CQE5S)

227 @212

>>The newspaper did a spell check on a leaked US memo, and it changed the American spelling of words to British English spellings of words.

To be fare, American spellings are typically the historical spelling, pronunciation or meaning and it's the Brits who changed it and whine about how Americans spell or say things funny.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at April 30, 2025 11:46 AM (XV/Pl)

228 218 People say they don't trust the media yet they keep listening to them. People are just stupid.
Posted by: Tinfoil Dispenser at April 30, 2025 11:45 AM (ERYKL)

Much like how people generally say they want cuts to government. But the second even the smallest cut is made they freak out. No I meant cut stuff that doesn’t affect me. Don’t touch my shit.

Yes people generally are stupid.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (S4ZTs)

229 >> He said he was the "permission structure" for White men to vote for Democrats
I guess I don’t speak his “code”

It’s like when your wife unlocks the weenie cage and gives you permission to fap while the bull takes her.

Posted by: David French at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (l3YAf)

230 Seeing a fake word like”overpriced” instead of real words like “expensive” is grating.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (eNdzY)

Pfft. I hate it when things are referred to as "pricey" when the actual term is "spendy"

Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (D7oie)

231 The impact of the outage was not as great as it could have been, they add, as yesterday's incident happened midweek and airliines are in a quiet period after Easter--so they have capacity. It would have been more problematic if this had happened at the weekend.
Posted by: m at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (CQE5S)
---------
Shutting down the ENTIRE FUCKING IBERIAN PENINSULA - not so bad, is it?

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (6YdsJ)

232 Jason Gay of the WSJ is the only sportswriter I read regularly, and he doesn't do day-to-day results, etc. There are a couple writers who still do a good job, but the vast majority of sports writing is crap.

Posted by: Lincolntf at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (2cS/G)

233 Seeing a fake word like”overpriced” instead of real words like “expensive” is grating.

Those words mean different things. "Expensive" just means "costs a lot." "Overpriced" means "costs more than its worth" (in the speaker's opinion of course). Some things, like say a house, can be expensive but worth their price. Some things can be inexpensive but still overpriced, like a bad fast food burger.
Posted by: Oddbob at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (/y8xj)

Gifted. ARGGHHH!!!!

Posted by: LASue at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (lCppi)

234 "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”
----------

Put them at ease for WHAT.

I realize the implication here is that All White Men Are Racist and Misogynist (so original!!) but the world these people inhabit and create is so fucking alien to me. It's like being on another planet full of hateful faggot assholes.

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (M/gGe)

235 > Writing to a rigid agenda must make it hard to write well.
---------
Wait 'till you see my manifesto. It will be amazing.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at April 30, 2025 11:48 AM (Q4IgG)

236 I just love the way that Democrats approach Flyover Country as though it's an anthropological expedition to Darkest Africa, or something.
Posted by: FeatherBlade at April 30, 2025 11:45 AM (hB7mE)

------

Nailed it.

So they thought adding Walz would appeal to real men because their choice, Harris didn't appeal to them at all.

Posted by: Seems Legit at April 30, 2025 11:48 AM (PMtkd)

237 I’m a white man who doesn’t own a truck and doesn’t watch football. Can I still use the special code?

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:49 AM (S4ZTs)

238 Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”
He said he was the "permission structure" for White men to vote for Democrats
I guess I don’t speak his “code”

As silly as his babbling about "code" is, there's no way he came up with that himself. It sound like an emission from some political consultant who, believe it or not, gets paid to produce such dreck.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:49 AM (s8j++)

239 216: also, cops are not subject to the UCMJ. So they are every bit as much of a civilian as the citizenry they “serve and protect”.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:49 AM (eNdzY)

240 I think Pickleball uses paddles
Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 11:40 AM (D7oie)

They play it on water?

Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:49 AM (dGCAG)

241 Much like how people generally say they want cuts to government. But the second even the smallest cut is made they freak out. No I meant cut stuff that doesn’t affect me. Don’t touch my shit.

Yes people generally are stupid.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (S4ZTs)

Have you ever seen polls of what Americans think tax dollars are spent on? They think it’s like 25% on foreign aid and 2% on welfare.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at April 30, 2025 11:49 AM (l3YAf)

242 219 Phil Holloway @PhilHollowayEsq
Walz said Harris chose him because, "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”

======

So what this tells me is that the local Judy Garland Fan Club has sportsball Watch Parties.

Posted by: 2009Refugee at April 30, 2025 11:50 AM (2+BHm)

243 And McCain lost in a landslide.

What's your point?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April e. 30, 2025 11:46 AM (GBKb

That Palin brought McCain a significant amount of votes that he otherwise wouldn't have gotten.

I agreed with you by showing the exception proves the rule.

Settle down.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:50 AM (VofaG)

244 also, cops are not subject to the UCMJ. So they are every bit as much of a civilian as the citizenry they “serve and protect”.

Bullshit !!!

Posted by: Never Off Duty Cop at April 30, 2025 11:50 AM (McYvC)

245 I scroll through short videos sometimes and I am telling you whenever there is a black person in the clip, 95% of the time the video about race and racism and being black and how the system and white people are racist. Devastating. Especially having lived in a time when it was expressly not like that.

Imagine seeing a flyer for a black person speaking somewhere and the topic ISN'T about diversity or being black. Imagine a black person being a respected expert in anything else.

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:51 AM (M/gGe)

246 240 I think Pickleball uses paddles
Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 11:40 AM (D7oie)

They play it on water?
Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:49 AM (dGCAG)

They play it using defibrillators.

Posted by: m at April 30, 2025 11:51 AM (CQE5S)

247 Jason Gay of the WSJ is the only sportswriter I read regularly, and he doesn't do day-to-day results, etc. There are a couple writers who still do a good job, but the vast majority of sports writing is crap.
Posted by: Lincolntf at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (2cS/G)

Clay Travis and Jason Whitlock - outkick.com

Posted by: Doof at April 30, 2025 11:51 AM (vf0Y9)

248 The private investment component of GDP for 2025Q1 was 2.5%. The next highest result over the past 40 quarters is 1.0%.

I don't know what this number means.

Posted by: Oglebay at April 30, 2025 11:51 AM (2ap+5)

249 Seeing a fake word like”overpriced” instead of real words like “expensive” is grating.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (eNdzY)

This is a subtle weapon the left used. Overpriced implies some nefarious plot by evil capitalist to charge more than they should. And of course we all know,According to comrades Bernie and AOC, everything should be free. So if an item costs $1 it’s de facto overpriced in their eyes.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:51 AM (S4ZTs)

250 243 That Palin brought McCain a significant amount of votes that he otherwise wouldn't have gotten.

I agreed with you by showing the exception proves the rule.

Settle down.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:50 AM (VofaG)

=======

I don't think it's an exception at all.

I think it's prima facie evidence that VPs don't actually affect tickets at all. That ticket rose and fell on McCain's and the GOP as a whole's strengths and weaknesses regarding prominent issues of 2008, and nothing else.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:51 AM (GBKbO)

251 When I was in Somalia I was ordered to give the daily briefing to the Press. The Boss wanted to put an Intelligence guy in front of them to make them feel like they were getting "the real stuff!" I hated it and only did it once. They media folks (about 20) were complete and total assholes. The only guy there worth a shit was a writer for some paper in Rome. The rest were scumbags.
Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:39 AM (W/lyH)

You met one worth a fuck? I lost ALL respect for the press (not that I had much before) after the dog and pony show reporting on how we had completed "Victory Base". "4.5 million sandbags filled to build..." blah blah. Like we soldiers filled them ourselves.
The staged pictures. The whole thing was entirely bullshit.

Posted by: Reforger at April 30, 2025 11:51 AM (xcIvR)

252 >It has come down to "not terrorism or cyber attack" and the quote about the weather has been denied by authorities. My nickel is still on "Spain's unreliable 'green' grid failed" but time will tell.

There was a giant drop in power, according to the Spanish paper El Pais, it was referred to a drop greater than the combined output of the country's five nuke plants, that lasted a minute. Either something glitched on the Solar, or was a false report on some computer, or there is a giant singe somewhere in Spain from a dead-short.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 11:52 AM (D7oie)

253 Gifted. ARGGHHH!!!!

As a synonym for "talented" or as a pretentious sounding substitute for "given?" Yeah, either way it's not ~~utile~~ useful.

Posted by: Oddbob at April 30, 2025 11:52 AM (/y8xj)

254 >> Put them at ease for WHAT.

Just relax, no need to be so tense..

Long Island iced tea?

I think I’ve got some ludes in my sock drawer. Kinda old but they probably still work..

Posted by: Tim Walz, in a bathrobe, holding a bottle of baby oil at April 30, 2025 11:52 AM (l3YAf)

255 Walz claims Harris chose him because, "I can “code talk” to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”
———

You’re high. I think the authorities should bring a cadaver dog around and check out the crawlspace under your house.

Posted by: Common Tater at April 30, 2025 11:52 AM (z1t++)

256 40 I think Pickleball uses paddles
Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 11:40 AM (D7oie)

They play it on water?
Posted by: BurtTC at April 30, 2025 11:49 AM (dGCAG)

I thought the name pickle ball came from combining the words Paddle and Whiffle ball. Phiffle ball which morphed into pickle ball.

Come to find out it was just named after the creators dog.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:53 AM (VofaG)

257 Palin brought a ton of votes and energy to McCain. It scared McCain so much his own people had to destroy her.

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:53 AM (M/gGe)

258 Imagine seeing a flyer for a black person speaking somewhere and the topic ISN'T about diversity or being black. Imagine a black person being a respected expert in anything else.

Here's an example of the exception that proves the rule.

The Truth about Drone Deliveries!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88yQTzlmsiA&t=12s

Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:53 AM (s8j++)

259 As a synonym for "talented" or as a pretentious sounding substitute for "given?" Yeah, either way it's ~~not utile useful~~ inutile.
Posted by: Oddbob at April 30, 2025 11:52 AM (/y8xj
----------
FiFY

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 11:53 AM (6YdsJ)

260 mean, it's as if there's no one possible to keep score in a tennis match without electricity.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer

Hunter plays tennis. At least he's into white lines and playing with his balls.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at April 30, 2025 11:54 AM (3kLUZ)

261 176
‘Which is why white men voted for Trump 60-38.’

That’s still closer than it should have been.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at April 30, 2025 11:54 AM (jbnUc)

262
I don't think it's an exception at all.

I think it's prima facie evidence that VPs don't actually affect tickets at all. That ticket rose and fell on McCain's and the GOP as a whole's strengths and weaknesses regarding prominent issues of 2008, and nothing else.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison,

====

McCain's campaign worked diligently to repel any voters Palin brought on board.

Posted by: 2009Refugee at April 30, 2025 11:55 AM (2+BHm)

263 14 > Spain basques in separatism!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at April 30, 2025 11:04 AM (qFAfu)

Don't forget us.

Posted by: The Catalans at April 30, 2025 11:06 AM (W5ArC)
----
Basking sharks have entered the room, so to speak.

Posted by: Ciampino - remember sunblock at April 30, 2025 11:55 AM (sPQoU)

264 They play it using defibrillators.

Nah, but it's probably not a bad idea to have one nearby.

Posted by: Oddbob at April 30, 2025 11:55 AM (/y8xj)

265 Just relax, no need to be so tense..
Long Island iced tea?
I think I’ve got some ludes in my sock drawer. Kinda old but they probably still work..
Posted by: Tim Walz, in a bathrobe, holding a bottle of baby oil at April 30, 2025 11:52 AM (l3YAf)

Sounds fabulous!

Posted by: Lindsey Graham, Closeted Homosexual at April 30, 2025 11:55 AM (979V4)

266 Posted by: Lindsey Graham, Closeted Homosexual at April 30, 2025 11:55 AM (979V4)

------

Closeted?

Posted by: Seems Legit at April 30, 2025 11:56 AM (PMtkd)

267 Deniers that news is very politically biases and elections being stolen just get the "Sure, Jan, just don't stop believing" end of discussion type response.

If they push it, give them the 'ol "Everybody knows this, even those that pretend otherwise, you know, political white lies and all that, or they are just stupid... Oops.. did not mean... Nevermind."

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at April 30, 2025 11:56 AM (/lPRQ)

268 Posted by: Archimedes at April 30, 2025 11:53 AM (s8j++)

Yeah. He's a good dude but I don't watch him a lot.

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:56 AM (M/gGe)

269 "I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck" and "put them at ease”
----------

Put them at ease for WHAT.

I realize the implication here is that All White Men Are Racist and Misogynist (so original!!) but the world these people inhabit and create is so fucking alien to me. It's like being on another planet full of hateful faggot assholes.
Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 11:47 AM (M/gGe)
***

That is a very insightful question.
What were they planning that might make most Americans uneasy?

Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:56 AM (W/lyH)

270 This is your comment TMJ

Also, VPs don't bring in votes on any material level.

If you were referring to something other than just number of votes you lost me.

Carry on.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:56 AM (VofaG)

271 I know mucho mucho white men who would rather eat shards of glass than vote for Trump. Or any Republican for that mayter.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:57 AM (S4ZTs)

272 The one that always rankles me is "then" vs "than." Yrrch!

Posted by: Pug Mahon at April 30, 2025 11:57 AM (PSEDc)

273 Headline writing is also a lost art. Here’s why.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33

It's an entirely different art today than it was 30 years ago.

30 years ago, you bought a newspaper. They had your money at that point, so they could put information in the headline. You could use that information to decide if you wanted to read the story. "Dewey Defeats Truman."

Today, it's online. Headlines are clickbait to get you to see more ads. They can't contain information that would allow you to skip checking the article. " Did Dewey Defeat Truman?"

Posted by: mikeski at April 30, 2025 11:57 AM (i1rF7)

274 269 That is a very insightful question.
What were they planning that might make most Americans uneasy?
Posted by: Diogenes at April 30, 2025 11:56 AM (W/lyH)

=======

The comment is probably coming from the idea that white men are uncomfortable with minority women in power and not a whole lot else.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:57 AM (GBKbO)

275 The Bee reports Job's trials continue: He was drafted by the Browns.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at April 30, 2025 11:57 AM (7hx0x)

276 >>> It has come down to "not terrorism or cyber attack"...

Then what is it when a country goes 100% 'Green'?

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at April 30, 2025 11:58 AM (/lPRQ)

277 I might well be rare among conservatives but I was never impressed with Palin. Right from the jump I found her shallow and grating. Subsequent events proved me right I think…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at April 30, 2025 11:58 AM (+kWhq)

278 270 This is your comment TMJ

Also, VPs don't bring in votes on any material level.

If you were referring to something other than just number of votes you lost me.

Carry on.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 11:56 AM (VofaG)

=======

And you used the McCain/Palin ticket, which was one of the worst blowouts in a presidential election in the past 40 years, as evidence that VPs can sometimes.

I don't understand the logic beyond the hypothetical, "It would have been worse."

Worse than the worst blowout in 40 years?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:58 AM (GBKbO)

279 I know mucho mucho white men who would rather eat shards of glass than vote for Trump. Or any Republican for that mayter.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:57 AM (S4ZTs)

And I am sure they are Canadian and we wouldn't know them. Sure, Jan.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 11:59 AM (D7oie)

280 Luke Skywalker is looking out for us.

Mark Hamill just apologized to Canada because Trump is bad or something

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at April 30, 2025 11:59 AM (3kLUZ)

281 I’m glad Dems view the hinterlands this way. It means they still have learned no lessons.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:59 AM (S4ZTs)

282 2008 was my first election. I was definitely going to vote against Obama, but the only reason I voted for McCain, and not third-party, was because of Palin.

I regret voting for him. Shoulda stayed home.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at April 30, 2025 11:59 AM (l3YAf)

283 282 2008 was my first election. I was definitely going to vote against Obama, but the only reason I voted for McCain, and not third-party, was because of Palin.

I regret voting for him. Shoulda stayed home.
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at April 30, 2025 11:59 AM (l3YAf)

======

There will always be individual examples.

I could find you examples of people voting for McCain because "he looks like my grandpappy."

But material numbers? To swing a state? To overcome a statistically material deficit in votes?

Nope.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 12:00 PM (GBKbO)

284 277 I might well be rare among conservatives but I was never impressed with Palin. Right from the jump I found her shallow and grating. Subsequent events proved me right I think…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at April 30, 2025 11:58 AM (+kWhq)

Same. But I also knew it was moot. Obama was going to win in 2008 regardless of who was running on the other side.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 12:00 PM (S4ZTs)

285 Supposedly Alberta is doing a petition to separate from Canada.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 12:00 PM (D7oie)

286 It has come down to "not terrorism or cyber attack"...

-
How about pseudoscience and the grift?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at April 30, 2025 12:01 PM (3kLUZ)

287 256 I thought the name pickle ball came from combining the words Paddle and Whiffle ball. Phiffle ball which morphed into pickle ball.

Come to find out it was just named after the creators dog.

i never did figure out what the dill was with the name.

Posted by: anachronda at April 30, 2025 12:01 PM (sGtp+)

288 I might well be rare among conservatives but I was never impressed with Palin. Right from the jump I found her shallow and grating. Subsequent events proved me right I think…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at April 30, 2025 11:58 AM (+kWhq)

I agree with you but I also believe she brought McCain more votes . Yes TMJ , it didn't matter.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 12:01 PM (VofaG)

289 a tennis court fatality

youtu.be/W046UtXZY1Q

Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 12:02 PM (D7oie)

290 I know mucho mucho white men who would rather eat shards of glass than vote for Trump. Or any Republican for that mayter.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at April 30, 2025 11:57 AM (S4ZTs)

Ditto.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at April 30, 2025 12:02 PM (l3YAf)

291 I thought the name pickle ball came from combining the words Paddle and Whiffle ball. Phiffle ball which morphed into pickle ball.

Come to find out it was just named after the creators dog.

i never did figure out what the dill was with the name.
Posted by: anachronda at April 30, 2025 12:01 PM (sGtp+)
-------------
*tries to come up with a pun involving "gherkin"*

*fails*

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at April 30, 2025 12:02 PM (6YdsJ)

292 The NFL fined the Atlanta Falcons organization $250,000 and the assistant coach whose kid punked Baby Deion with a prank call on draft day $100,000.

Don't punk Baby Deion.

Posted by: one hour sober at April 30, 2025 12:02 PM (Y1sOo)

293 NOOD GDP

Posted by: ShainS at April 30, 2025 12:03 PM (80e4h)

294 Posted by: TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla at April 30, 2025 11:58 AM (GBKbO)

McCain was a garbage candidate against a Historic Narrative that was going to heal racism forever. It was never going to be close. Palin probably brought him 8 million votes. It matters and it could have won him a different closer election.

Posted by: ... at April 30, 2025 12:03 PM (M/gGe)

295 Supposedly Alberta is doing a petition to separate from Canada.
Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 12:00 PM

At least a Canadian civil war would be a very polite one.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at April 30, 2025 12:03 PM (QBMHV)

296 Palin was an outsider. Conservatives (knowing what we know) generally like outsiders.

She was ripped apart by the media and McCain scum. That tells me she was probably someone who could have done some good.

Posted by: Seems Legit at April 30, 2025 12:04 PM (PMtkd)

297 I'm often tempted to correct grammar in here. I try not to, because people don't like it. I don't know why I do it.

Posted by: Don Black at April 30, 2025 12:04 PM (AOsQT)

298 "Code Talk". Exactly perfect for the Democrats.

Posted by: Francis at April 30, 2025 12:04 PM (bbuBP)

299 272 The one that always rankles me is "then" vs "than." Yrrch!

it tempts one to axe you how you feel about "excetera".

Posted by: anachronda at April 30, 2025 12:04 PM (sGtp+)

300 216 A media created absurdity that now permeates the civilian world: "First Responders" aka cops, fire, para medics, etc. are conflated with military personnel. No. They are not soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines. No. They are not. Show me one f ing cop or fireman who can be deployed to any place on the planet at a moments notice and, while there, be killed, crippled, or missing by some 3rd or 4th world asshole.

Also, cops, firemen, etc. can QUIT and go home any time they want.

Every Memorial Day, some idiot of a news reader, school teacher, or preacher will equate "first responders" with killed, wounded, or missing servicemen. F. U.
Posted by: Going deep. Out. at April 30, 2025 11:44 AM (9X60i)

Agree.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at April 30, 2025 12:05 PM (g8Ew8)

301 I thought the name pickle ball came from combining the words Paddle and Whiffle ball. Phiffle ball which morphed into pickle ball.

Come to find out it was just named after the creators dog.

i never did figure out what the dill was with the name.

Posted by: anachronda at April 30, 2025 12:01 PM (sGtp+)

I recall seeing Euros play a similar sort of activity - I won't call it a sport mumbledy years ago. Seems too Euro, like soccer and gay pride parades.

I refuse to participate.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 12:05 PM (i24o9)

302 And you used the McCain/Palin ticket, which was one of the worst blowouts in a presidential election in the past 40 years, as evidence that VPs can sometimes.

I don't understand the logic beyond the hypothetical, "It would have been worse."

Worse than the worst blowout in 40 years?
****
I would argue yes. McCain saw a pretty serious bump in polling when he added her to the ticket... and watched it disappear when they put a muzzle on her and specifically walked away from anything she said. I can confidently say I was more willing to vote for Palin, issues and all, then McCain at the time.

Does that mean they would have won if they would have leaned into her? No. I don't think a VP can carry a ticket. But if the VP had been standard GOP flag carrier number six, instead of Palin - the poll bump would have likely never happened and the 'Principled loss' would have been even more epic.

Probably best it wasn't. Giving Obama even more of a mandate would have sucked.

Posted by: FrozenTech at April 30, 2025 12:05 PM (Q6XEv)

303 The NFL fined the Atlanta Falcons organization $250,000 and the assistant coach whose kid punked Baby Deion with a prank call on draft day $100,000.

Don't punk Baby Deion.
Posted by: one hour sober at April 30, 2025 12:02 PM (Y1sOo)

If that were my kid I would be beyond enraged… even in the NFL (with some exceptions) assistant coaches don’t make tons of money. That kid cost his dad $100K… sheesh

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at April 30, 2025 12:05 PM (ZtAny)

304 "Gross domestic product contracted at an annualized rate of 0.3 percent, the Department of Commerce said on Wednesday, as businesses rushed to bring in goods ahead of anticipated tariff hikes."

The left is going to run with "recession" today. I found this little tidbit in the article that I think is very interesting:

"Federal government spending shrank at a 5.1 percent rate, the largest decline since pandemic support spending began to wind down in 2022."

I wonder if that could have anything to do with the GDP shrinking.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at April 30, 2025 12:06 PM (e5NfL)

305 I'm often tempted to correct grammar in here. I try not to, because people don't like it. I don't know why I do it.
Posted by: Don Black at April 30, 2025 12:04 PM (AOsQT)

I don't mind being corrected. I write comments like I talk but when writing business letters I change into a proper educated English speaker.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 30, 2025 12:07 PM (VofaG)

306 Lots of blackouts in Europe. But the real story is that the grid frequency got so low that the entire continent almost went down. That's what you get when you listen to Angela and Greta. Can't wait until the UK blocks out the sun.

The EU is on a path to ruin. Led by faceless gnomes, they're struggling to keep the lights on while Muslims are reaching the critical mass needed to take over.the juice to pursue AI dreams that will require losts over.

Meanwhile in the US I'm happy to report what I only know because of my day job. Trump has a massive deregulatory effort that's so far below the radar that it's stealth. It builds on favorable SCOTUS decisions in recent years. especially last year's decision in Loper Bright. This is both nerdish and momentous. New York's own Lee Zeldin is a key player at the EPA.

It's intended to reverse 40 years of regulatory bloat in the US. We'll have a huge competitive advantage over the EU. We only need to keep the lights on.

Posted by: Ignoramus at April 30, 2025 12:09 PM (Gqoy+)

307 Good one, Joe Mannix!

Posted by: m at April 30, 2025 12:10 PM (CQE5S)

308 Spain basques in separatism!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey

Punnishing!

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at April 30, 2025 12:11 PM (EafHQ)

309 Tariffs are taxes. Period.
Posted by: A man afraid of the LGBT lobby at April 30, 2025 12:03 PM (WE1WX)

Remember those people who looooved the Fair Tax (tm)?
Tariffs are the fair tax on imports.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 30, 2025 12:12 PM (D7oie)

310 301 Seems too Euro, like soccer and gay pride parades.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at April 30, 2025 12:05 PM (i24o9)

LOL

Posted by: m at April 30, 2025 12:12 PM (CQE5S)

311 At least a Canadian civil war would be a very polite one.
___

I'm sore-y.

No, I'm sore-y.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at April 30, 2025 12:13 PM (Dv3i1)

312 293 NOOD GDP
Posted by: ShainS at April 30, 2025 12:03 PM (80e4h)

Posted by: m at April 30, 2025 12:14 PM (CQE5S)

313 105
The missing and assumed qualifier is the word 'official' as in official first responders.

Posted by: Ciampino - it's allowed at April 30, 2025 12:16 PM (sPQoU)

314 I'm a lifetime rightwing voter. McCain repelled me. Palin made it palatable to vote for the old shitbag.

Posted by: free tibet with purchase of equal or greater value tibet at April 30, 2025 12:22 PM (+H0sG)

315 Today, it's online. Headlines are clickbait to get you to see more ads. They can't contain information that would allow you to skip checking the article. " Did Dewey Defeat Truman?"
Posted by: mikeski at April 30, 2025 11:57 AM (i1rF7)

The point of a headline is to pull the reader into the story or to draw attention. All Drudge did back in the day was write good headlines. And it worked!

Headlines today are crap.

I’d further issue a challenge to today’s headline writers: write a headline without using “this” anywhere.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at April 30, 2025 01:00 PM (eNdzY)

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