Springsteen does Christmas

Merry Christmas

Even Bon Jovi fans want a Merry Christmas

Luke Bryan is fun, but this is what it's about

Linus knew then, and he's still right:





Merry Christmas, y'all.

Merry Christmas

Wishing for the best for all of you this holiday season. This should perk you up:




Merry Christmas.

Quick little experiment here

China is fucking with us. Many major corporations -- I'm looking at you, Google and the NBA, among many others -- kow tow to their ChiCom masters, unable to take their eyes off that billion-plus person market. Well, fuck them. And fuck China. Free the Uighurs! Free Hong Kong! Remember Tianamen Square!

That should do it. Insignificant as this blog is, I think it is even odds I get some ChiCom spam over this.

Apparently, every place on Earth is warming twice as fast as the average

Who knew? As in, who knew that was even possible. Strange, but apparently true. At least, according to the warming alarmists.

Our European Correspondent Checks In

My European correspondent is, as it happens, Danish. He checks in periodically on European affairs and has provided this bit for me on the Greenland affair:

Denmark will never, ever, sell Greenland. Greenland is the ONLY good card on Denmark's hand. Greenland is what makes Denmark an Arctic superpower. Greenland is what makes the big, important countries listen to what Denmark has to say. NOTHING ELSE.

Denmark and Greenland have practically nothing in common. The culture, the people, EVERYTHING is different. Greenland used to be a colony of Denmark. After WWII, Denmark was smart enough to include Greenland into the Kingdom of Denmark, giving it superficial autonomy, thus avoiding all sorts of problems that fell on other colonial powers after the war.
Greenland is an economic black hole. It has no monetary value at all. Sure, there are untapped natural resources in Greenland. It's just too expensive to exploit them. The population of Greenland is tiny. The country is huge. The indigenous population is, overall, not very well educated. Infrastructure is limited, by Western standards. The local government is mostly left wing, and corrupt. The effect of this corruption is in large part of no immediate consequence - it's small time, everyday, petty corruption. BUT:
There is a growing independence movement in Greenland. This should cause worry among intelligent people. Not that independence is wrong. Not at all. It's just that independence for Greenland would, in short order, result in drastically reduced standard of living, followed by continuous political upheaval. The corrupt government would easily be fooled, or bought, by outside powers. Throw in an aggressive Chinese interest, an adventurous Russian "expedition" to the huge uninhabited parts of Eastern Greenland, and you could have a real mess on your hands in no time. Trump knows this.
I think that THIS was Trump's point, in making his offer to buy Greenland. It was not a serious offer. He does not want Greenland *. He wanted to stir up some shit, and make Denmark and Greenland wake up to the realities. I think he succeeded! In making such a blatant, crude and impolite offer, he made everyone involved in Greenland think "what if...?". What if the US bought Greenland? Not going to happen -Denmark will not sell. But what if Greenland got fed up with being owned by Denmark? Why SHOULD Greenland be owned by Denmark? WHO, then, will own Greenland? THAT, my friends, is the issue. And Trump made everyone crap their pants, and think about the status quo, and HOW TO KEEP IT.
/ A reader in Denmark

* Of course, IF Denmark had taken his offer seriously, he WOULD have bought Greenland, just because it would make good military sense to do so. He would also be buying a lot of problems. I'm sure Trump is aware of this.

This post also appears at symbolic-mirage.blogspot.com. Thanks to my European correspondent for some genuine insight on the Greenland issue.

They're calling it a parody

I'm not sure why:




Clean up the language and it could run on network TV. But they wouldn't take the ad.

Guess which shooting the media will keep talking about?

Some guy in El Paso, Texas, cut loose with a gun and killed about 20 people. He apparently is a white supremacist. Another guy in Dayton, Ohio, cut loose with a gun and killed a bunch of people, too. He's a lefty Satan-worshipping fan of Elizabeth Warren. Another guy in Waco, Texas, opened fire with a gun and killed at least one person. He's a young black guy. Would you like three guesses at which of these three dudes is getting national media coverage. Yeah, first two guesses don't count.

Last Doolittle Raider dies. You should feel small in comparison

This is a couple months old, because I have not been posting much lately. OK, not much at all for about two years. Hey, I've been busy.

Anyway, the last surviving man who went on the April 1942 Doolittle Raid on Tokyo during World War II died April 9 at the age of 103.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Richard "Dick" Cole, the last surviving member of World War II’s Doolittle Raiders, died Tuesday in Texas at the age of 103.
Cole, originally from Dayton, Ohio, was mission commander Jimmy Doolittle's co-pilot in the 1942 bombing attack less than five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.The bold raid on Japan is credited with providing the United States with a morale boost and helping turn the tide of the war in the Pacific.

These guys were all genuine bad asses. They took off knowing they didn't have enough fuel to get home. Hell, they took off from an aircraft carrier, which had never been done before with the bombers they flew, and they hoped to be able to make it to China, where they hoped to be assisted in escaping by the locals. Hope is not a plan.

Because the planes were launched farther from Japan than planned because the U.S. ships carrying the raiders were spotted by Japanese fishing boats well before the planned launch point, most of the aircraft ran out of fuel right at the Chinese coastline. Read the book "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" to get caught up on this.

Anyway, I think the main takeaway from this is that you will never, ever, ever in your life be half the bad ass this dude was.




The raid didn't really do much damage, but it was a huge boost for the American public. Way too many of the raiders didn't survive, and many others suffered for years in Japanese POW camps. All of those who went on the raid deserve our thanks. Lt. Col. Cole, rest in peace, job well done.

Independence Day dessert

Forgot to put this up on July 4th, so I will rectify that omission now. Not a food porn post -- I will do that the next time I make this dessert -- just a belated Independence Day post. The dessert is this:

It was really good.

Actually, beer drinkers aren't boycotting Yuengling over Trump endorsement

Click-bait fucks say this kind of thing all the time. Everybody is now boycotting (fill in the blank) because the owner of the company that makes (fill in the blank) supports conservative causes. The fast-food chain Chick Fil-A was famously "boycotted" when the owner discussed his Bible-based beliefs in an interview and declined to support homosexuality. He didn't say anything negative about gays or gay rights, and the fast-food chain observes all federal non-discrimination laws regarding hiring -- and no one has ever complained that they don't hire gays because of their sexual orientation - but the social justice warriors got their panties in a wad and called for a boycott of the chain.

Naturally, this led to record sales. Most people don't think it is weird to consider that a natural family unit is a man, a woman, and children. That's the position the chain owner took. The "boycott" went nowhere.

Now, Yuengling -- a regional beer based in Pennsylvania -- is supposedly being boycotted by social justice warriors because the owner expressed support for Donald Trump. I'm sure that this will be every bit as successful as the Chick Fil-A boycott, which led to Chick Fil-A becoming a top 10 fast food franchise, and the top franchise in sales per location.

Yuengling makes good beer. I drink it often, usually picking up some at the Thurmont Sheetz because it has the best prices. Plus, the Thurmont Sheetz is right across the street from Mountain Gate Family Restaurant, which sells really good pies. Bonus!

The fact of the matter is, pretty much nobody boycotts a business because social justice warriors say they should do so over the business owner's political beliefs. People who patronize a business do so because they like the product. When SJWs call for a boycott, people who agree with the owner's beliefs -- and they generally outnumber the SJWs, who are so far left that almost no one agrees with them -- patronize the business even if they do not normally do so, yielding a result that is the exact opposite of the the SJWs hoped for. Because the mainstream media agrees with the SJWs, you never hear about that. You only hear about the boycott.

So enjoy a Yuengling if you are lucky enough to live in an area where the beer is available.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2016/10/27/beer-drinkers-are-boycotting-yuengling-after-its-billionaire-owner-endorses-trump/#765d05f75bac

Ross Perot, RIP

Ross Perot, a very successful businessman who staged a successful rescue operation in 1979 to get some of his employees out of an Iranian prison following the Islamist revolution there and ran for president twice, died last week at the age of 89. He ran for present largely because he hated George H.W. Bush and drew enough Republican votes to give Bill Clinton the victory in the 1992 election.

Ross Perot ran again in 1996 -- much less successfully -- and was heard from no more, at least in the public eye. Former Texas governor Rick Perry, however, wrote a commentary piece following Perot's death that highlighted a side of the man not seen by very many people:

During my time as governor of this great state, I had the honor and privilege of knowing countless warriors who stepped forward to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan and returned home with horrific wounds of war. U.S. Army Cpl. Alan Babin Jr. is one such hero.
While serving in Iraq in 2003 as a medic in the 82nd Airborne, Alan was shot in the abdomen while tending to a fallen comrade. While Alan survived his injury, he faced a long and difficult road to recovery, complicated by the onset of meningitis and a stroke-induced coma that left him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
On the one-year anniversary of his wounding, I joined Alan and his family for a small gathering. He was still in very bad shape, neurologically and physically incapacitated. When I asked his mother, Rosie, what I could do to help, she said she was eager to get him out of the hospital and back home, but struggling with the prospect of transporting Alan to his many medical visits.
I knew there was one person to call: Ross Perot. What happened next still amazes me to this day. The next morning, Ross personally called Rosie and made arrangements for his plane to pick up the Babins in Austin and fly them to Dallas where Alan could be seen by leading neurologists at Zale Lipshy University Hospital.
When the hospital elevators opened, Ross was standing there to meet Alan personally and ensure that he got the best of care. Later that day, Rosie was handed a key to a hotel room across the street so she could be close to Alan throughout his extended stay.

There is much more at the link. Ross Perot was a lot of things, but one thing for sure is that he was a patriot who put his money where his mouth was when it came to supporting our troops, and nobody ever heard about it. As far as I'm concerned, that made him a great man.

Heavy-Metal Knitting? Wow.

Never really thought this was a thing, but apparently it is, at least in Finland. Bands from nine countries took part in the competition (OK, so maybe not much of a thing), vying for the title of, um, I'm not sure what:

Armed with needles and a yarn of wool, teams of avid knitters danced to the deafening sounds of drums beating and guitars slashing at the first-ever Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship in eastern Finland.
With stage names such as Woolfumes, Bunny Bandit and 9'' Needles, the participants shared a simple goal: to showcase their knitting skills while dancing to heavy metal music in the most outlandish way possible.

Never really thought about this much. I mean, I've thought about heavy metal -- not a big fan -- and I've thought about knitting -- don't knit -- but I've definitely never thought about the two together. I don't know if that makes me a Luddite or what. Anyway:

Thursday's competition saw participants from nine countries, including the United States, Japan, and Russia, put on inspired performances full of theatrics, passion and drama and the jury struggled to agree upon a winner.
Finally, it was a Japanese performance by the five-person Giga Body Metal team that clinched the title with a show featuring crazy sumo wrestlers and a man dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono.

So good for them, I guess.

Just a few Temp Town haikus

My job might be going longer than I thought. A couple weeks ago, I figured our over-under was four weeks, meaning I thought we'd be done in two weeks. Looks like that won't be true, and we might be around until October. Fingers crossed, but here are some haikus about the whole thing:

Looking a lot like
We'll be here a little while
longer than I thought.

Democrat AGs
seeking more publicity
Accomplishing squat

No clue why they think
People will believe that they
Are on the right side.

Fuck Colin Kaepernick

Apparently, Colin Kaepernick convinced Nike not to issue a shoe with the Betsy Ross flag on its heel. Apparently, his rationale was that the 1776 flag “represents an era associated with slavery.” This is part of the leftist effort of recent years to try and convince the country -- or themselves, or somebody -- that the United States is an evil nation unable to shake its original sin of allowing slavery. 

The fact that the U.S. did not invent slavery and was not the first or anywhere near the last nation to allow slavery doesn't matter to fuckheads like Kaepernick. They don't care that Hillary Clinton turned Libya into a slave market (look it up) or that slavery is quite common in many countries, especially in majority-Muslim nations. The fact that the vast majority of the Founding Fathers were opposed to slavery but compromised to form a new republic also apparently does not matter. Nor does the fact that the nation fought a bloody war with states that had seceded in order to preserve slavery. That war led to the end of slavery and resulted in more American deaths than any war in U.S. history.

No one pretends the U.S. has always been perfect. I don't know what Colin Kaepernick wants other than attention. But I know he's a fucking moron who knows fuck all about history. And if he thinks the 1776 Betsy Ross flag is somehow racist, I suppose that's his right. Is he willing to come straight out and call former President Barack Obama a racist, though? Because this image is from one of Obama's inaugurations:

Yeah, don't know which one. Don't care. Apparently that flag, hanging on the far left and the far right, wasn't a problem then. So, back to our title: Fuck Colin Kaepernick.

Happy Independence Day!

Enjoy it.

Happy Birthday, St. Vincent

Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, was born on this day in 1913.

Happy birthday, Vince.

Democrat candidates forum thanks nutbag for grabbing Kamala Harris' microphone

Frankly, I would have too, but not for the same reasons. Anyway, some animal rights crazy stormed the stage at a Move On forum for Democrat candidates in California, snatched Kamala Harris' microphone, and got thanked by the moderator. WTF?




Are the Democrats now so crazy as a party that they thank crazy for disrupting events, or do they just believe that deeply in the heckler's veto silencing people? Tough call.

Temp haiku exchange

I'm on a really good gig, doing real lawyer work for real lawyer money, but it is expected to end in about two months. Naturally, I have been taunting the guy I started with about how soon we will be back to document-review grind for far less money, which led me to spout the following haiku:

Goodness gracious me
What the fuck was I thinking
Becoming a temp?

Much to my surprise, he responded with the following within seconds:

Holy cow shut up!
Why, you are the antsy bitch!
You’ll temp and like it

Oh my God! Does Temp Town breed haiku abilities?

Nothing bad could ever happen from cities and states having "sanctuary" policies, right?

Yeah, or maybe not. Letting people go from police custody just because they are illegal immigrants ignores the fact that maybe they should be held anyway, regardless of their immigration status. Like if they're members of a violent gang and have been arrested before:

Last week, police arrested two teenagers, Josue Fuentes-Ponce and Joel Escobar, and charged them with the murder of 14 year-old Ariana Funes-Diaz. She was killed in a tunnel, beaten with a baseball bat and slashed with a machete. She was found naked. Reportedly, the killers, members of MS-13, ordered her to strip before they murdered her.
According to authorities, Fuentes-Ponce and Escobar killed the girl because they were worried she would report them to police. She had lured a man to Northwest Washington, D.C., where he was beaten, robbed, and interrogated about his gang affiliations.
This was not the first involvement in a robbery by Fuentes-Ponce and Escobar. Last year, both were arrested in connection with a robbery case.
Because Fuentes-Ponce and Escobar are in the U.S. illegally, ICE asked the Prince George’s County, Maryland Department of Corrections to detain them. It did not. Thus, these two MS-13 thugs were free to commit more robberies and to butcher a 14 year-old accomplice.

But hey, no problem with refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities, right?

Happy birthday, Bob

Bob Dylan turned a billion years old on Friday, and I missed it. Powerline didn't. They posted a bunch of really good covers of Dylan songs. Go here for the full lineup, but here are a couple:



Rod Stewart got on the train early, covering a deep track:



The Byrds, who had a huge hit with the Dylan cover "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man," also covered this:



Happy birthday, Bob, a couple days late.

It was more than just one play

I've watched the video below a number of times now, because it captures much more than just the final play of the Ice Bowl. Starr completed five straight passes against one of the best defenses in the NFL under brutal conditions, and his teammates delivered. Number 30, Chuck Mercein, the fullback, caught the pass that took the Packers to the 10 -- and shook off a tackle on the way, and then ran the ball on the next play to the 3. Then Donny Anderson fell twice, leading to the final play. In fairness to Anderson, as you can see in the video, Number 44 caught several passes on the final drive and made the most of them. Then came the last play, on which Mercein thought he would get the ball. He didn't:




Starr was great, but that was a great team. They remain the only NFL team to win the championship three straight times. Eat it, Brady. So long, Bart.

Sad day in Packers country. Bart Starr, RIP

Bart Starr is dead at 85. The MVP of the first two Super Bowls, the guiding force on the field for five NFL championships in seven years -- and seconds away from six in eight -- is gone.

The Packers announced Sunday that Starr had died, citing his family. He had been in failing health since suffering two strokes and a heart attack in 2014.
“While he may always be best known for his success as the Packers quarterback for 16 years, his true legacy will always be the respectful manner in which he treated every person he met, his humble demeanor and his generous spirit,” Starr’s family said in a statement.

The NFL has an award named for Starr that is given annually to a player who shows outstanding character. That was true, on an off the field.

Perhaps the most iconic moment of his iconic career came during the coldest game ever played in the NFL, the 1967 NFL Championship Game.

In the NFL championship on Dec. 31, 1967, Starr knifed into the end zone behind guard Jerry Kramer and center Ken Bowman with 16 seconds left to lift the Packers over the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in what became known as the “Ice Bowl.”
. . .

With a temperature of minus-14 and a wind chill of minus-49, it was the coldest NFL game ever recorded. The wind chill had dipped another 20 degrees by the time the Packers got the ball at their 32 trailing 17-14 with five minutes left.
With one last chance for an aging dynasty to win a fifth NFL title in seven seasons, Starr took the field as linebacker Ray Nitschke hollered, “Don’t let me down!”

Hell no he didn't let him down. By the way, Starr and coach Vince Lombardi were the only ones who knew the play was going to be a quarterback sneak.  Running back Donny Anderson slipped on the ice on the first two plays from the 3. Starr called a timeout, talked to Lombardi on the sideline and suggested the sneak. Lombardi said, “Then run it and let’s get the hell out of here." Starr did:

Starr coached the Packers for a few years, not successfully, and then enjoyed a long retirement. Classy to the end. One of my childhood heroes, he will be missed by many.

Punish me more, please

After Alabama passed a law that essentially bans abortion in the state -- I can't see this ending well - superhot model Emily Ratajkowski put up a nude picture of herself on Instagram to "punish" the "old white men" who passed the law. Something about "our bodies, our choice." Not sure how this amounts to punishment, but all I have to say is, punish me more:

Are we sure she didn't mean "her body, my choice"? Why yes, yes I am a sexist pig when it comes to stuff like this. Anyone who thinks this is punishment doesn't understand men. On the other hand, I'm sure she understands Instagram, and I'm pretty sure this put her traffic through the roof.

Ah, yes, the religion of peace I've heard so much about

Odd the things adherents of the religion of peace keep lying about.

I think this says it all

Three chords and the truth:

 

Happy Easter

Even if you aren't a Christian, today is Easter Sunday. Have a good one.

Jesus rose from the dead. I cleaned out the shed. Both were a big deal, although I concede I'm taking a back seat. Plus it rhymes.

Finally, proof that I'm right -- all hipsters look the same

I know they think they're expressing their individuality, but the truth is, urban hipsters -- the replacement for metrosexuals, quite possibly the stupidest "trend" ever, as it was launched by a gay dude who just wanted straight guys to pretend they were gay --  all look the same. They chase the same "new" looks so that they all continue to look exactly the same all the time. They'e gone through man-buns -- really? -- and their grandfather's old fedora that they actually bought at a hipster store because every hipster's grandfather ever said to them, "No, you can't have one of my fedoras. You're a douchebag," and black-rim glasses, most of which had plain glass lenses because the douchebag hipsters generally didn't have vision problems. That last choice is truly ironic, at least if the goal of hipsterism is to get laid, as the military has issued those glasses as the standard since before World War II, referring to them in military style as "corrective vision devices, eye glasses, black-rimmed" or some such other catchy name. The troops always referred to them as military-issue birth-control devices.

But I digress. I know I'm right about these d-bags all looking the same, because now I have proof they can't even tell when a picture of an urban hipster d-bag isn't even them:

At the end of February, MIT Technology Review emitted a pithy rundown of a 34-page research paper from maths-modelling boffins at Brandeis University in the US; the paper essentially posited that in a bid to make that all-important "countercultural statement", hipsters can end up looking alike. For groovy models of how random acts by hipsters "undergo a phase transition into a synchronized state" – along with some knotty network equations – see here.

Accompanying the article was an edited stock image of a generic millennial chap in plaid shirt and standard-issue beanie, or "trendy winter attire", as Getty put it.

Immediately, some dude wrote to the magazine threatening to sue for libel because the guy claimed the picture was of him, was used without his permission, and, apparently, it is slanderous to call someone a hipster in "trendy winter attire. Frankly, I'd be pissed, too, were someone to describe me that way. On the other hand, it will never happen as I am not trying to look like this:

Anyway, turns out the picture was a stock photo and was not a picture of the hipster threatening to sue. Even the dumb-fuck hipster couldn't tell himself from other hipsters.

Ah, the price they pay to assert their individualism.

In case you didn't notice

Yes, I posted fewer times in 2018 than in any other year in the history of the blog, including the first year, which was nearly four months shorter than a full year. And it wasn't even close. Like I said, I promise to do better. Perhaps my European correspondent can comment on Brexit or something. Anyway, trying to focus more on the blog.

How is this possible?

It has come to my attention that I have not posted anything in February. I'm not sure how this happened, except that I am -- I have been working my ass off. My to-do list for the weekend almost always goes untouched because I sleep a lot. I've also been putting in a lot of time on my freelance writing even though my current gig pays vulgar amounts of money. To give you an idea of how busy I have been, I have more conversations (on-line) with a lawyer I am working with in Belgium than I do with my wife. Anyway, it might be out of date, but I promise to put up stuff that I have been saving for posts to try and make the blog a little more interesting. Thanks for hanging in there.

Scenic pictures from Mrs. Wolves

Every November, Mrs. Wolves goes to a mountain resort in Pipestem, W.Va. Apparently, she finally decided what pictures are worthy of other people seeing (including me), as these showed up in my inbox the other day. And so I share them here, with the note that these were taken in November. We had snow here the other day, so I assume the mountains of West Virginia are already well-covered. But here you go:

It's a nice place.

Yeah, smiling at somebody getting in your face means you're a racist

Or, maybe not:

Just sayin'.

Alternate headline: California soon to have no pet stores selling dogs and cats

California has passed a law that went into effect Jan. 1 that requires pet stores to sell only rescue dogs and cats. Pet stores in California are not required to maintain records showing the shelter from which their dogs and cats were obtained. No breeder-provided felines or canines allowed, apparently, with a fine of $500 for each animal without shelter credentials.

Californians can still buy from private breeders, but given California's propensity to regulate everything, how long to you expect that to last?

Naturally, the American Kennel Club opposed the law and says the law makes it harder for people to buy puppies and kittens, which is what most prospective pet owners want to do. Shelter pets usually are given to shelter after they are puppies or kittens because people realize they don't want this animal.

I don't care, because I don't live in California and I always buy from breeders, anyway. Still, sucks to be in California. People who want purebreds will go to breeders, and people who want shelter animals will go to shelters rather than pay the premium that shelters would have to charge. Pet stores will be reduced to selling birds, lizards and fish in California. I'm guessing many of them won't last.

But it's for your own good, California.

Life in the wild, I guess

We have lots of backyard visitors. For instance, this hawk:

On the same day, however, we have backyard visitors who might not be thrilled by our other backyard visitors. Such as this very fat bunny:

I don't think the two met, because the hawk likely was smart enough to realize he couldn't lift that rabbit off the ground. Powerful argument against dieting. Unless, of course, your predator is bigger than a hawk.

Those damn, racist Southern crackers... oh, wait

Yeah, nevermind on the racist cracker part:

A middle school allegedly strip searched four young girls suspected of drug possession.
According to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, 200 people attended the Binghamton school board meeting in New York on Tuesday to hear why the assistant principal and nurse at East Middle School allegedly forced four 12-year-olds to strip down to prove they weren’t carrying drugs.
On Jan. 15, the students made administrators suspicious by “appearing hyper and giddy during their lunch hour,” according to a letter written by principal Tim Simonds, according to the social justice organization Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT).

Yeah, that would be Binghamton, N.Y.,  not Birmingham, Alabama. Weird. I thought only Southerners were racist.

Yeah, nobody could possibly have seen this coming

Unless, of course, you're asking whether I could have seen this coming, as I did here and here and here. And those aren't the only times I made the argument on this blog that dramatically increasing the minimum wage hurts minimum wage earners. Nonetheless, the wizards of smart in New York paid no attention to me. How's that working out for them? Not so great:

New York City’s minimum wage jumped more than 15 percent overnight on January 1, and employers are already cutting workers’ hours as a result.
CBS has the story.

Jon Bloostein operates six New York City restaurants that employ between 50 and 110 people each. The owner of Heartland Brewery and Houston Hall, Bloostein said the effect of the higher minimum wage on payroll across locations represents "an immense cost" to his business.
"We lost control of our largest controllable expense," he told CBS MoneyWatch. "So in order to live with that and stay in business, we're cutting hours."
Cutting hours was not Bloostein’s only option, one might say. And it’s true. But cutting hours was not the only option he took.
Bloostein also cut staff positions. For example, instead of being greeted by a host or hostess, customers are greeted by a sign. He also increased menu prices.
“[It] will cost more to dine out," Bloostein said. "It's not great for labor, it's not great for the people who invest in or own restaurants, and it's not great for the public."

Bloostein is just one restaurant owner, you might say. But he is not alone. A New York City Hospitality Alliance survey shows that 75 percent of restaurants said they planned to cut employees hours in response to the wage hike. Nearly half (47 percent) said they’d cut jobs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me all about how people working for minimum wage can't live on it. Businesses can't stay in business if it costs them more to pay their employees than they make from the work of those employees. It's simple math. The one true minimum wage is zero. And that's what a bunch of New York restaurant employees will be making soon. Oddly enough, even liberal media outlets (but I repeat myself) know that once upon a time:

However pure the intentions of New York politicians might be, the minimum wage will have a dire impact on those who can least afford it: young, poor workers who will not be afforded important job experience. It’s a terrible way to fight poverty, The New York Times (once) observed:

The idea of using a minimum wage to overcome poverty is old, honorable – and fundamentally flawed. It’s time to put this hoary debate behind us and find a better way to improve the lives of people who work very hard for very little.

If $15 is a great idea for a minimum wage, then tell me this: how many people can live in New York City on $15 an hour? Why stop there? Why not make the minimum wage $50 an hour, and do it everywhere. Wouldn't that instantly make the poor no longer poor? Of course not, and everyone knows it, because no business would hire any unskilled schlub for $50 an hour. Most can't afford to hire highly skilled people with advanced degrees at that rate and still make money. Hint: $50 an hour is almost double what contract attorneys make. People with law degrees, not just high school diplomas.

But hey, keep raising that minimum wage, libtards. Let me know how that works out for you.

THIS is the future of the Democrat Party?

Ignore the stupid onesie. Ignore the stupid mask. Being a musician supposedly makes this loser cool? Musically speaking, Robert "Beto" O'Rourke, who is Irish, not Hispanic, sucks:

No, really. He sucks.

Why does San Marino hate me?

Seriously, nobody in San Marino can drop by? Don't get it. I ask and ask, and I get no love. Seriously, San Marino, come on by.

Run, Tulsi, run!

She's practically a communist, but she is probably the hottest member of Congress. Plus she comes from the state where I went to high school, so it's all good, right?

 Fuck her crazy leftist politics, she'll drive the rest of the Democrat field even further to the left. Win-win, baby! Run, Tulsi, run!

Bad plastic surgery or big wallet?

You decide:

Fuck if I know. I don't like to think about Madonna's butt. The woman has sexually transmitted diseases named after her.

Is anyone, ever, anywhere, buying this shit?

Elizabeth Warren has never had a beer in her life. Until now. And if she did, she did not drink it out of the bottle. Until now. This is her John Kerry moment -- "Is this where I get me a hunting license?" I'm from the South, where people say "I'm going to get me a ...," and even I don't say that. If that dumbass DNA test didn't kill her candidacy, and her dumbass socialism didn't, then this will:



 Fourteen people watching? Seriously? And she said it out loud?

Meant to post this a week ago

Better late than never, of course, Cpl. Wolves in Afghanistan, Christmas 2011, with some members of his unit and an old Soviet tank:

Hope your Christmas was merry, if a bit less well-armed.

Happy New Year!

Maybe like this:

Maybe more like this:

Whichever way it went last night, Happy New Year.