Can't wait to get a mouthful. Read the rest

America. Land of the free, home of the giant asshole. In this case: Marysville, Michigan city council candidate Jean Cramer.

USA Today:

“Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible,” said Cramer, one of five candidates vying for three open council seats in November.

Cramer and the candidates were asked, “Do you believe the diversity of our community needs to be looked at, and if so, should we be more aggressive in attracting foreign-born citizens?”

It’d come more than an hour into the forum, and Radio First Station Manager Scott Shigley, who moderated the event, had cited population growth across the Great Lakes region between 2000 and 2015, half of which he said were foreign-born residents.

Cramer’s response, however, was the first of the group, and a brief guffaw fell over the council meeting room at City Hall before forum attendees heard from the other candidates.

A successful program in Santa Monica, California is simply helping folks who need help.

LAist: Read the rest

Hey, Lama, hey! How about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know?! Read the rest

I played this once. I am crying. One of the greatest moments in television. Read the rest

The last planned launch of a Delta IV single stick rocket was a success. The single-core Delta rocket will now be retired, as SpaceX is cheaper.

The iconic Delta IV Heavy is still in use with its multiple boosters.

Ars:

A 2017 report by the US Government Accountability Office put the per-unit cost of a single-core Delta launch at $164 million. This is nearly three times the price of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which can not only be re-used but has comparable or better performance.

To compete more effectively in this new landscape, United Launch Alliance is phasing out its use of heritage Delta and Atlas rockets in favor of a new Vulcan-Centaur rocket. In dropping the Delta IV Medium, the company is eschewing Aerojet Rocketdyne's costly RS-68A main engine in favor of the less-expensive BE-4 engine under development by the new space company Blue Origin. Similarly, it is seeking to cut costs on Vulcan in other ways, while maintaining its performance.

This is not the last Delta rocket to fly, however. The US Air Force will continue to support the Delta IV Heavy program—which consists of three cores and is the second most powerful rocket in existence after the Falcon Heavy—until other heavy-lift alternatives emerge. The final flight for that vehicle is likely to come in 2024, when it lofts a heavy spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Image via Wikipedia Read the rest

He's gainin' on you so you better look alive. He's busy revvin' up the powerful Mach 5.

And when the odds are against him And there's dangerous work to do You bet your life Speed Racer Will see it through.

I'd rather base one off of a 308 GTS, tho. Read the rest

With all pretense having long been abandoned disinformation professional Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who shamelessly lied on behalf of the Trump Administration, will be joining the Fox News payroll.

Wonder of wonders! Miracle of miracles!

The Hill:

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is joining Fox News as a contributor, the network announced Thursday.

Sanders, who left the Trump administration roughly two months ago, will appear on various Fox platforms to provide political commentary. She will make her first appearance on "Fox & Friends" during its Sept. 6 broadcast.

Dress codes have long been used as a bullshit method of applying racism. A Portland man is suing a restaurant for just that.

Oregon Live:

An African American man has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against one of the owners of a Pearl District bar, claiming he was prevented from stepping foot inside because he was wearing “too many” chain necklaces.

Ray Lamont Peterson, 34, claims that was just a pretext for keeping the bar predominantly white.

Peterson’s lawsuit claims that Chris Lenahan, one of the owners of Splash Bar, would use a radio to tell security staff to start “arbitrarily enforcing a dress code against African Americans” when he thought the composition of customers was getting “too dark” at any given time. The suit claims that Lenahan referred to black patrons by using racist terms.

Lenahan has had other problems in Portland. The Root shares more:

Peterson’s lawsuit has merit, considering Lenahan recently reached an undisclosed settlement with another black man, Sam Thompson, for a similar incident at another one of Lenahan’s properties, which occurred in May 2017. In that instance, however, Thompson was prohibited from entering due to his attire being mistaken for gang affiliation.

“In Portland, there’s not a lot of overt racism—it’s not a city where you run around and you get called the n-word,” Thompson told Oregon Live. “It’s more a place where systems and policies are in place that create that divide.”

Adding further credence to Peterson’s claims are the eye-opening depositions that former employees of Lenahan provided in Thompson’s lawsuit.

I have offered plenty of advice on caring for your cast iron cookware. Stop seasoning it in the house, use your BBQ.

Seasoning this stuff in the oven (my favorite old way,) or on the stove smokes your house up. Just throw the shit on the grill.

Super thinly put a coat of oil on your cast iron piece.

Put the cast iron piece on the grill.

Heat the grill up, let it run until the cast iron piece has stopped smoking.

Turn off grill and let cool down.

Repeat.

I was able to perfectly season a set of cast iron Pie Irons with no problem. Read the rest

Shipping on my favorite notebooks went from 30 days to overnight.

Last time I ordered a Maruman notebook it took a month for it to arrive. I love the Mnemosyne paper for writing upon with fountain pens and my favorite inks. I have been writing a lot lately, letters to friends as well as the mundane shit that passes thru my head. As my last notebook filled up I started to freak out a bit.

I did not, however, get off my ass and just order a new notebook.

I waited until I was surely doomed. Then I checked online and delivery times were down to 1 day. I ordered 2 notebooks. I like the "182" which is about 5"x8", spiral bound with perforated and SQUARE RULED pages.

I rarely tear pages out, but perforation is nice when you need it.

Ink doesn't feather. Pens both fine and medium glide over the surface. The white is good for me to spend lots of time staring at a blank page thinking about whatever terror I am trying to get out of my head and onto a page.

There are many size and rule options.

My go-to pen is a Parker Duofold International with a medium nib, and my favorite daily-use ink is Noodler's Heart of Darkness.

Maruman 1 Hardcover Executive Notebook (N182A) via Amazon Read the rest

Ramsey Lewis, Red Holt and Eldee Young recorded such amazing music. Read the rest

Sean Spicer, a former dishonest mouthpiece of the Trump Administration, will be joining the cast of a game show where he'll be paid to dance instead of lie in front millions.

Politico:

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer will compete in the upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC.

The network announced the latest celebrity lineup for the popular reality television dance show Wednesday morning on “Good Morning America.”

“Straight from the briefing room, it’s Sean Spicer!” proclaimed ABC News chief meteorologist Ginger Zee during a glitzy segment introducing the contestants.

Read the rest

somebody needs

to throw a god damn boot

at Mr. Mistoffelees

illusions

screw this jellical distraction

this is not quiet, small

nor should one anthropomorphize

a pissant cat

prancing about a stage

you don't know what theater is

I am telling the director, who is not there

fuck your memories!

there is no fire, it is a cop out, a fake

something to cry in a theater that needs emptying

as they escort me to the door

threatening legal action

I go to Charlie's and order a pint of rye

it tastes good Read the rest

A little over a year ago I reviewed Obenauf's. I just ordered another jar.

Baking in leather as the sun pounds down on you is kinda the motorcyclist thing. My jacket is a treasured article of clothing that, like Gregory House once observed "It keeps me warm and cool. How does it know?" Abusing that jacket is of par for course.

Good leather care stuff makes a jacket last and look wonderful!

Obenauf's is also magic on my boots. The boots are expensive, like the jacket, and really take a beating. Shifting a 43-year-old BMW that was famously 'chunk-y' when new takes some force. Sliding my leather-clad feet underneath the horizontally opposed cylinders leaves a lot of marks. Obenauf's doesn't make them look new, it makes them look cared for and it deeps the damage to a minimum. I guess the boots slip more than gouge on all those fins when oiled and waxed up.

My favorite thing about Obenauf's is the speed at which the leather accepts it. Boots are wearable 15-30 minutes later, tho I'd give them an hour or two. Jackets need only sit overnight and they cease to leave a sticky, greasy mark wherever I lean. My old leather treatment needed a week or I felt like Squiggy.

Obenauf's Heavy Duty LP Leather Conditioner Natural Oil Beeswax Formula via Amazon Read the rest

I ate so much acid watching this movie over and over.

Mila!

Dinklage is the only hero in this movie. Read the rest

Some Californians are looking to limit when law enforcement can employ 'deadly force.' Others ensured their taking of lives stays a semantic game.

NPR:

The legislation emerged from a push for new rules in response to police killings of unarmed black men such as Stephon Clark, who was shot last year after a police chase that ended in his grandmother's backyard. The officers in that shooting said they believed Clark had a gun; he was found to have been holding a cellphone, and prosecutors said in March that the officers would not face criminal charges.

The new law reflects a compromise between civil rights advocates who say it will save lives and law enforcement groups that want more clarity on the use of force — but do not want to undermine legal protections for officers.

"The whole debate boils down to two words: 'necessary' and 'reasonable,' " Ben Adler of Capital Public Radio reports. "Right now, deadly force is justified if a reasonable officer would have acted similarly in that situation. So in other words, what a typical officer would have done based on his or her training. When the law takes effect in January, that standard will change to when the officer reasonably believes deadly force is necessary."

But Adler also notes that the law mostly avoids offering a specific definition of "necessary" — a move that is widely seen as leaving the interpretation up to the courts, where judges will weigh what is "necessary" in the context of officers' use of force.