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Samson's Wig

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  1. The only thing you're missing is that tech companies aren't real companies. They're low-hanging grifts. This.
  2. I suspect that is the bulk of it.
  3. That book is an all-time classic. It's fairly dark when it comes to the father-son aspects, with the mental health issues at the heart of it. It's a book I think about a lot with my son's neurological and mental health struggles. I reread it last year for the first time since college, and it hits differently now that I'm older and a father. It's one of those books that every man should read, whether they ride or not, but I understand how it can be a struggle to get through for many due to the dense philosophical sections.
  4. Shoot. They may have sold it over the weekend. It was there last week.
  5. I just returned from a father-son motorcycle trip along Highway 1, from Los Angeles to San Francisco. It was an incredible bonding experience. He's 13 and autistic. This was the first time we had ridden together with coms on our helmets, and he talked to me more on that ride than he had in the prior 13 years. Something about the distance of the helmets and not being face to face, I think. He just opened up and started sharing all kinds of things. I'm still overwhelmed by it all, frankly.
  6. I'm not sure where you're at, but AF1 in Austin has a green stealth Speed Twin 900 available at a great price. My wife just picked up a new 2025 ST900 a month ago, and I'm happy to answer any question you may have about them (if I can).
  7. Truth. Plus, they're a bunch of weirdos.
  8. Tell me you weren't in Austin without telling me you weren't in Austin.
  9. lol. This is probably the worst thing that could have happened to Ken. Cornyn must be ecstatic. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/ken-paxton-wife-divorce.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20250710&instance_id=158257&nl=breaking-news&regi_id=85243815&segment_id=201639&user_id=6c73b0c6b1cc055d8363fbcd27a113a9
  10. I'm sorry, but I'm not following your line of thinking here at all, up to and including whatever leap you're talking about at the end. Perhaps I just need more coffee. I agree that authorities denying early and often that a lab leak was even a possibility fueled the conspiracy crowd. My comment that it's a shame that it was the anti-vax nutjob crowd that largely latched onto the lab leak notion, is not a personal issue in the slightest. It's just what happened. Like with every thing these days, the most radical among us (of whatever persuasion) latch on, make it political, and drive people into camps based on their teams, reality be damned. A lab leak was always the simplest explanation to this, and should have never been dismissed outright until proven not to be the case, but when the wingnuts were the ones screaming about it the loudest, it's going to make non-conspiracy driven people less likely to consider it. That's all I was getting at. If some dumbass who actually believes vaccines cause autism tells you that water is wet or the sky is blue, you might pause for a second and consider whether that's actually true. It doesn't make the dumbass wrong in that instance, it just muddies the water. No doubt they've always been around and like every other marginal group, the Internet has allowed them to clump up, strengthen their resolve, and multiply like rats. Yes, they're the same type of people, as it involves the same type of magical thinking. It's not really that different than religiosity. Some folks just can't stand it when there isn't a clear answer to a question, so when none are forthcoming they'll just make some shit up or believe some shit someone else made up to fill in the gaps. It's a comfort seeking activity for the highly sensitive. Even though it's easy to blame it on a lack of education or general dumbassery, I've known some highly intelligent and successful professionals who were also completely lost in conspiracy land. Perhaps higher intelligence just makes for more elaborate conspiracies, but ultimately it comes down to succor for folks who simplly cannot handle chaos, ambiguity, and open ended stories. Working hypothesis: If you're somone who enjoys puzzles but would lose your fucking mind if you work your way through a puzzle only to find you're missing a couple of pieces, to the point you then go grab some cardboard and some markers to make new pieces to fill in the gaps, you might be susceptible to conspiratorial nonsense and other magical thinking.
  11. Not what Dumbledore had in mind back in '67.
  12. What I've learned today is that next Wednesday, when I take an Uber from San Francisco to the Oakland Airport, I will by no means allow the driver to stop for gas.
  13. Glad this wasn't an uglier event, as it easily could have been. The only people who care about the difference beteween a Citizen and an Omega are douchebags, so at least those kids have that going for them.
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