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Samson's Wig

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Everything posted by Samson's Wig

  1. I don't disagree with you at all in terms of rights. I wasn't talking about rights, but whether or not I find her response impressive. If she's a criminal, I'm not impressed by the magnitude of her response, as it was motivated by covering up her crime rather than righteous indignation. That's all. The cops' behavior speaks for itself. They fucking suck, no matter what their motivation was. And knowing how much they suck, we also know this won't end well for this woman.
  2. Completely agree, as noted in my post. The cops were douchebags, there's no denying it. However, my reaction to the woman's response is colored by her motivation for responding that way. If she's simply trying to get away with something because the cop fucked up, we're just dealing with two assholes here. If she has done nothing wrong, then we're just dealing with one (the cop).
  3. I agree with this, for sure. As the rest of my comment noted, the video points towards cops being cops more than anything else. If she's guilty of a crime, however, I'm less impressed with her attitude as it shifts from rightfully indignant citizen to criminal asshole trying to get away with something because the cop fucked up. The cop still deserved a tongue-lashing, either way, but my response to the woman's behavior is absolutely impacted by her motivation.
  4. This one definitely falls into the "if, then" category for me. 1. If she committed a crime, or it's reasonable to suspect she committed a crime, and the cops have a legitimate reason for speaking with her, then she's just being a cunt. 2. If she hasn't done anything wrong and the cops are just being, well, the way cops are, then she's a got-damn hero. Either way, that cop lied her ass off about having a warrant, which definitely makes it seem like option two is more likely.
  5. lol, that "lady" has a set of brass balls on her. I would love to know the broader story on this one.
  6. You're right about the system, but sorry, Baptists (and their ilk) don't get a pass. They're crucial to making this system work. How do you think the distributors and liquor stores keep the status quo? It doesn't work without easily manipulated simpletons voting the right way. Two crooked industries (religion and alcohol, if it wasn't clear) are in bed together to make this work, and the only people who can stop them are ironically solid customers of both. Unfortunately, they have been so twisted around by bullshit they don't have a clue which way is up or down anymore and largely just do what they're told (or more to the point whatever will make them look better in the eyes of their fellow congregants - the fear of public shaming is powerful stuff in most communities, even the nonreligious ones).
  7. Freedom ain't free, bro.
  8. Assholes keep voting assholes into office. Rinse and repeat. There is nothing unique about it in Texas. It happens everywhere, only the flavor changes.
  9. I'm wrong. The creepy chaplain I'm thinking of works at Texas Children's, and looks a lot like this fucker. But the guy in the pic was the chaplain at Cooks in Fort Worth, not at Texas Children's Hospital as written on the posted tweet.
  10. Holy shit. My niece died at that hospital after an extended stay a while back, and this fucker was around supporting my sister a great deal. He definitely had that creepy vibe that so many religious official types have. Not surprised but still horrified.
  11. I agree with this. It's the ultimate flaw with our new economy driven by VC and tech bro assholes. None of it is really innovative, and most of it isn't even really business. It's just unprofitable "disruption" to kill off competition. Once that is accomplished, reality has to set in at some point. It's not really innovative, and not really any different than what has gone on forever when a new player wants to take market share. Undercut the legacy guys at a major loss until you capture enough market share to start driving up your prices. The end result for the consumer is that things are exactly the same as they were before, with the only change being who is getting your money.
  12. I agree that the theaters are better than they used to be, but theatrically released movies are mostly four-quadrant dog shit. If you like Disneyesque superhero and fantasy/sci-fi films produced to appeal to as wide a group of people as possible (and by necessity removing any semblance of artistry), that's your prerogative. But don't try to convince anyone with functional eyes, ears, and souls that these films are of higher quality than what used to be released theatrically. There are still quality films being made, and some of them have limited and/or short runs in theaters, but by and large, the offerings at movie theaters are just the same movie over and over, dressed up with different actors and tag lines. Studios gave up on mid-budget films a long time ago, and this is the sweet spot where you typically find quality cinema. Big-budget noise makes them a ton of money, and it's just about all they produce anymore. This doesn't undercut your thesis regarding enshittening, however. Theatrically released films are just also part of it. Under your rubric, you can probably replace "business customers" with "Chinese market" and you get the same result .
  13. I thought it had more to do with guarding their own ships and not wanting to kiss the U.S. ring by acknowledging we're in charge, but I don't really know anything other than what I've read which may have been biased. I'm not following this too closely.
  14. I may be naive, but I think if they go after Mediterranean targets the mindset of the West, particularly Europe, would shift dramatically into a much more aggressive stance. Iran would not just get away with that move.
  15. All of that makes sense to me and involves threats to a region they can do something about (if the West decides to let them). I agree that Prosperity Guardain has not been handled well and makes no real sense if the goal is to actually free up shipping in the region. Claiming they're going to shut down the Mediterranean Sea, however, makes no sense to me at all. No one will take that threat seriously, nor should they, and if anything, it makes Iran look as toothless as they are because it's such an obviously empty threat. They may as well say they will colonize the moon and rain rockets down upon the west from their new base up there. I'm probably just too slow to see it, but I don't get their angle at all with this one.
  16. lol. Fuck off, Iran. What is it with the Middle East (plus Russia) and empty threats? Do they actually think anyone takes this kind of shit seriously? Are their citizens stupid enough to believe this crap? Who is their audience? I can stand up and say, "I will be fucking Salma Hayak tonight" and it would carry the same level of credibility.
  17. For a start, those are AISD numbers, not Austin numbers. Austin is not a city comprising many households with children as a percentage of the whole, as evidenced by AISD's massively shrinking enrollment over the years. AISD students are not reflective of the city at large at all. Secondly, those numbers are meaningless without a comparison to show they are either increasing or decreasing. Finally, the ethnicity/race information has nothing to do with what was being discussed, which was economic status. It's strange that you included it.
  18. You're right, of course, there are still folks in the lower economic demographics left in town. My point was only that there are a lot less of them now than before, and the number is shrinking, not growing. It's nothing unique to Austin. Big cities have become a place for wealthy folks and homeless folks, with little room for anyone in the middle. It's a very broken and foolish system for all kinds of reasons.
  19. Less and less every day. Most of these folks have been forced out, sadly.
  20. Very little in that stretch could count as "old Austin" even by the loosest of definitions. Even the bars from twenty years ago have largely made way to night clubs, as bars can't generate the cash to pay those rents. It will be interesting to see how the new development shakes out. Outside of one or two spots barely hanging on in that stretch, very little will be missed. All the wannabe gangsters and hillbilly trash that roll in from out of town to party on 6th can find somewhere else to go as far as I'm concerned. 6th Street used to add something of value to Austin. It was just the right amount of lewd, drunken, and tawdry to be charming. Now it does nothing for the citizens of the city, exists for the benefit of small-towners looking for a thrill and pay no taxes here, and I suppose it draws in some unwitting tourists who likely regret their decision to stay downtown. Night clubs are for assholes and broke idiots, and that's about all that's down there anymore. They're also largely operating by entities that exist outside of Texas, so it's not exactly adding a ton of economic benefit outside of some low paying jobs - many of which are filled by folks who don't live in Austin.
  21. I love when folks from other places get on their high horse about crime in Austin, usually from a political angle, when they live in areas with even higher violent crime. A lot of the high-profile crime in Austin is perpetrated by people who drive in from the suburbs and outlying communities. Shootings and violence often turn out to be guys driving in from Killeen, San Antonio, etc. That goofy crap where the dudes took over the street intersection to do donuts or whatever it was that got so much press? Those fucks didn't live in Austin. No doubt our homeless population is responsible for some property crime, but the majority of the car break-ins are groups driving in from those "safe" communities outside of town. Austin is full of educated professionals and poorly educated young hipsters living off of daddy's allowance. Outside of the rare instance of one of these folks crackins (see recent bicyclist murder) these just aren't folks running around robbing, raping, and pillaging.
  22. College football will continue its downward slide in popularity over the next 20 years. The current moves are hastening its demise, as college football will never be a national sport. It's regional and always will be. Like anything else driven by publicly traded entities, these moves are too focused on short-term profits. The result they're driving towards will simply be a watered-down NFL, and fewer people will have any interest in it. It doesn't matter as football as a sport is waning and younger generations just don't care as much. The strongest fan bases being relied upon are in the Midwest and the South, two areas not exactly chock full of fat wallets that are attractive for advertisers (there are only so many side-by-sides, cheap beer, and camo snake boots you can sell). The other result of all of this will be football programs divorcing themselves from universities entirely and operating as for-profit entities with licensing deals in place with the universities for the use of names, mascots, logos, etc. And while I think it will take closer to 30 years, the end result will be college football on par with any other minor league sport: a smattering of fans, a fun Saturday night out, and that's about it. There is no way what is shaping up will ever work without radical changes to federal law. Title IX lawsuits alone will end most of what's already going on, and this will drive the shift to privatization of the sport. It's a shame watching something that was never really a true sport given all the rampant cheating that has gone on for over a century, but still provided incredible entertainment value, turn into something empty and soulless. But that's what's happening, and nothing will stop it.
  23. My wife and son just fled the movie theater. Fuck this shit.
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