The pension thing is HUGE. All those weeks or months of “administrative leave” of course count toward the pension accruals of the criminal officers, and is arguably the main reason why the concept of administrative leave exists in the first place. They also always seem to stall long enough to allow officers to resign…

I misspoke - it was the Cook County State’s Attorney who waited to press charges for almost a year. We refused to re-elect that POS after she showed no contrition for her (in)action and refused to step down.

Is it too late to do an immigration swap with some other country...like send away 5 evangelicals in exchange for receiving 3 refugees in need? Forgive the math, I looked to southern white christian heritage for guidance on the matter and that was the best exchange rate I could come up with.

This Mattis...he LOOKS like angry old white guy, he WALKS like angry old white guy, he maybe/probably even SMELLS like angry old white guy...perhaps he even mumbles “faggot” pejoratively under his breath in times of stress... but golly, I sure do like him. Between him and the Joint Chiefs, is there some kind of medal…

Not a huge fan of Madigan or her deputies - they’re not the most pro-active bunch (they sat on the Laquan Mcdonald case for a year, waiting on public opinion to finally force them to file charges, among other issues) - but this is a big step. I don’t know any Chicagoans who don’t have some wild tale about police…

When this particular policy rollback came out, I remember thinking, gosh, aren’t alot of Trump’s properties basically right at (or pretty damn close) to sea level and isn’t that an awfully short-sighted thing to do, considering? Now that Harvey is playing out (as I write this even) I have to wonder at what point to…

Alot of questions in this disaster, but just sticking to the roadways and associated infrastructure, what’s the fix?? Make all the major roads elevated? Levee-off major arterials so they stay dry as long as possible? Drainage and pumping systems all assume there’s someplace to send the excess water, so, that doesn’t…

A couple of additions to this: 1) If your tupperware was ever used for food, make damn well sure you’ve cleaned and sanitized it. The only thing worse that plastic-tasting cigars is moldy cigars. 2) Don’t over-stuff your tupperdor with cigars. You’ll want to let the perfectly moisturized air circulate around them to a…

I’m a little shocked there’s still electrical service in so many of the photos and videos. I would think that’d be one of the first things you start shutting down, for safety reasons.

What’s the saying: Evil flourishes when good people do nothing? Pastor Joel is *hardly* the only person with keys to that building. In fact, I’d venture that out of his mega congregation, there are probably a few dozen folks who can open up the building, even as a day shelter for families with young children, or as…

...and if the organization you’re donating to is a 501(c)3 then there’s a likelihood your employer can match your contribution, multiplying the impact of your gift. I don’t think that works for diapers and batteries tho ;-)

As to your first paragraph, I did see a note today on one of the sites I was monitoring that there was consideration of opening some levees to relieve pressure...so there’s that, plus whatever unintended consequences may follow.

I also would point to historic storms like Katrina and Sandy - thousands of stories from long-time residents along the lines: “we’ve been through storms over the years, but floodwaters never got that high before.” Not very many people, including scientists and engineers, have a handle on just how more severe storms…

Yeah, was just going to chime in: displaced wildlife, like killer bees, water moccasins and gators (oh my!)

If you tend to seasonally binge on seafood, especially shellfish, and during events like crawfish boils and oyster festivals and such: get vaccinated for Hepatitis A. Totally common, totally risky (as in contagious, with potentially life-long complications), and yet totally preventable from an inexpensive and…

I think, for context, the American Civil War was a failed rebellion, slavery was one policy of many that the confederate states wanted to hold on to, and a policy the established federal government was beginning to turn against. Whether Robert E. Lee kept slaves or not is secondary to the fact that he was a leader in…

What is all this revisionist horseshit? Lee was a traitor who helped lead a bloody and destructive rebellion and LOST...the only reason he retained his life and any sort of property is that we fought that war under some weird mishmash of genteel rules reserved for lords and knights, where officers, especially cavalry,…

This is literally how White Privilege gnaws at society and what pisses off minority groups of all sorts: at the end of the day, White kid can take his nazi costume off and go back to his normal life. The POC protesters wear their skin color home like target, all day, every day, forever.

This. The whole Vice piece they were clamoring to clear the “filth” and to reclaim their perfect white heritage from “animals” and “savages” and white children this and blood and soil that and all I kept thinking was that there wasn’t enough “pure” genetic material in the crowd to launder Dolph Lundgren’s jockstrap.

...and the splatter on the wall glimmered like a field of a million red stars.