Yeah, um, the far left is exactly as bad as the far right in every meaningful respect.

Hot take: healthcare ISN’T a basic human right, because no rivalrous good or service ever can be.

I will pour one of my complimentary glasses of champagne out for my homies in coach and then sheepishly apologize to the flight attendants.

I’m lower-upper-middle-class, I guess—hardly wealthy—but biz/first travel is pretty much what I have in lieu of a mortgage, car, or kids. Would not trade. I can’t go back, man. I just... can’t.

Where stand those of us never got laid in high school and judged the whole affair to be a no-contest?

Well, one can know them by their fruits. The Abrahamic religions, viewed uncharitably, include ritual cannibalism, speaking gibberish, arbitrary dietary restrictions, polygamy, and full-body depilation among their practices.

Scientology is super extremely not for me, but a quip (I forget whose) comes to mind on the difference between whackadoodle cults and mainstream religions: “In a cult, there’s one guy at the top who knows it’s all bullshit. In a religion, that guy is dead.”

Agreed. No free passes for raping someone who turned out to be exceptionally well-adjusted despite it all. That’s dumb luck, not special merit on Polanski’s part.

Kissinger’s reputation is based on the fact that a) he’s really smart and b) was very effective at getting what he wanted, which is the primary metric of diplomatic talent. The problem was that as a strategist (and a human being), “what Kissinger wants” and “what’s good for the U.S. and humanity” were frequently,…

The person asking the questions does not get to hold the baby, alas. Unless the baby can fit through a bank-window slot, in which case there would be other questions.

Well the airlines are pretty up front about you needing to enter your name exactly as it appears on your ID. You can get away with a middle initial instead of a full middle name, but that’s the limit of the fudge factor. TSA is dumb and bureaucratic in a lot of cases, but they do run your info through namecheck…

Having been a terrorist (like, say, an IRA member) can actually be gotten around if you’re up front about it. Lying about having been a terrorist on a visa application makes you ineligible twice over. So yes, people actually do truthfully mark that box yes and do sometimes end up getting visas (after a VERY thorough…

It cost the baby’s family $160 (plus the ESTA fee of $14) and the U.S. taxpayer nothing. Consular affairs are entirely fee-funded (visas, passports, notarials, etc.). And the visa officer no doubt had a chuckle.

Bannon is evil, yes, but he only thinks he’s a genius. He’s thoroughly mediocre in every respect, except for his outstanding suckitude.

MmmmmMMMM good! Love me some unlabeled-axis “charts” that somebody pulled directly out of his/her ass. Especially love the bit where Dwight David Goddamn Eisenhower is recalled as left-of-center and Clinton and Obama are both Actually Conservative®.

On the one hand, in a vacuum, it’d be good to take the victim’s wishes into account here. On the other hand, Polanski skating on a really goddamn heinous crime because his victim turned out to be a well-adjusted adult, no thanks to him, is unacceptable.

In the U.S. (and Commonwealth countries, I think—the U.K. for sure), the president sits at the center of the long table. Easier to see and hear everybody else. Of course, at this particular meeting, this arrangement did not stop Trump from wondering aloud “where’s Rudy?” and looking about inquisitively. Rudy Giuliani…

So many orders!

It’s a fake, unless he had a time machine (or his phone runs on Pacific time). But you are dead on that it’s impossible to tell from content.

Our last Democratic president ordered Jackson off the $20 (well, the Treasury did, anyway). Harriet Tubman will replace him in 2020.