Counterpoints:

Yeah, our engineering and computer science guys at university right now are quick to point out that what they need isn’t more students, they need better students. They’ve got a glut of thoroughly mediocre students who aren’t going to make any significant contribution to the profession, who probably aren’t going to…

A Superliner bedroom is really nice (in the last two years, I’ve taken 3 trips along the Pacific Coast in Superliner Bedroom), but if it’s just two people don’t underestimate the Superliner Roomette. The Superliner Roomette is more expensive than two reserved coach seats, but it’s a completely different experience…

I was until very recently considering the same SF->NY trip as I have no time restrictions, but for the sheer cost of having a place to sleep on SF-CHI, I can’t find a reason not to fly. I have zero interest in stopping anywhere along the way, so compared to being a metal tube for 6 hours or 5 days, I’ll take the plane.

My dad won’t run without pepper spray after being attacked by a dog that was allowed to run off leash. It’s a lot lighter and easier to use than a gun. 

The sleeper car is worth its weight in gold, and it gets your meals comped in the dining car!

This is a Stella Artois beer ad, with a vague, incidental charity message in there somewhere. I mean, 1 bottle of Stella Artois = 1 month clean water? How? For whom? Without reading this article it’s not clear - and there isn’t even any mention of water.org. What is clear in the 15 seconds, however, is - Drink Stella…

***This*** is what everyone was trying to explain to that “reasonable” guy on Twitter who told us why he wouldn’t release the kid’s name even though he’d found it.

No, I’m done, I’ve have it. This kid and his friends are being treated like fucking royalty by Republicans and right-wingers, while the Parkland School shooting survivors are still being insulted and mocked by the same people praising these kids. Fuck this shit. Dead kids? Who cares. Survivors? Who cares. Catholic…

Fuck everything. This kid will literally get fucking FAME out of being a complete shit. Sometimes I just want to give up. Christ.

Rode Amtrak from San Francisco to NYC about 15 years ago and it was really a memorable trip. The scenery between Emeryville & Denver and between Albany and NYC was breathtaking. The rest of the US, not so much. Food was decent and my sleeper car was clean and comfortable. Met plenty of interesting passengers on the…

If you rely on outside labor at all for your job, pay your employees the minute they finish their job. I used to do some property management, and I realized that if I cut a check before the plumber/electrician/painter/whatever even left, they were loyal convertees for life. I was in a market where you could expect a 4…

The sad thing is I have a (smart & important!) friend (who is still working full time!) who (important to note, this was before she actually had kids, but had the husband) said she wouldn’t trust her husband alone with the kids before they hit a certain age. I just thought why tf would you have kids with a guy you…

Again, if you read my comment. The spike of growth which took place over five years was likely due to the investment caused by the rate cut, hiking rates as AOC is proposing would likely have the opposite effect. Like France... seven years ago... which I both linked to and wrote in the original comment.  Furthermore,…

So THAT’S where Liam was this week!

Showtime consistently fails to end their hit shows before their expiration date. The same thing happened with Dexter and Weeds. I’ve been meaning to check back in with Homeland and Ray Donovan, but I have concerns...

I wish today’s TV writers had the guts to handle this sort of situation the way they did in the good old days: Send him upstairs to go put on a sweater or something, and then act like he never existed for the rest of the series.

Ugh.

They were also one of the last to desegregate schools as well, so...there’s that. I am Black, 49 years old and live in the DMV. I only go to VA if I absolutely have to do so - otherwise I stay in DC or MD because their cops are ....extra-special there. 

“I rise to celebrate his birthday because he was a great Virginian and a great American...”