Three completely unrelated topics rolled into one open thread — food first. I made this fabulous berry tart last night:
It was so good and so incredibly simple to make because you use store-bought puff pastry. It’s a modification of a recipe I found here.
Here’s my version:
INGREDIENTS:
1 package puff pastry
1-1/2 cups room temp cream cheese
1 orange
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, plus more for dusting
1-1/2 to 2 cups berries (I used blackberries and raspberries)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Thaw puff pastry and unfold on a sheet of parchment paper placed on a baking sheet.Take a butter knife and score the puff pastry, creating a border about an inch from the edge in a square. Use a fork to pierce the dough inside the square only.
Bake about 12 minutes until golden brown. The middle square shouldn’t rise as high as the edges because of the holes. But if it does — no worries! Just take a fork and press it down so that the inner square is recessed and the raised edges form a border. Allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, beat the softened cream cheese, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. Zest half the orange and add the zest to the cream cheese mixture. Add a tablespoon or so of the orange juice. The consistency should be similar to icing — maybe a little thinner.
Scrape the cream cheese mixture into the middle of the pastry and spread it evenly. Top with berries and then dust with confectioner’s sugar.
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Second topic — sports: The New York Times reports that an appeals court has reinstated New England Patriots’ QB Tom Brady’s four-game suspension. I find I don’t give a shit about the return of Ballghazi one way or another. Others will have different opinions.
*************
And final topic, injustice: the city of Cleveland has settled with the family of Tamir Rice for $6 million. As part of the agreement, the city admits no wrongdoing. Jesus Christ. No wrongdoing? A 12-year-old kid was shot dead by a cop for playing with a toy gun.
Is there any chance this very expensive lesson for the city will have an effect on policing techniques to prevent other unjust killings? That’s probably too much to hope for, despite the talk from city officials. The Tamir Rice case is just horrifying and depressing on every level.
That’s all I got. Open thread!
JPL
From boston.com
“Our role is not to determine for ourselves whether Brady participated in a scheme to deflate footballs or whether the suspension imposed by the Commissioner should have been for three games or five games or none at all. Nor is it our role to second-guess the arbitrator’s procedural rulings,” the opinion said. “Our obligation is limited to determining whether the arbitration proceedings and award met the minimum legal standards established by the Labor Management Relations Act.”
Let the Brady hate begin.
LAO
Looks fabulous, though as a Jew, I must ask — you couldn’t wait until after Passover before posting?
LAO
Also, here’s a link to the Second Circuit Website and decision, for those who want to skip the New York Times. http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/f6fd82ca-ec1c-4f02-b3ff-130716703c18/1/doc/15-2801_complete_opn.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/f6fd82ca-ec1c-4f02-b3ff-130716703c18/1/hilite/
Miss Bianca
@LAO: completely o/t, (even if it is open thread), but just watched “What We Do In the Shadows” last night and laughed my ass off. Biggest laugh of the night: the Bat Fight!! that ends with the guy flying into the garage door. Thank you for the suggestion!
@LAO: Just make it with Matzah. Nu?
LAO
@Miss Bianca: You are quite welcome. I can’t wait for them to make the were wolf sequel!
ETA: I will just have to wait a week or so. ;-(
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Betty Cracker: Yum.
@LAO: I didn’t get Pesach Coke in time. I always leave some for the people who actually need it, but I waited too late. As did a friend who actually needs it, so we’re both hosed. He’ll make do with Mexican this week, which is what he always drinks anyway. My suggestion was that he compare the two, to taste how the country formulas differ. I’m occasionally odd.
@LAO: Enabler. Fortunately, I have a luncheon engagement, so all leisure legal reading will have to wait.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: Actually you’ll want to use the flourless pecan/brown sugar cookie/crisp/dough/topping recipe I’ll post sometime this week. No flour, no yeast, no gluten, no butter even!
Adam L Silverman
As for Cleveland and its policing, vis a vis lessons learned from the Tamir Rice shooting, it now all depends on what the DOJ can force the city to agree to and then force them to actually do.
daveNYC
@Miss Bianca: Swap out puff pastry for matzo? Might as well swap the berries for dingleberries while you’re at it.
Joel
“I find I don’t give a shit about the return of Ballghazi one way or another”
Honestly, me neither. Starting to evolve into an overall indifference to the NFL.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Oh dear God…you just made me drool on my keyboard. THANKS, ADAM.
@daveNYC: I *was* joking…but thanks for playing, I wouldn’t dare tell anyone why I’m LingOL right now…
Mnemosyne
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
They do taste slightly different actually (I hate the taste of HFCS so I try to stick to sugar colas). The Pesach Coke is a little sweeter and mellower to my taste buds, but I like the Mexican version just fine, too. Neither of them have that weird bitter aftertaste that HFCS Coke has.
Also, for some weird reason, the 2-liter doesn’t seem to go flat as quickly as the 2-liter of HFCS Coke. No idea why.
Trabb's Boy
I’m thrilled that the settlement with Tamir Rice’s family did not include a gag order on the amount. The city can claim no wrongdoing all it wants. Six million dollars says otherwise. And it is going to make others killed by cops demand more in the future. This is an excellent thing. Kudos to the Rice family and their lawyers.
LAO
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’m more than just a Bundy fanatic, LOL. Have a nice lunch.
Juju
It looks like a lovely tart. Even though it is time consuming, home made puff pastry is really delicious. I would suggest never making it because you will never look at store bough puff pastry the same way.
I don’t follow football at all, until the limp ball thing I didn’t know who Tom Brady was, nor did I realize the Patriots were a football team.
As for the beautiful Tamir Rice and his family, I’m sure his family would give back every penny if they could get Tamir back. It breaks my heart every time I think about that situation and think about what that family has been through and what they will go through for the rest of their lives. My guess is no, the Cleveland PD won’t learn a lesson. This isn’t the first time they’ve paid a big settlement. Previous latge settlments meant nothing. I don’t know why this case wiould be different.
As for my baking, it’s almost time for my annual Mother’s Day chocolate croissants. My mom is already looking forward to them and it gives me a chance to use the phrase chocolate baton. Two words that one doesn’t usually use together but is fun to say and if the right chocolate brand, very delicious.
Joy
That tart looks too gorgeous to eat.
Shell
Ooh, thats one fabulous looking tart.
Also love the scene where they’re getting ready to go out and have to draw pictures of each other so they can see how they look, cause you know, mirrors don’t work.
Miss Bianca
@Shell: SO many priceless moments…I actually loved the end, with Dandy Boy and his sweetheart, toasting each other with glasses of blood…
smintheus
I think it was a commenter here who said somebody needed to go get Jim Webb’s opinion of the demotion of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. And Webb delivers right on cue.
LAO
@Shell:
Agreed. I had to pause the movie, I was crying so hard. There is something about these New Zealand comedians that I find irresistible.
Tom Levenson
Given that I’m trying to wean myself off football, the Brady suspension is excellent news.
For Pesach-dich desserts, nothing beats Maida Haider’s Queen Mother Cake, also known in our household as Death-By-Cake. (With apologies to Mr. Izzard.)
Cacti
Seeing the Patsies get rapped on the knuckles always gives me a smile.
Punchy
@JPL: I hate, hate, HATE Tom Brady and his cheating, smug, POS attitude.
Mnemosyne
@Juju:
I watched them make puff pastry on “The Great British Baking Show.” That was enough to make me realize I was never going to make it at home — so labor-intensive!
Does anyone know if the cop in the Tamir Rice case resigned? I honestly don’t know how someone could live with the fact that he’d killed a 12-year-old boy, but I guess you’d have to be the kind of person who could live with it to do it in the first place. I know we have a cop who comments here sometimes who ended up just pointing a gun at a 14-year-old kid and it was enough to get him seriously considering a transfer and/or early retirement because it gave him so many nightmares about how badly it could have ended.
chopper
@Adam L Silverman:
i just don’t have it in me to keep passover this year. doesn’t help that i’m just getting over being sick as a dog.
Immanentize
@Joy:
I have never had any such experience — the better it looks, the quicker I want to eat it. SAD! (for my waist).
Betty Cracker
@smintheus:
Sweet babby Jeebus, is Webb really that fucking thick-headed? I’m a white person with ancestral relations in the American South, and duh! Of course that should be characterized as having roots based on bigotry and undeserved privilege! I also take the radical step of characterizing water as “wet.” Face-palm, head-desk, etc.
Immanentize
@smintheus: I am seeing a Trump VP position in Jim Webb’s future. It is perfect — ex-military, actually won an election, is a white supremacist, and hates Clinton. He is auditioning this very moment.
liberal
@smintheus: “You’d think pushing a sanitized, deceptive history of one war (Vietnam) would be enough for Jim Webb. Apparently not”
smintheus
@Immanentize: Make it so.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: Saw that episode of the Great British Baking Show too and came to the same conclusion. I’m sure homemade puff pastry is better — pretty much everything is. But store-bought is good enough for me if it’s that much of a pain in the ass to make. BTW, is there any way to stream the second season? I can’t find anything but clips on my PBS app. I’m willing to pay! I adore that show.
Lamh36
so yesterday I had a visitor. My sis came over and brought Zoe to see her godfather. When she went out for food it was just me and Zoe…she was acting up so I decided to put her to work.
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/724388731780636672
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/724388460551802880
smintheus
@Betty Cracker: To be fair to Webb, he may have his own definition of “roots” that only the Scots Irish can genuinely appreciate. Or something. Otherwise, he’s as thick as a brick.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Do yourself a huge favor and don’t read any of the comments on any of the Tamir Rice stories. And Jim Webb can shove his white male butthurt up his privileged ass – not sure how, but he’s a big enough ass to figure it out.
Juju
@Mnemosyne: I’ve made puff pastry three times in my life. It’s a lot of rolling and folding.
I think I read, and I can’t remember what the publication was, I believe a Cleveland newspaper online, that the older officer had a history of beating the crap out of innocent civilians. He seemed to be fine with that. My guess is they cope by telling themselves it was shoot Tamir or die. Kill or be killed.
Miss Bianca
@Lamh36: She is so screamingly cute. Thanks for sharing your photos!
benw
@Punchy: I hate Brady because his stupid football team keeps beating my stupid football team. I also dislike Goodell, so I’m torn on this one. Maybe I’ll just bake a fucking berry tart!
smith
Re the Cleveland settlement, unfortunately a lot of cities are now as callous as the corporations that write off EPA or SEC fines as just the cost of doing business. A few years back I read an expose of Chicago’s bad cop problem that said the city routinely pays out multiple millions every year settling police brutality suits, most of which can be attributed to a group of repeat offenders on the force who rarely get disciplined and never get fired. Just the cost of doing business (while the schools fail and city services get cut and, not to mention, people get killed).
Cacti
@Juju:
Even a seven figure payout is cold comfort when your 12 year old is dead, and nobody was held accountable for it. The Cleveland PD will continue to kill innocents until they have some institutional accountability forced on them.
schrodinger's cat
@smintheus: He is rather Tunchesque but without the floof or the cute.
Thoroughly Pizzled
God Bless the U.S. Court of Appeals. I will call for Obama to rescind Merrick Garland’s nomination if he says that Tom Brady should be reinstated.
Betty Cracker
@smith: Yeah, that was one of my concerns — that Cleveland and other cities routinely write off these settlements as a cost of doing business and that services will be cut for citizens, making everyone worse off. I wish there were some way to link actions and consequences in the public mind.
Bob In Portland
It was clear from the original investigation and the appeals hearings that the NFL could not prove that Brady oversaw the deflation of the balls. The NFL cannot even prove if the balls were deflated before the game. The NFL hasn’t even been able to prove that balls don’t deflate naturally during the course of a game. So, in other words, this is not about whether Brady or any of the Patriots’ staff did anything, much less anything illegal.
So, haters gonna hate. I note that here at BJ it’s the same haters like Cacti who seem to have excessive bile who jump for joy over this decision. HIs approval has more to do with his personality than the instant facts of the case. The decision is a matter of whether or not Roger Goodell can impose his ego on the game as per the CBA. This ruling says he can. I suspect that this means another area of contention during the next collective bargaining agreement which, along with concussions, may squeeze out a little more money for the players.
Cacti
Here’s the essence of the Second Circuit’s ruling on the Brady suspension:
IOW, it’s not the job of the Court to rescue to the NFLPA from the bad deal they negotiated themselves in the last CBA.
On that note, who were the negotiators for the NFLPA who thought it a good idea to give the Commissioner authority to arbitrate his own disciplinary decisions? The whole point of arbitration is to bring the dispute to a neutral party.
redshirt
@Bob In Portland: Oh no, please don’t be on Brady’s side!
Cacti
@Bob In Portland:
Bob in white flight-land gets weak at the knees for another square jawed, right wing, white male.
Who could have predicted?
(raises hand)
Mnemosyne
@Lamh36:
Zoe makes me laugh every. time. And I don’t know that much about babies, but she already seems super-smart for her age. I know that you weren’t able to get to medical school, but I bet your family could get her there.
Roger Moore
@JPL:
The problem is that the Goodell hate makes it hard to get too excited. Could there be some way both of them lose?
Thoroughly Pizzled
The Patriots employed a man called “The Deflator” and had the chutzpah to throw him under the bus by calling him a fatass who needed to lose weight. No punishment is excessive.
Punchy
But having an equipment manager on the team nicked “the deflator” was all about this man losing weight, right? And Brady completely destroying his phone days before meeting with RG was just poor recycling, right? Having EVERY BALL except the one used for kicking deflate, but not the kicked ball, just shows that >90% of the footballs produced cannot even hold air for less than one hour, but the kicking ball is made better, right? And the Pats have absolutely no track record of cheating using any other method or procedure, right?
Pats chumps like you make me laugh. Must be fun living in an alternate reality.
redshirt
@Punchy: It’s been 60 minutes and I’m already sick to death of this!
Balls lose inflation pressure in cold air. Look it up.
JMG
@Cacti: LAST CBA? This provision has been in every CBA since the first one in 1974. It was originally thought by the union that it was far better to have the commissioner be in charge of discipline than to have it be left to the various owners. When Rozelle was commissioner, that was true. Goodell is just a weathervane for what he thinks a majority of owners want him to do. That’s why he’s so inconsistent.
benw
@Roger Moore: we could bake Betty’s tart and refuse to let either of them have some? Tryin’ to be topical here.
LAO
@Bob In Portland:
The standard of proof was very low, unlike a criminal matter. I read the Wells report and thought that it did layout a credible case that if was more likely than not that Brady was aware of the deflation and that the deflation was done because he preferred under-inflated balls. [I didn’t think a 4 game suspension was warranted].
Also, as much as I dislike Goodell — this appeal was not about imposing his ego on the game. The questions was very limited; and addressed the extent to which federal courts should interject themselves in a negotiated CBA with an arbitration clause.
FlipYrWhig
The whole Deflate-gate thing reminds me of the George Brett pine tar incident. Obscure rule that no one thought much about being invoked at a key moment and the system not really knowing what was supposed to happen next, whether it was a serious breach of the rules or a technicality, etc.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, he is, SATSQ. People aren’t assuming Andrew Jackson was a bigot because he was a Southerner. They’re pointing out his very specific and personal actions that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt what a bigot he was. And if people complain about the South being the home of bigotry today, it’s because so many Southerners defend their region’s past bigotry and continue to perpetrate it on an ongoing basis.
aimai
@Adam L Silverman: Just heard about an initiative thats been going on in the Boston Area for years to teach police officers, especially transit officers, how to handle teenagers and defuse rather than escalate situations. Check it out. They sound like fanastic people.
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore: Webb’s “brand” is white populism.
schrodinger's cat
Does everything Webb writes have to have the words, Scots-Irish and Appalachia in it?
Cacti
@Roger Moore:
Today, the State of Alabama is celebrating Confederate Memorial Day. All State offices are closed.
Jim Webb can piss off.
aimai
@Lamh36: My god what an adorable baby! I live for these zoe pix.
RSA
Mmm, dessert pizza.
Actually, it looks pretty great. I may give this a try.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Until these awards start coming out of the Police Department’s budget, the answer is “less than zero”.
Peej01
@Betty Cracker: you can find the episodes on YouTube. The quality might be a bit dicey, but it’s free.
Punchy
@redshirt: Yup, well aware. Then why did all of them deflate, except for the one the Pats designated as their kicking ball? Was that one at a diff temp the whole game? And the Pats just nicknamed a guy “the deflator” for shits?
I love how the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming, but because they dont have actual video proof (other than the guy carrying footballs ducking into a bathroom for 2 minutes just before the start of the game, because, ya know, poop) of the actual deflating, therefore it cannot possibly have happened. Pats fans are nothing if not selectively outraged.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Last reporting I’ve been able to find, from DEC 2015, indicates he and his partner would be placed under administrative review:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/cleveland-mayor-confirms-review-tamir-rice-shooting/story?id=35996236
I’ve seen no reporting, including in regards to the settlement announced today, that the review has been completed and that either Officer Loehmann or his partner have been cleared to return to duty, terminated, or some other punishment/action taken.
redshirt
@Punchy: And you have no rooting interest in this, right? Just objective truth?
Adam L Silverman
@chopper: I understand. I had a sinus infection underneath horrid spring allergies in the two to three weeks running up to the holiday’s start.
aimai
Betty, before I went back on WW I made quite a few gorgeous quick square pies using puff pastry. The Trader Joe’s puff pastry is really excellent, btw. I have made some fantastic quince or carmelized apple ones. You basically make a huge envelope of two puff pastry slabs, using egg and pressure to glue the edges together, slash the top and you have a gorgeous “slab” pie.
You can also make an open faced apple tart using apple butter as the first layer, paper thin slices of granny smith or cooking apples laid over the top in a pattern (like scales or rows or fans) and then brush lightly with butter, sprinkle with large grain sugar, and then drizzle with caramel sauce (home made or store bought) at the last minute if you think the apples are going to be too sour.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: btw, completely o/t but thanks for that Easter Rising posting. Got to it too late for real-time, but made for fascinating reading over morning coffee this morning.
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: A number of states have formally protected law enforcement with a Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights. The remaining 30-35, as well as significant numbers of municipalities, have done so through the contracts negotiated with the law enforcement unions. These indemnify the actual personnel involved from civil action. As a result cities the size of Cleveland carry liability insurance for this type of thing. Or they are supposed to. One of the recommended solutions to these problems is to remove the civil liability indemnification. If actual municipalities, or states when its state level personnel involved, and the actual departments, chains of command, and officers involved can be held liable, the argument is that they will do a better job of policing themselves rather than face being bankrupted in civil court. Another thing that would help would be to hold liable the law enforcement trainers, especially the independents that come in, for the outcome of applying what they’re teaching. There are too many similar bad practices being reported on in too many different and disparate jurisdictions for these things to simply be coincidences. Someone is providing training that increases the likelihood of some of this stuff happening.
Adam L Silverman
@aimai: That looks good. I have a close friend who is, among his other assigned law enforcement duties, a law enforcement tactical trainer. We’ve discussed many times how we could do a better job designing/adapting my courses on how to conduct Engagement for better law enforcement outcomes. Unfortunately, as he says often, it is an exceedingly high bar to clear, even for someone already within the community like himself, to be able to get entree to offer better training that leads to more effective policing and better overall results. That these folks were able to crack the system is a credit to them.
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
With the disclaimer that my own WW meeting is tomorrow and I’ve been on and off the wagon since 1995, I’m sensing a connection between these two things …
;-)
What do you think of Smart Points? I’m not fully on-board, in large part because I can’t do artificial sweeteners so it seems like everything I eat has gone up by at least 3 points.
Bob In Portland
@Punchy:
I await the indictment for Killer Mike to come down shortly.
Adam L Silverman
@aimai: I don’t mean to seem dense or obtuse, but why are you fighting WW I? Is this a reenactment thing or have you found a time travel method and you’re trying to bring a speedier resolution to the Battle of Verdun?
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: You’re welcome.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Sanders has just demanded a big say in Clinton’s choice for VP, on CNN. I hope Hillary writes him a nice short note with a pen dipped in poison to the effect of Dear Senators Sanders: DROP DEAD
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
There was an interesting piece on NPR the other morning about American police departments resisting the process of professionalization that a lot of Western European departments have gone through. Most police departments and local governments still consider the job to be vocational work, like auto repair, rather than a profession, so they resist better training.
Betty Cracker
@aimai: That sounds fabulous — thanks! We’re not big dessert eaters, but we had company, so we were being fancy. Will try your apple suggestions!
schrodinger's cat
@Mnemosyne: I preferred the original points to the points plus. No idea about the smart points. I have gained some extra poundage since I fractured my toe last December.
* Another life time member here.
Adam L Silverman
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: To quote my favorite rhyming demon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giy6-Mw8Ilw
schrodinger's cat
@Adam L Silverman: Heh! I read it as WWI too, should be WW II since we are all fighting the The Battle of the Bulge!
CONGRATULATIONS!
@smintheus: How about that? My ancestors were slaveowners (I have written proof of that, thank you) so yeah, undeserved privilege? Yeah, that’s how it is, Webb. My ancestors benefited. Undeservedly. At least two other people, the children that my great-great whatevers left in the will, probably did not benefit from anything. I surely don’t lie awake consumed with guilt about it but it is what it is.
Gotta be black people’s fault, everything is in his worldview. But being shot for sport by the cops, and providing the bulk of white welfare work for the prison-industrial complex, I wonder why those pesky race relations are so awful.
Bob In Portland
@LAO: How many balls used in the NFL were deflated last year? None? All of them? Some of them? We still don’t know. In fact, the only way to know would be for someone in another football venue (high school, college, arena football, etc.) to do a full test, since it’s pretty clear that the NFL doesn’t intend to release any of its findings, if they even bothered to find out.
But I agree, the ruling is strictly on the CBA. It essentially gives the Commissioner (i.e. the owners) the ability to impose unjust punishments on players and team employees without proof, which is a lower standard of proof.
Amir Khalid
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Bernie wants to pick Hillary’s running mate? Who does he think he is, Dick Cheney?
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: this is a problem. For instance, if I decided I wanted to go and do a second career as a law enforcement officer, I would be screened out for scoring too high on the aptitude tests and having too much education. The determination these days seems to be that anyone too smart or too inquisitive would get bored far too easily and look for more personally engaging and fulfilling work. So better to exclude those folks on the front end. There has also been an upsurge in returning junior to mid grade NCOs separating from the military, or moving from active Army into the Reserve or Guard, and joining law enforcement for their day jobs. The plus side is that they are proficient in a lot of overlapping skills. The down side is that they’ve seen a lot of combat zone deployments over the past 12 years or so, and even if they don’t have PTS, that’s a hard type of experiential conditioning to shake.
Punchy
@redshirt: Right. I’m not a Pats, Jets, Dolphins fan, or whoever else is in the AFC East. I couldn’t care less about a 4 game or 14 game suspension. But I have a pretty good bullshit detector and the ability to connect pretty obvious circumstantial dots. Innocent men dont wantonly and utterly completely destroy their phones (read: texts) if there’s nothing harmful on them.
Hell, if balls deflated this much naturally every time they played in ~33F weather, they’d need to move the NFL season to June–>October. But I strongly suspect that they dont.
FlipYrWhig
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: “Let me just type that up on my invisible typewriter.”
Adam L Silverman
@schrodinger’s cat: I’ve been reading Aimai a long time, but I never had previously seen any sort of predilection for World War I or World War I reenactment. So I was a bit confused there for a moment until someone replied to her and started mentioning points.
redshirt
@Punchy: I’m not going to argue about it. It’s all spectacularly stupid. You win! Dorito Dink. ;)
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: OK, I *am* dense and obtuse, and I got “Weight Watchers” out of that one. ; ) But I am all ears if aimai really has got a time machine thing going. Not only am I looking for different resolutions to the French Revolution, I’ve got an *awesome* time-share-travel agency scheme just waiting for the appropriate technology to implement…
redshirt
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Seems like Webb caught a full blown case of Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Amir Khalid
With regard to the ball deflation thing, I don’t understand why the NFL doesn’t do it the way FIFA does: balls are inflated to the referee’s satisfaction, and remain in match officials’ custody until the match begins.
Trollhattan
@LAO:
Took a couple “Flight of the Conchords” episodes to dial into how wonderfully droll they were, then I was completely hooked. Best recurring gag: “Band meeting. Let’s take roll.” Also my introduction to Kristin Schaal.
The one letter-perfect “X Files” reboot episode featured Murray as a lizard man unwillingly changed into a human. That hour was worth slogging through the entire season.
aimai
@schrodinger’s cat: @Adam L Silverman: Ha ha! The battle of the bulge!
As I’m heading back to school in the fall I feel like now is a good time to try to get back into a more fit frame of body, along with a more fit frame of mind. I work with toddlers and I need to be able to get up and down on the floor about a thousand times.
Davebo
@LAO:
I think the punishment should have been the same as the one given for using stickem, which is a small fine and no suspension. It’s the same thing really, cheating to get a better grip on the ball.
But when Brady refused to cooperate in the investigation RG hammered him.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: That works great in theory until Cole goes on vacation, trips over a house cat, steps on an 11th Century caterpillar and the next thing you know its the Satmars that retook Jerusalem during the third crusade, and as a result in the 21st Century its the Jewnited States of America and all the men are wearing fur streimels and doing nothing but studying talmud and all the women have to wear wigs and do the actual work.
redshirt
@Trollhattan: The Lizard Man episode was really funny and had a nice twist ending. Yeah, the rest of the reboot was in firm WTF? territory.
Cacti
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
But this is progress.
It means he’s moved on to “Bargaining” in his Kubler-Ross stages.
Adam L Silverman
@aimai: The good news is you’ll be able to use them as dumbbells. I’m sure they come in different weights!
FlipYrWhig
@Amir Khalid: Because NFL QBs, the finicky faces of the league, lobbied to have the game balls inflated and otherwise prepped the same way they like to practice with them during the week.
aimai
@Mnemosyne:
I like the new program but I admit that the site’s recipes are substantially less healthy (to my mind) because they have cracked down so hard on sugar, fat, and flour. On the other hand I find it easy to manage because fruit and vegetables are essentially free. Its definitely harder to eat out or to have certain treats. But we are enjoying it as a family, at least the way I’m cooking. Some of my meals are so gorgeous that I am taking pictures of them. I buy mammoth quantities of tomatoes and little jewel peppers at Costco and roast them as side dishes almost every night. Make my own harissa and spice mixtures. You can eat really well on smart points. But it is a lot of work.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
It’s nearly embarrassing how much better prepackaged dough and puff pastries taste than the things I can do.
FlipYrWhig
@Adam L Silverman: I think I’ve been to that neighborhood. There was an eruv around it.
Trollhattan
@Punchy:
Neil deGrasse Tyson weighs in on the science, here.
LAO
@Trollhattan: Agree with you totally —
The only episode worth watching and I will admit to watching it several times.
@Bob In Portland:
Not an accurate recap of my statement. I will now give up.
aimai
@Adam L Silverman: This is a lost SM Stirling Novel, isn’t it? Or is it Harry Turtledove?
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: OW! I think I just tweaked a muscle laughing! Sounds like a mash-up of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Fiddler on the Roof”!
Roger Moore
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
The main reason is there’s the black guy who thinks he has the right to be President just because he won the election.
LAO
@Davebo: I agree with the small fine concept, and if I had been Commissioner, I would add a one game for Brady’s failure to cooperate/destruction of phone.
I tell my clients all the time — actions that look deceptive, are very difficult to overcome in court.
Trollhattan
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
The hell, you say? He’s drifting into Ralph Nader territory if he thinks that’s how it works/should work. But Hills can cut him a deal: “Get out there and campaign your ass off through the summer and fall–for me and for key congressional races–and I’ll take your council on VP selection.”
She’ll make the pick the old fashioned way: put Dick Cheney in charge.
Adam L Silverman
@FlipYrWhig: Yep, play with the primordial nature of the universe at your own peril, but leave me out of it!
Adam L Silverman
@aimai: I think its the fever dream that results when one has one too many kosher for passover nachos with extra jalapeños before bed.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: Its all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
? Martin
Another article in line with what I’ve been saying about the consequence of free college:
So the problem that free college presents is that it skips over a whole range of other problems of access that haven’t be adequately addressed. It’s putting the cart before the horse. Free 4 year public degrees would disproportionately serve to subsidize those > $116,000 households (which as a $30K) are:
1) Not poor
2) Not attending in-state public schools (and therefore not covered by any of the proposed plans).
The bigger problem is that poor kids just don’t apply and if they do apply they are less likely to be admitted. You don’t need to game out the completion rates to see that – every university can see that in their data set. We can see that low-income students aren’t applying at the rate they should, and that when they do apply, they aren’t as competitive. That’s the part that needs urgent attention and most of that comes down to strengthening local communities – closing opportunity gaps between high and low income neighborhoods. That must get fixed first or else a free public college conversation turns into a statistical subsidy for the upper middle class and up.
Citizen_X
@smintheus:
…otherwise known as “history.” And a long-needed corrective to the “Lost Cause” propaganda.
Geez, whatta whiny git. Can we shoot him into orbit along with the space telescope bearing his name?
rikyrah
@Lamh36:
Zoe is adorable. She’s growing like a weed
Cacti
@Trollhattan:
Or she could promise some sort of cushy job for Jane, qualifications notwithstanding. That seems to go a long way with the “incorruptible” Senator Sanders.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: But just for the record…I *have* had to wear wigs to work before. Altho’ I don’t think the putative JSA would have approved of either the wig *or* the work.
BN
@Punchy: Can we leave the science denial to the wingnuts please? Roger Goodell can’t suspend the laws of physics…yet. If you want to hate on Brady would you please do it without questioning the laws of our physical universe? Thank you.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: I’m almost afraid to ask.
? Martin
I should add another point. Another huge problem with higher education is that it was always designed to serve the top half of the population. Even the locations of public universities reinforce this. There are relatively few public 4 year schools in low-income areas, in highly diverse communities, etc. One way to help get poor students into college will be to build universities in places that those students can identify with. More importantly, though, universities need to change in profound ways. It’s unrealistic to expect today that the college experience must be a residential experience. It’s not that the cost of housing is necessarily the problem (financial aid covers that), it’s that so many low-income households rely on all family members to participate. A lot of low income students are relied on to work in the family business (restaurants, other services, etc), or to help take care of family members and they can’t do these jobs if they have to go 100 miles off to college.
eclare
@Adam L Silverman: Ha! I didn’t get it either til a later post, I kept reading World War I….
Roger Moore
@LAO:
But given that you are a Bundy fanatic, you’ll be interested to hear that his lawyer has now put in writing that his defense is going to be based on challenging the federal government’s right to own Malheur. That seems like a very steep uphill battle, especially considering that the Supreme Court has now ruled twice on the federal government’s right to own not just property in general but Malheur specifically.
Bob In Portland
@Trollhattan: I don’t see anything in Tyson’s calculations to take into account three hundred-pound linemen who jump on people holding the ball multiple times during the game.
There is an easy way to prove or disprove how much deflation occurs over the course of a football game. Take every football, measure the pressure before it’s out on the field, then measure every football after the game. Repeat this enough times to get a statistically viable base.
This doesn’t get done because there are too many downsides for Goodell and the NFL. Tyson’s findings are incomplete.
daveNYC
@Miss Bianca: Hard to tell when someone is joking about Passover recipes, since far too many are crude hacks where the offending ingredient(s) (flour, bread, whatever) is straight swapped out for something Passover friendly (matzo, matzo meal, potato starch).
Unfortunately, the recipes tend to leave out the bit where you’re supposed to pray for a Passover miracle where God rejiggers the basic laws of chemistry so that the recipe somehow doesn’t end up sucking.
LAO
@Roger Moore: Not only am I on it — I have repeatedly (and annoyingly) sent stories and court filings pulled from PACER to Dr. Silverman. I’m like his own personal Bundy stalker.
Bob In Portland
@? Martin: There are ways to ameliorate the downsides for the poor. Build more colleges in urban centers and poor rural areas for example. It sounds like you’re making excuses.
NR
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: And then she can get back to what she’s really good at: Losing to Donald Trump.
(And before you all cry “She’s still ahead!”, look at the trend.)
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: its true. I have taken out restraining orders in three states and have armed up just to be safe!//
ETA: forgot the sarc tags!
Francis
@Miss Bianca: You’re a barrister in a commonwealth country? You lost your hair in chemo and didn’t want to go to work bald? You shaved your head in support of someone in chemo?
Bob In Portland
@? Martin: And, of course, by creating a single-payer health plan you help the poor. By raising the minimum wage you help the poor.
Doing nothing hurts the poor. Your choice of how to hurt the poor. Sending some to college is better than sending none.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Sending the evidence. > : >
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: Oh I know, I’ve gotten the certified cease and desist warnings — and if I could help myself I would. But it’s a sickness. :-(
John D
@NR: When did we start electing Presidents nationally?
? Martin
@Bob In Portland:
Me, in the comment you referenced:
Which is exactly what I said. This is why people think you are a professional troll.
And that puts the burden on the state, not on the universities themselves, which if anything is a defense of the higher-ed status quo. This comment:
Suggests that universities themselves are also significantly contributing to this problem, which is hardly me making excuses.
NR
@John D: How often does the electoral result not mirror the national result?
BN
@Bob In Portland: Tyson wrote that piece in January 2015 which was before the Wells report gave the “correct” psi numbers. Neil was using the bogus ESPN report that 11 of 12 of the Patriots footballs were under inflated by 2 lbs as his starting point. As a result, all of his conclusions are incorrect as they relate to the controversy.
Miss Bianca
@Francis: @Adam L Silverman: Nothing so noble. Singer in a 60s-themed band.
Immanentize
@Roger Moore: That motion right there is one big swamp of crazy. When you mentioned that Bundy’s attorney was going to challenge the US’s right to own the refuge I thought he was going to go with a sophisticated mens rea argument that the Bundy buffoons couldn’t have acted ‘intentionally’ because they reasonably believed the federal government had no power over the area (which argument, if accepted, may eliminate some felonies before a jury). There is a big tax cases that allows defendants to make such claims in defense ….
But they are going all out that the US cannot own property because, 1789 or something? That’s not legal advocacy, that is playing to the clown crowd (or sedition) ((or both)).
rikyrah
Prince Throwing Shade as Only Prince Can
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Matt McIrvin
I should feel nostalgic: Jim Webb has managed to jump the shark in the General Lee.
Trollhattan
@Bob In Portland:
Why/how would compressing a ball do anything? After you drive over a speed bump the tires have the same pressure as before, while the force is far greater.
rikyrah
ALL sort of tinfoil hats going off right now.
JUST IN: Second Person In Flint Water Crisis Found Dead Within A Week
LAO
@Immanentize: It is crazy. This is the major Supreme Court case that they will be challenging. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/295/1/case.html
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Michigan cops tracking Flint water critics on social media and sharing data with embattled governor
25 APR 2016 AT 13:34 ET
Confronted with information found in emails from Gov. Rick Snyder, as spokesperson for the Michigan State Police admitted her agency is monitoring social media and looking at comments about the Flint water crisis in search of threats.
According to MLive, a State Police senior intelligence analyst highlighted a possible threatening statement following a Detroit Free Press article regarding Flint’s water woes that has roiled the Snyder administration with calls for the governor’s prosecution.
Matt McIrvin
@NR:
Here’s the trend; it is not as positive as I’d like but Clinton’s lead over Trump is generally growing. The worst time for the Trump v. Clinton race was last September.
That GWU Battleground poll is on the chart, but it looks like an outlier; the time frame overlaps with other polls in which Clinton is much further ahead.
? Martin
@Bob In Portland:
And I have advocated for both. What I push against is what you do: “Single payer!” . There are many forms of single payer and getting from here to there is non-trivial (ACA actually helps to get there). If someone has a viable plan, I’d love to see it, because so far I haven’t seen a single one, including Sanders’.
No, what I’m saying is that with a constrained public 4-year capacity, incentivizing the rich to attend by giving them free tuition (thereby making the publics more competitive with the top privates) will cause the higher income students to displace the lower income students in selection. Low income students can better afford to go, but they’ll be less likely to even be admitted. The affordability statistics will get better and everyone will cheer, but the access statistics will get worse and nobody will pay attention.
You don’t have that dynamic at the 2 year level because they are not constrained on capacity. Adding more wealthy students doesn’t displace low-income.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Freaking hilarious.
Chyron HR
@NR:
The results of your hypothetical future polls that contradict all the current polls are definitely sobering. Thank you for sharing this entirely fictional data with us.
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: They have issues with Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution. By issues, I mean they don’t believe its accurate or means what it says or is valid.
Mnemosyne
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yep, my re-gain happened after I tore my ACL and had to have surgery on it. I was in really good shape until then, but I haven’t been able to take it back off, in part because the website and phone apps make it almost impossible to pre-plan now. You can’t even print out a shopping list, FFS!
Immanentize
@LAO: Wow. It is one thing to kind of think that when you are smoking crack and it’s another to put it into a filing. Civil War never happened? Hell, the Constitution never replaced the Articles? Maybe they are counting on the Ghost of Tony plus Trump!
I was thinking Cheek on the mens rea issue. Of course, the jury on remand didn’t buy Cheek’s defense at all…. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/498/192/case.html
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: This is going to get out of control very, very quickly. And that is regardless of whether these deaths were related, any of the factors surrounding them, etc.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
This agrees with my general take on Sanders’s program: he talks about wanting to help the poor, but most of his big programs are probably a bigger help for the middle class. There are already a number of government programs that help the poor, and a lot of what Bernie is proposing is extending those benefits to middle class (and rich) people. I don’t have a problem with that- those programs would be more politically sustainable if more people benefited from them- but they’re fundamentally focused on middle class issues. I suspect that very poor people would benefit more from improved availability of childcare and transportation.
Immanentize
@LAO: PS _- I do love those original jurisdiction cases. I would love to do a book about them someday.
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman: Issues indeed. Maybe they just didn’t read their pocket document that far?
planetjanet
So I just figured out the Weight Watchers points (17) for the pastry and it is nearly a day’s worth of food for me. Sigh.
John D
@NR:
Well, 2000 springs to mind.
More to the point, polls in April mean precisely dick with respect to elections in November. A better use of your time is to start with the Obama 2012 map, and see which states are in danger of flipping. (Hint: It’s none.)
State-level polling for the general at this point is about as predictive as national polling, though.
? Martin
@Trollhattan:
All pressure vessels leak. Some a little, some a lot. The rate at which they leak is often governed by the differential to ambient pressure. You chuck several hundred pounds on a ball containing a small amount of air with no other way to pressure balance (remember, you’re going from zero load to maybe 1/4 ton of load) and you’ll have a larger differential than a several ton car that can balance its pressure using an advanced suspension and 4 much higher volume tires (going from several ton load to maybe 50% more than that due to a speed bump – you aren’t adding mass to the car).
So you are losing pressure going over the bump, but it’s a tiny amount, partially because you have a mechanical valve on the tires and tires designed to hold pressure over long periods. A sports valve is a friction one-way valve that is much less reliable.
All that said, its possible the ball lost pressure during the game due to this, but it would mean a slightly faulty valve (not unreasonable, but unlikely). More likely is the Pats pressurized the ball in a very warm room, had them measured, then took them on a cold field and lost a few pounds. Fault to the NFL for not understanding how pressure works (Gay-Lussac’s Law). Auto racing relies on that relationship, underinflating tires in the pits knowing that they will rise in temperature on the track and the pressure will climb to desired levels. Motor racing usually calibrates tire pressure to 0.25 psi – they can adjust the handling of the car at those increments. Just moving the balls from inside the stadium to outside would have had a larger effect than that.
LAO
@Immanentize: I’d read it.
In my 19 years as a defense attorney, I’ve made my fair share of ridiculous arguments but this borders on frivolous.
Matt McIrvin
A bunch of polls dropped today showing tomorrow’s Northeastern Democratic primary races generally tightening up a little. Sanders may even win one or two. Of course, he needs consistent huge wins in the big states to get to a delegate majority, which isn’t going to happen, but it could delay the general realization that he’s done.
Immanentize
@LAO: OH, I certainly have as well, but I always felt mine were grounded in, you know, the law.
? Martin
@Roger Moore: Right. Maybe the right critique for Sanders is to recognize his intention of wanting to help the poor, etc. but not seeing that result when looking at how his plans would be executed. His intentions are all laudable – no criticism at all there, but the list of government programs that missed their mark or even made things worse, is not short. We need more than good intentions.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: W.T.H.? Coincidence or conspiracy? I’m starting to have a hard time distinguishing between the two…
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: They have. I think its that Skousen annotated it that parts of other Amendments, including the 10th, nullify and neuter the 4th.
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
I have the whole FODMAPs thing going, so I’ve pretty much had to give up using WW recipes right now. I’m trying to do a hybrid thing with WW and Paprika (my recipe app) but Paprika doesn’t seem to handle leftovers well. Gah.
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman: I know the magical power of the 10th’ers…. But the 10th (rationally read) refers back to Article IV federal powers. I know I am preaching to the choir, but man this stuff makes my head hurt. It’s like when a 15 year old wants to just get out there and drive the car before being told what a brake is for.
Mnemosyne
@Trollhattan:
Not surprisingly, that one was written by Darin Morgan, who wrote all of the best episodes of the show’s original run and was the sole Emmy winner for writing (for “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose.”)
Matt McIrvin
@John D:
Actually, there are a few that are in danger of flipping Democratic. North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, and freakin’ Utah. And Trump’s margin in Mississippi is mind-bogglingly close. I’d like to see more polling in the South.
The latest polls in Iowa were not great for Clinton, but they were back in January when she was doing worse generally.
NR could argue that on the basis of current general-election polls, Sanders would do better, and that would be correct. But it doesn’t look all that doomy for Clinton.
Remember also that while electoral results usually follow the national popular vote, in 2012, national polls seemed to have a larger Republican bias than state-level polls, for reasons that were not clear.
Bob In Portland
@Trollhattan: Prove it. Or more to the point, the NFL should prove it. Balls do deflate. We know that over time balls deflate because football valves aren’t perfect and air will escape. We know that when moving from warm temperatures to cold temperatures balls deflate. And we know that squeezing balls that have a higher psi pressure than outside the ball increases the pressure further in the instant, which would speed up the process of air leaking out of the football because valves on footballs aren’t perfect and do let out air. And this is before the whole problem with different air pressure gauges recording different pressures.
So my point is that the NFL never proved that anyone deflated those footballs, no one proved that Brady demanded the footballs be underinflated and the NFL’s own decision is based pretty much on, “You look guilty to me” which was apparently decided before the NFL did any kind of real testing. And no thorough standard of testing has ever been done because the NFL commissioner knows that balls will deflate and no test he devises will prove otherwise. No one knows how many footballs used in the NFL last year were overinflated or underinflated during the games. That low standard (you look guilty) may be enough to uphold the decision in the appellate court, but if I were the union I’d find that kind of justice to be pretty unjust.
D58826
@Matt McIrvin:
And that favorable outlook could very well change after the GOP slime machine has some time to work. Bernie would probably still win but his favorables probably take a hit. Baring something like the e-mail issue, not sure what more the GOP can say about Hillary that they haven’t already said over the past 25-30 years.
Shana
@chopper: As with all jewish and kosher related things, medical needs come first. Medicine that needs to be taken with food? No fasting on Yom Kippur for you. Nursing mother? No fasting for you. Etc. Etc.
Bob In Portland
@BN:
Yes. This Brady guy must think he’s hot shit for marrying a super model. Hit him for that.
Miss Bianca
OK, lawyers in the crowd: I am filling out an application for a library job in the federal prison system. I am gagging a little at this question:
Um…it’s their rules and all, and if I want the job I’ll play by them, but this smacks a bit of ‘self-incrimination’ to me. Who’s keeping these records?
PurpleGirl
@Lamh36: Oh, is Zoe ever precious. She is squeeable and adorable.
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
@Bob In Portland:
The balls have been tested repeatedly over the years, and the valves are actually damned good. The balls don’t lose or gain air, they lose or gain pressure, which is due to changes in temperature. Martin explains this above.
Matt McIrvin
@D58826: Well, Trump probably will try a left-populist attack about Hillary’s speech honoraria, but I don’t know how effective it will be coming from him. The media will probably abet him, though. Also, there’s a younger generation that hasn’t yet been exposed to the full force of the attacks over Bill’s sexual adventures; that might do some damage.
What I’d be looking closely at is whether Hillary’s personal favorability number starts to turn around, or at least stabilize, after she’s clinched the D nomination.
The thing is, since Sanders is not going to get the nomination we’ll never be able to do the controlled experiment to find out whether his favorables would decline. So if Clinton does lose, Sanders’ partisans will always be able to hold that out there.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
I guess my feeling about Sanders is that he wants to help the poor but has a typical white middle-class misunderstanding of what real poverty is like. He’s designing programs that should help people struggling to stay in the middle class, but they aren’t dealing with the completely different class of problems that genuinely poor people have.
LAO
@Miss Bianca: It is an intrusive question. The standard statute of limitations for a criminal offense is 5 years (of course, depends on state and type of crime) — so you would not generally be incriminating yourself if admitted to youthful drug experimentation. Any use recently, be advised they will drug test you.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: In some ways — it’s not the fact that you took some drugs once long ago, it’s what kind and the difference between experimenting (limited one offs) and using or addictions they are interested in. I know it’s a librarian position, but my guess is it’s the same form for all prison employees, including ones working in finance or in a position to help assist inmates in whatever devious plans they may cook up. By the way, almost all the prison guards I knew well were youthful pot heads or more. And far too many were current big drinkers.
Miss Bianca
@LAO: Oh, I know. Believe, me, I know. *And* I get to *pay for it myself*, ain’t that joyous? Just noticed *that* little tidbit.
Another question I’m struggling with is an employment question – something about “have you ever quit a job knowing you were going to be fired in the last 10 years”. I can technically say “no”, because I didn’t realize that this boss had any such thing in mind – but he had started getting really weird, pulling people into his office and accusing them of poor performance – based on hearsay – but with no evidence and zero follow-up – and I had decided I needed to leave that place before it got even weirder. Turned out that he *was* planning to try and shit-can me, but didn’t tell me till *after* I told him I was leaving. Then a few months after I left that job, he took early retirement. Not sure what I ought to say about *that* one.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: Also, like tax forms between state and federal filings — have you ever answered this question elsewhere where there might be a record of that answer? If not, the worry about the quality of your memory about specifics goes way down. I have a cousin that now works for the FBI and they polygraphed him on these questions and his answers were not the boy scout variety….
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: I’d say no. The question is asking whether you decided to quit to preempt being fired for cause.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: I think your answer to that one is a straight up “No.” Just because the jerk told you after you quit that, hey, he was going to fire you anyway, doesn’t change what you knew and looks bad on him, not you.
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: Well, I had to pee in a cup for my current job, but I don’t remember having to fill out any questions on it.
LAO
@Miss Bianca: You can absolutely say no to the question about leaving the job. The question requires that you know firing is imminent so you quit first (so that your employment record appears better than it is). Based on your comment, that does not describe your thought process for leaving that job.
Bank on it because who can you trust more than an anonymous source on the internet who claims to be a lawyer. lol
And for the record — during my character and fitness interview for the NY state bar, I freely admitted smoking marijuana in high school and college. And the suckers still admitted me.
ETA: We seem to have lawyerly agreement on the thread.
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne:
because I can’t do artificial sweeteners
Have you tried Stevia? It’s a plant extract of some kind that an Endocrinologist recommended in a book he wrote about diabetes. I found the one made for Trader Joe’s is good and not very expensive. (When I bought some at a health food store, it was way expensive.)
Immanentize
And that didn’t stop you from getting the job. They may never have even had the urine analyzed in many places (depending on security needs) companies randomly choose samples to test to limit costs. A LOT of this is about getting people to regulate themselves out of applying for positions.
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: @LAO: @Matt McIrvin: Thank you, lawyers and dogs pretending to be lawyers on the Internet ; ) – you have helped ease my mind greatly!
Davebo
More tragic news out of the music world today.
This morning Kanye West was found alive in his apartment.
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
I have. I don’t like it. I’m kind of a supertaster, so artificial sweeteners just annoy me. Luckily, we don’t have any diabetes in my family, so I can have moderate amounts of white sugar and still be okay. Most other “alternate” sugars are out until I can figure out if fructose is one of my triggers, including honey and agave, and sugar alcohols are already out.
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: I’m not even pretending to be a lawyer! Traditionally, I pretend to be a physicist, though I’m not one of those either.
Mnemosyne
@Immanentize:
I’m assuming it’s also because they want to find out if you’re going to be trying to smuggle drugs in or otherwise get caught up in the drug trade. I wonder if their current calculations change at all now that weed is legal in Colorado.
@Miss Bianca:
From what I’ve heard, prison librarian is one of those jobs that people either hate immediately or absolutely fall in love with because it’s one of the few library jobs where you can genuinely change someone’s life. So at least you’ll know pretty quickly if it’s not for you.
Juju
@Roger Moore: That is an incredibly valid point. I come from an upper middle class background and had heard stories about my mom growing up during the Depression, but sometimes it takes seeing the actual poverty first hand to really understand what it is like.
When I did my student teaching, I had a female student who at one point, refused to take her coat off when she was inside in the school. Her clothes had often seemed dirty and sometimes odd, but she had never refused to take her coat off. After having a private talk with her later in the day with my clinical teacher, we found out that she didn’t have any clean shirts or even underwear to wear. She said the the clothing was too smelly to wear and her mom couldn’t afford to go to the laundromat, or even get to the laundromat. She tried washing clothes at home but only had bath soap or dish soap and they needed that for bathing and dishes. That situation hit me so hard. I could not imagine not having clean clothes unless I was too lazy to do laundry. Meeting a person who dealt with that situation all the time was quite a revelation for me. That night I went home and rummaged through old shirts and pants and things and found enough shirts along with some new shirts I bought for her that she would have a clean shirt for every day of the month. The clinical teacher made sure she had enough underwear for every day of the month. We also made it clear that if she needed laundry done we would find a way. The very interesting thing was that after she had enough clean clothes to wear,bher grades improved as well. I guess having that one small item taken care of for her helped her cope a bit better with the rest of the stress she dealt with on a daily basis.
Immanentize
@Mnemosyne: My guess is that the prison staffer’s involvement in the escape from upstate New York would increase the concerns nationally that someone might get improperly involved with an inmate plus the more ready access to pot will increase the prison security paranoia. It’s just how those guys roll.
LAO
@Matt McIrvin: Well Mister, you are going to have to stop dispensing such well reasoned legal advice, if you don’t want to be mistaken for a lawyer.
As a lawyer, I am rarely mistaken for one on line. It may be my tone or failure to spell check. lol.
Immanentize
@Matt McIrvin: @LAO:
Which points out that being a lawyer isn’t necessarily all that — there are so many people who need a little legal advice to help them improve their lives (sometimes dramatically) and there are just too few people available to help. I am doing what I can to increase the concept of para-professional in the law (like in medicine). Many of my colleagues hate me. :-)
ETA proving I share LAO’s poor typing abilities….
EBT
Philo or pastry dough, dock the middle and roll the edges up slightly. Place layers of sliced apples cover with bree and dust with brown sugar if desired. Bake until melted and dough cooked.
D58826
@Matt McIrvin: True. The Bernie folks are already laying the groundwork for ‘we was robbed’. Actor Tim Robbins has a post about how the voting machines have been rigged in Hillary’s favor. (sigh)
Matt McIrvin
I have filled out a lot of job applications in my time, though. Even had to get drug-tested once.
D58826
and totally OT but to lighten the mood. Seems the right wing is urging that Target be boycotted for their non-discriminatory approach to transgender customers. Well that means we all can use the Target bathroom w/o fear of being assaulted by a republican
LAO
@Immanentize: I agree with you about para professionals.
Also, have an O/T question for you regarding my 11th circuit appeal (but not really). So one of my co-counsel just moved to withdraw because he’s landed a new job that precludes him from handling outside work. So we lost our argument date. Should I make a motion to severe his client? I have never had this happen to me. I’m absolutely fit to be tied. And the cherry on top of this shit sundae, is his client has absolutely no viable issues.
I, of course will call the clerks office, but has this ever happened to you?
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: Considering my nym, I am hoping I will be of the “fall in love with” category. Since Miss Bianca *did* end up as the Chairwoman of the Mouse Prisoners Aid Society. ; )
ETA: There is a question about “do you currently have a medical marijuana license” on the application.
Matt McIrvin
@Immanentize: Unfortunately “para-physicist” has already been taken, and means “a physicist who drops a lot of acid and believes in psychic powers because quantum”.
Trollhattan
@Bob In Portland:
What we just “proved” is you are a moron who slept through physics.
The end.
Anonymous patient
I…never mind…
chopper
@Shana:
yom…kippur? never heard of it.
FlipYrWhig
@? Martin:
I think Sanders has an intention of wanting to help “the people,” but both the focus of his campaign and the demographics of the people who love it most have been IMHO relatively affluent and educated white people who feel more precarious than they used to, or who feel like their friends and children live more precariously than they expected to. That’s the salience of the college debt + Wall Street one-two punch: it’s “banks screwed my future and they remind me of it every month.” This is entirely understandable and relatable, as a relatively affluent and educated white person myself who sees the effects of the new reality on younger people pretty much daily, but I don’t think it’s the most pressing social problem facing America in the 21st century.
Aimai
@FlipYrWhig: i agree with this and its especially obvious when you look at the AA or latino vote–does anyone think that politically active AA or latino voters who like bernie will sit this election out if bernie doesnt get the nomination? Obviously not. No one with critical needs like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness refuses to negotiate or compromise to get stuff done. Its an insanely priviliged position in the first place that gives someone the ego to demand total gratification for one person, or even a faction, in despite of the expressed needs of others. Life and death needs.
Felonius Monk
These people are pure ASSHOLES!!!!
(Source)
? Martin
@Roger Moore:
I hadn’t considered it from that vantage point. Let me think about that, but you may be correct.
chopper
@Felonius Monk:
i’m surprised he didn’t don a fake mustache, call himself “Mr. Snrub” and say that it would be “quite corking if the money were given to the local constabulary”
? Martin
@Juju:
Yep. Lots of new research showing up on that front.
On top of these things students from poor backgrounds know that they are from poor backgrounds, from bad schools. There’s victim blaming even happening from the victims. They too often look at opportunities like college and conclude that they can’t do that – maybe if they went to a better school, maybe if they were smarter or made better decisions (that they often can’t articulate because many of the decisions we take for granted are not open to them) they could do that. It’s hardly every student – we get a lot of unbearably low income students – but in aggregate it’s a problem.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
It depends on the ingredients in the store-bought pastry. Some are made with butter, some with lard. Butter’s definitely better for deserts.
For Passover, I made a Chocolate Kahlua Almond Cake. Very easy and oozing of chocolate and liqueur. Elijah never knew what hit him.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
It’s obviously a bit of an oversimplification. He also supports things like an increase in the minimum wage that would definitely help those at the bottom. But I still think his core appeal is to people who are worried about themselves (or others) falling out of the middle class rather than people who are trying to survive deep poverty.
Tom
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Better yet, have them come out of the police pension fund.
bemused senior
@Tom Levenson: What do you use instead of the bread crumbs to line the pan?
Unsympathetic
Goodell is wrong – just like every person on this thread who decided it must be true because you don’t like Brady.
I don’t like Brady and I never will – I’m an Ohio State fan and a Browns fan.
However, science is objectively correct REGARDLESS of whether you like it or not.. even if it doesn’t actually work the way you’ve decided it should work!
Carnegie Mellon study
MIT professor lectures on Deflategate
Collating all the evidence and links
1) Ideal Gas Law [Physics 101] shows Goodell is objectively wrong.
2) Watch the MIT professor. He’s right, you’re wrong.
Deal with it.