The Big Lie is theater for the poorly educated

I think the MSM has failed to characterize what the Big Lie is. CNN has referred to it as a huge fraud, larger than Watergate even. That's not really it though. It's theater for the poorly educated and easily amused Trump voters. True frauds aren't generally committed so brazenly in full daylight. Educated Trump voters see it for what it is: a strategy to herd the useful idiots. The fact that it enrages the left is just icing on the cake. But the true goal is to circle the wagons using this rag-tag consortium, fight the liberals, and secure votes and judicial seats and everybody's special interests.

The trouble with the poorly educated is that they are richly armed.

House 12-Step Formula

So, I'm watching House and have made it to Season 5. I have to say the show is, uh, a bit formulaic. Here's the tried-and-true House 12-Step Formula:

1) Rando #1 appears to suffer from a medical condition
2) (variation) Rando #2 collapses nearby and is actually the one with the mysterious condition
3) House pops Vicodin like Pez and is unfazed by symptoms
4) Differential diagnosis meeting fails to produce correct diagnosis
5) (variation) Team members try unsuccessfully to hide personal relationships from House
6) House sexually harasses female members of team
7) (variation) House sexually harasses female supervisor
8) Team unlawfully searches patient's home and applies incorrect treatment to patient
9) Patient appears to improve, then spews blood
10) House has an epiphany about medical mystery entirely on his own from unrelated event
11) House introduces himself to patient in a sardonic way
12) Patient is successfully treated and makes a miraculous full recovery

Feel free to adapt this formula into a drinking game.

Who likes making up new words in WORDLE?

If you don't, you are an ILEOD.

Also, the DU spell check dictionary is full of SHOOP.

Unlimited PTO doesn't mean unlimited PTO

I see a lot of articles on the subject of unlimited PTO, but most seem optimistic and don't seem to address my concerns.

Full disclaimer: I've never worked for a company with this policy. However, I've been around the block and have good instincts when it comes to some things.

The upsides have been covered ad nauseum. Here are the concerns I have.

1) You hear the talking point that you can take all the vacation you like "as long as the work is done". My concern is that the expected amount of work is poorly defined and/or you may be caught in a cycle of perpetually missed deadlines. I worked for MegaCorp for 15 years where completely unrealistic deadlines were the norm. You'd go from one late project to another where you are behind before even starting. How can you ever claim that the work is done in that environment?

2) Revolving managers. This is another issue I had at MegaCorp. Getting assigned a new manager (very common there) would often mean a complete upheaval of your work/life balance. The new manager may take a closer look at the PTO you are taking, leading to increased anxiety during these transitions. With fixed vacation time, managers can come and go, and they don't have much of a say about that.

3) Competition with coworkers. Your coworkers should primarily be your teammates, but they can also be competitors. You will compete with them for offices, promotions, compensation, fringe benefits, and even keeping your jobs when the pink slips are handed out around Christmas time. Who gets to keep their job...Hank who took four weeks of vacation, or Walter who hasn't taken a vacation in two years?

Definition of Liberty

From Merriam-Webster:

1: the quality or state of being free:
a: the power to do as one pleases
b: freedom from physical restraint
c: freedom from arbitrary or despotic control
d: the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges
e: the power of choice

All of these align completely with women's right to choose. The SCOTUS case is, at its foundation, a struggle for their liberty after the political facades are stripped away.

To prioritize the "liberty" of an embryo over that of its mother is to prioritize the supernatural over the natural world. To cite the Constitution in this incompatible and incongruous way is to defile it.

Justice of the Supreme Court is a sweet gig!

You have the prestige of being scholarly in the matters of history and Constitutional law. You are tasked with weighing the merits of competing arguments in messy legal cases that couldn't be resolved elsewhere.

Any yet, these days the average layperson can predict with a high degree of accuracy what your "decisions" will be.

Contrast this with the work product from a medical diagnostician or a mathematician or an inventor.

Also, add in lifetime tenure and you get to wear those badass robes. I want that gig!

When did you re-enter a restaurant post-pandemic and where?

I haven't been inside a Waffle House in a few years. I love Waffle House. The synchronization between the cook and the waitresses is a wonder to behold. I went inside this week and had two eggs over light with bacon and hash browns scattered covered and smothered. It was glorious.

Yellowstone Season 4 was a bit uneven (spoilers)

I finished watching Season 4 and was surprised by all the plot holes, illogical character behaviors, and disappointments.

- We're 6 months or so after the coordinated attack on the Dutton's and we're not sure if everybody is alive. We are teased with the prospect of bad news and fear that Kaycee might be dead. Nope, just a cabin is burned down. Everybody survives the bullets and bombs due to some remarkable plot armor. Beth was severely burned but not remotely phased by it, snapping back very quickly.

- Thomas Rainwater serves an important role in IDing the attacker but is mostly Native American window dressing for the remainder of the season. Kayce gets mired in this with his mountaintop arc which is also mostly filler.

- Market Equities makes a job offer to Beth who negotiates a controlling stake in Schwartz & Meyer. There is a clear conflict of interest as the daughter of John Dutton, and she demonstrates a misguided focus on crushing the Schwartz & Meyer CEO. She takes the job and starts pulling the pin on proverbial hand grenades shortly after. Caroline Warner is surprised by this outcome?

- The Jimmy 6666 arc is decent, but odd. He "broke his word" with John Dutton and has to go away. Well, this wasn't much of a betrayal. John just didn't want him to get hurt again and made him promise not to rodeo again, a promise he breaks. Big deal. Regardless, off he goes to Texas to perform grueling labor as part of his SECOND spinal cord injury rehabilitation (!)

- Jimmy's coming-of-age arc seems rushed. He learns to say "yes sir" a lot and is quickly upgraded from loser to cowboy. He makes the brisk 22-hour drive back to Montana, shakes hands, and immediately drives back. This seems odd until you realize they are setting up a sequel show "6666". Ok, now it makes sense. Well, except for the fact that branded cowboys aren't allowed to leave the ranch.

- Beth is a great character, but was really dislikable this season. She takes a young boy Carter under her wing. Her initial kind behavior is soon replaced by mind games and enslavement of him in total squalor working long hours for zero pay. She even mocks him for the futility of crying right after enjoying a cry herself at Cowboy's song.

- There's trouble in the bunkhouse! There's an interesting protocol at Yellowstone for dealing with fights. Rip will break up the fight, randomly pick one offender, and severely beat him. Then, the two offenders must battle like gladiators nearly to death. This must be done even if one of the offenders is recovering from a severe stabbing injury. Then, the winner of the fight is severely beaten by Rip one last time for good measure. I'm not making this up, folks. Oh, then they have to do the usual ranch work the next day.

- Jaime's father Garrett is revealed as the ringleader of the coordinated attacks. This is odd because he had limited interaction with Jamie prior to this, and it seems implausible that Garrett could conclude this is a reasonable action. I guess this lack of dots was necessary to keep the Reddit sleuths off the case??

- Beth is angry at John for engaging in yet another gunfight at a local restaurant. The writers realized that this could be a watershed moment in John's gubernatorial campaign, but this is somehow lost on slash-and-burn Beth??

- I like Beth, but any honest writer has her going over the cliff at the end. She didn't even bring a gun. Come on!

Benny Mardones Into The Night 1980

I've found the right amount of CNN to watch per day

I'm slowly weaning myself off of cable/satellite TV and am watching more streaming content. I've downgraded my Dish Network plan and have subscribed to Peacock.

I'm more or less hooked on the 24-hour news cycle and enjoy CNN (and to a lesser degree MSNBC). Now, I flip on CNN and watch it until I am presented with one of the following:

1) A prescription drug commercial
2) A commercial for that goddamn mesothelioma book

Then I watch something else, or just flip off the TV entirely. I must say, I'm watching far less news these days. Some days I flip the TV on right into #1 or #2 and don't watch any. As a bonus, I don't have to listen to those shitty repetitive drug commercial jingles.