Another truck dramatically stuck under the 11-foot8+8 bridge
Jason Weisberger / 10:55 am PT Sat Aug 31, 2024
Image: YouTube
Somewhere, someone must be studying the incredible materials and fantastic engineering that went into the 11-foot8+8 bridge.
Sure, the Romans built some impressive things. America has the 11-foot8+8 bridge. While the warning signs are useless, the reinforcement done on this bridge is just amazing. You can not stop this bridge, the Energizer Bunny, or a Timex watch.
Memories:
Previously:
• Watch a crane truck almost break the famous 11-foot-8 bridge
JD Vance: All childless women are "miserable" and "valueless"
Jason Weisberger / 10:16 am PT Sat Aug 31, 2024
Image: JD Vance / C-SPAN
More video of Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, sharing abhorrent ideas about women.
There is a steady stream of JD Vance saying terrible things about women because he has spent so much time doing it. I have read a bunch of analyses on social media of why and how he could come by such painfully awful ideas, and most of it points to a person who needs to spend more time on themselves. Again, at this point, it isn't surprising that Vance is so vile; it is the complete lack of vetting the Trump campaign did or their total disregard for women and people who respect them as voters.
Previously:
• The mirth of JD Vance sounds like Jack Nicholson's Joker's laughing bag
5 years in jail for gay teacher who sent threatening voicemails to judge who OK'd "Don't Say Gay" law
Rob Beschizza / 6:48 am PT Sat Aug 31, 2024
U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger appears before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2018. Photo: U.S. Senate
A retired teacher was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison after admitting that his angry voicemails to U.S. District Judge and Federalist Society member Wendy Berger amounted to threats. Berger, appointed by then-president Trump, had dismissed a challenge to Florida's ban on encouraging discussion of sexuality in schools—the law derided as the "Don't Say Gay" law by opponents.
In his voicemails, Thorn, who is gay, said the judge had no idea what LGBTQ children go through and was "basically giving a green light for them to be thought of as second-class citizens and bullied."
Thorn said he had looked up where the judge, her husband and two children lived and said the judge was "very easy to track."
"Let's see how you would like it if somebody endangered your children in school or your grandchildren in school," Thorn said. "You are an embarrassment to the judicial system."
He admitted this was a true threat; they were going to nail him no matter how much he groveled.
U.S. District Judge William Jung in Tampa sentenced Stephen Thorn, 66, to the maximum sentence possible after he pleaded guilty in May to a single threat charge. The sentence was twice as long as prosecutors had sought.
People who aren't right wing may watch the news and see people who attack cops or threaten officials being treated with some leniency by the courts, and to see that leniency encouraged and demanded by right-wing media. They may then be tempted to do something stupid, thinking the playing field is equal. Not only might you not be treated with leniency, everything you say may be interpreted in the worst possible light, punished to the maximum possible extent, and reported without sympathy.
Here is how Reuters described Florida's law, by the way: as a "law that grants teachers freedom to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity while also shielding the youngest students from those topics."
This is a very media-brained description of the law, which "grants" no such freedom. It's like saying that the 18th Amendment granted Americans the freedom to drink alcohol while shielding them from dangerous beverages. Sure, Jan. They're likely trying to incorporate the thrust of a later settlement but are not even right about that. The relevant freedom is granted elsewhere.
Here's the relevant section of the law: "A school district may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students."
The political context was always clear, and in early drafts was made explicit: "the bill's authors write that their aim is to prohibit 'classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity.'"
Politico grossly misrepresents Kamala Harris
Jason Weisberger / 7:40 pm PT Fri Aug 30, 2024
Image: Ralf Liebhold/shutterstock.com
Tired of letting the New York Times have all the fun, Politico ashamed itself in presenting an alternate reality.
Vice President Harris's answer to CNN's Dana Bash about Trump's hackneyed race-baiting was spot on. We are all familiar with race-baiting and are not distracted by it; carry on. Politico is trying for something nefarious here. There wasn't a lot of credibility left there, but they seem to have set it on fire.
Previously:
• New York Times tried to change today's Wordle word that suddenly seemed icky after Politico leak
This interactive op art will spank your eyeballs and twist your synapses
Allan Rose Hill / 3:42 pm PT Fri Aug 30, 2024
image: Elastic Grid
Juan Pinkus, a creative coder and designer in Buenos Aires, created Elastic Grid, an interactive piece of mesmerizing mindfuckery. The screenshot above is static but in the actual online artwork, you can manipulate the pattern by clicking and dragging on the animated op art grid of black and white rectilinear shapes, stretching and distorting it in real time with real weird results.
Be warned that the effects may linger long after you look away.
Previously:
• This trippy optical illusion house by Roy Lichtenstein makes me question my eyes
• Does your perception of this optical illusion tell you something about your personality?
• Fantastic physical model of famous optical illusion melted my mind
(via Web Curios)
Mouse jumps on man's back. Man panics. Amused family laughs too hard to help (video)
Carla Sinclair / 3:11 pm PT Fri Aug 30, 2024
Image: Billion Photos / shutterstock.com
A good-natured fellow trying his hardest to catch a mouse suddenly panics when the little critter jumps onto his back — and the rest of his household is too busy hysterically laughing to help him out.
"He's on me!…Talk to me!" he says in sheer terror as he jumps off a chair and runs to the backdoor in white ped socks without shoes. But it's impossible for his family to talk to him through all of the high-pitched hilarity.
Once outside, the man's arms jerk up and down as he spins and looks into the camera. "Get him the f*ck off of me! Get it off!"
The stubborn mouse, with no intention of leaving, clings tightly to the man's T-shirt. But eventually the man's bendy-dance loosens the tiny creature's grip and it finally leaps away. (See video below, posted by aerocat.)
Apparently, this was the man's third attempt at catching the unwanted guest, according to the family's TikTok page, making the situation even more amusing for those around him (and us!). You can watch their other attempted mouse-trapping videos here at aerocat5.
Via Newsweek
Previously: Watch firefighters rescue rat stuck in manhole cover
Donald says "stupid people" announce they are out of ammunition, then announces the U.S. is out of ammunition
Ellsworth Toohey / 2:02 pm PT Fri Aug 30, 2024
Boing Boing/Flux
In a recent interview, Donald proved that he's as stable as a two-legged chair:
And I came in, and just before I got there, there were people saying in our military that "we have no ammunition." I said, "who are these stupid people that would say that anyway?" Why would you say that?
Why would somebody say "we have no ammunition?" It's terrible, even if it's true. You don't wanna say it. And we had no ammunition. Over the first year, first thing I did was fill up every storage house with, you know, we had these empty storage houses.
They were packed to the gills. And then these guys gave most of it, almost all of it. Now we have no ammunition again, by the way. These guys gave the ammunition to Ukraine. They gave it — massive amounts of missiles and bullets and everything. We gave it to Ukraine.
In MAGA Land, this is what a stable genius does — criticize people for saying something, only to say the same thing moments later.
[Via PatriotTakes]