...with the result that Walmart is selling merchandise with one of his photographs on it, using a photograph for which he accepted exactly $1.88 for the printing rights. Which sucks, but that's how contracts work.
Yes, I'd be pissed off, too. But it doesn't change the fact that he screwed up.
Plus side, use that on your resume. "This one picture I took sold thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise...."
* * *
The second "quick hit" is about the curfew at Water Tower Place and yes it's ineffective, and already the cries of raciss! have begun, because of course they have.
* * *
The first thing representative occasional-cortex wants is to raise taxes. It's the first thing any socialist will ever do. It's the first thing Democrats do when they get into power. They raise taxes because "the rich" are never paying enough and the government never has enough money to spend.
It's bullshit, but it's what they think.
* * *
A handful of stores can't process welfare. Food stamps etc, the stores can't process them because of the government shutdown.
This is not a widespread issue; it's not all the stores in the country. It's the ones whose statuses have changed, like ownership or what-have-you. The government cheese is still being distributed and its recipients are still able to use it.
Some folks are saying there will be big problems if this isn't corrected by February. I have to wonder about that.
* * *
"If they had any decency, [Democrats] would let the sick old woman retire already."
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 85 years old. She's had three bouts of cancer. She's recuperating from the surgery that cleared out the latest one, and so she's recuperating at home and has, for the first time, missed hearing arguments.
The Fungus wishes her the best of health. I have to shake my head in disapproval at the people (such as the linked Vox Day, above) who think of this as a gift; it's not. Also Karl Denninger, whose last sentence shows what he thinks of such concerns.
I do not wish death upon any but the absolute worst of humanity. I save that for the Arafats and the Castros and their ilk, people whose legacies are real and serious evil. But as Denninger notes, it comes to us all.
Perhaps RBG wishes she had resigned during Obama's term, in order to ensure she was replaced by a leftist, but she didn't do that...and now it's too late.
Denninger says, emphasis removed, "...and in the context of a USSC appointment there is nothing the House or anyone else can do about how the nomination and confirmation unfolds," but that's not really true.
If she dies before Trump is no longer President, Democrats will do their utmost to push some kind of articles of impeachment out, regardless of whether they make sense or not. And they will argue, strenuously and vociferously, that because Trump is under the shadow of impeachment, he is not allowed to appoint judges. That's a matter on which the Consitution is silent, but they don't have any trouble inventing "penumbras and emanations" whenever it suits them. This may cause a constitutional crisis, but in their view it's better to cause a major crisis than to have the Republican-led Senate confirm another right-wing judge.
And of course they will extend and delay the thing as long as possible, to keep the Senate from voting it down; and if the Senate does vote down the articles of impeachment, the House will simply pass another set of articles, and the whole thing will start over.
This will not make the Democrat party more popular. That's secondary, though, because the Supreme Court is it; it's how they've managed to pass and protect all sorts of initiatives which the general populace would never vote for.
Specifically because abortion, the leftist sacrament, is threatened should another right-wing judge be appointed. The left won't sit still for that, of course.
I expect that in the worst case, the poor woman will be shoved into an ICU and kept alive with extreme life support measures, and only be allowed to expire once Trump is no longer in office. "Lifetime appointment" and as long as she's still alive--regardless of whatever technical sense that may be--she's not due for replacement.
For all we know, that may already be the case.
* * *
So, in the end, the schooting at that school in Florida is the result of government malfeasance. Government dropped the ball half a million times, in a perfect storm of incompetence and malfeasance. More gun laws would not have fixed it.
Of course.
* * *
Isn't a cast iron manhole cover opaque to radio waves? I suppose they know what they're doing, but even at the link it doesn't say what the manhole covers are made from. Still, imagine the lawsuits from idiots who are afraid of microwave-band radio energy hitting their junk.
* * *
Something that the government shutdown is having an effect on: SpaceX's upcoming crew module flight. The module will be unmanned, but it's an example of SpaceX's manned spacecraft. It's slated to fly 1/17, though it may not because the government shutdown means NASA can't grind through the paperwork.
* * *
This pretty much nails it.
Picture:
That really is what it amounts to.
* * *
The ultimate in "catering to the extremely lazy": pre-peeled oranges. I don't give a rip about what they're packaged in; I just think it's stupid.
* * *
Rod Stewart's model railroad. He's big into model railroading, has an HO-scale model railway that's 100 feet long. HUGE, in other words.
* * *
Well, it's the first Monday of 2019, and I'm on my "permanent" schedule. Out of training mode, theoretically.
Saturday will be the 60-day mark--I started November 12--and my contract will then have two months left in it. At that point, they either hire me full-time, or dump me; there won't be any extensions or anything. That was explained to me at the beginning of all this. So, either I go full time by March 12, or I start looking for another job.
We shall see how we do. But I'm confident that I'd have to be utterly wretched at this for them to dump me; the first day of training I listened to calls, and my calls are pretty much like those were. All told, I do my job as best as I can, and that should be enough.
* * *
Well, it was raining all day, but it cleared off just in time for the sun to set. Temps have largely been above freezing the past few days. No complaints here.
ADDENDUM:
Well, it's here, sort of: An LCD TV that rolls up and disappears when not in use. The price will approximate "if you have to ask...." but every consumer product starts out like that. The point is, it's coming closer; and since it is now a consumer product, the day will come when your TV retracts its screen. Or when you just hang it like wallpaper.
* * *
How much does the FDA cost us? Enough that we should not have to worry that our medications are tainted, that's for damned sure.