Perhaps The Cardboard Has Magical Properties
Lifted from the comments, where WTP alerts us to more fun times for commuters in the San Francisco Bay Area:
❓ Did you know ❓
You can ask any station agent for BART’s free bystander intervention cards, which you can use if you’re experiencing or witnessing harassment in stations and trains.
Here’s how they work 👇 pic.twitter.com/09WmyquxVS
— BART (@SFBART) March 29, 2024
The cards, we’re assured, are “a concrete way to deal with an unsafe situation.” Though given the consequences of recent attempts at intervention – or what Bay Area Rapid Transit refers to as “allyship” – readers may wonder whether prompt and meaningful assistance may be less frequent than one might wish.
In case you had doubts, WTP adds, “This is not parody.”
Perhaps we can look forward to the issuing of “I am being stabbed” cards. And some “The man next to me is masturbating” cards. It does have the makings of an unhappy board game. It also calls to mind this uplifting scene from no-less-progressive Portland:
What the card for that would say, I leave to the reader.
Update, via the comments:
Diogenese asks, if direct and effective intervention has been discouraged and entails a serious risk of punishment,
Well, I’m assuming the point is largely to misdirect, to conjure an illusion. To give credulous progressive women, like the ladies in the video, the impression that the situation isn’t as bizarrely horrible as it actually is. And to make credulous progressive women imagine that progressives are The Ones Who Care, while so much of what they touch gets much worse, quite rapidly.
But hey, if you’re travelling to work on a BART train and some deranged creep starts masturbating against your leg, or pissing on the floor, or you find yourself standing next to yet another knife fight, or overdose, or commuter mugging – and no-one else does anything, or dares to do anything, except watch impotently and demoralised – because even noticing such things is racist – at least you’ll have a little card to clutch. Apparently that’s something.
And – and – every woman in the explanatory video, every single one of them, has brown skin. So there’s that.
Progress!
Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
Gonna need a minute…
Step Three:
● May I post the picture to my Instagram/video to my TikTok?
Well there is your problem right there, not unlike this which explains a lot.
“People Who Use Psychedelics Know More About the Climate Crisis, Study Finds”
The word “know” is doing extremely heavy lifting there.
The fraction of researchers who are ideologically driven frauds keeps growing.
Yes, it’s a head-scratcher. I should offer a prize or something.
This is reality now, isn’t it?
See also, shoplifting and organised looting, and indeed crime in general.
A browse through the policing category tag may suggest a pattern.
There is a reason that chauvinist is a French word.
Whereas in reality it’s the opposite: The English speaking peoples are the Radiantly Superior Beings. (In spite of beans on toast and pineapple on pizza.)
Apparently that movie about the multiverse was a documentary…how do I get back on the right timeline?
OT, but speaking of timelines and the celebration of Easter falling over into today in some parts… The Greatest Action Story Ever Told.
Though given the consequences of recent attempts at intervention
Exactly.
They can take their cards, shove them where the sun don’t shine, and enjoy the Progressive Utopia they’ve made for themselves. When protecting the feelings of criminals and harrassers is the top priority of the people in charge, who are you, lowly public transportation customer, to object to the criminals’/harrassers’ “different ways of being”?
Perhaps it’s being used in a Biblical sense . . .
See also mass, habitual fare-dodging:
Which is progress, apparently. An achievement unlocked.
It does have the makings of an unhappy board game
Speaking of:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/356768/bloc-by-bloc-uprising
and in response:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/291445/virtue-signal-the-game-of-social-justice
The creator of the latter was banned from Kickstarter and had to use alternate platforms. He was briefly banned from BGG but sane people kept adding the page back and BGG eventually gave up.
I was banned from the Bloc by Bloc forums for asking when we were going to get a Trucker expansion.
Pattern detected:
Heh.
[ Briefly considers cooking. Orders pizza. ]
“If you take family formation out of the equation, then there’s not really much point to anything normative around marriage. Just do whatever you want.”
I disagree: Monogamy remains important for young couples who cannot have children and elderly couples do not plan to have children. (Does that make me more “radical” than Wayne Burkett?)
Will there be pineapple?
With numbers that high, if even close to being true, there’s a moral imperative for the otherwise law abiding to do so themselves. “Conservatives” will cry and disagree. They don’t understand the game that they are being forced to play.
No, the Other Half isn’t keen. My impression is that pineapple on pizza is now considered déclassé, a naff hangover from the Seventies – unless it’s back in a retro-ironic trendy kind of way. I don’t follow pizza fashions that closely. Much to everyone’s surprise.
I remember enjoying pineapple on pizza as a child. Though I think that was probably just excitement at having pizza, which was a treat.
My impression is that pineapple on pizza is now considered déclassé, a naff hangover from the Seventies…
No, it is, and always was, a Communist plot to impurify our precious bodily fluids.
I think I had a slice once, and decided it was okay but not something I’d seek again.
But I have had a number of unconventional pizzas, such as grilled chicken and herbs and vegetables (no tomato sauce) which were very good. I have nothing against unconventional, illegal-in-Italy pizza recipes, but do enjoy denouncing pineapple on pizza as a Sin Deserving of Retribution.
That’s the spirit!
Well, I’m trying to imagine what it must be like to be in the visible and shrinking minority actually paying their way, and paying for the upkeep of a service that countless others use but blatantly choose not to pay for. By which, I mean rob. Given the implied disdain for law-abiding paying commuters, and what that implies more generally, it doesn’t strike me as a happy situation. Or a sustainable one.
The word demoralising comes to mind.
From what I’ve seen and read the most jealous are those not in monogamous relationships.
One of the best I’ve had was a Sicilian style smoked oyster pizza.
Allowing leftists to have power and influence is not sustainable.
As does infuriating.
Not an unintended side-effect.
And if you do intervene you may well get charged yourself. See Daniel Penny and Jordan Neely, a man who had an extensive criminal record, including 42 arrests on charges including petty larceny, jumping subway turnstiles, theft, and three unprovoked assaults on women in the subway.
Liberal women are lamenting the rise in robberies and recreational assaults on women, and yet liberal women voted for the politicians and policies that led to this mess. To quote H L Mencken, they are getting it good and hard.
For me, as a child, the excitement was of having pineapple; but that was probably just the 1970s for you.
I first encountered it on a business trip in Tokyo. There was a Shakey’s Pizza franchise there that was popular with the round-eyes crowd. I just figured it was a Japanese thing as they get really good pineapple there. I thought it was an interesting “cultural appropriation”, NBD thing. Not something I would order but whatever. I’ve only recently (ok like a dozen years ago or so…for me that’s becoming “recently”) noticed that people freak out over this. And similar things. I’ve never understood why people GAS about such things. Like ketchup on hotdogs, of which I recently noticed this. As a native Yinzer, I heartily approve. In your face, Chicago. Literally.
I may have related previously that with the commuter rail in Orlando (diesel train on freight and passenger rail tracks), the ticketing system itself was actually losing money on every ticket printed. Not just the accounting for the fixed costs but somehow the variable cost for each ticket was higher than the price of the ticket. Or at least that’s what some idiot journalist clearly(?) stated in an article I read back during the one month that I used it. Even more reason to not pay. Which would have been rather easy as it effectively operated on the honor system. There were no gates to jump. Commuters were expected to scan their own tickets when getting on and then getting off the train. Supposedly they were being watched but I highly doubted it.
Yes, quite. As a sage commenter once noted. Modesty forbids, etc.
Barbarian wants his reparations. Or else.
I’m not sure who, as Lord Vetinari, I would deport first: Him and his family? Or the liberals who promulgate the cult of victimhood and resentment.
Now you’re just screaming.
Will there be pineapple?
Remembering fondly Happy Herbs Pizzas in Phnom Penh. Definitely no pineapple but the happy herbs were certainly interesting.
I’m reading “Knowing What We Know” by Simon Winchester. He recounts what they found in the earliest school ruins, about 4000 yrs old in Iraq. In these schools the students wrote with a stylus pressed into clay. By 4000 years ago students not only learned to read and write, but how to compute various things. It was a civilization, after all, and things needed to be quantified (properties, grain, taxes, the seasons). We now (by we I mean Leftists) seem to believe it is ok for adults to be illiterate and innumerate….if they are black. Our entire civilization depends on precision technology but we should just be “whatever” and not do precision things anymore. Just ask Boeing.
By the way, I just finished re-watching Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part 1. I have to say, it didn’t really withstand a second viewing. Much too convoluted, too many players, and generally lacking in the focus and momentum of, say, Fallout, which is a much better film.
From the linked fare-dodging piece:
Assets that, once lost, are very difficult to retrieve.
It takes a long time to build high trust society, but leftists and thieves can destroy it very quickly.
I thought that had to be parody … but then I remembered the “advice” offered to deter a rapist: pee on yourself.
Dear.Lord.
More food snobbery LOLs: Heinz is trolling notoriously anti-ketchup fast food restaurants with ketchup-dispensing kiosks. (It is an article of faith with many of the louder Chicagoans that only little children put ketchup on hot dogs–pickles, onions, mustard and relish are mandatory. As if actual adults would care what someone else likes to eat.) I look forward to further entertainment as this story develops.
I would applaud a rape victim who peed on a defund-the-police jackass.
I’d rather the rape victim let the defund-the-police jackass burn out.
…only little children put ketchup on hot dogs…
Fact check – true.
If I were a white liberal, I would be offended on behalf of ketchup lovers.
My favorite thing to put on hot dogs: sauerkraut. Also on polish and bratwurst.
Chili, onions, and cheese.
I first encountered it on a business trip in Tokyo. There was a Shakey’s Pizza franchise there that was popular with the round-eyes crowd.
Sam Panopoulos, a Greek immigrant to Canada is widely recognized as the creator of Hawaiian pizza in 1962. I apologize on behalf of Canada.
For me, as a child, the excitement was of having pineapple; but that was probably just the 1970s for you.
During the 70s any pineapple we had came from a can.
I would be offended on behalf of ketchup lovers
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with ketchup, there are just things on which it should never go, I have no doubts there are people out there who would put it on Peking duck as well as hot dogs.
Sam Panopoulos, a Greek immigrant to Canada…
Another argument for strict vetting and quotas for immigration.
I have no doubts there are people out there who would put it on Peking duck as well as hot dogs.
I’ve seen recipes that recommend ketchup in the marinading liquid for Peking duck when other ingredients aren’t available.
People who despise people who like ketchup on hot dogs are little children.
[ Hmmm, with just a little more provocation I can keep this thread going for another 12 hours. ]
Next up: Barbaric Brits put beans on pizza.
Next up: Barbaric Brits put beans on pizza.
I’ve seen recipes that recommend ketchup in the marinading liquid for Peking duck
As there is zero tomato in the preparation of Peking duck, I suspect this is another abominable recipe from a Greek immigrant to Canada.
People who despise people who like ketchup on hot dogs are little children.
I don’t despise them, pity and advise them to seek psychiatric help, yes.
I pity people who pity people who like ketchup…
Speaking of which…
[ Sends activation orders to galleon fleet ]
As there is zero tomato in the preparation of Peking duck, I suspect this is another abominable recipe from a Greek immigrant to Canada.
Quite possibly. Canada is the land of ketchup potato chips.
There are hundreds of recipes for Peking duck and no two are alike. A lot of them call for hoisin sauce which can be made with ketchup as an ingredient for its sweetness. There are a lot of asian recipes that substitute ketchup for other asian ingredients, including pad thai and char siu. I’m not saying they’re particularly good or authentic but they’re definitely out there.
Nostalgia will have me putting Heinz ketchup (note the spelling – never “catsup”) on hot dogs at a backyard BBQ – along with pickle relish. Then there’s the childhood comfort dish of beanie wienies enhanced with a couple tablespoons of ketchup.
You may commence to throwing water balloons my way. 🙂
There’s quite a nice place in SoCal for some inventive AND yummy hot dogs.
I find ketchup today a convenient ingredient for dressings and sauces. A killer seafood cocktail sauce can be had from ketchup+horseradish+lemon juice+fish sauce.
Canada is the land of ketchup potato chips.
I have had those (and all dressed) but not really any difference than ketchup on fries. Still not sold on poutine, though, brown gravy and cheese curds is an odd combo.
I’m not saying they’re particularly good or authentic…
An understatement, particularly as tomatoes were unknown in China until they were colonized there by yte supremacist Europeans who culturally appropriated them from Central America.
And potatoes were unknown in India, but once introduced were put to good use.
Would spam sushi be the ultimate “inauthentic” food? Seemingly popular, though.
Still not sold on poutine, though, brown gravy and cheese curds is an odd combo.
In high school during the 70s in Ontario poutine was completely unknown but it was fairly common to have chips (fries) with brown gravy and ketchup at the caf (cafeteria). Then there was another group of people who would drown their chips in malt vinegar and lots of salt. Not sure if was to kill the taste of school cafeteria french fries.
Would spam sushi be the ultimate “inauthentic” food?
Spam musubi, more properly as musubi isn’t the same as sushi, and a cultural mashup like char siu manapua rather than “inauthentic”.
Yikes!!
I’ve only recently (ok like a dozen years ago or so…for me that’s becoming “recently”) noticed that people freak out over this
To quote the late Kathy Shaidle, “Bacon, like zombies, is something the Internet decided was cool and now refuses to shut the fuck up about.” Trends trend. It’s what they do.
Much too convoluted, too many players
I don’t normally think much of the Critical Drinker, but of late he’s been making the same point – that movies today in general just have too much of everything going on in them, and it’s driving the budgets to levels that guarantee an ROI catastrophe.
I’m not sure who, as Lord Vetinari
And yet, when I say that Pratchett’s novels describe his ideal authoritarian IngSoc people get upset.
It’s not a bad film, but it’s nowhere near as finely tuned as its predecessor. In the closing act, a key-moment-cum-big-visual-gag, one with an extended set-up, just lands flatly – it was very noticeable in the cinema – and while there are fun set pieces, the film overall feels cluttered and unfocussed. Too much rattling about and not enough narrative momentum. By the end of the film, you’ve pretty much forgotten the opening scene, and so the unresolved threat seems rather distant.
And then there’s the issue of the film being the (very long) first half of a two-part story. The film doesn’t end with any resolution or a cliff-hanger, just our heroes (mostly) surviving the latest set piece. As the credits roll, there’s some attempt to remind the audience of what’s at stake, but it isn’t enormously effective.
There’s also the problem that the premise of the film – a rogue AI – may be very now, but it doesn’t really lend itself to visual storytelling. Or at least, it isn’t depicted in ways that make much of an impression. There are a couple of short scenes showing some of what the “entity” can do, hacking coms and real-time altering of security footage, but they don’t really conjure any great or lingering dread.
As the first part of the story seems likely to have lost the studio between $50M and $100M, I’m not sure what they’re planning to do with Dead Reckoning, Part 2.
[ Edited. ]
Toss the cards, those girls should just be wearing t-shirts that say simply “I AM PREY.”
My favorite thing to put on hot dogs: sauerkraut. Also on polish and bratwurst.
Try using kimchi in lieu of sauerkraut.
[ Stomach rumbles. ]
And before you ask, Stephanie, I’m compiling it now.
[ Sounds of frantic Ephemera compiling. ]
It appears a new Union Jack has dropped, and it is fabulous.
Because the boring old flag is often confused for the French, Dutch, Russian, and US&A flags all of which are nigh identical, what with the three crossed crosses and all.
TBF, almost completely off the flag is pretty far.
I am a little concerned about the lion with the mane, though, seems a bit heteronormative.
The words that come to mind are just fucking stop.
I’ve known a few people who loudly despised pineapple on pizza. (Why? Nobody’s forcing you to eat it.) In the late 70’s/early 80’s I started to meet Chicagoans who were absolute chauvinists about Chicago-style hot dogs. Likewise Chicago asswipes who are chauvinists for Chicago style pizza and New york asswipes who are chauvinists for New York style pizza. A few Jews who expressed extreme disgust if you mentioned the wrong bagel restaurant. Some Americans of Scottish ancestry who hated England and hated everyone belonging to the wrong clan. I’m a Stewart so I only buy Stewart’s brand coffee and never buy Campbell’s soup.)
Social contagion? There have always been people who are easily persuaded to get on any bandwagon no matter how silly. And I haven’t even mentioned sports team fanatics.
IKR? My sister used to make a fuss whenever I ordered oysters. The mere mention of sushi drew “Ewwws”. Yesterday I see on a FB post by her husband that they were eating sushi. Heh. After years of “Eww!”, I couldn’t let that pass without engaging the Smartass Drive.
The same people will put Journey or REO Speedwagon in the jukebox and think nothing of it. Or in my sister’s case, Phil Collins.
Meanwhile, I am desperately searching for new things to tease David about, since beans on toast and the proper pronunciation of a-loom-i-num are getting old.
[ Makes enormous cauldron of chicken stew, thereby putting to use the long-neglected swede that was sitting in the vegetable crisper. ]
Liberalism makes you stupid. And in the case of these two, incandescently stupid.
In fact, this is such off-the-charts lunacy that I’m almost at a loss for words.
[ pictures Bjorn Borg sitting alone in a rocking chair at an old folks’ home somewhere outside of Stockholm ]
“Tomatoes arrived in China sometime in the late 16th or early 17th centuries, where they initially met a reaction that was equal parts confused and curious.”
A bit before Western colonial adventures in Asia.
There’s also the problem that the premise of the film – a rogue AI – may be very now, but it doesn’t really lend itself to visual storytelling
I recall a plot from a terrible They Fight Crime! show somewhen in the 1980s that had a similar plot; the AI had been tied into all municipal systems in a small town and had been killing off people opposed to itself by manipulating traffic lights to cause accidents. There’s a scene where the protagonists are communicating with it by speaking to a security camera and watching as the AI controls the traffic lights – red for no, green for yes. It’s paced very well, and the scene end where they piss it off and it turns all the lights in town red simultaneously really lands.
As most modern TV/film is unwatchable I’ve been delving into some classic media and the writing really was better, even on the throwaway shows. It’s entirely possible to do a rogue AI via visual storytelling, but it requires writers who are up to it.
Isn’t kimchi basically spicy sauerkraut?
Wondered what that soft plop was.
Why won’t David let me cook anymore?
Bork, bork. bork.
Again, Dead Reckoning has a couple of short scenes showing some of what the “entity” can do, hacking communications and real-time altering of security footage, but neither scene has the kind of dramatic oomph that’s needed.
It’s not unlike Avengers: Age of Ultron, which didn’t really show what would make the screen version of Ultron a unique and global danger. His ‘everywhereness’, as it were. It’s hinted at, in passing, with a line or two of dialogue, but the potential is never really explored or depicted.
[…] being on the Lloyd George.
[…] we needed to find a way of refreshing Team GB’s colour palette in a way that is both flexible and ownable […]
Context.
Isn’t kimchi basically spicy sauerkraut?
To a point, yes. But it really fires up a hot dog. And it is crunchier than regular sauerkraut.
Friday’s Ephemera – be still my beating heart.
Just arrived home a short time ago from the mountains, having photographed my 121st marriage proposal. She said yes! This time it involved a bit of a hike to a lovely waterfall. And to think I gave up Family Law in the courtrooms of Southern California to be paid good money to hike in the Smokies . . .
[ Prays all links remain active until Friday. ]
You might want to sacrifice a goat or two.
Oh no, too late: Instalanch!
Double-lock the wine cella door! Hide the good glasses! Hide your daughters!
Instalanch!
In the comments, someone with the handle Iwaldron is riffing on the possible things WTP might stand for. “Water Treatment Plant”, “Winnie-the-Pooh”, and “White Trash Party” stood out to me.
WTP, I’m just the messenger.