Jon Berger
@jeberger.bsky.social
Retired lawyer from Sonoma County, California. Fiddle player in Celtic rock band Tempest (@tempestcelticrock.bsky.social). Will show you cute pictures of his cats on the slightest provocation.
The statue in #37 is an elegant solution to the always-vexing problem of having too much counter space in the kitchen.
December 21, 2025 at 4:42 AM
The statue in #37 is an elegant solution to the always-vexing problem of having too much counter space in the kitchen.
That's exactly what the song @mbbrownsf.bsky.social and @equaloppcynic.bsky.social were quoting was about.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwz...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwz...
Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers
YouTube video by bytor21122112
www.youtube.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:55 PM
That's exactly what the song @mbbrownsf.bsky.social and @equaloppcynic.bsky.social were quoting was about.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwz...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwz...
There's a Copper Family song, "The Battle of Alma," about the Crimean War, which contains the line "we showed them our needlework and forced them to yield." This, of course, refers to bayonets, but I always picture an English Tommy saying "right, you Russkie bastards, this here is petit point."
December 20, 2025 at 7:57 AM
There's a Copper Family song, "The Battle of Alma," about the Crimean War, which contains the line "we showed them our needlework and forced them to yield." This, of course, refers to bayonets, but I always picture an English Tommy saying "right, you Russkie bastards, this here is petit point."
So, I dunno, maybe not quite the message Trump is going for, though in fairness nobody who isn't a #folkmusic geek is going to pick up on it.
(If the name Behan sounds familiar, it's probably because the playwright Brendan Behan was Dominic's big brother.)
(If the name Behan sounds familiar, it's probably because the playwright Brendan Behan was Dominic's big brother.)
December 20, 2025 at 7:49 AM
So, I dunno, maybe not quite the message Trump is going for, though in fairness nobody who isn't a #folkmusic geek is going to pick up on it.
(If the name Behan sounds familiar, it's probably because the playwright Brendan Behan was Dominic's big brother.)
(If the name Behan sounds familiar, it's probably because the playwright Brendan Behan was Dominic's big brother.)
The phrase "patriot game" is from a strongly pro-IRA song, "The Patriot Game," by Dominic Behan. It's been covered by many people, including Judy Collins, though she left out the verse that speaks approvingly of killing cops. Here's Luke Kelly, who was less delicate:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Fs...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Fs...
Luke Kelly - The Patriot Game
YouTube video by Rare Irish Music
www.youtube.com
December 20, 2025 at 7:47 AM
The phrase "patriot game" is from a strongly pro-IRA song, "The Patriot Game," by Dominic Behan. It's been covered by many people, including Judy Collins, though she left out the verse that speaks approvingly of killing cops. Here's Luke Kelly, who was less delicate:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Fs...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Fs...
And as diverting as it is to poke fun at this silly idea, let's not miss the point that the Constitution gives CONGRESS the power to issue letters of marque, and the first place this guy goes is "let's give that power to the President." Why, because the guys that wrote the Constitution got it wrong?
December 19, 2025 at 9:37 PM
And as diverting as it is to poke fun at this silly idea, let's not miss the point that the Constitution gives CONGRESS the power to issue letters of marque, and the first place this guy goes is "let's give that power to the President." Why, because the guys that wrote the Constitution got it wrong?
Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers
YouTube video by bytor21122112
www.youtube.com
December 19, 2025 at 9:11 PM
And cue "but I ASKED him if he was a cop and he said no, so that's entrapment, right?" in 3...2...1...
December 16, 2025 at 10:18 PM
And cue "but I ASKED him if he was a cop and he said no, so that's entrapment, right?" in 3...2...1...
That's almost certainly because that section was cut-and-pasted from a brief in a case with multiple plaintiffs, and someone substituted "Plaintiff" for "Plaintiffs" across the whole document. They were clearly working real fast here.
December 16, 2025 at 5:49 PM
That's almost certainly because that section was cut-and-pasted from a brief in a case with multiple plaintiffs, and someone substituted "Plaintiff" for "Plaintiffs" across the whole document. They were clearly working real fast here.
Sort of. It's a PDF created by the PDFmaker Word extension; that is, created directly from a Word document. They could have done that with a simple "print to PDF" command in Word, but the courts like it when the TOC entries are actual PDF links to the corresponding heading in the document.
December 16, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Sort of. It's a PDF created by the PDFmaker Word extension; that is, created directly from a Word document. They could have done that with a simple "print to PDF" command in Word, but the courts like it when the TOC entries are actual PDF links to the corresponding heading in the document.
My first "that's it, Trump has finally gone too far" moment was "grab them by the pussy." There have been many, many, manymanymany since then. He's survived every single one of them, mostly by distracting attention from them by doing something even worse. Based on that history, I am dubious.
December 16, 2025 at 3:31 AM
My first "that's it, Trump has finally gone too far" moment was "grab them by the pussy." There have been many, many, manymanymany since then. He's survived every single one of them, mostly by distracting attention from them by doing something even worse. Based on that history, I am dubious.
And it's not like there's no demand for them. My wife gets "want to sell your truck?" a couple of times a month, and she has a standing offer from the shop that services it. A friend of mine drives a similar-vintage Tacoma, and he's had the same experience. Manufacturers need to get the memo.
December 16, 2025 at 2:12 AM
And it's not like there's no demand for them. My wife gets "want to sell your truck?" a couple of times a month, and she has a standing offer from the shop that services it. A friend of mine drives a similar-vintage Tacoma, and he's had the same experience. Manufacturers need to get the memo.
... and even what passes for a "small truck" these days sacrifices bed space, which from my wife's POV is the whole point of driving a truck, for cabin space, which isn't. If someone would make an electric pickup the size of an early-2000s Tacoma, I know one buyer who'd snap one up.
2/
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December 16, 2025 at 2:08 AM
... and even what passes for a "small truck" these days sacrifices bed space, which from my wife's POV is the whole point of driving a truck, for cabin space, which isn't. If someone would make an electric pickup the size of an early-2000s Tacoma, I know one buyer who'd snap one up.
2/
2/
Hear hear! My wife drives a 2002 Toyota Tacoma. It runs fine, because Toyota trucks run forever, but she'd be perfectly happy to buy something newer, and she'd be SUPER happy to buy an all-electric, if they made one that size. But they just don't. Modern Tacomas are bloated monstrosities ...
1/
1/
December 16, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Hear hear! My wife drives a 2002 Toyota Tacoma. It runs fine, because Toyota trucks run forever, but she'd be perfectly happy to buy something newer, and she'd be SUPER happy to buy an all-electric, if they made one that size. But they just don't. Modern Tacomas are bloated monstrosities ...
1/
1/
"Same key, I think." That scene comes back to me whenever I listen to musicians trying to work out vocal harmonies on the fly.
December 16, 2025 at 2:01 AM
"Same key, I think." That scene comes back to me whenever I listen to musicians trying to work out vocal harmonies on the fly.
Right. . . . What's an ark?
(Sorry. I know Cosby is an evil disgraced rapist, but I grew up on his LPs and I'm incapable of not thinking they're hilarious.)
(Sorry. I know Cosby is an evil disgraced rapist, but I grew up on his LPs and I'm incapable of not thinking they're hilarious.)
December 15, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Right. . . . What's an ark?
(Sorry. I know Cosby is an evil disgraced rapist, but I grew up on his LPs and I'm incapable of not thinking they're hilarious.)
(Sorry. I know Cosby is an evil disgraced rapist, but I grew up on his LPs and I'm incapable of not thinking they're hilarious.)
Not the main point here, but he's apparently unaware that "arc" is the French word for "arch." It's either "Nous construisons une arc" or "We're building an arch," but not some weird mashup of the two of them.
December 15, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Not the main point here, but he's apparently unaware that "arc" is the French word for "arch." It's either "Nous construisons une arc" or "We're building an arch," but not some weird mashup of the two of them.
And there's this:
cbldf.org/2013/05/disn...
And one of their most successful recent movies, "Coco," is ultimately all about the evils of copyright infringement. But I think there may be an element of "it's going to happen anyway so we might as well make some money from it."
cbldf.org/2013/05/disn...
And one of their most successful recent movies, "Coco," is ultimately all about the evils of copyright infringement. But I think there may be an element of "it's going to happen anyway so we might as well make some money from it."
Disney’s Bloody Attack on The Air Pirates – Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
cbldf.org
December 12, 2025 at 5:58 PM
And there's this:
cbldf.org/2013/05/disn...
And one of their most successful recent movies, "Coco," is ultimately all about the evils of copyright infringement. But I think there may be an element of "it's going to happen anyway so we might as well make some money from it."
cbldf.org/2013/05/disn...
And one of their most successful recent movies, "Coco," is ultimately all about the evils of copyright infringement. But I think there may be an element of "it's going to happen anyway so we might as well make some money from it."
Or in this case, "appallate" would also be appropriate.
December 12, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Or in this case, "appallate" would also be appropriate.
It's just a textbook "facts not in evidence" objection - but no defense counsel ever did, so I always had to frame it on appeal as ineffective assistance for not objecting, and that trick never works. But it used to infuriate me that they got away with it.
December 11, 2025 at 5:44 AM
It's just a textbook "facts not in evidence" objection - but no defense counsel ever did, so I always had to frame it on appeal as ineffective assistance for not objecting, and that trick never works. But it used to infuriate me that they got away with it.
The one that always drove me nuts was "Now, why would Officer X risk his career by lying under oath?" in prosecutors' summations. Really? Do you have, like, EVIDENCE that cops risk their careers by testilying? Want to put someone from the cop HR department on to testify to it or something?
December 11, 2025 at 5:41 AM
The one that always drove me nuts was "Now, why would Officer X risk his career by lying under oath?" in prosecutors' summations. Really? Do you have, like, EVIDENCE that cops risk their careers by testilying? Want to put someone from the cop HR department on to testify to it or something?
We also arrest people so that we can punish them by incarcerating them for some period of time prescribed by law. We only kill them, after determining that we're right, in certain very rare cases, none of which involve drug trafficking.
December 9, 2025 at 3:08 PM
We also arrest people so that we can punish them by incarcerating them for some period of time prescribed by law. We only kill them, after determining that we're right, in certain very rare cases, none of which involve drug trafficking.
I love how, immediately before that (in the press summary, anyway), they say "Oh, it's super important to have a clear straightforward test so that employers won't be in any doubt about how to handle these situations." Umm, yes, that IS important, you certainly got that bit right.
December 9, 2025 at 5:22 AM
I love how, immediately before that (in the press summary, anyway), they say "Oh, it's super important to have a clear straightforward test so that employers won't be in any doubt about how to handle these situations." Umm, yes, that IS important, you certainly got that bit right.
There are countless people who voted for Trump because he told them that the economy sucked and he could fix it. He's now telling them that the economy no longer sucks and he HAS fixed it. They believed him before; any particular reason to suppose that they won't believe him now?
December 8, 2025 at 9:30 PM
There are countless people who voted for Trump because he told them that the economy sucked and he could fix it. He's now telling them that the economy no longer sucks and he HAS fixed it. They believed him before; any particular reason to suppose that they won't believe him now?
To be fair, the last sentence might be correct. In light of the Trump administration's absurdly incompetent handling of the economy, it's entirely possible that unemployment could just go up and up and up and never come back down below where it is right now.
December 8, 2025 at 9:27 PM
To be fair, the last sentence might be correct. In light of the Trump administration's absurdly incompetent handling of the economy, it's entirely possible that unemployment could just go up and up and up and never come back down below where it is right now.