Linked on Twitter was a Splinter News piece called Bret Stephens Tried to Teach Me How the World Works Because I Called Him Remarkably Dumb. I clicked through in anticipation of some classic Stephens idiocy. The article in fact features the author being a complete childish douchebag to Stephens and Stephens being polite in response. Incredible lack of self-awareness from the author to publish it (which he did without asking Stephens for permission).

I'm excited that I still have most of his body of work to read.

It was weird at first hearing him read his own words. He's picked up a weird half-British accent. And the way he delivers his funny punchlines is nothing like how they sounded in my head before hearing his voice - much more droll. But I'm used to it now.

Yeah I saw that on twitter. Really uncool to print someone's PMs w/o permission.

Luckily this is the kind of thing that is way to arcane to rile up the base.

Bret Stephens is a douche, but the other guy just seems like an ass here. You wrote him a bunch of insulting emails and Bret clapped back, call the Pulitzer committee. I expect a lot better from Splinter.

My friend just did a dramatic basketball card pack opening live on FB. Literally the first time I've ever watched a live "periscope" type FB feed in my life. He said he was hoping for a signed Karl Malone which is worth $79. Ok high drama.

First card - Carmelo Anthony. He's never heard of Carmelo Anthony. I'm like dude if these cards are old enough to have Karl Malone - Anthony might be worth something. I ask him what year.

It's 2018. He opened a 2018 Carmelo Anthony and apparenly they're throwing in old

****ing non-sports people.

I used to be into sports cards a long time ago before the market completely crashed. I have a hard time believing new cards have any real value but I haven’t looked at it for ever.

They have no value. But they throw in a signed Karl Malone to every 1000 packs or something. I dunno.

I had a bunch of football cards from '79 to '83. I know I had several Montana rookie cards that of course my Mom threw away when I went to college because that's what moms do. She still denies it, like they just disappeared out of the basement on their own.

I give you the GOAT "OMG I've gone viral so here let me plug something" subtweet in the history of the medium.

Ok we're doing Empire Strikes Back now. First 5-10 minutes, perfect movie.

Then Luke gets his light-saber, frees himself, chops off the arm of the ice monster thing.

Now, do you:

a) Finish killing the ice monster who just lost an arm and is basically bleeding out at this point - so you can stay in the relatively warm shelter of his ice monster cave where you just survived hours while being unconscious?

b) Run away and dive out into the Antarctic abyss which is now so cold and windy it kills ton tons - a hearty cold weather creature which presumably evolved in these conditions?

Good choice Jedi genius!

Yo, you can't just kill ice monsters. That thing is probably endangered.

Ok last post of the drinking night. Something got me thinking about this - probably the raid on Hoth Ice Planet.

When I flew to Beijing to meet my family for a tour of China in 2004, I used my miles to fly business class on Air China. Which I found out is pretty much like coach on any other airline.

But I still wound up in the upper section of a 747 where I was the one of the few people in the upstairs who wasn't traveling to a reunion of the Hump Pilots - which holy crap sounds like about the most dangerous job in WWII.

The guy leading the reunion was a son of one of the pilots. At some point I talked to him and was just blown away by the story of what these guys did. I had been talking to the guy next to me some, who couldn't hear well. I told him thanks for the sacrifices that your generation made for my generation. I think he got a little choked up, or he just didn't understand me and stammered to be polite. I hope it was the former.

I always feel like if I was risking my life in a spot like that, I'd be wondering if it was even worth it, and definitely wondering if younger generations would appreciate it. So just to know, one time, that someone who wasn't even close to being born when I was flying over the Himalayas in a near-suicide mission - recognized and appreciated what I did for them - I think that little gesture would mean a lot to me.

Ok last last post. I gotta say Empire Strikes Back is a damn good movie.

OK questions:

1) Why do the stormtroopers have to wear cumbersome and heat-trapping body armor that does absolutely nothing to protect them against blasters?

2) Why do the dudes running the computers inside the various death stars have to wear black helmets with black visors? Is it a construction zone?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/faceboo...up-11551362400

Aaaaand then we come to this scene in the remastered Return of the Jedi which makes you question everything you've ever held dear about the original Star Wars trilogy, and would make you question your will to live if not for the fast forward button.

I can't wait for suzzer to get to the prequel trilogy

IIRC, Mark Hamill didn't know his character was supposed to chop its arm off, he thought he was just waving his lightsaber around to scare it off. When he saw the actual film he says he was upset that they had Luke cutting off the monster's arm.

Olds are more conservative in no small part because poor people died off.

Completely makes sense when you think about it.

something that just occurred to me while dunking on an ex-cow-orker on FB: doesn't support for gay conversion therapy sort of blow up the whole "lifestyle choice" argument?

It’s probably because I’m a little bit younger than most politics posters on this site, but there’s something about a middle aged white guy who is clearly unqualified and undeserving of his current spot talking down to someone else that rubs me the wrong way. The advice Stephens gives is really just never working out for ~most people and probably ends up holding plenty of them back.

They'll compare it to smoking and suchlike.

Bret Stephens is a ****ing dope. He’s the Ben Sasse of journalists.

1) Suits have some type of body cooling built in. It's in the future, and we already have this technology.

2) Fairly sure the helmets have lenses to protect their eyes from lasers. No clue why they are needed all the time though.