Why Men Left the Dating Pool

I first saw this short video from SmugAlana: Why Don't Men Approach Anymore? Which made me laugh, which isn't bad for less than a minute. (A woman complaining about men not approaching her, and - unintentionally - explaining exactly why they don't.)

So when this 2nd video showed up, I thought I would at least listen to a bit of it...

I always thought describing dating as a market, missed the point somehow, even back in the day when a lot of the clubs were described as "meat markets." But people do make rational decisions about how they spend their time, and their money. And the Pursuit of Happiness is something that we seem to have baked into the system. In this case, Gen Z, and maybe Millennial men, are making rational decisions about that dating market.

I'm older than dirt, so this is mostly of interest because I do know a handful of Zoomers, mostly kids of friends. But it is part of the fallout of late-stage feminism, and Woke. And those forces seem to be destroying society in new, and unexpected ways.

This is Kait Willett's video Women Are Starting to See The Damage

The Other McCain, Fireworks, and Overkill

I hope there is some video. Our Patriotic Duty: Fill the Sky : The Other McCain

We bought wholesale by the case this year, shopping the “Early Bird” special in April, but we did not stop there. Every time I thought, “OK, we have enough fireworks now,” the universe answered: “More.”

Click thru for photos from several folks, including The Other McCain.

As I’ve explained before, the reason that consumer fireworks (1.4G) are so much fun is that you don’t need safety “setbacks” as long as those required for professional (1.3G) shows.

If this was Florida, this might qualify as Peak Florida.

And I'm not sure why the 37th Maxim of Maximally Effect Mercenaries came to mind.

Not All Explosions in Russia Are Due to War

Who doesn't love a good explosion? As long as it is on video, and a long way away, that is.

BLEVE = Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion. This is why I don't like propane. Even when it is not under high pressure, things can go wrong.

It isn't really funny, as 6 people were injured, one of them seriously. The manager of the gas station has been detained under a criminal investigation.

This is the StacheD video LPG Tanker Explosion: Routine Delivery to BLEVE! This took place at a gas station in Pyatigorsk, Russia, which is in southern Russia, roughly 110 miles east of the Black sea, and about 65 miles north of the border with Georgia.

When you're unloading a tanker, there's well established safety protocols for a reason. When those protocols get skipped or the equipment isn't up to standard, you don't get a second chance to fix it.

The video is about four and a half minutes. (I love StacheD videos; they are entertaining and I learn stuff.)

Evacuating Public Spaces When the Shooting Starts

Miguel Gonzalez has a reaction that I can get behind. I am actually baffled by the stupid.

There was a shooting incident at a Costco in Ohio. Click thru for some details on that. The real issue was that people were not getting out of Dodge.

If you hear gunfire, anywhere but at a shooting range, get out of the vicinity. Run, like your life depended on it. And another thing...

A public service announcement of sorts:

For the love of sweet Baby Jesus riding a winged camel, abandon the gorramed shopping cart and get the fuck out of the area!

At best toss it to a side where it won’t be blocking a escape route for others or incoming route for First Responders.

Do people not realize that you don't own the stuff in "your shopping cart" until after you've checked out? And even if you have checked out, $200 worth of stuff is not worth my life. Where do you draw the line on abandoning paper towels? (Nothing in that cart is an irreplaceable family heirloom.)

Miguel also has a Book recommendation: First 30 Seconds by Ed Monk. It covers a related topic, school shooters.

I don’t recall the last time I got so mad reading a book. And I am not mad at the author by any stretch of the imagination, but I am seething at bureaucrats and politicians that have blocked, impeded and belittled armed personnel in schools.

Ed Monk did an amazing job collecting the data on active shooters, what made them most of them “successful” and what made some a failure. And then he goes on to make us rethink in realistic terms about the number of casualties which will never be zero, but we can keep to a minimal number if real common sense is applied and not what passes a “common sense regulations” by politicians and activists who I believe are just stuck of what does not work to line their pockets with that sweet donations’ cash.

NBC News Wants You to Feel Sorry for Federal Workers

Or those out of work because of DOGE. A year after DOGE, former federal employees are still looking for work

Or maybe they just want you to hate Elon Musk even more; that is the photo they used on X. (Musk worked with Orange Man Bad!)

Thirteen federal workers who were laid off during the DOGE cuts told NBC News they struggled to find work, had to move or took major pay cuts after their agencies were gutted.

Gee. That sounds normal to someone who worked in the private sector.

Here is a typical "you should feel bad for this guy" story. A guy with a decade in government, and apparently no transferable skills.

One year, one massive spreadsheet of job leads and only a handful of interviews later, Burg has returned to the job he had in college, doing carpentry work in his Takoma Park, Maryland, neighborhood, just outside of Washington.

What was it they told coal miners???? "Learn to Code." I forget... Or was that declared to be a hate statement when it was applied to out-of-work journalists?

Here is another "boo hoo" statement."

WellFed, an organization that supports former federal workers, estimates just 25% of its members have found new jobs. OneAID, an organization of former USAID workers and their implementing partners, estimates at least 50% of its membership is still unemployed.

They went to work for the federal government, and thought that it meant life-long feeding at the taxpayer-funded trough.

Many of the former federal employees who spoke to NBC News said working in public service felt like a calling. Months of unsuccessful job applications have chipped away at their mental health.

Oh No. They can't follow their bliss. Or something.

Grow up.

And it isn't unique to DC. Here is a story from the Hollywood Report: I Used to Be a Hollywood Writer. Now I’m Lugging Lumber From Home Depot. It’s an Upgrade.

In the latest in THR's series about life after Hollywood, a former TV and film scribe undergoes a gut renovation as he settles into a second career as a construction worker.

That was probably the result of straight white men being told to get lost.

Artificial Stupidity

Pixy Misa has an AI Update. Daily News Stuff 7 April 2026: The Command Line Cometh Edition

A critical security vulnerability has been discovered in the leaked version of Claude Code. (Adversa)

If you've used Claude Code, you've noticed that it loves running shell commands to examine your codebase, rather than, say, reading it. Or having simple fixed-function code built into the software to do it on your computer.

This has to do with Claude taking full control of your PC, because of course it would. They have the corrected code - it is IN the leaked source - they just are not using it.

Can you talk about AI without mentioning OpenAI?

OpenAI is once again calling for public funds to clean up the mess it is creating. (Business Insider)

The best time for a Butlerian Jihad is now.

There is more on AI, and the rest of the tech news for the 7th.

If you don't recognize that reference to "Butlerian Jihad," it is from the novel Dune.

Microsoft Got Their Knickers in a Twist

From Windows Latest we get the latest from Microslop: Microsoft gets tired of “Microslop,” bans the word on its Discord, then locks the server after backlash

Microsoft’s aggressive AI push in Windows 11 through 2025 brought upon themselves the title Microslop. Unfortunately for the company, it’s everywhere on social media, and there isn’t a way to stop the spread, unless, of course, it’s their own Discord server.

First they censored the term, and then when that blew up in their faces, they locked the entire Discord server.

Because people are pissed off that Microsoft is more interested in shoving AI down everyone's throats than actually making Windows efficient, secure, not annoying with ads, ...

Once the censorship became known, people started getting around the filters by misspelling Microslop, using the standard l33t substitutions at first, and then Microsoft shut the whole thing down.

Microsoft’s brand image might already be at an all-time low, and even as the company announced plans to fix Windows 11 with performance improvements and less AI, the software giant can’t risk getting more hatred towards their expensive investment in Copilot.

Go read the whole thing. Not quite a Bud Light/Jaguar moment, but I am reminded of them. It also has echoes of Disney/Lucasfilm producing stuff no one asked for, actually hate, and are left wondering why their brand has been destroyed, to the point of being a laughingstock.

And so we have today's vocabulary word.

Schadenfreude

enjoyment obtained from seeing or hearing about the troubles of others

Hat tip to Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony and Daily News Stuff 3 March 2026: Mineralogical Edition

Microsoft did not ban the word "microslop" from its official Copilot Discord forum and then shut the whole thing down when people kept using the offending term, or, well, they did but they say it was due to spam. (Windows Latest)

Sure, Microsoft. I believe you.

Google AI and the Enshittification of the News Feed

You thought clickbait was bad. Now you get AI insanity. A complaint from the Verge: Google won’t stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AI

Because Google knows better, even when they don't.

In early December, I brought you the news that Google has begun replacing Verge headlines, and those of our competitors, with AI clickbait nonsense in its content feed. Google appeared to be backing away from the experiment, but now tells The Verge that its AI headlines in Google Discover are a feature, one that “performs well for user satisfaction.” I once again see lots of misleading claims every time I check my phone.

It hasn't gotten better since December.

"Enshittification" is taken from the title to a by Cory Doctorow, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. Dictionary.com describes it as follows:

the gradual degradation of an online platform or service's functionality, as part of a cycle in which the platform or service first offers benefits to users to attract them, then pursues more and more profits at the expense of users.

Hat tip to Stephen Green at Instapundit.

Drugs Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

They can make you do stupid shit. This guy is lucky that people only shot in his direction. Sheriff's Office: Man high on meth was an unwelcomed guest at neighbors' homes - WJER Radio 100.9FM & 1450AM

First, he called 911 on himself. He was incoherent, and he hung up, so 911 called him back. He said he didn't feel safe in his own home. And so he went in search of that feeling of safety. (Hint: He didn't find it.)

Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Detective Captain Adam Fisher says the 46-year-old suspect made a confusing call to 9-1-1 around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, providing just his McKinley Avenue address. Dispatchers called him back. He said he feared for his life, did not feel safe in his own home and was going to start walking down the street to contact neighbors.

Fisher says the man entered at least three homes. One homeowner fired a warning shot to get him to leave and another homeowner shoved him back outside.

So in at least one situation, he is lucky to not have been shot.

New Philadelphia, Ohio is about a 45 mile drive south of Akron.

Deputies found this guy, and took him to a local hospital.

Fisher says the man allegedly ingested methamphetamine which led to his erratic behavior. He faces one charge – trespassing into a habitation – but Fisher anticipates more.

Sadly felony stupidity is not something he can be charged with in the State of Ohio.

He was still in the hospital when this article was written. When the doctors are done with him, he will be taken to the county lockup.

Another Idiot Making Problems for Every Gun Owner

Guns and stupidity are never a good combination. North Carolina Man Charged After Shooting Child During Prank

This all started with another iteration of the stupid ding-dong ditch prank. Deputies were in the middle of a standard traffic stop at 11:20 p.m. when they heard gunfire nearby.

Sheriff Darren Campbell stated: "Deputies located an unoccupied vehicle stopped in the roadway with passenger doors open, broken glass on the ground, and apparent bullet holes in the vehicle." Nearby, they found five children in a field, including one with a leg injury.

The guy doing the shooting?

The homeowner, Craig Steven Mason, eventually identified himself as the shooter. According to investigators, Mason claimed he was woken up by noise, grabbed a handgun, and saw a vehicle passing by with no headlights.

So of course, being woken up by a noise, he thought the thing to do was to open fire on a vehicle with no headlights. He didn't know the vehicle. He didn't know why they had no headlights. Were they bad guys, or were they trying to escape bad guys? Or were they a bunch of stupid kids who presented no real threat to anyone?

Mason was arrested and charged with several things including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Sadly, he cannot be charged with felony stupidity.

This all took place in Statesville, North Carolina, which is about 35 miles north of Charlotte.

For the love of all that is holy people, try to be less stupid than this guy. At least remember that every bullet comes with a lawyer attached.

The Register Brings Us the Worst Tech from CES

People always do stupid stuff with technology. CES 2026 worst in show: AI girlfriends, a fridge that won't open unless you talk to it, and more

There's a lot of bad ideas set to create literal waste and be a waste of money

So CES is going on in Las Vegas. CES, or Consumer Electronics Show, used to be the place to find out what all the Big Tech players were doing, but now it seems like the place to showcase truly bad ideas.

As regularly as bad tech shows up in Las Vegas in January, Repair.org and its allies in the repairability and tech responsibility movement were there to award a list of the worst things on display this year.

As was the case in 2025, there's a lot of AI on this list – but not just AI. There's some literal garbage on it, too.

There are a lot of bad ideas, but Amazon's expansion of surveillance is perhaps the worst. Adding a bunch of AI features to the Ring camera network? What could possibly go wrong?

Citing the "sheer expansion of surveillance capabilities that [Amazon] is supporting this year," [Electronic Frontier Foundation executive director Cindy] Cohn expressed concern with facial recognition in Ring cameras, commercially deployable surveillance towers, and a new app store she said is "going to let people develop even sketchier apps for the doorbell than ones that Amazon already provides."

More surveillance, Cohn added, doesn't always make us safer.

Welcome to the Panoptican.

Click thru.

Another Idiot Shooting At Someone In His Driveway

Why would you shoot at someone who was leaving? Homeowner charged for shooting at Amazon driver in Richmond County

According to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, the delivery driver knocked on Sidney Pittman’s door to deliver a package on Dec. 14 in Ellerbe. He told her it was the wrong address, but as she was driving away, detectives say the homeowner shot into her car with her 16-year-old son inside.

Ellerbe, North Carolina is about a 90 mile drive southwest of Raleigh, or about 75 mile drive east of Charlotte.

So now this genius homeowner is facing felony charges, and it will be hard to prove he had a reasonable fear of death or grave bodily injury, because she was leaving.

Your home is not a free fire zone.

Sadly he cannot be charged with felony stupidity in North Carolina.

Your Home Is Not a Free Fire Zone

Not even if you are really mad at porch pirates. Atlanta homeowner arrested after shooting alleged porch pirates | FOX 5 Atlanta

An Atlanta homeowner accused of shooting two teens he believed stole a package has been arrested, according to court documents obtained by FOX 5.

If package theft is a problem near you don't have packages delivered to your home. It is easy, if nothing goes wrong. This guy is going to pay for these packages for a long time.

Rakim Bradford, 34, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Even if a jury finds him not guilty, he will spend a long time fighting these charges, and if he is found guilty or takes some deal, he will spend time in prison. For the time being, he is in the county jail. Over what? Something he ordered for the holidays?

One of the teens was shot in the torso, and remains in the hospital. The other was shot in the foot. No word on whether or not they will face charges.

Your Home Is Not a Free Fire Zone

And you can't just shoot at people because a car alarm is going off. Especially not in New Jersey. Man Shot Rideshare Pickup 3 Times At Howell Home; Now He's Headed To Prison | Howell, NJ Patch

Howell police learned that three teens who were friends with the girlfriend's son were sitting in a vehicle outside the home waiting for their rideshare service. When the rideshare vehicle — a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup — arrived, the three got out of the other vehicle but set off the vehicle's alarm system by accident in the process, authorities said.

So he hears the car alarm going off at 12:30 AM, and his first reaction is to start shooting at the vehicle in his driveway. It is a pickup owned by the rideshare driver.

Even if the guy wasn't there for a legitimate reason, even if he was stealing your car, that is not grounds for the use of deadly force. I don't know how things are where you live, but my criteria is that I need to have an "imminent threat" of death or grave bodily injury. That does not include an imminent threat of auto theft.

I can already see the comments flowing in. "Principle." Or "civilized society." "Hard earned cash/value/whatever." Fine. You do you. I am not in a place like the old west, where if you steal my horse, you have killed me. If you steal my old ass SUV, I will survive. I may swear a lot, but even that won't kill me.

"Let this serve as a reminder to think twice prior to retaliating against a possible intruder," [Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago] said. "The law is particular when you are permitted to use deadly force and this case was not one of them."

Howell, New Jersey is about 25 miles east of Trenton, and about 6 miles inland from the coast. It is about a 65 mile drive northeast of Philadelphia.

Every bullet comes with a lawyer attached. That is true everywhere, but clearly in New Jersey.

And the Prize for Idiot of the Decade Goes To...

From Bearing Arms, we get a story of monumental insanity. Florida College Student Arrested for Being Dumbest Gun Owner Possible

In the words of Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon."

If you live in New Jersey but go to college in Florida, I can understand someone wanting to take advantage of the much better gun laws in the Sunshine State. You still have to jump through New Jersey state laws, regardless of where you buy it, but it's a little easier to own any firearm and to enjoy shooting it in the Deep South.

Unless, of course, you're an absolute idiot.

While Florida has some pretty good gun laws, and it probably looks like Nirvana when compared to a freedom-hating state like New Jersey, they still have gun laws. One of those gun laws is, you can't have firearms on college campuses.

He got caught because he ordered 1500 rounds of ammo and had them delivered to his dorm room, which led authorities to find the AR-15 he had hidden under his bed.

I routinely buy ammo in 1000 round lots. It is much cheaper to buy ammo in those quantities, it will last my lifetime, properly stored. Buying boxes of 50 are usually much more expensive per round. It's called economic order quantity.

And you want to be careful when you pick of a box of that much ammo, lest it throw out your back. The weight is mostly in the lead, after all.

And yes, he was, in fact, stupid. Not only did he break the law, but he kept an AR-15 seemingly unsecured under the bed in his dorm room, where just about any moron could find it and do something either stupid or evil with it. Even if it had a gun lock on it, that's a trivial obstacle, and that's what makes him a real idiot.

I think adults should be able to have firearms on college campuses, but I don't make the laws in Florida.

Now maybe this would be the time to challenge that law in the courts. I doubt very much that there was a founding-era law about banning guns from universities.

It Has Always Been Sportsball Season

How To Subvert Subversion with Yuri Bezmenov - How To Root for Pro Sportsball

The major American professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB) have become unwatchable spectacles of demoralization. NHL is not as big and has bent the knee to a DEI commissar, but that is another story for another day. Fans who devote massive amounts of time and money to pro sportsball should reevaluate their priorities. Vote with your wallets and stop giving money to people who hate you.

The people who devote a large protion of their lives to learning stats, and following teams, will tell you, with a straight face, that your fascination with comic books, movies, video games, whatever they are not interested in, is juvenile, while thier obsession with the NFL/MLB/NHL/NBA/Whatever is the highest form of activity on a Saturday or Sunday or whatever day.

Read the whole thing.

Bad Risk Management

Also, I know it is cold in parts of the country at some seasons of the year. I grew up just outside of Chicago, and I worked downtown taking the trains in the Windy City. You want cold? Stand on an El platform 25 feet in the air in Chicago when the wind is howling in off the lake in February. Even so... Do not start your car and leave it running to warm it up. DO. NOT.

This is an examination of what happens when you try to stop someone from stealing your car, and all of the ways things can go wrong.

This is the Active Self Protection video Family Tries To Stop Car Thief But It Gets Very Dangerous!

In this case there was no gunfight, and no one was hurt. People are always on about how they have the right to protect their property. Which is fine. John C. and I think that is bad risk management, but you do you.

You here someone "messing" with your car, so you decide to go out and "confront" them. You are going to get into a gunfight with an unknown number of people, probably more than one, of unknown skill and intent. You might prevail, and you might be injured or die. For what? The deductible on your car insurance? Legal fees relating to a shooting incident will be orders of magnitude higher than your deductible, and probably more than the value of your car.

Friend, If you can't afford full coverage insurance on your car, you cannot afford to get into a gunfight with a car thief. Okay?

The video is 14 minutes.

Here is a short look at what winter can be in Chicago.

Never Go Full Progressive

Robert Stacy McCain at The American Spectator: The Dangerous Delusion of ‘Equality’

Joe got pulled over by a cop in Portage County, Wisconsin, and could have gotten off with a mere traffic ticket — or perhaps just a warning — but he was defiant, looking for trouble. If you’ve watched a lot of police body camera videos on YouTube (it’s a hobby of mine), you’ve become familiar with this scenario, the routine traffic stop that “escalates,” sometimes fatally. It often begins with a motorist’s refusal to give the officer a driver’s license, proceeding to the demand that the officer summon a supervisor, etc. Joe ended up in handcuffs in the back of a squad car, charged with assault and other crimes, adding to his already lengthy history of run-ins with the law.

Your rights are not being violated by a traffic stop. Or, if they are, it is not the time or the place to adjudicate them on the side of the road. It won't end in your favor, even if - or maybe especially if - you're right. If you think your rights have been violated, then get the bodycam and dashcam video later, and sue. Good Luck with that. "You can't fight City Hall."

Real injustice and actual oppression are not so rare that they can be ignored, but the Cult of Equality conjures up imaginary victimhood — “heteronormative patriarchy,” “structural racism,” “systemic transphobia,” blah blah blah — to seduce its gullible followers into a delusional rage.

This is a medium-long article, that covers the Left's cult of equity, roadside-legal disputes, and more. Grab a coffee and settle in.

Hat tip to Robert Stacy over at The Other McCain - This Is Joe. Don’t Be Like Joe.

Why do some fools get the idea that a traffic stop is a good time to hold an impromptu hearing about their constitutional rights?

For a fairly funny example of when a traffic stop went south in a hurry see my post What Cops Have to Deal With. Rich Hy, better known as Angry Cops, breaks down one of these videos of a traffic stop that turned into "herding cracked-out cats."

Your Home Is Not a Free-Fire Zone

You can't just shoot someone who comes to your door. Homeowner charged in killing house cleaner who went to wrong address

An Indiana homeowner accused of fatally shooting a house cleaner who went to the wrong house has been charged with voluntary manslaughter, prosecutors said Nov. 17.

They should also charge him with felony stupidity, but I don't think that is one of their options.

Yes, you have the right to defend yourself. That wasn't what happened here.

What Cops Have to Deal With

This started as a traffic stop, and turned into "herding cracked-out cats." I don't know whether to laugh at the absurdity, or cry for the end of civilization.

This is Angry Cop's video Woman Goes Insane During Traffic Stop. The video is 27 minutes, but it is both funny and informative.