Althouse: At the Saturday Night Café...

February 15, 2025

At the Saturday Night Café...

... you can talk all night.

61 comments:

Leland said...: It seems Jack Smith was accepting gifts while prosecuting Trump for the DOJ. Hmm.; 2/15/25, 6:30 PM
Jupiter said...: Making America Great Again!; 2/15/25, 6:47 PM
Jaq said...: OK, I am going to go all David Sedaris on you and recount my Valentine's Day experience yesterday, it's a true story, a roman á clef, if you will, but changed enough so that only the people who actually know me well IRL will figure out who is who, but the essential details happened.

I took my date to a fancy French restaurant, I had booked it on Open Table and booked the prix fixe dinner and wine pairing, when the maitre de showed us to our table, I spoke to him in French which made my date smile, so points for me. There was a jazz trio playing, but they weren't very good, so for this story I am going to make them very good, and give them a girl singer, dressed in a spangled minidress that coruscated in the footlights on the little stage, and the band lent an air of charm and sophistication to the whole evening.
We sat at the table and there was a nice young couple next to us. We each ordered a glass of wine, I ordered a white wine, that had kind of a German French name, maybe it came from Strasbourg, IDK; she ordered a Cote de Beaune Grand Cru, and a mini tureen of fois gras, I had the endive salad. The girl in the couple next to us was wearing a red dress that my sisters would have called a "shift" back in the sixties, it was kind of short, and she did not seem very sophisticated, not crossing her legs that much, and I tried hard not to look, she was almost a child. Anyway, that is just something that happened, and had nothing to do with the story. I did manage to not see that which I did not want to see, you know, paradise by the dashboard lights; I say this to remove any artificial suspense I may have inadvertently introduced, I was just trying to show her character. But while we were sharing the fois gras on slices of baguette, my dinner partner told me that her, our friend had called her and told her that her boyfriend, also a long time friend, in fact I will call her his common-law wife for the purposes of this story, had bought her a Valentine's card and put a couple of scratch off lottery tickets in it, one of them had won, she had won almost exactly the amount of money that I was spending on this dinner. She was extremely happy and said that she was going to save the money until she saw something she really wanted. I was thinking wow, did he score with that!
Anyway, the young couple next to us is leaving, and given what the young man spent on his date, I silently wished him luck. He didn't seem to have a lot of money to spend on stuff like this.

When we started in on our entrees, she had ordered duck prepared sous vide, and I order the loup de mer, another couple sat down at the table next to us. This time an older gentleman, wearing a nicely tailored suit, and a very nice watch, and his dinner partner was wearing an evening dress. I was just wearing some Peter Millar stuff that I had bought on line. "You win this one, sir!" I though. My dinner partner said that she thought that they were very cute. For some reason though, and this doesn't have anything to do with the story either, his phone kept dinging with messages that he didn't check, but he didn't turn off the ringer either.
So we got to desert, we had coffees and she had the profiterole and I had the flourless chocolate cake and while we are enjoying this, she says to me, "Look at that, he just gave her a beautiful gold bracelet!" I just said to myself "Well played you bastard! there's $500 I just wasted to come in second best!" Third best if you count my friend who had spent maybe $10 on his girlfriend, and now he was solid with her for a year. On the drive home though, I told her that all of those dings on the old gentleman's phone were either his wife wondering where he was, or his side chick, mad about spending Valentine's alone. I always could make her laugh.; 2/15/25, 7:08 PM
Lilly, a dog said...: USA vs Canada hockey game started with both Tkchuks in fights! And now a 3rd fight broke out. Maybe they'll play some hockey some time tonight.; 2/15/25, 7:30 PM
Kakistocracy said...: Trump officials pitch Zelenskyy on U.S. owning 50% of Ukraine's rare earth minerals ~ Barrons

What's the difference between demanding money from the victim of a bully in return for security and an actual protection racket?

A protection racket minus the protection -- a simple racket.; 2/15/25, 7:38 PM
Mark said...: lololol at the incompetence

"The US government is trying to bring back nuclear safety employees it fired on Thursday, but is struggling to let them know they should return to work, NBC News has reported.

The National Nuclear Security Administration workers were among hundreds of employees in the energy department who received termination letters.

An email obtained by NBC said the letters for some NNSA employees "are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel".

At least Rick Perry had the honesty to say oops.; 2/15/25, 7:45 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: "And now a 3rd fight broke out. Maybe they'll play some hockey some time tonight."

That was the hockey.; 2/15/25, 7:46 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: Out latest foster dog was adopted to her forever home today. A very rewarding experience.; 2/15/25, 7:52 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: I request permission to go to sleep, Ma'am!; 2/15/25, 8:04 PM
Mason G said...: "Out latest foster dog was adopted to her forever home today."

My only experience fostering was a failure. My home ended up being her forever home.; 2/15/25, 8:09 PM
Howard said...: Kakistocracy: making Ukraine pay for their own weapons gives them skin in the game and provides a non-NATO strategic link to the US. It's actually the adult move instead of treating Ukraine like an infant vasel. That's if you believe Trump is being sincere. Your mileage may vary. Some settling may occur in transit.; 2/15/25, 8:18 PM
Jim at said...: lololol at the incompetence

If they were incompetent, the left wouldn't be squealing like a bunch of stuck pigs.; 2/15/25, 8:20 PM
robother said...: I see that peace talks on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia are not going to include any NATO European countries. Just Russia, US and Ukraine. (Maybe China at some point?) I guess Trump doesn't want to share the rare earth, or put up with European kibitzing from the sidelines. Novus ordo seclorum.; 2/15/25, 8:29 PM
Paddy O said...: Seems like Europe had the chance to take leadership with Ukraine over the last years. But they didn't. Now they are being cut out. Seems like Trump is showing and telling what he thinks of European leadership; 2/15/25, 9:07 PM
William said...: "Dance First" is playing on Hulu. It's a biopic of Samuel Beckett. It's an okay movie, well acted and, as befits a biopic of Beckett, literate. Here's my cavil though. They tried to make Beckett into a Beckett character.....Beckett was not a Beckett character. He was an athlete of professional level skills. He took great risks as a Resistance fighter in France. He had a number of enviable love affairs, and some of them were quite enduring and nurturing. His life was not futile, loveless, pointless, dull. The truths he promulgated were not the truths he lived......The biopic tries to make his life absurd and colorless. They show the first and only time he used a gun during the Resistance. He was waiting to ambush a German convoy, but the convoy took another route, and the Resistance fighters all went home. But it wasn't a "Waiting for Godot" moment. There were people in his cell who were captured and killed. The risks were real and intense......There have been any number of milquetoasts who wrote tales of high adventure, and most of the great romance novels were written by people with second rate love lives. Beckett seems to have been a hypocrite of a higher order. He had a fine, honored life with its fair share of love although you'd never know it from his written words. He was lucky not Lucky, Estragon or Vladimir.; 2/15/25, 9:08 PM
Dave Begley said...: A member of Musk’s DOGE team is a computer genius from the University of Nebraska. I’ve met his dad who is on the UNL faculty.

This skanky publication called Silicon Prairie ran a hit piece on him. Among other things, it turns out the lunatic liberals in Lincoln have attacked the entire family. How Soviet.; 2/15/25, 9:10 PM
David53 said...: "Probationary employees working within the Department of Energy’s agency responsible for managing the country’s nuclear stockpile were among those terminated following the Trump administration’s mandate for federal entities..."

Probationary being the operative word left out by many media outlets.; 2/15/25, 9:15 PM
Rocco said...: OK, not to go all Sebastian Maniscalo on you, but I have to recount my Valentine's Day to you because in some ways it paralleled Jaq's experience, but in many ways it was quite different. Mine too is a mostly true story, a Campanian a clef if you will, but changed enough to tell my story.

I took my wife to the local Mexican restaurant that is her favorite. After her father returned from WWII, he wandered around northern Mexico for about a year and a half before returning home and fell in love with the food, and passed that desire on to his daughters. He always wanted to open a Mexican restaurant in the Midwest, but America wasn't ready for that yet.

Anyway, when the server showed us to our table, my wife spoke with him in Spanish: she had lived in South America for two years and can speak it quite well. This made me smile somewhat awkwardly, as it reminded me of the storyline on Everybody Loves Raymond where an elderly great-aunt (as it turns out, she was related to a different Barone family in the neighborhood) comes from Italy and stays with them a while. They had several conversations in Italian, and my wife was following the convsersations faster than I was due to the close relationship between Spanish and Italian. I found this to be mildly embarrassing. My (minimal) German is better than hers, though.

Anyway, the restaurant had a soccer game on the TVs, which isn't very interesting, so I imagined a bikini flag football match instead.

We ordered a la carte, with her getting her usual two vegetarian tacos. I tried something different, getting the two beef burritos, which turned out to be basically ground beef in red sauce. And it was a lot of beef. You can't get many vegetables a la carte at this place, although entrees have good portions of them. But the entrees are much more expensive.

As two harried professionals who work from home, we often don't feel like cooking and end up eating out too much, just to get out of the house. We at least try to eat from the cheaper part of the menu to keep costs down.

We usually get cheese dip with the chip, buts didn't this time, which saved an additional five bucks. We decided to put that towards lottery tickets, just to do something different. It's safe to assume we probably won't win anything.; 2/15/25, 9:57 PM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, appeared on Fox News with Eric Adams on Friday morning in a lighthearted yet pointed exchange. As the pair and the hosts laughed, Homan made it clear that the deal struck with the New York City mayor comes with specific obligations for Adams. After Homan’s remarks aired, some critics argued that his comments suggest an explicit — and potentially unlawful — quid pro quo.
“If he doesn’t come through,” Homan chortled — but in what some viewed as a clear on-camera warning — “I’ll be back in New York City. And we won’t just be sitting on the couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt, demanding, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we made?’” Beautiful criminals partying with criminals..Hokul needs to fire the mayor guy he's as crooked as trump what a pair.. Show some balls Hokul play the game business as usual is over in this regime,,,Lets go; 2/15/25, 10:01 PM
Lilly, a dog said...: Jake Guentzel scored twice as Team USA beat up Canada 3-1.

Dave Begley; Guentzel was born in Omaha. and played college hockey for U of Nebraska-Omaha.; 2/15/25, 10:09 PM
Mason G said...: I don't know about "beat up", Canada scored first and the third US goal was into an empty net so it was basically a one goal game. It was pretty even, IMO.; 2/15/25, 10:20 PM
Iman said...: Just a note to say how much I appreciated the comments in the post: “Do the American people feel outraged when federal workers lose their job? Or are we happy to see all this vigorous economizing?”

Interesting, insightful comments sharing experiences, common sense and - most importantly - CLEAR THINKING!

It is imperative that this DOGE work be successful in reducing the incompetence, malfeasance, criminal activity and the like. It’s our nation’s only hope.; 2/16/25, 12:05 AM
Iman said...: And again, our state and federal governments are not meant to be fucking jobs programs. And goddam Joe Biden for his salt the earth policies, the son of a bitch.; 2/16/25, 12:09 AM
effinayright said...: "Hokul needs to fire the mayor guy he's as crooked as trump what a pair..
*****************
Dinky Dau, you cretin: NY's governor does not have the power to remove NYC's ELECTED mayor.

If you don't understand the basics of civics, you could do everyone a favor by just shutting the fuck up.

What an imbecile, what a flake!!!! The people who pay you to write your bullshit are not getting their money's worth.; 2/16/25, 2:50 AM
gadfly said...: A NYC Grand Jury, SDNY, and the world now nows Mayor Adams is a crook, but Adams went running to Trump for a pardon but ended up with a crooked deal designed to bring DOJ professionals into Trump's control. Since Gov Hochel can fire Adams, Trump is withholding FEMA funds from the state, once again, illegally - so here we go with another lawsuit. Hopefully, the DC judge in charge will rule against the quid pro quo bullshit from the USAG and the firing can happen.; 2/16/25, 3:18 AM
Clyde said...: I spent the last couple of days at work listening to The Who's 'Who's Next | Life House' box set on Amazon Music. Their version had 109 tracks, with a 9 hour, 49 minute run time. This is the original Pete Townshend demo of "Baba O'Riley," a 13+ minute instrumental track with the synthesizers going all over the place. It's interesting to hear at least once, to hear what Townshend's original concept was before it was pared down.

https://youtu.be/MiYAp5WyFZw?si=2soD165U6X-EARdk; 2/16/25, 3:40 AM
Christopher B said...: Seeing all the un-Democraticals with hard-ons for Houchol to tell Mayor Adams "You're Fired" makes me wonder what those paragons of prosecutorial virtue, Tish James and Alvin Bragg, have to say. New York has laws that turn a disagreement over property valuation into a crime but no statute covering public officials receiving improper gratuities?; 2/16/25, 4:46 AM
Jaq said...: Lol.; 2/16/25, 6:25 AM
Jaq said...: I said months, maybe years ago that "NewsGuard," Microsoft's "fact checking" go to, was really "MindGuard" and sure enough, it's funded by USAID.

https://x.com/realtimsharp/status/1887210776756113521; 2/16/25, 6:30 AM
tim maguire said...: Mason G said...Canada scored first and the third US goal was into an empty net so it was basically a one goal game

I don’t know if you’re much of a sports fan, but Canada scoring first makes it worse. It means the US team made better adjustments. And why was the net empty? The Canadian team was on the ice, wasn’t it? If they removed the goalie, it’s because they were desperate and needed a man advantage up front—and they still got beat.; 2/16/25, 6:38 AM
Jaq said...: "Voters who helped deliver a crucial state [Arizona] to Donald Trump in November’s election have a message for the new president’s administration: Keep it coming. According to a report from Axios, all the swing voters the outlet included in two focus groups last week said they approved of the job President Trump is doing in his first month in office. In addition, they also said they were behind, for the most part, the job being done by “special government employee” Elon Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency." - Western Journal

LO farking L.; 2/16/25, 6:39 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Rodney said it best " I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out".; 2/16/25, 6:57 AM
boatbuilder said...: I listened to Mike Benz's follow-up interview with Rogan. He does a fantastic job of explaining how USAID came to be, and how it operates. If it's too dirty for CIA, then it goes to USAID.
He also says that the Pentagon audit will make USAID seem tame.
My only cause for skepticism is the fact that he is still alive.; 2/16/25, 6:59 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Pocahontas's net worth of twelve million dollars?

https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1889093364571619749; 2/16/25, 7:04 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: According to the fact-checking website WisconsinWatch.org, Warren has an estimated net worth of somewhere between $7.5 million and $12 million.; 2/16/25, 7:07 AM
Mark said...: Salman Rushie on Elon Musk:

"Q. Speaking of technology: as someone who has defended freedom of expression with his life, what do you think of Elon Musk when he says that he defends free expression by allowing all kinds of speech on his social media network X?

A. Elon Musk doesn’t defend free expression. His social network curates the discourse of the extreme-right. Appropriating a noble cause — such as freedom of expression — when what you really do is the opposite is very dishonest. I’m not a fan of Mr. Musk. And I would love for him to be the first man on Mars."; 2/16/25, 7:10 AM
Old and slow said...: I would have expected better from Salman Rushdie. He stays loyal to his political allies rather than true to his principles, such as they are.; 2/16/25, 7:14 AM
boatbuilder said...: OK Mark--I'll bite. What freedom of expression does Rushdie claim Musk prevents?; 2/16/25, 7:18 AM
gadfly said...: Truth Social has Donald Trump closely quoting a most famous Frenchman."Whoever saves his homeland does not violate any law." This quote was attributed to Napoleon after his nine-month exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba which followed 100 days after the second restoration of King Louis XVIII in 1815. Once Napoleon returned, he was declared an outlaw and was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo. He was then sent to St Helena island where he died in 1821.

St. Helena is the remotest island on the earth, so let's send Trump there to die after his first 100 days.

Little General Napoleon of France
Tried to conquer the world, but lost his pants
Met defeat known as Bonaparte's retreat
And that's when Napoleon met his Waterloo; 2/16/25, 7:21 AM
Jaq said...: Rushdie is complaining that Musk gives voice to people and calls this anti free expression, when all of the other social media platforms behave exactly as Rushdie would wish, still there is this one platform that allows these people to speak! It's just too much!

I tried to read a Rushdie novel, not Satanic Verses, and chucked it aside after about six pages, and he got me to read five of those pages just out of curiosity if it was ever going to get better.; 2/16/25, 7:21 AM
Jaq said...: "he was declared an outlaw"

I guess that proves it then!; 2/16/25, 7:22 AM
boatbuilder said...: lololol at the incompetence

"The US government is trying to bring back nuclear safety employees it fired on Thursday, but is struggling to let them know they should return to work, NBC News has reported.

The National Nuclear Security Administration workers were among hundreds of employees in the energy department who received termination letters.

An email obtained by NBC said the letters for some NNSA employees "are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel".

Not surprising that the agency which was headed under Biden by a bald kleptomaniac in a dress would have competence issues.

But TRUMP!!!; 2/16/25, 7:24 AM
Mark said...: Jaq and Boatbuilder too dense to understand Rushdie, of course they are.; 2/16/25, 8:00 AM
boatbuilder said...: Well, then, Mark--help me out here. What freedom of expression does Rushdie claim Musk prevents?

Give me the answer is small words and short sentences, so that I can follow.

Thanks.; 2/16/25, 8:22 AM
wendybar said...: got a kick out of this one, because it is so true since I go to bed so early!!

Shem Horne
@Shem_Infinite
·
2h
I woke up this morning confused and disoriented. In a rush I grabbed my phone to see what happened last night. What did Trump do while I was asleep? How long was I out for?; 2/16/25, 8:25 AM
Mark said...: Willfull ignorance is not worth my time, boatbuilder.
Troll someone else with your non-serious arguments.; 2/16/25, 8:28 AM
Jaq said...: "Jaq and Boatbuilder too dense to understand Rushdie, of course they are."

Then perhaps you will condescend to explain who allowing people to speak on one platform who are effectively banned from all the others makes Musk an enemy of free speech. How does suppressing speech make it freer, which is what Rushdie is advocating for? The speech he values is available everywhere, what he objects to is that the speech he dislikes is available, where am I wrong?

As for Rushdie's novel, it was just trite, formulaic, and not very interestingly expressed.; 2/16/25, 8:33 AM
Jaq said...: It's funny too how many of these "fact checkers," like NewsGuard, have been funded by USAID, which was under the control of political operatives who didn't need the Senate to "Advise and Consent" regarding their appointment to the job, and who refused Congressional inquiries regarding the activities of USAID.

Is Rushdie complaining that X doesn't submit to that kind of government censorship as Twitter used to do?; 2/16/25, 8:37 AM
boatbuilder said...: "Brave Sir Robin ran away!"

My question is a serious question, Mark. What freedom of expression does Rushdie claim Musk is preventing?

My understanding of true freedom of expression is to allow even those voices you disagree with to have their say (or at least a platform to have their say). Which is what Musk is doing.

What subtlety am I missing?; 2/16/25, 8:46 AM
boatbuilder said...: I found the Rushdie interview in El Pais, Mark. Of course Rushdie doesn't explain what the hell he is talking about, and the interviewer doesn't follow up, even though his question was essentially the same question as mine. Rushdie just jokes (I think it's a joke) about how he doesn't like Musk and wants him to go to Mars and stay there.
So I guess I must remain willfully ignorant, and consider Rushdie a hypocrite about freedom of speech.
Unless you can enlighten me.; 2/16/25, 9:03 AM
Jaq said...: Rushdie wants Musk to go to Mars, gadfly wants Trump exiled to St Helena, one more and it's a trend.; 2/16/25, 9:05 AM
rehajm said...: is not worth my time

You might want to invest a bit of time explaining yourself…; 2/16/25, 9:07 AM
john mosby said...: I’ll give Rushdie a bit of a break. He depends on the good will of the West to keep him alive, and he just learned that isn’t even a guarantee. He knows that the righties will defend him because of their principles and because they hate the mullahs. But prog Western regimes will only support him if he recites the proper prog pieties such as the Litany Against Trump. So that’s what he does.

Put it another way: Rushdie comes up to a T intersection. Down one road is Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage leading a bunch of indigenous English protesters. Down the other road is BLM/Antifa/Palis. Both sides spot him: “Hey! It’s Rushdie!” Whose slogans does he recite? But which way does he walk?

JSM; 2/16/25, 9:23 AM
wendybar said...: Sharyl Attkisson 🕵️‍♂️💼🥋
@SharylAttkisson
That's so weird that AP implies it sticks by historical names when it's done exactly the opposite for the past 10 yrs virtually every other time it has come up.
Historically?
It's "Ft. Benning" but AP adopted Ft. Moore.
It's "The Washington Redskins" but AP didn't stick by that when the name was changed to "Commanders."
It's "illegal immigrant/alien" but AP says not to use those terms.
It's "a baby boy" or "a baby girl" but AP uses the inaccurate phrase: "sex assigned at birth."
It's "he" for a male, but AP says that can now be "she" or "they" if somebody so chooses.
It's "committed suicide" but AP weirdly says to avoid that phrase.
It's "homeless" but AP changed it to "people experiencing homelessness."
The fact is, many of us know that AP was hijacked by special interests years ago. They understood that when they can gain control of key sources of information, it impacts a wide range of the population; in this case, almost all of the media who continue to blindly and without thought follow AP style, ignorant to the notion that it's become a propaganda tool.
On my TV show, Full Measure, where I'm managing editor, we have no problem with those we interview using terms of propaganda and advocacy, but as for ourselves, when reporting the news, we strive to use language that is journalistic and accurate.
Quote
PoliticsVideoChannel
@politvidchannel
·
21h
BREAKING: The Associated Press has announced it will continue using ‘Gulf of Mexico’ despite Trump’s executive order renaming it ‘Gulf of America’; 2/16/25, 9:25 AM
Rusty said...: Mark said...
"Willfull ignorance is not worth my time, boatbuilder.
Troll someone else with your non-serious arguments."
Now you know how we feel when you post your nonsense.; 2/16/25, 10:11 AM
Mason G said...: tim maguire said...

"I don’t know if you’re much of a sports fan, but Canada scoring first makes it worse."

Sorry- I don't get your point. I noted in my earlier comment that the US didn't "beat up" Canada in the game- Canada scored early, the US tied the game halfway through the first period. The game stayed tied until halfway through the second period and aside from the empty net goal at the end, there was no more scoring.

Neither team dominated the other, a bounce of the puck here or there and the outcome might have been different.

Game stats from the Fox Sports website:
Power plays US-1, Canada-2
Hits US-34, Canada-29
Faceoffs won US-30, Canada-28
Giveaways US-20, Canada-18
Takeaways US-3, Canada-6
Shots on goal US-23, Canada-26
Blocked shots US-16, Canada-20
Penalty minutes US-19, Canada-17

Like I said- a pretty even game.; 2/16/25, 11:19 AM
Lilly, a dog said...: It's true that the game was tight, Mason,. I was making a reference to how it started. The Tkachuk brothers and JT Miller stood up for our country after our National Anthem was booed. It was beautiful. Only hockey can give you this kind of spectacle.; 2/16/25, 11:59 AM
Mark said...: If you really didn't care, Rusty, you would scroll past.
But you really dont like throwing Rushdie under the bus; 2/16/25, 2:13 PM
Iman said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/16/25, 3:07 PM
Iman said...: Mark was the lead character in Tom Wolfe’s “The Bonfire of teh Pantywaists”.; 2/16/25, 3:09 PM
Rusty said...: Mark. I didn't say I didn't care. If I didn't care about the quality of comment on this blog I wouldn't say anything. I'm just tying to make you and your friends better commenters. Do better and we can all enjoy Althouse.; 2/16/25, 5:31 PM