Potty Talk

As the lines that used to distinguish the political and the legal are blurring, and the sense that the country is swirling down the drain is hard to shake, it’s nice to at least have good company. Rob and Peter chat with Andy McCarthy to discuss the ‘impeachment inquiry’ into the Biden Family’s influence peddling and the administration’s apparent obstruction.

And if you’re in need of a good cheering up, you can hear about swell innovations in toilet seating. Maybe political chaos will be good for Capitalism!?

 

– Sound clip for the open is Kevin McCarthy announcing the inquiry.

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There are 47 comments.

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  1. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    David C. Broussard (View Comment):

    Taras (View Comment):

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Last week, we had the great observation that Dems didn’t care about the border and states being flooded with illegals until Republicans turned it on them and started shipping illegals to blue cities. Obviously making them subjected to their own tactics works.

    Fast forward a week later and we hear skepticism about doing the same thing re impeachments. I disagree. We must use impeachment and subject them to their rules. They will continue down this path unchecked otherwise. State AGs need to investigate Democrats., too.

    Will it guarantee Democrats will win in 2024? I don’t know but I don’t believe the spin saying it turns off voters. It sure didn’t hurt Democrats in 2020. If Democrats win in record numbers doing every dirty trick and then when if turn their tactics back on them, then that is an indictment on our voters.

    Whenever the Democrats commit some new outrage, there is a group of, dare I say, RINOs, often associated with National Review, that urges the nobility of unilateral disarmament on the Republican Party.

    Apparently, Republicans responding to Democrats in kind will lead to a coarsening of politics; which the original Democratic outrage mysteriously never does.

    It’s possible that such people would be more accurately described as Democrat moles, than RINOs. Progressives have a lot of money to throw around, and no scruples as to methods.

    Oddly, that is the tactic that Sen McConnell would use. When the Dems broke the filibuster he returned the favor. When they blocked confirmations, he did the same. There are many things to dislike about McConnell, but this is one area that he shined.

    That is true.

    • #31
  2. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Steve Fast (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Part of the problem that delays something like a non-slamming toilet seat is that even if it was available, would people have been willing – or able – to pay extra for it? There’s a lot of “excess wealth” these days. I mean, why didn’t indoor plumbing come 100 years before it did?

    It did – the Romans had indoor plumbing. But then civilization forgot about it.

    I wouldn’t say having some kind of sluice running through part of the house, is quite equivalent.

    And, of course, they used lead.

    Wasn’t the Roman indoor plumbing pretty much a thing for the elite?  Or people were expected to go down the street to use the Vomitorium?

    • #32
  3. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Part of the problem that delays something like a non-slamming toilet seat is that even if it was available, would people have been willing – or able – to pay extra for it? There’s a lot of “excess wealth” these days. I mean, why didn’t indoor plumbing come 100 years before it did?

    I don’t have one of those yet but want one. I can’t decide whether I want to change out the seat or the whole toilet. I will make up my mind in a year or two.

    • #33
  4. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Rob criticizes the Republican Party for not standing for things, but if/when they did, I expect he would criticize/disagree with much of it.  That’s what RINO squishes do.

    • #34
  5. Steve Fast Coolidge
    Steve Fast
    @SteveFast

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Steve Fast (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Part of the problem that delays something like a non-slamming toilet seat is that even if it was available, would people have been willing – or able – to pay extra for it? There’s a lot of “excess wealth” these days. I mean, why didn’t indoor plumbing come 100 years before it did?

    It did – the Romans had indoor plumbing. But then civilization forgot about it.

    I wouldn’t say having some kind of sluice running through part of the house, is quite equivalent.

    And, of course, they used lead.

    Wasn’t the Roman indoor plumbing pretty much a thing for the elite? Or people were expected to go down the street to use the Vomitorium?

    Roman public water supply and sewers were gravity-powered by aqueducts that brought water down to the cities. They separated the best water for consumption and the lesser water for sewers.

    Roman cities had public latrines for ordinary people to use. The wealthy, the army, public baths, etc. had latrines that were flushed by waste water from the baths or lower quality water from the aqueducts. All the waste was drained into a public sewer (Cloaca Maxima). The poor used chamber pots, but there was a system of public collection of waste so that it was not merely dumped on the street. The Romans had quite a system of plumbing.

    However, Romans seem to have lacked the flush toilet.

    • #35
  6. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Andy hasn’t QUITE come to his senses yet, if he thinks Mar-A-Lago is a good case.

    • #36
  7. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    Rightfromthestart (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    FOX News host Tucker Carlson presented some of the footage of January 6th he received from Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on Monday that showed how the January 6th committee selectively used the footage to make Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) look like a coward. The January 6th committee showed the part of the video of only Hawley running. In fact, Hawley was with a series of lawmakers who were being directed by the Capitol Hill police to leave the building. Hawley was one of the last to leave.

     

     

    CARLSON: But in fact, the surveillance footage we reviewed showed that famous clip was a sham, edited deceptively by the January 6th committee. The clip was propaganda, not evidence. The actual videotape shows that Hawley was one of many lawmakers being ushered out of the building by Capitol Hill police officers. In fact, he was at the back of the pack.

    That coward tape was a lie, one of many from the January 6th committee.

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/03/06/tucker_carlson_january_6th_committee_lied_about_josh_hawley_running_away.html

    Peter still believes the MSM.

    I think it was Rob.

    The media is an almost total menace to society.

    In Idaho the local media does its best to make whites resent blacks. Every time you see a black-American on the local news they are lecturing whites on how racist and corrupt they are.

    In Idaho there are barely any black-Americans so it really hurts relations.

    What makes this episode especially tasty is that Rob Long was completely suckered by the tape; and based his view, not just of Josh Hawley, but of all Senate Republicans, on this hoax.*

    So will Rob change his view of Senate Republicans, now that he knows the evidence was fake?

    Of course not!   Instead, he will maintain the same exact opinion, but merely scrabble together some other post facto, pseudo-evidence to justify it.

    *Come to think of it, Rob probably still believes Nick Sandmann is a racist villain!

    • #37
  8. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Part of the problem that delays something like a non-slamming toilet seat is that even if it was available, would people have been willing – or able – to pay extra for it? There’s a lot of “excess wealth” these days. I mean, why didn’t indoor plumbing come 100 years before it did?

    Lots of COVID cash burned holes in people’s pockets. 

    • #38
  9. jmelvin Member
    jmelvin
    @jmelvin

    I’m only about 15 minutes into the podcast, but I chuckled hearing @peterrobinson ‘s comments about the self-closing toilet seat.  As a father of young kids, we’ve had these at home for a few years now both because we wanted the quieter closing aspect and because it helps little hands keep from getting squished.  However, a couple of these have broken on us and when we went looking again, we discovered that now you can get toilet seats with small blue night lights built right in, that have variable brightness.  We’ve now got them in both bathrooms more for the novelty of it and the kids thought it was neat than anything, but if you’ve got visitors you now have a built in option to leave a dim light on so someone can navigate to the bathroom and find the seat without having to go with full brightness lights.  Clever!

    • #39
  10. Fresch Fisch Coolidge
    Fresch Fisch
    @FreschFisch

    Dualing? 

    Larry “Bud” Melman  on the David Letterman Show said real men should joust with sharpened snow shovels. 

    • #40
  11. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    jmelvin (View Comment):

    I’m only about 15 minutes into the podcast, but I chuckled hearing @ peterrobinson ‘s comments about the self-closing toilet seat. As a father of young kids, we’ve had these at home for a few years now both because we wanted the quieter closing aspect and because it helps little hands keep from getting squished. However, a couple of these have broken on us and when we went looking again, we discovered that now you can get toilet seats with small blue night lights built right in, that have variable brightness. We’ve now got them in both bathrooms more for the novelty of it and the kids thought it was neat than anything, but if you’ve got visitors you now have a built in option to leave a dim light on so someone can navigate to the bathroom and find the seat without having to go with full brightness lights. Clever!

    Just put a little rectangular bathroom rug in front of the toilet. If both feet are on it, it is safe to sit. Spoiler alert, works best for females.

    • #41
  12. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    If boys/men normally urinate standing, doesn’t an automatic-closing seat mean that it will be closed, or close-ING, during that process?  Sounds pretty messy, and upsetting to girls/women.

    • #42
  13. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    jmelvin (View Comment):

    I’m only about 15 minutes into the podcast, but I chuckled hearing @ peterrobinson ‘s comments about the self-closing toilet seat. As a father of young kids, we’ve had these at home for a few years now both because we wanted the quieter closing aspect and because it helps little hands keep from getting squished. However, a couple of these have broken on us and when we went looking again, we discovered that now you can get toilet seats with small blue night lights built right in, that have variable brightness. We’ve now got them in both bathrooms more for the novelty of it and the kids thought it was neat than anything, but if you’ve got visitors you now have a built in option to leave a dim light on so someone can navigate to the bathroom and find the seat without having to go with full brightness lights. Clever!

    • #43
  14. J Ro Member
    J Ro
    @JRo

    The mysteries of rolling luggage are worth exploring and a quick Google indicates professional writers have things to say about it. It’s very likely James Lileks has already written an entertaining and informative take on it, so too bad he wasn’t around to clarify things for us. On the other end of the spectrum, it is a fine essay question for young students of economics or journalism.

    Clearly the story of rolling luggage must be related to the older history of prams and the more recent history of skateboards. Also airport terminal gigantism (Changing gates? Take the indoor railway!) and other results of government and corporate decisions guiding or restricting our options. In Japan one can have one’s baggage delivered to and from the terminal and there are public lockers all over for anyone who wants to lighten their load for a while.

    More basically this is about services (useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity), their costs, and every traveler’s subjective valuation of them. 

     

    Travelers haul their own luggage in a London train station during a porter strike.

    • #44
  15. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    J Ro (View Comment):

    The mysteries of rolling luggage are worth exploring and a quick Google indicates professional writers have things to say about it. It’s very likely James Lileks has already written an entertaining and informative take on it, so too bad he wasn’t around to clarify things for us. On the other end of the spectrum, it is a fine essay question for young students of economics or journalism.

    Clearly the story of rolling luggage must be related to the older history of prams and the more recent history of skateboards. Also airport terminal gigantism (Changing gates? Take the indoor railway!) and other results of government and corporate decisions guiding or restricting our options. In Japan one can have one’s baggage delivered to and from the terminal and there are public lockers all over for anyone who wants to lighten their load for a while.

    More basically this is about services (useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity), their costs, and every traveler’s subjective valuation of them.

     

    Travelers haul their own luggage in a London train station during a porter strike.

    Rolling luggage has increased the quantity of stuff travelers try to transport. If carry on luggage had to be carried rather than rolled through the airport, the competition for overhead bin space would be reduced.  

    • #45
  16. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    J Ro (View Comment):

    The mysteries of rolling luggage are worth exploring and a quick Google indicates professional writers have things to say about it. It’s very likely James Lileks has already written an entertaining and informative take on it, so too bad he wasn’t around to clarify things for us. On the other end of the spectrum, it is a fine essay question for young students of economics or journalism.

    Clearly the story of rolling luggage must be related to the older history of prams and the more recent history of skateboards. Also airport terminal gigantism (Changing gates? Take the indoor railway!) and other results of government and corporate decisions guiding or restricting our options. In Japan one can have one’s baggage delivered to and from the terminal and there are public lockers all over for anyone who wants to lighten their load for a while.

    More basically this is about services (useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity), their costs, and every traveler’s subjective valuation of them.

     

    Travelers haul their own luggage in a London train station during a porter strike.

    Rolling luggage has increased the quantity of stuff travelers try to transport. If carry on luggage had to be carried rather than rolled through the airport, the competition for overhead bin space would be reduced.

    Good point, but I would just dust off my folding luggage cart.

    • #46
  17. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    J Ro (View Comment):

    The mysteries of rolling luggage are worth exploring and a quick Google indicates professional writers have things to say about it. It’s very likely James Lileks has already written an entertaining and informative take on it, so too bad he wasn’t around to clarify things for us. On the other end of the spectrum, it is a fine essay question for young students of economics or journalism.

    Clearly the story of rolling luggage must be related to the older history of prams and the more recent history of skateboards. Also airport terminal gigantism (Changing gates? Take the indoor railway!) and other results of government and corporate decisions guiding or restricting our options. In Japan one can have one’s baggage delivered to and from the terminal and there are public lockers all over for anyone who wants to lighten their load for a while.

    More basically this is about services (useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity), their costs, and every traveler’s subjective valuation of them.

     

    Travelers haul their own luggage in a London train station during a porter strike.

    Rolling luggage has increased the quantity of stuff travelers try to transport. If carry on luggage had to be carried rather than rolled through the airport, the competition for overhead bin space would be reduced.

    Good point, but I would just dust off my folding luggage cart.

    The folding carts started the trend.  If I had to choose, I’d prefer the rolling luggage to the folding carts.  The folding contraptions took up way too much space in the overhead bins.  

    • #47
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