# Omnibus Stupid MFers in the news thread (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 5, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657 "2024-01-05T16:15:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 310
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6181 "2025-12-11T08:14:19Z")
The trains aren’t even made yet. The parts are being made. The one part needs redoing. This is no Federal case. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6182 "2025-12-11T09:20:24Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Not even ChatGPT knows how to raise a baby. We all gotta wing it. I don’t ever recall searching anything about babies, and I have two healthy children. There is more of an issue keeping _them_ off the internet… or at least the terrible mobile games designed to hook kids to their parent’s credit card. I could not concieve a worse parenting advice source. I mean, I just asked my mum. She had three kids, she is smart and knowledgeable. She’s a better source than ChatGPT, and being a former high school headmistress, she would put ChatGPT in its place with double detention and no internet access. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6183 "2025-12-11T11:46:31Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > They’re not upgrading tracks, they’re replacing a bunch of trains. I should have been clearer. Spending that much to upgrade a system that only covers 36 miles. Point is, they’re not getting much value for their money. > [@scudsucker](#): > > I mean, I just asked my mum. She had three kids, she is smart and knowledgeable. But what if your mum doesn’t have any kids? What are people supposed to do then, Einstein? ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6184 "2025-12-11T11:55:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But what if your mum doesn’t have any kids? What are people supposed to do then, Einstein? I think… uh… I think… that would move the conversation from the philosophical into the more esotertic. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6185 "2025-12-11T11:59:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I should have been clearer. Spending that much to upgrade a system that only covers 36 miles. > > Point is, they’re not getting much value for their money. I used to ride that system most days. In many ways it’s light rail done right. They have lots of frequency, which takes lots of trains. The track mileage is not a large number because the entire area is not that large. Where I live now we also have rail transit, but the frequency is so low as to be next to useless. And the ridership shows it. High frequency demands that the investment in vehicles seems high compared to the track mileage. For darn sure an ideal system for St. Louis _a la_ the London Underground or NYC would add another 5-10 lines each 5 to 10 miles long so service was everywhere, not just along a few key corridors. And yes, having ridden through those old tunnels many times, most of them are a tight squeeze for a modern rail vehicle with an overhead pantograph and catenary. More typically a tight squeeze design would use an electrified third rail to fit. But that’s incompatible with most of the right of way that is not access controlled. Live third rails and random pedestrians don’t mix. The low overhead, and tight turn radii, were something that was well known when the tunnels were converted to this use back in the 1990s. It sounds like what really happened is that corporate knowledge retired and the new vendor also had no memory of the old vendor’s engineering specs. Just one of the many reasons to use continuous renewal, not episodic wholesale replacement every 40 years. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6186 "2025-12-11T16:23:02Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > > [@Chronos](#): > > > > Every time I’m fixing an IT problem, I don’t know what I’m doing. I just rely on the fact that it’s a lot harder to screw up so badly that you make things worse, than most people realize. Sit down at a computer, plunk around a bit, did that solve the problem? No? Then plunk around some more. > > Many times that still describes me. > > At work I will often tell people, I never let ignorance get in the way of a solution. Decades ago, I had to manage a custom-made data-acquisition program. It was written by a college intern who worked for the firm for 1.5 years and was gone. The maintenance was mine. The system was written in a “graphical programming language” that I had never seen before. Fortunately, the intern kept me updated on his progress, so I had an inkling of how the program worked. That is, when it worked. It often did not, so I had to muck with it to get it running again. A year or two later, I had a technician working for me. He started taking over the operational responsibilities, but would call me when it wouldn’t work, where I would start poking around until it was working again, One time, my technician asked me to just tell him how to fix it, that it would be so much faster that way. I had to tell him that I couldn’t tell him, since I didn’t know, that I was making shit up as I went, just like he was. To this day, I don’t think he believed me. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6187 "2025-12-11T16:24:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I should have been clearer. Spending that much to upgrade a system that only covers 36 miles. > > Point is, they’re not getting much value for their money. Updating aging public transportation systems isn’t cheap. The MBTA in Boston is spending over $1 billion on trains alone for the Red & Orange lines, and that’s about 40 miles of track total. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6188 "2025-12-11T18:00:36Z")
Had a heated conversation with my husband and it took two hours to fall asleep last night, but I have calmed the fuck down today. I need to let go of what I can’t control. If executive leadership is doing it wrong, all that really matters is I’m doing my job. And I am definitely doing my job. My profound existential dread about whether or not our current life is sustainable has to be put aside because we’re doing our will and trying to get help for our son. That’s what my husband told me, anyway. I’ve been thinking of having a meeting with my boss just to talk about some of the things stressing me out lately. I want to be real clear about expectations. Anyway, what’s a little surveillance between friends? Poor me, I had to buy two new computer monitors for my home office to be more compliant at work. So I got two 27" HD curved gaming monitors. This might actually turn out to be better than the ultra-wide 34". I basically got the exact same model, just in a different size, so I already know I’ll love them. Now I just need time to play video games. Maybe on break. The boy is getting evaluated for ADHD on the 29th. I don’t know if he really needs all that neuropsych testing. All the doctor needs to do is just stand in a room with him for five minutes. I’m hoping that with diagnosis will come guidance about ways to help him. To lodge a complaint: I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with backtalk until my son was a teenager. This kid argues with _everything_. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6189 "2025-12-11T21:32:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I should have been clearer. Spending that much to upgrade a system that only covers 36 miles. I see what you mean. Yes, it seems hard to swallow. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6190 "2025-12-11T21:42:24Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > To lodge a complaint: I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with backtalk until my son was a teenager. This kid argues with _everything_. Well, that was the wrong thread. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6191 "2025-12-11T23:15:29Z")
Earlier this week, the Financial Times ran an article about the effect that private equity is having on the investment market. It’s all a bit too wonky for me to understand, but I direct your attention to the file photo they used to illustrate the article, which clearly the economics professor who wrote the article isn’t aware of the context of. > **[Private equity may regret inviting in mom and dad](https://www.ft.com/content/c460d4b2-69bb-4340-9ff3-3d708197e954)** > > Private equity wanted democratisation. The courts may deliver it. (Just in case you aren’t aware, that’s a shot from the 1999 teen comedy _American Pie_ (best known for introducing the word “milf” to the English language) in which Eugene Levy has just caught his son Jason Biggs fucking a pie.) ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6192 "2025-12-12T08:29:39Z")
Nah, that’s an FT Alphaville column and they knew exactly what they were doing. Alphaville has a pretty wide remit to cover all aspects if the financial world and to do so in a way that is considerably less dry than the rest of the paper. > **[The best\* of FT Alphaville 2024](https://www.ft.com/content/7436c44b-88eb-4152-9b39-377712812cf4)** > > \*relatively speaking, obviously This round up of last year’s best stories gives a flavour, including liberal use of screenshots from movies inc Starship Troopers and American Psycho. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6193 "2025-12-14T05:03:09Z")
Former Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY) publishes an article in the New Republic arguing that, even if Democrats win a House majority in the midterms, Mike Johnson could refuse to seat Democrats en masse and thus remain Speaker with a minority. The New Republic then adds an editor’s note invalidating the entire argument he made after multiple readers, including the former Solicitor General of Ohio, point out that the House is not a continuing body and Johnson won’t be Speaker when it reconvenes unless the majority of the new Congress elects him again. > **[The Simple, Legal Way Trump Could Steal the Midterms](https://newrepublic.com/article/203856/constitutional-trap-trump-steal-midterms)** > > A little-known section of the Constitution may hold the key to overturning Democratic wins in 2026. > **[The House is not a continuing body #ELB](https://electionlawblog.org/?p=153426)** > > I’m surprised that a former Member of Congress–Steve Israel, in a piece in The New Republic–has made the same mistake that a journalist did, as I explained in a previous ELB post. The mistake is to think that Mike Johnson, … Continue reading The... ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6194 "2025-12-14T16:34:10Z")
> **[Milwaukee hit-and-run: Man seriously injured, woman charged](https://www.fox6now.com/news/milwaukee-hit-run-van-buren-juneau-charges)** > > Prosecutors said she used a "false police report" to file a fraudulent insurance claim after the crash. This woman hit someone with her car and left the scene. She got caught when she tried to file an insurance claim saying her car was parked and someone, somehow, side swiped the passenger side of it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6195 "2025-12-14T16:51:42Z")
Rarely have I seen a booking photo that radiates intelligence and empathy to such an extent. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6196 "2025-12-14T17:09:32Z")
Have you ever heard the song “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me)”? Seems to apply here. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/BxwZ4RuTCjs/maxresdefault.jpg "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxwZ4RuTCjs) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6197 "2025-12-14T19:29:59Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > saying her car was parked and someone, somehow, side swiped the passenger side of it. If you don’t like my driving, stay off the sidewalk! > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Rarely have I seen a booking photo that radiates intelligence and empathy to such an extent. Very well said. Bravo, Good Sir! She also looks like somebody who gets beaten with some regularity. And I don’t mean by the police. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6198 "2025-12-14T19:40:25Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If you don’t like my driving, stay off the sidewalk! [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GoBvioRfxTY/hqdefault.jpg "COI - Don't Drive Your Car On The Pavement (1984, UK)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoBvioRfxTY) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6199 "2025-12-17T23:19:57Z")
I posted a comedic video reply to a post on the 14th. But when it comes to ‘news’, I prefer to read So I don’t know what this FB post is about: > MAGA Shocked to Learn Waterfalls Exist Outside America – Niagara Falls Goes Vegas, Laura Ingraham Says “Not On My Continent” > > Doug Ford’s government says the investment will attract global visitors, create jobs, and turn Niagara Falls into a year-round destination beyond raincoats and souvenir magnets. > > Meanwhile, Laura Ingraham reacted as though Canada had violated a Fox News zoning law, proving once again that some opinions travel faster than facts — especially across borders. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/6200 "2025-12-17T23:36:26Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > So I don’t know what this FB post is about: I think it’s just that Ingraham didn’t realize that Niagara Falls is between both countries, with the US on one side and Canada on the other, and was acting like Canada was trying to claim something on US soil. To be fair, I expect a lot of Americans are ignorant of that. But you’d hope someone who for decades has been involved in something that at least touches on the news in a vague, tangential way would know better. Or, maybe she assumed whatever Canada does might carry over and negatively affect the US side as well. It’s clear that Republicans have very little respect for Canadian sovereignty, probably taking a cue from their cult leader. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=309) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=311)