This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

Categories

Calendar

October 2024
S M T W T F S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Pedal to the Metal

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam and Ivan talk about Police Violence and Infrastructure. And of course the pandemic. Can’t forget the pandemic. It is not over yet. Really. So they talk about it again. Oh, and Sam talks about a book he read. And as usual, they go on a few tangents along the way. Enjoy!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2021-04-17
Length this week – 1:57:55

  • (0:00:23-1:02:57) Segment 1:
    • Sam: Sam Book with Alex: The Return of the King (1955)
    • Ivan: Pandemic Stuff
  • (1:04:07-1:57:34) Segment 2:
    • Sam: Police Violence
    • Ivan: Infrastructure Week
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Might Be True

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan do a lightning round show, talking about a bunch of smaller topics, including the “Defund the Police” slogan, Space X’s successful trip to the ISS, how the markets are reacting to the pandemic, Trump moving his convention acceptance speech to Jacksonville, and four other exciting topics!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

 1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
 View Podcast in iTunes
 View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2020-06-12
Length this week – 1:54:36

  • (0:01:51-0:58:10) Lightning 1
    • Ivan: Sam’s Kidney Stone
    • Sam: Markets and the Pandemic
    • Ivan: Trump Convention and Rallies
    • Sam: Second Wave?
  • (1:00:10-1:54:13) Lightning 2:
    • Ivan: Defund the Police
    • Sam: Democratic Primary Update
    • Ivan: Space X to the ISS
    • Sam: Georgia Elections

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: You down with R.L.C.?

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner Ivan and Sam spend the vast bulk of the show discussing various aspects of the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd. But first, Sam discusses the changing state of his home office… specifically, he cleaned it. The show ends up with Ivan giving his thoughts on the current economic situation. And of course, as usual, the pandemic is still around too. Enjoy!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

 1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
 View Podcast in iTunes
 View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2020-06-06
Length this week – 2:35:43

  • (0:01:34-0:38:40) RLC
  • (0:39:18-2:13:02) George Floyd Aftermath
  • (2:14:12-2:35:23) Economic Indicators

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: There Will Be Pain

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan of course talk about Impeachment and the race for the Democratic Nomination. But they also hit a few other things. The UPS truck shootout in Florida, Trump’s reception in Europe, Trump and toilets, and Trump’s phone security. Oh. Most of those were Trump-related too. Oops.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

 1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
 View Podcast in iTunes
 View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2019-12-07
Length this week – 2:08:21

  • (0:00:20-0:55:57) Six Smaller Things
  • (0:56:42-1:27:25) Impeachment
  • (1:28:03-2:07:57) Democrats 2020

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Go Suck It!

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner: Of course Sam and Ivan talk about the first Clinton vs Trump debate and its aftermath as it played out during the week. That’s most of the show this week, but they also touch on Ivan’s recent trip, altitude sickness, and some questions and comments from listeners.

Click below to listen or subscribe… then let us know your own thoughts!

CCCover20151125bw

 

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2016-10-01
Length this week – 1:39:51

  • (0:00:10-0:09:34) But First
    • Ivan at altitude
    • Agenda
    • Computer voices
    • Sickness
  • (0:10:18-0:40:53) Debate!
    • Debate expectations
    • Trump deterioration
    • Trump preparation
    • Clinton letting Trump talk
    • Trump sniffles
    • Trump on Iraq
    • The post-truth world
  • (0:41:32-1:19:56) The Aftermath
    • Hillary’s Trap
    • Trump attacks Machado
    • Trump on sexual morality
    • Trump must dominate!
    • So Trump won, right?
    • Trump the bullshitter
    • Post-debate polling
  • (1:20:44-1:39:31) Mailbag
    • Question from Marc on police violence
    • Comment from Marc on Trump
    • Christine on why she supports Trump
    • Topics we missed

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Can’t handle the fact

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, the show was recorded before the attack in Nice, Trump’s final VP pick, and the attempted coup in Turkey. So there will be nothing about those things! But Sam and Ivan do of course talk quite a bit about Election 2016 anyway. The other major topic is racial tensions in the wake of the Philandro Castile and Dallas shootings. The show is rounded out with shorter discussions of hard drive failures, summer camp, the UK prime minister… and Pokemon Go!

Click below to listen or subscribe… then let us know your own thoughts!

CCCover20151125bw
Recorded 2016-07-14

Length this week – 2:00:48

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook

Show Details:

  • (0:02:41-0:28:28) But First
    • Hard Drive Failure
    • Summer Camp
    • Job Flexibility
    • Pokemon Go
  • (0:29:49-1:07:58) Election 2016
    • Veepstakes
    • Rules Committee
    • RBG kerfuffle
    • Trump sues ex-staffer
    • Autoplay Videos / Multi-article stories
    • Republican Convention Agenda
    • Sanders endorses Clinton
    • Party Platforms
    • Swing Voters?
    • New UK Prime Minister
  • (1:08:37-2:00:27) Racial Tensions
    • Bush Dance and Speech
    • Philando Castile
    • Obama inflaming racial tensions?
    • Racial Differences in Police Cases
    • Dallas Attack
    • ALeXMXeLA.com
    • Bomb Robot
    • Dallas Motivations
    • Conservatives, protests, and police power

Note: Timestamps are accurate, but many audio players are not very precise on the timestamps they show, especially when scanning forwards and backwards, so depending on your player, if you scan to a specific time, you may not get exactly what is shown above and may have to scan back or forward a bit to get what is expected.

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music!

Curmudgeon’s Corner: More Detail than Expected

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner with Sam and IvГЎn:
* [0:00:10-0:04:49] Intro
* [0:05:58-0:17:04] Iran Deal
* [0:18:09-0:37:26] Rand Paul
* [0:38:16-0:50:19] Police Shootings
* [0:51:35-1:08:48] Lightning Round

CCCover20141121-bigheads-2
Recorded 2015-04-09

Length this week – 1:09:09

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook

Edit 2015-04-11 17:53 UTC to add Facebook button and adjust some formatting and wording

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Driving down I-95

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam and Ivan talk about:

  • Ivan’s Racing Vacation
  • Iraq Deteriorating
  • Election 2016
  • Brazil Plane Crash / James Brady / Anti-Meat Tick
  • Police Shootings

Recorded on 14 Aug 2014

Length this week – 1:49:27

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes Download MP3 File
View Podcast in iTunes View Raw XML Feed

Edit 2014-08-17 19:01 – We talked about Election 2016, not Election 2014.

Watching Occupy ( #occupyla #occupyphilly )

It seems like tonight coordinated actions are going on in Philly and LA. In Philly the occupiers peacefully left the park when the police asked them to leave, and instead started marching around the city. In LA things are tense, with tons and tons of police surrounding the areas where the protesters are. No idea what will end up happening. Expectation seems to be that something will happen after midnight Pacific time. We shall see. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t.

I’m watching intently, mainly at these locations:

To reiterate what I’ve said a couple of times on the podcast my basic position is this: I generally don’t like protesters. I find them annoying. You will not find me at a protest. And Occupy in specific I believe has raised awareness of a few issues, but it isn’t as if there are any particular realistic actions that could be taken to make them happy. And Occupy has lived up to the annoyance level of most protests and more, and the 24 hour occupations really seem unnecessary and excessive to me. For the most part they are just making noise and being annoying.

However… I believe that this kind of expression, and the ability to do so whenever and wherever people want, and without restriction or unnecessary intervention by the government, is or should be one of the most important values of a democracy. I don’t care if these guys are Occupy, or the Klan, or the Tea Party or whoever, the government should stay the hell out, and let people express their political thoughts. Yes, in certain circumstances when health or safety are really in danger, some actions may be necessary. But we as a society should bend over backwards to help facilitate end encourage the free and varied expression of political thought, not spend resources to restrict, confine and repress it. And certainly we have not seen anything yet in this series of protests that would warrant any of the responses we have seen nationwide so far, let alone anything more.

Luckily, so far, none of these things have spiraled into a really violent situation (despite a handful of serious injuries), but each time we get an official response trying to remove these guys, we run that risk. And for no real reason. There is no compelling need to remove any of these protesters.

And does nobody remember that trying to repress movements often just makes them stronger and more radical than ever? Is that what is wanted here? Are all these mayors (and whatever national people are “helping” and “coordinating” between them) just absolutely nuts? Why? Just why? The best thing to do is just provide public safety support when needed, but let the protesters do their thing. If left alone, eventually they would get tired, declare victory and go home. Instead, on a regular basis we are risking violence and chaos as confrontations are forced by the police.

And that is before you even consider reports tonight of restrictions on media movement and what the media is “allowed” to report or show live. That is so beyond the pale for a democracy. Thank goodness we now live in a world where everybody with a smartphone can report live from the scene and you don’t actually need the local TV stations and newspapers to get a view of what is happening, as they seem to be willing to roll over and live with any restrictions the authorities ask for.

I look at the protesters and I shake my head and think they are nuts.

But I look at the government responses to the protesters and I weep for my country.