DL Open Thread 9/20

Iconic arms manufacturer Colt announced it will stop making military-style rifles for the civilian market, explaining that there already are enough of them to go around. That sound you hear is the blubbering of big, strong ammosexuals, and I still think 30-50 Feral Hogs is a good name for a band.

Nancy LeTourneau at Washington Monthly argues that Joe Biden’s paternalistic attitude about race is actually just a soft form of racism. Whatever you call it, racism or paternalism, I would note that Biden’s paternalistic attitude toward women is pretty much the same.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio ended his presidential bid this morning on Morning Joe. First time I’d thought of him in weeks. Now he can get to work changing the name of the street in front of Trump Tower to Obama Boulevard.

For a long time now, the prevailing theory among archaeologists was that economic inequality sprang inevitably from humanity’s transition to agriculture. Not so, according to new research, which showed that everyone was roughly equal when land was tilled by hand. Inequality grew when some people yoked the ox, giving them the ability to till 10 times the land in the same amount of time. Their surplus allowed them to acquire more land and more oxen, demonstrating that capitalism — starting with the ability to produce and sell a surplus — has inequality in its DNA.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is having a blackface scandal up in Canada, which threatens his chances at re-election. We’re slow-roasting the planet, a demented asshole is the American president, and we’re supposed to take time out to tut-tut somebody’s past poor taste in Halloween attire? Je refuse.

What do you want to talk about?