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Reason Morning Links: Swine Flu Nostalgia Edition
• Chrysler and the UAW reach
an accord.
• The Obama administration moves to roll back defendants' rights.
• Swine flu fears strike Mexico. And the U.S. too. Colin Espiner makes a contrarian argument that this is a panic. Ryan Sager makes a contrarian-squared argument that panic is good.
• The "clearest evidence that has come to light so far that technical advisers on the harsh interrogation methods voiced early concerns about the effectiveness of applying severe physical or psychological pressure."
• The authorities start looking for loopholes in the Iraq withdrawal plan.
• Christopher Buckley's forthcoming memoir about his parents might tarnish some icons.
• British cops go spying on environmental activists.
• The dark side of Dubai.
• Private defenses against pirates are available. Yesterday they went into action.
MNG|4.27.09 @ 7:47AM|#
"Swine flu fears strike Mexico."
Man, I can only wish we have more integration with the nation of
Mexico! Open borders! Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled
masses of swine flu carrying low wage laborers that make our
overall economic efficiency increase...Oh, and some more MS-13
would be nice too...
federalist (in the orginal sen|4.27.09 @ 8:00AM|#
Swine flu fears strike Mexico. And the U.S. too.
The United States are striking Mexico?
spambot|4.27.09 @ 8:22AM|#
Thought Obama was supposed to increase our legal rights not continue to strip them like Bush. Guess I got the wrong memo.
High Every Body|4.27.09 @ 8:35AM|#
British cops go spying on environmental
activists.
At last, spying on those who NEED to be spied on.
Atanarjuat|4.27.09 @ 8:50AM|#
"In Saudi, it's hard to be straight when you're young. The women
are shut away so everyone has gay sex. But they only want to have
sex with boys - 15- to 21-year-olds. I'm 27, so I'm too old now. I
need to find real gays, so this is the best place. All Arab gays
want to live in Dubai."
I wonder what the women do. Sounds like a good idea for a
video.
|4.27.09 @ 8:52AM|#
Chris Buckley is proving himself to be a thorough crapweasel. Writing a tell all book about your parents talking all kinds of shit about them after they are dead and can no longer defend themselves is about as low as you can get. If those things happened, fine, why not publish a book while your parents are alive so at least they can defend themselves? Or how about capitalizing on your parents fame and perhaps respecting their privacy?
jtuf|4.27.09 @ 8:53AM|#
Somali pirates attacked an Italian cruise ship this weekend. Private security guards repelled them.
|4.27.09 @ 8:55AM|#
"Somali pirates attacked an Italian cruise ship this weekend.
Private security guards repelled them."
I don't see how the Somali pirates are anything that a couple of
deck mounted crew serve weapons and a 24 hour watch couldn't
solve.
The Angry Optimist|4.27.09 @ 9:15AM|#
Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses of swine flu carrying low wage laborers that make our overall economic efficiency increase...Oh, and some more MS-13 would be nice too...
Does anybody here who wants more immigration say anything
about not screening for the diseased and the criminal?
Anybody?
It's too early to beat up strawmen, MNG.
High Every Body|4.27.09 @ 9:21AM|#
I don't see how the Somali pirates are anything that a
couple of deck mounted crew serve weapons and a 24 hour watch
couldn't solve.
[shrill Leftist voice]
So you just wanna kill poor brown people huh?
[/shrill Leftist voice]
The Angry Optimist|4.27.09 @ 9:24AM|#
Maybe we can get another hyperequivocating libertarian to come
on and give us another defense of piracy.
Cause, you know...Ragnar.
High Every Body|4.27.09 @ 9:29AM|#
TAO,
Somethig like Hitler had people shot so shooting pirates is being
all Nazi?
|4.27.09 @ 9:30AM|#
A swine flu pandemic where many millions of people could die -
not as a result of the disease itself, but as a result of closed
borders so the products we use to fight diseases can't get through
to us - is a real possibility.
It would exacerbate the global recession, creating the need for
more stimulus.
I'm gonna start printing t-shirts.
"The Revolution Started with a Pig."
EJM|4.27.09 @ 10:26AM|#
Chrysler and the UAW reach an accord.
On a semi-related note, it's now official:
RIP, Pontiac.
High Every Body|4.27.09 @ 10:35AM|#
Chrysler and the UAW reach an accord.
I knew there was a Honda connection in there someplace.
|4.27.09 @ 10:38AM|#
Phil Lebeau, ass-licking retard, is interviewing the CEO of GM. I haven't learned anything, thus far.
|4.27.09 @ 10:46AM|#
Lebeau asked Henderson if GM could restructure itself and still
be "number one".
Why does that idiot still have a job?
|4.27.09 @ 10:55AM|#
"An atypical megalomaniac makes a lousy dad.
Shocked, I tell you."
True enough, but that doesn't excuse his whinney ass son writing a
tell all. Would anyone give a shit if Buckley were just an
anonomous upper class twit with a workaholic egotistical hard
driving father rather than a famous upper class twit? Whatever
WFB's flaws as a father, his fame has allowed his mediocrity of a
son to gravy train for an awfully long time. Given that, I don't
see how he can really complain much or is justified in sucking a
little more blood out of the bodies of his parents.
|4.27.09 @ 11:04AM|#
As a general proposition, I agree with John's overall point that
children should not pen tell all pieces about their parents.
Having said that, let us not cry any tears for Bill Buckley.
Literally, nothing more than a pimple on the penis of a protozoa in
the annals of human history. Overated as an intellectual. Have you
ever heard a so-called "intellectual" speak so poorly? His language
was fraught with fillers such as "eh..eh..eh...ahh..ahh well when
one looks at the...ehh...eh...ah....." It was like hair on sopa
listening to the guy.
Let us not forget that he was a proponent of gargantuan government.
Not liberty.
A
|4.27.09 @ 11:09AM|#
Libertymike,
Buckley ran the Birchites out of the Republican Party. For that
alone, he deserves praise. I frankly never found him to be all that
engaging, but I can't deny the positive effects of his work.
|4.27.09 @ 11:30AM|#
The Dubai story is all-too familiar. In 1982, when I moved to
Saudi Arabia, the same process was underway, and it's still going
strong. The natives don't want to work; they have no skills. So
they hire Westerners to do the high-level jobs and desperately poor
men from the Indian subcontinent to do all the dirty work. All the
Saudis and Emiratis have to do is sit back and count their
money.
What's always amazed me is that, saying all this stuff sounds like
nothing but fluff and hyperbole. It's hard to make people
understand that it's all terribly true.
|4.27.09 @ 11:31AM|#
Have you ever heard a so-called "intellectual" speak so
poorly? His language was fraught with fillers such as
"eh..eh..eh...ahh..ahh well when one looks at
the...ehh...eh...ah....." It was like hair on sopa listening to the
guy.
Let us not forget that he was a proponent of gargantuan government.
Not liberty.
Buckley? Obama? Both? Neither? You make the call!
|4.27.09 @ 11:48AM|#
I don't see how the Somali pirates are anything that a
couple of deck mounted crew serve weapons and a 24 hour watch
couldn't solve.
No shit.
It would help out poor. otherwise unemployable ex-Gunner's Mates*
as well.
* As a retired firecontrolman, I'm allowed to josh about the
gunners. The rest of y'all, not so much.
BakedPenguin|4.27.09 @ 11:50AM|#
• Private defenses against pirates are available. Yesterday they went into action.
Dammit, so much for my idea. I should have acted sooner.
LarryA|4.27.09 @ 11:51AM|#
Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses of swine
flu carrying low wage laborers that make our overall economic
efficiency increase...Oh, and some more MS-13 would be nice
too...
It's a whole lot easier to screen legal visitors coming across the
bridge than illegals wading the Rio Grande.
|4.27.09 @ 11:54AM|#
The United States and Iraq will begin negotiating possible exceptions to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraqi cities, focusing on the troubled northern city of Mosul, according to military officials. Some parts of Baghdad also will still have combat troops.
I'm shocked, shocked to find ...
Since the Who refrain has already come up at H&R today, I'm
using my fallback snark.
MNG|4.27.09 @ 11:54AM|#
But TAO, wouldn't it cost a great deal to do those screenings?
Maybe cheaper, i.e., smaller government solution, to just prevent
immigration from nations with subpar health systems.
Also, the more ties folks in the US have with relatives and such in
these nations the more they will be going back and forth, do we
test them at every crossing?
|4.27.09 @ 11:55AM|#
J Sub D,
When my unit deployed to Iraq, a couple of NCOs got to go on the
container ship transporting our equipment as armed guards. They had
a great time. Great food, nice people and a nice trip on a ship. If
they started hiring armed guards for commercial ships, I would quit
my job tommorow to get one. Of course they would never hire me, but
what a dream.
MNG|4.27.09 @ 11:56AM|#
"It's a whole lot easier to screen legal visitors coming across
the bridge than illegals wading the Rio Grande."
Might be easier and cheaper to just keep them out.
I'm not sure why people assume that a lot of immigration to our
nation will make the immigrants more like us and not us more like
their heavenly nations. I like my American cities swine-flu-free
thanks.
The Angry Optimist|4.27.09 @ 12:13PM|#
well, who thought they would see the day that MNG would bitch
about the dirty dirty Mexicans fouling his clean 'merikun
cities?
Wow.
Hey, MNG, there's a case of swine flu in Ohio. You want to shut
down the Maryland border so *snickers* Baltimore stays
clean? Better mobilize your national guard, baby, I'ma comin' to
Silver Springs.
The Angry Optimist|4.27.09 @ 12:16PM|#
But TAO, wouldn't it cost a great deal to do those screenings? Maybe cheaper, i.e., smaller government solution, to just prevent immigration from nations with subpar health systems.
In no way would it be cheaper, easier OR any good for liberty or
rights AT ALL to shut down the borders with troops and fences
(which is the only way to practically implement what you're
suggesting). For one, that seals us in as well as 'them'
out. Two, what are you going to do...authorize the National Guard
to shoot violators?
Oh, yeah, America needs a Berlin Wall reeeeaaaal bad. Sounds
awesome.
|4.27.09 @ 12:31PM|#
John,
You'd be at a disadvatage. Besides the weapons experience,
ex-Gunner's Mates bring basic seamanship and shipboard firefighting
skills to the table.
The Angry Optimist|4.27.09 @ 12:36PM|#
Besides the weapons experience, ex-Gunner's Mates bring
basic seamanship and shipboard firefighting skills to the
table.
They also provide comfort on lonely nights.
|4.27.09 @ 12:45PM|#
"John,
You'd be at a disadvatage. Besides the weapons experience,
ex-Gunner's Mates bring basic seamanship and shipboard firefighting
skills to the table."
No question. They would never hire me. But, damn that would be a
fun job.
Syd|4.27.09 @ 2:15PM|#
Seeing as how there are already a hundred or so swine flu cases
in New York and it's being reported in other states, closing the
borders with Mexico's probably a bit too late. Although it looks
like it's a lot less dangerous in New York.
Espiner sounds a bit of a fool.
|4.27.09 @ 2:37PM|#
Phil Lebeau, ass-licking retard
How does he do that, I wonder? He must take yoga or something.
jtuf|4.27.09 @ 2:40PM|#
MNG, immigrants to America are a self selected group. They choose America, because they like some aspect of it. Anyone willing to go through all the trouble of immigrating to enjoy an aspect of American life is going to fight hard to perserve that aspect. So yeah, there is some two way cultural mixing from immigration, but on the whole, I think immigration will strengthen American values rather than diminish them.
|4.27.09 @ 3:13PM|#
I tend to agree, jtuf, provided that we, as the host culture, make it perfectly clear that we are the host culture, and that while immigrants are free to contribute to that culture, they are expected to adapt to it, chop chop.
jtuf|4.27.09 @ 3:42PM|#
R C Dean, I think it's reasonable to insist on a commitment to the consitution from immigrants just as we (Libertarians) insist on a commitment to the constitution from our American born neighbors. The US constitution is the one element of American culture that I am most dedicated to upholding.
HeardFromSeaman|4.27.09 @ 3:54PM|#
A Gunner's Mate is just a Boatswain's mate with a hunting license.
Mike Laursen|4.27.09 @ 4:36PM|#
Might be easier and cheaper to just keep them
out.
If you think that, you've willfully ignored lots of evidence that
it is both hard and expensive.
I'm not sure why people assume that a lot of immigration to our
nation will make the immigrants more like us and not us more like
their heavenly nations.
Because we have a long historical record of accepting lots of
immigrants and seeing them assimilate quite nicely while also
enriching our culture with things from their native lands.
MaterialMonkee|4.27.09 @ 4:41PM|#
The swine flu things a bit overrated
200 Mexicans dead
Don't get me wrong that's a tragedy for all involved
but don't pretty much that many get shot dead every week cus of the
drug war?
MaterialMonkee|4.27.09 @ 4:50PM|#
I emigrated to the south of Europe from the UK
I assimilated in some ways
I'm now really lazy, smoke obscene quantities all day long, drive
like a cunt and can't even perform basic human functions without
drinking 10 coffees
Kept the stiff upper lip, inability to sensibly drink
alcohol/consume drugs without acting like a complete dick and still
refuse to eat anything that isnt deep fat fried
win win
EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy|4.27.09 @ 5:01PM|#
The swine flu things a bit overrated
The flu can be dangerous, so it's worth knowing about.
Time for public health agencies to check their readiness and health
providers to keep on eye out. Time for immigration agencies to step
up the health screening at borders. Time to recheck your personal
hygiene habits, and go to the doctor if you fall sick.
Not time to panic.
engineer|4.27.09 @ 5:55PM|#
"His language was fraught with fillers such as
'eh..eh..eh...ahh..ahh well when one looks at
the...ehh...eh...ah.....'"
So? That makes him at least as articulate as Barack Obama.
Syd|4.27.09 @ 5:56PM|#
MaterialMonkee:
Considering it was a hundred a few hours ago, yes, it's a cause for
concern.
engineer|4.27.09 @ 5:58PM|#
"I'm not sure why people assume that a lot of immigration to our
nation will make the immigrants more like us and not us more like
their heavenly nations. I like my American cities swine-flu-free
thanks."
MNG, did you click on one of LoneWacko's links? That sort of falls
under the same category as sniffing paint. I'm not going to
interfere with your right to do it, but damn it's stupid.
engineer|4.27.09 @ 6:02PM|#
"Hey, MNG, there's a case of swine flu in Ohio. You want to shut
down the Maryland border so *snickers* Baltimore stays clean?
Better mobilize your national guard, baby, I'ma comin' to Silver
Springs."
Now TAO, you know MNG isn't that parochial. What we really need is
a nationwide quarantine effort. We should give people papers
telling them when they can leave their houses and where they can
go, ration food supplies, and order guards to shoot on sight if
people leave their zones without a permit. Sure, it might just be a
few cases of the flu now, but without drastic measures it could
turn into something much worse, just like the financial
crisis*.
*Yes, this is all tongue-in-cheek.
engineer|4.27.09 @ 6:04PM|#
"So yeah, there is some two way cultural mixing from
immigration, but on the whole, I think immigration will strengthen
American values rather than diminish them."
You obviously haven't been paying attention to ChrisKelley's blog
on the danger posed by teh IllegalImmigrants that are ComingTo
TakeOver the UnitedStatesOfAmerica and imposed their
IllegalImmigrantValueSystem on us.
engineer|4.27.09 @ 6:08PM|#
"MaterialMonkee | April 27, 2009, 4:41pm | #
The swine flu things a bit overrated
200 Mexicans dead
Don't get me wrong that's a tragedy for all involved
but don't pretty much that many get shot dead every week cus of the
drug war?"
Yes, but that's two hundred furriners! Imagine if they infected and
killed 200 white Marylanders!* Could you live with yourself,
MaterialMonkee? I don't think so.
*more sarcasm. This is what I get for substituting coffee fro
slepe.
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