Reason Morning Links: D.C. Sniper To Be Executed, Obama Wants Abortion Language Excised from Health Care Bill, Virus Puts Child Porn on Computers

• Convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad to be executed today.
• North, South Korean navies exchange fire.
• Cash-strapped state universities still pouring millions into football programs.
• Obama wants Dems to remove abortion restrictions from health care bill.
• Internet virus deposits child porn on infected computers.

Comments

[Kyle Jordan]

Obama wants Dems to remove abortion restrictions from health care bill.

I'm hopeful this happens. It will make it more difficult to pass either of the atrocities Congress has vomited forth.

Then again, I've pretty much resigned myself to thinking that they'll pass something hideous no matter what. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised by it failing then disappointed and angered by it passing and being signed.

[Tulpa]

If that's true, Obama is an idiot. Thank God; if he had half a brain he'd be dangerous.

[JB]

He's a retarded fetus.

[*]

I'd rather be pleasantly surprised by it failing then disappointed and angered by it passing and being signed

Then or than, dude? It makes a difference in the meaning of your sentence.

[pro choice]

If abortion subsides stop universal health care, the irony might kill me.

[FrBunny]

Internet virus deposits child porn on infected computers.

The prosecution's forensics expert, Randy Huff, maintains that Solon's antivirus software was working properly. And he says he ran other antivirus programs on the computer and didn't find an infection...

Case closed. Randy couldn't find no virus, and he checked.

[Bob #2]

If you're writing your own exploits/rootkit, it's pretty trivial to trick antivirus programs. And assuming that a pedo/hacker is going to target individuals just to hide his own porn habits, rather than try to infect as many computers as he can, chances are that no AV company will get infected with it and have a chance to analyze it. No analysis means it won't turn up on a simple scan. A more thorough look is warranted to determine that someone has no viruses/rootkits/trojans.

I also thought this quote was particularly poignant:

It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence.

Being forced to prove a negative. Lovely.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Exclusive: Police Report on Gladney Beating by SEIU Thugs

Obama's Shock Troops: SEIU and Political Intimidation in St. Louis

[John Tagliaferro]

You missed the latest on Major Hasan? He was a good tipper at strip joints and drank beer just last month.

[Rich]

"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill."

Now *that* is leadership.

[brotherben]

Internet virus deposits child porn on infected computers.

Folks that write and launch this kind of virus should be compelled to spend about ten minutes with me in a quiet room where I could share with them the many uses of a two pound ball-peen hammer. I believe it would satisfy my genetic predisposition for sociopathy.

[brotherben]

Bob#2, even if one proves their innocence, their reputation will be ruined forever.

[brotherben]

Oh, and just as an aside, if anyone catches me threading a comment, please give me a virtual slap n the bag.

[brotherben]

Prove that this wasn't me.

[John Tagliaferro]

I need to fetch a 24 oz. ball-peen hammer first. Stay right there.

[Death Panelist]

Their situations are complicated by the fact that actual pedophiles often blame viruses ? a defense rightfully viewed with skepticism by law enforcement.

Thank goodness the burden of proof for such things is on the accused, otherwise I just don't know what law enforcement would do.

[Death Panelist]

I guess Bob #2 already covered this. Disregard.

[Kyle Jordan]

No.

It can't be stated enough.

[Endless Ike]

Football is a huge money maker, or a potential huge money maker for universities. Those who are pouring money into it must think they have the ability to turn it into a money maker. They're probably in a better situation to know then us.

It's an investment, one that routinely pays off big.

[James Ard]

Ben, welcome to our side.

[Shannon Love]

Long term, high profile sports are a solid investment for educational institutions. The primary function of team sports is to create social bonding and schools can use that social bonding when it comes time to ask for donations or (increasingly) political support for spending tax dollars.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Climate bill's 'emergency provision' gives Obama strong-man powers
Both the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade energy approved earlier this year and the version just okayed by Sen. Barbara Boxer's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's Democrats (Republicans boycotted the vote) contains an obscure but nasty bureaucratic provision that requires President Obama to act like Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez.

Here's how: The bills require a federal declaration of a "climate emergency" if world greenhouse gas levels reach 450 parts per million. Guess what? The Pacific Northwest National Lab says it is a virtual certainty that level will be reached within a few months. The bill then requires the president to "direct all Federal agencies to use existing statutory authority to take appropriate actions...to address shortfalls" in achieving needed greenhouse gas reductions....

[Kyle Jordan]

Um...

Fuck. That's not good.

[DJF]

"""The bill then requires the president to "direct all Federal agencies to use existing statutory authority to take appropriate actions""

So this means that the first thing they need to do then is to shut down much of the Federal Government since it creates huge amounts of carbon dioxide. Just the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone are creating lots of carbon dioxide, those M-1 tanks, helicopters, destroyers, cargo planes, etc are big carbon dioxide creators.

And then there is Washington DC with its limos, its executive jets, its massive use of paper etc.

Shut down 50% of government and we have solved global cooling, global warming, climate change or whatever they are calling it today.

[Shannon Love]

I do have to wonder about the degree of computer forensics in the child porn cases.

It should be immediately obvious on a modern operating system whether and when files were downloaded, viewed or "touched." Given Window's rat's nest preferences and logging, I find it hard to believe that a forensics analysis could not easily tell whether files were downloaded sequentially or in batch, whether they had been viewed on the targeted machine, whether they were downloaded/viewed when the owner was not present, etc.

End user grade anti-virus software is a joke. No serious computer security/forensics expert would rely on it. Most anti-maleware definition are created by leaving an intentionally vulnerable machine online and seeing what infects it. As noted above, such software will not protect against custom cracks that an individual targets at a handful of machines.

[SugarFree]

Most anti-maleware

Leave Feministing out of this. 🙂

[John]

I would think you are correct about there being a log of the files being accessed. Of course you have to remember that most lawyers, judges and cops are stupid. The fact that the images had never been accessed by the user would not stop them from charging you. You would then have your reputation ruined and have to spend 1000s to hire a computer forensic expert to prove you never accessed the files. Even then, since child porn is a strict liability crime, a dumb ass jury could still convict you.

Also, criminals will highjack parts of people's hard drives and sell the space to other criminals. In that case, the images may have been viewed remotely. Could you tell that it was done remotely and not by the user?

Lastly, if off the shelf anti-virus programs don't work, what the hell are you supposed to do?

[Bob #2]

Run Linux. It's more secure by nature, plus it's smaller market share means few will bother trying to develop ways to attack you. 🙂

http://ubuntu.com

[John]

I have thought about that. But, Linux is built for computer geeks. Maybe it has changed but it used to be incredibly un user friendly. I really don't have 12 hours to spend trying to figure out my printer drivers.

[Bob #2]

That's why I gave you that link. Ubuntu is more or less MacOS for Linux. You just install it and, for the overwhelming majority of people, everything works. It only gets confusing if you try to start configuring things, compiling source, etc.

You can try it without installing it (LiveCD).

[John]

will it work on a PC?

[Bob #2]

Yes. I was just using MacOS as an example of a simple, user-friendly operating system.

If you're interested, just burn the image on the website to a disk and boot off it. You can try before installing.

[John]

I am off tommorow. Perhaps i will.

[Bronwyn]

I just bought a netbook pre-loaded with Ubuntu and so far, it's been easy as pie to use. I was a Mac user until 2000, after which I'd been using Windows XP.

[cynical bastard]

I can vouch for Ubuntu. OpenSuse is another good distribution. Both have LiveCDs to try before you commit, both are free as in speech and as in beer (you'd have to pay for commercial support, but, as I discovered, community support is more than adequate even for a computer semi-literate like myself), and, if you are so inclined, you can install them dual-boot with Windows.

[Realm of Ideas]

Yes, it does. I use gNewsense myself but that is just a pure-free-software variant of Ubuntu for us free software purists. But Ubuntu is great. Very user friendly.

[Shannon Love]

Lastly, if off the shelf anti-virus programs don't work, what the hell are you supposed to do?

Use a Mac or run Linux.

Seriously, the anti-virus programs "work" in that they protect you against broadcast type attacks in which the malware authors try to propagate the malware as broadly as possible. It's that widespread broadcasting that brings the malware to the notice companies that provide anti-virus protection. They can't protect against an attack they've never seen before.

This why we have an unending wave of malware attacks in the Windows world. Someone has to pull off a successful attack against hundreds or thousands of machines before the attack even gets noticed enough to make it into anti-virus software.

The problem this present with pedophiles is that they will spend enormous amounts of effort to indulge their perversion. As one FBI profiler put it, they spend as much time, effort and money in pursuit of sex with children as normal males put into the pursuit of sex with their age peers. A quick glance around will show you thats a lot of time, effort and money.

To further their perversion, a pedophile would gladly either spend a lot of time cracking someone else's computer themselves or pay someone else to do it. This means we can't dismiss attacks that would highly unlikely if carried out for mere financial motive.

[JW]

Lastly, if off the shelf anti-virus programs don't work, what the hell are you supposed to do?

Don't run as the admin and use common sense on the Intertubes. Use a decent firewall, a hardware firewall is best. Run a free anti-malware app. Don't waste money on paid solutions. Don't peer out your system so you can steal/share pr0n and music and movies. 99.9% of your problem is solved right there.

The problem with XP and previous Windows versions is that the default user was installed as the system admin as well; an insanely stupid design decision. That gives malware an express elevator straight into your system.

Vista and 7 don't install the default user with admin privileges. You can elevate your permissions to admin with UAC and still infect yourself like crazy, but that's your fault at that point. That's honor system infection.

Use whatever OS works for you. I use Windows exclusively (Win7 at home) and administer a 150 client network that is 100% Windows XP with everyone running with the lowest user permissions and one anti-malware app. No malware at all. Ever.

I keep saying I'm going to try out Ubuntu, but it'll probably end up like my old BeOS box. Successfully installed and just sitting there, since I have no real use for it.

[John]

I don't ever do file sharing. I also don't download any media other than the odd itunes song. Further, I have a firewall and anti-virus and use the anti-malware you speak of. I suppose someone could screw me, but I would have to be really unlucky or have one hell of an enemy.

[Michael Ejercito]

I would think you are correct about there being a log of the files being accessed. Of course you have to remember that most lawyers, judges and cops are stupid. The fact that the images had never been accessed by the user would not stop them from charging you. You would then have your reputation ruined and have to spend 1000s to hire a computer forensic expert to prove you never accessed the files. Even then, since child porn is a strict liability crime, a dumb ass jury could still convict you.

Since when was possssing child porn a strict liability crime?

[JW]

BTW, that article was written like an unfunny Onion piece: long on vague and nebulous references that sound right, but with no real meat. A virus did this? Really? Which one? Do you think there could have been *one* technical reference, rather than just a bunch of weasel words and phrases?

Don't put too much faith in that article.

[damaged justice]

"Incarceration has worked and life without the possibility of parole has and will continue to keep the people of Virginia safe."

While bleeding them dry to pay for this asshole's jail cell and the meals he stuff down his worthless maw.

[Art-P.O.G.]

+1. Unless this guy's secretly innocent and was railroaded by the prosecution, I don't see why he doesn't deserve death.

[Zeb]

A lot of people deserve death.

[B]

And everyone gets it. Eventually.

[brotherben]

Anyone know ifJohn Allen Muhammad attended the mosque that maj. Hasan attended in Virginia?

[SugarFree]

High-profile sports teams are money-makers for universities, assuming they haven't emancipated themselves from the university proper. My university's sports program brings in around 14 million a year after operating expenses, and only contributes 1 million back to the university as scholarships.

[Nick]

Do they use the other 13 million to finance their sport as well as all other sports at the school that don't typically make money? That's pretty common. They cover the costs of all sports and then whatever's left goes to the school.

[SugarFree]

After operating costs. I presume that meant operating costs for the entire Athletics department. We're still in the middle of an investigation of what they spend the rest on. Some of it goes to buildings on campus exclusively for their sole departmental use (or for the use of a shocking small percentage of the student body.) And for which they do not compensate the university for the land they use.

The speculation is that much of it gets paid out in bonuses to the already lavish salaries of their administrative and coaching staff. Which would be illegal if they hadn't used supporters in the state legislature to "spin-off" from the University. And it allows them to avoid most of the transparency rules that the rest of the state government is subject to.

[Realm of Ideas]

"Cash-strapped state universities still pouring millions into football programs."

I once had the misfortune of living in Columbus, Ohio. A majority of the residents there think that the entire world revolves around THE BUCKEYS. The best time to see a movie is when THE BUCKEYES are playing a team from a certain unmentionable state with two peninsulas that kind of looks like a hand. On that day the theaters will be empty. If you happen to go the grocery store while the game is on the game will be broadcast over the audio system for your connivance. DO NOT PARK ANYWHERE NEAR CAMPUS on that day. Not unless you wish to call your insurance company the following day.

[Robert]

That happens to be approximately the geographic center of the most football-interested area of the country -- and I mean all levels of American football, not only college varsity, but HS, children's, pro, and men's & women's amateur ball. That area includes all of OH, the western portion of PA, practically all of W. Va., northern KY, eastern IN, and SE MI. In an attenuated form it even jumps Lake Erie into southern Ont. OH is where pro football first got well established, and it has hosted the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and the College Football Hall of Fame in King's Park. Practically speaking, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton is within that belt too. The only women's team I know of with considerable spectator draw is the Pittsburgh Passion, and if there's a men's team that still qualifies as semi-professional (a term often applied as a misnomer to football teams that are actually amateur, a holdover from when there really were semi-pro teams, which ended about 30 years ago though teams live on in amateur competition), it would be in OH or maybe Erie.

There are parts of the country that have a big reputation for football, but it usually turns out to be based on only one level of play and doesn't go back as far historically as the belt I've laid out above that's centered on Columbus. Of course in Columbus proper you're seeing that manifested as OSU varsity games.

[anonymous]

I thought people were crazy about college football in Tuscaloosa. Then I moved to Columbus...

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

It can get worse that Tuscaloosa?!?

[Citizen Nothing]

And if you leave your petunias on your porch in Columbus, the cows that roam the streets will eat them.
You didn't actually get out much in Columbus, did you, Realm?

[Realm of Ideas]

The cow thing has not been true for at least a decade.

And yes, I did. I was born and raised there.

I was glad to get out of that hell hole.

[Citizen Nothing]

We all hope you can do better in Peoria.

[Realm of Ideas]

I have never lived anywhere in Illinois. If you are using the archaic use of the term, Columbus, Ohio is Peoria.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Realm, you think you're "too cool for school", but you're not.

[Realm of Ideas]

I went to a college without a well known football team. I got a good education without having to explain every day why I was not wearing Scarlet & Grey.

[Citizen Nothing]

Back on topic: I'm completely in favor of a hacker planting child-porn images on politicians' computers.

[sage]

I thought this was precious:

Just two days after shepherding a landmark health-care bill through the U.S. House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Seattle on Monday to see how one hospital is already delivering care in much the same way as the bill encourages.

My representative, the always-in-the-lawyers-pockets Jay Inslee, was with her and had this money quote:

"Two years from now, the entire Medicare payment system will reflect quality and efficiency," Inslee said.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAWTFOMGLOL!!!!

[Jay Inslee]

At least have the decency to set forth my entire statement:

"Two years from now, the entire Medicare payment system will reflect quality and efficiency, or I will commit harakiri on live network television.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAWTFOMGLOL!!!!"

[mark]

Speaketh Obama:

"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama said. "And we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."

Very clever doublespeak. I wish Tapper had pressed the Prez harder on the Stupak amendment, and how it differs from the alternative.

Obama actually appeared to take no position on this issue, refusing to agree with Tapper on the assertion that the Stupak amendment "goes too far". He even refused to reject the idea of jail time for the "insurance resisters". This guy is slippery as a [non-racist reference to something slippery].

[John]

We haven't had a President since Nixon who did real damage to the country. I don't mean fuck up. But real long term damage. Hysterics aside, Carter, Clinton, and Bush II didn't do anything to the country that couldn't be fixed. But I am starting to think our luck has run out.

[mark]

Watch the whole interview. He referred to potential troop commitments in Afghanistan as "investments". He is 101% politics, 100% of the time.

[hurly buehrle]

I will differ with you on Bush II. And introduce LBJ as another President who did lasting damage.

[Enough About Palin]

I believe the term you are looking for is goose shit.

[Mike M.]

"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill."

You'd better get it through your head that you're not an absolute dictator, you f*cking douchebag, because you're sounding more and more like one.

A clear majority of the House voted for the Stupak amendment. If you don't like it, you can veto the bill.

[mitch]

Aren't the abortion and illegal immigrant provisions in any health bill going to be toothless? Think about affirmative action; AA gets outlawed in some state, and the Democrats and lefties who run things just figure out another way to give favored minorities some kind of edge. A government run health system that, de jure, is not supposed to pay for abortions or care for non-citizens will end up paying for them through some kind of legal hair splitting or chicanery.

[John]

I would imagine the bill will ban paying for abortions unless it is necessary for the mother's health. Who could object to that? Then lefty judges, doctors and bureaucrats will proceed to declare everything necessary for the mother's health.

[mark]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Federal Government funds hundreds of abortions per year already. The question at hand is merely whether it will fund an additional one or two hundred, or another ten or twenty thousand per year (Medicaid paid for 300,000 abortions per year before 1976 according to this pdf). Will the government deposit money directly in Planned Parenthood's bank account, or only circuitously?

[Meta4]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Federal Government funds hundreds of abortions per year already.

[citation needed]

[Zeb]

If they are trying to save money, abortion is probably a good thing to cover. Though I am surprised that any elective abortions are covered by any government plan.

[P Brooks]

Dear HackerGenius:

Please write a roving worm specifically devoted to dumping kiddie porn on any computer with a .gov address. Extra points for prosecutors and law enforcement personnel.

Thanks

[roo]

nearly all the salaries for coaches at major universities are paid for by private donations through some school athletic foundation

[Robert]

Wally Olson explained to me the enormous tax advantages that give varsity sports a privileged position against their potential competition.

[John]

Universities, at least big public ones, are not cash strapped. They are rediculously wealthy and have huge padded staffs and gold plated facilities. They only cash strapped to the extent that they might have to make a few choices versus just buying everything they can imagine.

[SugarFree]

Bingo. The money that I see wasted in a day on crap that has zero to do with education is staggering.

[John]

My wife worked in higher ed for years in fund raising and development. She lost her taste for it after realizing she was raising money for people who really didn't need it and managed to waste a lot of it.

[John C. Randolph]

Peter Schiff has a very interesting discussion of that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0kCr0PBaEA

He goes into the history of the costs of college tuition, and how the costs exploded when the government got into subsidizing loans to the benefit of the colleges and detriment of the students.

-jcr

[brotherben]

I don't rightly understand it all but this is what they were yammering about on the "news" this a.m. The stupak thing says that private insurance, bought by a private individual, CANNOT cover elective abortion if the insurance company is involved in the government insurance exchange.

[John]

Reason number one million to keep government out of healthcare. Once they start spending money, they get the control because spending becomes a political decision.

[Attorney]

Head-exploding argument of the day: The lead editorial in the NYT today is outraged (outraged!) that the Stupak amendment intrudes into private decision-making:

The restrictions would fall on women eligible to buy coverage on new health insurance exchanges. They are a sharp departure from current practice, an infringement of a woman's right to get a legal medical procedure and an unjustified intrusion by Congress into decisions best made by patients and doctors.

Oh the horror! The Times greedily gulps down a shit sandwich but strains at a gnat.

[JW]

Yes, funny that.

If the state was planning on interfering with a very specific medical procedure, you'd see coat hanger protests everywhere you could swing a dead cat.

But, since it only wants to interfere with every *other* medical procedure, that's hunky dory.

[Zeb]

Well, let's be fair, they aren't planning on outright banning coverage of any other procedure that I have heard of.

[Attorney]

Exactly!

[anonymous]

Goodness! Who could have foreseen that, by injecting government into healthcare so deeply, private medical decisions would become politicized?

[Michael Ejercito]

I could have seen that a light-year away.

[John]

Although it would be funny as shit to see a bunch of lefties brawing for public run healthcare accidentily manage to make abortions a lot harder to get.

[John C. Randolph]

Convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad to be executed today.

In a related story, Lon Horiuchi is still a free man.

-jcr

[Attorney]

Might the Obamocrats be setting up the abortion issue as a way to blame Republicans/religious right/social conservatives if/when the Senate fails to obey the commands of His Nothingness?

[brotherben]

It's is very confusing to hear the lefty/libs screeching on the teevee about the govt meddling in the free market concerning abortion coverage.

If you frame the healthcare reform around abortion coverage you get a lot of folks behind it again.

[Art-P.O.G.]

And yes, I did. I was born and raised there.

I was glad to get out of that hell hole.

Please, Realm of Ideas, you're probably from Zanesville.

[Mad Max]

From the abortion article:

'"I want to make sure that the provision that emerges meets that test -- that we are not in some way sneaking in funding for abortions, but, on the other hand, that we're not restricting women's insurance choices," [Obama] said.'

Unfortunately, by deciding that he wants the federal government to impose a single health-care policy over the country, Obama is abandoning any possibility of claiming a neutral stance on abortion. Though I don't believe that neutrality is philosophically possible, at least libertarians can at least *claim* to be neutral on the subject without automatically forfeiting all credibility. While I disagree about libertarian claims to neutrality, I at least see where they're coming from.

But for a big-government advocate ? who thinks the feds aren't intervening *enough* in medical care ? to claim neutrality on the abortion issue, is (as the saying goes) not even wrong. It's utterly incoherent.

'a very simple principle'

The phrase 'very simple principle' is most famously associated with John Stuart Mill in his essay On Liberty:

'The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him must be calculated to produce evil to someone else. The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.'

I'm not claiming to agree with Mill, just pointing out how Obama is using his phrase in a somewhat different context.

[John C. Randolph]

the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

I'd say it's also appropriate to exercise power to remedy harm to others. IE, if you rob someone, it's appropriate for the state to force you to pay restitution.

-jcr

[P Brooks]

Lon Horiuchi is still a free man.

He meant well.

[John C. Randolph]

Sucks for Malvo that he didn't bother to get himself a badge first.

-jcr

[John C. Randolph]

Oops, make that muhammed. I get those two perps' names mixed up.

-jcr

[brotherben]

Mad Max, I am coming to the conclusion that Obama's biggest flaw is that he has a pathologcal need to please everyone, all the time. That need comes into conflict with his belief that he knows what is best for everyone and his drive to force everyone to live the way he instructs. It makes it very difficult for him to take a principled stand on anything for fear that he may alienate someone. Better to get congress to do the dirty work so he doesn't get the blame.

[Mad Max]

Sounds plausible - but I expect he also has a position in the abortion debate. He probably wants a proabortion bill, but in such a way that he himself doesn't have to use any divisive rhetoric in public, leaving that to his Congressional managers and his allies in Planned Parenthood.

[John]

I think it goes back to his childhood. He grew up the half black kid in a white family. On top of that, his mother was a loon and his dead a deadbeat of the highest order. It had to have been pretty awkward for him being the son of a deadbeat black man who abandoned his grandparents' daughter. Theat reality had to live under the surface of a lot of things. For this reason, I think he learned from an early age to hang back and tell people what they wanted to hear.

[John C. Randolph]

. On top of that, his mother was a loon and his dead a deadbeat of the highest order.

That could explain why he wants the government to be our mommy. He looks to the state to make up for his own parents' failures.

-jcr

[Meta4]

BINGO

[John C. Randolph]

It would be interesting to see a study of whether there's a correlation between being a child of a broken home and being a pinko rat bastard.

-jcr

[John C. Randolph]

It makes it very difficult for him to take a principled stand on anything for fear that he may alienate someone

I would apply Occam's razor, and conclude that he makes no principled stands because he lacks principles.

-jcr

[Meta4]

Mad Max, I am coming to the conclusion that Obama's biggest flaw is that he has a pathologcal need to please everyone, all the time.

It's very common in males who are raised without a father.

[P Brooks]

Wally Olson explained to me the enormous tax advantages that give varsity sports a privileged position against their potential competition.

Don't forget the slave labor; paying people based on their contribution of value really eats into the profits.

[Art-P.O.G.]

They do get scholarships.

[brotherben]

I have bagged on Bush a lot but I will give him this, He was man enough to maintain a course on something. Didn't matter how much grief he caught for it.

[Barack Obama]

Who you callin' boy?

[SugarFree]

A firm commitment to being wrong is not a virtue.

[Meta4]

A commitment noncommitment to being wrong right is not a virtue.

[SugarFree]

Mine rolls off the tongue easier.

[Miss Anne Thrope]

Like a thrombotic hemorrhoid

[Zeb]

What the hell is a noncommittment?

[Miss Anne Thrope]

Dense much?

[Art-P.O.G.]

I'll lead.

[JB]

As for John Allen Muhammad, burn motherfucker, burn.

I will pray for your soul to suffer lots of torment.

[John]

One othe thing about college athletics. College football and men's basketball programs can make money. But, that money doesn't go back to the general fund. It goes to the athletic department to suuport money losing sports. Thanks to Title IX universities have to support large numbers of women's sports, which are almost always money losing.

Really what is going on is the NCAA is acting in collusion with the NBA and NFL to force young men (most of whom are minority and many of whom are poor) to work and risk their bodies for free for anywhere from one to three years in order to make money to support rich and predominately white women to play sports no one watches.

[Zeb]

I don't think that the point of college sports is supposed to be that people watch or that they make money. Some of the rich white women are presumably actually paying for college. The fact that anyone seems to think so strikes me as rather odd. Big time college football and basketball should not exist as they do. They should be professional minor leagues for the NBA and NFL. Let them pay for their own player development.

[John]

I agree they should not exist as they do. But since they do, it is fair to ask where all the money these players make for their universitites goes. And where it goes, in addition to into the pocket of coaches and administrators, is to support women's sports. If you got rid of college basketball and football and women's sports had to pay their own way, women's sports would exiist beyond the club level.

[gate valves]

I have bagged on Bush a lot but I will give him this, He was man enough to maintain a course on something. Didn't matter how much grief he caught for it.