Reason Morning Links: Obama Falls Short in China, Admits Gitmo Will Miss Deadline. New Housing Hits Six-Month Low.

• Obama strikes out in China, gets no major concessions.
• USA Today reports retired military officers earning big money while simultaneously working for defense contractors and as consultants to the Pentagon.
• Obama acknowledges for first time that Gitmo won't be closed by January.
• Housing starts hit six month low in October.
• No seconds on pumpkin pie.

Comments

[Xeones]

No seconds on pumpkin pie.

Fuck that. I ate three slices last night. Y'all should have planned ahead and stocked up.

[Kyle Jordan]

Bought a case of the big Libby's cans in October. I do that every year.

So yeah, I get seconds.

[hurly buehrle]

Market failure!

[SugarFree]

"Gito." either a mispelling of Gitmo or Gato. Cat or prison. Stop straddling the fence. Were at war.

[Warty]

Were at war.

Fuck yeah.

[PapayaSF]

And strangely, cats like canned pumpkin. Not the spiced pie filling kind, but the 100% pure stuff. High in fiber and low in calories.

Everything is connected....

[SugarFree]

I have no sympathy for anyone who makes pumpkin pie from a can.

[Kyle Jordan]

Canned pumpkin is FAR superior to fresh roated ones. Much more consistent and all you have to do is roast the canned a bit to add more flavor.

Food nazi...

[SugarFree]

Better that than a food commie.

[Kyle Jordan]

Let me preemtively apologize. After rereading my post, I think I came off like a dick and meant it more like a tease. I stand by what I wrote but didn't intend to come off like a douchebag.

Sorry SF.

[John]

You didn't come off like a dick, SF is a food Nazi.

[SugarFree]

Ah, dude. No hurt feelings. I just wanted to call you a food commie.

Anyway, one good aspect of roasting your own pumpkin... you get to make pepitas with the seeds. Curry dusted pepitas hot from the oven are insanely good.

[Kyle Jordan]

You hadn't posted the food commie thing yet. Just wanted to make sure my intentions were known.

Had you posted it, I wouldn't have bothered apologizing. Call me a commie...

Hehehehe

Anyhow, I've never been too big on roasted pumpkin seeds until just the other day. A friend of my mom made her some and they were tasty.

[JW]

You 2 have the time to roast seeds? Shit, I barely have time to open cans.

Where is thing you call free time and how can one obtain it?

[JW]

See? I don't even have time to insert prepositions.

"Where is *this* thing..."

[SugarFree]

You roast them the same time as the pumpkin flesh. Washing off the slime can take a while, but the rest is easy.

We're DINKs. We all the time in the world.

[SugarFree]

Not a joke at your expense, JW. I leave out verbs all the time.

[JW]

Yes, I have DINK friends. I hate them too.

Disposable income...disposable time....grumblegrumble...

I'm sending my kids to your college, just so I can spread the joy. Promise me you'll steal their backpacks.

[SugarFree]

Deal.

[Kyle Jordan]

Get a job working night security at construction sites and local schools.

I get to watch DVDs, fuck around on the 'net, listen to music, read, and play guitar as I wish so long as I make a sweep of the places once an hour. By vehicle.

Hell, I bring my little grill with me most of the time and friends stop by to hang out and munch.

The best part though, not having to deal with people!

[alan]

Self employed with highly varying levels of income depending on economic conditions, but also a steady stream coming in through rental properties I own. However, I was up on a roof Monday fixing it for a tenet and that was no fun. I provide them with a place where they can stay and not be charged with loitering in a nice little town for a meager profit and they expect shelter from the rain too? World is insane.

[Groucho]

Call me a commie...
There aren't any commies available. Shall I call you an admiral?

[Kyle Jordan]

Only if it's rear...

[John Tagliaferro]

What would a food Libertarian be like? Someone who would not even raise an eyebrow to lentel soup from a can?

[Tony]

A food libertarian is someone who's happy with whatever they are eating as long as poor people are starving.

[John Tagliaferro]

I think that is the Cosmotarian one, but they would express empathy for the poor between nibbles and sips.

[BakedPenguin]

Tony, you silly troll, you didn't read my post. The poor people can have last year's pumpkin filling and condensed milk.

[John Tagliaferro]

I knew someone would find the correct answer while I was busy working.

Thanks BP.

[SImon Wiesenthal]

A grammar libertarian is someone who's happy with whatever they are reading so long as subject and verb do not agree in number.

[JW]

Is this Tony's attempt at humor? It's almost as good as Friday Funnies.

C+

[Simon Godwin Wiesenthal]

Tony as double agent, mocking his own 9:34AM post? Je le doute. Evil is not that banal.

[Nick]

Now that is some superb trolling right there. Newbies, take note.

[anarch]

Sorry

You forget where you are. This is Hit & Run. What are you, some kind of religious nut? You can't say that here.

[SugarFree]

I'm sorry you feel that way, anarch.

[anarggggh]

You win.

(Can't say that here either, I know.)

[Warty]

Shut up, faggot pigcunt.

[prolefeed]

The variety of pumpkin used for canning is superior to the fresh ones used for Jack-o-Lanterns, because the canned pumpkins don't have to look good. They're bred for tastiness.

Seriously, have you ever used a Jack-o-Lantern as food? Tastes awful, stringy texture -- plain nasty.

[P Brooks]

Housing starts are down. Everybody lives in cardboard boxes, now.

[P Brooks]

A pumpkin shortage?

I blame TLC, and those air-cannon and catapult bastards.

[Not a Libertarian]

"A pumpkin shortage?"

That's nothing

There could be an upcoming Eggo Waffle Shortage

[Silentz]

You sugarfreed the link

[John Tagliaferro]

Oh please, that is the ultimate in antiquated weapons technology.

[BakedPenguin]

Doesn't everyone have two cans of pumpkin mix way back in their cupboards anyway? Assuming they haven't given them to the food drive.

[JW]

+1

[BakedPenguin]

"Gito." either a mispelling of Gitmo or Gato.

No, it's that South African guy Peter Gabriel sang about. I thought he was already out of prison.

[Meta4]

"USA Today reports retired military officers earning big money while simultaneously working for defense contractors and as consultants to the Pentagon."

And that's a problem how?

[John Tagliaferro]

I am a bit lost on that too. It is like preventing the local mechanic from giving feedback to Ford in return for payment.

[John]

"Obama strikes out in China, gets no major concessions."

Since he already gave them and Wall street co-ownership of the treasury, it is not surprising that China wouldn't give him anything in return.

I guess the CHICOMS weren't impressed with the fact that he is black, was editor of law review and has written two books about himself.

[Attorney]

And he can bow like nobody's business!

[Slap the Enlightened!]

I guess the CHICOMS weren't impressed with the fact that he is black

Considering the attitude most Chinese have towards blacks would make David Duke look like a flaming liberal, I suspect not.

[P Brooks]

They built all those awesome new facilities at Gitmo; we don't want them to go to waste.

I think we should relocate Congress.

[alan]

Best idea ever.

[John]

It is a fierce moral urgency P.Brooks. It is Auschwitz. It is a war crime!! But hey, we can get around to closing it one of these days.

[Xeones]

I think we should relocate Congress.

As long as they're kept in cages indefinitely. I don't want them enjoying the gorgeous beaches there.

[John Tagliaferro]

Sounds like another book series idea. Thanks!

[SugarFree]

Xeones,

Isn't there an unexploded ordinance beach around the area?

[John Tagliaferro]

There is a mine field around the perimiter. At least there is if "A Few Good Men" was accurate.

[Nick]

Or Bad Boyz II.

[John Tagliaferro]

Exploding collars have been so over done. Need to think of a different gadget in case they get through the mine field.

[SugarFree]

A few feet of steel wire wrapped aound their sigmoid colon and some big electromagnets. They are free to leave as long as they understand they are leaving with three feet of intestine hanging out of their ass.

[John Tagliaferro]

Requires surgery. Not many Civil War surgeons left. Microwave crowd control barrier beyond the minefield?

Wait, we can draw from nature! Genetically modified attack dogs! Now to make one character smart enough to negotiate a mine field almost intact.

[brotherben]

May I suggest a radio controlled Pear?

[John Tagliaferro]

Not sure if I want to know where you are inserting that. Not my style anyway. Could work in a fan fiction version!

[Henri Charri?re]

Exploding "plans".

[John Tagliaferro]

Ah, thank you Papillon! Issued by the government to keep their valuables safe.

Will weight that aginst the gen-mod attack dogs and see what fits better.

[Hal]

Hard to fit a dog up one's ass.

[John Tagliaferro]

LOL

[JW]

Time to bust the Gitmo guards out of the clink. We need to build a pyramid of congresscritters!

[John Tagliaferro]

I think I will have the series outline by the end of the day if you guys stay on topic here through lunch.

[John]

The problem with relocating Congress to GUITMO is that they wouldn't have much to do, which means they would continue to legislate.

[Joel]

No problem! Let them legislate their little heads off, but keep them away from all forms of communication.

[alan]

Exactly. Who says they get electricity?

[R C Dean]

Why should the Chinese make any concessions? Exactly what leverage do we have? What's left to give away?

[John]

Exactly. But Obama is charming and erudite. Our enemies and rivals are supposed to love us now. What happened?

[John Tagliaferro]

They do love us now. They get whatever they want.

[PapayaSF]

Yeah, it seems the administration's brainy Ivy League types didn't think that all the way through....

[BakedPenguin]

We can impose sanctions! The unions will love it!

[Citizen Nothing]

"didn't intend to come off like a douchebag."

Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. You're posting on H&R. Therefore, you are, by definition, a douchbag.

[Kyle Jordan]

I know that. Hell, I'm a douchebag by just being me.

There are levels though. My douchebaggery has it's limits. Kinda like Doc Holiday.

[CoyoteBlue]

We'll provide them with the choice of "Atlas Shrugged" or "The Communist Manefesto" for reading material. Their diet will depend on their choice.

[John Tagliaferro]

Fantastic! Didn't even have a thought about that. It will be a surprise after their choice, then they get to chose a new book the next calendar month.

[Citizen Nothing]

So there appears to be a canned-pumpkin monopoly. We need a squash czar.

[FrBunny]

Gourd Lord.

[Hal]

Health and safety snoops to enter family homes:

Health and safety inspectors are to be given unprecedented access to family homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from household accidents.

New guidance drawn up at the request of the Department of Health urges councils and other public sector bodies to "collect data" on properties where children are thought to be at "greatest risk of unintentional injury".

Council staff will then be tasked with overseeing the installation of safety devices in homes, including smoke alarms, stair gates, hot water temperature restrictors, oven guards and window and door locks.

The draft guidance by a committee at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has been criticised as intrusive and further evidence of the "creeping nanny state".

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....917328.ece

[John Tagliaferro]

Guessing they need access to everybody's homes, just in case their friends with children come over?

[John]

"Housing starts hit six month low in October."

I have a bad feeling the doomsayers are right. This can't go on. We are in the middle of the worst recession since the 30s and when the Democrats are not promising new programs to punish productive people and destroy investment, they are dithering and creating uncertainty. I don't see how the economy doesn't double dip and the banks don't go under again in the next year or so. Only this time rather than starting out at 5% unemployment and a $500 billion deficit, we will start out at 11% unemployment and a one and a half trillion dollar deficit.

I remember all the liberals running around in 2008 claiming it was 1932 all over again. No, it was 1929 and Obama isn't FDR, he is Hoover.

[JW]

This only proves that we need a new stimulus package for the housing industry.

We'll save them this time! Honest injun!

[Citizen Nothing]

Here's the best idea for Guantanamo.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

They should build a Disneyland there.

[Citizen Nothing]

So, John -- Does that mean Palin is FDR?

[John]

Considering that FDR made things worse, I hope no one is FDR. I am starting to think one of two things is going to happen. Either we will follow the path of Michigan and California and apply more leeches to the problem and end up as a real quasi fascist coporatize failing welfare state or this will be the end of what is called the third American Republic (the first two being 1789 until the Civil War and reconstruction to FDR) and will get a total makeover of our government and social contract.

[brotherben]

John, very few Americans have the will, the fortitude, the skills or the heart for revolution. They won't do things the right way. They'll let the government do it their way. A good example is the economy last fall. The right thing to do was nothing. Americans instead, shouted "fix it fix it." That was followed by the election of a president that had promised to grow the economy via the government which would result in more government spending than ever before.

We need to eliminate welfare. It's too big of a drain on the system.

[John]

Those are good points. But if another big hit happens, people are going to lose faith in the government. Moreover, if the government goes broke, it won't be able to do anything no matter how loudly the people demand it.

That is what the idiot liberals missed when they claimed 2008 was 1932. In 1932 no one had ever tried big government in this country. The New Deal really was a new approach. But, now all of that has been tried in spades over the last 80 years. Liberals can't offer anything new. They can only offer the same sollutions they have been offering for 80 years just repackaged. That is why Obama ran on opaque terms like "hope" and "change" and on his race. It was the only way he could appear to be something new. Him and his party really didn't have any new ideas. And they don't now.

For that reason, I don't think that the person who wins in 2012 will win it by promising a big new government program. There just aren't any new government programs to sell. The only way Obama is going to win in 2012 is the same way FDR managed to win in 1940, by convincing the country that there is some foreign threat and it is better to go with the devil you know.

[brotherben]

I agree John that people are losing faith in the govt. They are scared of where we are headed. The problem is that over the last 80 years, Americans have gotten soft and dependant on the govt and don't know where else to turn. We have come to rely on the govt for so much and when things go wrong we don't have a clue why or how to fix it ourselves.

[PapayaSF]

Another problem is the the media is so reflexively leftist that it rarely reports on the real causes and possible solutions to government debt. They just don't like talking about skyrocketing costs of social programs, or high union wages, or massive bureaucracies. E.g.: I recently read that some city in New Jersey has 400 school administrators who make over $100,000/year. If it had been, say, a health insurance company that had 400 vice presidents making that kind of money, they'd be trumpeting it from the rooftops.

"We have come to rely on the govt for so much and when things go wrong we don't have a clue why or how to fix it ourselves."

Perhaps you can lead the way by example?

[anon]

I thought most Americans said "let them fail". The politically connected said "help us".

[brotherben]

I can only go by what I experienced locally with friends and neighbors. People seemed to know that the right thing was to let them fail, but were scared of the consequences and reconciled themselves to having the govt try to fix it. That and a huge dose of happy happy feel good emotions of the variety that resulted in the election Of Carter in '76.

[robc]

My friends and neighbors were mostly of the "let them fail" variety. You should move.

[Kyle Jordan]

I hit to respond to brotherben's 10:17 comment and got put after robc. Same thing happened earlier when I responded to JW.

Reason, if you're gonna have threaded comments, FUCKING DO THEM RIGHT!!!

[Kyle Jordan]

This was my experience as well.

[Tulpa]

Most Americans OPPOSED the bailouts. Obama's election was a referendum on Bush, not a groundbreaking mandate for socialism.

[brotherben]

* puts on raincoat as gushing from John ensues *

[John]

No. I only gush when I defend Palin from her asshole critics. I actually don't think she is that great of a politician. I just think her critics are that vile.

[Hal]

That's how I see it too. She's average at best in political terms, but her critics are deranged, rabid animals.

[John]

I think she is better than average but not great. But she generates so much buzz because she is the only politician in America who actually bothers to talk and connect with average people. There is absolutely no one else out there doing that.

[PapayaSF]

I think she also scares the left because she fits their fears and stereotypes about the right and about the U.S.: rural + lots of kids + traditional American values = racist fascist troglodyte.

[Warty]

I read this as "I only gush when I defend Palin from her asshole eaters." Something is broken inside my head.

[Kyle Jordan]

"I read this as "I only gush when I defend Palin from her asshole eaters." Something is broken inside my head."

I think my first comment here at H&R had something to do with fucking Sarah Palin in the ass.

Ah, memories...

[R C Dean]

I'm pretty much in John and Hal's camp.

[John Tagliaferro]

I am with you guys on this. Palin is another name to mention to get rabid Leftists frothing at the mouth. It is becoming more effective than FNN.

[Tulpa]

That's funny, I actually agree with Carrot Top on this issue.

[Mike M.]

Total combined national debt hits twelve trillion dollars.

[Mike M.]

Obama: too much debt could fuel double-dip recession, doesn't identify how much "too much debt" is.

[Attorney]

Obama acknowledges for first time that Gitmo won't be closed by January.

So what are you saying? That Obama lied? I can't believe it.

[Warty]

Maersk Alabama repels 2nd pirate attack with guns

[Xeones]

I read this as "I only gush when I defend Palin from her asshole eaters." Something is broken inside my head.

AWW. STEVE SMITH FIX IT FOR YOU WITH CUDDLE-RAPE, DEAR WARTY.

[Warty]

Xeones, does it make you sad that Steve Smith doesn't come around anymore? We drove him away with our hurtful words. Words are like bullets, you know.

[Xeones]

Warty, as much as i love meming our trolls, i'm not particularly attached to any individual one of them. I did click on Steve Smith's blog link yesterday, though, and his pictures at the top cracked me up -- he looks exactly like a former coworker of mine who lied all the time, about everything. Not a lot of hair for a sasquatch, though. Does he have a skin condition?

[John]

Who is Steve Smith? Seriously. What handle does he go by? I am totally missing out on the Steve Smith jokes.

[Warty]

A liberal troll named Steve Smith came around a few times and posted stupid gibberish. He had a link to his stupid blog, which includes photo evidence that he is a shaved sasquatch, and everyone knows sasquatches love rape.

I think I was the first to call him a shaved ape, but I don't remember who gets credit for the rapist thing. Is this one yours, Xeones?

[John]

OMG, Bigfoot roams the earth. Whoever captured Smith, shaved him down, and domesticated him needs to be up on charges. There ought to be a law against that.

[SugarFree]

He's a shaved sasquatch. So he can rape more easily.

[brotherben]

Does he at least have a soul-patch? (the shaved sasquatch version of the landing-strip)

[SugarFree]

Well, he could just shave the parts you can see, much like a Yakuza full body tattoo.

[SugarFree]

Are we infuriated with the genius ideas of the board trolls or with the fact that they are idiot attention-whores?

[P Brooks]

So what are you saying? That Obama lied? I can't believe it.

He never lied. The evil Rethuglicans thwarted his magnificent hopiness.

[ev]

What pisses is me off is that this is absolutely how it will be spinned.

None of my friends dare question the sanctity of The Chosen One.

New let's all get drunk and play ping pong!

[Xeones]

Hmm. Less hair for incriminating body fluids to get clotted in. Steve Smith is pretty clever for such a primitive hominid.

[brotherben]

As a recovering lefty attention whore, I hope it's the latter.

[P Brooks]

"Soul patch"?

I always thought that was a "welcome mat".

[Xeones]

Are we infuriated with the genius ideas of the board trolls or with the fact that they are idiot attention-whores?

The second part, fer shur, but seasoned with a pinch of knowledge (for those of us who vote) that their participation in the electoral process cancels out ours.

[brotherben]

We prefer the term "testickler."

[Xeones]

What handle does he go by?

Steve Smith. He does a little drive-by trolling from time to time. I don't know how the "Sasquatch Rapist" meme got attached to him, but there it is.

We prefer the term "testickler."

Well, we know Tony does.

[Ska]

Is that how Bush pronounced testicular?

[P Brooks]

Back to my idea of relocating the Congress to Guantanamo; only legislation which can be put in a 1-liter plastic Coke bottle and successfully sent by sea (message-in-a-bottle style) will be considered legally binding.

[db]

Re: no pumpkins. Fuck that, I know what I'm planting next year. Gonna call up the local farmers' market and see what it takes to market my pumpkins. Maybe this 20 acres will start paying it's way what with pumpkins and a hop crop in 2011.

[robc]

You do realize the hop shortage is over. More than enough now.

[db]

Yeah, i'm usually a late bloomer. Not a farmer either. I actually have no interest in farming. Maybe I should pay a farmer to cultivate crops on my land. Ah, fuck it.

[Citizen Nothing]

They pay you.
I've got a Mennonite guy who leases my 20 acres for alfalfa. I feel a little guilty when I'm sitting on the porch drinking a beer while his whole family is sweating on the tractor and hay-balers. But only a little.

[PapayaSF]

For a few years I did some urban sharecropping. I had a huge lemon tree in my backyard, and let a friend take some of the lemons and give me some of the jams and jellies he canned.

[P Brooks]

I have no sympathy for anyone who makes pumpkin pie from a can.

My teeth aren't sharp enough to eat pie made from cans.

[SugarFree]

Steve Smith was a minor liberal troll with a canned response to the Obama poster and slobbering love of FDR. Matt Welch asked us to go easy on him, insuring that we would debone him like a chicken every time he showed up. I started the shaved Bigfoot; Warty started the omni-rapist.

I can cite all these threads, but I keep getting my messages kicked back as spam.

[SugarFree]

Or maybe Xeones with the rape part, as cited by Warty upthread.

Warty originally argued he was a Fallout 3 Super Mutant.

[Ska]

Mini-gun variety or super sledge variety?

[Warty]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. The Fallout designers really dropped the ball when they neglected to develop the obvious Super Mutant rape angle.

[John]

Welch really asked that people go easy on him? Wow.

[Xeones]

I think I was the first to call him a shaved ape, but I don't remember who gets credit for the rapist thing. Is this one yours, Xeones?

Nope. That sounds more like something Sweet'n'Low would come up with, but i'm willing to take credit for it if nobody else comes forward.

[SugarFree]

It might also have been Episiarch. Searches show that he and Warty started talking the in all-caps growl at about the same time.

The archives needs a sort by date function for hits.

[Warty]

SugarFree, I distinctly remember calling him a shaved ape the first time he came here, but I don't remember starting the rapist meme. Someone should archive these things.

[Xeones]

Interesting. Apparently the origins of the Steve Smith Sasquatch Rape meme are lost in the mists of history. Perhaps they are actually a genetic memory from when our Cro-Magnon ancestors had to face the horror of potentially getting terror-laid by Gigantopithecus on a daily basis.

[Warty]

Steve Smith is naught but a folk memory. Like Dracula and the Wolfman, but with rape.

[P Brooks]

Like Dracula and the Wolfman, but with rape.

Like the Wolfman, only more rapier, and less coherent.

[Warty]

The earliest Steve Smith sighting I can find

[SugarFree]

Earliest I can find. Which is horrifying if you think about it.

2/14/05

http://reason.com/blog/2005/02.....her-word-f

[SugarFree]

Warty called him a shaved gorilla, I called him a shaved Bigfoot. Still hazy on the rape angle.

/2009/07/23/another-winner-admits-doing-dr
Warty|7.24.09 @ 11:35AM|#
Steve, you look like a shaven albino gorilla. Jesus Christ, do you hammer in nails with your forehead or something?

/2009/08/12/the-talented-mrs-jackson-lee
SugarFree|8.13.09 @ 6:10AM|#
You guys should leave Steve Smith alone. He does the best he can, considering he's a shaved Bigfoot that taught himself to blog. The gentle forest ape of the Northwest deserves your respect.

/2009/08/13/notes-from-the-health-care-deb
Belicose Bradenberg|8.13.09 @ 11:55AM|#
The absolute worst though is Steve Smith. If he doesn't have a woman tied up in his basement with a few missing fingers, it would be surprising to say the least.

SugarFree|8.13.09 @ 11:56AM|#
Does Bigfoot have the manual dexterity to work knots?

Warty|8.13.09 @ 12:00PM|#
Steve Smith is a Super Mutant, SugarFree. Get your facts straight.

SugarFree|8.13.09 @ 12:18PM|#
Steve Smith is the gentle forest ape of the Pacific Northwest, not a Super Mutant.

/2009/08/13/medical-mosh-pits
SugarFree|8.13.09 @ 4:40PM|#
Wikipedia

Steve Smith is described in reports as a large ape-like creature, ranging between 6-10 feet (1.8-3.0 m) tall, weighing in excess of 500 pounds (230 kg), and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair.[5][6] Alleged witnesses have described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded and crested, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla. Steve Smith is commonly reported to have a strong, unpleasant smell by those who have claimed to have encountered it.[7] The enormous footprints for which it is named have been as large as 24 inches (61 cm) long and 8 inches (20 cm) wide.[5] While most casts have five toes-like all known apes-some casts of alleged Steve Smith tracks have had numbers ranging from two to six.[8] Some have also contained claw marks, making it likely that a portion came from known animals such as bears, which have five toes and claws.[9][10] Proponents have also claimed that Steve Smith is omnivorous and mainly nocturnal.[11]

[alan]

I've wondered how that meme got started.

I guess whoever was going under the sock puppet Belicose Bradenberg that day is the one who first saw the rapist angle there.

I would even suspect that that person did not know up until that post that they were the culprit. I bet it would be like the ending of Fight Club for them.

[sage]

Drink the roofie tainted wine cooler!

[JB]

China likes having bitch-boy Obama as their communist lap-dog.

[Xeones]

Hush, JB. Figuring out how to prevent sasquatch rape is far more pressing an issue than our stupid president and his shenanigans. In more ways than one.

[SugarFree]

And the rape goes to... Warty!

http://reason.com/archives/200.....f-violence

Warty|8.20.09 @ 4:12PM|#
STEVE SMITH NO BELIEVE PUNY ARTICLE GARRRRRR STEVE SMITH RAPE NOW

[Dagny T.]

Someone should archive these things.

Goddammit, Sug. First you deride the pitiful, from-a-can pumpkin pie that I made, and now you fail history itself with your haphazard archiving.

[Warty]

Yes! So I have two trollmemes to hang on my mantle. In your face, guidance counselor.

[Warty]

And the rape goes to... Warty!

Come to think of it, I don't like the sound of that sentence very much.

[Warty]

John, Matt Welch is a diabolical bastard.

[Dagny T.]

And the rape goes to... Warty!

Hey, if chasing around headless goats is a sport, why not the time-honored sport practiced in the rain-soaked forests of the Pacific Northwest- the rape-off?

[Art-P.O.G.]

Whoa, Warty still has to give an assist to mysterious genius lurker "Bellicose Bradenburg" for the Sasquatch rape angle, at least according to your earlier citation, SF.

[SugarFree]

I noticed that too.

[Art-P.O.G.]

And I'm shocked, shocked that Steve Smith was already posting back when I was merely an occasional lurker. But Bigfoot is much older than me, as cryptids tend to be.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Welch is right, though. We shouldn't be too hard on Smith. A little bit of hackery is to be expected from legendary woodland creatures, and besides Smith kept showing up after joe white-flagged it. So in the end, Steve Smith and Tony get more credit than joe.

[Jordan]

However, Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said the international maritime community was still "solidly against" armed guards aboard vessels at sea, but that American ships have taken a different line than the rest of the international community.

"Shipping companies are still pretty much overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of armed guards," Middleton said. "Lots of private security companies employee people who don't have maritime experience. Also, there's the idea that it's the responsibility of states and navies to provide security. I would think it's a step backward if we start privatizing security of the shipping trade."

Yo, fuck Roger Middleton.

[Ska]

I was thinking the same. Private security on merchant vessel repels pirate attack, but maritime merchants shouldn't be hiring security. Instead they should just keep being the targets until some country's navy decides to play international water police. Or some bullshit.

[MattXIV]

Well, most businesses do like having taxpayers cover their expenses.

[Nick]

Isn't it more than enough that their security costs will be transferred to customers?

[Michael Ejercito]

Just send the Taliban detainees back to Kabul and let the rulers there decide what to do to them.

The Al Qaeda detainees should be fitted with scuba gear and cement shoes and dropped into the Marianas Trench under the Pacific Ocean.