Reason Morning Links: Bernanke Survives, Reporters Die, Cheques Disappear

- Ben Bernanke's bid for another term atop the Fed struggles past the Senate banking committee.

- The SEIU and the AFL-CIO dial back their support for the Senate health care bill. Well, sort of.

- 2009 sets the record for the number of journalists killed around the world. I blame Craigslist.

- The FBI's relationship with American Muslims takes a dive.

- The Brits say bye to paper checks.

Comments

[TP]

The Brits say bye to paper checks

Just one more step towards the "dream" of a cashless society for the Europeans.

[Corduroy Rocks]

Long live the black market!

[Jim]

That would be a great thing because then we would be able to track all purchases and eliminate drugs, prostitution, money laundering and other black markets.

[FrBunny]

Sent my check to Rand Paul for US Senate today. He is now officially in the pocket of Big Bunny.

Expect BIG changes in national tabletop-RPG policy.

[sage]

I thought you carried rocket propelled grenades on your shoulder. A tabletop version could be dangerous.

[Ska]

Tabletop RPGs? People still do that?

My brother found a box of my old D&D books. Now if I could only find my Warhammer stuff, for the lulz of course.

What's your policy on Avalon Hill's tactical games like ASL, or Civilization?

[FrBunny]

Real-time games will receive no funding under the Bunny regime.

Civ IV: BtS will be pre-installed on all PCs in place of Character Map.

[wylie]

*can't wait to vote now*

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Don't forget Panzerblitz!

[Ska]

Wow man, I used to play that one also. It's just such a rarity to find people who played those games. I still have the maps and counters for Squad Leader, Cross of Iron, Crescendo of Doom, and GI Anvil of Victory.

Hell, I still have Tactics II, box and everything.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Yeah, I still have Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader, Squad Leader, France 1940, and The Russian Campaign. Back in the day we also played Luftwaffe a lot.

[The Queen of Hearts]

"After this bill is passed," Stern said, "the Senate needs to take a very hard look at how it's going to deal with the future in our country."

Sentence first - verdict afterwards!

[John Tagliaferro]

The FBI's relationship with American Muslims takes a dive.

Another of those "they are just picking on us because we are different" stories. They want the takeaway to be no Muslim in America would be doing anything wrong if the FBI would leave them alone.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

Yeah, because the real problem always and forever is that we are the evil bad guy.

[kwais]

Supposedly they are 'we' too.
I mean in these pages we are usually skeptical of the police, and of police entrapment.

We all dislike criminals and we all dislike terrorists. But Radley has given us a reason to be very weary of people with badges abusing their authority.

Also there is the fact that the way we deal with Moslems and foreigners is way better than the way the Europeans do it. All the terrorists have been non-Americans. Terrorists in Europe have been home grown.

So, I am concerned that the new dive in popularity might indicate that we are moving in the way we deal with them to more resemble the way the Europeans do.

I mean much of Europe is the socialist utopia of the liberals, and they are in power now.

[John Thacker]

Technically, it's "large British banks agree to get rid of cheques in about 7 years or so, assuming that they don't charge their mind and have to delay it."

[Mango Punch]

Zero Hedge post that reasonoids should read. Excerpt:

Could the next black/green/dark gray swan be so obvious that it has avoided everyone? Well, except for the deputy governor of the Bank of China, who just gave the world a startling reminder of economics 101, when he said that it is "getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing the supply of dollars overseas." Oops

[brotherben]

Any body see the clip of Al Franken objecting to Lieberman going long on his speaking time yesterday? McCain was pretty pissed about it. I see it as a plus that the healthcare debate is putting a little starch in those buncha dumbasses. I hope we see a little more british style bickering on the floor.

[Kevin]

Dueling, or at least an assault with a cane, would be nice.

[sage]

No way, man. We need to go Taiwan style. Tae Kwan Slappyface FTW!

[John Tagliaferro]

India microphone stand tossing is entertaining too.

[James Ard]

I'd pay big bucks to watch Franken get a good caning.

[eb]

Dueling is prefferable... hopefully so much so there arent 60 senators left to vote for cloture

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Stay classy, America!

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Damn, I put this the wrong place. I blame Big Threading.

[Atanarjuat]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34.....?gt1=43001

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Tennessee investigators say a 4-year-old boy was found roaming his neighborhood in the night, drinking beer and wearing a little girl's dress taken from under a neighbor's Christmas tree.

The child's mother, 21-year-old April Wright, told WTVC-TV that the boy "wants to go to jail because that's where his daddy is."

[sage]

Between the three of them, do you think they have a full set of teeth?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Stay classy, America!

[Jimmy Stewart]

They're shitting on us for Christmas:

DEMS PLANS CHRISTMAS EVE VOTE ON HEALTH!

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091217/D9CL9K000.html

[sage]

HURR DURR DURRRRRR

PAY FOR YOUR OWN HELTH KERR, POOR PEOPLE!

DURR HURR DURR HUUUUUUURRRRRRR

[P Brooks]

If I recall correctly, the Overclass can take the Bills from the House and the Senate into reconciliation, and emerge with something which bears no resemblance whatsoever (other than the title page) to what they started with. That is what I expect to happen. And it will come barrelling out of a dark-of-night session to a vote before ANYBODY knows what's in it.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

Aw gee, you make me feel bad PB. And this right after Reason told me that things are looking bright and optimistic and all. I'd just started feeling good again.

[Xeones]

Between the three of them, do you think they have a full set of teeth?

I'd wager the four-year-old possesses more than half of the total number of teeth, but less than 20% of the neck tattoos.

[Jimmy Stewart]

Goddam trannies:

Drunk 4-Year-Old Dressed in Drag Steals Christmas Presents...

http://www.newschannel9.com/ne.....stmas.html

[sage]

Hey Jimmy, that song is already being sung above.

[P Brooks]

Paper checks ain't worth shit in Bartertown.

[P Brooks]

I suspect the drunk four-year-old, dress and all, could take the hide off Franken.

And I've got a hundred Quatloos that say I'm right.

[Mike M.]

The infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate sign has been stolen from Auschwitz.

[SugarFree]

Gaza strip residents plagued by outbreak of pseudohermaphrodism.

No word yet on how it's the Jews' fault.

[sage]

It's like circumcision in the womb.

[John Tagliaferro]

Shouldn't take long.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Male pseudohermaphrodism is so common on the Gaza Strip ? perhaps due to widespread cousin marriage

If more Israelis would marry more Palestinians, maybe cousinfucking would be less prevalent. There.

[John Tagliaferro]

Try it this way: "The Jews discriminate against Palestinians for marriage on purpose to make them marry their cousins."

[SugarFree]

Debate settled.

[John Tagliaferro]

Only 23 minutes from observation to consensus. Take that AGW researchers!

[kwais]

If I had tons of money I would open a strip club and call it "the Gaza Strip Club"

I'd try to get Arab and Jew chicks to have strip competitions there.

There would be a "big noses and big boobies theme night".

[Atanarjuat]

If more Israelis would marry more Palestinians, maybe cousinfucking would be less prevalent.

That brings me back to freshman year "Intro to Anthropology", (for which I received a "multicultural credit") and the horribly liberal, Chomsky-quoting professor, who told us the Palestinians and Israelis were pretty much cousins and that genetic testing somehow proved this. So maybe it wouldn't really help much.

[John Tagliaferro]

Zionist!

[kwais]

They do have a lot in common. I really don't see how they are not cousins.

[Atanarjuat]

Male pseudohermaphrodism is so common on the Gaza Strip - perhaps due to widespread cousin marriage - that their family already had a name for the process: "the transfer".

Really puts the problems of the Mideast in a new light.

[SugarFree]

"She is my cousin. But doesn't she look almost exactly like Laura Palmer?"

[Slut Bunwalla]

A Twin Peaks reference? In my Hit 'n' Run comment page?

[Xeones]

Would you rather be a drunk four-year-old in Tennessee, or a pseudohermaphrodite in Gaza?

[Atanarjuat]

Another casualty in the War on Drugs.

[SugarFree]

"Instead he pretty much ended up taking his own life by ingesting this item that was stuck in his throat. He therefore, in front of these deputies, dies and there is nothing they can do. It's a horrible situation for them, a horrible situation for us and a horrible situation for his family," said McKeithen

Or you assholes could have not tasered him for trying to swallow something.

[P Brooks]

Would you rather be a drunk four-year-old in Tennessee, or a pseudohermaphrodite in Gaza?

"All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."

[Jimmy Stewart]

What a dumbfuck.

[Jimmy Stewart]

That was directed at Atanarjuat's weedeater.

[Ska]

I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that it must be hard to swallow a bag of pot while being tased. The guy probably shouldn't have tried to eat the weed, but the cops that tased him for swallowing evidence had a hand in his death.

It's sad that anyone has to die over this shit.

[John Tagliaferro]

Jimmy Stewart,

That works with the Philly comment too.

[Limp Node]

? 2009 sets the record for the number of journalists killed around the world. I blame Craigslist.

How many were killed in the USA?

[Xeones]

How many were killed in the USA?

Nowhere near enough.

[brotherben]

Leave the last few journalists alone. focus your rage on the variety show news hour hostertainers

[sage]

Like Larry King. He looks like he stepped out of the grave to take a piss.

[Xeones]

focus your rage on the variety show news hour hostertainers

I was using the term "journalist" very, very loosely.