Reason Morning Links: Privacy Concerns at Heathrow, "Justice" Clinton, Haiti's Death Count

• Bollywood star inadvertently exposes privacy flaws by signing nude scans of him taken by security officials at Heathrow Airport.
• Justice Hillary Clinton?
• S&P may downgrade credit ratings of Bank of America, Citigroup.
• Iran says it's still open to a nuclear deal.
• Death toll in Haiti hits 230,000.
• Does shoveling snow cause heart attacks?

Comments

[FrBunny]

I saw the body-scan story last night, and it sounds a bit fishy. So far I haven't seen any corroboration of the "star's" story, and it does come across as awfully self-serving in an aren't-I-outrageous celeb way.

[Rhywun]

If I wasn't at work for the next 8 hours I would be all over the task of locating the scans myself... surely it's online somewhere.

[Mike Laursen]

I'd be awfully disappointed if Shah Rukh Kahn wasn't out promoting himself with somewhat outlandish stories. You have to understand that, in India, he's like Tom Hanks, Donny Osmond, and David Lee Roth all rolled into the same person.

[SugarFree]

So he's boring, irrelevant, and driven insane by being irrelevant all at the same time?

[brotherben]

He's John Travolta?

[SugarFree]

Shah Rukh Kahn is secretly gay?

[Suki]

It's supposed to be a secret about David Lee Roth?

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Well, his wife totally looks like a dude:

http://livinggallery.oneindia......n.jpg.html

[The Art-P.O.G.]

She doesn't look like a dude. OK, maybe a dude with an extremely girly build.

[Episiarch]

He's a Scientologist?!?

[Pro Libertate]

Travolta has (and flies) his own jumbo jet. How does security work for him? At his own landing field, he can do what he wants, I imagine, but does he go through the same security we fools do at other airports?

[Isaac Bartram]

PL, it's not a jumbo-jet. Travolta's biggest plane is a retired Qantas Boeing 707-138 restored with original Qantas livery.

He also wears an authentic period Qantas flight captain's uniform while doing it (sometimes, at least).

[Pro Libertate]

Commercial jet, then? I knew it was a 707, but I wasn't sure how to describe it. Though, now that I think about it, "707" sounds like the best choice.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Barak Obama 'FAIL' tshirt

[JW]

It would be better in the original HOPE red and blue, swapping out HOPE for FAIL, of course.

I'd buy *that* shirt. For a dollar.

[sage]

Yes we can! No, wait...we can't.

[Suki]

Racist!

Good morning JL 😉

Morning Links Illustrated, Google Buzz, EduBook laptop, Saturn Moon water, Kindle vs. iPad.

[Charles]

I thought when Lonewhacko left, there'd be less self-blog-whoring on Hit & Run, but if anything there's more.

[Episiarch]

It's less self-blog-whoring and more OCD attention whoring. But hey, why split hairs?

[Johnny Longtorso]

Um, guys, the link is to an online store I have absolutely no financial connection to. Not my blog, not my post, not my shirt. Just a link I thought was funny.

[Episiarch]

Not talking about you, dude.

[John Tagliaferro]

What's the matter Warty, your Real Doll not putting out any more?

She posted a fucking link to a blog post full of links elsewhere.

[Johnny Longtorso]

PS. Radley, fix your agitator website registration.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Never mind - I see its fixed

[B?nzli]

Still can't reach it. Hope it's fixed soon.

[brotherben]

I'd much rather see SCOTUS deliberations with Nancy Grace. That would liven things up a bit.

[Jozef]

What? No story about the dangers of third-hand smoke? We're all going to die!

[FrBunny]

Third-hand smoke was yesterday. Ketchup.

[SugarFree]

Heinz Unveils New- Ketchup Packet Design

[Rhywun]

That is the most awesome thing, ever. I have always hated the current model with a passion.

[robc]

I can take or leave the new packets, but if you are going to have a pump, give me deep cups, not shallow coolships.

[ketch up to reality]

Rhywun, then don't eat in cheap restaurants...wait libertarians like to eat in cheap restaurants.

[Suki]

Do Cosmotarians have cheap restaurants built into their penthouses?

[Suki]

Okra goodness too! Yum!

[T]

There's no such thing as "okra goodness". Okra is fundamentally vile and should be eradicated from the cosmos.

[brotherben]

Fried Okra is food of the Gods.

[Suki]

Okra rocks! Look, up above, MNG is using her other handle to bitch about my linking in an open thread!

[Charles]

I'm not MNG, but more interesting is your choice to call out people who use more than one handle when you're widely recognized to do so yourself. Attacking other people for it only makes people think about you using more than one name while posting. Does that make sense? It's like a secretly gay guy attacking homosexuals when people know his secret; it only accentuates people's recognition of his issues

[John Tagliaferro]

Is she "widly recognized as doing that" herself by an Administrator or just by a bunch of helmets who don't like what she posts?

I am one of the people she is accused of being just because we share two blogs on Blogspot together and she helped me with a project.

To me it is obvious that Episiarch and Warty are the same person, she thinks MNG and Episiarch are. So fucking what? Unless you have access to the traffic you don't know.

As for your comment below, she is in fact racially Asian. Maybe you think all "genetically Asians" are Japanese, or some other equally ignorant nonsense. You are probably confusing race with culture, guessing many more incorrect assumptions that I will not bother with.

Not sure where you are from, but men who make posts like MNG are frequently called girls by both sexes in the USA, outside of politically correct bastions of censorship.

[John Tagliaferro]

Going along with your logic, 'Charles':
I'm not MNG
This means you are. Hello to Chony too.

It's like a secretly gay guy attacking homosexuals when people know his secret; it only accentuates people's recognition of his issues

You should know, but it really isn't a secret any more now is it?

[Charles]

Also, that you think calling someone "her" is a good insult only reinforces how obvious it is you're neither female nor Asian.

[John Tagliaferro]

Nice fake link in your handle too, 'not' MNG. Why bother faking a link?

http://tripepsilon.blogspot.com/

[Maverick]

At least they've stopped calling it "fancy" with this new design. There was never anything fancy about a rat-trodden packet that was opened with one's teeth.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I do wonder what the "fancy" was for.

[Pro Libertate]

Gay.

[John Tagliaferro]

Scroll up. Charles has issues with that. Wouldn't want to get on 'his' bad side.

[Pro Libertate]

Hillary Clinton? Not really qualified. Again. Besides, the last thing this administration needs is an obviously divisive choice.

How about Howard Stern? He leans left, I believe. Personally, I'd do both openings at once (when they come) and nominate Penn & Teller.

[AlmightyJB]

While I agree with you that she would be devisive, the funny thing is that she would probably be more moderate then the people Obama will actually select if indeed those seats open up.

[Pro Libertate]

Maybe. Hard to tell where she really lives.

[JW]

At least Teller wouldn't have to put up with the nagging about why he never asks questions during sessions.

Who am I kidding? That presupposes the MSM being more than a bunch of twaddle-knockers. Never mind.

[Rich]

the last thing this administration needs is an obviously divisive choice

Then they will probably do it.

she would probably be more moderate then the people Obama will actually select

Sad, but true.

I vote "nay". She would flexing her "moderate" judicial muscles for a long time, folks.

[Aresen]

Justice Howard Stern would certainly make the dissenting opinions a lot more enjoyable.

[Pro Libertate]

With pictures! His clerks would issue an annual calendar, too.

[Nipplemancer]

would petitioners have to show their boobs?

[The King of All Media]

That's a joke, right?

[Suki]

Stand on a scale too.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Stern is going to have a more important job - new judge on American Idol.

[Pro Libertate]

Why not both?

[The Squatting Fields]

Sen. DeMint: Snow will continue 'until Al Gore cries uncle':

http://thehill.com/blogs/twitt.....ries-uncle

[Pro Libertate]

Here's some weird news: Chicago just had a minor earthquake.

[The Squatting Fields]

Matthew 24:
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

[wylie]

No mention of snow though. Also, not sure how Ronny Dio ties in to verse 7.

[Chris]

Still with this stuff?

[AlmightyJB]

That stuff's going to happen in a parallel universe that we've already diverged from.

[Aresen]

Can you point to a single decade in the last 2000 years - since Jesus made this prophecy - that did not see all of those 'signs'?

[Chris]

Must have slept right through it. I was more concerned with the goddamn foot of snow.

[BakedPenguin]

That shouldn't be so surprising. One of the worst earthquakes in American history took place in Missouri

[Pro Libertate]

We talked about that in law school (in Chicago), because there was some question as to whether failure to construct buildings to withstand earthquakes in Chicago was clear negligence (if there were a quake).

[robc]

I have a joke about no-fault earthquake insurance, but there is never an appropriate time or place for a joke that bad.

[SugarFree]

I eagerly await Danny Glover's assessment of the situation.

[Suki]

Has Chavez blamed it on Bush yet?

[CaptainSmartass]

You should post it on Fark, if someone else hasn't already.

[BakedPenguin]

At some point, cost / benefit has to come into play. Is it negligence to ignore events that will only occur once every 1,000 years or so?

robc, I used to work in insurance. There are very few good insurance jokes.

[Aresen]

Try telling that to the ABA.

[Pro Libertate]

We were going with the once-in-a-century theory.

[Suki]

You will never be the next John Edwards with that attitude.

[Colonel_Angus]

That's not weird. There are fault lines everywhere. Some day, I'm going to get rich off that New Madrid zone.

[Sandi Trixx]

No doubt the earthquake in Chicago was caused by CO2 emmissions.

[brotherben]

Don't know how many folks here watch Deadliest Catch , but Capt Phil Harris has died .

[Ravac]

That stinks, though it's not surprising. His health has been crap the last two seasons or so. RIP.

[Madbiker]

I kind of liked him. My interest in the show waned after the first three seasons, but he was a character. A true hard-ass who expected the best of his crew, himself, and his sons, if we are to believe the Discovery Channel's depiction of him. He had vices and could care less what anyone thought of them, and he delivered the payday to his crew and customers. Can't ask for much more than that, I guess. RIP.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Spanish Prime Minister: We're The Victim of A Free Market Conspiracy To Make The Socialist Euro System Look Like A Failure

...Spanish Prime Minister Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero has even taken the usual speculator-bashing a step further by wondering whether speculators shorting the Euro are part of a conspiracy, not to make money, but to discredit the European model of increased regulation....

[JW]

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

[Nick]

If socialism is so great how come it is so easily smote by the free market?

[Maverick]

Whenever some socialist squeaky wheel offers a critique of the free market, I think of this.

[JW]

Does shoveling snow cause heart attacks?

Being that I'm trapped in the DC Snowmegeddon, I'm all for funding for weather-control machines.

If you keel over shoveling a neighbor's walk, is that second-hand shovelling?

[Chris]

It's third-hand if you have one while walking on a shoveled sidewalk.

[wylie]

Does shoveling snow cause heart attacks?

Screw the heart. What about my back!?

[JW]

Lift with your legs. Your legs!

[The Squatting Fields]

How am I supposed to grasp the shovel with my feet? Is there some sort of adaptor I should buy?

[JW]

STEVE SMITH GRASPS VICTIMS WITH FEET. THAT WAY, WE BOTH CAN'T RUN. THIS MAKES PLAYING FIND THE SQUEEZY HOLE ALL THE MORE FUN.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Well done, JW. That was actually disturbing.

[sage]

OK...does shoveling snow cause back attacks?

[TP]

I threw out my back a few months ago. I've been going to a Chiropractor since then, and oddly enough, my back is the only part of my body that actually doesn't hurt from all the shoveling. However, I did keep the Vicodin for just such an emergency. 🙂

[Episiarch]

Don't be absurd. Vicodin is for fun, not pain.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Why did you throw out your back? At least tell me you recycled!

[Mike M.]

How much has Obama damaged the good will and credibility of the democrats?

So much that embattled moderate democratic Senators like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu are now refusing to support some of these far-left radical loons he is trying to appoint, like SEIU lawyer Craig Becker.

[Mike M.]

Whoops, here's a working link.

[P Brooks]

The Presidential Suit is so afeared of Hillary he may be willing to put her on the Supreme Court, just to keep her on the sidelines?

Sweet.

[Suki]

The way this is going Chelsea is going to be rumored for a nomination in 2012.

[Juvenile Lurker]

Q: What do you get when you cross a crooked politician with a crooked lawyer?

A: Chelsea Clinton

[Suki]

+1

[Nick]

Since it's a foregone conclusion Obama will nominate a "Woman of the Left" to replace Ginsberg, might as well be Hillary. I look forward to Scalia pwning her with regularity.

[SugarFree]

Hillary would be a masterstroke... the Dems will be happy to do something with her, and the GOP would probably not object too strongly just for the lulz.

[T]

The GOP doesn't care about the lulz, SF. They'd be a lot more tolerable if they did even a little bit.

[Episiarch]

I don't think the GOP understands the concept of "lulz", dude. It would be a much better world if either they or the Dems did.

[SugarFree]

Yeah, you guys are probably right. But Justice Hilary Rodham Clinton has such an absurd ring to it, how can you not laugh?

[Episiarch]

Because there are way too many people who can hear it and not laugh.

[T]

Because the pinks and the normals would take her seriously.

[Pro Libertate]

Strangely, I'm not amused by this. Maybe if she were appointed to the Supreme Court of Russia, I could enjoy a nice belly laugh.

[brotherben]

Obama will make four more SCOTUS appointments in this term as POTUS.(replacing Bader-Ginsburg, Stevens, Scalia and Thomas) Not sure how many during his second term yet.

[Pro Libertate]

Second term? Are you kidding? He couldn't defeat an intelligent bicycle.

[Pro Libertate]

Not now.

[JW]

But, could he beat Bicycle Repairman?

[SugarFree]

What a frightening thought. Intelligent bicycles would hate us. As would anything that we rub our asses on in the normal course of interacting with it when said thing gained sentience.

[Tulpa]

Scalia is going to be 76, Thomas 64 when Obama's first term is up. That's pretty young for retirement (Stevens is 90 right now!).

[robc]

No way is Scalia or Thomas going to retire before 2013.

It wouldnt surprise me if Scalia announced his retirement for June 2013 the day after election day in November of 2012.

[MNG]

Why stop at HRC? Obama needs to broaden his horizons and nominate Susan B. Anthony. Dig her ass up!

[Tulpa]

No way. Susan B Anthony was pro-life.

[MNG]

How could one be "pro-life" in her time?

[robc]

From a quick google search...

In the United States, abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy.

Through the efforts primarily of physicians, the American Medical Association, and legislators, most abortions in the US had been outlawed by 1900.

...

Some early feminists, like Susan B. Anthony, wrote against abortion. They opposed abortion which at the time was an unsafe medical procedure for women, endangering their health and life. These feminists believed that only the achievement of women's equality and freedom would end the need for abortion.

...

Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote in 1868, "I hesitate not to assert that most of this crime of child murder, abortion, infanticide, lies at the door of the male sex..."

[Suki]

Just sticking to two handles today Epi?

[Charles]

See, like I said above, this is a bizarre tactic to take, somewhere in sophistication between "he who smelt it, dealt it" and "I'm rubber and you're glue."

[FrBunny]

Epi as MNG?

Don't be silly.

[The Angry Optimist]

Nominating Hillary Clinton might be, despite all of the politically stupid things the Administration has done already, the stupidest. The Administration doesn't need what would turn into a year long battle that would end with a Borking. I guarantee you that's what would happen.

I'll bet $250 right now that Hillary is not nominated for SCOTUS. Ever.

[Tulpa]

I'm not sure that's a good bet. If she ever gets nominated, you have to pay up -- but your opponent never has to pay up until the SCOTUS does not exist anymore.

[CS%]

Hopefully the SCOTUS will be around long after the possibility of Hillary being nominated goes away.

[Pro Libertate]

It would be amazingly stupid. But, even so, I can just see them convincing themselves that it's some kind of master stroke.

[MNG]

TAO
I understand you're back on the blog, but can you please stop saying things I agree with? It's very upsetting.

I thought Obama was a turd for making her Sec. of State (hey, politics as usual here!). If he nominates her for SCOTUS, well, it would be like taking a dump on a turd.

[The Angry Optimist]

Agreeing that Suki is annoying and that Hillary for SCOTUS is a bad move are two things a retarded five-year-old should be able to agree to. 🙂

but your opponent never has to pay up until the SCOTUS does not exist anymore.

can you nominate a dead person to the SCOTUS?

[T]

We can probably get it done. Just to spite you.

[Yeah, I'll go there.]

Thurgood Marshall was alive when he was appointed but God only knows how many cass were heard before anyone noticed he was dead.

[P Brooks]

He couldn't defeat an intelligent bicycle.

He doesn't have to beat an intelligent bicycle, dude; he'll be running against a Republican nominee.

[Pro Libertate]

Even Palin could likely beat this guy. He may have an approval rating below Hitler (who is moving up as an Internet phenom) by 2012.

[Pro Libertate]

Please, Jesus, let someone better than that be the GOP nominee.

Gary Johnson would be nice.

[MNG]

I'd vote for Gary Johnson in a heartbeat.

[brotherben]

He'll be running as the incumbent. He will be up against a party that is fracturing as we speak into the Tea Party and the Others. If Palin gets the nom, it's a lock for Obama. I don't think she will, but who knows what the Rs are gonna do. It almost certainly will be their version of Obama, a populist that says all the Right things. This may play well to the base but will lose the Real Tea Party folks. A divided republican party can't amass the independent voters necessary. Throw in the black vote and the white angst over firing the black guy and Obama gets a second term.

[Tulpa]

Needless to say, I don't see things as rosily for Obama as you do.

The black vote is pretty irrelevant, given that the Dems get 90%+ of it in every election. If the economy is still in the shitter, the only whites who will feel angst about firing Obama will be effete urbanites who would have voted for him anyway.

By no means is it a lock that Obama loses, since a lot can change over the course of 2.5 years, and it's quite possible the GOP nominates the conservative equivalent of John Kerry. But it's not a lock that he wins either, and if I had to guess I'd say he doesn't.

[Solitudinarian]

"Justice Clinton" is the scariest thing I have heard all week. Please do not do that.

[MNG]

The hope of the Dems is that the GOP will nominate a fool like Palin. If you don't think we've got out fingers crossed for that, well....

Having said that Gary Johnson has no chance of being the GOP nominee. I wish it were otherwise, but major parties do very, very stupid things (really, if you were a Dem in 2008 would you pick HRC and Obama as your frontrunners? WTF?).

[The Angry Optimist]

If you don't think we've got out fingers crossed for that, well...

can't really figure out why you would. Is there anything of substance (not style) that meaningfully distinguishes this guy from the last President? I think not, kind sir.

[Libertymike]

I think not, either, kind sirs.

[Willy Wonka]

You lose! Good day, sir!

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, a policy wonka.

[Amanda Marcotte]

misogoynist

[Pro Libertate]

Slut.

[P Brooks]

If the Republicans nominate Palin, they will officially be the Self-Immolation Party.

[Ska]

Fire is more useful and entertaining than that.

[syskill]

Justice Hillary Clinton?

This could only be foreseen by the political genius who, not too long ago, made an equally bold prediction: Sanford for President.

[Nick]

From the Brickbats:

In Staten Island, New York, an elementary school principal confiscated a two-inch toy gun from 9-year-old Patrick Timoney. She told the boy's mother he had violated the state's zero tolerance policy on toy guns and could be suspended. A school official said that, following a conference with the parents, they decided not to suspend the boy.

Did common sense ultimately prevail?

[T]

No, the threat of a lawsuit and even more publicity prevailed.

[John in Nashville]

How about nominating Bill Clinton for SCOTUS? It would be worth it to see how many Republicans' heads explode at the thought.

[Pro Libertate]

Only if Monica Lewinsky is nominated as well.

[Ernie the Bear]

I think you misspleelt "SCROTUS".

HTH.

[Ernie the Bear]

I think you misspleelt "SCROTUS".

HTH.

[Airport scanners]

Privacy, privacy and privacy - the only people that complain are the bleeding heart brigade. The photos on the linked to blog sum up my opinion of it... a joke 🙂