Reason Morning Links: Roberts Scolds Obama, Israel Disses Biden, Mukasey Slams (Liz) Cheney

• Supreme Court Justice John Roberts tosses belated barb at Obama for attacking SCOTUS at SOTU.
• Israel announces new settlements in East Jerusalem, upstaging Vice President Biden's meeting with Palestinian leaders.
• Former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey slags the "Al Qaeda 7" campaign in the Wall Street Journal.
• Silliest race controversey of the week: Walmart criticized for putting black Barbie on clearance, but not white Barbie.
• U.N. study: Only about half of food aid reaches the hungry in Somalia. 

Comments

[Scotticus Finch]

Breaking from tradition, Obama used the speech to criticize the court's decision that allows corporations and unions to freely spend money to run political ads for or against specific candidates.

Government by selective permission.

[SIV]

Particularly shameful after Barbie stole Theresa's culture.

[Seer]

I heard they were only charging 60% of white Barbie's price for black Barbie.

[Chris]

This is all one more example of how little people understand economics.

[Tulpa]

You would have gotten a better response if you said 3/5 instead of 60%.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Well, SugarFree already beat him to the punch downthread, so I don't blame him for rephrasing.

[Tulpa]

Maybe girls like the pink dress better than the blue one.

[SugarFree]

Selling something for less than it was before is clearly the same as lynching.

[Invisible Finger]

Suddenly I have an idea for Barbie accessories.

[Reformed Republican]

Selling black Barbie cheaper than white Barbie is racist! White people should not have to pay more for a culturally appropriate doll for their children.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Dig deeper. Follow the money. THE VERY MARKET WHICH WE ALL CHERISH IS RACIST.

But we already knew that.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Wow, I feel bad for girls having to make these choices. Boys just have ninja turtles, Transformers and multiethnic superhero teams and seldom have to choose between two dolls who are identical save for 'skin' color.

[SugarFree]

Wow. Just nursing that "I didn't get to play with dolls because that not what boys do" grudge pretty hard, aren't you?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Damn it, SugarFree!

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I agree with Roberts' evaluation. Pep rally indeed.

[phryxian houndmaster]

Sounds like people are grasping for any excuse to criticize walmart. If they hadn't changed the price they'd probably be in hot water for doing nothing to encourage sales of black barbie.

[x,y]

Boom, winner.

[Mike Laursen]

The only way out is to do what most other stores do: don't carry the black Barbie at all.

[Flatus Rex]

QFT

[hmm]

When the risk and cost of doing so outweighs the profits they will. If anything Walmart is pragmatic when it comes to retail.

[Tulpa]

What I'm wondering is why they just didn't make fewer of the black dolls. The dynamic of white barbies selling better is not new.

[Flatus Rex]

Quotas.

[Invisible Finger]

In Chicago, WalMart would simply put most of the black Barbie doll stock in the WalMarts in the black neighborhoods.

Except the black aldermen in Chicago don't allow WalMarts in their neighborhood.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Really? That's odd.

[PapayaSF]

It's because lefties hate Walmart.

[John]

Glenn Reynolds made a good point. Thanks to boy Obama's little rant, no one remembers anything he said. They only remember Alito's mouthed response. Next year, everyone will just care about which justices do and do not show up. He basically walked over two of his own speeches.

Next year's SOTUS, in the aftermath of a savage beating at the ballot box and with five of the nine Supreme Court Justices not showing up, should be quite the affair.

[Zeb]

The black Barbie thing is right up there with the cries of racism when the recent tobacco bill allowed menthol but not other cigarette flavors.

[SugarFree]

Corey Haim, Dead at 38.

[Warty]

Our long-awaited deliverance at last. What a relief.

[SugarFree]

Sad to think that Blown Away 2 can never be made by all the original cast.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

So, they can just throw Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones and Forrest Whitaker in there with Feldman. Bam, Blown Away 2.

[John]

I think most people thought Haim and Feldman were the same guy anyway.

And no Lost Boys sequel now either.

[SugarFree]

They already made it: Lost Boys: The Tribe

[John]

Wow.

[SugarFree]

Available used on DVD from Amazon Marketplace for only 99 cents.

[Ska]

Yet Randy "Macho Man" Savage's CD Be A Man is $142.09 new (that's not a typo folks), $29.95 used.

http://www.amazon.com/Be-Man-M.....B0000CF348

[The Art-P.O.G.]

That's probably because Macho Man's "music" is mind-blowing. And after his appearance in Spider-Man Savage had a higher profile as a celebrity than did Corey Haim.

[SugarFree]

Technically, wouldn't the single squeal to both Blown Away and Blown Away be Blown Away 4?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

That's a good question. We have to write a screenplay and prepare a pitch!

[A Lean Hummer]

I'm sure Nicole Eggert is available.

[Pro Libertate]

Jesus, when you have a near-death experience with the shit, stop doing it. Especially if you're a celebrity of sorts.

[JW]

He did stop, only a few seconds too late.

[Lamar]

Heroin isn't health food.

[Hunter]

Christ, just look at that URL... "dead-died-death".

[Rich]

Walmart is raising eyebrows after cutting the price of a black Barbie doll to nearly half of that of the doll's white counterpart

What if they just chalk it up to affirmative action?

[SugarFree]

I think they are saying the price of the doll should be at least 3/5 of the price of the white doll.

[John]

+1. And each doll comes with a mule and 40 acres of land.

[Warty]

Well, that made me choke on my breakfast chili. That shit is too hot to be going down the wrong tube, asshole.

[SugarFree]

There's a special hell waiting for me after that joke. Hopefully it will be less painful that your breakfast chili.

Also, breakfast chili is a horrifying euphemism.

[Pro Libertate]

Chili for breakfast?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I find this 'breakfast chili' dish intriguing and wish to sample some.

[SugarFree]

We take a crunchy, all-beef taco, smother it in nacho cheese, lettuce, tomato and our special southwestern sauce. Then we wrap it in a soft, flour tortilla with a layer of refried beans in-between. Then we wrap that in a savory corn tortilla with a middle layer of Monterey Jack cheese. And it gets even awesomer, when we take a deep-fried gordita shell, smear on a little of our special "guacamolito" sauce and wrap that around the outside. But it gets even bigger! Because we bake it in a corn husk filled with pico de gallo, then then wrap that in an authentic Parisian crepe, filled with egg, gruyere, merguez sausage and Portobello mushroom. But not before we take the whole thing and wrap that in a Chicago style deep dish meat lovers pizza! Well, it's not a Taco Town taco until we roll it up in a blueberry pancake, dip it in batter and deep-fry it until it's golden brown. Then we serve it in all commemorative tote bag filled with spicy vegetarian chili. It's 15 great tastes all rolled into one.

The new pizza crepe taco pancake chili bag. Only at Taco Town.

[Ska]

Posting a Jimmy Fallon era SNL skit in prose? I never thought I'd see the day....

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Clearly it's been brought.

[Warty]

Step 1: Buy a 4 lb sirloin tip or chuck roast. Cut it into about 1 - 1.5 inch cubes and brown the meat on high heat in a mixture of bacon grease and lard. When the meat is nicely browned, add 2 large diced onions and 2 or 3 diced cloves of garlic. Keep the heat high and stir until the onions are clear. Turn down the heat and add 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes (NOT tomato sauce) and 2 large cans of diced or whole tomatoes. Add a diced habanero or two. Bring to a simmer and add cumin and salt to taste. Add a small amount of cinnamon. Stir well. Add 2 cans of black or kidney beans, if desired. Let simmer for ~2 hours.

Step 2: Eat the above for every single meal until it's gone.

Step 3: Enjoy satisfying shits.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Thanks for the recipe.

[Warty]

Don't be shy on the cumin - I probably use a tablespoon or more. And make sure you add enough salt to balance out the tomatoes' acidity.

[Michael Bloomberg]

Bring to a simmer and add cumin and salt to taste.

!!!!!!

Arrest that man!

[Zeb]

Add a tiny bit of cinnamon and some cocoa and you are really there.

[Warty]

I do the cinnamon, but I've never tried cocoa. I do love the hell out of Cincinnati chili, though, so I'll have to try it.

[SugarFree]

Cincy Chili usually uses a bit of ground cardamom as well.

Hilariously complicated chili recipe.

[Warty]

It takes 3 hours of preparation for that guy to take a shit.

[SugarFree]

Maybe, but you know the end product is just full of umami.

[Walmart Exectuive]

There has been a scoring pricing error. Both sororities are winners The price of these dolls are still the same.

[SugarFree]

Convicted serial killer was a winning contestant on The Dating Game

[John]

My favorite part

"Alcala, who already had been convicted for the 1968 rape of an 8-year-old girl, was the first contestant to be introduced in the game-show episode."

They apparently did a thorough background check on the contestants.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Oh, wow. See, ladies, you can do better than that guy.

[SugarFree]

Sometimes--when you can't have Mr. Right--Mr. Good Enough will have to do.

[JW]

The real question is, will the executioner and witnesses blow a big kiss to him, right before he goes "off the air"?

[Maverick]

You can also have this Old Spice "Smell Like a Man" spoof: Smell Like a Mysogynist

[P Brooks]

I think they are saying the price of the doll should be at least 3/5 of the price of the white doll.

Most exxxxxxxcellent.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Trying...not...to...be...offended...arrgghhhhh

[SugarFree]

Isn't the joke more offensive than the praise of it? I am the offensive one here.

And it's why I've never known this emotion humans call love.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Ha ha, I guess so. It's funny and I'm offended all at once. I'm trying to think of something comparable other than real life.

[SugarFree]

SugarFree... as funny and offensive as real life.

I might have to change the blog banner...

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Your current blog banner is perfect, but I wouldn't blame you for saving this quote.

[SugarFree]

Maybe I'll just stick it in the quote roll on the right. I've been meaning to tighten that up a bit.

[Warty]

I hadn't checked your blog in far too long. I'm honored by the meat-muscle tribute to my awesomeness, you magnificent catamite.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

That is a great insult, Warty. Also, I see I'm not the only one who all too recently rediscovered the pleasures of SugarFree's blog.

[SugarFree]

I found that pic on Look At This Fucking Hispter, by the way. I couldn't figure out what to do with until you started talking about power lifting one day.

[Warty]

God, fucking hipsters. Look at me, I fit in girl pants, and wouldn't it be hilarious if I fashioned fake muscles out of meat? It would invert the concepts of masculinity that the patriarchy forces on us, or something like that. Fucking hipsters.

[Maverick]

Herpes is racist and hates women. Also anti-American

[SugarFree]

Copycat. Oh, wait...

[Maverick]

Well, this is awkward . . .

[The Art-P.O.G.]

What's everyone's least favorite dinosaur?

[SugarFree]

Edmontonia. Everyone knows that.

Seriously, fuck those guys.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

The correct answer is the herpesaur.

[SugarFree]

Is this what passes for humor in the modern military?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I actually did use that joke all the time with people from my old units.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

How can you hate Edmontonia? He looks kind of like Anguirus. Dude bit the fuck out of Monster Zero.

[SugarFree]

Really? Sticking up for a dick like Eddie? Really?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Edmontonia is just a misunderstood loner. One day he'll grow out of his shell (ha ha). He's probably just a late bloomer.

[Maverick]

I don't get it

[SugarFree]

Maybe, just maybe, if he had like, I don't know, a cool black leather jacket or something.

[Flatus Rex]

That's why they call it Herpes.

[SugarFree]

US infection rate for 14-49 year-olds with genital herpes reaches 16%.

11.5% for men, 21% for women.

[Maverick]

Here. You can have this herpes medication parody: Herpecol

[The Art-P.O.G.]

"Hamlet 2" was hilarious.

[Zeb]

I had assumed it was higher. So that sounds like good news to me.

[P Brooks]

The next time I go to Walmart for ammo, I'll have to remember to check the price on Pistol Target Barbie (color not important).

[P Brooks]

Trying...not...to...be...offended...arrgghhhhh

[P Brooks]

Great- now the squirrels are trying to get me (deeper) in trouble.

You know we love and respect you, Art. Don't you?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I did until the squirrels caused you to mock me. 😀

[hmm]

Speaking of hate crimes. There's a few people facing a felony hate littering charge in Missouri.
Racist? Yes. Felony? Not so much.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Yeah, I don't see how that's a felony.

[SugarFree]

It's really an oblique sort of insult. A noose? A effigy? A burning cross? Now those are potent symbols of hate. Dumping out a bag of cotton balls is just stupid and lazy.

Of course, look at the two of them. Paragons of their race and peoples. Are we even sure they were trying to be racially insensitive? The pictures of the aftermath look more than anything like the scene of a naughty pillow fight. Were they having a naughty pillow fight?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

They could have formed the cotton balls into a noose shape. That would have been offensive and clever.

[SugarFree]

It very important to them that their KKK hoods are very high thread count.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Ha ha, and the one suspect actually kind of looks like a skinhead.

[SugarFree]

"Only the softest sheets should touch my head, which I shaved in a 7-11 bathroom with my mom's Lady Bic."

[BakedPenguin]

These guys are racist assholes, but last time I checked, assholes had the right to burn flags, etc. If burning a flag is "symbolic speech", how does this not qualify?

They violated the property rights of the owners, but besides than being made to clean up their mess, I don't see how this merits other punishment than social ostracism.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Agree 100%, Penguin. And while they're cleaning up the mess, the owners of the property should oversee them while dressed as Southern Gentlemen, drinking mint juleps and saying "Ah do declare. Lawd, it's hot."

[BakedPenguin]

They should also address the shits as "bwah". "You missed one there, bwah. Pick it up."

[Flatus Rex]

But they can't arrest Rev. Phelps?

[P Brooks]

The Israeli announcement drew an unusually harsh condemnation from Biden, who pointedly arrived 90 minutes late to his scheduled dinner with Netanyahu in an apparent snub Tuesday night.

And I bet he didn't eat his peas, either.

That'll show 'em.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I would've started using my Blackberry while Netanyahu was talking to me. That would show 'em.

[R C Dean]

who pointedly arrived 90 minutes late to his scheduled dinner

If I was Netanyahu, I would have started dinner at the appointed time, and had the butler give Biden a doggie bag when he finally showed up.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

That would be great. And then they could continually passive-aggressively one-up one another for time immemorial.

[Tonio]

The SOTU kefuffle was a pretty significant break from tradition for both POTUS and SCOTUS. The way this normally goes down is that the justices sit there impassively, and the prez acknowledges their presence but doesn't comment on their decisions. President Obama broke with this tradition by openly criticizing a SCOTUS decision. I don't believe any president since FDR had openly criticized the SCOTUS. Bad form, and perhaps a harbinger of things to come.

Will be interesting to see if fewer justices attend the next SOTU.

[yonemoto]

is that to mean BHO will start rounding up the japanese and sending them to internment camps? fuck.

[P Brooks]

Very early Friday morning, someone threw cotton balls outside the Culture Center. The offensive act sparked a town hall meeting on the Campus Monday night. At the meeting, students discussed what to do in response to the racist display. Police investigated the incident as a hate crime.

The incident left many students, particularly African Americans, upset. One student calling it on Friday the face of evil and flat out racism. The school administration termed it "inexcusable and despicable."

"The FACE OF EVIL?"

I get the whole "cotton picking" connotation (at least, I assume that's what's going on here), but... seriously, if your skin is *this* thin, how long will it be before your pancreas just falls out on the sidewalk?

[P Brooks]

What is left in your rhetorical arsenal for people who drag living human beings behind pickup trucks?

[anonymous]

That's my worry. Hate crimes laws came into being because people did horrific, brutal, murderous shit. Even then, they were unnecessary (given that horrific brutal murders are already punished pretty severely), but at least they were punishing people who had done something terrible.

Once you start throwing hate crimes charges for petty, nonviolent shit, will anyone who isn't already a whiny liberal pussy actually take them seriously? On the other hand, it will become more obvious that hate crime laws are mainly just a technicality to punish people legally for being racists and/or bigots, and so maybe they will finally be declared unconstitutional.

[Warty]

Wisconsin is drunk

[SugarFree]

The single red dot in Kentucky is where I live.

[Isaac Bartram]

I see Key West, Marathon, Islamorada and Key Largo are all in the more bars than grocery stores camp.

[Solanum]

Steve Smith spotted in Maine

[Warty]

And in Pittsburgh

[Warty]

When crazy meets crazy

[SugarFree]

That's just nuts. All around nuts.

But I do plan to publicly denounce Episiarch as a Fed.

[Solanum]

However, Mr. Two-time Superbowl Champ feels he's above the law. He feels untouchable. We'll see if he's telfon when the alleged rape becomes a rape case.

Well said. As a life long Steelers hater, I fully support forgoing the formality of a trial. A castration, followed by a summary execution, is in order.

[Flatus Rex]

You're not a professor at Duke by any chance, are you?

[Tulpa]

I would think the Neo-Confederates would be a big market for the excess product, as they'd want their kids to experience what it's like to own a black girl.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

OMG, you guys are terrible. 🙂

[Flatus Rex]

Or what it's like to be Madonna or Agelina Jolie.

[good news]

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