Reason Morning Links: Spill Estimate Grows, Dems Prospects Brighten, More Violence in Mexico

• New congressional polls have Democrats optimistic.
• Estimates of oil leak swell to 60,000 barrels per day.
• Blackwater chief reportedly moving to the United Arab Emirates.
• Hundreds dead in new wave of drug violence in Mexico.
• Closing arguments begin in California same-sex marriage trial.

Comments

[Joe M]

This sent me into orbit, so I thought I'd share my rage:

Pharmeceutical Stats

I think we should rename Prozac. Let's call it Miracle Anti-Depressant.

[Slut Bunwalla]

I notice this chart makes no mention of the millions and millions and millions of dollars pharmaceutical companies spend on research and testing and the like. Contrary to what that chart wants you to think, there are way more costs to making a drug than just the individual ingredients of a pill.

[CoyoteBlue]

No. No. No.
They just mix the "active ingredients" together with a mortar and pestle like the old timey alchemists.

And if Dr. Weissman developed cures to diabetes and cancer, WTF did he do with them? [it's like those secret carberators that run on water that GM hides]

[Suki]

Joe M. sounds like the people that think a music CD should cost the same as a blank CD.

[The Gobbler]

My brother (PhD in organic Chemestry from UCLA by age 25 followed by post-doc at Columbia) worked for Roche for nearly thirty years. They could easily spend 10 years and more than a billion dollars on a drug that didn't work out.

The seemingly high prices that filled you with rage are an attempt at covering that loss.

If you think the price of drugs is too high, then don't buy them.

[Suki]

To the Joe M's of the world, the billions spent on something that didn't work just evaporates and new money comes from where that came from. Money is magic to them that you are born with.

[John]

I like how there is this miracle cure for diabetes out there but big pharm is keeping it from being developed. Just like GM and Exxon killed that 200 mpg engine back in the 1970s.

[Suki]

My beloved loves the 200 mpg car thing. Sometimes he will string others along before letting them know he got an engineering degree before he opened his garage.

[John]

When I as in middle school, I had a kooky science teacher who put out the 200 MPG car conspiracy. I went home and asked my father about it. He made a brilliant point. If we had such a thing, why would the Soviets, who stole everything they could including the atomic bomb secrets, have not stolen the plans and used it in their military? Such a device would give the side that has it a tremendous advantage in logistics. I pointed that out the next day to my teacher and he had a sort of melt down. Man did that guy hate me after that.

[Joe M]

Damn it, I knew this would be misunderstood. That's why I made the Atlas Shrugged reference.

My rage comes from the disingenuous bullshit this chart is pumping out, which Slut Bunwalla so kindly pointed out re the unmentioned expenses of developing the drugs.

My Atlas Shrugged reference was more particularly about the gripe about patent laws, which, if they didn't exist, would discourage drug development even more.

[Suki]

Joe M! Stop doing that. I wasted so much giggling only to find out you are on the same side as the sane.

[Joe M]

Haha, and the saddest part is, every single one of your comments came after I cleared things up. Didn't you ever learn to read all the instructions before you started? For shame.

[Joe]

I learned that if nothing else works read the instructions. If that don't work follow them.

[Brett L]

Is this your first time on the Internet?

[Slut Bunwalla]

Whoops. Sorry.

[Rhywun]

There is a lot of BS in the chart but there is no way I'm accepting the existence of "Restless Leg Syndrome" or "Social Anxiety Disorder".

[Jason]

I think I should hire the guy who created this chart to do my R&D and pay him according to the R&D costs in the chart...

[Suki]

Blackwater chief reportedly moving to the United Arab Emirates.

Some guy on Facebook from Dubai was telling me you can't go to the UAE if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. Is that true or some crazy rumor? I know Israel doesn't care if Americans have been to UAE first.

[GoNavy]

I have heard this before. What I have been told is the Isralies either by routine or by request insert a loose sheet into your passport for the stamp. After leaving Isreal, you are free to discard the sheet.

[Timon19]

This is true. Also, even if you do have a stamp, you may not get hassled depending on your business and whether or not you're just waltzing in through the normal immigration at the airport like everyone else.

[?]

If it was on Facebook it has to be true.

[Suki]

Sol, you are so wise. That is why you are the day star.

[kinnath]

My co-workers in England have two passports, one that they use to visit Israel and one that they use to visit the rest of the Middle East. Apparently it is common practice to be issued two passports specifically for this purpose.

[Suki]

Then Israel gets my tourist dollars, not UAE. If I ever get to go.

[Timon19]

Suki, you'd be missing a good time. Though I've heard Israel is a great time, too.

[Suki]

I already have an invite from the guy, lol. Sounds better than the one from Pakistan that made the blog 😉

[Timon19]

BTW, I'd seriously consider skipping Dubai for Abu Dhabi. Dubai is a big pile of fakery with a massive traffic problem (though it is cool as shit driving down the Sheikh Zayed Road for miles with skyscrapers on either side). 'Course now that Dubai's economy has collapsed, the traffic is a fair bit better, I imagine. Abu Dhabi resembles an actual city and still has lots of cool shit to do and look at. It's a pretty fascinating place.

[Timon19]

That's also pretty common, but I think it's a bit harder to do here (i.e. must be justified to the State Dept.).

[NeonCat]

According to Coming Anarchy UAE doesn't recognize Israeli passports but doesn't bar people who have been to Israel from coming into the UAE.

[2010 Voter]

The public's anti-Washington mood remains robust, with 55 percent saying they want a new member of Congress

And the other 45 percent seriously considering it. Every incumbent out in November.

[Kolohe]

Your older brothers and sisters said the same thing when they were your age.

The re-election rates during two most recent 'political earthquakes' ('94 and '06)?

94%

http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php

[2010 Voter]

"Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results."

We'll see.

[?]

New congressional polls have Democrats optimistic.

RIGGED POLLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY

A poll with a nonrepresentative TEAM BLUE!-heavy sample is released to depress TEAM RED! with "New congressional polls have Democrats optimistic" headlines, not to make Democrats optimistic.

[John]

Yeah. And the poll questions don't ask anything. So what if they "trust the Democrats"? That doesn't mean they are going to vote for them. And any poll that polls anyone other than likely voters is worthless anyway.

[Corduroy]

"The good news for Democrats: By a margin of 47 percent to 42 percent, people trust them more than Republicans to guide the economy"

No words to add. Just confused.

[Pro Libertate]

Guide it where? And, of course, this is contrary to just about every other poll on the topic. Not to mention that history shows that we're quick to oust a ruling party that flounders during a recession. And they're floundering.

[Jordan Elliot]

Guide it straight in to the ground I guess.

I suppose it doesn't really matter which party is in control however. At best, if we get a "change" in November, the growth of the cancer that we call government MAY be mildly retarded. I'm not even expecting that much though.

[Pro Libertate]

Me, either. All I want is some gridlock to slow the shit down. If the GOP newbies prove to be worth anything, they'll attempt to undo some of the damage. Here's betting that they do no such thing.

[Spoonman.]

I suppose I would be a "no difference", because I don't trust anyone to "guide the economy". I wonder how many people who would prefer Republicans (not that I do) would say similar things.

[Rich]

It continues a pattern in which every new estimate of the flow rate has been dramatically higher than the one before.

Here we go again. I'm shocked, *shocked* no one has estimated, say, a million barrels/day so they can goose up the crisis to martial law, eventually get some perverse kudos for good work on cutting the flow, etc.

[Attorney]

Good news for Republicans: Obama announces renewed effort to force another giant government program down people's throats.

[Solanum]

"Every Cop's Dream Arrest"

The L.A. Times reports on a defense attorney arrested for drug possession . . . at the downtown criminal courthouse. Priceless.

- Jack Dunphy

lulz. Too bad Jack is being dead serious about this being a cop's dream.

[SugarFree]

The assrag behind the Dunphy nom de plume is, and will remain, my argument against trusting and siding with the police on just about any matter. He/She/It is pretty much everything wrong with law enforcement and should be strapped to a rocket and fired into the sun.

[Ska]

I'm sure Dunphy is just as enthralled as when he reads about some cop getting away with a drunken vehicular manslaughter, or a suspension with pay for robbing a local merchant.

Classy guy, and a great representative of LEOs.

[SugarFree]

An earlier run in with Dunphy in which I call someone a "cuntscile."

[Warty]

The best way to judge a man is by what he thinks is funny.

[John]

Klein really is setting a high standard for know nothing liberal douche.

[Esoteric]

Klein = BACKPFEIFENGESICHT.

Never forget.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

I don't even understand why that is supposed to be funny enough to understand why it makes him a doosh.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

I don't even understand why that is supposed to be funny enough to understand why it makes him a doosh.

[John]

The people of Louisiana think Bush did a better job with Katrina than BO is doing with the oil spill.

"Our new Louisiana poll has a lot of data points to show how unhappy voters in the state are with Barack Obama's handling of the oil spill but one perhaps sums it up better than anything else- a majority of voters there think George W. Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama's done dealing with the spill.

50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama.

Overall only 32% of Louisianans approve of how Obama has handled the spill to 62% who disapprove. 34% of those polled say they approved of how Bush dealt with Katrina to 58% who disapproved."

http://publicpolicypolling.blo.....spill.html

wow.

[Barack Obama]

... ultimately BP is getting the largest amount of blame from voters in the state. 53% of voters say they're angriest at the oil company to 29% who say their greatest unhappiness is with the federal government.

Booyah!

[Timon19]

That's really a statistical dead heat, but it is interesting.

[John]

But think about how the media went after Bush over Katrina and how they are trying to soft peddle things for Obama. Even with a state run media, Obama still is in a dead heat with Bush. That is amazing.

[Timon19]

Yeah. Certainly is interesting.

[Jordan Elliot]

Eh. That's just cause they're racist.

Serious note, that is definitely serious bitchslap laid down on El Jefe.

[Pip]

Residents get 6 votes each in suburban NY election

PORT CHESTER, N.Y. ? Arthur Furano voted early ? five days before Election Day. And he voted often, flipping the lever six times for his favorite candidate. Furano cast multiple votes on the instructions of a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a new election system crafted to help boost Hispanic representation.

Voters in Port Chester, 25 miles northeast of New York City, are electing village trustees for the first time since the federal government alleged in 2006 that the existing election system was unfair. The election ends Tuesday and results are expected late Tuesday.

Although the village of about 30,000 residents is nearly half Hispanic, no Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats, which until now were chosen in a conventional at-large election. Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201.....s_election

[John]

That is outrageous. That judge ruled the elections unfair because people with the wrong colored skin won. There was no evidence that Hispanics were discriminated against or denied the vote. They just didn't vote or voted for white candidates. But in liberal world brown people can only be represented by race hustling brown people. So the election results had to go.

[John]

http://www.therightscoop.com/m.....ng-is-here

I really like Christie.

[Esoteric]

If the GOP can ever earn my respect back even somewhat, it'll be through guys like Christie.

He's a gun-grabber, though. Oh well, in tough times I take whatever the hell I can get.

[Nipplemancer]

all NJ politicians are gun-grabbers, it's a feature not a bug. I hate my state.

[qwerty]

Damn, he's awesome.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Hahaha, oh man. Self-righteous Jezebel moron "sacrifices" the wedding she doesn't want for solidarity with gays, uses lots and lots of words to tell everyone what a wonderful progressive she is.

http://jezebel.com/5563885/i-w.....-got-to-me

[Timon19]

I refuse to click through at work. Synopsis?

[Slut Bunwalla]

Uh, Self-righteous Jezebel moron "sacrifices" the wedding she doesn't want for solidarity with gays, uses lots and lots of words to tell everyone what a wonderful progressive she is.

[Timon19]

I was hoping for excerpts, maybe some commentary.

[Slut Bunwalla]

I moved in with my boyfriend after only a couple of months of dating, and I knew even then we were never breaking up. I knew I had found the man I wanted to marry.

Now I'm not so sure, though it has nothing to do with him.

snip

I also knew that it was really more for my family than for me. Because for my Catholic family? and my boyfriend's Jewish family? marriage is basically required, and certainly expected, if you're planning on starting a life and family with someone. It is also required if you want to do things like sleep in the same room at my Dad's house. (Yes, even when you've been living together for 3 years.) If it were up to me, it'd be City Hall and a handful of people. Of course that would piss everyone off, so at some point I resigned myself to the fact that my giant family and my boyfriend's rather large family would inevitably collide at Papa Fox's country club.

snip

It started with me thinking about who I would want to fly in, want in the wedding, and need for emotional and pharmaceutical support. It occurred to me that some of those people would not be able to get married themselves, at least not where I live (NYC) or where I'm from (STL), and that even if they did get married in Iowa, the Federal government would never recognize their full rights thanks to Bill Clinton signing the Defense of Marriage Act. (DOMA)

snip

I have loved Charlize since That Thing You Do!, and when she said she didn't feel right about getting married when so many people can't, I realized I totally agreed with her, but hadn't actually ever thought about it in that way.

Shortly after that part I just started skimming the rest. It's a LONG piece. What I just quoted there is probably not even a fifth of the whole thing. She really, REALLY wants everyone to know what a good little progressive she is and how much she's "sacrificing" by not getting married, etc.

[John]

It is idiotic anyway. I think people in Chicago have a constitutional right to own a gun. But I am not giving up my guns in protest. How does her not getting married help gay people?

[Astrid]

It doesn't. It just means there will be less legal and financial mess to clean up when she does break it.

[Astrid]

It doesn't. It just means there will be less legal and financial mess to clean up when she does break it off.

Preview is for the weak.

[John]

"Preview is for the weak."

You said it sister.

[Slut Bunwalla]

I didn't read the entire thing because goddamn was it long, but I read a pretty solid chunk of it and noticed that there didn't seem to be even one mention of how the boyfriend felt about this.

[Timon19]

Jesus Christ. My wife and I had a lot of the same agreements in the first few paragraphs (that it is mainly for the families), but we did it anyway - for our families. It's an excuse to have a big old party where you treat your friends and family to a really nice dinner and lots of booze.

I mean, fuck. Gay people can party and eat, too, right?

[John]

No shit. Gay people have weddings all the time. They just don't get a marriage license.

[CoyoteBlue]

Without the sanction of lazy county clerk and a few tax breaks, they aren't even human!

[Butts Wagner]

And she loves the movie That Thing You Do!!

It's so deep and contemplative, like her.

[Jordan Elliot]

On the bright side, her parents, the groom, and his parents won't be out $60K when they break up in 3-5 years.

[GoNavy]

Too bloody right. Feminism seems to end when they get to dress up as a princess and hand the bill to daddy.

[Jordan Elliot]

I have to give her some credit. I agree with some of what she's saying in regards to not feeling the importance of the institution and the absurd expense.

On the other hand, she's a friggin' dingbat for sure.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Yeah, I agree with a few of the specifics in there (particularly the stuff about diamonds), but it's just...her motivations for the conclusions she's come to are really dumb.

[T]

Silly twunt was only getting married to make everybody else happy. She just invented a justification for not doing something she didn't want to do anyway. The column is just her rationalizing out loud so she can convince herself she did the right thing.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Exactly. I was pleasantly surprised to see several people in the comments section on that post actually dare to point this out.

[Timon19]

Bingo. Plus, chicks are wordy.

[Ragin Cajun]

Chatroulette Plans Penis-Recognition Algorithm to Block Pervy Users

[Lonewacko Intern]

More brown people dead? Good

[Jordan Elliot]

Shut the fuck up, Lonewackolyte.

[Juanita]

Shut the hell up racist.

[Lonewacko Intern]

Both of you are PC losers, brown people contribute nothing to America but crime. Its bad enough we have blacks and a tiny brown people island but now losertarians cite these stories to get the PC public to feel sorry for these pieces of trash.

[.]

Shut the fuck up, Max.

[The Gobbler]

"brown people contribute nothing to America but crime"

I beg to differ:

http://heavytable.com/chimborazo-in-minneapolis/

[Juanita]

We need to do something to stop this unacceptable violence in Mexico. We need to intensify the war on drugs.

[Nipplemancer]

yup. cause escalating the violence will surely end it. retard.

[Jason]

I wonder how many dead in drug violence is morally acceptable to keep 1 person off drugs.

[P Brooks]

A few minutes ago, CNBC showed a shot of Tony Hayward doing the perp walk through the White House gates, en route to his obligatory ring-kissing session with His Imperiousness.

[The Gobbler]

In just 4 1/2 months, the Obummer will be a lame duck.

[.]

Uh, I'm kinda hoping for former prez.

[Warty]

Orwell today

It is impossible even yet to decide what to do in the case of German conquest of England. The one thing I will not do is to clear out, at any rate not further than Ireland, supposing that to be feasible. If the fleet is intact and it appears that the war is to be continued from America and the Dominions, then one must remain alive if possible, if necessary in the concentration camp. If the U.S.A is going to submit to conquest as well, there is nothing for it but to die fighting, but one must above all die fighting and have the satisfaction of killing somebody else first.

[John]

That was only six days before the French surrendered. Dark days.

[Ragin Cajun]

And only two days before this speech.

[pantsfan]

Most annoying sound in the World Cup

[John]

I said in the other thread, the President is getting to be like our national vuvuzela.

[Timon19]

After listening to it for nearly a week, it's blended into white noise.

[Warty]

It would be trivial for the networks to do a notch filter of that frequency. I don't understand why they don't.

[pantsfan]

Vuvuzela Instruction Manual

[Timon19]

There's been some evidence that they have. The guys on the radio were talking about ESPN doing the filtering.

[.]

Sounds like geese on steroids.

[P Brooks]

Has the Ascended One even offered a flimsy legal pretext for his plan to seize BP's assets and hold them "in trust" for restitution? Or is he just taking the fallback Nixonian position?

[Esoteric]

From the LA Times, incredibly awesome photo caption of the day:

http://tinyurl.com/29k2sqt

[Esoteric]

I gotta learn how to post hyperlinks, dammit...

[Ska]

Ask SugarFree, he's the best.

[Warty]

[a href="http://link.url"]link text[/a]

Replace the brackets with greater than and less than signs.

[smartass sob]

Here ya go, Esoteric. Also here

[SugarFree]

http://tinyurl.com/29k2sqt

[Mike M.]

Austerity and the beginnings of common sense are formally underway in Europe, as France raises the retirement age from 60 (?!) to 62.

It's pretty sad when socialist, leftist western Europe can embrace reality better than the U.S. democratic party.

[P Brooks]

New oil spill estimate: 267.62481 trillion gazillion bajillion barrels.

[Draco]

In addition, people want Democrats to win control of Congress by a 46 percent to 39 percent margin.

This produces as much confusion in my mind as the following fictional headline:

Poll finds plurality of Americans want to have their entrails torn out and burned in front of them while still alive, and then to be beaten to death with baseball bats

Seriously, the Left Wing Media have done such a great job of demonizing George W. Bush over the past 10 years that some people probably still think he is running things (or at least ruining things) and the only way to salvation is to vote Democrat.

[Invisible Finger]

Please note that the ORIGINAL estimates from the ENGINEERS regarding the oil leak was 60,0000 barrels a day.

In other words, the leak isn't getting worse, the government is finally getting closer to the truth after spewing lies for TWO MONTHS. But their repeated lies make it sound like BP is making a bad situation worse when in fact BP's efforts are making no difference.