Reason Morning Links: House Passes Wall Street Bill, Gore Re-investigated, Al Qaeda Launches a Magazine

• House passes financial overhaul bill.
• Al Qaeda launches English-language magazine.
• Portland police re-open investigation into massage therapist's accusation that Al Gore sexually assaulted her.
• Obama: America's first female president?
• Christopher Hitchens diagnosed with esophageal cancer.

Comments

[John]

http://www.classicalvalues.com.....he_po.html

He who shall not be named is the only person at the Post who wrote anything about the Philadelphia Black Panther case. I am sure it is pure coincidence that his e-mails were leaked and the Post had an excuse to fire him.

[SugarFree]

It's just hugs all around.

[John]

You causes a nutralanche and broke the site. What is that a picture of?

[SugarFree]

Weigel and McArdle getting all cozy. It's a flickr image, it might be blocked for you.

[Fluffy]

McArdle looks plastered.

[SugarFree]

Weigel looks ecstatic to finally know the touch of a woman. Even through the three or four shirts he seems to be wearing.

[John]

She probably was. Is it from the now infamous Suderman McArdle wedding? I stopped reading McArdle in 08 after she spent weeks railing against the GM bailout but then somehow thought TARP was a moral imperative. God forbid any of her friends from Wharton lose their jobs.

[SugarFree]

I found it through GIS. It's persisting image from a deleted sub-page of http://allsaints-catholicchurch-lanchester.co.uk/

[grrizzly]

Isn't Cathy Young there too?

[SIV]

must...resist...caption...

[Tobor]

the Post had an excuse to fire him

Fire who? Weigel? See, I can name him. The "He who shall not" etc. silliness is just that, John. Grow up a little.

[John]

No it is not. Reason has issued an iron law that no one can spoof him on here without risking the wrath of the staff. They really hate when people talk about him. Lighten up.

[SIV]

I doubt they care what we say about Weigel. I could see a spoof causing a shitstorm when some blogger or "journalist" thinks it's the real deal.

[John]

I know. And I understand their concerns. I just think it is funny and think they are a bit overblown. I could go register as "Dave Weigel" on gmail and comment on a million blogger sites. Somehow I think that people would realize it wasn't him.

[Al Grope]

True dat. He can spell.

[SugarFree]

Instead of a Hrry Pttr reference, I'd rather just see him referred to as THE FORBIDDEN!

Always caps, always exclamation point.

[John]

I like that one.

[hmm]

Didn't Timmah already name him? I forgot what it was.

[John]

Scandal Boy.

[Timmy]

TIMMEH!

[Man]

for reasons requiring no elaboration, women form circles and talk it out.

Could you elaborate?

[SugarFree]

A sad end for the unholy offspring of Dagny and Steve Smith.

Imagine their surprise when they found out it wasn't a suit.

[Astrid]

It's hard being a half-breed.

[SugarFree]

Half-breed. That's all he's ever heard. Oh, how he's learned to hate the word. Both sides have been against him since the day he was born.

[Pro Libertate]

Cher? Is that Cher?

[SugarFree]

Yep.

[Pro Libertate]

Just for the record, I somehow knew that without looking it up. Could she have performed it on The Sonny and Cher Show? 'Cause I watched that regularly as a wee lad.

[SugarFree]

Yes, like "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" it was one of the elaborate set pieces.

[Pro Libertate]

I liked the show. Then again, I was about pre-school age.

About time that the variety hour come back to TV, with all of its evil, campy goodness.

[Ted S.]

You forgot Dark Lady.

[Pro Libertate]

Cher: Gypsy or American Indian?

[John]

And the product of a rape. Or at least that is what Dagny is saying.

[John]

Considering his accuser claims to have DNA evidence, it looks like Al's fate is in the hands of his old friend: science!

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/07.....z0sQy9gt2K

[Crazed Sex Poodle]

Will you release my second chakra?

[Mo]

The stock market has predicted nine of the last five recessions.

[Mo]

Oops, replied to the wrong comment.

[John]

Wrong thread Mo. And yeah, the market is not the end all be all. But losing 10% in one quarter can't be good.

[Tony]

And raising taxes won't hurt the economy.

[Soonerliberty]

That's why the Soviet economy with 100% taxes was so fabulously wealthy.

[Bingo]

Considering he invented the internet, I would have expected him to have posted a craigslist ad instead.

I mean a random craigslist encounter has got to be better than what he was after.

[Stretchy]

Considering Al Gore never claimed to have invented the internet, I'd say you're either ignorant or a liar. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

[Warty]

Are you new at this internet thing or something?

[Almanian]

Warty, probably so - we know he wasn't there at The Inventing TM

[T]

You should go here and read up, Stretchy. Might help with things around these parts.

[swillfredo pareto]

So you are verifying that Al said:

I took the initiative in creating the Internet.

but you think it is beyond the pale to say that Al claimed he invented the Internet? Maybe lighten up a bit and get a sense of humor while you are at it.

[Schempf]

He went for the box but it was locked.

[SIV]

Talking Points Memo?

[John]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/38022919

Dow down 10% in Quarter 2. It is recovery summer remember?

[Rich]

John, this *is* the recovery.

[Tomcat1066]

Remember that they're calculating money saved or created. If it hadn't been for the government, it would have dropped 38%.

They're the government. You can trust that they're right.

[Rich]

Democrats say the proposal would prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial meltdown that led to a worldwide economic slump.

Cut the crap. Legislators who are so certain of the results of their experiments should put their careers on the line. If this monstrosity becomes law and there is *ever* another "financial meltdown" (as determined by polling The American People?), every proponent should resign, waive his/her pension, and be banned from "public service" for life.

[SugarFree]

Feminists finally find Barbie that they think sends a positive body message.

[Subsidize Me!]

Next up: Trans Barbie... And Surprised Ken!

[Ken]

Maybe Delighted Ken?

[Ted S.]

Earring Magic Ken

[Bingo]

Calling Obama the First Female President is pretty damn misogynistic.

[Lost_In_Translation]

This engineer feels like he could write a more compelling article than that tripe. I can state more interesting and thorough assumptions that would provide more entertainment and the same level of factual support (which is to say, none).

Every time I read something in a newspaper, it makes me more and more certain that that industry deserves failure.

[Bingo]

Yeah, the writing style was as bad as the premise. The author poses a bunch of unbacked conjectures and rhetorical questions and then on the following page goes "well we can't really know anyways".

Well gee, what the fuck was the point of writing the damn article?

[Katheen Parker]

Well gee, what the fuck was the point of writing the damn article?

$300 and getting the boss off my case.

[John]

Parker is horrible. She is an a absolute terrible writer. Yet, a lot of other journalists thing she is great. I really don't get it.

[Ska]

Extra misspellings and terrible grammar really stress your point.

😉

[J sub D]

Jeebus that article is pure crapola. It is so bad I'm angry at Radley for providing the link. Had he not, I'd have remained blissfully unaware that WaPo allows such infantile claptrap to be promulgated under their banner.

[Bingo]

If they paid any amount of money for her to write that they got ripped off. Hell, if she wrote it for free they got ripped off by hosting the damn thing. Considering what they produce, editorial columnists are some of the most over-paid people in the world (next to politicians and lawyers).

[Atanarjuat]

First of all, I'm in agreement that the article was utterly useless.

I don't think that doing things a woman's way is evidence of deficiency but, rather, suggests an evolutionary achievement.

Unless I'm misreading that quote, that's damn sexist. I bet a male columnist saying men are more advanced/"evolved" than women would be fired.

[Stretchy]

Damn, you beat me to it. I guess womyn are just more evolved that us knuckledragging imbeciles.

[cynical]

Well, he's passive-aggressive and tries to blame his failings on other people...

[Max]

Once again, fellow libertoids, there is nothing in the news that would cause us to question what we already believe!

[CoyoteBlue]

RELEASE THE SECOND CHAKRA!

[SugarFree]

With the possible exception of puns, jokes show the steepest plunge in diminishing semantic returns. Telling the same joke over and over becomes stale very quickly. When you factor in the fact that the joke wasn't funny in the first place and was meant as ironic humor to highlight something commonplace among all web forums with a political bent, then the semantic value of the repeated allegedly-pointed-yet-nonsensical joke reaches toward zero with a speed that would astonish light.

[Tomcat1066]

How can it reach zero when that's where it started at?

[SugarFree]

If you dissembled the sentence, there would still be the semantic value of individual words, a floor to the value of the sentence, so to speak. It is only the wasting of the words by stringing them in that pathetic excuse for a joke that they become less than the sum their parts. Edward is actually destroying information by using the basic building blocks of language so poorly.

[Fluffy]

Maybe this should be brought to Stephen Hawking's attention.

Does the information Edward destroyed later escape the black hole of his brain by quantum means, as Hawking radiation?

[SugarFree]

Possibly. And if your hypothesis is correct, then he may just eventually evaporate.

[J sub D]

Somebody notify Craphole, West Virginia that we've located their missing village idiot.

[Max]

And, once again, I go back on my pledge to never again post here.

Yeah, I'm a fucking liar, but it's okay when WE do it.

[Mike M.]

National debt soars to highest level since World War II, with no end in sight.

[The Ghost of Albert Einstein]

And ... the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.

[Mike M.]

Hey, there's nothing to worry about : economic geniuses like Paul Krugman say that because interest rates are low today, they're going to stay that way forever.

[Paul Krugman]

Not only will rates continue to be low, they will soon actually become negative.

Mark my words.

[rustedangel]

Factor in quantitative easing, and the US is current'y running about -2% federal funds rate.

[dbcooper]

What's Duke lacrosse players' accuser up to these days?

http://gawker.com/5576761/the-.....conference

ps. Many gawker commentators still hateful idiots.

What's John Edwards up to? Hitting the student bars in Durham.

http://www.tnr.com/article/pol.....mNhNjUzYzU

I'm still amazed that there were many people who couldn't instantly tell that he was a sociopath.

[dbcooper]

Edit to add: what's he up to? Hitting up the college bars.

[dbcooper]

Edit to add: I need more caffeine.

[SIV]

Gawker can't even spell her name correctly.

[Rev. Al Sharpton]

Is there no end to the misery you people cause this poor woman?

[hmm]

More importantly in that neck of the woods.

http://mungowitzend.blogspot.c.....html#links

Congrats!

[Spoonman.]

My wife's family loved John Edwards because they thought he would trick dull Southerners into voting Democrat.

Seriously.

[Fluffy]

Oh, come ON!

When he got to the door, Edwards was disappointed to learn the bar was closed for a private event. A group of Duke public policy grad students had reserved the space to celebrate the end of the semester at a party they call "Prom." Inside, a DJ mixed dance music, while a scrum of twentysomethings jostled for drinks. Edwards and his friends turned to leave. Matthew Jentgen, a 28-year-old environmental policy student collecting tickets at the door, furiously lobbied them to come inside. "I told him, 'We're public policy students, it'd be interesting to have you at the party,'" Jentgen recently recalled. "He was looking as if he was wondering if he wanted to come in or not.... I wore him down, because, eventually, they came in."

Yeah, SURE. I'm SURE that he "just happened" to stumble across a bar full of public policy grad students, and that he had to be "talked into" coming inside.

Right. Yup. That's what happened.

A pretty-boy philandering Democrat "accidentally" walked up to the bar in town most likely to allow him to collect the phone numbers of hot 24 year old poli sci grad students.

[Phil Smith]

hot 24 year old poli sci grad students.

If your definition of "hot" is somewhere between Rachel Maddow and Elena Kagan, I'm sure he hit paydirt.

[Fluffy]

No way, this was DUKE.

Duke has certain appearance standards.

Like Georgetown.

It's not like this was UChicago or BU or something.

[John]

Exactly. I guarantee there were some hot women in there. Phil is thinking more of Wellesley

[Fluffy]

Spam Alert:

Some of you folks were kind enough to take a look at my previous half-ass attempt at publication. I'm back with something even more half-ass:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003TZLVOC/reasonmagazinea-20/

The Last Days of Jericho is my take on the Old Testament story of Yahweh's destruction of Bronze Age Canaan. I reimagine it as a Gojira-type story.

I feel less weird about spamming it here than the last one, because it has a quasi-Reason-oriented subtext criticizing the pseudoStraussian claim that the Judeo-Christian tradition is a better foundation for public morality than secular humanism.

I now return the balance of my spamming minutes to anon-bot.

[John]

Damn. That looks really good. Interesting topic. Ever watch the Naked Archeologist? He did a show on Jericho which included a re-enactment using legos. It was great.

[Fluffy]

I have not seen that.

I did like the History Channel thing they did about Joshua's military campaigns, though.

[John]

Sadly Simka doesn't seem to be making any new ones lately. But, the Naked Archeologist is a great show. Its repeats are still on History International. The premise is he takes biblical events and sees if there is any archeology to back them up. It is speculative. And he gives archeologists who have new theories times. But it is well done, entertaining and generally pretty informative.

[Fluffy]

I have to watch it then, because I love that shit.

I'm one of those people who can actually get angry reading Bryant Wood. So I am the target market for that show.

I'd probably yell at the screen and make my neighbors think I was watching a hockey game.

[John]

Totally. A lot of people get really stirred up about his show and films. But, he never claims to be a historian. He is a film maker. And you are free to take or leave the theories presented on the show. It is more thought provoking that hard historical fact. And he is a very funny guy. Very dry sense of humor. I mean what other Orthodox Jew would do a re-enactment of Jericho with legos?

Imagine Michael Moore if he were actually funny, not an asshole, and did shows on biblical archeology.

[robc]

Half Deuteronomy, half Gojira

Shouldnt that be "Half Joshua, half Gojira"?

[SugarFree]

"Deuteronomy" always sounded like a body part to me. One you'd have to pay a hooker quite a lot to touch.

I'll read it on my iPad, just to irritate the rest of you.

[Fluffy]

I am more concerned with the Ban, which occurs in Deuteronomy.

There are elements of Joshua, though, of course.

The bad cover content is designed to be marketing material, though, and more people recognize Deuteronomy as the name of a book of the Bible than Joshua. You need succinct little recognizable phrases for Facebook and Twitter. Like "Size Matters", which I think I will use at some point.

[Fluffy]

Oops, that's "back" cover content.

I guess my subconscious is still not 100% thrilled with the cover.

[robc]

I like the cover. And yeah, I figured Deuteronomy was used because of recognition, I was just being pedantic.

[Glibby]

I think you should meld Genesis with the Planet of the Apes.

[Pip]

Snake: Care for a banana, sweety?
Chimpaneve: that's a mighty tempting offer...

[robc]

Also interesting (dont know if mentioned in your novel) is that Rahab the Jericho prostitute is the great-great-grandmother of King David.

[Fluffy]

Rahab appears, but her future significance is not covered.

Since the story is told from the Canaanite perspective, Rahab does not get good press.

[robc]

I wouldnt expect that it does. She is a traitor from their perspective.

I didnt know if their was any kind of foreshadowing of her future import in characterization or anything. You know, being good with a sling or peeping at hot chicks taking baths, that kind of thing.

[robc]

Lets see, so David's g-g-grandmother was a Canaanite and his g-grandmother was a moabite (Ruth). He was pretty un-jewish wasnt he? Explains Solomon marrying the foreign chicks, it was family tradition.

[Bingo]

Digital-only?

[Fluffy]

There is also a paperback version. If you can't click through to it from that page, it has its own page here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1452878420/reasonmagazinea-20/

I didn't include both links because I assumed Reason would block that.

[SIV]

now return the balance of my spamming minutes to anon-bot.

Fuck that Check out my blog. It's still "Almost SFW"

[Fluffy]

"Access to that page is restricted at this time".

Curses!

[jtuf]

Hey Fulffy. I missed you on the post about Columbia Univerisity's land grab. Where were you?

[Fluffy]

I occasionally miss some threads.

I know, I know: slacker.

[Al Gore]

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

[Lost_In_Translation]

Oh, and just as a point of contention, are they sure Mr. Hitchens has cancer? It could just be the result of his years of concentrated acid the courses through his body finally wearing down the cellular structure.

[Al Grope]

I did not ask that woman to service me.

[robc]

People who buy De Bello Lemures also buy:

Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead

---
I just thought that was an amusing title.

[Fluffy]

Yeah, the recommendations engine is always good for a laugh.

[Almanian]

Obama: America's first female president?

Iggy Pop from "Cream" magazine back in the day: "I'm more woman than all of 'em."

And you still are, Iggy, you still are.

[Pip]

I'll never forget an appearance of his on the Letterman show back in about '85.

Dave: So what have you been up to, Iggy?

Iggy: Just suckin' and lickin'.

[Lisa Kudrow]

LOL, rest assured bought and paid for lawmakers left loopholes bigi enough to fly a 747 through!

Lou
http://www.anon-surfing.at.tc

[jtuf]

From the article on the Al-quada magazine:
The U.S. is quite worried about Al Qaeda's new publishing ambitions, which mark a more sophisticated effort to engage the English-language world and to recruit English-speaking Muslims to join the cause.

I think al-quada is running out of Arab-speaking Muslims who are willing to die for them. The leadership had two choices, they could go on the suicide missions themselves, or they could adopt Western ways, like speaking Enlgish, to widen their base.

[AlmightyJB]

Hope Hitchens beats the cancer. I've enjoyed his writing over the years.

[Pope Jimbo]

Anti-smoking christians are sure enjoying Hitchen's fate now.

[Meatsack]

Generally, it also requires a lot of alcohol abuse too, so that would be Anti-smoking, teatotaling christians .

[Tonio]

How very Christian of them.

[Abdul]

If Christains pray for his miraculous cure, are they guilty of the sin of spite?

[affenkopf]

What did you enjoy most. His socialism or his war mongering? Can't wait to see him join Robert Byrd.

[AlmightyJB]

His wit, candor, sarcasm, humor, intellectual curiosity, and self-reflection to start with. His not being irrationally fearful of things he disagrees with. The sorts of qualities that make one a good writer. I think the thing I like most about his writing is the fact that he thinks for himself and just doesn't fall back on the standard left-wing, right-wing bullshit that 99% of the other editorialist lazily makes their careers spewing.

It's less about his worldview, much if not most of which I disagree with, nor even about his take on those things I do agree with. It's mostly about my appreciation of him as a writer and respect for him as a free thinker.

[affenkopf]

How dare you post a well reasoned answer to my troll post? This takes all the fun out of trolling.

[Mike M.]

Hope Hitchens beats the cancer. I've enjoyed his writing over the years.

Me too. I don't agree with him on everything by any means, but I greatly appreciate that unlike most of the cowardly leftists, he has always had the courage to speak out against the insane modern worldwide Islamic jihad movement.

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Al Gore as seen from Taiwan

[TrickyVic]

Daley reponds to McDonald

Daley announced his ordinance at a park on the city's South Side three days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live. The City Council is expected to vote on it Friday.

"As long as I'm mayor, we will never give up or give in to gun violence that continues to threaten every part of our nation, including Chicago," said Daley, who was flanked by activists, city officials and the parents of a teenager whose son was shot and killed on a city bus while shielding a friend.

The ordinance, which Daley urged the City Council to pass, also would :

- Limit the number of handguns residents can register to one per month and prohibit residents from having more than one handgun in operating order at any given time.

- Require residents in homes with children to keep them in lock boxes or equipped with trigger locks.

- Require prospective gun owners to take a four-hour class and one-hour training at a gun range. They would have to leave the city for training because Chicago prohibits new gun ranges and limits the use of existing ranges to police officers. Those restrictions were similar to those in an ordinance passed in Washington, D.C., after the high court struck down its ban two years ago.

- Prohibit people from owning a gun if they were convicted of a violent crime, domestic violence or two or more convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Residents convicted of a gun offense would have to register with the police department.

- Calls for the police department to maintain a registry of every handgun owner in the city, with the names and addresses to be made available to police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders.

Those who already have handguns in the city - which has been illegal since the city's ban was approved 28 years ago - would have 90 days to register those weapons, according to the proposed ordinance.

Residents convicted of violating the city's ordinance can face a fine up to $5,000 and be locked up for as long as 90 days for a first offense and a fine of up to $10,000 and as long as six months behind bars for subsequent convictions.

[Tulpa]

Christopher Hitchens diagnosed with esophageal cancer.

Looks like Mother Teresa might have supernatural powers now after all...

[?????]

thanks