Reason Morning Links: Two Elections and a Diaspora

• Afghanistan holds a bloody election.
• What the Pentagon prefers to keep secret: a brief guide.
• Members of "cult" feared dead; turns out they're just praying.
• An open-source alternative to Facebook is now available for review.
• Sweden's socialists lose again.
• When congresspeople beg.

Comments

[Leroy]

First on the morning links?

[Tim]

What happened to Suki?

[Leroy]

Bwahahahaha! Yes!

[DG]

Green mafia evicts family of six from their cattle ranch because manure smells like shit.

[tasteless bastard]

That blogger wrote an expanded article on the same subject called "Tyranny: How to destroy a business with environmental red tape". The thing is, it's ok to destroy those types of businesses because people shouldn't have cattle ranches anyway. We should just wander around eating tubers and berries that we find ourselves.

[wylie]

Sheeple, the other red meat?

[Enough About Palin]

I have a friend who works all over the world. We grew up as kids playing in the dirt. He has worked everywhere from the South Pole to Nigeria. He called me yesterday from Dubai, where he'll be for the next two-and-a-half years. I bring this up for two reasons.

1. He tells me that he has no interest in ever returning to the US. With the exception of attend his stepmother's funeral about a year ago it's been over ten years. He has a horse ranch in New Zealand, where he says life is much better than in the US.

2. He just finished a year or two in Yemen, where he worked at the capital, Sanaa. He tells me not to believe a thing I hear in the news about Yemen. He said it's a wonderful country and he'd go back there in a heartbeat. He says that yes, there are bad elements there, but you simply don't encounter them in day-to-day life. He says it's no different from cities in the US that have a gang problem. If you're not involved with gangs, the odds are they'll never trouble you.

[dbcooper]

This just sounds like all sorts of bullshit.

[Enough About Palin]

Care to elaborate?

[dbcooper]

Life in NZ being better much better than the US - only if you go there with money and a wife.

Yemen being great: Bull-fucking-shit from people I know who've been there. And a very fucking un-libertarian, unsophisticated, uncivilised place.

[Enough About Palin]

Well then I will defer judgement to the people you know because, well, I guess they know better.

[dbcooper]

I'm from NZ and, yes, I do know better.

And if your friend thinks Yemen is better than America then he's delusional.

[Enough About Palin]

I didn't say he said Yemen was better than the US, I said he told me not to believe the Yemen is the boogeyman hype that's all the rage in the states lately.

[dbcooper]

I apologize then on that note then.

[SugarFree]

only if you go there with money and a wife.

Shortage of women in general or shortage of attractive women?

[dbcooper]

The latter - lower levels than britain to start and almost everyone who is pretty/ambitious/educated goes overseas for most of their adult life. Also UV skin damage (damn ozone hole).

Accordingly/co-incidentally, I was partying with two expat blondes on friday night (most are in london/europe/america) who would be top drawer back home.

[SugarFree]

lower levels than britain to start

Yikes.

[dbcooper]

Australia is much better in that regard I must admit.

[Fuck Yeah!]

http://www.abbywinters.com

NSFW

[Isaac Bartram]

In the big cities, probably. Small towns and the country, not so much.

[Isaac Bartram]

That was a reply to dbcooper's "Australia is much better in that regard".

[dbcooper]

Yeah, my comment was heavily Melbourne (lovely city) and Sydney biased.

[cynical]

"money and a wife"

I thought that's what the sheep were for...

[prolefeed]

only if you go there with money and a wife.

So, what you're saying is it's a great place to go if you're a less than beautiful woman, to take advantage of the shortage?

[Maverick]

This article is about an Australian rancher family, not a US rancher family. And WTF does daily life in Yemen have to do with ranching or green zealots anywhere? RTFA!

[Enviromental Extremist]

Guess you don't hear the screams of the carrots as they are plucked from the womb of Mother Gaia...

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Let the rabbits wear glasses! Damn them!!

[Neal]

Vegetable Rights and Peace!

[SugarFree]

The opposition "red-green" coalition -- consisting of the Social Democrats, the Left party and the Green Party -- had 43.7 percent of the vote, election officials said.

Me, Myself and I aren't a "coalition."

[kinnath]

Patched together with duct tape, I suppose.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

If women can't find you handsome, at least let them find you handy.

[SugarFree]

An open-source alternative to Facebook is now available for review.

ParanoidNerdBook.

[-]

"Our real social lives do not have central managers, and our virtual lives do not need them," Salzberg explained. "Decentralizing lets us reconstruct our 'social graphs' so that they belong to us."

Sounds libertarian to me.

[SugarFree]

No one forces anybody to use Facebook and Facebook only has what information you give it.

Make an open course "Facebook," but the vast majority of people don't appear to give a shit about privacy. Only the paranoid care about the privacy of voluntary information and only fairly nerdy people want to fool with open source (we are a self-selected group with a strongly bias toward it.) I stand by my ParanoidNerdBook joke.

[John]

As you should. It was dead on. Honestly, do you really want to be on a social networking site with the comentariat from Slashdot?

[Brett L]

When you put it that way... I'd rather be locked in a strip club with the commentariat from Jezebel

[robc]

Ummm...considering most of my social network now...what would be the difference...oh yeah, generally they are too nerdy for slashdot, that is too 1998 nerdy.

[Karl]

the comentariat from Slashdot

How could they be any worse than this place?

[Enough About Palin]

Talk like that could get you sheeped around here.

[Karl]

If that's the best you can do.

[Tim]

Normal folks are tired of reading about "My Face" and "Spacebook"...

[Jason]

It's MyBook and FaceSpace, get it right!

[Fluffy]

Without a central manager, I will brutalize you with spam like you have never seen spam.

And I am a rank spam amateur. There are better men than I out there, in the dark, waiting. Fear them, and play nice with Facebook.

[Joe M]

"Stilgar do we have spam sign?"

"Usul, we have spam sign the likes of which even God has never seen."

[wylie]

So, the water of life is that bit of juice in a can of Spam?

[Joe M]

No, it's the bile of a newborn pig.

[wylie]

Not as convenient but whatever. Off to fill up a rubbermaid bin and buy a piglet.

[Dickhats Cataracts]

You should all be rendered for your water. A man's flesh is his own, but his water belongs to his tribe.

[Michelle Obama]

That "juice" should be banned, and will be when I get my way...

[TrickyVic]

Central Manager? Is that the precursor to the Central Scrutinizer?

[Pope Jimbo]

Tax collectors really upset about the Internet.

Leave it up to MSNBC to write a story that makes it seem like a good thing to force people to pay a "use" tax on all online purchases.

"It's just a lack of education," said Adrienne Fairwell, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Revenue, which is estimated to have missed out on $94 million in uncollected online taxes last year.

"There are taxpayers that are willing to comply with the law and remit the appropriate amount of taxes that are due, but they don't know that that's what they're supposed to be doing," Fairwell said. (my emphasis)

South Carolina, like most states, relies on consumers to be honest. But if you happen to be audited and you haven't paid up, you could be in for a world of hurt.

"The Department of Revenue realizes that there is concern and there are issues with collecting the use tax," Fairwell said. "But we aggressively go after that."

I guess if you define "willing" as the desire not to be fined and sent to jail, you are correct.

[Mr Whipple]

NJ is the same way. There's a box on the State Income Tax form for out of state purchases. If you drive to Delaware to buy something sales tax free, you must report it on your state income tax. I think, even if you buy something from a state that has a sales tax, you still must declare it, and pay NJ sales tax on it. Out of state businesses can not be "authorized" by the State of NJ to collect NJ sales tax.

[wylie]

People still live in NJ? I guess they just love the gas pumping too much.

[Brian D]

Out of state businesses can not be "authorized" by the State of NJ to collect NJ sales tax.

That didn't stop the state of MA from trying though.

[Mr. FIFY]

Interstate commerce shall not be infringed... unless we really really need to.

[wylie]

Typical. Commerce Clause is never around when you need him.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Where does the language "interstate commerce shall not be infringed" come from? If you're referring to the "dormant commerce clause" or the "negative" commerce clause, it's nowhere to be found in the U.S. Constitution.

Pretty much every state has a sales and use tax. Those laws typically require the use tax to be paid on tangible personal property used within the state but on which no sales tax was paid - or on which a tax less than that state's tax was paid - i.e., if you bought it in a state where the tax was only 3%, and your state imposes a 5% sales tax, you are supposed to pay 2% tax to your state.

Some states are more aggressive than others in trying to enforce them. The states usually go after businesses more - particularly the ones that buy a lot of big, expensive machinery. They usually are not going to chase you down if you buy a refrigerator out of state where there is no tax on kitchen appliances and then bring into your state - but technically, they usually could if they wanted to.

The intent of those provisions is to equalize interstate commerce - to minimize economic incentive to do business or not do business in certain states.

[Obama]

The intent of those provisions is to equalize interstate commerce - to minimize economic incentive to do business or not do business in certain states.

Well, as long as it for "equality" and "fairness".

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Sweden's socialists lose again.

But you left out the best part.

Bless their little socialist hearts.

[The Thinking Man's NASCAR]

"The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe."

-Jean-Fran?ois Revel

[Warty]

Election day spitting bullshit to the enslaved

[BakedPenguin]

This is what the people say - a new way...

[Mo]

Isn't the value of Facebook the network effect and people you know being on it? Considering 95% of the population doesn't give two shits about open source, I don't see how diaspora is going to succeed without marketing bucks. My bet: Diaspora members < Friendster members.

[John]

And the also don't give a shit about privacy. Most people look at the Facebook privacy controversy and think "who would want to look at my vacation pictures?" And don't forget how lazy people are. Once they start using something that works, it takes a lot to get them to change. I mean people still us AOL for God's sake.

[SugarFree]

I mean people still us AOL for God's sake.

Every time I see a request from an AOL domain, my brain begins to ache.

[waffles]

lol! what do you mean? aol wurks gr8!

[wylie]

SF, can you hear me? Wake up! Someone, call an ambulance, I think waffles just gave Sf a stroke.

[SugarFree]

I'm a little groggy, but I'll recover.

Hey, guys... Remember when AOL bought Time-Warner?

[MP]

I thought that was an urban legend.

[Scooby]

And remember when the combined company promptly lost $100 billion with a b in a single year?

Before that, you had to be a government to burn that kind of value into nothingness.

[Tim]

Long and Deep? Heh.

"I was, frankly surprised to see that we don't have a record, so far as I can tell, of your having given to me despite my long and deep work. In fact, it's been my major work on the committee and subcommittee it's been essentially in your sector."

[Mainer]

But everyone does it so that makes it OK. Kee-rist, don't our leaders sound like pre-schoolers.

[Attorney]

You know it's election season when ....

[Enough About Palin]

That's the very first thing that popped into my head.

So which mosque did he attend?

[PapayaSF]

Yeah, for somebody who was supposed to be a great campaigner, he sure can be clumsily obvious.

[brits]

UK "http://www.cnbc.com/id/39265847?par=ft">
wants to control when people get paid.

[Ayn_Randian]

Jacob Weisberg sneers at those who support "the most extreme libertarian view: a Constitutional fundamentalism that would limit the federal government to the exercise of enumerated powers."

Galt, yes, a government limited by the powers granted to by the people would be awful, wouldn't it? I mean, hey, might as well toss the whole thing out and give the power to Jacob Weisberg. I am sure he has our best interests at heart.

[John]

You mean a federal government that actually has to follow the Constitution? The horror. The horror.

[Ayn_Randian]

The funniest part about it, is that the government ostensibly acts within its enumerated powers. It just that the judiciary abandoned its responsibility and made "regulate interstate commerce" = "whatever the hell Congress wants"*

* - subject to arbitrary distinctions for political purposes, of course.

[Attorney]

That's not the most extreme libertarian view by a long shot.

The fact that he considers it extreme really makes me wonder what he considers mainstream.

[wylie]

"Mainstream Libertarianism" = Just pick R or D and shut up, because we're not going to listen to you anyway.

[Tony]

Quit living in your fantasy world. Government needs a hell of a lot more power than that.

[James Madison]

It does?

[Tulpa]

Tony is correct. That's why state governments aren't limited by the enumerated powers doctrine, only the federal government is.

[Government]

If I didn't have power beyond those enumerated it would not be possible for me to provide Tony with employment. Where is your compassion, you cold blooded heartless libertarian bastards? He would die out there on the streets and you know it. Practically murderers, the lot of you.

[Gay Survival Sex]

"He would die out there on the streets and you know it.

Bullshit.

[Hugh Akston]

Jacob Weisberg has to check under his bed for libertarians every night.

[Leroy]

I did my best to cut through the stupid over there.

[Leroy]

the Kochtopus has made an appearance

[Leroy]

the Kochtopus has made an appearance

[Ayn_Randian]

I mean people still us AOL for God's sake.

John, quit scaring the kids with your horror stories.

[SugarFree]

"And when they finally connected on dial-up, they saw that the only web-browser that was available was... Mosaic!"

[Pro Libertate]

Mosaic? That's too advanced to me. I'm still using Gopher.

[wylie]

Lynx. Unless a later version of gopher also did http.

[Karl]

Nope. No nerds here.

[Clich? Bandit]

What about Prodigy or a WWIV board?

Trade Wars 2000, BEST GAME EVER

[Enough About Palin]

Gopher was the browser back in the olden days. It failed because the University of Minnesota, which owned, thought they could charge users. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

[Pro Libertate]

Use AOL for what? I still have an AOL e-mail address (not my only one, of course), only because I've had it since 1991 or so. Since I switched from Prodigy [crazy techno music plays in the background]. People don't actually use it for anything else, right?

[John]

It is still in business. Someone must be sending them money for something. What that is I have no idea.

[Spoonman.]

I don't understand how they make money running AIM. I haven't used the actual AIM client since 2004.

[wylie]

Yeah, it was sometime in the past 5 years when they introduced an ads box at the bottom of the buddy list window.

Pidgin or get out. Who wants to run 6 different chat clients?

[SugarFree]

Just like the clothes you wear or the universities you attend, you email address does quite a bit of signaling as well. And AOL address tells me that 90% of the technical information that you are contacting me for will be unintelligible to you and therefore you will be exponentially more difficult to serve than the rest of my patrons.

It's not the same class of horror I feel at receiving a phone call from someone or sheer mortal terror of a physical letter, but AOL is pretty bad.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm planning to sell my AOL account on eBay to a classic e-mail account buff.

[Otto]

I have several unopened, shrink-wrapped, tin-can AOL promotional mailers you might be interested in, starting with AOL 3.0 all the way through AOL 9. Sure to become a collector's item. Or not.

[Pro Libertate]

You could build a space elevator with all of the unused AOL promotional CDs.

[SugarFree]

I can't really hate AOL. I almost never had to by 3.5 floppies back in the day due to their largess.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, yes, I recall their strange desire to keep me swimming in portable storage. Unfortunately, they started sending me used CD-ROMs. Can you believe that?

[Jason]

I never had to buy coasters after that.

[SugarFree]

The sad fate of many AOL discs.

NSFW

[wylie]

I can't really hate AOL. I almost never had to by 3.5 floppies back in the day due to their largess.

My buddy would hot glue them together into boxes to hold the rest.

[SugarFree]

I apologize for posting while talking on the phone. The drop in my typing prowess in the above was quite appalling.

[Pro Libertate]

You grammar signaling, too.

[SugarFree]

Leave me alone. I've suffered enough.

[Fluffy]

Phone calls can signal the opposite, too, though.

I place a phone call for technical assistance after automated troubleshooters fill me with rage by starting out with page after page of "Make sure the unit is plugged in" fucking nonsense that I already tried before deciding I needed support.

[SugarFree]

I'm really only talking about phone calls for my particular job. Phone calls only really come in three varieties for me: Attempts at bullying me by thinking that they can jump the line (aka "assholes"), an inability to understand extremely clear on-line instructions for very simple contact requirements (aka "stupid"), or they want to tell me their entire goddamn family narrative starting with their great-grandparents perilous journey to America in order to ask a question about high school yearbooks from 1968 (aka lonely old people).

[waffles]

lol! wat do u do? Im always 4get my pswrd so i call aol and they just give me a new 1. so using the phone is OK 2 do 4 me.

[SugarFree]

You're a dirty-faced angel, my little illiterate street urchin.

[Ted S.]

At which point, you have to deal with Indian call centers.

I had a problem with my ISP about two years back in that it was consistently having DNS problems with entire top-level domains (.se, .cz, and .bg come to mind). I had to sit through 15 minutes of a midi version of Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" while I was on hold, and the person over in Hyderabad seem to have less of a clue about computers than I do.

[JEP]

My dad has a DOJ address that he doesn't know how to clean out, so it's frequently full and won't allow him to send emails to people but will receive them.

He also has an @access4less.com account.

I recently told him to grow up and get a gmail account, but it had no effect.

[Brett L]

I heard a clip of a dialup modem handshake the other day and started to twitch.

[R C Dean]

Dude, that's what I use for a ringtone on my cell. Awesomeness.

[Otto]

My ringtone whispers, in a sexy, husky voice: "You have a call, big boy."

[Mo]

Jacob Weisberg sneers at those who support "the most extreme libertarian view: a Constitutional fundamentalism that would limit the federal government to the exercise of enumerated powers."

Galt, yes, a government limited by the powers granted to by the people would be awful, wouldn't it? I mean, hey, might as well toss the whole thing out and give the power to Jacob Weisberg. I am sure he has our best interests at heart.

If only there were as many people at those rallies that are radical libertarians as the media thinks there are.

[John]

I have never been to those rallies. So I honestly can't say. Have you ever been to one? If not, how do you know who is at them or what they think beyond your own prejudices?

[prolefeed]

I've been to one of those rallies. People from all over the center-right political spectrum.

[Mo]

"And when they finally connected on dial-up, they saw that the only web-browser that was available was... Mosaic!"

Pff, Mosaic. The web went downhill once browsers supported images. Give me Lynx.

[wylie]

Yeah, if you're really dedicated about your porn, you're willing to save each file to a directory on the mainframe and then kermit them to your local machine.

[Pope Jimbo]

Don't forget that your pr0n pics were broken up into several smaller files. Once you had them you had to concatenate them, run a special program to convert them from text to binary and finally had to view them with special program because - well you needed a special program to view gif files back then.

[Robert]

It has a grab bag quality -- downloading graphics based on their averred description, then viewing what you reel in offline.

[John]

http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs4.....McLeod.jpg

World War I explained. (Click on the image on the left and zoom in).

[PSA]

don't know about this particular page but deviant art site is chock full of NSFW in general. just for awareness.

[CavMedic]

The same guy has done other map/cartoons with a funny (and more or less true) take on history.

Pretty good stuff.

[Mo]

I have never been to those rallies. So I honestly can't say. Have you ever been to one? If not, how do you know who is at them or what they think beyond your own prejudices?

There are these things called polls which collect and summarize data based on a sample population.

[John]

Want to show us those polls?

[wylie]

No homo.

[JoeMoe]

"While I do not agree with the edits in many ways," Colonel Shaffer wrote, "the Defense Department redactions enhance the reader's understanding by drawing attention to the flawed results created by a disorganized and heavy handed military intelligence bureaucracy."

[JoeMoe]

"While I do not agree with the edits in many ways," Colonel Shaffer wrote, "the Defense Department redactions enhance the reader's understanding by drawing attention to the flawed results created by a disorganized and heavy handed military intelligence bureaucracy."

[Ayn_Randian]

I have never been to those rallies. So I honestly can't say. Have you ever been to one? If not, how do you know who is at them or what they think beyond your own prejudices?

John, come now. The man is allowed to make judgment based on the evidence before him. And he, like I, has not seen evidence that the Tea Party is populated with "radical libertarians". If they were, you would hear a lot more about Social Security Reform, ending the Occupation of Afghanistan and paring down the DoD, etc.

[John]

I guess it depends on what you mean by "radical libertarian". In truth, I don't know all the details of what those people think or even if there are enough of a consensus beyond stop spending so much to even make very many generalizations. But I think there is more to them than a bunch of greedy old people wanting to keep their Social Security and invade other countries, which is Mo's cartoon view.

[Fluffy]

Yes.

Some of them want to stop masturbation and the dread threat of satanic rock music.

Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.

[robc]

Tipper?

[Al Gore]

Sadly, for the rest of you, she would never take care of THAT.

[Jim]

Get the evil video games.

[sarcasmic]

"radical libertarian" is the term used to describe the no-government straw man that is routinely knocked down by those too simple minded to understand the simple concept of limited government.

[Tony]

Your entire post was a strawman, sarcasmic.

[sarcasmic]

No Tony, it is not. I'll let someone else explain it better for me.

"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all.

We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."
--Bastiat

[sarcasmic]

Had he written this in the last five years, instead of the 1840s, he may have said "We object to a government run health care system. Then the socialists say we want no health care at all."

[Leroy]

I think that now would be the time to start arguing libertarian viewpoints on the national stage, and the Tea Party Movement provides an opportunity to do that. Because it is so un-organized, with plenty of different voices, a strong libertarian argument may be able to make a good bit of progress there. Just my 2 cents.

[SugarFree]

From John Hopkins, the alma mater of Hit&Run;'s very own Episiarch:

In any case, fat chicks and hot chicks often go hand-in-hand. When they travel together to a frat party, those brothers working the door are forced to let the elephants inside; to refuse them would be incurring the wrath of their hot friends. And once inside, the damage has already been done. It's only a matter of time until the mammoths monopolize the space on the dance floor.

In the future, one can think of at least one alteration to make; indeed, perhaps advertising a party as a "Lingerave" will bring about more bad than good. While seeing a hot chick in only her underwear is undoubtedly a treat, seeing a blimp without the welcome shield of clothing is a much worse fate for everyone at the party. A seasoned veteran should have the confidence to wait until the bedroom to see his girl without clothing; don't subject the majority to the tyranny of the - funnily enough - enormous minority.

In a matter of minutes, the girl whose leggings expose a glimpse into the darker side of humanity will equate herself to Megan Fox. She - though 'it' may be more appropriate - will flaunt it like she's got it, when in fact she never had it and probably never will. She will transcend 'sloppy' and become a force to be reckoned with, an 8-on-the-Richter-Scale Neuroscience major with no test on Monday, a full fridge and an empty bed.

Smell the outrage.

[Warty]

If I owned a business, I would hire that boy. God bless his cruel heart.

[Jason]

Johns Hopkins

[SugarFree]

This is why no one loves you.

[alan]

That is some awesome outrage -- This one:

A handful of years ago (time flies, sheesh), I was a News-Letter editor. It really bums me out to see that the present-day staff has taken a turn for the insensitive jerk like this. One of my proudest N-L moments was running a three week sexual assault awareness feature, and I vividly remember that there was a frat guy/athlete who wrote a really eloquent and interesting piece for that feature about how all frat guys aren't rapey and disrespectful to women. Just wanted to put that out there, as I feel weirdly compelled to apologize on behalf of the school or something.

There was a time when it was called 'emasculated' but I guess 'not rapey' sounds a little more like the dickless male is actually accomplishing something.

'You didn't rape anyone today with your male gaze, Harold.'

'I kept my eyes lowered and my head down the entire day in my classes.'

'Here's a cookie!'

'That is an actual cookie. Could you reward me with nookie instead?'

'No cookie for you, Harold!'

[rad nerdy feminist boyfriend]

I'm another Johns Hopkins student, though I'm outta here forever soon, but go ahead and bring the outrage the fuck on. I've gotten a great education, social life, and rad nerdy feminist boyfriend out of my time here, but I'm not going to donate a cent once I graduate. Or send my kids here, or recommend that anyone else does.

There's a douchey, fratty minority here that sets the tone for a lot of the dialogue/culture on campus. And this sort of thing just KEEPS HAPPENING.

Somebody please kill me.

[alan]

The laughs just keep coming.

I am currently a sophomore at Johns Hopkins. Please believe me when I say that these beliefs about women, weight, and attractiveness are outrageously commonplace.

I am supposed to be gaining weight as part of eating disorder treatment. But I just can't do it, because I know that these fuckers really and truly will find me less attractive if I ever do manage to get healthy

[MNG]

I know it's hard for some people here to understand how anyone could prefer the Dems, with their many, many flaws, to the GOP. Well, you could some it up with this:

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

At least their big inner party fight isn't over...witchcraft.

[Joe M]

That fact that she "dabbled in witchcraft" made me want to vote for her, until I read the rest of the sentence.

She's a phony Wiccan!

[MNG]

Actually I think she deserves a bit of a pass on this...It seems to me that what she was getting at if the comments are read charitably is that she had a date with a dude that "dabbled" in something she understood as satanic. That's not too far out there mo.

[Mr. FIFY]

Good point, MNG. The whole "she dabbled in witchcraft" meme is just a pathetic gotcha journalism moment.

Besides, where's religious freedom when you REALLY need it? Like in this case?

[Spoonman.]

I'd rather they fight over stupid, pointless shit than nominate self-described Marxists.

[MNG]

Ah, the "self-avowed Marxist" meme! Welcome back!

[Spoonman.]

Did I make up that the Democratic nominee in Delaware describes himself as a Marxist?

[JoshINHB]

What's really scary is that being a marxist doesn't make you extreme in the minds of the establishment.

[Mr. FIFY]

I'd take a witch in office over a Marxist, any day.

[Joe M]

+3

[JoshINHB]

At least their big inner party fight isn't over...witchcraft.

Except that's the best label for their policies that they think magically make life better, when they actual destroy freedom.

O Donnell gave up witchcraft 20+ years ago.

Still waiting for the dems to do so.

[wylie]

I know it's hard for some people here to understand how anyone could prefer the Dems, with their many, many flaws, to the GOP.

Yes, except most of us also find the opposite just as perplexing.

[Azathoth]

Not really seeing the 'inner party fight' here, MNG. The article mentions Rove's latest assholery, but that's about all the 'inner party fighting' that's mentioned.

The rest of it looks like what it is--the left trying to make hay over some comments O'Donnell made ten years ago on PI--comments that, were she a liberal, would not raise an eyebrow.

There's even a Tea Party person who says that this is nothing more than muckraking by the lef--MSM(same thing, really).

[Mo]

Over 60% think SS & Medicare are worth the money spent on it. 59% believe the government should require health insurance companies to cover people regardless of preexisting conditions. Less than 20% support the right of gays to marry. They're pretty solidly anti immigration; a plurality believe legal immigration should be reduced) and more think illegal immigration is a serious problem than think bailouts are a serious problem. Those are not libertarian views. There's some libertarian elements in there*, but they're largely conservative Republicans, not libertarians.

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/.....ontentBody

[John]

They say that it is worth spending money on. That doesn't mean they wouldn't support cutting it. And further, 78% to 14% say that economic issues are more important than social issues. And there is this nearly all of them support smaller government providing fewer services. They are nearly twice as likely as the general population to do so.

You are just a bigot Mo. Those people don't look like you and are different than you. So you assume they must hold detestable views and not mean what they say. It is just not true.

[TrickyVic]

""That doesn't mean they wouldn't support cutting it. And further, 78% to 14% say that economic issues are more important than social issues""

Would people support cutting something that they paid into and expect a return? I don't know. It's not easy to believe.

""And there is this nearly all of them support smaller government providing fewer services""

But usually when applies to other peoples service. Show me the movement that says, yeah we paid SS all our working lives and expect nothing, or very little in return.

[John]

"Show me the movement that says, yeah we paid SS all our working lives and expect nothing, or very little in return."

And I will show you a movement full of aliens rather than human beings. Jesus, move goal posts much?

[TrickyVic]

Not moving a goal post. Just making the point that no matter what polls say, people are not interested in cutting their benefits to a level that makes a difference.

[Ayn_Randian]

At least their big inner party fight isn't over...witchcraft.

No, it's over whether government takeover of the insurance industry is sufficient, or whether we should make private health care illegal entirely.

Yeah, that's much better.

[MNG]

I dunno, you may think that policy debate is wrongheaded, but at least it's not medieval...

[Mo]

It may be midieval, but until they start having witch trials and stake burnings, the witchcraft stuff doesn't actually affect me like the health care stuff does. At least the witchcraft stuff is amusing.

[Enough About Palin]

This is so much shit. Some of the homeless kids I worked with dabbled in the occult. It's just a harmless thing some kids do as they attempt to figure out their world. Certainly as an atheist, MNG, you'd have to admit it's 100% meaningless.

[Fluffy]

Can someone tell me - honestly, give it to me straight - do these evangelical dingbats think that witches are, you know, real?

[MNG]

Some apparently take it pretty seriously...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN7hJDS26rI

[A girl]

My aunt has been "charismatic" (Assembly of God) for many years and from what I can tell, they don't believe in witches in the "Double, double toil and trouble" sense, but they do believe in demons and that dabbling in the occult will open you up to demonic activity. She thinks everything is demonic. Examples: That bitch broke the horn off my Breyer unicorn (1983) because it was "evil," leaving me with a fucking bearded, shaggy-hooved horse. She even managed to freak out over my Gaiking warrior and fist-shooting Godzilla, too, because they were obviously demonic. I really hated her visits.

[JEP]

She must really hate rams and mountain goats.

[R C Dean]

do these evangelical dingbats think that witches are, you know, real?

The witches do. Why shouldn't the dingbats?

[Enough About Palin]

+1

[Mo]

The witches do. Why shouldn't the dingbats?

I think you're repeating yourself.

[John]

The Wiccans seem to think witches are real. I have never met anyone not a Wicca who believes in real witches. The problem is that the 99% evangelicals who don't believe in such things don't make the papers. Instead the odd nut who does is what gets in the media. It allows the media to smear the rest of them. And the media's audience to feel better about themselves.

Seriously, do you honestly think some or even a significant minority of evangelicals believe in witches? That strikes me as being profoundly ignorant. It is about on the level of thinking most black people in the South practice Voodoo.

[MNG]

" Instead the odd nut who does is what gets in the media."

Like GOP VP and Senate candidates?

[Joe M]

Zing!

[John]

She was into that stuff before she "found God" or whatever. Her religious views (and for the record she is a Catholic not an evangelical)had nothing to do with it.

[MNG]

I think a fair amount of evengelicals believe in "witchcraft" but they don't think of it like pointy-hated women on brooms. The Bible does admonish one to stay away from "the occult" in general, and also seems to say the Devil is at work in the world, so most that I know seem to see "the occult" as inherently Satanic.

[John]

"I think a fair amount of evengelicals believe in "witchcraft" but they don't think of it like pointy-hated women on brooms."

You think that but have no data to prove it or any evidence beyond your own prejudices. Do you even know an evangelical? Ever met one in real life?

[Fluffy]

John, the OT talks about witchcraft and sets out specific penalties for it, so a biblical literalist would either have to believe that witches are real or would have to think that part of the Bible was just made up.

Now, I had thought that everyone had decided to pretend that part of the Bible never happened, but the witchcraft thing keeps coming up lately so I thought I'd double-check.

[John]

Just because you believe that there once was such a thing, doesn't mean that you think there is still such a thing today.

[TrickyVic]

http://www.wnd.com/news/articl.....E_ID=59488

Does this count for anything?

[TrickyVic]

Issue highlights include:

"The great deception has begun" by Joseph Farah

"Why so many Americans are embracing witchcraft" by David Kupelian, on the growing fascination with all things pagan, occult and magic

"Top exorcist condemns 'Harry Potter'" ? on the Vatican's top experts who says there's "no doubt the signature of the Prince of Darkness is in these books"

"Evangelical Wiccans?" by Janice Shaw Crouse, on reports from youth ministers in the Southern Baptist Church of increasing number of evangelicals dabbling in Wicca!

"Spellbinding a culture" by Tal Brooke, an eye-opening overview of the emergence of witchcraft in the modern world

"Witch gets 'burned' by Supreme Court" by Joe Kovacs, on a Wiccan priestess angry that Christians are favored for prayers at county meetings

"Wiccan boy booted for wearing lipstick," about a public school student claiming discrimination and violation of his right of free expression

"Witchcraft in the military" by Brooks Alexander, an in-depth and shocking look at how and why pagan religion has taken root in the U.S. armed forces

"Wiccans meet on Air Force base" by Ron Strom, on how witches' gatherings get the military's blessing as long as they're not contrary to "good order"

"Witches persuade government to fund pentacles on headstones"

? and much more.

[Fluffy]

Dude, that's brilliant.

There used to be witches [so they could get into the Bible] but now they're all gone.

That is such an elegant solution to the problem of the many absurdities in the OT that I'm surprised I don't see it more.

[TrickyVic]

""Seriously, do you honestly think some or even a significant minority of evangelicals believe in witches?""

Possibly. They did warn about the occult powers that could corrupt you while you're playing Dungeons and Dragons.

[SugarFree]

I think it depends on what is meant by witches.

Broom-riding, warts-and-all cauldron-bubblers? I doubt it. But Wiccans as nature-worshiping materialist Pagans being an attractive force to draw people away from Christianity? I imagine that only makes sense.

[Joe M]

That broom-ride warty faced meme was spread by the church to give witches a bad public image. It's a shame it's survived for so many centuries.

[SugarFree]

Any chick that would give Satan a rimjob is probably not much of hottie.

[Azathoth]

Satan was once the most beautiful angel. Even now, in his disgrace, his beauty is still something terrible to behold. But he is an angel, and, as such, has no naturally occuring orifice upon which a 'rimjob' could be performed.

[SugarFree]

So they just sort of lap at his taintular region?

[Azathoth]

Satan finds the whole issue rather embarassing. Initially, the 'kiss of shame' was something dreamt up by the Church as an example of the blasphemous nature of witchcraft--in perverse imitation of the kissing of the ring of the pope. No one actually did it. Most 'witches' were lay doctors who got in trouble for, believe it or not, late term abortion (seems that, if they could SEE that it was a kid, they got all sentimental). What little actual magic they did rarely required infernal assistance.

But later, as the Church made witchcraft and Satanism more popular, Satan was forced to accomodate the perversions he'd been accused of starting.

He's embarassed that he grew to like it.

I am so glad that we never signed up with YAWAOL. Given me weird angles all the time.

[SugarFree]

Poor Satan. Just another victim of the MSM.

[Fluffy]

I guess part of the issue is definitional.

To me, you're a witch if you worship Satan by dancing in the woods and he actually shows up and fucks you. And you're a witch if you cast spells and your neighbor's cow actually dies as a result. If you dance in the woods and no devil shows up, and if you cast spells and nothing happens, you're not a witch. You're just a doofus.

To me believing in witches means you have to believe in the efficacy of all this stuff. And I didn't think anyone actually did, even the wiccans. But I guess I gave people too much credit.

[Ayn_Randian]

If you dance in the woods and no devil shows up, and if you cast spells and nothing happens, you're not a witch. You're just a doofus.

Stolen. That's going on Facebook. Any particular name you want for the attribution.

[Pip]

The WB?

[Slut Bunwalla]

What if Satan shows up but doesn't fuck you? What if he's like "Whoa bitch I ain't touchin' that with a ten-foot pole."

[SugarFree]

Satan will fuck anything. That's why Satan was so well known when he went to college.

Maybe read your Bible sometime, dude.

[Joe M]

Oh btw, Wiccans don't worship Satan. Sheesh.

[Mo]

Can someone tell me - honestly, give it to me straight - do these evangelical dingbats think that witches are, you know, real?

She turned me into a newt.

[Joe M]

If it's one thing we don't need, it's more Newts.

[Mo]

Can someone tell me - honestly, give it to me straight - do these evangelical dingbats think that witches are, you know, real?

She turned me into a newt.

[waffles]

lol! a newt!?!?

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

He got better.

[Mo]

Wow, even the double posting hamsters are back.

[MNG]

Double, double, toil and trouble!

[dbcooper]

🙂

[VikingMoose]

one of the best ads for the Moderates I saw was back in the late 90s in Malm?: "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: you work for the government"

[Ellie]

From John Hopkins, the alma mater of Hit&Run;'s very own Episiarch

Men of the world,

Sit down. Right here next to me. *pats cushion* Let's talk.

First of all, I want you to know that this is a safe space. Okay? Nobody's judging you. We're all here because we're concerned about you.

Everyone's noticed. Oh, did you think you were hiding it well? I'm sorry. I mean, it was awfully obvious. Look at all the terms you use for women. Attractive ones are foxes, bunnies, sex kittens. Average ones are chicks. The ugly ones are hippos, whales, cows, mammoths, elephants. And they're all bitches, amirite?

Isn't it clear what's going on?

You want to stick your dick in small mammals.

It's okay. It's the 21st century. There are all kinds of sick fucks -- I mean, alternative sexual preferences -- on the net these days. I'm sure you'll find some nice lolcat who will make you very happy.

Kisses!

[SugarFree]

"You can't really have sex with an elephant, the best you can really do is have sex at an elephant."

[T]

You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mammals so let's do it like they do on the Discovery channel.

[Timon19]

Chicks are birds. Birds aren't mammals.

[Eric the .5b]

They're small, warm, and fuzzy. Close emough!

http://nerf-this.com/dealing-with-peeps/

[Pip]

Get a fucking room, Eric.5

[P Brooks]

Ninety minutes 'til the Presidential Towne Hall!

Get your tongues limbered up, CNBCers!

[waffles]

You want to stick your dick in small mammals. FTFY

just no uglies.

[Pope Jimbo]

Yup, that is why you run -not walk- down to the sheep pen. You don't want to be late and get stuck with an ugly one.

[Joel Pile]

Preaching to the choir.

[dbcooper]

In other news, Assayas's Carlos the Jackal miniseries is pretty good.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/f.....arlos/5023

[Tulpa]

Good news, everybody: the recession's been over for more than a year.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of academic economists based in Cambridge, Mass., says the recession lasted 18 months. It started in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. Previously the longest postwar downturns were those in 1973-1975 and in 1981-1982. Both of those lasted 16 months.

The decision makes official what many economists have believed for some time, that the recession ended in the summer of 2009. The economy started growing again in the July-to-September quarter of 2009, after a record four straight quarters of declines. Thus, the April-to-June quarter of 2009, marked the last quarter when the economy was shrinking.

Special partisan bonus:

In President George W. Bush's eight years in office, the United States fell into two recessions. The first started in March 2001 and ended that November. The second one started in December 2007.

[Timon19]

"Good news, everyone!"

Shut up, Professor Farnsworth!

[J sub D]

The Taliban and other armed groups denounced the election, calling it a fraud orchestrated by the United States, and threatened to attack polling sites and voters.

Hmm, lessee if I have my history straight. The last national election in Afghanistan was rife with fraud and stolen by the current president of Afghanistan, Karzi.

The United States has continued to treat the Karzi kleptocracy as a legitimate government, giving him and his cronies billions to loot and supporting his incompetent military with money, equipment, training and most of all American soldiers.

Other than a minor quibble about the morality of attacking polling places and election workers of a proven corrupt illegitimate government, where is the Taliban wrong?

For Team Blue sycophants only:
With the surge of troops in that tribal hellhole, Obama and the Democratic party now OWN the war there.

How's that working out for ya?

[Hippy]

Hey, hey,
Obama,
How many troops,
won't be comin' home to mama?

[monkeybuttfuck]

I want to go back to the Matrix. It's much nicer there!

[Jadagul]

dbcooper: I never had much trouble finding hot chicks when I was in Britain, but then 1) I was in Cambridge and 2) half of them were foreigners. And my girlfriend was apparently the unique Brit who had gotten braces. So maybe you're right.

Ellie: hah, that's awesome.

Witchcraft: yes, there are people who believe it really exists. One of my high school religion teachers was one of them, for instance. I believe Palin either is another or is pretending, since she seems to have gotten blessings to protect her from witchcraft or some such nonsense.

[db]

Great. It wouldn't be a libertarian discussion if we weren't somehow able to get around to being accused of defending teaching gay capitalist witchcraft to teh chidlren. KOCHtagramz FTW!

[pisos bancos]

Australia is much better in that regard.

[?????]

thanks