Reason Morning Links: "March Against Austerity," European Terror Plot, Corporations and Privacy Rights

• U.S. government finalizing plans to cut ties to AIG.
• Officials say they've thwarted a Mumbai-style terror attack in Europe.
• North Korea lays plans for succession.
• Supreme Court will consider privacy rights for corporations.
• Thousands hit streets in Europe to "march against austerity."

Comments

[John]

Thousands hit streets in Europe to "march against austerity."

Communists are now reduced to marching for the rights of the bourgeoisie to retire with full pay and benefits at 50. That is high comedy.

[Joe M]

It'd be funny if it weren't so disgusting.

[MNG]

I think the bourgeoisie were defined by owning the means of production. Workers, even well paid ones, would still be within the proletariat.

[John]

Technically that is true. But Marxism could never really account for the existence of the well off worker. So, I think the typical European marching to protect his public sector retirement is closer to bourgeois than proletariat.

[hmm]

If workers unionize forming monopolies on labor and labor is a portion of any production function then why are workers in unions not seen as the collective owners of at least one portion of production?

[sage]

Talk about a huge explosion of retard. Between this and the Stewart/Colbert rallies the world could have most of the retards gathered in two places.

[dbcooper]

You really need to add the Beck rally to that.

[waffles]

Agree. Just more evidence that we may never hit "peak retard".

[T]

Retard is a renewable and growing resource.

[Nick]

Apparently, you can say "I want a fuckin' pony now, damnit!" in any language.

[Nick]

Apparently, you can say "I want a fuckin' pony now, damnit!" in any language.

[Nick]

Apparently, you can say "I want a fuckin' pony now, damnit!" in any language.

[Nick]

Whoa. Sorry.

[Citizen Nothing]

English, American and Canadian.

[SugarFree]

"Apparently, you can say "I want a fookin' pony now, ya daft cunt!" in any language."

"Apparently, you can say "I want a fuckin' pony now, damnit!" in any language."

"Apparently, you can say "I want a pony please, eh!" in any language."

[dbcooper]

SF, have you seen FUBAR?

[SugarFree]

Is that some sort of British gay bar?

[dbcooper]

More canuck-sploitation.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302585/

As the guardian critic put it, "if you've ever wanted to know how suburban bus-shelters get destroyed at 4am ..."

Recommended.

[SugarFree]

Still, this mockumentary is often very funny (for certain tastes), and very Canadian.

"Very Canadian." Yikes.

[Rhywun]

The one dude had a point though, complaining about "the rich" finding ways to avoid taxes while the "normal worker" is more or less fucked. Not all the frustration out there is "communist" in origin.

[cynical]

Yeah, and I can empathize. When there's one standard of economic justice for the high and mighty and another for the low, it can't help but stoke class tensions.

[Joe M]

Not sure if anyone already posted this, but I thought it was interesting.

Man leaves behind 1905-page suicide note

Ayn Rand would have a field day with this one.

[MNG]

Rand left behind quite a few thousand + page notes...

[Joe M]

She didn't commit suicide though.

The point is this guy took nihilism to its logical conclusion. She'd had called him a true death worshiper.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Nihilists? Fuck me...I mean, say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it's an ethos!

[Rusty Trombone]

Nihilism is very tiring.

[Timon19]

"The lengthy document included 1,433 footnotes, a 20-page bibliography..."

[waffles]

It might be the very definition of tl;dr

[Isaac Bartram]

A 35-year-old man, who shot himself near Harvard University here a week ago, has left behind a 1905-page suicide note, an online document he had been working on for the last five years.

A three day waiting period for buying the gun would have given him time to reflect and change his mind.

[Joe M]

He bought the gun three years before he used it.

[dbcooper]

Sarcasm Total brain fail.

[Joe M]

Hehe, well, I guess I only half got it, since we don't know when he decided suicide was the final solution. He may not have figured it out until he got to page 1904!

[dbcooper]

True, and he may have written the introduction and abstract last. 😉

[dhex]

he could have learned a lot from yukio mishima. talk about going out with panache!

[dbcooper]

And surrounded by his private "army" who were clad in uniforms of his own design. 🙂

[SugarFree]

To be fair, they were FABULOUS!

[christina]

It's a testament to how lame public school is that I read The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea in the 11th grade and not one mention was made of the author's life and death. I learn a lot from Hit & Run that I never expect.

[Citizen Nothing]

That, of course, is why the waiting period should be 61 months.

[hmm]

Or at least proof read the first few hundred pages.

[waffles]

My first impression is that this suicide guy was very smart, very depressed, and somehow I empathize will his actions. It's sad, but I can't help but wonder if the public will ever get a chance to peek at his death tome.

What a weird story. It makes me feel, unsettled.

[Joe M]

I dunno. I'm not sure if he was depressed, exactly. I almost get the impression he started off with some bad premises, and used rigid logic to follow them to their conclusions. He reasoning was valid, but not sound.

I would like to find a copy of this and look through it though.

[Mango Punch]

It's available online for free - just search for it.

[waffles]

on a site I don't particularly want to access at work. guess, I'll have to wait.

[SugarFree]

200 references to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Great. Another person mis-reading Nietzsche.

[Bindair Dondat]

Who hasn't?

[Leperbator]

Greater and more common still, someone who believes only he understands Nietzsche.

[Warty]

pdf of note

The highlight is right there on the title page:

This work is free and licensed by Mitchell Heisman for
copying and distribution under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0
United States License.

Also, Mandatory Suicide.

[SugarFree]

That is not the highlight. The highlight is the chapter called:

"The Seditious Genius of the Spiritual Penis of Jesus"

[Warty]

Yeah, I posted before I noticed that. This looks like a goldmine of ramblecrazy.

[JD]

Excellent. I love a good manifesto.

[Butts Wagner]

Sorry, the real highlight is "An Experiment in Nihilism: What the hell happened to reason?"

Drink!

[Joe M]

Well, I guess his entire theory was demolished immediately, since the work is not being repressed. I bet he'd be pissed if he found out.

[SugarFree]

Prediction: He'll be proclaimed by the media as a libertarian and/or Tea Party member.

There is a chapter called: "Barack Obama: Supernigger"

[Joe M]

Anyone as hung up on sociobiology as him is clearly a product of our screwed up lefty colleges.

[Jerry]

The Nihilist in Chief.

[MP]

"If life is truly meaningless and there is no rational basis for choosing among fundamental alternatives, then all choices are equal and there is no fundamental ground for choosing life over death,"

Is it really that hard to accept that life has no meaning?

[Mike Laursen]

Not that hard at all. Who cares if life is ultimately meaningless in a world that has cheeseburgers, and Lobster Girl, and minor league ball games on a sunny afternoon.

[Bindair Dondat]

^^THIS^^

[CaptainSmartass]

People confuse "meaningless" with "pointless". There is no inherent, objective meaning to life. That doesn't mean you can't have a good time and leave behind a legacy for future generations.

[DG]

It's time for the rest of the world to cut economic ties with Europe. You don't want to be tied to that ship when it goes down.

[affenkopf]

Pot calling the kettle black.

[DG]

I agree the US is definitely headed off that cliff, but the EU has already fallen off and is hanging to a branch that is about to break.

[Isaac Bartram]

Well, except for the fact that European governments actually make an effort to reduce deficits from time to time.

In the US no one anywhere near the reins of power evens wants to talk about it.

Not that the Euros handle deficit reduction all that well. They tend to achieve it through cuts in public services and welfare spending which works fine during good times until the waiting lists for medical treatments etc get too long and the media starts to publish the horror stories. Then there's a big rush to pump money into the welfare system and, bingo, deficit's back. (See also, Canada, for this phenomenon).

[John]

I think we should cut ties with California first.

[MNG]

And give up all those foxy hairy chicks?

[Ska]

With Latinas and Asians still around, I'll find a way to live without 'em. And Russians can count as Asians too, right?

[Spoonman.]

It will still be a good idea to trade with them when they're broken, assuming they don't turn into Rand's versions of torture-chamber People's Republics.

[SugarFree]

Europe is like a sick friend. You can still spend time with them while not wanting to catch their disease. We just wear a face-mask around Europe and wash our hands throughly after we get home.

[MNG]

WTF is up with NFL kickers the past few years? It's incredible to think given all the college teams out there that there are not 32 people out there who could reliably make field goals under 45 yards out.

[John]

You would think so. But missing field goals makes the game more interesting. Nothing more boring than a long field goal.

[Citizen Nothing]

I disagree. I've always loved the strategic implications of the field goal. And the Bengals have themselves a stud kicker this year (ex-Buckeye, of course) who has already won them one game and will probable win a couple more, given Palmer's strange red-zone performances.

[John]

I was listening to a podcast on ESPN last night. And Mike Lombardi called Palmer a 20/20 quarterback meaning he is only effective between the twenties. Brutal.

I think that kickers have gotten too good. Field goals are too easy to kick. Going for it on fourth or punting to kill the other guy deep is much more interesting than a field goal. I would love to see them ban soccer style kicking. Make them go back to straight on. Now that would make things interesting. Of course it will never happen until the day when justice reigns and I am crowned God Emperor.

[Citizen Nothing]

Field goals are too easy to kick.

Garrett Hartley would disagree.

[kiwi dave]

you know what would be better than banning soccer-style kicking? Banning holders and making all field goal attempts drop kicked (like in rugby). That would make field goal attempts interesting.

[John]

Drop kicks are still legal. People just don't do them anymore. A few years ago Bill Bellicheck let Doug Flutie kick one. And it worked. They are really hard to do. It takes a lot of athletic ability to do it. That would be a proposal I could support.

[kiwi dave]

I know it's still legal, like laterals, you just never see it. The reason is that modern footballs are too pointy (i.e. they're made to be aerodynamic for forward passes). You can drop kick a football (I've tried), but it's much harder than a rugby ball.

[John]

Good point about the pointyness of the ball. Watch old films of people like Sammy Baugh and Otto Graham. Look at the football they were throwing. It was much more like a rugby ball. I would to see what those guys could have done with a modern ball or conversely watch Payton Manning try to throw one of those.

[kiwi dave]

Damn hard to throw one-handed. Every once in a blue-moon you will see an overhand pass in a rugby game (has to be backwards, of course) but very rare.

[Bindair Dondat]

I remember that!

[NFL]

We feel your pain, and next year we'll be changing the rules again. A field goal will be worth 4 points and the ball will be placed at the 20 yard line. Right after a word from our sponsors.

[Mr. Chartreuse]

Especially since in the college game, due to the hash marks being wider, it's actually more difficult at some of the closer distances to convert a field goal.

[Rules Committee]

We feel your pain, and next year we'll be changing the rules again. A field goal will be worth 4 points, and the ball will be placed at the 20 yard line, right after these words from our sponsors.

[DG]

right after these words from our sponsors.

It's funny that in the NFL using pot will get you a one game suspension on the first offense, a four game suspension on the second, and a season suspension on the third, but no one has ever been given a suspension by the NFL for a DUI. Any guesses why that might be?

[Brett L]

Alcohol isn't performance-enhancing?

[waffles]

Pot is?

[Ska]

Vote yes on Prop. 19 so pot smoking NFL players from CA don't have to put up with suspension discrepancy!

[waffles]

Also, didn't Braylon Edwards also have pot on him. I don't think he had a drug test, but he surely was/is toking.

[Nick]

From what I understand an alcohol-related incident has a special program in the league, so his actions would fall under that. I suspect he'll get suspended for this in some way, but it's handled differently.

[Mike M.]

And when the NFL season inevitably gets expanded to 22 games, the kickers might be the only guys left standing at the end of the season.

[MNG]

I see Jason Schwartzman playing Kim Jong-un as the reluctant doofus regime heir in the film.

[Ska]

Will Ted Danson have a cameo in that as well?

[Joe M]

Anyone else have a tiny bit of hope that this -un might make some changes? Or are we just figuring he has been completely isolated and brainwashed his entire life?

[Pope Jimbo]

Given the fact that he isn't the oldest son, I'd have to think that he possesses some extra-crazy traits that really appealed to his dad.

I think it's more likely that the n00b will decide to do something extra provocative to show that he has control of the military. Not a good time to be a sailor on one of the coastal patrol boats in the south.

[John]

Everything I have ever read says that Kim's sons make the Hussein boys look like level headed statesman. The one that is being put is by all accounts a border line retarded sick little midget wanna be playboy. Basically, the North Korean nightmare will continue unabated.

[-]

A few hundred families and the military run things in N. Korea. The Kim midgets are just finger-puppets.

[John]

That is what people think. Honestly at this point, I am not sure if anyone is running the place. When Kim Jong Il finally goes, I am not sure the elites will be able to keep things together. They do have the motivation that if the state ever falls, they will all be killed by a vengeful public. But it is pretty hard to keep an totalitarian oligarchy together.

[1994 Death of Kim Il Sung]

When Kim Jong Il finally goes, I am not sure the elites will be able to keep things together.

Hi!

[John]

Just because something happens once doesn't mean that it will happen again. Things stayed together in 1994 because Kim Jong Il was a tremendous political operator. He had basically been running the country (into the ground) for over a decade. His father was about to kick him out for doing so much damage when he mysteriously died. There has always been a rumor that Kim Jong Il whacked his father in private. The new Kim is nothing like that. He hasn't had near the preparation for power the Jong Il did. Unless Jong Il lingers for a decade or so like Castro, the new Kim will be in a much tougher spot than Jong Il.

[CaptainSmartass]

But it is pretty hard to keep an totalitarian oligarchy together.

Sadly, some of the longest and most stable civilizations in the history of the world have been just that. I wouldn't underestimate the ability of the NorK elites to keep things running as-is for years, if not centuries, to come.

[Bindair Dondat]

My understanding it that Kim Jong Ill's sister's husband (Chang Som Taek)has a strong shot at taking power.

(fifth video down)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/

[Bindair Dondat]

Chang Song Taek

[John]

http://opinionator.blogs.nytim.....tea-party/

Pretty good article on the Tea Party movement from the liberal prospective by the usually interesting Stanley Fish. The comments are priceless.

[Rich]

The lack of self-reflection and the over-weening arrogance of the "heartland" (another term I despise) is maddening.

Priceless, indeed.

[Pope Jimbo]

I had to stop reading the comments at the beaut:

Thomas Friedman has consistently written cogent editorials urging our leaders to step up and lead in energy policy, trade policy and industry development.

Before that, the comment was one of the more sane ones I had seen.

[mad libertarian guy]

Fuck you, Stanley Fish. Fuck. You.

[Mr. Chartreuse]

Interesting race in Colorado for governor, Tancredo, under the Constitution Party banner, has pulled within 10% of Hickenlooper and he is also calling for legalizing marijuana

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Oh dear! A cosmotarian dilemma! I love it!

[SugarFree]

But the darkies might flock to the White enclave of Colorado for marijuana! An American3P dilemma! I love it!

[Joe M]

The only comment in that article:
"Terrible Tommy" Tancredo is the best friend John Hickenlooper ever had - Go, Tommy, Go! Run, Tommy, Run! A vote for Tommy Tancredo is a vote for John Hickenlooper. There is justice in the world, after all.

It's actually just the opposite. A vote for Maes is a vote for Hickenlooper at this point, following the usual logic, since Maes is in third. I bet more people figure this out and decided to vote for Tancredo.

[DG]

Update on a link I posted awhile back on an Australian ranching family getting evicted by the green mafia. Turns out that the eviction notice was given based on only 21 complaints, some of which were by people who had moved to the area after the ranch was in operation. In fact, the community overwhelmingly sided with the ranchers with over 900 people signing a petition in support of them.

[Rich]

The protest was led by a group dressed in black suits with black face masks, carrying umbrellas and briefcases,

which held vast amounts of their own money that the protesters flung merrily into the crowd.

[SugarFree]

Has a parasite ever hated it's host so much?

[Brett L]

Tom Friedman writes a (largely inane) column about the Tea Party movement and still manages to get in a plug for China. I swear they must have bought a sponsorship.

Do you have to have a brainectomy to write a regular column for NYT? He and Krugman continue their "a smarter government will solve our problems" career suicide pact. Well over 1900 pages of inane, nihilistic bullshit. Just skip to the end.

[John]

I have a theory that Friedman is on the PRC payroll. Buying off an NYT op ed writer is just the kind of the thing I could see Chinese intelligence doing. And Friedman is so arrogant and stupid, he would be a cheap date. All it would take would be a few honorary and well paid positions with a few state run corporations combined with some free trips and gratuitous ass kissing and the Chinese would own him lock stock and mustache. Keeping him in line would only require the occasional talk about how unfairly China is treated in the media and how unproductive any criticism would be to Friedman's special relationship with the Chinese.

I honestly can't think of any other explanation.

[Satan]

I honestly can't think of any other explanation.

Try just a little harder.

[Pope Jimbo]

Oh man, you invested in the souls of NYT columnists?

I don't care how little you paid, you got scammed. That is the ultimate bubble. Better hope you get bailed out when it pops.

[Fluffy]

Friedman's wife's family are billionaire commercial real estate magnates.

I doubt China could buy him. Maybe blackmail, if he fucks little boys or something.

Always remember, however, that when Friedman writes about domestic policy it's from the point of view of someone who married into a family that would be wiped out if real estate prices were allowed to find their natural level.

[John]

There is never enough money. You wouldn't think someone as rich as Leona Helmsley would risk prison by cheating on a few thousand dollars worth of taxes or as rich as Martha Stewart would go to prison over lying about a penny ante stock trade, but they did. And the payoff is not just money. It is in ego as well. I am quite sure Friedman loves it when Chinese officials tell him how important and smart he is. It is not so much a crude payout as a subtle manipulation.

Also, Friedman has shot his mouth off so many times about China, he has painted himself into a corner. After all of the dumb shit he has said, he really can't now come out and say "you know I was wrong, China does suck". His huge ego has a lot to do with his increasingly absurd defenses of the country.

The truth is probably that there is a symbiotic relationship between the PRC's manipulation of Friedman and Friedman's ego and stupidity.

[TrickyVic]

"""You wouldn't think someone as rich as Leona Helmsley would risk prison by cheating on a few thousand dollars worth of taxes ""'

Taxes are for the little people.

[Timmy Geitner]

Damn straight!

[kiwi dave]

My favorite line: "People think the country is in trouble and that countries like China have a strategy for success and we don't."

The beauty of that line is that it's worked for most of the last century, you just need to change the name of the country.

2000: Replace "China" with "Europe"
1990: Replace "China" with "Japan"
1970: Replace "China" with "USSR"
1935: Replace "China" with "Germany"

[John]

They really don't have editors at the NYT. If they did, there is no way they would let him get away with the "people think ..." dodge. Who thinks that? All he is saying is "Tom Friedman thinks" but camouflaging his naked assertion with the vague term "people" to make it look like he is repeating common wisdom. It is just terrible writing and thinking.

[kiwi dave]

It's true, if you tried that on Wikipedia, you'd get slapped with a "Weasel words" banner; yet in America's "newspaper of record" it's completely fine.

[Joe M]

High five!

[Joe M]

At Wikipedia, we call those weasel words.

[waffles]

Some argue that people think researchers have shown weasel words are great, which is now common knowledge.

[JW]

I thought Martha went to the pokey because she had the audacity to "lie" to a Federales.

[John]

She lied to them about trying to stop a stock trade that would have cost her like 100 grand. She was a billionaire. A hundred grand to her is like a five to you and me.

[Azathoth]

For some reason I get the feeling that you don't get to be a billionaire by letting 100k slip through your fingers every now and again, y'know?

[Bindair Dondat]

Makes sense. No way he could afford his compound on a columnist / book writer's salary:

http://raynoreport.com/wp-cont.....shouse.jpg

[Mr. FIFY]

Just shows where Friedman's real loyalties are...

[Geroge Woods]

OK this makes a lot of sense dude.

http://www.web-privacy.it.tc

[James Ard]

You got to hand it to the boys on the Supreme court. They sure love them some Anna Nichole Smith cases.

[Warty]

It's hard to know who to root for here, since I know the guy.

[waffles]

well he's from Sewickley, so you know he's an asshole.

[Warty]

I know. Christ, do I know. I wonder if he had the SEWICKLEY front license plate that so many of those dicksnots do.

[P Brooks]

"March Against Austerity"

Meanwhile, on CNBC this morning, Ed Rendell said, "We have to raise revenues! We can't cut spending, that's just crazy!"

SIUYA, Ed.

[R C Dean]

Our President is genuinely an idiot. While professing to be a Christian, he manages to get the Golden Rule wrong.

Matthew 7:12:

Do to others what you would have them do to you.

Obama's version:

Treating others as they would treat me.

Which is kind of the opposite, when you think about it.

[waffles]

I think it's the satanic golden rule.

[John]

And Progressives have now figured out that he is condescending. Only took them two years to notice.

[John]

Forgot the link

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39.....ite_house/

[Bindair Dondat]

"Only took them two years to notice."

Try four.

[Fluffy]

Dean, that's really funny.

"Treating others as they would treat me" really does parse out to "Kill everyone before they can get to me first" doesn't it?

[Citizen Nothing]

Things are beginning to make sense now...

[Pro Libertate]

Do unto others before they do unto you.

[hmm]

That seems a little narcissistic.

[John]

He also fucked up the "my brother's keeper" line. First, it is from the Old Testament not the New. Second the line is "I am not my brother's keeper". And it is being delivered by Cain to God after Cain had whacked Able. It is basically the oldest smart ass remark in literature. "Hey what happened to your brother?" "I don't know I am not his keeper". How liberals interpret that to mean that we are all responsible for one another, I have no idea.

[Warty]

I think this must mean that Obama isn't an atheist after all, if he can't even grasp the simplest bible stories.

[SugarFree]

You have pleased me greatly this day, Warty.

[John]

If you consider that he spent 20 years listening to black liberation theology, it is not surprising that he doesn't know much. It is hard to fit in much about the bible when you have to preach the full truth about the evil whitey.

[Bindair Dondat]

I often have to watch some black liberation theology people on the corner as I wait for the bus. Their basic point is that Native Americans Africans, and other brown people are the lost tribes of Israel as opposed to the white devil and Asians.

[TrickyVic]

""Second the line is "I am not my brother's keeper".""

He doesn't say that either. He asks God, Am I my brother's keeper? in repsonse to God's question.

http://bible.cc/genesis/4-9.htm

Of course we are talking about actual brothers, not neighbors and such.

[John]

Good catch. But it still is pretty much the oldest recorded smart ass retort.

[-]

I thought the oldest was, "You expect me to pay for that?"

[joe]

that's the MUSLIM golden rule

[christina]

The Golden Rule is actually the basis of Confucian thought, which was around for a few centuries before Christ. And it's actually VERY libertarian. Christ totally effed it up.

"Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself."

[Warty]

Best FOE birthday party ever

[Brett L]

I'm glad to see the Hispanics in Ohio have finally assimilated to the level of my New York Irish forebears. Not much more American than drinkin' and fightin' with your family.

[John]

"The fight apparently broke out between the birthday girl's father and her mother's boyfriend, police said."

The father and the mother's boyfriend drinking heavily at a birthday party for the kid. Yeah, that was going to work out well.

[hmm]

Baby momma drama.

[Warty]

When actuaries go bad

Bonus MSM fuckshitedness: Police confirmed Tooley was carrying an AK-47, a military-grade combat rifle.

[John]

That is technically true. But a non military grade .22 pistol will kill you just as dead. So I am not really sure why it is relevant.

[Warty]

I'd bet you an infinite amount of money that he had a shitty WASR or something similar. The chances that he had an actual "military-grade" select-fire AK are precisely 0.

[John]

I doubt it was select fire. But, I don't think being fully automatic makes it "military grade" whatever that means. And it probably was a cheap knock off. But hey, the AK 47 is the ultimate cheap, reliable rifle. Guerrilla fighters have been using cheap knock offs of it for decades.

[mad libertarian guy]

Military grade simply means scary looking. It has nothing to do with anything tangible at all other than having a pistol grip and being semi-auto. Those 2 features alone will designate a rifle a military grade.

[SugarFree]

The news video that pops up features a newscaster who pronounced the site of the shooting as "Lie-Berry."

[Warty]

Prison Economy Spirals As Price Of Pack Of Cigarettes Exceeds Two Hand Jobs

"I fucked him up bad in the li-barry. But, hey, that's the way the market's gonna be for a while."

[DG]

Surprisingly, he is not listed on the UT mathematics In Memoriam page on the department website.

[R C Dean]

If its not select fire, its not an AK-47. Period.

"Military-grade" means nothing, of course. Its all just more media pants-wetting. Business as usual.

[TrickyVic]

Military-grade usually relates to military specs. Often the military requires a higher grade of craftmanship because of the abuse the equipment takes.

That doesn't take away from the notion that the term sometimes gets abused.

[SugarFree]

Maybe it just means he paid far, far more than the weapon was actually worth.

[hmm]

There are differences commonly referred to as mil-spec. The one that comes to mind first is the buffer tube diameter for the lower receiver of AR15s. There are two sizes, one is mil-spec the other civilian.

Like Vic said, this is just some numb nut trying to sound important.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Its all just more media pants-wetting.

I suspect it's more calculated than that. A favorite meme of the media is that anybody can walk into a gun store in the U.S. and for $3.98 walk out with armloads of machine guns, bazookas, grenades, atomic bombs, etc. Then they write impassioned editorials to the effect of "when oh when will we get some common sense gun laws".

[That Son-of-a-Bitch Van Owen]

Plus there is always this.

[TrickyVic]

From the SCTOUS article

"The court will also take up a decades-long battle between the Pentagon and contractors Boeing and General Dynamics on the never-built A-12 Avenger attack plane. The government canceled the contract in 1991 and is seeking $3 billion in repayment and interest.

The case centers on the state secrets privilege, which is normally asserted by the government in national security issues. The companies say that because of the doctrine, they could not get information needed to develop the plane, or to defend themselves in the resulting lawsuit.

The cases, which will be consolidated, are Boeing v. U.S. and General Dynamics v. U.S."

Classic.

[Jason]

Let the regulatory capture begin!

Ex-Regulators Get Set to Lobby on New Financial Rules

[mad libertarian guy]

And surely it will be the fault of the free market.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Thousands hit streets in Europe to "march against austerity."

Brought to you by People Who Think Money Grows On Trees.

[????? ??????]

Thanks