Reason Morning Links: Debt, Drones, and Disney World

• The Mumbai plotter and the DEA.
• Coming soon: a bipartian push for energy subsidies.
• The approximate amount 15 major governments in the developed world will have to borrow next year: $10.2 trillion.
• Holland pares back its smoking ban.
• U.S. drones go to Yemen.
• Burma holds a rigged election.
• Keith Olbermann comes home.
• Another reporter is assaulted in Russia.
• Disney signs a deal to open a theme park in Shanghai.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Coming soon: a bipartian push for energy subsidies.

Still no push for energy bar subsidies?

(I can comment here because no mention of the M-word.)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Keith Olbermann comes home.

I can't wait for a not-at-all humbled Keith to return to his show so I can get back to not watching it.

[Brett L]

I'm interested to see the first week ratings by day. My guess:

Tuesday: 1M
Wednesday: .5M
Thursday: .1M
Friday: 3

[Joe M]

I wonder if the whole thing was a publicity stunt in the first place? Consider Maddow's comments that MSNBC isn't like Fox.

[?]

Maddow is right. MSNBC is not like Fox. It's like Pravda.

[Mr. FIFY]

"Like" doesn't begin to cover it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Holland pares back its smoking ban.

Wake me when they finally make a law requiring patrons to smoke in small owner-operated bars and pubs.

[John Thacker]

It's nice to know from the previous thread that apparently Matt's in favor of keeping people locked up if their ex-girlfriends call them terrorists, even in the absence of other evidence.

Of course, some people whom are called terrorists by their ex-girlfriends really will turn out to be terrorists, but I seem to recall those sort of hearsay accusations as being thought insufficient for Gitmo detainees.

[John]

But they let him out early on probation so he could go inform for the DEA. It is not like he was going to get out on time and they kept him longer because his ex said he was a terrorist.

Fuck the DEA. If they want to get into the business of getting criminals out of jail early to be informants, they are responsible if said criminals go out and do criminal acts.

[Spoonman.]

Why the fuck can't I comment on that post?

[Matt Welch]

Administrator error. Go forth.

[Robert]

What would've been the consequence of his prob'n's continuing? Near as I can figure, he wouldn't've qualified for a passport -- or maybe he would've. If no, then he'd've just gotten to pick targets in the USA, or his home state.

[John]

He would have remained in the US. His girlfriend or someone else might have outed him out or the cops might have got lucky and caught him. He might have succeeded sure. But it would have been harder on probation in the US. Regardless, our own government got a criminal out of probation, sent him to Pakistan, and he ended up helping to kill a bunch of people in India while under our control. I think the Indians have a right to be offended and someone in the DEA needs to be fired. Put the foot on the other shoe. What if the Indian DEA sent some guy under cover to Mexico and he ended up being behind 9-11. Would the US not be upset about that?

[John Thacker]

while under our control.

Going a bit far there, I think. Even the original story says that he stopped being a US agent some years before killing. But in any case, if he were able to do that "while under our control" in India, surely he could have done so while on probation.

Sure, the DEA obviously screwed up and someone should be fired. I just hate the sort of consequentialist reasoning, particularly when it's applied to why the government should have trusted an accusation from an ex without proof.

If the government acting on that accusation would be an impermissible outrage in another case, then why would it be justified here?

Now, John is generally ok with Gitmo detainees imprisoned on similar levels of evidence, so the objection doesn't apply to him.

Either standard of behavior is going to cause errors. If all accusations from exes were trusted, then Reason would have outraged articles by Radley about all the people unfairly kept on probation or imprisoned, no?

[robc]

Im thinking an ex accusing you of being a terrorist should be a large red flag on ANY security clearance. And the DEA shouldnt be hiring people who cant pass a security clearance.

Im not saying that the accusation should absolutely exclude someone, but it damn well should be investigated and maybe should cause consideration towards using someone else.

[CaptainSmartass]

I agree with this sentiment. An ex saying you're a possible terrorist shouldn't land you in prison. But it should stop the government from sending you overseas to a nation festering with terrorists.

[Robert]

If they're already festering with terrorists, what's one more? I can't think of a safer place to send a terrorist, other than the grave or a cage.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

I've got to agree with you on this. Assuming that they wanted to keep Headley's mission secret, I doubt the DEA even told his ex-girlfriend that he was going to infiltrate a terrorist group. So it's not like she knew that saying he was a terrorist sympathizer could keep him in jail for longer.

[Ska]

So it's not like she knew that saying he was a terrorist sympathizer could keep him in jail for longer.

In this day and age of enemy combatants and overreacting to anything terrorism related, I'm not sure I would make the same statement.

[Brett L]

Gods below, is the energy market not fucked up enough already without the gummint further distorting it? Instead of subsidizing nukes, why don't they just ease the approval regimen? Lowers the cost, quickens the process... Oh wait, doesn't add to the gummint payroll.

And don't even get me started on electric cars... We have this great energy source that's extremely energy dense, range from 300 to 500 miles depending on the size of the storage container, good for way more 300 charges, each of which take between 3 and 7 minutes depending on the size of the charge... Its called liquid hydrocarbons. Jesus Spaghetti-Monster Christ.

[Ramsey]

With enough nukes it would be possible to take CO2 from other sources, reverse-water-gas shift the shit out of it with some hydrogen, pump those little green-house-gas fuckers full of heat in the right catalyst, and wind up with natural gas to use in your tank.

With even more nukes you could turn that tea-baggin' rat-fuckin' glacier-melting CO2 into diesel fuel like god intended, and run it in your 12 second Cummins Ram.

Fischer-Tropsch for the win, dickbags!

[John Thacker]

Coming soon: a bipartian push for energy subsidies.

I hate sequels. Weren't the bipartisan 2005 (about half the Dems, most of the GOPers) and the bipartisan 2007 (about all the Dems, about half the GOPers) energy subsidy bills enough?

[John]

Senator McConnell, could you please die in a fire? What a fuckhead. Let's rip off the tax payer for both side's good old boys. It is bi partisan.

[?]

Keith Olbermann comes home

Keith Olbermann SUSPENDED From MSNBC Indefinitely Without Pay
35,581 Comments

Narcissism hits critical mass.

[P Brooks]

It's nice to know from the previous thread that apparently Matt's in favor of keeping people locked up if their ex-girlfriends call them terrorists, even in the absence of other evidence.

But what does your Magic Eight-Ball tell you about his sentiments regarding teh cocktail parties?

Inquiring minds, and all that...

[^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^666]

KULTUR WAR !!1!

[P Brooks]

Yemeni officials said the United States had not yet pushed for the use of Predator-fired missiles and indicated that they had deep reservations about weapons they said could prove counterproductive.

"Why gain enemies right now?" said Mohammed A. Abdulahoum, a senior Yemeni official. "Americans are not rejected in Yemen; the West is respected. Why waste all this for one or two strikes when you don't know who you're striking?"

These people are obviously shielding the terrorists; we should overthrow their government.

And tear down their mosques.

[MNG]

Did someone say Mosque-razing?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11706116

[Mosqueteer]

The United States ... has not fired missiles from the unmanned aircraft because it lacks solid intelligence on the insurgents' whereabouts

Let Allah sort 'em out.

[MNG]

WaPo Opinion Article on GW and Conservatism:

"In fact, far from being conservative, the Republican stance on global warming shows a stunning appetite for risk. When faced with uncertainty and the possibility of costly outcomes, smart businessmen buy insurance, reduce their downside exposure and protect their assets. When confronted with a disease outbreak of unknown proportions, front-line public health workers get busy producing vaccines, pre-positioning supplies and tracking pathogens. And when military planners assess an enemy, they get ready for a worst-case encounter.

When it comes to climate change, conservatives are doing none of this. Instead, they are recklessly betting the farm on a single, best-case scenario: That the scientific consensus about global warming will turn out to be wrong. This is bad risk management and an irresponsible way to run anything, whether a business, an economy or a planet.

The great irony is that, should their high-stakes bet prove wrong, adapting to a destabilized climate would mean a far bigger, more intrusive government than would most of the "big government" solutions to our energy problems that have been discussed so far."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....cmoduletmv

[MNG]

I'd find this more convincing if AGW supporters were'nt often calling for dramatic changes to combat GW...That being so it seems natural for a "conservative" to be hesitant to join in. Still, interesting fodder for discussion.

[John]

It assumes that the "solutions" for this cargo cult come without costs. I would say the cultists are recklessly betting trillions of dollars on a single worst case scenario. And further, unless and until you come up with a way to basically control the entire world economy down to people burning yak dung in Tibet, you are just pissing in the wind. Even if the cultists are right, it does no good for the US to reduce its carbon emissions only to see industry move to other countries and increase emissions there. Pretending otherwise is where you slip from policy to cargo cult.

[MNG]

See, in this scenario the cultists are the scientists! Amusing.

[MNG]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.....ate_change

[John]

Pretending that the US unilaterally reducing its emissions is going to solve the global problem of emissions is not science. It is a cult or a religion. In religions you do things for symbolic or supernatural reasons. Closing down US industry and seeing the industry move to China and operate with less control is no different than saying the rosary. It makes the believers feel better. But it can hardly be called science.

[MNG]

I agree that it is silly to think that one nation restricting itself will do anything. I was referring to the AGW hypothesis, not proposed solutions. I don't think there is any consensus about the latter.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Scientific data (as opposed to computerized projections) do appear to show the beginnings of a warming trend, but the short term (

[Lost_In_Translation]

I have no idea what happened to this post, so we'll try again.

Scientific data (as opposed to computerized projections) do appear to show the beginnings of a warming trend, but the short term (less than 500 years) effects of global warming are unknown as opposed to the short term effects of basically destroying what's left of America's economy. So the conservative approach is naturally to prevent known effects over unknown effects.

[John Thacker]

The conservative approach is also to favor a flexible solution-- being wealthier and keeping our options open-- as opposed to the government putting everything down on one of many possible catastrophes and picking one approach to solving it.

To put it another way, so far when government has decided to deal with the problem, it's preferred approaches have included things like SynFuels, Inc. and massively requiring ethanol.

[Mike M.]

One of the best things about the coming new Congress is that these filthy, lying criminals like James Hansen and Michael "Piltdown" Mann are finally going to be made to suffer some real exposure and consequences for the fraud they've been trying to perpetrate on everyone.

[John]

A guy with a lab coat and a PHD in a basically invented area of "science" and a guy with a collar, increasingly there is little difference, except that the guy in the collar actually wants to control my life less.

Every time you yell "scientist" and appeal to authority, you just prove the point MNG.

[MNG]

You grossly misunderstand what the fallacy of appeal to authority entails John. It's a common mistake.

It simply means that as a matter of formal logic something is not conclusively proven via an appeal to an authority alone. However, most 101 Logic textbooks will have, in the informal logic section, a discussion of the considerable weight attached as a matter of informal logic to authorities in their relevant field.

[John]

I totally understand appeal to authority. In the absence of any argument, yes appeal to authority has some value. But when confronted with the logical argument that unilaterally cutting emissions will do no good an appeal to authority is of no value.

By formal logic argument by analogy and appeal to authority are the two weakest forms of argument. Since you have embraced appeal to authority, I am sure you find the argument by analogy of intelligent design to be appealing as well?

[8]

I'll believe you give a shit about the people of the future when you stop trying to indebt them for your own benefit now.

[Tony]

That's exactly what the denier side is doing. Short-term profits at the expense of future generations.

[PapayaSF]

Right, because if we don't spend trillions of dollars soon, the Earth may well become .001 degrees hotter in 100 years.

[Tony]

You don't know what the term "cargo cult" refers to, do you?

[The Gobbler]

Hey look over there! It is a witch. Well maybe not a witch, but just in case, let us act conservatively and burn her at the stake!

[Lost_In_Translation]

At the same time, where's our nuclear asteroid defense shield...

[Chinny Chin Chin]

On the other hand, while AGW believers love to talk about "existential crisis", they're content to do nothing more than complain that the government isn't doing more.

I'd think that those who believe would be doing EVERYTHING in their power RIGHT NOW. Including changing career to a carbon-neutral industry, cessation of automobile use, cessation of plastic use, switching residence into smaller and less-costly abode, taking cold showers, etc. etc. etc.

There are countless "carbon footprint" reduction options available for immediate employment. But the lack of any dramatic lifestyle changes from true believers tells me that they're making the same bet as conservatives.

[Tony]

The single biggest contribution people can make is to urge policymakers to make the necessary large policy changes to combat the problem. An individual buying a Prius isn't going to solve anything. Global problems require global solutions, and anyway deniers are not only not changing their lifestyles, they're sticking their heads in the sand pretending that they'll never have to.

[JW]

Right. One person being an Elvis fan won't matter, so the other 49,999,999 shouldn't bother.

[Fluffy]

This is sheer idiocy.

We know the costs of various carbon rationing schemes.

We don't know - because no one will attempt to measure it - what the costs of doing nothing are, and who will bear them.

So we're being asked to embrace known costs in order to avoid unknown future costs.

There is just no way to do that math.

Mean temperature changes of less than the "we turn into Venus" variety will produce climate winners and losers. Everything I've seen says that the US is not likely to be among the losers, and that even if it is, the cost to ameliorate the effects will be negligible compared to the PV of the expense we're being asked to take on now.

[MNG]

GOP Senator
OK, Can We Bomb Iran Now?:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ds-newsxml

[Brett L]

I think its time for Sen. Graham to be a full time reserve colonel.

[kinnath]

I remember when Congressman Graham was one of the few sane voices during the Clinton impeachment.

Apparently Senator Graham is actually Mystique.

[John]

Firedog Lake's take on the election. This is some full on stupid.

...if Barack Obama had pushed for the original stimulus plan using reconciliation, instead of stupidly seeking bipartisanship with Republicans determined to wreck America for political gain or blowing all of his and the Congressional Democrats' political capital on an industry-written "health care reform bill" in exchange for a soon-to-be-broken promise not to aid Republicans, the recent loss of the House wouldn't have happened. But we have the teabaggers to thank for softening the blow. Case in point: Minnesota.

The GOP electoral wave that was predicted for the entire country landed in the North Star State, just as it had everywhere else ? and had been predicted for nearly a year, thanks to Washington Democrats' refusal to push for a stimulus big enough to truly do the job and their insistence on putting more effort into passing a health care bill written by the the health care industry and which only the industry likes. As did over a dozen other states, we lost control of our legislature to the GOP (after only having had both houses for four years), and one of our best US congressmembers, Jim Oberstar.

http://directorblue.blogspot.c.....trist.html

[Mike M.]

All the leftists who won't quit pushing this pathetic Keynesian/Krugmanian talking point should take a close look at that chart in that Wall Street Journal article.

Japan's government is now going to be spending almost a staggering 60% of their GDP in one year! They have been doing Keynes on steroids for almost twenty years, and their economy is still stuck in the dumper.

[Pope Jimbo]

That is pretty funny. Oberstar lost, but don't worry about that. The MN legislature was lost (hasn't happened since 1972) but don't worry. Our gubernatorial candidate won! Yaay!

I agree the election of Dayton was pretty amazing considering how horrible he is. He has admitted to having problems with depression and alcohol (not Four Loko though). He campaigned on a plank of taxing the rich more.

The problem was that he ran against a very bad candidate. Emmer is an OK guy, but his campaign was horrible, and he isn't the most articulate of pols.

Firedog Lake said that the Tea Partiers got Emmer the nod over another local pol, Marty Siefert, which may be true, but Marty wasn't going to do any better.

The betting pools here in sunny Minnesota are abuzz with action on when Dayton will crack under the pressure and fall off the wagon again - possibly closing the state capitol offices.

[The Gobbler]

Dayton is a basket case.

[P Brooks]

Why the fuck can't I comment on that post?

How much is it worth to you?

[Matt Welch]

It's fixed, and for free! Sorry.

[waffles]

truthfully, if the threat of AGW were immediate, measurable, and mitigable like earthquakes, volcanoes, and tornadoes then traditional risk management measures would be appropriate. The AGW disaster scenario is global and varied, companies plan for natural disasters that are local and specific. It just doesn't seem like an appropriate comparison.

[Ramsey]

So lets plan on ignoring the problem?

There are a lot of reasons to get off the fossil fuel teat, AGW is just one.

Addressing one addresses them all. Nukes for Progress!

[Brett L]

Ramsey:
What's your plan for stopping the infrared emission (greenhouse effect) of DHMO -- a far greater emitter than that darned old CO2, and produced in the burning of hydrocarbons at a 1:1 ratio?

[Corduroy]

I attended TEDxNASA last week. The AGW crowd was in full force. They even trotted out the old temp/CO2 historical chart. Of course, no one addressed the question of why temp rises preceded CO2 rises in the past.

The sad part is I am open to good information on AGW, but when they use information like that without qualifying it, it just makes me more skeptical.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Corduroy,

How the TEDx event, many times did you hear the word "sustainable"?

[Chinny Chin Chin]

oops, should be:

"At TEDx, how many times..."

[Ramsey]

See, that is part of a self-reinforcing cycle: More heat->more water vapor->more heat.

Why not get off that bus before it leaves the station?

And the atmosphere has a dandy mechanism for removing DHMO in short time spans, an analog does not exist for CO2 over certain concentrations.

[Brett L]

Plants? Warmth+CO2 = more growth. If Warmth is a consequence of more atmospheric CO2 then I'd say the negative feedback mechanism is well established. We have direct correlation between atmospheric CO2 concentration and plant growth rates.

I'm in Corduroy's camp. AGW may exist, but it is hard to tell because the process by which the studies have been done are sketchy.

AEI has been FOIA'ing (and is now suing) NASA for release of the methodology behind their GISS temperature set for four years. Not releasing your methodology means no one can replicate the experiment means it isn't science. I'll further note that AEI's contention is that the GISS data is NOT independent from the HADCRUT dataset whose original data were lost to eternity.

I graduated from a little Chemical Engineering program that has no distinguished faculty of note, but those methods wouldn't fly for an undergrad lab. We certainly shouldn't be making $1T decisions based on it.

If you believe in AGW advocate for openness. Don't give skeptics like me any choice. Do good science. You know with transparent data collection and methodologies.

[waffles]

why does the government force us to save daylight? And when we save all this daylight, where does the government keep it?

[Mike M.]

Originally it was done solely for the sake of the farmers. Now, the theory is that "saving daylight" lowers electricity usage. I have no idea if there is any validity to it at all.

[Lost_In_Translation]

I have no idea if there is any validity to it at all.

Psst, there isn't. It just shifts energy usage.

[Joe M]

If people would just sleep in, our problems would be solved! It's this damn culture of achievement causing all the trouble.

[The Gobbler]

^^THIS^^

[Slut Bunwalla]

I don't see how it would lower energy usage. If it gets dark an hour earlier, I have to turn on the lights an hour earlier.

[oncogenesis]

No, during DST it gets dark an hour later. We just stopped DST here in the US.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Well, you know what I mean.

[Zeb]

It was never for farmers. Animals and crops don't care what the clock says. I don't know where that idea comes from. It has always been a poorly conceived attempt to save energy and extend evening daylight.

[Brett L]

In mineshafts. We obviously cannot afford a daylight gap with the tropical regions in the coming wars driven by solar powered robots.

[Jesse Walker]

where does the government keep it?

In a lockbox, of course.

If we could save our own daylight, we could invest it in the stock market and grow some more daylight. And when we die, we could pass that daylight on to our kids.

[Ragin Cajun]

You're not seriously suggesting we privatize daylight, are you? That will break our social contract, or something.

[waffles]

But we can't expect the common man to understand how to invest their daylight without government guidance and approval right?

One year, I tried to stuff my daylight under my mattress but when I went to look for it the next day it was gone! Surely the government has a better plan for our daylight than I do, like a mirrored box or a laser.

[0x90]

What we really need to develop is a method for borrowing daylight from future generations. That would allow us to really crank up the world's economic engine, thus ensuring that our kids will be able to live the lives of plenty that we all agree they deserve to live.

[The Gobbler]

Laugh if you must, but my neighbor is on the verge of dying. He worked his entire life in government, retiring two years ago. Because his was a defined pension plan, there is no money in a retirement account (e.g., 401k) to pass on to his kids. A life spent working in government, paying into the union for decades, and all he got was a lousy two years worth of benefits.

[NoVAHockey]

Good thing he can pass on those Social Security contributions, right?

(but he's exempt if he was hired before '84)

[Pope Jimbo]

Sorry it's all gone. Had to sell it to finance the roads for the sun chariot to haul that fiery orb across the heavens each day.

What did you think the private sector was gonna build the sky roads?

[Corduroy]

In the same building with the chemtrail ingredients.

[Fist of Etiquette]

If the Dems were smart they would have handed out that free extra hour of sleep before the midterms.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

It's a carcinogen. It's for our own good.

[John]

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/l.....23.html?dr

Woman in Miami tries to sell her 8 week old grandson. The daughter was in jail. And she was broke and stuck with the baby. Honestly, I am not sure there isn't a good case to be made she should have been able to do it. At 8 weeks, the kid would not know the difference. He clearly has no home or future where he is. And someone so desperate for a child they will pay that kind of money, would probably give him a decent home.

[Abdul]

There's legal ways to do what she wanted. It doesn't even take all that long. I know because I have one of those kids. To be fair, you really can't "sell" the baby, but you or the adoption agency do pay expenses for the birth parent(s).

[robc]

You can also drop the kid at the local fire station or whathaveyou.

No profit in it though.

[John]

A lot of radical libertarians make the case for being able to sell your children. So here is a real life example of that. I think it is something about which libertarians ought to have something to say.

[waffles]

I think no good can come of this. Does it involve liberty and spark a discussion? Sure. Does it help convince people that libertarians aren't batshit crazy? No dice.

Libertarians think poor people should sell their children! or something to that effect is probably best avoided.

[0x90]

Just nevermind the chasm that lies between saying one should not be prevented from doing a thing, and saying one should do it. Because your characterization is accurate; one cannot rely on garden variety ideolologs to appreciate, let alone show any interest in understanding, the difference -- which is fundamental.

[Butts Wagner]

Libertarians think poor people should sell their children INTO SEX SLAVERY!!!!!!

is what I imagine the opposition will say.

[Joe M]

Has this been mentioned before? I think Lobster Girl looks like Claire Forlani.

[Ragin Cajun]

Can someone tell me what's the deal with the Cleveland Browns? First the Saints, now this? Has the Reason Foundation been advising Mangini or something?

[Brett L]

Judging by the inverse performance of Colt McCoy's college team without him and pro team with him, I'm blaming Colt.

[gaijin]

On a related--and equally irrelevant--note: is there any other major pro sports team named after it's original owner?

[Montani Semper Liberi]

If the Browns were named after their original owner, they would be the Cleveland McBrides. Paul Brown was the GM and manager, not the owner.

[gaijin]

ah, I learned something new today! Thanks

[robc]

New York Rangers?

[robc]

Had to look up the story,

Tex Rickard was the original owner, the team was first callled Tex's Rangers.

That is close.

[waffles]

As a steelers fan, I am concerned. Definitely concerned.

As a giants fan, who are the browns?

[NoVAHockey]

I'm more concerned about Aaron Smith

[8]

It's Colt McCoy. Apparently his daddy sprinkled some dirt under his crib or something.

[Michael]

Keith Olbermann comes home.

Am I way off base in suspecting that this was all a cheap stunt to boost ratings and demonstrate MSNBC's and Olberman's idiotic notions of what corporate ethics should look like?

[Lost_In_Translation]

Its all part of Jack Donahgy's elaborate plan/

[Brett L]

"Never attribute to perfidity what stupidity can explain perfectly."

[The Third World]

Next year, fifteen major developed-country governments, including the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Spain and Greece, will have to raise some $10.2 trillion to repay maturing bonds and finance their budget deficits

"Developed-country", my ass.

[Brett L]

Let's see some tin-pot dictator steal a trillion dollars. That kind of theft requires infrastructure.

[Hugo Chavez]

I'm nationalizing it as fast as I can. If only Joe Boyle of Lowell, MA were here to help with the city planning. That guy really understands both me and my vision.

[P Brooks]

You can also drop the kid at the local fire station or whathaveyou.

Just put him in a cardboard box outside a grocery store. Write "FREE" on the side.

[Abdul]

I've pre-marked the box so my kids know to behave.

[Almanian]

Make sure to leave the box open, however, or the bomb squad might detonate it in a preventive manner. Which would be most unfortunate.

[P Brooks]

Libertarians think poor people should sell their children!

Everybody knows it takes a government bureaucracy to sell a child. Poor people don't even have vendors' licenses.

[prolefeed]

Im thinking an ex accusing you of being a terrorist should be a large red flag on ANY security clearance. And the DEA shouldnt be hiring people who cant pass a security clearance.

I'm thinking an ex accusing you of something without any corroborating evidence at all should be disregarded in its entirety.

Breaking news: one or two ex-wives or ex-GFs in the history of the world have been known to hold a grudge. I know, shocking, to think a fellow human being can be malicious after a relationship ends.