Reason Morning Links: Obama in Indonesia, Fed Pumps Billions Into Economy, Olberman Says He's Sorry

• Global backlash at Federal Reserve decision to put billions into the economy.
• Obama, House Republicans move to ban earmarks.
• Amanda Knox, the American convicted in Italy of murdering her roommate, now faces crimnal slander charges for testimony she gave in her defense.
• Obama visits Indonesia.
• After opposing Prop 19, Schwarzenegger says on Leno, "No one cares if you smoke a joint or not."
• Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell looks to be dead.
• Keith Olbermann apologizes.

Comments

[Johnny Longtorso]

Did anyone catch my "Kentucky Fried Movie" reference in the webathon donation banner over the weekend?

Today's link:

Confirmed: Geithner met with Jon Stewart in April to talk about the economy

[capitol l]

No but 'Ash, Housewares' is better.

[nekoxgirl]

Bruce Campbell references are the best kind of references.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Nothing, and I mean nothing, is better than "A Fistful of Yen" references.

[Citizen Nothing]

A Fistful of (Vietnamese) Dong?

[Gabby]

I doubt there's a fistful.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Try again, this time, with feeling.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Even Weigel tweeted about it. Kneel before me, bitches.

[R C Dean]

Ooh. A Weigel tweet. Did a thrill run up your leg?

[Johnny Longtorso]

Was anyone else willing to hit their credit card multiple times to get a building sequence of jokes? I think not.

I just won the entire internet.

[Conan O.]

Was anyone else willing to hit their credit card multiple times to get a building sequence of jokes?

That would be silly.

[DanD]

After "Long Wang," I was rooting out loud to see "Enormous Genitals"

When it showed up I cheered as if my team had won the Super Bowl.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Obama visits Indonesia.

Cue John Denver singing "Hey it's good to be back home again".

[Brett L]

Gov. Charlie Crist to pardon Jim Morrison.

I guess he has to do something while the State Legislature calls a special session to override his vetoes.

[Pro Libertate]

Pardoning dead people. That's about Charlie's speed. Maybe he wants to be the curator of the Jim Morrison Museum?

[SugarFree]

I AM THE LIZARD CURATOR! I CAN DO ANYTHING!

[Pro Libertate]

Exactly. Given that Crist has no political future at the moment, he needs some sort of gig. And curating the Morrison Museum makes as much sense as anything else.

Morrison attended St. Pete Junior College back in the day and Crist was raised in St. Petersburg, so the connection is clear.

[Brett L]

Conveniently, Crist's political career can hand deliver the pardon. Or maybe he and Mrs. Crist (does she still exist?) can leave it on Jim's grave in Paris.

[SugarFree]

5-to-1 baby, 1 in 5,
Our operating hours, are on-line now
You get tours, baby
We have no mimes
Gonna display it, baby
If we try

[Pro Libertate]

This is the end
Beautiful friend.

This is the end
Of the tour, the end.

It hurts to set you free,
But you'll never follow me.
The end of laughter and soft lies.
The end of nights we tried to buy.
This is the end.

[The Ghost of Jim Morrison]

We want the world and we want it ..... NOW!!

[Pro Libertate]

Break on through to the other side. . . .of this door of perception to buy some really nice Jim Morrison gifts.

[Triumph]

I came here for the crazy bitches!

dogs in heat, rabid, roaming . . .

[SugarFree]

Knife-Wielding Woman Orders Husband To Perform Cunnilingus

However, as Watson approached Williams, "he became overwhelmed by horrible vaginal odor emitting from Melissa Williams." Watson, understandably, "declined to proceed any further."
This is when Melissa Williams allegedly "produced a lock-back folding knife," opened it, and pointed the weapon at her estranged husband. She then reportedly uttered a line never before memorialized in a police report: "Somebody is going to eat my pussy or I'm going to cut your fucking throat."

They make jokes for a while, then come to their feminist senses and humorlessness prevails.

Plus, you get to learn about The Squeel.

[Rich]

Nice. I knew a girl who used to go around saying "Rape me or I'll kill you." Don't know how she turned out.

Hey, SF, rumor has it you're working on Rand Paul's transition team. Confirm/deny, if I ain't being too inquisitive?

[SugarFree]

Deny. My recent absence was due to devoting two full vacation days to playing Fallout: New Vegas. Damn Nightstalkers.

[John]

That sounds fun. My wife is a total extrovert. She doesn't get the idea that I would want to take off work and be in a room alone reading or playing some strategy game and not be bothered for hours on end.

[Rich]

Being asocial does have its benefits.

[Rhayader]

Since when did any woman understand that men really just want to be left the fuck alone?

[John]

Since never. There are a few women who get it and want to be left alone themselves. But they are few and far between.

[The Gobbler]

That would be my sister.

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Does your sister also look forward to having the flu? It is the ONLY time I can sit on the couch (husband at work/kids at school) and game for 6 straight hours. Yay for the flu!

[SugarFree]

Charlotte,

It seems that you would understand that sometimes you just have to play for today.

[Charlotte Sometimes]

SugarFree: Guilty as charged! Due to the age of our children (and our love of Zelda and Mario), we have had a Wii since 2006. Our kids are older now, so we are getting a PS3 this Christmas for "the kids." Would any of you care to give me your Top 5 Must-Have games? My husband likes FPS and racing games. I prefer RPG/adventure/puzzle, mostly due to losing my FPS skills with the birth of my first child. Not sure WTF the correlation is there, but I have sucked since Q3A. Coincidentally, I also lost the ability to spell and punctuate. Devastating for an English major.

[SugarFree]

My favorite PS3 games are the ones from the Ratchet and Clank series. 3rd person shooter with crazy weapons and puzzle aspects. But mostly I use mine for the God of War series and 3rd person shooters like Infamous and Dead Space. Your husband might like the Resistance series (FPS.)

[Ska]

If you love Zelda and are getting a PS3, you're going to want to get 3D Dot Game Heroes. It's a tribute to the original Legend of Zelda, and it's pretty awesome.

[brotherben]

I still have my original NES console and a 21 year old Zelda game cartridge. I love to play that thing still. I think it all started with an LSD fueled marathon of Adventure on an old Atari system in 1982.

[Ska]

Back when a square carrying an arrow counted as an adventure game.

Now where the hell did that fucking bridge end up?!

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Thanks, SF and Ska. We had checked out the Top Games for the PS3 on some gaming sites, but you never know what gems might not be on the lists. I had never heard of the 3D Dot game and it looks like nostalgic fun!

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Does the PS3 have anything equivalent to Smash Bros. Brawl? I never get tired of playing that damn game online.

[Ska]

Not that I know of. Most of the fighters I've seen are more arcadey (think Street Fighter) than the cartooney SSB.

Have you ever played Katamari Damacy? PS3 has Katamari Forever and it's a game like no other. Very trippy, great for when you're sick of just playing games that involve killing tons of shit.

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Never played Katamari (always have had Nintendo consoles and PC), but I just checked out some trailers and "trippy" is a good description--looks fascinating! The only game we had known for sure we wanted for the PS3 is Portal 2 when it comes out next year. You and SF have given us great ideas. Your feelings on Twisted Metal?

[Ska]

Not my thing, but many of my friends love Twisted Metal. Have not heard any reviews, so I really don't have good info on that one.

Uncharted 2 is another game that's worthy of serious consideration. Outstanding action/adventure game. I haven't played God of War 3, but one and two are outstanding, and I'd imagine 3 must be phenomenal considering the hardware and the possibilities that a 35gb Blu-ray version can offer.

[Charlotte Sometimes]

My brother has also highly recommended Uncharted 2 (along with Ass Creed II). He also said to snag Elder Scrolls/Oblivion, but he warned us that it is much, much better on the PC.

[marlok]

Oblivion's probably my favorite game. Given the abundance of patches, mods, etc, you should probably get the PC version.

[R C Dean]

But they are few and far between.

As soon as I met one, I married her.

[Kristen]

You must be one of the few men who actually means what he says he wants in a woman. Most guys I've dated have said they want an indpendent woman who's into sports then get all pissy when I don't want to be by myself and not go to dinner during Sunday Night Football. Urban dudes are all pussies.

[Cyto]

"Show up naked. Bring food. Shut the fuck up."

- Chris Rock on how to please a man.

[Joe M]

They patch up all the glitches?

[SugarFree]

They pushed out a patch right before I started playing. I'm about 26 hours in and haven't had it freeze yet. I've seen a few framerate drops. (Playing on a 360.) And the load times are a bit ridiculous from section to section.

My only complaint is that it seems too dependent on quest structures. There are very few places you can just free roam to and kill stuff and loot.

But considering there are five very different ways to end the game, re-playability seems high.

[Ska]

Dude, if your world map looked like mine (105 hours in), you wouldn't be saying that.

[SugarFree]

I working on it, man. Cut me some slack.

[Ska]

Did you complete the Ring-a-ding-ding quest yet?

[SugarFree]

Yup. As soon as I got that hotel room in Novac, so I could finally dump my crafting loot somewhere. I've been running around and doing side quests since. I haven't decided how I want to end my first playthrough.

[Ska]

OK, that's my strategy as well. Just to give you an idea - I've completed about 40+ quests, have discovered 100+ locations, and still haven't progressed with any of the main story line after that quest.

There are a ton of side quests and locations to find. When you eventually get past level 20 and can afford to use a perk on something other than your character build, Explorer will be useful (and one hell of a shock when you see the number of unknown locations you can find).

Novac is definitely a good workshop storage place, but I couldn't resist pimping out the Lucky 38. Everything was looking good until all my companions who were stationed in the suite raided my bar setup. Those bastards drank everything but a bottle of mooneshine and one nuka-cola quartz. I sent them all back to their respective homes.

[SugarFree]

Companions on a bar raid. Hilarious.

[Sean]

I just can't get into gaming on consoles. I feel like mouse and keyboard is the way Odin intended us to excercise control. However, I suppose for Fallout 3 the differences would be less noticable.

[R C Dean]

I'm still up to my nostrils in Borderlands. As a born looter, I'm loving it. Up to level 27, haven't hit any of the DLC yet.

The GOTY was a disappointment in one respect: you still have to download the damn DLC. Why they couldn't put it on the disc, I have no idea. I keep meaning to go to their website and prod some buttock.

[SugarFree]

All the DLCs are pretty fun. Knoxx is a looter's dream land.

By the way, level 51 and I still haven't found any damn Pearlescent weapons. Bastards.

[Episiarch]

Pearlescents are incredibly rare. I'm level 61 and I've never seen one. As soon as I kill Crawmerax, repeatedly, I hope to get some.

And the Claptrap DLC is pretty fucking weak.

[Pro Libertate]

How is it? I'm still playing Red Dead Redemption, so I haven't acquired it yet.

We're getting the Kinect. My youngest daughter loves it (they had one set up at our mall). Not sure what good it will do me--can't see playing most of the games I play without a controller--but it should be fun for the kids.

[Tacos mmm...]

It's great, if you enjoy dreaming about the wasteland all night long, every night, for weeks.

[R C Dean]

Its odd - I've played a few Rockstar Games titles, and really enjoyed them, but haven't had the slightest urge to replay any of them.

For me, pure shooters don't have much replay value, but mix in some RPG action, and I'll run through it again.

[Highway]

I just can't get into the RPG-based FPS games. I've tried Borderlands, Red Dead Redemption, and Fallout 3 / New Vegas.

My wife on the other hand has loved all of them.

[ev]

SugarFree. My fellow Tri-State suburbanite. I adore you. After marinating myself in your insanity, I taste of goat semen and shame.

[SugarFree]

I am what happens when you work at The Shoe Carnival for 20 months. Nothing good results... you just pick up the pieces and try to go on.

[ev]

Oh, Zod I forgot you worked there. Jesus Christ. That place is what John Wayne Gacy would have created if had slightly different life goals. Life goals that involved footwear.

[ev]

SLIGHTLY different life goals.

[waffles]

Nice. Somehow the opposite "Somebody is going to suck my dick or I'm going to cut your fucking throat" is less amusing. The overwhelmed by horrible odor part really puts it over the top for me. As a man dangerously close to dating a feminist, it's good to know women have the potential to be just as monstrous as men. Hooray equality!

[Rich]

it's good to know women have the potential to be just as monstrous as men

"Women can be beasts, Mr, Waffles."

Many illusions I had concerning "the fair sex" were shattered by my experience in park maintenance.

[Dagny T.]

I was wondering when you'd get around to linking to that, you lazy bastard. Horrible vaginal odor doesn't make the news everyday, you know.

[SugarFree]

I figured someone already had. Where in the hell is Warty?

[Nick]

I think he did post this a couple days ago. I'm too lazy to look for it. Might have been a Morning Links, I can't remember.

[Alex]

Balko linked it a few days ago on his blog.

[Ted S.]

That's because it's so coimmon it's not news? :-p

[brotherben]

Now that my guts are churning, this would be a good time for Radley to deliver his daily massive nut punch. That's fuckin nasty Suge. Even coming from you. The mugshot didn't help my breakfast settle in either. fuck!

[Watson]

The mugshot didn't help my breakfast settle in either.

Actually, she's kinda cute at closing time.

Bloody Mary with that Egg McMuffin?

[brotherben]

tell the truth. That stench you're washing off is west virginia. not new jersey.

[Ska]

West Virginia or waste vagina?

[0x90]

What is curious is how it is simply to be understood that coercion in the context of being forced bodily to surrender sexual services is a universally Bad Thing, while similar coercion in the context of being forced to surrender the fruits of labor is not. I mean, life is not fair -- some have more than others, but isn't it government's job to fix that? If rich people can be forced to give you money, then why can beautiful people not be forced to give you sex?

No doubt, one could do a study showing how this would provide a substantial net benefit to the welfare of society in general.

[oncogenesis]

+23

[mad libertarian guy]

+69

[Warty]

Sexual violence against men is serious. It's also like racism against white people- not systemic and not indicative of an entire culture of oppression. So... not the same thing.

So... yeah. Let's stop with the "let's just flip it and see if it's funny.

HOW DARE YOU LAUGH AT RAEP CULTURE

Sorry for being late...I spent the entire day yesterday playing Fallout:New Vegas and trying to scrub the New Jersey stench off my skin.

[Nick]

Country road...mountain mama...take me home...to a place...Worst Vagina...take me home....(vomit sounds)

[Steve Smith]

STEVE SMITH NOT NEED HELD BY KNIFEPOINT! STEVE SMITH EVEN EAT MADONNA SNATCH!

[brotherben]

be sure you give her balls a tug too. I read somewhere that she really likes that.

[Brett L]

Apparently someone is SF isn't drinking the Koolaid

"'Thankfully for Democrats, Republicans and conservative columnists don't get to pick who leads us,' Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill quipped.

Now you know what lemmings would say if they had e-mail."

[Pip]

The Republicans hope of hopes is that she will be the Minority Leader. Crazy, elitist, San Franciscan bitch is as good as you could ever hope for.

[Rich]

The Fed is independent, and the White House by longstanding tradition has strained to avoid any appearance of collusion or conflict.

With all due respect, this "tradition" *is* collusion. More public discussions between Ben Bernanke and Ron Paul, please.

[John]

You are not smart enough to understand what is going on. Just because the fed eases the money supply to stimulate the economy right around election time doesn't mean they are doing it at the behest of the President who just happens to hold the power of reappointment over them.

[Rich]

As White House Barbie might say, "Straining is *hard*."

And I'm sure the newly-shellacked President will soon be making "what is going on" clear even to a fool like me.

[Tulpa]

Uh, John, the fact that they did it after the election seems to say they were trying to avoid the appearance of collusion.

Not that they haven't blatantly colluded in the past.

[Mike M.]

The Fed is independent.

By and large, the Fed was fairly independent most of the time. Now, they have been completely co-opted by our insane big spending politicians and are full partners in the coming sinking of the economic Titanic.

Go get these SOBs Ron; you could potentially be our Godsend.

[Nick]

I'm no economic expert, but wouldn't a period of deflation be good for the economy? I don't mean drop like a rock, but lowering the cost of goods for the poor and middle class and making technology (seemingly the only thing we export any more) better off globally be in the best interest right now. Stocks and commodities would be helped. Fuck bonds right now. Inflation sucks for a country trying to pull itself out of the hole. I think this is proof the power brokers really just want the downward spiral. Why, I don't know.

[sloopyinca]

I'm no econ expert either, and what I would like to see is a lack of any intervention/manipulation by the FED and the federal govt for a period that lasts long enough for all markets (commodities, housing, finished goods, healthcare, transportation, etc) to reach their true values. Sure, some things would go up in price and some would go down, but they would at least be where the markets set them. All this manipulation in the form of subsidies and rate manipulation have gotten about every sector of the economy away from it's true value that we really have no clue what anything is worth anymore.

[Tulpa]

I'm not an economist, but from what I understand deflation is hard to control and hard to get out of once you're in it.

[John]

They did it after the election because it is wildly unpopular.

[John]

http://www.businessinsider.com.....dy-2010-11

This is pretty funny. When Sarah Palin and the President of the World Bank are both telling you that you are insane, maybe you ought to take the charge seriously. I doubt however our President or Fed Chief will do so. They are both erudite geniuses after all that went to all the right schools. Only stupid hillbillies think that trying to raise the expectation of inflation to get people to spend more money is a crackpot scheme unworthy of an under graduate economics paper.

[MNG]

John
I'm curious if you saw this article by one of my favorite libertarian writers Charles Murray on the "New Elite" and how out of touch they are with America. I figured with your rabid elite hate you'd love it!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02873.html

[John]

Thank you. And that is a pretty smart article. It is not that we shouldn't have elites. It is that our current crop of elites believe crazy things. That is the problem.

[MNG]

It was an interesting article, I thought it had it's strengths and weaknesses. The first part, where he argues for the existence of a small, cognitive elite concentrated at a few schools and geographical locations seems better supported than his musings about "elite v. non-elite culture."

But I wonder if folks caught this:

"Harvard seniors surveyed in 2007 were headed toward a small number of elite graduate schools (Harvard and Cambridge in the lead) and a small number of elite professional fields (finance and consulting were tied for top choice)."

Finance and consulting? That hardly sounds like a liberal/progressive elite to me...

[SugarFree]

In that Harvard survey I mentioned, 72 percent of Harvard seniors said their beliefs were to the left of the nation as a whole, compared with 10 percent who said theirs were to the right of it. The political preferences of academics and journalists among the New Elite also conform to the suspicions of the tea party.

[MNG]

"72 percent of Harvard seniors said their beliefs were to the left of the nation as a whole"

And this compels them to go to that bastion of American leftism, Wall Street?

I think the problem is Murray is jumping around. One minute he locates the New Elite as simply the highest scoring seniors at Harvard and such, then all Harvard students etc., etc.

I always wonder, why have have the level of generality of Harvard and the Ivy Leagues? I think only about 3-5% of the US public has a doctoral degree like a PhD, JD or MD. Doesn't that make anyone with one of these an elite? I mean, doesn't John and RC Dean have law degrees? Are they elites?

[SugarFree]

72 percent of them believe themselves to the left of the American public. How many of these remaining sheltered people think they are centrists because they don't know how to gauge the rest of the country properly?

And finance doesn't mean they are politically on the right. They are probably just rich enough to avoid the taxes that they advocate everyone else pay for. Or they are typical college seniors that veer right economically when they see the bite taken out of that first paycheck. Or they think being leftist means not hating gay people and the economics side is ignored.

I would imagine the vast majority of this class is socially hard left (whatever that means) and they just don't put 2+2 together yet on economic issues.

[JOe]

"And this compels them to go to that bastion of American leftism, Wall Street?"

Don't confuse mercantilism with leftism.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

I believe that Wall St. firms were some of the biggest contributors to the Obama campaign. In fact, OpenSecrets.org says that 5 of the top 20 were financial firms. They were #2 Goldman Sachs, #6 Citigroup, #7 JPMorgan, #12 UBS, #17 Morgan Stanley.

[Mo]

That's because they donate a lot to both parties. The top 5 McCain donors according to the same site were:

Merrill Lynch
Citigroup
Morgan Stanley
Goldman Sachs
JPMorgan Chase

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Compare the numbers, though.

Goldman gave $995,745 to Obama and $234,695 to McCain.

Citigroup gave $731,347 to Obama and $330,666 to McCain.

JPMorgan gave $688,695 to Obama and $223,507 to McCain.

Morgan Stanley gave $501,981 to Obama and $270,902 to McCain.

Merrill Lynch was the only one to give more to Obama than McCain. $373,595 vs. $302,837. In fact, the other four firms not only gave more money to Obama than McCain, but they also gave more money to Hillary than McCain. In fairness, though, they have donated to both parties about equally in 2010. I guess they had a little buyer's remorse.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Change "more to Obama than McCain" to "more to McCain than Obama" in the first sentence of the last paragraph.

[Mo]

You put your money where it's going to be most effective and that means the party with control. At the same time, you still want to be keep funding the losing party because they won't stay out of power forever and you don't want to alienate them. In 2008, it was all Dems in control of the 3 branches, in 2010, power is split between the two parties. In 2002 and 2004, they donated overwhelmingly to the Reps.

[MNG]

Dude, the person who looks like they are going to win gets more of that kind of money. Obama was leading pretty much throughout...

[John Thacker]

This has a lot of truth to it, but you can't count out incumbency either. For 2010 defense contractors, hedge funds, venture capital, HMOs, hospitals, pharma, etc. gave more to the Democrats as well.

A couple of other industries were split. GOP does best among dentists and agribusiness among the ones listed there.

[Pro Libertate]

You know what? Our "elites" suck. That's the problem. During the Empire, the British elites were all genius bastards who dressed really, really well.

[MNG]

Pro
Rudyard Kipling is so going to get you for that! He's going to go all Jungle Book on your ass.

[Pro Libertate]

What did he know about the Empire? They were beginning to fall apart by his time.

[John]

Exactly. The British elites really were civic minded. The French elites were not but they were at least legitimately erudite and cool. What the fuck do our elites have going for them?

[mad libertarian guy]

The are our Best and Brightest?

[Butts Wagner]

Finance and consulting? That hardly sounds like a liberal/progressive elite to me...

No, it's perfect.....Get paid to tell other people what to do without any actual experience.

[Pro Libertate]

I love that Demotivator on consulting: "If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem."

[Dagny T.]

That article was hilariously bad. NYT wedding announcements and (I can only guess Jimmie Johnson is) some NASCAR driver as evidence of a great cultural divide.

[John]

That is not evidence of a cultural divide. But what is evidence of one is the fact that the people who go to elite schools never serve in the military anymore, rarely come from anything but a virtually identical set of rich suburbs across the country and are fed a steady diet of leftist dogma for 20 years of school. That combined with an education system that rewards people who are adept at checking blocks and telling teachers what they want to hear is a problem.

[MNG]

After 20 years of leftist indoctrination they overwhelmingly choose to go into the field of finance?

[Fluffy]

Actually, yes.

Anyone clever enough to manipulate their way past the Harvard admissions system is clever enough to observe that the finance / state axis is the ticket to wealth and power.

They're also clever enough to realize that the key planks of the uneasy unalliance between Wall Street and Washington - a large public debt, fiat currency, bond financing for public projects at the state level, etc. - must never be allowed to be questioned.

[MNG]

Yeah fluffy, Wall Street is a bastion of leftism.

Sometimes revisionism can get really goofy.

[MNG]

When the left rails against and attacks Wall Street people say they are "anti-business" and engaging in "class warfare" but then they turn around and argue that Wall Street is a bastion of leftism.

I mean, given the power and leverage Wall Street has I'm sure you can find instances where government gives them goodies and where they support leftist government figures, but revisionism can only go so far. Leftism is essentially hostile to much of what Wall Street represents, and both sides know that. More importantly, graduating college students certainly don't equate Wall Street and leftism.

[Fluffy]

You don't have to be a leftist to be a statist.

I think it's a bastion of statism.

The flavor of that statism varies with the individual and the situation.

[nekoxgirl]

MNG, I personally don't understand why some who call themselves libertarians defend Wall Street. Granted, I do think that liberals attack Wall Street for the wrong reasons, but Wall Street is in no way an example of the free market. If there were ever any doubts, what happened since 2008 should have put them all to rest.

The left rails against Wall Street because it doesn't understand classical economics. The left confuses its own creation, the government-corporate complex, with laissez-faire capitalism.

Instead of understanding fascism for what it really is, late stage socialism, it makes the opposite conclusion. The left forgot that democracy is a creation of capitalism, deciding democracy could be sustained without the free market.

[oncogenesis]

+1

[oncogenesis]

+1

[cynical]

It certainly isn't a bastion of laissez faire economics.

[Pip]

Yes. Is that really so hard to reconcile in your black and white world, Minge?

[Tulpa]

So MNG is completely ignoring the survey that showed 72% of Harvard grads are in the left half of the political spectrum, in favor of the indirect method of assuming anyone who works for a bank or a stockbroker is conservative.

Did you get your poli sci degree out of the bottom of a cereal box, MNG?

[MNG]

Yes, the cultural stuff was much more weakly supported, though it had intuitive appeal imo.

[Mo]

That article is just a rehash of David Brooks' bobos article. I know lots of "elites" and half the crap he spewed doesn't apply. "Elites" go on cruises, why else would NR host one? His TV point is basically that elites are employed and not retired since Oprah and The Price is Right are on during typical work hours. Advertiser seem to recognize this since 2 out of 3 commercial during tPiR is for adult diapers or Metamucil.

Isn't there only one famous Jimmie Johnson? The other, more famous one, is Jimmy Johnson. I don't see how the NASCAR driver can be considered more famous than a championship coach and commentator for the most popular sport in America and a contestant on Survivor.

[waffles]

My takeaway is that the "elites" are not of any political stripe, but rather a generation shaped by incredible wealth of opportunity. I'm sure many of the commenters here fit the article's loose definition of elite. I suspect I do, however, I'm not so horribly out of touch that I can't tell you what MMA is or have never cohabitated with evangelical christians. The article is sloppy in some respects, but I never really expect to fit into any cultural mold, particularly one formed at the washington post.

[The Gobbler]

Better to be an intellectual than elite.

[capitol l]

Jeebus, I am a elitist. Oh, I am so confused. Why don't I watch Oprah, or read Left Behind novels, or know who the fuck Jimmie Johnson(not the football coach)is?

Who is Jimmie Johnson(not the football coach), anyways?

[James Ard]

He's the race car driver that isn't going to win his fifth title in a row.

[brotherben]

the same race car driver who's team was caught cheating in 4 out of the first five races last year. just another driver in the current crop of young punks that have ruined a once great redneck tradition.

[Brett L]

Elitist! You probably think mustaches ought to be part of the driver's uniform requirements.

[David]

Mustaches? Pshaw, I say. REAL men have muttonchops.

[James Ard]

Kyle sure showed his punk the other day. Too bad the driver with the most talent has to be a snotty little brat.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

I blame the NASCAR front office more than any driver for ruining the sport. They got rid of many great tracks like The Rock in favor of shitty tracks like Kansas City so they could expand their market to new areas of the country.

[Almanian]

I blame Bush

[capitol l]

He backed the NASCAR up to the ditch, or something.

[Tulpa]

It's all Danica's fault.

[mad libertarian guy]

What bothers me most about Danica is that she isn't even close to being a top level driver, nor is she so good looking as to ignore it.

Many want to treat her like some Anna Kournikova, but she ain't no Anna Kournikova in either talent or good looks.

[Brett L]

He's the guy that has won the NASCAR Sprint Cup (the big season long one) for the last 3 or 4 years in a row. You're an elitist if you don't know who he is, but know Dale Jr. or Jeff Gordon.

[Tulpa]

I think the NASCAR thing is more regional than anything else. The South and upstate NY (Watkins Glen) and rural PA (shame on you cap-l!) are the hotbeds from what I can tell, which overlaps with conservative politics.

But I bet everyone, even elites, recognize the name of the NASCAR token female and the dead guy.

[CaptainSmartass]

How embarrassing must it be to get told by Sarah Palin?

[MNG]

Forget you Cap'n you elitist! Sarah Palin is a smart woman (she excelled at several colleges) with her finger on the pulse of the real America!

[alittlesense]

Where did you say her finger was?

[Nick]

Top. Men.

[John]

She is smart enough to figure out printing money is a really bad idea. That doesn't seem like much sure. But apparently being smart enough to figure that out is a pretty high bar for some people including our current fed chairman.

[brotherben]

But what of all the pinter's jobs that were created or saved?

[brotherben]

printer's jobs. man. I suck this morning.

[DBN]

She is smart enough to figure out printing money is a really bad idea. That doesn't seem like much sure. But apparently being smart enough to figure that out is a pretty high bar for some people including our current fed chairman.

I suspect that's not due to any particular virtue on her part; it's simply the position that she has to take to maintain popularity with her supporters. Do you honestly think McCain was pro-life? Politicians who have well formed, individually developed opinions of their rarely make it very far. Even if they get elected, their own party tries its damndest to keep them away from the levers of power.

[John]

"I suspect that's not due to any particular virtue on her part; it's simply the position that she has to take to maintain popularity with her supporters."

No. I think she actually believes that. I think she has a very consistent view of these issues. It is a view formed by common sense more than study. But it is her view rightly or wrongly. I think she is sincere.

[Nick]

I don't see why she wouldn't be sincere. Part of her appeal to a lot of people is that she seems like she's real and believes what she says. I'm not sure she knows how to fake it. Bill Clinton, she ain't.

[Tulpa]

She supported the Bridge to Nowhere when she was governor, and then suddenly developed a hatred for pork and wasteful spending when she became a VP candidate and tea party darling.

Trust me, she knows how to fake it.

[John]

That is myth. she never the bridge to nowhere. And show me anywhere she has ever thought printing money was a good idea. That woman really brings out the most irrational responses in people.

[mad libertarian guy]

You mean like the irrational response of saying that she is qualified to make decisions about international questions because on one island in her state (that she had never been to) one could see Russia.

Don't get me wrong, I don't understand the hatred so many have for her, but in no way do I see her as anything other than a glorified conservative celebrity.

[sloopyinca]

As opposed to the qualifications and abilities of Joe Biden? Hell, I'd actually rather have seen McCain win and drop dead walking to the limo from his inauguration than to have the heroic mulatto and the dimwitted crazy Joe Biden at the controls.

At least she's for guns. On that alone she's infinitely more qualified than the dickholes running the WH.

[Brett L]

Another bit of evidence for my contention that Palin is actually the Roadrunner

Summary: WSJ reporter tears into Palin for saying food prices are rising, Palin cites WSJ article in own defense. It's like watching the guy strap on the rocket-skates.

[John]

But she doesn't read newspapers. Isn't that what Katie Couric says?

[Cleo]

"Global backlash at Federal Reserve decision to put billions into the economy."

If we're counting on our progeny to pay our massive debt, does it really make sense to abort them?

[John]

Great stuff from Richard Epstein on government default with the great quote:

"It is odd that these days the only sacred contracts are those which the state enters into with unions for the benefit of their members."

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....rd-epstein

[John]

Mickey Klaus today

Cake, taken: I've said dumb things about elections, but I don't think I've ever said anything quite as dumb as Glenn Greenwald's argument, on Morning Joe, that

if you look at who actually lost in this election, it wasn't the liberals who lost. The progressive caucus was reelected by a rate of 95 percent. The people who bore the brunt of the electoral bloodbath were the Blue Dogs. Fifty percent of the Blue Dogs [lost] ...

http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/.....ditry.html

[MNG]

I see his point here, the biggest gains were made in areas where the Dems had a tenuous hold on the seats at best anyway and were represented by more conservative Dems. Of course that's stilll devastating for the Dems.

[John]

It is not like they would have won if they had just run Bernie Sanders clones in those areas. The problem is that the country is not nearly as left and Greenwald would like to believe it is. That is just reality. If you want to have Democrats re-elected in those districts, you can't let Nancy Pelosi browbeat them into voting for things that their constituents hate.

If the Democrats had never done Obamacare, done a smaller stimulus and then got serious about the deficit in 2010, they would have held a lot of those districts.

[MNG]

I actually agree with all your points here, that's why I said that while Greenwald has a point it is still devastating for the Dems to lose those seats.

I don't think either party can be a majority long appealing to their ideological bases. A GOP that cannot win seats in the Northeast and a Democratic Party that cannot win seats in Texas are not going to be majorities...Each party hates it's "in name only" members, but they are just being viable in their areas...

[John]

The GOP can't win on social issues in the NE. But they can win by appealing to its small government base in those areas. The fact is that the government is going broke. Even people in the NE and the coasts are starting to figure that out.

The model that ruled the country of big government and social services that the government has been based on since 1932 has stopped working. The first party, be it the existing two or a third one, who figures out what the next model is going to be will get a long term re-alignment.

[MNG]

But that is my point. NE GOPers will at the least have to soft-pedal conservative social issue stances and then the base will be like "RINO! RINO!" and do things like support former witches who can't win the general against the "RINO" in the primary.

A similar thing happened when the faithful put Blanche Lincoln through a bruising primary because she wasn't liberal enough. They forgot that Lincoln is the best Dem you're going to get in Arkansas.

[John]

The funny thing is that with the economy being so bad, the Democrats had they followed a centrist path on budgets and deficits could have gotten a free pass on social issues. Had the deficit not been so high and people not been so enraged by Obamacare, they could have gotten away with ending DADT, rolling back the Patriot Act and scaling back the wars. Yeah, the GOP base would have shown up. But no way would they have taken 60+ seats. Instead they did precisely the opposite and went left on the economy and did nothing for the left on social issues.

That is why I think people like Greenwald are total fakes. Greenwald should be incensed right now. The Democrats did nothing about the civil rights and social liberal issues he claims to care about and pissed away their majority on old time tax and spend cronyism. Instead, he defends them. That tells me he really doesn't give a shit about the civil rights issues.

[RyanXXX]

John, Greenwald's been hammering the dems for those things since day one. That's why he worked for Russ Feingold's campaign, because of Feingold's supposed support for civil liberties

[John]

If you call whining about it hammering, I guess he has. But in the end, they still get his vote and his support. So I don't see how it is very important to him. It is not like it changed his vote or caused him to withhold his support.

[John Thacker]

NE GOPers will at the least have to soft-pedal conservative social issue stances and then the base will be like "RINO! RINO!" and do things like support former witches who can't win the general against the "RINO" in the primary.

You can get away with being soft on social issues if you're a fiscal conservative, particularly if you appease some of the cultural wing or the pro-military wing somehow. The ones who had primary troubles made the mistake of being wets on spending as well.

Still a bad idea to nominate someone unwinnable, but I really can't think of any case of someone losing a Rep primary due to social issues alone. Social issues plus voting for the stimulus package and bailouts, yes. But you have to piss off multiple wings of the base in order to lose a primary.

[doomboy]

fiscal conservative, and appeasing the pro-military wing are mutually exclusive concepts

[sloopyinca]

The GOP can't win on social issues in the NE. But they can win by appealing to its small government base in those areas. The fact is that the government is going broke. Even people in the NE and the coasts are starting to figure that out.

Which is precisely why there is a lot of pants-shitting going on on Team Blue at the moment. My theory is that's also why the progressives haven't moved on one single social issue. They are more concerned on keeping their plantations stocked with voters by stoking the flames of manufactured advocacy.

They say they're for gay rights and equality so they get the gay vote. Yet, they do nothing to create equality (proven by the DoJ's appeal on DADT) because once gays have equal rights, they will leave the dems in droves because their paychecks will become their most important thing.

They do the same with hispanics, blacks, old people and hipster 18-30 year olds. Scare them by saying how bad the other side is but don't accomplish what you are "advocating" because that's the only thing keeping them in line. They are the masters of the dangling carrot.

[Tulpa]

I don't know that they intend to accomplish nothing so as to keep the carrot dangling, so much as that the things that would actually help those groups would piss off either swing voters, large blocs of Dem voters who vote or stay home as a group, or big campaign contributors.

To take inner-city blacks as an example, the biggest problems they face in getting out of poverty are not general racism and discrimination, they are (a) the Drug War, (b) being trapped in terrible schools, and (c) gigantic barriers to starting businesses in cities.

Changing (a) would piss off wide swaths of swing voters and police unions, changing (b) would piss off the teachers unions, and changing (c) would piss off all kinds of unions. So long as the black vote can be taken for granted and they don't contribute much financially, the union concerns are going to be given priority.

[sloopyinca]

I'd love to be able to agree with you, Tulpa but all of the evidence points to the contrary.
DADT overturned (Obama promised to do this) by the courts and Obama's admin appeals the decision but they continue to champion themselves as pro-gay and team red as anti-gay.
Call themselves pro-minority yet enact policies that tie minorities to inner-cities and limit their education opportunities by decreasing loan opportunities.
Call themselves pro-seniors while eliminating choice in their largest spending area: healthcare, as well as confiscating a huge percentage of their assets upon death.

They prey upon the fears and delusions of identity groups while doing nothing to help said groups progress beyond the gates of the plantation.

[Gabby]

"To take inner-city blacks as an example, the biggest problems they face in getting out of poverty are not general racism and discrimination, they are (a) the Drug War, (b) being trapped in terrible schools, and (c) gigantic barriers to starting businesses in cities."

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Their problem is a system that rewards women for bearing children out of wedlock coupled with no responsibility for the men who knock them up.

[sloopyinca]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Their problem is a system that rewards women for bearing children out of wedlock coupled with no responsibility for the men who knock them up.

No responsibility for the men that knock them up? I'd beg to differ there. I pay child support for a bastard kid to the tune of $800/month (after taxes of course). If that's not responsibility, I don't know what is. Of course, I told her I'd pay for the abortion and she said she wanted to have a baby. I get to pay for her CHOICE for the rest of my life because the state says so. I chose to fuck her. She chose to have a child. How in the hell do you not balance that $172,800 after tax transfer of wealth with "responsibility?"

Sorry, but I always get worked up when this bullshit argument comes up about a sperm donor's responsibility when he has nothing to do with the choice to have a child yet carries a rather large financial obligation for the next 18 years.

Choosing to fuck =/= choosing to father and raise a child. Men should have a right to a "financial abortion on demand." That would decrease the number of bastard kids running around by about 75%.

[mad libertarian guy]

Both parties are hanging carrot masters.

The GOP does it by claiming to want small government and fiscal responsibility.

[Nick]

And some people are just fucking stupid. Rangel was re-elected.

[Jerry Mander]

Well...

[Mo]

Though he has a point on being partisan. It's not like the GOP looked at 2006 and 2008 and tacked left. They went further right and waited for the conditions to be bad enough where people wanted to kick the bums out.

[Cyto]

I don't know about that.... other than some rhetoric and maintaining the war on terror, they governed pretty left on the economy. They did pass the largest entitlement program in a generation or two, plus the bailouts, plus the largest increase in business regulation in history... not exactly conservative fodder there.

[Tulpa]

The GOP leadership didn't go further right of their own accord...they were dragged right by the Tea Parties. You didn't see Mitch McConnell pushing hardcore conservatism in response to the 2008 election the way you see Obama pushing it in response to 2010.

[Jerry]

Global backlash at Federal Reserve decision to put billions into the economy.

No shit, regime uncertainty etc.

[MNG]

Obama visits Indonesia.

I guess you can go home again, in your face Thomas Wolfe!

[SugarFree]

He's scheduled to visit a mosque... get ready for a flurry of "A-Ha! I knew it!" blog posts.

Unless he can't go because this suspiciously convenient "volcano."

[MNG]

"He's scheduled to visit a mosque..."

That close to Ground Zero? The insensitivity...

[Finchy]

Very nice.

[Ragin Cajun]

suspiciously convenient "volcano."

NASA mistiming their assassination attempts again.

[Timon19]

If I were the pilot of Air Force One, I'd want nothing to do with that part of the archipelago. Volcanoes are BAD NEWS for jets. I trust he's not going to Yogyakarta.

[Warty]

Since I'm currently listening to Dethklok a ton: Volcano

[Ragin Cajun]

suspiciously convenient "volcano."

Another mistimed attempt by NASA.

[The Gobbler]

'Ash Cloud' may force Obama to drop planned visit to Mosque.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44870.html

[SugarFree]

It's sad to see someone believing the lies. 🙂

[Tulpa]

I read that as "Ass Cloud" at first...

[Spoonman.]

Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell looks to be dead.

Fuck you, Tony.

Fuck you so much and everything you stand for.

Fuck you.

[MNG]

Obama and the Dems deserve hell for not moving on this when they had a big majority, but this article is about how the current push is dead because the GOP is not going to let it happen. Not pushing hard enough simply doesn't equal pushing hard in opposition in my moral calculus.

[Joe M]

The still have a big majority for two more months.

[sloopyinca]

Moving on this?

All they had to do was not appeal the decision and let it die on it's own. Legislation was unnecessary here and anyone with half a brain knows Obama is just keeping his black base happy by keeping fags in the closet every chance he gets.

Face it. He sold out the gay vote to keep the black vote happy.

[brotherben]

Blacks don't stay in the closet. They live on the down-low.

[nekoxgirl]

That strikes me as deeply stupid. The Democrats get nearly 100% of the black vote. With Obama at the top of the ticket in 2012, I don't see how that will change anytime soon.

[Tulpa]

Obama might not be on the ticket in 2012.

I have a feeling the Clintons and their entourage are working on him right now to convince him he doesn't want to run for reelection.

[sloopyinca]

It may strike you as deeply stupid but as Prop 8 last year proves (at least out here in Cali), blacks are very anti-gay, and if the dems, not Obama but in general, lose 10% of that vote then they are fucked nationally.

The black vote...a very liberal black vote at that...killed Prop 8 in California. 20% of them voting for team red means a gain of about 5 more repubs from the state in the house and a repub senator this year. And that's just here. That number probably quadruples in the house nationwide and probably triples in the Senate.

[sloopyinca]

It may strike you as deeply stupid but as Prop 8 last year proves (at least out here in Cali), blacks are very anti-gay, and if the dems, not Obama but in general, lose 10% of that vote then they are fucked nationally.

The black vote...a very liberal black vote at that...killed Prop 8 in California. 20% of them voting for team red means a gain of about 5 more repubs from the state in the house and a repub senator this year. And that's just here. That number probably quadruples in the house nationwide and probably triples in the Senate.

[Rhayader]

No one cares if you smoke a joint or not. Unless you get caught.

[MNG]

This.

No one cares, except for the constitution trampling law enforcement agencies and their victims sitting in jail with their lives ruined.

Screw you Gubernator.

[Rhayader]

It's such a privileged, arrogant argument. Oh, nobody really gets in trouble over pot. I know because my well-heeled liberal friends are always smoking $25/gram stuff out of their $600 volcano and never have any sort of problem.

[MNG]

Hell Arnie is on film smoking pot. I wonder if he would have like to be arrested, potentially jailed, and have that on his record all his life? Well, since it didn't happen to him but only to others who cares right?

Screw him.

[waffles]

yup. that's pretty much the sum of it.

[John]

Don't just pin it on liberals. Conservatives are just as bad. I think there is a whole section of society who views marijuana laws as a way to keep "those people" as in the under class in line. If one of their little darlings or them get caught with pot, it can be handled privately or with a little trip to rehab. They know how to handle such things. But the underclass do not. They need to be saved from themselves.

It is really gross.

[Rhayader]

Oh yeah, absolutely. I think that conservatives are usually a bit more hesitant to openly embrace the hypocrisy tough. I'm thinking of Rush saying that the answer to racial disparities in drug arrests is to lock up more white people, versus Josh Marshall just saying flat-out that prohibition is justified because his type of people are not at risk.

But yeah, I have no love for modern-day "conservatism" on pot, and people like Joe Arpaio are certainly fond of that "nobody gets in trouble for pot" bullshit.

[Brett L]

This. I know a good number of people who are now professionals who got adjudication deferred and dismissed on possession charges in HS. Its great living in the 'burbs where the JP goes easy on you if your parents come to court with a lawyer. Even in the reddest parts of Texas, they were just kids having fun who made a mistake.

[John Thacker]

Somebody on McArdle's blog was saying that legalizing pot wouldn't really save many lives because he's familiar with the justice system, and the people in trouble weren't "the type of people to go to college or contribute to society anyway."

I asked him if what he was saying was that the harm for marijuana laws was adequately minimized because all the right people could get off with lawyers and probation, and the poor people who actually serve time would be guilty of something else. I said that that was a reason for me to oppose the current laws, not support.

He got all huffy and accused me of "misrepresenting" his argument.

[Warty]

Fear Ron Paul

Hilariously insane petty tyrant in Michigan

[SugarFree]

The AGA story confuses me. What set the guy off? Did he just randomly pick a gay college student to attack?

Smells like a lover's spat to me.

[Warty]

Reforms such as health insurance for all, an active state and more environmental and climate protection are seen as catch-up Europeanization, a simple normalization. Millions of Americans, on the other hand, see this as an audacious if not revolutionary agenda to serve the interests of the state.

You know you just said the same thing twice, right, you German fucks?

[Montani Semper Liberi]

It amazes me that people still want to use Europe as an example we should aspire to after what happened in Greece and what is happening in Spain, Portugal, and France. I guess some people never learn.

[nekoxgirl]

The left likes to pretend they are the smart ones but I think they are just as ignorant about geography as the average American. They saw a Michael Moore film that implied Europe was a utopia and that's about as much as they know.

[Stupid Lefty]

I backpacked there one summer. I got high in Amsterdam and had sex with a clean prostitute in Berlin and it was all legal, man. It was so beautiful to have this wonderful world where people spoke all these different languages and never fought with each other. And they took care of each other and had long vacations. And we had the Civil War and they didn't, and their black people are not oppressed.

[Joe M]

They still have a big majority for two more months.

[Joe M]

Argh don't know how this got here. Ignore!

[MUAHAHAHAHA]

Too late!

[smz]

the resistance will be organized.

National Opt Out Day is Wednesday, Nov 24: Say NO to the TSA's naked body scanners and government-approved groping.

The Twitter feed

[Joe M]

Fixed link

[smz]

gracias

[TSA]

DO it, punks. We are sooo aching to put more assholes like you on our no-fly list, if you aren't there already.

[Edwin]

I don't have a problem with this.

[P Brooks]

a simple normalization

"Shape up, you deranged hicks!"

[Fluffy]

By the way, I hate to write these words, but:

Mitch McConnell, 100% right.

[robc]

I would agree with you, IF he supported 100% of spending being earmarked.

This, btw, is an issue the Pauls disagree on. Rand opposes earmarks, Ron supports them.

So, McConnell and Ron Paul are in agreement on this one.

[P Brooks]

According to Bloomberg (the News, not the Mayor), some cop got plugged in Riverside. The Governor has decreed a statewide day of mourning, and a full-scale jackboot parade.

The asshole probably deserved it.

[Huh?]

Is this satire? It's so hard to tell here.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation.....31405.html

[Nick]

Well, he's clearly better than everyone else, so...

[hugeeviltobot]

http://www.salon.com/news/econ.....nservatism

Choice quotes include:

Neither Jeffersonian populists nor libertarian ideologues have the slightest clue about how to run a complex technological society in the 21st century.

Modern conservatives claim to be pro-business. But economic conservatism is not based on any empirical study of the actual economic requirements of successful modern industrial and service corporations in a modern mixed economy. The economic right combines an anachronistic tradition with a crackpot ideology.

Then there is the problem of excessive American healthcare costs, which are chiefly the product of price gouging by the private medical and insurance industries.

[Almanian]

Jeebus H, teh stoopid is deeeeep in this article. Deeeeeeep.

Oh - Salon. Check.

[SugarFree]

Salon: Red Meat For Vegetarians.

[Almanian]

"In light of these consequences of deregulation -- first rolling blackouts, then a near-depression...."

Whoa, whoa, stop right there, Krugmanian...

Damnit - you need a "NSFW" warning or something. This one made my head hurt...

[John]

Wow.

[Brett L]

Just, wow. You'd think the New Elite would stop letting stupid people shill for them if the NE were so smart.

[John Thacker]

Then there is the problem of excessive American healthcare costs, which are chiefly the product of price gouging by the private medical and insurance industries.

Blaming excessive American healthcare costs on insurance price gouging is a sure sign of not having the slightest clue about the economy.

[R C Dean]

Neither Jeffersonian populists nor libertarian ideologues have the slightest clue about how to run a complex technological society in the 21st century.

The point being, of course, that no one knows how to run a complex, etc. The Jeffersonians and libertarians are at least smart enough to recognize this, and not want anyone to screw it up by attempting to do so.

The lefty statists, however, are eager to fuck it up for everyone.

[robc]

This.

A complex 21st century technological society cant be "run". Not and remain complex, technological and 21st century.

[Tulpa]

I think he meant to say that libertarians don't know how to "govern in the midst of" such a society.

For some reason, liberals have a habit of mixing up governing in a society and running that society.

[cynical]

"Neither Jeffersonian populists nor libertarian ideologues have the slightest clue about how to run a complex technological society in the 21st century."

Yes, and abolitionists don't know how to run a plantation, and sexual purity crusaders don't know how to run a brothel, and environmentalists don't know how to run an oil company, and so on. Generally, when people oppose doing something at all, learning how to do it well is not a priority for them.

[Tulpa]

Libertarians oppose complex technological societies?

[Tulpa]

Do libertarians oppose complex technology?

[Brett L]

Just the idea that it enables the sort of society where an emergent Philosopher King or benevolent credentialocracy should rule the world.

[cynical]

We oppose the concept of society as something that is "run" by someone, other than the millions of members in same.

[Corduroy]

That's some serious elitism on display right there. Unfortunately, it is also exactly representative of my progressive acquaintances' ideas.

"The economy must be managed or somebody might get hurt." Always comes off sounding like an extortion threat to me.

[nekoxgirl]

Yes, unemployment is stuck at 10% and the debt is reaching 14 trillion dollar because Keynesian economics works so well.

[Dumbfuck Liberal]

But if we hadn't implemented it, unemployment would be 25% and . . .

[The Gobbler]

URINE LUCK: New app lets you take STD test by 'peeing into your phone'...

http://www.observer.com/2010/d.....theres-app

[hugeevilrobot]

Waiting for the imitations to come out that have you pee into the mouthpiece or speaker.

[Almanian]

See, this is why I come to reason.com - this right here.

[Brett L]

"Why was I pissing on my now ex-girlfriend's cellphone? I wanted to see if the whore had given me a STD. What? No I didn't know there was an attachment."

I see how this could work in my favor.

[Gizmo]

For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.

His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food.

The premise held up: On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months.

For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.

His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.

But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.

Haub's "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his "good" cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH.....index.html

[John]

it is a simple formula, eat less exercise more. Funny how we use the formula when our pets are over weight but somehow claim that it won't work with us.

[Warty]

That requires effort and discipline. Fat fucks don't get to be that way by having those qualities. It's much easier to blow money on an endless stream of diets that claim to work without any sacrifices, and then to whine about genetics when those don't work.

[Robert]

Well, sure, because we're in charge of what they eat, other than dead squirrels, etc. they might find on the street. Lucky got really bad breath the time he ate horse manure from the bridle path.

[brotherben]

With the quantity of Little Debbies fudge rounds that I eat every day I should have lost hundreds of pounds by now. WTF. This diet is bogus.

[Warty]

Given enough discipline, you can lose weight on most anything. I bet he felt like shit while he was eating that, though.

[John Thacker]

Most people feel like shit if they're eating a small enough number of calories compared to what they're expending to lose weight. Losing weight involves feeling hungry, which sucks.

[Warty]

Yeah, and now add unstable blood sugar to that, and you'll really feel like shit.

[Sidd Finch]

He also lost over 10 lbs LBM. Let's see how easy it to keep losing fat now on 1000 kcal diet.

[Tulpa]

The "foods" he mentions eating contain no animal products (and thus no cholesterol), so it's not surprising that his bad cholesterol went down. Good cholesterol is more related to exercise than diet, and he says nothing about his exercise regimen.

Oh, and by the way:

Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.

[P Brooks]

Neither Jeffersonian populists nor libertarian ideologues have the slightest clue about how to run a complex technological society in the 21st century.

Let me guess:

High-minded technocrats from the finest schools, serving in unelected positions in government regulatory agencies will save us.

OBEY

[NoVAHockey]

There are no new ideas. Just new analysts.

[The Gobbler]

Whoa!

[brotherben]

With the quantity of Little Debbies fudge rounds that I eat every day I should have lost hundreds of pounds by now. WTF. This diet is bogus.

[brotherben]

damn blind squirrels stuck this in the wrong place. Little bastards are nuts.

[Server Squirrel]

Fuck you.

[Server Squirrel]

Fuck you.

[Server Squirrel]

Fuck you.

[Server Squirrel]

Fuck you.

[Server Squirrel]

Fuck you.

[Server Squirrel]

Fuck you.

[Server Squirrel]

Fuck you.

[John]

http://realclearpolitics.com/v.....ution.html

Bring it on Ted. Bring it on. You little rat bastard.

[Mike M.]

Why is it that the guys who advocate violence always look like the biggest dweeb pussies?

It's like when Spencer Ackerman was laughably talking about throwing guys through plate glass windows on the Journolist.

[John]

Napoleon complex. And make no mistake, if there ever were violence, douchbags like Ackerman and Roll wouldn't do any of it or risk their necks. They would just egg other people on to do it. Or after they won would roll in and become commissars who would beat and torture the defenseless.

Had they lived in a different time or place, say 1790 France or 1920s Russia or 1930s Germany, people Roll and Ackerman would have been first class criminal lowlifes.

[sloopyinca]

Had they lived in a different time or place, say 1790 France or 1920s Russia or 1930s Germany, people Roll and Ackerman would have been first class criminal lowlifes.

More likely, they would have been among the first led to the gulag or the gallows. People like them have always been bootlickers to those in power, so I think they would have been on the wrong side of your examples...except maybe 1930's Germany. They'd fit right in being Nazis.

[Dumbfuck Liberal]

And wasn't it every liberal in the land yelling about the threat of violence from the far right wing tea party groups?

[Warty]

Maybe he just wants wartime food shortages so that he'll be able to lose some weight.

I couldn't stomach watching more than a few seconds of that pudgy fuck. Did he have a solution to the problem that his type of people don't have any guns?

[John]

That is why they are so pissed gun control has died. Molitov cocktail throwing mobs really are effective at intimidating an unarmed populace. And the police are no problem if you get your sympathizers to run the government. But an armed populace that can defend itself? That is a real problem for lowlifes like Roll.

[Liberal Anarchists]

Worked for us at the G20 summit!

[John]

Only in places like Seattle. Try it in Wichita sometime.

[Tulpa]

If the govt really got it into its mind that it wanted to oppress us, I seriously doubt a bunch of guys running around with shotguns and handguns are going to be able to stop it.

I mean, I support R2K&BA;, but the idea that it's effective protection against tyranny is a romantic delusion from the days when it took armies a week to travel 100 miles and the cutting edge military technology was the cannon.

[Brett L]

Yeah. Look how easily we conquered Afghanistan.

[mad libertarian guy]

And Iraq. And Vietnam.

[cynical]

You're assuming that with an egregious and overt move toward tyranny (the sort that would spur a large-scale armed revolt), that a substantial portion of the military wouldn't splinter off and begin to fight against the federal government, using federal hardware. I think they would, and doubly so if the offenders are progressives or socialists.

[Cyto]

I got as far as "one percent of the population owning 24% of the income, and it is just getting worse" before I gave up. There can be no meeting of the minds if that is your yardstick.

Why exactly should I give a crap if Steve Jobs has enough money to fly the New York Philharmonic to the moon to play a private concert for his closest friends when I have a car, a home, a flat screen TV, a video game console, 3 squares and several meals out every month - even if I'm lower middle class in the US I have all of these things. Even the relatively poor have most of this. You have to go to the very extreme before you find people who would not be the upper levels in most 3rd world economies. If you are really exercised over "class warfare" inequities in the US you just have a serious case of penis envy. I'm all for raising people up - but I have no idea why that notion involves dragging someone else down.

[Fluffy]

Yeah, the whole "income inequality is bad no matter what the average lifestyle may be" argument is really lost on me.

If anything, I think we are moving into a Fredrick Pohl environment now, where beyond a certain level additional consumption becomes a burden to be avoided, and not a benefit to be sought out.

If you told me that tomorrow I had to move out of my drafty Vermont farmhouse and give up my three year old LL Bean shoes and my eight year old lumberjack jacket, and had to move to Orange County and live with one of the Real Housewives in their McMansion, I would probably go buy a gun to shoot you in the face.

[SugarFree]

I would probably go buy a gun to shoot you in the face.

Who says consumer society is bad?

[Nick]

And in VT you could, no questions asked!

[NoVAHockey]

Envy is much easier and has immediate payoffs. Raising people up takes a lot of time and effort and may not produce results at all.

[SugarFree]

Raising society up is easy. All tech progress accomplishes that in a moderately free society. Raising people up almost always fails. Liberals can't understand that getting to the top of the mountain is the transformative experience. Having a crane lift you up there doesn't accomplish shit.

[NoVAHockey]

Makes the crane operator feel good though. Gets to talk about how compassionate he is.

[brotherben]

It's a hell of a lot easier for me to whine about your success and scream about fairness than it is for me to admit that I am supremely lazy and a product of decades of bad decisions.

[Rachel Maddow]

Pay no attention to Ted. The teabaggers are the REAL violence threat.

[Edwin]

I like Ted Rall.

[shrike]

I don't have a problem with this.

[John]

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....lenews_wsj

Postrel in fine form at the WSJ today. And yes Reason has never recovered from her leaving.

[Brett L]

Dammit now I have to drink at work.

[brotherben]

Personally, I don't see myself as anti-elitist. I also don't see myself as being more for the "normal" folks. I see myself, the older I get, as being correct in my way of thinking and I have the audacity to feel that everyone that doesn't share my beliefs is just wrong. I think that I am definately not alone in feeling this way. I haven't yet followed this path as deeply as Ted Kaszinski did but do see some similarities. fwiw, I ran across an old link on here the other day with an Aspergers/autism test. My score indicated that I have a mental makeup that is real different from the norm.

[Warty]

I saw that rctl dug up that old link I posted. Most of us seem to be different from the normals.

[SugarFree]

What thread? I'm amused to keep up with my stalker's obsessions.

[SugarFree]

Never mind. I found the little attention whore. Unlike gonorrhea, she is something that you can ignore, people.

[Warty]

http://reason.com/archives/201.....nt_1987393

Do you suppose rctl is anonopussy? The smugness is about the same.

[SugarFree]

I've posited that same possibility to Epi off-board. Same sort of sporadic manic-depressive style. She takes her Effexor late one day and the mania rises to the point she has to take it out on those nasty libertarians.

While I don't recommend giving her the hits, the deranged esprit de l'escalier posts on her blog, where she reposts a H&R comment by someone (P Brooks is on the first page) so that she can keep arguing it without having to come up with a defense upon reply are hilarious. And by "hilarious" I mean "pathetic."

[Warty]

Yeah, those are bizarre. I also like that she emphasizes how she has an editor. That Drunkenatheist broad is still my favorite of the overangry trollcunt brigade, however.

[Citizen Nothing]

You bastards just made me check out the rectal blog. Ouch. You deserve a grape knee high for that.

[brotherben]

I am kinda squeamish about using the term "normal" in describing other humans but as it was used in the results section of the test I regurged it here. I scored a 42 on the test which is well outside the normal range.
But I also concede that my mind works in such a way that make tests such as this and the MMPI fun to take because I see right away where the questions are leading and find them easy to manipulate. That being said, I do at times, attempt to be completely honest in my answers.

[Nick]

I just googled "genius IQ" to see a different standardized structure and it says 155-164 is one of the genius levels and it shows Nobel Prize winners as the example of this category. No fucking way Obama or Krugman have that high an IQ range.

[Robert]

Yeah, I miss her too, although I think she gets published on a wider variety of stuff now. And although Reason has picked up some fine people since, you're right, it's not enough to offset her departure.

[Tulpa]

Postrel defines libertarians as "tolerant cosmopolitans". Reason is slanted enough in the cosmotarian direction without Queen Cosmo heading up the ship.

[Mr Whipple]

All that GLTRs is not GLD.

http://www.indexuniverse.com/s.....-gltr.html

[Mike M.]

China downgrades United States again; our credit rating now down to A+ with a negative outlook.

Among all the other crazy things they've done, the lunatics running our country have now started a currency and trade war, and most of the world is squarely lined up against us. This isn't likely to end well.

[Ragin Cajun]

When you can't figure out where to aim, I guess your foot looks as good a target as any.

[Brett L]

Give a 3 yr old a running chainsaw and then complain when shit goes bad... good plan.

[waffles]

Now, I'm a little off-kilter, but I think this trade war business is kind of awesome.

[db]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....coast.html

Weird story--no one seems to know who launched this thing. Any word from folks in LA? Was it even a real launch?

[Ragin Cajun]

Didn't Al Gore move out there recently? I'm just asking a question, here.

[Cyto]

Interesting. It is heading west - so counter to the earth's rotation and counter to the constellation of satellites in orbit. It definitely looks like it is headed for space. Sea Launch has the capability to do this, but generally launches at the equator. The location is very close to US military space along the coast, so that argues for US military involvement. The fact that we are not at Def-Con 5 or alert level red or whatever the code is these days means it wasn't unexpected or a foreign power. Probably US military anti-ballistic missile testing over the Pacific.

[bendover]

The Pentagon is saying that the US military had nothing to do with this launch.

[Azathoth]

Wouldn't east be counter-rotational?

[Brett L]

Everyone launches east for orbit. The sun rises in the east because that's the direction the earth spins. If you want to use the rotational velocity as part of your orbital velocity, you launch east.

[Timon19]

Palmdale?

[Jason]

Neil Cavuto Busted Peddling Liberal-Smack On Rand Paul

[P Brooks]

I would probably go buy a gun to shoot you in the face.

You know what they say:

It's better to have one, and not need it, than to need one, and not have it.

[P Brooks]

where she reposts a H&R comment by someone (P Brooks is on the first page)

D'OH!!!

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

Thanks