Reason Morning Links: Nazis, the TSA, and 4chan

• Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be having a trial anytime soon.
• Looks like Nancy Pelosi has the minority leader job in the bag.
• Aung San Suu Kyi is released in Burma.
• A Justice Department report discusses Nazis who received safe haven in the U.S. after WWII.
• More travelers have trouble with the TSA.
• The Tumblr/4chan wars.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Justice Department report discusses Nazis who received safe haven in the U.S. after WWII.

And all of them argue with me on the internet.

[Heimlich Manoever]

No, we don't!

[J sub D]

The Tumblr/4chan wars.

Nerd douchiness. These folks would all mistakenly claim to be adults.

[generic Brand]

I am dumber for having read those posters.

[Derp]

I love me some 4chan, but this isn't news.... It's barely even culturally relevant. (Internet culture, maybe...)

[Brett L]

You know what the Dems were really missing? A 3rd place in their leadership for affirmative action candidates. I'm sure now that they've found that flaw in their structure, by 2012 they'll be back on the supermajority path, right?

I wonder if letting Rangel go under the bus was part of Clyburn's deal to sit at the front.

[Flounder]

He again said that no one was forcing me to stay. I looked him in the eye, and said, "then I'm leaving". He replied, "then we'll bring a civil suit against you", to which I said, "you bring that suit" and walked out of the airport.

Oh boy, is this great!

[Grandpa Whithers]

Fuck off, bitch.

[Mo]

The more I read stories about the new enhanced pat down, the more I'm convinced that it was created by someone that consciously wants to end TSA screenings. There's a huge backlash to these and pretty soon they'll have to kill the program.

[John]

I hope so. This is ridiculous. If this is what it takes to secure aircraft, fuck it I will take my chances. I wonder if the administration has any idea how pissed off people are about this. I don't think they do. Obama could recover four or five of his lost approval points simply by issuing an EO banning this bullshit.

[John]

I hope so. This is ridiculous. If this is what it takes to secure aircraft, fuck it I will take my chances. I wonder if the administration has any idea how pissed off people are about this. I don't think they do. Obama could recover four or five of his lost approval points simply by issuing an EO banning this bullshit.

[Rich]

We'll see. I think it'll take more, like having to show up at the airport the day before you fly so you can wait for the mandatory laxative to finish.

[TSA Tsar]

Bite your tongue. It's for the safety of us all!

And don't be taking our jerbs!

[Butts Wagner]

The more I read stories about the new enhanced pat down, the more I'm convinced that it was created by someone that consciously wants to end TSA screenings.

Yes, someone who wants to end pat downs and make everyone go through the scanners.

[Mo]

A Justice Department report discusses Nazis who received safe haven in the U.S. after WWII.

This is just a continuation of the Obama administration's assault on NASA.

[Brett L]

Freeman Dyson is a genius, except when he disagrees with the global warming consensus.

[John]

I read that the other day. I love it how Freyman Dyson is a victim of confirmation bias. But, climatologists are somehow immune even though their entire careers and relevance of their field is based on AGW being true.

[Kenneth]

I can tell you that China sure isn't denying global warming or refusing to invest in green technologies and high-speed rail. Embarrassing how far behind this country is.

[John]

Bullshit. China is dirty as all get out. And China also, like every other authoritarian state, is in love with big and largely counter productive show projects like the three gorges dam.

Your comment is an unimaginable pile of stupid. What good do "green technologies" do if the rest of the world keeps pumping out CO2? Does China think it will unilaterally stop global warming? And if a high speed rail project makes sense in the most populous country on earth (a big if), why would that mean it makes sense in Madison?

Take the KOS talking points elsewhere.

[Kenneth]

Gotta love how John thinks things like high speed rail, hydroelectric dams, a brand-new network of world-class highways and airports are just "show projects" that do nothing useful.

Fly from JFK to Beijing airport sometime and look at the difference.

[J sub D]

With one third the GDP, China surpasses the US in carbon emissions.

IOW, you're an idiot.

[generic Brand]

Gotta love how John thinks things like high speed rail, hydroelectric dams, a brand-new network of world-class highways and airports are just "show projects" that do nothing useful.

Gotta love how you think that high speed rail, hydroelectric dams, and brand-new highways and airports are good investments. Ask Japan how its high speed rail system is doing. Ask them how all of their nation's transportation is doing. And then multiply those networks by whatever factor necessary to equal U.S. or China's area. It already costs 4 times as much to travel from Northern Japan to Tokyo than it does to fly from Orlando, FL to Vegas, which is 3 to 4 times the distance.

If all of these things were great investments you would see a lot more private companies competing to build them... instead it's only government investing under the guise of reduced carbon emissions. Too bad all of the "savings" are really just funneled in from other areas of government.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Haven't you guys been trying to kill hydroelectric dams in this country for the last 50 years? Something about them irrevocably harming "pristine" ecosystems?

[Corduroy]

Having been to China before, I can confirm this. China doesn't give a whit about global warming. Any investment in "green" technologies is merely to prevent themselves from choking on their own coal soot.

[Jerry]

Thanks the the gullible West, China is actually making handsome profits on the global warming scare.
http://www.newscientist.com/ar.....llion.html

[Kenneth]

Beijing is going to TRIPLE their subway capacity over the next TEN YEARS.

Meanwhile, it takes New York City 10 years just to build ONE NEW LINE!

[Brett L]

Where, exactly, is NYC underserved by subways? Nassau County? Newark?

[Kenneth]

"Several subway lines have reached their operational limits in terms of train frequency and passengers, according to data released by the Transit Authority. All but one of the "A" Division Lines, and the E and L trains are at capacity; crowding on the Lexington Avenue trains exceeds design limits.[127] The Second Avenue Subway will begin to relieve pressure on the Lexington Avenue line (4/5/6) when its first segment begins operating in 2015, but no such relief is planned for other crowded lines. However, the Long Island Railroad East Side Access project is expected to bring many more commuters to the Lexington Avenue Line at about the same time, further overwhelming its capacity."

Further, the subway system is nearly 100 years old and is old, dirty, grungy, and falling apart. Compare it to Beijing or Tokyo sometimes.

How many jobs could we create if we got serious about our deteriorating infrastructure?

[DanD]

How many jobs could we create if we got serious about our deteriorating infrastructure?

On net, not more than zero.

Next question.

[Kenneth]

Come one, we have 10.2% uemployment (the real rate is probably closer to 20%).

Oh, and this especially is for John:

http://www.spiegel.de/internat.....47,00.html

[JW]

C'mon everyone. Let's go break those windows!

[Grandpa Whithers]

Take the bus -- $3. Take a cab -- $8. New Subway line -- $1,300,000,000.

You do the math.

[Artifex]

Wow ! Progressive levels of cognitive dissonance seem to be going on here. You don't suppose New York has problems getting subways built due to all those nifty progressive regulations do you ?

You have to deal with the lawyers guild, the unions and every special interest looking for a payoff. In China, it's simple. Get on the wrong side of the power structure and bang you're dead. It doesn't pay to make a nuisance of yourself.

I don't know which is more pathetic: progressives getting all hot over what can be accomplished by an authoritarian regime, or the fact that most of problems we have accomplishing anything are a direct result of their policies.

[Thomas Friedman]

"Get on the wrong side of the power structure and bang you're dead."

I love it!

[John]

NYC already has a subway dumbass.

[Kenneth]

One that's rotting, decaying, and at max capacity.

[John]

Then rebuild it. But before you do, you might ask yourself why it is rotting? Would public sector unions have anything to do with that? Why is it so expensive to run a subway in the US? In China the public employees don't retire at 60% pay after 20 years.

If you are going to talk about problems, lets talk about the right causes.

[TrickyVic]

""One that's rotting, decaying, and at max capacity.""

Almost every station has been rebuilt in the last 20 years. New trains on almost every line. You don't see as many redbirds on the #7 line anymore. Some of those newish stations have gone to crap though.

I'm not sure what max capacity is. It's always been sardine cans during rush hour. The problem is that they are running less, and less trains during non-peak hours which makes for more crowded trains when they do arrive. It took about 45 mins last night to get from 2nd Ave to Penn station. I could have walked it in that time.

That's why I'm forming the train takes too damn long party. Shhhhhhh, ya hear that?
No. Because the train takes too damn long.

[John]

And don't you want it to operate at max capacity? Max capacity says that you built it the right size for the demand.

[TrickyVic]

""And don't you want it to operate at max capacity?"""

When it comes to transit, who does. Do you think every road should have bumper to bumper traffic all the time?

[John]

A subway is not a road. And sometimes yes I want roads to be bumper to bumper. If they were not, that would mean we have over built. Same with subways. If the capacity just meets rush hour, that means we have built the right size. Anymore would be wasteful.

[TrickyVic]

"" If the capacity just meets rush hour, that means we have built the right size.""

It's almost as if you don't understand subways. Capacity doesn't go to size. It goes to trains ran in a given time frame. Per hour, for example. You wouldn't want to run the same amount of trains per hour off peak than you would peak. That would be a waste. At the same time, you don't want to lose riders because it's quicker to walk half way up Manhattan than take a train.

Anyone that takes the NYC subway knows the train takes to damn long, off peak.

[generic Brand]

Anyone that takes the NYC subway knows the train takes to damn long, off peak.

This is what Kenneth and others like to point out about Japan and other Asian countries. Yeah, it's nice to have to wait only 15 minutes for a train at midnight, but in order to keep their ridiculous timetable and such a capacity, they have their fares partially subsidized. Also, they may be recording profits now, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the debts taken to finance the projects.

According to a Tokyo Metro public relations representative, 6.33 million people on average used Tokyo Metro's nine subway routes, which together have 179 stations, on a daily basis in fiscal 2009, when it logged a profit of ?63.5 billion.

Tokyo's other major subway company, Toei Chikatetsu, which hosts four lines and is operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation, averaged 2.34 million passengers per day in 2008, and made a profit of ?12.2 billion in 2009.

Toei Chikatetsu has 106 stations.

But despite the figures, both companies had long-term debts, ?735 billion for Tokyo Metro and more than ?1.1 trillion for Toei Chikatetsu, in fiscal 2009 ? a result of the enormous sum necessary to construct and maintain their lines.

[TrickyVic]

They might not need fares subsidized if the MTA wasn't trying to buy top of the line everything. Sometimes you need what works, not what works with a million bells and whistles.

[Abdul]

China is a lot more efficient. In America, criminal trials take weeks or years with appeals. In China, it only takes an hour to do the paperwork to send an entire family to the laogai for life!

[Kenneth]

Well, ironic, because that's one thing we're still #1 in: our prison population.

[kinnath]

That's because the Chinese have optimized the process or executing prisoner's.

[PapayaSF]

Not just China: South African police have managed to arrest, try and convict a man for the brutal murder of Uwe Gemballa ? all in the space of a day.

[Xenocles]

Not going to comment either way on the benefits of a subway system, but it sure is easy to build them in crowded cities when you can liquidate anyone in the way.

[Brett L]

We have lots of cities experiencing 1880s London style smog inversions in the US. Oh wait, no we don't. They are absolutely investing in the same technologies that every maturing industrial society has. Its almost like there's a cycle that requires cheaper, sub-optimal solutions to bootstrap to the more optimal industry.

BTW, how much does Freidman pay to have you write these posts?

[Pro Libertate]

It's not pollution if it's communist pollution. With window dressing to impress fools in the West. Didn't we already go through this exercise with the Soviet Union?

[Kenneth]

China is nothing like the Soviet Union.

How many jobs did we lose to the Soviet Union? How many cell phones, laptops, TVs, computer monitors, solar panels, wind turbines, etc that we bought in the store say MADE IN THE USSR on them?

[John]

And china is an etiological disaster areas. They are dirty as all get out. And those jobs are moving to China in no small part because the environmental regulations are lax. And your solution is to make our laws more strict?

[Kenneth]

they're already leading us in solar panels and they've invested billions into electric cars and batteries.

What have we done? Bailed out banks and built empty condos in Florida.

[Fluffy]

I congratulate them on their ability to use more expensive energy for no better reason than the fact that it looks pretty to dumbasses like you.

As soon as solar is price-competitive with fossil fuels, trust me - we'll use it.

If China wants to waste money deploying it while it's still more expensive, awesome - the economies of scale that creates might bring the per kilowatt cost of solar down, and then we can start using it. Neatly and effectively free-riding on the capital investment of the early adopters. Thanks, dumbasses!

[Kenneth]

For the first time, because of billions in investments by the Chinese government, America no longer has the world's fastest supercomputer.

That's not a good sign for our future, and a sign our country is decaying, declining, and has a broken political system. One that can't' get things done.

[JW]

Wait, I thought it was the Japanese that were going to eat our lunch?

Are you trying to tell me that Gung Ho was a work of fiction?

[Montani Semper Liberi]

IBM is building is in the process of building two new super computers for the DoE that will make the one China just made look like an Apple II by comparison. Google "IBM BlueGene" and learn something, dumbass.

[Brett L]

Are you sure you aren't Tom Freidman?

[Ragin Cajun]

NATIONAL GREATNESS!!!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Are you sure you aren't Tom Freidman?

DON'T LET US LOSE THE GLOBAL RACE FOR TALENT!

[Corduroy]

Quote by author of article.

But plants happen to grow in these little universes we call ecosystems, where they are sustained by complex webs of interdependency with fungi, microbes, animals, and other plants. Much of this mutually dependent life is adapted to narrow temperature and rainfall regimes, and these biomes are collapsing everywhere.

Citation please.

[DanD]

The grass is my yard is brown! IT'S A COLLAPSING ECOSYSTEM!!!

[Brett L]

More likely the consequence of hemispheric temperature collapse. We obviously need a geo-engineering solution to the tilt of the Earth's axis.

[Steve]

The answer lies in his almost religious faith in the power of man and science to bring nature to heel.

As opposed to the religious faith that eliminating freedom and progress will somehow appease that bitch/godess "mother earth" and return us to our lost utopia? HMPH!

[Chinny Chin Chin]

From an AWG standpoint, the author makes no attempt to counter Dyson's skepticism about climate models. And, considering Dyson agrees that warming is happening, casting him as a kooky denier rings false to me.

Viewing their solutions from a libertarian standpoint, Brower's seems far better to me. Bioengineering programs are far more likely to require massive government than changes in personal habit/behavior.

[Brett L]

Dyson's skepticism is the "A" part. Dyson doesn't agree that the warming is substantially anthropic -- and has been correspondingly skeptical of the idea that TEOTWAKI is the inevitable result of climate change. Dyson also doesn't make the assumption that the climate in 1960 was an optimum for life or humanity. Maybe I've missed the literature that proves that assumption somewhere, but it seems a rather random baseline to me.

[J sub D]

The administration has concluded that it cannot put Mohammed on trial in federal court because of the opposition of lawmakers in Congress and in New York. There is also little internal support for resurrecting a military prosecution at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The latter option would alienate liberal supporters.

Politics trump justice.

IANAL but I'm pretty certain the federal government can try a federal prisoner in federal custody on federal charges in any goddam federal court they wish.

The federal government can also tell congresscritters, governors and mayors that if they don't like it, they can pack sand.

Simply put (so Tony can follow along), this is dereliction of duty due to political inconvenience. Obamaniacs are cordially invited to defend this egregious subversion of the justice process. When Bush did shit like this it was unconscionable, nothing changes when Obama does it.

[Pro Libertate]

Right and wrong know no political boundaries.

[R C Dean]

Right and wWrong knows no political boundaries.

No need to include the null set, after all.

[Tulpa]

The trial would need funding, and Congress controls funding.

I would think that liberals would prefer a military trial over indefinite detention, but they're not known for consistency.

[John]

http://www.kansascity.com/2010.....n-van.html

More of that police professionalism that Scalia is always talking about.

[Rich]

Don't go "tsk, tsk" -- you might get shot. 8-(

[Kansas City PD spokesperson]

A department spokesman confirmed that Ransom was unarmed and said the officers have been placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated.

After a thorough internal investigation it has been determined that the officers acted professionally and in accordance with established department procedures.

[Joe M]

Yes, because we all know, established department procedure is to shoot first and... well, that's about it.

[robc]

Police and media reports initially described the incident as the police car being hit by a bullet fired from a suspect in the van.

I think it is now safe to assume that the first thing any cop says is a lie.

[JW]

Woohoo! Come an' get your meritorious accomodations, boys!

[Robert]

The part I don't get is that the gunshots were phoned in to the police, so it must have been some time before they arrived "to investigate". What happened, did the neighbor then point out the van as the source of the noise and the police just start shooting it?

[John]

They got out of their cruisers, heard the backfire, and then just opened up. It was just amazingly irresponsible. They could have killed someone. And nothing will happen to them except some free paid vacation.

[generic Brand]

Says Philip Ransom, "I'm just an ordinary guy... I go to work every day."

So that's all it takes? No wonder everyone thinks I'm such a weirdo.

[Pro Libertate]

Why on Earth would the Democrats allow Pelosi to hold a leadership position? As much as Obama, she's one of the reasons the GOP won so big.

[Kenneth]

Her biggest problem is she's too partisan. Well, most Democrats and Republicans are too partisan these days. whatever happened to moderate leaders willing to work across party lines for real solutions to our problems?

[TrickyVic]

""Her biggest problem is she's too partisan.""

Perhaps being an idiot is the bigger problem.

It takes a special person to stand in front of a camera and promote the idea that you need to pass a bill before you can find out what's in it.

[Isaac Bartram]

whatever happened to moderate leaders willing to work across party lines for real solutions to our problems?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Stop it, yer killing me.

Oh, you mean, all that deficit spending the Democrats and Republicans have agreed on over almost my whole lifetime. That's the only thing I remember them ever agreeing to.

[capitol l]

The drug war is a very bipartisan project.

Oh, and war mongering.

[Isaac Bartram]

That's why they call it bipartisanSHIT.

[Corduroy]

It's just confirmation that the Democrats who lost were Blue Dogs.

[The Democrats]

Loss leader.

Duh.

[Brett L]

I'm sure I don't know. One of the Blue Dog districts she lost is where I work. I can say that about 95% of all the adverts against the incumbent included Pelosi. How they expect to retake these districts when the Rs will get to say "don't put Pelosi and Obama back in charge" is beyond me. I was really hoping the leadership would change so that the district would remain competitive.

[John]

Because they are in massive denial. As Libertarian you don't get it. You have never seen your policies actually implemented. So, you have no idea what it is like to see them fail. Liberals have. And their policies are both failures and wildly unpopular. That is a tough thing to deal with.

Imagine if you actually got your way on something you felt strongly about like the drug war. Let's say Europe ended prohibition. But instead of it being a good thing, everything the worst drug warriors said would happen did happen. And all of Europe was collapsing because of legalized drugs. If that happened, would you be willing to take a step back and say "wow we were really wrong about that"? Or would you live in denial and invent up phony excuses to explain why it didn't work? You might do the former. But it would take a lot of intellectual integrity on your part. And most people don't have that kind of intellectual integrity.

That is the situation liberals are in. The European social democratic welfare state that they have dedicated their lives to creating in the US is cracking up. Europe is facing a demographic crisis and is going broke. The system is not sustainable. Worse still, its collapse is coming just when liberals thought they were finally going to get their way in the US. Instead of 08 being a triumph it has been a disaster. The policies liberals have dedicated their lives to obviously don't work and are wildly unpopular.

Pretty hard for them to face that reality. So instead, they are inventing excuses as to why they lost. If they kicked Pelosi out, they would have to admit their policies are unpopular and don't work. They are unwilling to do that.

They should have learned this lesson in the 1970s. And some did. But the hard core liberals explained away the stagflation of the 70s and the success of Reagan and Thatcher in the 80s. And told themselves a myth. And the younger liberals like Ezra Klein or Matt Ygelsias are too young to remember the 1970s and too stupid and dogmatic to understand them if they did. So now they are re-learning the same lessons over again.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, that's probably correct. Taking their lumps and admitting that maybe they were wrong to push so far leftward appears to be something they're scared to do. However, I think that the bullheaded response this indicates could mean a further disaster for the Democrats in 2012.

In all honesty, I don't want that. As much as I can't stand the direction the Democrats have taken in recent years, the nation is better served by a more moderate party in opposition to the GOP. If the Democrats really implode, then the GOP could get total control of the government again. I think that's a bad idea, especially since there's little chance that the GOP has learned its lesson, either.

Gridlock is our friend. Until there's a viable libertarian option.

[John]

I was worried about this in the 00s. The Democrats basically took leave of their senses after the 2000 election. Clinton had enforced a fair amount of realism on the party in the 1990s. After he was gone and they lost the 2000 election, all of the knives came out. They completely went off the deep end. I didn't like it then because I knew eventually they would win an election if for no other reason than the Republicans fucked up bad enough to give the country no choice. Sure enough that is what happened. And sure enough, the Democrats have done a lot of damage in power. Worse still, the 2010 beating hasn't seemed to have sobered them up. Claiming that they lost because Obama wasn't liberal enough is like the Republicans claiming they lost in 08 because Bush wasn't war like enough. If he had just invaded Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, they would have won. That is just insane.

We don't want a one party state. But unfortunately one of the parties and about 30% of the country seems completely unhinged from reality.

[Apostate Jew]

I am shocked by John's characterization of the Republican Party in his last paragraph.

[TrickyVic]

""But unfortunately one of the parties and about 30% of the country seems completely unhinged from reality.""

But enough about the 2007 pro-Bush crowd.

[John]

Vic,

When you are stealing your material from Apostate Jew, you have really hit a new low. Come one, you can do better than that.

[TrickyVic]

What about it is false?

[John]

They had really taken leave from their senses when they said that you couldn't just walk away from Iraq and Afghanistan and close GUITMO. Fortunately, Obama won and did those things right? It wasn't like reality forced him to a different course once he was in power. Right?

The only people who had lost their minds were the ones out of power who thought the enemy didn't get a vote.

[TrickyVic]

I'm saying the pro-Bush crowd of 2007 was unhinged from reality. Even most of the conservatives had abandoned Bush, the only ones hanging around were not at one with reality.

[PapayaSF]

I want the two main parties to be Republicans and Libertarians. Then we'd get some sensible bipartisan agreement on economic issues.

[J sub D]

If the Democrats really implode, then the GOP could get total control of the government again. I think that's a bad idea, especially since there's little chance that the GOP has learned its lesson, either.

QFMFT. Two years in the wilderness was not near enough time to teach them humility.

[Barack Obama]

"Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be having a trial anytime soon."

Have I mentioned that I'm impotent?

[The Republicans]

You won't be having a trial anytime soon.

[Barack Obama]

Every day with Michelle is a trial! *Rimshot*

[Grandpa Whithers]

"More travelers have trouble with the TSA."

TSA: Touching Sensative Areas

[Brett L]

Trained Sexual Assaulters

[SugarFree]

Taint Savaging Apes

[Old Mexican]

Total Sexual Assault

[Pro Libertate]

Tits Suddenly Accessible.

[Koko]

Tickle Sad All-ball

[Ragin Cajun]

Twinks Savoring Anuses

[PapayaSF]

The Security Assholes.

[Raymond]

Goddamn I love this site.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Statism, the Greatest Threat

[Max]

Bullshit. Go suck Ron Pual's cock.

[Max]

ARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARF!!!!!!!!!!

[?]

Pelosi, 70, said...Hoyer, 71, announced... Clyburn, 70, the lone black...

Aren't these the same people who are insisting that the retirement age be kept at 67 because people that old are worn out and helpless and have reduced mental abilities?

[R C Dean]

I would say they are providing solid evidence for this claim.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm convinced.

[P Brooks]

I also am getting more and more pissed off about this TSA "screening" bullshit, especially all the people who claim we must surrender our rights to ensure their peace of mind, and if we don't like it we can just take the bus.

Fuck them.

They have it exactly backwards. If they want total freedom from risk and anxiety, they should lock themselves in their basements, and let the rest of us get on with our lives.

[John David Galt]

Amen to that. And don't forget the tinfoil hats they're always claiming we wear!

[P Brooks]

When will we see a politician suggest abolishing the TSA as a budget issue?

(We won't, of course...)

[John]

Not a politician. But at least Forbes is a big magazine.

http://blogs.forbes.com/artcar.....h-the-tsa/

[Pro Libertate]

I just had an insight into the future. The increasingly overbearing TSA will drive us towards the only viable alternative to large commercial airlines--flying cars.

Thanks, TSA!

[SugarFree]

Wrong. All this means is that you get molested screened whenever you try to go anywhere. So the choice becomes "Walk a mile to the grocery store to get some milk or have my prostate juggled."

GREEN JOBS!

[Pro Libertate]

They won't have to do that, as all flying cars will be networked into a national computer system that will have built in security protocols. This "Skynet" will ensure that flying cars don't crash and aren't used for terrorism. Or anything else remotely illegal or disfavored.

[SugarFree]

"Sir, the systems notes that you are attempting to enter the queue for a Sky McDonald's franchise. Records indicate that you have consumed 3205 calories from this establishment in the past three weeks. You have 5 more days until your calorie ration renews. Please pick a healthier choice.

Also, please wear underwear when leaving the house. Your bare genitals are making your SmartPants very uncomfortable and they are close to filing a complaint."

[Pro Libertate]

"Put down the Big Mac, sir. You have ten seconds to comply."

[Ragin Cajun]

Fourth Directive: Only government employees may eat cheeseburgers.

[SugarFree]

Some things are just too important to leave to the private sector.

[Rich]

I see what you did there.

[The Other Kevin]

I think you're on to something. But instead of flying cars, I think they are purposefully pushing us toward high-speed rail. This has that evil genius Biden's fingerprints all over it.

[waffles]

evil genius Biden
wtf am I reading?

[Robert]

So brilliant you never suspected, huh?

[Kolohe]

He's the Spanish Inquisition of politicians.

[TrickyVic]

""When will we see a politician suggest abolishing the TSA as a budget issue?""

Our government wants someone to do that job. Call it TSA or something else, it wouldn't matter. Privatizing wouldn't help either because the government sets the rules and mandates. It would just be a private company having to do the governments bidding.

I don't know if you can ever get the feds to back off on the idea of protecting us from terrorist. Most people think it's one of the proper functions of government.

[Pope Jimbo]

Do we really need the links about Nazis hiding here AND the links to the TSA. Seems redundant.

[P Brooks]

Note to self:

Skip all "Kenneth" comments.

[kinnath]

I hate when some new dipshit shows up and uses a handle very similar to mine.

[konneth]

I know what you mean

[Kenneth'ed]

Totally.

[Old Mexican]

More travelers have trouble with the TSA.

But we need the State! Tony and Chad told me so!

[Kenneth]

This is for John since he's in denial about how far we've slipped behind the rest of the world:

http://www.spiegel.de/internat.....47,00.html

[John]

We may have slipped behind the rest of the world. But that is a different debate then what to do about it. One thing is for sure, going further broke supporting idiotic and inefficient "green technologies" is not the solution.

Get out of the cargo cult. It doesn't matter how many green runways or bamboo control towers you build. The planes are not coming.

[Old Mexican]

From the link,

The entire interplay of taxes and investments is out of joint because a 16,000-page tax code allows for far too many loopholes and because solidarity is no longer part of the way Americans think.

The Teutonic meaning of "solidarity" - no loopholes in the tax system . . .

The political system, plagued by lobbyism and stark hatred, is incapable of reaching consistent or even quick decisions.

The pot calling the kettle black . . .

The country is reacting strangely irrationally to the loss of its importance -- it is a reaction characterized primarily by rage. Significant portions of America simply want to return to a supposedly idyllic past.

"They do not hold the same sane and rational view of self-loathing like us Germans."

They devote almost no effort to reflection, and they condemn cleverness and intellect as elitist and un-American, as if people who hunt bears could seriously be expected to lead a world power.

As opposed to a college professor with no more political experience than community activism.

Demagogues stir up hatred and rage on television stations like Fox News.

This is just silly. How can one take these guys seriously?

These parts of America, majorities in many states, ignorant of globalization and the international labor market, can do nothing but shout.

"We Europeans are, to our credit, far more circunspect and more inclusive. Never mind the revolts and the failure of our welfare system and our love for merchantilism - nothing to see there, folks!"

They hate everything that is new and foreign to them.

"Like statism. They hate that - imagine, the rubes!"

[Kenneth]

Spoken like someone who doesn't know anything about the German political system.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Kenneth,

Spoken like someone who doesn't know anything about the German political system.

Gee, nice comeback there, Kenny.

[Fluffy]

The German political system is so much more loving than ours that they've had 50 years to integrate a handful of Turks and can't do it, while the US eats new cultures for breakfast and spits out the bones.

I love how Europeans are celebrating the amazing tolerance their system produces because Frenchmen and Germans can now co-exist without murdering each other - but they see the US as a steel cage match of hatred, even though every sort of human being yet born lives here together in social, political and economic peace.

[Kenneth]

"lives here together in social, political, and economic peace"

How many violent gun deaths do we have every year, again?

Now how many in Germany?

[Germanfag]

We do not need guns, we simply beat someone up in the subway an then leave them to die.
It is ridiculous to imply that we do not have a comparable amount of social unrest.

[zoltan]

"lives here together in social, political, and economic peace"

How many violent gun deaths do we have every year, again?

Now how many in Germany?

How many blacks does Germany have?

[Kenneth]

What proportion of our people are in prison vs. Germany's?

[PapayaSF]

+1

[Azathoth]

You know, I really don't know much about Germany's screwed up parlimentary system. But they sure seem to know a lot about ours. Wonder why that is?

In Heinlein's 'Double Star' there's an interesting sequence where the main character notes that the important man has all kinds of notes reminding him about his interactions with less important people--but the less important people have no problem remembering each interaction with the important man--to them, each one is of great importance, while to the important man, each one is but one of many.

Germany has a government? Where are my notes?....

When we 'fall behind' them, there won't be articles like this.

[Grandpa Whithers]

Latinos now make up a majority of California's public school students, cracking the 50 percent barrier for the first time in the state's history, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Education.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....z15MeSeNOk

[Lost_In_Translation]

Just in time for us to hand it back, snce the state's broke and broken. Enjoy it mejicanos. Maybe you can do better than the entitled whites that broke it...oh btw, you can't deport them back to us.

[P Brooks]

Has the EPA classified flying cars as "green tech"?

If not, tough luck.

I, for one, do not welcome battery-powered flight.

[Kenneth]

The difference between China:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

And America:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

Which looks like the future to you? Which is prosperity, and which is decay? Get it now?

Wake up!

[J sub D]

Another difference.

China's official Xinhua News Agency says the death toll of a fire that engulfed a high-rise apartment building in China's business center of Shanghai has risen to 42.

The fire occurred today at a building under renovation. Previous reports put the toll at at least eight dead and more than 90 injured.
...
The government-run news Web site Eastday.com cited a construction worker surnamed Qian who escaped from the 28th story as saying crews were installing energy-saving insulation when the fire occurred.

This is like hunting at the zoo.

[PapayaSF]

So you're saying we should cut back on the regulations and work rules that slow the process of building things, and get rid of the unions and race-hustling Democrats who have destroyed Detroit? Kenneth, I'm seeing some common ground here!

[generic Brand]

Too bad the China video didn't include the processing phase of construction where all those prefabricated materials were built in greenhouse gas producing factories.

[P Brooks]

Teasing

Susceptible

Anuses

[P Brooks]

Dear Kenneth,

Do you support rounding up and forcibly relocating New Yorkers in order to "update" Manhattan's subways?

That's how you Maoist heroes do things.

[Kenneth]

You can't make a delcious infrastructure omelette without breaking some special interest group eggs, Brooks.

I say it's time to start breaking eggs so we get a nutritious breakfast.

[kinnath]

I've been to China and have dealt with "high tech" Chinese firms (my customers). The place is far and away the most polluted place I have ever been to (haven't made it to India yet).

If you think we should be emulating the Chinese, you are completely fucking ignorant.

[John]

It used to be that liberals pointed to Japan and Europe as models. At least those countries, however flawed, were Democracies and free countries by any reasonable standard. Now they point to China, one of the most murderous repressive and criminal regimes on earth. They have really hit rock bottom haven't that?

[PapayaSF]

But the delicious irony is that China is booming because they are abandoning socialism (on the economic, though not political, level), and liberals use that example as a reason we should become more socialist! It's like pointing to a former alcoholic who is now running marathons, and saying it shows that to get into better shape you need to drink more.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

When I was in grad school, I shared an office with a Chinese student from Shanghai. He told me that he and his wife had to clean their apartment daily because there was so much pollution that at the end of every day all their stuff would be covered in a thin layer of soot. Sounds like a regular green paradise.

[Joe M]

Why is anyone actually taking this troll seriously?

[Mr. FIFY]

At least Kenneth didn't use the tired, worn-out "car in the ditch" cliche... this time. But wait, it'll be forthcoming.

[Slut Bunwalla]

They don't stand around sippin' slurpees in China!

[SFC B]

I don't think he's a troll. It think it's that Move To Asia bot being renamed and gaining a little bit of sentience.

[Robert]

That's what it was like the previous time they started work on the 2nd Ave. line. My dead friend Michael Pinto observed that so many residents were uprooted that there was no longer a need for the line, so work stopped again for decades.

[John]

http://www.washingtonexaminer......89498.html

Maryland is one of the richest states in the country. It has the recession proof federal government and federal salaries to pump it with money. It is also one of the highest tax states in the country. Yet, it can't meet its pension obligations. There no where no matter how rich or how insulated from the business cycle that the public sector employees unions cannot loot to the point of bankruptcy.

[Kenneth]

Absolutely right. No more pensions, 401(k)s for all!

The Democrats are as beholden to the unions as the Republicans are the the big Wall St. corporations.

Those groups need a haircut, and it needs to be done by the Red barber AND the blue barber while the special interest groups sit in the chair.

[John]

"Absolutely right. No more pensions, 401(k)s for all!"

Stop trolling. If a private sector company wants to create a pension that is one thing. That pension has to be created with the future of the company in mind. Government pensions, since government can forcibly take money to fund them, do not.

The level of dissonance in your posts is astounding. You and your ilk have looted the country and turned some of our richest states into bankrupts. And your solution is to end private pensions. Yeah, that makes sense.

Just stop it. Really. And when you do, look in the mirror and face reality. Face what is happening in Europe and face the truth that the liberal model of government (high taxes, welfare and public sector employment) that has guided the US and Europe for the last 75 years is collapsing. The repo man is coming. Face up to it.

[Kenneth]

John, I was referring to "all" government workers since that was the subject of the post.

Reading comprehension, much?

[Kenneth]

I don't believe right wing government (super low taxes, high deficits, exploding debt, piggish defense budgets, endless wars, and corporate cronyism) has fared much better. We've had that since 1980.

We need to throw out what is wrong with BOTH systems.

[John]

Where do you think the exploding debt came form? It came from entitledments and government trying to solve all our problems. And I don't think you will get any argument around here that the defense budget needs to be cut. Both parties have operated under the same model. It is not like Ronald Reagan ended the Department of Education.

Throw out both and replace them with what? Chinese totalitarianism. Crony green technology stateism? The people around here would like to go back to what we had before 1932 where the federal government was the size of PBS and the state governments were not much bigger. What is your idea?

[Kenneth]

With sensible, centrist policies and bi-partisan cooperation that can GET THINGS DONE instead of gridlock and shouting about birth certificates and "war crimes".

[Old Mexican]

Re: Kenneth,

With sensible, centrist policies and bi-partisan cooperation that can GET THINGS DONE instead of gridlock and shouting about birth certificates and "war crimes".

"Centrist" policies? What are those?

[Slut Bunwalla]

Centrist policies are when the Democrats get whatever they want and the Republicans just shut up and let it happen, I'm guessing.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Kenneth,

I don't believe right wing government (super low taxes, high deficits, exploding debt, piggish defense budgets, endless wars, and corporate cronyism) has fared much better. We've had that since 1980.

What's "super low taxes"?

We need to throw out what is wrong with BOTH systems.

WHAT both systems? It's the same system - Statism.

[Kenneth]

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org.....?Docid=213

Those "super low" tax rates. The last time we had a top marginal rate this low was 1929.

Look at where they were in the '60s, by comparison!

[Joe M]

Uh, no, the last time was 1992.

[Corduroy]

Yeah, and look at what the 60's brought us. Vietnam, The Great Society, the 70's...

[Old Mexican]

Re: Kenneth,

Those "super low" tax rates. The last time we had a top marginal rate this low was 1929.

Read again - I am asking WHAT'S (as in What IS) a superlow tax rate? Not which one, but what IS it? What's the CONCEPT?

Look at where they were in the '60s, by comparison!

Ok, I looked. And?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

And guess what, Kenneth--the government didn't take in a comparably greater percentage of GDP with those higher taxes than they have with the lower ones.

Total Tax Revenues as a Percentage of GDP, 1934-2010

The income tax rates are irrelevant--the facts speak for themselves. We've never taken in more than 10.2% of GDP in income tax receipts, and that was in 2000 with a U3 of 3.8-4.0%. You honestly think going back to the 1960s rates is going to help anything?

Hell, let's talk math. Getting rid of the Bush tax rates and going back to the Clinton tax rates will result in around $700 billion over ten years, assuming no subsequent tax avoidance takes place. That doesn't even begin to dent the deficit.

Be honest--this is more about your disapproval of people making a lot of money than it is a real concern about the deficit. Start arguing for massive cuts in the Big 5 (which take up 75% of federal spending) and you'll be taken seriously.

[cynical]

Yes, we need a technocracy!

Wait, what?

[Shortern Kenneth]

I am Green With Envy.

[TrickyVic]

""If a private sector company wants to create a pension that is one thing. ""

Only if the feds do not try back it up or insure it.

[P Brooks]

If we could only convince people TSA agents are taking steroids, maybe we could get the House Committee on Government Reform interested.

[TrickyVic]

Zing!

[John]

http://nalert.blogspot.com/201.....ckets.html

More evidence that liberalism has made white people hopelessly stupid.

[Ragin Cajun]

Wasn't there an article recently that said there was a whooping cough epidemic in the richer, whiter parts of California?

[Kenneth]

Yes, because of anti-vaccine hysteria (believing in the anti-science view that they "cause" "autism"). Can you believe it?

[Robert]

Even my vitamin D level has been determined to be abnormally low. My father had rickets, so maybe there's a genetic predisposition.

[Apostate Jew]

And John reveals his real objection to the Left ... not that they are comsymp, pinko, nanny-statists but that they're also actively causing the Decline and Fall of the White Man.

Face it, John, the brown and yellow people are catching up. They're going to kick us around and disrespect us the way they did the English and the French after the war. And no matter how crazy it makes you, there is nothing you can do about it, short of all out nuclear attack.

That being said, the whole sunblock thing has gone way too far.

[John]

Yeah laughing at liberal rich white people is worrying that the white man is going down. Would changing your name to "stupid Jew" be anti-Semitic"?

It is okay not to be funny. Most people aren't. But to try to be funny and fail is unforgivable. I think you owe the other trollers on here a little better effort in the future.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Hey everyone, Tim Wise has joined us in the comment section!

[Ann O'Gramm]

A A Restriction Nut Sporty Administration

[hmm]

You know who else gave safe haven to Nazis?!

[MNG]

It's incredible to me that Pelosi will run for leader, and more incredible that she will likely win. If the party were sane it would follow Heath Shuler on this point. But I guess it is in a masochistic phase...

[hmm]

Why is it so amazing? She is a career politician, so I'm fairly sure her ego is telling her it's her job to save the plebs and coach her fellow career politicians. The party now has very few who are not ideologically far left politically since those seats tend to be safe and the liberals farther to the right tend to be more at risk and lost. The last election culled the herd of moderates, not Progressives who's seats are generally secure.

The real interesting game will be redistricting. The current administration was so short sighted that they may have shot themselves in the foot for the next 10 years. Which goes to show that Obama, Axelrod, and Rhambo aren't nearly as smart as they are made out to be. Or they don't give a fuck about their party.

[MNG]

AP story: GOPers, including many Tea Party favs, running farms with "stolen money" and struggling with whether to cut farm subsidies

http://www.google.com/hostedne.....8f5f1f8d26

[John]

It would be nice to think they would cut off their own subsidies. But that is about as likely as winning the lottery. Nice thought though. Only the earth being engulfed by the sun will end farm subsidies.

[Shorter MNG]

ROADS!!!

[Azathoth]

Michele Bachmann votes against subsidies.

[Azathoth]

Michelle Bachmann votes against subsidies.

[Warty]

With sensible, centrist policies and bi-partisan cooperation that can GET THINGS DONE instead of gridlock

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Warty]

By the way, whoever's doing Kenneth, A+.

[John]

No kidding. There is such an earnestness to it. None of the smugness that comes with the Edward franchises and the other liberal trolls. That is good trolling.

[P Brooks]

GOPers, including many Tea Party favs, running farms with "stolen money" and struggling with whether to cut farm subsidies

No shit.

[hmm]

I love the, "cooperation is a mitigating factor" line coming from the douche bag threatening to sue you.

It looks like my wife and I had better up the amount of the "Again Honey? Stupid Husband In Trouble Fund." (or the AH SHIT Fund)

[hmm]

You should be able to facebook separate morning links.

Or can that be done and I'm just to slow to figure it out?

[Brett L]

No. One FB per post if you want to go thru Reason. Otherwise you have to follow the links separate and use the FB interface.

[John]

http://www.hapblog.com/2010/11.....tires.html

Must suck to be them. And no one in the town would fix their car.

[hmm]

I can't abide destroying someones property. (would have been better if they just let the air out)

That said, citizens making stupid costly for their other stupid citizens without doing harm is one way to mitigate teh stupid.

[J sub D]

As soon as all the other open personal and property crimes are solved, the McAlester cops are gonna get right on this one.

[Fluffy]

I also can't abide the property crime here, BUT -

- If you're going to come to town with signs saying you hate everyone, you better learn to change your own flats.

[The Gobbler]

It is wrong to slash tires. The way to flatten them is to simply take a plyers and pull out the valve stems. Or even less damaging, would be to take one of those littles that removes the valve core, leaving only the stem. Of course you'll want to throw the valve cores into a feied or stream.

(bikes and cars are the same here)

http://bikeshopgirl.com/wp-con.....a_tire.gif

[Warty]

I don't think I've posted these dudes before. Enjoy some Taiwanese anti-PRC metal.

[TrickyVic]

It seems the TSA has pulled a quick over us. They claimed the scanners would be a secondary screening tool if you didn't clear the metal detector. Clearly, they want it to be a primary tool, and they think the joke should be on us.

[SIV]

Speaking of tumblr, have y'all checked out my blog
Chicks In Their Underwear lately?

[PIP]

NSFW

[hmm]

Kinda a given isn't it?

[John David Galt]

This is the first mention I've ever seen of Tumblr or 4chan. Would someone please explain what they are, and why anyone else should care?