Reason Morning Links: DOJ vs. Assange, EU vs. Google, Comcast vs. Netflix

• DOJ considering prosecuting Julian Assange under the Espionage Act.
• Pentagon study says gays can serve without any harm to the military.
• EU launches antitrust investigation against Google.
• U.K. limits exports on drug used in U.S. lethal injection executions.
• Netflix, Comcast war over streaming movies.

Comments

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

More on Brian Aitken, the NJ man sentenced to 7 years for possessing guns he purchased and owned legally.

My nominee for "fucking idiot" quote of the day:

He also was charged with having "large capacity" magazines and hollow-point bullets, which one state gun-control advocate found troubling.

"What little I can glean about the transportation issue leaves me puzzled, but a person with common sense would not be moving illegal products from one place to another by car," said Bryan Miller, executive director of CeaseFire NJ, an organization devoted to reducing gun violence.

"Moving illegal products from one place to another"? This jackwagon needs a lesson in the difference between malum prohibitum and malum in se. Hollow points are "illegal" only because some hoplophobic, gun-fearing wussy legislators made them so about 20 years ago. Mostly because they don't understand the difference between legitimate self-defense rounds and "armor-piercing" ammunition. So the uber-citizen police are allowed to own and use HPs, but not me or thee.

Blood...boiling...

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

The good news?

A few weeks after Aitken's trial over the summer, [Judge] Morley learned that [NJ Governor] Christie was not going to reappoint him

Good fucking riddance to only one of far too many left-wing, anti-liberty NJ judges.

[Rhywun]

But it's so much easier to identify criminals when only criminals can carry guns. And cops.

[Almanian]

I hope we make carrying cops illegal, too

[mad libertarian guy]

There's a difference?

I always saw them as the same, only one set has uniforms and government authority.

[pancakes]

Guns are scary. You should respect my rights to not have to see, hear, or think about guns. These common sense laws, that you object to, were made to keep guns away from people who are scared of them. If I'm afraid of guns you should go to jail for owning them. It just makes sense.

[Mr. FIFY]

What a delightfully hilarious post, pancakes! Thanks for brightening my day.

[waffles]

that wasn't humor, pancakes really is that annoying and stupid.

[Suki]

Obama is head West Wing salad tosser Such a weightest.

[Shannon1201]

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[waffles]

This wikileaks business is simply delightful. It has all the gossip and intrigue of a smutty tabloid but the actors involved are nations. I could squeal.

Eerily enough, it lends credibility to USA foreign policy. They don't lie to us that much, and they are solidly paranoid about our allies. I feel almost relieved.

I don't think it's going to be possible to get Assange. Ecuador, and I'm sure other countries are willing to hide him. Why? I'm not sure. So far he hasn't really made the USA seem so bad, or at least not worse. I suppose Assange is anti-America, but he isn't going to convince anyone who isn't already anti-America. So more or less harmless, as of now. I like the tumult that wikileaks brings. There is no better way to make governments squirm than to tell the truth.

[John]

I really wouldn't want the US government after me. This has become a political embarrassment for BO. I think Assage is going to end up in a supermax prison before this is all over and done with.

[waffles]

I wouldn't want the feds after me either, but couldn't they become even more embarassed if they have to go to great lengths to get Assange? I imagine capturing the guy could turn into a spectacle of a clusterfuck. I don't think there is a good way to prosecute Julian, who seems more like a bond-villain everyday.

[DesigNate]

I think some Bond-villains are just misunderstood.

[Virginia]

Indefinite detention as an enemy combatant until the War on Information is won.

[Pope Jimbo]

I need a scorecard. What country is Lindsay Lohan? Who is Paris Hilton?

Will Wikileaks run a pick of Saudi Arabia getting out of a limo with their burka riding up far enough for us to see their Mecca?

[SugarFree]

to see their Mecca

Saudi Arabia's hooha is just a black cube.

[Pro Libertate]

Under the current state of affairs, doesn't Obama believe that he can send in a drone to assassinate the guy?

[waffles]

I thought that was only if he's a US citizen. Still, a predator strike in Sweden would be AWESOME.

[John Thacker]

Oh, we're drone killing non citizens too. The US citizen only made the news more because usually the courts see a distinction there.

[Pope Jimbo]

I'm sure, given the agility of the government to adapt to change, that there are countless drones writing up various memos on how they can kill/kidnap/kapture Assange. None of them will think for even a second about the stupidity of committing these dumb ideas to official government documents.

Best of all, these documents will all be included in the next Wikileaks dump.

[Slut Bunwalla]

I smell a high-grossing action movie!

Tired of Assange being a thorn in their side, the US government sends a group of robotic assassins after him. Multiple shootout sequences ensue.

At one point Assange will jump out a window backwards while firing two guns at the droids. This will be in slow-motion, of course.

[sage]

"In a world..."

[Pro Libertate]

"In a drone. . . ."

[Abdul]

Assange may find that with the diplomatic leak, he's becoming enough of a pain in the ass to wear out his anti-extradition welcome in most European countries.

Enjoy being Chavez's cabana boy, jules!

[sage]

I'll be watching the netflix thing, since I now have that and hulu on my streaming player. And I'm ready to pull the needle that is DirecTV out of my arm. I'll be saving about $75/month.

[mad libertarian guy]

I'd love to dump that bitch, but her NFL Sunday Ticket pussy is so good.

[Brett L]

I thought this was from The Onion, but apparently not. Some dude actually wrote a column championing the Harry Reid way... and wasn't talking about fecklessness, banality, or mediocrity.

[J sub D]

Pentagon study says gays can serve without any harm to the military.

A conclusion I came to around 1990 when I was still on active duty.

C'mom John McCain, do the right, moral thing for once even if it is not politically expedient.

[Abdul]

Sure, they won't harm the military. But aren't they worried that the military might harm them?

[BakedPenguin]

My friend, who served on the USS Ranger for several years in the early 80's, found out that there were many gay crew members soon after going on board. We used to go to this Irish pub after work a lot, and I remember him laughing at his naivete: "yeah, five thousand guys all at sea for three, four, five months at a time? Of course gay guys would be attracted to that. I just didn't think about it when I joined up."

He said the only problem he knew about was between one straight and one gay guy. They were actually friends. However, after one too many drinks, the gay guy started getting ideas, and came on to his friend, leading to a fight, and ending their friendship. That was the one issue he knew about from his three years of service.

[GoNavy]

I did 9 years active from the mid-70s to early 80s. While not official Navy policy, DADT was the defacto policy. In my years in the Nav & mutiple years afterwards when as a contractor I was part of a submarine squadron's staff, I know of only one case of the Navy prosecuting anyone for being gay. In that case, the reason the guys were investigated and caught had nothing to do with being gay, but with stolen drugs from the ship's dental pharmacy. NIS only nailed one sailor with stealing the drugs, but two other sailors were discharged for being gay. However, the real reason they were discharged, I assume honorably with a bad reenlistment code, was for the use of the stolen drugs. The one marine involved was allowed to stay aboard until his enlistment expired six months or so later.

[Pope Jimbo]

Net Neutrality as played out by Comcast vs Netflix:

Pro Neutrality:
Comcast is using its monopoly on actual wire going into customer's houses to add a bunch of cost to Netflix's offerings. Just coincidence that Comcast has its own crappy video on demand service.

Anti Neutrality:
If Netflix is really consuming that much bandwidth, they should pay extra. The spike is going to cost Comcast in infrastructure upgrades.

Honestly, I'm up in the air on this one.

[Brett L]

Let the market sort it out. My vote is to turn in my cable box tomorrow. I use Netflix more, and already dropped the Comcast internet because it was useless during certain parts of the day.

[rbenchley]

Comcast is a horrible, shitty company, but I have to reluctantly side with them on this one. If Netflix accounts for 20% of web traffic in North America during peak usage hours, it's not unreasonable for them to have to pay extra.

[Brett L]

What are the Comcast subscribers paying for?

[tkwelge]

It doesn't matter what they think they are paying for. What matters is that it is Comcast's network.

[mad libertarian guy]

What matters mire is that Comcast is very likely the only viable ISP for most of its subscibers.

I see those guys as lucky. My only viable alternative is fucking Windstream.

[subscriber]

We're paying for Comcast to be really shitty at a lot of different businesses instead of being really good at getting data to our houses.

[gaijin]

I agree the market should sort it out...unfortunately, regulators won't tolerate the time. Netflix should not be able to discount it's price by shifting the cost to the infrastructure provider.

It's a bit like someone using your house to throw a party...they get all the benefit, you bear the cleanup costs.

[mad libertarian guy]

Sort of.

In this case, that house party happened in a house that rents itself out for house parties.

[Optimist Prime]

What is actually happening: Comcast and Level 3, like essentially every other pair of ISPs on the planet, have a "peering" agreement that gives them access to each others' networks. Now that Level 3 has signed a deal with Netflix to deliver streaming video, their traffic will constitute a disproportionate amount of the bandwidth on Comcast's tubes. According to the terms of their contract with Comcast, they are now required to renegotiate. Comcast said, "you're pushing more traffic, so we'd like you to pay more". Level 3 said, "fuck you, we're going to put out a press release that ties this into the net neutrality debate, and let uninformed end-users fight our battle for us."

[db]

http://news.google.com/news/i?.....;q=picasso

271 previously unknown Picasso works revealed by his former electrician, who claims they were gifts from the master. Predictably, the Picasso estate has enlisted the French police to confiscate the works.

[The Gobbler]

I believe they were stolen for two reasons:

1. There's just so many of them.

2. All these years he has kept them hidden and uninsured.

[db]

Yeah, I'm not sure who's in the right here. Looking at the guy and his situation, he doesn't look like he stole them. He could have been fencing them slowly all these years...it's not like there isn't a real market for that kind of thing. Why reveal a large chunk of them now, decades later, when it would be likely that he'd lose them and be prosecuted if he didn't believe they were legitimately his?

Some people don't think about insuring that kind of thing. We'd call them idiots, but there are people like that out there.

[SugarFree]

Picasso was well known for paying off his bar tab with tossed off sketches. It's not inconceivable that this was the case here.

[Abdul]

The ceiling fan job will be one charcol drawing, but re-wiring the pool house for a hot tub will take an oil on 4x8 canvas.

[SugarFree]

I'm paying my next cable bill with Comcast/Netflix slash porn.

[wylie]

re-wiring the pool house for a hot tub will take an oil on 4x8 canvas.

Mostly for materials (new breaker, wire, cut-off box, etc.)

[SIV]

That stuff is waaay better than napkin sketches. If the estate (or anyone else) can't prove ownership the stuff should belong to the electrician.

[Colonel_Angus]

Or ordered destroyed. Hahahahaha.

[Brett L]

Economists' models don't reflect reality

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

I am SHOCKED!! Shocked, I say! And, uh... oh yeah, OUTRAGED!! Do you hear?

[Kolohe]

Not really, because you are supressing it, although just barely.

[Almanian]

lol

[Mike M.]

It's no more possible to come up with a fully accurate and complete model of a major national economy than it is to come up with a fully accurate and complete model of the global climate. The system has too many variables and is too chaotic.

The idea that economics is a true science is a self-indulgent fantasy put forth by economists.

[Almanian]

BLASPHEMER! HERETIC! RECANT, OR I SHALL LOOSE THE HOUNDS OF PAULY KRUGNUTS ON YOU AND YOUR KIN!!!

Now, whether that's Big Gummint Pauly Hounds or REALLY BIG Gummint Pauly Hounds all depends on who's in office when the hounds reach your place, so be prepared for either type...

[John Thacker]

It's mostly non-academic economists who believe that economics is about fully accurate and complete models. Except for Ray Fair of Yale.

[db]

Where do you live, that hollow points are banned? New Jersey? Come on over to the right side of the border. PA's very firearms friendly.

[db]

Meant as a reply to BSR above.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

I no longer live in NJ, for many reasons, of which this kind of jackassery is merely one.

But yes, NJ has the most onerous, burdensome and nonsensical gun control laws in the country. They have the most comprehensive "assault weapons" ban of any state (to my knowledge), they ban "high capacity" magazines as well as hollow points, and the state law as written can be intpreted to ban handing a gun to another person without registering it as a "transfer of possession".

You have to obtain a state license merely to be allowed to purchase a firearm - and that includes BB guns. Forget about getting a permit to carry - and I don't mean just to carry concealed; to carry at all.

The NJ government and legal system is no friend to individual liberties, let there be no doubt.

At least when it comes to firearms regulation, VA, where I now live, is far better.

[BakedPenguin]

Good thing that there's no crime in New Jersey so people don't need guns.

The Aitken judge should be forced to walk through Camden unescorted at 2 AM.

[Almanian]

I just bought a box of hollowpoints last weekend by accident. Wanted 4 boxes of 9mm FMJ for target practice, they handed me 1 box of hollowpoints inadvertantly with the others....

I guess I like the idea that I can buy hollowpoints "by accident" when people are getting thrown in jail in other states JUST FOR FUCKING HAVING THEM AT ALL!!!!

For now. Till the inevitable Federal Law? gets passed....shit, now I'm all depressed...

[SugarFree]

Hobbit racism

[pancakes]

I've never seen a black hobbit, or any hobbit.

[Rich]

A hobbit comments here occasionally. That ought to count for *something*.

[wylie]

That's a "hobbie" not a "hobbit."

[BakedPenguin]

They didn't cast any white people in Boyz n the Hood, IIRC. Was that racist? Would it be racist to cast a Pakistani or Indian fairy tale / mythological tale with all Southern Asians?

[SugarFree]

You mean like Little Buddha starring Keanu Reeves?

[BakedPenguin]

I thought that was Aqua Buddha, where Keanu played a doctor who went on to become a senator.

[waffles]

Don't give Oliver Stone any ideas!

[The Gobbler]

What about David Carridine (sp?) in Kung Foo?

[BakedPenguin]

That was total bullshit. Bruce Lee should have gotten that role.

[Brett L]

I thought the deal was that he was half-white but raised by his Chinese grandfather. Did I just make up that back-story because it made more sense?

[BakedPenguin]

They made up that back story because it allowed them to put a white guy in a kung-fu TV show instead of a Chinese guy they thought might scare off viewers.

[Pope Jimbo]

Do you think the black hobbits try to straighten the curly hair on their toes so they can "pass"?

[Ska]

That looks like one more Jezebel link I'm disappointed I can't access.

Has anyone in the thread mentioned that in Tolkien's utopia there are no black folks, but there are plenty of Orcs? I don't think he could have been more obvious with the implication made.

[SugarFree]

Naz Humphreys stood in a line for three hours in Hamilton, New Zealand, hoping to be in the new Hobbit movie. When she finally got to the casting director, he basically told her that her skin was the wrong color.

According to reports, Humphreys, a Brit with Pakistani heritage, is fairly short ? under five feet tall. She thought she'd make the perfect extra. Instead, someone in the casting department of the film told people at the audition: "We are looking for light-skinned people. I'm not trying to be... whatever. It's just the brief. You've got to look like a hobbit."

In a way, it seems fairly silly to have strict rules about depicting imaginary beings ? especially in a story that includes orcs, elves and dragons. If your world is an unreal fantasy, why not make it inclusive instead of exclusionary?

____
And, by the way, this is a fedora.

[Ska]

No white band? I'm sorry, without the white band it's just exclusionary and racist.

If we're going to portray a fantasy world where I'm a hippie banging ska band fuckstick, why not make it inclusive instead of exclusionary?

[The Gobbler]

And, by the way, this is an extremely cheap/crappy fedora.

FIFY

[mad libertarian guy]

What's funny is that when Tolkien invented Hobbits, he did in reverence to the . . . wait for it . . .

country folk of Kentucky!!! He admired the connection and devotion that we have for our land.

Yeah for the Bluegrass! Tolkien thinks we're fucking Hobbits.

And yes, I can verify this claim, but right now I'm too lazy to dig it out of the library.

[Azathoth]

Well, seeing as how it's a proto-Europe, I'm not surprised that there are no black people.

Orcs aren't people--they're messed up elves.

Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron and the balrog are all the same 'race'.

[wylie]

From Robert Downey, Jr. in black face for Tropic Thunder...

Wow, way to miss a joke, morons.

[wylie]

But you'd think a modern interpretation of a made-up story ? one that generates millions of dollars, world-wide ? would have no problem with modern (i.e. diverse) ideas about casting

Gee, you'd think, except the audiences don't seem to care...so, ummm, yeah.

[Abdul]

Not only racist, also anti-semetic. You never see hobbit accountants, lawyers, agents to hobbit celebrities. . .

[Slut Bunwalla]

while the bad guys are dark-skinned.

Hmm. Saruman, Wormtongue, and Gollum were all quite, quite pale. Sauron always armor on as far as I recall so we don't know what color he was. And the orcs were pretty far-removed from human, and were sort of greenish-white, weren't they?

Hollywood has some bizarre ideas about what's appropriate: From Robert Downey, Jr. in black face for Tropic Thunder

Uh, the entire point of that was that it was inappropriate. That was kind of the joke there.

[BakedPenguin]

Uh, the entire point of that was that it was inappropriate. That was kind of the joke there.

That, and that he was the kind of actor who got so 'involved' in his character, he became a mirror for all the stereotypes of blacks he'd been exposed to.

[John Thacker]

People missed the whole "full retard" thing as well, when the joke was a satirization of the manipulative and cynical way that Hollywood treats mental issues and awards Oscars.

[BakedPenguin]

The Kids in the Hall great skit had a about that.

[Yoda]

Great skit had they, yes.

[J sub D]

Harry Reid? The craven politician who came out against the Park 51 Community Center because he was in a close election and he thought pandering to bigots would help get him re-elected?

[mad libertarian guy]

Mosquerbating again?

[Barack Obama]

"To the extent there are gaps in our laws," Holder continued, "we will move to close those gaps, which is not to say . . . that anybody at this point, because of their citizenship or their residence, is not a target or a subject of an investigation that's ongoing."

Let me be clear.

Eric, you're doing a heck of a job!

[Mango Punch]

NYTimes: Just Tidbits, or Material Facts for Insider Trading

[Mango Punch]

Above linked is on how BS the insider trading cases are.

[P Brooks]

Under the current state of affairs, doesn't Obama believe that he can send in a drone to assassinate the guy?

Apparently he's in London. I say, nuke the place, and pin it on Iran. Win!

[Almanian]

...pin it on Iran North Korea. Win!

FIFY

[John Thacker]

Holder was asked Monday how the United States could prosecute Assange, who is an Australian citizen. "Let me be very clear," he replied. "It is not saber rattling.

"To the extent there are gaps in our laws," Holder continued, "we will move to close those gaps, which is not to say . . . that anybody at this point, because of their citizenship or their residence, is not a target or a subject of an investigation that's ongoing." He did not indicate that Assange is being investigated for possible violations of the Espionage Act.

Ah, I love the "let me be clear." He uses it just like his boss, when he's going to say something that isn't clear at all.

[Eric Holder]

I bless the day I found you
I want to stay around you
And so I beg you, let it be me

Don't take this heaven from one
If you must cling to someone
Now and forever, let me be clear.

[The Gobbler]

BTW, I named recently my cock Eric, so that at least a few times a day I can refer to myself as that Eric holder guy.

[cynical]

Maybe someone should remind him about the whole "ex post facto" thing in that archaic "Constitution" thing.

[SugarFree]

Brad DeLong teaches economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

He hopes one day to be the Chair of the Deranged Bullshit Department.

[Brett L]

He'll have to do better than that at UC Berkeley. This is merely mid-pack character assassination by association. But also completely deranged bullshit.

[Mike Laursen]

He'll, wasn't Geoge C. Patton gay? In the movie he goes on about the fabulous tank crew uniforms he designed. And isn't there a scene where he kisses a soldier on the mouth?

[R C Dean]

I, too, am mystified about how acts committed on foreign soil by someone who is not a US citizen can violate US law. Where's the jurisdiction, again?

And, of course, if there is actually a "loophole" in US law that means we don't have jurisdiction over anything done by anyone, anywhere, the "fix" should do nothing to allow a prosecution of Assange for anything he does prior to the fix going into effect. You can't (alright, shouldn't) be held criminally liable for something that was legal when and where it was done.

[John]

So if a Swiss citizen in Sweden hacks into a US bank and steals a few million, you don't think he has violated US law? I think he has.

[wylie]

Except the US bank is probably running its site on a server located in the US.

[John]

So what?

[Ska]

If you were to commit computer fraud against a Bank of America in Spain, don't you think you'd be prosecuted by Spaniards under Spanish law?

[Colonel_Angus]

No. Spanish are dicks.

[wylie]

So, If a Swede hacks into a US bank operating on US soil, then, yes, he has obviously committed a crime in the US. How your example is in any way a retort to RC's post is what confuses me.

[SugarFree]

Spain bans excessively sticky chewing gum

Spanish lawmakers have come up with an ingenious way to save local governments money: Make chewing gum less sticky. Local councils have apparently been complaining that gummed-up sidewalks cost too much to scrub, so the Spanish cabinet has ruled that all gum in the country must now use a less-sticky copolymer of vinyl acetate and vinyl laurate as a base, the Guardian reports

___

Sounds delicious. Too bad it's a known carcinogen.

[wylie]

Holy shit. This is the 1st step towards my dream of chewing gum being prohibited, wooo!

[The Gobbler]

I'm with you. They make it sweet and tasty so the kids will take it up. And because they are young, kids think they are invincible, thinking that tooth decay will never happen to them.

[The Gobbler]

The government should force the gum companies to put warnings on each pack with a pacture of some real serious tooth decay:

http://www.intellectualdisabil.....cture3.jpg

[wylie]

Keep fighting the good fight, Gobbler.

Also, I heard that you can get gum stuck in your hair if someone is chewing it around you. Second Hand Gum, that's right folks, you heard it here.

[Almanian]

I believe the technical term is "ABC Gum".

At least that's what I was told when I was a kid...

[wylie]

Great the kids already have a bunch of gum-related slang. "ABC Gum", "Mary Bubble", "The Sticky Icky"...wait, that last one might not be about gum...

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Not only that - just try making a chewing gum with caffiene in it - or worse yet, alcohol!!

[P Brooks]

Investors use multiple tidbits of nonpublic information from various sources to build a "mosaic" to try to get an edge on other investors. For better or worse, that is what passes as "research" in the finance world.
-from Mango Punch's link

What the fuck? Doing a little independent spade work, instead of merely regurgitating company press releases, now somehow constitutes "insider trading"?

Apparently, my (nicely profitable) investment in Best Buy many years ago (after walking into one of their stores for the first time and seeing lots and lots of customers in line at the checkout stands) constituted taking illicit advantage over all the dumb fucks who couldn't/ didn't see what I saw?

[Pope Jimbo]

I did a consulting stint at BB years ago. I think their stock was at $13 or something. After a week or so there, they warned us that buying stock in the company could get us in hot water (because of some of the info we were privy to.)

All I could think of at the time was "Really? You'd have to pay me to take this stock." They were being horribly managed at the time. Of course since then, their stock has taken off, split a couple of times and made me cry when I thought about it.

Financial acumen like that is why I have to type my own comments here instead of having a manservant do it for me.

[wylie]

and made me cry when I thought about it.

Yeah, but think about how much you'd be crying if you were in PMITAprison for your Evil Greedy Insider Trading deeds had you bought-in. Silver linings...

[Pope Jimbo]

Looking back at it, I think I would have flown under the radar. I didn't have all that much to invest back then.

It wouldn't be like Superman 2 where I showed up at work in a fancy car. Given the amount of discretionary income I had, I would have shown up in a slightly less used mini van.

[Brett L]

FPS tech comes to real life.

[wylie]

Chicken or the Egg: do game designers actually make fake weapons with the same design strategies as real arms manufacturers or are the mfgers copying from games?

[SugarFree]

The Zap Gun by Philip K. Dick: Weapon fashion designers dream up terror tech, but they are too costly to mass produce, so they film one being used and press release it to keep MAD going.

[wylie]

btw, The Brood was pretty creepy, in a wonderfully cheesy way.

[SugarFree]

Glad you liked it. Have you seen Rabid or The Came From Within.

Rabid has a plastic surgery disaster armpit penis-fang, if you were wondering.

[wylie]

if you were wondering

Strangely enough, I was...

[Ewwwwwwwwwwww]

!!

[Ska]

Yeah...but...but...One Man Army with noob tubes is cheap!

[Pope Jimbo]

I love how the guy goes on and on about how his squad can hide behind a wall and shoot to kill the bad guys who are hiding behind their wall.

Um, aren't they going to have this same weapon too? Sure there might be a lag, but it won't be all that long before the Afghans have this rifle too.

Also, I'm always suspicious about any claims that a weapon is so easy that any knothead can use it. The USMC still emphasizes marksmanship over and over again for a reason.

[Brett L]

Somebody thinks we're going to be fighting dirt farmers without an industrial base or a first-world sponsor for a long time.

[wylie]

Well, Iran and Syria ARE full of dirt-farmers, aren't they?

[Brett L]

Meanwhile the Chinese are probably readying Project Thor, which also has little use for walls.

[wylie]

As long as America is the 1st to workout Induced Gamma Emission, thereby enabling kickass projected energy weapons, we'll be fine.

[Pope Jimbo]

It isn't even like the Taliban has to make these weapons themselves. They can steal them, or take them off dead bodies, or even buy them from the corrupt Afghan police.

[R C Dean]

Um, aren't they going to have this same weapon too?

I'm sure our guys will take a few shots from captured ones, but without the ammo and the batteries, these things are just paperweights*. My guess is we'll have a hell of a hard time keeping ours operating, much less leaving enough ammo and batteries scattered around the hinterland to keep strays operating, too.

*Ugly paperweights, I might add. If I got issued one of these, the first thing I'd do is put some flaming skull decals on it. And maybe an obscene slogan or two.

[SugarFree]

So you are saying that I should gather up all the 25mm ammo and fission batteries I can find?

[Warty]

25mm ammo is useless after you find the unique 40mm grenade machinegun, but I'm not surprised that someone like you still has a use for it. You disgust me.

[Ska]

Nah, you should find the unique 40mm grenade machine gun named Mercy. You will have to face about 20 deathclaws, including the Legendary Deathclaw (which is about twice the size of a standard adult DC), as well as an Alpha and Queen. But it's a pretty ridiculous weapon to have.

I want to say it's in Blood Borne cave, but I'm not 100% sure. Those locations start to get confusing 115 hours into the game.

[SugarFree]

No Bloodbourne has Nightstalkers and the 12.7mm Pistol and SMG. Dead Wind Cavern has Mercy and the LDC.

I fucked up the LDC. I shot him in the head with the Anti-Material Rifle for a sneak attack critical and then let him run into a ring of 6 C-4 charges and used the detonator. Still took two head shots with Alien Blaster to kill the fucker.

[cynical]

Dead Wind Cavern.

[mad libertarian guy]

Knowing how use to a weapon != marksmanship

[COMMANDER waffles]

bah, this shit is so imba you know they're just going to camp out at the spawn points.

[waffles]

The military isn't overly concerned that the weapon might be captured by the enemy, because they would be unable to obtain its highly specialized ammunition, batteries and other components.

So we're the covenant?

[Wind Rider]

Local podunk cops are probably not needing their viagra to achieve priapism over the thought of getting some of these for their SWAT teams to use against the local canine population at 2am. . .

[waffles]

can you say exploding dog?

[Wind Rider]

That would be Max.

[Max]

ARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARF!!!!!!!!!!1

BOOM!

[Brett L]

Boca terrorized by violent otter. Goddam, I love Florida and our crazy wildlife.

[Wind Rider]

Probably because of that frat bunch he hung around with in college.

[Shocked]

Probably got into some discarded 4 Loko.

[P Brooks]

Speaking of "information not readily processable by the average investor dimwit":

My observation of a SINGLE KMart store over a roughly four year period makes me wonder if a turnaround is in progress (I don't even know what Sears Holdings trades for currently). The place is MUCH cleaner, the shelves are in better order, and the lighting and overall ambience have greatly improved in the past two years or so.

It's possible that this is the work of a single rogue store manager who decided maybe it would be better if his customers didn't want to kill themselves before they made it ten paces through the door, or maybe it's a chain-wide phenomenon.

Whats-his-name originally bought KMart for the real estate; things being as they are, maybe he decided, as long as he's stuck with the business, he might as well try to do something with it.

[John]

there is an opening there. Wall Mart has never been the same since the old man Walton died. The idiot sons and coporate types just don't run as good a store.

[Virginia]

TJ Maxx going a different route, or always been that way - analysts can't tell.

[P Brooks]

I want all you people to go to KMart today and investigate; report your findings to me here.

[Citizen Nothing]

You got it, cap'n. In my experience here in central Ohio, KMart is always cleaner and friendlier than Wal-Mart.
I hope you profit from my vast knowledge.

[Eric Holder]

Arrest this man! And P Brooks!

Insider trading, you know...

[Shocked]

Except for the Grove City versions. Not sure how that Grove City KMart even survives.

[R C Dean]

So if a Swiss citizen in Sweden hacks into a US bank

How this has any relevance to someone receiving leaked documents is a mystery to me.

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

Thanks