Reason Morning Links: Egypt Protests Continue, Protests in Yemen Too, GOP Wants More Immigration Raids

• Egypt protests enter third day. Obama privately pressuring Mubarak. 
• Protests in Yemen, too.
• Congressional projections find Social Security trust fund will be empty by 2037.
• NY Times Editor Bill Keller dishes on Julian Assange.
• Gay rights activist murdered in Uganda.
• GOP House leaders want more immigration raids.

Comments

[United States Congress]

Congressional projections find Social Security trust fund will be empty by 2037.

Well, that's certainly good news! Only half of our current members will still hold their seats by then. The rest of us won't have to deal with it.

[Restoras]

Funny thing is, it's already empty.

[Irresponsible Hater]

That's what I don't understand. I can see how the program can spend more than it takes in: that milestone (millstone?) is just a few years off (thought didn't it "unexpectedly" jump ahead of schedule recently?)

But in what sense can it be "empty"? Does anyone even pretend that there's a vault or something? What's going to be empty? And whatever it is, is there some hard mathematical reality at work that assures it won't happen ahead of schedule? End games don't usually go per plan.

[Irresponsible Hater]

damn, i must have missed the news - its already officially in the red. that was ahead of schedule.

[Fist of Etiquette]

GOP House leaders want more immigration raids.

Good thing those don't cost the taxpayers a dime.

[Brett L]

At least we know why they cancelled the border fence now.

[rather]

The link between protest and social networking is more than fascinating; from dating sites to revolution-incredible

[rather]

The link between the number of cocks i've had in me recently and the amount of genital warts i have is more than fascinating. READ MY BLOG.

[Rather]

fuck of helle. Don't you have mice to kill today? I'm curious about your procedure; do you line them up in rows and call out names? How do you punish the others if one is caught escaping? OMG, what do you do with the pretty mice?

[Uh-Huh]

Rather|1.26.11 @ 11:16AM|#
I HATE YOU ALL! I'M NEVER POSTING HERE AGAIN!

[Rahter]

sloopyinca, you obviously need a quick primer on H&R posts and life:
Size matters
Epi is a pig
I will never fuck Helle
That ain't me posting

[Rather]

fuck off, helle. Stop spoofing me. At least you could spell the handle you are spoofing me under correctly. Does anyone think that "Rahter" is anything other than a spoof?

This really is the last time I'm posting here. FUCK OFF SPOOFERS!

[Nobody]

Please don't go!

[Rather]

OK, Nobody. You have convinced me to stay and comment here forever.

Read my blog! I just updated my profile picture! Sexy!

[Rather]

117 hits overnight-keep posting spoofers. I'm taking bubble bath and I promise to read and grade your work when I get out.

[Walt Kowalski]

So, 117 people overnight accidentally linked to your blog when they were searching for rectal fisting. but got too excited and hit the send button early.

I bet your rotting corpse of a father would have been proud.

[sloopyinca]

So, 117 people overnight accidentally linked to your blog when they were searching for rectal fisting. but got too excited and hit the send button early.

I bet your rotting corpse of a father would have been proud.

[Rather]

I'm glad you posted under two of your personalities; your mother Sybil would be proud

[sloopyinca]

Why did you change it? I went to your archive and found your old one.

[sloopyinca]

Maybe we should blame your dad (may he rot in peace). They say these traits are passed from generation to generation.

[Old Mexican]

GOP House leaders want more immigration raids.

They're fun to watch on the tube, with popcorn and a coke...

[Brett L]

"Congressional projections find Social Security trust fund will be empty by 2037.

Isn't this, in reality, $3T-$5T of our debt? Or is that not included in the current debt? In any case, since its just IOUs because we never implemented Algore's "Lock. Box", that should technically be good budgetary news in a way, right? Or at least remove the lie that SS isn't just a giant current account transfer payment?

[Isaac Bartram]

I'm pretty sure that all Gore's "lockbox" was was a requirement that the SS revenue that was turned over to the Treasury was to be used in paying off debt. IOW the government had to run a surplus atleast as big as the surplus FICA reevenues.

This, of course would have done nothing to reduce actual debt, just the privately held part.

And the SS "Trust Fund" would have still consisted of "bonds" that could only be redeemed by either taking money from general revenues or borrowwing it.

[Mo]

About half of the total national debt is intra-government holdings (primarily the SS trust fund).

[Old Mexican]

Congressional projections find Social Security trust fund will be empty by 2037.

Meaning, it will no longer contain pieces of paper with promises to pay - none, all gone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSXbgfKFWg

[Old Mexican]

Gay rights activist murdered in Uganda[...]

... of all places a gay activist could go.

[Mister DNA]

No homo.

[sloopyinca]

But we can still yell RACIST!!!

[Mr Whipple]

They grow 'em big, over there.

[Ice Nine]

Yeah, and absolutely brimming with HIV virons. What a treat!

[MNG]

The possible prelude to change in Egypt is promising, the anti-gay crusades in Uganda sad.

[Sovereign Immunity]

Hosni needs to go. Most Coptics would probably agree, provided they have been paying their dhimmi tax.

[Jerry]

Except the military in Egypt doesn't support the protests. Probably because they are afraid to lose the American cookie jar.

[Brett L]

I also stand ready to assume power if called.

[Old Mexican]

Obama privately pressuring Mubarak.

Under candlelight and mood music...

Ewwwwww!

[MNG]

OK, that is funny. +1 to OM

[Brett L]

Jeebus, did the Agave Grower's Council hire the corn and sugar guys' PR people?

"Agave can be used for a great many things, including, perhaps most famously, tequila. Turns out it makes a mighty fine fuel feedstock, too."

I say, they've already threatened our whiskey and tortilla stock, we must not allow them to threaten our tequila!

[MNG]

Congress' Progressive Champion and Resident Elf Sues House Cafeteria Over Dangerous Sandwich

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap.....76329.html

[MNG]

Am I the only one slightly disturbed by the images the phrase "congresssional projections" conjures up?

[SugarFree]

I love it when you talk dirty.

[Mark Gerard Miller]

I know who you are.

We will have dealings soon.

[SugarFree]

Bilderberg is preventing me from posting scans of a box of Sofn'free N'pretty Relaxer for "The Big Girl Step to Happier Hair Days." God said there's a way to post more than one photo at a time on Facebook, but God says I'm not allowed to by the Bildershit. Nazis are micropenis Adolf Hitler nigger bitches who torture babies, eat shit, pick noses, then blame their vicious, evil, twisted crimes on me while I fight them.

I AM THE BILDERBERG!

[Marshall Gill]

What, no fisting?

[Marshall Gill]

Anonymous said...

At one of the libraries you frequent, there's a librarian named Jay. Has a neck beard, pleasantly chubby. He's an undercover Nazi agent assigned to surveil you.

SMITE HIM WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!
January 14, 2011 10:31 AM

Science, Nutra-Sweet, someone here has really got it out for you!

[SugarFree]

It was always my dream to be hated, Marshall. At least I'll die fulfilled.

[Congressional Staffer]

Not by a long shot pal!!!!

[Tim]

That's a hateful gun related metaphor!

[CoyoteBlue]

What is your state gun?
Utah goes for the Browning M1911 rather than the much sexier BAR.
Silly mormons.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/S.....-have-one.

[Brett L]

From the Department of Unfortunate Names:

"Steve Gunn, a board member of the Gun Violence Prevention Center"

Do you think the foundation is dedicated to preventing Mr. Gunn from doing violence or preventing violence done to him?

[Chinny Chin Chin]

I'm pulling for my state, Maine, to adopt the following:

State gun: blunderbuss
State edged weapon: scallop knife
State blunt force weapon: ice chunk
State weapon of mass destruction: red tide

[Ice Nine]

Rail gun. End of discussion.

[Brett L]

I will definitely raise a monument to the man who brings the railgun to the average enthusiast.

[Ice Nine]

Hey, they used to scoff at Dick Tracy's wrist radio too.

[The Terminator]

Phased-plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

[db]

Hey, pal, just what you see.

[sloopyinca]

Phased-plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

If the current EPA has their way, future Terminators will have to make do with the 25-watt version.

[Nor West]

Would that be one o' them "high speed rail" guns?

[Chinny Chin Chin]

I've just learned that Hiram Maxim was born in Maine. Blunderbuss is fun to say, but honoring 'ol Hiram takes precedence. Changing desired state gun to: Maxim machine gun

[Tim]

Hudson: I'm ready, man, check it out. I am the ultimate badass! State of the badass art! You do NOT wanna fuck with me. Check it out! Hey Ripley, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you! Check it out! Independently targeting particle beam phalanx. Vwap! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got tactical smart missiles, phase-plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks...

[Stretch]

"Critics: A state symbol that 'kills innocent people'?
But not everyone in Utah is keen to single out a gun as something that symbolizes the Beehive State."

I'm sure all the people killed by bees every year are guilty of something.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_....._each_year

[Citizen Nothing]

A state symbol that 'kills innocent people'

What's the rifle the firing squad used to kill Gary Gilmore? They could make that the state gun.

[Ice Nine]

OK, Let's do it!

[The Ghost of Gary Gilmore]

+1

[D'oh]

A state symbol that 'kills innocent people .. but wait, cops don't use 1911's..??

[scrat]

For John, with love:

http://www.slate.com/id/2282666/

On Tuesday you had to follow him almost to the end of his speech to even hear the word invoked. When he did get around to mentioning the nation's founding document, Obama used it as a mere rhetorical foil: "We may have differences in policy," he conceded. "But we all believe in the rights enshrined in our Constitution."

Well, yeah, OK, no controversy there. Rights are nice. But by expending less energy defending the Constitution than rehashing the space race, the president missed yet another opportunity to reclaim the document for reason. The whole enterprise of constitutional interpretation still belongs to the crazy.

[Mr. FIFY]

Of course, when Obama speaks of rights, he still sneers when he says the phrase negative rights.

[hurly buehrle]

Drink?

[The feds]

New York City officially has its snowiest month of January on record; Al Gore's whereabouts still unknown.

[Spur]

Snow and climate change of course being mutually exclusive...

[Brett L]

I don't think it was the 'denialists' who promoted the link between unseasonably hot weather and climate change.

[Zeb]

No, but plenty of "denialists" like to point to snowy winters as weakening the global warming position, which is just as dumb. We don't know shit about how climate works either way.

[sloopyinca]

We don't know shit about how climate works either way.

But we should legislate as if we do!!! How else am I gonna cash in on all those CCX credits I bought from Algor and Generation Investment Management?

[Brett L]

Mostly we like to rub their nose in the fact that they got caught making a prediction that was, in fact, false. In most sciences when the prediction is false, the hypothesis is disproven. Except psiences like climate change research. I remain skeptical of net human CO2 production as the primary forcing agent of the climate. One of the reasons why is that the current models have NO PREDICTIVE VALUE.

[hurly buehrle]

We don't know shit about how climate works either way.

But, but . . . the science is settled!

This is kind of the problem. For a scientific theory to be worth anything, it needs to generate testable predictions. As in, "introducing factor A causes result B". When all the carbon emissions from industry, cars, etc. don't predictably lead to hotter, drier weather, you either (a) conclude that the mechanism is more complicated than you first thought, and back away from your predictions, or (b) claim that colder, wetter weather is also somehow consistent with your theory, and hope that no one notices that a theory predicting that A predicts both B and not-B is total horseshit.

[Jerry]

Tell that to the Brits!
Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past

[Old Mexican]

But that's why it was "decided" to call it "Climate Change" - CLIMATE CHANGE, so the prognosticators of doom would not embarrass themselves like that anymore.

[SugarFree]

The new one making the round in Europe is "climate chaos." "Change" didn't monger enough fear, apparently.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Well, are we talking chaotic good, chaotic neutral, or...?

[SugarFree]

"Chaotic evil" is just what sissies call a person how doesn't want to live by their arbitrary rules.

[Brett L]

Hey look another neglected parameter in one of the key tenets of ACC (Anthropic Climate Change).

"The debris cover has the opposite effect of soot and dust on glaciers. Debris coverage thickness above 2 centimeters, or about a half an inch, 'shields' the glacier and prevents melting. This is the case for many Himalayan glaciers that are surrounded by towering mountains that almost continuously shed pebbles, debris, and rocks onto the glacier."

[SPCA]

Oodles of Poodles here.

[Al Gore]

Plow this!

[Montani Semper Liberi]

So what are the odds that the revolution in Egypt is co-opted by Muslim extremists and turns Egypt into a Sunni Iran?

[Enough About Palin]

^^THIS^^

[Spoonman.]

A president with any balls or principles would announce that Egypt must negotiate with opposition leaders and hold free elections or have its hand slapped out of the cookie jar.

But since when has Obama had balls or principles?

[Tim]

Note to Media Matters: Spoonman is not actually calling for the slapping of the President's balls.

[SugarFree]

I will.

[Tim]

You won't be happy until we're all in jail...

[SugarFree]

S&M isn't assault. I just don't want to have to do the slapping. There a certain fat-bottomed blogwhore that I am sure would be happy to oblige.

[Blogwhores Union]

Not without our blessing! We don't take kindly to scabs, unless track marks and staph infections are involved. It's a pre-req.

[SugarFree]

Goddamn unions.

[Shocked]

Damn it. Quit making me laugh at my desk while I'm supposed to be working!

[Spoonman.]

I wasn't, there, but that doesn't mean I'm against Obama getting nut-punched every time he does something awful.

[Michelle Obama]

Get in line.

[Ice Nine]

Y'know, I'm cool with gay rights and all that but could we pleeease strike the annoying "LGBT community" from the lexicon??

[LGBT Community]

Identity politics breeds balkanization.

What could be more American than that?

And that will enough of that "hateful and divisive" speech, thweety...

[Slut Bunwalla]

There's supposed to be a "Q" in there somewhere too, you know. I mean, I feel like all those letters pretty much cover the available options, but apparently there is something else called queer that denotes, um...something. I don't know. The feminists have not to my knowledge ever made very clear what queer is.

[sloopyinca]

If we've got to use identity politics, which I abhor, then can't they just go with "gay?" I mean, aren't lesbians gay? Aren't bisexuals gay (to enough of a degree that the term fits)? And since transgendered has absolutely nothing to do with one's sexual orientation, they need to be left out of this identity group altogether. It would be akin to the MBMFF Community being representative of Militant Black Muslims and Foot Fetishists. They don't fit together.

Just an observation.

[Slut Bunwalla]

I think feminists would make that exact same argument against just calling them all gay.

Not that I give a shit. It just amuses me.

[Zeb]

I hate anything being called "the ___ community" as if being gay, black, whatever, is the only important characteristic that defines who people are and what their interests are. Fuck identity politics.

[generic Brand]

But identity politics are why we are graced with America's first black president!

[sloopyinca]

RAAA.....

Aw, shit. You're right.

[Mike Laursen]

Hmm, whether there's all that much evidence or not for it, journalists are now going to state that social networking played a major role in every riot that occurs anywhere.

[R C Dean]

Congressional projections find Social Security trust fund will be empty by 2037.

Utterly meaningless, of course. SocSec will be paid by SocSec taxes plus any general revenue needed to make up a shortfall, regardless of whether there are any bookkeeping entries in the "trust" "fund".

[Xenocles]

Rand Paul apparently has a plan to cut ~$500B. I have to say I like a lot of this with the understanding that it's a good start, not a good endstate. Also with the understanding that it's almost a complete flight of fancy.

[robc]

Article on it yesterday. Way to show up late to the party.

[Xenocles]

Guess I'll go kill myself.

[Brett L]

Ritual mutilation is probably sufficient. Along with reading all 300 comments on yesterday's thread.

[robc]

It was much shorter with incif.

Idiotic Tony subthreads nicely missing.

[Brett L]

Chained to IE at work. FML.

[Xenocles]

Working on it now. I tend to miss out on the fun because they don't like us reading blogs at work.

[SugarFree]

Wow. Call off your dogs, robc. Of course he's late... he's all the way at the far end of the alphabet.

[Old Mexican]

Xenocles was the greek hero of procastination.

[passivatedObserver]

Well, he will be once he gets around to it.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Awesome.

[P Brooks]

Along with reading all 300 comments on yesterday's thread.

Trust me, Xeones, suicide is the way to go.

[P Brooks]

Xeones, Xenocles... it's all Greek to me.

[Clich? Bandit]

I haven't seen xeones in a while...so for old times sake:

YO, Fuck a earlier blog post.

[GOP Landshark]

GOP House leaders want more immigration raids

Tacogram.

[SugarFree]

Mummy fried - woman sets fire to house while trying to reanimate long-dead sister

A night fire in an apartment block has been caused by a woman who tried to reanimate her long-dead elder sister with electricity. The horrific story happened in Ekaterinburg, the biggest city in the Urals. The suspected arsonist, 69, apparently was not completely of sound mind, judging by her mental health record.

A year ago, her 73-year-old sister died from natural causes, prosecutors told Noviy Region news agency. However, instead of reporting the death, the woman preserved the body with gasoline and had been trying the reanimate it ever since. Her last macabre experiment on Tuesday night involved "jump starting" the mummified corpse with two wires connecting the body's hand and neck to the mains.

Despite what Frankenstein movies suggest, the electric current did not revive the body, instead setting it on fire. The surviving sister is now in hospital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.

[Brett L]

"Frankensteen!"

Also, everyone knows the electrodes go on the toes and nipples.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Oh, that's cool, because then if it works, you come back to life and get to smell like gasoline for a week.

[db]

This is what you get when you ask Obama how to revive something.

[sloopyinca]

I was so looking forward to their rendition of Puttin' on the Ritz.

[SugarFree]

COOPER DOOPER!

[D'oh]

I read it as "Putin on the Ritz" and when I clicked on the link I was surprised.

[sloopyinca]

You mean this Putin on the Ritz?

[hurly buehrle]

I will recall this story each time someone tries to convince me that all Europeans are intelligent and sophisticated.

[True European]

Russia is, at best, in Eastern Europe. Of course they are not sophisticated and intelligent.

[P Brooks]

"Change" didn't monger enough fear, apparently.

Apparently, not everybody was sad about throwing their mukluks away.

[Reginod]

"Gay rights activist murdered in Uganda."

Newspaper publishes names, picturesm and adresses of gay activists in Uganda next to banner reading "hang them" -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....ple-hanged

I am sure these two facts are entierly unrelated. No one should draw any connections between violent rhetoric and violent acts.

[sloopyinca]

In a sane world...

[Brett L]

Woman hires hitman to paralyze her ex. Turns out he was a cop. Who could have seen that coming?

[Slut Bunwalla]

W...why would she want to paralyze him? Why not just have him killed?

[cynical]

Are you shocked to find out that women are cruel and vindictive?

[Butts Wagner]

W...why would she want to paralyze him? Why not just have him killed?

She didn't have enough money to pay for a full kill. Seriously.

[generic Brand]

Autistic child labeled a "Cheater" by Xbox Live

Evidence that Sony is better? I never understood the thrill of achievements. While I find myself going for some of them when I play FIFA or Black Ops, there's just no real point most of the time.

Regardless, I don't understand why there is a "cheater" designation just because somebody has a certain amount within a short timeframe.

My favorite quote from the article:
"It's extremely unlikely that the boy was cheating. He simply outthought, outplayed and outlasted not just the other players but also the programmers themselves."

[hugeevilrobot]

There should be a law...

[SKYNET]

Target acquired....

[Lucky]

James Cameron admits "Avatar" is a message against the Canadian Oil Sands.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentarie.....niobe.html

[Fatty Bolger]

I'll have more respect for him when he admits it was a ripoff of Pocahontas.

[Fern Gully]

Hey what about us??

[N.I.M.H.]

Fuck you, Fern Gully.

[Tyler]

The reporters came to think of Assange as smart and well educated, extremely adept technologically but arrogant, thin-skinned, conspiratorial and oddly credulous."

Of the NYT article, funny I think of the reporters as just "arrogant, thin-skinned, conspiratorial and oddly credulous."

[Fatty Bolger]

Here's a crazy link. Sarah Palin writes a rebuttal to Obama's SOTU address that could easily double as an article on Reason.

Obama's Message to America: The Era of Big Government is Back, Now Help Me Pay For It

Makes me wonder if she has any "former Reason interns" working for her.

[Brett L]

D&D causes "gang-like" behavior in prison.

"According to the published ruling, Captain Bruce Muraski, who serves as disruptive group coordinator for the Waupun Correctional Institute in Wisconsin, elaborated that "during D&D games, one player is denoted the 'Dungeon Master.' The Dungeon Master is tasked with giving directions to other players, which Muraski testified mimics the organization of a gang."

[cynical]

Sounds more like the organization of an BDSM club to me.

[Brett L]

"Shut up worthless slave!"

[T]

That is possibly one of the stupidest things I have ever read in my life. So, according to his testimony, the police department mimics the organization of a gang.

[sloopyinca]

So, playing "asshole" with your buddies also constitutes a gang? Quick! Let's form a task-force on every college campus.

[Elli Davis]

Okay, so the way Captain Bruce sees it, teachers in schools have their own gangs. That's nice, here I was, thinking how my school years were boring. And all that time I belonged to a gang.

Whopitty.

[Toronto Realtor]

How can Captain Bruce say that there is a direct correlation between playing D&D and running a gang? If playing D&D mimics running a gang, does playing Playstation Ice Hockey mimic playing in the NHL?

[Jon R.]

How can Captain Bruce say that playing D&D mimics running a gang? So, does playing Playstation NFL football mimic actually playing in the NFL? I'm thinking he's regretting letting that one slip out of his mouth.

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

Thanks

[mike9000]

Who is Captain Bruce anyway?

[susancip]

I hope now they improve since all is over , hopefully Egypt should be getting up soon and getting stabilized.