Reason Morning Links: Get Carter Edition

• As Egyptians gather for their Day of Departure rallies, the White House is pushing Hosni Mubarak to resign.
• After weeks of unrest, Algeria's president promises to end his country's 19-year state of emergency.
• Last month global food prices hit a record high.
• ICE seizes a legal foreign website.
• Five readers disagree with a Jimmy Carter book -- so they sue him.

Comments

[Hosni Mubarak]

Still here!

[Spartacus]

I am Hosni Mubarak!

[Dello]

I am Hosni Mubarak!

[Trembling Arab Autocrat]

Hang in there, baby!

[Louis XVI]

You just have to keep your head, baby.

[Baby-Doc]

I hope you got clean underwear!

[Yuno Hoo]

Don't need no underwear where he's goin'!

[Brett L]

Much as I loathe everything Jimmy Carter has done internationally that doesn't involve swinging a hammer for H4H, that lawsuit is bullshit.

[Not Hosni]

In a press release, one of the attorneys, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner stated: "He is entitled to his opinions but deceptions and lies have no place in works of history."

Hardy har har.

[Restoras]

I amazed there are only 5 people that disagree withthe book.

[J sub D]

I'm amazed that only five people were stupid and petulant enough to sue.

[hmm]

I'm amazed 5 people bothered to read it.

[JoshINHB]

Only six people read it.

[Rich]

Perhaps Carter can countersue over the libel and concomitant emotional distress, loss of consortium, and all that.

[Restoras]

I don't think he had consortium to lose.

[Rosalynn Carter]

Once he got over that rabbit incident he had been fine.

[Tim]

There was the UFO thing. And Billy. And Billy beer.

[Dennis Kucinich]

Has Carter eaten any olives lately?

[John]

I am thinking that if you can be sued for spreading bullshit, the entire political publishing industry needs to declare bankruptcy now.

[Not Hosni]

Not to mention the blog commentariat.

[Restoras]

They don't have to since they don't change out of there pajamas and live in mommy's basement - there is nothing to declare bankrupt.

[Not Hosni]

Except their intellect.

[Tim]

The shit we spread here allows the darling buds of wisdom to bloom from the heads of Reason's paid staff.

[Rich]

"All I got was this lousy T-shirt."

[John]

How much are high food prices driving global unrest? Beyond that, the high food prices inflict untold misery on the world's poor. Yet, we continue to subsidize farmers not to grow food and artificially inflate prices and continue to subsidize ethanol in the name of Congressional pork and the cargo cult known as global warming.

[Algorey]

Dude, stop being so inconvenient or I will stop by for a "massage" 😉

[BakedPenguin]

Just pork now - even most greenies acknowledge corn ethanol is worse than straight hydrocarbon fuel for CO2 production.

[John]

They admit that now, after they were taken in and supported it for the better part of a decade. The greenies are not off the hook.

[Wind Rider]

Greenies are usually examples of emo-politics at its most idiotic.

[Dello]

I wish my grass were Emo so it would cut itself...

[Don Mynack]

Shouldn't high prices be helping poorer, agricultural economies? Aren't they making more money now?

[John]

Maybe. But it doesn't help subsistence farmers or the urban poor.

[R C Dean]

Shouldn't high prices be helping poorer, agricultural economies?

Most of what those countries grow is eaten in situ, so to speak.

However, the parts of their economies that aren't subsistence farming, the parts growth and advancement mostly come from, are hurt very badly.

[Monty]

To top all that John my state wants raise food taxes. Smart folks the world over.

[X]

your state taxes food? what darwinian hellhole do you live in?

[Michael Ejercito]

Yet, we continue to subsidize farmers not to grow food and artificially inflate prices and continue to subsidize ethanol in the name of Congressional pork and the cargo cult known as global warming.

These Ag subsidies go all the way back to the New Deal.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Anti-Koch progressives call for violent acts against Justice Clarence Thomas at rally
...A young woman at the rally said that though she was "all about peace," she would like for Thomas to undergo "torture."

Two other protesters appear to call for Thomas's death. When asked what should happen to Thomas, one person says "hang him" while another protester says "string him up."...

[Restoras]

Ever get the feeling that the left is about as tolerant as the Che Torquemada?

[Tim]

You can't torquemada anything.

[Rich]

*That* was unexpected.

[Dello]

NO ONE expects the imposition....

[Nick]

They're as tolerant as the Klan. Let's just start calling them the Klan and watch their noggins asplode.

[MSNBC]

"Klanning Forward"

[Don Mynack]

The lefties are aware that the Kochs support anti-war causes, right?

Showing their true sympathies with the neo-cons, I guess.

[Johnny Longtorso]

'String Him Up'
Racist and eliminationist rhetoric at a Common Cause rally.

[Mr. FIFY]

Medimatters is cool with violence:

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201102030039

Fucking hypocrites.

[Isaac Bartram]

One of the funny things about this is that just as Sara Plain cannot name a single court decision she thinks is too liberal none of these "progressives" can actually point to a court decision or policy statement by either Thomas or Alito that they object.

Just like Sara, they just "know" that they are against "good" things, in the case of "progressives", "good" things are abortion, "welfare" and "civil rights".

The funny thing is that neither Alito nor Thomas has done a thing to scale back the welfare state or the civil rights order or even for that matter done anything to restrict abortion (the one thing that the progs can actually claim to have an objective disagreement with Thomas or Alito over).

Proggies just know that if if either of them get their way women and children will be dying in the streets they way they were all through the Reagan years.

[sage]

Sarah "PLAIN"? HA HA!

none of these "progressives" can actually point to a court decision or policy statement by either Thomas or Alito that they object.

I'll bet they can point to one. Here's a hint: CORPORASHUNS ARNT PEEPLE!!1!!11!

[Isaac Bartram]

It wasn't intentional, I'm dyslexic this morning.

And while it's true they can identify their grievances they can't actully tell you what any particular case was actually about.

By the way, neither can I. But then i don't generally go around railing about Supreme Court Justices unless i have something specific to bitch about.

[Isaac Bartram]

Jesus, i'M just gonna fergit bout tryin to spel gud this mornung.

[Clich? Bandit]

you've been standing too close to hmm.

[hmm]

Bit me icehole.

[SPLC]

You've now made the list, Common Cause!

[cynical]

lol

[fresno dan]

good point.
the most intolerant people I have met are the tolerant.

[Liberal Media]

Anti-Koch progressives call for violent acts against Justice Clarence Thomas at rally

See we told you those tea baggers are violent.

[Ed Schultz]

I'm okay with this.

[Michael]

Videographer Christian Hartsock, who has worked with undercover specialist James O'Keefe in the past...

What's the opposite of the halo effect?

[Michael Ejercito]

...A young woman at the rally said that though she was "all about peace," she would like for Thomas to undergo "torture."

Two other protesters appear to call for Thomas's death. When asked what should happen to Thomas, one person says "hang him" while another protester says "string him up."...

It is yet another example of a difference between a liberal and a progressive.

Liberals believe police in the U.S. should not use torture.

Progressives are certain that Stalin did not use enough torture.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Gasland: how to turn good news into bad
...What's missing from Gasland is the equally pertinent observation that environmentalists are desperately trying to find a reason to scare people away from a cheap new source of energy that isn't renewable or zero-carbon. If shale gas takes off, as it seems to be doing, the pressure from scares about 'peak oil' and the dangers of deepwater drilling for energy won't have the same purchase in the public's mind.

As one analyst wrote in the Wall Street Journal last year: 'I have been studying the energy markets for 30 years, and I am convinced that shale gas will revolutionise the industry?and change the world?in the coming decades. It will prevent the rise of any new cartels. It will alter geopolitics. And it will slow the transition to renewable energy.'...

Scepticism is not an 'attack on science'
...Thus, the debate is multi-dimensional, and controversy exists throughout. But for Nurse, identifying the areas of disagreement and offering up an analysis isn't the point. Instead, he takes for granted that 'the science is in', and wonders why trust in scientific authority seems to have been eroded. One reason for this loss of trust just might be that controversies and other inconveniences are swept aside by the polarisation of the debate, leaving a perception that authoritarian impulses are hiding behind scientific consensus. ...

[Not Hosni]

Go Johnny, go!

[Not Hosni]

But seriously, Johhny, with your copying and linking skills, you should have your own blog.

[Rather]

Just not one as good as mine.

Read it now!

[Restoras]

He may suffer from one or more afflictions that prevent that...job and/or marriage.

[SugarFreud]

That's mean.

[Restoras]

Well I suffer from both and misery loves company.

[Tim]

Are we looking at peak bullshit here?

[Rich]

"Peak bullshit."

What a concept!

[SugarFreud]

Jennifer the Feral Genius? has proved that Peak Bullshit is real.

[R C Dean]

Sorry, but bullshit is a renewable resource. It can't ever be exhausted.

[generic Brand]

I was told at trivia last night by one of my teammates (the one who records our answers, no less) that they never want to accept any of my answers as correct because I give too many bullshit answers. This was when I told him that a state can't have less than 3 electoral votes because they get 2 from the Senate and at least 1 from the House. He went on to first say Rhode Island was small enough to have 3, then when it turned out they weren't a state with 3, it must be because they have less than 3. Ha!

And yet I am the bullshit artist...

[Brett L]

There's a difference between being a bullshit artist and bullshit factory.

[troy]

I am a standup philosopher.

[Victoria Espinel]

ICE seizes a legal foreign website.

Hi, I am Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. I'd like to describe what I'm doing in my office and how we want to engage the public to get input on what we, as a government, should be doing.

[Victoria Espinel]

P.S. Joe Biden finds me attractive.

[affenkopf]

All the streaming sites are back up under different tlds. The war against sttreaming sites is as effective as the WOD/WOT/WOP (thankfully with less victims).

[generic Brand]

(thankfully with less victims)

Well, less dead bodies. But I wouldn't necessarily say less victims. It's far too early to tell.

[John Thacker]

Raleigh citizen produces a document supporting his petition that the state DOT add traffic signals to an intersection near his house. NC DOT chief traffic engineer and all around asshole Kevin Lacy looks at it, decides that the amateur analysis is too sophisticated and "appears to be engineering-level work" from a non licensed Professional Engineer, promptly reports the man to the state licensing board for "engineering without a license."

Everyone acknowledges that David Cox, the man in question, didn't claim to be a P.E., but the high quality of his analysis might make someone reading it think that he was an engineer, which is somehow illegal, according to the asshole at NC DOT.

[Brett L]

As an engineer in a field that has little use for the PE, I say fuck Kevin Lacy. Engineering is about quality of analysis and solutions not passing a fucking test.

[Rich]

Kevin Lacy, report immediately to the state licensing board for your comprehensive engineering pop quiz.

[Wesley]

As an engineer in a field that has a PE, I say fuck Kevin Lacy. The PE just allows you to legally take liability for your work. This guy is just offering analysis for his cause.

[Wesley]

I tried to copy, paste, and edit, and that didn't work at all. I work in a different field. I do have my P.E.

[db]

+1 Most of us ChE's don't need PE licenses to practice and it doesn't make a bit of difference.

[robc]

Does anyone other than CEs ever get a PE?

Yes, yes, I know there are a few reasons for it in other fields, but generally, Civils are the only ones needing it.

[db]

I know a lot of MEs who have them, and many environmental engineers end up getting them, sometimes in CE. Generally in order to do design work for public projects (water treatment plants, buildings, bridges, etc) it's required.

[generic Brand]

Imagine that. A what seems to be the consensus bullshit exam required for work on public projects. Kind of like the teacher certification exams or whatever the hell they make you take to be a mail sorter these days.

[Brett L]

Credentials are so much easier to evaluate than individuals.

[Brett L]

For everyone else, the test appears to be a consulting license. Not a necessary one, but people feel better about ChE and ME consulting offices being owned by someone with a PE. I've never heard a story of a ChE being denied a job due to its lack.

[Isaac Bartram]

No civil engineer is likely to be denied a job for lack of a PE either. But they generally won't get paid as much as one who does.

You essentially need a license if your selling your services to the public. With bigger clients, esp governement agencies, the more PEs you have on staff, the better your proposals look.

When I say need, I actually mean you are required by law to have a license. Many countries in Europe do not have formal licensing requirements but instead rely on educational qualifications and experience as well as the ability to get liability insurance. Fraud statutes apply to practitioners who claim educational qualifications and experience that they don't have.

In the UK many engineers join the Institute (ICE, IME, IChE etc) for their discipline but this is not required AFAIK.

British and French engineers I have met consider American and Canadian licensing laws kind of silly and even insulting.

[State licensing board]

Engineering is about quality of analysis and solutions not passing a fucking test.

No it's not.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Fuck ICE. Plenty of free streaming sites still out there.

MyP2P.eu

ATDHE.me

[Montani Semper Liberi]

That was not supposed to be a reply to anyone.

[BakedPenguin]

That was not supposed to be a reply to anyone.

You don't have your Professional Engineer license, do you?

[hmm]

Obviously you shouldn't be posting without a PE.

[Janet Napolitano]

Be that as it may, I have received your message.

[Pass the blame]

ATDHE is the shiznit. best way to watch sports out there

[tote-road]

atdhe.me (formerly atdhe.net) has helped many a frantic traveling sports fan

[Michael]

http://www.facebook.com/wwwICEgov#!/wwwICEgov?v=info

Be the first of your friends to like this (and then post the links to their wall to see if they'll try seizing the Facebook domain).

[Apparatchik]

In Soviet Russia, road forks you!

[MJ]

Non-licensed engineer can only get into trouble if he submits official design documents under his name as the engineer of record without an active license. Whatever the citizen submitted, they were an unsolicited analysis and not design documents.

Lacy is both stupid, vindictive, and abusing power. If he has license, he should be brought before the NC board for wasting its time.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

I knew it was only a matter of time before the government made it illegal to think.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Well the vast majority of Americans stand little to no risk of running afoul of such a prohibition, so no biggie.

[cynical]

I think that's a valid First Amendment lawsuit. He isn't engaging in commerce, he's petitioning his government, and the attack was not on his ability to engage in commerce or even to physically perform some sort of "engineering" activity, but simply to think and write. And the intent to silence and the chilling effect seem clear to me.

[John Thacker]

Yes, it's not just a free speech claim, but a "petition for redress of grievances" claim. The latter right includes protection against retaliation.

[Dello]

See, this is what can happen when EVERYONE gets an education....

[Brett L]

SEC audit turns up accounting inadequacy for seventh year running.

"Since the commission began producing audited statements in 2004, the Government Accountability Office has faulted its reporting almost every year. Last November, the G.A.O. said that the commission's books were in such disarray that it had failed at some of the agency's most fundamental tasks: accurately tracking income from fines, filing fees and the return of ill-gotten profits."

Top. Men.

[John]

Hard to keep proper books and support your porn habit.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/sec-.....d=10452544

[SEC]

Our books are not in "disarray."

It's just that some of the pages are stuck together.

[John]

+1

[CoyoteBlue]

As comptroller, I have to disagree. I have no problem keeping proper books, tracking complex financial movements AND supporting my porn habit.

[Rich]

tracking complex financial movements AND supporting my porn habit

But you repeat yourself.

[Work! Work! Work!]

Silver price fluctuation graphs go in this file, Lady Sonia video clips go in this other one. How hard can that be!

[generic Brand]

Well it's hard for the books to show up clean when you're offering $180k to junior college quarterbacks.

Oh, the other SEC.

[John Thacker]

The Undiagnosed Diseases Program at NIH diagnoses a new rare genetic disease occurring in around 10 people worldwide. They think they've developed a treatment, but "hope to know in three or four months" if the ethics boards (who don't know anything about the disease, as it's a rare previously untreatable one) will let them go forward.

[darwin]

So it appears to be ten people and genetic, hmmm, sterilize ten people in 50 or less years problem solved... disease iradicated

[James J.B.]

Shouldn't the headline be, "five people have purchased/read the Carter book of their own free will, and are willing to admit that publicly"

Heyoooo!!!!!!

Heyoooo! Thanks

[SugarFree]

ICE seizes a legal foreign website.

Read the comments by "average_joe." They will be eerily familiar to long-time Reasoneers.

[Rich]

Maybe so. I don't know anything about Sharia law though, so I can't really comment.

[SugarFree]

🙂

[Wind Rider]

Well, I'm not going to waste time this a.m. digging through a comments thread at a link, but, what the fucking bloody hell? How in the blazes do these aparatchiks even begin to dream they have the authority to do a pre-emptive seizure of a foriegn web site that I'm guessing is not violence related, simply because someone may be squealing intellectual property, and it's an issue already visited by the judiciary in that foreign country? Are we now paying lackeys for people kicking up a fuss over shit that is basically a civil complaint in nature?

These bastards seem to be in some sort of "Survivor" style competition to see which one of their useless and overbearingly obnoxious asses get tossed off the budgetary island in the first place.

Probably shut a lot of this stupid shit (as in their actions, not antics by someone somewhere else) down pretty damned quick if they could be arrested, charged, and thrown into prison for the criminal offense of inappropriate use of their 'office' and 'position' - which in this case seems to be doggy style.

[RED STATE BLUE STATE PARTISAN]

Day of Departure rally

But will the monster leave? Will Episiarch really leave?

[Johnny Longtorso]

The Obama waivers start to spread
We already have more than 700 waivers to the requirements of ObamaCare in place, with 40% of those affected being in unions. Now we see waivers beginning in another area of the Obama administration's key policy areas ? greenhouse gas emissions. In January, the administration began enforcing new EPA rules on new or expanding power plants, and within just a few weeks, announced the first waiver of those rules...

[Restoras]

Why don't we make this easy on everyone and just exclude top 100 corporate donors, beginning...NOW!

[A.R.]

When you see that ... in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing ? when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors ... ? you may know that your society is doomed.

[Restoras]

Is it all that bad? I mean, it's kinda like paying tribute to Athens, and Athens was awesome!

[creech]

Yeah, but we can disregard any value of such comments because you have an unpleasant personality.

[John]

" One of the officers who reported Hasan to superiors opined that Hasan was permitted to remain in service because of "political correctness" and ignorance of religious practices. That officer added that he believed that concern about potential discrimination complaints stopped some individuals from challenging Hasan. We are concerned that exactly such worries about "political correctness" inhibited Hasan's superiors and colleagues who were deeply troubled by his behavior from taking the actions against him that could have prevented the attack at Fort Hood.

This same concern for political correctness likely explains the tremendous gap between Hasan's actual performance and his official performance reviews:

Hasan was a chronic poor performer during his residency and fe llowship. The program directors overseeing him at Walter Reed and USUHS both ranked him in the bottom 25 percent?Yet Hasan received evaluations that flatly misstated his actual performance. Hasan was described in the evaluations as a star officer, recommended for promotion to major, whose research on violent Islamist extremism would ass ist U.S. counterterrorism efforts."

Ladies and gentleman, your politically correct Army.

[Mike M.]

It sure would be nice if this treasonous SOB would face justice for what he did, preferably some time before the year 2525.

[John]

No kidding. The Army is stonewalling this. His case is so embarrassing to them, they just want it to go away. His defense is going to be that he was psychotic and couldn't take giving therapy to soldiers who were just back from a war against Muslims. But, the Army didn't listen to his numerous cries for help or do anything despite the obvious danger signs. The whole trial will be a giant embarrassment for the Army.

["]

How do you know?

[John]

I have my sources.

[James Ard]

PC was responsible for thirteen deaths in that case. How many more will there be before we come to our senses?

[Michael Ejercito]

PC was responsible for thirteen deaths in that case. How many more will there be before we come to our senses?

Whose idea was it to adopt PC?

[Captain Pedant]

Whose idea was it to adopt PC?

Leftards?

[capitol l]

I tend to think that individuals are responsible for their actions. Besides, what are they going to do, court martial the guy for being in the lowest 25th percentile.

Lonewacko shooters are off kilter, man. This assigning of blame to inflammatory rhetoric or a pc army is bull.

Maybe his supervisors report him, he gets fired, and then blows himself up at a shopping mall, killing a bunch of kids. Then, we'd have tards blaming the army's insensitivity to muslim soldiers.

Fucked up people do fucked up shit. It's chaotic and inexplicable, but we naturally seek patterns and assign blame.

[Brett L]

Yeah. The question is whether the Army would have tossed a white Christian doctor who made the same noises about non-Christians. If the answer is yes, then the Army fucked up.

[capitol l]

Yeah, that would be a different question ,but it's usually followed up with something like:

We are concerned that exactly such worries about "political correctness" inhibited Hasan's superiors and colleagues who were deeply troubled by his behavior from taking the actions against him that could have prevented the attack at Fort Hood.

bold added

Maybe someone with direct knowledge could tell us how easy it would have been to get rid of an army doc(officer), no matter their race or religion? I wouldn't think that you could just throw them out that easily.

[Zeb]

I don' think that there is any question that the Army fucked up. But the thirteen lives taken are on the shooter.

[Brett L]

I acknowledge that point.

[John]

He as much as told everyone what he was going to do. And the FBI had him writing to a radical cleric for guidance. And they never told anyone. We have arrested people for a lot less than that. But the FBI sat on their asses and never shared the information.

As far as the Army goes, yeah if they had kicked him out he might have killed somewhere else. But that doesn't excuse them allowing a radical Muslim to stay an officer because they were afraid of offending someone.

He is not just a lone nut. He is a piece of shit terrorist who did what he did to prove a point.

[capitol l]

Why do you think that being a lone nut and being a terrorist are mutually exclusive. Seems that they would correlate quite often.

What about that guy in pittsburgh that killed all of those cops, is he a terrorist? He corresponded with extremist groups, told people that he would like to kill some cops, and then did so for it seems little more than to prove a point.

[James Ard]

Yes, thanks for setting me straight. I mustn't let my problems with pc cause me to play the blame game and lose sight of the fact that it's the individual's fault.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Lonewacko shooters are off kilter, man.

Is it really THAT insane to want to shoot Lonewacko?

[capitol l]

Not saying anything, he'd probably call the cops on us.

[James Ard]

Or at least threaten to call a lawyer.

[alan]

Ladies and gentleman, your politically correct Army.

Like a very special episode of NCIS. My God, I caught five minutes of that show while waiting for a movie to que last week. I haven't seen such heavy handedness in a story line in twenty years, and that includes the few episodes of Law and Order I caught in that time.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Federal judge holds Obama administration in contempt over drilling "permitorium"
When Judge Martin Feldman ordered the federal government to end its moratorium on deep-sea drilling, he actually meant it. In a ruling earlier today, the federal judge in New Orleans has held the Obama administration in contempt for its "defiance" in reimposing the moratorium through other means...

...The government has not issued a permit to drill in nine months, evidence that the White House has attempted to evade Feldman's orders. ...

[Mike M.]

Obama is a criminal. He broke the law by defying a duly issued court order, and the seizing of General Motors was an illegal act as well.

[Evan Thomas]

Obama is the smartest congressional scholar ever in the history of America or anywhere else.

If he does it then it is legal.

He's sort of like God.

[Dello]

Or "If the President does it, it can't be illegal" Nixon...

[robc]

So, umm, does that mean the entire administration goes to jail?

Not that I have a problem with that. But it seems individuals are in contempt, not administrations.

[Brett L]

Could we at least perpwalk the Sec. of the Interior?

[hmm]

Lets make it a perp train.

[hmm]

Or a perp parade!

[hmm]

Or a perp paloza!

[Xenocles]

Perp centipede?

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Perp daisy chain?

Ewwwww....

[Isaac Bartram]

Judge Martin Feldman

Loved him in Young Frankenstein.

[Punky Romo]

Oh wow, OK man that makes a lot of sense dude.

privacy-tools.au.tc

[Pip]

Punky! How I have missed you!

[Ice Nine]

The book lawsuit is bullshit but anything that gives Carter a little heartburn is fine by me.

[P Brooks]

So, a full-on trial and legal process that took three years in a foreign country, and involved a series of appeals leading to a final judgment.... all totally ignored by a bunch of US customs agents.

WTF?

Am I correct in assuming this is some sort of "intellectual property" bullshit?

[John]

http://www.theatlantic.com/bus.....rol/70743/

Mrs Suderman with a rare decent post. This one on the inanity of Meth control.

[capitol l]

Did you look at the 18 year photo essay linked to at the beginning?

[John]

Horrible. The poor two year old in the last photos. I wish I hadn't clicked.

[capitol l]

It's like some people have kids because pets are too much trouble. I understand that people want to keep their kids, but fuck man. Give the kids to a family that can care for them, give them a better shot at a normal life.

[BakedPenguin]

At least "Zach" seemed okay. The other two kids who got adopted might be okay...

That was heartbreaking.

[Atanarjuat]

Legal drugs undoubtedly mean more addicts.

That wasn't the case in Portugal.

[MWG]

...or the Netherlands.

[JD]

Stop confusing matters with data.

[Charles]

http://247wallst.com/2011/02/0.....ment-data/

Government Uses Magic To Fudge Unemployment Data

[Racist Teabagger]

Black magic.

[hmm]

Anyone familiar with the methods of figuring unemployment know it's bullshit. Even u6 is bullshit.

[James Ard]

The administration is found in contempt of a federal court order, yet there isn't a peep from Reason?

[Mike M.]

Seriously. Futhermore, he has been doing it for months now. Not even the execrable Richard Nixon went so far as to defy a court order.

[George]

These links are making me thirsty!

[Brett L]

Oh noes! Walmart be teaching poor trash tweens of every color how to wear ecofriendly makeup! Its like a conspiracy to undermine the hipster/yuppie haters.

"When Wal-Mart announced the launch of geoGirl, an eco-friendly line of cosmetics, it probably thought it was announcing a breakthrough: cosmetics for the tween and pre-tween set that come in recyclable packaging and has natural ingredients like willow bark, green tea extract and chamomile."
...
Not everyone saw it this way.
Instead, geoGirl, whose site goes live February 25, has ignited a flurry of criticism.

Right. Now the right people are morally outraged about 12 year olds wearing makeup.

[zoltan]

Loads of stupid from that article:

It sort of looks like the products are being marketed to girls as young as 8.

Sort of?!?!

The key thing to note, Gibbs said was that once kids trade up to adult brands, makeup is no longer about imitating Mom, but using "cosmetics as an enhancement."

That's what cosmetics exist for.

pre-teen cosmetics pave the way for an Ophelia moment

This is the ultimate of all the stupid. Girls are killing themselves...over makeup!?!?

[Brett L]

Remember when the Christian Coalition people were evil, unfunny and unfit parents because they held those same opinions 20 years ago? Its like these writers exist solely in opposition to people and organizations they hate, whatever those organizations might promote.

[zoltan]

Well, no, I was 3 years old, but I get what you're saying. Unattractive, unhappy women and liberty-hating religious nuts of both sexes have been a coalition for quite a while.

[Not The News]

Journalists beat up. America's sense of justice restored!

[Jerry]

...the White House is pushing Hosni Mubarak to resign.

Meet new boss, same as old boss: Omar Suleiman.

[P Brooks]

A young woman at the rally said that though she was "all about peace," she would like for Thomas to undergo "torture."

If anybody is qualified to define "race traitor"...

[robc]

Jimmy Carter pros and cons as president:

Cons: too many to list

Pros: Maybe homebrewing legal

That might put him just behind Calvin as the 2nd greatest president of the 20th century.

[hmm]

Airline deregulation.

[BakedPenguin]

Trucking de-reg, too (that's why the AFL-CIO endorsed Reagan).

And robc, your dedication to your craft is obvious. If you didn't love coding so much, I'm sure you'd have your own micro-brewery by now.

[Vermont Gun Owner]

you'd have your own micro-brewery by now

Who wouldn't? They other day I described my absolute dream job as brewing beer in space. It would practically market itself.

[SugarFree]

The Battle For Free Birth Control

By this summer, we'll know if contraception will be fully covered ? i.e. free ? under health insurance reform. The two battles ahead: Getting it counted as "preventative care," and working out the privacy issues for anyone under 26.

The economic ignorance is astounding.

[SugarFree]

Their provided link is wrong, here's the persistent one.

If you hate threaded comments here, you should check out what the Gawker blogs have done to themselves.

[capitol l]

One hockey blog that I frequent just got the livefyre(sp?) system, it fails really hard. Every time a new comment is made a little green tab pops up to tell you, the only way to make it go away is to go to the comment(which is usually something like "lol you are so right").Also, it takes way longer than reason does to load and refresh(that's saying something).

Every time that I think of complaining about the system here I remind myself of the partial-birth abortion that is livefyre.

Imagine if we had points here...fuck.

[SugarFree]

I like aspects of the Gawker blogging software but troll upkeep is time consuming; the real thing to get for this place would be a karma system.

[Warty]

Careful what you wish for. A future where anonopussy has a vote is...unthinkable.

[SugarFree]

On some karma system, when you are low enough, you don't get a vote.

[capitol l]

I'd give max points just to be a dick.

[Restoras]

I have to disagree. Implement a 'karma' system and the accumulation of 'karma' will supercede the comments themselves.

[SugarFree]

On some level, I know you're right. The trolls bore the piss out of me, though.

[Restoras]

I am sympathetic but the trolls will use any 'karma' system inversely to more genuine commentators and simply post more trollishness in order to accumulate negative karma. So, I'm not sure it would actually discourage them from posting their banalities and might have the opposite effect.

[SugarFree]

But we already in that situation. The trolls are here at this point because they crave any attention, even negative attention. And no one seems to want to ignore them, which is the only effective way to fight them.

The name-morphing Anonotroll is a prime example. It's only purpose is to generate annoyance.

[robc]

And no one seems to want to ignore them, which is the only effective way to fight them.

incif.

When the poll for the system redo was being done, I told squirrels that a threading system only made sense with a login.

As much as I like using the occassion fake number for humor purposes, I will give that up if we get a system that marks "new" messages. That is my biggest problem with the current system. If I come back to the comments after an hour, trying to find where people have added new stuff is hard. Under the old system it was easy (scroll to bottom). Threaded comments need a back end database for marking new messages.

See SB Nation or Beeradvocate.com for examples.

[robc]

Threaded comments need a back end database for marking new messages.

Which means accounts.

[SugarFree]

But the name-morphing is a way around incif. Accounts (and real ones that trace back IP) is the only way to fight it.

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah, you have to keep up with it...

[BakedPenguin]

incif.

You forgot the link.

And praise to Eric the .5B, javascript black belt and defeater of trolls.

[Vermont Gun Owner]

And the indentation limit leads to some messed up reading.

[Shanita Obama]

The trolls are here at this point because they crave any attention, even negative attention.

Only the trolls?

[robc]

I like the SB Nation system, although it does have an indention limit too (but much bigger than here).

[cynical]

I like not having accounts. Joke handles and spoofing are a beloved tradition in of our culture.

[NoVAHockey]

Pensblog? -- I'm not a fan of it either.

[BakedPenguin]

What?!

[Shanita Obama]

You guys have given this way too much thought.

[Brett L]

Why would a pack of harpies need contraception beyond being themselves? Is alcohol really that effective at smoothing rough edges?

[SugarFree]

One of my iron laws: Every woman, no matter how hideous, can find a man who is desperate enough to fuck her.

Beside, hormonal birth-control is perfect for the Jezebel demo: the fatter and less interested in sex you are, the more feminist you are.

[Black guys]

hideous to you may be hot to someone else.

I know, racist....

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

One of my iron laws: Every woman, no matter how hideous, can find a man who is desperate enough to fuck her.

Proof.

[Ice Nine]

>>"Why would a pack of harpies need contraception beyond being themselves? Is alcohol really that effective at smoothing rough edges?"

You obviously didn't look at that meth freak photo essay cited above.

[Brett L]

Some of those girls might at least have been sweet-natured, not bitter misandrists.

[R C Dean]

Getting it counted as "preventative care,"

When did the extra syllable sneak into "preventive", anyway?

And doesn't preventive care prevent, you know, diseases?

[gaijin97]

Some might consider pregnancy...and parenthood...a disease. The former acute...the latter chronic.

[hmm]

The same time orientate was acceptable instead of orient.

[Zeb]

It prevents future medical expenses relating to a child. I'm surprised that insurers don't already all cover birth control. Seems like a good way to control costs.

Birth control (like most everything else) should just be over-the-counter. Then we wouldn't have to hear about this crap.

[Kristen]

Free birth control?!?!? How did they get Ortho to sign onto that??

Oh, wait, Ortho still gets paid - by the TAXPAYERS.

It's Friday and my tolerance for stupid/douchebaggery is extremely low. Please remind me to never again click on a Gawker Media link on a Friday.

[hmm]

Visiting that site and expecting anything even remotely close to an understanding of any economic theory is just plain silly. You don't need any econ classes to get a degree in women's studies or media, or communications.

[P Brooks]

robc beat me; as fashionable as it may be in some circles to hate on Jimmeh, I would would happily trade you-know-who for him in a second.

[robc]

I also left off another Carter plus, transportation deregulation.

Trucking and airlines, right?

[P Brooks]

By this summer, we'll know if contraception will be fully covered ? i.e. free

Not only free, but mandatory.

How do you like it now?

[P Brooks]

If you hate threaded comments here, you should check out what the Gawker blogs have done to themselves.

Somehow, I will restrain myself.

[Warty]

Not even briefcases of cocaine can keep a white dude from dancing like a white dude.

Microphone Really Creeped Out By Being So Close To Ben Roethlisberger's Face

[Mike M.]

It's hard to believe that the idiot media is actually giving him crap over taking some teammates out to dinner, having a few drinks, and singing at some Fort Worth saloon days before the game. Do they honestly think he won't be ready to play?

[Warty]

I hope he won't be ready to play. I hope he dies face-down in a gutter in a puddle of someone else's vomit, and no one goes to his funeral. But that's just this thing I have.

[generic Brand]

And then I hope Charlie Batch comes in and kills the Packers

[Anonymous Coward]

Dirty Cheesehead.

[Johnny Longtorso]

"Hand wringers"....see what I did there?

NY Mag: Photographs of men watching online pornography, taken on January 25.
...This is what John Mayer said in a candid interview with Playboy. "You wake up in the morning, open a thumbnail page, and it leads to a Pandora's box of visuals," he continued. "There have probably been days when I saw 300 vaginas before I got out of bed."

Porn's allure and ubiquity isn't exactly titillating news. The question that still remains, however, is how this tsunami of porn is affecting the libido of the American male or, more selfishly, mine. First I came across a post on Sanjay Gupta's blog by Ian Kerner, a sexuality counselor, who wrote that he noticed a distinct rise in the number of men approaching him with concerns about delayed ejaculation. Kerner went on to attribute much of the problem to a "rapid proliferation of Internet porn" which leads to "over-masturbation," something I'm very familiar with....

...For decades, hand-wringers have warned of a porn epidemic that would tear the nation's moral fabric asunder. But if online porn has spread a sickness, it's one that's less like Ebola and more like a midwinter cold. The initial symptom for a lot of guys who frequently find themselves bookmarking their favorite illicit clips appears to be a waning desire for their partners. Jonas*, a 34-year-old ad exec, told me, "I get on SpankWire or X Videos?you could carve ice sculptures with my dick. I take a girl home from the bar, though, and I'll be up for a minute while she's going down on me, but once I put a condom on and we start going at it, it's like the Challenger exploded?all the flags are at half-mast."...

[Warty]

but once I put a condom on and we start going at it, it's like the Challenger exploded?all the flags are at half-mast."...

So drink less, you impotent moron.

[SugarFree]

Or maybe he's lost his taste for humped out bar skanks.

[Mr. Johnson]

Try barebacking, fool. Duh!

[Old joke punchline]

"Nah - 2, 3 days, that's gonna fall off by itself."

[Mike M.]

I could possibly see becoming a porn addict if a guy can't get women, but if it happens to a guy who can get a woman any day of the week then there's definitely something wrong with him. Why waste your finite amount of testosterone on MPEGs?

[J sub D]

I could possibly see becoming a porn addict if a guy can't get women, ...

No. Just no. There are multiple screws loose in these individuals. It's fucking porn for chrissakes! It's closeups of penises, vaginas and anuses 24/7.

Being addicted to The Beverly Hillbillies reruns makes more sense.

[gg]

This may prove difficult for you to comprehend but I'm going to try anyway.

Some problems can not be fixed. Not by the family, not by the church, not by the government. Kinda sucks, don't it?

[cynical]

Why not? If he enjoys it almost as much, and it comes with much less social and health risk, not to mention bullshit, maybe he's just being practical and second-guessing his misplaced urge to replicate.

[Kristen]

Does he use those oh-so-titillating euphemisms for erections on the chicks he fucks?

[zoltan]

Better porn...and better yet, prostitution than sexual assault. Feminists want to deny that rape is sexual but the dissemination (see what I did there) of pornography in the last two decades coincides with a decrease in sexual assault (in the U.S.). Look at countries like New Zealand and Australia that decriminalized prostitution--also a decrease in rape.

Anti-porn and anti-prostitution activists are hurting the people they are supposedly trying to help.

[Michael Ejercito]

Feminists want to deny that rape is sexual but the dissemination (see what I did there) of pornography in the last two decades coincides with a decrease in sexual assault (in the U.S.). Look at countries like New Zealand and Australia that decriminalized prostitution--also a decrease in rape.

Rape is about power. It is also about sex.

[zoltan]

BDSM is about power, that doesn't mean sex isn't involved.

[Dello]

How many Libertarians get a freak on, vs. the rest of the population?

Count me as 1.

[zoltan]

Also, any mention of John Mayer or John Mayer looking at porn makes my moisty (girl boner) dry up like a raisin in the sun.

[P Brooks]

Trucking and airlines, right?

Si. Muy bueno.

And, as much as some people like to ridicule him for the sweater thing,intended or not, I would characterize it as an explicit admission of the limits of the federal government. You'll never hear that from the guy who currently warms the chair in the Oval Office.

[Zeb]

I have always thought that the sweater thing gets overblown as a criticism of Jimmy. If it's cold, and heat is expensive, seems like the smart thing to do. As you say, the president shouldn't pretend to be in charge of everything.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

I agree - I don't see what was so crazy or stupid about the Pres saying, "hey look, we're in an energy crunch here - how about you turn down your thermostat a bit and put on a sweater, m'kay?"

It's how my house always has been run - since I was a kid, and my dad has been a life-long staunch Republican, and I'm passing along the cheap bastid genes to my kids. It just makes sense - why pay ridiculous heating bills if you can just knock the thermostat down a couple degrees and put a little more clothing on?

[jtuf]

Western Union has closed down in Egypt, because of the instability there. The end of emergency rule in Algeria is encouraging. I wish Egypt would get concrete improvements like that. The more the protests focus on Mubarak, the lest hopeful I get.

[Restoras]

How are we going to get news out of Egypt without telegrams???

[Isaac Bartram]

The problem with Western Union closing down is that remmitances from Egyptians living abroad are an important source of income for many people there.

Western Union's principal business today is money transfers. It's been some years since thew last telegram was sent. The intertubuler device with that fancy email feature shut that part of the business down.

[P Brooks]

Could we at least perpwalk the Sec. of the Interior?

Absolutely.

[scrat]

Right now, I'd vote for a Nixon-Carter ticket in a heart beat if we could dump Obama.

[J sub D]

But not Bush/Cheney.

[P Brooks]

From Wikipedia, so take it for what it's worth:

Additionally, as part of his administration's efforts at deregulation, Carter proposed removing price controls that had been imposed in the administration of Richard Nixon before the 1973 crisis. Carter agreed to remove price controls in phases; they were finally dismantled in 1981 under Reagan.

I was trying to remember who imposed oil price controls; as I suspected, it was that nefarious right-wing ideologue Nixon. Reagan gets the credit for eliminating price controls on oil, but (as I also suspected) Carter started the process; he just didn't do it quickly enough. And he wanted a windfall profits tax, so points taken away for that.

[Brett L]

Most of my problem is with Carter's post-presidential career pimping his Nobel and ex-president status to provide legitimacy to various flavors of evil like Arafat and Chavez.

[P Brooks]

maybe he's lost his taste for humped out bar skanks.

Speaking of humped out bar skanks, has anyone here seen the Kendra (I believe that's its name) reality show?

Holy fuck; what a disgusting loathesome pig (I should apologize to pigs everywhere for that). Who could possibly give a shit what that fat cow (sorry, cows!) is doing, unless it's being hit by a train?

America, I am disappoint.

[zoltan]

Go back to the first season of the Playboy Bunny reality show and shake your head sadly.

[Ice Nine]

No one cares what she is doing. It is her trenchant insight that is the big draw there, I believe.

[P Brooks]

ps- Kiss my ass, Mark Kelly, you fucking parasitic biblethumper.

[Brian from Texas]

I guess I'll go sue God since I don't like certain passages of the Bible, Torah and Koran.

[P Brooks]

the Playboy Bunny reality show

The Whores Next Door?

No thanks.

[zoltan]

Whoa, no need to dis the whores out there making an honest living.