Reason Morning Links: Happy Birthday, Civil War

• 150 years ago today, the American Civil War began.
• The details of the budget deal come out.
• Japan's nuclear disaster gets a new INES rating.
• Libya's rebels reject the African Union's peace plan.
• Bart Stupak lands a job on K Street.
• "Naked Man Shoots Police Robot."

The latest from Reason.tv: "Why Aren't the Rich Paying 50% in Taxes?"

Comments

[John]

Bart Stupak lands a job on K Street.

Fucking scumbag. It is things like this that put lie to that whole line about how if there were a hell no one in heaven could enjoy it. I hope that motherfucker dies of a gangreen infected hemeroid.

[SugarFree]

"Naked Man Shoots Police Robot."

I would like to assure you all that Episiarch wasn't hurt when he was taken into custody and expects to be cleared of all charges once those robots stop making up lies about his genitals.

[Tim]

I was worried about STEVE SMITH...

[SugarFree]

Naked Man should have tipped you off. Shaved and in a suit STEVE SMITH passes, but no one who sees him without clothes would mistake him for human.

[Tim]

Then I thought, "Doctor Smith finally lost it", but none of these kids would get that reference.

[SugarFree]

"THE PAIN! THE PAIN!"

[Pro Libertate]

They had that bad movie version not that long ago, don't forget. As opposed, of course, to the bad television version.

[SugarFree]

"Hey, robot... how you doin'?"

[Tim]

Lost in Space with kids, a robot, a spider monster and your pilot: Joey from Friends. Yeah, you're screwed.

[Pro Libertate]

It was a bad idea from the moment it was greenlit.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I might not know who Lacey Chabert is without it, so it has that going for it, which is nice.

[Pro Libertate]

I got total consciousness while watching the film.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He was mad because the robot was wearing the same outfit.

[Tim]

"You bubble headed booby!"

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

If you live in a district with a Republican congresscritter, I urge you to tell them to vote no on the budget resolution. If you're congressman is a Democrat, well, good luck with that.

Give em all hell, they deserve it.

[Mike]

Already called Boehner's office and suggested he resign after the AP wire story calling it all new math that has little effect on the deficit. I suppose it was too much to hope that they would at least get an honorable $38B given they started at $100B. Obama must be howling right now.

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

My rep has announced his support for the deal because if it doesn't pass, Obama won't pay the troops. It's a weasel of an excuse, so I let him know it.

[OO]

if the budget deal does NOT pass the house, there's no money authorized for the treasury to pay the troops regardless of the POTUS. more stupid partisanship scruffy

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

I'm not absolving either party of this. Whether or not the military gets paid is secondary to their fiscal responsibility to the citizenry. I'm just stating that they're all trying to weasel out of the hard decisions and blame the other party. I'm not buying it.

[Tulpa]

I bet Bill Clinton wishes he had some wars going on back in 1995.

[West Texas]

If I remember correctly, Iraqi radar stations had an interestingly timed habit back then of "illuminating" our planes enforcing the No-Fly Zone and subsequently getting destroyed.

[Fist of Etiquette]

150 years ago today, the American Civil War began.

Yuri Gagarin's space flight sparked the war between the states. I knew it!

[John]

http://www.bostonherald.com/ne....._big_bust/

The ugly truth about Rommneycare

[Matrix]

even though that article came out today, it's still old news.

[Tim]

Why should the Libyan Rebels negotiate when NATO is fighting the war for them?

[OO]

because NATO's not unless the french foreign legion got inserted this morning.

[John]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....u-wal-mart

@mattyglesias brought to you by Wal-Mart

[waffles]

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
He is trampling out the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored.

I heard on the NPR this morning that the NAACP is protesting the civil war reenactment at Fort Sumter. What-the-fuck? They really aare one of the most respected hate groups in America.

[Truth Be Damned]

Concerns by the NAACP may cause the Georgia Historical Society to move a Civil War marker off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive ? despite it being cemented in the ground.

On Monday, the Historical Society unveiled a new marker to commemorate the burning and destruction of Atlanta as part of the state's 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The marker was installed in front of the Georgia Freight Railroad Depot on MLK Drive.

Last week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People felt the location of the marker ? the heart of the city's civil rights district ? was not appropriate.

On Monday, Society President W. Todd Groce said he reached out to the NAACP after reading the AJC's story and is considering moving the marker.

"There is some disagreement and we're trying to figure out what is the right spot," Groce said. "But historians said this is the place where the burning began. For right now, it's here. It's in poured concrete, but we're open to discussion about it."

R.L. White, president of the NAACP's Atlanta branch, said he doesn't mind the marker being installed, but would want it placed in another location.

"It's not wise," White told the AJC. "It's in your face to be on MLK, who is associated with liberation and freedom."

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlant.....05939.html

[Tulpa]

Right, they should install it on Hitler Boulevard instead.

[R C Dean]

It's in your face to be on MLK, who is associated with liberation and freedom.

I'm truly mystified why the NAACP isn't joining in the celebration of the destruction of the Confederacy. If that isn't associated with liberty and freedom in their minds, what is?

[James Ard]

They are also mad about a historical marker being put up in Georgia. The sign commemorates the start of Sherman's march to the sea. You'd think the NAACP would think that's a good thing. The fact that the marker is on Martin Luther King Blvd has them on reactionary autopilot.

[James Ard]

I should refresh more often.

[John]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....7867.story

Chicago school bans some lunches brought from home

[John]

At his public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.

Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.

"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke. But with allergies and any medical issue, of course, we would make an exception."

Ms. Carmona, please die in a fire.

[MNG]

"Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices."

What the f*ck?

[pancakes]

No, win-the-future!

[Matrix]

she wishes to combat unhealthy food choices by forcing them to eat school cafeteria food? Isn't that swallowing a spider to catch a fly?

[Tim]

Insects are very nutritious. Some activist said so.

[OO]

yea i let my kids eat all they candy they want, whenever they want. dumas

[Trespassers W]

I'm surprised Dumas said that. It sounds more in the modern idiom.

[Mr Whipple???]

At one time NJ State prison inmates were allowed to get "food packages" from home, but they banned it. Now, they can only eat the food available on Commissary. Christine Todd Whitman was responsible for the ban. Her husband just happened to be connected to the company that supplied the prison system with its commissary.

I had a friend in high school who compared high school to prison. Maybe he wasn't that far off.

[John]

Our political class if vile.

[NeonCat]

No if about it.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I had a friend in high school who compared high school to prison. Maybe he wasn't that far off.

I've always envisioned prison as being more successful at keeping me on the premises, though. Hell, if I could blow off prison to wait for the liquor store to open then head to the lake, maybe prison isn't as bad as its reputation.

[Tulpa]

There's also slightly fewer incidents of power drill rape in high school.

[Mr Whipple???]

There's also slightly fewer incidents of power drill rape in high school.

Not in the Catholic schools.

[MNG]

Related

Chocolate milk stirs controversy in schools

It was once a staple of public school cafeterias that blended the indulgent and the nutritious, satisfying parents and children both. But chocolate milk is uncontroversial no more. Dozens of districts have demanded reformulations. Others have banned it outright.

At the center of these battles are complex public health calculations: Is it better to remove sugary chocolate flavorings at the risk that many students will skip milk altogether, missing out on crucial calcium and Vitamin D? Or should schools instead make tweaks ? less fat, different sweeteners, fewer calories ? that might salvage the benefits while while minimizing the downside?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z3

[pancakes and waffles]

We enjoy chocolate milk. You can take our chocolate milk when you pry it from our warm syrupy hands.

[Lord Humungus]

white milk makes me want to throw up. Chocolate milk, on the other hand, is filled with American goodness and sunshine.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Are they going to ban Hershey's syrup?

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

Yevgeny Zamyatin is turning out to be as prescient as de Tocqueville. Dammit.

[Truth Be Damned]

"At his public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home."

But plenty of them are packing heat.

[sloopyinca]

But plenty of them are packing heat.

But it's illegal in Chicago to do so, so I'm sure they're not.

[MJ]

This is either a power play to increase school lunch program enrollment and increase state and federal lunch subsidies to the school, which is crass, or Carmona hates the idea that her school's students are doing things that are beyond her control. The assumption that school lunches are, by definition, healthier than a lunch packed at home is ludicrous and symptomatic of the condensencion government shows to parents today.

[West Texas]

My guess is that it's the latter with the added bonus of the former.

[TrickyVic]

From John's link

"Any school that bans homemade lunches also puts more money in the pockets of the district's food provider, Chartwells-Thompson. The federal government pays the district for each free or reduced-price lunch taken, and the caterer receives a set fee from the district per lunch."

I think that is what it's about.

[rather Retarded]

I sure hope JL posts that article about how The Golden Girls: How One TV Show Turned A Generation Of American Boys Into Homosexuals. The world needs to know what happened to my childhood.

[capitol elle]

Yes, I too wish to hear about how The Golden Girls Turned A Generation Of American Boys Into Homosexuals. I need to hear it. I burn with desire to hear it.

[R C Dean]

A good broad-spectrum antibiotic can probably take care of that burning sensation.

[Joh[nn]y Lo[n]gtorso]

Teachers support cop-killer
Between negotiating for more benefits and teaching their students, the California Federation of Teachers has adopted a resolution of support for convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal....

Telecom gurus discuss competition, reform at Free Press conference
Former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) official Colin Crowell, former White House technology adviser Susan Crawford, and Kenneth DeGraff, adviser to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, discussed telecom issues at the Free Press conference in Boston on Sunday.

...CRAWFORD ON THE COMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES:
"Unfortunately the world where regulating these guys into to an inch of their life is exactly what needs to happen."...

[Mr Whipple???]

Teachers support cop-killer

WTF? He was convicted in Pennsylvania, not California.

If they are against the death penalty, fine. But, please don't try to minimize what this guy did. He and his brother were there. One of them pulled the trigger. They are both guilty.

[Ice Nine]

What's your problem? The San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the Berkeley City Council routinely "conduct" foreign policy.

[waffles]

Authorities in Brevard County, Fla., say a nude man opened fire on a $65,000 police robot with an AK-47 last week.

They give AK-47s to robots!? God bless the heroic naked man for ending this mechanical menace!

[SugarFree]

Grammar is a tyranny like any other.

[Pro Libertate]

Does nakedness somehow constitute a defense against these armed robots?

[SugarFree]

Maybe the robots have an easy-to-trigger gag reflex. Or they are worried that the other robots will think they are gay robosexuals if they are seen with a nude dude.

[Tim]

Schwarzeneggar played a naked robot, didn't he?

[SugarFree]

I you going to tell us about how you furiously masturbate to The Terminator again? 'Cause we all got the picture last time, dude.

[Tim]

I love the classics, is that so wrong?

[SugarFree]

I bet just seeing an X-acto knife gets you wet, sicko.

[Tim]

Forgive me, Lord Dooooomcock.

[Pro Libertate]

I was thinking more in the sense that the robot couldn't perceive a naked human as effectively as a clothed one.

[Tim]

Haven't you watched any Battlestar Galactica? The only humans that the Cylons won't kill are the naked ones.

[Pro Libertate]

Huh. What can this mean?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

No homo...

[Ice Nine]

"The robot definitely saved a life"

Damn straight it did - the life of the crazy guy who would have otherwise looked like a piece of Swiss cheese the instant he came through that door with an AK.

[Old Soldier]

I'm far from rich and easily half my income is absorbed by state and federal income taxes (and all the other ways the reduce my paycheck which are just taxes in my mind), property tax, vehicle taxes and fees, sales tax, and fuel taxesm, tolls, hotel taxes, airline taxes, etc...

Stupid ignorant commies think I'm not paying enough?

[pancakes]

If you can afford to pay taxes then you are too rich. The fact is, you can afford more, a lot more. It's just that your blind greedy hoarding nature is keeping you from seeing the good that giving just a little more would do. I feel sorry for you.

[OO]

but old vet can use the GI bill, VA bennies, & medicare while grumbling about taxes...oh & eevil socialism.

[Old Soldier]

I don't get any of that shit. I buy my family's health insurance out of my civilian employer's paycheck.

6 years in the Marines and 5 in the Army National Guard get me nothing in bennies.

No f*cking way am I putting in more time while Obama is President. The fact is, I could not afford a deployment right now - I would get a break on income taxes, but not on my mortgage or any of those other taxes and expenses my family and I pay.

[OhioOrrin]

only way a vet doesnt have access to the GI bill & VA bennies is for a bad conduct discharge. whether you choose to use those veteran benefits is entirely beside the point that you have access.

[Old Soldier]

I went to VA after the first Gulf War. They shoved a camera up my ass, told me breathing burning oil fumes for weeks wasn't bad for you, and sent me on my way. Learned everything I ever needed to know about government healthcare that day.

[Joh[nn]y Lo[n]gtorso]

How Safe Is Your Roth IRA?

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

Not very, I would say. Especially when you've got people like this around.

http://articles.latimes.com/20.....s-20110410

Ask the Argentinians about their retirement accounts while you're at it.

[sloopyinca]

You know who else retired (en masse) to Argentina?

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

Godwin?

[John]

Mrs. Suderman makes some good points in that article. The other thing to consider is that as the government gets more desparate, they will inflate the currency. The natural thought is to get into gold to inflation proof yourself. The problem with that is you can't pay your bills with gold. You have to sell it. And when you do, all the gains that came from inflation will be taxes. So your gold that you bought at say $1400 an ounce that is now worth $14000 and ounce will be taxed at the capital gains rate even though thanks to inflation it is effectively worth no more than it was. Thanks to the unindexed capital gains tax, the government is going to be able to steal up to 1/3rd of people's wealth. Don't think those fuckers don't know that and understand it. That is why they still allow people to own gold. Go ahead and buy all the gold you want. They know they will still get their cut.

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

The plumbers will always eat.

We'll see the return of the useful skillset as a valuable asset. All those HR employees will be up shit creek.

[John]

In an inflation world wealth declines but earning does not. It is savers and people on fixed income that are totally fucked.

[kinnath]

Borrow, borrow, borrow....it's the only way to prosper during inflationary times.

[Mr Whipple???]

Real wages always lag real inflation. Everybody gets fucked in an inflationary environment except the "first owners" of the "new" money.

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

Who runs Bartertown?!?

[Truth Be Damned]

Those who can do,
Those who can't, work in HR.

[Warty]

That's why silver is a good idea. If shit gets bad enough for a barter economy to emerge, you'll be able to buy a meal with a silver dollar and no one in Washington will have any idea.

[JD]

The natural thought is to get into gold to inflation proof yourself. The problem with that is you can't pay your bills with gold. You have to sell it. And when you do, all the gains that came from inflation will be taxes. So your gold that you bought at say $1400 an ounce that is now worth $14000 and ounce will be taxed at the capital gains rate even though thanks to inflation it is effectively worth no more than it was.

Not if you actually have the gold you buy in your possession.

[R C Dean]

So your gold that you bought at say $1400 an ounce that is now worth $14000 and ounce will be taxed at the capital gains rate even though thanks to inflation it is effectively worth no more than it was.

Why on earth would I report the conversion of gold coins that the government knows nothing about to cash?

[John]

That is true, you can always dodge taxes. But good luck with that. If you start showing up with large amounts of cash you will be in jail before you know it.

[Matrix]

Gerald Scorse and his ilk should have red hot pokers shoved up their arses!

[Truth Be Damned]

Did this get covered previously?

Not-So-Safe-Deposit Boxes

San Francisco resident Carla Ruff's safe-deposit box was drilled, seized, and turned over to the state of California, marked "owner unknown."

"I was appalled," Ruff said. "I felt violated."

Unknown? Carla's name was right on documents in the box at the Noe Valley Bank of America location. So was her address -- a house about six blocks from the bank. Carla had a checking account at the bank, too -- still does -- and receives regular statements. Plus, she has receipts showing she's the kind of person who paid her box rental fee. And yet, she says nobody ever notified her.

"They are zealously uncovering accounts that are not unclaimed," Ruff said.

To make matters worse, Ruff discovered the loss when she went to her box to retrieve important paperwork she needed because her husband was dying. Those papers had been shredded.

And that's not all. Her great-grandmother's precious natural pearls and other jewelry had been auctioned off. They were sold for just $1,800, even though they were appraised for $82,500.

"These things were things that she gave to me," Ruff said. "I valued them because I loved her."

Bank of America told ABC News it deeply regrets the situation and appreciates the difficulty of what Mrs. Ruff was going through. The bank has reached a settlement with Ruff and continues to update its unclaimed property procedures as laws change.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4832471&page=1

[cynical]

A commenter posted it, it wasn't an official link. It's a useful reminder that all of the bullshit about social justice and democracy is just a cover for what is, at its core, just a powerful gang of thieves.

[Tim]

"We will not negotiate on the blood of our martyrs. We will die with them or be victorious."

A. HAMAS
B. AHMEDINEJAD
C. AL QUEDA
D. Our Libyan allies fighting for freedom.

[MNG]

This is stupid. You do know you could find equivalent quotes for most US war efforts? The idea is, hey, after so many of our guys died face down in the muck over this we are not going to negotiate with the other side, we are going to win.

[Tim]

The correct answer is : " All of the above".

[MWG]

Ooooh... scary.

[MNG]

What I love about the Civil War threads around here is how many "extremists in the defense of liberty" tend to show up to loudly defend the slavery based CSA...

[John]

If the South had won the war it would have turned into at best Apartheid South Africa instead of the great place it is today. Losing the war was the best thing that ever happened to them.

[Tim]

HITLER!

[Fist of Etiquette]

No, losing his war wasn't the best thing that happened to Hitler.

[Mike M.]

Heck, according to some extreme left-wingers, Ronald Reagan's election was proof that the south were the real winners.

[OO]

no reagan's election proved a union president can win the white house.

[Marshall Gill]

the slavery based CSA

C-

You didn't explicitly mention racism!!!1!1!!

[John]

Is it just me or is Donald Trump kind of the Charlie Sheen of politics?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42532489

[pancakes]

Probably, but now I totally support Bill Cosby for president 2012!

[Matrix]

do we get free jello pudding if he wins?

[Mr Whipple???]

They are both egomaniacs. Trump would make a great lawyer. He loves to hear himself talk.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The details of the budget deal come out.

I totally knew those details were going to be gay.

[Ice Nine]

Wait, you didn't believe Obama's overnight foxhole conversion to fiscal responsibility?

[SugarFree]

Stop saying and stop thinking that abortion is a women's issue.

That's it. Pretty simple right? But incredibly important.

Cause, the thing is, it's not just women that have abortions

Trans men have abortions. Gender queer people have abortions. Two spirit people have abortions. People who do not fit into the box of 'woman' have abortions.

This is the reality we live in, and the more we pretend otherwise, the more dangerous it is for other people, and the more they are excluded by the movement.

Jos also made a really good point on the panel that I want to highlight here.

Gender is this thing that we construct out of a million different characteristics. The way we hold our hands. The length of our hair. The shape of our face. What we wear. Our voices. But then, for some reason, when we got to the question of what is it really, we go to what lives between your legs. Even though that's not how we make gender and that's not how gender works. It's in that assumption that gender lives in our crotches, that we end up erasing the reality that men can have abortions, men can get pregnant and give birth.

Link

[MNG]

Spirit people?

Is that like elves?

[SugarFree]

Ghost abortions!

[The Truth]

The only thing I could find on it was from Wikipedia:

The expression Two-Spirit "reflects a traditional Indigenous peoples worldview that asserts that all aspects of identity including sexuality, race, gender, and spirituality) are interconnected and that a person's experience of sexuality is inseparable from experiences of culture and community" (Wilson, 2009, para. 1).

What a bunch of fucking mumbo-jumbo. And these same people have the balls to make fun of religion at the same time. These are just as utterly ridiculous as things like the Trinity or virgin births.

[John]

Trans men have abortions.

WTF?

[SugarFree]

You can be whatever you say you are, John, and everyone has to respect it. For example, I am now General SugarFree and I lead the 4th Infantry Division. I also demand that my troops refer to me a "Lord Doomcock," preferable written in analog and digital mediums as LORD DOOOOOOOOMCOCK!!!

[Marshall Gill]

This is interesting because I am actually a horse in a sex show in Tijuana. The really weird part is that they call my act the Mount of Doom.

[waftcakes]

How do you type with hooves?

[sloopyinca]

Very carefully, I would imagine.

[cynical]

I think they mean "men" with XX genes.

[sloopyinca]

Soooooo, they mean women?

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

WTF? WTF? WTF?

That is all

[The Truth]

, men can get pregnant and give birth.

Ummmm...I'd really like them to give me one example of someone who had one Y chromosome getting pregnant and giving birth.

[West Texas]

This.

I about broke my TV back when the news about the "pregnant man" was all over the place a couple years ago.

By definition, if you can get pregnant, you are not a man, no matter what you may call yourself, as SF so eloquently put it a few posts up.

[yonemoto]

I can imagine a situation where a chimeric man happened to have some foetal cells of an unborn female twin grafted in the nether-region area, resulting in a mostly XY-male with XX hoo-haa-parts, to put it scientifically.

[Truth Be Damned]

"But then, for some reason, when we got to the question of what is it really, we go to what lives between your legs."

Fungus?

[OO]

just cuz u r a man dont meen u cant gett prgnent i knw many tranns spirritd they r godo peeple so stopp beein so clothes mindd

[OhioOrrin]

imitation (poorly done or not) is the sincerest form of flattery

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Huh. I thought immolation was the sincerest form of flattery.

[Matrix]

too bad he won't...

[Brett L]

This should be titled "Why People Keep Asking About My Medication Compliance."

[Mr Whipple???]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTPuFlo9D-M

[Apple]

Am I not a man? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If we get pregnant, do we not have abortions?

[MJ]

What drugs did you take or not take today?

[MNG]

How would you like to be the principal at this school?

Va. teacher holds mock slave auction

Trying to bring a Civil War history lesson to life, teacher Jessica Boyle turned her fourth grade Norfolk classroom into a slave auction: She ordered black and mixed race students to one side of the classroom. Then, the white students took turns buying them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z2

[Joh[nn]y Lo[n]gtorso]

"Anyone who has ever fucked an El Ed major knows what's wrong with American education"
-- PJ O'Rourke

[Ice Nine]

What's a good slave go for these days?

[SugarFree]

Who knows? Most slaves are terrible nowadays.

[Ice Nine]

I know - mine keep pestering me for 18 bucks an hour.

[Apple]

I'd think fourth graders would be pretty cheap. You're buying more based on potential at this point than on their actual abilities. Since the boys haven't really hit their growth spurt yet, trying to buy based on size and strength is a bit of a crap shoot.

[Jimmy the Greek]

I'd think fourth graders would be pretty cheap. You're buying more based on potential at this point than on their actual abilities.

This is why you have to look for big legs and muscular potential. It also helps to see their parents and evaluate the quality of their breeding.

[Fist of Etiquette]

PC gone amuck. Next I suppose they'll try to ban throwing the girls into the river during the Salem witch trial lesson.

[waffles]

This shows poor judgment. If she had the mixed race and black students buy the white kids and the story got out only Breitbart or some other rethuglican shill would cover it.

I think the real story is why this is a story at all. Did some kid tell their mom who then told the washpo? How does a story like this get out?

Slave auctions are fun. She should have lined the kids up by grade point average instead. Then she could have the smart kids sell the dumb kids. It would be a more accurate demonstration for these modern times.

[sloopyinca]

We had slave auctions every school year. The principal auctioned kids with outstanding detention time a few days before winter and spring break at an assembly. They used it as a fund-raiser for extra-curricular programs.

[sloopyinca]

She should have lined the kids up by grade point average instead. Then she could have the smart kids sell the dumb kids. It would be a more accurate demonstration for these modern times.

Result would have likely been the same as just dividing them up the way she did.

I keed. I keed.

[The Truth]

"China's Gree Progress Leaves US Red-Faced"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/envi.....ns-america

"Chinese economic strategists recognise that China was late to the industrial revolution and even late to the IT revolution, but it believes it can be a leader in a green revolution."

When it comes to responding to climate change, the contrast between China and the United States is stark..

It has been clear for some time that the Asian powerhouse is moving more rapidly on renewable technologies. A recent report by Pew Charitable Trusts shows China led the world last year with a $54.4bn investment in clean technology, about 40% higher than third-placed America.

More surprisingly, the Communist government in Beijing is also showing a greater willingness to adopt market-based approaches that were once considered preferable only by capitalist economies.

On Monday, a senior Chinese official said mandatory emissions trading systems will be rolled out in six of the country's most advanced regions by 2013. After the pilot schemes in Guangdong, Hubei, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, the government has promised to ramp up the use of carbon-based financial instruments to a nationwide level by 2015.

It is a sign that China is both desperate and ambitious enough to try almost anything. The widely trailed move towards a cap-and-trade system will provide an extra tool for China to achieve its Copenhagen commitment to reduce carbon emissions relative to economic growth by 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2020.

Cap-and-trade initiatives in Washington started much earlier, but have sunk in Congressional quicksand. The first US experiment in emissions trading came to an end four months ago with the closure of the Chicago Climate Exchange, though California's scheme (the world's second largest) is reportedly in talks to expand by joining with Europe's.

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

"More surprisingly, the Communist government in Beijing is also showing a greater willingness to adopt market-based approaches that were once considered preferable only by capitalist economies."

"though California's scheme (the world's second largest) is reportedly in talks to expand by joining with Europe's"

So China is emulating California and I'm supposed to be concerned?

Let me know how that works out for you. (snort, snicker)

(scheme is an appropriate term for what they're doing)

[The Truth]

No substantive response, I see.

Authoritarian state capitalism is the wave of the future in the 21st Century, and this is yet more evidence. Deal with it.

[waffles]

What's your goal here. Are you scared of China? If they do carbon-rationing, great for them. If they move to free market reforms that increase the quality of life across the board, also great. If the newfound economic freedom finds itself somehow at odds with freedom of expression, uh-oh.

Aside from the repression and Jasmine Revolution taboo, I think China is doing just fine. Why are you scared of China? Because I'm not.

[The Truth]

They aren't anywhere near "free market".

They have a protecctionist trade policy. They have massive satte owned industries. They require foreign companies to share their technology with the government before they can invest there. The government owns all the "Commanding heights" of the economy and they have Five Year Plans.

It's a hybrid of authoritarianism and capitalism and it works much better than the system here, I know that drives you up the wall but it's true.

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

Well, I've never Godwined a thread before, but I think you probably have earned it.

[WTF]

[...] they have Five Year Plans.

Yeah, we all know how well those work out.

[yonemoto]

"It's a hybrid of authoritarianism and capitalism and it works much better than the system here, I know that drives you up the wall but it's true."

1) Too many men. Not good.
2) "It's a hybrid of authoritarianism and capitalism and it works much better than the system here."

Well, yes, because our system is a hybrid of authoritarianism and capitalism too.

3) Never, ever, ever trust a chinese postdoc with your data.

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

If by "wave", you mean tsunami destroying all things in its path, including freedom and hope, you might be correct.

You really are fucked in the head.

[The Truth]

The most important "freedom" is the freedom to not starve, the freedom to not be in poverty.

Who gives a shit about "free speech" or "democracy" when you don't have enough to eat or a job?

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

Spoken like a true authoritarian.

Have you even been to China? How about East Germany before the wall came down? North Korea? Former Soviet Bloc?

[The Truth]

Those are/were Staliniarest systems, not state capitalist.

Singapore is another good example of authoritarian state capitalism.

[The Truth]

Oh, and you know what?

Singapore and China put lie to another libertarian myth--prohibition of drugs has worked in both places because they don't pussy foot around. Drug dealing=death penalty. Posession of even the smallest amount of marijuana=decades in prison.

[waffles]

So there's no drugs in China? This is the system you seek to emulate? You realize that you would be put to death under such a system. For being such a rabble-rouser you'd at least be reeducated. It must take some kind of impairment or cognitive dissonance to argue for authoritarianism.

In your heart of hearts do you beleive humans want to be ruled?

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

"prohibition of drugs has worked in both places"

Now I know you haven't been to China.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

So the slaves really did have it better than in Africa, is that what you're saying?

[WTF]

The most important "freedom" is the freedom to not starve, the freedom to not be in poverty.

So by your 'logic' animals in a zoo are freer than animals in the wild. You really are an authoritarian shit-wad.

[Tulpa]

In order to be "the wave of the future" you have to demonstrate the ability to function as something other than a reservoir of cheap labor for the use of the old guard economies.

[The Truth]

Uh, they have.

R&D is now following manufactruing to China--everyone from GM to GE to Microsoft to Apple are leaving the US and setting up shop in China for their white collar jobs.

That's one big reason unemployment is so high here.

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

You really did drink the kool-aid.

You think that because China is capable of growing from being a third-world backwater economy to a huge second-world economy, while the USA became a stagnating first-world economy drunk on debt, the USA should adopt China's centrally planned authoritarian ways instead of returning to a truly free market.

I've been to China. Life is cheap there. People sell their bodies just to survive. The well-connected thrive on the backs of the peasants. Corruption is pervasive. The air is polluted beyond anything we had here in the 70's. Real estate speculation is rampant and inflation is setting in. It ain't so great.

[James Ard]

Is that you, Tommy?

[Mr Whipple???]

Authoritarian state capitalism is the wave of the future in the 21st Century,

Yes, it was also the wave of the future in the 16th and 17th century in Europe, and the 19th century in the US. Except, back then, it was called "Mercantilism".

[R C Dean]

Authoritarian state capitalism is the wave of the future in the 21st Century,

Change 21st to 20th, and I'm sure this was being widely believed in the 1930s.

[Brett L]

I know this may be racist, but I thought "China's Gree Progress" was about a new Chinese TV show with high-school kids singing autotuned covers. Only they were raised by tiger moms, so they didn't need to be autotuned.

[sloopyinca]

Herro? That's the most lacist thing I've led on here today.

[WTF]

I guess you are unaware of This.

Idiot.

[FleeingCali]

Anybody who has ever been to china knows this is a load of crap. The air is barely breathable in most places. If they are green, then I am purple.

[P Brooks]

At the center of these battles are complex public health calculations: Is it better to remove sugary chocolate flavorings at the risk that many students will skip milk altogether, missing out on crucial calcium and Vitamin D? Or should schools instead make tweaks ? less fat, different sweeteners, fewer calories ? that might salvage the benefits while while minimizing the downside?

They should ask Ben Bernanke to formulate a standardized recipe for chocolate milk.

It's completely within the scope of his duties as head of the Ministry of Plenty.

[Scott]

I read about a book that had a Minstry of Plenty, Truth, and Peace. But that was fiction. I thought Ben Bernanke was the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Do we have a Ministry of Plenty? He doesn't do agriculture? You don't make sense.

[Scruffy Nerd Herder]

Of course, they completely ignore the fact that most of the asian and black kids are lactose intolerant anyway, which might explain why they're drinking sodas.

http://milk.procon.org/view.re.....urceID=661

I say get rid of the milk and improve the air quality in your local high school as well as holding down the production of dangerous greenhouse gases.

[P Brooks]

The Yellow Peril are up early today.

Industrious little bastards, they are.

[P Brooks]

But then, for some reason, when we got to the question of what is it really, we go to what lives between your legs. Even though that's not how we make gender and that's not how gender works.

Huh.

You learn something new every day.

[P Brooks]

Authoritarian state capitalism is the wave of the future in the 21st Century

Yippee!

[sloopyinca]

Authoritarian state capitalism...

Well, we're halfway there in America.

Only, which half is it?

[Jimmy the Greek]

I'd argue that we're 2/3 of the way there and that's the goal.

[West Texas]

Stupid spoof handles.

[P Brooks]

we're halfway there in America.

Immelt and Buffett are working on it, but there are still a few pesky holdouts.

[P Brooks]

Singapore and China put lie to another libertarian myth--prohibition of drugs has worked in both places because they don't pussy foot around.

You are truly despicable. Do you march around your basement in your Mao suit, singing songs of the Cultural Revolution?

[sloopyinca]

Do you march around your basement in your Mao suit, singing songs of the Cultural Revolution?

Maybe that's what they do on Gree...with autotune.

[FleeingCali]

I could tell you exactly where to buy drugs in Beijing.

If you are walking down a popular bar area (Sanlitun) you will regularly get hit up by african (not african-american) drug dealers.

It's easier to score there than it is in San Diego.

[Joe M]

...pruning money left over from previous years...

What money? Since when does a deficit in excess of a trillion damn dollars leave leftover money? ''Doublethink'' is alive and well.

[putra]

Boehner's office and advised him to resign after calling the AP wire story all new mathematics that has the little effect on the deficit. NAACP would think that a good thing. But the fact that the marker is on Martin Luther King.