Reason Morning Links: Rumors of Rick Perry, The Vindication of Thomas Drake, The Next Potential Pitfall in the Medical Marijuana Debate

• The National Security Agency has dropped its charges against Thomas Drake. 
• Texas Gov. Rick Perry is one step closer to thinking about exploring a presidential run. 
• Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman gets some ink for his four-day work week policy with Utah state workers. 
• FreedomWorks thinks Tea Party people will not even go to the polls if former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the GOP presidential nominee. 
• Looming in the regulatory night: Surveillance and tracking of medical marijuana patients.
• Tech Liberation Front reacts to the FCC's latest report on the state of the media. 

New at Reason.tv: "The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football - Q&A with John J. Miller"

Comments

[Shirley Sherrod]

This explains rectal/rather

[Piltdown Man]

One of their research subjects must've escaped!

[proegg antichicken]

NIH? I thought you were with the USDA. If you're going to spend tax money to create monsters at least have the decency not to unleash them on the general population. Or at least provide ample warning.

[SugarFree]

Mrs. Frisby and The Dipshits of NIMH

[rather]

shirley, come on. We women need to stick together. Speaking of sticking together http://rctlfy.wordpress.com/20.....-munchkins?-?-?/

[Piltdown Man]

^
Menstruating monkey on drugs!

DO NOT CLICK!

[rather]

too late 🙂
reason.com 3,984

[Nipplemancer]

reason.com 3,984
it only took a year and hundreds of inane postings. maybe if it were ~4k a day I'd brag about it. you aren't even the tallest midget. DIAF.

[proegg antichicken]

you got 50 hits since last week. WAY TO GO!

[rather]

proegg antichicken, how sweet that you keep track.

[Trespassers W]

Car wrecks get higher view rates.

But for much the same reason.

[SIV]

My fashion blog does better than that!

[rather]

sure

[sage]

Here's a good one for you cop haters:

Crows take aim at cops outside Everett's north precinct

At least one officer has tried using his siren to scare the crows away: They responded by decorating his car with droppings.

The crows don't care much for rank, either -- they've gone for top brass and detectives in particular, police Sgt. Robert Goetz said.

I guess my enemy's enemy really is my friend.

[proegg antichicken]

I hate crows. Spent many childhood years trying to stop them from ganging up the owls and then tearing them apart. No success, they're viciously unrelenting. And smart, I could swear up and down that they recognize the sight of a rifle.

At least they're finally picking on someone their own size. I support this.

[SugarFree]

Crows just want to drink the juice from your eyes. Don't be a hater.

[Ska]

If you couldn't take a wife or pass land and title to heirs you'd be pretty pissed too, especially with all those free men just north of you.

[SugarFree]

Eh, whatevs. There are plenty of whores in Moletown. Oh, wait... SPOILER ALERT!

[Garble]

I si t sone ice and fyre ets? Sene Ned behed et bai lannis ter. Wur beggins a stark marches. Jus wan tu see the dargo nshatch tho RR Martin hem&haw; too much vit Denny's Menu.

[OO]

which teaparty do u belong to?

[Garble]

Inc stuous cow! One lee have te parte when kite asa high an dtwice sas mad. Toady sismy unbirthday for two selebrate. Keep being stupid.

[Zeb]

Crows are amazingly smart. They can remember and recognize human faces for a long time.

[SFC B]

Cracked.com had an article about crows which highlighted the various ways they are planning to kill us.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I like crows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK10aJcOfF0

[Jerry]

This is one on a bicycle ticket is even better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ

[Brett L]

Awesome. The crows at the FL mega-office complex in Tallahassee have figured out how to get food trash out of the cans. Today on the walk in to a meeting I saw a takeout container in a tree elbow. Thank god crows don't have thumbs.

[proegg antichicken]

"They're like velociraptors," he said.

Once they taste man...

Crows also can recognize people's individual features. And they hold grudges.

I knew it!

Umbrellas may be used as a defense tactic.

I prefer a shotgun, but to each their own.

[J[o]h[nn]y L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o]]

SCENE + HEARD: Gays Love the Golden Girls at Stonewall Inn

[J[o]h[nn]y L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o]]

Gaze in delight, awe, and wonder as I continue to treat Garrett Epps at The Atlantic the same way Steve Smith treats a camper.

Ellsberg: All the crimes Nixon committed against me are now legal
Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg said Tuesday that disgraced former Republican President Richard M. Nixon would "admire [President Barack] Obama's boldness" in trying to stifle whistleblowers.

"Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, might take bittersweet satisfaction to know that he was not the last smart president to prolong unjustifiably a senseless, unwinnable war, at great cost in human life," Ellsberg told CNN. "And his aide Henry Kissinger was not the last American official to win an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize."

"He would probably also feel vindicated (and envious) that ALL the crimes he committed against me -- which forced his resignation facing impeachment -- are now legal," he continued....

[Name Nomad]

Congrats Mr Epps. In your eagerness to empower the politicians you've attached your ego to, you've completely invalidated your very existence. Bravo.

That made me smile.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

That Ellsberg article is great. What's not so great is the totally predictable "but but but Buuuuuush!" and "but you don't want those evil Republicans to win, do you?" commentary.

[Lord Humungus]

but what exactly will the evil Republicans win?

[Anonymous Coward]

The opportunity to facilitate future Team Blue fuckwitting. Team Blue will reciprocate.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

The playoffs. Er, I mean, elections. Politics as a team sport, utterly divorced from philosophy and principles, is so charming.

[Phrygian]

Congrats Mr Epps. In your eagerness to empower the politicians you've attached your ego to, you've completely invalidated your very existence. Bravo.

can you fisk him tomorrow too? lol

[JW]

:::claps:::

[SFC B]

When I saw that Mr. Epps had written a new myth the first thing I thought was "Oooh, I can't wait for the suckass disqus comments to load so I could read Mr. Longtorso's response".

[Restoras]

Well done, sir.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman gets some ink for his four-day work week policy with Utah state workers.

Policy tats. Badass.

[Brett L]

I'm thinking about a TANSTAAFL tat. Does that count?

[Ska]

Only if you still get THUG LIFE done under your belly button.

[Brett L]

I can cover up that Chinese character they told me meant "strong" but really meant "stupid".

[John]

I have a question. And I mean this to start a Palin is great Palin is evil thread. Yours or my opinion of Palin is irrelevant to this question.

The question is this. Isn't the MSM opinion of Palin that she is some kind of dimwitted celebrity who is no threat to win any office? And since that is their opinion, why is both the NYT and the WAPO asking their readers to dissect Palin's 24,000 emails?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/....._blog.html

http://www.mediabistro.com/fis.....ils_b37457

Seriously, WTF? IF you really think she is not a serious person, why would you obsess over her like this?

[Brett L]

I'm not in this camp, but Paris Hilton is a great counter-example to your point. Personally, I think Palin is no stupider than any other pol, and has better instincts, she just went to juco and state schools rather than being annointed by an Ivy League school. Its almost as bad as if she went to Brown.

[OO]

one if by land is like 5th grade history dude, not juco or state.

[Cheeseburger]

Lets pull you off the bus in the middle of a trip, ask you 5th grade history questions, then pick apart every word you say. Sounds fair.

[Brett L]

Which of the 57 states should we do that in?

[mr simple]

One if by land is a poem not history.

[Restoras]

How inconvenient!

[Troy]

She didn't just go to any state school, she went to the University of Idaho. GO VANDALS!!!

[MNG]

I think the pouring over her emails is stupid and concerning.

[Statist Mongoloid]

Honey would you stop and get some bread on the way home? I'm making tuna fish gravy on toast for dinner. Actually, you are. Because I told you to. Then we can discuss policy and I'll tell you what to think.

[sloopyinca]

I think the pouring over her emails is stupid and concerning.

...not to mention dangerous and/or costly. Pouring over e-mails could short out the motherboard or other electrical components of their computers.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

You'll have to ask Weiner the same question

[sloopyinca]

A government official using taxpayer-purchased and paid-for equipment to call women and talk about fucking them?

Sorry, I see a distinct difference here.

[The Other Kevin]

I think THEY don't take her seriously, but they think the large percentage of people who vote Republican (stupid rednecks as they are) might take her seriously.

Unfortunately this is just a big circle jerk because anyone who's going to form an opinion on Palin already has. Hit pieces like that are only going to reinforce those opinions (either she really is stupid, or she is being unfairly targeted).

[SFC B]

She can be "stupid" and "unfairly targeted" at the same time.

And by "stupid" I mean "the middle of the bell curve".

My opinion of Palin, and it's one I've held since shortly after her nomination, is that she is treated like a threat because she is an outsider. She does not come from the acceptable schools. She doesn't come from an important state. She has never held any "smart" jobs like constitutional law lecturer. She wasn't part of an important family. Palin was as close to a "normal" person as we have seen at the legitimate-shot-at-being-President/VP in a long time.

There was a non-zero chance that a nobody from a small, isolated state who didn't come from the right background could have become President. If Americans saw that a regular person could become powerful who knows what would have happened? They might get uppity. And that cannot happen. So Palin must be destroyed.

[TrickyVic]

""There was a non-zero chance that a nobody from a small, isolated state who didn't come from the right background could have become President. ""

As long as an Arkanasan goes to Yale, he's got a chance.

With regards to Palin, I don't see anything other than baptism by fire that happens to all of them when they first want to run for President. People disected every Ron Paul speech for somthing to play "gotcha". Anyone who likes freedom will have plenty of "gotcha" moments. Sure it happens to outsiders, but once they become insiders, it still happens. It's the political circus.

[proegg antichicken]

I think she's a crow disguised as a human. A prototype, the first crow with thumbs. Of course the NYT and WAPO know this. They are dissecting the evidence first to be sure. If they break the story too early we won't be able to catch the avian plot in action.

Truthfully, their obsession is nuts. Stupid nuts, liberals love Palin. She is their ultimate bogeyman. They would love nothing more than for her to run because it's so easy to mobilize the young liberals against her.

She needs to stay the aloof, seemingly reluctant media queen and NOT run. It will drive them nuts!

I have no idea if she is the perfect fool or an evil genius. I do know she is pulling a epic troll manuever and can keep turning the screws as long as she does not declare herself a candidate.

[Brett L]

New drug for the BOOOSH! addicts? I can see that.

[proegg antichicken]

but the bonus only works if she's actually irrelevant. Then they looks like fools for chasing after her. It's a tidy way to marginalize the "but but BOOOSH" zombies.

[wayne]

I love Palin. She has the ability to send the Libs into a drooling, hate-filled frenzy just by saying, "You betcha"!

[OO]

and old-fart teapartiers into a jerk-off frenzy...well IF they could actually see their junk w/o a mirror

[John]

It is not the tea party people who are dissecting her e-mails and have spent the last three years obsessed with her vagina.

[Tacos mmm...]

I'm pretty sure you've spent the last three years obsessed with her vagina.

[John]

I am pretty sure I haven't. And I am even more sure people like you project a lot.

[Tacos mmm...]

Stop lying, you know want to fuck her.

[wayne]

hilarius! you libs are so shockingly dumb. keep fixating on Palin.

[TrickyVic]

""I love Palin. She has the ability to send the Libs into a drooling, hate-filled frenzy just by saying, "You betcha"!""

Pissing off the other team is enough for a vote. This is an example of the lower bar someone was talking about on a different thread.

[Restoras]

Exactly right. This is why I love her too.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Palin has an amazing talismanic on many people, where they hate her so much that they desire to prove her wrong at every step, regardless of reality. I notice stuff like this all the time:

"Is it too outrageous to ask why this little girl [Piper Palin] is not in school, rather than acting as a media bouncer for her mother on a publicity/campaign tour? Update: because school in Alaska is now out for the summer. My bad."--Andrew Sullivan, TheDailyBeast.com, June 1

[proegg antichicken]

hah, sweet.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

talismanic effect

[Skip]

Now we all know why Sullivan never lets you post comments to anything he says.

[wayne]

I want to see her birth certificate.

I am pretty sure she was born in Alaska. Before it was a state. And her father was a Russian eskimo who swam the Baring Straits to forceably inject her mother with ALIEN semen.

[Tacos mmm...]

ILLEGAL alien semen.

[wayne]

is there any other kind?

[John]

Here is why I bring this up. The media is setting this country up for a serious tragedy. Palin, whatever her faults, holds pretty mainline conservative views. Lover her or hater her she is not LePen or some far right nut candidate. But the media is having a case of the vapors like she is. And in doing so they are squandering what little moral and intellectual authority they have.

One of these days the US really will have a LePen or worse. And the media won't be able to do a damn thing to stop them because people long since stopped listening to their warnings because of things like their complete overreaction to Palin.

[OO]

u mean mainline 5th grade views like death panels, "real" (white) america, & revere alerted the brits.

[John]

Thank you for proving my point. You have gotten so stupid, you wouldn't know a real life demagogue if you saw one. And God help us if the demagogue comes from your side, which is likely. Then your skills and dedication at defending the indefensible will come into full play.

When 40% of your country is as scary stupid and unserious as you are, we are in a lot of trouble. Doomed in fact.

[OO]

i quoted palin & even most gop'ers dont support her...or her vigina

[Rahm Emanuel]

You're fucking retarded.

[OO]

thanks may i have another?

[Lord Humungus]

Palin does very little for me, except in the "wow, she's pretty hot for an old lady" way.

Politically, I think she's a little too damaged to be a viable candidate. But what do I know? I'm just the Ayatollah of Rock 'n' Rolla.

[Mongo]

Palin immediately became irrelevant when she quit as governor.

[SugarFree]

In legal news...

Woman sues ex-fiance after falling while peeing from his veranda

[Troy]

sustained "penetrative injuries to the rectum, vagina and bladder necessitating surgical treatment...

Two words: Steve Smith

[Nick]

It seems like the slam dunk defense would be: She should have used the toilet.

[wayne]

She had no choice. Her boyfriend left the toilet seat up.

[Draco]

Tea Party people won't even go to the polls

Like most of you here, the Tea Party is utterly clueless when it comes to understanding macroeconomics and the problems we are facing with the huge hole in aggregate demand. These are good people, and they're right about a lot, but they are dead wrong when they hysterically scream that we need to shrink the deficit in the short term.

Krugman was right about this. Mike Norman is right. Martin Feldstein was right a couple days ago in the WSJ. We are completely fucked if we don't increase deficits (preferably through huge tax cuts, but I'll take military and highway/bridge spend if that's the only choice) in the short term to fill the massive hole in aggregate demand.

Tea Partiers and (most) libertarians are utterly clueless in this realm.

There's no inflation. What you people are seeing is your living standards falling because another 5%-10% of Americans are unemployed. Until people grasp the seriousness of that problem (think of what those people would have produced - that's all gone now), and the appropriate solution, we are doomed.

[Brett L]

Inflation in monetary. There's lots of inflation. You can't print money into a shrinking/stagnant economy without creating inflation even in your classic model.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Don't waste your breath

[OO]

except the dollar is gaining strength...hence the drop in oil

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Demand destruction is having an effect as well.

Seriously though, the central banks are in a race to the bottom right now and the USA is leading the way.

[R C Dean]

The drop in oil? Seriously? Oil is up around $100/barrel. A year ago it was around $75/barrel, and that's post-BP. Thats a 30% rise in the last year.

[OO]

current info. do try to keep up hoss

[John]

He has. And it is still 30% over a year. Do try to keep up there slick.

[OO]

do you deny the price per barrel is off its highs while the USD is off its lows and M2 is growing?

[Johnny Clamboat]

What dollar strength may look like:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DXY:IND

[Joe M]

OO: "It's lower than it was five seconds ago."

[OO]

just tryin to fit the info into joe's attention span

[Nick]

You really should capitalize Joe. Type it lowercase three times and we'll have a problem only one disturbed bastard can solve and you're not him.

[Citizen Nothing]

I know. A law requiring everyone to break at least one window.

[Citizen Nothing]

Which would ultimately be less destructive than spending even more money on the military. So that's some win-win stimulus.

[Citizen Nothing]

Oh! Oh! Oh! And make the new windows be like high-efficiency so it's like, green stimulus and shit! Wow. We're gonna have our problems licked in no time!

[SugarFree]

Not if we paid the military to break the windows.

Or they could stay in their wheelhouse and shell Sacramento. Rebuilding it would be stimulating.

[sarcasmic]

This post is a joke, right?

I mean, every single sentence is wrong on so many levels that a reply is not even possible.

This has to be a joke.

[robc]

He makes absolute statements and appeals to authority, but when evidence is pointed to that he is wrong, he ignores it entirely.

No, I dont know why I havent incifed him yet.

[Draco]

As is so often the case, it's not what you don't know that's the problem... it's what you know that just isn't so.

Similarly with the other stupid and predictable comments that regurgitate Austrian orthodoxy. This has nothing to do with breaking windows. This has everything to do with millions of people unemployed and doing nothing but watching TV - instead of adding their productive capacity to the economy.

[Citizen Nothing]

Oh my God. He's right. It's not about the breaking. It's about the fixing.
IT'S ABOUT THE FIXING!

[Citizen Nothing]

Or, how's this: We PAY them to watch TV. Genius, right!

[Draco]

Search Mankiw's blog for that exact scenario. Seriously, he uses it as an example of why GDP is goosed more (by definition) from government spending than by tax cuts, and therefore why simply measuring GDP doesn't tell the whole story. And I agree with him.

[Johnny Clamboat]

Does he explain the uselessness of GDP as a valid economic measurement?

[Brett L]

The economy can't add their productive capacity you dolt! If it could they would be hired at a job. Paying them jobless benefits with paper money hot off the presses does nothing to add productivity to the economy, it just allows the supply of money to create artificial demand. How about, I don't know, quit fucking with the system and let it settle to an equilibrium. You keep wanting to do things inside the resonance time, and then wondering why you get positive feedback loops in a system.

[Tacos mmm...]

This has everything to do with millions of people unemployed and doing nothing but watching TV - instead of adding their productive capacity to the economy.

That's why you need plans by the many, not plans by the few.

[robc]

Barro. Im just going to bring him up after every one of your posts until you admit you are wrong or PROVE him wrong.

There's no inflation.

Bullshit. M2 is growing at 4.9% right now.

[Draco]

robc, you are also appealing to authority by citing Barro. And I don't have the time to prove him wrong in this venue for your sake. Or to find out whether he's wrong, or even contradicting what I'm saying. I can only say "maybe I'll get to it this weekend."

[robc]

No, it isnt an appeal to authority, it is shorthand for his studies which Ive linked to before.

[robc]

And notice no response to the inflation thing. Refusal to acknowledge the real defintion of inflation as monetary?

[robc]

Barro does agree with you on one thing -- tax cuts are a better solution than spending increases.

But, that is becuase he doesnt consider them equivalent like you keynesians do. From his studies the multiplier for tax cuts is greater than 1.

For non-war spending, the multiplier is small, possibly indistinguishable from zero.

[Mike M.]

Give it up dude, it's been proven time and time again that your theory doesn't work.

Japan has been going the full Krugman for almost twenty freaking years now, and it hasn't done a damn thing for them.

[Citizen Nothing]

But without the full Krugman, it would be even worse. IT WOULD BE EVEN WORSE!

[SugarFree]

"The Full Krugman" [shudder]

[Draco]

Ok, I have to admit, that's funny. Thanks for a welcome light-hearted chuckle.

But seriously, yes. Krugman was right about one thing: the stimulus was too small (and it was also idiotically handled - I could have handled that government spending better after a night of binge drinking than the Obama administration handled it).

Feldstein pointed out (I think it was him) that the hole was $700b a year, and all we poured into it was a particularly ineffective $400b a year. Not enough.

Half measures. They don't work in building a nuclear bomb, and they don't work in fiscal stimulus.

[Citizen Nothing]

But do you deny that without the $400b, it would have been even worse -- IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EVEN WORSE!?

[Tacos mmm...]

The problem with stimulus is that even if it's theoretically sound, which people will argue about here, it's practically impossible. It's like the fusion solution to energy shortages: theoretically possible, practically impossible.

You could never get a stimulus of the size Krugman wants in any real political system or economy, and it could never be distributed efficiently enough through any real-world beaurocracy.

[Brett L]

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how wast the play?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

"We should all be thankful to the Soviets, because they have proved conclusively that socialism doesn't work. No one can say they didn't have enough power or enough bureaucracy or enough planners or they didn't go far enough." --Paul Craig Roberts, in the Wall Street Journal, June 28, 1989

[Citizen Nothing]

But without the Soviets, it would have been worse! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN WORSE!

[Matrix]

Hey, their debt is over 200% of their GDP. It's gotta be good for something, right?

[Mike Laursen]

Aggregate demand is a measurement (and a pretty inaccurate one). You can't just turn any old measurement around and use it as a controlling input. Not with a complex, networked system with distributed resources and algorithms.

[Mike M.]

It's true that demand is way down, but sadly there's absolutely nothing the government can do about it.

The American people spent a bunch of years going on an insane spending binge buying homes for ridiculous amounts of money, and now they have to spend a bunch of years paying down their huge debts. It's just that simple.

[Johnny Clamboat]

utterly clueless... aggregate demand

You nailed it. You didn't even need two sentences.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no inflation.

F. Big, red marker F.

[WTF]

Krugman was right [...]

Okay, that's all I needed to see.

[Cytotoxic]

You must have guts to take on reality like that Draco most impressive. Doesn't matter that your idea has failed every fucking time it's implemented no WE NEED MOAR. Doesn't even matter to you that when Britain cuts spending in the early '30s it resulted in great economic growth and the same for America in the early '20s. And I love your comparison between stimulus and a nuclear bomb it's so apt in ways you didn't even intend.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Looming in the regulatory night: Surveillance and tracking of medical marijuana patients.

HIPAA be damned.

[Number 2]

Hey Mr. Fist..remember. HIPAA is a federal law. The feds do not recognize marijuana as a lawful medical treatment. Therefore, HIPAA does not apply to medical marijuana. Neither does the ADA, FMLA, FLSA, or any other federal law that would normally protect medical patients.

Still, it is a matter of concern that States such as Colorado and New Jersey are going to be keeping detailed records and tracking of patients, caregivers, suppliers, etc -- a ready-made target list for a federal subpoena.

[Piltdown Man]

That's a handy list to know who is forbidden to drive or own firearms.

[Number 2]

Or to have "excessive amounts of cash" on hand. Read the October 2009 Ogden Memorandum.

[proegg antichicken]

To all my buddies in CA and CO who flash their medical mj cards, you just willfully submitted to be tracked and harassed by whatever vagaries this law will contort through. Actually a good question:

If you had to choose would you rather have a medical marijauna license or a concealed carry permit? Let's assume in either case you still get to have a driver's license.

[Sean]

Concealed Carry Permit. In Washington state if you have one you can purchase a handgun and leave with it on the same day, so it's a practical advantage. Marijuana doesn't agree with my biology so I have no need for a license to buy it.

[Slap the Enlightened!]

The Mismeasure of Stephen Jay Gould

[WTF]

So Morton apparently did not deliberately manipulate his data, but misinterpreted the results which supported racist views, and then Gould may have deliberately manipulated and/or falsified the data to 'correct' Morton? Interesting illustration of the problems inherent with declaring certain findings off-limits.

[J[o]h[nn]y L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o]]

More on "Project Gunwalker"

Justice Officials in 'Panic Mode' as Hearing Nears on Failed Anti-Gun Trafficking Program

[J[o]h[nn]y L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o]]

More on "Project Gunwalker"

[J[o]h[nn]y L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o]]

Justice Officials in 'Panic Mode' as Hearing Nears on Failed Anti-Gun Trafficking Program

[J[o]h[nn]y L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o]]

More on "Project Gunwalker"

[Brett L]

Couldn't happen to a better group. If there was justice in the world, the deputy director responsible for running the Fast and Furious operation would commit ritual seppuku at the Congressional hearing live on CSPAN.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

But but but, in 2008 my leftist gun-owning friends told me that Obama didn't really mean what he said about those nasty guns and wouldn't attempt to implement further restrictions because gun control was a no-winner in this day and age?

http://hotair.com/archives/201.....the-radar/

On March 30, the 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Jim Brady, who sustained a debilitating head wound in the attack, and his wife, Sarah, came to Capitol Hill to push for a ban on the controversial "large magazines." Brady, for whom the law requiring background checks on handgun purchasers is named, then met with White House press secretary Jay Carney. During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, "to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda," she said.

"I just want you to know that we are working on it," Brady recalled the president telling them. "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar."

The statement reinforces an article in the Huffington Post describing how the administration is exploring ways to bypass Congress and enact gun control through executive action.

The Department of Justice reportedly is holding meetings discussing the White House's options for enacting regulations on its own or through adjoining agencies and departments. "Administration officials said talk of executive orders or agency action are among a host of options that President Barack Obama and his advisers are considering."

Yeah, I wasn't fooled either. But people really wanted to project their own views on the guy.

[Brett L]

The irony? Brady was shot with a revolver. Hi-cap magazine bans wouldn't have done crap to affect his situation.

[Matrix]

Guess we should just reduce it down to only allowing Derringers. but then again... President Lincoln was assassinated with one.

No guns for anyone!

[Sean]

Logic has nothing to do with the Brady campaign. They realize that the US will never outright ban all guns and thus are pursuing a divide and conquer strategy. By pushing for a plethora of regulations against individual types of arms or specific firearm components they hope to make it so Odin damned confusing to buy or own a gun that most people just give up.

[Drug dealers]

we demand crew-serviced machine guns w belt-fed ammo...for self-defense!

[Anonymous Coward]

Careful, son. The government doesn't like competition.

[MNG]

A New Mexico man is fighting a free speech battle over a giant billboard that he set up claiming his ex-girlfriend had an abortion.

Greg Fultz, 35, put up a billboard in mid-May that shows him cradling the black silhouette of a baby with the message, "This Would Have Been a Picture of My 2-Month Old Baby If the Mother Had Decided To Not KILL Our Child!"

The towering sign is next to the main road through Alamogordo, N.M., where Fultz lives.

Fultz's ex-girlfriend, Nani Lawrence, took him to court for harassment and violation of privacy.

Last Friday, county domestic violence court officials ordered that the sign be taken down by June 16, according to the Alamogordo Daily News.

Fultz is fighting the order on free speech grounds and hopes to take the case to the Supreme Court.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....tml?r=news

[MNG]

The order to take down the billboard strikes me as unconstitutional. The guy is making a statement about abortion and father's rights, he doesn't name his girlfriend, but is simply using his personal story to raise awareness of an issue, a common thing in that arena. This is totally bogus.

[free2booze]

I agree. How do we know this guy only had one girl friend? This is total, and utter bullshit.

[Bee Tagger]

Exactly, it's entirely possible this lawsuit was all part of the plan to get her into admitting that she had an abortion.

[Ted S.]

They've been discussing this one over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Apparently, the billboard was originally "sponsored" by some made-up organization that just happened to have the initials NANI.

[J[o]h[nn]y L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o]]

Cop To Citizen: "If You Take My Picture Again, I'm Going To Fucking Break Your Face"

Report: Reform May Move Millions More Off Employer Insurance

[Matrix]

Wow, surprisingly, most of the comments are actually criticizing the cop. Most of the time, you see a bunch of people defending the cop and saying they should have actually beaten the poor guy recording him. I guess it depends on the site, though.

[Cop]

RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!

[MNG]

While the United States is often derided as a model of immorality in Russia, its anti-abortion movement has become a model for Russian activists, who have even adopted the English-language term "pro-life" as their own. American-style pickets of abortion clinics are becoming a staple of the movement in Russia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06.....0.html?hpw

[OO]

Sarah Palin snub by Margaret Thatcher aides infuriates US rightwingRush Limbaugh joins supporters accusing Thatcher's circle of disgracing former PM with 'Palin is nuts'
Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 June 2011 20.39 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....in-meeting
_

lady thatcher wont meet the clampetts...err, palins

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Limbaugh is picking Palin over the big Maggie T? That's like pissing on Reagan's grave. Unexpected.

[Brett L]

The segment I heard had him picking Palin over Thatcher's aide. He stated about 8 times that "the Lady Thatcher I know would never have said this, even if she believed it". Then again, maybe Dame Thatcher has taken a page from Prince Philip and just decided to say what she thinks.

[CaptainSmartass]

It would be Dame Margaret, not Dame Thatcher. Except she's a baroness so she's Lady Thatcher.

[Brett L]

Ah. Right. Dame is knighthood so first name, Lady is peerage so last name.

[Skip]

Does Thatcher have dementia? Why inflict Sarah Palin on her?

[J[o]h[nn]y L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o]]

Documents show FCC coordinated 'Net Neutrality' effort with outside group
...Free Press was co-founded by Monthly Review editor Robert McChesney and the Nation contributor John Nichols. The Monthly Review is "an independent Marxist journal," while the Nation has long described itself as "the flagship of the left." Free Press is partially funded by George Soros' Open Society Institute.

In April 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC did not have the legal authority to regulate the Internet. Despite this ruling, in December the FCC voted 3-2, along party lines, to begin the Net Neutrality regulation process anyway....

Sooner Tea Party headquarters burglarized
..."It was definitely political," said leader Al Gerhart, 53, noting that the burglars took a lot of Sooner Tea Party records, but passed over expensive tools and equipment in the west Oklahoma City carpentry shop where he kept the records. An air-conditioner and a laptop computer Gerhart used for his business were the most expensive items Gerhart mentioned as being taken.

[John]

But that is different Johnny. Those outside groups mean well. This is nothing like Chaney meeting with oil companies.

[Leftard]

It's okay when our side does it!

[ChuckOH]

Noted pundit/teen heart-throb Ezra Klein in today's Wankbook is sad that the evil Senate Republicans don't want Elizabeth Warren to have unlimited power at the CFPB.

[free2booze]

Forget about Perry, and his potential presidential run. I want to know more about Perry's Response.

Our hope is found in the One who might turn towards our nation in its time of great need ? if we, as a nation would turn to Him in repentance, prayer, and fasting. The call of God to His people in times of great trouble is to gather together and call on Him with one voice, one heart, and a unified desire to see great blessing and great glory come to our nation again. The power of unified prayer from a humble gathering of the saints is found in the hope that He might answer us, and turn the tide of trouble and threats that stand against us.

[CaptainSmartass]

The guy is a theocrat who scares the hell out of me. Just another reason my family won't be living the US anymore before November 2012.

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Weiner!

[free2booze]

Anthony considered moving to Florida, because - "a New York transplant with the name Weiner could probably do well."

[P Brooks]

We are completely fucked if we don't increase deficits

Quit my heroin habit? That's just stupid!

[John]

The Wall Street Journal shows today that yes road crews are what we think they are. This is hysterical and not behind pay wall I don't think

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

[Isaac Bartram]

John, note that the article refers to crews of state employees (and equally applies to county and city ones).

The crews of the private contractors that you see doing most of the construction work on road projects are working their asses off, even if you do feel inconvenienced by that lane closure.

[Matrix]

Having lived in Oklahoma and seen it for myself... private contractors are just as bad or worse. It took over 4 years to fix an overpass across the interstate. 4 friggin' years!!!

[John]

The I 40 I 35 interchange in OKC is a classic. They were working on it in 1973 when my parents used to drive to Houston from Kansas. IN 1987, we moved to OKC and they were still working on it. They finally completed rebuilding the interchange in the mid 1990s about 25 years after they started. One lousy interchange. It is a big one granted. But 25 years?

[Matrix]

My grandfather moved to OK in the 60s. They were working on I-35 at the time... and they are still working on it today.

Oklahoma is rife with Democrat cronyism.

[P Brooks]

Instead, ATF documents show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms knowingly and deliberately flooded Mexico with assault rifles. Their intent was to expose the entire smuggling organization, from top to bottom, but the operation spun out of control and supervisors refused pleas from field agents to stop it.

Only after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died did ATF Agent John Dodson blow the whistle and expose the scandal.

As usual, our Noble Defenders couldn't give a fuck less what happens to "civilians" but are overcome by grief and conscience when one of their own gets what's coming to him.

[John]

It is not like it was a big deal when our guns was killing a bunch of dumb Mexicans. Come Brooks, they were all drug dealers anyway.

[T]

I thought we all knew the US .gov doesn't care about killing brown people, John.

[John]

Sarcasm T. Don't tell me they would have cared anymore if the guns had been used to kil meth heads in rural Louisiana.

[Brett L]

German police train vultures to find bodies.

"According to BBC, vultures present a better option than sniffer dogs when it comes to finding hidden corpses."

Next they'll be training cats to hunt rodents.

[T]

How does one reinforce this behavior in the vulture? Throw them a thumb off the corpse?

Who's a pretty birdie? You are! Good bird! Here, you found him, have a piece, Victor!

[Citizen Nothing]

I'm envisioning My Side of the Mountain, but not with a peregrine falcon.
And maybe with Zombies.
Maybe Vanneman should get on it.

[SugarFree]

That was one of my favorite books as a kid. I'd get so excited when I thought the movie was coming on TV, but it was always The Other Side Of The Mountain. So disappointing.

[proegg antichicken]

I loved that book too. Then I ran away from home and tried to live off the land only to be picked up by a game warden 24 hours later. Then my parents made me join the boy scouts.

[Citizen Nothing]

Having a trained vulture named "Frightful" would be bitchin'!

[SugarFree]

My attempt at running away from home was a farce of epic proportions: accusations of arson, police bullhorns, improvised explosives, homemade napalm, goddamn giant spider attacking my nutsack and I managed to set myself on fire.

[Citizen Nothing]

Sounds like a, er, blast.

[SugarFree]

One section of my left leg didn't grow hair for 15 years.

[Zeb]

That was a cool book. I haven't thought about it in years.

[P Brooks]

Speaking of oil, Woolsey of the CIA was on CNBC this morning yammering about OPEC=TERROR, and "we" are "borrowing" billions every day to fund teh terruh by driving around in our oversize gasguzzlers, or something.

Without more government mandates, we're doomed!

[Brett L]

Yep. All that terrorist oil we buy from Canada funding things like Trailer Park Boys and Justin Bieber. It is time for a pre-emptive strike.

[Citizen Nothing]

Don't forget the sugar pucks.

[Koan]

I stopped reading Draco's post right after he declared "Krugman was right about this." I'm trying to think of a "that's like saying . . ." type of analogy, but I am at a loss.

[Draco]

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. I detest Krugman as much as you apparently do. Doesn't mean I can't admit he was right about something. I don't think it's impossible for an evil jackass to occasionally be right about something.

[John]

"I think it's sad. It sends all the wrong signals," said Robert Turner, co-founder of the Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. "I think what he did was a betrayal of trust, and he's essentially walking on it."

So a law professor who doesn't work for the government professes to know the facts of this case to such a certainty he can say Drake was guilty. By implication does he think that DOJ dropped the case out of kindness? What a turd.

[Ted S.]

Sandy Berger.

[T]

The 5 worst SciFi movies. I actually have no problems with these. These 5 tried to be all sciency and shit, and failed miserably.

[John]

No Battlefield Earth?

[SugarFree]

They were going for "hard sf" movies. BFE is space opera at best.

I agree with the list as well. With The Core being the worst.

Of course, if you are just going after the science and not just the plot/dialogue/acting/etc... Sunshine is probably more scientifically ludicrous than The Core.

[John]

What is hard scifi?

[SugarFree]

It's generally considered SF that at least attempts to make plausible extrapolation of existing technology into the future. Almost all near-future SF is considered Hard SF. But it is a vague term.

[John]

Ah thanks. Speaking of SCI FI. I am going to the beach at the end of the month. I like to read SCI FI about once a year. Any recommendations?

No hard sci fi as you say. No distopian futures. I don't care about the world after the plague or nuclear war or whatever. I want a space opera where man in the future colonizes the galaxy and has lots of cool shit.

Glenn Reynolds is always whoring out for "The Old Man's War". Ever read it? Any good? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I am very poorly read in sci fi, so chances are I haven't read anything you suggest.

And no Heinlein. Don't want something that deep.

[Brett L]

Scalzi is great for light but well-written space opera. OMW and its sequels were pretty damned good.

[SugarFree]

Old Man's War is pretty good. It's a spin on Starship Troopers.

As for what you are asking for... Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan is bad ass, but Chasm City by Alistair Reynolds fits the bill better. Both are pretty long, though.

You might also browse The Skinner by Neal Asher. Lazily (but not inaccurately) described as "Master and Commander meets Dune".

[John]

I read Revalation Spce by Alistair Reynolds on my last trip to the beach. And I liked it. I can read pop sci fi at about the rate of 50 pages an hour. So long is no big deal. Skinner sounds interesting though.

[SugarFree]

Chasm City is set in the same universe as RS.

The Skinner is fantastic. I've read it over a dozen times by now. All of Asher is just plain great, but The Skinner is his masterpiece so far.

[Tacos mmm...]

I assume you've read all of Iain Banks?

[SugarFree]

Yup. Did you get to Surface Detail yet? I was very happy with it.

[robc]

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge.

Won the Prometheus Award for best Libertarian Sci-Fi. It also won the Hugo for best Sci-Fi and was nominated for the Nebula.

It qualifies as hard sci-fi, but its also space opera (Yes, it can be both). Distopian future? Well, there is a bit of that aspect to it, but also a bright future. More of a conflict between two cultures (or 3 really) I would say.

Plus, if a screenplay is ever written the writer could easily slip in the phrase "Fuck off, Slavers!"

[robc]

I want a space opera where man in the future colonizes the galaxy and has lots of cool shit.

Failed to mention, this pretty much describes Deepness.

And for really cool shit (and galaxy colonization and BEYOND), Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep works too. Deepness is the prequel to Fire but they can be read in either order, totally unrelated. Well, almost. 🙂

Applied Theology, nuff said.

[SugarFree]

Theoengineering... The God Engines.

[Isaac Bartram]

John, check out King David's Spaceship and/or Janissaries by Jerry Pournelle. I suspect you might like other works by him but I can't recommend any more since I've just started on his stuff.

And Heinlein isn't all Stranger in a Strange land. Try Double Star.

And, naturally, if you want a break from SF there's nothing better than just about anything by PG Wodehouse. He's not all "Jeeves and Wooster", either. Always got to get in a plug for old Pug.

[robc]

The Mote in God's Eye

Colonizing the galaxy. check.
Cool stuff. check.
Lack of distopian future. check. Although the Moties have some say about that.

Politics that probably is closer to John than me. check. It is Niven and Pournelle after all.

[robc]

Another plus for Mote. John was navy, right?

Navy in Space.

Like pigs or jews, only different.

[John]

I was Army And my parents read Mote back in the 70s. They loved that book. Isn't it the one where the star in a system is actually an alien?

[CrackertyAssCracker]

I second Ian M Banks if you haven't already read him.

[robc]

Sorry about the Army/Navy thing.

Isn't it the one where the star in a system is actually an alien?

Nope. In this one the aliens (Moties) are cut off from rest of galaxy because the only FTL jump point out of their system leads to the interior of a red supergiant. That tends to be bad for the ships.

[robc]

Larry Niven note on The Mote in God's Eye:

"Robert [Heinlein] told us that he could put one terrific blurb on the cover if we made some changes. The first hundred pages had to go ... "

Btw, the blurb, which is there (they cut the pages and rewrote a lot):

"Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." -- Robert Heinlein

Yeah, for that, your cut whatever he says to cut.

[Gray Ghost]

A second vote for Mote. It really is that good. Avoid the sequel, "The Gripping Hand."

I'm surprised that you liked Revelation Space, John, given your stated preferences earlier. I loved it, but I like gothic sci-fi horror. If you liked Revelation Space, then you'll probably like Chasm City, though the setting is pretty dystopic (I think it's Reynolds's take on film noir). Another good one in that universe is The Prefect. The second book in the RS series isn't too bad; the third one is complete shit.

You might like Charles Stross's stuff. The Laundry series from him has been mentioned here before and is utterly hilarious. Not really sci-fi though.

[robc]

Avoid the sequel, "The Gripping Hand."

A friend of mine preferred The Gripping Hand. He was wrong.

However, I really liked the first section on the mormon planet. I thought that should be the basis (and the last in the series) for a Man-Kzin War style spinoff of The Adventures of Bury and Renner.

Let other authors write novellas and package them 3-4 in a book. Larry & Jerry cash the checks.

[Brett L]

However, the phrasing "on the one hand, on the other hand, on the gripping hand" added to this universe makes the sequel a worthwhile addition to the sci-fi canon.

[db]

+1
I loved Mote, don't remember much of Hand, but I love that phrase.

[Brett L]

Hard sci-fi attempts to follow most laws of physics/science. Some stretching is allowed. FTL travel and some other tropes can be hand-waved in, but for the most part you have to extrapolate from science as we know it. Soft sci-fi or space opera focuses less on getting the science right and more on telling a story with cool effects.

[dbcooper]

Sunshine has gotta be one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. Horrible.

[Joe M]

You mean we couldn't bomb the Sun stronger?

[Brett L]

The Core has The. Worst. "Science". Evar. Even reading the whole unobtanium thing as a long running genre joke instead of criminal script writing laziness.

[SugarFree]

Since I have not see 2012 I wasn't sure of the premise:

neutrinos from a massive solar flare are causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase

That's pretty damn stupid.

[Brett L]

Yep. Maybe I should say the technology of The Core is what gets me hot. It is fucking terrible.

[proegg antichicken]

And John Cusack in a movie where 90% of the time is spent running/flying away from disaster explosions is pretty stupid too.

As far as post-apocalyptic films, I found Book of Eli to be offensively stupid.

[SugarFree]

I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it yet. There it sits on the TiVo, daring me to subject myself to it.

[Brett L]

"John Cusack in a movie where 90% of the time is spent running/flying away from disaster explosions is pretty stupid too."

If you change "away" to "towards" you've got a pretty good summary of Con Air.

[SugarFree]

My take on Con Air: DIABETES DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!

[proegg antichicken]

All these examples just prove that Independence Day is a stunning masterpiece.

[robc]

Independence Day has no rewatchability in my opinion. One shot only.

[Troy]

I hate to admit it, but I like this movie. I am not a fan of the bible, but I would still have one in my library.

And I like the part in 2012, where the dude refuses to burn the Gutenburg Bible. I would have went straight for the tax code. That'd keep you warm for a millennium.

[SFC B]

I lost my mind when he outran an eruption of the Yellow Caldera in a motor home. Over improved-surface roads.

[Sean]

I felt the Book of Eli was worth watching for the parts where Denzel Washington chops off people's fucking arms with a fucking machete.

[proegg antichicken]

I don't know about that list, I saw Supernova.

[SugarFree]

Considering the FTL jumps drives and "9th dimensional matter" alien MacGuffin, I don't think they were going for Hard SF.

What's the failure rate on SF/Horror? 80%? 90%?

[robc]

Niven and Pournelle's Mote universe has FTL jump drives. But they apparently did multiple pages of differential equations to figure out how they work, so I think it still qualifies as hard sf.

[SugarFree]

I don't think FTL automatically disqualifies a work for HSF. (Some do.) But that movie is just using sciencey sounding words. In fact, all those movies mentioned are just using sciencey sounding words.

I'm not a HSF partisan. I love Philip K. Dick, for example, and he didn't give a fig for scientific accuracy.

[robc]

Im a sucker for hsf and space opera. I think its why Im pimping Vinge up in the thread, in that Fire and Deepness are both.

Also probably why Im a big Niven fan. He gets the science right but it doesnt get in the way of the story.

[Brett L]

Yeah. I think there are lots of ways to posit FTL from current known physics. Or just don't use it as central piece. Stross's Singularity Sky has it done through the same sort of jump drive manifold space deal as the Motie universe, but you can't maintain quantum encryption. An interesting caveat and useful plot device. The real test for me in hard sci-fi is does the science relevant to the plot have some foundation in what we know, and is it a reasonable extrapolation.

[Cytotoxic]

I kind of liked Mission to Mars! It was Red Planet or some such terrible Mars movie that had-serially-a Kung Fu robot and that should've been on the list instead.

[db]

I was in Columbus, Ohio on business yesterday, and we took some folks out to lunch at a local cafeteria style barbecue restaurant. On the wall was a photo that gave me pause, and the more I looked at it, the more I despaired.

You may be famiiar with the kind of high school football promotional poster in which the team is placed in some thematic arrangement (such as all being dressed in formal wear in sort of a James Bond theme with some sort of textual comment on the team's general suavity, or dressed as construction workers with a comment like "soandso HS Football 2011: Building on Excellence" or some such puffery.

The photo I saw was as such: the entire team dressed in black BDU style pants, arrayed among the local SWAT team's equipment and vehicles. At least onee team member wielded a battering ram, and other things like riot shields were displayed in a threatening manner by various players. I did not notice any holding weapons, but i didnt have very long to scrutinize the photo.

What struck me most about the picture was the motto: "Suchandsuch High School Football 2010: No Shame. No Mercy." Just where are we going as a society when we promote both high school sports teams an police forces with such concepts?

If anyone has seen this photo and knows where to find it online, please post a link here--I can't find it on a cursory Google search, and didn't think to photograph it when I saw it.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Does anyone else get those ads that show a stereotypical jackbooted thug with pistol in hand and a sportscar with a light bar on it, with the "train to join the police/FBI today and make $65k/year!" captions?

My first thought: anyone who's attracted by the imagery in this ad should not be in a position of power over others.

Second: this must be effective on some people otherwise I wouldn't keep seeing the ad.

[Citizen Nothing]

Which restaurant, db?

[db]

City Barbecue, somewhere near the airport.

[db]

I think the town name was Gehenna or Gehanna or something similar.

[Matrix]

wow, the name says it all!

[db]

I'm not sure how one would differentiate it from Ohio as a whole...

[Rhywun]

Sports has long used war/military imagery. That's what SWAT is, and everybody knows it.

[db]

Of course; since sporting competitions all boil down to surrogates for combat. That doesn't change the facts that:
1. SWAT represents the expanding use of military force in domestic policing practice, which is morally problematic;
2. Associating high school sports with this kind of thing should not be taken lightly; and
3. Using the ridiculously over-the-top motto "No Shame. No Mercy" is surreally frightening in the context. It's more appropriate to apply to a medieval torturer/executioner than to either of two organizations that should represent either sportsmanship and fair competition, or honor and upholding of the law.

[P Brooks]

Jim Brady, who sustained a debilitating head wound

How could they tell?

[Monty]

Nice, Brooks

[Sean]

I LOL'd heartily

[John]

From James Toranto Yesterday

Can't Same-Sex-Marriage Advocates Be Hypocrites?
Yesterday we dissected the hypocrisy of feminists who are supporting Anthony Weiner the Turgid Tweeter. Megan McArdle of The Atlantic notes that the scandal also exposes the hypocrisy of advocates of same-sex marriage who claim "that it's nobody's business but the couple's whether people keep their marriage vows":

Andrew [Sullivan] has been a great proponent of gay marriage--not civil unions, but marriage. Why was it so important to call it marriage, if everything about it is entirely private? Why not stop with legal equality and leave marriage to the heterosexuals? If all the benefits are private, then a combination of legal visitation/property sharing rights, and whatever private arrangements the two parties choose to make, should be more than sufficient.
Sullivan comrade Glenn Greenwald responds:

McArdle has absolutely no idea what vows Weiner and his wife have made to each other, and she shouldn't know, because it's none of her business, despite her eagerness to learn about it and publicly condemn it. Even if she had any idea of what she was talking about--and she plainly doesn't--nothing is less relevant than Megan McArdle's views of the arrangement Anthony Weiner and his wife have for their marriage and whether each partner is adhering to that arrangement.
When opponents of same-sex marriage are caught violating their vows, proponents tell us it is relevant because it shows that those opponents are hypocritical in claiming to be serious about the institution of marriage. When the likes of Sullivan and Greenwald defend Weiner, they reveal exactly the same thing about themselves. It isn't that they care about marriage, which they are happy to reduce to a mere "arrangement," but that they refuse to tolerate it as a heterosexual institution.

[Joe M]

After you get your sugar pucks, be sure to pick up a can of this dipping sauce.

[Koan]

@db . . . I'm telling you, each day that passes is one day closer to a permanent move to Switzerland or Australia. I've had enough. Now it's just a matter of time - and convincing the wife to leave her family behind.

[OO]

switzerland's more fun if ur single. 'sides wives dont want to leave mom & will change their minds even if they say they will go.

[P Brooks]

Which restaurant, db?

I smell PULITZER.

[Koan]

Yes, the wife is the major problem - and you nailed it with her not wanting to leave her mom. I've basically said "fuck your family! Would you stay with your mom if you had the chance to flee if it ever got as bad as "_________" (fill in the blank with your
totalitarian era/nation of choice). This gets the eye-rolling, change the subject treatment.

[OO]

maybe offer her a timeline like 3-5 yrs. even then she may well run the phone bill up & chg her mind. guess where ur vacs are gonna be even tho ur living in europe

[Troy]

BTW, Dune is the best sci-fi book ever.

[Brett L]

Honestly, I'd vote for Singularity Sky, A Deepness in the Sky, or Perdido Street Station over Dune. And I read the shit out of it. Literally read the cover off the first paperback copy I had.

[db]

I've always thought Herbert's The Dragon in the Sea is a great example of blending a psychological thriller with near future sci-fi.

[Trespassers W]

All good choices, Brett.

You all know there's a sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep coming out this year, right?

[Brett L]

You didn't hear my fanboi "Squee!" wherever you live? I'm surprised.

[Rhywun]

Also squee. I didn't know about this.

[robc]

Im mixed about the sequel.

I love the Fire universe, but the way the novel ended, I worry about a sequel screwing things up.

[spoiler warning, dont read below this point if you dont want some bits of Fire spoiled]

The slow zone shouldnt recede too fast and without having wiped out billions of civilizations. The Tines world at least shouldnt be coming back out of the slow zone for a while.

I like Vinge but not sure where he can take the story. That said, Im gonna buy it.

[Gray Ghost]

I wouldn't call it or Singularity Sky the best sci-fi book ever (hard to pick just one, but if I had to, I'd probably pick Mote for that title), but Iron Sunrise, the sequel to Singularity Sky, is well worth your time.

Too bad that Stross has said he's pretty much done with that universe for now.

[Brett L]

His reasons are good, though. Iron Sunrise kind of fucked the premise of the universe from the first paragrah. Excellent story, but it destroyed the coherence of the universe. That's about as much as I can argue without spoilers. And why I recommend SS instead.

[lunchstealer]

i would just like to point out that, in my considered opinion, fuck you, rick fucking perry.

[R C Dean]

I want a space opera where man in the future colonizes the galaxy and has lots of cool shit.

Jack Vance is your man, then. Plenty of real golden age stuff - great fun, perfect for the beach. His Demon Princes novels are one of the pinnacles of space opera.

Of his more recent work, I like the Cadwal Chronicles.

For more fantasy-oriented, you can't beat the Dying Earth or the Lyonesse books.