Reason Morning Links: Public Sector Unions, Gay Marriage, C.I.A. Informants, Hugh Hefner, Drugs, and Mummies

• Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstates controversial public sector union law.  

• "Gay jurist in Proposition 8 case had no legal obligation to remove himself, judge rules."

• Pakistan arrests five C.I.A. informants who assisted in the raid on Osama bin Laden.

• Food and Drug Administration bans the term "sunblock" from sunscreen labels.

• Former cop describes the war on drugs as the "worst piece of public policy since slavery."

• Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dumped by 25-year-old fiancée.

• "During the Victorian Era, people would acquire mummies and unwrap them at parties. This was before television."

The latest from Reason.tv: "Nick Gillespie & Matt Welch Preview The Declaration of Independents."

Comments

[ML Addict]

I see the beatings worked!

[Bee Tagger]

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dumped by 25-year-old fianc?.

Sell your Playboy stock if you have any. This is as clear of an indication they're going bankrupt as you can get.

[rather]

Don't be so unromantic 😉

[jacob]

+10

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

Golden Girls on Gay Marriage

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

Breitbart.tv ? 'Golden Girls' Star Bea Arthur Dead at 86

[Abdul]

When is the mummy un-wrapping party?

[Bea Arthur]

I was already dead. Wasn't I?

[Anonymous Coward]

Omae wa mo shindeiru.

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

26 Shockingly Offensive Vintage Ads That Would Never Fly Today

Paulie Krugnuts: Left wing fearmongering is all the justification left wing fearmongering needs.

[John]

I love those old ads. Was there anyone in the 1950s who didn't spank their wife? I didn't know BDSM was such a big deal back then.

[Brett L]

This was before chocolate was cheap and Oprah was on TV to give women a way of venting their hysterical humors. They had to be spanked regularly.

[John]

See e.g. Rather.

[Brett L]

Not with your hand.

[MJ]

See John Wayne movies with Maureen O'Hara...

[Tennessee]

L[o][n]gt[o]rs[o], you're going down for posting those offensive images.

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

Krugnuts, or the ads?

[Tennessee]

Yes!

[wylie]

"More doctors smoke Camels..."

Great, now I have to go buy that poster.

[Lord Humungus]

We should mandate smoking to reduce SS costs.

[wylie]

No, no. We should mandate smoking because of the extra medical jobs it creates. Oh, wait, we can totally combine the two ideas.

[Lord Humungus]

it's win-win!

[Pain]

It's all about the T-zone!

I remember running in to one of these when looking back through some of the old Popular Science magazines.

[Joe M.]

The Van Heusen ads are amazingly wrong.

[Pain]

"Men are better than women! Indoors women are useful - even pleasant."

Indeed.

[SugarFree]

Safeguard her dainty feminine allure... by douching with Lysol.

"Damn girl, you smell like a hospital mop."

[PapayaSF]

In the '20s Listerine was advertised as "safe for any body cavity."

[wylie]

For a minty-fresh rimjob.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Man, that stings!

I used to work with a guy whose wife worked for Warner-Lambert (maker of Listerine) in the department that took complaints and reports of adverse reactions to their products. On more than one occasion, they received reports that a woman gave her guy a BJ right after rinsing with Listerine, leading to "chemical burns" on the guy's Representative Anthony W.

[MJ]

And invoked rage in Nucky Thompson.

[Pip]

"Mammy sent dis ovah,"

Wow. Just wow.

[wylie]

My desire to shop that one into an "Obama '12" poster is very strong.

[Ray]

'Blow in Her Face and She'll Follow You Anywhere...'

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sums up my technique perfectly

[R C Dean]

I know that works for horses and dogs. Never thought of trying it on the, err, fairer sex.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Dude....wtf?

[Anonymous Coward]

Pale Face, my skin is dark, but my heart is white.

Ummm....What?

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

Big drop in solar activity could mean much cooler Earth
Scientists say the Sun, which roils with flares and electromagnetic energy every 11 years or so could go into virtual hibernation after the current cycle of high activity, reducing temperatures on Earth.

As the current sunspot cycle, Cycle 24, begins to ramp up toward maximum, scientists from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory independently found that the Sun's interior, visible surface, and corona indicate that the next 11-year solar sunspot cycle, Cycle 25, will be greatly reduced or may not happen at all....

[IPCC]

See, the hockey stick was right. It's not our fault that the only hockey stick clip art available is right-handed.

[Restoras]

+1

[Matrix]

If the Earth cools, the econuts will claim their greeniac crap is working.

[Gilbert Martin]

Even though it wasn't actually implemented.

But then, facts never faze the true believers in any religion.

[hazeeran]

I read that as the greenies will blame the cooling on the warming.

[Tncm]

Even if you did read it wrong that's still right.

[Joe M.]

Meh, except according to them, we haven't implemented any of it, not really.

[JoshInHB]

If the Earth cools, the econuts will claim their greeniac crap is working.

No, they'll claim that it proves AGW is correct and that we have to do something before its too late.

[mr simple]

I'm no alarmist, in fact I'm probably over eager to disprove AGW, but I've been hearing this same "low activity sun cycle coming" story for the last ten years. Is it possible they really don't know?

[Doc S.]

I was thinking the same. Why put anymore faith in people claiming to know the effects and the cyclical behavior of the sun and solar flares than the people that claim to know the effects of our actions on the Earth's climate.
If you're speculative of one due to the complexity you should be quite speculative of the other. Lets use shaky historical data to prove both!

[Brett L]

True, but there's also something inately sensible about changes in the giant fusion ball in the sky's output affecting the Earth's energy balance in a very direct way. Also, we do have direct, historical correlations between lack of observable sunspots and global temperatures cooler than now. That said, energy balances require that lower energy inputs require (if they remain lower for long enough to work through the system) less energy retained in the system, all other things being equal. The whole problem with climate science -- at least the modelling part -- is that "all other things being equal".

[Fatty Bolger]

low activity sun cycle coming

So far it looks like we're in that cycle now. This prediction is that the next cycle's activity will be even lower or possibly non-existent.

[R C Dean]

That's crazy talk. Why would variations in the heat input for a system affect temperature?

[John]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....nd-furious

House releases initial report on ATF gunrunning.

The supervisor of Operation Fast and Furious was "jovial, if not, not giddy but just delighted about" walked guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico according to an ATF agent. (p. 37)

Remember kids this was about keeping guns off the street, not scoring cheap points for the Brady Foundation.

[MNG]

I'm trying to understand the logic offered by the ATF here (my silly need to try to be fair). So what was going on was the ATF "watched loads of legally bought weapons move from straw purchasers to third parties, hoping that the transactions would lead them to bigger criminal targets." Is this like watching low level drug deals in order to tie it back to the kingpin?

[John]

It is like selling heroin and being happy when your heroin shows up in ERs along with dead junkies. The guns were being used to kill people. And these clowns were "giddy about it".

And don't worry. Come January 21st 2013, the other team will be in power and you won't have to defend this kind of stuff anymore.

[MNG]

Can you have one discussion for more than two posts without accusing the person you disagree with of being a partisan/bigot/dishonest etc?

[John]

Stop defending the indefensible.

[MNG]

I'm trying to understand what was going on, I try to do that before I decide to defend or attack something.

[R C Dean]

Its not hard, MNG. The ATF directed hundreds of illegal sales to be made. Now, if they had wanted to shut down a gunrunning network, they didn't need to let nearly that many sales be made. What's more, the ATF has no jurisdiction over the guns once they cross the border, so they can't shut down the Mexican side of the deal. So, they allowed hundreds of guns to be sold into an international network that they can't shut down.

So, the usual law enforcement rationale doesn't apply - too many guns, out of their jurisdiction.

Why would they be giddy about that? Perhaps because the real purpose wasn't law enforcement, it was political.

[Libertymike]

Once again, we learn that there can be no rule of law if the king is the sole arbiter of the same.

[TrickyVic]

Who is this king you speak of?

[MNG]

The phenomenon of "gunwalking" appears to be a standard sting-operation tactic that in this case has gone wildly awry. The idea was that federal authorities would approve firearms purchases that seemed suspicious, and then monitor the buyers to see where the guns ended up. But the scale of the purchases was massive, and the agents on the ground kept anxiously waiting for the order to stop monitoring and intervene, according to stunning accounts from ATF agents and documentation uncovered by CBS News and other sources.

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....m-geraghty

I think a more charitable view might be that this is a VERY questionable somewhat standard operation with plausible legit law enforcement goals but that at the least was terribly overseen allowing much harm and little benefit.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

I think a more charitable view might be that this is a VERY questionable somewhat standard operation with plausible legit law enforcement goals but that at the least was terribly overseen allowing much harm and little benefit.

If even that is the case, why the need to be "charitable".

BATFE is and has been fucked up for a long time now. Anyone who has been paying attention and following various gun blogs and forums is well familir with that fact. There have been several cases in which BATFE pursued criminal enforcement against individuals for illegally converting, possessing or tranferring "fully automatic" firearms, where BATFE's "testing" made the rifle fire more than one round with a single pull of the trigger, or where the rifle simply was broken or defective. These are federal cases that were prosecute as crimes, in federal court, involving significant time in fuck-you-in-the-ass prison.

E.g., you're at the range and a bit on the sear of your semi-auto rifle is worn. You pull the trigger, and instead of just one round shooting, three rounds come out. You say, "Whoa! What the hell? Hey Charlie, check this out." You hand it to Charlie for him to try. He pulls the trigger and three rounds come out instead of just one.

BATFE has argued in that case that you illegally transferred possession of a fully automatic firearm.

The facts of some of their enforcement cases are truly outrageous. The higher-ups also have viciously attempted to destroy the reputations and careers of whistle-blowers who have raised a flag about improper investigations.

Make no mistake - a lot of officials within BATFE are not interested so much in simply "regulating" firearms, but comprehensively controlling and banning them.

[Pip]

The irony. It. Fucking. Burns.

[hazeeran]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBivJPYKf3Q

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

The War on Drugs is an excellent comparison case to the War on Guns, futility and loss of civil rights included.

[Mr. FIFY]

Don't leave out The War on Poverty, JL.

[John Thacker]

Is this like watching low level drug deals in order to tie it back to the kingpin?

Yes, though it's actually even more like "distributing and selling the crack in order to tie it back to the kingpin."

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

More like "selling drugs on the street then using those drugs as an excuse to lobby for more power so you can get drugs off the street"

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

Or like "weigh down the medical insurance industry w/ rules and regulations to the point where you know they will collapse, so you can say the market 'failed' and we must have single payer".

ATF = Saul Alinsky

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

Sorry, that should have been Cloward?Piven above

[MNG]

I'm trying to understand, in what way were they "tying" it to the narcokingpins? They just wanted to show the kingpins were ultimately getting the weapons to...what, get more support to go after them or to make arrests?

[Just an Engineer]

I would guess that the idea was to determine if the strawbuyers were being employed by a gun-smuggling ring controled and organized by a specific cartel or if the strawbuyers were just simple entrepeneurs taking advantage of a market oportunity. If everything ends up in the hands of a specific cartel that suggets an organized criminal effort, if they end up randomly distributed amongst criminals than it's probably not an organized enterprize.

[Brett L]

Sure. In the fact that neither strategy works very well. Also, there's the whole:
1. Sell guns illegally
2. ????
3. Convince the Federales to use this evidence to arrest narcotraficantes in Mexico

[Abdul]

MNG, more seriously, I think that's a good analogy. However, the allegation here is that far more contraband (as well as contraband of a more dangerous nature) was allowed to go then was necessary and safe for the purposes of the investigation.

[cynical]

I think John basically summed it up. Yes, it is like that, except "watching" basically means waiting for people to get killed. The ATF are murderers (though we've known that since the Clinton administration). BATF needs to be erased, as an agency.

[MNG]

I'm no fan of the ATF (who could be after Waco), but even if we lessened restrictions on firearms, alcohol and tobacco there will be some laws about them, they will need enforcing, someone will have to do it.

[Lord Humungus]

like the local police?

[MNG]

As Balko has shown repeatedly, there are likely to be problems there as well...

[Libertymike]

There can be no rule of law if the king is the sole arbiter of the same.

[Trespassers W]

who could be after Waco

Um... our elected officials?

[CrackertyAssCracker]

who could be after Waco

Chuck Schumer.

[cynical]

Given that the constitution explicitly tries to rein in or prohibit federal control over alcohol and firearms, we may as well round up and get rid of its control over tobacco too.

If there are laws, they can be made and enforced at the state or local levels. I don't think the federal authority over these things is legitimate.

[Invisible Finger]

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

OK, let's compromise.

You get a Bureau of F&E, and I get a Bureau of T&A.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

It would not be a problem if (i) the law was reasonable (i.e., none of this "sporting purpose" or "assault weapon" crap and (B) all ATF did was legitimately and fairly enforce the law as plainly written and intended. Instead, BATFE is practically rogue.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

[Rep. Darrell Issa said], "To agents' shock, preventing loss of life was not the primary concern."

Awww, they're so cute when they're naive!

[TRTB]

The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords created a "state of panic" within the group conducting the operation as they initially feared a "walked" gun might have been used. (p. 38)

Whew, thank god that didn't happen. If someone whose life mattered got whacked it might make the whole program look questionable.

[Barack Obama]

This gunwalker problem... the cartel violence is intensifying to the point where we may not be able to contain it.

[Eric Holder]

Why contain it? Let it spill over the schools and churches, let the bodies pile up in the streets. In the end they'll beg us to save them.

[TrickyVic]

""House releases initial report on ATF gunrunning.""

More on the story.
http://cspan.org/Events/Fast-a.....7422274-2/

[Bee Tagger]

I don't think it's appropriate for the LA Times to put a picture of the Judge mockingthe gay jurist at the top of the article.

[Barack Obama]

"President Obama, when criticized for rushing into Libya, you stated that you were 'not going to wait for the slaughter, it was about saving lives,'" Franklin continued, "Well, Mr. President we're right in the middle of a massive slaughter [caused by drug illegality] right now. What do you intend to do about it?"

Let me be clear.

This slaughter must end. I will spare no expense in deploying 100,000 new drug enforcement agents.

[MNG]

Sandy Levinson on the Militarization of the American Hero

...viewers of the Republican debate were treated to what has become a standard trope in American politics: A retired military officer (with two sons serving in the armed forces) asked a good question about why we're still in Afghanistan. Rather than answer it, the candidates began with lavish praise of the military officer for having served his country and countenanced the "sacrifice," both metaphorical and perhaps literal, of his two children. I don't want to denigrate those who serve. But, just once, I'd like to see a candidate, asked a question by a school teacher faced with the loss of his/her job because of insane budget cuts (in Texas and elsewhere) and wondering if any sane country would so destroy its public school system, refer to the teacher as an "American hero" without whom this country would be far worse off. General practitioners who accept Medicare patients increasingly count as American heroes, and so on. I recall some of Jesse Jackson's great speeches about the people who actually work in nursing homes or even clean our hotel rooms, and so on. But I am afraid we're getting more and more militarized, so that to be a recognized "hero," one has to be willing to kill and risk being killed (though some would say, of course, that the principal mission of the modern Army is becoming nation-building).

http://balkin.blogspot.com/

Don't have to agree with his specific examples, could add your own different ones (entrepeneurs), and the general point still stands nicely.

[John]

It is because all of the other institutions of our society, education, the courts, our government, the Police, have broken down so badly. The military is all that is left. And yeah it is a great idea to hold up entrepreneurs as heroes. But Hollywood has spent fifty years making movies showing business and all economic activity as evil.

[MNG]

You might be suprised to find I think that view is too simplistic. Hollywood certainly has its share of business bad guys, but it also has a common trope of the good guy businessman who helps save the day. In the Iron man movies you have business baddies like Justin Hammer but goodies like Tony Stark, or in Tommy Boy you have baddies like Ackroyd but good examples like Tommy's dad. And so on.

[John Thacker]

Can you point to the time in American history when praising our soldiers as heroes was *not* the standard trope?

[MNG]

Couldn't it have always been a standard trope but if other occupations suddenly don't receive praise then we could experience a militarization of the American Hero, in the sense that it becomes a more exclusive military province?

[John]

Yes, of course that could be it. And it probably is. But sadly, even though you have figured this out, you will never get to the final step of figuring out why the other occupations don't get praise anymore. It is because the Left has spent 70 years destroying every institution it could get its slimy paws on. The military is the only one that has gone largely untouched.

[MNG]

You mentioned the police, are you contending the radical Left is in charge of the police? And I mentioned entrepenuers, is the radical Left in charge of them?

[John]

The Left is in charge of Hollywood, which is a huge part of our culture and how we view things. And Hollywood has spend decades making movies showing business as the bad guy.

I would say cops are probably held in almost as high of esteem as the military. And TV shows like CSI have a lot to do with that.

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

It is because the Left has spent 70 years destroying every institution it could get its slimy paws on

John, if it doesn't feed their left wing egos, it doesn't deserve to exist.

And YOU'RE the one who is selfish.

[Apostate Jew]

Dude, you are really getting paranoid.

[Restoras]

I dunno, maybe the late 70's when they took the fall for inept political and military leadership?

[MNG]

I would think the military would take the fall for inept military leadership.

[Restoras]

I'm speaking of those that do the heavy lifting, not the fellows charged with responsibilities of leadership.

[WTF]

The Vietnam era springs to mind.

[JoshInHB]

Can you point to the time in American history when praising our soldiers as heroes was *not* the standard trope?

Sure, from the late sixties to 1991 the military was portrayed as evil and personnel in the military as stupid, evil or victims.

That changed with the success of Dessert Storm.

[MNG]

"That changed with the success of Dessert Storm."

I think that day they stormed the torte cake all Americans were proud.

[Libertymike]

MNG-

I have never bought the narrative that Gordon Gekko was conceived to be a one dimensional evildoin' businessman by Oliver Stone.

The context in which Gekko asseverates that "greed is good" is too often forgotten. You may recall that he was speaking at a stockholders' meeting regarding his take-over bid of a company. You may also recall that Gekko pointed to the assemblage of directors and executive officers and told them that they were deadweight and that as far as he could see, all they did was exchange letters and memos between themselves.

Like other raiders, Gekko recognized that there were too many publicly traded companies carrying a surfeit of parasites on the payroll, particlularly in management. Casting aside this deadweight is a POSITIVE.

IMO, Wall Street captured the reality that publicly traded companies in which manangement supercedes ownership is bad, in and of itself, for business and the economy.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

"Other People's Money" >> "Wall Street".

Big time.

[R C Dean]

Can you point to the time in American history when praising our soldiers as heroes was *not* the standard trope?

The '70s through, say, the '90s, perhaps.

[TrickyVic]

""Can you point to the time in American history when praising our soldiers as heroes was *not* the standard trope?""

Vietnam war?

[Invisible Finger]

[Invisible Finger]

Hmm, my comment lost in the ether. But TrickyVic said it anyway.

[John]

Hollywood has made entire movies with the sole purpose of lying and demonizing business, (Norma Rae, Erin Brokovich, The China Syndrome, Wall Street,) the list goes on and on. If you think Hollywood is "pro business" you live in a worse bubble than even I thought you did.

[MNG]

And it has made movies glamorizing entrepenuers like the Aviator. I think it tends to demonize quicker than glamorize, but it's a mixed bag.

Look at a classic like It's a Wonderful Life. Mr. Potter is an anti-business trope, but Stewart's character is an entrepeneur and the hero.

[John]

Different world in the 40s. I am speaking about the last 50 years.

[MNG]

I gave you contemporary examples above.

[hazeeran]

The Aviator "glamorized" an entrepreneur who was batty.

[wylie]

In the Iron man movies you have business baddies like Justin Hammer but goodies like Tony Stark

Yeah, I guess, after he repented and renounced his former life of war-profiteering. He's still not exactly a shining example of a Good Guy.

[wylie]

(oh, and after the repentance, he wasn't really much of a businessman anymore either, so, yeah, not a Good Guy Businessman in any sense)

[Brett L]

Plus he continued to invent really cool weapons, he just refused to sell them to other people to preserve his monopoly on the technology.

[Anonymous Coward]

Movie! Tony Stark kind of renounced the "evils" of his business empire and washed his hands of the filthy lucre of commerce by giving control of the business to Pepper Potts.

Comics! Iron Man has invaded the Soviet Union and attacked government agents for possessing cheap knock-offs of "his" Iron Man armor (see Armor Wars). During Civil War, he took billions in federal dollars (rent-seeking is okay) to build a prison in the Negative Zone for superhumans (space Gitmo FTW).

[Trespassers W]

it also has a common trope of the good guy businessman who helps save the day

Citation needed from TVTropes. Find the trope (if there's one, let alone more than one), then let's see how many examples there are compared to the evil-businessman trope (of which I'd expect there to be multiple variants).

Seriously. The site is blocked at work, and I admit to the possibility that my memory is selective. But I don't buy it. You give two examples, one of which is a notable outlier (Tony Stark) and the other of which dies early in the movie (ooh, spoiler alert) and so can hardly save any day.

[MNG]

I don't think TVTropes is supposed to be exhaustive. I said it's common and mentioned a few examples right off my head. How silly would it be for me to spend my day looking up examples, listing them, only to have you debate them, move the goalposts, etc. We all can think of movies that have a positive wealthy or businessperson in them (though of course they are usually portrayed as altruistic, more laid back businesspersons

[Doc S.]

TOMMY WANT WINGY

[MNG]

And why do American's feel that of all our institutions the military has escaped breaking down badly? The military has its fair share of screw ups in recent history (from things like Tailhook to killing civilians in our current wars to considerable blunders in waging counter-insurgency wars for the past few years).

[Restoras]

Perhaps because it is more of a meritocracy than, say, teaching?

[MNG]

Yeah, the military is a smooth meritocracy...This is the institution that filed amicus briefs in support of affirmative action years ago.

[Restoras]

Did I say smooth meritocracy? No, I didn't, as a matter of fact, I merely stated that it is more of a meritocracy.

Thanks for putting the words in my mouth though.

[Pip]

That's just what he does.

[MNG]

And this type of pedantry is what Pip does.

[MNG]

Good lord, if you take the word smooth out little is changed.

Few large bureaucracies are meritocratic.

[sarcasmic]

Most anything is more of a meritocracy than teaching.

[SugarFree]

Teaching is a mediocracy.

Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk.

[sarcasmic]

idiocracy

[SFC B]

The American people don't feel the brunt of military mistakes (Tailhook-groping notwithstanding). When schools pump out cities full of functionally illiterate graduates and the police are outted for their overtime abuses the American people feel it.

If a couple of mistargetted JDAMs fell on houses in Oklahoma City instead of some village in Afghanistan I bet the military's image would suffer considerably.

The military is careful about maintaing its image among the American people. We do take extraordinary measures to avoid incidents which will tarnish that, but we are not perfect. The American people are far-enough removed from what the military does that the people who "oppose" the military are the people who would do so regardless.

[Pope Jimbo]

MNG,

I think that there are a lot more people who did a single hitch in the service and then got out than you realize.

Those of us who did may not have liked the service when we were in, but we look back fondly at it (I even laugh about boot camp now).

Most people also realize what a real sacrifice it is to serve. Not only can you end up dead, but you give up some very fundamental rights. That is why people respect the folk in the armed services (my $.02 anyways).

[MNG]

"Most people also realize what a real sacrifice it is to serve. Not only can you end up dead, but you give up some very fundamental rights."

Agreed.

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

The teachers destroyed the school system, thus their lack of hero status.

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

[Restoras]

A+

[Mike M.]

The notion that public school teachers are or ever were "heroes", ugh.

I have nothing at all against teachers, but I swear, no group of people in the entire country has a more overinflated sense of self-importance.

[Doc S.]

Professional Athletes?
I have plenty of friends in the NFL, but i'll be damned if there weren't some cocky assholes i played with in college.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I have nothing at all against teachers, but I swear, no group of people in the entire country has a more overinflated sense of self-importance.

Surely you must have forgotten about doctors?

[Another Phil]

Pretty smug for someone who apparently has no idea what kind of training it takes to become a doctor.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Don't even try to claim that. Almost my entire family is in medicine, so I most definately know that one can go through a massive amount of training to become a doctor and still have an overinflated sense of self-importance/belief that expertise in one field confers expertise in all others.

[John Thacker]

How exactly are we "getting more and more militarized?" Praising soldiers has always been a standard trope in American politics. In the 19th century, how many of our Presidents were such because they were successful generals? (And then there was Eisenhower.) "Waving the bloody shirt" was a successful tactic for years.

The (much praised) end of the draft means that we're considerably *less* militarized. A far fewer percentage of people have military service, especially as WWI and WWII vets pass on.

Actually, I'd say that the reason that the military person is praised so much is more precisely that, that it's because fewer people have that experience, so those who volunteer to do so are seen more as heroes, because they didn't have to go. It's particularly necessary for the politicians who send them to war to praise them when the politicians lack war experience themselves.

Also, it's cheaper to praise than to raise pay-- if you don't think that teachers come in for overwhelming praise as heroes, you're being silly.

[MNG]

"The (much praised) end of the draft means that we're considerably *less* militarized."

That's a good point.

Another indicator might be the % of our budget or overall GDP that goes to the military compared to past years.

"if you don't think that teachers come in for overwhelming praise as heroes"

Haven't heard it from major GOP figures recently, but maybe so.

[Brett L]

I think a better formulation might be that nearly everyone has one (or more) teachers they would praise as heroes, the problem is that it tends to be a relatively small percentage of all teachers who are on those lists.

[X]

The teachers are going to have to stop praising themselves as heroes for a second if they want anyone else to.

[sarcasmic]

Please explain to me why killing people for politicians is noble.

[MNG]

I think it has something to do with being willing to put your actual life on the line. Teachers and entrepenuers might do great things but few put their lives on the line.

[sarcasmic]

Kill a man and you're a murderer.
Kill a million and you're a conqueror.
Kill them all and you're a god.

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

+1

[Mr. FIFY]

But if you kill them all, you have to sort them out.

But, being a god, that should be easy work.

[John]

Because it means you don't have to do it.

[sarcasmic]

Politicians are the scum of the earth.

So why do we as a society hold people in high regard for volunteering to kill people as directed by scumbag politicians?

I don't get it.

[John]

Politicians are a nec3essary scum. Get rid of the them and the government and they are replaced by warlords who are even worse.

[sarcasmic]

That is a false dichotomy and does not answer my question.

[John]

It is not false. Every place in history either had central governments or warlords. Those are the only options.

[sarcasmic]

Your conclusion is your premise.

I believe you are begging the question.

[hazeeran]

Midieval Iceland?

[John]

No. My conclusion is from history. Show me an exception. The reason why central governments arose was primarily to stop the local warlord (or in Europe the nobility). They were the real tyrants.

[sarcasmic]

"The reason why central governments arose..."

No! That's impossible! Before central governments there were no historical examples of central government, therefor they never could possibly have come into existence because without a historical example it can't happen!

[John]

Read the history of the "monarchs revolution" in Europe in the 16th century. Read the history of the 100 years war and the war of the roses sometime. Life without some kind of central government and by local war lord sucks. The local guy just oppresses and taxes the hell out of everyone to fight his neighbors. And then when he isn't doing that, the mercenaries he hired demand protection money in return for not burning the town down. Central governments arose primarily as an answer to that.

[sarcasmic]

Ask someone in the 16th century about the alternatives to monarchy and I'm sure they would have outlined for you the principles of representative democracy and separation of powers.
Or maybe not.
Probably not.
Being that they could not have given a detailed and viable alternative to monarchy, by your logic monarchy is the only possible form of government.

[John]

You really wouldn't want to live or try to run a business in the world of Game of Thrones. Makes for good fiction but a really shitty life.

[sarcasmic]

You are telling me that there are no alternatives to warlords or central governments because there is no historical example of something different.

At one time there were no historical examples of an alternative to warlords.

By your logic central governments should never have come into existence.

Your argument is a fallacy.

[pistoffnick]

If the only choices on the menu are a shit sandwich or a turd burger, maybe its time to try a different restaurant.

[Somalia]

I LOOM LARGE!

[Anoynmous Coward]

Because you are distracting the people from the fact that most pols are blindingly incompetant, or the scandal of having been caught in bed with a dead girl.

Killing brown people for your philosopher-kings is doing God's work.

[TrickyVic]

""How exactly are we "getting more and more militarized?"""

Increase demand for Para-military SWAT teams?

[Fluffy]

I think the really easy and obvious difference here is that the great disparity between the potential sacrifice someone in the military might make and the pecuniary rewards of service makes it easier to avoid cynicism.

There's a lot more obvious venality involved in being a teacher than in being a private in the Marine Corps. I'm not going to call teachers heroes until the rubber room in NYC is closed.

And the GP who takes Medicare looks less like a hero than a patsy to me. (I know some people consider military volunteers to be patsies, too, but I don't think it's comparable. We'd have a military regardless of the policies pursued by any particular administration. We need Medicare patsies only because of specific policy fuckups, and if you don't think those fuckups are good things, then the GP patsies helping to enable the overall system aren't heroes.)

[Abdul]

There's all that and the difference between rushing a machine gun nest and rushing a spitball fight.

[SugarFree]

There are a portion of people trapped in Medicaid and Medicare because of the extreme distortion of the medical economy wrought by constant and profound governmental interference and regulation. Caring for those people for below-distorted-market remuneration is a noble act.

[MNG]

"I'm not going to call teachers heroes until the rubber room in NYC is closed."

The rubber room was the result of a contractual obligation (a person could not be fired until certain due process was followed).

[Mr. FIFY]

Then the due process, er, process needs to be sped the fuck up.

[MNG]

Welcome to bureaucracy, speeding up process is not one of its strong suits. But that is true for any bureaucracy, courts, military, etc.

[Mr. FIFY]

That's no excuse, MNG. Either fire them, or don't. Paying them to sit in a room is bullshit.

[cynical]

And that contractual obligation came out of what, thin air? Rather than at the behest of teachers?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It represents a country that is philosophically bankrupt.

[TRTB]

Cops and fire, uh, persons are lauded as heroes more or less constantly. I think that guy that landed a plane in the Hudson got some attention too.

I'm not sure that doctoring, teachering, or middle-managering rise to the level of the heroic very much. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them. If anything, I'd say we could work on our collective appreciation of people who aren't "heroic" rather than trying to redefine the term.

(Cue Tina Turner.)

[Virginia]

yeah, the asskissing is annoying. it's hard to praise someone signing up for a free education, meals included, and access to cutting edge weapons and communications that's running off to empire build. do i blame them? no. sounds like fun.

now the guy that's able to run a profitable business in our litigious, over-regulated society and pays the taxes that pay the military and teachers is admirable.

[Matt XIV]

I think the use of the word "hero" specifically tends be restricted to people who put themselves in harms way as part of their jobs, so firefighters, military and cops will probably be the only professions that get it applied on a regular basis. But teachers, small business owners, farmers, and nurses can expect the same style of ass-kissing of their profession in order to avoid answering substantial but politically tricky questions - if the only quibble is that they don't get called "heroes" specifically in said lavishing of praise, that's a pretty insubstantial matter.

[John]

Righthaven goes down. My God what kind of a douche do you have to be to make the Democratic Underground seem righteous?

http://claytonecramer.blogspot.....o-sue.html

[John Thacker]

Other news:

With the book report deadline coming up on Friday and the House voting (3:2, equal proportions of both parties) to ban Libya funding from the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill (main DoD bill comes up in two weeks), Boehner sent a strongly worded letter saying that President Obama would be in violation of the War Powers Resolution by Friday.

Also, the Senate failed to immediately repeal the ethanol tax credit, 40-59. 34 Republicans voted for repeal, and 5 Democrats plus Liberman. Most Democrats voted against repeal because Coburn had used a procedural trick in order to get the thing up for a vote, and there was tremendous pressure from the Democratic leadership to have Democrats vote against. They want to protect the prerogatives of the majority (and especially the leadership) in scheduling all the votes.

[John]

The 59 who voted for it are nothing but disgraces. There is no defending big ethanol beyond just saying "they paid me a lot of money to do this". Assholes.

[MNG]

There is no defense other than saying they paid me money to do this? I'm against the ethanol policy, but I realize that arguments for it (environmental, oil independence, etc) can be made other than that.

[John]

It is bad for the environment. Big ethanol is destroying the water supply in the midwest. Ethanol is mostly water. That water has to come from somewhere. And it is driving up the cost of food all over the world.

There is not a single valid argument for it.

[MNG]

"There is not a single valid argument for it."

Supporters argue it can foster energy independence and reduce carbon emissions.

[John]

Neither of which are true. It takes more carbon to produce it than it saves. So even if you believe in that cult, it is still a bad idea.

Even the greens admit they were suckered by the idea. It is just idiotic. Again, if you are in love with biofuel, buy it from Brazil. It is much more efficient to make the stuff out of sugar. And I kind of like the idea of there still being ground water in Iowa in 20 years.

[MNG]

"Neither of which are true."

It must be nice to be able to quickly declare so many raging debates over and solved. If only you were the philosopher king John everything would be OK, since you know the right answer to all this stuff.

[Mr. FIFY]

Butanol is a much better alternative. Fuck the whole ethanol-as-fuel thing, and explore this alternative.

[R C Dean]

Perhaps the fact that there is a raging debate over it is a good reason not to ensconce it as government policy.

[MNG]

Sure, but when there is a raging debate some people are going to come down on either side without being corrupt liars. Some of those might be legislators.

[MJ]

Is it a raging debate because the contention that corn derived ethanal is an inefficient fuel soource controversial, or because ethanol supports have become an entrenched entitlement for a politically important group?

[John]

If you want biofuel, use Brazilian sugar. It is much more efficient and less damaging to the environment.

[robc]

Except for the sugar tariffs, which make it expensive to import.

[John]

Wow. maybe we should get rid of those while we are at it.

[Ska]

Brazilian sugar? Is that like Colombian fish scale?

[rather]

Poor Hugh. I heard one of the use drug shortages was a blue pill. I blame the FDA for the broken romance

[rather]

Society would visit insane asylums for entertainment too

[John]

Because it means you don't have to do it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Food and Drug Administration bans the term "sunblock" from sunscreen labels.

I don't know why the government doesn't just blow up the sun and be done with it. It causes so many problems. They did it with those levees, so why not the sun?

[Brett L]

Nuking a giant, unlicensed fusion reactor seems like it might have a large downside....

[Getter Dunn]

Well, encase it in concrete, then.

[Fist of Etiquette]

We won't know what's in it until we blow it up.

[hazeeran]

I see what you did there.

[Freeman Dyson]

You know, you might be on to something there.

[Fist of Etiquette]

DYSON SPHERE!

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

During the Victorian Era, people would acquire mummies and unwrap them at parties.

Now we just keep giving shows to Joan Rivers.

[Bee Tagger]

Joan Rivers is hilarious. I will not tolerate anyone who thinks otherwise.

That may sound like sarcasm but it isn't.

[Michael]

Totally agreed. I'll even one-up that by proclaiming her to be not only riotously funny but a modern individualist hero as well. I also cannot recommend the recent documentary about her strongly enough.

[Attila the Huh]

American officials are now scrambling to find temporary jobs for about 50 Special Forces support personnel who had been helping the trainers with logistics and communications. Their visas were difficult to obtain and officials fear if these troops are sent home, Pakistan will not allow them to return.

Huh?

[Brett L]

I'm with you. Why not just hold the next foreign aid check until those visas clear?

[R C Dean]

Or, perhaps, bring them home. Or redeploy them somewhere that their efforts won't be wasted.

[Solanum]

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse in Mexico...

Cartels kidnapping bus passengers for gladiatorlike fights to the death

The elderly are killed. Young women are raped. And able-bodied men are given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death.

In one of the most chilling revelations yet about the violence in Mexico, a drug cartel-connected trafficker claims fellow gangsters have kidnapped highway bus passengers and forced them into gladiatorlike fights to groom fresh assassins.

[Brett L]

Skeptical Brett is skeptical. This is a guy telling stories about the other drug gangs. Anonymously. I say this is monkeyfishing.

[John]

Yeah. You have to give them weapons. At some point, someone turns the weapon on his captors and says "fuck it, they will kill me but I will get at least one of them". I want more proof.

[Invisible Finger]

The elderly are killed. Young women are raped. And able-bodied men are given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death.

Sounds like most of Obama's policies to me.

[Anoynmous Coward]

The elderly are killed. Young women are raped. And able-bodied men are given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death.

Skeptical of the story, but wouldn't be surprised if it's true. Outside of the tourist pockets and government controlled areas, Mexico is a warzone.

[sarcasmic]

The new regulations will do nothing to prevent the most common problem with sunscreens lotions, which is that consumers fail to use enough of them.

We need a sunscreen mandate. That will fix it.

[Kathleen Sebelius]

We're in the process of developing safe colorants so the health police, uh, monitors can tell the lotions are being used properly.

[MNG]

Saw a big vote on ethanol last night.

It's interesting to me that in this vote the Democrats voted to preserve a tax break for ethanol and the GOP opposed it. Remember when just a few weeks ago the Dems moved against tax breaks for oil companies calling it a subsidy and the GOP opposed it deriding the idea that a tax break=a subsidy?

[Fluffy]

Ethanol carries a tax credit, not just a deduction.

[MNG]

Was this vote about a tax credit or tax break? I've only seen it reported as the latter.

[Brandon]

This vote was about direct subsidies. Unquestionably more "subsidy"ish than letting private companies keep some of their own money.

[Rich]

"There are lot of mummies out there," he said. "At least they've been coming out of the woodwork since I started working on this."

So where can I get one? I'd like to have an unwrapping party on Saturday.

[John]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a9bb.....ab49a.html

In the future, Vietnam will be a key US ally.

[CoyoteBlue]

The HERC[ules} already told us this a week ago.

He can [SEE] into the future!

[Brett L]

Wait, [Herc] is right?

[Brett L]

Sigh. Refresh early, refresh often.

[Fist of Etiquette]

During the Victorian Era, people would acquire mummies and unwrap them at parties.

I do the same thing but with strippers.

[Abdul]

Who knew that strippers could appreciate archeology?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Strippers are people, with minds, just like everyone else. Often very perky minds.

[Lord Humungus]

Before the lap-dancing / nudity ban in my city, I had a few er, interesting conversations with the local er, female entertainers, er dancers.

[MNG]

That's not their perky part I focus on.

[Anoynmous Coward]

Strippers are people, with minds..

I protest!

[Ska]

They tend to do their best work when around bones.

[PantsFan]

Pakistan arrests informants who helped U.S. track Osama bin Laden

http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....le2061329/

[jacob]

WTF?

No Reason posts on the Guerena Fiasco? Apparently the cops have been cleared of wrongdoing.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/arizo.....d=13842029

[WTF]

No surprise. I think we all predicted at the time that their 'investigation' would clear the murdere..oops...'officers'.

[Joe M.]

BULLSHIT!

[Cyto]

Dog bites man.

One does have to appreciate the logic. "A close examination of the rifle revealed it appeared to have been damaged by being fired upon from such an angle that it must have been pointed toward officers"

So, let's not examine helmet-cam footage from the lead officers - let's just go with a nick on the gun that shows that at some point during the hail of bullets it was pointed in the general direction of the officers.

That's better than the usual tossoff justification.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Fucking magical bullets, they show up everywhere nowadays

[X]

A SWAT officer, Sgt. Bob Krygier, told officials of the sheriff's office who investigated the incident that the raid on Guerena's home was probing "possible drug running, home invasions and potential homicides."

and since any member of the SWAT team was possibly on roids, they hit the trifecta.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Fun with ellipses:

"He was... well armored," [SWAT Sgt] Krygier said. "... He basically had a pair of boxer briefs on and that was it."

[John]

President Barack Obama said yesterday that you would want Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D.-Fla.) "on your side" because "she's got a cute smile," and you would want her "in your foxhole" because "not only is she charming" but she has a "dazzling smile," and is "tough as nails."

OMG, "cute smile"? The lookism. Do the posters at Jezebel know about this? The male gaze. The horror.

[SugarFree]

The male gaze is a good thing as long as the woman isn't attractive.

[John]

Wasserman Shultz definitely fits the bill.

[Michael]

From what few photos I've seen she appears to be a fairly attractive woman save for her hair which looks like it was scooped out of a bathtub drain.

[DSK]

BHO, vous ?tes un chien.

[R C Dean]

Something tells me Michelle is going to have something to say about her husband burbling on about how cute some other woman is, and how he wants to share her foxhole.

[Solanum]

Is it more eco-friendly to see movies in a theater or on DVD?

[SugarFree]

Those Slate eco-hair-shirt pieces are an endless river of lulz.

[John]

All of Slate is a good source of lutz. It is like this daily snap shot of the typical neurotic liberal. Is my car green enough? Did Sarah Palin really say that? What should I be saying to my friends about the latest supreme court decision? And so forth.

[capitol l]

I especially hate those "What to tell your kids about _insert latest tragedy/sexscandal here_" pieces. But I read them anyways, like glancing at Family Circus I can't resist.

Tell your fucking spawn that Wiener pulled his dick out on camera and that they shouldn't do that. Or that Loughner was a maniac that shot up a bunch of people, but not to worry because the chances of it happening to them is statistically insignificant.

Really, if you go to Slate to figure out how to talk to your kids then sterilization is probably the best option. PLEASE STOP BREEDING, ASSHOLES!

[MNG]

I can't imagine the exploits of a NY Congressman even coming up between me and my children. My kids want to know when Green Lantern is coming out, they don't give a crap about Congress.

[capitol l]

You don't let Weiner get between you and your kids?

HAHA!*

*ala Nelson Muntz

[The Dan]

please stop breading assholes, works also

[db]

I thought I had heard epicurean weirdness before, but this is unique.

[Lord Humungus]

The bonus of watching a DVD at home is not hearing the schlub next to me eating popcorn with an open mouth and rattling his candy box every 15 seconds.

[Ska]

I prefer the whole "I'm not wearing pants" aspect of it.

[Lord Humungus]

+10

[R C Dean]

Don't tell me you always wear pants in the theater, Ska.

[Pope Jimbo]

I'll admit that I'm a convert to the "interactive" approach to movies. I grew up in NW MN and thus learned to watch movies in a completely quiet theater.

Later I moved to Memphis and was amazed at how many people there talked to each other during the movie and also talked to the characters on the screen. I was won over. Many times the audience members were faaaar more entertaining than the actual movie.

Now I'm back in sunny MN and back amongst those who hiss at you when you try to talk during the movies.

[Lord Humungus]

Watching a horror movie in a Chicago theater was quite entertaining.

The black lady in the front row yelling "Don't you go in there! Don't Go IN THERE!"

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I wish more people would talk during Jane Austen adaptations. It would greatly improve the experience.

[Bronwyn]

I am still remembered fondly for my soft utterence of "Heeeere, leezard leezard leezard" during a San Antonio screening of the first X-Files movie.

Ah, good times.

[TRTB]

The bonus of watching a DVD at home is not hearing the schlub next to me eating popcorn with an open mouth and rattling his candy box every 15 seconds.

THANK YOU! This is THE reason that I avoid the theaters. The got-damn open-mouth popcorn chomping. I would pay extra to go to a theater that didn't sell popcorn.

[Invisible Finger]

The only reason to go to a theater is the people watching. The movies usually suck so the comments and eating habits of the audience are the majority of the entertainment.

There won't be one minute of meaningful dialogue in a superhero movie so if you are shushing the audience during X-Men you are missing the point.

[Ted S.]

I prefer to make comments like "If you build it, he will come" and Darth Vader comments at key points in The Lion King. 🙂

[Joe M.]

Are movie theaters a waste of energy?

Because personal pleasure is not a legitimate use for the People's Energy.

[SugarFree]

How could they possibly want for 6 months for the DVD to come out. They have to go get their marching orders from documentaries while they are fresh.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's no fun sitting at home in the dark in a trenchcoat unless your TV room has a picture window.

[Lord Humungus]

Zombinomics?
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/G.....4Dj05.html

or why we are stuck in a rut.

[John]

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....or-of.html

the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of Republicans on the budget. So I guess dirty hippies will be living in the capitol building forever.

[Mike M.]

Not surprised at all; elections really do have consequences. No high-level court is ever going to rule that government contracts are permanently binding or unmodifiable.

So sorry all you government employee liberals out there; if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need, but you can't always get what you want.

[MNG]

I think the case was about whether it had been passed properly, not about whether the contracts could be changed, right?

It's also interesting that the entire bill originally contained provisions to conduct sales of government assets without competitive bidding, an odd provision for a budget driven bill imo.

[R C Dean]

It's also interesting that . . .

Look! Over there! A completely irrelevant point!

[MNG]

Another provision in the very same bill is completely irrelevant?

[R C Dean]

Completely irrelevant to the court's decision? Yes.

Completely irrelevant to the restrictions on pubsec unions? Yes.

[Mike M.]

I think the case was about whether it had been passed properly, not about whether the contracts could be changed, right?

I think that the lower court ruling that got reversed technically had to do whether or not the public was given sufficient access to the legislative proceedings, or something like that. The lower court ruling was completely ludicrous.

But the bottom line is that liberals were desperately looking for any legal hook they could find to overturn the law, and they failed.

A very important fundamental legal principle has now been pretty firmly and clearly established: there is no fundamental inviolable "right" to collectively bargain with the government or the taxpayers. Many thanks to all the Wisconsin liberals out there who helped make this landmark case possible!

[P Brooks]

There's a lot more obvious venality involved in being a teacher than in being a private in the Marine Corps. I'm not going to call teachers heroes until the rubber room in NYC is closed.

If your co-workers' indolence, lack of attention to detail, and general incompetence can GET YOU KILLED, you become less willing to overlook their failings.

Only the students suffer when the schools are staffed with incompetent idiots.

[P Brooks]

To continue:

Let me know when they start having "blanket parties" in the teachers' lounge.

[SugarFree]

R.I.P. Natalie Portman's Vagina

[John]

I used to always have a thing for her. But lately I have found her to be really annoying. I can't put my finger on why. But she just annoys me. I think it is because she is so over praised as an actress.

[MNG]

That rap she did for SNL's Lonely Island troop was funny imo

[MNG]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8e6-IeQ0aw

[P Brooks]

Apparently the cops have been cleared of wrongdoing.

Procedures were followed.

Officer safety was maintained.

[Brett L]

The still of Matt used for the video clip makes it look like he got his public speaking hand gestures from the Ask a Ninja guy.

[P Brooks]

The ATF specifically tells gun dealers to ignore the law so they can tell us the law "isn't working" and we need stronger laws.

Brilliant.

[John]

They also set up straw purchasers and create a demand for stolen fire arms. They go into a town, set up a fake gun shop and tell all the town criminals they are in the market for stolen guns. And shockingly, the criminals decide stealing guns is a good idea.

[Libertymike]

This is another area in which the thinking of a guy like dunphy is exposed for its emptiness.

If you are an LEO, you take an oath to uphold the constitution. If you take such an oath, you do so as being charged with knowledge of the its contents, particularly the 2nd amendment.

As you know, the second amendment does not admit of any exceptions. Hence, an LEO's oath to honor and defend the constitution is not subject to ANY competing interests, including, but not limited to, (1) federal firearms statutes, (2) state firearms statutes, (3) orders of superior officers, (4) the mission of a particular LE organization and (5) exigent circumstances.

It is no defense to mouth some crap like "Congress has the power to enact 'reasonable' firearms legislation" or "courts have ruled that 'reasonable' firearms legislation is constitutional".

If you are an LEO, you should be able to read and comprehend. If you are with ATF, you are able to read that there is no specific grant of power giving the Congress, the courts or the executive branch the okay to establish your agency.

Moreover, is it too much to ask a would be LEO to have a thorough understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of the founding area? If so, a would be LEO would recognize that the vast majority of the founding generation had nothing but contempt for those who would "aspire" to be one of the king's men. They would also know that the numero uno animating force was the natural rights philosophy which held that an individual's rights are infinite and that it would be absurd to catalogue all of such rights; rather, the powers of government are puny, and too be recognized, must be specifically set forth lest tyranny soon rear its pathetically fuglyness.

It is against such a backdrop that an LEO takes his oath. Thus, if you are an ATFer, your responsibility is to take down your agency. Arrest all the parasites you can. If that doesn't work, kill them.

But, the above is lost on the parasites in blue, like dunphy.

[TrickyVic]

""Thus, if you are an ATFer, your responsibility is to take down your agency. Arrest all the parasites you can. If that doesn't work, kill them.""

And what do you suppose his defense will be at his murder trial?

[cynical]

Self-defense. Hey, they (allegedly) outed one of their undercover agents to the gang he infiltrated to punish him for a lawsuit against the bureau. The gang burned his house down with his family inside (though AFAIK they made it out). So, if you're bringing criminal charges against them, it's safe to assume they'll just straight up kill you, and act first.

[cynical]

Considering the sort of the world we live in today, the sunscreen story doesn't seem overly objectionable. Sunscreen is essentially medical equipment. They're requiring companies to be more detailed and technically accurate in their descriptions of their product and avoid labels that are, while not so wrong as to be fraudulent, somewhat misleading.

Contrasted with illegal wars, gun running, USDE SWAT teams, and so on (not mention all the other overbearing things the FDA itself does), I can't work up much outrage.

[TRTB]

The labeling requirements will of course be enforced by the FDA SWAT teams.

[WixZoo]

I never even thought about it like that before. Makes pretty good sense when yo uthink about it.

http://www.complete-privacy.no.tc

[TrickyVic]

TSA flexing it's muscle, showing Americans who's boss.

http://www.infowars.com/tsa-se.....000-miles/

[P Brooks]

If you are an LEO, you take an oath to uphold the constitution. If you take such an oath, you do so as being charged with knowledge of the its contents, particularly the 2nd amendment.

I don't disagree with you, but as a *practical matter* that should be irrelevant, because if you swear to uphold the law, YOU SHOULDN'T RUN AROUND BREAKING THE LAW WHENEVER IT SUITS YOUR PURPOSES.

And you sure as fuck shouldn't be allowed to break the law with impunity to further your own political and career interests.

These are the people who should be on Death Row, right next to the prosecutors who intentionally ignore evidence of innocence in order to maintain their batting average in the courtroom.

[P Brooks]

But, the above is lost on the parasites in blue, like dunphy.

It's worse than that. Fearless Fosdick loves to come swanning around, telling us "De lawz is de lawz; blame the people who wrote them" and completely refusing to acknowledge the frequency with which the pigs knowingly (ROUTINELY!) violate those laws in order to round up civilians and lock them in cages, while almost invariably being shielded from the consequences of their own bad faith and simple incompetence.

[Clich? Bandit]

anybody else see the nutpunch in the brickbats? It used to be you could avoid them by ignoring Balko posts but now they are coming from all sides.

[Lord Humungus]

CPI rose
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06.....rkets.html

The Consumer Price Index rose more than expected in May to post its largest increase in nearly three years, lifted by steep rises in motor vehicle and apparel prices. The Labor Department said on Wednesday the so-called core C.P.I., which excludes food and energy, increased 0.3 percent, the largest gain since July 2008, after rising 0.2 in April. Economists had expected the core C.P.I. to rise 0.2 percent last month.