Reason Morning Links: AARP, Al Qaeda, and Big Bear High
- Ohio's legislature liberalizes the state's gun laws.
- AARP reportedly drops its opposition to cuts in Social Security benefits. [Update: AARP claims there's no change here.]
- Ayman al-Zawahiri is now officially in charge of Al Qaeda.
- The Mississippi Supreme Court confirms: Going to church can't be a bail requirement.
- A high school recalls a yearbook because it includes "child pornography" -- a photo where a teen in the background has his hand inside another teen's clothes.
The latest from Reason.tv: "No Knock Raid."
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Golden Girls on Gay Marriage
Golden Girls - Welcome to Awesome80s.com
Am I the only one who remembers this documentary?
Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film
What Straight Men Don't Understand About Lesbians
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm.....ans-bindel
On of the choice bits is this
Another Guardian writer, Cath Elliott, is often assumed to be a lesbian by men who take offence at her dislike of rapists and sex murderers. She once got so tired of comments posted on her blog asking her about her short hair and lack of makeup that she told them we both run a lesbian militia training school in the countryside for straight women.
No one thinks Cath Elliot is a lesbian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/cathelliott
That is a man baby.
That's one fugly baby.
we both run a lesbian militia training school
I heard about that. Isn't it called Militia Etheridge?
+1
FTW!
boo!
but still kudos.
Melissa Rubyridge
Another Guardian writer, Cath Elliott, is often assumed to be a lesbian by men who take offence at her dislike of rapists and sex murderers.
Uh huh. That's why.
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-i.....40x140.jpg
Hack Watch
Kenneth Del Vecchio, a Republican candidate for New Jersey state Senate and a producer of conservative-themed films, is premiering a psychological thriller this weekend with a pro-life twist: Three pregnant women, who intend to have abortions, are kidnapped and forced to carry their pregnancies to term.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi.....eekend.php
Also in the film the women are tortured with nighmarish visions, two of the women who feel regret at abortion go to Heaven while the third, who does not, goes to Hell.
Now a while back many here commented on that environmentalist group's video where global warming deniers were blown up with nice, wonderful hasty generalizations about how environmentalists in general wanted deniers dead (I went back and looked at some of the threads, god love archives!). Will the same commenters make the same hasty generalizations about pro-lifers or will we get the sudden development of nuanced distinguishing?
Let's see!
...what you've just said ... is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent [post] were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
IF the two situations were remotely similar, perhaps you would have a point. Is he condoning the killing of these women? If the green party had made a film about people who denied global warming having nightmares about their sins, I don't think anyone would have complained.
"Is he condoning the killing of these women?"
No, just kidnaping, torturing, and sending them to Hell for eternal torment.
Nice try John, keep trying.
Do the kidnapers torture them? Or are they "tortured by bad dreams"? If this guy made a movie about pro life people kidnapping women who want to have abortions and torturing them (as in like beating them or sticking them with hot pokers or such), then yes, you have a point. But that doesn't seem to be what he did.
The kidnapers brag about being their "jailers" forcing them to bring the babies to term, meanwhile they are tortured by hellish nightmares. In the end the one character not sufficiently regretful about her abortion decision is consigned to eternal torment in Hell while the two who regret get to go to Heaven.
But it's nice to see you find nuance when it's a right wing revenge fantasy.
Of course you are appalled by this, but somehow thing blowing people up in the name of global warming is good clean fun. So at worst I am as bad as you.
I would have to watch the movie. But last I looked you can't send someone to hell. God does that. And there are people all over the world who think this or that person is going to hell for this or that reason.
For the two situations to be analogous, the movie would have to involve people going out and killing women who have an abortion. It doesn't seem to do that, so no they are not he same. Saying that "if you have an abortion you are going to be wracked with guilt and maybe burn in hell" is not the same as making a film celebrating the death of everyone who disagrees with you.
I never said I was appalled, but nice of you to follow form and assume that.
"For the two situations to be analogous, the movie would have to involve people going out and killing women who have an abortion. It doesn't seem to do that, so no they are not he same."
That's right, in one case a movement makes a film about its opponents being blown up, in the other they make one about them being kidnaped for months, tortured and consigned to eternal torment. Yeah, they are world's apart John!
" But last I looked you can't send someone to hell. God does that. And there are people all over the world who think this or that person is going to hell for this or that reason."
Oh God I am loving this. This sudden nuance from you is just like my attempts to charitably provide context to the green group's video, and I know how you responded to them!
In fact, we could just go back and look at some of those comments of yours, right?
Interested John?
I don't understand it. So many people rushed out to condemn the enviromental group's revenge fantasy video, where are they now to do the same for this pro-life group's revenge fantasy?
It is not a revenge fantasy you half wit. A revenge fantasy would be happy to see them suffer.
And even if it were, so what? Some right wing anti-abortion guy is as sick and depraved as the AGW cultists. I don't think I want either one of them near power in that case.
You just can't get passed the school yard "they do it too, so it is okay for us to do it" mentality. Pathetic.
"And even if it were, so what? Some right wing anti-abortion guy is as sick and depraved as the AGW cultists."
Nice that with the enviromental group it was just "environmentalists" that were "Nazis" (your words), but here you make the distinction that we are just talking about "some" pro-life groups.
Since no one in the environmental movement had a problem with the commercials, I would say they think they were just a-OK. It is not my fault many people involved with the AGW movement have grown so depraved.
Anyone in the pro-life movement decried this film?
" A revenge fantasy would be happy to see them suffer."
As you said in the 10:10 discussion "I don't know what they were thinking, I know what they showed, their opponents being [kidnaped, tortured, sent to Hell]"
I will condemn both films. I also believe they have the right to make & distribute both films.
Consistency, good.
You might want to talk to this guy "John"
I have to go, perhaps I can come back soon with some choice gems from John's earlier 10:10 discussions.
I'll be consistent here too, maybe we can make a model for folks like John to follow and improve himself from his rank partisanship.
Both films were bad taste and done to shock people, neither likely exhibits a desire to harm or see harmed their political opponents.
I am appalled by both of them but I am less appalled by the kidnapping to (in the film-maker's view) save innocent lives than I am about the murders.
In addition, the actual "crimes" are not of the same magnitude. You would have to be completely certain that the deniers were wrong and that their actions really were going to lead to the death of many people in the future to maybe justify murder. (I am assuming that it was not just poetic justice? That they did not get killed by a flood they denied was more likely??) But in the case of abortion, you know with 100% certainty that the fetus will be terminated.
So I see your point MNG but it is not a great one. Sorry.
In the eyes of many environmentalists denying AGW will lead to inaction which will lead to catastrophe, including the deaths of many. They are as "certain" of this as pro-lifers are that embryos are ensouled at conception and that aborting them is murder (both claims are contestable, but certain to the true believer of both).
So many people rushed out to condemn the enviromental group's revenge fantasy video, where are they now to do the same for this pro-life group's revenge fantasy?
Because some pro-life types don't even feign sanity, which make them less fun to play with than the Gaia-freaks who, when poked scream "The Science Is Settled!"
The movie is made as a warning. "Don't do this or horrible things will happen to you". The whole point seems to be to tell people what a tragedy abortion is. Clearly the maker of the movie would prefer that the women reform and not have them.
The commercial in contrast is more blunt. It just thinks it is great to kill everyone who disagrees with the cult. One is a moral parable. The other is a revenge fantasy.
"Clearly the maker of the movie would prefer that the women reform and not have them."
So he has them kidnaped, tortured and sent to Hell when they don't.
""Don't do this or horrible things will happen to you"."
You will be kidnaped by Robert Loggia for nine months, tortured by supernatural visions and sent to Hell?
Boy you will say anything to defend your side and not apply the same standards you do to the left.
From what you are saying, you nitwit, they were not tortured. They have nightmares. Again, if the movie involves people actually torturing these women, then you are right, this guy is just as sick as the AGW people, which is pretty sick. But so what?
"From what you are saying, you nitwit, they were not tortured."
Being consigned to Hell is not torture? What, is it a big dinner party down there?
So every movie that discusses hell is a "revenge fantasy"? By your definition, every moral parable is really a revenge fantasy, which is a bit odd and something you would never do if it wasn't in an attempt to score cheap political points.
I see, if 10:10 would have just made a film about deniers being kidnaped, forced to have nightmares about the disasters of global warming, and then sent to an eternity of torment for being a denier then you would have been fine with it defending it here as another example of the fine tradition of moral parables.
Hack much John?
If they would have, I would not have been able to complain.
"MNG|6.17.11 @ 9:02AM|#
I have to go, perhaps I can come back soon with some choice gems from John's earlier 10:10 discussions."
What. A. Fucking Asshole. Why anyone engages with this troll is a mystery to me.
So if somebody tells me that I will be crushed by the tentacles of Cthulhu for galactic eternity because I deny the Necronomicon, that would constitute torture? What about threatening punishment from the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is that also torture? Think hard, MNG.
Why do they get a pass because their revenge fantasy has a supernatural diety involved? It's the depiction of their opponents being harmed that makes it a revenge fantasy.
Because they are not doing the 'torturing'. The movie makes plain that is the women's guilty consciences that is the cause of the dreams--and they are not consigning anyone to Hell. Christians believe that you are consigned to Hell by rejecting God.
A whole crapload of Christian writings make that very plain.
In the commercial, the AGW believers get to make the kills themselves--no all-knowing eternal force has set things up so that the victims know that to do X means you get blown up.
The two are very different. One is the horrific parable endlessly told by right-to-lifers, and one is AGWer's being able to kill anyone who disagrees with them.
Hell is kind of one big revenge fantasy for many, yes.
Why is MNG so obsessed with the right to abortion?
Does he like to go around getting women pregnant and then being sure they'll be able to abort his offspring-to-be?
Why is MNG so obsessed with the right to abortion?
The man wants to make sure his daily supply of fetus juice continues uninterrupted.
Pedal, pedal, pedal, John!
lol
this made me laugh.
Bad Dreams are torture now?
I think you've just jumped the shark, again.
jumped Oprah's couch
How do you force someone to have nightmares?
Same way you 'send' someone to hell, apparently.
Well, maybe the same way you have magic buttons that make people explode from the inside out? Environmentalists can't do that anymore than pro-lifers can send people to hell or give them nightmarish visions, but both can depict people as the recipients.
Read a MNG John thread?
I love their little Oscar/Felix spat 🙂
Wind 'em up, and watch 'em go.
John and MNG hate fucking is why I've stopped downloading porn. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a toilet at work that needs visiting...
*FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP!*
with this
How do you force someone to have nightmares?
Dude, it says "tortured by nightmares". Clearly they were being tortured, so the torturers must have had a way to force them to have nightmares. You know, like in Inception or something.
I don't know how it could be read any other way.
Guilt. Christians believe that everyone is wracked with guilt, that only the 'goods news' brought by Jesus can assuage that guilt, and that only by following that 'good news' can one enter Heaven.
Of course, they don't quite agree on what following it constitutes, and some of them have slightly different versions of what the 'good news' is, and some don't even believe that whole guilt thing I mentioned--but RTL people definately think that anyone who has or contemplates an abortion is wracked with guilt--the nightmares would come from within.
deniers should be waterboarded, using glacial runoff, till they confess their apostasy
Three pregnant women, who intend to have abortions, are kidnapped and forced to carry their pregnancies to term.
Holy fucking shit! How about a spoiler warning next time?
Guffaw!
Environmentalists pretend to operate under a veil of reason. But videos where they blow people up remove the veil and show the religiosity behind the movement.
Finding strong similarities between an Environmentalist video and a Christian video only reconfirms the cult-like nature of Environmentalists.
Very good point.
No one is so generous in applying the mantle of rationality to himself as the libertarian, particularly the objectivist. An entire philosophy that rests on the unassailable premise: "I am right according to the laws of nature, because I say so."
Jesus.
no tony - because galt said so!
That may have some truth, for the most extreme versions but it is equally true that no one is more generous in applying the mantle of self-righteousness and believing that "if I think it is morally right, then it has to work" than the progressive. (As I consider myself an uber-liberal, I won't use the word liberal in a disparaging sense).
"I say I am right because according to logical deduction, I am" -Objectivist
FIFY
No true scotsman!
Some pro-lifers are wackos. No shocker there. This is not a video I'd ever make or watch, and I think it's stupid to make. Kidnapping is wrong. Blah blah blah; I'll denounce it.
But really, in the enviro revenge fantasy, didn't they actually kill children? Whereas here they committed kidnapping, but all punishment was self-inflicted or inflicted by God (likely with the subtext that all three would have gone to H-E-L-L otherwise). So I'm sorry, but I'm not going to consider these equivalent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnddMpzPsM
Exactly. For it to be the same, the movie would have to be about a group of people who ran around blowing up women who had had abortions.
"Let's see!"
Who gives a fuck, asscunt?
That movie is psychotic and indefensible. But the fact that there are religious people doing psychotic and indefensible things is well-known. It's called cultic behavior. But at least in the US, the theocratic elements are weak and stagnant, and our culture has good defense mechanisms against religious cultus behavior. AGW, on the other hand, is still hugely influential. The fact that AGW types are engaging in cultic behavior as bad as, or worse than, a pretty horrifying religious group, is worth noting, especially since the AGW death messages didn't draw any significant opposition from within the environmental community.
Well, to be fair, religious types do have a rather big influence in US politics- hence the whole, "Almost all Republican candidates are both pro-life AND support a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage."
Also in the film the women are tortured with nighmarish visions,
I was totured with nightmarish visions once. So I threw the rest of the pizza away.
That'll teach you to order mushroom pizza.
Since pro-lifers were actually blowing people up for a while, it seems pointless to complain about a movie. I doubt the movement has been fully purged of radical elements.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....s_opinions
Why not corporal punishment in lieu of prison? Prison as we know it is the invention of 18th and 19th century religious fanatics.
It's why they call it a Penitentiary. But in fairness there was also some Enlightenment thought mixed in with the religious ideas on the subject.
I can't give you a good reason why locking someone in a cage for weeks or months depriving them of the ability to make a living or support their families in many cases is somehow more humane than just lashing them and being done with it.
One just 'shocks the conscience" I guess...I read that Southern states rejected prisons over lashing in many referendums because they felt the latter allowed a person to retain more dignity than the former.
All prison does is teach people how to survive while locked in a cage with rapists and murderers, while depriving them of a portion of their life that they will never get back.
I think that is much more cruel and unusual than, say, pain and public humiliation in the form of lashes and/or stocks.
Reading some 18th/19th century accounts of lashings, it seems like a particularly cruel punishment. Depending on who was doing the lashing, bones could be exposed, potentially killing the lashee from infection or even blood-loss.
I'm sure in the 21st century we would have a more humane version, like the "lashing machine" (patent pending).
Having said that, I would prefer a couple of lashes over a couple of years.
No. Cops would do it. Sign up in fucking droves.
When I was a kid I had a choice between the belt and being grounded...took the belt everytime. So not sure how well that works as a deterrent.
I suppose it depends on your pain threshold.
Going to jail is a sign of respect in some gangs. I fail to see how getting lashing scars would be any less so. They'd wear them with pride, and brag about how many lashes they could take. It will do nothing to deter certain types of crime.
That being said, it's a theoretical objection, and I've never been of the opinion that bad possible scenerios should prevent us from taking action to stop current, absolutely occuring as we speak bad things.
Police must be sensitive to the age of child suspects when deciding whether to inform them of their Miranda right against self-incrimination, an ideologically split Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The court ruled in favor of a 13-year-old who confessed to a burglary during a schoolhouse interrogation before being given a Miranda warning.
But dissenting conservative justices said that the majority was "embarking on a new expansion" of suspects' rights.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
Supposedly Clarence "Most Libertarian Justice" Thomas, who signed on with the dissent, said "Hell, the police should have just strip searched the kid!"
"Tallest Midget"
Bitch could have put pubic hair on my Coke
Tallest midget, etc.
Everyone knows Thomas doesn't view children as people w/r/t the law.
Clarence "Most Libertarian Justice" Thomas, who signed on with the dissent, said "Hell, the police should have just strip searched the kid!"
Thomas was thoroughly awful on the strip-search case? Do you think libertarians disagree? He's just marginally, marginally, better than the rest on some of the other stuff.
I suspect Thomas makes a distinction between school staff and the police. However, police officers being in attendance when the kid was being questioned by school officials makes such a distinction not obvious.
On the other hand if you believe that the public school system is an obvious extension of the police state, then who am I to argue?
A mistake yes. But Clarence is still da bomb.
The Definitive Scandal: 'Gunwalker' Much Worse Than 'Iran-Contra'
...The more than 2,000 weapons that the Obama Justice Department allowed to be delivered to Mexican narco-terrorist cartels are thought to have been used in the shooting of an estimated 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers battling the cartels. Two American law enforcement officers have also presumably fallen prey to these weapons, along with an unknown number of civilians on both sides of the border.
President Barack Obama's Department of Justice has purposefully armed narco-terrorist drug cartels that have been accused of bombings, ambushes, mass murders, public executions, and the assassination of police, politicians, and civic leaders.
Obama's Justice Department armed the enemy of our neighbor and ally, providing enough arms to equip ten infantry companies, or two battalions, of violent drug dealers.
Iran-Contra was a misguided attempt to trade arms for hostages and supply a covert supply of arms to rebels fighting against a communist dictatorship during the Cold War.
Gunrunner was an attempt to develop enough gun-running evidence to bring down a cartel, and instead supplied thousands of arms to drug cartels locked in a life-or-death struggle with a key U.S. ally and trading partner.
Run along....nothing to see here.
I don't see why this is such a big surprise. The State Department has shipped millions in military-grade hardware to the Mexican government (and by extension the drug cartels) for years.
Why are we getting all excited about a few pieces the BATFE sold just so they could see where they went?
... have been used in the shooting of an estimated 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers battling the cartels.
FWIW
"If [the AARP] come around and say they're ready to do something, it will be like the Arctic icecap cracking," said former Sen. Alan Simpson
So he's saying old people are full of hot air?
Also, what does this have to do with Global Warming?
That reminds me of another Simpson, which I believe is more indicative of the AARP membership:
Marge Simpson: Where did you get all the money?
Grandpa: The government. I didn't earn it. I don't need it. But, if they miss one payment I'm gonna raise hell!
Bart: Didn't you wonder why you were getting checks for doing absolutely nothing?
Grampa Simpson: I figured 'cause the Democrats were in power again.
I don't think it has anything to do with global warming. The Arctic ice cap is over an ocean, so it cracks all the time and always has. So I guess Simpson is saying that this is a common and unremarkable thing to happen, which seems to be the opposite of what he is trying to say.
THe message here is that old people are stupid.
I accept your apology.
?
I think he means that they've become painfully aware of how many ice floes are out there now.
Garrett Epps is back at it for The Atlantic, but I didn't get my comment in until late.
What comment is necessary? He's actually more or less correct, for once.
A meeting of anarchists, progressives, a self-described "surly feminist" and others on the far left of the political spectrum is underway. They're young and radical. They're organizing intently. The matter at hand could be oppression, or the police state, or revolution.
But it's not. It's walking dogs.
The seven people present belong to Brighter Days, a dog walkers' collective founded on anarchist principles. Last year, the five-year-old business grossed more than $250,000. Its members have equal ownership and make business decisions by reaching consensus during weekly meetings such as this one. Any of them can block any decision. They split their earnings evenly, have a group health insurance plan and cover for each other on days off. They even get paid vacation ? seven weeks of it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
WTF does anything about that business have to do with "anarchists principles"?
Probably the part where they refuse to pay taxes because its thievery.
But they do pay taxes.
So they're pro-state anarchists like the G8 protesters? Punks ruined anarchy.
Leftists ruined punk.
THIS
Sounds like a pretty ordinary general partnership to me.
It greatly to see this kind of stuff.
They are so cluless about how other people act in the world that they think they invented this kind of arrangement. And that it's somehow different from (and superior to) everyone else's partnerships.
Also, something that stands out for me is the notion on the part of the writer that because their beliefs are "political" they are somehow more scientific, rational or valid than the beliefs of members of minority religions who have to deal with working in a world that is frequently unable or unwilling to accommodate their practices and have to face the same kinds of tradeoffs.
I think you accidentally a word.
Ooopss
"It greatly amuses me to see this kind of stuff.
This sounds exactly how my own business (with libertarian partners) is run.
By the way, you might want to read up on anarcho-libertarianism. By "anarchist principles", you probably mean stuff like freedom of association, freedom from coercion, etc.
Best of luck to them when they get destroyed for not complying with some arcane tax code. They might want to consider a Democratic tax accountant.
"The Mississippi Supreme Court confirms: Going to church can't be a bail requirement."
God I love the Deep South.
That's actually another bail requirement option: praying to God and telling him you love the Deep South.
Only in Mississippi baby. This is the same state where the Supreme court passed off on a confession induced by hanging a black man from the neck (case leading to Brown v. MS).
We do one better with a duck
The issue here is that the stupid is so bald. But I'd hardly consider something like drug rehab to be much more than faith-based, just more science-y.
I bet there is a stronger correlation between good behavior and church attendance than there is between good behavior and drug rehab attendance. Rehab is a cargo cult if there ever was one.
I've got a great idea, lets put all the people who know where and how to score dope in one room and then wonder why many of them go score dope immediately after.
+1
It depends - if the person freely chooses rehab, it can work.
Absolutely. My dad's partner's son had to check into rehab (long story, but he was abusing prescription painkillers), but he really wanted to quit, and afterwards left the city to avoid the temptation. So I know rehab has totally legitimate uses and can be a force for good.
What's more common, though, is that the people and the courts treat rehab as a magic wand for fixing addiction. The issue is people being forced to go.
If you freely choose church it can work. Utimately, you just have to decide not to be a degenerate. The rest is just an excuse.
Thank the baby Jeebus playing Freebird in front of the Confederate battle flag.
"God I love the Deep South."
Which one? The one that made the bail requirement or the one that said no, you can't do that?
Maybe the one where the court initially did this and it had to go to the Supreme Court of the State to be struck down?
Why do breeders get weekends and evenings off?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....le2064112/
Because if you're too dumb to take off your pants and get laid, you're too dumb for a weekend off.
Fucking threads...
Because if you don't let them off you will be tortured by dreams of Hell.
I really like your style.
the other is single and getting over a breakup through vigorous water-polo practices.
Explains why he got dumped.
One staffer has children, the other is single and getting over a breakup through vigorous water-polo practices. Who gets the Sunday off work?
Steven Bereznai, a 37-year-old Toronto journalist and perpetual single, knew who his boss was likely to choose. So he ended up serving notice that he wasn't available for Sunday shifts any more, leaving out the water-sport detail.
So workplaces assume (or are even told) by those married with families that they're busy on weekends. Singles aren't, which means it's easier on them personally to work. I'm not married and I've been asked to work weekends frequently. And usually, I am more available than married folk.
Problem solved, right?
Of course, voluntary, blah blah. Still, it would be nice to get some compensation for doing more work.
Comp time would be my suggestion.
I solved this problem by staying a contractor. I get paid for every hour I work and I very rarely get asked to work overtime. Even as 'the single guy'.
I was promoted faster than my colleagues. My first boss actually kept a list of every little project his employees did for him and how well they did it (something I learned from). I offered to work nights and weekends and moved past the entry-level pretty quickly.
Again, I'd say that if you don't like what you have, you don't have to stay. That's maybe harsh, but if it's an important issue you should ask about it in the interview, bring it up with your boss, etc.
"the water-sport detail"
I do not think that means what the Globe Mail thinks it does.
...or does it?
If employers want to favour parents or couples with children, let them. Restricting the labour market reduces comparative advantage and increases unemployment.
"the General Command for Qaida't al-Jihad Group?and after finishing the discussion?announces the undertaking of responsibility of Amir of the group by Shaykh Dr. Abu Muhammad Ayman al-Zawahiri."
Yeah, how many of the people on General Command were placed there by al-Zawahiri's father? For once, hanging Chad has nothing to do with the group's foreign policy.
Because if you don't let them off you will be tortured by dreams of Hell.
Note in the story how an expert compares al-Zawahiri to Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. You gonna let them get away with that, John?
Terror expert Evan Kohlmann likens Zawahiri's ascent to the prospect of Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann or former Alaska governor Sarah Palin winning the Republican presidential nomination.
Heh heh heh.
No bias in the media. None at all.
America's most famous john telling us how "radical" the Republicans are. If only.
http://www.slate.com/id/2297141/#add-comment
Stupidly eschewing faith in the magic powers of the appointed regulators who did such a great job before the economic cataclysm of 2007-08.
The anti-gay shit's not going away anytime soon, and abortion is what it is.
The left is going to champion free trade now?
I love how everything was deregulated in the 00s. It is as if SARBOX never happened.
A hard line on gay marriage, you mean like the one Obama has taken for years?
And the "new found isolationism" line is too fucking despicable to even comment on.
Eliot Spitzer. I didn't even notice it at first.
It's Dr. Abu Muhammad Ayman al-Zawahiri, I didn't spend six years in Evil Medical School to be called "mister," thank you very much.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/st.....id=8196178
I don't want to make judgement until I hear all the facts, but why would the police just open fire without knowing what was going on the car? One of the men could have been a hostage.
The article doesn't make any attempt to say why the cops opened fire, whether there were guns found, etc. And the comments are the usual cop-fellators.
A stopped car isn't a threat to anybody. Unless they saw a gun in somebody's hand, demanded that they drop it, and had their demand refused, this looks like murder to me.
A stopped car can quickly surge forward and strike an officer. 😉
Being from Philly myself, it's likely they didn't hand over the protection money
Teen jumper had been smoking fake pot, police say
Due to a loophole in the law, you're able to post stories like that.
So the lack of a law banning something counts as a loophole in the law now? Awesome.
Simple solution: Everything is illegal until made legal. You canaries would be singing a different tune when a law was passed in that world!
that would make a great setup for distopian sci-fi
Everything not mandatory is forbidden. We already live here.
The picture was brought to the attention of school officials after the yearbook was distributed last week, and they notified the Big Bear Sheriff's Station, which is conducting an investigation.
An investigation into what exactly? Are they going to charge the photographer or the kids with child pornography? Or charge the kids with anything? how fucking stupid is this? It's like school officials and sheriff's departments were created in dungeons as adults and never had a childhood.
It's like school officials and sheriff's departments were created in dungeons as adults and never had a childhood.
And the parents and politicians who are going to be outraged and demand that something be done.
I bet the boy will be charged and spend time in jail. Then he'll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Don't you just love today's justice system?
The yearbook was distributed.
That means every household who received a yearbook was in possession of child pornography.
They're going to need to build a new prison to house all these felons.
Nevermind that -- the school officials are guilty of distributing child porn. They're under arrest already, right?
No. They're government. Laws don't apply to them.
My favorite example was a movie that made up the bulk of a 1 hr. program that aired a few times on WNYC-TV in the 1980s, made possible by a grant from one of the National Endowments. The program was called "Images of Children", and the movie (whose name I forgot) in the middle of it was some biopic of a left-wing couple from Cambridge, Mass., one of whom died from a cancer. In what was pretty clearly staged to look like child-initiated clowning around, the little boy & girl did naked splits for the camera, calling it the Penis & Vagina Dance. Not to say that kids don't do that sort of thing on their own, but it pretty much had to be a command performance under the circumstances.
It's getting to be like Singapore, where gov't suppresses sexual activity, then decides there isn't enough of it and so holds official singles events.
A simple book burning should take care of the problem.
The school has offered to reimburse students who do not want their yearbooks back.
I suppose the school has offered to arrest students who do not want their yearbooks confiscated. Also, along the lines of mr simple, how about charging everyone at the dance and everyone who worked on and distributed the yearbook?
If this had been a private summer camp, I could see charges being filed. Yes, we really are that insane about this stuff.
Execpt when it's done at the airport by federal agents.
More likely in Britain than the USA or Canada.
How do they even figure that that is pornography? If someone said "here's some porn" and gave me a picture of some guy sticking his hand in a girl's shirt, I would be a little disappointed. As far as I'm concerned, it's not porn if there is no penetration.
Except furries. They count too.
Or you can go with the rare hybrid - Eeyore porn.
Actually, all manner of fetish porn eschews penetration. Foot fetish, stockings, bondage, caning, splooshing, facesitting, humiliation, and on and on. All include significant segments that focus only on the fetish and skip the other aspects of sexuality.
Of course, I'm with you. If there's no penetration, it ain't porn. At least not good porn.
You penetration fetishists
Ayman al-Zawahiri is now officially in charge of Al Qaeda.
Looks like a lot of days ahead eating at his desk for al-Zawahiri.
Being the world's leading arch villain is not an easy job, a lot of late nights and weekends.
I once had a conversation in Iraq with a Colonel intel type. He was convinced that Al Quaeda had a hidden complex somewhere in Iraq and a staff that looked just like hours. My first reaction was "no wonder they are so willing to blow themselves up." It was really a scene out of a Kubric movie.
Sure stick the guy with only 5 wives with all the overtime, and let the other evil masterminds with 15 wives go home.
Quake in fear America! Ayman al-Zawahiri is in command of Al-Qaeda! Even though the police are more likely to kill you than he is, be afraid!
OOGA BOOGA!
YaY Ohio! so proud of my state today with the passing of this legislature 🙂
Ohio's legislature liberalizes the state's gun laws.
We really need a better term for this than "liberalize".
well... it is the historically correct term to use when a state allows for more range in individual freedom... it was ours before the socialists bastardized the word...
Fuck that, I'm not going to abandon a perfectly good word because it was hijacked by statist idiots. Plus "progressive" is so hip and trendy nowadays that I'm seeing it used far more.
"progressive" is so hip and trendy nowadays that I'm seeing it used far more.
Thank you very much!
*legislation
my bad
RC's LAW +2
The passing of the legislature can't be all bad.
NPR is warning me of the "dangerous mix of guns and booze" I can now expect at my neigbourhood Applebee's.
Eating good in the hood.
Did the phrase "blood in the streets" come up?
Finally, we can be drunk and armed.
Your nut "punch" for the day.
I'm betting she did it with her little finger nail.
Well, if he's not a allowed to beat the crap out of her after this happens, that is what the police are for right? Violence by proxy?
http://www.theatlantic.com/int.....ts/240441/
Cambodia apparently has its own Daily Show.
On a side note, I have a good friend who is a government contractor currently working in Iraq. He's basically a truck driver in the airport.
Anyways, he has vacationed in Cambodia several times and loves the country. He's been to the Killing Fields, motorcycled through the countryside and even shot off Russian-made machine-guns (no, not SMGs but MGs) there. There is a huge amount of personal freedom there - provided you have money to throw around... sure, there are downsides, but from his telling it sounds like an interesting country to visit.
I would love to go to Cambodia. Before the fucking commies got their grimmey paws on it, it was the pearl of southeast Asia.
Would he say his experiences there were seared - SEARED - in his memory?
What happens in Cambodia stays in Cambodia.
like a diamond bullet right through the forehead
Yes, but how are the roads?
However, authorities said they were concerned enough about the picture that they demanded that all Big Bear High School students return their 2011 yearbooks to the school so that the photo can be removed or covered up.
Won't they have to kill everyone who has already seen it?
No. Just put them on a sex offender list and issue them a tent so they can live under a bridge for the rest of their lives.
Pics or it didn't happen.
I'm sure this pic will eventually filter to "b".
http://legalinsurrection.blogs.....heads.html
Wisconsin protestors lock their heads to metal railings. Why didn't they just turn the lights off, lock the doors and leave them there?
Along with the two who locked themselves to the railing, a group of a dozen protesters loudly chanted "Kill the bill."
It's violent rhetoric and eliminationist imagery like this that got Gabby Giffords shot.
"Kill the Bill"
Quentin Tarantino gets $1.50 every time somebody says that.
Wisconsin protestors lock their heads to metal railings.
Further proving that we will never reach Peak Retard.
I bet there was a serious discussion about just leaving them there.
I can just see the tour groups filing by while the morons begged someone to cut them loose.
My question is, why are these protesters so young? 20 and 23? What the fuck are they protesting for? Surely neither one of them has a job, so that's not the issue; and if they were hoping to become teachers, then they are going to need some of the old fucks to retire already and free up some positions.
I've never understood how college-aged people can support this kind of 'progressive' crazyness - an I'm only 26! Why is my generation striving so hard to reach Peak Retard?
Due to a loophole in the law, it's not a banned substance.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
The irony is that unlike actual pot, the fake stuff probably really is dangerous.
What do you mean actual pot isn't dangerous?
It can get you killed by the police or raped in prison!
That sounds pretty dangerous to me.
True. I hear it is deadly to canines.
Well said. "Pot today is much more dangerous than it was in the sixties."
http://www.theatlantic.com/mag.....avez/8557/
I guess the new book on Caesar Chavez portrays him as a bit nuts. Interesting article if you skip the first ten paragraphs of Caitlin Flannagan pondering her hard life growing up as a rich bitch in Berkley. God that woman is awful.
I am going to miss not being able to read the headline:
"Ethics Committee Grills Wiener"
Sorry.
Weiner Pulls Out Too Late
"Wiener fights for every inch"
"Erections have consequences"
will he soon run for re-erection?
Potential movie title:
Weiner: The Director's Cut
Get it? Cuz he's Jewish.
Lmao. Here, have ten free Internets.
Sorry.
Don't be.
I'm still waiting for Ohio to wholly eliminate all schemes of licensure and record by legislative repeal; 'constitutional carry' is on its way, I hope. And it's among the first mega-states (large populations, major urban centers) to take such a step.
Ohio is a much better choice for the free state project. It's a statistical fact that 64% of all libertarians live in OH, mostly in or near Columbus.
I actually got this response on another blog concerning the shooting of Marine Jose Guerena by the Pima SWAT:
"Tim, they didn't shoot the man for nothing. He obviously had to have been not cooperating in some manner.
It's like the professor from the beer summit who was arrested for breaking in to his own house. Had he cooperated with the cop he would have been fine, instead he chose to not to cooperate and the cop acted accordingly.
While it is tragic the man was shot, if the cops were cleared there had to have been due cause. Whether he had drugs or not therefore becomes irrelevant.
Lesson, if you have nothing to hide the don't. Let the cops come in search, ask questions and leave. Afterall, that is their job. "
!
We are unworthy of our freedoms.
STOP RESISTING!
Right. And rapists' hobbies are rape, but it doesn't make cooperation the preferred interaction.
"What do you mean, 'presumption of innocence'? The police wouldn't come to arrest you if you weren't guilty!"
Yeah, I was stunned. It wasn't sarcasm. That guy is a believer. Oh well.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/201.....ciety-ams/
Why have they dodged open discussion on such an important issue? I've been told that the American Economic Society does not take sides on controversial economic issues but acts primarily to help in stimulating back and forth discussion. This is what the AMS should have been doing but haven't....
Many of us AMS members believe that the modest global warming we have observed is of natural origin and due to multi-decadal and multi-century changes in the globe's deep ocean circulation resulting from salinity variations. These changes are not associated with CO2 increases. Most of the GCM modelers have little experience in practical meteorology. They do not realize that the strongly chaotic nature of the atmosphere-ocean climate system does not allow for skillful initial value numerical climate prediction....
The AMS is going to be judged in future years as having foolishly sacrificed its sterling scientific reputation for political and financial expediency....
But the science is settled!!
Ignorance is strength!!!!
Wisconsin protestors lock their heads to metal railings.
Well, be fair; it's not like they were doing anything useful with them.
I like the song and video.
Ohio's legislature liberalizes the state's gun laws.
Apparently somebody's not thinking of the children.
Why is feminism afraid to focus on its flaws?
Most Illinois specialists won't take medicaid patients
We also have a winner for "statist fuck of the year" in the comments, with these two little gems:
Sorry, Medicine is not a free market. Never has been, never should be. If you don't want to serve the public that gives you the license that lets you practice, find a new line of work.
AND:
I don't want to indenture them to my sense of moral obligation. I want to indenture them to appropriate regulatory terms that are based on the public interest. Providing care to the indigent yet insured is part of the public interest. This is standard practice in the rest of the developed world. For some reason American citizens just don't count for much, I guess.
Ohio's legislature liberalizes the state's gun laws.
What a nice coming-home present. Let's celebrate with Rotting Christ.
Lastly, Feministing's Jos, "Men Can Get Pregnant" Truit is at netroots. Let's take a whiff of the stupid:
. I really struggle with problems with the nonprofit model. I think it's incredibly important for people to get paid to do social justice work ? it needs to be sustainable. But big picture issues with organizations speak to the difficulties of working for justice within a fundamentally unjust capitalist system.
As usual, the author is frustrated with the heirarchical model of organisations, yet at the same time is espousing a philosophy which embraces collectivism (belonging to an underprivileged group) at the expense of individualism.
They really want to have it all and not have to work for anything.
Oh yeah, almost forgot: Jezebel helps you navigate the social minefield of... TRAVELING WITH FRIENDS?!
Pool your money.
I talked to Marybeth Bond, founder of Gutsy Traveler and author of Best Girlfriends Getaways Worldwide, who says, "When you start to plan, put $100 into a nonrefundable kitty. And that way, if anybody backs out, they lose the $100, but it isn't such a big hit to everyone else."
What the fuck? All you need are friends who aren't total fuckstains, and road trips become awesome.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Women hate other women.
Just the vast majority of them.
Right. Jezebelians who have friends who aren't total fuckstains.
I always thought the rules were 1) find a good friend, 2) travel, and 3) don't be a douche.
It worked for me on two cross-country trips by car.
Are they really struggling to travel to a city without bickering over which outlet to go to?
but it isn't such a big hit to everyone else.
"Stealing money from your friends; it doesn't hurt at all."
working for justice within a fundamentally unjust capitalist system.
Horrible, horrible capitalism!
Why, just last week, I saw Congressman Paul sneak into Wendy's bedroom and suck the blood right out of her baby through the rear bedroom window! His monocle and Klan apparel didn't match, but it sure did confirm my opinion of anybody that doesn't like socialized medicine and progressive politics! I called the police right away, but by the time the good guys arrived, the bloodthirsty capitalist pig had turned into a vampire bat right before my eyes and flown away! Oh, the horror! Well, off I go to collect my food stamps! 🙂
In Soviet Russia, airbrush make women uglier!
So then all prom photos are child porn.
They should go after the enablers of proms, with them there wouldn't be these photo ops.
Fareed Zakaria socks it to conservatives. Libertarians, too. Y'all living in a dream world:
http://www.time.com/time/natio.....id=fbshare
gdmorganik
gdmsolution
gdmoke
pupukgdmorganik