Reason Morning Links: Jon Huntsman on Gay Marriage, Newt Gingrich on the Fed, Scott Walker on Craft Beer

• As president (lol), Jon Huntsman would "respect" New York's gay marriage law.
• Newt Gingrich (whose campaign is falling apart) takes a page from Rep. Ron Paul, calls for a Fed audit. 
• Another congressional Democrat is facing a sex scandal.
• A group of Wisconsin lawmakers want Gov. Scott Walker to veto legislation that would hurt craft beer makers. 
• Pres. Obama signs an executive order detailing cyberwar guidelines.
• Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius claims smoking creates "$200 billion a year in health costs that we clearly could spend better elsewhere." 
• A rogue member of hacker group LulzSec is responsible for robbing Bitcoin/severely damaging its viability as a secure currency.

New at Reason.tv: "Ranking Freedom in the 50 States"

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Pres. Obama signs an executive order detailing cyberwar guidelines.

I hope it includes drone attacks.

[The Other Kevin]

Of course it doesn't. Drone attacks are not part of "war", remember?

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's just hitting e-Qaeda with pop-ups? What a gyp.

[Ray]

It's an eBomb!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Set all their homepages to persian kitty (is that place even still around?) or whatever so they get hit with a pornado every morning. That will teach them, and maybe loosen them up.

[Fatwa Issuer]

Do that and you will be swimming in a river of, uh, of BLOOD!

[Abdul]

Physics professor runs prostitution ring as a hobby.
http://www.reuters.com/article.....0N20110621

Former Hilary Clinton intern abandons government for reputable line of work.
http://www.examiner.com/events.....-porn-star

[Bee Tagger]

Physics professor runs prostitution ring as a hobby.

For every thrust, there is an equal and well-compensated reaction.

[John]

Glad to see the girl get back on her feet and into a more honest and respectable line of work.

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

On her feet?

[Cabeza de Vaca]

She's very talented.

[Bump]

Now she literally takes it up the ass.

[John]

Better that than giving the same to you.

[Pro Libertate]

It's a typical physicist plot. I imagine thoreau is behind this one, too.

[Abdul]

Physicists may just be glorified muon-counters, but they wouldn't sugarfree the link.

[Pro Libertate]

Who do you think did it? They used their quantum weirdness to screw things up. No matter, I defy them with my Heisenberg compensator and thus link again!

[Anonymous Coward]

Porn needs its butterfaces.

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

Golden Girls quotes, favorite scenes, lessons learned

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

The Golden Girls: Lifetime "Intimate Portrait" Series DVD Review

[Bee Tagger]

Newt Gingrich (whose campaign is falling apart) takes a page from Rep. Ron Paul, calls for a Fed audit.

I heard that some of the rings from Tiffany's have racial epithets engraved on the bottom of them. Carved by someone else, of course.

[Rich]

OK, that was funny.

[Abdul]

If Newt needs $1.5 million in rocks just to keep the third wife around, it's no wonder his whole staff abandoned him.

[MNG]

chief Republican critic of a controversial U.S. anti-gun-trafficking operation was briefed on ATF's "Fast and Furious" program last year and did not express any opposition, sources familiar with the classified briefing said Tuesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), who has repeatedly called for top Justice Department officials to be held accountable for the now-defunct operation, was given highly specific information about it at an April 2010 briefing, the sources said. Members of his staff also attended the session, which Issa and two other Republican congressmen had requested.

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

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

was given highly specific information about it at an April 2010 briefing, the sources said

Flesh that out w/ some provable detail and we'll talk.

[Res Publica Americana]

It's bullshit, literally. The ATF's mid- and upper ranks have been peddling that shit since Grassley and Issa started demanding documents (before involving subpoenas), and that was a while ago. MNG, don't be so disingenuous.

In fact, I'm familiar with all of this -- try reading up on it at that Sipsey Street Irregulars website, TTAG, and Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea if you want the whole story (shitloads to read).

Basically, the ATF allowed/facilitated sales/transfers of weaponry to Mexican narco-terrorists -- ostensibly, it was all to track them and get to the big bosses in Mexico, but it's becoming likelier and likelier with new evidence that it was to justify higher funding, expansions of power for the agency, and getting more gun control bullshit passed at home.

[Res Publica Americana]

*By tracing selectively compiled stocks of recovered weaponry. Sorry, was desperate for bathroom.

[John]

Maybe you can explain how it was supposed to work. Okay so they sell the guns to criminals. Then they let the criminals take the guns to Mexico and use them for crimes. But the criminals are now in Mexico and untouchable. So how is this supposed to work?

[John]

So if Issa knew about it, it was okay? So what? Maybe Issa should resign too.

[KDN]

Clearly this means that responsibility for this raid is on Issa and not Holder / anyone else in the administration. Clearly. Bad policy is always Team Red's fault somehow.

At this point that article tells us essentially nothing. I'll bet dollars to donuts that the ATF official briefing the committee was asked a question about gun trafficking and responded by stating they have a program to combat the issue while also bringing proactive synergies to various high level players without mentioning much in the way of details.

[John]

Exactly. How and where an uncover operation is working is about the most guarded thing an LEO has. It is very doubtful they would have briefed Congress in any detail.

[Gibby]

"I'll bet dollars to donuts"

In today's economy that's even money.

[Lord Humungus]

morning links just aren't the same w/o a MNG / John slap-fight.

[Abdul]

Frederick R. Hill, a spokesman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee,. . . accused "opponents" . . . of "incredulously trying to assert that Obama administration political appointees at the Justice Department were ignorant ? yet Congress was in the know on the details of Operation Fast and Furious.''

Sorry, MNG, but I find that to be a more credible narrative. ATF and DOJ have been crying ignorance, but now they claim they were able to brief Issa enough that he should have been outraged sooner?

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

[ATF] The gang that couldn't sting straight

ATF Round Up
...Imagine the DEA telling pharmacists to illegally sell oxycontin to known drug dealers or they would be shut down. Then imagine the DEA using the fact that more oxycontin was on the street (and hundreds of overdose deaths) as a pretext for making it harder for patients to get prescribed narcotics. This is essentially what happened with the ATF and Project Gunwalker...

[WTF]

Imagine the DEA telling pharmacists to illegally sell oxycontin to known drug dealers or they would be shut down. Then imagine the DEA using the fact that more oxycontin was on the street (and hundreds of overdose deaths) as a pretext for making it harder for patients to get prescribed narcotics.

Damn it, stop giving them ideas!

[Almanian]

AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!! STOP IT!!!

[OO]

foam the wingnuts longtorso

[OO]

oops i just foamed myself all in my pants

[Tim]

"The court papers allege that, during the traffic stop, O'Connor at one point began screaming at Ivy and later made her undergo a second X-ray search for drugs in her vaginal area at Fletcher Allen Health Care after telling a hospital doctor he had the authority to order such a search.

"O'Connor's unprofessional and erratic behavior terrified plaintiff and she worried about what he might do next," the lawsuit states. "Plaintiff formed the belief that O'Connor was going to injure plaintiff or worse."

No drugs were found following the hospital search, and Ivy was not charged criminally in connection with the traffic stop."

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.....violations

[Ice Nine]

O'Connor at one point began screaming at Ivy and later made her undergo a second X-ray search for drugs in her vaginal area at Fletcher Allen Health Care after telling a hospital doctor he had the authority to order such a search.

Only the combination of a court order or the patient's consent plus a doctor willing to perform such a search can compel the doctor to do what this one did. A cop has no such authority and any ER doctor (which presumably the "hospital doctor" was) who doesn't know that shouldn't be in the business. Most cops know this as well.

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

How did Obamacare get so screwed up?
...If this issue is any indiction, we have a clue as to how Obamacare got so screwed up. Those who drafted and now tout it have a shaky understanding of how markets operate and a built-in preference for top-down management. But it turns out that millions of people making individual health-care decisions are a lot smarter than the bureaucrats who constructed such a massive structure that no one can be expected to understand it and its consequences. Who knew?

Did climate scientist James Hansen personally benefit from public office?
The American Tradition Institute's (ATI) Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit Tuesday to force the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to make public ethics records for global warming activist and chief climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies James Hansen ? to ensure that he did not use his public position for personal gain.

According to ATI, over the past four years Hansen has earned an estimated $1.2 million from outside opportunities.

ATI hopes to find out if NASA approved Hansen's external endeavors and if his gain was a result of his "taxpayer-funded employment," as he allegedly began making this money when he increased his amount of global warming advocacy ? specifically in the years following a 2006 "60 Minutes" interview in which the climate scientist accused the Bush administration of "censoring" his warming views....

[John M Keynes]

it turns out that millions of people making individual health-care decisions are a lot smarter than the bureaucrats who constructed such a massive structure that no one can be expected to understand it and its consequences.

You poor deluded child.

Good thing your betters will take care of you.

[Rich]

"Quite frankly your source has as much or more information than I do and I would suggest you rely upon them," [Rep. Alcee Hastings] said. "It would be impossible for me in a paragraph or a page or two or a tome or volumes one and two to help you understand the dynamics of these events. I'll leave it at that."

Well said, Sir.

[Rep. Corrine Brown]

Go Gata!

[Richard Pryor]

A rogue member of hacker group LulzSec is responsible for robbing Bitcoin/severely damaging its viability as a secure currency.

Fuck Atlas Shrugged. Reality continues to shape itself in the image of Superman III.

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

Thank God my money is backed by the govt. Govt backed money is never stolen.

[KDN]

Thumbs up their asses.

[Almanian Luthor]

I ask you to kill Superman. And you can't do that - one - simple - thing?

[SugarFree]

I always thought the Obamessiah was just a joke we made, not something they really believed.

With bonus sexual objectification that no one objects to...

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

Maybe the baby was just scared shitless.

[SugarFree]

Don't make me steal your thunder.

[Warty]

I got your number, I steal your thunder

[brotherben]

That first comment on the baby story is the funniest thing I have seen in a long long time. Thanks for the chuckles Suge.

[Name Nomad]

SF really ought to get some sort of reward or recognition for wading through those websites every day to give us the shiniest turds they produce.

[Warty]

NotChoinski Tue 21 Jun 2011 2:46 PM
Too bad Boehner is too heavy to pick up.

This is hilarious, apparently, judging from their reactions.

[Brett L]

Only Jezebelians would be surprised that someone with kids can quiet someone else's infant. Go through it twice, learn something? How does that work?

[SugarFree]

Their wombs are a rocky place, where no man's seed can find purchase.

[Rich]

Guarded, moreover, by Symplegades.

Or so I've heard.

[TRTB]

#cotd

[MNG]

In 47 years, what has Title VII accomplished? In my view, it has worked not one, but two, major changes to the landscape of American employment. One change is the obvious one: Title VII brought some measure of racial and gender integration to the workforce. But a second, subtler change was in some ways equally profound. Title VII helped spur both public and private employers to replace subjective, non-meritocratic systems of hiring and promotion with systems that were fairer, more uniform, and more merit-based. Today it is hard to imagine, for example, a big-city police department deciding simply to hire only the sons and nephews of incumbent officers. But at one time such practices were common. What changed was that corporate leaders, HR professionals, public sector managers, and the many, many lawyers who advise all of these people learned that if one does not want to be accused of discrimination?and for that matter, if one does not want to discriminate?it helps, a lot, to adopt relatively rational, formalized, uniform, merit-based policies for hiring, performance evaluation, promotion, compensation, and termination. An employer that instead adopts policies of total subjectivity and discretion is needlessly painting a litigation target on its back, so why do it?

Dukes v. Wal-Mart raises the disquieting possibility that rather than inviting litigation, subjective and standardless policies might?for a large enough employer?have the perverse effect of insulating the employer from large-scale litigation by helping to defeat class certification. This possibility could have far-reaching effects on the landscape of American employment practices.

http://balkin.blogspot.com/

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Rational policies for hiring that include evaluating the color of your skin and hiring cops that aren't too smart.

We've come a long way baby.

[JoshInHB]

Yeah,

Like a 9% unemployment rate and lack of opportunity for the uncredentialed.

[DJF]

But strangely the politicians who passed this law are not hired because of objective criteria but because they won a popularity contest called an election.

If the government thinks that "rational, formalized, uniform, merit-based policies for hiring, performance evaluation, promotion, compensation, and termination" is so important why isn't it applied to top officials of government?

[WTF]

Yeah, the .gov had to force employers to adopt 'merit-based' hiring policies, otherwise they would never try to hire the best employees to maximize their productivity and profits. Wait, what?

[Brett L]

"Irish welfare" worked just fine for my ancestors.

[Lord Humungus]

but they got tired of potatoes.

[Brett L]

It happened in NYC. Little Italy and Chinatown were already established. Nothing quite like have an ancestor who was a numbers running errand boy until he got old enough to go to work, then IW'd into the NYPD. Which was the more corrupt?

[cynical]

Meritocratic? But that might have a disparate impact on minorities.

Unlike cops, Walmart answers to shareholders, so even if there isn't an objective, meritocratic determination at the individual employee level, there is definitely an objective analysis of the results gained by management's hiring practices -- and because they are given leeway, there is room for comparison of different approaches.

If discrimination produces better results, then what is so great about meritocracy?

[brotherben]

I see where the legislature in Wisconsin has sent to the governor a CCW bill to sign. Is this news around these parts?

[Byron]

It is to me, and good news at that!

[Bee Tagger]

Pres. Obama signs an executive order detailing cyberwar guidelines.

As the first official depicted victim of cyberwar, I sure hope Sandy Bullock was consulted.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They're unlikely to attack cyber terrorists with a speeding bus, BT.

[brotherben]

(Psssst...I think BT is referrring to "The Net".)

[Bee Tagger]

Is The Net the one with Dennis Hopper?

[SugarFree]

Yup, bb. Wow, I really wouldn't want to be Fist of Etiquette right about now. How embarrassing. And it's on the Internet. This never goes away. I can pull it up out of the archives anytime I need to throw it in his face. He probably ought never comeback to this board under that handle again.

[Almanian]

Bee isn't referring to "The Huddsucker Proxy?" I am confuse...

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Go Eagles!

[WTF]

I thoguht he was referring to The Blind Side

[Mustachioed Fist of Etiquette]

He probably ought never comeback to this board under that handle again.

He's always been a moron. Good riddance.

[SugarFree]

Welcome, newcomer! We love a fresh face around here.

[Tim]

Heh.

[Pro Libertate]

You look familiar to me somehow. . .nah, forget it.

[Gibby]

Sandra Bullock was in The Majestic?

[Clark Kent]

Eherm, I find a pair of glasses to be less intrusive.

[Rich]

Interesting link.

"You don't have to bomb them anymore. That's the new world," said James Lewis, cybersecurity expert

You don't *have* to bomb them. However, they can't work a keyboard if they are dead.

The guidelines also make clear that when under attack, the U.S. can defend itself by blocking cyber intrusions

"Blocking cyber intrusions." What could that possibly entail?

"We must be able to defend and operate freely in cyberspace," [Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said]. Over time, Lynn said, the program could be a model for the Homeland Security Department

Uh, huh.

[Tim]

"Winsome Packer, a staffer on a commission Mr. Hastings headed. She alleged that she had been sexually harassed by the congressman and that he retaliated when she tried to report it."

WINSOME PACKER?

[Rich]

Pic.

[Almanian]

Oh yeah = she's on the All Name Team.

Kinda cute, too.

[Name Withheld]

Winsome Packer

If I ever decide to get into gay porn, that is so going to be my stage name.

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

If?

[Name Withheld]

[John]ny [Long]torso|6.22.11 @ 9:35AM|#
If?

Well, I do comment at H&R, so point taken (pun intended).

[Juvenile Lurker]

Q: What question is asked most frequently at gay bars?

A: "Mind if I push in your stool?"

[Almanian]

HIYO!

[Fist of Etiquette]

A spokeswoman for Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, co-chair of the budget committee, referred calls to Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald's office. A spokesman for Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, didn't return a call for comment.

...

Advocates from MillerCoors and the Wisconsin Beer Distributors Association could not be reached immediately for comment.

So lawmakers on the budget committee and their corporate masters didn't prepare for the inevitable question of why the attack on craft brewers in the first place?

[Gibby]

As they said on Morning Joe this morning, Gingrich is just finising up his book tour.

[Bee Tagger]

Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius claims smoking creates "$200 billion a year in health costs that we clearly could spend better elsewhere."

That's true, that money could be spent taking care of a few of those people when they age past the point they would have died had they kept smoking.

[Death Panelist]

PPACA says I get a defined benefit pension plan.

[DJF]

Does she propose getting rid of cigarette taxes since I am sure she does not want the government making billions of dollars off an industry which kills so many people?

[Kathleen Sebelius]

ARREST THAT MAN! OR WOMAN! WHATEVER!

[brotherben]

But how else are they gonna fund schip? It is for the kiddies afterall. That is in fact why I continue to smoke. To help the lil shitters get their share of the medical care pie.

[Almanian]

I quit smoking just to be a Burden on Society? for even longer

I'll make you lefties pay for your transgressions!!!

*waves cane at nothing in particular*

[Rich]

fat people are more prone to expensive diseases such as heart-failure and diabetes.

Perhaps requiring the, um, lipid-challenged to wear warning labels will change some bad habits.

[Almanian]

Did they suggest some inexpensive diseases as alternatives from which the lard asses might choose?

No? Well, then they're not much help, are they?

[cynical]

Whut, like a yellow twinkie?

[Bee Tagger]

Pres. Obama signs an executive order detailing cyberwar guidelines.

All I want to know is whether it's OK to call someone gay on Facebook if I've formally declared war on them, first.

[Almanian]

Um, hello? ELIMUNATIONIST RHETORIC WAS BANNED BY THE GENEVA CONVENTION!

But sending a drone over to their house is A-OK!

[kwais]

Virginia is ranked way to high.
I was stationed in VA, and it seemed a borderline theocratic police state to me at the time. It was way military friendly, and that was good to me, but I can't fathom living there.

How does it rank above Texas?

[kwais]

Virginia is ranked way to high.
I was stationed in VA, and it seemed a borderline theocratic police state to me at the time. It was way military friendly, and that was good to me, but I can't fathom living there.

How does it rank above Texas?

[Name Withheld]

You lost, boy?

[kwais]

That was about the freedom ranking of the 50 states.
How did VA get ranked so high?

[Otto]

Economic freedom, apparently.

[Brett L]

Open carry seems to carry a lot of weight. FL and TX have very liberal self-defense laws and CCW issuing standards, but forbid completely open carry.

[Virginia]

1 gun a month maybe. The liberals can't get over that. Taxes are lower than most here too. Overall ranking is definitely too high. Law & order tuffgai-on-crime social conservative Virginia does not equal free.

[Fart who is old]

Lists are for imbeciles.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Radar detectors obviously aren't ranked highly enough.

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

Blue State Schools: The Shame of a Nation

[Lord Humungus]

er, Phillip K. Dick? K.W. Jeter (his earlier stuff)?

The Pournelle/Niven book "Inferno" is also a favorite of mine.

Also "Star Man's Son"

Fantasy is a weak field (at least for me) - besides Tolkien, I'm tired of dragons, elves and the mystical Earth Stones of Shahuwu4erfsdfg.

[Lord Humungus]

dammit - replied to the wrong thread.

[SugarFree]

NPR takes reader poll for 100 best science fiction/fantasy books.

Ursula K. Le Guin has only written 21 books... What in the fuck could the other 79 even possibly be?

[Warty]

How many books has Mercedes Lackey shit out?

[SugarFree]

I really wasn't sure, so I pulled up her biblio. Sweet monkey cum, there are ten pages of books list on her wikipedia page (and I have a very large monitor.)

[SugarFree]

Wow. Take a look at her ISFDB page...

[Tim]

That is one winsome packer.

[Almanian]

*two thumbs up and +1 lulz*

[Warty]

Who the fuck is her fanbase? I read one of her books, once, when I was like 10 and didn't have any taste. It was horrible.

[SugarFree]

Incredibly overweight women who think a corset hides all sins.

[Warty]

So alt-burlesque skanks, then. It makes sense.

[Rock Action]

I can only imagine the acrid bouquet of unshaven armpits on alt-burlesque night at the local music club. Just a lot of skin without deodorant rubbing together. A quick google search, and I imagined Stefon's voice from SNL (yeah, I know):

http://www.canada.com/edmonton.....5b961a725b

[Gibby]

rather?

[Fart who is old]

SugarFree|6.22.11 @ 9:41AM|#
Wow. Take a look at her ISFDB page...

Yours would look like that if they counted blog commentary.

[Restoras]

+1

[Warty]

2. Wheel of TIme Series by Robert Jordan

FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

[Brett L]

Thank you. I think it only gets voted so high because people hate to think that they wasted all that time.

[Joe M]

So would you say the Wheel of Time series is like the Lost of fantasy fiction?

[Brett L]

In that I was willing to abandon both as soon as I decided there was no plot resolution coming? Yes.

[BigBob]

Pretty close, though it would have some competition from the Sword of Truth series. Hell, just about any major series published by TOR ends up with 4-5 novels worth of filler by the time it's done.

[Trespassers W]

How many has Octavia Butler written?

[SugarFree]

At least Butler wrote well. And actually wrote science fiction instead of squishy gender parables. Kindred is fantastic.

[Brett L]

How many series has Kevin Anderson ruined?

[Tim]

"NPR takes reader poll for 100 best science fiction/fantasy books."

#1: The Planet where Socialism Actually Works.

[Trespassers W]

*snorted out loud*

[Gray Ghost]

Tim, Use of Weapons did win The Register's Best SF Novel poll...

Don't get me wrong, I love the Culture series, but the Minds are the sociological equivalent of the skyhook in introductory engineering classes: "If I could only attach a skyhook here to take off this load/torque..."

[SugarFree]

Got into a one-sided argument on io9 when some drip said that The Culture was a libertarian utopia.

[Gray Ghost]

To be fair to your commenter, isn't The Culture a libertarian utopia in many ways? From the point of view of the human-ish inhabitants, at least?

Granted, it's a utopia run by impossibly altruistic, insanely advanced AIs. And Banks's sociology, never mind economics, has never made sense to me. The stories are still a blast though.

Somewhat off topic, while waiting to see Super 8 (wait for Netflix) I sat through a bunch of interminable previews; among them, ones for bad sci-fi properties like Falling Skies. My question is this (to be read a la Don LaFontaine): In a world where there is no movie version of Mote in God's Eye, Rama Ringworld, Steel Beach, any of the Culture novels, etc...all of them just waiting to be filmed, why does Hollywood crank out shit like Battle: Los Angeles? Are authors asking that much for their options?

[SugarFree]

The Culture is post-scarcity communism with the minds performing central planning. There is no private property, and your freedom to leave the society is only allowed if you submit to being mutilated.

It is a functional communist utopia, but it isn't a society where the individual's right of self-ownership is respected utterly absent aggression. The Culture is a libertine-o-topia--and would be a damn fun place to live--but it's not Libertopia.

[SIV]

I should comment register just so The Men in the Jungle gets one vote.

[SugarFree]

At least a tiny shout-out for The Iron Dream would be nice. Of course, that one makes everyone uncomfortable.

[sarcasmic]

Starship Troopers (fuck the movie, the book ranks in my top 5)

[Pro Libertate]

I like several Le Guin books, but the way some treat her (io9 comes to mind), you'd think she was worth, I dunno, 100 gogolplex of Asimov. Asimov being the base measure of science fiction authors for purposes of this comment.

[SugarFree]

It's not just io9. Pretty much every year something she wrote wins some award.

If she dies with a pen in her hand, the scribble she makes when she keels over will win a Nebula.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm so tired of identity politics being more important than, well, anything else. She's a decent author who can stand on her own merits. She doesn't need special help because of her gender. Jesus.

[Boxbot]

Read nothing but feminist and "socially conscious" fiction for all your undergrad years, then stumble across The Left Hand of Darkness, and I'll bet LeGuin looks pretty fucking brilliant.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

The earthsea stuff is good. Everything else I've tried to read by her is communist garbage.

[Pro Libertate]

I liked The Lathe of HeavenThe Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed.

[Gibby]

"NPR takes reader poll for 100 best science fiction/fantasy books."

Is Frankenfish on the list?

[Warty]

Gasp! Gambling!

[Rich]

Got that feeling.

(Props to Warty.)

[SugarFree]

"But THEY made me embezzle!" Although the idea of Toby Maguire breaking someone's kneecaps is oddly comforting, somehow.

[John]

Maguire is just for show. The real muscle behind the operation is Michael Cera.

[John]

And interesting fact about Cera. This is who he dated for three years after he was famous.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2304722/

If that is the best you can do after you get famous making it in movies, what must it have been like for him before he was famous?

[Almanian]

*barf*

[SugarFree]

I think her mustache is quite fetching.

[brotherben]

She is asian John. She ummmmmm knew stuff.

[Mike M.]

Great, just great. This sh*t sure isn't going to help the ongoing effort to legalize poker and bring it into the mainstream.

[John]

James Toranto made a great point yesterday in Best of the Web about ID requirements for voting.

nother important aspect of civil rights is equal employment opportunity. Under the 1986 immigration law, when you are hired for a job, you are required to provide your employer with documents proving both your identity and your citizenship or legal residency. How come nobody ever claims these requirements discriminate against blacks?

[[John]ny [Long]torso]

And we need some sort of national ID, for our own good, to do everything except vote. That's to protect us from fraud and terrorists.

But it's racist to use the same ID at the voting booth.

[OO]

u mean when registering to vote

[Zeb]

Well, that policy probably also discriminates against blacks in the same way. There, now someone has claimed that .

I object to ID requirements at the polls for different reasons. For one thing, where I live, the people at the polls know who you are. Why should I need to show them ID. Second, ID costs money. It shouldn't cost the voter any thing, or require the voter to jump through any extra hoops to vote.

[John]

But it is okay to require you to have an ID to work?

[Zeb]

In a better world, only if the employer wants to require it. In the real world where SSNs get stolen with real consequences for the victims, I could be persuaded.

[acorn activist]

everyone knows that the man has made it so no african-americans or hispanics can get jobs. So why should they bother to try?

[Almanian]

I just noticed it was the good Mister Riggs who posted the ML's. Thanks, Mike! Also:

"RIIIIIIIGGS!! COP KILLERS!!!"

*throws gun to Riggs*

[Mike M.]

Some far left wing organization has actually bought advertisements on some downtown Washington D.C. Metrobuses saying "Obama is a republican. Primary Obama!"

[John]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....1K09BP.DTL

Feinstein on the skids.

[Au H20]

Feinstein on the skids.

Feinstein is still the term for a dirty sex act, right?

[BigBob]

Unfortunately, she'll coast to victory regardless of the economy. Team Blue rarely loses a statewide election here.

[rather]

I'm bored with the political sex scandals; why can't one of ours take family pictures?
http://thebeatdfw.com/the-dfw/.....is-family/

[rather]

I'm bored with the political sex scandals; why can't one of ours take family pictures?
http://alturl.com/f5rcs

[Lord Humungus]

Maryland Public Schools now require that each student be environmentally literate before he or she graduates from high school.

http://www.thebaynet.com/news/.....y_ID/22894

[M O'M]

While many exemplary environmental education programs already exist in some Maryland schools not all students have access to these programs. That can occur when schools feel compelled to emphasize math and reading instruction over science and other subjects because of the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law.

BUUUUSSH!!

[Brett L]

Literally literate, not so much.

[WTF]

And by 'environmentally literate' they mean 'tow the leftist lion'.

[Isaac Bartram]

Wait, I thought that the Supreme Court had ruled that religious education was a violation of the 1st Amendment.

[cynical]

Feel free to put the lawsuit together. Make sure to get whacky statements from environmentalists suggesting that mother nature sends earthquakes to punish us for polluting, and other crazy supernaturalist approaches. Also, make sure to use a textbook that teaches Lovelock's Gaia theory.

[Gray Ghost]

I wonder if taking a hunter safety course would count? I learned more about conservationism and habitat in that class than I ever did in high school.

[John]

http://www.rollingstone.com/po.....l-20110622

Anyone who denies climate change is a "Merchant of Poison". I think magazines like Rolling Stone exist for the sole purpose of writing failure narratives to make liberals feel better.

[Zeb]

Don't they write about music anymore? Or is it all just about musicians' stupid uninformed political views? Don't think I've seen anything but the cover for over 10 years.

[Brett L]

I'm putting that on my business card.

[John]

I like that.

[Gray Ghost]

It's a mystery to me that they ever invited P.J. O'Rourke to write for them.

I wonder how they feel about Germany phasing out all of its nukes...in exchange for getting the power from coal instead?

[Ray]

http://www.policeone.com/Offic.....AT-deputy/

3 years for shooting a deputy as SWAT comes barreling through the door, with no drugs found at the house. Aslo, for complimentary nut punches, read the comments by police officers (this is a police site) about how they should get a rope and hang the guy, empty their magazines into him, etc, etc, etc...

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

There are a couple of comments arguing for an even-handed approach to sentencing, but the majority of them are your typical LEO site comments.

" One thing I have learned from a lot of years as a undercover and from doing countless sw (search warrants) narcotic specific in Detroit is this. Just because we didn't find the dope DOSENT MEAN its NOT STILL THERE. Also, narcs hit dry houses all the time, it dosent mean the occupants or the suspect is innocent. People forget to do a sw and violate the 4th amendment of that occupant to that house. I have to have established PC, through trash pulls, dog sniffs. Controlled buys, UC buy, surveillance, etc. Otherwise we wouldn't be there. So even if its dry, remember, someone has still been naughty!! "

Roughly translated - "If I can get a search warrant you must be guilty."

[P Brooks]

This just in: Walmart is EVIL.

But that avoids the more essential point, namely that Wal-Mart views low labor costs and a high degree of workplace flexibility as a signal competitive advantage.

No shit.

[Almanian]

labor costs and a high degree of workplace flexibility

Man. If WalMart could leverage that on a large scale....they could become...ONE OF THE BIGGEST RETAILERS ON THE PLANET!!!

*cue scary music*

[Almanian]

Also - STOP SAVING ME MONEY!!!!11one11!!

[SugarFree]

Once again, leftists misunderstand the reason why businesses exist. I'd feel embarrassment for them if they weren't so deliberate in their studied ignorance.

[Mike M.]

Guess who's coming back into the spotlight once again to spread his message of hate? That lunatic Jeremiah Wright.

[John]

But Obama couldn't disown him anymore than he could disown his own grandmother.

God do you remember the bullshit surrounding the Philadelphia speech? It was better than Lincoln at Cooper Union. Barf. Now they don't even acknowledge it ever happened.

[J Wright]

Payback is motherfucker, eh Barry? Throw this under the bus.

[P Brooks]

Your philosophy is a swindle, apparently.

The overall operation was wildly successful. Once established in universities, rational choice philosophy moved smoothly on the backs of their pupils into the "real world" of business and government (aided in the crossing, to be sure, by the novels of another Rand?Ayn). Today, governments and businesses across the globe simply assume that social reality is merely a set of individuals freely making rational choices.

To be honest, I'm not even sure what this bozo is getting at; I'm gonna just go with "Markets are bad, and libertarians are dupes."

You know- the usual.

[John]

"that social reality is merely a set of individuals freely making rational choices."

People doing things for themselves. The horror of it.

[Brett L]

Maybe I slept through one too many economics lectures, but I'm pretty sure that aggregate rational choice theory underlies pretty much all of basic market behavior, with most other studies being how does (A) change the aggregate rational behavior of the market. That any market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent is also a tautology.

[Warty]

What I got out of it is that he wants someone to rephrase Hegel, since the reason we idiots don't like him must be that he's too hard to understand.

[John]

You know who else read Hagel?

[Brett L]

Not me, I vowed I'd never read a sentence that went more than 2 pages after slogging through Kant.

[Warty]

I know that David Hume could out-consume him.

[P Brooks]

Rational choice philosophy thus promulgates a clear and compelling moral imperative: increase your wealth and power!

Today, institutions which help individuals do that (corporations, lobbyists) are flourishing; the others (public hospitals, schools) are basically left to rot. Business and law schools prosper; philosophy departments are threatened with closure.

"John McCumber is Professor of Germanic Languages at UCLA."

Won't somebody think of the pompous asses?

[John]

We spend how many hundreds of billions on public education in this country? If that is being "left to rot" where do I sign up?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

"Philosophy departments are threatened with closure."

David Hume is smiling somewhere.

[Warty]

Steve-O: I Did Drugs with Lindsay Lohan While She Was in Rehab

What drugs? And what was in this crazy footage? This article disappoints tremendously.

[jerry lawler]

So there's no real reason to believe that a "rogue member of LulzSec" is behind this. The Guardian makes a tendentious link between the hacker group and the Bitcoin raid. Considering how poorly researched the rest of the Guardian article is on details (the hacker(s) didn't actually steal bitcoins, they made a mass sell that devalued the coins on the Mt. Gox exchange, but the basic Bitcoin/dollars rate wasn't affected directly by the attack), there's no reason to believe that LulzSec perpetrated the assault. Just because someone pulls off a successful hack doesn't mean it's LulzSec. Reason should know better than to perpetuate that kind of faulty reporting.

[Virginia]

They do add that Lulzsec denies it and there could be a third group lurking.

[jerry lawler]

It was unfair of me to criticize the Guardian so harshly. I guess a title like "LulzSec rogue suspected of Bitcoin hack" isn't really that misleading at all. And hey, if it's not LulzSec and it's not Anonymous, it must be some shadowy third group.

It just strikes me as dishonest to be so flagrantly unconcerned about the truth that a respected(?) publication would fabricate a link like that.