Reason Morning Links: Starring Rand Paul, Rebekah Brooks, and Herman Cain

• Rand Paul puts a hold on the FBI director's reappointment, saying he'd like some questions answered first.
• The head of Scotland Yard has resigned in the wake of former Murdoch lieutenant Rebekah Brooks' arrest. 
• Herman Cain thinks the government has the right to ban mosques.
• The press buries a scoop about a secret Somalia prison.
• Emails confirm that the White House tried to shut out Fox News.
• Beware of phony ethanol reform.
• Jerry Ragovoy, RIP.

The latest from Reason.tv: "3 Reasons Why The Debt-Ceiling Debate is Full of Malarkey."

Comments

[Aqua Buddha]

VERNUCCIO: Labor's new strategy: Intimidation for dummies
...SEIU's manual details how "outside pressure can involve jeopardizing relationships between the employer and lenders, investors, stockholders, customers, clients, patients, tenants, politicians, or others on whom the employer depends for funds." The union advises using legal and regulatory pressure to "threaten the employer with costly action by government agencies or the courts."

It details the use of community groups to "damage an employer's public image and ties with community leaders and organizations." SEIU recommends going after company officials personally. Not mincing words, SEIU states, "It may be a violation of blackmail and extortion laws to threaten management officials with release of 'dirt' about them if they don't settle a contract. But there is no law against union members who are angry at their employer deciding to uncover and publicize factual information about individual managers."..

...In some areas, the manual blatantly advises breaking the law, stating, "Union members sometimes must act in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King and Mohatma [sic] Gandhi and disobey laws which are used to enforce injustice against working people."...

Feds pay for study of gay men's penis sizes
...Another discovery from the research: men with smaller penises were more likely to be psychologically troubled than those with larger genitalia. The goal of the study was to understand the "real individual-level consequences of living in a penis-centered society."...

[John]

The 99% of union leaders who are corrupt thugs just give the other 1% a bad name.

[Abdul]

I thought for sure that John would have some insights into the small penis thing.

(I k9id because I love)

[John]

The other finding in that study is that those with smaller genitalia tend to work through their psychological issues through excellent spelling.

[rather]

lol

[Abdul]

Sometimes a typo is just a typo.

Sometimes it's because I got excited, and my enormous junk jostled the desk.

[Lord Humungus]

Look, I can type without using my hands!

[Spartacus]

So can I, but my keyboard is the size of a workbench.

[The Freaking Brothers]

So can we!

[Ice Nine]

A rather wooden performance, IMO.

[Aqua Buddha]

Replace SEUI and Halliburton and wonder how the left would react to the same document.

[Aqua Buddha]

Damn, replace WITH Halliburton.

[John]

The same way they would have reacted if the Bush administration had targeted MSNBC, a bad case of the vapors. But it is different when they do it. They mean well.

[MNG]

Er, doesn't that work both ways? Doesn't seem like much that most big corporations wouldn't do in pursuing their goals...

[Tulpa]

CORPORASHUNS!!!!!!1!!!!!11!!!!!!

I had lunch with someone on Saturday who was claiming they buy food exclusively at Farmers Markets because they don't want to give money to corporations. I wanted to ask where he thought the farmers he was giving money to spent their money, but my shrink says I need to let things go sometimes.

[MNG]

It's silly to hate corporations per se, as silly as hating unions per se, or partnerships per se, or community organizers per se...People are stupid, what can you say?

[MNG]

I also hate it when people say they hate "organized religion", as if every and all forms of people organizing for religious purposes has been terrible (abolitionism? civil rights movement?)

[JW]

How about we just agree to reflexively hate rent-seeking scum?

[T]

Really? What do they do about condiments, like mayo and mustard and hot sauce? And flour? Can you buy that stuff at Farmers Markets? I honestly don't know. The only reason I go to Farmers Markets is to get my knives sharpened and buy cheese.

[Quetzalcoatl]

You can certainly buy the ingredients and, I don't know, make it yourself.

[T]

Yeah, but seriously, youy have to be pretty damn hardcore to make your own hot sauce because you hate corporations. Most (>99%) people just aren't that motivated.

[Chupacabra]

I agree that the corporation hate is childish, but making hot sauce is one of the easier things to do in the kitchen.

It takes all of 10 minutes to make much better stuff than you can buy in the store.

[SFC B]

I would like your recipe for hot sauce. Care to share?

[Clich? Bandit]

SECOND! The "real" hot sauce requires fermentation. I have not made any yet but since my trips to Santa Fe have been dwindling lately I am considering it. My local brewery supply shop sells these cute little 32 oz French (eww unbathed) oak barrels for hot sauce. pricey but some of the patron's saucees I have tasted were awesome.

[Fluffy]

I know lots of people who make their own mayo and mustard.

I personally eat homemade pickles, relish and salsa.

[cynical]

Weird, I would say that outside of government contractor types like Halliburton/BR, I would be more likely to believe that of unions more than corporations.

Corporate employees are just there for a paycheck, so there's little group loyalty. My bet is that in-group/out-group loyalty is a stronger driver for bad behavior than cash compensation for most people, since you still get to feel good about yourself at the end of the day, and unions have the us-against-the-world mindset locked up.

[Pip]

"Er, doesn't that work both ways? Doesn't seem like much that most big corporations wouldn't do in pursuing their goals..."

Time and time again you demonstrate that you have absolutely no idea what goes on at a major corporation. Why do you do that?

[Zeb]

I would think (and probably be wrong, I guess) that penis size wouldn't be such a big deal among gay guys. I mean, if I was going to get fucked in the ass, I would think I would want something on the smaller size to be fucked with.

[Pip]

Gay men love huge cock.

True story.

[Ted S.]

I take it you have personal experience in this matter?

[John]

http://www.nationalpost.com/ne.....story.html

Interesting piece in the Canadian National Post on Fannie and Feddie.

[Name Nomad]

I looked through all those articles and the one point that stands out the most from my perspective is that apparently Rand Paul writes like a six year old. Near limitless communications technology that allows me to receive information literally at the speed of light, and that's how I use it. If I were a journalist, I'd cry myself to sleep every night.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I looked through all those articles and the one point that stands out the most from my perspective is that apparently Rand Paul writes like a six year old.

Why? Because he doesn't attempt to obfuscate through excessive use of the passive voice, subordinate clauses, pronouns, and rhetorical equivocation?

[Name Nomad]

I just realized how that could be misconstrued. I meant he has bad handwriting. Look at his signature.

[Cheeseburger]

He is an eye surgeon, have you ever seen a doctor with good handwriting?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Really? I thought he was just a "read the third line, please" eye doctor.

[Cheeseburger]

Nope he is an ophthalmologist, an MD. You are thinking of an optometrist, they have an OD.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Isn't that what Heath Ledger had?

[deified]

Few people are aware of the real story of Ledger's death, but here it is: he died of massive internal bleeding and ruptured organs after he and I shared a night of passion and anal sex.

I thought I would never forgive myself but it was easier than I thought it would be.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I had no idea that Jake Gyllenhall was a reason commenter!

[Scooby]

He's an MD. I thought it was common knowledge that doctors have terrible handwriting. Haven't you ever seen a handwritten prescription?

[Jon Schaffer`s Right Hand]

I am proud to say that my own handwriting is high level encryption technology: only I can decipher it. Honestly in our age having excellent calligraphy is like being awesome at bowling.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Ah.

[Ice Nine]

I hate obfuscating six year olds.

[T]

They crack pretty easily when you water board them.

[Hugh Akston]

Fortunately, we have a site in Mogadishu where no one cares if we waterboard six-year-olds.

[Ice Nine]

They crack pretty easily when you water board them.

Yeah, but those uptight CPS do-gooders will be all over your ass.

[Max Stirner]

This is, huh, wow.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/20.....thers-2012

I though the Kochs were part of the "cosmotarian conspiracy?" What are they doing supporting a socially conservative candidate? Do they think she has a better chance than Ron
Paul? And yes, I feel bad about linking to Mother Jones.

[shrike]

That just proves my point that posters here dispute.

There are probably only about 500 libertarians in the country. The vast majority who claim to be LP are just garden variety conservatives in denial. Put the Kochs on that list.

[sarcasmic]

Libertarians are just pot smokers looking for a political party that celebrates their habit.

[deified]

I luuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh to smohke weehd.

Seriously though, libertarians generally have much better spelling than the vast majority of wake-and-bake tokers.

[Rich]

Just out of morbid curiosity, how many liberals do you think are there in the country?

[Mr. FIFY]

Way too fucking many, Rich.

[BakedPenguin]

Trolling has reached such a sad, sad state here at H&R...

[Rich]

blatant twaddlenockery

I heard there's a pole dancer in Jersey who goes by that moniker.

[deified]

Verily, she's the loosest I've ever known.

[Trespassers W]

The shriek sock puppet was my favorite.

[BakedPenguin]

Thanks, I thought I really captured shriek and tony.

[shrike]

Right - the Bachmann's profit from farm subsidies, Medicaid graft, and love their kind of theocracy and they get love from Libertarians? (except the Reason staff).

And I am the troll?

[yes.]

[kinnath]

if you can't figure out who the troll is on the list, then it's you.

[Pip]

The trolling is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!

[kinnath]

+1

[Mr. FIFY]

And the Pelosis use non-union labor on their winery plantations, shrike.

But you're all for the Pelosis.

[rather]

blogwhore

[Warty]

How did you get that photograph of Hercule?

[BakedPenguin]

The guy who supplies the URKOBOLD? with porn has his sources.

[Gaia]

The Herc action figure is awesome.

Where can I get one.

[Mr. FIFY]

You're not one to talk about being in denial, shrike.

[Jerry]

Doesn't Koch have factories in MN & PA?

[Lord Humungus]

They have factories everywhere - even in your house. Such is the power of the Kochtupus.

[Axman]

Jerry's house, maybe, but not mine. However, they do have a pipeline running across my south forty. I keep an eye out for terrorist saboteurs. If I ever notice any, I plan to deter them by hiding in the bushes and shooting at them with my deer rifle.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

It's amusing how liberals have just noticed the Kochs within the past year, even though their political influence hasn't changed to any greater or lesser degree.

Liberals can only handle one boogeyman at a time, it seems.

[cynical]

Maybe they think she has the best combination of "chance of election" and "chance of implementing Koch-favored policies".

[shrike]

The Pizza Flipper proves again that my home state of Georgia is the uncontested champion in retarded politicians.

[Brett L]

Sheila Jackson Lee. You lose.

[Florida]

Go Gata!

[shrike]

Cynthia McKinney
Zell Miller
Newt Gingrich
Lester Maddox
Paul Broun, Jr

[SIV]

GA has produced some of the best politicians(one of them is on your list, sockpuppet). To stay in (informed) character, and to really troll, you should have included the late Larry McDonald. You're not from GA.

[Libertymike]

Surely, you do not mean Zell Miller or Newty boy?

[dunphy]

newt gingrich is many things, but he is not stupid.

profoundly unlikable, statist to the max, etc. - yes.

retarded? no

[Libertymike]

Yes, newt is no dummy.

[SIV]

One of the two best Governors Georgia ever had is on that list.

[Pablo]

Dont forget Jerry Keen.

[Pablo]

And Saxby Chambliss.

[Ray Pew]

No list of Georgian politicians is complete without Hank "I'm worried that Guam will capsize" Johnson.

[NeonCat]

Yay! My congressman gets a shout-out!

Now I'm going to go drink myself into a stupor.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I'm not sure that you can hold a candle to South Carolina.

[shrike]

It would be close.

Look at the geographic proximity though. This is truly the anus of the country.

[Zeb]

Nope, Florida is the wang, so the south atlantic is the pubes of the country.

[Mr. FIFY]

You've got a real hate-on for the black man, don't you, shrike?

[Aqua Buddha]

Obfuscation: Dems Push Gun Control To Hide 'Gunwalker' Scandal
...The exact same agencies that would be charged with enforcing the proposal are currently under investigation ? and may eventually face felony charges ? because they broke existing laws and participated in widespread gun trafficking. To borrow from a reader, the federal government is using federal agencies to break federal laws so that same federal government can impose more federal laws on the people that did not break the law.

It is Orwellian in its absurdity, and yet entirely real....

More 'Gunwalker' Emails Suggest Gun-Control Conspiracy
...If that sounds familiar, it should; this week, President Obama pushed an executive order ? an end-run around Congress ? stating the feds will now require the reporting of multiple rifle sales within a five-day period. That the office of the presidency lacks the constitutional authority to enact such a rule seems irrelevant to this administration, which is certain to see this edict challenged in court if the ATF attempts to enforce it.

Even more damning: the existence of more emails that confirm these same ATF officials and others were colluding to use the Operation "Fast and Furious" guns that they helped smuggle into Mexico as a pretext for the new reporting regulation....

[John]

The only way gunwalker makes any sense is as a conspiracy to push gun control. And what is pathetic is that the thing has been unmasked and they are still using it as an excuse to push gun control.

[Rich]

"Pathetic" is not a proper characterization of the situation. "Treasonous", perhaps. 8-(

[Aqua Buddha]

Might as well brazen it out and try to use it for political gain if you're a Dem.

[Tulpa]

It was an extremely poorly-conceived conspiracy if so. Even passing an assault weapons ban in the current political landscape would require a lot more than yammering about US guns winding up in Mexico.

[robc]

Arent most conspiracies poorly-conceived?

[SFC B]

Only the ones we find out about.

[Jon Schaffer`s Right Hand]

Prying, cold dead hands, bullets first, etc.

[Clich? Bandit]

Badnarik has a great phrase: "I will gladly hand over my gun, one bullet at a time."

[Max Stirner]

"Our Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state," Cain said in an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "Islam combines church and state. They're using the church part of our First Amendment to infuse their morals in that community, and the people of that community do not like it. They disagree with it."

This has to be one of the strangest uses of separation of church and state ever. So the separation can be used to effectively ban a religion? I think Cain's actually a secret atheist pushing the "secular agenda." Oh, conspiracies galore!

[John]

Actually it is not that much different than what radical atheists like Richard Dawkins think about religion. The only difference is he is going after just Islam and most atheists go after every religion but Islam.

[Max Stirner]

Say what you want about Dawkins, at least he's never tried to force churches to leave a community.

[PS]

I don't think of Dawkins as a "radical" atheist. What the hell is a radical atheist anyway? I've never read anything by Dawkins about banning religion.

[Quetzalcoatl]

A radical atheist is one whose opinions on religion pass a subjective boundary.

For some people, banning churches is radical, for others it might be burning churches.

Perhaps more to your point, it often seems like the actual denial of God's existence is a common boundary for "radical".

[Tulpa]

As an atheist myself, I think the term (along with "militant atheist" or the more ironic "evangelical atheist") is used for an atheist who considers religious belief to be a bad thing and works to stamp it out (possibly by persuasive rather than coercive means).

[dunphy]

anybody who would fuck mrs. garrison is a radical atheist

[Mrs. Garrison]

Fuck you.

[Mrs. Garrison]

Fuck you.

[PS]

I can buy that.

[Zeb]

I think that is a good line (Tulpa's that is). I suppose I am an atheist, but I don't spend a lot of time worrying about things that don't exist, so it doesn't really define my life that much.

[oncogenesis]

an atheist who considers religious belief to be a bad thing

The correct term for that is anti-theist.

[Aqua Buddha]

This has to be one of the strangest uses of separation of church and state ever.

If the 14th's guarantee of equal protection mandates the unequal protection of affirmative action, why is this a problem?

[Pro Libertate]

Religious freedom has two parts in this country, and most people only know the first one about government not establishing a religion (which is where the separation of church and state doctrine comes from).

What's often forgotten or neglected is the equally important right to freely exercise your religion. It's in the Constitution, right there at the beginning of the Bill of Rights.

[robc]

Saturday, I saw a "Government is not God" bumpersticker. It took my a few minutes to figure out the political affiliations of the driver from other bumper ads, but before I did I decided I agreed with it whether from the right or the left.

[robc]

And by "few minutes", I think I mean 15 seconds.

[Pro Libertate]

It's not my god, but it seems to be the god of a decent amount of our population.

[T]

The God That Failed?

[cynical]

Isn't it self-evidently right wing? Both anti-government, and concerned about things replacing God in importance?

[Modern American Government]

"It's in the Constitution"

Sorry? The what now?

Oh, that's right. That's the thing that has that commerce clause stuff in it.

[Tulpa]

Even assuming Cain's argument about Islam violating separation of church and state is correct, there's the inconvenient fact that "separation of church and state" is not in the First Amendment; that's a Jefferson interpretation of the First. The Free Exercise clause is there and clearly prohibits doing what Cain wants to do.

[Herman Cain]

The government has the right to ban Fox News.

[rather]

Wow, I heard him say the community can decide to ban mosques but either way, he's done

[Fatwa Issuer]

Mosques have the right to ban the government and Fox News.

[Libertymike]

That would be a positive development.

[Libertymike]

Banning Fox and the government is banning the same thing.

[Abdul]

The press buries a scoop about a secret Somalia prison

CIA black sites in Somalia!?! Great, now Obama fucked up the last existing libertarian paradise.

[Aqua Buddha]

But how do you get to the CIA black sites w/o ROADZ!!!??!!

[rather]

Libertarians captured and enslaved children. They force them to carry crates of on their heads, and piggyback prisoners to torture centers

[Abdul]

Just because we paid those kids less than minimum wage doesn't make it "enslavement."

Slavery is when the government tells you how much you have to pay your underage workers, and makes you give them all kinds of safety equipment.

[MNG]

"Slavery is when the government tells you how much you have to pay your underage workers, and makes you give them all kinds of safety equipment."

Thanks for making my morning with that one, the idea that you almost certainly hold this view is the real fun.

[Abdul]

You really missed the joke.

This whole sub-thread was devoted to extreme libertarian stereotypes and arguments.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an unregulated caol mine to manage. Those child-workers won't crawl into the seam unless someone cracks the whip.

And don't misinterpet me--it's not a literal whip. It's an electrically powered shock collar like you use on dogs.

[Clich? Bandit]

how do you keep your moonocle free of coal dust?

[rather]

how do you keep your moonocle free of coal dust?

He keeps his moonocle where the sun don't shine

[Quetzalcoatl]

It's not the hard labor for an unlivable wage that's slavery, it's the taxes that the poor children have to pay!

[kinnath]

Black helicopters

[OO]

somali trainz!

[Ice Nine]

Hey, it's a Barack Obama secret foreign CIA prison not a George W Bush secret foreign CIA prison. No problem here. Move along.

[Aqua Buddha]

$1600

[Ben Bernanke]

It's not money, dammit!

[Lord Humungus]

It's a shiny, almost "gold-colored" metal that's good for electrical connections and making crowns for teeth. And that's about it - no value at all... yep...

[CoyoteBlue]

Just a commodity, with a really long shelf life, that people would rather have than The Bernanke's waste paper.

[Libertymike]

It is high time that we have some curency competition.

Regrettably, there are people who claim to be libertarian who think that we are better off without currency competition. Of course, if one is for currency mononoply, one is not a libertarian in addition to being a luddite.

[T]

Wait, I can see the non-libertarian argument, but luddite? You have to explain how opposing currency competition makes one a luddite, Mike.

[Libertymike]

They are luddites in the sense that they fear the change, the unknown and the disruption of their comfortable world of currency monopoly.

Would you agree that there would be lots of folk who would fear currency competition? Lots of sheople take comfort in all sorts of monopolistic practices and currecny is no different. Don't you think that some people would have a hard time dealing with the "change" and having to make decisions attendant thereto?

Many would irrationally fear such competition just as the original luddites feared the big, bad machines being developped by the industrial age.

I deliberately employ the word irratinally because there is no empirical evidence to support the proposition that currency monopoly is essential for the optimization of trade and commerce.

[luddite]

This newfangled "gold" technology frightens me, and what if it puts all the money printers out of work?

[Pip]

You can't wipe your ass with gold.

[robc]

And that's about it

You are an idiot, you left out its most important use: getting laid.

[Lord Humungus]

the Bling!

[BakedPenguin]

The Somalia story has to be distressing to Obamanauts on two levels - they'll find more proof that Obama is the 3rd Bush term, and the government presence means they can't say it's "teh librtariun paradice!" anymore.

[Aqua Buddha]

Libertarian = Bad
CIA = Bad

therefore

CIA = Libertarian

[BakedPenguin]

Well, we support government giving money to corporations, so why not...

(I have heard this from actual liberals).

[rather]

"actual liberals"

Did you cut them open to see if they bled compassion?

[Libertymike]

If you cut them open, you will find actual venom.

[Crackers Boy]

If you cut them open, you will find actual vacuum

[Pro Libertate]

What have you done with Otto?

[JW]

Check that barrel out at the airport...

[BakedPenguin]

Nothing. He wasn't posting much, so I thought the Penguin would be less lazy.

[Pro Libertate]

I Wanda where he is?

[SugarFree]

[groan]

[Pro Libertate]

That's a Python-endorsed pun, so no groans.

[SugarFree]

[grumble]

[Pro Libertate]

"You say anything about that and I'll do you for treason."

[cynical]

What a crock of shit. When we give people LSD, we make sure they pay us. Altruism = evil.

[rather]

Jude Law claims his cel was compromised in NYC. If that's true, Murdoch is fucked here too

[Alan Vanneman]

A vee-neck tee-shirt, Nick? Let's pump the production values, shall we?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The ladies prefer pimped production values.

[Aqua Buddha]

The head of Scotland Yard has resigned in the wake of former Murdoch lieutenant Rebekah Brooks' arrest.

Does this mean Scotland Yard should be banned also?

[Lefttenant]

Does this mean Scotland Yard should be banned also?

Well, hacked at least.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It's been all downhill for them since Lestrade.

[rather]

🙂

[Rhywun]

The NYC council is salivating over this.

[Rhywun]

Ugh. Fucking threaded comments... how do they work?

[CoyoteBlue]

Town Council outlaws citizens' right to free association in Backwater, AR.
Shinanigans ensue.
http://www.fox16.com/news/stor.....w5hog.cspx

[dunphy]

the war on domestic violence has already violated free association

when a judge can tell a woman (or man) that they CANNOT associate with a boyfriend/girlfriend because the judge is ruling that person is a danger to them , and against that person's wishes, and that the bf/gf is subject to arrest if they are knowingly within 500 ft of that person - there IS no right to free association

[MP]

A town of 850 has a Mayor? WTF?!?

[SugarFree]

I have finished A Dance With Dragons. I am happy with it, but sad I will be 46 or older before the next one comes out.

[Brett L]

Not quite done yet, but so much better than the previous one. I was ready to give up on the series, and am a bit sad that I can't.

[Ice Nine]

Being 46 or older is reason enough.

[SugarFree]

Considering GRRM is now saying it may take 3 more books to finish, I'll be 56+ before the end.

Harrumph.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It could be worse: he could pull a Robert Jordan.

[SugarFree]

At the current rate and assuming 3 more books, GRRM would be 77 before the last one came out.

[T]

And fat boy doesn't look to take great care of himself, either. I suspect a heart attack will knock him off before he finishes.

I finished Malazan, I'm ambivalent about finishing the Wheel of Time, and I suppose I'll finish Ice & Fire. But I am not starting anymore fucking endless doorstop epics until the author is finished with all of them. There's plenty of other things to read. I figure I can usually manage to hold off on TV series until they come out on DVD, I can wait until the author finishes, too.

[robc]

I am not starting anymore fucking endless doorstop epics until the author is finished with all of them.

I adopted that policy after getting suckered into Turtledove's World War series.

My one exception is Niven's Fleet of Worlds series, but I buy everything Known Space anyway and they have all been freestanding so far.

[Sparky]

RE: WoT, I was happy to see Sanderson pull it back in line and get about the business of finishing it up. He managed to bring back the awesomeness that it started out with.

[Tim]

I picture him sitting there, dementia setting in, at the keyboard, drool pooling in his lap.
His hot nurse comes in with tea. Bending over to peak at his latest chapter she remarks: " Oh no you can't write about him love, he died three books back".
Meawhile the senile Martin is reaching for her breasts exclaiming Hodor! HODOR!

[Tim]

The bastard kills characters left and right, but his most subtle crime is the thousands of fans who will die before the thing is concluded.

[R C Dean]

If you don't want to wait for a truly epic fantasy series to finally get finished, may I strongly recommend the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Now finished. Of the 10 volumes, I would say 8 are awesome, and the other 2 merely great.

Plus, there's a companion series. Actually, 2. Woot!

[T]

I'll second this. Malazan was a fantastic series, on the whole.

[Tim]

Is that about the old lady who falls in the tub?

[SugarFree]

I'm easing myself back into fantasy very slowly. Ice and Fire is the first modern fantasy work I've read since high school.

Malazan has been recommended to me quite a few times, and it does look good. I was planning on starting it after I recharge my fantasy defense mechanisms. (I re-read all of Ice and Fire right before Dragons came out.)

[Riker]

You eased back in to fantasy by with GRRM?

Jesus, that's like easing back into booze by chugging a handle of Everclear in a night.

[kinnath]

Could be worse. You could be in your middle 50's while looking at an entire series that you haven't started yet.

[SugarFree]

At this point, I say wait and read them all at once. 8000+ pages at 70 will pass your retirement nicely.

[kinnath]

That and a well-stocked wine cellar constitute the totality of my retirement planning.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Don't forget a comfy chair!

[T]

And buy several pairs of reading glasses before civilization collapses.

[MNG]

"You could be in your middle 50's while looking at an entire series that you haven't started yet."

Sounds like a Philip Dick story...

[Tim]

This quote best sums up the situation: Hodor!

[MNG]

In the last few months, officials in New Jersey, as well as several other states, have said that mixed signals from the Obama administration have left them unsure whether their medical marijuana programs could draw federal prosecution of the people involved, including state employees.

A Justice Department memorandum issued late last month left unanswered questions, and Gov. Chris Christie has not said how he will proceed. But medical marijuana advocates say that in New Jersey, at least, the state law is stringent enough not to run afoul of federal policy, and that the governor's true goal has been to block the program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07.....?_r=1&hpw;
While the feds and state officials dither real people are kept from adult choices about their own relief...

[Libertymike]

Which is why the "Christie crush" is so adolescent and goofy.

He is a guy who has spent far too much of his adult life in the public sector. As such, he is not the solution.

[MNG]

I kind of like some things about Christie actually, but it's always a good rule to be wary of any pol who was a prosecutor...

[Libertymike]

As for the former prosecutor angle, bien sur!

As for what he has done / proposed? Yes, he has taken some teeny, tiny steps in the right direction regarding public employee pensions.

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

A Justice Department memorandum issued late last month left unanswered questions[...]
Not surprising - few people graduate from college knowing how to write a memo, let alone one that leaves NO question unanswered.

[MNG]

OM
I imagine the lack of clarity was purposeful, the administration wants the DOJ to fence-sit on this issue for their usual cowardly political reasons, meanwhile people suffer. Shameful.

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,
Well, never ascribe to malice whan can be reasonably ascribed to mere stupidity.

[MNG]

John actually had a very intersting thing to say about this a while back, a majority of liberals are for loosening drug laws considerably, yet Democratic pols do little towards that end. What's needed is a liberal Tea Party type movement that could work within the Dem party to hold these pols to some of these socially liberal stances, just as conservatives have sensibly organized to try to make the GOP pols match their spending rhetoric. Until that happens liberals really can't complain about the situation or try to invoke some kind of superiority on the issue.

[Chupacabra]

I'm sure that would work out well.

[dunphy]

our dept came out with a memo recently basically saying that

1) yes gregoire was a pussy for not standing up to the feds and thus...

2) the medical MJ law in our state is COMPLETELY incomprehensible

and the recommendation is - if the person says it's medical MJ and has ANY sort of documentation of any sort that isn't written on tissue paper, authorizing them to have medical MJ

leave them the fuck alone

works for me

[P Brooks]

"In everything, you have somebody in control over it. In everything," said Council Member Sonja Farley.

Farley says no matter the group, if you discuss the city at all, the meeting must be approved by the city council.

"You couldn't just come in here and get with four people and decide you want to start an organization," said Farley. "You will go through your city council with documentation, the right paperwork and get an approval."
-from CoyoteBlue's link

That is so awesome on so many levels.

Fucking freedom of association- how does it work?

[Brett L]

We can't have people who hate us associating with other people who hate us. They might band together and vote us out of office!

[sarcasmic]

You have freedom of association, you just need to get permission first.

We have crossed that threshold in this country where it is no longer the case where you can say "It's a free country" and is now the case where someone with a gun asks "Who said you could do that?"

[R C Dean]

In a truly free society, Ms. Blue would be swinging from a lamppost right now.

Or trying to get the tar and feathers off.

[R C Dean]

Dunno who this Ms. Blue is. Ms. Farley, on the other hand . . . .

[JW]

Why not both?

[Tim]

Have we won in Libya yet?

[Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi]

Nope.

[MNG]

"Emails confirm that the White House tried to shut out Fox News."

It's OK, Fox just went ahead and hacked those emails.

[John]

It is not like the most transparent administration in history left them much choice.

[Fist of Etiquette]

FOIA requests are considered hacking?

[MNG]

I'm kind of making a joke about Newscorps recent problems.

Interesting that there is not much commentary here about that. Imagine if a "MSM" entity had been implicated in similar fashion...The OUTRAGE from John alone would fill volumes, not to mention the many Lesser GOP entities that post here regularly.

[Tulpa]

Surprise! MNG nitpicks and/or changes the subject when confronted with evidence of the Obama administration misbehaving. Sort of like he goes off on child labor upthread when others are talking about the Somalian black site.

[MNG]

Talk about nitpicking, if you didn't notice another of the morning links is about Newscorps, i.e., Fox's woes, so I just made a connecting joke, not a running commentary.

If you look upthread two other posters BEFORE me had started talking about child labor, so I hardly "went off" on it. But nice try Tulpa.

[Jeff]

Weak attempt, MNG.

[MNG]

I've found that people that post just to say "weak attempt" with no addressing of any points are what we used to call "idiots."

I explained myself above, if you want to refute it hop froggie.

[John]

I know it was a joke. And my comment about the most transparent administration in history, was a joke back.

And Fox News didn't hack anyone. The British Tabloids did. Same parent company, but not the same organizations.

[MNG]

That brings up some interesting questions, how much responsibility should go to a parent company? Profits flow upwards from the subsidiary, should responsibility?

Either way, it seems like a prime example of what outrages you: media elites callously violating the rights of military families, crime victims, etc., all for short term stories. If this were a MSM affiliated agency I imagine the GOPers here would be a bit more animated...

[John]

If the major media cared when people like Linda Tripp and Joe the Plummer had their privacy rights violated, they might have some standing to be outraged. But they didn't and they don't. Let's be honest here. If a Lefty politician had done to someone on the Right what the World News did to celebrities, no one in the major media would care.

[MNG]

I'm not talking about lefty media, I'm talking about you. Shouldn't you be outraged? Why should your outrage be contingent on whether the left has a right to complain or not?

[John]

The British tabloids are scum. They always have been. But, they are British and I am American. So I am not particularly concerned one way or another. If an American media company had done this, I would be more concerned.

[Pip]

Masturbate here often?

[Pip]

@ MNG, BTW.

[Mo]

Though Fox has gone into damage control mode and is trying to paint NotW as a victim of hacking and saying that we need to move on from this issue to more important things, like Casey Anthony.

http://www.theatlantic.com/nat.....ty/242040/

[John]

Well considering the CNN and MSNBC are 24 seven Casy Anthony, you wouldn't want them to fall behind.

It is almost as if an American news agency falsified official memorandums to try to tilt a Presidential election. That would be really bad wouldn't it?

[Mo]

They didn't falsify the documents themselves, they published and showed falsified documents. There's a big difference. Also, that's not as bad as interfering with a missing persons investigation, bribing police and hacking into government official and other people's voicemail boxes (including 9-11 victims).

[Clich? Bandit]

This one is easy:
Responsibility is individual because rights are individual. They are two sides of the same coin. So, if you have natural rights then you have natural responsibilities attached to each of those rights. Now moving forward the Newcorp people are responsible for their individual actions. The Newscorp leaders not being aware (assuming this is the case for sake of argument since I have no idea their level of knowledge)of their employees actions are not responsible for them BUT they ARE responsible for the decision to hire/employ scumbags. That can be remedied by shareholders and the BoD. So to recap for the slow, responsiblity is SOLEY individual and therefore those responsible for hacking are the only accountable ones for hacking. Those responsible for being dimwitted execs are accountable for such.

Simple really.

[cynical]

Would it? I mean, the scandal may go upward, but that doesn't mean it goes outward. That is, speculation about Murdoch's involvement is fair, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Fox News is implicated -- and note that whenever anyone makes noise about it, it's always suggesting that Fox News should be investigated punished, never, say, WSJ.

Frankly, I think they should be careful. The left has any number of TV outlets, the right has one. Any assault on that one voice might be taken by half the country as an act of war.

[SFC B]

Frankly, I think they should be careful.

How likely do you think it is that CNN, NBC, and the rest of the media folks are very carefully, and very quietly, checking their closets for any similar skeletons. "WE MUST INVESTIGATE FOX NEWS!!11!!11!" strikes me as the sort of knee-jerk competition-attacking which can beckfire horribly.

[T]

They're exploiting loopholes in the current law!

[Old Mexican]

Re: Fist of Etiquette,

FOIA requests are considered hacking?

By the government, yes. ANY request for transparency is like having teeth pulled out of them.

[Tim]

Tywin Lannister, er, Rupert Murdoch always pays his debts.

[P Brooks]

Feel safer, now?

[robc]

OT: Over the weekend I came upon a new (to me) description of diabetes.

Sugar Aids.

As in, Nutrasweet has teh sugar aids.

Whether this is entirely new or just new to me, I think Im using it from now on.

[Tulpa]

That might be funny if SF didn't already have syphilis anyway.

[SugarFree]

Hey! I still have most of my nose, thankyouverymuch!

[Steve Smith]

STEVE PRACTICE SAFE RAPE TO AVOID BECOMING SIV+. STEVE BRING BADGER-SKIN CONDOM WHEN HE VISIT KY NEXT WEEK.

[Mike M.]

There hasn't been this much of a thin-skinned, paranoid dweeb in the Oval Office since Nixon.

[Tulpa]

Nixon was no dweeb.

[MNG]

If only he could have got that Dr. Manhattan thing off he might have served several more terms.

[Datson Doner]

that whole thing sounds kinda crazy to me.

http://www.complete-privacy.us.tc

[P Brooks]

Presto!

Ratings agency Moody's on Monday suggested the United States should eliminate its statutory limit on government debt to reduce uncertainty among bond holders.

The United States is one of the few countries where Congress sets a ceiling on government debt, which creates "periodic uncertainty" over the government's ability to meet its obligations, Moody's said in a report.

The solution was right under our noses, all along!

[Old Mexican]

Re: P Brooks,

"Ratings agency Moody's on Monday suggested the United States should eliminate its statutory limit on government debt to reduce uncertainty among bond holders."

What a great suggestion! I will ran it with my credit card suppliers: unlimited credit!

Hey, if Moody's proposed it...

[MNG]

I imagine Greece didn't have some pesky limit on their debt...

It's shameful to watch liberals embracing the debt. If liberalism becomes simply about taxing and spending then it deserves to go into the dustbin of history. If liberals cannot articulate liberal policies and visions in a framework of austerity that says terrible things about what it has become, and it needs a major reboot...

I've heard 40 cents on the dollar now goes towards debt. If you're a liberal that's money that, instead of possibly being used to help the needy is being taken from taxpayers and given to investors. Embracing that is so shameful it is infuriating...

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

It's shameful to watch liberals embracing the debt. If liberalism becomes simply about taxing and spending then it deserves to go into the dustbin of history.

Remember that "liberalism" used to mean "advocating freedom as the greatest political goal."

Nowadays it simply means advocating forced wealth transfers.

[MNG]

Perhaps I'm more out of step with liberalism today than I thought, but the things I think of as critical achievements for liberalism are not transfer programs, at least not in the traditional sense. For me programs like Title IX, the ADA and anti-discrimination (including things like same sex marriage recognition) are what draws me to liberalism, along with the kind of stances the ACLU takes on the rights of the accused. I guess you could put something like social security, unemployment and workmen's comp insurance in there too, but I see them as less transfer programs and more like "forced insurance" programs (everbody pays, everybody gets coverage in case they need it).

[cynical]

"along with the kind of stances the ACLU takes on the rights of the accused"

Those due process traditions are old enough that you could also legitimately refer to them as conservative, though.

[Tulpa]

Uh, I'm no ratings agency expert, but if anything creates uncertainty about the government's ability to meat its obligations it would be the amount of obligations ballooning beyond the limits of its ability to draw revenue.

That's like Equifax telling a person with mountainous debt that they have to apply for more credit cards or they'll lower their credit rating.

[robc]

meat its obligations

[Mo]

The debt limit is a somewhat pointless mechanism. The original purpose of the debt limit is the opposite of its use today. It was initially passed to give the president more freedom to issue war bonds during WWI, rather than having Congress approve each and every bond issue. The budget is where net spending can and should be addressed as opposed to playing stupid games with the FF&C. If Congress passed a balanced budget, the debt ceiling would be a moot point.

[cynical]

Well, if they mean return things to the way they were before the debt limit, sure.

[Old Mexican]

Rand Paul puts a hold on the FBI director's reappointment, saying he'd like some questions answered first.

Which means ipso facto he will not vote to reappoint the current FBI director.

"We don't answer questions, we asks them, preciousssss!"

[John]

A view into the dark soul of Timmay

http://pointsandfigures.com/20.....interview/

[Lord Humungus]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....?nopager=1

Healthcare, Money and the Welfare State.

Some good points.

[P Brooks]

I just made the mistake of reading part of a Ted Nugent foaming-at-the-mouth screed (WILL NOT LINK).

That guy should be in a straitjacket.

[Libertymike]

Hey, he's already been Hannitized; therefore, "great americans' won't go for that.

[Mark]

There are all kinds of "Christian" churches which advocate breaching the separation of church and state--can the government halt them from building, too? Oh goody.

When somebody spots the GOP candidate who is not a buffoon or a blow-up doll, please let us know.

[cynical]

Hey, some of us like Johnson and Paul here.

[Mark]

You know, I just totally forgot them since, unfortunately, there is no way either of them could ever make a GOP ticket, top or bottom (I can at least envision a scenario where Cain makes a VP slot--hell, Sarah Palin did).

[Au H20]

Well, Paul would definitely top Johnson.

Hey, if Sarah Palin can be in porn, why can't libertarians?

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE GAY LIBERTARIANS?

[Au H20]

Well, Paul would definitely top Johnson.

Hey, if Sarah Palin can be in porn, why can't libertarians?

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE GAY LIBERTARIANS?

[John]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-3192.....at-laptop/

Intersting story. Isn't DOJ forcing you to decrypt your lap top, forcing you to incriminate yourself?

[Libertymike]

John, the train has left the station....a long time ago.

I suspect that you might be conversant with Boyd v. US, 116 US 616 (1886)? Of course, it was overruled by the Olmstead case some forty years later.

In Boyd, the court cited, at length, from Lord Camden's opinion in the Entick case. I could live with a judiciary bounded by Entick and Boyd. Thus, no DNA, no documents, no nothing from an accused without his express consent could ever be used in a criminal prosecution.

[mr simple]

Public interests will be harmed absent requiring defendants to make available unencrypted contents in circumstances like these.

It hurts our feeling when people tell us no.

This is a very interesting debate. If the LEOs have a warrant to search a safe, does the owner have to open it for them? If the files inside are in code, does the owner have to decode them? I can see points in both analogies.

[Fluffy]

Is it possible to write a program that if you enter a particular code (not your usual password, but sort of a reverse-password) it reformats your hard drive?

[John]

I would imagine.

[T]

TrueCrypt actually has a nifty feature where you can enter two passwords. One opens up one set of data, the other opens up a different set of data. Encryption is maintained on the data you don't open. If I were slightly more paranoid, I'd be doing this. If I were full on paranoid, I'd run a bootable OS from a thumb drive and keep all my data on a seperate encrypted thumb drive.

[P Brooks]

CNN explains markets.

Just as the housing market began to collapse near the end of 2007, a real estate agent in Bridgeport, Conn. asked Regions Bank if it would accept a $102,375 bid on a home that was underwater on its mortgage. Under the impression that this was the best offer on the home, Regions agreed to the short sale and released the mortgage it owned on the home.

Later that same day, the new owner -- an investment group owned by another real estate agent -- resold the home to a buyer who had been lined up before the short sale transaction went through. The final sale price: $132,500, netting the seller a cool $30,000 -- a profit that should have gone to Regions.

Something tells me I should read no farther.

[robc]

The question in that story that needs to be answered is did the investment group arrange the resale on the side or did the agent that took the offer to the bank know about the extra deal.

One is a smooth deal, the other at least borders on fraud (if not jumping clearly across the line).

[Fluffy]

That depends on whether the real estate agent was the seller's agent or a buyer's agent.

[P Brooks]

Isn't DOJ forcing you to decrypt your lap top, forcing you to incriminate yourself?

Dude, the Fifth Amendment was written with a feather pen. Computers are not covered.

[Old Man With Candy]

Important question: Rebekah Brooks, carpet and drapes?

[Anomalous]

It's probable that there is no carpet. Not a fan of that look, but that's been the fashion for awhile now.

[Libertymike]

Just as long as the carpet receives regular cleanings.

[Fluffy]

I have to admit that I'm not all that interested in or outraged by the British tabloid hacking scandal.

It's not as if there's any privacy to electronic communications anyway. The NSA looks at whatever they want; I'm sure there's a British equivalent looking at anything they want.

When you have no privacy vis-a-vis the government, who cares about a British tabloid? If the government hacks your phone, they may kill or imprison you. If a British tabloid hacks your phone, they may gossip about you. Why get bent out of shape about the latter if you're one of the millions who doesn't give a damn about the former?

Blah blah blah libertarian disclaimer what the tabloids did was wrong yadda yadda yadda.

[John]

It is just red team blue team politics. The same people who are shocked by this didn't care a rat's ass when government officials violated Linda Tripp and Joe the Plummer's privacy or when Dan Rather fabricated documents trying to throw a political election. And now they are outraged that some tabloid tapped Hugh Grant's phone? Give me a break.

[Libertymike]

I agree with both of you, Fluffy and John, except that I forced my wife to watch Prime Minister's Questions last night and thereby skip the Red Sox / Rays for half an hour.

PM's questions has been must see TV for moi since the late Thatcher days.

[P Brooks]

The final sale price: $132,500, netting the seller a cool $30,000 -- a profit that should have gone to Regions.

This is the part I object to.

Aside from the fact that the "profit" would actually be a "reduced loss" on Regions' books, maybe Regions should get their heads out of their asses and make an effort to capture some of that sale price by, you know, taking an active role in managing their portfolio of nonperforming loans.

If a fraud was committed, by all means call the cops.

[SIV]

Police officers shoot each other as they try to arrest child porn suspect at Harry Potter screening

Surely this has been posted?

[Warty]

Priceless.

[Mike M.]

By the way, if you drive, chances are you've probably noticed that gasoline prices are starting to rise once again after having fallen a bit.

I guess this proves that releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a political grandstanding move that doesn't have any kind of significant effect on oil or gas prices?

[Paul Krugman]

It just proves that we didn't release enough oil. We must release more! All of it! And more if we have to!

[heller]

#22 Tame