Reason Morning Links: Obama's New Tone, Glenn Beck's Old Tone, Patents as Government-Granted Monopolies

• The Washington Post thinks last night's speech indicates President Obama is changing his tone in the debt ceiling fight. (Read Peter Suderman's reaction here.) 
• The IMF weighs in on the debt ceiling debate. 
• How much does Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan actually save on military spending? 
• Glenn Beck compares Utoya campers to Hitler Youth.  
• Several months after Google lost a bidding war for Nortel's patents, Google SVP Kent Walker explains why the company was so disappointed by losing the bidding war to Apple: "We were bidding on the right to stop people from innovating." 
• Why does the Department of Education hate art schools?

New at Reason.tv: "Remy: Raise The Debt Ceiling Rap"

Comments

[Pissiarch]

RELEASE THE SOCKPUPPETS!!

[SugarFree]

You Szaszians still think mental illness is a myth after seeing it up-close?

[SIV]

It's just a label we apply to the really annoying.

[Warty]

Sure. His actions are completely rational, for a fucktard.

[Pissiarch]

Oh Warty, what ever would you do without H&R, trolls and sockpuppets?
Have a life? Pshaw!

[Warty]

...

[Robert]

Say hello to Gimpy Goose for me today, please.

[Warty]

He wasn't around. He must have been at his goose physical therapy.

[STEVE SMITH]

STEVE SMITH RAPING FOR DUTY!!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

"There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing," Beck stated in the first minute of his syndicated radio show Monday.

We were all thinking it, weren't we? Guys? Weren't we? Anyone?

[Lord Humungus]

with ze goose-steppinz and ze strudel!

[Glenn Beck]

No fair! I read about it in a book!

[Restoras]

Beck is an idiot. But that's obvious, right?

[John]

He shouldn't have said Hitler. But the part about who sends their kid to a political camp was spot on.

[O2]

to a wingnut

[John]

Yeah because there is nothing creepy at all about indoctrinating your children and making every fucking thing in life down to children playing the summer about politics. I am sure you think it is great when the Birchers do it dipshit.

[O2]

tell everyone ur knowledge of that camp's programs that informed ur opinion

[Tacos mmm...]

Yes, like good parents, they should be sending their kids to Jesus camp and making every fucking thing in their life down to children playing in the summer about religion.

[John]

It is free country. They can do what they like. Doesn't mean everyone has to like it. You can bitch about religion and I can bitch about politics. Freedom sucks doesn't it?

[Tacos mmm...]

You can bitch about religion and I can bitch about politics. Freedom sucks doesn't it?

Calling you out on your hypocrisy is a full-time job. Because based on the amount of time you spend posting here, you don't actually have a full time job.

[John]

There is nothing hypocritical about making distinctions you dimwit. Politics are different than religion. Therefore having religion camps is different than having political camps. That is not hypocrisy. It is called thinking. Try it sometime Tacos.

[O2]

interesting that beck is involved in the 9/12 project camp for TEH CHULDRENZ

http://www.meetup.com/tampa912/events/22130491/

[Fatty Bolger]

Yes, Taco. Treating politics like a religion is a little creepy.

[Au H20]

Hell, treating religion like religion can get a little creepy.

[Fatty Bolger]

Yup. That's bad enough. Do we need to extend it to the secular world?

[Tacos mmm...]

Treating politics like a religion is a little creepy.

Religion and politics are both ideologies that require indoctrination. They're much more alike than they are different.

Now, treating marching band like religion, that shit's creepy.

[Fatty Bolger]

Religion and politics are both ideologies that require indoctrination

Nonsense.

Political parties may be based on an ideology, or more likely, several. They do not require indoctrination.

[PIRS]

Are you telling me you don't think it is a bit creepy having little kids going to a camp sponsored by a political party?

How would you react if the RNC set up a camp for 8 year olds?

[Ice Nine]

Um, um um...Barack Hussein Obama.

[DJF]

He should have said a Che Guevara youth camp.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The media is calling it a political camp but I would like to know more about it. Is it like a Christian youth retreat but for a certain secular ideology? What is political about it?

(See how I questioned it without bringing up Nazis?)

[Bee Tagger]

You know who else questioned things without blaming the Nazis...

[Nipplemancer]

lonewacko? and then posted these questions on youtube?

[Pip]

I miss the little fucker.

[Nipplemancer]

He certainly was a quality troll.

[tarran]

It's more like the Komsomol of the Soviet Union, where future political leaders are identified.

For example one of the dead was a 21 year old guy who was widely viewed as being a future prime minister.

Norway has 5 million residents. It's as if 90 attendees of a summer retreat attended by the teenagers/twenty somethings of the Democratic leadership of Boston had been gunned down.

The more I read about it, the more diabolical this attack was: the Labor party just lost many of the more promising players in its farm system.

[WTF]

the Labor party just lost many of the more promising players in its farm system.

Which was apparently the point of the attack.

[mr simple]

It might be weird to you and me, but no more than a French Lit summer camp. Well, not much more. I think the point is you don't go into it as you're discussing this story; it reeks of blaming the victim, whether he meant to or not.

[Mike Laursen]

What we have here is a failyuh to communicate.

[Pro Libertate]

It is creepy, if that's what it is, but I'm not sure I care much about that, what with all the people getting killed and stuff. Beck is an odd duck for even bringing that up at this point.

[Brett L]

I don't know. He's in the media and people are talking about what he said. Seems like he knew what he was doing.

[John]

That is one of the most annoying things about leftists. They make everything about leftist politics and make any organization they infiltrate a tool in furtherance of those politics. Put leftists in charge of symphony and they will make it into a propaganda organ for their politics at every opportunity. Put leftists in charge of a little league baseball program and they will try to make it a tool for kids to become "more socially aware". Put leftists in charge of a professional organization like the AMA and the organization will start campaigning for gun control rather than worrying about its core mission. There is no area of life safe from politics with these assholes.

[O2]

u mean like the boys & girls clubs of america?

[John]

My wife used to work for the President of the BGCA. They are decidedly non political and the President and Senior VP decided centrist.

[Meta4]

Spend a lot of time in your butt, do ya?

[Meta4]

@O2, BTW.

[Apostate Jew]

You really are obsessed with your enemies, aren't you?

(Full disclosure, I am a veteran of Betar summer camps. They were quite nice.)

[John]

No I am just tired of going to places where politics should not be an issue and having some lefty douche shove his politics down my throat.

[Apostate Jew]

Well, as you weren't invited to the camp you shouldn't worry about it too much because you won't be there to have things shoved down your throat.

[John]

i would like to go to the symphony or the opera or a concert or be able to join a professional organization without such issues. You miss the point.

[Tacos mmm...]

i would like to go to the symphony or the opera or a concert or be able to join a professional organization without such issues.

They're just reflecting the political opinions of their donors and most of the audience. If the opera's politics lost it money, you would see it being a lot more neutral, or ceasing to exist. The market works, doesn't it?

[shared sacrifice]

If the opera's politics lost it money, you would see it being a lot more neutral, or ceasing to exist. The market works, doesn't it?

Or getting public funding to stay in existence. Extortion works, doesn't it?

[NEA]

The market works, doesn't it?

It sure does, wait, what?

[rather]

so you went to a Zionist youth movement camp and became apostate?

I love the irony

[CaptainSmartass]

Considering the history of so-called progressive politics, this is hardly surprising. It came out certain Protestant churches, and they just never left their proselytizing ways behind them.

[Pip]

What John says is true. I went to a concert at Orchestra Hall hosted by Garrison Keillor. Religious music for Thanksgiving and twice during the performance, he went off about George Bush.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Well, cmon. Garrison fuckin Keillor was there. Of course it's gonna be political. Thats all he does isn't it?

[Robert]

This does seem to be the case, and is a difference between "left" and "right". For instance, the "right" puts religion in their politics, while the "left" puts politics in their religion. Basically, the "left" puts politics into everything; the "right" either keeps their interests separate, or to the extent they mix, puts their other interests into their politics rather than vice versa.

[rhofulster]

When the wife and I started homeschooling about 10 years ago, there were two seperate networks: the protestant exclusionists and the inclusive group. We helped build the inclusive group up to about 50 families, and it was, for a few years a wonderful, inclusive bunch whose only agenda was to maintain a community for our kids. We had about 20 lefty families(who were largely the core of this group), 10 fundy families and a few Wiccans, gays, libertarians as well as a number of families with no noticable ideology/agenda at all.

After 3-4 years a few of the lefties just couldn't help seeing the community as a platform for their agenda, and the rest of the lefties wouldn't call them out.

And guess what, they are now a group of about 20 lefty families that is as insular as the fundies we avoided in the first place.

[mr simple]

Anyway, everyone who's been to a summer camp knows you only go to get away from your parents and hook up.

[Spoonman.]

At least, that was always the goal...

[Jokebot 5000]

At the Liberal camps, they pass out free condoms from planned parenthood. At the Conservative camps, a Palin gets knocked up.

[Pip]

lol

[WWNGD?]

...and have a child for the F?hrer.

[Tulpa]

Make up your mind
Decide to walk with me
Around the lake tonight
By my side
I'm not gonna lie
I'll not be a gentleman
Behind the boathouse
I'll show you my dark secret

[Butts Wagner]

and I promise you, I will treat you well

[for]

for 30 seconds

[Tacos mmm...]

This one time, at political camp...

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Yes. It's probably still in poor taste to say it on air, though.

[Mr. Bimmler]

He's right, you know.

[Man In Street]

"I ban don't like the sound of them 'Boncentration Bamps.'"

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, yes, Britischer pals, he is wunderbar. . .ful. So.

[Mr. FIFY]

You should meet the camp counselor... Mr. Hilter.

[JW]

Do you know who else sent their kids to...?

Never mind.

[Restoras]

Note to Reason Editorial Staff:
Please move Riggs to Iceland so he can have morning links up in time for East Coast Reasonoids to comment inanely while enjoying our morning coffee.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Devoted Subscriber Restoras

[Au H20]

Dear Riggs,

You have been a godsend to the Mountain Time Zone. Don't let Restoras fool you-he's a Cylon.

[Clich? Bandit]

YET, my first glimps is with 380 damn comments. I wouldnt mind if he didnt post until about 9 Pacific.

[Fatty Bolger]

Riggs is OK, but he needs to get with the alt-text program.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Dear Reason Editorial Staff,

I second Restoras' request. Iceland may be taking it a bit too far though, as Nashville used to work out pretty well before.

Your Devoted Subscriber,
~Quetzalcoatl

[Pissiarch]

Glenn Beck compares Utoya campers to Hitler Youth,

steals material from H&R commentators.

[space biologist]

Thank you for the h/t, but a linky would have been nice.

http://reason.com/blog/2011/07.....nt_2411021

[JoJo Zeke]

Geithner: "We Write 80 Million Checks A Month"

Fuck "raising the debt ceiling" without severe, simultaneous cuts in spending.

[Tulpa]

Mental note: don't get in the checkout line behind Geithner.

[cynical]

I smirked.

[SIV]

OK according to this study by experts 4 out of 5 of you are buying child slaves to degrade and abuse. You're killing them by age 34.

"White Slavery Moral Panic

[John]

More men are buying prostitutes, there must be something wrong with them. If more women were doing the same, it would be what is wrong with men to drive them to this.

[WTF]

Duh, everthing that is wrong is the fault of men. Women have no responsibility for anything.

[Atanarjuat]

It even seems like they want to make prostitution a crime for men, but not for women.

" In 1999 Sweden decided that prostitution was a form of violence against women and made it a crime to buy sex, although not to sell it. This approach dramatically reduced trafficking..."

[cynical]

Does that also apply to manwhoring?

[deified]

Plagiarizing Instapundit? Really?

[SugarFree]

This story has been going around for a while now. To get to that number, they had to include any man who had viewed any type of pornography in the last 30 days under the definition of "engaging a sex worker."

[John]

LOL No shit? So pretty much you are guaranteed to come up with 100% anytime you compute the number.

[SugarFree]

"We had big, big trouble finding nonusers," Farley says. "We finally had to settle on a definition of non-sex-buyers as men who have not been to a strip club more than two times in the past year, have not purchased a lap dance, have not used pornography more than one time in the last month, and have not purchased phone sex or the services of a sex worker, escort, erotic masseuse, or prostitute."

-
"Science" as propaganda.

[T]

Maybe I'm stupid, but if I'm looking at free porn on the internet, how am I, under any definition, buying sex?

Wait, let me guess. My looking at free porn increases the aggregate demand for porn which affects the market for porn in interstate commerce.

[SugarFree]

My looking at free porn increases the aggregate demand for porn which affects the market for porn in interstate commerce.

Same argument used against CGI and cartoon child porn. No children are harmed, but it might drive demand that might result in them maybe being harmed.

[Mr. FIFY]

Commerce Clause, T.

[Lord Humungus]

Sheesh, I never knew I was an employer! Do I have to pay salaries and benefits?

[SugarFree]

The jizz-stained W2s are piling up.

[Abdul]

If I didn't pay for the porn, does that job count as "saved" instead of "created"?"

[Bee Tagger]

any man who had viewed any type of pornography in the last 30 days

This is the show Morgan Spurlock should've done.

[Butts Wagner]

This is the show Morgan Spurlock should've done.

No doctor would have signed off on that program.

[Fatty Bolger]

Gives a whole new meaning to "super size me."

[robc]

Even free porn?

[Brett L]

Especially free porn. How will those girls get retirement packages when there are no residuals? Monster.

[Lord Humungus]

exactly - who pays for this stuff?

[SugarFree]

They make no distinction. Which is pretty extreme, considering even the hardcore feminists make a distinction between "corporate" porn and amateur porn.

[Ice Nine]

Has there ever been a more stupid term than "sex worker"? I mean come on!

[.]

Did you mean cum on?

[mr simple]

You're killing them by age 34.

34? I'm pretty sure they go bad after 22. It's my right as an American to upgrade to a newer model.

[Tulpa]

To be honest a lot of them would never have gotten boob jobs if they hadn't gotten into porn. So in a significant aesthetic sense, we are killing them.

[Restoras]

You know, if more wives took care of their appearance and had sex with their husbands a lot of this nonsense would go away.

There. I said it.

[Cowed Husband]

Right on, Brother!

...er - nothing, honey... I'm just on the computer... I'll be right there...

As I was saying... Preach on, Brother!

[Atanarjuat]

"Equally typical were the men in Farley's study, who lived in the Boston area and ranged from 20 to 75, with an average age of 41. Most were married or partnered, like the majority of men who patronize prostitutes."

Apparently the authors of the study agree with you. Personally, I say all women, married or otherwise, need to start putting out more. I do my part by not being judgmental of promiscuous women.

[Brett L]

Not judgemental of promiscuous women? Shit, I'm outright supportive.

[Restoras]

At a minimum wives need to. It's really quite funny, becasue when they are single and know men want sex, they use that to keep you interested and ultimately lock you down in marriage (which is fine). Then they act all surprised/offended/disgusted when - surprise!! - they still want sex. Lots of it. And not the boring, baby-making kind either.

Get your freak on, ladies, and not only will your man be happier, and home a lot more, he'll actually do all the shit you want him to do on the weekends - because he's actually around and not out somewhere else.

It's all so freakin' obvious.

[CaptainSmartass]

My wife doesn't get upset at the dog when he has accidents inside the house, saying "he's just a dog, he doesn't know any better". And yet I get in trouble for banging her sister. WTH?

[deified]

This ought to be a movement.

[Tulpa]

As screwed up and unfit-for-modern-society as marriage has clearly become, it's bizarre that gays and lesbians are so desperate to board that particular sinking ship.

Regarding the main point, married men are probably more likely to go for prostitutes because (a) they have limited openings in their schedule to go fishing for free sex, and (b) prostitutes don't seek you out after the fact like some crazy sluts do.

[SFC B]

As a wise philosopher once said, you don't pay the prostitute for sex. You pay her to leave.

[Sparky]

No shit!!

[O2]

the dirty lil secret about ED is cant get it up for the fat ol wife

[Tulpa]

Or if more men took care of themselves and had prestigious jobs, they'd be able to get sex for free.

[Restoras]

They do! Just not with thier wives!

[John]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z3

Obama is even down among blacks. If he were to lose black support, I would think that a primary challenge would be inevitable.

[MNG]

I'm not surprised that a presiding President's numbers go down, they cannot fail but to dissappoint folks, especially when they promised so much hope and change. And you can't say he's done a bang-up job.

What's interesting to me is that he still fares quite well in head-to-head match-ups against named GOP opponets. Iirc Intratrade has him currently winning re-election. With long standing wars and unemployment so high that shows you that the GOP still scares a lot of people. They are willing to prefer even Obama over their nominee.

In that light Obama really outdid Boehner last night. By mentioning the debt ceiling had routinely been raised in the past, by invoking Reagan on compromise, by pointing out his compromises and the GOP's refusal to compromise on taxes at all, even for millionaires, he set the stage to make the current GOP look extreme. Boehner walked right into this trap with his tough tal "that's not going to happen" lines. He will come off to independents as the leader of a party that is happily not compromising.

[MNG]

If I were Boehner I would have played some of Obama's lines against him; when Obama tried to cast the debt raising as routine I would have said "yes, we have compromised many times in the past and raised it, and things have only gotten worse, now 40 cents of every dollar that could be spent on worthwhile programs goes to debt payments, this must stop." I also would have invokved Greece and stuff.

It would also help Boehner if he could have pointed to any sacrifice the GOP had put forward. As Ron Paul has said their proposals are a cowardly joke...

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I would have simply pointed out that if Obama wants to get spending back to Eisenhower levels, he'd have to put an Eisenhower-era government structure back in place--which would mean defense spending would take up over 50% of the budget and the Great Society programs would get completely nuked. He can't have it any other way.

[John]

The consensus seems to be the Boehner did better. But I don't think it really matters because no one was listening. Sometime in the last year or so, the public tuned him out. IT doesn't matter at this point what he says. And he is clearly not winning the debt ceiling debate. At the beginning of July his approval rating was around 46. Now it is down to 42. Four points down in a month is not a good month.

The bottom line is that independents and soft leaners either way hold the President responsible for the economy. And the economy has gotten worse under Obama. No amount of tearing down the Republicans is going to get him out of the public holding him responsible for that. Absent an economic miracle he is going to lose badly in 2012.

[Cyto]

You forget the GOP's talent for nominating unelectable candidates. The fact that the DNC has the same talent doesn't negate this truth.

In addition to McCain and Dole; Bush jr. and Sr. were also unelectable - they just had the good fortune to be paired with similarly unelectable candidates. Dukakis, Bush, Gore, Bush II, Kerry, McCain and Dole. That's some grade-A political talent there.

In the last 30 years we've only had two competent and charismatic political leaders. And they weren't even right most of the time.

That's pretty sad for a country of 300 million. You'd think we could at least come up with a couple of decent leaders every 4 years.

[T]

We're not selecting for leadership talent. We're selecting for people who can assemble a team to win elections. The process prevents us from getting much in the way of leadership.

Obama's a perfect example. His people operate in permanent campaign mode because that's all they know how to do. The hard business of actually governing is not something in their skill set.

[Mr. Obvious]

There is something about politics that draws the wrong type of people. Money and power.

[Brett L]

Yeah. The Republicans are the only group on Earth Obama stands a chance of beating.

[John]

Well, Obama is doing his best to make himself unelectable. And Bush Sr. turned out to be in hindsight a decent President. As far as Dole goes, no Republican was going to beat Clinton after the economy turned around so well and he cut their legs out from under them by signing welfare reform.

If Obama had any political sense, he would give the Republicans everything they want on the budget. It would guarantee his re-election. First, it would give the Republicans partial ownership of the economy. And second it would cut the legs out from under them. What would Republicans run on if they got what they wanted on the budget?

[Apostate Jew]

Lower taxes. Always lower taxes. Lower taxes because our taxes are too high.

And dead babies and Muslims and drugs and atheists and creches and a whole bunch of other unimportant stuff.

Did I mention that taxes were way to high?

[John]

All of those would be losers. Obama extended the Bush tax cuts, so there goes that issue. Obama is more right wing on the war on terror than even Bush was in many ways. There goes that issue. Yeah the left would piss and moan about it. But what are they going to do? Vote Republican?

[Restoras]

So far, Obama has not proven politcally intelligent, otherwise he would be doing exactly this.

[Tulpa]

If Obama had any political sense, he would give the Republicans everything they want on the budget. It would guarantee his re-election.

His base would go berserk if he did that. The most vociferous protests against him from the left came when he trashed the public option and said he'd be willing to extend the Bush tax cuts.

And Republicans would still hate him even if he gave them everything they wanted.

[Restoras]

Yes but what is his base going to do, not vote fore him? The hard core Republicans aren't voting for him anyway. The independents/undecides might see him differently, as a compromiser, a leader, etc. and be more inclined to vote for him. This is what Clinton did and poltically it was a masterstroke.

[Tulpa]

Iirc Intratrade has him currently winning re-election.

Four years ago intrade had Hillary beating Rudy in the 2008 election.

[Quetzalcoatl]

She sort-of did...

[WTF]

Is his support among blacks becoming niggardly?

[MNG]

Who can know why the Right doesn't attract more support from the black community with gems like this?

[WTF]

Please, spare me the false sense of offense. Or are you completely unaware of the brouhaha a while back over the official in DC, I think it was, who used the term 'niggardly' and was the subject of a complaint for being racist? Really, you offense-mongers can barely even be parodied anymore.

[MNG]

I'm aware of it. I'm pointing out, what are you wanting from playing with this? You think this kind of joking attracts potential black supporters or more likely alienates them? I think you do it because it delights you...Sad.

[WTF]

Why do you think I care about attracting black voters? I'm not a politician, and even if I were it's not like black voters are a huge libertarian voting block anyway. And why is a joke about mis-understanding vocabulary sad? You are just looking for an opportunity to imply 'RACIST' to reinforce your smug sense of moral superiority.

[MNG]

I'm not named MiNGe for nothin'.

[Tacos mmm...]

Yes, clearly you weren't punning on nigger/niggardly. And even if you were, it's not like anyone should find the word "nigger" offensive, it's just a word like any other. And if they do find it offensive, fuck 'em. They're not your voting block. Right?

[Pip]

STFU, you uncredentialed blow-hard.

[MNG]

Threaded comments and keyboards, how do they work?

[MNG]

The only reason I'm wagging my finger at you is because nothing else I could conceivably waggle would be visible to the naked eye.

[Tacos mmm...]

Really, you offense-mongers can barely even be parodied anymore.

You were pretty clearly trying to be offensive.

[Mingey Tacos]

Eeek eek! I have the vapors, oh dear, the insensitivity of the jokes is offensive!

[Tacos mmm...]

Go back to /b/.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

And the proper response to that should be, "Yeah, so what?"

The limpouts over ethnic chauvinism have become a parody in and of themselves.

[Mr. FIFY]

"Niggardly" has nothing to do with race, Tacos. Look it up. Merriam-Webster's is online, and it's free.

[Tacos mmm...]

"Niggardly" has nothing to do with race, Tacos. Look it up. Merriam-Webster's is online, and it's free.

Yes, I'm sure the it's a complete coincidence that he referenced "blacks" and "niggardly" in the same sentence. After all, "niggardly" is a common word in every day usage, unlike the synonyms "cheap" and "miserly" which are so archaic that Chaucer would have balked as using them.

I call bullshit. He was making a little nigger pun, and you damned well know it.

[Mr. FIFY]

Mind-reader, eh?

Let's see your telepathic credentials, Counselor Troi.

[Mr. FIFY]

This is the same bullshit as *this*:

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.....ns-ra.html

Remember?

If not, it's the same made-up outrage over a non-racist statement.

Prove the intent, or STFU.

[Cheeseburger]

Because many in the black community have poor vocabularies?

[MNG]

Again, this is a great strategy. Delight in making fun of blacks for feeling uncomfortable with a word that sounds so much like a word that was used to insult them for centuries. It's fun, right, and it is so their fault if they don't take it the right way.

Like I said, it is a real wonder why 95% of the black vote goes against your guys. A real wonder.

[T]

By definition 97%+ of the vote goes against our guys, MNG. We can make jokes about anything and possibly offend potential supporters of libertarian (and leaning) candidates. If we spent our time worrying about that we'd become a bunch of humourless pricks like feminists and, well, you.

[John]

Niggardly is offensive but a cartoon showing a super hero saving babies from mutilation by menacing looking religious Jews isn't. Got it MNG>

[MNG]

I explained how the cartoon could be read more charitably John. As usual you were making a conclusion ignorant of the context (of comics and the other extant issue).

As to this, as Tacos said upthread it's pretty clear the pun WTF was going for.

But look, you've jumped to another conclusion via assumption. Note I didn't argue that it was offensive to me, but that the kind of comment above was bound to be offensive to many, and its such things that likely account for the dearth of black people being attracted to the Right.

[Tulpa]

They cut your penis, John.

THEY CUT YOUR PENIS. Do you understand?

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

Ve vill cut off your Johnson!

[El Duderino]

nice marmant

[Pip]

"Again, this is a great strategy. Delight in making fun of blacks for feeling uncomfortable with a word that sounds so much like a word that was used to insult them for centuries."

Again, STFU. If the word so offends them, why do I have to hear it scores of times from their own lips on my bus ride home from work. Black's favorite word is nigger.

[MNG]

Then go ahead Pip, use it at will. Enjoy yourself, I imagine you've been waiting for a green light to use that word for quite a while.

Just don't be surprised if it fails to garner you much support among blacks, that was my point...

[Pip]

The point, you stupid fuck, is that the word does not make them uncomfortable. In other words, once again you are fucking wrong and in order to obfuscate that you made up some shit about how I long to shout nigger all day long.

I bet you don't even have an Associate Degree in anything yet.

[gaijin]

Delight in making fun of blacks for feeling uncomfortable with a word that sounds so much like a word that was used to insult them for centuries.

Which would all make a lot more sense if noone used the word for fun and games. Unfortunately, we have a double standard in popular culture that seems to say you can use the word if you are a member of an approved ethnicity. Equality indeed.

[gaijin]

@PiP, I obviously type slower than you.

[Tacos mmm...]

Unfortunately, we have a double standard in popular culture that seems to say you can use the word if you are a member of an approved ethnicity.

If I call my brother a dickhead, it's a term of affection. If you call my brother a dickhead, he'll break your fucking nose. If you had good friends or family that were black, you could get away with saying it around them. What you're really establishing when you complain that you can't say "nigger" is that you don't have any really good black friends.

[MNG]

They have Herman Cain Tacos.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I thought Cain's thing was pizza... he has tacos now?

[gaijin]

I wasn't complaining at all. I was merely pointing out that double standards are just that...your dickhead example is incongruent since it's a behavioral description. Oh wait so is the 'N' word...but only when black people use it?

re your comment: "...you don't have any really good black friends." My friend, you are painting with such a broad stroke that you can't possibly imagine how wrong you are on this one 🙂

[Tacos mmm...]

I wasn't complaining at all. I was merely pointing out that double standards are just that...your dickhead example is incongruent since it's a behavioral description. Oh wait so is the 'N' word...but only when black people use it?

No, my "dickhead" parallel is perfectly apt. Context matters. Insults like "dickhead" or "asshole" or "kike" or "nigger" can be appropriated as diminuative terms of affection, but as in using any diminuative term, context matters. Diminuatives are insulting outside of a close social relationship, and doubly so when they're appropriated insults.

If you have black friends who call each other nigger, then I don't see why you shouldn't join in, or at least bring the subject up if it bothers you.

In any case, it seems facetious for you to complain that you can't spout racist insults whenever you feel like it without getting into trouble. You can't get away with saying a lot of things in public. Get over it.

[gaijin]

Diminuatives are insulting outside of a close social relationship,...

So when 50-cent releases music using the word, it's only for his close personal relationships? If I'm black, does that mean we have a close personal relationship? And should I use that defense the next time Grant Hill lectures me on how hurtful it is to use the word 'gay' too?

[Tacos mmm...]

Because many in the black community have poor vocabularies?

Fucking Christ, were there this many shitheads here when I started back in the 1990s? Since where did having libertarian leanings become tantamount to holding negative stereotypes about "many in the black community?"

[MNG]

"were there this many shitheads here when I started back in the 1990s"

Lot's of Hit and Runpublicans have jumped on the wagon since then...

[Tacos mmm...]

You're no joe, that's for sure.

[Honest Question]

Fucking Christ, were there this many shitheads here when I started back in the 1990s?

Counting you...?

[Tacos mmm...]

Counting you...?

If you can count at all, I'd be happy to be enumerated among the assholes of the old school, back when trolling John seemed exciting and new.

[Arcaster]

nig?gard?ly? ?/?n?g?rdli/ [nig-erd-lee]

?adjective
1. reluctant to give or spend; stingy; miserly.
2. meanly or ungenerously small or scanty: a niggardly tip to a waiter.

[MNG]

Yes, we know that word exists. It's a shame you don't additionally have knowledge of human relations and such.

Like I said, I'm sure the people who felt uncomfortable with this sort of thing will just realize this is a real word, nothing to get upset about and have a laugh with you over the whole thing. Surely.

[Tacos mmm...]

Yes. The context is pretty clearly a pun on the words nigger/niggardly. The term is archaic and unlikely to be accidentally invoked in an innocent context.

[MNG]

"The term is archaic and unlikely to be accidentally invoked in an innocent context."

Actually I think the use of the word in the original scandal was entirely lacking in ill-will. Iirc it was an old accountant type that said it and I'm sure he was meaning it entirely in its usual sense.

But WTF clearly was not using it so. He was trying to make as offensive of a pun as possible, hoping to poke a stick at people that were offended and more.

[Shorter MNG]

The nation is about to default and your interest rates are going up b/c the President is Black...

[Abdul]

MNG is right to call a spade a spade. It's a dark and black day when "niggardly" jokes are used to add color here.

[MaNGy]

Mighty white of you to say so.

[sloopyinca]

Your comments make so mad, I'm turning red.

[James Ard]

Well done.

[kinnath]

He raised 85 million last quarter. That about the same as all the republican candidates.

The big money is betting on Obama.

[John]

The President always raises big money. Of course a sitting President is going to raise a lot more money than a bunch of primary candidates nine months away from the first primary. The Republican money is split nine ways or whatever and an additional way by people holding off to see who wins so they don't bet on a loser. Obama in contrast gets all of the Democratic money.

[kinnath]

That's right. The incumbent always has a huge money advantage.

[kinnath]

We should also note that W essentially won the nomination before the first caucus/primary by building a huge war chest.

The big money is being spread over all the candidates in the Republican party this year.

So Obama gets a "structural" advantage in raising funds for the general election next year.

[Cyto]

And while we're noting that... let's also note how well that worked out for the country...

[kinnath]

The latest "analysis" over at Salon is that Obama is throwing the future of the Democratic Party under the bus to ensure his re-election.

It is so fun to watch the commentariat at Salon trash Obama.

[JW]

It is so fun to watch the commentariat at Salon trash Obama.

The fun goes out of it when you realize that they will still vote for him regardless.

[kinnath]

I think the young, hipster, dufus voting block will stay home and not vote at all, and this was a significant block of votes for Obama last time around.

[cynical]

Fuck, I wish. If four more years of Obama would cause the collapse of the DNC (which would, I assume, also cause the collapse of the GOP as we know it), that might make it worthwhile.

[MNG]

Like 2008 he's going to have more money, an excellent organization and a lock on a big hunk of the vote. He'll just need to get some independents and he, or should I say the GOP, is working on that right now...

[John]

And to overcome the drop in the youth and the black vote turnout and the lack of the guilty white douche "I always wanted to vote for black President" vote.

[Ice Nine]

Yeah, but will they still be there when "Elect black guy president" is ticked off their ToDo lists?

[WTF]

Once the republicans choose a candidate and they start running against Obama instead of each other, I think the polls will swing against Obama. I can't imagine a majority of voters would want more of the same clusterfuck we've been treated to thus far.

[MNG]

It depends on who the nominee is. The Dem strategy is to run agains the GOP nutjob rather than on their accomplishments. The GOP is likely to comply this time.

[WTF]

The Dem strategy is to run agains the GOP nutjob rather than on their accomplishments. The GOP is likely to comply this time.

Sadly, the current polls seem to indicate this may be the case. Tough call on whether it's better to be rid of Obama and have a republican in the Whitehouse who may (MAY)want to reduce the scope of the government, or keep Obama with GOP control of congress and have government safely gridlocked so they can't do any more damage.

[Cyto]

That's why the only patriotic choice is to elect me.

Between inauguration day and my impeachment, I promise to wreak havoc on the status quo.

[Fatty Bolger]

I'd go for gridlock if not for Obamacare.

[Lord Humungus]

from one clusterfuck to another! But hopefully with less CF-tendencies. (one can dream).

[Pro Libertate]

Even the Democrats I know don't much care for him. Not good if you want the voters to show up at the polls.

[Tulpa]

And unlike 2008 he'll have a history of incompetence and failure to attack, high unemployment hanging around his neck like a stinking albatross, no clear message to push (you can't campaign on change as an incumbent), and a far more united GOP (and the Tea Party) to deal with.

For someone who purports to have problems with Obama, you sure seem to pump him up at every opportunity.

[Pro Libertate]

His campaign slogan for 2012? "Hope I Can Change."

[BakedPenguin]

He's the incumbent. That's a big advantage, even as incompetent as he is.

[Pro Libertate]

Not in a down economy, it isn't. Even if there's some recovery next year, the GOP can claim with some truth that it was them taking the House that slowed his socialist shit down.

[Tulpa]

How do you think Bush would have done in 2008 if he were allowed to run?

[Ice Nine]

Obama is even down among blacks.

How galled would you be if you were Black and this is what you got as the first Black POTUS. It is not in fact justified but I'm telling you that it will be long time before there is another BPOTUS, simply because of BOH.

[deified]

I read a press write-up of that survey in the LA Times.

IIRC, the survey said, "Are you happy with Obama's handling of the economy>" which easily elides into "Are you happy with the economy?"

I will take even-money bets that Obama wins 90+% of the Black vote in 2012.

[Mike M.]

I'm not sure how much I believe this story. If his support were truly dropping that much among liberals and blacks in particular, he would almost certainly be polling in the thirties by now. Most liberals still like Obama a lot and know darn well that he's one of them; they're really just (understandably) pissed that they're losing the political battle. It's the only reason why he's still hanging on around the 45% approval range, because independents pretty much abandoned him a year ago.

Outside the D.C. Capital Beltway it has become next to impossible to find an Obama bumper sticker any longer, but in the heart of Obamaville the "2012" stickers are already beginning to sprout up left and right. I don't believe for one second that any democrat has the balls to primary challenge Obama and risk pissing off the blacks.

[MaNGy]

I don't believe for one second that any democrat has the balls to primary challenge Obama and risk pissing off the blacks.

Sounds like those Democrats are being niggardly.

[Mingey Tacos]

RAAACIIST!!!!1111!!!!

[Restoras]

Polling numbers could be skewed, or perhaps those groups don't actually account for much of the total electorate.

[Tulpa]

Do you have evidence of some defect in multiple polls?

If not, the polls are wrong is not a valid excuse.

[Restoras]

No I don't, just speculating.

[Mike M.]

Liberals and people who reliably vote for democrats constitute around 45% of the electorate. And it just so happens that Obama's approval is right at 45-46%.

Liberals may not be happy with the current economy and they may not like every decision that Obama has made, but to me the numbers clearly show that they are still solidly behind Obama nonetheless.

[SFC B]

My ignorant opinion is that President Obama's supporters are in the sort of denial you see in battered spouses. Large numbers of them dislike the individual things he does, like reducing taxes and punching them in the face, but they really, really love him and know that he only lashes out because he's under a lot of stress.

[Bee Tagger]

Why does the Department of Education hate art schools?

They've spent more than a few seconds with art school kids?

[Lord Humungus]

or in an art school. If all the "artists" I met in college, only one was only good. He ended up as a book cover designer.

[BakedPenguin]

I have a friend who's an artist. He didn't go to school (other than taking a few week-long courses to learn specific techniques).

[Lord Humungus]

Some of the local artists 'round here seem to be hippie douchebags in their 60s living of their parent's money while screwing young chicks, er, models!

Curse them!

[Brett L]

Rick Perry mentions 10th Amendment in decision not to kill his presidential chances defending "traditional" marriage. Jim Crow era "States Rights" discrimination or just political cowardice trying to walk the line?

"At an event in Aspen, Perry said, 'Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me.' He continued, 'That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business.'"

[bosty]

that line had K-Lo over at The Corner positively in vapors

[Aqua Buddha]

Thomas L. Friedman Wants Us "to be China for a day," to "authorize the right solutions"

Chinese Villagers Overturn Police Vehicle, Tie Up Police And Try To Set Them On Fire
On Saturday villagers near Foshan, Guangdong carried weapons to the fish market to dispute ownership over a local pond. When police intervened, the villagers flipped the police car and tied policemen to it and doused them with gasoline. Only the arrivial of reinforcements saved the policement from burning (via Shanghaiist).

This is one of countless stories of protest over property rights. ...

And absolutely nothing else happened.

[Res Publica Americana]

Clearly, Aqua, those guys were Tea Party people, or maybe CIA plants. FUCKING CAPITALISTS!!!

[Abdul]

The problem with setting chinese policemen on fire is that two hours later, you just want to grill up another pair.

[not MNG]

Who can know why the Right doesn't attract more support from the Chinese community with gems like this?

[Clich? Bandit]

Incidentaly Foshan is where Yip Man is from and he was a bad ass. Bruce Lee's wing chun master had a school there so I imagine there is some residual knowledge. I would mess with them.

[Clich? Bandit]

would = wouldn't

[Bee Tagger]

IMF chief Christine Lagarde... failure to reach an agreement would have serious consequences for the world economy.

And trust her, the IMF knows a little something about ruining world economies.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The IMF is thinking, "Fuck, if the USA can't shovel money into our accounts, then who the hell will? Half of Europe is broke and the other half is getting the nationalist itchies."

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Translation: For God's sake, don't shut off the spigot! You do know a Ponzi scheme depends on money flowing in the front end, right?

[Joe M]

Re: Obama's "gambit". Taking his case "directly to the American people" won't work if he's interrupting one of the few things that give them pleasure, namely, evening television.

However, I am encouraged by this:

During the question-and-answer portion, a high school government teacher told Obama that she was having trouble teaching her students the importance of compromise in a two-party political system when they saw the partisanship on Capitol Hill.

Maybe the kids are alright.

[Virginia]

my SO nearly broke her wrist reaching for something to throw at the tv screen when George Staphallococous interrupted the bachelorette. luckily there was some aussie rules football on. for some reason that always lightens her mood.

[BakedPenguin]

Save this for when she's in a really bad mood...

[John]

The picture of Amanda Knox up on Drudge right now is really the epitome of "crazy sexy". She looks good but in a very crazy and dangerous kind of way.

[SugarFree]

I'd have a pretty crazy look in my eyes if I had been in jail for four years because the Italian police are morons and an a horribly corrupt Italian prosecutor used me a boot-scrape to distract from his own crimes. I doubt I would be much sexier, though.

[John]

True. I think she is a little nuts an probably innocent. And not to pick on the Italians, we are no better. If you are a little crazy or different, you are much more likely to be convicted of a crime you didn't commit no matter where you are. It is sadly human nature.

[Au H20]

Wait... are you telling me that the Italian justice system is corrupt?

Dario Fo, it ain't so!!!

[Tacos mmm...]

Her boyfriend bought bleach at 8:30 am in the morning after the murder, and then went back to the same store and bought more bleach 45 minutes later. The crime scene was cleaned with bleach. And she vouches for him the whole time.

Innocent my ass.

[Tulpa]

I wonder how many other people bought bleach during that time frame?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Twice? Big laundry day, eh?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

I could care less if she's guilty or not. I'm not on the jury. But, your knee-jerk devil's advocate routine needed smacked on the nose with a newspaper.

[Lord Humungus]

http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/N.....00915e.jpg

[Abdul]

Say what you will of Italian cops and prosecutors, their photography skills are first rate!

[Sparky]

That's the last look you see as the door closes in any good horror flick. I'd hit that!

[T]

I'm old enough and wise enough to run screaming from women who look at me like that. Yeah, the sex will proably be fantastic, but the whole thing will end in flames, gunshots and restraining orders.

[SugarFree]

Yup. After one sicced her gigantic Marine brother on me at a party, I was through. Met a nice girl and settled down right after.

[T]

Too many men forget the cardinal rule: never stick your dick into anyone crazier than you are. It never ends well.

[John]

That is a nice rule in theory. But after you have been around women a while, you quickly realize that the only way to live by it is to become a homosexual.

[T]

Nah. You just have to understand women's crazy operates on a different axis. You just need to be concerned with the quantity, not type, of crazy.

It's like I occasionally mention to my wife. Women aren't crazy, they have a rational structure that proceeds from completely different bases and assumptions. The net result for men is they might as well be crazy, because we don't get the logic.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

That is a nice rule in theory. But after you have been around women a while, you quickly realize that the only way to live by it is to become a homosexual.

Wait, there aren't any crazy homosexuals? I didn't get the memo.

[Brett L]

I wish my dad would have sat me down and explained that to me at 17.

[Restoras]

Me too. I'll try to explain it to my son, if he'll listen.

[Lord Humungus]

reminds me of the nude model / goth chick I saw in college. Full on crazy but I was drawn to her like a moth to the flame.

[Brett L]

According to the coverage I've read that does not appear to be disputed, she sounds like exactly the kind of girl I've enjoyed having my heart ripped out by. (Not literally) Some day I'm going to meet one whose crazy is bearable over the long term.

[Cyto]

I share your affliction. I can spot the crazy woman in any room within seconds. She'll be the one I'm attracted to.

Luckily I had a hottie pick me up a few years back who turned out to only be the normal amount of crazy. Just in time too... I had my eye on some grade-A vortex of crazy at the time. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

[Bee Tagger]

Glenn Beck compares Utoya campers to Hitler Youth.

It's possible that Breivik has access to the precogs from Minority Report and saw this inflammatory and violent rhetoric would be made and it drove him to commit the act.

Can I go on MSNBC now?

[JoJo Zeke]

Can I go on MSNBC now?

You know the rules. Show me that lobotomy scar.

[PantsFan]

Metalhead gets disability pay for heavy-metal 'addiction'
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....le2109395/

[Montani Semper Liberi]

In other news, Warty has moved to Sweden.

[Warty]

Being a welfare whore does sound better than being a dishwasher, I must admit.

[Jerry]

Meet Norway's Hardest Prisons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj3SMiDvjdg

[Atanarjuat]

For the most part, it seems like those guys have a better life than I do. Here's the money quote: "Yes, we have a chainsaw murderer here on the island. Eventually, he was allowed to work in the forest, with a chainsaw."

[Apple]

"We need a patch of woods up by the infirmary cleared, we got anyone who can handle a chainsaw?"

"Boss, I got just the guy."

[Brett L]

Evil Republican Scott Walker's teacher hating budget... saves teacher jobs.

"With 'collective bargaining rights' limited to wages, Koczela was able to change the teachers' benefits package to fill the budget gap. Requiring teachers to contribute 5.8 percent of their salary toward pensions saved $600,000. Changes to their health care plan - such as a $10 office visit co-pay (up from nothing) - saved $200,000. Upping the workload from five classes, a study hall, and two prep periods to six classes and two prep periods saved another $200,000. The budget was balanced.
...
But union leaders argued that the fight over the budget repair bill had nothing to do with balancing budgets. It was all about stripping public employees of their 'collective bargaining rights.'"

So the union position is that they are not concerned with (a)students' success or (b)total number of teaching slots. Why, its almost like they are only in favor of their own power.

[John]

The union doesn't give a shit about anything beyond collecting dues and obtaining political power. If the deal reduced either one of those, it doesn't matter to them if it actually helped their members.

[Restoras]

A+

[MNG]

I've heard that companies that sell school supplies to schools and school children also look out for their own interests as well. Somehow this doesn't cause the same caterwauling among folks around here...

[John]

The interests in collecting dues and political power benefits the union leaders and organization not the workers. They act for the benefit of the organization not the people they represent. But they still have fools like you who claim workers benefit from being in unions.

[MNG]

But wait, how can the not act in the interest of the employees when Walker and you guys told us we needed to bust them to lower the worker's salaries and benefits.

MMM, cake and eating it too, yummy!

[John]

Lower salaries and benefits mean more money in the budget which means they can afford to keep more teachers. The budget was going to be cut, the only question was how.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Considering that whenever education budgets are cut, the districts usually slash the youngest teachers from the payroll and not the driftwood on the administrative side, I'd say Walker did these folks a favor.

A slightly smaller salary > being unemployed.

[Joe M]

Because there's no difference between children trying to get good grades and unions bankrupting the country.

[O2]

u mean union contracts that mgmt negoiated & agreed to?

[Pip]

GET BACK IN YOUR BUTT.

[Brett L]

And you also don't hear MNG caterwauling when they have to cut prices or positions to stay in business.

[Mr. Obvious]

Business=evil. Union=goodness and light.

[MNG]

No, it's just you guys that have this Manichean worldview. I like business. I am in a business. My money is invested in businesses. Businesses supply me with all the goodies I like. I like business.

It's you guys that caterwaul when a union looks out for its interests just like every business entity out there.

[PIRS]

We only complain when unions use the power of the state to manipulate the natural relationship that would exist in a free market.

BY the way, I also oppose large businesses like GE and General Motors doing the same.

[Mr. Obvious]

Whatever, he of the forever-moving-goal-posts. Take a position and stick with it for once in your life.

[PIRS]

Mr. Obvious,

To whom are you adressing your comment about moving goal posts?

The formating of these comment threads sometimes makes it difficult to know who is responding to who.

[Dad]

I like business. I am in a business.

Fine way to talk about your mother.

[MNG]

Go back and look at my comments from the start of the Walker bill debate, I said unequivocally that unions are going to have to make concessions in this economic climate. I praised Cuomo's accomplishment in NY in doing just that. Etc.

So fail buddy.

[Cheeseburger]

Yes, but except in cases of one of those companies being owned by the brother in law of the school superintendent, the school boards usually engage in adversarial negotiations. With the unions the school boards usually just pimp out the tax payers.

[MNG]

Yes, because companies that do business with the government and take taxpayer money don't lobby or influence pols at all.

[bosty]

I've heard that companies that sell school supplies to schools and school children also look out for their own interests as well. Somehow this doesn't cause the same caterwauling among folks around here...

This site really deserves a better class of trolls

[db]

Staples? OfficeMax? Wal-Mart?

[Chupacabra]

But they do steal people's freedom through.... ADVERTISING!!!!!

[MNG]

Unions and corporations consist of individuals who join together to increase their power in some way. Many unions and many corporations contract with the state. Many examples of "sweet deals" for both in doing so abound. Both lobby pols a lot. Both could have disconnects between managment and members (ironically it can be argued the unions should have less of one they elect leaders directly, corporate shareholders can only elect the people who elect the management). But only one seems to get so much vitriol from the Hit and Runpublicans around here.

Hell, conservatives don't just exempt corporations, they exempt the unions (Walker's bill exempted the police) and like groups (veteran groups) that lobby for government goodies all the time.

[MNG]

Should read "exempt some unions"

[Pip]

Boring

[The Other Kevin]

There is a reason it's called a "Teacher's Union", as opposed to a "Student's Union" or even an "Education Union."

[Brett L]

But they were willing to sacrifice 27 teachers' jobs in one district for their bennies. WTF?

[MNG]

It's a tough question what a union should do when it comes to cutting salaries and benefits of members versus letting some go, it doesn't imply evil to choose the latter over the former.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

it doesn't imply evil to choose the latter over the former.

But it does beg the question as to the necessity of a union to protect jobs.

[Brett L]

Right. Twenty dollar copays and an extra class a day just broke those poor teachers with seniority. Better to cast 22 year olds with education degrees adrift in this economy.

[cynical]

It's a "current teachers" union, not a "potential teachers" or "recently fired teachers" union.

[Pip]

Not "union", "association".

[GILMORE]

Also in the morning headlines, from the ever-reliable NYT=

Recession Study Finds Hispanics Hit the Hardest

They left out the rest of the joke about Women, Other Minorities. Im sure it's somewhere in the story though.

I think the 'debt debate' and the phone hacking scandal have been like the last gasps of desperate print media... what they're going to pick on this fall, I have no idea...

[Pretty White Girl]

I could always go missing.

[Hugh Akston]

In his famous book on capitalism, Max Weber warned that our modern world would increasingly be driven by endless attempts at measurement, accountability, efficiency, and control. These efforts would trap us, he cautioned, in an "iron cage" of rationality that precluded other ways of assessing value and setting policy ? like intuition, tradition, imagination, values and personal meaning.

Soooooooooo it's Kapitalizm's fault that the monolithic, top-down, government educational monopoly precludes people from exploring alternative systems of value?

Pretty neat trick considering that "setting educational policy" is a sequence of words that would make no sense in a free market economy.

[Res Publica Americana]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVIrItdwXa4

Discuss -- I think Max used to oppose guns on airplanes, but what about you dudes and dudettes? And what of the TSA?

[Gibby]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....970b-popup

[Joe M]

Rockford man charged; pit bull killed in drug raid

Apparently, they didn't find any weapons, just drugs and money, and only one dog was killed after it "attacked" police.

So, I guess "nothing else happened".

[Au H20]

Boeing's Uniquely American right to take flight.

Oh, headline writers. Boeing, and taking flight? You never fail to amuse!!!

NY Times on the lessons of Carmegeddon.

Hopefully, those plebs have learned how much better biking and public transport are than their dirty, stinking cars.

[Ice Nine]

These data suggest that most art school graduates report a great deal of value from their educational experience.

Waiter tips must have gone up a lot since back when I was doing it.

[Bee Tagger]

Or the Self-Importance classes found a better teacher.

[Aqua Buddha]

Nothing? Nothing??!?!? I give you ungrateful SOBs a magnificent link about Chinese villagers tying up cops and you say NOTHING!?!?!?!eleven1!!

You don't deserve me.

[John]

Apparently the Chinese love their freedom more than most Americans.

[Brett L]

Thank God the Chinese don't keep dogs as pets. There's nothing for SWAT to shoot.

[Mingey Tacos]

Glad you racists didn't go for the obvious dogs/Chinese joke here. That would be OFFENSIVE.

[sloopyinca]

Haha. Very funny, especially when we all know it's the Koreans that eat dogs.

[Minge]

Who can know why the Right doesn't attract more support from the Korean community with gems like this?

[sloopyinca]

Not sure. Why don't you ask someone on the right, because if you keep accusing us of being "conservatives," you're likely to get Jap-slapped.

[Nipplemancer]

save the jap slapping for Dec. 7.

[Brett L]

They had dog at the butcher shop in Hong Kong in the early '90s.

[sloopyinca]

I understand, Brett, but they were still under British rule at the time. Soylent Green would be an improvement over British cuisine.

[Brett L]

This is so true.

[OO]

speaking of granny...

[Au H20]

How Self Esteem fluctuates based on race, gender, and age. This is important on Jezebel, for some reason.

The Answer? They differ until you hit about 30, and then everyone reaches an equilibrium. Jezebel commentators are less than happy with these results.

The Internet V. Sex- Which would you choose?

Well, I may also choose running water over sex, but it doesn't mean that I don't like sex.

[Joe M]

I do so love being a black woman. I don't have to live up to any idealized standard of femininity, wealth, or social grace because the default supposition is that I cannot deign to reach it.

So my beauty, success, and totally awesomeness is a net win for me. Yay, racism!

Hilarious.

[Warty]

It's the silver lining of freedom within the dark cloud of systematic oppression.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

That comment was so good I can't believe it's not a troll.

[Warty]

Jezebel's guide to being a sloppy failed whore

The War Prayer, but for real.

[MAXXX]

If only the crazed lonely whores from jezebel would hook up with the anti-social losers at reason.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Dan Fielding: "You know how cranky women can get when they don't get sex on a regular basis."

Christine Sullivan: "Oh cram it, you pig."

Dan Fielding: "See what I mean?"

[Brett L]

This is why the posthumous writings of Twain should be required reading for teenagers. Letters from Earth opened my eyes.

[JoJo Zeke]

Jezebel's guide to being a sloppy failed whore

Okay, why is there just a jumbo-sized photo of Joy Behar at that link...?

[Au H20]

Passing a course on shooting dogs will be mandatory: DC could skirt gun dealer ban illegality by letting a gun dealer operate-out of a police station.

SHOCKING NEWS!!! Men and women do similar amounts of household chores.

[Michael]

Speaking of Google, I thought this was amusing in a really creepy kind of way...

http://thenextweb.com/google/2.....s-debacle/

[Michael]

And this was just plain creepy...

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/brph8m

[Ice Nine]

I'll take your word for it.

[Au H20]

Texas study finds that even in schools, black students are disciplined more harshly than whites.

Well, I'm all for a repeal of mandatory detention sentences. How bout you guys?

Free at last, Free at last!!! Researchers close to creating Male Birth Control Pill.

Well, if a big wooden horse shows up at their lab- DO NOT LET IT IN!!!

[Res Publica Americana]

Steve Smith's job is about to get a whole lot easier.

[STEVE SMITH]

STEVE SMITH PROMISES TO RAPE SCIENTISTS LAST!!!!

[Scientists]

[::pout::]

[Heroic Mulatto]

Texas study finds that even in schools, black students are disciplined more harshly than whites.

That concurs with my anecdotal experiences when I taught in public schools. However, I believe it really boils down to socio-economic bias than to pure racism.

[Mingey Tacos Garofalo]

It's racism, straight up.

[Clich? Bandit]

With that stat from yesterday about 40% of births are "unplanned" then a male BC could devastate the birthrate at least for a short period of time. I see this almost as liberating for men as BC was for women. Awesomeness...also, I don't want to get snipped and the risks for women are worse and the thought of NEVER having any more kids is a little final so I can see this also pushing out timelines for kids in marriages while reducing the side effects of BC in women. All around probably a plus.

[Joe M]

Here's a fun one:

Atlanta police sergeant: 'Gays more violent than heterosexuals'

[John]

In describing his belief that gay people are more violent than heterosexuals, Brock stated: "In the past I have as a patrol officer handled calls where there are gay couples living in residence where one is mad at the other, and they slash clothes, furniture, anything they can do. They're very violent." (GT report, pp. 142-143.) When asked if he thinks "that the gay community is more violent than other citizen groups" Brock replied: "My experience, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when they're ? when they get mad, they get really mad."

[DJF]

Which is another reason I don't call homosexuals gay. Bitchy would be a better term then gay.

[MAXXX]

Homocide.

[John]

A lot of lesbians are violent as hell. Domestic violence is pretty rampant in the lesbian community.

[Pip]

True dat.

[cynical]

Alan Moore taught me that.

[Mr. Obvious]

Those limp wrists pack plenty of punch.

[Brett L]

You don't hang out with enough lesbians. Imagine two crazy women having irrational arguments fueled hormones and liquor.

[Brett L]

*fueled by

[Au H20]

Worked in legal aid, which does some DV shit. We got plenty of guys beating on their wives. But the only homosexuals we got were women. And HOLY SHIT were they hysterical about it, more so than the straight women, at least in my experience.

[Lord Humungus]

My sister-in-law was a lesbian for a few years. She quit because of teh crazee of dealing with women. Now she has a boyfriend and a baby. The world is a funny place.

[The Left]

She quit because of teh crazee of dealing with women. Now she has a boyfriend and a baby.

But that's unpossible! It's not a choice, it's genetic! Just like being born black!!111!!

[Au H20]

Fucking Kinsey Scale-How does it work???

[Lord Humungus]

oddly enough, her boyfriend _is_ black.

[Trespassers W]

Yeah, but as you know, Atlanta PD arrested a murder suspect without incident a few days ago, so these things even out.

[Nipplemancer]

"My experience, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when they're ? when they get mad, they get really mad." -Sgt. John Brock

[Nipplemancer]

i need to refresh more apparently

[John]

I will say this in defense of gays. If Tony or someone like him were your boyfriend, it would be pretty easy to be in a violent mood at lot of the time.

[Au H20]

God damnit. Apparently, the Pakistanis DO have a reason to believe that vaccines are a plot.

I guess, while hunting for Bin Laden, we took DNA samples and made it look like Hep B. I'd disbelieve it harder, but the Economist is normally pretty reliable about this shit.

And people call our prisons country clubs: Norway's super max has wi-fi, rock climbing walls, etc.

Hopefully, they also have shanking tools.

[Res Publica Americana]

Instead of an electric chair, that fucking animal that massacred the camp is going to get a house to live in, a vacation island, a TV, Internet, bicycles, and a prison director whose approach is make buddies and ensure "HUMANITY IS THE KEY" is practiced. Wonderful.

[Jerry]

Here is Michael Moore's take on Norwegian prisons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01mTKDaKa6Q (skip to 4:10)

[Au H20]

Dude, I want my brain cells back.

[Sparky]

SWAT dispatched on hoax call:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech.....test=faces

No word on if anything else happened.

[Res Publica Americana]

I bet half the guy's property mysteriously vanished after the incident.

And nothing else happened, I bet.

[DJF]

His taxes were spent, nothing else happened. Until next year when they demand even more taxes based on the number of times SWAT was called out.

[Au H20]

Excuse me, I have to go into my ANGRY DOME!!! Slate profiles Tina Fey as part of their top right section.

Yes, Tina Fey is funny. She writes some darn good zingers. Her Sarah Palin shit is so good people have confused what she said with what Palin said. But the women is winning lifetime achievement awards- at 40. Also, 30 Rock? Not that amazing since maybe Season 2.

And do you want to know why Fey gets overrated? Because she's a woman, in comedy, a terribly male-dominated profession. I get it, I really do, why people hold her up. We need more female writers in comedy, they speak to a female audience, and they are also no Chelsea motherfucking Handler. But when you compare what, say, Lucille Ball did for her time with what Fey is doing now- no comparison.

Warner Brothers claims to hold copyright on "Happy Birthday to You"

Man, I bet the writers of the National Anthem and Battle Hym of the Old Republic are glad IP laws were less silly back then.

[Pro Libertate]

Ripping on Palin makes her extra funny to people who think politics = THE UNIVERSE!

[O2]

and to those who see thru palin's grifting of the wingnutz

[Res Publica Americana]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR7HPQM0Jgg

Fuck Happy Birthday to You -- BHotR is where the shit's at!

[Old Mexican]

Re: AuH2O,

Man, I bet the writers of the National Anthem and Battle Hym of the Old Republic are glad IP laws were less silly back then.

Mind what you write, because you're liable to be called a Monsato-hater by Ron B and be the subject of a hit piece by Brian D...

[db]

Re: "Happy Birthday:" I prefer "Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary."

[Joe M]

I guess it's tough living in the clouds when the sky is falling:

Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Fell 4.5% in Year

[DJF]

But Washington DC real estate is going strong. See the , wars, bailouts and stimulus spending worked.

[hmm]

George takes his toys and goes home...

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Wow, so even George Soros doesn't like government regulations.....when they affect him personally. Is there a word for that?

[Au H20]

Sooo... when will the NY Times finally admit that "New Analysis" is away of putting op eds on the front page?

Islamaphobia, on both sides of the Atlantic, is a major threat.

He also blames the violence on Dragon Age II. Yes, you heard that correctly: Dragon Age II, a game with swords and bows, will make people shoot people.

[SugarFree]

Cohen has a desperate stink about him:

Nothing, however, can excuse the widespread condoning of an anti-Muslim racism once reserved for the Jews of Europe. Not on the weekend when Amy Winehouse, a Jewish girl from East London whose artistry would once have been dismissed by a racist and murderous European right as degenerate "cosmopolitan" trash, died. A good way to remember her is finally to confront the latest iteration of a European bigotry that kills.

-
WTF?

[Warty]

What what what?

[hmm]

What What

[Pro Libertate]

Is European bigotry the name of some sort of heroin or other narcotic?

[SugarFree]

"Neo-Nazi Brand China White: It's Like a Blitzkrieg For Your Veins"

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, okay. It all makes sense to me now.

[Warty]

It made me want to shoot the developers. What a disappointing pile of shit that game was.

[Pro Libertate]

I liked Dragon Age: Origins. Skip this one, then?

And no shooting the developers. BioWare is one of my favorites.

[Warty]

Play it if you can get it for less than $20. The horror must be experienced.

[Pro Libertate]

How could this have happened? Was it terrorist developers?

[Warty]

One of the major plot points involves one of your party members being a terrorist, so yes.

[KWebb]

EA is where good game developers go to die.

[cynical]

Basically. I think subtitling their first game Origins caused EA to remember fondly how awesome being irredeemably evil was.

But hey, when's the last time a beloved RPG developer got bought out by EA, let the quality of its single player series' degenerate while its founders were pouring all their efforts into an ambitious MMO, and finally got euthanized for its troubles?

[Warty]

Honestly, it's not that bad, it's just not even close to as good as DAO. They tried to make DA2 more like Mass Effect, but just ruined it instead.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, there's always the new Elder Scrolls game, which should rule.

[Au H20]

Bethesda better realize that, if it's not good, I will hunt down the developers, one by one. And they shall know me by my true name: VENGEANCE!!

[Pro Libertate]

It's going to rule. I can feel it.

[BigBob]

Meh, I haven't been thrilled with Bethesda's work. Oblivion and Fallout were not bad games, just not that great. Also, they lose major points for their wax figure facial features.

[Sparky]

With DAO being slightly better than shitting razor blades, I don't think I'd want to touch DA2 if it's worse.

[Au H20]

Well, unless they fuck The Old Republic. Then, I'm gonna go Samuel L. in A Time to Kill on their asses.

[Pro Libertate]

They may have done that already by making it an MMO. The first two games are among my favorite games ever, so I hope this isn't a giant mess.

[hmm]

MMOs aren't inherently bad, as long as you can kill people and spend the next hour with the recently deceased talking shit to you. Ah for the good old days of MMO PvP that wasn't pussified.

[Brett L]

On the plus side, I find it hard to fathom that it could suck as hard as Star Wars Galaxies.

[hmm]

Nothing sucked like SWG, nothing. Not even Vanguard...

[Sparky]

http://www.thesecretworld.com/

Keep an eye on it.

[Pro Libertate]

I just glanced at it, but does this mean I finally get to join the Illuminati?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

All I can tell you is...take the test. I did, just for the hell of it, and was deemed a Dragon.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

I was reading about this a couple of weeks ago. Bizarre...

[Brett L]

Yeah, I didn't think enough people played DAII for it to inspire any sort of mass movement except maybe apathy.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Eh, it wasn't that bad. Nowhere near the replayability factor that the first game had (I went through about 9-10 different characters with various narrative threads over the course of a year), but I find it impossible to get all nerd-butthurt about a video game. I do agree it could have been better if EA hadn't gotten its claws in it, though--Bioware's best stuff takes years to develop, not months.

[Res Publica Americana]

It's the New York Times -- I honestly don't remember the last time they ran a decent article, and do you?

[Pro Libertate]

Yes. When they ran Eliot Spitzer's Whore Critic column in 2008.

[Au H20]

NY Times Reader Recommendations, never change:

The Republicans are like little kids who won't pick up their toys after making a mess. Like a bunch of spoiled kids, they want someone else to always buy their lunch: as long as it's not "them." GOP leadership has been borrowing from the future for 30 years and still won't face-up to the responsibility of starting to pay it back. They don't deserve the privilege of living in this country never mind the privilege of representing" their fellow citizens.

I hope every single one of them is soundly defeated in their next election. What a sorry bunch of hypocritical losers.

That's the most recommended news analysis comment.

[Au H20]

Knew I should have previewed the block quote.

[Pro Libertate]

Fuck. Spend less than you take in! Both parties are guilty, and their should be no sacred cows. Cut spending dramatically. Now.

[Restoras]

Yes please. Let's start with 20% across the board, and maybe eliminate every agency expansion since 2000. As a start.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm willing to take the political fallout. Make me dictator (in the Roman sense) for a day, give me the budget and a box of red pens, and we'll soon be past this fiscal crisis.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

GOP leadership has been borrowing from the future for 30 years

Funny how they consistently ignore all the borrowing that took place the 23 years before that.

[JD the Elder]

"Breivik attended a 2002 meeting to reconstitute the Knights Templar, a Crusader military order. This is the stuff of video games ? except that it kills real teenagers of all faiths."

Dude, it's true! Have you ever played Meeting Organizer II? Trying to find an available room, get the teleconference system working, and accomplish something in less than two hours will definitely make you want to kill people.

[Brett L]

What? Are these guys historically illiterate? Everyone knows the proper order to join for retaking Europe from Muslims is Order of Santiago, although I think it is an extant order with knighthoods given only to Spanish royalty now. Santiago de Campostela, also known as Santiago Matamoros was the patron saint of the Spanish Reconquista.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

He also blames the violence on Dragon Age II. Yes, you heard that correctly: Dragon Age II, a game with swords and bows, will make people shoot people.

Wow, amazing how Cohen views everything through the prism of The Tribe. I mean, really--using Amy Winehouse as a red herring to prop up his thesis, just because she happened to have been a Jew?

And since when did nerd escapism become a target of the Culture of Critique? It's my understanding that these programmers all share Cohen's political sentiments.

[cynical]

Dude, if I bought Dragon Age II, I would probably want to shoot someone. At Bioware. Fortunately, they miscalculated and released a demo.

[Nipplemancer]

Introducing: Dusk Monkey

[james]

this is the top rated comment on the NY times today. How would someone even respond to this in an intellectual manner?

"No matter how the Republicans try to disguise it, their plan is completely one-sided. Revenues have to be part of the discussion. Obama must hold the line on this. I'm sick of watching the distribution of wealth in America widen and widen more; sick of knowing hedge-fund managers making upward of a billion a year don't pay the same percentage taxes the vast majority of Americans do; sick of the biggest corporations paying no taxes; sick of off-shore tax havens for the wealthiest. And I know I'm not alone. The polls bear that out, which Republicans don't seem to get. Their high road is an incredibly selfish one."

[Pro Libertate]

That's right, emote, don't think. You have to be delusional not to get it, with whole countries falling apart over and over again due to fiscal madness. No, let's just buy every partisan line we've been given over the years, regardless of how contradictory, and march right off of the fucking cliff.

What's extra idiotic is that the left was just going on and on about deficit spending until they took power. Then it became groovy.

[BakedPenguin]

Even more humorous: wealth gap widens between whites and minorities. Assuming that's correct, maybe they might re-think some of their ideas?

No, that's crazy talk. We're gonna spend our way to prosperity!

[John]

It is almost as if all those government programs just benefit the government rather than the people they are supposed to help. Gee, who would have thought such a thing?

[Obama]

Ooops.

[Au H20]

sick of knowing hedge-fund managers making upward of a billion a year don't pay the same percentage taxes the vast majority of Americans do

Well, of course hedge fund managers don't pay the same rate. They pay a higher rate.

[John]

At heart he makes the mistaken assumption that the government will actually take from the rich and give to the poor. You will never convince him of the the reality that the government takes from everyone but the really rich and gives to the politically connected. So, you might as well be speaking Greek to him.

[Aqua Buddha]

A Closer Look At The Chinese Rail Ministry's Staggering Debt

[Au H20]

Oh, we also have a winner, from the NY Times comments, on Norway. It took a while, and honestly, I gave up after 250 comments, but I feel safe recommending this one. Really, sometimes, you strike gold in the first 25:

My condolences to the families of those gunned down by this terrible act.

Norwegians have to face the worse mass shooting, outside of war, in modern history. And, in this case, the act was committed for a difference in political views of one individual. One would expect, with the level of divisions in this country, that this act would have been committed in the United States; a country with much freer gun laws than Norway.

Maybe this should serve as a lesson to this country that strong, opposing political views can lead to violence, and in this case, tragedy.

Shortly, upwards of 91 families will have to bury their dead. To the people of Normay, this is their 9/11. This attack will sting this peaceful society, the way 9/11 stung ours. However, unlike 9/11, the attacker did not come from foreign soil, or had different religious views; the attacker was one of their own. My prayers go out to these grieving families.

Finally, the press was quick to assume that this was an attack by Al Qaeda, the Taliban or some other Muslim extremist group. Maybe it is time for the press to wait to the facts come out, before speculating on perpetrators. The world has enough tension, without the need to create new ones.

Ah, yes. Those evil, opposing, political views did it!!!

[Pro Libertate]

Jesus.

[T]

Really, wouldn't this be Norway's Oklahoma City? Bonus points if a Norgy pol tries to tie the extremist culture created by talk radio (or the Internet) into the whole thing.

[John]

I think actually Americans may be the only people on earth that fucking stupid. I wouldn't be surprised if the Norgies did better.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Au H2O
The commenter wrote:

One would expect, with the level of divisions in this country, that this act would have been committed in the United States; a country with much freer gun laws than Norway.

We should have less free gun laws!

Just like Norway's... It worked so well over there.

[WTF]

Maybe this should serve as a lesson to this country that strong, opposing political views can lead to violence, and in this case, tragedy.

Well, that settles it, then. The only answer is re-education camps.

[Au H20]

Well, our runner up was this one:

When reading the account, I thought that surely video games in some way made this kind of act possible to visualize in the killer's mind. Then, sure enough, later in the account, we learn that the killer did play war video games. Clearly, we need to understand how video games change perception. Also, did not Congress do something recently about video games and violence? I did not see mention or a link from the article (but understandably it is probably not the article in which to mention it.)

Now, our runner up shouldn't worry. They win a copy of the Statist Fuck board game.

Well, that's our show folks. We'll be back next week, same Statist Fuck time, same Statist fuck place!!!

*All Statist Fuck contestants stay in the Ramada Inn in BEAUTIFUL Hollywood, California!!! Today's Home Game Winner was Ron P., of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ron wins a year's supply of DEAD DOGS. DEAD DOGS- JUST ANOTHER ISOLATED INCIDENT!!!*

[John]

The Truth call your office.

Chinese Bullet Trains not what they are cracked up to be.

http://www.theatlantic.com/bus.....nt/242512/

[MP]

But they had the right idea. If only the right people were in charge...

[yonemoto]

doesn't it seem odd that only 43 people died when two trains collided at a hundred kph or so?? Do you suppose those trains were severely under-capacity?

[Res Publica Americana]

http://www.latimes.com/news/po.....1661.story

If Paul's elected President, I say he should abolish the BATshitretardedFE before doing anything else.

And when he does it, I'll illegally convert my AR-15 to fire full-auto. Just for the fucking kicks.

[db]

That would be pretty fuckng stupid, seeing as abolishing an executive agency is not the same as repealing the law that agency is charged with enforcing.

[Res Publica Americana]

http://www.ack.net/policeOUI072211.html

The infallible agents of the God-Emperor hath been exposed! Oh, the tragedy!

[Justin Beaner]

This makes a lot of sense dude. Wow.
http://www.web-privacy.au.tc

[hmm]

Beaner? Anonbot, you aren't an illegal immigrant are you?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

He's doing the anon-botting that American anon-bots won't do.

[Mr. FIFY]

Congressman makes valid comparison, then has to apologize for it:

http://www.news-leader.com/art.....dyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Shit.

[rogue biologist]

he has yet to apologize for his face, too.

[rogue biologist]

he has yet to apologize for his face, too.

[Mr. FIFY]

Yeah, he's a fat, ugly fuck.

But the analogy is STILL valid.

[Mike M.]

Breaking News: the creepy George Takei look-alike Representative David Wu has just announced he's resigning from Congress.

[yonemoto]

dude he looks nothing like George Takei, and even I have trouble telling between asians.

[women nike sb heels]

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