Reason Morning Links: A Question of Evil, Debt Denouement, Jim DeMint Can't Wait to Go Home

• The White House is shocked that Speaker John Boehner withdrew his debt ceiling bill last night. (Shocked, and pleased.)
• Jon Huntsman attacks fellow Mormon Mitt Romney for staying mum on debt debate.  
• David Warren wonders if Anders Breivik is "evil."
• The man who pied Rupert Murdoch in the British Parliament has been convicted of assault. 
• Sen. Jim DeMint reiterates his promise not to run for Congress again. 
• Texas Governor Rick Perry is not worried about defaulting. 
• The Ivy League attempts to reduce the amount of tackling in football. 

New at Reason.tv: "Happy 99th Birthday, Milton Friedman! A tribute to the late, great economist"

Comments

[Au H20]

Okay, y'all motherfuckers, I have a ton of links to post today, and not much time to do it. This is going to go at least 40 links, if not more (I haven't read Feminsting in a week, and shit has gone down!!!). I even prepared them, so shut the fuck up and click. Good, now that that is out of the way:
Summer's Eve literally puts the pussy on a pedastel
Jay, of The 40 Year Old Virgin is not pleased.

Nicholas Kristof compares Republicans to Iran and China, calls them national security threat for refusing to raise debt ceiling.
God, we need an award show for, "Columnist most hysterical about the debt ceiling." Plus, either way, I will get to see Krugnuts cry.
Okay, one down, many to come.

[robc]

How about you set up a website with a bunch of links on it, then link to that instead?

[Au H20]

Well, shit robc, that would've been logical. Still, I did spend like, 2-3 hours thursday night compiling these links, so I must ride in, and unto death. I'm also vying for Riggs' job

[Brett L]

Riggs showed up at least 30 minutes early this friday just to screw with you.

[Aqua Buddha]

I had posts pulled (not blocked, PULLED) because I posted 6 links in a row. I demand Au H2O suffer the same fate.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Anti-competitive practices?!
For a magazine called reason, etc.

[sloopyinca]

Glug glug glug.

[?]

Why not create a boring blog instead where nobody visits or comments? There are several examples from commentators here. Click their names and revel in the glorious crackpottery.

[Lord Humungus]

no one from here visits my blog because I don't link to it. Surprise - it's unrelated to politics.

[Gibby]

So what's it about?

[sloopyinca]

Yeah! Why are you keeping your blog from us when we all want to see it?

[Lord Humungus]

you have been warned.
http://6streetbridge.blogspot.com/

[?]

Should your speakers be that close to the wall? Explain.

[Lord Humungus]

depends on the port location and speaker design. These speakers are small enough where a little close boundary bass boost isn't that noticeable. (plus my wife wants 'em there.).

My *ahem* other stereo system with the Magnepans has much more room.

[wylie]

bookmarked.

[?]

Link! Link! Link!

[Ted S.]

I hope you're not talking about my visitor-free blog. 🙁

[robc]

SIV's **one** link is more interesting than all of yours combined.

[Ice Nine]

I did spend like, 2-3 hours thursday night compiling these links,

Jesus. Don't you have a Scrabble set or something?

[Quetzalcoatl]

That's what he used to write the posts. They got so lengthy that he had to break out Boggle too.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

From the comments:

"If you want your vagina to taste incredible and smell like the nicest vagina you can imagine, just eat lots of fruits and veggies and cut down on red meat. Same concept as a guy eating lots of fruit to make his cum taste better. When I was vegan my vagina was a wonder to behold, hold, and stick your nose in."

I guess it begs the question, "What is it like now?"

[Patrick]

The way that most vegan women look, it's not advisable to even go that far.

[Pro Libertate]

Where no man has gone before.

[Ice Nine]

Cucumbers - another story.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

If she's like a typical Jezbian, she undoubtedtly spends an inordinate amount of time smelling her own farts, so I guess she would know with it being in the same neighborhood and all.

[Brett L]

Next on Lies your Lovers Tell You: "No baby, that dress doesn't make your ass look fat."

[sloopyinca]

How does one "hold" a vagoo?

[wylie]

Same way you hold a brandy snifter.

[sloopyinca]

What the he'll would the stem on the brandy glass signify? Unless the woman has an enormous clitoris, I think you may have been duped into groping a micropenis, Wylie.

[sloopyinca]

Oh, NTTAWWT.

[Pete Mynack]

Loved this article : "Correction: The US Has Defaulted Before and It Can Default Again" found here: http://expectedloss.blogspot.c.....e-and.html

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It's not possible! The Tea Party is holding the world hostage! The end is upon us!

[the real OO]

and the ratings agencies agree

[Gibby]

Summer's Eve Pulls Racist Talking Vagina Ads

http://jezebel.com/5825515/sum.....vagina-ads

[Au H20]

Where is Black Reagan?
"Black Reagan" awesome blaxploitation title? or best blaxploitation title ever?

Protect the queen!!! NY Times writes article criticizing Slutwalks, so Feministing must use it's greatest weapon- a ROUNDTABLE!!!
King Arthur would be rolling in his grave if he knew that this is the kind of shit his invention would be used for.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Shugafree'd

[Au H20]

Ooof, and right out the starting gate too. And I was going to brag at the end up not SFing up. DAMN YOU SUGARFREE!!!!

Here's the link, for those interested:

http://www.theroot.com/views/w.....ald-reagan

[SugarFree]

I loom.

[gaijin]

What are you weaving?

[T]

A merkin. In bright colors.

[SugarFree]

All the colors of the giga-rainbow.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Luddite!

[Grumpy Old Bastard]

Loom.

[Tim]

Have we won in Libya yet?

[Dad]

Shut up, Tim! We're hardly out of the driveway!

[Tim]

I have to pee.

[Tim's Little Sister]

Mom!!! Timmy won't stay on his side! Make him stooooooop!!

[wylie]

If you kids don't knock it off, I'm going to drive this car over a cliff.

[Au H20]

Silly Little Lawsuits: Woman sues employer over hotel room sex injury.
Talk about moving the earth!! *badum-CHHH* Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week, please tip your server.

Nerdery: Marvel to reward Comic Shops for ripping up DC comics.
This looks like a job for... THE FTC!!!!

[Obama]

Hey, think of all the printing jobs saved/created!!!

[Byron]

SFed again...

[Aqua Buddha]

Tremble before the power of Oliver Ellsworth....

Garrett Epps, Idiot: Constitutional Myth #10: International Law is a Threat to the Constitution

[Au H20]

Georgia Mom won't be charged in death of toddler who jaywalked across highway.

URGE TO KILL...fading.

Jezebel wakes up to the Higher Education bubble.
Now that they know a Bachelor's is useless, maybe they will wise up to Feminist and Gender studies degrees...

Nah, I won't be that lucky.

[Patrick]

A quick read thru of the Jezzie comments was very entertaining. Cliff Notes version is basically the first girl complaining that her awesome East Coast Small College Liberal Arts Degree hasn't made all her dreams come true, followed by fellow travelers crying about how they are sooo underappreciated. While the children of the rich get all the good jobs. And yes, the words "racism" and "homophobia" indeed show up.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Cliff Notes version is basically the first girl complaining that her awesome East Coast Small College Liberal Arts Degree hasn't made all her dreams come true, followed by fellow travelers crying about how they are sooo underappreciated. While the children of the rich get all the good jobs.

"Why won't society exponentially increase the number of high-paying jobs to accomodate us? We got skillz!"

I want to see more Millenials end up like the chumps in this video. Eventually, the young will figure out that the cost/benefit ratio of going to college is becoming increasingly unsustainable, and they can have the same experiences for 1/3 the cost if they don't attend.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb.....12-03.html

[Patrick]

Speaking as an 05 grad (though in Economics making me much more employable than these dipshits in any given market), I do have some sympathy to the situation.

Peter Schiff put this brilliantly in a podcast some time back when Obama's proposed giveaway du jour was expansion of student loans for college. Schiff talked about how his dad waited tables 2-3 nights a week and paid his whole way thru UCONN with no debt. Over the last 30 years the feds have so saturated the market with free loan cash that they have artifically created demand for college degrees, consequentially increasing supply at a lower value while the number of jobs needing actual college skills has remained relatively fixed.

So while comical examples like on Jez and the PBS sob stories are somewhat laughable, the social structure's emphasis on college as driven by federal largesse is to blame for a lot.

This has been another lesson in "How Government Fucks Up Everything."

[Au H20]

Patrick, it has nothing to do with the government. It's all those evil rich people who are driving up college costs, and if we just gave even MORE in student loans, everything would be awesome.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

So while comical examples like on Jez and the PBS sob stories are somewhat laughable, the social structure's emphasis on college as driven by federal largesse is to blame for a lot.

This has been another lesson in "How Government Fucks Up Everything."

No argument from me there. It's pretty damn obvious that the government's multi-decade policy of guaranteeing student loan payments for tuition has been THE primary driver of the high costs of college (would these schools have even been able to build all their fancy, high-tech infused buildings without it?). It's a two-edged sword for the government because liberals want everyone and their retarded cousin to go to college, but to rein in costs they'd have to allow schools to be far more discriminatory of who they admit than they have been over the last 40 years or so.

The social and financial factors are working against it, though. The average student takes out about $25K in debt to get a BA; to get a Master's its even more. It might take some social pressures, but eventually people will figure out that taking out enough debt to buy a Lexus, which can't be discharged in bankruptcy to boot, is a horrible way to put yourself behind the financial 8-ball during what should be your prime wealth-building years.

[Ted S.]

20 years ago when I went to college we had to fill out a "financial aid form", after which the college determined how much they thought we could pay toward tuition/room and board, with scholarships and loans making up the rest.

It quickly became clear to me that if Big Government spent more money in the form of financial aid, the college would still determine that we could afford the same amount, and would be able to jack up the tuition due to the excess financial aid.

[cynical]

"While the children of the rich get all the good jobs."

John is a Jezebel poster?

[Au H20]

Sorry, but I really think that the comment deserves posting. And maybe framing:

I am going to be super elitist right now. Flame away.

Know what pisses me off? That my BA is better than 90% of BAs in the US and that doesn't mean enough. I worked way harder than most, read more complex materials, had classes smaller than 20 students, wrote a 100 page paper, worked closely with professors and had no TAs. And yet many employers outside of the east and west coast elite don't see the superiority of my education. I am sorry, no all BAs are created equal.

(And, I realize that people smarter than those who go to Ivy League schools go to all kind of colleges and some don't go to college at all. Not everyone who goes to an elite college is super smart. And not everyone can afford private school. But after TAing at two top public universities and now seeing the merits of a large public uni, I still stand by the merits of small colleges.

[Xenocles]

If you're going to post about how awesome your BA is your post had better be error-free.

[Brett L]

Point to the real world skills that an employer would want that you developed in your BA. Nobody except academics wants 100 page papers. Ever read a professional white paper? > 25 pages would be a huge info dump.

[Restoras]

I'm surprised she hasn't found her way to DC. Or Mayor Bloomberg's staff.

[Aqua Buddha]

US cannot say how many had communications watched
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Like its predecessor, the Obama administration says it cannot count how many people in the U.S. have had their telephone calls and emails monitored by government agents in national security investigations under federal surveillance law.

The national intelligence office said in a letter this week to two Senate Democrats that it was "not reasonably possible to identify the number."...

[Montani Semper Liberi]

There must be some way to blame Bush for Obama not following his transparency pledge. Gotta think.

[wylie]

I imagine that Bush just shoves his way into the oval office a few times a month, bitchslaps Obama then tells him what to do. OR ELSE.

[insert Wayne Brady & Dave Chappelle skit here]

[Rupert Murdoch]

And yet I do the same thing and its BLAM!

[Mike M.]

Jon Huntsman is still running for president? Gary Johnson is a famous celebrity compared to this guy.

[James Ard]

I remember numerous DC media hacks promising that Huntsmann would be in the top three. Their dreams of fouling up the primary went horribly wrong.

[Patrick]

Exactly - he reeked of establishment Trojan Horse from day 1.

[deified]

ninja please

[OO]

Breivik's manifesto described his purchase of 10 30-round ammunition magazines from a U.S. supplier who mailed the devices to him, she said.

Under a section of his manifesto titled "December and January - Rifle/gun accessories purchased," Breivik wrote:

"10 x 30 round magazines - .223 cal at 34 USD per mag. Had to buy through a smaller US supplier (who again ordered from other suppliers) as most suppliers have export limitations? Total cost: 550 USD."

In a section called, "How much ammo does a soldier bring to a battle?" Breivik cited a need for high-capacity "banana clips."

"He should bring a total of two ammo pouches with room for 6 banana clips and one in his rifle so a total of 7 banana clips. In addition he should bring 4 clips for his pistol. Some carry more; 8 mags for the assault rifle and 4 pistol mags."

Breivik wrote that he failed to acquire certain weapons illegally in the Czech Republic.

I envy our European American brothers as the gun laws in Europe sucks [expletive] in comparison."

Breivik's manifesto came just a month after American al-Qaida spokesman Adam Gadahn issued an online video calling upon terrorists to take advantage of weaknesses in U.S. gun laws.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43....._politics/

[Bee Tagger]

No need to type all of that, if you wanted to just say "when you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns," you could have. We wouldn't have made fun of you for being so cliche.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Some of us have bigger bumpers to cover than others.

[OO]

foam thw wingusts u tee parteirs wont be happpy til thsi coutery si distroyd

[Quetzalcoatl]

I can't tell if this is a spoof or if Orrin really misspelled every single word in that sentence.

[the real OO]

asshole spoof disrespecting the norwegian victims

[the real OO]

and by disrespecting i mean using their deaths to try to score left wing political points, oh, wait

[the real OO]

95 dead aint talking points asshole

[the real OO|]

i got my Orrinum from a dead dogs asshole u know

[NeonCat]

Now now, "be" was spelled correctly. Credit where credit is due.

[Gibby]

I think he meant "Coterie".

[OO]

95 shot dead assholes...this time.

[William Munny]

Shoulda armed themselves.

[Little Bill]

I don't deserve this!

[Au H20]

Yes you do. Your Nick Jr. show was awful.

[Bee Tagger]

Yeah, I was the one politicizing the tragedy...

[Quetzalcoatl]

This sentence could use a judicious comma.

[Sparky]

Yeah, how does he know that all 95 people killed were assholes?

[Morlock]

Eloi are yummy.

[Clich? Bandit]

We wouldn't have made fun of you for being so cliche.

Where is your damn accent aigu you slack bastard!

[drug gangs]

we demand crew-serviced, belt-fed machine guns...for self-defense.

[aQ]

us too!

[Local cops]

Yeah, we'd like em as....

Oh, never mind. I just found them behind the SWAT tank.

[SIV]

Open borders: We need more Bulgarian immigrants

[Lord Humungus]

bingo!

[robc]

Agreed. Wow.

[robc]

Samokovareva said their employer sub-leased them the apartment. They did modeling in an ad campaign for a pizza place and a delivery business.

"We wore superhero costumes and things like that," Dzhambazova said.

That job ended

Do I only get one guess as to the source of the cameras?

[SugarFree]

That there are no pictures of them dressed as superheroes in the article is why traditional journalism is dead to me.

[robc]

So does google have that image search thing going yet where you put in one image and it searches for others of the same person?

Because that would answer the question about whether they have beeen streamed to the internet.

[SugarFree]

No, they just acquired them yesterday and the PittPatt site is just an announcement about it.

[robc]

I hadnt heard about that acquisition, pure coincidence.

[BakedPenguin]

I think there's a short clip here, but watch at your own risk. (SFW, but it's the "Today" show.)

[SugarFree]

Good work.

[Gibby]

I like this, BP. Thanks!

[SIV]

Smoke detector cam video would also have been acceptable.

[Lord Humungus]

According to my 80s-teenage-movie knowledge, this is a perfectly acceptable way of meeting women.

[robc]

Also, you should give them bikinis made with thread that dissolves in water.

[SugarFree]

Partying with a dead guy also works.

[robc]

As does living in a bubble.

[robc]

Speaking of which, I know its been 25 years and all, but Tawney Kitaen did not age well.

[SugarFree]

Sedative addiction. Made her weight ping-pong all over the place.

[Patrick]

Five words:

"Life's the same, I'm moving in stereo..."

[Patrick]

Make that seven, for the price of five.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

+1 Phoebe Cates boob shot

[Brett L]

Umm... Even the police should be able to figure this one out.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I'm sure the police will return the confiscated hard drives, as soon as they're... done with them.

[James Ard]

They are a few years away from growing their mustaches.

[Lord Humungus]

Beauty is a small window in time.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

We had hot Bulgarian female ice cream truck drivers in our town. They never went into the neighborhoods, instead they just drove around the industrial parks. When they would open the back roll-up window, they would lean over, squish their boobs together with their arms, and say:

"Do you see anything you like?"

Needless to say, they were highly successful salespeople until the local INS agents ran them out of the country. Damn those bureaucrats!

[R C Dean]

The teevee story I saw on that had a few lulz, because the reporter kept pronouncing their names with a Spanish accent.

Political correctness, how does it fucking work?

[Russ 2000]

Probably the #1 reason I rarely watch teevee news anymore except as dark comedy. My favorite was when the african-american/black news babe pronounced Waukesha, Wisconsin as wahKEEsha.

By being selectively sensitive to a handful of ethnicities, they prove that their sensitivity is not genuine while also accenting their incompetence.

[Bee Tagger]

The Ivy League attempts to reduce the amount of tackling in football.

In unrelated news, Ivy League schools cut their football programs.

[Brett L]

They should just stop playing each other. They can't tackle anyone else.

[Spoonman.]

When I was a bored freshman I made the mistake of going to a few Cornell football games.

My high school would have beat our team easily. It's insane that they spend money on it.

[squarooticus]

It's amazing how much attention is paid to the football team, too, considering the nationally-competitive hockey team just up the road. Homecoming draws 10-15 thousand each year; the hockey games haven't even been selling out the past few years.

[Au H20]

Also, as an in-person event, college hockey>college football.

[Restoras]

As an ECAC hockey observer - where in hell did that come from???

[Ice Nine]

As goes dodgeball, so goes football.

[CaptainSmartass]

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a tackle.

[BakedPenguin]

A funny related note: Rollins College, a small liberal arts school, used to play the University of Florida in football, (~1900~1920) and occasionally win.

[Brett L]

My brother is a Rollins dropout. He could no longer abide being across the lake from Fred Rodgers.

[BakedPenguin]

And paying handsomely for the privilege...

[Brett L]

My parents didn't work very hard to dissuade him from quitting. "Oh you don't like college and want to be a cook? As long as you're happy." He's a store manager for the same chain now. The boy just liked working better than studying.

[Mike Laursen]

Hey! Mr. Rodgers was actually a pretty smart, hip guy who made one of the few kids shows that can calm two and three year olds down instead of reviving them up. And teaches them some damned manners and thoughtfulness to boot.

[Brett L]

Which is why he could afford a giant house on a lake in one of the tonier Orlando 'burbs. Still, 20 year olds don't appreciate that.

[Au H20]

Where Money comes from.
Well, you see Liberals, when a Bernanke loves a printing press?

Dan Savage is drunk with power, threatens to change the meaning of the word Rick.
Your overconfidence is your weakness, Savage!!!

[SugarFree]

It already rhymes with prick, dick and some other marginally dirty words. Savage is ODing on hubris.

[OO]

actually savage is reveling in fait accompli since savage already successfully re-defined santorium

[cynical]

Not a lot of Santorums to give a shit, unlike the millions of Ricks in this country who might have to fuck a bitch up.

Disclosure: I am not a Rick.

[Solanum]

"Orrinum" - a ring of dried dog feces around the mouth of a retard.

[SugarFree]

Winna, winna! Chicken Dinna!

[Gibby]

I liked that film. Kate Bosworth was hot!

[the real OO]

"solanum" - the scrapings fm a fat woman's taint

[the real OO|]

i got my Orrinum from a dead dogs ass

[bosty]

Dan Savage, fucking a dead horse

[Au H20]

No, you need to use it as a verb. The correct usage is TO Dan Savage.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Fahkin Hahvahd douchebags. Typical Ivy Leaguers trying to sissify this great country. What's more American than a bunch of young men giving each other irreversible brain damage?

[Ska]

Drinking beer out of your cleats after winning?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Giving each other irreversible brain damage using baseballs. Or apple pie.

[Au H20]

So, we're 12 links in to a linking spree that may get the SpamHammer thrown down on me. You've had your morning coffee, your blood pressure is low. Well, it's time to wake up your sorry asses:
What the Norwegian Shooter and American Birthers have in common.
Some of them both have blonde hair and blue eyes? No, it's this:

In contemporary America, we also have people who are?and I am inventing this word here?illegitimists: They believe that the president of the United States is illegitimately elected, or that the country is ruled by a cabal that is in turn controlled by some other sinister force or forces. In the past, left-wing illegitimists were quite common, and in fact Marxism is a classic, paranoid version of this creed. The illegitimist Marxist argument goes like this: Bourgeois democracy is a sham; bourgeois politicians and the bourgeois newspapers are tools of shadowy financial interests. The entire system deserves to be overthrown?and if a few people die in the course of the revolution, it's all for a good cause. Though not every Western Marxist advocated violence, this is certainly the kind of argument that motivated the Weathermen, the Baader-Meinhof gang, and other far-left American and European terrorists of the past.
There is also a right-wing version of this argument, one that has been honed to perfection by novelist Charles McCarry (in Lucky Bastard, he imagines that the Bill Clinton-like American president is a Communist agent and his Hillary-like wife is his controller). More recently, right-wing illegitimism has taken the form of birtherism. The attempt to prove that Barack Obama isn't American-born was, at base, an attempt to prove that he is illegitimate and that he therefore deserves to be removed from power?somehow. birtherism is also linked to other forms of illegitimism, such as the belief that Obama is a Muslim, and is thus controlled by international jihadists, or the belief that he is "Kenyan" and thus motivated by anti-colonial hatred of white people in general and Americans in particular. It is not accidental that the one note of sympathy for Breivik in the U.S. media came from the lips of birtherist and illegitimist Glenn Beck, who helpfully compared the young Norwegians murdered by Breivik to "Hitler Youth." Presumably if they are Hitler Youth, then they deserved to die?

Reason Through the Looking Glass: The AV Clubs covers the Republicans' use of "The Town" video clip
Hint: The AV Club commentators are super liberal, and I have no idea why I have yet to migrate over to HitFix.

[robc]

we're 12 links in to a linking spree that may get the SpamHammer thrown down on me.

Here is hoping.

Pick out the 2 interesting ones (if that many are) and move on.

Editing is your friend.

[Au H20]

Eh, fine. I'll spread them out over the thread. YOU HAPPY NOW, YOU BIG EVIL MAN???

[robc]

No. Literally post 2.

Then I will be happy. Edit motherfucker.

So post about negative 6 more on this thread.

Or seriously, set up a blog with 40 links and post 1 link here.

[?]

Editing is the narcissist's enemy.

[SugarFree]

So is a deliberate avoidance of accountability.

[T]

I thought deliberate avoidance of accountability was a hallmark of bureaucrats and middle managers.

[Au H20]

I thought deliberate avoidance of accountability was a hallmark of teachers.

[Kolohe]

Potaytoe Potahtoe

[anomdebus]

Is this the AV Club link you were looking for?

[Au H20]

Yes, yes it was. The problem with pre-prepping a lot of links.

Y'know, I like the AV Club, especially their anonymous commenting, but I HATE how whenever politics comes up, they are all basically smug liberal douches.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that it is the most accurately named site on the net.

[Quetzalcoatl]

No sir, this rally in support of East Haven Police isn't sponsored by the union! Just a bunch of concerned citizens here!

Bonus link:
Man known for being early becomes late.

[Quetzalcoatl]

The squirrels lost my bonus link.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Gov. Rick Perry said he isn't worried that a failure to increase the nation's borrowing authority would trigger the kind of economic catastrophe that federal officials, ratings agencies and many economists have warned would occur if the debt ceiling isn't raised.

Everyone knows the United Nations is going to step in and bail the United States out. (No word yet on who is going to bail the UN out.)

[Brett L]

My favorite part:
"Fewer and fewer Republicans are hewing to this position ? it's incorrect, explains John McCain's former top economic adviser"

John McCain, known for his strong positions on nothing except his own image. Fuck that guy.

[Pro Libertate]

The United States.

[R C Dean]

Just imagine, for a moment, that the debt ceiling fails, and we magically go to running a balanced federal budget as a result.

(1) In that case, I think a ratings downgrade could be avoided. Still plenty of revenue to cover our bonds, so no realistic possibility of an actual default. If anything, the risk of a default over the long run may go down, as that risk is driven by the accumulation of debt (which would cease).

(2) No risk of SocSec payments being held up. They can just convert their Very Special Bonds to cash to make payments, without affecting total debt outstanding.

(3) GDP would take a massive and immediate hit, equal to the percentage of GDP currently attributable to deficit spending. GDP is, what, $16T, and deficit spending is around $1.5T, so call it an immediate 10% contraction in GDP.

And, aside from the (smaller) effect on the private economy, that's still really, really bad. We would be deep into another recession, immediately, and possibly an actual deflationary depression.

Which may be what we need, in the long run, to prune the deadwood and pop the bubbles. But in the short run, the pain would be excruciating.

So, yeah, Perry's an idiot.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Thats a good demonstration of why GDP isn't really the best figure of merit for economic goodness.

But it doesn't show why Rick Perry is an idiot (not saying he isn't).

[Au H20]

Speaking of Coffee, "experts" have no damn idea if it is bad or good for you.
Me? I'm personally a tea man- Earl Gray or Irish Breakfast blend, to be exact. What's that? How did you know I have bad teeth?

Catfight!!! Tim Gunn says Hilary dresses "like she's confused about her gender.
So, I take it this year's fall lineup won't include pantsuits? Also... who will replace him as Jezebel's imaginary gay boyfriend?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Did Tim Gunn include a NTTAWWT?

[Tim Gunn]

Hmm, I don't see what you're going for with Libya. Well ... Make it work!

[smz]

from the upcoming George Will Sunday column: "America is moving in the libertarians' direction not because they have won an argument but because government and the sectors it dominates have made themselves ludicrous."

[Lord Humungus]

Obvious point is obvious.

[?]

Libertarians win by default? That would be funny if it were true. But they haven't won anything. As much as Nick and Matt wish it to be true, "independent" voters does not mean "libertarian" voters.

[cynical]

Well, it certainly doesn't mean LP voters. But it may mean a move toward less state intervention in the economy and in people's lives overall.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

No kidding. "Independent voter" typically means, "Give me goodies without inconveniencing me in any conceivable way, and don't spend a lot of time haggling over the details."

[Lord Humungus]

btw, I was mostly agreeing with the latter part: "because government and the sectors it dominates have made themselves ludicrous"

[R C Dean]

But when the system goes chaotically unstable, what emerges is unlikely to be more libertarian, as Americans have shown for generations that MOAR STATE is their default setting.

[Fluffy]

Only a perverted moral sense can justify a truck bomb, or gunning down kids at a summer camp, or flying airliners into office buildings.

This is stupid.

Let's say someone responded to this by claiming (naturally, since it's an obvious tack to take in such a discussion) that the US bombs people every day and kills kids quite often, if not quite every day at the moment.

In response to such an argument, John (among others) would leap to the defense of the US. He would write about the difference in intention: that the US doesn't seek to kill children - it just happens in the course of our attempt to kill our enemies. He would write about the difference in targets - the US bombs dictatorships and/or aggressors, while Breivik bombed the offices of a relatively benign and inoffensive government.

And those arguments would be very strong ones.

But you know what? These are relatively complex moral syllogisms. They aren't self-evident; you actually have to think them through and argue them before they are apparent.

So unless Warren is defining "evil" as "not following every step of a complex moral proof" then this article is silly.

The difference between virtue and demonic possession really can't be "acceptance of point 3 in my complex moral proof that it's OK to drone-bomb weddings in Pakistan but not OK to truck-bomb the Norwegian PM's office". That's way, way too esoteric a distinction to be due to Beelzebub.

[Au H20]

Hey now, everyone loves a good moral absolutism!!!

[Fluffy]

I tend to be a moral absolutist myself.

But I spend enough time arguing about it to understand that morality, like math, is hard.

It takes a vast amount of intellectual effort to maintain anything remotely resembling a consistent and logical moral system.

Saying that people who reach incorrect conclusions about complex issues like "When is the use of political violence morally justified?" are evil is like saying that people who can't do differential equations are evil.

[robc]

It takes a vast amount of intellectual effort to maintain anything remotely resembling a consistent and logical moral system.

Goedel says you cant.

[Citizen Nothing]

Kant says you Goedel.

[R C Dean]

So it's Bach to inconsistent/illogical moral systems?

[Fluffy]

"Bach To"?

Threadwinner to end all threadwinners.

[Gray Ghost]

Coase, but no cigar?

[Joe M]

Eh, sure.

[Neu Mejican]

Goedel says you cant.

No he doesn't. But he does say that your logical system for making moral decisions would be incomplete if it were consistent.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Ivy League attempts to reduce the amount of tackling in football.

Aren't those collegiate athletes moving on to the NFL in for a shock when they see how the big boys do it. Or are they?

[Au H20]

Actually, hasn't been found that, due to the number of headers, soccer players get CTE pretty frequently?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Soccer? I don't know what that is.

[Au H20]

If you're one of those annoying fuckwads who insist on calling it "football"...

[Quetzalcoatl]

Either that or the average American who goes through life unaware of soccer's existence.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Goal!

[Clich? Bandit]

FoE, it is :

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Not if I'm calling the match.

[cynical]

I call it foot-to-ball. I blame RPS.

[Brett L]

All the people I know who played soccer through at least high school were a little 'touched', so I'm willing to believe this.

[robc]

Hey! Oh wait, nevermind. I concur.

[Isaac Bartram]

Was going to make a crack like, "Yeah, but when was the last time a Hahvahd man made it to the NFL?"

But, it turns out that it was quite recently. There are more of them than those of us who like to rag on Harvard would think.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

There was an article today in the local paper talking about defaulting on the debt that had this money quote:

The same uncertainty that has baffled investors prompted Keisha Kenney, 30, to find a job two months ago, as she realized she could not necessarily depend on the Social Security support that pays the bills for her 2-year-old son's asthma. Ms. Kenney now works at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC.

Imagine that. If you don't give people free money, they will find a job.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Inconceivable!

[R C Dean]

Its almost like

You get more of what you reward, and less of what you punish.

[sloopyinca]

Alternate headline from NYT:

Republicans Set To Default On Debt: Women, Disabled Children Hardest Hit

[Restoras]

Meany. Making people work & stuff.

[Au H20]

Rising Wage inequality linked to falling union numbers.
Of course, they never attempt to explain why those numbers are down. Couldn't have anything to do with globalization. Also, the comments prove that io9, Deadspin, and Kotaku are the three tolerable gawker blogs (and fleshbot, but for completely different reasons.

Nerdery: 7 indie RPGs worth playing
Honestly, Barkley's Shut Up and Jam Gaiden is awesome.

[Cowboy]

Jalopnik and gizmodo aren't bad. I still prefer to get my tech news from engadget, though.

[Solanum]

Cop pulling DARE trailer charged with DUI

http://www.wave3.com/story/151.....d-with-dui

[Quetzalcoatl]

Well it's not like booze is a drug or anything.

[R C Dean]

Nothing else happened, right?

[Another Isolated Incident]

AWOL soldier suspected in Killeen bomb plot

An AWOL soldier fleeing child pornography charges was planning a potentially deadly attack on Fort Hood soldiers before he was arrested, investigators and officials said Thursday.

Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, who was most recently posted at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, was expected to face federal explosives charges after Killeen police found explosive materials and other weapons inside his room at a budget motel just blocks from Fort Hood, according to federal and local authorities.

Abdo planned to detonate bombs at a popular downtown Killeen restaurant and then shoot survivors, according to law enforcement documents first reported by ABC News and confirmed by a military official with knowledge of the investigation.

Abdo was arrested Wednesday on the pornography charge and for being AWOL after a tip from a suspicious clerk at the Guns Galore firearms shop. Guns Galore is the same store where Maj. Nidal Hasan purchased the gun, ammunition and laser sights that witnesses testified he used during the Nov. 5, 2009, shooting massacre at Fort Hood that left 13 dead.

Officials said Abdo planned to use the items to kill military personnel. An article on "how to make a bomb in your kitchen" from the English-language al Qaeda magazine Inspire was among the items found in Abdo's motel room, a law enforcement official told The New York Times.

Libertarians pooh-pooh arrest, cite Islamophobia.

http://www.statesman.com/news/.....67645.html

[shortAnother Isolated Incident]

HURR DURR herp

[Bradley]

Al Qaeda and kiddie porn, huh? Surprised he wasn't on drugs and listening to the rock music too.

[wylie]

Satan is covered by the inclusion of rock music, right?

[James J.B.]

That is a good point. Satan used to have such good musical talents, like 15-25 years ago.

Who is playing his music now, Daughtry?

[James J.B.]

I believe that Nickelback is the work of the Devil.

The devil has changed his plan, though. He used to try to get the cool bands. Now it seems the acts that are his are liked by Frat guys named chad.

[Au H20]

Americans divided on new Anti-Abortion laws, Jezebel throws a stupid shit fit.
Ugh. I hate the abortion debate, because I hate how extreme both sides have become, and how glib they are about the motivations of the other side. Pro-abortion folks (and I refuse to use "Pro-choice" and "Pro-life" as they are just Orwellian) seem to think that Pro-Lifers hate women and are, apparently(looking at the comments), racist. Anti-Abortioners seem to ignore that abortion is a gut-wrenching decision, and that pregnancy does limit freedom, to an extent, of the woman bearing the child (and...cue shit storm).
Best comment excerpt:

Some of the posts about ultrasounds miss the point. The ultrasounds aren't to make you fall in love with the grainy image of the embryo--they are supposed to drive up your costs so you can't afford that abortion you are legally entitled to.

Um...I'm pro-abortion, but you are not legally entitled to an abortion. You have the right, as per the fairly badly reasoned Roe v. Wade, to have an abortion. But there is no subsequent right for that abortion to be cost effective. To put it another way: The USSC has ruled that you have a right to own a gun. Does this mandate that the U.S. government issue gun coupons, or pay for my guns?

Anyhoo...Me? I come out as pro-abortion, but feel the debate has too many myths involved:
1) It is not a human life A fetus is human, and it is alive. It is not an alien's DNA in the womb, and it is alive. The question is whether human personhood is conferred when life begins.
2)Abortion is a new procedure Women have been doing things to abort unwanted pregnancies dating back at least to the Greeks, when you took herbs to do it. Blackstone writes about it, for god's sake. Hell, the Catholic Church was cool with abortion pre-quickening (pre-baby kicking) until sperm was discovered. The traditional common law view was that the fetus was a person at viability, a standard upheld in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Personally, I'm for abortion, but for utilitarian reason (yes, yes, I will turn in my libertarian card. Sadly, in Libertopia, there are no roads to drive to the office to turn it in). Abortion lowers crime, as well as the number of children born on the dole. Abortion also means that more women finish their education and become contributing members of society. However, I do not pretend that there is another, equally valid argument. I do not pretend that anti-abortionists are evil, nor that the pro-abortion crowd, espeicially it's representatives, are all good. Oh, I also agree that Roe V. Wade was poorly reasoned. Seriously- "the penumbra"? What the hell?

[sloopyinca]

Goldwater, that is the worst defense of murder I've seen put on in quite a while.

[robc]

in Libertopia, there are no roads to drive to the office to turn it in

Sure there are. Private toll roads.

[T]

What about using your personal uninspected, unlicensed helicopter?

[robc]

The question is whether human personhood is conferred when life begins.

If not then, when? Algebra (for the PKD fans)?

[Fluffy]

The USSC has ruled that you have a right to own a gun. Does this mandate that the U.S. government issue gun coupons, or pay for my guns?

No, it's the reverse.

You have the right to buy a gun, and if a municipality decided to make it a requirement of purchasing a gun that you, at your own expense, attend a series of IMAX shows about the victims of gun crime, it would be reasonable to argue that they were putting an undue burden on the exercise of your right.

MNG comes in here and talks about "mandated disclosure" all the time. That alone should tip you off that the power to mandate disclosure is probably just a cover for the power to destroy.

If there is, in fact, a "right" to obtain an abortion, adding requirements for unrelated medical procedures that drive up costs probably constitutes an "undue burden". Especially since we have to assume malice on the part of the legislators.

[Quetzalcoatl]

IMAX about victims of gun crime

Please be Die Hard, please be Die Hard.

[sloopyinca]

Meh. Wouldn't a RoboCop/Demolition Man double feature be more fun?

[Casey Ryback]

I'm just a cook.

[Jeff]

Pro-abortion folks (and I refuse to use "Pro-choice" and "Pro-life" as they are just Orwellian) seem to think that Pro-Lifers

I am confused. Do you refuse to use the term "pro-life", or don't you?

[R C Dean]

He is using the term as part of a snark about the Pro-Abortionists view of Anti-Abortionists, so its cool.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Au H2O,

Abortion lowers crime, as well as the number of children born on the dole.

Of course it does, by keeping the numbers of the brown races (who commit most of the crimes as the Great Society experiment has destroyed their families, their self-worth and made them dependent on government) low.

Thank you for reminding us, Ms. Margaret Sanger.

[Restoras]

A+ for the Margaret Sanger reference.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Au H2O,

Um...I'm pro-abortion, but you are not legally entitled to an abortion.

This is totally correct.

You have the right, as per the fairly badly reasoned Roe v. Wade, to have an abortion. But there is no subsequent right for that abortion to be cost effective.

Here is where we will differ, because undue restrictions and mandates from government restrict your freedom. I abhor abortion because it is an affront to the right to life, as human life is not anybody's to own except the person that has his or her life. However, the requirement to perform an ultrasound, which in this good license-happy USA costs like $600.00, is clearly an undue restriction on your right to freely exchange property with another individual in a voluntary way. It is no different than the licensing requirements imposed on gun owners, which are there to restrict gun purchases.

To put it another way: The USSC has ruled that you have a right to own a gun. Does this mandate that the U.S. government issue gun coupons, or pay for my guns?

No, of course you would not be entitled to have guns (or abortions) paid by an unwilling, bound and gagged 3rd party (i.e. the taxpayer), but you certainly have the right as does the seller NOT to have undue restrictions to your freedom to exchange property.

So I do agree that this ultrasound scheme is just another trick by politicians to do go-arounds of moral principles and even law. If politicians want to forbid abortions, they should explain the philosophical and moral basis for it instead of resorting to trickery and gimmicks.

[Au H20]

I think that this is a fair point, OM, but from everything else I've read, it appears that Jezebel and the people who comment on that site believe that, if you can not afford an abortion, a "right" is being denied to you, which is more what I was getting at, though I put it badly.

Also, as people on the same thread point out, ultrasound does have a medical use when it comes to abortion, so requiring it is not necessarily an imposition on freedom. Making people wait a day, however, probably is, but then again, they pull that same bullshit with guns.

[wylie]

and I refuse to use "Pro-choice" and "Pro-life" as they are just Orwellian) seem to think that Pro-Lifers

Whoops?

[Au H20]

Yeah, that was an editing error. I am whipping the orphan who writes my posts for me as we speak.

[wylie]

*adjusts monocle*

Fair Enough.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A British man who threw a shaving-cream pie at media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has been convicted of assault and causing harassment.

Shaving cream pie, is that a British delicacy or a staple down under? If I have to have pie, I prefer Boston Cream.

[Au H20]

Coconut Cream is the height of pie-dom, heathen.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Uh, banana cream is second. Then apple. (For America.) Coconut may be fourth, I'd have to think on it a bit.

[Quetzalcoatl]

If we're not including savory pies, then it goes:

1. Pecan
2. Apple
3. Pumpkin
4. Blueberry
5. Strawberry Rhubarb
...
?. Mincemeat

[R C Dean]

Best pie I ever had:

Blueberry Gin.

Recipe unaccountably misplaced.

[wylie]

Recipe unaccountably misplaced.

The downside of cooking with gin.

[SugarFree]

It looks to be just simmering blueberries in gin (3 parts to 1 part) until they burst and thicken, then adding the sugar and/or gelatin and preceding with a regular blueberry pie recipe.

You'd probably want to avoid Hendrick's or similar cucumber-infused gins.

[Ska]

Cooking with gin sounds like a job for Gordon's.

[wylie]

Cooking with gin sounds like a job for Gordon's.

Gordon's & Gordon's: Whitefish & Gin

[Quetzalcoatl]

I will do this. I will do this!

[Restoras]

Pumpkin pie!

[sloopyinca]

Have none of you heathens ever heard of Key Limes?

[Quetzalcoatl]

We'll leave it for you Floridians. I'm sure that SugarFree has a great low-calorie recipe.

[sloopyinca]

Unfortunately, they don't have Key Lime Pie out here on the left coast, so that treat is reserved for my one or two trips back to the South every year.

I haven't had a good pie in California in the 3+ years I've been here.

[db]

Sure, people have heard of Key lime pie, but most have never had it. It cannot be truly had outside of the Keys.

[rather]

I prefer the cream of sum yung gai.

[Restoras]

I almost Googled that...

[Generic Asian Guy in 80s film]

Hair Pie! Hair Pie!

[Ivy League Football Coach]

Are you tackling? Tackling? There's no takling in footbal.

[Au H20]

And the debt ceiling shall be resolved through Facebook, so sayeth the Prophet Zucherberg.
So, uh... my sister is supposed to invite me to Google+, but could any of you guys do it? Cuz, y'know, fuck facebook.

How Thomas the Tank Engine is indoctrinating your child into Imperialism.
Key quote:

I'm overeducated and understimulated, with shelves full of long-ignored critical-theory books, trained in the reading of "texts" through Marxist, feminist, and postmodern perspectives. It's no wonder that the dormant critical theorist within me awakens when faced with the coded wonderland of children's programming.

Y'know, I miss the days when housewives just drank themselves into a stupor while watching soaps.

[robc]

could any of you guys do it?

I normally would, but not today.

[Au H20]

Jesus, man, it would appear that I pissed in your internet cornflakes this morning.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I think robc is more of a Cheerios guy.

[robc]

Honey Nut, specifically. But I havent had cereal in a few years. I tend not to have milk in my house.

[Evan from Evansville]

Omar comin', yo! Omar!

[robc]

Im a libertarian, I cant pass a law to control your behavior, shaming is my only tool.

[Au H20]

Well, it got me to slow down the pace... so... congrats?

[Brett L]

If you have a gmail account, you don't need an invite, just go here and sign in.

[Bingo]

Damn you!

[Brett L]

Oops. Best SFing ever. http://plus.google.com/

[Restoras]

Jessica Roake is a stupid cunt.

[Au H20]

Well, thanks Restoras. Now that you've spoiled it, no one has to read the article.

[No One]

I wasn't going to read it anyway.

[bosty]

Soviet Men Under a Red Father

[Au H20]

Biologiests say Cancer might be newly evolved species in your body.
No wonder the aliens hate us- we've been aborting them for years! Thanks, Cancer Doctors *sarcastic slow clap*

5 Projects that the U.S. government is actually working on.

#4 is actually super creepy. A system to see everything, all the time. Also, Robot Hummingbirds, so we may get a future film where Terminator meets The Birds.

[Atanarjuat]

...they're also looking into something they call micro air vehicles, like the Shrike...

I hope shrike the commenter doesn't work for DARPA.

[Au H20]

Dude, DARPA is full of christ fags. He's just venting coworker frustration.

[R C Dean]

A system to see everything, all the time.

Just finished Rule 34 by Charles Stross. Excellent. It features a panopticon. And psychopaths. To reveal more would be spoilage.

[Au H20]

Well, I don't mind spoiling it.

SPOILER ALERT

Rule 34 is the world's longest pornographic novel.

[Brett L]

I will second this. Great book.

[Gray Ghost]

Great! Had no idea Stross had a new one out. Is it set in the Halting State universe?

[Brett L]

Yes.

[Fatty Bolger]

Hot woman in a string bikini kicked out of Walmart

Yes, there's a picture.

[Lord Humungus]

May the curses of a thousand goats forever spawn in your trousers.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Hmmmm... well, Fatty added the word "hot" to the headline, and seeing as it's Walmart...
I'm going to assume that I don't want to see this photo.

[Fatty Bolger]

She had gone to the store Sunday in a string bikini top and some shorts ? because it was hot

See? My headline is accurate.

[WTF]

You bastard.

[Mainer]

"May the curses of a thousand goats forever spawn in your trousers."

Hi-O !

[Atanarjuat]

Move over Lobster Girl and Shay Laren.

[T]

Move waaaay over...

[sloopyinca]

You. Fucking. Asshole.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

"I hadn't done anything obnoxious or outlandish."

You showed up in public looking like that.

[No One]

"I was horrified, embarrassed," McMillin told the station.

One look at her and it becomes obvious that she is impervious to horror and shame.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Fatty Bolger,

Yes, there's a picture.

Yes, and there I go, linking to it to look. And I looked. Oh, I looked.

Now, j can hatrmdly seeeee th keybrd to wrte. Im blin!

[Fatty Bolger]

Crap! Quick, OM, take the antidote!

[WTF]

Hard to believe they're the same species.

[Rock Action]

I am very happy that the blurry thumbnail photo I saw on a news aggregator last night served as fair warning.

[cynical]

Wow, nice! Great find, FB, very sexy.

[Au H20]

Why War is Fucking Awesome: It Fueled the birth of Advanced Civilizations.
Robot Nixon says, "Eat it, hippies!!!

L.A. red light cam fines apparently voluntary.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Didn't Guns, Germs and Steel already cover this?

[Au H20]

No. Diamond's argument was that agriculture and domesticated animals allowed for civilization to exist. This argues that those civilizations then continued further innovation as a result of warfare.

[robc]

On an interesting note, some now think agriculture started due to beer. Nomads settled down and started growing grain so that they had a constant supply of beer.

Beer is the father of civilization.

[T]

Nomads invented koumiss, instead. That right there is why civilization won. Beer vs. fermented mare's milk? No contest.

[Clich? Bandit]

dude...I drank a whole glass of that shit, to be polite. I was in an Uzbek restaurant in moscow...they said "oh you liked it want more?" I said AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

[Restoras]

If I recall correctly (and I may not be), didn't Diamond also claim that it was all an accident of geography? Or something like that? Been awhile since I read that book.

[sasob]

Yeah, partly that, too. Something about some peoples not having beasts of burden - or something to that effect.

[Colin]

Demint wants to go home to pursue his true calling: checking the hymens of unmarried teachers.

[Brett L]

You say that like its a bad thing. My calling is much the same, except I'm called to 18 year old models.

[Au H20]

The NY Times really has a hard on for this Winehouse and Breivik connection.
Also, that article makes no damn sense. Someone please explain through its utter tripinees, because I hate phrases like, "But it strikes me that there is something like the exact opposite anxiety ? a pathological preoccupation with norms, which I want to call hypernomia ? running through her music and her published interviews."

[Lord Humungus]

You obviously have to be credentialed to understand (or even want to write) that sentence.

[R C Dean]

I feel no desire to understand whatever the writer is trying to get at.

[Warty]

His new book, "The Boxer and the Goalkeeper: Sartre vs Camus," is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster.

There's your answer.

[Rich]

"The Boxer and the Goalkeeper: Sartre vs Camus"

My money's on Sartre.

[T]

It takes a lot of education to be able to write something that prolix and impenetrable.

[Warty]

Prolix, prolix, nothing a pair of scissors won't fix.

[Brett L]

I would rather drink lye than read about mid-20th century French existentialists. (And I say this having read the works of both named.)

[David Warren]

which I want to call hypernomia

Which I want to call "evil".

[The Other Kevin]

Heard the CEO of Spirit Airlines on the radio this morning. Spirit did NOT raise their prices to cover for the FAA tax not being collected. And as a result their sales have been great. So yes, the free market does still work.

[Au H20]

Catfigh pt.2!!! Feministing takes on PETA.
It's sad how many of them agree that "animal slavery"=human slavery. Or, at least, it very nearly does.

[Skid Marx]

Slavery? What a crock. My sweet Heather dog lives like a king.

[Mainer]

We have three, and they live like queens...Dog's Life my ass.

[Warty]

The phrase "epic fail" is routinely overused.

[Res Publica Americana]

Shitheaded statists are shitheaded:

http://blogs.democratandchroni.....-massacre/

"In the days since last week's massacre in Norway, I've read on more than one occasion the proposition that the whole tragedy could have been avoided if only Norwegians had the right to bear arms the same way that Americans do."

"What nonsense?and I don't just mean the nonsense of using another country's tragedy to make a point about domestic U.S. politics. I also mean the nonsense of suggesting that Norway would be a more peaceful place if more people there were packing heat." ...

http://gunowners.org/a07282011.htm

... "Tuesday's hearing exposed the anti-gun animus of several people within the Obama Administration, and their answers continued to beg the question: Was Operation Fast and Furious all about drumming up more support for gun control?"

"Gun Owners of America met with three persons from the House committee prior to the hearing. The meeting was 'off the record,' so we can't report on the details. Only to say, GOA brought up a hard-and-fast link between the White House and 'Fast and Furious' -- and encouraged committee members to pursue a line of questioning that would publicly expose this connection." ...

[cynical]

"I also mean the nonsense of suggesting that Norway would be a more peaceful place if more people there were packing heat."

At a minimum, it might have been a good idea for security forces to be packing heat. If he had wanted to make a point about naivete leaving his country defenseless against evil and violence, he certainly made it.

[Res Publica Americana]

http://www.examiner.com/gun-ri.....nt-to-ffls

... "You must submit to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reports of multiple sales or other dispositions whenever, at one time or during any five consecutive business days, you sell or otherwise dispose of two or more semi-automatic rifles capable of accepting a detachable magazine and with a caliber greater than .22 (including .223/5.56 caliber) to an unlicensed person. You are required to report all such sales that occur on or after August 14, 2011. You must continue reporting multiple sales for the rifles subject to this demand letter until we provide written notice to stop." ...

Hey, it's unconstitutional, but who gives a shit, right?

[Brett L]

Guess I'll buy that AK, M4 chambered in 5.56 and that M1 carbine I've wanted all this weekend. Fuck the BATFE.

[T]

Good thing I'm stocked up on lower receivers in 5.56 and 7.62. Now I just need some uppers.

[No One]

Hey, it's unconstitutional, but who gives a shit, right?

Since when does an anarchist cite the Constitution? When it's convenient?

[cynical]

He's not one of the anarchists, he's a small-r republican (see the handle?), whatever that means exactly. Presumably it just means right-wing constitutionalist libertarian type.

[Res Publica Americana]

TJ republican, or rabidly patriotic libertarian, or something.

Also pretty sure anarchists are a small minority on Reason anyway. No?

[Res Publica Americana]

Holy shit, dudes --

http://www.examiner.com/gun-ri.....p-surfaces

"Things may have just gone from bad to worse for the Canton, OH police department and a foul-mouthed police officer who has already been placed on administrative leave, as a second video, this one from 2010, has surfaced courtesy of the Canton Repository." ...

[Res Publica Americana]

This is the second time! This cop's on a roll!

[Gray Ghost]

Well, I guess they can do more than suspend him now.

[Res Publica Americana]

Here's a start:

"Don't fucking move -- there's a fucking gun in this car. I'll kill every one of you mother-fuckers. You fucking move, I'll shoot you in the head.

Do NOT fucking move a muscle, or I'll put you in the grave, you understand? Now I'm telling you what, motherfucker: I will shoot you in the face, and I'll go to sleep tonight. You mother-fuckers."

[No One]

You should see somebody about your unhealthy cop fixation.

[Res Publica Americana]

Right after they stop stealing, assaulting, and murdering!

[Warty]

"improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle" this past March. This column is not familiar with that crime, but in Ohio, it is apparently a felony.

!

[Res Publica Americana]

"Put your hands on the hood before you ride a shockwave!"

[Nipplemancer]

Why does paranoia seem to be seen as such a positive trait in police officers? They use this excuse of fearing for their lives to justify damn near every act of violence.

[Nipplemancer]

the same justification will be used in defense of the 9 cops who were so afraid of a homeless schizophrenic that they beat him to death.

[LAPD beat cop]

They're agents of the state, so they're obviously justified in doing so. How dare you question us?

[cynical]

Once everyone becomes aware of the sort of shit they get away with on a regular basis, it will probably be justified.

[Byron]

Yes, but Nothing Else Happened!

[rather]

Happy Birthday NASA
http://rctlfy.wordpress.com/20.....hday-nasa/

[Tim]

National Association of selective Amnesiacs ?

[Old Mexican]

Go fuck yourself, NASA. You white elephant-money pit-pony and dog show for fools.

[LAPD beat cop]

SHUT THE FUCK UP, GRINGO. YOU WILL RESPECT MAH AUTHIRITEH, AND YOU WILL RESPECT NASA IF IT'S THE LAST FUCKING THING YOU DO.

DISPATCH, I NEED BACK-UP -- SOME MEXICAN GUY'S DISRESPECTING NASA. BRING A TACTICAL UNIT, AN APC, AND SOME DOGS -- HE COULD BE EXTREMELY ARMED AND DANGEROUS.

[R C Dean]

No, no. Tactical units and dogs don't mix. You have to pick one or the other.

[rather]

some people just don't like Tang 🙁

[Res Publica Americana]

YOU'RE UNDER ARREST FOR MAKING SUGGESTIONS TO A POLICE OFFICER, WHICH IS A CAPITAL CRIME IN THE STATE OF COPTOPIA!

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE BEATEN TO DEATH.

[sevo]

And the problem with doing business in CA is that the business people haven't had a government "plan" for business.
We know this, since a guy named Newsom tells us so, and he's going to fix it.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....1KFVC7.DTL

[Au H20]

. Feministing throws a SHIT fit.
The comments are all about RAPE KULTUR!!!!!

And the article that spawned the controversy.
It made such controversial claims as:

The truth of the matter is that rape, murder, battery, verbal assault, and everything in between have existed for as long as humans have. There is a constant threat, especially in concentrated urban areas, that you will be a victim at some point. I myself live in a relatively dangerous urban area where men are quite verbally forward. You learn quickly to not make eye contact, to keep your posture upright, and to keep walking. And beyond that, if you want to further increase your chances of remaining safe and flying under the radar, you do not dress like a prostitute. You do not dress like someone who is out tonight to find sex by any means necessary. You can look pretty, feminine, elegant, attractive ? without stripping your appeal down to its basest, most physical level. Women know the kind of attention they attract when they dress like that. And just like the Supreme Court can't define porn but knows it when it sees it, we know when we look into the mirror before we go out if we look like we're trying to lay down for the first man that looks at us. Even if we don't want to admit it.

Now, if you want your blood to really boil, here's the kicker: The website that put up the second article has apologized. Apparently, it was misogynistic, and victim blaming. Feministing got to be fucking right. So, read both articles, and then take your blood pressure meds.

[Warty]

Well, fix the first link then, smartypants.

[SugarFree]

Maybe it's time to pass the torch and start calling it "Goldwatering."

[Au H20]

Or we could just go with Rather's insults of my handle and call it pee watering, or some variation there of.

Say you fuck up, you can go, "Goddamnit, I pissed in that water!"

[Au H20]

Ah, the rare Double SF. Only observed once every 5 years!!!

Anyway, here are the links:
Feministing throwing a shit fit.

And the article that spawned it.

[Au H20]

U.S. Carmakers to meet with unions this week U.S. Carmakers to meet with unions this week.
Union chief Steve Smith is eagerly anticipating the negotiations.

Rosario Dawson claims that Body Pressure on Women is 'A Form of Violence.'
Oh... I'm sorry. I was too busy fapping to Sin City to hear you, Ms. Dawson.

[R C Dean]

How sad that a sentence with both "Rosario Dawson" and "Body Pressure" turned out to be so . . . unfortunate.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

But apparently Ms. Dawson loves acting so much she'll continue working in a town where low-grade anorexia is treated like a sport.

[Res Publica Americana]

http://us.cnn.com/2011/POLITIC.....?hpt=hp_t1

Lol.

[Old Mexican]

Rosario Dawson claims that Body Pressure on Women is 'A Form of Violence.'

Subjecting us to such rationalizations that makes a concept and the definition of a word meaningless is a form of violence, Ms. Dawson.

[Old Mexican]

The scam is unraveling before our very eyes

Oh, and Ron Bailey may be out of a job! Wink, wink!

New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism

NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA's Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA's Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.

So it seems the alarmists' models are too fat.

[sloopyinca]

Does this mean they can un-make The Day After Tomorrow?

[Brett L]

Unfortunately, even if it is unmade, I'll never be able to unsee that piece of shit.

[db]

I was very distressed when I read this yesterday. While the data are potentially very important, and may indeed "blow a hole" in the concept of AGW, the sensationalist tone of this announcement is completely anathema to a proper scientific consideration. The presentation is virtually guaranteed to split readers along preexisting pro-con lines rather than encourage dispassionate review of the data and their implication.

This is as bad as Gore&Company;'s sensationalist shrieking of doomsday scenarios.

[Old Mexican]

Re: db,

While the data are potentially very important, and may indeed "blow a hole" in the concept of AGW, the sensationalist tone of this announcement is completely anathema to a proper scientific consideration.

Unlike the non-sensationalist assertion that polar bears were drowning in the Artic, I guess. Right?

Please, spare me.

[db]

OM, please read my entire comment. I tried to be clear that I consider the AGW folks' cries of "science is settled!" and "OMG apocalypse!" and "DENIERS!" to be abhorrent as well.

[Me]

Man who pied Rupert Murdoch convicted of assault...

...given harsh warning, bus ticket home.

[Gibby]

Mississippi NAACP leader sent to prison for 10 counts of voter fraud -

Official voted in the names of 10 people, including four who were dead

http://dailycaller.com/#ixzz1TVsTWEiM

[reverse phone lookup]

this is really bad

[reverse phone lookup]

this is really bad