Reason Morning Links: Pillbilly Crackdown, Defunding the IDF, Ron Paul's Media Blackout, Rick Perry's Crony Capitalism

Mike Riggs | 8.16.2011 8:42 AM

Rep. Ron Paul places second at Ames, but last in media coverage.
Who polices the LAPD? Techno-utopians, apparently.
Colleges and universities bemoan the earmark ban.
Florida pharmacies and doctors are stocking and prescribing fewer painkillers due to the state's prescription pill crackdown. Wonder how many pain victims are being caught in the dragnet?
Prescription anti-psychotics aren't very effective for PTSD. (Ecstasy still works pretty well, though.)
People who made "hefty" contributions to Texas Governor Rick Perry's campaign received "hefty" state contracts and appointments.
Also: Perry would like to do bad things to Ben Bernanke.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wants to defund the parts of the Israeli Military that may or may not be committing human rights violations.

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PantsFan 14 years ago

Mayor gives ex-wife 20 ton boulder for her birthday
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....le2130055/
1. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  What about the chain?
2. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
  
  Mayor gives ex-wife 20 ton boulders for her birthday
  
  http://www.lookasbeautiful.com/giftcertificates
  
  FIFY
3. Mayor 14 years ago
  
  No! Not the probe! I'll take any other punishment you like - but not the probe!!
4. Warty 14 years ago
  
  "She never had a rock big enough for her tastes, now she has one," Mr. Larivi?re said.
  
  WINNAR
  1. wylie 14 years ago
    
    Sorry, that prize will go to the 1st guy to steer a meteor onto his wife.
PIRS 14 years ago

"Rep. Ron Paul places second at Ames, but last in media coverage."

I noticed at the straw poll that when the "results" [note the supposed plural] were read the announcer only named the person who came in first. Don't they normally read further down the list?
1. Seer 14 years ago
  
  I noticed this as well, and I knew that meant Paul was in second right away.
2. Ted S. 14 years ago
  
  This is the one thing I like about British elections.
  
  All of the candidates for each constituency (district) meet at the election headquarters where the votes are counted, and when the vote counting is finished, the clerk in charge of the counting reads all of the candidates' names (in alphabetical order if memory serves) and their vote totals. It's fun to hear the various cheers that go up depending on the vote totals.
O2 14 years ago

Have the wealthy [JOBZ] creators created [JOBZ] yet?
1. db 14 years ago
  
  http://www.rathergood.com/touretteaphone
2. Barack Obama 14 years ago
  
  Not as quickly as I destroy them! Boo-yah, baby! My election was more bad luck than this economy can stand!
  1. Warren Buffett 14 years ago
    
    no! the wealthy [JOBZ] creators are NOT creating [JOBZ] & should pay more taxes. that is all
STEVE SMITH 14 years ago

STEVE SMITH FINALLY SEE SCIENCE THAT STEVE SMITH APPROVE OF!
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
  
  I look forward to the stainless steel models in my twilight years
2. Charlotte Sometimes 14 years ago
  
  SF: Whenever I read a STEVE SMITH comment, I cannot help but imagine it being said in the voice of Cookie Monster. It's a little disconcerting.
  1. PantsFan 14 years ago
    
    I think of it more like Frank Nelson
  2. SugarFree 14 years ago
    
    That's pretty close to the way I hear it too. Angry Cookie Monster. And a little of this guy, with the accent stripped out.
  3. Warty 14 years ago
    
    I hear it pretty much as a Super Mutant.
  4. Restoras 14 years ago
    
    I hear Kahn from King of the Hill.
  5. Nipplemancer 14 years ago
    
    for me it's a combo of Cookie Monster and Super Mutant. It depends on how excited about rape STEVE is at a given moment.
  6. R C Dean 14 years ago
    
    For me, its Apu from the Simpsons.
  7. Banjos 14 years ago
    
    Morbo
  8. Pro Libertate 14 years ago
    
    The Tasmanian Devil. "Why for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?"
    1. mad libertarian guy 14 years ago
      
      Cookie Monster
3. John 14 years ago
  
  Steve Smith actually funded that research with the money he gets for doing those Jack Links commercials.
  1. NoVAHockey 14 years ago
    
    a lot of ads would be improved by adding Sasquatch.
    1. John 14 years ago
      
      That is what Steve Smith's agent keeps telling people.
      1. STEVE SMITH 14 years ago
        
        STEVE SMITH GIVE AGENT 10% OF ANY RAPE.
4. Lab Mouse 14 years ago
  
  God my life sucks.
MiNGe 14 years ago

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wants to defund the parts of the Israeli Military that may or may not be committing human rights violations.

JOOOS!!!!1111!!!!
1. DJF 14 years ago
  
  How about we make it simple and stop using US taxpayers money to fund any foreign governments.
  1. heller 14 years ago
    
    Rhoemite Nazi!
    
    Never fear, underdouche is here!
    1. Almanian 14 years ago
      
      lulz
  2. db 14 years ago
    
    You and your anti-roads teabaggerism will be the destruction of this great nation.
  3. wylie 14 years ago
    
    Why do you hate jobs, DJF? I mean, they're in another country, but it's the jobs that count.
db 14 years ago

Has anyone seen a comment from "Appalachian Australian" recently?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....rest_n.htm

I guess you could stretch Appalachia to include Louisville.
1. mad libertarian guy 14 years ago
  
  Or not. As a KY resident, and one who lives in between Appalachia and Louisville, stretching Appalachia to Louisville means that I'm also in Appalachia, and I'm definitely NOT in Appalachia. Shit's like a different country.
  1. db 14 years ago
    
    Having spent a fair amount of time in both Appalachia and Louisville, I tend to agree.
Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago

Now these institutions are hoping that the investments in their programs through earmarks -- which sometimes amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars over several decades -- have made their research enterprises strong enough to secure competitive grants. While some programs -- particularly in science and engineering -- are succeeding in their efforts, others see a dim future without earmarks because competitive or other funding is limited or because they cannot compete with better-established programs.

I guess those better-established programs used their earmarks more wisely over the decades.
1. mad libertarian guy 14 years ago
  
  No. The outcomes of their research actually mean something.
  
  This are Departments of Womenz Studies that are concerned because they know that what they produce with their research isn't useful to anyone.
  
  Engineering departments don't have that problem.
smz 14 years ago

Hope everyone saw the Daily Show coverage of the Paul media blackout. Classic. Daily Show on Ron Paul
1. Bee Tagger 14 years ago
  
  If only your initials were SMG, then I could forgive you for your slayer-speed in getting the Daily Show link up first.
  1. db 14 years ago
    
    Mister Pointy likes this.
  2. Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
    
    +1
    When's her new pilot airing?
    1. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
      
      Who is SMG?
      1. DesigNate 14 years ago
        
        Sarah Michelle Gellar
        
        For shame.
2. asdf 14 years ago
  
  Yeah I saw that, I hate the daily show about 5% less now.
  1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
    
    Sorry, missed this when I posted the same vid below.
  2. affenkopf 14 years ago
    
    It's still better than Colbert.
PIRS 14 years ago

"Was this because technically Paul came in second and not first? I don't think so. Four years ago, Mike Huckabee came in a bad second to Romney, losing by 13.4 percentage points. Huckabee managed to spin that into a victory at Ames and became a media darling."

Somehow I doubt that Fox News will be offering Paul a position as a weekend talk show host.
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
  
  Fox hates RP. He must have pissed in Roger Ailes cornflakes or something.
  1. Bee Tagger 14 years ago
    
    Roger Ailes eats military adventurism for breakfast.
  2. PIRS 14 years ago
    
    Fox News has invested so much of their time in pro-war propaganda that to acknowledge that Ron Paul is gaining in popularity would be to acknowledge that their propaganda is no longer as effective as it once was.
    
    I know that there are a few people on their network who are not pro-war but they are the exception, not the rule.
    1. - 14 years ago
      
      Don't forget pro-Jesus and pro-country music. They're all related.
      1. PIRS 14 years ago
        
        Ron Paul is Christian, so that has nothing to do with a Pro-War stance. What does a genre of music have to do with anything other than music?
        
        Quetzalcoatl 14 years ago
        
        I agree with your general point, but you have to acknowledge that many musical movements/genres have entire ideologies packaged into them.
        
        PIRS 14 years ago
        
        They may BEGIN that way but once a genre is created what people do with it can take many forms. Google "Christian Hip-Hop" and you will quickly see what I mean. Or, for that matter look [listen] what Oxmo Puccino did with hip hop or Baba Brickman. All these are the same genre as Eminem and yet the messages are quite different.
        
        Same with Country. Dan Seals for example, was a member of the Bah?'? Faith and thus both non-Christian and anti-war. These are two things most do not associate with Country music.
        
        wylie 14 years ago
        
        Google "Christian Hip-Hop"
        
        Must. Resist. Urge. To Google.
WTF 14 years ago

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wants to defund the parts of the Israeli Military that may or may not be committing human rights violations.

How about this? Since we are about 14 trillion or so in debt, let's cut off all aid to everyone.
1. DJF 14 years ago
  
  Isolationist!!!!!!!
  1. DJF 14 years ago
    
    Its this kind of thinking that caused the Germans to bomb Pearl Harbor!
    1. WTF 14 years ago
      
      "Let him go, he's on a roll!"
      1. Crackers Boy 14 years ago
        
        "Seven years of college, down the drain"
        
        CB
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        "I've been going to this high school for seven and a half years. I'm no dummy."
        
        Brett L 14 years ago
        
        "Two dollars!"
        
        sloopyinca 14 years ago
        
        "Well honk my hooter."
2. DesigNate 14 years ago
  
  That is exactly the kind of eliminationist rhetoric that gets people hurt by crazed right-wingers (and no one else)
Bee Tagger 14 years ago

Credit where credit is due: Jon Stewart gives the "Daily Show treatment" to the media for ignoring Ron Paul.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com.....aul/41311/
1. Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago
  
  This just in: The Daily Show blinks 12:00 at noon.
2. Joe M 14 years ago
  
  That is truly one of the best segments he's ever done. I was going to post it myself.
3. affenkopf 14 years ago
  
  The Daily Show can occasionally be decent unlike Colbert.
PIRS 14 years ago

"Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wants to defund the parts of the Israeli Military that may or may not be committing human rights violations."

That is fine with me as long as we also stop funding the enemies of Israel. When will we stop funding the enemies of Israel?
1. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Come now. The enemies of Isreal only want peace so of course we should provide them with unlimited funding for indiscriminate rocket launches that just happen to be aimed at Israel.
  1. PIRS 14 years ago
    
    +10
  2. MiNGe 14 years ago
    
    If we defunded the Israeli military machine so that they could no longer oppress the Palestinians, then the Palestinians would have no reason to launch rockets at Israel, and they could use their funding for infrastructure to build a better society. And peace, rainbows and unicorns would burst out all over!
    1. O2 14 years ago
      
      professional militaries like the IDF have standards which dont include deathsquads. perhaps u feel the IDF should conduct itself as terrorists w/o accountability?
      1. PIRS 14 years ago
        
        Who here is defending deathsquads?
        
        WTF 14 years ago
        
        Who here is defending deathsquads?
        
        The voices in O2's head.
        
        O2 14 years ago
        
        MiNGe implies it w that ridiculous post about defunding the IDF which leahy is NOT saying.
        
        heller 14 years ago
        
        MiNGe is a sock puppet...
        
        PIRS 14 years ago
        
        O2 - so I assume you have proof that these particular accusations against the IDF are accurate?
        
        O2 14 years ago
        
        im going by leahy's assertions which must be investigated. maybe true, maybe not at this point.
        
        PIRS 14 years ago
        
        "im going by leahy's assertions which must be investigated. maybe true, maybe not at this point."
        
        So you have no actual evidence then? I could accuse you of being a drug dealer. You are a drug dealer. See how easy that is? Now someone else can "go by my assertions".
        
        O2 14 years ago
        
        and a followup investigation would reveal im NOT a drug dealer. no biggie
        
        American Public 14 years ago
        
        sooo 02 is a drug dealer?
        
        PIRS 14 years ago
        
        "and a followup investigation would reveal im NOT a drug dealer. no biggie"
        
        So have you done such a follow up investigation into the allegations against the IDF?
      2. The Little Leprechaun 14 years ago
        
        Aye, ya done good, laddie. Now you know what you have to do--burn the house down! BURN 'EM ALL!
  3. Hamas 14 years ago
    
    We need more "fireworks" funding for our 4th of July celebrations. Go Uncle Sam!
2. MNG 14 years ago
  
  Do we currently fund the military of the Palestinians the way we do for Israel?
  1. PIRS 14 years ago
    
    http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy.....?id=231103
  2. Restoras 14 years ago
    
    They're so cute at that age; innocent, naive...
  3. Fatty Bolger 14 years ago
    
    I'm sure it's all "humanitarian aid."
Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago

Goodrich is a hybrid: part cop, part IT geek. The blonde with the clear blue eyes is the shot caller for TEAMS II, a technology Goodrich describes as "an early warning system" for identifying problem officers.

The movie Training Day tells me they aren't doing a very good job of it.
1. Bee Tagger 14 years ago
  
  It also told you Ethan Hawke was a movie star.
  1. heller 14 years ago
    
    GATTICA! GATTICA! GATTICA!
2. heller 14 years ago
  
  You wanna be a sheep, or a motherfuckin wolf?
  1. Sgt Fist of Etiquette, Det Lt 14 years ago
    
    The system also identifies officers who are performing in an exemplary manner, like Amanda Regina Scott, assistant commanding officer at ITD, who has been working for the LAPD for 24 years.
    
    So the assistant commanding officer in charge of the system gets singled out by the system for an award. AND THIS ISN'T SUSPICIOUS TO THE POLICE?
    
    Sheep or wolf? I give whatever answer keeps TEAMS II off my donut-eating ass, Denzel.
    1. heller 14 years ago
      
      Sheep! Now I'm gonna have to pop a cap in your ass, son!
John 14 years ago

http://thehill.com/homenews/ad.....-house-gop

Unleashed from Washington, Obama declares war on House Republicans

How is that civility thing working out for us?
1. Warty 14 years ago
  
  "It's amusing to watch one of the major Republican candidates now trying to wiggle out of the fact that my health care bill is very similar to the health care bill he passed at a time when he needed to compromise because he was living in a Democratic-majority state," Obama said.
  
  Well, that's true enough.
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    It is. And why Romney more than anyone is a joke.
  2. PM770 14 years ago
    
    This is why Romney stands the least chance of knocking off Obama. You'd have several months of Romneycare = Obamacare media coverage, so how could any serious anti-Obamacare vote go to Romney.
    
    Romney as nominee is Obama's best chance at re-election.
    1. Joe M 14 years ago
      
      Actually, I'm surprised he's getting into that now. I would've thought he'd save it for the general if Romney won. Of course, it could be that he wants Bachmann to win, since she would be the easiest to beat, what with the crazy and all.
      1. PM770 14 years ago
        
        I actually think she would stand a chance. She will get the support of the tea-party plus all of the usual Team Red support.
      2. SFC B 14 years ago
        
        If President Obama wants to be reelected he might want to worry about getting his approval numbers out of the 30s instead of worrying about who he will be facing in the general election. At End of Term Bushian approval levels I don't think it much matters which of member of the GOP Clown Car steps out for the debates.
        
        Michael Ejercito 14 years ago
        
        If President Obama wants to be reelected he might want to worry about getting his approval numbers out of the 30s instead of worrying about who he will be facing in the general election. At End of Term Bushian approval levels I don't think it much matters which of member of the GOP Clown Car steps out for the debates.
        
        So true.
      3. Michael Ejercito 14 years ago
        
        Of course, it could be that he wants Bachmann to win, since she would be the easiest to beat, what with the crazy and all.
        
        Crazier than Obama's connections to Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers?
        
        How much do we know about Obama's past?
        
        Joe M 14 years ago
        
        I make no claims about his sanity or seedy connections. Only about his strategy for winning.
        
        Michael Ejercito 14 years ago
        
        I make no claims about his sanity or seedy connections. Only about his strategy for winning.
        
        Given his extremist connections, how does he expect to define his opponents as extremists without any blowback?
2. Red Rocks Rockin 14 years ago
  
  Unleashed from Washington, Obama declares war on House Republicans
  
  Woman, Thou Art Loosed!
Bee Tagger 14 years ago

"Colleges and universities bemoan the earmark ban."

In other news, majority of college-educated students look up "bemoan" at dictionary.com. Then bemoan annoying pop-up ads.
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
  
  This just in, colleges and universities are overpriced aging whores and their pimp isn't going to pay for their plastic surgery anymore.
Brett L 14 years ago

Cop disciplined in beating tries to bring wiretapping charges against woman who filmed him.

Also, how is a guy who beats a man so badly he breaks most of the bones in his victim's face still a cop? Aggravated assault and battery is cool if you're wearing a badge. It only nets you a 45 day suspension.
1. Bee Tagger 14 years ago
  
  Also, how is a guy who beats a man so badly he breaks most of the bones in his victim's face still a cop?
  
  Uh, maybe he was brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg?
  1. SugarFree 14 years ago
    
    Kick-Puncher?
    1. JEP 14 years ago
      
      His punches are as strong as kicks!
    2. db 14 years ago
      
      "Kickboxing. Sport of the future."
2. Crackers Boy 14 years ago
  
  1) The fuckstick deserved it.
  2) The cop was following department procedures.
  3) The legislature hasn't outlawed it.
  
  How'm I doin'?
  
  CB
  1. DesigNate 14 years ago
    
    You forgot to say "And nothing else happened" or something.
  2. Almanian derp-phy 14 years ago
    
    Process and not results and your orientation toward this is wrong and you can't look at the results without understanding the process or the penumbra and emanations and libterarians shouldn't focus on just results and inputs versus outputs, training, process. Also, not experts.
    
    Or something.
3. dunphy 14 years ago
  
  police unions help protect hard working cops who follow policy.
  1. Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago
    
    And then some.
    1. Ted S. 14 years ago
      
      It's hard to beat somebody up that badly. But it's still policy to do so.
4. Mongo 14 years ago
  
  He could have a case if the state (I didn't see the locale in the article) requires both party's permission to 'record'. States have differing laws regarding this.
  
  It's a bit of a stretch, I know....
  1. Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago
    
    Apparently the wiretapping law he's using specifies in the language that it was for organized crime.
  2. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    If cops in his state can use footage as evidence against me without my permission, then he shouldn't have a leg to stand on.
    1. EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy 14 years ago
      
      This.
John 14 years ago

http://pajamasmedia.com/lifest.....re-sexist/

Another example of how leftists destroy anything they touch by corrupting it to make it a vehicle for their politics. WTF does a car blog care or have anything to do with feminism? If liberals start writing for it, it becomes about which car ad (from 40 years ago) is the most "sexist".
1. Neu Mejican 14 years ago
  
  Wow, Ronnie's got his panties in a bunch for no good reason. At least he got John pumped up.
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    Wow NM has something stupid to say and nothing to add to the conversation. Color me surprised.
    1. Fygar 14 years ago
      
      Wow, John is conservative shill. Color me surprised.
    2. Neu Mejican 14 years ago
      
      I added. I pointed out that the article you linked to was a meaningless politicized salvo in the Kulture war.
Aqua-Rabbit 14 years ago

The Swiss are seriously fucked by having the ONLY decent currency on the planet. They should start burning Bernanke and the ECB in effigy.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....-down.html
1. NotSure 14 years ago
  
  It truly shows how bizarre the world is when a strong currency is liability and debasing ones currency is sound economic policy (according to most economists).
  1. Restoras 14 years ago
    
    The Consensus is always right!
    1. AGW 14 years ago
      
      You got that right!
  2. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
    
    Central banks - giving savers the Steve Smith treatment since forever
  3. Lost_In_Translation 14 years ago
    
    I can understand how a rapidly appreciating currency could throw some supply chain issues into chaos for a while, but it also makes swiss savings even better for buying import goods. To throw away your countries savings because those who didn't save and are being squeezed by the decreasing ability to compete for sales temporarily (until the raw materials supply chain can adjust back) is rediculous.
2. Mike Laursen 14 years ago
  
  Something doesn't add up in that article. The exchange rate and the overvaluation of the Franc doesn't explain eight-dollar cups of coffee, or why Swiss companies can't accept Euros for their goods, or why wages and prices expressed in Francs cannot decrease.
Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago

"Also: Perry would like to do bad things to Ben Bernanke."

Who doesn't?
1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
  
  Dear Penthouse forum, I'm a Fed chairman from a small midwestern town....
  1. Pro Libertate 14 years ago
    
    Isn't he from South Carolina? I drove on his highway there a couple of weeks ago.
Brett L 14 years ago

RIAA claims musicians who recorded original works were musicians to hire to keep revenues from collapsing.

"When copyright law was revised in the mid-1970s, musicians, like creators of other works of art, were granted "termination rights," which allow them to regain control of their work after 35 years, so long as they apply at least two years in advance. Recordings from 1978 are the first to fall under the purview of the law, but in a matter of months, hits from 1979, like "The Long Run" by the Eagles and "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer, will be in the same situation ? and then, as the calendar advances, every other master recording once it reaches the 35-year mark. "

I wonder if Metallica will still be the RIAA's fan in 3 years when Kill 'Em All's masters hit the age limit.
1. John 14 years ago
  
  RIAA and ASCAP have fucked musicians for years. The creators of music will always make money even if it is just for performing it. Musicians have never made much money from copyrights. Copyright money has more often than not gone to the suits.
  1. Neu Mejican 14 years ago
    
    ASCAP paid artists about a billion dollars last year. Poor musicians.
    
    I think you are confusing ASCAP with STEVE SMITH.
    1. John 14 years ago
      
      Gee NM< if I owed you five billion and stole four billion I guess you would have no right to complain. I paid you a billion last year. They whole system rips off artists badly.
      
      http://www.woodpecker.com/writ.....itics.html
      1. Neu Mejican 14 years ago
        
        While I would agree that the recording industry exploits artists in general, BMI and ASCAP are hardly the source of the problem. It is certainly easier for the artist to let ASCAP or BMI collect than it is to try and enforce it themselves. It ain't a perfect system (as Mr. Reid's piece notes), but it does more to help artists than hurt them.
        
        (I use BMI).
SugarFree 14 years ago

NPR's Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

I have read read 71%. Which is good considering I detest the majority of fantasy. Strip those out, and I hit 100%.
1. Bee Tagger 14 years ago
  
  Any glaring omissions on the list? Mistakes? etc?
  1. Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago
    
    Uh, yeah, why are none of the TekWar novels on this list?
    1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
      
      Krugman's alien invasion novel didn't make the list?
      1. DJF 14 years ago
        
        Wouldn't we get twice as many jobs if we hired earthlings to throw rocks threw each others windows?
      2. NotSure 14 years ago
        
        Apparently Krugman was a big fan of the Asimov Foundation series. It probably explains a lot about his world views, he sees himself as a modern day Hari Selldon who can predict and move society for centuries into the future.
  2. SugarFree 14 years ago
    
    It's OK, given the audience. Little to much "slipstream" fiction, but that's to be expected as well. And the tendency to pick a well-known book over an author's best work. For example, is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? Philip K. Dick's best novel? Of course not, but it's the one most people have read.
    1. Pro Libertate 14 years ago
      
      I thought the list sucked, in the vernacular, ass.
  3. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    Not enough Vernor Vinge or Charlie Stross. Stephenson didn't need to be in there 3 separate times. Watchman was the only graphic novel and (probably) only b/c of the movie tie-in.
    
    Also, and I say this as a Heinlein fan, Starship Troopers is not in the Top 100. Period. And certainly not ahead of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
    1. - 14 years ago
      
      Lists are important.
      1. Chinny Chin Chin 14 years ago
        
        Lists are important.
        
        Can you give me a few reasons why?
    2. SugarFree 14 years ago
      
      Very little stuff from the 2000s. No room for Stross, gotta make sure The Time-Traveler's Wife makes the list.
      1. Brett L 14 years ago
        
        Seems like the last 10 were stuff that should be part of the canon that didn't get enough votes. Like CS Lewis' space trilogy and Lucifer's Hammer.
        
        I just happen to be re-reading That Hideous Strength and, Christian mysticism aside, Lewis' eye for the Progressive movement is awesome. That and having "Mr. Jules" as the useless figurehead of the Progressive institute make me love the book.
      2. Jeffrey 14 years ago
        
        I detested every sentence of that book.
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        Which one? The romance-novelization of Slaughterhouse Five or Lewis?
        
        Neu Mejican 14 years ago
        
        While I see what you are saying, you shouldn't sully SH5 with any suggestion that the two books are linked. TTWife was one of the worst books I have ever read (okay I gave up when my flight landed, but I read about 2/3rds of it). Just aweful...and kinda creepy to boot.
    3. T 14 years ago
      
      Did you miss the Sandman series at 29? All primarily graphic works.
      1. Brett L 14 years ago
        
        Yeah? It was one I wasn't familiar with. Criticism redacted.
  4. Fatty Bolger 14 years ago
    
    I just glanced at it, but one jumped out - Contact. I could easily make another list of 100 candidates to replace it.
    1. tarran 14 years ago
      
      But... but.... but.... Carl Sagan wrote it!
      
      He's, like, super-awesome and everything he wrote has to be super-awesome too.
      1. SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        "Jodie Foster was in the movie. I love Jodie Foster."
        
        Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
        
        That you, Mark?
  5. db 14 years ago
    
    I don't see anything by L. Ron Hubbard.
    
    Which gives me an opening to suggest that someday (not today; I'm posting from a smart phone) I want to discuss Hubbard's work, why it's so fun to read (even if lacking in technical merit), and why I think the Mission Earth series was a thinly veiled cry for help by a man trapped within and abused by an oppressive organization by the very methods he instituted.
    
    Note: I am not a scientologist, just someone who enjoys the guilty pleasures of reading Hubbard's non-scientological work.
    1. SugarFree 14 years ago
      
      I have always believed that Battlefield: Earth and the Mission Earth stuff was all ghost-written. A lot of the mythos of the organization was based around Hubbard being a successful SF writer and they had a captive audience that would buy anything they put out, even excess copies to sell to used bookstores to make him look widely read.
      1. T 14 years ago
        
        I'll buy this argument. He was never really successful. 2d rate pulp guy selling short stories until the cult started buying the books in the 80s.
        
        And I couldn't take Battlefield, so there's no way in hell I'm gonna try to read the extended edition known as Mission Earth.
        
        db 14 years ago
        
        T, Battlefield and Mission Earth are to completely different stories. I had a lot of fun reading both, so you might not like Mission, but it really is a fun trip into Hubbard's demented world, while being a fairly entertaining story.
      2. db 14 years ago
        
        I think Hubbard actually wrote most of those...but there is a weird shift in style halfway through the eighth book of Mission Earth that made me think the aithorship changed. The series itself recognizes the shift and tries to explain it away as a change of narrator, but I'm not sure Hubbard was good enough to pull that off. I always attributed it to the idea that LRH died at that point and someone had to finish up the series.
        
        Anyway, the complete paranoia of the narrator for most of the series, combined with his clear envy of the protagonist (who he tries to paint as the antagonist) is, I think, a projection of Hubbard's fractured and rapidly disintegrating personality--the tragic internal battle of a man who observed his own destruction and yet hated his better side.
  6. T 14 years ago
    
    Mistakes?
    
    Handmaid's Tale
    Dark Tower
    Stranger in a Strange Land
    The Belgariad
    
    Also, if you're going to praise the Xanth books, for the love of whatever you consider holy, tell everyone to stop after the first 3.
    1. Fluffy 14 years ago
      
      Agree on 2 and 4, but not 1 and 3.
      
      The Handmaid's Tale must have been really good to keep me from throwing it out the window.
      
      And Stranger has structural and pacing issues but it's really quite amazing for its time.
      1. T 14 years ago
        
        Really? The Handmaid's Tale was the liberal left equivalent of the The Turner Diaries. It was an apocalyptic wet dream designed to pander to liberals' feelings of cultural superiority. It may have been well written, but that doesn't mean it wasn't pandering crap.
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        It's all about audience, T. If you are going to have an Atwood novel--and there's no way the NPR crowd isn't going to have an Atwood novel--Handmaiden is a fairly good choice.
        
        Of course, Atwood constantly denies that she would write anything as worthless as Science Fiction, so she really shouldn't be on the list at all.
        
        T 14 years ago
        
        I had forgotten she doesn't write sci-fi. I rank that right up there with Peter Murphy telling us all he's not goth.
        
        Seriously, though, WTF else would you call Oryx & Crake?
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        That's what I'm saying: it's so ideologically outrageous that if I was still able to finish it, it must have been fucking great.
        
        Like The Dispossessed. That has to be fucking Shakespeare - because I didn't stop reading it after ten pages and track Le Guin down to stuff my copy down her throat.
    2. Resto Druid FTW 14 years ago
      
      The Belgariad a mistake? Lay off the meth bro. Eddings is a fine storyteller. Agree w/ the Dark Tower tho, but I'd also add The Stand. King is a horrible writer who could not write a decent ending if his life depended on it...
      1. T 14 years ago
        
        Eddings a fine storyteller? Put down the crack pipe. He writes ethnic cartoons as characters, and relies way too heavily on direct intervention by gods. Deus ex machina ahoy!
        
        I'll agree with most criticisms of King. A friend of mine once said you can read the first hundred pages and the last hundred pages and you'll have everything important in a King novel. The middle is just filler.
  7. Restoras 14 years ago
    
    I didn't see the Earthsea Trilogy on the list. Was it that bad?
    1. T 14 years ago
      
      No. The Earthsea trilogy should have been there as opposed to the Belgariad, the Sword of Shannara trilogy, or The Legend of Drizzt.
      1. Restoras 14 years ago
        
        I remember reading the Belgariad and Sword of Shannara when they first came out, and being disappointed. Definitely 3rd rate IMHO. Loved the Thomas Covenant trilogies though - I think I need to re-read them.
        
        Trespassers W 14 years ago
        
        It's worth re-reading them.
        
        And the third "tri"logy is amazing so far.
      2. CrackertyAssCracker 14 years ago
        
        Or anything ele she wrote.
  8. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
    
    "Any glaring omissions on the list?"
    
    Dreams of My Father; An Inconvenient Truth...
    1. DesigNate 14 years ago
      
      I see what you did there.
  9. Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago
    
    I highly recommend the novelization of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. If you do read it, let me know if it's as good as the movie, which is impossible because the movie was the best movie in the history of the universe, and that includes books.
    1. Brett L 14 years ago
      
      "because the movie was the best movie in the history of the universe, and that includes books"
      
      One word: Highlander
      1. Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago
        
        Are you claiming the Highlander movie was a better read than the Star Trek II movie? And you call yourself a scientist? What's your field, wrongology?
        
        Brett L 14 years ago
        
        Wrongonomy. Wrongology is a psuedoscience.
    2. SugarFree 14 years ago
      
      Well, the list does have a Star Wars Trilogy on it... which is like saying rat meat is the best steak you ever had.
      1. Brett L 14 years ago
        
        Zahn's stuff just seems so good because Kevin J. Anderson wrote the next trilogy, and his ability to ruin a series is legendary. Look at the Dune novels he collaborated on. Although, I am thankful because I quit reading Star Wars series books thanks to him. I feel like that has added days of productive work to my life.
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        I dislike all expanded universe stuff pretty equally. I nearly teased one of student worker's into a coma after I caught him reading a X-Wing Academy novel.
      2. T 14 years ago
        
        I had to leave it to someone else to criticize that. I have never read any of the Star Wars extended books that I can recall, because who cares? The universe was an inconsistent muddle in the films, I can't imagine it gets better in the books.
      3. Butts Wagner 14 years ago
        
        Once again, Demolition Man accurately predicts the future.
2. PS 14 years ago
  
  Glad to see The Book of the New Sun managed to make it in at #87.
  
  Fucking proles.
3. Ted S. 14 years ago
  
  Am I the one libertarian who doesn't much care for scifi and doesn't get the navel-gazing that goes on over obscure scifi novels every time scifi is brought up 'round these parts?
  1. EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy 14 years ago
    
    Yes.
  2. sloopyinca 14 years ago
    
    Ted, you are not alone.
4. Zuo 14 years ago
  
  FYI There's a torrent up on dem0noid that is this compilation of books. (I assume any libertarian worth their capons would be a member)
John 14 years ago

http://campaign2012.washington.....d-luck-hit

Obama I reversed the recession until bad luck hit.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
1. Aqua-Rabbit 14 years ago
  
  Remember the previous president?
  He could burp and hurricanes would arise and smash cities.
  He'd wave his hand and Congress would declare war and armies would march forth and crush wogs.
  He'd give a badly written speach and Congress would pass another bloated entitlement for Old People.
  
  But poor Barry. He can't even get a sandwich out of the whitehouse kitchen. The Taliban Tea Baggers have taken over the whitehouse kitchen!
  Poor Barry.
  ALL HE WANTED WAS A PEPSI!
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDiF3POJdyU
2. mr simple 14 years ago
  
  The sad thing is there are people out there partisan and desperate enough to swallow this.
  
  But the White House claims this trip is non-political, part of the president's officials duties to discuss economic issues with the public. For the three-day tour through Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, the Secret Service has rolled out two new buses, costing more than $1 million apiece, to take the president and his aides around the countryside.
  
  This is my surprised face.
  1. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
    
    As they're calling it on Drudge -- The Magical Misery Tour
3. Pro Libertate 14 years ago
  
  The bad luck being that Obama was president.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.c.....urination/

CA: Oakland Officer Shoots Public Urination Suspect After Scuffle

"A police officer shot a male suspect in Oakland Friday night after he allegedly attacked officers when they attempted to detain him for urinating in public, police said."

"Officers attempted to detain the man, an Oakland resident, for public urination in the 2100 block of Fruitvale Avenue at around 7:40 p.m." ...

You can't write this shit.
1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
  
  Han shot first!
2. Lost_In_Translation 14 years ago
  
  To be fair, he had his piece out.
Aqua Buddha 14 years ago

Cop Seeks Wiretapping Charges For Woman Who Videotaped Beating

Indecision 2012 - Corn Polled Edition - Ron Paul & the Top Tier
1. Bee Tagger 14 years ago
  
  Yikes, how embarrassing. Two links that have already been posted. Maybe if that long torso was a little shorter you would have been first.
  1. Aqua Buddha 14 years ago
    
    Damn personal hygiene. If I stopped showering, I could make the morning links.
2. Brett L 14 years ago
  
  Too slow on the 1st link there, Aqua Buddy.
  1. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    Fucking Lawz of the Interwebz. Fuck Me.
3. SugarFree 14 years ago
  
  in which police were caught on video beating a guy named Melvin Jones III. The video was made by a woman named Tyrisha Greene. Jones had bones all over his face broken and became partially blind in one eye.
  
  You would think that Sedergren, who was suspended for 45 days for his actions in the video, would know better and just get on with his life
  
  45 days off. I wish I could beat someone half blind and get a vacation.
  1. Crackers Boy 14 years ago
    
    You CAN!
    
    Join the force.
    
    CB
    1. Pip 14 years ago
      
      And you get to marry Morgan Fairchild!
  2. T 14 years ago
    
    Alas, none of the people I'd like to beat half-blind are in close physical proximity. They're all in DC.
Brett L 14 years ago

As a scientist, I find this incredibly depressing.

"We find that original articles were cited 17 times more than rebuttals, and that annual citation numbers were unaffected by rebuttals. When citations did not mention rebuttals, 95% accepted the thesis of the original article uncritically, and support remained high over time. On the rare occasions when rebuttals were cited, the citing papers on average had neutral views of the original article, and 8% actually believed that the rebuttal agreed with the original article. Overall, only 5% of all citations were critical of the original paper. Our results point to an urgent need to change current publishing models to ensure that rebuttals are prominently linked to original articles."

Apparently, science is like news. The accusation is page 1 news, the rebuttal is page 8, and most people never make it to page 8.
1. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  In other news, scientists are human beings.
2. Fluffy 14 years ago
  
  I think it's a function of the way paper topics come to be.
  
  Someone sees a new paper, and sees how the new information or data could support some idea of their own they've been toying with, and leverages that into writing their own paper.
  
  Rebuttals are kill-joys that interfere with that process.
STEVE SMITH 14 years ago

Also: Perry would like to do bad things to Ben Bernanke.

SO WOULD STEVE SMITH!! COOKIE?
1. Charlotte Sometimes 14 years ago
  
  Replace "cookie" with "OM NOM NOM" and I would have really giggled.
  1. SFC B 14 years ago
    
    Why is Old Mexican NOM NOMing Helicopter Ben?
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

Depending on police for personal safety is a no-win game

""Rapper could face charges tied to flash mob calls," the Associated Press reports.

The Game is alleged to have sent a message from his Twitter social networking account that resulted in hundreds of calls to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Compton station, effectively shutting down communications for over two hours.

The authorities are not amused. A sheriff's captain reports "Public safety was absolutely compromised" and they were "delayed in responding to calls." They're going to turn over their assessment to the District Attorney for potential criminal prosecution.

If The Game is prosecuted, there are other Californians who should also face criminal charges for compromising public safety. From Fox News:

[D]etails emerged of Bay Area Rapid Transit officials' decision to cut off underground cellphone service for a few hours at several stations Thursday. Commuters at stations from downtown to near the city's main airport were affected as BART officials sought to tactically thwart a planned protest over the recent fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man by transit police."

AW
THOR
UH
TEE
1. Dog Shooter 14 years ago
  
  You prefer chaos to order, anarchy to civilization. How unsurprising.
  1. Crackers Boy 14 years ago
    
    That's fairly accurate. Surprisingly accurate in fact, considering. And you would have been correct, if you had put civilization in quotation marks.
    
    CB
2. Fluffy 14 years ago
  
  Maybe I'm misunderstanding the phone calls story, but I thought what happened is that there was an internship open at the police department and the rapper tweeted that people should apply for it.
  
  I really fail to see how he can face criminal liability for that, whether it crashed their phone network or not. If you make an internship available and invite people to apply, you don't get to complain if people actually apply. If your phone system can't handle the volume that's your own fuckup.
  1. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
    
    "there was an internship open at the police department and the rapper tweeted that people should apply for it."
    
    Fucking facts, how do they work?
Warty 14 years ago

Once a fringe candidate, Paul shaping 2012 race

"In previous presidential campaigns, we might have chalked extreme fringe-type candidates like Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul as an anomaly, (and) the Ames straw poll didn't mean as much," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
"But we're looking at the core of the Republican Party now. The heart of the Republican Party is the extreme right wing," she told CNN.

Oh, if only.
1. John 14 years ago
  
  Wasserman Schultz is really putting herself out there for the title of America's dumbest legislator.
  1. Fist of Etiquette 14 years ago
    
    She's getting her talking points out there.
    
    Ron Paul: Extreme right wing.
    1. PIRS 14 years ago
      
      Extreme right wing must now = anti-war and pro-decriminalization of drugs.
      
      Hmmm ...
  2. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    Not even the dumbest from FL. GO GATA!
  3. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
    
    She's nothing more than a lying whore. Just loke Nancy Pelosi.
Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago

OBAMA 'HOPE' ARTIST BEATEN IN COPENHAGEN

When graffiti artist Shepard Fairey turned his talents to US politics, his reward was international acclaim and a letter of thanks from Barack Obama. When he employed a similar tactic in Denmark, however, the response proved altogether less edifying.

Last weekend, Fairey ? creator of the famous "Hope" poster that came to encapsulate Obama's 2008 presidential campaign ? was beaten up after the opening of his exhibition at a Copenhagen gallery.

Earlier this month he was involved with a controversial mural that has enraged leftwing anarchists throughout the city.

"I have a black eye and a bruised rib," Fairey told the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arta.....CMP=twt_fd
1. heller 14 years ago
  
  LOL.
2. SugarFree 14 years ago
  
  The artist said he had not filed a police report following the attack in Copenhagen. "I did not know any of the people or get a great look at them, so it seemed pointless," he said.
  
  "I'm not a huge fan of the cops anyway. The only thing I could see coming out of it was further media commentary like 'street artist whiner Shepard Fairey can't hold it down in a fight so he snitches to the cops'."
  
  Whatever else he is, you cannot say that Fairey isn't self-aware.
  1. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    I have to admit, I liked the "Andre the Giant has a Posse" campaign from the mid-90s.
  2. Somalian Road Corporation 14 years ago
    
    That's good, I needed a laugh today.
3. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
  
  "Fairey's installation, painted on a building adjacent to the vacant site, depicted a dove in flight above the word "peace" and the figure "69". But the mural appeared to reopen old wounds, with critics accusing Fairey of peddling government-funded propaganda."
  
  Imagine that!
4. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
  
  Finally, some good news
  
  My schadenfreude meter just went off.
  1. SugarFree 14 years ago
    
    My schadenfreude meter
    
    Most people just call it a penis.
    1. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
      
      That's a surprising comment coming from a master of the euphemismal arts
      1. SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        I'm seeking to be more plainspoken. For The Children.
      2. wylie 14 years ago
        
        Most people just call it a "penis".
        
        Better?
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.dallasblog.com/2011.....gency.html

The U.S.'s rogue agency

"The hacks and flacks on the mainstream media are all salivating at the thought that Rupert Murdock and his Fox News powerhouse might be brought to its knees. However, you don't hear a word from them about a burgeoning scandal leading right to the White House that, in the words of some, will wind up being bigger than the Iran-Contra Scandal."

"So, what are the 'big boys' failing to report? Simply that many of the guns that have found their way into the hands of Mexico's drug cartels came from the U.S. government compliments of the [ATF]. ... All with the approval of Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder." ...
1. John 14 years ago
  
  But MNG tells me there is nothing biased about the media. That is a rightwing meme. They are just not covering this because it is not an interesting story. Not nearly as interesting as a bunch of reporters from a foreign country writing for a paper no one in the US has ever heard of taping the phones of British people.
  1. MNG 14 years ago
    
    Er, didn't the gunwalker story get largely broke by ABC?
    
    You know, the SocialistMainstreamMedia ABC?
    1. John 14 years ago
      
      Citation please>?
      1. Restoras 14 years ago
        
        Yeah, definitely need a great big citation for that.
      2. MNG 14 years ago
        
        Iirc one of John's or JT's first posts about it was to the ABC story.
        
        Let's say I take the time to dig it up, I'm goint to want something for that. How about John admitting he was wrong and jumped to a foolish conclusion?
        
        Bet?
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Either come up with some documentation that this story was broke by ABC rather than the right wing blogs or shut the fuck up. And when you do come up with a story from ABC, my guess is we will find about a hundred blog posts that predate that story. But come up with the ABC story and a link or shut up.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Oh no, not for free. Make the bet. put yourself where your mouth wonders.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        If you can't come up with a link MNG, then you are just talking out of your ass. You made the assertion. Now show a link where it is true or admit you made it up.
        
        smz 14 years ago
        
        mouth wonders? Is that some new kinky fad I missed?
        
        WTF 14 years ago
        
        So you admit ABC didn't break the story and you are full of shit.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Won't take the bet, eh?
        
        So I guess you admit you were wrong.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        I never said you were wrong. i said give me a citation that proves it. Maybe ABC did break the story. I don't know. You are the one claiming it. Prove it.
    2. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
      
      The entire story, for MONTHS, FUCKING MONTHS, before any mainstream media outlet even touched it, was broken by blogs like Sipsey Street Irregulars and the Examiner team. Months, MNG, in the digital age. So fuck ABC sideways for spending those months waiting for enough criticism to head their way that they went with it.
      
      And the coverage was total, too. Every day, those sites would post new stuff, from minute details to whistleblower profiles.
      1. Restoras 14 years ago
        
        +gazillion
      2. Fatty Bolger 14 years ago
        
        Yep.
        
        CleanupATF.org forums: ATF Operation Gunrunner - Fast & Furious - Phoenix Division
        
        Sipsey Street Irregulars: Border Patrol agent killed with ATF-smuggled AR? Some ATF agents seem to think so.
        
        I believe that the story was "broken" by the The Arizona Republic on February 1st. Another Arizona paper picked it up, and it built up steam from there, with CBS finally giving it nationwide coverage in March.
    3. cynical 14 years ago
      
      No? Not in any major way. The only mainstream outlet giving it coverage early on was chat, to their credit.
      1. cynical 14 years ago
        
        Gah. CBS. Fucking autocorrect.
2. heller 14 years ago
  
  It's simply astounding how none of my non-libertarian friends have heard of this. This is really as bad as Iran-Contra, yet the media is too busy sucking Obama's cock to tell the sheeple about it.
  1. Dog Shooter 14 years ago
    
    "Sheeple"? Did you really write "sheeple"?
    And "sucking Obama's cock"? Really? Are you twelve?
    1. heller 14 years ago
      
      Yes, you are a sheep if you let a picture of Bachmann gagging on a corndog distract you from the crimes of our government and Obama's negligence.
    2. Maxxx 14 years ago
      
      The truth hurts.
  2. MNG 14 years ago
    
    Could you explain how this is as bad as Iran-contra?
    
    In Iran-contra we had a law forbidding support of the contras that was contravened in a scheme that included giving weapons to a nation which we saw as our enemy and trading for hostages which we publicly were saying we would not do. The prez was at the time playing publicly tough on Iran but was actually dealing with them.
    
    In gunwalker what we seem to have is an incredibly irresponsible attempt to gather intel on gun networks.
    
    They don't seem comparable.
    1. John 14 years ago
      
      How many Americans died as a result of Iran Contra? Iran Contra was about the administration ignoring Congress and funding the Contras in spite of being told not to. In the end, it was about fiscal law issue. Sure, we were negotiating with Iran while publicly saying we were not. Big deal, governments do that all of the time. It is called diplomacy. Breaking the law and funding the contras was bad. But, it was hardly the first insurgency we had ever sponsored in the Cold War.
      
      Gunwalker is worse because it was an attempt to not just corrupt Mexico but US politics as well. There is no way to explain how the program would have worked even if it had not failed. They sold guns to Mexico, brought in a Washington Post team to write about the problems of US guns going to Mexico and then planned to use the existence of those guns as a political excuse to get support for gun control in the US. That is some sick shit. There is no defending it. Yet, no one associated with it has so much as been fired much less indicted. And oh by the way, the US government sold weapons to the enemies of our neighboring country and historical ally Mexico. Can you really blame the Mexicans for hating us for this?
      1. MNG 14 years ago
        
        "it was about fiscal law issue"
        
        It was about seperation of powers (the executive doing an end run around law); it was about morality (we banned support for the contras because of the questionable actions of them); it was about duping the public (Reagan talking tough on Iran to differentiate himself from Carter et al while secretly dealing with them); and, of course, how many of those weapons sold to Iran may have actually been used against us or our allies?
        
        You're making an assumption about gunwalker that it was motivated solely by some conspiratorial political goal. But why go to the halls of fevered conspiracy theory when a more likely answer sits right there? It's not unheard of for an agency in war or law enforcement to allow illegal transactions it knows of to occur in order to build information for future action. This has all those hallmarks.
        
        Now while it is not uncommon it is always fraught with moral peril. Add to that this one seems foolishly done and you've got quite the problem. But Iran-Contra? Don't think so, at least not on the information we can rely on at present.
        
        Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        Dude, it was clearly motivated by a political goal. It requires much crazier conspiracy thinking to believe it wasn't motivated by a political goal than it requires to believe that it wasn't.
        
        They made no attempt to track the guns in Mexico, so the whole "We were gathering intel on smuggling" line is a childishly obvious cover. Those guns had only one possible rational purpose: to turn up at Mexican crime scenes so the press could write about it. No reasonable person can possibly believe anything else.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        So if Congress passes a bill defunding Obamacare and a future President signs it but secretly funds it fluffy will be going "ha, how clever!"
        
        Bookmark it bitches.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Sure we will bookmark it MNG. And I am sure you will not defend Obama or anything.
        
        No one is saying that Iran Contra was not a scandal. We are only saying this is worse. And yes, if Obama did that, it still wouldn't be as bad as gunwalker.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        We know it was a conspiracy because there is no way the program could have ever worked. They sold guns and let them go to Mexico. They can't prosecute or keep track of the guns in Mexico. I can see no possible scenario where the program would have resulted in any successful prosecution. Indeed, the agents on the ground saw this and threw a fit. Yet, the higher ups insisted on doing it.
        
        This is not incompetence. Incompetence is where you think "we can accomplish X by doing Y" and it doesn't work. The only thing they could have thought this program would accomplish is putting American guns in Mexico. And the only reason they would have wanted that was to use it for political purposes. There is no other rational explanation for their behavior.
        
        And fiscal law issues are a "separation of powers" issue. Iran contra was a fiscal law dispute. Gunwalker is a case of the US arming criminal drug gangs who are currently killing 1000s of people and destabilizing our neighbor and closest ally. That is a lot worse.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        "They can't prosecute or keep track of the guns in Mexico."
        
        Sure they can do both. They can work with the Mexican police to capture and extradite networks that bought guns illegally in America. And of course they can track it, I mean, how do you know they ended up where they did? The ATF would have at least that much ability and likely more.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        They only know about the guns, after they were found at the crime scenes. And it is illegal to have a gun in Mexico. An American gun is not any more or less illegal than a Mexican gun. So the guy arrested in Mexico for having a gun is already facing a long prison sentence in Mexico.
        
        Try again MNG
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        If they bought the gun illegally here they would also face prosecution in the US, right?
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        But merely having a gun that came from the US doesn't mean they bought it here. There would be no way to prove the guy didn't just get it in Mexico after the ATF imported it there.
        
        Try again.
        
        cynical 14 years ago
        
        "Sure they can do both."
        
        They didn't even tell their Mexican agents about the program. Sorry, but there's way too much fishy here, and they are blatantly attempting to cover it up by promoting the guy who oversaw it to their version of internal affairs.
        
        R C Dean 14 years ago
        
        Sure they can do both.
        
        Whether its possible for them to do so or not is irrelevant. They made no effort to do so in this case, and in fact kept their Mexican liaisons in the dark about it.
        
        heller 14 years ago
        
        Jon, stupidity before conspiracy please.
        
        heller 14 years ago
        
        And supporting Mexican cartels with guns is not morally and legally comparable because??? The public is being duped by the media whitewash of this event.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        "And supporting Mexican cartels with guns is not morally and legally comparable because"
        
        Supporting? If the intent was to gather intel about the use of gun running by these cartels in order to take them down then it was hardly comparable. We didn't support the Contras in order to ultimately bring them down.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        How does selling them guns "help bring them down"?
        
        shorter MNG 14 years ago
        
        There is nothing the Obama administration can do that I won't defend or excuse. But I am a fierce critic of Obama and not a hack partisan, nosiree!
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        I've criticized the administration many times, and am even saying what was done here was stupid and immoral, hardly a defense. So nice try, go work the regs somewhere else.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Didn't they allow the guns to be sold? That's not the same as actually selling them in the first place.
        
        But even were the latter true I imagine it was something like when an undercover drug agent sells drugs into a drug network that is being investigated.
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Didn't they allow the guns to be sold?
        
        No. They took gun dealers who were minding their own business and paid them to sell illegal weapons to known criminals. That is selling them.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        If you wanted to ultimately bring down a network trafficking and using some contraband you can't see how it might be thought useful to allow some trades in that contraband to gather information about how they ultimately ended up and were used?
        
        John 14 years ago
        
        Sure, but you do what the ATF usually does. You arrest the guy in the parking lot and never let the gun out of your sight. You don't let the gun go into a foreign country.
        
        Try again.
        
        heller 14 years ago
        
        What the fuck does the intent have anything to do with it? Giving a murderer a gun is supporting his murderous ways. We know this is true because they used the guns to kill at least one person. It doesn't matter why they did it.
        
        T 14 years ago
        
        The guns were used in multiple homicides, but it only became an issue after a US federal agent got whacked. As long as it was just Mexicans getting killed, nobody, at any level of our government, gave a good goddamn.
    2. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
      
      "In gunwalker what we seem to have is an incredibly irresponsible attempt to gather intel on gun networks."
      
      Never heard of anything like it -- only heard of Gunwalker, and not a single part of that characterization fits it. Nice try.
    3. Fluffy 14 years ago
      
      Well, the issue in Iran-Contra was the power of the purse.
      
      The whole "Reagan was saying Iran was our enemy" part doesn't matter. I can think of any number of foreign policy reasons why your conduct vis-a-vis another country might not match, or might be the exact opposite of, your public rhetoric about that country.
      
      So on the Iran side there's no real issue at all.
      
      On the Contra side, the Boland amendment made it illegal to spend money on the Contras. But the "powers" justification for that is that Congress has the power of the purse. But in this case, the executive branch found a way to support the Contras that did not require funds from the Congress - that, in fact, turned a profit.
      
      To me it was always less of a "horrible scandal" and more of a procedural scuffle between branches over the limits of the power of the purse. "You can't stop me from doing stuff I don't need money for" seems like a reasonable position for the executive to hold. If the Congress passed a law saying that the President couldn't spend money to fly to Germany to negotiate with Germans (say we hated Germany again for some reason) and the President sold his autograph 100 times and bought himself a plane ticket, as far as I'm concerned he'd be entitled to wiggle his junk in the face of the Congress and say, "Ha-ha, I found a way to do this without your fucking worthless asses."
  3. Michael Ejercito 14 years ago
    
    It's simply astounding how none of my non-libertarian friends have heard of this. This is really as bad as Iran-Contra, yet the media is too busy sucking Obama's cock to tell the sheeple about it.
    
    So why did the media consider Iran-Contra a scandal?
3. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
  
  What this story needs is an Ollie North to give it some legs. Otherwise, it's just dull and bureaucratic.
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    If they could just find a way to hold a Republican responsible, you are right, they would totally run with it.
    1. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
      
      They need someone totally over the top committed and willing to throw themselves on the sword for their masters. Trouble is that person doesn't exist in the FBI, ATF, Administration, etc....
      
      They're all careerist bureaucratic bottom-feeders.
  2. tarran 14 years ago
    
    Actually, it needs a Fawn Hall.
4. NoVAHockey 14 years ago
  
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
  
  Post Ombudsman -- writers and editors cite vacation, less resources for any gaps in the otherwise spectacular coverage.
  1. John 14 years ago
    
    My favorite part
    
    Jeff Leen, assistant managing editor for investigations, oversaw the eight-part "Hidden Life" series written by four reporters ? David S. Fallis, Cheryl W. Thompson, James Grimaldi and Horwitz. Leen said that he and the reporters who wrote the Southwest border part of that series, Grimaldi and Horwitz, never heard of, or had even an inkling of, the top-secret Fast and Furious effort until indictments in the case were announced in late January in Phoenix by U.S. attorneys and the ATF.
    
    They are reporters. They didn't look. That is the point. "We did our jobs. We had no idea this was going on."
Lord Humungus 14 years ago

Global Warming "An Obvious Fraud"
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/.....ous_fraud/

with charts!
1. MiNGe 14 years ago
  
  If you think you know better than thousands of scientists, I don't know what to tell you other than the science is settled. Because of teh consensus!
  1. MNG 14 years ago
    
    "The finding that the climate has warmed in recent decades and that human activities are already contributing adversely to global climate change has been endorsed by every national science academy that has issued a statement on climate change, including the science academies of all of the major industrialized countries.[31]"
    
    Yeah, you guys take your website with charts, I'll take every national science academy (as well as nearly every professional scientific association) on the issue.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.....anizations
    
    I wonder who has the better bet?
    1. Restoras 14 years ago
      
      I'll go with Galileo before I go with the Church.
      1. PIRS 14 years ago
        
        +10
      2. MNG 14 years ago
        
        Yes, those two are comparable, all of the major scientific organizations=the Church.
        
        PIRS 14 years ago
        
        If by "major scientific organizations" you mean "scientific organizations" that receive significant funding from political organizations, yes, they are comparable.
        
        In Galileo's time the Church was also a political organization - many forget that. Today it is only "political" within Vatican City.
        
        MNG 14 years ago
        
        Yes, numerous organzations that get funding from, among many other sources, numerous governments is comparable to the Church during Galileo.
        
        Jesus look at you stretch Mr. Fantastic!
        
        PIRS 14 years ago
        
        MNG,
        
        Do you really believe that government funding comes without strings attached?
        
        Here is something else to think about.
        
        Suppose someone gave me funding to study ghosts. Would I continue to receive money if I honestly reported that ghosts did not, in fact, exist?
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        Most people who believe in ghosts think ghosts exist. Therefore, you have no argument, PIRS.
        
        PIRS 14 years ago
        
        "Most people who believe in ghosts think ghosts exist. Therefore, you have no argument, PIRS."
        
        Imagine the funding was to study how warm ghosts got when the were near excessive amounts of Styrofoam.
        
        I would not continue to receive funding if I reported I could not find any evidence of ghosts at all.
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        But that's stupid! Everyone already knows that ghosts get warm near large Styrofoam deposits!
        
        T 14 years ago
        
        You obviously need a refresher course on grant-writing. You keep the gravy rolling in by claiming your current methods and tools have found no dispositive evidence. You need more money for better methods and tools, and then maybe you'll get some dispositive evidence. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
        
        O2 14 years ago
        
        +1
        
        Restoras 14 years ago
        
        When they collude to suppress differing opinions, whether overtly or covertly, then yes, they are exactly like The Church.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?f.....eId=332925

FBI wants businesses watching for customers paying with cash

"Just days after the White House announced a community-based approach to combating terrorism in the United States, the FBI and other agencies are asking managers of surplus stores to spy on their customers, watching whether they pay in cash, make "extreme" religious statements or purchase products such as waterproof matches."

"And the request from the government also is going to gun shops, fertilizer suppliers, motels and hotels, authorities say." ...

Fucking eat shit and die in a coal fire.
1. John 14 years ago
  
  I work with cops. Cops hate cash more than they hate dogs. They don't know why they hate cash. But they just hate it.
  1. Lord Humungus 14 years ago
    
    I like cash... the feel of a stack of twenties... the smell... and so untraceable when buying er, stuff.
  2. heller 14 years ago
    
    Because if you have cash you have something to hide. Or some stupid shit like that.
2. SugarFree 14 years ago
  
  whether they pay in cash, make "extreme" religious statements or purchase products such as waterproof matches
  
  Wow. I'm a terrorist now. We are all terrorists! Let's raise the FBI's budget to deal with the burgeoning threat of everyone!
  1. Tim 14 years ago
    
    Why won't anyone take you seriously?
    1. SugarFree 14 years ago
      
      I paid cash for waterproof matches JUST THIS PAST WEEKEND! Coupled with my violent atheist rhetoric, that's red flags all over.
  2. Brett L 14 years ago
    
    Dave Ramsey is apparently a terrorist leader now. Well, I guess he's been trying to destroy the credit driven economy for a while, but this is just further proof. (Note: I don't buy 100% of what he's selling, but his core message is damn good.)
    1. Bender Bending Rodriguez 14 years ago
      
      Dave Ramsey once said that "Inflation is caused by rising prices".
      
      Would anybody listen to Sanjay Gupta if he claimed that brain tumors are caused by headaches?
  3. John 14 years ago
    
    Here is the bottom line. There are not that many terrorists out there. That doesn't mean they are not dangerous. But that does mean the chances of any individual flatfoot catching a terrorist is really small. Two, the terrorists who are out there are nearly impossible to stop. You just can't stop someone who doesn't care if they die or get caught committing a crime.
    
    So that means that most cops really can't get their war on terror on. Most of them are left out. Instead of accepting that fact, they just dream up bullshit security theater measures like this so they can feel like they are doing something and justify their existence.
    1. SugarFree 14 years ago
      
      They need to seek alternatives. Group therapy and Viagra would cost less, for example.
      1. STEVE SMITH 14 years ago
        
        STEVE SMITH START VIAGRA GROUP THERAPY FOR COPS!!! WITH EXTRA RAPE!!
    2. MNG 14 years ago
      
      You guys are morons.
      
      The FBI are experts in terrorism. So if they say that you're a terrorist, I'll believe them. And the consensus indicates that paying cash = terrorism.
      
      Who am I to question authority?
      1. Spoof? 14 years ago
        
        It's so hard to tell sometimes.
3. Somalian Road Corporation 14 years ago
  
  I pay for almost everything with cash.
  
  What if I buy a Gadsen flag with cash? That's some doubleplusungood shit there, right?
Mike M. 14 years ago

Euro Zone Second Quarter GDP Growth Slows to 0.2 Percent.

Even for moribund Europe this is awful. Basically a flat line. Everyone say it all together now: Second Great Depression.
1. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
  
  MUSSOLINI SPAGHETTI VIVALDI ITALIANO LOLOLOL
  
  Fucking Europe. We're next, too. Thanks to the all the statist shitheads throughout the ages for bringing down human civilizations everywhere!
2. Lord Humungus 14 years ago
  
  more regulations! more regulations!
3. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Does this inflation adjusted? Possibly negative growth?
4. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Wondering if this is inflation adjusted, if not then we're staring another recession in the face.
  1. Monty 14 years ago
    
    "Wondering if this is inflation adjusted"
    It don't matter what kind adjustment is put to the numbers. A lie is a lie honest numbers are in hiding.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://chronicle.northcoastnow.....officials/

"Joseph Montelon's lawyer has complained to a federal judge that he's not getting the cooperation he believes he is entitled to from the city of Lorain as he gathers information for the lawsuit Montelon filed over what he believes to be an illegal raid on his Wickliffe home nearly three years ago."

"In court documents filed Wednesday, attorney Terry Gilbert said the only information the city ... will provide is a copy of the search warrant and the affidavit Mathewson prepared to convince a judge to issue the search warrant."

"The city contends it is immune to the lawsuit."

"'It is impossible to challenge the qualified immunity claim without the ability to discover what preceded the formal affidavit, ...'" ...

EQUALATAY BEFOR THAT LAW
Lord Humungus 14 years ago

Dutch Confront Their Questions of Identity
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08.....2&src=recg
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.mercurynews.com/bre.....i_18671061

CA: Oakland police draw guns without cause too often, federal report finds

"A recent study found that Oakland police officers drew their guns and pointed them at individuals who did not present a threat 28 percent of the time." ...

... "'In each instance where there was a question as to whether an officer's action was appropriate, we gave any benefit of doubt to the involved officers,' Warshaw wrote, 'and we saw many examples of fine, proactive police work, and officers making good arrests. ... We are, however, troubled by the high number of instances where the officers' pointing of a firearm was not necessary or appropriate, given the documentation we reviewed.'" ...

POSITION YOUR INDEX FINDER ONE POINT ONE ONE SEVEN FIVE INCHES AWAY FROM YOUR THUMB OR WE WILL CALL SWAT
1. Tim 14 years ago
  
  Do you have a job?
  1. Res Publica Americana 14 years ago
    
    I wear a golden monocle -- why would I need a job?
    1. Restoras 14 years ago
      
      Piker. It's platinum-rimmed and diamond-encrusted or you're not part of the club.
      1. sloopyinca 14 years ago
        
        Hahaha, and you're calling him a piker?
        
        It's either made from the ground up bones of the aborted, and assembled by slave labor in Somalia....or it's crap.
Matt Damon 14 years ago

Matt Damon!
1. Matt Damon's HS sweetheart 14 years ago
  
  Grow a pair, you intrinsically paternalistic dumb fuck.
2. Ben Affleck 14 years ago
  
  Hey, can you get me a part in your next movie?
Aqua Buddha 14 years ago

KRAZY KEYNESIANS: The Truth About Paul Krugman's Alien Fantasy

ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operation
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 14 years ago
  
  I hereby offer Paul Krugman to the nearest aliens that promise to anally violate him and use him as a breeding vessel for their alien offspring.
2. heller 14 years ago
  
  If only the government would spend the $1 trillion it's been keeping in its vaults because of lack of "political will," then everything would be fixed!
  
  So the Krazy Keynesians aren't just advocating redistributing taxpayers' wealth to special private interests, they're advocating the redistribution of nonexistent funds from nowhere towards somewhere.
3. cynical 14 years ago
  
  So is his new nickname Adrian Krugman or Paul Veidt?
  1. cynical 14 years ago
    
    Or Kruggymandias?
    1. heller 14 years ago
      
      I already fucking made that joke yesterday!
      1. cynical 14 years ago
        
        Missed it.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.thedahloneganugget......03/news/05 fedtrial.txt

GA: Federal jury hears 'illegal search' case

... "Deputy Eddie Cole initially pulled onto Asher's property that day, after the defendant reportedly sped by him at over 20 miles per hour over the speed limit."

"Asher initially refused to comply with Cole's commands that he lay on the ground and put his arms behind his back. As a result, numerous other deputies arrived on the scene to provide back-up. During Asher's arrest a deputy reportedly spotted several firearms in Asher's car."

"The officers then began an extensive search, led by McClure, in which they reportedly came across numerous firearms, large amounts of ammunition and medical supplies. Asher was arrested and taken to Lumpkin County Detention Center where he faced several weapons and drug related charges." ...

Explain to me in what fucking universe that's justification for something like this?
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.lbpost.com/life/greggory/12188

CA: Police Chief Confirms Detaining Photographers Within Departmental Policy

"Police Chief Jim McDonnell has confirmed that detaining photographers for taking pictures 'with no apparent esthetic value' is within Long Beach Police Department policy."

"McDonnell spoke for a follow-up story on a June 30 incident in which Sander Roscoe Wolff, a Long Beach resident and regular contributor to Long Beach Post, was detained by Officer Asif Kahn for taking pictures of a North Long Beach refinery."

"'If an officer sees someone taking pictures of something like a refinery,' says McDonnell, 'it is incumbent upon the officer to make contact with the individual.' ..." ...

Is this for real? Is it the Onion fucking with us? Seriously? What the fuck is this shit?
1. Tim 14 years ago
  
  I don't know. Maybe. No. I don't know.
2. Mongo 14 years ago
  
  A friend of mine was sketching a public parking lot and was approached by a security guard and was told to stop sketching for 'terrorism' reasons.
  
  My friend refused and tha cops showed up and repeatedly questioned him on why he wasn't sketching "purty things" like local landmarks.
  1. Mongo 14 years ago
    
    Hey, I found it!
    
    http://www.counterpunch.org/avidor10302004.html
3. Il Douchey 14 years ago
  
  Pictures are information. An informed public makes the nation vulnerable. Ignorance is strength.
Res Publica Americana 14 years ago

http://www.tennessean.com/arti.....-s-failure

Brits arm themselves in face of PC government's failure

... "You don't need to know what's happening in Britain to be able to supply them with more bats. But it helps to know more about your customers, so you check the news and learn that violent riots have been breaking out nightly in cities across England. Shops have been trashed, looted and burned. People have been robbed, beaten and even killed."

"Where are the police? They are overwhelmed by the volume and brazenness of the outbreaks. They are also constrained in their response by what appears on the surface to be modern Western restraint, but is in fact a symptom of the modern evasion of social realities that we lamely call 'political correctness.' ..." ...
1. Pete 14 years ago
  
  Do you have ADHD? There are support groups.
  
  http://www.add.org/
2. Brett L 14 years ago
  
  They also brought in Bill Bratton, so expect looters to become familiar with "the Giuliani" very soon.
Au H20 14 years ago

A Middle Earth Guide to the 2012 campaign.

Paul needs more facial hair if he wants to stand in for Gimli
Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago

Stillwater Sasquatch video arouses skepticism

A video purporting to show an auburn-haired Sasquatch tromping through the woods north of Stillwater is causing a buzz among those fascinated by the ever-elusive Elvis of the wildlife world.

Like every video claiming to be that of the giant woodland creature also known as Bigfoot, the clip is brief, jiggly and out-of-focus. It was shot, according to the YouTube posting, by an anonymous farmer with his newfangled iPhone while on his usual evening walk with his wife. According to the farmer, the couple thought they'd scared a deer until they heard some "low, odd-sounding grunting" and fired up the gizmo.

http://www.startribune.com/loc.....99518.html
1. STEVE SMITH 14 years ago
  
  STEVE SMITH!
  1. WTF 14 years ago
    
    If there was no rape it was a different sasquatch.
    1. Anonymous Farmer's Wife 14 years ago
      
      It was consensual.
Au H20 14 years ago

Deconstructing the Slut Walk

Great essay ripping apart a somewhat incoherent movement.
Fatty Bolger 14 years ago

NYT: Texas job boom ? leadership or luck?

Rick Perry and Texas sucked up all the good luck, leaving none for poor Mr. Obama. 🙁

Best quote: "Because the Texas economy has been prosperous during his tenure as governor, he has not had to make the draconian choices that one would have to make in the White House," said Bryan W. Brown, chairman of the Rice University economics department and a critic of Mr. Perry's economic record.

Draconian choices? HA HA HA HAH HAH HAH!!!
1. John 14 years ago
  
  Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded ? here and there, now and then ? are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
  
  This is known as "bad luck."
  
  Robert Heinlein
  
  It is Heinlein's world man.
2. heller 14 years ago
  
  Yes the good economy caused the lack of regulations. Not the other way around, obviously.
Lord Humungus 14 years ago

Jerry Pournelle on "Soaking the rich, distributism, and No Child Left Behind"
http://jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=1448

"The exponential growth of government, financed by exponential growth of debt, is pretty well unprecedented in American history. The exponential growth of rewards for the nomenclatura ? the new ruling classes ? is not unprecedented in history although it is unprecedented in American history. None of this will much affect Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, nor indeed will it have great effects on those who earn tens of millions of dollars a year. Neither Gates nor Buffett (nor Rush Limbaugh for that matter) would experience all that much change in their lives if they were despoiled of half of their wealth, or 90% of it for that matter. Would the nation be better off if there were no billionaires? The case can be argued; but simply taking their money (a one time bonanza for government) would not solve our debt problems, and using it to increase those entitled to even more, to grow the number of government employees, raise their pay, raise their benefits, raise their pensions is not really likely to make this a better country. "
Warty 14 years ago

Excellent comments abound

GDog Slim 0 minutes ago
ron paul is a friggin joke, his supporters are nutcases, like jon leibowitz stewart (i changed my name because i am a jew)
1. SugarFree 14 years ago
  
  I think a certain commenter is two-timing us on The Atlantic blog.
T 14 years ago

So, diod anybody catch the pre-crime from the LAPD articel?

The LAPD also is on the cop-tech forefront with another domain that's gaining traction in law enforcement. It's called predictive policing. "It uses technology to deploy resources to take corrective actions before something happens ... extrapolating statistics to predict the future," Siegel explains.

W00T! Minority Report for reals, y'all!
MNG 14 years ago

Should Christians be socialists?

In "From Jesus' socialism to capitalistic Christianity," Gregory Paul argues that American Christians who defend the free economy are involved in a profound contradiction, since Jesus and Christianity are self-evidently socialistic.

Let's pass over his caricature of capitalism, since no one would defend the idea as he describes it, and get to the two big holes in his argument. The first is his claim that "many of these Christian capitalists are ardent followers of Ayn Rand," a known atheist and anti-Christian. The second claim is that Jesus and the Bible are pro-socialist rather than pro-capitalist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z8
1. NotSure 14 years ago
  
  Both left and right wingers wanting to equate their political beliefs with Jesus seem to miss the point that he was not a politician but was there to offer salvation after death (the validity is another debate)
  
  But to get my two cent worth in, being charitable with other peoples money is not a sincere form of charity.
  1. sarcasmic 14 years ago
    
    To be charitable with other peoples' money requires that you first take that money away from someone.
    
    Socialists always seem to ignore that part.
2. Aqua-Rabbit 14 years ago
  
  Jesus wants to confiscate my wealth?
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inIuYren8jg
3. sarcasmic 14 years ago
  
  The question one must ask is "How much would Jesus take?"
4. Brett L 14 years ago
  
  That is a good old-fashioned beating right there. Very tasty.
5. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Render unto Caesar...
6. Ray 14 years ago
  
  Let Jesus be a socialist. But what if you don't believe in Jesus?
7. Maxxx 14 years ago
  
  Maybe that writer should try reading the new testament sometime.
  
  It's full of allusions to the justness of property ownership and market conditions.
  
  Jesus defends the concept of salvation through faith with a parable about an orchard owner having the right to pay whatever wages he wants.
  
  "'When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, "Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first."
  
  "'The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. "These men who were hired last worked only one hour," they said, "and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day."
  
  "'But he answered one of them, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?" "'So the last will be first, and the first will be last'" (Matthew 20:1-16).
  
  Suck on that socialist douchebags.
  1. O2 14 years ago
    
    wanna bet no workers start tomorrow until the eleventh hour ?
    1. Maxxx 14 years ago
      
      Probably,
      
      But you're not addressing the point that Jesus says "Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? ... Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
      
      Which cuts against the concept of social justice
      1. sarcasmic 14 years ago
        
        Isn't the concept of social justice an oxymoron?
        
        Justice is an absence of injustice.
        Injustice is a violation of one's life, liberty or property.
        Step one of social "justice" is violating the life, liberty and property of others.
        How can that be "justice"?
        
        WTF 14 years ago
        
        Yeah, you turn most any concept into its exact opposite by simply placing 'social' in fron of it.
      2. O2 14 years ago
        
        so ur saying jesus wouldnt believe in social justice?
    2. Michael Ejercito 14 years ago
      
      wanna bet no workers start tomorrow until the eleventh hour ?
      
      Only if they were willing to risk that there might not be a vacancy at the eleventh hour.
  2. sarcasmic 14 years ago
    
    Suck on that socialist douchebags.
    
    Isn't that a bit redundant?
    
    Kinda like 'unique individual' or 'joint cooperation'?
  3. Fluffy 14 years ago
    
    The funny thing about that parable is that if Jesus told me that parable face-to-face, I'd say to him:
    
    "You know what? It's his money, but the vineyard owner is still a dick."
    
    Because the vineyard owner is, in fact, a dick.
    
    Which implies that the Father is a dick, too. But I guess Jesus didn't see that.
    1. WTF 14 years ago
      
      I think the point is that the owner has right to be a dick with his own money.
      1. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
        
        The point of the parable is that it ndoesn't matter when in your life you accept salvation. Whether you're 12, 30 or 86, all receive the same compensation: eternal life.
        
        WTF 14 years ago
        
        Okay, ^this^ too.
    2. R C Dean 14 years ago
      
      The owner paid everyone what they agreed to take.
      
      The owner paid some people more than other people thought they should get.
      
      How is the owner being a dick?
  4. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
    
    "Jesus defends the concept of salvation through faith with a parable about an orchard owner having the right to pay whatever wages he wants."
    
    Even if it's below minimum wage?
8. NoVAHockey 14 years ago
  
  I personally think you have to get your hands dirty. Care for the sick, feed the hungry, etc. You can't outsource works of mercy and still claim credit. The key is that your money, time, work must be given freely.
  1. NoVAHockey 14 years ago
    
    and that you keep your mouth shut about it. nobody needs to know how pious you think you are.
    1. T 14 years ago
      
      Glad to see somebody else isn't a fan of charity bragging.
  2. Michael Ejercito 14 years ago
    
    I personally think you have to get your hands dirty. Care for the sick, feed the hungry, etc. You can't outsource works of mercy and still claim credit. The key is that your money, time, work must be given freely.
    
    The obvious solution is to have kids so that there would be someone hungry to feed, someone sick to visit, etc.
9. PIRS 14 years ago
  
  I don't recall Jesus advocating that anyone be forced to give up his or her property.
  1. O2 14 years ago
    
    in fact, jesus instructed his disciples to divest themselves of their earthly belongings
    1. Maxxx 14 years ago
      
      Key word being themselves
      
      he didn't direct the looting by the local Roman army as a way to force people into heaven.
    2. sarcasmic 14 years ago
      
      I missed the part where he instructed them to forcibly divest others of their earthly belongings in the name of charity.
      Then again it has been several decades since I picked up that book.
    3. Brett L 14 years ago
      
      You should re-read the whole "easier a camel fit through the eye of a needle passage". He instructed them not to be more attached to their earthly belongings than their God. He did not advocate asceticism on the level practiced by John the Baptist.
      1. Fluffy 14 years ago
        
        I think he's referring to the whole "Give away your stuff to the poor and come and follow me" instructions he gave to his disciples.
        
        Michael Ejercito 14 years ago
        
        I think he's referring to the whole "Give away your stuff to the poor and come and follow me" instructions he gave to his disciples.
        
        I guess Ted Kennedy was not a disciple of Jesus .
        
        sloopyinca 14 years ago
        
        And I'm sure they will never have a face to face meeting.
      2. O2 14 years ago
        
        the "eye of the needle" passage is bewildering to lay people. it refers to the shape (wide on top) of the enterences into fortified, walled cities so camels loaded w goods could pass thru.
        
        Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
        
        ^^THIS
    4. PIRS 14 years ago
      
      "in fact, jesus instructed his disciples to divest themselves of their earthly belongings"
      
      Did he advocate throwing those who did not inside a cage called a jail?
10. Jersey Patriot 14 years ago
  
  It's been a while since I read the Gospels, but I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't discuss who ought to own the means of production.
  1. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
    
    Sweet!
  2. O2 14 years ago
    
    and yet young jesus was in a phoenican guild...which was a trade union.
11. Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago
  
  "Let's pass over his caricature of capitalism"
  
  This reminds me of something I was thinking last night. Libertarians need to quit talking about capitalism. The focus should be on Free Enterprise.
  1. yep 14 years ago
    
    Everybody loves Shatner.
12. Il Douchey 14 years ago
  
  Really, Jesus "go out and steal from thy neighbor to give to the poor"? I must have missed that part of the Bible.
MNG 14 years ago

Two discussions of the 11th's Obamacafre opinion, one you guys will not like, one you might.

Individual Mandate: Federalism and Rights

A common criticism of arguments that the individual mandate is beyond Congress's power to enact is that the arguments are "really" concerned with individual liberty...There are many ways to poke holes in the arguments that the individual mandate is unconstitutional but calling it a liberty argument is not one of them.

As the majority opinion last Friday helpfully recognized, federalism is about individual liberties (as well as about other things)

http://balkin.blogspot.com/201.....m-and.html

Why the 11th Circuit's Opinion Self-Destructs

Like a tragic literary figure, the 11th Circuit's opinion declaring the individual mandate unconstitutional is doomed to failure by its own internal contradictions. What follows is a series of quotes directly from the opinion, paired to show how desperately the majority twisted logic in order to find its path to a unsupportable conclusion

http://balkin.blogspot.com/201.....-self.html
Alan Vanneman 14 years ago

"Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wants to defund the parts of the Israeli Military that may or may not be committing human rights violations."

I believe you meant "Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wants to cut off U.S. funding for the parts of the Israeli Military that he believes have committed human rights violations."

Why should we be funding the Israeli military in the first place? Can't they pay for it?
1. heller 14 years ago
  
  Rhoemite!
2. PIRS 14 years ago
  
  "Why should we be funding the Israeli military in the first place?"
  
  For the same reason we are funding Palestinian terrorists?
  1. Aqua-Rabbit 14 years ago
    
    Entertainment?
    1. PIRS 14 years ago
      
      There are lobbyists for both Israel and the enemies of Israel, that is why.
  2. MNG 14 years ago
    
    Do we provide military aid to the Palestinians? I don't think so (iirc we cut off ALL aid to Gaza when Hamas won their election), and even if we did I'm betting it's not comparable to what give to Israel.
    1. O2 14 years ago
      
      sorry, doesnt fit the wingnutz meme
    2. Brett L 14 years ago
      
      Has Hamas renounced its goal of destroying the Israeli state? I'm sure we give them money through the government we control.
      1. O2 14 years ago
        
        the US doesnt "fund" hamas & has denounced hamas as a terrorist org.
        
        Brett L 14 years ago
        
        Who controls the Palestinian government again?
        
        Isaac Bartram 14 years ago
        
        Fatah controls the West Bank, Hamas controls Gaza.
        
        All US aid to the Palestinians goes to Fatah (who are still the same kleptocrats they were when Arafat was alive).
        
        You average Palestinian is just plain fucked, jammed as he is between his "government" which is either thieves or terrorists his "friends" the other Arab governments who cynically use him to score political points and the Israeli government that won't just leave him alone because of all of the forgoing.
    3. shorter MNG 14 years ago
      
      JOOS!!!
      1. O2 14 years ago
        
        actually shorter vanneman. do try to keep up
        
        shorter O2 14 years ago
        
        herp
    4. PIRS 14 years ago
      
      http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy.....?id=231103
    5. Mongo 14 years ago
      
      We cut aid to Gaza -- yes.
      
      We still support Fatah in the West Bank.
      1. O2 14 years ago
        
        yes but fatah isnt firing missles into israel & shooting civilians like hamas.
        
        PIRS 14 years ago
        
        O2, since you like accusations so much we could simply "go by" accusations that Fatah is.
3. Restoras 14 years ago
  
  Can we finally kick Vermont out of the Union?
  1. PIRS 14 years ago
    
    Some of them WANT to be kicked out.
    
    http://vermontrepublic.org/
  2. P Brooks 14 years ago
    
    Apparently the Snake-Oil-Salesman-in-Chief has taken his road show into the hinterlands. I wonder what sort of chaos and disruption his search for love and approval is causing.
DesigNate 14 years ago

Saw this little gem on Yahoo when I got into the office this morning:

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-sa.....03366.html

First I'm going to repeat that if Buffett thinks he isn't paying enough taxes, he can always pay more.

Second, I'm going to call partial bullshit on his spurious claim that the other people in his office had a "tax burden between 33 and 41 percent". It's not that I don't believe the percentage, just that he's obfuscating the fact that if their burden was that much then they aren't some poor middle class person making 48k a year.
1. Isaac Bartram 14 years ago
  
  ...if their burden was that much then they aren't some poor middle class person making 48k a year.
  
  ...
  
  So even if the top marginal rate is raised, they'll still end up paying higher taxes, since they still don't get the deductions and exemptions he does.
  1. DesigNate 14 years ago
    
    The fact remains that he doesn't HAVE to claim those deductions and exemptions. If he REALLY WANTED to pay more taxes, he fucking could and he fucking knows it.
    
    And no amount of raising taxes is going to solve our problems.
Brett L 14 years ago

Not a Rick Perry fan, but I present James Fallows, unself-aware pearl clutcher.

"Perry's comments about Ben Bernanke cut through any such subtlety. If Bernanke "prints money" in the next 15 months, toward the end of forestalling a recession or preserving jobs, Perry would consider that "almost treasonous." This is the kind of thing you just don't hear from national-level politicians, and for a reason. (For starters: the punishment for treason is death.)"

Unless that national-level politician is Joe Biden. Or Nancy Pelosi. Or John McCain. Or any one of a dozen "safe" politicians.

In short, Perry's rhetoric seems to have scared the shit out of TEAM BLUE. Maybe Ron Paul can find a way to make hay by pointing out he's been saying this for 25 years?
P Brooks 14 years ago

Fuck you, "Reply to This"!
1. SugarFree 14 years ago
  
  You are now tainted forever. Forever!
  1. Lord Humungus 14 years ago
    
    Never in all my internet history have I seen a blog with so many references to taint.
    1. T 14 years ago
      
      Go hit up Urkobold. All taint, all the time.
      1. Pro Libertate 14 years ago
        
        Oddly enough, BP's latest post (the latest post, in fact) addresses boar taint.
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        "All taint, all the time." Totally should be the site motto for Urky.
        
        Pro Libertate 14 years ago
        
        I'd agree, but that motto is tainted.
        
        SugarFree 14 years ago
        
        Then it's perfect.
Fluffy 14 years ago

So if Congress passes a bill defunding Obamacare and a future President signs it but secretly funds it fluffy will be going "ha, how clever!"

It certainly would be clever, since I don't see how it could possibly be done.

But I would expect the underlying issue to be adjudicated. As it should have been after Iran-Contra, but wasn't, because President Alzheimer's pussed out on it.

I wouldn't call it the "Obamacare Scandal", though.
Fluffy 14 years ago

Key word being themselves

While it is definitely true that Jesus nowhere directs his followers to create a government to forcibly redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor -

It is also true that if everyone took Jesus' teachings literally, we would live in a stateless primitive-communism society.

So it's valid to say that Jesus was not a state socialist, but not really right to call him a capitalist either.
Warty 14 years ago

"American Cutter," man previously imprisoned after performing castrations, arrested in Elmore County
1. SugarFree 14 years ago
  
  pics or gtfo
Made in the USA, by Illegals 14 years ago

Bye, bye, bitches!

MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin's powerful statewide teachers union said 40 percent of its staff members were laid off Monday as a result of the law pushed by Gov. Scott Walker and passed by the Legislature curbing collective bargaining rights.

Wisconsin Education Association Council executive director Dan Burkhalter said the laying off of 42 workers resulted from what he called Walker's "union-busting" bill. Opponents had argued one of the law's goals was weakening the power of unions like WEAC, which is typically one of the biggest spenders in campaigns on behalf of Democrats.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_1.....ost_viewed
notsure 14 years ago

The Florida Pill Mill story...

They call it an epidemic, but you have to look real close to see they are talking about 1500 deaths "from Oxycodone." The autopsies are presented as "deceased persons with this drug in their system"

I smell a rat here. First, 1500 deaths is not an epidemic. Second, it isn't clear that those deaths were from Oxy, or any other drug. There is no information on the age of the patient, their medical status, or any other useful information. This looks like typical scare mongering to me.
1. R C Dean 14 years ago
  
  Because people taking Oxycodone never have other medical conditions that could have caused their death.
  
  Consider: some of them were also smokers, so their deaths will get double-counted as "smoking" and "Oxy" deaths.
  1. Pudgeboy 14 years ago
    
    Agreed, they use this tactic to create 'scientific' studies that supposedly prove the evil of second, and now, third-hand cigarette smoke. Nonsense. Prove it with real analysis, or shut up.
Enjoy Every Sandwich 14 years ago

Now that I've heard Rick Perry give a couple of stump speeches, I'm wondering if he's deliberately practicing to sound exactly like George W. Bush. And why the fuck would that be a good idea?
1. Mike M. 14 years ago
  
  It's actually the other way around. Perry is the real, honest-to-goodness rural Texan; Bush is the faker.
me/dwc 14 years ago

Puzzle me this - at what point do we begin to call out the media for being the red, white and blue version of Pravda and the talking heads as traitors to the American people?
1. O2 14 years ago
  
  who's "we" ?
aaaa 14 years ago

reason # 562 LRC is better than reason. rick pArry promoting: acting as if anything he says is genuinely indicative of likely future policy positions, and not opportunist posturing a la romney. and liking it.
Cytotoxic 14 years ago

So in other words, Leahy wants to do nothing to America?s IDF funding? Cause that?s what he?s saying.
Nike Dunk High Women 13 years ago

thanks

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Reason Morning Links: Pillbilly Crackdown, Defunding the IDF, Ron Paul's Media Blackout, Rick Perry's Crony Capitalism

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