Reason Morning Links: Censors, Stalkers, Sack Lunches

• Irene hits the eastern U.S.
• Mayor to Rikers Island prisoners: Stay put, it's just a storm.
• The CIA wants to censor a former FBI agent's memoir.
• A judge blocks Missouri's absurd new Facebook law.
• Revelations from the latest WikiLeaks leaks.
• Lynchings in Libya.
• Can speech be "stalking"?
• The sack lunch scare.

The latest from Reason.tv: Don Smith on the economy.

Comments

[Bee Tagger]

Irene hits, like a girl, the eastern U.S.

[Pissy Arch]

At least 21 deaths in nine states were blamed on Irene

Hilarious!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah! Three of them were my grandmother! (When she sat around the house...)

[Pissy Arch]

PAY ATTENTION TO ME!

[Warty]

PWND!

[Cowboy]

Any time someone dies during a hurricane, regardless of how, it's always the hurricane's fault.

Like the guy who hit a tree and died. The tree wasn't in the road or anything, guy was speeding and lost control of his car. DAMN YOU IRENE!!!

[Quetzalcoatl]

The worst are the people who died while canoeing or windsurfing during the hurricane.

[O2]

Is Rick Perry dumb?
By JONATHAN MARTIN | 8/29/11 4:39 AM EDT

Strip away the euphemisms, and Rick Perry is confronting an unavoidable question: is he dumb - or just misunderestimated?

"He's like Bush only without the brains," cracked one former Republican governor who knows Perry, repeating a joke that has made the rounds.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/s.....z1WQSlBx97

[Mike M.]

And as we all know, Block Yomomma is a friggin' genius.

[Fatty Bolger]

RACIST!

Oh, you said block. nvm

[Old Mexican]

If I had a penny
for every time
a left-wing asshole
spake his mind
about right-wing politicians
being dumb and asinine
I would be a rich dude
your house would be mine!
Not that they are correct,
being left-wing and all;
there are ever the dumber
in the other camp they fall.

And yes, I wrote that - myself!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Impressive.

[O2]

so politico is "left-wing" because they quote texas republicans?

[Old Mexican]

Re: Double Asshole,

so politico is "left-wing" because they quote texas republicans?

Would you, oh-so-stupid one, quote from a right wing mag?

[O2]

"quoting texas republicans" sherlock

[O2]

how exactly does "quoting texas republicans" make politico "left-wing"?

[R C Dean]

Devil, scripture, etc.

[The Immaculate O2]

hay gaiz rick prrys a totul dumi LOL he shud reed a dickshunarie sumtim

[Warty]

Can speech be "stalking"?

Ask SugarFree.

Is Al Gore a race? Cuz fuck him.

Morning prog

[Pissy Arch]

PWND!

[Warty]

What, rectal? I still can't hear you, even if you found a new computer to post from. You stupid fucking fat whore.

[Pissy Arch]

PAY ATTENTION TO ME!

[Pissy Arch]

Why cant we get beter troles?!

[Warty]

STOP STALKING ME!

[Pissy Arch]

Dance, puppets!1!

[Pissy Arch]

PAY ATTENTION TO ME!

[Wartys Mom]

You stupid fucking fat whore.

That's it! I'm kicking you out!

[Blog Anarchy]

Utopia!

[Wow]

It really does make the puppets dance.

[Bee Tagger]

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the lazy Mexicains?

[gaijin]

Love the Opeth! Thanks for sharing (though I wish I had not read any of the comments on youtube...sheesh)

[Warty]

Yeah, I'm not sorry that they've switched from death metal to prog, because they do 70s prog so well.

[Not Rather]

PWND!

[Abner]

The Al Gore link froze my browser.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A judge blocks Missouri's absurd new Facebook law.

Unliked.

[Bee Tagger]

Thanks to Facebook's new privacy laws, you have the option of whether or not to alert law enforcement when you say something a pedophile would say. Thanks a lot Google+.

[Quetzalcoatl]

The Amy Hestir Student Protection Act was named after [...]

Says it all...

[R C Dean]

C'mon, the suspense is killing me!

Who was it named after?

[SugarFree]

Weather is not climate, except when we want it to be.

[Bee Tagger]

This year has seen more billion-dollar weather-related disasters than any other year in U.S. history, he says, and global warming is to blame.

He must be one of those people that believes that the highest grossing movies at the box office is a meaningful statistic.

[Warty]

RACIST

[SugarFree]

PWND!

[Abner]

Maybe you should go fuck yourself? ktxbai

[Warty]

PWND!

[sarcasmic]

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed weather forecasters speak of temperatures as "below average" and "above normal"?
As if to make a subtle point that whenever it's hot outside it's not normal and due to Global Climate Change?.
While whenever it's going to be cold it's only below average.

[O2]

^example of wingnut radio paranoia^

[PIRS]

What does any of this have to do with Pterocarya?

[JW]

Of course, McKibble is the same marxist sack of shit who thinks that failing newspapers should be state run.

[PIRS]

"The United Nations issued an urgent call for restraint by both sides in the bloody and bitter endgame to the civil war yesterday. But the thirst for vengeance has been difficult to control, to which the morgues, hospitals and the urban killings fields of the Libyan capital bore testimony."

The United Nations - is there a more useless organization on the planet? It is very easy to call for restraint by both sides. Here let me try: I call for restraint by both sides. Now, where is my check from the United States treasury?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The sack lunch scare.

Teabaggers!

[Jeff P.]

Moving forward I will refer to my scrotum as my Lunchables.

[Barack Obama]

Lynchings in Libya.

"Let me be clear: Mission accomplished!"

[Tim]

No one could have foreseen this.

[Sinic]

9 Out of 10 Preschoolers' Lunches Reach Unsafe temperatures

According to this MSNBC account, "Unsafe, as the researchers defined it, was anything that sat for more than two hours between 39 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit."

This is why so few of us survived.

[PIRS]

If MSNBC is actually concerned about this I have a solution : increase homeschooling. Who knows, the kids might actually learn something too!

[O2]

homeschooled kidz are the socially-retarded, fat kidz that nobody picks for their team

[T]

And how did that make you feel?

[John]

Even if your parents had sent you to a public school, you still would have been a fat stupid kid no one liked.

[O2]

sorry i didnt pick u for the team reetard. good luck finding a date for the prom

[PIRS]

You are aware it is possible to form social groups outside of public indoctrination camps, do you not?

By they way, I (when used as a pronoun) is always capitalized in the English language.

[PIRS]

I mean, do you not have social groups not related to a public indoctrination camp?

[O2]

possible yes. usual no...outside of some religious wackjobz meetings. homeschooled kidz are socially inept & physically pathetic

[John]

I am sure you know so many of them. You really strike me as the type who just loves to hang around with people who home school their kids or that anyone would even let you around their kids if you did.

[John]

I am sure you know so many of them. You really strike me as the type who just loves to hang around with people who home school their kids or that anyone would even let you around their kids if you did.

[PIRS]

"possible yes. usual no...outside of some religious wackjobz meetings. homeschooled kidz are socially inept & physically pathetic"

Have you ever seen any actual studies on this? I am interested in where you find these "facts".

By the way, pluralization in the English language is usually accomplished by adding an s, not a z. May I recommend you purchase a copy of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style.

[db]

Strunk/White

[PIRS]

I love XKCD, it is a brilliant comic. I subscribe to the rss feed.

[RetardOO]

im livin proofs of good pubic schoolz! your all stoopid homescool reetards!

[dunphy]

finding the shift key is hard. i have lots of problems with it myself.

[RetardOO]

c im no dummer than dunphy

[O2]

take ur malox old mex

[PIRS]

"take ur malox old mex"

Insults that are not at least somewhat comprehensible are infective.

[2O]

better than saying "a senior moment"

[PIRS]

Says the commenter who does not capitalize his (or her) sentence or add a period or spell the word kids correctly.

By the way you should have "that" refers to inanimate objects, not people.

[Lord Humungus]

hmmm... I know a perfectly wonderful woman who has three girls. She's a lefty (in the organic gardening way), but home-schools.

[PIRS]

So she actually wants her children to learn things???? Wow!!

[O2]

but not how to effectively interact w peers...who are also athletic

[PIRS]

Are you unaware that people organize sporting activities outside of government indoctrination camps? Perhaps you have never heard of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (and equivalent groups for nonbelievers? Perhaps you are unaware of neighborhood sports clubs? Perhaps you have never heard of martial arts dojos?

[2O]

oh yea, im sure home-schoolers & their suspicious-of-the-world parents r all over that.

[Tim Tebow, Heisman Winner]

homeschooled kidz are the socially-retarded, fat kidz that nobody picks for their team

*Ahem*

[Doug]

+1

[Auric Demonocles]

Well to be fair, no one should have picked you.

[Fist of Etiquette]

YOUR CHILD COULD DIE AT ANY FUCKING SECOND. Details after weather and traffic.

[Abner]

This!

I remember a news blurb that said "This commonly used baby food could kill your baby!!!!! We'll tell you what it is on Thursday.

[Fatty Bolger]

Yeah, the threat is way overblown, and besides, typical lunch meat today is loaded with salt and preservatives.

If you read old books, it's pretty obvious that mild food poisoning was very common, though it was usually blamed on poor digestion.

[R C Dean]

I frequently bring my lunch to work, where it sits in my office for between 4 and 6 hours at those temperatures.

I've probably done this well over a thousand times, anyway.

Never got sick.

[Ska]

Well bourbon tends not to spoil at room temperature.

[Aqua-Assault-Rabbit]

Obama In Charge.
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-ta.....39005.html
Using his unicorn magic - the Heroic Barry fought the hurricane to a draw - saving or creating 10's of millions of lives.

[DJF]

Don't forget creating millions of jobs, think of all the broken windows. The economy is saved!!!!!

[sarcasmic]

LeAnn Rimes really needs to eat something.

[Warty]

It's not good when a chick's shoulders are wider than her hips.

[druther]

Jealous?

[Sinic]

Why can't you just judge her by who she is and not how she looks?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Why can't you just judge her by who she is and not how she looks?

Considering that she's a home-wrecking, vacuous bitch, perhaps her looks are now reflecting who she is.

[Jezebel reader]

You just raped me with your words!

[Surly Chef]

Warty,

I think you'll agree that cardio minus squatting makes women look like Skeletor.

[Warty]

Squat

It would be nice if I could reply to you on the correct thread, though.

[Rectal Clone]

PWND!

[John]

Like many southern women, her looks peaked at about 18.

[Barack Obama]

Like many southern women, her looks peaked at about 18.

[Warty]

Remember how cute she was when she was 14 or 15? Time is almost as cruel as anorexia.

[John]

She was quite attractive jail bait.

[Art-P.O.G.]

In the photo where she's sticking her tongue out, I was reminded of Spinal from "Killer Instinct".

[sarcasmic]

Like many southern women, her looks peaked at about 18.

[John]

I disagree. A lot of women's looks peak in their 30s. There are a lot of great looking 30 somethings out there. But they tend not to be Southern. Usually southern women get fat in their 20s rather than starve themselves. So this is not quite a classic case of southern women's disease.

[sarcasmic]

Round here they can be pretty hot in their early 20s. Then they put on ten to fifteen pounds a year so by the time they hit their mid 30s they have handicapped placard hanging from the mirror of their minivan.

[sarcasmic]

And I'm about as far north as you can get without being in Canada.

[Abner]

Watch out for snipers.

[Auric Demonocles]

My elementary school was about 1000 feet from the border and I have noticed a similar pattern. Perhaps they're trying to stay warm?

[Lord Humungus]

very true with Dutch girls - I'm surrounded by them - great bods until 18ish. Then the big-booty demon strikes.

My wife, who is half-Irish and Half-Finnish (Fire and Ice!) has managed quite well against the ravages of time.

[John]

But Dutch women tend to be tall meaning they can get away with having a big ass a little easier.

[Sir Mix-A-Lot]

I like big butts and I can not lie.

[sarcasmic]

Round here most of them are French.
Short and hairy.
Blech.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Wait, big booty "demon"?

[Lord Humungus]

do not sayeth his name
or the demon bane
shall forever strike
like the ghost of shrike

[Lord Humungus]

milk-shake, pronto!

[Pissy Arch]

We are not a sausage party!
Women love us!

[Rachel Maddow]

Can speech be "stalking"?

Citizens United allows corporations to stalk the American people with commercials!

[sarcasmic]

Student kicked out of college for "lack of empathy".

Sounds like he's got potential as a libertarian...;-)

[SugarFree]

It's funny because it's true. Funny and true.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Schwartz said he left his job as a computer help desk technician to join the program.

There's your problem right there. Working help desk will turn anyone heartless and unfeeling.

[T]

Any job with prolonged exposure to the general public turns you into a heartless monster, because most people suck.

[Doug]

That and hitting middle-age.

[Fatty Bolger]

Maybe he's a fan of Dr. Switzer.

[The Psychology of Empire]

Brain lesions are not the only effect of modern birthing methods. The imprints of the birth trauma itself are often severe. The mass institution of modern industrially based medicine, with its vast array of expensive machinery and industrially produced drugs seems to produce results consonant with the quality of civilization itself- mechanicalness, unfeelingness and human alienation. Instead of the warm comfort of the mother, the infant is treated as an object, slapped by a stranger and taken away by another stranger into a nursery where it is put into a crib.

It is at this point that civilized people often bond to material objects, namely, the security blanket.

Pearce asks, "What is the great learning? What is being built into the very fibers of that mind-brain-body system as the initial experiences of life?"

It is that, "Encounters with people are causes of severe, unbroken, unrelenting stress, and that stress finds its only reduction through contact with material objects."

The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future
by William H. K?tke
http://www.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire/

[sarcasmic]

Thank you for providing an example of why I consider the field of psychology to be a bunch of horse shit.

[wylie]

a bunch of horse shit.

Slow down now. horse shit can actually serve a valid purpose. Now, dog shit, on the other hand...

[sarcasmic]

Good point.

[The Psychology of Empire]

Of course you would, just like other Fundamentalist Religionists consider empirical evidence to be "horseshit" when it critiques their Faith-Based world view.

And they call this joint "Reason." LOL

After causing a stir among child development specialists it was discovered that there were some babies in Uganda whose development resembled that of industrial medicine countries. These babies they found in the few hospitals in Uganda:

"Gerber found that they did not smile until some two and a half months after birth. Nor were they precocious in any sense. They showed no signs of Sensorimotor learning, displayed no uncanny intelligence for some two and a half months, at which point some signs of intelligence were apparent. Blood analyses showed that high levels of adrenal steroids connected with birth stress were still prevalent at two and a half months. These infants slept massively, cried when awake, were irritable and colicky, frail and helpless. So the issue was not in some racial predisposition toward early intellectual growth. The issue lay solely with what happens to the newborn infant in hospitals."4

Birth trauma and the failure of bonding are serious matters to the future life of the baby. Such a simple thing as cutting the umbilical cord too quickly in the modern assembly-line hospital setting causes irreparable harm by causing brain lesions- minor strokes, which are referred to as anoxia. Newell Kephart, Director of the Achievement Center for Children at Purdue University, says that 15 to 20 percent of all children examined had learning and behavior problems resulting from minor undetected brain injury. Others say that 20 to 40 percent of the school population are handicapped by learning problems that may be related to neurological impairments at birth.5

Pearce in his study Magical Child, tells of the tests done by medical doctor William F. Windle. Windle became doubtful about the birthing methods of industrial medicine and created a test with monkeys, (who normally need no help giving birth). Windle took a number of pregnant monkeys and subjected them to the normal hospital birthing methods, including drugs, anesthesia, forceps and the cutting of the umbilical cord in the usual time he had seen it done in hospitals.

He found that because of the drugs and anesthesia the baby monkeys could not breathe and needed the artificial resuscitation that hospitals customarily use. Instead of clinging to the mother shortly after emergence, Windle's monkey babies were helpless and could not perform this task. In fact they could not cling to their mothers for several weeks.
Later Windle autopsied the infants that had died during birth or whom did not live full term. He found severe brain lesions in every case from the anoxia at birth. Later he autopsied the monkeys who lived to adulthood and found that they also had brain lesions. Windle later autopsied human babies that had died during birth or shortly after and found that they had brain lesions similar to the monkeys in his tests.

The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future
by William H. K?tke
http://www.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire/

[John]

It says it in a book. It must be true.

[Mises Forces Children]

Yeah, a book once told me how utterly nasty human babies are born, and how they have to have the shit beat out of them - forced to accept the "advantages" of civilization:

Man is born an asocial and antisocial being. The newborn child is a savage. Egoism is his nature. Only the experience of life and the teachings of his parents, his brothers, sisters, playmates, and later of other people force him to acknowledge the advantages of social cooperation and accordingly to change his behavior.

~Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government

It says it in a book. It must be true!

LOLOLOLOLOL

[Old Mexican]

Re: White Imbecile,

The above tells me the white imbecile has no offspring. What Mises says about children IS true: They're asocial, egotistical despots.

[Original Sinners until Saved]

What Mises says about children IS true: They're asocial, egotistical despots.

Is Libertarianism Propertarianism your magical salvation plan to make humanity moral?

Are you Calvinist about it? Only a few people like you are predestined to holiness?

[sarcasmic]

Psychology isn't a faith-based world view?

[Old Mexican]

What I love is the instant validity given to the essay by the name of the site: rainbow body.

My first guess at seeing that name would be "full-body tatooing," but I guess even cranks and crackpots have a difficult time with site names.

[White Indian]

Anything beautiful and natural flowing from Mother Earth earns your instant derision, because yours is a culture of Mass Death.

Premise Nineteen: The culture's problem lies above all in the belief that controlling and abusing the natural world is justifiable.

~Derrick Jensen
Endgame
http://www.endgamethebook.org/.....emises.htm

[sarcasmic]

A fallacy is argument based upon a false premise.

[Old Mexican]

Re: White Imbecile,

Anything beautiful and natural flowing from Mother Earth earns your instant derision, because yours is a culture of Mass Death.

You're absolutely right - billions of death bacteria can attest for my culture of cleanliness...

[Old Mexican]

Dorry - dead bacteria.

[MassDeath as a Harmful Fetish]

Are You Disinfecting Your Way to Poor Health?

In an ironic twist, while you're disinfecting your body and your home to keep your family safe, you may actually be creating far more dangerous problems than those you're trying to avoid.

For starters, a child raised in an environment doused in disinfectant soaps and cleansers, who is given antibiotics that kill off all of the good and bad bacteria in his gut, and kept away from the natural dirt, germs, viruses and other grime of childhood, is not able to build up natural resistance to disease, and becomes vulnerable to illnesses later in life.

This theory, known as the hygiene hypothesis, is likely one reason why many allergies and immune-system diseases have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in the last few decades.

But it doesn't end there.

One of the most common antibacterials is triclosan, a chlorinated phenolic compound. Triclosan has been found to have both estrogenic and androgenic activity and has been linked to hormone disruption in animals.

http://articles.mercola.com/si.....tance.aspx

[sarcasmic]

Hippies Smell

[Uh huh]

And only primitive women have saggy breasts, right?

Let your women take a look at a jungle female with her shriveled face and pendulous breasts, as she sits grinding meal in a bowl, hour after hour, century by century..." ~Ayn Rand

Do you know why people don't give you libertarians any respect? They aren't stupid. Ya'll are not up to even middle school intellects around here.

Ohhhh, you so smelly. That's REASON for ya.

[Jack The Reaper]

"This theory, known as the hygiene hypothesis"

So which is it, a theory or a hypothesis?

[Toki]

Death Bacteria...good song title, someone write that down...oh that's right, we already wrote that song. Good song, though!

[White Idiot]

When NASA was preparing for the Apollo project, they did
some training on a Navajo Indian reservation.
One day, a Navajo elder and his son were herding sheep and
came across the space crew. The old man, who spoke only Navajo,
asked a question which his son translated.
"What are these guys in the big suits doing?"
A member of the crew said they were practicing for their trip
to the moon. The old man got all excited and asked if he could
send a message to the moon with the astronauts.
Recognizing a promotional opportunity for the spin-doctors,
the NASA folks found a tape recorder.
After the old man recorded his message, they asked the son
to translate it. He refused.
So the NASA reps brought the tape to the reservation where
the rest of the tribe listened and laughed but refused to
translate the elder's message to the moon.
Finally, the NASA crew called in an official government
translator. He reported that the moon message said, "Watch
out for these guys; they have come to steal your land."

[BrokeBroker]

... drink ?

[Fluffy]

Are you seriously proposing that babies and children in Uganda present higher IQ's and superior development to babies and children in the United States?

[White Supremicist]

Are you seriously proposing that babies and children in Uganda present higher IQ's and superior development to babies and children in the United States?

Of course not, Fluffy. Those damn leftist scientists are. We all know those mud colored children are inferior.

[Fluffy]

They aren't inferior, but their lack of prenatal care, less effective childhood nutrition, protein-deficient diets, and exposure to endemic childhood diseases lead to a population that is across-the-board deficient relative to the US population in just about every measurement category.

[White Indian]

Looks like empathy-deficient "first world" industrial childbirth is as harmful to infant brains as "third world" material-deficiency horrors.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Looks like empathy-deficient "first world" industrial childbirth is as harmful to infant brains as "third world" material-deficiency horrors.

You mean there's no 100% safe way to provide childbirth? Well, how about that!

[Numeromancer]

Yeah, we need more empathy. Like the indians.

[White Idiot]

A tourist stopped off at a small railroad station where, sitting
by the side of the tracks, there were Indians selling their wares.
The tourist saw a blanket he liked very much, and was told that
the price was a hundred dollars. The tourist offered fifty.
The Indian said, "Price is one hundred. Bargains like Manhattan
you no get anymore!"

[Fluffy]

Instead of the warm comfort of the mother, the infant is treated as an object, slapped by a stranger and taken away by another stranger into a nursery where it is put into a crib.

If you weren't retarded and a smelly hippie, you would be aware that this hasn't been the case in any hospital delivery room or maternity ward for several decades now, other than in cases involving premature infants that require incubator care.

[White Indian]

If you weren't retarded and a smelly hippie...

If you weren't a retarded and spiteful libertarian, you would be aware that childbirth is improving, but the industrial childbirth as a medical illness model is still horrific.

The Business of Being Born
http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/

[Red Rocks Rockin]

If you weren't a retarded and spiteful libertarian,

If you weren't retarded and completely incapable of fending for yourself, you'd be living the Shackbrah lifestyle in Wyoming instead of using all this icky technology.

[White Indian]

If you weren't retarded and completely incapable of defending for yourself, you'd be living in a place where they aren't paying any icky taxes, right?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

If you weren't retarded and completely incapable of defending for yourself, you'd be living in a place where they aren't paying any icky taxes, right?

The difference is that you can live the Shackbrah lifestyle right now, in this country. Find me a place in the US where taxes don't exist and you might have a point.

[sarcasmic]

Like the guy on the hundred dollar bill said "Two things you can't escape: Death and Taxes".

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Hell, even accountants in Britian are running to Africa to become witch doctors. You can't even make it through one weekend camping at a KOA site.

[Mr. FIFY]

Fuck off, White Indian.

[Aqua Buddha]

Why did Japan surrender?
...On Aug. 6, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped its payload on Hiroshima, leaving the signature mushroom cloud and devastation on the ground, including something on the order of 100,000 killed. (The figures remain disputed, and depend on how the fatalities are counted.)

As Hasegawa writes in his book "Racing the Enemy," the Japanese leadership reacted with concern, but not panic. On Aug. 7, Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo sent an urgent coded telegram to his ambassador in Moscow, asking him to press for a response to the Japanese request for mediation, which the Soviets had yet to provide. The bombing added a "sense of urgency," Hasegawa says, but the plan remained the same.

Very late the next night, however, something happened that did change the plan. The Soviet Union declared war and launched a broad surprise attack on Japanese forces in Manchuria. In that instant, Japan's strategy was ruined. Stalin would not be extracting concessions from the Americans. And the approaching Red Army brought new concerns: The military position was more dire, and it was hard to imagine occupying communists allowing Japan's traditional imperial system to continue. Better to surrender to Washington than to Moscow...

...The bomb - horrific as it was - was not as special as Americans have always imagined. In early March, several hundred B-29 Super Fortress bombers dropped incendiary bombs on downtown Tokyo. Some argue that more died in the resulting firestorm than at Hiroshima. People were boiled in the canals. The photos of charred Tokyo and charred Hiroshima are indistinguishable....

...To Japan's leaders, Hiroshima was yet another population center leveled, albeit in a novel way. If they didn't surrender after Tokyo, they weren't going to after Hiroshima....

[John]

1. That was after the first bomb. They thought maybe we only had one of them.

2. Yes, they were desperately hoping the Soviets would not join the war. That doesn't mean the bomb didn't change their minds about surrendering.

3. The Russians didn't have any Naval power. There is no way the Russians could have launched an invasion of Japan itself. All they could have done was take Korea and Manchuria. So I don't believe that the Japanese were worried about having to surrender to the Russians. It was the Americans who were capable of actually invading the island not the Soviets.

4. Yes, the Japanese had no intention of surrendering after Hiroshima. It should also be noted the full extent of the destruction was not known immediately. People didn't understand radiation sickness. But that is a double edged sword. It puts lie to the argument that the second bomb was unnecessary. It was totally necessary. Only after it was apparent that the US had a large supply of ABombs and was willing to use them, did the Japanese surrender. The emperor didn't mention the Soviets in his famous surrender speech. He said they were surrendering because the Americans had this horrible immoral form of warfare that had to be stopped.

[Fatty Bolger]

So they surrendered because of the Russians? That's ridiculous. The second bomb had them convinced that not only could the US turn Japan into a permanently uninhabitable island, it would, and in short order. They understood that no victor would allow concessions with that kind of power in hand.

[O2]

Japan nuke plant radiation leak exceeds Hiroshima By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) -- The amount of radioactive cesium that has leaked from a tsunami-hit nuclear plant is about equal to 168 of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II, Japan's nuclear agency said Friday.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency supplied the estimate at a parliamentary panel's request, but it noted a simple comparison between an instantaneous bomb blast and long-term accidental leak is impossible and the results could be "irrelevant."

The report estimated for each of the 16 isotopes released from "Little Boy" and 31 of those detected at the Fukushima plant but didn't provide the total. NISA has said the radiation leaked from Fukushima was about one-sixth of what the Chernobyl disaster released in 1986.

The report said the damaged plant has released 15,000 tera becquerels of cesium-137, which lingers for decades and could cause cancer, compared with the 89 tera becquerels released by the U.S. uranium bomb.

http://ap.stripes.com/dynamic/.....6-10-59-36

[Old Mexican]

Re: Double Asshole,

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency supplied the estimate at a parliamentary panel's request, but it noted a simple comparison between an instantaneous bomb blast and long-term accidental leak is impossible and the results could be "irrelevant."

Yet relevant enough for a clueless reporter to report on and a double-asshole to fap upon.

[O2]

the estimates are extrapolated fm above-ground testing in the nevada desert sherlock

[Britt]

The temperature has dropped 10 degrees in the last 5 hours. By my calculations, we only have a few days before temperature hits absolute zero and all life stops.

Three cheers for extrapolation!

[Lord Humungus]

Lord Humungus is back from his vacation in the wasteland. Much guzzoline was taken, many tankers were destroyed...

There's been too much violence, too much pain...

[Warty]

There has been too much trolling, too much rectal. None here are without sin. But I have an honorable compromise: Just walk away.

[John]

She is ruining the threads. I get tired of writing some fairly vanilla post only to have her piss all over it.

Sadly, they need to get rid of threaded comments. They have their uses. But the advantages are greatly outweighed by the ability it gives rather and other trolls to piss on each and every post.

[Warty]

Agree 100%. I'm just surprised that it took so long for the trolls to completely shit up the place.

[Pro Libertate]

I have some thoughts about this. Trolling here is rather boring, both for the regulars and the occasional lurker. Instead of just saying things to insult or offend libertarians, good trolls should challenge our assumptions and, better yet, act as agents provocateur.

For instance, don't say "Drive on any roads, lately?" and congratulate yourself on a successful trolling. Such comments are dull and show a superficial understanding of your audience. Instead, ask, say, an anarchist why he isn't out shooting red-light cameras right now. If he responds in some wimpy don't-wanna-get-arrested fashion, mock him with quotes from great libertarian and anarchist thinkers.

Ditto for your more minarchist libertarian--attack him regularly with quotes from Jefferson and others about revolting against oppression. Ask everyone why they aren't acting rather than typing. Like that guy Terry used to do, though I think he worked for the FBI. Or wanted to.

[Warty]

No, no, no. See rectal for how to troll in a totally not-boring way.

["rectal"]

Why can't you quit me? I mean, seriously, you and Episiarch are obsessed, and yet instead of ignoring "rectal" like any emotionally healthy individual would, you rise to the bait again and again. Why are you blaming "rectal"? Blame yourselves.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Whaddya think about the 'Mad Max' reboot with Tom Hardy, Humungus?

[Lord Humungus]

Didn't know of it... but now I'm feeling ill.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Well, I'm a huge fan of the Tom Hardy, otherwise I would probably feel ill as well.

[Pro Libertate]

When do I ever discuss rather's postings or trolling here? I'm not in any camp, but I will say that I come here for principally for discussions from a libertarian perspective. After all, how many fora exist for such discussions?

In any event, my comment was a general trolling advice comment. For do I not work for the Uber Troll Himself?

[R C Dean]

Sadly, they need to get rid of threaded comments.

The troll infestation increased markedly after threading, its true.

Cause and effect? I can see it. Threading makes it easier to fap back and forth.

Death to threaded comments!

[fires AK-47 into air]

[db]

*ducks under cover*

Fucking gravity, how does it work?

["rectal"]

"they need to get rid of threaded comments"

"Threading makes it easier to fap back and forth"

To do away with threaded comments would be an admission of defeat, an acknowledgement that anarchy must always lead to this. Are Reason (and the commentators who thrive on threaded anarchy) ready to admit failure and go back to a more civilized format? No.

So. You've gotten the blog you deserve. Kudos!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Here we go with the "Don't Thread on Me" crowd. Somehow we've gotten to the point that everything under the sun that we don't like can conveniently be blamed on threaded comments.

Linearism = statism!

[Pro Libertate]

Adnotatiunculae Bilicis Delenda Est.

[Fist of Etiquette]

As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy, than to create.

[Pro Libertate]

Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

[mofo]

You heard him! All we have to do is trade this junkpile for our lives.

[Pissy Arch]

Just walk away.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
You know you can't.

[Aqua-Assault-Rabbit]

The Parasites are getting nervous.
DC Metro is plastered with "Protect America's Heartbeat" ads.
http://www.narfe.org/heartbeat/
Remember, YOU OWE federal retirees a comfortable lifestyle for protecting your filthy asses from disease and stoners and terrorists and commies and hurricanes and lions and tigers and bears. Oh my.
NARF!

[John]

There are these ads around town that say nothing but the following

Stop obsessing about the economy. You will scare the children

I can't figure out what the hell that is supposed to mean. Is it really some kind of Orwellian propaganda telling people to stop noticing the economy?

[sarcasmic]

Unemployment was always 10%.
We were always at war with Libya.
Or was that labia?

[Fatty Bolger]

Recession blues? Hit the road.

[John]

Thanks. Free country I guess. But I think he could do something a bit more productive with his money.

[Zeb]

Seriously? I'm not sure if that is disturbingly Orwellian or just fucking hilarious. My initial reaction is that it has to be parody, but unintentional self-parody seems all too common these days.

[John]

I see them all over town. Go to Fatty's link for an explanation.

[Lord Humungus]

I seem to remember the days when gov't workers were underpaid. They knew they were underpaid, but enjoyed 'job security' instead of suffering the ups and downs of the market.

Even in the 70s my teachers would work jobs during the summer to make ends meet - one installed pools, another did farm work...

[Mike Laursen]

That's because those good old days were only about a dozen years ago.

[John]

http://news.yahoo.com/school-s.....06667.html

Nice of this guy to stop stealing after he has set himself up for life. What a guy.

[sloopyinca]

Once he stops working in 3 years, will he revert back to his CalPERS retirement pay of nearly $130k a year for the rest of his life?

Too bad his polio wasn't more effective.

[John]

$800,000. Not sure what makes me more sick, that he was ever making that much or the media cocksucking about what a great guy he is.

[Fist of Etiquette]

After Cassidy left, he started saying insulting things about Zeoli online, ultimately with over 8000 tweets over the span of several months. A few could be seen as potentially threatening, e.g., "ya like haiku? Here's one for ya: 'Long, Limb, Sharp Saw, Hard Drop' ROFLMAO."

That's not even haiku. He should get multiple reincarnated life sentences for that offense alone.

[John]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....9324.story

Cornelius Osborne may not seem like baby-sitting material.

He was convicted of raping two women. A succession of felonies, from robbery to failing to register as a sex offender, repeatedly sent him to prison, state records show.

But over more than two years, the state paid Osborne nearly $5,000 to baby-sit two children, before his latest conviction ? for dealing drugs ? put him back behind bars.

Related
Story: Profiles of state-paid baby sitters and those who lived with them
Topics
Abusive Behavior
Sex
Sex Crimes
See more topics ?

Osborne, of Chicago, wasn't the only sex offender paid by taxpayers to baby-sit, according to a Tribune investigation that found cases of convicted rapists, molesters and other violent felons given access to children over the past decade. The money comes from a $750 million-a-year program that subsidizes child care for more than 150,000 impoverished Illinois families.

I am just speechless.

[JW]

John--Stop posting Onion articles. You're not fooling anyone, ya know.

[Abner]

Cornelius Osborne may not seem like baby-sitting material.

He was convicted of raping two women. A succession of felonies, from robbery to failing to register as a sex offender, repeatedly sent him to prison, state records show.

But over more than two years, the state paid Osborne nearly $5,000 to baby-sit two children, before his latest conviction ? for dealing drugs ? put him back behind bars.

Osborne, of Chicago, wasn't the only sex offender paid by taxpayers to baby-sit, according to a Tribune investigation that found cases of convicted rapists, molesters and other violent felons given access to children over the past decade. The money comes from a $750 million-a-year program that subsidizes child care for more than 150,000 impoverished Illinois families.

The state Department of Human Services poorly vetted baby sitters for years ? and when a 2009 law forced better checks, it took nearly 18 months to start them, the newspaper's investigation of the Child Care Assistance Program found.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....9324.story

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yet somehow they're able to keep a tight leash on the dude who, when he was 19, had consensual relations with his 15-year-old girlfriend (now wife).

[Jon Schaffer`s Right Hand]

Proving that systems generally produce fantastic errors of both type 1 and type 2 varieties infrequently.

[The Other Kevin]

Did the hurricane fix the economy yet?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Did the hurricane tropical storm win in Libya yet?

[John]

http://www.politico.com/news/s.....62201.html

Rick Perry calls Social Security a ponzi scheme. The comments are full of LUTZ

[Lord Humungus]

There's a LOCK-BOX with your invested amount. It's all safe! And guaranteed! Backed by the full faith and credit of the U. S. Government.

ok, I threw up a little there.

[Marshall Gill]

C'mon, Blown Dry, Governor of Texmess, exactly who benefits when you destroy social security and medicare? Ah, yes. The businesses who have to match the payroll deduction!

If Americans had all had their retirement "insurance" wrapped up in the stock market just the last 25 years, they would have been broke about 3 times now! Sadly, their biggest asset, their homes, were little more than pawn by the greedy pigs on Wall Street.

Wow, the stupid is strong over there.

[John]

I told you.

[MNG]

I'm not sure what is so stupid in that comment. If social security had been privatized when the stock market tanked a lot of seniors would have been in a terrible mess, and we would have been asked to bail them out anyways.

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

If social security had been privatized when the stock market tanked a lot of seniors would have been in a terrible mess, and we would have been asked to bail them out anyways.

I totally agree, except you wrote the above in a rational, eloquent way. The way the commenter wrote it, it would seem he was coming in from a late-night drinking binge with the social studies crowd and vomited all over his keyboard.

[R C Dean]

If social security had been privatized when the stock market tanked a lot of seniors would have been in a terrible mess,

This assumes that they were over-invested for their age and situation in stocks. Most of the big mutual fund companies offer funds that are pre-diversified for your age. The Fidelity Freedom Fund targeting the 2015 horizon, for example, recovered from the worst of the crash in about a year.

So, properly diversified (which is dead easy to do), they wouldn't have had much of a problem.

[Pro Libertate]

And bonds. You're supposed to move equity investments to cash and bond positions increasingly with age. And many seniors also have real property more or less free and clear.

[Jon Schaffer`s Right Hand]

In the Statist's mind, the inescapable fact that some people will fail to do an easy thing correctly is justification for forcing everyone else into a suboptimal one size fits all box.

Most people do not know how to properly wash and wax a car. Perhaps we should make everyone buy auto detailing insurance.

[R C Dean]

Those age-targeted funds migrate your investments to bonds over time.

[Fluffy]

Here's the problem with that analysis:

If the growth of the values of the nation's assets and savings and capital is not sufficient for people to be able to save for their retirement in the absence of SSI taxation, then by definition it should be impossible to provide idle retirements for all.

Basically the poster is saying, "People can't save for their own retirements because the net amount of wealth in the US is not increasing." But if that's the case, we can't collectively afford to pay for their retirements either, because the money to do that has to come from our net wealth.

[robc]

If Americans had all had their retirement "insurance" wrapped up in the stock market just the last 25 years, they would have been broke about 3 times now!

I missed it, exactly when were the 3 times the S&P went to zero?

[Ska]

Additionally, why sell your assets when they're worthless?

[Mike Laursen]

Funny, Krugman didn't mention in his Valentine to Sweden the other day that they lead the world in converting to individual retirement accounts.

[P Brooks]

Even in the 70s my teachers would work jobs during the summer to make ends meet - one installed pools, another did farm work...

I went to high school in the early seventies, and several of my teachers had summer jobs. I just assumed it had less to do with "making ends meet" than not being lazy fucks.

[Virginia]

Maybe they're just sick of being around kids and, instead of staying home playing Mr. Mom, they want to work around adults.

[Lord Humungus]

OT: I've been enjoying some new British synth groups that hark back to the 80s.

Mirrors - Into the Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBubVjmDXdE

Detachments - Holiday Romance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lZZ_oAtKDc

if you're into that kind of thing...

[Charlotte Sometimes]

I'm into that sort of thing. I'd like the first song even more if the guy was a baritone.

[Lord Humungus]

the voice grew on me...

[Charlotte Sometimes]

It's growing on me, too. I've just always been a sucker for a nice baritone. I blame Dave Gahan.

[SugarFree]

Have you ever listen to The National? They aren't uniformly great, but the guy has a deep baritone. Even deeper.

[Robert Goulet]

AHEM!

[Art-P.O.G.]

Dude, I've been listening to Mirrors for months...I thought...I was the only one...

[Lord Humungus]

just discovered them the other week. I'm always on the hunt for new music. About the only possession(s) of mine that have gained value is my record collection.

[SugarFree]

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - The Monkeys Are Coming and Dawn Of The Dead

[Charlotte Sometimes]

You may hear my husband's head explode this evening, SF.

[SugarFree]

What does he listen to? Smooth jazz?

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Would you believe he likes The National? They really aren't my thing, but I can tolerate them because of the baritone. He likes the Avett Brothers (a lot) and The Shins. At least we can agree on Pinback.

[SugarFree]

Avett Brothers are OK. If a band is going to hold my interest with simple arrangements, the songwriting has to be strong, which I've never gotten out of them.

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Agreed. He would be the first to admit that he pays little attention to lyrics, so that might explain his preferences.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Scott Walker, The Dears, Mirrors, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Anything Box, Depeche Mode...

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Our lists would be very similar if yours contained The Cure (anything Robert Smith). And here I thought I was the only person who would openly admit to liking OMD; I still listen to Sugar Tax regularly.

[T]

My wife bought History of Modern. From my limited exposure it seems okay.

Right now, I'm listening to shit since I have misplaced my iPod. Radio in Houston is a vast expanse of suck.

[Charlotte Sometimes]

Radio (among other things. . . many other things) in Topeka is an abomination.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Oh, I do like the Cure. And the Smiths, and New Order.

[Charlotte Sometimes]

I like The xx and some Blue Sky Black Death (album Slow Burning Lights), too. Have you heard Eliza Lumley's cover of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want? It's nice.

[Lord Humungus]

These days I'm mostly into Coldwave
http://ofghostsandgunpowder.bl.....-acts.html

[Tim]

You ask too many questions:

(from the libya link)

"But, if the men had been killed in action, why did they have their hands tied behind their back? "Maybe they were injured, and they had to be brought to this hospital and the handcuffs were to stop them from attacking. And then something went wrong," suggested Mr Abdullah. "

[wylie]

Mr. Abdullah would make a fine addition to any American police force.

[R C Dean]

He'll have to raise his game if he wants to fit in to an organization that handcuffs pregnant women during delivery, though.

[sarcasmic]

I watched COPS for a short time last night, and with two exceptions everyone who was taken to jail was arrested for contempt of cop.
Ask for the officer's name and you're in cuffs.
Try to get the last word and you're in cuffs.
Look away when he's lecturing you and you're in cuffs.
God I hate pigs.

[P Brooks]

Stop obsessing about the economy. You will scare the children

Maybe this is an oblique reference to the student loan bubble. Could they be being bought by Sallie Mae?

If those scared children become aware of alternative career paths (some of which will compensate them quite handsomely) which do not require traditional "higher education" the student loan cartel will suffer, and we wouldn't want that.

[SugarFree]

Hey, what's been going on with Sinead O'Connor lately?

I've been repeatedly asked will I 'do anal sex'. Let me make it very clear.. Any man I contemplate has to be into anal sex.. It was a family paper so they wudnt have printed it but let me now take time to make VERY clear that yes I 'do anal' and in fact I would be deeply unhappy if 'doing anal' wasn't on the menu, amongst everything else$$ So if u don't like 'the difficult brown'.. Don't apply? I've had reasonable complaints from lesbians that they have been excluded. This was terribly remiss of me and I would now like to make it clear that women will also be very much considered. As will Brians and Nigels.. Since there were complaints there too.

[sarcasmic]

My eyes hurt and all I saw was words.

[John]

And she found a taker. And I bet the guy is not hideous. Living proof any woman can get laid any time she wants. The ones who don't, like the ones always bitching and moaning on Jezebel, only don't get laid because they are nuts and choose not to.

[Mongo]

Read further.

She ix-nayed the sodomite cuz he had a pregnant girlfriend.

Would she do A2M...?

[SugarFree]

From the looks of it, she'll eat damn near everything.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That's..... well, that's just......

[Warty]

I'd like to say I've done worse, but I don't think it's true.

Certainly not in the butt, anyway.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The pope just tore her portrait in half.

[Lord Humungus]

I take a week off and I forgot how touchy the corporate firewall is.

[Zeb]

Wow. She actually looks worse with hair.

[Cowboy]

disagree...12 years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JYj3N2XWNk

[Mike Laursen]

This is fake, right? Right? Please tell me it's fake.

[P Brooks]

Snead O'Connor is a porn star actress now?

[phil hartman]

that's sine-aid to u punk

[Wuck Nee]

I never really thought about it liek that before. Makes sense dude. WOw.

http://www.anon-stuff.us.tc

[PIRS]

Your deep insight never ceases to amaze me.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Its 'names' just keep getting better, too.

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Obama's illegal uncle Omar busted for drunk driving

[Kreel Sarloo]

My goodness, Slappy what will some relative of the nignog-in-chief do next?

Look harder, maybe you can find something even more irrelevant to comment about.

[PIRS]

"Among the cables was correspondence with the US Embassy in which the U.S. Ambassador at the time expressed concerns that NZ anti-nuclear legislation "had eroded trust in New Zealand, thereby threatening intelligence cooperation." The New Zealand Star Times labelled the Ambassador's language "a clear threat" and "bully tactics". The cable goes on to say that "The Star-Times article is an embarrassment to the Government and to the Prime Minister personally, since she is the Minister charged with intelligence oversight. It "raises questions about the Government's competence and its "non-aligned" credentials.""

It is an embarrassment to the U.S. government, not the NZ government IMHO.

[P Brooks]

I told you guys.

[Difficult Brown]

I'm going to get you liberturds! Right after I finish these two 12 inch subs. I might be back after lunch, too. You heartless bastards!

[Lord Humungus]

Kaus: 10 Things Obama should have done differently
http://dailycaller.com/2011/08.....fferently/

[T]

As seen elsewhere: why write a top 10 list of things Obama has done wrong? Because nobody has the time to read the whole list.

[P Brooks]

If Social Security isn't explicitly a Ponzi scheme, why hasn't anybody mentioned the fact that those "investments' in the "trust fund" are effectively yielding a ZERO PER CENT RETURN?

[robc]

No ponzi-schemer would promise returns that crappy.

[Mike Laursen]

No, joe from Lowell explained to me that we're not allowed to call Social Security an investment nor compare it to any investment.

[Tulpa]

Sort of like a Godwin's Law for retirement saving.

[O2]

"quoting texas republicans" sherlock

[Brett L]

WTF. I go back to grad school, the Morning LInks go to Hell and the staff goes on a posting tear. If I run into random people with evil Spock beards, I woun't be at all surprised. I am very disappoint!

[T]

I go back to grad school

I see your mistake, right here.

[Auric Demonocles]

Grad school sucked. Whenever a friend mentions going I try to describe how bad a choice it is.