Reason Morning Links: Bitcoin Value Continues to Decline, Why Medicare Is Bad for Old People, Committee for the Re-Election of Obama Has Spent $87 Million

• President Barack Obama, hater of "money in politics," has spent more on his re-election effort than the entire Republican presidential field combined. 
• Bitcoin, the currency of the future, is now worth roughly 10% of what it was worth in June. 
• Incredible Jane Gross rant: Why does Medicare pay for neurosurgery for people who are about to kick the bucket, but not a stay in a nursing home?
• The NYPD cop who sucker-punched a Wall Street occupier on Friday has a history of…sucker-punching Wall Street occupiers.  
• Congress considers "gainful employment" rules to the law school industry. 
• Obama, who has received more money from Wall Street than any politician in history, aligns himself with Occupy Wall Street. 

New at Reason.tv: "Occupy LA: The Pro-Government Protesters?"

Comments

[Suki]

Good Morning Links! The Corner has the same video and beat you by 10 min.

[Officer! Am I free to...]

gambol about plain and forest?

Negative, W.IN. Libertarians like their abstract lines upon the earth that restrict the free movement of people.

Free families on the Land who can provide their own food foraging and hunting won't wage slave-away for the capitalists' in the "free"-market worker's paradise.

1% of the line-drawers owning 40% of the wealth is the only fair world. It's even more fair now than the fairness between the Politburo and their worker's paradise wage-slaves.

[Destrudo]

You're free to put a shotgun in your mouth and spare us any more of your lunacy.

[Government regulations...]

...restricting free movement of people isn't libertarian. Until it is. LOL

Exposing the contradictions of somebody's belief system does cause an emotion called cognitive dissonance.

But I didn't expect you to be so anti-life.

Are you sure you're really a libertarian? You seem to love government regulation on free movement of people.

[Au H20]

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, JUST GO READ JOHN LOCKE'S JUSTIFICATION FOR PROPERTY RIGHTS ALREADY!!!

[Locke = Genesis Monotheism]

I did. Locke is as full of as much bullshit as Marx, relying on the domination hierarchy of GOD-MAN-Women-children-animals-nature that comes from Genesis 1:26-28.

Lockesian property rights, based on the divine right of dominating nature, are as intellectually bankrupt as the divine right of kings.

To date, however, no philosopher has ever successfully divorced Lockesian property rights from monotheism.

The Right to Property
by Jason Godesky | 18 July 2005
http://rewild.info/anthropik/2.....-property/

[Tacos mmm...]

To date, however, no philosopher has ever successfully divorced Lockesian property rights from monotheism.

Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, 1974.

[Mr. FIFY]

No one is as full of shit as Marx.

Well... Keynes, who begat Paulie Krugnuts, et al...

[R C Dean]

Banhammer pls. Pixelated diarrhea, threads wrecked, etc.

[W.In.ning]

You mean, your religio-economic ideology wrecked.

Yeah, you would want that banned. It's so reasonable.

[JW]

This, this and more this.

Seriously, Reason. These ass-clowns are wrecking the market value of H&R.

[John]

Yes. It is one thing to be contrary or just be a plane dick like double asshole. But that is okay. It is part of the internet. And double asshole at least comments on the topic. But to come and put up the same shit on every topic needs to be stopped.

[W.In.ning]

you put the same shit up on every topic, so do you need stopped?

[o2]

"double asshole" who's the dick now john?

[Mr. FIFY]

The stOOpid is strong in this segment of the thread.

[Warty]

They have repeatedly demonstrated that they don't give a fuck. At this point, it looks like they condone H&R turning into a big pile of unreadable, boring trollshit.

[John]

Sadly that is true. It is only going to get worse.

[W.In.ning]

Maybe they'd like to see a reasonable retort from one of ya'll, instead of flinging invectives like a bunch of maoist democrats.

[Warty]

It wouldn't be nearly so bad if people would just quit feeding the trolls. I'm looking at you, John.

[John]

Guilty as charged Warty. I am trying to stop.

[MNG]

Yes, they let people like Warty post here all the freaking time!

[robc]

Name changing trolls should be banned quickly.

If you want to troll, stick to the same name, like MNG does.

[my private incentive to change]

I did stick to one name, but then everybody started using it to obfuscate and lie. I was given a private incentive to use different names.

Now, hardly anybody uses "White Indian" in a false manner - unless I start to use it. Then it happens again. I've market tested it, so I know.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Seriously, seeds....

[robc]

Bullshit, you changed because I and others started filtering you via incif and reasonable.

[Mr. FIFY]

None of us lied, White Idiot.

[Libertarian Boys Club]

"None of us lied, White Idiot."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
BULLSHIT

BTW, sweet little indian, I am glad to see you here. Free speech is free speech, bitches

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

See, this is why we can't have nice things!

[W.In.ning]

JW, the only ass clowns are those evading any sort of reasonable argument. Bring it if ya got it.

You've been weighted in the balance of rational thought, and found wanting.

MENE MENE TEKEL UNREASON

[Au H20]

Okay then, respond to a question that has been asked of you since you first got here: The primary advantage of agriculture is that a unit of land can grow more food, and therefore feed more people. To return Back to Nature, there would be less food, and therefore millions, if not billions, would die.

How does your belief system justify this?

And before you start to post dumb anthropologists, I have a counterpoint: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

[Thanks, Goldwater]

a unit of land can grow more food, and therefore feed more people

True. But that benefits the hierarchy so the people in control can feed more domesticated humans who have been divided-in-labor for two primary tasks: (1) soldiery (the first city-State division of labor) and (2) a labor pool for the elite's city factories.

Yet more natural permaculture gardening techniques have been proven to yield even more than agriculture.

Agriculture is preferred by the elite because it does one thing very well: centralize control and concentrate wealth to the hierarchical elite.

Still, agriculture is like fiat money. The gains are temporary and illusory.

It is agriculture with its inevitable failure that condemns billions to the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse: Famine, War, Pestilence, and Death. All are hallmarks of agricultural civilization, written into even our oldest literature.

To return Back to Nature, there would be less food, and therefore millions, if not billions, would die.

Not so much. Organic permaculture gardening techniques such as John Jeavon's bio-intensive gardening yield much more per acre than agriculture. But it's difficult to concentrate profits and control with it, being inherently decentralized.

And yeah, I've got Diamond's books. Maybe you ought to read him sometime. He considers agriculture to be "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race."

The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race
by Jared Diamond
Originally published in Discover Magazine, May 1, 1987. Pages 64-66.
http://www.mnforsustain.org/fo.....mond_j.htm

But I do thank you for the sociable response instead of invectives. Rare around reason.

[Au H20]

So, your goal is less hierarchy. Then industrialization is your friend there, because compare to the systems that came before it, and it was much more egalitarian.

Slavery? Check.
Feudalism? Check.

Hell, even a lot of tribes of hunter gatherers are pretty hierarchical. Industrial society was really on of the first times that wealth and power did not correspond as directly as it had in the past to who your dad or mom was.

Also, are you seriously claiming that pure organic farming is more efficient? Is this allowing GM seeds or not? Because if not... before Norman Bourlag, India could not feed itself. The world was looking pretty damn Malthusian. If yes, then you also have to admit that modern organic farming requires a lot of cow shit to use as fertilizer (and, also, GM seeds take places to, y'know, make them). That takes land... or, industrial farming. And it could take a lot of land.

For the matter, how to propose to prevent mass outbreaks of fecal based diseases while living a hunter gatherer life style on a planet with 7 billion people?

I just do not see the point of you. You believe that industrialization sucks. Fine, but most of the world likes light's that switch on and toilets that flush and hot showers. Yes, I know the environmentalist response is that that isn't "sustainable" but go convince a billion Indians who are starting to get indoor plumbing that. Or that Bollywood movies suck.

Okay, so you think that libertarians don't truly believe in liberty because they believe in landed property. Well, landed property is a convenient fiction- it was made up because people got tired of Farmer Bob working hard to grow crops on a plot of land and Farmer Bill walking over and taking those crops and then Farmer Bob killing him with a club.

Also, even Hunter Gatherers had an idea of tribal property, otherwise the Sioux and the Crow would have never fought over hunting grounds.

It just really seems you took a few semesters of anthro and never really thought shit past that through.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

It just really seems you took a few semesters of anthro and never really thought shit past that through.

Would any of Ward Churchill's acolytes bother to take that step?

[Mr. FIFY]

I'd like to know how anyone can seriously believe soon-to-be seven billion people can live via hunting and gathering alone.

Hint: It's impossible.

[Proprietrist]

So why not just support land value taxes as the sole basis for taxation and be done with it? Then you can gambol about on fallow lands abandoned by unproductive speculators who don't want to pay taxes, until someone else decides they want to build property and pay for the exclusive use of that land.

However, I don't get your bizarre obsession with the evil of agriculture. Farmers use land more productively than just about anyone else, certainly more so than a hunting/gathering society would. Agriculture has greatly improved quality of life to the degree that you'd have to try really hard to starve to death in this country. Consistent abundance is not something I will complain about.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I was waiting for White Indian's rebuttal. I cried when it never came.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

I agree. Banhammer time.

[The 1%]

We give Mike high marks.

[Joe M]

Well played, Riggs. Well played.

[Bee Tagger]

Bitcoin, the currency of the future, is now worth roughly 10% of what it was worth in June.

They should have never invented a digital George Soros.

[Joe M]

Ron Paul to propose $1T in specific budget cuts, including lowering the presidential salary from $400,000 to $40,000. Talk about walking the walk!

[Rich]

It'll be interesting to see how the MSM covers this.

[Suki]

You think they will cover it at all?

[Rich]

I think it will get a passing mention to the effect that "Crazy Ron proposes ridiculous plan even more unpassable and unfair than 9-9-9".

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I'm betting there will be a huge sucking sound created by the vacuum of no coverage at all.

[Quetzalcoatl]

For a vacuum, there would need to have been coverage that suddenly ceased to exist.

[Lost_In_Translation]

"Ron Paul proposes child killing budget, also pushes new women bashing ad"

[Max]

Don't forget the racist newsletters he wrote!

[John]

That wouldn't even cover Michelle's lunches.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Its still just talking the talk because no one will ever allow it to happen.

[Joe M]

The media is a giant baseball bat and Ron Paul is all legs.

[R C Dean]

lowering the presidential salary from $400,000 to $40,000.

Sounds reasonable to me. Does the President actually buy anything out-of-pocket while in office?

[Joe M]

Right. That should be "$40,000 plus free room and board."

[Rahm Emanuel]

Does the President actually buy anything out-of-pocket while in office?

That would be fucking retarded.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm not sure. Does the Secret Service pay for his prostitutes?

[Suki]

President Barack Obama, hater of "money in politics," has spent more on his re-election effort than the entire Republican presidential field combined.
RACIST!
And, he is running again? I have not seen a single ad featuring his white relatives.

[Joe M]

Bitcoin, the currency of the future, is now worth roughly 10% of what it was worth in June.

Perfect. It's behaving just like any modern currency, only faster and more efficiently!

[Quetzalcoatl]

So...
Who's buying low?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't know if it was exactly 9:00AM, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, I suppose.

[Suki]

Was at least 9:05

[Suki]

Obama, who has received more money from Wall Street than any politician in history, aligns himself with Occupy Wall Street.
He saw all of those $25 and under donations from last time really added up last time. Don't forget the t-shirt sales!

[Suki]

"last time really added up last time"
Double-Plus added up!

[sarcasmic]

Jennifer Love Hewitt is still fat.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....s-row.html

[Bee Tagger]

It's great that people are giving the sarcastic "really important news!" type comments. As though they've come to expect more from the Daily Mail.

[John]

Looks good to me. That is just a really unflattering outfit.

[sarcasmic]

chubby chaser

[John]

You just like women that have the figures of 13 year old boys. NTTAWWT

[sarcasmic]

You just like fatties that remind you of your mom. NTTAWWT

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Like that's any worse than this:

http://www.ibtimes.com/article.....-kelly.htm

[Au H20]

Gotta agree with John. I'd hit it.

[robc]

Can some one point me to the fat person in the picture? I cant find her.

I can post pictures of fat chicks if the concept is unclear. But Im not gonna.

[Apple]

Are you sure you're not gay?

[sarcasmic]

Being that I can tell the difference between this and this, while apparently John cannot, I'd have to say yes I'm sure I'm not gay.

[Au H20]

Well, of course you can tell the difference. You gay men need skinny anorexic woman man boys to model your clothes.

[sarcasmic]

I like skinny anorexic women because they're fun in bed.

Not that you would know.

[Name Nomad]

Four words: sack full of clothes-hangers.

[Au H20]

Skinny chicks are more adventurous. Fat chicks give better blow jobs.

[sarcasmic]

Gwyneth Paltrow is still a MILF.

[sarcasmic]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-park.html

[John]

She is flat out homely. I don't think she has an attractive feature. Chicken legs, no boobs, stringy hair, okay face at best.

[Restoras]

You two would be good wingmen. Sarcasmic and I would be brawling on the floor with broken beer bottles.

[sarcasmic]

I'm a thinking John don't like to be on the bottom much since he likes women who would crush most mortals if they were on top.

[John]

Maybe you are that scrany, but I am thinking Jennifer Love Heritt's 120 lbs if that would hardly crush anyone. You just don't like hips and boobs, which really means you don't like women.

[sarcasmic]

JLH is lots more than 120.

Back when she was skinny compared to her more rotund current self she couldn't have been less than 130.

[Crawdad]

Camera adds 10 lbs.

[cynical]

Maybe he isn't frail enough for it to present a problem to him.

[sarcasmic]

Maybe I don't like being crushed by a fat fatty fat-fat.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Sarcasmic is begging for a Shallow Hal-type situation to develop for him.

[JW]

Gwyneth Paltrow. The only sure cure for insomnia.

Here, have some Israeli girls.

[Barack Obama]

Let me be clear.

I stand firmly behind our allies.

[Apple]

I can't thank you enough.

[OWS]

JEWISH CHICKS ARE MARRIED TO JEWISH BANKERS!!!

GIVE US FREE SHIT AND PAY OUR STUDENT LOANS!!!

[robc]

Gwyneth Paltrow wasted good genes.

At same age (any age, past, present or future), here Mom was, is and will be hotter.

[Apple]

I like Gwyneth too, although skinny women don't age as well.

[Bee Tagger]

President Barack Obama, hater of "money in politics," has spent more on his re-election effort than the entire Republican presidential field combined.

To be fair, he's also making sure that the dollar is worthless. You have to break some eggs to destroy a currency.

[Suki]

+1

[o2]

M2 is stable FY10-11, the $ is gaining value in [FREEZE] trading, & investors continue to buy US treasuries. >exactly how obama is "making sure the dollar is worthless" ??

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Seen your savings account rate lately?

[o3]

how does my savings account make sure the dollar is "worthless" ?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Do you really think Bernanke would have allowed rates to stay so low if he thought the economy was recovering?

ZIRP-style rates show an economy that's attempting to paper over its productive deficits, and keeping those rates low undermines the value of the dollar.

[John]

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....press.html

Anyone else see Cain on Meet the Press. I didn't watch it live. But after reading the above Althouse post last night, I watched in on the internet. He destroyed David Gregory. You watch that film and you can't help but think "why are they letting this idiot talk to Herman Cain". I am not a fan of a national sales tax. But objectively Cain made Gregory look like an idiot.

I am starting to think the media and the left are going to have a problem with Cain. I think their first instinct was to ignore him and pretend he was Alan Keyes. That hasn't worked.

Now I think they want to go full Palin on him and just start scream and throwing shit hoping by shear volume they can take him down. I don't think that will work either. First, I don't think they will ever be able to do to anyone again what they did to Palin. Most people, even if they won't vote for Palin understand she treated really unfairly. If the media does it again, it won't stick this time. Second, Cain is not Palin. He is much more agile in these situations than Palin. And more importantly, he doesn't back down. Time and time again in that interview Gregory asks Cain something to the effect of "you can't possibly believe this". And Cain comes back at him and says yes I do believe this and here is why it is right. Gregory is just left speechless. Althouse gives a quote from the interview that is a great example of this.

MR. GREGORY: You actually said President Obama's outside the mainstream. So you're making a different, more of a social cultural background distinction between you and the president.

MR. CAIN: More experiential. Look at his experiences vs. my experiences. It was more at a contrast of experiential differences than anything else.

MR. GREGORY: Let's talk about foreign policy...

Yeah, lets talk about foreign policy.

[Rich]

"I like to watch."

Seriously, I was screaming at the TV. It wasn't so much Gregory's *volume*; it was his transparent affected "inability" to understand Cain's (fairly patient) responses.

[John]

You can tell Gregory lives in a cocoon and has never actually had to debate any ideas. At one point they talk about the 9-9-9. And Gregory says "experts say this wouldn't work". So Cain patiently explains why he thinks the experts are wrong. Gregory is left with this puzzled look on his face like "but the experts, what about the experts". He is totally dumbfounded by the idea that someone could disagree with conventional wisdom.

[Suki]

Besides the fact that he is talking to someone who is an expert in a few things.

[JW]

Gregory is left with this puzzled look on his face like "but the experts, what about the experts".

It's his "Blue Steel."

[Suki]

"He destroyed David Gregory."
A guy with cancer destroyed Gregory in the White House press room. On the toughness scale, Gregory is below a wet bag of donuts.

[John]

Yeah but look at his weight class. Among the media, unless you are just going to drop all pretense of rationality and go Special Ed Shultz or Crazy Larry O'Donnell, Gregory is about as tough as it gets.

[Suki]

Well, yea, if you limit it to that media. Against Uncommon Knowledge, or even Reason.Tv he does not even deserve to be in the same room.

[John]

I don't think so. I think Cain would tear the Jacket a new asshole. It would be entertaining. And a lot better than Meet the Press. But Cain is really good at this stuff.

[Au H20]

John, you make the fundamental mistake of thinking that Nick Gilespie and The Jacket are the same. If Gilespie looked weak, The Jacket would detach itself from his body and accept the new host, Herman Cain.

It's like Venom in Spiderman.

[John]

+100

[Suki]

+69

[MNG]

"It's like Venom in Spiderman."

Loud sounds can peel it off?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Loud sounds can peel it off?

Not even sonic vibrations can harm The Jacket.

[Au H20]

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS, MNG!

[Quetzalcoatl]

Just wait until they bring in Couric.

[Katie Couric]

You miss my perkiness, don't you?

Thanks for not watching, jerk.

[R C Dean]

My favorite bit was Gregory's brain lock on sales taxes. It was so confused I'm not even sure I can describe it. Something about how completely revoking the current federal tax code isn't reform because we already have state sales taxes?

[MNG]

"start scream and throwing shit hoping by shear volume they can take him down"

Pulling a John?

[John]

So I take it you have pretty much given up on ever posting anything of substance on here.

[Suki]

MNG has never had a history of that.

[MNG]

Ohh, figment troll is concerned!

Long time posters here are not puzzled by the fact that Suki/John T. suddenly reappeared just as the Iran news hit. The drums of war always bring her back to life.

MUST MAKE WAR...PREFERABLY ON MUSLIMS...

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Delicious non-sequitor. Really tasty, could have used a bit more garlic. And I don't even like Suki.

[Zeb]

I don't think that there is much comparison to be made between Cain and Palin. I don't know if Palin is really an idiot or what (and I don't really care), but she (like Obama) has been somewhat of a blank slate that people can project what they want to on. She hasn't really done much to show that she is not whatever people think she is. Cain, while not experienced as a politician, is obviously smart and has been successful in various areas. The lack of political experience may be enough, but I don't see him getting quite the Palin treatment, both because of his impressive background and his ability to answer questions coherently.

[MNG]

"He is much more agile in these situations than Palin. And more importantly, he doesn't back down."

But, but, I thought you've said Palin has incredible smarts and is agile, it's only the fiendishly devious MSM that makes her look bad.

And Palin backs down? What about MAVERICK! DON'T RETREAT, RELOAD!

[John]

Of course she is smart. She is agile. Cain is just better. I don't think Palin is stupid. But she let the media bully her in ways Cain never will.

[MNG]

Cain doesn't have to worry about the media, his GOP fellow nominees are going to attack the 9-9-9 plan plenty.

I do think Cain understands something that Obama, with all of his huge, thousand page "comprehensive" bills does not: keep it simple.

[John]

and they are not going to lay a glove on it regardless of the merits. Here is why. He is the only candidate other than Paul who is actually proposing fundamental change. People know the country is deeply broken and want some kind of fundamental change to the system. Romney has 186 pages of tweaking the status quo. It is a great platform for 2008. But not for 2012.

[MNG]

I think the more the spotlight is on Cain he will diminish. They will start asking him all the questions that lately no one has cared what his answer to is, and for each answer he gives he will alienate another segment of the population. That's politics.

[o2]

oops - the florida voters may NOT like that 9% federal sales tax since they currently have none. and florida is imp in the general

[Proprietrist]

Again, I guess Gary Johnson's chopped liver? It's really sad that even in the logical epicenter of his support lots of people still act like he doesn't even exist.

[Mr. FIFY]

MediaMatters has a hate-on for David Gregory, whom they consider a tool of The Vast Right-Wing Hoedown.

Which tells you something, if you're observant.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Obama and Dems are increasingly embracing a sharp populist argument that directly faults Wall Street for that state of affairs, unabashedly positions Wall Street as the antagonist, and charges that the GOP is Wall Street's number one enabler.

And don't kid yourselves, the Occupiers are going to eat that shit up, forgetting all about the last three years. Chants of "Obama" will ring through human microphones across the urban landscapes.

[John]

Of course they will because they are retarded. And they were going to vote for Obama anyway. Now how Obama plans to get the majority of the country to vote for him with those clowns as the face of the party is an interesting question.

[Bee Tagger]

They might express some nominal amount of support for a far-left protest candidate that makes some half-hearted attempt at being a primary challenger to Obama. But yes, there is little doubt they will vote for Obama in the general election.

[Chupacabra]

Destroy Wall Street! Re-elect the guys who gave Wall Street our money!

Wait, what?

[John]

I kind of think Obama is doing us a favor. He is going to destroy any credibility the OWS people have. By co-opting them, he makes them look like Democratic astro turf rather than a real movement.

[Fist of Etiquette]

And I don't think the president is doing himself any favors. OWS is not going to be looked upon fondly by the independents who got him into office in the first place, and whose votes he needs to stay there.

[Suki]

Independents didn't get him into office. Stupid White Liberals did.

[Suki]

What credibility did they have to begin with?

I like what George Will said on This Week. Let the stupidity continue for a huge Republican win (not an exact quote). I add, hopefully the Tea Party will have the Republican field cleaned up by then.

[mad libertarian guy]

You mean like much of the Tea Party message was cop-opted by Team RED?

[o2]

have we won in uganda yet?

[Bee Tagger]

Check with Tim

[Chupacabra]

We've only just begun.

[Fluffy]

Why is Coburn being a douche?

[John]

I will ask you this so MNG can come along and insult me. Which link relates to Colburn?

[Lost_In_Translation]

I didn't see one either, but this question is relevent most days the Coburn is breathing.

[Fluffy]

The law school link.

Apparently Coburn wants to investigate whether law schools disclose accurate information about job placement rates to their applicants (which is cool, I guess) but he ALSO wants to investigate whether law schools are "overcharging" and transferring tuition moneys to other parts of their universities (which he has no right to investigate and which he is a douche for even suggesting is a federal issue).

[John]

It is a federal issue since the feds guarantee loans. If the law schools are defrauding their students, the Feds are stuck with the bill.

[Lost_In_Translation]

sounds like buyers remorse. Why should the feds subsidize degrees (much less graduate degrees) at all.

[John]

That may be true. But it is too late. If the law schools are going to accept federal loans for their students, then they have to answer to the man.

[Lost_In_Translation]

point taken. they can both go to hell.

[Suki]

It is time to do Ron Paul one better and ban the feds!

[Fluffy]

That's why I agree that the job placement rate investigation is OK by me.

But if Cornell is charging what the market can bear for law school tuition, and some of that money goes to support the undergrad school that's just too damn bad.

[Auric Demonocles]

One time I threw ping pong balls at the Cornell law school.

[adam]

What the market can bear for law school tuition is significantly influenced by the availability of federal student loans. If the federal government wants that money going to support the law school, and only the law school, then the issue of redirecting is justified as part of the investigation.

[R C Dean]

The misrepresentation of placement rates (and LSATs) is, I guess, worth a hearing.

Whether law schools actually run a net margin? I don't see it.

[Lost_In_Translation]

That's the role assigned to him.

[BakedPenguin]

Venn diagrams to help you understand Occupy Wall Street.

[Pro Libertate]

Maybe you should distribute those to the protesters themselves.

[Warty]

These are not nearly obscene enough.

[BakedPenguin]

Look at the very last one. Admittedly, it's abstract, but it's there.

[Warty]

My superpower is the ability to see vaginas in all places, so I was way ahead of you.

[Au H20]

Somebody call the Justice League!

[Pro Libertate]

I thought we'd already established that Venn diagrams are, by their very nature, inherently obscene.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Oh great, an East Coast/West Coast hippie battle.

[sarcasmic]

If we get lucky they'll kill each other off.

[Lord Humungus]

Al Qaeda Tries a New Tactic in Somalia: Philanthropy
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10.....l?_r=2&hp;

Al Qaeda is not known for its philanthropic activities, but this weekend in Somalia the terrorist group appears to have branched into a new business: distributing humanitarian aid.

In a surreal scene, a man with a scarf twisted over his face stood in the middle of a camp full of starving people and announced that he had come to Somalia on behalf of Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda's leader, and that Al Qaeda was eager to help famine victims.

"Our beloved brothers and sisters in Somalia, we are following your situation on a daily basis," said the man, identified as Abu Abdulla Almuhajir.

[Lost_In_Translation]

In box #2 were the bombs the newly fed somalians were to carry to embassies in other countries.

"We feast tonight for tomorrow we die"

[The Other Kevin]

Great. Now we have Al Queda ruining our libertarian paradise.

[Mona Cull]

IEDs on teh ROADZZ!!

[Lord Humungus]

The Exasperation of the Democratic Billionaire
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

His words struck a chord. When I visit Mr. Zuckerman this week in his midtown Manhattan office, he reports that three people approached him at dinner the previous evening to discuss his August op-ed. Among business executives who supported Barack Obama in 2008, he says, "there is enormously widespread anxiety over the political leadership of the country." Mr. Zuckerman reports that among Democrats, "The sense is that the policies of this government have failed. . . . What they say about [Mr. Obama] when he's not in the room, so to speak, is astonishing."

[John]

But he is a Harvard man. He is erudite. How can he be so icky? The stupidity of liberal and centrist "intellectuals" regarding Obama never ceases to amaze.

[Lord Humungus]

Pornography, Public Morality, and Constitutional Rights
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/10/3958

We know that a more or less unbridled culture of pornography can result in a sexualization of children that robs them of their innocence and even places them in jeopardy of sexual exploitation by adults. Can anyone honestly deny that we have ourselves witnessed a shameful sexualization of children in our own culture? The clergy child-abuse scandal is only the tip of an iceberg. The problem of pedophile sex tourism to places like Thailand is a dirty secret that will sooner or later break upon the American consciousness and conscience. Should we be surprised at such a thing? Think about the sexualization of adolescents in contemporary music, television, movies, and commercial advertising. Consider the notorious Calvin Klein ads on New York City buses depicting young people in sexually provocative poses. And now Abercrombie and Fitch has taken things to the logically next step by peddling thong swimwear to twelve-year-old girls.

[John]

We do sexualize children. And it is disgraceful. But pretty much every other society in history has as well. I am not sure you can blame porn for it.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It always amuses me how each generation or culture seems to think that it invented vice.
Just read something like Piers Plowman. It's been going on since the beginning of time.

[Suki]

This.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Ban Abercrombie and Fitch!

[mad libertarian guy]

That's not a bad idea, but for a totally different reason than sexualizing children.

[Crawdad]

I've been working a personal boycott all along. Mostly cause just walking past one of their stores, with the doors open, gives me an instant headache. Do they spray the place down with cologne every night?

[Fluffy]

The clergy child-abuse scandal is only the tip of an iceberg.

Wow, such dishonesty.

The clergy sex-abuse scandal predates the porn revolution by a couple of decades.

In fact, the clergy sex-abuse scandal is an artifact of a pre-sexualization society where people literally couldn't imagine that priests might do such things to children, and where people were so ashamed by the facts that they willingly conspired with the church to hide what had been done to their own children.

Can anyone imagine the clergy sex-abuse scandal happening anew on its prior scale? Of course not, because now people don't let sexual deviants who choose religious orders as a calling anywhere near their children, precisely because we're so sexualized now that there's no one naive enough to be that stupid any more.

[John]

True. There is a price for that. Thanks to our sexualization of everything, every man is now considered a pedophile. For every priest or coach that molested kids there were thousands that didn't and did a lot of good. Now more and more they don't bother because of the risk involved and the social approbation that there must be something wrong with any man who takes an interest in a child's life.

I think we were better off back when we were naive.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Children are far more at risk from family members or close family friends.

[John]

This. If you don't want your kid to be molested, don't get divorced. Kids are almost never molested by their biological parents. It is step parents and boyfriends more than anything else.

[Funny Uncle]

Don't forget about me!!

[Morgan Freeman]

Me too!

[Apple]

I think there's some middle ground we can try to strive for. We're reached the point where we're not naive enough to think that pedophiles don't exist, which is good. Hopefully, we can reach a point where people are not so paranoid about them as well.

[Au H20]

Well, if we just built a great wall to keep them out...

[Abdul]

People forget that back in the late 70's, when Roman Polanski was on trial, the maximum sentence he faced for rape of a 13 year old was under one year in jail.

It's just an indication of how the issue was off the radar for society in those days.

[Quetzalcoatl]

He should've just taken his year like a man. Instead, he's spent his whole life exiled in godforsaken Europe.

[R C Dean]

The clergy sex-abuse scandal predates the porn revolution by a couple of decades millenia.

[Suki]

It goes back at least as far as Mohammed.

[Mongo]

There's a lot of assumptions and vague terms ('degrading') in George's piece.

It reads like something out of the 1980s...

[Madbiker]

The Medicare piece was eye-opening for me. I figured there was a lot of waste from useless procedures.

If we are stuck with Medicare, it obviously requires a revised approach to what it will pay for and what it will not. But I can see now the cries of "you'll deny the elderly necessary surgery" because it's so easy to appeal to emotion rather than think.

My 84 year old grandmother wants to die. She tells us all the time, which is sad, but we understand. She's still hanging on to her independence, living alone, slowly going blind from macular degeneration, suffering debilitating migraines and battling emphysema and dementia. Why wouldn't it be more humane and compassionate to allow her to choose her own end time and method, rather than slowly wither away taking meds that make her barely comfortable enough to get through another day of painful breathing and desperation?

[Spoonman.]

Because RESPECT LIFE!

[Madbiker]

This is my quandary. I want to respect her life, and her wish is to end it, even though it will be unbearably sad.

And it doesn't square with my other pro-life stances, driven as much by emotion as those who would say we are denying medical care to the elderly.

I'm an irrational being, despite my best attempts to be logical.

But it's not denying care, it's providing a different type of care.

Is Gross correct when she posits that "it is fee-for-service doctors and Big Pharma who stand to gain the most" from Medicare? That's a genuine question because I really don't understand the complex relationship. I suspect it's true and one of the worst examples of gov't collusion with corporation-y corps and the medical cartel.

[Lost_In_Translation]

It was easier when the answer was "we don't have anything to cure you". Now we say "well, the cure is really expensive and it might not be a cure, but maybe it is, but it will be really painful, but life is important and OMG don't kill grandma US GOV!!!"

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

This. I have no idea what the way out is, because it seems like this kind of loss aversion is hard-coded into the human brain.

A resident friend of mine wrote a sobering post on this a few months ago. An excerpt:

The Anti-Paternalists

Sometimes the way we describe surgical options to patients and their families sounds something like this:

"You have a fatal disease/debilitating illness/minor ailment that has brought you to the edge of this cliff. If you jump off the cliff/have surgery there is a 99.9% chance that you will be dashed on the rocks, there is a 0.1% chance that you could die a horrible death in the ICU with tubes coming out of every orifice and then some, and a 0.001% chance of making it out of the hospital. If you don't jump, there's a chance you could live for days/months/years but there is no chance of cure."

The fact that this is the conversation we have so often with patients and they choose to jump off the cliff for some reason that is unfathomable to me leads me to conclude that what they hear is this:

"You are sick BLAH BLAH MEDICAL WORDS BLAH BLAH and if you let me do this you may be okay BLAH BLAH but probably not."

[NoVAHockey]

you might find this useful -- it is a look at how end of life decisions are made (or not made).

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/.....ing-death/

[Ice Nine]

Is Gross correct when she posits that "it is fee-for-service doctors and Big Pharma who stand to gain the most" from Medicare?

While there is certainly a lot of waste, and there is of course fraud (though hardly broad-based) but yeah, I think that is correct because, guess what, doctors and "Big Pharma" do get paid for what they do. Actually, scratch that - how can it be denied that patients in fact gain most from Medicare?

In the last year alone, and this list is far from complete, here is what researchers have found both useless and harmful, according to leading medical journals:

I'd love to know what research she is referring to.

? Feeding tubes, which can cause infections, nausea and vomiting, rarely prolong life. People with dementia often react with agitation, including pulling out the tubes, and then are either sedated or restrained.

Well, they do prolong life though it is generally at a pretty miserable stage of existence. I agree with her claim on this one, though it is very often done as a result of relatives' demands.

? Abdominal and gall bladder surgery and joint replacements, for those who rank poorly on a scale that measures frailty, lead to complications, repeat hospital stays and placement in nursing homes.

None of the surgeons I ever worked with were ever very crazy about doing abdominal surgery on old people because it is rife with hazard and complications. If it is done, though, it is generally done for something that will progress rapidly to something much more serious. Gall bladder surgery is almost always done to alleviate chronic, severe pain or to treat progression to very rapidly fatal infection. What exactly does Gross want done then about the gall bladder surgery in old people?!

? Tight glycemic control for Type 2 diabetes, present in 1 of 4 people over 65, often requires 8 to 10 years before it helps prevent blindness, kidney disease or amputations. Without enough time to reap the benefits, the elderly endure needless dietary limits and needle sticks.

Let's see, 65 + 8 = 73. Just think, your grandmother could have had eleven wonderful years of being crippled and blind and attached to a dialysis machine if we'd only let her diabetes go.

[Fatty Bolger]

Not to mention that it's quite possible a diabetes cure could be developed in that time. Likely, perhaps not, but not all that unlikely, either.

[Crawdad]

Wasn't the fraud just last year, IIRC, estimated at $40 billion. That seems pretty broad based to me.

[NoVAHockey]

If she really doesn't want interventions, don't take her to the hospital. it's not enough to have your paperwork in line. once that ball gets rolling, it's tough to stop.

[Ice Nine]

This! Families (generally) however simply won't do that when Granny starts the final descent. If families are bad about this, nursing home staffs are absolutely incorrigible. It's off to the ER which generally guarantees ten or so expensive days of subsequent hospitalization (The ER doc cannot send a sick patient back home.)

[Quetzalcoatl]

Can we all agree that a two-hour occupation is scarcely an occupation at all?

[Occupy Atlantis]

We are the 99%! We are drowning while the rich Atlanteans are safe in their mountain palaces.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rivera-Pitre said the crowd helped him get away but he was speaking out because there was lots of blood - and he is HIV-positive.

"That cop should get tested," he said.

And there's the charge NYPD can level against Rivera-Pitre.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Cop: "Those HIV positive occupiers should wear little stars on their clothes so we can identify who we need to beat up with gloves on"

[Lord Humungus]

My wife had an interview with her school's Law Review this weekend, so we headed to Lansing. Anyone who has been to downtown Lansing on a Sunday will know the place is a literal ghost town.

In order to waste some time before her interview, we decided to take a walk around the capitol building. I forgot all about the OWS 'protests', but found 10-12 people on the capitol steps. The police didn't even bother to show up.

On the way out, we drove past a park where there was a larger contingent of protesters with tents. Not much was going on there either.

[Aqua-Assualt Rabbit]

Camping is fun.

Winter is coming.

[John]

Here is hoping for a cold one and a big ass blizzard like last year's Christmas blizzard in New York. Won't that be fun?

[Zeb]

I bet they'll be long gone well before any serious snow happens.

[MNG]

Why so much hate for the OSWs? Sure, they don't agree with you guys on a lot, but they do hate Wall Street and seem to be motivated, albeit years later, by the exact same thing that motivated the Tea Party: the bailouts.

I defended the Tea Party here a lot over the years (hey John, this is what non-hackery looks like). You guys are reacting to the OSW's much like the left's reaction to the TP.

The Reason staff has been much more principled about this whole thing.

[Au H20]

My main objection is how unthought out their demands on (which is, admittedly, a fair critique of the Tea Party on things like the debt ceiling).

I'm just really tired of the "corporate personhood" boogeyman that has become a fetish on the left. The reason you are able to sue Exxon for the Valdez spill is that Exxon is legally a person. Without that, it's not entirely clear who you would sue, or even who would have enough assets to cover the damages (I think most would say CEO, but the CEO is not necessarily liable. Also, if it's a franchise model... what if you slip and break your neck in a McDonald's... what if the franchise owner is a pretty poor guy who can't cover your medical bills?).

Now, I get that they don't like "free speech for corporations" but that also seems poorly thought out. No one was bitching that the New York Times could, as a corporate entity, endorse a candidate or publish op-eds that were unsigned BEFORE Citizens United. It seems that people are now pissed because companies other than "media corporations" can do what the Times has been doing for years.

Regarding student loans... why aren't they protesting at the universities who have actually set tuition so high? Why aren't they demanding that schools open their books for a full audit, and therefore let students make a more informed choice about whether they care to go to a school that has a Dean of Sustainability? Also, why aren't they more pissed at Congress and Sallie Mae for making loans not dischargable in bankruptcy?

I guess it's also annoying to see the same people who bitched and moaned about the Tea Party being astroturf, being evil, being racists, rave about a movement as this time, it's The People in the streets and this a Real Revolution and any people who say mean or nasty or racist things are just clearly Fringe Elements.

[Zeb]

I have no particular ill will toward the OWS people, nor any great love for the tea party. I just think that it will die down when it starts to get really cold. And I really haven't seen any sort of coherent message from the movement which seems like it has the legs to keep going after the spectacle of people camping out is gone and the media has found something more interesting to cover.

[Cabeza de Vaca]

There is a reason the old school marxists waited til May to start there campaigns. Starting a occupation in the fall is stupid.

[NotSure]

While I have nothing against the concept of fiat currency, for fiat currency to work practically, it really does have to be backed by something in the end. Government fiat money is backed by force, if bitcoin were backed by something like silver or perhaps something like online gaming points, it could actually be a viable future currency.

[cynical]

True. I'm investing in Stone of Jordan futures, myself.

[Gregory P]

Big Journalism has learned that the Occupy Washington DC movement is working with well-known media members to craft its demands and messaging while these media members report on the movement. Someone has made the emails from the Occupy D.C. email distro public and searchable. The names in the list are a veritable who's who in media.
http://bigjournalism.com/dloes.....t-message/

[John]

They don't call them the state run media for nothing.

[Rich]

I'm still trying to understand what the OWS people expect as a solution to their problems. Do they want guaranteed jobs with living wages for all? Do they want unlimited zero-interest loans? Do they want the financial sector to be abolished? Now that Obama is on board, I trust he will enlighten me in yet another prime-time speech.

[Sam Thomas]

I understand they just want to be treated with dignity. Seems that's happening.

[Rich]

Seems they have to be camped out in order to be treated with dignity. Where does it end?

[Ice Nine]

I understand they just want to be treated with dignity.

Their signs suggest otherwise.

[Progressive OSWer]

dignity: the guarantee of a living wage (defined by us as $20 an hour) despite not having any skills applicable to people in the real world; the realization by society that a medieval Russian art history degree qualifies me as one of your betters who should have the ability to dictate policy; et al.

[R C Dean]

Not to mention their hygiene.

[John]

But the plan, at its heart, is libertarian. While promising to cut $1 trillion in spending during his first year, Mr. Paul would eliminate the Departments of Education, Commerce, Energy, Interior and Housing and Urban Development. When former Massachusetts Gov. MItt Romney unveiled his economic plan last month, he said he would submit legislation to reduce nonsecurity, discretionary spending by $20 billion.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/....._news_blog

Any wonder Romney is the establishment candidate and the media tries to pretend Paul doesn't exist?

[Lost_In_Translation]

Americans can't grasp "real austerity". We're probably 10-20 years behind Greece.

[Aqua-Assualt Rabbit]

Here is a helpful schedule of strikes in Greece. That's how you know "We are all Greek."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/.....oming-week

[Lord Humungus]

Israelis worried by anti-Semitic flavor of 'Occupy Wall St.' protests
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/N.....fault.aspx

Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper called the anti-Semitic outbursts "hard to watch," and an Israeli commenter said, "It's just like pre-World War II Nazi Germany. You think blood libels can't happen in America?"

It has been pointed out by many media commentators that the openly anti-Semitic remain but a small portion of those participating in the Occupy Wall St. movement. However, others have noted that Nazi anti-Semitism started out as a fringe phenomenon in Germany before eventually defining that nation's domestic agenda in the 1940s.

[o2]

so now the protestors are nazi's...after being marxists....after being bourgeois hipsters ??

[NotSure]

Actually all those groups are taking part, which explains why the protest is labeled as being incoherent, because they really are !

[MJ]

Not a lot distance between those three catagories.

[Lost_In_Translation]

I worry about the sanity of Knesset sometimes. OWS's are nowhere the protests that brought on Nazism, but the Israel gov't continues to support antagonizing actions against its (admittingly equally awful) neighbors.

[MNG]

I had some real concerns about the recently announced prisoner exchange. On the one hand I'm glad the Israeli soldier finally gets to go home, in the Israeli military there is supposedly a very honorable norm of leaving nobody behind. I'm also sure that some of the Palestinian prisoners are guilty of little or nothing (Israel detains hundreds without trial), so I'm glad for them. But I think there is a real concern that this kind of thing emboldens Hamas and other militants to committ more aggressive thuggery.

[John]

They are letting a guy out who planned a bombing that killed over a hundred teenagers in front of a night club. I think most civilized people would call that a bit worse than "thuggery".

[Suki]

Palestinian sympathizing Nazis don't think it is thuggery, they think it is patriotism that needs to be nurtured and rewarded.

[Tim]

I occupied the garage and fixed my tractor, that was my radical weekend.

[The 99%]

We don't have tractors.

[Tim]

It's a 1953 Ford which means that the Iranian EMP apocalypse will not touch it. I'll be running Barter Town.

[OWS Douche]

Doing productive work makes you a member of the oligarchy.

Death to the 1%!!!!

[SugarFree]

6 Classic Kids Shows Secretly Set in Nightmarish Universes

In the Flintstones universe, primitive man enjoys roughly the same quality of life as modern man, but only by virtue of animal exploitation. A camera, for example, is just a box with a bird that pecks the image into a stone tablet, a vacuum cleaner is a woolly mammoth trunk, and so on. The main problem is that these aren't just animals. They're intelligent: They think, speak and joke. They turn to the camera and say things like "It's a living" or some other glib line before dejectedly resuming their "jobs." Jobs that entail extreme suffering and humiliation: The steam whistle at Fred's job, for instance, is a bird. It's activated by yanking its tail until it screams in pain.

Fred's alarm clock is also a bird: The snooze function is activated by punching its tiny skull in. Just for doing its fucking job and sounding the alarm that Fred himself set.

If the Flintstones and Jetsons exist in the same universe, just in different eras, and there are no dinosaurs in the Jetsons cartoon, then somehow the dinosaurs from The Flintstones, like ours, have gone extinct. But our dinosaurs were just dumb beasts, and they went extinct long before humans had evolved. In the Flintstones universe, humans and dinosaurs still coexist. They're actually dependent on one another. One is not going extinct without affecting the other. So in the span of time between The Flintstones and The Jetsons, some cataclysmic event occurs that kills off just the creatures, but not the humans. And the Jetsons universe, with its scorched, unusable Earth, hints at what that event might have been: The dinosaurs, like every other creature on Earth not brought into the sky to dance and amuse future man, were either killed off through massive environmental negligence once we finally learned how to replace them with technology, or else, like in The Matrix, we simply burned the sky in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to stop the great dino uprising.

[Fluffy]

I don't recall ever seeing a scorched and unusable Earth in The Jetsons.

I assumed that since everyone had flying cars ground-level was all parkland and wilderness preserve.

[John]

Maybe the dinosaurs revolted and that is why everyone moved to the sky.

[Suki]

^^This!^^

[Madbiker]

I remember a Jetson's themed anti-pollution PSA that talked about how the smog was so bad on the planet from years of pollution from factories, that they built their homes above it. Whenever it got too bad, George could just pull a lever to raise his house above the smog.

George went on the remind us that we needed to throw our trash away, recycle, and not pollute the environment.

So, maybe that's what happened to the planet. And I don't remember ever seeing an episode where they went to the surface, but I was watching it on USA's Cartoon Express. Maybe those episodes were kept in a vault.

[SugarFree]

The surface of the Earth is never shown, and the Jetson family never visits it. They often venture off-world like it ain't no thing, but never down to their own planet. We only have a few stray clues that point to the state of the Earth's surface: In Jetsons: The Movie, Rosie pushes a button to have the Jetsons' apartment rise above the planetary smog.

We too adhere to the "standing up real high" school of environmentalism.
And in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones movie, when George visits the past, he makes an offhand comment that grass is something he "remembers from ancient history."

When something as ubiquitous and hardy as grass -- something that grows in freezing tundra and burning desert alike -- is "ancient history," the only logical conclusion is that nothing grows on the surface of the planet. It is so polluted, irradiated or burned that no life exists there.

[Tim]

Sugar's a Hannah-Barbarian.

[MNG]

Hannah Barbara used to rule Saturday mornings, now I don't hear much from them...

[Fluffy]

The movies aren't canon.

/NERDVICTORY!!!!!!!

[SugarFree]

[whimper]

[Lost_In_Translation]

Every simplistic kids cartoon can be turned in to something meancing given the right fill in the blank thinking.

[Tim]

What about Top Cat?

[Lost_In_Translation]

Don't get me started on Scooby Doo. There was some messed up shit going on in that van when the cameras were off.

[Tim]

The ascot is the give away.

[MNG]

Have you seen some of the recent Scooby Doos? In the old days they always looked into what appeared to be a supernatural occurence and they debunked it. But now they actually face supernatural occurences. The whole skeptics foundation of Scooby Doo has been gutted...

[Tim]

Used to be crooked real estate agents were behind every haunted house, haunted amusement park, haunted forest, haunted theater, haunted boardwalk, haunted mixed use housing and light industrial out there.

[Au H20]

Well, sometimes they did find gold/historical artifacts that they wanted to use.

Also, once it was an actual robot.

[Au H20]

Also, Velma and Shaggy are in High School and now hook up...

Y'know, after a long, hard day, some of us like cartoons! And to get long and hard, it's called Hentai!!!

[MNG]

My kids love cartoons and honestly they are often better than most adult fare out there.

The new Scooby Doos are a mixed bag, some have the old school set up with some nice self-reference things going on, but some of the made for tv movies undermine the whole skeptics thing the show was based on.

[Au H20]

Dude, the movies have asserted that zombies, aliens, and witches are real (and vampires might be. I saw half these on weekend nights I didn't go out and got high in college).

[Madbiker]

Phineas and Ferb is my new favorite. I DVR the show for myself.

[JW]

Phineas and Ferb is full of win. My boy, in middle school, will wear his Perry the Platypus shirt to school. That's ballsy, in my book.

[Madbiker]

I'm Team Perry for life.

[Madbiker]

I'm changing my handle!

[JW]

I'm Team Perry for life.

Rick?

I keed.

[Chupacabra]

Phineas and Ferb is one of the best shows on TV.

My 5 year old wears an Agent P hat to kindergarten.

[Maxxx]

How could they forget about the Roadrunner universe? Post apocalypse, no humans and an automated mega corp that still cranks out crap.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Hrmmm. I guess Acme is a Skynet subsidiary.

[Lord Humungus]

A woman with no arms who earned an unrestricted pilot's license.
http://rightfooted.com/

[Au H20]

The comments on this article are so goddamn stupid I need to wash my brain out with smart.

Or pictures of puppies, because they are fucking adorable.*

Anyway, here's a sample comment:

Hi Caitlin. I can only speak for myself, but it's clear to me that most heterosexual women and even bi women are extremely male centric, having internalized not just the Male Gaze but the male criteria for what constitutes pleasure.

I am not heterosexual, not am I bi-sexual. As such the heteronormativity which is constantly shoved at me, is literally triggering and sickening. It is not too much to ask that the needs of Women of Color are included and addressed, not is it too much to ask that the needs of lesbians and lesbians of Color have our needs addressed as well.

It is not too much to ask. Please consider why some het women become so defensive when asked to examine their privilege.

That was in response to someone commenting that they had been having sex for years with guys and enjoying it.

*This being reason, I will expect that the puppies will either be dead, or you will just link me to disgusting hardcore porn.

[John]

Being hot and having a decent personality such that men can stand to be around you makes you privileged? Didn't you know that? We need a federal law requiring men to sleep with unattractive semi lesbian shrewish women.

[Most Women]

it's clear to me that most heterosexual women and even bi women are extremely male centric, having internalized not just the Male Gaze but the male criteria for what constitutes pleasure.

Yep, nothing satisfies me like getting my man's rocks off.

[Fluffy]

"I am literally sickened to know that other people are happy!"

So kill yourself.

It's your only way out.

[Kristen]

How could that possibly be serious? "Male Gaze"? "Triggering"? "Heteronormative"? It managed to hit all the hipster douchebag buzzwords.

[SugarFree]

She missed out on "problematic."

[Pro Libertate]

It used to always be hegemony and hermeneutics. I miss old school post-modernism.

[SugarFree]

hegemony = old and busted
colonialism = teh new hotness

[Madbiker]

I had a senior colloquium on Post-colonial Literary Theory (it was the only one that fit my schedule and I needed a colloquium to graduate). It started a few days before the 9/11 attacks. Can you just imagine the America/man bashing that went on in that class? Everything from institutionalized rape to Coca-Cola-in-India was on trial.

[SugarFree]

Ah, the fake conversation of the colloquium.

Luckily, I didn't get all that much politics in college. I took a few years off after my disastrous first year of community college. By the time I made it to a place that had gender and post-colonialism classes, I knew better.

My took a women's studies class. Her stories are hilarious. She said it basically devolved into a group therapy session most days, getting increasingly personal until a girl broke-down crying about how she had sex with her brother.

[Madbiker]

Whoa. I would say the same of my experiences. I took time off after a year at CC too - but then I decided to major in Lit and by the time I was graduating, I was working full time and had to take what I could get.

Women's studies classes were like group therapy. They were also places where you could not have a dissenting voice or opinion. Neither was the colloquium, for that matter. When I tried to voice the opinion that perhaps, now that the mantle of colonialism has been thrown off, people could, you know, try to be responsible for themselves instead of further relying on unwanted colonial power to give them a leg up, I was attacked. Verbally, but viciously, for assuming that these people could recover so quickly after centuries of paternalistic colonial indoctrination...well, you know where it goes.

I got an A in that class despite disagreeing with the prof on most things. I also got to experience the film "Fire" and got to intimately analyze "the Other" in all aspects of lit. It wasn't awful, but I preferred my seminar in 19th Century Romantic Prose. The prof was the chair of the department and one very, very smart guy. We looked at texts through economic and political lenses, not feminist/marxist ones. Much more satisfying. And also an "A" for me. Can't have too many of those on a transcript.

[R C Dean]

I took a few years off after my disastrous first year of community college.

Needed to let the statute of limitations run?

[SugarFree]

Needed to let the statute of limitations run?

And for eyewitnesses to die of "natural" causes.

[robc]

I went to an engineering school. We didnt put up with that kind of shit.

[Tim]

For a lesbian she certainly spends a lot of time mad about what guys are thinking.

[Pro Libertate]

Without your parents' heteronormativity, you would not exist. That goes for every procreative mating in your ancestral line all the way back to asexual reproduction.

[Madbiker]

God that just gave me a flashback to my mandatory wimmin's studeez class in college.

[Au H20]

Another gem:

I wish I'd had women telling me about the risks of PIV sex from a feminist point of view when I was a young woman, because I had plenty of casual "fun" sex, but the STD I got, the two pregnancies and abortions, and the treatment for pre cancerous cells on my cervix were not fun at all. Even if I'd had a lot more orgasms the sex wouldn't have been worth it, if I'd ever thought to tally it up at the time. Of course women are encouraged not to. We're encouraged not to look at the abortions, the pregnancy scares, the bad sex, the painful sex, the side effects and dangers of contraception, the STDs when we do our patriarchal duty and fuck men.

Coupled with the fact that most men are rubbish in bed (from fairly extensive research on my part) you have to wonder what's in it for women at all. What exactly are the benefits? I reckon I kept going with it because I'd been brainwashed by pornography and magazines like Cosmpolitan that it was a woman's job to have sex with men and it was supposed to be enjoyable although it never quite turned out that way. It also helps you fit in ? women who aren't having sex or are critical of it, who are shunned or even attacked. Not forgetting the women who do have sex get called names too of course.

This uncritical support of PIV intercourse on a feminist blog is worrying.

PIV, for those who don't know, means Penis in Vagina.

Also, by not reading the article, you are missing the best part:
The author literally never mentions heterosexual sex. The article is just a response to a woman's question about whether she could/should start a casual sex relationship with her ex (whose gender is never given!) and whether that is a good idea or not.

For all the comments know, this could be a lesbian who wants to hook up with her female ex. So all this shit about hetronormativity, and unquestioned support of penile sex... that's ENTIRELY IN THEIR HEADS.

It's a complex begging for a persecution.

[Madbiker]

They are penis-obsessed! In a bad way.

I wonder where that commenter got the idea that it's her "patriarchal duty to fuck men." Oh, media? Other women?

I had a few college profs, TAs, and RAs who used to hold discussion nights for us young, naive, undergrad types who were liable to fall victim to the Male Gaze, etc. They didn't seem to grasp that some women like sex, and know how to use condoms or say no to a guy who won't wear them. It's not a duty or a chore (unless the guy sucks or has a tiny dick - which does matter to some women). This woman just didn't use her head and wants to blame Men, Inc. for her bad feelings over having abortions.

This Male Gaze must be some pretty powerful shit to have hypnotized so many women into being nothing but pleasure-slaves to the Penised Classes.

[Fluffy]

It also helps you fit in ? women who aren't having sex or are critical of it, who are shunned

"I don't want to be around you!"

"OK."

"OMIGOD U BE PATRIARCHALLY SHUNNING ME!"

[Fluffy]

Strangely, no one is able to brainwash me into standing in a corner kicking a nail.

You'd think they'd be able to. Since that happens all the time, apparently.

One thing I don't get: if you admit up front that you are so mentally inferior that you can be brainwashed by Cosmo, why shouldn't I assume that everything you have to say right now isn't idiotic garbage?

'Cause I gotta tell ya, I have never walked by a magazine rack and said, "Heavens! My mind is slipping away! Help me! Help help help!"

Mostly I say, "Look at this stupid crap."

[Madbiker]

+1.

I want to ask people where their brains are when they claim they are being "told" by media, etc. how to act, sexually or otherwise.

[SugarFree]

Because feminism is gnosis, a truth that is delivered from beyond maya, the false reality. Feminism makes the veils fall away and plugs you into an objective viewpoint that non-initiates cannot understand, for they are benighted.

Any of this sound familiar?

[Fluffy]

Sorry, this was a test.

The correct answer was "Because your male privilege immunizes you from the toxic characteristics of our culture."

[SugarFree]

For years I have chafed at the silken bindings of privilege. No more!

[Au H20]

You forgot that if we bring in sexuality and/or gender identity, we have to bust out the Advanced Feminism rules.

DAMN YOU GAY GYGAX!

[The Art-P.O.G.]

pleasure-slaves to the Penised Classes.

So excellent.

[Au H20]

Also, if women are that easily influenced, why should they be allowed to vote? All a candidate needs to do is make a glossy magazine cover and boom! Half the human race is voting for them.

[Team Perry]

But you see, it's not them being so easily influenced. They are smarter than that. It's all of the other, poorer, ignorant women who don't even know they are being brainwashed.

[John]

And further, part of being brainwashed is not knowing that you are. At the point at which you have the realization you have been brain washed, you stop being brain washed. That is the whole point of it. You don't know you are being controlled. You just feel the compulsion to do it.

So anyone that says "I have been brainwashed" is necessarily speaking in the past tense.

[Clich? Bandit]

I was waiting to get my hair cut last week and picked up a Cosmo...it had been several (like 12?) years since I had looked at one. Holy Shit! I need a subscription to that. Penthouse aint got shit on Cosmo. The articles, the stories, the page after page of smokng hot chick who is stressed that she isnt sure how to please her man...The BJ advice to women alone is some good shit.

I imagine that Cosmo and Feminists are like matter and antimatter, if only we could harness the resultant energy this whole AGW thing would disappear.

[Just an Engineer]

Maybe I'm not old enough to remember correctly but wasn't it the anti patriarchal feminist movement that demanded that casual sex be socially acceptable in the first place?

[Au H20]

Well, yeah, but they weren't supposed to be having sex with, y'know, men.

The casual sex movement was started so that cute straight girl in your art class would finally fell liberated enough to fuck YOU, not her icky boyfriend.

[SugarFree]

For some people, there is nothing so terrible as getting exactly what you wanted.

[Fluffy]

That was back when all they could see was that their fathers wouldn't like it.

When they realized that all-men-not-their-fathers liked it just fine, they had to switch gears.

[Kristen]

I've had sex with a few men in my day, and never once even had so much as a pregnancy scare or an STD. Why? Because I'm not a fucking retard.

[Clich? Bandit]

I call shenanagins. All women are clearly incapable of exercsiing personal responsibility due to teh male gaze. Also, all women are so helpless that they need the stong support group of crazy feminists to guide them from the temptation of enjoying sex.

[robc]

The problem with bitcoin is it wont get you laid. This is the advantage of gold.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

Tell that to mah Bitcoin grill.

[Au H20]

Its time to nationalize the banks, apparently.

Bank credit is created based on our ability as a society to repay loans out of future economic activity. The public should decide democratically what projects should be undertaken in the general interest, and allocate credit accordingly. Public credit for private profit makes no sense at all, unless the general interest is being well served. What people are saying is that the system works for one per cent of the population, leaving 99 per cent adrift. Making banking a public utility is the way to turn the situation around.

Oh Canadians... when will you learn?

[John]

It always leads to centralized control and complete central planning.

[Isaac Bartram]

It should be noted that the writer of that article is not representative of Canadians nor is that website.

Canadian banks are not going to be nationalized any time soon, especially not on the word of someone who's an extreme leftist crackpot by even Canadian standards.

[Au H20]

Also, to make it up to you guys for putting out so much stupid:

Graphing the literature about masculinity.

Really interesting article, especially the Industrial Revolution stuff.

[Team Perry]

What is needed is a definition of manhood that is timeless, one that applies to men in any situation in life. How about virtue and excellence, character and competence?

While I know plenty of virtuous, competent men in my personal life, I don't see virtue or excellence or competence being celebrated in popular culture. Most male fashion I see is quite dandy. Commercials make male incompetence and stupidity the butt of a joke that also makes the woman the smarter, more capable aspect of the relationship.

I seldom visit malls but I had to go out shopping the other day. The mall was packed with kids, as I guess they usually are. The teen/young adult boys all looked very femme to me.

If an evolved definition of manliness comes about, then what is going to be the outward signal of masculinity?

And who are the women who like femboys? Are they simply responding to new signals, or are they expressing their resistance to "classical" masculinity?

[sloopyinca]

Definition of manhood: when a human being has a penis.

Gee, that was easy because I didn't over think it.

[Au H20]

Well, I will say that the Art of Manliness does make a good point that historically, manhood has been done ritualistically- going for a hunt, vision quests, getting your foreskin cut off- SOMETHING that signifies you have gone from boy to man.

Basically, in most societies, manhood has been earned, not given, whereas you generally went from girl to woman by getting married and popping out kids.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

My voice dropped and I could grow facial hair. I was like, hell yeah. Because my voice got pretty deep.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

OK, all this talk of skinny vs. "fat" girls made me think of this one, since I just saw this movie on Saturday.

How about Noomi Rapace, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"?

Pretty damn skinny. But after seeing her moves in that movie, I'd definitely hit it.

[John]

So would I. She has seriously exotic looking features.

[MNG]

In my neverending moderation I ask, why not favor women between the extremes of fat and skinny?

[Au H20]

You are the David Brooks of women.

[MNG]

Being mainstream with women increases your satisfactory choices. Bell curve and all.

[P Brooks]

Krugabe explains it all, again!

This is deeply unfair to American workers, who are good at lots of things, and could be even better if we made adequate investments in education and infrastructure. But to the extent that America has lagged in everything except financial services, shouldn't the question be why, and whether it's a trend we want to continue?

For the financialization of America wasn't dictated by the invisible hand of the market. What caused the financial industry to grow much faster than the rest of the economy starting around 1980 was a series of deliberate policy choices, in particular a process of deregulation that continued right up to the eve of the 2008 crisis.

Our tragic refusal to spend money on education is a national disgrace.

And- DEREGULATIONZ!

I wish somebody would catalog all the regulations which were eliminated.

[John]

nd could be even better if we made adequate investments in education and infrastructure.

We spend hundreds of billions on education. And have spent so much money on higher education we have a higher education bubble. Can someone please take the "we need to spend more education" line out and shoot it?

[kilroy]

America has lagged in everything except financial services

I'm sure this would come as quite a surprise to Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, Cisco, E-bay, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

[Clich? Bandit]

Cooking shows, reality TV, etc.

[Fluffy]

Maybe America lags into everything but financial services because if I walk into any town in America and say, "I want to build a mortgage call center here," the politicians and populace will fall all over themselves to throw money at me, but if I walk into the same town and say, "I want to build an oil refinery here," they will fight me every step of the way and make me spend years of effort and millions of dollars before I put one single fucking shovel into the ground.

[Maxxx]

The financialization of the economy is the only thing that has kept the progressive-regulatory state viable for the last twenty odd years.

So yes please reduce the size of the financial sector. That is the only way to force people to see the mess that Krugabe readers have made.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Hey, the OWS crowd now have the endorsements of both the American Communist Party and the American Nazi Party, so they've got that going for them.

[John]

And China is endorsing them too.

[Proprietrist]

Too bad the Occupy Shanghai folks got clubbed to death.

[Serj Tankian]

Why don't you ask the kids in Tianmen Square 'was fashion the reason why they were there?'

[NeonCat]

If they can only bring together other groups of enemies, like dogs and cats or clowns and nuns, truly peace on earth shall reign.

[o2]

and Iran endorsed OWS by noting our kenyan president used the iran assassination plot to distract fm the protests

[P Brooks]

The public should decide democratically what projects should be undertaken in the general interest, and allocate credit accordingly.

Cake.

They all want cake.

[Pro Libertate]

That is my conclusion as well.

[Au H20]

Also, if Law and Order UK is to be believed, the British legal system is super weird.

They still wear wigs! And when you get arrested, they tell you, "You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defense if you do not mention, when questioned, something you later rely on in court."

WTF Britain?

[John]

They don't have a fifth amendment right to remain silent. The jury is allowed to infer your guilt from your silence.

[Au H20]

That sounds like a rather flawed system.

[Ice Nine]

"Allowed to infer"?? My inferences tend to just occur spontaneously.

[Neu Mejican]

Cain's positives are going to have a hard time overcoming his negatives. Primary negative, extreme xenophobia...(see his Death Border ideas, for instance)

[MNG]

"Primary negative, extreme xenophobia"

Dude, he's running for the GOP nomination.

Xenophobia is a feature, not a bug in that race.

[Neu Mejican]

I was thinking in terms of him running in the general election.

[Locke snubbed]

Life, Liberty, and Property Pursuit of Happiness.*

There, fixed. ~Thomas Jefferson

_______________________
* The utilitarian's chief concern is the "pursuit of happiness" by doing the "greatest good for the greatest number."

[Jefferson was a Marx socialist]

Standard libertarian retort.

[Clevelandite]

I believe that Jefferson's original draft used "life, liberty and property," and that "pursuit of happiness" was Franklin's editing.

[P Brooks]

Concern Troll Army, forward march!

Maybe now is the time to question whether cars capable of such velocity should be racing on circuits like the Vegas bowl, which is signficantly smaller than the Indianapolis Speedway, and whether there is a need for drivers to have more margin for error in their sport?

How long 'til they start baying for an investigation by the Senate? Or perhaps the House Committee on Un-American Activities?

There oughtta be a law, y'know.

[SugarFree]

What if every race car just had its own track cut right into the surface of the raceway? That way the cars could never bump into each other.

[Pro Libertate]

Like they used to have at Disney World? We have the technology.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Perhaps they could fashion some sort of "slot" or groove directly in the track, and the cars could have a mating pin that rides in that slot.

And heck, to make it even safer, the "drivers" could actually sit next to the track and operate the cars by remote-control! That way, when the cars inevitably reach speeds that exceed the ability of the slot to retain them on the track (for example, as might happen in the sharp curves) and the cars fly off the track, the noboy would get killed.

Although the flying car might knock mom's vase off the credenza or something.

[Pro Libertate]

NASDRONE.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Then you would have drivers pushing on their triggers with wreckless disregard.

[Lord Humungus]

If you have the chance, watch Grand Prix with James Garner. It's a 1966 F1 racing movie - the car camera work really gives you an idea of the speeds involved in racing.

[Lord Humungus]

Police cite privacy concerns over their own DNA
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....6-14-43-09

Police in other parts of the country, however, are not as willing to hand over their DNA. Rank-and-file police from Connecticut to Chicago to Los Angeles have opposed what some experts say is a slowly emerging trend in the U.S. to collect officers' DNA.

"From a civil liberties standpoint, there are a lot of red flags," said Connecticut Trooper Steven Rief, former president of the state police union.

[Joe M]

Ron Paul media blackout confirmed.

...a new study... shows... the Texas Congressman... has received the least overall coverage of any candidate.

Of course, Gary Johnson isn't included in the measurements, but still.

[MNG]

Everytime a debate includes Huntsman but not Johnson we should throw our shoes at the screen.

Figuratively speaking of course.

[P Brooks]

see his Death Border ideas, for instance

"Don't you people know a JOKE when you hear one?!"

[Joe M]

To Cain, it's only a joke if no one's laughing.

[robc]

Back in the summer, Sen Paul proposed about $500B in spending cuts.

The father is apparently twice as good as the son.

[Joe M]

I'm sure it's because an even trillion is just impressive sounding. I wish the newspapers would report it with the full number, i.e. $1,000,000,000,000, just so people could contemplate the true size of the budget.

[P Brooks]

Dan Wheldon, you insensitive scene-steealing bastard.

The most popular driver on the circuit parked her IndyCar for the last time as a full-time driver in the series Sunday.

After seven years of racing at 220 mph in the country's oldest form of racing, Danica Patrick bid farewell at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Izod IndyCar World Championships season finale.

Her mood had been upbeat all weekend until a fiery, multi-car crash early in the race led to the death of driver Dan Wheldon. The race was not restarted, but Patrick and other drivers drove five laps at slow speed to honor his memory.

Poor Vaganica.

[o2]

now nascar fans can watch her NOT win races as well.

[John]

+1

[Kristen]

OK, double donut said something prescient and amusing.

It suddenly got extremely chilly in here, and from what I can hear on the air traffic control scanner, a pig is asking for permission to taxi at National Airport.

[teh rael o2]

that wsa a old mix spoff im a big danca fan

[o3]

^nope, so spoof [FAILZ]

[cyto]

Update on the FBI Ferrari joyride / wreck from "brickbats". It seems that in addition to all of the other immunities enjoyed by the government, taking your $750,000 Ferrari out for a joyride and totaling it is also immune from lawsuit.

The insurance company has to eat the better part of a million bucks on a car that the FBI probably had no reason to hold, and failed to protect from its own agents and attorneys.

[Clich? Bandit]

OK, so one of you lawyer types on here then explain why the two fucksticks aren't charged with willful destruction of evidence? Seriosuly, this shit kills me. And I grew up idolizing that car (even if I were rich enough I would never own one...test drive yes but own no, a brother needs AC man).

[Chris]

To the guy posting all this dumb shit:

Is it really impossible for you to believe that society is self-organizing? There aren't nefarious hands underlying and orchestrating everything. Believing so makes your whole presentation childish, which is why no one's really engaging you one on one. You believe yourself to be reasonable, and I'm sure you often look at your bookshelf to confirm this to yourself. But you could read every book mankind has produced and still be a dipshit simply because your basic assumptions about how society works are fundamentally immature. You're welcome to participate in the comment threads of this website, but at least be interesting. And my first advice on how to be interesting is to actually consider the rationality of your basic assumptions and then rework your world-view into something that doesn't make you a douche.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Wait, which guy is this directed at?

[KDN]

White Indian is my guess.

[Fatty Bolger]

Probably the commenter formerly known as White Indian.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

He should go for a symbol, like da Prince. Maybe ??

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Chris pretty much articulated my grievances toward White Indian.

It matches my grievance toward LoneWacko almost 60%.

[Fluffy]

I finally clicked on those Jennifer Love Hewitt picks and I have to say:

She's not fat, but she sure ain't hot either.

What's with the Gollum face?

John, I hear where you're coming from on the "hips and tits" front, but how about we sneak an asterisk in there that says, "Plus no Gollum face"?

[John]

The picture on the right looks awful. I have never thought she was particularly pretty. She just had a ballet dancer body with huge boobs. But that is a fair enough critique. But I don't think Palthrow's face looks much better. She appears to have had some bad work done.

[John]

http://www.reuters.com/article.....CY20111017

Good thing we did all that humanitarian work in Libya.

[John]

http://www.slate.com/articles/.....st_.2.html

Dave Weigal is still a rat fucking bastard. Whoever hired him at Reason needs to be fired.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I don't know. His take on this subject seems a bit glib, but some of the more problematic passages are just quotes from Steele and the usual 'Uncle Tom' reflexes. I think you need to give Weigel a break here.