Reason Morning Links: More Congresscritters Call for Holder's Head, What It's Like to Be a Normal Person on a Watchlist, Another DOE Gold-Digger Is DOA

• WaPo: "In August 2010, Beacon Power became one of the first companies in the nation to get an Energy Department loan guarantee designed to jump-start innovative and clean energy projects. On Monday, it became the second one to file for bankruptcy." 
• The number of GOP congresscritters demanding Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation is up to 28. 
• Computer researcher and Wikileaks associate Jacob Appelbaum writes a first-person account of what it's like to be treated like a terrorist every time he walks into an airport. 
• For sale in Cuba: 2005 Honda Civic, red, 60k miles. Price: $65,000. 
• Jim Geraghty reminds us that hedgefunders love Obama. 
• AEI: Not only are public sector teachers not underpaid when compared to the private sector, they are grossly over-benefited. 
• MercoPress: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has ordered the expropriation of 290.000 hectares (716.590 acres) belonging to a British-owned company amid a disagreement over compensation for earlier takeovers of ranchland from the firm.

New at Reason.tv: "Get Government out of Welfare Now! An Interview with Star Parker"

Comments

[Suki]

FBI releases Anna Chapman, and others, surveillance video.

[John]

With gallary of 36 photos!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

She's cute, but you can tell she's definitely got babushka potential in about 10 years.

[Ice Nine]

That girl has a serious set of CFM eyes.

[SugarFree]

Carbo-Fluoride Magnesium?

[R C Dean]

Commie Flirt Mojo?

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Oh, you guys. Geez. CFM is either cubic feet per minute or chlorofluoromethane. I thought everyone knew that.

[Joe M]

I'd give her ft?/min.

[Ice Nine]

I've seen empty boasting before but "cubic" takes the cake.

[Joe M]

Come on, do a little math. It would only take ~30 SPM for an average guy.

[Ice Nine]

Negs. That would give you one-sixth of a ft3/min, assuming average (and I certainly wouldn't know about this) is 5.5" length and 1.5" diam. At your rate of 30SPM, just one ft3/min is well past heart attack rate.

[Joe M]

Oops, I squared instead of cubing.

[wylie]

Oops, I squared instead of cubing.

That's what she said.

[Clich? Bandit]

I am unclear on the S mentioned above in SPM...My math differes so I am checking definitions.

[Ice Nine]

strokes

[Joe M]

I'll have to get back to you on whether 180 SPM is possible.

[John]

http://news.investors.com/Arti.....bprime.htm

Clinton era memo started the housing bubble.

[Suki]

This will be news to #OWS

[o2]

^moar wingnut [LIEZ]

[John]

Investors Business Daily, what a right wing rag.

[o2]

again, the CUNA & AIG suits cite [MALFEASENCE] & [MISREPRESENTATION] vs Jp morgan & BoA.

>no memo nor the CRA mandated misrepresentation or malfeasence.

[John]

No it just mandated that banks make bad loans on pain of legal sanction. That is what created the demand that drove the bubble. Gee everyone owning a home caused housing prices to go up to unsustainable levels. Who would have thunk it?

[WTF]

Holy shit, John, you actually understood that idiot-babble?

[John]

Sadly yes. But I should have ignored it and made him speak Engish. It will set his training back weeks.

[o2]

wingnutz rubbish conflating loans w misrepresentation & malfeasence to shareholders & investors

[John]

speak english or no one will respond.

[o2]

Your contention is opinion. The CUNA & AIG suits state the proximate cause as malfeasence & misrepresentation.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Why do you assume that the CUNA and AIG suits represent a perfect understanding of all the proximate causes of malfeasance and representation?

[o2]

obviously the CUNA & AIG lawyers believe they can prove malfeasence & misrepresentation.

[Britt]

So you're trusting in the word of lawyers.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

So the easiest targets are also the only targets?

[o3]

why are they "easy"?

[Jordan]

Because you can't sue the Fed or Congress.

[o2]

nothing easy about suing any major corp.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

obviously the CUNA & AIG lawyers believe they can prove malfeasence & misrepresentation.

So you're saying they committed FRAUD, Orrin?

[o2]

not until proven in court.

[Suki]

geu iyuneun mueos-ibnikka ?

[mad libertarian guy]

Not only that, but the bubble inflation AND bust was predicted LONG before it happened. Like in 1999.

See also this. Anyone claiming to have been surprised at the bubble, or that the cause wasn't known is a disingenuous idiot.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Shit, I've lost my o2 decoder ring.

Maybe I should be thankful for that.

[Jordan]

So what? They're supposed to be the authorities on this?

[o2]

the AIG & CUNA lawyers obviously believe they have legal PROOF of malfeasence & misrepresentation.

[Restoras]

Why is it hard to beleive?

[Proprietist]

Hate to say it, but Orrin's right about this. I don't know what some here expect to gain from denying the existence of malfeasance in the banks. There's no question it existed and contributed to the crash, so sticking your fingers in your ears makes it look like you are only looking at the facts you want to see, the exact same thing the Left is doing by denying or ignoring the government moral hazards, distortions of reality and overregulation that contributed to it.

Actors within corporations are more prone to malfeasance and fraud because they know the risk is socialized. State-provided limited liability protection for business owners inherently encourages malfeasance and is just another government market distortion. It's time that libertarians accept that corporations aren't truly free market entities based on private contracts and personal responsibility, but instead are government protected legal fictions that shield criminals and those who profit from criminal actions while socializing the cost of damages for their actions onto victims and society.

[o3]

im gonna quote that last sentence & will attribute. thanks

[cynical]

1) Limited liability applies to shareholders, not employees. "Actors" are still liable -- if there is any bad incentive, it's just the agent-principle problem, which isn't unique to the corporate form.

2) Bankruptcy laws limits people's liability to their creditors just as much as corporate limited liability. Do you want to bring back debt slavery?

[Proprietist]

1.) Shareholders can knowingly or unknowingly profit from criminal actions of their corporate actors. They can also cash in at the first sign of danger. And they're only liable for the amount they put in, assuming they'd ride a crash from extreme liability all the way to the bottom. The victim's damages are potentially unlimited. When the agents of the actions themselves have been "punished" if the veil is removed and corporate assets go into bankruptcy, who pays? Why shouldn't stockholders purchase liability insurance to protect their personal assets from any corporate liability? Why should they keep profits maybe earned off the actions that caused the liability?

2.) I think unconsensual bankruptcy is a moral hazard and market distortion as well. Creditors have incentive to negotiate if the debtor is in good faith, but that shouldn't give debtors the right to allow the government to protect their assets from seizure. The credit crisis is a function of idiots living outside their means, and that punishes the responsible with higher credit card interest rates and higher prices. I'd support debtors prisons only for those who make zero good faith efforts to repay their debts.

[cynical]

"Shareholders can knowingly or unknowingly profit from criminal actions of their corporate actors."

Citizens can knowingly or unknowingly profit from the bad actions of government employees. And they aren't personally liable for shit, except taxes. And unlike the corporation, everyone gets the same vote, and just as much responsibility.

Do you mind if we come after your house and life savings the next time a local cop beats the shit out of someone for a minor provocation?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

There's no question it existed and contributed to the crash, so sticking your fingers in your ears makes it look like you are only looking at the facts you want to see, the exact same thing the Left is doing by denying or ignoring the government moral hazards, distortions of reality and overregulation that contributed to it.

And as I keep pointing out, why aren't Obama and Holder prosecuting anyone for this? Fraud is still illegal in this country, and they have the DoJ, the FBI, and the SEC to all bring to bear on those who committed this fraud and to put them in jail. Orrin's claim that Obama and Holder "have no standing" is laughably ignorant considering it's their damn job to enforce the laws in place.

We saw this evasion with Cobra the other day--mewling about Evil Capitalist Banks Committing Crimes, but mention that the chief law enforcement officials in this country aren't doing a damn thing to put those who committed the crimes in jail, and all of a sudden they want you to cite specific laws that were violated, or claim that they have no jurisdiction.

Orrin, Cobra, and other leftists on this score can't have it both ways.

[Proprietist]

They have prosecuted and investigated many people and businesses for fraud. Where do you get the idea that they aren't?

Without limited liability and bankruptcy protections, I argue there would be little need for any regulatory state beyond basic enforcement of individual rights, because individuals would be fully responsible for the actions of entities they own and profit from, giving shareholders more incentive to reduce fraud and actors less incentive to commit it. Liability insurance companies will function as regulators, and rates will punish bad companies and help their better competitors.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

again, the CUNA & AIG suits cite [MALFEASENCE] & [MISREPRESENTATION] vs Jp morgan & BoA.

I'm sure Obama and Eric Holder will get on those prosecutions for fraud any day now.

[o2]

neither obama nor holder have standing in the 2 suits brought by CUNA & AIG.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

neither obama nor holder have standing in the 2 suits brought by CUNA & AIG.

Since when has fraud been legalized?

[o2]

its not hence the lawsuits vs BoA & JP Morgan.

[R]

I'll type this out using small words so you can understand it:

Obama head cop. It cop job to prosecute (oops! That's a three syllable word there; I hope that's not too much for you) fraud. Obama no prosecute people you say do fraud.

So, either Obama in bed with them, or they didn't do fraud. Which is it?

[Hank]

I got a trick-or-treater last night that was male, middle-eastern, and about 5'8", dressed as a terrorist. He pointed his colorful toy gun at me and said "trick or die".

Being real life and not the Internet, I had no snarky comment or tuff gai response. He got a fun size Snickers just like everyone else.

Very creepy, or just angsty tweens being angsty?

[John]

I think that is pretty funny. And your response in those situations is always the stock "make your first shot a good one because the next one is mine".

[Hank]

Once again, Internet wins where Hank fails.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

He may have been the real deal. Notice he left out the "treat" option when he approached your door? "Trick or die" sounds like the options Hamas are giving Isreali right now.

[Joe M]

You should always have a snarky comment in the holster.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I knew it. They hate us for our nougat.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Either the trick-or-treater's sense of irony was honed to a razor's edge or his costume was in poor taste. I cannot tell.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why can't it be both?

[wylie]

kinda like Ali G.

[Suki]

Awesome! Should have given him a full size Snickers.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Seriously, ass raping is a serious problem for angsty tweens. Why are you making light?

[Suki]

Did I miss something in the dangers of costumes thread?

[RoboCain]

Well, next year give out pork rinds.

[Suki]

+69

[Lost_In_Translation]

Being real life and not the Internet, I had no snarky comment or tuff gai response. He got a fun size Snickers just like everyone else.

Terrible story, D-

[Suki]

You might have missed something in this delightful tale.

[PS]

That's it, we're switching you to decaf.

[Lost_In_Translation]

What!? Over my jittery, spazzing body!!

[Abdul]

It's a culture, not a costume!!

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/26/.....index.html

[Abdul]

OMG, i can't believe I forgot this awesome story.

One of my neighbors adopted a chinese girl five or six. Her costume last night? Mulan.

Kid's only 6 and she trolled her whole PC suurban neighborhood in real life!

[Groovus Maximus]

That is so full of win!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The whole campaign was started by a bunch of Phaggot Striver Poors, natch.

[Zeb]

Apparently it is both a culture and a costume. Why is reality so hard to grasp for so many people?

[Joe M]

I really wish someone would do a parody (?) of these with witches, vampires, et al.

[Proprietist]

Just do an internet search. The meme is raging. I liked Sarah Jessica Parker holding a picture of a horse costume.

[Joe M]

Haha of course it is. Thanks for the heads up.

[bosty]

That story is just..

my favorite part:

"The best way to get rid of stereotypes and racism is to have a discussion and raise awareness, which is what we want to do with this campaign," said Williams, who is black and plans on dressing as singer Janelle Monae for Halloween.

The most obvious offense occurs when someone who's not black decides to go blackface, because of the historical context, she said. But the message applies to all races and stereotypes -- and not just during Halloween.

All races and stereotypes should be treated with sensitivity, but it's even *worse* when they make fun of ME, sitting high atop the grievance pyramid.

btw, who the fuck is Janelle Monae? and furthermore, why the fuck is this on CNN.com?

[highnumber]

Your excerpt calls it "most obvious offense," not the most egregious.

[WTF]

The kid's lucky the local cops didn't shoot his ass.

[CaptainSmartass]

That's where bacon-wrapped chocolate would be a perfect treat.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The number of GOP congresscritters demanding Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation is up to 28.

28 is more than enough to label this a lynching!

[Ice Nine]

Let me know when the first Democrat hits the list and I'll start getting pumped about it.

[Pro Libertate]

It's amazing how bad partisanship has gotten. Okay, fine, stick together, but when someone becomes reprehensible in his actions, repudiate him. This blind support just goes to show the whole country how venal everything really is.

[Suki]

If it was a Republican AG, half of the list would be Republicans lead by John McCain.

[John]

I don't understand why Dem Senators facing hostile electorates in 2012 like Nelson or the guy from West Virginia don't go after Holder to prove their centrist bonifides. It is not like anyone other than the nut left likes the guy. What an easy target.

[Sister Souljah]

Word.

[Joe M]

Okay, fine, stick together, but when someone becomes reprehensible in his actions, repudiate him.

Don't you get it? To Democrats, he hasn't done anything wrong, by definition, because he's one of them. They don't do bad things. Ever. The blindness is so bad it's not even a matter of refusing to denounce. It's just inability to even see fault in the first place.

[Ice Nine]

The number of GOP congresscritters demanding Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation is up to 28.

Let me know when the first Democrat hits the list and I'll start getting pumped about it.

[Elspeth Flashman]

+1. Holder has a job?

[o2]

elections have consequences

[Lord Humungus]

and we continue to see the worst of it.

[o2]

no the worst was invading the wrong country after being warned there were no nukes in iraq.

[Lord Humungus]

Sure.

[Destrudo]

Bush Derangement Syndrome is treatable o2. Help is out there. You don't have to suffer.

[o2]

not for the 4000 KIA & the 30,000 wounded

[Red Rocks Rockin]

not for the 4000 KIA & the 30,000 wounded

nor for the 1,800 killed and 14,500 wounded

[Red Rocks Rockin]

You must be really pissed about Yemen and Uganda, then.

[o2]

no both countries asked the US to intervene against terrorists

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Terrorists to whom?

[o2]

both national govts & the US.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Yes, not all of them desirable or good.

Winning an election does not mean you get to appoint people who then go on to violate laws, flaunt constitutional duties and lie to congressional investigations with impunities.

Elections have consequences, yes, but so do actions taken subsequent to the election by those who won it.

[SugarFree]

TRUST DEMOCRACY

[Devil Inchoate]

You know who else was elected?

[Mike M.]

Happy (possible) 15 trillion dollar debt day everybody!

[robc]

Thats only $2000 per person, if we make everyone americans.

[Suki]

Don't you mean Texans?

[John]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....s_americas

Believing your lying eyes and disagreeing with the government inflation rate, gets you thrown in jail in Argintina.

[WTF]

Graciela Bevacqua's work ? compiling inflation rates sharply at odds with Argentine government figures ? has made her a target of government regulators.

Why do I get the feeling that the Whitehouse is taking notes?

[John]

Argintina is exactly the kind of country they would like America to be.

[Pro Libertate]

Argentina.

[JW]

Asia Argento

[Groovus Maximus]

Blech, I'll pass.

[Clich? Bandit]

I'm no randroid but how the hel did she pick mexico and argentina so accurately in Atlas? Kind of freaky considering when it was written.

[Jersey Patriot]

Argintina is exactly the kind of country they would like America to be.

Nah, Argentina doesn't incinerate nearly enough Third Worlders.

[db]

See, it's just like yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater.

[DJF]

Except for the minor facts that there was no yelling, no fire, nor crowds and no theater it was exactly the same. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. would approve of this analogy.

[Suki]

Don't cry for her.

[Lord Humungus]

The Fragmenting of the New Class Elites, or, Downward Mobility
http://volokh.com/2011/10/31/t.....-mobility/

The OWS protestors are a revolt ? a shrill, cri-de-coeur wail at the betrayal of class solidarity ? of the lower tier New Class against the upper tier New Class. It was, after all, the upper tier New Class, the private-public finance consortium, that created the student loan business and inflated the bubble in which these lower tier would-be professionals borrowed the money. It's a securitization machine, not so very different from the subprime mortgage machine. The asset bubble pops, but the upper tier New Class, having insulated itself and, as with subprime, having taken its cut upfront and passed the risk along, is still doing pretty well. It's not populism versus the bankers so much as internecine warfare between two tiers of elites.

[John]

Mrs Suderman had a great post about this citing Orwell's description of the old lower upper class in late 19th Century Britain. The people at OWS have little money or influence. The only way they can distinguish themselves from the masses is to look down upon them. She writes

It's not entirely crazy to suspect, as Orwell did, that this has something to do with money. Specifically, you sneer at the customs of the people you might be mistaken for. For aside from a few very stuffy conservatives, no white people I know sneer at hip-hop music, telenovelas, Tyler Perry films, or any of the other things often consumed by people of modest incomes who don't look like them. They save it for Thomas Kinkade paintings, "Cozy cottage" style home decoration, collectibles, child beauty pageants, large pickup trucks***, and so forth.

That really nails the typical hipster douche bag. And it describes their angst perfectly. They couldn't go to state school because what would mumsie and pupsie have told their friends. They couldn't work for an evil corporation or gasp join the military. But they don't have the money to spend their lives living on a trust fund working for a non profit in New York. So how do they distinguish themselves from the working class masses? Fashion and pretension. That is how. And one of the comments brought up a great point from Nietzsche I hadn't considered.

Nietzsche said it best: the closer to equality people become the more they resent the decreasing inequalities that exist between them.

http://www.theatlantic.com/nat.....te/247638/

[Suki]

And why the hate for large pickup trucks? What do they like, Toyota compact pickups or something?

[John]

They are not sustainable and green Suki. But that is only until someone figures out that owning one is ironic. Then they will love them.

[o2]

but they're great for technicals after the revolution starts here.

[Destrudo]

Best hope it doesn't, because - regardless of the outcome - progressive pussies and OWS-ers would be slaughtered by all sides. They couldn't fight off a common cold.

[ghost of kaddafi]

u mean the rats & drug addicts ?

[Suki]

Maybe they missed the E85 labels, which is a whole other funny by itself, or the bacon grease possibilities for diesels.

[gaijin97]

And why the hate for large pickup trucks?
cause you can't hang truck nutz from a compact pickup?

[Restoras]

Great comment, Sir John.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Tyler Perry films

I think South park covered this. Its hard to sneer at something that makes no sense. How does anyone find Tyler Perry funny?

[John]

Diary of Mad Black Woman is hysterical. Have you actually lived in a black neighborhood? Media is a cultural archetype. I love Media and all of the Medias out there in the world.

[Lost_In_Translation]

No, I have not lived in a black neighborhood, so I guess its one of those "only funny to those that experience it". Don't understand why Mcardle is mentioning it then, other than maybe you can't despise something that doesn't make any sense.

[John]

I didn't know hipsters hated Media. Really I didn't know many white people watched or worried about Tyler Perry.

[SFC B]

What she's saying is that hipsters don't hate on Medea because the class of people hipsters hate on aren't consumers of Tyler Perry products. Despite Tyler Perry producing the mainstream black equivalent of Nickelback.

[CaptainSmartass]

Tyler Whonow? Is that an actual person or some kind of character from a movie?

[Fatty Bolger]

It helps if you grew up in the south.

I think Madea is pretty funny, but his other movies don't do much for me. Mostly because they're essentially Hallmark made for TV movies with mostly black casts. I can see the appeal, though. It must be nice for a change to see black characters who are just normal characters who happen to be black. They aren't there to prove that the movie's other characters aren't racist, make it "edgy", provide some "teaching moment" about racism, etc. They're just characters in a movie who do things characters in movies do.

[Ice Nine]

How does anyone find Tyler Perry funny?

So which are you - very stuffy conservative or not white? (The two are mutually exclusive, I've been told.)

[Red Rocks Rockin]

But they don't have the money to spend their lives living on a trust fund working for a non profit in New York. So how do they distinguish themselves from the working class masses? Fashion and pretension.

That's why Phaggot Striver Poors is the perfect designation for them--a demographic instilled with an unwarranted sense of self-regard, brought up to believe they were a little more important, a little more special than their fellow classmates (it's no accident that Apple products tend to be their technology of choice, as the Apple manifesto perfectly fits their pretensions), and believe that because they have Inner Beauty, that life will ultimately lay out a Yellow Brick Road for them to walk on with little effort on their own part except to just show up.

[Fatty Bolger]

BOBO wannabes.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I enjoyed McMegan's continuation of this theme (link below). It really does explain the Occupiers better than either the "Average Joes Who've Had Enough" or "Dirty Hippies Looking for a Handout" theories.

[SugarFree]

Tampon Attack

[Tim]

You are constant as the northern star.

[SugarFree]

I try to be a beacon of stability in these turbulent times.

[Groovus Maximus]

When the rise of Toxic Shock Syndrome inevitably reaches critical mass, I will be blaming you Saccharin Man.

An advanced case of that stuff is difficult to treat and can be lethal.

Why do you hate the epidermis?

[SugarFree]

Epidermis means hair, right?

[Groovus Maximus]

Considered part of the gross, superficial integumentary system, so you're half right.

Still flaunting the neckbeard/merkin combo, are ye?

[Field Marshall Gill]

I thought Epidermis was Episarich's sister?

[Groovus Maximus]

I thought Epidermis was Episarich's sister?

No, that's Episiotomy.

[SugarFree]

"I said 'Ha, Ha.'"

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Epi and Stitch?

[Episiotomy]

You remembered me! I got tired of stalking EPi tho. Seems I'm no WI.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Does McDonald's carry those juices 'down under', or did the lady bring her own into the restaurant?

[Suki]

"You are constant as the northern star."
One of the proofs that Shakespeare may have really written his on works.

[Pro Libertate]

Sounds like Francis Bacon to me.

[John]

Bacon never wrote any of it. It is all Shakespeare. Read Bill Bryson's Will of the World sometime. He spends an entire chapter fully debunking that nonsense.

[Pro Libertate]

Ha!

[RoboCain]

He didn't even invent bacon.

[Pro Libertate]

Now that's a damned lie.

[Zeb]

I've never really understood why I should care either way what the actual name of the person who wrote Shakespeare is. As far as I am concerned "Shakespeare" refers to a collection of writings and that's all that really matters. I suppose I understand the curiosity about the man, but I don't know why people get so emotionally involved in the question. The writing is just as good either way and whoever wrote it is long dead.

[Pro Libertate]

There's actually compelling evidence that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.

With someone that good and that influential, I can understand wanting to know more about his background.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This is why women shouldn't be in combat, serve as president or act as hooligans.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Thanks, NutraSweet. I read the comments and now know what a "Diva Cup" is.

I'm going to vomit now.

[Episiotomy]

WHY WHY?!? would you read the comments at Jezebel ? Have you no sense of self-preservation?

[Lord Humungus]

Rabies, Trolleys & Wii Fit: 6 Things You Had No Idea Could Make You A Nympho
http://www.thefrisky.com/2011-.....-a-nympho/

Of all the weird side effects rabies causes, I never knew that hypersexuality was one of them. The other day we heard the story of an Indian woman who contracted rabies from a puppy bite. After two months untreated, the inflammation in her brain caused her to feel aroused all the time. Sadly, she passed away a few days later. I'm not trying to depress you, rather to educate about some little known causes of nymphomania. Click through to see some more bizarre things that have given women uncontrollable sex drives.

[Ice Nine]

Terminally horny. Poor thing.

[Average Dude]

Now you know how we feel all. The. Time.

[Elspeth Flashman]

shoot, I want to rent a trolley for a party. What kind of party will that turn into?

[Joe M]

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has ordered the expropriation of 290.000 hectares (716.590 acres) belonging to a British-owned company amid a disagreement over compensation for earlier takeovers of ranchland from the firm.

Wow. He's really trying to accelerate the destruction of that country as much as possible. I have no idea why any company would continue to do any business there whatsoever.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It begins with O and rhymes with toil.

[Joe M]

Right, but what good is it if you could lose your entire investment at any second?

[Quetzalcoatl]

So what you're saying is: "Don't stick your drill in crazy?"

[Joe M]

"Hansel und Gretyl" might be a good analogy.

[robc]

If only some author had covered this scenario.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Quetzalcoatl,

It begins with O and rhymes with toil.

Oh boil?

Olive Oyl?

[SugarFree]

I know it's childish, but my first inclination would be to somehow make that land as useless to 'Ugo as possible.

[Groovus Maximus]

A mass influx of tampons to suck up all that oil but quick. Think of the lulz.

[SugarFree]

Apparently, it's farmland with 130,000 head of cattle. What is cheap, easy to get a hold of, and poisons cattle to the point that not only do they die, but it also renders their meat useless?

The land we can take care of with enough salt.

[Groovus Maximus]

What is cheap, easy to get a hold of, and poisons cattle to the point that not only do they die, but it also renders their meat useless?

So many ways to go with this one...

[SugarFree]

Well, assume that we can't get enough of Warty's saliva in time.

[Groovus Maximus]

Can't we just use a little of Warty's saliva, culture it and can it?

Otherwise, Pelosi's supply of botox should work.

[Warty]

How about dioxin? Agent Orange the fuck out of the place.

[SugarFree]

It's a really insane story if you RTFA. 'Ugo seizes a portion of this company's land, refuses to compensate them in anything but shitty local currency, which they cannot exchange for any other foreign currency because they can't take foreign currency out of the country, and then when they complain, he seizes the rest of the company's assets in retaliation.

joe must be so fucking proud right now.

[Citizen Nothing]

He was democratically elected. So STFU.

[Warty]

Something something democratically elected!

[Lord Humungus]

You know who else was democratically elected?

[Citizen Nothing]

Rutherford B. Hayes?

[Groovus Maximus]

James Buchanan?

[JW]

Chester A. Arthur?

[PantsFan]

George W Bush?

[WTF]

Barack Obama?

[Lord Humungus]

close...

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Not to UN-Godwin the thread, but Hitler was appointed, right?

[H man]

Yes, he was appointed chancellor by the German President Hindenburg.

[Isaac Bartram]

Hitler was appointed chancellor after the Nazis received the largest plurality (about 35% IIANM) of the votes in the 1933 election. With the help of a couple of other parties he was able to cobble together a parliamentary majority and hence a government. No other party leader was able to assemble the same level of support leaving hindenburg no choice but to pick Hitler.

That's about as close as you can come to being elected head of government in a parliamentary system.

[prolefeed]

Well, no, Hindenburg had a choice. Not having a government would have been better than having Hitler running the government.

The other screwup was, in the coalition government, giving Hitler control of the military and police. That was all he needed to seize everything else in the government in short order.

[Isaac Bartram]

Well, it's also possible that one of the other parties that got in the 30% range (the Social Democrats, perhaps) could have put together a coalition too. But the Nazis were the noisiest and Hindenburg, above all, was trying to establish order.

No government was not really an option. If a coalition says they're ready to govern the head of State, especially a weak figurehead like Hindenburg, generally has no constitutional right to refuse to let them form a government.

The fact is that politics were just really kind of broken in 1920s and 30s Germany.

[db]

Jon Corzine?

[Suki]

As long as everybody behaves, no blood will be spilled for oil.

[Groovus Maximus]

See above reply to Saccharin Man.

[Suki]

+1

[Lord Humungus]

A Slow-Growth America Can't Lead the World
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....90754.html

At the most recent meeting a year ago in Seoul, the G-20 rejected the president's pleas for a deficit-increasing Keynesian stimulus and instead urged credible budget-deficit reduction and a return to sound fiscal policy. And on that trip he had to defend the activist monetary policy of the Federal Reserve against widespread criticism that its easy money was damaging to emerging-market countries, causing volatile capital flows and inflationary pressures.

With a weak recovery?retarded by new health-care legislation and financial regulations, an exploding debt, and threats of higher taxes?the U.S. is in no position to lead as it has in the past.

[Quetzalcoatl]

The Rage of the Almost-Elite

Atlantic blogger and Kochtopod-by-marriage Megan McArdle compares a Volokh Conspiracy analysis of the Occupiers with a passage from Orwell.

Worth reading in full.

I do think that at least some of the anger comes from the fact that many people in the lower-upper do not perceive many of their consumption choices--attending an elite private college, living in a desirable urban area--as fundamentally consumption choices, not basic human endowments that you are supposed to be able to choose without regard to cost. An income which would be very comfortable in Omaha requires real sacrifice in New York or Los Angeles, and if you don't perceive the choice to live there as a choice, it's apt to seem very unfair.

I don't want to push that too far; tuition inflation has been enormous, and there have been all sorts of quite real dislocations in the middle class over the decades. But I do suspect this is at least a small part of the feeling of betrayal.

[John]

You beat me by six minutes. I actually bothered to proof read my post. That is what that kind of stuff gets you. I will give McArdle credit. She really seems to understand the Washington asshole really well. I guess she spends so much time with them she gets them in a way you and I can't.

After reading that, I can't help but loath those people even more. Screw them. These are the people who look down upon me for going to a state school and joining the military. And they borrowed huge amounts of money really for the sole purpose of being assholes. And now I am supposed to feel sorry for them? Fuck them. I want to drive by them in my nice car and laugh at their misfortune.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Yeah, I thought that the Volokhite was a little too compassionate towards the "sustainable conservation" uh... engineer? Consultant? She never really mentioned what her contribution would be...

[Restoras]

I want to drive by them in my nice car and laugh at their misfortune.

Ok, but don't forget your top hat and monocle!

[John]

I won't. Don't worry. I will even grow a mostache just so I can twirl it as I laugh.

[kinnath]

I'm an engineer, and I could get a job in just about any part of the country. But I choose to live in Iowa, because here my salary buys a 3,000 sq ft house on 1 1/8 acres of land as well as the late model 350Z I drive 8 months of the year and the 10 year old SUV I drive when there's snow on the ground.

Fuck the people of New York. If they choose to live there, so be it -- just shut the fuck up about how much money it costs to live there.

[John]

Comeon Kinnath just becuase you worked your ass off in college taking really hard courses and spending your evening in lab learning something that is useful doesn't entitle you to a better life than your betters who spent their time in college learning leftist politics and working at the local food co-op.

[kinnath]

The ironic thing is that my two kids haven't gone to college yet (my younger one just finished an associates degree at the local community college). They just merely grind away at their day jobs and skipped being 100K in debt. They have brighter futures that any dipshit out at OWS.

[kinnath]

My brother has an MFA. He scrapes by from one art project to the next. But he still lives in Iowa, and lives a reasonably comfortable life. He would have starved to death if he had ever tried to move to the "big city".

[WTF]

My brother has an MFA.

Mother Fucking Asshole?

[kinnath]

Are you serious?

Master of Fine Arts.

BA -> MA -> MFA (almost PhD)

[WTF]

No, I wasn't serious - but an 'almost PhD' in art? What's the point? I mean, did Van Gogh need a degree?

[kinnath]

No, I wasn't serious - but an 'almost PhD' in art? What's the point? I mean, did Van Gogh need a degree?

You don't need credentials to sit in a loft and paint, but if you want to get a paying job anywhere in the US today, you do need the credentials.

[T]

Most arts don't have a terminal PhD. MFA is all you get, and that qualifies you to be a fine little socialist teaching children.

I may be generalizing based on the one I know, mind you.

[kinnath]

It is my understanding as well that MFA is the terminal degree for the arts.

So you can teach at any level you want (including grad school).

[T]

Yeah, the guy I know teaches college level graphic design.

He also got told to keep his political opinions out of the classroom. How over the top do you have to go to get told that at a liberal arts college?

[Brett L]

Just have to be right of the professoriate.

[Spoonman.]

I'm trying to convince my wife that we should stay in Houston, because we can get a nice house here to fill with kids on what I earn today, and the median salary for my job here is about 33% higher than it is elsewhere in the country.

[Lost_In_Translation]

we can get a nice house here to fill with kids on what I earn today

http://blog.chron.com/primepro.....champions/

3.5 million for 25000 sq-ft. Not bad.

[Restoras]

Stay far away from the Northeast Corridor and the LEft Coast.

[rac3rx]

Why would she NOT want to stay in Houston? I've lived in and around Houston almost my entire life and couldn't fathom living anywhere else.

[Suki]

Anderson opens with something about the origins, but never once mentions AdBusters, a company that makes their money with satire and caricature.

[T]

"Kochtopod-by-marraige" is a nice turn of phrase, winged serpent. Well done you!

[Quetzalcoatl]

Fanks.

[JW]

The Cal graduate started out wanting to do "sustainable conservation." She is now engaged in something closer to subsistence farming.

Sounds like she got a job in her field after all.

[Episiotomy]

lol

[Red Rocks Rockin]

And to give her credit, at least she's getting her hands dirty. Farming is hard damn work--it's too bad she felt that she had to go to Cal to qualify for it.

[Lord Humungus]

Israel and the Apartheid Slander
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11.....ef=opinion

In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute: "Inhumane acts ... committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime." Israeli Arabs ? 20 percent of Israel's population ? vote, have political parties and representatives in the Knesset and occupy positions of acclaim, including on its Supreme Court. Arab patients lie alongside Jewish patients in Israeli hospitals, receiving identical treatment.

[MiNGe]

JOOS!!!!11!!!

[Suki]

Don't tell MNG.

[WTF]

Don't worry, MNG will just come up with his own definition of apartheid and then apply it to Israel to prove he is right about them.

[John]

see below

[R C Dean]

Clearly, legal equality between Arabs and Jews in Israel serves only to drag Arabs down to the level of Jewish pigdogs. Such an insult can only be answered with random rocket fire from safe havens protected by those nations with long histories of trying to exterminate the Jew.

[o2]

+1

[kwais]

RC Dean,
Long histories of trying to exterminate the Jew?
The rocket are fired from territories controlled by Israel.

The countries with long histories of trying to exterminate the Jew are the European countries no?
I mean Germany and Spain specifically.

Two countries that support us about Israel.
As far as I know there are current Jewish populations in:
Morocco, Egypt, Iran, Jordan. A significant part of the protest against Israel population in the West Bank is Jewish.

(Well I don't know how significant, just the ones that I have met)

[R C Dean]

The rocket are fired from territories controlled by Israel.

Apparently not, if rockets are being fired at Israel from them.

The countries with long histories of trying to exterminate the Jew are the European countries no?

Mainly them (and I include more than Germany and Spain - Russia is where the pogrom was invented, after all) and they protect the hostile territories via the UN, yes. Other countries, including those in the Middle East, who also protect the Palis have satisfied themselves with mere ethnic cleansing, so you've got a point, there.

[kwais]

""Apparently not, if rockets are being fired at Israel from them.""

I know, like the US govt doesn't control the US because drugs are dealt in the US and it is illegal.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Strawman alert! Strawman alert!

Nobody approach ^^this^^ with an open flame.

[kwais]

So here was my point:
The Israeli government maintains the right to:
Control who goes in and out of the Palestinian territories.
Control what construction is done in the Palestinian territories.
What is imported and exported from the Palestinian territories.
They maintain the right to tax what goes in and out of the territories.

The Israeli government claim the right to build Jewish only neighborhoods in the Palestinian territories.

They maintain the right to patrol those territories.

To claim that Israel doesn't control the Palestinian territories because rockets are fired from those territories is less absurd than the claim that rockets are fired from those territories because Israel DOES control those territories in an unjust way.

[o2]

kwais - ur fooling w the wingnutz meme about the netanyhu coalition is infallable...despite their heavy criticism by jewish voters.

>likud (netanyahu) only has like 20-25% of the knesset & is in coalition w extreme RW ultra-orthodox parties.

[kwais]

02 you add nothing to the argument.

I am talking about basic human rights here, not Likud, nor who another country's citizens chose as their leader.

You agreeing with me only discredits my arguments.

[Fatty Bolger]

PWND

[o3]

but i dont agree w you kwais. i restated what you wrote and added FACTS about the knesset.

>try again please.

[R C Dean]

Don't get me wrong, here. I'm not saying the Israelis haven't made their fair share of mistakes and abuses.

But between the Israelis and the Palis, I don't see much ground for siding with the Palis. Unlike the Israelis, they are sworn to a campaign of ethnic cleansing, commit war crimes on an almost daily basis, and resolutely refuse to negotiate any kind of peace.

I still think the Israelis should just say "OK, we're dropping our opposition to a Pali state. Just understand that, as a full-blown state, any attacks on Israel will be regarded as acts of war, and will be responded to under international law in a manner that will terminate the threat of any further acts of war against Israel."

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

If forced to choose, I'm siding with the Isrealis as well. First, they have never called for the destruction of any other group of people. And second, Jews are really good with money.

[Fatty Bolger]

Plus they have these. FTW

[kwais]

They do have those, which is one reason I keep going back there, even outside of work.

This much is true.

[kwais]

I think you mistake opposition of policies based on religion or ethnicity, by a country we put our neck on the line for,
you mistake that with support of Palestinians.

It is not such a thing.

I believe, as I have to believe being a libertarian, that regardless of religion, or ethnicity that a person has certain rights.

And more so that a person should be treated by us and by any country we support, that a person should be judged on their actions, not on their culture or religion.

Now perhaps I am wrong.

Perhaps Jews can manage a country better than Moslems, perhaps if the people that are Moslem and were forced to flee Israel to make way for a Jewish homeland, if they were all allowed to return, that they would vote Israel into being another Arab dictatorship.

If this is possible, if this is the case. If so, what does that say?
Isn't this Lonewhackos reason to exist?

[R C Dean]

And more so that a person should be treated by us and by any country we support, that a person should be judged on their actions, not on their culture or religion.

Me, too. Thus, without reference to culture or religion:

But between the Israelis and the Palis, I don't see much ground for siding with the Palis. Unlike the Israelis, they are sworn to a campaign of ethnic cleansing, commit war crimes on an almost daily basis, and resolutely refuse to negotiate any kind of peace.

[MNG]

"They" are sworn to all of this?

[kwais]

""I don't see much ground for siding with the Palis.""

RC, by Palis, do you mean the Palestinian government? (Despite some of MNG's pro-government proclivities, I don't think even he is defending them.)

I have not met a Palestinian yet that is in favor of ethnically cleansing the Jews from the holy land. I would say the majority of Israelis I have met, that are not peace activists are.

Now that is worthless and anecdotal, and surely the message I received was tailored to me.

Most of the Israelis I met were in the Army, and knew I came from the war in Iraq, so they figured me to be a sympathetic figure to this line of thought.
The Palis that I met knew that I would not be sympathetic to any such talk about the the Jews.

Still, it is not about 'siding with the Palis, or siding with the Israelis to me.
It is about being against our government putting our neck on the line to support people based on religion or ethnicity. To support a government where the goal is to deny people rights, so that one ethnicity or religion has more votes.

It is not right for us to do so in Iraq about the Shia and Sunni, or Kurd and Arab.
It is not right for us to do so Afghanistan about the Pashtuns and Tajiks,
and it is not right for us to do so in Israel about the Jews and non Jews.

[MNG]

This is absurd because it compares the treatement of Arab Israeli citizens in Israel when the entire charge of apartheid against Israel rests upon the treatment of the Arabs living in the Occupied Territories. Of course I don't expect the usual Arab haters around here to get that distinction.

[MNG]

Actually a more accurate analogy to the OTs would be the bantustans where semi-autonomous, limited soveriegnty "homelands" were created by S. Africa for Africans, surrounded and policed by S. Africa.

[o2]

its all randian to feel the cart pushes the horse...but then beat the horse anyway

[R C Dean]

That's a better analogy, until you get to the part where blacks living outside of bantustans were denied legal equality.

[MNG]

Isreal treats Arab citizens of Israel in an imperfect but laudable way.

It's how they treat the people living in the occupied territories that people have a problem with.

I mean, really. The other day I pointed out Turkey has little room to stand on criticizing Israel's treatment of the Arabs in the OTs given Turkey's treatment of their Kurds, but at least the Turkish Kurds are afaik Turkish citizens with the on-paper rights that entails. The problem with the Palestinians in the OTs is they are ruled by Israel but have no citizenship (in Israel or any nation).

[R C Dean]

It's how they treat the people living in the occupied territories that people have a problem with.

Well, some people have a problem with how the people in the "occupied territories"* treat Israel.

*A misnomer. I don't believe there are any Israeli soldiers posted in these areas. They certainly don't control the "government", as is traditional when occupying a country. As near as I can tell, the occupied territories are occupied by Palestinians. Which is apparently no treat, but the Palestinians are hardly in a position to complain.

[MNG]

Up until Oslo they certainly were IDF soldiers posted in these areas. As of now the soldiers are posted immediately around the area totally controlling the borders and enter at will to strike or arrest people.

This is a situation that no American would accept for their own people.

[kwais]

RC,
There are Israeli soldiers in the occupied territories, they man checkpoints, they man all the border crossings.
The knock down houses that are constructed without the proper permits.
A Palestinian must request both the Palestinian govt, and the Israeli govt to travel, to improve their building.

A Palestinian has to pay both Palestinian taxes, and Israeli taxes.

Do you really think that the suicide bombs, the ineffective rockets, the attacks, are all because these Arabs (including Christian Arabs) hate the Jews?

Do you think this is what fuels the fight?

ANYONE on this board where a Palestinian citizen, they would find some way to resist Israel. Not one of us would be happy and just accept it. (except maybe Suki).

[TrickyVic]

""Do you really think that the suicide bombs, the ineffective rockets, the attacks, are all because these Arabs (including Christian Arabs) hate the Jews?""

A lot of people think that way. Just like some think we were/are attacked by people who hate us. Hate is an easy excuse that sells well to the public, it's simple and needs no explanation. It's reliable in that you know you can stand against those you hate you and your kind will (usually) stand with you. It's a driving force.

[kwais]

A NYT commenter said this:

""I respect the right of Israel to exist. I have spent some time there, and the Israelis can be justifiably proud of the great country they have built. However, you can't hold the Palistinians in political limbo forever just so you can forever maintain a buffer zone. Either allow the establishment of a Palistinian state, or fully incorporate Gaza and the West Bank into Israel and grant those Palistinians full citizenship and democratic rights within Israel. Both Palestinians and Israelis can cite a long litany of wrongs that the other side has perpetrated, in the meanwhile, nothing ever changes. It's not 1967 any more.""

So, throw out your "any criticism of Israel is false and anti-semitic" all you want,
But what is the solution?
Like the drug war, what is going on now is not working and is not humane.

[Groovus Maximus]

Or Jordan can open up and take in all those Palestinian refugees instead of using them as a political football.

[kwais]

Israel or Jordan could do this I suppose. Where do the refugees want to go?
Back to their original homes maybe in the land now called Israel. Why shouldn't they be allowed to?

[R C Dean]

Because they gave up any claim to those homes when they abandoned them to participate in the first war against the Jews?

[Restoras]

Not too mention the fact that what passes for Palistinean leadership wants Israel destroyed, along with lots more dead Jews?

[kwais]

What passes for Palestinian leadership is slightly worse than what passes for American leadership.

It consists of people that want money and power.

But is rather irrelevant to the discussion.

[MNG]

All the Palestinians in the OT today abandoned their homes to participate in a fight against the Jews?

Nice collectivist thinking there RC.

[RC]

all brown peeps are the same

[R C Dean]

Well, the ones who had homes in Israel did. Are you saying that Palis who never had homes there that they abandoned somehow have a claim to homes they never had?

[MNG]

All the Palistineans that lived in contested areas fled to "make war on Jews?" None of them fled in fear of the combat breaking out around them?

Hell, even most Likudians have not invoked the myth that the Arabs all just walked away to make war in a while.

[kwais]

Really? I don't know if I see it that way.

Also, if they just fled because they believed propaganda about Jewish genocidal tendencies. (an easy lie to believe given the history of the area) If they just fled because they feared for their lives, does that equal giving up any right to their original homes?

I mean, not my land, not my call, it could be.

But even if they did give up those rights, that is not solving the situation.
Saying that Jordan should solve the situation for the Israelis when it has no motive to do so is silly also. IMO

[TrickyVic]

""Because they gave up any claim to those homes when they abandoned them to participate in the first war against the Jews""

In the not too distant future I could see that rewritten in this America to say,

Because they gave up any claim to those homes when they abandoned them to participate in the war against the authority of the United States.

[MNG]

"Back to their original homes maybe in the land now called Israel. Why shouldn't they be allowed to?"

What's funny is that I'm supposed to be so anti-Israel but you know I actually think this is not a viable option. Those homes were lost long ago, it was a tragedy in many cases, but now you have other people living there for decades and no way to separate out who belongs where.

Right now the best that can be done is to allow the Palestinians an actual, autonomous nation with the 1967 borders (with some land swaps).

I'd suggest an international peace force at their borders like the one that has recently kept the peace at the Lebanon-Israeli border.

[kwais]

I personally don't think the two state solution will work.

An international peace force will receive terrorist attacks from both sides.

I think the one state solution is more doable. You are not going to make someone leave their home that has been borne there.
Offer the refugees some land, and citizenship, and build them a settlement if you will.
There will be bitches and gripes, and within a generation it will be part of history like the cowboys and indians.

[MNG]

Iirc the international force that has been keeping the peace at the Lebanon-Israeli border has not been the target of such trouble.

[R C Dean]

I'd suggest an international peace force at their borders like the one that has recently kept the peace at the Lebanon-Israeli border.

Seriously? The border that Hez has launched attacks across while building up a proto-state sworn to the destruction of Israel? The border that hosted a nasty little war not long ago.

[MNG]

Er, I hate to revise your time-order RC, but I'm talking about the international border patrol that came after and as a result of that little war you are referring to.

I see you base your animosity towards Arab people in conflict with Israel on a pretty glaring lack of information on the situation.

[Proprietist]

Why should Jordan be responsible for Israel's problem? Israel was wrong to push Palestinians out of their homes, wrong to have left them in political limbo for over half a century, wrong to violate their own treaties, wrong to build settlements provocatively so they can keep a military presence throughout Palestine. Had Israel treated Palestine more fairly from the beginning, I doubt that radical Islam and hatred of the West would be a significant issue in the Arab world. That doesn't excuse in any way the contributions of Palestine to the powder-keg, but Israel's the one with real political and military power. Until they show good faith with the Palestinians or until the US forces their hand, nothing will get done.

[MNG]

"throw out your "any criticism of Israel is false and anti-semitic" all you want"

Oh they will, it's their first line of obfuscation and defense.

[o2]

because any govt coalition in israel is infallable to wingnutz, regardless of heavy internal jewish criticism

[Eric Holder]

The number of GOP congresscritters demanding Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation is up to 28.

"Nobody move, or the nigger gets it."

[Mike M.]

Former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachser Jon Corzine's IMF Global Holdings Ltd. goes bankrupt, making it the first big victim of Europe's collapse.

[Lord Humungus]

Germany: Getting People Back to Work
http://neighborhoodeffects.mer.....k-to-work/

They also reduced the generosity of unemployment benefits:

Here's what you get if you're out of work for more than a year in Germany: 364 euros a month ? that's about $500 ? subsidized rent and heat, and a job counselor. Before the Hartz commission, you would get around 50 percent of your last income indefinitely for as long as you were unemployed.

Kenney says that Hartz "wanted to make unemployment uncomfortable so that people would get off of it quickly."

[Abdul]

You know what other German tried to make unemployment as uncomfortable as possible for the leeching underclass?

[Suki]

Bismarck?

[Groovus Maximus]

Kaiser Wilhelm II.

[WTF]

Eisenhower?

[Old Mexican]

Did you mean Fritz Eisenhower? Because the other Eisenhower wasn't German.

[WTF]

The Eisenhauer (German for "iron miner") family migrated from Karlsbrunn, Germany to Switzerland in the 17th century due to religious persecution, and a century later came to the United States.

[Ice Nine]

Alaric?

[Pro Libertate]

Goethe?

[PantsFan]

Michael Schumacher?

[Old Mexican]

Konrad Adenauer?

[Pro Libertate]

I was thinking Hitler for a bit, but he was a native of Austria. Even though he later became a German national, the world thinks of him as an Austrian, which upsets the Austrians.

[WTF]

But did he speak the Austrian language?

[Groovus Maximus]

He's not the only one who doesn't.

[Pro Libertate]

I understand that Germans can understand Austrian without much trouble. In fact, to Germans, it sounds just like German! Crazy, huh?

[Isaac Bartram]

The woman who ran the hotel I stayed at in Aachen described Swiss German as "a kind of German". I got the impression that Germans don't like the Swiss much.

[BakedPenguin]

Erich Honecker?

[Ice Nine]

Erich Honecker didn't have any unemployed to make uncomfortable, doncha know.

[Moe19]

Heidi Klum?

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Burgermeister Meisterburger?

[Suki]

Veronique de Rugy had an eerily positive take on this welfare-lite business too.

[Mike M.]

Former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sacher Jon Corzine's IMF Global Holdings Ltd. goes bankrupt, making it the first big victim of Europe's collapse.

[Lord Humungus]

Wow, Jon Corzine -- Way To Fly Your Company Into A Mountain
http://www.businessinsider.com.....in-2011-11

Specifically, the former head of Goldman Sachs and governor of New Jersey authorized his traders to scarf up $6 billion in bonds issued by Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, and Ireland. The bet, presumably, was that the powers-that-be in Europe would bail out these and other bondholders to the tune of 100 cents on the dollar, because in our global bailout spree, that's what powers-that-be do.

Oops.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I guess the old rule of "No one ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of the American people" doesn't apply in Europe...

[R C Dean]

Its looking like they used some customer money to fund those trades. If so: jail time, bitchez.

[Groovus Maximus]

Maybe he'll pull a Kenneth Lay and spare us the trouble and expense.

"Ha ha! Corzine got Lay'ed."

[Lord Humungus]

Regulators Investigating MF Global for Missing Money
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/20.....mf-global/

Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the brokerage firm, which is run by Jon S. Corzine, the former New Jersey governor, several people briefed on the matter said on Monday.

The recognition that money was missing scuttled at the 11th hour an agreement to sell a major part of MF Global to a rival brokerage firm. MF Global had staked its survival on completing the deal. Instead, the New York-based firm filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

[Mike M.]

Too bad that Corzine is a solidly entrenched member of the Ruling Class. There's a better chance I'll win the Powerball lottery than there is that anything bad will happen to that guy.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Its looking like they used some customer money to fund those trades. If so: jail time, bitchez

Denninger was talking this morning about how deep the political connections on this went, because Corzine's responsible for Obama's re-election campaign funding.

In the old days, we'd find out a bunch of juicy details over the course of a few weeks--for instance, how Corzine used his clients' money to fund trades that were meant to line the incumbent's campaign coffers. Whether he was actually able to keep those spheres separate will obviously be open to investigation, but if it comes out that he was gambling with client funds to bring in campaign cash, Obama could be well and truly hosed no matter who he runs against. That's the kind of stink that doesn't ever completely wash off.

[Fist of Etiquette]

2005 Honda Civic, red, 60k miles. Price: $65,000.

Bring one of their cherry condition 1957 Chevy Bel Airs to the United States and you could be lookin at close to the same price.

[John]

But they have free healthcare and everyone has a job.

[Quetzalcoatl]

"We've all heard scare stories about how [free healthcare] works in practice; these stories are false."

[Lost_In_Translation]

not even close. Those things are held together by soviet era ductape and coat hangers.

Ever seen a Trabant 900cc engine? No, well open up one of those Bel Air's.

[TRTB]

Have you priced used Civics lately? I have. They might as well be $65,000.

[Pro Libertate]

With a Russian engine? I think not.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I SAID CHERRY.

Also, without emission control regulations, they should all be driving Beetles. Those are so easy to maintain. (And my auto of choice when the zombie apocalypse happens.)

[Pro Libertate]

That is cherry in Cuba.

About the old Beetle (the new one is a joke)--remember the Bug in Sleeper?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Found it in a cave, right? That Hitler was on to something there.

I had a Super Beetle in high school. I painted stripes on it and enhanced the heater with fiberglass wrap and a blower. I wish I still had that thing.

[Pro Libertate]

I wanted one of those, too.

We had a Beetle when I was a wee lad. My dad, who was getting his degree in engineering at the time and who had recently been an Air Force technician of some sort would take the engine out of the car and hang it over a branch to work on. Simplicity.

[rather]

Canada passing the pot licensing to doctors only but it ain't good news

[Lord Humungus]

What's Your Kid Getting From College?
Occupy Wall Street has a point about student debt?sort of.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....n_newsreel

"The fundamental problem here is not debt but a broken educational system that no longer insists on excellence," Ms. Neal says. "College tuitions have risen more than 440% over the last 25 years?and for what? The students who say that college has not prepared them for the real world are largely right."

[Spoonman.]

I took the Fundamentals of Engineering exam on Saturday. The first half is generic and I could have answered a comfortable majority of the questions right out of high school.

The second was specific to my specialty (environmental), and there was a fair amount of material I had never seen before. I graduated two years ago. WTF was Cornell thinking that they didn't consider the exam to enter the profession when designing their curriculum?

[Restoras]

Cornell was thinking "screw these people after they graduate, we just want the tuition money guaranteed by the government".

[Quetzalcoatl]

Are you a "saving swamps" environmental engineer, or a "terraforming Mars" environmental engineer?

[Spoonman.]

Mainly I help industrial clients and military bases get the necessary permits and comply with regulations. Usually the permits are about air and water pollution.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

So, you're a tax-leech bureaucrat?

[R C Dean]

So, I'm guessing when Cornell comes begging to you for an alumni contribution, you're going to tell them to fuck off?

[Spoonman.]

If they have enough money to build what appears to be a giant greenhouse in between a bunch of their buildings the Houston Food Bank can use my money far better.

[Lost_In_Translation]

well their football team hasn't done anything since...whenever....

[Lord Humungus]

that's what I tell my college.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

My old university is constantly hitting me up for money. My response is "I already gave you money for your product."

Never, ever, ever give money to a college's general fund.

[Groovus Maximus]

What, mine still snail mails alumni notices. Makes for very handy toilet paper in a pinch.

[db]

My alma mater can't find find me, so they send their begmail to my mom's house with my name on it. The irony of sending donation requests to long-graduated alumni who seem to still be living with their parents escapes the automailers.

[Groovus Maximus]

You can't write that kind of fiction.

[T]

I'm apparently in the system four times, because I get four copies of the beg letters. Maybe they wouldn't need as much money if they cut down their mailing by 75%.

[mad libertarian guy]

I have no idea how the fuck my alma mater keeps finding me. I've never had any correspondence with them after I graduated (I lived at home), and have moved 4 times since, yet they still fucking find me. Even after moving a thousand miles away they just keep fucking finding me.

[R]

They implanted a GPS chip in your arm.

[db]

Back when I took the FE exam, I felt the general half of the exam was way too heavily weighted toward civil and mechanical. The specialty exam in chemical engineering was a breeze. Over the years I've cooled to the idea of taking the PE exam. It's not really necessary in chemical engineering...only if you want to work on public projects, basically.

[Brett L]

Huh. All Civil Engineers at my undergraduate institution were required to sit for the FE if they wanted to graduate. A large number of the MEs and IEs did, too. Lots of resources dedicated to it, and big-time support from the Dean on down. State schools FTW.
(As a ChemE, there were about 0.05% of a chance that it would be a job requirement, so I never took it.)

[kinnath]

This is only an issue if the student believes that he or she has no resonspibility to educate his or her self and choose wisely what classes he or she should take during his or her years in college.

Public schools teach kids to be passive recipients of knowledge passed down by the wise teacher. Then these kids get to college and expect to have their hands held all the way to a graduate degree and a primo job.

[Spoonman.]

I took the classes I believed (correctly it turns out) would be most relevant to my career. But I didn't stay around to take extra ones after I had the necessary credits because I much prefer working to being in school.

[Jersey Patriot]

"The fundamental problem here is not debt but a broken educational system that no longer insists on excellence," Ms. Neal says. "College tuitions have risen more than 440% over the last 25 years?and for what? The students who say that college has not prepared them for the real world are largely right."

College has never really prepared anyone for the real world. There was no Golden Era of Preparation. That's nonsense.

The problem isn't the graduates' skillset. It's the same skillset grads had in the 1990s, when the economy was booming. The problem is the economy is in the toilet, and no one wants to hire.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

College has never really prepared anyone for the real world. There was no Golden Era of Preparation. That's nonsense.

This is why I keep harping on the probability that college curriculums are due for a radical restructuring of their mission, because they're still operating under the 19th century "finishing school" model mindset.

The Phaggot Striver Poors, however, view college as a training ground for the job market--in other words, they view it as an academic form of an apprenticeship, with the degree as the certification for automatic employment consideration.

Conservatives, for the most part, really don't honestly see the kind of opportunity they have here to fundamentally disable the Marxist-grounded indoctrination centers that universities have become. The college experience is being increasingly viewed in terms of the value one gets for their money after they graduate--promoting the requirements for a college degree as limited to major/minor specific classes, with a few basics like writing and algebra (with options for maybe half a semester's worth of electives in ANY subject the student wished), would radically alter the influence that the more leftist libarts and social sciences profs currently enjoy, simply because students would no longer be forced to take their classes in order to graduate, AND students would be forced to ask themselves, "What job can I get with this degree after I graduate?"

[WWNGD]

New York state has a website that lists the pay of education personnel. It might be all state employees, but I know it lists teachers. These people are not underpaid. I will see if I can find the name of the website and post it later.

[Abdul]

Here's NJ and Federal employees, if you want to start.

[Abdul]

Duh, here be linky. http://www.app.com/datauniverse/

[Peter]

If I became your disciple, would my bracelet say "WWWWNGDD"?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Teacher salaries are about comparable to the private sector, but teachers' benefits are roughly twice as generous and their job security is significantly greater. Altogether, we estimate that public school teachers receive total compensation roughly 50 percent higher than they would likely receive in private sector jobs.

I mean, why else would you take a shitty salary and really long hours and do that job unless you really love to do it?

[R C Dean]

"Really long hours" - [citation needed].

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, they sure seem to get a lot of time off down here. Not just the holidays, breaks, and summer, either. They've got some kind of half-day every week or two (I think it's weekly now) for "planning."

[Groovus Maximus]

But all that grading at home! And the liquor bill from all that dive slumming (most of the teachers I know, and have treated, either drink like fish or have a HX of heavy drinking.)

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

That's what 6 or so hours a day around our children will do to you..... ;^)

[mad libertarian guy]

Not to defend public school teachers or anything, but grading is both a long process and a tedious one (I'm obviously not talking about some scantron or multiple choice).

When I taught college writing (seriously, at least 1/2 of the students I taught had no fucking business at a university), grading was easily the worst part of my job, as well as the one taking the most time.

[Field Marshall Gill]

Come on, RC! The teachers often spend nearly 8 hours a day working! They put in 1300 hours a year! That is more time than kindergarteners spend in school so that means "really long hours". What, you think that public "servants" should have to work 2000 hours a year or something?!!!

[Zeb]

I don't know about "really long", but good teachers are working as much as anyone (at least when not on vacation). My mother was (I like to think) a good teacher and was at the actual school for 8-9 hours at least on school days and had work to take home nearly every day.
The problem is not that teachers are lazy or don't work for their pay. The problem is that the system is fucked and is completely removed form any market pressures. And it is too difficult to get rid of bad teachers.

[Elspeth Flashman]

teachers in my district always get voting day off. And so do the student's families. And coincidentally, the school system has a robo-call (which I just opted out of thank goodness) that reminds you to vote in the election for school funding. Whatevs.

[MNG]

Is this another apples to organges study where one segment of public workers are compared to the overall average of private employees?

Because we really needed another one of those...

[Fist of Etiquette]

What are you, a fruit segregationist?

[MNG]

As Santorum has told us, letting fruits get together leads us to a dog-man love dystopia.

[Groovus Maximus]

Ha!

[o2]

CASINO CAPITALISM

"And every now and again we will have a worldwide blast reminiscent of the global march against the Iraq war eight years ago. The next of these blasts could happen as early as this Saturday when #ROBINHOOD strikes the G20.

Imagine a few million people rising up and sending a message to the G20 leaders meeting November 3/4 in France: "This austerity vs. stimulus debate you've foisted on us doesn't mean a damn thing? It's obvious you have no idea how to get us out of this economic mess you put us in.

So now we are telling you what we want: a radical transformation of casino capitalism? we want you to slow down fast money with a 1% #ROBINHOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades."

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs.....d_G20.html

[Old Mexican]

Re: Double Asshole,

I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention - did you moo something?

[Chupacabra]

I think he oinked.

[o2]

hah, go back to sleep old mex.

[Ken Shultz]

"In recent weeks, congressional hearings on drug shortages have elicited testimony from FDA and other federal officials about a prime cause of drug shortages, especially in the injectable cancer medicines. They pointed to the fact that the agency cannot require a company to report production problems early, so it often doesn't know production has shut down until it is too late."

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....94906.html

In regards to the "prime cause" of these drug shortages, that's an interesting observation--and utter bullshit.

For the real prime cause, check out Bailey's piece from a few months ago, "Government Price Controls Produce Cancer Drug Shortage - Who Would Have Guessed?"

http://reason.com/blog/2011/08.....trols-prod

Obama's powerplay on this shows once again that our president is economically illiterate and/or politically astute.

He's either so economically illiterate that he really doesn't know that this shortage is a result of his own stupid policies, or he's so politically astute that he uses the problems caused by his own policies as a means to argue for his own reelection.

Meanwhile, cancer patients are suffering because of him.

[WTF]

Meanwhile, cancer patients are suffering because of him.

Yeah, well, omelettes, eggs, etc.

[Question]

He really is this economically illiterate. And what is worse is that he won't listen to his own economic team - that's why they all left so early (except for Timmah!).

[Citizen Nothing]

There was an NPR report on this subject this morning that was so bad it would have been laughable, had it not been for the subject matter.

[WWNGD]

I have had the "SSSS" on my ticket. In 2004 my uncle died and I needed to get a ticket quick. They said I was pulled aside because I purchased the ticket the night before.

[Khloe Kardashian]

I've got ASSSS on my ticket. For obvious reasons.

[TrickyVic]

I've purchased a ticket the day of and didn't get hassled.

But one time I did have SSS, maybe SSSS, a couple of years after 2001 and they didn't let me check-in at the counter. I had to wait for a security guy to come out and ask me a couple of questions. I had a confused look on my face and answer them with a confused inflection in my voice. The security guy seemed even more confused than me and after a couple question just walked away. It was as if we both didn't know why we were talking to each other.

[P Brooks]

WTF was Cornell thinking that they didn't consider the exam to enter the profession when designing their curriculum?

Tests are tyranny, man.

Ignorance is Strength.

[Spoonman.]

Also, we never used feet/pounds/etc in school. Naturally at work I use them frequently, and that was appropriately reflected on the exam.

[Lost_In_Translation]

WTF, after my intro classes at GaTech, they pretty much admitted that I'd never use the metric system for any US employer.

[Matrix]

Tech? Boo! UGA all the way!

[db]

What many people miss is the fact that the FPS units can be very handy for manual calculation. Metric fans will say that SI calcs are just shifts of decimal points but that only holds up until you need to use various fundamental constants, which are not exactly tailored to SI--then things get awkward. With some od the other unit systems, like FPS, the units were chosen partly to make those calculations simple...especially with the 1/2 - 1/4 - 1/8 - 1/16 progression of the inch units.

[Brett L]

It was our program's policy to use systems interchangeably throughout the curriculum. In more than one class we got a problem specification in one system and the answer was to be specified in another, or the problem statement would use both.

[SugarFree]

Jezebelles discuss their low-libdoes, go on to comment on wetness of water and blueness of sky.

[Groovus Maximus]

Needs more Tampon Bandits.

[Warty]

I thought they didn't like sex just because it's too much physical effort to pull their gunts out of the way.

[sage]

Thanks for the visual.

[Clich? Bandit]

Warty to the resuce making me spill coffee and laugh uncontrollably while scaring my co-workers...thanks dick.

[db]

I've never heard the term "gunt" before but I feel a visceral certainty that I don't need to look it up to know its meaning.

[Warty]

I would also accept FUPA.

[Dagny T.]

As a kid I dubbed it the butt-in-front. I was honestly fascinated. What was it? How does such a thing come into being?

[Groovus Maximus]

How does such a thing come into being?

Do you want the long or short answer to that?

[Warty]

It's not a butt-in-front, it is my life choice.

[Kristen]

I thought they didn't like sex because of Teh Male Gaze??? and Teh Patriarchy???

[Abdul]

There's no pill for that, but there is gin and tonic water.

[P Brooks]

Interesting revelations about Corzine's company, this morning.

With luck, he'll end up in prison.

Fuck that scumbag.

[JMW]

"The beaver is a dentally defective rat. We should replace it with the noble, majestic polar bear."

Or, "what Canadians' tax dollars are spent on".

[TRTB]

It's not a jezebel article then?

[JMW]

+69

[Isaac Bartram]

You see, as an American when you saw "Senator" you assumed this person had some kind of influential political office, rather than being the inmate of a cushy old folks home.

The Canadian Senate is the place where old politicians are sent so that they can be ignored until the finally do the country a favor and die.

[P Brooks]

Jezebelles have much love to give, if only they could find someone deserving. You should know that.

[JMW]

Greece wants to hold a referendum. Markets take a dive.

George Papandreou stunned investors, as well as his own citizens and his partners in the eurozone, by announcing late Monday that a plebiscite will be held in what he called "a supreme act of democracy and of patriotism for the people to make their own decision." A confidence vote in the Socialist government will also take place at the end of this week.

[Lord Humungus]

Market goes UP... Market goes DOWN...

In the future, we'll call these the 'Rollercoaster' years.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The prices on the stocks go up and down, up and down....

[db]

In the past, Heinlein called them "The Crazy Years."

[Michael]

For sale in Cuba: 2005 Honda Civic, red, 60k miles. Price: $65,000.

I was about to mention something about the staggering ignorance on display in some of the comments to that article, but then I realized it's on NPR. It would be about as illuminating as pointing out that water is wet.

Ned D (Ned23) wrote:

In all seriousness, I think society would be better off with fewer cars. Cuba will probably be better off for having not grown overly dependent on cars over the last half century.

10/31/2011 11:07:49 PM

[MNG]

Here's a tale that has it all for our commentariat, blatant police abuse, crony capitalism and sickening rent seeking

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a case that sounds more like a John Grisham novel than a Supreme Court case.

The issue is whether police investigators have total immunity from being sued for giving false testimony before a grand jury. The case has all the elements of a spooky saga, involving power, influence and money ? all used to silence the critics of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, the largest hospital in Albany, Ga.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/01/.....-testimony

[MNG]

For sale in Cuba: 2005 Honda Civic, red, 60k miles. Price: $65,000.

I imagine they all come standard with Che bumper stickers...

[Lost_In_Translation]

Why? There's a better than even chance that he killed some part their family.

[Ice Nine]

You see Che posters and statues all over Havana. There aren't all that many of those of Fidel. Che is extremely popular in Cuba; Castro, not so much.

[T]

It's easy to lionize the dead guy. Memories fade and he becomes a tabula rasa to project your hopes upon. The live guy running the government? Not so much.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The revolutionaries who were never actually in charge tend to be looked on with more fondness. (see Trotsky)

[John Thacker]

California High Speed Rail official estimate triples in cost, initial date of trains moves from 2020 to 2033.

Just like the Reason Foundation said.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

How the hell did they manage to get the estimate to come on more in line with reality? That almost never happens.

[Lost_In_Translation]

You don't want to see what the real cost will be. Reality has gotten worse.

[John Thacker]

Well, it's only a 50% increase in real terms.

The estimate moved towards accuracy because the voters (suckers) approved the initial bit. And they can talk about how they'll lose the federal money unless they go ahead and start building. Sunk cost fallacies play a role too.

The numbers tend to move towards reality as the project gets approved and becomes unstoppable.

[Joe M]

initial date of trains moves from 2020 to 2033

BWAHAHAHAHAHA...

Oh man, that is beyond ridiculous. Seriously, twenty-two years? Twenty-two fucking years? We'll have people on Mars before this thing is built.

[Joe M]

"Everyone knew (the cost) was going to be higher because they're in this process now of actually designing the project," said Rod Diridon, a former board member for the rail authority. "It's just a matter of time" for them to find the money.

The cluelessness is mind-blowing. They didn't actually have a design when they submitted it for voter approval. And they knew it was going to cost more, but didn't use a higher estimate. So they're either idiots, or liars, or both.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

They didn't actually have a design when they submitted it for voter approval. And they knew it was going to cost more, but didn't use a higher estimate. So they're either idiots, or liars, or both.

I doubt they'd be so cavalier in their attitudes about this kind of fraud, waste, and abuse if the DoD had done something similar with a new weapons system.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Chuck Spinney's plans/reality mismatch strikes again.

[Lord Humungus]

Zombie Obama Image Provokes Outrage in Loudoun County
http://www.nbcwashington.com/n.....83.html?dr

A Halloween-themed graphic featuring a zombie President Barack Obama with a bullet hole in his forehead provoked widespread outrage and the attention of the Secret Service Monday after a local Republican committee in Virginia used it to scare up interest in Halloween parade political activities.

The montage, a banner on a mass email to Loudoun Republicans, mingles seasonal images including a jack-o-lantern, a disfigured U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi and a throng of flesh-hungry zombie Obama supporters.

The posterized image of a rotting, undead Obama with a bleeding, large-caliber hole an inch above his right eye prompted Democrats to cry foul and Virginia's Republican governor to denounce it as "shameful and offensive."

[sage]

a disfigured U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi

How could they tell?

[SugarFree]

In her case, they made her look human.

[Groovus Maximus]

Impossible. Madame Tousseau has done her beast...err. Best. Considering the matrix with which they had to work.

[R C Dean]

The posterized image of a rotting, undead Obama with a bleeding, large-caliber hole an inch above his right eye

They should apologize for that. its insulting. Everyone knows even Zombie Obama wouldn't be walking around after a headshot.

[Groovus Maximus]

I guess they didn't get the memo from the Dept. of Homeland Security WRT to a Zombie invasion. Consider it a Darwin award.

[db]

I have to agree that it is in poor taste to depict any actual person withof fictionalized lethal wounds of any kind without their permission. Even as popular and accepted as the zombie fan culture is, it is especially stupid to depict high profile public figures in this way. What could these idiots possibly have been thinking?

[SugarFree]

HOPE AND CHANGE!

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Hope and Braaaaaaaains.

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Internetz.

[o2]

-1 even if it was boosch

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

How would you feel about a Secretary of Labor referring to a political movement as "tea baggers?"

The same, I'm sure, but the media will only hammer one story to death.

[db]

I think that is also offensive and politically tone-deaf. Both actions are meant as pap for the party faithful but look retarded to outside audiences.

There is a subtle difference in using a n uncommon sexual practice as a pejorative term for a despised political faction and depicting a politician with a lethal head eound.

[Zeb]

I am so fucking tired of zombies. Why does everything always have to involve zombies?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Because the fetishes of emotionally broken nerds currently dominate popular culture right now. Just be grateful they didn't use ninjas.

[Mike M.]

And all of the market gains of the last couple of weeks that were based on nothing but fantasy are, not surprisingly, being wiped out in a matter of minutes as hard reality once again begins to set in.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Not linky, but morning linky suitable:

Thank you, Patriot Act. Because my parents had the audacity to close out some savings and pay cash on part of the home they're buying, the closing has had a "hold" placed on it while Homeland Security and the IRS "investigates".

Just p*** on the fire and call in the dogs. The terrorists have won.....

[John Thacker]

Cash as in fat stacks of $100 bills cash? Or as in a cashier's check or other good-as-cash type money?

[R C Dean]

So much for "legal tender".

[db]

No one's saying you can't use FRNs as tender, it's just important that everyone support the war against eastasia by answering the nice man's questions about why. We will all continue to be free to spend money, it's just a necessary inconvenience in our modern world. So don't rock the boat and you'll be as free as you like to think.

[Pro Libertate]

Legal tender,
Legal cheat,
Never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
and I love you so.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

They bought the house from a family friend.

With mortgage interest rates being what they are, they were actually getting a higher return on their nest egg than they would lose in interest on a home loan, so they were going to finance the bulk of it.

But the friend ran into a snag on HER new home purchase, and needed some upfront cash for her closing. So my parents closed two different accounts and wrote her checks from the proceeds. One for ~$70K and the other for ~$35K.

Now, they're apparently Al-Quaida.

[TrickyVic]

""Now, they're apparently Al-Quaida.""

The government has vowed not to rest until we are all Al-Quaida.

[P Brooks]

my parents had the audacity to close out some savings and pay cash on part of the home they're buying, the closing has had a "hold" placed on it while Homeland Security and the IRS "investigates".

But what if they didn't properly compensate society for the wealth given to them by, you know, society?

[P Brooks]

it is especially stupid to depict high profile public figures in this way.

Because why, exactly?

Because they are nobles who are more loved by God than us mere mortals?

Fuck off.

[Mikheil]

http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2011.....st-of-ows/
Anyone else see this

[nicole]

Now that Google Reader's sharing functions are fucked, does anyone know of an actually functional substitute? I.e., not Google+, where I can't choose which snippet to share or to share a whole story, and where it doesn't even indicate which blog an item was shared from. FB has similar probs.

If I don't find another outlet soon I'm going to probably start having to leave a lot more angry comments at H&R instead.

[Quetzalcoatl]

The Sharebros are building a Google Reader Replacement

G+ basically meets my needs, so I doubt I'll be migrating, but here you go.

[nicole]

Danke sch?n!

[Warty]

HULK SMASH

COLONIE, N.Y. (AP) ? A burly, incoherent 32-year-old man who rampaged through an upstate New York gym died after going into cardiac arrest when he was repeatedly shocked with stun guns during a struggle with three officers, police said Monday.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

What they left out was an enterprising investigator who came around asking about a "Dr. David Banner" after the incident.

[B.P.]

High-profile Occupy Denver protestor quits over ideological differences...

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19236277

Small-scale reenactment of past revolutionary successes continues.

[Sam]

We all have to remember that the same inept government that instigated F&F is instigating the investigation into F&F. In addition to serious conflicts of interest, the government has serious disabilities.

This is why I always chuckle when someone says we need 'more government' involvement in anything.

[Isaac Bartram]

Because they gave up any claim to those homes when they abandoned them to participate in the first war against the Jews?

Actually, many left because of the (wellfounded, in view of the massacres that the Irgun and the Stern Gang had already perpetrated) fear that they would be killed if they stayed.

[Isaac Bartram]

Irgun