Reason Morning Links: Payroll Tax Cut Fails In Senate, IMF Considering $270 Billion Euro Bailout, BART Adopts Cell-Phone Shutdown Rule

Mike Riggs | 12.2.2011 9:02 AM

Senate Republicans rejected two different payroll tax cuts yesterday; the one prposed by Obama, and the one proposed by Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Bloomberg: "A European proposal to channel central bank loans through the International Monetary Fund may deliver as much as 200 billion euros ($270 billion) to fight the debt crisis, two people familiar with the negotiations said."
Jobless rate drops from 9 percent to 8.6 percent; Reuters take: "Further evidence the economic recovery was gaining momentum." (E.A.)
TIME asks, "Can Ron Paul Win the Anti-Romney Primary?"; the answer they get closely resembles a "yes."
Criminal charges have been filed against 18 Occupy L.A. protesters, and "most of the 291 people arrested early Wednesday remained jailed because they can't afford to post bail."
The FCC signed off on a rule passed yesterday by Bay Area Rapid Transit that says the agency can deny cell service to passengers whenever BART thinks being able to use a phone would jeopardize public safety.

New at Reason.tv: "Peter Schiff Talks to the 1 Percent! 'We're not even near the bottom yet!'"

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Suki 13 years ago

The Obama Surge Continues: Guns are a big seller on Black Friday
1. Suki 13 years ago
  
  A Brady Center drone says 'did not!'
  1. Drake 13 years ago
    
    Except the Brady law requires the government to track gun sales data.
    
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....51554972/1
    1. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Exactly. That is why I had to include his awesome quote Dennis Henigan, acting president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, who said he was "skeptical" of the Black Friday gun surge.
      
      Obama is the best gun salesman ever!
      1. wylie 13 years ago
        
        "...so come oonnnnnn down to Crazy Obamas Guns and Used Autos!"
        
        Suki 13 years ago
        
        +10
2. Tulpa 13 years ago
  
  Gander Mountain was open Thanksgiving and PACKED. I got $100 off an SR9c, I was happy.
  1. Spoonman. 13 years ago
    
    Hey Tulpa, are there any restrictions on rifle ownership in PA? Going to be moving to Montgomery County soon.
    1. Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      Tulpa lives in Penna? I thought he was seasteading on Lake Erie.
      1. JW 13 years ago
        
        No, that was just the petition from his current neighbors,
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        He'll be moving in with his girlfriend soon, I imagine.
        
        Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        They have available housing in fantasyland?
        
        Tulpa 13 years ago
        
        Lucky in love, unlucky in fantasy football...
        
        Gray Ghost 13 years ago
        
        Lucky in love, unlucky in fantasy football...
        
        Tell me about it.
    2. Suki 13 years ago
      
      IANAL and I don't think they are either, but: Once you become a PA resident a whole new world will open to you. almost all the restriction you knew in CA are gone. You can walk into a store and buy a firearm rifle, pistol, shotgun, evil back rifle, and walk out in 15 minutes or less.
      If your over 18 you can open carry your firearm without a LTCF. with few restrictions. carry in a car is considered concealed for that you need a LTCF you must be 21 to buy a pistol from a dealer or to get a LTCF. you can have one gifted to you at 18 by your parent or grandparent. At 18 you can buy long guns. If you brought some with you from CA your good to go, no way to register them. no magazine restriction. no AWB. no ammo restrictions other than fire codes. In philly things are different. In philly you must have a LTCF to pack it in public open or concealed.
    3. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Try http://forum.pafoa.org/general.....tions.html
    4. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Try forum.pafoa.org/general-2/19899-pa-gun-restrictions-other-legal-questions.html
    5. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Try this http://forum.pafoa.org/general.....tions.html
    6. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Spoon, try pafoa.org/law
    7. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Spoonman, try pafoa [dot] org/law
    8. Tulpa 13 years ago
      
      Only the federal restrictions. And there's a preemption law here so the more "progressive" localities can't pass any extra restrictions on firearms.
      
      PA is great on gun rights, maybe a little too great (handing out concealed carry licenses with no training requirement is not a good idea imho). Castle Doctrine, Stand Your Ground, all the good stuff is in effect.
      1. dunphy 13 years ago
        
        Again, present evidence. Have an informed opinion. Some states have ccw training requirements. Some don't . If training requirements WORK, then there should be plenty of data that show good results in states that require same vs. those that don't. Where is it? Until such data is presented, there is no reason to advocate for additional restrictions.IF there is such data, then a balancing test argument could be made
        
        Tulpa 13 years ago
        
        The training requirement that shall-issue states like OH, FL, etc have is not much of a "restriction". Anyone willing to spend eight hours and $40 or so can satisfy it.
        
        I don't like the idea of people walking the streets around me with .45 semiautos inside their coats who have never heard of the rules of gun safety, whose only idea of how guns work and what bullets do comes from Hollywood and TV, and have possibly never even fired their weapon before.
        
        PermaLurker 13 years ago
        
        It's a nice idea in theory. But I've found that driver's licenses don't ensure good drivers, medical licenses don't ensure good doctors, etc etc. Why would gun safety licensing requirements be any different.
        
        Issue to all and let Darwin sort them out.
        
        Tulpa 13 years ago
        
        Plus of course PA's lack of a training requirement limits the states with which we have reciprocity agreements. I was thinking of getting a FL non-resident permit so I could carry in OH while traveling.
    9. The Dan 13 years ago
      
      no hunting with semi auto
  2. Suki 13 years ago
    
    That so rocks!
3. Obama's 2d Term ! 13 years ago
  
  so how'd that first round of obama's GUN CONFISCATION go? same as the FEMA camps & death panels no doupt.
  
  simps
  1. Suki 13 years ago
    
    The death panels don't get impaneled until 2014.
  2. John Thacker 13 years ago
    
    I wouldn't know; aren't we in Bush's third term after he and Cheney canceled the elections?
    1. Suki 13 years ago
      
      +1
    2. Suki 13 years ago
      
      We were supposed to all be drafted by now too.
      1. Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Son, there ain't no draft no more.
  3. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
    
    You seem to be duped into the belief that he would not move to more stringently regulate, ban or confiscate privately-owned guns if he could. Fortunately, he is faced with the hard reality that the majority of American people won't stand for that jackassery. Too many Dems still remember the ass-kicking they got in 1994 as a result of federal gun-ban legislation. They're still (if you'll excuse the expression) gun-shy about it.
    
    Short answer: he would if he could. He has made that clear. Just take a look at his legislative record from when he was in the Illinois legislature. When he wasn't voting "present," he was working to restrict private gun ownership.
    
    Even shorter: STFU, idiot.
    1. o3 13 years ago
      
      yea and if elephants had wings they'd fly
      1. WTF 13 years ago
        
        And if o3 had a brain he'd make sense.
    2. S&W, Ruger, Colt 13 years ago
      
      BUY guns NOW, NOW, NOW before the kenyian takes em !
  4. TrickyVic 13 years ago
    
    Here's the Obama admin's gun control in action.
    
    http://www.news4jax.com/news/T.....index.html
  5. Mr. FIFY 13 years ago
    
    Give that fucker a 2nd term and a solid Team Blue majority, and he'd do just what you snarked about.
    1. Shorter FIFY 13 years ago
      
      Just like rush said so there
      1. Mr. FIFY 13 years ago
        
        Nice try, candyass, but I quit listening to Limbaugh about twenty years ago.
  6. Tulpa 13 years ago
    
    OhNo Orkin hasn't heard of the UN Small Arms Treaty that the Obamarrhoids are trying to get signed before 2013.
    1. o3 13 years ago
      
      like this UN treaty has an ice cube's chance of senate ratification
    2. Metazoan 13 years ago
      
      Even still, didn't Reid v. Covert establish the supremacy of the Constitution?
      1. Tulpa 13 years ago
        
        Yes, but as of current SCOTUS precedent, the Second Amendment protects nothing but the right to possess a working gun in your home. The feds can ban carry outside the home at any time.
        
        And if the anti-Romney buttmunches around here get their wish, and Obama appoints Scalia's and Kennedy's replacements, you can bet that's going to be the apex of your Second Amendment rights in practice.
        
        Azathoth 13 years ago
        
        And if the pro-Romney buttmunches around here get their wish, and Obama appoints Scalia's and Kennedy's replacements, you can bet that's going to be the apex of your Second Amendment rights in practice.
        
        FTFY
John Thacker 13 years ago

Jobless rate drops from 9 percent to 8.6 percent

Adding 120K jobs is ok, but not good. A steady-state sort of number, not enough during a high unemployment period. 310K people dropping out of the labor force is the real reason the rate went down, and that's not good.
1. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  310K people dropping out of the labor force is the real reason the rate went down, and that's not good
  
  Can't be stressed enough.
2. gaijin 13 years ago
  
  ^^Exactly. If we could just reduce the participation rate by another 5.1 million people, we'd have a literal employment vacuum!
3. John 13 years ago
  
  120K is not even OK. How many new workers were added to the economy during that time? We need to be adding three or four hundred thousand jobs a quarter to really start turning things around.
  1. gaijin 13 years ago
    
    If we (media, etal.) are to be obsessed with such 'singular' numbers to represent the state of employment, wouldn't it make more sense to just show the number of people employed today vs. the number of people employed yesterday?
    
    All other adjustments (such as labor participation, seasonality) would be footnoted and reported as supplemental information rather than as the primary data.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      But that would make Obama look bad.
      1. o3 13 years ago
        
        loz an things were differnt under buhs?
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        cuz i thinks an average of 5% unemplotyment is juzt az bad derp de derpity derp
  2. John Thacker 13 years ago
    
    Well, immigration is down.
    
    Yes, we need to be adding 300-400K to "really start turning things around." 120K would be fine if we already had low unemployment/high labor force participation. It's a steady state number, not a "things are getting better" number, as I said.
    1. Spoonman. 13 years ago
      
      But we need to be employing immigrants as well as Americans to keep ourselves fresh and innovative.
  3. WTF 13 years ago
    
    And how many of those jobs are temporary seasonal jobs?
    1. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
      
      This.
      
      It shouldn't surprise anyone that jobless rates have gone down during the retail boom of the year.
      
      Of course the media will be surprised when unemployment unexpectedly goes up again in January.
    2. Tulpa 13 years ago
      
      Supposedly seasonal hiring is down this year as stores are trying to get by with what they already have.
  4. John Thacker 13 years ago
    
    Also John, you mean 300-400K jobs per month, not per quarter, to really turn things around.
4. Suki 13 years ago
  
  When it is revised downward all of the news writers and economists will be "surprised".
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    It will happen "unexpectedly". If we had any real artists in this country, they would do "Obama the Musical". Their could be an entire Gilbert and Sullivan type number about how bad economic news always happens "unexpectedly". I see Obama as kind of a Tommy like deaf dumb figure with various idiots destroying the country around him in his name.
    1. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Unexpectedly is what I was trying to remember. TY! 🙂
    2. CoyoteBlue 13 years ago
      
      I see something like this number for the Fearless 4th Estate of the Obama era.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAc5Z89SjH8
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        The musical writes itself. You could have the occutards, the wise Latina, Eric Holder smuggling guns to Mexico, the Obama "I capped that sucker" victory number after Obama, Al Wilaki could have a part. The Tea Party, Barney Frank. It would be perfect.
        
        Maxxx 13 years ago
        
        Socialist realism art doesn't tolerate parody John.
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        It's more that its already unintentionally self-parodying as written.
        
        CoyoteBlue 13 years ago
        
        The important part of selling any musical is the title. Suggestions:
        "The Audacity of Music"
        "Springtime for Cronies"
        "Rats"
        "All That Spin"
        
        mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
        
        Hope and Change
        
        mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
        
        How about "Hope and Change"?
        
        Cytotoxic 13 years ago
        
        Sounds like a job for whoever made the Yellow Flowers advert for Cain!
    3. AuH20 13 years ago
      
      In future generations, are they just going to be dumbfounded at the media coverage of Obama?
      
      Like how I can't believe the coverage that was given to the Soviet Union in the 20s and 30s?
5. Maxxx 13 years ago
  
  Adding 120K jobs is ok,
  
  Not really, population grows by approx 240k a month. With a 65% workforce participation rate - that means that 150+ jobs need to be created each month just to keep up with population growth.
  
  A real recovery would see job growth in the 300-400k a month range.
  1. John Thacker 13 years ago
    
    That's a slight overstatement of the numbers, plus even in a great economy a third of the population of the relevant age never enters the labor force, so the correct value even with your numbers would be 180K.
    
    "To keep up with population growth, the economy needs to add approximately 127,000 jobs every month".
    
    "As the chart below shows, according to the traditionally optimistic Congressional Budget Office, the US has to create 121,000 jobs per month in 2011 just to keep pace with population growth."
    1. Maxxx 13 years ago
      
      What part is an overstatement?
      
      Population growth is 240k / month (0.09% per year) and a 65% lfpr yields a labor force growing by 150k+/month.
      
      Even if you go with the lower employed as a percent of population rate of 58.4% you get a number of 140k/month meaning that the unemployment rate will gradually increase with a job growth of 120k/month.
      
      The household survey, which the headline rate is based on, is seriously flawed and subject to political manipulation.
      1. John Thacker 13 years ago
        
        The household survey numbers are weird.
        
        I don't have time to go through the entire discussion of why 120K is the current best average for needed job growth, it includes some details about the aging baby boomers.
        
        You can click through to the links and follow to the CBO report if you like.
6. AuH20 13 years ago
  
  Also, wait until Europe implodes. Depression won't do it justice.
Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago

Retail stores are gearing up for the holiday rush. Expect unemployment to go back up in January.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

Bail was set between $5,000 and $20,000 for the defendants, Trutanich said.

Most of the 291 people arrested early Wednesday remained jailed because they can't afford to post bail, attorney Ian Thompson said at a news conference Thursday. To be released, the activists would have to post 10 percent of their bail amount.

They've been looking for something fresh to write on their "I am the 99%" cards.
o2 13 years ago

Second foreign auto worker hassled: Will Alabama immigration law cost state?
First, a foreign auto worker was arrested. Now one has been ticketed under Alabama's anti-illegal-immigration law. Could neighboring states lure away businesses that employ foreigners?

By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / December 1, 2011

Citing the embarrassing arrest of a foreign auto worker under Alabama's new immigration law, a Missouri newspaper recently extended an open invitation to companies like Mercedes to leave Alabama for more hospitable climes.

Our state has many advantages over Alabama," writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's editorial board. "We are the Show-Me State, not the 'Show me your papers' state."

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2.....cost-state
1. Tulpa 13 years ago
  
  So we've officially moved from the "racist" angle of criticizing the law to the "persecutes foreign executives" angle. Just keeping track of the open border crowd's movements.
  1. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    I see no reason why it can't be considered both racist and bad for business. You don't have to choose just one.
    1. Libertymike 13 years ago
      
      Tulpa, liberty means the right to travel unmolested by state actors.
      1. 03 13 years ago
        
        but not if ur brown, black, yellow, & now german.
      2. rac3rx 13 years ago
        
        Unless you're breaking the law...
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        illegal immigration is a civil, not criminal violation.
    2. Tulpa 13 years ago
      
      It's ipso facto not racist if white corporate executives are getting arrested too, hotshot.
      1. Zeb 13 years ago
        
        The intent behind the law could still be racist. You think that the people who wrote the law had German executives in mind when they were thinking of potential illegal immigrants? Hotshot?
        
        By the way, I don't fucking care if the law is racist or not. I think it is stupid and wrong for completely different reasons. I do think that a lot (but certainly not all) of the law's supporters are stupid racists, though.
        
        Tulpa 13 years ago
        
        Or maybe they were masturbating to sheep porn when they wrote it!
        
        It doesn't matter what their intent was, what matters is how it is/can be enforced.
2. Suki 13 years ago
  
  open invitation to companies like Mercedes to leave Alabama for more hospitable climes
  The Alps?
  1. Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Maybe the writer was trying to draw in the Asian auto workers as well, and was noting that violent assaults are down in StL.
    1. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Are the violent assaults against Asian vehicles down in Flint, MI yet?
3. Drake 13 years ago
  
  Sure - no other country hassles people over work Visas. Except all of them.
  
  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/en.....onditions/
  1. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    If everyone else was jumping off a cliff, woudl you do it too?
  2. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
    
    So we should adopt nationalized health care, too, because everyone else does it, right?
    1. Drake 13 years ago
      
      The question asked was "Will Alabama immigration law cost state?"
      
      If the question was "how should we handle foreign workers?", I would have different comments and questions. What's the right way to collect taxes on them? How do we ensure they aren't collecting state benefits (assuming we can't do away with the welfare state), etc...
      1. rac3rx 13 years ago
        
        (assuming we can't do away with the welfare state)...
        
        This.
        
        We will not do away with the welfare state. People like their free shit. Open borders are not compatible with the welfare state...full stop.
        
        Zeb 13 years ago
        
        Two wrongs don't make a right.
4. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Unemployment drops as Alabama's immigration reform enacted
  
  Unemployment rates have fallen in Alabama amid new legal pressure on companies to comply with a popular immigration reform law.
  
  September was the first full month that the reform was in force, and the unemployment rate fell from 9.8 percent in September to 9.3 percent in October, according to a Nov. 18 report from the state government.
  
  The rates fell from 9.9 percent to 9 percent in Etowah County, from 8.8 percent to 8.1 percent in Marshall county, and from 11.6 percent to 10.6 percent in DeKalb county...
  
  Every county in Alabama saw a drop in unemployment, including Wilcox, Dallas and Bullock counties, where unemployment rates are greater than 16.5 percent.
  
  A spokesman for Thomas Perez, who heads the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, declined to comment when asked if the state's job gains were evidence that the state's reform is successful.
  
  Fuckin' LOL.
  
  http://dailycaller.com/2011/11.....m-enacted/
  1. 03 13 years ago
    
    and yet the bama gop is revising the law after the business outcry.
    1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      you gotta apply discipline before you can apply leniency.
      1. o3 13 years ago
        
        reality not leniency
  2. Metazoan 13 years ago
    
    Wow ever hear of the post hoc fallacy?
dbcooper 13 years ago

Swiss Govt: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal

http://torrentfreak.com/swiss-.....al-111202/
1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  Not only will downloading for personal use stay completely legal, but the copyright holders won't suffer because of it, since people eventually spend the money saved on entertainment products.
  
  But what about the attorneys? Won't someone think of the attorneys?
  1. alittlesense 13 years ago
    
    I do think of them. At the bottom of the sea.
    1. rac3rx 13 years ago
      
      HEY!
      The 99% make the good ones look bad.
Ice Nine 13 years ago

If the race for the Republican nomination were a children's story ? and let's face it, Little Miss Moffett, Jack Horner and Dumbo sometimes come to mind ? then Ron Paul would surely be the tortoise.

What?? Count the mistakes in that. (Does Payne maybe write for Time as well?)
1. Beloved Rev. Blue Moon 13 years ago
  
  1. Two of them are children's nursery rhymes.
  2. One is a child's movie.
  3. The tortoise is from an Aesop's fable, not a "children's story" per se.
  4. Oh, and it's "Muffett" not "Moffett"
  
  Did I get them all?
  1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
    
    You got more than I did - but not all. The worst is that the whole sentence is a grating non sequitur. It's actually a compound non sequitur. That part of it flanking the dashes is bad enough but considering that part of it within them it is doubly egregious. It's the worst thing I've read written by a professional writer in a long time.
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      People don't care about writing when you are telling them what they want to hear.
2. The Left 13 years ago
  
  The saddest part of all is that all of that made it past several layers of editors. IT'S THE FUCKING LEDE AND YOU STILL DIDN'T CATCH IT.
  
  I weep for the future of our nation.
  1. JW 13 years ago
    
    Stupid joke handles.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

"If we were faced with the exact same situation, we would not shut off cell phone service," said Bob Franklin, board president. "We would arrest people."

Anyone with a cell phone, boom, arrested. Tased first, of course.
1. T 13 years ago
  
  It's BART. They might mistake the pistol for a taser and then boom for reals.
Obama's 2d Term ! 13 years ago

Jobless rate drops to 8.6 percent, hiring picks up

Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Fri Dec 2, 2011 9:01am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment growth picked up speed in November and the jobless rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low of 8.6 percent, further evidence the economic recovery was gaining momentum.

http://www.reuters.com/article.....4I20111202

_

without the [JOBZ] card, the gop has no hand to play...except for the wealthy
1. John 13 years ago
  
  It is called labor participation rate you half wit. When people stop looking for work the rate goes down. 120K isn't even close to good job growth.
  1. Question? 13 years ago
    
    120 thousand isn't even close to population growth, and really lousy considering we're going into Christmas.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      I hadn't thought about Christmas. That is a good point. How much of that is seasonal hiring?
      1. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
        
        About 40%. 49,800 jobs added in retail according to the linked Reuter's article.
      2. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Aren't these numbers seasonally adjusted?
    2. John Thacker 13 years ago
      
      120 thousand is what we need to match population growth.
      
      Remember that even in good times, not 100% of people in the relevant age brackets work.
  2. KDN 13 years ago
    
    When people stop looking for work the rate goes down. 120K isn't even close to good job growth.
    
    So is this like fractions or something? Where the bottom number goes down the number past the equal sign goes up? Math is soooooo hard.
    
    When I stopped into the break room to get my coffee this morning, CNN's newsbabe wannabe was dealing with a graph showing that things since Obama took office have been steadily improving, that this number represents more progress, and that Republicans are evil liars. It's like they can't be bothered to check for context.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Considering the news babe probably got her job through her ability to tow the liberal lion and give a proper blowjob, I am not surprised this is beyond her grasp.
      1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
        
        I see what you did there.
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        u mean trying to jerry sandusky CNN ?
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        derp de derpity derp
      2. Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        How do the Fox newsbabes get theirs? It's all skill andimpartiality, right John?
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Blonde hair and a nice rack seem to help, though.
        
        RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        You don't get it.
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        God, I hope not. I want those smokin' hot babes to be sluts, too.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        "Andimpartiality." Is that something to do with the state of being without dimples? What are you trying to say?
        
        Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        and impartiality. My mouth was full.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        I liked your other word better.
        
        Ice Nine 13 years ago
        
        "Andimpartiality." Is that something to do with the state of being without dimples?
        
        More like the graphic representation thereof.
        
        AuH20 13 years ago
        
        Honestly, Fox, for the love of christ, hire a hot brunette or redhead.
        
        WHY IS THIS SO HARD? NOT ALL GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES!
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        They have a couple over on Fox Bidness.
        
        Atanarjuat 13 years ago
        
        Yep. FBN has a huge juxtaposition between the hotness of the female anchors and the ugliness of the businessmen they interview.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        How else? By towing the fox lion and giving a proper blow job.
2. Jerry 13 years ago
  
  The fall in the unemployment rate was aided by 315,000 people leaving the workforce. That pushed the participation rate, a ratio of the amount of the population in the labor force, down to 64.0 percent.
3. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  without the [JOBZ] card, the gop has no hand to play...except for the wealthy
  
  Employment to population ratio still far below 2001 recession levels and actually showed a slight decline in the last month.
  
  The U3, in other words, isn't reflecting reality.
4. Chinny Chin Chin 13 years ago
  
  Orin, remember your manners. What do we say to the wealthy when they create jobs?
5. Mr. FIFY 13 years ago
  
  Oh, wow! Down to 8.6 percent! It's The Summer of Recovery Part Two!
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Public service announcement: Megan Fox is still hot.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....stmas.html
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  And John, this one's for you.
  
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-free.html
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Yuck.
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      What, it's not bad enough that we're forced to look at those Kardashian skanks with makeup?
  2. Abdul 13 years ago
    
    Rosie O'Donnell has never looked younger....oh wait. . .
  3. JW 13 years ago
    
    This one's for you sarc.
    1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
      
      I like women who are thin, not dead.
  4. Proprietist 13 years ago
    
    Lamar Odom's got to be in it for the money, because he could have done so much better.
  5. Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    I need to choose my words carefully so I am not mistook on here.
    
    Khloe Kardashian is ugly as fuck.
  6. Bucky 13 years ago
    
    it freezes, it burns!
2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  What a porker!
3. John 13 years ago
  
  Megan Fox is a skank. NTTAWWT. But she looks like she could be in those pics of drunk British tarts you put up yesterday.
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    Except that Megan Fox is infinitely more fuckable than those British sluts.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      If you like skanks, sure.
      1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Skanks need sex too!
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I heartily agree.
  2. Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20 13 years ago
    
    Megan Fox would give great blowjobs, I bet.
    1. CaptainSmartass 13 years ago
      
      Only if you could convince her that semen has zero calories and zero carbs.
      1. Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Megan Fox can't even spell "calorie," let alone "carbohydrate."
    2. Maxxx 13 years ago
      
      Doubtful.
4. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  Yes indeed. I like the, ah, come-hither boots. I wonder if she has a pair in black.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    I love come fuck me boots. It makes winter worth while.
    1. JW 13 years ago
      
      It's the *only* thing that makes winter tolerable.
    2. Restoras 13 years ago
      
      I couldn't agree more.
    3. ? 13 years ago
      
      Way too much information.
  2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    My wife has taken to wearing boots with heals lately, not quite as high to the knees though.
    Damn they look nice on the floor 😉
    1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
      
      *heels*
    2. JW 13 years ago
      
      She's supposed to leave them on, doofus.
      1. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Either or. You're a licky man, Mr. S.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Damn it. Lucky man. But I see licky kinda works too.
        
        Every Woman on the Planet 13 years ago
        
        "Kinda"?!
        
        Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
        
        I find that if you are licky, you tend to get lucky.
        
        jerry sandusky 13 years ago
        
        lathered-up & licky works !
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        I find that if you are licky, you tend to get lucky.
        
        Aye!
        
        E L & P 13 years ago
        
        "Ooooooooo what licky man he was!
      2. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
        
        Agreed.
      3. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        You mean put them back on? Nah.
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        You have much to learn yet, grasshopper.
    3. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Damn they look nice on the floor 😉
      
      I bet tehy would look even better pointed at the ceiling.
      1. JW 13 years ago
        
        Do you see now grasshopper? Master Dean is most wise in the matters most important.
      2. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Or at the headboard, even.
      3. Apatheist 13 years ago
        
        Or on the floor but still on her feet. On the floor off her feet is the worst of all these places.
5. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  Meh.
6. rac3rx 13 years ago
  
  All of these women look like they could use a shower...and shampoo twice.
Tulpa 13 years ago

The FCC signed off on a rule passed yesterday by Bay Area Rapid Transit that says the agency can deny cell service to passengers whenever BART thinks being able to use a phone would jeopardize public safety.

In libertopia, wouldn't property owners have the right to deny cell service to people on their property?
1. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
  
  BART is a private enterprise?
2. John Thacker 13 years ago
  
  In libertopia there would also be competing transit and transportation lines.
  
  I suspect that if we didn't have the FCC regulations, for example, at least *some* airline would allow electronics during takeoff.
3. tarran 13 years ago
  
  Not necessarily.
  
  One could argue that the cell-phone companies have homesteaded the frequencies they use and that Bart is in the position of building a fence across someone else's land.
  1. JW 13 years ago
    
    Years ago, the father of an old girlfriend was lifting "cable" tee-vee that was being broadcast, using a coffee can antenna. When I asked him if he thought that was stealing, he replied, "If they don't want me to have it, then they can keep it out of my house."
    
    I couldn't argue with that.
    
    And yes, as a property owner, I have every right to do what I want with my airspace, in libertopia. If you don't like it, you're free to not come on my property.
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      Coffee can antenna? Never heard of it. Does this work worth a damn?
      1. RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        Coffee can antennae work in general, but like any other kind of antenna they can only receive what is already in the air and have a limited bandwidth.
    2. Libertymike 13 years ago
      
      No, a property owner does not have the right to shut off cell phone service as (1) he does not own the cell phones;
      (2) he does not own the air through which the signals are being transmitted; (3) land acquisition does not include the right to violate the property rights of others who are on the owner's land.
      1. JW 13 years ago
        
        When you are on my land, you will abide by my rules, or you are free to leave it.
        
        It's pretty fucking simple.
      2. JW 13 years ago
        
        Then again, considering what a temeritous twat you were when the owners of this site requested that you hold your tongue on particular matters, I shouldn't be too surprised that you have such a tenuous grasp on the concept of property rights.
        
        It's not all about you, boy.
        
        Libertymike 13 years ago
        
        If you are on my land, do I have the right to tell you that you can't use your cell phone? Or speak French? Or comb your hair?
        
        Included within the panopoly of property rights are little thingies call individual rights which are not waived or nullified or extinguished just because A is physically upon B's real estate.
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        If you are on my land, do I have the right to tell you that you can't use your cell phone? Or speak French? Or comb your hair?
        
        Yes, yes and yes. You can also tell me to shut my big, fat mouth, if you don't like what I'm saying. Again, you're free to leave my land and do whatever the hell you want, once you do so. Kinda like you can't force a web site or a newspaper that you have no ownership in to publish your views against their wishes.
        
        Included within the panopoly of property rights are little thingies call individual rights which are not waived or nullified or extinguished just because A is physically upon B's real estate.
        
        Your rights aren't being nullified. They still exist in full force, just like mine do. Right now, mine have precedence, as I own the land you're standing on. When I'm standing on your land, yours do.
        
        See how that works?
        
        Libertymike 13 years ago
        
        No, you are wrong. If you are on my land, I do not have the right to prevent you from smiling or using your cell phone.
        
        One does not surrender his individual rights such as smiling or using a cell phone just because he is on the real estate of another.
        
        Too complicated for you?
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        So, if I own a non-smoking bar, which patrons come to specifically for that reason, you can light up if you damn well please and I should have no recourse? You can squat on my land? You can shit in my flower beds? You can pretty much do as you damn well please and I can go fuck myself?
        
        Interesting. Do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to?
        
        Tulpa 13 years ago
        
        One does not surrender his individual rights such as smiling or using a cell phone just because he is on the real estate of another.
        
        Technically this is true, but as a practical matter it isn't. The property owner has every right to (a) exclude you from his property or (b) remove you from his property at any time barring some contractual agreement stating otherwise.
        
        So your right to do X does not prevent the property owner from demanding you leave the property if you do X.
        
        Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
        
        If you are on my land, do I have the right to tell you that you can't use your cell phone? Or speak French?
        
        Absolument.
        
        Next question?
        
        Movie theater 13 years ago
        
        If you use your cell phone, we reserve the right to remove you from our private property, so yeah.
  2. Tulpa 13 years ago
    
    Sort of like you can argue that the Boston Public Health Commission has homesteaded the atmosphere and any bar that allows smoking has violated their property rights.
  3. Tulpa 13 years ago
    
    One could argue that the cell-phone companies have homesteaded the frequencies they use and that Bart is in the position of building a fence across someone else's land.
    
    That argument essentially nullifies the advantages of a private property system in land.
    
    And as dubious as the natural law justifications for private ownership of land are, the justification for ownership of completely non-physical things from first principles is even murkier. Once you cross that bridge it's not clear why someone can't own fire or absolute zero or gamma rays.
4. Tonio 13 years ago
  
  But in Libertopia there would also be contracts...and you could choose to not do business with a transport provider who didn't guarantee to not interfere with cell phone service...
  1. Tulpa 13 years ago
    
    Indeed, but you can refuse to do business with BART as it is.
dbcooper 13 years ago

Meanwhile in Ohio ...

http://gawker.com/5864428/meet.....an-hunters
1. John 13 years ago
  
  That guy just needs to be shot. It bothers me that he is breathing my air.
  1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
    
    It bothers me that they are so incompetent.
    1. Abdul 13 years ago
      
      What's wrong with you Buckeyes? If it's not Amish beard-cutting attacks, it's hunting humans for sport.
      1. Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        It all went to shit when John Cooper got invited into the state.
2. PantsFan 13 years ago
  
  They are hunting the most dangerous game of all.
  1. Beloved Rev. Blue Moon 13 years ago
    
    You are not going to believe this, but despite the fact that is one of my favorite stories, I just now got that "game" has a double meaning in the title.
    
    No shit.
John 13 years ago

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wi.....y-concerns

EPA swears they won't cause the lights to go out, trust them. Cause electricity rates to sky rocket achieving Obama's stated goal, not mentioned.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

When asked how, as President, Paul would get around Congress to enact some of his more radical ideas, like doing away with the Department of Education, Paul replies that his election would send a message. "Everyone in Washington would know that that's where the electorate is, that that's what the people want," he says.

Yes, President Paul, Congress is all about taking its cues from the electorate.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  True. They would go ballistic. But they would also wet their pants when it happened. Lets be honest though, if Paul got 5% of what he wanted, it would be the best Presidency since Reagan and maybe since the 20s.
  1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
    
    Stationing troops at home rather than overseas at least should be an easy sell.
    
    "That base in your district that shut down and tanked the local economy, Congressman? Guess what..."
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Never happen. It would cost more money to reopen those basis than to leave the troops in Germany. Most of them have been sold to crooked developers.
      1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
        
        Never happen shut down foreign bases or never happen re-open closed bases in the States?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Do you know how hard it is to open a base? The money buying the land, the environmental law suits. Yeah, we really are that fucked up. We could expand the ones we have. But even that takes years.
        
        Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
        
        Then I'm not even going to vote for Ron Paul.
      2. wylie 13 years ago
        
        Most of them have been sold to crooked developers.
        
        Just eminent that shit back.
  2. free2booze 13 years ago
    
    I love listening to people go into a frenzied panic, over the suggestion that we do away with the federal department of education. It's almost as if their weren't 50 individual DOE's, one in each state, with bureaucrats of their own.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Didn't you know that there was no public education system in this country until Jimmy Carter created it?
      1. CoyoteBlue 13 years ago
        
        We were pretty stupid back then.
        Luckily, foriegners like Einstein and Bell, having gotten good foreign educations, came here to help our economy. Carter brought us the idea of having schools in 1979.
        
        It's been a lernin' orgy since.
    2. CrackertyAssCracker 13 years ago
      
      I hate the complaint in real life. When I hear it I know that person doesn't understand a god damn thing about how our goverment works, so if I were to be truthful with them, I'd say "you really are ignorant huh? please don't vote. It's dipshits like you who are fucking everything up".
2. John Thacker 13 years ago
  
  Congress is all about taking its cues from the electorate.
  
  Oh, but it is. They'll do what they have to do to get re-elected. Politicians who don't don't get re-elected.
  
  The failure to achieve libertarian results in politics is fundamentally about insufficient popularity of them in the electorate, whether that's because of scare stories or tribal loyalty or whatever.
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    They'll do what they have to do to get re-elected.
    
    They get re-elected by default.
    They have to fuck up royally to not get re-elected.
    I'm sure they would consider going along with president Paul as fucking up.
  2. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
    
    PPACA seems to suggest otherwise. I think what we see is, as a result, a greater effort to hide their dealings. And just as important as getting re-elected is funneling as many tax dollars as possible to themselves and their backers.
    
    If re-election doesn't happen, lobbying pays pretty well.
    1. John Thacker 13 years ago
      
      PPACA seems to suggest otherwise.
      
      Exception that proves the rule. There's a reason why Democrats didn't pass something like PPACA before and refused to do so under Clinton and a Democratic Congress.
    2. John Thacker 13 years ago
      
      Remember that Obama tried to convince everyone that things were different because he was special and could affect the elections, and that the polls really would turn around if they just passed the law.
      
      Nope.
    3. Tulpa 13 years ago
      
      The Dems were bound to crash and burn in 2010 anyway with all the red districts they picked up in 2006 and 2008 on the strength of anti-Bush fever. 2012 and 2014 are going to be seriously bad elections for the Dems in the Senate for the same reason, regardless of what they do.
3. bosty 13 years ago
  
  thought the conclusion was interesting as well:
  
  The odds of Paul being elected President remain low. But surprisingly strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire and enough money to organize outside of the early states mean Paul could stay in the race through the spring and garner an eyebrow-raising number of delegates. And that in itself would send a clear message to Romney, or whomever the nominee is: this is where much of the Republican base is, leave it at your own peril. An ideological win for the slow and steady tortoise.
  
  This year the delegates are distributed proportionally, not winner-take-all, correct? If so, this impact could be pretty significant.
  1. kinnath 13 years ago
    
    Allocated proportionally until the 1st of april. So yes, if Paul can do well in the early primaries and caucuses, he can stop Romney from getting a majority of the delegates before the convention starts.
  2. John Thacker 13 years ago
    
    The previous primary it was up to the states to decide. Some were proportional, some were winner take all.
    
    I haven't heard whether too many states changed their individual rules.
4. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  It's precious how the columnist characterizes the elimination of a Cabinet post that's only been around a little over 30 years and has never accomplished anything of note (besides dumbing down educational quality on a nation-wide basis) to be "radical."
5. Tonio 13 years ago
  
  But in a world in which RP was elected president, you'd also assume that voters would vote libertarian for other offices and that he'd have a posse in congress.
  
  Plus, the POTUS has authority over executive-branch agencies like DOE. He can't (legally) ignore the laws establishing the dept, but there's nothing to say he can't downsize it to ten positions.
6. TrickyVic 13 years ago
  
  ""Yes, President Paul, Congress is all about taking its cues from the electorate.""
  
  Paul knows, and more importantly believes, that the executive is limited. He knows he can't just run around congress to suit his ends.
PantsFan 13 years ago

Daniel Hannan's 10-Point Memo to Leftists

Here's a snippet:

Those of us who believe in small government are not motivated by the desire to make the rich richer. We're really not. We are, in most cases, nowhere near having to pay top rate tax ourselves; our most eloquent champions over the years have been modestly-paid academics. We believe that economic freedom will enrich the country as a whole. Yes, the wealthy might become wealthier still, but we don't see that as an argument against raising living standards for the majority.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/n.....lly-think/
1. The Left 13 years ago
  
  the wealthy might become wealthier still
  
  BLARRRRRGGGHHHHHLLLLBGGGGZZZZZAAAAGGGOW!!!! :::head asplodes:::
  1. 03 13 years ago
    
    are the wealthy [JOBZ] creators creating [JOBZ] yet ?
    1. Spoonman. 13 years ago
      
      ...Weren't you pumping the better unemployment numbers upthread?
      1. 03 13 years ago
        
        oh u mean the "seasonal employment" at xmas as the libtoidz declared ?
        
        Goalposts 13 years ago
        
        I like to move it,move it
        She likes to move it,move it
        He likes to move it,move it
        You like to ("move it")
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        ok thats funny
    2. WTF 13 years ago
      
      is the [IDIOT] o3 making [SENSE] yet?
    3. Bones 13 years ago
      
      With all the uncertainty caused by our politicians right now, I wouldn't unless I was sure it helped my business. Not knowing what taxes and health insurance costs will be makes it difficult to project if I will be able to hire people for the positions I need filled and at how much I can afford to offer them.
      
      Shorter Bones: Get your head out of your ass, o3.
Ken Shultz 13 years ago

"A European proposal to channel central bank loans through the International Monetary Fund may deliver as much as 200 billion euros ($270 billion) to fight the debt crisis, two people familiar with the negotiations said."

Oh cool!

Free money!

Why didn't we think of that?
Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago

This might have been discussed here already - I can't spend my whole day here, ya know, so if it was mentioned and I missed it, feel free to sue me.

But anyhow - have you seen "The American People's New Economic Charter", a "crowd-sourced" document being worked on by the OWS gangs?

See here.

Among the many lovely proposals for reforming Ameican society is this gem:

Teach character building classes from grade one, measure success based on drive/cooperation/interactions with others, not only final outcome. Impose universal morality for parents who do not participate in raising their children. Remove children from households with parents who refuse to educate them properly.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  This shit never changes and never goes away does it?
  1. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, there's this one too:
    
    The government should act as a national database of citizens, with only such information as: name, dob, ss#/voter id, schools attended, driver's license #, address/phone, medical record #. Citizens will not be allowed to own guns. They can be used in shooting ranges. We cannot let Jarred Louhgners to corrupt our society any more - and he needed extensive medical care, which others will receive in the Great Reset.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      It is never pretty when liberals let the mask slip.
      1. 03 13 years ago
        
        slip? they're explicitly stating their principles on an open forum.
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        I speshally lik theyz speling n gramar
    2. JW 13 years ago
      
      Maybe it would be a good idea if they tried this out as an experiment on a smaller scale first, just to work out the bugs. Somewhere remote and with a lower population, just to to limit any potential damage, say, like in Cambodia.
      1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        It's the year Zero!
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        I think that year is still in beta, like v. 0.4.1.
    3. Question? 13 years ago
      
      They need a snazzier name than The Great Reset. I don't know, something like The Great Leap Forward?
      1. JW 13 years ago
        
        You have to put it contemporary terms.
        
        It's The Great App Forward.
      2. Mr. FIFY 13 years ago
        
        "The Great Lean-Forward"
        
        0x90 13 years ago
        
        "The Great Lean-to"
    4. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      Hmm, I think maybe that Time writer wrote the Loughner sentence too.
    5. Pips 13 years ago
      
      I bet that was written by all the vets.
2. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
  
  Wow, that is some scary shit. I hate to Godwin, but you know who else wanted to impose universal morality?
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    It is a not a Godwin when the person in question really is a fascist.
  2. Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20 13 years ago
    
    Stalin?
  3. Rich 13 years ago
    
    Impose universal morality
    
    What does that even mean? Off 'em?
    1. JW 13 years ago
      
      It means that their commitment to teachers is so great that they'll keep re-educating you until you get it.
  4. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
    
    By the way, it is a Wiki, so feel free to sign up and make suggestions as to what the document should contain. I'm hoping a whole mess of conservatives and libertarians do so. Be as helpful as you can in furthering the goals of the collective.
    1. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
      
      I think someone already got to the employee rights section:
      
      What about making it easier to start small businesses by cutting back on regulatory red tape and other hurdles? By making it difficult for entrepreneurs to bring products and ideas to the marketplace, current legislation is heavily weighted toward providing the continuation and expansion of large corporations at the expense of small businesses. There are three sections addressing workers rights but none supporting the proliferation of FREE enterprises, which should also be a choice available to any who would pursue it.
      
      Which commentator wrote this? I wonder how long it will be allowed to stay up.
    2. AuH20 13 years ago
      
      I think you should pose as someone who is genuinely concerned and just push it so every document looks like it's written by a total whackjob.
  5. Tony 13 years ago
    
    Right-wing Republicans?
    1. Mr. FIFY 13 years ago
      
      Missed the full answer by exactly half, Tony.
  6. mr simple 13 years ago
    
    Why hate Godwin? He just observed the law, he didn't create it.
  7. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
    
    Utopia. By any means necessary, favoring the means that involve massive body counts.
  8. Pips 13 years ago
    
    Republicans?
3. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  How is warmed-over Marxism "a Revolution in Ideas"?
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    I won't bother with reading the whole thing. But I bet there isn't one idea on that entire site that was created in the last hundred years. Real cutting edge and revolutionary.
    1. 03 13 years ago
      
      not hundreds, try thousands of years !
      
      WWJD ?
      1. AuH20 13 years ago
        
        Seriously, I respect your service to the country, but you really should get the VA to look at that head wound for you.
        
        03 13 years ago
        
        i ll pray the wound away
4. I Heart Capitalisms 13 years ago
  
  "measure success based on drive/cooperation/interactions with others, not only final outcome"
  
  So they want to make school more like politics?
5. Ray 13 years ago
  
  Remove children from households who refuse the educate them properly.
  
  Just let that sink in. These people never seem to grasp the true consequences of such action. They are they same folks who think 'ignorant' people shouldn't vote, never ever thinking that they themselves might one day end up in the 'ignorant' category or having the beurocrat decide they aren't educating their children properly.
  1. AuH20 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, Stalin is the best comparison here.
  2. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    I would happily and without remorse slaughter every last one of these motherfuckers and drink their fucking blood and wear their fucking skulls as hats if any one of them showed up at my house to tell me I wasn't properly educating my kid in their idea of character education.
6. I Heart Capitalisms 13 years ago
  
  "Socialize undergraduate level college. Make failing impossible to assure that everyone has the same chance in the work place post-college."
  
  Spoof Occutard or real Occutard?
7. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  What the fuck, exactly, do these people know about character building that they could teach it? Character building is getting up and going to your shitty job because you value putting food on the table and sleeping under a roof more than having a couple more beers or sleeping a few extra hours. It is NOT cherry picking ed school classes offered after 11am and going to work 175 days a year.
Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20 13 years ago

I'm at the bargaining of grief, right not. So, NBC, c'mon... give me one final, 17 episode season of Community. That will let it wrap up appropriately and let it hit syndication.

I'm not asking for #sixseasonsandamovie or even #twelveseasonsandathemepark and most certainly not #18seasonsandasmalltown. Just one more season.

And, besides NBC... do you really want to be the network that renewed Whitney? Or made Are You There Chelsea? (which was originally called Are you There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea but I guess you can't say vodka on TV?) NBC, you built a successful network on quality programming like Cheers and Hill Street Blues. Don't go all Full House on us now.
1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  Pop! Pop!
  1. Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20 13 years ago
    
    The fact that you even call it that tells me you aren't ready.
  2. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    We are laughing at you.
2. Proprietist 13 years ago
  
  Crappyish acting aside, Community is the best non-animated sitcom on TV. They'd better bring it back or sell it to someone else who will.
  1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
    
    I couldn't get through one episode. It was like watching an aspie convention.
Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20 13 years ago

This comment is the best:

Dear Miz Politidyke:
Brute's got a point. Democracy must apply to all or it means nothing. And this is exactly why I do not vote. The US Constitution wasn't written for or by women. In fact, not even mentioned until less than a century ago when reaching human status and allowed to vote. Yet this was well after lands had been dispersed, treaties signed and broken, WWII in the making, and governmental and legal professions all secured by the good-old-boys. I will not bear responsibility by sanctioning through participation, the murderous and torturous fasism that founded this nation. If you think for one second that after 2,000 years, imperialism can politically be forced into adhering to any charter of Human Rights, you've been duped. It's only through boycott and rebellion that any real social equality has ever been achieved. So I suggest that everyone stops voting. Then, with the halls of injustice coming to a screaming halt, the true face of imperialism will raise its ugly head and we will know who the enemy is.
Shalom

I love the historical fuckery. Yes, people in 1920, when women got the vote, knew that they would be at war with Germany in just 22 years. And "imperialism" has been going on for 2,000 years (Damn those Romans and Moors!). I mean, just Jesus Tapdancing Christ.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  I am still suffering from the God damned Normans taking my ancestors' lands in England.
  1. Beloved Rev. Blue Moon 13 years ago
    
    You would be English.
    
    The Norman invasion baffles me - how is it that food across the channel can vary so widely in taste and quality, given a common ancestor?
    1. AuH20 13 years ago
      
      I think it's the different climates. England is cold, wet, and shitty. In that climate, you want stick to your ribs kind of food like Bangers and Mash or Shepherd's Pie.
      
      You also have to remember that a lot of Great Britain never really took to the Normans, culturally at least. I mean, the Welsh are still the Welsh ie they have sex with sheep.
      1. Britt 13 years ago
        
        Any culture that considers sausage, mashed potatoes, and gravy to be a meal is one I'm proud to know.
    2. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
      
      Don't forget, those are French-speaking Vikings we're talking about.
  2. Maxxx 13 years ago
    
    I am still suffering from the God damned Normans taking my ancestors' lands in England.
    
    Fucking Macedonians stole my land.
2. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  Well the Persians and the Chinese had pretty good empires going 2000+ years ago. But she seems to think that "imperialism" is an independently existing entity of some sort.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    See Sargon, the Great which was about 5,000 years ago.
  2. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Liberals only count white people.
    1. AuH20 13 years ago
      
      Well, white people did it best, and that is unfair. I mean, way to be successful, dick.
3. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  That comment is probably the best argument I've seen for never giving women the vote.
  
  Also, it's hilarious that she apparently believes the history of western civilization begins with the Romans. I guess she's still broken up about the Diaspora.
  1. WTF 13 years ago
    
    That comment is probably the best argument I've seen for never giving women the vote.
    
    And followed by women getting the vote in 1920, the explosive expansion of the nanny state. Thanx wymyns!
Rich 13 years ago

Jobless rate drops from 9 percent to 8.6 percent; Reuters take: "Further evidence the economic recovery was gaining momentum."

The chocolate ration is being increased, too.
P Brooks 13 years ago

Impose universal morality for parents who do not participate in raising their children. Remove children from households with parents who refuse to educate them properly.

Ja Wohl.

And can we bang the prettiest blonde girls once they have been incorporated as the assets of the State? For the good of, umm, Society.
MNG 13 years ago

The sort of offenses that might land a student in the principal's office in other states often send kids in Texas to court with misdemeanor charges. Some schools have started rethinking the way they punish students for bad behavior after watching many of them drop out or land in prison because of tough disciplinary policies.

This summer, an exhaustive study by the Council of State Governments found that by 12th grade, more than half of all 14- to 15-year-olds in Texas are ticketed, expelled or suspended at least once. After they're ticketed, sent to court and fined hundreds of dollars, students aren't always allowed to go back to their home school. Instead, they're sent to an alternative school, a holding pen of sorts where kids are supposed to "learn their lesson."

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/30/.....t-of-court

And Texas is dominated by "small, less intrusive government" conservative GOPers...Sheesh.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  All is relative. It is not like the Texas education system is more prone to do that than most other states. Read any blog about zero tolerance and you can see this is a national problem.
  
  The problem goes back to taking discretion away from administrators. If administrators are not free to do justice and punish kids according to the person and the crime, they can't let kids off when appropriate. So instead, they just call the cops and wash their hands of it.
  1. MNG 13 years ago
    
    "It is not like the Texas education system is more prone to do that than most other states."
    
    Other states have half their school age kids either with misdemeanors or expulsions? I doubt that.
  2. Libertymike 13 years ago
    
    John, why in the world do we want to give more "discretion" to administrators? Why further empower state actors?
    
    Zero tolerance is big government / nanny state nonsense. MNG is right to point out the inherent logical fallacy of those who claim to be small government supporting zero tolerance policies.
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      When you have half of your school kids ticketed by cops for school grounds shenanigans then you can't pass the laugh test when you tout "smaller, less intrusive" government.
      
      This is what a GOP dominated state looks like. Or Alabama with its recent immigration "more power to teh cops" law. It's all a show and talk.
      1. AuH20 13 years ago
        
        MNG, the states are bad advertisements for their party. I mean... do you want NY or CA to be ads for the Democrats? And TX and AL are bad for the Republicans.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        I actually like what NY is doing under Cuomo, so I'd actually take that bet...
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        I think you can learn a lot about the parties from the states where that party dominates and has for a while. Alabama and Texas for the GOP for example, hardly bastions of liberty. That's where the GOP primary is what matters, so you get pure conservatism, and you see what you get.
        
        It works the other way, sure. I live in MD now and I actually worked for the last GOP gubernatorial candidate because the one-party Dem domination here has led to so many follies it's hard for someone from a competitive state to imagine...
      2. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Doesn't the Texas Constitution mandate that the state offer free public education?
        
        That's your problem right there.
        
        The education of children requires arbitrary authority. But arbitrary authority is what our public school administrators can't really have, if we're going to run the schools in accordance with the federal constitution and with the laws of most states.
        
        So we have placed the public schools in the position of being forced to attempt to offer a service that they can't really effectively offer to the standards we'd like.
        
        A private school can impose a private disciplinary system, and if they've gotten everyone to sign the right disclaimers no one can say shit about it. A public school can't. To me the obvious answer to this quandary is to privatize all education. But the states with public education written into their constitutions can't DO that. And so we get insanity like trying to farm out minor school discipline to the cops.
    2. Brett L 13 years ago
      
      That's John's point. Zero tolerance == zero responsibility, therefore, administrators don't have to be personally responsible to parents at the PTA or school board meetings about this sort of shit. They can just point to zero-tolerance state laws and say "my hands are tied".
2. CrackertyAssCracker 13 years ago
  
  I agree minge, end socialized education!
3. SFC B 13 years ago
  
  ...found that by 12th grade, more than half of all 14- to 15-year-olds in Texas...
  
  Did they mistype a grade or an age in there? 14-15 is 9th or 10th grade. HS Seniors are 17 and 18.
MNG 13 years ago

Herman Cain says wife did not know of payments to alleged mistress

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z3

The Cain Campaign continues to crash and burn, our Rev. Moon silently weeps...
1. John 13 years ago
  
  If he wanted to have mistress and be subject to no moral standards whatsoever, he should have ran as a Democrat. He could have had a pimp living in his basement, banged interns half his age and lied about it, and had his wife growing pot in the back yard and it wouldn't have mattered.
  1. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    I think you can really only get away with that in the House.
    
    But what do I know. None of those things sounds like a big deal to me.
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      "But what do I know. None of those things sounds like a big deal to me."
      
      They're big deals for conservatives.
      
      Live by the sword...
  2. Tony 13 years ago
    
    I think it's wrong to judge political leaders too harshly on their personal lives. We'd lack several great historical leaders if they had to follow today's Puritanical mores. Plus monogamous marriage is probably unnatural.
    
    The problem with Cain isn't the consensual affair, but all the non-consensual harassment.
    1. 03 13 years ago
      
      puritan mores?...like grave-robbing then murdering the natives who taught them survival ?
    2. RoboCain 13 years ago
      
      The Bialek story makes no sense, "This guy attacked me so I asked him to take me back my hotel".
    3. Beloved Rev. Blue Moon 13 years ago
      
      Woah! Tony from outta left field with a reasonable comment. I'll be damned.
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        Hell, if you'd get your head out of your partisan ass, to use your phrase (ad hominens indeed, physician heal thyself!), you might remember that I defended Cain against the harrassment charges...
      2. Mr. FIFY 13 years ago
        
        Except there's no solid proof of "all the non-consensual harassment".
        
        Shorter FIFY 13 years ago
        
        Even the gop accusers are wrong !
        
        Mr. FIFY 13 years ago
        
        Where's the proof?
    4. cynical 13 years ago
      
      "Plus monogamous marriage is probably unnatural."
      
      I thought you were all about egalitarianism? Monogamy was the sexual 99%'s answer to the sexual 1% (of males, obv).
    5. Tulpa 13 years ago
      
      Plus monogamous marriage is probably unnatural.
      
      Then don't partake in it if you want to fool around.
      
      Don't get married, get caught fooling around, and THEN claim "marriage is unnatural".
  3. MNG 13 years ago
    
    "banged interns half his age and lied about it, and had his wife growing pot in the back yard and it wouldn't have mattered"
    
    Wow, you're conservative slip really showing here...
  4. Beloved Rev. Blue Moon 13 years ago
    
    I see MNG is still successfully trolling here. Has his desperation for attention led to any fun ad-hominems yet?
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      Your tears, so yummy!
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        I love the irony too, accusing me of ad hominens in a post that contains two of your own.
        
        Al Franken was right about conservatives and irony...
        
        Libertymike 13 years ago
        
        Under what other names has the good Rev. posted?
        
        What happened to your old sparring mate, The Angry Optimist?
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        Aren't TAO, Beloved and BSR the same person LM? I always figured so. The same better than average argumentation but the same backslide into knee-jerk conservatism on many traditional issues.
        
        Libertymike 13 years ago
        
        Whither truth-in-handle-posting?
        
        Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
        
        Aren't TAO, Beloved and BSR the same person LM? I always figured so. The same better than average argumentation but the same backslide into knee-jerk conservatism on many traditional issues.
        
        Whoa, where the fuck did this come from? Don't drag me into your fevered hallucinations.
        
        For the record, I post only under this screen name, or occasionally, a joke name, for a joke.
        
        I don't have time to sock-puppet. So the answer to your question is an emphatic NO.
        
        And true to form, your ability to perceive and comprehend evidently is fatally impaired, because I'm certainly not a knee-jerk conservative.
        
        Yeah, I hateses me some lefties, progressives and liberals, but that does not therefore automatically make me a "knee-jerk conservative." Because I'm just as disgusted by a lot of the so-called conservatives.
  5. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    Whatever happened to the old live boy/dead girl in the bed standard? We could update it for the 21st century and make it dead sex partner in the bed.
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      Barney Frank did away with the old live boy part...
      1. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        That's what I'm saying. I'm cool with going with a gender/sexual preference neutral standard of dead or unwilling or underage sex partner as the threshold for scandal.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        Like I said, we don't care, but then we are probably not the GOP base. Cain talked a lot about Jesus, religion and personal morality for that reason. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Dear Mr. Cain:
        
        When Jesus said, "love thy neighbor as you love thyself" I don't think this is what he had in mind.
        
        Sincerely,
        American Conservative Christians
        
        (I'm in total agreement with you MNG.)
2. rather 13 years ago
  
  No one cares if a politician as a fuck buddy
  1. rather 13 years ago
    
    *has*
3. MNG 13 years ago
  
  I have to wonder, Cain rose to prominence in part I think because he was willing to talk about substantial change, i.e., substantial change of our tax system. Was his candidacy a good thing for putting that forward in the discussion, or will that be tarnished via association with yet another sex-obsessed minister?
  1. 03 13 years ago
    
    cain is the gop's token black. if he was white, he'd never have been on stage.
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      Well, he did have a pretty substantial proposal he touted. Did it help that he was black and could be used to deflect racism charges? Sure. But I'm betting his rise had more to do with his 9-9-9 plan and his plain speaking style.
    2. I Heart Capitalisms 13 years ago
      
      And how well would a white Obama have done?
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        Ask John Edwards.
        
        I Heart Capitalisms 13 years ago
        
        He'd have been a VP/sidekick?
        
        cynical 13 years ago
        
        Edwards always came across as sleazy, though. Obama at worst comes across as arrogant and out-of-touch.
    3. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
      
      cain is the gop's token black. if he was white, he'd never have been on stage.
      
      Well that's a pretty fucking racist thing to say, you fucking racist.
      1. 03 13 years ago
        
        nigga pleeze
      2. o3 13 years ago
        
        oh ur right. i meant uncle tom. thx
Res Publica Americana 13 years ago

If Paul becomes President, can't he just issue an executive order commanding the indefinite incarceration of all Congressmen he doesn't like?
1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  Like love, the United States is a battlefield.
P Brooks 13 years ago

you know who else wanted to impose universal morality?

Theodore Rooooooooooosevelt?

Woodrow Wilson?
1. Res Publica Americana 13 years ago
  
  But the Limetree education system teaches that Wilson was the great American president that helped rebuild Europe and made the nasty isolationist Republithugs go away!
Suki 13 years ago

Some info here.
Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20 13 years ago

This woman... is not very smart.

Key passage:

AS: What, in your opinion, is the greatest challenge facing feminism today?

JF: The flow of money into corporate media is one of the biggest challenges facing feminism. A large reason why that free flow of political corporate money is such a huge structural challenge to feminism is that it allows the media to become even more biased and owned by people who don't have women's best interests at heart. The corporate media, and sometimes independent media, as it exists today so often defines feminism for us in a way that makes it hard for anyone to want to identify with it. They're almost always wildly distorting the truth. It also keeps us separate from each other, pits us against each other and it doesn't tell our stories. There are so many great feminists doing amazing work everywhere I go, but almost everyone I meet feels like they're alone trying to push the boulder up the hill themselves. If we were able to find each other and work together we could keep the boulder up the hill.

Why are corporations inherently antiwoman? I mean, women are their customers, and women work for corporations, so why would corporations go out of their way to shit on women?

Is there money less good or something?
1. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  She's also ugly.
2. Res Publica Americana 13 years ago
  
  That's not even one of the entertaining ultra-feminists -- THIS one's just a fucktarded reverse-sexist. Like the way the Dalish elves are reverse-racist, and can fuck off.
  
  Imagine how red with rage she grows when you say "penis" aloud.
  1. Elven Apologist AuH20 13 years ago
    
    The Elves have a reason to be racist! The humans rape our women and make us live in ghettos.
    
    We are the Jews of Dragon Age.
    1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      We are the Jews of Dragon Age.
      
      I'd be surprised if the developers didn't have this very thing in mind when they made the game.
      
      The Chantry is such a blatant proxy for the medieval Catholic Church that they didn't even bother trying to symbolize it with the typically clumsy nerd caricatures.
  2. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
    
    Like the way the Dalish elves are reverse-racist, and can fuck off.
    
    Just as an oppressed people can't be racist, women it is not possible for women be sexist.
    
    /sarc
    1. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
      
      GDI, can't edit posts.
      
      It is not possible for women to be sexist.
    2. AuH20 13 years ago
      
      You joke, but there is actually a belief that only those with "privilege" can be sexist/racist/bigoted/whatever.
      1. Proprietist 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, I had a college professor seriously get into a heated argument with me in class when I claimed non-whites can be racist too.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        Profs don't think non-whites are rational humans who make choices based on physical perceptions and self-interest--that's why they don't believe non-whites can be racist.
        
        That's why they chimp out over any perceived racism by whites, but equivalent ethnic chauvinism from non-whites doesn't even register with them. It's basically lazy SWPL paternalism.
3. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  She has a new book out titled "What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl's Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety" and it's amazing. The book is a guide to helping you decipher what it is you truly desire, parsed out from social conditioning.
  
  False consciousness rears it's ugly head yet again.
  1. AuH20 13 years ago
    
    It comes with a false consciousness quiz. Shall I link you to it?
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      I'm taking it right now!
    2. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      Apparently, the book is for me.
      
      ?If you wished any of your answers could be different than they are, this book is for you.
      ?If you exaggerated any of your answers in order to seem more sexually liberated/empowered/accomplished than you are, or for any other reason, this book is for you.
      ?If fear (possibly very valid fear) influenced any of your answers, this book is for you.
      ?If any of your answers reflected embarrassment or shame about sexual expression, this book is for you.
      ?Let's be honest. If you've read this far? This book is very likely for you.
      1. AuH20 13 years ago
        
        If I said I had a dick to rival John Holmes, is this book for me?
  2. T 13 years ago
    
    You have to admit, false consciousness is genius in a sick, amoral, power-hungry, manipulative way.
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      Oh, no... I freely admit it's genius. (Even if they didn't come up with it and would completely deny that religions thought it up eons ago.)
4. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  OK, then.
  
  Feministing and Jezebel do a far better job making feminism seem like a joke than anything the corporate media could ever do.
  1. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
    
    Haha yes. I was thinking of that as I read the article, and chuckling to myself at the unintentional irony of it all.
  2. AuH20 13 years ago
    
    I think the problem is that Leftist Feminism exists in such a fucking bubble that they don't see how ridiculous it is. If someone disagrees with them, they must either not understand feminist theory (Look it up, Dudebro!) or be so brainwashed/benefiting from patriarchal, kyriarchal (which includes shit like class and actually liking the gender you were born with) that they clearly just can not see the light and truth of Leftist Feminist ideas.
    
    The fact that a lot of their theory is influence by Marxism, which any Poly Sci major could tell you is a goddamn childish ideology, and that makes them irrelevant, is lot on them.
    1. 03 13 years ago
      
      why do libtoidz obsess over feminists ?
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        If someone pried the "Z" off this retard's keyboard, he'd probably never post here again.
        
        RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        LOLZ
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        sorry i struck a chord
      2. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        Why do you obsess over libtoidz' obsessionz?
      3. Ken Shultz 13 years ago
        
        "why do libtoidz obsess over feminists ?"
        
        It's not a libertarian thing specifically.
        
        There are lots of libertarian feminists.
        
        Then there are a lot of guus who've drifted libertarian lately because there's a vile Progressive in the White House.
        
        As soon as they get another Republican idiot like Bush in the White House to cheer for again? Many of them will go back to damning libertarians as traitors and terrorists sympathizers, etc.
        
        Don't get me wrong--there are plenty of feminists who advocate shit that's extremely hostile to libertarianism. But libertarians don't generally oppose them becasue they're feminists...
        
        We oppose them because they're advocating shit that's extremely hostile to libertarianism.
        
        RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        You can do both.
        
        And even though I know who you are talking about "libertarian feminists" is an oxymoron.
        
        Ken Shultz 13 years ago
        
        "And even though I know who you are talking about "libertarian feminists" is an oxymoron."
        
        Not according to libertarian feminists, it isn't.
        
        https://www.google.com/search?q=libertarian+feminist
        
        AuH20 13 years ago
        
        I think that the problem is that in the 70s and 80s Feminism migrated from the streets to the academy, and in the academy in got infused with a bunch of Marxist bullshit, as well as acquiring a bunch of young, impressionable followers.
        
        Also, the demand for money made feminist organizations willing to trot out whatever statistic they have that will make people go, "Oh shit! This is a serious problem, and I must give money now."
        
        I mean, in a lot of ways, if shit improves for women, then the funding for places like NOW dries up. They have a vested interest in keeping the Patriarchy going.
        
        Libertymike 13 years ago
        
        Like a rape takes place every nano-second.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        I am a middle-aged woman, and while I have always considered myself to be a feminist, I have nothing in common with the ilk of Jezebel and Feministing. I grew up in a society in which women were routinely paid less than men for the same work, and also in which women were denied jobs because of their gender. I have and had zero problem addressing that sort of issue, and that is what feminism originally set out to do: to level the playing field so that women were not treated in an egregious manner. I have experienced all of this first hand, during the fullness of my youth.
        
        I think matters have improved dramatically since then, to the point where young women who aspire to be feminists really have nothing to complain about, so they invent shit, such as the patriarchy keeping them down, and the kyriarchy asserting itself to shape their self-image. It's bullshit, and a bullshit excuse for not taking their destiny into their own hands. If it is the patriarchy or the kyriarchy, problems in some woman's life are always someone else's fault.
        
        I also take especial umbrage at the notion that to champion equal right for women, one must tear down men, rather than raising up women. Fuck you, ladies. Fuck you very much.
        
        Ken Shultz 13 years ago
        
        "I think that the problem is that in the 70s and 80s Feminism migrated from the streets to the academy, and in the academy in got infused with a bunch of Marxist bullshit, as well as acquiring a bunch of young, impressionable followers."
        
        I think you're talking about one strain of feminism. It was the dominant strain, no doubt. ...and it was a strain dominated by Marxism, class struggle, etc.
        
        But, again, libertarians shouldn't criticize Marxist-feminists for being feminists. They should criticize those Marxist-feminists for being Marxists.
        
        The fact is that we libertarians have some great examples of libertarian feminism--some who've been right here at Hit & Run.
        
        But listen to me explain it? Why not listen to Kerry Howley?
        
        http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/12979
        
        More Kerry Howley is always better.
        
        Anyway, libertarianism and its message has a lot to offer feminism. And if more feminists embraced libertarianism and libertarian solutions to women's problems, that would be a good thing for both women and libertarians.
        
        So, a lot of guys are obsessed with women's issues--because we're preoccupied with women. But it would be unfortunate if women thought there was something about libertarianism that made it hostile to feminism.
        
        It just isn't so.
        
        AuH20 13 years ago
        
        Ken, I think that the problem is that many of the people who claim to represent "feminism" are also very liberal people who are big into playing "feminist" gatekeeper.
        
        Are you pro life? Sorry, you can't be a feminist.
        
        Even if you are pro-legalized abortion, are you for state funding of abortion or abortion providers? Sorry, without that funding, poor women can't get abortions, and thus the right is meaningless (please do not apply this standard to guns). You are not a feminist.
        
        These gatekeepers tend to be the same people who claim that Cathy Young isn't a REAL feminist.
        
        I think that these people also use the true definition of feminism ("the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of women) and then springboard onto "and here is how this equality is achieved, and these are the solutions".
        
        I think that somehow, you have to save feminism from these people, but I don't know how. Especially when the first couple of google pages of results for "feminism blog" are things like Jezebel and Feministe.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        Feminism is supposed to be about the right to choose. Except if you don't make the right choice (e.g. if you have that baby instead of having an abortion; or forgo the career to stay home and raise your kids; derive enjoyment from running a household; or believe that men have an intrinsic value as men with their own psychology and ways of thinking and doing things, and not as deformed with external plumbing issues-- then you are somehow a traitor to your gender.
        
        It's enough to piss you off.
        
        Ken Shultz 13 years ago
        
        "Feminism is supposed to be about the right to choose. Except if you don't make the right choice."
        
        Yeah, I think that's a pretty common critique of the feminist movement--from a libertarian feminist perspective.
        
        I think I've heard variations on that theme from Postrel, Howley, Young...
        
        Ken Shultz 13 years ago
        
        I think of Virginia Postrel, Kerry Howley and Cathy Young as feminists.
        
        I think we've had some regulars here in the Hit & Run commentariat who are likewise feminists.
        
        I can't think of any of them who were pro-life, but I'm not sure being pro-life is a necessary requirement for being libertarian.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        I can't think of any of them who were pro-life, but I'm not sure being pro-life is a necessary requirement for being libertarian.
        
        No, but the belief that that choice is one's own to make is.
        
        AuH20 13 years ago
        
        I was just using pro-life as an example of something that became a feminism litmus test but that never should have.
        
        cynical 13 years ago
        
        "'I think we've had some regulars here in the Hit & Run commentariat who are likewise feminists."
        
        Whomever could you mean, you c... razy guy?
        
        Ken Shultz 13 years ago
        
        I don't know if Jennifer would call herself a feminist, but she looks like a libertarian-feminist to me.
        
        I thought of smacky and Linguist as libertarian-feminists that way, too.
        
        This didn't used to be such a sausage fest. And if a little effort to make the place seem a little less hostile to females generated a little more female participation around here?
        
        That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
        
        Jeffrey 13 years ago
        
        I like to laugh at feminists because they are so damn close to libertarians.
        
        Many of their ideas about consent and self ownership fall right in line with our own, but then they are so obsessed with socio-economic outcomes, that they will shamelessly throw their princinples to the wayside.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        Many of their ideas about consent and self ownership fall right in line with our own, but then they are so obsessed with socio-economic outcomes, that they will shamelessly throw their princinples to the wayside.
        
        Yes, and this is why I have a great deal of contempt for the Jezeballians, Feminstins, and their love of the OWS movement. "Don't report those rapes and attacks! Sequester yourselves in a tent with other women! Don't make waves! Censor yourselves so you don;t say anything critical! You'll sully the image of the OWS movement if it is perceived as unfriendly to women!" Which ironically had the effect of making the OWS... unfriendly to women.
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        libtoidz have a bad reaction to Movement Feminism because it is, at bottom, a collectivist ideology. And we hate those.
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        libtoidz have a bad reaction to Movement Feminism because it is, at bottom, a collectivist ideology. And we hate those.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I think that it's really insidious to libertarians because even when it's not being directly collectivist and is spending some time dealing with the relationship between individuals, it asserts a whole lot of specious "individual" rights that are anathema to libertarianism.
        
        Because if you hadn't noticed, a whole lot of modern feminism boils down to "I am not free if you're free to think I'm not pretty," which is not a collectivist premise per se, but a pretty radical invention of a new individual right out of whole cloth.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        Because if you hadn't noticed, a whole lot of modern feminism boils down to "I am not free if you're free to think I'm not pretty," which is not a collectivist premise per se, but a pretty radical invention of a new individual right out of whole cloth.
        
        This is in line with Steve Sailer's theory that modern feminism was largely shaped and influenced by ugly women who wanted society to consider them attractive. It's probably why relativism is so central to the most vocal of feminist leaders.
    2. Professoriate 13 years ago
      
      The fact that a lot of their theory is influence by Marxism, which any Poly Sci major could tell you is a goddamn childish ideology,
      
      NO, no, no.
      
      Marxism is the foundation of all modern ideology.
      1. 03 13 years ago
        
        radio "educated" conservatives dont know marxism which calls for employee ownership & reduced govt
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Great. Go find some conservatives and tell them that.
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        plenty right here
        
        03 13 years ago
        
        derp de derpity derp
  3. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    ^This.
    
    The nontraditional internet media have done much more damage to feminism than corporate mass media have.
    
    The craziest feminist can go on a talk show and at least not have people laugh in her face.
    
    On the internet little every peep out of the feminist cohort gets MST3000'd within seconds of it being put up.
    
    Academic feminism only got as far as it did because in a professional context there is no idea stupid enough that it will receive open mockery and high-fiving in a boardroom or classroom. On the internet, that facade of courtesy is stripped away, and the true enemy of feminism - laughter - is unleashed in all its power and glory.
    1. dunphy 13 years ago
      
      The other true enemy of gender , as opposed to equity feminism, is DATA and science.
P Brooks 13 years ago

"What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl's Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety"

Why do I assume they "really want" another woman, and not a man?
P Brooks 13 years ago

Dear Miz Politidyke:

I was not previously aware of the existence of Hillary's advice column.
1. AuH20 13 years ago
  
  Nice.
R C Dean 13 years ago

A European proposal to channel central bank loans through the International Monetary Fund

What this means is that the IMF will buy the loans, and then (maybe) resell them.

The IMF is largely funded by the US. So this is the US taxpayer bailing out Europe.

And it would be a bailout. The only reason the IMF would buy them is because they can't clear an auction at the offered rates. So the IMF will either keep them (a bailout) or resell them at a discount (a smaller bailout).
1. Ken Shultz 13 years ago
  
  You must be confused.
  
  There's nothing not to like about free money.
  
  Free money. The solution was there all along!
  
  It's just that the Koch Brothers didn't want us to see it.
2. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  Basically this is an end-run around the ECB's refusal to monetize the debt of zombie Eurozone nations.
  
  I betcha someday the Fed ends up owning this shit. So that dollar holders can monetize euro debt instead of just dollar debt.
  1. cynical 13 years ago
    
    If they had any fucking balls, they would make a Euro bailout conditional on Europe accepting the Fed as its monetary authority and making the dollar the official currency of Europe. It would be terrible, of course, but I think if they aren't in a position to make those sorts of demands now, they will be soon.
    1. Tulpa 13 years ago
      
      Nah. Just make them take GM, Chrysler, and Michael Moore off our hands.
Brett L 13 years ago

"I don't practice Santeria"

"Two North Miami Beach employees ? one a police officer, the other a department office manager ? are in hot water after trying to enlist some supernatural aid in the form of what they believed to be a Santeria practice.

Their alleged target: City Manager Lyndon Bonner, whose plan to slash the police budget prompted protests and union outrage this fall."
1. cynical 13 years ago
  
  Santeria is a major religion in Cuba. Why exactly is it worse than saying a prayer? I mean, aside from the littering aspect.
P Brooks 13 years ago

I think you can learn a lot about the parties from the states where that party dominates and has for a while.

Extrapolation is good, except when it isn't.
Dustin Whitmore 13 years ago

These guys are making a whole lot of sense dude.

http://www.VPN-Shield.tk
edenbras01 13 years ago

i agree to your site because very informative and i hope do not stop your work

Thank you..
Custom Nike Dunk 13 years ago

thanks

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