Reason Morning Links: Occupiers Shut Down West Coast Ports, Syrian Protests Death Toll at 5,000, Glenn Beck Considers Supporting Ron Paul

Mike Riggs | 12.13.2011 9:00 AM

In solidarity with the working class, Occupy protesters on the West Coast keep people from going to work.
Glenn Beck would vote for a third party Ron Paul over a GOP-nominated Newt Gingrich.
Jerry Sandusky has waived his right to a preliminary heaing, will head straight to trial.
Five thousand people have died in the last nine months of Syria's Arab Spring.
The FBI is refusing to disclose whether it uses software that allows it to spy on mobile phone users.
Your local police agency may be using $300,000 unmanned drones to spy on you.

New at Reason.tv: "Assassinations, Spying and The Constitution: ACLU President Susan Herman Talks Big Govt and Liberty"

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Suki 13 years ago

Good Morning Links!
1. Suki 13 years ago
  
  Posted on December 13, 2011, 9:00AM | Mike Riggs
  
  ROFL! Riggs does time travel.
2. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
  
  Does anyone else find it creepy that Suki is a character from John Tali(Idon'tgiveashit)'s femdom novels?
  
  That's weird, right?
  1. Arduin Grimoire 13 years ago
    
    Shut up Suki, you're still dead.
    1. Suki 13 years ago
      
      Am not.
      1. The Bruce Willis Character 13 years ago
        
        Uh, Suki ....
      2. rather 13 years ago
        
        Suki is my jesus 😉
      3. Almanian 13 years ago
        
        Oh, come on, give us a hand, then, eh?
        
        Suki 13 years ago
        
        Clap.
  2. waffles 13 years ago
    
    Round these parts that's par for the course.
  3. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
    
    Yes. But most of us here seem to have made our peace with the issue.
    1. rather 13 years ago
      
      Citizen Nothing, how libertarian of you!
      1. Dumb Handles For Jesus 13 years ago
        
        Amen.
    2. protefeed 13 years ago
      
      If by "made our peace", you mean "couldn't care less about the John / Suki weirdness", then sure.
      1. rather 13 years ago
        
        What is it about libertarians and judging others? People should rock who they are; conformity is so right wing
  4. Suki 13 years ago
    
    Actually I was the character developer for that series. The handle is that of a character from the Suki series and not femdom at all. Of course, this is all a waste of electrons on someone who cannot read.
    1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
      
      Except when I click your handle, the Suki "Project" is full of femdom shit. So you might not want to advertise that...
      1. Suki 13 years ago
        
        Like I said, your reading skills are lacking. First you talk about one fiction book series and I answered. Now you talk about a blog full of opinion on news of the day, by the real people behind the fiction books, and you cannot tell the difference.
        
        BTW, if you are so into the femdom angle you can find a little bit on the Suki Project blog and you can find a whole lot more on other blogs of the femdom variety. The Google is your friend.
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        Hey man, it's okay that you're creepy and weird. But it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be okay with it.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        If you're not okay with creepy and wierd...
        
        What the hell are you doing here?
        
        Dumb Handles For Jesus 13 years ago
        
        Hey! There's nothing creepy and weird or even collectivist about hanging out in a "libertarian" chat room all day long, bitching about The Government.
        
        protefeed 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, people socializing online and talking about libertarian ideas is totally "creepy and weird and collectivist".
        
        Whereas, in your world, hanging around in a coffee shop talking with Marxists wearing T-shirts of mass murdering collectivists like Che is totally cool and hip and libertarian.
      2. Suki 13 years ago
        
        Oh, and I did write one book on my own, still not femdom, more like femrevenge.
        
        Poet Laureate sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        You've got a funny way of spelling "femgarbage."
        
        ^Pot, Kettle 13 years ago
    2. Tim 13 years ago
      
      What's the point of the internet if not to talk with imaginary characters?
      1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        Well, I guess I should just come out and say it...
        
        I'm a dog
        
        Seriously, that picture is adorable.
        
        WTF 13 years ago
        
        Holy crap, the cute nearly melted my monitor.
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        I always have this thought when looking at that picture...
        
        Cat:Dog friend! Dog friend! We have discussed this! You are not supposed to be doing this! And not when the picture is take either!
        Dog: BUT CAT FRIEND YOU ARE DIRTY AND I LOVE YOU!
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        That's adorable. 🙂
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        I have more where that came from
        
        What? I work a crappy job taking people's calls at a law firm and they always yell and sometimes, when I get home, I like to look at some GODDAMN PICTURES OF DOG'S AND CATS, OKAY?
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        I don't need pictures, I have 5 dogs. I just go home and hang out and sooner or later they'll do something cute/adorable/funny/entertaining/irritating.
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        I wish I could have a dog, but I work and live in apartment, so the poor guy would get super bored.
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Go with English Staffie, and you can add destructive to the mix.
        
        Their current project at the Rancho Dean is disassembling all the trees in their yard.
        
        wylie 13 years ago
        
        Ahh, the not-so-well-known Beaver Dog.
        
        protefeed 13 years ago
        
        You know, the dog is prolly just tasting the cat and thinking "twenty more pounds from now and I can eat this prey".
      2. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        I assume everyone commenting here is either Nick Gillespie or Matt Welsh.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Welch
        
        Suki 13 years ago
        
        The first version was better.
        
        rather 13 years ago
        
        Citizen Nothing,
        
        right story wrong characters
        
        rather 13 years ago
        
        "Hey man, it's okay that you're creepy and weird. But it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be okay with it."
        So sys the self-titled Viscount
        lol
        
        Ronald Bailey 13 years ago
        
        What am I, chopped liver?
        
        rather 13 years ago
        
        yes, and you taste devine with liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti
        
        db 13 years ago
        
        What if I'm the only real commenter here? Oh, shit.
        
        rather 13 years ago
        
        Yes db, welcome to the Trueman show
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        who says you're real db?
        
        Sparky 13 years ago
        
        Just take the solipsistic view and assume you're conversing with segments of your consciousness.
        
        db 13 years ago
        
        PMS: Pantheistic Multiple Solipsism
        
        Butts Wagner 13 years ago
        
        That's what I say
        
        Billy Shakespeare 13 years ago
        
        I assume everyone commenting here is either Nick Gillespie or Matt Welsh.
        
        It's Jackets all the way down.
        
        rather 13 years ago
        
        so says mr________fill in the blank
        lol
  5. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    I mostly just find it annoying.
Rich 13 years ago

The FBI has denied a request for the release of information regarding its use of Carrier IQ's software the Glock 22, saying that releasing the information could interfere with ongoing law enforcement operations.

Why not this?
1. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  Why, what's up the Glock?
  1. Rich 13 years ago
    
    Nothing that I know of. Sorry 'bout the confusion, RoboCain -- I was trying to make the point that releasing *any* info *could* interfere ...
    1. RoboCain 13 years ago
      
      Oh, OK.
  2. db 13 years ago
    
    The FBI is the only one in the room professional enough to use Carrier IQ.
    1. That Former DEA Agent 13 years ago
      
      HEY!!
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

Glenn Beck would vote for a third party Ron Paul over a GOP-nominated Newt Gingrich.

I guess his Gingrich interview wasn't just Beck playing devil's advocate.
1. Arcaster 13 years ago
  
  Did you see the comments for that story? The stupid is strong at that site.
Suki 13 years ago

In solidarity with the working class, Occupy protesters on the West Coast keep people from going to work.

It is not work until the workers control the means of production. Until the revolution is realized, all "work" is slavery. [/OWSpeak]
1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  Remind me what "Occupy" is.
  1. Hal DeJux 13 years ago
    
    Nadya Suleman's vajayjay?
  2. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
    
    It's the more politically correct name for the Stupefy. . .what is it, a movement? No, that's not right. A series of block parties?
    1. NoVAHockey 13 years ago
      
      That's what my 2-year old calls Occupy DC when we drive my every night. "look, the people are having their party"
    2. John 13 years ago
      
      I still love the poster Reason had up a few weeks ago with the ballerina chick on the bull statue and the zombies in the background. What is our one demand? Well what the fuck is your one demand?
      1. OCCUPY THE BARNYARD 13 years ago
        
        Pictures of women with livestock!
  3. Pip 13 years ago
    
    "Remind me what "Occupy" is."
    
    It's the O* in OWS.
    
    * Think the Obama logo
PantsFan 13 years ago

Some Funny Signs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tra.....k-182.html
1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  What was so funny about that?
  1. Nigel Lingham 13 years ago
    
    Discover the pleasure of subtle humor.
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      Discover the appeal of a slightly subtle advertising pitch.
John 13 years ago

Honest. I ran outta gas. I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from outta town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locust's. It wasn't my fault!! I swear to God!!

"I've always believed that this was a long-term project," Obama told CBS's Steve Kroft, and that it "was gonna take more than a year. It was gonna take more than two years."

The problem is that, once upon a time, Obama was saying pretty much the exact opposite. Examples:

? On Feb. 2, 2009, Obama told the "Today Show" that "a year from now I think people are gonna see that we're starting to make some progress," and that "if I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition."
mp3Listen to the Podcast
Subscribe through iTunes

On Feb. 12, 2009, he predicted that his $830 billion stimulus would "ignite spending by businesses and consumers" and unleash "a new wave of innovation, activity and construction ... all across America."

? On Feb. 26, 2009, Obama's first budget projected that by 2011 the economy would be cooking ahead at 4% real GDP growth, with unemployment at 7.1% and falling fast.

? On Feb. 7, 2010, he said "we are seeing the corner turn and the economy growing again."

? On June 4, 2010, Obama claimed the "economy is getting stronger by the day" and later that month said the recovery was "well under way."

It was only when the agonizingly slow pace of the recovery became obvious to everyone that Obama started pleading for patience and looking for someone or something else to blame.

http://news.investors.com/Arti.....linton.htm
1. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  Well, hopefully he's delivering on his promise to get the sea level to recede.
  1. Almanian Japanese Tsunami 13 years ago
    
    Hah!
    1. SFC B 13 years ago
      
      To be fair to Obama when he said "recede" he meant "displace". The increased American beachfront property just happened to push it towards Japan.
      
      Totally not his fault though.
2. Suki 13 years ago
  
  +100
3. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
  
  A rogue bad economy just slammed into the poor guy!
  1. Maxxx 13 years ago
    
    It's Tsunami's fault.
4. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
  
  He should've blamed the Illinois Nazis.
  1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    I hate Illinois Nazis.
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      Pikers.
  2. John 13 years ago
    
    I think he has at one time or another.
    1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
      
      I might like him if he blamed all of his woes on Illinois Nazis.
      1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        I'd like him more if he drove right at 'em and forced them off the bridge
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        It's the best way to handle them.
5. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
  
  Wait, you're not trying to tell me that Our Dear Leader, the Anointed One, Causer of Seas to Recede and Enabler of Earth Healing (Praise be unto him) actually is a disingenuous, pathologically narcissitic, lying sack of shit, are you?
6. Cunctator 13 years ago
  
  ---"On Feb. 26, 2009, Obama's first budget"---
  
  IIRC, that would be Obama's only budget.
Viscount Auh20 13 years ago

Bourdain on vegetarians

They make for bad travelers and bad guests. The notion that before you even set out to go to Thailand, you say, "I'm not interested," or you're unwilling to try things that people take so personally and are so proud of and so generous with, I don't understand that, and I think it's rude. You're at Grandma's house, you eat what Grandma serves you.

The things I would do to that man if I were female...
1. John 13 years ago
  
  My wife is reading Kitchen Confidential right now. It is pretty damned funny. What I like about the parts she has showed me is that he really takes the bullshit veneer off of foodies and the restaurant industry. Being a cook is really a working class job filled with immigrants, nuts, criminals and people who just don't have anywhere else to go. He has this great description of how if you can't take having your sexuality, race and religion insulted every day and for every conversation to be about dick, whose is bigger, who takes it in the ass, whose goes where and so forth, you can't work in a kitchen. It is hysterical.
  1. Abdul 13 years ago
    
    I waited tables one summer at a fancy restaurant that did a lot of weddings and high-end banquets. The dishwashers were universally petty thieves who would gulp down whatever was left in the half-empty cocktails that we brought back, occasionally spitting out the odd cigarette butt.
    1. db 13 years ago
      
      I had a job washing dishes in college. What a disgusting job. The smell of cold tomato sauce still makes me gag on occasion.
      
      It's like, other people's food, you know? Like, gross!
    2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      My first real job was busboy in a top-end restaurant. They served very fine, expensive ice cream and we all loved it. When no one was looking we used to scoop some out with our hands and scarf it down on the spot. Hey, I was 14!
    3. Resto Druid FTW 13 years ago
      
      Like Spaulding ala Chaddyshack?
      
      Ewwwww.
  2. capitol l 13 years ago
    
    I did over a decade in the restaurant business and Bourdain's book is pretty damn spot-on. Like his thing about ordering well-done steak; every place I've worked I have always used the shitty pieces of meat for well-done orders. Not rotten meat, of course, but if there are two trays of trimmed filets (one from yesterday and one from today) the mrare guy is going to get the new steak. Never been a official policy, but something that I've noticed most cooks do. My rationale was always that someone ordering a filet well done doesn't give a shit about a tender, good tasting steak and therefore wouldn't notice a fatty, weird, older piece of meat.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      What he say makes perfect sense when you think about it. For example he says never order hollandaise sauce in a restaurant. They never make it to order because it is a bitch to make. And to keep the eggs from curdling, they keep it pre-made at the perfect temperature to grow bacteria. I had never thought of that. But it makes perfect sense.
      1. capitol l 13 years ago
        
        Always watch your specials, too. Specials are the way a kitchen manager can keep his loss totals down and profits up. Any specials on sunday at places I've worked have been clear out the cooler affairs. Watch out for weird ass shit on the weekends like croque monsiuer on rye with a side of portobello mushroom chili with chicken...uh oh! someone fucked up their order last monday and needs to clear some rapidly turning shit out.
        
        Another thing is that people are getting lazy and instead of making stuff like hollandaise sauce or soups or even something really easy like beer battered fish, they're buying the shit in frozen bags from cisco. With that stuff you don't have to worry about the health department and it takes someone with zero knowledge to cook, so owners have been getting sold on this shit by slick-talking food reps. If you ever notice the food at one restaurant tastes exactly like the food at another, you're paying them to defrost a meal for you.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        My wife is way into the "Chef saves bad restaurant" reality shows. If you watch them enough, the problems are nearly always related to two things; the menu is too big so their food costs are enormous, and they serve crappy defrosted and canned food.
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        You forget(or block out) the truly horrifying ones where they have black mold and a freezer that apparently doesn't work.
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        What are you, Marvin Zindler?
        
        Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
        
        My wife, too. And the other thing I noticed was how revoltingly, disgustingly filthy the failing restaurants' kitchens are - rotten food, old grease, roaches, etc.
        
        Makes me want to never eat in a restaurant again.
        
        capitol l 13 years ago
        
        I wouldn't worry. I've worked in many places and none were even close as bad to what's on Kitchen Nightmares.
        
        The only place that I worked at that I wouldn't eat the food was the most expensive, ironically enough.
        
        Joe M 13 years ago
        
        Restaurant Impossible. I love that show, and you're right. It is mostly people who don't actually cook or keep filthy kitchens.
        
        WTF 13 years ago
        
        Restaurant Impossible is just a ripoff of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        What amazes me about all of those shows is how often the owner goes right back to doing what they were before or refuses to follow the advice even during the show. They are going broke, but still convinced they know what they are doing. Amazing.
        
        capitol l 13 years ago
        
        Yup, people with no restaurant experience buy a place, go broke, and then think that they know better than fucking GORDON RAMSEY.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        The problem with so many restaurant owners (particularly the "family" ones) is that too many owners think that it's going to be like a glorified version of their living room. They're not prepared for the amount of hard work required to make it sustainable.
        
        They need to understand that in starting up their own unique dining place, they are already behind the 8-ball, business-wise. They're in competition, both in name and in location, with franchise businesses who have established national or regional reputations. Unless you already have some kind of built-in customer base (for instance, your typical college town dive near campus), it could take years to become stable.
        
        And as John pointed out, too many restaurants violate a cardinal rule, which is to keep things simple and fresh. The menu needs to center around 2-3 signature dishes that can become a restaurant standard, and built out from there. Freedom within discipline. You see this mistake violated All. The. Time. on Kitchen Nightmares, on both sides of the pond.
    2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      Thankyou, both for the insight and the opinion! I can't eat so-called undercooked meat at the moment, and rather than fuck up a steak by having it well done I'm prepared to go without entirely. Am counting down the days until there's an inch-and-a-half (minimum) hunk of grass-fed bleeding meat on my plate.
      1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        oof... what surgery did you get? No, but seriously, I hope everything is ok.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Thanks for the kind thoughts, Viscount. Medical treatment has temporarily screwed up my immune system, hence the food fussiness. Also my sleep patterns - it's nearly 3am here - so I get to hang on H&R
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        So, how is Asia this time of year?
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        By rights it should be sunny and very humid, but Sydney is having its coldest start to summer for half a century. Rainy, overcast, and in the low 20s C. So, it's Seattle. Not that this stops people from wearing shorts and thongs in a heroic act of denial.
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Thongs are footwear in Australia, yes?
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Yes - and sorry for destroying the saucy image of a pantless population
        
        Clich? Bandit 13 years ago
        
        I was interested right up until your comment.
        
        Isaac Bartram 13 years ago
        
        So it's tomorrow already where you are?
        
        What do we have to look forward to?
    3. Pip 13 years ago
      
      "and therefore wouldn't notice a fatty, weird, older piece of meat."
      
      But enough about rather...
  3. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    I've worked in restaurants, it's not as bad as he describes.
    1. Eloy 13 years ago
      
      So of two individual accounts, yours is definitely true.
      
      Thanks.
      1. RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        Exactly.
    2. Surly Chef 13 years ago
      
      Bourdain's account is one of mediocrity. Not that there is anything wrong with being an average chef/cook. Contrast it with the chapter about Scott Bryan at the end of the book and you'll realize that not everyone has that experience, but it is fairly common. The book is over a decade old and a lot of it recounts things that happened 20 to 30 years ago. Things are different in the kitchen now, though it might not seem like drastic changes to people that don't work in the biz.
      1. capitol l 13 years ago
        
        One difference that I noticed was the lack of Mexicans in p-burgh. They only showed up recently, but have pushed a lot of the trash out of the business. Busboys and dishwashers have morphed from loudmouthed wannabe whiteboyz to quiet tiny robotic brown dudes.
2. John 13 years ago
  
  The comments to that are priceless.
  1. Dawn DeSheetz 13 years ago
    
    Also, plenty of non-vegetarian guests will turn down veggies and fruits they're served, my own family included . Isn't that just as rude as turning down meat ?
    
    Hey, how about a three-way?
  2. capitol l 13 years ago
    
    I like the ones that say vegs can't eat meat because they're not used to digesting it, and that they get ill.
    
    I had a buddy that I worked with and he was strict vegan because of a girlfriend. After he broke up with her he got a new job at a nice steak house. He made it one day there being vegan. Of course, they gave the vegan guy a free delmonico, or something, to tempt him. He broke down. He said it was so good that it made him high.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      That is such a line of vegan horseshit. It isn't going to make you ill.
    2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      he was strict vegan because of a girlfriend
      
      chrome, trailer hitch, and all that...
    3. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
      
      capitol l, you seem like the guy to ask: I just graduated, am working a crap job to pay the rent, etc. I have three ideas:
      
      1) Go to law school (Problem: Went to Colorado College, had the not best GPA)
      2) Get a double masters in history/education, go into prep school
      3) Culinary School
      
      I have, however, heard that unless you are at the top, being a chef sucks. Explain.
      1. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
        
        Dude, no fucking way would I advise anyone to go to law school today.
        
        Ask yourself why are you considering law school? Is it because you think you'll get that valuable JD, which will be your ticket to easy money? Or do you truly have a passion for the law and for serving your clients' needs? Are you so altruistic that you want to get a JD so that you can help people solve their problems? Or are you viewing being an attorney as a way to make good money and possibly gain influence of some sort?
        
        If the latter, let me disabuse you of that notion.
        
        I graduated number 1 in my class of 164 law students. Nearly all of my classmates graduated with significant debt - both leftover from undergrad and new debt from law school. So they start out with, say, $150,000 in debt - it's like having a mortgage. And many of them were lucky to find jobs paying $50,000/year. Do the math and figure out how much you'll have left after taxes and after paying your living expenses and your student loans. Not a very glamorous lifestyle.
        
        Or maybe you'll do well in law school, like I did. And then you'll get the big, fat offer from the giant international law firm, like I did. You're thinking "woo hoo!" - six-figure income, hobnobbing with Fortune 500 clients, working on high-level, exotic deals, etc.
        
        Yeah. Except the life of an associate in biglaw SUCKS. Unless you're a driven drone workaholic who is good at sucking up to partners and is defined by his career, you'll be miserable. Believe me. I'm working on my exit strategy. I know several former biglaw associates who were laid off and who were glad for it. I know several who finally couldn't take it any more and just quit cold - they would rather be unemployed in this economy than continue dealing with the shit they were dealing with. And I know one - a very good friend of mine - who was laid off and then six months later put a 9mm handgun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.
        
        Do I sound all gloom and doomy? Well sorry, but attorneys are ten deep at the unemployment office right now. Do a little research and reading on the various law blogs - read the comments.
        
        Do what you love. Discover what you are passionate about and pursue that. Don't go to law school just because you don't know what else to do and you think it will train you for a sweet job. That is simply not true these days. Every year, the 183 or so law schools in the U.S. graduate about 100,000 or more new lawyers. A lot of them are fucking idiots. A lot of them will be lucky to find a job that pays enough to cover their student loan debt, let alone allow them to afford a decent car or house.
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        Well, I do love the logic of Con. Law... but yeah, there is no money in that nor a good career unless you do teaching/judge (and I'm way too libertarian to be an elected judge, which is most places now). Thanks for the advice.
        
        Abdul 13 years ago
        
        I'm a lawyer. You wouldn't know it from my comments, but I did well in law school.
        
        I second BSR. Law is a flooded market right now. Same with education major in the social sciences. You know what everyone asks a guy with an M. ed. in history? How good a football coach are you?
        
        Culinary school is cheaper (you won't be saddled with debt), but your top level of income is lower.
        
        God have mercy on you.
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Dude, no fucking way would I advise anyone to go to law school today.
        
        Same here, unless (1) they are a natural lawyer (compulsive reader, mild OCD, being soulless helps) and (2) they have an admit to top 10 law school.
        
        We have graduated something like 5x more lawyers than we have created law jobs over the last decade (sorry, linky lost to the mists of time).
        
        rac3rx 13 years ago
        
        +1K on all these anti-law school posts, from yet another JD. Unless you already know exactly what type of non-law related career you want to use the general knowledge to enter into out of school, law school is for almost nobody.
      2. capitol l 13 years ago
        
        Do not go to culinary school. In any restaurant you're going to have to work your way from the bottom up and showing up on time and having some initiative will go really far. Experience and rep are probably the biggest factors in hiring, I'd say. I'd argue that spending the time getting experience would be better spent. If you do get a job, ask questions. Most chefs/cooks, despite their crusty exterior, would be happy to show you stuff as they do it. My buddy worked his way up from busboy to chef by doing just that.
        
        I know a few guys making good money being cooks and about half of them went to culinary school, which may have gotten them a foot in the door at some point, but they make money because they're fast, consistent and show up for work.
        
        You'd learn a lot at culinary school, but it's a bad economic decision, I'd say. For an 18 month degree I think it costs almost $20k. And because of the foodie craze there are a glut of young cordon bleu grads out there. Not to mention that the word on the street is that the cordon bleu programs have become less rigorous in their pursuit of profits; essentially becoming diploma mills.
        
        As for being a chef/cook/kitchen manager/dishwasher/busboy/whatever sucking; I'll say that it's not for everybody. Like I said, you WILL start out at the bottom, and you will be a kitchen bitch. Everybody hates the FNG (fuckin' new guy) at first, because he's slow and makes everybody's job harder. You'll get yelled at, and people will say the most awful things about you to your face. The hours are long and you will spend your weekends working. But, there are positives.
        
        Once you get a year or two of experience you can get a job easily. Don't like you boss; fuck you, I'm outta here. You can move up quickly. You may be promoted one day because the guy above you called off for the third time that week and they need a guy THAT NIGHT OMG!. You already know how to do his job, so congratulations you're the new sous chef.
        
        All of the niceties and pc bullshit of the average workplace are not to be found. This is the corollary to getting yelled at. Yes, someone will call you a pig fucker but you can yell the same right back. There are no performance reviews or ambiguous passive aggressive assessments, you'll know where you stand. I'm working in a research position now and I'm finding it a bit hard to adjust to polite society.
        
        All those hot waitresses and bartenders you see when you go out are most likely boning a restaurant rat. With the weird hours all the food service people just hang out together. Expect a lot of drinking, drugging, and casual sex.
        
        I got out mainly because I was getting older and hated the hours. All the people that I worked with were way younger and I wanted to hang out with my friends who've, by now, moved on to the 9-5 scene.
        
        Like I said, it only sucks if you're not into living that sort of lifestyle. It takes a certain kind. You won't make a ton of money, but you can make a decent living. The most that I made was around $30k/yr(in p-burgh this is a king's ransom expect way more in a big city), which is pretty low for a kitchen manager. But that job was brutal, I was on salary and the least I ever worked was 65 hrs in a week. But even a guy at the top, say chef at a really nice restaurant, would have some brutal hours. I know a somelier whose husband has such a gig and he's got a separate apartment in the city because of the hours.
        
        Surly Chef 13 years ago
        
        ^^This.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        If law school and culinary school are out, that only leaves one option
        
        capitol l 13 years ago
        
        Hey, don't get me wrong, if you want to kill a few years before grad school and have some great experiences go work in the restaurant biz for a while.
        
        I know the siren call of puppetry is hard to resist though.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        especially when this could be your life
        
        protefeed 13 years ago
        
        Well, there's always this.
      3. Clich? Bandit 13 years ago
        
        I am still recomending something with STEM. But since you graduated I would say just find a job you like or start your own business.
        
        capitol l 13 years ago
        
        Hey, he could always take the p/m-cat and try to get into medicine. Or, go back to be an RN, they make good money and are way in demand.
        
        Clich? Bandit 13 years ago
        
        I consider medicin as part of the STEM areas but with the gubmint involved I wouldnt touch it with a 10 foot pole.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        How about EMT? At least around here the FD will pay you to learn, and you get a tax break as well.
      4. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        To build on to that, what the hell are you doing even thinking about going back for more schooling, given how expensive college is? I'd figure that with your time at CC, you'd already be averse to the prospect of tackling even more tuition bills. How are you going to pay for it?
3. JW 13 years ago
  
  You're at Grandma's house, you eat what Grandma serves you.
  
  Apropos....Years ago, when I had my fantastic Indian gf, I picked her up from a solidly non-western Indian household. It was about 10 PM and the wife of the household immediately offered me food, which I graciously declined, being late and I wasn't hungry. The look of utter horror on the wife's face is something I've tried to describe over the years, but have failed.
  
  She asked again and being the uncultured lout that I am, I thought about declining again, until I saw my gf, behind the wife, eyes wide and vigorously nodding her head YES.
  
  I accepted the wife's offer and everything was right with the world once again. The food wasn't too bad, as I recall.
  1. Clich? Bandit 13 years ago
    
    you just TRY to not eat food at a Russian mother-in-laws house...go ahead, try it. (Pickeld fish, jellied meat stuffs, caviar, things with lots of dill and sour cream, mmmmmm)
  2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
    
    My Arabic friend's family is like this--whenever I visit for dinner, if you don't at least go back for seconds, they wonder why you don't like the food.
    
    Since I typically don't eat a lot anyway, I portion control so I can get the second and third helpings and not have to hurt my buddy's mom's feelings.
Number 2 13 years ago

I understand that the Occupy protesters shutting down West Coast ports were chanting, "Everyone pays tax except Goldman Sachs."

And as everyone knows, the sure-fire way to force Goldman Sachs to pay taxes is to shut down West Coast seaports! Why didn't we think of this sooner?
1. Suki 13 years ago
  
  You have to go to school a long time to get as stupid as they are.
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    This.
2. DJF 13 years ago
  
  I bet they would get better results if they shut down one of Goldman Sachs fundraisers for Obama. Though on the other hand it would probably be classified as terrorism and they would be sent off to Gitmo.
  1. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    You make it sound like a bad thing.
3. Occupy-Eyed 13 years ago
  
  We're just trying to get people's attention focused on our issues.
  1. Rich 13 years ago
    
    Oh, yeah ....
  2. Enjoy Every Sandwich 13 years ago
    
    It's not working.
Abdul 13 years ago

Witch executed in Saudi Arabia:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....emned.html

On appeal, she tried using a very heavy duck, but the justices were not convinced.
1. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
  
  The Middle East is a great example of what life in 1600 must have been like for Europeans.
  1. Abdul 13 years ago
    
    CSI Mecca--no fancy high-tech DNA analysis, gas chromatographs, etc.
    
    Just good old-fashioned detective work. A mulla and a thumbscrew.
    1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
      
      "Looks like this witch..."*takes off sunglasses*"...won't be turning anyone into a frog" YEAH!
      1. Sparky 13 years ago
        
        Needs more relevance to the manner of her death.
        
        "Looks like this witch..."*takes off sunglasses*"...really lost her head"
        YEAH!!!
        
        Almanian 13 years ago
        
        Who are you, who is so wise in the ways of Science??
  2. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    "The Middle East is a great example of what life in 1600 must have been like for Europeans."
    
    Which gives me some hope that in 400 years, after starting several wars that almost destroy world civilization, they might settle down a bit and start to behave.
2. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
  
  You know what the final words of the only dude to be executed for witchcraft in Salem were?
  
  "More weight" (They killed him by piling stones on his chest).
  
  If you have to go out for witchcraft, that is probably the way. Of course, he was too male and badass to make any of the plays about Salem.
  1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    IIRC, he wasn't executed for witchcraft - he refused to plead, and the pressing was to induce a plea. The advantage for him was that he died unconvicted and thus his heirs got his estate. If he'd been tried and found guilty, his goods would have been forfeit to the state.
    1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
      
      That is a kind of interesting digression into Colonial Law.
    2. CaptainSmartass 13 years ago
      
      I never understood the rationale of torturing someone to enter a plea. At no point did it occur to the jurists to just say "Fuck it, his plea is not guilty, let's move on"?
      1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        According to Wikipedia
        
        The common law courts originally took a very limited view of their own jurisdiction. They considered themselves to lack jurisdiction over a defendant until he had voluntarily submitted to it by entering a plea seeking judgment from the court
        
        CaptainSmartass 13 years ago
        
        So they didn't have jurisdiction to try him, but did have authority to torture him? That is beyond bizarre.
        
        Barack Obama 13 years ago
        
        I see nothing bizarre about it.
        
        RyanXXX 13 years ago
        
        ^You win the internet
      2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        According to Wikipedia
        
        The common law courts originally took a very limited view of their own jurisdiction. They considered themselves to lack jurisdiction over a defendant until he had voluntarily submitted to it by entering a plea seeking judgment from the court
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        but i only hit submit once! Goddamnit it
  2. Lucy Steigerwald 13 years ago
    
    Giles Cory. I am pretty sure he's in "The Crucible."
    
    I am also pretty sure he was totally awesome.
    1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
      
      Well, way to be that person Lucy.
3. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
  
  Because she's made of wood?
4. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  >>Witch executed in Saudi Arabia:
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....emned.html
  
  Uh, she looks like a witch to me.
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    Welcome to flavor country.
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      And I'm pretty sure that fulfills the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt requirement, in Saudi.
5. rac3rx 13 years ago
  
  This is exactly the type of story that makes me want to crotchpunch some weasel who gets all preachy about "respect" and "tolerance" of other cultures, and how just because "they don't do things like we do" doesn't mean they're not "equally valid and worthy of our consideration".
  
  Screw you, preachy weasel, this is not valid.
Maxxx 13 years ago

Are John and MNG honeymooning in Aruba or were they on the Virginia Tech last Thursday?
1. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  That's in really bad taste.
  
  No one honeymoons in Aruba anymore. Totally gauche.
  1. db 13 years ago
    
    I think the onlt ones who honeymoon in Aruba are the ones who want to get rid if their recent brides...
    1. Sparky 13 years ago
      
      So I've seen John today but no MNG... coincidence?
      1. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        It has been the entire weekend plus Monday. Perhaps MNG is having an extended refractory period.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        This.
        
        Pip 13 years ago
        
        MNG's hiding because the facts of the world shit on his smug little face.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        It's more fun to imagine him recovering from a torrid weekend of hate sex.
        
        db 13 years ago
        
        F&F, I assume.
    2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      If you had ever experienced the incredible surf at Blondump Beach you wouldn't say that.
      1. db 13 years ago
        
        Oh, I don't disagree the surf is rad there. Nothing better than having a drink at Kopechne's after a day in the water.
Suki 13 years ago

Your local police agency may be using $300,000 unmanned drones to spy on you.

If I shoot one down do I get to keep it like the Iranians did?
1. The FBI 13 years ago
  
  We refuse to disclose an answer to that question.
2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  Not if you shoot it; the cops have to land it for you.
3. T 13 years ago
  
  No, I think they'd ask for it back like they do with GPS trackers. But if you, say, box it up and send it off to a different law enforcement agency, they might have a difficult time getting it back. Paperwork and all.
  1. Bobby 4apples 13 years ago
    
    Especially with all that white powder in the packing material.
  2. CaptainSmartass 13 years ago
    
    Better option then would be to stick it in a can and drop it on the first ship leaving the port. And make sure to leave instructions that folks down the line should mail pictures of it back to your local agency.
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      Like the surveillance van from The Wire?
      
      We were joking about the GPS trackers the other day. I live a half-mile from teh railroad tracks. I find one of those things, it's taking a ride on the next Burlington Northern that comes through and I don't know shit about it.
      1. CaptainSmartass 13 years ago
        
        I recently got hooked on The Wire thanks to a suggestion from my step-daughter. I just cannot get enough of that show now.
DJF 13 years ago

"""Five thousand people have died in the last nine months of Syria's Arab Spring. ""'

The Libya spring is still going strong, with lots of new victims even if it does not reach the nightly news nor get any response from Obama, McCain, Clintons or others who supported it

""""The 30,000 people living in a town in northern Libya have been driven out of their homes, in what appears to have been an act of revenge for their role in the three-month siege of the city of Misrata.""'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16051349
1. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  Paging MNG. Dying to hear all about the high moral ground in Libya v. Syria, the post-revolution high moral ground, etc.
Solanum 13 years ago

Broadband in the U.S. isn't fast enough. SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.

http://www.slate.com/articles/.....t_it_.html
1. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
  
  Well of course, we all know that high-speed internet access is a fundamental human right, and if you can't afford it, the government should provide it for you.
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Even if you meant that, afaik they have already spent $4.7 Billion and haven't finished anything.
    1. The Administration 13 years ago
      
      Please, Sir. We're going to unveil our universal high-speed internet access just in time for the election.
    2. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
      
      Well clearly the solution is MORE MONEY!
  2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    Your joke, our reality
2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Why am I not surprised this was squeezed out by Yglesias?
Viscount Auh20 13 years ago

Does Occupy Support people who aren't white?

Hey, can you guess if the featured comment will contain someone bitching about how "this movement like, needs to grow man"?

You CAN?

But seriously, Occupy is slowly getting hardcore racist.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  Fascist, communist, it is all the same.
  1. Suki 13 years ago
    
    ^^This^^
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      I am reading Simon Shima's Citizens about the French Revolution right now. The most interesting thing I have learned so far is how the French Revolution really was the world's first fascist revolution. It was about as much as anything the idea of recreating the French nation and the absorption of the citizens of that nation into one giant ethnically pure collective. It is no surprise they eventually ended up embracing a military dictator who tried to take over Europe.
      1. Suki 13 years ago
        
        John T. had a post about something like that for a non-fiction book about Socialism. For some reason Kennedy's keep misattributing a French revolutionary quote about progressive income taxes to Teddy Roosevelt.
      2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        Jacques Barzun mentioned Schama's treatment of the French Revolution in an aside in "From Dawn to Decadence;" I've been thinking about picking it up for that very reason.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Have you read Susan Dunn's "Sister revolutions: French lightning, American light"?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Read it. It is long and very detailed. But a good read. It demolishes a lot of myths that are normally taught about the revolution.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Agreed. I followed it with The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution by Dan Edelstein which goes into the ideas of justice and natural right as the justification for the Terror. Really compelling and fascinating if you're into Enlightenment thought, and frightening, too, for what it shows about that mentality.
2. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  If Occupy is segregating blacks, it may be the first time that segregation was doing black people a favor.
  1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
    
    Once again, you sir are the Conway Stern of Reason.
3. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  What about the "progressive stack"?
  1. Abdul 13 years ago
    
    Hippy chicks with big boobs? What about them?
4. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  mobilizing occupiers of color
  
  "Occupiers of color"? The idiotic term seems to be metastasizing.
  1. Bill Clinton 13 years ago
    
    I prefer to think of myself as an "occupier of chubbiness".
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      Can't we all just be "occupiers of occupancy" and forget about all this pernicious factionalizing that will doom the movement? Wait...
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

While the protests attracted far fewer people than the 10,000 who turned out Nov. 2 to shut down Oakland's port, organizers declared victory and promised more demonstrations.

"Mission accomplished," said protest organizer Boots Riley.

Mission accomplished. Priceless.
1. db 13 years ago
  
  The lack of self awareness is so perfect.
2. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
  
  They went from 10,000 to 200? Wow, they'll be lucky to get 10 people to show up for the next one.
Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago

The FBI is refusing to disclose whether it uses software that allows it to spy on mobile phone users.

I'll take that as a yes.
John 13 years ago

The Republicans really are the party of stupid. No entity in society has done more harm to the right and libertarians than Hollywood. Yet, the greedy stupid bastard Republicans in Congress are happily doing the bidding of Hollywood by supporting the online piracy act. I mean Jesus Christ, I don't expect the Republicans to oppose the bill on principle. That would be asking too much from a politician. But you would think they would be sentient enough to be against it out of spite. Fuck Hollywood and the music industry. If they want to turn their entire industry into a liberal propaganda machine, then they should in a sane world, expect non-liberals to be totally unsympathetic to their fight against piracy.
1. MNG stand-in 13 years ago
  
  The Republicans really are the party of stupid.
  
  John, there you go again, shilling for Team Blue. You're such a Dem partisan hack! Every time I turn around, you have something... wait. What?
  1. WTF 13 years ago
    
    You forgot to bring up Shirley Sherrod.
Arduin Grimoire 13 years ago

Cracked 64: The Top 8 Everything of 2011 - Song
...But whatever paint-by-numbers process this label uses to produce these songs has somehow, in the case of Rebecca Black, created something amazing. And profoundly terrifying.
To call the lyrics of "Friday" shallow or mindless would miss the point -- most pop music can be described that way. No, hearing this child enthusiastically celebrate in song the choice of which car seat she will occupy for the five-minute commute to school ... it's something different. Something dark and cruel and knowing.

"Friday" digs in its claws and rips the top off your skull like an ape pulling apart an orange, exposing your tender mind to the cold truth of the universe: that all of our life decisions are exactly this vapid and meaningless, a tragically oblivious tune we all hum on our way to the grave. "Friday" is nothing more than death holding up a mirror and saying, "This is you, as viewed through the eyes of eternity. Do you see?"

"DO YOU SEE?"

We watched that video 166 million times on YouTube (eventually a dispute between Black and Ark Music would result in her getting it taken down -- the version above was uploaded to her channel later). That's more views than any but a few of the biggest hits from pop superstars. In other words, the Internet found the act of pointing and laughing at this middle school kid more compelling than the entire collective body of music made by all of mankind's geniuses throughout history....
1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
  
  Honestly, I feel bad for that girl. Everyone hates her for asking for a shitty 13th birthday present.
  1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    Best predictions for her adult life, please
    1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
      
      Spoiled Trophy Wife?
      1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Small-town bookkeeper with PTSD and a new name
    2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      Opera singer
    3. T 13 years ago
      
      Suburban housewife who gets drunk, watches that video, and gets all weepy about how she could have had a singing career instead of two kids and an unfaithful husband?
  2. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, I don't get the hate directed at a young teen. What, she's not supposed to have dreams and aspirations, that even if viewed through an adult lens are silly? Sheesh.
    
    Also, my kid loves that song. >_>
    1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      In all honesty, Rebecca Black and her family are guilty of nothing more than being incredibly naive to the 4chanization of the internet. The medium has basically provided a whole legion of emotionally broken nerds the means to project their pathologies onto total strangers, as compensation for never being able to score the cute girl the last 30 years of teen movies told them was their birthright.
      1. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, it's just shitty. I have a huge issue about people picking on kids. Esp when some of the people doing it are almost certainly putative adults.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        Esp when some of the people doing it are almost certainly putative adults.
        
        Nerds are, by and large, emotionally retarded and intellectually stunted. It's the natural result of them marinating in their own spergy obsessions for years. Case in point:
        
        http://www.wired.co.uk/news/ar.....s?page=all
        
        I bet if you cross-checked the download of every MLP torrent with the national sex offender registry, you'd get more than a few hits.
2. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
  
  Actually, when death holds up its terrifying mirror, I expect it to look more like David Wong than Rebecca Black.
  1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    I'm hoping he's more like a game show host
    1. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
      
      You've chosen damnation for all eternity! Or you could trade it for what's behind door number three!
      1. The Audience 13 years ago
        
        Switch! Switch!
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        "I don't know, Monty. Bird in the hand, and all that."
      2. db 13 years ago
        
        Always switch your choice of doors. Best way to maximize your chances in the Monty Hall Problem.
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        2/3rds vs 1/3.
  2. Trespassers W 13 years ago
    
    David Wong is anviliciously unfunny.
Entrepreneur 13 years ago

Your local police agency may be using $300,000 unmanned drones to spy on you.

Tethered weather balloons! Get your tethered weather balloons before they're illegal!
Mike M. 13 years ago

It would be such a crying shame if one of the crane operators accidentally slipped and one of those enormous cargo containers fell and squashed a bunch of the OWS vermin flatter than a pancake.
rather 13 years ago

Should the SCOTUS health care debate be televised? Or, should the 9 wizards cloak behind the curtain?
1. Transgendered Parent 13 years ago
  
  Every SCOTUS debate should be televised.
  1. rather 13 years ago
    
    but will it become a reality show?
Juice 13 years ago

So Glenn Beck flip flopped? He used to call Ron Paul a crazy kook (which is saying a lot coming from Glenn Beck).
P Brooks 13 years ago

The FBI is refusing to disclose whether it uses software that allows it to spy on mobile phone users.

"If we blabbed it all over the place, it wouldn't be a SECRET PROGRAM anymore, would it?"
1. Suki 13 years ago
  
  ROFL
P Brooks 13 years ago

Occupy is slowly getting hardcore racist.

Dude- they drink Colt 45, and smoke menthols; what did you expect?
Viscount Auh20 13 years ago

I was about to reply before I realized it was rather. Yes, the healthcare thing should be televised.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  If Rather makes sane posts, you should respond.
  1. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
    
    That would greatly cut down on the need to respond then, wouldn't it.
  2. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    No, John. It's the feeding of simple crumbs that leads her to start demanding cake.
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      So? We all know the cake is a lie, even if she doesn't.
      1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        PROTIP: Portal references stopped being clever in 2010
        
        Joe M 13 years ago
        
        More like early 2009, n00b.
        
        Cave Johnson 13 years ago
        
        Who gave you the permission to say that! This is my facility, and I'll say what I damn well please!
      2. rather 13 years ago
        
        I have not lied, and I give you a Texas handshake on it T
        
        Hmm, but then that means you have been lied to and by a man...welcome to my world!!!
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Y'see, Less than Earl, this is why they're still funny. You can actually hear the whooshing noise as the reference sails right by, despite it being beaten to death.
        
        rather 13 years ago
        
        only geeks are laughing
    2. rather 13 years ago
      
      "No, John. It's the feeding of simple crumbs that leads her to start demanding cake."
      
      John follow your messiah, or he'll throw you in the pit next!
RoboCain 13 years ago

"Italian gipsy camp burned down by vigilantes after false rape claim

A vigilante mob burned down a gipsy camp after an Italian teenager allegedly claimed she had been raped by two Romany men ? only to confess later that she had invented the entire story."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....claim.html
1. Suki 13 years ago
  
  The Sharpton legacy continues.
  1. The Reverend Al Sharpton 13 years ago
    
    Thank you, Ms Suki.
    1. tarran 13 years ago
      
      Suki is a dude named John Tagliaferro
      1. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        NTTAWWT
      2. Zeb 13 years ago
        
        Or at least a weird self-published author of pornography who writes under that name.
        
        rather 13 years ago
        
        Who gives a shit? I hear Tarran has one ball, and sugarfree sucks it like a lollipop
        NTTIAWWT either
      3. Suki 13 years ago
        
        You really have a strange obsession. I am not John, John is not me and the server squirrel knows too.
SugarFree 13 years ago

Sad Beard The Kinda-Pirate comes up with a fantastically stupid plan: a de facto sin tax on saving.

Now we come to the miracle of the cashless society. Stop for a moment and ask yourself why the interest rate can't be reduced much below 1 percent. The trouble is cash. At any given time, relatively little paper currency circulates in the United States. Instead, most of the American money supply consists of bank accounts and other electronic stores of value. People prefer to keep money in bank accounts because it's convenient and because you get interest on it. If the rates were driven below zero?in effect a tax on holding cash in the bank?people would just withdraw money and store it in shoeboxes instead. But what if you couldn't withdraw cash? What if all transactions were electronic, so the only way to avoid keeping money in a negative-rate account was to go out and buy something with the money? Well, then, we would have solved our depression problem. Too much unemployment? Lower interest rates below zero, Americans will start spending and investing again, the economic will grow, and unemployment will go back down to its "natural rate."
SugarFree 13 years ago

Sad Beard The Kinda-Pirate has a fantastically stupid plan: a de facto sin tax on savings.

Now we come to the miracle of the cashless society. Stop for a moment and ask yourself why the interest rate can't be reduced much below 1 percent. The trouble is cash. At any given time, relatively little paper currency circulates in the United States. Instead, most of the American money supply consists of bank accounts and other electronic stores of value. People prefer to keep money in bank accounts because it's convenient and because you get interest on it. If the rates were driven below zero?in effect a tax on holding cash in the bank?people would just withdraw money and store it in shoeboxes instead. But what if you couldn't withdraw cash? What if all transactions were electronic, so the only way to avoid keeping money in a negative-rate account was to go out and buy something with the money? Well, then, we would have solved our depression problem. Too much unemployment? Lower interest rates below zero, Americans will start spending and investing again, the economic will grow, and unemployment will go back down to its "natural rate."
1. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
  
  Holy fucking hell.
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    And for those that don't read the article, please note that he thinks getting rid of cash is OK, because the only people who pay cash for anything over $1000 is obviously criminals.
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      Actually, I think the cut-off is 3K. Isn't that when all the bizarre reporting requirements kick in and you are a de facto suspect?
      1. Nipplemancer 13 years ago
        
        No, the reporting requirements don't kick in until you hit 10k, but if you think you're slick and try withdrawing 9k every day, the bank is still gonna report your ass to the feds.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        And it's a crime, too! Yeah, structuring is what brought down (in part) Eliott Spitzer.
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        Shouldn't it be a bigger issue that taking money from the bank is considered a criminal act?
        
        Zeb 13 years ago
        
        Yes. It should be.
    2. Rich 13 years ago
      
      It gets better: Berkley economist Brad DeLong proposes a Rube Goldberg scheme to combine a negative nominal interest rate with sporadic lotteries that would invalidate currency with certain serial numbers. The idea is that while people might try to stockpile cash, the knowledge that bills would be destroyed at random should inspire people to spend.
      1. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
        
        Comments like that should earn economists immediate revocation of their economics degree, along with an apology to the nation from the school that granted it.
      2. JW 13 years ago
        
        They're just making shit up now, hoping that no one will notice.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        They're just making shit up now, hoping that no one will notice.
        
        The Adam Sandler approach to economics?
      3. AZ 13 years ago
        
        That is the comment of a man who has never earned a dollar that he was paid.
        
        Also, this would be the quickest way for alternative currencies to arise.
      4. Zeb 13 years ago
        
        So, basically he proposes randomly stealing people's money as an incentive for them to spend it. What a guy!
    3. robc 13 years ago
      
      Or my parents.
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        I paid for my first three cars in cash. They should have taken me out with an unmanned drone.
      2. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        My in-laws paid cash for their house.
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, we got beat out of a bid on a house because the other bidders could pay in cash. Who has $300K in cash laying around and why are you buying in such a marginal neighborhood if you do?
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        What's interesting about my in-laws is that they're solidly blue collar and took home about $40K a year with their combined incomes. I can't even imagine the kind and amount of scrimping and saving that went into accumulating enough cash to buy a house.
        
        They grew up in the Great Depression, and I am sure they learned a lot about how to make ends meet and to make their pennies beg for mercy.
        
        Of course, nowadays they are heavily into self-deprivation of things that would provide them pleasure in their old age, so that mindset does have some downsides.
        
        Zeb 13 years ago
        
        "Of course, nowadays they are heavily into self-deprivation of things that would provide them pleasure in their old age"
        
        Don't tell them that. You might still get some inheritance.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        Sadly, I am about 95% certain that is why they are doing it, so they'll have an inheritance to pass on.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        Of course, nowadays they are heavily into self-deprivation of things that would provide them pleasure in their old age, so that mindset does have some downsides.
        
        Honestly, they're not really depriving themselves of that much. It's probably better for them to have a personal philosophy of austerity than to risk turning their spending into a form of self-medication.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        They may not be depriving themselves of much per se, but then again I have to listen on a bi-weekly basis to their bitching about how shitty their because they are too cheap to upgrade or get a new one.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        Grrr (stupid uneditable comments >:| ):
        
        They may not be depriving themselves of much per se, but then again I have to listen on a bi-weekly basis to their bitching about how shitty their (insert-whatever-it-is-here) because they are too cheap to upgrade or get a new one.
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        I've been saving my ass off for reitrement, but with the impending econopocolypse on the horizon, I'm wondering if I should start spending more of it now. (I'm also madly hoping that the education bubble pops before kid #1 gets to college, so that her meager 529 account will go further.)
        
        I have serious doubts as to my IRA's value in 20-25 years.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        (I'm also madly hoping that the education bubble pops before kid #1 gets to college, so that her meager 529 account will go further.)
        
        Oh man, I so hear you on that one.
    4. WTF 13 years ago
      
      Holy hell, you mean it's not a joke?
2. Sparky 13 years ago
  
  What an amazing idea!!!! What could possibly go wrong?
  1. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
    
    Well, some might be worried that if people are given an incentive not to save, they will spend all their money and go into crushing debt, but considering that Americans are well known for their frugal ways, I don't see this being a problem.
    1. Sparky 13 years ago
      
      Not being able to save means never having to buy the really expensive stuff. Let's call it an austerity measure.
  2. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    Wasn't it only like 3 years ago (maybe 4 now) that all the handwringing was about Americans' negative savings rate?
3. John 13 years ago
  
  That is the kind of stupid shit you think of when you are 15 and just learning economics. Then you get older and realize, that there are these things called unintended consequences and the world isn't quite that simple.
  
  Seriously, how are people as silly and ignorant as Yglesias given such a large megaphone. I know few people read Slate. But it offends my sense of propriety and decency that someone like Yglesias is paid to write such shit.
  1. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
    
    True dat. I was a socialist at 15. I got better.
    1. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
      
      We're all socialists at 15. Because obviously I deserved my parents car...and toys...and entertainment.
      
      Now I'm of the belief that child labor should be required rather than dissuaded. School takes too much of the day anyway. After age 12, lessons could be done before noon.
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        Getting a crappy but paying job usually debases you of those kinds of ideas. First, you work for a business and you see first hand just how hard it is to make any money. Second, you see how much it sucks to see the government take what little you make.
        
        I don't think it is a coincidence that most of the Occutards are rich kids who probably never had to work summer or after school jobs growing up. Working for a living has a way of beating the stupid out of you.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Yeah. I started working at 16 and began to appreciate the beauty of the market economy pretty quickly.
        
        WTF 13 years ago
        
        Hell yeah - I started working at 14 for the then-minimum wage (1972), and I remember being shocked at how much the government clipped from my first paycheck. But I kept on plugging, because my parents told me in no uncertain terms that if I wanted a car when I was 17 I damn well better get a job and start saving for it. A lesson which has served me well throughout life.
4. Maxxx 13 years ago
  
  Irionically enough, that is the Bernank's plan, but he calls it inflation instead of a tax on savings.
5. robc 13 years ago
  
  Im gonna click on that link just to find out who that idiot is.
  
  If I dont make it back...its been real.
  1. robc 13 years ago
    
    Ah, Yglesias, yeah I dont have to read the rest.
  2. Almanian 13 years ago
    
    Thanks for taking one for the team, ROBC
  3. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    I had a post that included a picture, but it was rejected as spam. All the trolls and griefers and blogwhores and bullshit is let through, but include a picture with an article link and you are immediately bounced. Typical.
6. Almanian 13 years ago
  
  Stop for a moment and ask yourself why the interest rate can't be reduced much below 1 percent.
  
  I was thinking "math", but obviously there's something I'm not smart enough to undertand here.
  
  Do tell us more!
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    If the interest rate goes below zero, the bank is stealing people's money. So what Ygelsias is really asking is "stop for a second and wonder why people won't let banks just steal part of their savings?"
  2. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
    
    Who are you, who is so wise in the ways of science?
7. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
  
  What is it with lefties always trying to get people to spend, spend, spend. Is it some sort of plot to stop people from having their own savings so that they have to depend on the government?
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    But then they are always bitching and moaning about how unsustainable our lifestyles are and how horrible consumerism is. What the fuck do they want people to do?
    1. Sparky 13 years ago
      
      Worship and go on welfare or die. Seems pretty obvious to me.
  2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    They think that buying stuff causes things to be produced.
    They don't understand that things must be produced before they can be consumed.
  3. Pips 13 years ago
    
    Not sure, but statistically, Republicans always seem to outspend the spend spend spenders.
8. Neu Mejican 13 years ago
  
  That is a whole lot of stupid.
  
  Of course, I would guess many already pay more to the bank to hold their money than the bank pays them, what with fees for low balance, fee for use of ATM, fee for ...
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    Yes. Between fees, taxes and inflation, there already is a big negative interest rate for checking accounts. But most people live paycheck to paycheck so that doesn't really matter. Yglesias seems to have this bizarre idea that people, in the middle of a horrible recession, have all of this money they are for some reason not spending out of racism I guess.
    1. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
      
      Try a credit union. I don't pay fees for anything.
      1. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        I'm a loyal Chase customer. No fees. Great rebate credit cards (which I pay off every month, of course). They even bought my mortgage, which I was then able to link with my other accounts. I do all my banking online. Bigger is sometimes better.
        
        Apatheist 13 years ago
        
        Same here. Been a chase customer since I opened my first account. Never paid a single fee yet.
      2. Resto Druid FTW 13 years ago
        
        USAA FTW
        
        Neu Mejican 13 years ago
        
        USAA indeed is awesome...and their insurance is the best.
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        USAA here, too. Can't beat 'em for service and convenience.
        
        I just wish their cash rewards credit card was a little richer.
    2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      Yglesias seems to have this bizarre idea that people, in the middle of a horrible recession, have all of this money they are for some reason not spending out of racism I guess.
      
      That's because Yglesias is too lazy to check the data which indicates that, outside of student loans, people are still paying off roughly 10-15 years of accumulated debt.
      
      Yglesias makes the classic Krugman/Tony mistake of assuming that the problem is liquidity, and if people felt compelled to spend it rather than do so of their own free will, the economy would never go down.
  2. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    fee for use of ATM
    
    Sad Beard's plan takes care of that, at least. Banks can make up the money by lobbying for The Fed to keep in the interest rate in the negative.
  3. JW 13 years ago
    
    fees for low balance, fee for use of ATM, fee for ...
    
    I pay none of those things. That's what I get for being prudent and planning for the future. I should probably be punished for that, at least Shit Beard the Econ-blogger thinks so.
    
    I take that back. For the 1st time ever this year, I did have to pay $20 for my overdraft protection that I raised unholy-fucking-hell over with the bank. I don't need the overdraft line of credit, I don't want it either, but their going to make me take it anyway.
    
    I'm sure that Dodd-Frank had absolutely nothing to do with that. Just a business being greedy.
9. db 13 years ago
  
  So, wait, didn't it used to be leftists who derided the consumerism of our economy and turned their noses up at the fools who bought into it? It's like we're watching The Political Centipede.
  1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
    
    I have the weirdest boner right now...
10. Mike Laursen 13 years ago
  
  I was wondering why you posted some third-graders silly idea about saving the economy. Then I clicked on the link and saw it was written by an alleged adult.
11. Mr. Chartreuse 13 years ago
  
  What if all transactions were electronic, so the only way to avoid keeping money in a negative-rate account was to go out and buy something with the money? Well, then, we would have solved our depression problem.
  
  I'll say it again, these kind of guys would have loved the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic, as everybody had to spend their money the second it was paid out. They are replacing the wheelbarrows of cash with debit cards, though, so it least people will be able to enjoy being impoverished without the need to push something down the street.
  1. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
    
    Ah. But the wheelbarrows would help solve the obesity crises. What to do, what to do?
12. CrackertyAssCracker 13 years ago
  
  Cmon now. Anything by Krugman, Klein, or Yglesias should be labelled beforehand, so that I don't accidentally get any stupid stuck in my browser cache.
13. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  To be fair, he's getting hammered pretty hard in the comments. Apparently even the fashion-obsessed SWPL mediocrities that read Slate instinctually understand that a cashless society is unworkable.
14. Joe M 13 years ago
  
  "What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
15. Brian 13 years ago
  
  Isn't this already happening since the interest rate at most banks is probably well below the rate of inflation?
  1. Joe M 13 years ago
    
    You'll only confuse him with math.
Suki 13 years ago

New at Reason.tv: "Assassinations, Spying and The Constitution: ACLU President Susan Herman Talks Big Govt and Liberty"

Of course, what better way to celebrate the holiday season than to promote books by Communist Christmas haters.
1. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  God, you are fucking boring.
Viscount Auh20 13 years ago

These people seem a bit extreme on the whole drunk driving issue

Um... seriously, these people seem the type to demand public flogging for drunk driving. And we wonder how Arapihoe gets away with his shit.
1. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  TRUST DEMOCRACY
2. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
  
  So your proposition is that drunk driving is no big deal? Not sure where you're going here.
  1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
    
    I'm just saying that it isn't a crime on the level of, say, murder. Unless you, y'know, actually hit and kill someone. But having one too many? Not the same thing.
    1. Nipplemancer 13 years ago
      
      I'd go further and say it's not a crime UNTIL you hit someone. Not that I do it anymore, but when I was young and stupid I drove shitfaced all the time. Never hit anything or anyone, never got a pulled over. My biggest problem was remembering where I parked the car in the morning.
      1. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
        
        You did take a fairly substantial risk however with a large vehicle capable of serious damage. Drunk driving laws have gotten rediculous, but there has to be some punishment for putting people on the road at risk like you did.
        
        Nipplemancer 13 years ago
        
        Why? There is risk EVERYTIME you get behind the wheel of a car regardless of sobriety. From sun-glare to short skirts, texting to spilling hot coffee in your lap. Until there is a collision, no one has been harmed.
        Risk != harm.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        there has to be some punishment for putting people on the road at risk like you did.
        
        You drive a car. There is a non-negligible risk you'll get into a car accident and injure some othe person. Clearly, you must be punished for making the rest of us endure that risk. So what do you suggest we do to all these drivers, putting the populace at risk?
        
        kinnath 13 years ago
        
        Big Ten rules: No Blood -- No Foul
      2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Arbitrary blood alcohol levels are crap.
        
        The average young person with a six pack in their belly is a better driver than the average sober octogenarian.
        
        db 13 years ago
        
        I think cop cars should have an Xbox and a driving game installed. If you can make it through a standard course with opposing traffic with no accidents (with moving or stationary objects) and at normal speeds, you're good to go. Plus, you get to play Xbox!
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        I am looking forward to Saint's Row 3...
        
        Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
        
        BAC numbers do not automatically mean your are or are not drunk. The BAC number creates a legal presumption, which you can rebut. Good luck out there.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        If you can't afford an attorney then it doesn't really matter.
        Guilty by reason of not having a spare three grand in the bank.
        
        Zeb 13 years ago
        
        In a lot of states you can't. If you are over the limit, you are fucked unless you can raise some doubt about the equipment used or how the sample was collected.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Or if you, like my friend who blew double the legal limit after causing an accident, pay a few grand to a lawyer who is personal friends with the DA and get the case dismissed.
      3. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
        
        Sorry; can't go with you there. The "I drive drunk all the time and never hit anything" rationalization is just that - rationalization.
        
        It's not a crime until you kill someone? Great. Tell that to the family of the person you killed.
        
        Yes, there is always a degree of risk in simply driving a car under the best of circumstances. But it's fallacious reasoning to say "well, driving a car is risky anyway, so why does it make a difference if you do it drunk?" Because it so clearly does. The drunk driver presents a huge risk to other people on the road. Whatever happened to the old "your right to do x ends where it interferes with my right to do y"? It's one thing to risk your own sorry ass, but just because you haven't killed anyone yet doesn't mean it's cool and hunky-dory to be driving drunk.
        
        It seems to me to be a no-brainer to forbid drunk driving and to work towards preventing people from driving drunk and apprehending them when they do. It might well be true that most of the time it is just a "risk", but it is a much greater risk than sober driving and it is highly and easily preventable.
        
        RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        The BAC levels are still way too low.
        
        Zeb 13 years ago
        
        I think someone said it above, but it bears repeating.
        
        I guarantee that I with 0.1% BAC am a better driver with faster response time than anyone over 80 years old. Yes, driving while drunk is irresponsible, but there are loads of other things that can contribute just as much to a driving mistake that can kill others. I don't think that driving drunk should necessarily be treated more harshly than, say reaching back to pick your kid's toy off of the floor or something. Both are completely voluntary and optional activities that pose a serious threat to other people's safety. But drinking is bad, so the 4th amendment doesn't apply and you lose your license with no due process. (And no, I have never been accused or convicted of DUI.)
        
        Neu Mejican 13 years ago
        
        I guarantee that I with 0.1% BAC am a better driver with faster response time than anyone over 80 years old.
        
        Loads of research on this topic would say you are kidding yourself.
        
        The nice thing too, is that driving is also about executive functions like planning, inhibition, sustained focus, and other factors besides reaction time. All of these are impaired with alcohol...including your ability to judge your own performance. So, when you are at BAC of 0.1, I am sure you FEEL like you are driving just fine and don't JUDGE your impairment as important.
        
        Nicholas Sarwark 13 years ago
        
        Find me research on impairment levels at .08%. All the studies I know of were done at .1% or above. Due to MADD lobbying, the per se level was dropped to .08% without any research supporting the lower level.
        
        Neu Mejican 13 years ago
        
        Find me research on impairment levels at .08%. All the studies I know of were done at .1% or above. Due to MADD lobbying, the per se level was dropped to .08% without any research supporting the lower level.
        
        The research shoes impairments at about 0.04. But that level doesn't have much subjective impact (you don't feel drunk). Estimates at 0.04 are about 2 to 5 times the likelihood of a fatal crash. This is very old research, replicated frequently.
        
        Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
        
        Yes, driving while drunk is irresponsible, but there are loads of other things that can contribute just as much to a driving mistake that can kill others.
        
        So because there are "loads of other things" that also can cause dangerous driving, drunk driving shouldn't be illegal? Now you're engaging in liberal-style "reasoning." I.e., a complete lack of any. You agree drunk driving is "irresponsible."
        
        It's like "look, ma, I'm gonna die someday anyway, so I might as well juggle flaming chainsaws while balancing a glass of gasoline on my head."
        
        The fact that there also may be other activities that also are "bad" for driving safety doesn't mean this one thing should not be prohibited.
        
        But drinking is bad, so the 4th amendment doesn't apply and you lose your license with no due process.
        
        Erm, wut? In fact, due process does apply - the cops don't simply pull you out of your car, give you a field sobriety test and then decide "OK, you're drunk, we're taking your license, you can walk home from here. Have a nice night."
        
        You lose your license after a court proceeding. And typically after a repeat offense. Hell, I've seen guys with multiple DUIs who still haven't lost their licenses, which makes no sense to me. About 12 years ago, the wife of a good friend of my brother's was killed, along with a few kids, when they were T-boned by a drunk driver who ran a red light at 50 mph. It was this guys ELEVENTH DUI. Why the fuck was this menace to society not in jail? He was driving with no license, since his license had been revoked after something like his 4th or 5th DUI arrest.
        
        I'm not saying that this one guy is THE reason drunk driving should be illegal, mind you. But it sure is one data point, added to the huge heap o' data points.
        
        With great liberty comes great responsibility. There is a difference between being libertarian and libertine, IMO.
        
        BTW, as far as the BAC number being "too low," you might say the same thing about the speed limit or that the age of majority or drinking age is "too high." In every case, it's a line-drawing exercise. The line has to be drawn someplace, and the legislature draws it. Who's to say that 65 mph is inherently and measurably safer than 66? Or that 64 wouldn't be even safer?
P Brooks 13 years ago

Lower interest rates below zero, Americans will start spending and investing again, the economic will grow, and unemployment will go back down to its "natural rate."

Krugabe, is that you?
P Brooks 13 years ago

drunk driving is no big deal?

Compared to drunk crashing, yup.
1. Azwee Seigh 13 years ago
  
  It's not the fall that kills you, it's the impact.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

I've got nothing today, gents (and gentle lades). Working from home today so my normal mojo is all messed up.
From the 1st Link 13 years ago

"Longshoremen in Longview, for example, have had a longstanding dispute..."

And people were saying Newt Gingrich is a bad writer?
1. The Ghost of the Bard 13 years ago
  
  I long for the days of good writing.
  1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
    
    Longfellow, et al.
P Brooks 13 years ago

Berkley economist Brad DeLong proposes a Rube Goldberg scheme to combine a negative nominal interest rate with sporadic lotteries that would invalidate currency with certain serial numbers. The idea is that while people might try to stockpile cash, the knowledge that bills would be destroyed at random should inspire people to spend.

That's ridiculous.

The police should just have the power to stop you at any time and seize all the cash you're carrying, and have a party at a titty bar.

STIMULUS!
1. tarran 13 years ago
  
  Wow, so it will be like hperinflation where everyone is trying to get rid of their cash as quickly as possible.
  
  Do these energetic morons ever stop and think about what they are saying?
  1. Spoonman. 13 years ago
    
    Aren't effectively negative interest rates a hallmark of hyperinflation?
2. DJF 13 years ago
  
  """The police should just have the power to stop you at any time and seize all the cash you're carrying, and have a party at a titty bar.""'
  
  They already have that power, its just that there are not that many good titty bars.
  
  We need to stop giving college loans to co-eds so they can stop wasting time at school and be available for work at good titty bars
  1. DesigNate 13 years ago
    
    ^THIS^
SugarFree 13 years ago

Hugo Schwyzer, Jezebel's pet male--remember him? he once wrote a article about the fact he's been experiencing erectile dysfunction since he was a teenager--now has an article about his long-standing attraction to mannish lesbians--even to the point he married one.

In several classes during my junior year of high school, I sat next to "Kendall," the statuesque multi-sport star. A year ahead of me, Kendall was nearly six feet tall, broad-shouldered, with a jawline that could cut glass. All-League in three sports, she wore her letterman's jacket almost every day, and would often come to class with her short dark hair still wet from the post-workout shower. Her signature scent was chlorine with a hint of sweat.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  That is just so fucked up. Why is it so hard for him to admit he is gay? It is not like being gay is that hard in today's society. This would be the kind of coping mechanism that a gay guy in Saudi Arabia would adopt. But here this clown is in the most homo friendly society in history and he still can't just admit who he is.
  1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
    
    I think there may be other issues involved. But seriously, the guy just needs to go full homo NTTAWWT.
  2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    From the article
    
    I masturbated disconsolately in the shower a few mornings a week.
    
    Quelle surprise
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      I would have to guess that her "signature scent" was a bit more complex than he is letting on.
    2. T 13 years ago
      
      masturbated disconsolately
      
      This has to be one of the funniest phrases ever set to paper.
      1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        Also, it would make a solid band name. Not great, but solid.
        
        Proprietist 13 years ago
        
        Disconsolate Masturbation
    3. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
      
      Masturbating in the shower a few mornings a week also could be a sign that you've been married for 20+ years.
  3. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    Let's assume for the minute that there is a genetic basis for homosexuality... his sister is a lesbian--shouldn't that be a red pink flag?
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      I would think so. How hard would it be to get a boy friend and have said boyfriend dress like a butch lesbian?
    2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
      
      Pink is breast cancer you dolt.
      The fact that his sister is a carpet cleaner raises a rainbow flag.
      Sheesh.
      1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        No, a pink upside down triangle is also gay.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        He said flag, not triangle.
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        Well, call me crazy, but I didn't think John was big into gay subculture, so I was helping a brother out.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        My comment was to SF, not John.
        
        Zeb 13 years ago
        
        How can a triangle be upside down?
        
        Clich? Bandit 13 years ago
        
        teh patriarchy
  4. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Maybe he is attracted to masculinity but likes pussy, like tranny chasers are attracted to femininity and like cock.
    1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      One of my Facebook friends from high school is like this--she's basically a "fag hag" who's obsessed with drag queens.
      
      Drag queens, though, are such a grotesque caricature of femininity that I can't really see why she'd be drawn to femininity per se. I think it's just typical SWPL status-mongering, the same way females these days talk about their "gay friends" like they're collecting beanie babies.
2. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
  
  Wait, we are missing the best part: It was his SECOND wife. Meaning he has done this before.
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    IIRC, his first wife left him for being a drug addict with multiple relapses.
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      Probably because he was self-medicating to deal with the massive amount of cognitive dissonance going on.
3. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Ken doll? Really?
4. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
  
  I just noticed this... could I get a link to the ED thing? Cuz that sound hilarious.
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    Thanking God for impotence: a reflection on erectile dysfunction
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      Wait, wait... that's not the one I was thinking of...
      
      The Blessings of Erectile Dysfunction
      
      The first time I couldn't get an erection, I was in bed with my high school girlfriend. We'd been dating for about three months and had been having sex for two. Michelle and I played hooky from school at least once a week, riding the bus to her empty house and spending a few hours in bed together. But this particular day, we were fighting (I have long since forgotten what the quarrel was about). For the first time, we tried having make-up sex. I was angry and confused and so was Michelle. We both wanted the soothing of sexual connection. But no matter what we did, it didn't work: my penis stayed soft.
      I was 17, near the peak of what is supposed to be teenage male horniness. I'd certainly never had this problem before, and I was confused?and quickly devastated. Michelle tried giving me a blowjob, but nothing happened. I tried masturbating myself, to no avail; the harder I tried, the softer it got. Michelle burst into tears, crying that I must not be attracted to her anymore. I felt incredibly ashamed, and ended up leaping out of bed, pulling on my clothes, and running down the street to catch the bus home. I couldn't face her.
      Similar incidents would bedevil me throughout the remainder of my teens and well into my 20s. To my tremendous frustration, I could never predict when I would suddenly be unable to get an erection. It happened with one-night stands, and it happened with women I'd been sleeping with for weeks and months. The "problem" would disappear for a long time, and then re-emerge with a vengeance. Unlike that first incident with Michelle, later bouts of impotence rarely had anything to do with a fight. More often, it was performance anxiety?I'd worry about getting an erection, and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        And there's the time he might of got a fuck-buddy pregnant and conspired with her to make her other boyfriend raise the child.
        
        I May Have a Son, but I'll Never Know for Sure
        
        Fourteen autumns ago, I was casually dating a woman I'll call Jill*. We had unprotected intercourse a handful of times in late October and early November. And just before Thanksgiving, Jill discovered she was pregnant.
        
        She didn't tell me until after New Year's Day. While Jill and I had been in a "friends with benefits" arrangement, she'd also been growing more serious about another man, Ted.* She'd first slept with him for the first time two nights before she had last slept with me. It was that week that Jill got pregnant, and as she would later tell me, there was no way to know for sure which one of us was the father.
        
        But there was no question which one of us was a better bet as a romantic partner. Jill had broken things off with me as soon as she and Ted had decided on an exclusive relationship (just before she found out she was pregnant.) Ted was several years older than I was, professionally and emotionally stable, and clearly falling in love with Jill. I was drinking, partying, with some time to go before I'd hit my rock bottom. Jill wanted to be a mom. Ted wanted to be a dad. I wasn't sure what I wanted. In her mind, these facts settled it: the baby was Ted's. Or it needed to be Ted's.
        
        Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
        
        I remember the second one...
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        It is terrible of me to say, but I hope that boyfriend tracks him down and leaves him in a ditch somewhere. What a complete scumbag.
      2. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        We'd been dating for about three months and had been having sex for two.
        
        In high school? Props, dude.
    2. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
      
      Oh, SugarFree, what would I do without you?
      
      Other than be less scarred, of course.
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Hugo, just to round out the mental picture.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Forget about him being gay - are we sure he's not a zoophile
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        That picture isn't in the least bit gay at all.
Almanian 13 years ago

I bet Yngwie Malmsteen would make a great Sec'y of State. And Dave Mustaine for Secretary of War (I'm doing away with "Defense" in my administration and going Ol Skool "War Department").

Of course, there will be no Health Department or Education Department, so where to put Rob Zombie...hmm, hmm, hmm....
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  so where to put Rob Zombie...
  
  FCC?
2. Neu Mejican 13 years ago
  
  Zombie and his Dragula would be at transportation.
  1. Neu Mejican 13 years ago
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZvJ-2pgC9s
3. gaijin 13 years ago
  
  CDC...I mean he's a friggin zombie afterall!
  1. Neu Mejican 13 years ago
    
    a fair argument...and he's more human than human
4. AlmightyJB 13 years ago
  
  I saw Yngwie open for Triumph about 30 years ago in Columbus. I was as we used to say trippin' balls. Between the human propelled chinese dragon wandering the halls of the Hyatt Regency before the show (they were practicing for some upcoming cultural event) and walking into the auditorium with Yngwie wailing on the guitar it was a pretty sweet ride.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    Triumph. There is a blast from the past. The late 70s and early 80s were high times for Canuckistani arena rockers.
  2. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
    
    "And she can't go to hospital because she is, quote, 'tripping balls.'"
  3. Neu Mejican 13 years ago
    
    I saw Triumph with Frank Marino & Mahogony Rush, and The Scorpions opening up for them. They were not really cut out to headline that bill.
P Brooks 13 years ago

she wore her letterman's jacket almost every day

Whoa boy; shouldn't that be "letterINDIVUAL'S jacket"?
1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
  
  I think he meant exactly what he wrote. Think about it.
AlmightyJb 13 years ago

Why does Glenn Beck hate Ron Paul?
Non-Denialist 13 years ago

This is like the worst chat room ever.
Denialist 13 years ago

THIS IS THE BEST CHATROOM EVAR!!!
1. Viscount Auh20 13 years ago
  
  WELL NOW I DON'T KNOW WHO TO BELIEVE!
  1. T 13 years ago
    
    Believe in yourself and all things are possible!
    
    Except erasing a childhoood full of ABC after-school specials.
    1. Clich? Bandit 13 years ago
      
      The more you know...
Reason ca. 1920 13 years ago

Allowing police to drive horseless carriages around town rather than walking a beat allows them to surveil a far greater area and threatens our cherished right to privacy.

Some predict that in a few years, wireless radio contraptions may be installed in horseless carriages, which would allow them to communicate and coordinate their movements to a degree that was not envisioned by the Founders, opening the door for oppressive tyranny the likes of which has never been seen before.
Reason ca. 1920 13 years ago

Your local police agency may be using $300,000 unmanned drones to spy on you.

Allowing police to drive horseless carriages around town rather than walking a beat allows them to surveil a far greater area and threatens our cherished right to privacy.

Some predict that in a few years, wireless radio contraptions may be installed in horseless carriages, which would allow them to communicate and coordinate their movements to a degree that was not envisioned by the Founders, opening the door for oppressive tyranny the likes of which has never been seen before.
1. db 13 years ago
  
  Yeah, there's nothing to see here. Please.
2. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  I agree. Police should still have to do all of their surveillance on foot.
Joey Deeson 13 years ago

Sounds like a pretty rock solid plan to me dude. wow.

http://www.AnonSurfing.tk
Brett L 13 years ago

So, some dude was lobbing hand grenades in Belgium.

"Officials now say Amrani was on his way for police questioning when he launched the attack.

Liege Prosecutor Danielle Reynders said the attack, in which the man lobbed three grenades and opened fire, resulted in the deaths of the gunman and three other people - a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and a 75-year-old woman. Seventy-five people were wounded. La Libre Belgique newspaper reported that a 2-year-old girl was clinging to life.

Officials say he had more grenades with him. "
1. db 13 years ago
  
  What a fuckhead.
Mr. Mark 13 years ago

People, we live in historic times. We were here when the most powerful, prosperous nation larger than a broom closet committed crony-assisted suicide.

USA, RIP

Remember, when the going gets tough, the smart left a long way back....
Colonel_Angus 13 years ago

Irt drones: If I found one, I would keep it.

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