A.M. Links: Boston Globe Endorses Jon Huntsman, Jon Huntsman Endorses Indefinite Detention, Emails Surface About Fast and Furious's Predecessor Program

Mike Riggs | 1.6.2012 9:00 AM

The Boston Globe endorses Huntsman in the New Hampshire primary.
Huntsman endorses the NDAA: "I would have signed it. I would work toward ensuring in practice that we have due process, habeus corpus, and that we do not torture."
Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum spar over who was more important in Congress.
Emails: Gun-walking operation under President Bush had similar problems to Fast and Furious.
The unemployment rate has declined by 0.6 percent since August.
Testicle-crushing torture fetishist John Yoo says Obama is abusing his power.

Do you want hot links and other Reason goodies delivered to your inbox twice a day? Sign up here for Reason's morning and afternoon news updates.

New at Reason.tv: "Rick Santorum on the Freedom to Impose Your Values"

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

NEXT: Problems with the Squeeze Iran Strategy (And a Reluctant Hat Tip to Ron Paul)

Hide Comments (506)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

Ice Nine 13 years ago

The Boston Globe endorses Huntsman in the New Hampshire primary.

Oh that should really help him with Republicans!
1. Old Soldier 13 years ago
  
  A shocking development - the Globe endorsing the most leftist candidate available.
  1. Mike M. 13 years ago
    
    Gee, I wonder who they're going to endorse in the general election!
  2. Pips 13 years ago
    
    They are throwing darts.
  3. Juice 13 years ago
    
    Huntsman is far from leftist. Democrats just like him because he said something nice about global warming once. When they look more into him and see a staunch conservative they have an "oh" moment.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

The Boston Globe endorses Huntsman in the New Hampshire primary.

New England says eff you to Iowa, we're picking the guy who you voted last.
1. Elspeth Flashman 13 years ago
  
  and the rest of the world says, "John who?"
  1. H man 13 years ago
    
    John son, Johnson.
2. Ted S. 13 years ago
  
  As I wrote after the Iowa caucus, it's amazing how the political and media establishments treated the two governors from Rocky Mountain states who were running for the nomination. One is "serious" and "respectable"; the other was treated as a whack-job if he was even mentioned at all.
  
  And yet, the "serious" one only got 1% in Iowa and probably won't do very well in NH either. The "whack-job" wouldn't have done any worse if he'd been given as much attention as the "serious" governor.
  1. kinnath 13 years ago
    
    Iowa sends its love:
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ture=share
    1. JW 13 years ago
      
      And we didn't get you anything.
      1. kinnath 13 years ago
        
        I'm going to guess the video was produced by a resident of the People's Republic of Johnson County.
        
        Patrick 13 years ago
        
        "You heard we were a bunch of knee-jerk conservative reactionaires. I guess that's why we went FOR MASSIVE AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES in five out of the last six presidential elections."
        
        Yeah, fuck you back Iowa.
3. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
  
  You know, I'm wondering if Johnson made a mistake dropping out. With the strange (albeit likely temporary) rise of Santorum, we've seen that the non-Romney voters are desperate for an alternative, and they're not completely satisfied with Paul. I'm not saying those Santorum votes would've gone to Johnson, because they wouldn't have, but I do think this is one of those races that could result in a current bottom-feeder doing well in some states (or even winning the whole thing).
  1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
    
    I've heard the same thing said about T-Paw, for what that's worth.
    1. Huck 13 years ago
      
      Watching and waiting.
      Watching. And waiting.
  2. Applederry 13 years ago
    
    With his pro abortion and pro gay marriage stance, Johnson is like the Anti-Santorum. I don't see any way he could've ended up with the Anti-Romney/Paul vote.
    1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
      
      That wasn't my point. He'd have sucked wind in Iowa. But I think he actually could've surged later. Santorum is going to vanish before too much longer, leaving Romney--who virtually no one in the party wants to be the nominee--Paul (ditto!!!), and Gingrich. Johnson starts looking good at that point to people who lean libertarian on spending/government scope but aren't comfortable with other aspects of Paul's message.
    2. Major Johnson 13 years ago
      
      Pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage? You mean he actively advocates having abortions and gay marriage? I thought he just believes they aren't within the scope of power of the federal government.
      
      I have no issue with either abortion or gay marriage, but that doesn't mean I am pro abortion or recommend that people marry same sex rather than different sex, I actually prefer there be no abortions and wouldn't give a thimble of warm spit for who someone marries, but don't think either are any of my business.
      1. Bones 13 years ago
        
        Why do you prefer there be no abortions? If they're no big deal...
      2. Another Phil 13 years ago
        
        He was using shorthand terms and you know it. Pedants are annoying, even more so when they feign ignorance.
    3. Pips 13 years ago
      
      You misunderstand how this works. View points are not considered until after the golden boy is picked. No one had any idea what Santorum was like. They just knew he wasn't Newt, and he wasn't Romney. When you are out of options you throw your hands up and pick the third choice hoping it might be better.
  3. Joe M 13 years ago
    
    The only current bottom feeder who I think has a chance is Perry. He's going to poll as badly in NH as Huntsman did in IA, but he's dumping everything he has left into SC, which has always picked the eventual nominee.
  4. Loki 13 years ago
    
    Johnson's pro choice, pro open borders, anti war and pro gay rights positions make it impossible for him to have a surge in the republican party, unfortunately.
    
    Ironically enough those same positions combined with his stance on civil liberties would make him the ultimate "blue dog" democrat. It would have been interesting in an alternate universe if he had switched parties to Democrat and given Obama a primary challenge. I think his positions on the above issues might have made him a viable challenger. Of course his stance on entitlement reform and the wellfare state in general would have turned off a lot the "progrssives" who only care about the above issues as a way of feeling good about themselves for being morally superior.
    1. # 13 years ago
      
      No that would make him the ultimate of what the blue dogs claim they are, fiscally conservative democrats. What the blue dogs really are are moderate rural dems who have to hide their desire to spend a little and are only marginally better on social stuff then republicans.
      1. # 13 years ago
        
        though there are occationaly fiscally conservative republicans who are also socially moderate or even liberal, i have yet to really find any democrats who are socilly liberal who are also actually fiscally conservative.
Ice Nine 13 years ago

Huntsman endorses the NDAA.

Oh that should really help him with libertarians!
Rich 13 years ago

Huntsman endorses the NDAA.

Ron Paul does not.
sarcasmic 13 years ago

I'd like to pump a little more than just her gas...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-beau.html
1. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  I have no idea who she is.
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    You're not a fan of High School Musical?
    
    Me neither.
  2. Sparky 13 years ago
    
    Several Disney channel shows and movies. She looks much better with half of her nose shaved off.
    1. rac3rx 13 years ago
      
      She's the voice of the sister on Phineas & Ferb. I love that show.
  3. Live Free or Diet 13 years ago
    
    Think Disney Channel.
    1. RoboCain 13 years ago
      
      Well, that explains it.
2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  Lady Gaga has a restaurant in NY? I'm guessing that Thomas Keller isn't exactly hearing footsteps.
3. KDN 13 years ago
  
  She looks like she's 12. According to the comments she's a plastic surgery addict waiting to erupt. Maybe she'll look a bit older after she's pumped full of silicone and botox.
  1. free2booze 13 years ago
    
    She'll look a bit older after getting pumped full of something, but it ain't silicone and botox.
    1. KDN 13 years ago
      
      I'm sure she's been pumped plenty full of that already.
4. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  Check her oil?
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    Trampled Under Foot
    1. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
      
      I guess I'm talkin' about love.
  2. free2booze 13 years ago
    
    Does she need her exhaust realigned?
5. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
  
  Not all that impressed. Semi-attractive, doable, but nothing special. Boyfriend looks like a real winner.
  1. free2booze 13 years ago
    
    Makes it that much easier to sender her packing.
6. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
  
  She looks very cute here, but what caught my attention in this story was the following line: New man: Ashley and her boyfriend Martin Johnson enjoyed a romantic meal at Lady Gaga's restaurant in NY on New Year's Eve
  1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
    
    Don't order the steak.
    1. Loki 13 years ago
      
      or the tuna
7. Montani Semper Liberi 13 years ago
  
  You've got the option of going with LeAnn Rimes thong bikini pics, and you go with this instead? What were you thinking?
  1. robc 13 years ago
    
    Someone finally gave Rimes a sammich.
    
    She could use another, but she seems over the skeletoritis.
    1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
      
      Barely.
    2. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      All the sandwiches in the world aren't going to do a damn thing about that face.
      1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Plastic like skin and thin lips stretched over bone doesn't turn you on?
        What's wrong with you?
Brett L 13 years ago

Does anyone else think the dude in the black jacket in the screen cap for the video wants a piece Mr. Sweatervest?
sarcasmic 13 years ago

This just in! Mila Kunis is still hot!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....-star.html
1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  Weird face.
  1. Live Free or Diet 13 years ago
    
    Looks like the Black Sea area. Turkish or Russian maybe?
    1. Nipplemancer 13 years ago
      
      Ukrainian
      1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
        
        The best looking women I've ever seen were in Ukraine. It's just that particular shot; her wikipedia pic is considerably better.
    2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      She's Ukrainian, from what I understand.
      1. RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        "Kunis was born in Chernivtsi in the Ukrainian SSR. Her mother, Elvira, is a physics teacher and drug store manager, and her father, Mark Kunis, is a mechanical engineer and cab company executive. She has an older brother, Michael.Her family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1991, when she was seven years old. Kunis is Jewish and has cited antisemitism in the former Soviet Union as one of several reasons for her family's move to the U.S. She has said that her parents "raised me Jewish as much as they could", though religion was suppressed in the Soviet Union."
  2. free2booze 13 years ago
    
    That's what pillows are for
  3. JW 13 years ago
    
    You know nothing of faces.
2. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
  
  I'd go for a Natalie/Mila 3-way
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Natalie Portman seems like she would suck in bed, and not in a good way.
    1. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
      
      Well I certainly am willing to provide her as much instruction as she needs.
3. Resto Druid FTW 13 years ago
  
  Sexy feet.
4. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
  
  She on my "list". You know. The la-la land list where if I ever had the chance, I could fuck her and my wife couldn't say/do anything about it.
  
  The scene of her going down on Natalie Portman in black swan is, well, very good (despite it being utterly fucked up).
  1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
    
    She's actually gotten better looking as she's aged, although that could be due to the power of modern cosmetics as well. In the early That 70's Show days, I thought Laura Prepon was the better-looking of the two.
  2. Francisco d Anconia 13 years ago
    
    The wife and I call it the "celebrity waiver list".
Abdul 13 years ago

Detroit police stations to start keeping banker's hours.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....3496.story

If you live in Detroit, your best bet is now hoping that Peter Weller gets in a horrible accident and is implanted with cyborg parts.
1. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Alternatively, at least Detroit taxpayers are only paying for cops to pretend to work 8 hours a day now.
2. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  That's always your best bet, regardless.
3. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
  
  That has always been our best, last hope for America.
4. wylie 13 years ago
  
  It wasn't an accident.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

The emailed comment by an assistant U.S. attorney in Arizona to a law enforcement colleague in December 2008 focused on the tactic used in Operation Wide Receiver, an investigation that began in early 2006.

They pick operation names that sound like gay bars. I assume, I've never been. I mean, the energy on the dance floor is incredible at those places. I hear. WHAT I DID SOPHMORE YEAR IN COLLEGE IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

So anyway, Bush let guns into Mexico, too, huh?
1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
  
  Bush was pro guns-for-all.
2. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  New documents reveal that Operation Woody Cowboy allowed guns into mexico during the Clinton Administration, who appeared to carry on Reagan's Operation Lucky Steel.
3. smz 13 years ago
  
  Best sign in DC is the gay bar called The Tool Shed. Its in an alley off 14th (just off Thomas Circle). Two nuts and a wrench for the sign. Good stuff.
  1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
    
    Pales beside the name of a popular bottle shop on Polk Street (the old gay street) in San Francsisco years ago:
    Sucker's Liquors
    1. the audience 13 years ago
      
      no, tool shed is better
      
      honestly, sucker's liquors isn't even that good.
      1. Mongo 13 years ago
        
        Back in the 80s, a local right-wing candidate listed "Kisahomo's Tool & Die" as one of her endorsements in the newspaper's election guide!
    2. Anacreon 13 years ago
      
      Which was next door to the gay bar The White Swallow, with a nice picture of a San Juan Capistrano bird in flight. Old joke now but was a groundbreaker back in the mid-80s
4. cynical 13 years ago
  
  Standard Republican Talking (Counter)Points:
  Wide Receiver was conducted with the knowledge of Mexican officials, and there was a plan for post border-crossing recovery of the weapons (that failed, due to Mexico), and the operation was killed after that failure.
  
  IOW, WR was a legitimate fuckup, F&F was deliberate; though they may have been emboldened to enact F&F because WR gave them cover to claim that F&F was an accident too, one that they just kept making over and over and over.
tarran 13 years ago

"Unfortunately, in seems that in the eyes of the general public, rescuing a fox from a petting zooo does not quite make up for allowing a four-year-old to drown on national TV."
sarcasmic 13 years ago

I don't know who Olivia Palermo is, but the other lady in that first pick is perfect for John!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....riend.html
1. The Ghost of Henny Youngman 13 years ago
  
  That's no lady, that's my wife!
  1. The Ghost of Milton Berle 13 years ago
    
    Hey, you stole my joke!
2. Chatroom Crank 13 years ago
  
  Olivia needs a sammich or three.
3. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  Olivia and her stud muffin are a bit unclear on the concept of 'nude beach', aren't they?
4. free2booze 13 years ago
  
  Averting her eyes. Would a bikini really have made a difference?
5. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
  
  Olive Oil
  1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
    
    Ya'spose she's jealous of her boyfriend's tits?
6. Kaon Kristen 13 years ago
  
  Palermo is an MTV reality show whore. Typical NYC beyotch who could do with a couple slices o' pizza.
7. Kaon Kristen 13 years ago
  
  Here's Palermo's reality whore nemesis. Clearly casted as the protagonist. Yes, I watched the show(s) these two were on (Palermo was on one, this chick was on two)
  
  http://img.poptower.com/pic-1746/whitney-port.jpg
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Her eye make-up says she does anal.
Brett L 13 years ago

Would you fly in a space capsule with a crowd-sourced hatch design?
1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
  
  How hard can it be?
2. gaijin 13 years ago
  
  If it had been tested, sure.
3. Tonio 13 years ago
  
  Yes.
4. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
  
  If I was really drunk. Why not?
5. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  What, you want us to express our faith in Top. Men?
  1. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    If you believe Gus Grissom's account, even the Top. Men. didn't get it right on the first go.
    1. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
      
      Yeah, he, Ed White and Roger Chaffee could tell you all about it. If they hadn't roasted to death in about 20 seconds.
      1. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        I was thinking of his Mercury mission, which directly relates. No hatch design except not having one could have made a difference on Apollo I.
    2. tarran 13 years ago
      
      I am kind of curious why the makers of space capsule hatches tried to kil Gus Grissom so many times.
6. Gus 13 years ago
  
  If it had a window and explosive bolts.
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum spar over who was more important in Congress.

So they settled the "who took home the ugliest chick from the bar last night" bet already?
1. Old Soldier 13 years ago
  
  Did they decide who failed more spectacularly?
Ice Nine 13 years ago

The Senate can make sure that its rights are respected by refusing to provide any support or legislation to the agency, conducting tough oversight hearings, and enacting repealing legislation at every opportunity.

And Congress is so good at asserting its autonomy, prerogatives and mandates - this should be foolproof.
1. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  Or, Congress could defund the agency pending resignation of the illegally appointed crony.
Underpants Gnome 13 years ago

Imperial Stormtrooper takes down Darth Vader...

http://www.clickorlando.com/ne.....index.html
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

Emails: Gun-walking operation under President Bush had similar problems to Fast and Furious.

The MSM can breathe a sigh of relief. No need to cover this story anymore. Two wrongs make a right as long as Team Red and Team Blue each committed one of the wrongs.
1. Team Purple 13 years ago
  
  Mistakes were made. No one is claiming it was a perfect operation. Now, ... back to Dancing with the Stars!
  1. FlyoverCountry 13 years ago
    
    Oh man, I was hoping that now they could link this story to BOOOSH it might finally get some traction...
    
    But now I fear that BT is right. Dammit
2. Loki 13 years ago
  
  Obama's 2012 campaign strategy: Bush did it too.
Brett L 13 years ago

Cult of Steve excommunicates idolators.

"Apple has allegedly threatened to sue Chinese company In Icons over its eerily realistic 12-inch action figure of Steve Jobs, the company's late founder."
1. DJF 13 years ago
  
  Only action figures made in Apples Chinese sweatshops will be authorized for worship. Kissing the feet or ass of the figurine will reward the worshiper with quotes from Chairman Steve.
2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  And what exactly again is the target market for a $99 Steve Jobs action figure?
  1. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    Plastic Jesus on hipster dashboards?
  2. Kaon Kristen 13 years ago
    
    C'mon, man!
    1. RoboCain 13 years ago
      
      LOL
    2. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
      
      Hipsters really are the biggest threat to, well, lots of shit.
      
      Fuck.
Name Nomad 13 years ago

Poetic justice of the day: Boy throws rocks at cars, shot with crossbow
Finally. Lorena Bobbitt for a NEW generation!
1. Name Nomad 13 years ago
  
  I forgot to mention. Police have not, as of yet, mentioned whether the crossbow bolt had a +1 or better enchantment or the boy's saving throws.
  1. Sparky 13 years ago
    
    Either way, the negatives on hitting a small target from a moving vehicle are pretty substantial. Maybe the guy in the SUV had Ride By Shot.
2. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
  
  The headline really says it all. You read the article to find out more, but you already know everything important about the situation.
3. Rich 13 years ago
  
  He filed for divorce in May 2011, but they continued living together in the Flower Tree condominium complex at 14171 Flower St., Garden Grove.
  
  ... Why?
  
  (Not for the squeamish.)
  1. tarran 13 years ago
    
    Probably couldn't afford to move out. It happens more often than one would think.
  2. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    Its hard enough when you and the ex are living across town.
    
    Err, that's what I read somewhere, anyway.
P Brooks 13 years ago

All morning, Bloomberg's Chief Economics Correspondent has been asking everybody, "So we can start QE3 now, right?"

WTF?
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

Testicle-crushing torture fetishist John Yoo says Obama is abusing his power.

I didn't read the story. Does he say he's turned on by it?
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  Now we know SugarFree's real name!
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    I'm Asian? When did this fucking happen?
    1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
      
      No, then you would be LactoseFree.
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        I pity those that cannot have cheese. I just couldn't live like that.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        I'm lactose intolerant and I eat cheese anyway. The people you should pity are the ones who must share my flatulent reaction to dairy products.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Maybe you should stop being so intolerant. All that bigotry and hate can't be good for your bowels.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        It's my bowels that are intolerant when I try to be inclusive in my food intake.
        Too much dairy and I hiss like a leaking balloon. Couple that with flatulence from drinking homebrew that still has active yeast in it and there's a constant flow of air coming out of my ass. Driving with the windows down in the winter and I don't smoke anymore. I come back to the bedroom from taking a shower and the room still stinks from the night's farts. I try to take courtesy walks at work but the stinkers still slip out.
        
        Neu Mejican 13 years ago
        
        That is, somehow, exactly how I always pictured you.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        You pictured me? Homo.
        
        Neu Mejican 13 years ago
        
        I didn't picture you as homo, nttiawwt, despite the concentration camp victim fetish.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just jealous that my farts tickle my balls and you don't. Homo.
        
        Neu Mejican 13 years ago
        
        You picture me tickling your balls? Maybe John is closer to right about the skinny chick thing than I thought.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        You'd rather tickle my balls than bang a skinny chick?
        You are one messed up dude.
        
        Neu Mejican 13 years ago
        
        As sarcasmic fells another warm breeze on his scrotum, he leans back in his chair and daydreams, imagining the day when the tickling comes from strong hands rather than weak hissing wind.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Neu Mejican, I commented with SugarFree, I knew SugarFree, SugarFree was a distant acquaintance of mine. Neu Mejican, you're no SugarFree.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        I'd like to bang a skinny chick who tickles my balls, but that's just me.
        
        : 13 years ago
        
        "I have a psychosomatic disorder, that I pretend is lactose intolerance, and I eat cheese anyway."
        
        FYP
        
        RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        TMI
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        The only thing worse was when I was taking Chantix. Holy crap I've never farted more in my entire life. It wasn't just a constant hiss, it was a roar! My pant legs may have well been wind socks!
        
        Kaon Kristen 13 years ago
        
        Yep...the Chantix was a helluva lotta fun in the farting department. I could get real creative when I was taking it.
        
        mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
        
        A slew of heart meds gave me roaring gas, the likes of which would linger in the car to be smelt the morning after they were dealt.
P Brooks 13 years ago

Would you fly in a space capsule with a crowd-sourced hatch design?

That depends; will they test a working model before the launch?
SugarFree 13 years ago

A 36-year-old woman was charged Wednesday after punching, scratching and sliding her buttocks against a painting worth more than $30 million, authorities in Colorado said.

She looks like Lily Allen + 80 gallons of whiskey + 10 years of being dragged behind a truck.
1. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  I'd hit it.
  
  I mean the painting.
2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  When did Janeane Garofalo go crazy with the tattoos?
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    Around the time she decided to become a shrill political hack.
    1. MarylandMike 13 years ago
      
      She looks really smelly in that picture. Yuck.
      1. RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        Dirty hippies!
    2. Warty 13 years ago
      
      Does that shirt refer to a shitty band, or is it just too many layers of irony to fathom?
3. The housing industry 13 years ago
  
  $30M, eh?
  
  Seems undervalued to me.
4. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
  
  It was an abstract expressionist. They must have caught her in the act.
5. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  Well, she didn't pee on it or anything! What's the problem?
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    I thought girls pee out of their butt. Have I been misinformed?!?
    1. Huck 13 years ago
      
      D-
6. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
  
  I read that story yesterday - she also tried to piss on it, but missed.
  
  Great security at that there museum.
  
  And what pretension fucking asshole would pay $30 million for that paint-smeared canvas?
  1. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
    
    I think a lor of women would need to pee on it before it had any value at all.
    1. Mongo 13 years ago
      
      Is the photo of the painting before or after the ass-wiping?
  2. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    I like it. But $30 million for any object that doesn't do anything seems a bit absurd.
    1. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
      
      The painting represent social justice and fighting the good fight against the oppressors. It's quite obvious.
  3. Pablo Picasso 13 years ago
    
    I have some old shirts that look better than that. Best get them to Denver where I can get a good price for them.
    
    And they make much better butt wipes too! That alone should increase the price.
7. Loki 13 years ago
  
  That woman's only 36?
Abdul 13 years ago

Today, the county grand jury indicted the 48-year-old woman on one felony count of torture, one felony count of aggravated mayhem, and a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a knife.

Really? There's a sentence-enhancement in CA for using a knife when committing horrible crimes? Like torture and mutilation aren't as bad if you use a broken beer bottle?
1. cynical 13 years ago
  
  No, it's the personal use of a knife. Like, if she had just attacked a stranger for money, it would have been fine.
  1. Catherine Becker 13 years ago
    
    Chop, chop!
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

Testicle-crushing torture fetishist John Yoo says Obama is abusing his power.

...as white doves fly by in slow motion while an action hero dives for cover firing twin gold-plated pistols at the nemesis who kidnapped his wife and daughter after exposing him as an undercover DEA agent. Or am I thinking of someone else?
SugarFree 13 years ago

THE FEMALE GAZE; or It's OK when we do it because fuck you that's why.
1. Hot Older Male 13 years ago
  
  Getta whiffa dis!
2. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  Um. . . those calendars aren't being bought by women.
  
  Don't ask how I know, I just know, alright.
  1. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    That's why its okay. Because gay men say so. Although that wouldn't explain the jezebelian aversion to buttsecks.
    1. RoboCain 13 years ago
      
      Anal toys are quite popular among lesbians.
      1. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Well its obviously okay when there are no men involved.
      2. Abdul 13 years ago
        
        Sorority Sisters Backdoor bonanza parts I through XVII are not a documentary.
        
        RoboCain 13 years ago
        
        That doesn't change the fact. Check out any sex shop catering to the lesbian market, the multitude of lesbian sex blogs, etc.
  2. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
    
    Those articles aren't being written by women either.
3. Tonio 13 years ago
  
  It would be more accurate to say that a significant portion of those calendars are purchased by men for themselves or for other men.
  
  I know some women who are into beefcake. Some.
  1. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, years ago, at my previous place of employment, the accounting department was entirely women. They mostly were pretty cool ladies, but one day as a gag, one of them brought in and hung up a nude guy calendar. From Playgirl or something. I walked in there and went, "ugh." They all had a good hoot about it.
    
    I always wondered what would have happened if I had hung up a naked babe calender in my office.
    
    It was a small business and this was at least 15 years ago. Probably couldn't get away with it today.
    1. Restoras 13 years ago
      
      I doubt you would have gotten away with it 15 years ago and today you'd end up with a fat harrassment lawsuit on your lap.
  2. Live Free or Diet 13 years ago
    
    At least one was purchased as a gag gift for my brother-in-law... Who found it hanging on his wall.
4. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  But men and women are exactly the same!
  
  http://jezebel.com/5873347/men.....y-research
5. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
  
  You know what is kind of funny to me is that most men could give a shit if women check them out. (I am not talking about blatant gawking or loud commentary or whatever; that sort of thing is distasteful to anyone.) But I figure looking over and admiring people we find attractive is what human beings DO. It's like a reproductive strategy or something.
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Obviously you are only saying that because you are in the throes of an evil patriarchy.
  2. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
    
    "...most men could give a shit if are actively hoping that women check them out."
6. mr simple 13 years ago
  
  What is he doing to that kitten? Someone stop him!
7. Kaon Kristen 13 years ago
  
  Some of those would be mildly hot if they were so posey-wosey. Like, how about a "candid" shot of a lumberjack taking of his sweaty flannel after a hard day's work? Is that too much to ask?
  1. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
    
    Not a lumberjack, but how about a bike messenger?
    
    http://lh3.ggpht.com/_c9BPAbXR.....aphy-2.jpg
P Brooks 13 years ago

Early in the investigation, prosecutors had enough to charge suspects who had been converting firearms into machine guns, but law enforcement officials decided to wait, according to emails by personnel at ATF.

"We believe at this point there is more value in the surveillance, identification of locations, persons, vehicles," an ATF supervisor wrote in a June 15, 2006, email. An ATF briefing paper on Wide Receiver in August 2006 said the weapons involved in the investigation probably had ended up as "illegally trafficked firearms to Mexico."

So they decided breaking the law on a daily basis was less important than an extremely remote possibility of hitting a headline-generating home run.
1. DJF 13 years ago
  
  Excuse Me!
  
  That would be "a headline-generating home run" which would then allows them to go to Congress and ask for a big increase in their budget. Remember priorities. If they don't have a big increase in budget how can they stop the evil people who are sending guns to Mexico.
Ice Nine 13 years ago

After four clueless years, light bulb finally goes on for well-known useful idiot.

Also, fuck him and everyone like him who screwed us over so badly.
1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  "He's more liberal than he thinks he is. He thinks he's just slightly center-left, but when you get down to his instincts, they're pretty left. And his problem is that he can't really act on them, because it would be political disaster. And so that means, I think right now he's doing very little, proposing very little."
  
  Don't worry, David, now that we're in an election year, Obama will start proposing "solutions" again since the unions need more public money as a reminder why they have to vote for him.
  1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
    
    He's more liberal than he thinks he is
    
    Obama, or Brooks?
RoboCain 13 years ago

"CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS Washington) ? A Charlottesville-area elementary school has been accused of making students sing a pro-Occupy Wall Street movement song."

http://washington.cbslocal.com.....cupy-song/
1. DEM 13 years ago
  
  Yet another reason to keep kids far away from public schools.
2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  What's amusing is that it wasn't even put together by the teachers. It's a program designed by some goofy hipster outfit--Kid Pan Alley--that sounds like something that would have been financed by the WPA in the 30s.
  1. Loki 13 years ago
    
    Kid Pan Alley sounds like it could a gay version of Sesame Street.
Brett L 13 years ago

Technology could be good or bad. Imagine you've never read a single sci-fi book (including 1984 or Farenheit 451 or the other stories taught in school) and you come up with the conceit that technology could be a great source for good or evil depending on how it is applied. Now write a 1000 word column about it and have The Atlantic publish it.
1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
  
  What intrepid journalism.
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Bad things or good things might possibly happen!
RoboCain 13 years ago

"A TEENAGE boy was tortured and drowned because a relative thought he was a WITCH, a court heard yesterday."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/ho.....witch.html
1. Arcaster 13 years ago
  
  Reminds me of a bit I saw the other day on 1000 Ways to Die. The village leader that determined if accused people were witches accidentally got high on mold or something. The people used his own bleeding mole test on him, and he failed. He was then stoned to death. I laughed.
2. Barely Suppressed Rage 13 years ago
  
  Well maybe he was. Can't be too sure. Better safe than sorry, I say.
  1. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
    
    If he wasn't a witch he's in heaven now so no harm no foul.
  2. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
    
    That's ridiculous.
    
    I'm pretty sure men can only be warlocks.
3. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
  
  Man, that is some case of sibling rivalry.
4. Loki 13 years ago
  
  Did he turn anyone into a Newt?
  
  Shouldn't they have at least used the "does the accused weigh the same as a duck test" first?
  
  Sorry, someone had to make the Monty Python references so I took it upon myself.
MNG 13 years ago

"Gun-walking operation under President Bush had similar problems to Fast and Furious."

I'll be checking my mail for the flood of apologies daily...
1. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  I really can't think of a situation where "it's the same thing George W. Bush did, but three times as much!" would be a mitigating factor.
  1. MNG 13 years ago
    
    Well, when you've been attacked as much as I have for suggesting the program and tactics are not exactly novel, then yeah, it's a bit mitigating of that.
    
    Anyone who ever took the time to simply talk to any LE at any level who did investigative work with illegal goods knows letting illegal transfers happen instead of immediately intervening is a longstanding and common tactic. Guns, drugs, knock off purses, they are all allowed to "walk." It allows for the gathering of not only info to charge but intel to use later.
    
    Having said that it is, as I've ALWAYS SAID, morally a terrible idea, especially when the illegal transfer involves something dangerous. This is why as the article said it was officially against justicce policy to do it. They knew the potential problems. And people still did it. Worse higher ups seemed to have known about it and did nothing or approve. Heads should roll.
    
    But some left wing conspiracy to pump up cross border gun murders to trigger gun control laws? C'mon.
    1. db 13 years ago
      
      MNG, it's not so much a function of a n antigun administration as a runaway agency. ATF has been unanswerable to administratiins for some time. Spend enough time talking with gun industry folks, and as a collector and shooter, and you learn just how arbitrary and capeivious ATF
      1. db 13 years ago
        
        ...and capricious ATF interpretations of the law can be. It's not much of a stretch to imagine some ATF lifers coming up with this. Their entire agency is built on restricting posession of firearms. Their incentives are universally aligned with this objective and they have not been held to account for some really egregious offenses. For instance, wholesale destruction of registration documents for lawfully owned machineguns and the utterly capricious practices surrounding determination letters for new products.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        I'm no fan of the ATF. I remember Waco and Ruby Ridge.
        
        The ATF shares most LE gung-ho, us-against-them (them being citizens), Rambo type mentality that leads to chronic heavy-handedness and abuse. They deserve much scorn.
        
        Add to that that libertarians disagree with their basic mission and they are of course despised around here, and much of it is deserved.
        
        But that detestation has led to some pretty big logic leaps and assumption junctions over this. What's sad about this is that one need not go there to call for heads to roll and reform: what IS obvious is that the ATF engaged in a morally perilous tactic in violation of their own stated policy and many higher ups knew and either did nothing or approved (and then covered it up). Their violations and negligence have lead to deaths. That's enough of a problem without jumping to conclusions about gun control conspiracies and such.
    2. the audience 13 years ago
      
      "Well, when you've been attacked as much as I have for suggesting the program and tactics are not exactly novel, "
      
      THAT is NOT why you are continuously attacked, you mendacious fuck.
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        Oh really? I have a couple of posts bookmarked that say otherwise, want to put something on the line you "forgetful fuck?"
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "I have a couple of posts bookmarked that say otherwise, "
        
        Really? You have posts bookmarked that outline why you're continuously attacked? Let's see em.
        
        "want to put something on the line you "forgetful fuck?""
        
        let's. Name an escrow and an amount cunt.
    3. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Well, when you've been attacked as much as I have for suggesting the program and tactics are not exactly novel,
      
      That's a very, erm, favorable way to put it.
      
      As I recall, you were comparing it to a garden-variety drug sting. You may have thrown out there that Bush did it too.
      
      But, on either count, you would be wrong. I think we already beat the drug sting analogy into the ground, and the BOOSH did it runs aground on detail, such as coordination with the Mexicans and terminating the program when it didn't work.
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        "I think we already beat the drug sting analogy into the ground"
        
        Really? I remember that even John concede that drugs are allowed to walk. Do you dispute this?
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        None of which has anything to do with he fact that the drug analogy sucks, is wrong, and was debunked.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        By all means, if you think the drug analogy, something even John conceded, is wrong and has been debunked, I'd love to hear your argument there.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "You want to dispute that I was attacked because I argued the tactic was not a novel LE tactic?"
        
        No, you disingenuous goalpost moving twat, I want to dispute that the reason you are "continuously attacked" is because you claim this program was "not novel".
        
        Don't change your argument now that you have to back it up asshole.
        
        And I want MONEY. YOU care about the motherfuckers here, but that currency is worthless to me.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "My contention all along has been that I don't buy the conclusion that this program is so wacky and unfathomable that its only explanation must be politically motivated to spur gun control"
        
        THAT is not the same as not novel, so you admit in this very thread you're not being attacked because you're claiming it's not "novel".
2. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
  
  All the Bush fans here will be sure to note that.
  1. MNG 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, if I were saying "Bush did it too so that makes it right" then you might have a point. But I'm saying "Bush did it too so that shows it is not novel." A lot of people here were arguing that this was such a novel, unprecedented, unfathomable LE tactic that it MUST, MUST I tells ya!, have a conspiratorial explanation behind it. It was so obvious that anyone who denied it was of course a tool for Obama and being "dishonest."
    1. fuck you mng 13 years ago
      
      "But I'm saying "Bush did it too so that shows it is not novel." "
      
      NOW you are, and that's not why you're getting shit.
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        MNG|9.29.11 @ 11:11AM|#
        "So those guns disappeared right before or right after going to Mexico."
        
        And you simply can't imagine how being able to, even in the short term, establish the fact and the time and manner of the guns being smuggled might not be useful in building a case against gun smugglers. And it is on THIS inability to imagine that upon which your entire charge rests?
        
        Holy shit.
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        who the fuck are you talking to retard?
        
        Yo made a claim that you said you could support and haven't.
        
        what's with this non-sequitur gibberish shit?
    2. cynical 13 years ago
      
      That's an asinine argument. Wide Receiver was itself novel. It was also a colossal failure and was shut down. F&F was by no means SOP, it was a repeat of an idiotic mistake.
      
      And it was worse -- as bad as WR was, they at least appeared to have a plan for and the intention of recovering the weapons before they were used in crimes. In Fast and Furious, they seemed to deliberately shun any sort of tactic (constant surveillance, tracking devices, alerting Mexical officials or ATF agents in Mexico to follow guns after crossing the border) that might give them some chance of finding the weapons again higher up in the food chain.
      
      WR seems to have been an ill-conceived sting -- give the straw purchasers weapons, track them to bigger fish with the help of Mexican police, big bust. F&F seems to have been intended to collect data about the flow of guns by identifying them, putting them into play, and then seeing in what crime scene they ended up at. That's fine for radioactive isotopes in medicine, or animal populations, but when it's guns in the hands of murderous gangs, that's Nazi science, not to mention treason.
      
      Was the DEA allowing cartels to smuggle drugs under Bush too? Were the feds laundering money for the cartels? The ATF's operation seems part of a pattern of DOJ misbehavior. A sting without the bust at the end is just plain old crime, and that seems to SOP for the DOJ these days.
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        " In Fast and Furious, they seemed to deliberately shun any sort of tactic"
        
        The indictments they've done suggest otherwise. The only real difference seems to be that instead of trying to track them down in Mexico they tried to eventually arrest smugglers at the border.
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        "You want to dispute that I was attacked because I argued the tactic was not a novel LE tactic?"
        
        No, you disingenuous goalpost moving twat, I want to dispute that the reason you are "continuously attacked" is because you claim this program was "not novel".
        
        Don't change your argument now that you have to back it up asshole.
        
        And I want MONEY. YOU care about the motherfuckers here, but that currency is worthless to me.
        
        cynical 13 years ago
        
        "The indictments they've done suggest otherwise."
        
        How do you figure? The extreme tactics they used were justified as part of a plan to let little fish get away things in order to net big fish.
        
        Doing nothing to any big fish, and waiting until you have a big scandal to indict the little fish that you could have already easily busted just sounds like CYA.
    3. fuck you mng 13 years ago
      
      " A lot of people here were arguing that this was such a novel, unprecedented, unfathomable LE tactic that it MUST, MUST I tells ya!, have a conspiratorial explanation behind it. "
      
      I don't recall the novelty of it coming into the discussion in any really way whatsoever until today, when you thought you could use it as an out to pretend you had a point all along.
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        MNG|9.29.11 @ 10:46AM|#
        "And they couldn't just arrest the guys who bought the guns in the parking lot like every other ATF sting why?"
        
        That's what I would have done. Letting the guns go is fraught with moral peril. But everytime the cops let a drug or gun purchase go in order to track later purchases this happens. It's amazingly common John.
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        who the fuck are you talking to retard?
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        MNG|10.18.11 @ 10:54AM|#
        And of course I have much more to support my theory that, as it stands, this looks like a routine (though morally reprehensible) LE program negligently carried out.
        
        1. Everyone admits that LE officers will sometimes allow and foster illegal purchases of goods to catch other and bigger fish doing the same later.
        2. There are actual indictments produced from this program.
        
        All you have is "what else in the WORLD CAN IT BE?"
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        who the fuck are you talking to retard?
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        Still waiting on those posts that show you've been continuously attacked because you said f&f wasn't novel.
        
        The Culture 13 years ago
        
        This is like the worst chat room ever.
3. cynical 13 years ago
  
  Why? Wide Receiver has been part of the story for months.
  1. MNG 13 years ago
    
    My contention all along has been that I don't buy the conclusion that this program is so wacky and unfathomable that its only explanation must be politically motivated to spur gun control, that instead it strikes me as a common LE tactic with legit LE goals. I think the fact that there were other, previous versions of this kind of support that. What do you think it shows?
    1. fuck you mng 13 years ago
      
      "My contention all along has been that I don't buy the conclusion that this program is so wacky and unfathomable that its only explanation must be politically motivated to spur gun control, "
      
      Which you are now trying to pretend is the same thing as "not novel".
      
      You're a lying fuck and it's obvious.
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        MNG|9.29.11 @ 10:50AM|#
        "Explain why they didn't do the same thing in every other case and allowed those guns to go across the border?"
        
        You see the situation you are in, don't you? You're entire "evidence" for your theory is that you can't think of an explanation for the behavior otherwise.
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        I'm not in any situation at all.
        
        YOU made a claim of why you were being attacked.
        
        I made no claims at all about f&f.
        
        post your proof of your claim, make the bet, or fuck off and die.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        MNG|10.18.11 @ 11:21AM|#
        "You kind of need those two aspects if you're going to get anybody past the foot soldiers buying and running the guns"
        
        No, not at all. Not if the goals included:
        1. Mere intel to use in future operations
        2. Arresting different people on our side of the border
        
        Neither of these are radical, unheard of goals for an LE agency.
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        "My contention all along has been that I don't buy the conclusion that this program is so wacky and unfathomable that its only explanation must be politically motivated to spur gun control, "
        
        Which you are now trying to pretend is the same thing as "not novel".
        
        You're a lying fuck and it's obvious.
MNG 13 years ago

Vulgar "Santorum" Website Gets Boost From Romney

GOP rival's campaign ad runs on prank site linking Santorum's name to anal sex.

http://slatest.slate.com/posts....._site.html
RoboCain 13 years ago

"A Colorado woman dropped her pants at a museum and rubbed her rear end all over a painting valued at $30 million, according to police.

The oil-on-canvas abstract expressionist painting was spared additional damage when the woman tried to urinate on it but apparently missed."

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/n.....26763.html
1. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  [not so polite cough]
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    Sorry, I missed that.
2. JW 13 years ago
  
  Everyone's a critic.
Mike M. 13 years ago

Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics has an excellent analysis of why it is that conservatives in reality have little to no control over the republican party nomination process.
1. robc 13 years ago
  
  Two ways I can think of to easily fix the problem he is suggesting:
  
  1. True proportional delegate assignment. No threshholds, no bonuses to winner. The proportional split can be statewide or district or a combination, but use true proportional representation at the convention.
  
  2. If you are going to use winner-take-all voting, use some form of IRV.
MeMyselfAndI 13 years ago

I'll be checking my mail for the flood of apologies daily...

Why? What happened under Obama is still as wrong as it ever was. If you want to slam Bush, go ahead.
Jerry 13 years ago

What happened after the death is a kind of snapshot of a cultural divide. Some would find it discomforting, strange, even ghoulish -- others brave and deeply spiritual. Rick and Karen Santorum would not let the morgue take the corpse of their newborn; they slept that night in the hospital with their lifeless baby between them. The next day, they took him home. ''Your siblings could not have been more excited about you!'' Karen writes in the book, which takes the form of letters to Gabriel, mostly while he is in utero. ''Elizabeth and Johnny held you with so much love and tenderness. Elizabeth proudly announced to everyone as she cuddled you, 'This is my baby brother, Gabriel; he is an angel.' '' (NY Times)

And then they say that Ron Paul is creepy.
1. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Honestly, whatever people want to do to cope with stuff like that is fine with me. Its pretty traumatic and I don't begrudge their way of dealing with it. But then, I don't begrudge gays marriage either.
  1. Jerry 13 years ago
    
    Apparently they dealt with it by having another child when Karen was what, 47 years old? That's pretty disturbing...
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      Quiverfull.
    2. Restoras 13 years ago
      
      Definately a roll of the dice but I don't know if I find it disturbing. Some people love having kids and want lots of them - what's wrong with that?
    3. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
      
      Apparently they dealt with it by having another child when Karen was what, 47 years old? That's pretty disturbing...
      
      I guess I don't see why this is disturbing, can you explain?
      1. Jerry 13 years ago
        
        Because the risks are so high of something going wrong with either the child or mother with a pregnancy at that age. And it's not as if they didn't have any children yet.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        I still don't get your reasoning. If they knew what the risks were and decided in favor, who are you to judge?
        
        Jerry 13 years ago
        
        If the parents would bear the full cost associated with that risk, fine. In the case of Santorum, he probably pays out of pocket for the treatment of his child's chronic disease (it would be an interesting question to ask him), but in other cases tax payers will have to foot the bill.
      2. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        At some point, having what you know will be a high risk pregnancy is pretty irresponsible and selfish.
        
        I'm not gonna beef about how they handled the death of the baby that was born alive and lived a couple hours.
        
        Bringing that 20 week deceased fetus home, though, is kinda weird (and probably illegal, BTW; a 20 week deceased fetus is technically medical waste and has to be redbagged).
        
        The fact that they also had a (borderline) abortion, and continue to be sanctimonious fucks on the topic, really sandpapers my taint.
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        They are both devout Catholics. Getting pregnant and having babies is kind of their thing, by definition. If she got pregnant, and they have religious scruples about that sort of thing, they don't have a lot of other options than to have the baby. I'll also note in my own personal Catholic data sample that kids at that age, while not at all usual, are not unheard of either.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Irresponsible and selfish? Exactly how is it either?
        
        Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, I am honestly not getting all the judgement here. What people decide to do with their procreative decisions is really no one's business but their own. To me that would apply to the abortioniest hippie, or someone like the Santorums-- it's simply not my problem, and unless it impacts me or mine, is neither irresponsible or selfish.
        
        Loki 13 years ago
        
        You're not getting the judgement because unlike some (most) people you're at least consistent in your views wrt other peoples procreative decisions.
        
        nicole 13 years ago
        
        Putting aside for a moment my overall anti-natalist position, what about the older siblings? (Although being an older sibling is how I ultimately became an anti-natalist, but I digress.) Did their other children consent to (a) having another person in their household or (b) the risk involved that they might lose their mother, end up with a permanently and severely maimed mother, or end up with not just another person in their household but in fact some seriously disabled person that they might have to care for for the rest of their lives?
        
        Is it "their decision" as opposed to the states? Yes. Would it be nice to run it by your other kids when you're planning to completely change their lives? I know most parents don't even consider it, but I think they should.
        
        What they're essentially saying here, to their other kids, aside from the usual "hey, you have to live with someone new, even if you hate him, and we'll probably force you to take care of him too, even though he's not your responsibility," is also "we value the potential future life of a currently nonsentient creature more than the life of your mother, who might die trying to give birth to him" as well as "and you might have to care for someone with Down's syndrome until you die in case we have a handicapped baby that outlives us."
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        When, exactly, were you going to put aside your anti-natalist feelings? After hitting the submit button?
db 13 years ago

What Youtube clip best summarizes American Foreign Policy Strategy?
http://drezner.foreignpolicy.c.....es_or_less
1. WWJGD 13 years ago
  
  Leeeroy Jenkins might be my fav from that list.
  1. db 13 years ago
    
    "Leeroy, you are just so damn stupid."
    
    "At least I ain't chicken."
MNG 13 years ago

"The findings of a new National Bureau of Economic Research study released by economists at Harvard and Columbia suggest that at least some of these critics' concerns may be misplaced. By following students in grades three through eight into adulthood, the research team was able to link, for the first time, value added performance evaluations to life outcomes we actually care about. The economists found that teachers who boosted standardized test scores also better prepared their students for later in life: Students who had high value-added teachers in grade school attended college at higher rates (and attended better colleges), were less likely to be teenage mothers, and earned more in early adulthood. High performing teachers may more than justify much higher pay."

http://www.slate.com/articles/.....life_.html

Something in this to please and anger everyone I should think. The right might not like evidence showing how a chance encounter with a teacher (evil public ones no less!) can have such a significant impact on later life success. The left won't like the obvious implication that standardized tests really measure something and some teachers are better and more deserving of reward than others...
1. Neu Mejican 13 years ago
  
  The right might not like evidence showing how a chance encounter with a teacher (evil public ones no less!) can have such a significant impact on later life success. The left won't like the obvious implication that standardized tests really measure something and some teachers are better and more deserving of reward than others...
  
  WTF. The "left-right" meme is getting out of hand.
  1. MNG 13 years ago
    
    Actually I think most people ignore it. Most people I talk to borrow from the left and right without thinking about it.
    1. Neu Mejican 13 years ago
      
      So why did you propose that these positions, which have nothing to do with left-right, would please and anger based on left-right status?
      1. MNG 13 years ago
        
        I'm not sure where you think the problem is. I said it will please and anger those on the right because it will challenge their assumptions/positions and vice versa for the left.
        
        Neu Mejican 13 years ago
        
        Cuz "their assumptions" as described have nothing to do with right-left.
        
        When has "the right" said that teachers can't be important?
        
        When has the left said that "standardized tests don't measure anything and merit pay is a bad thing"?
        
        It is the parody of people's arguments with easy, inaccurate stereotypes that gets old.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        As I said I think the findings undermine the common individualist tropes about people being responsible for their own success, and certainly there's significant opposition in the left to standardized testing and merit pay for teachers.
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        Still waiting on those posts that show you've been continuously attacked because you said f&f wasn't novel.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        SugarFree|10.18.11 @ 10:03AM|#
        He says that sort of operation is routine and therefore their shouldn't be any partisan outrage.
        
        That is a defense of Fast and Furious at it's most basic. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        John |10.18.11 @ 10:31AM|#
        It was clear there was nothing routine about it.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        So, all along I've said the program was routine, common, not novel. And I've been attacked as partisan for saying that.
        
        Of course it's now pretty demonstrable that letting illegal goods walk is routine, common and not novel, even when we are talking about guns programs like FF.
        
        So checkmate my obsessive little cunt-troll, checkmate. You're tears and impotent lil' white hot rage are yummy!
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        "So, all along I've said the program was routine, common, not novel. And I've been attacked as partisan for saying that."
        
        Yes, you've claimed that repeatedly, and posted stuff that doesn't demonstrate it.
        
        Still waiting.
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        "My contention all along has been that I don't buy the conclusion that this program is so wacky and unfathomable that its only explanation must be politically motivated to spur gun control, "
        
        Which you are now trying to pretend is the same thing as "not novel".
        
        You're a lying fuck and it's obvious.
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        Still waiting on those posts that show you've been continuously attacked because you said f&f wasn't novel.
        
        R C Eurocrat 13 years ago
        
        Of course, its in the details that we learn that F&F wasn't novel. The refusal to engage with either Mexicans or their own people in Mexico, the sheer volume of guns walked, the refusal to make arrests until very late in the game, and, of course, the admitted intention to use the guns that they themselves channeled to the cartels as an excuse for more gun control.
        
        I don't think you'll find that Boosh did any of that.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        I see, a pussy lil' dodge that routine and common does not equal not novel so you can avoid the fact that you got served. Who saw that pussy move coming?
        
        fuck you MNG 13 years ago
        
        "I see, a pussy lil' dodge that routine and common does not equal not novel so you can avoid the fact that you got served."
        
        YOU made the claim bitch, and YOU failed to support it.
        
        And just to be clear, how fucking stupid are you that you think one line in one post supports your previous claim?
        
        Or did you forget your previous claim asshole?
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        Read the threads all those comments of mine were from. My case has consistently been "this is a common, routine LE practice." And I've been attacked for putting forward that defense, as the SF and John quotes show, but look at all those threads now you know the dates.
        
        But of course this was never about evidence with you. This was about your tiny, lil', impotent right wing rage. Rage on tiny man, rage on. Yummy tears go wel with my lunch!
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "Read the threads all those comments of mine were from."
        
        How about you just provide the bookmarks you claim you had but never produced?
        
        Aresen 13 years ago
        
        "Yummy tears go wel with my lunch!"
        
        That is pretty much the universal internet admission that you know you're wrong.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        I think a better internet showing of someone being wrong is when they post the equivalent of "you're wrong!"
        
        I can demonstrate that my line with FF has consistently been "this is a routine LE strategy." And I've been attacked for taking that line rather continously.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
        
        Loki 13 years ago
        
        "you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult"
        
        Whereas "fuck you" always wins...
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Who saw that pussy move coming?
        
        I think we all saw your spam of posts that don't say what you act like they say coming. It's classic MNG and it's why everyone despises you.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        Perhaps you can elaborate? I said I was continously attacked for consistently arguing FF was an example of a common LE tactic (as opposed to some fantastical covert operation to foster crime and murder to encourage gun control). This troll challenged that. I posted numerous posts from different dates demonstrating that this has been my consistent argument on the subject. The threads demonstrate how much I was attacked for making this argument. Some, like the SF one and the John one I posted, were quite explicit that they thought my claim it was common warranted attack as hopelessly partisan.
        
        Warty 13 years ago
        
        HI MISS RECTAL
        
        alten mexikanischen 13 years ago
        
        As I said I think the findings undermine the common individualist tropes about people being responsible for their own success,
        
        But it doesn't undermine that at all. And I think even your average individualist acknowledges that a good teacher can be influential.
        
        and certainly there's significant opposition in the left to standardized testing and merit pay for teachers.
        
        Not quite. There is opposition to using standardized tests as the metric for determining merit pay. This is a much different thing than saying standardized tests don't test anything, or that merit pay is a bad idea. And, of course, much of the opposition to standardized testing coming from Washington is centered on the idea that control of education should be local and not federal...hardly an ideology of the left.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Kathleen Sebelius: The Affordable Care Act, helping Americans curb health-care costs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

The 2010 reform law gives Americans a truly competitive health insurance market. In the past, insurers could get away with huge premium hikes because there was little transparency or accountability. People saw their insurance rates rise but had little way of knowing whether the increase was justified. In a market where consumers had little information, prices and insurance-company profits soared.

The Affordable Care Act is putting consumers back in charge with two new rules that shine much-needed light on the health insurance market. The first requires insurers to justify premium increases of more than 10 percent and to post that information online. The second is the "80-20 rule," which requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on health care, rather than on advertising or executive pay. If they don't, you get a rebate. Together, these changes are creating a health insurance market where premiums stay in check and Americans get their money's worth.
1. J.B. Say what? 13 years ago
  
  Ohh that evil advertising...its much easier to just buy some congress critters and force people to buy your product.
2. DEM 13 years ago
  
  One way to put consumers in charge would be to, I don't know, de-link health insurance from employment and have people actually shop for insurance as opposed to have it chosen for them?
3. Arcaster 13 years ago
  
  The Affordable Care Act is putting consumers back in charge...
  
  Right. Can I negotiate with my insurer about what I want and don't want covered without government clowns telling me what I must have? No? Then I'm not really in charge, and she can go fuck herself.
4. cynical 13 years ago
  
  "The second is the "80-20 rule," which requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on health care, rather than on advertising or executive pay. "
  
  I note that "preventing fraud" was conveniently left out of the second category.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Can Iran close down the Strait of Hormuz?
The ayatollahs' growing armoury is dwarfed by that of the United States. But any attempt to close the oil lanes is likely to lead to a major conflict.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....ormuz.html
1. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Honestly, this sounds like the runup to Desert Storm. "Iraq has the 4th largest army in the world. They have hundreds of tanks. What will the outcome be?" Lots of dead Iranians, a few dead Americans, and a 5-10 year occupation whose death tolls and monetary cost dwarf the initial fight?
  1. Arcaster 13 years ago
    
    Don't forget breeding a whole new generation of people that hate America enough that they're willing to blow themselves up as long as they take a few Americans with them.
  2. db 13 years ago
    
    But just think of the popularity of naming the inevitable anti-blockade war "Operation Strait Flush!"
2. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  I hope they do shut it down - the howls of anger from the consumer/voting public might encourage more imports from other places and some additional drilling at home.
  1. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    US already buys no oil from Iran. Since oil is a fungible commodity, the price would necessarily go up, but there's no direct effect on US oil consumption by an Iranian embargo.
    1. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
      
      Other than the price of oil going up.
      
      The Iranians and Obamas are playing global game of chicken. We know we can destroy them, but only in the short term. In the end, it justifies the mullahs and they go back to preaching against the evil America when we get tired of occupation and leave.
    2. Underpants Gnome 13 years ago
      
      The Straight of Hormuz is the choke point for sea shipping lanes into Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries. A very significant portion of the world's oil production is shipped through there, 40% IIRC.
      1. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Yep, so let everyone else pay to keep it open.
  2. db 13 years ago
    
    The u.s. gets only a small fraction of its oil from the mideast in general. While a blockade would cause worldwide prices to rise it would not have a disastrous effect on our ability to source crude.
    1. db 13 years ago
      
      I retract the previous statement. I was considering the fraction of electricity generated in the u.s. using mideast oil, not overall imports. I need more in fo on toal imports to make an accurate statement.
3. Mike M. 13 years ago
  
  They don't have the capability to do it for more than a few days or so, and if they even seriously tried, nothing would unite the entire western world against them faster. The regime would be utterly destroyed and toppled within a couple of weeks. These guys are crazy, but I don't think they're suicidal crazy.
  1. DEM 13 years ago
    
    Agreed. The notion that Iran could accomplish this agaist even a single US carrier strike group -- not to mention our many land-based aircraft in the region, the likely participation of Isreal, and the deployment of additional US ships to the region -- is ridiculous. I doubt we'd invade Iran over this, but if they try to block the Strait their navy will be obliterated.
    1. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
      
      I doubt the mullahs are concerned about a few naval ships in order to prove a point about America and why the country needs to be united against it.
    2. Restoras 13 years ago
      
      Considering that we get only 15% of our oil from the Persian Gulf, why should we keep it open? How about we contribute 15% of the force necessary to keep it open why those countires that do depend on contribute the bulk of it?
    3. tarran 13 years ago
      
      They don't need a navy to do it. Land based anti-ship missiles should do the trick.
      
      They also have some Oscar class subs that could cause a great deal of mischief if I recall correctly.
      1. AZ 13 years ago
        
        Kilo, not Oscar. Oscars are big-ass nuclear powered cruise missile boats, Kilos are quiet little diesel-electrics (which are quite effective in areas like the Gulf)
      2. DEM 13 years ago
        
        You really think they could close the straight for more than a few days with land-fired missles against even one carrier group that alone (a) has more air power than their entire country and (b) has massive missle-launching capability itself? Iran's missle sites would be bombed to kingdom come. Of course they'd do damage to the US ships but that's not the same thing as keeping the Strait closed.
    4. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      I think the Chinese would be more than happy to reopen the Strait, myself. Its more important to them than it is to us.
      
      We could probably chip in by sinking the subs and taking out the land-based missiles. Let the Chinese have the ship-to-ship stuff. The hegemons who play together, stay together.
      1. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        I like this idea.
  2. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
    
    The regime may be toppled, but so was the taliban...
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Repeating a mistake by downsizing the Army again
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

Here's what the lessons of the past 70 years really teach us: We cannot pick our enemies; our enemies will pick us. They will, as they have always done in the past, cede to us dominance in the air, on sea and in space because they do not have the ability to fight us there. Our enemies have observed us closely in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they have learned the lessons taught by Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh and Saddam Hussein: America's greatest vulnerability is dead Americans. So our future enemy will seek to fight us on the ground, where we have traditionally been poorly prepared. His objective will be to win by not losing, to kill as an end rather than as a means to an end. And we will enter the next war again tragically short of the precious resource that we have neglected for six administrations: our soldiers and Marines.
1. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  So, if I understand this, Americans greatest weakness is dead soldiers, so the way to address that weakness is to have a lot more soldiers to be killed?
  1. Matrix 13 years ago
    
    Well, we should be spending more on R&D to equip troops with better, lighter armor, suits that can immediately react to injuries, such as stopping bleeding in limbs, etc.
    
    We spend a lot on aviation, and I do mean a lot. I work in aviation, and the cost for parts is incredibly high.
    1. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
      
      The highest technology in the world would only get our soldiers killed in new, more novel ways, all at the expense of continuing to drive the US economy into the ground.
      1. Matrix 13 years ago
        
        Technological changes in warfare will always take place, and tactics will continue to change. Yes, our troops will get killed, but trying to minimize the casualties is not a bad idea. Money will always be used to change the technology of warfare, or do you think we'd be just as good in today's world standing in lines with muzzle loaded rifles firing minie balls at our enemies?
        
        Lost_in_translation 13 years ago
        
        f-22's are hundreds of millions of dollars each. I think we could live with some F-16's a while longer.
        
        Matrix 13 years ago
        
        I was talking about arming individual soldiers. And I also support more Unmaned vehicles. Not saying I support the drone strikes our president has been using, but I don't have a problem with actually having drone strikes.
  2. CoyoteBlue 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, it seems having less soldiers would be a way of addressing that vulnerability.
    
    Iranian General: The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.
  3. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    Also, I assume the Mao part of that comment is attributable to Korea. Shit, we didn't stop fighting Korea because of dead soldiers. We stopped because any further fighting was going to lead to a tactical nuclear exchange with China. Also, I don't think spending 65000 lives over 10 years to hold no territory is the same as being squeamish about lost soldiers.
  4. robc 13 years ago
    
    Since we dont lose many soldiers when they are acting as soldiers, maybe the obvious solution is stop using soldiers as policemen.
    
    If we had pulled out of Afghanistan/Iraw after deposing the Taliban/capurint Hussein, they death toll would have been much less.
    
    We dont need many soldiers if we let them use their primary skill set.
2. DEM 13 years ago
  
  The lesson taught by Saddam, who was overrun in two consecutive wars, was captured hiding ina ditch and then executed, and whose countrymen's IED attacks led to a 10 year occupation and a US military surge?
  1. Neu Mejican 13 years ago
    
    The lesson taught TO IRAN by Saddam, who was overrun in two consecutive wars, was captured hiding ina ditch and then executed, and whose countrymen's IED attacks led to a 10 year occupation and a US military surge
    
    is that having Nukes might be a good idea.
3. MNG 13 years ago
  
  Because we need more aircraft carriers and battalions because otherwise people with boxcutters will hit us again...
  1. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    I wonder if this highights the issue of spending priorities. Carriers and battalions of soldiers/marines fulfill the principle responsibility of the federal government and can be justified. The fact that a couple of guys with some box-cutters couls kill 3,000 people doesn't necessarily delegitimize spending for the carriers and battalions, but it might for other things.
    1. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Carriers and battalions of soldiers/marines fulfill the principle responsibility of the federal government and can be justified.
      
      Up to a point. Which I think we passed long ago.
4. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Underneath the jeremiad of a drawdown is actually a very cogent point--that America can't place the burden of its military readiness on technology. He doesn't say it (likely because it would undercut his overall thesis that spending should be maintained across the board), but weapons systems aren't getting any cheaper and we're always buying fewer than we originally intended because contractors under-estimate costs--first in the development phase, and then in the operational phase when the need for maintenance and spare parts arises.
  
  Western armies have always had a robust infantry as their core component, and when they begin neglecting the readiness and capabilities of their ground troops, that deterioration tends to filter over into other military branches.
  
  People first, ideas second, hardware third.
Jerry 13 years ago

South Carolina Primary: Romney 27%, Santorum 24%, Gingrich 18%. This 3-way race is good news for Ron Paul, since he can do better in states like Nevada and Colorado in February.
1. MNG 13 years ago
  
  "This 3-way race is good news for Ron Paul, since he can do better in states like Nevada and Colorado in February."
  
  Indeed, let those f*ckers fight it out for the Southern states. Paul should concentrate on the West where libertarianism sells better.
2. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  He can't just skip SC and FL. Giuliani got destroyed by skipping everything before FL. Also, Gingrich? FFS.
  1. MNG 13 years ago
    
    You're absolutely right. He shouldn't skip, but he should prioritize his time and resources.
  2. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    True.
  3. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
    
    Paul could do well in the South as a whole. Romney isn't popular down here, and no one else has any particular in. South Carolina isn't a typical state by any means, so not doing well there doesn't mean he'd fail in Florida, Virginia, etc.
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      I see your point about S. Carolina not being Virginia or Florida. But Virginia has a lot of military voters and Florida a lot of seniors. Romney and Santorum will whisper sweet promises of continued goodies into the ears of both ("with common sense exceptions for out military and seniors") while Paul has too much integrity to do that..
      1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        He has problems in most states due to his stated goal of taking away the goodies. It's all going to come down to whether voters are more scared of an economic collapse than of a libertarian, program-cutting president.
    2. MNG 13 years ago
      
      S. Carolina, like a true Southern state, can be relied upon to line up and vote for who the establishment direct them to vote for. Even though it is a deeply conservative state socially they lined up and put McCain over Huckabee and Dole over Buchannan (and Buchannan defended their confederate flag flying over the statehoouse iirc), etc.
      
      Virginia is nice though because it is only Romney v. Paul.
      1. fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        Dude, you should get help.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "Dude, you should get help."
        
        By the way, you've gone through the classics, the make claims you don;t expect to get called on, followed by the post things that don;t prove your point and claim they do, followed by the call names and be dismissive, followed by the "get help".
        
        But you still haven't supported your claim.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        What more documentation do you need? I've demonstrated I consistently said FF was a common LE practice. I've demonstrated I was attacked for that stance. I've demonstrated that some people were even quite explicit that it was the claim of commonality that warranted being attacked.
        
        But like I said, it was never about evidence with you. Look at how you can have the gall to criticize me for not acting like an adult and calling names when you post identical responses to half a dozen of my other conversations under handles like "fuck you mng" and call me inter alia "cunt" and such. You've got no pretense to honsety, just juvenile rage. It's laughable, but at this obsessive level a bit troubling.
3. Mike M. 13 years ago
  
  Face it: if Romney is leading in South Carolina, it's already over.
4. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
  
  Funny thing is that this is Paul's best showing (at 11%) in South Carolina, since ever. I think Romney will run away with it, but Paul and romney will be the last ones standing after Super Tuesday.
MNG 13 years ago

Hollywood hates new ideas, and the public approves

"Every single one of the 10 top-grossing films of 2011 was an installment in a franchise (if you assume that Rise of the Planet of the Apes, as its closing credits implied, will spawn more of its genetically mutated kind): Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 at No. 1, followed by Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Twilight: Breaking Dawn, The Hangover, Part 2, and on down the line.

It's not till you get down to numbers 11 and 12, Bridesmaids and The Help?one from an original script, the other based on a best-selling novel?that stand-alone movies start to appear."

http://www.slate.com/articles/.....arty_.html
1. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Looks like more of the same for 2012.
  
  I'm just gonna keep telling myself that the Disney version of Barsoom will not suck. WILL NOT SUCK!
  1. JW 13 years ago
    
    He missed The Dark Knight Rises
    
    Being part of a franchise is not necessarily a bad thing. We like it for books, but for movies it's a bad thing? Bogus.
    
    Looking forward to The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus.
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      Yeah, I think the whining can be overplayed. Franchises just signal something familiar usually because it has been shown to work. And of course every franchise started out as a new idea once. The article notes that the number 11 film was a new idea that is going to spawn its own franchise, so new ideas are still making it. They just have somewhat of a disadvantage vs. known entities.
      
      I'm also looking forward to those three films.
      1. fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
2. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
  
  I liked The Help. A little Disneyfied, but still a decent film.
3. JW 13 years ago
  
  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 at No. 1, followed by Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Twilight: Breaking Dawn, The Hangover, Part 2,
  
  One of these is not like the others.
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    They're all sequels.
    
    It seems like half of Hollywood is sequels and remakes.
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      You know what I am tired of? Reboots in franchises. I simply don't want to sit through another retelling of Superman or Spider-man's origin. There are so many stories to tell there and they keep telling the original one over and over.
      1. fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "I have a couple of posts bookmarked that say otherwise, "
        
        Really? You have posts bookmarked that outline why you're continuously attacked? Let's see em.
        
        "want to put something on the line you "forgetful fuck?""
        
        let's. Name an escrow and an amount cunt.
      2. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        My movie going has declined precipitously in the last few years. There is so much crap, and I can usually find something more to my liking on TV.
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        So much this. There has to be one big, motherfucking movie for me to go and tolerate an actual theater.
        
        They closed the only local cinema and draft-house near me years ago. That alone made going worthwhile.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        TV really has improved over the past few decades. Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Mad Men. Often better than any given movie out and in much more time-manageable chunks.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        An "adult" like one who posts as "fuck you mng" as his handle?
        
        You're too funny cunty.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        I'm four episodes into Game of Thrones - quite good, I think. Deadwood was awesome. I liked Carnival and wished it had continued for a third season. Rome was excellent.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        I was a big Rome fan. Not that many people rave about it, but I thought it was a real gem. I'm hoping to check out Carnival.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
    2. JW 13 years ago
      
      As I noted above, big deal.
      
      Being a sequel doesn't equal being a bad film. It increases the odds of it sucking, but in no way is it a kiss of death.
      
      Besides, I happen to *like* story arcs. This is what set Babylon 5 apart from it's contemporaries.
      1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        Sequels don't bother me. Reboots of anything "classic" or less than 20-30 years old generally do. I also fail to see the need to take a title and some slight subset of the original to make something mostly different.
      2. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Sure, and I agree that Harry Potter and Twilight are both on a narrative arc that everyone knew was coming. Transformers, though? Or Hangover? Distinctly not on narrative arcs. Just going through the motions.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        Consumers, of course, are the problem. And, as William Goldman is fond of saying about the decision-makers in Hollywood, "Nobody knows anything." It's a hundred million dollar crap shoot, almost every time.
        
        Another problem is the globalization of plots and characters. The world market is so important now that they make films that are more easily translated into foreign markets.
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        Transformers, though? Or Hangover? Distinctly not on narrative arcs. Just going through the motions.
        
        Agreed. I would also present the first 3 Star Wars (Ewoks not withstanding) buttressing the argument for sequels. Granted, episodes 1-3 seriously undermine that statement, but Empire makes it tolerable.
        
        We'll just pretend that 1, 2 & 3 never happened.
        
        Underpants Gnome 13 years ago
        
        You can't un-see Jar Jar Binks. Ever.
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        You'sa right, boss! Me'sa sufferin the loooooong Ja-Ja nightmare!
        
        Michael Bay 13 years ago
        
        I see your "narrative arc" and raise you a BOOOOMMMM!!! EXPLOSHUNS!!!!
4. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Movies are basically catering now to three audiences--nerds, kids, and women, because they're the most likely to bring in bucks to theaters right now. The 18-35 year old male demographic, which has been the most desired for a long time, makes up a large portion of the first, but not enough to filter over into other genres. They're a lot more likely nowadays to stay home and spend $60 on a video game that they can get over 100 hours of their time out of, or watch streaming video of their favorite television shows. They don't see the point anymore in spending upwards of $20 for two hours of entertainment when they have more appealing, cost-effective options that cater to their sensibilities.
  1. Libertymike 13 years ago
    
    Ah, but what about the experience of playing hooky from work on a Wednesday afternoon in order to roll a fatty and enjoy a matinee?
    1. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      I used to play hooky from work, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
    2. Restoras 13 years ago
      
      I did that to see It Might Get Loud, sans the fatty. Still a great friday afternoon.
5. Winded 13 years ago
  
  Since it's been covered pretty heavily on Reason, I thought I'd mention for those unaware in the Chicago area that Battle For Brooklyn is playing tonight, Tuesday and Thursday at the Gene Siskel Film Center downtown on State Street.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

The Other Reason Europe Is Going Broke
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01.....lobal-home

But G.D.P. per capita (an insufficient indicator, but one most economists use) in the U.S. is nearly 50 percent higher than it is in Europe. Even Europe's best-performing large country, Germany, is about 20 percent poorer than the U.S. on a per-person basis (and both countries have roughly 15 percent of their populations living below the poverty line). While Norway and Sweden are richer than the U.S., on average, they are more comparable to wealthy American microeconomies like Washington, D.C., or parts of Connecticut ? both of which are actually considerably wealthier. A reporter in Greece once complained after I compared her country to Mississippi, America's poorest state. She's right: the comparison isn't fair. The average Mississippian is richer than the average Greek.
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  But there's less inequality!
  
  Better for everyone to be equally poor than to have someone to envy!
  
  That and free health care, trains, health care!
  1. AlmightyJb 13 years ago
    
    Social Justice man.
Matrix 13 years ago

As if we didn't have enough reason to hate New York.

Marine arrested for volunteering to check his firearm at the Empire State Building.

Here's my advice regarding traveling to NYC... stay the **** away!
1. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  and if you want to get your blood pressure up, read some of the comments from people defending the law.
  1. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    To be fair, he is a baby-raping, kill-crazy Marine. Plenty of New Yorkers probably support locking him up on the basis alone, as a preemptive measure.
    1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
      
      Fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, etc.
2. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  It's actually a bit of a trend, as there have been 3 similar cases in the news lately.
  1. JW 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, I noticed that as well. Maybe a coordinated setup for a SCOTUS challenge?
    1. RoboCain 13 years ago
      
      I doubt it was deliberate as they all have a substantial risk of going to prison for a long time. Although it is interesting considering HR 822.
      
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....97997.html
RoboCain 13 years ago

"Federal dollars also paid a Utah dance company to teach children in 10 elementary schools how to dance for environmental justice. "Kinesthetic learning," the EPA reports, "will be used to examine air quality issues and encourage youth and their families to adopt healthy living practices.""

http://dailycaller.com/2012/01.....ce-grants/
1. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  This is just a backdoor effort to get PE back into schools.
  1. Anonymous Coward 13 years ago
    
    Why not teach the kids something less lame, like Karate?
    1. Brett L 13 years ago
      
      If we teach them self-defense, they might not feel the need for state interference in every part of their life.
2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Apparently all the poz from California is now filtering into Utah as well.
  1. Monty 13 years ago
    
    Yep
  2. Loki 13 years ago
    
    It's spreading like a disease.
3. Underpants Gnome 13 years ago
  
  Examining air quality issues through kinesthetic learning -- I just lost a little bit of my soul reading that.
4. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  "how to dance for environmental justice."
  
  What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?
SugarFree 13 years ago

From those terrible right-wing hacks at CBS News...

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations
By Sharyl Attkisson

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:

"Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks."
1. MNG 13 years ago
  
  Lord, this was posted here, what, two weeks ago? As I said then this doesn't change much. Of course they were going to point to the sales that were going on, most of which were not ones they were allowing ("emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF," note "including"), to justify things like funding or new tactics.
  
  This is common. LE agencies often form task forces or units to target illegal sales of X, Y or Z. A common way to target them is to let them walk under surveillance. LE agencies enact such programs BECAUSE they see a problem in what is going on, and for the SAME reason they will push for funding and tactics to address the problem. That's just so unremarkable...
  1. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    My issue with this, aside from the cover-up and whitewashing of it, is the attempt by a US government agency - one that presumably works for the taxpayers/citizens - to advance an agenda that infringes on my second amendment rights.
    
    ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.
    
    INFRINGE
    1: to encroach upon in a way that violates law or the rights of another
    1. MNG 13 years ago
      
      Restoras
      Do you think reporting sales "infringes" on the right?
      1. fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "I have a couple of posts bookmarked that say otherwise, "
        
        Really? You have posts bookmarked that outline why you're continuously attacked? Let's see em.
        
        "want to put something on the line you "forgetful fuck?""
        
        let's. Name an escrow and an amount cunt.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        You want to dispute that I was attacked because I argued the tactic was not a novel LE tactic? Because I take that bet. But your money bets are silly. Let's have some real fun. When I provide them you email Reason and have them identify your usual handle, and then you come on here under that handle and say "My God I'm an idiot, MNG was right and I was wrong." I'll put up the same.
        
        Deal?
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "You want to dispute that I was attacked because I argued the tactic was not a novel LE tactic?"
        
        No, you disingenuous goalpost moving twat, I want to dispute that the reason you are "continuously attacked" is because you claim this program was "not novel".
        
        Don't change your argument now that you have to back it up asshole.
        
        And I want MONEY. YOU care about the motherfuckers here, but that currency is worthless to me.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        I've always rested my argument on that this is a not novel LE tactic
        
        MNG|9.27.11 @ 10:00AM|#
        The problem with all the conjecture is that Art P.O.G. is wrong; there's a perfectly sensible (though damning also) explanation for this operation. Allowing, even fostering sales of illegal materials in order to investigate networks involved in that trade is a not unheard of or uncomprehensible practice in law enforcement.
        
        MNG|9.29.11 @ 10:04AM|#
        I've been telling people caught up in Gunwalker conspiracy fever for weeks now that it is common practice for law enforcement agencies to allow and even supply people with illegal goods in order to make cases and track networks. Viola, duh.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        ""You want to dispute that I was attacked because I argued the tactic was not a novel LE tactic?"
        
        No, you disingenuous goalpost moving twat, I want to dispute that the reason you are "continuously attacked" is because you claim this program was "not novel".
        
        Don't change your argument now that you have to back it up asshole.
        
        And I want MONEY. YOU care about the motherfuckers here, but that currency is worthless to me."
        
        No you haven't 13 years ago
        
        've always rested my argument on that this is a not novel LE tactic
        
        Liar.
        
        My contention all along has been that I don't buy the conclusion that this program is so wacky and unfathomable that its only explanation must be politically motivated to spur gun control
        
        You lie.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        "'ve always rested my argument on that this is a not novel LE tactic
        
        Liar."
        
        MNG|10.18.11 @ 10:54AM|#
        And of course I have much more to support my theory that, as it stands, this looks like a routine (though morally reprehensible) LE program
        
        MNG|9.27.11 @ 10:00AM|#
        Allowing, even fostering sales of illegal materials in order to investigate networks involved in that trade is a not unheard of or uncomprehensible practice in law enforcement.
        
        MNG|10.18.11 @ 10:27AM|#
        I'd said its routine
        
        Poor lil' cunty...
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        ""'ve always rested my argument on that this is a not novel LE tactic
        
        Liar."
        
        So I provide demonstrable proof that this is where I've rested my argument and you...change the goalposts (now I'm not lying about that, now you want to talk about if I have posts show I was attacked for claiming it was common).
        
        But what would we expect from one so rage-filled and deranged as you seem to be?
        
        And what can we say of the regular commentators here that they can't muster a "WTF" to someone who posts under an abusive spoof-type handle the same posts over half a dozen times in the middle of totally different conversations being carried on? If WI or rather did this there would be howling and ridicule. But not one word? I suspect this has to do with the juvenile click that has such a problem with WI/rather, but which mirrors her in many ways, being in on this...
      2. MNG 13 years ago
        
        I think this definition of infringe is the better one btw:
        
        2.Act so as to limit or undermine
        
        I'm not sure my right to keep and to bear arms would be limited by the fact that the initial purchase of the gun were recorded. That's like saying my right to travel is infringed by recording the sale of my car.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        "I have a couple of posts bookmarked that say otherwise, "
        
        Really? You have posts bookmarked that outline why you're continuously attacked? Let's see em.
        
        "want to put something on the line you "forgetful fuck?""
        
        let's. Name an escrow and an amount cunt.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Cars are not something that the government views as a threat to its authority.
      3. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        My distrust of government runs deep, MNG. No, it does not strictly speaking infringe on my right. But it could in the future.
        
        MNG 13 years ago
        
        I agree it probably should be opposed on slippery slope policy grounds and deserved mistrust of the government. But I don't think it itself infringes.
        
        fuck you mng 13 years ago
        
        SO you're saying you don't have any bookmarks tht show you were "continuously attacked" for claiming f&f is "not novel"?
        
        We knew that because you're a liar who thinks saying things like "yummy tears with my lunch" scores points in a debate with an adult.
        
        Libertymike 13 years ago
        
        Of course it does.
        
        The 2A does not provide that the state gets to license / register ANY sales of guns.
P Brooks 13 years ago

And we will enter the next war again tragically short of the precious resource that we have neglected for six administrations: our soldiers and Marines.

Jesus sheep-fucking Christ in a hot air balloon.

What if we trick 'em, and just not send any of our troops to "nation-build" some gravelly, destitute shithole. Wake me up when they storm Venice Beach.
1. The Culture 13 years ago
  
  Wake me up when they storm Venice Beach
  
  Only if you promise to go to sleep until then. Deal?
Huck 13 years ago

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

Anyone else having fun watching Obama cheerleaders react to Glen Greenwald?
1. RoboCain 13 years ago
  
  Not really, but I thought Greenwald's piece was most excellent.
  
  http://www.salon.com/2011/12/3.....singleton/
  1. Devil's Advocate 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, I had a "Hell must be freezing over, because I am agreeing with Glen Greenwald!" epiphany myself this morning.
    1. RoboCain 13 years ago
      
      While people describe him as a liberal, he is refreshingly non-partisan.
      1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
        
        He's a liberal who actually believes in civil liberties, instead of pimping for the TEAM that allegedly represents him. I totally disagree with his economics, but I respect his integrity.
        
        JW 13 years ago
        
        He may be the successor to Nat Hentoff.
        
        I don't regularly read Greenwald, in fact, only when he's linked here, but I do respect the guy for said integrity. Partisans' true colors are always revealed when one of "their own" gores their beloved, chosen ox.
2. kinnath 13 years ago
  
  I read both pieces and admired both them.
  
  And yes, I love the idiots at Salon frothing at the mouth over the brutal assessment of Obama's war and civils rights record.
  1. RoboCain 13 years ago
    
    While I was sure that Obama was not going to be an economic conservative, I had honestly hoped he would have at least been somewhat of a social liberal.
    1. kinnath 13 years ago
      
      Looking back at 2008, one would have expected Obama to be a disaster on economic matters but at least a positive influence on the imperial presidency and civil rights. McCain would have been the mirror image (with obvious limits because McCain has always been a dickhead).
      
      But, Obama has, in fact, turned out to be an utter disaster in both economic and civil matters.
      
      I made a comment a couple of days ago that no one responded to. I got hooked on the new Starz show "Boss" last fall, and suddenly I recognized Obama as a corrupt Chicago-machine politician with a degenerative brain disease. It makes his entire presidency so easy to explain.
      1. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Obama was a total product of the Chicago machine, which was perfectly obvious 4 years ago.
        
        Why anyone would expect him to be better on those very things (executive power, civil rights, ethics) that the Chicago machine is famously bad on has always puzzled me.
        
        kinnath 13 years ago
        
        True that.
        
        But hoping that he has a degenerative brain disease that works rapidly at least gives me some hope for a change regardless of how unlikely that might be.
P Brooks 13 years ago

there have been 3 similar cases in the news lately.

It's a form of entrapment. Apparently, there are signs saying "No GUNZ HIER!!!!"

People apparently make the completely erroneous assumption that those signs are there because the multitude of people otherwise legally packing need to be made aware of the specific local restriction.

HAHA, SUCKERS!
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

How CNN describes the House bank incident:

Santorum noted his role in the "Gang of Seven," a group of freshman Republican lawmakers who exposed a scandal at the House bank in the early 1990s, before Gingrich rose to power as speaker.

How the National Journal describes the same events:

He enlisted in the "Gang of Seven," a group of young firebrands (including, among others, the current speaker, John Boehner) who exploited operational defects in the House bank and post office to insinuate Democratic corruption.
P Brooks 13 years ago

he is a baby-raping, kill-crazy Marine.

We apparently need more of these; maybe the AUTHORITIES can offer him clemency if he re-enlists.
P Brooks 13 years ago

So why did you propose that these positions, which have nothing to do with left-right, would please and anger based on left-right status?

He has a stick, and he wants somebody to throw it for him.
Homad Raseem 13 years ago

Looks like they may well be onto something dude.

http://www.Privacy-Pros.tk
Constitutional Believer 13 years ago

Biggest Threat to US Comes From Within Our Own Government!
A Tyrannical Dictatorship! Dictatorships with the military might to yield on US soil with the reversed comme positatus! And now the powers that be, can use the mere suggestion that anyone can be a "enemy combatant" because of a person's belief and/or opinion that can be considered rebellious if it's not the same as the Tyrannical Dictatorship's view.
This Violation should Never Happen Again! Impeachable! http://www.exposeobama.com/201.....ity-fraud/
Now, you can help make the corrections to Our Republic, Help Save Our Constitution!
When the people fear the government, that's Tyranny!
When the government fears the people, that's Liberty!
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing!
Now Is the Time for All Good Men and Women to come to the aid of Our Country!
Make the Difference and Take a Stand with other Good Men and Women.
Info @ http://www.wakeupamerica.com/constitutionalbelievers
Take Care and GOD BLESS The Whole World!
Sincerely
Mr. Harris
ConstitutionalBelievers@hot.rr.com
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

An Army reservist who took the stage at a political event for Ron Paul and expressed his support for the Republican presidential candidate could face legal troubles, the military said Thursday.

Cpl. Jesse Thorsen, 28, stood at a podium at the Paul rally in Iowa on Tuesday night wearing his military fatigues and said meeting the Texas congressman was like "meeting a rock star."
1. Lost_In_Translation 13 years ago
  
  If he shouldn't have been wearing fatigues, he shouldn't have been wearing fatigues. He'll probably have shit-can duty for a month. Maybe it was worth it, maybe it wasn't.
  1. tr0g 13 years ago
    
    Don't they give the yutes a Hatch Act briefing anymore?
2. Arcaster 13 years ago
  
  Yeah, the military frowns on making any political statements in uniform. When I was in the AF, three of my coworkers were part of a counter-protest to PETA's protest of a KFC. Our bosses were cool with us taking a little extra time at lunch, but they reiterated "no uniform" about a dozen times.
  1. Arcaster 13 years ago
    
    *coworkers and I
Life On The Mississippi 13 years ago

This was fifteen or sixteen years ago. Since then I have wandered
aimlessly about the earth, sometimes at work, sometimes idle; sometimes
with money, sometimes with none; but always tired of life, and wishing
it was done, for my mission here was finished, with the act of that
night; and the only pleasure, solace, satisfaction I had, in all those
tedious years, was in the daily reflection, 'I have killed him!'
Warty 13 years ago

Fast Food Chain Serves 'Darth Vader' Burgers

Make sure to read the comments. A+.

2,378 comments
Popular NowNewest Oldest Most Replied

1099Please sign in to rate!Please sign in to rate!16Gulfranger ? Ocala, Florida ? 20 hours ago
These are not the burgers you're looking for.
21 Replies

1002Please sign in to rate!Please sign in to rate!21Charles 20 hours ago
I find your lack of taste disturbing
35 Replies

705Please sign in to rate!Please sign in to rate!6Matt ? Memphis, Tennessee ? 18 hours ago
I feel a great disturbance in the force. As if a million colons screamed in terror and were suddenly silenced....
29 Replies

177Please sign in to rate!Please sign in to rate!3DonC ? Pigeon, Michigan ? 15 hours ago
Help me Alka-seltzer Plus....... you're my only hope.
1 Reply
1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
  
  The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the cashier; now I am the manager.
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    "No. I am your Whopper."
    
    "No... that's not true! That's impossible!"
    
    [Whopper Jr. lets go of railing]
    1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
      
      "But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some fries and McBurgers!"
      1. JW 13 years ago
        
        "Get in there, you big furry oaf! I don't care what you smell!"
    2. JW 13 years ago
      
      "Look, Your Worshipfulness, let's get one thing straight. I take orders from just one person: the customer."
      1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        It's a wonder you still have a job.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Are you sure he does?
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        "It's a wonder you're still alive employed"
        
        better?
2. JW 13 years ago
  
  "Good. good! I can feel the grease running through you."
  
  "That's no burger..."
  
  "Never tell me the odds!"
3. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  After that last burger I had the Kessel runs for, like, twelve parsecs.
  1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
    
    At last, that line is explained.
4. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  You're going to eat that thing? You're braver than I thought.
  1. NoVAHockey 13 years ago
    
    We don't serve your kind here!
5. Warty 13 years ago
  
  "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself."
  1. Lost_in_translation 13 years ago
    
    I've made alot of special condiments myself.
6. JW 13 years ago
  
  "Don't try to frighten us with your culinary ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient hamburger has not helped you conjure up the stolen pickles, or given you enough clairvoyance to find the rebels' hidden bathroom..."
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    I find your lack of taste disturbing.
7. Warty 13 years ago
  
  "And I thought they smelled bad on the outside!"
8. JW 13 years ago
  
  "What good's a Happy Meal if you ain't around to use it? Besides, attacking that hamburger ain't my idea of courage. It's more like... suicide."
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    Okay. Take care of your toy JW. I guess that's what you're best at isn't it?
9. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  Close the bathroom door!
  
  Open the bathroom door! Open the bathroom door!
10. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
  
  Never. I'll never cook the french fries. You've failed, your highness. I am a cashier, like my father before me.
11. Warty 13 years ago
  
  So this is how a toilet dies.
  1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
    
    Foul! The prequels aren't canon.
    1. Warty 13 years ago
      
      So this is how a series dies...with thunderous scorn.
      
      For the record, the originals suck too.
      1. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        I will say this for the first two: At the time, they were revelations.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Before watching ESB I'd never more looked forward to a sequel, and after watching ROTJ I never psyched myself up for a sequel again.
12. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  I don't whether to be impressed or frightened by this virtuoso display of nerdosity.
  
  I guess impressed, because I recognized every single line.
  1. Arcaster 13 years ago
    
    I feel more at home. Here's the real question: Who else is playing SWTOR?
    1. SFC B 13 years ago
      
      I'm a republic trooper on the Davin Estates server.
13. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
  
  These grill marks--too accurate for high schoolers. Only Hamburger U graduates are so precise.
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    Nice try, but Hamburger U is run by McDonalds and their food doesn't have grill marks.
    1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
      
      Very good. I was thinking that but didn't let it stop me. Besides, who is to say what arcane arts they teach at Hamburger University?
14. Warty 13 years ago
  
  Don't be too proud of this gustatorial terror you've constructed.
  1. Loki 13 years ago
    
    ...the ability to a destroy a digestive tract is insignificant next to the power of the fries.
P Brooks 13 years ago

And what can we say of the regular commentators here that they can't muster a "WTF" to someone who posts under an abusive spoof-type handle

He's throwing your stick for you, what else do you want?
1. Warty 13 years ago
  
  Shhh. If you don't say anything, maybe the moron won't realize he's arguing with rectal.
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    I like how it's our fault that he's arguing with her. It's all our fault. I had no idea I had that sort of power. For my next act of board omnipotence, I plan on making Tulpa and Ken tongue kiss.
    1. Warty 13 years ago
      
      CLIQUE
    2. Tulpa 13 years ago
      
      Maybe if you guys fostered a less hostile atmo in the comments it would be easier to tell the trolls from the regulars.
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Yes. It's all our fault. You and Ken and MNG have been running that meme for a couple of months now. joe, Dan T and your little buddy MNG had a hostile "atmo" going here long before I showed up.
        
        By the way... That was her yesterday on the car thread. Epi didn't post even once. See how far being on her side has got you?
        
        Tulpa 13 years ago
        
        I'm not the first man to be taken in by the promise of some action.

Please log in to post comments

A.M. Links: Boston Globe Endorses Jon Huntsman, Jon Huntsman Endorses Indefinite Detention, Emails Surface About Fast and Furious's Predecessor Program

Latest

The Senate Just Passed Rand Paul's Bill To Block Trump's Tariffs on Canada

Joe Rogan Is Right: It Is 'Kind of Crazy' To Deport Innocent People Mistakenly Identified As Gang Members

Javier Milei's Free Market Reforms Are Starting To Pay Off

Americans Are Deeply Skeptical of Trump's 'Liberation Day' Tariffs

Can Trump Broker a TikTok Sale Before the April 5 Deadline?

Recommended

Login Form