Google to Join Wikipedia in Protesting SOPA/PIPA, Occupy Wall Street Runs Out of Cash, Democrats Collect 1 Million Signatures for Scott Walker Recall Petition: P.M. Links

• In response to SOPA/PIPA, Wikipedia will go dark, Google will "place a link on its homepage." 

• OWS freezes spending. 
• Democrats claimed to have gathered 1 million signatures for the ouster of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. 
• The SEC loses its inspector general.
• Paula Deen has diabetes, will do ads for diabetes drugs. 
• Americans are not saving. 
• A new D.C. law that protects "rat families" has Virginians freaking out about a rat exodus. 

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

Is that one million names from Wisconsin, or from the whole country?

I think I'm going to go eat some sausage gravy and biscuits in solidarity for Mrs. Deen, who is catching heck, like she invented fattening food or something.

[Michelle Obama]

Oh, that pasty honky bitch had it comin'.

[Libertymike]

Let's see if Tman, the Rev. Blue Moon et al are hypocrites.

They got their panties in a bunch in an earlier thread when I used the word nigger in condemning a black cop who assaulted an unarmed white kid who was intoxicated. The cop took the kid down while attempting to strangle him.

If they are consistent, they should be up in arms with your use of the word honky.

Of course, it is okay in a free society to use words like cunt, nigger and honky.

There are no special words the use of which should be verboten. Not in a free society - particularly in a forum which is ostensibly dedicated to liberty and not to politically correct orthodoxy.

Sure, some may posit that your post is being made in satire, so its okay to use the word nigger in satire or in a literary context but not in describing a tax feeding, violent, affrimative action piece of garbage.

[Citizen Nothing]

Oh, poor, poor little LM. Forever Atlanta to Rev. BM's Sherman.

[Mongo]

'Honky' is kind of a funny word.

'Peckerwood' seems to rile up white folk more...

[John]

I prefer Cracker. The Atlanta negro league baseball team was the Atlanta Crackers. That is fucking great.

[SIV]

The Atlanta Crackers were not a Negro League team.

[MJ]

No they were not.

The Atlanta Black Crackers, however, were.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.....-1966&hl=y

[Grandpa Whithers]

True this. I have a hat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your average non-southern, non-white American is unlikely to know what the hell a peckerwood is or why it is insulting (loud, tiny-brained, destructive).

[JW]

I'm sure you'll turn lots of minds around with this iron-clad line of reasoning.

You're just a rebel, stickin' it to The Man and all his rules.

[Libertymike]

The point is that no sane person should get their panties in a bunch just because another uses the word nigger to describe a tax feeding black cop who assaults and attempts to strangle a defensless kid.

CN, perhaps the Rev. was one of Sherman's soldiers who made sport of "thumbing" negros.

[Citizen Nothing]

Yeah, yeah, if the officer had been Jewish, you'd call him a kike; if a woman, a cunt; if gay, a faggot. Yeah, LM - that kind of erudition indicates bravery on a grand scale.

[Libertymike]

You mean the type of bravery sherman's soldiers exhibited when they "thumbed" negros?

[Bill]

Normally I hate PC language and restrictions but using words like that allow visitors here to dismiss the site as a racist site. It feeds into their own preconceived notions of what Reason or libertarianism or Ron Paul is all about. With the newsletters having been in the news, some people already have the wrong idea.

In other words, you are making us look bad.

[Rather]

"In other words, you are making us look bad"

No, it isn't a "look"

[Pron]

so says the person that wears a strapon when greeting LDS who knock on her door.

[rather]

I have this libertarian view that my place is my castle , and whatever I choose to wear, or do is my business.

And BTW, even my grandma knew that was a joke

[dunphy]

he didn't assault anybody. he used reasonable, and in fact quite exemplary force and that is why i posted the link... as a counterexample to the criminal and excessive force used in the melbourne incident (as cited by reason)

the melbourne cop assaulted (imo) the gentleman

the LV metro PD cop used reasonable force, which certainly means it was not an assault, and executed it near flawlessly.

it is a TEXTBOOK example of how i would want a cop to use force in that situation.

and thankfully, the cameras were there to document it

[Libertymike]

Yes, he did.

The kid did not attack the cop. The cop was the one who initiated the force. End of story.

failure to comply with a tax feeder is not grounds for assault. Not in a free society.

There can be no rule of law where the same does not equally apply to the king's men.

If a person refuses to comply with a cop's directives, too fucking bad.

[dunphy]

under the UOF continuum, police are allowed to be ones who "initiate force".

this may not fly in your fantasy world, but in the real world, under commonsense case law, UOF guidelines, etc. - this is how it works.

most times i place handcuffs on somebody, that itself is an "initiation of force"

deal with it

[Libertymike]

In a free society, there are no special rules for cops.

IOW, if a non-cop commands another to put up their hands or to stop or to answer questions, the non-cop does not have a right to use force in order to secure the compliance of the other.

True, the case law has evolved to the point where failure to comply with the commands of the cop is treated as a crime.

If you have not already noticed, I am not arguing that CURRENT case law (the authors of which are paid by the same entity which pays the cop's salary) butresses my point.

Dunphy, in fact, the law continues to move in the direction of making it a crime to resist cops who illegally invade your home and are pointing a gun at you.

Are you aware that there is a substantial body of jurisprudence which rejected the proposition that an individual had to submit to the commands of a peace officer and that an individual had a right to resist the unlawful aggression of the peace officer?

Are you familiar with Hopkin Huggett's case or Queen v. Tooley?

You appear to be oblivious to the fact that many here, including me, argue that the current state of the law represents a radical departure from our heritage.

Peace officers were just that. They knew that they did not have the right to aggress upon just anybody for any cause and they knew that if they were mistaken in the execution of an arrest, they could expect to face resistance, up to and including death, by justified citizen.

"commonsense caselaw" (to which you refer) is the very quintessence of oxymoron.

[dunphy]

your normative arguments are nice, but i hold cops accountable for violating the UOF continuum, and similarly i applaud them for following it.

in your fantasy world, we woul d have a different one. great.

fortunately, we have a pretty good one, and this cop followed it near flawlessly

[Tulpa]

IOW, if a non-cop commands another to put up their hands or to stop or to answer questions, the non-cop does not have a right to use force in order to secure the compliance of the other.

If you catch someone in the midst of the commission of a serious crime, you have the right to detain them as a citizen.

[dunphy]

correct. and of course cops are specifically tasked with investigating crimes, to include inchoate crimes, and are given the authority to detain on RS.cops also have very extensive rules, case law etc. they have to comply with

if this guy ran from the McD's after vandalizing it (according to the report, quite severely) nobody would blink twice, if a McD's employee chased after him and tackled him

heck, i've responded to plenty of cases like that.

big fucking deal.

regardless, this is typical reasonoid "logic" where they try to make some kind of "analogy" to something that is disanalogous. the cop was CALLEd there based on a complaint, and he is tasked with investigating, etc.

likely, what would have happened If the guy cooperated was the cop would have detained him (based on description etc.) and a witness from the scene would be transported to the place where the cop detained the suspect. and if the witness could positively ID him, then there would be PC

it didn't GET to that point, because he refused to comply with a reasonable demand, issued at least 4 times.

he has NOBODY to blame but himself.

[Michael S. Langston]

In this society and in any small government society, police do operate under different rules than others.

This is by social contract and required as citizens have correctly used the government to provide a justice system, where the enforcement arm holds a monopoly on the use of force.

Disclaimer: the statements above do not imply any opinions I might have with respect to the individual cases being discussed, policy in general, or the justice system as a whole.

But the fact is, by giving the government the monopoly on the right to use force, its use of that force will be treated differently from that of any other citizen.

[dunphy]

rubbish. there is no such monopoly on use of force.

[Banjos]

Come the fuck on! Monopolization of force is the motherfucking definition of government. Even statist accept that definition. They can steal, we cannot, they can counterfeit, we cannot, they can kidnap, we cannot, they can kill, we cannot. It is fine if you believe that it is legitimate for government to have a monopolization on force, just grow a fucking pair and admit that it is true.

[dunphy]

then the problem is defining terms. govt. does not have the monopoly on force, in that non-govt. agents can and do legally use force, to include deadly force.

that's completely tangential to the facts of this incident, which i used to illustrate JUSTIFIABLE force vs. the melbourne incident, which based on my training, experience, and common sense clearly was NOT justified force.

force is often very ugly, but there are specific criteria we can apply to determine whether it's justified

there are many cases where people can disagree. there are others where, if one is making decisions based on the LAW, one cannot, such as the instant case

regardless, yes you are correct that govt. has certain powers WE do not (taxing being an obvious one).

when it comes to FORCE, i was referring to physical force, which govt. hardly has a monopoly on

[TrickyVic]

""rubbish. there is no such monopoly on use of force.""

Depends on where you are. In NYC, the odds are you will be arrested for defending yourself.

But lest don't pretend it's an equal situation. A cop can attack someone unlawfully and the person does NOT have the right to defend themselves.

Monopoly is just a red herring.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, that really is Michelle Obama, Mr. Burke.

Fucking spoofs! How do they work?

[Tulpa]

Every time I've heard the word "honky" in a non-ironic way was from a white person searching for a word they could get upset about. I've heard "nigger" spoken with total seriousness and derogation on many occasions.

And that still rings true, unless that really was Michelle Obama posting.

[Coeus]

Yeah, peckerwoood and cracker are really the go-to terms.

[dunphy]

i think the last person to use "honky" in a nonironic manner was fred sanford.

and "freddie's dead" although that refers to freddie prinze iirc.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

...and "freddie's dead" although that refers to freddie prinze iirc.

No. It's about Fat Freddie from the film Superfly.

[dunphy]

i DID NOT KNOW THAT.

thank you. i have always thought it was about freddy prinze (not sure why. probably because at one point somebody told me and i believed them)

thank you for edumacating me. !

[EDG reppin' LBC]

You were probably confused because it was the 70's and, like, everyone was on acid, dude.

[dunphy]

watch out for the brown acid. it's a bad trip, man

actually it was years AFTER i heard fishbone's version of freddy's dead, that i realized it was a 70's tune.

i hadn't realized it was a cover.

great song, either way

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Let's see if I give a fiddlyfuck that your little feelings are hurt.

LM, tell me when your birthday is and I will send you a five-dollar FRN with "To my buddy Mike Burke, from your A#1 Nigga, Abe L. P.S. Keep that Stars-and-Bars hand strong!" written on it.

[what?]

nigger honky whatever. dont' care

[Pips]

Yes, because the history between both races is the same. Sorry, but no.

[-]

My thoughts and comments are important, so I must attach them to the first comment, lest they be overlooked: What happens if Wiki goes dark and nobody notices?*

 

 

*Rhetorical question

[Fist of Etiquette]

In response to SOPA/PIPA, Wikipedia will go dark, Google will "place a link on its homepage."

That's why there were no links yesterday. On MLK Day, Reason went dark to protest SOPA.

[Tulpa]

On MLK Day, Reason went dark

Racist.

[Jeff P.]

Look, once you go dark you never go back...

[Correction...]

Once you go dark you lose the ability to snark...

[Jeff P.]

That explains Lisa Lampenelli...

[John]

Cuccinelli said D.C.'s new rat law--the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 (Wildlife Protection Act of 2010.pdf) --is "crazier than fiction" because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably in families; no glue or snap traps can be utilized; the rodents must be relocated from where they are captured; and some of these animals may need to be transferred to a "wildlife rehabilitator" as part of their relocation process.

I wouldn't want the OWS hippies in my state either, let alone whole families of them.

[Kromulent Kristen]

Holy fuck - I'm glad I don't live in DC. Any vermin that dares enter my space is murdered with extreme prejudice. I'd be driving to the 'burbs to get the nastiest snap trap I could find if I had a rodent problem in DC (which I did at one point....if the condo building you're living in offers exterminator service, take it. Otherwise all the mice will run to your place.)

[Somalian Road Corporation]

This makes me think of the comments I've been reading on Glen Greenwald's articles and elsewhere about how it doesn't matter if the government can jail and kill citizens with no due process and conduct endless war, the only thing that matters is holding off the wrath of Gaia, so.... OBAMA 2012! WOO!

[Maxxx]

Cuccinelli said D.C.'s new rat law--the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 (Wildlife Protection Act of 2010.pdf) --is "crazier than fiction" because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably in families; no glue or snap traps can be utilized; the rodents must be relocated from where they are captured; and some of these animals may need to be transferred to a "wildlife rehabilitator" as part of their relocation process.

Dear god, won't someone think of the cockroaches.

[John]

Cuccinelli said D.C.'s new rat law--the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 (Wildlife Protection Act of 2010.pdf) --is "crazier than fiction" because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably in families; no glue or snap traps can be utilized; the rodents must be relocated from where they are captured; and some of these animals may need to be transferred to a "wildlife rehabilitator" as part of their relocation process.

I wouldn't want the OWS hippies in my state either, let alone whole families of them.

[John]

http://www.journalgazette.net/...../120119814

Homicide drops off top US causes of death. But I thought Heller was going to usher in Dodge City?

[RoboCain]

Wait until the rats learn to organize.

[AFL-CIO]

Whaddya' mean wait?

[Tulpa]

So you're telling me Mitt can't hunt Varmints on the WH lawn?

[John]

I would so love to be able to hunt varmints in DC.

[JW]

Plenty at McPherson Square.

[John]

Yes there are. But sadly they don't give out licenses for them.

[JW]

You don't need a license to hunt the Most Dangerous Game. Any man who insists that you do, should be beaten and flogged, there, on the spot by your coachman.

[Pro Libertate]

It's a natural right, of course.

[Pro Libertate]

I don't know about today, but the White House used to have a decent amount of trees, where I suppose some animals could be allowed to frolic. For huntin' purposes, I mean.

[John]

Millie, the Bush I mutt used to kill squirrels on the White House lawn. And the trees are still there.

[Pro Libertate]

I was there a few times during my fellowship. I liked the track, which was nice and springy. I always wondered if the president actually used it, beyond the occasional photo op. I also wondered if there was a tunnel to the McDonald's on 17th Street.

[John]

I have been to a couple of meetings in the West Wing. Now that is a first class super villain lair.

[Pro Libertate]

I was there on a double-secret-special tour, but never on business. I was a flunky and not a chick.

[John]

I am a flunky too. But occasionally I get to go along for the ride.

[Pro Libertate]

No, I was the bigger flunky. I was a mere law student at the time.

[Monica L]

I used to eat pizza and sausage there.

[Tulpa]

Don't get the mayo on your dress!

[Marilyn M]

The President used to sneak me in through the back door. Then I returned the favor.

[Loki]

Is it better than a hollowed out volcano lair?

[Pro Libertate]

No way. The Press Pool, for instance, was a disappointment. It looked much, much bigger on TV. Though I did get a photo of me standing at the podium, issuing executive orders dismantling Leviathan. Too bad it was just me and some intern in the room.

[Kromulent Kristen]

Those squirrels are good eatin', too, given how obese they are from being fed Cheez Its by tourists all day.

[Pro Libertate]

I've long despised Cheez-Its, but then they introduced the Tabasco version, which I quite like. Damn their manipulative ways!

[Kromulent Kristen]

I have to be in the right...errrr...frame of mind...to eat them.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm not that kind of libertarian, but I do like them as a snack. The white cheddar variety are also acceptable.

[White Rat]

Officer, am I free to gambol through lawn and pantry?

[H man]

Apparently the legislators behind this law were concerned that someone may confuse them with an actual rat. Might have been Waxman.

[John]

Moles don't make good game animals.

[Tulpa]

They sure do if you have ultrasound and bunker busters.

[Marshall Gill]

My old boxer-chow mix, Sabbath, would definitely disagree with that one, John. She loved to hunt and eat moles. After a couple of years living in a house, the moles would either all get eradicated with extreme prejudice or stopped coming in our yard. That dog used to freak my wife out all the time, bringing squirrels, possums, moles, shrews ect, usually dead, into the house.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

And now that Mike Shanahan is coaching the Redskins... just sayin'.

[Tulpa]

Might have been Waxman.

Speaking of which

[John]

More of that smart diplomacy and respecting other country's views.

The environmental review process is for Canadians, and not to be used by Americans who want Canada to be "one giant national park" for North America, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says.

In an exclusive interview Monday with CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge, Harper said it's valid to have a discussion over how to strike a balance between jobs and environmental protection, but it's one that should be left to Canadians.

"It's one thing in terms of whether Canadians, you know, want jobs, to what degree Canadians want environmental protection. These are all valid questions," Harper said.

"But just because certain people in the United States would like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America, I don't think that's part of what our review process is all about."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politic.....rview.html

[Loki]

Nice to see that Harper has a pair. In other news, war looms with Canada.

[Pro Libertate]

I support Canadian defiance of my people on this issue. You go, girl!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Now, if you don't relocate them about 25 miles away, according to experts, rodents will find their way back.

That's why Gingrich is making his way back toward D.C., because K Street was less than 25 miles away.

[romulus augustus]

"Now, if you don't relocate them about 25 miles away, according to experts, rodents will find their way back."

In theory, maybe. But, given a normal amount of predators - cats, foxes, etc. - said rodent will never make it.
Pols, however, are more like zombies than rodents.

[Invisible Finger]

You'd have to include "man" in the normal amount of predators. Remove man from the equation, and the survival rate skyrockets. Unless you want in infestation of foxes, coyotes, feral cats, etc.

[Fate]

I want an infestation of pythons dammit.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, that's easily accommodated. The Everglades is quite overrun by the beasts.

[John]

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....why-i.html

Andrew Sullivan angry that he is being ignored.

[shrike]

He was on the cover of Newsweek.

Sullivan is one the few rational conservatives. Bartlett is first in that small club though.

[John]

And he is sad no one read his article. Sullivan was the original birther. He spent months puzzling over Palin's vagina. He is clinically insane. It was exploitative that the Atlantic didn't fire him or make him get the mental health care he so clearly needs. I actually started to feel sorry for him. It was like a real life Network.

[RoboCain]

Birther?

[John]

The other birthers. The ones were convinced Palin didn't actually have her last son. They were so pathetic even the major media didn't cover them.

[RoboCain]

Oh, I must have missed that.

[John]

You are a better man for it. Trust me.

[Tulpa]

They were so pathetic even the major media didn't cover them.

More like "they would make liberals look bad and unnuanced" so they didn't cover it.

[TrickyVic]

""Birther?""

Birth canal(er)

[shrike]

Yes, Palin was an affront to any rational person.

I know you admire her intellect though.

[John]

Since you are insane shrike, it makes sense you would think that a middle aged gay man spending months and untold column inches in a major magazine puzzling over the baby bump and vagina of a politician is perfectly sane. The rest of the world however sees it differently.

[shrike]

No - the rest of the world correctly saw Sarah Palin as a brain-dead idiot.

[John]

If only they had seen Obama for being the same. And regardless, that doesn't make Sullivan any less pathetic or any more sane.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, whatever Palin's flaws--and they are many--we basically elected a black male version of her who could talk real good.

[John]

And believed every stupid idea propagated in the last 70 years. Whatever Palin's flaws, she was on the right side of a few things. Obama not so much.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, actually, I agree with that. If I had to pick one of them to be president, she's less offensive. He's a dumbass in a worse way than she is.

[Lost_in_translation]

I'd have alot more respect for Sarah plain if she didn't quit the Alaska governorship because people were being mean to her.

[John]

She quit because they were suing her into bankruptcy and every creep in America was stalking her and the state provided no security. The alternative to bankruptcy and personal danger was to quit and make millions and hire her own security.

Can't blame her for doing the latter.

[Pro Libertate]

As often happens with media pariahs, I tend to like her more for her enemies than I do for anything she's done.

[Zeb]

And he doesn't even talk that good. He has a good voice and can deliver a speech well, but usually he sounds like he is trying to sound like bill Cosby.

[Pro Libertate]

I'd vote for the Coz.

[Loki]

A lot of people spent months puzzling over Palin's vagina...

[Pron]

I wonder if she has a landing strip?

[JW]

"Why Are Obama's Critics Voters So Dumb?"

Better.

[Pro Libertate]

It was certainly one of the dumbest covers in their long history of dumb-ass covers.

[John]

As someone said the other day, whoever paid a $1 for Newsweek got ripped off.

[RoboCain]

Which is saying something.

[Pro Libertate]

Why not just say, "Fuck it, we're worthless?" Really about the same thing as publishing that cover.

Sullivan is and has been a fucking joke for a long time.

[BigT]

Sullivan has degenerated into a spiteful, bitter man. It might have been his Iraq war support that went wrong and made him ill. Or maybe he wanted to have kids all along.

[John]

The war did something to him. I am telling most of the people I know who are fucked up by the war never served there.

[Kwanzaa Cake]

Sullivan's glutes are raw muscle!

[killazontherun]

Rivals their, 'We're All Socialist Now.' For a few months after the election, progressives finally got to experience how I felt after the Eastern Block collapsed. Fortunately, their heady spirits collided with reality. Capitalism was merely wounded, and not put down with a shotgun in the basement like a Romanov.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Smug proclamations of a mandate and "elections have consequences" giving way to screaming about the Tea Partiers in "suicide vests" as "full-blown terrorists" who are "hostage takers" because it's just plain mean to point out the impossibility of giving everyone a free lunch and a pony.

[killazontherun]

Amusing that both of these pundits believe that Obama has an ounce of say so in his administration. Much of his behavior indicates he is a figurehead at best.

Read his ADDA signing statement. A lot of people believe he is being cynical with his language there. I think his language is genuine. He really did personally oppose the very provisions that his administration insisted remain after the Republican house agreed to withdraw them. It should be clear, whatever is going on in the background, Obama is not the man in charge. He was still on the golf course when the SEAL helicopters were in flight during the bin Ladin raid. What president fucking golfs at a juncture that critical? It could have easily turned in Carter Hostage Rescue Attempt II, but he behaved like he had not a concern in the world. Someone else is calling the shots, and why Sullivan or anyone else would support a gelded president is beyond me.

[shrike]

Bilderbergers! Rothschilds! FEMA camps!

The Jews are stealing our money with the Fed!

[BigT]

It's not a conspiracy, shreik, it's merely that Obama is not up to doing the analysis and making the tough decisions. He is taking the advice of his handlers. Some leader.

[killazontherun]

Shut the fuck up, shrike, before I slap you with my dick.

You can't find a hole in my thesis so you have to go there you stupid fucking asshole shit for brains motherfucker. Fuck you and fuck the vagina from wince you progenated. God, I hate you. From every groove in my gut to the dark bottom of my soul I ooze hate for you, you maddog degenerate motherfucker.

[shrike]

You stupid fucking idiot - Obama CAMPAIGNED on violating Paki sovereign airspace to kill Osama bin Laden. McCain said he would not and called him "naive" for it.

And you say he was just on the golf course? You are truly an idiot - Beck style.

[killazontherun]

Just shows his handlers have been planning it for a long time, Piss Stain.

[Loki]

Obama campaigned on a lot of things and they all stopped being relevant the moment he took the oath of office.

[Kwanzaa Cake]

Oh yeah, then what about that net spending cut in 2011? And the closing Gitmo in 2010? And that stupid individual mandate he campaigned against then kept out of Obamacare? Oh, wait a minute . . .

[killazontherun]

This from the stupid git who once called Obama a quant.

[DesigNate]

People said the same damn things about Bush being led around by the nose by Cheney. But when someone says it about your sainted Obama...Fuck you shrike.

[NotSure]

So how you doing with the Christian Taliban perseceuting you ?

[Loki]

All presidents are really figureheads. It's the career bureaucrats and congress who really run the show for the most part. It doesn't make much difference who's in the white house anymore.

[killazontherun]

I've said it before, for there to be real changes made, the president has to come in the office with his own center of power already established. A Chicago pol, for one example, is the furthest thing from that. He has to rely on too many other people with more pull than he has. Obama was at best a third stringer in the Chicago machine. Our best hope would be a gangster at the top of his club who happens to be libertarian in orientation.

[?]

2 things to consider given the scenario is highly unlikely though perhaps desirable.

A strong president never puts someone in a position who he feels is too invaluable to fire on the spot if she so much as looks at him the wrong way. Better to have mediocre performers who do your bidding with the backing of your absolute authority than to have a superstar who calls her own shots like a Hillary. Ironically, results will likely be superior.

Always have a second option available for all positions; test their loyalty while they are waiting in the wings. It is more critical to test the loyalty of possible replacements than it is the initial holder of any positions. As you should replace several positions when given the chance to show you are not a pushover.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Machiavellian. I like it.

[Maxxx]

Much of his behavior indicates he is a figurehead at best.

I'm kicking around the idea for a conspiracy novel where Obama is a hostage-figurehead and the bizarre shit that he does is a failed attempt to make someone realize it.

[killazontherun]

Odd little historical anecdote. When Nixon taped his White House conversations, the archives were kept by the Secret Service. Upon finding out about them, the Democrats went to the courts to subpoena those tapes. The courts ruled that their request was too broadly constructed (all of it!). Soon after the ruling, they came back with a specific request of the exact conversational times they needed to nail Nixon's ass to the wall. Now, the first hunch would be to look at the sign in records, but that would not help in this case because the smoking gun conversations were between White House personnel, so the only possible way they could have accessed those tapes and knew the correct time in such a short window of opportunity with only staffers as a resource to sort through tens of thousands of hours of conversation is if the Secret Service kept tabs of the more interesting bits in those archives and had a back channel to the Democrats. Who in the Secret service could have the authority to authorize these two necessary conditions for what really did occur to occur?

[killazontherun]

with only staffers as a resource to sort through tens of thousands of hours of conversation, an inefficient and time consuming method even if they got their wish . . .

[Mitch]

Have a book about how Watergate was just a political ploy to get Chappaquiddick Ted the dem nomination and the presidency.

[RoboCain]

Is the article online yet?

[RoboCain]

"Fox News is now waging war on the essay. I'm not surprised. Megyn Kelly has declared that I am "not a real journalist." She has also just said that I have written that Trig is not Sarah Palin's child. As longtime readers well know, I took great pains never to state that and merely to ask Palin, given her insane story about the birth of her child, to provide some evidence for it, which she said she would but never did. The Beast has asked for a correction. Real journalists do not tell untruths on air without correcting them."

http://andrewsullivan.thedaily.....s-fox.html

[killazontherun]

He thinks that sheds light on the matter in his favor? Woah. Just, woah.

[Whahappan?]

Come on, he's just "asking questions."

[juris imprudent]

You aren't suggesting that AS is LoneWacko are you?

Because that suggestion would be amusing as hell.

[Tulpa]

Yes, Andrew, when you call people "dumb" on the cover of a well-known magazine, they're highly likely to attack your essay.

[Anonymous Coward]

Andrew Sullivan angry that he is being ignored.

His troll-fu is still too weak.

[anon]

Shriek has better trollfu than AS

[Fist of Etiquette]

"When your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut, and you've been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you've got Type 2 Diabetes... It's in bad taste if nothing else," he told Eater.

Bad taste? Sounds pretty delish, if you ask me. Especially if it's Krispy Kremes.

[Pro Libertate]

For the record, my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and a number of my older cousins ate like that all of the time and never came down with diabetes. Of course, they were much more active than people are today.

Even in my immediate family, we ate Southern for quite some time before getting "healthier." Fried stuff, pork in all of our vegetables, biscuits, sausage gravy, the works.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Of course, they were much more active than people are today.

Wow. A shot at SugarFree from out of nowhere.

[Episiarch]

No, ProL pretty much has it in for NutraSweet. I don't think you realize how vicious he is. Sure, he hides it behind his sunny disposition and his blog that no longer has a horrible, angry, aggressive black background, but if you watch closely enough you'll see the claws come out.

[Pro Libertate]

Lies, lies, and more lies [The shield turns the fast blow, admits the slow kindjal!]

[Episiarch]

The only lies are the ones you spew as you slander poor sweet NutraSweet.

[Pro Libertate]

It's libel, you buffoon, not slander.

[John]

What are you doing on here Epi? Hasn't Seattle turned into some kind post apocalyptic waste land because of the snow storm? What are you posting from your compound ala Omega Man?

[RoboCain]

I love that movie.

[Pro Libertate]

Heston's Apocalyptic Trilogy is the 70s at its very best.

[Ska]

Furniture. Maybe we should see how Jezebel feels about that one.

[Pro Libertate]

Women making the best of a bad situation. Beats getting eaten, right?

[Ska]

I don't care, I was too busy looking at the hot black girl in the miniskirt.

[Pro Libertate]

You've stumbled into total brilliance, John, because that's the perfect--THE PERFECT--movie analogy for Episiarch. He is the Omega Man.

Jesus, how did I miss that all of these years?

[John]

Read his posts and imagine it being voiced by Charlton Heston. Here is traped alone in his compound surrounded by the hipsters, hippies and bums of Seattle. Maybe one of these days he will break out and make it up to whatever compound Dangy T lives in.

[Episiarch]

Is this how it starts? A trip to the laughing academy? No, you silly bastard, it starts with you asking yourself silly questions on the internet. OK, let's get cleaned up and get a drink before the bars close.

[Pro Libertate]

While the book is better than the film, it's the Heston character that works for you. I think you should embrace this.

[Episiarch]

I love the book, but I will assume the Heston mantle...as an act of magnanimity towards you, ProL.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, I really appreciate that. I mean it. Happy New Year, Episiarch.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, I was all wrong about him. I used to picture him as Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, but no more. It's all Heston/Omega Man from now on. Unless the blizzard kills him, I guess.

[Ska]

You were looking at a bust of Cicero this whole time.

[Episiarch]

What day is it, anyway? Monday? Huh? The hell it is. It's Sunday. Sunday I always dress for dinner.

[Episiarch]

Hey, it may come tonight. Probably not, but I'm stocked up anyway.

I just don't want it to start while I'm still at work.

[Pro Libertate]

I can just see you being chased by mutants through the streets of Seattle. Commenting on this blog, only pausing to shoot the mutant who gets too close.

[Episiarch]

We call them "hobos", but yes. That's my day.

[Pro Libertate]

Same thing. I can see you shooting the fish as they get tossed at Pike Place Market and blowing holes through the original Starbucks.

Good times.

[End Child Unemployment]

Dude 7 people showed up to my office, and 4 of them left early. Our normal staff is 45. There's like 2 inches on the ground. Seattleites need to 1) grow a pair and 2) learn to drive.

[Episiarch]

The sun is intermittently out, even.

It might get bad tonight, though.

[Pro Libertate]

Good luck. Remember, when you Seattleites turn on one another for food, make sure you cook the meat to at least medium, to avoid disease. Don't eat the brain, either. I know you prefer your meat rare, but listen to a Floridian on this one. We know two things here: Weird and disaster. Well, three things if you include strippers, but that's N/A.

[Episiarch]

I have a supply of dead hookers frozen in the basement, ProL. I plan ahead, you see.

[Pro Libertate]

Hooker: The Other White Meat.

[Episiarch]

What a racist assumption, ProL. I'm disappointed!

[Pro Libertate]

Sorry, Big Pork distorted my view of reality by their manipulative, pro-pork campaign.

Hookers: The Other White and/or Dark Meat.

[Pro Libertate]

You wrongly malign SugarFree. Do you know how much running up and down the stairs and high-speed typing his pornographic work requires? My God, man, do you not see the sheer effort it takes to remember to fuck up a link?

Any health problems he may or may not have are solely and completely attributable to poisoning attempts he has survived. Fucking ALA and their grudges.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meh. He spends time with his family in the evenings (or some other equally queer shit) instead of arguing with morons on the internet, so he'll never see any of this.

[Pro Libertate]

He's an archivist, man! That means the past, the present, the future--all the same to him!

[RoboCain]

Good point, Luther.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't think there are any Luther Burgers or whatever they're called in my area. I really would like to try one of those, but I doubt I would be a convert. The function of the bun to me is to get the burger to my mouth without making my fingers a mess. Glazed donuts wouldn't do that.

[wylie]

fair enough, what about powdered donuts? slightly less messy. well, unless you go with the Jelly Luther.

[Ted S.]

I first heard the Paula Deen news on Saturday on World News Tonight, and I was infuriated at how the report was basically triumphalist gloating at what happened to somebody who lives the Wrong Lifestyle.

I was also wondering if there was sny violation of the medical privacy laws.

[John]

The cops are never there when you need them.

Dogs attack jogger and chew off foot.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/20.....ular-dogs/

[John]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01.....wanted=all

This is a totally under reported story. You think the CBP are assholes to you as an American citizen. Think what they are like to non citizens. They have made the country virtually impossible to visit. And cost us billions.

[Mongo]

There's been a few foreign musicians who've had to cancel their gigs in town cuz of red-tape and "security" concerns.

[mad libertarian guy]

Aziz somethingorother, the guitarist from Steven Wilson's solo band, was denied entry in to the US for an 8 date tour.

[Make My Monster GROW!]

Paula Deen reminds me of my southern grandmother who liked to cook really unhealthy foods and would always tell me if I had didn't hold my shoulders up that I would end up as a faggot.

Good food though.

[John]

Did you see the Anthony Bourdain Christmas show? The perky Samantha Brown shot him with a pistol she called "Paula". It was hysterical.

[Pro Libertate]

She shot him? Wow, that's pretty edgy. Is he dead?

[John]

No. But she shot in (not really) but in the episode and it ended with him in the hospital. It was pretty funny. Brown had been reduced to a crazy cat lady living in a hotel after losing all of her gigs on the Travel Channel to Bourdain. It was quite clever of her. I really Brown. She is just so damned perky and cute.

[Pro Libertate]

I like the idea of Sam really shooting Bourdain. He needs shooting by a perky blonde.

[Jeff P.]

The scene in question starts at about the :55 second mark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrY5WgCcSBQ

[Pro Libertate]

Brilliant. She's great. Love the name for the pistol, too.

I see a great future for her in her later years as a regular Lifetime actress.

[John]

She make a perfect woman wrongly sent to prison.

[JW]

Perky Samantha goes black and blue. Awesome.

[Pro Libertate]

There should be an HBO series based on that video. Starring Sam Brown, as herself.

[John]

HBO. That means she could get her kit off.

[Pro Libertate]

Pretty much mandatory on HBO, I assume. Have they ever done a series without gratuitous nudity? And I mean literally gratuitous, like people being naked where it doesn't make any damned sense.

[Paul]

Pretty much mandatory on HBO, I assume. Have they ever done a series without gratuitous nudity? And I mean literally gratuitous, like people being naked where it doesn't make any damned sense.

You sir are no fan of foreign (Mexican) TV. There's never a missed opportunity to place a hot chick in something ridiculously revealing on the stage, no matter the context.

I plan to retire to Mexico. Nothing but scenes of dumpy, middle-aged men in suits surrounded by unpossibly hot women. It has to be real. It has to be.

[Paul]

Google "Mexican TV" image search. Just that. Nothing more. Yeah, I love that country.

[Pro Libertate]

That's not gratuitous. That's mandatory.

[Kromulent Kristen]

Wasn't it right here at H&R that I learned about Argentina's version of Dancing with the Stars? Cause that shit takes the cake over gadunkadunk in tight jeans.

[Paul]

More proof of where Mexico's priorities are:

1ST Search:
Google image search: NBC
2nd Search
Google image search: Univision

Yeah, you feel me?

[Make My Monster GROW!]

Dude, Samantha Brown is a ultimately masturbatory fantasy...Except, I'm always fantasizing about me doing the shooting.

[John]

You leave Samantha alone. The world need cute, happy blonds. Who doesn't love a cute happy blond? You monster.

[RoboCain]

But is your penis named "Paula"?

[rather]

i have a fly tattooed on the head of my dick.

[Live Free or Diet]

Paula Deen reminds me of the saccharine sweet neighbor who sicks the HOA on you anonymously and then smiles to you like she never did a thing. That said, quoting ABC's Mikaela Conley's first sentence, Despite knowing her Type 2 diabetes diagnosis for years, Paula Deen, the all-smiles cooking host of the Food Network's "Paula's Best Dishes," continued touting her buttery, artery-clogging Southern down-home cuisine.

Diabetes is a disease of carbohydrate intolerance. With all the sugar and easily digestible starches Paula Deen uses, Ms. Conley decides to focus on the butter? Butter takes no insulin to metabolize and is much better than nutrient-empty carbohydrates. "The next time you eat a piece of buttered toast, remember that the butter is actually the more healthful component." -- David Ludwig, MD, PhD, Director, Obesity Program, Children's Hospital Boston

[Pro Libertate]

I'm doubling my butter intake on the basis of that comment alone.

[Paul]

This.

[Live Free or Diet]

I keep repeating myself. No doubt some here would call me a spammer or troll for it:
I lost 125 pounds in 8 months 7 years ago eating a high fat, low carb diet, with unlimited calories. I've kept it off and lost more the same way. Starting BMI of 55.5, now 36.0. I found it almost by accident after being prescribed low fat diets by doctors that only made me miserable.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Great job, man. Glad you feel better and are healthier. I think the lesson to be learned is in this part of your statement:

... by accident after being prescribed low fat diets by doctors that only made me miserable.

I think every body has a unique set of dietary needs. What works for some won't work for others. Doctors recommend whatever the latest fad is, or just confirm what the patient asks about. Ultimately, it is up to each individual to find out what works best for their body.

[Tulpa]

Ultimately it's all about calories. I'm a tad skeptical about the unlimited calories claim, unless he was exercising like crazy, which would be seriously hard to do running a 1500 calorie deficit every day.

[Tulpa]

I lost 125 pounds in 8 months

That's over 3 pounds a week, or a deficit of 1500 calories a day.

Perhaps you're just lucky, but the human body can't do that for 8 months without getting seriously sick. It's not something to recommend.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Hence, every body is different. Live Free or Diet may be an outlier, but it worked for him. In a way, it's praxeological?

[Tulpa]

Sure it did.

[Paul]

Paula Deen reminds me of the saccharine sweet neighbor who sicks the HOA on you anonymously and then smiles to you like she never did a thing.

This description made me smile.

[Live Free or Diet]

She does! She reminds me of the "Mrs Grundy" across the street, who had a turned-over stump in her yard after Hurricane Isabel, but turned me in for not having mine ground down yet. Then she hires the guy I got to come grind my stump while he's here.

[dunphy]

exactly. as a weight classed athlete, i manage to keep my lipid levels excellent and bodyfat low, and i eat a metric assload of fats... heck, i eat a ribeye steak most mornings for breakfast.

fat is NOT the enemy

processed carbs and sugar are problematic.

no problem with carbs, but get them from vegetables, fruit, etc.

there is no such thing as an essential carb. there ARE essential aminos and fats, otoh.

also, if you can find grass fed beef, and eggs from chickens that eat their natural diet (not grain fed), the fat profile is far superior

[Morgan Fairchild]

"exactly. as a weight classed athlete"

True story.

[Live Free or Diet]

I have metabolic syndrome, which is described extremely poorly on Wikipedia BTW. They have the cause and effect all turned around. The weight gain is much more an effect, and sugar and refined starches much more the cause. For the short version of the science, watch the movie Fat Head on Hulu. For the long version try Gary Taubes' book Good Calories, Bad Calories.

Thanks for the reply. It's encouraging to know others are out there who don't think you'll die without Snickers, Coca Cola, french fries and Wonder bread.

[dunphy]

no problem. my team has a nutritionist who helped many of us substantially improve our performance. i've heard it said by many that food has druglike properties, and in many respects it really does.

good food can really make a substantial difference in everything from your mood, to your sex life, to your energy levels throughout the day

i wish you the best

btw, i do not eat "paleo", but i eat SOMEWHAT similar to that, and since i have improved my food choices, my quality of life has improved immensely

i wish you good health.

[Tulpa]

LOL Taubes. That Atkins quack is still kicking around?

[Tulpa]

Processed carbs and sugar are problematic because of their high calorie density. Not because of some strange mystical property of carbs.

[dunphy]

tulpa, carbs are not evil.

but processed carbs are a whole other ball of wax. generally speaking, our body evolved to eat what we tended to find in nature. nature simply doesn't have analogues to the type of processed foods we see commonly in many diets. our bodies overreact by dumping massive insulin, and the cycle begins

i have never eaten ketogenic and don't believe it is a good way to go

otoh, i do believe that substantially minimizing PROCESSED crap (and not just carbs - transfats, deep fried foods, etc.) and eating lots of high phyto, nutrient dense foods is the way to go

tons of steak, eggs, fish, vegetables, etc.

even spices can have great benefits (cinnamon for example)

please don't get me started on keto and atkins though. blech

[Tulpa]

Butter takes no insulin to metabolize

Bull. Insulin is used in protein and lipid metabolism too.

[dunphy]

insulin is the most anabolic hormone in the body. many bodybuilders supplement insulin post workout, btw.

[Fist of Etiquette]

After raising more than $700,000 last fall, protesters who keep track of money for Occupy Wall Street reported this week that the group has about $170,000 in its bank account. Very few donations are coming in, they said.

It's a shame but it sounds like they're in the early stages of going tits up. OWS shouldn't feel bad, though. Most new businesses fail in the first year.

[Sevo]

Yeah, but OWS doesn't have a product.

[invisible furry hand]

How about irrational smugness? People pay big bucks for that

[Ghost of Steve Jobs]

You know it.

[mustard]

We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

-- Winston Churchill and George Orwell

[DesigNate]

You think OWS protestors are those "rough men"?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

By Science you are a fucking idiot.

[Make My Monster GROW!]

http://freethoughtblogs.com/ph.....esolution/

Apparently, PZ Myers doesn't like Paula Deen.

[Mr. FIFY]

OWS is broke and freezes spending, yet doesn't want the government - which is also broke - to freeze spending.

Do as I say...

[shrike]

OWS doesn't know what the hell they want. TARP brain-damaged them. They are even anti-Federal Reserve like the Paultard. Strange bedfellows for sure.

[mad libertarian guy]

But notice how they frame it.

It isn't a spending problem with using money they have limited amounts of, but one of revenue.

Very few donations are coming in, they said.

[Mr. FIFY]

So why did your man Barry go along with TARP? I mean, he's a genius, and so forth...

Why should anyone *admire* the Fed?

[shrike]

TARP wasn't even close to the worst of the Bushpig's disasters. When the Treasury head tells Congress the financial system is melting down some action needs to be taken. Was it the best solution? Not likely but its over with now.

Obama took the capitalist route with SCAP in March 2009 - much better.

[Mr. FIFY]

Uh, sure. You just go ahead and believe Obama would knowingly commit capitalist actions without some nasty endgame in mind.

[Paul]

I have never once seen Obama wear a monocle... capitalist indeed.

[Mr. FIFY]

No spats, no top hat, no silver-tipped cane with which to swat at the urchins... yep, nothing capitalist about Barry whatsoever.

[Michael S. Langston]

lol - Obama the capitalist. And Cheney the anti-war activist. And Santorum, the gay marriage advocate.

Look. I too can write nonsensical things.

[Discount Double Choke]

The Walker situation is a win-win for me. If the recall fails, that shows the Dems and their union backers probably had shitloads of invalid signatures on the recall petition and exposes them as the frauds. If they win, then the state of Wisconsin goes bankrupt in a couple years under the weight of their pube sector pension obligations and I get to enjoy some delicious schadenfreude at liberal expense.

[John]

They don't even have a candidate to run against him. The whole thing is a giant waste of time.

[Citizen Nothing]

I'd be funny if he got recalled then won the special election, no?

[John]

It will be. And he will. And they will have wasted millions. The unions are totally self destructing.

[RoboCain]

"While the law exempts "commensal rodents"--varieties of which most people know (or have seen) as common rats or house mice--the rice rat and deer mouse, which are found in the District, are not defined as commensal and apparently are not exempt from the law. In addition, the new law expands the definition of wildlife and sets the rules for handling it to include raccoons, squirrels, skunks, and other animals that can carry disease, such as rabies. The law applies to trained animal control officers, not to homeowners."

[Pro Libertate]

Read that as "consensual rodents."

[P Brooks]

I hope somebody gives The Smoking Gun a copy of the Occuturds' auditors' report. That would be amusing, to say the least.

[Discount Double Choke]

$300,000 for PBR

$100,000 for black horn rim glasses

$200,000 for ironic thrift store clothing

$400,000 for fixed gear bicycles

etc.

[RoboCain]

Those are hipsters, not hippies.

[Loki]

$300,000 for dirt weed
$100,000 for incense
$200,000 for Che Guevara t-shirts
$200,000 for birckenstocks
etc.

[My Myself and I]

High school basketball players brutally beaten for Tebowing

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like South Carolina fans are keeping things classy.

[Michael S. Langston]

RTFA - this is the third year in a row this high school rivalry has turned violent and the only proof that this was due to 'Tebowing' is a statement given by one of the victim's parents.

Seems as if the whole, 'violent react to Tebowing', is crap.

[Jerry]

Woohoo, more Ron Paul newsletters:

The newsletters repeatedly defended and expressed support for a variety of prominent racists. The May 1990 Political Report cited Jared Taylor, a prominent eugenics advocate. The July 1994 Survival Report again cited the "criminologist Jared Taylor."

You know who also cited Jared Taylor?

Most startling is a thesis by Jared Taylor, examined in his book "Paved With Good Intentions: The Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America." The book's bizarre thesis, as detailed by Peter Brimelow in National Review, is that it is not really all that easy to charge that America is nowadays a racist society.

"Taylor documents in immense detail that the U.S., far from suppressing its blacks and poor, in fact subsidizes them, publicly and privately, including more than $ 2.5 trillion in federal money alone since the 1960s. This, notoriously, has done little good and much ill. But it is hardly the behavior of a racist society -- unless liberal politicians, welfare bureaucrats and academics have deliberately sought to destroy black society by spreading dependency and pauperism."

It is the despondent finding of Taylor that the crime figures present a challenge to black leadership and to U.S. penology that isn't answered by the usual shibboleths.

That is William F. Buckley, A Look at the Causes of Black Crime, UPS, 1993.

Smear much, TNR?

[Discount Double Choke]

Even more pertinent, I wonder how many times The New Republic has cited noted eugenics supporters such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, he of the infamous, "Taxes are the price we pay for civilization," quote, and Margaret Sanger.

[killazontherun]

That slimeball Kirchick had the name of the writer of the newsletter back in 2008. The name was attached to one report that Kirchick wrote about in his article and he would have had to have removed it from the pdf files TNR released for it not to be there. A conscience attempt to confuse matters so the speculation would continue that it was Paul, Rockwell, or Rothbard who wrote it (or, absurdly, North whose ventures had been separate from Paul's at that time). Dastardly asshole.

[Anonymous Coward]

unless liberal politicians, welfare bureaucrats and academics have deliberately sought to destroy black society by spreading dependency and pauperism."

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! If people are independent, what need do they have for Uncle Sam's social workers, sociologists, petty bureaucrats, and bean counters?

[Colonel_Angus]

What does going dark mean? If there will be a black screen, it just means the web site has selected an arbitrary color to symbolically represent not being available. If they really shut down all service, my browser should be informing me that the page could not be found.

[R C Dean]

They should mock up the screen that Our Masters use when they have seized websites in the past for allegedly doing Bad Things.

[OWS VPS]

The Real Right To Life: Venezuela Expands Benefits for Elderly while the U.S. Pepper-Sprays Them

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Mahatma Ghandi

In Chicago on November 7, 2011, hundreds of senior citizens joined with Occupy Chicago and their union supporters to protest the Congressional Super Committee's proposed cuts to social security and Medicare. Forty seven seniors were arrested, along with four persons in wheel chairs for refusing to move from the street.

In Seattle, Dorli Rainey, age 84 was pepper-sprayed in the face, when she dared to stop to observe Occupy Seattle actions on November 16, 2011, while 87 year old Francis Goldin was pushed back in a crowd by police during an Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York City.

While the oligarchs in the U.S. are arresting and pepper-spraying senior citizens and the disabled for daring to assembly to demand no cuts in their already minimal social security benefits, last month the socialist government in Venezuela launched a massive program, fueled by a comprehensive new law, to improve the quality of life of their senior citizens and disabled, by guaranteeing pensions, medical assistance, adequate food and housing and many other services to all in fulfillment of the mandate of section Venezuela's Constitution of 1999 which guarantees the rights, including the right to a quality life, to the elderly and disabled. (see http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6555)

The pensions must equate with the current minimum wage, which has been increased every May 1st for the last ten years, until Venezuela has the highest minimum wage in South and Central America. Previous to this initiative in Venezuela, social security benefits were only provided to those who had accumulated a certain number of work credits in formal jobs. These benefits will apply to all, whether they have worked in the formal economy and accumulated work credits or not.

Unfortunately, in the U.S., current Social Security pensions for many people provide less than poverty level income to recipients. The average benefit in the U.S. is a little more than $1100 a month, many people, especially women with low paid work histories, receive much less than that $1100. The federal poverty guidelines set $10,890 as the poverty line figure for the contiguous 48 states, while federal poverty levels figures for Hawaii are $12,540 and Alaska is set at $13,600.

The medical assistance provided in Venezuela includes home doctors' visits, home nurses and social services, as well as assisted living, nursing homes, and hospice care. The program will not only supply new homes for those needing them, but make home repairs for those who already have otherwise adequate housing. Low cost or free food is available to all Venezuelan residents through the Mission Mercal, which provides government subsidized markets and restaurants. The elderly, disabled and pregnant have preferential access to these food sources, meaning that they don't have to stand in long lines to obtain their food. With the new law, all public and commercial sites are required to provide preferential access to the elderly, disabled and pregnant.

Provisions in the new law also prohibit age and disability discrimination in employment, an unfortunate reality here where newspaper job ads frequently specify the age of those sought for jobs, usually under age 30. This seems to be in direct violation of the Venezuelan Constitution, but is extremely common in local newspapers.

The new law governing the elderly and disabled encourages the creation of new programs for job training and the transfer of skills from the knowledgeable elders to the youth, and vice versa. The law underlying the Mission Adultos Mayores also prohibits maltreatment of the elderly and disabled, similar to the expansive law providing for the right of all women to a life without physical or psychological violence, in the home, the job and even in the maternity wards!

The Mission Adultos Mayores (older adults) is creating community councils (consejo comunals) specifically for those over 55 years of age in order to bring together those with similar needs and aspirations so they can help organize and distribute services in the community.

Recently, the consejo comunal in my apartment complex, as part of national campaign, took a census of all those residents who are eligible for senior citizens/disabled services.

To facilitate the survey, the council took advantage of a special cell phone discount program for senior citizens, in which Movilnet, the nationalized telephone company, was selling Venezuelan-made cell phones called Vergatorios for the approximate equivalent of $20, to seniors, along with a phone use plan that costs less than $3.00 a month.

Notices were posted around my apartment complex advising residents that the census for those over 55 years of age or disabled would take place at the special Vergatorio sale in our multipurpose room. Perhaps 70 of our 400 resident complex turned up to fill out the census forms, join the new consejo comunal for older adults and the disabled, and buy their discount phones.

The census form asks folks to indicate whether they suffer from illnesses for which they need medical, dental or drug assistance. Medical and dental services are free and drugs will be provided free to with a doctor's confirmation of condition and prescription. The form asks if people have difficulty walking or physically accessing services, such as doctors and clinics. Home visits will be arranged for those who cannot easily access services.

The census also inquires about the condition of your current housing: leaky roofs? Old pipes or other utilities and equipment needing repairs? (My apartment suffered from a leaky roof which damaged the walls in the living room. The leaky roof was repaired but the wall damage remains. I was told to include that on the census form so repairs could be made.)

The census also included questions about one's skills, talents and aptitudes that could be shared with the community. An important data base for developing the exchange of services and sharing of skills.

Mission Adultos Mayores, with its consejo comunals, not only is a vehicle for distributing needed services to the elderly and disabled community members, but serves as a means of bringing together those who may have previously been socially isolated, a not uncommon condition.

Perhaps one of the most unusual and innovative programs for the elderly and disabled is the availability of organized tourist trips to places of scenic and historic interest throughout Venezuela. The trips are free or low-cost, depending on resources, and provide transportation and accommodations for groups to visit important sites in the country

In addition, university level courses are being organized to provide free courses for the elderly throughout the country. This is in addition to literacy and high school diploma programs which are already available to all citizens here.

Venezuela's Mission Adultos Mayores demonstrates what can be done when a country places its shared resources at the service of the community to improve the quality of not only their physical lives but the quality of their social and intellectual lives.

And, fortunately for Venezuelans, it was not necessary for senior citizens and the disabled here to suffer arrest, pepper spraying or other forms of brutal repression in order to obtain these benefits. Backed by Section 80 of the Venezuelan Constitution, the Venezuelan organization for the elderly and disabled simply wrote a letter to their socialist president, President Hugo Chavez, and the National Assembly (the equivalent of our Congress) requesting these services, and, within months, this new law and national Mission were created. In today's socialist Venezuela, the 99% truly rule. With the advent of Occupy Wall Street, perhaps tomorrow the 99% in the United States will make the U.S. into a new, human and humane society as well!

[RoboCain]

tl;dr

[T]

Does Hugo have a book you could refer us to? Perhaps a nice red one?

[BigT]

You like Venezuala? Live there a few years and see how you like it.

[Mr. FIFY]

Stupid Occutards. How do they work?

[BigT]

They don't work. They're busy occupying.

[capitol l]

Keep laughing wage slave. I'm sure the capitalist masters that you play lapdog to are laughing with you and not AT you.

Yeah, right!

[OWS VPS]

The author of that post is actually living and teaching in Venezuela as we speak.

[Mr. FIFY]

Who gives a shit?

[capitol l]

THE PEOPLE!

*throws fist in the air*

[BigT]

Haha! He should stay there. Better - join him! Just get the f out of our country.

[Citizen Nothing]

Oops. Sorry. I missed it. Could you repeat?

[capitol l]

You are sooo right! I just can't understand why Americans won't look to enightened world leaders like Chavez for inspiration. We truly need a government that is for the PEOPLE!

They say Venezuela doesn't have free speech. What crap!

People there are free from the speech of teabaggers, rethuglicans, and corporate banksters that just want to exploit them. That's real freedom. Not watching commercials for lead painted Chinese garbage!

Hey man, can you give me a ride to the Dream Menders letters to the editor writing party at the coffeeshop 2night? I have so many ideas and don't want to miss out! We're gonna have soooo much fun!!!

[juris imprudent]

for the PEOPLE!

I read that with George Hamilton's cheesy spanish accent as "for da PIPPLE".

[capitol l]

VIVA ZA PEEPEL!

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Chavistas, ah.... a great litmus test to see which leftists actually have some principles and which are political tribalists.

[Anonymous Coward]

I told you more brackets, dammit!

[Sevo]

"Perhaps one of the most unusual and innovative programs for the elderly and disabled is the availability of organized tourist trips to places of scenic and historic interest throughout Venezuela."

'And on your left, you'll be thrilled to note the worn-out mural of our great leader.
Now on the right, take a close look at the vacant lot where you might be able to buy food some time in the future!'
Yep, fun-filled!

[anon]

Fancy wall of text there. Oh you didnt expect me to actually read that shit, did you?

[Old Mexican]

Re: OWS too stoopid to live,

The Real Right To Life: Venezuela Expands Benefits for Elderly while the U.S. Pepper-Sprays Them

The elderly in the US can at least still buy vegetales, carne y huevitos in the US.

Giving money to people who can only find empty shelves is akin to a cruel joke.

And you're a bad joke.

[Michael S. Langston]

That is the funniest thing I have read in a very long time. Venezuela, the socialist success. lol - dumber even than Obama the capitalist upthread.

Just in case you might honestly believe Venezuela is somehow a success, they are presently seeking aid, and not just military aid, from Iran.

Iran of course signs all kinds of pledges for military and other aid, because they want a bargaining chip they believe they might be able to use against the US to extract consessions or otherwise occupy US concerns so they can work to control the middle east.

How does this relate to how terrible Venezuela is doing?

Iran cannot afford to give any other country substantial aid. Almost every deal simply evaporates under difficulties in implementation or any other excuse they can come up with to justify never actually delivering to Hugo anything promised.

Come to think of it, this is much like the medical care and other social benefits Venezuela promises its citizens - lots of promise, but none kept... I'm digressing...

Just note lastly, the pure infeasibility of Iran aiding Venzuela is further strengthened by the antipathy show to the recent state spectacle when Venzuela hosted their true friends Iran.

[My Myself and I]

Re: OWS VPS

Cool story, bro.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"A state government in Germany [Bavaria] is looking at legal measures to prevent a British publisher's plans to reproduce excerpts from Adolf Hitler's infamous memoir "Mein Kampf" in Germany, the state Finance Ministry said Tuesday....

"The copyright expires in 2015 ? 70 years after Hitler's death."

http://www.deseretnews.com/art.....-plan.html

[Eduard van Haalen]

Bavaria claims the copyright - speaking of copyright issues. Also, Godwin's Law.

[Joe M]

Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who sponsored the House measure, criticized the planned Wikipedia shutdown, saying "it is ironic that a website dedicated to providing information is spreading misinformation about the Stop Online Piracy Act."

Meta-irony.

[Tulpa]

[citation needed]

[Self Ownership Principle query]

Questions for libertarians on Self-Ownership:

? To how many species on the evolutionary Tree of Life* does this Principle apply?

? If only one, at what point in biological evolution did "self-ownership" (which I correlate with the more widely used scientific term autonomy**) become "axoimatic" for that specie, and why only for that specie?

____________________
* Evolutionary Genealogy: The Great Tree of Life
http://evogeneao.com/tree.html

** Life is a complex phenomenon that not only requires individual self-producing and self-sustaining systems but also a historical-collective organization of those individual systems, which brings about characteristic evolutionary dynamics. On these lines, we propose to define universally living beings as autonomous systems with open-ended evolution capacities, and we claim that all such systems must have a semi-permeable active boundary (membrane), an energy transduction apparatus (set of energy currencies) and, at least, two types of functionally interdependent macromolecular components (catalysts and records).
~Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo, Juli Peret? and Alvaro Moreno. (2004) "A Universal Definition of Life: Autonomy and Open-Ended Evolution." Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres. Volume 34, Number 3, 323-346. http://www.springerlink.com/content/p6j42r66k2277373/

[Sevo]

*sniff, sniff*
Hey! Someone call the exterminator!

[anon]

Godesky, im going to start actually calling you at work if you dont start with shutting the fuck up.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Perfunctory Contradiction is my middle name,

Questions for libertarians on Self-Ownership:

? To how many species on the evolutionary Tree of Life* does this Principle apply?

Why would you care about that, you imbecile? The important thing is: Do you believe your ass belongs to you or not?

[GILMORE]

from the rat story...

Lately, there have been reports of growing rat infestations around the Occupy DC protests at Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square.

i'd suspect the author of trying to inject some subtle irony, but by the time you get to the quotes about "aggressive squirrels" and pictures of various unrelated rodent varieties.... you realize the whole thing is just fucking insane and the person takes the issue seriously.

[John]

Where the hell is Riggs? They were deleting the griefer trolls for a while.

[Forgot your thinking cap?]

Fundie Boy frets. LOL

[itchy puss]

One million names is a start.

Walker is an asshole for revoking collective bargaining from everyone except cops.

He will probably be recalled...

[Mongo]

Why not just vote him out in the next election?

[Alice Bowie]

Because Wisconsin people don't like assholes that come in at revoke the rights of bargaining from everyone except cops. It's a TRUE DICK move that hopefully will get him kicked out.

A group of people have the right to collectively make their gripes known to the employer...even if it is the government.

These are people making $50k/year asking to to face a $6k/year (or $500/month) cut in take home.

Where as $80k/year cops didn't get the same cut.

He's a DICK...and is the classic example of the shitty people in America selling out other Americans.

[capitol l]

Well, then advocate for lower police pay. No one here will argue with that.

[Alice Bowie]

Try it Capital I.

Poor governor Walker will have to call in the National Guard to keep the protesters (which would include POLICE this time) at bay.

[capitol l]

Quit being a 'tard, Alice. You know damn well that the reason cops' pay wasn't touched is because their union got Walker in his pocket and he can't appear soft on crime, or whatever. His light touch on the cop unions (and firefighters?) is pure hypocrisy.

And if the leeches start rioting because they've been cut off from the host then fuck 'em, that's exactly what the national guard is for.

[Sevo]

"A group of people have the right to collectively make their gripes known to the employer...even if it is the government."
Yes, bozo, and any employer has the right to say: "I won't deal with that group."
Unless, of course, the group has somehow managed to get the government to deny that right to the employer. In which case, fuck that group.

[Alice Bowie]

The Free Market works when both employers and employees can negotiate.

If Company A is not will to pay the high salary demand of Person A, Person A can go to Company X. However, this isn't wasn't case during the times unions were created. All of the Companies would do the same thing. Knowing that they can just shuffle people lower and lower and they became more desperate and unemployable. Hence, the Birth of Unions.

And remember, companies are NOT forced to hire union workers. However, certain laborers (electricians, plumbers, etc.) tend either go into business for themselves as independent contractors, hire union workers, and still make a good profit.

[Sevo]

"However, this isn't wasn't case during the times unions were created."
Cite missing.

"And remember, companies are NOT forced to hire union workers."
Yes, they are in closed shop states.
And governments are in those states where it is required.
Fail twice.

[Tulpa]

Closed shops are illegal under the 1947 NLRA.

You're thinking of union shops, which do not interfere with hiring decisions, but only require anyone who works there for a certain amount of time to join the union.

[Sevo]

"Closed shops are illegal under the 1947 NLRA.
You're thinking of union shops, which do not interfere with hiring decisions, but only require anyone who works there for a certain amount of time to join the union."

You're right, Mr. Pedantic, and it's a distinction without a difference.

[Tulpa]

Um, no. In closed shops, the union decided who could be hired because the employer was forbidden from hiring anyone not already in the union. Big difference from a union shop where they have to accept anyone the employer wants to hire.

[Michael S. Langston]

Employees always have a right to negotiate. If you don't like your next raise and think you are worth more, say so.

Negotiating as a collective on the other hand is not a requirement for free markets.

Having the ability to do so is required, but just like the individual, in a truly free market the employer should also be able to sever ties to that collective should their demands exceed need, or in this case when the demands exceed the ability of the owners (taxpayers) to pay.

Why do you think freedom is a one-way street?

[0x90]

Their bargaining rights were revoked? You mean that they are not allowed to strike? Have they all had their driver's licenses revoked, and been chained to their desks, or something?

[cynical]

"A group of people have the right to collectively make their gripes known to the employer...even if it is the government."

Everyone has the right to collectively make their gripes known to government, not just employees. It's called voting. Employees just think they deserve a louder voice than their fellow citizen.

[DesigNate]

He's a dick for not skull fucking the cops and firefighters unions too. On that we can agree. But you are fucking retarded if you think that you should be able to vote for (and more importantly donate to the campaign of) the person you are going to be negotiating with.

Public sector workers do not deserve collective bargaining.

[Mitch]

"Public sector workers do not deserve collective bargaining."

Amen.

[Mitch]

So Alice, since the military seems to be getting screwed, is it ok for them to "collectively make there gripes" to the government?

[BigT]

But, of course, the school systems are doing BETTER since the union restricting law passed:

That's where Wisconsin's new budget law came in. The law, bitterly opposed by organized labor in the state and across the nation, limits the collective bargaining powers of some public employees. And it just happens that the Hartland-Lakeside teachers' collective bargaining agreement expired on June 30. So now, freed from the expensive WEA Trust deal, the school district has changed insurers.

"It's going to save us about $690,000 in 2011-2012," says Schilling. Insurance costs that had been about $2.5 million a year will now be around $1.8 million. What union leaders said would be a catastrophe will in fact be a boon to teachers and students.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....alth-costs

[invisible furry hand]

Just saw Britt Hume on Fox tslking about how Romney is not secure, because Gingrich and Santorum can still have surges. You'd think once the media was called out on ignoring Ron Paul that they'd make some token mention of him, even if just to explain why he's being ignored. It's all just so self-evident to them...

[Apatheist]

Yes and taking Santorum seriously is a big fact joke. Do they really think that guy is electable?

[Loki]

You should always tske santorum seriously. Anal sex biproducts are no laughing matter.

[mad libertarian guy]

In fact, the only real mentions of him I've heard since primary season started is "despite Ron Paul's surprisingly strong finish, we want to reiterate that he has no chance to win the nomination."

[Loki]

"Virginians freaking out about a rat exodus"

Is there a rat Moses?

[Rat Moses]

I come down from the Tenly Town dump pile bearing three inscribed chunks of -- make that two inscribed holy chunks of cheddar cheese.

[invisible furry hand]

what's the rat equivalent of worshipping a golden calf?

[Rat Moses]

Shitting on grass instead of shitting on some home owner's brand new carpet.

[Eduard van Haalen]

If you can't kill the rats in DC, what will the school system use for lunch meat?

[Rat Moses]

They use my babies for lunch meat? This I did not know.

[Eduard van Haalen]

No, not the babies, only the ones who are already dead and diseased.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Damn, I ruined my joke with that clarification!

[invisible furry hand]

You don't notice when your babies go missing? Call Rat Protective Services!

[Rat Moses]

That's my accountants job to keep up with the numbers.

[Citizen Nothing]

Ben, the two of us need look no more...

[rsi]

Its not the rats its the fleas.

They can catch the rats, get the fleas off them then transport the fleas.

[Paul]

"If we keep spending at the rate at which we have been doing, we will probably go broke in a month," said Haywood Carey, 28 years old, a member of the movement's accounting group.

Occupy Wall Street voted to freeze all spending on new projects at a Saturday meeting of its main government body, the General Assembly, but will continue spending on basics such as housing at several churches, food, clothing and transportation.

Wouldn't this be the very time for OWS to increase spending?

[Eduard van Haalen]

heh, heh.

[mad libertarian guy]

Stimulus!!

[Michael S. Langston]

Good idea. They should institute a tax scheme... call them fees and the total owed can be based upon things completely relevant, like minority status, sexual orientation, and parental resources.

If you're a white guy with rich parents though, be prepared to be taxed at 90% 🙂

[Paul]

There was a receipt for $1,101.07 to purchase herbs for homeopathic medicine as well as a few hundred dollars used to purchase rolling paper and tobacco for the "Nic at Night" cigarette station at the park.

Suhweet!

[Eduard van Haalen]

For tobacco use only!

[Loki]

"herbs for homeopathic medicine"

Hey man, don't bogart the weed- uh, I meen, the homeopathic medicine, yeah, that's it.

[Juice]

Wikipedia is non-profit and relies on donations. It saves them money to go black for a day, therefore blackout.

Google is for profit. It would cost them shitloads to go black for a day, therefore no blackout.

[Tulpa]

If people get pissed off at the Wikimedia Foundation and refuse to donate, it does costs them money. There are some people in other English speaking countries who are displeased that a US political battle is inconveniencing them.

[wylie]

US political battles inconveniencing non-english-speaking countries: still no biggie.

[Tulpa]

It's only the English Wikipedia that's blacking out. The versions in other languages are still going to be up.

[cynical]

There are some people in other English speaking countries that a U.S. law will inconvenience them. I think they're the wiser group.

[Lost_in_translation]

Rat fucker!

[invisible furry hand]

Prices - how low can they go?

[Punchbowl Turd]

This is like the worst chat room ever.

[cutegirl22]

Wanna cyber? Bet it'd brighten your mood, handsome!

[Pron]

Rather has a strap on that you might find interesting.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Bill Kristol:

"I don't think anyone should plead with [Ron Paul] not to run or to stay in the party. I would be comfortable in a general election if Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum as the Republican in the Reagan tradition and debating both Barack Obama and Ron Paul."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....17074.html

[capitol l]

He's right though. Ron Paul is an outlier in the republican party. And those three are way closer to Reagan than Paul will ever be.

This idea that no true republicans or no true conservatives are for big government is poppycock. As long as I've been alive republicans and conservatives have been consistently for big (and bigger, and bigger...) government. Especially when they're given the chance to govern; when the rubber meets the road as it were.

[Eduard van Haalen]

If he ran third-party *and was included in the debates,* I'd get some popcorn, because it would be the most interesting Presidential election in, like, ever.

If this happened, Kristol would be reminded of the ancient curse, "may your dearest wish come true."

[capitol l]

That's actually what I'm hoping for. If he bows out for some prime time speech slot at the convention I'll be disappointed. I'd like to see him take a huge war chest into the general as a third party guy and totally skull-fuck the whole process. The backpedaling and overt displays of hypocrisy we'd see from both sides is owed to us, goddammit. Watching anti-war liberals and small government conservatives twist themselves into knots trying to explain why they're voting for Obama/Whomever would be awesome.

And yes, skull-fuck is hyphenated.

[Tulpa]

"Some men just want to see the world burn."

[capitol l]

And some people paint over wallpaper.

[.]

"A man like cap' l, got a great, empty hole, right through the middle of 'im. He can never smoke enough, or fuck enough, or get enough freedom, to ever fill it."

"What does he need?"

"Revenge."

"For what?"

"Bein' born, a slave."

[capitol l]

I guess I could just bitch and moan like a two year old as you do, and that might fill the void.

[Pro Libertate]

Allowing the status quo to continue is insane. We will fail if it continues. So a near-term disaster of an election is probably better than electing someone who will just continue driving us off the cliff. Obama has proved that he'll do it, and Romney shows every indication of doing the same.

Sure, Paul is flawed. He's a bit wacky on some issues, doesn't speak all that well, and is a little old. So what? He'll do whatever it takes to shove Leviathan back into its shackles. No one else, other than the LP candidate, will even try to do that.

The situation is far more serious than most people realize. Another few years of what we're doing now will break this country. We either elect Paul, or we make it clear by a clusterfuck election that we demand a limited government/free market solution.

[Maxxx]

It's already too late.

The bailouts in 2008 were the point of no return. All you can do now is arrange your affairs to survive the crash.

[Tulpa]

I have a sharp feeling in my gall bladder that Maxxx is correct.

Or maybe that's my spleen. I don't know. It's somewhere in my viscera, that's for sure.

[Tulpa]

I guess I could just bitch and moan like a two year old as you do, and that might fill the void.

Isn't that basically what everyone here is doing?

[Jerry]

As if it matters to Kristol if either Obama or Romney wins the election.

[Tulpa]

Everybody who governs wants big government, so long as they're the one governing.

[Eduard van Haalen]

One more link: Amusing video - Stuff Obama Supporters Say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....e=youtu.be

[Old Mexican]

Re: Alice Bowie,

Because Wisconsin people don't like assholes that come in at revoke the rights of bargaining from everyone except cops.

Nobody can take your right to collectively bargain. What the state did was take out the right of the unions to their monopoly. That's all.

[wink]

I am seeking the right man who can give me a real love, so I joined in the Seekcasual*com.(user name winklin)It's the first and best club for man and woman finding their intimate encounters. Well, you do not have to be lonely ,for you can meet the Mr. or Miss. Right there..

[Mr. Rat]

I gotta work late at the office again, honey.

She means nothing to me, baby, honest!

Wait, you said Mr. *Right.* Boy, have you got the wrong person!

And do you like how I tied it in to the theme of this thread?

[sloopyinca]

Hey, dumbass. If you want to meet Mr. or Miss Right, you need to spend more time on H&R, not some stupid dating site.

I found Miss Right on here, much to my infinite bliss.

[Tulpa]

Matt & Nick need to start deploying bots out to other blogs advertising the lovefest that is H&R (despite the 25:1 gender ratio).

[sloopyinca]

25:1 is being pretty generous. 100:1 is probably closer to reality.

And the best one just went off the market!

[El Commentariosa]

100:1 if you discount Rectal

[TrickyVic]

""I found Miss Right on here, much to my infinite bliss.""

Does Miss Right know she has a stalker?

[Sevo]

Re: the vermin (no, the ones mentioned in the article).
In CA, an exterminator is not allowed to transport, say, a raccoon across county lines.
So, exterminator X traps a raccoon (let's call him Sam) from someone's backyard in neighborhood A
Now where does exterminator X 'dispose' of Sam, you might ask? Why, neighborhood B sounds like a good place! And, surprisingly, there is soon a call from neighborhood B to remove a raccoon.
You think exterminator X and Sam might be acquainted after a couple of such moves?
I do.

[Grandpa Whithers]

Whitehouse on Gambol Lockdown!

http://www.politico.com/news/s.....71577.html

[killazontherun]

SOPA lives. Ted Kennedy's partner in rape, and current head of the MPAA calls the black out due tomorrow 'irresponsible', 'dangerous', 'troubling', and 'an abuse of power.'

http://arstechnica.com/tech-po.....-power.ars

Only government can use the power to shut down websites responsibly so it does not constitute an abuse of power, eh Senator?

[Sevo]

"current head of the MPAA calls the black out due tomorrow [...] 'an abuse of power.'
You bet!
Anyone refusing to offer a good or service is abusing power!
Why, just ask shithead; he'll tell you.

[Binky]

Chris Dodd: "It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts ...."

Must ... control ....

"It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this 'blackout' ...."

"Nice little websites you got here ...."

[Hobie Hanson]

If it wasn't clear already, this little tantrum shows that we clearly need to nationalize Wikipedia. The only thing Mr. Wales' Wikimedia corporation has demonstrated is that it can't be trusted with exclusive control of this resource which rightfully belongs to the entire human race.

And while we're at it, we should introduce some moderation in the editing process to prevent slander, misrepresentation, and fomenting of distrust in government. If it's good enough for the New York Times, it's good enough for an encyclopedia.

[DesigNate]

That is some funny shit right there.

You were being sarcastic right?

[Tulpa]

Has Dodd completely lost his mind?

some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging... It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.

Uh, Wikipedia is by far the most visible of the sites; it's certainly not a "business interest" in any sense of the word, and one can hardly accuse them of "furthering their corporate interests" since they're non-profit.

[sloopyinca]

There's just too much negativity on here tonight. I'll break the streak:

Last night, my wife-to-be found out at Victoria's Secret that she's actually a 34-DD when she had thought she was a 36-D. It was a good night.

[killazontherun]

How is that good news? My wife is a stick! A cute stick, but a 32-A stick. I shouldn't complain. She can poke your eyes out with her big red pencil eraser nipples.

[killazontherun]

Wait. Are you talking about Banjos?

[sloopyinca]

Why yes, I am.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Speaking of, apparently the super-secret reason e-mail list is closed off for new entrants, so how am I supposed to get your registry?

[sloopyinca]

We'll get it on here soon.

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazing how this bit of information in no way benefits me.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Let him revel; it really is cute while it lasts.

sloopy, how long are you guys talking on the phone per night? "No, YOU hang up...!"

[sloopyinca]

About 2 hours, once we watch a couple of movies on netflix together.

[Banjos]

2 hours, maybe...depends.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

This makes me chuckle in a pleasurable mix of nostalgia and condescension.

[killazontherun]

That moment when you said to yourself, 'what the fuck did I get myself into?' didn't seem so funny then did it?

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Nope, but it's kinda like ritualistic hazing - we all had to go through it, and we're...better?...for it.

[killazontherun]

My tone was entirely wrong. I meant it is good that you can look back and laugh. I just avoid looking back to the point I get random attacks of the heebee jeebees in public spaces.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Hey, I am picking up what you're putting down.

[killazontherun]

Bro hazing can never quite scorch you like a relationship that's gone coyote ugly on the inside, so probably no better and no worse. When I was ten, two older cousins tied me to a tree just before a thunderstorm hit. I brought it up a few months ago on the golf course when they were behaving like pussies at the site of some black clouds in the distance. Must've scarred them worse that it did me.

[A Serious Man]

Pictures or it didn't happen.

[El Commentariosa]

Noooooooooooooo

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Don't be rude.

[Trespassers W]

OK, I can see why you gotta lock that down.

[Tulpa]

Reminds me of the day I found out I was an INTJ instead of an ISTP.

[sloopyinca]

Funny, I always thought of you as a NERD.

(I keed! I keed!)

[Tulpa]

Nice. If your heart had to wear a bra it would be a 8AA.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Is 8 even a real size?

[Tulpa]

For a chicken it is.

[Old Mexican]

The New Republic just published Ron Paul's newsletters part deux... Except they're the same newsletters than before, just different comments. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is having a field day with these "new findings" and calling anybody that supports Ron Paul a "bad person."

Just to show you that when it comes to the Establishment, it can count on very odd and diverse defenders.

[A Serious Man]

I'm not surprised since the only other objectionable action Paul has taken in his career is that ridiculous airline controversy that muiltiple papers tried to stir up the other day.

Now they are going back to the newsletter well. I would love for some person to go on Maddow's show and ask her if she thinks Obama supporters are horrible people for sanctioning with their votes the murder of children in Arab countries.

[killazontherun]

Rehashing the same old shit on our guy 'cause the new shit is the absolute failure that is their guy.

[El Commentariosa]

No Wikipedia? How will Tony support his statements?

[A Serious Man]

On the next Arrested Development Fox News moderated debate: "Congressman Paul, why do Muslims named Adolf support you and your campaign?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....11664.html

[Old Mexican]

Support the blackout. I will not check anything tomorrow - not under my secret identity, at least!

See you all Thursday!

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Oh we're all crushed. How will I ever go on?

[El Commentariosa]

If you hit "stop" before the blackout page shows up, Wikipedia is normal.

[A Serious Man]

The mobile Wikipedia app I installed on my phone still works as well.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Priceless - they can't even do this dumbass blackout right.

[?]

Some annoying ad or image script I've blocked on their site sometime in the past also delivers their "blackout." Everything looks normal and works.

[?]

If you were a socialist administration that went hyperactive after being granted a second term would not this be exactly the sort of information you would find useful to nationalize the banking industry?

FDIC Requires Big Banks to Have Breakup Plan

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46026886

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I was listening to the report about this on NPR this evening. I was thinking the same as you. What if the FDIC doesn't like the hypothetical breakup plan? Will the FDIC direct banks how to liquidate? Would that cause a conflict of interest between competing firms? Or facilitate insider trading (NTTAWWT)? Once again, unforeseen consequences.

[El Commentariosa]

If you just look into your heart, that's where the real Wikipedia lies.

[Tulpa]

It's better to look things up in your gut than in a book.

[Tulpa]

I'm gonna be seriously pissed at Congress if I need to find out who was the third king of Prussia today.

[20% Warmer]

Maybe this whole "go dark for a day" (is that racist?) movement should try and please that mouth breather in the photo: every rich person should destroy their riches and never put them to productive use again. Put bets on how many days he'll live.

[WC JOnes]

Those guys really seem to know what the deal is. Wow.

http://www.Total-Security.tk