A.M. Links: Obama to Propose $4 Trillion in Deficit "Reductions," Romney's Record on Contraception Goes Under the Microscope, Greece Is on Fire

• President Obama to propose another budget, pray that it passes. 

• Romney never objected to contraception mandates before.  
• Athens burns as one in five employees of the Greek government learn they will have to find real jobs. 
• Mitt Romney wins (absolutely meaningless) CPAC straw poll. 
• Israel blames Iran for embassy attacks. 
• Ahmadinejad's backers and Khamenei loyalists have their own spat. 

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New at Reason.tv: "CPAC 2012: Occupy Protesters & Anti-gay Activists"

Comments

[anon]

first

[Almanian]

DAMNIT! I wanted to be Tanner Foust...

[?]

It begins.

[LIBERTARD PROPERTY "THEORY"]

LIBERTARD: "Only someone that believes in property can have anything stolen, which means nothing can be stolen from you."

Libertards evidently would steal candy from a baby, and sleep like one that night.

KOCKsucking Libertards are WHITE NEO-BOLSHEVIKS intent on taking everything.

"[The Native Americans] didn't have any rights to the land ... ANY WHITE PERSON who brought the element of civilization had THE RIGHT TO TAKE over this continent." ~Ayn Rand, US Military Academy at West Point, March 6, 1974

Libertardism = justifying the RIGHT TO TAKE. (At least if you're "any white person.")

MORE STUFF FOR ME!
MORE STUFF FOR ME!
MORE STUFF FOR ME!
MORE STUFF FOR ME!

It's a virtue.

[Jason Godesky]

MORE CHEESEBURGERS FOR ME!
MORE CHEESEBURGERS FOR ME!
MORE CHEESEBURGERS FOR ME!
MORE CHEESEBURGERS FOR ME!

[kitteh]

I can haz cheeseburgrz?

[White Indian loves little boys]

[I know you are...]

...but what am I?

[?]

This is not my fault.

[kate]

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[kate]

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[AA]

What about beastiality? Is there a site for that?

[Loki]

Are you new to this whole "interweb" thing?

[Old Salt]

I wanna drive a red Ford Fairlane convertible down Pennsylvania Avenue while I'm buck naked, covered in lime jello, smoking a Cuban cigar bigger that the size of that island, eating a medium rare harp seal cheeseburger, drinking Jagermeister straight out of the bottle, reading a leather bound Atlas Shrugged, and all the while getting an Altoids blow job from a Japanese Sandra Bullock dressed like Little Red Riding Hood!

Show me the site that allows me to do that for a reasonable price and I will build you TEMPLES since you will be my new GOD!

[Suki]

The jello might make the brake and gas pedals slippery.

[o3]

id pay good money to see that!

[Matrix]

It's only meaningless if Ron Paul wins it.

[o3]

Going green is the US Navy's goal at Guantanamo

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba ? Solar-powered lights serve as sentries where U.S. Marines once faced-off along the Cuban frontier. A team of Navy cops now rides bikes rather than gas-guzzling patrol cars in the searing Caribbean sunshine.

In this remote corner of Cuba that is better known as a lab for Pentagon justice and interrogation, the U.S. Navy has been quietly engaging in more low-profile offshore experimentation ? seeking environmentally friendly alternatives to reduce its whopping $100,000 a day fossil fuel dependence.
http://www.stripes.com/going-g.....o-1.168219

[db]

I already pointed out that a solar power plant to cover gitmo's needs would cover over 250 acres.

[sloopyinca]

Hey Urine, if you want to talk about Gitmo, we'll be happy to discuss the fact that your fearless leader has expanded the role of indefinite detentions for people not captured in battle, has not halted the torture of prisoners but has shifted it's implementation to foreign intel services, has pissed on due process in the vein of the Bush WH and has refused to allow even the level of transparency and access the Bush WH allowed down there.

Yes, please please please bring up Gitmo.

[o3]

no prob. as soon as there's moar good gitmo news i will.

[RoboCain]

http://reason.com/blog/2012/02.....nt_2834091

[sloopyinca]

Well-written piece by Greenwald. Thanks for the link.

[John]

http://dailycaller.com/2012/02.....nizations/

Inside media matters. This is a wow. First, David Brock is a paranoid nut. He keeps armed body guards around him at all time and was convinced right wing snipers were going to shoot him off his roof.

Second, media matters basically writes the nightly scripts for MSNBC. Not surprising but certainly not something MSNBC would ever admit. But it gets better

The entire progressive blogosphere picked up our stuff," says a Media Matters source, "from Daily Kos to Salon. Greg Sargent [of the Washington Post] will write anything you give him. He was the go-to guy to leak stuff."

"If you can't get it anywhere else, Greg Sargent's always game," agreed another source with firsthand knowledge.

Reached by phone, Sargent declined to comment.

"The HuffPo guys were good, Sam Stein and Nico [Pitney]," remembered one former staffer. "The people at Huffington Post were always eager to cooperate, which is no surprise given David's long history with Arianna [Huffington]."

"Jim Rainey at the LA Times took a lot of our stuff," the staffer continued. "So did Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle. We've pushed stories to Eugene Robinson and E.J. Dionne [at the Washington Post]. Brian Stelter at the New York Times was helpful."

"Ben Smith [formerly of Politico, now at BuzzFeed.com] will take stories and write what you want him to write," explained the former employee, whose account was confirmed by other sources. Staffers at Media Matters "knew they could dump stuff to Ben Smith, they knew they could dump it at Plum Line [Greg Sargent's Washington Post blog], so that's where they sent it."

And of course a nice "laws are for the little people" moment

By 2010, Brock's personal assistant, a man named Haydn Price-Morris, was carrying a holstered and concealed Glock handgun when he accompanied Brock to events, including events in Washington, D.C., a city with famously restrictive gun laws. Price-Morris told others he carried the gun to protect Brock from threats.

Late in 2010, other Media Matters employees learned about Price-Morris's gun, and he was fired due to their objections. No public announcement was made.

According to one source with knowledge of what happened next, Brock was "terrified" that news of the gun would leak. "George Soros and a lot of groups connected to gun control are funding this group, and they wouldn't be too happy that an employee of Media Matters was carrying a gun, especially when it was illegal in D.C."

[RoboCain]

Oh look, another anti-gun liberal with a gun.

[Ice Nine]

Is that first page photo some serious dart board material, or what?

[o3]

how do you know the assistant, who had the weapon, is anti-gun?

[db]

The reason it's called a point, see, is that it's so far above your head that it dwindles to a barely visible one dimensional image.

[o3]

hardly, rc's over-generalization is as obvious as ur assumptions.

[R C Dean]

triple-o, its even worse when a liberal is too pure and holy to actually touch the gun itself, but instead directs a minion to do so. So revealing, really.

[o3]

how do you know the assistant was directed?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

how do you know the assistant was directed?

Because Brock was terrified that news of the gun would leak, rather than righteously pissed that his personal assistant was packing heat. Note that the minion was only fired AFTER other MM employees pitched a fit about the gun.

And because personal assistants tend to not do anything when it comes to protection without their boss knowing it. (see O'Donnell, Rosie)

[o3]

moar assumptions allow even moar assumptions eh?

[R C Dean]

More like, circumstantial evidence provides support for assumptions.

[Bobarian]

It's called a point because it is sharp and precise and small; much like the tip of O3's head.

[Abdul]

David Brock gives Andrew Sullivan a run for the money when it comes to undiagnosed manic depressives who have switched parties.

Also: the sweet irony of a thinly sourced hit piece on the guy who wrote the thinly sourced Anita Hill hit piece, then felt guilty aobut it, and then did it to the Republicans as some sort of pennance.

[PapayaSF]

I read his Anita Hill book, and thought it was a decent piece of detective work. The core conclusion was that Hill thought she could sink Thomas' nomination anonymously with a mixture of fact (he had flirted with her) and fiction (she had a boss who was a harasser, but it wasn't Thomas), but a Democrat senator and/or their staffers leaked her name, forcing her to defend her story in public.

[Loki]

Gun control is really about just keeping guns out of the hands of the clueless rubes. They come in very handy for protecting the "enlightened class" from us common rabble. Don't expect the enlightened to see their own hypocrasy though.

[Bill]

Good article. Sadly, I clicked on a link and had to look at a picture of that horse-faced creep Coulter in an article where she says all true women and "pretty" women are conservatives. Do I misunderstand, or does she actually think she is pretty? Did I mention she has a horse-face?

[RoboCain]

Why I Am Mentally Retarded

http://www.thelmagazine.com/Th.....-the-facts

http://gawker.com/5883668/why-.....greg-kelly

[Francisco d Anconia]

OMFG! Had to stop at first paragraph for fear of ruptured blood vessel!

[annonymous commenter some guy]

Good thing you did. The second paragraph was infinitely worse. Audrey Ference is either a terrible person or terribly ignorant. (Yes, I am aware that he could be both.)

[RoboCain]

It's both.

[Sparky]

Once (not) a rapist, always (not) a rapist. RoboCain, why do you love rapists?

[RoboCain]

But everyone is a rapist, apparently.

[RoboCain]

Another Jackass:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....drome.html

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Overweight, pregnant, bad teeth, and Tourette's....

A fine example of a British teenager

[Zeb]

From North Dakota.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Same difference...

[Loki]

From North Dakota.

Which is probably why the dailymail published the story. The brits never pass on an opportunity to run a story about some fucked up American. Anything to make their readers feel all smugly superior to us inbred "colonists".

[Red Rocks Rockin]

To be fair, they did talk about that Brit teenager with the McNugget addiction, but probably just because she still looked pretty trim despite the health issues the article said she had.

[rac3rx]

Doesn't matter...had sex...

[Mr Meow]

She revealed that she has also started to shout the word 'yes' and 'haha'

Yes! Haha!

[Ice Nine]

A pregnant teenager with Tourette's Syndrome was stunned when she started braying like a donkey days after conception.

This could so easily have been prevented with some good 'ol Donkey Punching.

(WikiP it yourself).

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

NO

[Ice Nine]

Yes. It gets better. (scroll for vid)

[Konfounded Kristen]

She's having Donkey Spells just like Kenneth the Page!

[Minsc]

He should have went for the eyes.

[Bill]

Urban dictionary has some good definitions. The last 6/7 are all people saying you'll go to jail or get the crap beat out of you if you do it.

[Maxxx]

That's one fugly donkey.

[RoboCain]

Not my bag, baby!

http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....ctile.html

[RoboCain]

Repulsive progressive hypocrisy

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/0.....singleton/

[JW]

Repulsive progressive hypocrisy

But you repeat yourself.

[mad libertarian guy]

Is that a triplicate form you filled out?

[JW]

He's almost there....

One final point: I've often made the case that one of the most consequential aspects of the Obama legacy is that he has transformed what was once known as "right-wing shredding of the Constitution" into bipartisan consensus, and this is exactly what I mean. When one of the two major parties supports a certain policy and the other party pretends to oppose it ? as happened with these radical War on Terror policies during the Bush years ? then public opinion is divisive on the question, sharply split. But once the policy becomes the hallmark of both political parties, then public opinion becomes robust in support of it. That's because people assume that if both political parties support a certain policy that it must be wise, and because policies that enjoy the status of bipartisan consensus are removed from the realm of mainstream challenge.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Greenwald will probably vote Green, because, smart as he is, he is still the kind of dope who doesn't understand that Freedom is Freedom is Freedom and thinks you can have the Regulatory State without the Anti-Civil-Liberties State.

[JW]

Or he won't vote at all.

I haven't read Greenwald enough to get a read on his non-civil liberties views, but I've gathered from others that he's pretty much TEAM BLUE when it comes to economic rights.

Still, the first step to abandoning the Coke and Pepsi world is realizing that the emperor is wearing no clothes.

[DesigNate]

The first step is realizing that Dr. Pepper is VASTLY SUPERIOR to either one of those sodas.

Of course you weren't literally talking about sodas so...

[RoboCain]

Muslims Exempt from ObamaCare?

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/1.....obamacare/

[Almanian]

Well, of course he's gonna take care of his own kind...DUH!

[o3]

so are kenyans exempt also?

[As almanian noted:]

DUH!

[o3]

dude it was a joke on a joke. jeesch

[Vermin Jordon]

So, everybody'll want to submit to Allah. What better way to bring about Sharia law in the US? BHO is teh clever!

[T]

Wait, Scientologists are exempt from Social Security? WTF?

[RoboCain]

Epistemological Terrorism On Campus

http://www.avoiceformen.com/fe.....rrectness/

[John]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ne.....6919.story

Cops among the worst speeders. Since 2004, Florida officers exceeding the speed limit have caused at least 320 crashes and 19 deaths. Only one officer went to jail ? for 60 days."

[jacob]

BTW here's some follow-up to the story you had posted last week. Looks like there's an eyewitness who is contradicting the state's version.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/arti.....ting-In-VA

[John]

I saw that. The cop's story makes no sense.

[sarcasmic]

Obviously the witness is wrong.

Cops never lie.

[sarcasmic]

If someone opens the car door to check the window and discovers that it was rolled all the way to the top, contradicting the cop's story, then the mechanic should be executed for perjury.

[Troll]

You appear to have anger management issues, sarcasmic, as well as a neurotic antipathy toward police officers. Would you like join our support group? We air our grievances in a public chat room, where the warmth, comfort and empathy of like-minded collectivists soothes the mind and heals the spirit.

Let's start with your toilet-training, shall we?

[Mongo]

Anono-pussy ~ I've attended community/police meetings were the cops were too chickenshit to show up.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

She didn't respect his authoritah; He didn't really have any option but to murder her.

[Troll]

You, too, are invited, "Night Elf Mohawk."

Tell us about your childhood.

[sloopyinca]

Hey, wait a minute! I don't want to be stuck here by myself.

[JW]

Odds are, she was having an affair and meeting (or had met) her squeeze on the side in the parking lot.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

He better watch his back. Cops don't take kindly to squealers.

[Troll]

Good, good.
Go on.

[mr simple]

Why do I read comments on sites like this? It amazes me the fantastical stories that people create in their heads just from reading a few snippets about what may have happened. People actually think this guy is a hero that had his arm trapped in a car window, screaming for her to stop as he was dragged down the street when she sped off. No matter that none of the stories had details of this level.

[Bee Tagger]

The extent of the problem uncovered by the newspaper shocked South Florida's police brass. All the agencies started internal investigations.

Good enough for me. In that it has to be because that's the last we'll hear of this.

[John]

This has been thoroughly investigated and is old news. You can hear it now.

[Zeb]

It will continue just as it has been, but it is old news, nothing to see here.

[sarcasmic]

In 2009, Miami-Dade police buried one of their own ? Giovanni Gonzalez, a 23-year-old rookie who rear-ended a dump truck while driving nearly 100 mph for no apparent reason.

Was the driver of the dump truck charged?

[Zeb]

How can you engage in such levity when discussing the death of a hero, man?

[Gray Ghost]

Not necessarily levity, Zeb. In this case, the undercover Sheriff's deputy was racing to work on a frontage road at, IIRC, ~80 MPH. No lights, no siren. He plowed into the back of a panel truck that pulled out in front of him. The deputy didn't take any evasive action, probably assisted by the .27 to .32% BAC in his corpse.

Naturally, the panel truck driver got charged with neg. homicide and ended up spending ~6 months in county awaiting trial and unable to bond out. All charges were eventually dropped. Well, except his deportation.

[RoboCain]

Laws are magic!

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.c.....ore-106023

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....68214.html

[RoboCain]

Katy Perry gropes a girls and she likes it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....wards.html

[Almanian]

YEAH baby, YEAH!

[Eduard van Haalen]

Quelle Golgothe!

[Shmenge]

Not a big fan of the blue hair.

[Leftist Behavior]

Local authorities were investigating the possibility that the bomb was planted under the car or alternatively that an assassin on a motorbike attached it to the vehicle as it was driving. Indian television cited witnesses who saw a motorbike following the car and possibly throwing an object toward it before the explosion.

This sounds an awful lot like the method of whoever has been assassinating Iranian scientists. I would think a suicide bomb is more Iran's style. This is most likely a false flag operation by the Israelis.

[John]

Iran has a real intelligence service. They don't have to rely on idiot suicide bombers.

[Fun with Logic]

But they all want their 72 virgins, right? Doesn't that make them ALL suicide bombers?

For that matter, how is it that any of teh craaaaazy MOOOSLEMS are alive at all? One would think they'd have long since offed themselves...

[Marshall Gill]

Yeah, sure. Arafat died a billionaire. He wasn't stupid enough to commit suicide himself but he was evil enough to convince others to do so.

[cynical]

Or, alternatively, the first assassination was a false flag operation by the Iranians to take out a treasonous scientist while making it appear that external forces were to blame in order to boost public support for the government.

[Maxxx]

That's the most like explanation.

It's amazing the way that everyone assumes that it's some super-duper Mossad operation.

[CatoTheElder]

OTOH, sometimes things are as they appear.

[sarcasmic]

JFK was... *gasp*... a Kennedy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....gnant.html

[John]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....l?ITO=1490

Libyan freedom fighters have turned into brutal torturers. It is almost like it is a bad idea to run a war from 30,000 feet and have no control over the people you put in power.

[o3]

so 20,000 feet next time.

[affenkopfs]

It's a bad idea. But running a war with your own troops on the ground and control over the people you put in power seems to turn out exactly the same at a higher cost.

[John]

No it is not. It costs more. But if you want to go to war you should do it and not half ass it.

[France]

That's what we tried to do and see how it turned out. Damned American revolutionaies.

[Leftist Behavior]

It's a bad idea, but so is spending a decade trying to control who is in power at the cost of thousands of lives only to realize that it takes a lot longer to overturn centuries of ethnic strife and in the end let the country devolve into civil war when you leave.

[John]

There is a civil war in Iraq? It doesn't seem to be making the papers. Last I look Iraq was safer than Mexico. Wars are hard. If you don't want to fight them, fine. But don't sit around and pretend there is an easy way to do them.

[Leftist Behavior]

That's because the media is focused on drumming up support for military intervention in Syria and Iran. There have been 500 people killed in Iraq since the US withdrawal. Maybe that's not as bad as Mexico, but I don't really know why that matters. Mexico is a failed state, too. It's like saying AIDS is better than Stage IV pancreatic cancer.

Wars are hard. If you don't want to fight them, fine. But don't sit around and pretend there is an easy way to do them.

The easy way to fight a war to remove a government from power is what we did in Libya. Give the people opposed to the government military support and let them do the heavy lifting. You end up with the same thing in the end except with minimal cost to the US in dollars and lives.

[Sparky]

It worked so well in Afghanistan too.

[John]

There have been 500 people killed in Iraq since the US withdrawal

There is something like 30 million Iraqis. That is hardly a civil war and anything but a failed state. And it is a hell of a lot better than Libya.

[Loki]

Or we could just leave other countries who aren't a direct threat to us the fuck alone. Novel concept.

[Team Purple Politician]

Come on, Loki. Where's the fun in that? Un-used power is wasted power.

[No war here, sir]

just a peacetime bombing

[No war here, sir]

It's not "violence" violence

[No war here, sir]

Detroit is worse

[Heroic Mulatto]

I like how the article has absolutely no mention of how the torturers believed that guy was loyal to Gaddafi just because the man was black.

[Abdul]

Wow, Jesse Jackson's Gaddafi outreach really ade a lsting impression in Libya. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....l?image=11

[R C Dean]

Perhaps bombing a thuggish authoritarian regime out of power in a backward, barbarian, tribalist society AND booting a thuggish authoritarian regime out of power in a backward, barbarian tribalist society are equally unlikely to result in anything but a backward, barbarian, tribalist society with a new thuggish, authoritarian regime.

[Marshall Gill]

You say that like culture matters.

[db]

One could make the argument that this is why you go in and rebuild a nation after removing its leadership and crushing its milotary, like in Iraq. I think there are very serious problems with this argument, but I can see people makkiing it. This is why I am very concerned about what we will do regarding Syria and Iran.

[Leftist Behavior]

The people who were put into power in Iraq aren't torturing people.

[Maxxx]

We knew the Lybian rebels were al-Queda operative from the beginning.

[o3]

Saudis prompt Al Qaeda-Iraq move to Syria: Assad's ouster top priority

Saudi rulers, to save the Syrian opposition from defeat at Bashar Assad's hands, are reported by debkafile's intelligence sources as taking a hand in turning al Qaeda Iraqi cells loose against him. Saudi agents used their pull with Iraqi Sunnis to persuade al Qaeda leaders that Assad and his Alawite regime were their most dangerous foe and their overthrow the first Sunni priority.

Al Qaeda's Pakistan headquarters broadcast the same call-up. Up 1,000 al Qaeda jihadis reported now in Syria.
http://www.debka.com/#

[John]

Thousands of Russian military advisers are there too. Lets not go.

[Zeb]

Seriously. Let the fucking crazies fight it out.

[affenkopfs]

Fuck the Saudis.

[Teh Bush Family]

What?

[Barack Hussein]

http://www.google.com/imgres?q.....29,r:2,s:0

[Mullah Tover]

Javanfekr received a separate one-year sentence for writing that the practice of women wearing head-to-toe black coverings was not originally an Iranian practice, but was imported.

Obviously, Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

[sarcasmic]

Chubby chaser special (you know who you are)!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....cover.html

[Ice Nine]

Watched the Grammys last night (had to, 'nuff said). When the wonderful, spectacular, six-Grammy-winning Adele - the best singer to come down the pike in decades - performed, the majority of the comments revolved around how fat she was. It was sick.

[sarcasmic]

Never heard of her.

[sarcasmic]

Who?

[o3]

that fat chick

[Ice Nine]

RYFA

[sarcasmic]

It hurts my eyes.

[cynical]

And this is why pop music has been so shit for the past couple of decades. Much easier to get an attractive, moderately talented singer and just overproduce the shit out of everything. Although that still doesn't explain Ke$ha.

[sarcasmic]

Ke$ha can actually look remotely human, believe it or not.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....under.html

[JW]

Nope. Still fugly.

[rac3rx]

Dude, she has the worst fucking skin. I thought Jay Leno & Terry Bradshaw were frightful in HD until the first time I saw this one. Absolutely horrifying.

[Grummun]

Wait, she's got the worst fucking skin because... she has freckles?

*snort*

[SugarFree]

Slutty uggos need a heroine of their own, cynical.

[Ice Nine]

You rang?

[RoboCain]

Little Red Riding Ho?

[rac3rx]

Oh damn, speaking of no talent. Then there's a vid out with that and the Fresh Prince(ss)...good grief. I'm still trying to figure out why people mock the hell out of Rebecca Black but take this one and Smith's kid seriously. They're all equally awful.

[Timon19]

Jesus,she looks like...a fancy jawa?

[Rich]

+size

[Rev. Blue Moon]

A good singer =/= good entertainment. Does Adele have a powerful voice? Yeah, but we've heard all that before. That's not different or interesting.

[R C Dean]

And, of course, we've also heard before what overproduced eye candy sounds like. Its funny, though: all the overproduced eye candy sounds the same. At least Adele has some authenticity and originality going for her.

[sarcasmic]

all the overproduced eye candy sounds the same.

It sells too, and that's all that really matters.

[robc]

Well, sorta.

Saw a story recently (although the incident occured a while back) on Trent Reznor bitching about the price his record company put on a NIN albums (way too high). He thought he understood economics and asked them why his was so why when [random pop-tart] was priced low. He thought she should be priced high since she was selling millions of albums, hence had the higher demand.

The record companies response was that he had a core group of committed fans who would pay almost anything. They had to deep discount pop to get it to sell at all.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Originality? I've heard female soul singers before, man.

[Proprietist]

Yeah, she's like a soul singer with indie intonations. It doesn't really sound all that different from a lot of stuff in that range for the past decade. Duffy and Amy Winehouse were already doing that style for the past five + years. Her big hit is kinda annoying. IMHO, she's a good enough singer but way, way overrated.

[Proprietist]

That said, most of the other music of this modern era is godawful, so she does look very talented in comparison.

[Zeb]

Adele does seem to be popular and successful in spite of not being your typical pop tart, so I am not sure what your point is. That jerks comment on her appearance first just reminds us that people are assholes, which we knew.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

My point is that there is a strain of folks out there who seem to think that pure talent should always win the day and that we should venerate the "Talented" over the "Overproduced Tart", and it's a stupid argument. What is entertaining is not necessarily fueled solely by talent, nor should it be.

[Sparky]

Wait, are you trying to say that taste in entertainment is totally subjective?

[Zeb]

Well, we should venerate the talented person over the overproduced tart. People do lots of things that they shouldn't do.
But I agree with your larger point. For every really talented successful musician, there are hundreds or thousands of people who are just as talented who will never be famous or rich because of their talent. Popular entertainment is definitely not usually based on the talent or skill of the performers.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

What is entertaining is not necessarily fueled solely by talent, nor should it be

Exactly--there's a reason Madonna has influenced nearly every dance-driven pop tart on the charts today from Gaga to Kesha to Katy Perry, and it wasn't due to her singing ability. Often, success boils down to timing and a skill for self-promotion.

Adele's a rarity only in that she's a soul singer in a field that's currently oversaturated with these dance-pop chicks. She'd be nothing more than a one-hit wonder in the mid-to-late 90s, because in that era she'd be just another Girl Done Wrong But Taking Back the Power, amongst a multitude of others from Fiona Apple to Joan Osborne to Merril Bainbridge to Alanis Morrisette to Liz Phair.

[Resto Druid FTW]

I'm not ashamed to admit it; I'd be more than happy to lay with any of those.

[RoboCain]

Apparently, any links from A Voice For Men get flagged as spam. Maybe The Fire will cover the same story...

[Bee Tagger]

Is it db who has a friend/family member that is involved with the restaurant Verde in Pittsburgh?

I went for the first time on Saturday night. I thought it was great. I had Chicken Tortilla soup and some sort of BBQ Duck Tamale. Both were very tasty.

[db]

Yep. Very glad you enjoyed it! Did you try any of the special tequilas?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Athens burns as one in five employees of the Greek government learn they will have to find real jobs.

There should be some Athens construction jobs coming up. Or not.

[Rich]

I'd say "Or not".

Ruins are essential to their tourist industry.

[robc]

Then Detroit should be booming soon.

[annonymous commenter some guy]

Give it a couple thousand years or so.

[o3]

burning windows fallacy

[Bee Tagger]

They aren't using water to put out these grease fires, are they?

Wait, don't go. That isn't a pun on the name of the country, it's a joke about the Greek hygeine habits.

[dmoynihan]

I thought it was a reference to Byzantine pyrotechnics, and was suitably impressed.

[Rioters]

Just doing our part to stimulate the economy.

[annonymous commenter some guy]

On a more important note, has anyone seen the Greek riot dog lately? You know, the one that appeared in that montage a few years ago.

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama to propose another budget, pray that it passes.

It's an election year; I'm sure he put out a budget he thinks the GOP will go for.

[Ice Nine]

Athens burns as one in five employees of the Greek government learn they will have to find real jobs.

Grow up kiddies. Stop jumping up and down and screaming. Mommy and Daddy don't have any money. So, no, you can't go to Disneyland.

[John]

I am sure German tax payers really care if the Greeks burn their own shit.

[Ice Nine]

Thank god the fools can't burn rock!

[Marion Barry]

I use a blow torch.

[Marion Barry]

"Vote for Marion Barry. He got drugs off the streets."

[Beevis]

^he said blow

[Sparky]

I lol'ed

[rac3rx]

Well played, John...this made me LOL.

[Matrix]

I care more about criminals than I do law abiding home owners, so you should not be able to shoot home intruders

There is so much stupidity and pettiness in this world, that I think it would be okay if aliens came here and just blew the whole thing up.

[John]

I love how she links it to domestic violence. WTF?

[Matrix]

I know. Because Castle Doctrines mean you can shoot your wife when you have a fight.

[Ice Nine]

What if someone (was)...looking to be rid of his wife and children? If House File 573 becomes law, it wouldn't be hard to fake an encounter to make it seem justified.
It could be expected to lead to more domestic violence deaths, a fact clearly of concern to the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which has registered its opposition to the bill.

Saith the morons, conveniently ignoring the fact that the law pertains to home intruders, as they gin up the hysteria out of whole cloth.

[Matrix]

heh, oops, those are the comments. They are pretty reasonable. This is the article.

http://www.desmoinesregister.c.....il-society

[RoboCain]

"A mentally ill person enters your home uninvited and reaches into his pocket. Fire away. The law would be on your side if you said you felt threatened."

Because crazy makes burglary OK?

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Geez, do they even have homeless in Iowa? How much would that suck, to be a homeless person in Des Moines?

[jacob]

Hey! Des Moines is beautiful for about 3 weeks in June!

[Zeb]

Mentally ill people can be violent and dangerous sometimes, or so I have heard. Knowing that they guy didn't have control of his faculties when he shot me won't make me feel any better about it as I die.

[JW]

They all want cake.

[jacob]

What if a mentally deranged individually came into your home...should you be able to shoot them?

yes!

[John]

If he is mentally ill, he is not responsible. So it is your duty to let him kill you.

[Gabrielle Giffords]

+1

[Ex nihilo]

USS Gabrielle Giffords

[Zeb]

Do these people think about what they say at all? They really think that your right to defend yourself should depend on the mental state of your attacker?

[Loki]

It's not like a home invasion scenario is a situation that would require one to make a split second decision to open fire or not, right? You should have all the time in the world to carefully consider whether the lunatic breaking down your door is really a threat or not.

/sarcasm

[mad libertarian guy]

You miss the point. This is a backdoor to taking away the ability to protect yourself at all.

"You shouldn't be able to kill mentally ill people for making a mistake" will turn in to "you can't possibly tell the difference between the mentally ill and a home invader, therefore you shouldn't be able to shoot anyone else in your home."

[Pope Jimbo]

It would really improve the next go-round of the Iowa Caucuses

[Domtar the Space Alien]

it would be okay if aliens came here and just blew the whole thing up.

It is tempting, Earthling, but you are on your own.

[R C Dean]

Personally, I believe that the ancient astronaut aliens have given up on uplifting the human race, and just use us for their version of trainwreck TV now.

[Matrix]

or we were purposefully put here together like on that South Park episode where Earth was a reality TV show.

[Maxxx]

Actually, the ancient astronaut aliens created our modern world for their amusement.

We are their form of reality tv.

[robc]

Stealing from Niven now?

That was the idea behind one of his Draco Tavern short stories.

[Matrix]

isn't the Earth blocking your view of Venus or in the way of your new hyperspace bypass?

[mr simple]

You barbarous animal. In a more civilized society we negotiate with our intruders for a peaceable resolution. So you just sit at the kitchen table and wait for them to come in. You tell them you're not upset, you're disappointed. Then they realize how they've hurt your feelings (which is what it's all about) and go home.

[annonymous commenter some guy]

There is so much stupidity and pettiness in this world, that I think it would be okay if aliens came here and just blew the whole thing up

Don't hold your breath. All alien societies succumb to socialism before they became star-faring. It's the final solution to the Fermi Paradox. We are witnessing it, first hand!

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Romney never objected to contraception mandates before.

Sloppy, sloppy - from your own link, it says that he did, just not on the grounds on which Republicans object now.

[John]

Maybe he changed his mind. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is about the best one can expect from politicians.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

According to the snippet from WSJ, Romney objected because mandates drive up health costs. Which is actually (one of) the right reasons to object. I don't understand what Riggs is going for here.

[JOhnny MAckson]

Between this and that earlier Chappedassman article, Reason is on a Monday morning roll. Drink! Wow!

Jess

[Nice]

employees of the Greek government learn they will have to find real jobs

Snarky and sarcastic, just how we like it. Simplistic, yes, as it implies that there are still some "real" jobs to be had in Greece where 21% of adults cannot find a (real) job and many have to go abroad for employment, but what the hell. It's only a whole nation circling the drain. If that isn't funny, what is?

[John]

It is their own damn fault. And you can't blame the Germans, who actually work and save, for not wanting to go with them. And gee maybe they should have thought about the future when they were taxing everything that moved and putting everyone on the government dole. Life is hard. And ever harder if you are stupid.

[Nice]

You're a humanitarian, I see.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

How much money do you send to the Greeks?

[Nice]

I'm not an altruist. But nice try.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Because concern without action is useful?

[Nice]

Throwing money at a philosophical disaster is useful "action" in your world? How's that approach working in the U.S.? Good?

Anyway, nobody is stopping you from sending a CARE package to the Third World if you think it will help, but I know that a philosophical catastrophe cannot be averted or prevented by tossing a bag of rice from a helicopter. In fact, that approach only prolongs the agony of the sufferers (while enriching the kleptocrats) and delays the inevitable by failing to address the root causes of the catastrophe.

[T]

So we should throw copies of The Road To Serfdom or Atlas Shrugged from the helicopter?

I mean, if it's a philosophical catastrophe, addressing the root cause means providing a different philosophy.

[Old Soldier]

John is right - the Greek debacle is their own fault. The coming American debacle is our own fault.

We all get the government we deserve.

[Nice]

the Greek debacle is their own fault

Certainly. And John would have been "right" if he had left it at that. Schadenfreude is an ugly emotion, yet some "libertarians" revel in the suffering of others. The behavior is not dissimilar to the torturing of small animals by sadistic adolescent boys, to the hoots and hollers of their approving accomplices. Adults, presumably, know better.

[Sparky]

But it's good to see that you're above all that and willing to come here and prove it. Suddenly I feel hope for my fellow men...

[Nice]

You're welcome.
My work here is done.

[Old Soldier]

I'll revel in the "suffering" of the Greeks. The North Koreans and Syrians not so much.

[Nice]

Life is hard. And ever harder if you are stupid

A humanitarian with a superiority complex! Very nice!

[The Narrator]

What Nice didn't realize is that John is one of the biggest humanitarians on the board. He never lets a single troll ever go hungry. Without John's largess, Nice would be ignored and starving right at this moment.

[Nice]

+1
Not that I am a "troll," as the points I made are valid.

Unless being a "troll" defines an individual who does not conform to the ideology of the collective...then I'm definitely that.

[Sevo]

"Not that I am a "troll," as the points I made are valid."
Yes, valid for proving you're a self-righteous twit.

[Nice]

ignored and starving

You presume that I require a response from the "troll-feeders" (one of which, by your own definition, is yourself), but I do not.

However, I do understand the illness which compels certain lifers here to respond to any perceived threat or challenge to the collective. They cannot help themselves, and yes, they do encourage the trolls. But they cannot stop. Take John. Please.

[Zeb]

You aren't doing a very good job making the case for your non-trollness.

[Nice]

Why? Because I'm replying to the replies?
Or because I'm dissenting from the prevailing opinions of the collective?

[Zeb]

No, it's the comment about the "illness" of regular commenter. If you just want to engage in reasonable discussions, I'd advise against portraying the people you want to engage with as mentally ill.

[mad libertarian guy]

Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that there is a collective thought here, you've shown your ignorance of our little community for thinking that John is somehow representative of it.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

John's sympathy and 500 Greek Drachmas might get you a cup of SomeoneGivingaFuck.

[Nice]

SomeoneGivingaFuck

Please don't feed the trolls.

[Bee Tagger]

It's safe to say that you're not a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, right?

[db]

So where is Greece going to send all of its professional telephone sanitizers?

[Mike M.]

This is what happens when a country turns into a bunch of lazy, communist losers. There's a good lesson in there for all of us, but whining isn't going to accomplish anything.

[Sparky]

Unfortunately, that lesson will be missed because we slept in that day.

[Zeb]

OK, Nice, what do you propose? At a certain point, they will have to stop spending money that they don't have. It sucks for the Greek people who didn't ask for it, but at a certain point, reality will assert itself. The Greek economy became stupidly dependent on government employment and subsidy and now they have to deal with it. It won't happen without some pain.

[Nice]

I haven't attempted to justify and defend the Greek political and economic model. It cannot be defended. Socialism is a thoroughly discredited ideology. My comment dealt with the generally flippant attitude of some editors here who feel the need to employ snark and sarcasm where serious intellectual debate is required. The commentators here are no less guilty of this, but they are just the rabble. The owners and operators of this site should have higher standards.

[Zeb]

"The commentators here are no less guilty of this, but they are just the rabble. The owners and operators of this site should have higher standards."

You see, this is why people call you a troll.

[DesigNate]

No intellectual debate is required if something (say Socialism) has been thoroughly discredited. That pretty much leaves snark, sarcasm, and derision for those who are too stupid to understand that it is thoroughly discredited.

[Zeb]

Unfortunately, I think that socialism still has some more discrediting to go before we can call it "thoroughly discredited". The fact that you and I know it is crap is not sufficient.

[DesigNate]

Also, I'm going to assume that you are not a troll and have at least perused other articles. There are plenty of articles that DO contain serious intellectual debate, but morning links is never the place to look for those.

[Proprietist]

Sarcasm and derision is the WD40 we use on stubborn fools who refuse to budge from their discredited, indefensible ideas. Those willful ignorants who choose to remain in fantasyland have shown they won't be convinced by facts or principles. What options are we left with?

[cynical]

It's time for the Greeks to bow down before the one they serve.

[Sparky]

You think they're going to get what they deserve?

[Ice Nine]

Is John Corzine in jail yet?

[The Media]

Uh, what does that have to do with Susan G. Komen?

[Booby Trap]

+00

[John]

MRS Sudderman had a post a few days ago about how the feds are just having a hard time finding criminality there. A few billion dollars disappeared but no one is sure how that happened.

Lets see, the feds just can't find any criminality in a financial scandal involving consummate insider Louis Freh and former Democratic Governor. Let me put on my surprised face.

[shrike]

In 2007, MF and one of its executives paid a combined $77 million to settle CFTC allegations of mishandling hedge-fund clients' accounts, as well as supervisory and record-keeping violations. In 2009, the commission fined MF $10 million for four instances of risk-supervision failures, including one that resulted in $141 million of trading losses on wheat futures. Suffice it to say, Pricewaterhouse should have been on high alert.

On top of that, Pricewaterhouse's main regulator, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, released a nasty report this week on the firm's audit performance. The agency cited deficiencies in 28 audits, out of 75 that it inspected last year. The tally included 13 clients where the board said the firm had botched its internal-control audits. The report didn't name the companies. One of them could have been MF, for all we know. (Bloomberg)

The auditors never did their job. Corzine is off the hook. MF has a long history of chicanery.

Too bad for you Republicans.

[John]

Corzine is a thief who stole billions of dollars from innocent investors. Yes, he won't go to jail. But that is because Eric Holder is a fascist who will never prosecute his own.

Most lawless presidency ever.

[shrike]

You're full of shit. Corzine was buying MFG stock into August and had only been there a little over a year. The company was rotten when he got there.

His career is finished and no one cares - except Glenn Beck no-evidence types like yourself.

[John]

I think the people who lost all of that money care. And people, unlike you, who have a sense of justice care. And his career was finished after he bankrupted New Jersey anyway.

Beyond that, saying the Auditors didn't catch my stealing, is not a defense to theft. Someone took that money out of those accounts. And the fact that the auditors didn't stop them, doesn't let that someone off. And that someone was most likely Corzine. He is a crook and should never see the light of day again.

[shrike]

If this investigation grows then Pricewaterhouse is in deep shit.

See Enron - Arthur Andersen.

[John]

And so is Corzine. Arthur Anderson didn't get Jeff Skilling off the hook. Corzine needs to be in federal prison for a very long time.

[JW]

They're just saving us all the time and money, by not throwing his worthless ass in jail, for when Obama inevitably pardons him.

[KDN]

His career was finished after he bankrupted New Jersey anyway.

You grossly underestimate the voters of this state. He could have purchased 3 more Xanadus, moved a Scottish castle to the Palisades for a vacation home on the state's dime, and defaulted on all of the state's outstanding bonds and still end up with 45% of the vote.

[R C Dean]

I'm not sure how this:

The auditors never did their job.

and this:

MF has a long history of chicanery.

Mean this:

Corzine is off the hook.

As far as I know "The auditors didn't catch us" isn't a defense to theft.

[shrike]

"Theft"? You're not that stupid, RC.

[John]

Taking other people's money and investing it where they told you not to is theft shrike.

[Obama]

"Taking other people's money and investing it where they told you not to is theft shrike."

I call it social justice when the money goes where I want it to go.

[R C Dean]

Over a billion dollars in money that should never have gone missing, goes missing, and you think there was no theft?

[shrike]

I don't know what the penalty for co-mingling client funds is.

But "theft" is the wrong term as is "embezzlement" since none of those funds went directly to Corzine.

[R C Dean]

But "theft" is the wrong term as is "embezzlement" since none of those funds went directly to Corzine.

So Corzine can preside over, and profit from, a criminal enterprise, so long as none of the stolen funds can be traced directly to him?

Stealing money to place losing bets is nothing to be concerned about, because the money was simply lost rather than disbursed to the thieves? But, if they had won the bets, THEN we could prosecute?

Does this make any sense?

[shrike]

What is the penalty for co-mingling? You're the attorney, aren't you? I expect its an exotic infraction that rarely occurs.

MF and Refco share the same genealogy. Bennett (CEO) is in the slammer for at least 10 years.

[John]

What is the penalty for co-mingling? You're the attorney, aren't you? I expect its an exotic infraction that rarely occurs.

Usually prison.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Did it turn out that they hypothecated the funds?

[R C Dean]

Yeah, I think so. Something like $600MM is going to be litigated in England, where the hypothecation was supposed to have happened.

As I understand it, the Americans are going to argue that MFG never had the authority to pledge those funds, so the pledges were invalid ab initio and the funds should be returned. The Brits are going to argue, I believe, "Fuck you."

[Old Soldier]

Corzine signed the SOX audit - didn't he? Basically an affidavit swearing he understands the financial statements.

He ought to be in jail. Hopefully he is wide-open to lose every penny to civil lawsuits.

[Solanum]

Huge Houses Are Morally Wrong

The news of the day: America is poor, but wealthy people are still building themselves huge mansions. Is it wrong for someone to build an obscenely luxurious home for themselves with their own legally obtained money and means? Yes. It is wrong.

http://gawker.com/5884041/huge.....ally-wrong

[Jess Asken]

Huge houses are immoral just like gold plated cars are immoral and massive private jets are immoral. Because you don't need them, and the money you waste on them could actually save people's lives.

Are huge welfare states immoral?

[sarcasmic]

It is immoral to spend your own money on things that employ people and create jobs.

The moral thing to do is to confiscate that money under threat of violence and give it to layabouts who sit around smoking pot and watching cable.

[AuH20]

As someone who enjoys weed and would still if it were legal, the biggest hurdle to pot legalization is how fucking annoying many stoners are.

[Zeb]

I find non-stoners at least as annoying on average. And there are a lot more of them. But you are probably right. The amazing thing is that despite the continued existence of Rainbow gatherings, OWS and the occasional Phish reunion, half of the country now thinks pot should be legal.

[RoboCain]

That, and the WOD is huge money business.

[mad libertarian guy]

As someone who enjoys weed and would still if it were legal, the biggest hurdle to pot legalization is how fucking annoying many stoners are.

Agreed.

[Zeb]

"Because you don't need them"

Ugh. If need were the standard by which what people get to have were judged, then it woudl be perfectly reasonable to have everyone live in dormitories and eat only nutritional gruel each day. After all, you don't need anything else but basic food and shelter. The rest should be confiscated.

[RoboCain]

And the Gawker crowd probably buys more useless gizmos than anyone.

[JW]

Is there an app for self-awareness?

[Loki]

It's called a functioning brain.

[N Korean Appartchik]

It works pretty well for us.

[M. Obama]

"eat only nutritional gruel each day."
Hey, quit stealing my lines!

[?]

Class envy.
Yawn.

[Kwanzaa Cake]

Note the link to the weekend WSJ story on massive houses. One of them is being built in Silicon Valley by newly-minted Facebook billionaire Sheryl Sandberg. I'd say the size and scope of her house is obscene, but then again, you do need a lot of space to host those $35,000 per plate Obama fundraisers. You know, the ones where the very best people get together to support cap-and-trade, raising taxes on "rich" couples making $250k per year, etc.

[shrike]

Why do all those new billionaires support Obama?

[R C Dean]

Because they are buying indulgences with (a) money they won't miss and (b) other people's money.

Ask yourself, instead, why those new billionaires are supporting a corpocratic farcist with a record of putting money in billionaire supporters' pockets.

[shrike]

OK, so how did Obama lard up Facebook's pockets?

I hate to break this to you but most rational people are anti-GOP.

[Ice Nine]

He decreed, irrationally.

[R C Dean]

OK, so how did Obama lard up Facebook's pockets?

These Silicon Valley types are buying lard futures, shrike.

[Zeb]

Being anti-GOP and actively supporting Democrats are not the same.

[Ice Nine]

corpocratic farcist

Very good

[Old Soldier]

"Why do all those new billionaires support Obama?"

Buying protection. Hopefully the next start-up will never make it over the regulatory and tax hurdles to challenge their company.

[Kwanzaa Cake]

Groupthink is a big part of it, Shrike. Kind of hard to be part of the San Francisco social scene if you are an out of the closet conservative. The left isn't exactly tolerant of views they don't hold, or maybe you missed that.

Also, those political fundraisers are largely business networking events. If Sandberg held a fundraiser for Romney, almost no one would come, thereby defeating the entire purpose.

Then you have the guilty conscience angle. Sandberg is engaged in the construction of a personal palace of Versailles. One way to deal with the pings of guilt she feels while strolling around her 40,000 square foot palace is to advocate all kinds of limits on other people's freedom. She may be burning up natural resources at a prodigious pace, but it's OK because she is helping to stop those dirty West Virginians from making a living digging up coal and shit out there in flyover country.

[shrike]

I mostly agree. Political persuasion is mostly cultural.

My background is tech and I always felt at home with secular liberal drug-tolerant types.

Pure culture. I won't describe conservative culture.

[mad libertarian guy]

You mean those in the anti-drug conservative culture that grows more marijuana than anyone other than California, a state with 1/9 the population as California?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....ucky_N.htm

[shale gas]

those west virginia miners best find a new line of work

[Kwanzaa Cake]

Yes, well, the Sandberg crowd is against fracking, too. They figure that there's already enough energy available for them, who cares if you have electricity?

[Loki]

Plus they don't have to care if electricity rates skyrocket because they've got theirs already, so to hell with everyone else.

Their attitude is more or less "what do you mean there's people out there struggling to pay their electricity bills? Why don't they just start up an internet company too? Then they won't have that problem. Until then, fuck the rabble!"

[RoboCain]

I read that last week. Then I couldn't tie my shoes.

[Bee Tagger]

They even use Bill Gates as an example of someone who is still rich after giving away 30 million dollars, then suggesting that he could give away even more and improve lives. It's almost disheartening that they couldn't even muster a better argument than that. It would be harder to spot the fact that they ignore the incredible value to human life that Bill Gates has contributed in earning that huge amount of money if they would have used someone less essential to modern productivity and efficiency.

[sarcasmic]

The rich don't pay their fair share. We know this because they are rich. If they paid their fair share then they wouldn't be rich. So as long as they are rich we know they have not paid their fair share.

Circular logic is circular.

[rac3rx]

Lefties generally don't give to charity; righties do.

http://www.amazon.com/Who-Real.....0465008232

[Kwanzaa Cake]

gates has given away far more than 30 million and has stated that he will give away the vast bulk of his fortune. So the problem isn;t his accumulation of the wealth, since that is a transitory issue. The problem for the lefties is that Gates is controlling the distribution of the money. That's what they can't stand. He may be spending billions fighting malaria or some such, but it's a waste because the lefties could use that money to buy votes.

[Zeb]

Umm. Which lefties are complaining that Gates is giving him money to charity?

[o3]

he's on a roll zeb like when bluto said al qaeda bombed pearl harbor

[Kwanzaa Cake]

They are all complaining that he accumulated the wealth in the first place and want to prevent recurrences by taxing people to death to promote "fairness and equality." The fact that vast fortunes are often given away (Gates, Buffett, Carnegie, etc) is of no moment to them.

[sarcasmic]

The fact that vast fortunes are often given away...

But they don't give it away in a manner that pleases the lefties, so that makes them bad people.

[Loki]

[Zeb]

I have yet to meet a lefty who is not pleased with what Bill Gates is doing with his money.
As I often like to point out, there is lots of real shit to complain about without resorting to making shit up.

[sarcasmic]

I have met lefties who despise Gates because he plans to leave some of his money to his children.

[DesigNate]

In the article, and the comments, people are bitching that he uses (spending and giving) his money the way that HE wants, not the way THEY think that he should.

[Leftist Behavior]

I'd like to see where the author of that article lives. I'm guessing it's not exactly an economy rental.

[AuH20]

Seriously, this is why, despite all the shit they pull, I lean slightly to the right. Because I rely on demographics to kill the worst of social conservatism, but I am not so sure about socialism.

[romulus augustus]

Except the article mentioned that construction crews numbered up to 200 on some luxury home sites. Unless the rich are keeping their money in Scrooge McDuck-like money bins, the money is always providing jobs. I'm sure we can all find ways to criticize what others spend their money on, but that works both ways. Pursue happiness and stay out of my way.

[AuH20]

That's addressed in the comments. Apparently, because they are temporary, they aren't the RIGHT kind of jobs. Also, they hurt the environment, so that.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

It is immoral to provide jobs for construction workers, furniture makers, designers, etc.

[mad libertarian guy]

Especially if they aren't union.

[Matrix]

I love the comments (I really don't).

casperiv @Mrs. Beeton I don't really see how it's morally wrong. I for one think buying stupid stuff is the more morally acceptable thing the ultra rich can do. Building a house like that creates a massive number of jobs during land preparation, initial construction, finishing, as well as once it's completed. Many houses like that require their own maintenance crews and create mini-employment ecosystems. Think of it this way, a wealthy person like that could spend $20,000,000 to build a house like that and create 60+ jobs. That's a $333,333ish per job created... where as the federal stimulus money for Oregon (as an example) was $3,330,632,385 and created 2,869 jobs for an absurd $1,160,903.58 per job.I say keep going rich people. Dump your money into stupid crap that makes me work!

Numbers may be off, but it is still reasonable.

Here's a reply

citcat80 @casperiv Isn't that just the parable of the broken window?

Guess they completely missed the moral of the story.

[Zeb]

No, building a big fancy house is exactly the same thing as deliberately destroying property. What the fuck?

[Fist of Etiquette]

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- An Iranian news agency says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's press adviser has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Monday's report by the semiofficial Mehr news agency provided no further details, but Ali Akbar Javanfekr had been previously convicted of insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The case appears to be part of an ongoing power struggle between Ahmadinejad's backers and Khamenei loyalists.

Last year, Javanfekr received a separate one-year sentence for writing that the practice of women wearing head-to-toe black coverings was not originally an Iranian practice, but was imported. This was considered offensive by hardline Iranian clerics.

Now that's how you have a struggle for power. None of this complaining in speeches that one side likes to fire people or the other side wants bureaucrats making your healthcare choices. Hell no. Start arresting each other.

At least this case it didn't involve tweets about Mohammed, or some equally stupid bullshit. Here, there is power at stake.

[The Good Guy]

Start arresting each other.

I arrested you first!

[kate]

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[Martin DeMartyr]

Hundreds of thousands pretty girls

All right!!

[o3]

pretty gurlz but no veggies?

[Proprietist]

O3 preys on the braindead. Added that to "fact I didn't need to know".

[P Brooks]

It's only a whole nation circling the drain. If that isn't funny, what is?

Time for a fresh diaper already?

[Nice]

Please don't feed me.*

 

* I jest. I know you must. You cannot help yourself. Get help.

[AuH20]

For my turn, I pity rather

[Tulpa]

How onerous was the Massachusetts contraceptive mandate? If it's not comparable to the HHS mandate currently being bandied about, this is yet another unfair dig at Mitt on the pages of Reason.

I would RTFA but it's behind a paywall (more poor form).

[robc]

Does it matter how onerous if it exists at all?

Isnt a mandate kind of like the word unique? Not really ranges, are there?

[mustard]

Athens burns as one in five employees of the Greek government learn they will have to find real jobs.

Har dee har.

You have any idea how hard it's going to be to find jobs in Greece after Germany's done with its reverse-Versailles extortion?

[R C Dean]

Its a funny kind of extortion when the extorter is the one writing the checks.

[Shakespeare]

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft proves borrowers can be ungrateful dicks.

No, the metre's still not quite right...

[o3]

no it isnt mr bacon

[Zeb]

Don't forget, cutting taxes is the same thing as taking food out of the mouths of starving children.

[Trespassers W]

reverse-Versailles extortion

Is that anything like a Cleveland steamer?

[P Brooks]

I don't think it's fair that Bill Gates is giving his money to "private" charities instead of giving it to the federal government. It's like a slap in the face to the Ascended One.

[Post-Coital Rat]

I've read the many comments over the years about Dondero, but I'd never understood why he was treated with such disdain in the comments. Then I saw his ridiculous accusation that Reason and other libertarian sites didn't cover the blogger facing execution in Saudi Arabia and the left-libertarians aren't doing enough to speak out against these attacks on free speech. Balko corrects the assertions in the comments, and Dondero's response boils down to "Yeah, but still ..."

Now I understand and feel like I can finally participate in the Donderoooooooooo fun.

[Post-Coital Rat]

Ooops, I'll correct myself. It's not just that Reason wouldn't cover the story, it's that no libertarian site bothered to cover it until Donderoooooooooo covered it. That's just how important he is.

[robc]

I lost respect for Balko for reading Donderooooooo at all.

[jacob]

Heh. I refused to click on the link. I'd rather that piece of shit not get any more hits for his crappy blog.

[SugarFree]

I didn't help that Dondero used to comment here in the most tone-deaf way possible: threatening people, demanding that they post under their real names, posting his phone number daring people to call him, sub-Maxian anti-Ron Paul griping, stroking his war boner about Iraq, talking about how none of us were really committed to libertarianism because we weren't big-L, old man stories of walking up-hill 12 miles in the blinding snow to pass out LP pamphlets, and telling us that Giuliani was the most pure libertarian in the 2008 race.

[robc]

Dont forget the whores.

[tarran]

I still get a smile on my face when he accused all the contributors of being against the Iraq war because they were jealous of all the women that veterans get that non-veterans didn't.

Then he challenged us as to our veteran status.

Shockingly all but two of us were vets & some had been groundpounders in battles were the enemy was shooting back. 🙂

Oh, and his accusations that anti-war policies would inevitably lead to Al Queda launching Scuds at Texan cities from Mexico.

[John]

"still get a smile on my face when he accused all the contributors of being against the Iraq war because they were jealous of all the women that veterans get that non-veterans didn't."

No shit? I wasn't around for that. I think ironically enough I was actually in the war when that happened. And I am still waiting for my veteran's quota of women 8 years on. Can I sue Donderoo for this?

[tarran]

It was over at the Libertypapers. I've been having a problem these past few days of leaving out context from my comments. Sorry 🙁

[Tulpa]

Didn't his military service consist of handing out toilet paper on a Navy sub?

[tarran]

On surface ships. I think he was on a cruiser or a frigate.

I do remember he was proud of being busted from a frocked E6 to E4 for fighting.

I think he might have been married at the time, too. His poor wife.

[jacob]

His new thing is that Romney is the candidate of limited government.

[AuH20]

So, Jezebel is in hot shit over this post, where they posted the images of a rape

It would seem that they have lost their "feminist" credentials.

Also, at some point, we need to discuss is feminist is the new "liberal" and can ever be saved.

[OMG]

[yawn]

[AuH20]

I know. Pixelated images? C'MON!

[RoboCain]

"Out of curiosity, what gave you the impression that Jez was a feminist site? It's never advertised or touted itself as such. I've been reading since the launch and I've never quite understood why so many people have this notion."

[AuH20]

Seriously, after a year or two of enduring Jezebel's bullshit, reading that posts comments is like Christmas coming early.

...And yes, Christmas is the name of my fantasy Bond girl.

[P Brooks]

Corzine is off the hook.

How does that follow?

Maybe Corzine took a look at the MFG business model and said, "Now, THESE are guys I can work with."

[AuH20]

Also, using The Handmaiden's Tale as a political allegory should be considered proof you have no brain. It wasn't even a terribly good spec fic book!

[sarcasmic]

Samuel L Jackson is honest: "I voted for Barack because he was black."

http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/11/.....zkhOoGuHvk

[Solanum]

Man says Jersey City cops confiscated camera because he took photos of cars in police lot

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index....._conf.html

[Solanum]

And if you enjoy having your morning coffee pissed in, read the arfcom thread on this story.

[db]

I stay far away from arfcom. The quality of discourse there is terrible. Fucking chairborne rangers and idiots who keep wanting to have the same ignorant arguments over 1911 vs Glock or FAL vs AR mixed with authoritarian idiocy. You used to be able to find decent technical info there but the more I learned about the actual functioning of firearms the more facepalms arfcom generated. So many people trying to look smart by parrotting bad info.

[sarcasmic]

He says he was on the sidewalk photographing "non-duty cars" driven by police department employees that he believed had violations such as single license plates, tinted windows or windows partially blocked by PBA shields or placards.

Apparently he has not been informed that those who enforce the law have no duty to follow it.

[sarcasmic]

The officer "demanded identification which was produced due to an imminent threat of arrest," Hardy says, adding that he was surrounded by five officers, "all engaged in attempts to fabricate pretenses for arrest."

A nice thing about having so many laws is that if a cop decides he doesn't like you he can find an excuse to arrest you.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Telephoto lenses exist for a reason. I liken it to trying to use a fisheye lens to photograph a charging grizzly.

[AuH20]

I love it when the microagression threads dissolve into chaos

And, oddly, it always seems to involve accusations of mansplaining and "WHAT ABOUT TEH MENZ?!"

...I wonder why?

[mr simple]

I like how the commenters don't know how to feel about the post because they can't decide whether it was posted by a man or woman.

[jacob]

Amusing - thanks for the post.

[P Brooks]

he took photos of cars in police lot

Obviously a terrorist.

[AuH20]

In the, "This has to be a joke, right?" category, we have this:

On a Jezebel article about men's rights activists..."Any movement with it's roots in victimhood and resentment is sick at it's core..from the Tea party to the MRA guys. Fanaticism is always crazy and unbalanced.

I don't buy that whole ocean of pain and disappointment rationale. Those things happen to everyone. Crazy people make their whole lives about that and look for someone to blame. People go crazy all the time, and this guy is one of them. These family members need to urge him to get help, and then do what THEY need to do to remain on an even keel. Reminding someone this disordered about his wonderful old Granny won't change a thing.

I want to say... irony? is in play here, but I always fuck up that definition.

[Sparky]

You got it right.

[RoboCain]

That's why there is no arguing with liberal feminists. Anything remotely plausible is immediately dismissed ad hominem -- the speaker is either misogynist or it's because they've been hurt.

[AuH20]

You forgot to include unexamined privilege, mansplainer!

[RoboCain]

Right, which is still nothing more than ad hominem.

I learned, decades ago, that if I could just repeat back almost verbatim what some feminist was saying, and they would vehemently disagree with it.

[The Pointer-Outer]

"Any movement with it's roots in victimhood and resentment is sick at it's core..."

Like feminism?

[Loki]

But, but, but... Teh PATRIARCHY!!!!!!!111!!!!!

MALE GAZE!!!!!!!!!

[mad libertarian guy]

RAPE KULTUR!!!!!!!111!!!one11!!!!eleventy!!!

[P Brooks]

this is yet another unfair dig at Mitt on the pages of Reason.

Until Mittens (or any other politician) explicitly declares his intention to break the link between employment and health insurance, and allow people to purchase coverage tailored to their own needs, I will continue to "unfairly" accuse him of being a lying, useless sack of shit.

[robc]

What P Brooks said.

[AuH20]

The third paragraph of that was from Jezebel as well. Damn quotes didn't work.

[AuH20]

The third paragraph of that was from Jezebel as well. Damn quotes didn't work.

[rac3rx]

Almost 1/2 of women carry sexy underwear in their handbags...with pics that have a little something for everyone...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....-case.html

[SugarFree]

Some girls handbags are bigger than others.

[Proprietist]

Dude, you have to add "chubby chaser special" with those links so we know not to click on them (except for John). You should be ashamed of yourself.

[rac3rx]

Well I said something for everyone. I don't think that was inaccurate.

Admittedly I was a little disturbed about the stats on the seafaring commandos.

[Joe M]

On Sunday House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said the president's proposal is full of gimmicks and does little to reduce the deficit or curb the rapid growth of benefit programs like Medicare.

"Medicare is going bankrupt ... The president's health care law takes the $500 billion from Medicare to spend on Obamacare," he said.

This is the "bold" Paul Ryan speaking here, using a classic Mediscare tactic. I am both unsurprised and unimpressed.

[AuH20]

Dude, until the most active group of voters stops being old people, this shit isn't going to to get fixed.

Basically, if you're under 40, you're fucked.

[R C Dean]

Nah. Basically, if you're an American, you're fucked.

Its mathematically impossible for the current transfer programs to continue more than a handful of years. At their current rate of growth (especially factoring in the Boomers), the money for them simply cannot be extracted from the US economy much longer.

Political reality will keep them going at unsustainable levels until Treasuries and the dollar are both junk.

[Isaac Bartram]

Considering that the first boomers only be come eligible to apply for full Social Security this year (though they did become eligible for Medicare last year) the real pressure on the system hasn't even begun.

It can't even meet its obligations now.

[P Brooks]

But "theft" is the wrong term as is "embezzlement" since none of those funds went directly to Corzine.

That is a remarkably dumb thing to say, even for you.

[sloopyinca]

In case some of you didn't make it to the abortion of a thread this weekend (Poor Whitney). Banjos and I need some of your e-mail addresses for the wedding invites. So for those of you who actually like either one of us, please send me (or her) your e-mail address so we can get you the evite.

If you send me your e-mail address and do not get an invitation, please understand it's simply because we don't like you. If you don't send me your address, I will assume you just don't like me since Banjos is too lovely a woman to not like...even if she snores like a freight train from time to time.

[kinnath]

Congratulations.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Congratulations on getting Banjos to submit to the male patriarchal institution!

Seriously though, I wish you the best.

[jacob]

I probably won't make the wedding, but can you e-mail me an address where I can mail a gift?

[e-mail]

[jacob]

Just perused your wedding registry..........interesting selection to say the least!

Congratulations

[el Commentariosa]

will your ceremony take place before or after the John-MNG and Tony-Sevo nuptuals?

[P Brooks]

At their current rate of growth (especially factoring in the Boomers), the money for them simply cannot be extracted from the US economy much longer.

Nonsense. If those mean old obstructionist Rethuglitards just get out of the way, the President and his minions will create BILLIONS of new highly-compensated (and heavily taxed) new jobs.

Solar Powered Perpetual Motion Machines FTW!

[P Brooks]

telling us that Giuliani was the most pure libertarian in the 2008 race.

That still makes me chuckle.

[SugarFree]

He was recently spotted campaigning for Perry.

[sarcasmic]

Store hires models as live mannequins.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....gerie.html

*NOT FOR CHUBBY CHASERS*

[rac3rx]

Hmmm...she's such a fashionista, I wonder why Agent Provocateur didn't use this model?

http://www.americanthinker.com.....ateur.html

[American Media]

Hold it. Those are real women with real bodies. I thought you found that kind of thing appalling?

[Occutards]

We're watching the Greek protests with keen interest, and taking copious notes.

And, we're stockpiling Bic lighters, bits of cloth, and empty vodka bottles... uh, for a class project in college, in case anyone asks.

[R C Dean]

I thought the best tool the Greektards have is the flammable spray cans. Instant flamethrower! Gets the riot cops to back right the fuck off, every time.

[John]

The best tool the Greektards have is an unarmed Greek populace.

[mad libertarian guy]

The best tool the Greektards have is an unarmed Greek populace.

THIS

If the Occutards tried this shit in America, they'd have some success in places like New York or LA or Chicago where few people are armed. But try going around Lexington, KY burning down local businesses and you'll be shot to hell.

[T]

There's a part of me that wonders how hard it would be to cobble together a flamethrower out of industrial parts, ala Count Zero. The smarter part of me wonders how the hell you test it without turning into a fireball.

[R C Dean]

There's a part of me that wonders how hard it would be to cobble together a flamethrower out of industrial parts, ala Count Zero.

Give me propane tank, a backpack frame, and half an hour at Home Depot, and I'll have a flamethrower for you.

[sarcasmic]

White dude harassed by cops for walking black granddaughter.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ghter.html

[Eduard van Haalen]

I bet Obama's mom got that all the time, right? I mean, there was more racism back then.

[Sparky]

'I'd like her to view police as people she can trust instead of threats to her and her family, but it's possible I live in the wrong neighborhood for that.,' he wrote.

Probably better that she get the right idea now.

[sarcasmic]

I was thinking the same thing.

[John]

Who is the fat English broad that won all of the Grammy's last night?

[Private Idaho]

Boy George.