World Bank Head to Resign, Boehner Defends Lack of Offsets in Payroll Tax Cut, DHS Admits "Lots of Mistakes" In Gun-Running Operation: P.M. Links

• World Bank president to step down in June. 

• House Speaker John Boehner defends unpaid-for $100 billion payroll tax cut extension. 
• Greece and Germany trade insults. 
• Obama staffer makes "chimichanga" joke, GOP goes loco. 
• Janet Napolitano admits "lots of mistakes were made" in Fast and Furious.  
• Parents are borrowing more than their children for their childrens' college educations. 

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

Comments

[Rev. Blue Moon]

FIST!

[o3]

one of stallone's better flicks

[Tony]

FISTing.

One of my favorite pastimes.

[oo]

Tired of feeling like we don't have a place where we can just be ourselves? Interested in meeting other like-minded folks who are Bisexual, Queer, Pansexual or Bi-friendly? The goal of ===bicupid*n/e/t====is to provide a fun, safe space for all Bisexual/Queer/Pansexual and Bi-friendly Transgender, Lesbian, Gay and "Straight-But-Not-Narrow" folks to find out about great Bi-inclusive stuff to do, gather and interact .

[Karl Hungus]

I can't remember whether or not this has been covered on H&R, but it's been making the rounds in the news this week. It's about a Seattle cop who arrests two guys (who turn out to be innocent of any wrongdoing), threatens - on camera - to "make stuff up," and who is accused of roughing one of the suspects up.

The cop in the video was my roommate when I was in the Marine Corps. He even flew from Seattle to Florida to attend my wedding. He was always this goofy, funny guy, without a mean bone in his body. I guess this is an pbject lesson in what can happen when a person is given unchecked power.

http://news.yahoo.com/seattle-.....-news.html

[Episiarch]

The SPD is toxic, dude. But yeah, power corrupts, and anyone who is honest needs to admit it would corrupt them too. I know it would corrupt me.

[Karl Hungus]

The SPD is toxic, dude. But yeah, power corrupts, and anyone who is honest needs to admit it would corrupt them too. I know it would corrupt me.

I am absolutely not the aggressive personality type, but I think that shit would go my head too.

[Episiarch]

All you have to do is think of a situation where you might abuse your power. If you can think of one, well, there you are.

For instance, what if some guy mugged and terrified your girlfriend/wife, and you caught him later, alone. Might you beat the shit out of him, or at least be extra rough?

[R C Dean]

Well, yeah, but I'd do that without the badge.

What's he gonna do? Go to the cops and say "That guy beat me up because I robbed his wife last week?"

[Karl Hungus]

All you have to do is think of a situation where you might abuse your power. If you can think of one, well, there you are.

It's like crack or gambling or picking up hookers and killing them: at first, you try it only with trepidation; then, as you do it more and more, it becomes easier and easier, and more and more fun.

[Coeus]

^^^THIS^^^

Especially the killing hookers part. They're like lays potato chips.

[Karl Hungus]

They're like lays potato chips.

In that you can't stop at one? 😉

[Drax the Destroyer]

What's the point of killing hookers? They're already dead inside.

[rather]

You should have know something was wrong when he gave you this for a wedding present

[Karl Hungus]

That's hilarious! What's even hilariouser is this site, regretsy.com:

http://www.regretsy.com/

The chick that runs this site is some sort of comedic writer. The whole site is deditcated to finding the cheesiest, tackiest things featured on etsy.com, and then making fun of those things - and their creators - mercilessly. Give it a gander.

[rather]

Are you telling me Sloop and Banjo aren't going to like their wedding gift? ;-(

[Mike M.]

House Speaker John Boehner defends unpaid-for $100 billion payroll tax cut extension.

Just imagine how many posts Tony the Douche would post about how much the evil republicans hate working class people if they hadn't agreed to extend it.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Hey, it's not funny.

I mean, a hundred billion here, a hundred billion there and pretty soon you're talking real money.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Greece and Germany trade insults."

GERMANY: So long, gay-boys! Enjoy your economy!

GREECE: Well, we can always borrow some money from the Jews of Thessalonica - no, wait, we can't because you killed them!

[Aresen]

The current German threat is that they will NOT invade - no more fat fraus tanning their bloated carcasses on Greek beaches and paying outrageous rents for flea-infested "villas" on Mykynos.

[Brett L]

Great, more Germans on the Spanish Sun Coast.

[Pro Libertate]

Mein Gott, I think you've hit on something. The Germans, who naturally still want to reunify with all of Europe, are taking a different approach. Rather than invading, they'll be invited to take over!

Greece: Please help us be more like you. We have no self-control whatsoever.

Germany: Ja, we can help. Sign this unconditional ceding of sovereignty.

[John]

Let the Germans be Germans again.

[Pro Libertate]

Don't mention the war. I did once, but I think I got away with it.

[John]

I had a German girlfriend for a while. If you fed her a couple of drinks, you could get her going on how the English and French took everything after the war and even still the Germans still rebuilt faster and have a better economy. She was this tall athletic German beauty. Her mere presence scared French people.

[Aresen]

Her mere presence scared French people.

So could a Dachshund.

[Pro Libertate]

Dolchsto?!

[John]

She was actually half Irish half German. It made for a rather formidable combination. I really miss her some days.

[rather]

John, you have an 'old girlfriend' for every story.....

[John]

I have a lot of old girlfriends Rather. And I remember all of them fondly.

[Sudden]

while showering?

[Xenocles]

Yeah, Germany just bootstrapped its way back by salvaging bomb fragments and stuff.

[Pro Libertate]

Don't rob them of their delusions. Or they'll go Nazi again.

[Sudden]

My wife has a German friend who was an au pair out here. She visited about a year and a half ago. We got to talking about some such and such and she leveled a Bush insult along the lines of "I've met so many smart Americans, I can't believe you guys elected that guy." I responded with something along the lines of "I had an a grandmother who said something very similar after traveling back from Germany in 1933.

[Pro Libertate]

Game. Set. Match.

[Aresen]

If you were a German, would you want anything to do with Greece's economy or government? Or Greece in general?

I bet most Germans feel the same way about Greece as you do about California.

[Pro Libertate]

You're talking about people who turned around a communist wasteland. They love a challenge, and the German intelligentsia has had a long love affair with classical Greece.

Besides, as I noted before, total loss of sovereignty means direct rule by a German governor. Who will introduce efficiency and order into Greece for the first time since Sparta stopped being a military power.

[Aresen]

The Athenians of Pericles' time were pretty efficient. They were also a lot better merchants than the Spartans.

And that is without considering the Macedonians, who did considerably better than the Germans.

[Pro Libertate]

See? A marriage made in Himmel.

[Ted S.]

My understanding is that the German people don't want anything to do with it, but the Political Class is using it to try to ram the EU Superstate through.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

The Chermans are not innocent bystanders. 40% of their GDP comes from exports, which means it was in their national interest to promote borrowing and consumerism in the EU.

They just didn't expect the Greeks to take to the program so delightedly and recklessly.

[Mike M.]

How do you say "Gimme, gimme, gimme" in Greek?

[Ska]

I don't know, but the Germans can reply with skata nafas.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Here's how you say it in PUNK ROCK!

[DanD]

I'm too lazy to type out the Greek letters, but it sounds like "doh-se-mou."

[Pro Libertate]

Doe,
A deer,
A female deer.

[db]

DOH! A Beer! I need some beer
Ray, the Guy Who Brings Me Beer
Me, the guy who drinks the beer
Fa', a long long way from beer

Sol: I think I'll have a beer,
La...La la la la la la
Tea? No thanks, I'll have a beer
And that brings us back to DOH!

[Fist of Etiquette]

House Speaker John Boehner defends unpaid-for $100 billion payroll tax cut extension.

Mother, phrasing! Tax cuts aren't something you purchase, as though the revenue is rightly the state's in the first place. I understand the point people make when they say it and it's convenient to say it that way, but it seems incorrect. Call me a pedant if you must.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

No actually, it isn't pedantic or unimportant at all. Tax cuts don't have to be funded - they are cuts to the amount of money forcibly confiscated from the American people.

[mad libertarian guy]

They are not funded, but offset by corresponding spending cuts.

Good luck with that. But what's a $100B between friends?

[Pro Libertate]

I concur. That phraseology is purely that of the statist. Only spending is unfunded.

[RoboCain]

Exactly, I don't this "unpaid-for" bullshit. It doesn't even sound the good English.

[protefeed]

House Speaker John Boehner defends unpaid-for $100 billion payroll tax cut extension.

Oh, for fuck's sake -- the government can't "pay for" not stealing quite as much money they intended to steal due to a "tax cut". The government can only pay for money they SPEND.

Your statement boils down to this statist POV: "everything you earn belongs to the government, so if an extra amount of the government's money is given to you by not taxing it, it is an expenditure that must be paid for."

[protefeed]

FOE beat me to the punch. =P

[Fist of Etiquette]

I've been attacked before for being priggish in how we phrase problems, so I was debating whether or not to point it out. It's good you were on top of it in case I chickened out.

[R C Dean]

Yeah, its only shorthand, but its shorthand that carries some bad freight.

The Repubs are idiots on this issue. (I know, stop the presses). They should be loudly proclaiming that Obama and the Dems are gutting the Social Security "trust fund". I know there's no trust fund, but the idiots who think there is vote, and should be flogged into a frenzy on this.

Why not? Sauce for the goose, etc. They're wasting a good opportunity to lay some bruises on the Dems for running up the deficit. Nobody cares about the deficit any more (which is sad, and weird), but you might get some mileage out of gutting Social Security.

[shrike]

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/assets.html

US Treasuries don't count?

[Kwanzaa Cake]

Try applying for a loan and listing your assets as IOUs to yourself. See if the bank thinks those count.

[R C Dean]

No, they don't. Those aren't marketable, so they aren't even assets, and that's before you even get to the part where issuing an IOU to yourself doesn't create anything, much less a trust fund.

[Kwanzaa Cake]

By the way, I had never seen the website that shrike linked to. How is that website NOT materially misleading? If a public corporation disclosed a chart showing its assets growing steadily, but didn't say in big bold letters that the assets were unmarketable self-issued IOUs, the executives would be sued to death and possibly in jail.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

US Treasuries don't count?

Most people understand that taking out more debt to pay off current debt is the height of stupidity.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Something I've notices looking at the exit polling from the various primaries, Ron Paul has outperformed (and often won)with people who say "deficits" are the most important issue while underperforming (and Romney doing well) with people who say "the economy" or "jobs" (different polls have used one or the other). Both are generally near the top but "economy" has always been the top issue so I think you're right. Talk in general platitudes about improving the economy and you get votes, talk about cutting actual spending and the deficits and people freak out.

[rac3rx]

Interesting you raise that point. I heard Michelle Bachmann doing an interview this morning saying this exact thing.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Republicans are learning from the Democrats' P.R. manual, and today loudly slammed Democrats for portraying Hispanics as chimichanga-eating, Democratic-voting robots.

Hopefully this makes painfully clear the ridiculousness of political correctness grandstanding.

[John]

Make the other side live by its own standards. It is Alynsky's world. We just live in it.

[RoboCain]

Robots don't vote Democratic.

[Aresen]

You've obviously never been to Detroit.

[RoboCain]

Obvious fraud is obvious.

[RoboCain]

Also, chimichangas aren't even Mexican. It's 7-11 food.

[Pro Libertate]

Just like Cinco de Mayo, which is barely and only partially Mexican.

[Ska]

Any holiday that makes women pound tequila shots is a-ok in my book.

[Pro Libertate]

As fake holidays go, there are worse.

[RoboCain]

Like yesterday.

[Pro Libertate]

Less tequila, certainly.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Garbage Man: "Didn't you learn anything from Love Day?"

Homer: "That was yesterday, moron."

[generic Brand]

1st rule of Robotics: A robot can never harm a human, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm.

Therefore, a robot could never vote Democrat.

[Joe M]

I could go for a chimichanga right about now.

[Pro Libertate]

They are deep-fried goodness.

[R C Dean]

deep-fried goodness

But you repeat yourself.

[Pro Libertate]

True enough. I went to the state fair this past weekend--they are frying everything these days. It's like Scotland or something.

[JW]

While not deep-fried, I was given a Shoo-fly pie by a a relative yesterday, who had just been up in Pennsyltucky.

It's really, really hard to not eat it all in one sitting.

[Pro Libertate]

Next time, deep fry it.

[edcoast]

Also, fried chicken.

[T]

Deep fry cornish game hens.

[Pro Libertate]

Chicken? They fry chickens? That's crazy. Do they just drop live birds into a vat?

[R C Dean]

I went to the state fair this past weekend--they are frying everything these days.

I think the Texas State Fair may have been the bellwether on this. They have a contest and a pretty big prize for the best fried food. Deep-Fried Coca Cola was sort of the breakout winner.

[Pro Libertate]

There are lots of the usual fried suspects at the Florida State Fair, but they also had the newish fried butter thingee and something called fried bubblegum, which is actually fried bubblegum-flavored marshmallows.

[Marshall Gill]

I have heard of fried butter but just can't believe it. Do they also make waffles and wrap them around a whole stick of butter?

[Pro Libertate]

That sounds more appealing to me. Fried butter kind of grosses me out. And I like fried and I like butter.

[Aresen]

they are frying everything these days

Don't know if it has appeared in the USA, but up here some Chinese restaurants serve deep fried Mars Bars.

[Pro Libertate]

Yet another thing they've stolen from us. We've been doing that for years. The fair had fried Snickers and Three Musketeers, I think.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Snickers are good, but I like fried twinkies better.

[protefeed]

I had deep-fried giant shrimp heads at a Japanese sushi place last night. It was fucking awesome, eating it shells and legs and all.

[Cartman]

Casa Bonita!

[o3]

i want sum cute lil seniorita to feed teh changa to moi...& sum wino mit it

[John]

Dave Mustaine endorses Santorum.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/.....14539.html

[This just in...]

Dave Mustaine is fucking retarded.

[John]

He spent his youth beating the shit out of and bullying the whinny little bitches in Metalica. So he can't be all bad.

[Joe M]

He's an idiot, because if he thought for a second, he'd realize Santorum would love to ban the type of music he writes.

[John]

Maybe he is reformed and is writing Christian death metal now.

[mad libertarian guy]

He never wrote death metal. He writes thrash metal, and Megadeth puts on one hell of a show. You definitely get your money's worth.

[John]

I always thought Mustaine had more talent than Metalica. I am not into thrash. But I would rather listen to Megadeth.

[Aresen]

I have a good friend who is born-again Christian. She is constantly listening to a "Christian Music" station out of Bellingham.

Since she does not otherwise push her faith, I just shut up and bear it.

[John]

Why does Christian music suck so bad? It didn't for centuries. Some of the greatest music ever written has been church music. Some of the most soulful music ever written is black gospel. If it wasn't for gospel, there would be no country, no blues and no soul music.

How the hell did our civilization go from Ava Maria and Jesus Gave Me Water and Amazing Grace to Christian rock? Our civilization is doomed.

[Aresen]

It sucks because it is derivative and imitative. They are trying to graft their belief onto an established style rather than develop their own style.

This is not new to Christians. How many operas are there that are explicitly "Christians"? I can think of only a couple that are still heard.

Same with musicals. Other than Jesus Christ, Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, I can't think of any that had a degree of commercial success.

[John]

There are not many formal operas. But Opera came from Oretorios which were explicitly religious. Things like the Messiah.

I think the problem is that good religious art is often dark. It exams the tough things about life. The clowns who do "Christian Rock" make everything Ned Flanders.

And there have been some good Christian Rock Songs (Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For). But they have been done by secular artists who decided to do a Christian song.

[generic Brand]

I think the problem is that good religious art is often dark. It exams the tough things about life. The clowns who do "Christian Rock" make everything Ned Flanders.

The other problem, which I have been stating for years--and thus refuse to listen to the local Christian music station around here--is that many of the songs played on the Christian stations are co-opted from popular music. The worst part of it is, though, that they don't even play the secular artist's version... they have a Christian band record their own version of the same song. Case in point, Los Lonely Boys' hit song "Heaven" was covered by the contemporary Christian band Salvador and it was the latter's version that got played.

[Taste Police]

Smarterest thing you've ever written here.

[RoboCain]

It probably helped that Handel didn't grow up in a trailer.

[juris imprudent]

Ribs-breaking-from-not-laughing-at-work.

Ya bastard.

[Suthenboy]

The creative and talented have been unchained from the church, thats how. The people making christian music now have never had an original thought in their lives, so they are only able to badly mimic what the talented are up to these days.

That sounds like a knock, but it isnt, it is my honest evaluation.

[T]

Mustaine actually did convert to Christianity a few years back. Dunno if it's affected the new music.

I'm just pissed because Gigantour isn't playing Texas, so fuck Mustaine.

[Pro Libertate]

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a hymn. A metal hymn.

[RoboCain]

I've hung out with Megadeth. While he didn't seem particularly dumb, we never discussed politics.

[Karl Hungus]

What's funny is that the headline to this story on Yahoo is: :Megadeath singer endorses Rick Santorum"

[Warty]

Dave Mustaine is a born-again Christian, so this is not terribly surprising. Back before he was a born-again, he was a big drug addict and a Democrat, so it's not like he was sane to begin with.

He also has a long history of writing catchy songs with fucking insane lyrics. Here's him ranting about something something UN.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Parents are borrowing more than their children for their childrens' college educations.

It can't be much longer until higher education prices itself out of the market, especially with increasing calls for taxpayer subsidization running up the cost.

[JW]

It can't be much longer until higher education prices itself out of the market, especially with increasing calls for taxpayer subsidization running up the cost.

Then you'll hear the drumbeat for single-payer funding of college tuition.

Just imagine the value of a bachelor's then.

[Pro Libertate]

If this crap doesn't stop soon, we will be a socialist country. Ironically, when that happens, Europe will go capitalist.

[JW]

We're already far, far down that road.

My question is whether we'll go fascist before then. It's almost a toss-up.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, I think we'd need a real crash for that to happen. If we have one while we're still ten times more powerful militarily than the next five countries, a fascist and expansionist U.S. is a possibility. We're strayed that far from our core ideals.

[T]

Well, it'll cut down on illegal immigration from Mexico, because we'll just annex that shit. If we're going to expand, it's the natural choice.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, I imagine we'll be focusing on this hemisphere to begin with. Mexico, then Canada, then Greenland.

[JW]

You always want to capture Greenland anf then you get stuck in Europe. I keep telling you to go west. Kamchakta is the key to victory!

[Pro Libertate]

That's bullshit. Australia.

Anyway, I have plans for Greenland, and we need to lift the boot of the Danish oppressor off of our North American brothers.

[Aresen]

Yeah, but you have to keep smashing Iceland so that they don't get five armies for Europe.

Usually, whoever holds Australia also goes after S.E. Asia to prevent your opponent from holding Asia for 7 armies, so Kamtchatka is usually irrelevant.

[Pro Libertate]

We'll secure the Americas, then jump to Australia to begin our global conquest.

[JW]

Anyway, I have plans for Greenland, and we need to lift the boot of the Danish oppressor off of our North American brothers.

We can reclaim it as a minarchist/anarchist playground and rename it Orgyland. Melt that fucking glacier off and we'll have some prime real estate for our distilleries, continental off-road race courses, endangered, exotic animal husbandry abattoirs and the human hunting grounds.

[Pro Libertate]

That's Iceland, but you've got the right idea.

[JW]

I did model it off of Reykjavik.

[Pro Libertate]

I've always considered New Zealand as my likely fall-back nation, but Iceland might be a good choice, too.

[JW]

It's easily defensible and you've got a frickin' volcano to power your super-laser.

Of course, New Zealand has Hobbits, so there's that.

[PantsFan]

New Zealand is better than Old Zealand

[Pro Libertate]

It's still at the top of my list. I recently learned that it lacks the lethal fauna of Australia, too, moving it up yet another notch.

[juris imprudent]

Wait a minute, if it is at the top of your list how does it move up another notch? /pedant-bitch-mode

[generic Brand]

They would have to be off-road race courses, because there could be no roads in an anarchist society.

[Maxxx]

My question is whether we'll go fascist before then. It's almost a toss-up.

We've already gone fascist.

Militarized police - check
Military adventurism - check
Intrusive internal security - check
Crony capitalism - check
State co-ordination of society - in the works.
State enforcing social norms - in the works. Not sure if it will be christianist norms or progressive nannyist norms - maybe both.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Then you'll hear the drumbeat for single-payer funding of college tuition.

Just imagine the value of a bachelor's then.

And people will still wonder why 40 years of "gibmedats" didn't produce a prosperous nation.

[RoboCain]

http://www.theatlantic.com/bus.....ca/253032/

[Auric Demonocles]

I know I've been beating this a lot lately, but I'm going to keep at it, like P Brooks and his nonthreaded comments:

Reason, either remove your mobile site or add comments to the mobile site version of the articles.

[Episiarch]

Get a browser that allows you yo set whether it is in mobile mode or not. Dolphin for Android does this, and I know there are ones for the iPhone that do as well.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm an invester and I say Reason changes its ways or "Fist of Etiquette" and "Go Pens" will never grace that pledge drive banner again.

[Fist of Etiquette]

(Of course, an invester is a sexier version of an investor.)

[Auric Demonocles]

I thought it was someone who puts vests inside of stuff.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, pretty sexy, right?

[Auric Demonocles]

You pervert.

[Pro Libertate]

"Go Penis?" Why would you say such a thing?

[JW]

"Go Penis?" Why would you say such a thing?

It's a Japanese kid's cartoon.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, I see.

[Auric Demonocles]

His rapier wit is too hard for you to understand.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You say it into your pants at the start of any successful lovemaking venture.

[Auric Demonocles]

Threadwinner.

[R C Dean]

"Go Penis?" Why would you say such a thing?

Why wouldn't you? Hell, who hasn't?

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm on a Blackberry. A recent software update removed this option, so I may downgrade my software to return to full functionality.

As an alternative though, Reason could just make a mobile site that doesn't blow.

[mad libertarian guy]

Blackberry?

You might as well be using an etch a sketch.

[Pro Libertate]

I have one. I refer to it as my retardedphone as opposed to a smartphone. My wife and kids have Androids, with one iPhone exception.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'll get something better when this one craps out.

[R C Dean]

As an alternative though, Reason could just make a mobile site that doesn't blow.

Seriously, HnR is the slowest, buggiest site I go to.

[Bee Tagger]

There are less elaborate ways of saying you don't visit huffington post, RC.

[Brand]

I've done that with the iPhone but for some reason the comments don't even appear on the desktop version. They used to, but about a week ago the comment option stopped showing up.

[Auric Demonocles]

They made some change about a week or two ago to the site that messed up browsing with smartphones...

[nicole]

It is not, ahem, unreasonable to expect a functional mobile site.

For reals though. Fix this shit.

[Ted S.]

I'd rather they solve whatever memory hogging problems the site has. Every time I open up H&R it suddenly makes my browser go very slow, with freezes on simple things like scrolling a page.

[Auric Demonocles]

Why not both?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Speaking about Operation Fast and Furious in general, Napolitano added that there were "lots of mistakes made, and [they] should never be repeated."

"Letting us slide on this one is the best way to guarantee it won't happen again."

[John]

Fucking disgraceful.

[R C Dean]

Mistakes! They just happen. Whaddayagonnado?

[Pro Libertate]

Mistakes were made. Hounds were released. Love was made.

[John]

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012.....ge-degree/

Financial Sex Aid: Florida Co-Eds Seek "Sugar Daddy" for College Degree

[Fist of Etiquette]

At least the parents can retire with their savings intact, if not their pride in their offspring.

[Auric Demonocles]

....Go on.

[Fist of Etiquette]

College girls dig monocles.

[Auric Demonocles]

I went on a college recruiting trip last week and it reminded me that there is at least one reason I should consider going back for a PhD.

[John]

I am telling my wife tonight, there is a 19 year old Cuban girl in Miami who needs help getting through college. It is only Christian that we give her a chance.

[Auric Demonocles]

I can't do the 10-20k a month that those girls want, but on the other hand "the ratio is 20 sugar babies to every one sugar daddy", supply and demand baby. Some of them will have to settle for the 1-2k I could swing. Plus I'm young so that should count for something.

[John]

I couldn't do ten to twenty a month either. Oh well. Another use for my money when I win the megamillions.

[T]

10-20K a month? Sorry, for that much you just became my personal concierge and gofer in addition to the sex. You won't have time for college.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's what the article said.

[R C Dean]

For that kind of money, you better throw in your twin sister.

[Auric Demonocles]

...Go on.

[RoboCain]

Last I rate the going rate for a dime sugar baby in NYC was $5K/month.

Although there are all kinds of arrangements, not all of them get a stipend.

[RoboCain]

Uh, "Last I heard.."

[juris imprudent]

At 1-2k you'd only be a NutraSweet Daddy.

[protefeed]

Ten to twenty K a month is some super high-end lite hook action. A few K a month will get you a decent little gold-digger.

Or just get a girlfriend and pay for it emotionally (plus a few gifts and dinners and whatnot) instead of financially.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I'm trying to convince my wife that we need to adopt a 16 year old Korean girl. The negotiations have stalled.

[Coeus]

Because everyone loves a good interspecies sex story:

http://jezebel.com/5885259/unh.....r-in-china

[RoboCain]

"Good thing they're not goats; I've heard that in China a couple can only have one kid."

[Ska]

Fuck ewe Robocain.

(low hanging fruit, I know)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Schaeuble today blamed Greece's New Democracy party, the second largest, for holding up agreement on a new rescue package and his deputy, Steffen Kampeter, compared Greece to a "bottomless pit."

Oh, I think that pit has plenty of bottoms. Regardless, the Hun are going to win any exchange of smack talk.

[John]

On the second day of trial in this drug trafficking prosecution, during the cross-examination of Defendant?Appellant Aurora Lopez?Avila, the prosecutor read back supposed testimony of Lopez?Avila from her earlier change of plea hearing. What he read back seemed to contradict Lopez?Avila's earlier statements on direct examination. Using this supposed prior testimony, the prosecutor?Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Jerry R. Albert, of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona?accused Lopez?Avila of having lied to the federal magistrate presiding at an earlier hearing.

But the prosecutor's quotation was only part of what he represented was a question asked the defendant under oath by the magistrate judge. It was a half-truth. Without telling the court or defense counsel, the prosecutor presented to court and counsel an altered version of the prior hearing's question and answer, and the altered version of such dialogue made it appear as though Lopez?Avila had contradicted herself on a material point, when she plainly had not. The district court naturally assumed the prosecutor had read the question and answer whole, and allowed the questioning to proceed. When the prosecutor's misrepresentation was discovered by defense counsel, he moved for a mistrial, which the court swiftly granted. The defense then moved to dismiss the indictment with prejudice, on double jeopardy grounds, but the district court denied that motion. Lopez?Avila's appeal from the denial of that motion is the legal issue before us.

We affirm the district court's denial of the motion to dismiss the indictment on double jeopardy grounds. In addition, we take several steps to ensure that AUSA Jerry Albert's actions are properly investigated, and that he is disciplined if the relevant authorities deem it proper. In so doing, we bear in mind that AUSA Albert's conduct is not directly before us, and we express no judgment as to what sanctions, if any, are proper.

http://volokh.com/2012/02/14/f.....-mistakes/

Your DOJ at work. But it gets better

[U]pon initial release of this opinion, the government filed a motion requesting that we remove Albert's name and replace it with references to "the prosecutor."

[R C Dean]

In addition, we take several steps to ensure that AUSA Jerry Albert's actions are properly investigated, and that he is disciplined if the relevant authorities deem it proper.

Sad. The court has all the authority it needs to discipline this attorney, but punts.

[P Brooks]

Like Boris Badenov, I (sometimes) appear when my name is mentioned.

*puts landmine under Bullwinkle's "welcome" mat, slinks away*

[John]

http://www.livescience.com/184.....obots.html

Relationships with robots on the way.

[Auric Demonocles]

...Go on.

[Episiarch]

"Did you notice what went wrong in that scene? Ordinarily, Billy would work hard to make money from his paper route. Then he'd use the money to buy dinner for Mavis, thus earning the slim chance to perform the reproductive act. But in a world where teens can date robots, why should he bother? Why should anyone bother? Let's take a look at Billy's planet a year later. Where are all the football stars? And where are the biochemists? They're trapped! Trapped in a soft, vice-like grip of robot lips. All civilisation was just an effort to impress the opposite sex...and sometimes the same sex."

[John]

In a world of free robot sex, there would be no more musicians.

[Episiarch]

Narrator: Harmless fun? Let's see what happens next.

Billy's Mom: Billy, do you want to walk your dog?

Billy: No thanks, Mom. I'd rather make out with my Monroe-bot.

Billy's Dad: Billy, do you want to get a paper route and earn some extra cash?

Billy: No thanks, Dad. I'd rather make out with my Monroe-bot.

Mavis: Billy, do you want to come over tonight? We can make out together.

Billy: Gee, Mavis, your house is across the street. That's an awfully long way to go for making out.

[Warty]

I've been telling my brother for years that we need to get in on the robot sex doll industry. There's billions of dollars just waiting to be made.

[Pro Libertate]

The question is where to invest. In robot love slaves or in full-immersion sex VR with haptic interfaces? The latter seems more practical, but who knows?

[A Serious Man]

Kind of like the themes in 'Caprica'. Personally I find both notions creepy and unappealing.

[Pro Libertate]

See my comment above that strangely jumped. Again. Why does this keep happening?

[veemee sashimi]

The robot squirrels were aroused by the discussion and screwed up.

[RoboCain]

Maybe it's in wetware programming, like Dollhouse.

[Pro Libertate]

Personally, I want neither, but as an investor? There's gold.

[JW]

Lucy Liu robot: Oh, Fry, I love you more than the moon, the stars, the...
[monotone]
Lucy Liu robot: POETIC IMAGE #36 NOT FOUND.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Tomorrow's sex robots or virtual companions still won't inspire most people to abandon their boyfriends and girlfriends ? at least not until such artificial beings can look and behave human without creeping anyone out."

When is that going to happen - outside of Japan, of course?

I think those Japanese prefectures trying to teach guys to relate to real women are swimming upstream.

Soon, the population implosion will mean that Japan will be out of schoolgirls, not that they'll notice with the schoolgirl video game in the article.

[Joe M]

The important thing to focus on in that article is the photo of Ashley Scott

[RoboCain]

She looks way better as a brunette.

[Joe M]

Yep, that's why I took the effort to dig that one up, skipping over the tons of blonde pics.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I'm writing a love song, and I'm wondering if it's OK to rhyme "her kiss" with "circuits."

[Maya Angelou]

Of course it is, Dear.

[Mad Scientist]

If the robot sex dolls will also do a few dishes and vacuum now and then, I'm sold. Will they come with a mute button?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Get the kegerator upgrade!

[Female Comedian]

Funny, those are the features I want on my Fabio3000 MANdroid. And I'd only un-mute it so it could ask me how my day was, and then while I tell it, nods its head now and then to say "no she didn't," etc.

[nicole]

Can there be no ethics without feminism?

The second question of the interview has enough assumptions to make me do something unethical:
traditional ethics has let women down in five areas ? its interests are male biased, it trivialises private realm morality such as housework issues and child rearing, it treats women as morally shallower than men, its values tend to be traditionally more male than female (so autonomy over interdependence) and it favours traditionally male ways of reasoning over female ways (i.e. rules over relationships)

The bioethicist interviewed actually counters some of this later, saying that it often "perpetuates the victor/vanquished, master/slave relation that's the whole problem in the first place," but then she gets caught up in it again when she goes on to talk about what fields of philosophy are more masculine/feminine. Why can't women be interested in philosophy of language? That right there is why identity politics is a dead end.

[Fabio 3000 Mandroid]

So feminists are uncomfortable with traditional ethics? Color me surprised!

[R C Dean]

The bioethicist interviewed

They're doin' it wrong.

[Gotta Lovitt]

private realm morality

female ways of reasoning (i.e. relationships)

To be fair, TFA does say "Lindemann is a philosopher who bites".

[PantsFan]

Facing backlash, Tories eye rewrite of online-surveillance bill
"he bill would allow authorities access to Internet subscriber information ? including name, address, telephone number and email address ? without first getting a court's go-ahead.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says the legislation is simply an attempt to bring the law into the 21st century."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....le2339856/

[sloopyinca]

If a civilian in Loudon County, VA runs up and sucker-punches someone he suspects of a crime, even though that man has his hands over his head and is talking with someone else, is that civilian held to the same standard as a policeman? And by same standard, I mean he gets promoted at his job a year later and is never charged with anything.

Bonus points for the assaulting officer: the man he left with brain damage was charged with assaulting him and pleaded down to a lesser charge so he wouldn't face jail time.

Enjoy the video on this one, guys.

And duncephy, "hth" you fuckhead.

[Coeus]

Holy shit:

Records show that Daniel was promoted in 2010 ? a year after the incident ? to a job as a training officer, Mills said.

Nice to know that their department now has that behavior taught to all their new recruits.

[PantsFan]

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a hymn. A metal hymn.

Yup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4QnVoH8omw

[Pro Libertate]

Probably my favorite Simpsons moment ever. That or Hank Scorpio.

[Sam Grove]

Janet Napolitano admits "lots of mistakes were made" in Fast and Furious.

Yeah, they got caught.

[sloopyinca]

Does anybody remember when Mr. shit-for-brains told us that civilians have more levity than cops when they shoot somebody? Well, for anybody that was retarded enough to believe him, here's proof that in NYC, that's not the case. Looks like cops can now shoot into crowds willy-nilly and not even face discipline, let alone charges.

And it's a "departmental policy" that has the force of law. Funny how Bloomberg, the fuck, won't let people self-regulate their own sodium intake, but cops are capable of monitoring their own lead output.

hth, you blathering piece of garbage.

[Redland Jack]

Hmmm. While shooting people is funny, I'd hope there wouldn't be too much levity.

I'd also hope that neither civilians or cops would get much leeway, either.

[R]

The ruling threw out a lawsuit by Tammy Johnson, who was hit by a stray bullet when police began shooting at an armed robber in Harlem. Johnson had her 18-month-old daughter with her at the time.

However, in that case, the court ruled that officers violated no NYPD guidelines.

That is fucked up. As a civilian, I'm responsible for any and every fucking bullet I fire. If I were to accidentally shoot an innocent bystander, even if I was defending myself, I'd be fucked ten ways 'till Sunday. And these jackbooted thugs get a free fucking pass.

No double standard my ass.

[H. Reardon]

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.americanthinker.com.....mears.html

[Third Grader]

That is *so* immature!

[Coeus]

Cop kills man armed with a deadly baby:

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dp.....-2-14-2012

[Coeus]

Cops kill man armed with a deadly baby:

(for some reason I keep getting spam markers, so cut and paste, or someone repost the link for me, thanks)http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/officer-involved-shooting-in-scottsdale-2-14-2012

[Coeus]

As another interesting note, he's shot 7 times in his career and killed 6 (guess the one guy lived).

[Coeus]

More warrentless tracking by the feds:

http://gizmodo.com/5885026/fed.....fake-names

[Coeus]

Redefining sexual harassment laws:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/.....1sy7e.html

Actually quite interesting. If the laws can be made as uncomfortable for women as they are for men, maybe they'll quit expanding the scope.

Main thrust of the argument is:

If it's sexual harassment for a man to show off part of his balls at work, then why isn't it sexual harassment for a woman to show off part of her tits?

Now, don't get me wrong, I like seeing cleavage at work. What I don't like is having to look over my shoulder before talking to a male collegue, just incase there is an easily offended woman around. If making cleavage sexual harassment gets feminists to back off and return sexual harassment back to the realm of "he told me he'd fire me if I didn't give him a blowjob", then I'm all for it.