White House Blames GOP for Keystone Pipeline's Demise, Newt Gingrich Still Running For President, Supreme Court Takes up Affirmative Action Case: P.M. Links

• White House flack Jay Carney blames GOP for failure of Keystone pipeline.

• Newt Gingrich visits Oklahoma.
• Obama peddles more economic magic.
• No light at end of Greece's tunnel.
• SCOTUS to take up affirmative action case.
• Iran rattles its saber at Israel.      

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

[el Commentariosa]

ICH HAB DURST

[Pro Libertate]

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma, Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.

We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma, Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.

We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.

Okla-okla-Okla-Okla-Okla-Okla
Okla-okla-Okla-Okla-Okla-Okla...

We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.
L - A - H - O - M - A
OKLAHOMA!
Yeeow!

[RoboCain]

Occupy North Texas?

[Pro Libertate]

What, I can't sing "Oklahoma!"

[Marshall Gill]

I would prefer that you didn't, but it is a semi-free country.

[Pro Libertate]

That's un-American!

[Ska]

Every time you do (all two times I've seen it) I picture the Irish replacement in Band of Brothers hitting the high note.

[rac]

Everything's up to date in Kansas City
They gone about as fer as they can go
They got a big theeayter there they call the Burleque....

[Fatty Bolger]

Oh Yes Wyoming!

[Pro Libertate]

I really liked those Superman-Seinfeld commercials.

[Pro Libertate]

I really liked those Superman-Seinfeld commercials.

[Pro Libertate]

Not quite that much.

[Anyway]

[RoboCain]

LOL

[OWS VPS]

ROTTING FROM THE INSIDE OUT
==============================
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney don't generally agree on much. But these days they appear to have one area of surprising consensus -- they both believe that stories of American decline are greatly exaggerated. According to Foreign Policy's own Josh Rogin, Obama has been praising Robert Kagan's recent article in the New Republic on the myth of American decline -- a perhaps not unsurprising position to take for a candidate regularly accused of being insufficiently exceptionalist. Romney -- author of No Apology: The Case for American Greatness -- also counts Kagan among his top foreign-policy advisors.

COMMENTS (4)
SHARE:

Twitter

Reddit

Buzz

More...
Kagan's article, as well as his new book, The World America Made, is the most obvious recent example of pushback against the declinist meme, but others have also taken up the mantle. In the recent issue of International Security, Michael Beckley wrote a widely cited piece that argues "America's Edge Will Endure" against potential rivals like China. FP's Daniel Drezner has adopted a similar view. These anti-declinists largely base their arguments around the notion that U.S. economic and military power, compared to other countries, is unsurpassed -- and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, Kagan frames a good part of his argument around America's "relative power" -- factors such as "the size and the influence of its economy relative to that of other powers; the magnitude of military power compared with that of potential adversaries; the degree of political influence it wields in the international system."

By this notion, U.S. global power remains unparalleled and its hegemony is uncontested. There is much to sustain this argument. America today faces no great power rival, no existential threat, and an economy that -- while currently in the doldrums -- remains vibrant and adaptive. Compared to other nations, the United States is not simply a great power, it is the greatest power. Even if its influence declines, it is likely to continue to enjoy an outsized role on the international stage, in part because there is a consensus among foreign-policy elites -- like Romney and Obama, for instance -- that the U.S. must do whatever it takes to remain, as Madeline Albright once put it, "the world's 'indispensable nation.'"

There is, however, one serious problem with this analysis. Any discussion of American national security that focuses solely on the issue of U.S. power vis-?-vis other countries -- and ignores domestic inputs -- is decidedly incomplete. In Kagan's New Republic article, for example, he has little to say about the country's domestic challenges except to obliquely argue that to focus on "nation-building" at home while ignoring the importance of maintaining U.S. power abroad would be a mistake. In fact, in a recent FP debate with the Financial Times' Gideon Rachman on the issue of American decline, Kagan diagnoses what he, and many other political analysts, appear to believe is the country's most serious problem: "enormous fiscal deficits driven by entitlements." Why is this bad? It makes it harder, says Kagan, for the United States to "continue playing its vital role in the world" and will lead to significant cutbacks in defense spending.

However, a focus on U.S. global dominance or suasion that doesn't factor in those elements that constitute American power at home ignores substantial and worsening signs of decline. Indeed, by virtually any measure, a closer look at the state of the United States today tells a sobering tale of rapid and unchecked decay and deterioration in a host of areas. While not all of them are generally considered elements of national security, perhaps they should be.

Let's start with education, which almost any observer would agree is a key factor in national competitiveness. The data is not good. According to the most recent OECD report on global education standards, the United States is an average country in how it educates its children -- 12th in reading skills, 17th in science, and 26th in math. The World Economic Forum ranks the United States 48th in the quality of its mathematics and science education, even though we spend more money per student than almost any country in the world.

America's high school graduation rate is lower today that it was in the late 1960s and "kids are now less likely to graduate from high school than their parents," according to an analysis released last year by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. In fact, not only is the graduation rate worse than many Western countries, the United States is now the only developed country where a higher percentage of 55 to 64-year-olds have a high school diploma than 25 to 34-year-olds.

While the United States still maintains the world's finest university system, college graduation rates are slipping. Among 25 to 34-year-olds, America trails Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom in its percentage of college graduates. This speaks, in some measure, to the disparities that are endemic in the U.S. education system. If you are poor in America, chances are you attend a school that underperforms, are taught by teachers that are not as effective, and have test scores that lag far behind your more affluent counterparts (the same is true if you are black or Hispanic -- you lag behind your white counterparts). Can a country be a great global power if its education system is fundamentally unequal and is getting steadily worse?

What about national infrastructure -- another key element of national economic power and global competitiveness? First, the nation's broadband penetration rates remain in the middle of the global pack and there is growing divide in the United States between digital haves and have nots. Overall, its transportation networks are mediocre compared to similarly wealthy countries and according to the World Economic Forum, the United States ranks 23rd in the OECD for infrastructure quality -- a ranking that has steadily declined over the past decade. American commuters spend more time in traffic than Western Europeans, the country's train system and high-speed rail lines in general pale next to that of other developed nations, and even the number of people killed on American highways is 60 percent higher than the OECD average. Part of the problem is that the amount of money the U.S. government spends on infrastructure has steadily declined for decades and now trails far behind other Western nations. In time, such infrastructure disadvantages have the potential to undermine the U.S. economy, hamstring productivity and competitiveness, and put the lives of more Americans at risk -- and this appears to be happening already.

Finally, a closer look at the U.S. health care system is enough to make one ill. Even after the passage of Obama's 2010 health care reform bill (which every Republican presidential candidate wants to repeal) the United States is far from having a health care system that meets the needs of its citizens. According to a July 2011 report by the Commonwealth Fund, "the U.S. has fewer hospital beds and physicians, and sees fewer hospital and physician visits, than in most other countries" even though it spends far more on health care per capita than any other country in the world. In addition, "prescription drug utilization, prices, and spending all appear to be highest in the U.S., as does the supply, utilization, and price of diagnostic imaging." Long story short, the United States spends more for less on health care than pretty much any other developed nation in the world. That might also explain why life expectancy in America trails far behind most OECD countries.

The United States also has the unique distinction of having one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, on par with such global powerhouses as Cameroon, Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, and Ecuador. It has the fourth worst child poverty rate and trails only Mexico and Turkey in overall poverty rate among OECD countries. And when it comes to infant mortality, the U.S. rate is one of the worst in the developing world.

But not to fear, the United States still maintains some advantages. For example, it is one of the fattest countries in the world, with approximately one-third of the country considered obese (including one out of every six children). In addition, the United States has, by far, the largest prison population -- more than China, Iran, and Cuba -- one of the highest homicide rates in the world, and one of the highest rates of death from child abuse and neglect.

This steady stream of woe is certainly dispiriting, but the more optimistic might be inclined to respond that America had has problems before and has always found a way to right the ship. Certainly, this is a legitimate counter-point. The problem is that anyone looking to Washington today would have a hard time imagining that Congress and the White House will lock arms anytime soon and fix these various national crises. And this political gridlock is the biggest reason to be concerned about decline.

Perhaps at no point in recent American history has the country's politics been less capable of dealing with serious challenges. Certainly, when one party basically rejects any role for the federal government in providing health care, improving educational opportunity, or strengthening the social safety net, the chances for compromise appear even slimmer.

As Harold Pollack, a professor at the University of Chicago, said to me, "What future president, witnessing Barack Obama's difficulties over health reform, will make an equivalent political investment regarding climate change or another great national concern? I fear that we are headed for a kind of legislative Vietnam syndrome in which our leaders will shy away from the large things that must be done."

Obama argued in his recent State of the Union speech that "innovation is what America has always been about." Indeed, the recent report of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation found that the United States is currently sixth in global innovation and competitiveness. Good news, right? Not so fast. The report also found that the country is dead last in "improvement in international competitiveness and innovation capacity over the last decade." Bottom line: dysfunction reaps an ill reward.

Kagan's retort to this argument is that "on many big issues throughout their history, Americans have found a way of achieving and implementing a national consensus." True, but the philosophical divide between the two parties over the role of government offers little reason for optimism that such a new national consensus is in the offing.

The fact is, discussions of U.S. power that only take into account America's global standing in relation to other countries are not only misleading -- they're largely irrelevant. Sure, America has a bigger and better military than practically every other nation combined. Sure, it has a better global image than Russia or China or any other potential global rival. Sure, America's economy is bigger than any other nation's (though this is a debatable point). But if its students aren't being well educated, if huge disparities exist in technological adoption, if social mobility remains stagnant if the country's health care system is poorly functioning, and if its government is hopelessly gridlocked, what good is all the global power that transfixes Kagan and others? The even more urgent question is how the United States can hope to maintain that power if it's built on a shaky foundation at home.

Rather than talking about how great America is on the campaign trail -- which surely both candidates will do throughout the 2012 election -- the country would likely be better off having an honest discussion on the immense challenges that it faces at home. Even more helpful would be a recognition that education, health care, infrastructure, and overall national economic competitiveness is as essential to U.S. national security as, for example, the number of ships in the U.S. Navy. All this talk about the myth of American decline might make Americans feel better about themselves for a while, but it is a distraction from the real and declining elements of U.S. power.

[shrike]

What is this shit? If you don't write it real-time don't post it.

[R]

Might as well give it up, occu-tard. When you can't even get shriek on your side, you're pretty much screwed.

[Giant Wall of Text]

tl;dr

[BigT]

I fear that we are headed for a kind of legislative Vietnam syndrome in which our leaders will shy away from the large things that must be done."

If only!

[el Commentariosa]

HAHAHAHA!

[Timon19]

Wow. I think Drogba's denial of a player mutiny may very well have been a big fat lie. No way that should be happening.

[Warty]

So how about some of that registration?

[OWS VPS]

You cannot silence the VIRTUAL OCCUPATION.

[JW]

You're why we can't have nice things.

[OWS VPS]

OCCUPY WALL STREET!

OCCUPY THE WORLD!!!!

[Matrix]

Occupy a job

[Marshall Gill]

Occupy a shower.

[OWS VPS]

It's easier to engage in hippie punching than face our facts, huh?

[Nap]

Totally!!!!1!!ONE!1

[Fatty Bolger]

More fun, anyway.

[Ray]

My face is here...where are the facts?

[R]

You don't have any actual facts to engage, so yes.

[RoboCain]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/o.....iU4D7vdefI

[Episiarch]

Congratulations on your engagement to NutraSweet, and thanks for reminding me to ask you where you're registered. What's your china pattern?

[Warty]

Fractal dicks, obviously, you fag.

[Episiarch]

So I guessed right. You want that pasta maker, right?

[Warty]

It depends. Does it make dick-shaped pasta? And can it process actual dicks into dickpasta?

[Episiarch]

You're a madman, Wong Burger! This dick-ship will never fly!

[Wow]

Why aren't you two in Hollywood?
This plagiarism is comedy gold!

[JW]

You know that all he'll make with it is anallini.

[Warty]

Analinni tastes too nutty for me. I prefer dickguini dickfredo, personally. With extra dickfredo sauce.

[JW]

dickfredo sauce

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

[Warty]

How would I know? Ask the Guinea kids tag-teaming your wife right now what they call it, if you want to know.

[Episiarch]

It's called Santorumelli, you fucking morons.

[Warty]

Thanks, Guinea Kid. You can go back to Eiffel-Towering JW's wife, now.

[Episiarch]

I'm on it her!

[JW]

You-a break it. You-a buy it.

[Ska]

Holy shit, you're Ralph Macchio!?!

[Episiarch]

SWEEP THE LEG

[Warty]

If do right, no can defense!

[The Anonypussy?]

Just ignore them.
Email me for more info.

[Libertarian]

We must have immediate regulation of this message board! Too much freedom! Ahhh!

[The Anonypussy?]

Horrible horrible anarchy!

[Confused]

Wait a minute. I thought anarchy was smart people getting along with no adult supervision. No?

[Ska]

Freedom doesn't mean watching random people shit in my den.

Neither does anarchy.

[Confused]

random people shit in my den

Your den, huh? I see you don't know the definition of "property," either.

[Libertarian]

It's not your den, it's a public message board. Isn't it funny how we always find reasons to be OK with government when we personally might suffer the tiniest inconvenience in the absence of a rule? It's almost like we want total absolute freedom for ourselves, and everyone else can go fuck themselves, and ought to be crushed with our boots if they so much as glance annoyingly in our direction.

We are truly retards of the highest order, aren't we?

[Ska]

Fine pedants. Freedom isn't reason.com watching you shit in their den if they don't want you to.

I'm sure you didn't understand the gist of what I was saying.

[Confused]

You're the official spokesman for Reason.com?
I did not know that.

[Confused]

they don't want you to

Au contraire, mon frere. They encourage it with threaded comments, no registration, no moderation...you know: anarchy. This is what you get. Lovely, no?

[Yes]

+1

[Libertarian2]

Uh, private tolatitarianism is perfectly OK with us. It's the feds who are the only possible agents of real tyranny. I figured this out when they started making restaurants serve the coloreds.

[Libertarian2]

Even if this is a charity funded outfit.

[Fucknuts]

I can't tell the difference between private property restrictions and government regulation!

[The Anonypussy?]

Evidently.

[SIV]

All they need to do is end comment threading.

[Yup]

But they won't. It ups their page views.

[RoboCain]

Stay classy, Florida

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

[WWNGD?]

Why are you blaming all of Florida for the actions of the state police?

[RoboCain]

"Friends of Mr Halle say they regularly made efforts to carry out the stunt safely"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....d-van.html

[JW]

What could possibly go wrong, dude?

[Warty]

There's a saying: play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[The Anonypussy?]

That game was invented in Cleveland.
True story.

[Warty]

Yes, you do know where I live. That sounds like a threat, Miss Rectal. Is that a threat? Are you going to come to my house and leave my cats' heads in my bed or something? Please do. I'm dying to meet you.

[The Anonypussy?]

Warty I really feel a manic phase coming on....a really hyper one.

Watch out, the comments here from me are going to explode. Fair warning.

[Fatty Bolger]

That reminds me, I kinda miss old Cooter.

[Warty]

Cooter has't been the same since he ate all those nails he found spilled in the gas station bathroom. We all miss the old Cooter, Fatty.

[Teh Awesome]

but your aim is improving, no?

[rather]

Warty, I will never ever ever ever fuck you; dream No, don't even think about it

[The Anonypussy?]

He still thinks we are the same person.
Isn't that adorable?

[Jeffersonian]

Did the death certificate put the cause as terminal idiocy?

[RoboCain]

Like to drink? Interested in exploring your bisexual fantasies with a judge or lawyer?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-park.html

[BakedPenguin]

You're going to piss off the bi spammer.

[Ice Nine]

Why only half?

[RoboCain]

Do they say which half?

[JW]

Now, sarc, THIS is what a real woman looks like.

[John]

But she used to date Marlyn Manson. That kind of ruins her.

[JW]

I could get past that for her.

A man could make a nice life with his cast-offs.

[John]

I probably could too. But still grosses me out.

[JW]

I'll be strong for you, John.

[Warty]

It's been a couple years, I'm sure he's washed off by now. Besides, that's not a valid reason to not look at her all dressed up in sex clothes, now is it?

[JW]

What I find hilarious is that they'll be selling her undies in the Aussie Targets. Can you imagine if they tried to do that in the states?

They'd have to triple their order for pearls and fainting couches, assuming they survived the repeated torchings from the Santorumites.

[sloopyinca]

Those underthings are nice to look at in a magazine or online, but I sure don't want to see Banjos wearing underwear that covers her belly-button. It's just unappealing when compared to what's available out there today...or when compared to a woman wearing nothing under that dress or pair of jeans.

[nicole]

I was going to ask about that, actually. Also, animal prints are super trashy. But otherwise it looks super cute and I wish it was coming to Target here. (The good shit is expensive.)

[Brett L]

I had a gf who subscribed to your idea of appealing. It was appealing to me, too. And since I worked in the same building, distracting as all hell. Reptile brain would lock out all higher functions every time I saw her wearing a dress/skirt. About 3 times a day, I'd be completely worthless for 10-15 minutes.

[nicole]

Brett, you should post about this on microaggressions.

[Warty]

Microboners: The Erotic Odyssey of Brett L

[Brett L]

Dammit, Warty. You've outed me.

[Brett L]

I would happily be microaggressed like that again. I love soon-to-be-divorced women. Unless I'm married to them.

[Rick Santorum]

You disgust me.

[JW]

I'm not big on lingerie either. It was who was holding the undies up that was of my interest.

[Episiarch]

I don't really see the point in lingerie. I'm just going to take it off her immediately.

[Warty]

Yeah. It's fun on strippers and in porn, but in real life it's mostly just a minor obstacle.

[JW]

"She greeted me at the door with nothing on but the TV..."

[nicole]

Well, in real life it's mostly just a way to hold up your breasts and not have heavy denim rubbing up against your swimsuit area all day...but yeah.

[Episiarch]

I was using "lingerie" to mean "underwear that is meant to be worn by itself, not regular, functional underwear that never gets seen because it's always under clothes". I think JW was too.

[JEP]

"A lady should shed her dignity with her clothes, and do her whorish best."

- The great Robert Heinlein

[Warty]

The one lingerie thing I dig is when the panties are worn over the garter belt. It's the subtle extra sluttiness, I think.

[RoboCain]

While sexy lingerie was invented by men for women to wear for men, fashion is communicative. When a woman wears lingerie it says something. And not just to you. It tells her that's she's sexy and feminine. Maybe that;'s one reason Victoria Secret took off in the 80's when women were wearing these boxy power suits.

[RoboCain]

I still like Rose McGowan...

[Ska]

Me too man, me too.

[SIV]

Plenty of Dita pics on my blog

[John C. Randolph]

Real women don't need silicone prostheses.

-jcr

[RoboCain]

"The skin covering my manhood was partly torn but I quickly put my thumb in its mouth to try and choke it after realising that I was going to lose my manhood.

"It then grabbed my hand and I could hear my bones cracking making some cacophony noise at the slightest bite."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/ho.....odile.html

[Eduard van Haalen]

Nope, don't want to check that link.

[Maxxx]

He said: "Realising that I was losing the battle, I let go of the box of tomatoes that I was carrying on my head and it fell into the river with a thud making some kind of noise.

"At that instant the crocodile released its grip on my hand and ran towards the noise.

So this guy is crossing a river with a box of tomatoes on his head. Attacked by a croc that ate his balls and hand, an only then drops the tomatoes.

WTF???

[RoboCain]

Good thing they removed the caffeine:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-Loko.html

[RBS]

I like how the URL or whatever says "teen dies drinking four loko." Yep, opening the door of a moving car to vomit couldn't have had anything to do with it.

[Joe M]

No other form of alcohol has ever caused vomiting, thankfully.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

It was an adult that purchased the legal product. That adult then illegally supplied it to a minor. This logic will be lost on everyone, and Four Loko will be sued out of existence.

[Joe M]

Also, the mom said:

'He drank one of those energy drinks with alcohol in it that all these kids around here seem to think is okay and he needed to vomit and he opened up the door and fell out and then was run over,'

I'm willing to give her a shitload of leeway, considering the circumstances, but it's not an energy drink anymore.

[GILMORE]

White House Blames GOP for Keystone Pipeline's Demise

That makes sense.

It reminds me of the SOTU speech, where we were going to Streamline government regulations...by imposing a bunch of new regulations, and creating new bureaucracies. Probably a Czar here and there. Also, we'll reduce taxes by punishing corporations for not operating in a high tax environment. Left is right. Up is down. The GOP killed the pipeline.

[Jeffersonian]

Didn't Obama instruct one of his czars to actually take his boot off of the neck of somebody once so the guy could find his checkbook to pay the fine being doled out? What more do you want?

[shrike]

Because Obama has czars but Reagan and Bush the Lesser didn't? Reagan had a goddamn anti-porn czar. You wingnecks never cease to amaze.

[Jeffersonian]

What's Obama up to now, 37?

[Jeff]

38.

[WWNGD?]

Well isn't that special?

[Tulpa]

Yep, Reason and libertarians in general loved the czars when Bush and Reagan were in power. ::rolleyes::

Perhaps you haven't been paying attention but RP gets a lot of flack among Republicans for sending a semi-polite "fuck you" letter to President Reagan in 1984 over that and other issues.

[shrike]

Like there's a difference. You wingnecks are all the same.

[shrike]

But Obama's boots are so tasty!

[GILMORE]

White House Blames GOP for Keystone Pipeline's Demise

That makes sense.

It reminds me of the SOTU speech, where we were going to Streamline government regulations...by imposing a bunch of new regulations, and creating new bureaucracies. Probably a Czar here and there. Also, we'll reduce taxes by punishing corporations for not operating in a high tax environment. Left is right. Up is down. The GOP killed the pipeline.

[shrike]

"job killin' regurlashions" is a right wing Limpdick redneck lie.

Despite the EPA the USA has more drilling rigs in operation than the rest of the world combined.

[RoboCain]

You already lost that argument this morning, numbnuts.

[shrike]

Fuck off, liar.

[Barack]

Yo, shrike, these balls ain't suckin' themselves!

[shrike]

Mphf mwphhfffff!

[shrike]

Mphf mwphffff!

[Shrike]

Yessir, Bossman. I is comin'. You will be too.

[drill me]

you say that like its a bad thing

[Tulpa]

We also have freer speech than anywhere else in the world (again, DESPITE the federal government). Doesn't mean I have to look the other way when it gets encroached a little bit, does it?

[Block Yomomma]

Read my lips: I don't care what happens elsewhere around the world, cylindrical solar panels, windmills, and ridiculously expensive electric cars with batteries that explode are the wave of the future, you dumb peasants.

[shrike]

"Greek Tunnel" - lol, obviously a Santorum allusion.

[Yeah]

What isn't in this place?

[shrike]

He's a beautiful man. I'd christfag with him any day.

[RoboCain]

"The interactive advertisement uses a high-definition camera to scan pedestrians and identify their gender before showing a specific ad....Males won't be able to see the full ad and will be directed to Plan UK's website instead. The purpose of this was to show men "a glimpse of what it's like to have basic choices taken away.""

http://mashable.com/2012/02/21.....billboard/

[BakedPenguin]

I can't think of a country on earth where any adult can't know what it's like to have lots of basic choices taken away.

[Brett L]

For example, in Britain: should I carry my pocket knife and/or my pistol... Oh wait. Fucking neither.

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah, I thought it was a bit ironic the ad came out in 1984-land.

[nicole]

Forgetting about the microagression here, doesn't it seem like bad advertising not to present half the population with the full call to action? Do you really think dudes are going to be like "aww, I didn't see that outdoor ad, I guess I should go look it up at home"?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Do you really think dudes are going to be like "aww, I didn't see that outdoor ad, I guess I should go look it up at home"?

As a dude, the answer is "no".

[RoboCain]

I'm waiting for a transgendered person offended they got the wrong ad.

[nicole]

Your wait will not be long.

[JW]

.Males won't be able to see the full ad and will be directed to Plan UK's website instead.

HAHAHAHAHAHA! They neglected to take into consideration that most men won't give a flying fuck and will be on their merry, already thinking about the woman, who just past them, naked.

[Tulpa]

They better hope Janet Napolitano doesn't walk in front of it...it might fry its circuits trying to determine whether to play the full ad.

[shrike]

Ditto for Laura Bush.

[shrike]

I've never seen a girl naked.

[shrike's mom]

and you never will until you get out of my basement, find a girl, get married and make me some GRANDCHILDREN, you verkakte nebbish!

[shrike]

Aw, Mom. Do I have to?

[Tulpa]

Other than the basement, that sounds very familiar.

She's even got my niece beating the drum now. "How come Uncle Tulpa doesn't have a wife?" she asked recently. I'd be better off saying I was gay than telling her I have no use for her outdated institutions.

[rather]

Tulpa, what are you giving up for Lent?

[MJ]

This is ostensibly raising money for a charity. Anyone think that making a tired feminist ideological point might just undermine that effory?

[RoboCain]

"But perhaps the most nauseating session will examine the "impact of sugary drinks in communities of color." We can already guess what the conclusion will be: Soft drinks disproportionately "harm" urban minorities."

http://dailycaller.com/2012/02.....nks-racist?/

[OWS VPS]

Yes, who needs to hear about how minorities are harmed, right?

[Poor Nigras]

Oh thank ya, praise de lawd dat we has a good white man like you lookin' out fer us. You gives us dat food, dat houzin', dat helf care, an' all we gots to do is pick yo' cotton. Thank ya, thank ya!!

[Patronizing White Lady]

Don't worry, you darling little pickaninnies. I'll fight those evil libertarians who want to stop me from spending their money to send you to a school you'll drop out of. After all, we can't have those nasty ambitious chinks getting into Berkeley and competing with the white lady's children now, can we?

[sticks]

By soft drinks? No, no one should care.

[Tony]

We are the fattest country on earth and if that's the result of freedom, maybe we have too much freedom.

[wrong]

http://www.good.is/post/chart-.....t-country/

check your facts shithead

[Jeffersonian]

How dare pudgy Americans offend Tony's aesthetic sense? Nothing short of the full (dare I say?!) weight of the federal government should be brought to bear on anyone not subscribing to his idea body shape.

[Tony]

That spoofer is posting something I posted a while ago, which was a comment designed for maximum insult here.

I'm not saying libertarians are fat. They're mostly skinny and very very pale. But this place is mostly populated by conservative tea party morons. And they're all fat.

[Mr. FIFY]

You can see everyone here, Tony? Do you work for General Dynamics?

[Chony]

Yeah, except this is you.

http://www.peekyou.com/tony_quinn/4469838

Pot, kettle, etc.

Nice pose.

[rather]

I hope they ban your ass for outing him asshole

[Barney Frank]

He's not that cute.

[oncogenesis]

Too much freedom. Not enough responsibility. What's the difference to a utilitarian?

[RoboCain]

Because corn and sugar subsidies are freedom?

[shrike]

maybe we have too much freedom

At least Tony gets this right.

[shrike]

I'm a secular liberal, minus the liberal. Oh, and the secular, 'cause I believe Obama is magic.

[shrike]

Someone should stop me from posting. I just expose my iggerance. Please makes a law or sumptin.

[Teh Awesome]

You are batting 1.000 today OWS VPS! I wish I was you.

[RoboCain]

Would you marry a Decepticon?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/babyma.....-ring-1opu

[Warty]

Castratikon

[P Brooks]

He also renewed his call for Congress to pass legislation that would ensure taxpayers with incomes of $1 million or more pay a minimum rate of 30 percent, a measure known as the Buffett rule after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who originated the idea last year.

Buffett, when asked if HE would be subject to the tax which bears his name, replied, "That's the stupidest question I've been asked in years."

[Pro Libertate]

It's stupid, because Buffett will crush the questioner.

[shrike]

Buffett is always an easy winner. He is a secular capitalist with more knowledge than any other American on markets.

I know..... rednecks hate him. Beck hates him....

[shrike]

I, on the other hand, jack off to his picture.

[Chairman Mao's Picture]

YOU RIE!!!

[BakedPenguin]

Well, it is a stupid question. Being subject to a tax and paying it are two different things.

[Pro Libertate]

It's stupid on so many levels. And, to the extent that it isn't stupid, Buffett has people that can make it stupid. He's that rich.

[BakedPenguin]

Exactly. Rules are for people who don't have connections.

[The Anonypussy?]

Sorry guys but I feel one of my more hyper-manic phases about to come on.

Just warning you all.

[The Anonypussy?]

Silly spoofer.

Do you know when you have won?
When somebody spoofs you.
I win.

[Joe M]

"...their action essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a time frame in which it was impossible to completely approve the pipeline."

Wow, I got dizzy following that logic around and around.

[kelly thomas died for your sin]

For the love of money [property values] is the rot of all evil [property values.]

The POLICe protect and serve
the POLIS' property values.

The self-styled but demonstrably false "free" coerced market has an aggressive foundation of government enTitlement that restricts the free movement of free people.

The world has long noted selfish hypocrites like the Libertarians, who speak with forked tongue.

White Indian mocks the Libertarian rejection of reason, your contradictions, your intellectual evasions.

Officer, am I free to gambol about plain and forest like free families did for 15,000 years -- until an invasion and occupation that started 200 years ago in these parts?

No?

Then Libetarianism has ZERO to do about freedom, and everything to do about aggression.

Kill the bum Kelly and kill the bum White Indian lowering our Statist granted Land enTitlement values.

Libertarians are killers and haters at heart.

Go ahead, make fun of Michael Moore, if it entertains you so much.

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her. ~verse 7, chapter 8, The Jefferson Bible

[Mike M.]

Tell us all the truth, what are you eating right now?

[shrike]

Obama's balls.

[Fat Indian]

Two Big Macs, large fries, butterfinger McFlurry, and a diet coke. But only because my bow is broken.

[Fat Indian]

It's okay though I plan to [GAMBOL] all those calories away tonight on my Apache 5000 treadmill in moms basement.

[Ray]

I used to gambol, then I took an arrow to the knee..

[RoboCain]

Replacing churches with restaurants?

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....17864.html

[nicole]

Those who have opted to spend their lives looking after children, writing poetry or nurturing orchards will be left in no doubt that they have run contrary to the dominant mores of the powerful, who will marginalize them accordingly.

Unless they are at a dinner party with other people who have decided to take care of children, write poetry, etc. Believe me, you don't show up to a place full of academics and tout your business success and expect that to be an "in."

I mean, it's really absurd: religion once created community by creating one (really big) in-group, and professional life (or whatever) creates more, smaller in-groups. BFD. We are not all going to be friends. We are not all going to hold hands and be a community.

[nicole]

I got crazy and actually finished RTFA and goddamnit it, fuck Alain de Botton. "our modern lack of a proper sense of community"? "our fear of strangers"? "the benefits of taking people into a distinct space where they can be isolated from the usual ideology of the mercantile world"?

Seriously, we are so fucked.

[cynical]

Maybe he had a mouse in his pocket.

[rac]

If you go to the dictionary to look up the word "dickweed", you will find a picture of Jay Carney.

[shrike]

"Dead Dickweed" = Tony Snow.

[Jeff]

I guess shriek fellates this whole damn administration.

[shrike]

Not true! I can only fit two dicks in my mouff at once.

Here's a secret - Janet N has a dick! Don't tell.

[Buddy Bizarre]

Stay classy shriek.

[White House Visitors Office]

He does come here quite often... mostly through the back door.

[Barney Frank]

Gonna miss shrike. That man could suck a cock, lemme tell you.

[shrike]

Who says it has to stop?

[Barney Frank]

You had your chance, sonny. I'm married now.

[2012 Voter]

"My message to Congress is don't stop here. Keep going."

Funny, that's my message to Congress, too.

[Attila the Huh]

Iran has threatened to launch pre-emptive action against Israel in the event of an attack on its nuclear facilities

Huh?

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

The article says their threatening to have their proxies in Lebanon and Gaza send more rockets.

The first thing I thought was "now Israel has an arguable Cause Belle (howeverthehell you spell it) the moment some hotheaded intafadaist (ditto) pulls the trigger"; what the hell were they thinking?

Oh yeah....same as always...those statements are made for the consumption of their own public and the "Arab street" without thought to how they might be interpreted by others.

[rac]

Well, guess what, Israel is preparing a pre-pre-emptive atttack. So there.

[Sparky]

Well, at least something got shot down.

"This was SHARK's first encounter with the Broxton Bridge Plantation, but it will certainly not be the last," Hindi said in the release. "We are already making plans for a considerably upscaled action in 2013."

Good thinking.

[rather]

They are testing the latest Dolphin; I expect they will use them soon

Iran doesn't have a chance; they may get a shot off but I'm not so sure it will fly out of their border

[Mr. FIFY]

Iran could solve a lot of problems if it would just quit being a pissy bitch of a country... and dismantle its nuclear program.

Liberaltard commentary from the usual suspects in 3...2...1...

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Iran could solve a lot of problems if it would just quit being a *dictatorship*

FIFY

[Mr. FIFY]

Most dictatorships are pissy-bitch countries.

And ours is headed in those directions, especially with the current crop of criminals in Congress and the Oval Office.

[North Korea]

Just because we whine when South Korean soldiers put up Christmas displays on the DMZ, you call us pussies?

[Tony]

What do you expect from a woman-hating sexist pig like FIFY?

[Feministing]

Nice try, Tony, but we don't trust gay men, either.

[Pandagon]

XX good, XY bad! XX good, XY bad!!!

[Zardoz]

The gun is good, the penis is evil!

[The Pointer-Outer]

Hah!

http://www.desmoinesregister.c.....007/NEWS05

[Janet Napolitano]

I can't wait until the day I can give the order to start rounding up every single right-wing dissenter in this godforsaken country...

[Barack the Jaunty Future King]

Wait for My signal, minion.

[shrike]

Wait til I get your dick outta my mouff.

[Barack the Jaunty Future King]

Oh, it will ALWAYS be in your mouth, even after I have you killed.

I'm just that good.

[shrike]

*fap fap fap*

[Jeffersonian]

Do you have any idea what Tony would do to you, you pudgy little troll?