A.M. Links: Gingrich and Santorum Mull Alliance, Enhanced Video Shows Wounds on George Zimmerman's Head, Data Breach Hits Major Credit Card Companies

• Newt Gingrich may work with Rick Santorum to stop Mitt Romney. 

• Aung San Suu Kyi claimed victory Monday in Burma's historic by-election.
• Re-digitized police video shows "what appear to be a pair of gashes or welts on George Zimmerman's head."
• Forensic experts claim screams heard during Martin-Zimmerman fight can't be Zimmerman's. 
• Hackers have "potentially compromised credit and debit card information from all of the major card brands."
• Roger Ailes nervous about forthcoming Roger Ailes biography. 

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New at Reason.tv: "John Stossel on the Successes of Freedom in Education"

Comments

[Charlotte Corday]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-…..-tax-fraud

Nickey Haley not being investigated for tax fraud.

[Murderers claim victimhood]

Aggressive murderers always claim victimhood, from Zimmerman to Jefferson.

“…the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

STOP RESISTING, REDMAN/NIGGER!

[Jefferson was lying]

The record of Native Americans in California is similar. Kroeber reported that their fighting was “notably bloodless. They even went so far as to take poorer arrows to war than they used in economic hunting.”[6] Wintu people of Northern California called off hostilities once someone was injured.[7] “Most Californians were absolutely nonmilitary; they possessed next to none of the traits requisite for the military horizon, a condition that would have taxed their all but nonexistent social organization too much. Their societies made no provision for collective political action,” in the view of Turney-High.[8]

John Zerzan
On the Origins of War

[Jefferson was lying]

[References]

6 A.L. Kroeber, Handbook of the Indians of California: Bulletin 78 (Washington, D.C.:Bureau of American Ethnology, 1923), p. 152.

7 Christopher Chase-Dunn and Kelly M. Man, The Wintu and their Neighbors (Tucson:University of Arizona Press, 1998), p. 101.

8 Harry Holbert Turney-High, Primitive War: Its Practice and Concepts (Columbia:University of South Carolina Press, 1949), p. 229.

[Charlotte Corday]

Well that certainly explains Haley’s tax issue. Thanks again, I think.

[you're welcome]

I think

[Charlotte Corday]

Mental illness is a horrible thing. I always try to be kind to those that are, even though that is difficult sometimes.

[Comrade Political Officer]

All political dissent from the fundamentalist axioms of libertarian philosophy is a mental illness.

Da, tovarisch.

[Charlotte Corday]

A nut has to nut. It is what they do.

[Suthenboy]

With time it gets easier. I spent 10 years working in a mental hospital and to say that mental illness is a horrible thing is quite an understatement.

People with broken legs or failing kidneys get sympathy, people with broken brains get derision and disdain. It is truly pitiful.

I can think of multiple examples of people who seemed like solid gold asses who, as time proved, were having mini-strokes or defective brains and descended into complete dysfunctionality. Coming to understand how helpless they are to control their own behavior makes it easier and easier to empathize.

[Charlotte Corday]

Suthernboy,

Everyone has this Hollywood view of mental illness, like it is funny or something. You know the harmless guy who thinks he is Napoleon. As I am sure you know, it is not like that at all. Mentally ill people are hostile and paranoid and downright evil some times. They just can’t control themselves.

You can understand how people in past ages thought the mentally ill were possessed. If you didn’t have a medical explanation, saying they are demonically possessed is consistent with a lot of their behavior.

Horrible is an understatement. And yes, we should have more sympathy for this person than we do.

[Karl]

Alright then.

[Lord Humungus]

So Haley, by using a time machine to throw off the IRS , unwittingly oppressed the Indians, even though she is in fact an Indian herself, though not of Native American descent. Thereby, an interstellar warpage occurred from this strange confluence, which made a certain individual Indian in name only, but still White. The circle is unbroken.

[Charlotte Corday]

You are close Lord. But you didn’t work in the part where Haley was involved in the President’s crusade to destroy Jason Goedesky’s house.

[Charlotte Corday]

Okay. That was bad. I am not always kind to the mentally ill. Sometimes I just can’t resist making fun of them.

[Groovus Maximus]

Sometimes I just can’t resist making fun of them.

Charlotte, I’m a Dr. and I can’t help making fun of patients, whether they are sharp as a tack or swift as a glacier.

And the plot hole you’re missing Lord is the Groovy Ken Salazar link. Goedesky will never see it coming.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Well, Groovus, you know what that means.

PUNCHATOTHEFACEA!

[Groovus Maximus]

Well, Groovus, you know what that means.

PUNCHATOTHEFACEA!

Still pisses me off.

[Charlotte Corday]

Groovus,

I actually do work with the mentally ill on occasion and have enough professional training to diagnose them. And the person posting as White Indian shows all of the signs.

[Comrade Charlotte]

…has the authority.

And is letting you know it.

[Groovus Maximus]

and have enough professional training to diagnose them

What do you think Axis 3 multiaxial is? I think Goedesky ate paint chips as a kid, i.e. slow plumbous poisoning.

I would go with Axis 1 manic depressive complicated. Pb poisoning primary.

[invisible furry hand]

I thought WI was Mary Stack, and Godesky merely someone she quoted. But perhaps there were more revelations over the weekend and i’ve missed them. Someone clarify this!

[Charlotte Corday]

No. This is Axis I all of the way. This person is classic paranoid schizophrenic. A mild case. But classic nonetheless.

[Mike]

“have enough professional training to diagnose them.”

I am professional in the industry who, in my youth, did diagnosis.

I’ll wager 100 bucks to any charity you want that you don’t.

Hell I think I’m a hotshot and even I wouldn’t be that arrogant.

[And nothing else happened.]

The white man was investigated and found to be acting within department policy.

DEPARTMENT POLICY 7.4.17.76

“[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

[R]

Fiorst!!!

[R]

Damn.

[Mary Stack]

loser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTokei9-jw8

[Lord Humungus]

California: Where You Need A Lobbyist To Build A House
http://blogs.the-american-inte…..dle-class/

The country’s most populous state is strangling itself in red tape. And if you need to hire a lobbyist to negotiate the permit process for building a home, ask yourself what starting a business or building a factory will involve.

[I Blame Videogames!]

A friend went through this in CA a while back rebuilding a house that was destroyed in a huge wildfire. He was set to build the same house on the same footprint, except with updated materials and to the new code. Especially with the “expedited process in place to recover from the fire” no problem, right?
No, there were all sorts of extra hoops to jump through as if the original house didn’t exist. He finally gave up rebuilding there when someone on the local architectural board had a dream about a bird and a snail and wanted the design to reflect it.

[Lord Humungus]

someone on the local architectural board had a dream about a bird and a snail and wanted the design to reflect it.

so the LSD thing is still big in California?

[gaoxiaen]

Youtube, tune in, turn on,… it works for a few seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9uYEM2osYQ

[Kwanzaa Cake]

Liberalism is pretty much destroying one of the most naturally beautiful and resource-rich places on the planet. I would personally love to live in the SF bay area, but will never subject myself to being governed by those people.

[db]

My GF had an offer at a major Bay Area software house a few years ago but we both refused to move to CA for this reason.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I saw a video for “San Francisco” that showed Scott McKenzie walking around parts of the city. Breaks one’s heart to think of how awesome California was before all the poz set in.

[JW]

You shouldn’t need dedicated lobbyists to get permission to build buildings on property you legitimately own. At the end of the day, Romney is going to be able to hire the lobbyist and get his mansion built. But these same hurdles afflict people who might be interested in affordable housing for low-income people or simply regular old market rate structures for the middle class.

Awwwww, Yglasses is all butthurt over how the mindless creature that he and his commrades in disaster built is tearing through the village and doing all sorts of things they never told it to do.

Fuck you, Yglesias. You created this beast by voting for these power-mad clowns again and again, not to mention carrying their water and viciously attacking anyone who said differently. Go whimper and whine about the results to someone who give a flying fuck.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Their tears are yummy and sweet.

[Charlotte Corday]

49% to 38% ? voters trust Republicans over Democrats on the economy (which they consider the most important issue).
According to a new Rasmussen poll.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2…..-over.html

[Lord Humungus]

Fact check: Biden’s manufactured jobs claims
http://www.usatoday.com/news/p…..53872768/1

In fact, manufacturing jobs represent a disproportionate share of job losses since Obama took office. In all, the U.S. has lost a net 864,000 non-farm jobs since January 2009 ? a decline of one half of 1%. But manufacturing jobs are down 5% since then. One recent study found that at the current pace, it will take until 2020 for the U.S. to recover the manufacturing jobs lost since 2007.

[Bee Tagger]

Anyone catch Morning Joe this morning? They spent a majority of the first 10 minutes of the show having a pants-wetting contest about the horrors and dangers pornography brings to a society. And the kids! Oh, the poor kids. 6 year olds having instant access to hardcore pornography all of the time, and so on. With people who hate Rick Santorums like these, who needs Rick Santorums?

[Charlotte Corday]

Isn’t morning Joe liberal? People do kind of forget that feminist hate pornography as much or more than Socons do for different but no less loopy reasons.

[Suki]

The Joe has the privilege of being a gig fat leftie who was in Congress as a Republican.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Don’t most porn actresses choose to appear in porn?

[Alack]

But they only choose it because the patriarchy has made them think that they are nothing but sexual playthings, and that the objectification they face in pornography is a type of desirable admiration!

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Well, yes, the patriarchy, of course. But also more money than working at Old Navy.

[Auric Demonocles]

And who is on that money? MEN!

[Night Elf Mohawk]

So if I pay my voluntary porn actresses with Sacagawea dollars, I’m home free.

I’ve taken a pro-choice position, so to speak, and have used money depicting a strong woman of color.

[Atanarjuat]

Sure, as long as she’s not prettier than any feminists.

[Lord Humungus]

no to the ugly people porn!

[Bobarian]

So.. until the come up with a Dwokin (Sp?) dollar, no approved porn stars?

[Sacagawea]

What am I? Chopped moose liver?

http://montanakids.com/history…..ajawea.jpg

[invisible furry hand]

i like sensitivity with which the artist has depicted her freaky dead twin second head

[Ben]

I LOL’d (literally).

[Bee Tagger]

RoboCain is Charlotte Corday?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

[Socialistic Individual Sparky]

Needs more surprise ending.

[Lord Humungus]

Today, we’re all Robocain!

er, or something like that.

[Charlotte Corday]

It is an erotic journey from Milan to Minsk.

[Groovus Maximus]

To the score of Midnight Express, no doubt.

Or something composed by Jan Hammer.

[Charlotte Corday]

I am thinking Vangelis.

[Lord Humungus]

I would prefer Tangerine Dream.

[invisible furry hand]

How about a bit of Jean-Michel Jarre?

[GILMORE]

Enya?

Meh, I just wanted to play along. I’d prefer Moondog.

[invisible furry hand]

As my teenage nieces would say, hell to the yeah!

[Bobarian]

Maynbe more of a nutty Danny Elfman score.

[Lord Humungus]

Why Are the Fed and SEC Keeping Wall Street’s Secrets?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/…..rets-.html

Where are the documents and e-mails about how Goldman was allowed by the Fed to become a bank holding company? Where are the documents from the SEC about Goldman? Where, for that matter, are the SEC documents related to the short-dated, out-of-the-money puts that investors spent millions of dollars buying in the last week of Bear Stearns’s existence? The SEC said it was investigating who bought and sold these puts, but it has never made the results of its investigation public despite my FOIA request.

[waffles]

Burma is really turning it around, and all on their own too. But it took what, decades?

At least no other nation can rightfully claim to have “liberated” Burma. The revolution is their own.

[Charlotte Corday]

It was never that horrible in the first place. The juanta that ran the place were certainly awful. But not Mugabi or North Korea awful. More like Chavez awful. It was only a big deal because their opposition movement had a really attractive and charismatic woman leading it.

[Suki]

The ass-kicking Monks are my favorite.

[Trespassers W]

Fortunately they have those in Venezuela.

[Zeb]

The junta in Burma did have their own special kind of crazy going on, though. Didn’t they build the new capital because astrologers told them to, or something like that?

[Charlotte Corday]

Not sure. They were first class crazy. They just were not quite at the top of the evil scale.

[GILMORE]

Didn’t they build the new capital because astrologers told them to, or something like that?

From my limited foreign affairs attention-paying, it was relocated way out in the ass-end of nowhere on top of a mountain, and basically impossible for anything other than a squadron of B52s to attack. Basically, the leadership felt a little too close to ‘the people’ in the old location, and decided to retreat to a distant fortress to maintain continuity of leadership.

[GILMORE]

The juanta that ran the place …

Do you mean Juanita, My sweet Juanita? I wonder what she’s up to… my Juanita.

I think you meant the first Phish album.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Newt Gingrich may work with Rick Santorum to stop Mitt Romney.

Opening the door for guess who to step over the fallen bodies and claim the throne!

[Bee Tagger]

Aren’t The Guess Who Canadian? Sure, they ultimately took care of business under a different name, but that still doesn’t make them eligible.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Would this be an appropriate place for Enough About Palin to interject?

[Lord Humungus]

Remembering Earl Scruggs
http://gardenandgun.com/blog/r…..rl-scruggs

Always a player of high execution and credibility, Scruggs believed in music’s transcendence. He played with hippie sitar player Ravi Shankar, the folk-pop band the Byrds, and Bob Dylan. He was there when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded Will The Circle Be Unbroken and returned for Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Vol 2, produced by his acoustic guitar virtuoso son Randy Scruggs. He was there at the Opry. With and without Flatt. He was all about making music.

[Lord Humungus]

btw, gotta love a magazine with the title of “Garden & Gun”

[Isaac Bartram]

It’s about the wierdest magazine you’ll ever run across. I read it it in my doctor’s office.

It’s filled with articles by people who think nothing of jetting away to a weekend dove hunt in Argentina with their twelve thousand dollar custom made English side-by-sides.

A number of liberal icons are published there. You know, the kind of people who have no problem donating to the Brady campaign because they know they’ll never have any problem getting gun permits.

[Isaac Bartram]

IOW, it’s Field and Stream for the upper crust.

[sarcasmic]

World’s tallest tree house.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-high.html

Bets on how long it is before some government asshole demands that it be torn down?

[Chloe]

Or a meth users sets it on fire so that she can see in the dark?

[Socialistic Individual Sparky]

God makes people do the weirdest things.

[Chloe]

In her case it was drugs

[Quetzalcoatl]

Is it sad that I only got that you meant “drugs made her do it” rather than “God made her do drugs” on my fifth readthrough?

[Zeb]

Well, it’s not in the UK or California, so it might have some chance.

[Pip]

That’s not a tree house.

[invisible furry hand]

Bob Marley’s last surviving bandmate has revealed his own peculiar approach to drug-taking, by smoking marijuana out of a hollowed-out carrot.

When asked for an explanation, Bunny Livingston, the last living member of Marley’s band the Wailers, proclaimed: “The herb of the field is best smoked through the root of the ground.”

The bizarre anecdote, delivered while Livingston was dressed in a white field marshal’s uniform complete with cap and brocade, has been revealed as part of a unique film-making project, to document the “flesh and blood” life of Jamaican singer Bob Marley.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new…..arrot.html

[Lord Humungus]

some Peter Tosh, just because
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5rvH_DtVo

[Apple]

“the last living member of Marley’s band the Wailers”

I suppose it depends on how you define The Wailers.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Re-digitized police video shows “what appear to be a pair of gashes or welts on George Zimmerman’s head.”

BUT WHAT COLOR WAS THE GUY WHO ENHANCED THE VIDEO???

[Suki]

High five

[R C Dean]

Nothing adds credibility to video like “re-digitizing.”

And I say that as someone who sees no reason to doubt that Zimmerman got beat up.

This whole thing has just gone totally tribal race-baiting insane, though, hasn’t it.

[Proprietist]

??

Nothing adds credibility to their argument like using a grainy video to prove that this was all a huge conspiracy with police to kill random, unarmed black people.

[Lord Humungus]

5 Reasons Why Syria Isn’t Libya
http://www.popularmechanics.co…..=pm_latest

As Syria’s bloody uprising continues into its second year, there’s a growing realization that President Bashar Hafez al-Assad just might outlast the rebels. While many had hoped that al-Assad would soon go the way of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, it’s clear that even if it happens, his departure won’t be so swift.

There are a number of reasons why Syria’s Assad has stuck around, and why some people are even predicting the Syrian strongman may ultimately prevail. Here are the top five ways that Syria is no Libya.

[BakedPenguin]

Popular Mechanics?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

They forgot #6: “The US isn’t providing air cover for the rebels to prevent ‘massacres’ all the way to Damascus.”

[R C Dean]

Without having read the article, I would guess that Assad will be around as long as he has foreign sponsorts (Iran and Russia), and the rebels have none, thanks to the remarkable evaporation of our profound moral duty previously expressed as “responsibility to protect.”

[Johnny Horton]

Hey Charlotte, stab it: How’s
this fer yer injun blanco?

[sarcasmic]

Teacher’s aide suspended for refusing to give access to her Facebook account.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-page.html

Good for her.

[Zeb]

As someone pointed out when there was a link to a story about employers asking for a facebook password, doing so violates the facebook terms of use, which is apparently a federal crime.

[sarcasmic]

which is apparently a federal crime.

Did you miss the part about her being a teacher’s aide?

That means her employer is the school system.

Who’s going to charge the government with a crime? The government?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Did her contract stipulate the administer requires access to her personal information as a condition of employment? If not, he can pound sand. If so, give it up or lose your job.

This couldn’t be more simple. Why would government get involved?

Oh, wait, did I just ask that??????

[Lord Humungus]

Irish citizens boycott austerity tax
http://euobserver.com/843/115771

Almost half of Irish people have refused to pay a household tax imposed as part of promised savings measures, while government pressure to secure the levy risks further angering an austerity-weary public.

By a Saturday (31 March) midnight deadline, around 805,000 of the country’s 1.6 million registered households had paid the tax, which has been subject to a high-profile boycott campaign.

[PS]

Isn’t austerity tax an oxymoron?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Austerity for thee but not for me.

[Bee Tagger]

Forensic experts claim screams heard during Martin-Zimmerman fight can’t be Zimmerman’s.

I can only conclude Martin and Zimmerman were working together like a modern day Wonder and McCartney to beat a third party.

[Lord Humungus]

Can Apple make a more ethical iPhone?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..story.html

The industry’s response was for the brands to begin monitoring their own factories. Beyond the obvious conflict of interest that arises when a corporation polices itself, there are other issues at play. Factories often have contracts with many companies, all of which now have their own codes of conduct ? some more enforced than others. Take overtime, for example. If the Gap allows up to 20 hours a week of overtime, but the local government allows only 10 ? as was the case several years ago in Shenzhen, China ? whose mandate should be followed? If the local minimum age for workers is 15, but one brand requires workers to be 16 and another brand 18, whose law prevails?

[Isaac Bartram]

Holy Shit!

If the Gap allows up to 20 hours a week of overtime, but the local government allows only 10 ? as was the case several years ago in Shenzhen, China ? whose mandate should be followed? If the local minimum age for workers is 15, but one brand requires workers to be 16 and another brand 18, whose law prevails?

If the local government allows only 10 hours a week of overtime, it doesn’t matter if if the Gap allows 20. The local government will prosecute if the Gap works employees more than 10 hours OT if they are enforcing their laws.

And if the local minimum age for workers is 15, but one brand requires workers to be 16 and another brand 18, then those private parties will follow their own policies and hire 16 and 18 plus-year-olds respectively.

How hard is that to figure out?

[Isaac Bartram]

How does someone who does not know the difference between government law and private company policy get a job at a major daily newspaper? What kind of editor lets this kind of sloppiness get through?

[NAMBLA Gamboler]

As a former Washington Post Company employee myself I can assure you that incompetent staff is not something that they’re short on.

[sarcasmic]

They’re remaking Total Recall.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..ction.html

Kate Beckinsale is still hot!

[Charlotte Corday]

Over under on the number of years before the Robocop remake?

[SugarFree]

Already in the works.

[SugarFree]

Linky

[Fist of Etiquette]

Dead or alive, you’re coming with me… TO SEE THAT MOVIE!

[invisible furry hand]

i’d buy that for a dollar

[Groovus Maximus]

The thing that saddens me most, we could have been friends, Saccharin Man.

KA-BLAM!!!!!

[Charlotte Corday]

I saw the trailer for the Cusak Raven movie this weekend. It looks like it has potential.

[SugarFree]

I’m not sure he can do Poe’s melancholy, but they might have jettisoned that anyway in favor of ‘splosions.

[Charlotte Corday]

It seems like they made a darker version of the Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes set in America. While not original, it might not be bad.

[Groovus Maximus]

I’m not sure he can do Poe’s melancholy

That’s no way to talk about Joan. She’s a handsome woman.

I’ll make sure she has plenty of laudanum on the set to capture the proper depths of emotional despair.

[SugarFree]

Don’t go running down laudanum, it has got me through many family dinners.

[Groovus Maximus]

it has got me through many family dinners.

I thought moonshine was the culprit. Or was it absinthe?

[SugarFree]

Mix them together, duh.

The Family Dinner

1 oz moonshine
1 oz absinthe
Juice of one-half lemon
1 tablespoon simple syrup
Dash of Peychaud’s Bitters
Tablespoon laudanum

Shake all ingredients expect laudanum with ice and strain into a champagne flute. Float laudanum on to the top with the back of a spoon.

[Charlotte Corday]

Isn’t laudanum opium? Isn’t that a bit illegal? But wow does that sound like a nice way to survive a family meal

[SugarFree]

Opium dissolved in ethanol. THC dissolves quite nicely in ethanol as well, and has some interesting mixed drink possibles beyond simply mixing it with Sprite.

[Groovus Maximus]

Sounds ‘lish! Compliments to the chef, you really have outdone yourself!

Wait…NO GARNISH?

Laudanum is not garnish.

[BakedPenguin]

“Wait…NO GARNISH?”

You could use the poppy flower, but then it would look like a girl drink.

[SugarFree]

Garnish is for the weak.

[Zeb]

You might want to cut back on the laudanum (unless you have a strong tolerance for opiates). A tablespoon has about 150 mg of morphine in it.

[SugarFree]

I never said that the cocktail wouldn’t depress your breathing to a dangerous level, Zeb.

[heller]

Moonshine and absinthe would be absolutely vile.

[invisible furry hand]

I want to go to a bar that would employ you as a bartender

[Lord Humungus]

yeah, I would die happy.

[rbenchley]

The remake is planned to hit the theaters on August 9th, 2013.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I was so excited when Darren Aronofsky was attached to that. Maybe it will be delayed enough that he will come back on board.

[invisible furry hand]

well at least it’s starring another actor who can’t pronounce “th” correctly.

“Consider dis a divorce, yer fookin’ eedjit!”

[Suki]

TMZ asked Arnie about that a long time ago. Harvey Levin is such a visionary.

[Lord Humungus]

A Lose-Lose Case
http://www.weeklystandard.com/…..34909.html

Yet Democratic strategist James Carville insists a Supreme Court decision striking down the mandate for everyone to buy health insurance, and perhaps the rest of the 2,700-page law, would work to Obama’s political advantage. Some Republicans fear Carville is right.

If ever a fear has been unfounded, it’s that one. The idea is that an albatross would be lifted from Obama and he would be freed in his bid for reelection from attachment to the most unpopular program enacted during his presidency. Republicans, in turn, would be denied their biggest and best anti-Obama talking point.

[WWNGD?]

Obama will still win, it isn’t like policy and government decisions have anything to do with voting anymore.

[Guest1776]

Republicans are already denying themselves their biggest talking point to rhetorically bash Obama over the head with by nominating the grandfather to O-Care.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It’s the Antonymy, Stupid

All Tom McDonald had to do was look at Burger King’s competitors to see why sales at the chain were falling. A Burger King franchisee since 1989, McDonald said the chain’s menu hadn’t changed much over the years.

From the also amusingly-named Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

[SugarFree]

The Sugar Frosted Nutsack, a review

And the review quotes an earlier work that sums up perfectly how I feel about writing workshops:

“Since I don’t like to carry a firearm when I conduct a writing workshop?I’ve found it tends to inhibit people who haven’t yet developed a confident style of their own?I’ll come with an icepick in my sock.”

[Brett L]

Absolutely.

[heller]

I fucking love Mark Leyner.

[Charlotte Corday]

That group is corporate insiders: the people who know the fundamental prospects of their companies better than anyone, and certainly better than the propaganda media or the always wrong Wall Street sell side analyst brigade. And as the chart below demonstrates, insiders are now out and selling in record quantities.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/…..ho-selling

Get out before the marks get wise.

[Ice Nine]

Thanks but been doing it on run-ups for a couple years. Should be obvious, even to non-insiders.

[Mo]

You missed the part in the chart where the lowest level of insider selling was right before the market bottomed out, so that data point is hardly indicative of anything. What they’re doing is harvesting gains.

[Charlotte Corday]

It is perfectly predictive. If they stopped selling right before the market bottomed out, that means they correctly thought the market had it bottom. You don’t sell when you think the market has bottomed.

[sarcasmic]

Taylor Swift is unrecognizable without her trademark red lipstick.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..ainer.html

[Chloe]

Looks like LeAnn Rimes has gained some weight back, she was looking like a skeleton there for a while.

[SugarFree]

They managed to find two pictures of Miranda Lambert where she isn’t eating. A rare feat.

[BakedPenguin]

Watch out Lionel, Taylor! there’s a cylon behind you!

[BakedPenguin]

Watch out, Lionel! There’s a cylon behind you!

[BakedPenguin]

Watch out, Lionel! There’s a cylon behind you!

[BakedPenguin]

Watch out, Lionel! There’s a cylon behind you!

[Fist of Etiquette]

And one of those experts, Tom Owen of Owen Forensic Services ? who is chair emeritus at the American Board of Record Evidence ? has told MSNBC that he believes the tests indicating it isn’t Zimmerman’s voice would stand up in court.

Owen isn’t a latino name, so we all know his racist agenda.

[Alack]

American Board of Record Evidence

Should’ve been Record Evidence Board of America so they could go by REBA. Rookie mistake.

[Lord Humungus]

OT: My favorite synth rarity blog site has been essentially shutdown because his Mediafire account has been shutdown.
http://systemsofromance.blogsp…..ement.html

It’s a shame, since it was a great source for uber-obscure music from the 70s/80s.

[Lord Humungus]

I assume it’s fallout from Megaupload.

[invisible furry hand]

Bad news!

OTH, I always laugh when I see “OT” here. WTF isn’t on morning links?

[Lord Humungus]

100% OT!

[Joe M]

From our erstwhile nutpuncher Radley Balko:

Illinois Traffic Stop Of Star Trek Fans Raises Concerns About Drug Searches, Police Dogs, Bad Cops

Legally, Huff is now free to go. But just as Huff is set to get back into his car, Reichert says, “Let me ask you a question real quick.” Huff agrees.[…]

“It’s a common tactic,” says John Rekowski, the public defender for Madison County, where the stop took place. “[Officer Reichert] thinks he’s doing something legally significant there. He thinks he’s establishing that everything that happens after the handshake is consensual, because after that, Huff was technically free to go. But of course he isn’t free to go.”

[sarcasmic]

“If we find that any of our officers is taking shortcuts or violating someone’s civil rights, that officer will be fired.”

Haaaaaaaahahahaaaahaaa! That’s some funny shit!

[SugarFree]

“Do you know why I pulled you over?” Confess or possibly lie to a cop. What a fair and honest opening gambit.

[invisible furry hand]

Third option: speculate.

“Because you’re hot for me?”
“Because you need a friend – and who doesn’t?”
“The drugs told you to?”

etc etc

[SugarFree]

I usually go with the equally po-faced “Is there a problem, Officer?” while fondling myself gently.

[Groovus Maximus]

I hope you explain to them you just shot up your insulin and you’re just massaging the injection site (which you should never do.)

Why you keep using your left breast is beyond me.

[Brett L]

“If I did, would I have done it in front of you?”

[T]

I usually go with “No” because I don’t read minds.

[Auric Demonocles]

“Penis envy.”

or:

“Depends on how long you were following me.”

[T]

However, unless you want to be subjected to a roadside rant about argle-bargle difficult job blah, I don’t recommend saying “Because it’s the end of the month and you need to hit your quota?”

[invisible furry hand]

how about “Because it’s that time of the month and you need to hit someone?”

[Auric Demonocles]

it’s the kind of thing we see all the time. The stop for a so-called ‘inappropriate lane change,’ the games they play in the questioning, the claims about nervousness or inappropriate behavior that can’t really be contradicted. It’s all routine.”

When I was pulled over and tested for a DUI (I blew zeros when they finally let me), the cop said “You know why I don’t believe you [about not being drunk]? Your knees are shaking and you’re really nervous.”

Who would be nervous when two guys with guns and the legal authority to fuck your life have you on the side of the road in the middle of the night?

[sarcasmic]

Who would be nervous when two guys with guns and the legal authority to fuck your life have you on the side of the road in the middle of the night?

But, but, but I was told that you have no reason to be nervous around Officer Friendly unless you’re doing something wrong.

[WTF]

This is just another example of how the good cops help to weed out the minority of bad cops:

Reagan’s opinion, along with the fact that Reichert was also convicted on federal charges of selling knockoff designer sunglasses, led to Reichert’s dismissal from the Collinsville Police Department in 2006. But with the help of the police union, Reichert sued to get his job back.

[Tim]

Watched the excellent premiere of the second season of Game of Thrones last night, or was it the Repubican primary?

[Chloe]

It should be a rule that as long as that little shit Joffery is alive, he should be smacked in every episode.

[SugarFree]

For your viewing pleasure…

[Ice Nine]

I’m just waiting patiently for The Big Smack.

[invisible furry hand]

easy to tell the difference – is there a physical dwarf in it, or just an intellectual one?

[T]

No spoilers! I dvr’d it because the TV isn’t back in place from the installing the floors yet.

[kinnath]

I concur. I’m taking a vacation day this week so that can rewatch all of season one before I watch this year’s premiere.

[robc]

The 2nd book is 13-14 years old. How fucking long should we hold off?

Also, its a sled.

[Karburetor Kristen]

In an attempt to further marginalize myself: a friend left a copy of Game of Thrones (the book!) at my house and I read about 200 pages of if before tossing it to the side. I feel like I’ve attempted to read the same damn book over and over again starting with the equally shitty Chronicles of Prydain in grade school. All the 100s of characters and their interpersonal relationships, along with the fictional maps and place names all seem formulaic and gratuitous.

Let the beatings commence!

[Charlotte Corday]

Isn’t it just a retelling of the 100 years war? If that is true, why not just read the real history, which is always more interesting than the fiction?

[Charlotte Corday]

War of the Roses I mean.

[Rev. Blue Moon]

Nice! I side with Kristen in the House of Tired of Damn Maps and Made-Up Names.

[Joe]

This is one of my big problems with sci-fi – renaming common items, as if it lends some otherworldly credibility to the author’s fantasy land.

[JW]

I haven’t read the books nor seen the series. I’ll probably get around to the DVDs at some point.

You’re not alone.

[Groovus Maximus]

‘Tis OK, JW, I haven’t kept up with a lot of this stuff either. I’ll probably get most of it via osmosis from nursing staff. I didn’t have to see the Twilight series or any other trendy, hip stuff.

The Hunger Games is nothing more than The Lord of the Flies meets The Running Man with just a dash of Predator all wrapped up in a pubescent vulva, from what I understand.

[Pip]

“wrapped up in a pubescent vulva”

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

[Socialistic Individual Sparky]

I’m with you. A friend loaned me the paperback and after seeing how thick it was and how small the type was I decided there was no way in hell I was going to get through it.

[Karburetor Kristen]

Well, I read and actually enjoyed parts of Atlas Shrugged, so it wasn’t the length or type that got me. I feel like the success of these books is based solely on the number of characters and weirdness of place names and geography. I guess it’s so they can sell supplementals and appendices with genealogical charts and detailed topological maps.

[Brett L]

The first book didn’t feel that way to me. By the 3rd, yes. But compared to the rest of the series, the 1st book is a tightly woven, narrowly focused novella.

[Socialistic Individual Sparky]

I was already ambivalent to the subject matter so the size and type just nailed the coffin shut. I’m also with you on AS, the best parts were in the middle. I think it took me three nights just to get through Galt’s speech at the end.

[Karburetor Kristen]

I skipped Galt’s speech. I also skipped Jurgen’s speech in The Jungle. It’s such a clumsy device….why do you need a chapter-long speech when the whole fricken book is about what the speech is about?

But I did like the train wreck scene and the airplane chase scene. Those really showed that Rand got her start writing for the movie biz. I read those passages thinking “these would make fun action sequences on film”.

[Socialistic Individual Sparky]

I started getting into it as a mystery when everyone started disappearing and Dagny was going cross country trying to track them down. The little bit where she met up with the guy in the sandwich shop was amusing too.

[Lord Humungus]

I’m still POed that Netflix has this (DVD version) as “Very Long Wait” – so they’re admitting they didn’t buy enough of them to distribute.

[Isaac Bartram]

I keep wondering about Netflix’s “Very Long Wait” thing.

I had one DVD showing as “Very Long Wait” for two years before I gave up and deleted it. Another I finally got an unplayable copy of and was then told it was “unavailable” when I requested a replacement.

[Fist of Etiquette]

There is growing talk that if former House Speaker Newt Gingrich drops out of the race and “suspends” his campaign, he may throw his support behind Rick Santorum in an effort to deny Mitt Romney the GOP nomination.

Well, I suppose there was little chance of Newt being offered or accepting a place in the Romney Administration. Still, it’s going to be awkward when Gingrich has to concede the nomination.

Maybe he’ll become Romney’s Dick Morris, hounding him through is term. (I doubt the lack of actual inside information like Morris had on Clinton would stop Newt or MSNBC from making that happen.)

[db]

“Gingrich Abandons Attempt at Topping Santorum, Goes Full Force Behind Him”

[alittlesense]

Gee thanks for that mental image…..

[St?phane Dumas]

Gingrich and Santorum, that’s what I call strange bedfellows. Santorum who support family values getting the support from a womaninzer…..errr I mean, ex-womanizer.

[Joe]

If Santorum was president, implying he sleeps with another man would be a felony.

[wayne]

There is precedent in the Republican party: Lincoln did it, and he is like the grand pubah in the R column.

[Mike M.]

Not only did ABC News lie about the police video, but even more appalling than that, the vile, lowlife scum-sucking sewer vermin at NBC deliberately altered the 911 call to make Zimmerman look like a racist.

[Chloe]

Is there any legal reprocutions that the Zimmerman family can pursue, because what NBC did has to be illegal or would it just be civil?

[Fist of Etiquette]

ABC News has re-digitized video of George Zimmerman taken shortly after Trayvon Martin’s shooting.

The video was unveiled as an exclusive this morning on “Good Morning America.” ABC was the first news organization to show the original tape.

Shamed into it by The Daily Caller.

[Lord Humungus]

I have two new synth tracks up on Youtube:

kinda (early) Gary Numan-eqsue or perhaps John Foxx – okay, I wish!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wFheIIbq_U

and some weirdness that was made using my iPhone and an Akai MINIAK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M23UC9e4e4U

[Jerryskids]

Popehat is repeating the story that Lieberman wants to potentially make internet sites responsible for the content of their commenter posts. Anybody know if this is an April Fools Joke of some sort?

[Suthenboy]

Yeah, that will pass and stand up in court. Did lieberman have a stroke or something? What constituency is he pandering to?

[sarcasmic]

What constituency is he pandering to?

Liberals who don’t want to see anything that offends them.

[invisible furry hand]

We do here in Australia, But then we don’t really have free speech. Heck, we don’t even have a right to vote

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/c…..2/307.html

[Socialistic Individual Sparky]

I suppose you didn’t see today’s post which points out it was an April Fools joke.

[Jerryskids]

Nope – Ken just posted that.

That’s why I asked if it was an April Fool joke – the article said Lieberman was supposed to introduce the bill today and the Senate is not in session, so I knew something was wrong with the post.

[shrike]

Black is beautiful

[mr simple]

Has this been covered:

OJ is Innocent!

Says PI: it was his son.

[Waiting For Registration]

Where’s John?

[Pip]

If you’re the stalker who caused his departure, I hope you die a slow, painful death, you useless cunt.

And if you’re not, nevermind.

[Waiting For Registration]

LOL

[Fluffy]

Well, if we’re going to post Zimmerman stuff, I find something odd about Zimmerman’s brother’s statement to CNN:

After Mr. Zimmerman and Trayvon first exchanged words, Robert Zimmerman said, his brother “drew back” to retrieve his phone and call 911 again, to report that “this person who I lost sight of and was not pursuing has now confronted me.”

Robert Zimmerman said, “He never got to make that call because he was attacked by Mr. Martin.”

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.c…..-shooting/

Why, it’s almost as if they’re trying to account for Martin’s girlfriend’s statement! And almost as if they’re afraid that a witness will come forward saying they saw Zimmerman go for his gun before Martin hit him. You know, the old “I was reaching for my cell phone when that witness saw me, not my loaded gun” story.

[Fluffy]

To be fair, this is not Zimmerman himself making a statement. Maybe the brother is pulling stuff out of his ass.

[Fluffy]

Sorry, the 900 character limit made me leave out WHY exactly I thought it was odd:

Because IWMUT in his initial statement Zimmerman claimed he was ambushed before he was able to speak with Martin.

[Kreel Sarloo]

IWMUT??????

[Gus]

I Was Maturbating Ugly Things

[P Brooks]

Mentally ill people are hostile and paranoid and downright evil some times. They just can’t control themselves.

Sorry, but they cannot ALL be policemen.

[Charlotte Corday]

The ones who washout at the academy end up stalking internet boards.

[NAMBLA Gamboler]

If only we could ship off WI to policeone. He’d be banned in a heartbeat though.

[Waiting For Registration]

Where’s John?

[Jerryskids]

Serious question: Has Paul Krugman been drinking Glenn Beck’s Kool-Aid?

I’ve never paid much attention to him, but he really sounds foaming-at-the-mouth deranged here. I don’t mean “he’s an idiot” deranged, I mean really, truly, “he needs professional help” deranged. That first paragraph is just plain scary.