A.M. Links: Fresh Tsunami Warning in Indonesia, Justice Department May Sue Apple, Egyptian Court Suspends Constituent Assembly

Ed Krayewski | 4.11.2012 9:12 AM

An 8.2-magnitude aftershock hit the Indian Ocean just after a tsunami warning was lifted for the original 8.6-earthquake that hit hours earlier. A new tsunami warning has been issued in Indonesia
The Justice Department may sue Apple as well as several book publishers it says may be engaging in price-fixing in the e-book market.
George Zimmerman is emotionally crippled, suffering from high levels of stress, and losing weight, according to his former lawyers, who have been unable to get in touch with him since Sunday. Zimmerman has been in hiding since his shooting of an unarmed teenager in Florida gained national and international attention.
Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman are advocating military support for the rebels in Syria as the Syrian government ignores the UN's latest attempt at brokering a peace.
A court in Egypt suspended the "constituent assembly" that was supposed to draft a new Constitution amid a boycott by moderate and secular groups charging undue influence of the assembly by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Two separate roadside bombs in Afghanistan Wednesday killed a local government official and a NATO service member (the 102nd coalition casualty of the year). The roadside bombs were preceded by a suicide bomber in Helmand Province on Tuesday.

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Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

The Cavanaugh school of linking.
1. Rich 13 years ago
  
  You know who else had a school of linking?
  1. Alack 13 years ago
    
    Zelda?
    1. AuH2O 13 years ago
      
      Bow chicka bow wow.
      1. Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        What do you get when you cross a brown chicken with a brown cow?
        
        Brown chicken, brown cow.
        
        Alack 13 years ago
        
        Better lead-in: What are the two sexiest animals on the farm?
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, but my kids tell it the first way, so I'm partial to that version.
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        Though they did like your version, too.
        
        Alack 13 years ago
        
        Good job raising perverts, I guess?
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        What the hell was I thinking? Of course hiding the fact that sex exists, and refusing to explain why some people make that sound, is clearly the better way to raise well-adjusted kids.
        
        Alack 13 years ago
        
        Yep! Too bad Santorum dropped out of the race; I was looking forward to seeing his values brought to American homes. No child should ever have to know what any sexual reference means.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        Too bad Santorum dropped out of the race
        
        The puns just keep flowing, don't they folks?
  2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
    
    Jimmy Dean?
  3. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
    
    My greenskeeper?
  4. Suki 13 years ago
    
    SugarFree
sarcasmic 13 years ago

The rise of the Cylons! They're real!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....sings.html

I bet John would have sex with it.
1. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
  
  Couldn't they at least make her somewhat good-looking?
  1. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
    
    Really, why bother? Dudes will have sex with an inflatable doll that looks nothing like a real woman as long as all the holes are there. I won't be too demanding of my fembot sex slave.
    1. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
      
      But how much more difficult would it have been to give her some lips and a nicer hairstyle?
      1. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
        
        Quit trying to objectify this object.
      2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
        
        To hell with the hairstyle.
      3. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Was the original model Japanese in appearance, maybe?
        
        It has that "MLK Memorial" look about it.
      4. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Some dweeb engineer made her to look like the girl that wouldn't date him in college because he stammered and smelled like really old ramen noodles.
        
        Suki 13 years ago
        
        Just like the Elaine affair.
      5. JEP 13 years ago
        
        Stop being so shallow, Kristen. I'd have sex with that robot because we connected on a deeper, transistor level, not because of its holes.
    2. WWNGD? 13 years ago
      
      You make that sound like a bad thing.
    3. Ted S. 13 years ago
      
      Android Girlfriend
  2. AuH2O 13 years ago
    
    What, Kristen, and tempt us to disobey the Space Pope's holy word?!
    1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
      
      Hey, baby, wanna kill all humans?
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        "Hey, sexy mama... Wanna kill all humans?"
        
        I'm not sure I want you for a running mate any longer.
        
        Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
        
        You misunderstand. I was hoping it could be our campaign song. Before Warty claims it.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        It's good, but I thought we had settled on "The Land of Rape and Honey" since it also doubles as our vision for the board.
    2. DesigNate 13 years ago
      
      God I love that show.
  3. Karl Hungus 13 years ago
    
    How about machine-gun jubblies? Did they think to include those?
  4. rac3rx 13 years ago
    
    She looks more natural than 75% of the women in the entertainment industry.
    1. Loki 13 years ago
      
      The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot
    2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      That's because she is more natural than 75% of the women in the entertainment industry.
2. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  Why did they make it talk?*
  
  *OK, now I'm just shamming the over-the-top misogyny. But that joke is crying out to be told here.
  1. Loki 13 years ago
    
    Dammit, I should have read the whole thread before adding my 2 cents below.
3. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  certainly more lifelike than Natalie Portman
4. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
  
  In this story, Nicole is the simalacrum?
5. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  It doesn't look much less real than the average 45-year-old that's full of Botox.
  1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
    
    Maybe we could donate the botox filled 55 year old we have around here.
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      What a terrible way to talk about Episiarch. I think he looks pretty good for his age, and all the STDs.
      1. Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Thank you, NutraSweet. Considering half my STDs come from you, it's pretty remarkable.
      2. AuH2O 13 years ago
        
        Don't forget the leprosy.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        In his case, leprosy was also an STD.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        If you hadn't exposed me to it, we wouldn't have had that night in Rochester. And I wouldn't trade that for the world.
        
        Mark 13 years ago
        
        Best thing to happen to Rochester in twenty years
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        Q. What did the leper say to the hooker?
        
        A. Keep the tip.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Why is there such a desperate need for missionaries at the leper colony? To sort all the unclaimed feet.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        Why did the leper army lose the battle? Why, they were dis-armed and de-feeted.
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        Why did the leper army lose the battle? Why, they were dis-armed and de-feeted.
        
        Haha hadn't heard that one before! Good one!
      3. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
        
        I generally agree, although he should have treated the syphilis within 5 years of contracting it. Those spirochetes do nasty things to your brain.
  2. Tim 13 years ago
    
    Apparently that thing is Catholic (crucifix necklace). Either that or she is an android vampire hunter.
    
    Which would be a great FOX hourly.
    1. ant1sthenes 13 years ago
      
      Didn't she get ripped to pieces at the start of season 6?
6. Loki 13 years ago
  
  she has 65 facial expressions, talks and even sings
  
  Why'd they have to make it talk and sing? There's only one thing a lot of guys would want a fembot to be able to do with its mouth. Ironically enough they all post on H&R. I keed, I keed.
  1. Scotticus Finch 13 years ago
    
    Ironically enough they all post on H&R.
    
    Why is that ironic?
    
    Hey, neat! Registration!
7. ant1sthenes 13 years ago
  
  Have you seen Warren?
Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago

New tactic: the Supremes don't understand it.

"If I understand the law, the policies that you're requiring people to purchase ... must contain provision for maternity and newborn care, pediatric services and substance use treatment," said Chief Justice John Roberts. "It seems to me that you cannot say that everybody is going to need ... substance use treatment or pediatric services, and yet that is part of what you require them to purchase."

That may be true, but the law's bronze plan isn't exactly robust coverage. It would require policyholders to spend thousands of dollars of their own money before insurance kicks in. That's how catastrophic coverage works now.

It's fine to force people to buy something because it's only a little something.
1. Suki 13 years ago
  
  Both Maobama and Rodham-Clinton rant and rave against "corporate welfare", yet their brilliant plan to give aspirin and amputation to the masses is to force people to buy products that they do not need, will never need, from well-to-do insurance companies. Unamazing.
2. anon 13 years ago
  
  Yeah, I saw that shit piece by Time this morning. Ugh. No wonder I want to kill myself.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Obama attacks inequality while soliciting big donors:
http://www.washingtontimes.com.....ey-donors/

Hammering away at a top theme of his re-election bid, the president complained that the share of national income going to the top 1 percent of wage earners has climbed to a level "we haven't seen since the 1920s." Yet he said the wealthiest Americans are paying tax rates that are among the lowest in the past 50 years.

"That?s wrong. That's not fair," Mr. Obama said. "And so we've got to choose which direction we want this country to go. Here in America, we help each other get ahead."

I must have missed that part where everyone else paid for my college, food, and car.
1. Alack 13 years ago
  
  Don't worry, 2nd-term Obama is going to fix that for you and your progeny.
2. WWNGD? 13 years ago
  
  If everyone gets ahead then what are you getting ahead of?
3. Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
  
  A 35% marginal tax rate isn't enough to help others?
  1. Ex Nihilo 13 years ago
    
    Not when they are paying a 15% effective tax rate. Of course almost half the country is paying a 0% effective tax rate for federal taxes. But we won't talk about that.
    1. DesigNate 13 years ago
      
      My effective tax rate (as a lowly middle class worker) was like 6% and I STILL paid more than half the country. Fuck anyone that says "rich" people need to pay more.
4. T 13 years ago
  
  GI Bill, baby! You suckers paid for my college education!
  
  Of course, I traded 6 years of my life for the cash to make it through 4-1/2 years of college. I think it was good deal, even including the liver damage and gunshot wounds.
  1. Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
    
    I understand liver damage in college, but it must've been pretty rough to get shot there.
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      No, the GSW was on the front end of the deal. But one of the people I was in the reserves with in college got shot in a drive-by.
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        But one of the people I was in the reserves with in college got shot in a drive-by.
        
        Remy did it.
5. Fatty Bolger 13 years ago
  
  Don't worry, if you ask him nicely enough, he'll get you a house and your next job.
  
  Well, maybe not so much on the job. Even the President can't work miracles in this Bush economy!
Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago

We're having unusually high turnover in my office, and now the PM and AM links are all by different people and shit. All this Change? is bad for my health.
1. AuH2O 13 years ago
  
  Wait, you work for reason?!
  
  Periods are your friend, Kristen.
  1. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
    
    Says the man who's never had one.
    1. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Tony Montana?
    2. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Tony Montana?
  2. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
    
    Periods are your friend, Kristen.
    
    I haven't heard that since 5th grade health class. And it was a damn lie!
    1. AuH2O 13 years ago
      
      Thank you for taking that one. I was almost very disappointed in reason for a second there.
Suki 13 years ago

A court in Egypt suspended the "constituent assembly" that was supposed to draft a new Constitution amid a boycott by moderate and secular groups charging undue influence of the assembly by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Maobama is going to be pissed at this radical Republican meddling in the Sharia process.
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

That politico article about apple/price-fixing is awful. Can anyone well-versed in these matters explain just what exactly Apple and others are thought to have done wrong?
1. Alack 13 years ago
  
  Basically, they're considered to hold a disproportionately large market share that gives them undue influence on the industry's pricing structure. Since the theory is that only "perfect competition" of small, indistinguishable firms is capable of producing wholly beneficent effects, the government takes it upon itself to punish companies that do not fit that model.
  
  That's the usual argument for this kind of thing, anyway; I didn't bother to read the actual article because, I mean, politico.
  1. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
    
    Thanks Alack.
  2. John 13 years ago
    
    I think that is crap. The demand side has a say on prices too. Some markets are imperfect. And the only way they can be stable and profitable is with a bit of collusion. They can't jack the prices up too much because it would destroy the demand.
    1. Alack 13 years ago
      
      See, but that doesn't matter. The government has the magical HHI to tell them when there aren't enough businesses to keep prices down!
      
      I'm somehow still amazed that the government managed to take an argument for markets ("perfect competition", which I always put in quotes out of spite) and use it to regulate markets instead. Fascinating!
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        I read an analysis of the turn of century shipping industry back in college that really enlightened me on this. The problem was that once the boat was going, the shipping company's cost was already sunk. So, as it got closer and closer to departure, they had every reason to have a fire sale and take lower and lower rates to fill the ship. This threw the market completely off. Shippers gamed the system and waited until the last moment to ship. Everyone was going broke. So they got together and colluded and set agreed to rates on all shipping that wasn't too high to kill demand but was high enough for them to earn a profit.
        
        It stabilized the market and everyone was better off.
        
        Alack 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, the difference between "collusion" and "industry-set standards" are pretty murky in this kind of thing. I'm not really all that opposed to businesses colluding, though, so perhaps my opinion is moot.
        
        Suki 13 years ago
        
        Sunk cost, murky, shipping, boats. Loving this thread.
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        Yet airline tickets cost more as the flight time approaches. Unless you can snag something on Priceline. It's all so confusing.
2. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  The big 6, at the time, controlled the lion's share of the book market, and they essentially colluded to set a minimum price for ebooks.
  
  I oppose antitrust law, but given the antitrust laws we currently have, what they did is pretty much open-and-shut price fixing and collusion. If they fight Justice on this, they'll lose.
  
  The funny thing is that they did it as part of their efforts to combat Amazon's ebook market share. So the ass-backwards logic of antitrust law ends up swallowing its tail here.
  1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
    
    Statist logic:
    
    If a company sets a price higher than competitors, they're gouging.
    If a company sets a price lower than competitors, they're flooding the market.
    If a company matches other companies' prices, they're colluding.
    All of which should be illegal.
    1. Alack 13 years ago
      
      Now, let me state the present rules,
      The lawyer then went on,
      These very simple guidelines
      You can rely upon:
      You're gouging on your prices if
      You charge more than the rest.
      But it's unfair competition
      If you think you can charge less
      A second point that we would make
      To help avoid confusion:
      Don't try to charge the same amount:
      That would be collusion!
      You must compete. But not too much,
      For if you do, you see,
      Then the market would be yours
      And that's monopoly!
    2. Fluffy 13 years ago
      
      In this case the logic gets even more twisted.
      
      Amazon had captured 90% (or more) of the ebook market. They did this by buying ebooks from the publishers at a wholesale price, and then selling those ebooks at a loss so they could market Kindles to people by saying "You'll save money reading on our device 'cause ebooks are so cheap!"
      
      That's a classic antitrust situation that in years past would have drawn the instant attention of Justice. "90% market share holder selling goods below cost purposefully".
      
      The publishers wanted to bring in another competitor. Apple was that competitor. Apple said, "We want to get people to read ebooks on our device, but we don't want to sell books at a loss like Amazon." So the publishers said, "No problem, we'll just change our contract terms to make sure we can enforce a minimum price for ebooks. That way Amazon can't undercut you." And Apple said, "Awesome! Thanks! Let's do this!"
      
      And after Apple launched its own bookstore, Amazon's market share went down.
      
      So now we have a situation where publishers are being investigated for antitrust for actions they took to try to make sure that there would be more than one retail seller of ebooks in the market. Something that the Department of Justice might have chosen to do itself.
      
      So apparently forcing a market to have more than one seller is awesome when the government does it, and bad when market participants do it.
      1. AuH2O 13 years ago
        
        But the question is... is what Amazon was doing really that bad? I mean, it made sense, especially as Amazon was making a big bet on an E-Reader, and was making really the first mass market one, that you needed some hook until the Kindle got off the ground.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I don't think that what Amazon was doing was bad, no.
        
        Amazon created an entire market. A market that's making them and a lot of other people lots of money. They did it by giving customers incentive to use a new device, in a device category that had failed before every time it was tried. It was gutsy, it was smart, and they earned their success in that space.
        
        The reason I'm against antitrust law is because I think Amazon should have been allowed to do what they did - and the publishers should have been allowed to do what they did in response.
        
        So antitrust law is triple-unjust here:
        
        1. It's unjust that antitrust law might stop Amazon from doing what they did.
        
        2. It's unjust that antitrust law might stop the publishers from doing what they did.
        
        3. It's meta-unjust that, since antitrust law is selectively enforced, Amazon is getting away with their action but the publishers aren't. This puts the publishers at Amazon's mercy in a way they would not be in the absence of antitrust law.
        
        nicole 13 years ago
        
        I totally agree with Fluffy's analysis of the triple injustice here, but I am getting my schadenfreude on all the same because I could not stand the hand-wringing that went on about how unfair it all was to make ebooks so cheap, especially when it's teh evul AMZN doing it! And also because of something Humungus includes below from the Smashwords post: "It's worth noting that when the Big 5 publishers moved to agency, many of them started earning less per book than they had previously earned under the wholesale model. Pricing control was more important to them."
        
        The worst of the hand-wringing was all of the "how can you say ebooks are not worth $X when all the blood, sweat, and tears of the author blah blah" variety. It was extremely clear at the outset that publishers were doing what they could to convince you that their new product was worth more than just about anyone really thought it was. But it's art! Do you hate authors? Do you hate reading? You are a philistine if you don't want to pay $15 for an ebook! If only this were France and retail discounting was illegal, you would understand how wonderful these books are and how they are worth more than they actually seem worth to you! Ugh.
        
        Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        I charge 99c for my ebooks because they were written as 'Gold Medal' types - the 1960s airport novel that cost 25c and were meant for quick 'n' dirty entertainment, not serious art.
      2. Alack 13 years ago
        
        Holy shit, that's even more fucking stupid than I initially assumed. I mean, I'm okay with Amazon selling at a loss to boost sales of their e-reader (heartless capitalist) but the government wants to stop another company from competing?
        
        Maybe they just want to get back at Apple for having the gumption to try to do what government does?
  2. John 13 years ago
    
    What is funny about that is all they are doing is agreeing not to engage in predatory pricing. Now if they didn't do this and say Amazon came in and charged some really low price in order to take over the market, DOJ would swoop in and do what? Set minimum prices, exactly what is happening here.
    
    Somehow collusion is okay if the government enforces it.
    1. Alack 13 years ago
      
      Duh. If the government makes you do it it's compliance, not collusion. And everyone knows how important compliance is!
3. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  The owner of Smashwords - who distributes books to Apple, B&N, Sony, Kobo, etc - had a blog posting about his phone call with the DoJ regarding this issue:
  http://blog.smashwords.com/201.....-book.html
  
  It's also fallacy to believe that somehow the wholesale pricing model is the savior and enabler of low prices. Under the wholesale model, the publisher has always set the price at which they'll sell the book to the bookstore, typically a 50% discount to the suggested list price. The $30 front list hardcover you purchase earns the publisher $15, or less. If the publisher decides they need to earn $18.00 on each copy sold, they'll set the suggested list price to $36.00. If you agree that under normal circumstances, most retailers will not consistently sell all their books at below cost, then it's reasonable to conclude that even under wholesale, publishers already control the minimum price all customers, on average, will pay.
  
  It's worth noting that when the Big 5 publishers moved to agency, many of them started earning less per book than they had previously earned under the wholesale model. Pricing control was more important to them.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Obama's weak lead
http://campaign2012.washington.....iner-obama's-weak-lead/474556

Quick, name the top four issues for voters in this election. According to Gallup, if you said the economy, jobs, debt, and oil prices (in that order) you are right. Now look at the issues Romney does best against Obama in The Post poll.

On the economy, Romney beats Obama 47 percent to 43 percent. On jobs, Obama is up just 46 to 43. On the debt, Romney trounces Obama 51 to 38. And on energy, Romney is up 47 to 42. And remember all of these numbers are taken from a sample that favors Democrats by 11 points.

There is no doubt that Obama currently has an edge over Romney in a head-to-head match-up. The Real Clear Politics polling average has Obama up five. But as The Post poll shows, Obama is extremely vulnerable on every issue that matters most to voters. Romney has a solid opportunity to close that gap.
Rich 13 years ago

If Zimmerman were to die of stress, shouldn't someone be charged with a hate crime?
1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  The baiters would be scrambling to find someone else to keep the new race war going.
  1. Rich 13 years ago
    
    The baiters would be scrambling to find someone else to keep the new race war going.
    
    If Zimmerman Obama were to die of stress, shouldn't someone be charged with a hate crime?
2. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  I think what you're looking for is bias intimidation.
3. AlmightyJB 13 years ago
  
  Wouldn't be surprised if he had issues beforehand. I suspected that the only reason he wasn't in the academy was because he failed the psych test. There's a lot of wannabes out there like that.
  
  Related, Walt Williams take on the media brouha over this:
  
  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=50727
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Hospitals scramble on the front lines of drug shortages
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

The situation was urgent. The operating room and many key units at MedStar Washington Hospital Center were running low on a critical anesthetic. Suppliers were out of the most commonly used dosages. The only remedy was for pharmacy staffers to dilute a higher concentration with saline solution to produce the needed strength.

Ann Breakenridge, an assistant pharmacy director, needed action immediately. "We have an acute shortage situation," she told Renee McCarthy, who oversees the lab. "I need somebody to make some midazolam syringes, like yesterday."
1. AuH2O 13 years ago
  
  Well, if shortage of morphine helped us discover the placebo effect in Korea, think of what a shortage of every drug will help us discover in America!
2. DesigNate 13 years ago
  
  I'm sure this has nothing to do with some kind of rule or regulation handed down from on high congress.
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

A court in Egypt suspended the "constituent assembly" that was supposed to draft a new Constitution

Just wait till the Roberts court does this to Ezra Klein's new constitution movement.
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

*barf*

Introducing the 'pizza dog': UK fast food fans tempted with new pizza... stuffed with a HOT DOG

Read more:
1. Alack 13 years ago
  
  You take a hot dog, stuff it with some jack cheese, fold it in a pizza: you've got cheesy blasters!
2. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  I had the same reaction.
3. Episiarch 13 years ago
  
  If you eat Pizza Hut pizza, you deserve what you get.
  1. Matrix 13 years ago
    
    +1. I hate Pizza Hut.
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      I worked at one. It wasn't dirty or anything, but after only two weeks I've done what I can not to eat at one in the ensuing 23 years.
      1. Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        This explains many things.
      2. Matrix 13 years ago
        
        Their bread and crust are just too damn greasy for me. I never did like them.
      3. Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        At my last company, they'd order us Pizza Hut at least once a week. It's been three years since I've worked there, and to this day I can't stand even the smell of it. Domino's is hardly any better, and truth be told, I don't even care for for Papa John's that much. I'm sure the purists will tell me you can't get a decent pizza ouside NYC or Chicago, but we have a few mom-and-pop places here that make a really good pizza.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        As much as I dislike all three, I'd eat Pizza Hut and Domino's in a second over Papa John's.
        
        I'm not really much of a pizza warrior, but Papa John's is fucking gross. Pizza sauce shouldn't be as sweet as a Jolly Rancher and the goddamn thing should be cooked all the way through.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        Word.
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        Pizza sauce shouldn't be as sweet as a Jolly Rancher . . .
        
        I'll second that. The only thing Papa John's has going for it is that the cheese seems to be real cheese; not that rehydrated, dehydrogenated, deemulsified, mechanically separated, extruded cheese paste that the other two seem to favor. But I do agree that the sauce tastes like a 50/50 mix of Pepsi and ketchup.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Everything you just named is an abomination. You can't really call it pizza, even.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        You can't really call it pizza, even.
        
        Commercially mass produced, undercooked bastard antipasto would be more accurate.
        
        Chupcabra 13 years ago
        
        A congealed pile of greasy laxative would be more accurate.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        A congealed pile of greasy laxative would be more accurate.
        
        Wouldn't qualify as a pharmacy then? Does this fall under ObamneyCare under nutritional or therapeutic intervention?
        
        Proprietist 13 years ago
        
        I find the thin crust at Dominos a guilty pleasure, although admittedly not a "good" pizza.
4. Rich 13 years ago
  
  That's nothing compared to Taco Town.
5. AuH2O 13 years ago
  
  BTW, just curious, what IS considered Australian cuisine?
  
  Other than the obvious, "Shrimp on the barbie" stuff.
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    It's mostly British and Irish cuisine adapted to local food sources. But they do take an almost Texan-level of pride in cooking outdoors on a grill.
  2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    Modern Australian is the term for our local fine dining. Unsurprisingly, it's fusion because we're a migrant nation. There's a growing use of native foods. Kangaroo is so common it's in my local supermarket (and is delicious) but chefs are starting to incorporate less common indigenous spices and fruits.
    
    Less fine dining? Lots of other national cuisines are easily available, and are the source for experimentation - and that then dribbles down to the rest of us. Take Asian dressings (using soy, ginger etc). Twenty years ago that would pretty much have been only in a Thai restaurant or similar. Ten or 15 years ago it would have been a bit fancy. Now it's in my local supermarket as a common salad dressing.
    
    Also down the scale would be the usual fast food chains, burgers (with beetroot, thankyou very much), pavlova, lamingtons, Cherry Ripes, Violet Crumbles, Tim Tams, and other teeth-rotting masterpieces. A really good meat pie is great, although I draw the line at floaters
    
    Er... does that answer your question?
    1. Karl Hungus 13 years ago
      
      Kangaroo is so common it's in my local supermarket
      
      What's it closest to in taste that someone outside Australia could relate to? I'm imagining it's like gamey beef.
      1. Ken Shultz 13 years ago
        
        I've been to restaurants that serve it.
        
        I'm sure it tastes like Bambi's mom.
      2. AuH2O 13 years ago
        
        I'm guessing a good marinade probably really helps.
    2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      I'm imagining it's like gamey beef.
      
      That's about right. The taste is not overpowering, but it is strong enough that I don't usually bother getting too fancy with it. It's much leaner however, so you're not getting either the flavour from the fat nor, crucially, the moisture, so it has to be grilled with a bit of oil on it to avoid drying it out. Since it's a wild meat you're supposed to cook it thoroughly but it tastes better medium rare IMO. But then I like my steaks bleeding so even medium rare is a bit of a compromise for me. Others might prefer it more cooked to tone down the taste
      1. Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        It's posts like this, IFH, that increases your spunky swoonage factor by a factor of 10.
        
        Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
        
        Now just imagine her face and voice. It's not creepy or anything, I promise.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        if only i looked half that good
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        if only i looked half that good
        
        Meh. I smell mullets here.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        I may have to revisit my expatriation plans to UKR; Australia and Bob's your uncle!
      2. Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        So it's basically a gamey red meat that's too lean and dry to contain any flavor (save for the gaminess), but that you still have to cook to the consistency of shoe leather so that you don't die within four hours of eating it? 😉
        
        I'd gladly try it, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it. As far as terrestrial beasties go, I like beef, pork, chicken, and turkey. I don't like gamey meat at all, which rules out even venison (which is why I'm not a hunter).
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Buffalo is quite good.
        
        Antelope, too.
        
        Bear, not bad.
        
        Elk works.
        
        Deer, can be gamey, although farmland raised fawns can be very good.
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        Buffalo is quite good.
        
        I'll give you that - the bison burger I ate once was actually pretty tasty.
        
        Bear, not bad.
        
        Of all the meats I've tried, bear was hands-down the worst.
        
        One thing I forgot about: when I was in Malaysia some years ago, I tried some Burmese python. Actually watched them kill and butcher it. They stuffed the meat into bamboo tubes and cooked it over an open flame. I kinda dreaded trying it, but it was actually really good. It tasted a lot like . . . well, you know.
        
        mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
        
        I'll give you that - the bison burger I ate once was actually pretty tasty.
        
        You should try a good bison ribeye steak. Fucking delicious.
        
        Bison is so good we don't eat beef anymore.
      3. Ice Nine 13 years ago
        
        Boy, I can't wait to get some of that!
    3. LC 13 years ago
      
      I had the best meat pie EVER in NYC last week. Even better than the ones in Oz.
    4. Enough About Palin 13 years ago
      
      I have Tim Tams on my desk right now.
6. rac3rx 13 years ago
  
  The comments are comedy gold...for example:
  "that picture is gross, it looks like a dogs lipstick. How can people eat food like this?"
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

America's Debt Bomb worse than Europe's
http://www.powerlineblog.com/a.....uropes.php

The populations of the two entities are almost exactly the same, so the U.S. debt is larger on a per capita basis, too. Really, is it going too far to ask how an administration that put the U.S. in such a deep hole can have the temerity to seek re-election?
1. WTF 13 years ago
  
  Really, is it going too far to ask how an administration that put the U.S. in such a deep hole can have the temerity to seek re-election?
  
  Because it's all George Bush's fault, duh!
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Something Reason recently touched on:

Barone: Net illegal immigration from Mexico: zero
http://campaign2012.washington.....ero/474486

For some years I feared that Mexico could not achieve higher economic growth than the United States since our economies have been tied so tightly together by NAFTA since 1993. But in the past two years Mexico's growth rate has been on the order of 5% to 7%. It's looking like Mexico's growth rate is tied not to that of the United States but to that of Texas, which has been a growth leader because of its intelligent public policies which have prevented public employee unions from plundering the private sector economy. Anyway, looking ahead, anyone seeking changes in our immigration laws should keep in mind that immigration in the future is not likely to look like immigration in the recent past.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

What's a 'Fair' Tax for the Mega Millionaires?
Polls say Americans want higher rates on the rich. But when one poll asked how much lottery winners should pay, over half said 10% or less.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop
1. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  taxes for thee but not for me?
2. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  I could see some arguments for taxing lottery winnings less. For one thing, the states running the lotteries have already taken their cut. I guess the Feds need their piece of the action too, though.
3. Rich 13 years ago
  
  Of course. Lottery winners didn't *earn* their wealth.
  1. Matrix 13 years ago
    
    Why not? They paid to play.
    
    Do investors earn the return they get on their investments?
    1. Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
      
      Are you saying gambling on the lottery is anything like investing?
      1. Matrix 13 years ago
        
        Most investors buy stock after the IPO. They're essentially buying stock someone else held. They aren't the people who initially invested. So they put money in hoping to watch it grow with no guarantee of growth. It is gambling. I have nothing against it, and I have investments out there. But yes, it is still gambling.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        And here we come to the difference, if any, between "risk" and "gamble."
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        I'd say, for example, that blackjack is a gamble, while poker is a risk, although I enjoy them both.
        
        jacob 13 years ago
        
        Having been on the losing end of quite a few bad beats/suck-outs/"losing to some dipshit who caught a two-outer on the river," I firmly believe poker is straight up gambling.
        
        But I get your point.
        
        Somalian Road Corporation 13 years ago
        
        It averages out after you play a few million hands.
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        I think "gambling" has a connotation of chance and an EV < 1 whereas investing doesn't. It's a continuum and some investments are very gambly but gambling and investing aren't equivalent.
        
        Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
        
        So buying 100 shares of Exxon -- a company with billions upon billions in hard assets and which pays a regular dividend -- is gambling? No, it isn't. Gambling is plunking down a dollar to buy a lottery ticket with an expected value of just about zero. It is placing a $10 bet on the deal of a card or the roll of a slot machine. It's the exchange of money for pure chance with no intrinsic value. That is quite different from owning productive assets like stocks or legally enforceable debt obligations like bonds.
        
        rac3rx 13 years ago
        
        Ask the Gov't Motors bond holders how legally enforceable that debt is...
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        Ask the Gov't Motors bond holders how legally enforceable that debt is...
        
        I got royally fucked in the brownhole...that's how legally enforceable that was.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

And now it begins
Why Romney won the GOP race
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/o.....4hqcxeZEcN

But today, perhaps, it's worth taking a moment to look at Romney's demonstrable strengths.

He spent three years patiently building an organization, state by state ? which proved exceptionally important with the primary rule changes initiated by the GOP in 2010.

He became extraordinarily fluent (too fluent, perhaps, in the manner of a fast-talking salesman at times) on the issues. This was notable because, in his 2008 run, he'd been quite ham-fisted and inarticulate on matters that hadn't been in his wheelhouse as Massachusetts governor.

In part as a result of his command of material and his understanding of the importance of tone, he was without question the most impressive and strategic performer over the course of the 20 GOP debates.
1. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  and hopefully he still loses.
2. rac3rx 13 years ago
  
  Uh...no...
  He's been running non-stop for almost a decade, had a shitload more cash to throw around, and used negative ads to personally destroy his opponents.
  That's how he did it.
3. ant1sthenes 13 years ago
  
  Did they get to the part where all the candidates a majority of the GOP might really like sat the race out?
Matrix 13 years ago

Michelle Malkin would like you to stop supporting Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Walgreens, Intuit, Kraft, and Arby's
1. AuH2O 13 years ago
  
  Well, Arby's should be easy. Never eaten there.
  1. robc 13 years ago
    
    Im so hungry I could eat at Arby's!
    1. robc 13 years ago
      
      Now, with link
      1. Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        Im so hungry I could eat at Arby's! Now, with link
        
        No youtube on this computer; I assume that's a video of the ass end of a dead horse?
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        **Facepalm**
        
        Everything in the world comes back to The Simpsons, Karl. Everything.
    2. Proprietist 13 years ago
      
      When I was a vegan for two and a half years and a vegetarian for four, the Arby's melt was my most craved forbidden fruit.
  2. MJGreen 13 years ago
    
    I don't know... it feels like an Arby's night.
2. jacob 13 years ago
  
  Thanks for the post. I take this to be a ringing endorsement of those institutions.
  1. Matrix 13 years ago
    
    Well, if you read the article, they are backing Mother Jones and other progressive organizations or just pulling support from conservative organizations
    1. jacob 13 years ago
      
      No I got that, but Michelle Malkin is a nauseating bitch. Her bitterness is sweet joy.
      1. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
        
        I'm still wondering who the fuck Michelle Malkin is and why anyone should give a fuck what she thinks about anything.
3. Joe M 13 years ago
  
  No Coke! Pepsi!
  1. Alack 13 years ago
    
    No Soap; Radio!
4. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  Well, someone has to remind us that conservatives are just as dumb as hipster progressives. It'll be just like the twits who protested Whole Foods for two days before forgetting the whole thing.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    This should be good news for RC Cola and Moxie.
PS 13 years ago

Who is this Ed Krayewski and what has he done with Mike Riggs?
Elspeth Flashman 13 years ago

If Romney is elected, and he proposes a lot of new legislation, will it be called a Romnibus package?
1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  I vote for Romnibot-bill.
2. Tim 13 years ago
  
  Funny.
AuH2O 13 years ago

The most WTF wiki paragraph ever. From Richard Speck's wiki:

In May 1996, Chicago television news anchor Bill Kurtis received video tapes that had been made at Stateville Prison in 1988 from an anonymous attorney. Showing them publicly for the first time before a shocked and deeply angry Illinois state legislature, Kurtis pointed out the explicit scenes of sex, drug use, and money being passed around by prisoners, who seemingly had no fear of being caught; in the center of it all was Speck, performing oral sex on another inmate,[39][40] sharing a huge pile of cocaine with an inmate, parading in silk panties, sporting female-like breasts (allegedly grown using smuggled hormone treatments), and boasting, "If they only knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose."[39] The Illinois legislature packed the auditorium to view the two-hour video,[39] but stopped the screening when the film showed Speck performing oral sex on another man.[40]
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  Have you seen the video? It is an impressive advertisement for today's correctional facilities, not so much for homegrown titties
  1. Mongo 13 years ago
    
    It was a crazy video - me and my crew had lotsa laffs over it.
  2. Enough About Palin 13 years ago
    
    "If they only knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose. And then I'd enter the Miss Universe pageant!!!!111"
2. Abdul 13 years ago
  
  Also from the wiki: Speck's religious, teetotaling mother met and fell in love with a traveling insurance salesman from Texas, Carl August Rudolph Lindberg, whom she met on a train trip to Chicago. The hard-drinking, peg-legged Lindberg, with a 25-year criminal record that started with forgery and included several arrests for drunk driving, was the opposite of Speck's sober, hardworking father.
  
  Those two lines are history, psychology, encyclopedia and beat poetry.
  1. Alack 13 years ago
    
    The fact that Carl's initials spelled CARL should have been a tip-off that he wasn't going to be a fantastic role model.
  2. VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
    
    Where have all the alcoholic, womanizing, peg legged, criminal traveling salesmen gone?
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

Gawker has hired an anonymous Fox employee to write a column.

Shorter version: My self-contempt is outweighed only by my cowardice
1. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  it's hilarious that Fox News, a right leaning news organization gets so much flack from the left when they have virtually every other mainstream outlet. But they claim those outlets are 'neutral'. Idiots. I don't always like Fox News, but they don't deserve the derision from the left.
  1. AuH2O 13 years ago
    
    Dude, quickest way to piss off Gawker: Imply in any way that TEAM RED and TEAM BLUE are roughly equivalent. Gawker really buys into the whole, "Reality has a well known liberal bias," shit, so whenever the news (or really anyone) reports the narratives of the two teams as being of roughly equal validity, with the truth probably lying somewhere in the middle, they get incredibly butt hurt.
  2. Alack 13 years ago
    
    I don't always like Fox News, but they don't deserve the when I do I receive derision from the left.
    
    FTFY
    1. Matrix 13 years ago
      
      🙂 Thanks
  3. John 13 years ago
    
    Fox has done some of the worst coverage of the Martin case. They have been right at the front of the lynch mob. I think Shepherd Smith has cried on the air over it. I have never gotten the whole "Fox News is right wing" thing. They are just tabloid.
    1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
      
      I forgot where I read this, but someone called Fox "populist"
    2. AuH2O 13 years ago
      
      Honestly, I think the best comparison for Fox might be the Murdoch owned The Sun. A highly populist paper, willing to change its political position at whim (from supporting John Major in 1992 to Tony Blair in 1997) that is meant to appeal to the attitude of the masses. It has a slight conservative bent, but is willing to go liberal human interest, bleeding heart when the story and context demands it.
      
      The difference is, in Britain, The Sun takes pride in its ability to swing elections ("It's The Sun Wot Won It!") whereas because of the U.S.'s bullshit focuc on "neutrality" in media, our papers aren't supposed to do that.
      
      Also, no Page 3 girls.
      1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
        
        Also, no Page 3 girls.
        
        None of the weepy articles about the "death of journalism" in the US ever mention this.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Are you saying that adding Page 3 girls could save my industry?
        Hold on -- I need to go speak to my editor, stat!
        
        BakedPenguin 13 years ago
        
        If you win that argument, make sure to link to your paper's subscription web page.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Actually, yesterday I held the longest conversation with my publisher that I've had in 26 years at my paper. It was mostly about tarpon fishing and why you can't legally fry french fries on Cabbage Key, Fla. True story. (Oh, and for lunch he recommends Gramma Dot's just before you get to the Sanibel Causeway.)
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Then he's retarded, because lunch would be a hell of a lot better if he waited until he got across and drove out to the Mucky Duck.
      2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        There is also a manic amusing cynicism about The Sun - check out "Stick it up your punters" for a fantastic trip through its 80s hey-day. Hilarious stuff.
        
        Also in its defence is this wonderful book for the millennium, Hold Ye Front Page - history done as Sun front pages eg 1776 is YANKED APART: Colonists go it alone or 1815 is NAPOLEON BLOWN APART (with Boring Boney left me aloney - Josephine tells all on pages 4-5)
2. AuH2O 13 years ago
  
  And, lemme guess, the comments are along the lines of, "See, even the people who work at Fox knows its a lying sack of shit and its news is the leading source of facism in this country!", correct?
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Comments unsurprisingly disabled.
3. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  Seems fake.
4. Ed 13 years ago
  
  not news
5. MJGreen 13 years ago
  
  No one wants me. I'm blacklisted.
  
  I work at Fox News Channel.
  
  Yeah. That's why you can't get another job. No one hires people who have worked at Fox.
Bardas Phocas 13 years ago

Beyond Parody
GSA adminstrator had to miss the fab party in Las Vegas since she was visiting the rent seekers at Solyndra.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/po.....vg.twitter
Ken Shultz 13 years ago

Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman are advocating military support for the rebels in Syria as the Syrian government ignores the UN's latest attempt at brokering a peace.

Sounds like a great idea--so long as that support in no way involves the USA.
1. Ex Nihilo 13 years ago
  
  If McCain had won, how many wars and kinetic actions would we be involved in right now. Especially with Lieberman as Sec. of Def.?
  1. Ken Shultz 13 years ago
    
    I don't know.
    
    He was against putting American troops on the ground in Libya.
    
    With McCain, we might not have had ObamaCare or bailed out the UAW. We might not have had the stimulus, and that's four counts in his favor if you ask me.
    1. Ex Nihilo 13 years ago
      
      With McCain, we might not have had ObamaCare or bailed out the UAW. We might not have had the stimulus, and that's four counts in his favor if you ask me.
      
      Not sure he would have bailed out UAW or had a stimulus or not. The urge to 'do something' is very strong with politicos.
      
      I think he supported American involvement in Libya, and Obama didn't put troops on the ground either, so not sure he would have been better there. But he seems ready to use American force anywhere at anytime he thinks he can; Iran and Syria come to mind.
  2. rac3rx 13 years ago
    
    No "kinetic actions"...Johnny Mac would've just put troops there with no apologies.
Joe M 13 years ago

9-year-old's DIY cardboard arcade gets flashmobbed

This is interesting for a couple reasons. First, it's a classic feel good story. But what all the hipsters seem to be glazing over is that the kid is a pure capitalist entrepreneur. He built his arcade up from nothing, and expects to make money selling access to it. This is exactly the creative spirit that our government is trying to crush. In fact, I'm curious if a local government representative will make a stop saying he needs either to close it down or to get some permits.
1. robc 13 years ago
  
  Im glad the term flashmob is now being used for organized events, so the proper term, Flash Crowd, can be reserved for the spontaneous occurences.
John 13 years ago

My Girl grew up quite well. And Julia Louis Dreyfus is still attractive.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....wn-up.html
1. Ken Shultz 13 years ago
  
  The billion or so Dreyfus is set to inherit doesn't make her any less attractive either.
2. Rich 13 years ago
  
  Grownup My Girl has weird eyes. Are you certain that's not a robot?
  1. jacob 13 years ago
    
    Agree
  2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    There's something Michele Bachman like about her.
    
    Yech.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      You guys are nuts. She is thin, which you love, she has great skin and nice hair.
      
      Yech? I really do wonder about your sexuality sometimes. You just don't like women.
      1. jacob 13 years ago
        
        I never said I wouldn't have sex with her. However, compared with the plethora of other girls you and RoboCain have linked to from that site, I think this girl is below average. The bar is set pretty high given the previous posts.
      2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        I really do wonder about your sexuality sometimes.
        
        No thanks, John. I'm not interested.
  3. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
    
    She only has crazy eyes in the done-up-slutty version. She looks fine in the picture at the bottom.
  4. mr simple 13 years ago
    
    Wow, I was all set to chastise you guys for being picky, but those are some crazy eyes. I would never turn my back on her.
3. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  Watching Seinfeld reruns now, I am struck by how I did not appreciate at the time exactly how hot she was, then.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    She was and is gorgeous. She is pushing 50 and still looks good. And being a billionaire French heiress doesn't hurt either. I think if you let me choose one women within 10 years of my age to marry, she might be at the top of the list. She is hot, aging well, loaded, and seems like a fairly normal person.
4. plu1959 13 years ago
  
  JLD is not hot. She's cute.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    JLD is not hot. She's cute.
    
    Not sure if you understood them. That,s billion with a "B." As in $x,000,000,000. Did she get hotter yet?
    1. MJGreen 13 years ago
      
      And the billion does not even include the Seinfeld syndication money?
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Not sure, but a billion is a billion, even if it's money she's got coming from her dad for helping George Soros finger other Jews for the Nazis.
        
        Pip 13 years ago
        
        Soros only did that for a few years.
        
        Apostate Jew 13 years ago
        
        Big talk from jackasses who weren't there.
        
        Louis-Dreyfus grand-pere was in the cavalry in 1940 and then in the resistance.
        
        Louis-Dreyfus pere was in the United States in 1940 when he was eight fucking years old.
        
        As for Soros, he and a lot of Jews did what they had to do to survive and, frankly, the opinions of goyim who did nothing to help or who weren't even alive then is worthless.
Ken Shultz 13 years ago

A court in Egypt suspended the "constituent assembly" that was supposed to draft a new Constitution amid a boycott by moderate and secular groups charging undue influence of the assembly by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sooner or later, the Muslim Brotherhood will learn to compromise.
Zeb 13 years ago

Whatever Zimmerman's culpability turns out to be, unless you are a total psychopath it must really suck to know you killed someone who really didn't deserve it, even if you legitimately thought you had no choice at the time.
1. Ken Shultz 13 years ago
  
  Yeah, he's not a psychopath.
  1. Bardas Phocas 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, he's not a real cop.
    1. Ed 13 years ago
      
      Though you have to raise an eyebrow about the kind of people who want to be, especially if they end up not qualifying and then try to role play it anyway.
  2. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    I don't think so either. Maybe kind of a high strung dick, but not a psycho.
    1. Ken Shultz 13 years ago
      
      Exactly.
      
      He's being portrayed as a psychopath.
      
      But he's not one.
      
      He may be a murderer for all I know, but he isn't a psychopath. ...no reason for people to pretend otherwise.
2. jacob 13 years ago
  
  I've always thought folks in this situations can rationalize things to themselves no matter how egregious the situation. That's not to say Zimmerman isn't feeling guilty, but there are numerous instances of people shooting unarmed people for questionable reasons who, at least outwardly, show no remorse.
  1. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    Not ever having been in such a situation, I can only speculate, but I can only imagine that that would haunt you for a long time. Even if you are completely convinced that killing was justified and necessary, I can imagine that it woudl be a difficult thing for a lot of people to bear.
    1. jacob 13 years ago
      
      Can you imagine having a dream replaying the shooting? Don't know if you've ever had dreams about loved ones who died unexpectedly, but the dreams are particularly vivid and they really make you think when you wake up.
  2. Pip 13 years ago
    
    "That's not to say Zimmerman isn't feeling guilty"
    
    If someone is bashing your head into the sidewalk while saying "You're going to die tonight", I doubt there'd be any feelings of guilt about shooting the guy.
3. plu1959 13 years ago
  
  "you killed someone who really didn't deserve it"
  
  I don't think it's been established that Martin really didn't deserve it.
Eduard van Haalen 13 years ago

""He is largely alone. You might even say he is emotionally crippled by virtue of the pressure of this case," said Hal Uhrig, a former lawyer for George Zimmerman."

Yeah, he's so paranoid, it's not as if his trusted legal advisors would just desert him and tell the press he's nuts!
1. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  he is emotionally crippled
  
  It's like he's been shot in the chest at close range by the pressure of the case.
  1. jacob 13 years ago
    
    Hi-yo!
Tim 13 years ago

It is ridiculous what they charge for ebooks, not that we need a people's commission to regulate it.
In most cases a lightly used paperback is cheaper from Amazon than the ebook.
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  It is ridiculous what they charge for ebooks
  
  Then don't buy them!
  1. Tim 13 years ago
    
    I don't.
2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  sometimes. I was looking for a copy of an out-of-print paperback: "To Live and Die in L.A." I ended up paying $8 on Ebay. While cruising through Amazon yesterday, I saw the same book on Kindle for $2.51.
  
  But yeah, at first I thought the eBook market would take rare or out-of-print books and make them more accessible (or cheaper!) - turns out that isn't always the case.
  1. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    You couldn't find the paperback on Amazon? I've found a number of out of print things there for quite cheap.
    1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
      
      it's there too (wildly varying prices) - I just jumped the gun buying books for my upcoming vacation.
    2. jacob 13 years ago
      
      That out of print stuff is almost always from Amazon Marketplace. The prices are great (much better than Ebay IMO) but the service is spotty at times. I've bought stuff only to be told later that it wasn't in stock. I didn't lose any money though.
      
      Ebay jumped the shark about 4 years ago when they went to PayPal only (or some other iteration of it).
  2. Tim 13 years ago
    
    I bought GRRM's latest Dragon book but the next day I saw the hardcover for about $1 more at Costco. I'll never get over it. NEVER!
3. plu1959 13 years ago
  
  I have no problem paying more for e-books, because to me the convenience makes them more valuable than the dead-tree versions (in most cases). YMMV
Enough About Palin 13 years ago

Barack Obama On Free Markets: 'We Tried It. It's Not Like We Did Not Try'

http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....t_try.html
1. Ken Shultz 13 years ago
  
  Someone should point out to Barry O that he hasn't abolished the economic cycle.
  
  Regulation will not stop downturns in the economic cycle. The Soviet Union tried it--it's not like they did not try.
  1. Tim 13 years ago
    
    Fuck you, shoe and tractor production WAY UP under Comrade Barack. Wheat and string also doing well.
    1. Episiarch 13 years ago
      
      Tractor pulls? Tim is MNG?!?
    2. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
      
      Also, ATMs will soon be abolished to bring back those teller jobs! This won't cause any problems, since with everyone out of work, it will be easy to go to the bank during business hours.
      1. Tim 13 years ago
        
        All those soul-less robots were potential Romney voters anyway.
      2. Randian 13 years ago
        
        You never go ATM on the first Presidency.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        What about going Greek?
2. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  of course his definition of "tried it" means actually not having tried it at all.
  1. plu1959 13 years ago
    
    Someone needs to create a NewSpeak translator for everything Obama says.
    1. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
      
      double-plus 1
  2. ant1sthenes 13 years ago
    
    Sort of like a 5-year old and a hated vegetable, then?
3. Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
  
  Would he say the same thing about the welfare state? Nope, the abject failure of the welfare state to do anything other than bankrupt nations simply means TRY MOAR HARDER.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

Little known fact: All eBooks are transcribed to digital by Morgan Freeman. True story.
Matrix 13 years ago

Gizmodo reposts a Reason article about recording cops

Really? They are part of the Gawker crowd, ie extremely leftist. I'm surprised by this.
1. AuH2O 13 years ago
  
  Don't read the comments. It's amazing how many people still buy into the whole "Officer Friendly" bullshit.
AuH2O 13 years ago

Was Glee ever good?

First of all, no. A mass pychosis set in in 2009. Seriously, go look at the Glee trailer and tell me that this looked like a good show. I remember watching that trailer and laughing my ass off, thinking, "Holy shit, no network is this dumb, right?" Seriously, watch the trailer:

http://www.dailymotion.com/vid.....shortfilms

But also, there's this from the Salon article:

I can remember a time when I loved "Glee" ? I think. When "Glee" premiered in 2009 it was an immediate smash and a social phenomenon, an over-the-top and joyous hit buoyed along not only by its structural originality but by its sharp wit, big heart and daring sexual politics. But the show has fallen so far, so fast, I have begun to wonder if the common wisdom? that it was great, and then took a nosedive, as Ryan Murphy shows are wont to do ? is true. Were the guest stars, breakneck pacing, hit-you-over-the-head messaging, cheesy mashups, smug self-satisfaction and reckless character assassinations there from the beginning, in smaller amounts? And did I just not notice because I was too busy dancing around to "Single Ladies" with the rest of the McKinley high football team and reveling in the novelty of a show so unabashedly musical and unabashedly liberal? In other words, was "Glee" ever good?

...Just, Jesus, Salon.
1. jacob 13 years ago
  
  I don't know if I'm too old or just not liberal (hip?) enough, but I've never seen Glee and don't have the urge to.
  1. AuH2O 13 years ago
    
    I have seen exactly one episode, as an, "Well, I suppose I should see what all the fuss is about" kind of thing. It was the Brittany Spears episode. It was awful.
  2. Episiarch 13 years ago
    
    There is nothing--nothing--"hip" about Glee. That show was like nails on a chalkboard.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      But it was hip in an ironic way. It was a way for straight hipsters to safely get their gay on.
      1. Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        No it wasn't. The people enjoying it weren't being ironic. They were loving it, flat out. It has nothing to do with "hipsters".
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        No. They liked it because it was so bad and cheesy it was good. It was totally ironic. I mean come on, a high school glee club singing "Don't Stop Believing" is not ironic and campy?
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        John, you seem to misunderstand the meaning of "ironic". Yeah, it was campy, but the people who loved the show were 100% in, whole hog, no "yeah, I love it but it's goofy". And now they regret being so totally into it. Like any ridiculous fad.
        
        What kills a fad? When people who went for it feel stupid for going for it so hard, and then shun it out of embarrassment.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Well, the overlap between hipster and gay is quite extensive.
        
        If you have a show that is hugely popular with gays (like Glee or Lost) that show can appear to have a hipster demographic. But that's incidental to its gay appeal.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Oh, or True Blood.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Gays and housewives/moms are the only ones who watch network TV anymore. So if you want a hit, you better appeal to that demographic.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        John, you often say the stupidest things. Yeah, only "gays and housewives" watch Community or Fringe or whatever.
        
        You're on a roll today with your KULTUR WAR shit, John. I can only assume you're merely ramping up.
        
        jacob 13 years ago
        
        You're on a roll today with your KULTUR WAR shit, John. I can only assume you're merely ramping up.
        
        [pulls up chair, reaches for popcorn]
        
        This ought to be good. Perhaps we can still reach 400 posts without White Idiot.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        What does that have to do with the culture war you fucking moron. That is who watches TV, moms and gays. Talk to anyone in the TV business and they will tell you that men, especially men under 40 are nearly impossible to reach via TV advertising outside of sports.
        
        Why the fuck do you think cable TV is practically all man based reality shows these days? Because they are going for the market that has stopped watching network TV.
        
        You are fucking troll. You are so obsessed with the culture war you think every point anyone makes no matter how benign is somehow part of the culture war.
        
        Newsflash dipshit, not everyone is obsessed with the culture war like you are. Stop projecting.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Yes, John. Feel the hate flow through you. Strike me down. KULTUR WAR me.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        What does pointing out that gays and moms tend to watch network TV have anything to do with the culture war? Explain your retarded logic on that one or shut the fuck up.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Keep going, John. Dig your own hole, as I watch. Please, keep going.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Okay, so you have no believe this has anything to do with the culture war. It is just shouting "culture war" at anything and everything is what you do.
        
        Got it.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Keep spinning, John. You were on a roll with the stupid. Don't shortchange us now.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        John, you often say the stupidest things. Yeah, only "gays and housewives" watch Community or Fringe or whatever.
        
        Or How I Met Your Mother. Or House. Or Two and a Half Men.
        
        Not saying any of these are any good, mind, but they certainly aren't the bailiwick of gays and their Housewife Hangers-On.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Who do you think watches those shows Randian? Housewives and moms.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Have any evidence to back that up?
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        But NPH is gay, so that makes HIMYM a gays only show. Even if he's playing a serial womanizer.
        
        VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
        
        ohn, you often say the stupidest things. Yeah, only "gays and housewives" watch Community or Fringe or whatever.
        
        You're on a roll today with your KULTUR WAR shit, John. I can only assume you're merely ramping up.
        
        He didn't say "only open gays watch..."
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        What about Lost would have been particularity appealing to gays?
        
        jacob 13 years ago
        
        What about Lost would have been particularity appealing to gays?
        
        I thought the exact same thing when I read that.
        
        Neither Lost or HIMYM are gay at all. Liberal, perhaps, but not gay. I think people are just reaching here.....
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Well Lost had that one tiny role with a gay guy (Tom).
        
        And HIMYM has that one tiny role with a gay guy (Barney's brother). Also that one tiny role with a gay chick (Ted's future wife's roommate).
        
        So those totally make them gay shows, right?
        
        jacob 13 years ago
        
        Ted's future wife's roommate
        
        Huh? I think I missed that part. Which season what that on?
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Wasn't sure off the top of my head (somewhere around 4?), but here is the first google hit for "ted's future wife roommate".
        
        jacob 13 years ago
        
        but here is the first google hit for "ted's future wife roommate".
        
        Nice memory! Yes, I do remember that episode after viewing the link and it probably was at least 2 seasons ago.
        
        Thanks
        
        H. Reardon 13 years ago
        
        What about Lost was particularly appealing to anyone? After one season, it felt like a never ending episode of The Family Guy where what happened previously had nothing to do with what was happening now or what would happen in the future. I caught the show channel surfing in its last season. They had to have a running scroll to explain the plot in a vain attempt to make it seem like it was cohesive.
        
        Ted S. 13 years ago
        
        Even though the writers didn't know how they were going to end Lost, I realized that it was a rehash of the film Outward Bound. There's nothing new under the sun.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Lost was hugely popular with gays?
        Wait, what?
        No gay.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        John says some things that are stupid, and some things that are really stupid. You have to learn to sort them out.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Actually, that was a Fluffy-ism.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Good point, though my point still stands. Uh, Fluffy, care to explain what is it about Lost that specifically appeals to gays (as if they were a monolithic group)?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Jesus Christ Episiarch, who are you shrike? You shout culture war like he shouts Christfags. I am still waiting for the explanation of how a discussion of TV demographics is somehow about the culture war to anyone but the voices inside your head?
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        You keep repeating the same stupid shit, John. As always. It's boring. Get a new act.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Sure Episiarch. I will remember that the next time shout "kulture war" for the 12th time that day on some totally unrelated topic. Lets keep things interesting.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Sorry, John, but your unintelligible writing has me confused. Please try to be more coherent as you say the same stupid shit over and over again.
        
        Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
        
        John|4.11.12 @ 10:19AM|#
        
        Gays and housewives/moms are the only ones who watch network TV anymore. So if you want a hit, you better appeal to that demographic.
        
        John, your problem, the one that makes you an idiot, is your use of absolutes. You only look worse when you try to backpedal. If you're going to say dumb shit like this then bring some proof to back it up.
        
        And today isn't new, you've really been ramping it up since registration kicked in.
        
        And BTW, I've checked out the first couple episodes of Touch and I kinda like it. It's by the guy who did Heroes so if you liked that and haven't checked out Touch maybe give it a look.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I'm kinda just fucking with you Lost fans.
        
        I never watched it, and everybody who tried to talk me into watching it was gay, so I declared it a gay thing.
        
        Then I started claiming online that Lost was a gay thing, at AICN and such, and the sputtering it produced from Lost fans always entertained me, so I kept doing it.
        
        Sorry, you guys are on the tail end of a long-running troll con.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        I'm not a Lost fan, Fluffy. I never even watched any of it until watching the first few episodes a few weeks ago, and I'm already tired of it.
        
        The only spluttering is coming from you.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Needz mor culture war.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        The only spluttering is coming from you.
        
        Uhhh...where?
        
        I think you think I'm in your John conversation, and I'm not.
        
        But since you've invited me into it, I'll say this: it is pretty much a well-known fact that scripted broadcast network television is now largely the province of shows aimed at women and gays. For the simple reason that young, straight males have abandoned "storytelling" television for video games. It's not a culture war thing at all. I'm not bringing it up because I'm "lamenting the cultural influence of gays" or anything stupid like that. It's just a demographic fact about the broadcast television audience that's well known to advertisers and to the people producing shows for the networks.
        
        It would be hyperbolic to say "only" women and gays watch network broadcast TV, so I think John is exaggerating a bit. But the audience definitely skews that way. You can still aim a show at young, straight men and succeed, but it's harder every year. And the networks know this, and their programming reflects it.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Yes Fluffy. I was exaggerating. But that is exactly the point I was making. And I have not clue what pointing that out, even through hyperbole, has to do with the culture war. Who cares if women and gays are the only ones who still like TV dramas and sitcoms in large numbers anymore?
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        And that's complete bullshit. Are you going to tell me that shows like Fringe or Person of Interest are aimed at women and gays? Really?
        
        I didn't think you were part of my conversation with John, I thought you dug yourself a hole and were stubbornly refusing to admit it. And the fact that you thought you had me as a Lost fan and were utterly, completely wrong seems to be missing from this conversation at this point.
        
        Sometimes, admitting you said something stupid makes you look smart, just because you've shown you can acknowledge your own mistakes.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        No Episiarch. My beef with you is not your opinion on TV demographics. Who knows maybe network TV is watched by men under 50. Maybe you are right. I don't really care that much.
        
        My beef with you is your bitching and moaning that this has something to do with the culture war. I is this
        
        You're on a roll today with your KULTUR WAR shit, John. I can only assume you're merely ramping up.
        
        That you can shove up your ass sideways. No one was saying shit about the culture war until you brought it up because you fucking obsessed with it and think every point anyone makes somehow relates to it.
        
        Get it through your head, this conversation has nothing to do with the culture war. No one thought that or made any connection to it except you. Now admit you were wrong and shut the fuck up about it for once.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, John, you railing about gays and women isn't KULTUR WAR, no sir.
        
        You keep flailing. It's funny in its own stupid, desperate way.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Pointing out that they watch TV a lot is really railing about gays and women you fucking retard.
        
        DesigNate 13 years ago
        
        Stating something, even as a hyperbolic absolute =/= railing (even if it could be proven demonstrably false).
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Episiarch, my post where I admitted I was fucking with Lost fans was directed at Auric and Citizen Nothing, whose posts have a definite vibe of Lost fans objecting to my characterization.
        
        You're not the only person in this thread.
        
        Nielsen stats about the TV audience:
        
        http://www.bizjournals.com/san.....n-men.html
        
        Women watch more TV than men.
        
        Old people watch way, way more TV than young people.
        
        Put those two stats together, and YEAH, the TV audience is dominated by aging housewives.
        
        I can't find a link about the gay audience, but my perception there may be warped by the fact that things that become "hot" often have gay appeal. Gays punch above their weight critically and in determining pop culture trends.
        
        I can admit when I've made a mistake more than anyone here. It's just a trivially obvious fact that should be known to everyone (like "Albany is the capital of New York") that young males have abandoned broadcast network television in large numbers, and have abandoned "storytelling" media of all kinds in large numbers, and that the networks know this.
        
        Finding individual shows that appeal to young men is meaningless. It's like saying that the success of Words with Friends among Scrabble-loving housewives means that video games aren't primarily built with the male demographic in mind. The larger trends are pretty obvious.
        
        Joe M 13 years ago
        
        I'll say this: it is pretty much a well-known fact that scripted broadcast network television is now largely the province of shows aimed at women and gays. For the simple reason that young, straight males have abandoned "storytelling" television for video games.
        
        Yes yes, a thousand times yes. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I have a gay friend that writes for Televisions Without Pity, and I'm amazed at how much time he spends watching TV shows, only to eviscerate them. I can't be troubled with non-interactive entertainment anymore. If I'm not a participant, fuck it. Except for Community.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I think the fat guy on Lost was the Patrick Stewart of the bear community.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        I don't know quite what this means, John, but I will admit it sounds funny. Explain more.
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        There is nothing--nothing--"hip" about Glee. That show was like nails on a chalkboard.
        
        Glee is the Millennials version of Rip Taylor, Paul Lynde, and Charles Nelson Reilly for a brave new world.
        
        rac3rx 13 years ago
        
        Anyone remember "Cop Rock"?
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        Anyone remember "Cop Rock"?
        
        Yet more log to throw upon Steven Bochco's pyre.
        
        Joe M 13 years ago
        
        You mean "Glee with Guns"?
2. Episiarch 13 years ago
  
  I've noticed that the Glee hysteria just completely died all of a sudden, which is very indicative of a fad. I guess Downton Abbey has replaced it.
3. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  I've watched most of an episode. It's like having a glass rod inserted into your urethra and then shattering it.
  1. Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
    
    Speaking of, you owe a pretty penny for that night of bliss...
  2. plu1959 13 years ago
    
    SugarFree is Dean Corll?
    1. Episiarch 13 years ago
      
      And Robert Mapplethorpe...combined.
      1. Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        Throw in the dashiest dash of Truman Capote with the voice of William Faulkner, and then people, you have the corporeal being known to me as Saccharin Man.
      2. plu1959 13 years ago
        
        Oh, well, if he tortures in the name of art ...
4. Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
  
  I've never seen Glee, but I happened to see 10 minutes of Dancing with the Stars this week. They were dancing to the worst possible, dripping with cheese covers of 80s rock. It was beyond horrible. And I was thinking, if this show is popular, people have lost their minds.
  
  Also, Celtic Thunder on PBS. So gobsmackingly awful you can't NOT watch it. So Glee may be terrible, but it fots the current mold of terrible = popular.
  1. Tim 13 years ago
    
    Popular? Obama is popular too. Popular (snorts).
5. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  To me observing the Glee phenomenon was like the episode of South Park where the guys watch High School Musical for the first time.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    That is a good way to put it. It was High School Musical for adults.
  2. Episiarch 13 years ago
    
    Pretty much. One can always read the hysteria that surrounds a fad: the bigger it is, the faster it will die, and with people backpedaling away from it with greater vigor.
    1. Fluffy 13 years ago
      
      Cartman:
      
      Well, I'm out guys. [get up from the sofa, puts on his jacket, and heads for the front door] If this is what's cool now, I think I'm done. I no longer have any connection to this world. I'm gonna go home and kill myself. Goodbye, friends.
  3. Randian 13 years ago
    
    Fluffy, this is why you are my favorite commenter.
    1. Pip 13 years ago
      
      Wow! Randian is sure kissing Fluffy's ass. I guess he can't help himself. I bet he does it again.
  4. Randian 13 years ago
    
    Fluffy, this is why you are my favorite commenter.
  5. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    I haven't seen that one. Please tell me they didn't buy into it?
    1. Randian 13 years ago
      
      Oh Auric, you poor, sad little man. How I wish it were so, son. You better sit down.
      1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Oh Auric, you poor, sad little man.
        
        Well, 2 out of 4 isn't bad for guessing.
        
        DesigNate 13 years ago
        
        What's the over/under for which two were right?
6. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
  
  I've tried to watch three episodes of that shitass show: NPH, Rocky Horror and last night's Duran Duran mashup.
  
  As I posted on Facebook, Glee never fails to disappoint. The NPH eipsode was pointless and boring, the Rocky Horror episode was pointless, boring and wrong, and the Duran Duran Rio/Hungry Like the Wolf mashup was pointless, boring, wrong and autotuned.
  
  Fuck Glee
  
  (the only people I know who enjoy it are close-to-middle-aged single moms & housefraus)
  1. jacob 13 years ago
    
    the Rocky Horror episode Show was pointless, boring and wrong
    1. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
      
      Meh...the original Rocky Horror movie was a fun lark when I was in high school. I tried to watch that one Glee episode as a nostalgia trip.
      1. jacob 13 years ago
        
        Well, I suppose that makes sense. I saw the movie for the first time at the age of 33 and couldn't understand what the appeal was.
  2. John 13 years ago
    
    don't mention the fact that housefraus watched that show Kristen. Episiarch will accuse you of being obsessed with the culture war.
    1. Episiarch 13 years ago
      
      Or you'll just be an idiot some more, John. Like you so often are.
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        Truth hurts Shreek, I mean Episiarch.
    2. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
      
      Kristen's version:
      (the only people I know who enjoy it are close-to-middle-aged single moms & housefraus)
      
      At least she qualified it.
      
      John's version would have been:
      
      (the only people I know who enjoy it are close-to-middle-aged single moms & housefraus)
      1. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
        
        I was just going by my Facebook friends who post about Glee. None of the gays, young'uns, elderly, hipster, uber-religious or childless ever posted about it.
        
        Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
        
        I'm just pointing out John's problem with absolutes.
  3. Proprietist 13 years ago
    
    What's super sad is that the Cast of Glee are the most charted "artists" in the history of the Billboard 100 (189 appearance).
    
    "The cast has also put 50 singles in the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, and have tied with The Beatles for fourth as of February 2012, behind only Lil Wayne with 55, Elton John with 57 and Elvis Presley with 80."
    
    Wait - so Lil Wayne is the third most popular artist in American history?! WTF!?!?!
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      That's even more depressing than the cast of Glee.
      1. Proprietist 13 years ago
        
        Of course, he only gets there because he's been "featured" on just about every charting rap single for the past seven years.
7. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  an over-the-top and joyous hit buoyed along not only by its structural originality but by its sharp wit, big heart and daring sexual politics.
  
  Have to laugh at this--Glee didn't cover any ground on the cultural landscape that shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer hadn't already tread on years before.
  
  Glee's really nothing more than a weekly therapy session for Ryan Murphy's broken psyche.
  1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
    
    I can remember a time when I loved "Glee" ? I think.
    
    This is the line that really says it all. I suspect that the author's affinity for Glee had a lot more to do with the fact that watching it was a passive-aggressive way to get back at those UGH XTIAN BIGOTS than it did with the quality of acting or writing on the show.
  2. AuH2O 13 years ago
    
    Also, Willow and Tara>the two gay kids on Glee.
    
    Well... okay, Naya Rivers and Heather Morris (the hot lesbian cheerleaders)... maybe, but honestly, Allison Haggarty is one of the hottest thing on two legs, so I gotta give it to Willow/Tara.
Tim 13 years ago

HBO RENEWS GAME OF THRONES FOR THIRD SEASON
--------
First Episode Of The Second Season Has Already Grossed 8.3 Million Viewers
LOS ANGELES, April 10, 2012 ? HBO has renewed GAME OF THRONES for a third season, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.

"Series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss raised our expectations for the second season ? and then surpassed them," said Lombardo. "We are thrilled by all the viewer and media support we've received for the series, and can't wait to see what Dan and David have in store for next season."
1. jacob 13 years ago
  
  Just curious - is this show worth watching? How would you rate it compared with other cable shows? I've seen a lot of love for this show around Reason. I love most of HBO's stuff (The Wire, CYE, Eastbound & Down, Soprano's), but I've been disappointed by them to (Boardwalk Empire, True Blood).
  1. Episiarch 13 years ago
    
    If you need to ask this question, you should probably read the books and then you will understand.
    1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
      
      I haven't read the books (which is odd considering they are right in my usual genre), but the show is really good.
      1. Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        I highly, highly, recommend reading the books.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        I may at some point, but I haven't had a lot of time for reading lately. I may consider picking it up more when I start flying more.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Also: boobs. How is a non-picture book gonna compete with that?
        
        Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
        
        Also: boobs. How is a non-picture book gonna compete with that?
        
        You have heard of bas relief, no? Also known as braille porn.
      2. mr simple 13 years ago
        
        If you want to continue enjoying the show, don't read the books. I read the books after watching the first season. The arrogant liberties they are taking with the story in the second season are infuriating, to me at least. They have already said the third season will break from the books more. I don't know what that means exactly, but I doubt it's good.
        
        mr simple 13 years ago
        
        To clarify: I highly recommend the books.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, I may wait and read the book after the series is over so that I don't feel like the series is letting me down.
    2. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
      
      My attempt at reading the first book has turned me off of watching the show.
  2. Randian 13 years ago
    
    I and the people around me watch extensive amounts of television, and the only show more enthusiastically recommended than The Wire is Game of Thrones.
    1. jacob 13 years ago
      
      Thanks
  3. rac3rx 13 years ago
    
    Jacob, yes, the show is worth watching.
Randian 13 years ago

Seriously, what script on this page NEVER STOPS LOADING? Any help here?
1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
  
  Squirrels are hyper creatures.
Res Publica Americana 13 years ago

OT: An excerpt on gun shows from Thomas Harris' 'Hannibal':

"The Mid-Atlantic Regional Gun and Knife Show in War memorial Auditorium. Acres of tables, a plain of guns, mostly pistols and assault-style shotguns. The red beams of laser sights flicker on the ceiling.

Few genuine outdoorsmen come to gun shows, as a matter of taste. Guns are black now, and gun shows are bleak, colorless, as joyless as the inner landscape of many who attend them.

Look at this crowd: scruffy, squinty, angry, eggbound, truly of the resinous heart. They are the main danger to the right of a private citizen to own a firearm.

The guns they fancy are assault weapons designed for mass production, cheaply made of stampings to provide high firepower to ignorant and untrained troops."

Oh, my, I wonder which way the author swings politically.
1. Warty 13 years ago
  
  Wow, he's batting a perfect .000 on facts there. Impressive.
  1. jacob 13 years ago
    
    And he's a .675 on elitist stereotypical bullshit.
    
    This guy's headed to Cooperstown fo' sure.
  2. Res Publica Americana 13 years ago
    
    Armchair professors whose comprehension of their own society is consistently inferior than that of Philadelphia crack whores.
    1. Res Publica Americana 13 years ago
      
      1) Coffee.
      
      2) Posting on the Internet.
      
      *to
  3. T 13 years ago
    
    I can't spit at a gun show around where I live without hitting some redneck wearing RealTree or Mossy Oak. After all, a deer might pop out from behind that SKS rack and you wouldn't want to startle him.
2. plu1959 13 years ago
  
  "Look at this crowd: scruffy, squinty, angry, eggbound, truly of the resinous heart."
  
  That describes the majority of people I see everywhere. I guess I should move to Cambridge or something.
3. John 13 years ago
  
  I always found gun shows to be almost trekkie convention level geeky. Being a gun not is just another variation of geek.
  
  And someone might want to tell this asshole that not every sportsman can afford a $12,000 Italian shotgun.
  1. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
    
    And that's cheap as far as high end shotguns go. Spending $100k is easy in the shotgun world.
4. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
  
  I've only been to one gun show and I kinda liked it because it showed me that the concealed carry purses and handbags are all ugly and unfashionable. That means there's a market to be exploited. Now I just gotta take those leatherworking and sewing classes, and I'm off-and-running!
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Open relationships: the people making it work
Spare bedrooms, digital diarising and deciding who's looking after the baby? Arianne Cohen hears the inside story.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life.....ationships

Non-monogamous relationships are surprisingly common and the numbers are increasing, according to Darren Langdridge, a clinical therapist, professor at the Open University and co-author with Meg Barker of Understanding Non-Monogamies.

But statistics are hard to come by, Barker says. "No national surveys cover anything like open relationships ? and many people are not upfront about being in one." Through the 60s and 70s, communes, swinging and group marriages entered the mainstream, and then faded when HIV emerged. "Suddenly it was not acceptable to talk about open relationships," Langdridge says, "even though the fear was a myth ? you can have as much sex as you'd like with others, and it's safe, as long as you're safe." Which means condoms, 100% of the time.
1. Warty 13 years ago
  
  Which means condoms, 100% of the time.
  
  What's the fucking point then?
  1. Groovus Maximus 13 years ago
    
    Transpose that, Wartington: It's point fucking.
    1. Warty 13 years ago
      
      I mean, I like a tight hole and all, but I don't want it to be a point. That's a little too tight for me.
2. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  okay, it appeared in the article.
  
  "mono-normative"... oh jeez.
Citizen Nothing 13 years ago

This is somehow terrifying: Today's local Groupon Deal is 50% off a ticket to Sunday's C'bus performance of "Shatner's World -- We Just Live In It."
mr simple 13 years ago

NY cops so hard up for good news they hold press conference for recovered iPhone.
nipplemancer 13 years ago

Former Marikafka County Prosecutor Andrew Thomas and his deputy disbarred. The audience in the court actually applauded at one point.
Canman 13 years ago

Art Laffer still looks like he did back in the 80's. In fact, he still looks like he did back on the set of "The Wild Wild West":
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/p.....oto/190523
RyanXXX 13 years ago

Anyone on here been watching the new season of Game of Thrones? I dig it so far, though the changes from the books are starting to add up
DrakeLeona 13 years ago

my friend's mother brought in $18530 last month. she is making income on the computer and got a $414800 condo. All she did was get fortunate and work up the clues laid out on this site (Click on menu Home more information) http://goo.gl/9pzsy

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