A.M. Links: Newt Gingrich Accuses Fox News of Romney Bias, Mali Gets an Interim President, Dinosaurs in Outer Space

Ed Krayewski | 4.12.2012 9:06 AM

Newt Gingrich accused Fox News of "Romney bias" at a Tea Party meeting where he talked about the arc of his presidential campaign, also claiming conservative commentators harbored "personal jealousy" against him and offering that the Republican Party "doesn't like to read books."
The head of Mali's national assembly Dioncounda Traore was sworn in as President three weeks after a coup deposed the previous President.
A standoff in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China over the Scarborough Shoal continues as the Philippines sent a second vessel to the disputed islands.
The median salary for women at the White House is 18% lower than for men, according to the White House's latest staff report.
Ratings indicate "must see TV" is not so much of a must see anymore.
A Columbia University organic chemistry professor suggests dinosaurs could rule outer space, noting that dinosaur DNA could have travelled to nearby star systems on ejecta from the meteor impact that killed off dinosaurs on Earth.

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Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

...also claiming conservative commentators harbored "personal jealousy" against him and offering that the Republican Party "doesn't like to read books."

Now that we know he's never going to be president, Gingrich has become a true delight.
1. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
  
  Maybe he's hoping for some kind of position in the Romney administration that allows Mitt to bring in the ever elusive douchebag vote.
2. AlmightyJB 13 years ago
  
  If only we could harness that ego for something useful.
3. Mike Laursen 13 years ago
  
  Wow! Haven't seen this kind of petulance since Nixon. Maybe Gingrich is Presidential material after all.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Attacking Ann Romney
http://www.washingtonpost.com/....._blog.html

By now you've probably heard that Hilary Rosen, a sometime White House adviser and frequent visitor, on CNN attacked the most popular person in the campaign, Ann Romney, with a cartoon version of left-leaning feminism, declaring that the mother of five who has battle multiple sclerosis and cancer "never worked a day in her life."
1. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
  
  Reminds me of this bit from Bill Burr:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwPg2oarG_c
  1. Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
    
    Fucking awesome.
  2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
    
    I thank my lucky stars that I married a woman who doesn't watch Oprah (or much television at all).
2. Joe M 13 years ago
  
  Normally, I can't stand Jennifer Rubin, a poor man's Peggy Noonan, but I like this article.
3. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  Eleventh: Hilary Rosen is some woman's husband so what the fuck would she know about this anyway?
  1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
    
    Perhaps she is a wise Latina?
4. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  This is a perfect opportunity for Romney to shed his robotic image by throwing a press conference where he grinds Rosen into kibble for attacking his wife.
  
  I'm guessing it would do wonders for his imagine and numbers.
  1. Evil Otto 13 years ago
    
    You know what they say about mudwrestling with a pig?
    1. Alack 13 years ago
      
      It's sexy?
5. DesigNate 13 years ago
  
  What a piece of muffcabbage.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Spain Is Headed For a Major Economic Crash
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lo.....mic-crash/

If people want to know what life looks like in the "Prohibitive Range" of the Laffer Curve, all they have to do is to visit Athens. Greece is literally falling apart. Unfortunately, by raising taxes, Spain is making exactly the same mistake that the Greeks made.

The impact upon a modern economy of excessive tax rates is even worse than the Laffer Curve (which is an oversimplification) suggests. Not only do people choose to work less, but also capital begins to flee. The economy goes into a death spiral. GDP falls and unemployment rises, resulting in lower tax receipts and increased social welfare spending. This causes deficits to explode, which causes interest rates to rise, which in turn causes even higher deficits.
1. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  I think we can all rest assured that no one in Washington, DC will learn these lessons anytime soon.
  1. Loki 13 years ago
    
    I think we can all rest assured that no one politician in Washington, DC the entire fucking world will learn these lessons anytime soon.
    1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
      
      No - the governor of Puerto Rico gets it.
2. Emmerson Biggins 13 years ago
  
  You notice how with the Laffer curve, for every dooshcanoe Team Blue member who attacks the strawman version*, there is a Team Read Idiot willing to defend the strawman version vigorously.
  
  *the strawman version states that anytime you lower taxes, revenues increase.
  1. Evil Otto 13 years ago
    
    Not just Team Red. There were multiple people here on H&R claiming that the peak of the Laffer curve was 30% or less, which is bonkers. While it's unknown what the true value is, most people who've attempted to study it have estimates around 70%.
    1. # 13 years ago
      
      But theres also a difference between the short run static max and the long run max that takes in account growth rates.
      
      Also the max for labor income taxes is higher than the max for investment income taxes, because with the latter, there are more substitutes available.
      
      So it depends. There isnt some single maxima.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

A Columbia University organic chemistry professor suggests dinosaurs could rule outer space...

And I for one welcome our- well, you know the rest.
1. AlmightyJB 13 years ago
  
  I didn't know that was even in question.
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Now that's a cool boat.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ising.html
1. Suki 13 years ago
  
  Looks like a white version of the Sea Shepard Society boat in this video.
Suki 13 years ago

A standoff in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China over the Scarborough Shoal continues as the Philippines sent a second vessel to the disputed islands.

We all know which side Maobama is supporting in this one.
1. o3 13 years ago
  
  u mean the coast guard cutters obama sent to the phillipines?
  _
  
  Philippine concerns about China's perceived aggressiveness prompted it to seek help last year from the United States in building up its poorly equipped military and weak maritime defense capabilities.
  
  The United States responded favorably, delivering the Gregorio del Pilar, a 115-meter (378-foot) decommissioned U.S. coast guard cutter, to replace a World War II-era vessel as the Philippine Navy's biggest ship.
  http://www.defensenews.com/art.....dyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Philippine concerns about China's perceived aggressiveness prompted it to seek help last year from the United States in building up its poorly equipped military and weak maritime defense capabilities.
    
    Let me tell you something, orrin. If you are a nation comprised of over 7,000 islands and you have a weak maritime defense, maybe it's time Uncle Sugar told you to go and get your own defense, thank you very much, and moved his ships back to Pearl or San Diego.
    
    That goes for every president that kept a large presence or patrolled the Philippine waters free of charge for the last 60+ years.
    1. o3 13 years ago
      
      why do you hate tapas bars?
      the phillipines is in our orbit since we kicked spain's ass...plus guam...and tapas bars!
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Why do you change the subject when your boy in the WH is called out for being a dumbass, as was his line of predecessors, when it comes to jumping when the Philippines says they need us?
        
        o3 13 years ago
        
        maobama called-out? its all about china my friend...and tapas bars
    2. Jerryskids 13 years ago
      
      I believe the Philippines, like Japan, had been prohibited from building a strong navy. (The US did after all "win" the Philippines in the Spanish-American War.) And Uncle Sugar didn't exactly maintain bases in the Philippines for the fun of it - they were forward bases not only during WWII and the Korean War and the Vietnam war, but also a forward post against Red China and communist insurgents attempting to overthrow one US sock-puppet named Ferdinand Marcos. It was not until the 1980s that the UNCLOS even recognized the rights of the Philippine Archipelago to consider all of its' internal waters as other than international waters and the Philippine Navy began rebuilding what it once had been in the 1960's before Marcos.
      
      (Full disclosure - I fully and firmly appreciate why tens of thousands of horny sailors would cheer having access to Filipina lovelies.)
      1. Evil Otto 13 years ago
        
        You do realize that Red China is still there, right? It's not a thing of the past.
        
        We do NOT want China to turn the SCS into its own Gulf of Mexico. They certainly won't be as cute and cuddly as we are with the way they manage it.
2. Jerryskids 13 years ago
  
  No, Obama reached an agreement to send 2500 Marines to Australia a couple of months ago and Aquino is asking for the US to come back to the Philippines and India is looking for support for its' contention that China has no right to send ships into the Bay of Bengal.
  
  The South China Sea situation is some seriously fucked-up WWIII shit.
  1. o3 13 years ago
    
    and yet the reality of the continued gop unreality is obama is a surrender monkey...or secret muslim commie terrorist...or a NBA wannabee...or an anti-colonial witch doctor mumble mumble...
    1. Bardas Phocas 13 years ago
      
      Just another blood-soaked, kill-krazy American President.
    2. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
      
      and yet the reality of the continued gop unreality is obama is a surrender monkey
      
      I guess this makes the GOP look even more foolish then, doesn't it?
    3. T 13 years ago
      
      Or Obama is somebody that ignored the situation for the last 3 years and is just now waking up to the fact it might become a problem?
      
      I'll go with this one, but in his defense, nobody at Cabinet level may have brought it up.
    4. KDN 13 years ago
      
      or a NBA wannabee
      
      Well, he's certainly that.
    5. Loki 13 years ago
      
      or a WNBA wannabee
      
      FIFY
  2. rsi 13 years ago
    
    Is a late April Fool's joke?
  3. Ice Nine 13 years ago
    
    Aquino is asking for the US to come back to the Philippines
    
    as tens of thousands of horny sailors cheer.
    1. o3 13 years ago
      
      who doesnt luv em sum sucky/fucky one dollar?! ok not mittens...
3. Jerryskids 13 years ago
  
  Was this before or after China sent a third? Before or after they withdrew one? This story is moving fast - and as usual, nothing to find on the TV news about it. This should be the biggest story on the planet right now.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Racist!!!!!!!!111!!!!!
    
    /Trayvon's Mom
    1. Evil Otto 13 years ago
      
      Maybe we should send a hoodie-clad problem child to wander around a gated community in Guangzhou. Then this would get some attention.
4. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  China should wait until all those male children with no hope for finding a wife are draft age before getting expansionistic. The time will weaken its opponents as well.
5. Brandon 13 years ago
  
  "Maobama" doesn't really work when he's specifically siding against China.
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

A Columbia University organic chemistry professor suggests dinosaurs could rule outer space

Seen it. It's called Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

The Fox mole at Gawker has been found and escorted from the premises

http://gawker.com/5901228/hi-r.....e-fox-mole
1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  They should have let him continue to work there as though they didn't give a shit. Which they shouldn't have. Anyone reading that column was already part of the Fox News As Lone Biased Cable Network circle jerk, anyway.
  1. Drake 13 years ago
    
    No - They shouldn't have let on that they knew it was him.
    
    Instead they feed him crazy false information for him to post.
    1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
      
      Ha, yeah, but he's probably going to make all that up on his own now anyway. Plus, I'm not sure the people of Fox News would be that self aware to know how to make absurd up.
      1. T 13 years ago
        
        They've got MSNBC to watch for pointers.
      2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        not sure the people of Fox News would be that self aware to know how to make absurd up
        
        Someone there hired Greg Gutfeld, so there are at least two people who do
        
        Drake 13 years ago
        
        Exactly, delegate to Greg and his crew.
Heroic Mulatto 13 years ago

Prof Ronald Breslow's plan to success:

1. Watch episode of Star Trek:Voyager
2. Rewrite plot as scientific paper
3. Publish paper in peer-reviewed journal
4. SUCCESS!
1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
  
  My first thought as well.
  1. nicole 13 years ago
    
    And mine.
    
    Given, that is a fun episode.
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      Janeway is nothing more than a boil on the Federation's ass. I wish she had died in the pilot episode.
      1. nicole 13 years ago
        
        Only if Tuvok gets to be captain and rules over Chakotay.
        
        And only if we still get Seven, Janeway's greatest contribution to the series.
      2. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        If she wasn't an idiot, the show would have been over in the pilot.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

That was quick: Gawker's Fox News Mole Reveals Himself As Associate Producer
http://www.mediaite.com/online.....-with-pay/

The Fox News mole employed for the past 24 hours or so by Gawker to leak interesting tidbits of news from the office has revealed himself. His name is Joe Muto, he was an Associate Producer for The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel, and he has been suspended indefinitely from his job with pay. He does not think he will be returning, but he promises many more stories to tell.
1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  IFH beat me to the punch.
2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  He does not think he will be returning, but he promises many more stories to tell.
  
  Gawker: where the women are women, and so are the men.
3. Loki 13 years ago
  
  I am a weasel, a traitor, a sell-out and every bad word you can throw at me... but as of today, I am free, and I am ready to tell my story
  
  Trolling for a book deal? In addition to being the leading candidate for Biggest Douche in the Universe 2012, the dude's an attention whore as well. Bravo. I'm sure his parents are so proud.
SugarFree 13 years ago

Have you bleached your labia today?

WTF, India?
1. Heroic Mulatto 13 years ago
  
  Lysol started out as a douche.
  
  Jus' sayin'
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    So India's in the 1920s when it comes to vaginal technology? That explains a lot, actually.
    1. sage 13 years ago
      
      "hey sweets, lay off the curry please. Like, forever."
    2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      vaginal technology? So experts have "Vaginal Technologist" on their business cards? Better than analrapist, I suppose
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        My friend in high school always called her trips to the gyno "Getting a tune-up at the pussy mechanic." I guess the job has become more glamorous since the 80s.
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        I remember once in high school I went to my doctor for a checkup. The nurse, an older lady, was doing my vitals. Next to me was an instrument tray, and on that tray was an odd stainless-steel device that looked like two shoehorns hinged together. I picked it up and said, "what's this do?" She got really stiff and mumbled, "that's for women."
        
        Chupacabra 13 years ago
        
        Did you get to keep it?
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        Did you get to keep it?
        
        Sadly, no. Being that this was some years before I was sexually active, I'm not sure what I'd have done with it even if she had let me keep it.
        
        ("Here, kitty kitty . . .")
        
        nicole 13 years ago
        
        What on earth would you have done with it if you were? Not. Hot.
        
        Hilarious, though.
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        What on earth would you have done with it if you were? Not. Hot.
        
        Even now that I'm a sexually active adult with a normal complement of turn-ons, such a fiendish contraption would have no place in my repertoire. Just ick.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        You could have clank it open and shut, making duck noises.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        I once read about a woman admitted to emergency with vaginal lacerations. The staff kept pressing her to name the bastard who'd done this horrible thing to her. She finally told them it was ... herself. Specifically, she'd gotten carried away while masturbating with scissors. She said "No man compares to the feel of cold hard steel".
        
        That's a bumper sticker. Or a column in Vice
        
        Joe M 13 years ago
        
        I'm going to have nightmares about that visual for weeks.
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        I'm going to have nightmares about that visual for weeks.
        
        One man's nightmare is another man's fap! fap! fap!.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        "No man compares to the feel of cold hard steel."
        
        But, really, is she wrong? Scissors never hit you or tell you you have a fat ass. They never piss themselves in bed after they come home drunk from a strip club reeking of skank ass. Scissors never spent most of Thanksgiving staring at your sister's cleavage or gave you a Dutch oven after going on a three day deviled egg bender.
        
        Don't sell scissors short, ladies.
        
        Karl Hungus 13 years ago
        
        You could have clank it open and shut, making duck noises.
        
        I wish I'd have done that while I was still in the room with her. Anything would've been better than the awkward silence that marked the rest of the exam.
        
        Loki 13 years ago
        
        You could have clank it open and shut, making duck noises.
        
        Just to be clear you're referring to the device itself, right?
        
        nicole 13 years ago
        
        Just to be clear you're referring to the device itself, right?
        
        I was thinking it was better not to ask questions about that...
    3. Elspeth Flashman 13 years ago
      
      "vaginal technology" sounds like it has a series of super-smart chips in it, or something.
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        VagTech Industries, Building The Vagina Of Tomorrow, Today!
        
        Introducing FutureGina 3.2, now with custom ringtones and GPS! Is it a vagina? Is it a phone? It is an autoclave? Why not all three?
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        does it come with remote control?
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Voice commands are coming in the next model. Right now we have a hard time getting it to do as it's told.
        
        No reports of accidental fire have been verified.
      2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        for tracking indiscretions?
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        for tracking indiscretions?
        
        No, so the OnStar system can work properly.
        
        Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        I was expecting a "for tracking secretions" joke.
      3. Elspeth Flashman 13 years ago
        
        after reading SugarFree's description --- sounds like something from a future-fiction novel, like K.W. Jeter, where the advanced types look down on a woman without vaginal technology. (Why does it not surprise me that SF is all over this thread?)
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Aw, c'mon. It's two of my favorite subjects.
  2. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
    
    That's the weirdest thing I'll see today probably
  3. Pip 13 years ago
    
    "Lysol started out as a douche."
    
    As did MNG.
2. Joe M 13 years ago
  
  The powder commercial claims "No geelapan!" Yeah right.
3. Warty 13 years ago
  
  I thought the song in the background was Stairway to Heaven at first.
  1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
    
    I guess that depends on how much you like South Asian women.
4. Pip 13 years ago
  
  The important thing is that the girl in the ad is HAWT!
sloopyinca 13 years ago

I weep for our future.

From the comments:

tommco 8 hours ago in reply to Guest
You obviously missed my entire point. If someone sets up a perpetual yard sale right next door to you, and he isn't sanctioned by the law to do so, because of zoning, or because perhaps the neighbors didn't want him to, then by definition he is "unlicensed." Laws on who can sell food or alcohol, etc., and where they can sell them are for a reason, so there isn't chaos in our society. A government fee is besides the point.

Flag
Like Reply
1. Ted S. 13 years ago
  
  Fucking yinzers.
  
  At least Sid the Twit lost last night.
  1. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
    
    Wow, this should be interesting. There are a good number of Pens fans among the regulars here.
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      I'd laugh at them, but I'm a Red Wings fan. (Don't get excited, Warty. I'm talking about the hockey team not the reason you keep 4 women at all times.)
      1. robc 13 years ago
        
        I will laugh at all of you, for being hockey fans.
      2. Elspeth Flashman 13 years ago
        
        1. screw the Pens. 2. thank god some other sport is being discussed at H and R.
        
        Elspeth Flashman 13 years ago
        
        some other sport besides football, that is.
        
        Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        what, you don't like a 200+ comment thread on Tebow?
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Tebow no longer plays football. He's in the NFL now.
        
        Chupacabra 13 years ago
        
        I dislike the Pens, but their douchebaggery pales in comparison to Montreal and Vancouver.
        
        Fucking flopping, biting, rioting douches.
        
        Ted S. 13 years ago
        
        Sadly Bsyern M?nchen lost their chance at the Bundesliga title last night.
        
        As long as they can beat the diving team in the CL semifinals, however, I'll still be pleased.
      3. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Go Jackets! Go Jackets!
        Go...oh, fuck. Never mind.
    2. Ted S. 13 years ago
      
      I'm a Devils fan. I'm used to the Twenty-Nine Boring Teams hating us.
      
      Hell, they hate the Devils so much they got Bettman to put in the Fucking Trapezoid to keep Brodeur from handling the puck.
      1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        oh, I hate the Devils, but nothing like the Avalanche - at least of old Patrick Roy days.
      2. nipplemancer 13 years ago
        
        Not to mention all the annoying talk of the Trap during the 90s. You'd think after winning the cup 3 times in ten years NJ would at least get some respect in the league and the media.
        NJ over FL in 5 is my prediction.
        
        KDN 13 years ago
        
        Not to mention all the annoying talk of the during the 90s.
        
        Just the 90's? It's been going on perpetually since 1994, no matter how heavily it was used, and even during the Sutter and DeBoer regimes when there was barely any trapping to speak of as if like they invented the tactic. But they didn't, it might as well be as old as hockey: every one of Scotty Bowman's teams were trap heavy (that's where Lemaire picked it up), and it's used by every single team in the league to varying degrees (including your reigning cup champs, but nobody looks down on the NZT quite like a Bruins fan with memories of '94). Hell, they were regarded as a boring team from 98/99 - 2001 and they were top 3 in the league in goals each year. Stereotypes in sports die hard.
        
        You'd think after winning the cup 3 times in ten years NJ would at least get some respect in the league and the media.
        
        Nope. Lou's a vault so the reporters hate the team. Nashville fans seem to like us, but that's about it and I think that'll change when we sign Suter this summer (/dreamland).
        
        NJ over FL in 5 is my prediction.
        
        I'm giving it 6. Florida's been a tricky matchup all year, but the Devils are much better. I can't wait for the salty Ranger tears after round two.
  2. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
    
    Meh, Pens deserved to lose that, offside goal or not. And that's speaking as someone in attendance last night wearing the black and vegas gold.
    1. NoVAHockey 13 years ago
      
      Pens in 6. They decide to forecheck an entire game and not just period.
2. robc 13 years ago
  
  Hail Eris!
  
  Clearly he doesnt get the point.
3. Brandon 13 years ago
  
  "besides the point?"
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Keira Knightley is shy about wearing a bikini.

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

Probably thanks to assholes like John saying that any woman with less than a D cup looks like a boy.
1. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  She shouldn't be with a flat, sexy tummy like that.
  1. Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
    
    Word. She looks sexy as hell.
    1. Chupacabra 13 years ago
      
      She used to be horribly thin, but looks quite nice in that picture.
2. Karl Hungus 13 years ago
  
  Probably thanks to assholes like John saying that any woman with less than a D cup looks like a boy.
  
  From what I've gleaned, John would make it illegal - as in, your ass would go on a registry - to have sex with any woman with less than a D-cup, who's under 200 pounds, and who has ever - even once - taken a razor to her nether regions.
  1. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    I don't think he'd make it illegal - not very libertarian! - but he might succumb to his inner rent seeker and create a thicket of regulatory incentives to ensure a generous supply of curvy, buxom babes to subject to his MALEGAZE.
    1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
      
      John is not a libertarian. He's a social conservative.
      1. shrike 13 years ago
        
        I'm 10x the libertarian John is and I admit I fail the purity test.
        
        Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
        
        10 x 0 = 0
        
        So, yeah, I guess you're right.
        
        shrike 13 years ago
        
        Oh, believe me, I know. There are only two true libertarians here. Its an exclusive club not designed to win elections.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Okay, shrike, who are the two true faithful here? We've had MNG weigh in, now it's your turn.
        
        shrike 13 years ago
        
        I think he got it from my comment where I called Fluffy and Thacker the true libertarians and Episiarch the misanthrope. There are more I admit. I was just proving a point.
        
        I want a viable third party to pressure the two Teams. The LP is the only possibility there.
        
        If we had a parliamentary system the LP would be the power broker.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Needz mor Babar.
        
        Francisco d Anconia 13 years ago
        
        Of course, shrike believes the President is a libertarian.
      2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        I'll give John the benefit of the doubt.... nah, I'm just kidding.
    2. Karl Hungus 13 years ago
      
      I think John's love of earthy women has become enough of a fetish that he would advocate a pogrom - his "final solution" to rid the world of feminine women, and usher in a thousand-year reign of the large and hirsute. You're right, it's not very libertarian, but when you have a fetish clouding your judgement, your higher principles are the first to go.
  2. Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
    
    All standard disclaimers aside, her upper body does look disproportionately small in that photo.
    1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
      
      Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear UK) said something along the lines of "Take Keira Knightley. She looks like a bobblehead, but it works!"
3. waffles 13 years ago
  
  She's gorgeous. But I like D cups too. Why can't I enjoy both?
4. sage 13 years ago
  
  404 BOOBS NOT FOUND
  1. o3 13 years ago
    
    +double D's!
5. Joe M 13 years ago
  
  She has plenty of attributes to recommend her.
6. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
  
  If you chopped her in half just below the tits and threw away the top piece you'd have a decent start. She is definitely a butterface.
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    She is definitely a butterface.
    
    No way!
    
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0461136/
  2. Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
    
    WTF?
  3. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
    
    if only I could assemble a woman by taking the best body parts from several speciments! /serial-killer
    1. Ted S. 13 years ago
      
      Ronald Reagan did that 60 years ago
7. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Liz says many women have been duped into believing that if they dare to possess the creamy hips displayed by Marilyn Monroe in the beach scene in Some Like It Hot, they are somehow not trying hard enough
  
  No, it's when you display the whale hips of Melissa McCarthy that you're not trying hard enough. Unfortunately, too many women think Marilyn Monroe = Melissa McCarthy.
8. Heroic Mulatto 13 years ago
  
  Well, from the torso up, she does look like a slightly muscular 14-year-old boy with a ponytail.
  
  Jus' sayin'
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Terrorists in Court
Abu Hamza and friends may get the U.S. justice they deserve.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....oveLEFTTop

But thanks to the protections of English law, all were given a chance to contest their extradition to the U.S. in British courts and through the usual appeals process. When they lost, they took their case to the ECHR, claiming they might be sent to Guantanamo or rendered to a third country.

Happily, the European court decided that their rights would not be in jeopardy in American courts (where they would be accorded the presumption of innocence) or even in places like the "Supermax" prison in Colorado, where the worst terrorist offenders often go. That ruling is a triumph over a mountain of anti-American prejudice.
1. kbolino 13 years ago
  
  You fuck one goat...
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry or Michelle Pfeiffer?

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

Vote now.
1. Rich 13 years ago
  
  Based on *those* photos, Anne Hathaway.
  
  (You do mean for Romney's running mate, right?)
2. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  I was always partial to Julie Newmar, but of those three I'd go with Anne Hathaway.
3. robc 13 years ago
  
  Not the question you were asking, but I think Hathaway is a horrible miscasting.
  
  I dont believe in her ability to kick-ass at all.
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    We'll see, but I bet you're right.
  2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Agreed. They should have begged Kate Beckinsale.
    1. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
      
      That would have been an awesome choice, but I'm willing to give Anne the benefit of the doubt for now.
      1. robc 13 years ago
        
        She is too squishy and has no arm strength.
        
        She looks good in the suit, but only because you want to get her out of it. And that is fine, but its not what the role requires.
  3. kinnath 13 years ago
    
    I never would have imagined that Heath Ledger would have been outstanding as the Joker until I saw it.
  4. Trespassers W 13 years ago
    
    This casting will be a CAT-astrophe.
    
    /Eartha Kitt voice
4. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  Eartha Kitt for the win. I believe she can kick ass and that voice is phenomenal.
  1. Joe M 13 years ago
    
    That reminds me of this time on an airplane...
5. Jerryskids 13 years ago
  
  There is only one Catwoman.
Auric Demonocles 13 years ago

The median salary for women at the White House is 18% lower than for men, according to the White House's latest staff report.

What's the distribution of jobs by gender? President pays a lot more than First Lady (or hypothetically, First Man... First Sir? First Dude?).
1. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  I'm sure the outcry of rage and indignation from the feminist left will be deafening.
2. Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
  
  I'd love to see the left come out with a defense like that so that we could then apply it to claims of salary discrepancy more generally.
  1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    You guys are jumping on the less important part of that comment. What's the correct term for the husband of a current president?
    1. Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
      
      First Gentleman?
    2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      What's the correct term for the husband of a current president?
      
      First Beard?
    3. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
      
      First Beta?
      1. Ska 13 years ago
        
        I was going to say Little Bitch, but this works too.
      2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        First Lad?
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        First Laddie. I like it.
    4. AuH2O 13 years ago
      
      Lucky Bastard?
      
      Seriously, if I were the first man, I'd just go out to bars in DC during the state of union, nudge my seat mate, and go, "See her? Yeah, I tapped that."
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Show me your ass! Uh, nevermind. Sorry I asked.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....jokes.html
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  like this guy?
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    I'm afraid to look.
2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  What was that movie from the early 80's where some guy invented jeans where the ass cheeks were exposed? I remember it, but not the title.
  
  Or did I just come up with a great idea?
  1. kinnath 13 years ago
    
    There was a bad movie about that.
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      And a Prince concert tour.
    2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      So Fine, starring Ryan O'Neal..and it had Fred Gwynne as well!
      
      Truly a horrible, horrible film.
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Also had the chick who played General Kala in it.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Holy Fuck! And Jaws from the Bond movies.
        
        I may have to buy this for the awfulness in it.
      2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        ah! I saw this movie back in the 80s when my brother worked at the local video store.
  2. Anacreon 13 years ago
    
    "So Fine" with Ryan O'Neal
    
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083099/
    1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      Sloopy/Anacreon, you should feel very very embarrassed
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        I always should feel very embarrassed.
3. Pope Jimbo 13 years ago
  
  I'd take that over this.
  
  But in all honesty, if that was worn by some 19 yr old non-John gal, I'd like it way more.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Ryan Isn't a Randian
Refuting the Left's favorite charge against Paul Ryan
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....ian-bolduc

Ryan is no bigger a fan of Rand's than he is of just about any major defender of free markets. He did call Rand the "reason I got involved in public service," but in a specific context. Speaking at a dinner hosted by the Atlas Society in 2005, Ryan was praising one aspect of Rand's work, not swallowing her philosophy whole. "Almost every fight we are involved in here on Capitol Hill," he said, " . . . is a fight that usually comes down to one conflict ? individualism versus collectivism." He applied this principle to the then-hot topic of Social Security: "If we actually accomplish this goal of personalizing Social Security, think of what we will accomplish. Every worker, every laborer in America will not only be a laborer but a capitalist. They will be an owner of society."
1. Jerry 13 years ago
  
  Calling Rand the reason he got involved in public service? What?!
2. shrike 13 years ago
  
  Donald Trump, that great Romney strategist and supporter, has been telling Paul Ryan to STFU in the media on his Medicare privatization plan.
  
  (Which I find to be the single new GOP idea worth talking about.)
  1. T 13 years ago
    
    Why anybody pays the slightest bit of attention to Donald Trump remains an eternal mystery to me. The man is a buffoon who is probably in the red for lifetime earnings considering how many times he's gone bankrupt.
    1. plu1959 13 years ago
      
      Buffoon is the perfect word for him. The only reason I can figure why people who should know better invest with him is that they think they can cash out before the all the fizz is gone from his latest project.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

GSA spent week in Hawaii for one-hour ribbon cutting
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor.....on-cutting

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that the ongoing probe into the wasteful spending habits of the General Services Administration (GSA) has uncovered that several GSA officials were flown to Hawaii for a week to attend a one-hour ribbon cutting ceremony.

The announcement from the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairma is the latest in a slow drip of news on GSA's activities that will culminate in two explosive hearings next week. One of Mica's subcommittees will hold a hearing Tuesday, and the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee will grill current and former GSA officials on Monday.
1. WTF 13 years ago
  
  We can't cut anything from the budget, though. Not one red cent.
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

German Incest Ban Upheld by European Court

He's in jail, she isn't (!) and 3 of their 4 kids in foster care. Apparently it doesn't breach their right to a family life.
1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
  
  We all know a woman can't truly consent to a man. He probably, like, talked her into it or something.
  1. WTF 13 years ago
    
    Women have rights, they don't have responsibilities.
    1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
      
      Sadly, there are several people I know from college who have basically agreed with that.
  2. nicole 13 years ago
    
    Well, when you have a "a timid and withdrawn personality structure"...damn that's a pathetic excuse.
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      I think the excuse is that she's pathetic, nicole.
  3. Chupacabra 13 years ago
    
    They're all slaves to the MALE GAZE.
Bardas Phocas 13 years ago

Huzzah. Turkmenistan gets a hockey league. Why do authoritarian nations like Turkemenistan, Soviet Union, and Canada like hocky so much?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
1. Chupacabra 13 years ago
  
  And Massachusetts, too.
2. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  It might have something to do with the cold. Or maybe they just need an outlet to beat the shit out of each other.
  Lots of other nations like hockey a lot too. They just play on grass with a ball.
SugarFree 13 years ago

Finally, she can realize her dream of a swimming pool filled with cake.
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  Katie Melua has 12 million quid, and Field Music barely have a pot to piss in? Another proof we're in the end times
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

A Columbia University organic chemistry professor suggests dinosaurs could rule outer space

Iron Sky 2!
Ice Nine 13 years ago

Corey...said she met with Martin's "sweet parents" and prayed with them.

I wonder if Corey has met with Zimmerman's parents? Wonder if she found them to be "sweet" and prayed with them. Wonder what the parents' degree of sweetness has to do with anything in this case. Wonder how seriously we should take the objectivity of a special prosecutor in a huge case that says something like this in her public announcement of the charges.
1. o3 13 years ago
  
  corey's prosecuted over 50 homicide cases unlike say...ice nine.
  1. WTF 13 years ago
    
    Orrin truly is king of the non sequiturs.
    1. Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
      
      Come on, it's totally relevant. I'm sure she went and prayed with the sweet parents of every dead person she's represented.
    2. o3 13 years ago
      
      it was an appeal to WTF's emotions...and ice9's lack of experience. my works' done here now...
2. Ed 13 years ago
  
  It's not uncommon for prosecutors to be advocates for victims, and especially for this prosecutor...
  
  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012.....-advocate/
  1. plu1959 13 years ago
    
    Exhibit A: Nancy Grace. Who, AFAIK, has still not apologized for demonizing the Duke lacrosse players.
    1. o3 13 years ago
      
      nor casey anthony
3. plu1959 13 years ago
  
  I'm sure this has been linked before, but a blog called Wagist has some very inneresting stuff on the Martin-Zimmerman case, including a handy map of the locale where it all went down.
  
  I recommend their post on the supposed forensics "experts" who've claimed that the voice screaming on the 911 call could not be Zimmerman's.
  1. Ed 13 years ago
    
    Interesting but I think it's a little bit of a stretch to just assume that the police were committed to a vigorous investigation of Zimmerman. In fact, the lead homicide investigator wanted to press charges that next day and the first officer to question Zimmerman was from narcotics, not homicide (http://abcnews.go.com/US/trayvon-martin-investigator-wanted-charge-george-zimmerman-manslaughter/story?id=16011674), all glossed over in the blog's narrative of a Teflon Zimmerman to whom nothing sticks.
    1. plu1959 13 years ago
      
      Yeah, the guy would be a lot more credible if he just stuck to the facts and didn't try to sell the reader so much.
      1. Ed 13 years ago
        
        Though there is a lot of interesting stuff there. He did a thorough job demolishing the "audio expert" who obviously just took the whole exercise as a PR stunt.
4. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  Grandstanding. She'll be running for Attorney General of Florida next year.
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

The median salary for women at the White House is 18% lower than for men, according to the White House's latest staff report.

I always enjoy a good story of hypocrisy but I also have a nagging feeling that these stories ultimately do damage by, to a small degree, conceding the point that anyone should care what another person volunteer to trade his/her labor for.
1. sage 13 years ago
  
  This just tells me that too many fucking people work in the White House.
  1. Alack 13 years ago
    
    And they're all women, right? Fucking patriarch.
  2. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
    
    It takes that many to hold the world off from total collapse.
    1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
      
      Just today I almost destroyed the world on accident, but a helpful White House staffer made sure I came back from break in time to stop the countdown.
      1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
        
        You're lucky. So many of us never know the name of the Administration person who saves the planet from our potentially catastrophic misstep, or are even aware that it happened.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        She wouldn't tell me her name. They never do. All I have left of her is the continued existence of life on Earth.
        
        Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        did she fly? Or use the teleporter?
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        I'm not sure. It was sort of a Batman-style "disappear when I blinked".
sloopyinca 13 years ago

A Columbia University organic chemistry professor suggests dinosaurs could rule outer space, noting that dinosaur DNA could have travelled to nearby star systems on ejecta from the meteor impact that killed off dinosaurs on Earth.

Where is that crater again? It'd make a neat attraction.
1. Rich 13 years ago
  
  DNA could have travelled to nearby star systems on ejecta from the meteor impact
  
  Why should *dinosaurs* rule? Why not (highly-evolved) ferns?
  1. WTF 13 years ago
    
    Aince the impact was in the ocean, why not highly-evolved sea anemones?
    1. BakedPenguin 13 years ago
      
      Empire of the Trilobites
      1. WTF 13 years ago
        
        But anemones have tentacles - lots and lots of tentacles.
        
        BakedPenguin 13 years ago
        
        I don't care how much you like Japanese porn. Trilobites are a cross between cockroaches and the monster from Alien.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Sorry, Cthulhu is the H&R designated Tentacly Overlord. If the anemones want the job, they'll have to take it away from him in Thunderdome.
        
        WTF 13 years ago
        
        But who's to say Chthulu isn't really a highly-evolved, monstrous god-anemone?
        
        Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
        
        Sorry but someone else already has that title.
        
        JEP 13 years ago
        
        Isn't Cthulhu female?
      2. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Terrors and Trilobitations.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Is that another Jane Austen rewrite?
        
        Elspeth Flashman 13 years ago
        
        +1.
2. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  It's in the Yucatan.
  1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
    
    This is correct. Right where the dinosaur capital was when the home worlds launched their devastating kinetic weapon attack to suppress the upstart colony on Earth.
    1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
      
      We need to get some people out of this deathtrap of a gravity well.
      1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        My only regret is that I neglected referencing the high ground and Obi-Wan.
      2. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        That's for damned sure. When kinetic weapons are launched at us, we'll be sitting ducks.
        
        Soc Indv Sparky 13 years ago
        
        Like shooting fish in a gravitational barrel.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        The thing is they don't even have to be launched. An enemy can be even lazier and just drop them.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        Need to soligraphically diversify.
  2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Meh. Too much of it is buried. I would have expected a lot more long-term radiation causing a more permanent landscape.
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      65 million years is a long time. Axl Rose is 50 and look what time has done to him.
      1. T 13 years ago
        
        By that logic, the crater should have expanded to cover the earth in 65 million years since Axl is well on his way at 50.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Craters contract during prolonged bouts with alcoholism. That's just a basic science fact that someone even moderately intelligent should know. You sicken me with your ignorance, 20th letter.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        And here I thought the plague-infested rats I keep sending had finally worked. But, no, it's my ignorance. I could have saved a fortune on rats and plague bacillus.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        And they were tough, even after braising.
    2. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
      
      To be sure, the crater from the kinetic weapon was only the beginning of the attack, disabling the Earth's defenses. The rest of the attack, with lasers and particle accelerators, obliterated the most populated region of dinosaur Earth, what we now call the Gulf of Mexico.
      1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        I've heard speculations that breaking up the continents was part of a divide and conquer strategy.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        I believe this is correct. Other worlds in our system don't have the dramatic plate tectonics of Earth. Clearly the result of an artificial process.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        So the Moon was actually a trojan horse given to the dinosaur colonists?
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        No, that's the abandoned spaceship of the dinosaur's enemies. It's hollow.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Are you suggesting tidal forces are disinformation being spread by homeworlders?
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        No, the Moon's mass is real. The shell is made of a super-dense material.
Longtorso 13 years ago

MIT (new publishers of Thomas Frank's "The Baffler") bitches, the science is settled:

AT&T's Text Messaging Plans Are a Regressive Tax
1. T 13 years ago
  
  Damn, you beat me by 6 minutes.
2. 0x90 13 years ago
  
  Words, meanings, everything is negotiable.
3. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  The most active senders and receivers of texts are nonwhite, earn incomes below $30,000, and do not have a high school education, says a 2011 study conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
  
  Yeah, because they're not out of high school yet, you stupid bastards.
  1. nicole 13 years ago
    
    While that is true, the Pew study referenced surveyed only those 18 and older. So.
    
    Conclusions of MIT piece obviously still ridiculous.
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      Well, since over half of high school seniors are 18 and every one of them has a phone, it's still enough to skew the sample, IMO.
      
      And yes, the conclusions are idiotic.
  2. Loki 13 years ago
    
    The most active senders and receivers of texts are nonwhite...
    
    WTF does skin color have to do with it? Are they trying to imply that AT&T's text messaging plans are somehow racist?
  3. Zeb 13 years ago
    
    Well, maybe they should stop sending so many text messages if they can't afford it. How is this a problem?
Longtorso 13 years ago

Oh my: Obama White House paying women employees less than men?
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Biden: Al Franken is a 'leading legal scholar'
http://campaign2012.washington.....lar/475576
1. Killazontherun 13 years ago
  
  As chairman of the judiciary, Biden shitcanned any nominee of either party that he felt to be smarter than him. Hence, much of the stupid shit you have seen coming out of the circuits over the last generation.
  1. T 13 years ago
    
    We'd have got some smarter judges then, because against all available evidence Biden thinks he's a goddamned genius.
2. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  I have no words for this
3. Loki 13 years ago
  
  Was Biden replaced at some point with a parody of himself and we just haven't gotten the joke yet?
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Jobless Claims Jump; Core PPI Up, Trade Deficit Down
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47027476

The number of Americans filing for jobless aid rose last week to the highest level since January, a development that could raise fears the labor market recovery was stalling after job creation slowed in March.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 380,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, defying economists' expectations for a drop to 355,000.
1. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  "Unexpectedly"
2. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  I tried to reply to this post with the single word "Unexpectedly", but Reason considers that spam.
  
  DAMN YOU SQUIRRELS! GIVE US BACK THE "UNEXPECTEDLY" JOKE! IT IS A REASON CLASSIC!
T 13 years ago

Why tech writers should stick to writing about technology:

AT&T's Text Messaging Plans Are a Regressive Tax

Maybe TR should have asked somebody over at the Sloan School to explain these concepts to dudeboy before they ran this.
1. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  One striking reason why this is idiotic is that not even users with prepaid phones pay by the text any more.
  
  Seriously. Who pays by the text?
  
  It's a tax on stupidity if anything.
  1. T 13 years ago
    
    Between that and the stunningly obvious fact that paying for a service isn't a tax, I'm having a hard time taking Mims seriously on anything after this.
Fluffy 13 years ago

You know what? Fuck Ann Romney.

In the days leading up to this tweet, the political press was full of articles talking about how the Romney campaign was going to deal with Romney's 18 point deficit with women voters by sending Ann out to campaign.

Ann is a complete cipher. She's pretty, and likable enough, but she has done absolutely nothing admirable or distinctive. She married well. That's about it.

Anyone who could be swayed into changing their vote because Ann campaigns more is a contemptible swine.

This is not even a "Mommy Wars" thing. Ann Romney can't turn around and say, "Wah! Mean old feminists don't value stay at home moms! They're judging me and othering me!" because while being a stay at home mom who raises five kids is definitely work, it's not work when you have all the servants you want or need. No, Ann Romney, and no, GOP outrage machine, it's not work to marry money and stay at one of your multiple homes in multiple states with your fleet of cars and "manage the house". That's called "play".

Ann Romney is the "traditional values" version of a Sex and the City character. Asking us to identify with her struggles and pains is a joke. I realize she's had health problems, but I've never bought into that "refraining from laying down to die when you get sick makes you a hero" nonsense either.
1. robc 13 years ago
  
  it's not work to marry money
  
  [citation needed]
  1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    It's just worded incorrectly. It is work to marry money, but once the ceremony happens you're retired.
  2. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    True, sorry. I misspoke.
    
    Thanks for the correction.
    
    It's big-time work to marry money. It's not work to be married to money.
    1. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
      
      I'm friends with two guys whose families each have big-time wealth.
      We've been able to marry off one of my wife's friends to the first guy, who's in the 1%. Now we're working on the second, who's in the 0.1%.
      We're quite the king-makers. And we're assuring ourselves a lifetime of vacation-homes usage.
2. Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
  
  Do you happen to know for a fact that she outsourced the raising of her kids to servants?
  1. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    It actually doesn't matter. As soon as you can afford to hire servants, if you refrain from doing so you're engaged in play.
    
    I don't need to garden to eat, because I can afford to buy vegetables at the store. That means that the time I spend gardening by choice is play. If I turn around and talk about how much I identify with the problems of subsistence farmers worldwide because I garden, I'm a douche.
    1. Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
      
      By your "logic" I am playing when I homeschool my daughters because I can afford a private school or tutors. That seems pretty brain damaged.
      1. robc 13 years ago
        
        You are playing because public schools exist. Duh.
        
        Just send you kids off to the local PS and let them raise them during the day.
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        That does seem more worky, doesn't it?
      2. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        If you came around telling me I should admire you because you homeschooled your daughters - yeah, I would probably tell you to step off.
        
        If you were a millionaire socialite, and when someone said you never had to work a day in your life you got all butthurt and talked about how I was disrespecting all the work you did to homeschool, I would laugh.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        If you came around telling me I should admire you because you homeschooled your daughters - yeah, I would probably tell you to step off.
        
        So I can tell single mothers the same thing when they brag about how they work and raise their children (and DON'T NEED NO MAN TO RAISE MY CHILD, but please don't stop sending the child support payments)?
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        And if you came around telling me that homeschooling isn't work, I'd probably tell you to step off.
        
        So, let's say Romney were a tutor and therefore she got paid to instruct one student or a small group of students at a time. Work? But if the kids were her own, not work?
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        So, let's say Romney were a tutor and therefore she got paid to instruct one student or a small group of students at a time. Work? But if the kids were her own, not work?
        
        Sure.
        
        When Tony Stark works on the engine of one of his cars, it's play.
        
        It doesn't matter if other people do it as work. Or even if he once did it as work.
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        And if Tony Stark thinks no one else can work on his car as well as he can? Still play?
        
        Pip 13 years ago
        
        "When Tony Stark works on the engine of one of his cars, it's play.
        
        It doesn't matter if other people do it as work. Or even if he once did it as work."
        
        The envy is strong in this one.
        
        I work for multi-millionaires. I know their wives, kids and grand kids. That also means I know you are an idiot.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Fuck you, Pip.
        
        If you think this is a class issue, you're an idiot, or this is your first day here.
        
        Did Lillian Rearden "work"? If someone said, "Lillian Rearden never worked a day in her life," would that statement be true or false?
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Did Lillian Rearden "work"? If someone said, "Lillian Rearden never worked a day in her life," would that statement be true or false?
        
        The first question I would ask is, "Who cares if Lilian Reardon worked?" The second would be, "Did Lilian Rearden ever claim to be a working woman?"
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Let me rephrase: my first question would be: "Does anyone care, or is it anyone else's business, if Lilian Rearden worked?"
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Because the people leaping to Ann Romney's defense and damning Hilary Rosen most pointedly are NOT saying, "Who cares if she worked?" They are also not saying, "It's nobody's business if she worked!"
        
        They are saying, "Nuh-uh! She worked!"
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        It doesn't matter if you think people should care. It also doesn't matter if you think it's anyone's business.
        
        The question is whether or not it's true.
        
        It also doesn't matter what Ann Romney claimed.
        
        Because the question is whether the statement "Ann Romney never worked a day in her life" is true or false.
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        Wouldnt the same apply to every rich CEO? They dont have to "work" at their job. They could retire.
        
        Mitt Romeny is a perfect example of that. He never had to work. But if I said he never worked a day in his life, I would be wrong.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        If Mitt had stayed home with Ann for his entire adulthood and they raised their kids together jointly, I don't think I'd criticize anyone who said that Mitt never worked a day in his life.
        
        Or take him very seriously if he got all pouty about it.
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        So, just to be clear, being a CEO or governor or olympics chairman is "work", even if you are hyper-rich, but being a stay-at-home parent is only work if you are poorish.
        
        Keep digging.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        So, just to be clear, being a CEO or governor or olympics chairman is "work", even if you are hyper-rich, but being a stay-at-home parent is only work if you are poorish.
        
        Yeah, I don't have a problem with that.
        
        Sorry.
        
        Joe M 13 years ago
        
        I have a question: does this mean that even if she got a real job, it would be "play," since her husband made enough to support them without her financial contribution?
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, I don't have a problem with that.
        
        Sorry.
        
        You should be sorry, you are wrong. If you want to define work as "things you get a paycheck for", that is fine, that definition has some value. But it applies to poor SAHMs as well as rich.
        
        If you acknowledge the work of the poor mothers, then you have (by logic) to acknowledge the same of the rich, OR, claim that Mitt is just playing at being Governor or CEO or whatever.
        
        I dont think you have a defensible position the way you are stating it.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        If you acknowledge the work of the poor mothers, then you have (by logic) to acknowledge the same of the rich
        
        I don't think I do. It's possible I haven't come up with the right words for it yet, though.
        
        For a considerable time frame after my son was born I was working from home. And so I changed diapers, prepared bottles, yadda yadda yadda. So I've done it. And it wasn't "work" any more than eating or showering is "work".
        
        Maybe the real logic hole here (if there is one) is that I'm letting myself be emotionally blackmailed into acknowledging that middle class child rearing is "work", and the way to reconcile any contradictions here is just to throw that out. But I don't know, I'm still thinking it through while talking to you folks about it.
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        Maybe the real logic hole here (if there is one) is that I'm letting myself be emotionally blackmailed into acknowledging that middle class child rearing is "work", and the way to reconcile any contradictions here is just to throw that out.
        
        Like I said above, if you want to define work as "things you get a paycheck for", then Im fine with it. Its a usable definition. But yeah, you have to throw out your middle class child rearing thoughts.
        
        Plus, middle class? You count those richers rearing as work?
        
        Ill class warfare that out of you.
        
        /the word "richers" is a great way to immediately identify yourself as an idiot. Great word.
        
        nicole 13 years ago
        
        Maybe the real logic hole here (if there is one) is that I'm letting myself be emotionally blackmailed into acknowledging that middle class child rearing is "work", and the way to reconcile any contradictions here is just to throw that out.
        
        It's work in some way, or at least responsibility. Like having a pet. Do people go around complaining about all the hard work they have to do to feed the cat? I mean, someone does have to supervise small children. Could be a nanny, a babysitter, whatever, and that's work because it's not their kid and therefore they're getting paid to do it. But if you're doing it yourself, and you brought it on yourself...I don't know, it's hard to see it the same way.
        
        I remember when I was younger my dad once flipped out because my mom was going out somewhere with me and leaving my little sister home. "Do I look like a babysitter?" It was kinda unpersuasive, it being his kid and all. "No, you look like her dad, so watch her for half an hour."
        
        But I think you're right that this is just reflexive support-SAHM yammering. Having kids is a choice, and staying home to raise them is a choice. You made one choice instead of another. BFD.
        
        Evil Otto 13 years ago
        
        Having a car is a choice too. Does that mean the work you do to finance that choice somehow doesn't count as much?
        
        nicole 13 years ago
        
        It means getting my car washed isn't work. The work you do to finance the choice to have kids is the work you actually got paid for beforehand/the work your husband is getting paid for now. Or, in Anne Romney's case, the work of marrying rich.
    2. robc 13 years ago
      
      if you refrain from doing so you're engaged in play.
      
      Or you feel the maternal bond is imporant in the raising of your kids, and servants couldnt provide that, no matter how much you pay them.
      
      The analogy doesnt hold. You dont need to love your carrots before you eat them.
      1. T 13 years ago
        
        I can find you videos of women doing just that, though.
      2. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        The question is whether I should admire you for indulging your preference.
        
        "Look at all this work I did!" rings a little hollow when you didn't have to do it and chose to. And when you always knew that as soon as you needed any help you could instantly buy it.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Until people are conscripted to certain labors, all work is by choice, though.
        
        Sorry, fluffy, but I've got to disagree on this Ann Romney hate. What if she comes out and says, "I wanted to raise my own children because the state fucks up the kids it raises." How will you feel about her then?
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Hey, awesome.
        
        But I wouldn't think that made her any more admirable than if she said, "I wanted to eat chocolate ice cream, so I took some of Mitt's family's money and bought myself 20 pints."
        
        I would consider it a non sequitur to ask me to admire her for acting on a personal preference.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        I'm not asking you to admire her. I'm just wondering if you would then be indifferent toward her.
        
        Which is my overarching point: anyone not actually running for office should be neither admired or reviled. They should be irrelevant. The campaign that uses them should be ripped, as should an opponent that brings them up.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, I'd be indifferent to her, I guess.
        
        But to me the whole Romney campaign / Hilary Rosen dispute can be paraphrased as:
        
        Romney Campaign: "We will overcome our female voter deficit by sending out Ann, who is so super admirable that women will swoon when they see her and immediately decide to vote for us!"
        
        Rosen: "Ann is not in any way admirable enough for that plan to work."
        
        Blogosphere: OUTRAGE!!!!!111!!!!11!$*&
    3. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      As soon as you can afford to hire servants, if you refrain from doing so you're engaged in play.
      
      Sorry, but that remark makes no sense. You seem to be looking for a reason to justify your disgust with her.
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Marie Antoinette dressed up as a shepherdess and tended sheep.
        
        It's not work when you know you can stop whenever you want and hand it off to a flunky.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        So money bad? Is that the point?
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Not at all.
        
        Do you seriously think I would do a "money bad" post?
        
        The question is whether I should admire you for spending money (as opposed to earning it).
        
        Marrying someone wealthy and then staying home in one of his multiple mansions counts is not an activity that entitles you to ask me to admire you. Whether you have kids or not.
        
        Maybe I would admire you for staying home to raise kids if it represented some kind of struggle. But I have been in the position of someone who could hire assistance for childrearing but chose not to, and that colors my opinion of others who do the same. I know full well that having the safety valve of being able to pull the plug and get help whenever you need it really, really downgrades the "struggle". To the point of making it more of an indulgence.
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        It isnt about "admiration", it is about "acknowledgement".
        
        You dont have to admire her for anything, as far as I know, but acknowledging that raising kids is work isnt a huge step.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        Money not good?
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        So Mitt never worked a day in his life either?
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        Did she actually tend sheep? Did she herd them around and fight off lions* and feed them and shear them? If so, she was working. Or was she just dressing up as a shepherd and standing in a field?
        
        *or squirrels or whatever attacks sheep in 18th century France.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        It's not work when you know you can stop whenever you want and hand it off to a flunky.
        
        You just described the entire corporate/bureaucratic economic structure.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Deciding which flunky to hand it off to is work, man.
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        That is why HRM is one of the best jobs in America!
3. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  Why sugarcoat it fluffster? Tell us how you really feel.
  1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
    
    agreed, it needs more *HULK RAGE*
    1. Fluffy 13 years ago
      
      Man, that post doesn't even register on the rage scale of my posts.
      
      It doesn't include the word "cunt". And it only uses one "fuck".
      
      And I nowhere call for violence or revolution. Or wish for horrible painful deaths for anyone.
      
      This is actually a pretty polite post.
      1. Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        Needz moar "fuck".
4. shrike 13 years ago
  
  Nice rant. The Obama people told Rosen to shut her mouth. They smartly don't want people discussing Ann.
  
  Its similar to John Edwards and Elizabeth - run against the prick of the two and not the popular sick wife.
  1. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    Politically it's obviously idiotic to attack Ann.
    
    But now that one of today's topics of discussion out there in the world is "Poor Ann Romney, attacked by some evil feminist" I certainly think we can discuss whether we should feel like we're supposed to look up to Ann Romney.
    1. Evil Otto 13 years ago
      
      It's official, Tony stole Fluffy's password.
5. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Asking us to identify with her struggles and pains is a joke. I realize she's had health problems, but I've never bought into that "refraining from laying down to die when you get sick makes you a hero" nonsense either.
  
  Maybe not, but what's getting lost in the media hype over this is the fact that Rosen's remarks were standard left-wing Jezbian boilerplate. It had very little to do with the things you mention--that Ann Romney had a wealth of resources to draw on--and more to do with Rosen's bitter self-loathing.
  
  When women choose to stay home and take care of the kids, even when they're a "traditional values" version of Carrie Bradshaw, it invalidates everything that people like Rosen ever believed about women. Her remark was less about Romney's material advantages and more about general Mean Girls bitchiness.
  1. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    I think it's the reverse - that some people find it so urgent to defend stay-at-home moms, they're leaping to the defense of a stay-at-home socialite.
    
    "We must always oppose the feminazis and Jezbians!" is not really a very sound argument.
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      the defense of a stay-at-home socialite.
      
      [citation required]
    2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      "We must always oppose the feminazis and Jezbians!" is not really a very sound argument.
      
      Neither is "Ann Romney's never worked a day in her life" or "Ann Romeny had her servants raise her kids" or "Once you can afford servants to raise your kids and choose not to, you're not really working at raising your children."
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        BTW, I think I should specify here that if Ann ever hired anyone to clean her house, or do laundry, or cook, then I don't really consider her a working stay-at-home mom, either.
        
        Whatever grudging concession you might wring from me to the effect that "being a stay at home mom is work" only counts for moms who clean the house, do the laundry, and cook at least six nights a week.
        
        Sitting around chatting with your children and accompanying them to activities after someone else has cleaned your house and done the laundry FUCKING DEFINITELY IS NOT "work".
        
        And if that means I just "disrespected" women or devalued their work or "othered" them, I honestly don't give a shit. I will go on record right now and say YES, I completely devalue what you do, if you are in that situation.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        BTW, I think I should specify here that if Ann ever hired anyone to clean her house, or do laundry, or cook, then I don't really consider her a working stay-at-home mom, either.
        
        Whatever grudging concession you might wring from me to the effect that "being a stay at home mom is work" only counts for moms who clean the house, do the laundry, and cook at least six nights a week.
        
        So unless she's staying at home and doing all of the work, you discount her efforts? That's just silly, man.
        
        Besides, if she hired staff, she should be applauded for giving people a chance to work. She's a member of the productive class that grows the economy. And if I were to think of her for even a second, then I would think positively. Fortunately, I don't have that problem though.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        So unless she's staying at home and doing all of the work, you discount her efforts? That's just silly, man.
        
        If the question at hand is "How hard has Ann Romney had to work?" then I think that paying people to do all the actual work should be a factor in the discussion, yeah.
        
        If someone came to me today and said, "We will give you essentially unlimited funds. In exchange you have to stay home with your son. Someone else will come in to clean the house, and do the laundry. You can cook when you want, eat out when you want, and hire a cook if you want. All you have to do is wait for your kid to come home from school, and entertain him a little. Maybe an hour or so a day, before he goes off to do his own thing," I would consider myself retired if I took that deal. I would not consider myself to be "working". If someone said, "After taking this deal, Fluffy never worked another day in his life," they would be accurately characterizing what I was doing.
        
        Evil Otto 13 years ago
        
        Except you have no evidence that that was the deal.
        
        Just like in the Zimmerman case, you're once again making up details nobody knows to make the story fit your narrative.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        There is absolutely no way Ann Romney flew around the country to clean all her homes. Sorry.
        
        Do you really want to stake this argument on whether or not the Romneys ever had a cleaning lady? You're sure enough that Ann personally cleaned every home she ever lived in?
        
        Please.
        
        Evil Otto 13 years ago
        
        Cleaning and maintaining a single home is either work or not work, regardless of how many homes you own.
        
        By your logic, a person who rents an apartment but cleans other people's homes must be doing hyperwork.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Tulpa, if you produce evidence for me that Ann Romney cleans her own house, I will retract my statement.
        
        How's that?
        
        Accusing me of "making up details" because I am making the 99.99999% likely to be true assumption that Ann Romney doesn't mop floors is asinine.
        
        I also have no evidence that Donald Trump doesn't personally clean his own toilet with his toothbrush. I would not be "making up details" if I assumed that he doesn't do that.
        
        Evil Otto 13 years ago
        
        Fluffy, you're the one making the claim. You can't shift the burden of proof to me.
        
        Evil Otto 13 years ago
        
        I mean, if I said "Fluffy has never done any work in his entire life", is it up to you to disprove my statement?
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I mean, if I said "Fluffy has never done any work in his entire life", is it up to you to disprove my statement?
        
        If you knew that my spouse had $250 million, and I had never held paid employment - yeah, if I want you to think that I've "worked" I better be able to quantify it.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        If the question at hand is "How hard has Ann Romney had to work?" then I think that paying people to do all the actual work should be a factor in the discussion, yeah.
        
        None of us has to work any harder than our hunter-gatherer troll proposes. We choose to work at our individual levels based on our aspirations and desired lifestyles. And for some reason, you are putting one type of "work" on a pedestal and another type of "work play" you are beating to death.
        
        And sorry, but you're just dead wrong.
        
        rac3rx 13 years ago
        
        Well you also realize that Ann Romney raised FIVE boys, correct?
      2. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I have to specify that because Ann might never have hired a nanny or governess, but I personally find it highly unlikely bordering on utterly implausible that she never hired cleaning staff. She wasn't flying around the country to personally vacuum multiple homes every week.
        
        Evil Otto 13 years ago
        
        I thought the question was whether she herself did any work, not whether she personally did every bit of work related to the family.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I do not respect women who say they're doing important housewife work if other people do the actual work.
        
        Sue me.
        
        My rule here is, "Would I respect a man in that position?" If my answer is no, then I don't respect a woman either.
        
        I could find a way to respect a stay-at-home dad if he was actually taking care of the house. If you're a stay-at-home dad while other people clean the house, guess what? You're retired.
        
        Evil Otto 13 years ago
        
        1. The argument isn't about respect, it's about WHETHER SHE DID ANY WORK. I don't respect Michael Moore, but I'd be crazy to say he never did any work.
        
        2. You are again making up details with the stay at home dad example. In your example he is not cleaning ANY house. So of course he's not doing work. If the stay at home dad owns two homes and hires people to clean one of them while cleaning the other himself, he IS doing work.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        If the stay at home dad owns two homes and hires people to clean one of them while cleaning the other himself, he IS doing work.
        
        Maybe.
        
        But I also don't think Ann Romney did that.
        
        I'm sure she doesn't clean the homes she owns that are in different time zones from wherever she is at the moment. I strongly suspect to the point of near certainty that she also doesn't clean whatever house she's in at any moment in time, too.
    3. Evil Otto 13 years ago
      
      Fluffy, have you completely joined Team Blue now or what?
6. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  As a wise man once said, though, the only probably with marrying money is that eventually, you will wind up having to earn it.
7. Emmerson Biggins 13 years ago
  
  Anyone who could be swayed into changing their vote because Ann campaigns more is a contemptible swine.
  
  it's hard to win national elections without the contempible swine demographic.
8. DesigNate 13 years ago
  
  I'm sorry fluffster, but that is bald ass retarded. By that logic if she had gone out and gotten a job working in a factory she would just be "playing" because they are so rich that she doesn't need to.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Maybe fluffy can explain to us what the financial threshold is when one goes from "working" to "playing." We can call it the "Fluffy Line." Anyone whose husband's net worth or income is below it is considered a stay at home working mother, or their job is considered work.* Anyone whose husbands net worth or income is above it is considered to be "playing."
    
    And once the woman enters the workplace, if their family income goes over a certain point, they will be considered to be placing their needs selfishly ahead of their children.
    1. Fluffy 13 years ago
      
      Issues of work and play are complicated. It's hard to draw the line at enjoyment or necessity, because lots of people "love what they do", and lots of people face no necessity. But it's also hard to use the physics definition where anything that expends calories is "work", because then I "work" when I take a shit.
      
      At some point your definition is going to have arbitrary elements.
      
      I do know that if my wife made a billion dollars, and I stayed home and played with my kid in a house that other people tended, I would not consider myself to be "working". And I don't really see that this should be all that complicated for the rest of you to get.
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        And I don't really see that this should be all that complicated for the rest of you to get.
        
        Oh, it's not. Tell me if I've got it: A rich woman, once her husband's income crosses an arbitrary threshold set by someone else, ceases to "work" unless she personally cares for every piece of property they own and does all of the work raising her children free from outside assistance. Also, if she chooses to work outside the home, it's also considered "play" because it's not really necessary, even if she feels rewarded and/or what she does benefits another member of society. Moreso, a woman below this line is considered a working SAHM, even if she has a cleaning lady or tutor comes in once a week because she cannot do all of the work herself or lacks expertise in a particular area her child is struggling in.
        
        Christ Jesus, fluffy. You sound like a class warrior asshole.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Also, if she chooses to work outside the home, it's also considered "play" because it's not really necessary, even if she feels rewarded and/or what she does benefits another member of society.
        
        Hey, I didn't say that.
        
        As soon as anyone pays you for it, it's not play, even if you enjoy it.
        
        And if you're producing goods for your own consumption, that's also work. This part gets tricky, because that would mean that gardening is work and not play, and that even sitting around playing the fiddle would be work (since entertainment is a consumable good that you might otherwise buy if you didn't play the fiddle yourself), and that seems intuitively wrong to me. This is why I think issues of work vs. play are complex.
        
        But what's not complex to me is that you aren't a working housewife if you don't actually, you know, perform the work.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        And if you're producing goods for your own consumption, that's also work.
        
        Kinda runs counter to this: When Tony Stark works on the engine of one of his cars, it's play.
        
        It doesn't matter if other people do it as work. Or even if he once did it as work.
        
        You've gotten to the point of arguing against yourself now, fluffy. Maybe it's time to take a break.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        You clipped out the part of the paragraph where I acknowledged that this is problematic.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        But what's not complex to me is that you aren't a working housewife if you don't actually, you know, perform the work.
        
        By your idiotic definition, unless she is doing all of the work then she may as well be doing none of it. Do you not see how stupid this sounds?
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        To me, it's actually very simple.
        
        If I mow my lawn, that can be work.
        
        If I call up the landscape guys, wave to them when they mow my lawn, and write them a check, that's not work.
        
        Now, to a certain extent you can take issue with that and claim that I'm performing management work. I had to think about who to call to get the job done, I had to watch to make sure they showed up, and I had to pay them. And a great many people's paid employment consists of them doing just those things, on a larger scale.
        
        So this is another place where the work/play or work/not-work distinction becomes elusive and hard to articulate. But for me, dealing with one's personal household is only work if you perform the physical work. If what you do is pay people to work in your household, that's consumption. It may superficially resemble "management" in a productive work context, but it's not.
        
        Because if me calling a landscape company to mow my lawn is "work", then it's also work when I order food from a menu in a restaurant. Hey, I'm not cooking, but I still had to tell the waiter what to do, I still had to review the quality of the cook's output, and I still had to get my credit card out of my wallet, right?
        
        If it can be "work" for Ann Romney to hang around in a house other people clean with her kids, then it's "work" for her to take her kids to Disney World and stay in one of their hotels. Hey, she's got five boys to supervise!
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        You said upthread that if she got help doing the cleaning or child-rearing then she wasn't working at all, but rather "playing." Now, you're trying to change it by pulling out yet another strawman. Don't try to backpedal now that you've stepped in it without boots on.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Well, I know people who have children, and they have cleaners clean their homes and do their laundry, and they eat out 5 nights a week, but they ostentatiously hold back one or two activities that they do without help.
        
        I'm just not going to acknowledge that this means you're "working".
        
        In Casino, the Joe Pesci character makes sure he's home every morning to make his kid breakfast. But that doesn't mean he's doing the "work" of being a housewife. It's an affectation.
        
        So if Ann Romney (hypothetically) has a staff take care of her homes, but then melodramatically announces that when one of her boys tears the knee in his pants she personally sews a patch on with needle and thread, I'm going to discount that and call it the equivalent of play.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Well, I know people who have children, and they have cleaners clean their homes and do their laundry, and they eat out 5 nights a week, but they ostentatiously hold back one or two activities that they do without help.
        
        I'm just not going to acknowledge that this means you're "working".
        
        In Casino, the Joe Pesci character makes sure he's home every morning to make his kid breakfast. But that doesn't mean he's doing the "work" of being a housewife. It's an affectation.
        
        Are any of those parties claiming what they do is "work"?
        
        So if Ann Romney (hypothetically) has a staff take care of her homes, but then melodramatically announces that when one of her boys tears the knee in his pants she personally sews a patch on with needle and thread, I'm going to discount that and call it the equivalent of play.
        
        You've turned that hypothetical into an assumption, fluffy. And a pretty shitty one at that.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        My real assumption is that she does virtually nothing. That she doesn't clean, do laundry, or cook.
        
        I'm most likely to be wrong on the cooking front. There's a chance that she cooks, sometimes.
        
        I threw in the "if you refrain from doing so you're engaged in play" bit to try to account for all possibilities. I don't actually think she plays at vacuuming. But there was always a chance, so I thought I'd mention it, in order to discard it.
        
        And I also don't see that it should be as controversial as you're trying to make it.
        
        If I had an in-house chef, and one day I dismissed him from service, because I had decided that cooking was a lot of fun and I wanted to cook for myself, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to talk about cooking as "work" that I had undertaken. It would pretty clearly be play. That is why I said that if you can afford servants but choose not to use them for some activities, those activities are play. Play's got be something, or there's no point to having the word.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        If I had an in-house chef, and one day I dismissed him from service, because I had decided that cooking was a lot of fun and I wanted to cook for myself, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to talk about cooking as "work" that I had undertaken. It would pretty clearly be play. That is why I said that if you can afford servants but choose not to use them for some activities, those activities are play. Play's got be something, or there's no point to having the word.
        
        How about we leave that up to the individual performing the task? Or would you rather continue to be a judgmental prick, ripping into a woman because she's refused to agree (or deny, for that matter) with an unfounded claim someone has made against her? (I'll not address your grand leaps of faith in assuming you know what her home life is like, leaving that for another time)
      2. John 13 years ago
        
        Working or not, you wouldn't deserve derision. And there is more to raising a kid than "hanging out" even if you do hire a nanny.
        
        In the end, whether you are "working" is really a pretty subjective question and not anyone's business but yours. I wouldn't have to right to call you a bum. That is what you are not getting here. And that is what Rosin did.
9. Evil Otto 13 years ago
  
  Ann is a complete cipher. She's pretty, and likable enough, but she has done absolutely nothing admirable or distinctive. She married well. That's about it.
  
  So, like Michelle Obama?
  1. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    Yes.
    
    I find Michelle Obama to be a little bit worse, since she held a crony job doing fake work in a type of position that shouldn't exist.
    
    So it's not like I respect Michelle Obama, either.
    
    Guys, at some point you're going to realize that I don't respect a whole lot of people, and I totally discount the value of the contribution made by a great many people.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      So what if Ann did marry up and lived a life of leisure? How is that only just "little bit" better than working a crony job doing fake work?
      
      What was she supposed to do? Not marry Romney. Essentially what you are arguing is that any women who marries a rich guy is immediately one step above a thief. And that is just crap.
      
      Maybe Ann Romney is a terrible person. I don't know. But maybe she is a smart, nice wonderful person who happened to get lucky and marry a really rich guy. The fact that she married someone rich guy says nothing about her character. And you claiming it does just makes you a jealous crap weasel.
    2. John 13 years ago
      
      You can not respect people all you want. But you have to understand that when you make that decision based on stupid reasons, we are going to call you out for it.
      
      We were talking about Julia Louis Dryfus yesterday. What if ten years ago when you were single you had met her and she totally went for the flufster. And she wanted to marry you. And once you married her you were free to live on her billion and pursue your hobbies. Would you have done that? I would think so.
      
      So how does that make you any different than Ann Romney? The only difference I can see is that Romney got lucky and you didn't.
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Dude, try to follow along here.
        
        If I did that, if Hilary Rosen tweeted, "Fluffy doesn't work" I would have no grounds to complain.
        
        I would have no grounds to fill the blogosphere with outrage about how Hilary Rosen had disrespected me.
        
        Hilary Rosen's tweet about me would be true.
        
        Offering up all the effort I expended on my hobbies would not rebut Hilary Rosen's tweet or prove it false.
        
        And it would also mean that if Julia ran for President, if her campaign said, "We're going to send Fluffy out there to campaign, and that will help our poll numbers with men" it would not be outrageous if someone scratched their heads and wondered, "How is sending out Julia's idle kept husband to campaign supposed to help her numbers with men?"
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        "If I did that, if Hilary Rosen tweeted, "Fluffy doesn't work" I would have no grounds to complain."
        
        Maybe or maybe not. Just because you are rich doesn't mean you don't work. Rosen would still be a crap weasel. Who is she to say if you work or not, much less never worked a day in your life? Does she follow you around all day.
        
        Rosen doesn't know shit about Ann Romney. You assume she is one step above a thief but have no facts to base it on.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        If one considers what they do "work," then it is work.
        
        Or do you also think all "art" should be judged by a panel of experts (which Rosen isn't on work, btw)? If someone, anyone, finds value in it, then it is art.
        
        I'll use the same definition: if someone, anyone, finds value in it, then it is work.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        If one considers what they do "work," then it is work.
        
        Or do you also think all "art" should be judged by a panel of experts (which Rosen isn't on work, btw)? If someone, anyone, finds value in it, then it is art.
        
        I'll use the same definition: if someone, anyone, finds value in it, then it is work.
        
        Look, I understand that rigid social definitions of what is and what is not worthwhile "work" can end up unfairly excluding the work performed by people outside of the definition.
        
        But you're going way, way, way to the hippie bullshit side in response.
        
        If what you're saying here is true, if I won $100 million in a lottery and spent every day after that drinking beer and having sex workers come to my house to blow me, as long as I claimed I was engaged in "performance art" or that I was "studying issues of gender and class" or something else absurd, I'd be "working".
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        If what you're saying here is true, if I won $100 million in a lottery and spent every day after that drinking beer and having sex workers come to my house to blow me, as long as I claimed I was engaged in "performance art" or that I was "studying issues of gender and class" or something else absurd, I'd be "working".
        
        Sweet strawman, which is what your entire argument has been, by the way. But, in that unlikely hypothetical, yes, I'd consider what you do "work," and would not berate you, browbeat you or worry about you at all. It's your life, and if what you do feels like "work" to you, then who the fuck am I to judge?
        
        Thanks for making my point as well as I could ever hope to.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        OK, so this means that your overall argument is correct, as long as it's true that staying at home drinking beer and getting BJ's all day is work, and as long as it's true that no one should ever judge someone who's doing that and say they aren't working.
        
        Fine. I guess on that we can agree. If you so little believe in judgment that you would consider that work, then no one should say that Ann Romney hasn't worked.
        
        Bad Hilary Rosen! Bad! Bad!
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        My point, which you are intentionally ignoring, is that if someone believes they are working, then they are working. And there's no doubt that Ann Romney has raised what appear to be 5 clean, articulate and well-adjusted men. Judging by that, I'd say she's at least been marginally successful in her endeavors.
    3. T 13 years ago
      
      Guys, at some point you're going to realize that I don't respect a whole lot of people, and I totally discount the value of the contribution made by a great many people.
      
      IOW, Fluffy's an arrogant prick. But we all knew that already, and most of us aren't in a position to cast stones.
      
      I would say none of us, but there exists the off chance that somebody here isn't.
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Fluffy thinks idle people aren't working.
        
        The arrogant bastard!
        
        Fluffy thinks consuming services is not working.
        
        The gall!
DengFing 13 years ago

That Gingrich dude jsut looks corrupt as the day is long lol.

http://www.Get-Anon.tk
AuH2O 13 years ago

This Ann Romney thing has left Jezebel in a bit of a sticky wickett:

http://jezebel.com/5901295/twi.....n-her-life

For example, this comment:

I'm sorry, but you have to have a certain amount of economic privilege to be a SAHM. Most people agree wholeheartedly that being at SAHM or Dad is a job. But it is a vastly different job than working a nine-five.
1. AuH2O 13 years ago
  
  Also:
  
  It's more than a little sad that he's just given Ann Romney carte blanche to say whatever she wants and remain off limits from criticism. Here's the thing: disagree all you want with the way Rosen phrased her comments, but this isn't a case where family is off limits. It's not like Rosen is picking on one of Mitt's grandkids. After all, it was Mitt himself who chose to give Ann a central role in his campaign to win the delicate hearts of women. If he's going to rely on her for economic advice, then we should be allowed to examine her qualifications on that issue?which is what Rosen was trying to do, albeit in a bit of hackneyed way. Grrrr.
  
  After facing a torrent of hate coming her way, Rosen tweeted, "I've nothing against @AnnRomney. I just don't want Mitt using her as an expert on women struggling $ to support their family. She isn't." And she also spoke at Ann directly, "@AnnDRomney Please know, I admire you. But your husband shouldn't say you are his expert on women and the economy." Ann, of course, did not reply, but to be fair, maybe she's still figuring out how to use Twitter.
  1. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    Rosen seems to be saying that any woman who isn't one paycheck away from homelessness should just shut the fuck up about women's issues.
    
    Presumably, though, that would include her.
  2. Loki 13 years ago
    
    Ann, of course, did not reply, but to be fair, maybe she's still figuring out how to use Twitter.
    
    Right, she's a rich SAHM, so obviously she's too stupid to figure out how to use twitter. Also, is it a requirement that one must respond to every tweet you recieve? Maybe she hasn't responded because, "fuck Hilary Rosen, that's why". I knew Jezebel commenters were stupid, but holy shit, that' taking it to a hole 'nother level.
    1. AuH2O 13 years ago
      
      That wasn't a comment. It was the article.
      
      And here is where this helps Republicans: The last thing Jezebel and the leftist feminists want to go through again are the 70s "Mommy wars". That is what took feminism from the mainstream to the fringe.
      
      They, as enlightened sex-positive porn and mommy loving Third Wave feminists want this election to be about abortion and the government paying for birth control, not about motherhood v work. It even tears apart their circle because it becomes a big debate over whether staying at home is a sign of "privilege" (Modern Feminist Debate 101: Whoever has the most privilege loses the argument) and for a movement that is increasingly marginalized because large sectors bought into collectivist bullshit, any division weakens an already small movement.
2. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  "Whoops. Did we just piss off 10% of the eligible female voters? What we mean to say was..."
Spoonman. 13 years ago

Causality: The receptionist at my office told me "I graduated from a university with no math requirement" when I told him he'd need to multiply something by 0.3...
1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
  
  Did his 3rd grade have no math requirement as well?
  
  At least now you know to never bother hiring anyone from his school again.
  1. Spoonman. 13 years ago
    
    Perfectly nice dude who seems to be a fine receptionist and all, but what the crap did he learn at college if he can't multiply by 0.3?
    1. Brett L 13 years ago
      
      Step 1: open excel
      Step 2: enter original value in cell A1
      Step 3: type '=A1*0.3' in cell B1
      
      No math, just basic computer skills!
      1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Just google it.
        
        Joe M 13 years ago
        
        He didn't learn google either.
      2. Joe M 13 years ago
        
        He didn't learn excel either.
2. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  "I was told there would be no math"
  1. rac3rx 13 years ago
    
    Dear Math, I'm not a therapist. Solve your own problems.
3. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  Causality: The receptionist at my office told me "I graduated from a university with no math requirement" when I told him he'd need to multiply something by 0.3...
  
  What would possess you to hire a receptionist that is anything other than a hot-ass high school graduate with no aspirations beyond that job? Seriously, why?
  1. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    The ideal receptionist is a hot-ass high school graduate with aspirations beyond that job who is convinced that a promotion is just a few romps in the sack away.
4. AuH2O 13 years ago
  
  I took no math past Statistics (Yup, no Pre-Calc) and no math in college, and even I'm not that dumb.
  1. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    I read that as "no math statistics" the first time. Now that would be interesting.
    1. robc 13 years ago
      
      Is that like the no-risk risk analysis test from yesterday?
      1. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        I was thinking more along the lines of a course for social science PhDs. "How to lie with math-like words"
PantsFan 13 years ago

Mike Tyson: Zimmerman should be "tied to a car" and "shot"

http://www.examiner.com/crime-.....r-and-shot
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  but not raped. See, he's rehabilitated
2. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  What about bitten?
3. Evil Otto 13 years ago
  
  Just lock him in the bathroom with Mike Tyson's tiger and his firearm.
John Thacker 13 years ago

Best part about the nude maid services started up in Lubbock, TX is that the lady who started it is smart enough to offer a "regular discount to government employees and law enforcement."
1. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Apparently, the discount wasn't steep enough for the cops.
Brett L 13 years ago

One of our favorite recurring subjects

Female teacher (And cheerleading coach) arrested for having sex with a minor.
1. T 13 years ago
  
  So, female student or male? Any bets? I'm going with teacher and one of the female cheerleaders.
  1. robc 13 years ago
    
    Considering mug shots usually make people look like shit, she probably is pretty damn cute.
    1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
      
      The still for the video suggests she's kind of cute, though maybe a bit chubby.
      
      Certainly cute enough that she could be cleaning up at the local college if she wanted. Or her new husband.
  2. Ska 13 years ago
    
    Go on....
2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  Word around town is that that this is a hoax by a student that is too shit-scared to back away now. Apparently, she was arrested on the thinnest of accusations (a rumor, actually) and the school district went apeshit to the cops.
  She's gonna get rich out of this ordeal.
  1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    So some virginal kid was talking with his friends and tried to one-up someone by saying "Well I banged the hot social studies teacher", it got passed around a little, and she got arrested?
    1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
      
      When it's sex related one his considered guilty until proven otherwise.
    2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      According to a couple of teacher drinking buddies, one who worked at Hoover last year, the accuser is a senior. They aren't saying whether it's a boy or a girl, though. The cops have been grilling kids since Monday, and a lot of the interviews are without parents or attorneys present.
      
      They may just be spreading rumors, but it sounds like a witch hunt is going on.
3. Zeb 13 years ago
  
  Why are these stories always in the Daily Mail? Surely this must happen from time to time in the UK too.
Brett L 13 years ago

Scary pseudoscience on cleaning products

Vinyl is now a problem? Don't you think we'd have more and better evidence (on the scale of asbestos or lead) if a compound that widespread were actually harmful?
1. T 13 years ago
  
  How the fuck are the chemical from a vinyl shower curtain going to enter my body in concentrations sufficient to make any bit of difference? That is one of the dumbest things I have ever read.
  
  And I wouldn't accept a band-aid from the Silent Spring Institute if I was belleding out. Anything named after one of the pre-eminent pseudoscientific frauds of the last century doesn't deserve respect.
PantsFan 13 years ago

Since Bliss introduced men's waxing services in February 2011, Mr. Indursky added, their popularity is on track to double by the end of this year with Brazilians as the most frequently booked service.

Men's bikini waxing accounts for around 70 percent of the weekly business at Face to Face, a discreet salon in the Flatiron district of Manhattan with a predominantly male clientele founded eight years ago by Enrique Ramirez. "When I started, I was like, 'Nobody's going to come in and get this done,' and it's just kept growing and growing," Mr. Ramirez said. "In the past two years, it's been crazy."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04......html?_r=1
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  no surprise - here in Sydney around Mardi Gras time the salons do a brisk trade in what's called back, sack and crack
  1. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    No thank you.
  2. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    I'm a little torn about this.
    
    There's a pretty wide range of body hair growth patterns for men.
    
    I have absolutely zero back hair, almost no ass hair, and very little chest or stomach hair.
    
    So I wonder if the guy who gets his back waxed is being effeminate, or just moving back to a male norm for people who aren't genetically handicapped with excessive body hair?
    
    These gender issues confuse me so.
    1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
      
      He needs to just accept his neanderthal nature.
    2. John 13 years ago
      
      We really didn't need to know all of that.
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        LOL
        
        Just be glad I'm not posting pics
2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  it's just kept growing and growing
  
  I bet it did, honey.
sloopyinca 13 years ago

Well, it looks like Obama is gonna try to use the Ann Romney thing as a class war argument, rather than tell Rosen to back off.

Doubling down on stupid, I see. Hopefully the media will scrutinize the "work" Michelle did for the hospital.

Oh, and FTA: "Once I was in the state legislature, I was teaching, I was practicing law, I'd be traveling," he said. "And we didn't have the luxury for her not to work.

[citation required, Mr President]
1. John 13 years ago
  
  And don't forget just four years ago Dems, and Rosen in particular, were telling everyone that Palin was a bad mother for being governor. Now Ann Romney is a lazy slug for not working and raising five kids.
  
  And if raising kids is not "work" why do rich Dem women hire nannies?
2. Evil Otto 13 years ago
  
  Hopefully the media will scrutinize the "work" Michelle did for the hospital.
  
  LOL yeah right.
3. rac3rx 13 years ago
  
  Wasn't this doosh race agitating in Chicago, a la Jesse Jackson?
CE 13 years ago

I for one will lead the resistance against our new alien dinosaur overlords.
GILMORE 13 years ago

Argentinian economic minister accused of embezzlement = rest of government blames the evil private sector for daring to challenge the 'Public Will':

http://en.mercopress.com/2012/.....bezzlement

"He is the victim of corporate attack which objective is to delegitimize last October's popular vote," ...Lower House president Juli?n Dom?nguez stressed the accusations were an assault against democracy itself. "Throughout history the strategy of those who won't accept the popular choices is to disqualify those chosen by the people's vote in order to throw the administration and actions into a crisis,"...Buenos Aires Vice-governor Gabriel Mariotto also stepped into the spotlight to defend Boudou. He said the media charges were "an operation carried out by hegemonic groups."....The Vice-president also criticized the Argentine media conglomerate Grupo Clarin and the newspaper La Nacion for their coverage of the case, accusing them of behaving like anti-government mafias.""
John 13 years ago

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/.....sive-36952

They have shelved the Mel Gibson Macabee movie. What a bummer.
Thorbie 13 years ago

Is that a photo of Dino Riders? I used to have those toys.
Mickey Rat 13 years ago

"And of course if life from Earth was spewed into space by meteorites, then of course the life which arrived on our homeworld via meteorites must have come from somewhere else - somewhere perhaps filled with super-dinosaurs with iPads, satellite telly and Star Wars-style Death Stars."

It's dinosaurs all the way down.

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