A.M. Links: Navy Seals May Hunt Drug Trafficker, Mitt Romney Mocks China, Libyan Fighters to Syria

Ed Krayewski | 8.14.2012 9:00 AM

Navy Seals may be sent on a capture or kill mission targeting a Mexican drug cartel leader.
Mitt Romney mocked China's planned trip to the moon and talked up the success of the US Olympics team in London. Because apparently he is running for cheerleader?
On medical leave for the last two months, Jesse Jackson Jr.'s constituents finally know he is being treated for bipolar disorder. No word on whether the Congressman plans on vacating his seat though he's been at a mental facility for the last two months.
Surveillance video of an officer in Homestead, Florida, pepper-spraying people and kicking an elderly man unconscious was released. For justice. The state is prosecuting the officer and the video was released by the state attorney's office.
Monday saw another attack on a checkpoint along the Egyptian border after a military shake-up this weekend following the last border checkpoint attack.
Fighters from Libya's rebellion are joining Syrian rebels.

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Restoras 13 years ago

Jesse Jackson Jr.'s constituents are finally be represented in Congress the way all Americans should be represented.
1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  Other than at the ballot box, is there a means for removing a Congressman or Senator that is unable to perform the duties of their job? Because I worry that the people in his district would rather vote for a Team Blue black corpse than a Team Red white guy who is, I don't know, physically capable of doing the job.
  1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
    
    Worry about what? The whole idea, frankly, works for me.
    1. VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
      
      The only good progressive legislator is a dead progressive legislator?
      
      ***********Joke Disclaimer**************
      I meant dead before being elected, not as a result of 2nd amendment remedies.
      1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
        
        Well, I was thinking put away somewhere rather than dead but, yeah, you got the idea.
      2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        "The List" is getting longer and longer.
  2. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    That he is bipolar doesn't eliminate the drug-rehab hypothesis so many of us put forth. Bipolar people often self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.
    1. Pip 13 years ago
      
      That would explain the gastrointestinal issues.
  3. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    If he ain't in his seat he can't fuck things up more than they already are.
  4. nipplemancer 13 years ago
    
    Giffords stayed in office for a year before finally stepping down after getting shot in the fucking head. You think a little stint in rehab or the looney bin is gonna stop Triple J?
    1. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Let's not forget that Joltin' Joe Biden also has actual brain damage from his stroke.
      
      Apparently, its just not a factor.
    2. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
      
      Tim Johnson also had a stroke and was out for nearly a year.
  5. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
    
    I've got 2 words for you.... Strom Thurmond
2. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
  
  "No word on whether the Congressman plans on vacating his seat though he's been at a mental facility for the last two months."
  
  He represents the Chicago area - how could they tell?
  1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
    
    He hadn't tweeted for two months, I guess.
3. Invisible Finger 13 years ago
  
  Realize that the area represented by Jesse Jackson Jr. was previously represented by Mel Reynolds and Gus Savage.
  
  So they've been consistently electing mental defectives in that area for decades.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Dependency Nation: According to data from the U.S. Census's Survey of Income and Program Participation, almost 110 million Americans received some welfare benefit in 2011.
http://www.humanevents.com/201.....cy-nation/
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  de Tocqueville would be proud.
2. John 13 years ago
  
  That is a feature not a bug to the Obama administration. And the proper term is future progressive voters not welfare recipients. RACIST!!
  1. o3 13 years ago
    
    Most people who depend on welfare are White and live in suburbs or rural areas, a recent study shows. The findings are contrary to the popular belief that most welfare recipients are unemployed, inner-city minorities whose families have gotten public assistance for generations.
    
    The majority of Americans who receive welfare checks are not Black. The majority of those who receive welfare checks are White people
    http://powerisknowledge.newsvi.....dy-reveals
  2. wareagle 13 years ago
    
    of course, it's a feature and has been from the start. The way things have panned out is not a bad outcome, it is the intent. That is who this man is.
    
    Maybe he needs to win again so the empire can crash and some rebuilding can begin.
    1. Whiterun Guard 13 years ago
      
      Need or not, he is going to.
  3. Jersey Patriot 13 years ago
    
    No one knows more about hand-outs than a do-nothing Pentagon bureaucrat.
3. thom 13 years ago
  
  What is that, about a third of Americans? Progressives have a long hill to climb if they want to get that to their target, which is 100%.
  1. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    Come now, thom. Their target is only 99%.
    1. thom 13 years ago
      
      Yeah you're right. They do need somebody to pay for it all.
4. Stormy Dragon 13 years ago
  
  Take this figure with a grain of salt. If your kid eats school lunches, for example, they're considered a welfare recipient by the definition of that report.
  1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
    
    "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011,"
    
    Not to mention these figures reported by Charles Hugh Smith, the first two of which weren't even included in the report:
    
    Social Security (SSA) has 61 million beneficiaries as of March 2012.
    
    Medicare has 49 million beneficiaries as of November 2011.
    
    Medicaid has over 50 million beneficiaries; another source puts the current number at 58 million.
    
    Kaiser Family Foundation says roughly 7 million "dual-eligibles" who receive both Medicaid and Medicare, so let's use the data point of 50 million Medicaid-only recipients.
    
    We can assume that most people drawing Medicare benefits also draw Social Security, while the 8+ million drawing disability from Social Security are also covered by Medicaid.
    
    However you slice it, there are roughly 60 million people drawing Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid and another 50 million Medicaid recipients for a total of 110 million people drawing significant entitlements.
    
    http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.....e5-12.html
    1. Stormy Dragon 13 years ago
      
      Again, given that many people pay far more into Social Security than they get out, is it accurate to describe them as a "welfare recipient"?
      1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        Again, given that many people pay far more into Social Security than they get out
        
        And many people pay far less into it than they get out. So what's your point?
        
        Stormy Dragon 13 years ago
        
        The same thing is true about car insurance. Most people pay in more than they get out and some people get far more out than they pay in. It would still be odd to describe someone as a "welfare recipient" for filing a claim on their totalled car.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        Most people pay in more than they get out and some people get far more out than they pay in. It would still be odd to describe someone as a "welfare recipient" for filing a claim on their totalled car.
        
        All this 888 of yours is irrelevant to the statistics reported above. "Many people" does not make for a substantive argument.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        And here's the other fact--when 115 million full-time workers are supporting 110 million welfare recipients (which is far higher when you throw in food stamp recipients), that system is eventually going to crash.
        
        Trying to reframe this as a "grain of salt" issue, particularly with your stupid "many people" rebuttal, shows that you are as incapable of doing basic math as Tony.
        
        Stormy Dragon 13 years ago
        
        And here's the other fact--when 115 million full-time workers are supporting 110 million welfare recipients
        
        See this is my point. You're acting like there's one group of people "full time workers" that does nothing but but taxes and there's a completely distinct group "welfare recipient" that does nothing but live off money from the government. The way the report defines "welfare recipient", most people in this country are in both classes. If you send a kid to school, the American Conservative is counting you as a welfare recipient because you're getting a few bucks a week in lunch subsidies.
        
        Stormy Dragon 13 years ago
        
        You're basically engaging in a redefinition fallacy. You start with a statistic where "welfare recipient" means "person receiving any money from the government" and then mid argument switch to taking "welfare recipient" to mean "person whose primary source of income is government subsidy".
John 13 years ago

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....-2012.html

Ryan should be the Ross Perot of 2012. Apparently Postrel didn't get the memo that Ryan is a TARP voting communist. No wonder they ran her off from Reason.
1. Randian 13 years ago
  
  Only 83 days, 10 hours, 55 minutes left of John explicitly not pimping for the Republicans.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    I agree with you guys and tell you that the logic thing to do is vote for Obama. How is that pimping for Republicans? Shouldn't I be telling you to vote for Romney to do that?
    1. Randian 13 years ago
      
      Are you going to be like this for the next 83 days?
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        Pimping Obama? Maybe. The guy is starting to grow on me. You guys have finally convinced me. The Ryan pick is probably the last straw. An Obama vote looks like the logical conclusion to me.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Let's just lay this out in explicit terms, John. You think you are "tweaking" us by pretending that we are Obama supporters, and therefore we are "convincing" you to be as well.
        
        The illogic of that position has been demonstrated, however, insofar as criticism of one team does not mean that we pledge fealty to the other.
        
        It is a total shame that something so obvious had to be elucidated, but given that you persist in this course of conduct, this is going to be the response you get day after day.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I am not saying you are Obama supporters. I am saying maybe we all should be if you don't want to just cast a symbolic vote for Johnson. If Ryan is that bad on the budget, then what does Romney Ryan offer over Obama? Obama is at least good on gay rights, what are Romney and Ryan good on?
        
        You have made your case Randian. You win. Ryan is a big spending corrupt Republican and Romney and Ryan won't cut the deficit a single dollar. Given that, what reason is there not to at least hope Obama wins even if you don't vote for him?
        
        You win, why is that such a bitter pill for you to swallow?
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        The illogic of that position has been demonstrated, however, insofar as criticism of one team does not mean that we pledge fealty to the other.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I am not saying you pledge fealty to the other. I am just saying that you win and the implication of that is that we are better off with Obama winning than we would be with Romney winning.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        The illogic of that position has been demonstrated, however, insofar as criticism of one team does not mean that we pledge fealty to the other.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Admitting the truth is not pledging fealty. You win Randian. Am I wrong is saying Ryan is horrible and wants to bankrupt the country?
        
        wareagle 13 years ago
        
        John,
        I may join you. A vote for Obama is a vote for the logical conclusion of the crash of empire. A vote for Romney will lead to the same conclusion but not as fast.
        
        When in doubt, tear the band-aid off quickly rather than slowly.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        There is that too wareagle. But if you honestly believe Romney is no better than Obama on the budget, then Obama is the better candidate. How can he not be?
        
        wareagle 13 years ago
        
        I'm not saying Romney is no better. I am saying the system is so fucked up that a crash appears inevitable at some point. The question is whether it happens sooner rather than later. The institutional rot in DC spans both sides of the aisle. Hard to imagine that Mitt's business acumen can overcome the most craven 535 individuals in existence.
        
        Pip 13 years ago
        
        Here's my concern about Romney, if he is elected, the concerts at the Whitehouse will suck. Obama books great acts.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        If the race is close in my state I'm voting for Obama. I want him and the Dumbocrats to own the apocalypse that's coming. Romney/Ryan won't do anything significant about the deficit or the debt.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
        
        Which state, Restoras? (just curious)
        
        Since things are very unlikely to be close in the (ironically named) Constitution State, I'll probably cast that symbolic vote for Guv'nah Gary.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        symbolic vote
        
        Would you do me a favor and stop calling it that?
        
        By its own terms, every vote is a "symbolic vote", because no one vote will change the outcome of the election.
        
        Given that votes are an expression of who you want to be President, none of them are symbolic.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
        
        I'll stop calling that as a special favor to you, princess.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        NY. I don't expect it to be close.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Another valid point Retsoras. Randian finally wins an argument and it makes him angry. Go figure.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Randian finally wins an argument
        
        An argument is premises in support of a conclusion.
        
        What conclusion did I assert, John?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        What conclusion did I assert, John?
        
        That Ryan is a horrible corrupt stateist TARP voting Republican. The rest follows from that.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        That Ryan is a horrible corrupt stateist TARP voting Republican. The rest follows from that.
        
        You think another conclusion ("Vote for Obama") that is mired in fallacy follows from the first conclusion?
        
        Did you get your law license from a Cracker Jack box?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I never said "vote for Obama". I said that meant Obama was the better candidate. Sure vote for Johnson. But if you can't for some reason or want to vote for a candidate who has a chance of winning, the logical thing is to vote for Obama.
        
        VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
        
        I want him and the Dumbocrats to own the apocalypse that's coming.
        
        What on earth makes you think that will happen?
        
        Statist scum always blame there failures on some shifty wreckers. When they run out of domestic ones to blame they shift to furren ones.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Statist scum always blame there failures on some shifty wreckers. When they run out of domestic ones to blame they shift to furren ones.
        
        They may try to lay the blame elsewhere, but should the finacial/fiscal/economic crash that's coming occur on the watch of whomever is the current occupant of the White House, that party will get the blame regardless of efforts to shift it elsewhere.
        
        Azathoth!! 13 years ago
        
        They may try to lay the blame elsewhere, but should the finacial/fiscal/economic crash that's coming occur on the watch of whomever is the current occupant of the White House, that party will get the blame regardless of efforts to shift it elsewhere.
        
        Really? The party that literally tore the country in half over slavery, that instituted Jim Crow, segregation, that founded the Klan calls the party of Lincoln 'racists' and the party of Lincoln grovels and asks how they can redeeem themselves.
        
        VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
        
        The funny thing about John's facetiousness is that it is the Obama campaign's message.
        
        Sure we suck but look how much worse those guys are.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        VG,
        
        That is the only conclusion you can make based on what I read here.
        
        VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
        
        One of the funny things about some people that post here is that they consider Team Member to be the highest insult and yet are rabidly Team Orange.
        
        RBS 13 years ago
        
        One of the funny things about some people that post here is that they are rabidly Team Retard.
        
        Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        herp-a-derp
        
        VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
        
        Definitely,
        
        Like the people that think all statists are equally bad and their comrades that think a collapse of society will lead to libertopia.
        
        Emmerson Biggins 13 years ago
        
        We'd appreciate it if you'd consider voting Libertarian.
    2. generic Brand 13 years ago
      
      Enough with this canard, John. People will vote how they want to vote. Obama's bad, Romney's bad. As libertarians we are fortunate to have Gary Johnson running or the choice of writing in Ron Paul. We also have the choice of NOT VOTING. Stop shilling for Romney or fake-shilling for Romney via shilling for Obama.
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        How is "VOTE FOR OBAMA" shilling for Romney?
        
        generic Brand 13 years ago
        
        It's so over the top in its absurdity that it seems like you are just doing it to guilt trip a few people into voting Romney. That seemed obvious when you made such a big deal about attacking someone who preaches smaller government but votes big government (Ryan).
        
        This may be news to you, but we are not voting for Vice President; we are voting for President. Yes, we would like the VP to be capable should the president be unable to continue, but if that was the case, your "Vote for Obama" shtick makes even less sense since Biden may legally be retarded.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        If it is true that Romney is as bad or worse on the budget than Obama, than Obama is the better candidate. That is all I am saying.
        
        generic Brand 13 years ago
        
        If it is true that Romney is as bad or worse on the budget than Obama, than Obama is the better candidate. That is all I am saying.
        
        But what I am saying, John, is that you are subscribing to a false dichotomy, and I don't understand why. Read my whole post above. Obama's bad; Romney's bad. BUT THEY AREN'T THE ONLY CHOICES. Hell, vote for Jill Green or vote for the Constitution Party's candidate if your state has it. As libertarians, I am not saying we have to give deference to Big L's candidate, but we should be above the inanity that says there are "ONLY TWO CHOICES IN AN ELECTION"?
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        But what I am saying, John, is that you are subscribing to a false dichotomy, and I don't understand why.
        
        He is doing it on purpose.
        
        John swore up and down that he was not going to go in the tank for Republicans this year.
        
        So, instead, he's playing an immature game where he is going to be as absurd as possible. That way, he can say that he always "advocated" voting Democratic.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        That way, he can say that he always "advocated" voting Democratic.
        
        I have never said that. I used to advocate for Republicans. But you guys convinced me. You are right, the Republicans are worse.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        I have never said that. I used to advocate for Republicans. But you guys convinced me. You are right, the Republicans are worse.
        
        I'll allocate some money from the Monocle Fund to rent a Bobcat for you, John.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Why does someone admitting you are right drive you so crazy Randian?
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Why does someone admitting you are right drive you so crazy Randian?
        
        Again, you are attributing something to me I never said.
        
        Which makes you a hysterical liar.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Again, you are attributing something to me I never said.
        
        Okay. What did you not say? Isn't it your position that Romney and Ryan are corrupt statists who are no better than Romney?
        
        Is that not your position? Do you think Romney and Ryan are better than Obama? If so, say so and tell me why. I will admit my mistake. But I thought that is what you are saying.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        But Johnson isn't going to win. And we are going to have to live with either Obama or Romney. And you guys have made the case that Obama will be a better result. Look you won. Romney and Ryan are horrible. They will spend just like Obama, get us into more wars, and not even be good on gay rights. Better to root for Obama to win. Right?
        
        Joe R. 13 years ago
        
        If it is true that Romney is as bad or worse on the budget than Obama, than Obama is the better candidate. That is all I am saying.
        
        Not really. There are also SCOTUS nominations to consider. It's too close to call, really.
        
        Oh wait, no it isn't. Gary Johnson is running.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Gary Johnson isn't a valid option to John because something something made up bullshit on 'symbolic' votes
        
        VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
        
        This may be news to you, but we are not voting for Vice President; we are voting for President.
        
        If this turns into an ideas election which it very may, we'll be choosing between more socialism-less freedom on one hand and more freedom smaller government on the other.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        If this turns into an ideas election which it very may, we'll be choosing between more socialism-less freedom on one hand and more freedom smaller government on the other.
        
        So you'll be voting for Johnson too?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        No Randian. He may want to vote for someone who has a chance at getting more than 5%.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        No Randian. He may want to vote for someone who has a chance at getting more than 5%.
        
        Is it that important that he be popular?
        
        What if it was 10%? 20%?
        
        What is the cutoff number here?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Because some people don't want to make symbolic votes Randian. There is nothing wrong with that. And you have made a pretty good case that Obama is the better choice. So there is nothing wrong with voting for Obama if you don't feel like making a protest vote.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        Because some people don't want to make symbolic votes Randian.
        
        No such thing.
        
        There is nothing wrong with that.
        
        I guess you are right if you value being on the 'winning team'. Given that, I guess your McCain vote in 2008 was largely 'symbolic' as well, which makes you a hypocrite.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I never said there was anything wrong with symbolic votes Randian. I just said some people don't like to or want to cast them. Cast all of the symbolic protest votes you want. But that doesn't mean everyone is wrong not to cast them with you.
        
        Enjoy Every Sandwich 13 years ago
        
        It's a symbolic vote no matter who I vote for. Have you forgotten how our electoral system works, John?
        
        What I do-or refrain from doing-has absolutely no bearing on whether Obama or Romney carries the state I live in.
        
        Pip 13 years ago
        
        Yes there is. I wrote in Hillary Clinton in 2008 as a symbolic protest of both Obama (who assumed all of Hillary's positions after she dropped out) and McCain, who is a loony.
        
        The Hammer 13 years ago
        
        John sure is butthurt that we are not all falling in line with Romney.
        
        wareagle 13 years ago
        
        What is the cutoff number here?
        -----------------
        
        a number that comes close to either winning or forcing a change in the system. As it is, 3rd parties do neither. Maybe a European-style parliament would serve us better by forcing whomever has a plurality to join with another group to create a coalition that can govern.
        
        But we don't have that type system; we can have divided govt and some good things have come of that, like welfare reform. But that system requires folks who can look beyond party and will accept that they won't get everything they want.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        I don't see me getting anything I want out of the Romney/Ryan ticket.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I don't see me getting anything I want out of the Romney/Ryan ticket.
        
        And that is precisely why you should be happier if Obama wins.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        And that is precisely why you should be happier if Obama wins.
        
        Troll on, little Trollster.
        
        wareagle 13 years ago
        
        depends on what you want. If you seek change, you won't get it with Johnson since he won't win. If you seek the fast track to the end of empire, Obama is the right bet. Mitt slows down the pace but the inertia may well be too great to overcome.
        
        If the crash is inevitable, then do it sooner rather than later. Maybe as a bonus, liberalism will be eternally discredited though I imagine its adherents will say govt did not do enough and plenty of folks will buy that.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        wareagle, I wonder if there is a possibility that when the collapse does come the country fractures. Red areas resent Blue and vice versa. Could get ugly.
        
        wareagle 13 years ago
        
        restoras,
        in limited ways, you are seeing that. WI is a prime example; Walker defeated the recall effort because 1) what he's doing seems to be working and 2) non-public employees far outnumber the union leeches and the former did not like how its money was being spent.
        
        Another example could be in CA, mostly at the local level. You've seen some cities declare bankruptcy and the reason always comes back to unsustainable pension liabilities, but no one in Sacramento is willing to accept this malicious truth.
        
        perlhaqr 13 years ago
        
        He may want to vote for someone who has a chance at getting more than 5%.
        
        Why? Do you get a special cracker jacks prize if you voted for the winning team? A free pint of beer at the pub? Anything? No? Then why on earth would you base your choice on "I think this guy might win" rather than "I actually want this guy to win"?
        
        Hell, if you think the one guy is already going to win, doesn't it then make even more sense to vote for the guy you really want to win? I mean, if it already doesn't matter anyway...
        
        Whiterun Guard 13 years ago
        
        It's like when Luis Vitton pays Lindsay Lohan to carry a Dolce and Gabana handbag*.
        
        *I have no idea if those are actual handbag manufacturers, I only remember the salient part of the story, not the details that are alien and useless to me.
      2. robc 13 years ago
        
        the choice of writing in Ron Paul
        
        IIRC, a minority of states (including mine) accept write-in votes for the presidency.
        
        But I do have Johnson to vote for.
  2. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
    
    Maybe they can build a countdown clock into reasonable.
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      I'm as excited about the prospect of a "Countdown to Election" clock as I am about a "Countdown to Mayan Doomsday" clock, as they are equally empowering.
      1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        sometimes you have to lose to win... er, wut?
      2. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
        
        http://www.tshirtpowwow.com/wp.....fb0300.jpg
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        I'll see your t-shirt and raise you a video
        
        Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
        
        It's just not the same without the hair
2. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
  
  Postrel writing this would have never happened under Postrel's watch.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    +100
  2. Generic Stranger 13 years ago
    
    Drink!
  3. Lucy Steigerwald 13 years ago
    
    *slow clap*
3. Jerry on the road 13 years ago
  
  I didn't mind Obama winning, but with the SC decision on Obamacare I don't know if a Republican majority in Congress is enough to get rid of the law under a 2nd Obama term.
  1. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    ObamaCare isn't going anywhere, regardless. The Repubs aren't getting 60 Senators no matter what.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      They don't need 60 Senators. It was passed as a budget measure through reconciliation. It can be repealed the same way. And there would be nothing the Dems could do about it.
      1. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Only part of it can be repealed via reconciliation, the amendment that was passed via reconciliation (I believe).
        
        And even that would require the Republican leadership to grow an unprecedented spine and do it over Dem objections.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I think the demand for them to repeal it will put enough fear in them to do it. If they don't repeal it, the Republican Party will revolt. That will put the fear of God into them.
        
        And it all can be done through reconciliation. What are the Dems going to do? Sue? The courts would never want to get in the middle of that.
        
        # 13 years ago
        
        Right, only budgetary parts can be gotten rid of that way. So the taxes and expenditures and the mandate fine.
        
        But the community rating, guaranteed issuance and host of other regulations would still be on the books, and the first two would completely fuck up the individual market if left to be there alone.
        
        So it would be a game of chicken with the dems.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
        
        Right, only budgetary parts can be gotten rid of that way. So the taxes and expenditures and the mandate fine.
        
        But the community rating, guaranteed issuance and host of other regulations would still be on the books, and the first two would completely fuck up the individual market if left to be there alone.
        
        If the former goes away, the latter would have to as well. With no funding mechanism, the law becomes unenforceable.
        
        Entropy Void 13 years ago
        
        Waivers and executive orders ... anybody remember those?
    2. Fatty Bolger 13 years ago
      
      John is right. They'll only need 50.
  2. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    It's absolutely certain that wouldn't be enough.
    
    It's almost certain that a Republican White House and majority in Congress wouldn't be enough.
    1. Marshall Gill 13 years ago
      
      It doesn't matter how many Senators they get, they will not be repealing this giant increase in their personal power. Only a few of them have any intention. They will tweak it into "good" legislation that will fuck us just as bad.
4. Jersey Patriot 13 years ago
  
  The Romney/Ryan ticket is so bad that John's having a nervous breakdown in August. At least Lowell's Finest wited like 9 months after the election.
5. Cytotoxic 13 years ago
  
  Guys I saw a movie that explained what's happening to John. I'll bet you anything John is experiencing shakes, nosebleed, and believes he is in space. John is suffering from PANDORUM.
  
  That means...brace yourselves...JOHN IS DENNIS QUAID.
Randian 13 years ago

Navy Seals may be sent on a capture or kill mission targeting a Mexican drug cartel leader.

But don't dare call it the War on Drugs.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  They are dying to get into a LOW in Mexico against the drug gangs. Don't kid yourself. They have been talking that possibility up in defense circles for years.
  1. NoVAHockey 13 years ago
    
    LOW?
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Low intensity warfare.
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Whose doing anagrams for the Department of Defense now, the US Dyslexia Foundation?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        No the dyslexic is me. It should have been LIC or low intensity conflict.
2. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Pancho Villa is that you?
3. Tim 13 years ago
  
  The Osama thing worked out so well for Obamma that another daring raid on an armed compound is called for.
  Photos of a tense Whitehouse situation room, the president biting his nails, Secretary CLinton with furrowed brow, in the background Michelle dressing down a steward for bringing in a bowl of chips.
  1. RBS 13 years ago
    
    Something tells me the cartels might be better armed than Osama.
    1. Jerry on the road 13 years ago
      
      And I bet some of them also have better cover from the Mexican federal police or military.
    2. Tim 13 years ago
      
      A drone assault, while convenient, just won't raise the overnight poll numbers like a commando raid.
      1. RBS 13 years ago
        
        If Navy Seals taught me anything it's that the last mission never goes well.
        
        Tim 13 years ago
        
        America needs heroes. Even dead ones.
        
        Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
        
        That's why it's the last mission, sort of like you always find your keys in the last place you look.
  2. Joe R. 13 years ago
    
    They should just have Aaron Sorkin script it ahead of time to make sure it turns out the way they want.
    1. Bobarian 13 years ago
      
      You mean stage it? Like the moon landing?
4. wareagle 13 years ago
  
  if such a thing can happen and the Seals can be used to attack a civilian group in another country, I wonder what the next step in the logic chain might be. This isn't about a war on drugs, it's about a perversion of what the military is supposed to do.
  1. Whiterun Guard 13 years ago
    
    Other side of the world---Neighboring country---Libertarian Stronghold.
  2. Tim 13 years ago
    
    SEALS go in undercover of darkness to blow up McDonald's HQ.
    1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
      
      "Hey Ronnie, Michelle says Hi."
      BOOM
5. Francisco d Anconia 13 years ago
  
  Wasn't this a Tom Clancy book?
  1. RBS 13 years ago
    
    Clear and Present Danger?
    1. CuriousGeorge 13 years ago
      
      Except in that book, going in without the approval of Congress had negative consequences. We all know no one would be held accountable for such an illegal adventure today.
6. Entropy Void 13 years ago
  
  The will be going in under Holder's order to recover some more Fast Y Furious walking weapons.
  
  hhhmmmm .... Walking Weapons ... good band name?
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

Mitt Romney mocked China's planned trip to the moon

Oh, but it's apparently ok when you do it to Lance Bass.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

President Obama, and the Myth About 4.5 Million New Jobs
http://www.realclearmarkets.co.....99816.html

Obama told Black Enterprise magazine in an interview published last week: "we are digging ourselves out of a deep hole." But Obama's claim of creating 4.5 million jobs that he reiterated again on Thursday is simply wrong. Not only do we have fewer jobs in the U.S. today than when Obama first became president, nothing has been done for the 8 million additional working age people. By anyone's definition, this is not a "recovery."
1. wareagle 13 years ago
  
  you mean Obama lied and no one called him on it? Amazing. And I was so sure an august publication like Black Enterprise would hold a key role in the truth squad.
  1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    They were too busy parsing a Republican's use of "gut" in regards to Medicare for an article on biggest lie of the year.
    1. wareagle 13 years ago
      
      as I recall, last time the Repubs were in power Medicare was expanded with Part D.
      
      The only thing different here is that Ryan seems the only guy in teh room actually saying "fellas, the train is closing in; we might want to do something."
      1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        But some Republican somewhere said that Obamacare "gutted" Medicare and that's the biggest lie ever heard so there's no time to fact check things the President says. Plus he's so trustworthy we don't need to anyway.
        
        wareagle 13 years ago
        
        Obama did shift 700B from Medicare to cover the cost of Obamacare. We can quibble whether that amounts to "gutting" but it is not inconsequential.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        WTF are you arguing? Your position seems to be that I'm correct with my satire.
        
        wareagle 13 years ago
        
        violent agreement, I guess. My greatest disappointment continues to be media folks who get lied to their face and sit their like obedient dogs.
Tim 13 years ago

China wants a moonbase? Alert President Gingrich!
1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
  
  We can counter with a Marsbase!
  1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
    
    We have squatter's rights!
  2. Tim 13 years ago
    
    They will end up going all the way to Uranus.
    1. Entropy Void 13 years ago
      
      They ain't going ANYWHERE near mine.
2. T 13 years ago
  
  They may build Moonbase Alpha, but we'll build Moonbase Omega!
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Stephen Moore: The Kempian Roots of Ryanomics
Like his mentor Jack Kemp, Paul Ryan understands that growth makes a balanced budget easier to achieve.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....TopOpinion
1. John 13 years ago
  
  But Kemp was the worst VP candidate not named Biden in living memory.
  1. Tim 13 years ago
    
    Admiral Stockdale?
    1. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
      
      You just stumped him with that question.
    2. John 13 years ago
      
      Fair enough. But what Brett said below. I can at least respect Stockdale as a person even if he was a terrible candidate. Biden doesn't even have that going for him.
    3. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      *cough*Lloyd Bentsen*cough*
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        You are no Jack Kennedy Sloopy.
  2. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    That's not true. As much respect as I have for James Stockdale as brave, extremely tough and thoughtful man, he was the worst.
    1. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
      
      Being 12 years old at the time, I just have a vague memory of him not doing well in the VP debate (or being told he didnt' do well). Was the primary source for him being the worst VP pick? Or was the whole thing a trainwreck?
      1. Ed 13 years ago
        
        "Who am I and what am I doing here?" It was meant as a rhetorical question but ended up making him seem aloof and out of touch
      2. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Yeah a man who could do this:
        Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor to purposely disfigure himself so that his captors could not use him as propaganda. When they covered his head with a hat, he beat himself with a stool until his face was swollen beyond recognition. When Stockdale was discovered with information that could implicate his friends' "black activities", he slit his wrists so they could not torture him into confession.
        
        Was never going to fit into a VP slot. He was far too serious and thoughtful. Just came off as either crazy (the debates) or old and slow.
        
        CampingInYourPark 13 years ago
        
        "Just came off as either crazy (the debates) or old and slow."
        
        You know who else came off as either crazy or old and slow?
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Reagan?
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        Literally Joe Biden?
        
        LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        Miracle Max?
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Sophia from the Golden Girls?
      3. Entropy Void 13 years ago
        
        The great Phil Hartman ruined Stockdale's chances, just like Tina Fey torpedoed Palin with "I can see Russia from my Hoooose."
    2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
      
      check out the Wikipedia link:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J....._candidacy
      
      from my reading, he was unfairly characterized as slow-witted, especially after reading his POW experiences.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.....ner_of_war
      1. Drake 13 years ago
        
        Yep. First of all, he may be the bravest man this country ever produced.
        
        But he didn't speak in sound-bites and catch-phrases, so the press labeled him a moron and went to town.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        That man was anything but a moron. And the real morons in the media should wake up every day and thank God they will never be asked to do the things he did.
        
        I was a never a Perot supporter, but Stockdale was a great American. And if the media had any shame, they would be ashamed of how they treated him.
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        I thought turning off the hearing aid during the debate was the most apt commentary on the whole procedure that anyone has ever made.
        
        He hands down won the debate with that move.
      2. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
        
        Good, perhaps it's best he didn't have to lower himself to the life of politics then.
  3. robc 13 years ago
    
    But Kemp was the worst VP candidate not named Biden in living memory.
    
    ???
    
    One of the times that the veep was clearly better than the prez candidate.
    
    Kemp/Dole would have had a better shot at winning.
  4. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    Quayle?
    1. Tim 13 years ago
      
      The man was a master of politics, a master!
2. Jersey Patriot 13 years ago
  
  Like his mentor Jack Kemp, Paul Ryan understands that growth makes a balanced budget easier to achieve.
  
  Also like Paul Krugman.
  1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
    
    Kruggie would just have you borrow and spend $1000,000,000,000,000,000 to get to growth.
    
    Then how do you pay it back, that gazillion you borrowed?
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Mickey Kaus: NYT Proves Romney Right on Welfare
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08.....n-welfare/

I had some serious doubts about Mitt Romney's ad attacking Obama's welfare "waivers"?until I read the New York Times editorial denouncing it. Now I know Romney's ad isn't as accurate as I'd thought. It's much more accurate.

The Times notes that one of the states proposing waivers from the 1996 welfare reform's work requirements is Nevada?indeed, Nevada was cited by the Obama Health and Human Services department when it quietly announced its plan to grant waivers on July 12
1. mnarayan 13 years ago
  
  At least when John posts links from Instapundit, they're usually from the right week.
  1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
    
    it's PB/Tony/etc bait.
Drake 13 years ago

"Pentagon reportedly has a plan to send the SEALs..."

Yea - that's the way it works. People in the Pentagon make plans, SEALs train, and the President gives the orders.
1. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  You left out "The President's national security team leaks the secret plan to see how it polls."
  1. Tim 13 years ago
    
    Preperation is the key to success.
    "Admiral our focus groups are telling us we need a feisty latina, preferably a lesbian, on this mission."
    1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
      
      fiesty lesbian latinas?! Damn, I retired too early!
    2. Rasilio 13 years ago
      
      Should she be a Machine Gunner A'la Vasquez or the pilot a'la Trudy?
      1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        Gunner, definitely a gunner. M240B.
SugarFree 13 years ago

Shovel-face criticizes Olympic athlete for daring to eat McDonald's.

The fucking ego on these assholes is quite breath-taking.
1. Tim 13 years ago
  
  She's establishing dominance. Later she'll force them to groom her.
  1. Generic Stranger 13 years ago
    
    Always let the wookie win.
    1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
      
      +1 droid with arms intact
2. John 13 years ago
  
  The guys who won one of the swimming relays celebrated by eating at McDonalds and posting it on twitter. Like that fat bitch would last five minutes in one of those guys workouts. Clearly the most fit people in the world need to worry about the once every four year trip to McDonalds.
  1. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    Honestly, they could probably have a Big Mac and large fries every day and they'd still look like they do given the traning regimen.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Pretty much. They would still 27 inch waists and be able to destroy any normal person in a workout. But they might only finish in the top ten in the world rather than win.
      1. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Exactly right.
    2. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
      
      Phelps said he has always had trouble getting as many calories as he needs each day. Most athletes eat like pigs and eat "bad" foods like pasta and cheese. It just serves to display MO's total ignorance of nutrition and physical activity.
      1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        I think rowers need even more than swimmers. Sir Steve Redgrave was taking in 6,000 - 7,000 calories a day.
        
        OT: When he went to his fifth Olympic trials, he surveyed the hopefuls, and then turned to his partner and said "Let's go destroy some dreams"
  2. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
    
    I sincerely hope that the McDonalds plug was a paid endorsement. If so: good for her!
  3. Warty 13 years ago
    
    Plenty of top athletes have terrible diets, actually. Genetics and/or anabolics will cover up for lots of errors.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      The ones in their 20s do. But it gets pretty hard to maintain that level of fitness past 30 without really strict dieting.
      1. Warty 13 years ago
        
        Yes for naturals and natural-ish-es, no for roidgorillas. The former world's strongest man, Mariusz Pudzianowski, famously eats a shitload of candy. Steroids are just that magical.
        
        Warty 13 years ago
        
        I should capitalize WSM, since that's just the name of a contest. And one that doesn't really measure raw strength, to boot.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        But you don't have to be fit to be strong. Extra fat doesn't hurt you in a world strongest man competition the way it does in an event where speed and mobility matter.
        
        RBS 13 years ago
        
        Speed and mobility definitely matter in strongman comps.
        
        Warty 13 years ago
        
        Did you look at the picture of him? There's no fat there.
        
        Also, you have to be incredibly fit to compete in the WSM. A little fat has nothing to do with fitness, and anyway, my point is that the chemically enhanced can much more easily get away with eating a horrendous diet.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Do they just not test for steroids in the WSM competitions? Do they really just not give a shit?
        
        Warty 13 years ago
        
        They don't test for anything. Why would they?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I figured as much. The fact that the competition features people pulling jumbo jets and throwing full beer kegs over a fifteen foot wall is kind of a giveaway that steroids are involved.
        
        Warty 13 years ago
        
        Don't get me wrong, you can get absurdly strong without steroids. But the crowds pay to watch the ridiculously strong, not merely the absurdly strong.
3. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
  
  My favorite part:
  
  Then Leno turned serious, according to a partial NBC transcript, asking Obama what she's proudest of in her husband's first term.
  
  Even a writer tasked with covering Leno can't be bothered to watch the show.
  1. Drake 13 years ago
    
    It would be better if he was laughing when he asked it. I would be.
  2. The Hammer 13 years ago
    
    Taking 3 strokes off his handicap?
4. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  Douglas should have set her straight on calorie consumption vs calorie output on national TV and then told her to mind her own damn business.
  1. Randian 13 years ago
    
    Something on the order of "who has the gold medal for something that requires a crazy amount of fitness, and who gets to have their arugula specially prepared for them in a posh dining room again?"
  2. Whiterun Guard 13 years ago
    
    I'd have killed myself if that had happened. Because nothing would ever be better than that.
    1. RBS 13 years ago
      
      That would have been great. Too bad she's way to polite for it.
  3. Ed 13 years ago
    
    But then she'd be a racist
5. RBS 13 years ago
  
  She should have celebrated like all those Belgians who got sent home.
6. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  They should send the crazy gymnast to whip her fat ass.
7. Dagny T. 13 years ago
  
  She could scarcely be less likeable if she tried. Nagging teenage Olympic heroes over incredibly petty shit seems like an odd thing to do in the run-up to an election, but given the apparently increasing number of people who crave gov't nannies in every area of life, I guess it makes sense.
  1. Invisible Finger 13 years ago
    
    What does that say about the moron who actually married her?
8. generic Brand 13 years ago
  
  With the chance of sounding "RACIST!!!1!", isn't Gabby Douglas Michele Obama's daughter? That's the point I thought was being made during the whole Olympics. Jemele Hill told me so on Around the Horn.
  
  The greatest moment of the Olympics wasn't Usain Bolt repeating in 100m and 200m, or Michael Phelps shattering the individual medal record, or women's soccer taking back the #1 spot from Japan, or Men's basketball winning with an astounding offense... no, THE moment of the Olympics was "Gabby Douglas breaking barriers".
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    Was Dominick Dawes not black black?
    1. RBS 13 years ago
      
      Yeah, but that was, like, a long time ago.
    2. CuriousGeorge 13 years ago
      
      Also, she didn't win
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        She won a team gold.
  2. The Hammer 13 years ago
    
    They let Hill on ATH? Fuck, that show must be going downhill fast.
9. Jerry on the road 13 years ago
  
  What bothers me is that these athletes lend themselves to these "sport is healthy" campaigns, while everyone knows that a pro sport training regiment is about is unhealthy for the body as it can get.
  1. Jersey Patriot 13 years ago
    
    Sports are healthy if not taken to the elite level. Since so few of the people who take up sports are training and playing at the elite level, it's probably a vast improvement.
    1. Restoras 13 years ago
      
      A few years ago, I realized that sitting in my chair at work and on the train each way was slowing killing me. i started exercising in my basement, figuring that even once a week was 50x a year and a whole lot better than nothing. What a huge difference that has made in my life an cannot begin to tell.
10. Atlas Stoned 13 years ago
  
  The comments are truly puke worthy.
  
  "Saw the segment this evening on Leno. As always, First Lady Obama came across as top flight, high class, down to earth. She is an eloquent representative for our country. Gabby was so relaxed and articulate it was a pleasure hearing her speak."
  
  "congratulations to Gabby! Michelle Obama is always so gracious and full of fun. a Great First Lady!"
  
  "Michelle Obama 2012-2016
  The Most Engaging First Lady of our Time."
  
  "Now it's time to lambaste all the pro athletes like Lebron who sell McDonalds with endorsements. Truly despicable."
  1. RBS 13 years ago
    
    full of fun.
    
    Hmmm, all this time I though fun meant something completely different.
    1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      No no, it means what you think. She is full of fun. She's enjoying herself and is happy trying to push you around. And that's the problem
  2. Scarcity 13 years ago
    
    Gabby was so relaxed and articulate
    
    RAAACCCCIIIIISSSSTTTT!!!!
11. Invisible Finger 13 years ago
  
  At least M.O. kept Chicago from getting the Olympics.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

The 10 Strangest Ancient/Outdated Sex Beliefs
http://www.ranker.com/list/the.....an-tindell

#6 You Can Use Beaver Testicles as Contraception

In 16th century Canada, an interesting means of female contraception was devised: the testicles of beavers were ground up and mixed with alcohol and then drunk. There are doubts as to whether this concoction ever prevented a single pregnancy, but one thing's for sure: it was a delicious drink.
1. Randian 13 years ago
  
  This reminds me: does anyone have a good recipe for blood wine?
2. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  but one thing's for sure: it was a delicious drink
  
  Citation needed
3. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  11. You can survive a night with STEVE SMITH.
  1. Generic Stranger 13 years ago
    
    "You call him a survivor? He's not. A man come up against that kind of will, the only way to deal with it, I suspect, is to become it. He's following the only course left to him. First, he'll try to make himself look like one. Cut on himself, desecrate his flesh
    and then, he'll start acting like one."
4. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
  
  Maybe that's what that Scoutmaster yesterday was trying.
5. Warty 13 years ago
  
  What's this, a Cracked ripoff site?
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Why should we beg anyone to vote?
http://articles.boston.com/201.....ration-act

Senator Scott Brown is right: For the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be mailing voter-registration forms to nearly 480,000 welfare recipients ? at a cost to taxpayers of more than $275,000 ? is indeed "outrageous," as the Republican incumbent declared last week. The vast get-out-the-welfare-vote campaign "smells wrong," he says. So it does, but not for the reason he claims.
1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
  
  The one political post I plan on making on social media this year is a plea to not vote if you haven't made up your mind a week before the election. If you don't care enough to do this stuff yourself, don't fuck it up for everyone else.
  1. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
    
    I doubt I will have made up my mind by the morning of the election. And when I say "made up my mind", I mean whether to vote at all.
    1. The Hammer 13 years ago
      
      It's different if your choice is down to "Johnson" or "No."
2. VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
  
  I'm surprised they're not just mailing absentee ballots to welfare recipients.
  
  Pre-Filled out of course, cause expecting poor people to read and use writing instruments is racist.
  1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    You wouldn't expect them to be able to get a free government issued ID, would you?
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Ryan's Budget Is Radical? Far From It
http://news.investors.com/arti.....adical.htm

His proposed spending and revenue levels are above historic averages. His Medicare reform has strong bipartisan support. His tax reform plan is similar to one proposed by Obama's own bipartisan debt reduction commission.

Ryan's budget, which passed the House last March, would set the federal government on course to spend an average of 20% of GDP over the next decade. That's slightly higher than the post-World War II average of 19.8%.

His tax plan would produce revenues averaging 18.3% of GDP. That, too, is somewhat higher than the 17.7% post-war average. What's more, Ryan's plan would set tax and spending rates higher than every Democratic president before Obama.
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  How dare you question the economic credentials of our Republican saviors?
  1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    I think you mean "diminish the threat of the grandma starving, welfare gutting, kitten killing Republican rich guys".
Dagny T. 13 years ago

I stumbled across some truly barftastic Obama apolo-jism from the not-always-terrible (or so I previously thought) McSweeney's.
1. Randian 13 years ago
  
  from the not-always-terrible (or so I previously thought) McSweeney's.
  
  Dagny, I am disappoint
  1. Dagny T. 13 years ago
    
    I know. It is a shameful indulgence. When I give in to the urge to read hipsterlit I always feel dirty afterwards and this time was no different.
    1. Eduard van Haalen 13 years ago
      
      A quick skim and I found criticism of Obama supporters' apathy and the phrase "George W. Bush was elected" - I can figure out the intended message from there.
2. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
  
  Yes, this is depressing.
  1. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
    
    To clarify, it's depressing that McSweeney's is now in the "look, we like to have fun here, but let's get serious for a second" zone. Not that Dagny found them not-always-terrible since I also find them routinely hilarious.
    1. Dagny T. 13 years ago
      
      This put such a bad taste in my mouth I'm not sure I can go back. Can't we have any nice, non-partisan things?
      1. Spoonman. 13 years ago
        
        No. Everything must be politicized, from chicken sandwiches to gardening.
      2. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
        
        Can't we have any nice, non-partisan things?
        
        This!
    2. nicole 13 years ago
      
      Yeah, I've been a McSweeney's fan, and turned Riggs on to this last week via Twitter. I was furious with them, not least for totally ignoring my complaints about why they had decided to suck so hard. The full 90 days/90 reasons site gets worse every day; I couldn't make it past the first sentence of today's entry.
3. Warty 13 years ago
  
  To sum up: We plan to punish President Obama by electing an arch-conservative to rule the most powerful nation on Earth. This is the logic out there.
  
  THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRATS ACTUALLY BELIEVE
  1. Randian 13 years ago
    
    An archconservative signed statewide mandatory medical care.
    
    Just remember this next time the Left claims that Democrats keep moving to the right.
    1. Warty 13 years ago
      
      I drive by a vacant lot that used to be a union hall every day. It still has a big LCD sign, though, and they use it to say that Republicans are evil. Right now, it shows a picture of a sheet-draped body with ROMNEYCARE written underneath it. Delicious.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Can it really be true that the total fertility rate (TFR in the trade) of the United States has fallen below France? France!?! It appears that one major effect of the Great Recession from 2008 through now is that Americans are having fewer babies, as reported in The Economist and displayed in the chart below.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/a.....t-what.php
1. Mike M. 13 years ago
  
  When a society is going down the shitter and the people instinctively know it, they tend to have fewer kids as a result.
  
  I mean, can you really blame most people for not wanting to bring a new person into Block Yomomma's grim, new communist America? His plan to demoralize and bring down the country is succeeding faster than I think most people ever would have imagined.
  1. Randian 13 years ago
    
    Block Yomomma's grim, new communist America?
    
    What the fuck is this?
    1. Mike M. 13 years ago
      
      It's self-explanatory is what it is.
      1. Randian 13 years ago
        
        Is that what passes for clever in the trailer park?
        
        Mike M. 13 years ago
        
        Well, they wouldn't allow my trailer inside the Beltway. Not even for one measly little Pinot Noir at the Front Page, can you believe it?
        
        Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
        
        Dude, you were thinking you were gonna park a trailer in Dupont Circle? At happy hour? No wonder they turned you away!
        
        LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        My, aren't we prissy today?
        
        Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
        
        Just today?
  2. Spoonman. 13 years ago
    
    I've been reading von Mises's Socialism. There is a bizarre chapter on sex that might as well be skipped, but his description of State Socialism and Christian Socialism describe the policies of the Democrats and Republicans almost perfectly.
    1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      a bizarre chapter on sex that might as well be skipped
      
      bizarre + sex = skippable? Does not compute!
      1. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        You've not read SF's slashfic?
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Yes, and it's the epitome of unskippable. It speaks to every depraved impulse in the human soul
      2. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        It was a "bizarre chapter on sex", not a "chapter on bizarre sex"...
    2. Mike M. 13 years ago
      
      Few things in this world destroy the human spirit more thoroughly and effectively than socialism and communism.
      
      Encouraging any independent person of sound mind and body to become a loser, a hopeless dependent ward of the state, is one of the worst things you can do to him.
      
      To do this to an entire people or society is far worse. To me, it's tantamount to a slow genocide. Watching the west lose its very will to participate in the natural cycle of life is just awful.
      1. VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
        
        Barack want to make us all American Indians.
        
        DesigNate 13 years ago
        
        Holy Shit!!!
        
        Obama is White Indian? It all makes sense now...
    3. HazelMeade 13 years ago
      
      I've never really understood how undermining the bourgeois tradition of marriage is supposed to bring about a socialist utopia.
      
      The wierdness about sexuality and it's supposed relationship to economics cuts across both sides of the ideological spectrum.
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        I've never really understood how undermining the bourgeois tradition of marriage is supposed to bring about a socialist utopia.
        
        It's an example of backwards logic. At the time, most marriage was about property: dowries, wealth consolidation, insuring paternity for estate planning. Since they were looking to abolish property as a concept, they went after an institution that seemed like a bedrock of property. Which is, of course, backwards. Property is what drove marriage in to that form, not the other way around.
        
        Spoonman. 13 years ago
        
        Mises had a reasonable point that making marriage a contract protects women more than they are protected in societies based on the principle of violence, ie, non-capitalist one. But there's a bunch of uninteresting crap in there and that part wasn't worth reading.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Also marriage and the family makes people independent of the state. One of the main goals of socialism is to make the people and the state one. To do that alliances to thinks like the family have to go.
        
        Mike M. 13 years ago
        
        John beat me to the punch.
      2. Mike M. 13 years ago
        
        I've never really understood how undermining the bourgeois tradition of marriage is supposed to bring about a socialist utopia.
        
        It's the other way around. When big sugar daddy government is there to take care of your every need, who needs a husband, or a wife, or children?
        
        In fact, not only do people living in a grim socialist "paradise" come to not need all these things, they inevitably come to see them as a nuisance, things to be avoided.
o3 13 years ago

Most people who depend on welfare are White and live in suburbs or rural areas, a recent study shows. The findings are contrary to the popular belief that most welfare recipients are unemployed, inner-city minorities whose families have gotten public assistance for generations.

The majority of Americans who receive welfare checks are not Black. The majority of those who receive welfare checks are White people

http://powerisknowledge.newsvine.com
1. Randian 13 years ago
  
  Then I guess my advocacy for cutting welfare means I cannot be accused of racism anymore.
  
  Thanks, Orrin.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    +1 Who knew Libertarians hated white people so much?
    1. Warty 13 years ago
      
      Me.
  2. Whiterun Guard 13 years ago
    
    White is still a race you racist.
    1. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Sez
    2. T 13 years ago
      
      Oh, so since I'm white and I favor cutting welfare I'm a self-hating racist cracker?
      1. wareagle 13 years ago
        
        orrin is trying to argue agaisnt a point no one is making. Of course, more whites are on welfare; just look at the overall population numbers. By percentage, however, the outlook is markedly different with baby mammas far outdistancing the white trash.
2. Tim 13 years ago
  
  The majority of welfare checks is going to people named GM, GE and ADM.
  1. EDG reppin' LBC 13 years ago
    
    Nice. Root this shit out on an individual level. Root it out on the corporate level, too.
3. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  I wonder if this has anything to do with proportional representation in the population? Nah, couldn't be.
  1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    Did you know a majority of racists are white? Also a majority of jerks and bitches.
4. Rasilio 13 years ago
  
  Hmm...
  
  15% of the population are inner city blacks. Somewhere around 75% of them depend on welfare = 11% of the country.
  
  65% of the country are white suburban or rural dwellers. Somewhere around 20% of them depend on welfare = 13% of the country
  
  Note: The numbers are just made up off the top of my head (although they probably aren't that far off) to illustrate the point that this is not unusual or unexpected and does not say much of anything about which group relies on welfare more. It only comments on the absolute quantity in each group
RBS 13 years ago

I didn't read the comments section but did Doherty's post about Paul Ryan last night drive John insane?
1. Randian 13 years ago
  
  That would assume that he was not already there.
2. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
  
  It's been a long slow slog, but I think John has cracked. Years of pointless arguing with Mary, Minge, Tony, and shriek have finally taken their toll.
3. Anonymous Coward 13 years ago
  
  John has gone Barry-curious and now he's dick-riding for Obama.
Brett L 13 years ago

Somebody's been reading TMQ.

At New Mexico, he developed the innovative 3-3-5 defensive scheme and now he's debating on whether to do away with punting on fourth down ? if the Aztecs are beyond the 50-yard line ? for the 2012 season.
1. Bee Tagger 13 years ago
  
  Let's hope he actually commits to it rather than be a Tony Larussa and only bat the pitcher 8th in non-playoff games.
2. John 13 years ago
  
  Unless you have one hell of a punter, most people have stopped punting inside the fifty. If you have a great punter, the field position really helps. But most colleges don't and they end up giving up the ball for maybe 15 or 20 yards of field position. Better to go for it.
  1. robc 13 years ago
    
    The lack of attempts to coffin corner punt in those situations baffle me. Kicking straight ahead almost guarantees a touchback. No reason not to go for it.
    
    Plus, of course, the math says to go for it.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      I think they don't try it in college because few teams have a good punter and they are worried about him shanking it. But in the NFL, the punters are generally phenomenal and they will try it.
      1. robc 13 years ago
        
        Shanks almost always go off the outside of the foot, so corner punt to the opposite corner so that a shank goes down the middle of the field. If its a low liner shank, it might still work.
      2. EDG reppin' LBC 13 years ago
        
        Speaking of punters, did any one watch the rookie punter, Marquette King, for the Raiders last night? That kid is good. Sure we got Lechler (one of the all-time greats), but I think we should hold on to King. Is it stupid to keep a backup punter on the final roster?
        
        The Hammer 13 years ago
        
        Not if you're the Raiders.
    2. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
      
      The math also says NFL teams should go for 2 a lot more than they do.
      1. robc 13 years ago
        
        Didnt Ryan mention recently that he might consider just going for 2 every time with Tebow?
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        I haven't heard that, but it would start to justify giving up two draft picks and a couple million dollars for your backup QB.
      2. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Its easy to say that when you're not up by six or down by seven.
        
        robc 13 years ago
        
        I think the obvious exceptions were the obvious exceptions.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Even when you're down by seven it's not necessarily obvious. If it's right at the end of the game I wouldn't necessarily want to leave it up to the sudden death overtime (literal) coinflip.
      3. John 13 years ago
        
        Thought the conversion rate for two point tries was around 30%. Am I misinformed? Unless it is above 50%, you are better off taking the extra point.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Quick google brought this up, with a lot of stats Average is about 50%, quite a bit better for runs.
        
        Regardless, there are situations where it makes sense to go for 2 even if the percentage is less than 50%. From wiki:
        
        There is a relatively common game situation in which the two-point conversion can be an optimal strategy even if its likelihood is under 50%. A team down fourteen points in the final minutes must score two touchdowns while keeping their opponents scoreless in order to maintain a chance. In this situation, it is better to go for two after the first score, because if the team makes it, they can kick an extra point in their next score to secure a win, while if they miss, they still have a chance to make the next two-point conversion to get to fourteen. Though the logic seems counterintuitive, this maximizes a team's win probability. The odds of converting a two-point try either on the first attempt (securing a win) or the second (securing a tie and sending the game into overtime) are higher than the odds of missing both (securing a loss), as long as the expected probability is higher than about 39 percent. Notably, Texas Longhorns coach Darrell Royal successfully used this strategy to defeat Arkansas in 1969's Game of the Century. Nevertheless, coaches continually underutilize this strategy, preferring the conservative approach so as not to alienate fans.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Yeah. The math dictates it sometimes. But you wouldn't want to go for it every time.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Obviously going for 2 is a stupid play when you score a touchdown as time expires and only need the extra point to win (it's also stupid in a lot of other situations, but that's the most clear cut). I didn't say they should go for it every time, I said "a lot more than they do". But they don't because they don't want people to second guess them if it doesn't work out.
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Off duty cop runs over little girl and then shoots her father.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ghter.html
1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman redux. (yawn)
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    Except in this case the killer is a cop, so nothing else will happen.
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      So what that he was a(n off-duty)cop. Two guys were on top of him, beating him. Self defense is self defense.
      1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
        
        I agree in general. It seems like the beating may be exaggerated (coming from the Chief), but if the situation is as he describes it then the cop was probably justified.
        
        Ice Nine 13 years ago
        
        Agree with the probable exaggeration of the beating. That raises though the question of how many punches, especially face punches, you or I would take before shooting.
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        After running over a 4 year old, even accidentally? Until dad got tired of hitting me.
    2. VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
      
      Cops killing 'civilians' is a Chicago value.
2. Drax the Destroyer 13 years ago
  
  Sounds, depressingly, about par for the course.
3. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
  
  I did think it was a little strange how the Chief said the officer was about to lose consciousness, then managed to pull out his gun and shoot a guy.
  1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
    
    That was Pat Camden - spokesguy for the FOP. He used to be a traffic cop in a helicopter (Flying Officer Pat Camden!) before becoming a radio reporter, then off to the FOP.
    
    I guess he is now a neurologist to make such a diagnosis.
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Woman uses google maps to find possible Egyptian burial sights. Pretty nifty.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....Earth.html
1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  The sites are truly a sight to behold.
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    Pedants are pedantic.
  2. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
    
    So recomend I look at the cite?
    1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
      
      And learn to much goodly typing?
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Landowner has the nerve to act like he owns his own land!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....pools.html
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Kate Moss has a brain!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....sical.html
SugarFree 13 years ago

Women don't like Jack Kerouac, what with the trying to find yourself and everything.

Meh. OK. But this comment thread is gold anyway...

GeoAdamah
Whenever someone tells me their favorite book is 'On the Road', I always get excited because I think they're talking about 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. I demand my books include a desolate landscape and cannibals, thank you very much. Although I never read much of 'On the Road', so maybe it does have those things. Hmm.

luckymc44
No joke, in my anecdotal experience, if an average, or not-particularly-bright guy says he reads, like 9 times out of 10 his favorite book is "The Road". Twice I have won a $20 bet by guessing that the dude is going to say before he says it. I'm not drawing any conclusions about the brightness of people who like "The Road", but it's just been an interesting observation for me. 🙂

Lil Death Bear
I broke up with a guy because he said The Road was his favorite book.
1. RBS 13 years ago
  
  And they probably wonder why they can't keep a man.
2. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Holy fuck. So women really don't like Cormac McCarthy.
  1. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
    
    Given the popularity of 50 Shades and Twilight among females, I really don't find that at all surprising.
  2. Dagny T. 13 years ago
    
    Meh, I liked The Road. And On The Road. Better turn in my ladycard.
    1. Brett L 13 years ago
      
      Its not like you were gonna fit in with the jezzies, who probably hate The Road because there are no women in it, and it features a father who pays attention to his kids.
      1. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        kid.
      2. Dagny T. 13 years ago
        
        because there are no women in it
        
        You may be being facetious but I seem to recall a post there complaining about dudelit that basically said that in so many words. The stuff they were bitching about was stuff that men tend to like, or that was by men, or that featured men. Fuck, what a way to go through life.
        
        nicole 13 years ago
        
        You have no idea. I can seriously one-up all the Jezebel linking by sending y'all to Tiger Beatdown, but that might be a violation of the NAP.
3. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  I do judge guys by what they read or listen to. It's not a deal-breaker, but crappy taste (such as reading sci-fi / fantasy) puts me on notice. Having said that, my best friend reads sci-fi, and loves Titanic and Tori Amos. But he has other redeeming features
  1. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
    
    That statement needs elaboration. Fantasy (outside of Tolkien) I understand. Sci-fi is a broad genre. Are we talking all sci-fi? Or do you make exceptions for Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein?
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      I've read some Australian science fiction. Most of it was very bad.
      1. Scruffy Nerfherder 13 years ago
        
        Is it along the lines of mutant crocs and cyborg funnel spiders?
        
        Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
        
        No, that's real life in Australia.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Greg Egan's early stuff is good, but nothing else really impressed me much. Quite a lot of Australian SF seems to be rather shameless rip-offs of earlier works--and not in the homage sort of way.
      2. mnarayan 13 years ago
        
        did any of them envision running water?
    2. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      crappy taste (such as reading sci-fi / fantasy)
      
      Doesn't it depend on the author?
      1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        No! Everyone who has different preferences than me is wrong!
        
        Like all you people who enjoy music. You've all got bad taste!
      2. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Two fantasy authors to consider:
        
        Terry Pratchett. (Just finished listening to Unseen Academicals on a long drive. Typically wonderful).
        
        Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen).
        
        Two sci-fi authors, off the top of my head:
        
        Jack Vance (generally sci-fi, but his fantasy series The Green Pearl may be my favorite. On the sci-fi side, Demon Princes is hard to top.)
        
        Iain M. Banks. The Culture.
        
        Charlotte Sometimes 13 years ago
        
        Have you read Snuff yet? I liked it even more than Unseen Academicals. I think it may be my favorite since Thief of Time.
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Not yet. The guy who reads his books for Audible is so good, I'm just listening to them now (lots of looong drives in West Texas). Its on my list, may even be next up.
        
        PS 13 years ago
        
        Vance is good but I prefer his spiritual protog? Gene Wolfe.
  2. RBS 13 years ago
    
    such as reading sci-fi / fantasy
    
    Do you know where you are?
  3. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    Way to other every male on this board.
  4. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    Sci-fi has the redeeming quality of not being endless repetition of pathetic emo drivel about the interior lives of upper middle class liberal arts graduates, like pretty much all* literary fiction.
    
    *Leaving out the freakshow element where a litfic editor tries to dig up an ever-more obscure Other to show their noble Other struggle against the white ableist patriarchy bullies who hurt their emo feelings.
    1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      yeah well I hate most contemporary fiction for pretty much that reason.
      1. RBS 13 years ago
        
        Tell us what you read so we can judge you.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Hit + Run. Judge away.
        
        Yes that was perhaps a slightly sweeping statement.
        
        What do I read? My BA in English pretty much killed my enjoyment of literature, so I now read non-fiction almost exclusively.
        
        RBS 13 years ago
        
        Hit + Run. Judge away.
        
        I can't judge you for that as HnR is pretty much my only news source throughout the day.
        
        It's a shame about your BA, there is some outstanding fiction out there if you look for it.
        
        Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
        
        If I ever had kids, I'd ask them what subjects they really, really loved and were deeply passionate about. Then I'd tell them to major in something else in college.
        
        Undergrad put my interest in cross-cultural communications, travel and language on life support. My first job out of college murdered it in its sleep.
        
        LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        Undergrad put my interest in cross-cultural communications, travel and language on life support.
        
        Fighting in two different Muslim countries in Asia did some of that for me.
    2. John 13 years ago
      
      I hate contemporary fiction for the same reason. And yeah, Sci Fi at least will tell a story. But there are so many great novels from the past I haven't read, I really don't see the point in wasting my time on anything new, except for the odd sci fi beach read.
    3. PS 13 years ago
      
      "My name is Boris Balkan and I once translated The Charterhouse of Parma. Apart from that, I've edited a few books on the nineteenth-century popular novel, my reviews and articles appear in supplements and jour?nals throughout Europe, and I organize summer-school courses on contemporary writers. Nothing spectacular, I'm afraid. Par?ticularly these days, when suicide disguises itself as homicide, novels are written by Roger Ackroyd's doctor, and far too many people insist on publishing two hundred pages on the fascinat?ing emotions they experience when they look in the mirror." -Arturo Pervez-Reverte, Club Dumas
  5. robc 13 years ago
    
    How is sci-fi crappy taste (I will concede on fantasy for the sake of argument)?
    
    Some of the best American fiction of the 20th century is SF.
    
    You got a problem with F451 and Atlas Shrugged?
    
    [Note: this may explain me being 1 day away from 43 and single]
    1. Drax the Destroyer 13 years ago
      
      Fuck that rob. Being single is the shit. No kids, no bullshit, no nagging. And if the world doesn't collapse you might have a shot at making it to 200. And, this goes for anyone, if you like Sci-Fi or Fantasy or Commando or Death Wish 3, FUCK ANYONE WHO THINKS YOU ARE WORTH LESS FOR IT. FUCK 'EM.
      1. Restoras 13 years ago
        
        I was an idiot for thinking that living a single life would be a mistake. Married with kids, sure it has perks and I love being a dad (most of the time) but holy shit is the drudgery just awful, not to mention the forced, completely fake interactions with neighbors.
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        I only interact with my neighbors through a haze of alcohol, either on their part or mine. It cuts down on the bullshit considerably.
        
        NoVAHockey 13 years ago
        
        "completely fake interactions with neighbors."
        
        this can't be said enough. and my kid isn't even in elementary school yet.
      2. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
        
        My only complaint about being single is that I don't like it when I fall down, hurt my knee, and no one is there to bring me Advil and a cold compress. Or when I get a 103 fever and I'm too weak to walk the dog.
        
        I think I just need a nurse. Preferably a mountainous, bald, ape-like male one.
    2. Randian 13 years ago
      
      Some of the best American fiction of the 20th century is SF.
      
      You got a problem with F451 and Atlas Shrugged?
      
      Err...I don't want to bring the Objectivist jihad down on my head for heresy, but AS is fine for what it is.
      
      Rand's best fiction work is We the Living. Hands down.
      1. RBS 13 years ago
        
        Rand's best fiction work is We the Living. Hands down.
        
        Agreed.
        
        nicole 13 years ago
        
        Hey, I was going to say this last night in the Paul Ryan thread, or something. Totally agree.
      2. robc 13 years ago
        
        I like Anthem, but thats because its short (and even more SFy).
        
        I have still never read We the Living for some reason, should probably correct that.
    3. Dagny T. 13 years ago
      
      Elsewhere in the Jezebel thread Sug linked to, they talk about how liking Ayn Rand at all, ever, would cause them to rule out any individual, male or female. Maybe the dealbreaker should be people who think that literary taste is a dealbreaker.
      
      Happy almost-Birthday. Hope you've got something good brewed for the occasion.
      1. robc 13 years ago
        
        Of course.
        
        Just got back from Wisconsin too, so have a fridge stocked with stuff I cant buy locally.
      2. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        they talk about how liking Ayn Rand at all, ever, would cause them to rule out any individual, male or female
        
        I see this in online dating circles a lot. It seems retarded to me. But then there are also a ton of people that rule people out for liking the "wrong" music, etc.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        It's actually a highly useful social marker.
        
        It means that you're likely to make statements in front of their friends that will evoke hostility.
        
        If you bring an opinionated liberal into a group of quasi-Randists, they are likely to say, "Awesome, somebody to argue with!" If you bring an opinionated quasi-Randist into a group of liberals, they clutch their pearls and faint about how hurtful the heretic is.
        
        So if your social circle is liberals, you're setting yourself up for aggravation if you date outside the faith.
        
        RBS 13 years ago
        
        True, I dated a hardcore SoCal liberal for a couple of years. It was a huge scandal in her family because at the time I worked for a republican congressman and even worse I'm from the South. Good times.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        My social circle is liberals. And the dinner parties in my neighborhood often turn into bear bating as the liberals gawk at the heretic.
        
        NoVAHockey 13 years ago
        
        Washington Post's weekend magazine runs a feature called "date lab." people submit an application and the post writers play matchmaker and set up the date and pay for it. the couple then rates the date. typically, the two will have a good time, but rarely follow up with a second date for some asinine reason. and then wonder why they can't find anyone.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        My wife always reads that. I think a lot of them are princesses. It seems like most of the time it is a reasonably attractive guy with a good job and some women who won't see him again. It is almost always the woman who won't go on the second date.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        It is almost always the woman who won't go on the second date.
        
        In my personal experience with being set up/meeting online, it was much more common for the woman to not want a second date, even if the first was fun. I think they have a higher standard. If I didn't find a reason to not go out again, I'd be down with trying one more time. I think they had to be convinced in the first date that it was a sweep-off-you-feet perfect match to try again (or just reaaally want to bang you).
        
        NoVAHockey 13 years ago
        
        John's right. she'll rate the date 4 out of 5, say there's no chemistry and that's the end of it. it's not just high standards, it's unreasonable ones.
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        she'll rate the date 4 out of 5, say there's no chemistry and that's the end of it. it's not just high standards, it's unreasonable ones.
        
        Do women never develop attraction over time? I know a lot of girls I didn't want to screw initially, but changed my mind.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I know a ton of women like that. Now that I am a bit older I know the older versions of these women. They end up turning down any number of decent guys. And they hit their mid 30s and the biological clock starts ticking. But by then all of those nice guys they turned down are married and the ones that are not are looking for a younger model. They get very angry bitter a lot.
        
        NoVAHockey 13 years ago
        
        I've no idea. FWIW, my wife reports that they're holding out for a "swept of their feet" moment.
        
        but that's not how i ended up with my wife, so who knows.
        
        RBS 13 years ago
        
        The swept of your feet bullshit is so dumb. Eventually you end up bitter and alone.
        
        NoVAHockey 13 years ago
        
        yep. and I sure as shit did not have that experience with my wife. she didn't either.
        
        Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
        
        I submitted a date lab application. I requested a blue-collar, non-wonk (or implied that was what I wanted via whatever questions the asked).
        
        Take a wild guess as to whether I got called back.
        
        Fatty Bolger 13 years ago
        
        Should go a little easier now that you're an Obama supporter.
      3. nicole 13 years ago
        
        Elsewhere in the Jezebel thread Sug linked to, they talk about how liking Ayn Rand at all, ever, would cause them to rule out any individual, male or female. Maybe the dealbreaker should be people who think that literary taste is a dealbreaker.
        
        I have to say that, at least to some extent, literary taste would be a big deal for me, since reading is my main hobby. I mean, I don't give a shit about my friends, but for a partner, it's something that would be important for me to at least be able to talk about together. (So, really, a non-reader partner would be the problem more than anything else.)
        
        But the best/worst thing I have "read" (I didn't make it that far) about how much you should hate people who like Ayn Rand was this. God does New York magazine suck (overall).
  6. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    A) Favorite book: Sitting Around Thinkin' About Stuff and Gettin' Sad
    
    B) Favorite book: Star Wars Fanfic Porn
    
    Gotta click on the B profile there, sorry.
    1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
      
      Sitting Around Thinkin' About Stuff and Gettin' Sad: A Novel by Sapphire
  7. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    BTW, I finally got around to reading Blood Music the other day.
    
    It's hard for me to take seriously the notion that sci fi is adolescent and mainstream fiction is "adult". Somebody's got to give me an example of one work of literary fiction written in the last 30 years that's as thought provoking.
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      Did you read the short story or the story expanded to novel length?
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        The novel.
        
        I wasn't aware there was a short story version.
    2. robc 13 years ago
      
      Ive got a ton of Bear on my shelf, but Blood Music isnt among my favorites of his at all. I think I found it too disturbing.
      
      So, maybe it is amongst the favorites, but like 1984, is something I just cant pick up again.
      1. SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        Blood Music is among his best. And I've always liked Queen of Angels.
      2. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I think I found it too disturbing.
        
        The really funny thing is that I found it extraordinarily hopeful.
        
        In fact, my one criticism of it is that its two postulates (intron DNA as biological computer memory and the physical universe as an artifact of consciousness and observation) seemed a little too perfectly selected to lead, in combination, to a paradise-happily-ever-after ending.
4. John 13 years ago
  
  I don't like "The Road" either. But "On the Road" is great. Everyone who has ever been young should read that book.
  1. robc 13 years ago
    
    Kerouac doesnt do it for me. I will take Kesey over him any day.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      I am the opposite. I like Kerouac a lot.
      1. robc 13 years ago
        
        Sometimes a Great Notion, while a hard read, is one of my favorite novels.
        
        Its one of those rare cases where I got something out of an english class.
        
        My graduating quarter, I had one lit requirement to fulfill, so chose based entirely on professor. He was teaching a class called "Imagining the American West", which sounded lame but turned out to be pretty cool. Kesey and Kerouac where on the reading list (along with Muir and Clarence King, glancing at my bookshelf). I dont think I have picked up the Kerouac/Muir/King books since 1991. But I reread Notion every few years.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I like that one a lot. I just never like Coocoo's Nest very much. But Sometimes a Great Notion is a great book.
        
        Jerry on the road 13 years ago
        
        It's a great movie too, with Paul Newman.
        
        Warty 13 years ago
        
        Sometimes I get a great notion to jump in the river and drown
        
        I can never see that book without that line popping into my head. What a great old song.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I love that song. Leadbelly was a legitimate dangerous psycho. He went to prison twice for killing people and literally managed to sing his way out both times. He pulled a knife and tried to kill the manager who discovered him and took him to Carnage Hall. And all of the psychotic darkness comes out in his singing. Goodnight Irene and Where Did You Sleep Last night will send a chill down your spine.
        
        EDG reppin' LBC 13 years ago
        
        He pulled a knife and tried to kill the manager who discovered him and took him to Carnage Hall.
        
        Perhaps your most awesome typo ever, John.
        
        LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        Dang - I am in awe. I should be so lucky as to have one that good.
  2. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    Both of htose books are among my favorites.
5. Warty 13 years ago
  
  I liked The Road. And here's a song about The Road.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKuK6eDq5dA
  1. PS 13 years ago
    
    I sort of liked it even though I was prepared to hate it.
    
    But the audiobook of All The Pretty Horses read by Frank Muller will never be topped.
    1. Warty 13 years ago
      
      Cormac McCarthy is fun. I need to reread Blood Meridian.
      1. PS 13 years ago
        
        Read that a long time ago, but it was rather too nihilistic for my tastes.
6. PS 13 years ago
  
  I'm currently re-reading The French Lieutenant's Woman, which I suppose would pass most snobster's litmus test, and I just re-read all the Jeeves and Wooster books, but I also read tons of sci-fi, have subscriptions to Analog, FSF;, and I was a huge fan of On The Road. In fact, it inspired me to also hitchhike across the country.
  
  Pseudo-intellectuals gonna be pseudo...
Tim 13 years ago

"On medical leave for the last two months, Jesse Jackson Jr.'s constituents finally know he is being treated for bipolar disorder. "

Was he the one the Australians flew out to New Zealand?
ant1sthenes 13 years ago

I wonder if the SEAL raid has anything to do with this story I read last night.

Key quote: Jesus Vicente Zambada-Neibla, known as the "logistics coordinator" for the Sinaloa Cartel and a close associate of Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (pictured), is now claiming that the strategy orchestrated between the United States and the Sinaloa Cartel through Operation Fast and Furious was one of "divide and conquer." The United States allegedly financed and armed the cartel in exchange for information that allowed the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take down rival drug cartels. Zambada-Neibla indicates that so long as the Sinaloa Cartel continued to deliver intelligence to those American agencies, drugs were permitted to be trafficked across the U.S. border.

Sounds less like they're striking a blow against a drug trafficking, and more like they're eliminating loose ends.
1. Tim 13 years ago
  
  "What's this bullshit? I don't fuckin' care! It don't matter to Jesus. But you're not foolin' me, man. You might fool the fucks in the league office, but you don't fool Jesus. This bush league psyche-out stuff. Laughable, man - ha ha! I would have fucked you in the ass Saturday. I fuck you in the ass next Wednesday instead. Wooo! You got a date Wednesday, baby! "
  1. RBS 13 years ago
    
    Jesus.
    1. Ed 13 years ago
      
      eight year olds, dude
    2. Brett L 13 years ago
      
      You said it, man.
  2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
  3. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
2. Dr. Frankenstein 13 years ago
  
  The thing of it is that isn't a bad strategy. If you can't get rid of drugs and drug trafficing and you can't legalize the drugs, set up a monopoly that can control the drugs and presumably violence more effectively.
  1. Spoonman. 13 years ago
    
    The Vic Mackey strategy.
sloopyinca 13 years ago

Isn't that the same cop beats people story I posted yesterday in the AM links?

If you're gonna post an abuse story, please use a new one each day. God knows there's plenty of them to go around.
1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  Above is a real peach. Man is arrested for already-served warrants but the jail wasn't made aware of it. He protests his innocence so they beat the shit out of him. Unfortunately, they do it before his booking photo.
  
  Sheriff is unapologetic. FTA: The Sheriff admits a computer glitch caused Taylor's arrest, but says Colby Taylor could be back in jail soon, "He acted very badly. So yes he is charged, or will be charged with disorderly conduct. And that's a charge he's going to have to face."
  
  Where's dunphy to tell us these guys shouldn't be held accountable because it's not their fault there was a computer glitch?
  
  Fucking scumbags.
  1. Drax the Destroyer 13 years ago
    
    Jesus that computer glitch bit is like something out of Brazil. Bland, bureaucratic, dystopia HERE WE ARE.
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      If they'd have arrested a guy named Colby Baylor in his place and done the same thing, I'd expected Terry Gilliam to sue for copyright infringement.
John 13 years ago

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....ead_module

Kate Middleton's stripper cousin. Another nice girl ruined by bad ink.
1. RBS 13 years ago
  
  I'd love to attend a party with the Royal Family and Kate's extended family.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    I think she is smoking hot. I just wish she didn't have the ink.
    1. RBS 13 years ago
      
      I'm a tattoo fan but I hate when they appear to be applied randomly on the body.
2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  Before I click the link, let me guess: Pasty skin? That awful elongated British woman's nose? Thin bird-like lips? Bean-bag (or surgically-enhanced) tits? Ill-fitting clothing?
  
  Please let me know if I'm right, as I was planning on waiting to click the link for at least five minutes to avoid the disappointment of having to look at what passes for sexy on the streets of Britain.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    No. She is attractive. Just a bunch of stupid ink on her legs.
  2. John 13 years ago
    
    And there is nothing wrong with fair skinned women.
  3. Randian 13 years ago
    
    Yes, sloopy, you have it about right.
  4. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    5 for 5 sloop.
  5. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    And you know the good thing about women with thin lips?
    
    No duck face.
    
    And you can be pretty sure they aren't going to go all Octomom on you with collagen.
    
    Whoever decided that fat lips were attractive, and that you should actually alter your face to get them, is a war criminal and should be hung.
    1. Randian 13 years ago
      
      I do have to say that I accepted sloop's physical descriptions without accepting the judgment that follows.
      
      I just wanted to spare him his own personal 'agony' of looking at someone attractive.
    2. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      I think the longing for "bee-stung" lips is a longing for the day when women were slapped around more often for back-talk.
      1. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        I blame Angelina Jolie.
    3. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      isn't the theory that it's supposed to make men think of labia?
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        When I see really big lips I think of baboon labia.
        
        And my immediate response to baboon labia is NOT, "Boy I'd like to get my piece in there!"
        
        Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        Gay! NTTAWWT.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        OK, I clicked the link. Her lips are HUGE by typical British standards. Of course, I just can't get past that nose, which seems to be on 99% of the white British women I've seen.
        On a scale of Southern women, she's about a 4 to 5. On the Royal British scale, she's at least an 8.
        
        It's great to live in a nation that's a melting pot as opposed to one that inbreeds to the point where all women look like Cyrano de Bergerac.
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        I guess that's my thinking. In America, she'd be stripping in the trashy club out by the airport and making not much.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        In some of the airport strip clubs I've been in, she'd be the one parking cars scrounging for tips.
        
        Sorry, but she's just too British-looking for me.
      2. Entropy Void 13 years ago
        
        Name one thing that DOESN'T make men think of labia, IFH.
  6. Invisible Finger 13 years ago
    
    Even worse than you think, sloopy.
sloopyinca 13 years ago

Cop pretends he's Macho Man Randy Savage taking on Koko-B-Ware in a cage match.

Jesus Christ. Is there ever any common sense used in situations like this? Ever?
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  My stepson's father is a cop, and he loves pro-wrestling.
  From what the kid has said I have no doubt that his father routinely body slams people onto the pavement when they don't show sufficient respect.
  And, as the story goes, nothing else happens.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Hold on a second. You wife was married to a cop, and they had a kid? Holy shit. Have you ever been forced to shake his hand or otherwise make physical contact? Do you wear a garlic necklace when you do so?
    1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
      
      Too many assumptions in your comment to bother to correct.
      1. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
        
        Soo.... what you're saying is that your husband was married to a cop and they adopted?
      2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Ah, they weren't married then? Jesus, I still feel for you, man. If that guy has anything to do with your stepson's life and he get's a hankering to fuck with you, it can become difficult.
        
        Similar situation: my ex- remarried a Federal Marshall attached to the DoD. He threatened to use his office to make my life hell one time and I reeled off the names of a few high ranking officers that were friends of the family, including two 0-7's and a retired 0-9, that could make his career disappear. He STFU pretty quickly.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Ah, they weren't married then?
        
        And he wasn't a cop when they were together. That only happened last year. Since then I see his son more than he does. All he does is work. He's addicted to power to the point where his son is losing respect for him.
        Luckily for me I don't foresee dude wanting to fuck with me now or in the future. He gets his fill of fucking with people while at work.
        
        sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Thank God for that. It's a shame when any parent in a split home gets too wrapped up in their work. Fortunately, neither me or my ex-wife did so and we both have really good relationships with our kids. Banjos does with mine as well, but I'd imagine not working has a lot to do with that. My ex-wife's current husband travels overseas a lot and is generally a pretty lousy step-dad to my kids and the same goes for his three kids he has full custody of. It's sad. His kids are always jealous of mine.
2. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
  
  Officer safety! Dangerous Situation!
  
  Lucky she didn't end up riding the lightning or with a face full of pepper spray as well.
3. wareagle 13 years ago
  
  we need better wrasslin' references. Savage is dead.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    More modern =/= better. I said Macho Man, and I'm gonna stick with Macho Man.
    
    Besides, there's no more body slamming anyway so the reference is apt. All wrestling is today is a bunch of flips and aerial moves followed by low-grade melodrama. Back in Macho man's day. the bodyslam was an integral part of wrestling.
    1. Brett L 13 years ago
      
      It takes steroids to be able to press a 300lb man over your head, and they've pretty much cleaned that up.
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        They've cleaned up steroids in Professional Wrestling?
        
        Hey Brett, I've got some beachfront land in Arizona I'm looking to move. Cheap! Are you interested?
        
        Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Compared to the 80s thru early 90s? Fuck yeah they have.
        
        RBS 13 years ago
        
        Ummm, no.
        
        CuriousGeorge 13 years ago
        
        Well...there are drug tests now, and wrestlers have been suspended for failing them...never would have seen that 20 years ago.
    2. wareagle 13 years ago
      
      just asking for a reference to a living wrassler. I don't care if it's Dusty Rhodes or Ric Flair, just someone with whom the scenario is plausible.
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        OK, fine. The guy was pretending he was Goldust.
        
        Happy now?
        
        wareagle 13 years ago
        
        now that was an out there character. Interesting discussions in the Runnels household. And yes, minor embarrassment at knowing real names. Retaining useless sports trivia is my Rainman talent.
  2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    Savage is dead.
    
    You lie! He but sleeps. When his people need him, he will return and destroy their foes with a diving elbow drop
LTC(ret) John 13 years ago

"For justice."

C'mon, that should be For great justice.
The Late P Brooks 13 years ago

He acted very badly.

"What part of STOP RESISTING don't you understand?"
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

Philip Glass on Sesame Street
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  Anthony Bourdain on Yo Gabba Gabba
  1. Marshall Gill 13 years ago
    
    Yo Gabba Gabba is just wrong. The creatures look like sex toys.
    
    It really looks like someone came to the show's creator's house and saw some sex toys laying around and the person said "No, that isn't a dildo and a butt plug but characters in my new children's TV show".
    1. RBS 13 years ago
      
      I the creation of pretty much every children's show involves some combination of psychedelics and sex toys.
Pip 13 years ago

Bar Rafaeli Topless Bikini shoot:

http://www.celebuzz.com/2012-0.....oot-video/
1. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  I'll be in my bunk.
2. robc 13 years ago
  
  An arm is a type of top.
Pip 13 years ago

Michelle Obama Scolds Olympics Hero Gabby Douglas for Eating an Egg McMuffin

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/n.....z23WqLQ67G
1. John 13 years ago
  
  Bitch.
2. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Covered upthread.
3. Almanian's Evil Twin 13 years ago
  
  Cause that one Egg-uh-Muffin will take her from ~80 lbs to NEARLY 100 pounds ZOMFG!!111!
CampingInYourPark 13 years ago

"As the crowd cheered "Four more beers!" the president relented.

'I'll tell you what, except for Romney sign, I'll buy beers for ten people,' he said."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....CpX06FmTng
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Russian sub patrols Gulf of Mexico undetected.

http://freebeacon.com/silent-running/
Brett L 13 years ago

The Chicoms think we're a big-headed, thick-chested sub-race

Then the Communist Party mouthpiece suggested that the Chinese shouldn't compete with United States because Westerners have bigger chests and heads.

I don't know, there was one Chinese beach volleyball player who was very stacked for an Asian.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  What makes it even better is that our winning the medal count will be about a two day story here. And if we hadn't won the medal count, few would have lost any sleep over it. Yet, the US still beat China and it is apparently devastating to them. Nothing better than winning at something you only mildly care about against someone for whom winning is life and death.
  1. Brett L 13 years ago
    
    Since preseason football started last weekend, who cares about the Olympics?
    1. Episiarch 13 years ago
      
      And the Seahawks beat the Titans! Yeah, it's not exactly a triumph, but hey, Russel Wilson looks promising.
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        I think Wilson is going to be a steal. I wonder sometimes if pro scouts even watch the college games. Wilson was a great college quarterback. Much better than Ryan Tannyhill. I can't believe he lasted until the third or fourth round or wherever he fell too.
        
        Episiarch 13 years ago
        
        Wilson running in that touchdown on the pylon was pretty impressive. He really looks like he might have serious potential. Flynn was OK, but unimpressive, and interceptions kind of leave me cold.
        
        DON'T GET INTERCEPTED
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Here is the thing with Flynn. Miami hired his O coordinator in Green Bay as head coach. Miami needed a quarterback. But Flynn's old coach wasn't interested in signing him. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Wilson ends up being the quarterback there.
        
        The Hammer 13 years ago
        
        Wilson has a much better arm than Flynn, went to two much better schools, has proven to be better at learning new systems (Flynn spent 3 years in GB before he got any real playing time) and is more athletic. If the Seahawks hadn't spent a stupid amount of money on Flynn it really wouldn't even be a contest.
      2. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        May Bud Adams die badly and rot in hell.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I hope he goes to the Art Modell wing.
      3. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I was shocked by the fact that Luck looked like an NFL quarterback already.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Did you watch him in college? He was incredible. He had a single receiver who was NFL caliber to throw to. But was still unstoppable.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Right, but it's his first preseason game and he's like "Fuck you, I'm moving the ball down the field."
        
        Mark Sanchez has had three years and still doesn't look like that. He still looks like "Hey, I'm just a kid, gosh I hope this next sequence works and gets us some yards this time."
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        The really good ones just have it. That is why that whole bullshit about not starting rookies so you don't break their confidence is just that, bullshit. If they are good, their confidence won't get shot. And last I looked no one ever got better at anything standing around holding a clip board.
    2. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Fucking Cowboys looked terrible last night.
      
      Mrs. Dean, who is now a Packer shareholder, mocked me mercilessly.
      
      I haz a sad.
      1. Randian 13 years ago
        
        The Cowboys are the Notre Dame of professional football: both have a fan base that fails to recognize they haven't been relevant for a long time.
        
        RBS 13 years ago
        
        Outstanding.
        
        Restoras 13 years ago
        
        Perhaps but at least the Cowboys spawned Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team. God bless them for that show.
      2. DesigNate 13 years ago
        
        I didn't get to watch as my baby girl finally let me sleep. Glad to know I didn't miss much.
    3. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
      
      Brett - Olympics...? Oh, right, that stuff that kept interrupting my NFL updates.
  2. Drax the Destroyer 13 years ago
    
    I don't know about you John, but I didn't win shit. Maybe that's why I don't care about the medal count...it had nothing to do with me.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Yeah yeah yeah. You can use the collective "we" in the most nationalistic sporting events.
  3. Warty 13 years ago
    
    Fucking Browns. I wouldn't be surprised if Trent Richardson's knee rots off and he never plays a game.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      I think Weeden will be good though.
      1. Randian 13 years ago
        
        No he won't. Every one with a modicum of talent goes into the abattoir of the Browns organization and comes out a talentless, broken hack.
        
        See also: The Washington Redskins.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Not true. The Browns were quit good during the Schottenheimer years despite being cursed. And would have been good under Bellicheck if they hadn't had the world's worst owner.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        I'll assume you meant "Redskins" and say that, as a fan, even I am not deluded enough into thinking the Redskins were "quite good". They have been to the playoffs four times in twenty years and have had six seasons over .500.
        
        And yes, it is all Dan Snyder's fault.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Snyder is living proof you don't have to be smart to be rich.
        
        Randian 13 years ago
        
        He's almost living proof of market failure.
        
        He can take the richest team with a devoted fanbase and absolutely run it into the ground and still make billions.
        
        Libertarians say that corporate raiding is minimized in the market because owners want to grow their business to sustain a long-term model. Dan Snyder says "LOL FUCK THAT MOAR MONEYZ PLEASE"
        
        And he gets away with it.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        He is supported by a socialistic NFL. If the NFL were really a league rather than a corporation, someone would move another team to Washington and run his dumb ass out of business. And if it were run like a corporation the league office would have fired his dumb ass years ago. No corporation worth anything would ever let one of its most valuable divisions be run into the ground by that clown.
        
        But it really is neither. The NFL is just a socialistic playground for idiot sons and good old boy cronies.
2. Mike M. 13 years ago
  
  They can always console themselves with the fact that we still owe them around a trillion US dollars.
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    I am not sure I would find that consoling if I were them.
    1. Restoras 13 years ago
      
      Exactly, since they have probably started to figure out that they aren't going to be paid back.
    2. Rasilio 13 years ago
      
      Yeah, the one thing about holding a debt is that you have to have some way of collecting that debt should the debtor decide he wants to default, otherwise you are at the mercy of the guy who owes you the money. As much as their military has advanced the Chineese have basically 0 chance of successfully going toe to toe with the US military and we would still crush them in industrial production in the long term.
John 13 years ago

Since they set the debate formats yesterday, a blast from the past. Behold Pony Tail Guy from the 2008 town hall debates.

The focus of my work as a domestic mediator is meeting the needs of the children that I work with, by way of their parents, and not the wants of their parents. And I ask the three of you, how can we, as symbolically the children of the future president, expect the two of you, the three of you to meet our needs, the needs in housing and in crime and you name it?."

No way that wasn't the greatest piece of trolling ever.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org.....residency/
sloopyinca 13 years ago

Speaking of ducks (somebody said duck-face upthread), we finally got some over the weekend. We got 6 Muscovy's and 3 Mallards, all about 4 months old. One of the mallards got killed by one of our dogs (that we got rid of yesterday) and the rest are doing well. They get on well with the chickens too, which is nice.

We also got 7 Guineafowl yesterday. 3 Lavenday and 4 white-breasted. They're keets (3 weeks old) but they're loud as fuck already. In a few weeks, we'll start letting them out of the coop a couple at a time and see how they do. I want to lket them loose on all the bugs that are out there as ell as the little rattler I spotted Sunday night.

And we're going to the livestock auction today, so I'll probably end up adding to the flock some other way.
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  what are you keeping them for? Eggs, dinner, or just as some funky friends?
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    The chickens and ducks are for their eggs (once they're all laying). The Guineafowl are for eating bugs and to act as watchdogs for coyotes and foxes. And because they're pretty cool looking.
    
    We're gonna get some Cornish Cross chickens soon to raise for eating. Those bastards grow super-fast and are tasty as hell.
    
    The sheep are for fun and the goats are for milk once we kid them this fall. We're gonna grow herbs and make our own artisanal goat cheese and sell it at the Farmers Market.*
    
    *We may also increase the bird flock and make high-end gourmet mayonnaise since we have the materials (26 trees) to make our own olive oil and are gonna plant a huge herb garden.
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      You're gonna make artisanal mayonnaise? The irony, it burns.
      1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        it makes sense. Hate on the competition, and then introduce your superior high-end gourmet product.
        
        sloopy, seriously sounds idyllic
      2. RBS 13 years ago
        
        Yeah, he completely ruined my threat of sending him a bunch of artisanal mayo of he loses or wins the fantasy league.
    2. Invisible Finger 13 years ago
      
      once we kid them this fall.
      
      Suddenly I realized just how vulgar "You're kidding me" really is.
    3. Bobarian 13 years ago
      
      "The sheep are for fun"
      
      Everyone's just gonna let that stand?
      
      I'm brought to mind of 'Full Metal Jacket' -- This is my weapon, and this is my gun...
2. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  I'm confused. You spotted a rattlesnake, and its still alive?
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    He scurried under a shed before I could whack him to death.
    1. Warty 13 years ago
      
      Why would you kill snakes? They're adorable and cuddly.
      
      I hope you're saving the skins, though, to make your snakeskin suit and your alligator boot.
      1. EDG reppin' LBC 13 years ago
        
        You don't need a laundrette.
        Just take it to the vet.
        
        I get good advice from the advertising world...
3. Warty 13 years ago
  
  How'd the dog taste?
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    You know, it was a little gamier......whoa, whoa, whoa. I meant to say, eat a dog? I'd never eat a dog. What do you take me for, a Korean?
    1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
      
      You can get dog in the rural Phillipines too.
4. Archduke PantsFan 13 years ago
  
  How do you manage that in midtown?
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    We moved out to the new homestead a few weeks back. 26 olive trees, a 1000 sf chicken coop, fields all 1/4-1/2 acre with irrigation and each individually fenced and stabling for a dozen horses or 30-40 sheep/goats. And well water that we can pump to our heart's content.
    1. Archduke PantsFan 13 years ago
      
      Hey, cool!
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        Shit. Sorry, PantsFan. Let me rewrite that for your Canadian eyes:
        
        We moved out to the new homestead a few weeks back, eh. 26 olive trees, a 1000 sf 93 square meter chicken coop, fields all 1/4-1/2 acre 1000-2000 square meters with irrigation and each individually fenced and stabling for a dozen hourses or 30-40 sheep/goats love animals. And well water that we can pump to our heart's content.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I didn't believe him, but I just ran "goat" into Google Translate for Canadian and it did, in fact, come up as "love slave".
    2. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Dang, sloop. Sweet spread.
5. Rasilio 13 years ago
  
  Wait, the sheep are for fun? I had no idea you were Scottish.
KangaTooo 13 years ago

Think the US will ever start minding its own business and deal with its own problems??

http://www.At-Anon.tk
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  You can't fool me - you're not the real anonbot. The lack of typos and LOLs is a dead giveaway
  1. RBS 13 years ago
    
    The lack of typos and LOLs
    This is troubling, how long before Skynet becomes self aware?
    1. T 13 years ago
      
      If it can avoid typos, it's already more self-aware than John.
Archduke PantsFan 13 years ago

450 posts?
How early do you people get up?
1. RBS 13 years ago
  
  Some of us have jobs...
  1. Drake 13 years ago
    
    Boring jobs.
  2. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    Or leave in the real time zone.
    1. Episiarch 13 years ago
      
      Leave what, grammartard?
      1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
        
        You hanging.
  3. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    Some of us have jobs...
    
    and the rest of us just hate ourselves.
Brett L 13 years ago

Is it the feature writer's day off around here?
1. Archduke PantsFan 13 years ago
  
  They're celebrating Tebow's birthday.
  1. The Hammer 13 years ago
    
    Is it Tebow's birthday? Shit. I guess I should be watching out for tornadoes and earthquakes here in Denver then.
The Late P Brooks 13 years ago

The sheep are for fun

You don't say...
1. Archduke PantsFan 13 years ago
  
  Nervous sheep give poor wool.
2. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
  
  Now I'm not saying it's true, but I've heard a rumor about sloopy and he's never once denied it...
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Hey! That restraining order New Zealand has on me is for something else entirely.
The Late P Brooks 13 years ago

Did somebody say snake?

A Burmese python measuring 17 feet, 7 inches has shattered the record for the largest snake found in Florida.

Captured at the northern end of Everglades National Park, the snake ? nearly two building stories tall ? was nearly a foot longer than the previous state record of 16 feet, 8 inches, the University of Florida announced Monday.

It also was a mom, and a record-setting one at that. It was carrying a record-setting 87 eggs, two more than the previous mark.

Words fail.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  Declare a bounty on them and let people use guns to hunt them. Last I heard, the Park Service wouldn't let people use guns to hunt them because guns are bad.
  1. MP 13 years ago
    
    Yeah, because...? They're scary looking?
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      I have no idea. But to a bureaucrat they are just evil. It is completely stupid they haven't declared an all out war on these things. Offer 10K a head bounty on them, have an unrestricted hunting season and tell people to use any means they like. In this economy, there would be rednecks coming from all over the country to go snake hunting.
      1. RBS 13 years ago
        
        There could even be a show on AE about it.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Python Hunters?
  2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    What?
    
    Allow people to do something without paying fees for proper permits, licenses, and other forms in triplicate?
    
    People acting without permission?
    
    That's madness I tell you!
    
    Madness!
    
    Anarchy!
    
    What are you? A libertarian?
2. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  Words fail.
  
  "Holy fuck! Look at that huge fucking snake! Run!"
  
  Those are the words I would choose.
  1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    "OMG, slingpacks and a handbag!"
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      That snake is a luggage set.
Almanian's Evil Twin 13 years ago

The counter says 489 comments as I start this missive. There ain't 489 comments worth of material here. Much less 490 worth.

That is all.
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  There ain't 489 comments worth of material here
  
  As if that ever mattered
  1. Almanian's Evil Twin 13 years ago
    
    YOU'RE NOT HELPING!
    
    Oh, neither am I. SHIT!
2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  520 now.
  
  Need more stories to comment on.
  
  C'mon Reason! Where's the material?
  1. Randian 13 years ago
    
    It's a funny dynamic.
    
    The Morning Links drag on when there are no other stories to comment on.
    
    But then the subsequent stories only pull 10-30 comments during the day.
    
    Explain that.
    1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      because you only comment on stories you care about. This is a free-for-all with no requirement to comment on anything
      1. Randian 13 years ago
        
        But then why do the morning links comment sections die out at all?
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Boredom?
    2. RBS 13 years ago
      
      It doesn't help when they post about things we have already covered in the Morning Links either.
Archduke PantsFan 13 years ago

Usain Bolt refuses to race in UK until tax laws are changed
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fin.....anged.html
Archduke PantsFan 13 years ago

The nudists who spoil our holiday retreat
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/exp.....treat.html
1. Suthenboy 13 years ago
  
  Uh....so go somewhere else dumbass. Camping out next to a nude beach and then complaining about naked people....what a douche nozzle.
Loki 13 years ago

Jesse Jackson Jr.'s constituents finally know he is being treated for bipolar disorder. No word on whether the Congressman plans on vacating his seat...

Some days he feels like resigning, but then the next day he goes completely the other way and decides to stay in congress.
The Late P Brooks 13 years ago

Robert Reich, dispassionate observer:

Ryan is not a firebrand. He's not smarmy. He doesn't ooze contempt for opponents or ridicule those who disagree with him. In style and tone, he doesn't even sound like an ideologue ? until you listen to what he has to say.

It's here ? in Ryan's views and policy judgments ? we find the true ideologue. More than any other politician today, Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today's Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves. Dog eat dog.

Reich accuses Romney and Ryan of plotting to resurrect every crime against humanity except using child laborers in coal mines, and that's most likely due merely to space limitations.

I wonder whom Reich is planning to vote for.
1. MP 13 years ago
  
  This is the common tripe I see in our local editorial pages. Here's my response:
  
  SHOW ME HOW TO PAY FOR ALL OF YOUR GOODIES, YOU FUCK
  
  Shit, I'll even take a tax plan with 110% taxes on $1M and free health care for everyone and cut defense spending to 0.
  
  At least it would be a fucking plan.
  
  Paul Ryan's plan is shit. But at least it's a plan.
  
  WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PLAN T O N Y?
  
  crickets...
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    You don't get it.
    Everyone deserves a basic standard of living by virtue of being alive. That includes top notch health care, as well as food, shelter, cell phone, internet, cable, and everything else.
    They deserve it.
    How to pay for it? Well, there are rich people who haven't paid their fair share.
    We know this by virtue of the fact that they are rich. Had they paid their fair share then they wouldn't be rich, now would they?
    
    Stop being rational and emote! Then it will all make sense!
2. John 13 years ago
  
  I love that. Just because he sounds reasonable and the things he says are reasonable doesn't mean he is not an evil child hating nihilist!!
3. Joe M 13 years ago
  
  Dog eat dog.
  
  Reich has a legitimate fear here, what with being an attack dog himself.
  1. The Hammer 13 years ago
    
    Reich has a legitimate fear anyway, being 5'4" and a ponce. It's funny, he just vomited on some paper for HuffPo on Friday:
    
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....65629.html
    
    The thesis: I just got back from a 3 week vacation. Therefore we should make it mandatory that everyone gets a 3 week paid vacation every year! Because I said so!
    
    He says that this would be in everyone's best interest, even employers, but still thinks we need to force it on people at gunpoint. I asked the question "Why do we need to force it on people at gunpoint if it is in everyone's best interest" in the comments, and got this reply, among others:
    
    "cornflower If they were willing to do it without a law (what you call forcing them at gunpoint, which of course in reality, no one is going to do), they would presumably have already done it. But they haven't, which indicates that legal measures are necessary.
    
    Can we try thinking rationally?"
    
    God, I hate HuffPo. And Fuck You, Dunphy, for calling Reason an echo chamber.
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Brides to be snapping sexy pics to remind hubby of what they looked like before they ballooned after the wedding.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....dings.html
1. Loki 13 years ago
  
  'It's really the ultimate gift from brides to their fiance,'
  
  I think their fiances would probably prefer a slightly different "gift". Like maybe a crack at dat azz. After the wedding of course.
2. Brett L 13 years ago
  
  I have a (female) friend who is excellent at this kind of photography. She can make plain women look incredible, and the good looking ones true art. Unfortunately she's somewhere between meteoric and bipolar, so doing it in an organized manner where she could make money.
Suthenboy 13 years ago

Good grief. I step away for an hour and miss the morning links....and y'all are already at 500+ comments. Geez. I will try to catch up;

American troops on Mexican soil....what could go wrong?
It doesnt matter if it looks like a war, acts like a war, sounds like a war, and feels like a war, Black Jesus has pronounced it not a war.

JJJ - Slimy con artist is batshit crazy. Who knew?
1. John 13 years ago
  
  It is a new guerrilla war to go to. It is not much of a war, but it is the only one we will have in a couple of years.
  1. Loki 13 years ago
    
    Until Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama decides to invade Iran to distract the voters from what a shitty president he is.
  2. Suthenboy 13 years ago
    
    It may not be much now, but wait until the mexicans see american troops with guns on their soil. that is when the real party will start and the drug cartels will be the least of our worries.
    1. ant1sthenes 13 years ago
      
      But at least there aren't a shitton of sympathizers here in this country with ready access to fertilizer, right?
Paul. 13 years ago

Mitt Romney mocked China's planned trip to the moon and talked up the success of the US Olympics team in London. Because apparently he is running for cheerleader?

Mitt can't lose soon enough. That is all.

Biden 2016!
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  RASH 2112!
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html.....rash+shirt
    
    Get the shirt!
Joe M 13 years ago

There's only one JJJ worth talking about.
Dr. Frankenstein 13 years ago

Got a call from a pollster last night. Of course the only two choices were Rommney and Obama. I said Gary Johnson but I won't be suprised if it get recorded as an undecided. I should have said Kodos.
RBS 13 years ago

the only two choices were Rommney and Obama.

How did John get your phone number?
1. Dr. Frankenstein 13 years ago
  
  I thought we figured out he works for the Dept. of Homeland Security.

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