A.M. Links: Chicago Teachers on Strike, Hollande Unveils Austerity Plan, Obama "Befuddled" by iPhone, Hong Kong Drops National Education Classes, Iraq VP Denounces Trial

Matthew Feeney | 9.10.2012 9:00 AM

Teachers in Chicago are on strike for the first time in 25 years after rejecting a 16 percent pay increase.

French President Francois Hollande unveiled his austerity plan which includes a 75 percent tax on the rich as well as some spending cuts. France's richest man has applied for Belgian citizenship, though he denies the new tax motivated the decision.

The Afghan government is taking over Bagram prison in what is being spun by the Afghan government as a victory for local sovereignty. Those behind bars include suspected Taliban fighters.

An iPhone stumped Obama as he tried to call campaign volunteers in Florida. A reporters said the President looked "befuddled" by Apple's smartphone.

Hong Kong officials have dropped plans for compulsory national education classes after protests.

The vice president of Iraq, Tariq al-Hashemi, has denounced the trial that convicted him in absentia of organizing attacks against political opponents.

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SugarFree 13 years ago

He's seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Rand Paul: Libertarians Are the Future of the GOP
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....y-woodruff

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky argues that the Republican party shouldn't give up on New England and the West Coast. If members of his party look for "more socially tolerant, still fiscally conservative" candidates, they might gain more clout in traditionally blue areas:
1. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  I liked Paul on the weekend talk shows saying how Romney's military spending job creation ads show that he's a Keynesian and not serious about deficit reduction.
  
  If this is Rand's version of an endorsement, I wonder what a non-endorsement would look like.
  1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
    
    A Louisville Slugger 32 oz to the back of the skull?
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      No, every time someone says Romney, Rand rolls his eyes and makes the "jacking off" hand motion.
      1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        I bet he does that (sometimes) now...heh heh heh.
2. DJF 13 years ago
  
  The Republicans picked Romney, how much more socially tolerant can you get, he was governor of Massachusetts.
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

Rihanna's Memorial Underboob Tattoo
1. Rich 13 years ago
  
  "There ought to be a law!"
2. T 13 years ago
  
  Whatevs. She's still cute, and by the time that tattoo starts to droop, she won't be a celebrity anymore. It's all good.
  1. Bobarian 13 years ago
    
    The tattoos don't really droop, you just won't be able to see them anymore.
3. Atanarjuat 13 years ago
  
  That's kinda cool. She has really nice boobs too, IMO. But I doubt the dead relative appreciates that sort of memorial so much.
4. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  I can't wait for her two get two black eyes tattoo'd in memorial of Chris Brown too.
  1. Rich 13 years ago
    
    Yep. One on each areola.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

The euro crisis is not over and is about to get interesting
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fin.....sting.html

What Mario Draghi has done is to deploy the ECB's undoubted firepower to counter break-up risk in the yields on peripheral debt. If the height of such yields were the essence of the euro problem, then ECB bond-buying would indeed be a game changer.

But it isn't. High bond yields have been a reaction to the underlying problem, not the cause of it. Indeed, the underlying problem is only partly financial. In several member countries, government finances are perilously weak. But worse than this, their economies show next to no economic growth, or are even contracting. While this continues, their debt ratios will continue to rise.
1. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  What Mario Draghi has done is to deploy the ECB's undoubted firepower
  
  There's a slight problem here. The ECB's firepower vis a vis buying sovereign debt is subject to German approval, I believe, which is far from assured.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Charles G. Koch: Corporate Cronyism Harms America
When businesses feed at the federal trough, they threaten public support for business and free markets.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

Far too many businesses have been all too eager to lobby for maintaining and increasing subsidies and mandates paid by taxpayers and consumers. This growing partnership between business and government is a destructive force, undermining not just our economy and our political system, but the very foundations of our culture.

With partisan rhetoric on the rise this election season, it's important to remind ourselves of what the role of business in a free society really is?and even more important, what it is not.
1. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
  
  But...like...I mean...KOCHTOPUS!
generic Brand 13 years ago

Teachers in Chicago are on strike for the first time in 25 years after rejecting a 16 percent pay increase.

"We're striking... for the children! Their education will suffer if we aren't paid enough. Don't THE CHILDREN? deserve a quality education which can only be achieved by overpaying teachers???"
1. Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago
  
  Why are you against education.
2. wareagle 13 years ago
  
  these fuckers should be spotlighted in perpetuity for their greed, cluelessness, and absolute lack of caring for the job they are hired to do. By the way, the charter schools in Chicago are open.
  1. Marshall Gill 13 years ago
    
    Hot cleansing fire is the only solution.
  2. Dr. Frankenstein 13 years ago
    
    Hey my ex-wife is a CPS teacher and she ... oh wait never mind I see you're right.
3. Atanarjuat 13 years ago
  
  Well, I imagine you generally get better people if you pay more. Best to let the market figure that out though. On another note,
  
  Who the fuck turns down a 16% pay increase??? During a crap economy no less.
  1. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    Seriously. If they are dumb enough to turn that down they really shouldn't be teaching.
  2. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
    
    The cast of ABC's Modern Family.
  3. Atlas Stoned 13 years ago
    
    Teachers unions have and will continue to do so. If anyone should be shamed for greed it is absolutely them.
  4. Joe R. 13 years ago
    
    Teachers are immune to the laws of economics. They have built in Heisenberg Compensators or something.
    1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
      
      Hindenburg?
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54rqDh2mWA
4. Mr Whipple 13 years ago
  
  MOAR UNIONZ
5. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
  
  Teachers in Chicago are on strike for the first time in 25 years after rejecting a 16 percent pay increase.
  
  Yet it's it's these same teachers who scream most loudly about the "profit motive" of private/for profit schools. They don't give a shit about "profit" in education as long as it's going to them, and they're willing to walk out on their students to prove it.
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

German Jews and Muslims have a Kumbaya moment over circumcision

Bonus points for the evocative homemade protest poster
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Why California's Three-Parent Law Was Inevitable
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/09/6197

Can a child have three parents? If California State Senator Mark Leno has his way, children in California will be able to have three legal parents. Before we dismiss SB 1476 as another example of California Weird, we had best look into it more closely. After all, the bill has passed both houses of the California Assembly and is awaiting Governor Brown's signature or veto.

I believe this development was inevitable, more inevitable in fact than the much-vaunted inevitability of gay marriage. Once we started trying to normalize parenting by same-sex couples and redefine marriage to remove the dual-gender requirement, we had to end up with triple-parenting.
1. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  We cannot count on private agreements among the parties to solve all problems and manage all disputes.
  
  Yeah, they went there.
  
  We gotsta have gubmint save us all, accause we too stoopid to do it awselfs!
  1. wareagle 13 years ago
    
    except there is a great deal of truth to not being able to count on private arguments where kids are concerned. As it is, how often do you read about one parent abusing custody arrangements? Would be nice if adults could act like adults regarding children, but there is too much evidence that they can't.
    1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
      
      and that's why we have lawyers... *shudder*
      1. Scarecrow Repair 13 years ago
        
        And contracts, freely negotiated, not imposed by legislators.
    2. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      Citing abuse of custody "agreements" as an example of why government oversight is necessary doesn't exactly advance the bal, as they are approved and often dictated by the courts.
      1. John 13 years ago
        
        Sure it does. Even if people could make their own, people would still break them. And that is an argument for why need courts where people can go and force them to comply with their obligations.
        
        R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        My point wasn't that there's no role for courts in policing private agreements.
        
        It was that custody agreements are hardly private in the first place, and citing them as an example of why private agreements can't work and we need even more intrusive government control of these arrangements gets it kind of backwards.
    3. Matrix 13 years ago
      
      We have courts to settle disputes in private arrangements. Perhaps contracts are needed for these arrangements. But when there is a dispute in the contract, you can have the courts intervene. Don't need laws that spell everything out. It would go badly for many people. Say a biological father wanted nothing to do with the child being spawned, but the women wanted to extort money out of him. Dude just wanted to help out a couple of women who wanted a child. They could ruin his life with child support payments for 18+ years
Fluffy 13 years ago

I would probably be befuddled by an iPhone, since I've never handled one.

I use an extremely low-end cell phone because I hate cell phones. If you handed me an iPhone and said, "Use the GPS on this to get us directions!" I literally would not have any idea where to begin.
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  You fucking Amish or something?
2. Rich 13 years ago
  
  If you can't handle the innate intuitiveness, just ask Siri. 😉
  1. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    If I woke up tomorrow and my laptop was suddenly "intuitive" I think I would probably go postal and bomb a town.
    
    15 years from now I will have the last Windows XP machine still in service anywhere in the US.
    
    I still don't really accept Vista, let alone 7, let alone the Apple-ized abominatio that is apparently going to be 8.
    
    GET OFF MY LAWN
    1. SugarFree 13 years ago
      
      You'll pick it up. Windows has been ripping off Apple's interfaces for decades now.
      1. db 13 years ago
        
        I don't want what some focus group/interface designer thinks is "intuitive." I want flexibility. I want enough buttons and switches that I can assign to individual actions that I don't have to drill down through endless hierarchies of options to get the item I want. Hell, a 104-key keyboard offers so many possible shortcuts that they can't all be used in most software. This retarded push to dumb everything down to two fingers on a touchpad is infuriatingly limiting to me.
        
        SugarFree 13 years ago
        
        I agree. There's no reason it all has to be the same.
        
        Although, on a laptop, I'll never go back to the before times of multi-touch gesturing. So much easier to scroll and zoom.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Bah. I tried my friend's iPad and that touchscreen shit hurts my fingers and forearms.
        
        A mouse today, a mouse tomorrow, a mouse FOREVER.
        
        Ptah-Hotep 13 years ago
        
        Bah. I tried my friend's iPad and that touchscreen shit hurts my fingers and forearms.
        
        You need to work out more.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
        
        Even worse is all of this motion-based control stuff. Luckily it's mainly in videogames for now, but it won't be long before you're expected to wave your hand in front of your computer to use it.
        
        And Michele Obama will mandate that you have to do a pushup to click.
        
        db 13 years ago
        
        Whenever I have to use an Apple laptop, I pull out my trusty Logitech wireless three button+wheel mouse and go to town.
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
        
        I used to do that with all laptops, but the scrollpad on my MacBook Air sends the mouse into the realm of the buggywhip.
        
        Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
        
        Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
        
        I don't mind using my tablet for certain things, but I need my desktop for most other tasks.
      2. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        Stealing from thieves strikes me as actually stealing from the victims. Like Xerox, for instance.
    2. Ptah-Hotep 13 years ago
      
      the Apple-ized abominatio that is apparently going to be 8.
      
      Agree 100% with you on this one. And I have Macs. I do not know WTF MS was thinking with this thing. *shudders*
      1. Brett L 13 years ago
        
        Remember Windows ME? Its the Ballmer Peak.
    3. Matrix 13 years ago
      
      Quit being a luddite and get with the times!
    4. John 13 years ago
      
      Is putting your finger on a button called "map" and typing in where you are going beyond you? I doubt it.
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I'm just afraid I won't be able to get to the control panel when I need to. Or that there won't be a control panel anymore.
        
        I'm also a little afraid that the traditional Windows menu bar within software will go away. When I think of the productivity I lost when those motherfuckers introduced the Office "ribbon" and took away the File, Edit, View menu bar...man, I'm still pissed. And this sounds like that, except x100.
        
        Atanarjuat 13 years ago
        
        And, because of the smaller screen smartphones have a lot of new logograms you have to learn (where a computer would use actual English words) indicating things like GPS, bluetooth, and various other functions I haven't figured out yet.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        Logograms?
        
        Aw, shit.
        
        IT'S CALLED ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER. DO YOU SPEAK IT?
      2. Atanarjuat 13 years ago
        
        I have a regular phone, but it must be harder than it seems. Most of the time when I'm driving and the passenger is using a smartphone for directions, they seem really confused and we end up making several U-turns, and the phrase "oh, we should have gotten off there" is uttered at least once. Maybe I should just stop giving rides to morons.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Probably. But also the GPS on a smart phone are not that reliable. At least the one in the Iphone has a pretty high error rate compared to a good Garman or TomTom
        
        mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
        
        That's not the GPS (which is simply a chip that tells you where you are), but the directions made from an algorithm designed by the map makers. In the case of the iPhone, it's Google's issues with their directions, not the GPS.
    5. Matrix 13 years ago
      
      Windows XP is shit. 7 is where it's at. I'm not sure about 8, yet. But 7 is great!
    6. Joe R. 13 years ago
      
      I just upgraded to 7 because I thought that would let me avoid 8 longer.
  2. Ted S. 13 years ago
    
    IpHone User: I'd like some information on cults.
    Siri: There are eight Apple Stores within a ten-mile radius of your location.
    1. Rich 13 years ago
      
      +8
3. NoVAHockey 13 years ago
  
  my 3-year-old can use an iPhone.
  1. wareagle 13 years ago
    
    yeah, but can he use the Dewey Decimal System?
    1. NoVAHockey 13 years ago
      
      He will when the time comes.
      
      we spent a week at the beach 2 weeks ago. the house we rented had cordless phones. we just have cell phones and he I thought i was lying to him when I told it what it was.
4. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  I was an anti-Apple guy for years and years. But when it came time to get a (company paid) new cellphone, I decided to go the iPhone route. I love it.
  
  And then I bought an iTouch for my son... and then an iPad... and now my wife has an iPhone. So yes, it's a cult.
  
  Apple products are great for non-programmers like my wife or anyone who just wants something that works with minimal fuss. They really don't seem to be for uber-geeks who want to modify or tweak away. I get enough of that with my job, so I just use 'em stock.
  1. DJF 13 years ago
    
    This is how it starts, the next thing you know is that you will be burning incense in front of a Steve Jobs shrine in your house.
    1. DJF 13 years ago
      
      You know you have it really bad when you start ritually slaughtering Sanyo Tablets in front of the shrine.
      1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        OK, those both made me laugh. What if I propitiate the Great and Powerful Jobs with a Dell, slaughtered on my desktop?
        
        DJF 13 years ago
        
        As long as you use the proper app for that.
  2. R C Dean 13 years ago
    
    I was Applethetic until I got an Ipad for Christmas.
    
    I like it.
  3. T 13 years ago
    
    I was an early adopter on Windows phones. Meanwhile, my wife got an iPhone. The iPhone was everything the Windows phone wanted to be.
    
    My biggest bitch with Apple in general is iTunes. My god, what a miserable piece of shit that program is. But I really only use it to back up my iPhone. I use MediaMonkey to work with the iPod.
    1. db 13 years ago
      
      Media Monkey is awesome.
    2. Brett L 13 years ago
      
      I just remember how much better it was than whatever I was using 10 years ago when I got my first iPod. Probably MusicMatch or Winamp.
  4. Kwanzaa Cake 13 years ago
    
    I'm not anti-Apple but I have a Samsung smartphone and it is not only great but was a fraction of the price of the iPhone.
  5. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
    
    Apple iOS products are great for non-programmers like my wife or anyone who just wants something that works with minimal fuss. They really don't seem to be for uber-geeks who want to modify or tweak away.
    
    FIFY
    
    A Mac is no less capable or flexible than ANY UNIX COMPUTER YOU CAN BUILD.
    1. 0x90 13 years ago
      
      True, it's both more flexible, and more capable. Capable of, for instance, compiling code that will run on Macs. And capable of breaking that code with each new OS version (guess what works fine on Win 8 - my code). And capable of making my non-Mac users subsidize my Mac users to the extent that I am required to purchase Apple hardware for no purpose other than compiling for it.
      
      At least this will cease to be the case once Apple finally decides to drop the Mac Pro (fingers crossed, hard).
5. Night Elf Mohawk 13 years ago
  
  If you handed me an iPhone and said, "Use the GPS on this to get us directions!" I literally would not have any idea where to begin.
  
  I think you could probably puzzle out that it had something to do with the Maps icon.
6. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  I would probably be befuddled by an iPhone, since I've never handled one.
  
  Same here, but I don't pretend to be the smartest, hippest, coolest guy on the planet.
sarcasmic 13 years ago

Christina Hendricks still has huge boobs!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....miere.html
1. Heroic Mulatto 13 years ago
  
  Yo Christina,
  
  Imma wreck dat ass.
  
  Love,
  
  Heroic Mulatto
2. sage 13 years ago
  
  Are you finished?
3. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  Here's another redhead for you freaks that love them.
  
  http://www.google.com/search?n.....CJjMOlArUE
4. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Does anyone else thing that Elle Fanning looks like a younger Greg Allman in that suit?
5. The Hammer 13 years ago
  
  Every picture I see of her is less attractive than the last.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

The True History of Simpson-Bowles
Paul Ryan didn't kill the deficit commission, which dodged the biggest issues.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

The political myth is that Mr. Ryan was the spoiler because he's an anti-tax purist. His real objection at the time was that the Simpson-Bowles Democrats refused to offer an equal trade on spending. Their non-negotiable demand was that ObamaCare was off the table and there could be no structural reforms in Medicare and Medicaid.

How is that a real compromise? Everyone agrees that Medicare and Medicaid are growing too fast for revenues to keep up. Mr. Obama himself told the 2010 House GOP retreat that "The major driver of our long-term liabilities, everybody here knows, is Medicare and Medicaid and our health-care spending. Nothing comes close." The fiscal reality is that if health care is off the table, then the only possible not-so-grand bargain is permanent tax increases that chase an explosion of federal spending.
1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  "But putting everyone on health insurance will lower healthcare costs because I won't be paying for emergency room visits anymore!!!"
  
  At least that's what I keep hearing from libtards that deliberately ignore the last 40 years of expanded government/private health insurance coverage.
sarcasmic 13 years ago

TSA is still a bunch of goons!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....oxins.html
1. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  Nothing the TSA does surprises me anymore. The only thing that would surprise me is if they disbanded.
2. Rich 13 years ago
  
  To perform a liquid test, the TSA agent drops a test trip [sic] into the cap of a beverage container to determine if it is toxic or not.
  
  I suppose the strip contaminates the cap.
  
  Drink up!
3. The Hammer 13 years ago
  
  "Though she missed her flight because the agent 'was mad', she said she was able to catch another flight out of Houston with an upgrade, thanks to United Airlines."
  
  For the billionth time, private company steps in and tries to mitigate damage done by government agent. Government agent suffers no consequence. Fuck you Tony, and fuck you Mary, and fuck you every other liberal fucking concern troll on this board; this is the kind of bullshit that you are ultimately supporting.
Matrix 13 years ago

Brad Pitt is a gun crazed lunatic! /Libtard rant

But yeah, he was raised around guns and agrees that guns are part of America's DNA. Not all Hollywood liberals are anti-gun rights fascists.
1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  Good for Brad.
2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  and his babymama reads Ayn Rand. Dinner at the Pitt-Jolie household soinds appealing - if it weren't for those darn kids
  1. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    Maybe the kids are secretly augments and are being raised to one day return to their native lands as conquerors.
3. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  If I was hooked up with a lunatic like Angelina Jolie, I'd want some firepower handy, too.
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

German town encourages hikers to have al fresco relations on its path of love
1. SugarFree 13 years ago
  
  The backrest of that seat are upside-down scrotums, right? Everyone else sees that, right?
  1. Rich 13 years ago
    
    I imagine that sheep does.
  2. T 13 years ago
    
    Yup, that's a ballsack.
  3. rac3rx 13 years ago
    
    I think they're supposed to be heart shaped.
Mike M. 13 years ago

Government Motors is losing almost fifty grand on every Chevy Volt sold. Great plan there Obama, you genius. Your business acumen is about as strong as your ability to learn how to use the iPhone.
1. VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
  
  They'll make it up in volume.
2. Drax the Destroyer 13 years ago
  
  This is sort of in-line with the pricing of the Tesla. The cheapest no frills one is what $70k? The Volt is close to $40K and was probably built/designed with an inflated TARP-fueled labor force. No wonder they are losing $50K. It must cost $90-100K just to make the fucking thing.
3. Somalian Road Corporation 13 years ago
  
  Taking a page from British Leyland. Smart choice.
  1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
    
    DeLoreans for everyone?!
    1. rac3rx 13 years ago
      
      WOOT!
4. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
  
  I saw an ad for them this morning in the cafeteria and thought "they haven't canned this yet?"
5. The Hammer 13 years ago
  
  But Joe Coors, that stalwart limited-government free-market Republican Congressional candidate from Colorado, drives one and is proud of it! He even made a commercial about it and paid to have it aired during Sunday Night Football last night. The two parties have got to go.
Fist of Etiquette 13 years ago

France's richest man has applied for Belgian citizenship, though he denies the new tax motivated the decision.

It's for the chocolate and waffles.
1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
  
  And beer too!
  1. T 13 years ago
    
    Damn straight it's for the beer.
    
    Well, it could be for Brussels sprouts, too, I suppose.
2. Ted S. 13 years ago
  
  TSA would probably seize the chocolates.
Rich 13 years ago

major questions remain over the immediate and long-term fate of more than 3,100 2,700 1,400 500 inmates, which include Taliban fighters and terror suspects, held at Bagram
1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
  
  Gah - the worst of the worst. I went through there once in 2004...Man, if looks could kill, I would have been vaporized on the spot.
  1. Rich 13 years ago
    
    How was the, um, poo-slinging?
    1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
      
      No "correctional cocktail" flinging, but a few escaped after we decided, in a fit of multi-culti feel good, to put a kitchen in the facility and staff it with locals to make lovely halal food for the prisoners (Halal MREs were too pricey or somesuch excuse). One guess as to helped them escape.
Bee Tagger 13 years ago

An iPhone stumped Obama as he tried to call campaign volunteers in Florida. A reporters said the President looked "befuddled" by Apple's smartphone.

Yeah, but Romney would have tried storing his iphone on the roof of his Cayman Islands car if his secret service hadn't left it in the bathroom of a plane!
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  FFS it's designed so that even Joe Biden could use it
  1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
    
    "even Joe Biden could use it"
    
    NOTHING can be dumbed down that much.
invisible furry hand 13 years ago

Are you sleeping more soundly at night?

Swiss chocolate makers face inspections from American authorities to ensure their bonbons do not pose a bioterrorism threat in the US, according to a new report.

http://www.thelocal.ch/page/vi.....oterrorism
1. VG Zaytsev 13 years ago
  
  How much longer will it be before the rest of the world tells America to fuck off?
  1. Drax the Destroyer 13 years ago
    
    Imma give it a couple of hours.
  2. Restoras 13 years ago
    
    Not soon enough.
2. Rich 13 years ago
  
  The FDA contends that imported food could be contaminated chemically or even in a radioactive way.
  
  But those would kill any bio threat, wouldn't they?
  
  HA!!
3. Jerry on the road 13 years ago
  
  An nice all-expenses-paid vacation in Switzerland, what is not to like for these federal agents?
4. Ted S. 13 years ago
  
  I posted this link above, but it's more appropriate here.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

VP Biden gets friendly with female biker at campaign stop in Ohio
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-.....male-biker

Vice President Joe Biden got caught in a stunning photo with a female biker sitting on his lap. The Associated Press snapped the shot at Cruisers Diner in Seaman, Ohio on Sunday.

A White House pool report says the bikers may be part of a group called the "Shaddowmen." No details were available on their real names or what discussion led to the lap incident.

The Onion = Real Life
1. Randian 13 years ago
  
  The looks on those bikers faces is priceless.
  1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
    
    "I can't believe we're letting this senile coot feel up our old ladies like this. Fucker's lucky he's got Secret Service protection."
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Random Thought: Looking at the post DNC polls, I see a bounce for Obama with him leading Romney by a couple of points.

If this bounce really from the convention or the reported lower unemployment rate? eg - your average person sees 8.1% and goes, aha - things are getting better! - without looking at the underlying data. Math is hard and all that.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  That is an interesting point. I know few people who understand the relationship between the labor force participation rate and the unemployment rate. Most people think the UE rate is everyone who isn't working, not everyone who isn't working and is "looking for a job" and not in school, jail, the hospital or such. Of course the state run media does nothing to explain that.
  1. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
    
    I'll just add that Obama did get a few days bounce up after the last unemployment report...
    
    oh well, only time will tell. It's probably a combination of both.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      He has gotten bounces before. He got a big one after we got Bin Ladin. But none of them have lasted very long. I don't get the doom saying on the Right about this.
      1. NoVAHockey 13 years ago
        
        I think it's just because his popularity should be limited to the dead-enders.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        It should be. But he has a huge propaganda machine. And most people are terrified of being called racists. They really don't want to fire the first black President. If Obama were white, he would be in the low 40s right now.
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        This country is so racist, a black man could never be (re)elected president!
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        I thought people would say enough after electing Obama. But apparently white people are so beat down after fifty years of post civil rights propaganda, there is no limit to white guilt.
  2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    state run media
    
    Rush called. He wants compensation for your unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Tell him and you to go fuck off. I don't listen to Rush. And I have been calling it that since 09. I should be suing him. And it is true. When the media exists to get the dear leader elected and popular, how is it not state run? And if the US did have a literal state run media, how would it look any different than WAPO, NYT and MSNBC?
      1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Take a sedative.
      2. rac3rx 13 years ago
        
        I prefer American Pravda.
      3. aelhues 13 years ago
        
        You mean like NPR?
    2. Fluffy 13 years ago
      
      Glenn Greenwald would call it state run media too, dude.
      1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Who?
        
        Lord Humungus 13 years ago
        
        you know, that guy... over there!
        
        T 13 years ago
        
        I give Greenwald some credit for being the last honest liberal.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        You're the one who reads all the UK papers, man.
        
        sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        Do I? Thanks for informing me. I didn't know.
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        No problem. Happy to help.
2. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  Assuming that these are the usual early-season polls that oversample Dems, I think its just more wishful thinking from the apparatchik press.
John 13 years ago

When law becomes Oprahfied.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/when-t.....prah-fied/
SugarFree 13 years ago

BURN THE WITCH!

Elizabeth Warren Opposes Sex Reassignment Surgery for Transgendered Inmate

The comments are gold, as usual.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  Some of them are shockingly sane. One person even points out that paying for this means less money for medical care for other inmates. My God, someone on Jezebel understanding the concept of opportunity cost?
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    It's a fun topic to watch them tear themselves apart about. In order to argue medical necessity, one must argue that gender is not a social construct, but something innate. Which is anathema to 2nd wave feminism.
    
    Trans issues are the third-rail of hard-left feminism.
    1. Fluffy 13 years ago
      
      But that immovable object is up against an irresistible force, namely the leftist notions that:
      
      1. It is harmful to not have your "inner sexual identity" accepted and lauded by everyone around you; and
      
      2. Bein' sad is just as legitimate a medical emergency as having a broken leg.
    2. John 13 years ago
      
      I never thought about that. That must drive them insane. You can't be a part of the multi cultural left without embracing the rights of the transgendered. But yeah, the entire concept of being transgendered pretty much precludes gender being a social construct. That is the funniest thing I have heard in days. The next time I hear some woman yammering about gender being a social construct, I will ask her about transgendered rights. Thanks.
      1. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's the fetus gonna gestate? You gonna keep it in a box?
        
        mr simple 13 years ago
        
        The key difference between men and women is that women can have babies. If you can't have babies, then you're a man.
        
        Woah, wait, hang on a second. My wife had ovarian cancer, so she can't have babies.
        
        Well then get an AIDS test Thompson, 'cus your wife's a dude. Faggot!
2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  Wot Jhn said - most of the comments are along the lines of "suck it up, princess". This was oddly pleasing:
  
  It sucks that Kosilek has the wrong genitalia, but it isn't going to kill her. If my non-murderous friends have to tuck and roll and go out and be every bit the awesome women that they are, then Michelle Kosilek can do it behind bars.
  1. SugarFree 13 years ago
    
    Their new new commenting system sucks. Dig into the reply strings to the displayed comments for the cat-fights.
3. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  Fuck the comments, get this gem from the article (emphasis mine): In the 126-page ruling, Judge Mark Wolf "there is no less intrusive means to correct the prolonged violation of Kosilek's Eighth Amendment right to adequate medical care.'"
  
  This is a federal judge people. We're fucked.
  1. WTF 13 years ago
    
    Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
    
    Funny, I don't see the part about providing sex-change operations. I must need the judge's special glasses to read the invisible ink.
    1. Rich 13 years ago
      
      Stating the obvious: Not providing a sex-change operation is cruel and unusual punishment.
      1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
        
        If that's how the judge interprets the 8A, then he needs to be impeached, disbarred and paraded around the town square naked with his penis dragging a 20 lb dumbbell, a dozen longstem roses inserted into his anus and the words "kick me" tattooed on his back and chest.
        
        That'll teach him the meaning of "cruel and unusual".
        
        Atanarjuat 13 years ago
        
        At a minimum, that is unusual.
        
        LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        Indeed - we do not know if the Judge's proclivities might not lead him to consider it "cruel".
        
        mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
        
        Indeed - we do not know if the Judge's proclivities might not lead him to consider it "cruel".
        
        Especially when the rumor is that he's a sheepfucker.
    2. Fluffy 13 years ago
      
      Well, the way you get there is to say that withholding medical care is a cruel and unusual punishment.
      
      And it is.
      
      If some guy broke his arm and you just left him there in his cell with a broken arm and no medical treatment, that would be cruel and unusual punishment.
      
      The leap comes because the left is ideologically committed to the idea that gender reassignment surgery is necessary medical care. Because if you want it and don't get it, you'll be all sad and shit.
      
      So if you can't be denied medical care, and gender reassignment surgery is medical care...
      
      I am perfectly willing to acknowledge that inmates have an 8th amendment right to necessary medical care. I just don't buy into the transgenderist argument that this surgery qualifies. "I will be sad and might even hold my breath if I don't get this surgery!" Oh well.
      1. R C Dean 13 years ago
        
        Isn't gender reassignment surgery basically cosmetic surgery?
        
        Are we really saying cosmetic surgery is medically necessary?
        
        Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I think the problem is that everybody knows it's cosmetic surgery, but we're all expected to pretend it's not, the same way it's now expected that you'll use the gender pronoun some flake "prefers", regardless of the underlying facts of the matter.
        
        Because failing to pretend that this is very necessary surgery that protects people from very severe and life-threatening mental anguish is "insensitive" and shows that you don't take the transgendered seriously.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        I could make up my own medical condition and demand help. Say, Scrooge McDuck Syndrome, which requires that someone give me enough gold coinage to take a money bath in on a daily basis. I also need spending money to live like a magnate; otherwise, I may feel bad about myself at the end of the day.
        
        Stormy Dragon 13 years ago
        
        There can be medically necessary cosmetic surgery. If I get my face burned off in a car accident, insurance will generally cover the reconstruction surgery.
        
        Pro Libertate 13 years ago
        
        Sure. Sex changes aren't one of those.
        
        Marshall Gill 13 years ago
        
        Just think of all the small breasted women who are sad. I actually DO think that some cosmetic surgery is medically necessary. Breast implants, medically necessary. Breast reduction, not medically necessary.
        
        ubercynic 13 years ago
        
        Um, unless I missed the /sarc, I think you've got it exactly backwards.
  2. Pro Libertate 13 years ago
    
    Um, where is that in the Eighth again?
  3. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
    
    For Christ's sake, it took 126 pages to spell out that particular conclusion?
John 13 years ago

http://legalinsurrection.com/2.....n-charges/

Occupy activists plead guilty to conspiracy and terrorism charges. Now when a bunch of Muslims do that, it is front page news. But when a bunch of douche bag white boy liberals do such a thing, not a peep from the major media. RACISM!!
Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago

Emma Watson named most dangerous cyber celebrity

When searching for the 22-year-old Watson, there's a one-in-eight chance of landing on a malicious site.

Taliban reportedly using fake Facebook pages of pretty girls to gather soldiers' secrets

Australian and coalition troops are being targeted by Taliban insurgents posing as "attractive women" on Facebook, according to the paper, and now troops are being warned about the potential danger.

So, in summary:
If Emma Watson tries to friend you on Facebook, don't accept!
1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
  
  I think we need our Antipodean correspondent (ifh) to confirm if the diggers are vulnerable to the Facebook charms of Talib psuedo-Facebook women.
  1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    Vulnerable, yes, but so far it seems they haven't actually been harmed. The bigger problems for our diggers it seem are not understanding geo-tagging, and (astonishingly) this:
    
    Family and friends of soldiers are inadvertently jeopardising missions by sharing confidential information online
    
    I'd assumed you either don't share that info, or you ram it into their heads that this is a secret. Or is that being optimistic, LTC(Ret) John?
    1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
      
      We do a fairly good job - and our guys almost all get that anything they post will be used to target them or someone else nearby. However, there can be the occassional braggart - "hey, look, I am really in the shit!!! (Tags location in hotspot)." Those folks usually get found and raked over the coals.
  2. Quetzalcoatl 13 years ago
    
    Or Talib Facebook pseudo-women!
    1. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      I'm pretty sure the Taliban cut your head off for that.
Somalian Road Corporation 13 years ago

Cafe Hayek ran this today:

The tic to blame all of life's ills on deregulation has become pathological. For evidence, behold this passage from Marilyn Stasio's review of Ginger Strand's book (Killer on the Road) about murderers on America's highways: "By Strand's reckoning, the road killer was issued his official ticket to ride by the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, which deregulated the trucking industry. As unionized trucking outfits were squeezed off the road and loose regulations led to substandard conditions, a new demographic of the long-haul trucker emerged: 'less educated, less stable, less tied to unions, less rooted in family life,' and more likely to land on the suspect list in a homicide case'" ("Haunted Highways," Sept. 9).

Behold also that Stasio reports Strand's speculation as if it were reasonable...

Personally it reminded me of Andrei Chikatilo and how he was able to kill so many because the Soviets didn't want to admit serial killers could exist in their scientifically ordered Marxist social justice utopia.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  That is the dumbest thing I have ever read. That is literally out of the Onion. When we don't have union truckers, trucking companies will just hire serial killers. How did that ever get past an editor?
  1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
    
    It had the magic words - DEREGULATION BAAAADDDDD!
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      Liberals do themselves no favors by refusing to criticize each other for any reason other than not being sufficiently committed to the ideology.
      1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        They're showing tolerance by not tolerating intolerance.
  2. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    less educated, less stable, less tied to unions, less rooted in family life
    
    The other reason it's the dumbest thing I have ever read is because of the implicit assumption that if less educated, less stable, and less rooted in family life guys don't get jobs as truckers, they'll just disappear.
    
    They'll no longer be anywhere in the US, because they'll melt like dead enemies on the parts of the level map you already ran through.
    
    News flash: if less educated, less stable, and less rooted in family life guys turn into killers, if they aren't killers on the road, they'll be killers across town from you.
    1. John 13 years ago
      
      For it to work, you have to assume that driving a truck takes people who wouldn't otherwise be killers and causes them to be killers or driving a truck makes it somehow easier to be a successful serial killer.
      
      The other funny thing is I can't think of a single famous serial killer case where the killer was a truck driver. They took a bad joke "truckers like to kill prostitutes" and constructed a serious policy argument out of it. That is called writing for the Onion.
      1. Fluffy 13 years ago
        
        I can't think of one either.
        
        It actually sounds impractical to me.
        
        Shadowy figures on the road who can kill at will and throw bodies into rivers is a very Hollywood image, but I think the various technical problems a serial killer has to overcome pretty much require a secure and fixed base of operations.
        
        invisible furry hand 13 years ago
        
        Transience does have its benefits (cf Ted Bundy, Travellin' Man) but the real obstacle is their really tight schedules. They're speeding (in both senses of the word) to meet them without putting even more pressure on themselves ("find runaway. Get her into the truck. Allay her suspicions. Pull over, rape, torture and kill her. Dispose of corpse. Still make delivery after losing a few hours. Repeat.")
        
        Citizen Nothing 13 years ago
        
        You know who could also be good at this roaming serial killer stuff? Travel writers.
      2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
        
        What do gay orgies at rest stops have to do with a serial killers?
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        You could just as convincingly make the argument that deregulation, by getting rid of union and predominantly straight truckers, lead to rampant homosexuality. Both arguments would be satire.
      3. Somalian Road Corporation 13 years ago
        
        Well, there's Steve Wright, and I do wonder if he was member of some lorry driver's trade union, but I'm afraid I cannot seem to confirm or deny any sort of membership with a few cursory googlings.
        
        Somalian Road Corporation 13 years ago
        
        Although apparently he was more of a forklift driver than an actual distance trucker or whatever, a distinction that doesn't seem to matter when it comes to trade union eligibility.
        
        To clarify I don't think union membership makes you more or less likely to be a serial killer. It would merely make a good counterpoint for that hysterical twaddle about deregulation above.
        
        John 13 years ago
        
        Since that was in the UK, I bet he was in a Union.
    2. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      So independent truckers, the ones that have to manage their own routing, fuel payment systems and fleet, are less educated and less stable than a guy who is put in a truck, told where to go and how to get there and is given a fuel card.
      
      That's idiotic today. In the early 80's, before GPS and shipping bidding done online to a great extent, it's beyond absurd.
      1. Numeromancer 13 years ago
        
        So independent truckers ... are less reeducated...
        
        FTFY
    3. R C Dean 13 years ago
      
      I like the implication that being in a union means you are likely to be more educated, more stable, and more rooted in family life.
      
      Really? Unions screen for happy home lives and college degrees? News to me.
      1. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
        
        Sure, note how stable the meembers of police and teachers unions are!
2. T 13 years ago
  
  There's a killer on teh road. His brain is squirming like a toad, because his non-union job prevents him from affording the health care he so desperately needs.
  
  Man, that screws up the meter, doesn't it?
  1. John 13 years ago
    
    If you hire this man to drive, sweet family will die. Killer on the road.
    1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
      
      Motels, money, murder, madness
    2. Rich 13 years ago
      
      Nice.
    3. Randian 13 years ago
      
      "Burma Shave"
    4. Ice Nine 13 years ago
      
      "His brain is squirmin' like a toad"
3. Matrix 13 years ago
  
  Unions save us from serial killers? OH BLESS THE UNIONS!
4. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  So Duel is just a documentary?
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtAMc4i8OA
5. Warty 13 years ago
  
  Personally it reminded me of Andrei Chikatilo and how he was able to kill so many because the Soviets didn't want to admit serial killers could exist in their scientifically ordered Marxist social justice utopia.
  
  On 14 February, Chikatilo was taken from his death row cell to a soundproofed room in Novocherkassk prison and executed with a single gunshot behind the right ear.
  
  Fuck. If I were being executed, I think I would request execution by Makarov. You can't ask to go out with more style.
Lord Humungus 13 years ago

Working together: Jews, Muslims stage circumcision march in Germany
http://www.france24.com/en/201.....ch-germany
1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  beat you to it
2. Lord Humungus 13 years ago
  
  repeat! apologies to IFH
Almanian's Evil Twin 13 years ago

Shorter Morning Links: "Nothing changed over the weekend. There's still a lotta stupid in the world."
1. Warty 13 years ago
  
  It's nice to know some things never change.
2. Ice Nine 13 years ago
  
  "Nothing changed over the weekend.
  
  Including the preview/re-login glitch, it seems.
  1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
    
    Nothing changed over the weekend.
    
    The standings in the J sub D Memorial changed.
    
    There's still a lotta stupid in the world.
    
    Evidenced by Tulpa's FFL roster.
  2. ubercynic 13 years ago
    
    I had all kinds of problems like that (with a fairly senile version of Firefox) but after checking the "remember me" box on the login screen, everything works fine. I assume you need cookies and Javascript enabled, also.
Fluffy 13 years ago

Speaking of computers, does anyone know of a dirt cheap hosting service that's fast (emphasis on fast), provides MySQL support (preferably allowing outside software server access; phpmyadmin is OK, but I prefer the Administrator package for some things) and, most critically, allows unlimited outbound emails per day if you get on a whitelist?

I did the most incredibly stupid thing possible and signed up for a Yahoo hosting account for a new site I put together. It's fast as shit (and I've got some tough queries running here, but it kicks their ass) but they have this stupid rule limiting the number of outbound emails your mail server can send, and that doesn't work for me.
1. Randian 13 years ago
  
  Did you look at Google hosting?
  1. Fluffy 13 years ago
    
    From what I could tell, Google Sites doesn't provide database hosting.
    
    It's hard to be sure, since they apparently can't do something simple like put up a features list, but expect me to watch their stupid videos.
2. EmmettCrunk 13 years ago
  
  Might want to try http://www.hostingmatters.com.
  
  If there's a hosting plan that does pretty much what you want to do, except for a few specific features, give them a call and they'll usually figure something out. I've hosted some stuff there for a year or so, and I needed a non-standard setup that they had no problem with supporting.
3. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
  
  http://www.hostgator.com
sloopyinca 13 years ago

Looks like this cop may actually face justice after all, even though the judge in the initial case said the cop couldn't be prosecuted because the DA's office has a conflict of interest in prosecuting a sheriff's deputy because the departments work closely and have to trust each other.

Trust each other to do what? I guess cover up criminal behavior and have each others' backs.*

*Or maybe the judge just thought the cop hadn't been trained to not throw a restrained 17 y/o girl against a wall and deserved a vacation instead.
1. R C Dean 13 years ago
  
  No question there's a conflict of interest, but it seems to me it cuts the other way.
  
  It would be a problem if the conflict meant the DA was likely to be persecuting cops. I don't think that's the case, though.
2. sarcasmic 13 years ago
  
  If the DA can't prosecute cops, who can?
  
  Unrelated, I went to the Freyburg Fair yesterday and there were four freaking cops wandering around, collecting overtime I presume. It's one of the smaller fairs in the state, and that's the most cops I've ever seen at one.
  When we went to leave we went to an exit, and one of them yelled "Use the other exit over there". I asked "Why?". He replied "Because I said so" and his hand went to his gun. This guy was ready to kill me for using the wrong exit. WTF?
  1. sarcasmic 13 years ago
    
    Litchfield Fair I meant. Fucking Mondays.
Ice Nine 13 years ago

"There has been no official punishment for the Spanish Fort fans who brought in the sign, or those pictured on national television laughing at it."

...laughing now apparently being a heinous and punishable offense.
1. Atanarjuat 13 years ago
  
  Um... isn't the color purple, in reality, actually preferred by more gays than straights (in our culture)? How the fuck is that homophobic?
2. generic Brand 13 years ago
  
  Yet perhaps there doesn't even need to be additional punishment. After all, anyone who sees the sign now will form their own opinions about the Spanish Fort student population, unfair though that may be. Of no fault of their masses, the Toros suddenly have a new homophobic reputation to defend against, and that might be punishment enough.
  
  Saying "Purple? Man, that's gay" in reference to opposing team's school colors is now terribly homophobic? I think some more people need to listen to some Bill Burr comedy, or watch an episode of South Park. Fuck, I hate the free speech nannies more than any other combination of nannyism.
ant1sthenes 13 years ago

I thought I read somewhere that the CTU wanted a giant annual pay increase because the school system was eliminating summer breaks. Somewhat relevant to mention that if so, since it could increase the hours they work more than 16%.
1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  If they are changing the overall requirements of the job, the better solution would be to disband the union at the end of the contract and start accepting applications for the new jobs. They could start at a salary of $18k/year and gradually raise it until they had enough applicants (+25% more) for the jobs.
  
  By my count, that would probably put the average salary of the teachers somewhere around 50% of where it currently is and save the city about half a billion dollars annually.
Warty 13 years ago

If you already have kids, they're fucked up beyond repair. Just drown them in the bathtub and start over again.
1. John 13 years ago
  
  Don't think no one noticed that you were no where to be found when Modell finally got his ticket to hell. Did you let him know why he was being killed or did you do it wise guy style and make sure he never knew what hit him?
  1. Warty 13 years ago
    
    I don't know what you're talking about. It's a terrible shame that Mr. Modell has passed on. He was a great benefactor to humanity and no one could possibly hate him for any reason.
    1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
      
      Wait, wasn't he the guy that moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, where they became the Ravens and won the Super Bowl four years later?
      
      Gee, I would think as a Browns fan, you would really dislike the guy.
      1. Warty 13 years ago
        
        Mr. Modell was a great benefactor to all the communities in which he lived, generously donating money to worthy causes. In addition, he was an impeccable businessman who never engaged in shady financing schemes, and a man of unbreakable moral fiber.
        
        NoVAHockey 13 years ago
        
        Oh, you must have him confused with Mr. Rooney.
  2. rbenchley 13 years ago
    
    Did you let him know why he was being killed or did you do it wise guy style and make sure he never knew what hit him?
    
    It was probably like the scene in Goodfellas where they took out Joe Pesci. Completely unaware until the last second and not even enough time to squeeze out a curse or a prayer.
2. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
  
  Urrgh. I hate humanity
3. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  Do you not see the humor in the fact that the anthropologist's name is Carolina Izquierdo, which is Spanish for "left"?
4. Fluffy 13 years ago
  
  I don't know about some of these comparisons.
  
  I don't let my kid prepare dinner for everyone or clean the house because around here we do those things with expensive equipment he could break, or that he could vacuum his way into the ER with.
  
  If all I had was some reed mats and some empty gourds, I would give him a lot more responsibility.
  
  I would rather walk upstairs and switch out the cables myself every time he wants to switch from using the playstation to watching a DVD, because if I let him do it he'll break the DVD player (he's already broken one before) and I'll have to drive my ass down to Target to get him another one.
  1. Warty 13 years ago
    
    Give him a stack of logs and a maul. He'll figure it out.
  2. Randian 13 years ago
    
    The only problem though is that to the tribe, the reed mats and gourds are probably close in value to the Playstation.
    
    But then again, I suppose it is hard to break a gourd.
  3. db 13 years ago
    
    Seriously? The rule in my house would be, you break it, you fix it, buy a new one with your own money, or you do without.
5. John 13 years ago
  
  Madeline Levine, a psychologist who lives outside San Francisco, specializes in treating young adults. In "Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success" (HarperCollins), she argues that we do too much for our kids because we overestimate our influence. "Never before have parents been so (mistakenly) convinced that their every move has a ripple effect into their child's future success," she writes. Paradoxically, Levine maintains, by working so hard to help our kids we end up holding them back.
  
  That is the money quote. It is the parents who are narcissistic. You can be narcissistic and still mean well. Parents think the world revolves around them. And as a result believe they have way more effect on their kids than they actually do.
  1. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
    
    It is the parents who are narcissistic. You can be narcissistic and still mean well. Parents think the world revolves around them. And as a result believe they have way more effect on their kids than they actually do.
    
    I weep for humanity once the children of occupados begin to grow up and run shit.
Warty 13 years ago

I ejaculate fire
1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  They can give you a shot and clear that right up.
  
  Oh, and no way in hell am I clicking that link.
  1. invisible furry hand 13 years ago
    
    i did, but it won't play for me 🙁
  2. LTC(ret) John 13 years ago
    
    Damn - I was hoping you would take one for the team. There is no way I am clicking that either.
    1. mad libertarian guy 13 years ago
      
      It's a metalocalypse reference. Perfectly safe to click.
2. Restoras 13 years ago
  
  It's not a bad tune as metal goes but I can't really be qualified as a critic - after Metallica it all sounds the same to me even though I know there are several sub-genres.
mad libertarian guy 13 years ago

An iPhone stumped Obama as he tried to call campaign volunteers in Florida. A reporters said the President looked "befuddled" by Apple's smartphone.

Seriousy. How the fuck does anyone become confused by a fucking iPhone? Like it or not, it's easy to use. Both of my children were happily navigating the iPhone competently BY THE TIME THEY WERE 1 FUCKING YEAR OLD.
1. sloopyinca 13 years ago
  
  I assume he was stuck trying to get the mirror app to work properly. He gots to look good for his minions after all.
2. Atanarjuat 13 years ago
  
  I'll give him a pass* on this, cuz I get confused by other peoples' fancy phones too. Especially if you're drained from a stressful day and your brain-ular area is tired. Kids learn faster than dumb old farts like me and Obama.
  
  *He's still an evil bastard who locks people up for medical marijuana, doesn't give a shit about the Bill of Rights, and is fucking the country up royally.
mad libertarian guy 13 years ago

HuffPo goes full retard.

What the Democrats needed to do this week was very clearly lay out what they had intended to accomplish during the first term and why it didn't happen. Which nobody did. Not in the specifics necessary to cut through the Koch money we're going to be drowning in.

Kochtopus!!!!!!
1. The Hammer 13 years ago
  
  "Personally, speaking as an Independent, I would love to see him remain as our president forever."
  
  I don't think this dipshit knows what "Independent" means.
The Late P Brooks 13 years ago

Trans issues are the third-rail of hard-left feminism.

You don't say.
The Late P Brooks 13 years ago

the judge in the initial case said the cop couldn't be prosecuted because the DA's office has a conflict of interest in prosecuting a sheriff's deputy because the departments work closely and have to trust each other.

So turn the case over to the state Atty Genl; or the FBI and a federal prosecutor.
sloopyinca 13 years ago

Riverside County Deputy arrested for DRUGZZZZZZZ!!!!!

FTA: The Riverside Press Enterprise ( http://bit.ly/SrW5uP) reports Deputy Omar Gomez was booked on charges of possession of a loaded firearm while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a hypodermic needle.

He was taken into custody Wednesday in Palm Springs and later released on bail.

Gomez has been place on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

I wonder if he had been properly trained to not use drugs. Because if not, I don't see how he can be charged with this crime.
/dunphy
Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago

An Obama canvasser was at my door just as I was about to walk my dog this weekend. When I saw the fucking "Forward" flyer in her hand, I said "I'm not voting for that guy". She seem shocked that someone in deep blue Jim Moran territory wouldn't want to vote for her god.

(an aside: she also knew my name, which probably meant she was harassing the registered "No Party" people in my 'hood)
1. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
  
  I also think the campaign marketing people are under the mistaken impression that "No Party" = undecided.
  1. Auric Demonocles 13 years ago
    
    You're in Vermont, right? Why would anyone register with an open primary?
    1. Kaptious Kristen 13 years ago
      
      I'm from VT.
2. NoVAHockey 13 years ago
  
  I got redistricted out of Moran's district. and into Connolly's. fuck.
Cytotoxic 13 years ago

I have been hearing from some about how Romney is gonna kill it in November but there's 2 months to go he's trailing and there's not a breath of wind to his back. Time to re-assess.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....TopStories
1. Red Rocks Rockin 13 years ago
  
  Romney's only shot at this point to really stand out is in the debates. If he can hammer on the economy and get under President Butt Naked's skin, eventually Obama's going to go off and say something childish and stupid, because he's not emotionally mature enough to handle direct criticism off-teleprompter.
  
  Looking like the only adult in the room is his best chance; if he can't convince voters of that, it will be close, but Obama will still take it.
  
  The VP debate should be interesting just because Ryan is way more on the ball than Palin ever was--Biden's not really going to be able to get away with saying any random thing that pops into his head because Ryan will nail him on it.
The Late P Brooks 13 years ago

I also think the campaign marketing people are under the mistaken impression that "No Party" = undecided.

You should have explained to her that there was a typo.

"It's actually the FUCK NO! Party, okay? Run along now, or I'll point my scary black gun at you."
Matrix 13 years ago

Woman given 2 different tickets by 2 different officers at the same time for speeding

Cop bravely tasers handcuffed woman who was being mouthy
Another David 13 years ago

The only time I ever handled an iPhone, I was trying to set up a new mailbox for one of my less-computer-literate co-workers. I foolishly thought this was something you would do from within the Mail program. So yeah, I can see how he might get confused doing something "simple."

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