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A.M. Links: Some Say Romney Deserves More Credit for bin Laden Killing, Pro-Terror Rally Outside U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, Ron Paul's Odds of Being Next Fed Chairman

News on the 11th anniversary of 9/11

Ed Krayewski | 9.11.2012 9:00 AM

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  • 6 percent of respondents in an Ohio PPP poll said Mitt Romney deserves more credit for the death of Osama bin Laden than does Barack Obama.

  • New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie finally arrived at a deal on the 9/11 museum late last night. It was supposed to be open today, but it won't be open for at least another year. The dispute was over the bill, which could reach $1.4 billion.
  • Islamic extremists held a 9/11 rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.
  • An Afghan police commander and four civilians died in a suicide bomb attack close to the border with Turkmenistan.
  • Morgan Stanley places the odds of Ron Paul being the next Fed chairman at 4 percent.
  • There were Occupy protests as far as Hong Kong. That one, outside the headquarters of HSBC, is being evicted.

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NEXT: 9/11 Museum Deal Reached

Ed Krayewski is a former associate editor at Reason.

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  1. Fluffy   13 years ago

    Happy 9/11 everybody!

    1. db   13 years ago

      Goddammit. Can't this ever be just a normal day ever again?

      1. generic Brand   13 years ago

        If you want to have fun on September 11 again, just do what my roommate and I do: any time you see a 9 followed by an 11 (on a clock, the score of a sporting event, etc.) mute everything around you and point accusingly at anyone who continues to talk until the 9/11 moment of silence passes. Then, accuse anyone who continued to make noise of aiding terrorists (or being a terrorist themselves).

        It will make people get over the 9/11 reverence pretty quick.

        1. db   13 years ago

          I have a good friend whose birthday is today and he's always down about it because so many people around him remember the terrorist attacks before his birthday.

          1. Ed   13 years ago

            Some friends of mine got married on 9/11 last year when it fell on a Sunday. Cutthroat rates

            1. RedDragon6009   13 years ago

              Someone's fucked if they forget their anniversary.

            2. Surly Chef   13 years ago

              Same here. It allowed them to have a giant wedding they wouldn't otherwise have been able to afford.

            3. MJGreen   13 years ago

              My parents were celebrating their 25th anniversary on the day. Worse for them, they had gone on vacation out of town, leaving my brother and me. The worrying was off the charts.

          2. Spoonman.   13 years ago

            My grandfather's birthday is today. For 78 years or so it was a perfectly normal day, but every since then it's been sorta fucked up.

            1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

              Why? Is it Alzheimers?

              1. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

                You insensitive jerk. OK I laughed

      2. Night Elf Mohawk   13 years ago

        December 7 is pretty normal. Give it time.

        1. generic Brand   13 years ago

          Yeah, a day that will live in infamy. My mom was born on December 7.

          1. R C Dean   13 years ago

            Those were different times, though, before the Oprahfication of America, the growth in a political class which loves to go poncing about demonstrating how much it cares.

            And, of course, events followed Pearl Harbor in rapid succession which put it in perspective. We lost 2500 killed on D-Day, and the air war leading up to D-Day totalled over 10,000 casualties.

            So, my prediction is that mawkish and self-serving observances of 9/11 will be with us for quite awhile yet.

        2. Loki   13 years ago

          Unfortunately, we've got another 11.3 years before we can make jokes about it. I don't think I can wait that long.

          1. Eduard van Haalen   13 years ago

            "Our relationship is working as well as the elevators in the World Trade Center."

            "There was a bomb on the plane - the inflight movie!"

            "Honey, you poor thing, did someone explode your Twin Towers?"

      3. wareagle   13 years ago

        at least we appear to be past the original effort to turn it into "a day of service." No, it won't be normal. Not sure it should be.

        1. VG Zaytsev   13 years ago

          What better way to encourage murderous psychopaths than memorialize and celebrate a day of mass murder.

          1. RedDragon6009   13 years ago

            The bakers at Publix weren't too keen on my idea of a 9/11 cake. I had to get donuts instead.

            1. Rich   13 years ago

              I gots to know. What are 9/11 donuts?

              1. $park?   13 years ago

                Whatever they are, I bet they don't come with candles.

        2. BarryD   13 years ago

          "A day of servitude" sounds far worse than 9/11.

      4. Fluffy   13 years ago

        I expect it to get worse, not better.

        50 years from now it will be like Christmas or Thanksgiving. We'll all put up 9/11 trees and have the day off to get together with our families to eat turkey. The NFL will have the giants play the Redskins every year at 8:45 AM and we'll all watch it on TV. The President-for-life will send out his annual 9/11 message by satellite to the PermanentSocializingMedia implants in our brains, and upon receipt of that message we will kneel and praise him.

        1. wareagle   13 years ago

          the bigger question is: will the NFL as we know it still exist in 50 years? The safety nannies are in full throat having recently discovered that football can be a violent sport.

          1. Fluffy   13 years ago

            The NFL will play all its games electronically. The players will control avatars in a 3 dimensional simulated space by mind interface. When I said "TV", I didn't mean "television". By 2061 the abbreviation "TV" will stand for "The Vortex", which is the simulated 3D space where games take place and where each citizen also communes with his Assigned Bureaucrat and his Life Monitor.

            The turkey will also be simulated. All living turkeys were freed following the Singer Wars of 2027. By 2028, all the freed turkeys were dead.

            1. R C Dean   13 years ago

              As long as The Vortex has a porn interface, I'm in.

            2. Ska   13 years ago

              Fuck that, I'm getting my SIN removed and running the shadows, muling novacoke in my cyberleg for a Chinese dragon.

          2. T   13 years ago

            For once, the safety nannies may have a point. It's one thing to say football is a violent sport. It's another to say we should accept people giving themselves and each other brain damage for our entertainment.

            OTOH, I do enjoy me some Joe Biden, so I guess I can't say much about brain damage as entertainment.

            1. wareagle   13 years ago

              t,
              football has always been violent and participants have always played voluntarily. Plenty of guys who have long since left the game without being brain-damaged; in fact, they are the vast majority.

              1. Restoras   13 years ago

                True, but as players have gotten larger and faster the protective gear surrounding the brain, including the skull, has not kept pace.

                I foresee weight limitations in the future of the NFL. If not, expect a trial lawyer led lawsuit to eviscerate the sport sometime in the next 5-10 years.

                1. robc   13 years ago

                  Easist fix would be single squad football. Everyone plays both ways. If you sub out, you cant come back in until the next quarter.

              2. T   13 years ago

                All the studies I have seen recently are trending to 'no, they're all brain damaged to some extent'. How significant it is, I dunno. I think it changes the risk calculus considerably if the effect is as significant and provable as some people are claiming.

                But hell, cheerleading is still more dangerous at the high school and college level. So we're willing to cripple and kill a few cute coeds every year, what's a little brain damage?

              3. BarryD   13 years ago

                ...or at least any more brain-damaged than they were, to start with.

            2. Kwanzaa Cake   13 years ago

              They're doing it quite voluntarily and are extremely well-compensated for the risk.

            3. robc   13 years ago

              According to a study Ive seen, professional football players have a lower mortality rate than american men in general.

              And, amusingly, much lower than professional baseball players.

              1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

                Not to be a dick, but don't all groups have a 100% mortality rate?

            4. Zeb   13 years ago

              I don't know about NFL, but I bet we will see highschool football change a lot in the near future and probably lower tier college too.

              1. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

                I don't know about NFL, but I bet we will see highschool football change a lot in the near future and probably lower tier college too

                I could definitely see them instituting weight limits at the high school level--they already have precedent for this with the Pee-Wee leagues for safety reasons, so it's not like they'd have to stretch much to apply it to high schools. The colleges will just make the scholarship players bulk up later on anyway (for example, former Steelers DE Aaron Smith, who played at 290 pounds in the pros, weighed about 215 his senior year of high school).

                To be fair, though, you'd have to mandate weight minimums as well. I could see weight limits of 120-260 pounds at the JV/varsity level being instituted without it really impacting the integrity of the game. Most kids who weigh less than that minimum typically don't go out for football in high school anyway because they tend to get the shit kicked out of them in practice on a daily basis.

                1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

                  If they impose weight limits, you'll have ADA suits all over the country from fatsos that want to be able to have a normal childhood and all that bullshit.

                  Sorry, but schools will just kill football off before risking lawsuits from 400 lb tubbos that want 300 lb Junior to play football like his daddy did. Besides, it's not the superfat that hurt people, it's the ultrafit ones (think dunphy and his workout pals) that do. If anything, they need to institute minimum body fat composition to play high school sports. I'd say 22% would be about right.

                  1. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

                    If they impose weight limits, you'll have ADA suits all over the country from fatsos that want to be able to have a normal childhood and all that bullshit.

                    There was an article recently that talked about exactly this--the kid is a 6th grader and weights about 300 pounds, and the Pop Warner league told him "Sorry, you're too heavy." His fatass mom was the one crying to the press about it, saying the usual bullshit--"It's not fair, playing helps Billy's self-esteem"-- but the league administrators are holding firm.

                    I think the Safety Nannies would ultimately win out over the Self-Esteem Nannies in this fight.

                    1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

                      My guess is they both "win" and football is made softer by many degrees.

                      Hell, if they really wanted to make it safer, they'd eliminate shoulder pads or at least go to much smaller ones (like the kickers wear). It would improve tackling and dramatically decrease injuries after a year or two.

                  2. mad libertarian guy   13 years ago

                    If anything, they need to institute minimum body fat composition to play high school sports. I'd say 22% would be about right sit the fuck back and allow those who can play football and want to play football, play fucking football.

                    The NFL needs to take a role similar to what NASCAR has done. Work with engineers and other professionals to come up with appropriate equipment to keep them as safe as possible, rather than than try and legislate the game in to irrelevance.

              2. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

                but I bet we will see highschool football change a lot in the near future and probably lower tier college too.

                This, pretty much. I argued in yesterday's NFL thread that it won't be the brain-damaged pros that kill the sport; it'll be studies that show that kids who play, suffer cognitive deficits over those that don't. No kids, no pipeline of new players, no sport. Look at boxing as a model.

          3. RedDragon6009   13 years ago

            I'm still holding out hope that Obama will bring back gladiatorial style "games."

            1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

              Drones=Lions
              Muslims=Christians

              Who says he hasn't?

              1. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

                Detroit Lions?

              2. BarryD   13 years ago

                We don't get to watch, though.

        2. generic Brand   13 years ago

          Are you sure it wouldn't be the Jets and the Patriots playing on 9/11 Day?

          1. Randian   13 years ago

            Having the Jets play might not be the best PR move.

            1. T   13 years ago

              It's about right for Goodell's NFL, though.

            2. Fluffy   13 years ago

              It would be funny if they had special 9/11 uniforms where the jets on their helmets were crashing into buildings.

          2. db   13 years ago

            The Jets can play the part of the Washington Generals and always lose to the Patriots.

          3. Citizen Nothing   13 years ago

            The last time that happened, the Jets won 2,996 to 19.

            1. Brett L   13 years ago

              To be fair, the Pats rallied over Pennsylvania, and closed the 4th out on a strong note.

              1. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

                J.G. Ballard, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

          4. Joe M   13 years ago

            Interestingly, the first Superbowl after 9/11 was the Eagles and the Patriots.

            1. Ted S.   13 years ago

              Actually, it was the Patriots over the St. Louis Rams, and the Patriots had probably been stealing the Rams' signals.

      5. thom   13 years ago

        One time we all got the day off, but ever since then they've made me work on 9/11. Shouldn't we at least be staying home today to remember the fallen or something?

        1. generic Brand   13 years ago

          ^THIS! I have so much sadness over today that I don't think we should have to work... or something

    2. Kaptious Kristen   13 years ago

      AS an aviation geek, I can look forward to one or two decent documentaries on TV this week. Grounded on 9/11 is my favorite.

      The hero worship stuff, though? Meh.

  2. db   13 years ago

    Live for yourself
    There's no one else more worth living for
    Begging hands and bleeding hearts
    Will only cry out for more

    1. gaijin   13 years ago

      +1 Rush reference. Won't be played on this tour unfortunately.

      1. db   13 years ago

        Going to see them tonight.

        1. Restoras   13 years ago

          Enjoy! I'm going 10/12 and 10/20 - can't wait!

        2. gaijin   13 years ago

          have fun, both of you!

    2. BarryD   13 years ago

      Oh man. Alex sporting thick blond bangs, and Neil with a first-class Canadian Passport.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7U8F2aars

  3. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

    If only we could all pay our debts this way:

    GREECE has set up a "working group" to scour historical archives and tally how much Germany might owe in outstanding reparations for Nazi war crimes during World War II, the finance ministry has announced.
    more

    1. wareagle   13 years ago

      the sharp Germans will look at the size of the loan they floated and say "consider yourselves reparated."

      1. VG Zaytsev   13 years ago

        I think that's the point.

        1. wareagle   13 years ago

          nah, the Greeks will be looking at extra money. You can't get folks who got used to a system of 'free money' to change on a dime. If my dad were alive to see this, he might well kill himself.

    2. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

      you know who else demanded reparations?

      1. Fluffy   13 years ago

        Lloyd George?

        Jesse Jackson?

      2. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

        Prince?

      3. Rich   13 years ago

        Jiffy Lube?

      4. RedDragon6009   13 years ago

        Los Angeles, CA?

      5. T   13 years ago

        Prince Friedrich Karl?

      6. Atlas Stoned   13 years ago

        Chris Benoit?

      7. hamilton   13 years ago

        As du Volant?

      8. Restoras   13 years ago

        The Limeys and the Frogs?

      9. Fist of Etiquette   13 years ago

        Elizabeth Warren.

    3. thom   13 years ago

      A lot of that German guilt has died off by now. I'd be surprised if the political will to reparate anything exists in that country.

      1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

        Exactly. The Greeks are as likely to get the Germans to pay up as they are the Turks for slaughtering a hell of a lot more of them.

        Besides, the Italians invaded Greece. The Germans only came in after they stumbled, which is actually the reason the Germans didn't get to the Black Sea before the rains and defeat the Russians.

        1. T   13 years ago

          Given that Germany finally paid off the last of their World War I debt two years ago, I think the odds of them signing on for more reparations are pretty damned low.

    4. R C Dean   13 years ago

      Good luck, Greekers. I suspect the whole war guilt thing for what happened two generations ago has pretty much run its course.

      1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

        You know who else stirred up shit that happened two generations earlier?

        1. $park?   13 years ago

          Rightway Septic Tank Pumping?

        2. VG Zaytsev   13 years ago

          Jesse Jackson.

    5. BarryD   13 years ago

      Doesn't the Bible say, "To the Jew first, and also to the Greek?"

      The Greeks might be waiting a while.

  4. Fist of Etiquette   13 years ago

    Islamic extremists held a 9/11 rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.

    Don't they understand it's Patriot Day?

    1. Heroic Mulatto   13 years ago

      Yes, but they disagree on who the "patriots" were.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   13 years ago

        I suppose technically extremists were some of the very first to die in the WTC attacks.

    2. Bardas Phocas   13 years ago

      This was actually their public service.

  5. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

    Throw like a girl? You can do better.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z4

    The throwing gap has been researched for more than half a century, and the results have been consistent. According to Jerry Thomas, dean of the College of Education at the University of North Texas in Denton, who did the throwing research Hyde cites in her paper, "The overhand throwing gap, beginning at 4 years of age, is three times the difference of any other motor task, and it just gets bigger across age. By 18, there's hardly any overlap in the distribution: Nearly every boy by age 15 throws better than the best girl.

    Around the world, at all ages, boys throw better ? a lot better ? than girls. Studies of overhand ball throwing across different cultures have found that pre-pubescent girls throw 51 to 69 percent of the distance that boys do, at 51 to 78 percent of the velocity. As they get older, the differences increase; one U.S. study found that girls age 14 to 18 threw only 39 percent as far as boys (an average of about 75 feet vs. about 192 feet). The question is why.

    jeezus - superior upper body strength? longer arms?

    1. mr simple   13 years ago

      It's obviously the counter-balance provided by the penis.

    2. heller   13 years ago

      More practice at throwing?

    3. Rich   13 years ago

      Bullying over "throwing like a boy"?

    4. Restoras   13 years ago

      The difference is the necessity to throw a spear or other projectile to either provide food for the family/tribe/clan or protect said societal organization unit from other unfriendly societal organization units.

      Not. Fucking. Difficult.

      1. Zeb   13 years ago

        But wouldn't it be even more advantageous if women could throw as well as men?

    5. Loki   13 years ago

      jeezus - superior upper body strength? longer arms?

      Evolutionary predisposition to being good at flinging shit?

    6. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

      Around the world, at all ages, boys throw better ? a lot better ? than girls. Studies of overhand ball throwing across different cultures have found that pre-pubescent girls throw 51 to 69 percent of the distance that boys do, at 51 to 78 percent of the velocity. As they get older, the differences increase; one U.S. study found that girls age 14 to 18 threw only 39 percent as far as boys (an average of about 75 feet vs. about 192 feet). The question is why.

      Fucking biology, how does it work?

      On a related note, it would be interesting to see how many females would end up being in the armed forces if they had the same PT standards for both genders.

      1. mad libertarian guy   13 years ago

        On a related note, it would be interesting to see how many females would end up being in the armed forces if they had the same PT standards for both genders.

        I've never understood differing requirements for men and women. In battle, bullets do not move slower for women, cliffs to climb do not become shorter for women, gear does not become lighter for women, distances do not become less for women.

        Why is it appropriate for a women who can run time X to serve, yet a man who can run the same distance at time X is disqualified? In battle, either one can do it, or one cannot.

  6. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

    McDonald's 'made married couple sit apart' in Pakistan restaurant
    McDonald's is at the centre of a row over Islamic values in Pakistan after a customer complained he was told not to sit beside his wife because managers feared it would damage the restaurant's family reputation.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....urant.html

    1. Heroic Mulatto   13 years ago

      Fuck Pakistan.

      There has never been such a hive of wretched scum and villainy.

      1. generic Brand   13 years ago

        What about the US Capitol building?

        1. Heroic Mulatto   13 years ago

          As they are the ones that pay to support Pakistan, they're part and parcel.

      2. Loki   13 years ago

        That's "wretched hive of scum and villainy". If you're going to reference the Wars, at least get the quote right.

        1. Heroic Mulatto   13 years ago

          It's a paraphrase.

  7. generic Brand   13 years ago

    Why is Ichiro protesting against Obama and the war? (from picture)

    1. Atlas Stoned   13 years ago

      Definitely looks like an Afrocentric asian.

    2. Fluffy   13 years ago

      Because Ichiro pursues excellence in all things.

  8. Fist of Etiquette   13 years ago

    There were Occupy protests as far as Hong Kong. That one, outside the headquarters of HSBC, is being evicted.

    They're so far behind western trends.

    1. Fluffy   13 years ago

      The Hong Kong Occupy protestors all smoked cigarettes and listened to 80's dance hits during the entire protest.

      1. mad libertarian guy   13 years ago

        The fuck are the Chinese participating in occupy?

  9. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

    Happy Deficit Day, America! (Sept 10th)
    http://www.realclearmarkets.co.....99871.html

    If the federal government were to spend the same amount of money each day starting on January 1st, it would run through all of its tax revenue by September 10th. Everything the government spent from then until the end of the year would be on credit.

    If lawmakers produced a balanced budget, Deficit Day would occur on December 31st, when the government spent the last dollar of its annual tax receipts at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. But we haven't seen a balanced budget since the Eisenhower administration.

    1. generic Brand   13 years ago

      This is more depressing than a thousand 9/11's.

    2. Matrix   13 years ago

      Well, the fiscal year starts 1 October, not 1 January. So if it was September 10th, that wouldn't be so bad. It would just mean they would have 20 days worth of debt, much better than 3 1/2 months.

      But alas, that is not the case.

  10. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

    Argentina's dubious poverty line: The six-peso diet
    http://www.economist.com/node/.....ixpesodiet

    SIX Argentine pesos ($1.30 at the official exchange rate, or about $1 on the black market) is just enough to buy an alfajor, a sweet biscuit nibbled between meals over coffee. But according to the government, it is more than sufficient to buy an entire day's food. On August 10th INDEC, the national statistics agency, declared that a family of four should be considered above the poverty line if its monthly food bill exceeded 688 pesos, equal to about six pesos per person per day.

    The claim has stuck in the throats of ordinary Argentines, who have to spend far more than this to keep hunger at bay thanks to galloping inflation. Indignant citizens created mock advertisements featuring pizzas the size of finger nails. Hackers disabled the INDEC website, tweeting: "Now you'll have to use your six little pesos to restore your page :)".

    1. Spoonman.   13 years ago

      Declaring that a problem doesn't exist is a tried-and-true government solution to a problem.

    2. Alack   13 years ago

      Well, $1/day is considered to be the absolute poverty rate worldwide, but they should at least adjust for purchasing power and future devaluation from inflation.

    3. Calidissident   13 years ago

      As someone who visited Argentina in May, the idea that someone can get by on 6 pesos a day for food is absurd. A burger at McDonalds costs like 10 US dollars

  11. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

    Via Radley Balko's Twitter feed, the simple tale of a Canadian singer who puts a penny on his album cover. A fan who works for the Mint suggests to management that the Mint sell it in the shop. It goes one better - it sues his ass

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat.....penny.html

    1. VG Zaytsev   13 years ago

      How long before the gubmint charges a royalty every time someone uses cash.

      1. db   13 years ago

        It's called inflation, and it happens anythime you use fiat currency.

    2. Matrix   13 years ago

      American Ambassador: *clears throat* Fuck Canada!

      Canadian Ambassador: Hey, fuck you, buddy!

  12. SugarFree   13 years ago

    Not even Jezebellians think much of NYC soda-size ban. Sorry, token male that was hired to make Jezebel look gender-balanced, but is really just a leftist twit.

    1. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

      people get awfully defensive when their personal freedom ? or the personal freedom they think they have ? is threatened. Even though it happens to everyone everyday, nobody wants to be told a) what to do, and b) that they're wrong.

      Yes, but the writer certainly likes other people being told what to do and that they're wrong

    2. Matrix   13 years ago

      Some of the commenters are retarded as hell and support the ban.

      1. T   13 years ago

        Some of the commenters are retarded as hell

        Umm, hello? Jezebel.

        What is this, the slow class?

      2. Loki   13 years ago

        Some of the commenters are retarded as hell and support the ban.

        Shocked face.

  13. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

    Gun pointed at Rep. Trey Gowdy in S.C. parking lot, police say
    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....-confirms/

    Police later issued a statement saying the suspect walked up to Gowdy's vehicle "displaying a handgun" while he was waiting in the church parking lot. She twice told him to "stop following me," police said, though he explained he was just waiting to pick up a family member. According to police, Gowdy then put his car in reverse as the suspect "started running after him on foot across the parking lot."

    whacky liberal? paranoid person? church gunrunner?

    1. Atanarjuat   13 years ago

      Irritated stalkee?

  14. sloopyinca   13 years ago

    "I see dead people."*

    *And write them tickets to meet my nonexistent quota.

  15. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

    Why is Obama skipping more than half of his daily intelligence meetings?
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

    When Obama forgoes this daily intelligence meeting, he is consciously placing other priorities ahead of national security. As The Post story that the Obama White House sent me put it, "Process tells you something about an administration. How a president structures his regular morning meeting on intelligence and national security is one way to measure his personal approach to foreign policy."

    Indeed it is. So is how often he holds it. With President Obama, it seems, the regular morning meeting on intelligence is not so regular.

    1. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

      He's so much smarter than them, he doesn't need no stinkin' intelligence

    2. wareagle   13 years ago

      this is where the Bob Woodward book gains credibility. All through it, Obama is painted as unwilling to make decisions. Missing meetings is a way of avoiding decisions. Besides, icky meetings get in the way of campaigning.

      1. Drake   13 years ago

        And who wants to talk to those unpleasant people in uniform? They keep saying nasty things about misunderstood Muslims and freedom fighters. Yuck.

      2. thom   13 years ago

        The fun is in the journey. Being President is bo-ring.

      3. R C Dean   13 years ago

        Besides, icky meetings get in the way of campaigning golf, basketball, and bowling practice.

        1. Loki   13 years ago

          Has he gotten good enough at bowling to beat a special olympian yet? If not, then he has to practice. We can't have a "leader of the free world" who's incapable of beating a retard at something. It makes us look weak, mumble mumble, something about terrorists... american exceptionalism, mumble mumble.

          1. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

            not cool Loki. Special Olympians have it tough enough without being compared to Obama, even favourably

    3. Heroic Mulatto   13 years ago

      In a sane and just world, this would be grounds for impeachment.

      Alas, our world is neither sane nor just.

      1. Drake   13 years ago

        I think of the scene in "American Gods" where he had to chose between "the way of hard truths or the way of fine lies". Obama will always chose the Fine Lies from his lackeys, preferably during a nice round of golf.

        1. db   13 years ago

          600 hours of golf so far for this President. If he were doing something useful, he'd be a third of the way to a homebuilt airplane.

          1. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

            Really? 150 rounds of golf over the last four years? He gets to play a little less than once a week? I can't remember the last time I had an afternoon free to step onto the course.

            It's shit all the way down with this President.

  16. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

    A bit of libertarian porn: Queensland sacks 14,000 public servants.

    Well it made me a bit tingly

    1. Spoonman.   13 years ago

      mmm...yeah...get it..

    2. generic Brand   13 years ago

      No! Not the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and Multicultural Affairs department!

      (seriously though, this dept still retains 363 employees)

    3. tarran   13 years ago

      I'll be in my bunk.

    4. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

      Oh yes...their tears are yummy and sweet.

  17. Randian   13 years ago

    Lifeguards in El Monte, CA fired for making music video during off-hours.

  18. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

    Among likely voters, Obama-Romney close
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

    Last week's Democratic National Convention helped President Obama improve his standing against Republican Mitt Romney, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, but did little to reduce voter concern about his handling of the economy.

    The survey shows that the race remains close among likely voters, with Obama at 49 percent and Romney at 48 percent, virtually unchanged from a poll taken just before the conventions.

    1. wareagle   13 years ago

      and there is some professor who has been right, down to the state by state level, on all elections since '80. His worst outing was '92; he got 41 of 50 states due to the Perot effect. His system has Romney in a landslide.

      1. Fluffy   13 years ago

        I'd like to think that O is going down, but Romney's battleground state performance is not getting any better.

        His 48 percent isn't in the right places.

      2. Randian   13 years ago

        Do you have a link for this, wareagle?

        I am still not voting Republican, but a thoughtful post the other day slightly moved me in the "sympathetic to Republicans" just for this election.

        1. wareagle   13 years ago

          here it is...if the squirrels eat it, it is from the U of Colorado. If you Google "study says romney to win", it pops up. Hopefully, the linky will worky.

          http://www.colorado.edu/news/r.....study-says

        2. NoVAHockey   13 years ago

          I think he's talking about this: http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_21373080

        3. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

          Part of me would be fine with a republican loss, because it would keep the horrific liberal monsters that insist on surrounding me from blaming me for all the damage Romney and co will do. If the coin was the other way, and monstrous "conservative" horrors surrounded me, I'd be just as anxious of an Obama win. Fuck them all.

          1. wareagle   13 years ago

            the liberals will blame you regardless. It's like the scorpion and the frog. That's what scorpions do.

            1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

              I suspected as much. But the Republican Tarantula doesn't look like a better option. Both end in death.

      3. Mo   13 years ago

        The problem with models like this is that there's a small sample size. Every election since 1980 is still only 8 election. So even a pure coin flip model has a 1 in 256 chance of being right every time. There are more than 256 individuals publishing models. Eventually, just out of pure chance, someone's model will be accurate 8 times in a row even if it's no better than a coin toss. I'd also be curious how their model did when backdated to prior elections.

        For example, Moody's has a model that has picked every election since 1984 accurately and it predicts Obama winning with 300 EVs. Obviously, both Moody's and this prof can't both be right, but in 2016, one of them will still have their perfect record.

        http://www.economy.com/dismal/.....F7D505D457

    2. NoVAHockey   13 years ago

      that has a 33D/23R/37I sample. D+10?

      1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

        33D/23R/37I

        Wow, that's a big ass. Is the study done just on Latinos?

        1. mr simple   13 years ago

          Maybe if she's 5'3".

      2. R C Dean   13 years ago

        The recent CNN poll showing O with an 8 point lead was so grotesquely distorted on its sampling that when it was corrected to match reality, it showed Romney with an 8 point lead.

        Link's at Drudge.

  19. Longtorso   13 years ago

    One of the "interests" of one of my PlentyOfFish chemistry matches is listed as "Elizabeth Warren rocks". While I knew, as a libertarian, I was doomed to die alone having never felt the touch of a woman, now I don't feel so bad about it.

    1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

      Use OKCupid instead. It's a lot better than POF.

      1. Longtorso   13 years ago

        I use that too. My matches there are all Xian religious fanatics.

        1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

          You might want to rethink the answers to your questions (or you're just in a really really weird area).

          1. T   13 years ago

            Obligatory reference.

            1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

              That's just bringing me to the home page for some reason.

              1. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

                Are you talking about the, "My Dick", eharmony answer?

                I liked Salon's personals, many years ago. Of course you're going to run into a lot more Fauxcahontas fans that way, but that's what filters are for.

              2. T   13 years ago

                It's the screencap of the best answer ever to E-Harmony's question 'What do you like most in a woman?'

        2. Kaptious Kristen   13 years ago

          All my OK Cupid matches were gun-totin' tough guys. I'm dating one of them now. The libertarian chicks are out there. You might need to tweak your answers to the quiz (or answer more questions - I answered about 300 or 400 over the course of a few months). Or change your age preferences to skew a bit older.

          1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

            Mine were all pretty apolitical, which is what I really want. Despite the amount of time I spend here, I don't talk about politics much with others in real life (I certainly don't bring it up).

            1. Kaptious Kristen   13 years ago

              A lof the questions on OK Cupid are political, though. I skip most of them (and the ones about the minutae of people's sexual preferences - I don't need to get into specifics until I get to know someone), but I still answer enough to make sure my matches aren't complete fuckheads.

              1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

                I mark those as low importance and then mark the ones about whether or not you enjoy talking about politics/etc as high/mandatory. It seems to have worked for me. My answers screen out people that care about it, and if they say they love talking politics it screens them out for me.

    2. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

      you will never feel the supple caress as she screeches in your ear.

      1. Longtorso   13 years ago

        My match.com dates tend to wind up pregant, and not by me.

        1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

          I suppose that's better than the alternative.

    3. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

      any time I think "is this marriage working out?", I'll remember this post.

    4. sloopyinca   13 years ago

      Longtorso, if you want to meet a woman and marry her, you probably just need to wait for the Reason HandR College Football Bowl Pick-Em Extravaganza.

      If it worked for me, it can work for anybody!?

  20. sloopyinca   13 years ago

    "Here boy! Here boy! That's a good boy! Lookie here! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

    Sorry, Scout. There's a leash law in this town and the penalty for breaking it is death.

    1. Night Elf Mohawk   13 years ago

      Fucking sociopaths.

    2. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

      FUCK

    3. Matrix   13 years ago

      That lab puppy had it coming. Everyone knows they are the most dangerous and vicious creatuers around, especially the puppies!

    4. mr simple   13 years ago

      Did you start his website?

      http://www.dogmurderers.com/

      1. mr simple   13 years ago

        Should be *this* website.

      2. Loki   13 years ago

        This one made me sick to my stomach. The cop from this story should be drawn and quartered. Preferably after being forced to watch every living member of his family tree beaten to death in front of him. People like that should be eradicated from the gene pool.

        Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go throw up now.

        1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

          FTA: Police officials told the Daily Sun last week that they would not elaborate on how the animal was killed, other than that a firearm was not used.

          "This case is under both an administrative and criminal investigation," Treadway said when asked today about the witness' account. "A police officer or any other member of this community is entitled to due process and I'm prohibited by law from releasing information while this investigation is under way."

          Yeah, they always withhold information about non-cops when they are investigating them, right?

          Fucking animals.

    5. R C Dean   13 years ago

      The comments on that story are quite gratifying, at least.

      1. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

        The following comment hits it on the head:

        If any normal person were to do exactly this to a dog, they would be in jail awaiting trial on animal cruelty and unlawful discharge of firearm charges.

        But there's no double standard, right? If I shoot my neighbor's year-old Golden Retriever in its yard, I'm just going to be told not to do it again and that'll be it? Who the fuck shoots a Golden, anyway? Conan O'Brien used one for his Evil Puppy sketch because the idea was so ridiculous.

        Take away their qualified immunity, start holding officers personally liable for their conduct, and you might start seeing some caution and restraint return to law enforcement.

        Thanks for the nut-kick, sloopy.

    6. Loki   13 years ago

      What. The. Fuck.

      Someone please, please shoot that fucking pig in the face.

  21. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

    Quote from a Facebook friend (who managed to get herself hidden from my feed):

    "I am voting tomorrow! A republican told me today that 'I need to get my head out of the jungle' in reference to my respect for Obama! We need to keep this racism and bigotry out of office people! GO MAKE AN EDUCATED VOTE!!!"

    Another instance of "Anti-Obama? Racist!"?

    1. wareagle   13 years ago

      the capability to hide people or unsubscribe from them is, bar none, the single best feature of FB.

    2. Randian   13 years ago

      Don't bring that Facebook shit in here. At least our crazies are semi-coherent; Facebook has no such privilege.

    3. Ed   13 years ago

      A majority of whites won't vote for Barack Obama, that's racist. A supermajority of black people and other minorities will vote fro him, that's not. Makes sense.

      1. Sheldon J. Plankton   13 years ago

        ".... minorities will vote fro him...."

        Well played sir.

    4. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

      You should have posted "Welcome to the Jungle"
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg

      1. Atlas Stoned   13 years ago

        +1000

    5. R C Dean   13 years ago

      Voting tomorrow? For what?

      1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

        Iunno. She lives in NH now, so probably some local election there.

        1. Zeb   13 years ago

          State primaries are today in NH.

          1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

            Why the hell are primaries this late? And why not the same time as the national primaries...when they already have all the infrastructure set up?

            1. Zeb   13 years ago

              I don't know. Why are the presidential primaries so early?

              The whole government of NH is up for election every two years, so that might have something to do with the lack of coordination with the national primaries.

      2. kinnath   13 years ago

        Obama. It takes a while to fill out 100 absentee ballots.

  22. CampingInYourPark   13 years ago

    "Democrat withdraws from 1st District congressional race after allegations she voted in two states"

    More of that non-existent voter fraud

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne.....4352.story

  23. sloopyinca   13 years ago

    Cops steal shit from suspects. City suspends officers* (but of course the DA found no reason to prosecute them). Union thinks it's wrong to air the dirty laundry in public.

    *They won't serve their suspensions at the same time because of staffing issues. I guess they can't have all of their thieves not working at the same time. It might get the "civilians" used to not being shaken down.

  24. Rich   13 years ago

    The dispute was over the bill, which could reach $1.4 billion.

    But what the heck, since Iraq is picking up the tab.

  25. gaijin   13 years ago

    Morgan Stanley places the odds of Ron Paul being the next Fed chairman at 4 percent.

    As if we needed more confirmation that Financial Services companies have become little more than gambling enterprises.

    1. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

      Well? What do you think, Valentine?

      Sounds to me like you guys a couple of bookies.

      [chuckling, patting Billy Ray on the back] I told you he'd understand.

      1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

        We need more Trading Places references on here. Nicely done.

        1. gaijin   13 years ago

          Yes, Jamie Lee Curtis made a permanent memory for me in that one.

          1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

            Best-looking hermaphrodite of all time.

          2. EDG reppin' LBC   13 years ago

            If your "memory" lasts for more than four hours, call your physician and seek immediate medical help.

        2. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

          Then there's this classic, which nicely sums up the last four years.

          I had the most absurd nightmare. I was poor and no one liked me. I lost my job, I lost my house, Penelope hated me and it was all because of this terrible, awful Negro.

          1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

            Is there anything Denholm Elliott is in that he doesn't make better? Seriously, the man was a fucking great supporting actor.

            1. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

              He worked for a very long time. Hard to believe he died all the way back in 1992. And even harder for me to believe that the last Indiana Jones movie was in 1989...

              Damn, I feel old.

              1. Eduard van Haalen   13 years ago

                Don't forget Crystal Skull.

                1. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

                  Assuming you're serious, I'll just leave this here.

  26. sloopyinca   13 years ago

    Week 1 of the NFL season is over, which means FFL is under way. And for those of you that care but don't know, here are the results of the Reason HandR JsubD Memorial FFL:

    Armstrong's Corpse
    116.35
    Kochtopussys
    96.45

    #89
    90.45
    Not That John
    82.80

    LeaveTimTebowAlone!!
    61.45
    Hershey Fudgepackers
    104.15

    PantsFans
    81.55
    Ghost's Boasts
    126.35

    Occupy End Zone
    51.25
    STEVE SMITH RAPE YOU
    118.35

    Apatheists
    76.20
    LBCheeseburgers
    77.75

    Mr. Peanut
    105.55
    Go Pack Go
    91.50

    ConfederacyOfHunches
    88.15
    Clich? Bandits
    101.25

    As you can see, not too many close games. And for the record, the lowest scoring team was last year's regular season champion, Tulpa. I bet he feels just like the Packers this morning.

    1. Fluffy   13 years ago

      I was going to tell you not to post that shit in here, but the team names are so funny that I now demand you post fantasy football updates here every week.

      1. db   13 years ago

        I particularly like "Occupy End Zone."

    2. generic Brand   13 years ago

      STEVE SMITH wasn't kidding when he said he'd rape you. Jeez, almost 70 points??

      1. heller   13 years ago

        Tulpa is incredibly butthurt.

        1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

          Don't bring the FFL shit onto here. No wait, do I have that backward?

          If only rectal were here to set us straight...

          But seriously, people need to grow some thicker skin. It's only week 1 and the whining has begun.

          (Also, my trade offers were still better, heller)

    3. Brett L   13 years ago

      Speaking of Packers feeling bad

      Rodgers asked Boyz II Men to sing the national anthem before the opener at Lambeau Field. Nathan Morris of the group laid a bet on the table. If the Packers lost the game, Morris proposed, Rodgers would have to wear a 49ers jersey through this entire week

  27. The Late P Brooks   13 years ago

    Another instance of "Anti-Obama? Racist!"?

    Nothing anti-Obama is not racist.

    It is INCONCEIVABLE that anyone might be opposed to 0 for any reason other than racism.

    1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

      I'm tempted to point this out to her, but she'll probably just think I'm being racist.

  28. John   13 years ago

    http://www.americanthinker.com.....lypse.html

    Bob Woodward reports on the coming economic apocalypse and doesn't even realize it. The money quote

    Another possible outcome, Geithner said, was perhaps worse. "Suppose we have an auction and no one shows up?"

    The cascading impact would be unknowable. The world could decide to dump U.S. Treasuries. Prices would plummet, interest rates would skyrocket. The one pillar of stability, the United States, the rock in the global economy, could collapse.

    "So," the president said, "if we give $1.2 trillion now in spending cuts" - the amount in the House bill to get the first increase in the debt ceiling for about six to nine months - "what happens next time?" The Republicans would then come back next year, in the middle of the presidential campaign, and impose more conditions on the next debt ceiling increase. He could not give the Republicans that kind of leverage, that kind of weapon. It was hostage taking. It was blackmail. "This will forever change the relationship between the presidency and the Congress.

    His own Treasury Secretary tells him that the country is about to collapse and his first worry is having to give up power to Congress.

    1. John   13 years ago

      This obviously is pretty pessimistic. There is one bright spot. This is Timmy Geitner talking. To creatures like him, the country is the government. So if the government goes bust, it is the end of the world. Maybe the opposite is true. Maybe if the government goes bust, it would get its foot off of the rest of the country's throat.

      1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

        That's what I'm hoping for. A decade as a farmhand in the "post-apocalyptic wasteland" could do me some good. I'm not being sarcastic. No really.

        1. John   13 years ago

          One of my big hobbies is medieval English history. Literally about every 100 years they had a civil war and burned half the country down. Yet, England survived and emerged in the 16th Century as a world power. So, even the worst calamities do not last forever. Also, in the day and age of the internet, there is a greater possibility of alternative currency arising and the effects of hyperinflation to be mitigated.

          1. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

            hey John, did you see that those archaeologists digging up the carpark in Leicester now claim to be "tantalisingly close" to finding Richard III?

            http://www.telegraph.co.uk/his.....-body.html

            1. John   13 years ago

              No I did not. Interesting. Finally settle whether he was really a hunch back.

            2. John   13 years ago

              They tore the whole friary down. They really did go bananas during the English reformation. I was reading the other day where the tomb that Edward I built for what was claimed to be the remains of King Arthur was totally destroyed during the reformation. Man they really did hate the monks.

              1. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

                I was reading the other day where the tomb that Edward I built for what was claimed to be the remains of King Arthur was totally destroyed during the reformation. Man they really did hate the monks.

                Apparently Henry VIII went so overboard with sacking monasteries that the shrine of Thomas Becket was completely destroyed and his grave desecrated.

                1. Eduard van Haalen   13 years ago

                  Henry didn't like Becket at all. Becket defied an earlier King Henry. Can't have that.

        2. Citizen Nothing   13 years ago

          I'll be looking for farmhands come the apocalypse, Drax. Be sure to put in your application early.

          1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

            Just need room and board once money loses it's meaning.

      2. Restoras   13 years ago

        Extreme economic duress would probably lead to more jackbootery, not less.

        There will be blood.

        1. John   13 years ago

          You have to have money to pay the jackboots. And the US still has a strong federal system. Imperial Russia didn't have a federal system. One of the first things Hitler did upon assuming power was destroy Germany's federal system. Difficult to imagine a broke federal government doing much jackbooting over still fiscally solvent states.

          1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

            North Dakota: Stronghold of Freedom.

            1. John   13 years ago

              Seriously. Places like Texas, North Dakota and other places in the plains that are having oil booms would probably come through okay.

              1. T   13 years ago

                Rick Perry wasn't really joking, you know.

              2. kinnath   13 years ago

                This is where I renew my call for the states comprising the Louisiana Purchase to secede from the union.

          2. Restoras   13 years ago

            What fiscally solvent states are you referring to? Besides, if the government is printing the money they can just give their jackboots more worthless script than everyone else gets. And let's not forget who has all the heavy weaponry.

            1. John   13 years ago

              Pretty much the entire planes and South. the only states that are certainly going to go broke are NY, California, Illinois, and few NE states.

              And the states have a lot of heavy weaponry themselves. It is called the National Guard. And the military would never turn on the US population. They would stand down. It would not happen. So the feds would be left with their LEOs, whom they couldn't pay anymore.

            2. John   13 years ago

              And hyper inflation doesn't kill everyone. If you still are producing something, you still will have something.

            3. Randian   13 years ago

              Actually, if my SWAG serves, most states are fiscally solvent, more or less.

              1. R C Dean   13 years ago

                Well, once they dump their pubsec pensions, anyway.

                1. John   13 years ago

                  RC

                  The inflation will solve the pension problem.

                  1. R C Dean   13 years ago

                    Lots of pensions are indexed to inflation, John.

                    1. John   13 years ago

                      They won't be forever RC.

    2. wareagle   13 years ago

      Geithner or not, this is the sort of stuff that gives support to the D'Souza documentary that Obama's key aim is whittling America down to size. And, I wouldn't put too much of the onus on Timmy. It's not like Obama did not know who he was appointing.

    3. R C Dean   13 years ago

      "Suppose we have an auction and no one shows up?"

      (1) The fed will always show up. Hell, the fed has been taking between 30% and 70% of the auctions for a couple of years now.

      (2) At $1TT a year as far as the eye can see, it is flat out guaranteed that there will be an auction where nobody but the fed shows up.

      Of course, as the fed monetizes debt at this rate, it locks in inflation, and finally a hyperinflationary collapse. Likely combined with a deleveraging/deflationary depression. Yes, you can have both at the same time.

  29. Ice Nine   13 years ago

    Simon Says "freeze". Would you?

    1. JW   13 years ago

      I might freeze, inconveniently, while flipping them the bird.

    2. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

      What's next? Walkies? Sit?

    3. heller   13 years ago

      They have to find some way to have fun in between gropings.

    4. ant1sthenes   13 years ago

      Not if they don't say Simon Says. I know the rules.

  30. CampingInYourPark   13 years ago

    "Conservative Groups Push for End to Wind Energy Tax Credit"

    "'If a new technology truly has worthwhile benefits for American consumers such as lower cost, higher efficiency, or environmental benefits, then that technology will demonstrate its value by competing in the open market for consumers' dollars ? not by living off of special provisions in the tax code,' the letter said.

    Groups signing the letter include the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, the Club for Growth and FreedomWorks."

    http://insideclimatenews.org/t.....tax-credit

    1. John   13 years ago

      Expect green energy to compete on its own? Never.

  31. sloopyinca   13 years ago

    Not to be neglected, the Reason HandR You Didn't Built That FFL also got underway. And here's how we all did in that one:

    Sloopys Barnyard Fun
    110.02
    MR's Guard Ducks
    72.62

    Rhythmic Gymnasts
    93.34
    Turd Burglars
    102.06

    Analrapists
    98.70
    JD's Seceders
    115.72

    Faith +1
    104.46
    Decepticons
    103.48

    PeytonsTimeMachine
    65.22
    Black Leather Jacket
    98.68

    The reason staffers are 1-1 so far this year, with the Decepticons losing a squeaker but JD's Seceders beating Banjos by a country mile.

    1. Fluffy   13 years ago

      I can't decide if Occupy End Zone or Black Leather Jacket is the best team name.

      1. John   13 years ago

        Occupy End Zone.

      2. heller   13 years ago

        STEVE SMITH RAPE YOU

    2. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

      In the Reason H*amp*R Bigorati pick 'em Graham Gano's Avengers is in the lead with 13, helped by getting both the Washington and SF upsets.

      Full results:

      Graham Gano's Avengers: 13
      Banjos Big Bouncy Bazoombas: 12
      Translucent Chum Will Suh You: 12
      Jumbie :12
      Falling Dutchmen:11
      Broncos over Steelers:11
      calidissident:11
      Citizen Nothing:11
      Auric Demonocles:10
      Mike M.:10
      Sloopy Super #1 Football Picks:10
      Rub Me Wrong Time:10
      Brett's coin flips:10
      Fingerbang!:9
      Proegg Antichicken:9
      Ghost's Boasts:9
      The Whiterun Guards:9
      Indiano Bianco:8
      Stalker:6

      I'm amazed jumbie is in second after throwing away 2 points on the Colts and Rams.

      1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

        sloopy:

        When do these weekly tiebreakers even get used? Just at the end of season? If so, how?

        1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

          They go into effect if there's a tie at the top in any given week. And they go in order. TB 1 is used and if it's a tie after that, TB 2.

          Don't worry, there'll be a tie soon.

          1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

            Why does a tie in a given week matter?

            1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

              Usually everybody throws money in a pot and the weekly winner gets a cut of it. I'm in another pick-em and it's $10/week per player and the winners get 90% of the money each week with the overall winner for the season getting the remainder of the money paid in. (weekly winners usually win around $200 with the year-end winner getting somewhere around $300 or so due to attrition at the end of the season)

              1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

                But since there's no money in this one...

                It doesn't?

                1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

                  It matters for bragging rights from week to week. And let's face it, that's about as long an attention span as you typically find around here.

                  1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

                    Hmm... I guess it's true that's all you win over the whole season too. I just wasn't considering anything other than the running total to be important. I suppose the per week value will still keep some people interested later on even if they're behind.

      2. Brett L   13 years ago

        But for Philly squeaking out a win over the Browns, I would have been 0fer in the NFC East. Fuckers.

      3. Translucent Chum   13 years ago

        Happy to be just beneath Banjo's Bazoombas.

        1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

          ::narrows eyes::

        2. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

          I'm sad to literally be worse than Nothing.

    3. Ed   13 years ago

      highest scoring loser, story of my life

      1. sloopyinca   13 years ago

        Well, the world needs ditchdiggers, to.

  32. John   13 years ago

    Obama and Romney in 49-48 statistical dead heat among likely voters. Virtually the same numbers as before the conventions.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

    But in a poll whose sample includes only 23% of self identified Republicans.

    1. wareagle   13 years ago

      which may be why the Colorado professor with a history of being right says Mitt in a big way.

      1. Drake   13 years ago

        I always assume conservative voters are underrepresented by at least 5 to 10% in these polls. Conservatives just don't want to answer the phone from unknown callers, or they are actually at work, the big city reporters / pollsters can't be bothered to ask anyone more than 5 miles away.

    2. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

      already posted, amigo. I know it's hard to see amongst the normal flippant snark that populates H-ampersand-R.

      1. John   13 years ago

        Sorry to walk over you.

        1. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

          I'll live. *sniff*

    3. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

      Well Republicans are mostly going to be too busy being racist or attacking women to vote, so it makes sense.

      1. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

        Voting Day = Burning Cross Day!

        1. John   13 years ago

          Even the site of a police car scares liberals away from voting.

      2. T   13 years ago

        That's why I early vote. What if my servants haven't polished my monocle well enough on election day? I'd have to spend the day thrashing them all, and I'd never get to the polls. Early voting frees up my schedule for oppressing minorities and exploiting the working class.

        /Libertarian Early Voting PSA

        1. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

          Really? How very... humble of you. One doesn't want to make a fuss, but those dear little people running the polling booth simply insist on closing it so I have the place to myself and can vote at leisure. Luckily they choose to have it in a local school gym with lovely wide doors so I don't even have to get off my palanquin. One of the boys carrying it hands up the papers and a pencil, i write "none of the above little statist bitches" and we're done

  33. John   13 years ago

    http://www.forexlive.com/blog/.....gdp-ratio/

    Moodies expects to cut the US debt rating.

    1. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

      more rethuglican chicanery!

    2. MP   13 years ago

      It's a fun story, but it's amazing to me that after 2008 those ratings agency fuckers still have any credibility. And to still have the US at AAA? Really?

    3. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

      We'll see if they have the balls to go through with it.

      I keep reminding the Team Blue fellators that visit here that we can't keep spending 8-12% of GDP in deficits to get a 1-2% growth rating. All Moody's did with their press release was confirm that I'm right.

  34. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

    From the UK

    State 'happiness' campaigns leave people feeling gloomier, research suggests

    National happiness campaigns such as that adopted by the Government at a cost of millions of pounds are likely to make people unhappier, according to new research.

    more

    Colour me sad

    1. John   13 years ago

      Kind of like the anti-drug ads that oddly make you want to do drugs.

      1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

        Or Food Inc. and Super Size Me. Just thinking about them now, makes me want a shitty McDonald's hamburger.

        1. John   13 years ago

          Yeah. I went to McDonalds for lunch the day after watching Super Size Me. I never do that. But it just sounded so good.

          1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

            The worst thing on their menu is the soda/pop/coke(for you Southerners). Seriously, hamburgers aren't giving people diabeeetttttuuuss.

          2. Restoras   13 years ago

            Popeyes is my fast food joint of choice whenever I feel like abusing my health.

    2. Atlas Stoned   13 years ago

      I don't think it is possible for U.K. to do anything noteworthy or successful.

  35. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

    has this been posted here yet?

    In a Mass Knife Fight to the Death Between Every American President, Who Would Win and Why?

    1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

      Probably the bloodthirsty Teddy Bear.

    2. John   13 years ago

      There was a whole thread on it yesterday. The general consensus was Jackson in a walk, with Teddy Roosevelt and the civil war veteran presidents of the late 19th Century being dark horses.

      1. Apple   13 years ago

        Dammit, I missed this thread?

      2. sloopyinca   13 years ago

        I still think James Buchanan goes deep into the fight, because he was not opposed to plunging his dagger into another man.

        1. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

          + "Lifelong bachelor."

      3. Lord Humungus   13 years ago

        no LBJ?

    3. Apple   13 years ago

      Andrew Jackson would win, maybe with Washington being his last kill.

    4. R C Dean   13 years ago

      I still think you're selling Lincoln short.

      The finalists would be Jackson, Washington, Lincoln. Grant was a frickin' general, and as far as I know never got into the scrum. Other than Washington, Jackson, and Roosevelt, I'm not sure which Presidents had actual bloody-knuckles combat experience. And for some reason Teddy just doesn't strike me as a knife fighter.

      1. John   13 years ago

        Grant had combat experience in the Mexican war, which was quite a nasty affair.

      2. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

        Other than Washington, Jackson, and Roosevelt, I'm not sure which Presidents had actual bloody-knuckles combat experience.

        William Henry Harrison fought Indians at Fallen Timbers, Tippecanoe, and the Thames, Zachary Taylor fought in the War of 1812 in addition to commanding during the Mexican War, and as pointed out above, several of the post Civil War presidents up through McKinley had combat experience (Cleveland hired a substitute and Arthur was a quartermaster). Truman fought in World War 1, and Bush Sr. was a combat pilot in World War 2.

        I think Jackson takes it hands down, though. Washington was too much of a gentleman to stoop to prole nonsense like knife fights, and Lincoln was better with a quip. I don't think we've had any other President that personally relished in combat the way Jackson did.

        1. R C Dean   13 years ago

          I stand corrected.

          Lincoln was quite the brawler in his youth. I've still got him in at least the top 4.

          1. db   13 years ago

            Plus, he's got a long reach. And skinny guys fight 'til they're burger.

      3. Fluffy   13 years ago

        In Washington's corner, prior to match.

        FLUFFY: (speaking in Burgess Meredith voice)
        All right, Rock, I want you to get in there and give it to these bastards real good!

        WASHINGTON:
        Who's 'Rock'?

        FLUFFY:
        You are, kid!

        Fluffy points to Woodrow Wilson.

        FLUFFY: (cont'd)
        You see that guy, Rock? That's the French ambassador.

        WASHINGTON:
        A Frenchie, you say?

        Close up of Washington fingering knife in anticipation.

        FLUFFY:
        Yeah, Rock, a no-good Frenchie. And you know what? The other day I heard him saying that he hates whiskey. And that anybody who distills whiskey is a yellow dog coward. Can you believe that, Rock?

        1. Auric Demonocles   13 years ago

          He's coming.

  36. Your Old TV   13 years ago

    Memos show US hushed up Soviet crime

    WARSAW, Poland (AP) ? The American POWs sent secret coded messages to Washington with news of a Soviet atrocity: In 1943 they saw rows of corpses in an advanced state of decay in the Katyn forest, on the western edge of Russia, proof that the killers could not have been the Nazis who had only recently occupied the area.

    The testimony about the infamous massacre of Polish officers might have lessened the tragic fate that befell Poland under the Soviets, some scholars believe. Instead, it mysteriously vanished into the heart of American power. The long-held suspicion is that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn't want to anger Josef Stalin, an ally whom the Americans were counting on to defeat Germany and Japan during World War II.

    Documents released Monday and seen in advance by The Associated Press lend weight to the belief that suppression within the highest levels of the U.S. government helped cover up Soviet guilt in the killing of some 22,000 Polish officers and other prisoners in the Katyn forest and other locations in 1940.

    1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

      Too bad all of the guilty parties are in comfortable graves. What a bunch of cock-suckers.

      1. Virginian   13 years ago

        If you ever read Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, you'll find yourself very depressed. The one small bit of happiness in the book is how Stalin periodically has all the old mass murderers executed by the new mass murderers. It's not much, but it's nice reading that the NKVD who organized the Ukranian famine were killed by the NKVD who did the Katyn Forest killings.

        1. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

          That sounds like my bachelor bath tub. The new scum consumes to the old.

        2. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

          Yezhov, Yagoda, Beria, Blokhin: very few of them died peacefully in bed. Yezhov dying in his own death chamber was a nice touch.

          Still nowhere near enough to pay for what they did, but that's something else's problem.

    2. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

      The long-held suspicion is that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn't want to anger Josef Stalin, an ally whom the Americans were counting on to defeat Germany and Japan during World War II.

      What a piece of shit that crypto-commie FDR was. Fuck him and the people who worship him.

    3. Jordan   13 years ago

      Read "The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia" for more rage-inducing details on American complicity. As if you needed more proof that FDR was a totalitarian piece of shit.

    4. Zeb   13 years ago

      There has been a pretty good documentary shown on PBS a few times focusing on the interactions of Churchill, Stalin and FDR which goes into this quite a bit.

      I'm open to the idea that it was necessary in some sense to ally with the USSR, but it's pretty hard to argue that Stalin was any less evil than Hitler.

      1. Virginian   13 years ago

        Indeed. Especially after the Nazis invaded, there was never going to be a separate peace. That's the threat Stalin used to keep FDR supporting him, and it was a bogus one. Sometime during Stalingrad that war become a war to the knife, and there wasn't going to be any peace until one of those evil bastards was dead. There was no need for us to tolerate all the shit Stalin pulled that hurt American interests.

        The stupidity and incompetence of FDR is hard to overstate. The fact that he is lionized infuriates me, because by any objective standard he was a truly terrible President.

        1. Gray Ghost   13 years ago

          because by any objective standard he was a truly terrible President.

          He did get elected four times. And he did---for bad, mostly---get much of his domestic agenda accomplished. The U.S. Federal Government underwent a revolutionary change under his Administration.

          Success is its own standard of quality.

          Re: the Nazis v the Communists, and whether the U.S. needed to get into WW2, it really wasn't not going to happen, once the U.S. committed to Lend-Lease and the Germans insisted on torpedoing U.S. ships. But WW2 was a question of "which totalitarian fuckbag would you like running Europe?" Because you're going to have to pick one. And at least by choosing the Soviets, you had the chance of eventually freeing the French and the Low Countries, and keeping the Brits free, which is what eventually happened.

          It is interesting to wonder what a Nazi dominated Europe would have been like, and how it, and the Cold War that would have arose to contain it, would have differed from how the 1945-1990 period turned out.

          1. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

            It is interesting to wonder what a Nazi dominated Europe would have been like

            We may yet get to find that out if Germany decides to quit bailing out its insolvent neighbors.

        2. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

          The stupidity and incompetence of FDR is hard to overstate. The fact that he is lionized infuriates me, because by any objective standard he was a truly terrible President.

          FDR suffered from the same conceit as Obama--being spoiled and worshipped made them believe that their personal magnetism was so powerful that they could talk anyone into anything. FDR never understood that Stalin was a gangster with far more experience and sophistication in political machinations, in a world where losing got you killed, not just sent back to Hyde Park. Stalin played him like a fiddle.

          There's also the suspicion that FDR was just too old and sick by that time period, and didn't have all of his mental faculties in place. Maybe the 1932 FDR could have better protected American's interests from Stalin (I personally doubt it, but it's possible), but not the 1943 version.

      2. Your Old TV   13 years ago

        I'm open to the idea that it was necessary in some sense to ally with the USSR, but it's pretty hard to argue that Stalin was any less evil than Hitler.

        It was "necessary" if you subscribe to the opinion that the USSR was the least of the two evils. But in retrospect it's not entirely clear that was the case.

  37. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

    Soros: "Germany needs to keep bailing out insolvent countries."

    Soros said Europe faced a prolonged depression and an acrimonious end to the European unification project if steps were not taken to help its southern nations grow their way out of the debt crisis by collectively assuming some of their debt and relaxing its German-led insistence on austerity.

    "Germany should either lead in developing a growth policy, political union and burden-sharing, accept the cost of leadership, or leave through an amicable arrangement," Soros said in an interview with Reuters television in Vienna.

    And then Soros downed a goblet of baby's blood, restoring the color to his face.

    1. Red Rocks Rockin   13 years ago

      Dammit. Link:

      http://uk.reuters.com/article/.....AB20120908

    2. Drax the Destroyer   13 years ago

      I'm sure that blood and the knowledge of where it came from infused his long-Al-Bundy-esque flaccid dong as well.

    3. sloopyinca   13 years ago

      I guess Soros went long on the upcoming Deutschmark, and wants to devalue its position so it enters the market as low as possible.

  38. Mike M.   13 years ago

    Moody's to America's insane politicians: cut your debt to GDP ratio or we'll follow SP and cut America's credit rating.

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