A.M. Links: Ryan Rallies Supporters in Iowa, Bomb in Damascus Kills 13, Japanese Exports to China Drop, Lebanese Intelligence Chief Funeral Ends in Violence, TSA Moving Scanners From Major Airports, Maoists Move to Save Xilai

• Paul Ryan told supporters in Iowa that victory "is within our grasp." Obama and Romney will have their final debate tonight, focusing on foreign policy. 

• A car bomb in Damascus has killed 13 people. The attack comes as U.N peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi tries to persuade Assad to implement a cease-fire. 

• Japanese exports to China have dropped amid territorial disputes over uninhabited islands. 

• The funeral of an assassinated Lebanese intelligence chief ended in violence as mourners tried to storm the offices of the Prime Minister. 

• The TSA is moving body scanners from major airports, replacing them with machines that experts say are safer. TSA officials say that the move was not motivated by safety concerns, but rather the need to speed up checkpoints. 

• Maoists are hoping to save one of their own, issuing a public letter calling for the Chinese parliament to not expel Bo Xilai. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

TSA officials say that the move was not motivated by safety concerns, but rather the need to speed up checkpoints.

Because the TSA has shown it’s very concerned with the efficiency of its work.

[Ted S.]

They want to be able to steal stuff from our luggage more efficiently.

[Whiterun Guard]

They need to triple the number of deaf people they berate, wheelchair bound grandmothers they cause medical issues with and toddlers they terrorize if they want to keep up with their heroes.

[R C Dean]

Tut, tut, people. Refuel your cynicismizers.

Clearly, this can only be done if they are buying whatever they are replacing the body scanners with, yes?

So, now that the body scanner boondoggle has run its course, its time for a new boondoggle, yes?

Who are they getting the new gizmos from, and how much have they donated to the Right People?

[mad libertarian guy]

So, now that the body scanner boondoggle has run its course, its time for a new boondoggle, yes?

Who are they getting the new gizmos from, and how much have they donated to the Right People?

Ding ding ding!

Rapiscan has got their stolen cash to the tune of tens of millions, now it’s on to the next high level donor turned lobbyist to get “theirs.”

[sarcasmic]

Kate Moss shows her titties! (NSFW)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..-veil.html

[generic Brand]

Kate Moss and titties in the same sentence does not compute.

[sarcasmic]

I see you didn’t follow the link.

[generic Brand]

Unfortunately, unlike you, I am employed and at the office right now.

[sarcasmic]

I have feckless managers who don’t look over my shoulder and get pissed when I ask them for something to do.

[generic Brand]

All right, I risked it. They do look pretty nice, and not nearly as flat as I would have guessed based on past appearances of Kate Moss.

[sarcasmic]

She’s put on a few pounds in the right places since entering her 30s.

[JW]

Unfortunately, they’re still attached to the body that hosts her lackluster face.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

They look like borderline Cs.

[sarcasmic]

Youth continues to be wasted on the young.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..-bash.html

[sarcasmic]

Lana Del Rey (whoever the fuck that is but she’s in the tabloids all the time) shows off her legs. Very nice legs. Very nice.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..horts.html

[Restoras]

Nice for what? A dry rub and ten hours in a smoker?

[generic Brand]

+1 drumstick

[Rich]

Agree. Look in any shopping mall and you’ll see better than that.

[Lord Humungus]

I can see much better at home.

[SugarFree]

Your legs are fabulous, Lord H.

[Lord Humungus]

thanks!

[sarcasmic]

I haven’t been to a shopping mall in a long time.

[generic Brand]

Really? Because you know they are required to have access ramps for your obesity chair now.

[John]

Lana is cute as hell. And she doesn’t suck any worse than losers like Beyonce or any of the other pop singers out there.

[Rich]

Beyonce’s legs

[John]

I didn’t say Beyonce was ugly. I said her music sucks. I don’t get why everyone hates on Del Ray. She is no worse than the rest of them.

[sarcasmic]

I’ve never listened to either.

[John]

You are not missing anything. Del Ray isn’t bad. It doesn’t make me want to stab my ears.

[Proprietist]

She sucks, just like all the rest of them.

[Fatty Bolger]

If you like that, you’ll love this.

[Brett L]

Oh no you don’t. I saw the url.

[sarcasmic]

ditto

[LTC(ret) John]

Yeah, nice try, Mr. Evil Images.

[Fatty Bolger]

Drat, foiled again.

Note to self: next time, use TinyURL.

[Francisco d Anconia]

How’d you snap a pic of my wife?

[Jordan]

Once upon a time, I stumbled upon a pro-regressive’s hate-filled diatribe about Lana Del Ray, all because she had the gall to be a white girl who took a hispanic sounding stage name. True story.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

$10 says this diatribe was written by an insecure SWPL who thinks its edgy and amusing to imitate black and Hispanic cultural tics in real life.

[Lord Humungus]

President Obama, the liberals’ bust
http://bostonglobe.com/opinion…..story.html

When you voted for Obama in 2008, could you have imagined that he would extend the Bush tax cuts? That he would commit US forces to war in Libya without the congressional approval he himself had said the law required? That he would show so little concern for pro-democracy dissidents and protesters resisting tyranny? That he would expel 1.2 million undocumented immigrants in three years, more than any president since the 1950s? That he would quickly load up his administration with former lobbyists ? after having promised that he wouldn’t?

If a Republican president compiled such an atrocious record, you would do everything you could to prevent his reelection. Can you vote in good conscience for a Democrat with such a record?

[wareagle]

Can you vote in good conscience for a Democrat with such a record?

if you’re a Team Blue sycophant, of course you can. And the answer would likely be the same for Red if a Repub were in the Oval.

[Cyto]

I had this exact argument over the weekend. Actually, my words were: “how could any sane person vote for this guy?” Mr. Team Blue’s response?

Bush got re-elected, so Obama should too.

Really. Without irony, that was his logic. Sadly, he got nods all around from Team Blue.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Yeah, every conversation I’ve had with lefties is based almost entirely on his rhetoric. They focus on superficial bullshit like OBL getting killed (which should have resulted in an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan) or GM getting bailed out, or even worse, cheerlead for income-vacuums like Obamacare and twist themselves into knots issuing stimulus apologias.

The odd thing is that for all the Culture War nonsense they tend to focus on, you’d think they’d be pushing the DADT repeal like crazy as a reason to re-elect the guy, but I’ve barely seen in mentioned.

[Whiterun Guard]

Of course I can. His intentions were good, and the other guy is worse. Plus, I’m not a racist, you racist.

[sarcasmic]

What’s the deal with cops killing naked people?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..icers.html

[Whiterun Guard]

Well she had (from what I can tell) a musket. Good shoot. Officer safety.

[Drake]

1. I have a musket that is perfectly function – loaded with buck and ball it is as basically a single shot 12-guage.

2. Why don’t I get invited to parties with naked crazy chicks?

[Whiterun Guard]

Because everyone knows all you do is tell fake stories about your time in ‘Nam, and then break out your acoustic guitar for your 20 minute version of “Under the Bridge”.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Question, followed by answer.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Err, preceded by, I meant.

[Moe19]

I still laughed.

[Brett L]

And yet, two random non-police dudes managed to have a conversation with her just before the incident, while she was naked and armed, without violence.

*Yes my sarcasm meter is fine, just wanted to make the point for people who don’t click through.

[generic Brand]

A car bomb in Damascus has killed 13 people. The attack comes as U.N peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi tries to persuade Assad to implement a cease-fire.

Damascus? They hardly knew us!

[Zeezrom]

Rectum? Damn near killed ’em!

[sarcasmic]

Mom slaps boy who bullied her daughter and is charged with, among other things “making terrorist threats”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ghter.html
Do you get upset when your child is bullied? You just might be a terrorist!

[Ted S.]

The biggest bully of them all is the state.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The mom did a stupid thing in the context of our current legal system, but I can’t fault her for going after those guys. I’d probably do the same thing if it were my daughter being tormented.

[Chris Mallory]

“Terroristic threatening” has long been a criminal offense. Usually involves making threats of violence that aren’t at the level of assaults.

[Chris Mallory]

Here is the KY statute on terroristic threatening.

“Kentucky’s terroristic threatening statute, KRS 508.080, covers two general kinds of threats ? threats to a specific person or his property, and threats used to cause public evacuations of buildings and other structures. Unlike the offense of “menacing,”1 the victim (or victims) does not have to be placed in reasonable apprehension of immediate injury2 ? in fact, the offense can be committed even if the victim has no knowledge of the threat3.

KRS 508.080(1)(a) covers the most commonly encountered form of terroristic threatening and requires (1) a threat to commit any crime, which is (2) likely to result in death, serious physical injury, or substantial property damage to another person. “Crime” means any misdemeanor or felony
KRS 580.080(2) covers the “public threat,” and makes it an offense for a person to intentionally make false statements for the purpose of causing evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation.

Terroristic threatening is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to 12 months in jail and/or up to a $500 fine.”

[Jordan]

Anybody who smacks around asshole children deserves a medal.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Paul Ryan told supporters in Iowa that victory “is within our grasp.”

Not if he keeps wasting time in Iowa, it isn’t.

[Ted S.]

Winning Iowa and Nevada and losing Ohio might be able to get Romney to 269.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You know who get 269 electoral votes? Losers, that’s who. The White House is for closers.

[Whiterun Guard]

I think you have an extra ‘c’ in that sentence.

[Ted S.]

269 is a tie, and with the Republican House majority, Romney would in the presidency.

Of course 269-269 would make Biden VP assuming the Democrats hold the Senate….

[Fist of Etiquette]

I SAID GOOD DAY SIR.

[hamilton]

Romney wins and has Biden as his VP? now THAT is an outcome to pray for.

Thanks you for giving me a rooting interest!

[LTC(ret) John]

I agree – the lulz would be pay per view quality.

[Ted S.]

Also, those three electors in Nevada claiming they’ll vote for Ron Paul could throw a monkey wrench into the works if Romney wins NV and gets as high as 272 electoral votes. That would be fun.

[Proprietist]

http://www.thedailyjournal.com…../310220021

I disagree with this writer – I hope it happens.

[DJF]

We need to change the Constitution and have it decided in “Thunderdome’.

That way we can all chant, “Two men enter, one man leaves”.

[robc]

269-269 also provides for the “thats Ron Pauls music!” scenario.

One Romney elector votes for Paul instead. Final is 269-268-1. No one has a majority, so it goes to the House, where they can consider the TOP THREE vote getters. The Presidency would be a hell of a parting gift.

[Cdr Lytton]

Except that instead of making his case to the House, Paul dismisses the reps as a bunch of beauty pageant winners and goes to lunch. Statist quo wins again.

[Proprietist]

This article claims that the House vote will be by the newly elected House members, not the current House. Interesting stuff. Didn’t really know much about the 12th Amendment until today.

[alex griggs]

Didn’t really know much about the 12th Amendment until today.

That’s because it’s superfluous, just like the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 10th.

[LTC(ret) John]

Put that coffee down!

[Corneliusm]

Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids!

[Whiterun Guard]

It’s just Ryan. Wherever he is, it’s wasting time.

[LTC(ret) John]

And no alt-text either!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, like the guy running for vice president is going to take criticism from a guy making blog comments. COME ON!

[Whiterun Guard]

Hey, I could run for vice president, and probably win too. I just don’t ’cause I feel like the office has just sold out. It’s not what it used to be.

[hamilton]

It’s a bucket of cold piss now?

[db]

I almost spat coffee all over my four thousand dollar suit!

[invisible furry hand]

That’s a pretty cool trick. Sorry, illusion.

[Bee Tagger]

Paul Ryan told supporters in Iowa that victory “is within our grasp.”

Like a cool-down set of lat pulls.

[Lord Humungus]

Ever Bipartisan, Bloomberg Jabs Both Candidates
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10…..l?hp_r=2

“Let’s get serious here: it was Joe Biden that forced that issue,” he said, referring to the vice president’s surprise remarks backing same-sex nuptials that were credited with forcing Mr. Obama to follow. “Some people say he just goes off; I would say he’s a principled guy.”

The White House has said that the president had always intended to announce his support for same-sex marriage and that Mr. Biden’s words only forced him to do so slightly earlier than planned.

[Ted S.]

Ever Bipartisan Self-Serving, Bloomberg Jabs Both Candidates

Fixed for accuracy

[mad libertarian guy]

The White House has said that the president had always intended to announce his support for same-sex marriage and that Mr. Biden’s words only forced him to do so slightly earlier than planned.

They wanted to announce it closer to the election to ensure that TEH KULTUR WARZ were at the forefront of people’s minds come election day.

[Bee Tagger]

The TSA is moving body scanners from major airports, replacing them with machines that experts say are safer.

Safer for who? Terrorists? See? Two can play this game, TSA.

[Whiterun Guard]

Safer for the TSA agents obviously. Why do you hate them when they are just trying to protect you!?

[Drax the Destroyer]

Hopefully, the new Gamma Blaster 4000’s can reduce the size of my prostrate.

[Lord Humungus]

George Will: Seeds of our dysfunction
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..story.html

Democracy is representative government, which is the problem. Democracy represents the public’s preferences, which are mutable, but also represents human nature, which is constant. People flinch from confronting difficult problems until driven to by necessity’s lash. The Claremont Institute’s William Voegeli, commenting on Greve and the dubious postulate of continuous 5?percent growth, says: “There’s good reason to fear that if the economy builds a 5 percent levee the polity will just come up with a 6 percent flood. We humans adroitly use scant and equivocal evidence to convince ourselves that the most congenial interpretation of events is also the most plausible and durable.”

[Ted S.]

The politics of failure have failed. We must make them work again.

[oncogenesis]

Don’t blame me. I voted for Kodos.

[Rich]

The [X-ray body scanner] machine’s inventor, Steven W. Smith, assured the panelists that it was highly unlikely that the device would see widespread use in the near future.

Emphasis added. BWAHAHAHAA!!

[SugarFree]

We are doomed. Doomed.

[robc]

DOOOOOOOOMED.

[hamilton]

Oh dear god.

[Bobarian]

I wouyld expect a STEVE SMITH designed scanner to be more intrusive than pesky radiation…

tentacles, maybe?

[Lord Humungus]

Sympathy for the Undecided
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10…..inion_r=0

If you want to think well of swing voters, and imagine them as wise Athenians rather than a Colosseum-going mob, you could see the improving odds for what once seemed like an unlikely 2012 outcome ? a Romney victory in which Democrats hold the Senate ? as a nod to the necessity for bipartisanship, and an attempt to make a significant change in Washington while also forcing both parties back to the negotiating table.

And if you want to go on thinking poorly of the undecideds ? well, I’m sure that some of the post-debate focus groups this week can help with that.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Gridlock, oh how sweet would the gridlock be? Whenever these assholes agree on anything, we get the War on Terror and the Department of Education.

[Brett L]

Continuing Budget Resolutions today, CBRs tomorrow, CBRs forever!

[Zeb]

Yeah, I’d say gridlock is a better word here than “bipartisanship”.

[Restoras]

I hate that “wise Athenian” meme. Utter bullshit.

[invisible furry hand]

especially if their idea of a wise Athenian is Michael Stipe

[Restoras]

Most of the time, if a musician/actor/artist starts talking about anything but music/acting/art, it’s a good idea to stop listening.

[db]

I think Fred Schneider fits the bill better than Stipe.

[Pro Libertate]

What wise Athenians? They voted themselves into irrelevancy quite quickly, in the historical scheme of things.

[mad libertarian guy]

as a nod to the necessity for bipartisanship, and an attempt to make a significant change in Washington while also forcing both parties back to the negotiating table.

Apparently swing voters understand “significant change” differently than I do.

[generic Brand]

‘We don’t owe them a fantasy’: Woman who dressed in racy costume for Comic Con speaks out about sexual harassment

Several of them, she said made ‘WOAH LOOK AT THOSE KNOCKERS’ faces as they stood with her.

I know we’re not supposed to do this, but if you dress super slutty for a comic book convention, “you’re kind of asking for it” as far as leering and lewd comments go comes to mind.

[Zeezrom]

And the woman’s making a fuss about it afterwards is all part of the deal.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

What does she think she’s being paid for?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

That’s what’s so stupid about it–she got dolled up in a skin-tight outfit that shows off her tits, to model at a convention filled with emotionally stunted, pock-faced males who won’t ever actually have sex with a woman they haven’t paid for. What the hell did she think was going to happen?

[wareagle]

I love women like this — get dolled up in a way that accentuates certain features so no one will miss them, then get upset when the very thing you wanted to happen actually happens.

[generic Brand]

It’s all about who is doing the gawking. If she gets noticed by a modeling agency and they want to contract her for some work based on her looks and costume, it’s A-OK. If it’s a bunch of drooling fanboys, it’s disgusting, despicable, and “sexually harassing”.

[wareagle]

it’s only funny because it’s true. My girls were told numerous times that when they dressed to draw attention, they did not get to control whose attention they draw.

[mad libertarian guy]

It’s all about who is doing the gawking.

I’m not sure why they were expecting The Fonz with a PhD at Comic Con Anyways.

[Brian D]

Men should be entirely indifferent if a woman dresses in a sexy outfit, unless of course that woman wants (but doesn’t explicitly invite) you to tell her she’s sexy.

[Rich]

“I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”

[Whiterun Guard]

Proof positive that women don’t know what the hell they want until a man tells them.

[SugarFree]

There has been more and more of this lately. They dress up in skimpy outfits for the attention and then complain about the attention. And considering her obvious boob job and facial plastic surgery only makes her complaints even more po-faced.

There a hundreds of characters you can dress as that don’t look like stripper half-way through a routine.

[Whiterun Guard]

Raven, Martha Kent, (some versions of) Zatanna.

That’s about all I can think of.

[SugarFree]

Lois Lane, Lana Lane, Vicki Vale, most iterations of Batgirl/Batwoman, Harley Quinn (most versions) Marvel Girl and Phoenix (most versions).

And, of course, they are not required to come in costume in the first place.

You wear a costume for attention. You don’t want attention? Don’t wear a costume.

[Whiterun Guard]

I can’t think of any versions of Batgirl/woman, HQ, MG or Phoenix that wouldn’t be ridiculous in person. I mean most of those would require a spandex body suit (although I guess if you don’t find that erotic…)

I did forget Granny Goodness and Athena in battle armor though.

And I’m not even sure you could cosplay as Lana Lane, Vicki Vale or Lois Lane. I mean unless you had a name tag on that said “Lana Lane” people would just think you worked for the convention center or something.

[Bobarian]

Especially since the character you’re looking for is Lana LanG, not Lane.

[JW]

You wear a costume for attention. You don’t want attention? Don’t wear a costume.

There you go again. Mansplaining everything.

[Warty]

There a hundreds of characters you can dress as that don’t look like stripper half-way through a routine.

HOW DAER U SLUT SHAMING HER

[Drax the Destroyer]

It’s only a matter of time before people like this and the Jezebelesbians anally force through legislation of some sort that makes merely looking at a woman some form of crime. Mark my words, gentlemen, mark my words. And they wonder why there is so much porn.

[generic Brand]

It’s only a matter of time before people like this and the Jezebelesbians anally force through legislation of some sort that makes merely looking at a woman some form of crime.

And then Iron Law #7 comes into effect when the male population wholeheartedly throws its weight behind robot sex slave inventing.

[Brett L]

Please dude, the field already has a name — which I love typing — teledildonics. I kinda wanna get into it, just for the lulz of having a business card that says “teledildonics designer”.

[SugarFree]

My robot sex slave will not have a dildo. If yours does, that’s between you and your asshole.

[invisible furry hand]

oh you tease, Mr Free – more details please!

[Brett L]

Eh, the fleshlight is a dildo, even if you wrap a robot around it.

[SugarFree]

A dildo is a sex toy intended for penetration. If you are putting a Fleshlight in your butthole, that is an off-label use.

[LTC(ret) John]

So he voided his warranty too?

[Brett L]

Whatever. If you’re having simulated intercourse with it, its a dildo.

[sloopyinca]

If you think the fleshlight is a dildo, you’re using the wrong end.

[SugarFree]

If you think the fleshlight is a dildo, you’re using the wrong end.

NTTIAWWT

[Coeus]

And then Iron Law #7 comes into effect when the male population wholeheartedly throws its weight behind robot sex slave inventing.

They’ve already thought of that. They made them illegal in Canada. Called ’em “rape simulators”.

[NeonCat]

Even if they’re programmed to be willing?

[Coeus]

Yes. Apparently the fact they’re willing is what trains guys to rape.

[Rich]

IIRC, the University of Maryland had a regulation that looking for more than three seconds was criminal staring. The guys got around it by counting to three, looking away, then resuming.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Well, that never stopped me when I wasted 4 years of my life there. Maybe it’s a relatively new regulation?

[R C Dean]

I hope they are counting out loud.

That’s the trick with laws like this. By prohibiting staring for more than three seconds, they give permission to stare in the most lewd and blatant way for 2.99 seconds, thus disposing of the social norm that you should at least try to be discrete.

[Whiterun Guard]

+1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississip-

[ant1sthenes]

Ok, burkhas it is, then.

[Jordan]

MALE GAZE, BITCHES!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Japanese exports to China have dropped amid territorial disputes over uninhabited islands.

There’s something China doesn’t make?

[SugarFree]

There’s a Rape of Nanking joke in there somehwere…

[Fist of Etiquette]

No there isn’t!

[Whiterun Guard]

Blondes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don’t think Japan exports those.

[generic Brand]

You could be wrong, if they could ever be convinced to leave Harajuku.

[Whiterun Guard]

Don’t move the goalposts.

[Restoras]

Seriously. That’s T o n y’s job.

[sarcasmic]

And Tulpy. Don’t forget goalpost-moving Tulpy.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama campaign collecting more donations from non-existent ZIP codes as campaign season goes on
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10…..n-goes-on/

From February through June this year the GAI findings reported that the Obama campaign collected $175,816.26 in electronic donations from non-existent ZIP codes. One month later, the campaign raised $411,369.55 through such donations and $197,464.59 in August.

By the end of September, the Obama campaign raked in $2,199,204.38 ? thanks to donations from non-existent ZIP codes.

[Fatty Bolger]

The $2 million is just a minimal base line. It hardly matters whether the zip codes exist or not. They don’t use AVS checking, so they could use any address, any name, with any credit card in the world, and it would still go through.

There is only one reason the campaign would turn off even minimal AVS checking, and that reason is to facilitate fraud.

[robc]

Ummm…there is software that allows this to be checked on the fly. Its easy to require a real zip code.

[Lord Humungus]

Le Blog de Jean-Paul Sartre
http://www.newyorker.com/onlin…..artre.html

I was awakened this morning by the sound of an insistent knocking at my door. It was a man in a brown suit. He seemed to be in a hurry, as if Death itself were pursuing him.

“One always dies too soon?or too late,” I told him. “And yet one’s whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are?your life, and nothing else.”

“Okay,” he said. “But I’m just the UPS guy.”

[Whiterun Guard]

I love the smell of nytimes online blogs in the morning.

Smells like….hipster.

[Brett L]

This was funny around 2003. Now its pretty passe.

[Rich]

It means, though, that far fewer passengers will be exposed to radiation because the X-ray scanners are being moved to smaller airports.

And those fucking hayseeds are just going to die in a regional crash anyway.

[Fist of Etiquette]

If Murtha was still around he could buy them all up for his airport and let them sit idle. Chertoff gets his money and everyone’s happy.

[Whiterun Guard]

Do they keep it in Rangel’s freezer?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Does Charlie do the freezer thing? I thought that was some Rep from Louisiana.

[Whiterun Guard]

What am I, a congressional historian?

[Cdr Lytton]

Charlie plows it into beachfront real estate.

[Bee Tagger]

Japanese exports to China have dropped

The Chinese Mitt Romney and Barack Obama celebrate Chinese jobs being saved!

[Lord Humungus]

10 Deadliest Epidemics in History
http://www.bestpublichealthsch…..n-history/

Disease has probably killed more human beings than anything else in history, and illnesses such as the plague, malaria and cholera are still dangerous today. The most infamous epidemic in history, the Black Death, wiped out almost half the population of Europe. Could a present-day equivalent rear its head?

The battle against deadly diseases is far from over. Modern pandemics like AIDS and swine flu show that, even in the 21st century, we aren’t entirely free from the threat of disease. And there’s always the cheery possibility that the next epidemic will be our Black Death ? a metaphorical grim reaper sent to Earth, and the cause of so much death and suffering that it changes the society we live in forever. Read on for the 10 most devastating epidemics in history.

[Ted S.]

Before I click on the link, is it a one-page article or one of those fucking slideshow lists?

[Lord Humungus]

just one glorious page of death.

[Whiterun Guard]

Good, because multi-page slideshows have killed more humans than everything else combined.

[LTC(ret) John]

They do count as a plague.

[sloopyinca]

Two brave, valiant (off-duty) heroes of the thin blue line fatally shoot naked woman at Florida gathering. The department refuses to say what she was “armed” with for some odd reason and/or if alcohol was present at the party. And while not at the party himself, the boss of one of the officers felt confident saying the woman was “not in her right mind” and that “the officers must have been in fear for their life”.

[generic Brand]

“She came with a weapon and I would surmise that they felt their life was in danger.”

No mention of what kind of weapon a naked woman could possess that would make the situation life-threatening for anyone. If it was a gun, say it was a gun. My guess is that it was a purse.

[Ted S.]

As with the naked male college student a few weeks back, if the dead person had a weapon the cops would be explicit about what it was. Since they’re not, the reasonable assumption is that they’re lying.

[mad libertarian guy]

Since they’re not [openly disclosing what kind of weapon it was], the reasonable only assumption is should be that they’re lying.

FIFY

[Troy muy grande boner]

If Rosie O Donnell was approaching you naked, you’d shoot.

[Big 'Orra]

If Rosie O Donnell was approaching you naked…

Hey, some of us are eating breakfast here!

[Fatty Bolger]

Put it down and back away slowly as Rosie approaches. When she goes for the pancakes, run.

[sloopyinca]

PoliceOne’s always intelligent take on the shooting.

TL/DR? They’re fine with it.

I will put one comment here for your reading pleasure, however:
Posted by joe319 on Sunday, October 21, 2012 07:13 PM Pacific Report Abuse
***My mama taught me that hate is a strong word..sorry mom, but i hate news reporters. ***

Those that can do, become cops. Those that can’t, become lawyers and reporters!

Yeah, because a JD is so much easier to come by than a GED and a certificate from a 13 week academy program. Jesus Christ, cops are even more narcissistic and out of touch with reality than I thought.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Those that can do, become cops.

Can do…what? Enforce bullshit laws? Shoot naked women? Graft all the undeserved pension payments Satan can conjure?

Just because they “do” something, doesn’t mean that something is inherently good. What a dumb son of a bitch.

[Restoras]

It’s going to be delicious to watch all those pensions become worthless over the next several years.

[mad libertarian guy]

I’d say that I agree, but I’d be willing to bet that when that becomes the case, I’ll be forced to “voluntarily” bail them out and/or have my own retirement account raided.

[sloopyinca]

Maybe if we were talking military pensions. With the cops and fire departments, you have to remember that people don’t know how bad the pension systems have been gamed for these guys to make 6-figure retirements in their early 50’s. And when we talk about the FD’s, many of which were 100% volunteer a couple of decades ago, people will be scratching their heads when they realize they’re gonna pay out 6-figure retirements to people younger than them that never fought a fire bigger than a single family dwelling in the 20-25 years prior to retirement.

They have been to brazen in their theft and it will come back to bite them in the ass.

[wareagle]

wow, the comments are a Kos-level of moronic. Except these folks carry guns for a living.

[Ted S.]

Once again, thank you for reading that stuff so that the rest of us don’t have to.

[Resto Druid FTW]

I am contemplating trolling (intelligently) policeone. Thoughts? I’ll use this handle.

[sloopyinca]

I’d be very leery of doing that without an IP address randomizer. I’ve seen them out non-cops on threads before, down to giving their names and home addresses. I’m pretty sure you have to give some personal info to the admins to register there (since it’s supposed to be for LEO’s only).

The best (intelligent) troll would be from a reasonoid living outside the USA. That way they could claim to be a foreign LEO and could likely get registered.

[Robert S]

I don’t know. Can YOU beat a lie detector test?

[Lord Humungus]

pic from the article – what’s up with cop ‘staches?

[SugarFree]

Field of fire designator. In a choatic fire-fight, if it doesn’t have a creppy mustache, shoot it.

[SugarFree]

*creepy* damn it.

[LTC(ret) John]

I thought “creppy” was a combination of ‘creepy’ and ‘crappy’ – I rather liked that.

[Fatty Bolger]

Urban dictionary agrees.

2. creppy 26 up, 21 down
A combination of “creepy” and “crappy”. Creepy in a bad way. Usually applied to a sleazy person.
John was really drunk and kept on grabbing my ass. Oh my god, he is so creppy.

[SugarFree]

I was on the desk out front. I was forced to use Explorer. Explorer. It was hell.

#whitelibrarianproblems

[invisible furry hand]

creppy is good though. A preppy guy who surreptitiously goes the grope? A misspelt crepey, so the moustache is wrinkly and/or sprinkled with icing sugar and served with strawberries? So many possibilities…

[Whiterun Guard]

It’s a perfectly cromulent word.

[Brett L]

Upthread, sloop.

[sloopyinca]

Yeah, I just noticed. Usually when I see a sarcasmic comment with the word naked in it, I assume it’s a fatty for John or a stick figure he’s fapping away at his cubicle to.

[Zeezrom]

Further confusion in Administration’s Libya messaging — who called it what when:

President Barack Obama was told in his daily intelligence briefing for more than a week after the consulate siege in Benghazi that the assault grew out of a spontaneous protest, despite conflicting reports from witnesses and other sources that began to cast doubt on the accuracy of that assessment almost from the start.

New details about the contents of the President’s Daily Brief, which haven’t been reported previously, show that the Central Intelligence Agency didn’t adjust the classified assessment until Sept. 22, fueling tensions between the administration and the agency.

[wareagle]

President Barack Obama was told in his daily intelligence briefing…

now, wait a minute. I thought he never went to those.

[LTC(ret) John]

Maybe it was too rainy to golf that day?

[Fatty Bolger]

Valerie Jarrett dragged him there by his ear.

[db]

No, it had come out several days before the attack that he was skipping the briefings, so by that point he was probably trying to look like he was paying attention.

[Whiterun Guard]

Look, if this is true, I’m sure he had a really good reason.

He’s trying to protect you and this country, WHY DON’T YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU RACIST.

[R C Dean]

I suspect that they are using the word “told” inaccurately, to refer to what is written in his briefing, because I distinctly recall he attended no such briefings for at least several days before or after Benghazi.

[mad libertarian guy]

President Not-My-Fault strikes again.

[sloopyinca]

Women engages in consensual sex with teenagers that are of the Age of Consent. But because they’re students, she is facing possible jail time.

The extent of the boys’ injuries is unknown at this time.

[Lord Humungus]

I bet something is sore…

[tarran]

The spirit was willing, but the flesh was spongy and bruised?

[Tim]

Alert Van Halen

[Whiterun Guard]

I don’t feel tardy.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Fuck…just saw this. Damn you tarran.

Is that your favorite episode? It surely is mine.

[tarran]

Actually, second favorite. The Devil’s Hands are Idle Playthings is my favorite.

[robc]

^^^This.

[Whiterun Guard]

Both wrong. The correct answer is Jurassic Bark.

Also possibly accept 300 Big Boys.

[Corneliusm]

Jurassic Bark’s ending was so depressing. I have a soft spot for dogs, especially faithful ones.

I would rather die by snu-snu more than anything.

[Drax the Destroyer]

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.

[Fatty Bolger]

It’s good to be alive in the Age of Consent.

[Cdr Lytton]

She looks pretty good for a booking photo. Just a trace of psycho eyes.

[Atanarjuat]

I’m tired of these dream-makers getting jail time!

/stanhope

[The Late P Brooks]

Can you vote in good conscience for a Democrat with such a record?

Based on conversations I have subjected to recently, yes. Because the self-described thoughtful, concerned independents (in other words, Democrats) around here are like a bunch of little children huddled around a campfire telling each other scary monster stories about what will happen if Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan get their hands on the levers of power.

[Fatty Bolger]

Stephanie Cutter talks about the important issues facing this country

Hint: It’s not foreign policy or the economy

[Ted S.]

Who’s Stephanie Cutter and why should I give a shit what she has to say about anything

[wareagle]

Obama’s deputy campaign manager and, quite possibly, the single biggest weapon Team Mitt has. Every time this woman opens her mouth, the bar for peak stupid nudges further upward.

[Ted S.]

I eventually broke down and clicked the link. Daily Caller was doing something to hog memory and freeze up the browser even before the Disqus comments started loading.

[Fatty Bolger]

Yeah, they can be almost as bad as Reason when it comes to page loading.

Switch to Chrome if you haven’t already.

[R C Dean]

I’m pretty sure if you go to dictionary.com and look at the definition of “soulless hack”, they’ve got a picture of Stephanie Cutter.

[Tim]

Was in Boig City this weekend visiting mom, who broke her hip and is a rehab home. Somehow, the democrats found her with an absentee ballot, an Obama coffee mug. According to ma the “young girl” gave her a ballot with the medical marijuana question already checked YES. Then she voted Romney and the “girl” took back the mug.
Of course she didn’t complain, she’s 84 and has a broken hip. That’s all.

[Tim]

Ma has private insurance and she damn well remembers Obama’s comment about grandmas getting pain pills and not surgery.

[Rich]

My mom would have accidentally broken the mug.

[JW]

Hopefully, she would have done it up against the head of the bedpan drone.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Your state’s absentee ballots are read on the spot?

[Ted S.]

Boig City?

[Fatty Bolger]

It’s right next to Grotham.

[Ken Shultz]

“Japanese exports to China have dropped”

It’s basically just a consumer boycott.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://espn.go.com/college-foo…..ducks-no-3

Kansas State is #3 in the latest BCS poll. I guess Bill Snyder didn’t get the memo from Paterno and Bowden that you’re supposed to suck and phone it in after age 70.

[John]

Snyder is a miracle worker. KSU is a small school with decent but not great facilities nowhere near any population base or significant supply of players. When you consider the gross disparity in population base and facilities between KSU and Texas and the fact that KSU is probably going to beat Texas by 40+ points when they play this year, Mack Brown is probably not qualified for the position of water boy on Snyder’s staff.

[Whiterun Guard]

So for three weeks some MAC or whatever team gets to pretend like they can hang. It happens every year.

[wareagle]

not MAC, Big Southwest. And K-State beat Okie in Norman and WVA on the road. One of those could be considered a fluke; hard to put both wins in that category, especially this weekend’s beat down.

[John]

KState is in the Big 12. They can hang. They are not in the MAC. K-state is a legitimate top five team.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

How many MNCs does Snyder have?

And, yeah, Brown is done and needs to GTFO.

[John]

If Snyder had coached at Texas and had the talent Brown has had, he would have five or six national titles by now. And Brown had taken over KSU in 1988, a team that had had one winning season since the second world war, he would have never finished above .500.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

There’s a reason Snyder is at KSU and not a place like Texas. You also presume he could recruit as well and not rely on JUCOs, which doesn’t fly nearly as well at Texas as KSU.

He’s a hell of a coach, but it’s easier to be a hell of a coach when expectations for your program aren’t outrageously high and when you aren’t the game every team circles in the spring.

[John]

Snyder has recruited plenty of high school players. He only recruits JUCOs because he has to at KSU. Had he ever coached at a bigger program he would have recruited top high school players.

And KSU was winning ten games a year in the late 90s and early 00s. Expectations were very high there. Snyder is just a better judge and developer of talent than Brown. Brown produces the best play station team in football. But only once has produced a team that played to its talent level.

[wareagle]

it’s the difference between doing more with less and less with more. I’m becoming, sadly, familiar with the latter this season.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I’m not defending Brown, but that’s stupid. Texas was fucked out of a MNC game in 2008 and lost to Bama with a terribad backup QB. He won 10 games a year for a decade and won like 20 in a row at one point. It’s time for him to go.

Again, Snyder is a hell of a coach, but to pretend that he has to deal with being every team’s target game like Texas or OU just ignores reality.

[wareagle]

NEM,
now, you’re excuse-making. No one forced Brown to take the UT gig. He took it because it is what it is – one of the plum jobs in the biz, with all the trimmings. And all the expectations. When the Horns struggle, it is magnified all the more.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

It’s not an excuse, it’s a distinction between coaching at Texas and coaching at KSU.

As I said, Brown needs to go because he let his staff go on cruise control after the 2005 season and the recruiting birds have come home to roost.

[Whiterun Guard]

Big fish, small pond. Will return to irrelevance when they lose to UNLV or something in November.

[John]

It is so hard to coach at Texas. Jesus Brown has recruited the number one defensive and offensive players in the country several times. Derrick Johnson, Chris Simms, Cedric Benson just to name three were all the consensus number one recruits the year they came out. Who cares if you are the other teams target when you have better players?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Who cares if you are the other teams target when you have better players?

Do the math on being a 90% favorite in every game over a 13 game season.

[R C Dean]

There’s a reason Snyder is at KSU and not a place like Texas.

Because he can’t quit hit the right combination of smarmy ass-kissing and thuggish condescension?

You also presume he could recruit as well and not rely on JUCOs, which doesn’t fly nearly as well at Texas as KSU.

Trust me on this, whatever wins flies just fine at UT.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Trust me on this, whatever wins flies just fine at UT.

I don’t trust you on that, because I know it isn’t true.

Plenty of players with their hands out and without the grades have gone elsewhere and played.

[R C Dean]

You could be right, NEM. I have a visceral dislike of Mack Brown in particular and the UT football program generally. I just don’t get the sense that they are guided by anything other than “can we get away with it”. But, I really don’t care enough to have an informed opinion.

[robc]

Brown won at UNC, he could have won at KSU. Not at Snyder levels, but he would have won.

[wareagle]

folks forget he turned the Heels from 1-10 to 10-1. But the expectations in Austin are light years ahead of those in Chapel Hill. UT is expected to be in the hunt every year and bad recruiting at a key spot or two is a killer. Only so many Vince Youngs out there.

[robc]

Not to mention, he immediately turned Texas from 4-7 to 9-3.

Its easier in Texas, obviously, but they werent good when he arrived.

Since he left UNC, their best record is 8-5. He won 10+ THREE times at UNC. 3 of the 7 all time 10 win seasons at UNC were under him.

[Brett L]

I just think that the game has moved past Mack Brown’s experience. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just happens to a lot of coaches. Bring in someone new and innovative.

[robc]

Wont disagree, it happens. Its just sometimes people forget just how good Brown was at his peak.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

The game hasn’t move past Brown’s experience.

He let his staff coast after the MNC — and Greg Davis was a pox even before that — and it is showing with the talent currently on the roster. Even so, the offense is fairly good. Diaz looks like a terrible hire at this point, though.

[robc]

There is something to that.

You know when Bowden fell apart? When Richt left to take the Georgia job.

But, that is part of the problem with older coaches, they cant figure out who to hire any more, and they have grown reliant on great coordinators.

Stinespring at OC at VT has been the obvious flaw for years, but Beamer has refused to fix it, and this year finally happened. The defense cant patch up the offense.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

He made a good choice in OC with Harsin, but swung and missed on Diaz, though he hit on Muschamp.

Brown made Texas a machine for a decade, but I think he needs to move on.

[Brett L]

NEM:

That’s exactly what I mean. Although, I don’t think hiring Muschamp to replace Chizik was coasting. But I think what works has moved so far beyond what used to work when he was coming up, that he’s reliant on hiring good coordinators, which Davis isn’t particularly.

[Brett L]

And, yeah, Brown is done and needs to GTFO.

Yep. Time to pull the plug. Its been a good 14 years. Well, it was more like 10 good years and 4 mediocre ones.

[John]

He is one terrible no call on a fumble in Stillwater from being on a three game losing streak.

[Brett L]

I started at UT in Mackovic’s last year. He had Ricky frickin Williams and managed to get the tar beat out of us by several mediocre teams. I think Mack Brown is fast approaching the same level.

[John]

Mackovic could waste talent like no other. He had enough talent to pull a win over a great Nebraska team out of his ass in 1996. And then in 1997, took basically the same players and had a losing record. I have always thought Brown wasted talent. He basically pissed away a shot at a national championship in 01 by continuing to play Chris Simms over Major Applewhite. Simms was a classic talented underachiever. Applewhite was a winner. You will never convince me they wouldn’t have beaten Colorado had they played Applewhite.

[Brett L]

Yeah. But. Brown promised Simms he’d start if he signed. That was the bad decision. Major would definitely have pulled that game out.

[John]

That is pathetic he made such a promise. You are Texas for Christ’s sake. You can get a quarterback. No one quarterback is going to make or break the program. Promising people to start is what losers do.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

He didn’t make that promise and anyone who says he did is a moron.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Half the defense was hurt in ’97. Mackovic still sucked, but only people who don’t know the facts try to equate 1996 and 1997 for Texas.

Speaking of not knowing the facts, you probably wouldn’t buy into the myth of Applewhite if you’d seen him play week in and week out. He had plenty of WTFs that get ignored because he was so scrappy.

Simms personally beat both KSU and Nebraska on the road that year.

[wareagle]

the Applewhite thing confirms the reality behind the backup qb being everyone’s favorite player when a team struggles. Always thought Simms was over-rated but never saw Major as the savior.

[John]

Texas didn’t play Nebraska on the road in 01. Texas played Nebraska in 98 and 99. And Nebraska completely depants Simms in the 99 Big 12 Title game. Simms was awful.

[Ted S.]

And they produce white WRs like Jordy Nelson.

[wareagle]

and all-around guys like Darren Sproles.

[Caleb Turberville]

Whatever your opinion of whether KSU can make it to the NCG, I do hope they at least get to a BCS bowl. I think they’d do well against most top 10 teams on the big stage.

[wareagle]

unlike the other two, he took a break from the game a few years back and when his successor was so-so, returned to the program.

[generic Brand]

I take serious issue with these polls. I am far from a Florida fan (I despise the Gators), but how the hell do they not move up to number 1 over Alabama??? Three of Alabama’s wins are from FCS or non-AQ conference opponents. Their only notable win was beating up on an overrated Michigan. Florida has beaten 4 ranked teams, including LSU and South Carolina. People’s Alabama bias (and SEC bias in general) is retarded.

People are saying that if Notre Dame wins out they are not a lock for the BCS championship, despite having to get through 4 or 5 ranked opponents by that point. This whole system is a scam. Fuck the SEC.

[wareagle]

couple of reason:
–bama has steamrolled every team it has faced. The Gators survived against LSU and needed a comeback to beat AM.
–bama also started the year at or near the top, which is a good reason why there should be no polls till first week of Oct.

Your bias complaint makes no sense since, no matter how the poll looked, UF and bama would among the top 3. Hard to call that SEC bias.

[Fatty Bolger]

No early polls would be a good idea.

[Caleb Turberville]

Meh. People are quick to downplay Bama’s win over Michigan. Bear in mind that one of their losses is to Notre Dame, which as you noted is a contender for the national championship (if they can get passed Oklahoma and USC). And Michigan schedule is front heavy; they’re last legitimate threat to getting to the Big Ten championship game is Ohio State, and Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes continue to look pretty beatable.

[Caleb Turberville]

Oops, *”their”.

[Brett L]

‘Bama has credibility among the humans. I am not a huge fan of Nick Saban, but his teams are well prepared and don’t lose games by making stupid mistakes. I’ll take his team over Muschamp’s until UF comes and beats ‘Bama. Also, which “ranked opponents” are you talking about for ND? Because UM and MSU are bringing down ND by sucking. Badly. Now if ND beats Oklahoma, who wins the Big 12, they deserve a BCS game, but they aren’t better than K-State or Oregon. Two of those teams (assuming ND, KSU and Oregon win out) are getting screwed.

[generic Brand]

ND also beat Stanford. And I figure it’s mostly the human element that keeps Alabama at the top.

I’m really just hoping Oregon makes it to the BCS championship game. Alabama-Oregon would be pretty interesting.

[wareagle]

more often than not, the system sorts itself out. One question, though: if Okie wins the B-12, who beats K-State? TX Tech? Possible, but Tubberville already had his annual surprise in beat WVA. Not sure who else is left.

Oregon has the cleanest shot at undefeated outside the SEC. Bama still to play LSU, in Baton Rouge, hardly a gimme. UF still has FSU, in Tallahassee which helps the Noles. Lot of game left, enough to make the poll barely relevant.

[sloopyinca]

And don’t forget that Alabama still has to finish the regular season with Auburn. Yeah, they might be down this year, but it’s a rivalry game and anyth……

Hahahahahahahaha. I just couldn’t do it any longer. Vandy? Auburn fucking loses to Vandy? Jesus titty-fucking Christ. How do you go from a MNC to probably 1-11 or 2-10 in two fucking years? They need a new coach, and pronto.

[wareagle]

if you are hoping this pisses me off, you are about 3 games too late. The slide is mind-boggling, especially considering multiple top-10 recruiting classes. All I have really learned is that:
1) Cam Newton was even better than I thought he was
2) Chizik may be a wonderful human being, but he is overmatched.

[sloopyinca]

Oh it wasn’t meant to piss you off. Remember, I had to suffer through Luke Fickell last year.

[wareagle]

I know a lot of folks that would consider Fickell’s record a marked improvement over what’s happening on the Plains.

[sloopyinca]

You want to know what really burns by balls about last season? With the exception of the Miami game, every loss was by 7 points or less (IIRC). They easily could have been 9-3 or 8-4 heading into the bowl game. And their recruiting would have not suffered as badly as it did through the season.

[Caleb Turberville]

Auburn 2010 was the Gus Malzahn offense run by an elite college quarterback to perfection. As much credit as Cam Newton got, I’d say at least 60% deservedly goes to Malzahn.

Granted, I hate watching the triple option from the shotgun done non-stop throughout a game (I’m more of a drop-back/play-action kind of a guy.), but one can’t argue with the results they had.

[robc]

On any resume based system, Notre Dame and Florida are 1-2 in some order.

Alabama, on the other hand, has absolutely destroyed their opponents, so on a “pure points” type system (which only considers opponent strength and MOV) they are #1. The latter isnt allowed in the BCS computes.

The problem with BCS rankings is they refuse to give the computers any power. Coaches and Harris count 1/3 each and computers 1/3. Which means the human polls, which are always virtually identical anyway, decide everything. When the AP pulled out, they should have made the coaches (or harris and dropped coaches for conflict of interest) 1/2 and computers 1/2. I, personally, would go 100% with computers but allow half the algorithms to include MOV.

[generic Brand]

I completely agree that the immense weight of the human polls skews the BCS poll. Because they use pre-rankings for the teams, though, Alabama is never allowed to slide. Alabama won it all last year, but they also lost Trent Richardson and part of the defense, etc. and yet they were still named the pre-season #1. Then they have won out since the start of the season, even though they haven’t played much of anyone. So because they look dominant inspite of very few quality teams they never take a dip in the poll and the humans make that much more of a difference.

I know, I know. It’s all speculating at this point. But the favoritism towards the SEC definitely benefits them in the two human polls and we would be better off having a complete computer ranking system.

[Don Mynack]

OK beats ND by 21 this weekend, I think.

[Whiterun Guard]

This happens every year, it’s the SECOND week of BCS standings, and it’s just based on fiction. Early December, when the standings actually count for something, it will be much more sorted out.

And in two years it won’t matter anyway.

[wareagle]

in two years, we’ll be wondering which #5 is going to get screwed.

[robc]

While that is true, its also true of the basketball tourney, where a #49ish gets screwed every year.

The key is, making sure the tournament is large enough that no one gives a damn after the first game kicks/tips off.

16 teams, 10 auto bids for conference winners (WAC will be dead by time playoff starts) plus 6 at large. Some team around 9-11 gets screwed, but so what? They werent truly national title worthy anyway.

And, yes, some crappy teams get in at the 14-16 seeds, but that gives the top teams something to play for. Be a 1-3 or so and you basically get a bye. Just like 1 v 16 in the hoops tourney.

[Randian]

You would have to eliminate virtually all of the bowls, or make them the playoff games themselves.

[robc]

You would have to eliminate virtually all of the bowls

Nah, they are for teams 17-70. Just like the NIT.

or make them the playoff games themselves.

That wont work, because fans wont travel that much. In my opinion, the first two rounds would be on campus sites, Top 8 get first round at home, top 4 get 2nd round at home. Semis on New Years Day, Finals one week later.

Round 1 and Round 2 would be 2nd and 3rd Saturdays in December. Im dreaming of Miami @ Wisconsin, just for the lulz.

[robc]

Also, my “dream” plan for the bowls is they all move to Labor Day Weekend as a kickoff spectacular. Opens up a lot more sites for a lot more teams, as record doesnt matter.

The Pinstripe Bowl is suddenly a destination bowl, as NYC in early september wouldnt be a bad trip at all.

[Randian]

That wont work, because fans wont travel that much.

Sorry, but nobody is going to let go of their bowls, and there are very few who are going to be happy about it even if their team is in this playoff.

[robc]

???

Almost everyone hates bowls. Outside of the top few, every fan bitches about the crappy bowl they are going to.

Ticket sales are dropping, TV viewing is dropping, schools are starting to realize how much they are getting screwed out of money by the bowls.

The bowls are in a death march.

[wareagle]

which won’t happen because bowls are more than just games, they are days-long events meant to bring in the faithful for hotel nights, meals, etc. And while many fans can afford a single trip to a single bowl game, only a few can swing 2-3 road trips.

[Caleb Turberville]

Notre Dame also suffers because they won’t play in early December.

Oregon will play USC in Los Angeles, and Bama/LSU will play Florida in Atlanta a week after Notre Dame plays their final game.

Except for USC in 2004 and Bama in 2011, the contender that has to sit out the final week always suffers in the final poll.

[Randian]

Notre Dame also suffers because they won’t play in early December.

Honestly, that’s their own damn fault. The Big 10 adopted a title game and divisions for just this reason. If ND wants to play for a title, they can join a conference like everyone else.

[wareagle]

sitting out didn’t hurt Ohio State in Tressel’s big years, even with one loss. Be undefeated and everything else takes care of itself. Two unbeatens outweigh an SEC champion with one loss and I’m an SEC guy.

[The Late P Brooks]

“the officers must have been in fear for their life”.

Apparently, this is their default state.

[sarcasmic]

Well, yeah.

As a officer who is sworn to serve and protect the public, you must treat every individual that you meet (the public is everyone except any individual that you interact with) as a highly trained and well armed terrorist on PCP until they prove otherwise.
If they give you the slightest provocation before proving their innocence, it is your duty to execute them.

[John]

Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, reported Saturday that President Barack Obama held a semi-secret conference call with the racist preacher Jeremiah Wright and other ministers last weekend to boost African-American turnout. But Obama for America campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith denied it flatly to The Daily Caller on Sunday.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10…..z2A2AI8Ihj

Why would Downtown Willie Brown make up such a story?

[tarran]

It’s a giant head fake!

See, they’re hoping to get Romney to start making comments to keep blacks from coming out to the polls, and then they will expose Romney as being racist (since he must be racist to run against his holiness Barack the first of his name).

Reverse psychology pwned!

[John]

Romney won’t have to. He has the rightwing blogshpere and Drudge to do it for him. He will never say a word about this.

[tarran]

Just want to make sure, you knew I was being silly, right? 😉

[John]

No I didn’t. The world is too silly to parody these days.

[tarran]

One problem is I’ve seriously advanced some very half-assed theories in the past, so I suppose it can be hard to tell when I am advancing a parody. 🙂

[R C Dean]

Its a tough one: who is more likely to be lying, Willie Brown or an Obama flack?

Honestly, I have no idea who to disbelieve.

[John]

Who has a reason to lie?

[R C Dean]

(1) With people like this, I’m not sure they need a reason.

(2) The flack certainly does. I’m sure there’s something in this story for Willie, or he wouldn’t have leaked it in the first place.

[John]

Here is what I think. I think the real Democratic hacks whose livelihoods depend on the party like Brown and Ed Rendell know that a second Obama term will do irreversible damage to the Dem brand and secretly want him to lose.

[The Late P Brooks]

No mention of what kind of weapon a naked woman could possess that would make the situation life-threatening for anyone.

Dude, haven’t you seen Kill Bill? Those women can go all scary ninja on you, in a heartbeat. OFFICER SAFETY!

[John]

So apparently Gloria Aldred is going to crawl out of her hole with proof that Mitt Romney once counseled women not to get abortions. Wouldn’t pretty much 80% of the country tell a women not to get an abortion? Other than the radical feminists who are just flat out eugenicists these days, who would tell a women an abortion is a good thing?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

who would tell a women an abortion is a good thing?

Gloria Aldred, obviously

[tarran]

OMG! That’s their secret shocker?!? LMAO, if so they really are out of gas. That’s the panicky flailing of a boxer who knows he’s down on points, almost out of gas, and needs a KO to win.

[John]

That is the shocker. Apparently “Romnesia” is a term that women in the Mormon church used to describe how Romney never remembered the details of the conversation with these women. Obama used it on the stump because he knows the story and is laying the groundwork for Aldred to come forward sometime this week or next.

Maybe I am missing something or Aldred has something else, but I am not seeing how this matters. And of course Romney can produce several women who went on to have their kids and are thankful they have them. What is Aldred going to say? Is she going to find a mother who is willing to stand up on national TV and talk about how they wish their kid had never been born? And if she can this will help how?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Maybe the husband of a wive who died in childbirth after Romney counseled against an abortion?

This whole thing is too stupid for words, which explains Allred’s potential involvement.

[NoVAHockey]

Why would he share the details. If my priest is counseling me I’d expect it to remain private.

[John]

Good point. And that is exactly how Romney can get out of answering questions about this. Just say it was a private matter and I am not revealing details.

[Auric Demonocles]

Privacy only applies to women, and only about their own vagina.

[VG Zaytsev]

Apparently “Romnesia” is a term that women in the Mormon church used to describe how Romney never remembered the details of the conversation with these women.

That’s unadulterated pure bullshit.

Mormon women are the most anti-Abortion demo in country. The idea that there’s widespread anger at Romney counselling against abortion there is pure fantasy.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Nothing must interfere with the “Romney is the Antichrist” narrative, because then the topic might drift to the incumbent’s record, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

[wareagle]

pro-life man counsels against abortion. On what planet does that count as a revelation?

[Fatty Bolger]

Planet Desperation.

[Drax the Destroyer]

“Counseling” hardly equals “forced” does it?

I mean, I hope they got abortions, but that’s because I hate people and driving sucks. The last thing we need is another generation of shitbirds on the road in 16-17 years.

[John]

“Counseling” hardly equals “forced” does it?

How do you force someone not to get an abortion?

[tarran]

Rule 34, John, Rule 34.

[Jordan]

When one defines “not paying for my abortion” as “waging war against me”, then counseling against getting an abortion probably equates to operating roving rape vans, or some stupid shit in their world.

[Brett L]

Ah yes, Gloria Alred, whose credibility is impeccable. She was just jonesing for a press fix.

[VG Zaytsev]

So apparently Gloria Aldred is going to crawl out of her hole with proof that Mitt Romney once counseled women not to get abortions.

Is she trying to boost the turnout of the fundies?

How does an October surprise like that possibly help Obama?

[Fatty Bolger]

Yeah. I think this would actually help Romney.

Even most people who are pro-choice do not believe it’s a decision that should be taken lightly.

[Zeb]

Well, obviously it is better to avoid an unwanted pregnancy int he first place for many reasons, but sometimes in a given set of circumstances, I’d say an abortion can be a good thing (obviously many will disagree). Still, nothing wrong with counseling against it if someone comes to you for counsel.
God, the Democrats are desperate.

[ant1sthenes]

So, they actually are pro-abortion, instead of pro-choice? Who knew?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Yeah, big surprise.

At least Jefferson Davis wouldn’t erupt in righteous anger is someone called him pro-slavery.

“Nobody is pro-slavery! I simply think that owning slaves is a private family matter which the government shouldn’t interfere with.”

[Zeb]

I’d say its more just desperately trying to keep the stupid “War on women” thing going.

[R C Dean]

I just don’t get the big game-changing shocker here. He’s (officially) pro-life, and he tried to talk some women out of getting abortions. For one thing, this is old news, although it may be old enough to be new again.

I thought I saw that one of those women is already on record that she is now grateful to him for having succeeded.

[JW]

o apparently Gloria Aldred is going to crawl out of her hole

She has to. She just ate the last virgin’s heart that she had, so she must roam the streets looking for more “clients.”

[The Late P Brooks]

Stephanie Cutter talks about the important issues facing this country

Keep talking, Stephanie; you may be the best thing Mittens has going for him.

[Rich]

Sandra Fluke … spoke Saturday in front of about 10 people at the Sak ‘N Save

[John]

How long before Fluke is just another ugly women posing in Playboy?

[invisible furry hand]

rather that than her true destiny – mid-level bureaucrat in bullshit government program

[John]

She has gotten too famous for that. I am sure it sounded great at first being a political pawn. But there is nothing worse than being famous without a big income.

[R C Dean]

Her fame will be quite, quite fleeting.

If Barack wins, he needs her for . . . nothing, and into the memory hole she goes.

If Mittens wins, she might be able to work the grievance circuit for awhile, but that’s not exactly high-dollar or high-visibility, really.

I mean, who remembers the woman who smeared Clarence Thomas? Did she cash in?

[John]

No she didn’t. And I don’t think she had much of a career either.

[invisible furry hand]

Professor at Brandeis, it seems

[JW]

I have no doubt that she has already firmly entrenched herself into the intestine of the grievance and entitlement industry.

We may not hear her name in the news for much longer, thanks jebus, but she will do quite well as a visiting fellow here, a VP or CEO there, living in her Georgetown home, with her life partner and invitro’d children, being studiously raised by the au pair.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

A random guy asking for gas money would have a bigger audience than she did.

[Rich]

Until Romney wins and she needs birth-control money.

[Big 'Orra]

How long before Fluke is just another ugly women posing in Playboy?

Up-thread my breakfast was ruined with talk of a naked Rosie O’Donnell and now my lunch is ruined.

Damn you all to hell!!!!!

[Warty]

The what and save?

[Lord Humungus]

With you it’s always about nuts

[JW]

She’s a handsome and sturdy woman.

[John]

The irony is that she kind of has a peasant woman have a lot of kids sort of attractiveness about her.

[The Late P Brooks]

Wouldn’t pretty much 80% of the country tell a women not to get an abortion?

To be honest, I think your number is a little high (maybe it’s a sampling error on my part), but unless they can somehow prove Romney was holding women captive in his secret Mormon baby factory and forcing them to carry to term, this demonstrates absolutely nothing, aside from their desperation.

[invisible furry hand]

unless they can somehow prove Romney was holding women captive in his secret Mormon baby factory

He wasn’t? Not much of an evil billionaire, is he

[Eduard van Haalen]

Yeah, if he doesn’t even have a secret lair he’s missing the whole *point* of being a billionaire.

And a crotch-laser for use on meddling British agents.

[John]

A little high. But most people don’t like abortion. They may understand why it is necessary and think it should be legal. But they rarely think it is a good thing or would blame anyone for telling a woman not to have one.

[Spoonman.]

I am reading a truly terrible book right now, “Why Have Kids?”, which Amazon recommended to people thinking about when to start a family but which is basically “Here is a list of real problems and fake problems with American parenting. Therefore, motherhood should be salaried by the government”.

The only reason I am still reading is that it is short and I want to knock down its 4.5-star rating with an impeccably thorough review.

But I am pretty sure the author would think that counseling people against abortion is evil, because she apparently thinks all the people pushing ridiculous parenting trends (did you know some people think diapers are evil and you should just dangle infants above the toilet when they need to poop?) are evil rather than simply stupid.

After all, some women then listen to those people and regret their choices, which clearly isn’t the fault of the women making the choices.

[VG Zaytsev]

Choosing is anti-choice.

[Appalachian Australian]

Yes, you should have the right to execute your child before it’s born, but God forbid you make any choices about how your child goes to the bathroom.

Progressives actually are the caricature they accuse the religious right of being–once a child is born, they don’t care about freedom for either the mother or the child.

[John]

I overheard a woman a while back talking about going “diaper free”. It was some rich Washington soccer mom. I couldn’t believe it. What, do you just let the kid shit all over the floor?

[Spoonman.]

You’re supposed to be so in tune with their facial expressions, and apparently looking at their faces constantly, so that you know whenever they’re about to eliminate.

[invisible furry hand]

not quite – it’s about really early potty-training. There will be shit all over the floor, however, while the parents and babies learn effective “Elimination Communication”.

God I love that phrase.

http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/

[R C Dean]

So these people are actually pushing eliminationist rhetoric?

[invisible furry hand]

better than holding it in

[JW]

I see what you did there.

[JW]

re RC.

[NoVAHockey]

I’ve heard of that. basically you camp out over the toilet and “train” your toddler by offering praise when he inevitably pisses or shits. .

[John]

People are fucking animals. Really? All this to not use evil diapers. God, if you are that damned concerned, by cloth ones.

[NoVAHockey]

cloth diapers supposedly waste water, so that’s no good.

[Zeb]

Sounds like a good idea if it works. Diapers are awful.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Diapers per se are not awful. It’s the surprise you child leaves in them that are awful.

*shudders*

[Bobarian]

This^^^

My grand-daughter recently had shit all the way up to the back of her neck…

I had to wrap my face with a wet rag so I didn’t throw up on her.

[Fatty Bolger]

I’m guessing that these are ideas that do not survive past the first child.

[Restoras]

Or the first month of baby.

[VG Zaytsev]

What, do you just let the kid shit all over the floor?

Is it like housebreaking a puppy?

Rub the kid’s face is his crap on the floor and throw him in the bathroom.

[Restoras]

The thing is, yes the whole diaper-changing routine is unpleasant. But, if you are unwilling to do even that base level of work to raise your kids, a task that requires vitually no effort whatsoever, what do you think is going to happen when the challenges get really difficult?

[NoVAHockey]

re: having kids or not.

You know those stickers people put on their rear window that depict a family. usually, it’s dad, mom, two kids in descending height order.

this morning, I saw one: Man, woman, huge pile of cash, dog.

[Zeb]

I do hate those stickers. That’s pretty funny, though.

[Fatty Bolger]

DINKs. That’s pretty funny.

[Spoonman.]

I love kids, but I hate those stickers.

[sloopyinca]

Banjos wants to get a bunch of them making it look like I have 4-5 wives and 30-40 kids (as many as will cover the entire rear window of my truck). Couple that with a “Baby On Board” sticker beside an “I Brake For Beer” one on the bumper and you have a recipe for LULZ.

[Zeb]

I don’t get the “Baby on board” thing. I don’t want to endanger anyone on the road. Why would I care particularly more about your baby than any of the other people in cars around me. Or is it an excuse for the awful driving displayed by people with young children in the car?

[sloopyinca]

If there was a real safety reason for having them, there’s be a law requiring “Asian Woman Driver placards where applicable.

Scratch that. There’d be a requirement for klaxon horns and a rainbow of flashing lights emanating from the roof of every Asian woman-driven vehicle.

[sarcasmic]

I saw a zombified version of those stickers.
http://www.buy.com/prod/gama-g…..=211829017
I snickered

[Kaptious Kristen]

That’s awesome – I need to get that for my car!

[db]

My idea was a stick family with various weapons one one side of the window, and headshot zombies on the opposite side.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I just put together a set that is a woman in a Viking helmet in a recliner with a TV remote, and a dog and a cat.

[sarcasmic]

I just put together a set that is a woman in a Viking helmet in a recliner with a TV remote, and a dog and a cat.

“Hey creepizoids! Follow me! I live alone! I’m in DC so I’m probably unarmed! Follow me home! It’s just me and the pets!”

[db]

The Black Widow baits her trap…

[Kaptious Kristen]

So you’re saying I should add a gun to the stickers?

[sarcasmic]

So you’re saying I should add a gun to the stickers?

As a matter of fact I almost suggested that in my comment.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Done! (the gun sticker is separate, so I can’t show y’all a new mockup).

[Appalachian Australian]

did you know some people think diapers are evil and you should just dangle infants above the toilet when they need to poop?

This is the norm in places like undeveloped parts of Africa and Asia or, indeed, anywhere there isn’t a diaper and textile industry or developed sanitation.

When clothing is expensive, it’s not considered prudent to let babies crap all over it.

What concerns me about this book is that she thinks the government should tell parents how and what diapering technique to use. Every aspect of parenting started out as a trend, and these kind of social interventionists want to freeze parenting in some kind of late-20th-century Western ideal.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yep, Clinton hit the sweet spot with safe, legal and rare.

[The Late P Brooks]

Is she going to find a mother who is willing to stand up on national TV and talk about how they wish their kid had never been born?

Where’s Ezra Klein’s mom, these days?

[John]

Or pretty much anyone on the Journolist. Ackerman, Weigel, Yglesias. Although used Yglesias, being retarded and Aspy would probably be in bad taste. No one ever wants to be caught saying the handicapped should not have been born.

[LTC(ret) John]

That was nasty and mean spirited… I like the cut of your jib, sir.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I’m still grumpy about Welch’s puff piece on Klein.

[The Late P Brooks]

But most people don’t like abortion. They may understand why it is necessary and think it should be legal.

I think that is exactly right. That’s where I come down. It depends on the circumstances.

[Spoonman.]

1. I would rather a baby be aborted than unwanted and abused.
2. I would rather abortion be performed by doctors than by that tranny who put Fix-A-Flat in women’s butts.

[Brett L]

One is a false choice. The wait list for adoptions is way above the supply.

[wareagle]

true, but the reality of actually adopting a baby in the States is why so many couples do so abroad.

[OldMexican]

Re: wareagle,

true, but the reality of actually adopting a baby in the States is why so many couples do so abroad.

That works as an indictment of government meddling in the adoption process, but not as justification for killing unborn human beings.

[wareagle]

OM,

I’m not justifying abortion. How did you get that? Just saying the adoption system in the US is a huge cluster.

[OldMexican]

Ok, disclaimer: To all fo you (not wareagle) that are thinking of using the awful adoption system in the US to justify abortion, be advised that such is like saying that the awfulness of the State-controlled water distribution system should be justification enough to blow up water wells.

[Whiterun Guard]

I have a strange feeling that most of the kids getting aborted wouldn’t be prime adoption bait.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Why not test that proposition? Invite people on the adoption waiting list to volunteer to adopt an unborn child, checking off specific questions re would they adopt a handicapped child, etc.

Most abortions are of kids who are basically healthy, the mother just doesn’t want to be pregnant.

And many mothers see adoption as worse than abortion, so they’re basically choosing between raising the child themselves or killing it – frame the debate like that, and get all freaked out over “giving up” the child, and the choices seem polarized pretty quickly. Lots of “if I can’t have it nobody will” thinking.

[Whiterun Guard]

I was talking more about race statistics than genetic abnormalities. Despite what Brangelina and Madonna do, I have this strange feeling that your average adopting couple might be kind of, specific, in what they’d accept.

[sloopyinca]

Banjos and I are talking about adopting a young child once ours is born and out of the hospital. We have already told the state that we don’t care what the race or sex is, but that we are not equipped to handle a special-needs child (due to the issues our baby will have health-wise her first year). But yeah, the profiles of kids we’ve seen in the CA Adoption pipeline, the overwhelming majority are black or hispanic.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I notice that lots of adoptive parents go abroad to get Asian kids or mestizo kids from Latin America. So I doubt that race by itself is a barrier, rather it is the difficulty of adopting a U.S. baby compared (until recently at least) to some other countries which were more adoption-friendly.

[T]

The state is the problem. We’re a licensed adoption home for Texas, but the state is adamant that we be able to give any child an ‘appropriate cultural upbringing’. Which, translated into English, means they won’t give us a black or hispanic kid because we are both liquid paper white. So instead of giving us a kid, they’ll dump them off in foster homes and keep them in the system.

[Eduard van Haalen]

And then they’ll say that white people are too racist to adopt non-white kids. Nice racket!

[Appalachian Australian]

I found the county preferred placements that were an ethnic match. We seemed to get pale-looking Hispanic kids or white kids.

I understand it makes things easier with older kids to have a foster home that’s an ethnic match, but it’s just plain silly for kids age 0-2 (which is what we were doing), especially if there is a shortage of foster parents with room available in a particular ethnic group.

[R C Dean]

I have a strange feeling that most of the kids getting aborted wouldn’t be prime adoption bait.

There are literally years-long waiting lists for healthy white kids.

Not sure about healthy black or hispanic kids, but I’m willing to bet that you could get them adopted in pretty sure order.

Its the ones with health problems that are hard to adopt out, and there are an astonishing number of people willing to take them, as well.

Naturally, demand is highest for newborns, and starts dropping off sharply as they get older.

[Appalachian Australian]

When I was a foster parent in San Diego, Hispanic kids in need of foster placement were way outsized compared to the general population, white/Asian about normal, and African-American significantly less.

The only thing people really care about in adoptions is wanting a newborn, which the law has made virtually impossible. A newborn of any race is quite difficult to acquire indeed.

Six-month old white kids are a dime a dozen.

[OldMexican]

Re: Spoonman,

1. I would rather a baby be aborted than unwanted and abused.

You said “a baby”, not the euphemistic “fetus.”

2. I would rather abortion be performed by doctors than by that tranny who put Fix-A-Flat in women’s butts.

I would want the tranny to be an example of human folly rather than made an example of.

[Randian]

You do get that intellectually honest, rational people legitimately disagree with you on this subject, right? Or are you too busy pounding the desk to engage in fruitful conversation?

[OldMexican]

Re: Randian,

You do get that intellectually honest, rational people legitimately disagree with you on this subject, right?

I’m still waiting to meet them, R. If they were really intellectually honest, they would not resort to stripping a person (even if unborn) of his or her humanity only because expediency dictates it. If an “intellectualy honest” person can do that without even so much as bitting his or her own tongue, then that person would have NO qualms about stripping YOU, or ME, of our humanity. Remember Sanger…

Or are you too busy pounding the desk to engage in fruitful conversation?

I can certainly multitask.

[Randian]

I’m still waiting to meet them, R. If they were really intellectually honest, they would not resort to stripping a person (even if unborn) of his or her humanity only because expediency dictates it.

In other words, if they were intellectually honest they would assume the premises of the argument the same way you do. On this subject, you have a bad happen of stealing bases and begging the question.

If an “intellectualy honest” person can do that without even so much as bitting his or her own tongue, then that person would have NO qualms about stripping YOU, or ME, of our humanity

And if a person deprives animals of rights then s/he would not hesitate to deprive human animals of rights. That’s false equivocation or slippery slope: you decide.

[Randian]

*habit

[OldMexican]

Re: Randian,

In other words, if they were intellectually honest they would assume the premises of the argument the same way you do.

No, they would not be committing a perfunctory contradiction:

– He’s not a person!
– You’re telling me that a human fetus cannot be a person? Can I call you “not a person” as surely as you call a human baby “not a person”?
– No, because I am a person!
– How can you tell?
– Because I know I am one!
– Isn’t that circular thinking?
– But otherwise, who is making the argument?
– Good! So you’ve proven that you’re a person. So why are you still saying a human fetus is not one?
– Because a human fetus cannot make arguments?
– Not yet, give him time. You can’t either when you’re asleep, or can you?

Intellectually dishonest people simply assert a fetus is not a person without even considering the contradictions inherent in that assertion.

And if a person deprives animals of rights then s/he would not hesitate to deprive human animals of rights.

Animals do not have rights, Randian. You cannot strip an animal of something that it does not have. HUMANS have rights because of our humanity (rational, acting beings.) You love to conflate concepts whenever expediency requires it.

[Randian]

They key part is this:

– No, because I am a person!
– How can you tell?
– Because I know I am one!

That is not the sole argument as to why a person is a person and a fetus is not. Neither is this:

– Because a human fetus cannot make arguments?

If those are the only two arguments you have encountered, it is no wonder you are simply not that able to argue the point. The problem is that there are much more complex arguments out there, but you have strawmanned them into this simplistic nonsense.

Animals do not have rights, Randian.

No kidding. Neither do fetuses.

You are performing the intellectual equivalent of bullying. “If you don’t think fetuses have rights, then you want to take away my rights! You don’t want to be a statist, DO YOU? HUH?!”

I don’t want to take away your right just because I don’t think fetuses have them anymore than you want to take away mine because you don’t think animals have them. It’s a simple analogy.

HUMANS have rights because of our humanity (rational, acting beings.)

And you do understand that some people disagree with the notion that fetuses are rational, acting beings, and that a potentiality is not an actuality?

Or are you going to engage in more lazy argumentation?

[Randian]

You know what, OM? Just don’t bother responding. I know you are not intellectually able to handle this conversation.

[OldMexican]

Re: Randian,

That is not the sole argument as to why a person is a person and a fetus is not.

Oh, I would love to hear them.

The problem is that there are much more complex arguments out there,

Again, I would love to hear them. Are they going to be something similar to “clump of cells” and other quick dismissals?

You are performing the intellectual equivalent of bullying. “If you don’t think fetuses have rights, then you want to take away my rights!

Not YOU, personally. The argument can be made that once a person is stripped of his rights because of a circumstance, anybody can then find other favorite circumstances to stomp on the rights of people they don’t like.

And you do understand that some people disagree with the notion that fetuses are rational, acting beings, and that a potentiality is not an actuality?

Oh! Are you now presenting an Argument For Impatience?

[Randian]

Like I said, you simply are either unwilling or incapable or having a discussion on this, so go on convincing absolutely no one of your simpleminded and ill-thought position.

[OldMexican]

Re: Randian,

Like I said, you simply are either unwilling or incapable or having a discussion on this,

No, what I am not willing is to entertain bad arguments and equivocations as valid arguments. The first postulate before any discussion about personhood is what is a person. I established that a person is a human (a biological being capable of rational thought and action.) You may want to argue that there are humans who are not persons, which places the onus on you to demonstrate such extraordinary exception without leading to the obvious reduction that you can be determined NOT to be a person, just as easily as you think you can conclude a fetus (an unborn human baby) is not a person.

There’s nothing simpleminded about this, Randian. It is just that you simply want to believe a fetus is not a person so you can justify abortion – i.e. killing. You may want to quickly retort with the notion that I want to believe a fetus is a person, but that is not the case: I don’t believe anything, I simply cannot state a fetus is NOT a person. I have no valid arguments to state such an extraordinary thing. Therefore, I cannot justify the killing of a fetus, even less if the decision comes from one person – the mother – out of entirely utilitarian reasons.

[Appalachian Australian]

The simplest argument for abortion, to me, is that a fetus is incapable of taking care of itself.

Somehow this argument rings flat with leftists when talking about, say, reduced-price school lunches for 5 year olds. “Viability” is a red herring.

[The Late P Brooks]

What, do you just let the kid shit all over the floor?

Maybe she has a B F Skinner Baby Box.

[R C Dean]

I’d google that, but I’m afraid I will find that you can actually buy one. I’d just rather not know, thanks.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Breaking The Set: Daily Show Fail

I rather liked this. If you want a quick laugh she had an NYU “Professor of Media” on earlier in the episode that’s from claiming that the leadership of the Republican Party are “radical libertarians” and some awkward cognitive dissonance about how his side couldn’t possibly be complicit in election fraud, nope, it’s just those evil, evil Republicans.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

blarg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_uNHf7E-Zk

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Oh that fucked up the other one too, woop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeVG7A9QQAot=21m3s

[Ice Nine]

It’s OK; no one’s going to watch it anyway.

[The Late P Brooks]

Holy shit- the Bloombergers are having a multi-day freakout over this fucking Goldman Sachs guy’s book.

Oscar Wilde strikes again.

[The Late P Brooks]

She’s a handsome and sturdy woman.

If you’re looking for somebody to pull the plow, shoe the mule, and cut sod to fix the roof of your dirt shanty on the Plains, you could do worse. Although breaking *that* jaw, in order to silence her, might prove to be something of a chore.

[OldMexican]

The TSA is moving body scanners from major airports, replacing them with machines that experts say are safer. TSA officials say that the move was not motivated by safety concerns, but rather the need to speed up checkpoints.

And so far they have been so transparent and forthcoming, how can we not believe them???

[Dunphy (the real one)]

“No mention of what kind of weapon a naked woman could possess that would make the situation life-threatening for anyone.

Dude, haven’t you seen Kill Bill? Those women can go all scary ninja on you, in a heartbeat. OFFICER SAFETY”

it’s called a “gun”. and last i checked, being naked does not impair one’s ability to fire a gun and present a deadly threat.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..icers.html

unless we are talking about a different nekkid woman shot dead by off duty police officers, last i checked- armed is armed whether or not the person is naked.

———————
He also said the gun that she was carrying was an antique that only holds one bullet and doesn’t fire.

Hernando County Sheriff Al Neinhuis told MyFoxTampaBay that Swanson ‘was just acting irrational… It was obvious being naked she was not in her right mind.’

Swanson who had apparently not been invited to what was a family gathering, left briefly and returned armed, police said.

Sherriff Neinhuis said: ‘They asked her to leave and after a while she did leave and the detective called the Sheriff’s Office to let us know there was a woman in the area who was acting irrational and naked.

‘She came back with a weapon and confronted both the Tampa police officer and my sheriff’s office detective. She came with a weapon and I would surmise that they felt their life was in danger.’

[BoscoH]

The TSA is moving body scanners from major airports, replacing them with machines that experts say are safer.

Since when did Reason take the word of experts with more than a grain of salt?

[Dunphy (the real one)]

shotgun wedding…

taser reception

http://blutube.policeone.com/p…..reception/

[sarcasmic]

From the comments

Bottom line, No one in the blue got hurt. thank god

Only the ones in blue matter. Everyone else is collateral.

[OldMexican]

Japanese exports to China have dropped amid territorial disputes over uninhabited islands.

Nothing brings nations together like commerce ridiculous territorial disputes.

[sarcasmic]

Best campaign commercial ever.

http://thehayride.com/2012/09/…..dium=email

[Pro Libertate]

He’s got the incumbent on the ropes!

[Auric Demonocles]

This is the exact style of ad I’ve been saying they should make.

[The Late P Brooks]

He’s got the incumbent on the ropes!

Dragging him behind the car, like the Mexican bandit lord in The Wild Bunch? If so, I approve.

Heartily.

[Pro Libertate]

I’m curious about what Obama will do when out of office. He’s still young, and I don’t think he’ll disappear like Bush. Speaking circuit? Another political office? Talk show?

[R C Dean]

Definitely speaking circuit, which has to be the easiest money known to mankind, plus it will feed the narcissistic singularity at the core of this man.

Hard to see what he could do in terms of an office or other gig that wouldn’t look like a step down and thus offensive to his towering ego. Theoretically, SCOTUS Justice would be a lateral, but I don’t see that happening, nosireebob.

[db]

Permanent Hawaiian vacation. I can’t see the DNC ever calling him back to speak at a convention or campaign for a Dem pol outside of very blue territory. He doesn’t and will never have the kind of goodwill to rehab his image in the way of Bill Clinton.

[OldMexican]

Stephen Colbert to Make Appearance in “The Hobbit”

As a stable boy.

Romney Blimp Crashes in Florida

Not enough hot air(*), I guess…

(*) Yes, I know they’re filled with helium. It’s a joke, you nitpickers!

[robc]

I dont think the Ron Paul blimp ever crashed. The GOP clearly doesnt know how to pick candidates.

[The Late P Brooks]

Another political office?

I do not doubt for an instant that he *assumes* a spot on the Supreme Court awaits him.

[The Late P Brooks]

TSA officials say that the move was not motivated by safety concerns/i

No shit.

Only bootlicking imbeciles believe the TSA is in any way motivated by safety concerns.

[Matrix]

Italian scientist sentenced to 6 years in prison for not accurately predicting deadly earthquake

I wonder if the judge is a woman. After all, they do expect men to by psychics.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

italy, the same country where it’s a crime to “libel police”

they really have a winning system over there

[Auric Demonocles]

AM Links without alt-text is an abomination.