A.M. Links: Obama and Christie Take Chummy Disaster Tour, Israel Cautioned on Iran, Gov. Brown Pleads for Tax Hike

• Don't miss the Obama-Christie Disaster Tour 2012. You'll be blown away as they personally restore your power (and clean out your fridge.)
• Obama is leading in New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin, say the latest polls. No, we have no idea what to expect next Tuesday, either.
• Hillary Clinton says the U.S. has detailed plans for building a brighter, shinier Syria. What could go wrong?
• Turkey is in talks about joining the European Union. Don't see how that works out well for Istanbul, unless the Turks really want to subsidize Greece's bad habits.
• Want to stop driving? Tough! California officials say, Take your driver's license, it's good for you! At least, they keep renewing the license of a legally blind man who thinks that's a bit screwy.
• U.S. officials are asking their Israeli counterparts to please not bomb the hell out of Iran, since that would make matters rather dicey for us in the region.
• Governor Jerry Brown is begging his constituents to approve Prop. 30 and send him more money, which polls suggest they're not inclined to do.

Have a news tip for us? Send it to: [e-mail]

The updated Reason app for Apple and Android now includes Reason 24/7!

Don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily AM/PM updates for more content.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Don't miss the Obama-Christie Disaster Tour 2012.

Well here's another fine mess you've gotten me into!

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

Fatty and Skinny
Went to bed
Fatty rolled over and
Skinny said,
"I blame Bush."

The End

[WTF]

That fuckstick Andrew Cuomo was on TV blaming Global Warming. What a tool.

[Ted S.]

As I wrote in another thread, when a hurricane season isn't as bad as predicted, oh no we're not allowed to say that the "global warming" models are wrong. But every time a disaster hits someplace not used to such disasters, of course it's the fault of "global warming".

[Restoras]

Last night that white-haired clown on CNN was drolling on about the seas rising another 2-3 feet in the next 100 years and how awful it will all be. Jack-asses, one and all.

This, of course, after other idiotic journalists were commenting how great it will be for unemployment...which given the silence from those assholes over the past 3 years on the topic you wouldn't even know was a story!

[Zeb]

Maybe the oceans will rise 2-3 feet in the next 100 years. What really irritates me is the people who proclaim this, but then just try to cast blame rather than proposing ideas for what can be done about it. Figuring out how to deal with a 2-3 foot sea level change over 100 years really shouldn't be terribly difficult for a technologically advanced society. Venice, for example, has done it many times, and that was with wooden timbers and screw jacks.

[robc]

Build a 3 foot wall around the entire coastline. Problem solved.

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

What really irritates me is the people who proclaim this, but then just try to cast blame

The blame would have to go back more than 18,000 years, when it began.

[AuH2O]

Damn Irish and their burning peat for fuel!

[Zeb]

Even if you just grant that it is largely human caused (which I am not entirely convinced of), it's still stupid. It is not going to change as long as there are billions of people who want to improve their lives. Instead of trying to blame people, they should be looking at solutions to the technical problems posed by climate change. Because no matter the cause, climate does change.

[mad libertarian guy]

He's slow.

Heir Gore was on that yesterday.

Hurricane Sandy is a disturbing sign of things to come. We must heed this warning and act quickly to solve the climate crisis. Dirty energy makes dirty weather.

Greenies couldn't be a bigger bunch of knobs if they had balls hanging from their chins.

[JW]

Had Sandy turned right and petered out over the north Atlantic, nobody would be giving a shit.

Never let a crisis go to waste.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Dirty energy makes dirty weather.

"As I sit in my 10K square foot climate-controlled mansion, I can't help but worry that we aren't doing enough to stop the climate from changing."

[Mike M.]

These are the same assholes who 10 years ago were saying snow would be all but nonexistent in the habitable regions by now.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hillary Clinton says the U.S. has detailed plans for building a brighter, shinier Syria.

Will it include a lot of diplomats/CIA operatives with their asses hanging out unprotected?

[SugarFree]

We let saggers in the CIA?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I wouldn't mind seeing a skate punk installed as dictator somewhere.

[Bee Tagger]

Have you read my script for SLC Punk 2: The Search for Curly's Gold?

[Ted S.]

Salt Lake City Punk?

[Bee Tagger]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133189/

[Lord Humungus]

On those state polls:
National Polls, State Polls, and Democrat Turnout
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....at-turnout

By the way, if you're wondering how the national polls compare to last cycle's national partisan split:

2008 exit poll: 39 percent. CBS News/New York Times: 36 percent. Pew: 35 percent. Washington Post/ABC News: 33 percent. NPR: 31 percent, 41 percent with leaners. IBD/TIPP: 38 percent. Battleground: 35 percent, 43 percent with leaners. National Journal: 36 percent.

So none of the national polls are presuming 2008-level turnout for Democrats (at least without throwing in Democrat-leaning independents), while a large chunk of the state-level ones are. In this light, it's not all that surprising that Romney's showing a lead in most national polls while trailing in a bunch of the key swing states.

[John]

Polls are really hard to do and are very expensive to do right. Basically only the national campaigns have the money to do a proper poll in each state. And they are not sharing. The public polls are done on a budget and are basically a SWAG. They get the generally where the electorate is but to say they know with percision enough to predict the swing states is just not true.

[invisible furry hand]

Poor Ethiopians don't have teachers' unions to save them from this horror

What happens if you give a thousand Motorola Zoom tablet PCs to Ethiopian kids who have never even seen a printed word?

http://dvice.com/archives/2012.....n-kids.php

[$park?]

That is truly awesome. Truly.

[Jordan]

Great story. So great that I e-mailed it to Reason 24/7 last night. If they post it, I'm taking credit!

[invisible furry hand]

and if they don't you will take your bloody revenge, I hope

[Jordan]

I will inflict the ultimate retribution - I will refuse to pay for their birth control.

[$park?]

Tell them to cancel your subscription too. That will teach them.

[JW]

And within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android."

I read this as if an illiterate 8-year old in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowehere can hack your OS, maybe it's not all that secure.

[Zeb]

In this case, I think that by "hack" they mean figure out how it works.

[rho]

Hack as in customize, not hack as in break into.

I'd say that figuring out where to flip a switch to reactivate the camera is pretty low on the hacker scale, but it's not bad if some semi-literate kid figured it out.

[JW]

Sez you. I bet they've already rooted it and are running the latest nightly cyagenmod build.

[The Craig]

Great story.

Check out what one jackass wrote in the comments though:

Though the experiment looks interesting who will control or fix the damage if any i/reversibile damage is done to the kids. It is not fair to experiment on kids that have no one around to protect and consent them... I feel terribly pity for those who think and feel that they have all the right to experiment on the Ethiopian people because they are poor or no government to protect them.

[John]

Some of them might have seen porn or become Republicans.

[$park?]

That commenter should probably be removed from humanity for his own good.

[Brutus]

Take the laptops away! If they aren't poor and illiterate, they won't let us ride to their rescue!!

[mr simple]

I wish that person were here so I could laugh directly in their face.

[Zeb]

I don't think I have ever seen "consent" used as a transitive verb before.

And what damage could possibly be done to the children? What an odd comment.

[The Craig]

I can't wait for one of the Ethopian kids to correct him on that.

[Art Vandelay]

$50 it was a teacher who wrote it.

[Jordan]

That post gave me cancer. This man should never be let near an internet connection again.

[Bones]

Speaking of cancer, they need to be careful with such experimentation. One of these kids will cure cancer a year from now and then we'll have to drop bombs on them because the drug companies don't allow competition. And the cancer charities are very lucrative organizations for their leadership groups.

Weed is still illegal.

[Spoonman.]

That is fantastic.

[db]

I have to take issue with one major point here:

If this all reminds you of a certain science fiction book by a certain well-known author, it's not a coincidence: Nell's Primer in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age was a direct inspiration for much of the OLPC teaching software, which itself is named Nell. Here's an example of how Nell uses an evolving, personalized narrative to help kids learn to learn without beating them over the head with standardized lessons and traditional teaching methods:

Vernor Vinge published A Fire Upon the Deep three years before Stephenson wrote The Diamond Age. Vinge describes a teaching tablet computer that primitive aliens use (in spite of an uncooperative human child) to learn English and science. Granted, they already had the concept of literacy, but they were a medieval society with no tech more advanced than catapults and sailing ships.

[SugarFree]

"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" was published in 1943.

[db]

Hey, good point.

[Citizen Nothing]

Wow. Nice reference.

[JW]

A Lewis Padgett reference. Nice.

[MattJ]

I have to take issue with one major point here

I'm confused... They got the idea from a story, and gave credit to that story. How deep should their research have been to discover which author first really first for reals thought of the idea?

Like this?

Researcher 1: Hey guys, I have an idea for how we can help Ethiopian children get educated. I got it from The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.

Researcher 2: Wait! Before we can help people, we need to make sure Neal Stephenson was really the first guy to come up with that idea.

[db]

You do see the difference between taking an action and a second person reporting accurately about that action?

[MattJ]

I don't see what the researchers or the reporters claim that is incorrect.

[Trespassers W]

Come on, a little self-indulgent pedantry never hurt anyone. These threads would be pathetically short without it.

[T]

I bet if I dig enough, I can find a story with a magic scroll that theaches the holder what he needs. But I ain't doing it today.

[generic Brand]

Unemployed hipsters are upset that they are being called "unemployed hipsters".

B.C. government's anti-hipster ads aren't cool, students say

But the ads appear to have sparked only disdain from the audience it's aiming to reach with slogans such as "Hipster is not a full-time job" and "Oh sure, you'll definitely win the lottery," prompting some on Twitter to note, sarcastically, that it's not easy wearing old-school sneakers or growing a scruffy beard.

.
.
.

Marocchi said she especially disliked the ad that says "Because marrying rich may not pan out."

[gaijin]

B.C. government's anti-hipster ads aren't cool, students say

But are they ironic?

[generic Brand]

Don't know about that, but even without seeing the physical ad, the text is pretty funny.

[Ted S.]

They're ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife?

[$park?]

No, more like meeting the man of your dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife.

[John]

That is awesome. They need ones that say "maybe forgoing beautician school to take out six figure loans to get that gender studies degree isn't such a good idea".

[mr simple]

"It shows how this government is disconnected from reality when they insist there's no money to invest in post-secondary and then they spend money telling us it's all our fault."

We don't have jobs because the government won't pay for our college. That's the best come back this budding grievance monger could come up with.

[sarcasmic]

Kate Beckinsale in leather pants...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....tumes.html

[Restoras]

Yum. I'll be in my bunk.

[Lord Humungus]

Friendship, money, greed meet in 'Magic: The Gathering' fantasy card game
http://www.wtsp.com/news/water.....game-Magic

For someone who doesn't play the fantasy card game "Magic: The Gathering," watching a round and trying to understand what is going on is difficult.

The pace is fast. There are cards and dice. A round can be over before you know it.

The game has recently taken the local spotlight for a very dark reason: Sean Dugas, 30, one of the area's most active players, was killed, according to police, by two Magic players who robbed him for his collection of cards.

[sarcasmic]

Dork on dork crime. It's terrible.

[Groovus Maximus]

It really is, with the rampant examples given day-in and day-out on The Hallowed REASON boards. It really is a bloodbath.

I'm shocked any of us have survived this version of "The Hunger Games."

[generic Brand]

Time to regulate it. You must pass a psych test to show that you are social enough to play a card game, but anti-social enough that it is Magic: The Gathering, in order to purchase packs of cards now.

[Alack]

Anyone who uses Black is branded a sociopath and prevented from participating in drafts.

[Bobarian]

Sounds to me like a very small intersection.

[db]

I used to play Magic in college...it was a fun game, but i never turned it into a lifestyle. I wonder what my collection's worth now?

[db]

I used to play Magic in college...it was a fun game, but i never turned it into a lifestyle. I wonder what my collection's worth now?

[LTC(ret) John]

Your life, apparently.

[db]

It would be somewhat ironic if my Magic collection rivalled my firearms collection in value.

[LTC(ret) John]

There is a gaming store about a mile from my house that is 80% Magic card sales - when I talked to the owner, he said it was surprising what older cards would fetch. I guess the nerds who grew up with the game are into some peak earning years now?

Of course you may be able to defend your card collection with your firearms collection - so diversity of collections appears to be good.

[H. Reardon]

Good one, LTC. I wish I thought of it!

[LTC(ret) John]

All I could hear was the old Jack Benny routine...

Robber: Your money or your life!

Benny: ....

Robber: Hey Mister, didn't you hear me?

Benny: I am thinking it over!

[H. Reardon]

It's worth your life to some dork, apparently.

[sarcasmic]

But it appears Nazi ideology was not the chief motivating factor that made 'ordinary' members of the German armed forces commit atrocities. Dr Neitzel argues they took part in such actions because they saw it as their job, and that war normalises violence and creates a context in which men can commit bloodthirsty acts with little or no conscience.
In this, Dr Neitzel argues, the German army during World War II was not much different from that of the American army in Vietnam, or indeed, at times, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many would dispute such an analysis, and would state that there was something especially bestial about the actions carried out by German soldiers, sailors and airmen between 1939 and 1945.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....prove.html

[MWG]

"Many would dispute such an analysis, and would state that there was something especially bestial about the actions carried out by German soldiers, sailors and airmen between 1939 and 1945."

Gee, ya think?

[Restoras]

People being themselves toward Others. Examples abound.

[LTC(ret) John]

Oh yeah, Wehrmacht Johnny, that's me.

That, as Joe Biden said, is "the full load" right there.

[John]

In this, Dr Neitzel argues, the German army during World War II was not much different from that of the American army in Vietnam, or indeed, at times, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Except that the Americans are diciplined and follow the laws of war. It is like saying that Evander Holyfield, because he is a trained boxer normalized to violence, is no different than Mike Tyson who is the same. That Tyson tried to bite Holyfield's ear off makes them a little different.

[$park?]

Except that the Americans are diciplined and follow the laws of war

Let's not get carried away now. Don't try to deny that there are probably plenty of psychopaths that joined the military specifically so they could kill people.

[John]

Don't try to deny that there are probably plenty of psychopaths that joined the military specifically so they could kill people

I won't deny it but only because your statement is so stupid as to be unworthy of a response. Are you really that stupid? Do you really understand so little? Or were you just trolling?

[$park?]

So scenes from movies like Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now have no basis in reality? Well that's good to know. I guess our military really is the shining example of a totally moral fighting force. Especially when they pile up a bunch of dirty middle-eastern POWs.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Ah yes, the human pyramid atrocity. Perfected by Hitler himself. The most horrific torture known to man.

[LTC(ret) John]

Not quite the pyramid of human skulls, but we are quite out of practice!

[$park?]

I guess it's a good thing that I wasn't drawing an equivalence between the American military and the Nazis.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Wrong, unprofessional, stupid, gave the US a black eye? Sure.

Torture? Not so much. "Ooooh, they disrespected my personhood. I'm scarred for life."

I endured worse during Resistance Training. FdA's definition of torture...

Must be worse than the things we do to our own people for training purposes.

[$park?]

John: Except that the Americans are diciplined and follow the laws of war.
Me: there are probably plenty of psychopaths that joined the military specifically so they could kill people.
John: your statement is so stupid as to be unworthy of a response.
Me: I guess our military really is the shining example of a totally moral fighting force.

Now that I've summed up the sub-thread for you, can you please point me to where I called out the US military for Nazi levels of torture? I know it will be hard since it's not there. The fact is, people who join the military, any military, are trained to kill then let off the leash to do so. If you say that the US military forces are 100% made up of people who take no joy in being allowed to kill then you might want to make sure you're awake.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Now that I've summed up the sub-thread for you, can you please point me to where I called out the US military for Nazi levels of torture?

I think you are reading a little too much into my comment. I never claimed that you claimed the US used Nazi levels of torture.

BUT, you did claim they had similar morals to the portrayals in FMJ an AN, because they pile up a bunch of dirty middle-eastern POWs.

My assertion was that stacking neked prisoners, while wrong, doesn't quite reach the level of a "war crime."

As for your assertion that there are "plenty of psychopaths that joined the military specifically so they could kill people." Yes, there are probably some, but "plenty" isn't the word I'd use.

There are many who are proud to be good at their job, and hope they never have to do it. Many use false bravado to cope with the fact that they kill people for a living. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but, by and large, no one hates war more than the soldier.

[$park?]

I think you are reading a little too much into my comment. I never claimed that you claimed the US used Nazi levels of torture.

Then I apologize if I may have overreacted.

My assertion was that stacking neked prisoners, while wrong, doesn't quite reach the level of a "war crime."

Not a war crime. Also not torture. Also not exactly moral.

I'm sure there are some exceptions, but, by and large, no one hates war more than the soldier.

I hope this is true because I think there's going to be many chances to show this in the near future.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Also not exactly moral.

Agreed.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Jesus...that reminded me of the fabled and vaunted oxymoronisms that are "laws of war." Until Space Lizard Jesus comes down from the Moon and inscribes said laws into Bill Kristol's pasty liver-spotted ass on live television, I don't believe the fucking things actually exist in any enforceable capacity. People kill people. Whatever it takes for them to kill the other guy is game regardless of how horrid and deplorable the methods. War is not paintball.

[Stormy Dragon]

How about our drone policy, which is practically a real version of what the Miligram experiment was just simulating. Would you press this button that kills dozens of children if the man in the fancy uniform tells you to?

[Cytotoxic]

How about an analogy that isn't retarded? Would you make an argument that makes sense?

[protefeed]

Don't try to deny that there are probably plenty of psychopaths that joined the military specifically so they could kill people

I won't deny it but only because your statement is so stupid as to be unworthy of a response.

So John hasn't read "Generation Kill"?

[sarcasmic]

That's blasphemy.

According to the gospel of John, our military can do no wrong.

John is to the military what Dunphy is to the police.

[John]

According to the gospel of John, our military can do no wrong.

John is to the military what Dunphy is to the police.

Straw man much? The military does lots wrong. And I am quite familiar with all of the military's numerous flaws. But that is because I actually know something about the subject. You in contrast know nothing about the subject but think you do. That causes you to say shit that is so dumb it doesn't even qualify as wrong.

[sarcasmic]

You don't know what I know, John.

You can only presume, you arrogant prick.

[John]

If you know something, then say it. I only know what you post. And what you post about military is stupid and uninformed. Stop saying stupid shit like I never find fault in military and I wills stop saying you don't know anything.

[sarcasmic]

Stop saying stupid shit like I never find fault in military

You find as much fault in the military as Dunphy does with the police.

Sure, he claims to find fault all the time, but in practice...

I have yet to see anything military related that you would not defend.

[John]

No dipshit. I just say the military doesn't go out and indescriminately bomb civilians. That is the truth, they don't. You want to believe they do but they don't. I never talk get to talk about the real faults in the military because I am constantly forced to debunk your rediculous made up ones.

[sarcasmic]

You want to believe they do but they don't.

You don't know what I believe, you arrogant prick.

I quoted from an article. That doesn't mean I'm in lockstep with it, you fucking retard.

I will stand by my statement that you are to the military what Dunphy is to the police.

Like it or not it's true.

[LTC(ret) John]

Black berets?

but seriously, an organization with over a million people, that has direccted violence as its primary function will always attract some killerz. Now that we are a volunteer force, we do a better, but not 100%, job of keeping those folks away from being in position to proclaim "anyone who runs is AQ, anyone who doesn't run is well disciplined AQ!"

I do know we are better than the police when dealing with "civilians" however!

[John]

And better than the police at punishing our own.

[sloopyinca]

And better than the police at punishing our own.

How many years did Nidal Malik Hasan get again? And don't even get me started on Bradley Manning's 2-1/2 year detention without trial.

You guys may be "better," but it's only by degrees of shittiness.

[Cytotoxic]

ITT sarcasmic makes post that quotes equivocation between US army and Nazis, is called on it and gets bitchy in response.

[sarcasmic]

ITT sarcasmic makes post that quotes equivocation between US army and Nazis, is called on it and gets bitchy in response.

No. I quoted from a post that did that.

That's what it means when there's that grey line and stuff. It's called a blockquote.

Fucking retard.

[MP]

It all derives from the leadership. If the American commanders had policies of Muslim detention camps, the soldiers would be right on board.

I didn't RTFA, but I always had issues putting heavy blame on the lower ranks of the Nazi regime. I tend to occur with the desensitization idea, and when the orders come down from above, the choices for soldiers aren't always as clear cut as they may appear to observers.

Ultimately, every individual is accountable for their actions. And motivation is not much of an excuse. But that doesn't mean that I think one can write off the motivations of all Nazi actors to simply "Evil".

[John]

That is about right MP. But I think that if they actually started ordering mass killings like the Nazi's did, there would be some willful disobedience. A lot more than happened with the Germans.

[LTC(ret) John]

Er, many of us (them, I guess, now that I am retired) would do no such thing. Unlawful orders and all that. There is a reason (drink!) that Ron Paul and other Libertarian causes get strong military support.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Concur.

[R C Dean]

Maybe its a translation problem, because to me "not much different" doesn't really capture not committing mass atrocities and genocide on a routine basis.

[Groovus Maximus]

Details, details...

I blame Google Translate.

[LTC(ret) John]

How do you say "Warsaw Ghetto" in Pashto again?

[invisible furry hand]

Hugs kill!

No touching: Girl, 12, gets detention for hugging classmate at WA school

[mr simple]

Drugs, not hugs.

[Kaptious Kristen]

That's my life motto

[Rich]

"Hugging is a development thing and a social skill."

"That may be, Ma'am; but it develops into French kissing, and it's a gateway skill to actual intercourse."

[Fist of Etiquette]

They don't allow you to have bees in here.

[sarcasmic]

'He doesn't need to be handsome': Bond girl B?r?nice Marlohe talks about her ideal man as she strips down for FHM shoot

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

[generic Brand]

No link to Jenny McCarthy in nothing but lingerie for Halloween?

[robc]

[insert innoculation joke here]

[Groovus Maximus]

Sorry to break it to you, robc, but that bug is already innoculation and VAX/ATB resistant.

Jenny mutates faster than we can keep up. Truly remarkable.

[mnarayan]

Nothing but lingerie and crazy anyways.

[mr simple]

Who cares about that ball of washed up crazy when there are plenty of up and comers in costume like Ashley Tisdale.

[robc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5jNnDMfxA

[John]

She is hot. But she is not the hottest bond girl ever. FHM are such philistines.

[Brett L]

I vote for the original Bond girl. Ursula Andress.

[db]

Only 5 days, 15hr, 55min left.

[Lord Humungus]

NHS millions for controversial care pathway
The majority of NHS hospitals in England are being given financial rewards for placing terminally-ill patients on a controversial "pathway" to death, it can be disclosed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/hea.....thway.html

Death Panels! Now with incentives!

[gaijin]

But, but...Sarah Palin was a teabagger wingnut?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Why should the state pay for the futile services of the terminally ill?

[Restoras]

Why should the state pay for the futile services of the terminally ill?

Better.

[gaijin]

Why should the state pay for the futile services of the terminally ill medical services?

[Palin's Buttplug]

I agree. Don't pay for any of it.

[gaijin]

So you also admit that Sarah Palin was correct then?

[SugarFree]

I predict a mealy-mouth cunt answer...

[Palin's Buttplug]

I don't recall her commenting on Britain's health care system.

Rest assured, the AARP will never allow death panels here.

Personally I think the terminal illness is the real death panel.

[Bee Tagger]

So the only thing keeping the government from its natural state of instituting death panels is a powerful lobbying group?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Making the elderly pay for their own fucking moto-scooters is not a death panel.

[darius404]

But choosing WHICH elderly are "well enough" to receive life-saving care IS a death panel. That's the point of the article, if you had actually bothered to read it.

[LTC(ret) John]

"if you had actually bothered to read it."

You ask much of the Derpster.

[Citizen Nothing]

the AARP will never allow death panels here.

Funny. I'll bet someday they'll be gettin a commission by turning over likely candidates from their membership rolls.

[Sevo]

SugarFree| 11.1.12 @ 9:16AM |#
"I predict a mealy-mouth cunt answer..."

Palin's Buttplug| 11.1.12 @ 9:18AM |#
"I don't recall her commenting on Britain's health care system...."

You're psychic!

[SugarFree]

I'm so high I can see the future.

[mad libertarian guy]

The only thing keeping me safe from dying without treatment in the event of terminal illness is the AARfuckingP?

The fuck outta here!

[Chris Mallory]

Because the state forced people into it's healthcare system?

[Ted S.]

Yes, the state forced people into it is healthcare system.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Governor Jerry Brown is begging his constituents to approve Prop. 30 and send him more money...

He should do the televangelist thing, do a Sunday show asking for money to do the Lord's work in Cali.

[invisible furry hand]

Can he say that his God will call him home unless you cough up now?

[Groovus Maximus]

He needs a better rug. His shiny melon is decidedly not Televangelist Worthy.

To be a successful Televangelist, one must possess a Mullet-lette or really poofy hair.

The AME and SBLC types get something of a pass here, as these can range from a tasteful fro, to bald, to the chemical 'do.

[Ted S.]

Why don't they just sent the money to the state treasury?

[db]

"Well that's right! I do need your money. Because the LORD needs your money!"

"Mom, Dad? You know when you said that if I went back to school you'd give me five thousand dollars? Well, I want to go back to school. But I need the money first, OK? You know, I really love you guys."

[Lord Humungus]

US phone addicts suffer withdrawal
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0.....abdc0.html

Swarms of people wandered around downtown Manhattan on Wednesday, their faces lit by the glow of mobile phones as they walked up city blocks in search of mobile phone service.

As a city bus crossed into a service zone, the beeps and buzz of mobile phones registering messages interrupted the quiet.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

No zombie like an palm-zombie

[Red Rocks Rockin]

"OH NO--MY DIGITAL UMBILICUS!!"

[tarran]

ational Review taunts Michael Mann in his university's newspaper with one of his stupider and more obvious public lies.

[gaijin]

Funny. Who says conservatives have no sense of humor?

[Alack]

Liberals.

[robc]

I liked the jab at the EU too.

[db]

Was that really printed in The Daily Collegian?

[Randian]

No, we have no idea what to expect next Tuesday, either.

I honestly don't think anybody does.

I see that Nate Silver's doubled-down on his analysis and called a 300 EV win for Obama.

I don't get any of this polling stuff, to be honest with you.

[LTC(ret) John]

And that is what allows these folks to keep cashing checks - nobody understands it.

[John]

Silver is just paid to keep Manhattan liberals from panicing. There is no way anyone not named shreek is dumb enough to actually believe the shit Silver writes. Even if you take the most charitable reading of the polls, Obama eeks out an electoral college win thanks to Ohio. Unless they find a dead boy in Romney's bed in the next week, Obama is not getting 300 EC votes and maybe not even then.

[Stormy Dragon]

You don't get statistics either apparently.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Obama is leading in New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin, say the latest polls.

God bless those fucking polls. Gonna miss them.

[Rich]

The Obama administration and allies have begun a new effort to reshape the Syrian opposition to give a bigger role to front-line fighters, a smaller one to Syrian exiles, and to exclude entirely the Islamist radicals

Seems simple enough. Certainly *much* easier than getting the FBI into that Benghazi "crime scene".

[Lord Humungus]

New ADP Count Slashes Job Creation for September
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49620569

Revisions to the way payroll data firm ADP counts private sector job creation have resulted in a sharp drop in the September employment count.

ADP's new calculations put the monthly job creation at just 88,200, down from the 162,000 the firm originally reported earlier this month.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Big Payroll is in the Romney Camp.

[gaijin]

because the BLS has now upward revised its weekly claims number for something like 80 weeks in a row

Big BOLs is in the Obama Camp

[LTC(ret) John]

Indeed - ADP knowsthat they will be paid for shoddy work, unlike the BoL, which has to compete...er, wait.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

So is BIG BLS, apparently:

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

[SugarFree]

Ways to force people to do what they don't want to do but they really want to do but they just don't know it yet so shut up.

The Economics of Enviro-Assholes:

No matter how safe, fast, convenient, and inexpensive bike commuting can be made, however, it won't be adopted if it can't at least partially out-compete cars. So, beyond the "carrot" of incentivizing bicycle commuting, Copenhagen (and many other European cycling cities) also employs the "stick" of policies designed to discourage car use. Some of these policies are actually national?for instance, Denmark imposes a tax of 180 percent on car sales (which is not as bad as it sounds, given the $20-per-hour minimum wage), and gas costs almost $10 per gallon. Every year 2 to 3 percent of parking spaces are removed to gradually wean residents from auto-dependency. In addition to being scarce, parking is expensive?about $5 an hour in the city center. And as the inconvenience and cost of parking increase, so, too, does the rate of bicycling.

[Groovus Maximus]

Lawrence O'Donnell, Thomas L. Friedman, Pauly Krugnutz, and Robert Reich approve. It's time to go long on Schwinn.

STIMULUS!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Pansies. Just outlaw motor vehicles.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Just outlaw motor vehicles.

But, THAT, would be wrong.

[mr simple]

Look, we can't have the proles just moving about as they see fit. It would ruin the carefully designed 5 year plan.

[Spoonman.]

Denmark imposes a tax of 180 percent on car sales (which is not as bad as it sounds, given the $20-per-hour minimum wage

MY HEAD ASPLODE

[Randian]

Yeah, I don't get that either. Presumably car prices would still be commensurate with the minimum wage's near-certain inflationary effects.

[nicole]

a tax of 180 percent on car sales (which is not as bad as it sounds, given the $20-per-hour minimum wage)

I already knew this, and it still made my head explode a little just now. Because omigod look at that fucking wording!

[mad libertarian guy]

What about in fucking January when it's goddamn cold in Denmark?

Fuck the proggies that come up with this shit.

[John]

The comments are a sea of stupid. They honestly don't understand why commuting in a place like Dallas, where the expanse is huge and the climate brutal would be any different than commuting in a small generally temperate European city.

[JW]

You just don't care enough about the collective, John. Report immediately to Camp 239 for cultural adjustment.

[LTC(ret) John]

"In addition to being scarce, parking is expensive?about $5 an hour in the city center."

Expensive? Tell the author to come to Chicago.

[Jersey Patriot]

The state giveth car culture, and the state taketh away

[JW]

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

[Lord Humungus]

The Last Gasp of Union Power
http://www.hoover.org/publicat.....cle/133191

In offering his sympathetic account of Proposal 2, New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse relies on anecdotes to carry the argument. He quotes Ivy Bailey, an elementary school teacher in Detroit, whose father was lifted into the middle class with the help of collective bargaining. His rich GM contract allowed him to send his two children to college. Bailey argues that collective bargaining is needed because workers can never "trust the boss to do the right thing."

A larger view of the situation makes clear the shallowness of these claims. The United Automobiles Workers' aggressive bargaining strategy no doubt did raise the wage levels of its members during its heyday. But the increases obtained through the threat of strike could not be sustained in the long run against competition from other companies, including the Japanese firms that opened up new plants in the southern United States.

UAW membership tumbled from over 1.5 million members in 1979 to 355,000 members in 2009. To be sure, union membership has increased modestly to 380,000 members in 2011 in light of the recovery of the automobile industry.

[Bee Tagger]

At least, they keep renewing the license of a legally blind man who thinks that's a bit screwy.

They should arrest him for impersonating an Asian woman!

GET IT?

[Lord Humungus]

George Will: Obama's campaign goes empty and strident
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

All politicians are to some extent salesmen. But Obama, having devalued the coin of presidential rhetoric by the promiscuous production of it, increasingly resembles a particular salesman, Arthur Miller's Willy Loman:

"For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back ? that's an earthquake."

Why the empty stridency of the last days of Obama's last campaign? Perhaps he feels an earthquake's first tremors.

[kinnath]

I don't believe the polls that say Obama is ahead in Iowa. His campaign has been running extremely negative adds incessently on TV and radio. The vibe is totally different than 2008. The air reeks of desparation.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Maybe, maybe not--ultimately, it all depends on turnout, and in states where the margin is between 2-3%, that's going to make the difference.

If the polls are leaning 6-8% Dem, and Obama loses that 2-3% advantage in the final turnout, then Romney ends up taking the state.

[jester]

Only East Thrace or 3% of Turkey is eligible to join the European Union. The other 97% will have to wait on tectonic developments.

[Auric Demonocles]

Not if they go all Alexander the Great on it.

[tarran]

Thrace has never been the same since Miles Gloriousus raped it thrice.

[LTC(ret) John]

Yeah, it worked for Tyre, I think we could throw a couple of megatons of rock and soil into the Bosporous and...oh, the Black Sea becomes the Black Lake?

[invisible furry hand]

The tragedy of the free market:

A waxworks which has been described as Britain's worst museum is facing closure because its elderly owners cannot find anyone else to run it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....works.html

[Rich]

The Louis Tussuads House of Wax in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, has cult status on the internet because so many of its models look nothing like the people they are supposed to represent. Thousands of visitors still pay (pounds) 5 each to visit the seaside attraction so they can mock the far from lifelike models of celebrities, sports stars and Royalty.

Surely there are *several* H&R commenters who would jump at the opportunity to run this museum. I myself would, except it's in Britain.

*** ruminates ***

Hmm, I *could* move it ....

[Lord Humungus]

Rove: Sifting the Numbers for a Winner
A crucial element: the mix of Democrats and Republicans who show up this election.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

Adrian Gray, who oversaw the Bush 2004 voter-contact operation and is now a policy analyst for a New York investment firm, makes the point that as of Tuesday, 530,813 Ohio Democrats had voted early or had requested or cast an absentee ballot. That's down 181,275 from four years ago. But 448,357 Ohio Republicans had voted early or had requested or cast an absentee ballot, up 75,858 from the last presidential election.

That 257,133-vote swing almost wipes out Mr. Obama's 2008 Ohio victory margin of 262,224. Since most observers expect Republicans to win Election Day turnout, these early vote numbers point toward a Romney victory in Ohio. They are also evidence that Scott Jennings, my former White House colleague and now Romney Ohio campaign director, was accurate when he told me that the Buckeye GOP effort is larger than the massive Bush 2004 get-out-the-vote operation.

[Bee Tagger]

You'll be blown away as they personally restore your power (and clean out your fridge.)

Fat joke or racist joke, which is it Tuccille?

[Auric Demonocles]

Government-stealing-your-stuff joke.

[Alack]

So racist, then.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I took it as government-nannying-your-food-intake

[Fist of Etiquette]

Turkey is in talks about joining the European Union.

The EU doesn't want to be a club that would have Turkey as a member.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

How is it a "club" with no Turkey?

[Fist of Etiquette]

You are now my enemy.

[LTC(ret) John]

That is all it takes to become your enemy? Your Enemies List must be bigger than the NYC phone book!

[Rich]

*** Atlantic Rimshot ***

[Francisco d Anconia]

Hang your head in shame!

[Auric Demonocles]

More travel suggestions for Auric! I'll be in the Orlando area for a Tuesday in January. What suggestions do you guys have? Important things to note: I'll need to account for travel from Cape Canaveral (about an hour to Orlando) and I'll be with my girlfriend, so it probably shouldn't be 12 hours of space or scifi stuff.

[generic Brand]

4 Rivers Smokehouse, just east of I-4 on Fairbanks in Winter Park.

[generic Brand]

Orlando also has a few breweries: Orlando Brewing and a Shipyard Brewery.

[Groovus Maximus]

I'll be with my girlfriend, so it probably shouldn't be 12 hours of space or scifi stuff.

Pro'L Dib hates you now.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm sure I'll end up in the area on a business trip without her at some point, allowing me to look at rockets all day.

[generic Brand]

There's also a Lego Land, which I've heard is awesome.

[Auric Demonocles]

The only time I've ever heard of Lego Land is one Arrested Development.

[generic Brand]

Fair enough. I was dead serious about 4 Rivers Smokehouse, though, in case my directions didn't make that clear.

[Auric Demonocles]

That looks pretty tasty.

[generic Brand]

Shoot me an email (in my tag) as the date gets closer if you want to meet up for dinner or a beer somewhere.

[Citizen Nothing]

Be sure to stop downtown and see the ugliest building in America, the Orlando Public Library

[Citizen Nothing]

The beauty of gazing for a time on the Orlando Public Library is that it'll make every other building you see in your life (with the possible exception of the Frankfort, Ky. convention center) seem absolutely gorgeous.

[robc]

Frankfort is a literal hole in the ground that needs to be filled in.

I refer to Frankfort residents as Eloi and Morlocks. The few that get it, hate it.

[Ted S.]

Perhaps even worse than the Kiewit Center at my old alma mater. Of course, the "shower towers" (also depicted) were even worse.

[robc]

Everyone's alma mater has at least one wretched building.

I will go with the Skiles Building.

[robc]

Also, which is worse, the convention center or the capital plaza?

[Citizen Nothing]

My god, robc. I wouldn't think to lump them together. That much architectural suckatude in one reference might create some kind of black hole of suck.
(The KY state capitals, old and new, are actually pleasant.)

[robc]

I like the singing bridge too.

[Brett L]

As you drive into the Florida capital from the East, the new Capitol rises square and straight above the old Capitol and her domed chambers. So, yeah. It looks like a cock and balls. About one morning a week I notice it and remind myself to look up the architect and send him a complimentary letter.

[SugarFree]

I agree with everything robc has to say on the subject of Frankfort.

[robc]

The one thing that Louisvillians and Lexingtonians can agree on.

[generic Brand]

Orlando municipal buildings are all pretty awful. I have to stare at the building from Ghostbusters 2, also known as the Orange County Courthouse, all day.

[Ted S.]

Try the Savoy. 😉

[Dr. Frankenstein]

I don't know exactly where it is but my ex did manage to find a Coach outlet near Orlando. Don't know if your girlfriend is in to such things.

[generic Brand]

Prime Outlets and Premiere Outlet mall off I-4. A little southwest of downtown.

[mr simple]

Turkey is in talks about joining the European Union. Don't see how that works out well for Istanbul, unless the Turks really want to subsidize Greece's bad habits.

I would think the EU would take just about anyone right now, as long as they could pay the entry fee and their monthly dues.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

An Ceiling Cat givd teh Moarnng Lynx to teh kittehs
In his mursee.
An it was gud.
And teh kittehs were layk OMFG we gots teh Lynx!
An dey reejoyssed and teh hungers wuz pwnd.

[Jesus H. Christ]

O'tay???

A burly male orderly in a white coat inserts a syringe into AET's arm. As AET slumps in his wheelchair, the orderly holds an index finger to his lips and whispers "shush".

[sage]

In a way, I hope California approves prop 30. Think of it as a jobs program. For other states.

[Lord Humungus]

Rev. Jackson Sr. Says Tea Party Supports Slavery
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/11861

In a speech Friday at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, billed as a get-out-the-vote rally, Jackson drew a difference between the original Boston Tea Party, which he said aimed to "end occupation and wipe out the tea tax," and the contemporary Tea Party, which he characterized as a group that wants to "overthrow our government, engage in secession, sedition, segregation and slavery."

Jackson continued that the Tea Party "has lost that war."

[Groovus Maximus]

He's been reading his John Adams lately, hasn't he?

[Ted S.]

And we're supposed to care what Hymietown Jackson has to say because...?

[HazelMeade]

Didn't Jackson recently try to kill himself because Obama got to be President and nobody pays attention to him anymore?

[SugarFree]

At least, they keep renewing the license of a legally blind man who thinks that's a bit screwy.

As long as he doesn't use it to vote, what's the issue?

[invisible furry hand]

and what else would he use to chop out a few lines?

[Groovus Maximus]

BEHOLD! Blind Fury!

[invisible furry hand]

Directed by Phil Noyce and starring Rutger Hauer? Bloody hell...

Loved this line:

The UK version was trimmed when it was released on VHS. The dialogue "Gasoline mixed with detergent..." was taken out due to the BBFC's worries of imitations from audiences.

Knowing the Brits, the danger is that they'd drink that mixture

[SugarFree]

Especially since it would taste better than a lot of their beer.

[Groovus Maximus]

Chavs, ye know them well.

[mnarayan]

I think they sent everyone dumb enough to do that to some southern continent.

[LTC(ret) John]

You'll be forcibly transported for that!

[Rich]

Kim Dotcom reveals Mega to replace Megaupload file-sharing site

By keeping details of files uploaded on Mega secret from the site's administrators, Mr Dotcom said he believed this would mean the site was not in violation of US laws.

He said many of the visits were from US authorities themselves, tweeting: "All FBI agents pressing reload hahaha... We see their IP addresses. LOL!!!"

That zany Mr Dotcom!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Here, let me fix that link for you.

[Rich]

I embarrassed.

Guess *that'll* learn me to look at 24/7.

[Groovus Maximus]

Indeed. Keep it up and you'll go blind.

[HazelMeade]

I feel so fucking manipulated.
I KNEW the media was hyping Romney so they could have a nice "horse race" story to tell. I've always known that the media shapes the narrative and often shapes the outcome of elections. Nobody wants to admit it but they do. People are fucking sheep. They created the "Mittmentum" story line, and they created the "wins" for Obama in the 2nd and third debate. (I.e. Candy Crowley's bullshit intervention tactics). It pisses me off especially because it's so obvious and there's nothing I can do about it. The left controls the narrative, totally. They control the conventional wisdom and they tell people what to think, and nobody can do anything about it.

[generic Brand]

What attracts more viewers in an election cycle: one candidate running away with the election, or a tight contest?

[HazelMeade]

The tight contest, of course. That's my point.

Despite the fact that the media is in the tank for Obama and would never let Romney actually get close to winning, they pretty much INVENTED a narrative that would create horse race drama to keep people glue to the TV. Just so they could sell more advertising.

[VG Zaytsev]

Or Honey Booboo

[Ted S.]

So you're the one person who's not sheeple?

[Citizen Nothing]

Actually, there are four of us.

[Citizen Nothing]

And now that I looked at teh cartoon, I'll go with "five."

[SugarFree]

What's that noise? Is someone... RIGHT BEHIND YOU?!?

[invisible furry hand]

Oh no, it's STIEPAN KOVAL!

[SugarFree]

Don't forget the comments...

Barry of Australia
Posted at 5:30 PM October 31, 2012

The panda wasnt real either until recently.. The yeti's etc are the descendants of the original inhabitants of earth. Obviously we were not as we do not remotely share the same bone structure as apes and also do not have the same amount of DNA as apes. You cant lose DNA. Our second set are fused btw. So around 200 000 years ago somebody decided to do a little genetic engineering and took the locals dna as a base to work with and then added a bit of their own in the mix. Even the bible makes mention of all this. It goes to show that apes are actually smarter then humans as humans will believe anything they get fed in school lol.. btw apes have a larger brain then us but we are 'apparently smarter' and only use a small percentage of it.. The rest is a mystery what it is there for.. maybe someone turned it off when doing the engineering to dumb us down?? Then you got the whole apes can breath, eat, drink all at once... we are built completely different to apes sorry.

[Groovus Maximus]

This man deserves a little visit from STEVE SMITH...

[John]

Steve Smith does walk among us.

[R C Dean]

It goes to show that apes are actually smarter then humans as humans will believe anything

Really. Do tell.

[Bee Tagger]

You believed him when he said that, didn't you? Thus proving you're dumber than an ape since an ape would never believe he was smarter than a human.

[Tim]

They'd rather jerk off than vote, so, yeah.

[JW]

Apes can type!?

[The Late P Brooks]

Did you know Mitt Romney wants to get rid of FEMA? He's like some sort of deranged Tea Party Republican! Everybody knows FEMA is the only reason everybody in New York City isn't dead today.

*I learned that last night, and I thought I'd share it with you.

[Groovus Maximus]

MSNBC will be the death of you, Brooksie.

[sarcasmic]

According to my local daily's editorial page it's even worse than that.

If Romney is elected he'll completely gut the entire safety net so he can give tax breaks to his fellow rich people.

No more Social Security. No more Medicare. No more food stamps. No more low income housing. All gone.

Just so he can help the rich.

He'll return us to the Bush years when the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, because he hates poor people.

He is evil.

The letters to the editor said so.

[H. Reardon]

Maddow said that it's a good ting that we have great public leaders like Obama and Christie, otherwise our poor children would be out trick-or-treating in the floodwaters.

[tagtann]

Well now that makes a whole lot of sene dude.

http://www.anon-e.tk

[The Late P Brooks]

There's this new show about Teh Eeeeevul Robbur Baronz on these days (I'm pretty sure it's the same one I found to be completely unwatchable after about fifteen minutes). People keep telling me how awesome it is. "Those guys were RUTHLESS! RUTHLESS! This is why we need regulations."

I keep waiting for somebody to say, "Just imagine how bad it would have been if George Booooosh had been President in those days!"

[jester]

When are they going to rename Carnegie Hall and Vanderbilt University and Morgan-Stanley? It's really unbelievable that such institution could be allowed to be named after those scum. The names should be regulated. There really needs to be a commission and later a cabinet post.erhaps the Department of Onomastics. Just to make sure something doesn't reflect hate and injure a child's self esteem or make a minority feel bad.

[0x90]

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

[The Late P Brooks]

MSNBC will be the death of you, Brooksie.

It's much, much worse than that, Groovus. Actual living breathing people were saying this. I should start drinking at the bowling alley, I guess. But more likely than not they're just as dumb over there.

[Ken Shultz]

"Don't miss the Obama-Christie Disaster Tour 2012. You'll be blown away as they personally restore your power (and clean out your fridge.)"

I know Christie's doing it to get as much money as possible for the state of New Jersey. What he's doing for Obama is probably worth billions in extra aid for the state...

But it really is naked prostitution.

I guess it's just good to know that none of those federal funds aren't really needed and that the aid won't be wasted. Since, you know, this is New Jersey, where everything's always on the up and up, and Christie's heart is as pure as gold.

Yeah, Christie's the proverbial hooker with a heart of gold.

[invisible furry hand]

Christie's the proverbial hooker with a heart of gold.

Heart of gold, maybe, but he's still strictly a 25 buck blowjob in an alley kinda girl

[Tim]

As libertarians we support his right to prostitute himself, don't we?

[Ken Shultz]

Not on my dime!

[R C Dean]

The thing is, NJ is gonna get as much aid as its gonna get, regardless of whether Christie gives Obama a tonguebath.

If Christie fancies himself as an eventual contender for President, he's not helping himself. Memories are short, of course, so he's probably not hurting himself either, but those same short memories mean he's not snarfling up more disaster aid for Jersey.

I chalk it up to just being a media whore.

[John]

Christie is a moron. He will never get the nomination. He just says too much stupid offensive shit.

[AuH2O]

Isn't he also pro-legal abortion? Because if so, he can kiss the Iowa caucus and the SC primary goodbye.

[John]

I think so. He is just a clown. I feel embarassed I ever said anything nice about him. He seemed like he had potential when he was kicking around teacher's union plants at press events.

[Groovus Maximus]

It's OK, John. Many, many were suckered in by his Everyman Fred Flintstone of Jersey Politics schtick.

Though he has done some remarkable things with the budget in NJ, he is little more than a self-adsorbed and self-absorbed portly huckster.

[nicole]

Totally. I saw Rachel Maddow or someone last night going on about how crazy it was that such a "right-wing, partisan, Tea Party Republican" would be chill with the president. And I was like, Chris Christie? I thought he was just a clown.

[John]

I wish the leftiest would get a new meme. The "everyone who is not a Dem is a crazy nihilist tea bagger" is really getting old. Can't they get some new material?

[Stormy Dragon]

Especially since no actual nihilist would be caught dead with those Jesus Freaks.

[Bobarian]

WHO'S THE FUCKING NIHILIST HERE! WHAT ARE YOU, A BUNCH OF FUCKING CRYBABIES?!

[Corning]

Christie is a moron.

Really?

First off what is more important:

Stopping teachers unions or not working with the president during a Natural disaster?

Jesus fucking Christ what do you expect him to do??

Also Christie got the FEDS and Obama to say that gasoline standards need to be ignored to bring in more gasoline to disaster areas.

[Groovus Maximus]

I don't see why, RC. He's pretty hard to miss. I'm shocked The Corpulent Jesus has failed to part the waters at this point, or heal a leper.

[John]

He does kind of make you hate fat people doesn't he?

[Groovus Maximus]

I already loathe Fatties, John. They really repulse me, TBH.

[John]

Leave fat people alone. Nothing worse than a skinny doctor.

[Groovus Maximus]

I'm not skinny, John, but not fat either. I am a fit and broad shouldered lad, quite safe from the leering eye of either you or Sarcasmic. -)))

[Lord Humungus]

but not Warty.

[LTC(ret) John]

Nothing escapes the Eye of Sauron, er... Warty's Gaze!

[Ken Shultz]

"The thing is, NJ is gonna get as much aid as its gonna get, regardless of whether Christie gives Obama a tonguebath."

With Obama, we're talking about a president who bargained with Hillary Clinton and got her to drop out of the race by promising to make her his Secretary of State--purely for election strategy reasons.

Those kinds of heart felt endorsements--and joint appearances--didn't come for nothin'! Not in an election WEEK.

Christie got something for doing that, or he isn't really from New Jersey. Maybe it was promised money for the state and maybe it was the promise of some kind of appointment down the road.

But Christie didn't just give something that valuable away for free.

[R C Dean]

Here's the deal, though: Anything he thinks he got has an expiration date of November 7, 2012.

If Obama loses, then Obama's not gonna be around to steer money his way.

If Obama wins, then what does he need Christie for?

[invisible furry hand]

So it's my birthday on the 17th, and I'm trying to think about how to spend it. Get hammered on Laphroig? Buy some over-priced minimalist jewellery? Or sit around with earnest greenies and talk climate change?

[Tim]

Shunt all your presents into Obama campaign cash donations, duh.

[Auric Demonocles]

It's too late! He's got to request early presents!

[nicole]

I vote for both of the first two. Partly because I did both of the first two just last week and it was awesome.

[invisible furry hand]

As ever you are a woman of taste and discretion and I shall heed your counsel. Was it for any particular reason or just for the sheer hell of it?

[nicole]

I was visiting friends, one of whom is working on his cocktail skillz. The deliciousness: .75oz Laphroaig Islay Scotch (or any super smokey islay), .75 green chartreuse, .75 lime juice, .5oz Orgeat, .5oz curacao, 2 dash orange bitters, muddled rosemary.

And in their neighborhood is a supercute jewelry store, Catbird. I want all of the things!

[invisible furry hand]

Hmmm, that might be flavour overload for me (i like it straight and surly) but the jewellery is rather sechsy.

I was toying with getting this so I could be the white lady version of Flava Flav

[nicole]

That is awesome, I love it.

The cocktail is truly a bizarre amount of stuff, but doesn't taste of too much of it other than the smoke. I'm too much of a little bitch to drink whiskey straight. I don't like anything with heat like that.

[R C Dean]

Mixing a fine single malt with anything other than water is a crime.

That is all.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Second.

[mr simple]

That sounds like a good way to ruin scotch.

[Alack]

The first one, then the last one. For the lulz.

[SugarFree]

So are you not ritually killing a hobo this year, or is all this other stuff just in addition to ritually killing a hobo?

[invisible furry hand]

I don't ritually kill hobos for pleasure, but to ensure the Leonids do not destroy the world. Also I think it helps with the harvest.

[SugarFree]

At least it's a science-based tradition.

[Brett L]

The Leonids have never destroyed the world yet.

[R C Dean]

Speaking of Laphroiag, my Quarter Cask order came in. After a judicious sampling, I ordered a case. Damn but that's good stuff, and has to be the best scotch for the price by a mile.

[LTC(ret) John]

Has Aardbeg 10 year old? If you like Laphroaig, you'd like it too.

[Bobarian]

Scotch is just Bourbon for people without taste.

[Groovus Maximus]

A ticket to UKR, perhaps? Nah, go with the minimalist jewellery. And grilling, lot's of grilling.

[AuH2O]

The third just seems bound to devolve into a lesbian orgy, so I vote that.

[mr simple]

Perhaps we should all invest in a very nice camera for IFH's birthday, then.

[Trespassers W]

Speaking of Laphroaig, I love it, but it's basically a cocktail of alcohol and assorted organic toxins. If you get hammered on it, be prepared for a three-day hangover.

[invisible furry hand]

Thanks for the warning but happily I have never had a hangover. Ever. Even when I was younger and used to get utterly trashed (passing out drunk) I'd sleep for four hours, wake up full of vim, and have a happy day as the buzz wore off and have the gentlest comedown ever. God I hope that doesn't disappear with age

[Citizen Nothing]

Sorry, hand. It does.

[Citizen Nothing]

Just about the time you start to need reading glasses, if my experience is any indicator.

[SugarFree]

Water cures everything.

[Brett L]

Jaysus. You have great genes.

[R C Dean]

That's odd, TW. I have drunk quite a lot of Laphroiag, including nearly half a bottle at one sitting, and never gotten a hangover to speak of.

Of course, I make a point of introducing organic toxins into my immune system on a regular basis (to keep my white blood cells strong like bull).

[Trespassers W]

Again, I still love the stuff. I've visited the distillery to collect my "rent". I have a watercolor of the distillery in my library.

But I get a headache from one (healthy) glass now. Didn't used to. Liver's getting tired I guess.

[R C Dean]

You've been to collect your rent, eh?

Its on my list next time I cross the pond.

[LTC(ret) John]

I vote for the Laphroaig.

[Spoonman.]

My wife convinced me that since we have nearly no food left in our old crappy fridge thanks to the hurricane, we should buy a new fridge.

I forget who on this site first alerted me to the Sears Outlet stores, but you have saved me thousands of dollars, since every appliance in my house needed to be replaced.

[Spoonman.]

Not because of the hurricane, because they were 1971 originals that barely worked.

[Matrix]

So the cure for an empty fridge is to buy a new one?

[Lord Humungus]

Stimulus!

[Matrix]

Krugnuts not withstanding.

[Ted S.]

It would almost be cheaper to replace the wife.

[Matrix]

Divorce is not cheap.

[Tim]

The new models are far more energy efficient though.

[Lord Humungus]

and they can cook!

[Elspeth Flashman]

Bar exam results came back last week from Michigan, and apparently it was a 60% fail rate.

[Lord Humungus]

You know who else had a 60% fail rate?

[LTC(ret) John]

Soviet Space Agency?

[robc]

Is that normal?

Either way, Im not sure I have a problem with it.

[insert SLD related to occ licensing here]

[Randian]

Bar exam results came back last week from Michigan, and apparently it was a 60% fail rate.

What the hell?

[Elspeth Flashman]

I am trying to find documentation for this; it's info from where I work. 1200 test takers & 500 passers. I found the list of passers via MI Bar Examiner's website, but no other data.

[John]

Is Michigan known to have a tough bar like New York and California? Do a lot of stupid people try to practice law there? That is an epic fail rate.

[Citizen Nothing]

There's got to be a U of M joke in here somewhere, but I'll leave sloopy to make it.

[sloopyinca]

My guess is that they all failed so they can tell their parents they need to move to another state because the Michigan test is unfairly difficult. It's a bonus for everyone, because they can get someone else to pay for their move out of that hellish shithole (causing their overall population to continue its shrink into irrelevancy) and other states get exposed to the idiocy flowing out of UM's Law program, causing them to eventually become a laughingstock of the education side of their university, which will more closely align it with their useless football program (that is on its way to a five-loss season).

Fuck Michigan.

[LTC(ret) John]

Thanks for that, that made me smile, quite broadly.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Fuck Michigan! Fuck 'em right in the ear!

[db]

Epic Fail Rate = tons of unemployed people taking the stimulus education loans/grants to go to law school and not cutting the mustard?

[Elspeth Flashman]

Update: it was flipped! 62% passage rate for first-time takers, across all law schools. And approximately 967 takers. (not 1200).

Sorry to report inaccurate info, but I did my research to get the straight dope.

[John]

http://dailycaller.com/2012/11.....-republic/

Apparently Menendez didn't just hire hookers in the Domincan Republic, he stiffed them as well. So much for equal pay for equal work.

[Spoonman.]

he stiffed them

Isn't that the point?

[John]

Literally yes, metaphorically no.

[Palin's Buttplug]

That is Fat Rush's go to whoring playground too. He was stopped in Florida with a huge stash of unprescribed Viagra coming back from there.

Gotta say the ACLU did the right thing defending him.

[John]

What does that have to do with anything? Is Limbaugh in the Senate? I know you are retarded. But at least try to stay on the relevant topic. I know your 75 IQ can do it.

[Palin's Buttplug]

He is a demi-god to you conservatives and did the same thing you criticize Menendez for.

[John]

I guess your 75 IQ isn't up to it. That is just pathetic. The impending disaster next Tuesday is really starting to affect your brain, or at least what there is of it.

[Cytotoxic]

You are overgenerous in assigning a number of 75 to Shriek's IQ and overconfident regarding next Ruesday.

[LTC(ret) John]

Taking cues from the Secret Service?

[AuH2O]

So, how lame is it that I am thinking of going to the midnight premiere of Wreck It Ralph to celebrate my birthday?

[AuH2O]

My birthday is November 2nd.

[invisible furry hand]

it's already Nov 2 here, so happy birthday Goldie

[AuH2O]

Oh, Australia, you and your believing you come from the future...

[Tim]

1.21 GIGAWATTS!

[nicole]

Happy almost-birthday, Goldwater. Hope your family made it through the storm okay. And Wreck-It Ralph looks cute!

[John]

If you plan to go sober, very lame. If it involves heavy drug use, not so lame. My God does that movie look stupid.

[AuH2O]

Sadly, my plans for drug use have fallen through, but I do have a hip flask...

[Alack]

Seconded. LSD or E is my recommendation. Or just a huge fucking bottle of scotch.

In fact, forget the movie. Just take E and drink scotch.

[John]

Dumb movies and drugs are kind of a can't miss combination.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Do it right, and you've got your own movie.

[John]

How do these guys get the balls to stiff hookers? I always assumed stiffing a hooker would then involve a confrontation corrupt cop or an armed pimp, basically a lot of hassle.

[AuH2O]

The only way to get balls that big is to get testicular cancer.

[Alack]

And then we can get medicinal marijuana! To the microwaves!

[tarran]

He didn't necessarily stiff the hookers...

According to the story, the prostitutes had their pimps handle all negotiations and payment collection. It's possible the pimps stiffed them.

[John]

Maybe. But why would the pimps just decide to stiff their hookers on this particular transaction? If they did that all of the time, the hookers wouldn't be surprised and would know it was their pimps screwing them. But for them to think he did it means something was out of the normal.

[NeonCat]

This wouldn't happen if the prostitutes had a strong union to protect them.

[LTC(ret) John]

WIN.

[sloopyinca]

Police arrest man for drunk and disorderly because he filmed them on break. When man gets iPhone back five days later, it is locked for 42 years. PoliceOne thinks it's funny and that the guy learned his lesson not to film police.

[db]

Wouldn't that constitute theft? If I disabled your phone for years, I would think you'd have a claim against me.

[AuH2O]

So, has anyone else been watching Arrow? Because it has very secretly been solid.

[Ted S.]

Never heard of it.

[Tim]

Your post (#3349132) has been marked as spam by a third-party spam filter. If this is a mistake, please email [e-mail].

Fuck, it was a funny one too.

[John]

They have started filtering posts that do not have any links. Maybe it is some kind of anti White Indian algorythem.

[$park?]

algorythem

That word, you DID invent that.

[Citizen Nothing]

Hell, algorythems are the whole fucking basis for "An Inconvenient Truth."

[Palin's Buttplug]

Nate Silver to Moaning Joe - wanna bet?

http://news.yahoo.com/nate-sil.....15600.html

[John]

Silver is retarded. Actually he is just a paid hack who keeps morons like you filled with talking points and keeps you from panicing.

[Randian]

I don't think he's a hack, but I do think that when your vaunted polling abilities have been relegated to 'outlier', you need to rethink your methodology.

[John]

Yeah. I am not going to claim who is going to win the election. Obama may pull it out. I doubt it but he might. But I can't see any rational basis to conclude that Obama is going to win anything but he closest of victories if he wins. Silver is just nuts.

[Stormy Dragon]

The problem is that the "chunking" effect of the electoral college means that small changes in the popular vote can translate to huge swings in the electoral college vote. Florida, for example, has 29 popular votes and is currently +0.8 Romney. So yeah, if that holds, Obama is not getting 300. But if it changes even one point, Obama could win by 320. Are you really going to say it's entirely out of the realm of possibility that Obama could win Florida?

[Stormy Dragon]

Again, a lot of people just don't get statistics. When Nate Silver says "Obama by 300" he's not actually saying Obama is going to win the election with 300 electoral votes. He's saying there's a 50% chance he'll have more than 300 votes and a 50% chance he'll have left.

Given that there's a lot of big electoral vote states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia, etc.) that are very close, and that they're all probably going to end up breaking the same way in the end, this seems a perfectly reasonable statement to me. And it remains a reasonable statement even if Romney ends up wining. Much as if you ask someone to predict how much they're going to get rolling a six-sided die, an answer of 3.5 is reasonable even if they end up rolling a 1.

[R C Dean]

He's saying there's a 50% chance he'll have more than 300 votes and a 50% chance he'll have left.

Is he? I don't understand statistics at any sophisticated level, but don't they usually come with some kind of confidence indicator? Namely, there is a 95% (or whatever) chance that Obama will get 300 EC votes?

I don't ever recall seeing a 50% confidence level on a statistical result.

[Cytotoxic]

A 50% confidence level is useless and illegitimate.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

^^^ Yep.

[Stormy Dragon]

No one is using a 50% confidence interval. This is what I mean about people not getting statistics. I said something about an expected value and R C Dean is like "But.. Confidence Interval... 50%!!!" because his brain apparently can't handle more than one number at a time. And now Cytotoxic is like "OMG! 50% Confidence Interval" since he apparently can't read either and just fixates on random words.

I mean Jesus Christ, can we get some engineers in here? Because I hate talking to Liberal Arts majors.

[Stormy Dragon]

Yes, but Nate Silver's current confidence interval is +/- 58 electoral votes. So he's saying there's a 95% chance Obama gets between 242 and 348 electoral votes. The 300 number is the expected value, which is just an over/under number. There's a 47.5% chance Obama gets 242-300 and a 47.5% chance he gets 300-348.

Which isn't as outrageous a statement as the Republicans might like. Again, if you recognize that all the close states are probably are mostly going to end up breaking for Romney or mostly end up breaking for Obama, those two scenarios are equally likely.

[Brett L]

I don't thing there's a normalized distribution to electoral voting to do standard statistics on. For one thing, there's not nearly a large enough data set. Added to the fact that the electoral map can change every 10 years. And has. Its bullshit to give confidence intervals.

[Randian]

And I'll take the bet with Silver if he's putting that 300 EV projection on the line. From Morning Joe's perspective, why would you take a bet you think is 1-in-2? Silver's the one making what appear to be grandiose predictions, so he ought to put more on the line and/or bet something more specifically.

[sloopyinca]

Repeat from yesterday, but it needs repeating. PoliceOne circle the wagons on cop who TAZEred a 10 year old "accidentally."

Not a single one thinks he should be prosecuted, although a few (in the minority) think he should lose his job. Also, several think it was pretty funny and that the kid learned a lesson.

[John]

It is criminal negligence. If I "accidentily" tazed some kid walking by my front door, I would be up on charges. He pointed the weapon at the kid and pulled the trigger. What is so difficult about that to undersand?

[Tim]

Accidents happen.

[R C Dean]

And when those accidents result in somebody getting assaulted, they are crimes.

[Zeb]

Especially when those accidents could have been prevented simply by not being an asshole.

[Tim]

Forgot the sarc tag/

[Auric Demonocles]

But according to dunphy, being on unpaid suspension for 3 days is actually the government fining him thousands of dollars, making this harsher than the criminal penalties a "civilian" would get for a first offense.

(Though to his credit he does say the officer should be fired too)

[Zeb]

Pretty sure he said he should be charged and predicted that he would be fired. We'll see.

[Auric Demonocles]

He said he thinks the guy will be fired, probably should be charged, but refused to say it's a double standard that he's not being charged. One of his defenses for it not being a double standard is that he's getting a thousand+ dollar "fine" for having 3 days of unpaid suspension, indicating that dunphy still thinks the government firing him is a government criminal punishment.

[R C Dean]

Also relies on the unstated assumption that a private employer would do nothing, nothing at all, if one of their employees tasered a ten year old for not washing his car.

[Zeb]

I generally like Dunphy, or at least appreciate his presence, but his refusal to admit that the double standard exists is a bit much sometimes. Some people overplay it a bit. Cops to get charged with crimes often. But even when they do, it is nothing like what a non-cop would experience in the same situation. And it seems incredibly obvious that cops get away with little things (and bigger things like lying in court) all the time because of the badge.

[R C Dean]

Pretty much where I am. He's probably about as good as can be expected for a member of the cop tribe.

Being in any tribe means you have blind spots, biases, unstated assumptions, etc. One of his is the double standard, which people rarely see when they are on the good side of them.

[rho]

He offered a wager that he would be fired, too.

I'm still up for accepting that wager.

[mr simple]

I've been Tased. But I didn't sue my academy instructor or get PTSD. This world is full of a bunch of whiny crybabies.

He's a fucking ten-year-old, you dick! Jesus, that site should be able to cure any thinking person of LEO worship.

[Zeb]

And the cop volunteered to be tased. What a fucking dick. Do they not understand the concept of consent?

It's like saying waterboarding is fine because military people get waterboarded when learning how to resist torture.

[The Late P Brooks]

several think it was pretty funny and that the kid learned a lesson.

I would think it funny and educational if somebody beat that cop into a coma with an axe handle.

[Citizen Nothing]

So I finally got around to reading The Cloud Atlas, mainly because everyone kept saying "Oh, it's so much like Eco."
Well, it's not. It's certainly entertaining enough, but the entire story within a story within a story seems contrived and very disjunct. I almost suspect that Mitchell had six short stories on hand and wondered, "what the hell do I do with these?"

[Jesus H. Christ]

Being legally blind, I have no idea how that guy got a driver's license. I'm assuming he somehow cribbed the eye test, or he got it wrong and the clerk screwed up and passed him anyway. Well, I suppose if I RTFA it might say.

BTW, even if I could get a license, I would not. Way too unsafe. For me and everyone else.