A.M. Links: White House Denies Politics Influenced Benghazi Tale, Petraeus Lawyers Up, Model Reforms at Las Vegas Cop Shop

• The Obama administration denies it omitted terrorism from its early tales about Benghazi for political reasons. Nope. They blamed the whole thing on some gormless filmmaker to protect sources and avoid prejudicing the investigation.

• Now that he's under an international microscope and not exactly backing the administration's story on Benghazi, David Petraeus has seen fit to hire an attorney. Wise move …
• President Obama took his show on the road to troubled Burma. Crap, Not another drone base, please.
• U.S. Army Sergeant John Russell faces trial and a potential death penalty for the 2009 killing of five fellow servicemen in Baghdad.
• Three American* astronauts hitched a ride from the International Space Station back to Earth through Kazakhstan because, you know, NASA no longer has a manned space-travel capability.
• Reform of the Las Vegas Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice to make it less civil-rights-violation-y is being held up as a model for law-enforcement agencies. Presumably, not so much the DEA, BATF or FBI. Or IRS Criminal Investigation.
• Fear not, oh Twinkies freaks. The investor who owns Pabst may make a pitch for Hostess. Pabst? That's still around?

  * It's friggin' early where I am.

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Comments

[Whiterun Guard]

Who created the "Benghazi Talking Points"!? And why the hell did you use Comic Sans?! Did you learn nothing from Dan Gilbert!? Have you ever seen that many interrobangs?!

[Fist of Etiquette]

They blamed the whole thing on some gormless filmmaker to protect sources and avoid prejudicing the investigation.

That film was terrorism!

[Rich]

The future must not belong to those who use gormless films for terrorism!

[Ted S.]

I only use gormful films for my terrorism needs.

Well, that, and my top hat and monocle.

[Tim]

The Truth is what We tell you.

[Ted S.]

The truth is not out there.

[Mike M.]

So now they're fabricating a whole new set of lies to cover for their original lie.

This MFer really does deserve to be impeached over this. Of course it would be a colossal waste of time.

[bostonaod]

Don't worry, the Obamatrons now completely buy the new set of lies. The idea that the talking point was edited out so that the bad guys didn't know we were on to them when the bad guys had put out a fucking press release claiming responsibility is just so in-your-face stupid that only an Obama voter could believe it.

[Auric Demonocles]

But if they knew we were monitoring their press releases, they might stop... uh... putting secret information in them?

[AuH2O]

Clearly you do not think on a 3 Dimensional level like the Obama administration.

[Bobarian]

Yeah, it's just like that chess game that Bones and Spock used to (will?) play...

[VG Zaytsev]

Don't worry, the Obamatrons now completely buy the new set of lies.

The dumbfucks still believe the original lies.

I got in an argument over the weekend with an Obamazombie that is convinced that the you tube movie caused the attack in Benghazi.

[Rasilio]

"This MFer really does deserve to be impeached over this"

No. I am sorry he doesn't.

To date there is no hint that any actual crime has ocurred. It certainly is embarrassing and the truth likely could have cost Obama the election but there is no evidence that any laws have been broken with respect to the Benghazi incident.

Remember, lying to the American people is not actually a crime, it is only a crime if you lie under oath (perjury), which until the last couple of days there hasn't even been an opportunity for that to happen.

[VG Zaytsev]

The impeachable offense is what was really happening in Benghazi.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Or fighting a war without congressional authorization. But that is rather old school to be worried about this, I'll admit.

[Number 2]

Please...you KNEW that explanation would be coming.....

[Fist of Etiquette]

The investor who owns Pabst may make a pitch for Hostess.

So now my Ho-Ho's are going to have a horrible aftertaste?

[RBS]

I think you mean a different horrible aftertaste. One tastes like chemicals and the other tastes like metal.

[$park?]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Whiterun Guard]

One tastes like chemicals and the other tastes like failure.

[CE]

Hey, if Pabst won the blue ribbon, be glad we're not serving the red ribbon beer.

[Quetzalcoatl]

The only thing that could make Americans hate Hostess is watching hipsters chow down on Twinkies "ironically".

[RBS]

Maybe this will be the end of hipsters in America. A diet of nothing but PBR and Hostess cakes combined with horrible hygiene is a recipe for a mass die off.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I think the skinny jeans were already killing their sperm count.

[SugarFree]

Add in the fact that many of them have the sort of dim, hippie parents who didn't vaccinate them, and you have to consider the average hipster to be only slightly less contagious than that monkey from Outbreak.

[LTC(ret) John]

"you have to consider the average hipster to be only slightly less contagious than that monkey from Outbreak"

First and best laugh of the day!

[Marshall Gill]

dim, hippie parents who didn't vaccinate them

I assure you that neither I nor my parents have ever been dirty hippies.

[Whiterun Guard]

So just dim?

[SugarFree]

But, then, you didn't end up a hipster, did you Marshall? Or is there something you'd like to confess? A scarf in June, perhaps? Maybe a pair of glasses you don't actually need, hmm?

[Ted S.]

I hated that movie, mostly because I think it was the first movie where I really noticed Hollywood's identity politics treatment of the mliitary: the (white) male researcher is dumb; the female is a heroine, and the only guy in the military with a conscience to stop the bombing is the black guy.

[T o n y]

My isn't that a large white racial resentment stick up your ass. Dustin Hoffman's character was dumb? Wha?

[Restoras]

You heartless bastard. Think of all the unmade artisan mayonniase we'll never enjoy.

[Ska]

Your artisinal...mayonnaise...will be re..ady.... in just... a few more.....minutes.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Now with more glucose!

[CE]

Hey, there's no expiration date on this jar of artisan mayonnaise.... I guess it'll be okay....

[AuH2O]

Just wait for the "artisinal" Twinkies

[Tim]

Going down AND coming back up!

[Restoras]

I read this differently.

[Tim]

It made sense at 9:04 AM.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Oh, the difference a half-hour (and a cup of "joe") makes!

[gaijin]

but, like Pabst, twinkies will become twice as expensive and favored among the Ironic Class of douchesters.

[gaijin]

damnit Quetzalcoatl!

[protefeed]

Pabst is still the choice for:

1) Those who want the cheapest beer on the bar's menu, regardless of taste

2) Those who think drinking crappy beer is somehow hip or ironic

Real hipsters drink microbrew beers.

[Shirley Knott]

Twinkies are to food as Pabst is to beer.

[CE]

Twinkies were selling for 70 bucks for a box of 10 on Ebay this weekend.

[CE]

Hey, if PBR brings back Ding-Dongs, I will drink a case of Pabst to celebrate.

[Lord Humungus]

Capretta and Levin: Why ObamaCare Is Still No Sure Thing
The majority of state governors are Republicans, and they have the power to disarm the health-care law.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

[Suthenboy]

But do they have the balls? Unlikely.

[RBS]

So far they are talking a big game. But, so was Texas with the TSA a couple of years ago.

[Tim]

people still have faith in Republicans? How touching.

[Quetzalcoatl]

But there are a reasonable number of states that voted for Obama and Republican governors, right?

They may not want to risk their own re-election.

[Spartacus]

By late 2014 most people will see for themselves what the real consequences of Obamacare are. It will be a very bad election for Democrats.

[Lord Humungus]

No, I'm Spartacus!

[LTC(ret) John]

Only if Spartacus lives in the Wasteland and wears a leather mask.

[Bobarian]

It's a metal mask, you uncultured oaf!

[VG Zaytsev]

And Hispanics voters overwhelming support Obamacare - so goodbye republican opposition.

[Bee Tagger]

The investor who owns Pabst may make a pitch for Hostess.

As if eating a Twinkie wasn't ironic enough.

[$park?]

Time to get the War on Christmas underway.

In 2011, Vix recruited 10 others to inundate the city with applications for tongue-in-cheek displays such as an homage to the "Pastafarian religion," which would include an artistic representation of the great Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The secular coalition won 18 of 21 spaces. The two others went to the traditional Christmas displays and one to a Hanukkah display.

The atheists used half their spaces, displaying signs such as one that showed pictures of Poseidon, Jesus, Santa Claus and the devil and said: "37 million Americans know myths when they see them. What myths do you see?"

[tarran]

That's fucking awesome...

[LTC(ret) John]

Seems like a bit of a waste of time and money - nothing better to do than go mock Jews and Christians?

How edgy.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Anti-theists are a particularly annoying branch of culture warrior because they (certainly in this case) don't offer any positive culture of their own.

[nicole just can't even!]

Anti-theists are a particularly annoying branch of culture warrior because they (certainly in this case) don't offer any positive culture of their own.

It's so hard to tell, but if this was a joke (and I sincerely hope it was), it was a good one.

[$park?]

To be fair, some anti-theists (Freedom From Religion Foundation) are a bunch of annoying tools who seriously fuck it up for the people who just don't care.

[Whiterun Guard]

Yeah, absurdism is as legit as any other ism.

[T]

Dadaism is more legit. Your ism is inferior.

[Quetzalcoatl]

My point was merely that, if you're going to secure a slot (explicitly related to festive winter celebrations) to speak your piece, couldn't you at least put up humanist messages of "peace towards all men of good will"?

Instead, it seems like they only used half of the 18 slots that they secured, and those for the equivalent of "neener-neener". That, along with all the talk of co-opting the tactics of fundamentalist right, leads me to brand this sort of anti-theist an annoying culture warrior.

[nicole just can't even!]

I don't know, your post just sounded to me like every instance of "libertarians don't like health care reform, but what would they have the government do instead? they say no no no, but don't offer any solutions of their own."

[Quetzalcoatl]

I would say that libertarians who have no answer to "So you don't like health care reform, what would you have the government do?!" have left themselves open to valid criticism.

[nicole just can't even!]

What if their answer is "Nothing--there shouldn't be a government"? Just like "You shouldn't believe any of this--or any other religion."

[Quetzalcoatl]

If they say that there shouldn't be a government, I would submit that they are probably some flavor of anarchist, rather than a libertarian. And, based on which flavor of anarchy they find most bold and refreshing, "Nothing" could be an interesting answer to have a conversation around.

My point about the original link is that:
1) It really wasn't that hard for them to get a platform, considering all of the "oppression" that they suffer under.
2) They used that platform in a perfectly legal manner.
3) The speech that they did choose to engage in is nothing more than /r/atheism spilling into the real world. It was calculated to offend rather than convince. People always trying to convince one another of their un-provable beliefs is tiresome enough, but when they give up on convincing and dedicate themselves purely to offending, I reserve the right to roll my eyes.
tl;dr THAT'S NOT FUNNY

[$park?]

It was calculated to offend rather than convince.

Seems to me it was calculated to show that not everyone believes in Christianity. While that may be offensive to Christians, it shouldn't be to people who aren't or are on the fence.

[LTC(ret) John]

"Seems to me it was calculated to show that not everyone believes in Christianity."

And that is an unknown in California?!

[$park?]

And that is an unknown in California?!

To a young person growing up in a Hispanic household it might very well be.

[LTC(ret) John]

Apparently they don't go to public skoolz.

[LTC(ret) John]

Why do you hate Hispanic parents?!!11!1!ELVENTY!11

[$park?]

Why do you hate Hispanic parents?!!11!1!ELVENTY!11

It's not just the Hispanics, it's all the differently-colored. Just look at them. They're a whole different color. And they think different too!

[tarran]

I like the idea of living in a society were ox are gored and noses tweaked. It's better that a society where everyone is nice and thinks the same saccharine inoffensive things aka being trapped in an episode of Barney and Friends.

[wareagle]

I like the idea of living in a society where I can enjoy certain traditions without douchebag shitheads inflicting their point of view on me. Since they live in CA, that makes these particular shitheads much easier to laugh at.

[SugarFree]

One of the church/state dodges of Christian who want to use public space for displays of Christmas or other holidays is that it is non-denominational and that any other religion could use the spaces just like they do.

I guess that was always the lie I presumed it was.

[LTC(ret) John]

Meh - seems like at least one Jewish group took 'em up on their offer. I expect someone wanting to put up a sign that proclaimed Eid mubarak! would be fine when the time came too.

[Timon 19]

Problem with that is that neither Eid this year is particularly close to Christmas, nor will they be for about two-plus decades.

[Whiterun Guard]

I like the idea of living in a society where I can enjoy certain traditions without douchebag shitheads inflicting their point of view on me.

I can't tell which side you're arguing for.

[tarran]

He wants to live in the Barney and Friends world, where we tolerate all opinions, which is easy since only non-offensive ones are voiced.

[Tonio]

Every opinion is offensive to someone. More like the majority-held opinion is privileged in the public square, all others can suck it.

[wareagle]

I can't tell which side you're arguing for.

I tend to argue against people whose idea of debate is making fun of belief systems they don't agree with. Atheists, the loud ones anyway, tend to go out of their way to make themselves wholly unappealing.

If you don't believe, then don't believe; the Constitution protects you, too. But I expect a better argument - if you choose to make one - than insulting the other side.

[Tonio]

where I can enjoy certain traditions without douchebag shitheads inflicting their point of view on me

Comedy gold, PeaceChicken. So blissfully unaware how that cuts both ways.

[wareagle]

tonio,
try and learn what screen names are about before making yourself look like an even bigger fool than your comment does. I don't favor inflicting anything on anyone. If you want to argue your point of view, saying "the other side is stupid" doesn't do it.

[T]

I dunno, man, some arguments don't deserve much of a response beyond "That's insane. You stupid." If I seriously argued Star Trek was a documentary, would you think it necessary to refute me logically? Or just call me crazy and walk off?

[tarran]

It depends... if you build a copy of the Enterprise and need me to help you operate it, I wouldn't call you crazy; I'd call you "friend". I'd even rewatch all the historical documents till I was an expert.

[LTC(ret) John]

"If I seriously argued Star Trek was a documentary, would you think it necessary to refute me logically?"

Wait, it wasn't?!

/begins weeping

[Bobarian]

Keep your crazy conspiracy theories to yourself, you trek denying bastard!

You probably believe Episodes 1-3 actually have anything to do with Star Wars.

[Tonio]

Dear perpetually-offended one (Wareagle). We've had this conversation before. Yes, I get that you're very, very offended that I'm not sufficiently deferential to your chosen screen handle. Yes, I know this has something to do with a fight chant for some collegiate sports team.

Guess what? It's not all about you. I mock the names of many people, as do many others here. "Sugar Free" is routinely referred to as NutraSweet, Saccharine Man, etc. He doesn't get all whiny about it.

Deal with it. Or not.

[Tonio]

I don't favor inflicting anything on anyone.

Except when it's deference to a screen name, or a religion, or something. Ha, ha.

/Nelson

[wareagle]

tonio,
being juvenile just makes you juvenile. No one has asked for deference, just basic intelligence which is evidently a bridge too far.

[$park?]

just basic intelligence which is evidently a bridge too far.

Not to butt into your discussion, but what's important to you isn't necessarily important to someone else. To the point where the other person isn't going to go out of their way to learn something that's important to you.

[$park?]

It's only mocking when it's your religion on the receiving end. If these spaces were set aside for religious displays what's wrong with non-Christians putting up their own?

[wareagle]

and if these folks were promoting their own theology, that would be one thing. But they're not. They've chose to use their spaces to mock others. It's an equivalent of the left crying 'racist' to marginalize its opponents.

[$park?]

So? Your argument is just another form of Christians screaming "War on Christmas!"

[Whiterun Guard]

My religion IS the mocking of others. It is required by several of my gods.

[$park?]

Perhaps you have a newsletter to which I may subscribe?

[Whiterun Guard]

Be aware, before you subscribe, that all of our newsletters are delivered by steam powered automatons, and are nailed to your door.

[LTC(ret) John]

Oooh! Put me down for a 2 year subscription!

[LTC(ret) John]

I'm not saying it is wrong - but it seems like an utter waste of time - do they make sure they put up stuff mocking Muslims during Eid, or Ramadan? Do they rent billboards to mock Hindus?

It is just worn out and boring and utterly passe.

[tarran]

Oh yes, it is a total waste of money. I wouldn't have given those guys a dime if they were taking a collection. But I can still laugh at a beautiful prank.

[LTC(ret) John]

So, can we count on Muslim and Hindu mocking "pranks" too?

[tarran]

So, can we count on Muslim and Hindu mocking "pranks" too?

I dunno, it's a free country. They can mock or not mock at their hearts' whim.

Of course, Obama might demand they be arrested if they mock too effectively.... maybe I ought to reedit my first sentence. 😉

[LTC(ret) John]

"Of course, Obama might demand they be arrested if they mock too effectively.... maybe I ought to reedit my first sentence. ;)"

Heh - I'll visit you in the re-education camp. Well, until I get tossed in too.

[nicole just can't even!]

I don't see why FSM doesn't mock all religions equally. If you see it as mocking Christianity more than Islam, that really is just because Christianity is more dominant where and when you are living.

[Bobarian]

And because somebody might declare jihad on you for mocking their religion, or killing their goats...

[R C Dean]

They're not so much atheist, as far as I can tell, as anti-Christian.

NTTAWT, of course, but truth in advertising is always a good thing. They can call themselves atheists when they mock all theistic religions. As long as they only mock Christianinty, they are anti-Christian, not atheist.

[Suthenboy]

"They're not so much atheist, as far as I can tell, as anti-Christian."

Yep.

Having grown up in a rural, southern baptist area I understand how people of limited intelligence would react this way to xianity. Other than spite, I am not sure what their cause is, they sure as hell arent winning anyone over to their side.

[$park?]

I understand how people of limited intelligence would react this way to xianity

Apparently you really don't.

[wareagle]

do they make sure they put up stuff mocking Muslims during Eid, or Ramadan?

of course, not. They choose from the list of groups whose mocking has been approved.

[Tonio]

See my 9:57 below, WE. Say it with me - "historically privileged group."

[wareagle]

if by historically privileged, you mean a group that celebrates a holiday than even the atheists get into, then you would be right. I would take the Santa Monica crowd more seriously if it offered something more than jeering.

[Whiterun Guard]

Seriously. Only an idiot would think this would change anyone's mind about anything, particularly religion.

Then again, only a complete ass wouldn't think it was funny.

[LTC(ret) John]

Eh, more like poor manners than hilarious. But if they filled out their forms and paid their dues - be my guest, just don't wait for the applause.

[Tonio]

Only an idiot would think this would change anyone's mind about anything, particularly religion.

And you're entitled to your opinion Arrow-in-the-Knee Dude. Obviously, it's not going to influence an adult True Believer. But it may give that non-believing child trapped in a religious household his/her first exposure to the reality that not everyone accepts those pious lies as truth. So yeah, we're doing it for the chirrun.

[LTC(ret) John]

"we're doing it"

We?

[$park?]

"we're doing it"

We?

Yeah, we? I don't really want other non-religious groups speaking on my behalf.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

But it may give that non-believing child trapped in a religious household

Maybe you shouldn't project your life experiences onto those of others. It's not like these "non-believing children" are being assaulted by their classmates with KJV bibles every day.

[LTC(ret) John]

Nothing wrong - but its not just because they are jeering at Jews and Christians, it is that someone feels they have to make a special point to go pee on someone's holiday. What motivates someone to do that - will they go find a Hindu temple and beat a stuffed cow up just in front of it - find a mosque and set up a banner proclaiming "Bacon Uber Alles?"

Its as original as a Madonna tour/act/show.

[$park?]

Possibly when the Hindus and Muslims become absolutely unbearable at a specific time of year they might decide to do that.

[LTC(ret) John]

Have you been around people fasting during Ramadan?! 🙂

[Corneliusm]

In many places, Hindus and Muslims are absolutely unbearable year-round.

[Tonio]

will they go find a Hindu temple and beat a stuffed cow up just in front of it - find a mosque and set up a banner proclaiming "Bacon Uber Alles?

Totally false analogy. These people are not objecting to what people do on private property; they are objecting to the historically preferential treatment that christians have received for religious displays on public property.

Intellectual dishonesty is ill-becoming to you, sir.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Apparently all it took for these antitheists to overcome the Religious Jim Crow and receive vastly disproportionate representation was... let's see here... "submit the appropriate applications".

Glass ceiling broken, apparently.

And if they hadn't used that platform to piss over the whole celebration, they could have participated for years to come.

[$park?]

And if they hadn't used that platform to piss over the whole celebration, they could have participated for years to come.

So the group that filed the required paperwork, put up the cash, and spent time putting up scenes that weren't Christian ruined it for everybody? Did you miss this part of the article?

The Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee argues in its lawsuit that atheists have the right to protest, but that freedom doesn't trump the Christians' right to free speech.

[nicole just can't even!]

And if they hadn't used that platform to piss over the whole celebration, they could have participated for years to come.

As SF said above:

One of the church/state dodges of Christian who want to use public space for displays of Christmas or other holidays is that it is non-denominational and that any other religion could use the spaces just like they do.

I guess that was always the lie I presumed it was.

That "pissing all over" is the only thing that makes it okay to put the Christmas stuff up in the first place.

[Quetzalcoatl]

One of the church/state dodges of Christian who want to use public space for displays of Christmas or other holidays is that it is non-denominational and that any other religion could use the spaces just like they do.

I guess that was always the lie I presumed it was.

To respond to Se?orFree's point, I don't think that any Christian groups are saying that nativity scenes are nondenominational. I think the point is that there are fairly universal values of peace and goodwill at the heart of Christmas, and that there is value in people from a multitudes of backgrounds publicly celebrating the way that their tradition honors these values.

That is the benefit of a pluralistic society.

NB: I'm not trying to characterize what many or most Christians think about public celebrations, merely offering my own "dodge".

[LTC(ret) John]

I am not making an analogy as to public use - it just seems they have the red ass for those damned Xtian Godbags, maybe Jews too - but nobody else?

[Tonio]

And not because they are xtians per se, Col (@10:05). If, say, Hinduism was the dominant, historically privileged religion, they'd be making fun of them. Atheists in India twit Hindus for the same reason that atheists in US twit xtians.

Merry effin xmas.

[LTC(ret) John]

So it is just a snit over the local largest group of believers? As long as their permit was done and fee paid, etc., I guess it is their snit to indulge. Shutting down the thing is no answer.

[$park?]

Shutting down the thing is no answer.

It was the city's idea to shut it down after a Christian group filed a lawsuit. Reading the article would have cleared that up.

[LTC(ret) John]

I knew the city's response was due to such, Sparks - I think that is a wrong thing to do - if the local I hate Godbags bunch filled out their forms and did everything else the OUTRAGED Christians did, then it should have been allowed to continue.

My point is merely about manners and motivations, not legality or such.

[T]

BTW, I'm still taking investors for my new product line: Mohammed's Finest Kosher Pork Bacon & Ham.

[LTC(ret) John]

Put me in for 10 shares, please.

[Ska]

Of stock or smoky, meaty, glorious halal kosher bacon?

[LTC(ret) John]

BOTH!

[Suthenboy]

I will buy some.

[Tonio]

But it's their time and money to waste, Col. And it's not about edgy, it's about having one's turn.

Try, just for a minute, a little thought exercise where you envision yourself as something other than a christian and how annoying it is to see christian religious displays (but not those of any other religion) in the public square.

[?Ex Nihilo?]

Try, just for a minute, a little thought exercise where you envision yourself as something other than a christian and how annoying it is to see christian religious displays (but not those of any other religion) in the public square.

Tonio,

I am not a Christian. But it is not annoying to me to see any religious display in the public square. It might help to look inside yourself to figure out why it is annoying to you to see them there. As long as the government is not excluding the other religions, I don't care one way or the other.

[$park?]

I am not a Christian. But it is not annoying to me to see any religious display in the public square.

Good on you. And I feel the same way. However, not everyone does and they should have every right to express their views openly.

[wareagle]

the only view they're expressing, sparky, is one of hostility toward a single religion. They're neither taking down ALL faiths nor making a case to gain support for their point of view. It's like someone who can only elevate himself by denigrating others.

[$park?]

It's like someone who can only elevate himself by denigrating others.

Once again, so? If they went through all of the city requirements to gain the spaces, what's the big deal? Don't they have the right to do that?

[wareagle]

Don't they have the right to do that?

no one said they didn't. Just commenting on how they chose to exercise it.

[T]

It's like someone who can only elevate himself by denigrating others.

They could be doing it just for the lulz. You've spent more than 5 minutes here, surely you've noticed the phenomenon of mocking people for entertainment.

[LTC(ret) John]

But Reason comments are free, yes? I don't get the mindset that says "lets go fill out papers and spend money and time to go mock a religion!". But it is their time and money, not mine, so go for it.

[?Ex Nihilo?]

they should have every right to express their views openly.

Agreed.

[Suthenboy]

Agreed here also. They have every right, and I will defend it.

I still retain the right to express my opinion that they are jackasses.

I am a solid atheist and over the course of my life I have helped persuade more than a few to seriously consider my point of view. Not one of them was ever swayed in the slightest by a mocking of their beliefs. Seeing that I was in fact a decent person and not a baby-eating ghoul; having in depth discussions of the logic and sense of my position worked beautifully on some.

Insulting people and putting them on the defensive does not win them over. You might as well punch someone in the nose and scream at them "Be my friend goddamnit!".

But then I guess winning people over isnt their goal.

[HazelMeade]

am a solid atheist and over the course of my life I have helped persuade more than a few to seriously consider my point of view. Not one of them was ever swayed in the slightest by a mocking of their beliefs. Seeing that I was in fact a decent person and not a baby-eating ghoul; having in depth discussions of the logic and sense of my position worked beautifully on some.

Insulting people and putting them on the defensive does not win them over.

This is true of a lot of things.
It's something a lot of liberals don't understand when it comes to conservatives. Decades of mocking conservatives on national TV and in the movies has done little to change their minds. It's just made them more angry and more radical.

[$park?]

I am a solid atheist and over the course of my life I have helped persuade more than a few to seriously consider my point of view.

Did you ever convince anyone to become an atheist?

But then I guess winning people over isnt their goal.

It's possible that it isn't, but it's still their right to do it. The best I can tell from the article, it's the Christian group that fouled the whole thing up by bringing the lawsuit. They seem to be making the argument that the atheist's free speech shouldn't be as free as Christian free speech.

[LTC(ret) John]

"Try, just for a minute, a little thought exercise where you envision yourself as something other than a christian and how annoying it is to see christian religious displays (but not those of any other religion) in the public square."

As long as they filled out their forms and paid (if that is done) I could not possibly care. I drive by a large Hindu temple and a slightly smaller mosque every day on the way to work - Their might be more Hindu adherents in Schaumburg, IL than any other faith - so what?

I've spent plenty of time in Muslim countries, and wasn't running around with hives or the creeps or such.

[LTC(ret) John]

*There*

[Suthenboy]

"Try, just for a minute, a little thought exercise where you envision yourself as something other than a christian and how annoying it is to see christian religious displays (but not those of any other religion) in the public square."

Why would it annoy me that other people believe differently than I do (i.e. they are wrong) ? Hmmm some introspection might be in order on your part.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Try, just for a minute, a little thought exercise where you envision yourself as something other than a christian and how annoying it is to see christian religious displays (but not those of any other religion) in the public square.

So, basically, you'd be miserable in just about any other country on earth.

[VG Zaytsev]

nothing better to do than go mock Jews and Christians?

How edgy.

Yep,

They'll stop being douchebags, in my book, when they start publicly mocking Islam.

How about some biting Ramada satire.

[$park?]

What we really need is a good old-fashioned holy war. I hear Israel is down with it.

[Rick Santorum]

If you're a teenage atheist.

[wareagle]

nothing spells class quite like going out of your way to insult folks who don't see things the way you do. Last I checked, the Constitution had this no law thing that meant you could worship whatever and however you wanted.

[Tim]

Seconded.

[$park?]

This is what I'm saying. There's no reason for the Christians to be the only ones allowed to show their faith.

[?Ex Nihilo?]

This is what I'm saying. There's no reason for the Christians to be the only ones allowed to show their faith.

But they are not showing their faith, they are mocking someone else's.

[$park?]

Really? So now you're mocking their faith. Who are you to determine what another person truly believes?

[?Ex Nihilo?]

Aah, so mocking other faiths is their faith, got it.

Whatever floats their boat is fine with me.

[Tonio]

But they are not showing their faith, they are mocking someone else's.

Well, atheists don't have faith. Which is the point of the whole exercise.

[Suthenboy]

Am I missing something here? I wasnt aware that that was the case.

[Cavpitalist]

"This is what I'm saying. There's no reason for the Christians to be the only ones allowed to show their faith."

Jesus.

NO FUCKING SHIT.

a.) They should have the right to express their beliefs, too!
b.) Absolutely. they're just kind of being dicks about it.
a.) You only say that because you're a stupid Christfag!
b.) I'm not a Christian. I don't give a shit, I'm just saying, this is some lame, 1985 cheesedick shit.
a.) They should have the right to express their beliefs, too!
b.) Agreed.
a.) Whatever. You Christians are so dumb.

[Tonio]

nothing spells class quite like going out of your way to insult folks who don't see things the way you do

More self-parody, FTW!

[wareagle]

it must be unpleasant in your little world, where the largest joy in life is making fun of someone else.

[Tonio]

Oh, someone is all butt-hurt and has resorted to insults.

[protefeed]

Can you two get a room? So someone somewhere on the internet doesn't like you. So what? Ignore them.

[mr simple]

That was such a unique and blatant example of the violation of the First Amendment that I felt I had to act," said the 44-year-old set builder.

I don't think he understands what's in the first amendment. Why are public atheists so vindictive? I can only assume inappropriate touching by a priest.

[Restoras]

Why are public atheists so vindictive?

Zeal of the converted. They are so convicned of the rightousness of their view that any deviation is apostasy and anathema to them, and fills them with the rage to force conversions to their own faith.

Just like ideologues everywhere.

[$park?]

Just like ideologues everywhere.

There are militant atheists who go out of their way to shove your nose in their atheism. Then there are atheists who are just sick of hearing about religion everywhere. Unfortunately, the second group constantly gets lumped into the first.

[Tonio]

But insisting that you be allowed to place your religious displays on public property is the ultimate rubbing-others-noses in one's own belief system.

[LTC(ret) John]

As long it is open to everyone, who cares? As you chided up thread, consistency, yes?

[Azathoth!!]

The problem, of course, is that atheists have no holidays, no cherished symbols to share within and without their community.

Since they have nothing they believe everyone else should be forced to have nothing too, and to that end they file the forms and pay the fees to ridicule and belittle the holiday and the people who enjoy it.

In short, they put up displays to say "Damn you for enjoying a holiday that I'm just too cool and smart to allow myself to enjoy"

[$park?]

Since they have nothing they believe everyone else should be forced to have nothing too, and to that end they file the forms and pay the fees to ridicule and belittle the holiday and the people who enjoy it.

This statement is wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. It's about the same as saying that God hates America because of gays and we should celebrate every soldier that gets killed.

[Suthenboy]

"I can only assume inappropriate touching by a priest."

The thought crossed my mind as well.

Hmmm I feel compelled to point out that priests are unfairly labeled as being child molesters. The truth is that the clergy of all sects and religions ( particularly islam ) are guilty of this.

To qualify that statement I dont mean that all clergy of all religious groups are child molesters, but that child molesters are attracted to that line of work and comprise an equal portion of all of them. Ok, except islam. They all are. Pederasty is built into that one.

[LTC(ret) John]

"Ok, except islam. They all are. Pederasty is built into that one."

I don't know if that is Islam as much as tribe/culture - I still shudder thinking about what was happening to a number of 12-14 year old boys in Parwan, Kapisa and Kabul provinces. "Boys are for pleasure, women are for babies" - ugh.

[$park?]

"Boys are for pleasure, women are for babies"

I think that's been around almost as long as humanity. Almost every ancient Greek culture was the same.

[Pi Guy]

Well I, for one, have been touched by his nodley appendage.

[tarran]

T... because, you know, NASA no longer has a manned space-travel capability.

Which is awesome fucking news. The U.S. government shouldn't be in the business of throwing taxpayer money away on vanity projects. Let us (meaning people like me who want to see space explored) spend our own money on it.

[DJF]

""Three American astronauts""'

Actually it was 1 American, 1 Japanese and 1 Russian. But true, NASA does not have a manned space travel capability.

[tarran]

Which is awesome news, right?

[DJF]

Its semi awesome news because as we speak, NASA is spending billions to build a new NASA manned space travel capability

[DJF]

Orion the manned capsule

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_capsule

SLS the launcher

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System

[Tim]

I think we can guarantee that both systems will be extremely costly, mechanically unreliable and look great with the flag painted on the side.

[DJF]

Plus it will be a white elephant for at least a while. That is because the Orion and SLS are designed for going outside Earth orbit but NASA does not have the money for equipment like landers, habitats and other extra stuff to do anything outside of Earth orbit once they get there.

[DJF]

Places where the Orion/SLS is suppose to be used is, the Lagrange points, Moon orbit, oon landing, Asteroids, Mars moons, Mars landing. But with all the money going to SLS and Orion they have no money for the extra stuff needed for those places.

[Tim]

And nobody is really sure that radiation in interplanetary space will fry the crew.

[DJF]

They are even talking about using older astronauts who won't live long enough to develop cancer.

So suit up Clint Eastwood.

[RBS]

Yes it is. I was arguing with my cousin about this the other night after she lamented the demise of the space shuttle.

[Bee Tagger]

Actually it was 1 American, 1 Japanese and 1 Russian.

I still don't think I get the joke. What ethnicity was the bartender?

[Kaptious Kristen]

And which was the priest, and which the rabbi?

[DJF]

He was obviously the monkey, now you get it!!!

[PS]

... and Japanese astronaut said, "That no sushi, that riquid oxygen!"

[Tim]

"In America we spare no expense in building spacecraft."

"In Japan we use the highest technology for all systems down to the smallest detail."

"Put finger to here please, otherwise air is leaking out before landing"

[Tim]

On the bright side the Gobbermint does own two car companies.

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.S. Army Sergeant John Russell faces trial and a potential death penalty for the 2009 killing of five fellow servicemen in Baghdad.

So soon? Three years is not nearly enough time for Army prosecutors to mount a case.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I'm guessing it will take them a lot longer to get around to Manning.

[Rich]

Who?

/sarc

[LTC(ret) John]

Some guy - right after a workplace violence case.

[db]

Say, wasn't there some guy in Texas? Nah, I must be mistaken.

[DJF]

That was workplace violence brought about by the racism inherent in the system.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama Re-Election Brings Israel Mideast War
http://news.investors.com/ibd-.....ed-war.htm

The ever-expanding Benghazi debacle should have made it clear to voters that President Obama, far from being a peacemaker, is someone committed to all the foolish things Churchill warned against.

Now, the realization might begin to take hold that Americans, without realizing it, voted for a major Middle East war. And it may not be the last war in our near future, given Obama's ongoing weakening of America.

[$park?]

This is ... I don't even ...

[Tim]

Obviously with Syria in civil war Israel felt they could smack down HAMAS with out a volley of artillery from Lebanon. So far they are correct.

[wareagle]

so it would be better if Israel ignored it when Hamas shot rockets at them?

[Tim]

Not saying that

[LTC(ret) John]

I think he means they picked their spot quite well.

[wareagle]

yup...I misunderstood.

[np]

Sexy pussy cat Heo Yun Mi

[Lord Humungus]

Fred Hiatt: A scandal we can't love
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

In the era of a small all-volunteer force, many Americans don't know anyone serving in Afghanistan. Most will never meet a general officer. In Congress, in the media, on university faculties, there are few veterans. We stand and cheer at ballgames when wounded warriors are shown on the big screen, and our cheers are heartfelt. But they don't bring us closer to understanding what it's like to fight a war, or come back from one, or spend every other year apart from spouse and family. These days, we call anyone in a uniform a hero, and that's understandable. But it's not quite correct.

What many of them are, Petraeus and Allen among them, are people who have done hard, honorable duty for their country. When this is all over, I hope we get straight what rates an asterisk in their life stories and what really counts.

[Hell's Librarian]

When this is all over, I hope we get straight what rates an asterisk in their life stories and what really counts.

...And I am sure the WaPo and NYT will be there to tell us all what that is.

[LTC(ret) John]

God knows I'll be waiting for them to tell me what was important, and what was not!

[The Late P Brooks]

Intentions matter

C. Boyden Gray and Adam J. White, lawyers representing a community bank challenging the constitutionality of the CFPB's "formation and operation," note in The Weekly Standard: "By writing new law through case-by-case enforcement, and by asserting 'exception authority' to effectively rewrite statutes, the CFPB is substantially increasing bankers' compliance costs. The absence of clear, simple, up-front rules will force banks to hire ever more lawyers and regulatory compliance officers to keep up with changing laws -- an outcome that inherently favors big banks over smaller ones." This exacerbates the favoritism inherent in the substantial implicit subsidy Dodd-Frank confers on some banks by designating "systemically important financial institutions" that are "too big to fail."

[Kaptious Kristen]

Pabst? That's still around?

2Chilly demonstrates his complete lack of awareness of hipster culture.

[LTC(ret) John]

And Chicago culture - I'd have him avoid middle aged and up Cubs, Bears and Blackhawks fans.

[T]

I'd have him avoid middle aged and up Cubs, Bears and Blackhawks fans.

Good advice for so many, many reasons.

[Bee Tagger]

Southeast Asian nation of Burma Monday, calling on the country's leaders to continue reforms that have, in less than a year, set it on a path toward respectability in the international community.

Do as I say, not as I do.

[Rich]

In the Burmese language, Burma is known as Bama.

Coincidence?

[db]

Roll Burma?

[LTC(ret) John]

Roll Burma Shave?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Bronco Bama?!

[?Ex Nihilo?]

Do as I say, not as I do.

Eight words that perfectly describes US foreign policy.

[LTC(ret) John]

Foreign policy only?

[Bones]

8 words that describe government.

[Ted S.]

Whose verdict comes down first? John Russell or Nidal Hasan?

[The Late P Brooks]

Even worse, say Gray and White (in their complaint for the community bank), Dodd-Frank "delegates effectively unbounded power to the CFPB, and couples that power with provisions insulating CFPB against meaningful checks" by the other branches of government. This nullifies the checks and balances of the system of separation of powers. Courts are too reluctant to restrict Congress' power to delegate quasi-legislative powers, but the CFPB is an especially gross violation of the Constitution's Article I, Section 1: "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested" in Congress. By creating a CFPB that floats above the Constitution's tripartite design of government, Congress did not merely degrade itself, it injured all Americans.

Fuck you, character limit.

[Ted S.]

In Soviet Russia, character limit fucks YOU!

[Quetzalcoatl]

And we know that reason employees spend a fair amount of time in Russia.

[np]

Heo Yun Mi just lovely

[Fist of Etiquette]

Three American astronauts hitched a ride from the International Space Station back to Earth through Kazakhstan...

On board the Borat.

[np]

Heo Yun Mi:
http://idolretouch.blogspot.co.....un-mi.html

[Lord Humungus]

I'm sure you can all breathe a big sigh of relief now:

Astronomer Tycho Brahe 'not poisoned', says expert
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie.....t-20344201

"It is impossible that Tycho Brahe could have been murdered," he explained. When asked whether other poisons could have been used, Dr Vellev said: "If there were other poisons in the beard, we would have been able to see it in the analyses."

Instead, he says, the description given by Kepler of Brahe's death at the age of 54 matches up well with the progression of a severe bladder infection.

[db]

I thought it was well established that he died of a bladder problem brought on by trying to hold his pee too long.

[Rich]

Like Arafat?

[Bee Tagger]

Three American astronauts hitched a ride from the International Space Station back to Earth through Kazakhstan

Hopefully they were aware that it's not quoting Ralph Kramden that will get you shoved out the airlock, it's Borat.

[$park?]

High five!

[CE]

Kazakhstan's not part of Earth? Where is it?

[np]

USAF Concedes $1B USD Data Project Was Pretty Much Useless

[LTC(ret) John]

No room to cut defense, eh? BAH!

[Delroy]

I knew someone familiar with the USAF ECSS program who, years ago, referred to their efforts to save the program as "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." Apparently, he was right.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Dubbed the "Expeditionary Combat Support System" (ECSS), the project involved enterprise resource planning" (ERP). ERP refers to efforts to merge external and internal data flows, such as expenses, manufacturing metrics, logistics, contractor relationships, and unified messaging into a single flow of data.

What a managerialist buzzword salad. This is the kind of shit that shows the military brass is far more concerned with pointless gobbledy-gook to put on their OPRs than winning wars.

[Drake]

All the ranked SEC teams except LSU play cupcake subdivision teams. Are are rewarded by higher BCS rankings. The SEC sucks.

http://duckinunfriendlywaters......-they.html

[wareagle]

Who did the Ducks open their season with again? Give it a rest, though I'll join you in questioning why an OT loss to a good Stanford team counts more than a larger-than-the-score-shows loss to a good A&M team. And, I am hoping Fla State exposes UF for being the overrated team the Gators are.

[Drake]

I'm no Oregon fan - although I would love to see them shred one of the insulated overrated SEC teams in a bowl. (Looking at future schedules Tennessee seems to be the exception to the SEC all cupcake rule - they play Oregon next year and USC, Nebraska, and Oklahoma in future years.)

When an entire conference plays FCS teams, it ought to raise some eyebrows. Why don't their AD's have the balls to schedule non conference games against BCS teams? I'll be betting that all of them are exposed if they get decent bowl match-ups.

[wareagle]

every team plays some weak sisters. Most teams play a few early; the SEC spread them out, mostly as preludes to rivalry weekend.

Oregon had its chance against the SEC two years ago and last year, and was manhandled both times. I was pulling for the Ducks Saturday; K-State, too, but neither could do what it needed to.

[Drake]

Weak sisters?

Most Division 1-A teams would be embarrassed to schedule games against subdivision opponents.

[wareagle]

Oregon started with Arky State and TN Tech; Ohio State regularly plays Akron and Youngstown; and and and. Come on; you act as though the SEC invented this. It didn't.

[Drake]

They didn't invent it - they perfected it. When all the homers think you are great, why play against good non-conference teams and prove them wrong?

[KDN]

OSU has played a MAC school every year since '97 (which may be more of a recruiting play than anything), but the home and home with YSU were the only games against FCS schools since 1990 (I didn't feel like looking back any further since S-R doesn't track a hefty portion of non FBS schools). I'd hardly call that regular.

Most schools will schedule D-II opponents every once in a while, but I think the SEC's upper echelon (of which I do include Auburn) is the only one that does it at the rate of the also-rans.

[KDN]

Blegh, erased my Auburn blurb. Final sentence, 1st paragraph:

Auburn, by contrast, has played a non-major school in 10 of the last 11 years.

[Calidissident]

Losing 22-19 on a last second FG is getting manhandled?

[Cavpitalist]

Pretty much every team in the top half of the SEC has been playing tough out of conference matchups for years now.

This is the year the SEC will be exposed, huh? The undefeated record in National Championships, most BCS wins, best BCS record, most different teams both participating in and wining championship games, most different teams with BCS game wins, and best bowl record over the last decade are all flukes resulting from late-season paycheck games, right?

The SEC is better because it has better coaches with better athletes in better stadiums in better climates. Trying to rationalize away a run of dominance like the league is on now, the greatest run any conference has ever had, is sad and lame.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

And the current run of dominance tends to overshadow the fact that the SEC used to be looked on as a weaker conference overall back in the day. 20-25 years ago, CFB was littered with independent powerhouses like Penn State, Miami, Florida State, and Notre Dame, and conferences were top-heavy talent-wise (OU and Nebraska dominating the Big 8, USC the Pac-12, Michigan and tOSU the Big 10, etc.).

The SEC has done better than any other conference in exploiting the current CFB competitive climate to maximum advantage, which they weren't able to do two decades ago.

[Drake]

What was Georgia's tough non-conference game? South Carolina's? LSU's? Texas A&M? Tennessee? Anyone?

I found 2 ranked teams - Alabama playing Michigan in week 1, and Florida vs. Florida State next week. That's it.

[KDN]

S. Carolina and Georgia's in-state rivalry games are non-conference. Those are their tough assignments every year.

Missing from the list:

Auburn vs. Clemson, week 1
Arkansas vs. Rutgers, week 4 (RU was unranked, but they're top-25 now, look likely to win the Big East, and have a legitimately good defense)
Kentucky vs. Louisville, Week 1
Kentucky vs. Kent State, Week 2 (KU keeping Kent State from going undefeated has to be the biggest embarassment of the year. S-E-C! S-E-C!)

[Cavpitalist]

Tough games? Here are the OOC games against major-conference opponents.

Missouri: Arizona State, Syracuse
South Carolina: East Carolina, at Clemson
Florida: at Florida State
Alabama: Michigan at Arlington
Mississippi: Texas
Auburn: Clemson at Atlanta
Vanderbilt: at Northwestern, at Wake Forest
Georgia: Georgia Tech
Tennessee: North Carolina State at Atlanta
LSU: Washington
Kentucky: at Louisville
Arkansas: Rutgers

Add that to an SEC conference schedule, and whining that mean ole SEC teams throw in 3 cupcakes with their 9 tough games begins to look purty dumb, ESPECIALLY as the league CONTINUES to dominate the big bowl games and games between top-tier teams (ie using an early-season one-score win by 10-1 Clemson over 3-8 Auburn isn't exactly relevant).

[Spartacus]

Playing in the ACC means you get a half-dozen cupcakes scheduled every year. And that's not counting the Savannah States.

Prediction: EJ Manuel throws a couple of pick-sixes, Gators go on to win 14-9, despite having 150 yards of total offense. Pretty much a reversal of last year.

[wareagle]

I don't see it. The game is in Tallahassee where the Noles play much better, and UF has escaped more than once this year.

[Bones]

The Gators are awful this year. The computers have them ranked 2nd in the country but computers can't watch football and see how bad they are. Stas are junk if you've ever seen UF this year. But Florida State appreciates their high ranking for this week's game since we need all the help we can get. We used to have the toughest schedule in the country year in and year out and still finish top 4 every year. Now, our league is as bad as it's ever been and no one else wants to play us so the computers hate us because our schedule strength is non-existent. I think even if we were undefeated we'd be out of the top 2.

[Lord Humungus]

Pabst does exist, but they don't really make any beer. Instead, the actual brewing is farmed out to Miller.

Related: The Twinkie: Will it return as a Mexican expat?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2.....ican-expat

Food producers ConAgra and Flowers Food, the American company behind Nature Valley granola, have expressed interest and so has Little Debbie baker McKee Foods. But another possible bidder hints at the future of Twinkies and maybe the US bakery business as a whole: Mexico's Grupo Bimbo, the world's largest bread baking firm, which already owns parts of Sara Lee, Entenmann's and Thomas English Muffins.

OFFSHORING!!! or inshoring... or something.

[gaijin]

TO Bimbos nonetheless!

[Ted S.]

Dey took er jerbs Twinkies!

[LTC(ret) John]

If they can improve Hostess stuff to be as good as a Bimbo pound cake... I'm in!

[SIV]

You're missing the libertarian angle:

Bimbo could be more competitive as they buy free market sugar at the world price and aren't forced to use subsidized, tariff-protected , centrally-planned AMERICAN SUGAR.

Ag policy killed Hostess.

[SIV]

With US sugar tariffs set artificially high to protect Florida sugar-growing concerns, a non-unionized shop with access to lower-priced sugar in Mexico could be the Twinkie lifeline, economists suggest.

I saw some other article that says Hostess' main problem was having to pay artificially inflated sugar prices.

[Rick Santorum]

I saw some other article that says Hostess was mismanaged. When you consider that their CEOs were pulling in over a million a year and they had filed for bankruptcy, the lolbertarian angle doesn't hold up.

[LTC(ret) John]

Was the $1.5 million/year enough to put them in BK?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Apparently they've also had pretty massive turnover among CEOs, so you've got to consider the pensions and golden parachutes as well.

But no, it's likely the systemic management incompetence (seen in the CEO turnover) wot did 'em in.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Ag policy killed a lot of jobs in Chicago. Chicago used to be a center of confectionary production.

[Spoonman.]

Bimbo has an enormous operation in Horsham, PA.

[alittlesense]

"Grupo Bimbo...is that Jenny McCarthy's entourage?

[robc]

Actually, they dont use just Miller any more.

It used to be 100% Miller but its spread around now.

[Lord Humungus]

ah, my information is old. I do know that Pabst owns several brands of beer: Old Style, Schlitz(?), Strohs, etc but none of it is brewed "in house".

[Stormy Dragon]

o/~ She went down to da dock and wondered: How much lumber we got here?
She counted all the boards and slits between 'em, hit the end and disappeared,
I guess it's true what dey say -- when you're outa slits, you're outa pier. o/~

[Restoras]

I've seen Schaeffer (The one beer to have when you're having more than one!) back on shelves recently. I find this trend odd.

[HazelMeade]

Someone will make "high-end" "gourmet" Twinkies and take over their market, selling them for 3 times the price of a regular Twinkee.

They'll be made with organic hormone-free whipped cream stuffed inside an artisanal whole grain shell.

[Bones]

Then it will taste like shit and hipsters will buy it by the case and hopefully die from smelling their own farts.

[Rich]

Fatal crash caused by sneezing

Drivers who insisted upon getting behind the wheel while ill were similar to drivers who were under the influence of "four double whiskeys"

Get the cops to enforce healthy driving! It's cold-and-flu season!

[Bee Tagger]

We're going to long for the days when we had to ask permission for cold medication.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"You registered over the legal snot limit, assume the position."

[SugarFree]

doublewhiskeycokenoice

[Pi Guy]

Once again, it's important to note that the offense was the accident and not the fact that the car was operated someone Driving While Wheezing.

Stay up late watching Ravens v. Steelers? You're dangerous. It's just not a crime unless you hit something with your car.

Results not process.

[Virginian]

If you stayed up late watching Ravens-Steelers you're either yinzer scum or on work release from the Maryland DOC.

That's the one NFL game I wish a meteor could hit.

[sloopyinca]

Man reportedly "pulls stick from waistband and throws it at cops." Cops open fire and kill him.

[$park?]

"According to the release, the officers feared for their lives and fired their weapons, striking Gonzalez."

It's right there, sloop. They feared for their lives. I'll be you expected them to just stand there and take the risk of being hit by a stick.

[VG Zaytsev]

It's amazing that all of the heroes, these days, are complete pussies.

[Drake]

If those details are true, either he was committing suicide by cop or was just too dumb to live.

[sloopyinca]

Or he was pissed and threw a harmless stick at people breaking up a family gathering...in the middle of the day when it was easily identifiable.

Sorry, but throwing a stick hardly sounds like an offense that is "too dumb to live". Hell, we used to lob rocks at cops when I was a kid and they'd chase us through the back alleys of town. Do you think more than one of them opening fire would have been a proper response? Not unless they all wanted to be dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night and get strung up on the oak trees in their front yards.

[LTC(ret) John]

"The subject threw an object and the officers feared for their safety and their lives and responded with appropriate force"

- two dead 11 year olds having thrown snowballs.

/dystopian near future

[NoVAHockey]

DC cop pulled his gun after being hit with a snowball. i'm too lazy to find the link. happened last year, IIRC

[Drake]

Who the fuck keeps a stick in his waistband? Somebody who wants to look like he has a gun or knife, or a suicidal moron.

[sloopyinca]

Yeah, I'd like to see if that stick story is really even true. But either way, once he threw it, it was no longer a danger to the officers, so they shouldn't have felt in danger anymore, unless they feared he'd use his Sith powers to levitate it off the ground and poke one of them in the eye.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm not sure that the average cop understands physics that well.

[?Ex Nihilo?]

They understand F = M x A.

[Auric Demonocles]

Fun = Mayhem x Authority ?

[?Ex Nihilo?]

It is the formula for force.

[Delroy]

"Excuse me while I whip this out."

[Jerry on the road]

Who is McAfee? The fugutive has a blog.

[Hell's Librarian]

Thanks for the link to this. It is interesting reading.

[Lord Humungus]

The Hater's Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog
http://deadspin.com/5959212/th.....ma-catalog

I bought a Williams-Sonoma cheese grater for my mom for Christmas once because I had no idea what to get her and I was in a mall and there the grater was, just large enough to take up space under the tree and just cheap enough to let her know that I put NO thought or care into buying a gift for her. Anyway, I paid for this grater with a credit card. And when a place like Williams-Sonoma gets your credit card and thus your address, you are on the mailing list for life. Every holiday season, my mail slot gets bukkake'd with monstrous catalogs packed with shit I would never, ever buy, and the W-S catalog stands out among them.

While certain retailers like Hammacher Schlemmer are almost intentionally ludicrous ("Buy this personal hovercraft for $80,000!"), there's no wink to be found in a Williams-Sonoma catalog. The people at W-S aren't the least bit self-conscious about getting you to pay $35 for mailed gravy. So I thought I would go through this holiday season's catalog, which has spent a solid week atop my shitter, and point out some of the more ridiculous items. Because there are people out there who buy this shit. The question is ... who? And why? Let's try to figure that out now.

[Rich]

While certain retailers like Hammacher Schlemmer are almost intentionally ludicrous ("Buy this personal hovercraft for $80,000!")

HS insists on calling it "*The* Personal Hovercraft".

"'Presumptuous'? MOI?"

[Ted S.]

Obviously, Hammacher and Schlemmer went to tOSU.

[Rasilio]

Hey I get all my Monocles from Hammacher

[CE]

Their tophats aren't that great though.

[Kaptious Kristen]

OMFG....does this not scream "made by hipster douchebag fuckticks"?

Item #02-759472 Reclaimed rustic chicken coop

Williams-Sonoma says: "Built exclusively for us in their urban garden workshop, Laughing Chickens Coops have a classic, old-world design, constructed from the highest quality reclaimed redwood. $65 delivery."

Price: $759.95 (with painted chicken), $599.95 (plain)

Notes from Drew: This is a real item in the catalog. And honestly, if you're buying a goddamn chicken coop from a catalog, why NOT spring for the painted chicken? It was hand painted in an urban garden workshop, people. You CANNOT say you are a true farm-to-table household unless you have a coop to call your own. Muffy Wilshire and her fam bought a coop last year and now they can't live without it. Could you imagine having a frittata made from STORE-BOUGHT eggs now? I shudder at the thought. You can also get a beehive box for $500 if you're a fucking crazy person. Seriously, a chicken coop. People with money are so good at throwing it away.

[Spoonman.]

Fresh eggs for your artisnal mayonnaise!

Also, people used to use all sorts of nasty chemicals to treat wood, and with wood. Why would anybody want to grow food in reclaimed redwood? What if that redwood was used as a mercury sluice in a gold assayer's?

[Ted S.]

You say this as though having hipsters be accidentally poisoned is a bad thing.

[Ska]

Hipsters don't buy $800 chicken coops man.

[Kaptious Kristen]

No - hipster make $800 chicken coops.

[sloopyinca]

Sloopy's starting to get upset!

[$park?]

Sounds like the same douchebags that will redo your front walk with recycled stone.

[Joe M]

Thank you so much for that link. One of my favorites:

Williams-Sonoma says: "Baked by trappist monks at a monastery in the Missouri Ozarks. Order early. Supply is limited."

Price:$39.95

Notes from Drew: Everything about that sales copy just blew my skull. There are trappist monks in the Ozarks? Do they brew artisanal meth? I don't trust fruitcake to begin with

[rho]

"Redneck Friar", great screen name or the greatest screen name?

[Tonio]

And if you drill down into the comments on that DeadSpin article there's some truly sickening commie rhetoric about how the catalog shouldn't even exist because anyone with enough money to afford that crap should be buying healthcare for strangers.

[Stormy Dragon]

Same Schtick done better:

http://catalogliving.net/

[Lord Humungus]

Peter Pan and Superman fined after scuffle over bid to grope nun
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.u.....story.html

[Ted S.]

Two nuns were sitting on a park bench when suddenly, a streaker ran right past them.

One of the nuns had a stroke. The other one couldn't reach that far.

[Rich]

Two nuns were sitting on a park bench when suddenly, a streaker ran right past them.

The older nun said "Oh, Sister, show him your cross!"

So the other one yelled "Hey, Mister, put some fucking clothes on!"

[Hell's Librarian]

LOL. I know nuns who'd say exactly that.

[R C Dean]

No kidding.

I used to work in a building with the Catholic Hospital Association. The boss nun used to park her Cadillac in the handicapped space, because who's going to tow a nun's car?

[np]

Peter Schiff talks to a bunch of random people in New Orleans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXpwAOHJsxg
Is a college degree worth the cost? You decide

[Kaptious Kristen]

Interestingly, not many of those are useless crap degrees (there are a few, though - "Asian Studies" being one). Lots of math, engineering, and tech degrees in there.

How many Hurricanes did Schiff have while filming this?

[gaijin]

I do wonder about the choice of location...it's not like there are a bunch of tech firms in NO, right?

[RBS]

My BA is pretty useless (History) but at least I can say it with a straight face when someone asks.

[nicole just can't even!]

I think the "useless BA" joke is little better than a joke, really. There are so many jobs out there that require a BA but don't need a particular skill set other than "don't be a fucking moron, and please be able to write well" that there are plenty of things you could study in the social sciences or humanities and still do fine.

That is, unless you expect to actually use your [x] studies degree in your job.

[wareagle]

in my experience, the "please be able to write well" requirement derails a good many college grads. No, adding an apostrophe does not make the singular into a plural and text shorthand is not acceptable business communication.

[LTC(ret) John]

We have to get English majors to get anyone who can actually express a thought in writing - I don't know what the hell they are teaching in business schools lately.

[Restoras]

LTC, having taken a BA in History and then an MBA I can attest that MBA programs do not teach any writing skills whatsoever. I used to be consistently appalled at the complete absence of writing skills from graduates of so-called top MBA programs. It has become apparent that "B-School" is really just another "check-the-box" credential.

[nicole just can't even!]

Bad writing is almost more rampant than you could imagine--and I say "almost" because we have the internet now, so you can see it all around you. But you might think it's just idiots and crazy people writing like that online. Well, as an editor, I can tell you that normal, intelligent-seeming adults, including ones who write for a living, are just about as bad.

Well, the ones who write for a living aren't quite as bad, but you'd probably be surprised. And the ones who don't--it's just scary.

[LTC(ret) John]

Great - thanks Resotras. I may remain cynical about the value of B-school...

[mr simple]

They're teaching how to pass a test. What else?

[?Ex Nihilo?]

"don't be a fucking moron, and please be able to write well"

A BA degree does not guarantee this, unfortunately.

[nicole just can't even!]

Oh it doesn't guarantee it at all, those skills are just totally unrelated to area of study.

[Restoras]

Yes. When I was in college (late 80's) it was still expected that you would be able to write well.

Not so much now.

[Suthenboy]

And we have a winner. So much THIS.

Colleges churn out gobs of incompetent illiterates with fancy sounding degrees.

Just in the last year my wife, a department head at a major hospital, fired an employee who has a graduate degree because the guy was completely illiterate. She had me try to read some of his reports to prove to me she wasnt lying or exaggerating. Holeee shit. The guy faked writing the same way someone fakes the words to a song they dont know. It was illegible and I could make no sense to the point of me not being able to figure out what the subject of the report was.

Good fucking riddance. I hope the guy is waving a sign in front of a strip club on bourbon street.

[SugarFree]

Creative Writing major, Philosophy minor. Woo! Useless!

[Hell's Librarian]

Haha. I was English and History. The English part has proven more or less useful; the history not so much. I assume, as with many librarians, you wanted to be a novelist or something along those lines?

[R C Dean]

History and Philosophy, which turns out to be pretty much the ideal prep for law school.

Seriously, after getting worked over with a rubber hose (metaphorically!) in Philosophy for three years, law school wasn't really that much of a challenge.

[Shit-Eating Aardvark]

He's a world renowned slash/fic writer.

[Rasilio]

Heh I was a Physics major.

Problem was that as a Physics major I could do basic math and recognized that a BS in Physics didn't actually qualify you to do anything but get a Masters in Physics or a teachning certificate and teach High School.

The Masters in Physics qualified you to be a low paid solderer and bottle washer for a PHD, likely while you pursued your PHD yourself at which point you were qualified to spend half your life writing grant applications trying to get your research funded.

For that privlege I was borrowing $10K a year.

Or I could drop out of school and get a job in electronics paying $40K a year right away.

It is a shame however that so many idiots in HR seem to think that a college degree means something

[Lord Humungus]

BS in CS, math minor, and (ha!) a Philosophy minor. Which makes me sound smart 'n' all (double-ha!).

[db]

And an erudite wielder of the apostrophe!

[Quetzalcoatl]

He put all his points in apostrophe dual wielding.

[Auric Demonocles]

What about that one guy majored in "science"?

[sloopyinca]

The girl in the Youtube screencap doesn't look too happy but she does have a nice rack.

That is all.

[Cavpitalist]

This was all I took away from the video.

Boobs.

[Pi Guy]

I wish my father had told me to be a plumber...

[sloopyinca]

If you make a movie mocking the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) after getting in trouble for computer fraud, you get locked up for years. If you're a cop and you do it to illegally track a person's e-mail and commit nine counts of fraud, you get stuck at home for six months and lose your job.

[Ted S.]

He lost his job. Apparently, that's progress. 🙁

[VG Zaytsev]

Nakula was sent to prison because doing so benefit Obama for a few minutes, not because of a movie (or just a trailer) that he made.

[The Late P Brooks]

Once again I say, to the fucking cloud dwelling bozos nattering about bringing back the Clinton tax rates which "caused" the economic boom of the nineties:

Repeal Dodd Frank; repeal Sarbanes Oxley; take the EPA out behind the barn and kill it with a shovel, end the "dual mandate" and tear up every page of the federal register added since 2001, and then we can talk.

[nicole just can't even!]

And this point I would just be happy if they actually did let the Bush tax cuts expire--all of them. I figure I can't hope not to get dicked myself, so I may as well hope for tears enough for everyone.

[wareagle]

let the cuts expire, all of them. It is the only way that people will begin to grasp what their free ponies cost. And only then will you (maybe) start hearing folks acknowledge that spending really is the heart of the problem.

[Bones]

No thanks. The idiots will remain idiots so please, I want to pay as little as possible. I've come to the conclusion that "fuck everyone else" suits me best.

[Karl Hungus]

A warp drive, a la Star Trek, may be theoretically possible, but it would also fuck shit up.

[db]

What's more shocking is a Mail science article that doesn't use the ridiculous term "boffin."

[Auric Demonocles]

I've seen some series that only have FTL travel outside of the star systems.

[Emmerson Biggins]

and apparently you need to get your final deceleration done while pointing in a non-inbound direction. problem solved.

[CE]

On Battlestar Galactica, when they made an FTL jump you didn't know where the heck they went. On Star Trek, the Klingons could still track you somehow, and follow you there.

[sloopyinca]

Officer brutally beats innocent man to death and is sentenced to four years. Many on PoliceOne lament the poor officer's treatment at the hands of the "liberals" in Washington State and how he's been hung out to dry.

Fucking animals.

[Lord Humungus]

you know who else is a police officer from Washington?

[Ted S.]

Why are you Godwinning the comments? 🙂

[LTC(ret) John]

Officer Krupke?

[LTC(ret) John]

Officer Friendly?

[iggy]

You guys forgot to mention that the dead man was also retarded and hadn't been charged with a crime.

[R C Dean]

was also retarded

So, not really a person, I guess.

and hadn't been charged with a crime.

Pish. We can't allow these legal technicalities to stand between the rotund blue line and their preservation of order, now, can we?

[Quetzalcoatl]

I dunno, but I bet he lifts.

[Karl Hungus]

Fucking animals.

I don't even bother with PoliceOne. Since you have to be verified as a sworn officer to register (and thus comment), it's really nothing more than a circle jerk for thugs. I just wish I could hack Dunphy's account (you just know he has one) and post under his name.

[sloopyinca]

The reason I like to spend time there is because it shows their true, unfiltered colors. I like to know what certain groups think about the rest of us, and a great way to do that is to listen to their conversations they think are only among themselves.

[Karl Hungus]

The reason I like to spend time there is because it shows their true, unfiltered colors.

Is that better? 😉

I assume that's the Otto Zehm murder. I was reading aobut the sentencing the other day on HuffPo. The posters there were uniformly horrified by the crime and by the fact that the killer only got four years.

[Karl Hungus]

The reason I like to spend time there is because it shows their true, unfiltered colors.

I promised myself I wouldn't, but I went and looked. I found this gem, posted by one [e-mail]:

"That whole thing was f'd up. The suspect was crazy and went after the Office. Sure, its unfortunate that the POS died, but there should not have been any charges filed against the Officer."

[sloopyinca]

Just a heads-up for the few of you that care: the baby will be here December 5th. They've scheduled the delivery for 9:30 am in 16 days. Our little girl seems to be developing quite well, but of course with the omphalocele, there's always a dramatically increased chance of complications.

Looks like they'll transfer her that Friday to Childrens Hospital in Fresno/Madera (which is supposed to have about the best NICU unit on the west coast), where she'll be for an undetermined time. That will all depend on how her organs develop, how she's able to take food (orally or IV) and the status of her liver and the sac covering it. They told us to expect a couple of months.

[sloopyinca]

So pray for our little girl.*

*Not you atheist heathens of course. 😉

[Bee Tagger]

So pray for our little girl.

Will do.

[LTC(ret) John]

Done and will continue to do so.

[hamilton]

Hang in there, man.

[?Ex Nihilo?]

*Not you atheist heathens of course. 😉

Even as an atheist heathen, I hope all works out for her.

[nicole just can't even!]

Same here. Maybe you should spend a few weeks avoiding the cop stories in favor of puppies and kittens 😉

[Lord Humungus]

keep your chin up, old man. The birth of my son had several complications but everything turned out alright in the end.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Will do.
Rough stuff, man.

[AuH2O]

Hey, don't leave out us commited deist. The laziest way to believe in god, ever.

[AuH2O]

Also, I hate to do this, but Futurama makes all better:

"I believe, what I was programmed to believe!"

[db]

I'm definitely hoping for the best for your daughter.

[Tonio]

I wish the best possible outcome for you, Banjos and your little girl.

[Ted S.]

Since Groovus is probably busy in Ukraine, here's the Wikipedia article on Omphalocele.

Sounds frightening. 🙁

[sloopyinca]

FTA: and is associated with a high rate of mortality (25%) and severe malformations, such as cardiac anomalies (50%) and neural tube defect (40%). Approximately 15% of live-born infants with omphalocele have chromosomal abnormalities.

Well, we think we're in the clear on most of this. They did the full battery of tests (amnioscentesis) for chromosomal and neurl tube defects, and they came back negative. As far as the malformations, they did all of the 4-D scans and again, all looks normally developing except for her liver being outside her abdomen. We won't know for sure on her heart until she's born, but again, they did extensive testing and they think she's looking good.

Babies are a crap-shoot as it is. Unfortunately ours has a pretty serious problem. Fortunately, many of the catastrophically bad things have been ruled out and we have a kick-ass team of surgeons and neo-natal experts ready to deal with most problems that may arise.

Fuck, man. I'm scared to death to be honest with you all. This is really scary, but all you can do is put your faith in the medical professionals that have spent their lives dealing with these rare situations, and in God if you're religious like Kara and I are.

[wareagle]

I would be scared, too. May whatever deities exist smile down on you, the Mrs., and the little one. Medicine does some wondrous things these days and while I hope you do not need them, there may be some comfort in knowing those things are there.

[Ted S.]

Hell, I get scared any time either of my parents has a doctor's appointment.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I wish, your wife, and your little girl the best. I hope that everything turns out better than you could possibly hope.

[Joe M]

Having had a bad intussusception scare with our first when he was about five months old, I'm hoping for the best possible outcome for you. Everything turned out fine with ours.

[mr simple]

Good luck and Godspeed with everything. I've been hoping you would post an update; keep us informed on how it goes. Maybe Reason can live tweet the delivery.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Much love to you & the Mrs.

[robc]

Whats the update on the name?

Also, prayer said.

[sloopyinca]

Reason Jessica Spicer, and the bid is at $200.

Guys, Jessica is my ex-wife's name. I'd really be happy if someone bid that up.

[robc]

Didnt you ban obscenities? Im sure you could claim you use "Jessica" as an obscenity and thus ban it.

[sloopyinca]

No, it's a legit name. I'd feel like I misrepresented the whole thing if I did that.

[robc]

I forget, if Im going to bid $201, do I do it here or is there a link to a site where I have to do it formally?

Do you have a preference between Anne and Annelise?

If the former, she would be named after a Buffy character, the latter, an REM song.

[sloopyinca]

Dude, go to our blog through my name and bid in the comments there. I do think we're sticking to $10 increments though. As far as your two choices...I'm fine with either one. It's not up to me, it's all up to you.

[robc]

I will see if I can fit $210 into my budget, no guarantees.

I will do $70 if any 2 others of you want to pitch in $70 and get rid of Jessica for him.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Yeah, a link to bid, pleeze! I'm think Jayne Cobb Spicer has a nice ring to it...

[Joe M]

Don't you mean Anya?

[robc]

Don't you mean Anya?

No, I didnt.

[Tim]

You got it.

[R C Dean]

We're pulling for you.

If you have any issues at all, or questions about what's going on, let me know and I'll be happy to let you know how to beat doctors and hospital people into abject submission. Don't forget: you are in charge; they work for you.

[Auric Demonocles]

Has it really been almost 9 months already?

[AuH2O]

But seriously, sloop, may the Twelve Lord of Kobol watch over your journey. May Valenn guide your steps. May G'Quan and G'Kar protect you.

Seriously, good luck.

[The Late P Brooks]

Is a college degree worth the cost?

What a silly question.

Everybody knows a college degree, no matter what the subject might be, will increase lifetime earnings by a factor of a zillionty billion.

I learned that on Morning Joke.

[iggy]

And of course, no matter how many people have college degrees the value of those degrees will always remain the same.

That's why if everyone went to college, we would all be rich!

[Shit-Eating Aardvark]

"Alcohol-fueled nuptials in Las Vegas aren't typically known for their longevity, but comedienne Janeane Garofalo is bucking the trend, announcing she had been unknowingly, legally married for 20 years.
Speaking at a New York Comedy Festival reunion for "The Ben Stiller Show," the 48-year-old explained that she married writer Rob Cohen as a joke in Las Vegas in the 1990s, and didn't realize the marriage was official, the New York Post reports.
"Rob and I got married, for real, which we had to have a notary dissolve not 30 minutes before we got here tonight," Garofalo said. "We were married for 20 years until this evening," she told the audience."

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/en.....-20-years/

Wouldn't she be guilty of about 20 years of tax fraud?

[Quetzalcoatl]

How much taxable income has she really made in the past 20 years?

[Shit-Eating Aardvark]

If she checked the box SINGLE, then what she earned is irrelevant.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

I'm sure she wouldn't mind paying the back taxes and penalties. It's for the good of the collective.

[robc]

OT: Miami self-imposed postseason ban, my Jackets are headed to Charlotte to face FSU.

Its been a good morning already.

[sloopyinca]

What a bush-league move by Miami. They knew their chance at a decent bowl game was low since FSU will likely destroy them in the ACC CG. So they play the season out until they come to that realization and then ban themselves hoping the NCAA will go easy on them when the big penalties (and they will be big) come down pretty soon. I'm thinking they won't buy the empty gesture and the Hurricanes get a big three-year hammer dropped on them starting in 2013.

[robc]

This is two years in a row they have self-imposed.

I dont think it will lessen the penalty any, but I do think they will get 2 years of bowl ban credit.

[Ted S.]

Nick Gillespie is playing FSU?

[wareagle]

Tech's through to the title game? Damn, what a season. And what a schizo team you have. They ring up 150 on Carolina and lose to Middle TN. That offense sure is fun to watch.

[robc]

Started 1-3 in ACC play, finished at 5-3.

UNC and Miami can both finish 5-3 if they win this weekend, but both are bowl banned, so tiebreakers dont even matter.

All 3 ACC games we lost, we led in 4th quarter (two in final minute, then were tied and lost in OT). MTSU and BYU, on the other hand, just flat out nuked us.

We have absolutely no defense, we have to score every possession to win games. Fortunately, we have done that last few weeks.

[Ted S.]

How long will it take before enough schools are bowl banned that the bowls won't be able to fill all their slots?

[robc]

This year is gonna be close with UNC/Miami/aOSU/Pedo St being banned.

With Miami dropping out, the expected number is exactly 70 for 70 slots. A few upsets the next 2 weeks and some 5-7 teams may be bowling.

[sloopyinca]

I couldn't give a shit what Ga Tech has don up to this point. I only hope they somehow beat UGA this weekend and then UGA turns around and beats Bama next. I'm so sick and fucking tired of this bullshit SEC bias that exists. I mean seriously, tOSU is sitting 4th, undefeated, and played every bit as difficult a schedule as UGA has this year, with the exception of the game UGA got destroyed in. And to play the cupcakes they play OOC, all of that conference IMO, and claim to have it so tough is laughable.*

*BTW, the SEC has a losing record against auto-qualifier conferences this year.

[robc]

I only hope they somehow beat UGA

Trust me, no one wants that more than I do.

then UGA turns around and beats Bama

However, while I understand, I cant cheer for that.

[robc]

aOSU's schedule has been weak this year, what with the conference blowing chunks.

And, they are getting voted down by some in the AP for being on probation. They dont want a split title when Bama beats ND.

[sloopyinca]

They're getting fucked because of the probation. Hell, I don't really care. As long as they beat scUM, this will be a great season...in what was widely considered a rebuilding year.

[robc]

They're getting fucked because of the probation.

Hire an honest coach next time.

[sloopyinca]

Give me a fucking break. Kids trading their private property for a reasonable and agreed-to price and a coach trying to protect them should be held up as an example, not shamed.

[mr simple]

Hey, we can't have these slav, er, student-athletes earning money for their work. That makes them all uppity.

[wareagle]

my bride's a GA girl, so I gotta go with the Dawgs. Of course, that's GA as in the state so if Tech were in the hunt, she would cheer for the Jackets. Pretty sure I will never pull for bama, regardless of who they play. And, you might want to set down that OH State banner given the Bucks recent NC game beat downs.

[sloopyinca]

Yeah, 1-2 in NCG's sucks over the last decade. Meh, they've won their last two BCS bowl games and have the most BCS wins of any team as well as the most appearances.

Not quite sure how the rest of the Big Ten has done in their BCS games. Because I'm not a fan of an entire conference. I'll leave that to the pros from the southeast.

[Brett L]

It is interesting how losing to UF has no effect on SEC team's rankings.

[robc]

On a related note, what bowl is Auburn going to this year?

[throw rock, runs away, before you terrorists derail another train]

[wareagle]

Tidy. I hear UK is free that weekend.

[robc]

As is TN, AR and maybe Mizzou.

SEC has absolute suck at the bottom of the conference. Enough suck to get Vandy bowl eligible.

And prop up Florida (who is awful) and Georgia (who isnt much better).

[wareagle]

don't underestimate UGA. They're pretty good, the awful outing against the Cocks notwithstanding. In bama, they have the perfect SECCG opponent, one whose defense has been exposed multiple times. And Murray's a better passer than either Johnny or Mettenberger. Won't hurt my feelings if Tech beats UGA and the dogs turn around and beat bama, but I'm not putting a big wager on it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Reform of the Las Vegas Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice to make it less civil-rights-violation-y is being held up as a model for law-enforcement agencies.

Well, they did get around to firing Derek Colling.

[Ted S.]

I give them about two years until things revert to form.

[Ken Shultz]

"The investor who owns Pabst may make a pitch for Hostess."

Naturally, they'll wait until the assets are stripped of their union contracts. Why would anybody buy the brands before they've been stripped of their union contracts when they can buy the brands after they've been stripped of their union contracts?

And if Hostess is perfectly viable without its union contracts but driven into bankruptcy with its union contracts, what does that say about the threat unions pose to the rest of our economy?

The correct answer is that unions don't pose a threat to the economy if you're an Obama believer--becasue Obama's followers don't know anything about or give a shit about facts or logic or how the economy works.

Believing in Obama is an act of faith.

[T o n y]

Wow, is everything about Obama?

Also, maybe Hostess's problem was that it was making high-sugar high-fat snack foods in an increasingly health-conscious society.

[Ken Shultz]

It is for you, Tony.

Democrats good.

Republicans bad.

And what is being a Democrat about for you anyway if it isn't about Obama?

[T o n y]

It's 100% entirely absolutely about being against Republicans being in charge of my beloved country. There could be one of those broomstick horses propped up in the Oval Office and I'd support it as long as it has a (D) after its name, and I come to this opinion from a place of pure practicality. That Obama will likely be the best president of my lifetime, and is black, is all gravy.

So what motivates you to believe that the problem with the country is that we just haven't taken enough workers' rights away?

[Ken Shultz]

"So what motivates you to believe that the problem with the country is that we just haven't taken enough workers' rights away?"

Have you seen the UAW and Hostess lately?

They were both driven into bankruptcy by unions. In fact, those workers were denied the right to their jobs by following their union!

But don't take it from me--take it from one of the union members who lost his job:

"I don't really feel betrayed" by the bakery workers, said Teamster Luigi Peruzzi, a Hostess driver in Detroit for 25 years. "I think they made a terrible choice based solely on terrible information from their leadership."

The 48-year-old, who has worked continuously since he was 16, said he hoped a new owner would rehire him but was pessimistic. "Right now," he said, "I'm scared to death" about supporting his family of five."

http://professional.wsj.com/ar.....73980.html

You'll never let hurting people get in the way of your Obama obsession, will you.

P.S. What makes you think non-union workers don't have rights?

[T o n y]

Clearly you are the one with the Obama obsession. I just told you he could be a nonsentient toy for all I care as long as he wasn't a fucking Republican.

Hostess's main problem was an inability to make profits exceed expenses. That could be due to too-generous pensions for union workers, or it could be because of too-generous executive compensation, or poor management, or a bad business model (a lack of diversification from crap snack foods in the Whole Foods era), or a combination of all of them. Of course you're going to blame union workers only, because you are a management-stroking ideologue who always has the same scapegoats.

When unions were at their peak of power, workers and managers had more equal leverage, and the whole economy was better off because workers had relatively more money to spend. Sure in a race-to-the-bottom environment overpaying workers relative to competitors will leave you at a disadvantage. But we're competing with a billion Chinese, so exactly how far to the bottom would you like to see our workforce race?

The rights are legally construed, just as are a corporation's. Nowhere is it written in stone that the balance of rights should favor management to such an extent that workers are little more than serfs. The world was much better when workers had more leverage.

[Ken Shultz]

Fuck off and get back in the drawer!

[T o n y]

So you guys never appreciate the irony of you all using the same insult "sockpuppet"?

[CE]

That Obama will likely be the best president of my lifetime...

You write well for a four-year-old.

[Restoras]

Ken, it's a sock. Tell it to fuck off and get back in the drawer.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, but it's kind of useful as a vehicle for saying what I want to say.

Tony's like having a real live straw man to play with--he always says exactly what we want him to say!

If there's anybody that's done more to make progressives look stupid on this site than Tony, I don't know who it is.

joe should consider paying him not to post.

[Restoras]

Whatever floats your boat but it might be more useful to argue with your lawnmower. Just sayin'.

[Tonio]

For me, every day is now Thursday. Just sayin'.

[Ken Shultz]

For those of you who may have missed it over the weekend, The City of San Francisco will now be offering some unique benefits to all residents:

"San Francisco to cover sex change surgeries for all uninsured transgender residents"

http://blog.sfgate.com/cityins.....residents/

That's our tax dollars at work!

Yours, too, 'cause San Francisco gets a big chunk of money from the State of California. At least you don't have to think about your money to going to pay for other people's elective surgeries if you don't live in the State of California, though, right?

Wrong. The city gets about 5% of its budget from the Federal government, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.....sco#Budget

Have a nice day.

[AuH2O]

Jezebel mocks Men Magazine Complex's list of Awkward shit girls do after sex

The funny thing is, the list reads like the exact kind of thing that Jezebel would LOVE... if the genders were reversed. And it were written by World's Funniest Woman (WFW) Lindy West.

But, of course, I forget. Lindy West's version would have been funny, because it would have been ironic, you guys! And she would have used cooler, hipper language, like OBVS. See, OBVS is SO much funnier than obviously, because it means your cool and hip like a Jezzie.

I wish I could say that you'll never find a more tone-deaf hive of scum and villiany in all the internet... but, I mean, we have Democratic Underground and the Freepers, just for starters.

Anyway, I will post the list part, at least, for you to enjoy, because the list is sort of funny, as is the tone-deaf snark.

[AuH2O]

The List, with commetary below each number by Jez:

1. Check Instagram ("to see what Nylon just posted!!").
I don't know. I mostly just Google sandwiches after.

2. Ask if you have a girlfriend ("She should have asked before we took our clothes off!")
The first statement is true, but the second? Maybe you just have a really weird-looking dick.

3. Run out for Plan B even though you used protection.
Whoa, OK. Well.4. Purposely tried to leave something behind.
You ever hear the one where a girl really liked a guy and just to make sure he called her she left a wallaby at his house, and then he didn't call her so she had to call him and be like, "I want my wallaby" back, and he was like, "It died?" No? Maybe that is because I made it up. Seriously though, who does this?

5. Ask for food.

Right, because God forbid that your vigorous copulation would make her want for SUSTENANCE. Get off your ass and make a bitch some Ramen.

6. Start crying.

Woof. OK, this one isn't great.

7. Ask "Will you be my boyfriend?"

Context! If it's was just some rando bar sex, then yeah. But if it's a girl you've been with for awhile, why can't she ask? I mean, it goes without saying that not all girls want the dudes they fuck to be their boyfriends, but if a girl DOES, she's allowed to.

8. Ask for cab money.

I concur, wack.

9. Freak out about semen.

See above.

[AuH2O]

10. Compare you to her last sex partner.

I mean, not to his face.

11. Start making plans for the future.

My favorite part of this is the last sentence: "You shared a beautiful moment, sure, but that doesn't mean you're obliged to take her apple picking now." Apple picking? Is that what we do now? Say hi to my mom when you're there.

12. Immediately say "I never do this."
13. Ask "Will you respect me in the morning?"

You know what? Any restrictions on women "talking" after sex in general I am just going to write off. Say whatever. Hopefully you're confident enough not to say stuff like this but if you aren't, that's OK too.

14. Take your clothes for the walk of shame.
Jesus. God. I didn't know you liked your fucking smelly Fugazi t-shirt that much. But OK.

15. Hang out in the morning in the hopes of a brunch invite.
ALL BIDDIES WANT TO DO IS TALK ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS, EAT EGGS.

16. Start masturbating.
Sigh.

17. Cut cuddling short so she can go pee.
It might be an old wives' tale, but I've heard that peeing right after sex helps prevent UTIs. Also, she just had your penis in her, so, I don't know, give her a break. She'll be right back. Calm down.

[AuH2O]

18. Try to talk about the freaky thing you just did and what it meant.

"He put his balls in the crook of my elbow and sang 'Calendar Girl' by Neil Sedaka!! How do you guys feel about a spring wedding????"

19. Laugh.

Haha, oops.

20. Try to kiss you right after you've gone down on him.

WHAT.

Oh, it's a trick; they're admonishing guys for not kissing a girl who just went down on them. Who does that?

WHO DOES THIS?

That's the list. The sad thing is, I could already write parts of the Lindy West version for them. To wit, here would be the Lindy West version of the peeing:

Leave cuddling to get up and pee

Ladies at least have the excuse of UTIs. What's your excuse, huh? Get back to bed. I'm cold.

[nicole just can't even!]

Any restrictions on women "talking" after sex in general I am just going to write off. Say whatever. Hopefully you're confident enough not to say stuff like this but if you aren't, that's OK too.

Eyeroll. While this whole thing is stupid, I'm a little confused about (17). Not only have I been taught my whole life that guys hate to snuggle after (I keed, I keed), but I mean...I don't know...you have to pee after!

[AuH2O]

I mean, the list is a little frat boyish, but it also may be a bit tongue in check too.

[Restoras]

Or, perhaps the writers are...writing to thier audience? Maybe? In order to, you know, remain a going concern. Unlike Hostess, which provided three days worth of lulz for me. God that was beautiful.

[AuH2O]

Yeah, but as a guy, I've never been like, "WHAT? You have a bladder? That's not what I learned in anatomy class."

My conversation generally goes:
Me:"Why are you leaving?"
Her: "I have to go pee"
Me: "Well, hurry back."

[mr simple]

The real article actually provides reasons for the some of this behavior or admonishes the men(readers) who think it's weird. So I don't think the Jezzies RTFA.

[AuH2O]

That's because the patriarchy never let them learn how to read!

[R C Dean]

Ask if you have a girlfriend

"Nah. Just fuckpuppets. Why do you ask?"

[AuH2O]

Old, but feminist porn sounds like the worst thing ever.

Link is SFW-ish, but links at the end are not. Some gems...

And while the porn and sex/adult industry is currently geared towards men and definitely objectifies women, forgets women's pleasure, and supports an oppressive rape culture, I see a bigger solution than attempting to censor or criminalize sex.

...

Feminist porn is out there. In my opinion, feminist porn represents a diverse cross-section of people and is woman-friendly, queer-friendly, open to many interpretations of beauty, and is, at best, political and woman-owned.

...

VegPorn
One of my fav's with models of all shapes and sizes. This site features only vegetarian and vegan models and is very inclusive of gender and sexual diversity including queer and trans models. It's also woman-owned. I've thought of applying to model here, but am somewhat afraid of losing my job or causing a local scandal?which is usually a sign that you should not do something!

...

Good Dyke Porn
A brilliant new site based out of Vancouver with all lesbian, bisexual, queer women and transfolk artists. I especially love this site because they go out of their way to eroticize safer sex. You'll see lots of gloves, dental dams, condoms, lube, and consensual kink on this site.

These are the kinds of assholes who get Prop B passed.

[Hell's Librarian]

Trust Feministe to make sex/ sexuality sound as enticing and erotic as a root canal.

[AuH2O]

There was another "feminist porn" article that I read that said how feminist porn allowed you to enjoy it so much more because it often included a scene before the sex where the actors negotiated their boundaries and consented to everything. Thus, you knew that calling someone a bitch, or spanking, or penetration, or BDSM, was okay, and could enjoy it more fully without worrying if the actress or actor had consented to being anally penetrated.

Seriously.

[db]

Libertarian porn involves three hours of negotiation and official contracts, so...

[Kaptious Kristen]

I bought a porno DVD that was supposed to be geared toward women viewers. It was awful. It took forever to even get to the sex, and then it was more like lovemaking than fucking. It's porn ferchrissakes.

[AuH2O]

So, it seems that reason got negatized this weekend. Anti-reason had a weird little mustache, and was kind of racist.

[CE]

Were you in the mirror universe again?

[HazelMeade]

A gormless filmmaker who is STILL IN JAIL as last we heard.

There should be a much bigger stink about that. If the administration hadn't used him and his film as a scapegoat for the attack, nobody would have bothered to track down his identity, much less arrest him for the parole violation of using a pseudonym.