A.M. Links: Hillary Clinton "Not Convinced" About Drug Legalization, Labor Organizers Want Fast Food Wages Doubled, State Trooper Accused of Looting Fatal Car Crash

• "Speaking personally," Hillary Clinton is "not convinced" drug legalization is the way to stop drug violence in Latin America.  She's never had a family member beheaded.

• The U.S. debt limit will have to be increased in March so that the feds can continue to spend burn through money.
• The New Jersey legislature passes a bill to increase the minimum wage to $8.50 and peg it to the consumer price index. It's up to Governor Chris Christie now to sign or veto the legislation.
• Labor organizers are pushing the unionization of fast food workers in New York City, hoping to get the average wage for flipping burgers doubled, up to $15 an hour. Would you like fries with that?
• A Connecticut state trooper was arrested for allegedly taking jewelery off the body of a dead person at the scene of a highway crash.
• Police in Pakistan arrested three boys aged 12 to 14 they say were trying to become suicide bombers.

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Comments

[Lord Humungus]

where's Barfman?

See Yoko Ono's over-the-top clothing line (inspired by John Lennon's 'sexy bod')
http://popstyle.ew.com/2012/11.....-sexy-bod/

[Ted S.]

Every time I hear the line "Imagine no possessions" in that horrid John Lennon song, I imagine Yoko Ono with no intellectual property rights and living in penury as a result.

[db]

Same here.

[sarcasmic]

I thought Michael Jackson bought the rights to the Beatles songs.

[Ted S.]

Doesn't Yoko Ono retain the rights to Lennon's post-Beatles stuff?

[sarcasmic]

No idea.

[JW]

You mean his corpse?

[Zeb]

I got no problem with imagining people living in harmony and cooperating. And that song pretty much admits that it is all fantasy.

[Ice Nine]

Which of course is the point of the song.

[wareagle]

makes you wonder if Lennon was that self-aware given the empire in which he himself was living.

[Hell's Librarian]

"I would like a single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man's hat."

[Groovus Maximus]

"Here ya go..."

[Fist of Etiquette]

The New Jersey legislature passes a bill to increase the minimum wage to $8.50 and peg it to the consumer price index.

Jerksey teens just found it even more difficult to get work.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

If they can snag a gas pumping job, $8.50 seems pretty good.

[Restoras]

I don't know why I still find it amazing that lawmakers can be this stupid.

[sarcasmic]

Dude, no one intends to price low skilled people out of work!
The intention is to give low skilled workers a living wage!
Why don't you want low skilled workers to have a living wage?

[Ted S.]

It's not stupidity, of course; it's mendacity.

[KDN]

I'm pretty sure they've already been priced out of the market. The only place I see teens working anymore is in restaurants.

[Romulus Augustus]

If Christie had any guts (no pun) he'd veto the bill saying "The Democrats are being cheap, the minimum wage should be $20 per hour, Why do they hate the young and poor?" And let the Dems scramble to explain why raising the minimum is economic idiotcy.

[Rich]

+$1.25

[wareagle]

most Repubs are scared to say something like that out loud because they fear Dems might have the opposite reaction - they'll rush to embrace the even higher wage since everyone knows that teens nowadays are supporting entire extended families.

[Redmanfms]

The Sarcastiball Conundrum.

[KDN]

You're assuming they would do that. Instead, they'd just say "YESH! BIPARTISANSHIPS!" and finish the epic collapse of a never-great state.

Speaking of epic collapse, did anyone see the Rutgers / Louisville game? I think this is the 4th time this decade RU had a clear path to winning the conference outright and choked it away. It's shit like this that will make me stick with the Buckeyes when in two years when I'm forced to abandon my NCAA bigamy.

[robc]

Good thing I grew up a UK fan, so Im not about to run into the same problem.

Not that I dislike Louisville football, but its great to add another basketball team I hate to the ACC mix.

[Cavpitalist]

If your problem is reasonable competition between you and a conference title, Ohio State is definitely the way to go.

[protefeed]

Christie should go with $100 per hour. A lot of leftists would AGREE with the $20 per hour thing and miss the point.

[Whiterun Guard]

So I was eating some delicious deep dish (in Liberia, this is hard to come by!) last night, and I got to thinking. If Picard or Kirk ever had kids, do you think they would have them circumcised?

[Restoras]

Picard would if he weren't married to Starfleet. Kirk couldn't keep track of all his spawn so probably wouldn't care.

[Bobarian]

David Cameron (Kirk's son) died on Spock Planet, so we could dig up his corpse and check, but, you're right, Kirk didn't really care.

[Zeb]

You left out abortion. And beer.

[hamilton]

And friend chicken.

[hamilton]

And its friend, fried chicken.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Mayonnaise.

[Groovus Maximus]

Picard, yes. Kirk, no (irony!).

Picard fears phimosis and "that unfresh feeling", and would no doubt instill such irrational concerns in his progeny.

[Tonio]

Needs more Roadz, Somalia and Christfag...

[AuH2O]

Tonio, as a gay man, I feel you are more qualified for this question: What's your preference: Cut or uncut?

[Tonio]

I personally prefer natural but wouldn't reject anyone who was cut because of that. I believe my view predominates in the gay community among those who have a preference.

Why do you ask? More qualified than who else?

[AuH2O]

Straight men. I suppose you are equally as qualified as a straight woman

[Tonio]

Big difference, Goldie. I don't really know what straight women think about that. Since there are some actual straight women here, why don't you ask them? Or google it.

Also, please don't assume that gay men are the equivalent of straight women. Giving you the benefit of doubt that your thoughts were uninformed or ill-considered rather than deliberately insulting.

[Pagan Priestess]

Prefer uncut, but won't kick a guy out for being cut.

[CE]

But what would Kirk or Picard do if half the Federation wanted to secede? And held slaves?

[Killazontherun]

Picard being a proud Frenchman who suspects Troi of being a Space Jew, no.

[Tim]

Since the Enterprise D has a nursery school, presumably Picard actually gets to set that policy.

[AuH2O]

I like how they kinda just forgot about the battle bridge, cuz the Federation is cool with putting women and children at risk.

[CE]

I thought she was a gypsy, what with all the mind reading and stuff.

[Killazontherun]

She's faking that with subdermal readers. Troi's a Feringi agent with some excellent 24th Century cosmetic surgery done to make her appealing to us.

[Killazontherun]

And, damn, in '87 was she ever appealing.

[R C Dean]

delicious deep dish

Does not compute.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Police in Pakistan arrested three boys aged 12 to 14 they say were trying to become suicide bombers.

The TSA today feels vindicated!

[Ice Nine]

Ahh, they blow up so soon.

[db]

uughhh.

[LTC(ret) John]

Groan!

[Tonio]

Iceeeeee!

[Hell's Librarian]

I am going to hell, but I laughed.

[Groovus Maximus]

(Turns off lights)

Ice wins the Internets. Everyone go home now.

[LTC(ret) John]

Got it , doc. See you next week!

[Rasilio]

Yeah but at that age I'm surprised one of them didn't blow up prematurely.

[gaijin]

They may as well go ahead and arrest all 12 to 14 yo boys in pakistan.

[invisible furry hand]

Just leave it to the drones

[bostonaod]

yeah, plus now we'll further define down "military-aged male" and move some of those CIVILIAN CASUALTIES to KILLED OR CAPTURED TURRISTS in the ledger.

[Lord Humungus]

Greece Retail Sales Decline At Faster Pace In September
http://www.rttnews.com/2015067.....type=eueco

The decline in Greek retail sales worsened in September with sales falling at the fastest pace in five months, data released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority showed Friday.

Overall retail sales volume excluding automotive fuel fell 12.2 percent year-on-year, following an 8.8 percent decline in the previous month. The latest drop was the biggest since April, when sales fell 13.8 percent.

[Whiterun Guard]

Austerity is really hitting them hard.

[Ted S.]

Documented retail sales decline. I'd bet black-market sales went up, although there's no way to calculate that.

[Lord Humungus]

Celebrity 'swatting' problem may be tough to swat
Simon Cowell, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Miley Cyrus are all victims of the hoax known as 'swatting.' No one's been arrested, and laws haven't caught up.
http://www.latimes.com/enterta.....full.story

and god forbid if you're a simple pleb...

[Joe M]

Unbeknown to sheriff's deputies, that mansion belonged to the most famous teenager on the planet, Justin Bieber. Multiple squad cars were scrambled and heavily armed deputies arrived. They swept Bieber's residence and two others on the street before discovering it was all a hoax. The pop star, on tour at the time, was nowhere near the mansion.

What is the point of this if he's not there at the time?

[generic Brand]

False flag to try to bring attention to the fact that cops raise clueless raids on homes they have no intel about?

[Joe M]

That would be awesome.

[Joe M]

It would be better if the calls coming in were for less dangerous stuff than hostage situations though. Like saying you saw a tomato plant on the property.

[Joe M]

That article is blowing my mind. They lay out all these huge risks of bad swat raids, the high cost of doing one, etc etc etc... yet none of that shit is every brought up when they kick down the wrong door and kill someone on an anonymous tip.

[LTC(ret) John]

Hey now, can't have the "journalists" losing access to the local LEOs just because they point out a few terrible truths...nuance, baby, nuance!

[Joe M]

Here's your nuance:

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrick Frey got swatted at his Rancho Palos Verdes home last July....

In full view of his startled neighbors, Frey was led out in shackles by five armed deputies after a male caller told responders at the Lomita sheriff's station that the deputy district attorney had shot his wife. Outside were four police cruisers, a fire truck, an ambulance, a hazardous materials van and a chopper shining a spotlight over his property. Frey's wife was awakened and frisked by police on the front porch while two officers checked on the couple's 8- and 11-year-old children sleeping upstairs.

No screaming at them to get down on the fucking ground?

[LTC(ret) John]

LA cops are slipping. I guess there was no dog to shoot either?

[wareagle]

I'm not a fan of govt but you would think a deputy DA might be able to get a cop's attention. You would especially think cops might get that something is up when the frisking of the wife showed no bullet wounds.

I favor ritual torture for those making these crank calls.

[Virginian]

Frey is a conservative blogger, this SWAT call was probably the work of a miserable piece of shit named Brett Kimberlin who objects to conservative blogs bringing up the fact that before he was a leftist activist against voter fraud, he committed a string of bombings in Speedway Indiana. If you bring this up in public, he files lawsuits against you and calls the SWAT teams.

We here at H ampersand R know just how dangerous calling the SWAT team can be. This fucker is going to get someone killed.

[db]

How is that effort going for the guy who got taken to court by Kimberlin, and the judge who decided in Kimberlin's favor? I can't remember his name, and I think all info on his blog regarding Kimberlin was redacted under court order.

[mr simple]

Wasn't it Aaron Walker, the other lawyer-blogger mentioned in the piece?

[Virginian]

Not sure how it's going. Honestly, I haven't followed it because of the high potential for disappointment. I mean, it's a matter of public record. This guy is a violent felon. I see this court order as essentially reversing the doctrine that the truth cannot be libel.

This country slides further down the tubes every day.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Even worse is Chief Beck's statement, "it places people at significant risk by the dispatch of armed police officers."

I'm pretty sure that every cop on street patrol is a dispatched armed officer. This leads me to understand that the Chief is admitting that his guys put innocent citizens at "significant" risk.

To protect and serve!

[LTC(ret) John]

Is that a little Freudian slip on the Chief's part?

[Belgian]

It's under "Entertainment." Not Crime, not Politics. Entertainment. That tells you all you need to know about how the LA Times feels about it.

[Mensan]

I am not in anyway suggesting that someone should send a SWAT team to visit Palm Beach Sheriff's Office Sgt. Michael Custer.

Under no circumstances should anybody who knows how to do this without getting caught call 911 to report a home invasion at Selma Police Department officer Travis Abbott's residence.

I'm not endorsing a false complaint of a domestic disturbance followed by shots fired at the home of Hurst Police Officer Disraeli Arnold.

Nobody should call the police and claim they are being held captive at the house of St. Lucie County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Freeman.

[Rich]

"spoofing" technology ... can even make a man's voice sound female ? is legal and widely available on the Web

*** rising intonation ***

That horrid Internet ....

[mr simple]

Several officers have already been injured responding to such calls

Really, LA Times? You're just going to toss this one out there without any explanation?

[Joe M]

Labor organizers are pushing the unionization of fast food workers in New York City, hoping to get the average wage for flipping doubled, up to $15 an hour. Would you like fries with that?

All part of Bloomberg's plan to destroy the fast food industry and force citizens to be healthy.

[Restoras]

Between idiocy like this and the onerous taxes, NYC is going to be a much different place in 10 years.

[Lord Humungus]

Robots.

[VG Zaytsev]

Not to mention that the financial shenanigans are the only thing keeping the city viable. And they too will come to an end in 10 years or so.

NYC forward to the 70s.

[Bardas Phocas]

My first thought was invest in vending machines, but that's probably controlled by some cartel in the NYC area.

They already have us getting our own drinks and will next have us cooking our burger and making our own change.

So invest in building a robot fast food worker [who will eventually rise up and kill us all - THANKS UNIONS!].

[Brett L]

They ran the automats out of business years ago in NYC.

[Joe M]

FryNet!

[Proprietist]

Ask and you shall receive:
http://www.businessinsider.com.....ry-2012-11

[protefeed]

Well, "hundreds" of fast food workers allegedly self-fired themselves by not reporting to work despite not being members of a union, so we know this is serious in a city with hundreds of thousands of fast food workers.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. debt limit will have to be increased in March so that the feds can continue to spend burn through money.

I'm beginning to think "debt limit" is a misnomer.

[Whiterun Guard]

Just remember, there are upper and lower kinds.

Same thing I think of when I see speed limits.

[Auric Demonocles]

There are minimum limits on most interstates. Usually 45.

[Ptah-Hotep]

Same thing for most traffic signs; suggestions only.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama's Real Fiscal Problem
It isn't the Republicans.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

President Obama is by all accounts more confident than ever since his re-election, telling everyone he sees that he's certain he can pound Republicans enough to get his way on taxes and spending. And if he can't, well, then he can always go over the fiscal cliff and blame Republicans next year for whatever happens to the economy.

And maybe he's right. If nothing else, he's been expert at dodging responsibility. The line he's taking so far in budget negotiations could hardly be tougher. House Speaker John Boehner was decidedly downbeat Thursday after a phone call with the President Wednesday night and a Thursday meeting on Capitol Hill with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House aide Ron Nabors.

[Bee Tagger]

And if he can't, well, then he can always go over the fiscal cliff and blame Republicans next year for whatever happens to the economy.

He seems to be forgetting about all of the tireless hours coming up with a hashtag for the occasion.

[Brett L]

Shatner to miss USS Enterprise retirement. Which is appropriate, because he'd never allow the Enterprise to be retired before he destroyed it saving the universe.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"This vessel... I give. She takes. She won't permit me my life. I've got to live hers."

[MP]

Needs more ellipses.

[Fist of Etiquette]

As I recall he spits these lines out in rapid succession. Kirk was under the spell of an illness, not himself, so Bill geniusly chose to do the reading un-Shatner-like.

[CE]

But Shatner doesn't choose to do the reading at all... he becomes... KIRK!

[Tim]

They'll build another, each new carrier is 100,000 tons of pure, succulent pork.

[Rasilio]

Well to do that they'd need to either design a new Carrier platform or break with current class naming conventions

[Brett L]

The next Big E will be our first space carrier.

[CE]

For a mere trillion dollars?

http://www.buildtheenterprise.org/

[Mickey Rat]

We have to wait for the NX-01?

[invisible furry hand]

Vice's always excellent Cry-baby of the week - it's a smackdown between an arsonist with a sore arse and Apple

[Whiterun Guard]

Hrm, I got to think Apple is the bigger cry-baby.

I don't think ordering someone's house burned down with them in it is a 'cry-baby' response.

It's the best phone-a-friend ever.

[KMA Too]

Goota love this:

The appropriate response: Nothing. Apples are very very very common.

[KMA Too]

Goota??? WTF...Gotta, dammit. Gotta.

[mr simple]

Tulpa will be upset that his favorite bum harrasing LEO hero was voted COTW the previous week, and that the charges against the man were dismissed.

[generic Brand]

"Speaking personally," Hillary Clinton is "not convinced" drug legalization is the way to stop drug violence in Latin America.

Is this where she comes out with a tell-all that Chelsea was doing hits of cocaine before going to school in the morning?

[generic Brand]

hits bumps of cocaine...

There goes any street cred I may have had in the drug world...

[Jerryskids]

She's never had a family member beheaded

I believe she has a husband who gained some notoriety for being headed. It was in all the papers.

[wareagle]

and her husband had a brother who liked to dabble in the drugz.

[Rich]

She's never had a family member beheaded

Well, Vince Foster must count for *something*.

[Lord Humungus]

The UKIP party - Nigel Farage - had some good election results yesterday.

After Rotherham, Ukip is now a national populist party ? a magnet for anger at the British establishment
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/n.....blishment/

Ukip placed a confident second, taking their highest ever share of the vote in a by-election. You might say that this was just another case of a small, motivated band of voters letting off steam in an off-cycle contest ? but it still represents a significant breakthrough. Ukip is only supposed to be a middle class, ex-Tory vote ? the golf club fringe of conservatism. But Rotherham isn't Tunbridge Wells; it's northern and working class. By doing so well in a traditionally Labour area, the party has proven to its sceptics that its support is truly national. The populist revolt is bigger and wider than many anticipated.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Labor organizers are pushing the unionization of fast food workers in New York City, hoping to get the average wage for flipping burgers doubled, up to $15 an hour.

There can be no downside to this.

[LTC(ret) John]

I read that as there can be no "downsize" to this.

[invisible furry hand]

Moustache implants in the Middle East

[Groovus Maximus]

Hmmm, I will take note of this. A new revenue stream might be wise to have if their is an unfortunate outbreak of good health.

I am chuffed you still like your new toy. -D

[Groovus Maximus]

*there* Dammit!

[Brett L]

Jesus. Armstrong witch hunt expands to UCI. Apparently, anyone who has ever said nice things about him and been involved in cycling will now be investigated.

[mr simple]

The USADA is out to make sure everyone respects its (self-appointed, extra-judicial) authoritah.

[Longtorso]

Still here - work has kept me away from the AM/PM links. Damn them.

Which wireless carrier sucks least? I'm thinking of switching to Verizon.

[KDN]

Managing the mobile sphere for my company, it's been my experience that AT&T is better when something goes wrong, but you're less likely to have problems in the first place with Verizon.

[sarcasmic]

We've been with AT&T for over a decade. Those rollover minutes come in handy and I've never had a complaint about the customer service.

Sprint is by far the worst.

[sarcasmic]

I must add that we couldn't have a smart phone if we wanted to because the towers near our house are owned by US Cellular, and we'd go over the roaming data limit. If we do decide to waste money on smart phones we will have to switch carriers.

[Brett L]

If I ever have to deal with Sprint again, I'm firebombing their corporate offices. Fuck those guys.

[Tonio]

Define suckage. And I'm being serious here. Are you talking bandwidth and coverage, or plans.

Also, which city/area do you live in. Carrier coverage varies by area.

Also, if you regularly travel to other locations, check the carrier's coverage in those areas so you don't get slammed with roaming fees.

[Longtorso]

Suckage is first strength of signal in the Houston area. It is customer service second.

I've asked around and the general consensus at the office is ATT sucks compared to Verizon locally, but thought I'd check w/ the brain trust. If you can't trust people who make constant assrape jokes, who can you trust?

[Longtorso]

ATT does my DSL. They suck at it.

[KDN]

The thing you need to remember about the Telecoms is that their Wireless, local, and enterprise arms aren't the same company despite having the same branding. AT&T's (really SBC in this instance) inability to properly manage DSL service has no bearing on their ability to deliver wireless or MPLS service. The FCC dictates that they have to function as independent entities, and they do.

The vast majority of our Houston-based employees are on Verizon FWIW.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I live in Houston and have had both ATT and Verizon. For me Verizon wins hands down on strength of signal and contact with customer service has been minimal and easy.

That said its a big city, I can only vouch for inside the loop.

[Rasilio]

Agreed with what everyone has said about Sprint. No clue about T Mobile but I do know that AT&T has some serious problems with network coverage and bandwidth in a lot of Areas. I mean I work in Boston and literally half of my 40 mile commute is a deadzone as well as both my office and home. It got so bad that shortly after moving here from Louisville we made them give us a home signal booster for free (normally $99 + $10 a month extra) because we literally could not use our phones anywhere.

[hamilton]

I live north of Boston (near NH), commute down Rte 3. AT&T was required for where I live just for signal, but plenty of empty spots. Thinking of switching to Verizon; coverage seems better now. Briefly thought of Sprint but the comments above have now soured me.

[Hell's Librarian]

I had Comcast, which I loathed with a fiery and burning hatred. Switched to Verizon and never looked back.

Re AT&T, I also hate them with a fiery and burning hatred, even more than Comcast (they cheated me out of $100+ and were all "Too bad, so sad LOLOLOL" and, after I dropped them immediately upon hanging up from their "CS rep," have been trying to woo me back to the dark side ever since. I would seriously rather do without phone service rather than pay them a single penny ever again.

[Brett L]

Sub Sprint for AT&T in that last paragraph, and I've had the exact same experience.

[Hell's Librarian]

That was years ago, and I still get pissed off just thinking about it. 😛

[mr simple]

I had a friend who worked for ATT years ago, land phone service, I believe. Apparently, ATT would continue to charge people after they canceled their service and it was his job to get them to switch back when they called in to complain. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a widespread tactic.

On the other hand, I use ATT for my cell service and have never had a problem.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I'm with Verizon, and I've never had any complaints as far as service and coverage. Sprint's the worst, but most of the prepaid, low-cost carriers like Virgin Mobile use their network, so if you want to save some money they might not be a bad option.

[sarcasmic]

Ke$ha is still disgusting!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-show.html

[Rasilio]

Yes she is, but at least she liked the Keynes - Hayek Rap Battle so she has something going for her.

[sarcasmic]

I remember that. Back in the Disqus days of the Cafe, before they went Facebook.

I still read the comments from time to time. Yasafi and DK are still idiots.

[sarcasmic]

Megan Fox is still hot!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....glory.html

[Brett L]

That's 2 months post baby? Goddam.

[MP]

What's with the electrical tape above her eyes?

[Redmanfms]

Toe thumbs.

And WTF is that thing on her arm? Varicose veins?

[sarcasmic]

A partially removed tattoo of Marilyn Monroe.

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

[sarcasmic]

Biden is still a dufus!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ew-TV.html

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Does Michelle know he bought a pie?

[Atlas Stoned]

Remember, its only okay when they do it. Top. Men.

[waaminn]

I think the minimum wage should be doubled. Its a shame that these giant retailers that rake in BILLIONS in profit can pay their people $9 or $10 an hour. There is NO WAY anyone can live today on 90s wages.

http://www.anon-ut.tk

[Zeb]

So what are you saying, anonbot? All giant retailers' employees are dead?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Is this Tony-bot?

[Auric Demonocles]

Too sentient.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Ha, of course. My bad.

[Hell's Librarian]

It is troubling how statist Anon-bot has become lately. If this is the way Skynet is progressing, I have to say I strongly disapprove.

[Groovus Maximus]

Statist? Waamin is a kiddie diddler-esque prevert!

[Hell's Librarian]

Statist? Waamin is a kiddie diddler-esque prevert!

I think Obama's election drove him mad. He was a gentler, kinder Anon-bot before that.

[LTC(ret) John]

"I have to say I strongly disapprove"

*soft purring sounds of monitors, camersa and microphone pickups. Zooms in on H's L. Read out scrolls across.....TARGETING. Somewhere a drone lifts off...*

[AuH2O]

Damnit! We were slowly turning our computer overlords into libertarians, and then this happens!

[CE]

It's because 90 percent of the IT industry supports Obama. If Nate Silver says it, it must be true (or at least, destined to come to pass.)

[SIV]

A Connecticut state trooper was arrested for allegedly taking jewelery off the body of a dead person at the scene of a highway crash.

We can't expect our heroic first responders to shoe the homeless out of their paltry 6 figure salary.

[sarcasmic]

I know it! A hundred and ten grand a year? No one can live on that!

[Longtorso]

And nothing else happened.

[wareagle]

if he had only bought some homeless guy socks and boots, then we could be treated to another verse of how wonderful these public servants are.

I say the NY thing was staged.

[sarcasmic]

I say the NY thing was staged.

That was my first thought when I saw the article.

[sarcasmic]

NASA warns Mayan apocalypse stories pose threat to frightened children and suicidal teenagers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-NASA.html

I wish I was making that up.

[Ted S.]

I wish you were making that up too.

What the hell is the point of NASA any more, anyway?

[Zeb]

It's changed to "National Aeronautics and Suicidal-teenager Administration".

[Restoras]

NASA is a jobs program for dorks that can't get a job in Silicon Valley.

[Hell's Librarian]

To make Muslims feel better about themselves, apparently.

[mr simple]

They'll have to justify their existence to our new Mayan and Roman overlords once the timelines converge on 12/21/2012.

[Tonio]

I blame political appointees in DC HQ. Something about keeping the agency relevant to the common man (you know, morons).

I've seen the same thing with the Indian Space Program; every page on their website has a blurb about how the program described on the page helps "the villages."

[LTC(ret) John]

The Souix have a Space Program?!

[wareagle]

and that's no Sitting Bull.

[robc]

Didnt you ever play Civilization? Of course they do.

[Joe M]

One of my all time favorite moments playing that game was when Gandhi threatened me with nuclear weapons.

[hamilton]

I always chose to play as the Indians for (partially) that reason.

[Tonio]

Don't talk shit about Elizabeth Warren.

[CE]

I blame the History Channel, and their ancient alien astronaut theorists.

[Tim]

Global Warming is the Mayan Apocalypse for educated people, wisely they set no specific date.

[Rich]

'While this is a joke to some people and a mystery to others, there is a core of people who are truly concerned,' Morrison said.

So, where's NASA warning about Obama's birth certificate?

[Joe M]

They're the ones who keep telling us about imminent asteroid collisions! They're the fearmongers!

[Rasilio]

Yeah cause the last thing we need it to put any more stress on those frightened kids. I mean sometime in the next month their parents are gonna take them to the mall and make them sit on that fat red guys lap to take a picture. Now that is truely frightening.

[CE]

There's a big Christmas village and a first-rate Santa in our local mall. The kids avoid it entirely, and just go into the stores to buy stuff.

[Tonio]

FTFA: David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, said on Wednesday that he receives a large number of emails and letters from worried citizens, most often from young people.

So apparently this isn't something NASA came up with on their own; they're reacting to the public's questions, which is an appropriate response.

[Brett L]

Zebra runs free on Staten Island after escaping from Christmas tree seller. I got nothing.

[generic Brand]

Ban animated Pixar/Dreamworks movies! Animals are being influenced by such films as Madagascar.

[Ted S.]

Young zebras run free

[Eduard van Haalen]

I would see a movie in this, but they already did *Madagascar.*

[LTC(ret) John]

Madagascar IV: Escape from Staten Island?

[Ice Nine]

I don't know; Zebra Pliskin doesn't quite have the panache.

[fish]

Snake Zebra Plissken: [bitterly] We were buddies, Monkey Harold. You, me, and Fresno Bob the Rhino. You know what they did to Bob the Rhino, huh?

[Whiterun Guard]

I am Legend comes to mind as well...

[Bee Tagger]

She's never had a family member beheaded.

Though, she's had one headed, quite famously in fact.

[LTC(ret) John]

*rimshot*

[Lord Humungus]

Well, I finished my new tube amplifier last night. Here are two pics:

http://imageplay.net/img/tya22294662/1625_1.jpg

http://imageplay.net/img/tya22294663/1625_2.jpg

Best part - it worked without any troubleshooting. I did have one 1625 output tube go runaway, but luckily I have a nice stash of 'em.

[Restoras]

I love the aesthetic you went with there. Nicely done.

[R C Dean]

That just looks like it sounds good.

[Tonio]

That's beautiful. I are teh jealous.

[fish]

Pretty cool....it's no Flux Capacitor though!

[sloopyinca]

I posted that CT state trooper story yesterday. And it was a fatal motorcycle crash, not a car crash. Lazy bastards.

[grumble-grumble]

[AuH2O]

I guess you could say that your....

*pulls off sunglasses*

mourning links.

YEAH!

[LTC(ret) John]

*boos, throws tomatoes*

[gaijin]

or yore

[The Late P Brooks]

The U.S. debt limit will have to be increased in March so that the feds can continue to spend burn through money.

And the President wants Congress to cede him sole control of the debt limit, in order to "streamline" the process.

[AuH2O]

Signs accusing Asian women of being "white boy loving whore" obviously from white people, so says Jezebel

I mean, an Asian dude pissed his girlfriend left him for a white boy would NEVER do this. Remember, only white people can be racist! It gets better:

Obviously racism is an issue everywhere, and on ever college campus, but after (now former) UCLA student Alexandra Wallace's insane racist garbage rant last year, it seems UCLA has a real problem with people who like to be stupidly racist toward Asian people. It probably has to do with the high percentage of Asian students at UCLA, and whenever a white person feels like something they own is taken away from them by a person of color, you better watch out because things can get really ugly, really fast.

Emphasis added.

[Zeb]

Yes. This is obviously universally true of white people.

I really can't imagine that the signs would have been put up by anyone other than another Asian person.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Here's a clue - one of the signs misspells "honky." Come to think of it, using the term "honky" is another clue - the term has largely dropped out of modern English.

[heller]

Yes, because an upset white person would call white people "honkie white-boys"

[Brett L]

I'm confused. I thought Asians were white at UCLA.

[SIV]

lol

I actually read 100+ Huffington Post comments on that story and I don't usually even go there, much less read comments. Same thing. The high-ranked commenters declared it obviously the act of a white woman racist Asian-hater and anyone who suggested it was something an Asian male would say was called a racist.

[AuH2O]

The "sociological definition of racism" thing has to be the greatest con ever pulled.

[Auric Demonocles]

Mentioned this earlier this week. Someone said I was "simplifying a complex concept" when I said said that racism is treating people differently based on race.

[Zeb]

Did you respond that they were complicating a simple concept?

[Auric Demonocles]

My response was that they were misusing a term with a clear definition, and if they want to talk about a societal level system of disadvantages, use a different word.

[gaijin]

wait, a white woman can be racist? is this a new front in the war on women?

[Emmerson Biggins]

they are only racist because of a false consciousness induced by the patriarchy.

[Ken Shultz]

Incidentally, from the Asian UCLA students I used to hang around, Asians resent affirmative action more of a challenge than your average white person.

As high as the number of Asians is at UCLA, it would be even higher if it weren't for affirmative action. They fill that Asian quota up really quick.

If it were strictly based on performance and not race, all those affirmative action slots would be taken by Asians. ...which makes affirmative action at UCLA objectively racist against Asians specifically.

[AuH2O]

Apparently, men will soon start receiving affirmative action, because of the sheer number of women getting in to college is starting to make a lot of schools 60-40 or worse.

The feminist reaction to this is predictably hilarious.

[Zeb]

Men should be opposed to this too. a 60/40 split probably makes it pretty easy to get laid.

[Auric Demonocles]

Depends how many of those 60 got in with lesbian status.

[Restoras]

Depending on the campus, I beleive that yes this is the case.

[Ken Shultz]

I think there are lots of reasons for that split.

I suspect there are more opportunities for guys to make decent money earlier in life.

Not going to college makes a lot more sense if you can make decent money hanging drywall, and there aren't a lot of women who are strong enough to hang drywall...

...which means, yes, the fact that 60% of college students are women is yet another symptom of society wide misogyny, and we need to do more to get more women in college. When will we learn?

[AuH2O]

Ken, to even acknowledge the difference in strength between the sexes is, in and of itself, sexist.

[Ken Shultz]

I apologize.

I'm not a misogynist. I know because I sleep with women regularly. And also I let them cook and do the cleaning.

Besides, my Mom is a woman.

[AuH2O]

You have sex with women?!

That's exploiting them! Anything other than the ugliest, manliest dyke getting any girl she wants is oppression of all women!

[Tonio]

Ixnay on the anlymay ikeday. That's existsay.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Don't be such a racist, Ken, and stop trying to divide people of color in the face of the common "honkie" enemy!

[Ken Shultz]

It's been that way since at least the '80s!

Ask any Asian at UCLA what they think of affirmative action off camera, and they'll tell you the same thing.

I'm sorry to say it, but you don't want to hear what some of them think about diversity either.

The enmity between Koreatown and the African-American community may not bubble to the surface all the time like it did back during the riots, but as the Korean community has become increasingly prosperous in the midst of the African-American community, that has not alleviated the...um...dynamic.

[BelowTheRim]

+1

[SIV]

Feelin' poor? Paycheck not going far enough? Savings tapped out?
No Christmas spirit?

Unexpectedly, it's All Sandy's fault

[Joe M]

Spending by U.S. consumers unexpectedly declined...

I challenge everyone here to find a single, just one, article in which an economic datum is provided that was not "unexpected".

[CE]

What happened to the hurricane stimulus?

[SIV]

This was a much better magazine when Virginia Postrel was editor.

[Brett L]

Its too early, and I'm just getting over the hangover.

[Bee Tagger]

spend burn through money.

Is this the name of some new Wilder Valderama show?

[sloopyinca]

East Hartford, CT police officer gets paid vacation for roughing up a 12-year old kid with special needs.

[Brett L]

You've got be a real badass to beat the fuck out of a 12 year old.

[Whiterun Guard]

Special needs. That's journolist talk for retard strength.

Why do you hate our hero cops protecting you from psycho-drugged out thug children.

[Groovus Maximus]

Special MEEDS! Tow the Lion!

[heller]

Anyone celebrating Zwanze Day?

I'll be at Lord Hobo in Cambridge, MA, enjoying the finest rhubarb lambic in the world.

[Auric Demonocles]

You ever been to Hobo's before? My girlfriend went once, but she came back drunk enough that I'm not sure if I should trust her judgement on the place. And I was planning on drinking somewhere on Saturday, and have been wanting some more authentic lambics to try...

[heller]

It must be a fine establishment if it respects Cantillon.

[R C Dean]

she came back drunk enough that I'm not sure if I should trust her judgement on the place

What more do you need? As we say in the law biz, res ipsa loquitur.

[Auric Demonocles]

Her tolerance is a wee bit smaller than mine.

[Ted S.]

I would have guessed you only drink Beaujolais Nouveau.

[heller]

I like wine, but it's generally overpriced and boring compared to beer.

[Restoras]

Have you been to Mead Hall (4 Cambridge Center)? The owner is an acquaintance and it has a fine selection of drafts - check it out if you have the time!

[Ted S.]

Shouldn't Mead Hall only sell honey wine?

[heller]

Will do!

[Lord Humungus]

rhubarb lambic? fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon! /Dennis Hopper

[LTC(ret) John]

Hamm's, the beer refreshing.

[Restoras]

Hamm's! Haven't had it since college days...good times, good times...I think. Memory hazy for some reason.

[LTC(ret) John]

Hamm's serves two purposes - the infliction of headaches and as a laxative.

[Lord Humungus]

Last time I went shopping for food, I was tempted to buy the 30-pack of Hamms.

[gaijin]

haha! Got one in my fridge right now...I can resist anything but temptation 😉

[Lord Humungus]

I went with boxed wine. Gah!

[Auric Demonocles]

Hey! PBR has some redeeming qualities!

Like... it's cheap and easy to get when you're underage.

[sarcasmic]

I've had a rhubarb wine that was superb. Store bought even.

[robc]

I may be headed to Holy Grale for it. Missed it last year.

[robc]

However, ACCCG is tomorrow night, so I might blow off Zwanze.

[bostonaod]

how many Cambridge-area libertarians do we have here? it seems more than just a few

[hamilton]

Not nearly enough that the reason guys ever do a meet up here.

[AuH2O]

World's funniest human tackles survey about the world's emotionality

The survey is kinda interesting. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

[generic Brand]

World's funniest human tackles survey about the world's emotionality

Lies! Jerry Seinfeld doesn't even get an honorable mention, let alone the byline.

"What's the deal with Singapore? Nobody shows any emotion there; they should call themselves MACHINEapore."

[Auric Demonocles]

Sudan and Russia aren't your friends who are constantly moaning and creating drama?they're the ones who don't want to talk about it. Never a great sign.

Is she trying to say that not talking about private matters is bad?

[AuH2O]

It leads to women's constipation in the workplace, so yes.

[sloopyinca]

Cop caught lying in small claims court over $350 garage door. Forces DA to toss over a dozen DUI cases where the cop was the only witness.

The officer was not charged with perjury, fraud or any other charges for an unknown reason.

[Tonio]

I wish there was an organization dedicated to exposing stuff like this. Like an advocacy organization that would use FOIA requests to figure out how much the loss of DUI revenue cost the city (including admin costs for rolling everything back) and then plaster the local media with ads about how Bumfuck PD (not calling out anyone by name) just cost the taxpayers $$$.

[AuH2O]

Elmo pupeteer tickled a third 16 year old, apparently.

Rule of 3s makes him now officially a creep.

[Hell's Librarian]

I was on the "who cares" bandwagon, but the age of consent in New York is apparently 17, which I actually find rather surprising given its status as a liberal Utopia. I wonder what the statute of limitations there is.

Oher factoids: it is 18 in California, and 17 in Illinois. So basically, it would seem that uber-liberals are SEX NEGATIVE!!11eleventy!1one

[AuH2O]

Well, it should be lower for homosexual sex, which isn't exploitative like heterosexual sex nor does it reinforces hetronormative institutions.

[invisible furry hand]

After months of silence, microaggressions.com is posting again:

Waiting in line to handover my voting ballot. The visually Latina woman collecting ballots went to hand the Asian woman voter her "I voted" sticker. She hesitated and said to the voter, "We have Chinese ones too." The voter's body language and facial expression showed frustration but she just replied clearly in English, "No thanks, I'm fine," and took her 'I voted' sticker written in English. The woman collecting ballots was so oblivious and caught up, she had no clue of how offensive that was. I was offended.

[Brett L]

My daughter is a college freshman three states away from home. She's having some depression so went to college counseling office this week at my insistence. The counselor asked if she belonged to any clubs and she mentioned the gay-straight alliance. He replied by asking "Are you having trouble adjusting because you've been rejected by your fellow lesbians?" For the record, she thinks she may be asexual but said nothing to him to warrant his assumption.

I can't imagine why your daughter is all fucked up.

[Joe M]

she thinks she may be asexual

I wonder where she got that idea?

[generic Brand]

I wonder if they have Japanese ones? "I boated"

[LTC(ret) John]

Lacist!

[AuH2O]

Still not as creepy as that black professor from a few weeks back who chronicled every single one of her microagressions. That's how a fucking cultural revolution starts.

[Ptah-Hotep]

The visually Latina woman....

She has no clue how offensive that is, I am offended.

[AuH2O]

Well, she may have looked Latina, but her display of racism means that secretly, she must have been white.

[LTC(ret) John]

White Hispanic!

[gaijin]

a white hispanic...like george zimmerman no doubt.

[Zeb]

Sorry if I'm just being humorless, but as Hispanic is a linguistic and cultural designation and not a racial one, the term "white Hispanic" is not as silly as some seem to think.

[LTC(ret) John]

But the context in which the NYT came up with the term was absolutely absurd.

[Mallet Diction]

All racial terms are linguistic and cultural designations.

squirrels ate my last reply on this...must be a racial conspiracy.

[CE]

If you go back far enough, we're all African-Americans.

[Mallet Diction]

http://raceandgenomics.ssrc.org/Lewontin/

[Zeb]

Yes, race is a stupid concept that means very little. But skin color is real.
It shouldn't matter, but people seem unable to stop putting each other in classes.

[Tonio]

I blame the teachers.

[Bobarian]

Schools started putting me in classes at a very young age

[Ice Nine]

Ptah-Hotep|
"The visually Latina woman...."
She has no clue how offensive that is, I am offended.

Me too. But primarily because she doesn't know the difference between visually and visibly.

[Ptah-Hotep]

Me too. But primarily because she doesn't know the difference between visually and visibly.

Be a craftsman in speech that thou mayest be strong, for the strength of one is the tongue, and speech is mightier than all fighting.

Maxims of Ptahhotep c. 2350 bc

[Tonio]

You must be very popular with the ladies, oh strong-tongued one.

[Mallet Diction]

the difference between visually and visibly.

Meh. Her usage is perfectly acceptable.

[Ice Nine]

You are mistaken. But if any readily available dictionary won't convince you I'm not going to bother trying.

[Mallet Diction]

Ice is, in fact, incorrect.

Make it "The, by sight/by appearance, Latina..." and you have a synonymous form.

[Groovus Maximus]

Ice is correct. "Visually appealing" v. "visibly frightened." "Visual" is not used to describe something physically peculiar or prominent. Look it up.

[Jordan]

HAHAHA! What a goddamn pussy. My wife is Chinese and speaks both English and Chinese. When we were on a Korean Air flight, the stewardess spoke English to any non-asians, and spoke Korean to any asians. When she spoke Korean to my wife, my wife had to tell her she didn't speak Korean (in English). Neither one of us cried about it. I laughed and told my wife you all look alike. She laughed. Nothing else happened...

[MJGreen]

Is it possible not to be offensive under this criteria? Isn't it offensive to assume the Asian woman lives in an English-speaking household, just because she lives in the US? Or that she wouldn't be big in the Asian community or have any pride in her heritage, and thus choose the proud Chinese label over the symbol of imperialism, slavery and oppression that is the English language?

[Lord Humungus]

Radley Balko: Despite Evidence From Discredited Medical Examiner, Mississippi's Jeffrey Havard Nears Execution
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....13976.html

[robc]

Any conviction in MS is suspect.

[sarcasmic]

Amish who drive Cadillac cars and carry machine guns!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....e-eye.html

Unsurprisingly the Amish say it's a hoax. I'm inclined to believe them.

[Whiterun Guard]

They've got you right where they want you then.

[LTC(ret) John]

Plausible deniability - who knew the Amish were so devious.

[Tim]

Why are there no Amish Rappers?

[Rasilio]

Who says there aren't

[Delroy]

The Electric Amish

[Tonio]

Oh, a new genre of exploitation cinema. Me likee!

[generic Brand]

I'm playing Assassin's Creed 3, which takes place in colonial America, and the guy who runs the Animus Database is British. So as he is giving me the short history lessons on people, places, and groups, he injects his British "sense of humour" (that was painful to type that) as well as his slant on how history played out.

Basically, to Brits, the Patriots are traitors or rebels, not the Loyalists. Which of course brings me to the point that all of the people talking secession are really no different than the revolutionists. "No Taxation without Representation" can still apply today: "No Taxation without Adequate Representation". We live under majority tyranny; these people get elected with 51% of the vote sometimes and feel that justifies them in raising taxes and doing nothing about spending.

[sarcasmic]

New Declaration of Independence.

http://www.isil.org/resources/.....ation.html

I'm sure there are others out there. Though at this point they're all racist.

[Suthenboy]

Yeah......good luck to those guys. I am sure it will happen.

[Ice Nine]

What, that someone will read that whole thing?

[Auric Demonocles]

No, see it's different because King George was white.

[Brett L]

You like it? I'm thinking about self-gifting it for Christmas.

[generic Brand]

Yeah it's definitely worth it. They do such a good job of subtly (or not so subtly maybe) feeding you history lessons while also producing a fun and engrossing game experience.

It's been a little difficult to get back into the swing of the fight system and free-running because both are very different from most games on the market and I haven't played AC2 in over two years, but the game is sick.

I find myself wondering what generation the 4th installment will take, and I lean towards WW2. I could definitely see them trying to have you assassinate Hitler (but calling it a suicide); and then generally skip 2-300 years between episodes.

[Brett L]

Sweet. Thanks.

[Jordan]

Dishonored is much better. They still haven't fixed my biggest complaint with the AC series: taking on 10 guards really isn't much more difficult than taking on 1 guard. They all just wait patiently for their turn to get stabbed.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I did roll my eyes in one of the earlier installments when they reveal that capitalism is a tool of social control invented by the Templars.

[Tim]

"Wolverines!"

[Tonio]

Yeah, we saved their asses in two world wars and they're still bitter about losing the thirteen colonies. *&^%$#@! Brits.

[MJGreen]

In one of the secession articles the other day, a prog somewhere said the Revolution wasn't secession, because the colonists didn't agree to be ruled by the Crown. Except the colonies were set up by charters authorized by the British government. The colonists could have gone into the wilderness and set up their own country, but they didn't. They agreed to British rule as much (or, for that matter, as little) as any American state has. And with only 535 people representing 300 million, the "no representation" complaint is substantively similar.

[sloopyinca]

16 year old runs across football field in his boxers at halftime. Cop thinks the correct course of action was to try and taze* him and cuss out the other students. His sheriff agrees. The student faces suspension and criminal prosecution.

*I say "try" because the big slipped while trying to deploy the tazer on the unarmed, harmless kid.

[Ted S.]

If he didn't succeed, then shouldn't it be "try to taser" the student?

[Fist of Etiquette]

You will find more and more that fat cops will opt to deploy a taser in lieu of having to actually run after someone. Which, of course, in this case he didn't really have to run after the kid anyway. The dude was already leaving the field.

[fish]

......that fat cops will opt to deploy a taser in lieu of having to actually run after someone.

I'm guessing why the kid is being prosecuted..... for elevating the cops heart and respiration rate?

[mousefeathers]

It was attempted murder by heart-attack.

[Lord Humungus]

Ignore GDP and the Fiscal Cliff, U.S. Is Already in Recession: ECRI's Achuthan
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs.....9.html?l=1

For most economists, the GDP report provides further evidence of a U.S. economy that's growing modestly, but far from robustly. For Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, the report is a distraction from the real story: the U.S. economy is already in recession.

"The evidence is starting to mount a recession is already underway, and we're a few months into it," he says, suggesting the downturn began in July.

[VG Zaytsev]

I saw a distinct slow down in two unrelated business starting in mid August.

[Auric Demonocles]

Yesterday was the 4th time I've switched a pick in the pick' em on the day of the game. All 4 have resulted in getting the game wrong. I've got to stop getting talked out of a pick (or try to talk Brees out of some).

[Brett L]

Shit. I fell for the "soft Falcons" hype. Bet the record, Brett. Bet the record. Except for NYG. Fuck Eli.

[Auric Demonocles]

The Falcons did look horrible for basically the whole 2nd and 3rd quarters.

[Brett L]

But they're like the Texans. Are they probably going to lose one more before they mail in the last two games of the year? Yeah. But there's nobody they can't beat and they've got the football gods tilting the field in their favor.

[Auric Demonocles]

God damn Texans and their OT wins.

[The Late P Brooks]

Is it just my imagination, or is this site even more fucked up than usual, this morning?

[Auric Demonocles]

I got that blank page when I tried to comment at first.

[LTC(ret) John]

IIIT's YoUr IMAginAti...on?!

[Ted S.]

I did get an error message one time I tried to comment.

[invisible furry hand]

if that's what your imagination is coming up with, then you are living a wild and crazy inner life

[Groovus Maximus]

Meeds?

[Tonio]

I, for one, think our cute, bushy-tailed rodent overlords are doing a good job.

[Mallet Diction]

Minor free speech kerfluffle brewing in New Mexico.

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/e.....-on-campus

For more:
https://www.facebook.com/glitterdickmusic?fref=ts
http://www.reverbnation.com/gl.....cebook_app

[Killazontherun]

Headline on top of Drudge at the moment:

French Socialist: We're Just Doing What Obama Does...

You see how well it is working for us, and you still do it?

[Ken Shultz]

Reminds me of my favorite Hugo Chavez quote:

"Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right," Chavez joked on a live television broadcast."

http://www.reuters.com/article.....GX20090603

[Ken Shultz]

"French Socialist: We're Just Doing What Obama Does..."

Notice, it's okay for French Socialists to call Obama a socialist.

It's okay for Hugo Chavez to call Obama a socialist.

But when libertarians or people on the right call Obama a socialist, it's because we're a bunch of inbred hill-monkeys, who don't know the meaning of the word.

[Suthenboy]

I show this stuff to a lefty friend of mine...including where pravda called him a communist....and I get nothing.

Invariably she makes ad hominem attacks on the source and never addresses the allegations. Next day it has all evaporated from her memory.
They truly have created a cult of personality around that piece of shit. His supporters are completely deluded.
We are all fucked.

[VG Zaytsev]

It helps that the US media treats calling someone a socialist the same as calling them a pedophile. IE as a baseless ad hominem. It hurts even more that a lot of conservatives think that if they play along with the mainstream propaganda that they'll be taken seriously by journalists that despise them.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

If you want to keep getting invited to the emperor's swank cocktail parties, pointing out the state of his dress is unwise.

[Ken Shultz]

Exactly. Like religious belief.

They believe in Obama for the same reason some fundamentalist Christians believe the earth was created 6,000 years ago.

It doesn't matter how many facts you hit 'em with about Obama, they believe in him.

Tony is the perfect example. That guy's been hit with facts by dozens of us for years--hasn't made a dent in his Obama beliefs once.

That's a cult. A personality cult. American culture is extremely religious, and that doesn't change just because many of them shake off the vestiges of religion. They're still religious--they just call it "politics" now.

[Tonio]

It's all about keeping up the outrage, Yankee Lad. Many of the lefty FB screeds I see are clearly five minute hates.

[Ken Shultz]

"Labor organizers are pushing the unionization of fast food workers in New York City, hoping to get the average wage for flipping burgers doubled, up to $15 an hour."

What did working class people do to unions that makes unions hate them so much?

The unions don't give a damn about jacking up the cost of lunch--so long as the union's members get ridiculously overpaid?

Labor organizers are a menace to society.

[Auric Demonocles]

If those people want to be able to afford lunch, they should get a union job. Problem solved!

[Ken Shultz]

Between this and their push at Wal*Mart, it's like the unions are declaring war on the working class.

Don't they know that a lot of those people eating lunch are minorities and single mothers?

[Auric Demonocles]

If they had union jobs, they'd get paid enough to eat that lunch. What's the problem?

[R C Dean]

Given the violence unions traditionally unleash on non-members who are working class (just try crossing a picket line), I would say that there's little doubt that unions hate the working class.

[Tonio]

No, they hate anyone who doesn't tow their lion. The fact that working-class people bear the brunt of their hostility is just part of the terrain.

[Groovus Maximus]

Indeed. Simply mention the words "Card Check" and watch the response.

[Suthenboy]

I regularly eat at sit-down restaurants with wait staff and very good food for less than the price of a full meal at fast food places.

I dont understand why anyone eats at those places.

[Alack]

Because there is a sandwich called the Baconator and it can be your maw in under 90 seconds..

[tarran]

Hah!

My kids think Wendy's is the best restaurant in the world because of the baconator. They've even stopped lobbying for the Rainforest Cafe!

[Auric Demonocles]

I would have thought it was the Frosty.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I actually go there because of the artificial rain sometimes when the lack of real rain for months and months around here starts getting to me.

[Killazontherun]

Their chicken sandwiches are really above grade delicious.

[Ken Shultz]

They're fast, especially if you don't want to get out of your car, and the food for kids is especially cheap.

And a burger, fries, and a Coke, is not less expensive at Denny's (or wherever) than it is McDonalds. ...not even before the tip.

[Zeb]

If I go to a fast food place, I generally spend less than $5.

[sarcasmic]

Dollar Menu, yo! Dollar Menu!

[hamilton]

That's "Dolla Menu", you heathen slob.

[T]

No lie. Two spicy McChickens and a large fry, $4.11 including tax.

[Rasilio]

No, they don't care about the members being overpaid either, they just care about having the members pay their dues.

[Jersey Patriot]

Concern-trolling for the workers. LOL

[Ken Shultz]

Not sure I'm getting this.

If I'm concerned about anybody, it's for the consumers.

People who need to buy lunch. They're working class, too, right?

[sloopyinca]

New Mexico cops on tail of car thief: either they're colorblind or they just wanted to fuck with an old Indian couple/a. Either way, it's going to be the taxpayers that pony up for their criminal behavior. The local chief is A-OK with their actions.

[sarcasmic]

"The kids still get upset every time they see a police badge," he said.

At least they'll never make the mistake of trusting a cop.

[tarran]

Hey sarcasmic, I don't know if you saw them, but I had some recommendations for you back in the thread were you were mentioning the headhunter. I strongly encourage you to act upon them. 🙂

[sarcasmic]

It's not the headhunter. He likes my resume and he's the one who called me about the job. I don't really know what is going on. Dude's on vacation. Last week he said I'd be getting a call this week from someone else at the agency or from the company he sent my resume to. Crickets. If I don't hear anything today I'll shoot him an email asking what's up.

[tarran]

Good. As long as you have got it in hand.

[sloopyinca]

I'll fix that last bit for you, sarc: If I don't hear anything today I'll shoot him an email asking what's up.

That's how I'd respond.

BTW, have you done my mock-up yet for our little potential venture? We're looking to do something by the end of Q1.

[sarcasmic]

BTW, have you done my mock-up yet for our little potential venture?

Nope. Haven't found the time and I'm not sure when I will. Even if I do I need a new machine at home. Thing is a decade old piece of crap. I want to, but life keeps getting in the way. For example I spent the Friday before last in the hospital with a sick kid. No fun. I was hoping that I could get this new job with a hefty raise, get a new pc, and get to work. But that remains to be seen. Wish I had better news.

[sloopyinca]

No problem. Keep me in the loop by e-mail as I've got a feeling I'm gonna be away from H&R for a while after Wednesday morning.

[MP]

FIGHT MILK!

[Ted S.]

I agree. Harvey Milk was in thrall to Jim Jones and the People's Temple, something which the movie Milk completely overlooks.

[AuH2O]

But, see, its different, because he was gay!

[Tonio]

You're batting 1.000 in the douche leagues today, Goldy.

[Ken Shultz]

I don't know what gets glossed over more, Harvey Milk's (And Willie Brown's and Dianne Feinstein's) connections to Jim Jones, or the fact that Jim Jones was an atheist and a socialist.

I think it's that Jones was an atheist and a socialist. I bet 99% of everybody out there thinks Jim Jones was an evangelical Christian, with political views that were essentially Southern Baptist.

[AuH2O]

A socialist would never commit evil acts Ken! Just like a true communist could never do what Stalin or Pol Pot did! All evil is from reactionary forces who resist progress!

[Ken Shultz]

Jim Jones was a community organizer.

[wareagle]

absolutely the latter. Jones is presented as one of these hyper religious, kinda sorta doomsday cultists, almost like Koresh with whom Jimmy had next to nothing in common. Default media treatment of anyone remotely connected to religion, no matter how thin the thread, is make them look like kooks.

[Tonio]

Default media treatment of anyone remotely connected to religion, no matter how thin the thread, is make them look like kooks.

Hahahaha...

That's a serious persecution complex you got going on there.

The media is pretty deferential towards established religions with large numbers of followers.

There are certainly many cases where the religious reveal themselves as kooks.

[Tonio]

According to what I can find, it's way more complicated than tat, Ken.

Jones started as a christian faith-healer. The official dogma of his cult slowly moved away from christianity to a cult of personality; had they not mass suicided he would have probably declared himself the messiah.

[Ken Shultz]

Take another look:

"This frustration, among other things, provoked a seminal moment for Jones in which he asked himself "how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church."

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

Jim Jones was always a socialist and always an atheist.

His whole schtick was to present Marxism as a church in order to market Marxism to Christians.

It was that way from the very beginning. He was a member of the Communist Party USA long before he founded a church.

"Jones began openly admitting even to outsiders that he was an atheist.[42]....Marceline Jones admitted to the New York Times that, as early as age 18 when he watched his then idol Mao Zedong overthrow the Chinese government, Jim Jones realized that the way to achieve social change through Marxism in the United States was to mobilize people through religion.[38] She stated that "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion," and had slammed the Bible on the table yelling "I've got to destroy this paper idol!"[38] In one sermon, Jones said that, "You're gonna help yourself, or you'll get no help! There's only one hope of glory; that's within you! Nobody's gonna come out of the sky! There's no heaven up there! We'll have to make heaven down here!"[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.....ornia_Eden

[Tonio]

This was before they relocated to SA and drank the kool-aid, right?

Are you implying that HM somehow knew they were a suicide cult when they were still in SF?

[Eduard van Haalen]

No, but they there was lots of evidence coming in that they were an exploitative left-wing cult. A fact which didn't seem to register with their supporters.

[Tonio]

Lots of politicians have early in their careers associated with, and taken support from, people who later turned out to have unsavory or downright evil views. Ron Paul immediately comes to mind.

Plus it was California in the Seventies, so there were lots of weird culty stuff going on. Weak sauce, lads, weak sauce.

[Redmanfms]

Are you defending Milk just because he was queer?

A lot of "weird culty stuff" may have been going on in California in the '70s but Jim Jones had unsavory and evil views in the '50s when he was a member of CPUSA. Hell, he distanced himself from CPUSA because of their criticism of Uncle Joe (after the Secret Speech made it ok for them of course). Jones was never not evil, yet a number of mainstream SF-area Democratic politicians chose to embrace him and his radical Marxist racialist nonsense, including Harvey Milk. And they deserve to be criticized for it.

[Redmanfms]

Besides, the prevalence and popularity of "weird culty stuff" in any period is a pretty weak excuse to indulge in supporting a Marxist lunatic who was readily identifiable as such long before any of those people (even Hero Queer) we involved with him.

[Ken Shultz]

"Are you implying that HM somehow knew they were a suicide cult when they were still in SF?"

Nobody knew they were a suicide cult, but an organization to promote Marxism and atheism in the guise of a Christian church, yeah, everybody knew that!

I'll post the same quote from above:

Look at my quote from above in regards to his atheism and Marxism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.....ornia_Eden

Meanwhile, the People's Temple was integral to getting just about everyone from Northern California elected. Jim Jones had pull with everybody from Milk to Willie Brown, Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown to Dianne Feinstein. Read this article for a little tease of Jim Jones' influence in California politics:

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/0.....francisco/

They should all be ashamed of themselves. They didn't know they were going to commit suicide, but they knew the People's Temple was a cult.

[sloopyinca]

Police officers in Palo Alto, CA determine their use of tasers in two recent incidents are justified in internal investigation.

The taser was deployed for 5 seconds on a passenger in a car pulled over for an expired registration for "failing to follow orders" after the driver "responded strangely."

So now we're basically just giving police officers carte blanche to fire these things whenever they want when they were allegedly given out to be used instead of guns in cases where they would be necessary. But I'm sure that consequence was unforeseen.

[sarcasmic]

"It used to be the boast of free men that, so long as they kept within the bounds of the known law, there was no need to ask anybody's permission or to obey anybody's orders. It is doubtful whether any of us can make this claim today."
-F.A.Hayek

[Tonio]

Yes. Because they're non-lethal weapons, after all. /sarc

So, giving cops NLW should in theory reduce the number of people shot by the police.

But the completely foreseeable consequences is that more people are being tazed. And nobody except a few crackpots speaks out.

[sarcasmic]

Speaking out makes you a crackpot. So by definition only crackpots speak out.

[The Late P Brooks]

16 year old runs across football field in his boxers at halftime.

Tulpy will be along soon to tell us that field is not available to just any old student. Only duly authorized individuals are allowed access. Because running across that field at halftime is just like stealing a police car.

[LTC(ret) John]

Ordnung muss sein!

[The Late P Brooks]

Humungous, you're letting me down. There was a truly horrifying editorial in the WSJ about the real size of our unfunded (and unaccounted for) national entitlement liabilities. I expected you to link to it.

And also the one about the various and sundry Obamatron Costco executives and board members who have decided to borrow money in order to ram through a special dividend timed to beat the probable tax increase after the first of the year.

Chop chop!

[Lord Humungus]

me so sorry, mistah!

[sloopyinca]

Two piece of shit cops in Kentucky steal 14 guns that were evidence in criminal cases. One of the cops sold two to a pawn shop. Both are given house arrest.

[Alack]

Welp, there's now a TNG-based webcomic called Larp Trek. I guess that means the internet's over.

[The Late P Brooks]

Meeds?

That's SPECIAL meeds, to you.

[sloopyinca]

Asheville, NC taxpayers forced to pay settlement where wrongfully-arrested man was beaten to the point that he had a collapsed lung and other serious injuries.

No officers faced charges from the incident.

[sloopyinca]

Salon abandons its usually-shitty writing and does an excellent piece on police abuse against the homeless in NYC.

[wareagle]

Salon is excited because a treasured lefty mascot, the homeless, is involved. When it's Billy Joe and Betty Sue Redneck, you get silence.

[sloopyinca]

Agreed. But still, they usually hold up dumps like NYC as the bastion of enlightenment and progressive success stories. To see a takedown this scathing was surprising to say the least.

[wareagle]

maybe it's progress. Still keeping a good thought for you, the mrs, and the little bundle.

[Tonio]

Not mascots, Conflicthawk, accredited victim group.

[Brett L]

Well, that thing with the NYC cop was driving so many pageviews, they tried to get their own "good cop" story and found out there weren't anymore.

[Sevo]

Health insurance companies react to the law; SHAME ON THEM (not the law)!
"Health insurance rates could shoot up"
http://www.sfgate.com/health/a.....079244.php
Logic is a language not spoken among CA lefties.

[Mensan]

A Connecticut state trooper was arrested for allegedly taking jewelery off the body of a dead person at the scene of a highway crash.

The thief trooper was also the vice president of the state police union.

[The Late P Brooks]

Just for fun, I did a little cursory checking, and if my math is right, McDonalds' revenue per employees is about $50k. Several of the stories I looked at yesterday were calling for a "living wage" of 25k for fry-droppers.

Good luck.

[Auric Demonocles]

See, those greedy owners will stay have $25k per employee, all for doing nothing at all!

[Mensan]

Revenue is one thing, but profit is a very different story:

$5.5 billion ? 420k employees = $13k per employee.

[Matrix]

UK Doctors discuss how they let babies die

Starvation and dehydration. Gotta save money for your socialist health care. Let sick the sick who have no voice starve to death!

[Joe M]

I can't read that.

[Tonio]

And I'll be the first to agree that this is barbaric.

But I want to hear what your alternative is, Matrix, with a specific discussion of anencephalic babies.

[Rasilio]

Well first off, if the parents and Dr conclude that the best medical course of action is the death of the child can we please go with something more fucking humane than starvation and dehydration?

I fully agree some babies are born technically live that have deformities so bad that allowing their death is a reasonable course of action, and that choice should always be made by the parents with the advise of their Doctors. However once that choice is made then the death should be made as quick and painless as possible, not stretched out over days of suffering.

That is where the barbarism comes in.

Well that and the fact that there seems to be some "encouragement" on the part of the government to push severely disabled kids in this direction to cut costs.

[Matrix]

Something that prevents us from becoming Spartans and Nazis.

But even doctors are not infallible. They make mistakes, telling parents their kids will never make it, only for that child to be healthy years later.

But in the case of severe deformities and certain painful death, I would suggest something that puts them to sleep and stops their hearts. It is much better than letting them die of starvation or dehydration.