Judge Slaps Administration Over No-Fly Lists, Dumbed-Down Mortgage Market, Krauthammer Cautions Against Gun Confiscation: P.M. Links

• The Obama Administration's insistence on using secret evidence to short-circuit challenges to the no-fly list was shot down by a federal judge who slapped the government's "persistent and stubborn refusal" to follow the law.

• In its efforts to pin down a definition of "homeland security," the Congressional Research Service discovered that there is no definition — the phrase means whatever federal officials want it to mean, at any given time.
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed a Los Angeles park area the size of 40 football fields because, they said, it had become a hangout for gay men and homeless campers.
• Restrictive new mortgage rules would severely dumb-down offerings in an effort to make them comprehensible to the least common denominator. Too bad for anybody looking for a more-sophisticated deal.
• Virginia is caught up in yet another series of battles over abortion, apparently facing off fans of restrictions against proponents of subsidies in an everybody-loses match.
• Proposed legislation in Pennsylvania would legalize marijuana, treating it just like alcohol.
• Crusty political commentator Charles Krauthammer caused a bit of a stir by cautioning that outright confiscation of scary-looking firearms would be "unconstitutional and would cause insurrection." The NRA, by the way, remains popular with a majority of Americans.
• Twitter is refusing French demands for the name of a racist user, saying it's subject only to U.S. jurisdiction.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Proposed legislation in Pennsylvania would legalize marijuana, treating it just like alcohol.

Gonna have to add shelf space at the state stores.

[Francisco d Anconia]

There's a model to follow.

No pot on Sundays. It's the Lord's day, after all. You shouldn't be partaking of your evil weed on the Lord's day.

[Robert]

In the case of pot, that is a good model to follow, because of federal law that says officers enforcing state law don't have to register with DEA to distribute controlled substances.

[Enough About Palin]

Best smoke I ever had was in Milheim, PA 30 years ago.

[fish]

You just thought it was good because you were drunk at the time.

Wait...that was me!

Carry on!

[Fist of Etiquette]

You sure it wasn't Centralia, PA?

[Romulus Augustus]

Has about as much chance of passing as the Quakers have of using non-union labor to build a meeting house.

[NeonCat]

So if they put in a provision that the pot has to be grown and sold by union members, it stands a chance?

[PapayaSF]

Oh, wonderful. Welcome to substandard, even more outrageously expensive pot.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Twitter is refusing French demands for the name of a racist user...

If the French are running around demanding the names of all the racists in France, they're going to be surrendering quicker than usual.

[generic Brand]

Twitter is refusing French demands for the name of a racist user, saying it's subject only to U.S. jurisdiction.

Twitter of France would give a pussified answer like this, though.

[Bee Tagger]

They're retreating backwards faster than the speed of sound. Who could ever hear them?

[Episiarch]

outright confiscation of scary-looking firearms would be "unconstitutional and would cause insurrection."

Well, Chuckles is most likely right. Which is why I predict the Executive Order "solution" potentially coming our way.

[Tim]

If your insurrection lasts more than four hours consult your physician immediately.

[Episiarch]

If your insurrection lasts longer than 4 days call in the ATF and FBI to kill almost everyone, including children, immediately.

[Warty]

EVERYONE KNOWS FLASHBANGS CAN'T START FIRES

[Tim]

Insurrection? That's what I've been saying, well "Little Wacos".

[Episiarch]

It's one of the worst movies in the franchise, I agree.

[Tim]

Not even ONE line worth quoting or spoofing. NOT. ONE.

[Episiarch]

It's the Curse of the Pink Panther of its own franchise.

[nicole]

Restrictive new mortgage rules would severely dumb-down offerings in an effort to make them comprehensible to the least common denominator. Too bad for anybody looking for a more-sophisticated deal.

Did David Frum not teach you anything? Society has already reengineered itself enough for you smarty-pantses.

[Episiarch]

YOU'VE BEEN FRUMMED

[Archduke Pantsfan]

I'm gald I got taht vaccination.

[John]

French gays rebel against gay marriage.

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....-gallagher

[SIV]

Why do gay Frenchpersons hate freedom marriage?

[John]

Apparently at leas some gays don't want to act like straight couples.

[mad libertarian guy]

There's something to this argument. I know many blacks who support traditionally black schools for just this reason. They want an institutionalized way of preserving their culture, not someone else's institution.

[Coeus]

They want an institutionalized way of preserving their culture, not someone else's institution.

Of course. If they were to adopt the mainstream culture, there might not be a reason for affirmative action much longer.

[mad libertarian guy]

That said, it shouldn't stop those gays who do want to act like straight couples from doing so.

[Matrix]

straight men everywhere are wondering why they never thought of rebelling against straight marriage.

[John]

No kidding. If you really hated homosexuals, I can think of nothing worse you could do to them than stick them with marriage and worse make them subject to family courts.

[rac3rx]

This is something I've said forever. You want to make sure gays don't marry? Grant them the ability to do so. Within about 10 years every gay person would at least know someone who was subjected to the horrors of divorce court and asset division. No gay person will be willing to put themselves through that.

Better yet, someone could do a divorce court show that consists of nothing but bitchy Queens getting divorced. The slap fest would make for delicious TV and a deterrent as a bonus.

[mad libertarian guy]

Within about 10 years every gay person would at least know someone who was subjected to the horrors of divorce court and asset division. No gay person will be willing to put themselves through that.

Are gays somehow inherently smarter than straights? Because if not, I'm wondering why, then, straight people haven't refused marriage being that we've been trapped in this institution for millennia.

[Coeus]

Within about 10 years every gay person would at least know someone who was subjected to the horrors of divorce court and asset division. No gay person will be willing to put themselves through that.

There was an article in the NYT from one of the leading "gay rights activists" who seemed to have just realized that as the partner with the most assets, she'd be treated like a man in divorce court. That second prize "domestic partnership" had just turned into platinum.

[fish]

Sshhhhhhh! You'll spoil my nefarious plan to ensnare gays in 50 era norms.....well except for the whole gay thing.

[SIV]

Libertarians are skeptical that state-backed violence is the solution to private patterns of gendered injustice

Oh those libertarians and their skepticism.

[Suthenboy]

I read 'private patterns of gendered injustice' and thought 'whaaaa....huh?'.

So I read the article thinking it would all make sense.

Things didnt turn out like I had hoped.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...cautioning that outright confiscation of scary-looking firearms would be "unconstitutional and would cause insurrection."

Confiscation in America isn't going to have the same look that it did in certain other pansy countries I could name.

[John]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed a Los Angeles park area the size of 40 football fields because, they said, it had become a hangout for gay men and homeless campers.

Did they remember to salt the earth?

[Tim]

I hope they chased out the fags and the bums first...

[Fist of Etiquette]

LAPD said they didn't even have that many problems with homeless or gay cruising in the park and made none of the complaints the Corps claims they got. The article is full of what-the-fuck moments.

[rac3rx]

Spooge farms?

[A Serious Man]

Not good: Analysis of brain tissue that former NFL player Junior Seau had brain disease from repeated head injuries.

[John]

Maybe he shouldn't have played in the NFL FOR 17 YEARS. Perhaps like boxing, professional football is a sport that ought to be enjoyed in one's 20s.

[Tim]

You'd have to have brain damage to keep playing for all those years...

[Some call me Tim?]

Maybe this will be the karma Ray Lewis receives for that incident that we're not allowed to talk about anymore.

[Warty]

BACONS!!!!!

[$park?]

You know, cats intentionally do things the hard way just for the challenge of it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed a Los Angeles park area the size of 40 football fields because, they said, it had become a hangout for gay men and homeless campers.

Is "bulldozing" slang for something in the lexicon of the gays or of the homeless? Luckily the Corps doesn't have to explain itself to anyone, being federal and all.

[Enough About Palin]

Bulldozer: whilst during anal penetration, the act of driving your partner around the room on their face.

- Urban Dictionary

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I didn't need that picture in my head

[db]

No, that's a "Rusty Venture!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Boom! Right out of the gate you ask for a Rusty Venture! That is BOLD, my friend. Kudos."

[Coeus]

Done it recently.

[Ted S.]

No wonder your face looks so bad.

[Coeus]

Simmer down. It ain't like I'm asking for a kiss.

[$park?]

This just in: Union teachers hate the idea of non-union teachers.

The nonprofit Teach for America is a "fraud" whose participants are nothing but "educational tourists," said Ayers, a onetime associate of President Obama who was a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago before retiring. The 68-year-old firebrand, now a self-styled educational theorist, said the program's young grads are merely passing through the gritty neighborhoods where they serve to pad their resumes at the expense of longer-term educators represented by unions.

[John]

where they serve to pad their resumes at the expense of longer-term educators represented by unions.

Because the purpose of the education system is to sere the interests of the educators. The fact that the kids benefit from the odd smart kid teaching for a few years has nothing to do with it. At least she is honest.

[mad libertarian guy]

Because the purpose of the education system is to sere the interests of the educators. The fact that the kids benefit from the odd smart kid teaching for a few years has nothing to do with it. At least she is honest.

Though that's exactly what she said, I can guarantee you she wouldn't admit that.

[Matrix]

can they get any more desperate looking and ridiculous?

Oh fuck, what am I saying? Of course they can... and by god, they'll make this look completely well thought out and rational in comparison to their next level of stupidity.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

This just in: Ayers is a shithead.

[NeonCat]

*still

[generic Brand]

I know quite a few people who did Teach for America, and the reality is that the program accepts very few, if any "Education majors". I'll let you all connect the rest of the dots.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Oh, so what you're saying is that they have standards

[The Last American Hero]

In the accounting profession, many aspiring CPA's serve a couple years at a large firm, then move on to industry or a smaller firm. The large firms have adapted their business models to this trend.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Yep. I spent time at Big 4 before going to a smaller firm.

Of course, part of how they adapted was to offshore tax prep. I am not convinced this is beneficial in the long run, but hey, it works for them.

[BelowTheRim]

My roomate from college just did the exact same thing.

He got his BS in 09, Mac in 10, and just now left a big 4 for a smaller firm w/ better pay etc...

He said it was a grind and that he was very much so a number to mgt.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

said the program's young grads are merely passing through the gritty neighborhoods where they serve to pad their resumes at the expense of longer-term educators represented by unions.

You mean like the Peace Corps or Americorps?

[mad libertarian guy]

You mean like the Peace Corps or Americorps?

No. Not like that at all. Those are good, progressive organizations.

[rac3rx]

I'm guessing that most of the "educational tourists" are actually better educators than the "educational professionals."

[el esc?ptico]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed a Los Angeles park area the size of 40 football fields because, they said, it had become a hangout for gay men and homeless campers.

What did that accomplish? All of those gay men and homeless campers will still be around and just move somewhere else and be gay and camp homelessly. Wouldn't it have been more efficient to actually bulldoze the gay men and homeless campers rather than injuring mother Gaia like that?

[Randian]

In all seriousness, this is a Public Service Announcement:

Gay people, why are you still in the parks? There is this thing called "the Internet" now.

[John]

Nostalgia? Not wanting their wives to know they like to cruise on the low down?

[Randian]

I mean just buy yourself a private laptop. Or go out 'drinking with the guys' once a week or something. I don't know - cruising in parks is pretty damn sad.

[John]

I think so. And pretty disgusting, gay or straight.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Everyone knows to avoid Balboa Park in San Diego after dark unless you get excited by rustling bushes.

[John]

That infuriates me. Fuck them. That is a public park. You shouldn't be able to ruin it like that.

That said, I love that park. I hope the Corps doesn't know about this.

[Some call me Tim?]

Fuck you, that's how they want to enjoy the park.

That said, this is a lesson on why there shouldn't be "public parks."

[Suthenboy]

I thought they had moved to bookstores these days. The last time I went in Barnes ampersand Noble in shreveport it was full of middle aged men peeking out from behind crochet magazines and books on teen idols, leering at the college girls and winking at each other.

It creeped me out so bad I havent been back in a bookstore in two years.

[Zeb]

Were there holes in between the men's room stalls?

[Episiarch]

Dee: Why would you want to have sex with someone you can't see?

Dennis: Well, Dee. I think the real question is, why wouldn't you want to have sex with someone you can't see?

[Coeus]

Dennis Reynolds: It's the safest way, Frank.

Frank Reynolds: Dennis, if I was looking for safe, I wouldn't be sticking my dick through a wall.

[Bee Tagger]

Twitter is refusing French demands for the name of a racist user

I think Twitter is demanding the demands be in German.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

You know who else made demands in German?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Frau Blucher?

[db]

Neeeeiiiighhhhhhh!

[Enough About Palin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L54XAMQ7KKI

[$park?]

Colonel Klink?

[mr simple]

Facing increasing criticism for bulldozing a cherished bird habitat and wetlands ecosystem spanning 40 football fields

Where are the EPA on this? Shouldn't they be facing fines in excess of $75000 a day if they don't return the land to it's original condition?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Donald Trump pissed at Bill Maher for questioning his birth credentials - threatens lawsuit.

http://www.politico.com/story/.....85958.html

[Bee Tagger]

I feel pretty confident in predicting this ends with Bill Maher on Celebrity Apprentice.

[$park?]

I think you're failing to grasp what's really going on there. That being said, I'm not really surprised by that.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I know exactly what is going on. Trump is the butt of a joke again and his massive ego cannot stand it.

[bmp1701]

Bill Maher, the non-thinking man's thinking man, versus The Giant Inflatable Ego.

[rac3rx]

Anyone paying attention to this loses.

[Matrix]

No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer
*Note - blog writer is opposing gun-grabber views.

Well, unless you are a terrible, terrible shot... or you just want to make that deer punish, then you probably don't need 10 bullets to kill a deer.

Still, I could think of several scenarios where one would need a rifle with more than 10 rounds in a magazine, and all of them for legitimate purposes. Killing a pack of predatory animals that are looking to attack you, your family, or livestock. Some larger game may be more difficult to take down with just a couple of bullets if you don't hit them in the right spot.

[generic Brand]

While Mundell kneeled on the bobcat, his wife darted inside to retrieve a handgun, which Mundell used to shoot and kill the animal, Blancherd said.

So there's that.

[Francisco d Anconia]

No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer

Or this idiotic statement could simply be countered with:

"The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting, asshole."

[Matrix]

the hunting thing is a red herring, and they know it. They know what it's for. Any gun-grabber with 1/2 a brain knows exactly what the 2nd Amendment was for... not for hunting... not for home defense. It was for protecting the citizenry from a tyrannical government.

the 2nd Amendment is the only thing that keeps the Constitution on life support and out of the grave.

[JW]

What part of "...being necessary to the security of a free State..." don't they understand?

[mad libertarian guy]

What part of "...being necessary to the security of a free State..." don't they understand?

The part where they are the biggest threats to said free state.

[Stormy Dragon]

No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer

I have Parkinson's disease you insenstive clod!

[A Serious Man]

Asteroid Apophis, which came within 15 million kilometers of Earth last night, has a small, but not completely dismissible chance of hitting the Earth on another pass in 2036.

[Fist of Etiquette]

People laughed when I cried at the end of Armageddon, but who's laughing now?

[Bee Tagger]

Do you also cry when someone tells you they laughed at the end of Armageddon?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I laugh at them until they cry.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I cried because Affleck lived

[Episiarch]

Your mom?

[Fist of Etiquette]

All the way to the bank.

[Episiarch]

The sperm bank?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Hitler bank, if you must know.

[Episiarch]

So, you're basically admitting to being one of these guys. I knew it!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I was the pretty one of the bunch.

[Episiarch]

But will Bruce Willis still be alive then?!? What will we do?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Send him back in time to be liquidated

[Episiarch]

DON'T CROSS THE REFERENCE STREAMS

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Yippee kay yai

[Dunphy (the real one)]

epi, acting as both gatekeeper and keymaster

[Tim]

Why would it want to hit us? What's it's motivation?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Gaia is summoning it to correct global warming with an asteroid induced winter.

[Episiarch]

It read some of your comments.

[Tim]

Here's what we do...
We tell the Army Corps of Engineers that the asteroid is infested with homeless camps and spacegays.
Problem. solved.

[John]

+1

[Episiarch]

Well, if we don't have Bruce Willis, that's obviously our best next option.

[Enough About Palin]

I have never heard the word spacegays. Pretty funny.

[Stormy Dragon]

They come from the rings around Uranus.

[JW]

"Carter, I can see my house!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

...was shot down by a federal judge who slapped the government's "persistent and stubborn refusal" to follow the law.

To which the Obama Administration replied, "Fuck you."

[$park?]

If you don't get a flu shot, you're going to die! How could you not get a flu shot when the flu will kill you?

Overall, Esper maintained there is a degree of apathy when it comes to the flu.

"I think that people are unimpressed with the seriousness of flu," Esper said. "We have 5 to 10 percent of people who get infected with this virus each year, but not necessarily 5 to 10 percent of people are dying. But that's not true at all. Flu is the number one cause of infectious disease death."

Every year, anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 people die from flu-associated illnesses, Esper added.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

we should ban the flu.

[Enough About Palin]

Fuck you, flu-grabber!

[rac3rx]

I remember once when normal people would get the flu, stay home in bed a few days, and take some drugs. When did the flu become some fucking catastrophic event?

[NeonCat]

1918?

[mad libertarian guy]

When the government needed to cause another panic in order to institute yet more control over the populace under the guise of Doing Something??

[BuSab Agent]

I've never had the flu, nor been vaccinated against either (egg allergy). I attribute this to staying the fuck away from sick people and taking Vitamin D in the winter.

[Some call me Tim?]

Pretty sure most of those people are really young, really old, or have compromised immune systems.

For the average healthy person it is not a bfd to get the fucking flu.

However, I have a 5 month old baby, so I got vaccinated.

[Bee Tagger]

the phrase means whatever federal officials want it to mean, at any given time.

Sort of like my girlfriend and every phrase she ever says.

AM I RIGHT, GUYS?

[generic Brand]

The fact that you are correct is the reason there are NO LIBERTARIAN WOMEN.

[Suthenboy]

No according to the article SIV linked to at the head of the comments it is because women are more sensitive to being accepted and libertarians are social pariahs.

Women would rather be accepted by their peers than be free? Or something.

[Tim]

It's all about feelings, not cold hard words.

[rac3rx]

Fuck you.

-From the libertarian women

[Scarcity]

Did anybody else hear anything? Thought maybe I heard... nah, just the wind.

[$park?]

Just like in the US, workers in the UK cannot quit their jobs.

By her own assessment, Kate Baker was a competent attorney who also wanted a personal life. But her boss, Chris Lingard allegedly saw things differently, berating Baker and her work, and telling her not to have a relationship or children.

The "bullying" that she experienced at the Follett Stock law firm, Baker, 33, told an employment tribunal in Exeter, England, this week, caused her to take time off from work after she became sick from the stress, The Daily Telegraph reports.

[John]

Why didn't she just kick him in the nuts? Seriously, I am constantly amazed at how people will put up with abuse.

[rac3rx]

When did saying mean shit to people become "bullying"?

Did he smack her in the snatch and tell her to not use that stanky thang? Now THAT would be bullying.

[NeonCat]

"Don't cause me to use my procurer's hand."

[Coeus]

When did saying mean shit to people become "bullying"?

When feminists decided to equate anything they didn't like with "violence". A recent development, and one that is being adopted by so-called "civil rights groups" across the country and the world as a whole due to it's success in justifying government intervention for speech. After all, who doesn't want to the government to prevent violence?

[Ted S.]

By her own assessment, Kate Baker was a competent attorney who also wanted a personal life. But her boss, Chris Lingard allegedly saw things differently, berating Baker and her work, and telling her not to have a relationship or children.

Funny, but TCM ran the movie Employees' Entrance last night, in which the boss was much the same way.

Employees' Entrance was released in 1933.

[PapayaSF]

Good film.

[Enough About Palin]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed a Los Angeles park area the size of 40 football fields because, they said, it had become a hangout for gay men and homeless campers.

Arm up, Castro. Arm up!

[A Serious Man]

Now that the abortion and birth control-restricting, rape loving evil Republican Mitt Romney has been vanquished, feminist groups are pissed that Obama isn't appointing more women to his cabinet.

[Matrix]

their war with the patriarchy will never end until they are the dominant sex and have emasculated us all.

[Episiarch]

But then Riker will come and smooth jazz his way to freeing us all.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

You can't make me click that

[Archduke Pantsfan]

You know you want to.

[Karl Hungus]

their war with the patriarchy will never end until they are the dominant sex and have emasculated us all.

Until the average woman can beat the average man in a fistfight, human society will remain a patriarchy.

[BuSab Agent]

If all the wymmins get guns, your statement will be irrelevent.

[Heroic Mulatto]

And yet millions of so-called feminists hate, hate, hate guns. Strange, that.

[BuSab Agent]

I know. God may have created humans, but Smith and Wesson made them equal.

[John]

And all of the top spots are taken. So he really can't rectify it. Oh well, if there is one thing feminists groups know how to do, it is take a beating from a liberal politician and come back because they just know he really loves them.

[Cytotoxic]

Golf clap.

[Tim]

He could do a Clinton, repeatedly fuck a young intern and then force the femministas to go on cable defending and rationalizing his behavior.

[Episiarch]

And face the wrath of the Wookie? She'd tear his arms off.

[Romulus Augustus]

Saw some rag at the checkout counter with a headline about Michelle's "jealous rage" at Obama's other woman. What's that about?

[Episiarch]

It must be America. His dedication to this country is so great, he's like Kirk with the Enterprise.

[BuSab Agent]

Can't be true. The Wookie is definitely a beard.

[Rhywun]

Jesus, if that ever really happens it'll be epic.

[John]

Since the intern would probably be male, the feministas would have an easier time defending him.

[Suthenboy]

"...the intern would probably be male..."

No. Shit.

[Suthenboy]

"...if there is one thing feminists groups know how to do, it is take a beating from a liberal politician and come back because they just know he really loves them."

Heh, I really laughed at that one. +1 John.

[Killazontherun]

Can you blame him? The last guy with a binder full of women got ridiculed for it.

[generic Brand]

Perhaps it's because the most well-known woman in his administration came down with a case of the vapors when she had to give a briefing on a dead ambassador.

Women aren't cut out for the political world; not that they aren't stupid enough (because they are), but because they aren't ruthless enough.

Obviously Wasserman-Schultz and Feinstein aren't really women, as they are both huge CUNTS.

((I summon thee, Kenneth Schultz))

[John]

Hilary has a serious toe fungus right now.

[Zeb]

Why doesn't she just quit now. She's going to in a couple weeks anyway.

[NeonCat]

That's why the phone call in her ads was at 3 A.M. - she'd have plenty of time to rest after not fucking Bill.

[Coeus]

Women aren't cut out for the political world; not that they aren't stupid enough (because they are), but because they aren't ruthless enough.

Strongly disagree.

[BuSab Agent]

I second your strong disagreement. Women are plenty ruthless.

[Coeus]

I disagree with both parts. Due to socialization, I feel that women are probably better politicians on average than men.

[Pro Libertate]

Affirmative action president doesn't act affirmatively? Fuck, that's impeachable.

[John]

http://blogs.findlaw.com/strat.....WL-pro_top

Male jurors biased against fat women.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I'm filing that under OBVIOUS

[John]

Yeah. If that chick in Florida had been a fat black woman, she would have gotten the chair rather than been acquitted.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

OBVIOUS

[OldMexican]

Re: John,

Yeah. If that chick in Florida had been a fat black woman, she would have gotten the chair rather than been acquitted.

Why, you cynic!

Everybody knows she was aquitted because it was obvious the little girl staged her own murder!

[Some call me Tim?]

AND framed her mother.

[Killazontherun]

I've always said that I could never vote guilty on a jury for a good looking woman if it was merely her first murder. But I'm no more biased against fat women as I am guys of any weight disposition.

[John]

If AJ McCarran's girlfriend got shot some guy holding up a Burger King, how could you not give her another chance? I know I would. She is such a sweet girl.

[Pro Libertate]

And she might date a juror who got her off. Women like getting off and those who help them do it.

Or so I have read.

[Warty]

SEX JOKE

[Pro Libertate]

I find it odd that receiving a not guilty verdict and achieving orgasm have the same phraseology.

[Sidd Finch]

Am I the only one who thinks she looks like a tranny?

[Killazontherun]

That is possible.

[BakedPenguin]

Male jurors biased against fat women.

It also works with the genders reversed.

[Coeus]

I love how there are no numbers from the study listed anywhere. We're just supposed to take their word that it's "significant".

[BuSab Agent]

Maybe it's the DMV effect. Seriously has anyone ever seen a thin woman at the DMV?

[hamilton]

the phrase means whatever federal officials want it to mean, at any given time.
Sorta like how they treat the Constitution.

[A Serious Man]

The commentators at Gawker are confused that the US is only 10th on the list of freest economies despite all those years of GOP deregulators and unfettered capitalism they have read about in left-wing propaganda.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Yay Canada.

[el esc?ptico]

We're 18th according to the Fraser Institute

[Warty]

sunhawk and 2 more Reply
Oh god how I hate the ayn rand newfags that sprung up since the election season started. she was a sci fiction writer and someone that libertarians would consider an anarchist.

You might as well get your political/economic theory Robert Heinlein (fascism is cool if its in space).

You know what the secret ending of Atlas Shrugged is? After all those rich people moved to the secret valley in Colorado. They then spent the rest of their time there bitching about who was going to flip burgers and pick up the trash for minimum wage and no benefits.

They're good at knowing who they hate, at least.

[Episiarch]

Wait, what?

[generic Brand]

I know, right? It's either "science fiction" or "sci-fi"... not this sci fiction amalgamation from Hell.

[Warty]

It's spelled SyFy, you fucking idiot.

[rac3rx]

...and pronounced "Siffy".

[Pro Libertate]

Nothing says, "Hi, we're fucking stupid" more than that name change.

[generic Brand]

I'm trying to recall what the Sci-Fi channel showed before they became SyFy. Has the channel always been B-quality movies and science fictiony series, or did they actually combine some of the better elements of Discovery and [old] A&E back then?

[Episiarch]

It's always been movies and scifi series, but years ago (late 90's-early 2000s) they tended to just show a ton of syndicated scifi like Dark Shadows and Buck Rogers and Earth 2 and Star Trek and lots more. They then started moving into making their own made-for-TV super cheap B movies a lot more, which is what you see now. They always tried to have a few original series and usually had one or two pretty good and popular ones going at all times, like Farscape or the Stargate shows or BSG. The WWE stuff...that's pretty recent.

Basically, when TV sucked more, they were a great alternative as TV has gotten better and better, they stayed cheap, and they aren't going to compete well with The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones or Community, etc.

[PapayaSF]

I liked the reruns of early SF TV shows like Science Fiction Theatre.

[Zeb]

No. The reason they went to Colorado is easy access to Mexican labor.

[Warty]

The freedom not to fail is the most important freedom of all, except for the freedom not to trade. I wonder how widespread these piss-poor attitudes really are.

ZemarSea Urchin 14 minutes ago
Having regulations doesn't mean there is no free market. It simply means that there are checks and balances to ensure fair practice, prevent monopolies (ideally), and protect society (people/communities and environment) from harmful practices. Regulations ensure that corporations operate responsibly and sustainably. To regulate a system doesn't remove the freedom to operate and earn an income. In fact regulations is what saved a number of countries from large scale financial ruin. That's pretty free. Canada has a free market and regulations. In fact if anything has limited the ability of businesses to operate in this country it'd be that damn NAFTA. And soon to be the damn FIPA (investment treaty with China). Hell, regulatory bodies are becoming corrupt in this country anyway so we may start to slide way down on that list.

[John]

They really are incapable of imagining any regulation not doing what it was intended or resulting in any harm.

[Warty]

I mean, all this sounds great.

It simply means that there are checks and balances to ensure fair practice, prevent monopolies (ideally), and protect society (people/communities and environment) from harmful practices.

Apparently they believe that giving tax money to bank executives does that.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Sounds like Hayek's defense of regulations.

[barfman2013]

*barf*

[Matrix]

Regulations do no such thing. I really don't see how people think that regulations help to make a "free market" or prevent monopolies or do anything of those "wonderful" things that he mentions.

[John]

It is simple, you become a retarded sock puppet like Shreek.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

sure they do. you just accept them as so obvious as to not be regulations.

the prohibition against using a gun to force somebody to sign a contract is a REGULATION.

does that not make for a freer market?

regulations on NYSE specialists regarding offering shares and buying shares at the ask/bid also help ensure a freer market.

a million other examples.

[generic Brand]

Wait, what?

Regulations can be laws, but not all laws are regulations. The two examples you provided are not the same thing.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

both ... well... regulations I cited are just that... regulations.

they are backed by law, but they are regulations in the most obvious sense.

it is because of regulations against ... for example... contracts signed under duress, that people can't force people to sign contracts at the point of a gun and expect them to be legally binding

[generic Brand]

I think you are confusing terms unnecessarily. Regulations are put in place to facilitate something or to prevent it, however, moral laws against use of force already exist, and are not "regulations".

Regulations are made by regulators (who regulate any stealing of this property, and they're damn good at it too). Laws can exist in the absence of legislators, though, such as the ones designed against killing or forcing someone into a contract.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

I think we disagree about word definitions. i'm sticking with my belief that, for example, prohibiting use of force during contract negotiation is a regulation on how to "do" contracts that are legally binding.

it's clear we are arguing over definitions which is rarely fruitful and almost always boring as hell! 🙂

[generic Brand]

You mean all those monopoly-preventing regulations that allow Comcast to run cable in the entire Northeast?

[mad libertarian guy]

Or the ones that create a monopoly in government schools?

[generic Brand]

Good point.

[Matrix]

Gawker does not draw in the most intelligent crowd.

[Hopfiend]

Nor intelligent writers,

"I can just tweak, and tweak these gun totin' rednecks with impunity"

Smart idea

[Francisco d Anconia]

New Zealand and Chile are starting to look pretty good to me. Not sure the'll let me into New Zealand, but Chile...

[Sidd Finch]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed a Los Angeles park area the size of 40 football fields because, they said, it had become a hangout for gay men and homeless campers.

Why do journalists insist on using football fields, jumbo jets, swimming pools, etc. as units of measurement?

[Mad Scientist]

See also: the thickness of a human hair.

[Episiarch]

No one wants to hear about your penis, Dr. Farnsworth.

[Mad Scientist]

Oh my, yes.

[mad libertarian guy]

Why do journalists insist on using football fields, jumbo jets, swimming pools, etc. as units of measurement?

MAF IZ TEH HARDZ!

/Journolista

[Sidd Finch]

But they did the math to convert from acres to football fields. Are they trying to show off? Do they think people are really better at picturing 40 adjoined football fields than a ~50 acre plot?

[Rhywun]

As a city boy, I don't have the slightest idea how big an "acre" is. Not all of us manage acres of fields tended by orphans 😛

[Heroic Mulatto]

What are you, retarded? Everyone knows an acre is 1/15th of an oxgang or about 1/10th of a square furlong!

[IceTrey]

Shouldn't the EPA be fining the crap out of the Corps for destruction of wetlands? If a private person did that they would be in jail.

[The Late P Brooks]

DID YOU KNOW TERRORISTS ON THE GOVERNMENT NO-FLY LIST CAN BUY GUNS?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The more you know....

[T]

And a good thing, too, or else I'd be defenseless.

[The Late P Brooks]

Twitter is refusing French demands for the name of a racist user, saying it's subject only to U.S. jurisdiction.

Haha, Frenchies! The glove is on the other foot, now, so to speak.

[Killazontherun]

you mean hand shoes.

[Warty]

Is This Modest?

I always love it when I see MALE GAZE used unironically.

"Is This Modest" is a website that claims to promote an open and practical dialog about modesty, but it's actually a male-gazey compendium of creepshots of high schoolers and misogynist rants about too-tight t-shirts.

[db]

Is that like "Ask an Imam?"

[Warty]

Question
My question is that I recently was driving and talking to my wife but suddenly a thought of question appeared in my head about my wife's sister. (Which she is having marital problems) I had said in a jokingly way I just said what if I could married her then what would happen. Please explain fully, I know Thank you.
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As-sal?mu ?alaykum wa-rahmatull?hi wa-barak?tuh.

? Your statement expressing the thought of marrying your wife's sister does not constitute a divorce. Your wife is still in your Nik??.

? While a person's wife is still in his Nik??, it is not allowed for him to marry her sister. Therefore, you should not even entertain the thought of marrying your wife's sister while your wife is in your Nik??.

? You should refrain from expressing the thought of marrying your wife's sister as this is disrespectful to your wife and may hurt her feelings.

The imam's a fucking buzzkill, is what he is.

[Killazontherun]

You can marry more than one woman, but you can't fuck them two at a time? Then what's the point, Islam?

[T]

To get a younger model at will, duh.

[Killazontherun]

Some virgin I would have to train all over again, no thanks.

[db]

Haha, I forgot that "Ask an Imam" is an actual thing.

[Enough About Palin]

Amid the current propaganda campaign for gun control, NewsBusters.org calls our attention to a C-Span video from 1995 (unearthed last March by Breitbart.com) in which Eric Holder, then the District of Columbia's top federal prosecutor, outlines a plan for dealing with what he apparently regarded as the scourge of firearms:

"What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that's not cool, that it's not acceptable, it's not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we've changed our attitudes about cigarettes. You know, when I was growing up, people smoked all the time. Both my parents did. But over time, we changed the way that people thought about smoking, so now we have people who cower outside of buildings and kind of smoke in private and don't want to admit it." Laughter followed.
At the end of this clip, Holder says anti-gun ads should run every day, and we need to "really brainwash people to think about guns in a vastly different way."
Fourteen years later, Holder was appointed attorney general. In that position he hatched a brilliant plot to embarrass Mexican drug lords.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....TopOpinion

[generic Brand]

What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that's not cool, that it's not acceptable, it's not hip to carry a gun anymore

So was his plan to team up with Tipper Gore and blame the evil "rap music"?

[VG Zaytsev]

Eric Holder is the arbiter of cool.

[IceTrey]

Does this make sense to anybody?

"Alsup, who had dismissed the suit twice before and had been overruled both times by a federal appeals court, said the government's actions this time were "too hard to swallow."

Why would a judge who had already dismissed the suit twice find the governments actions too hard to swallow?

[John]

He probably dismissed it for standing or ripeness issues. You have to wait for the government to take final action before you can sue them. You also have to have some kind of interest in the case and show you are suffering some kind of harm. My guess is that the plaintiffs filed too early or had the wrong parties and now have fixed that.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

thank you. for offering intelligent legal analysis. at reason.com!!!!! of all places

[Warty]

too hard to swallow

Oh, goddammit. You're going to make me post this picture, aren't you?

[Pro Libertate]

The Nude Professionalism.

[Sevo]

Pretty sure he had dismissed it in the past and now changed his mind as a result of government responses.
This time, he *didn't* dismiss it.

[The Late P Brooks]

The nonprofit Teach for America is a "fraud" whose participants are nothing but "educational tourists,"

It's a dumb question, admittedly, but...

Why the fuck would anybody expect people to be teachers forever?

[Dunphy (the real one)]

that quote is so revealing. teachers unions want to, and have succeeded in credentializing their profession. it has ceased to be about ABILITY to teach. it's about having the right pieces of paper (education degree, teacher's certificate) and time served (seniority), not TALENT or even competency. look at their hostility towards competency exams or merit pay, however merit is measured.

as a civil servant myself, i see this in my profession, too.

it's also prevalent amongst lawyers who have fought successfully to limit the scope of paralegal duties, because paralegals don't have the right "credentials", even though they can do task X perfectly fine, and for far cheaper than lawyers, they aren't part of the GUILD and therefore must be heavily reigned in

recall the states where shit like interior decorating requires a LICENSE. lest a fatal feng shui disturbance be created or something

[Michael S. Langston]

Years ago, in an effort to cut down medical costs hospitals started training CNAs and such to do things like draw blood.

The largest critics of this plan were nurses, who up until this point were the lowest level medical employee who was allowed to do these things.

In some cases, in some hospitals, nurses actually unionized. This started attempts at legislation to prevent anyone trained below a nurse to be barred by law from doing certain things. In some cases, nurses even went on strike - claiming it was for the "patients" of course.

Now of course, many nurses are happy to let many things that used to require their help go to others, to allow them more time to devote to other priorities.

The point is - we also hear things about how teachers are sacrificing good pay and such to do such a wonderful job as educating the youth.

& nurses of course are only in the medical profession to help others.

Both of which may be factors in people's selections of these careers, but truth is they're human like all of us and when scared of losing their power, will willingly and predictably sacrifice those they are trying to help, in order to directly serve heir personal needs and protect their power.

Interior designers are just wondering why they cannot try the same protection schemes that everyone else seems to employ.

Not that this should relieve these statists of mockery or shame - but it is predictable.

[the origin of the feces]

As your owner, master, and self appointed god, Sam reserves the right to define, or leave undefined, whatever Sam damn well pleases.

[The Late P Brooks]

Regulations ensure that corporations operate responsibly and sustainably.

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

[Matrix]

Conspiracy theories in the death of 2 gun rights activists

Never heard of EUtimes.net, but they are claiming to get their sources from Russian intelligence in this article.

[SIV]

Just like those Weekly World News stories datelined "behind the iron curtain".

[JeremyR]

The scary thing isn't that it's true (it's not), but Obama essentially has precedent to do that.

Declare gun activists terrorists, then put them on the to kill list.

[Matrix]

Yeah. They're not really worth going after anyway. The government doesn't often assassinate activists, well... okay there was MLK Jr, possibly.

But I don't put it past them to take out scientists behind the development of certain biological or radiological weapons, especially those most likely to blow the whistle or have the ability to counteract the effects of such weapons.

[Karl Hungus]

I've smoked weed maybe twenty times in my life. Of all those times, I've enjoyed it exactly once; the rest of the time, it made me feel stupid, hungry, and paranoid. I'm assuming that the lone exception was something hydroponic or something. I don't tihnk it was laced with anything; it just felt like a "cleaner" high, for want of a better description.

[generic Brand]

The paranoia part might have to do with where you were or who you were smoking with. Unfamiliar surroundings tend to make me start to have these elaborate storylines to fill in the gaps, and shit gets cray, to quote Kanye.

As for the stupid or hungry stuff, not sure what the problem is. Weed's not for everyone, but it should be for everyone to decide.

[Ted S.]

the rest of the time, it made me feel stupid, hungry, and paranoid

Isn't that the way you normally feel?

[Some call me Tim?]

Feeling hungry is half the fun, but you make it sound like a bad thing.

[OldMexican]

Proposed legislation in Pennsylvania would legalize marijuana, treating it just like alcohol.

You mean sold alongside the beer and pretzels?

[mad libertarian guy]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed a Los Angeles park area the size of 40 football fields because, they said, it had become a hangout for gay men and homeless campers.

If gays and homeless campers congregating are the criteria, can we assume, then, that the Corps will be bulldozing all of San Francisco next?

[mad libertarian guy]

*LIGHTS WARTY SIGNAL*

Steven Wilson is going on tour in the US in the spring. Go, or forever be mocked for being lame. He and his band are fucking amazing.

Opeth and Katatonia are also going on tour again. AND THEY'RE COMING TO LEXINGTON!!!!!!!!!

[Restoras]

He is swinging through NYC on Fri. 4/26. I will be there.

[Warty]

I want to see Katatonia, but Opeth...Opeth...why, Mikael?

[Warty]

And Steven Wilson would be cool to see, I'll see what I can do.

[Matrix]

Shoot first; ask questions later, because "Officer Safety"

fucking damn shit... Well, at least he survived. But fuck those damn fucking cops.

[Coeus]

Some day in the very near future, we will all be talking wistfully about "drop guns" and how the police used to need them.

[Coeus]

Do the good rich exist?

In an interview with Heather Horn, Dalzell makes one incisive point worth considering for this large question. It is about how great philanthropy can distort the public's ability to clearly perceive the larger question at hand: "The proportion of the very wealthy who are very generous is not large, but we tend to assume that there's a kind of universality to what happens here?there isn't. That's a cost we pay, because this whole notion of 'the good rich' I think reconciles us to levels of inequality in the society that in terms of our democratic ideology would otherwise be unacceptable."

.....

To the extent that we should be grateful to the great philanthropists, we should be grateful to them for fulfilling a duty. And to the extent that that duty is to be truly generous, it is a duty that none of them have fulfilled.

Let us consider the most extreme normal example of generosity by "The Good Rich": a hugely wealthy person who gives away all of his money to good causes in his will. Should this be seen as a gesture of generosity above and beyond what society could expect? Here's a more interesting question: what, if anything, did this person cost society by having all of that money while they lived? What are the opportunity costs to society of having billions of dollars concentrated in the hands of a single person?

[Mad Scientist]

All your money are belong to us!

[AZ]

And not a single question about how someone got rich, and whether that was through providing things that others valued enough to voluntarily exchange their money for.

[Matrix]

no, they all assume that it was done illegally. They don't question. they just assume.

[The Late P Brooks]

By any reasonable definition, Detective Thompson and Officer Rongen committed the crime of attempted homicide.

Who needs reasonable definitions when you have a badge? Blaze away.

[The Late P Brooks]

What are the opportunity costs to society of having billions of dollars concentrated in the hands of a single person?

What

the

fuck?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Why isn't anyone talking about this picture?

[Pro Libertate]

What's up with her fingers?

[Heroic Mulatto]

She just dunked the phone into a bucket of water, that's why they look shiny.

[Matrix]

they appear to be wet. There's some liquid (probably water) coming off of the phone. Probably dunked in water to show off how it is waterproof or something....

wait... hold on! erm... what phone? All I see is cleavage!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Speaking of some liquid....WHY IS THIS NEWS NOT IN PM LINKS?

[waaminn]

There is a dude that jsut seems to know whats going on man. Wow.

http://www.Cyber-Anon.tk

[Acosmist]

So pot will be more expensive because of the state's monopoly on it in PA?

I don't smoke, but yikes. Sorry, potheads.