A.M. Links: Obama Favorability Ratings Highest Since 2009, Hillary Clinton "Not Inclined" to Run in 2016, Aide to Egyptian President Calls Holocaust Hoax Perpetrated by U.S.

• President Obama is at his highest favorability ratings since he started his first term.

• Hillary Clinton is "not inclined" to run for president in 2016. So she's running then?
• A CUNY study shows that Occupy Wall Street was largely populated by rich young white men.
• The South Dakota House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would allow teachers to be armed, and it will now be considered in the Senate.
• Russia is ditching an anti-drug, anti-crime agreement with the United States that saw U.S. money go to crime fighting in Russia.
• Fathi Shihab-Eddim, a senior aide to Egypt's Mohammed Morsi who appoints the editors of the country's state run newspapers, called the Holocaust a hoax perpetrated by the United States.
• South Korea says it's launched its first satellite into space.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...called the Holocaust a hoax perpetrated by the United States.

Done by that same guy who did all those racist WW2 Bugs Bunny cartoons.

[Way Of The Crane]

Mel Blanc?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Blanc? As in white??? Figures. Or wait, maybe not.

[Frank_Carbonni]

Mel Blanc was Jewish. Okay, that is still white, but not WASP white.

[Way Of The Crane]

"I'm rich and I'm a famous actor... look me up, bitch'!"

Guess what you find when you google Jason london now.

[sarcasmic]

Who?

[Ted S.]

Maybe he can claim Jeremy did it.

[RBS]

Speaking of actors, our favorite ex-reasoner can't figure out why nobody like him...

"Being blown off by an actor you like, when he's obviously decided that you're not worth talking to, is a strange and meaningful experience. It retcons all their prior performances -- you see them and instead of seeing the character you see the guy who took an instant disinterest in you. Anyway, I met Kevin Spacey tonight.

[Randian]

Is that Weigel?

[Quetzalcoatl]

I can't imagine Balko whining about it.

[Enough About Palin]

Shorter Weigel:

It's all about me!!!!111111

Stupid. Cunt.

[mnarayan]

shut up ratfucker

[RBS]

"Is that Weigel?"

Yeah, for some reason we're facebook friends.

[Randian]

This is why you fail.

[Lord Humungus]

Zimbabwe Is Down to Its Last $217
http://www.theatlanticwire.com.....217/61562/

There are cash-strapped governments and there are broke governments. And then there's Zimbabwe, which, after paying last week's government salaries, has just $217 left in the bank. No, we didn't forget any zeroes to the end of that figure. Zimbabwe, the country that's home to some of the world's largest plutonium and diamond reserves, literally has the same financial standing as a 14-year-old girl after a really good birthday party. The country's finance minister admitted as much in a press conference on Tuesday. "Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 [left] in government coffers," Tendai Biti told reporters. "The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets."

[gaijin]

That's $217 more than the US has...until the toner is resupplied anyway.

[Bee Tagger]

I appreciate their honesty.

[Spoonman.]

Plutonium reserves, huh? Opening up a plutonium mine?

[Ted S.]

Damn you!

[Ted S.]

Plutonium reserves?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Nah, they just need Krugabe to come advise them.

[Timon 19]

If only plutonium were a naturally-occurring element...

[Ted S.]

And I thought I was late to the party.

[Lord Humungus]

this is one party we're all invited to.

[Randian]

DAMMIT WHAT IS THE JOKE

[BakedPenguin]

Seriously? Plutonium isn't naturally occurring. It only comes about after uranium is used in a nuclear reaction.

They meant platinum.

[Randian]

I thought I was missing a movie quote reference.

#sciencefail

[Nuked]

Well you probably could find some of it in nature in Oklo, Africa where a natural nuclear reactor was found.

[Stormy Dragon]

Plutonium is a naturally occuring element, albeit not in quantities large enough to be commercially exploitable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#Occurrence

[Romulus Augustus]

Nothing that minting a couple trillion dollar coins can't fix in a jiffy.

[Zeb]

They've done it before.

[Jerryskids]

Yeah, that's pretty sad about Zimbabwe. I got an e-mail from a former official in the Zimbabwean government wanting to know if he could use my bank account to transfer some forgotten government funds back into the country.

[Rich]

Zimbabwe is down to its last $217.

[Rich]

And Lord Humungus agrees!

[hamilton]

Tonight on 'It's the Mind', we examine the phenomenon of d?j? vu. That strange feeling we sometimes get that we've lived through something before...

[sloopyinca]

Agents are coming.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The South Dakota House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would allow teachers to be armed, and it will now be considered in the Senate.

I would like to see a Venn diagram of public school teachers and gun owners.

[Ken Shultz]

Seriously, why should the people of South Dakota have to live under the same rules as the people of New York City?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgrGyR6EYbY

I've had friends and family who've worked on Wall Street, and they say that living there for a while, you forget that you're living in a shit hole, and the rest of the country isn't.

I'm sure it's the same thing in Boston, except in Boston, it's not that they don't realize they're living in a shit hole. In Boston, they think they're living in paradise.

[sloopyinca]

Seriously, why should the people of South Dakota have to live under the same rules as the people of New York City?

Um, because the Second Amendment is supposed to apply to all of us.

[oncogene]

2A applies to fedgov.

[Nuked]

And state government.

[Brett L]

Depends on where you are. In rural areas, the overlap is pretty significant.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I live in a rural area and I'm still surprised by the number who are hardcore liberal. Part of it is the ingrained notion that the Democratic Party can do no wrong, I think.

There are hick gun owners I know (not teachers) who, because the Dems are for it and the NRA against it, are all for an assault weapon ban.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Probably because their guns have wooden stocks, not black ones.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They're sure those won't be next.

[NeonCat]

Or they have wooden heads?

[Lord Humungus]

Most of What You Think You Know About Grammar is Wrong
And ending sentences with a preposition is nothing worth worrying about
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/.....40351.html

You've probably heard the old story about the pedant who dared to tinker with Winston Churchill's writing because the great man had ended a sentence with a preposition. Churchill's scribbled response: "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."

It's a great story, but it's a myth. And so is that so-called grammar rule about ending sentences with prepositions. If that previous sentence bugs you, by the way, you've bought into another myth. No, there's nothing wrong with starting a sentence with a conjunction, either. But perhaps the biggest grammar myth of all is the infamous taboo against splitting an infinitive, as in "to boldly go." The truth is that you can't split an infinitive: Since "to" isn't part of the infinitive, there's nothing to split. Great writers?including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne and Wordsworth?have been inserting adverbs between "to" and infinitives since the 1200s.

[Way Of The Crane]

My favorite quote from my high school English teacher:

"A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with."

[robc]

My favorite quote from my college linguistics prof:

"Language is description not prescriptive."

Not as funny as yours, but straight to the point.

[Rich]

"OK, where's the library at, *asshole*?"

[Anomalous]

That's MISTER Asshole to you!

[robc]

Almost all the bogus grammar "rules" were created in the 19th century by latinophiles who tried to push latin rules onto a germanic language.

Which is exactly as fucking stupid as it sounds.

[Way Of The Crane]

...who tried to push latin rules onto a germanic language.

Because that worked so well for the Roman Empire.

[db]

Sounds like today's EU.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Oh, bullshit.

[$park?]

Great writers?including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne and Wordsworth?have been inserting adverbs between "to" and infinitives since the 1200s.

Just another guy referring to so-called experts to shore up his position without any actual evidence.

[Bee Tagger]

Yean and what is it with these symphonies? Don't they realize that great musicians have been using distortion for years?

[Lord Humungus]

from the article:

We can't end this without mentioning Raymond Chandler's response when a copy editor at the Atlantic Monthly decided to "fix" his hard-boiled prose: "When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will remain split."

[anarch]

"Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax with a few sudden words of bar-room vernacular, that is done with the eyes wide open and the mind relaxed and attentive. The method may not be perfect, but it is all I have." ~ Raymond Chandler

[Ted S.]

If only Chandler could have made the plot to The Big Sleep intelligible.

[Enough About Palin]

I've seen that film at least six times and still have a hard time following it.

[Brett L]

Its actually 3 mysteries all wrapped together. By a neat trick, the 3rd gets wrapped up in the other 2. Also, he gets to slap around rich bitches and queens. (I don't remember if the gay pornographer's boyfriend was in the movie.)

[Citizen Nothing]

I recently wrote a review about some hard-boiled detective books in hard-boiled detective style. Some copy editor tried to fix it, going so far as to transmogrify "toot sweet" into "tout de suite."
But, as I learned years ago in this business, whatever they do to your copy, the pay's the same.

[generic Brand]

Hillary Clinton is "not inclined" to run for president in 2016. So she's running then?

Her "exit interview" was on CNN last night while I was at the gym. Of course they had two women interviewing her, and of course they were obnoxiously infuriating.

[db]

How in the hell could she run for President? The questions about her health would overwhelm her candidacy.

[Rich]

Nice.

[Longtorso]

Just NBC Yet Another Deceptive Edit
... It has everything a fair-and-balanced gun-control advocate/reporter could want: An eminently sympathetic victim calmly making the case for more regulations while the ogres known as "gun-rights supporters" try to silence him by shouting him down. It's a passion play, the supreme manifestation of what Obama was trying to achieve by having kids onstage when he signed his executive memoranda on gun control a few weeks ago. If you oppose new gun regs then you're basically in favor of murdering children. Heckling the father of a boy killed in Newtown is simply the logical conclusion of that impulse.

Except that's not what happened....

[Slammer]

Only Code Pink and Moveon.org are allowed to heckle/shout people down. Haven't you learned yet?

[RBS]

I though Code Pink disappeared when Obama ascended to the throne?

[a better weapon]

The father of the victim posed a question to those in attendance. He said something to the effect of "I'm all for the right to bear arms, but why does anyone NEEEEEEED an AR15?" That's when the shouting happened as dozens of people answered his question.

[R C Dean]

why does anyone NEEEEEEED an AR15?

Ask the cops. They seem to feel a powerful need for them.

[Zeb]

And it was after he asked the question several times and then pretended to interpret the silence as lack of an answer to his question.

[Way Of The Crane]

A CUNY study shows that Occupy Wall Street was largely populated by rich young white men.

I about wet my pants when I first read this... Thought the "Y" was a "T".

[Chinny Chin Chin]

I'm curious whether other regions' Occupy groups had similar demographics.

In my town, the most persistent Occupiers (Occupoids? Occupists? Occupetitans? Occuparians?) certainly weren't wealthy young men.

[Zeb]

Who were they?

[Chinny Chin Chin]

A mixture of homeless and middle-aged ex-hippie types.

[Way Of The Crane]

Do you live in Tampa?

[Chinny Chin Chin]

No. Portland, Maine.

Does my description fit Tampa, too?

[Way Of The Crane]

Yes, but to be fair, there weren't very many occupiers in Tampa to begin with and there were always more homeless people than residents after sunset downtown.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

In Long Beach, the movement may have been started by some community activists communist agitators who were some rich white kids. But by week two, the whole occupy space consisted mostly of junkies, the homeless, and other reprobates.

[Jerryskids]

From my limited knowledge, a large part of the Occupy group were the professional college student types. The ones who think they can identify with the poor because they themselves are just scraping by.

Yeah, asshole, you aren't poor just because you're barely scraping by while enjoying the luxury of getting an education you hope will provide a future big paycheck. Poor is just barely scraping by while you bust your ass at a job that'll never ever qualify you for a future big paycheck. You, on the other hand, are one of the richest people in the world but are too stupid to appreciate it.

[Lord Humungus]

How President Obama Lost His Shirt to John Boehner
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ra.....n-boehner/

In retrospect, at the Battle at Fiscal Cliff, Boehner took President Obama to the cleaners. He did it suavely, without histrionics. While Obama churlishly, and in a politically amateurish manner, publicly strutted about having forced the Republicans to raise tax rates on "the wealthiest Americans" Boehner, quietly, was pocketing his winnings.

Dazzled by Obama's Ozymandias-scale sneer most liberals failed to notice that Boehner quietly made 99% of the Bush tax cuts permanent. As Boehner himself dryly observed, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal's editorial board member Steve Moore, ""Who would have ever guessed that we could make 99% of the Bush tax cuts permanent? When we had a Republican House and Senate and a Republican in the White House, we couldn't get that. And so, not bad.'"

[Jerry on the boat]

suavely, histrionics, churlishly?

[Palin's Buttplug]

There was mutual agreement not to raise taxes on the lower 99%.

Straw man Obama lost.

[Way Of The Crane]

If you earn a paycheck, your taxes were increased this year.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Back to 2009 levels. The Obama FICA cut was always meant to be temporary as tax cut stimulus to negate the depressed economy (-8.9% GDP q4/08)

[$park?]

So taxes went up.

[T]

Great. Return speding to 2009 levels and maybe we'll have something. In the meantime, my take home is less because the feds are taking more.

[Mike M.]

And the Obamacare taxes have barely even started to kick in yet, but they will over the course of this year when everyone's premiums really start to go through the roof. Hope there aren't too many people out there who get dropped by their employers.

[SugarFree]

The Wit and Wisdom of Mayor Bloomberg

The Royal family?what a bunch of misfits?a gay, an architect, that horsey faced lesbian, and a kid who gave up Koo Stark for some fat broad.

The three biggest lies are: the check's in the mail, I'll respect you in the morning, and I'm glad I'm Jewish.

If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they'd go to the library instead of to Bloomingdale's.

I know for a fact that any self-respecting woman who walks past a construction site and doesn't get a whistle will turn around and walk past again and again until she does get one.

Garrison further stated that Bloomberg antagonized her even before she became pregnant, asking her of her engagement ring, "What, is the guy dumb and blind? What the hell is he marrying you for?" and, a week later, "Still engaged? What, is he that good in bed, or did your father pay him off to get rid of you?" In a deposition, Bloomberg is reported to have conceded saying "I'd do her" in relation to Garrison, but he insisted that he thought "do" meant to have a personal relationship with someone. Other reports from the deposition say Bloomberg almost stormed out of the proceedings when the opposing attorney asked him if he thought the porn film Debbie Does Dallas meant Debbie has a personal relationship with everyone from Dallas.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The mayor has no use for flat shoes.

He's like five-foot-three. You would think he'd appreciate the ladies photographed around him not going for heels.

[SugarFree]

I assume he likes his boobs at eye level.

[Zeezrom]

The Royal family?what a bunch of misfits?a gay, an architect, that horsey faced lesbian, and a kid who gave up Koo Stark for some fat broad.

Nothing is higher than architect.

[Coeus]

Vis a vie!!! Concordantly!!!

[gaijin]

As Tom Robbins might plagiarize: there's rich assholes and there's poor assholes. But at least the rich assholes can pay for their own [big gulp] drinks!

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Bloomberg should go do himself.

[Bee Tagger]

Russia is ditching an anti-drug, anti-crime agreement with the United States that saw U.S. money go to crime fighting in Russia.

I'm starting to think my business that adopts Russian babies and turns them into an unstoppable SWAT team is never going to succeed.

[Quetzalcoatl]

U.S. money go to crime fighting in Russia.

With Russia's ambient radiation levels, they're our best hope for producing a real superhero. Otherwise, all we have is Australia!

[Way Of The Crane]

Otherwise, all we have is Australia!

Well, they did give us Mel Gibson.

[Quetzalcoatl]

And nobody wants to see him with superpowers. Except maybe Jodie Foster.

[Way Of The Crane]

And nobody wants to see him with superpowers.

Have you seen "What Women Want"? As far as I'm concerned, that man already has superpowers!

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama is at his highest favorability ratings since he started his first term.

So this is the real reason we have inaugurations? To sucker public opinion into the notion we bought something of value?

[Way Of The Crane]

So this is the real reason we have inaugurations? To sucker public opinion into the notion we bought something of value?

Why else would we have a parade?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I love a parade!

[Auric Demonocles]

What the hell is wrong with the people in this country?

[RickC]

My instinctual reaction was, "What the fuck, people!"

[Lord Humungus]

It's Time To End Japan's Defense Dependence On The United States
http://www.forbes.com/sites/do.....ed-states/

America's war in Afghanistan is winding down, but the U.S. must worry about conflict elsewhere. Once viewed as inconceivable, war between China and Japan now looks possible, though thankfully still unlikely. Tokyo should get serious about its own defense.

The U.S. used its power as occupier after World War II to impose a constitution on Japan which forbade possession of a military. But America lost its enthusiasm for that arrangement early during the Cold War. When Washington subsequently pushed Tokyo to rearm, the latter hid behind its constitution.

[Tim]

The Chinese only need to wait about twnety years, Japan is aging and emptying out very quickly.

[Way Of The Crane]

The Chinese only need to wait about twnety years, Japan is aging and emptying out very quickly.

With a population growth rate of just .29%, it may be sooner than that.

[Ted S.]

Of course, mainland China has its own demographic time bomb.

[Restoras]

All those young men without any prospect for marriage will make a nice conquering army.

[T]

I'm hoping for Boxer Rebellion 2.0, personally.

[$park?]

I don't think Barbara has any desire to start it.

[Enough About Palin]

That's SENATOR Boxer, asshole.

[LTC(ret) John]

The Japanese will use robots!

[Lord Humungus]

and tentacles.

[LTC(ret) John]

Robots with tentacles, or robotic tentacles?

[Rasilio]

Both of course, it is Japan afterall

[db]

That would be sad. I found Japan, in large part, to be very refined and pleasant. China was generally brash and loud. Not a judgment but a preference on my part.

[VG Zaytsev]

The Chinese only need to wait about twnety years, Japan is aging and emptying out very quickly.

If I was Japan, I'd worry more about Korea evening the score out, than China.

[Drax the Destroyer]

How about ending Europe's, South Korea's, and any middle eastern hell-hole's dependence on Senile Bankrupt Uncle Sam once formidable Popeye forearms while we're at it?

[Brett L]

Sweet. Let's let the Japs be Japs, the Germans be Germans, and the Russians be Russian while we sell them all arms and practice non-intervention, while de-occupying Japan and Germany.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I know we all have reason (drink!) to hate the squirrels, but things could be worse!

I was enjoying this charmingly pearl-clutching piece (don't know how I missed it in August), wherein the author gets the vapors at the very concept of womens' sports, when I noticed his byline: "Andrew M Brown edits The Sunday Telegraph's Comment pages."

Good grief.

[sarcasmic]

Justin Bieber did not grope that young girl, despite what your lying eyes may tell you!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....photo.html

[SugarFree]

Girls touch each other's boobs all the time in a non-sexual way. Get over it.

[Tim]

She's not mad he grabbed her boob, she's mad he stopped there.

[SugarFree]

He?

[Tim]

Er ist ein jungen nicht war?

[SugarFree]

We speak American in this house, young man.

[Ted S.]

What kind of freak would want to be touched by Justin Bieber?

[robc]

I dont understand PR people.

Why not say, "Hey, he likes groping chicks, his fans dream of being groped by him, he made her day and maybe her life."

It really seems like PR people are so use to lying that they cant tell the truth when the truth would work just fine.

[SugarFree]

Lindsay Lohan's PR had one of the dumbest covers I've ever seen. She showed her freckled hoo-ha and her people released the same photo latter the day with a crudely Photoshopped pair of panties and claimed the original was the Photoshopped image.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Exactly, it's not like he's trying to be a Disney Channel star or anything... his marketed image is relentlessly sleazy.

[KDN]

The truth is usually just an excuse for lack of imagination.

[Way Of The Crane]

Obviously they're trying to tell you the poor girl had a mastectomy and had nothing to grope.

[Bee Tagger]

President Obama is at his highest favorability ratings since he started his first term.

It's a weird time of the year for people to stop paying attention. It's literally the only week without NFL games in months.

[sarcasmic]

I'm hot for teacher!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-high.html

[robc]

She is very blurry. She should have that lucked into, that cant be healthy.

[Jordan]

She must be part Japanese.

[Brett L]

Sigh. I thought there would be good shit on that. None of that seems like something a young, healthy 23 year old shouldn't be doing. I'd like to be the one taking the pictures, but that's a minor quibble.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Not going to read it, but she looks pretty good to the Destroyer who spent high school learning calculus and playing guitar instead doing worthwhile things like fucking teachers. Sigh...where's my damn time machine?

[generic Brand]

I thought this part was pretty good:

The explosive allegations came to light after 9News was tipped off about the Twitter account by a viewer Monday. McKinney later admitted to the TV station that she was behind the tweets.

One post read: 'Naked. Wet. Stoned,' while another said: 'Watching a drug bust go down in the parking lot. It's funny cuz I have weed in my car in the staff parking lot.'

[Lord Humungus]

Ramesh Ponnuru: Why Republicans Should Ignore Obama
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....obama.html

They spent four years trying to discredit him with the public. They need to accept that they failed.

It's still in Republicans' interest for the public to turn on Obama, as it was in Democrats' interest for the public to turn on President George W. Bush the way it did in his second term. But if that happens, it will be because Obama's health- care plan becomes an undeniable failure, or the economy gets worse, or events overseas make his foreign policy look naive. It won't be because Republicans keep denouncing him.

[VG Zaytsev]

Republicans are too stupid to learn new tactics.

[Tim]

I think the Obama Administration will be credited by historians as the one that presided over the entire middle east melting down into a puddle of radical shit.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Only by those who can't spell Iraq.

[Tim]

Junior Bush lit the fuse, that was the training academy in Iraq. I grant you.

[LTC(ret) John]

Tim, its always Booosh! Every time, every thing, every way and always.

[Tim]

But Clinton failed to kill Bin Laden, so it is his fault. Except Bin Laden was radicalized by Daddy Bush's Operation Desert Storm, so it is Bush's fault. Except Bin Laden learned to fight in Afghanistan so it is Reagan's fault. Except Jimmy Carter let the Soviets invade so it is Carter's fault.

Maybe Ford gets a pass?

[LTC(ret) John]

Nope, not if you have an "R" after your name.

[Zeb]

Oh, but everyone likes Ford, don't they?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Saddam kept the Shiite/Shia bastards in check. What we see is a Shiite awakening. Bush was too stupid to know this.

[Rasilio]

Yeah, the whole region is a piece of shiite

[Proprietist]

He also kept the Kurds nice and dead.

[ant1sthenes]

Bullshit. The shiites are on the defensive, its the Sunni radicals that are on the move.

[Rich]

The Right to Bear Arms Protection Act

It's two pages long, self-contained, and written in English.

Wonder if it'll pass ....

[robc]

From section 1 of the KY constitution:

All men are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned:

...

Seventh: The right to bear arms in defense of themselves and of the State, subject to the power of the General Assembly to enact laws to prevent persons from carrying concealed weapons.

Not perfect, obviously, but much shorter than 2 pages and really fucking clear. And being in the state constitution, much harder to change.

[Rich]

State constitutions are so *cute*!

[Brett L]

It seems like the clear language of the 2nd Amendment... bah. Should've been written like the 1st: "Congress shall make no law, abridging the possession or acquisition of..."

[Spoonman.]

I would call my representative, but there's just no way. Has a nice list of sponsors though.

[Lord Humungus]

Man Got Replacement Candy 60 Years Later
http://www.neatorama.com/2013/.....ars-Later/

Better late than never! A then 14-year-old Dave Bell bit into his Pearson's Salted Nut Roll and found a twig. Angry and disappointed, Bell sent a letter demanding a replacement candy.

Sixty years later, he got it: The company, which has been around for about 103 years, usually sends candy if a customer has an issue. It didn't matter whether the complaint was from 60 years ago.

The candy arrived Friday. Bell received five Mint Patties, two Buns (one vanilla and the other caramel), one Nut Goodie and one Salted Nut Roll.

[Elspeth Flashman]

not Bun! Aren't those filled with bugs? /childhood rumor.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Gomer Pyle marries.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/jim-.....AAMpbQtDMD

[Rich]

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

/Captain Obvious

[T]

I'm actually more startled that Jim Nabors is still alive.

[Enough About Palin]

"Gay Marries" Does he also "gay shower" and "gay mow the lawn"?

[mr simple]

I think you missed a comma.

[Enough About Palin]

think you didn't read the link

Jim-nabors-gomer-pyle-star-gay-marries-partner

[sarcasmic]

The new blimp!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....ation.html
Seriously, this is pretty cool. Instead of releasing ballast to lift off and releasing gas to descend, it uses a compressor to control elevation by turning the gas to a liquid and back. Pretty nifty.

[db]

I don't think that's a new idea...I seem to remember discussing this possibility in high school physics.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Maybe so, but now they've built it.

[sarcasmic]

The idea isn't new, but this is the first implementation of it that I know of.

[db]

I don't want to diminish the coolness-- it is a great idea.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

You know what else is a "cool" idea? Jetpacks. Jetpacks are cool. But we don't have them. Do you know why? Because all the eggheads spent the last 15 years developing this stupid blimp. That's why we don't have jetpacks. I want my jetpack.

We were promised jetpacks!

[Randian]

Coachella? Dude.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I just prefer to post live footage, and this was handy on youtube.

[Brett L]

Here's your damn jetpack.

Until, however, they get a rate-of-descent override that will keep people from breaking their legs/backs/killing themselves, jetpacks are just a pipedream.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

It's not the fall that kills you; it's the sudden stop at the end.

[sarcasmic]

Dreamliner nightmare.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....cerns.html

[Lord Humungus]

For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/.....43001.html

Things had only got worse for the Lykov family when the atheist Bolsheviks took power. Under the Soviets, isolated Old Believer communities that had fled to Siberia to escape persecution began to retreat ever further from civilization. During the purges of the 1930s, with Christianity itself under assault, a Communist patrol had shot Lykov's brother on the outskirts of their village while Lykov knelt working beside him. He had responded by scooping up his family and bolting into forest.

That was in 1936, and there were only four Lykovs then?Karp; his wife, Akulina; a son named Savin, 9 years old, and Natalia, a daughter who was only 2. Taking their possessions and some seeds, they had retreated ever deeper into the taiga, building themselves a succession of crude dwelling places, until at last they had fetched up in this desolate spot. Two more children had been born in the wild?Dmitry in 1940 and Agafia in 1943?and neither of the youngest Lykov children had ever seen a human being who was not a member of their family.

[Zeezrom]

Didn't M. Night What's-His-Face base a movie on this?

[Quetzalcoatl]

I believe you're thinking about Hannah.

[Rich]

Or Nell.

[Mike M.]

President Obama is at his highest favorability ratings since he started his first term.

Conclusive proof that the lefty vermin who make up about 90% of the so-called "mainstream media" still wield enormous power to manipulate and deceive the masses, even though more people than ever claim not to trust them.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I watch CNBC in the mornings and the wingnut attacks from the likes of Ken Langone and Donald Trump have stopped as the market pushes to new highs, home values increase, companies expand, profits grow, and inflation fades.

But you can blame the media since that is all you have.

[Lord Humungus]

GDP Shows Surprise Drop for U.S. in Fourth Quarter
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100419252

[LTC(ret) John]

No, no you wingnut - All is well!

[Mike M.]

We're going to hear the term "double-dip recession" a lot over the next couple of months, but the truth that the vermin in the government/media complex almost never admit to is that most of the world has been in a global depression for more than four years now.

It may not be as severe everywhere as the Great Depression was (though it is worse in some places in Europe), but an ongoing depression it is.

[mr simple]

defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus.

Yes, because it's worked so well so far. Though they're surprised by every move in the economy, these experts can never be wrong.

[Way Of The Crane]

I watch CNBC in the mornings ...

This explains so much.

[Jordan]

It's just another house of sand. Only a matter of time until the next debt-fueled crash.

[VG Zaytsev]

the wingnut attacks from the likes of Ken Langone and Donald Trump have stopped as the market pushes to new highs, home values increase, companies expand, profits grow, and inflation fades.

What country do you live in?

[Virginian]

He might live in DC. Thinks are fucking awesome in DC right now. Shiny cars, bars packed every night. Huge houses in the suburbs, I mean really massive ones.

[Lord Humungus]

What is this, 2009 again?

One Investment That Can Reduce Our Long-Term Debt
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/.....aspx#page1

Suppose we could enhance our long-run growth prospects, reduce our long-term unemployment problem, and reduce our expected future debt at the same time. Would that be a policy worth pursuing?

Infrastructure spending in an economy such as ours, one with high and persistent unemployment and considerable infrastructure needs, has these features. It puts people to work on projects that promote economic growth ? economic growth is one of the best ways to reduce the long-run debt burden ? and money spent on infrastructure maintenance and repair saves us money in the long-run.

[gaijin]

We've been investing in the DoD's infrastructure of war for the last decade and look where we are...

[Drax the Destroyer]

We've got more enemies than we had a decade ago. That's progress right?

[Rasilio]

Lol the keynesians will never learn.

Infrastructure spending can only spur economic growth if it is NEW infrastructure and it is in a place and of a sort which stimulates new or at least more efficient economic activity.

Maintaining existing infrastructure cannot create economic growth, it can merely prevent it's destruction.

For example, you have 2 cities seperated by a river. Trade between them is a pain because you either need to use a slow ferry that only runs a couple of times an hour or you need to travel 30 miles out of the way to a fordable spot. So you build a bridge.

Now with the bridge in place trade becomes easier and faster so both cities see economic growth.

However as long as that first bridge is capable of handling all of the traffic between the 2 cities building a second bridge will not add any further economic activity, the infrastructre needs are already being met.

Further, maintaining that bridge will not cause economic growth in either city, the bridge is there and the trade which relies on it is being conducted.

This does not mean that maintaining the bridge is a bad idea, if you do not maintain it then eventually it will collapse and economic activity between the 2 cities would revert back to it's original level causing economic contraction, but you get no growth out of the maintenance, merely the prevention of a depression.

[Rasilio]

The problem that these modern keynesians have is that they thing the infrastructure in and of itself is an end, not merely a means to an end. Right now there is little need for new roads or bridges in America and where there is the benefits would be almost entirely localized providing little to no benefit to the national economy meaning that infrastructure spending in the traditional sense has no stimulative value whatsoever

If they REALLY wanted to embark on building program that put people to work today and resulted in a larger economy when it was done then it would need to be something big and transformative that either opened up new avenues of economic activity or resulted in massive increases in efficiency in existing economi activity.

There are really only 2 things available to us with existing technology capable of doing this.

1) We build 100 Nuclear reactors over the next 10 years.

2) We spend public money to build a robust private space infrastructure to begin industrialization of space

[NeonCat]

I hesitate to suggest this, but we could build modern infrastructure throughout the western hemisphere, which (I hope) would improve the economy of all the countries, making it less necessary for illegals to come here searching for a better life while improving our markets and market access.

Make the Pan American Highway a real highway.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

But most of the Pan American Highway is not in anybody's Congressional district. Therefore, it will never happen.

[Rasilio]

Wouldn't work.

Those countries do not by and large suffer from a lack of infrastructure, they suffer from a lack of institutions. As long as they are run by corrupt governments and lack clear property rights and rule of law no amount of infrastructure will help them.

That said, if you could find some country with a functioning government and institutions that merely needed help on the development front then yes, improving their infrastructure would benefit us in the long run.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

I vote for High Speed Monorails

[NeonCat]

Wasn't this what Obama's shovel-ready BS was about back in 2009? As I recall all that money was borrowed but most of it wasn't spent, is that correct?

[SugarFree]

Perpetual Bonds! Free Money! Yay!

Oh, SadBeard... first the tardcoin and now this? Can't you just settle into a gentle haze of denial like Kruggy and Ezra?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

What the fuck? Stupid idea from a stupid man, Matthew Yglesias

[Drax the Destroyer]

Matthew Yglesias...

I see his fucking face in all the goddamned Pabst blue-ribbon-sippin' "The GOVERNMENT IS US, NOT SOME ALIEN MONSTER" hipster shits when I'm at a bar.

I don't like going to bars that much anymore.

[Rich]

An "American by choice" eloquently provides his position on gun violence

[The Late P Brooks]

The South Dakota House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would allow teachers to be armed, and it will now be considered in the Senate.

How nice of them, to "allow" those inclined to do so to take responsibility for their own security (as if the danger of a shooting rampage in a school is in any way significant).

Still vastly better than paying some thumbsucking cretin to sit on his ass all day staring lustfully at the little girls and boys.

[db]

Here's a question about Bitcoin I wanted to ask yesterday...

If Bitcoin relies on "miners" to authenticate transactions, and pays miners in bitcoins, and the number of bitcoins possible is limited to 21,000,000, once that limit is reached, what incentive remains for miners to continue supporting the authentication network? A savvy miner might, as the limit is approached, divest himself of bitcoin and cease mining operations.

I understand that the idea of transaction fees is probably supposed to keep things going after the limit is reached, but I think this might not work as smoothly as is hoped. If the bitcoin network is not to grind to a halt, the miners must keep mining. Mining is energy intensive, and hence absorbs real-world resources that have application to other valuable endeavors. At some point, the present value of continuing to be a "miner" may be exceeded by some other opportunity.

Obviously, there will be a market price for transactions, but what if that price (defined by the energy required to support the transaction network) becomes too high, and the currency is limited too much? If the price of energy required to support the network exceeds the value to a client of making a transaction, the minimum value of transactions will have to increase, and the number of transactions will drop. The Bitcoin could therefore become a curiosity used only for extremely high value transfers.

[db]

It seems to me that the founders of bitcoin chose to implement the "mining" aspect partly because it requires miners to expend real-world resources tocreate bitcoins, hence creating a pseudo "intrinsic value" to the bitcoin. Once this becomes pointless in terms of creating more value in the currency, where does the network go?

[Also Ran]

The same thing that happens to gold when it has all been mined?

[db]

Fair enough, but all bitcoins are likely to be mined out well before gold will.

[Also Ran]

Probably, and I don't know much about Bitcoin, but from what I understand, the algorithm to mine gets more complex as more coins are mined. So the more coins that are mined, the harder it is to mine new ones. I could wrong on that, though. Doesn't really change the end result, but it would definitely drag it out, similar to when new gold finds become more rare.

[db]

Also, a gold economy would not be dependent on miners continuing to dig in the ground futilely to support gold transactions.

[Rasilio]

They build a rocketship and go tow a gold heavy asteroid to the Earth Moon L5 point and start mining it from there?

[Matrix]

Man shot dead after GPS leads him to the wrong house

Sad situation...

[Way Of The Crane]

Apple Maps strikes again?

[$park?]

"He is very distraught over the loss of life from the defense of his home. This incident happened late in the evening hours when he was home with his wife and he assumed it was a home invasion and he maintains his innocence."

I'm not sure you can call shooting someone who is driving away from your home defense.

[Matrix]

someone in the comments mentioned that his lawyer claimed in another article that they were driving at the gunman. I'm not sure. But if they were driving away from the shooter, then yeah... clearly a criminal matter on his part.

[Rich]

Better put Nerf guns on Dianne's list.

The NYPD conducted a sweep of the schools Tuesday morning after the principal of P.S. 4 called in a report of a student possibly carrying a gun. A student told the school aide that he heard another student had a weapon inside the school on Fulton Ave. The student did not actually see a gun, said police.

Better put the hero who "heard another student had a weapon" next to Michelle at the SOTU.

[Matrix]

we have gone full retard in this country.

from suspending a kid for having a paper gun and a bubble gun...

a few years ago, a kid was suspended for bringing a picture, of his brother serving in Afghanistan holding a gun, to school

drawing pictures of guns are now banned.

We're fucking doomed.

[Way Of The Crane]

Hate to kick you while you're down (not really), but now they want to suspend kids for making guns with legos in class.

[Slammer]

Legos are awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSfRp3Vm_Z4

[Rich]

Serious question: Do any schools prohibit uttering the g-word?

[$park?]

They certainly punish kids who write it.

[Rich]

"Begin, began, ..."

[Quetzalcoatl]

I know that whoever censors songs sometimes censors it.

[VG Zaytsev]

Serious question: Do any schools prohibit uttering the g-word?

The do if the kids are deaf.

[Quetzalcoatl]

To be fair, I think that schools should take reports of a weapon seriously. And it doesn't say whether the nerf-owning student was punished (though he definitely was).

[Rich]

I hear ya, Q. Even so, it's an *awesome* way to get out of that test you didn't study for!

[Matrix]

one article mentioned the school is looking into punishing the student.

[R C Dean]

I think that schools should take reports of a weapon seriously.

Nerf and Lego guns are not weapons, and should not be treated as such.

Double hearsay should be tracked down and confirmed/debunked before any action is taken.

Hysterical teachers and administrators should be fired.

That is all. Carry on.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I dunno, man, my reading of the situation is that the kid told an adult "Jimmy told me that Bobby brought a gun to school today", then they proceded to "track down and confirm/debunk" the alert.

[Numeromancer]

11 yo London, OH girl kills herself rather than go to public school.

Apparently she was bullied. London's schools are notoriously horrible, btw.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Terrible... 🙁
I went to school in western Ohio and it really is one of the most depressing places in the world.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Err, I meant Eastern Ohio.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Not to judge one way or the other, but I do think the social network aspect to life that exists now has helped fuel this type of stuff. Kids are fucking cruel (in public school...maybe in general), and if you can't even escape them when you go home, there are only several avenues of retribution/absolution. The hardest of which is just saying "Fuck 'Em" and doing your best to survive in the prison. It's easier just to jump in the pit or strike out in violence.

That is not to say that any sort of legislation should be passed in any way to curb this unless said legislation makes it easier for people to get out of publicly controlled schools/defend themselves physically if need be/ etc. In other words, said legislation would probably be repealing other legislation.

[$park?]

Yes, kids are and always have been cruel to each other. Yes, the apparent NEED of kids to be involved in stuff like Facebook probably makes it worse. The third problem these kids have is parents who are pussies and don't teach them how to either defend themselves or ignore the bullies.

In any case, the kid is probably better off dead if she can't handle school bullies.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I don't think the defacto prison atmosphere helped. Adults fucking rape and shank each other in similar situations. Being locked up with monsters all week long can't be the best thing for a young person...

But she's the one who couldn't take it. Oh well...one less person driving on these shitty roads in a couple of years.

[$park?]

Being locked up with monsters all week long can't be the best thing for a young person

That's surely another factor.

But she's the one who couldn't take it

I get the feeling that this world is gonna be a rather tough place for the fragile butterflies in another decade or so.

[VG Zaytsev]

The environment of large schools exacerbates any natural nastiness of kids.

They really are mini prisons and breed the same kind of fucked up culture as actual prisons.

[Ted S.]

Poor Sloopy can't blame this one on Michigan. 🙁

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Fuck Michigan, anyways!

[Citizen Nothing]

I do have to wonder if there was a lot more than "bullying" going on behind the scenes.

[Citizen Nothing]

This is one school district over from mine. Quite a sleepy little county seat in a mostly rural county (but an easy commute to C'Bus). There are also two prisons in town -- my understanding is that many of the prisoners' families move to London to be close to Pa. Not that this has anything to do with this particular tragedy -- just setting the scene.

[SugarFree]

Oh, Daily Mail... There's so much wrong with this article. So much.

Morbid gallery reveals how Victorians took photos of their DEAD relatives posing on couches, beds and even in coffins

Now I know how Thomas Friedman feels when he reads a poorly written article on self-fisting.

[LTC(ret) John]

"Now I know how Thomas Friedman feels when he reads a poorly written article on self-fisting."

That is just...I mean... I don't...gah!

[Randian]

This was pretty common practice in the Victorian era. It was normally children who were posed post-mortem, IIRC.

[SIV]

There is nothing so rare as a Victorian photo of a sleeping baby.

[SugarFree]

I mean in the facts-about-photography sense.

[Randian]

Ah. Well, I was surprised that you weren't aware. I should have been more cognizant of your intelligence.

[SugarFree]

I didn't write out my objection well. I could nit-pick the article to death on the reporting. For example:

or the pupils were painted onto the print to give the effect they were alive. In early images, a rosy tint was added to the cheeks of corpses.

Painting pupils and adding color to cheeks or even dots of gold on button of uniforms was incredibly common in daguerreotypes, tintypes, and albumen cartes de visite. To make it out like it was invited and used for post-mortem photos exclusively is mindbogglingly wrong.

Finally I have something to nit-pick within my demonstrable skill set! Woot!

I feel like the luckiest girl in the entire world!

[Zeb]

I've got some old family pictures (not sure what kind, they are on metal plates). The eyes that weren't touched up are really weird. It seems like they were good at keeping their bodies still, but couldn't keep their eyes from moving, so the eyes look really weird and blank, or like they aren't there at all.

[SugarFree]

They are either daguerreotypes or tintypes. If there is a mirror finish under the image, they are dags.

Tintypes were far, far more common.

[SIV]

The great thing about post-mortem photography is how the subjects remain still to make up for slow cameras and inadequate lighting.

[db]

Did they teabag their dead relatives for the camera?

[R C Dean]

In a time when photographs were rare/unusual, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if a lot of people died without having a portrait made. So this was the only way to do it, once they died.

[SugarFree]

In places to rural to have a studio, they would store their dead relatives in snow banks or meat houses until the travelling studio got to them.

[SIV]

the pupils were painted onto the print to give the effect they were alive

I have a tin-type where it looks as if someone carefully scratched open eyes into the plate.

[SIV]

It is probably etched by the now absent ink or paint but the effect is really cool.

[SugarFree]

Because tintypes are a direct positive, and due to the fact that they cannot expose almost the entire red spectrum, just about anything red or orange (freckles, bloodshot eyes) come out white. It might have been a white-eyed monster and they photographer tried to scratch the iris away to expose the black enamel underneath.

[SIV]

It is a dead toddler slung under a grieving mother's arm. It looks like the photographer was trying to anticipate Margaret Keane in animating the lifeless child.

I have a shitload of old photos from before I was priced out of the market.
I have a very nice Dag of a Mexican War soldier someone traded me who thought it was a tintype of a Yankee.IIRC, it is sealed so I haven't checked for a plate mark but the mat puts it contemporary with the uniform.

[Solanum]

Is the ATF criminally stupid or just evil?

[Matrix]

they can't be both?

[Drax the Destroyer]

I think in practice those two usually coincide.

[a better weapon]

Reagan's childhood home being razed for parking lot of Obama library

Is it a dick move? Sure. But I kind of admire the brass balled gumption of whichever ChiCity fucker thought this one up.

[Matrix]

I love this comment:
FarmerJack
Obama library? What for? All of his voters can't read.

I had serious lolz after.

[a better weapon]

Lulz. Reason is the only place I read the comments. Maybe I'm not giving other sites a chance.

[Rich]

the brass balled gumption of whichever ChiCity fucker thought this one up

The article indicates it may be Valerie Jarrett.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I'd care less if it was being razed to build something of value. Anything. A bordello. Crack house, whatever.

Or if the house was being rented out. Or sold. Or anything.

[Tim]

The Barrack Obama Presidential Liberry?

[db]

What would everyone here say to changing Presidential terms to five years, imposing a single term limit and prohibiting a vice president from campaigning for the Presidency in the next election ( they would be eligible after a five-year waiting period).

[R C Dean]

Throw in a prohibition on family members of elected federal officials running for federal office, and you've got a deal.

[Rasilio]

My preferred election reform is a law (preferably a Constitutional amendment) stating simply...

"No person elected to Federal Office may be eligible to hold any Federal elected or appointed office until 24 months after the expiration of the term for which they have been elected has expired"

This means, no campaigning while in office, you go you do your job and when your term is up you go home for 2 or 4 or 6 years and if you're still popular and feel up to it you can run in the next election you are interested in.

[R C Dean]

Let's see (counts on fingers) that would mean we would just be starting Bill Clinton's third term (1992-1996, 2000 - 2004, 2012 - 2016).

Could be worse.

[sloopyinca]

OK, I should have refreshed.

[sloopyinca]

All that would happen are husband/wife teams (think Clinton) that would alternate terms until their popularity ran aground.

Bill/Hillary 1996
Hillary/Bill 2000
Bill/Hillary 2004
Hillary/Bill 2008
...

[Rasilio]

While I agree that could happen to some extent I highly doubt that Bill/Hillary would have won in 04 and in reality there just aren't that many families with 2 electable personalities in them at the same time.

It would probably be more of a concern at the Senate level but really since 90% of Senators serve for as long as they feel like it I don't really see that as a huge drawback.

[sloopyinca]

They don't hve to have two. It's a "wink and a nod" candidacy for the spouse. Hell, I could see Michelle Obama getting elected if she ran with a platform saying she "would have Barack as her personal adviser who went with her everywhere, if you know what I mean." Bill could have done it in 2000 with Hillary and would have beaten Gore's brains in in the primary and likely would have done the same with Bosh in the general election.

You don't need competent people. You just need craven ones.

[Virginian]

This. See Ma and Pa Ferguson of Texas.

[Rasilio]

Yes, and then in 2004 being left holding 100% of the blame for 9-11 and the dot com crash they would have been clobbered by Bush (presumably).

A Bush could have won in 2008 with the booming economy but I really don't think anyone was going to vote for Laura so it would have been Jeb probably but then it would have been highly unlikely that George could have won reelection in 2012 given the state of the economy (and the entirely likely fact that the Bushes would not have been any better for it that the Obamas). That has Obama presumably winning his first term this year and who knows where things would go from there

[Jerryskids]

My preferred election reform is a law that - since lawyers are technically officers of the court and therefore part of the judiciary - no lawyers shall be eligible to serve in the legislative or executive branch.

Laws should be written and carried out as if they were intended to be used by people with an ounce of goddam common sense.

[crashland]

Who wants them to do their job? It would be better to cut reps down to a single year and senators to two, if they are campaigning at least they aren't legislating more bullshit.

[ant1sthenes]

Shit, if we're amending the constitution, let's get rid of a singular executive. It's too much power in one person's hands. Let POTUS run the military and state department, but take away domestic power to separately elected offices.

[Zeb]

Sure, why not?

[Auric Demonocles]

I wouldn't be opposed to that, but I don't expect it'd fix much.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Hello from tropically balmy Stowe, VT! Hope you bastards are not behaving yourselves while I'm on vacation.

I have an unexpected job interview in Vergennes tomorrow.

[$park?]

Tomorrow, when the temps should be back in the low to mid 20s. Fucking New England weather.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Since the skiing will still be for shit tomorrow, I don't feel too bad about missing another day to do the interview. Hopefully Friday will see some fresh pow and some man-made coverage on the slopes (RACIST!)

[Zeb]

And last week it was below zero.

[Auric Demonocles]

Vacationing in Stowe? You're the worst kind of Vermonter!

[Enough About Palin]

"I have an unexpected job interview in Vergennes tomorrow."

Make sure to let them know that you want the job, that you can do the job and that you'd fit in.

/Robert Half

[Rasilio]

But what if I didn't want the job and was just taking the interview to keep by unemployment claim active?

[Enough About Palin]

"Fathi Shihab-Eddim, a senior aide to Egypt's Mohammed Morsi who appoints the editors of the country's state run newspapers, called the Holocaust a hoax perpetrated by the United States."

Well you have to admit it's an odd coincidence that most of the evidence just happened to "burn up".

[The Late P Brooks]

The real victims of Sandy Hook.

Tuesday's edition of the New York Times features a lingering piece about the untold victims of the Newtown massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School: the first responders.

Seven Newtown police officers, who were among the first to arrive at the scene of the horrible aftermath, describe their experiences upon arriving at the scene, as well as grappling with paralyzing post traumatic stress disorder symptoms in the days and weeks following the massacre.

Those poor, poor, traumatized cops.

Who weeps for them?

[R C Dean]

Let's see a story about the poor bastards who actually had to clean up the school.

[Virginian]

Reminds me of this little gem:

"Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat." -Hillary Clinton

[sloopyinca]

Who weeps for them?

Honestly? I do. Coming upon a horrific bloodbath like that has got to have lasting psychological effects on anybody. The people that saw the carnage and dealt with the hysterical parents, families and other students, not to mention the dying cries of young children, will never recover from it. It can't be imagined by those of us that have never experienced it.

I hope those people get the help they need to cope with what they are going through. I really hope they overcome the lasting images that will probably eat them up inside for quite some time. And I hope it doesn't wreck their lives in ways we couldn't begin to grasp unless we've been in a similar macabre environment.

There's plenty to despise cops for. This isn't one of them.

And yes, R C Dean is right. We should also be hearing about the poor bastards that had to clean up the place afterwards. I'm sure they're suffering equally.

[Jam]

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Division...er mob bosses
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/.....avenue.php
steel the bars safe

[Brett L]

Fuck The Heights trendy hipster bars.

[Proprietist]

Are the latest "economic contraction" a result of defense spending cuts? Since government spending counts directly towards GDP, advocates for real spending reduction have to make sure they aren't using every GDP drop for political gain when in effect we really want temporary GDP reductions for long-term GDP gains. There's a delay for cut-related growth to take effect. I was just noticing some people criticizing Obama for the GDP drop when there may be a silver lining.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/3.....?hpt=hp_t3