A.M. Links: Obama Wrapping Up Post-State of the Union Campaign Tour, Rahm Emanuel Considering White House Run, Meteor Crashes into Russia

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  President Obama's post-State of the Union campaign tour in support of more government intervention in the economy finishes today in Chicago, where the president is expected to encourage low-income couples to marry and fathers not to be deadbeats.

• Police in California say they used flammable gas against Christopher Dorner, which caused the cabin he was in to catch fire, because they didn't want to deal with him shooting at night.
• Rahm Emanuel is the latest Democrat to ponder a 2016 White House run.
• Ron Paul will have a syndicated radio show that will start airing next month.
• The presidential election in Mali originally scheduled for last April will finally happen this July.
• Islamist rebels in Syria have seized an oil town.
• A meteor crashing in Russia injured more than 400 people but scientists say it has nothing to do with the asteroid 2012 DA14, which is expected to pass within 20,000 miles of the Earth later today.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Love Day was yesterday, moron.

[Longtorso]

Since I missed yesterday's ant-related comments, I give you this blast from my 6th grade English textbook past:

Leiningen versus the Ants

[Quetzalcoatl]

Yesterday had an ant-thread?! I missed it?!

[Auric Demonocles]

Watch out for Pro Lib.

[Pro Libertate]

No, not me. My hordes of ants.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's like saying "Don't worry about Hitler. Worry about German boys."

[Pro Libertate]

I have no evil, twisted hypernationalistic ambitions. I just want to control the entire world with my rampaging ant armies.

[Killazontherun]

My nephew picks controlling gravity through his will power as his superpower. What disturbs me is he is really very proud of his choice as if it was a clever one. One of the four forces of the universe? Personally, I don't think he is trying at all. Mine would be to make my enemies shit their pants on cue. A cop stops me for speeding, from one end of his intestines to the other, his bowels would wrench as he walks to my car. That would be most satisfactory.

[Auric Demonocles]

You can make that happen via gravity control.

[Ted S.]

The Hellstrom Chronicle

(Or, at least, Part 1; the rest of it is sidebarred.)

[Auric Demonocles]

That was a good read.

[Brett L]

Police in California say they used flammable gas against Christopher Dorner, which caused the cabin he was in to catch fire, because they didn't want to deal with him shooting at night.

What? Did they have to pay time and a half after sundown? What a bunch of mendacious fucks. "We killed him for convenience." In a just world, everyone with a supervisory role in the situation would be fired and have their pensions revoked to pay the inevitable lawsuits.

[RBS]

I read it as "didn't want to deal with shooting him at night."

[Counterfly Guard]

Hello, new episode of Duck Dynasty was coming on...

[Ted S.]

Are the duck fights as good as the ones between Joan Collins and Linda Evans?

[Stormy Dragon]

I read it as "didn't want to deal with shooting him on sight".

[John]

Was there ever any doubt they just killed the guy? They were after all looking for justice for their brother.

Question, what is the difference between this and the odd a Jim Crow lynch mob that happened to get the right guy? Not every lynch mob lynched an innocent person. Sometimes they lynched the guilty and guilty of pretty serious crimes. They were still just as wrong, right?

[sarcasmic]

When peasants do it it's a lynch mob.
When the king's men do it it's justice.

[Counterfly Guard]

These were trained professionals, not some redneck yahoos.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Question, what is the difference between this and the odd a Jim Crow lynch mob that happened to get the right guy?

The state
As we all know
Monopolizes force
"Legitimate," that is, and thus:
Justice.

[Counterfly Guard]

Wake up in the mornin' feelin like P. Diddy
Drink a glass of urine and I'm off to the city
Fuckin wit nicole who hates the golden showers
Time to drink more pee pee 'cause it's been two hours
Please don't lynch my booty for this ABAB scheme
I'm following procedures of the dew drinkin' meme

[Counterfly Guard]

AABB dammit.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I don't hate the golden showers, I just don't want to think about drinking Ke$ha's pee. And I suspect most of the people who wanted to talk about it so badly yesterday have no idea if they hate golden showers or not.

But +1 all the same

[Rights-Minimalist Autocrat]

I've never stuck my hand in a moving lawnmower blade, either, and I don't think I need to try it before dismissing it.

[robc]

I don't hate the golden showers

TMI or JEI?

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

(1) emphasis in original is important and (2) I'm just saying that's not why I don't want to talk about Ke$ha pee

[jesse.in.mb]

I just want you to know that I have that damn Kesha song stuck in my head. You are a monster. That is all.

[SIV]

Sometimes they lynched the guilty and guilty of pretty serious crimes.

Sometimes="almost all the time"

Lynching gets a bad rap because of the misconception that people were often lynched for trivial things or based upon questionable evidence. The vigilantes probably got it right as often as in state-sanctioned judicial killing.

Lynching is also wrongly assumed to almost always be a racial thing and conflated with murders (such as the killing of Emmit Till) and race riot mob violence.

[Killazontherun]

'Lynching' got a bad rap? I can't even.

[Calidissident]

That's because you're just a pansy cosmotarian

[Killazontherun]

Most were guilty, actually, but the action of lynching was still wrong, of course, and tended to be used on suspects of one race. It is a good point, there is nothing different from what they did, and a lynching.

[Emmerson Biggins]

They should pay for the cabin though. That's all I'm sayin.

[sarcasmic]

There was no way this guy was going to live long enough to tell his story in court. Besides, once you kill one of the king's men, your life is forfeit.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Or one of his pigs, apparently.

[Killazontherun]

He should have walked into the offices of the LA Times.

[Chris Mallory]

Same reason the FeeBI burned out the Davidians. Poor babies were getting tired of manning the siege.

[R C Dean]

What difference does it make if he's shooting at night? Don't they have night vision? Or even just haul some of those generator lights in common use on construction sites up there and shine them in his eyes?

Wouldn't him shooting more or less randomly in the dark be less dangerous than him shooting in daytime?

[Brett L]

Wouldn't him shooting more or less randomly in the dark be less dangerous than him shooting in daytime?

Maybe the cops think he shoots like they do. So, no. There's no telling how many could die if he closed his eyes and emptied a magazine.

[Don Mynack]

He's black. Natural camouflage at night. That sort of thing. Couldn't be bothered, really.

[Mike M.]

Rahm Emanuel is the latest Democrat to ponder a 2016 White House run

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Emanuel vs Santorum?

Epic potential.

[John]

Shut up retard.

[Rich]

Really. That's fucking retarded.

[Corneliusm]

Why not? He's done a marvelous job turning Chicago into that great city that I've been hearing about in the news so much.

I really want to live there.

[Corneliusm]

And I want America to be the next Chicago.

[grey]

I have Hope that we can Change America into Chicago.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Anti-semite.

[mnarayan]

but I have lots of Semitic friends

[LTC(ret) John]

They could have a step stool for him to stand on at the debates, you bigot!

[Drake]

I would prefer a special tiny little podium. That would be fucking hilarious.

[John]

He will get Joe from Lowell's vote.

[JW]

Rahm is working to get the debates held in a locker room shower.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

O Rahm!
I may have loved
Your filthy mouth, your balls
So huge. But presidency? Sigh.
Hubris.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Police in California say they used flammable gas against Christopher Dorner, which caused the cabin he was in to catch fire, because they didn't want to deal with him shooting at night.

So you see, they're not Beavis and/or Butthead.

[Counterfly Guard]

They're not even Ren and/or Stimpy.

[The Late P Brooks]

So there's still a chance a meteor could hit DC?

[Counterfly Guard]

Not with the wookiee manning the ion cannon.

[Rich]

LOL

"Let's move!"

[R C Dean]

So sexist.

Not with the wookiee manning womynning the ion cannon.

[Counterfly Guard]

Yeah, the jury's still out on that one, RC.

[LTC(ret) John]

personeling the ion cannon?

[AlmightyJB]

"So there's still a chance a meteor could hit DC?"

No, that can't happen because they made a law that outlawed that.

[Counterfly Guard]

Ron Paul will have a syndicated radio show that will start airing next month.

He should have just been fourth mic on Opie AMPERSAND Anthony.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Will he have racist guest hosts?

[Enough About Palin]

I giggled.

[Brett L]

Kangaroo delay at Australian Women's Open. And no, this is not a euphemism for lesbian-on-lesbian domestic violence.

[Counterfly Guard]

It is now!

[LTC(ret) John]

So maybe ifh is out there chasing the 'roos off with a cricket bat?

[Brett L]

They must have some cute Aussieism they call golf carts. "shey's in the golfie chaysin' roos wit' a cricket bat."

[Lord Humungus]

10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Fortunes
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/.....-fortunes/

Quick: who is the richest man of all time? Bill Gates? Warren Buffet? Not even close, though there's no denying they're very, very rich. The richest man of all time, when wealth is measured as a percentage of the national economy, was John D. Rockefeller, whose fortunes made Gates' and Buffet's look downright puny.

Keeping score of who's wealthier is like a spectator sport with Forbes magazine as its official referee. Last year, Forbes counted 946 billionaires (there are too many millionaires to count, so they don't bother with that anymore) with combined net worth of $3.5 trillion. That's larger than the GDP of Germany, the third largest economy in the world.

But the richest people ever belong in their own special club. These people (all men) have built fortunes of legendary proportions when calculated at the peak of their wealth. Here is the list of the 10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Fortunes.

[Xenocles]

All that money and the fucker's still dead.

[John]

I am a bit skeptical that you can accurately calculate the wealth in modern dollars of 10th Century Byzantine Emperors.

[Xenocles]

It's like they say, the combined wealth of the ten richest Romans couldn't buy a TV, which nearly all of our poor people could have if they really wanted.

[John]

The average American eats better than Louis XIV. Louis didn't have refrigeration or year around access to seasonal foods.

[Brett L]

Well, Versailles had a giant orangerie, so he probably had some access.

[Xenocles]

But he probably wasn't eating Lean Cuisine either, so maybe that one's a wash.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Not to mention all the FDA approved tax-subsidized dreck that flows into our alleged "food" supply every day. The advantage today is that it's easier to get calories since they are cheaper. Better? Probably not. But when I was poor (and I will probably be again), any port in a storm (McDonalds).

[Xenocles]

That's about as thorough a description as is reasonable for a blog comment. Thanks.

[Lord Humungus]

true, but the Romans could buy slaves to do their bidding.

[Xenocles]

Most of us don't need slaves even if they were available. We have machines.

[T]

There are some things even machines won't do. Just ask Warty.

[Xenocles]

I thought that's what we had the rape culture for.

[LTC(ret) John]

*shudder*

No thanks.

[Lord Humungus]

you may like your sexbots, but I still prefer the soft flesh.

[Counterfly Guard]

Exactly.

You can't eat a sexbot when you're done with it.

[DesigNate]

We still get to keep our child slaves though right?

[LTC(ret) John]

"Involuntary interns", thank you very much!

[SIV]

John D Rockefeller would have been infinitely richer with an iPad and an EBT card.

[Matrix]

and look how many of them were American. Liberty works, dammit!

[mr simple]

6. Andrew W. Mellon

In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed the financier Mellon as the Secretary of the Treasury, where he served for 10 years (under three U.S. Presidents). At that post, Mellon increased federal revenue by decreasing the taxation rate and cutting federal spending.

That doesn't follow the established narrative. How did they let that fact slip in there?

[DesigNate]

That's awesome.

[Virginian]

I've seen it as "three Presidents served under him". Truly a great man, there aren't many like him.

[MJGreen]

During Boardwalk Empire's third season, I saw a bunch of people comment on what a bastard Mellon was in real life. I couldn't get a straight explanation for why, other than the "liquidation" comment. Which I'm guessing many interpret as some kind of literal liquidation of poor people.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

During Boardwalk Empire's third season, I saw a bunch of people comment on what a bastard Mellon was in real life.

Those people are fucking morons.

In 1937, he donated his substantial art collection, plus $10 million for construction, to establish the National Gallery of Art on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Gallery was authorized in 1937 by Congress.

[mr simple]

You can piss off a lot of people when you turn off the cash spigots.

[generic Brand]

But that's obviously what led to the Great Derpression!!!11!1! derp!

/lib logic

[Calidissident]

I find it hilarious when people blame tax cuts for income inequality and the Depression, when the rates were far higher than they'd been for all but about 5 years of US history (as, with a couple brief temporary exceptions, we didn't even have an income tax until 1913, and it was very low for the first few years until we entered WWI)

[LTC(ret) John]

OK, I am going to go slightly sloopy here - a bit of excitement around work this morning:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/sto.....id=8994247

I was wondering why the cops didn't pounce right away - it turns out they are distracted lately:

http://articles.chicagotribune.....minal-case

[LTC(ret) John]

The Chief has a bit on his mind too:

http://www.dailyherald.com/art.....701149758/

Or maybe the cops are just impaired?

http://www.nbcchicago.com/inve.....96021.html

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

told police she was abducted near LaSalle Boulevard and Oak Street in Chicago

What. The fucking. Fuck.

I will not have my Oak St shopping ruined with fear, goddamn it!

Seriously though, WTF? That is crazytown.

[LTC(ret) John]

The helicopters have been buzzing around here all AM.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Hm. I am not even kidding though--how do you get abducted from there? Maybe, maybe, MAYBE from an alley. That is not someplace where I would even be worried at night, for the most part.

[R C Dean]

That is not someplace where I would even be worried at night, for the most part.

Since a couple of kids have been capped close to Obama's swanky neighborhood, I doubt if there's any place in Chicago that is acceptably safe.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Obama's "swanky" neighborhood is very small, and an enclave in the middle of serious fucking ghetto. Kids don't get capped that close by. I'm having trouble finding out exactly where Hadiya Pendleton was killed, for example, but I believe it was on the edges of what I would say was O's neighborhood. And I would never go out in his neighborhood alone at night--it's where my boyfriend grew up and it is NOT SAFE.

Oak St is in the middle of downtown. This girl was practically abducted in front of the Prada store.

[LTC(ret) John]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/sto.....id=8994247

Whoops - sounds like a sham, now. You may safely resume your shopping!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ron Paul will have a syndicated radio show that will start airing next month.

Let's hope he writes his own material.

[Xenocles]

Maybe he could put out a newsletter like Limbaugh does. The name would have to be alliterative, perhaps something like "The Ron Paul Report."

[LTC(ret) John]

Ixnay on the etter lay!

[sarcasmic]

Ke$ha looks almost like a human being for a change.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....n-3am.html

[Counterfly Guard]

Probably from all the pee drinking.

[Rich]

It's like beer googles.

[LTC(ret) John]

Piss glasses?

[sarcasmic]

Dude wants to marry inflatable dragon.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....night.html

[Brett L]

Why buy the cow when the milk is free?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Santorum warned us about this!

[Ted S.]

Better than marrying a Jezzy, I suppose.

[Proprietist]

Wait till this lad finds out about x-rated inflattbles- Lila the Dragon cant hope to compete

[sarcasmic]

DM can't go a day without pictures of Jessica Chastain.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....ather.html
I don't mind.

[Counterfly Guard]

Does she drink her own pee as well?

Does she need someone else to?

[Ted S.]

I prefer Brandi Chastain. 🙂

[sarcasmic]

To each their own.

[John]

She is okay. A bit of a horse face.

[Brett L]

I have no fucking clue what this article is about, but anyone who calls himself the 'Kanye West of walrus training' deserves a link here.

[Zeb]

'Kanye West of walrus training'

Is that supposed to be a good thing?

[LTC(ret) John]

He drunkenly seizes microphones at award ceremonies?

[Counterfly Guard]

Well it's better than the R. Kelly of walrus training.

At least for the walruses. Walri?

[Rich]

Police in California say they used flammable gas against Christopher Dorner ... because they didn't want to deal with him

Good idea! Congress should use flammable gas against the National Debt!

[LTC(ret) John]

Light a Frank Lautenberg fart that sneaks past his Depends?

[Ted S.]

Researchers warn of flatulence danger on planes

Warning: the researchers are, like IFH, from the wacky antipodean region of the world.

[Rich]

companies could develop seat cushions ... with odour absorbing layers of activated charcoal specifically for flying.

Whoopie!

[LTC(ret) John]

I see what you did there. Yes, I did.

[mad libertarian guy]

You tease, but I've more than once chased people away on a plane because the gas was just too much to handle.

I'd have felt bad on my worst episode, an 8 hour flight from Sao Paulo to Miami, but the people that I chased off were the kind of assholes who do shit like purposefully lean their seat back during meals after being asked by the attendant to sit upright. They deserved every bit of stink they got.

[alittlesense]

Good Lord Ewwwwwwww.....now I have an image in my head that won't go away for months.....

[Counterfly Guard]

They should have used inflammable gas. For safety.

[mnarayan]

inflammable == flammable. Though that might be the joke...I'm immune to earth humor.

[sarcasmic]

Tea Party group 'created video that showed woman dressed as a PANDA performing sex act on Hillary Clinton impersonator'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....nator.html
So of course this means all TEA party people support this. Yep. They represent all TEA party people. Yep. True colors. Yep. Every single TEA party person, without exception. Yep.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I thought it was pretty funny.

[sarcasmic]

I found a shirt for you!

http://www.tshirthub.com/ipotot.html

[AuH2O]

Isn't the whole Panda fucking a fetish now?

Maybe the video is for those into Hilary Clinton.

[DesigNate]

Collectivist assholes.

[Don Mynack]

That was hilarious. What's wrong with it?

[Xenocles]

Anyone pick up yesterday on the new medal for outstanding drone pilots, to be ranked higher than the Bronze Star?

[LTC(ret) John]

Yes, it was discussed in yesterday's AM Links - barf!

[Xenocles]

I was afraid of that. Let's just say that I don't look at reason a lot on the government computer in my office.

[DJF]

Next there will be a Virtual Medal of Honor for Internet Warriors

[Xenocles]

Actually it's also - in theory - for people who write malware that helps a real battle.

[sarcasmic]

When these brave drone pilots kill someone they call it a "bug splat."

[John]

They have already pissed all over the Bronze Star. They give it to staff offices who never leave the fucking TOC all of the time. You just have to be lucky enough to work for a general who is willing to give you one.

And sorry, but a bronze star or higher medal ought to involve some actual physical courage and risk beyond the norm.

[Xenocles]

Well, sure, but in theory the BSM with V still means something, but the placement is the same.

[John]

The Bronze Stay used to mean something. Now the "V" device is what means something. What they need to do is make the Meritorious Service Medal available in combat zones. I understand why they give so many Bronze Stars in this day and age of grade inflation. For field grade anything less than an MSM looks bad.

[Xenocles]

I wrote up a DMSM for an O-3's end of tour last month. For us Navy officers you have to take advantage of your posting at these mostly Air Force outfits. I saw an AF Capt come here and have an MSM pinned on for his last tour as a company commander. Compare that with the CO of my first boat, who served an extended tour through most of a wildly successful refueling and got the same thing.

TLDR: Air Force award inflation is rampant.

[John]

In the army it is really worse than the Air Force. At the higher HQ level, it is air force level ridiculous. But at the Brigade and Battalion level it is like it should be. If you are not a commander or do something really big, you get an ARCOM. Meanwhile, the pogue who gets the general's coffee get a bronze star.

[LTC(ret) John]

In 2004, the E-4 who drove the Kabul HQ CSM to and from work each day got one... no ambushes, IEDs or such, just drove. And our TF gave a BSM to a guy who probably saved us 12 casualties in two different incidents. Same effing medal (devices aside).

[H. Reardon]

Does the V stand for 'virtual'?

[LTC(ret) John]

On that one, it will!

[ant1sthenes]

It would make more sense to give them Achievements than medals.

[Xenocles]

Hence the "Achievement Medal."

[R C Dean]

I'm thinking merit badges.

[DesigNate]

They could be circular and sewed onto some kind of sash.

[Lord Humungus]

Beercade: The arcade machine that rewards winners with beer
http://www.dvice.com/2013-2-14.....nners-beer

Hand-made by McKinney, the Beercade is loaded with a custom 2D fighting game called The Last Barfighter that pits two players against each other. Instead of coin slots, the Beercade has two taps for players to place their beer cups under. The first player to win three rounds gets a cup of beer. No word on how much a round costs, but it's an arcade machine; it can't possibly be that much.

[LTC(ret) John]

And if you lose, it fills your cup with Hamm's.

[Counterfly Guard]

In my machine, the winner gets Ke$ha pee and the loser gets Yoohoo.

[Lord Humungus]

there's a difference?

[LTC(ret) John]

lose/lose

[Rich]

"From the Land of Sky-blue Water!"

[Lord Humungus]

the local store sells Hamms in 30 packs.

I recently went to a bar that was selling Hamms by the can. It was quite popular with the punk rawkers.

[LTC(ret) John]

Hamm's is quite good at two things - inducing headaches and serving as a laxative. Maybe the punkers were blocked up?

[Xenocles]

Time for grumpy old man mode:

When I was a kid most games were a quarter. Nowadays the same games are a buck, and newer ones are more like two. Get these arcade managers off my lawn.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Nowadays, a buck is worth probably less than a quarter in your days...

4 bucks today was like 15 cents in 1950.

[Xenocles]

I was born in 1982, dude.

[Drax the Destroyer]

$1.00 today was worth 42 cents in 1982.
$1.00 today was worth 66 cents in 1996.

The games look better today (arguable) and more work goes into them (also arguable). So a quadrupling in the cost is not completely unaccountable (Read: the work malicious capitalists).

Also wrong about the 4 bucks in 1950. 4 bucks was 42 cents...still ... the dollar has lost 90% of it's value since 1950. I'm going to drink and drive the wrong way on the highway for a couple hours now...

[Xenocles]

I know, I know, but it's not just new stuff. I saw the original Area 51 going for a buck a play a couple years ago.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Well...arcade are kind of dying/dead industry in the U.S. buttressed primarily by hipstery Dave & Buster's-esque drinking hangouts.

Charging a buck for Area 51 today happens for the same reasons I have to pay $500 for the 35 year old hookers I was paying $200 for ten years ago. Sucks, but dems da breaks.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Golden Age was late 80s-early 90s. You could play decent looking games at a reasonable price.

Everything since then is basically a Mortal Combat/Street Fighter II ripoff or some sort of gun game.

[sarcasmic]

Democrat congressman discovers he has an illegitimate daughter.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....S-AGO.html
It's just a Democrat. It's not like Democrats are held to any moral standard. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Come on, sarc, that is a pretty cute story, considering. He had no idea she existed, and now he's sending her cute daddy-tweets. I'm not gonna be mad at that.

[sarcasmic]

Point is that if the dude had an (R) after his name it would be front page news on every major paper in the country.

[LTC(ret) John]

Like when the Right Reverend Jessie Jackson Sr.'s illegitimate child was revealed - man, I'll never forget the media blitz that stirred up!

[mnarayan]

You're reaching. I would not be surprised if the media jumped on a Republican in the same situation, but my intuition (admittedly not terribly tuned here) says they would treat it similarly.

[Virginian]

Yeah you should really get that retuned. There really isn't a clearer example of media bias then the way they handle scandals regarding their favorite party.

[Art Vandelay]

To be fair, if a rethuglican had a child like that, it obviously would have been rape.

'Cuz they love the war on wimmenz.

[Zeb]

I don't think anyone is held to the moral standard that you can't have sex with anyone unless you are married (I'm assuming he wasn't married at the time). The mother decided not to tell him He didn't do anything wrong by any contemporary standards.

[Virginian]

Dude, it's not that he did something wrong, it's that if he was a Republican the headline would be would be "Republican Congressman who is a Republican has illegitimate daughter."

Then the story would open "Congressman _____, a Republican from *state* recently admitted that he had an illegitimate daughter." Then they would mention his party affiliation five more times in the article.

Meanwhile look at the coverage of the former mayor of San Diego. Embezzlement on a grand scale, and it's not like she has a political career anymore. But the story I read didn't mention her party affiliation. Not once.

It's an easy fix. Make it a rule in the stylebook that every politician's name has to include the (D-NY) or (R-TX). But the media doesn't want that, because it wouldn't let them play "Guess Which Party" When their precious Democrats do something bad.

[R C Dean]

I tend to think there would be much tut-tutting if a Repub had neglected his daughter throughout her childhood. And harrumphing over how a few tweets now don't even come close to making up for it.

Facts, of course, be damned.

[Ice Nine]

That dude is quick on his feet. Any other guy would have said, "Um, umm..."

[Proprietist]

Yeah, how long until this comes out as a coverup story to avoid admitting to banging hot 24-year olds?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

A Democratic congressman had to publicly reveal that he found out just three years ago that he had an illegitimate daughter after he accidentally sent her Tweets during the State of the Union.

Honestly, I think this irritates me more than the media special pleading. I completely sympathize with someone who's so bored with Lord Purpa giving yet another boilerplate campaign speech
that they have to distract themselves. But for fuck's sake, you can't put the goddamn phone down for an hour or so?

Stuff like this makes me wish every cell phone tower in the country would get hit with a massive power outage. The national withdrawal meltdowns would make Celebrity Rehab look like a Sunday picnic.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A meteor crashing in Russia injured more than 400 people but scientists say it has nothing to do with the asteroid 2012 DA14, which is expected to pass within 20,000 miles of the Earth later today.

I hope none of you are buying this.

[Counterfly Guard]

Are you saying that North Korea is being abnormally quiet on the matter?

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Meh. They're on opposite sides of Earth heading in different directions.

There are meteorite airbursts equivalent in power to the Hiroshima bomb roughly once a year; they usually occur in the upper atmo, so nobody notices outside of sattelite geeks. Like they say, a universe without coincidence would be the greatest coincidence of all.

[mnarayan]

Like they say, a universe without coincidence would be the greatest coincidence of all.

Who says this?

[R C Dean]

Them, that's who.

[RBS]

The LAOLs

[Quetzalcoatl]

My question is why everyone is Eastern Europe has a dashcam on their car. Can anyone explain that to me?

[Lord Humungus]

insurance?
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/.....in-russia/

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

In Soviet Russia, road watches you!

[Mike Laursen]

Has to do with extremely messed up auto insurance and liability laws.

[Tim]

Stray buckshot?

[sarcasmic]

LeAnn Rimes sues her dentist, claiming he screwed up her career.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-work.html
Really?

[Chloe]

She really is a narcissist

[Brett L]

Now if she sued her nutritionist...

[Drax the Destroyer]

Sorry LeAnn, you had your shot and probably had the chance to bank $5-20 million at some point. If you spent it all or didn't capitalize, it ain't your dentist's fault. Moreover, you'll probably only get $500k max from the poor bastard so at some point you are going to have to get back to work or starve.

[John]

Unless she just can't sing, I would imagine she can still make a living doing the casino and Branson circuit.

[Brett L]

so at some point you are going to have to get back to work or starve.

Pretty sure she's already tried and failed at "starve".

[Drax the Destroyer]

You get a cookie Brent.

[Drax the Destroyer]

*Brett... (drunk at 10 AM makes it hard to proofread)

[Brett L]

No sweat. I'm holding off 'till 11am to start, so I can still be somewhat functional when its time to meet the gf for happy hour.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Sounds like the start of a good weekend. Sierra Nevada has torpedoed my liver.

[Bee Tagger]

Ron Paul will have a syndicated radio show that will start airing next month.

It's going to sound so much better on my audio equipment since I only use gold-plated parts.

[LTC(ret) John]

Nice - I never have any to spare after the latest monocle production run. I need to find some orphans in Alaska or the Yukon...

[sarcasmic]

Meteor go BOOM!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ndows.html

[sarcasmic]

Tutoring program for niggas only.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/201.....program/2/
White kids need not apply.

[Rich]

*** rising intonation ***

What about White Hispanics?

[Zeb]

They are white. I don't know why people have such a hard time understanding the concept.

[Rich]

*** rising intonation ***

What about Albino Blacks?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I'm not up on today's accepted pedagogic methods, so how does one design a tutoring session for children of color?

[Rich]

Don't aks me.

[Lord Humungus]

Singer Chubby Checker sues makers of penis-length app
http://metro.co.uk/2013/02/14/.....p-3477482/

The 71-year-old, best known for his 1960 cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit The Twist, claims the app has associated his name with 'obscene sexual connotation'. He is reportedly seeking half a million dollars for the 'irreparable damage and harm' the app, created for Hewlett-Packard's Palm OS platform, has done to his reputation.

His lawyer Willie Gary said the entertainer had 'earned the position of one of the greatest musical entertainers of all time. This lawsuit is about preserving the integrity and legacy of a man who has spent years working hard at his musical craft,' he explained.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Maybe people shouldn't nickname themselves after hard-ons, you know?

[Ted S.]

I'm trying to figure out what a "penis-length app" actually does.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

It displays a ruler along the side of your smartphone so you can hold your phone up to your dick. Because holding a ruler up to your dick was too complicated.

And yes, your dick is probably longer than your phone is tall, making it actually more complicated.

[SugarFree]

And yes, your dick is probably longer than your phone is tall, making it actually more complicated.

If you got a phone, who cares about measurements? Just take dickpics with objects next to it for scale, like a quarter, or a thimble, or a dead mouse.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Is it wrong that I want this to be a new H&R art project?

[SugarFree]

Probably.

[Lord Humungus]

Dicks! The H&R Musical.

[Ted S.]

Or in my case the Empire State Building.

[sarcasmic]

a dead mouse

Feed the snake!

[Night Elf Mohawk]

It's pretty surprising that the "Palm OS" angle hasn't gotten more play here.

[Counterfly Guard]

Wang.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Tee hee hee.

[mr simple]

Any of you ladies out there just start seeing someone new and wondering what the size of their member is?' asks an old listing posted in 2011.

'All you need to do is find out the man's shoe size and plug it in? Now with the Chubby Checker there is no need for disappointment or surprise?'

It spits out random numbers.

[Zeb]

Palm OS still exists?

[Counterfly Guard]

Next, BB King will be suing for the ball-weight app.

[The Late P Brooks]

You've got it all wrong. Those cops were just trying to save the cost of a long and complex trial with a lot of confusing testimony.

They did it for us.

[Mike Laursen]

The nights get cold up in those mountains in February.

[VG Zaytsev]

Those cops were just trying to save the cost of a long and complex trial...

And the saved the city from having to pay the reward.

[sarcasmic]

Here come the drones!
http://www.washingtonguardian.com/drones-home

[Spoonman.]

I would no-shit think I was about to die if I saw in real life what's in those videos from Russia. I wonder how many people thought "Damn Yankees attacking us!"

[LTC(ret) John]

Or they thought "great, another Soyuz rocket failure!"

[sarcasmic]

"Damn Yankees attacking us!"

Can you take me high enough

MAKE IT STOP!

[Drax the Destroyer]

...Somewhere...Ted Nugent is laughing.

[tarran]

No shit. I watched some of the video's on RT. That thing came in fast and hot. I imagine that's what a RV carrying a nuke would look like.

[Ted S.]

You watched some of the video's what on RT?

[tarran]

The meteor as it hit the atmosphere. It actually outshone the sun for a few seconds.

[Virginian]

http://www.osborneink.com/wp-c.....2/MIRV.png

America, fuck yeah!

[Lord Humungus]

The Final Frontier For Whisky
http://www.forbes.com/sites/al.....or-whisky/

The beauty of the opening of space for commercial research by Nanoracks is that it's allowed a number of different experiments to flourish on board the International Space Station. Perhaps on of the most interesting is one being carried out by Ardbeg Distillery ? they want to see what happens to the chemical interactions that give Scotch its flavor characteristics when they happen in zero gravity.

"We literally have no idea what's going to happen," Ardbeg's brand director Hamish Torrie told me. "Strange things happen in space."

[LTC(ret) John]

"In space, no one can hear you open a bottle of Aardbeg 12 year old"

[Raven Nation]

Why would you even screw around with single malts? Isn't perfection in alcohol enough for you?

[Xenocles]

"What's going to happen" is that the astronauts are going to steal the whisky, replace it with urine or water, and call it a result of the experiment.

At least, I'd think about doing that.

[Raven Nation]

Yeah, I thought that too. Although it wasn't the finished product when they started off. But I guess a few months in space you may not care.

[LTC(ret) John]

As a member of the Aardbeg Committee, I denounce you (but I would do the same thing too).

[Auric Demonocles]

I've been talking about brewing in space for a while. I think you could pass off zero gravity fermentation as a biology research topic and try to get a grant.

[Pro Libertate]

Do it outside the Van Allen belt, so it can be sold as vacuum-pressed, radioactively purified whisky.

[Brett L]

OH noes! Theyz irradiatin' our likker now!

[Pro Libertate]

No, see the way this works is that you make irradiated liquor a luxury brand. That's where the food producers went wrong with irradiating food. They should've done it and charged twice as much for the safer, irradiated food.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm all beer, baby.

Also, I don't even need a marketing department. Just call it "space beer" and have a subtitle that clarifies "Brewed in motherfucking space".

[Pro Libertate]

Call it Armstark or Armkr?ftig in honor of Neil Fucking Armstrong.

[Auric Demonocles]

Maybe for a niche specialty beer. But seriously, how does "Space Beer: Brewed in fucking space" not sell itself? I can even deliver it straight to their front yard if they give me exact coordinates.

[Pro Libertate]

That's close to generic and someone else probably has used it. How about Weltraumbr?u? Naturally, you should market the crap out of it as a beer brewed in space by master ex-Nazi craftsmen/astronauts. And charge like ten bucks a can.

[Auric Demonocles]

And when I deliver it via space drop the delivery vehicle looks like a V2.

[sloopyinca]

Call it Armstark or Armkr?ftig in honor of Neil Fucking Armstrong.

"From Space to your mailbox!"

[Pro Libertate]

Needless to say, you'll have to buy all of yours on the secondary market.

[Auric Demonocles]

Needless to say, you'll have to buy all of yours on the secondary market.

We'll just specifically target his mailbox with the.... hops from God? Kinetic bombers? Kinetic bombeerdment?

[Pro Libertate]

Meteoroid rage?

[R C Dean]

Nanoracks

Rule 34?

[sloopyinca]

Is it a Kiera Knightley thing or a Natalie Portman thing?

[The Late P Brooks]

"didn't want to deal with shooting him at night."

They couldn't hit him in broad daylight.

[Bee Tagger]

where the president is expected to encourage low-income couples to marry and fathers not to be deadbeats.

Will he be wearing his Temple sweatshirt or one of his many multi-colored sweaters?

[LTC(ret) John]

"Noah!"

[Pro Libertate]

If only Bill Cosby were the president. "POTUS is great, he gave us the chocolate cake!"

[Lord Humungus]

Sperm Bike Rides Around Seattle
http://www.odditycentral.com/n.....attle.html

When marketing ideas are merged with eco-friendly ones, some truly unique solutions are bound to emerge. One such idea is that of the Seattle Sperm Bank, where workers pick up and deliver sperm samples, on bikes that are literally shaped like sperm.

The Sperm Bike, as it is called, has turned out to be quite a head-turner around the city. The size as well as the design tend to grab attention. At 120 pounds and 10 foot long, it is actually quite a big bike. A rather bulbous container placed in front of the rider is the main cooling and storage system for the sperm being transported. The container is filled with liquid nitrogen and can fit up to 25 or 30 vials containing sperm.

[Xenocles]

"All I had to do was close my eyes and suck it out through a hose..."

[Juvenile Lurker]

Q: What do you call a woman who can suck an orange through a garden hose?

A: "Darling!"

[Brett L]

This is cool. a drum played with photons that proves Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle works in the micro scale. Which is big.

They then set the drum between two mirrors, and shined laser light on it. Essentially, the drum is measured when photons bounce off the drum and deflect the mirrors a given amount, and increasing the number of photons boosts the measurement accuracy. But more photons cause greater and greater fluctuations that cause mirrors to shake violently, limiting the measurement accuracy. That extra shaking is the proof of the uncertainty principle in action. The setup was kept ultra-cold to prevent thermal fluctuations from drowning out this quantum effect.

[Counterfly Guard]

And once again, Popper is proven to be a gormless moron. The Obama of physicists if you will.

[Tim]

So the heisenberg Compensator is farther off than we thought?

[Zeb]

Do you mean "macro scale"?

[Brett L]

Not really. 500 microns is micro scale.

[Zeb]

Compared to wavelengths of light it is pretty macro. And when used for electrnics and stuff micro usually means less than 100 microns, I think. The point of the experiment was to show that the effects could be detected in things larger than atoms or sub-atomic particles, no?

Anyway, it is a very cool result.

[Brett L]

Sure. I'll take that. I guess for me "micro" just meant bigger than traditional quantum distances, which was a big deal. The fact that you can see it if you hold the camera lens close enough... Eh. I guess that's macro.

[Pro Libertate]

If it works on the macro scale, then my cat actually is in a superposition between dead and live, is that what you're telling me?

[Brett L]

Actually, I think measuring whether he is dead or alive turns him into that cat from Pet Cemetary, but I'm just a lowly engineer who learned quantum theory as "Physical Chemistry", so I could be wrong.

[Pro Libertate]

Please, is there a physicist in the house? I need an answer here.

[T]

I dimly recall the Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle does apply at the macro level, but it's lost in the error bars of the measurement.

[Brett L]

Yeah, T. Same with the wave-particle duality. If you do the math the wavelength of anything longer than a meter or massing more than a couple kilos, its wavelength is below the Planck distance, so the wave portion is unobservable.

[Pro Libertate]

Then it doesn't exist, bitch.

[LTC(ret) John]

See this, please:

http://www.lolroflmao.com/2011.....ery-angry/

[Rich]

'I know it's a pride thing between Muslims and black people'

"No! *We're* prouder of our ancient glory days!"

[Ted S.]

The fight, students say, was the result of long-simmering tensions between the 8 percent of students who are Somali-Americans and the 20 percent who are African Americans.

Somali-Americans aren't African-Americans???

[Zeb]

The hyphen makes all the difference. African Americans are descendants of American slaves. African-Americans are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Africa.

It sounds a little silly (and not everyone agrees on where the hyphen ought to be), but I think it is a reasonable distinction to make. The American slave descendants are distinct genetically and culturally from more recent African immigrants.

[R C Dean]

I think it is a reasonable distinction to make.

Only if you think that any hyphenated-American distinction is reasonable. Which I don't.

[Zeb]

For most purposes, I agree. But the fact is that people do, and here, I think that the cultural distinction is important. I can only imagine that is the reason for the tensions. Drop the "American" part if it makes you happy.

[Tonio]

No. They are very much Americans.

[Zeb]

Indeed. I'm not quite sure what I meant there.

[Tonio]

^This.

Also most regular black Americans are descended from western Africa (Senegal through Nigeria). Somalia is at the other end of the continent (on East-West axis) from there.

[DesigNate]

So it could potentially be another East Coast/West Coast thing?

[Tonio]

LOL.

[LTC(ret) John]

I see what you did there....and enjoyed it.

[Rich]

It's not that complicated, Ted.

However, the 0.05 percent who are Somali-Africans were *really* pissed.

[LTC(ret) John]

I mean, sure, they are from Africa and now in America, but...not "of color" enough maybe?

[Zeb]

Too much "of color", I would think.

[LTC(ret) John]

The Somalis , I mean.

[mad libertarian guy]

Technically no.

An African American is a person whose ancestors can be verified to have been slaves.

[Tonio]

Thanks for clarifying that term. And that's a really important distinction since they were forced to discard their culture in addition to the many other indignities they suffered.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Gedankenexperiment: Are those whose ancestors were brought here as slaves better or worse off than if their ancestors hadn't been?

[Zeb]

Comparing contemporary Africa to America today, undoubtedly many if not most descendants of slaves do better than their distant cousins in Africa. But that assumes that nothing else except for slavery would have been different in the history of the world, which seems unlikely.

[VG Zaytsev]

An African American is a person whose ancestors can be verified to have been slaves.

Or in Obama's case, ancestors that owned slaves.

[mad libertarian guy]

ZING!

[Enough About Palin]

"An African American is a person whose ancestors can be verified to have been slaves."

So Slavic people then?

[Lord Humungus]

Snake penis wine anyone?
http://www.malaysia-chronicle......m&id=55532

"Business ought to be better this year because of the Year of the Snake," he added, as he pulled out glasses for visitors to sample his homemade snake penis wine - the males have two such appendages - made from the venomous Chinese krait.

His nephew praised the drink's benefits. "This is a tonic for building up health. It's especially good for men."

But Mr Gao warned: "If this snake bites you, you will be dead in four hours."

[LTC(ret) John]

I expect fierce competition from Australia in this field.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Snake Penis Wine" sounds like a good name for a rock band.

[John]

http://leadandgold.blogspot.co.....t-one.html

More evidence that everything the media tells you about Watergate is a lie.

[Brett L]

Now, now. There were definitely Congressional hearings.

[Ted S.]

I remember when the Monica Lewinsky affair first came to light, Sam Donaldson was doing an interview with PJ O'Rourke, and was constantly using the word "alleged".

After one particular use of the word "alleged", O'Rourke responded to the affect of "Yes, we must only allege that there is an age difference between Clinton and Lewinsky."

[John]

EGADS

Meanwhile, reader Curt Johnson writes:

With asteroid hunting back in the news with the latest close approach, I thought you might be interested to know that after the Shoemaker-Levi event, I (with the support of TRW, for whom I worked at the time) designed a satellite mission we named IRASMES that would have detected every asteroid capable to threatening the Earth greater than 50-m in mean diameter. The mission would have taken about ten years from launch and would have cost less than $150 million. (Compare the cost of a single NASA or DOD launch in those days.) The mission would been completed around 2007.

My concept used American multispectral sensors and electronics on a Russian bus, and would have launched on a Russian booster. The Russian partner was Lavochkin. I presented to paper on this concept at a UN conference on the asteroid threat that was held in the wake of Shoemaker-Levi.

Of course, Congress would not fund the concept. Looks like others are starting to pick up the slack, almost 20 years on. So yes ? faster, please.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/163424/

[RBS]

I'm shocked...

[John]

None of their cronies could get rich off of that. We have pissed away a trillion dollars on bullshit. But they wouldn't fund that.

[Tim]

If they had gone with Boeing it would have cost 10 Billion dollars but it would have got funded.

[Tonio]

Well, the program could have been ramped up with more spacecraft to detect more, and smaller, 'roids more quicker. He's talking 50m sized. Remember that even a VW Beetle-sized (on impact) doing a water landing could make Sandi look like an april shower.

The real profit would have come from the remediation.

It has been theorized that government didn't want to know because it would then have to Do Something(tm).

[Quetzalcoatl]

I thought LTC(ret) John said that they are working on Space Gundams to intercept any asteroids and cut them up with phaser swords.

[LTC(ret) John]

Gundam Wing, launch!

[Pro Libertate]

I've seen some horrifying statistics about the danger we're running by not having a defense system against asteroids and comets. Eventually, one big one will hit if we don't.

[JW]

"The mission would have taken about ten years from launch and would have cost less than $150 million. (Compare the cost of a single NASA or DOD launch in those days.)

Fixed.

[Palin's Buttplug]

John McCain tore into Hagel for opposing the Iraq War yesterday.

Unreal. Hagel should get a merit badge from the GOP for that.

[John]

IN fairness Hegal was at odds with dozens of elected Democrats who supported the war and voted for it. And he is objecting to a war the victory in which that Obama and Biden called their greatest achievement. So I am thinking Hegal is not too proud of that. He probably won't be the last politician whose career is ended by going against the bipartisan consensus on Iraq.

[Don Mynack]

McCain seemed real proud of going after the enlisted man Hagel. Way too proud, really.

[PS]

A meteor crashing in Russia injured more than 400 people

...and caused more than 12 dollars worth of property damage.

I deeply apologize.

[Lord Humungus]

Illinois chose an unfortunate photo to try to sell tickets for next week's Penn State game
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/.....ncaab.html

The photo of Illinois coach John Groce embracing his shirtless son Conner after the game was memorable enough that I devoted a post to it the next morning and called it one of the season's best pictures.

...

Unfortunately, as Deadspin accurately noted earlier, it probably wasn't the wisest choice to pair that photo with the Valentine's Day slogan, "No matter who's your valentine, surprise them with tickets to the game." And it definitely wasn't the wisest choice to go that route when the opponent for the game in question is a school still recovering from a child sex abuse scandal that resulted in the resignation of its president and the firing of its athletic director and legendary football coach.

[John]

Classic. Penn State deserves all it gets.

[LTC(ret) John]

I find it a nice dig at Pedd State, m'self.

[T]

It's in pretty poor taste, but it's funny and gets the point across that you're playing the Nittany Lions Pedobears.

[Drake]

No reward for Dorner tip - because the cops killed him, and fuck you.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/legal.....d=18506414

[John]

Do they ever actually pay any of those rewards? You always hear about them. But I can't recall them ever being collected.

[sarcasmic]

Last time I heard about someone trying to collect I seem to recall some bullshit about having to wait until the appeals process was complete.

[John]

"Arrest and conviction" and of course conviction means "when all of the appeals are done'. So in other words, they never pay them.

[sarcasmic]

FYTW

[Drake]

An Egyptian guy got $27 million for the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed tip. I heard that the Whitey Bulger tipsters were paid too.

But both were by the federal government and they can just print it.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Ah. So that's why they had to kill him... because LA can't afford to lose $1M.

[Zeb]

I thought the reward was mostly from private sources. They killed him because they wanted to.

[R C Dean]

In the unlikely event I'm ever in a position to rat out somebody for a reward, I'm renegotiating the reward before I cough up any info.

"Pretty sure I know where Dorner is, but this "arrest and conviction" thing isn't doing it for me. If he's where I say he is, I get the money, because everything that happens after that is on you, not me. Capiche? Now, do you want to know where he is or not?"

[John]

They would just jail you as a material witness and then charge you with making a false statement to an officer if you didn't cough up the information.

[R C Dean]

Not sure I'd be an actual material witness until they had at least convened a grand jury.

For a million bucks, I'd take my chances. They'll look like fools locking me up, delaying my information, and tipping off the suspect.

But, good point. I should make sure to tell them that if they try anything like that, my lawyer will be convening a press conference and they can try to explain why they had him and let him go because they were too busy trying to bully a witness out of collecting their reward.

[mad libertarian guy]

Then administer beatings for not giving up the guy who killed their brethren, and say it was because you resisted.

[R C Dean]

With my lawyer giving press conferences, and me being who I am (pudgy middle-aged pillar of the community type), I kind of doubt that.

And, if they do, my take just goes up and up. This time on a civil rights lawuit. If somebody wants to pay me a couple of million bucks to beat me, I think I'd take that deal.

[R C Dean]

On reflection, though, the thing to do is send my lawyer in first, to negotiate the deal on a no-name basis.

[John]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....seful.html

Ex San Diego mayor steals millions from her husband's charitable foundation to feed her gambling habit. The US attorney gives her deferred prosecution provided she pays the money back. Yeah, I am sure anyone who wasn't a juiced in Democratic politician could totally get that deal after they stole a few million from a charitable foundation.

[Brett L]

Despite being ahead more than $1 billion at one point, O'Connor "suffered even larger gambling losses," according to prosecutors. Her net loss, Iredale said, was about $13 million.

What the fuck? Seriously? If this were my wife I would beat her to death with a suitcase full of money.

[Sevo]

"Despite being ahead more than $1 billion at one point, O'Connor "suffered even larger gambling losses," according to prosecutors. Her net loss, Iredale said, was about $13 million."

To a gambler, this is winning! See, at one time, she was $1bn up!

[R C Dean]

What would that be, a couple of wheel-barrows full of chips?

I'd love to see a gambler push back from the table, motion for a couple of security guards to get her wheel-barrows of chips, and head for the checkout counter.

[Ted S.]

Ah, but it's proof that they don't treat cops differently from non-cops. 😐

[PS]

President Obama's post-State of the Union campaign tour in support of more government intervention in the economy finishes today in Chicago, where the president is expected to encourage low-income couples to marry and fathers not to be deadbeats.

And if they decide not to, he promises to give them more money anyway.

[John]

All he ever does is campaign and vacation. Right now who is actually running the executive branch?

He is a complete moron. We know from the Bengazi hearings the White House and the Pentagon don't call him when important shit is happening. Is (gulp) Biden in charge? Valerie Jarrett? Michelle? I would like to know who if anyone because it sure isn't the Kenyan village idiot.

[Rich]

Ima say Jarrett and (gulp) David Axelrod.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I find it hard to imagine Jarrett wouldn't take the opportunity to come home to Chicago and lord it over a bunch of kids at Hyde Park Academy, where Obama is going today to talk about the evil guns. After all, that's not nearly as nice a place as where she sent her daughter.

[R C Dean]

Totally Jarrett. We didn't do anything in Syria, even though everybody but Jarrett advised him to. You do the math.

[Drax the Destroyer]

All he ever does is campaign and vacation.

I think the monkey named after vagina hair did the same thing as well. Pussy Folicles like clearing brush as the world burned.

Fuck all these assholes.

[John]

Bush rarely vacationed.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Hilarious. No, he just cleared brush in Crawford for a solid month to get in the photo ops.

Real work that is.

Does he come in your mouth too?

[John]

As opposed to sending his wife and her hundred person entourage to Spain for a billion dollars.

Obama playing golf and living in five star resorts all over the world is just like Bush going to some second rate ranch in wilds of Texas on the weekends.

Just admit it Shreek, you voted for a fellow retard who has no interest in being President. Valerie Jerrett and David Axelrod are running the executive branch because Obama is too stupid and all Michelle wants to do is party.

[tarran]

Why - for the love of God! - do you argue with the Internet equivalent of the insane homeless guy who reeks of urine?

[John]

Mostly that is true tarran. But Shreek comes on here to shit on the thread and post outright lies about things like the Corzine case. such lies should not be ignored and left alone on the thread so someone might actually think they were true.

[R C Dean]

No, he just cleared brush in Crawford for a solid month to get in the photo ops.

It took him an entire month to get a couple of pictures taken?

[The Late P Brooks]

No reward for Dorner tip

What are the chances that loot ends up in some sort of "Police Benevolent Society" widows and orphans fund?

[Drake]

Otherwise known as the booze account.

[John]

The White House admitted today that President Obama made no phone calls?none, zero?on the evening of September 11, 2012, during the seven or eight hours when Americans were being murdered in Benghazi. He didn't talk to Leon Panetta, or any military personnel, or Hillary Clinton. What was he doing that night? We may never know; perhaps writing the speech that he gave at a campaign event the next day in Las Vegas.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/a.....nghazi.php

He just let them die and didn't give a fuck. What a fucking scumbag.

[Rich]

Calm down, John. I'm sure our high-tech fearless leader was using Skype or something, not an actual "phone".

[John]

He sent them a twitter message.

[LTC(ret) John]

"R they ded yet? Got $ to raise 2morrow"

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, he sent a message all right.

[Auric Demonocles]

Well that's just ridiculous. Like Obama wrote his own speech.

[MJGreen]

He is a better writer than his speech writers.

[R C Dean]

I don't think its fair to say he didn't do anything.

He flew to Vegas for a fundraiser. That's not nothing.

http://cnsnews.com/news/articl.....n-he-could

[Don Mynack]

He was doing something - watching jihadist scumbags slowly walk mortar fire up to the "safe house" until they scored a direct hit.

[Drake]

So Panetta relieved a couple of General officers and denied all aid without any direction at all? I find that fucking unbelievable.

Rush actually stumbled onto a truth about Obama: "it will not be possible to connect Obama to the negativity that's happening in the country today because he's campaigning against it himself. That's the reason for the perpetual, never-ending campaign. It is why, in eight years, he will never allow himself for even one day to be seen as actually governing or presiding over any of this."
http://neoneocon.com/2013/02/1.....out-obama/

[Enough About Palin]

Morning Joe should change its name to Morning Fascist. Today, he was calling for the government to file criminal charges against one of the "too big to fail" banks. He says that someone needs to do a perp-walk in order to cower the other banks into sucking the state's cock.

[Palin's Buttplug]

That the TBTF banks are criminal has crept into populist thought despite a complete lack of evidence of such.

Even 'John' here is saying it and he is Team Red like Moaning Joe.

[John]

Wall Street owns the President and all of his assorted sock puppets. They stole a trillion dollars and will never be prosecuted. That is your party Shreek, war, assassination, warrantless wiretapping, and wall street crooks.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Are you Joe Scarboruogh?

[VG Zaytsev]

That the TBTF banks are criminal has crept into populist thought despite a complete lack of evidence of such.

Well, except for the ones that have admitted submitting fraudulent documents in court. Fraud, perjury and conspiracy (by management) to commit those crimes.

[Zeb]

How do you make a bank do a perp walk?

[Ted S.]

He says that someone needs to do a perp-walk

Jon Corzine?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Corzine was cleared by the investigator after the "missing" money was located at Morgan and other counterparties.

[John]

Corzine admitting to moving client funds without permission, which is a federal crime. Just because he is paying back most of the money does not mean he is less of a crook. Stop peddling that bullshit.

You are a Democrat shreek, just admit that you are the party of theft and endless war and move on.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Corzine is not "paying back" a dime, you moron. The money never left MFG or its partner firms.

And rehypothecation is no crime.

This is too complicated for an idiot like yourself.

[John]

IT doesn't matter that the money never left MFG. It went from clients accounts to firm accounts. You can't do that. It is like saying I can take money from your account and put it in another one and that is okay as long as it is in the same bank.

Jesus fucking Christ. Go post this retarded shit on liberal websites where people are dumb enough to believe it.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yes, you can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.....othecation

Now STFU.

[John]

Re-hypothecation occurs when banks or broker-dealers re-use the collateral posted by clients such as hedge funds to back the broker's own trades and borrowing.

That is not what they did. They took the money dipshit. They didn't just use it as collateral. They transferred it.

Go pass out in your own urine.

[Drake]

Shhh! Those regulations don't apply to well-meaning Democrats.

But the bankers who were dragged into Congressional hearing and flogged for not lending to the poor and minorities... They should be perp-walked for underwriting risky loans - to poor people and minorities.

[R C Dean]

Corzine was cleared by the investigator after the "missing" money was located at Morgan and other counterparties.

Yeah. Overseas, backing company bets, in violation of the agreements with the account-holders, and without notifying the account-holders.

And while it may have been located, it hasn't all been returned,as far as I know. If everyone's been made whole, then I would appreciate a link.

And by "made whole", I include all their incidental damages from being deprived of their money while this was being sorted out.

[R C Dean]

he was calling for the government to file criminal charges against one of the "too big to fail" banks.

Well, its not like they haven't committed any crimes. Seriously. They have been implicated in any number of massive frauds, including the LIBOR fraud, insider trading on Geithner tips, perjury on robosigning foreclosures, etc.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Yeah, I'm having a lot of trouble maintaining sympathy for the TBTFs. They committed fraud on the MBSs, leveraged Paulson into crafting TARP, crashed the stock market when Congress initially told them to go fuck themselves, and have used their connections with the bureaucracy since to keep themselves from getting prosecuted.

Just because the leftists on Morning Joke are fucking communists doesn't mean they're wrong in this instance. But limiting the prosecutions to one bank is bullshit--who gets prosecuted, the bank whose lobbyists come up with the smallest bribes? If they all fucked up, they all need to feel the pinch, even if it does crash Barry's precious 14K Dow.

[John]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....4-19-38-44

Obama to spend long holiday weekend in Florida without Michelle. So, who is he screwing? You know the media will never tell us. And is that who male or female?

[Lord Humungus]

himself?

[John]

No, that is what he does to the rest of the country.

[Tim]

He'd better not fuck up my vacation.

[The Late P Brooks]

President Obama made no phone calls?none

But they went through six telegraph operators!

[Tim]

Asteroid "game". Have fun. !00% science, no porn

http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/

[Rich]

The Earth is completely disrupted by the impact and its debris forms a new asteroid belt orbiting the sun between Venus and Mars.

I won!!

[Tim]

What, you hit it with the Moon or something?

[Auric Demonocles]

Worse: Epi's mom.

[Ted S.]

Couldn't they have gone with the original?

[The Late P Brooks]

I saw that part of Morning Joke. Mika was gushing about how wonderful Elizabeth Warren is. There was some sane guy there (who knows how he got in) who said, "I'm not really sure criminal prosecutions are going to help" and Rendell(? wasn't he a prosecutor?) was all over the perp walk stuff. "WE HAVE TO MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF THEM! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"

No mention, in all the "too big" huffing and puffing, about the FDICs role in making the biggest banks bigger by consistently rolling failed banks into the Biggest Three.

I would shed no tears if a howling mob of Citi shareholders went to Vikram Pandit's house and burned it down with his tarred and feathered corpse inside, but I don''t think criminal charges for being incompetent are the direction we really want to go.

[John]

If they hadn't gone to Congress and stolen a trillion dollars when they lost their asses, I might have some sympathy. As it is, I really don't care.

But it will never happen. They gave Obama too much money. Not a single one of them will ever be prosecuted for anything.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The sane guy was Richard Haas.

Warren is now a heroine on the lefty blogs for that bit of grandstanding.

[Virginian]

Kulaks, wreckers, and hoarders must be punished.

[Auric Demonocles]

Today's xkcd reminds me of the previous Reason mobile site (which has admittedly gotten somewhat less shitty).

[Brett L]

Its a direct shot at slashdot. And well deserved.

[robc]

Its still that shitty.

[Auric Demonocles]

I would disagree. In my opinion, it's still shitty, but not quite as shitty as it was. It's like 90% as shitty.

[robc]

Well, until it shows comments or takes me to a page that I can zoom, its exactly as shitty as it always was.

[Auric Demonocles]

I just checked, and never mind, the mobile site still sucks horribly. I just managed to get it to use the desktop site from my mobile instead. That's what is about 90% as shitty as the mobile site was.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I don't know about slashdot, but I get that bullshit a LOT on mobile, and it really pisses me off. Daily Fail, for example.

[Sevo]

"Obama Wrapping Up Post-State of the Union Campaign Tour,"

This'll be followed by the pre St. Patty's Day campaign tour? And then the post St. Patty's day campaign tour? And then....

[John]

WTF is his campaigning for? He really is the most incompetent person ever put into the office. I think Bush must have voted from him on the theory that Obama was the one guy who would make his administration look good.

[Sevo]

John| 2.15.13 @ 9:59AM |#
"WTF is his campaigning for?"
I asked the same question a week or so back, and (can't remember who) said: "It's all he's good at."
Pretty sure that's the answer, sadly enough.

[tarran]

The legal framework at the founding of the country was intended to provide a bulwark against many forms of government oppression. That bulwark is cracked, holed, tattered and weakened, but not completely eradicated.

The progressives react to their failure to create a kingdom of heaven on earth by seeking more power to violently intervene in the affairs of their fellow men, and the tattered, pathetic remains stand in their way.

The campaigning is intended to create a powerful mass movement to sweep away the last remnants of the old republic so that the progressives will finally have the power needed to succeed rather than to fail abjectly.

Also, Obama lacks the competence and interest in doing anything else. Narcissists want adulation, so their day is spent in pursuit of it.

[sloopyinca]

If only Colorado were as progressive as California, Illinois and a couple of other states, this poor union employee would have been free to plot his murder in peace.

[Drax the Destroyer]

If only Colorado were as progressive as California, Illinois...

It certainly isn't from a lack of trying.

[sarcasmic]

Fuck the Boulder PD.

[sloopyinca]

Funny how they'll release every possible damning accusation against a civilian, but when a cop is accused of sexually molesting a child, they want "to be fair" and not release anything.

Wanna bet it's because he sexually molested his victim while on the job and in uniform?

[The Late P Brooks]

It's funny, but much of what the idiots on Morning Joke were saying about teh evul banksters can be directly applied to Congress and the Executive, but something tells me they would not be quite so eager to see a sobbing, handcuffed Chris Dodd being led through a throng of reporters on the Capitol steps.

[John]

Or Jon Corzine. They just want to go after "the other". Again though, what did the bankers expect? Did they really think they wouldn't get the blame?

[Enough About Palin]

REPORT: Jesse Jackson Jr. plea deal to implicate wife.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/20.....as-friday/

[John]

You know I will stand up for Jesse. All he did was spend campaign funds for personal purposes. And yes that is a crime. But I have a hard time thinking he should be going to jail for that when people like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank walk free and Michelle Obama lives like Marie Antoinette on the federal tit.

[NeonCat]

Cop saves cute dog.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/si.....33437.html

[Brett L]

I don't know what pisses me off more. Calling this a busy highway. Or naming your fucking rat dog "Cujo".

[The Late P Brooks]

He'd better not fuck up my vacation.

Bad news, Shirley.

[sloopyinca]

If you kill a police dog while hiding in a basement with no way out, expect to get shot and killed for your trouble.

[Zeb]

Don't bring a knife to a gunfight?

[sarcasmic]

Police dogs are officers of the law. Kill one and expect to be treated like a cop killer. Personal pets are considered a nuisance. Cops kill one and expect a "fuck you." But there's no double standard. Only bigots think there's a double standard.

[AuH2O]

Thank you, last night's episode of Community, for giving me the idea of the most awesome combo holiday ever.

A Valentine's/Halloween mashup.

[sloopyinca]

Police: "What do you mean we're not allowed to interrogate a 10 year old without a warrant, a parent's consent and without reading him his rights. Fuck you, we'll do what we want."

[Night Elf Mohawk]

My daughters have already been shown that really good "Don't Talk to Cops" video. I added "or your principal" back when they were still attending a private school.

[Sevo]

Whoa! Whole new opportunities!
"Ships like Carnival Triumph barely regulated"
"If they had been airplanes, U.S. officials might have grounded an entire fleet."
Yeah, because when a cruise ship loses power, it falls out of the ocean and lands on people!
http://www.sfgate.com/travel/a.....280660.php

[John]

Does it ever occur to people that the reason those cruises are so cheap is because maybe they don't do all the maintenance they should?

And beyond that, it is a boat and shit happens at sea. There is some risk involved.

[Zeb]

It's a whole lot better than a plane crash. Or that idiot captain who sunk the ship last year.

[R C Dean]

Major design flaws, too. How do you lose every bit of power on a ship that size? Are there no firewalls? Is there no redundancy? WTF, dudes?

I'm no sailor, so this probably falls under an Iron Law*, but I'm surprised they didn't get another boat with a generator out there to provide at least some power.

*The less you know about something, the easier it looks.

[John]

That shit costs money and no one sees it. It doesn't produce any revenue. I am sure they know a whole lot about ship building. They just made the conscious decision to assume the risk.

[R C Dean]

I'm sure that's right. For once, I will be rooting for the 8-figure class action.

[tarran]

Generally all the electrical equipment are stored in a couple of dedicated spaces on the ship.

If the fire burned in one of their switchear rooms, it could have made it impossible to power up the electrical circuits to the passenger spaces since the damaged breakers (or as we called them 'deranged breakers') couldn't be trusted to isolate those circuits properly.

I've never understood cruising: none of the fun of going to sea, with all the problems.

[John]

Exactly. I always thought it would be fun to take a smaller boat, like a sail boat to see. But what is the point of being on an apartment building where you can't even feel the ocean? Why not just avoid the risk of going to sea and got a resort where you get a beach to go with your drinking and gambling?

[Sevo]

BTW, the views from one of those things is, uh, well, BORING!
Wake up in the morning, look out and see water. After lunch? Water. Evening: Look! Another ship! And water.

[mad libertarian guy]

Clearly you've never been on anything other than some sort of Caribbean Cruise. Every cruise I've ever been on has been within view of land for the vast majority of it.

The Norwegian Fjords were particularly impressive. In Alaska nearly every time I stepped out on to my balcony I saw whales. Being next to a massive glacier on board a massive ship and still being dwarfed is also inspiring.

[Sevo]

mlg,
We were on the starboard side of an Alaskan cruise, so the north-bound leg had some visual interest (land).
Southbound, Hey! Look! Water!

[mad libertarian guy]

I was on the starboard side of a southbound Alaskan cruise, and found it to be very enjoyable. As I said, the majority of times we stepped outside on our balcony, we saw whales. And then of course through the passage it doesn't matter which side of the boat you're on.

You should try a Norwegian Fjord cruise. Truly impressive no matter which side of the boat you're on.

[NoVAHockey]

we did a disney cruise with the grandparents around Thanksgiving. they really wanted to take my son to disney. it was a good way to have the disney experience when your group's age ranged from 3 - 74.

the idea of chasing a 3 year old with grandma lagging further and further behind through the parks just seemed awful.

so the cruise worked for us. they could rest in their rooms and/or lounge as needed and still be a part of the trip.

only downside, no gambling on board. but plenty of adult-only bars for when the little guy was down for the night.

i actually enjoyed it.

and the logistic of it were great. checked in our bags and DCA and didn't tough them again until we were in our stateroom.

[mad libertarian guy]

Because the beach sucks? Or because you don't want to go to the beach in many cruising destinations (Alaska, Norway, The Baltic, etc).

And you can feel the ocean. In fact, I have a hard time sleeping after a cruise because I don't have the gentle rolling of the sea to help lull me to sleep.

[robc]

Was having this discussion with friends wrt future vacation planning.

Apparently, there is some advantage I dont see to hitting multiple islands vs being "stuck" on one island for a week.

Im actually not big on resorts either. I prefer beach house rentals.

[mad libertarian guy]

Cruises have their advantages, but also their drawbacks. I like them a lot. 1st class service, meals whenever you want them without any effort, the ability to see lots of places in one trip, excellent child care services for the rug rats, etc.

But if you want to experience one place for longer, a cruise sucks. Most ships are docked in port for 8 hours or so which doesn't leave much time to really see and experience any given place.

I would absolutely recommend a cruise, but I will admit they're not for everyone.

[Don Mynack]

I wouldn't mind taking a boat...to an island that I would stay on. No floating hotel/casino/buffet for me - I gotta wander around, and would go nuts trapped on that thing.

[Tonio]

And we're talking a lot of juice, RC. I'm not sure there are any generator boats just sitting around waiting for that distress call.

[Pro Libertate]

They should have nukes.

[Sevo]

The ship I was on was totally (diesel)-electric. Heating tables in the cafeteria, room heat, propulsion, everything.
I can't imagine the size of wire required to power the entire thing and if the switch cabinet is gone, how would you separate the circuits?

[R C Dean]

Like I said, the Iron Law applies.

The fact that these things apparently aren't designed to allow a very minimum level of power for bare essentials, and aren't better designed with redundancy/firewalls, is the real problem.

[sloopyinca]

After a cop gets shot in a downtown Memphis hotel, their brothers tell two people to keep their mouths shut on the sidewalk outside. When they don't do as they're told, seven police officers beat the shit out of them. After 20 months, those seven officers are given suspensions, all for excessive force. Not a single one of them were criminally charged.

[robc]

I dont understand why excessive forces findings by the internal review doesnt result in an automatic criminal charge from the DA?

I mean, I understand why, but I dont understand why.

[Tonio]

Because, F...

[The Late P Brooks]

Also, in typical "nuthin up muh sleeve" fashion, Scarborough made some nonsensical "analogy" about how if some kid stole a loaf of bread from the 7-11 (maybe Joe saw Les Mis recently), then blah blah blah off to the slammer, so WHY NOT THEM BANKERS?

Of course, if Joe weren't such a good little jackbooted leftwing authoritarian he could have talked about a twenty year old buying beer in a voluntary and mutually beneficial transaction and then being harassed and arrested for a completely preposterous and absurd "crime".

But that would necessitate having something approximating integrity. Or a soul.

[JEP]

Completely off topic...

My mechanic is Polish and I want to get him some nice Polish vodka in return for some work he's done on my car.

Anyone have any suggestions for top shelf vodka? He just saved me about $2500, so I'm not too concerned about cost.

[sarcasmic]

You may not be doing him a favor. I've had Polish potato vodka before and that was one of the worst hangovers I've ever had. Then again it wasn't top shelf. Wasn't cheap, but wasn't top shelf.

[JEP]

When he had the flu a few months ago, he filled a nalgene with vodka, sat in bed, drank vodka for a full day and got up the next morning and felt fine.

But yeah, I'm wondering about potato vs. rye vodkas.

[SugarFree]

Chopin would be a nice potato-based choice.

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

[mr simple]

Second the Chopin. It's great on the rocks.

[sarcasmic]

Ask Groovus. He should know.

[Zeb]

If you distill it enough, isn't it all the same?

[sarcasmic]

If you distill it enough, isn't it all the same?

Nope. See my comment below.

[Tonio]

But are you of Polish descent, Sarc? Or more seriously were you accustomed to drinking tater squeezins before that hangover. I'm not a vodka drinker so I know to be careful with it.

[sarcasmic]

Not all distilled spirits are created equal.
There is what's called the head and the tail in the distillation process. The head, the stuff with the lowest evaporation temperature and thus the first to drip out, is mostly methyl alcohol, the stuff that makes you go blind. The tail is fusel oils, which make hangovers especially nasty. The stuff in the middle is ethyl alcohol which is what you want.
A good vodka distiller will discard the head and the tail, and repeat if necessary. That's what double or triple distilled means.
Some liquors, like rum for instance, intentionally keep some of what others discard because it gives it flavor.
Anyway, that's distillation 101 by sarc.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Is there a way to measure the methyl content?

What is a safe methyl content?

[sarcasmic]

Is there a way to measure the methyl content?

Look at the price. The cheaper it is, the more methyl is in it.

What is a safe methyl content?

I dunno. Try google.

[jesse.in.mb]

Monopolowa is my house vodka. It's made in Austria now, but is a Polish brand. It's not particularly fancy at 10$/L at Trader Joe's, but it's extremely smooth.

[sloopyinca]

And the winner of biggest racist asshole of the day goes to........

Joe Rickey Hundley, of Hayden, Idaho.

You see, ol' Joe Rickey doesn't like "nigger babies" crying on the airplane he's aboard, so he thinks it's ok to slap them. The FBI, on the other hand, doesn't think it is.

[sarcasmic]

I'm guessing he's not a cop.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I'm not sure how much of a conversation some guy 12 rows away with his back turned could hear. Or that he'd go "investigate" during descent.

There does appear to be a history of him getting slappy when he drinks.

I don't know that I'd go all-in on the story quite yet, though.

[sloopyinca]

You're right. I'll change it to "nominee for biggest racist asshole of the day".

I took it as that passenger was one of many that responded but was the one they got their money quote from.

Also FTA: According to Virginia state court records, Hundley was arrested in 2007 following a fight with his girlfriend. Initially charged with simple assault, carrying a concealed weapon, and public intoxication, Hundley subsequently pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor assault rap. Hundley told TSG that the weapon he allegedly brandished was a wine corkscrew. (4 pages)

This guy may just be a bad drunk that is unable to control himself.

[Tonio]

I think this guy has the potential to go up at least to asshole of the month. Maybe higher. Also, very competitive in the general racism category.