Mo' Meteors, Mo' Problems, the Difference Between a Hurricane and a Cruise, Pelosi Against Congressional Pay Cuts: P.M. Links

• 

  Photo Illustration by Wiz

  More than 1,000 in Russia reported injuries of some sort as a result the meteor plunging into the Ural Mountains this morning. The incident was unrelated to the afternoon Earth flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14, which joins the Mayan calendar in failing to doom us all. Lawmakers want hearings on it anyway.

• CNN Reporter Martin Savidge, while interviewing passengers of the disabled Carnival cruise ship that finally got towed to shore, attempted to make an absurd comparison to Hurricane Katrina. It did not go well.
• New York City's teachers' pension fund has divested from gun manufacturers, so remember that if they miss their return goals any time in the near future.
• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is against a cut in Congressional pay because it would lessen the "respect" for the work Congress does. Apparently the Beltway has cut off circulation to her brain.
• A statement released by the family of South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius "disputes in strongest terms" the charges that he murdered his girlfriend Thursday.
• Unemployment problems in France are leading to suicides, some of which are quite public and fiery.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Unemployment problems in France are leading to suicides, some of which are quite public and fiery.

They ran out of Citroens to burn.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

You know what other government had a dude self immolate in protest?

[Almanian!]

Tibet?

[Gladstone]

South Vietnam? Tunisia? Algeria? Greece?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

We also would have accepted Vermont or Alaska.

[Dylboz]

New Hampshire.

[Ted S.]

Czechoslovakia

[jesse.in.mb]

Didn't a few suicides completely change the way Spain handled it's home foreclosures?

[rts]

As long as they don't use guns, it's all good for progressives.

[JW]

They ran out of Citroens to burn.

They still have Renaults left.

[Virginian]

All those French cars burning, we could be looking at dozens, possibly hundreds of dollars worth of damage.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Correction: Stimulus.

[db]

THIS JUST IN:

Comet strikes Hollywood!

Denizens of Hollywood today are reeling after a comet struck in their midst, shattering windows for miles. The comet, which witnesses describedt as bright yellow, fortunately melted substantially before it could strike the ground, which scientists say would have caused untold destruction.
Environmentalists are concerned about potential impact to the ecosystems in the surrounding area, citing the strong odor of the gold-colored rain that has been falling on Hollywood since around noon today. "It's really hard to describe--like Windex, but yellow, but maybe there's a little scent of asparagus, too," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of the odorous drizzle. "My advisors state that residents should stay indoors until the rain stops, and I have issued emergency regulations to ensure public safety," during a press conference where he announced a state of emergency and mandatory curfews.

Public reaction has been mixed, especially among Hollywood's many celebrities. Since LAX has been shut down due to the heavy showers, few have managed to escape, and the curfew orders are keeping most stars indoors. In a noted exception, singer Ke$ha has been spotted by paparazzi driving a light pickup truck around the streets. Witneses described seeing what look like hundreds of empty water bottles in the back of the truck, all with lids off, and facing upward.

[dunkel]

CUNTPUPPET

[Fist of Etiquette]

...because it would lessen the "respect" for the work Congress does.

Is there any way she could exist in more of a bubble?

[Bam!]

Yes: By blowing a giant soap bubble with her inside it.

[generic Brand]

Just imagine if the members of Congress were actually inhabitants of plastic bubbles (as opposed to their metaphoric ones), not unlike John Travolta or Jake Gyllenhall.

[NeonCat]

If they were airtight they could all join team blue?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

The prosecution doesn't have a leg to stand on.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Pistorius feels like he's living in a dystopian Blade Runner nightmare.

[Agammamon]

His girlfriend failed the V-K test?

[alex griggs]

Not surprised he was armed.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

He was afraid of her kickboxing skills that he couldn't match.

[gaijin]

yes, but was his girlfriend human?

[sloopyinca]

I heard that the testimony from the paramedics is expected to cripple the defense's motion for a lesser charge.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I don't think he'll side-step murder that easily.

[sloopyinca]

Yeah, no way he walks on these charges.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

But if he gets bail the bondsman might need a skip tracer.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The incident was unrelated to the afternoon Earth flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14...

IS ANYONE BUYING THIS?

[db]

Huh? The trajectories were like 180 degrees different reportedly.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

REPORTEDLY.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Give it up. They got to him already.

[db]

Don't give us that crazy conspiracy crap. It's quite clear this meteor was attracted to Earth using the HAARP cosmic magnet field generator as part of a weapons tes. This had nothing to do with 2012 DA14

[Fist of Etiquette]

I hope that fat space check you got from the Trilateral Space Commission is worth it.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

(THIS IS WHAT db ACTUALLY BELIEVES.)

[db]

Don't pretend you diddn't see the massive chemtrail that thing deposited. Obviously the work of GRU/NOAA/SAS/CIA.

[Xenocles]

Needs more [EMPIRE].

[Auric Demonocles]

Listen, the Russia thing is my fault. I was testing the delivery system for space beer... It needs a little work.

[db]

Look, you're out there in the Solar System's most highly inclined orbital planes, doing God's work.

[BlueBook]

You have been a participant in the biggest interdimensional cross-rip since the Tunguska blast of 1909!

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Who you gonna call?

[R C Dean]

I posted this on today's Dorner thread, but thought it deserved some better real estate:

Just saw this quote from Jack Vance's The Star King (allegedly; it sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't specifically recall it):

The police mentality cannot regard a human being in terms other than as an item or object to be processed as expeditiously as possible. Public convenience or dignity means nothing; police prerogatives assume the status of divine law. Submissiveness is demanded. If a police officer kills a civilian, it is a regrettable circumstance: the officer was possibly overzealous. If a civilian kills a police officer all hell breaks loose. The police foam at the mouth. All other business comes to a standstill until the perpetrator of this most dastardly act is found out. Inevitably, when apprehended, he is beaten or otherwise tortured for his intolerable presumption. The police complain that they cannot function efficiently, that criminals escape them. Better a hundred unchecked criminals than the despotism of one unbridled police force.

I'd say Jack (one of my favorite authors of all time) pretty much nailed it, no?

[Killazontherun]

Nailed and sealed it. His The Moon Moth is pretty much a libertarian anarchist deconstruction of the collectivist presumptions underlying High Noon.

[C. Anacreon]

Speaking of collectivism, on the radio today they played a tape of Lincoln writer Tony Kushner praising Obama, apparently because he truly cares for all of our best interests. He said it is much better than the Reagan-mindset, which is "unsustainable psychotic individualism".

Now, I guess, if you stand up for yourself rather than joining the Borg, you are psychotic.

[Pro Libertate]

See, we're all really individuals. What's psychotic is the view that we're actually a collective hive.

[BakedPenguin]

I liked Rand's phrasing about how small someone would have to be to 'look up to an anthill' as a vision for human society.

[Pro Libertate]

The only perspective we can really know is our own and only our own. Any identification with a group, especially a large one, is a fiction and can never be more than that. Subverting your real individuality for a convenient fiction is just bizarre.

[JW]

Looks like I was totally right for skipping Lincoln.

I hated to sound like a KULTUR warrior, condemning a movie that I hadn't seen, but I got a strong vibe of fawning hagiography and "surrender your body to the state" theme coming off of it, mostly because of its association with the usual proglodyte suspects.

I could be wrong and that this little servile shithead wrote a fine screenplay, but my money isn't on that.

Still, fuck these fuckers.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

You didn't miss much. It was basically self-referential, self-indulgent SWPL pandering using a small section of an overrated historian's work as its basis.

The dialogue was so boring I actually nodded off twice. What's especially tragic is that Lincoln was an enormously complex figure and his entire presidency is worthy of the Hollywood treatment; but you can't approach more than a superficial examination of him as a person or President in a 2.5 hour movie. He really needs a "Boardwalk Empire" or "Spartacus" type of series dedicated to him that can cover all the events in somewhat greater detail.

[Invisible Finger]

If Spielberg wasn't the dealbreaker, basing it on the "work" of Doris Goodwin is the nail in the coffin. What a reprehensible piece of shit she is.

[Mickey Rat]

There was a large helping of the "ends justifies the means" i9n discussing some of Lincoln's actions that were constitutionally questionable.

[Killazontherun]

I would never accuse Kushner of having anything intelligent to say, or to having written anything worth a damn. His idea of subtlety is to create a supposed duality between Roy Cohn as an anti-communist and a closeted homosexual with Ethel Rosenberg as his eternal judge. If Lincoln is even watchable, it is due to Lewis' acting and Spielberg's direction.

[JW]

I just read a New Yawker softball article on Kushner. It was fairly illuminating.

It seems that his only ability to write any kind of prose is through the narrow slit of an anguished Manhattan liberal, exorcised over the big, fat meany: Ronny Rayguns.

Tell me again why anyone, outside of the Right People whose epistemology stopped growing in 1986, should give any fucks about this hack?

[C. Anacreon]

Found Kushner's actual quotes from an interview yesterday with Charlie Rose:

"Obama faced in '08 a situation, you know, as bad as any president since the Great Depression. What Obama inherited from the Bush administration is, you know, we all remember, is just an absolute global catastrophe on every level, and I think he's done an astonishing job beginning to turn that around. And like Lincoln, there's an enormous amount of criticism of our president that comes from an impatience with, "You said that you were, you know, going to do this. You said you were gonna do that. Why hasn't it happened?" And the fact of the matter is that when you're elected president of the United States, rather than king of the United States, you have to work with a very cumbrous, unwieldy machinery.

What I think he's done that Lincoln did was to constantly articulate for the people while making sausages, while making these compromises. The place that we're ultimately headed for, he's been very careful to say that he rejects the idea that government is evil. There's a rejection of the sort of basic idea of human community behind the Reagan, behind Reagan era ideology that is really frightening and that leads us to terrible, terrible places. We have no hope for survival as a species if we continue down the path of this kind of psychotic individualism."

[JW]

What a small man. A pallid, little turd with no real vision, but I repeat myself.

If I cared enough, I'd torrent everything he's done and give it to as many people as possible. You know, for the good of the collective.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

What Kushner fails to understand is the reason Reagan's glibness about the dysfunction of government touched such a chord with people at the time was because, for all intents and purposes, government HAD failed Americans in the 1970s. It wasn't just Watergate--it was the nation's urban metropoles devolving into cultural dystopias so malign that even liberal Hollywood couldn't help reflecting the angst; inflation and oil shocks hitting the economy like a ten-ton freight train for most of the decade; a once-robust manufacturing sector packing up and leaving for greener foreign pastures; criminals from top to bottom taking advantage of loopholes in the law to get exonerated while people who tried to follow the rules got squeezed. It wasn't the fact that people were, say, getting welfare that made Reagan popular--it was the fact that liberal politicians were lying about how much welfare was being given out and how many people were on the take for it.

What happened during the Reagan era wasn't a new devotion to "individualism," no matter how much the clever sillies of society want to paint it that way. What happened was that people got fed up with the proponents of social collectivism pretending that nothing was wrong with the country that another government agency or program couldn't fix. It was the complete denial that the limits of scale had been reached.

[Marshall Gill]

There's a rejection of the sort of basic idea of human community behind the Reagan, behind Reagan era ideology that is really frightening and that leads us to terrible, terrible places. We have no hope for survival as a species if we continue down the path of this kind of psychotic individualism."

I am a big fan of Reagan. While he was far from perfect, his actions toward the Soviet Union resulted in a giant leap for Human Liberty.

That being said, in which fucking universe was Reagan some kind of ultra-individualist?! Peak retard evades us yet again.

[JW]

That being said, in which fucking universe was Reagan some kind of ultra-individualist?! Peak retard evades us yet again.

Yep. Anyone still suffering from chronic Reagan Derangement Syndrome, today, is the surest sign that they aren't to be taken seriously. Yet, the NE proggy cabal will eagerly lap whatever he's selling.

Rugged individualism was great for selling the product, but it still needed a collective willing to sacrifice itself for it to work.

[Gladstone]

That being said, in which fucking universe was Reagan some kind of ultra-individualist?! Peak retard evades us yet again.

The same universe where a 10% spending increase is "austerity" and Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney and John Boehner are radical anti-government fanatics?

[Invisible Finger]

"he's been very careful to say that he rejects the idea that government is evil. "

You can't actually BE a historian and believe nonsense like this. Simply because ALL the facts say otherwise.

[Gladstone]

If Kushner was so devoted to the collective then shouldn't he and the all the other gays have stayed in the closet?

[Auric Demonocles]

Unemployment problems in France are leading to suicides, some of which are quite public and fiery.

Thank god they didn't have access to a gun.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Lawmakers want hearings on it anyway.

They want to know if NASA has ready a Bruce Willis quality response to a strike or a Tea Leoni quality response.

[Tman]

I used to write about NEO's a lot on my blog years ago, here's a review from the last time Congress had Ed Lu and others testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space dealing with defense against asteroid impacts.

http://tmancensored.blogspot.c.....ed-lu.html

[Pro Libertate]

It really puts things in perspective when an air burst alone does that much damage. It's absurd that we're not taking steps to appease the space gods. I mean, defend ourselves from space debris.

[Tman]

What I've found interesting is that Ed Lu and others have changed their attitude considerably in terms of how they are approaching this issue. They used to be more concerned with tracking known asteroids and experimenting with gravity tractors and impactors on larger bodies. But we've now seen the effects of impactors (NASA Deep Impact misssion) and we know we can move these things if we have enough time.

The folks at the B612 Foundation have now moved straight to detection being the primary goal, and the Sentinel Mission they are currently building will be sufficient to fully scan our solar system for any potential problems. They also appear to have decided to ignore Congress at this point since no one appears to have listened to them at all over the last decade. The Sentinel mission is privately funded.

[R C Dean]

The Sentinel mission is privately funded.

I'm guessing their ROI comes when they spot on headed for Erf.

"Say, we've seen an asteroid that will likely impact our planet. We'll tell you about it, after you cover our costs, plus a reasonable fee. We've checked, and its not going to land near our homes, so its totally up to you. Call us."

[Tman]

So far they are going to use the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch, and Ball Aerospace to build the Sentinel itself.

However, they apparently reached a "Non-reimbursable Space Pact" with NASA to provide communications, tracking, and technical support.

http://b612foundation.org/wp-c.....dacted.pdf

I like your scenario better though. The thought of having Pelosi and Co. beg B612 to give them the impact data pleases me.

[JW]

I just finished reading John Ringo's Live Free or Die, so I'm hoping they end up with the keys to guarding the planet, for a nominal fee.

This actually could be the start of private aerospace really giving the finger to Congress and NASA and just doing whatever they want to do anyway. All you need is a stinking rich sugar daddy, with enough motivation and to not give a fuck.

[MJGreen]

It's a tool that can save many lives or even all of humanity. I'd think a lot of people out there aren't too concerned about ROI, any more than when they donate to charities or relief efforts.

[Pro Libertate]

If we leave it to Congress, we'll be extinguished before they deal with it.

[$park?]

What's up with kids these days?

Court documents released this week gave details about the boys' alleged plans on the day they were caught with a knife and gun in school. Colville police officers called to the school began questioning the boys, who admitted the plot and gave details about how they were going to kill a girl in their class and possibly harm a half dozen other students, court documents said.

Authorities discovered the plan when a fourth-grader saw one of the boys playing with a knife aboard a school bus and told a school employee what he'd seen. A search of the 10-year-old's backpack found a knife, a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a full ammunition clip, court records showed.

[Rich]

The state's criminal justice system presumes that children below the age of 12 do not have the capacity to understand they are planning to commit crimes.

"When asked what he meant by `get' her, (the 10-year-old) responded that he and (the 11-year-old) were going to get (the girl) away from the school and do her in," court records said. The 10-year-old "further stated that the (11-year-old) was going to stab (the girl) with a knife and (the 10-year-old) was supposed to keep everyone away."

Looks like the state presumes wrong.

[jesse.in.mb]

Nothing like herding a room full of 4-6 year olds to teach you that children know they are doing something wrong, and delight in being evil.

[generic Brand]

A search of the 10-year-old's backpack found a knife, a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a full ammunition clip, court records showed.

IT'S A MAGAZINE!!!!!11!11!1111

[R C Dean]

Yeah, a clip wasn't going to do him much good with a pistol, was it.

Stupid kid.

[Almanian!]

I understand that - in an act of solidarity - "Great Clips" is renaming itself.....

[R C Dean]

Great Mags?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Great Bangs.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.co.....ce-colony/

WELCOME TO LIBRA!!!!

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Congress--
What does it mean?
Not R-E-S-P-E-C-T
No, not to you, and not to me.
Slavers.

[generic Brand]

So Ke$ha's urine is offensive but this free form poetry is okay by you?

I will never understand you Nicole of Chitown Gables.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

It's not free-form; I've been posting American cinquains all day.

[generic Brand]

I have seen those, but didn't recognize them as an established form of poetry. Yet another reason why I think poetry should have an identifiable rhyme scheme.

Carry on, m'lady.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I like poems that rhyme, too. This did all start yesterday with a Spenserian sonnet and a bunch of limericks, after all.

[NeonCat]

Hey, ho,
B! H! O!
How many kids
You gonna drone?

[sloopyinca]

Want a big WTF (with video!) to start your weekend on? Well get a load of this bullshit.

[Virginian]

You know, I hate the race card, but when it fits it fits. You want to find drugs in New Orleans at Mardi Gras? I'd imagine all the loud drunk white people have them. Go slam them up against a wall.

[sloopyinca]

That was nothing but a racist beatdown. The only thing that saved those two was the cop mom that showed up. Otherwise, they'd be sitting in the dock awaiting trial on a bunch of trumped up shit with a moron for a public defender.

I swear, I will never for the life of me understand why urban blacks and hispanics flock to Team Statism when they collectively treat them worse than Ike treated Tina.

[Libertymike]

Let's face it, for most blacks, group identity trumps individual liberty, individual dignity and the free market.

[DesigNate]

Yeah, cause that's not totally applicable to white people too.

[sloopyinca]

In retrospect, I should have worded my comment more clearly. I can understand white suburbanites being more likely to be for Team State, as they are not routinely abused by it. But urban blacks and hispanics are much more likely to become victims of the state's criminal-industrial complex, be victims of constitutional violations or be victims of absurd regulations that diminish their ability to seek justice or defend themselves when agents of the state abuse them. And based on that, I'm dumbfounded why they wouldn't be more likely to be libertarian or anarchist in their political beliefs.

[Libertymike]

No, his comment was a non-sequitur.

[BakedPenguin]

Don't forget that they also make up the majority population for America's inner cities, where their children are routinely denied a future by an education cartel run by Democratic party hacks.

[Libertymike]

Ah, did you comprehend sloop's words? The words in question:

"I swear, I will never for the life of me why urban blacks and hispanics flock to Team Statism...."

My post is in response thereto.

Of course, for MOST white people, group identity trumps individual liberty; however, there is evidence to support the proposition that afro-americans cherish group think racial solidarity over individual liberty and individual dignity in greater percentages than do their cracka counterparts.

[DesigNate]

I understood just fine.

Maybe I read your comment more racist then you intended it.

Also, fried chicken.

[Libertymike]

Why the search for racism?

[Whahappan?]

"Hit me again Ike, and this time put some stank on it!"

[mr simple]

Wow, I love the obvious lies of the police in response. Sure they just tried to talk to them and responded appropriately. The video is just the work of cop-haters in the war on cops. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a bunch of guys run up on you like that. They're probably lucky they didn't notice them until it was too late. If they would have fought back they probably would have been shot.

[Suthenboy]

Geez Sloopy, it is the New Orleans police department. Whadya expect? Those kids are lucky to be alive.

After Katrina I dont go to N.O. anymore. Ever. For any reason.

[Rich]

"I think it's necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded."

WTF? Is she trying to say "that we have been awarded"?

[generic Brand]

No, I think she meant re-warded, as in the job they protected from intrusion yet again. How many times has she been re-elected?

[Virginian]

New York City's teachers' pension fund has divested from gun manufacturers, so remember that if they miss their return goals any time in the near future.
___________

I'd laugh at pension funds divesting themselves from literally the only manufacturers who's product is literally selling out as soon as it hits the shelves, but then I remember at some point my tax dollars will bail out this pension fund.

[Fist of Etiquette]

New York City's teachers' pension fund has divested from gun manufacturers...

When the Dems take their final shots at grabbing and lose, gun prices are going to fall. It might not be a bad move, if made for the wrong reasons.

[Virginian]

If there are gun companies which have invested in expansion, that could come back to bite them. It all depends on one thing, IMO. They've run over 5 million background checks since Sandy Hook. Now, if even a million of them are totally new gunowners, then that's a whole bunch of new customers to sell guns to. But that's all just people who were already buying guns buying extra, then it would be more prudent not to expand.

It's an interesting question. I wonder if anyone is researching it.

[Generic Stranger]

If anyone is, it'd have to be an industry player like NSSF; gun owners are not likely to talk to anyone else in reliable numbers, which could skew the data.

[$park?]

But shouldn't people be able to speak their minds without consequence?

The comments by Medley, a special education teacher in a neighboring school district, have gone viral and sparked online campaigns to have her fired. A petition on Change.org calling for her dismissal had generated more than 17,500 signatures from as far away as the United Kingdom as of Thursday, and a Facebook page supporting a prom that includes all students had more than 27,000 likes.

The fallout has surprised many residents, who say the issue roiling the community in an area known for coal mining and attractive parks is being blown out of proportion.

[wareagle]

yes, you have the right to say it. No, you do not have the right to be free of blowback.

[Brandon]

Come on, Wareagle, there's no such thing as blowback. The neocons have repeatedly assured me of this.

[hotsy totsy]

But shouldn't people be able to speak their minds without consequence?

Jesus, EVERYTHING in life has consequence.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

There's also a difference between being a prisoner and being a guard.

[$park?]

Really? Why?

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Well, to start, only one of them chooses to be there.

[Almanian!]

"YOU made your choice when you robbed that bank....now you're gonna live with the consequences."

[$park?]

Well, to start, only one of them chooses to be there.

So there are no other choices for the kids? None at all?

And besides that, what is the reason that a teacher can't speak her mind? A kid shouldn't be suspended but a teacher should be fired? Here I was thinking everyone had the right to speak freely.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Most kids don't get to choose. Their parents do that for them. Was I somehow less a prisoner of public schools because my parents could, in theory, have sent me somewhere else, even though they couldn't actually, and wouldn't have been allowed to just leave me home and unschooled?

And I never said the teacher couldn't speak her mind or should be fired for doing so. But in her case, it at least makes sense to talk about logical consequences of voluntary actions, whereas kids are stuck in an absurdist drama where they are systematically stripped of their agency and punished for attempts to reclaim it. That cannot be legitimate.

[$park?]

Was I somehow less a prisoner of public schools because my parents could, in theory, have sent me somewhere else, even though they couldn't actually, and wouldn't have been allowed to just leave me home and unschooled?

According to arguments I've seen in this very place, who is to blame that your parents were too lazy to homeschool you? Not the school system.

But in her case, it at least makes sense to talk about logical consequences of voluntary actions

Selectively applied rules/laws is never a good idea.

kids are stuck in an absurdist drama where they are systematically stripped of their agency and punished for attempts to reclaim it

Just like at home with their parents.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I'm not blaming the school system; I'm blaming a government that doesn't allow children what I consider an appropriate amount of self-determination.

And you're right, it's also a problem at home with parents.

Now who wants to talk about circumcision...

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

The local mohel, but his mouth is full.

[jesse.in.mb]

Are you sure you don't want to talk about Ke$ha nicole?

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I don't think I know enough about her to do so even if I wanted to. But hey, I just got motivated to learn how to pronounce her name!

[Ted S.]

It's pronounced "kedollarsignha".

[sloopyinca]

You keep bring up Ke$ha and nicole is gonna get pissed off.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Then urine serious trouble.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yeah, I think she's had her fill of Ke$ha.

[$park?]

"I'm not blaming the school system; I'm blaming a government that doesn't allow children anyone what I consider an appropriate amount of self-determination."

What do you say you and I team up and figure out a way to fix things? I'm sick of these bastards too.

[generic Brand]

I think if anything this is an excuse to ban all proms. Seriously, does anything good come from proms? (Besides increased room rentals at local hotels, that is.)

[Virginian]

I'm sorry you never got laid at your prom.

[generic Brand]

Didn't go. I think school dances and similar type events are a waste of school resources. Sports, clubs, even talent shows provide an outlet for people. Prom does not need to be associated with a school AT ALL.

[Virginian]

I didn't go to the prom in the sense that I had a date, but I did go in the sense that I got there halfway through with several flasks of liquor on a mission to cull the lone gazelles at the edge of the herd.

I do agree with you on sports and clubs and stuff, but in libertopia it would all be private schools and homeschool coops and whatnot so it's not a real big deal for me.

[generic Brand]

Yeah, I thought about putting the SLD in there but figured it was redundant.

[Virginian]

Here? We're all miserable pedantic nitpickers. Technically correct is the best kind of correct.

[$park?]

We're all miserable pedantic nitpickers

Who's this "we?"

You got a mouse in your pocket?

[Heroic Mulatto]

He's speaking for both the Body Politic and the Body Royal, dumbass.

[Virginian]

Social Contract!

something something corporations something something Koch brothers something something.

[Brandon]

A bunch of January babies?

[sloopyinca]

When does Florida's "Stand Your Ground Law" mean you can go to your car and retrieve your gun and then shoot someone to death with it? When you're an Orlando cop, that's when.

Seriously, he confessed to having "just lost it" and changed his story multiple times. Either this is the dumbest jury ever or an inept prosecution of one of their own. You be the judge.

[Bam!]

"You be the judge."

If only we were.

[Episiarch]

Was your mom on the jury?

[sloopyinca]

She would have been, but she had to be excused as she was distraught that you never called her back.

[Episiarch]

I'd already moved on to nicole's mom.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

He likes to keep to his own kind.

[Episiarch]

Exactly, Ken's some kind of mick or something.

[sloopyinca]

More Kraut than Mick. Of course, either one is a compliment coming from a greasy guinea wop like you.

[wareagle]

I don't think "inept" means the same thing to the prosecution that it does to you.

[generic Brand]

ORLANDOOOOOO!!!!! Fuck Lake Eola.

The article does say that he went to the garage to get away from his son and retrieved the gun from the car there, and that the son followed him (presumably to the garage, although the wording wasn't clear) which is when he shot him.

[johnl]

Retired 48 year old?

[Virginian]

If he joined right out of high school, that's his 30.

[Isaac Bartram]

OPD has full retirement at twenty years if IIANM.

[Virginian]

Join at 20, retire at 40, collect pension until you die at 70 or 80.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Caleb Turberville]

http://blog.al.com/press-regis.....l#comments

If Alabama expands Medicaid, it will mean a healthier economy because of all that money going to hospitals; or, I guess Bastiat is still not required reading in medical school.

[gaijin]

It's like no one ever asks where all that money comes from.

[Caleb Turberville]

I heard they're thinking about raising the Alabama tax on cigarettes by a dollar to pay for it.

In between lectures on pharmacokinetics and gross anatomy, they need to give a short lecture on economic concepts like "perverse incentives" to these medical professionals.

[Marshall Gill]

It's like no one ever asks where all that money comes from.

For a large segment of society, they already know the answer: Someone else.

[rts]

B.C. Mountie's aggravated assault verdict prompts review

Const. David Pompeo was handed the verdict Thursday for shooting an unarmed man in Chemainus in September 2009.

Shooting an unarmed man in the neck only gets you aggravated assault if you're a cop? Oh, and he's still on the payroll, of course.

[sloopyinca]

One can only hope that Sandwich, Mass has a three-strikes policy to get rid of psychopath police officers. If so, this guy's current paid vacation might turn into a termination if he's actually found guilty of attempted murder.

Seriously, fuck pubsec unions that keep people like this employed at our expense and carrying a badge.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Han So-Old

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I thought we'd already seen his endgame.

[ChrisO]

Couldn't be any worse than the prequels were.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

what are these prequels you speak of?

[Generic Stranger]

I am not sure, but many years ago there was a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of nerds cried out in anguish. I believe that may have something to do with it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...attempted to make an absurd comparison to Hurricane Katrina.

George Bush doesn't care about laid back people.

[Almanian!]

Doin' a heckuva job, Capt. Hazelwood...

[Caleb Turberville]

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000120/

Jim Carrey will be in Kick-Ass 2 and Dumb and Dumber To. I thought the guy had a strict "No Sequel" policy, post When Nature Calls?

[ChrisO]

Dumb & Dumber sequel? I guess '90s nostalgia is a thing now.

[Caleb Turberville]

I look forward to it. The Farrelly brothers are underrated as comedic filmmakers, and Dumb and Dumber was a buddy comedy masterpiece.

[ChrisO]

It wasn't really crying for a sequel, though. Especially 20 years later.

[Caleb Turberville]

Still, excellent soundtrack...Well, except for the Crash Test Dummies.

[Gladstone]

Did everyone forget Dumb and Dumberer? Oh wait...

[ChrisO]

I tried to forget it. Now you've brought it back. Thanks a lot.

[jettblackpope]

Chicks are for fags

[Gladstone]

Fucking Females is for Poofs.

[sloopyinca]

Apparently, pimpin' ain't easy. Even if you're a cop helping to run an underage sex-slave ring. How he got the DA to drop the charge that would have gotten him put away for 20 years is a mystery.

[Coeus]

Free samples?

[OldMexican]

Small free samples.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

How he got the DA to drop the charge that would have gotten him put away for 20 years is a mystery.

"But it's necessary"

[Archduke Pantsfan]

People were different 100 years ago

[sloopyinca]

And since I'm on the subject of police officers involved in child sex rings...

[Caleb Turberville]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/.....n/1909149/

Jesse, why'd you do it?!

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

$5,150 worth of fur capes and parkas

RIP STEVE SMITH.

[ChrisO]

RIP Liberace, more like it.

[gaijin]

But all the cool kids from Illinois do it!

[jesse.in.mb]

That was really confusing before I clicked on the link.

[ChrisO]

I guess he forgot to let the prosecutors dip their beaks.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Moob reduction surgeries increasingly popular.

[sloopyinca]

Chuck Schumer most affected.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Maybe we can use science to make Kate Upton attractive.

[generic Brand]

YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!!!!

[generic Brand]

P.S. I thought you were a really cool character in Use of Weapons, but I'm not sure I liked the alternating flashback/present-time way the story was told. It got really confusing in the second half of the book.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

It's definitely easier to follow if you're reading it a second time without taking any long breaks.

[R C Dean]

He shows up again in one of the more recent books, I forget the title. The one with the digital hell.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Surface Detail.

[DesigNate]

Are you retarded?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

No, that's Warty. Look, we had this discussion. Do I need to have Nicole femsplain it to you?

[DesigNate]

Yes. No. Maybe.

Hmmm, maybe I'm retarded too.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

http://reason.com/blog/2013/02.....nt_3553022

[Rich]

An offhand comment in the bedroom was the last straw for Ben. "That's a bit funny looking," his date said, staring at his chest.

"Hey, my cock is down *here*!"

[Archduke Pantsfan]

You know who else needed to fill 850,000 vacant positions?

[sloopyinca]

Kimberly Halsey?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Epi's mom?

[sloopyinca]

Jinx!

[Episiarch]

Well, she's never done a gang bang that big before but hey, records were made to be broken, right?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

http://www.theonion.com/articl.....ime,31323/

[$park?]

The Vatican?

[Almanian!]

The Death Panel Staffing Committee?

[Coeus]

An emotional screed (is there any other kind?)about how important VAWA is.

I found this interesting:

Conversely, our time would have been better spent assessing why the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey?a year-long study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?revealed that sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence have become a "widespread public health problem."

Gee, it's almost like everything they study is a "widespread public health problem". Can't imagine why.

[Rich]

Indeed. Studies conducted by the CDC have become a "widespread public health problem."

[Almanian!]

In other news, a recent study by the Centers for Derp Control reveals that death among human beings is epidemic.

The Center is requesting additional funding to conduct followup studies to better understand the problem and identify potential solutions or mitigating actions.

[generic Brand]

Kidding aside, I think this is a large factor in why so many people put so much faith in government. They want to absolve themselves of the risk of living life, and so they trust government to make everything safer, when they could get by with far less intrusion just by using common sense and having a shred of personal responsibility.

[Almanian!]

Precisely. I agree.

And I despise people who are like that...

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

My grandmother was powerless as my grandfather mercilessly beat her and her eight children until they were all bloody. My mother, her lungs crushed by my father's vicious beating, was told to kiss her five children goodbye from her Philadelphia hospital bed.
My daughter's father kicked me in my belly and spit on me as I lay on the ground hemorrhaging, eight months pregnant. And that same daughter's boyfriend, years later, strangled her while their six-month-old baby girl, named Promise, lay on the bed beside her.
To the 22 men who voted against the VAWA, tell me: What is so "unconstitutional" about giving legal protections to women like us?

So, which one of these things isn't already a crime, lady?

[Almanian!]

Jesus Fucking Way-To-Pick-Your-Partners. Sounds like "A History of the Stupids".

[Episiarch]

All I think when I read that is "holy shit you make terrible life choices, lady". Maybe she shouldn't have shacked up with a violent maniac.

[Coeus]

But the sex was so good.

[generic Brand]

"Fool me seven times, shame on you. Fool me eight or more times, shame on me."

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Yeah, my thoughts were meaner because more contraception-related.

[Almanian!]

That's the self-hate from growing up in a patriarchal SLAVE kultur, nicol. Poor dear - you can't help it any more than those women trapped with those awful, violent men.

[Episiarch]

Well, regardless, shacking up with violent maniacs seems to run in her family.

[JW]

The rampant idiocy on display there seemed to run into all-things-related. "He's beating me! And my children! For decades! What should I do?"

Some people can't bear the thought of not being a victim.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I was being mostly facetious before, but I find this truly absurd. Guess what, I have a history of abuse in my extended family too. And here's how it goes:

Great-grandmother, circa WWI, dirt poor and married to a physically abusive alcoholic who disappeared one day (as it turned out, to start another family in another city), eventually remarried to a better man.

Grandmother, post-war, fairly poor and married to a physically abusive alcoholic who beat her and the kids until they were grown and he was too ill to continue.

And...that's it. Because once you can work outside the home and don't have large numbers of tiny babies to look after, you don't have to put up with that shit anymore.

[Virginian]

Stated versus revealed preferences. What's stopping her from leaving?

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

22 male senators, clearly!

[JW]

I don't think it even needs to come to working outside the home.

I get it, it was hard for a woman to be on her own prior to the last 50 years or so, but this just isn't rocket science. If he's beating you, you take the kids and leave. Full stop.

It will royally suck, but the rest works itself out eventually. Staying says that you value his breadwinning more than your own and your kids' safety or lives.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Yeah. But depending on time and place, "royally suck" might mean something worse than the occasional beating. It's sad, but it can be true. (Note that I'm very much not talking about now, or the US.)

[JW]

Yeah. But depending on time and place, "royally suck" might mean something worse than the occasional beating.
Well, that's what I mean. The pain from the beating has a lesser value than the pain from the sacrifice of leaving. It's a value-based decision.

I'm not trying to downplay the tremendous difficulties of being a single mother with rugrats in tow in 1955, but I'm just tired of the wailing apologists and their willing enablers in the legislature. As you noted, what part of this wasn't already illegal?

FFS, people were shot dead trying to get out of East Berlin! If you want it badly enough, you'll find a way to do it.

[Virginian]

Oh, and don't forget that family law is insanely biased toward women. If you're married or have cohabitated long enough to get common law status, the woman holds all the cards.

If he's hitting you, you go to the cops, they throw him in jail and bar him from returning, and you start the paperwork to strip him of every asset he has.

We live in a country where men have been forced by the State to pay child support to women who admit in open court that the child in question was the product of adultery. Judge didn't care. One guy who dated a single mom for some years was ordered to pay child support to the bitch because the court ruled that by being around the kids he had assumed the position of father and was on the hook.

[lap83]

Blaming the victim!!!

Feminists are just retarded. We can't have women take responsibility for their decisions by not keeping the company of evil men. It's better for horrible shit to happen to them so they can take legal vengeance afterwards.

[BakedPenguin]

And that same daughter's boyfriend, years later...

Here's an idea: if he hits you or the kids, leave. She stuck with this guy for years?

[BakedPenguin]

Or what Epi, Coeus, and gB all said.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

No, the "years later" refers to the years between when she was pregnant with the daughter and when the daughter was grown and had her own baby.

[BakedPenguin]

What, you expect me to RTFA? Seriously though, the women in her family can really pick 'em.

[BakedPenguin]

Or rather, "...read and actually comprehend the sample that you posted...", since it was right there.

This is what happens when you're perpetually drunk.

[ChrisO]

You don't understand. He really loved her, underneath all that rage...

[jesse.in.mb]

As a friend of mine says "He beats because he loves too much. He cheats because he loves too little."

[BakedPenguin]

A friend of my brother's was telling me about his sister, whose husband came home and decided to slap her around. She waited until he was asleep, and beat the shit out of him with a frying pan.

[jesse.in.mb]

That's amazing. I hope it was aluminum though. He'd be difficult to clean up were it a nice cast iron.

[hotsy totsy]

I wonder what percentage of these abused women were told by their parents before they got married that the guy was an asshole? I'll bet it's more than half.

[jesse.in.mb]

Clearly these women needed more exposure to the Dixie Chicks!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

So, which one of these things isn't already a crime, lady?

More to the point, which one of these things, if any, actually happened?

[Invisible Finger]

My grandfather beat my grandmother. She ran away with the kids. Lived in a shitty part of the city just to be away from him. My father (her son) offered to murder him, but she said no.

Powerless? No, CHICKEN-SHIT.

[General Butt Naked]

Jesus, I feel bad for the women in that family. How many generations will this endless cycle of not having dinner on the table when the man comes home from work continue?

[gaijin]

Federal research studies show that...more federal research studies are needed.

[Juice]

And that all federal research studies are horribly underfunded.

[R C Dean]

Again, one wonders why violence is being studied by the CDC.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Ideology can lead to violence which leads to injury/death, so (certain) ideologies must be a disease.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

This was a gem:

For example, why doesn't the United States have a comprehensive strategic National Action Plan similar to that of countries like Australia, France, and Liberia which foster greater prevention, education, and awareness to prevent violence in the first place?

I love how she threw in the name of some random third-world shithole as a shaming tactic.

[Invisible Finger]

Which one is the shit hole?

[Marshall Gill]

He wasn't talking about Liberia, OK?

[Isaac Bartram]

I wonder, do "countries like Australia, France, and Liberia" actually have lower rates of domestic violence than the USA or do they just spend more money on "National Action Plan[s]"?

[Gladstone]

"Hugo Chavez Breathing Through a Tube But "Intellectual Capacities" Intact "

Too obvious.

Also I keep seeing ads for Eat St. a show about food trucks. Isn't that reason's favourite show?

[Almanian!]

Too obvious.

So this made you think of "Human Centipede", too.

[Eduard van Haalen]

He's getting better!

[Pro Libertate]

That people elect idiots like Pelosi in the first place is almost inconceivable. But I'll give her some free counsel: People respect homeless meth addicts more than your typical member of Congress. You're a fucking joke, lady.

[generic Brand]

But I'll give her some free counsel

Guess you're trying to fill that pro bono quota pretty early this year, huh?

[Pro Libertate]

I lied--I'm double-billing the bimbo.

[BakedPenguin]

Just double your hourly. She's not going to be paying you with her money, she doesn't give a shit.

[Pro Libertate]

Given their complete inability to understand money or scale, I'll charge her one billion dollars.

[Marshall Gill]

I lied--I'm double-billing

Attorney, duh.

[Pro Libertate]

You're right, triple-billing.

[Coeus]

Krugman's latest:

And in reality the stuff that's now being called "currency wars" is almost surely a net plus for the world economy. In the 1930s this was because countries threw off their golden fetters ? they left the gold standard and this freed them to pursue expansionary monetary policies. Today that's not the issue; but what Japan, the US, and the UK are doing is in fact trying to pursue expansionary monetary policy, with currency depreciation as a byproduct. Expansionary policy is what the world needs, so why is this a bad thing?

True, Europe may feel that it's suffering a loss of competitiveness. But there's an answer for that: emulate the other advanced countries, and have the ECB join in the expansion. Indeed, if fear of an overvalued euro finally undermines the ECB's monetary hawks, that's good for everyone.

When it comes to currency depreciation, right now the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

He must be invested heavily in gold.

[OldMexican]

Paul Krugman:

"And in reality the stuff that's now being called 'currency wars' is almost surely a net plus for the world economy."

Because, you see boys and goils, debasing you currencies always leads to good results!

[ChrisO]

He's either invested in gold or in manufacturers of wheelbarrows that will be needed to cart around sufficient quantities of dollars in the near future.

What a tool.

[R C Dean]

I seem to recall the 1930s ending badly. Something about hyperinflation leading to social unrest . . . I forget the rest.

Even if his wet dream comes true, and everybody devalues equally so that nobody is put at a competitive disadvantage, AND we somehow manage to avoid cost-push inflation from increasing commodity prices, that still leaves a mathematically certain destruction of bond values. Sure, that means the debtors get off easy (including his top priority, the various overleveraged governments), but all those pension funds, insurance companies, retirees, and other investors get royally fucked.

When your Plan A requires enormous destruction of capital, maybe you need to rethink?

[Invisible Finger]

Nope, he's invested in other people's taxes. That shit's even BETTER than gold!

[sloopyinca]

Portland Oregon police officer disregards the Fourth Amendment and the First Amendment. "Citizen" rightfully sues.

Many of the comments are at least reassuring.

[Paul.]

Unemployment problems in France are leading to suicides, some of which are quite public and fiery.

Clearly, access to gas and matches have to be limited.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

No one needs more than ten gallons in their assault tank.

[Almanian!]

It's an assault MAGAZINE, thank you.

[Not a Libertarian]

Robbie Rogers, a former midfielder for the United States national team, revealed Friday that he is in fact....a soccer player

Well I guess congratulations to young Mr. Rogers for publicly announcing his sexual orientation. Although in the not too distant future (one hopes and assumes) this will seems as news worthy as announcing that one is truly left-handed rather than right.

Of any American team sport it would have seemed that American soccer would have been the most accepting of gay players.

How many years off will it be until a player from a real professional sport decides to come out of the closet while still on an active roster?

Which of the team sports do you think that might be?

/now back to trying to google shirtless pics of this Rogers kid/

[generic Brand]

Why would soccer be more accepting of gay players? Because it's seen as more of a fringe sport in American culture?

[BakedPenguin]

If he keeps playing for English teams, he'll see just how "accepting" some of the yobs can be.

[Not a Libertarian]

This might be why he has decided to leave the sport. If you really want to play soccer my guess is that you have to head to Europe. And theyz some frightful mutherfuckas over there.

[jesse.in.mb]

I always got the impression that the English were just abusive to their players full stop. Whatever sets you apart from the rest they'll hurl abuse at you for.

[BakedPenguin]

I should have put a "/sarc" tag on that. You're right, some of the Euro fans are utter thugs.

To address NaL's point, the MLS has gotten much better, to the point where they are loaning players to English Premiere League teams. Rogers could probably play for a US team, since the soccer fan culture here is rather different. He'd still probably hear cries of "maricon" in La or Houston, though.

[Ted S.]

Pretty much, except for Chelsea. There, the club just .

(Chelsea deserved to be screwed every day of the week and twice on Sundays after what they did to Anders Frisk, but that's another story.)

[Ted S.]

Oh fuck, I SFed the link. Chelsea simply make up bogus allegations of racism.

[Rhywun]

Chelsea deserved to be screwed every day of the week and twice on Sundays after what they did to Anders Frisk, but that's another story.

Or, just because. They aren't a team, just a collection of expensive toys for the owner to play with.

[Libertymike]

Perhaps it might be all those headers?

[Not a Libertarian]

Well yes it is a fringe sport, but I was making something of a classist statement in that American soccer player tend to be from more middle and upper middle class backgrounds. And generally as one goes up the economic ladder the acceptance of gays and lesbians increases.

[gaijin]

I think it may be true that the soccer fan base in america is more upper and middle...but I don;t know that this is true of the players.

[Rhywun]

It is not true of the players.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Why would soccer be more accepting of gay players?

The flops. Nothing gayer than that.

[Not a Libertarian]

/flops/ and not the good kind either.

(...Has anyone offered you a Hat yet?)

[Marshall Gill]

Why would soccer be more accepting of gay players? Because it's seen as more of a fringe chick sport in American culture?

Yes.

[sloopyinca]

Jesus Christ! The pederast cops have been out in force today. Here's another one!

[Libertymike]

Come on, don't you know that this is a case of officer safety, sloop?

[OldMexican]

Unemployment problems in France are leading to suicides, some of which are quite public and fiery.

G?tterd?mmerung , except in French.

[OldMexican]

Hugo Chavez Breathing Through a Tube But "Intellectual Capacities" Intact

He is still able to spew socialist nonsense with panache.

[Generic Stranger]

It helps that it doesn't require a functioning brain.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Oh right, totally forgot, I have an awesome "why do you need..." response for everyone. I was re-reading "King Lear" this morning, and when one of his bitch daughters was complaining about the size of his retinue, Lear says:

O, reason not the need
Our basest beggars are in the poorest thing superfluous
Allow not nature more than nature needs
Man's life is cheap as beast's

Hell yeah, bitches!

[jettblackpope]

Christopher Moore's "Fool" is based upon "King Lear" and is a very funny book.

[Brandon]

Unemployment problems in France are leading to suicides, some of which are quite public and fiery.

DAMN YOU, AUSTERITY!!!!!!!!!

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

This is why there are no libertarian women.

http://www.theatlasphere.com/dating

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

for fun: Filet Mignon on the grill. Sashimi in the back room.

Um...does the sashimi part sound dirty to anyone else?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I don't quite see where you're going here, but something does smell a little fishy. Maybe if I circle around the problem I'll have a sudden spurt of inspiration.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yes.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Can you picture Dagny crossed with a soccer mom?!

I feel like it's wrong to make fun of people's online dating profiles...but I don't want to be all that right, I guess.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Do you recall John's link earlier today about the woman who died during a third-trimester abortion and the Washington Post concern-trolled about the evil prolifers violating her medical privacy?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z4

It seems the abortionist himself has some medical privacy issues:

"In July, 2012, Operation Rescue filed a formal complaint with the Environmental Crimes Unit and released edited video and photographic evidence that showed GRHS and Carhart engaged in the illegal dumping on a routine basis. Evidence included:

"1. Documents containing private patient information concerning birth control prescriptions and abortion procedures, as well as copies of patient driver's licenses."

I'm sure the Washington Post will be right on that, just as soon as they've investigated the abortionist's links to Kathleen Sebelius:

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/0.....-abortion/

[C. Anacreon]

I feel like venting a bit about the pro-choice crowd today. My cancer has recently kicked up and eaten a nasty hole in my pelvic bone. However, my doc (while apologizing) reduced my supply of pain meds -- only giving me enough for a week at a time instead of a month at a time, like before -- because of new pressures from the feds on pharmacists and docs. So now I have to go to the pharmacy every week, and pay a new deductible every week, just to get the same meds I've been on for over a year and have never shown the slightest sign of abusing.

And then I hear the same people who scream that the government should "stay away from their bodies" on abortion decisions.....applaud reducing access to pain meds, because somebody somewhere might OD or become addicted, so we need to make protective decisions for everyone.

[JW]

Hey, if you don't like cancer, then don't get it.

Sorry to hear that you're going through this kind of hell. I really don't know what I would do if I got that news.

[C. Anacreon]

Thanks. We all have our struggles to face, some things a bit worse than others. Normally I just try to keep on with life as if the cancer is just another annoying thing to overcome.

But today with this new restriction, and the pharmacist eyeing me like I might be a junkie, just really touches a nerve. So now busybodies can keep me from having salt or fat in my food, or change my soda size, or tell me I can't have a cigarette in my back yard, or tell me I can't have too many pain pills, and that is all dandy. But when it comes to abortion -- now then an individual has a right to make decisions about their own property, their body. Apparently, that's the only time you get to make decisions about your own body.

[JW]

Choice is fine as long as it's the choice they said you could have.

I hear you, do I ever. I'm wondering when the day will come when I finally snap from all the meddlers and their pathetic little fucking control agendas. It's going to be an ugly, ugly day.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Sorry to hear about the cancer and the selectivity of "choice."

[R C Dean]

This is just too perfect:

A November car chase ended in a "full blown-out" firefight, with glass and bullets flying, according to Cleveland police officers who described for investigators the chaotic scene at the end of the deadly 25-minute pursuit.

But when the smoky haze -- caused by rapid fire of nearly 140 bullets in less than 30 seconds -- dissipated, it soon became clear that more than a dozen officers had been firing at one another across a middle school parking lot in East Cleveland.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro.....scene.html

Two dead "civilians", no guns found, but its all good. No officers were injured.

Naturally, no charges have been filed. By an amazing coincidence, the police union backed the prosecutor in his election.

[sloopyinca]

I've followed that case pretty closely, and IIRC, the dead civilians tried to run over cops on more than one occasion (caught on video), fired shots at the outset of the pursuit and threw something out of their car while crossing a bridge during the pursuit (also on video). Also once he was boxed in, the driver again attempted to ram a police officer with his car.

I'm thinking this one may be a good shoot, if they were able to ascertain the passenger was a confederate of the driver and not a hostage. So far, they have yet to make that clear, so I guess we'll never know.

[ChrisO]

Bullets have a way of going where they're not supposed to. I don't see a good excuse for this shootout.

[DesigNate]

Is that the same one that Reason had an animation of the other day or is this a different story of cops shooting across a suspect at each other?

[Hyperion]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is against a cut in Congressional pay because it would lessen the "respect" for the work Congress does. Apparently the Beltway has cut off circulation to her brain.

What fucking respect? Doesn't said respect actually have to exist before it is lessened? Can Congress get a minus something negative approval rating?

I was listening to NPR yesterday because the traffic was worse than usual on my commute home. They were covering a session in congress regarding how the IRS is supposed to handle the extra burden placed on them by Obozocare. One senator from MD was speaking, I can't remember his name, but my Gawd, what a moron!

This guy babbled on for around 10 minutes and there was not one intelligible thing that he said. Something about doing some research and then putting it in a microwave and then putting it on a shelf. Then he said that people go to work for the government to 'feed their souls' because they care so much. And then about another 5 minutes of how government workers are saints who are feeding their souls.

God help us, we are so fucked.

[Hyperion]

NR...

Then today as if I hadn't already had my fill of government stoopid, I had to go to the DMV. One should always take at least 5 valiums before going there.

I had tried to make an appointment for my wife to take her road test as she just passed the written exam.

The lady on the phone at the number to make appointments, told me, appointments are only for persons with learners permits. Your wife has to walk in. I asked again, 'so I can't make an appointment?'. No, she told me, she has to just walk in.

Ok, today arrived at the dreaded bureaucracy, knowing the rest of my day would be shit, until later when I will have to drink myself silly. Conversation went like this:

Me: She wants to take her road test, she just passed the written, here is her receipt for that.

Lady at counter: Do you have an appointment?

Me: No, they wouldn't give me an appointment, they said we have to walk in.

Lady at counter: You have to have an appointment.

Me: How can I make an appointment when you won't let me?

Her: Ok, just go back that aisle to your right and they will help you there.

[jesse.in.mb]

I made an appointment, brought in my slip printed on CA DMV paper, and was told that it wasn't in the computer and that the clerk doesn't know where I got that appointment slip, but it was clearly fake. Having spent over 6 hours in that DMV over the past week, I began freaking out a bit and she took the paper for me and said "Are you an Aquarius?" Baffled but thinking I was getting someplace I replied "yes" "She then told me she really didn't like helping Aquariuses. Apparently nobody likes to see a bearded guy cry and I walked out with a license.

[Hyperion]

I can believe it.

I didn't continue with the story about today, but it actually got worse from the point where I left off.

I don't know what they do to these people, but they seem to be filled with a particularly vile sort of hatred, and there job seems to be to NOT help you as much as they possibly can.

[Hyperion]

their job

[Generic Stranger]

Jesus, I'm glad I've only ever had to deal with small DMV's. I think if someone had said that to me my reaction might lead me to being taken away in cuffs.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

MD? Sounds like your fault, mister!

[Hyperion]

Don't fucking rub it in, Nicole. My own daily mental self-flagellation for moving here, is enough.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I'm sure. I kid in the kindest way; I get so much shit for being in Chi myself.

[Hyperion]

Chicago? I am sorry, Nicole, lol. At least the weather here in Balmer, is nice most of the year.

I've lived in pretty much every part of the country and I have spent quite a bit of time in Chicago. I used to deal in silver and gold jewelry and my supplier was on Wabash street. I hate that place worse than any city I have ever been in.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

I do generally like it here (and I like the cold). Wabash is also where I get my jewelry 😉

[Hyperion]

I hate cold weather. But I suppose if you have lived in those climes all your life, maybe you just get acclimated to it, like it's an acquired taste.

[JW]

One senator from MD was speaking, I can't remember his name, but my Gawd, what a moron!

It was either Babs Mikulski or Ben Cardin. I always get those two guys confused.

[Hyperion]

Nope, I just googled it, it was actually Elijah Cummings. Dude is dumb as a box of rocks.

[JW]

Cummings? Oh yeah, first class maroon, which is why he's so successful in Maryland.

Heh. His office is very, very close by to me. I could moon it for you.

[Hyperion]

Are you in Howard county?

[JW]

Nope. I work in Bal'mer. I only drive through Howard to and fro.

[Hyperion]

I work in Balmer, also.

[JW]

It's not so bad. After working and driving into DC for 18 years, this is almost easy. Contra-traffic commute FTW!

[Hyperion]

My commute sucked when I was living in Howard Co, but from my perch now, I have a typical 20 minute commute, not bad at all.

[Hyperion]

Or do you mean Catonsville?

[ChrisO]

Forget it, Jake. It's Reisterstown.

[Hyperion]

What's Reisterstown?

[ChrisO]

You're from Maryland?

[Hyperion]

Dude, I know where Reisterstown is, I'm in Mt. Washington. I just didn't understand what you were saying about it?

No, I'm not from MD, but I have lived here for 5 years. I know the state pretty good, not too many places I have not been.

[OldMexican]

The creepiest, ugliest Valentine's Day card you could ever think to give your gay lover.

[jesse.in.mb]

It doesn't even rhyme! nicole could do better.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Roses are Red
Violets are Nice
Use our razors
And get rid of pubic lice
BURMA SHAVE

[Eduard van Haalen]

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Venetian blinds in your windows
Make it less fun to stalk you

[Eduard van Haalen]

From now on I'll stick
With the Senate page
Because the hookers I get
Are all under age

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Too easy.

Roses are red
Rahm-bo is rude
Marry a woman
Or marry a dude

Roses are red
Tuxes are for rent
Whomever you marry
Just make sure they consent

Roses are red
Dandelions are yellow
Give one to your lady
Or one to your fellow

[jesse.in.mb]

The Papists may hate
'vengalicals too
but Rahm will support
whomever you screw

[C. Anacreon]

Roses are red,
They grow in this region.
If I had a face like yours,
I'd join the foreign legion.

[Not a Libertarian]

At least Hizzoner should have been in a towel in a sauna in that picture.

#IsThatGayBaiting?

[jesse.in.mb]

Why would you make me have that mental image 🙁

[Ken Shultz]

"Unemployment problems in France are leading to suicides, some of which are quite public and fiery."

When so many jobs only exist because of government support (or the government is the direct employer), then the government creating more unemployed people actually becomes the long term solution to the problem.

The more the job market works to correct the problem of government support (by laying people off), the more the government works to support more jobs?

Socialism is insanity.

[Sevo]

"Apparently the Beltway has cut off circulation to her brain."
Naah. That happened long before she got to the beltway. She's been stupid for a long, long time.

[Coeus]

Some voluminous stupidity from TheAtlantic:

Quitters Never Win: The Costs of Leaving Social Media

Forget Lolcats. If we quit using sites like Facebook, we'll miss opportunities for self-expression, personal growth, learning, support, and civic exchange.

[Hyperion]

I don't even need to read the rest of it. That first sentence is enough. If this person thinks the way to personal growth is facebook, then they have some very serious problems.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

That was surprisingly nonretarded until this:

The fourth problem with the "leave if you're unhappy" ethos is that it is overly individualistic. If a critical mass participates in the "Opt-Out Revolution," what would happen to the struggling, the lonely, the curious, the caring, and the collaborative if the social web went dark? What would a social media blackout mean for youth -- and, indeed, the rest of us -- whose identity and beliefs are shaped by experimenting online? And what of those who feel compelled to stay, due to valuable networks complied and curated over time?

The other retarded part, of course, is that self-expression is well-pursued via participation in highly structured environments.

[jesse.in.mb]

what would happen to the struggling, the lonely, the curious, the caring, and the collaborative if the social web went dark?

They'd go back to message boards geared towards their personal interests, or troll the comments section of their local news and opinion magazine? We might need to drop caring to make it work for Reason though.

[Coeus]

You missed this:

Ultimately, it is easy to presume that "even if you unfriend everybody on Facebook, and you never join Twitter, and you don't have a LinkedIn profile or an About.me page or much else in the way of online presence, you're still going to end up being mapped and charted and slotted in to your rightful place in the global social network that is life." But so long it remains possible to create obscurity through privacy enhancing technology, effective regulation, contextually appropriate privacy settings, circumspect behavior, and a clear understanding of how our data can be accessed and processed, that fatalism isn't justified. If we lose reliable obscurity protections, individuals and society as a whole will bear the cost. Forget Lolcats. We'll miss opportunities for self-expression, personal growth, learning, support, and civic exchange.

If we just make more stuff illegal, we never have to make the tradeoff. Sacrificing freedoms for facebook. Christ on a cracker.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

"Surprisingly nonretarded" is often still retarded.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Someone was paid to write this.

[JW]

That article officially signals that all the problems worth worrying about, in this country, have been resolved.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, at least for young affluent urban White women, at least.

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

So what word could be used instead? Personally, I've always just called my bottom unmentionables "underwear." My sister, though, disagrees. "Underwear" is no dice, she says, because women have two types of underwear (bras and panties)?and how will you know which ones are being referred to?

You call them underpants, jackass. Underpants.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Sarah lives on the North Side of Chicago

I hope that one day, Ms. Fentem will come to you, nicole, with a manuscript to edit and you respond by repeatedly punching her in the face.

If for nothing else than the fact that she wrote:

but maintains her hotdogs taste better with the ketchup

[nicole, dirty poet laureate]

Ugh, Elements of Style! Kill!

(But I love the Antiques Roadshow! Ack!)

[Jim Tom]

Bloomers!

[The Late P Brooks]

If we quit using sites like Facebook, we'll miss opportunities for self-expression, personal growth, learning, support, and civic exchange.

Yup.

[Death Rock and Skull]

Fuck facebook,

[Hyperion]

He left out, we will get the opportunity to get trolled or even stalked(since we had to post every detail of our personal life, online), by social misfits and psychopaths, that we crossed paths with, sometime in our life, but with whom we were not exactly looking for a reunion with.

Facebook is shit.

[Death Rock and Skull]

"New York City's teachers' pension fund has divested from gun manufacturers"

BUT I THOUGHT CORPORATIONS WERE REQUIRED BY LAW TO ONLY DO THINGS THAT EARN PROFITS! AND DON'T TELL ME A PENSION FUND IS NOT A CORPORATION!

[The Late P Brooks]

Public convenience or dignity means nothing; police prerogatives assume the status of divine law. Submissiveness is demanded.

Awesome, R C.

[Juice]

Bloomberg: "Come on! It's not like we're banning everything! What do you think we are? Nazis?"

http://politicker.com/2013/02/.....verything/

[Marshall Gill]

Yes?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Apparently Zatoichi is a character in a 1920s mobster movie....

[Rhywun]

I thought it was hamburger-loving character in a 1930s Popeye cartoon, myself.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

The Objectivists superior outreach efforts are stealing our women!

[Hyperion]

Fuck off, troll.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Trolling requires malice. I think he's just dumb/boring.

[Hyperion]

Don't worry, troll. You won't get many more responses, if you can't be a more entertaining troll than this. I mean, you suck ballz, really.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You forgot, "Heh heh heh".

[Calidissident]

WTF is this?

[C. Anacreon]

🙂