Supreme Court Super-Sizes Marriage Debate, Sequester Blamed for Airport Lines, Segregated Bus Lines Come to West Bank: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: Lisa F. Young, dreamstime.com

  The Supreme Court has decided to turn the upcoming federal Defense of Marriage Act debate into a very special episode by adding an additional 50 minutes to the allotted hour to present arguments.

• Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano says sequestration is to blame for any long lines at airport security. Did the sequester figure out how to travel backward through time?
• After the boom, Colorado is now seeing the contraction and consolidation of its medical marijuana industry. The number of dispensaries has dropped 40 percent since 2010.
• The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the Drug Enforcement Administration seizing $97,000 in cash gambling winnings from a couple switching planes under the suspicion the money was connected to the drug trade. Unfortunately, the case is really more about technical issues of jurisdiction, not the seizure itself, but the gamblers are winning so far.
• Israel launched two Palestinian-only bus lines in the West Bank, prompting cries of racism.
• The United States is looking to start launching drones from smaller warships.
• Catholic cardinals gathered today for their first round of meetings prior to the election of the new pope. And perhaps to discreetly hook up. What? Don't act like you weren't thinking it.

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Comments

[db]

South Korean photographer’s self portraits hanging out over dizzying heights.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/a…..ew_heights

[InlineSkate]

Can we get a mirror?

Can’t stand when sites put up registration walls.

[db]

I didn’t think there was a wall there. It opens right up for me and I don’t have a sub.

[Ice Nine]

There is.

[Generic Stranger]

It’s working fine for me, and I also don’t have a subscription.

[Nuked]

I’m getting a registration wall.

[Enough About Palin]

Me too.

[$park?]

Mawige is what bwings us togever today.

[Episiarch]

“Bye bye boys! Have fun storming the castle!”

[Alack]

“Bye bye boys! Have fun storming the castle asshole!”

FTFY

[Episiarch]

Go on…

[Alack]

Vizzini sat in the clearing, a look of frustration on his face. Inigo had worked with the Sicilian man long enough to sense when something was amiss.

“You look troubled, my friend,” said the Spaniard. “Tell me: what is the matter.”

“You wouldn’t understand, Montoya. I fear that the war may not come, and that will surely be no good for my financial standing. It is infuriating!”

“Perhaps,” said Inigo, his hair flowing in the breeze. “But I know how to take your mind off of such matters.”

He made his way over to the balding man, and tore off his pants. Getting down onto his knees, he began fellating his employer.

“Inigo, what are you doing! A man and another man, in sexual congress? Inconceivable!” he shouted.

Inigo smirked as he looked up. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” He pushed Vizzini to the ground as his protests changed to pleasure-filled moans. Tonight, he would earn his pay.

[Episiarch]

Now that is what I call going on. NutraSweet, you have competition!

[Sudden]

Psh. I’m hardly impressed. SF would’ve made a much more compelling scenario involving Fezzik and his glorious giant endowment absolutely tearing through flesh. Guest starring Warty as Fezzik.

[Warty]

ANYBODY WANT A PEANUT???

[Alack]

I was going to work in Fezzik (pushing peanuts up Vizzini’s ass), but I got a phone call and cut it short. SORRY GUYS

[jesse.in.mb]

First Okona and Wesley and now Vizzini and Inigo? Today seems extra slash-ey

[Episiarch]

When it rains, it pours.

[gaijin]

sexual congress…interesting.

[gaijin]

oh, and imagine what a man with six fingers might accomplish their.

[Sudden]

Not much. He’s more a voyeur. Hell, he watched Humperdink suck 50 years of life out of a man and he didn’t even bother participating himself.

[Sudden]

Alt-Text win.

HP LoveShackford is quickly turning into one of my favorite reason contributors.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Supreme Court has decided to turn the upcoming federal Defense of Marriage Act debate into a very special episode…

THE MOST PRESSING ISSUE OF OUR TIME.

[Rich]

This adding-time-to-that-allotted stuff is a slippery slope.

[Pro Libertate]

It’s legal so long as the government can tax it. Next case!

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Boob school

[John]

Hendrix looks downright scary in the picture on the left.

[dunkel]

Thw quadraboob is a thing? huh…

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Meet the man trying to bust porn’s greatest myths

[Anonymous Coward]

Other research looking at the content of porn has shown the men to be like disembodied sex toys, often with everything but a torso and a penis cropped out of the shot.

This disturbing trend has led to a dearth of the dreaded “close up shot.” This phenomena can be described as 2-5 minutes of a wide-angle camera on a vagina, penis, nutsack, some dude’s cornhole, and much retching among viewers.

[Thane of Whiterun]

The idea that seeing naked bodies of people not in the room is somehow more damaging than getting used to communicating with disembodied voices is odd. “Yeah,” says Jon, “given that in our ancestral past we would have been in the same hut as our parents while they f****, you’d think we’d be cooler with it.”

+1

[John]

http://swimdaily.si.com/2013/0…..&eref=sihp

Dutch Field Hockey. Who knew?

[CE]

Everyone who watched the Olympics last year.

[John]

All I ever saw was those homely American beach volleyball players picking their suits out of their butt cracks for three hours a night of prime time.

[NoVAHockey]

the Italian team, however …

[John]

Both of the Americans were while not butt ugly not that great. They both looked like in shape past their sell by date soccer moms.

[Mickey Rat]

I don’t think they claimed to be any more than that.

[John]

NBC certainly did.

[Andrew S.]

Field hockey, in general, has the best looking female athletes. Easily.

[John]

I never knew.

[NoVAHockey]

i’m playing the wrong hockey. there are some women in my league. so they claim anyway.

[Brett L]

Two, please.

[Romulus Augustus]

Makes me downright proud of my Dutch heritage.

[John]

Holland is full of cuties. Lots of tall curvy women. Thin, but with bodies and a lot of height.

[mad libertarian guy]

This is true.

And it’s a good thing for those of us who aren’t on par with their beauty that Holland is very expensive in every facet with the sole exception of getting fucked up.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Really regret not having visited the Netherlands when I was stationed in Ramstein.

[C. Anacreon]

One of my fiancees (I was actually engaged three times before marrying on the third try) was Dutch and cute as hell. Too bad her temper didn’t match her looks, as I sadly found out too late.

[mad libertarian guy]

Outstanding find, John.

This is quality linkage, people. Y’all clearly have a thing to learn from our esteemed colleague.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

is that site really really slow?

[Alack]

Catholic cardinals gathered today for their first round of meetings prior to the election of the new pope. And perhaps to discreetly hook up. What? Don’t act like you weren’t thinking it.

And now I can’t not think it. Thanks a fucking ton, Shackford.

[Brett L]

In sequester news:
1) a plague of locusts
2) Navy surrenders in drug war

[Eduard van Haalen]

“The infestation has been devastating crops in Egypt ahead of Passover”

Sound vaguely familiar…

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Quantum Leap

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Internet saves cat

[Rich]

Internet saves Sequester

[CE]

No, the sequester didn’t figure out how to travel backward in time. It doesn’t even cut spending to 2012 levels.

Too bad too — cutting spending to 2005 levels would balance the budget.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

You’ve been doing it wrong

[Brett L]

How’s that girl child killing working for ya?

A county court in central China has sentenced four men to prison for digging up and selling corpses on the black market to enable “ghost marriages”, a millennia-old custom of burying deceased bachelors alongside newly deceased wives so that they will not grow lonely in the afterlife.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the Drug Enforcement Administration seizing $97,000 in cash gambling winnings from a couple switching planes under the suspicion the money was connected to the drug trade.

Gambling is an illegal vice just like drugs.

[Brett L]

NRA to sponsor Texas NASCAR race. Seems like they’ve come into some money recently for some reason.

[mr lizard]

They got my 35 bucks

[Brett L]

Feel good story. 4 year old falls out of 3rd story window, somersaults twice lands on feet unharmed.

[db]

A neighbor of ours fell out of her bedroom window, 12 feet down onto a concrete driveway, when she was like 2. Evidently near death experiences at early ages make you a psychotic bitch.

[Brett L]

It depends which end you land on, I imagine.

[Francisco d Anconia]

It would have been better IF:

4 year old falls out of 3rd story window, somersaults twice lands on one foot.

[Brett L]

Shit, give the kid some credit. Most kids can’t jump off a couch and land on their feet at 4.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Um..

…4, 3, 2, 1…

Get it?

[Michael]

+1 tuba fart.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Feel good? That kid is clearly an Illuminati-trained assassin!

[John]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_…..girls.html

Have your daily feminist butt hurt. The fact that Hathaway is better looking, more successful and married has nothing whatsoever to do with Marcotte’s butt hurt.

[Episiarch]

Once again I am amazed at Marcotte’s ability to write a bunch of text that says absolutely nothing. She has less substance than a Scooby Doo ghost. I’ve breathed air that had more substance than her.

[John]

It takes years of training to write like that. If you are not careful you accidentally write something funny or meaningful or interesting and those things are frowned upon in women’s studies programs.

[Pro Libertate]

I love that bit from The Foundation, where the mayor of Terminus has the imperial bureaucrat’s pronouncements run through a program to identify the actual content, and it turned out there was none.

[Episiarch]

No one wants to hear about the shittiest Azimov series there is, ProL. Well, except for you.

[Pro Libertate]

It’s not shitty. In fact, it’s the opposite.

[Episiarch]

So you mean it’s incredibly boring. I completely agree.

[Pro Libertate]

You’re boring.

[John]

Him and Paul Krugman were pen pals as children and both dreamed of growing up to be Hari Seldon. Why do you want to ruin his childhood memories?

[Episiarch]

Because I’m a dickhead?

[John]

Well… yeah

[Pro Libertate]

It’s not like Asimov was advocating psychohistory. It’s not his fault Krugman is a psychotic.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Asimov was quite socialist, though. His negative review of Orwell’s 1984 is fairly nauseating stuff; not hard to go from there to Full Metal Krugman.

[Pro Libertate]

He was a leftist, but he wasn’t the crazed statist that populates the left today.

And I read (and disagreed) with his review of 1984. He didn’t like the way Orwell wrote, more than anything else. It reminded me of Twain ripping on Cooper.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I would say vice versa.

[CampingInYourPark]

Wasn’t Orwell also a socialist? I think politics isn’t the perspective to critique fiction.

[jesse.in.mb]

Orwell became disillusioned with state socialism during the Spanish Civil war (almost being killed by communists will do that). He wrote about it in Homage to Catalonia, which is an excellent read. After that he began dealing with issues of authoritarianism.

[CampingInYourPark]

Okay, but I don’t see any conflict between 1984 and advocating socialism. Granted it’s anti-authoritarian, but the majority of people don’t want that but will, for some reason, give the power to an individual if they think he has their best interest at heart. Big Brother just wasn’t benevolent enough.

[CampingInYourPark]

Okay, I think the Foundation series was some great fiction, so I’m biased. I never thought of it as literature that was political at all, but rather a compelling story with some, but very little narrative that disparaged an individual characters POV.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I don’t believe Orwell ever lost his socialistic philosophies–it’s just that 1984 and Animal Farm are a recognition that the authoritarian impulse resides even in so-called populist movements.

Caesar, for example, never would have gained the power he did without judiciously courting the favor of the lower classes–which wasn’t difficult to do given how corrupt and violent the political class had become.

[jesse.in.mb]

He remained a Socialist, he just became very critical of the political philosophy Russia was pushing. I highly recommend Homage to Catalonia, he loves him some syndicalism even though it’s not his ideal system.

[db]

I’m not really a Foundation fan, but I have always loved that scene. I wish we had apps capable of semantically analyzing speech. There would finally be a use for all thesee new TVs that can rhn apps.

[Rich]

actual content, and it turned out there was none

Remember this when Martin O’Malley runs in 2016. The man has a gift.

[John]

Think about the train wreck the 16 Dem Presidential debates are going to be. O’Malley, Cuomo, Biden, Hillary.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

All the more reason for them to get the 22nd appealed.

[Joe M]

Warty’s gas is pretty thick, true.

[Episiarch]

That’s not gas.

[Joe M]

That’s no moon.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Women performed over twice the number of tasks and assumed the burden of “mental labor” or “invisible work,” that is, planning and coordination of tasks.

I get the feeling that’s never been a problem for Amanduh.

[Brett L]

Getting over the prepubescent disgust with the opposite sex is part of adulthood,

Its like her sub-conscious is trying to tell her something.

[db]

I was never disgusted by girls when I was little.

[Enough About Palin]

Me neither. At the age of 5, I wanted all of them naked.

True story.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Quoted in the TFA:

The Onion, as usual, had blurted out a terribly ugly version of a suppressed, itchy attitude that is probably more widely held than we’d like to think: the idea that young girls are ridiculous, annoying, and a little disgusting. They’re glittery, they squeal, they like attention, and?most disturbingly?they threaten to evoke illicit sexual feelings. The word “cunt” didn’t bubble up by accident.

Do people honestly not fucking get it? Do they know nothing about how comedy — even tasteless comedy — works?

The joke was that Wallis is not at all what anyone would call a cunt. Period. Full stop. There is no more meaning to analyze.

[John]

If Marcotte had needed a sense of humor, her women’s studies professors would have given her one. Got it?

[NeonCat]

A sense of humor would get in the way of the sense of outrage.

For Marcotte, a sense of outrage is a lot better thing to have.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Just because Marcotte didn’t like doesn’t make it funny.

[Thane of Whiterun]

So? Whether or not it’s funny is irrelevant to the fact that it follows a very simple template that’s very easy to understand.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I’ve now read three completely senseless articles analyzing “why people hate Anne Hathaway” when I thought it was so simple. I mean, why do people hate any vegans?

[Thane of Whiterun]

I wasn’t even aware people hated Anne Hathaway.

My knowledge of pop culture comes almost completely from The Soup and The Key of Awesome.

The only exception is probably the brief, hate-filled obsession I had with “Like a G6” by Far East Movement ft. DEV and The Cataracs. Besides being awful, there was really no reason for it to involve Far East Movement.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I didn’t know either, until the Oscars. She just always seemed lame to me in the same way as Natalie “OMG CIGARETTES ARE SO GROSS” Portman. Goody-two-shoes actresses. Slut it up, peoples.

Also, you are totally right about the unnecessary nature of Far East Movement in that song. On the other hand, its popularity did give me a jumping-off point to teach FOUR people in the past week what “sizzurp” is. How do I even know people who don’t know that?

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yeah but her goody-two-shoesness made this extra funny.

[Thane of Whiterun]

I didn’t know what sizzurp was, either. Then again I don’t do drugs, except for the occasional rx’d alprazolam.

But yeah. The chorus was sampled from DEV’s “Booty Bounce”, written by her and The Cataracs and produced by the latter. Since the song goes back and forth on whether Far East Movement or The Cataracs are doing the male vocals, clearly the latter can handle them.

The only portion of the performance that comes off as FFM’s “domain” is the high-pitched squealing, which from other tracks it is clear The Cataracs are clearly capable of (not that it takes a lot of skill).

And AFAICT FFM weren’t much more popular than them, so it wouldn’t have been to glom onto their popularity.

So unless the writing credits aren’t total BS (and some places only mention The Cataracs as the writers) there was really no reason for FFM to be there.

Like I said, hate-filled obsession.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

FEM also, presumably, de-autotuned it (partially?), since Dev’s vocals on “Like a G6” sound quite different than on “Booty Bounce.”

Admit it, though–you just wanna see that booty bounce.

[Thane of Whiterun]

I dunno, since The Cataracs produced both tracks, I would think they had the masters for “Booty Bounce” to draw from.

And I dunno, I’m not much for the bouncy variety of booties.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Yes, I assume that also.

[BakedPenguin]

Hey, some of us know it as ‘purple drank’.

[Mickey Rat]

“Weiss proposes that Hathaway is disliked because she acts like a little girl, and Americans have an irrational hatred of little girls.”

We do? Why wasn’t I informed about this?

[DesigNate]

Do we hate little girls or do we have an unhealthy obsession for little girls? Which is it?

Jesus Christ what a cunt.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Israel launched two Palestinian-only bus lines in the West Bank…

Rosa Parks never strapped a bomb under her coat. (Or did she?)

[Heroic Mulatto]

The non-violent civil disobedience of King and Ghandi worked; whereas the bloody, violent terrorism of Arafat and company has only made things worse for the Palestinians in the past 70-odd years.

Funny that.

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

You don’t understand. ANYTHING that Israelis do to lessen the opportunities for Palestinians to murder Jewish school children is inherently racist.

Every tenured academic and left-wing libertarian knows this.

[Brett L]

Brazil pretty sure tourists to 2014 World Cup will be composed of 1% fatasses.

The World Cup Bill in Brazil requires that at least 1 percent of seats in each stadium be made available for disabled people, a category that includes the obese, wheelchair users and those with impaired mobility.

To qualify for a ticket, people are required to submit a medical certificate that proves they have a body mass index of 30 or more, as recognized by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and World Health Organization.

[mad libertarian guy]

I feel bad for Brazil. The Brazilian people are about to see just how badly they’ve been ass fucked by the World Cup/Olympics combo.

[Brett L]

Perhaps, but there will be plenty of fat, Eurotrash tourists to roll.

[Alack]

Yeah, but I thought Brazilians liked that sort of thing?

[BakedPenguin]

No word yet on whether the Watermelon Woman has bought tickets, though

[Warty]

Oh, look, Brazilian TV.

[Warty]

PORRA

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Dear Newspaperlady:
My husband is obsessed with disco music and I’m worried he may be ill

[NeonCat]

Disco fever! Can we get the CDC to investigate it, or are they too busy looking at guns?

[The Other Kevin]

I think it’s pretty damn funny that the sequester is now (and will forever be) used as a scapegoat for… anything. Long lines at the airport? SEQUESTER! In 20 years, when NASA doesn’t meet a deadline? All due to the SEQUESTER!

[Rich]

Napolitano says sequestration is to blame for any long lines at airport security.

And it will be to blame when someone, um, takes umbrage at his long line.

[Brett L]

The Fed’s coming PR problem.

One of the big issues the central bank faces is the inevitable loss it will have to take when interest rates rise and the value of the Fed’s bond portfolio declines.

Although not an economic problem ? as “losses” for a central bank are pretty meaningless ? there could be a PR problem when the Fed stops making payments to the Treasury from the interest income it receives on its bond portfolio.

Deutsche Bank strategist Stephen Abrahams recently explained why this could be such a nightmare:

The possibility of suspending remittances and carrying unrealized losses could complicate the Fed’s relationships with the rest of Washington and the public. While remittances help the federal government pay down debt, any shortfall in operating income leading to a suspension of remittances would require the Fed to borrow from Treasury.

And while unrealized losses have no effect on Fed operations because of the way government accounts for them, they would leave a private company technically insolvent. It is unclear how Washington and the public might react to these circumstances and whether the Fed’s independence might be challenged.

Yeah. Its just a PR problem.

[Brandon]

Wouldn’t the Fed’s losses just be felt as declines in the value of the dollar?

[yonemoto]

no, that’s what the feds gains are felt as.

[John]

http://fox8.com/2013/03/04/obe…..incidents/

OBERLIN, Ohio ? Classes at Oberlin College were canceled on Monday after a series of “hate-related incidents” on campus, the school announced on its website.

Officials say the latest problem occurred Monday morning near the African Heritage House, where a person wearing a hood and robe resembling the KKK was spotted.

That event, in addition to other challenging issues that have faced the community in recent weeks, forced school administrators to suspend formal classes and all non-essential activities on Monday.

[mad libertarian guy]

Jesus fucking Christ on a Cracker.

[Episiarch]

Halloween there must be a terrifying experience.

[mad libertarian guy]

All that education and not one bit of fucking common sense.

[Rich]

And Christmas.

[Chris Mallory]

Will turn out to be a fraud, like most of these are. But the minority who committed the crime will be given accolades for “opening the eyes of racist white people about how racist they are”.

[Irish]

Shut the fuck up, Chris. You’re the worst racist troll ever.

[db]

College is the new day care.

[tallyho]

It is just Education Sequestration. Administrators respond to a situation by suspending non-essential services (like classes seem to be at Oberlin). Regular people then notice the situation because of the actions taken by the TOP MEN. Objective met. That is all. Now move along, nothing to see here.

[John]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..pchat.html

Teens moving on from Facebook. You knew that was coming. The whole service screams “a way for grandma to keep up with the grandchildren”.

[db]

Keeping in touch with remote family was ny primary use for Facebook when I used it. Then politics fucked even that up.

[John]

That is the reason I use it. I can’t imagine having a use for it when I was 16. All my friends were right there.

[Enough About Palin]

Me too. I just don’t get people’s obsession with politics to the point that they post 10 links to “Republicans want to put you’all back in chains” bullshit.

[Apatheist ?_??]

That is why I don’t have any older family members on facebook. Slightly off-topic but my mother is begging to adopt the grandmother habit of forwarding a bunch of retarded crap by email. Today I got one that was forwarding one from my grandmother. This is not good.

I started using The Facebook when I entered college and there were less than 20 schools on it. It was exciting and cool especially with the exclusivity. It was just a profile and private messages. They slowly added more and more ways for people post all their crap online and I have slowly stopped using it to the point that it is basically just a rolodex for people I don’t have on my phone. I suspect that there are plenty other people with facebook burnout.

[Xenocles]

I started on The Facebook when it was a college-only thing. Then my college banned us all from using it.

[Apatheist ?_??]

What exactly was their reasoning? Following along with the old facebook stuff, we had a facebook of incoming students that was given out every year. This is concept they were putting onto the internet originally. It worked pretty well for that purpose.

[Xenocles]

Since I went to a service academy they prohibited us from joining out of fear that it would reveal too much personal information and put us at risk. The Navy actually puts out social media guidelines to this day that nobody follows because they basically remove the “social” or the “network” from “social network,” depending on which site the rules are for.

[Brett L]

Obama’s candidate for Energy Secretary hated by the Sierra Club.

“We would stress to Mr. Moniz that an ‘all of the above’ energy policy only means ‘more of the same,’ and we urge him to leave dangerous nuclear energy and toxic fracking behind while focusing on safe, clean energy sources like wind and solar,” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in a statement Monday.

[John]

How did he slip through?

[Brett L]

Even the Obama people are smart enough to know that they’ve used up all the pixels that are going to be spent defending their idiot Cabinet picks.

[C. Anacreon]

And, is he related to Frankie Muniz?

[mad libertarian guy]

Dumb as Obama is, even he isn’t stupid enough to believe that we can abandon oil and nat gas. He’ll “invest” in alternative energies in the hopes that it will make his friends and donors rich off of the government teat, but even he knows they aren’t economically possible.

[Nuked]

we urge him to leave dangerous dangerous nuclear energy…

Oh, that dangerous nuclear energy that hasn’t killed a single person in the history of nuclear power in North America?

safe, clean energy sources like wind and solar

I wonder if sending people into energy poverty by forcing them to depend on intermittent power sources like wind and solar ever crosses these peoples minds as a negative aspect. I wonder if they realize that the only way to overcome these inadequacies is by using natural gas to to make up for the 20% capacity factor wind and solar provide.

[Xenocles]

I agree, we should stay away from dangerous nuclear technology and toxic fracking. Let’s stick with the safe nuclear technology that is about as old as my parents and the fracking that has never been conclusively linked to any harm.

[Pro Libertate]

Pope resigning? Sequestration.
Russian meteorite? Sequestration.
High gas prices? Sequestration.
Everything bad? Sequestration.

Sequestration, sequestration
Is makin’ me hate
Is keepin’ me batin’.

[BigT]

Global Warming given a much-needed rest, thanks you!!!

[Brandon]

Actually, people are blaming sequestration for cuts to the EPA that will inevitably usher in the global warming that they have been valiantly keeping at bay for so long.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

all said alcohol was involved in the incident

[John]

http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/0…..fsb&or=ros

Murder at the dog show. Now if that wasn’t a Murder She Wrote episode, it should have been.

[John]

http://www.nationalreview.com/…..-noah-glyn

it is almost as if there is some kind of list serve where the members of the hive get their talking points or something.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Wow, that’s the media equivalent about that chain mail a few years ago about “black people’s right to vote is expiring OMG!” As if they didn’t get the difference between the 15th Amendment and the specific enforcement provisions of certain sections of the Voting Rights Act.

[John]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03…..html?_r=1&

Ah the wonderful smell of schadenfreude in the afternoon. Keith Olberman now begging for his old ESPN job back.

[Brett L]

I wish the CEO wouldn’t be so PC about it. I’d like an epic rant. “I wouldn’t hire that whiny, no-talent waste of oxygen if my company were going under. I would burn ESPN to the ground and salt the earth before I re-hired that bitchy little queen.”

[Pro Libertate]

You know what’s odd? I remember liking ESPN when it was way on the outside looking in. Then they’d say stuff the leagues wouldn’t like, and I got my fill of Australian Rules Football and Inuit Competitive Spearfishing.

[John]

And tractor pulls and best of all Florida swamp buggy racing. It was a lot better then. And gee, they were better journalists when they were not in business with leagues they covered. Go figure.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

and they had hockey!

[Brett L]

Too bad the Blackhawks were the only NHL team to come back after the lockout.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

zing!

[Pro Libertate]

The Lightning came out red hot, now suck. Hockey annoys me.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, let us declare once and for all that sports journalism only works at all when the journalists are entirely free and unbeholden to the leagues which they cover. Buy your own tickets, the whole nine yards.

And if you read that without substituting politics for sports, you’ve not been paying attention.

[Brandon]

“I had the privilege to spend some time with John Skipper,” he said. “His vision and charm were readily apparent, and judging by his leadership, his family name was prophetic.”

Wow, he really is an absolute whore.

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

I will stop watching ESPN if they give Olberman a job. They should just give hime the finger.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Wrong STEVE SMITH?

I had a chance to chat with the dashing and determined Mr. Steve Smith recently.

[John]

Well, he does move fast and he is determined. Any of his victims will tell you that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pauli Krugnuts is already setting the table for Obamacare’s failure

Some background: Medicaid, which provides health insurance to lower-income Americans, is a highly successful program that’s about to get bigger, because an expansion of Medicaid is one key piece of the Affordable Care Act, a k a Obamacare.

You might ask why, in that case, much of Obamacare will run through private insurers. The answer is, raw political power. Letting the medical-industrial complex continue to get away with a lot of overcharging was, in effect, a price President Obama had to pay to get health reform passed. And since the reward was that tens of millions more Americans would gain insurance, it was a price worth paying.

But why would you insist on privatizing a health program that is already public, and that does a much better job than the private sector of controlling costs? The answer is pretty obvious: the flip side of higher taxpayer costs is higher medical-industry profits.

So ignore all the talk about too much government spending and too much aid to moochers who don’t deserve it. As long as the spending ends up lining the right pockets, and the undeserving beneficiaries of public largess are politically connected corporations, conservatives with actual power seem to like Big Government just fine.

[John]

You might ask why, in that case, much of Obamacare will run through private insurers. The answer is, raw political power. Letting the medical-industrial complex continue to get away with a lot of overcharging was, in effect, a price President Obama had to pay to get health reform passed.

That may be true. But since it passed without a single Republican vote, it sure as hell wasn’t the Republicans who insisted it be that way. What a lying sack of shit that guy is. He just rewrites history to make Obamacare both bipartisan and the worst aspects the fault of Republicans who never voted for the thing.

[NoVAHockey]

“is a highly successful program”

sure

[mad libertarian guy]

But why would you insist on privatizing a health program that is already public, and that does a much better job than the private sector of controlling costs?

With the ability to be so fucked up as to say ‘But why would you insist on privatizing a health program that is already public, and that does a much better job than the private sector of controlling costs?’ it’s no wonder there are drug warriors in the world.

He says that as if there is one single concrete example he can point to.

[Jordan]

It’s easy to control costs when you don’t pay your bills.

[mad libertarian guy]

And when you have guns to back up your thievery.

The government don’t “control costs.” They steal and tell their victims “too fucking bad, asshole.”

I’d like to see every doctor in America refuse to accept Medicare.

[Francisco d Anconia]

At which point the government would require them to.

[C. Anacreon]

You’ve got that right. And the next government act will be making it illegal to accept cash for medical services, so docs can ONLY take Medicare’s crappy and Medicaid’s even crappier rates.

Medicaid reimbursement rates often don’t even cover the cost of the receptionist who checks the Medicaid patient in.

[Francisco d Anconia]

How you doing C.A?

[Rich]

Hilarious green screen prank on weather girl

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Her Of The Furrowed Brow graces us with another steaming pile of wisdom from the well-worn sphincter of feminist theory

So what did the researchers find about division of labor and the stability/happiness of marriages? A lot that will disappoint the woman-blamers out there[…] This is how the researchers described it:

Women performed over twice the number of tasks and assumed the burden of “mental labor” or “invisible work,” that is, planning and coordination of tasks.

Anyone else get the feeling that Amanduh is rarely “burdened” by the expectation that she’ll be any good at “mental labor”?

[John]

Is she even married?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

She cohabitates with a guy who calls himself “punkass Marc”. I wish I was kidding about that.

[John]

I have spent a year deployed and sexless. And I really can’t imagine being so hard up that I would go for her.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Ditto, and ditto.

[db]

I have spent a year deployed and sexless.

Dude, you’re supposed to call your doctor after four hours of that.

[protefeed]

Maybe doggystyle and with a bag over her head, unless her body is as bad as her face.

And then only after going sexless for a year, which ain’t remotely close to happening.

[Anonymous Coward]

The reality is that it’s easier to tolerate a mess if you believe that it’s someone else’s responsibility to clean it up. Men can overlook chaos at home for the same reason that I can overlook a spill on the floor at a restaraunt instead of picking up the mop and going after it myself. That spill is somebody else’s problem.

Amanda should be held liable for not doing her duty to protect the common good. If someone slipped on that spill that she saw and took no action to remedy, that person might slip, fall, injure themselves, be unable to work and because they make less income and pay less in taxes. Amanda has violated the government’s right to revenue and failed to protect her fellow man. That makes her the worst sort of person and she should be sent to Somalia with all of the other heartless libertarians.

[Brandon]

Uh, can we send her somewhere else?

[Killazontherun]

I’m a tidy guy. I clean up while I cook. But I’ll let everyone elses dishes pile up if they wont take care of their own messes. By them, I mean my nephew. I’m no one’s bitch, and one time I just dumped his dishes on his bed for him to take care of so they would be out of my way while cooking. You have to paint in broad strokes for him to get anything. I think it’s a generational thing.

I can’t stand for crumbs to be on the floor so the floor gets swept and the wife doesn’t even know where I keep the vacuum. However, I will not do the laundry while married. I hate that shit. Hate to fold, hate to touch wet clothing. And so long as I do the odd things that happen like sand down the bathroom door that has buckled due to her bathing habits so it will shut smoothly like I did over the weekend, she finds it to be an acceptable trade off.

[CampingInYourPark]

My son would tell you to go fuck yourself and move out

[Virginian]

Women performed over twice the number of tasks and assumed the burden of “mental labor” or “invisible work,” that is, planning and coordination of tasks.

Citation fucking needed.

[ant1sthenes]

Women do more work because women are the ones who want work done. Generalizing a lot, but it seems like men are on average less picky about how messy things are.

If you broke up all couples and raised babies to adulthood in jars, women would still probably be doing more chores.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Student gets 3 day suspension after wrestling away gun

[Killazontherun]

If the public implemented zero tolerance adhering to the same mindlessness as the public school officials do to students, the electric chair industry would be topping the stock trades. Seriously, what could those fuckheads be thinking? Any of them consider the negative reaction to this?

[A Mathematician]

Missed the brickbat?

[Thane of Whiterun]

get out your popocorn

Sandberg has been called out of touch, her book a “vanity project.” She’s been slammed as being too interested in building her brand and for advising women on work and family issues while having the temerity to employ a nanny.

[…]

Critics have also knocked Sandberg for putting the onus on women to lift themselves up, rather than blaming society for being sexist.

[John]

At least Sandberg is honest, feminism is about privilege for rich and upper middle class white women.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

None but a comfortably situated spawn of suburbia would stupid and vain enough to waste thousands of dollars on a major with all the academic rigor and subtlety of a Jack Chick tract.

[Thane of Whiterun]

But the discussion of how to rectify this problem always stalls out the second anyone suggests that men step up and do their fair share of housework.

As evidence by no episode of Everybody Loves Raymond ever.

[Thane of Whiterun]

WTF is this doing here?

[mad libertarian guy]

Critics have also knocked Sandberg for putting the onus on women to lift themselves up, rather than blaming society for being sexist.

The horror!

How dare a REAL woman suggest that individual women ought to judged by their individual accomplishments (or lack thereof) rather than blaming TEH PAYTREEARKEE!!! For in order to be truly empowered, women must rely on government favors rather than making themselves what they will.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

You laughed at Sam Waterston selling Robot Insurance.

[NeonCat]

As long as it isn’t powered by old people’s medicine (which is paid for by Medicare part D, hmm) I think, no, pray that we’re safe.

[ZinxMinx]

Now why didnt I ever think of that man? Makes a lot of sense dude.

http://www.AnonProx.da.bz

[ZinxMinx]

Soudns like some pretty crazy smack to me man.

http://www.AnonProx.da.bz

[Andrew S.]

Uh oh. Anonbot is contradicting itself.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Denis Leary
?@denisleary
Pretty sure my tits are bigger. pic.twitter.com/XxBs0zpvJO

[Brett L]

Damn. That’s the first funny thing he’s said since he was ripping off Bill Hicks.

[Killazontherun]

To be fair, Hicks was just listening in on a conversation between Bacchus and Satan while blitzed out of his mind when he came up with that material in the first place.

[Jordan]

Wasn’t Hicks the same dipshit who thought advertisers were morally worse than Nazis?

[Killazontherun]

Don’t recall hearing that one. He wasn’t exactly the most subtle thinker on the planet so it is very well possible.

Hicks handling a heckler (I could do without the worshipful bookending crap whomever uploaded this one plugged in there):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXwNE15BFYA

[fish]

Marketing majors & marketers!

[Killazontherun]

LL Cool J explains the concept of too soon to the media.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/03/02/…..z2MXnA9GJV

Outside Katsuya in Hollywood last night, we asked the Grammy host/rapper/”NCIS: Los Angeles” star about possibly doing a biopic, but he quickly nixed the idea.

LL told us, “That’s not something to even talk about because there are families that suffered, people that died. And because of that, I think it would be disrespectful to them to ? have this conversation about a film when people’s lives were on the line.”

[Xenocles]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed a resemblance.

[C. Anacreon]

I still say the gay cop from “Six Feet Under” is perfect to play him.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

ISAF not sharing monthly trend numbers in Afghanistan; intentionally fudges numbers

Let’s recap ISAF’s 2012, then:

ISAF made an accounting error that would make Enron proud
No one caught it for 12 months
ISAF does not understand the interwebs
But not to worry, citizens: even though the number of [Taliban] attacks stayed exactly the same, everything is going to be fine:

You know, I was initially skeptical of the idea of building a new nation with new, UN-chartered institutions in a region with no history of stable, centralized government, but all this great news I hear about the competence and transparency of the Afghan government is really putting that skepticism to rest.

(BTW, registan.net is a consistently good site for news/editorializing about Central Asia.)

[BigT]

What happens when Muslims buy a tract next to a pig farm?? Hilarity!

[Eduard van Haalen]

They acquired property next to a donut shop?

Damn, I’ve been on Reason too long.

[Enough About Palin]

“Israel launched two Palestinian-only bus lines in the West Bank, prompting cries of racism.”

Age: 23
Sex: Male
Race: Palestinian

WTF?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Today on Jezebel: Adele saying “Fank you”, pregnancy can make your feet bigger,

Nothing on practical advice to help women succeed in the workplace, have healthy, positive relationships with the opposite sex, or about places where groovy brown people routinely oppress women for real.

I’m sure they’ll get around to it someday.

[Xenocles]

That happened to my wife during pregnancy; apparently the hormones signal certain types of connective tissue to loosen up in preparation for the birth, and the effect is body-wide. The loosening allows the pelvis to spread but also the feet.

[Alack]

Women can already succeed in the workplace and have healthy, positive relationships. The problem is the men in those scenarios who oppress and other them, sometimes even subconsciously, because of the insidious influence of the Patriarchy. Ergo, the burden for rectifying the situation should be on the privileged white males in those situations, not the womyn who are already doing everything totally fine, thankyouverymuch.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Who Says Feminists Are Partisan and Unfunny?

Come look at Kate Upton and Ryan Gosling reciting DNC talking points verbatim! That’s funny, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don’t care, don’t care, don’t care.

Kate Upton would still get the D.

[ant1sthenes]

I wouldn’t say they’re unfunny. More like they understand humor about as well as autistic people can read people’s emotions.

[GILMORE]

new york times claims, “sequester: the poor are hit hardest by spending cuts”

no irony

[GILMORE]

actual story
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03……html?_r=0

“”There’s no loose change in the cushions,” Ms. Crowley said. “Anything you take out of HUD is going to reduce services and cut programs. There’s just no fat there. There hasn’t been for a long time.””

this is from the department that spent billions “mediating” foreclosures, and ends up with thousands of unsalable homes on its books

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

“There’s no loose change in the cushions,”

If this is what the majority of Americans believe, we deserved to be shunned by the few thinking humans left on the planet. Please tell me only craven statists and whoring celebs accept this shite.

[Tony]

If the SC decides to make a sweeping decision on gay marriage, I cannot envision John Roberts deciding anything but that he wants his court to be on the right side of history.

[sloopyinca]

Repost from an earlier thread:

Speaking of baseball, I’m ready to put the final touches on the Reason Hit and Run Baseball Weekend.

Saturday 4/6 vs The Pirates. Game time 6:10. Gonna have the details finalized very soon. If we can get 20 people, we can get a group rate and maybe our name on the Jumbotron. Please let me know if you are interested and I can tentatively put you down on the list.

We’ll probably stay in West Hollywood or near the Hollywood/Highland Metro Station for easy access to post-game drinking establishments. If anybody has a better idea, please let me know. Once I get a pretty good idea how many of us there are, I’ll take it to the people at Reason HQ and see if they want to do something for us as well, like opening the new office for the afternoon so we can drink and commiserate. (You hear that, Reason staffers? Be prepared for my call!)

e-mail me at [e-mail] if interested.

[db]

I just might be able to make it. I’ll probably be in AZ that week for business and I may be able to arrange to fly back from LAX. The one way car rental may not fly though.

[sloopyinca]

BTW, we’re about to walk in the door of the new surgeon to discuss Baby Reason’s belly. As you all know, she’s been doing extremely well and we’re hoping they give the green light to have the surgery done in the very near future. Anyway, I’ll be back later this afternoon to let those of you that care know what they say.

Anyway, thanks to all of you that have offered your well-wishes, prayers, etc. It’s meant the world to us.

[Xenocles]

I feel like maybe I should have known about this, but good luck to all of you.

[GILMORE]

jesus, ive picked up a copy of the NYT for the first time in like a decade, and its even more absurd than i remember. editorial page =

“Feminizion of farming = Good!”

“Krugnuts = Profits are evil”

“Steve Rattner = world needs more regulating”

“FDA should ban smoking altogether”

“gun lobby is evil”

“need to regulate payday lending because the poor are poor”

i want to save a copy just to remind myself how ridiculously biased they always are

[Auscifer]

Meanwhile on Huffington Post’s Front Page

Actual headlines from opinion column:

“I don’t want my kids to be happy”
Devon Corneal – Lawyer, Mother, 03/04/13

“When Is Holocaust Humor Acceptable?”

Rabbi Jason Miller, 03/04/13

[Joe M]

One benefit of the supposed upcoming melting of the polar ice caps: the Northwest Passage.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Anyone taking bets on this?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Menendez “scandal” completely fabricated by ratfuckers – just as I said would be the case.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..story.html

John, you Bushpigs are paid liars.

[CampingInYourPark]

Yeah, who gives a crap about the hoes?

“Sen. Menendez-sponsored bill could have aided donor’s investment, report says”

http://www.foxnews.com/politic…..z2McWgBPYq

[Heroic Mulatto]

It’s a little known fact that Sen. Menendez recorded an album a few years ago.

[John]

So one of the many adult hookers is now being paid to say she didn’t see him. That leave like five others who say he did and of course the yet to be found underage ones. Odd that no other Senators ever have paid hookers lie about them. Menendez is just such an unlucky guy I guess.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Yeah, and Lance Armstrong never took PEDs.

[Sevo]

CE| 3.4.13 @ 4:32PM |#
“No, the sequester didn’t figure out how to travel backward in time. It doesn’t even cut spending to 2012 levels.
Too bad too — cutting spending to 2005 levels would balance the budget.”

Yeah, but women and minorities would be eating dead children and elderly in the streets! And stuff!

[ZinxMinx]

Dude seems to know which way is up. Wow.

http://www.EliteProxy.da.bz

[francis321]

until I looked at the paycheck which was of $6956, I accept …that…my mom in-law woz actually receiving money parttime from their computer.. there sisters neighbour started doing this for only about fifteen months and resently took care of the depts on there house and purchased a great Lotus Elise. I went here, jump15.com