A.M. Links: US and Allies Pushing for Investigation into North Korea's Human Rights Record, InTrade Shuts Down Trading, Air Force Removes Drone Data From Website

Credit: petersnoopy/flickr

• The U.S. and its allies are pushing for a formal investigation into North Korea's human rights record, a move human rights activists say is long overdue. 

• The betting site InTrade has shut down trading. A vague memo from InTrade says that the decision was due to "circumstances recently discovered," and that these circumstances require investigation. 

• The Air Force has removed data on the number of weapons released by drones from its website. 

• Italian officials say that they believe the seven foreign nationals who were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria last month have been killed. 

• One of the suspects allegedly involved in the gang rape that killed a young Indian woman in December last year has been found dead in his prison cell. Ram Singh, who shared his cell with three other inmates, appears to have hanged himself. 

• Two American troops have been killed in Afghanistan after a police officer opened fire in a police station that American forces were visiting. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Two American troops have been killed in Afghanistan after a police officer opened fire in a police station that American forces were visiting.

In the cop's defense, he was trained by the LAPD and the Americans looked nothing like Christopher Dorner.

[Rich]

[Afghans and Americans] need to work increasingly close together in order to hand over responsibility as planned next year.

Or, the Americans could just "hand over responsibility" *now* and GTFO.

[VG Zaytsev]

That poor hero obviously never got proper training on not shooting up his police station.

[Virginian]

First!

[Virginian]

Bullshit. Fist you are cheating somehow I know it fuck you.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You can't hear it, but I'm laughing maniacally right now.

[invisible furry hand]

I can. It's coming from the corner of a dark room. Fisty, I have a very sharp knife and am not afraid to use it

[Fist of Etiquette]

The FIRST! is coming from inside the house!

[Almanian!]

Can you hear me now?

[Way Of The Crane]

He can be beaten.... you just have to want it bad enough.

[Fist of Etiquette]

While I'm hitting state of the art Soviet measuring equipment at 20,000 psi, Virginia needs to be training in ass-deep snow carrying tree stumps around to awesome synth music.

[Counterfly]

I figure, if you can get a First, and I can get a First, then we can all get a First!

[Way Of The Crane]

Sometimes even FOE gets caught off guard when he takes the time to scratch his balls.

[Ted S.]

I think Fist of Etiketka is a sock-puppet for one of the writers.

[Rich]

Come on, Ted. That's just being paranoid.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

we're all sock-puppets for the writers

[Raven Nation]

+1

[Rich]

"And at that moment he was enlightened."

[Ted S.]

I thought we were a source of material for the writers, who turn around and don't hat-tip us.

Bastards.

[Almanian!]

Typical Bigoratti

[db]

You guys are all my sock puppets.

[invisible furry hand]

A kindergarten teacher in Oslo, Norway, has been fired after encouraging her students to taste her blood.

more

[Way Of The Crane]

Kindergarten's a little early to earn your redwings isn't it?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Way to other the otherkin, Norway.

[Rich]

Best line:

Sadly, this isn't the first time a teacher's bodily fluids have ended up in the mouths of young students.

[Brett L]

"All of your children have touched me, and I'm pretty sure I've touched all of them."

[Counterfly]

I hope they let the right one in.

[Clich? Bandit]

Good movie...really creepy.

[MP]

At least now we know what it takes to get a teacher fired in Scandinavia.

[Quetzalcoatl]

They're still pretty oldschool when it comes to vampirism.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The betting site InTrade has shut down trading. A vague memo from InTrade says that the decision was due to "circumstances recently discovered," and that these circumstances require investigation.

Sounds like they didn't see it coming.

[LTC(ret) John]

Wanna bet on that?

[Rich]

*** goes snake eyed ***

[Quetzalcoatl]

They were so flush with pride that they didn't see the trick until all the cards were on the table.

[Counterfly]

I will club you for that.

[Zeb]

This is really getting out of hand.

[Zeb]

Damnit. I really didn't mean that to be a potential pun.

[db]

Well, you need to step up your commenting game and rise above the penny ante crap.

[hamilton]

Commenting is not his strong suit.

[R C Dean]

I dunno. He's kind of diamond in the rough. If he puts his heart into it, he'll do OK.

[db]

I think you're right. You gotta grab your dreams in this world and hold 'em tight.

[Quetzalcoatl]

He's like a meld of Jack Bower and Black Jack.

[some guy]

He'll come up spades...

[Almanian!]

I think this gets to the heart of the matter. Let's call a spade a spade - InTrade is on the discard pile of business.

[some guy]

Maybe InTrade just needs to shuffle up their legal and accounting departments.

[Bobarian]

Something about spades and RACIST...

[LTC(ret) John]

"Ram Singh, who shared his cell with three other inmates, appears to have hanged himself."

After he managed to beat himself bloody and broke several of his own bones. Indian authorities are puzzled.

[Ted S.]

STOP RESISTING!!!

[invisible furry hand]

The Nation Cruise is going to Canada and New England. Main draw: Naomi Klein. Love, exciting and new?

[Archduke Pantsfan]

watch out for icebergs

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Naomi Klein? Is that a joke? She's a halfwit.

[invisible furry hand]

Not a joke at all. I'm on the Nation's email list for the lulz, and the chance to hang with Nomes is the big selling point. And of course it is to Nation readers. If I had the time, I'd go too, wearing a Milton Friedman t-shirt, again for the lulz

[Quetzalcoatl]

It puts her 1/4 wit above the Nation readers.

Same reason Noot gets fans.

[DJF]

One place the Pentagon can cut is to get rid of the excess amount of officers

The US Navy has 52,546 officers, 4,438 midshipmen and only 260,253 enlisted. That is less then 5 enlisted for every officer. A enlisted man with a Corporal rank commands more personnel that that/

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/nav_legacy.asp?id=146

There is also more then 325 admirals in the USN but the Navy only has 286 ships. And admirals do not command individual ships or airwings or bases, only groups of them. And of course for each admiral you need to create a command to lead and a staff to go with them.

Below, link to clickable list of all the USN admirals

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/bio_list.asp

[LTC(ret) John]

I've been preaching a reduction in the flag ranks since 2008 in Iraq - I saw more flags than a parade on the Fourth of July and they all spent half their time working on justifying their billet.

Remember, each of these flags has a small to medium sized posse, an E-9 adviser, security, etc. Cut down the generals and admirals and we save big $

[DJF]

Also with so many officers and the Up or Out promotion system it means that most officers only stay in a job just long enough to punch a ticket and move up to the next rank. They need so many Admirals and their command staffs so they can have jobs for that waves of lower ranked officers moving up.

The officers who stay in one job long enough to both learn the job and have a positive effect on the command are the first ones who get cut in the UP or Out system since they don't have all their tickets punched.

There is also bloat in the upper enlisted ranks as well. There is no need for all those E-9's

[KDN]

A portion of the federal government is in dire need of a reorganization? I'm shocked to the core.

[T]

It's why we still have divisions. Let's face it, in this day and age the Army should be organized in combat brigades. But a brigade only has a colonel in charge. Divisions have generals in charge and on staff!

[Bobarian]

To be fair, Divisions are still a valid construct. Our next war could actually be a war, instead of the ongoing security mission / police action that we've been conducting for ~12 years.

But there is a shit-ton-load of other structure and positions in the Army that could and need to be reduced or eliminated.

[Way Of The Crane]

I blame the Village People.

[robc]

Didnt Heinlein comment on this in Starship Troopers?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Tell me about it. I live in the Norfolk area There was a big hoorah about shutting down a portion of JFCOM last year. I was in the minority telling people that it was a glorified "rubber room" for generals and admirals.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Not just the military. There is not a single government person I work with below a Grade 13.

[MattJ]

Purges!

[Agammamon]

Not that I disagree, but consider this

1. Officers at high level often command cadres of officers who command the enlisted.

2. Admirals *do* command single bases (though you're right in that they command multiple ships)

3. A good chunk of the officer cadre are technical specialists like doctors and lawyers and pilots and warrant officers who may not command *anyone* but who have needed skills that the extra pay and perks of a commission are needed to attract to the service.

[sarcasmic]

Global warming means more arable land!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....nging.html
More land to grow crops! Horror of horrors!

[wareagle]

the rape of Gaia continues.... oh noes.

[Way Of The Crane]

With a greater ability to feed the world comes an increase in population, leading to more people farting and eating things that fart and maybe driving things that fart and ultimately more global warming. This of course leads to more farm land and more people and so forth until we're all fighting over beach front property for our summer homes in Antartica.... where the fuck was I going with this...?

[sarcasmic]

Hell. You were going to Hell.

[gaijin]

Monsanto is behind this, surely.

[Aloysious]

+1 conspiracy

[invisible furry hand]

yes, but who is behind Monsanto?

[hamilton]

At some point or other I presumed it always came down to the KOCHtopus.

[Zeb]

That's what bugs me the most about most people who get all worked up about global warming. They seem to, for the most part, absolutely refuse to admit that any of the results could be positive.

Yes, if sea levels rise and weather patterns change, some people will be harmed. But that doesn't meant that nothing good can come of it as well. Everything has good and bad consequences.

It seems to me that the rational way to react to global warming is to mitigate the bad and embrace the good. We're not going to "fix" it.

[sarcasmic]

It seems to me that the rational way to react to global warming is to mitigate the bad and embrace the good.

Global warmers are not rational. Their entire argument is based upon circular reasoning. Their premise is their conclusion. Human activity must be harmful because there is no way it could not be harmful, therefore climate change must be caused by human activity and it must be harmful. Can't expect rational reactions from irrational people.

[Zeb]

I heard some guy on th4e radio recently talking at length about all of the potential new shipping routes that would be available if the Arctic melted more in the summers. The whole interview was basically about all of the benefits that this would provide. But at the end he quickly inserted a little disclaimer saying that climate change is still all bad and he certainly isn't celebrating any of it.

[AlexInCT]

Global warmers are not rational.

The problem isn't about their lack of rational thinking or otherwise; it is about the end goal. The end goal, despite whatever bullshit they tell you has and always will be a one world government that controls the serf's lives as well as the number of serfs. Of course the true believers are all dumb enough think they will be part of the machine doing the controlling instead of the serfs being controlled and culled.

[JW]

Everything has good and bad consequences.

Call me crazy, but advancing continental glaciers are pretty much all bad.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

YOu know who else gained affection in Germany?

[LTC(ret) John]

Nina Hagen?

[Rich]

David Hasselhoff?

[invisible furry hand]

Blixa Bargeld?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Scorpions?

[T]

Bertolt Brecht?

[Almanian!]

Kraftwerk?

[Counterfly]

That ich bin ein berliner guy?

[Rich]

Barack Obama?

[hamilton]

Cartman's Mom?

[WTF]

Rammstein?

[Proprietist]

Dirk Nowitzki?

[sarcasmic]

Youth continues to be wasted on the young.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-Dani.html

[Rasilio]

I will admit she is hot but she is almost completely devoid of talent (my kids used to watch her show before I blocked it for being so stupid) but the real annoying thing is she's friggin 15 do we really need to hear relationship advice from her?

[sarcasmic]

Sadly she's a Disney girl, which means she'll be a used up hag by 25.

[LTC(ret) John]

Does Disney implant some sort of life force drain on these kids they go through?

[sarcasmic]

I don't know how they do it, but it is a crime.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Probably the drug addiction.

[robc]

Ive heard of multiple parents blocking THAT show in particular. Is it really that awful?

Ive seen some stuff on Disney and most of it is mindnumbingly stupid, so I cant imagine how bad that one must be.

[mad libertarian guy]

No. It isn't that bad.

And unfortunately, I've seen every fucking episode of Shake it Up.

[Ted S.]

Shake It Up is kind of cheesy.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Everything after Panorama, and most of Panorama, is kind of cheesy.

[mad libertarian guy]

The worst part of that show is that they advocate Chicago "pizza."

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Shake it Up is undiluted badness. It makes Wizards of Waverly Place look sophisticated.

I deleted it from the DVR's record list. I'd rather my kids watch Archer.

[Bobarian]

I make my kids watch Archer.

(they are adults)

[Rasilio]

No it is not *that* bad, certainly far better than a lot of other Disney shows like Pair of Kings and Mr Young, but even a show like Wizards of Waverly place and Suite Live of Zach and Cody look like Shakespeare compared to Shake it Up.

I think the only one of the current crop of Tween/Teen Disney shows that I don't mind the kids watching is Good Luck Charley which stars the just as pretty but far more talented Bridget Mendler and actually has some redeeming qualities

[Bobarian]

My real problem with a lot of the Disney tween shows is the message that "adults are stupid and out of touch".

[Eduard van Haalen]

Well, they must be if so many of them let their kids watch these shows.

[Rasilio]

That is what I don't mind about Good Luck Charley, while the parents have their elements of stupidity so do the kids and more often than not the parents really are there to be parents and generally succeed at it

[Ted S.]

One of the nice things about not having children is never having heard of these Disney contract players.

[Scarcity]

And I get to find them hot when I find out about them as adults, without any of the creepiness of having watched them grow up on tv.

[some guy]

I like trying to guess what a Daily Mail article is about based solely on the text in the link.

I have no clue about this one...

[invisible furry hand]

Hugo Schwyzer writes about dick pics. Possibly even poses for one

[Way Of The Crane]

The assumption makes sense ? we're used to the idea that many men are hungry to show off their erections.

Of course when women post nude shots of themselves online, it's only because they were coerced into doing so, right?

[wareagle]

it's a circle of life thing - those women were, no doubt, coerced by men whose gaze upon naked women would create the hunger to show off erections.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I thought the feminists kicked him out of their tea party?

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I wish he were writing about dick pics; he's actually writing about (normal) self-portraits and how they make men look needy and emo while we expect them from women...because we expect women to be vain, needy, and emo. Vom.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Warty flying to Australia for emergency family funeral

[LTC(ret) John]

If the creature was destroyed for "posing a serious threat to Australia's biosecurity"...what the heck are they going to do when Warty shows up?!

[invisible furry hand]

His visa requires him to focus his, er, powers on pests such as rabbits, cane toads and Patterson's Curse. Of course the Government doesn't realise that the cure really is worse than the disease

[LTC(ret) John]

I'll say a prayer for you and your land of the force-ably transported.

[Counterfly]

It's OK, they have a whole crash of Steve Smiths in reserve for when they get overrun with Warty.

[Almanian!]

What could go wrong?

[Bobarian]

Warty SMITH hybrids; they will probably have duck-bills and poisonous venom.

[Rich]

"Australia's strict biosecurity requirements and responsive system has so far kept these pests out of Australia and we want to keep it that way."

Um, apparently NOT.

[LTC(ret) John]

The few that got through were immediately eaten by drop-bears, giant kookaburras and packs of dingos.

[JW]

"Giant African Snails are one of the world's largest and most damaging land snails," Mr Nixon said in a statement.

Prepare the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I think Toho films turned down a project like this.

"Oh, no, it's the giant snail - run!"

[Lord Humungus]

The Sequestered Life of Julia
http://www.americanthinker.com.....julia.html

A financial spreadsheet was constructed to model Julia's entire adult life, from ages 19-85. As would be expected, fictional Julia lives the comfortable existence that the president promised in his comic book. Unfortunately though, her federal, state, and local governments continue to pile up more debt and pension and healthcare liabilities in order to support her comfy lifestyle. In other words, upper middle class Julia not only contributes nothing to the president's social safety net; she actually consumes all of the money -- and more -- that she supposedly provides to fund it.

Puzzled by that disappointing outcome, I then constructed a spreadsheet of a non-socialist version of Julia to find out how much worse things would be with absolutely no entitlement programs or government-funded education. With all the doom and gloom predictions leading up to the federal budget "sequester" cuts of just a percent or two, my far-deeper cuts certainly should create a dystopian hell on earth.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Soooo... the moral is "Obama made up a pretty story to make his policies look like a utopia, but look: So can we!"?

[T]

It's stories about single mother turtles all the way down.

[Ray]

The U.S. and its allies are pushing for a formal investigation into North Korea's human rights record, a move human rights activists say is long overdue.

Wait, might they say that the North Koreans are mean and nasty? I can't believe such a thing!

[Lord Humungus]

Ten years after the invasion, did we win the Iraq war?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

A challenge facing historians of the Iraq war, which began 10 years ago this month, will be to gauge what senior members of George W. Bush's inner circle were actually trying to accomplish. The justifications offered for the invasion were all over the place, including supposed weapons of mass destruction, claims that Saddam Hussein had collaborated with al-Qaeda and visions of democracy throughout the Arab world. Eventually, only this last ? Bush's Freedom Agenda ? remained. Yet, as the war dragged on, expectations of transforming the Middle East gave way to more modest definitions of success. When it came to advancing the cause of liberty, the Bush administration set out to build a cathedral. In the end, the Obama administration declared itself content with a shaky two-car garage.

[LTC(ret) John]

It's a win, but it is still Iraq. They will have some time to go before it is less of a crap hole.

[robc]

It was a win the day of "mission accomplished". All the troops should have left that day.

[Counterfly]

Seriously, it'd be like if Tom Brady went to play for the Jaguars.

[Fatty Bolger]

Yep.

[Agammamon]

I don't think you can call it a win if none of your objectives are met.

1. WMD - were never there

2. Connections to Al-Queda - never had them

3. Pave the way for democracy - nope

[Drax the Destroyer]

I don't think it's a matter of whether or not "we" won.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Military contractors "won". Iran won.

US taxpayers lost big, US oil interests lost, the military lost, US prestige lost, ME stability lost.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I agree with you on that one Ass Cement. Hell must be chilly.

[LTC(ret) John]

Ah, the fabled "ME Stability" - you know, those people need an iron hand to guide them, eh?

The US military lost? I guess that Ba'athist army still runs the show, with Uday, Qusay and Saddam watching parades under the giant crossed swords in Baghdad, whilst parading the captured M1 tanks and the burnt shells of F-15s and AC-130s. Or was it the Al Qada Emir of Iraq holding those victory celebrations?

War for oil, was it? So much for the Iraqis deciding what to do with their own stuff - if we didn't get all the oil contracts, we "lost".

I suspect "US prestige" means something awfully different than what each of us defines it as.

Taxpayers got a nut punch, but small potatoes compared to the ass raping they have been getting since 2008.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I couldn't give one microscopic shit about "US Prestige" or Oil, but the concept of forcing "democracy" on people doesn't sit well, and frankly, gives the concept a bad name (not that it doesn't deserve it).

There's an argument that military lost, in terms of casualties (including all the suicides after the fact) vs. benefit (....no WMDs? Maybe?)

But it doesn't matter. My wealth, what little there is of it, will be confiscated to fund a terrible top-down "healthcare" system (let alone the already fucked safety-net we are forced to accept as an enema), an even more disastrous meat grinder in Iran, or some inbred amalgamation of the two. Either way, being fucked by power is the perpetual modus operandi, and holding up the war in Iraq as anything but the waste it was (is?) is disingenuous at best.

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

Did we win?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Jesus fucking christ

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

What did we win is the better question?

[Proprietist]

An oversized Stewie doll.

[Rasilio]

Anybody who thinks there is any question as to whether we "won" the Iraq war is a moron.

The war was over the minute we took control of the country and there is no question we won.

The question is did we win the occupation and get the political result we wanted, that however is a matter of interpretation and so the question can never really be answered since each person will have their own answer to the question based on their POV

[Drax the Destroyer]

The question is did we win the occupation and get the political result we wanted, that however is a matter of interpretation and so the question can never really be answered since each person will have their own answer to the question based on their POV.

That sadly sounds like the wishy-washy non-absolute answer a progressive would crap out.

[LTC(ret) John]

I think he is saying it would turn (and has turned into) one of those pizza, deep dish vs inferior types debates - never ending and irreconcilable.

[invisible furry hand]

Please remember where you are. These sorts of arguments are known as sarc v John around here

[Proprietist]

RIP MNG?

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Sugar diet not a good idea

[Ted S.]

The study was commissioned by the World Health Organization according to the article.

How that affects your view of the conclusions is up to you.

[robc]

Ummmm...duh?

[Azathoth!!]

Wow, when you read the article it doesn't really say anything at all--cutting down 'may' decrease body weight by .8Kg, adding in 'might' increase weight by .75Kg. Adding how much? Taking away how much? For how long?

Could you be more vague?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Air Force has removed data on the number of weapons released by drones from its website.

The filibuster forced the Air Force to change its web content? Mission accomplished!

[Lord Humungus]

Drones: Combat stress felt far from front lines
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....1-03-49-30

The military has begun to grapple with the mental and emotional strains endured by personnel who may never come face to face with a Taliban insurgent, never dodge a roadside bomb or take fire, but who nevertheless may be responsible for taking human lives or putting their colleagues in mortal danger.

Now, for the first time, an Air Force chaplain and a psychologist are walking the floor of the operations center at Langley, offering counseling and stress relief to the airmen who scrutinize the war from afar.

[LTC(ret) John]

I volunteer to throw some arty simulators at them, why should they miss out on the sphincter-slamming-closed, oh-God-please-miss fun?

[Rich]

I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!

[Zeb]

Arty?

[LTC(ret) John]

Artillery.

Especially when a 122mm rocket is coming in and the last little boosters kick in...gah!

[Pope Jimbo]

Fuck I hated chaplains.

I remember one time that I was on a work detail that was given the task of refurbishing an old mess kitchen. Of course there was no air conditioning (or even any breeze) and we had all stripped down to our skivvies and boots because anything less would lead to heat exhaustion.

We were taking a smoke break and some idiot chaplain came buy and a) started by chastising us because we were out of uniform and couldn't properly come to attention and salute his officer ass and then b) asked us how we were doing and could he help us in any way.

Get rid of chaplains in the services when you are paring down the officer corps. At least make them enlisted pogues.

[Cdr Lytton]

Nah. Make them warrants and throw the medical corps in there too. No reason, other than historical, to have most of those as O's.

[Agammamon]

I've said that about all the support corps - medical/legal/pilots/ whatever.

Make 'em warrant officers until they rise up in position high enough to actually command others - then give them regular commissions.

[Agammamon]

Also think that chaplain sviolate the 1st amendment.

At the very least those guys should be civilian contractors hired by the units and not active duty personnel.

[Quetzalcoatl]

So I watched the first episode of Vikings! last night.

The first episode of any new show is rough because it has to introduce us to a new world. And the dynamic of "young boy goes to his first entmoot" worked well enough for that.

My problem is that the entire episode seemed to be "this is what Vikingtimes were like". I don't know if it's just because it's the Herstory channel, but it seemed like they had a lesson plan for each scene containing words, concepts and technologies that would be on the test.

What I'm saying is: it was missing a human element. Good actors, a setting that isn't already mined to death, no gripping characters. Let's hope it gets better as it goes.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Ragnar's wife seemed grippable and human.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I didn't like how the only way they could imagine to make her interesting was "Hey, let's make her a sword-maiden!"

Maybe I'm just expecting too much from this show. Maybe this is how Italians feel when they watch Jersey Shore...

[Night Elf Mohawk]

It was the first episode, which was focused mainly on the husband and son. They also made her interesting in a couple of ways that would be spoilers. Think about how she dealt with the moral issue that was presented to her.

[KDN]

Maybe I'm just expecting too much from this show. Maybe this is how Italians feel when they watch Jersey Shore...

Quite the opposite. Jersey Italians were beaming with pride after JS came out and treated it as a how-to guide for their summer weekends.

[Agammamon]

JS italians bear as much relation to real italians as cheez-wiz does to real cheese.

As a matter of fact - JSI's and Cheez-Wiz use the same orange colorant.

[Azathoth!!]

Really? Jersey Italians were treating it as a how-to? A how-to for what? How to act like Brooklyn and Staten Island guidos down at the shore?

[Proprietist]

Kathryn Winnick is pretty hot.

[Proprietist]

Kathryn Katheryn

[Rasilio]

I don't know I thought it was decent at least, I mean not Game of Thrones but better than half the shows on network TV.

For instance, compare the first episode of Vikings to Star Trek TNG's Encounter at Farpoint. Sure there is room to grow here but all in all I think it laid a pretty good foundation.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I loved it - watched both episodes back-to-back. The plot really moves along (you're a week behind so I won't tell you details) - I was shocked that things happened so quickly. Can't wait for the ultimate showdown with the Earl.

And the cast is fucking scorching hot.

[Kaptious Kristen]

And The Walking Dead was awful last night. The season has been decent so far, but last night just brought it down 10 notches.

[Bobarian]

I disagree, last night was a set-up episode; I expect great things to come of this.

[Proprietist]

What was wrong with last night's episode? Of the "set up" episodes, I considered this was one of the better ones, since we can see the potential for the meeting between Rick's group and Andrea/the Governor's right hand men may potentially lead to the governor's downfall.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I could give two shits about all that political garbage between Rick & the Governor. I watch the show for the zombies.

[Proprietist]

I don't know. If the zombies were the only problem, the show would get boring fast, as we saw in season 2. Season 3 has been good by adding a new dimension.

My big question is why doesn't Michonne propose her island idea to the gang? Go out to the tropics, live off fish and coconuts, go sunbathing on the beach. That was the most logical idea anyone came up with on the show.

[Agammamon]

The Walking Dead is aweful every night - this season just stands out in how aweful it is.

[Quetzalcoatl]

How many episodes are they planning for the first season?

I'll probably give the second episode a shot, now that I'm caught up on Justified.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Not sure how many eps. I think the ratings are really good, though, so it'll hopefully get picked up for fall. The protagonist is a semi-historical/semi-mythical figure, so they could basically do what they want with him (in fact, the series starts out in 793, which is about 50 years before the actual guy was actively raiding).

[Lord Humungus]

Karzai Accuses U.S. of Taliban Collusion as Hagel Visits
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....isits.html

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was greeted on his first visit to Afghanistan since taking office by suicide bombs, threats and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's accusation that the U.S. is colluding with the Taliban.

As Hagel prepared to leave a U.S. military compound in Kabul on March 9, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Ministry of Defense, and another suicide bomb detonated in Khost province. Yesterday, Karzai said that those attacks, which together killed 19 people, aided U.S. goals. A joint Hagel-Karzai press conference at the presidential palace was canceled for what Pentagon officials said were security reasons.

[Spoonman.]

Is Karzai's hovercraft filled with eels? I don't put hardly any stupidity past the US Government, but that just seems implausible.

[LTC(ret) John]

He cannot wait until lunchtime!

[hamilton]

I doubt Karzai is going to ask Hagel to come back to his place, bouncy-bouncy.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It totally makes sense that US & the Taliban would be BFFs. That's the way it works in every rom-com: first they fight, then they kiss!

[Agammamon]

". . .Afghan President Hamid Karzai's accusation that the U.S. is colluding with the Taliban"

Is he confusing real life with the movie "Postal"?

[Lord Humungus]

Get Your Popcorn Ready To Watch The Coming Keynesian Self-Destruction
http://www.forbes.com/sites/na.....struction/

The self-destruction of today's Keynesians will lead to a new gold standard system, just as it always has in the past. But, first the Keynesians need to finish their self-demolition, accompanied, as it was in 18th century France, by widespread cheers and encouragement.

[Virginian]

Watching it would be fine. But living it not so much. "I told you so" loses a lot of its luster when there are actual consequences, even for those who were right in the first place.

[LTC(ret) John]

Yes indeed. Hard to get gleeful about watching things go to pot when you have kids who will be out in the world in a few years.

[Drax the Destroyer]

"I told you so" also ensures a thorough ass-beating by the assholes reality has proven wrong. They don't like being wrong.

[Virginian]

Yeah, if we libertarians purchased, let's say, Madagascar, and it was Libertopia with a few ICBMs to preserve our sovereignty, then yeah we could all sit on the beach and toast the breaking of the world.

But it ain't going down like that.

[hamilton]

What do you think Madagascar would go for? I'm in for twenty.

[Proprietist]

To be fair, modern Keynesians are pretty terrible Keynesians. Keynes has been deeply misused to economically justify perpetual annual deficits and eternal currency devaluation by statists.

[sarcasmic]

Inside Club Gitmo.

Far from languishing in a dank and desolate dungeon as many in the outside world imagine, inmates are in fact able to rent Harry Potter movies, borrow car magazines and even get strawberries for their tea.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....d-bed.html

[LTC(ret) John]

We should have outsourced to the Russians...they know how to run a right and proper Gulag!

[T]

I thought with extraordinary renndition, we had outsourced to the Russians. And Egyptians. And [redacted]...

[Spoonman.]

Probably not the Russians, just their students in Belarus.

[LTC(ret) John]

Brrrrrr...Belarus. I would rather get in trouble almost anywhere else.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Singapore?

[LTC(ret) John]

The might kill you in Singapore, but in Belarus they would torture, then kill you and do shit to your body afterwards too.

[Ted S.]

Wouldn't Harry Potter movies be haram?

[Counterfly]

If you watch them in support of the Jihad it's OK, I think.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Sequester this

[Lord Humungus]

Peggy Noonan: The Anti-Confidence Man
Just when America needs a boost, we're stuck with Dr. Doom in the White House.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....71600.html

Barack Obama really is a study in contrasts, such as aloof and omnipresent. He's never fully present and he won't leave. He speaks constantly, endlessly, but always seems to be withholding his true thoughts and plans. He was the candidate of hope and change, of "Yes, we can," but the mood of his governance has been dire, full of warnings, threats, cliffs and ceilings, full of words like suffering and punishment and sacrifice.

It's always the language of zero-sum, of hardship that must be evenly divided, of constriction and accusation.

It's all so frozen, so stuck. Just when America needs a boost, some faith, a breakthrough.

[Palin's Buttplug]

he won't leave

I thought he was out campaigning all the time? It is tough to keep the wingnut talking points straight.

[Virginian]

Wasn't Peggy Noonan one of the Obamacons? Or was that some other cupid stunt?

[Almanian!]

She was a Reagan speechwriter, now insufferable Rethuglitarian softy.

Speaking of STFU, Peggy, you first.

[Virginian]

So she did endorse Obama. OK, then bitch needs to shut her damn mouth. Seriously, leaving aside the full on concern trolls like Brooks and Frum, anyone who claims to be of the Right, however moderate, cannot support Obama. It's a litmus test.

Why does anyone still listen to her?

[Palin's Buttplug]

It was Kathleen Parker that left the GOP plantation - not Peggy.

[Virginian]

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....85317.html

Wrong again shriek.

[John]

God you are fucking stupid. Can you just kill yourself Shriek so you will stop embarrassing the human race?

[Almanian!]

fact PWN'D

[Virginian]

That felt so good. Him finally stating a simple fact that I could post a simple refutation of. Easy breezy beautiful, dickslapped retard.

[R C Dean]

Noonan has some value in one way:

She is the perfect distillation of Beltway "thinking". Read her if you care to know what the Right People are saying at the Right Cocktail Parties.

[Eduard van Haalen]

She seems as dumb as Reagan was falsely accused of being.

[Lord Humungus]

Dangerous Times: Is Italy teetering?
http://www.americanthinker.com.....ering.html

Italy may be teetering on the edge.

Southern and eastern Europe is in distress, and amazingly similar fascist movements are arising for the first time in sixty years. The other shores of the Med are afire -- North Africa, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt. Outside powers like Iran and the Gulf Arabs are financing Islamist militancy in Europe and Africa. Islamist reactionaries are winning in Egypt, Syria, Libya, and the rest.

America has kept the balance for sixty years, and today there is a vacuum. But the fate of the world still comes down to an alliance of civilized nations. If America fails, some other center of civilized power will have to take over.

Are there any takers?

[Drax the Destroyer]

If America fails, some other center of civilized power will have to take over.

I love how people assert this to be true. Does a "civilized" power have to take over or do these pants-shitting mouth-breathers want such a power to take over?

[RickC]

Not sure a "civilized" power would take over, but I am sure some "civilized" as well as "uncivilized" powers would try. This is not an endorsement of our or anyone else's desire for taking over.

[Rasilio]

If America fails (which it will) America will take over.

As bad off as America's finances are we are still better off than just about every other country out there and the handful better than us are simply too small to play the role of global power.

when the crash happens it will happen pretty much everywhere and by far the most likely scenario has the United States recovering fastest, the question is what will that new America look like as there is no guarantee that it will not take a turn for the worst and become rather quite fascist in outlook

[Gene]

I'm looking to buy a nice 4x4, should probably opt for the big motor, to do my part.

[Gene]

Idiot next time post in the right spot.

[Ted S.]

You're no worse than P Brooks.

[Quetzalcoatl]

The bigotry of low expectations.

[Almanian!]

I just got rid of my 2012 F250 4x4 with the 6.2L gas engine. I miss it already...you could tow your house with it.

[Gene]

That's what I need it for towing trailers often in wet fields. My old f-150 just spins it's wheels in the muck. The leather interior of the Chevy sure looks good.

[mad libertarian guy]

Government Motors?

Fuck that.

[Zeb]

Do you often need to tow your house?

[Lord Humungus]

if the new Tundra's didn't look like ass, I would recommend them. I prefer the mid-sized versions.

[T]

I almost bought the Tundra, in part because Toyota will sell you (and warranty!) a blower to get the HP up to 505.

But Ford pricing was tough to beat, so the F-150 it was.

[John]

The Tundras are bulletproof though. They are basically indestructible.

[mad libertarian guy]

Tundra fucking rules.

[T]

I got through 205K on my Chevy 1500 with no maintenance beyond consumables. It was starting to burn (or leak) oil. I'm hoping the Ford holds up as well. If I start having issues, I'll chuck it and get the Toyota.

Honestly, I could have kept the Chevy for another couple of years, but I wanted the new shiny.

[Cdr Lytton]

I'm 5K beyond that with my ten year old F150. Nothing other than minor repairs here and there.

Similar with my work truck but that one did have a tranny replacement due to heavy (ab)use.

[Zeb]

I loved the Top Gear attempts to destroy an older Toyota pickup.

[Gene]

Blower Kits and HP boosts abound for the GM trucks, most if not all will void the warranty. GM performance doesn't offer blowers up here in Kanukistan. I know as a good libertarian I should steer clear of Gov Motors but the big cash incentives are hard to overlook.

[sarcasmic]

Saudi Arabia may stop public beheadings. Why? Not enough swordsmen.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....dsmen.html

[Virginian]

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Sharia, or Islamic Law. So far this year, three people have been executed.

______

Three out of five should be capital crimes, in a perfect world where governments never screw up and execute innocent people. Too bad we live here.

[Zeb]

Sometimes when I think about prisons and how awful they are, I think that all crimes should be capital. Of course, that would require that only things that actually hurt people be crimes and, as you said, government never fuck up and kill the wrong person.

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

I'm not following your "prisons are awful places so we should just kill prisoners" argument.

[Zeb]

The existence of prisons sort of offends me. That there are people in the business of keeping other people locked in cages troubles me. While I won't deny that some people certainly deserve to be there, there are so many awful downsides to prison (for example, being essentially training centers for criminals, attracting the worst sorts of people to be guards, corruption, rape, and general inhumanity). If the only things that were considered criminal were real crimes against other people, then a Draconian regime wouldn't be so unreasonable.
Also, note I said sometimes. And that it is not practical or ethical given the fallibility of the people who must determine guilt.

[Zeb]

Also, I'm not saying we should just kill prisoners. In the fantasy land where what I am thinking of would be possible, there wouldn't be prisoners. Anyone who commits a serious enough crime, gets killed. Otherwise, fines, restitution, etc. could be used as punishment for less serious offenses.

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

got you

[LTC(ret) John]

Maybe they could recruit from some Renaissance Faire over here? Outsource to the SCA?

[kinnath]

Outsource to the SCA?

They're all too drunk.

[RickC]

And they use wooden swords.

[sarcasmic]

Many years back I went to see a Ren Faire with my gf and those guys beat the shit out of each other with real metal swords and armor. Their attempts at jousting were pitiful, but the sword fights were fucking loud metal on metal.

Best part was the Scottish eggs. OMG those things were good!

[kinnath]

The rebated-steel guys are nuts.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Like these ones?

[sarcasmic]

Just like those. Yum. If you ever have a chance to try them, don't pass it up.

[SweatingGin]

They're easy to make, too. Just a hardboiled egg, wrapped in layers of bread crumbs and sausage, then deep fried.

Pro tip: Try it with a soft boiled egg.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Jeez, why not just inject the fat straight into your arteries?

[robc]

A restaurant in Louisville has figured out how to make Scotch Eggs with the yolk still runny.

Not my thing, I like my eggs done, but foodies drool over them.

[Zeb]

Eggs are done when the white is all firm and the yolk is still runny.

[RickC]

I've been to a couple of kingdom level tournaments and all I saw was wooden swords covered with tape. They did wail on each other though. A good friend of mine has been working to mainstream the jousting. He has a beautiful set of jousting armor just built by some guy in Russia on the way right now.

[sarcasmic]

I swear these guys were using metal swords. It certainly did not sound like wood on metal. It was metal on metal. As far as the jousting goes, they were just new to it. That was like fifteen years ago. I bet they're good at it by now.

[kinnath]

RenFaire is not SCA

[kinnath]

SCA is rattan-only. The rebated-steel guys are a different organization.

[Loki]

Best part was the Scottish eggs. OMG those things were good!

Seeing the words "Scottish" and "good" in that close proximity to each other when discussing food does not compute.

"I thinkg most Scottish cuisine was based on a dare."

[invisible furry hand]

What are you talking about? Scotch is delicious. It's a food, right? About half-way up the food pyramid?

[LTC(ret) John]

TAKE THAT BACK!

*runs off to find haggis and single malt whisky*

[sarcasmic]

Seeing the words "Scottish" and "good" in that close proximity to each other when discussing food does not compute.

I promise there are no sheep guts in Scottish eggs.

[Ted S.]

How much mead do you have to drink to get drunk?

[kinnath]

Depends on who made it.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Most of the stuff I've seen is as alcoholic as wine.

So... about a bottle.

[mad libertarian guy]

Then you haven't seen the right stuff.

[Ted S.]

I don't think anybody wants to see the right stuff.

[kinnath]

My meads are typically 13-16% ABV. I know guys that use champagne yeast and hit 18-20% ABV.

[R C Dean]

When I was making mead, I went with champagne yeast. I got a drier product that way, and I like dry.

A sparkling cranberry mead, made every holiday season and aged a year for the next holiday season, was always in demand. Great stuff.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Any chance you have a recipe to share, RC? Dry mead sounds interesting.

[R C Dean]

Its been a long time.

As I recall, it involved a typical mead recipe, as far as amount of honey went (1 gallon?) to make a five gallon batch, with a seemingly absurd amount of cranberries (5 pounds of the things, maybe? I really can't recall how many) dumped in while it is cooking (not in the fermentation). I do recall not letting it come to a real boil: held it at a bare simmer for a little while, to keep as much of the honey notes as possible. Bottled it like beer.

Mead tends to run sweet, to my taste, so the tart cranberries and the dry champagne yeast cut the sweetness. And, of course, anything sparkling gets drunk faster. Makes for a very festive contribution to holiday parties.

[mad libertarian guy]

Mead will run anywhere from 7 or 8% ABV to over 20%. The one I made in 2003, of which I still have 1 bottle which will be consumed very soon, was ~14%.

[Zeb]

I like mead, but I do not like drinking enough of it to get drunk. Headache in a bottle.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It's the sugar hangover. The worst.

[LTC(ret) John]

Maybe it just takes a few extra swings then?

[kinnath]

Hard to maintain a sharp edge on rattan.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Jeb Bush (the smart one) does all five Sunday morning political shows then claims he has not decided to run in 2016.

[Way Of The Crane]

I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with his new book. I mean, who the fuck promotes a book they just wrote by doing interviews on TV?

[Almanian!]

Not Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch. Nosiree.

[Ted S.]

Brian Doherty simply mentions his book non-stop in all his H&R posts.

[Way Of The Crane]

Yeah, but in his defense, who the fuck wants to interview Doherty?

[Quetzalcoatl]

Noot.

[mad libertarian guy]

Of course this was directly after Rand Paul delivered a n epic 13 hour filibuster.

And the Sunday shows decide to air a guy who doesn't hold any office of any kind right now.

[sarcasmic]

Can you still enjoy sex if you're severely disabled? This bride-to-be, who has no feeling from the chest down, gives a resounding yes, yes, YES!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....s-YES.html

[Jerryskids]

Mentally or physically severely disabled?

This goes back to the CT SC case overturning a rape conviction on the grounds that the prosecutor picked the wrong rape statute to prosecute under and everybody claimed the CT SC had ruled that it was ok to rape retards.

Interesting point raised - if the mentally disabled are unable to give consent and any sex with them is perforce rape, would two retarded people having sex both be charged with rape?

[Agammamon]

Yes

Just like a 15 year old taking and sending a picture of her junk to her boyfriend gets both charged - one with making child pornography, the other with possessing it.

You have to ruin their lives to keep them from ruining their lives.

[Bardas Phocas]

SOCIAL CONTRACT! seems to mean slavery or something. In the article, groups of people are opting out of a corrupt political organization and forming ones more to their liking. This is a crime against the Collective.

"So when you allow powerful groups of citizens to opt out of a social contract, and form their own, it may benefit the group opting out, but it hurts the larger collective," he said.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/sub.....m-atlanta/

[Virginian]

Looters and moochers gonna loot and mooch.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Why shouldn't it hurt the larger collective? There's a price for stealing people's shit, telling them they are worthless as individuals, and making them dependent. People don't like that shit. Fuck the larger collective.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Exactly. The larger collective brings this stuff on itself. Fuckers.

[Agammamon]

Oh look at you guys, always blaming the victim.

[robc]

Im trying to figure out what they are opting out of. Sandy Springs, for example, was never part of Atlanta, it was in unincorporated Fulton County before it incorporated.

[Virginian]

Social fucking contract Rob. You owe the worthless masses the fruit of your labor, because they voted for it.

Now bend the fuck over.

[AlexInCT]

That's a purdy mouth you got there...

[Palin's Buttplug]

Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger's 6'2" daughter signs with modeling agency.

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk.....gency.html

[Virginian]

That's too tall. 5'11" is about the max I can go for.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Was she the ungrateful little pig?

[Bardas Phocas]

Most children are.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Looks too much like her dad.

[Juice]

Is that the daughter that Alec famously berated over the phone?

[John]

The betting site InTrade has shut down trading. A vague memo from InTrade says that the decision was due to "circumstances recently discovered," and that these circumstances require investigation.

Like it being fixed and manipulated? Knock me over with a feather.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Quit making shit up again, John.

Romney lost and us smart people all knew he would. Just because you can't predict the weather in Death Valley doesn't mean shit for others.

[John]

They just shut trading down for the hell of it. People shut down successful honest, enterprises all of the time.

Shut up retard.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Disney really did sign a deal with the devil
Now, however, George Lucas has let it slip that he signed all three actors for the next movie, if not more beyond that. In a Bloomberg Businessweek story about Disney's buyout of Lucasfilm, the Star Wars creator reveals that Lucasfilm "had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison ? or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation [when the Disney deal came about]. So I called them to say, 'Look, this is what's going on.'"

[Counterfly]

I hope they do an On Golden Planet, where Han has space alzheimer's and Leia watches him step in front of a landspeeder but doesn't try and stop him because she's tired of changing his space diapers.

Is that what happened in the original OGP, by the way? I mean without the space references, of course. I haven't seen it is why I'm asking, but if I was going to write a (non-fantasy/comedy) movie with old people in it, that'd be it.

[db]

I think it was about an old fart who blew into Golden Pond in his Cigarette boat, caused a ruckus among the over-70 crowd, and taught them all the Charleston, in defiance of the common decency and decorum that an up and coming hipster town should be able to expect from its old folks.

[Agammamon]

I thought there was something about aliens drugging the water so that all the old people thought they were young again and Wilford Brimley had old-people sex in the shower.

[sarcasmic]

Mummy scans reveal heart disease plagued our ancestors BEFORE the emergence of junk food and cigarettes

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....ettes.html

But, but, but... Big Agra! Corporations! Food deserts!

[Way Of The Crane]

Proof Bloomberg was born 3,000 years too late.

[Matrix]

any moment now, white indian will come in here to claim it was the agricultural city-state that doomed us.

[Almanian!]

You are free to gambol down the snackfood aisle.

[Zeb]

Well, to be fair, Egypt, at least, was an agricultural city state.

[Spoonman.]

Well, the Egyptians were big-time grain eaters.

[John]

http://www.althouse.blogspot.c.....mmune.html

What scumbags. Say what you want about John Yoo. But at least he was willing to sign his name and defend his position. How low and degraded of a human being do you have to be to sit in the bowels of the White House writing anonymous memos trying to cover the President's ass in case he isn't re-elected?

[Virginian]

Seriously. I read Yoo's book Crisis and Command. I disagreed with a lot of it, but it was an excellent book about the historical use of executive power. It's just what I see as unconstitutional power grabs he sees as necessary steps supported by his views on executive power. Also an excellent rejoinder to the idea that imperial presidency started with number 43.

[T]

Yeah, Yoo is an unquestionably a sharp guy. It's just that his starting premises are so wrong (to people like us), where he ends up is horrific.

[John]

At least he is honorable enough to man up to his opinions.

[Zeb]

I think it is always important to remember that the fact that someone is wrong does not at all imply that they are stupid.

[bostonaod]

Also an excellent rejoinder to the idea that imperial presidency started with number 43.

Isn't it essentially tied to the rise of the national security state? (Which in turn would be tied to the nuke)

[Virginian]

No, the book is really illuminating about that. Executive overreach, particularly in the foreign policy sphere, started with Washington.

Of course, the conclusion he draws is that it was an intended part of the federal republic. Essentially the President was an elected king for foreign policy and national security, in Yoo's mind.

[robc]

Did Yoo even look at Madison's minutes on the constitutional debate?

[VG Zaytsev]

Wilson got away with shit 95 years ago that Obama can only dream of doing.

[VG Zaytsev]

It's just what I see as unconstitutional power grabs he sees as necessary steps... to dictatorship.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Don't Panic

[robc]

I need a drink that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

Share and Enjoy!

[invisible furry hand]

so you're a masochist on a diet?

[Kaptious Kristen]

I'll take a Jinnan Tonix

[mr simple]

Bill Maher Asks Why Everything Has To Be Political then requests definition of irony.

Commenters continue cluelessness.

[John]

His viewership hovers right around Shriek level intelligence.

[Proprietist]

To some degree I agree with him. I never got the vitriol against Michelle. Sure, she has nannyist tendencies, but it's not like she's Hillary-level bad, trying to push single-payer healthcare policy as first lady. And school lunches mostly do suck (both palatably and nutritionally), so I can't blame her for trying to improve them even if she's mostly failing.

[Agammamon]

I think most of it is backlash against the media fawining over her. We're constantly told that she's super-smart, super-capable, super-classy, super-graceful, super-beautiful when its obvious that's she's not.

To me she's basically a Laura Bush - not bad looking, not dumb but nothing special either.

[John]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03.....share&_r=0

My God Coats is a fucking moron. It seems he lacks the imagination to understand that a white person can be falsely accused of a crime and a black person might actually be guilty of one. Bonus for him admitting his wife has "been at war with white people" her entire life and is an unrepentant racist. Where does this woman work? Does her employer know this and the kind of liability she is exposing them to?

Of course the real racism in Coats' lives comes from the editors of the Times. No way would an overt white racist like Coats ever be employed by the Times. They only employ Coats because they don't consider him to be a full human being and think it is okay to hold him to a lower standard of behavior and intelligence. It is benevolent white supremacy. But it is white supremacy none the less.

[Quetzalcoatl]

What I find amusing is the idea that Forest Whitaker's celebrated catalog (Ghost Dog was okay...) should have exempted him from suspicion of shoplifting.

I can't think of any celebrities who've been caught shoplifting...

[John]

Who is a bigger star and less likely to be in need of case, Wynona Rider or Forrest Whitaker?

It is pretty well known that some people shoplift for thrills. I guess Coats doesn't think a black man could ever do such a thing.

[VG Zaytsev]

It's not the thrills so much.

It's the sense of entitlement that comes from having everyone around you kiss your ass 24/7.

The celebrities that don't become insufferable douchebags are rare.

[Way Of The Crane]

Are we assuming that the deli employee recognized Whitaker as a "famous" actor? Or is Coats leaving it open for interpretation that despite his "celebrity," Whitaker was mistaken for just another black man because, you know, to racists, they all look alike.

I am trying to see Sean Penn or Nicolas Cage being frisked at an upscale deli, and I find myself laughing in the dark.

I like Whitaker, but let's be honest, he's no Nic Cage. I don't care how good you think "Crying Game" and "Ghost Dog" were, Witaker will never have the same level of recognition without his own "National Treasure" or "Ghost Rider II."

[invisible furry hand]

Must admit, the idea of Sean Penn being frisked is amusing. Not as funny as Sean Penn in a Venezuelan jail being cavity searched. But still funny

[Way Of The Crane]

Admitted.

[Warty]

NOT THE BEEEEEEEEEES

[Eduard van Haalen]

Ghost Rider II?

[WTF]

Oh My GOD - I fucked up and read the comments. Holy shit what a celebration of stupidity.

[Agammamon]

Or the fact that's he looks like Ton Loc.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I had a store hold my AMEX Platinum and call the cops -- and refuse to call AMEX -- because, apparently, guys in their mid-20s with long hair and an Iron Maiden shirt could only be perpetrating fraud.

That this dim bulb can't even imagine something outside of his ideology seems to me to be an indictment of him, his ideology, and the people who pay him money to write such idiocy.

[Almanian!]

Well, the Iron Maiden shirt is kinda suspiciousl...you gotta give 'em that...

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Well, admittedly, it was from the Somewhere in Time tour but I still think they overreacted.

[Spoonman.]

Conveniently the Amex I get through Costco has my picture on the back, so the cashier's suspicion when I buy $600 of home improvement materials is quickly allayed.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Dude, he obviously thought you were a time traveler from 1984.

[Atanarjuat]

I am trying to imagine a white president forced to show his papers at a national news conference, and coming up blank.

Um, no one "forced" Obama to do anything at a news conference.

And if the candidate was a radical lefty named Yuri Krgyzyzyzyyzkov who was born outside the US to at least one noncitizen parent, you can bet someone would be asking about his citizenship, too.

[Brett L]

Greetings from the road. It sucks to roll over at 8:20 AM and be 100 comments down. Oh well. It's vacation time, and so far (all weekend) the gf has responded well to my efforts to brainwash her into finding Texas an acceptable place to move to. I've also discovered that several new Houston area breweries brew shite in a bottle. Well, mediocre hop flavored uninspired crap anyhow.

[invisible furry hand]

i think Night Elf Mohawk said there was a drive-through burger joint that served exotic meats in Houston. You can always import good beer, but exotic meat burgers? You are in the promised land, my smelly little buddy

[T]

Yup. Sammy's Wild Game Grill. Highly recommended.

And which breweries aren't you liking, Brett?

[Brett L]

Buffalo Bayou 1836 and Goose(?). BB was pretty soapy aftertaste. The other just tasted like Lake Conroe to me, but that could've been mental.

[T]

Huh. I tried Buffalo Bayou at the BeerFest last year. I seem to recall it being okay, but you know how that is. The later in the day at beer fest, the more your discrimination fails you.

Look for Karbach, No Label, or Southern Star. All are pretty good.

Oh, yeah, skip Southern Star's Pine Belt Pale Ale. That shit is nasty. But their Bombshell Blonde and Buried Hatchet Stout are good.

[Brett L]

I'll find some Karbach tonight.

[Apatheist ?_??]

1836 isn't great but all their other beers are really good. Right now they have a Black IPA out with some coffee in it. Shit's delicious.

[Brett L]

Oh yeah. Awesome. I wanted to take the gf through Memorial and the Heights areas anyhow.

[Spoonman.]

Walking through Rice University should be very pretty this time of year, unless it's pouring.

Also have to recommend Memorial Park.

Don't go east of 288.

[Apatheist ?_??]

My position amounts to: The negative effects of banning drugs is worse than the negative effects of the drugs.

Especially this week as all the women are on spring break.

-Alum

[Night Elf Mohawk]

"Sammy's Wild Game Grill is committed to bringing you only the finest exotic meats, including Antelope, Venison, Elk, Ostrich, Buffalo and many other all natural and farm-raised game meats. We use high quality meat products free of growth hormones, antibiotics or preservatives."

[Ted S.]

I'm up at 6:30 every morning. So I'd only have a problem if I were in the Pacific time zone. But those people are freaks.

[Almanian!]

Luxury.

My dad used to get us up at 10:30 at night, half an hour before we went to bed, feed us a dry lump of poison, cut us in half with a breadknife and dance about singing halleluiah on our graves.

[Warty]

You had beds? Lucky. There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a shoebox in a road, and we used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and lick the road clean with our tongues.

[Brett L]

I'm used to Eastern Tim where I can lounge around until 9:00 and still be top 20.

[invisible furry hand]

Until your time change on the weekend, AM Links was appearing here at 1am. Once we're out of DST, they will be back at a very civilised 11pm

[Ted S.]

Alternatively, you could move to WA.

(I hear the Labor Party is all kinds of butthurt over the WA election.)

[invisible furry hand]

which is 2 hours behind the east coast. It's also boring as buggery.

Re the state election, oh hell yeah. The last two days have been full of ALP hacks telling us this was all on state issues, and sure, that's probably the biggest factor. But there also was a real urge to hit the Federal party hard. The image frequently used here is that voters across the country are waiting for the Federal election with baseball bats at the ready.

Not that the alternatives are much better. But they are slightly better.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I've been looking at Texas in a brighter light these past couple of years. Heck, I'm trying to see if someone out there is willing to accept my menial skills as a lowly servant in order to GTFO of the suffocating reality that is the Mid-Atlantic.

[Spoonman.]

My understanding is that just about anybody with a pulse can get a job in the Eagle Ford, but you have to live in Laredo, or..."outside of" Laredo.

There might be some spillover to San Antonio, however.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Laredo is a rough area. I remember hearing gunshots from my hotel room. On the other hand, the steak was awesome.

[Spoonman.]

It is probably getting better, because you have to be a real loser not to have a job near there now.

But I guess one can always live in Cotulla or Frio or something if you don't mind living in true nowhere.

Houston's job market is pretty good, however, and housing is cheap cheap cheap if you know where to look.

[Jordan]

Unemployment is rock bottom in the Dallas area. And the suburbs are very nice.

[Cowboy]

Welcome to Texas. If you're thinking of relocating, be sure to check out Sugarland, and Pearland. there's a nice sushi place in Sugarland named Japanieros that I like, and of course Killen's steakhouse in Pearland is worth a visit.

[John]

http://www.theagitator.com/201.....swat-raid/

4th Circuit denies qualified immunity for botched SWAT raid.

[Drax the Destroyer]

New band Name: Botched Swat Raid

[invisible furry hand]

Go for corporate sponsorship: Botched Swatch Raid

[Counterfly]

Now I keep having Botched Swatch Raid in my head to the toon of Zoot Suit Riot.

I have to contort 'raid' but apparently my brain doesn't care about that.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Yeah that's the same thing I thought: "Wait...raid is one syllable...riot is two..."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Swatched bot raid.

Wreched rot suede.

Sought ratchet wade.

[LTC(ret) John]

Fraught with Evade!

[Virginian]

Ooooolllldddd

Also, Balko needs to get out more.

A couple other points here. First, I still wonder why gun rights groups like the NRA aren't more disturbed by the ubiquitous use of SWAT teams. Here, the fact that the Bellotte's were legal, registered gun owners was used as justification for the violent, volatile entry into their home. It isn't the first time this has happened. You'd think that's something that might concern Second Amendment acitivists.

Yes, the NRA is very much officer friendly, but the grassroots of the 2A movement considers cops to be slow to respond and useless at best, and actively hostile to gun rights at worst.

[R C Dean]

Yeah, the NRA's taste for jackboot is one of the things keeping me from (re)-signing with them.

[Zeb]

That and the 5 fundraising letters a wekk have stopped my support. I think I got them to stop calling on the telephone when I told them that if they called me once more, they would definitely never see another cent from me.

[invisible furry hand]

You should have threatened to shoot them. They of all people would have known that was no idle threat

[Zeb]

It's hard to shoot people over the phone.

[LTC(ret) John]

You just need to try harder!

[Enough About Palin]

LONDON (AP) -- Even without modern-day temptations like fast food or cigarettes, people had clogged arteries some 4,000 years ago, according to the biggest-ever hunt for the condition in mummies.

Researchers say that suggests heart disease may be more a natural part of human aging rather than being directly tied to contemporary risk factors like smoking, eating fatty foods and not exercising.

CT scans of 137 mummies showed evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardened arteries, in one third of those examined, including those from ancient people believed to have healthy lifestyles. Atherosclerosis causes heart attacks and strokes. More than half of the mummies were from Egypt while the rest were from Peru, southwest America and the Aleutian islands in Alaska. The mummies were from about 3800 B.C. to 1900 A.D.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I'm lazy so I didn't read it, but did they figure out the average age of death for these mummies? Granted, if compared to today, you'd have to account for the lack of modern tech in the healthcare industry that pads out our current lifespans.

[John]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscie.....p-outside/

Our own little Shriek steps into the light of day.

[Counterfly]

Crystal Meta

[Way Of The Crane]

However the cartel behind Breaking Bad is threatening to issue spoilers for the series finale if charges are pressed.

Agent Tom Logan said: "I'm torn, because on the one hand these guys were singled-handedly fuelling the New Mexico meth trade.

"But as a viewer I've invested a lot of time and energy in that show. If you put aside the legal aspect it's still the best thing on television by a million miles.

I shall proceed to share this with friends as if it were real news.

[Rich]

Hey, anybody else get a come-on from Reason about funding their new digs?

If everybody in the commentariat coughed up just a few bucks and we pooled it (sorry, Robert), Reason would have to name the building whatever we wanted.

Imagine: "The Sheepfucker Building", or ....

[invisible furry hand]

Gone Downhill Since Virginia Postrel Left Building

[Rich]

They'd probably let you name one of the DRINKing fountains soemething like that.

[Ted S.]

Not that I know of.

[Almanian!]

The Cosmotarium

[db]

Cos-mo-tarium!

[Loki]

"Warty's rape dungeon."

[Way Of The Crane]

"The Lucy Steigarwald Memorial Annex"

[hamilton]

"Postrel's Deep-Dish Pizza Palace"

[Nuked]

T O N Y Building

[Kaptious Kristen]

"The Tea Party Patriot Assault Rifle Assembly Line n' Meth Lab"

Then we could take bets on how long until the first SWAT raid and how many dogs killed.

[JW]

THE Reason Deep-dish Pizza, Craft Beer, Circumcision & Abortion Headquarters.

[Rasilio]

You missed artisinal mayo factory

[Kaptious Kristen]

I miss Die Hipster. *sigh*

[db]

The "We're Just Building This To Make A Point About Difficult Building Codes and Corrupt Local Officials Building"

[Virginian]

VCU lost, UVA won, and Liberty wins the Big South which means they're in the tournament. HAHAHAHAHA let the butthurt flow through you.

Oh and Michigan lost. Fuck Michigan!

[John]

I am officially tired of VCU and Shaka. Glad to see them bite the dust. I assume they won't get an at large bid.

[Virginian]

They will. They're ranked, they're good, and they're fun to watch.

[Ted S.]

What do people have against Chaka?

[John]

I hate them for pulling the game of their lives out of their asses to beat Kansas in 2011. That wouldn't bother me except that they then spit the bit in the final four.

[robc]

Butler back in the finals gave a better chance at the upset than VCU.

That Butler couldnt hang with UConn like they did Duke the previous year is beside the point.

[Loki]

The onion pokes fun at Obama's drone love. When youv'e lost the onion...

In a possibly related story, the onion's offices were blown up by a hellfire missile.

[PS]

This the same edgy Onion that mocked Woodward for daring to criticize the WH?

[Matrix]

Hasselbeck is off 'The View'

She was 'too conservative' for viewers. lol

[mad libertarian guy]

All those liberal, suburban stay-at-home moms wanted their echo chamber to be pure.

[Matrix]

I know. having any dissenting view causes cognitive dissonance with these folks.

[Matrix]

Now she's not off says Bawbwa Wawas.

[mad libertarian guy]

Glenn Greenwald slicing and dicing fellow liberals re: the Paul filibuster.

Commencing immediately upon the 9/11 attack, the US government under two successive administrations has spent 12 straight years inventing and implementing new theories of government power in the name of Terrorism. Literally every year since 9/11 has ushered in increased authorities of exactly the type Americans are inculcated to believe only exist in those Other, Non-Free societies: ubiquitous surveillance, impenetrable secrecy, and the power to imprison and even kill without charges or due process. Even as the 9/11 attack recedes into the distant past, the US government still finds ways continuously to increase its powers in the name of Terrorism while virtually never relinquishing any of the power it acquires. So inexorable has this process been that the Obama administration has already exercised the power to target even its own citizens for execution far from any battlefield, and the process has now arrived at its inevitable destination: does this due-process-free execution power extend to US soil as well?

(cont)

[mad libertarian guy]

All of this has taken place with very little public backlash: especially over the last four years. Worse, it has prompted almost no institutional resistance from the structures designed to check executive abuses: courts, the media, and Congress. Last week's 13-hour filibuster of John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director by GOP Sen. Rand Paul was one of the first - and, from the perspective of media attention, easily among the most effective -Congressional efforts to dramatize and oppose just how radical these Terrorism-justified powers have become. For the first time since the 9/11 attack, even lowly cable news shows were forced - by the Paul filibuster - to extensively discuss the government's extremist theories of power and to debate the need for checks and limits.

All of this put Democrats - who spent eight years flamboyantly pretending to be champions of due process and opponents of mass secrecy and executive power abuses - in a very uncomfortable position. The politician who took such a unique stand in defense of these principles was not merely a Republican but a leading member of its dreaded Tea Party wing, while the actor most responsible for the extremist theories of power being protested was their own beloved leader and his political party.

Glenn Greenwald is one of the very few principled progressives there are.

[hamilton]

Totally agree, and this article is spectacular. I got the exact same arguments from an (ex) Facebook friend last week. Every now and then Greenwald comes within a few tantalizing steps of joining the Dark (and depressed, and antisocial) Side.

[Ruckus]

I have been informed by a few lefties, that Greenwald is really a closet libertarian, and not a progressive. Must be one way to handle the cognitive dissonance of a progressive constantly telling you that Obama is Bush 2.0.

I personally am a fan of Greenwald, and am always happy to read his work. I don't always agree with it, but he's as intelligent and principled as they come.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

I've enjoyed reading Glenn from the heady days of Bush the Lesser. I think we're seeing him go through the classic stages of Political Disillusionment Syndrome:
Denial
Rationalization
Frustration
Shame
Anger
Acceptance
Cynicism

By my read, Glenn is deeply mired in stage 5, Anger. I can absolutely see him becoming more libertarian as the process continues.

[hamilton]

You forgot libertarianism, right after Cynicism in your progression (denegeration?).

[mad libertarian guy]

I don't.

He is a classic CIVIL libertarian, but his views on things like social spending and the "safety net" et al are as bad as any.

Immediately after the election in the run up to the sequester that was supposed to have started on Jan 1, he was criticizing the media for giving off signals that Obama should use medicare and SS as pawn in the negotiations, calling those programs Progressive Crown Jewels.

[PS]

Shit I forgot it was DST and ML was posted an hour earlier there.

Drunk driver who killed two girls is suing Applebee's and his drinking buddy.

[invisible furry hand]

Ruiz says he "suffered and will continue to suffer from the emotional distress due to the loss of liberty and enjoyment of life."

Good.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Good, if not ideal.

[Zeb]

ARgh, I hate that. If you get drunk and do something stupid, it is your fault and your fault alone.

[Way Of The Crane]

Ruiz, a repeat drunken driver who was out on bond on his fifth DWI arrest when the fatal crash took place, filed the lawsuit himself without a lawyer. He's serving a 40-year prison sentence after entering a guilty plea in 2011.

Last month, Ruiz filed a court petition seeking a new trial or reconsideration of his sentence, alleging that his lawyer didn't provide him with effective representation. He maintained that he was led to believe his sentence would only be half of the 40 years behind bars that was imposed by former state District Judge Michael Vigil.

Fucking guilty pleas. How do they work?

[bostonaod]

Ruiz: I was overserved!

Bloomberg: I agwee!

[CampingInYourPark]

"JONES SAYS NO TO OBAMA'S $65 BILLION GIVEAWAY TO THE IMF"

http://t.co/08QTqMsGRi

[The Late P Brooks]

Ruiz, a repeat drunken driver who was out on bond on his fifth DWI arrest when the fatal crash took place

Don't you see? This is why the police should have carte blanch to pull anybody over at any time, regardless of whether they are driving improperly or not, to forcibly conduct a blood alcohol analysis to determine if any amount of alcohol is present in their system.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

New York City to Arm Health Inspectors with 17 Ounce Cups to Enforce Soda Ban - See more at: http://www.therightsphere.com/.....hhh79.dpuf

[R C Dean]

17 Ounce Cups

Whatever happened to the old B, C, DD, etc. sizing?

[Way Of The Crane]

"She's clearly smuggling 17 ounces of boobs in 16 ounce capacity cups."