Christie is Against Gay Conversion Therapy, Netanyahu Apologizes for Flotilla Raid, Obama Promises Jordan $200 Million: P.M. Links

Credit: The National Guard / Foter.com / CC BY

• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has confirmed that he is against gay conversion therapy. 

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized to the Turkish prime minister for the 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that left several Turkish nationals dead. 

• Obama has promised Jordan $200 million in aid, which I'm sure is easy to explain to the kids who couldn't go on tours of the White House. 

• In other news on sensible spending, the Pentagon wants $49 million for a new prison at Guantánamo Bay for "special" detainees. 

• France's highest court and an advisory council have both dismissed the 75 percent income tax on the wealthy.

• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.) tried to repeal ObamaCare on its third birthday. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has confirmed that he is against gay conversion therapy.

How about asshole conversion therapy? Because banning that would be doing his state a disservice.

[Marshall Gill]

Are people born assholes? Do I have the elusive "asshole" gene?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I don't think it's all that elusive.

[Rich]

As opposed to the "elusive asshole" gene?

[Marshall Gill]

No, my wife has that one.

[$park?]

Elusive or evasive?

[A Serious Man]

I think he meant 'elastic'.

[Rich]

Dominant or submis, uh, recessive?

[Xenocles]

I thought it was the receptive asshole gene.

[Enough About Palin]

What an ass.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods Dev Diary

Dunno if anyone else has played Crusader Kings II, but if you haven't and you're an RTS fan or a medieval history geek, you owe it to yourself to buy it when it goes on sale.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Dunno if anyone else has played Crusader Kings II,

I think I've logged close to 150 hours on it already.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Nice! Haven't done quite that much (it says 70 hours on Steam). Have you tried the Game of Thrones mod for it?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Have you tried the Game of Thrones mod for it?

Not yet. I'm still trying to conquer all of Spain as the Almoravids.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Haven't played as any of the Muslim dynasties, yet. Lots of fun games with El Cid and restoring the Armenian kingdom as the Bagratids.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Be warned, decadence is a bitch.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

So I've heard, heh.

[John]

I am both. Thanks. You are a great American Trouser.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Enjoy. Amazon had a sale in January where you could get the game + all DLC for $10.

Playing as any count, duke, king, or emperor in the western world from 1066-1337 has its appeal.

[Restoras]

Well sure when you have an unarmed citizenry it must be easy!

[AuH20]

Holy hell am I excited for this mod. The ability to play pagan as well as the earlier start date look so awesome.

I have yet to try a Muslim game, though I hear that is all kinds of fucked out.

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

That looks so awesome.

[DJF]

How is it any of his business unless New Jersey government is doing it.

[Juice]

The children?

[yonemoto]

What is wrong with gay conversion therapy? It's pretty stupid, but if people want to shell out their money for something that probably won't work for them, isn't that their business?

Also: Isn't it equally asinine to think that "born gay" is a universally descriptive rationale for homosexuality? Maybe some homosexuals weren't born that way and would like to figure out how to fit in as a hetero. Should we en banc deny them this opportunity?

[jesse.in.mb]

Generally states are forbidding it for minors, not for adults. It's mostly to protect kids from their parents putting them into some quirky therapy situation to "fix" them.

I'm uncomfortable with the bans, but I was put in therapy by my parents with a "reputable" (at the time) ex-gay therapist, and my experience was utter bullshit. I came away unscarred, mostly by being his "most difficult patient ever," but I can definitely see how it could fuck a kid up who wasn't quite as self-confident.

Most of the sessions were him trying to convince me that I'd been molested and that that was the emotional root of my homosexuality even though I was never molested. He kept pushing it session after session.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

That's fucked up.

Jesse, do you know if current laws are sufficient to deal with that problem? I'd hope that any group or camp that tried that kind of abusive or manipulative crap with kids would run into legal problems.

[jesse.in.mb]

To my knowledge CA has the most restrictive rules on ex-gay therapy. I think there's a pretty big difference between putting a 12 year old and a 17 year old in therapy, and I think there's a big difference between a good therapist who will support a kid's mental health and help them work through complicated decisions, and the charlatans that make up the bulk of the ex-gay movement. There's a video on youtube of a practitioner of bio-energetics beating a pillow with a tennis racket screaming "MOM WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME" as an example of what passes for ex-gay therapy.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

...wow. They don't do electroshock anymore, do they?

[jesse.in.mb]

I haven't read anything about electroshock or aversion therapy being used currently. My experience was relatively mundane. I was given a book of case studies of miserable people who'd come to be cured by my doctor and there was lots of talk therapy. Being a pretty analytical kid I read the case studies who were all men who came of age in the '70s and ended up doing drugs and/or getting HIV and realized that they were unhappy because of familial rejection and abuse and their life choices, and not inherently because of their sexual orientation.

The worst I've heard about are programs that involve a lot of isolation, or where the practitioners get into some very shady intimacy issues.

[Stormy Dragon]

At the other extreme:

"Like many others, David was taken in the night without warning by a "transport service" and was never told where he was going or when he would be brought back home. While at Escuela Caribe, David had no way of communicating with any of his friends or family back home until the filmmakers arrived and he decided to ask them if they would smuggle out a letter that he had secretly written to his best friend. Once word got back to David's community about what had happened to him, many people sprung to action and formed a plan to get him released. Getting David out of this school, however, turned out to be a much more difficult task than anyone had thought, and the trials they went through to get David released revealed just how far Escuela Caribe would go to prevent a student from leaving."

[Stormy Dragon]

Damn it, SF'd the link:

http://boingboing.net/2012/02/.....ument.html

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

The problem with any therapy for kids is that some, like ungaying, is horrifically damaging and probably should be illegal, but I can't come up with any viable way for the state to distinguish between those and any other therapy approaches.

You can't judge by results since most therapy doesn't actually work. Judging by goals sounds like undue interference in parenting. Method would be ideal, but I sincerely doubt that legislators are going to make themselves knowledgeable about therapy to make good decisions.

The real danger with ungaying programs is that eventually, it's likely that someone will come up a way to do it that's not just pseudoscience. Even if it has a hardware component, there's probably a software fix down the line eventually. Right now, we have only the roughest tools, akin to when all psychiatry was lobotomizing, but at some point, we'll be able to ungay or unstraight or make everyone bi for maximum empathy. (Although I suspect the scientific understanding of human sexuality is decades away from such a discovery.) When sexuality becomes truly voluntary, that's when the trouble will begin.

As we all know from reading Astonishing X-Men, a cure that could help the worst case scenarios is going to make everything harder for everyone else, ESPECIALLY when there's potential for the cure to become mandatory, or default.

And as pointed out, the lag between puberty and legal adulthood is extremely problematic. I have no idea of where to start with that.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

The TL;DR is that Gay Genosha has an INCREDIBLE club scene.

[jesse.in.mb]

I've definitely heard the view expressed that it might be best not to find a purely biological cause for same sex attraction lest we be eugenics'd out of existence.

[Stormy Dragon]

Again, it becomes much easier if you assume the kid owns themself rather than that the parent owns them. Does this KID want to go to ex-gay therapy? If yes, then it's okay. If not, than it's abuse.

Getting sent to a labor camp against your will is no less a violation of your liberty if a parent does it than it is if a judge does it.

[Marshall Gill]

I think there's a big difference between a good therapist who will support a kid's mental health and help them work through complicated decisions, and the charlatans that make up the bulk of the ex-gay movement therapy community.

FTFY. As the lucky recipient of a number of different types of behavior therapies as a teenager, I can assure you that this is not limited to ungay therapy.

[Stormy Dragon]

See, this is where the question of whether children are considered property of their parents becomes important.

Does the parent have the right to force a nonconsenting child to undergo something like ex-gay conversion therapy? The line is going to be very different in the "property" case than otherwise.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

We might as well cut straight to the foreskin...I mean, chase...

[jesse.in.mb]

Hey Nicole, I gave you plenty of opportunity to go off on that earlier when we were talking about Harry Potter.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Damn, where was that?

To be clear, I actually hate talking about it. I think it's completely motherfucking pointless.

[jesse.in.mb]

http://reason.com/blog/2013/03.....nt_3626842

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Jesus, you even signal me and I miss it because I am obsessed only with Q. I am the worst.

[jesse.in.mb]

I know! It's ok, I'll forgive you this time, 'cause I'm a mensch like that.

[SIV]

No more (or less) right than they have to force the child into "substance abuse therapy" or military school.

[Homple]

"Does the parent have the right to force a nonconsenting child to undergo something like ex-gay conversion therapy?"

Or doing his homework, or cleaning his room, or mowing the lawn, or getting a smallpox vaccination, or not smoking crack...?

[Virginian]

The molestation thing isn't just for gay conversion therapists.

Pretty much every social worker who works with kids is looking for molestation. Luckily for them, if you get a young enough kid, you can convince him over several rigorous sessions that he was molested. Even to the point of giving him false memories of the experience.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Yup. That happened quite often in the 80s and prompted a number of high-profile bogus child molestation cases.

[jesse.in.mb]

I agree with you on that. I think the important distinction is that ex-gay therapy is very frequently predicated on the idea that all gays were molested as children, rather than children being molested is common in troubled children and has to be watched out for (often times to the excess of generating false memories).

[Virginian]

Yeah I have a real hatred of the whole industry, because I think that they work to perpetuate problems instead of solving them.

[Sevo]

Virginian| 3.22.13 @ 5:40PM |#
"Yeah I have a real hatred of the whole industry, because I think that they work to perpetuate problems instead of solving them."

It'd help their case if they could point to one objective study that showed they accomplish anything other than separating people from their money.

[Virginian]

They have a lot in common with the public school system that way. No matter how much funding they get, they're always helpless in the face of the problems these kids have.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

At least the public schools don't ruin lives by getting innocent people thrown in jail for child molestation.

[Virginian]

Uh, a lot of these false molestation cases start with the school counselor.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

I wrote that hoping that no one would respond and I could discover a non-evil thing about public schools.

Thanks, asshole.

[sloopyinca]

Hey, if it's any consolation a lot of real molestation cases start with the school counselor.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

In high school, a substitute teacher started hitting on my friend, and she told me about it when he started pressuring her for sex. I got her to tell her host parents, they told the school, and the school took swift action and transferred him to a different school district that same week.

They take that kind of thing very seriously, don't you know.

[Enough About Palin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_yjuTaRGx4

[Fist of Etiquette]

Your comment is a hate crime.

[generic Brand]

Also: Isn't it equally asinine to think that "born gay" is a universally descriptive rationale for homosexuality?

I too have had problems coming to term with the "born gay" rationale. If mammals are hardwired to procreate and reproduce, it would seem as if there was something "off" by someone who did not have that desire.

A possible alternative is that we are all hardwired to be both heterosexual and homosexual, but you would think there'd be a lot more bisexuals coming out of the woodworks than just out and out homosexuals.

I think categorizing it as a choice isn't a bad thing.

[Coeus]

A possible alternative is that we are all hardwired to be both heterosexual and homosexual, but you would think there'd be a lot more bisexuals coming out of the woodworks than just out and out homosexuals.

I believe that to be the case. It's all determined by societal standards and training. Look at ancient Greece.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

That seems like a possibility to me, as well. Homosexuality in antiquity was often a strongly liminal and/or fraternal state, even if one removes the pederast relationships from the discussion. That is still the case in certain less-developed regions of the world.

[Rhywun]

If mammals are hardwired to procreate and reproduce, it would seem as if there was something "off" by someone who did not have that desire.

I have no trouble with that notion. As someone with that very affliction, it became obvious at a pretty young age that I was not "normal". The problem is when people equate "not normal" with "wrong".

[Trespassers W]

I too have had problems coming to term with the "born gay" rationale. If mammals are hardwired to procreate and reproduce, it would seem as if there was something "off" by someone who did not have that desire.

Last I checked, the best hypothesis was that the same gene that caused (or made more probable) homosexuality in men increased fertility in women. The gene doesn't "care" if a particular copy of it is embodied in a reproductive dead end, so long as other copies are being created at a higher rate elsewhere.

Personally, I don't have a horse in this race. It's a scientific question. The ethical implications are the same to me whatever the answer.

[Pi Guy]

Who care if gays choose to be gay? I'm pro-choice. On abortion. On guns. On whose doo-dads you like to touch.

[A Serious Man]

Obama has promised Jordan $200 million in aid, which I'm sure is easy to explain to the kids who couldn't go on tours of the White House.

Or any of the other people allegedly being screwed by the sequester. This is red meat for GOP pols like Rand.

[robc]

Jordan needs aid? Isnt Hanes paying him enough?

[GW]

Nike isn't making as cool a Jordans as they used to, and I think it's hitting 'ol number 23's pockets hard.

The economy IS in the shitter you know.

[C. Anacreon]

That's the least they have to pay him not to talk to the press after playing supersecret, no-media/cameras allowed golf with Obama.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized to the Turkish prime minister for the 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that left several Turkish nationals dead.

SEE, TURKEY? THAT'S HOW YOU APOLOGIZE FOR LEAVING DEAD.

[Heroic Mulatto]

SEE, TURKEY? THAT'S HOW YOU APOLOGIZE FOR LEAVING DEAD.

Yeah, but the Kardashians.

[Hollywood]

What difference at this point DOES IT MAKE?

[SweatingGin]

Which one of you was this with the artisan mayo shop?

[rts]

What a cool way to die

The van had sped down a BC Ferries dock, crashed through a chain link fence, sped across a tied-up ferry and launched off the other end into the ocean, before sinking at about 3:45 a.m. PT on Wednesday.

[Joe M]

Sounds almost exactly like what happened to the MacKenzie Brothers in Strange Brew. Except they survived, of course.

[Specail Sauce]

My brother and I used to say that drownin' in beer was like heaven, eh?

Now he's not here, and I've got two soakers... this isn't heaven. This sucks!

[Joe M]

Did you know that movie was loosely based on the plot of Hamlet?

[Restoras]

Operative word there is loosely, eh?

[Joe M]

Just call them Rosencrantz and Guildenstern MacKenzie.

[Pi Guy]

To drink Molson or not to drink Molson. That is the question.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

not Molson.
never.

[jesse.in.mb]

Sleeman's?

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Keith's or Kokanee

[jesse.in.mb]

I will bear this in mind next time I cross into the Great White North.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

or a microbrew

[Archduke Pantsfan]

not mentioned: Half Pints in Manitoba.

[Joe M]

Victoria, BC has an awesome, thriving microbrew culture.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Bor?ale, you bitchez. I mean at least if we're looking for something at that price point.

Fuck Keith's. (It's actually decent, but I hate IPAs. I know.)

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Keith's may not really be an IPA.

[sloopyinca]

Get thee to a nunnery brewery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners hosers?

[Marshall Gill]

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has confirmed that he is against gay conversion therapy.

It makes sense. If you can change your ways, maybe you really aren't predestined to BE anything. As a Statist, Christie obviously fears the whole "choice" thingy.

[$park?]

Speaking of weddings.

Number 21 is ... uh ... well, you'll see.

[Auric Demonocles]

Screw that. The second photo with the guns and glasses looks badass.

[Auric Demonocles]

The cat one is amazing too.

But the first one in 23 is the best yet.

[Auric Demonocles]

28 can't be real. It's too perfect.

[$park?]

But the first one in 23 is the best yet.

The lucky groom probably got fucked silly by all of them.

[hamilton]

At once, if the picture is any indication.

[Auric Demonocles]

What would you do if you had a million dollars?

[Bardas Phocas]

I think 32 is a re-enactment of that meth ad.

"Marrying a ginger isn't normal, unless you're on meth."

[itsnotmeitsyou]

That is pretty bad ass. My wife did a wedding shoot for some friends who were hunters. She took a shot of all the groomsmen pointing their shotguns at the camera. It was totally badass.

[SweatingGin]

That really escalated

[Fist of Etiquette]

In other news on sensible spending, the Pentagon wants $49 million for a new prison at Guant?namo Bay for "special" detainees.

Special? Like, they're going to have finger painting special? Or special as in domestic, anti-government militia terrorist special.

[Rich]

"There's other projects that I couldn't talk about here in the open but do have to do with replacing one of the camp facilities where some of the detainees are ? special detainees are housed. We could get into that offline if you want."

How transparent!

[DJF]

This can't be right, Obama promised to close the prison in Guantanamo.

[SweatingGin]

He's definitely going to close it. Maybe expand it a bit first, but then, first day in office, definitely going to close it.

[Rich]

It's like fixing up the house to sell it.

[Hugh Akston]

Why is the government taking retards prisoner anyway? Are they taken to Guantanamo on a short helicopter? Are they issued a combination prayer rug/nap mat? Who takes them to the bathroom when they have to go boom-boom?

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Meanwhile, in Russia

[Loki]

They must have watched the Top Gear USA taxi challenge episode.

[h3k86qc35923]

The Republican governor's announcement came one day after he said he didn't know enough about the issue to comment ? and hours after ... the Democratic Governors Association, calling Christie "extremist," used it as a way to raise money.

A politician who doesn't know enough about an issue is the exact opposite of an extremist.

[Loki]

"He didn't say what we wanted to hear, and he's a member of the wrong TEAM, therefore - EXTREMIST!!!!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

France's highest court and an advisory council have both dismissed the 75 percent income tax on the wealthy.

Sounds like the highest court and advisory council are in a top bracket.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.) tried to repeal ObamaCare on its third birthday.

No big tax ever gets repealed. He should know that.

[C. Anacreon]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.) tried to repeal ObamaCare on his third birthday.

At least that's how I read it at first, and thought what a precocious little bugger, working against healthcare reform as a toddler!

[A Serious Man]

Infant shot in the head while in stroller, underage killers shot and taunted mother before fleeing.

I can't think of a punishment that would fit the crime here.

[Rich]

nvestigators were checking school attendance records for leads.

That oughta narrow it down.

"Understand this: There is no clear motive right now," he said.

Yep.

Seriously, I'm seeing a use for that new Gitmo prison.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Put the kids in the same cell as Jerry Sandusky?

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Something along the lines of what the English did to William Wallace maybe. But I'm still coming up short.

[Restoras]

How on earth could this happen? I mean, how can an underage person legally purchase a gun? Something has to be done about this.

[NoVAHockey]

yeah, i'm going home now.

[SIV]

I can't think of a punishment that would fit the crime here.

Summary extra-judicial hanging from the nearest tree seems appropriate.

[JW]

I can't think of a punishment that would fit the crime here.

Whatever it is, it should be extremely painful and take several months to complete.

[jesse.in.mb]

SCAPHISM! but it only takes a few days.

[SIV]

Cruel? I suppose that is a matter of opinion.
Unusual? Not in ancient Persia!

[Loki]

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[RBS]

I saw this earlier, so fucked up. I'm with SIV though, hang em.

[Chris Mallory]

No need to be cruel, but I would be in favor of locking both kids and their parents in a room and slowly replacing the oxygen in the room with helium.

[sloopyinca]

NATO has decided that the loosely-defined "hacker" can be considered a battlefield target and can be attacked if his actions cause death or "significant property damage."

Link: http://thehill.com/blogs/defco.....to-report-

I like the loose definitions they use. Pretty much means they can now kill anybody that ever tried to log on to a government server and label them a "hacker".

[Bam!]

So Iran would be justified in killing the guys who created Stuxnet?

[sloopyinca]

Well, no! NATO are the good guys and Iran are the bad guys by definition. Therefore, if they follow our protocols, they are committing acts of aggression against us. When we follow those protocols, it's called "defense".

Haven't you gotten your most current edition of the NEWSPEAK Dictionary yet?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Men's low standards: a cunning trick of the patriarchy!

Inevitably during the rounds of the housework wars, there's a man who finds the neat solution that puts all blame where a sexist culture believes it completely belongs, on women. Feminists point out that women's duties at home are cutting into either their work time or their free time or usually both, and if men did more work around the house, this would help.

Housework is coded as women's work, and so it has a Someone Else's Problem field generator around it for men. Women can either point out the housework that a man needs to do and be a nag or do it themselves and give up their free time.

I sense that Amanduh's little talks with her boy-toy about the housework haven't been going too well...

[h3k86qc35923]

How do women's duties at home cut into work time? Aren't those one and the same?

[Joe M]

Funny that she makes a Douglas Adams reference. I would've thought hoopy froods were tools of the patriarchy.

[Auric Demonocles]

But the Point of View Gun is useless on women.

[Joe M]

That's not canon!

[Auric Demonocles]

Apparently that is an idea that Adams came up with for the movie before he died.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

That or the Total Perspective Vortex.

Non-canon bastard.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Bitch needs to find her towel.

[Restoras]

And iron my shirts. I have an important meeting on Monday.

[Enough About Palin]

Around here the accepted phrase is "Iron my shit!'

[$park?]

You know, I always try to read these articles when you people post them. I really do. But I can never get past the first paragraph without getting the urge to punch something.

[RBS]

I know. Plus, I do 90% of our housework and still have plenty of free time. Probably because I get my ass out of bed on saturday morning, clean the fucking house, shower and then enjoy the rest of the day, oh yeah I also take care of an 8 month old. Seriously, it's so easy and even if you have a bigger house just do all the rooms on a rotation. I have zero sympathy for these whiners.

[Corey S.]

"In my experience, it's really not?most men actually do like having a clean home as much as women do, or else hotels wouldn't have daily maid service and the military would be unable to maintain its rigid cleanliness standards."

If this is the gold standard of feminist analysis, they're in trouble. Hotels are clean because no one wants to stay in a hotel room covered in someone else's mess. And there might just be some other explanation for the military's cleanliness standards.

I live alone. My apartment is never "clean." I find better things to do with my time than keeping my apartment 100% clean. I suspect this is the case for most men, and they have to adjust their expectations when living with others (roommates/girlfriends/wives etc). Why is this so hard for her to understand?

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Hotels are clean because no one wants to stay in a hotel room covered in someone else's mess.

They also get cleaned every day while the same party is staying in the room, unless you indicate otherwise, so that's not the only reason.

[Corey S.]

True. But I imagine that if hotels charged for maid service, the percentage of men who would pay for it would be lower than the percentage of women who would.

Also, am I the only one who doesn't like having his room cleaned every day when I stay at a hotel? Every third day is about right for me.

[SIV]

I'm in hotels all the time. I expect daily maid service. I assume it is women whoo fall for the "green" scam where they don't wash your towels or change the bed linen...for the environment!

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Deer escapes from trunk

[Auric Demonocles]

Rule #2: Double Tap.

[Restoras]

Ummm...Rule #1 would be...

[Auric Demonocles]

Cardio.

[BladeDoc]

Rules of Gunfights:
1. Always have a gun
2. Anything worth shooting once . . . is worth shooting twice

[A Serious Man]

Ohio prosecutors have a macabre sense of humor, wants Punxsutawney Phil indicted and put to death for bad weather forecasting.

Well he did predict an early spring and how's that been?

[Xenocles]

Speaking of bad weathermen, here's an oldie.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

I thought winter is coming was just a tagline for Game of Thrones. I didn't think it was an actual prophecy.

[A Serious Man]

Canada ruins everything: Canadian volcanoes killed the dinosaurs.

[Auric Demonocles]

Come up with something more believable, Canada has never literally killed something.

[hamilton]

except football.

[Auric Demonocles]

They more created a mutated clone of it.

[Generic Stranger]

And music.

[Marshall Gill]

Not fair, even though it has been almost a century.

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

[Auric Demonocles]

The Germans didn't die there, they just ran away from the horrible sound of Bieber.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Steubenville Makes Rape Culture Harder To Deny

Formally, our society condemns rape. We pass laws banning it and occasionally, we even enforce those laws. It's insulting as fuck to call someone a rapist, so much so that even when we have irrefutable proof that someone is a rapist, it's hard to get people to form their mouths around the word. (But of course, the unwillingness to accept the reality of rape in this way is ultimately evidence for the existence of rape culture.) It's easy to imagine that our society is just against rape and that's all there is to it. Follow that line of logic far enough, and you're forced to conclude that rapists rape not because they feel empowered to do so, but because of some kind of biological drive that is untouchable by social pressure.

"I'm not actually going to define rape culture or prove that it exists; in fact, I'll go ahead and give you a whole bunch of reasons to think it doesn't exist. Just trust me on this one, rape culture is totally a thing -- and if you don't agree, you're a rape culture apologist."

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Extra crazy bonus from the comments:

It's the patriarchal system socially in confluence with the capitalist system economically and politically. This is to my way of thinking why the paper of record The New York Times on most days (except Sunday and Monday when Sports has its own section) has sports news in the business section! In other words, the cult of masculinity is an adjunct of the patriarchy and capitalism. And of course all of this is modeled in a direct way on religion--the dominance of god--which is why the European and soon to be international women's group Femen is concerned with destroying religion and making it illegal--they get it!

[Banjos]

"OK, here's what we've got: the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires, are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner. We're through the looking glass, here, people..."

[Marshall Gill]

Ouch! That hurt my brain and lowered my IQ!

[Loki]

Wow... Her parents must be so proud of their precious snowflake's $100,000 B.A. in Gender Studies.

[AuH20]

Does someone even try to point out the sheer amount of money that sports generate for the television and radio industries, let alone clothing, advertising, etc.?

[Killazontherun]

That would be . . . something to do with the oppression of women . . . sexist, yeah, somehow sexist to point that out. God, I hate feminist. Of all the collectivist in Dipshitville the dumbest fuckers of all.

[Auric Demonocles]

. Follow that line of logic far enough, and you're forced to conclude that rapists rape not because they feel empowered to do so, but because of some kind of biological drive that is untouchable by social pressure.

Maybe rapists are just fucked up mentally? Or do they not accept that view for murderers. Do we have "murder culture" in this country?

[Restoras]

Do we have "murder culture" in this country?

Go ask. I double-dog dare you.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

What do you think they mean when they say "gun culture"

[Pi Guy]

IF only we had a Freedom Culture. That would be the shit.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

What, you've never heard of the 2nd Am and our out-of-control gun culture?

Obviously, there would be no murder if not for those things, we are all just eminently perfectible blank slates, etc.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Or what he said.

[Enough About Palin]

"Do we have "murder culture" in this country?"

Based on the Balko stuff I've read over the years, I'm gonna say yes.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I refuse to believe in Rape Culture until someone shows me the museums full of Rape Art, the orchestras that have Rape Opera as part of their repertoire, the cities full of Rape Architecture, and the restaurants that serve Rape Cuisine.

[hamilton]

Well, Olive Garden. QE frickin' D.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Damn your quick fingers.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Ugh. You're right.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

restaurants that serve Rape Cuisine

In fairness, the existence of the KFC Double Down is strong proof in favor of that small point.

[Auric Demonocles]

I fully consented to the sex that that sandwich had with my taste buds.

[Ska]

This reads like a line from Futurama.

[Auric Demonocles]

I did do the nasty in the pasty.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

"The way the bacon was just hanging out of the sandwich, it was practically begging for it!"

[H. ReardEn]

Which is why Rape Cuisine is considered the apex of culinary development.

[AuH20]

Rape Opera

Where do you want me to start?

[Xenocles]

Except I guarantee that her standard of "irrefutable proof" is "the woman said so."

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Yay! I get to use this video twice today!

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

[Enough About Palin]

"What those boys did? It wasn't rape-rape. It was something else, but I don't believe it was rape-rape."

/Whoopi

[sloopyinca]

I'm sorry to do this on a Friday afternoon, but I'm gonna go ahead and ruin everybody's fucking day. I guess it's nice that they're letting the civil case go forward, but the facts of this case are quite disturbing.

FTA: Officers Daniel Fry and Sean McCormick said in depositions that Boucher left the convenience store at their request after the clerk complained about him. When McCormick approached Boucher from behind and put a hand on his shoulder, they said that Boucher clenched his fists and began screaming.

That's when Fry shocked Boucher in the back, causing him to fall hard, face-first into the pavement, landing with his hands underneath him and out of the officers' view, according to the depositions.

Fry said he got one handcuff on Boucher's wrist before he spun around and punched the officer in the head twice. A wrestling match ensued before McCormick yelled for Fry to move and shocked Boucher in the chest with his stun gun, causing him to fall to his knees.

The officers said Boucher then spotted the clerk outside, got up and ran toward her.

(cont.)

[sloopyinca]

(cont.)

Although Boucher wasn't moving, McCormick testified he kicked him and hit him with his baton, and ordered Fry to stun him twice more. Although Fry testified he only remembered stunning Boucher three times, information downloaded from the device showed he used it six times in a 75-second span.

A third officer, Bradley Walker, testified that when he arrived at the scene, he saw McCormick hit a motionless Boucher with the baton about five times and saw Fry use his stun gun on him.

The officers handcuffed Boucher, patted him down and turned him over, only to find that he wasn't breathing and his face was covered in blood. Boucher was dead minutes later despite attempts to revive him.
-and-
Neither officer was disciplined and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation cleared both of wrongdoing.

So, they ask him to leave and he does. An officer then decides to assault him in the parking lot by putting his hands on him for no fucking reason and then they completely lose it and beat/taze the guy to death.

I fucking swear. I hope these murderous pigs die a painful death.

[Joe M]

Fluffy bunnies, chirping birds, the smell of fresh flowers, a trickling stream...

[Juice]

Any relation to Bobby Boucher?

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sorry to do this on a Friday afternoon

Can we just be real for a moment and admit you love doing this on a Friday afternoon?

[sloopyinca]

Honestly, I don't. I feel compelled to relay this kind of stuff though.

Maybe I should have become a reporter/investigative journalist...like Balko but with hair on the sides and back of my head.

[Pi Guy]

We should all be relaying this kind of stuff.

[The Late P Brooks]

the Pentagon wants $49 million for a new prison at Guant?namo Bay for "special" detainees.

That's a lotta cake.

[MJGreen]

Cato Unbound update: Nicole Hassoun continues flailing around, starting her most recent response with a summary that looks as if she's been following an entirely different debate. Michael Huemer, meanwhile, has further convinced me that he invades my brain while I'm asleep. He says most everything I want to say, with all the caveats included.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Oh fun. I'm going to go check it out. Thanks!

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

God, she is just awful. Her like entire shtick is, "Duh, everyone knows there are positive rights and that's why most people aren't anarchists." And...that's all.

[Heroic Mulatto]

As you read her arguments, remember, this is a woman who received her Ph.D in an Philosophy department at an American university, and supposedly should have a deep grounding in the methodologies of Analytic Philosophy.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

So, although I am tempted to use this forum to talk about the causes of poverty and what I think we can do about it, I will refrain.

She spent maybe like five sentences total not talking about poverty. What the fuck.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

"Imma let you finish thinking about the causes of poverty, but government has the truest consent of all time!"

[Night Elf Mohawk]

She had arguments?

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

The proper way to choose a political system is to run a regression that tries to hold all factors except for regime type constant?not to look at examples?not to give theoretical arguments.

...

If legitimacy does come in degrees and if consent would justify an agent in having a monopoly on the use of coercive force within a territory, I think Huemer also needs a reason to reject my new argument against libertarianism. I claim that the ability to consent is necessary for consent. So those exercising coercion (states in the actual world) will have to ensure that people can secure what they need to consent (even if this requires coercion) to be legitimate. On consent theory, ensuring that people can secure what they need to consent may be illegitimate if doing so requires coercing those who have not yet consented to the coercer's rules, but coercers may be more legitimate if they do secure this consent than if they do not.

Sure, making consent and coercion into some kind of infinite feedback loop totally solves the problem of consent. WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN I just can't even.

[Heroic Mulatto]

What it means is that when the State hits Prof. Hassoun, it's just because it loves her. Bitch shoulda known the State doesn't like cold mashed potatoes with its pot roast.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Pretty much.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Word jambalaya! For when you just have to meet that 1500-word article requirement.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Also, I realize that she was supposed to respond to the essay and not the book, but this whole "consent theory" bullshit is so absurd in the context of the book. "I claim that the ability to consent is necessary for consent." Yeah, so does Huemer. And one of his necessary conditions for consent is the meaningful ability not to consent. So you might as well stop writing now, Prof. Hassoun, the rest of your argument is completely fucking irrelevant.

[MJGreen]

Fucking philosophy. You get to talk endlessly about subjects that will never be resolved. What does it mean to attain consent or be "more legitimate"? Whatever the hell you want it to mean! And if you define it differently, we get to write papers refuting each other until our last day on this planet.

Consent = written or verbal agreement to undertake the obligations of a contract is nice and logical, but unfortunately leaves little room for intellectual sparring.

[deified]

And if you define it differently, we get to write papers refuting each other until our last day on this planet.

MJGreen-- can you think of a better way to pay for your mortgage and take your sabbatical year in Heidelberg?

In that case, I'm going to ask you STFU.

[deified]

For the record, I love it when Nicole just can't even and i have been lobbying hard for the return of this nickname.

/awful person

[MJGreen]

And she simply has no response to Caplan's obvious point that, according to her own argument, she has a moral obligation to give all her money to the poor. While Caplan can sometimes misuse the reductio ad absurdum, he's so clearly correct here, given the language she used. It's hilarious.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Oh, I know. And she's just like, "nuh uh!" Seriously, that's her response. "He said this entails that, and I say it doesn't." Well fuckin' a, in that case...

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Well, it seems to me that after "nuh uh," she implies that if the government took away her money, and others', to give to those poor people then that would be OK, even if she has no unilateral obligation to do so.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Inside the mind of a statist...

[Pi Guy]

Statists gonna state.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Reductio ad absurdum isn't a formal logical fallacy, and works well in the context of abstract discussion. It is used quite often in mathematical proofs, actually -- it's associated with proof by contradiction.

[Sidd Finch]

"Just like you can't run into a theater and yell 'fire' when it's not on fire, you can't run into a crowded bingo hall and yell 'bingo' when there isn't one," said Park Hills Police Sgt. Richard Webster, the officer who cited Whaley.

http://nky.cincinnati.com/arti.....e?gcheck=1

[Xenocles]

At least he remembered the "false" part of the Holmes meme.

[The Late P Brooks]

only to find that he wasn't breathing and his face was covered in blood.

Dominance was established.

Blood flowed.

Respiration ceased.

Homes were returned to.

[sloopyinca]

Kelly Thomas Part II.

I guess it's not worthy of more attention because he had a load of meth in his system when the cops beat tazed and sat on him until he died.

[h3k86qc35923]

Maybe it was their meth.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Pravda headline: "Venezuela's President Hugo Ch?vez: a cult figure"

When even the Soviets' favorite rag is saying it...

[sloopyinca]

Hey, maybe being a part of the thick blue wall of silence might actually be punished.

FTA: Public complaints about troopers usually go through a series of internal reviews, but that didn't happen in the case of Chris Hughes, he said. The former Biloxi-area trooper pleaded guilty recently to depriving the woman of her civil rights.

The DPS chief said he doesn't know what the FBI has or will learn, but agents surely are looking at who knew about the Hughes incidents and what actions they took about them.

A recently filed federal civil lawsuit against Hughes and three unidentified officers claims to document seven incidents in which Hughes beat or otherwise mistreated motorists he stopped on north Mississippi roadways from 2007 through July 16, 2012.

This is what can happen when you're more concerned with covering up criminal activities of your co-workers than upholding the law. Not very often, but it can happen.

[SIV]

former Biloxi-area trooper

Hughes beat or otherwise mistreated motorists he stopped on north Mississippi roadways

If he was "Biloxi-area" what was he doing patrolling North Misissippi roads?
That is one hell of a commute.

[Enough About Palin]

^^THIS^^

[SIV]

The article is from the Tallahassee Democrat. That is the newspaper that inspired a very popular bumper sticker "Don't Ask Me, I Read the Democrat"

[Juice]

If the US instituted a 75% tax bracket the courts could do nothing about it. I don't understand how the French courts struck theirs down.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I don't understand how the French courts struck theirs down.

I'm guessing it's the difference of the role of the courts between a common law system and a civil law system.

[Stormy Dragon]

IfWhen the US instituted a 75% tax bracket the courts could dodid nothing about it

FTFY

[Tony]

Yes, sometimes children need to be protected from their parents.

If there were no children, I might even be a libertarian. But there are, and you can't really justify libertarianism in a world with children. At least not the lowbrow Ayn Rand version most people here buy into. It's no accident her novels don't contain children.

[Virginian]

Derp derp derp.

Ever been inside the foster care system?

[OldMexican]

Re: Tony,

Yes, sometimes children need to be protected from their parents.

Only if the parents are committing acts of aggression against their children, not just because they want them to receive a non-secular education or refuse to give them Ritalin.

If there were no children, I might even be a libertarian.

I am a libertarian precisely for the children. The state is the biggest murderer and enslaver of children there has even been.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

If we're using standard definitions, I've aggressed against my children countless times.

[RBS]

Where to people get this idea that children are always completely passive?

[Xenocles]

That's precisely why standard definitions don't apply to children. They aren't chattels, but they sure as hell are not the same morally as adults. There are at least a few stages in between that children pass through - I can't quantify it, but they're there.

[DRM]

It's no accident her novels don't contain children.

. . . with the exceptions of We the Living, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged.

Which is to say, each and every one of her novels did contain children, nitwit.

[cw]

So, Reasonoids, I have a couple updates (not that you bastards care, but here goes):

My child is a boy, and I was accepted into law school.

That is all.

[Jordan]

My child is a boy

Congratulations!

I was accepted into law school

May god have mercy on your soul.

[MJGreen]

This basically constitutes child abuse, right?

[cw]

May god have mercy on your soul.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

[Corey S.]

I say this as a recent graduate with a mountain of debt. Don't go to law school unless 1) you are absolutely committed to being a lawyer, 2) going for free or cheap and 3) you have a reasonable probably of getting a good job when you graduate. Trust me.

[cw]

Perhaps unbelievably, I meet all three of your criteria. I'm sorry about your debt; I am aware of the risks in going to law school.

[Corey S.]

(I apologize if this gets posted a bunch of times)

First, congrats on the baby, exciting stuff.

Second, good for you for being smart about law school. I wasn't and many of my friends weren't either. I was fortunate to get a great job and I will be fine. Many of my classmates at a pretty good school aren't. It sounds like you got a great plan. Best of luck. Are you planning on trying to work for PLF or IJ, by any chance? I did a summer at IJ, it was awesome.

Also, enjoy that first year.

[cw]

Yes, I am very interested in IJ, and that's awesome you got to work for them. But I could give Pacific Legal a look, too.

Thanks for the response!

[R C Dean]

Two words:

In. House.

[Mickey Rat]

"May god have mercy on your soul."

Don't worry too much about that. His soul will be surgically removed by the time he graduates.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Congratulations!

[Virginian]

She's going to want pictures now. It's the nature of her sex.

Send me my fucking cigar pops. I prefer something smooth, but with a complex thread. Don't skimp. Real libertarians find a way to get those Cuban virgin thigh rolled ones.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Nah, I only care about pictures of babies whose naming rights I buy.

[sloopyinca]

ZIIIIIING!!!!

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I mean, not that she isn't also the motherfucking cutest, sloopy.

[Virginian]

Well played.

[Banjos]

Damn Straight!

[Virginian]

Squueeeee

I mean uh....*manly grunt* real uh...cute kid you got there. I'm gonna go....if you need me, I'm gonna be in the garage...[in a deeper voice] hangin' Sheetrock, 'round an engine I'm rebuilding.

[jesse.in.mb]

Aww, that is a really cute kid.

[JW]

Very cute! She looks like her father.

Does Ken know about him yet?

[Restoras]

Very cute. I can also tell from the pic that kid has a bit of the devil inside. Good luck.

[sloopyinca]

Is the child new or are you just discovering this?

Congrats, man!

[cw]

Oh I've known since conception. We just found out the sex recently.

[RBS]

Congrats, I just had a boy in July. They are a lot of fun. Until they go all zombie on you.

[JW]

Congrats on the first and you have my deepest sympathies on the second.

When's the naming contest?

[cw]

He already has a name, but your welcome to submit your proposal. Maybe I can convince the wife to alter it if it's a real zinger.

[Warty]

Charles Martel is the perennial suggestion around here, I believe.

[sloopyinca]

Just don't steal Lysander Messiah or Lysander Christ. I've got dibs on both.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You had me then you lost me.

[sloopyinca]

The baby isn't born yet. I was confused for a minute as well.

[cw]

Sorry, bad writing on my part.

[DEG]

Congratulations!

[sloopyinca]

I've got to give credit where credit is due. Al Gore has gotten so deep into the green movement that he must not have seen a single news story in the past few months. That can be the only explanation for him calling for there to be a carbon tax.

What a maroon.

[The Late P Brooks]

Neither officer was disciplined and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation cleared both of wrongdoing.

If somebody went to these pigs' houses, rang the doorbell and shot their balls off with 00 buckshot when they came to the door, and then left their dismembered bodies in a dumpster, would their co-workers look at one another and say, "Well, shit; it's not like they didn't deserve it. It's surprising it took this long."?

No. They would weep and wail and gnash their teeth and shriek to high heaven about the War on Cops. And use it as an example of why they need ever-increasing levels of militarization for their baboon army of occupation.

[sloopyinca]

No. They would weep and wail and gnash their teeth and shriek to high heaven about the War on Cops. And use it as an example of why they need ever-increasing levels of militarization for their baboon army of occupation.

You mean after the state funeral, parade and 21-gun salute with pipers playing in the background, right?

[Pi Guy]

Yeah. What is it with the fucking bagpipes? Why do all cops and firefighters think they're freaking Scottish?

[jb4479]

After the 1715 rising a lot of Scots were forced from their lands and resettled in Northern Ireland. A large number of their descendants were among the successive waves of Irish immigration. They brought their unique Scots-Irish culture to America. (It's why bluegrass and Celtic music sound a lot alike.)

The police and Fire departments fo the large cities of the northeast were mostly made up of immigrants, particularly Scots-Irish, especially in Boston and New York City.

[The Late P Brooks]

I was accepted into law school.

Condolences.

[Ice Nine]

I don't want to rain on his parade so I'll ask down here. After the well-publicized catastrophic "reception" into their job market that the last couple of law school graduating classes have experienced, why does anyone apply to law school now? Forget new grads, if I'm not mistaken established lawyers and even partners are being laid off from firms in large numbers. Is he going to dabble in law as a hobby or what?

[cw]

Lawyers in my state(MT) seem to be doing OK. Mainly I want to do work defending private property from government overreach, in what little way I can.

[General Butt Naked]

I'd say spending the $100k on an arsenal would better equip you towards that aim.

[Corey S.]

Then I amend my comment above to say: good for you. But do it as cheaply as possible. It sounds obvious, but I wish someone had told me 4 years ago.

[sloopyinca]

In other news on sensible spending, the Pentagon wants $49 million for a new prison at Guant?namo Bay for "special" detainees.

Special = American.

[Joe M]

Damn right we're special. Sorry, Canada.

[The Late P Brooks]

after the state funeral, parade and 21-gun salute with pipers playing in the background, right?

Ya, sure, you betcha by golly. And special guest appearances by Governors, Senators, representatives of Mayors Against Legal Guns, and other suchlike dignitaries. Quite possibly Janet Napolitano himself, hand delivering the keys to a shiny new APC.

[The Late P Brooks]

Cato Unbound update: Nicole Hassoun continues flailing around, starting her most recent response with a summary that looks as if she's been following an entirely different debate.

I shall be forever grateful that I have no fucking clue what any of that jibberjabber is about. And don't bother trying to explain it.

*sticks fingers in ears*

"LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALAI'M NOT LISTENING!"

[OldMexican]

France's highest court and an advisory council have both dismissed the 75 percent income tax on the wealthy.

se reculer!

[Barrett70]

my best friend's mom makes $70/hour on the internet. She has been out of a job for 5 months but last month her income was $18311 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read more on this web site http://www.wow92.com

[OldMexican]

Re: Barrett70,

my best friend's mom makes $70/hour on the internet.

"I know - I have paid her top dollar to see her lick her knickers!"

[Joe M]

The first seal of the sequestpocalypse has been broken!

FAA To Close 149 Air Traffic Towers Because Of Budget Cuts

With a little shout out to our own Robert Poole:

"There's a tendency over time to have Congress direct more money to small airports than would probably be economically justified," explained Robert Poole, an aviation analyst at the Reason Foundation think tank.

He said his own initial review of the list released Friday showed that many of the towers that will close around the clock are at airports with few or no scheduled passenger flights, indicating that Friday's decision would likely have little effect on airline service.

So, I get the impression the sequester just forced the trimming of some of that fabled "waste, fraud, and abuse" we're always hearing so much about.

[SFC B]

One of the airports being shuttered is Sugar Land Regional. Although it doesn't do regular passenger service it gets a lot of travel for businesspeople traveling too and from Houston. The city has tried, in the past, to pay for the operation of the tower. but the FAA has refused.

In addition to cutting off fabled FWA, how much of this is political decisions designed to hurt those people who dare not support The One. Hurting operations at an airport in a very business-friendly, Republican-leaning city seems par for the course at this point.

[The Late P Brooks]

why does anyone apply to law school now?

I would think the market for in-house "compliance officers" would be booming. It might not ultimately pay off like a partnership, but it seems to me a lot of businesses need a dedicated person to slog through the neck-deep bullshit.

[Sevo]

"Off-leash dog runner sues over tasing"
At least she didn't shoot his dogs...
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/ar.....374463.php

[Coeus]

Krugman gloats that Ireland is not recovering.

Even with the tortured graph he posts, it looks like it's coming along fine. What am I missing?

[Auric Demonocles]

When I was in Ireland everyone there thought the economy was shit and they were doomed to be in debt for a couple generations. No idea how that conforms to reality, but that's what the average Irishmen seemed to think.

[Irish]

You're missing that Ireland has the most progressive income tax in the European Union.

Strange that Krugman leaves that out.

[sloopyinca]

What am I missing?

"Team Blue talking points" would be my guess.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I was going to suggest "Krugman's magic beard," but that works too.

[sloopyinca]

I fail to see what Coeus kidnapping Krugman's wife would accomplish.

[Irish]

Now stealing Krugman's cats would be a really serious blow. I don't know how Krugdaddy would ever recover.

[Irish]

THERE ARE ALWAYS CATS!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Those cats have seen things, Irish. Seen things that would make a grown man tremble.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

oh, it said sleep like Royalty

[Loki]

4th photo down. Rapefruit. Hi-larious!

[sloopyinca]

The ones on Page 2 are better.

[DEG]

I decided that after a shitty week I would continue the pain by finishing my taxes. I made a mistake, my withholding is too high, so the Federal government might deign to give me a little of my own money back. I'm getting the paperwork finished so I can get that money quickly and get my withholding fixed.

I am drinking my misery away with Lancaster's Milk Stout. I might switch to something with higher alcohol later in the evening. Who else is drinking out there?

[The Late P Brooks]

I watched part of Kudlow's show a while ago. I knew better, but I watched anyway. They were talking to a woman who owns a bakery who is getting royally screwed by Obamacare, to the tune of losing two thirds of her business profits to increased costs. There was some democratic Congressman who was happily nattering about how the system is working, because the penalties are sufficiently harsh that she cannot really benefit from just dropping her employees' coverage.

What a fucking moron; he did not listen to a single word anyone else said, he just dutifully spouted his talking points over and over like a windup monkey beating its drum.

Then they began talking about the DHS mass ammo purchases; Kudlow is afraid the cops won't have any bullets to shoot people with. None of the idiots even pretended to give a shit about the rights of citizen gun owners.

The Democratic Congressman switched over his "Gun Safety" talking point tape and jabbered away.

[OldMexican]

I knew better, but I watched anyway.

Well, consider it your confirmation.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Your baptism was when you accidentally tuned in to NPR.

[SumpTump]

Come on dude, lets hit it on up one time now.

http://www.Anon-Today.tk

[Ted Levy]

"Christie is Against Gay Conversion Therapy"

Is that what they're calling same sex marriage in New Jersey these days?