Singing Through the Sequester, Cory Booker Might Not Sail to Senate, Iain Banks Dying of Cancer: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: Asterixvs, Dreamstime.com

  Hollywood and the presidential family truly are America's royalty. The sequestration cuts will not interfere with an annual White House concert later this month. Cyndi Lauper, Justin Timberlake and others are expected to perform. The president is, though, generously returning five percent of his salary in solidarity with furloughed employees, which works out to $20,000.

• Cory Booker's potential coronation into the Senate might be hampered by his mixed record as mayor of Newark. His political ambition has caused some to see him as an absentee leader.
• After a thumbs up from its House of Representatives, Alabama is inching closer to legalizing homebrewed beer, but only in limited amounts for personal consumption.
• A Florida man is facing 25 years in prison minimum for allegedly selling his old prescription painkillers to a police informant.
• Some Catholic traditionalists are not happy that Pope Francis is deflating some of the pomp out of ceremonies
• Elections approach in Zimbabwe in a few months, so now is the time for President Robert Mugabe's party to start threatening the opposition.
• Science Fiction writer Iain Banks, author of the "Culture" series of books, has been diagnosed with late-stage gall bladder cancer and likely only has months to live.

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Comments

[Archduke Pantsfan]

A Florida man is facing 25 years in prison minimum for allegedly selling his old prescription painkillers to a police informant.

He shouldn't have sold them to an informant.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You DO NOT want to read that story. It will make you want to inflict some pain.

[Matrix]

the FBI does things like this all the time with so-called terrorists.

[Episiarch]

Yeah, he should have sold them to me.

[CE]

Shouldn't the police informant also go to prison for buying them?

[DesigNate]

Hahaha, silly prole.

[Joe M]

The BBC article is giving me a rageurysm.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Cyndi Lauper, Justin Timberlake and others are expected to perform.

See? White House tours haven't been cancelled at all.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Justin Bieber has four weeks to claim his monkey.

[CampingInYourPark]

Austin, Texas goes full retard

"Officials To Take 'Whatever Precautions' Needed After North Korea Threat"

http://houston.cbslocal.com/20.....ea-threat/

[Bam!]

Governor Perry, we can't have a nuclear threat gap!

(Dr. Strangelove was on yesterday on IFC. Awesomeness.)

[Archduke Pantsfan]

It's on Netflix streaming.

[BlogimiDei]

Precious bodily fluids

[Tim]

It's trash talk, Obama should tell him he is 'full of lust, envy and low cunning.'

[Episiarch]

Obama is Tywin Lannister?

[Ska]

Obama couldn't portray Sardo Numspa, let alone Tywin Lannister.

[Raston Bot]

I I I want the knife

pleeeeeeeeease

[CE]

His horse could take a dump on the White House lawn though.

[Tim]

Hell no. You're reading too much into this.
I'd love to see the look on Un's face when they translate that and then explain the context.

[Mickey Rat]

No, Obama is Sweetrobin.

[Pro Libertate]

That's odd that North Korea would want to nuke a communist enclave within the U.S.

[Suthenboy]

Heh I was thinking the same. That is a laugh isnt it?

[Pro Libertate]

I wonder if Madison and Berkeley are also being targeted?

[DesigNate]

Perry's hair would keep him safe from any kind of nuclear attack.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Perry has been using any excuse lately to tout our economic status and make tweaks at other states. This is just another excuse. Do what most of us Texans do and ignore him.

[T]

He's turning into quite the troll lately. I have to admit, the 25K ad buy in California that got the whole world talking was fucking genius.

But yeah, Perry's a buffoon. If Abbott decides he wants the job, Perry is toast.

[fish]

Perry's a buffoon.

Texas buffoons are at least entertaining....I'm stuck with Jerry Brown....shitty corrupt governor and about as interesting as watching paint dry.

[tres]

you forgot fiscally retarded.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Everyday we are learning more and more about Warty

[fish]

How did you know it was Warty?

Cuz he was trying to steal that dollar disguised as a Tarantula.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Dortmund defender Marcel Schmelzer was wearing a fantastic face shield today.

/No Spoilers

[robc]

Its a sled.

[Jerry on the boat]

Plenty of broken noses lately, is Torres playing tomorrow?

[Ted S.]

It's not as if there was much to spoil from that game.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Some Catholic traditionalists are not happy that Pope Francis is deflating some of the pomp out of ceremonies

GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS IS ALL SOME OF US CATHOLICS HAVE LEFT!

[Tim]

"deflating" an unfortunate choice of word.

[Anonymous Coward]

God can't hear you unless you speak Latin. It's the only language He understands.

[CampingInYourPark]

Nay, fuck thee. 'Tis olde Englishe

[Heroic Mulatto]

You're both wrong. YHWH ladber ivrit!

[fish]

If you want a response try Klingon.

Sheesh!

[Heroic Mulatto]

I can do that:

tlhIngan Hol jatlh qeylIS!

[Matrix]

15 year old girl is smarter than most proglodytes

[$park?]

That's a cool speech, but I wonder if she had some help with it.

[Rich]

I wonder if the congresscreatures have some help with their bills.

[$park?]

I suspect they're dumb enough to produce their idiotic bills without much help.

[Rich]

I dunno, $park?. Have you ever seen how *convoluted* that shit is?

[Rich]

Thanks for posting that.

Too bad her testimony, like that of the pro-gun "Newtown dad", are heard mostly in the echo chambers.

[Generic Stranger]

They actually played that clip on the Portland news station. I was mildly surprised.

Actually, considering how liberal Portland is, their news stations manage to not be completely one sided.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Especially with all those vesen running about.

[Suthenboy]

Hopefully people will come to realize that lowering crime, reducing gun violence, making america safe, and so on have absolutely nothing to do with the anti-gun agenda.

All of the arguments presented to them using sense, logic, rationality, facts and so on are pointless.

It is going to come down to "Fuck you. The second amendment guarantees me my inherent right to defend myself. You can talk all you want, but when you try to actually violate that right, I am going to kill you."

If that argument were made often and loudly, the progs would stfu about taking guns away. That really is the only thing they understand.

[A Serious Man]

Barack Obama is cutting his own pay in solidarity with Federal workers.

[Matrix]

Pelosi said that a pay cut would undermine the dignity of their job.

What dignity is there in being a lying scumbag who ruins the lives of everyday folks?

[$park?]

What dignity is there in being a lying scumbag who ruins the lives of everyday folks?

Ask someone at any level of law enforcement.

[fish]

What dignity is there in being a lying scumbag who ruins the lives of everyday folks?

That's the tattoo you get on your ass if you aspire to higher "democratic" leadership!

[jesse.in.mb]

That's kind of nice. I'm assuming it's just smart PR, but it's still kind of nice.

[Pro Libertate]

I'd prefer that he wore a hairshirt and was whipped by monks out on the mall. Then resign in disgrace and stay on the mall as a homeless beggar.

[Bobarian]

But Federal Employees are facing up to a 20% cut...

So it's nice in the original meaning of the word

NICE: showing or indicating very small differences;

[Matrix]

well, 20% over 14 weeks in my case (DoD), not the whole year.

[CE]

Why doesn't he just take the rest of the year off? We would all applaud that.

[tres]

Cutting his pay and doubling down on vacations.

[Fist of Etiquette]

His political ambition has caused some to see him as an absentee leader.

But those are the best kind!

[John]

http://pjmedia.com/drhelen/201.....od-police/

They psychology of food banners.

The author discusses how upset people get when their food views are challenged and it led me to remember a woman I knew when I worked in NYC many years ago. She only ate a macrobiotic diet and reveled in "clean eating." The problem was she felt she had no control over her life and eating certain things was the only way she could cope with the uncertainty and angst that she felt on a daily basis. She didn't seem to push her views on others though she looked askance a few times when I ate some type of bakery product.

We are now a nation being controlled by a number of people like this woman?those who are full of angst and fear but rather than look to themselves to solve their crises have created a crises for other people who they must control in order to feel in control themselves. It is a dangerous dynamic and one that feeds into power for the political class at the expense of the individual. Those of us who believe in freedom must fight for Happy Meals, Twinkies and yes, even the occasional trans fats, for the food police are more dangerous than these.

[Episiarch]

Projection, as always. I can't control myself, so you need to be controlled. Preferably by me.

[John]

That. And there are all of these strange forces that scare me and that I can't control so I will take out my fear and desire to control by controlling you.

[Episiarch]

Well, if I can't control them, then clearly you can't. I mean, if you could, that would mean I'm a weak, neurotic douchebag with no self-control instead of being the norm. And we can't have that. No sir.

[John]

People who have little control of their lives seek to make up for that by controlling others.

[Night Watchman]

Unfortunately, there will never be a shortage of those seeking to wear the "boot stamping on a human face--forever."

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

The problem was she felt she had no control over her life and eating certain things was the only way she could cope with the uncertainty and angst that she felt on a daily basis.

Yeah, anyone who knows anything about eating disorders knows this is how they work.

[jesse.in.mb]

Does this mean we have to ban all anxiety-related OCD behaviors?

No more eyebrows for me because I'm a trichotillomaniac!

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

What are you, Tumblr or Pinterest or something? If someone wants to be anorexic, that's his or her choice. And if you want to rip out all your own hair, go for it (though I knew a girl who pulled out all her own eyelashes in high school and let me warn you: they don't grow back).

[jesse.in.mb]

I've managed to keep it under control so far, but I just don't trust myself and need the government to save me from my hair pulling ways.

[Episiarch]

You can't reduce your status as a bear. You need every bit of that hair.

[jesse.in.mb]

Just because I'm gay, hirsute, have a full beard and can occasionally be found in bear bars does not make me a bear.

[Heroic Mulatto]

No, it makes you a bear-hawk? I think?

[Coeus]

Just because I'm gay, hirsute, have a full beard and can occasionally be found in bear bars does not make me a bear.

So, baby-bear, then?

[jesse.in.mb]

No, it makes you a bear-hawk? I think?

I am stealing bear-hawk and never giving it back.

Coeus: baby-bear would be a cub. Please enjoy this infographic as an introduction to the insanely complicated subdivision of gay men into very narrow archetypes.

[Coeus]

Coeus: baby-bear would be a cub. Please enjoy this infographic as an introduction to the insanely complicated subdivision of gay men into very narrow archetypes.

Appreciated, but there is no way in hell I'm clicking on that at work.

[Episiarch]

It's perfectly safe, Coeus. Except it makes you gay. Luckily I was already the gayest monster since gay came to Gaytown, so I'm unaffected.

[jesse.in.mb]

there is no way in hell I'm clicking on that at work.

That's completely fair. It's pretty tame, but it could be confusing should somebody walk by and want to know what's on your screen.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Just because I'm gay, hirsute, have a full beard and can occasionally be found in bear bars does not make me a bear

No, but it does mean you are wearing a bear uniform.

[jesse.in.mb]

wearing a bear uniform.

That's a great clip. On a serious note: I would look absurd in a leather harness and assless chaps. Just absurd. So no bear uniform for me.

[Coeus]

All chaps are assless. Otherwise they'd be called "pants".

[jesse.in.mb]

I know, assless chaps is more descriptive though. It paints a more entertaining mental image.

[Coeus]

I know, assless chaps is more descriptive though. It paints a more entertaining mental image.

Is that not why you are here?

[John]

Her eyelashes? Damn that must have hurt.

[Suthenboy]

They dont grow back? Good to know.

I have all Irish/English/Welsh ancestry and at my age I am starting to get those damn Gandolf style eyebrows.

I may put your assertion to the test.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'd recommend a beard trimmer for that. Set it fairly high and then take it down notch by notch until they look right. patchiness is not a better look than Einstein eyebrows.

[fish]

Starting to look like Freddie Jones in Dune?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm.....man-belief

[mr simple]

I had a friend in college that shaved his eyebrows off on a whim after shaving his head. It mad him look very evil. He bought some elixir from Japan and rubbed it over his eyes everyday and eventually they grew back.

[Rabban]

Eyebrows =/= Eyelashes! Learn to read. And yeah eyebrows totally grow back even without elixir, which I know from personal experience. Pretty lashes grow back too, but haven't tested it personally.

[Fist of Etiquette]

After a thumbs up from its House of Representatives, Alabama is inching closer to legalizing homebrewed beer, but only in limited amounts for personal consumption.

This has apparently been blessed by Big Beer?

[Zeb]

Miller Coors and AB-InBev still have like 90% of the beer market. I don't think they are too worried about going from 49 to 50 states allowing limited home brewing.

[robc]

I think somewhere about 80%.

Craft is up to 6.5%, imports are about 10% and a little bit for Pabst and Yuengling and etc.

[A Serious Man]

Conservatives and libertarians who criticize government funded studies of duck genitalia just don't understand Science.

Now, KNEEL BEFORE SCIENCE!

[Zeb]

Duck genitalia is really a lot more interesting than most people think.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

That is true.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're just impressed that a drake has a wang half the length of its body.

[NeonCat]

And you notice you never see a duck with a firearm or a sports car or a monster truck, but you evil men still insist you're not compensating.

/feminist columnists everywhere

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason the drake has that long, probative trouser snake is because mallards have evolved to prevent fertilization of their eggs by all but the most forceful of penetrations.

Therefore, feminist columnists are rape apologists.

[Zeb]

I'm more impressed by the shape.

[Rich]

"Eversion of a duck penis" video may be NSFW.

[Dagny T.]

Male ducks have elaborate corkscrew-shaped penises, the length of which correlates with the degree of forced copulation males impose on female ducks.

Don't give Warty any ideas.

[Rights-Minimalist Autocrat]

Ducks have a patriarchy too?

[Warty]

TOO LATE.

[Dagny T.]

So what you're saying is I can expect corkscrew penises and gigantic horrifying spiders in my nightmares? Goddammit, Warty.

[Warty]

They weren't already? Girls are weird.

[Caleb Turberville]

Deflating the pomp of ceremonies.

So, Catholics a Protestants now?

[Caleb Turberville]

*are

[John]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2526148

Drudge is just a big meanie that is trying to interfere with the great things the White House is trying to do.

[NeonCat]

Isn't it great that reporters can be bullied into not insisting on answers to their questions?

[Brandon]

Pfeiffer added that when he is asked about something on the Drudge Report he usually ridicules the reporter asking the question until they sheepishly back down.

What a powerful man he is!

[John]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/po.....37424.html

$700 million dollars of katrina relief money stolen.

[Bam!]

Only $700 million? Slackers.

[John]

Yeah. It is actually less than I thought it would be.

[Coeus]

How's that new influx of feminism working out for you, tech sector?
Why I cried at the Game Developers Conference.

Oh, I see...

[Thane of Whiterun]

What was that even about?

[Episiarch]

I'm wondering the same thing.

The internet is a wonderful thing, but its giving space for completely retarded incoherent idiots to write utter blather is a harsh side effect.

[Coeus]

What was that even about?

The future of the Tech Industry.

[DesigNate]

Feelings. It was all about feelings.

[fish]

We usually call games "power fantasies" like that's a bad thing. I want more from my games than male power fantasies, I have said a hundred times.

Womens voices...womens choices....and hopefully a man hung like a duck!

[mr simple]

Seriously. It's just meandering thoughts spewed forth in alternating run-on sentences and sentence fragments.

[Hyperion]

A bunch of tripe.

Here's the most relevant comment:

Take off your little girl knickers/boy panties and grow the fuck up

[Jerry on the boat]

She actually wanted to go to a Python conference.

[fish]

She actually wanted to go to the Python conference

Badda Bing!

[Caleb Turberville]

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

Anyone like to join in a gigantic subthread about the lack of supporting evidence for a scriptural office of the papacy, here's your chance!

[Xenocles]

Meh. I suppose you'd first have to convince me that Scripture is the only source of authority for how to run a church, or any source of authority, for that matter.

[Coeus]

The Baffling Story Of The "NO IN DA BUTT" Ford Escort GT

[Coeus]

No comments on this one, really? This is hilarious.

It was clearly planned. Hell, the owner even had a NC DOT-approved personalized license plate that read "NONDABUT," bravely sacrificing a few non-essential letters to get that message across in NC's eight-character limit. The rest of the car had carefully-placed decals and stickers that had two of those standard, neckless man-icon guys who normally get work modeling for DON'T WALK or PEDESTRIAN XING signs. Here one was standing erect (both ways, I presume) and the other was bent awkwardly at the waist in front, forming a 90? angle and, presumably, presenting his perfectly circular anus. The figures were intended to convey the act of anal intercourse, and they were circumscribed with the circle and slash of the international "NO" symbol.

That felt weird to explain in such detail, and I have no problem with people putting whatever junk they have in whatever orifices they like.

All the stickers, with the figures or not, bore the words "NO IN DA BUTT" and I swear every body panel of that poor Escort was covered with them. In the dark, backward period of time I saw the car, humans didn't have cameras on them at all times, so I had to make do with that drawing above. Now that I look at it, I realize I didn't put on nearly enough stickers.

[Thane of Whiterun]

I saw Ford and assumed it was about that weird Ford ad in India.

[db]

It's a damn shame this happened before the advent of camera phones.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Disney murders LucasArts

[Pro Libertate]

I was surprised by that.

[Caleb Turberville]

WHAT. THE. HELL!

Not that I care; I haven't played Rogue Squadron in years.

[Thane of Whiterun]

I demand a new TIE Fighter.

[Pro Libertate]

I want a single-player KOTOR, mother fuckers.

[Caleb Turberville]

Apparently, KOTOR and Battlefront weren't actually developed by LucasArts. I never really noticed until now.

[Pro Libertate]

No, I knew that (BioWare for the first one, who sublicensed to Obsidian for the second), but LucasArts licensed their creation. What does this mean?

[Apatheist ?_??]

LucasArts will continue to license it just won't develop. I predict that there will be mostly shitty games but a few good ones. So nothing will change.

[Pro Libertate]

As long as I get non-shitty, single-player KOTOR. Oh, and Mass Effect 4. Both from BioWare, which I further demand be liberated from EA.

[Rights-Minimalist Autocrat]

As long as I get non-shitty, single-player KOTOR. Oh, and Mass Effect 4. Both from BioWare, which I further demand be liberated from EA.

I agree, which means we have now formed a government.

[Pro Libertate]

Consensus!

[Alack]

As long as I get non-shitty, single-player KOTOR.

I cannot count the number of times I have played those games. They are amazeballs.

[Pro Libertate]

I liked the games so much that I've long thought the next Star Wars films should focus on that era.

[MJGreen]

Hell yes. TIE Fighter was the superior game.

I loved getting medals from the Emperor. Fucking bad ass.

[DesigNate]

I thought I had dreamed that game it's been so long since I played it.

[db]

XWvTF was the shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

NO!!!!!!!!

[A Serious Man]

I remember Shadows of the Empire as one of the first video games I ever played.

[Caleb Turberville]

Shadows was awesome. I surprised also that they aren't going ahead with 1313 in some form or another. What I've seen looks epically good.

[MJGreen]

Wow. God damn Disney, why do you have to be like that?

[Matrix]

Instead, they are going to license out their stuff. Sonovabitch! Licensed games are usually complete and utter shit!!

[Archduke Pantsfan]

The borders must be protected from promiscuous college students

[NeonCat]

Oh CBP, don't ever change, you paranoid wackadoodles.

[jesse.in.mb]

Shouldn't we be encouraging cross border sexing? You know, for better understanding between Canadians and Americans.

[NeonCat]

Not if they're charging, because profit=evil.

[Dagny T.]

This was adulterous cross-border sexing, NTTAWWTIAPC.

*added: If All Parties Consent

[Dagny T.]

"Are you looking to be sexually assaulted?"
I blinked at him. I couldn't breathe.
"Was that meant to be funny?"
"No, it wasn't."
"Ah, no. I'm definitely not."
"Well, it sure seems like you are."
"... How so?"
He wouldn't elaborate.

Whoa. If that is true, I see a large settlement in her future.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Whoa, that is totally nuts.

[Dagny T.]

I hate to cast aspersions, and I know border guards are vicious, vile scum, but:

Clay Nikiforuk is a recent Creative Writing graduate from UBC and lives in Montreal. She is currently writing her first book exploring and critiquing the sociology of sexual assault.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I'm just glad my time there is far enough in the past that I don't know this person. Because I almost surely would have. Fucking college.

[Warty]

There's a girl named Clay?

[DesigNate]

Pseudonym to protect her identity.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Actually, Clay is her slave name. Her real name is Muhammad Ali.

[mr simple]

Her momma called her Clay, I'ma call her Clay.

[Coeus]

But no woman has ever had a motive to lie about anything like that, ever. Ipso facto, you must be incorrect.

[Brandon]

I would.

[Zombie Jimbo]

I say she gets citizenship, provided she proves that her red hair isn't out of a bottle.

[Rich]

The sequestration cuts will not interfere with an annual White House concert later this month.

You don't understand. Much essential fellation is done at such events.

[Coeus]

More on Kotaku about the GDC.

So, yeah, it's not all about making games a socially progressive artform. The week when game developers dream the biggest still has to compete with the other 51. But this year, it didn't feel entirely like a dream. It felt like some people?many people, even?have woken up.

Translation, there was a lot of bitching, and not a lot of actual, you know, video game talk. Progressive Success!

[John]

Liberals must be ruthlessly suppressed and eliminated from any organization. If you don't, they will immediately corrupt it into a tool for their politics and destroy it.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Sure, it may be widely held that games movies and TV shows with female protagonists make less money, but does that line of thinking even make sense?

Brenda Romero, an influential developer who has worked on everything from Jagged Alliance to Dungeons and Dragons, sounded off in no uncertain terms about her disdain for E3's booth babes, noting how uncomfortable she felt while walking the show floor at an event dedicated to the industry she helped create.

How dare there be prettier women than me?!

Though I do find booth babes a bit crass and lowest-common-denominator, myself.

I will admit personally, I would like to see less violent games out there, not because I think that they're bad or wrong, but because I think that creatively, they're too easy. I think we're better than that.

Since it's not enough that games be fun.

...

It seems like as Silicon Valley begins to dwarf Hollywood in cultural significance, more and more devs think they have to become as politically mindless and dysfunctional.

[John]

Yeah because the last thing that you would ever use to market a product to mostly under 30 men is attractive women.

[DesigNate]

The horror.

[Coeus]

Didn't you know? There's so many women playing shitty facebook games and bejeweled, that we have to completely redesign the industry in the areas where the customer is mostly under 30 men (this is an actual argmuent they make, only they say "almost 50% of women are gamers, it's time for a change").

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I find that beyond annoying.

[Rights-Minimalist Autocrat]

If they make it so you can't adjust boob size in Saints Row 4, I'm going on a rampage.

[Thane of Whiterun]

But, Candy Crush Saga!

[Thane of Whiterun]

OK folks, wrt Sullum's post from earlier:

a. People want stims
b. People can get stims if they have ADHD
c. Thus, people have ADHD

or, if you prefer

a. People want benzos
b. People can get benzos if they have GAD
c. Thus, people have GAD

[NeonCat]

Now in Manchester UK, Goths, metalheads, punks can be victims of hate crimes.

http://www.theblaze.com/the-wi.....e-victims/

"Some people discriminate against somebody else because they are wearing a Slayer T-shirt or have long hair," said Jay White, 23, referring to the thrash metal band. "They deserve to be brought to justice."

White, a leather-clad, self-described "metalhead ? or a dude that likes good music," said members of subcultures faced discrimination just like religious minorities.

"For a lot of people, metal is their religion," he said.

[Rich]

"People who wish to express their alternative sub-culture identity freely should not have to tolerate hate crime," Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said.

Fuck, yeah!

[Zeb]

So, does hate crime now mean just being mean to people? Didn't it used to have to be an actual crime, but the penalty was enhanced because of hate stuff?

[John]

I was thinking about welfare today. On an individual level, I have always been generous. I have given money to any number of friends and family members over the years. And while that may have made me feel better, I really never helped anyone or did anything but enable irresponsible people. That is the thing about welfare, the people who would actually benefit from it, never ask for it. I have numerous friends who have had any number of tough breaks or started their own businesses and I am sure had great need of money at one point in time or another. But oddly, they never asked. Only the irresponsible ones asked. And the money never helps them. It just causes them to make more bad decisions and ask for more.

That got me to thinking about government welfare. In 1927 Coolidge refused to help the people wiped out by the great Mississippi flood because it would set a bad precedent. And he was exactly right. There really is no middle ground. In the same way that once you give that dead beat brother or friend money they just come back for more, once you set the precedent that the government is responsible for people's misfortunes, there is no end to how much money you will spend. If you can rebuild this guy's house, why not help out someone who lost their job? It never ends. It may take a few decades, but you end up broke and with full on socialism. There is no middle ground or escaping the slippery slope.

[Bam!]

tl;dr

[NoVAHockey]

did you get your print copy of reason yesterday too? the coolidge story was pretty good. not sure if I'll pick up the book or not.

[John]

No I didn't. I was in my thinking about the various dead beats who have taken me for money over the years reminded me of Coolidge.

[NoVAHockey]

oh ... spoiler alert. the story about the flood is in the article.

i know what you mean though.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I have seen some exceptions to that general rule. Some people who ask for in-kind, temporary help (help moving, a couple of meals a week, or a place to shack up) do a good job of getting back on their feet.

You're mostly right, though. 95% of the time, it's the same people with the same problems asking for the same things, and short of divine intervention, they'll never get their affairs in order.

[robc]

The other exception is when you attach strings to the money. I will help you out, but you have to do A B and C in order to get the money. Its the difference between enabling and, well, enabling.

Which is also something that private charities are more likely to do. The government has at times, but they dont like to cut people off, so it rarely sticks. Some of the Clinton welfare reform attached strings. And it worked.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

John, my dad taught me this lesson well by letting two of his grown brothers live in our basement on and off throughout my childhood, including one who was a violent drunk. When he wasn't living with us we used to buy him groceries. On the plus side, it meant that when I was really little I got used to going to bad neighborhoods and hanging out with drug users and assorted lowlifes, so I'm not afraid of things like that. On the down side, there was that time he threatened my mom with a baseball bat and she had to call the cops. (They both went back to the socialist paradise that is the UK where they can live on the dole forever.)

[John]

I really hate people like that. They put their friends and family in the impossible position of either enabling them and being taken advantage of or telling them to fuck off and, because they are generally good people and feel some familial obligation, feeling like assholes.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

My mom has a brother like that too, who is now ruining my sainted grandmother's life. He's my godfather and my family is horrified that I want nothing to do with him after I spent most of my childhood seeing him only during prison visitations. Sorry guy.

[Coeus]

More from those lovable libertarian allies, the feminists.

Not everyone is happy about the new bill. Gun owners who have been protesting at the state capitol, according to executive director of the Connecticut Coalition of Sportsmen Robert Crook, feel that they've been making their voices heard "for virtually nothing."

No, not virtually nothing. They've let us know that they're a bunch of heartless crazies who feel like their right to own a gun is worth more than the the lives of 26 students and teachers so surely, that's worth something.

[John]

Liberals are our friends man.

[Anonymous Coward]

They've let us know that they're a bunch of heartless crazies who feel like their right to own a gun is worth more than the the lives of 26 students and teachers so surely, that's worth something.

Because no one would ever kill multiple people ever again if those evil mind-controlling penis guns weren't around.

It makes perfect sense.

[NeonCat]

Before the Braves game on opening day there was a moment of silence for the victims of Sandy Hook. Why? I don't know. If 26 students and teachers in CT had died when their bus went down a cliff, we wouldn't be having a moment of silence at a Braves game in GA three months later. In fact, NO ONE would be talking about it, except maybe on a slow news day with a focus on bus safety and whether or not they should have seat belts. But because Sandy Hook is a media event that feeds into the proggie propaganda machine, we're keeping the memory alive. For all the kids who didn't get killed, which is better? Obsessing over it, bringing it up again and again, or saying life goes on and we should try to return to as normal a state of affairs as ever?

Not the latter, because that would be for the ACTUAL children. No, we must do the former for all the theoretical children out there who may get killed by some nut.

[John]

That is the biggest reason I hate liberals. They politicize everything. There is no safe place from politics.

[mr simple]

their right to own a gun is worth more than the the lives of 26 students and teachers

Well, that's true. It sucks that some crazy shot a bunch of innocent kids, but it's still true.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I actually had some lib-tard tell me that "the rights of a few" gun-owners don't trump the rights of the mass population to feel safe.

I pointed out to this moron that the right to own a gun applied to the masses, not just a limited few, and that there was no "right to safety" in the Constitution.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Wait, I thought the RKBA was a "collective" right and not an individual one?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

That was my point.

[Zeb]

Aren't there something like 100 million gun owners in the US? In other words, close to a majority of the adult population.

[Suthenboy]

He/she didnt say right to safety...they said right to FEEL safe. Safety has nothing to do with it.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Whenever I (all too frequently for my tastes) run into one of those "I have a right to be free from fear" people, I realize that I'm almost certainly going to be administering medicine to the dead, and if I say anything at all past that, I just point out that fear is only limited by an unlimited imagination, and then sarcastically ask if the same principle applied to the Nazis fearing the Jews, etc.

Also, for bonus points, see if they've ever even considered the thought that other people might have contradictory wild fears and what should be done in the case of those conflicts. I'm so amazed at times that people can hold such strong opinions for decades without any reflection on them whatsoever.

[Ted S.]

Whenever I (all too frequently for my tastes) run into one of those "I have a right to be free from fear" people,

I'd tell them that I'm afraid of people who want to run my life.

It's close to the feeling I have with the so-called "public health" types. I know every time I hear one of them wanting to ban something, I can feel my blood pressure rising as I go into a rage. I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels that way, and it can't be good for the health of the nation as a whole. And yet if you try telling them that their mania to control other people's lives might be bad for public health, you get looked at like you're some sort of freak.

[Coeus]

The economy is sexist.

Guys like Zuckerberg?including his prototype Steve Jobs and his predecessor Larry Page?are characters of fascination and adulation in Silicon Valley even when they're openly ridiculed and despised. And the companies they've created are likewise imagined as corporate utopias filled with free food, bicycles, and the dress code of a boys' birthday party at Laser Quest. But the politics hiding behind these supposed corporate utopias are both anti-feminist and anti-worker. Maybe what we really need aren't just feminist businesses, but a feminist economy, before Zuckerberg and other boy oligarchs (think Bill Gates mansplaining education to teachers) turn us into the United States of Neverland.

Genius.

[Gladstone]

Why can't libertarians realize that feminists are natural libertarians.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Are y'all mocking someone in specific who made the contention that "feminists are natural libertarians", or is it general mockery? Feel like I'm missing some necessary context.

[Thane of Whiterun]

They may be referring to this:

I think that libertarians should not oppose feminist cultural values. Libertarians should embrace feminism. Freedom is a libertarian and feminist ideal?an ideal that should inform our politics and our culture. States are not the only institutions that should aim to be more voluntary. So should the family and the workplace.

[Coeus]

There was an article on reason several months back which stated that libertarians should be natural feminist allies. It was beyond insane.

[Gladstone]

You mean this?
http://reason.com/blog/2012/05.....n-feminism

[Coeus]

That's the one.

[Thane of Whiterun]

TBH it could be a PR win for libertarians to embrace "feminism" in the abstract. Most people have no idea how vulgar it has become.

It's not a problem with feminism per se since that covers so many things; it's a problem with Marcotte and Feminist(e|ing) and the Jezzies.

[Gladstone]

Yeah I think the HnRer hostility to feminism is mainly due to the fact that most self-described feminists today are not in any way remotely libertarian.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Plus we're all betas.

[Suthenboy]

Or feminist.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Most people have no idea how vulgar it has become.

It's not just vulgar. It's completely schizophrenic--a devolution writ large by and promoted by a group of people who are, by and large, mentally and emotionally broken to the extreme.

Modern feminism is the thought process of a person completely at war with themselves and with basic biology, and it shows in the general lack of coherence they display outside of "I hate men."

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Ah, yes. I think I commented on that one.

If it wasn't clear before the "war on women" garbage, it should be now: feminism works at cross-purposes with libertarianism.

[Proprietist]

Again, that depends. Libertarians can be all for equal protections for women and support shaming discriminatory actions and sexist people, organizations and words without supporting mandatory hiring laws and making misogynist speech a hate crime.

Just like we can support ending discriminatory marriage laws and call out bigoted socons, religions and companies without supporting the state forcing Catholic churches to wed gay couples and forcing employers to provide marital benefits to gays.

[Gladstone]

Again, that depends. Libertarians can be all for equal protections for women and support shaming discriminatory actions and sexist people, organizations and words without supporting mandatory hiring laws and making misogynist speech a hate crime.

This is like saying libertarians and communists are natural allies since they both oppose bailouts, corporate welfare and the current amount of regulations and the tax rate.

[ant1sthenes]

Feminism (of the sort we mock here, anyway) works at cross-purposes with society of all types. Like any sort of pathogen, it will eventually be reined in, either through killing off its hosts, being killed off by its hosts, or mutating into something less debilitating.

[jesse.in.mb]

Seriously though, who let 2nd wave feminism back out of its cage?

[Thane of Whiterun]

Will someone actually willing to RTFA tell me what a "feminist economy" is?

[NeonCat]

Socialism on pink paper.

[JW]

What? You need it femsplained to you, caveman?

[ant1sthenes]

Men not only provide for all of women's needs, but also expect nothing in return, and pretend that women deserve what they receive to protect their feelings.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

(think Bill Gates mansplaining education to teachers)

I didn't think it was possible for me to think less of teachers than I already did, but feministe successfully infantilized them even more!

[Irish]

Wait, Bill Gates isn't left wing enough for them now?

Who is left wing enough for modern feminists? Does Lenin make the cut?

[Anonymous Coward]

Private companies don't need to worry about getting elected or breaking laws like old-fashioned, unwieldy nation states do.

Clearly this dumbass has never heard of sovereign immunity or the position it plays in our nation.

[NeonCat]

AC, this dumbass hasn't heard of many, many things. But she has OPINIONS, which are better than information because they FEEL true.

[Matrix]

If anyone ever talks to me and uses the word "mansplaining" to me, I'm going to ignore everything else they have to say.

It will, hopefully, sate my need to punch them in the face.

[NeonCat]

Just laugh, repeat "mansplaining" and laugh like it's the funniest thing you've ever heard and walk away.

[OldMexican]

But the politics hiding behind these supposed corporate utopias are both anti-feminist and anti-worker.

One can be anti-feminist without being anti-woman. Feminists seem to conflate the two so easily, despite their own aesthetic challenges.

Maybe what we really need aren't just feminist businesses, but a feminist economy

Must be a different economy from the one driven by choice and scarcity, I guess...

[Anonymous Coward]

E.J. Dionne recognizes his own cognitive dissonance. Waves it off:

If you are tired of seeing the debate on guns dominated by the National Rifle Association and yearn for sensible weapons laws, you have to love New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. When most politicians were caving in or falling silent, there was Bloomberg, wielding his fortune to keep hope alive that we could move against the violence that blights our nation.

But imagine that you also believe the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision was a disaster for representative government because a narrow majority broke with long precedent and tore down the barriers to corporate money in politics. The decision also encouraged the super rich to drop any inhibitions about using their wealth to push their own political agendas.

When it comes to policy, I fall into both of these camps -- pro-Bloomberg on guns, but anti-Citizens United. And so I have been pondering the issue of consistency or, as some would see it, hypocrisy.

When Nanny Bloomberg spends his money to fight the "scourge" of guns, it's good. When the Koch Brothers spend money, it's part of the EVILS of Citizens United.

[John]

What Dionne wants is his way. He just wants to help people after all.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, that's self-awareness at its best. And cogent, logical thinking for the win!

[Episiarch]

"I'm fully aware that I'm a hypocrite, I just don't care."

[John]

Dione means well and wants to improve the world. People like him don't need to be consistent. Consistency is for weak willed proles like you.

[Libertymike]

One of the lamest and stupidest expressions in the English language is "consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind".

It is often uttered by those who think that the employment of the expression is a manifestation of their brilliance.

[Pro Libertate]

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

[John]

They always forget the "foolish" part of the quote and use it as a justification for hypocrisy.

[Pro Libertate]

Which, I believe, was about not foolishly following (being consistent with) what everyone else is doing.

[Libertymike]

Thank you for furnishing the full phrase. I think John is right about folks forgetting the whole phrase.

[Xenocles]

Rand certainly did; she mocked Emerson mercilessly for the straw-phrase.

[A Serious Man]

Kind of like this:

Billionaire vows to destroy climate skeptics.

But he's a member of the Right People and thus his money is being used for good.

[Pro Libertate]

Destroy? What, as in kill?

[CE]

It's for the good of the planet.

[Coeus]

Morbo? Is that you?

[JW]

What was that about Citizen's United, EJ?

He has so far spent at least $126,000 on ads in the Massachusetts special Senate election....

Though he's hosting a $32,500-per-person fundraiser with President Obama on Wednesday to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

[Pro Libertate]

It must be overturn for Republicans and other militia groups, not for right-thinking people.

[Pi Guy]

It must be overturn for Republicans and other militia groups, not for right- left-thinking people.

FIFY

[Matrix]

do yourselves a favor and don't read the comments.

[B.P.]

Poor, lonely Bloomberg, bravely standing up to the NRA, who "dominates" the debate on guns. Can't even get a break from the media on the issue. Nope.

[Mickey Rat]

EJ manages to hate two constitutionally protected civil rights.

[Brandon]

Sure would be nice if there was some way to go directly to the source of that excerpt...

[Tejicano]

This reminds me of somebody I had to deal with recently... um, who was that?... Oh, yeah, it was my two-year-old son.

[A Serious Man]

North Carolina bill proposes to nullify the First Amendment, establish state religion.

[CampingInYourPark]

Looks like some kind of ploy to make a point

[Pro Libertate]

Which religion? Methodist? Baptist? Zoroastrianism?

[Bam!]

Oprahism.

[Pro Libertate]

Not in North Carolina. Illinois, maybe.

[jesse.in.mb]

Southern Baptists seem to be the majority, but maybe they'll join back up with the CoE out of respect for history.

[Matrix]

Obviously it won't go anywhere, but...
if I remember from my early US history correctly, some of the early states (after the Constitution was ratified) DID have official state religions. The First Amendment said "Congress shall make no law" and said nothing of the states.

someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Almost all of the original states had state religions, and the bill of rights wasn't considered "incorporated" to apply to the states until the Civil War, so yeah, you're not wrong.

[A Serious Man]

Not only that, but the commonwealth of Massachusetts had a law that taxed people and used the money to fund the state recognized church.

[CE]

and college sports.

[Tonio]

Virginia, one of the original 13 states was a crown colony. State religion was Church of England, and local parishes were mandatorily supported by tax revenue.

Virginia's 1776 constitution guarantees FoR, so we didn't need to wait for no steenkin' federal constitution, bitches.

[Pi Guy]

In LA and MI, what most states call counties, they call parishes.

[Suthenboy]

I think Michigan has counties too...Louisiana being the only state with parishes.

[Isaac Bartram]

You are correct. Alaska is the only other state that does not have counties (it has boroughs and census districts). Although in Connecticut counties are judicial rather than governmental units.

[Mickey Rat]

It does the former, it merely reserves the authority to do the latter. Given that the adoption of the 1st amendment did not render null and void the existing established religions among the states, they may have a small point. Though not one that should be seriously pursued.

[CampingInYourPark]

More from Congresswoman Degette:

"The audio was not very clear, but the man can be heard talking about being at a disadvantage when facing an armed criminal.

'The good news for you, you live in Denver. The Denver PD would be there within minutes,' she said to laughter.

'You'd probably be dead anyway,' she added, smirking."

http://www.examiner.com/articl.....lf-defense

[Virginian]

I eagerly await the media firestorm such an insensitive remark will surely generate.

Oh, and someone should let her call the cops, then punch her once every 30 seconds. I bet you could get a good thirty or forty hits in before the cops showed up.

[Zombie Jimbo]

How would I get the ugly stupid off of my knuckles?

[Night Watchman]

"When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."

[A Serious Man]

Police dispatched to farm after someone reported hearing a man screaming for help. Turns out it was just a goat that sounded like a human.

"We could hear what appeared to be a man screaming for help in the direction of a residence on Jackson Passage north of Edwards Lane." Deputy Page went in that direction looking for the screamer, he said. Soon, they found him. "It was actually coming from a goat that was tied to a fence," the report says.
"I spoke to the owner, who stated that he was going to take care of the goat. We then returned to the complainant and notified her that everything was ok."

You know that sounds really ominous.

[Calidissident]

Probably one of these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpccpglnNf0

[fish]

Or this!

Click ahead to 1:00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfPndEB2ec0

[Thane of Whiterun]

This is old, but I don't think it's been posted, so I figured I'd polish off this piece of turd:

A woman can't escape the reality that she is assumed to be emotional, family-oriented, and gentle. Nor can she escape that people treat her differently because of those expectations. And this doesn't even touch on the fact that she has been inundated with materials since she was a child that influence her to be this way or that she is negatively conditioned to not deviate from those expectations because every time she does there are negative consequences for her.

Putting our fingers in our ears and repeatedly insisting that she be an individual is an insult to the fact that she can't escape it. We tell her that her lived experiences are wrong, despite the fact that most libertarians don't have to deal with those kinds of expectations at all.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

most libertarians don't have to deal with those kinds of expectations at all.

That's because...wait for it...

THERE ARE NO LIBERTARIAN WOMEN!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

You're the reason there are no libertarian women, Nikki.

[Pi Guy]

What you did there...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's wrong, but it's the world that we live in, and libertarians are terrible at recognizing this.

Accepting this line of reasoning, it was wrong for the classical liberals of yore to oppose the divine right of kings and the aristocracy and mercantilism because that was the world they lived in.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

White, middle class men are the people who, by and large, get to experience true individuality. Our culture sees white men as the "standard" or the "normal." Thus, they are a "blank slate" upon which they get to write whatever they want.

Here's the thing, though: Not everyone gets to be like that. Women, people of color, poor people, people who identify as LGBTQ, people of non-conforming genders, etc. are all "Other."

No, here's the thing: just. be. yourself. Also: everyone is other. Everyone who is not myself, is other. Period. I don't know them, and they don't know me, and we are all other. And all ourselves. I truly don't know what's so hard to understand about this.

[A Serious Man]

Really, it's basically like saying there are too many stupid people in the world so we should just pack it in and conform to their collectivist bullshit.

That's the impression I get from her article and her responses to some of the comments.

[jesse.in.mb]

I don't even understand that. WASP men are individuals because they are a group are the definition of normal?

This probably requires femsplainin'.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Only normal people are individuals. Yeah, you're right, it makes even less sense than I initially realized.

[Heroic Mulatto]

No, here's the thing: just. be. yourself. Also: everyone is other. Everyone who is not myself, is other. Period. I don't know them, and they don't know me, and we are all other. And all ourselves. I truly don't know what's so hard to understand about this.

Ex-fucking-actly. You can be a Tragic Mulatto or you can choose to be "Heroic".

[T]

No, no, you can't choose to be heroic., We have to choose that it's acceptable for you to be heroic.

Or something. My degrees are in engineering and business, so po-mo victimology is a foreign tongue to me.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You're right. I have no agency.

Never mind.

[Virginian]

The smallest minority on earth is the individual.-Ayn Rand.

Oh, and the complaining about people expecting certain things out of women? I cannot even tell you how many times women have expected me to fix shit they royally screwed up because I was a guy. Like the girlfirend who never changed her fucking oil or did any other preventative maintenance yet wanted wanted me to fix her car. Never mind that I know jack shit about fixing cars. I was a guy, and her car was broken.

[MJGreen]

Our culture sees white men as the "standard" or the "normal." Thus, they are a "blank slate" upon which they get to write whatever they want.

How the hell does that follow? If white men are the norm, then they do have expectations. That's what it means to be the norm. Deviate from the norm, and you're considered... abnormal.

"White envy" of "black culture" is pretty damn old. And while plenty of white men today do try to "act black," they're often ridiculed and lose certain opportunities. We all have expectations thrust upon us by others. If you are comfortable with those expectations, life is pretty good; if not, it can suck. But a black man who struggles to live a white life is no more "unfree" than a white man who struggles to live a black life, just because you consider a white life to be better. Ditto men/women. I'm sure plenty of men would prefer being under the microscope applied to women, rather than to men.

[Virginian]

I reject entirely the notion that there is some kind of microscope applied to women.

Just take the work spouse/house spouse dichotomy. A woman is equally respected by our society no matter how she divides her time. If she's a full time mom it's "the hardest job in the world". A full time worker and she's a "strong independent woman". If she splits it then she's "walking the perfect tightrope, doing it all!"

A man on the other hand, is looked down on if he has less than full time employment. Even if it's a textbook single income family arrangement, functional and prosperous, just with gender reversed, the man is going to be thought as less of a man by large portions of society.

[Warty]

And when a woman hits a man, nobody bats an eyelash. But I break just one dumb whore's orbital bone, and suddenly I'm the bad guy.

[Thane of Whiterun]

"suddenly" the bad guy?

[Episiarch]

You are a bad guy.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Good, bad, he's the guy with the fist.

[SugarFree]

But I break just one dumb whore's orbital bone, and suddenly I'm the bad guy.

I am so wet right now.

[Virginian]

Eh, I don't about breaking hers, but the night my buddy scored the hottest chick he ever landed was the night he broke some assholes orbital bone in front of the whole bar.

Anyone who says women hate violence is fucking retarded. Women love violence. It's why serial killers get marriage proposals, it's why boxers and hockey players get the best looking girls. It's why shitheaded thugs can have top notch women infatuated with them.

[Episiarch]

Or it could be that different women like different things and some women like violent guys and some don't. You know, because women aren't a monolithic set of robots.

[Warty]

That's fucking stupid, Epi. If women were people, I wouldn't be able to control them with this manual I bought from a pick-up artist. Shut up before I break your orbital bone.

[Irish]

*Beep Boop*

Womanbot activated. Man appears to be negging me. Says I look good 'in this dress.' Alpha male spotted. Give him vagina.

*Beep Boop*

[Heroic Mulatto]

*sigh*

Fuckin' betas....

It is generally assumed that high rank is correlated with aggressive behavior. In reality, a growly, macho topdog is a rare find. Topdogs rarely growl ? they seldom need to! The true topdog is usually a pretty cool customer, who is secure and confident of his privileged position and has absolutely no need to fluster and bluster to bolster up his rank. Basically, "If you've got it, there's no need to flaunt it." A true topdog is more likely to share a toy, a bone, or a sleeping place, than fight over one. On the other hand, bottom-ranking dogs rarely growl either. The prime directive of a low-ranking individual is to maintain a low profile. Barking, growling and snarling only draw unwanted attention and if it came to a fight, the underdog would most certainly lose.

A topdog has little need to threaten and an underdog would be crazy to. Without a doubt excessive growling and repeated fighting is indicative of underlying insecurity and uncertainty about social rank vis a vis other dogs. Within a social group, protracted, blustery displays of aggression are the hallmark males especially in the middle-order of the hierarchy. Middle-ranking dogs threaten more and fight more frequently than higher- or lower-ranking individuals. What most people describe as an "alpha" dog is usually an insecure middle-ranking male.

[jesse.in.mb]

A true topdog is more likely to share a toy, a bone, or a sleeping place, than fight over one.

So true alphas spoon?

[Irish]

Clearly Jesse is a serious Alpha, since I've heard he's capable of sharing a toy, a bone and a sleeping place at the same time.

[Heroic Mulatto]

So true alphas spoon?

Well, duh. How else can alphas show dominance by mounting and sodomizing beta males while they sleep?

[Warty]

Now I'm getting sexually aroused.

[Dagny T.]

Quit making sense, Epi. You will ruin the combo hate-fest and pity party. Let me attempt to get things back on track:

Women are terrible and ruin everything. Men have it so much worse. If we are feeling bad for anyone, we should feel bad for Virginian and Coeus.

[Warty]

Hey! Woman! Watch me break this guy's orbital bone so that you become sexually aroused!

[Irish]

*Beep Boop*

Womanbot activated. Warty spotted. His tentacles are most arousing. He clearly squats a ton of weight. Give him vagina.

*Beep* -Whirrrr-

[Dagny T.]

Vagina access imminent. Non-vagina functions disabled. Ruining everything by being a stupid chick threat-level: moderate.

[Episiarch]

Now I'm getting sexually aroused.

[Virginian]

Yeah other than dying sooner, going to prison more, bearing a disproportionate share of the tax burden, and of course the whole fighting in wars and getting drafted thing, it's life on easy street for us men.

Fuck, and people honestly still wonder why I refuse to consider marriage.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Fuck, and people honestly still wonder why I refuse to consider marriage.

I thought it was the increasing number of states that don't let wives shut down domestic abuse charges.

[Irish]

Going to prison more, bearing a disproportionate share of the tax burden

I wish our tax rates were lower, but if you bear a disproportionate share of the tax burden, it's because you make more money, so it's not like this is really hurting men.

And men go to prison more because they commit more crimes. It's not like men go to prison because of sexism. This argument is just as stupid as women claiming women get paid less because of sexism. Both statements simply are not true.

[Virginian]

Just like black people commit more crimes, so obviously there is no racial issue with the prison system, right?

Wait, except we know for a fact that the system is biased against blacks, because there is all kinds of evidence for it.

[Irish]

You think that the system is biased against men? Men quite literally commit 97% of all violent crimes.

Please, show me the evidence that men are being unfairly treated by the criminal justice system. You can't just say 'bigotry exists, therefore obviously the criminal justice system is prejudiced against men.'

[Coeus]

Women are terrible and ruin everything. Men have it so much worse. If we are feeling bad for anyone, we should feel bad for Virginian and Coeus.

Who asked for pity? What am I, a feminist?

[Virginian]

Derp derp derp.

Yeah, some guys like fat chicks and some guys like trannies, but in general guys like skinny girls without cocks.

You can speak of general trends without claiming that they apply to every single one of the data points.

[Episiarch]

Except your general trend isn't one. For every woman you can supposedly point to who likes violent men, I will point to one who doesn't. You're essentially buying in to a ridiculous myth. Enjoy.

[Irish]

I'm going to beat the shit out of you, Epi. THEN WILL YOU LOVE ME!?

I will not be ignored.

[Episiarch]

*BEEP* *WHIR* VAGINABOT 3000 COMMENCING LOVE PROTOCOL AND VAGINAL LUBRICATION PROCEDURES FOR IRISH *BOOP*

[Heroic Mulatto]

Indeed. The truth is that women just want a man who can fuckin' cook some dinner.

[Virginian]

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAH

Bull fucking shit.

You show me one woman, one in the world, that prefers a man who cannot fight when he has to to one who can. She doesn't fucking exist dude.

Even the hipster chicks look down on a guy who runs from a fight. It's a baseline masculinity test: can you handle yourself if it becomes neccesary.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You're goal-posting, bro. You started with the thesis that woman love violent men, now you're arguing that women respect men who can defend themselves. Two very different things.

[Irish]

Yeah, he started out talking about how hot a woman found it when his buddy busted some guy's eye in a bar.

That's hardly 'women like a guy who can defend themselves' material.

[Virginian]

Uh, it's both. A capacity for violence is exciting to most women. It hits deep in the caveman brain, just like good tits hit us deep in the caveman brain. While more women appreciate defensive violence then aggressive violence, a sizable number find violence of any kind to be a turn on. Culture and thought only goes so far. You have to look at revealed preferences, not stated ones.

Hell, look at the entirety of human literature and other entertainment. The sexy men are almost always capable in a fight. Even George RR Martin, who loves to deconstruct tropes, has Tyrion more then capable in combat. Many of those who are incapable have a moment of truth where they demonstrate a newfound capability for it.

[Episiarch]

You seem to conflate "stand up for yourself" with "be violent". They are two very different things. Or you are moving goalposts. Either way, your point means nothing, because this wasn't what we were talking about. We were talking about your assertion that all women like aggressively violent men.

[SugarFree]

Maintaining eye contact will get you laid a thousand times over than punch some other pissbag in a bar.

[Episiarch]

It's funny that you call leering "maintaining eye contact". Remember when you used to call it "eye-raping"?

[SugarFree]

In prison I learned being raped in the eye was no laughing matter. I think women appreciate how sensitive I am.

[Coeus]

In prison I learned being raped in the eye was no laughing matter.

Gunnery Sergeent Hartman agrees.

[jesse.in.mb]

Have we deprecated "eye-raping"?

I like that term.

[SugarFree]

"Ocular bad touch" is the PC term.

[jesse.in.mb]

Ocular bad touch

Goddammit SF, I'm going to have to actively put myself in the way of some good old eye-rape just so I can throw that out there.

[Irish]

Anyone who says women hate violence is fucking retarded. Women love violence. It's why serial killers get marriage proposals, it's why boxers and hockey players get the best looking girls. It's why shitheaded thugs can have top notch women infatuated with them.

- Your earlier post

You show me one woman, one in the world, that prefers a man who cannot fight when he has to to one who can. She doesn't fucking exist dude.

This is a completely different argument than 'women want to fuck serial killers and shitheaded thugs.'

[Zeb]

It's probably fair to say that there are a good number of women who like violent assholes and guys with prison tattoos and such. But it is ridiculous to extrapolate experience with some dumb bitches in bars to the whole world.

[Tonio]

STFU, Cheryl.

[Tonio]

STFU was to Sug @ 6:04, obviously.

[SugarFree]

Now I'm sopping. Like fucking Sploosh Mountain over here!

Ah, man... I pissed my pants again.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I am so wet right now.

Have you considered dating Virginian?

[MJGreen]

My point is that there is a microscope applied to everyone.

Or there's no microscope applied to anyone, if that's your thing. But we all have expectations according to the culture, which aren't really in our control; and while you can say these are "forced" upon us, it's just a fact of life. Furthermore, as they can only be evaluated subjectively, you can't declare one set of expectations to be objectively superior to others.

[John]

And who applies the biggest and most harsh microscope to women? Other women. But somehow it is all men's fault.

[Coeus]

They only do that because of the patriarchy. If we put women in all the positions of power, that will magically stop, or something.

[CE]

All of this could be avoided if people just stopped worrying what other people thought of them or expected from them.

[Zeb]

Lots of people will describe an individual as "a minority". That says a lot to me.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

You can't help everyone be an individual if you think that they already are.

What the fuck can that possibly mean?

[Episiarch]

It means...uh...it means...I give up.

Collectivism: when you realize you're a fucking idiot and a loser and you decide that you're better off pooling your loserness with everyone else so that your loserness gets diluted. It's essentially parasitism, but there are many hosts and many parasites all mixed together.

[Tonio]

Symbiosis does exist. Slime molds. Shark suckers. But she forgets that symbiosis is the rule and competition is the great engine that drives things forward.

[Tonio]

symbiosis is the exception /derp

[Zeb]

Is that true? Seems like most macroscopic organisms wouldn't work so well if they weren't all full of bacteria.

[Episiarch]

Nobody wants to hear about your skin infection, Tonio.

I specifically avoided the term "symbiosis" because they're not really working together. It's just mass parasitism. There is no benefit returned to the host.

[robc]

How come we can never get this writers to show up in our threads and explain themselves.

Yeah, yeah, I know, we can barely get reason writers here.

[Zeb]

Why the fuck would you even think of helping someone to be an individual if you think that they already are? And why would you think anything else?

[DesigNate]

What the fuck?

[Suthenboy]

What in the freakin fuck is she talking about?

[A Serious Man]

From the author of 'Whats the Matter with White People' comes How to Talk About White People.

[John]

Holy shit

Too often, our rhetoric around white privilege suggests to the white poor and working class that their problems aren't the concern of the movement for social justice. In fact, that movement has always been concerned about the perceptions and treatment of minorities. One day soon, that will have to include our newest one.

So basically she admits that she is a classist and her fellow non white liberals are racists who currently don't care about the white working class and poor.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course not. Cracker ass crackers don't have real problems. They have white privilege and shit.

[John]

God I want to see these fuckers get totally hammered in the 2014 elections.

[John]

and some day when we get a real no shit white working class political movement, isn't life going to be grand living in a really Balkanized America?

[ant1sthenes]

Yeah, I don't think they want to see what happens to this country when the very large contingent of middle-to-lower-class straight white males develop the sort of collective identity and sense of angry, irrational grievance that the other "social justice" identity groups have.

[John]

Walsh is also the women who spent the Bush years going after the Bush twins but is now shocked that anyone would report on the Obama brats jet setting across the world. She is just awful. What a horrible person.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Written by SWPL goon Joan Walsh, of course.

[Alack]

So is anyone else playing Borderlands 2 to test out Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode? I still haven't hit 50, much less 61 (too busy doing every sidequest ever on every character), but it really seems like they're pushing the power of slag compared to other elements between buffing its effect duration and giving enemies health regen. Looking forward to getting my ass-kicked.

Personally, I can't wait for the new character to come out. Krieg looks awesome.

[Episiarch]

Dude, I'm still on Playthrough 1. I won't be getting to that mode for a long time.

[Thane of Whiterun]

I finished playthrough 1, then bought the Season Pass.

Then Dragonborn came out for PC and I forgot about Borderlands.

[Alack]

Dammit, guys, this is why there are so few libertarians in government. How are we supposed to get elected and shit if we can't even play through a videogame three times with the same character?

[Thane of Whiterun]

Is 300hrs with one character enough?

[Alack]

That's not even a fortnight of gaming! Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Thanks for ruining my edification, FOX

[Alack]

Shitty version here

[Thane of Whiterun]

Of course Pres Rosalin has no commitment to sparkle motion.

[Episiarch]

Oh, I will. It will just take a long time.

[Thane of Whiterun]

The proper government way!

[Alack]

That's why you've got to beat the game in triplicate, man.

[db]

I started it and got fed up with the combat system. Also, every time I quit the game I have to replay about 20 minutes' worth of the story because of the ridiculous save points not working the way they should. It's a shame because the game looks like it should be so good but I get more satisfaction going back to Fallout 3 or New Vegas than playing BL2.

[CampingInYourPark]

"Gun and magazine manufacturers said Wednesday that they are still not sure of the full impact of Connecticut's gun-control bill, adding that they are uncertain whether they will keep their companies in the state."

"Three pro-gun advocates came to the Capitol press room and said that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's repeated public assurances that they are still welcome in Connecticut were meaningless.

'His assurances mean nothing to me,' said Mark Malkowski of Stag Arms, a rifle manufacturing company that has 200 employees in New Britain."

http://courantblogs.com/capito.....nnecticut/

[NeonCat]

Bitter factory clingers?

[Thane of Whiterun]

A group of Brown University students appear to be preparing an on-campus workshop in which "queer" participants will separate by race to work past their sexual attraction to Caucasians.

[Bam!]

They are actually calling it the "Protect me from what I want" workshop.

I would like to honor this link in some capacity, but I'm not sure how.

[Alack]

...

What the fuck?

[Episiarch]

Wait, what?

[Pro Libertate]

Well, sounds like this is an attempt to prevent whites from breeding with nonwhites. I guess it's some sort of eugenics program?

[Thane of Whiterun]

American approves.

[Pro Libertate]

I really can't keep up with what the status quo for morality is supposed to be, these days.

[jesse.in.mb]

One hopes that by queer they mean they aren't breeding, but I've met a few straights who consider themselves queer just because they think it's more interesting than being a boring old straight, not because they're actually kicking against the bricks of heteronormativity or patriarchy or whatever.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Seeing as how it was a "queer" event it makes even less sense than that.

[Tonio]

I see what you did ther, PL. I'm watching you... [squints]

[Pro Libertate]

I kinda missed the whole "gay" part when I said that. Which is also a eugenics program to exterminate the gay gene, come to think of it. No wonder the left, which is generally anti-human, is starting to openly favor gay causes.

[Zeb]

Isn't gayness itself a eugenics program to eliminate the gay gene? Seems like lack of acceptance of gays would cause more gay people to reproduce.

I hadn't actually though of it as such before, but, supposing there is a gay gene, would it not make sense that more acceptance of gays would lead to less passing on of the gay gene? THough I suppose there is artificial insemination and surrogate mothers and such.

[jesse.in.mb]

Not necessarily. Some genes code for things that can come in beneficial or harmful forms depending on expression. Sickle Cell Anemia is a great example. If an individual has one marker that codes for sickle cell they have an increased resistance to malaria. if they have two then their systems are overwhelmed by misshaped red blood cells.

[Zeb]

GOod point. Could be recessive.

It also seems pretty unlikely that it is caused by just one or few genes.

[Whahappan?]

Remember when anti-miscegenation efforts were considered bad?

[John]

But I thought gay marriage was just like interracial marriage. You mean interracial marriage is wrong now?

[A Serious Man]

WHITE PRIVILEGE!

[Zeb]

Interracial is OK. Just not with white people.

[A Serious Man]

"We are invested in generating a politics of sexuality that compels us to interrogate beauty as privilege and constructed by systems of white supremacy, ableism, capitalism, and heteronormativity," it continues.

But remember, these people are our nation's best and brightest and are the kind of Top Men that are entitled to run our lives.

[Episiarch]

Personally, I consider susceptibility to actually falling for this shit to be a first level indicator that someone is bonecrushingly stupid and shouldn't even be given the time of day.

[John]

Mouthing that shit is a way for stupid people to get ahead. It is really hard to get ahead at something useful. There are smart people out there who work hard. But mouthing this shit is easy. All it takes is a fierce dedication and absolutely no sense of shame. It can get you into elite colleges and even with a little luck give you a career in academia or on TV.

[John]

So I am guessing these people will be protesting at the homes of black professional athletes who have white wives real soon.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Considering the number of people butthurt over WMAF (white male, Asian female) relationships, I'm sure there are plenty who whine about that.

[John]

A lot of people whine about Tiger Woods affinity for blonds. He is supposed to support the race and mix in a sister once in a while. This is what freedom and post racial America looks like to these assholes.

[Calidissident]

How many part Asian, part black, part white, part Native American girls are there out there? Can't be too many

[robc]

Just about every woman in Brazil?

[robc]

Oh wait, nevermind, the asian part probably cuts that number down.

[Calidissident]

Yeah, Brazil would be the place to go (then again that could be said if you're just looking for attractive women in general). You'd probably want to go to Sao Paulo, there's a large Japanese-Brazilian community there

[Zeb]

Maybe peru?

[robc]

He is mostly asian.

So if he was supposed to stick to one race, it wouldnt be a "sister".

[Thane of Whiterun]

No, even progtards still cling to the one-drop rule.

[John]

One drop rule. Tiger is supposed to be black.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Fighting over Tiger is so amusing. When I was in Thailand, for everyone there was no question that Tiger was Thai. His mother was part-Thai, he is a Buddhist. He's Thai.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Tiger is black because they picked him in the racial draft. Duh.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Tiger is black because they picked him in the racial draft.
That took waaay too long. "Goodbye fried rice, hello fried chicken!"

[Calidissident]

It's interesting how people identify mixed race people. The one drop rule isn't really in effect (how many people are going to consider someone with blond hair and blue eyes who's 99% white and 1% black to be black?) but it does seem that most people with black influence on their appearance are considered black (even though two mixed race people with the exact same ancestral breakdown can have very different skin tones and appearances)

[Tonio]

That's a thing? Really? WTF?

[MJGreen]

Ableism is the straw that broke my back. I want to go out on the streets and yell, "ABLED POWER!"

Disabled people are people too - duh - but you're not going to get me to feel sorry because I am a 'fully-functional' human being. Fuck. You.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

This isn't referring to just physical ability, but mental. So, if you have a brain tumor, you're a disgusting bigot if you discriminate between somebody who has years of schooling and experience and somebody who's illiterate and has no idea what he's doing, because discrimination is wrong, at all times, for any reason.

Ah, I wish that was an exaggeration.

[Zeb]

So when do we get affirmative action a the top schools for stupid people?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Pretty sure that particular program has already been going on for a while, heh.

[Eduard van Haalen]

see link above for Brown University

[Isaac Bartram]

Zeb, are you trying to be be the straight man for a George Bush joke in a vaudeville act?

[Warty]

What, what?

[Calidissident]

That's the stupidest shit I've ever heard. And since when can you choose who you're attracted to?

[Thane of Whiterun]

You just have to punch yourself in the 'nads enough times.

[Coeus]

Since they're going this far, why not just get rid of the gayness, as well? You know, if it's that easy and all.

[Suthenboy]

I am speechless.

Ok, no I am not. Fuck these racist pigs. Oh wait, they are fags....maybe I should use a different expletive.

[ant1sthenes]

So, it's a group trying to help gays (etc.) overcome their existing sexual attraction to help them better conform to a set of moral rules?

How the fuck is progressivism not a religion, again?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Science Fiction writer Iain Banks, author of the "Culture" series of books, has been diagnosed with late-stage gall bladder cancer and likely only has months to live.

This would have seemed a great tragedy to me before I read Matter.

[Episiarch]

Oh, Matter was fine. It's not like any of his books ever suck.

However, having terminal cancer does suck.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

http://stillangryblog.blogspot.....atter.html

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

It's not like any of his books ever suck.

Have you read A Song of Stone?

[Episiarch]

I meant his Culture novels. I should have been more specific.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Someday I'm going to finish all of his non-Culture novels and figure out if they percentage featuring major character incest is actually over 25% or I just had a sampling error. I'm pretty confident the "someone is tortured" percentage will remain at 100%. I saw some people argue that point over The Business, but then someone remembered the Ferrari scene.

[CampingInYourPark]

"Over Easter weekend, franchise quarterback Tony Romo signed a 6-year $108 million contract extension to remain with the Dallas Cowboys. While the estimated $18 million per year makes Romo the fifth highest paid player based on salary, he is actually the new highest paid player after taxes in the NFL."

http://atr.org/tony-romo-new-h.....z2PRI5N9IW

[John]

As I watched top coach after top coach turn down the UCLA basketball job, I wondered how much taxes played a roll in it. They ended up with Steve Alford, who wasn't making very much money to begin with. The guy from VCU and the one from Butler are making big money and paying lower taxes.

[Virginian]

Shaka's way too smart to leave VCU at this point. He basically has a job for life, and has a chance to build a dynasty, with himself as an institution coach like Boeheim or Coach K.

He's makign a million a year through 2030 I think. It would take a real moron to give that up so the idiot UCLA fans could scream that the new coach isn't John Wooden.

[John]

A million a year in VA is about like making two million a year in LA. I am not so sure about staying at VCU. He will never build a dynasty there. I doubt he will ever reach the final four. And he is one or two unlucky recruiting classes away from being off the hot list.

[Virginian]

He's already reached the Final Four dude. It was two freaking years ago.

[John]

Again. I mean. He went once. I doubt he will go again. Remember when George Mason was going to be a power? Their coach got smart and left for Miami.

[Virginian]

Yeah, the coach left. Will VCU ever be Kentucky or Duke or UNC? Probably not. But they can be Gonzaga. Or Marquette.

[robc]

Miami backed up a dump truck full of money for his retirement plan.

He was planning on retiring at GM, but now he is doing it in south Florida like all the rest of the old folk.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, I'm with John. That's unlikely to happen again.

Too bad about FGCU--I thought they might put together a little spoiler program, but their recruiting boost likely got killed by their coach leaving.

[robc]

I wanted to see what their recruiting was like for fall of 2014 with their style of play. Oh well.

Its not like a coach cant turn a mid-major into a national power. See, UNLV and Tarkanian.

[CE]

Maybe a bad example.

[Calidissident]

Feel bad for FGCU, but as a USC student, I'm glad there's at least a ray of hope for our basketball program for once

[Pro Libertate]

USC will be punished by God until that vile pestilence called Kiffin has been removed from your football team.

What's weird is that his dad is a great coach and is apparently not evil.

[Calidissident]

Kiffin himself is punishment enough. I can't wait until he's gone. Unfortunately he's ruining the football seasons while I'm actually a student here. And his dad may have been a great NFL D-coordinator back in the day, but he did an awful job at USC. Pitiful defense this year, despite more talent than pretty much all of the teams we faced

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

He and Banks need to swap this contract for the terminal cancer.

[Pro Libertate]

That's not just wrong. That's a sin.

[John]

If Tom Brady were willing to leave the Patriots and move to a civilized state without a state income tax, he could be the highest paid player.

[Episiarch]

The Seahawks are happy with Russel Wilson, so Washington is out. What about the Dolphins?

[John]

I am sure the Texans would lose Matt Shaub in a heart beat to take him.

[Warty]

The Cowboys would dump Romo in a second for Dreamy Brady, or at least they should. I'm not sure how dumb Jerry Jones really is.

[Pro Libertate]

On the dumb football owner scale, it's a level of dumb not usually achieved by owners not in DC.

[Episiarch]

The problem, John, is that an integral part of the Brady is that he plays for the Patriots. If he didn't play for them any more, his sadface just wouldn't be the same. Well, maybe if he played for the Stillers it would.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm not sure I can handle a non-Patriots Brady. I'm afraid he has to stay until he retires or quits to play in the Arena league.

[CE]

Hey, even Joe Montana played in Kansas City.

[John]

And where would Darth be without the Emperor?

[Pro Libertate]

I mean, I've had some good laughs over the years, watching New England fail when they face a halfway decent defense. Usually with Brady being beaten up by the pass rush. How can I give that up?

[Episiarch]

Brady sadface is the cherry on top of a Patriots fail Sunday. I've come to expect it.

[Mike M.]

I mean, I've had some good laughs over the years, watching New England fail when they face a halfway decent defense. Usually with Brady being beaten up by the pass rush. How can I give that up?

This. The statuelike Brady has been very lucky to spend most of his career behind what might be the best O-line in the history of the sport. If he's behind a just average line, he's nothing special at all.

[Pro Libertate]

It's the big difference between him and Peyton Manning. Manning gets rid of the ball in very quick order.

[Irish]

Manning also moves unbelievably well in the pocket. For a goofy ass white guy who kind of looks like Sloth from the Goonies, he evades rushers really well.

[Pro Libertate]

It's his thing. That, and throwing the ball accurately.

Trust me, I'd like to despise him, too, but he's the best QB since Marino. And the next best isn't even close--fuck the stats of a league largely bereft of defense, anyway.

[Warty]

The Roethelisberger dumbface is way better than the Brady sadface. WHEN ME GET THROW BALL NOW?

[John]

Roethlisberger is amazing. The guy is the star quarterback of the Steelers and somehow managed to be such an insufferable asshole that none of the bars in Pittsburgh wanted his business anymore. That has to be some kind of world record for biggest asshole.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, there's Florida. A few teams here he could play for.

[Episiarch]

Come up with your own ideas, copier!

[Pro Libertate]

You were flawed in your response. Incomplete. Error. Sterilize.

[Mickey Rat]

Oh good, the Cowboys will continue to be mediocre.

[Drake]

Unless Cory Booker has been carjacking cars himself, he will be the next Senator from NJ.

[Mike M.]

Brian Banks is signed by the Atlanta Falcons after spending six years in prison because of a false rape accusation.

If it were up to me, these disgusting lowlife cunts who falsely accuse guys of raping them would spend the same amount of time in prison themselves as the victims whose lives they vindictively try to destroy.

[Virginian]

This whole story is a lie. Feminists told me women never lie about rape. The patriarchy got to this brave woman and forced her to coverup her own rape.

[robc]

He should have an open and shut civil case for 6 years of back NFL pay.

[JeremyR]

Except she doesn't have any money

[JeremyR]

Awesome!

He had a Kickstarter to make a movie about his experience

[John]

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-Ea.....ypt-308374

Egypt turning into nightmare for Muslim Brotherhood. Turns out actually being in charge and turning the place into a Islamist hellhole is really not a good role for them.

[Pro Libertate]

Just when you think it can't get any messier over there, it gets messier.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Yes, but unfortunately the instability just solidifies the Ikhwan's grip over the country.

1.) Turn country into shithole through populist authoritarian policies.
2.) Blame the Jews for anything that goes wrong.
3.) Claim the solution to the country's problems is more Islam
4.) Rinse and repeat

[Tonio]

Alternately: Ban alcohol and insist that foreign tourist women wear veils. Destroy sphinx. Watch tourism revenue halve or worse.

[Pro Libertate]

Take down the pyramids and use the stone to build a giant prison.

[Gladstone]

Didn't they already do that in the Middle Ages? That's why they aren't shiny white anymore.

[Hyperion]

Don't be silly! Only alien technology is sufficient for moving those huge megalithic blocks! They didn't have alien technology in the middle ages, so what you're suggesting is unpossable!

[JeremyR]

Yup. Took off all the casing stones to build mosques.

Though it's Napoleon who deserves the blame for the Sphinx being damaged.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Alternately: Ban alcohol and insist that foreign tourist women wear veils. Destroy sphinx. Watch tourism revenue halve or worse.

Hey, works for the Maldives.

[Hyperion]

Meh. I don't think I would get too excited about this 'National Salvation Front' that the article is going on about. I doubt there is anything close to a liberty minded person among them.

According to Wiki, The front consists of a wide range of liberal, secular and leftist groups, including these guys:

Revolutionary Socialists

But, you got to love their symbol. It's so commie chic.

So it's the Islamist vs. the Commies. My vote is we stay far away from this skirmish and hopefully they kill each other off.

[Heroic Mulatto]

So it's the Islamist vs. the Commies.

.

It's not always so clear-cut. Think, "Socialism with Islamic characteristics".

[Hyperion]

Right. I noticed also that when I was paying some attention to what Morsi and the Brotherhood were saying, it also sounded like some Islamic/socialist hybrid shit.

Does everybody have to be some sort of damn commie, fer fucks sake?

[Zombie Jimbo]

Send all sides small arms and put it on PPV.

[SumpTump]

Dude you know that is like totally bad ass. Wow.

http://www.GoPrivacy.tk

[NoVAHockey]

Jossi Jokinen is going to fill in until Crosby's face heals.

[NoVAHockey]

about a month. if you freeze the video you can see his teeth flying out of his face.

http://www.post-gazette.com/st.....ly-681738/

[John]

The thing is, since private organizations can't tax and thus have limited funds, their giving never gets out of control. Governments in contrast can tax and print money. So there is no natural limit to their ability to spend.

[Raston Bot]

OHHHHHHH damn just watched it w/ slo-mo closeup at espn.

[db]

Yeah that came the closest to making me sick since the Joe Theisman leg break. Which I saw live in a strange twist of fate--I practically never watched sports until the late 1990s when I took up with Dr. Girlfriend, who loves them.

[Suthenboy]

You are mistaken in thinking that their funds are unlimited. They may think they are, but every well eventually runs dry.