Without Discouraged Workers Unemployment Would Be 11.1 Percent, IRS and ATF Want To Snoop on You, Marijuana Attracts Big Bucks: P.M. Links

• 

  IRS

  Just in case you were wondering … If labor participation had held steady at the 2008 level, unemployment would now be 11.1 percent.

• President Obama's second-term agenda is seen as being in some danger, seeing as how the House of Representatives has no likelihood of passing much, if any, of it and even his own party seems to be a little shy of affection for the man in the Oval office.
• Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher will receive a ceremonial funeral including military honors.
• A French intelligence agency threatened a Wikipedia volunteer with jail unless he deleted an article with which he had no connection, but which the spooks found inconvenient. Not surprisingly, that article has been restored and is now really popular.
• The IRS has taken to poking through social media to sniff out folks who might not be complying with every jot and detail of the nation's extensive tax code.
• Not content with letting the IRS hog all the creepy, the ATF is building a big database to track people's social connections.
• If the feds want to keep their marijuana prohibition in place, they'd better move fast! The growing industry is drawing investors who see opportunity…
• … unlike France, where the push for high taxes is sending anybody with a few euros to rub together running for shelter.

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Comments

[John]

The IRS has taken to poking through social media to sniff out folks who might not be complying with every jot and detail of the nation's extensive tax code.

If you are cheating on your taxes and are dumb enough to brag about it on Twitter, I have a hard time having much sympathy for you.

[Zeb]

I can give the IRS a hint. It's everyone.

[Enough About Palin]

I don't.

[Paul.]

What do I look like, a school teacher? Not all of us have that much income to hide.

[C. Anacreon]

Everywhere I go I see teachers driving Ferraris, research scientists drinking champagne.

[Zeb]

Really? Where exactly is it that you go?

[C. Anacreon]

There's no silver lining here. I was a big cheese. A huge cheese! And now look at me!
I got to ride the bus like a schnook.
I got to live in an apartment like an idiot!
I have to wait in line with a bunch of nobodies to buy
groceries from a failure!

[Enough About Palin]

And that's the hardest part. Today everything is different; there's no action... have to wait around like everyone else. Can't even get decent food - right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an average nobody... get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.

[some guy]

I'm not even sure that there is a way to tell if a given person is in compliance. You could have 10 different auditors look at a single filing. At least one would say "in compliance", while at least one would say "not in compliance."

If anything is arbitrary and capricious, it's the tax code.

[CE]

Luckily I'm not on social media. Unluckily I'm on H & R, which saves the IRS and the ATF a lot of time.

[Brandon]

SPLC has us covered nicely, thank you.

[a better weapon]

This is a good place for them to look, actually, what with all those users coming here to brag about their friends and relatives who are making $9,682 a month in their basement.

[jesse.in.mb]

Do cam whores get 1099s?

[Warty]

Made $1000, not reportin it #YOLO

[some guy]

This man is a masochist.

[PapayaSF]

I suspect it's more like looking for the guy who says he makes $35,000 but has a new Ferrari and a yacht.

[Brandon]

There are two easy line-items that could be cut from the budget, but I guess those wouldn't be painful enough for Obama's agenda. Also, first?

[Brandon]

Dammit, John! I'll report you to the ATF for this! Wait, they probably already have it.

[John]

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....ublic.html

Wisconsin Unions shrinking now that they can no longer force people to join.

[Brandon]

Revealed preferences?

[wareagle]

and kudos to the article for the title accurately describing people being forced.

[John]

Read the liberal Althouse comentators whining that this is "big government". Freedom is slavery!!

[Irish]

Most of the people who read Althouse are pretty right wing. The only liberal I see is the one whining about how Wisconsin is 44th in job growth.

One problem with that: Wisconsin is already a full percentage point below the national unemployment rate. National unemployment: 7.7%. Wisconsin unemployment: 6.7%.

Of course Wisconsin has less job growth than many other states. It's because far more people already have jobs.

[Juice]

A link to a blog with a link to a blog with a link to the original story? Ok.

[Episiarch]

Not content with letting the IRS hog all the creepy, the ATF is building a big database to track people's social connections.

The ATF?!? What, gunrunning doesn't occupy enough of their time?

[John]

Thanks to tea baggers like you, they can't do that anymore.

[Episiarch]

I haven't seen any heads roll, John, so I guess they can.

[John]

It wasn't like it was serious or anything. They just had to stop for a while thanks to monsters like you.

[fish]

What, gunrunning doesn't occupy enough of their time?

That's the problem with the gunrunning they just don't have enough time to follow up on potentially new and lucrative "sales" leads.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Shriek has a tumblr devoted to him.

Two more ultra-Orthodox babies infected with the unfun form of herpes after getting that mouth circumcision thing. Reports that Bill Maher and a deep dish pizza were involved unconfirmed at this time.

I have never heard of Annette Funicello and do not recognize pictures of her. Yawn.

[Brandon]

You win this round, nicole!

[John]

For the love of God, how hard is it not to take the Moyle or whatever they call it job when you have a cold sore?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

That cock's not going to suck itself.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Apostrophe fail.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I may have brain herpes.

[Zeb]

No, you got it right.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Thus the brain herpes.

[jesse.in.mb]

You don't need to have active sores to pass herpes on, although it is much easier. Also oral herpes is more virulent than genital herpes, and has a slightly higher chance of causing non-sores related nastiness down the road.

Sometimes I hate working in an office with a urologist.

[Warty]

I thought that oral herpes and genital herpes were no longer separate strains.

Sometimes I hate working in an office with a urologist.

No, you don't.

[jesse.in.mb]

HSV I ("oral") is more likely to affect your genitals than HSV II ("genital") is to affect your mouth, but both can show up basically anywhere (do a Google image search for "whitlow"). HSV I/II can cause problems other than sores, I (one not eye assholes) is associated with some nasty stuff.

Tell us more about the times you love it.

Oh god, I have tales to tell and HIPAA preventing me from telling them.

[Rich]

Can't you just "nange the chames"?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Oh god, I have tales to tell and HIPAA preventing me from telling them.

Don't worry, only the IRS is watching.

[PapayaSF]

No, the IRS will be looking at social media. Hit + Run is anti-social media.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Tell us more about the times you love it.

[wareagle]

mouseketeer and gal in the Beach Blanket movies of the 50s. Jeez.

[Enough About Palin]

"He may be small, but he's wiry.

/Dee Dee

[Libertarian]

Kudos, wareagle. Is it that hard to google a name these days? Of Thatcher, Ebert, or Annette, I know who I'll miss more!

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I googled her and I still don't understand. I'm aware that there are such things as "mouseketeers" but I don't know what they do or who any of them are or were or why anyone other than an 8 year old girl would ever care. Beach Blanket movies I've never even heard of.

I am in my late 30s and aware that culture did not begin in the 70s or 80s.

[robc]

Beach Blanket movies are movies involving cheesy music and lots of dancing in bikinis.

And probably horrible plots. Ive never actually seen one, just clips and parodies.

[PapayaSF]

Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures (AIP) with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio.

[C. Anacreon]

I am in my late 30s and aware that culture did not begin in the 70s or 80s.

The reason you do not know about Mouseketeers is that you grew up in an age where you had many TV channels to choose from, so it was easy to miss shows. I'm 10-15 years older than you, and when I was a kid there were only 4-5 TV channels, and usually there were "grownup" shows on most of them, so you watched kid shows when you could. It's one reason so many of us spent Saturday mornings watching TV, it was the only time kid shows and cartoons were consistently on.

I actually grew up after the Mousketeers show was on new, but did see the reruns. It was a daily show with a bunch of kids wearing those mouse ears you see in Disneyland for sale; I think they started the tradition. Mostly the kids would do some skits or musical numbers, and then they would show some Disney fare like the "Spin and Marty" serial. (cont)

[C. Anacreon]

(cont)
Annette was famous because of the kids on the show, she started "blossoming" earliest, and her chest was pretty noticeable on her t-shirt. She became quite the sex object for adolescents of the day, so it was a natural transition that she became the bikini girlfriend of Frankie Avalon in the silly beach movies of the early to mid 60s.

I don't think any of the other kids made it, unlike the Mouseketeer reboot in the 90s which brought you Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling and Keri Russell, among others.

The original show was best remembered for everyone singing M-I-C "see you real soon!" K-E-Y "why, because we like you!" M-O-U-S-E. Also, they had some weird fat middle-aged guy named Roy in the cast, who seemed like a child molester. I could never figure out what he was doing there.

[SIV]

The Beach Party movies were in the 1960s. The good hippie-free first part of the decade.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Two more ultra-Orthodox babies infected with the unfun form of herpes after getting that mouth circumcision thing

Thank you for noting that it's only the bat-shit insane wing of Judaism that does this.

[Juice]

Jesus. That tumblr. This is why I don't have kids. That kid wouldn't make it to 3.

[Dagny T.]

The captions are kind of funny and all, but wouldn't you be ashamed that your son was such a little bitch? Did they lose the genetic lottery, or are they nurturing the kid to be a weak, whiny little brat? Either way it's nothing to be proud of.

[Warty]

Did you notice the guy's weak, soft hands? I would be even more embarrassed to have the hands of a fat 13-year-old girl than of my horrible parenting skills.

[Dagny T.]

That was a dude? I assumed chick for some reason.

Either way, do Parents These Days not know how to tell their kid to suck it up? At least one of those blubber fests appeared to be happening in public. In my day that'd be a swift removal and a whoopin'.

[Episiarch]

"I'll give you something to cry about!"

[Marshall Gill]

"I'll give you something to cry about!"

Said and done, many times. It is a bitch having an eight year-old that is smart enough to do algebra. She definitely challenges the boundaries of parenting.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I assume it's just a slightly exaggerated form of the terrible twos, done as a coping mechanism by the parent so that she/he isn't also crying.

[Virginian]

Yeah photographing him every time he cries is probably reinforcing the behavior.

whenever I threw a tantrum I was ignored. If we were in public we went right home, and then I was ignored.

I was a pussy when I was a kid, but I wasn't a brat.

[Warty]

So when did you decide to become a brat?

[Virginian]

It just happened when I started squatting.

Hmmm...I think I should cook brats for dinner.

[robc]

Hmmm...I think I should cook brats for dinner.

The chose I am making too.

[robc]

Choice, dammit.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I'll bet Mom slapped you, too.

[Virginian]

Oh hell no, I got the old fashioned "Wait until your father gets home". When I was 8, he switched from the hand to the belt.

[Doctor Whom]

Not surprisingly, that article has been restored and is now really popular.

Streisand effect? What's that?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

You know who else tried to suppress French military secrets?

[Alack]

Napoleon?

[a better weapon]

Tom Clancy?

[Bam!]

It's the effect Streisand has on her audience, but that's not important right now!

[Rich]

The [ATF] system is intended to ... "find connection points between two or more individuals" by linking together "structured and unstructured data."

So, everyone on H&R is gonna be linked to Mary Stack.

Booyah!!

[Matrix]

Sen. Coburn -- All guns are "assault weapons"

pretty much, which is why we should tell progtards, "No, we won't ban assault weapon!"

[Rich]

"What I'm trying to do right now is both protect the Second Amendment and the 10th Amendment for Oklahoma if we want to do something different," Coburn said.

OK, Tom. Secede.

[Brandon]

Landlocked state that is something like 80% dependent on the federal government for its economy? Yeah, secession is a great idea.

[Rich]

"Well, that's different."

/Minnesotan

[Zeb]

Technically, so are all knives and 2' lengths of 2x4, I suppose. I certainly wouldn't want to be assaulted with either of those things.

[Brandon]

"They'll make bigger boards and bigger nails, and soon, they will make a board with a nail so big, it will destroy them all!"

-Actual Dianne Feinstein nightmare.

[C. Anacreon]

Or a pointed stick.

[$park?]

Aren't we all high and mighty?

[gaijin]

Aren't we all high and mighty?

well, at least one of those

[Enough About Palin]

No one needs a 2' 2x4.

[Mad Scientist]

What we need is a new cabinet level department to keep track of American's social activities. We could call it the Ministry of Love.

[Rich]

The Department of Homeland Security Blanket.

[Episiarch]

Would that require a Love Czar? I volunteer! There's sex involved, right?

[Pro Libertate]

Love brokers.

[Episiarch]

We could go all Maoist and collectivize everyone into sex farms. A great leap forward!

[Pro Libertate]

Working on a sex farm,
Trying to raise some hard love,
Getting out my pitch fork,
Poking your hay.

Scratching in your henhouse,
Sniffing at your feedbag,
Slipping out your back door,
Leaving my spray.

Sex farm woman,
I'm gonna mow you down.
Sex farm woman,
I'll rake and hoe you down.
Sex farm woman,
Don't you see my silo rising high?

Working on a sex farm,
Hosing down your barn door,
Bothering you livestock,
They know what I need.

Working up a hot sweat,
Crouching in your pea patch,
Plowing through your beanfield,
Planting my seed.

Sex farm woman,
I'll be your hired hand.
Sex farm woman,
I'll let my offer stand.
Sex farm woman,
Don't you hear my tractor rumbling by?

Working on a sex farm,
Trying to raise some hard love,
Getting out my pitch fork,
Poking your hay.

[Thane of Whiterun]

We could go all Maoist and collectivize everyone into sex farms.

I saw that one too!

It was Japanese, not Chinese, though.

I will throw quite the bash when the PRC and SK legalize porno.

[BakedPenguin]

Yes. With her.

[Warty]

Dammit! I thought for sure it would be with her.

[Episiarch]

That was uncalled for, BP. Therefore I approve.

[JW]

I wasn't ready for that.

[NeonCat]

You can only have sex with career bureaucrats.

[DesigNate]

only the bad kind.

[Episiarch]

Just to be clear, that's the kind with Warty, right?

[Warty]

The bad kind.

[Episiarch]

We'd better do it doggie style so we can both watch X-Files.

[BlueBook]

That's kinda sad now that Siskel and Ebert are both dead. Still a very danceable beat though.

[robc]

Yes I'm Siskel, yes I'm Ebert and you're getting two thumbs up

Seemed timely.

[gaijin]

IS the Ministry armed with Love Guns?

[Mad Scientist]

Yes, but they'll call them Tazers.

[a better weapon]

Don't love me, bro!

[Ted S.]

Is that the kind of love between a man and a woman, or the love of a man for a fine cigar?

[Mad Scientist]

They're considering Bill Clinton for the position, so it's kind of up to interpretation.

[Zeb]

Not content with letting the IRS hog all the creepy, the ATF is building a big database to track people's social connections.

See, this is why I don't put real information about myself on social media sites.

[Mad Scientist]

Just post as Warty. Nothing you could say would be worse than the file they already have on him.

[Warty]

lol just committed another crime #YOLO

[Xenocles]

If Failbook is demonstrative, that happens all the time.

[Bobarian]

That course of action would run the risk of getting you identified as Warty...

[NeonCat]

So you admit to a disinformation campaign to deceive the government about your identity and intentions.

[$park?]

LOOPHOLE!

[Zeb]

Pretty much. But not just the government. Also my employer, fundraisers from my alma mater and people I hated in high school.

[NeonCat]

Not just anti-government, anti-society. Clearly Zeb is a threat to all decent people everywhere, and common sense measures must be used.

It's no wonder you're a commenter here.

[CE]

That wasn't really Zeb.

[$park?]

That's some expensive shit? Talk about dirty money? There's a joke in here somewhere.

Wayne Klinkel tells the Independent Record that his dog Sundance ate the bills while he and his wife were on a road trip to visit their daughter.

Klinkel says he carefully picked through the dog's droppings, and his daughter recovered more when snow melted.

He says he washed the remnants of the bills and taped them together and sent them to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing with an explanation of what happened.

[John]

As long as you send them enough so that they know the bill is out of circulation, they will do that.

[Rich]

an "experienced mutilated currency examiner" will determine if at least 51 percent of a bill is present and eligible for reimbursement. The process can take up to two years.

So, a (we'll say) GS-15 salary for two years to determine whether $500 is legit.

Nice.

[$park?]

Yeah, but it's a shitty job.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

They just dump it on your desk.

[Zeb]

I think it's probably more likely that there are two guys that do that and they just have a big pile to work through.

[Rich]

"Hey, Vic, do you have a kinda yellow-orange piece that looks like Idaho and has the bottom two-thirds of a '4' on it?"

[Bobarian]

I suppose, if you like doing jigsaw puzzles...

[John]

http://www.businessinsider.com.....uro-2013-4

Thatcher called the EU perfectly.

[Restoras]

I like this video better. Unbelieveably prescient.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TPpuIslzG4

[Heroic Mulatto]

Can you imagine Obama is a "Prime Minister's Questions"-type situation? The stupid motherfucker would get destroyed...Destroyed with a capital "D". It wouldn't even be sporting, it would be pathetic.

[kinnath]

I had the same thought.

[Juice]

Destroyed by House Republicans? I think you're giving them too much credit.

[Virginian]

I can think of two or three that would dismantle him.

What if he had to go to the House on Tuesday, and the Senate on Thursday?

[Irish]

Justin Amash would make Obama cry.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Obama could be destroyed by anyone in an honest and fair debate because he's a arrogant, humorless, and witless prig.

[Brandon]

Hell, Obama got destroyed by Romney in a debate. Romney.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

I'm sure Candy Crowley will lend her services to "moderate", defined as "wrongly labeling his opponent's statements as incorrect".

[deified]

That fat fuck Crowley. Tulpa, I wouldn't fuck her with your dick, real talk.

[BakedPenguin]

Destroyed by House Republicans? I think you're giving them too much credit.

Fucking Mitt Romney wiped him out in their first debate. Mitt. Romney.

[kinnath]

Of course, I've seen congress-critters talk too. It would be ugly all around.

[I remember the '80s]

complying with every jot and detail of the nation's extensive tax code

"Every jot and detail"? What's wrong with "tittle"? Is this some kind of political correctness run amok?

[An0nB0t]

Discrimination against good, honest, hardworking, Bible-believing Christians, obv.

[Cdr Lytton]

I know there's been a bunch of other articles on the Iron Lady's death, but will anyone else be joining me tonight in hoisting a tall frosty glass of milk in Maggie's memory?

[Virginian]

If you're going to honor her, you should drink some Bell's whisky. That was her favorite. Honestly, she was more of a man then any other politician I can think of.

[Cdr Lytton]

I agree with that. No weenie beer summits for her, though I could see her sitting down to some pints.

The milk comment was more of a fuck you to her critics. The whole "Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher" line and all.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Certainly more so than any of the 20th century Tory leaders who preceded or followed her. And yes, I include Winston Churchill in that analysis.

[C. Anacreon]

Honestly, she was more of a man then any other politician I can think of.

"Bollocks!" cried the Queen. "If I had them I'd be King!"

[Restoras]

I'll have a whiskey instead.

[Zeb]

Hmm. To bad Bell's isn't better.

[BakedPenguin]

I'm going to have some rum. I'll consider sodomy and the lash.

[A Serious Man]

You call that tribute? I plan on snatching the milk from poor children, leaving it out in the sun to spoil, and then throwing it in the face of an unemployed coal worker.

[NeonCat]

So just a normal Monday for you, huh?

[A Serious Man]

There aren't many coal miners in Southern California, so my usual routine would involve throwing the milk at teachers and/or gay immigrants.

[Enough About Palin]

They're letting in teh gays????!!!!????!

[jesse.in.mb]

Hey, I fully intend to avail myself of the gay immigrant population. don't give the last thing I need is for them to have some sort of milk-in-the-face PTSD.

[jesse.in.mb]

That was poorly structured. This is what happens when jesse only has half of his coffee in the morning.

[Marshall Gill]

I know there's been a bunch of other articles on the Iron Lady's death, but will anyone else be joining me tonight in hoisting a tall frosty glass of milk in Maggie's memory?

Already there.

[SweatingGin]

Maybe gin.

[John]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon.....n_won.html

That whole free market thing is so 1979. Because the real problem now is climate change, even though the temperature hasn't risen in 16 years.

[Virginian]

But it has gotten lower. Thus, climate change.

Seriously, I've had talks with big AGW supporters who basically insist that there is some...correct temperature for every place at every moment. Like fall in New England should always be clear and crisp, with blazing vistas of foliage.

It's basically people insisting that it isn't supposed to be this cold or this warm or this rainy and somehow it's the fault of the corporations.

Stripped of all the pseudoscience, it's about blaming their political enemies for bad weather. It's Stalinist hysteria verging on a pathological paranoia.

[John]

It really is. They have been pushing this stuff for 30 years. And here it is still really cold in Montana and it still gets to 130 degrees every summer in the Persian Gulf. The other day, I forget where, but I saw a collection of headlines going back ten years each one of them some version of "(insert place name here) could be the first victim of global warming". It was the same headline with different places over and over again starting around the turn of the century going right up through 2012.

[kinnath]

Today's headline is the gobal warming is going to kill the wine industry.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Quite right. It's like the witch scares of the 1600s. Every bit of weirdness in the weather is attributed to global warming. Like BO said in the SOTU:

"We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science?and act before it's too late."

See what he did there? The people who dispute whether hurricanes and droughts are really indicators of global warming (which science does NOT predict they are) are the nutty reality-deniers.

[Michael S. Langston]

It's the religious aspect of climate change.

You have original sin - consumerism.

Anyone responsible for it - is evil (all humans, with corporations and those peddling "consumerism" as more evil).

From there, it's easy. Any problems with any thing are the fault of the original sin.

Unemployment, health care costs, climate change, etc, etc, etc - consumerism/humans/corporations.

[kinnath]

I posted this in an earlier thread, but not the morning links, so you may have missed it 😉

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Privatizing state-run industrial companies won't jump-start growth. That's not because state-ownership of industrial firms is a good idea, it's because we don't have any.

I guess GM isn't an industrial company?

[Thane of Whiterun]

The TVA?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Now that Thatcher's dead, out come the crowd of grousers. To wit:

consider the following two ways in which Thatcher has left a legacy in international relations theory:

1) Diversionary war. There's a large literature in international relations on the notion of using war against a foreign adversary as a way to distract domestic opposition and/or bolster domestic support for a leader[...]

First, almost every analysis of the conflicts attributes the Argentine junta's growing domestic unpopularity as a key cause of their decision to launch the conflict (though, of course, it's a bit more complicated than that). Second and more importantly, absent the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher would be remembered as a failed one-term prime minister. Victory over the Argentines in the South Atlantic enabled Thatcher to win re-election.

Yeah, the Argentine military junta started the war (it's complicated, OK!), but the important thing is that Maggie had the gall to defend against the groovy brown people, and in so doing may have done better in an election.

[John]

Wow. That is full retard. The junta started the war to cover its failures. But the war was really about covering up for Thatcher's failures. Very clever those running dog capitalists. Always a plan within a plan.

[Irish]

When another nation invades your territory and you defend it, that means that you've just started a diversionary war.

Don't you know anything?

[Virginian]

Eh, there is something to the "war leaders win elections" theory. FDR certainly would not have won a third term without the brewing threat of war in Europe and the Pacific.

I don't know enough about the situation either way, but her successful prosecution of the Falklands War certainly did not cost her any votes.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Didn't cost her any votes, but it wasn't a major factor in her re-election. It's like attributing Reagan's re-election to Granada.

At any rate, I was more interested in the attempt to downplay the "diversionary war" aspects for the Argentines, while maximizing them for the defender in that war.

[Virginian]

Eh, I think Grenada is overlooked as a factor though. I mean, you have to remember, before Grenada the last time the US military had a clear and unequivocal victory was WWII. Korea was a tie, Nam was an absolute disaster. Then there was the Desert One fiasco. I mean, there was genuine concern that the US military was just not capable of actually winning a battle. Grenada did a lot to turn that around.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

In Korea and Vietnam we were actually fighting against strong militaries. Grenada? Please.

[Pro Libertate]

We freed nutmeg for Christmas, which was a major victory.

[Virginian]

A win's a win dude. Besides, I did bring up Desert One for a reason: the perception was not only could we not fight a real war, we couldn't even manage a simple refueling operation without it going sideways.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Funny thing about Grenada: operationally speaking, it was a disaster. Unit cohesion was terrible, and a whole number of things went terribly wrong for no other reason than incompetence.

I mean, I agree with the casus belli (and obviously it went much better than things like Vietnam and Desert One), but I've always found it amusing that Grenada has since been seen as an example of US military competence. In some ways it was the anti-OIF of its time: nothing went right, but it had a limited casus belli which allowed for us to go seriously off-script while still achieving victory in spite of ourselves. In contrast, the brilliance of our initial invasion in OIF and some very clever counter-insurgency tactics didn't mean squat when we had such an ambitious mandate in Iraq.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Kirchner is beating the Falklands war drums too these days.

[John]

I would love to know exactly why the Falklands War, an aggressive war waged by the worst sort of right wing dictatorship was bad other than they just hate Britain and hated Thatcher more than they hated the thugs running Argentina.

[NeonCat]

These are idiot lefties we're talking about. Say Argentina and they probably only think of "Evita". Some of the older ones may remember The Disappeared.

But yes, most of it is just hating someone for not being lefty enough.

[Zeb]

I'm sure the war did help get her reelected. But that doesn't mean that was why she got into it.

I'm certainly no fan of optional wars, but I think the Falklands was the right thing to do. The Argentine claim was total bullshit and the people who had lived there for a long time considered themselves British.

[Pro Libertate]

My reaction, too. Should the UK should've just stood aside and let their people be overrun? Even for libertarians, that's a bit much to tolerate.

[Virginian]

Yeah, just for the record, the Falklands were uninhabited before the Europeans came. It's not a case where indigenous people were forced off their land, because there were no indigenous people. Just various competing claims. Of course the naval hyperpower won out, and everyone on the islands is a British subject. They just had a vote, and I think there were a grand total of 3 votes for secession. The place is full of white British shepherds.

It's as pure, clear, simple, and obvious case of aggressive war as you will find in history, with absolutely no ambiguity as to who are the aggressors and who are the victims.

[Pro Libertate]

That's what amazes me about suggestions that the war was controversial or happened so that Thatcher could remain in office. Argentina invaded a British possession. Didn't make noises, didn't sail a ship within ten miles--they invaded. What the heck was Thatcher supposed to do, applaud?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Exactly. Open and shut case IMO -- and as far as I'm concerned, the world would be better off if defending against all infringements of liberty and self-determination were equally popular.

[Virginian]

Yeah, I'm thinking of other wars that were as justified and I have nothing.

I mean, Hitler had better cause to invade France then the Argentines did to invade the Falklands.

[Irish]

I'm not entirely sure what Hitler's cause to invade Poland was though.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Poland controlled Gdansk and other parts of the Pomeranian coastline which were historically part of the Prussian/German sphere of influence.

BS reason, but still better than what Argentina had.

[Pro Libertate]

I suppose he could've used Danzig/Gda?sk as a justification, though I think the Nazis had already dealt with that "problem" prior to the invasion.

If I recall, he claimed that the Poles were gearing up to invade Germany or some such nonsense.

[Virginian]

He put a bunch of concentration camp prisoners in Polish uniform and shot them at a border crossing.

But remember there were millions of ethnic Germans living in Eastern Europe. He just claimed, as was the belief at the time, that any place that was majority German should be part of Germany. Yay Wilsonian nationalism!

[Pro Libertate]

I've heard before that the biggest single nationality in the U.S. was German. Guess we lucked out, if true.

[Virginian]

Nah, German speaking Germans. Actually, after the war they were ruthlessly expelled from their homelands, and thousands died. Sort of one of those Allied war crimes that have been forgotten in order to perpetuate the myth of the Good War.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

The only post-WWII expulsions that were wrong happened in Israel, duh.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

That happened in both wars, actually. Basically the entirety of the non-Germanic Baltic coastline was rife with Germans prior to the end of WWI and had been since the peak of the Hanseatic League; these ethnic minorities were all reshuffled at the end of the war with the view of making nationalist-friendly states and preserving a "balance of powers".

Whoops.

[Calidissident]

German is the largest nationality by self-identification. Due to underreporting, it's possible/likely that English is actually slightly higher.

[Pro Libertate]

Some Germans may have covered up their heritage to their young'uns during those wars, though.

[Calidissident]

There is probably also some underidentification among Germans as well. In 1990, according to the Census, there were about 58,000,000 German Americans. That number dropped by 15 million in 2000 (which seems unlikely, especially considering that the total white population increased slightly, and mixing between people of different European ancestries would increase the total number of people with ancestry from any one country, even if there is zero or negative growth.) and the number for 2010 was about 50 million.

However, for English American, about 50 million people self-identified in 1980 (slightly more than the number who self-identified as German in that year), but today it's about half of that. A lot of people of English descent (especially in the South) simply identify as "American" and others may choose to emphasize a more recent, "exotic" immigrant group that's a part of their ancestry

[Wind Rider]

Hey, it was there, it was Poland. Hitler considered that a good reason, apparently.

[Zeb]

The Argentines are probably the whitest people in South America.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The actual skin color and ethnicity of Argentina is irrelevant. They will always be groovy brown people to the sort of folks inclined to give the Third World a free pass.

[Zeb]

And who assume that everywhere that is not full of non-hispanic Europeans is third world.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Not me, I assure you. I've lived in Latin America most of my life -- this has made me rather unsympathetic to most of the standard excuses given for the mismanagement of Latin American governments, and thus to the slack given to Latin America for various reasons.

There is no good reason that Latin America could not be just as successful, prosperous, and free as the US. Chile is better on the latter count in many ways, and is working on the other two -- and Latin America has never experienced the sort of violence and total war seen in Europe or Asia. There is no reason why their crap governments should be given any slack or sympathy which would not be extended to a "developed" country's government.

[Jerryskids]

I had assumed it related to the fact that they inherited their politics from Spain rather than England. Seriously, 'Western Civilization' isn't all that extensive.

[Virginian]

No Argentina did just fine until the Peronists took power, and never really stopped. That "right wing junta" was just fascism, with the stagnant economy of any regulated market.

Argentina was one of the ten richest countries in the world in 1900. Their fall has been entirely due to big government and an inflationary fiscal regime.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

That's possible, but there are enough counterexamples of successful Latin American countries and periods of history (Argentina/Chile/Uruguay until the 20th century; Chile today; Cuba until Batista) that it doesn't work as a Grand Unifying Theory of Latin American politics. Hell, the early political structures designed in Latin America tended to emulate those of the US moreso than those of Spain.

[Juice]

Is Argentina third world?

[Pro Libertate]

It tries to be.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Technically, the third world was the group of non-aligned countries during the Cold War. Now it refers to countries with endemic problems with governmental mismanagement and mismanagement which lead to the destruction of prosperity and limited rights for the citizenry. IMO, Argentina certainly conforms to that definition.

[Enough About Palin]

"Now it refers to countries with endemic problems with governmental mismanagement and mismanagement which lead to the destruction of prosperity and limited rights for the citizenry."

So the US then.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I'd say the US and Europe are headed in that direction, yes.

They've got a nice security cushion from when they were run more reasonably, and still have some good policies due to inertia.

[Juice]

I once took a flight from Zurich Intl Airport to JFK Intl Airport. The Zurich airport was modern, clean, and quiet, and as a bonus, a little bit upscale, with some nice restaurants and lounges. When I got to JFK, I was in a huge crowd marching down shitty, dirty grey corridors like cattle until we all got to a big room crammed with people, where customs and the TSA were harassing people, searching their bags, questioning them, and taking pictures of their retinas with machines. All the while there were multiple huge TV screens blaring CNN at everyone. I though, Jesus did I just come from civilization into a 3rd world country?

[Calidissident]

In terms of standard of living, it's not third world as we usually think of it (Africa, the poor parts of India and Asia, significant parts of Latin America). It's still one of the wealthiest Latin American countries, but the standard of living is definitely lower than in the US, Canada, or most of Europe. Before the rise of Peronism, it was actually one of the top 5 wealthiest countries in the world.

*I visited BA last year

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Argentina was directly comparable to the US/Europe until Peronism. It's not a coincidence that its deterioration correlates with the rise of quasi-fascist and socialist government.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Argentina was directly comparable to the US/Europe until Peronism. It's not a coincidence that its deterioration correlates with the rise of quasi-fascist and socialist government.

This.

I spent 2 weeks in and around Bariloche in 04. Beautiful country. Shitty politics. Hey, it's California.

[Calidissident]

"Beautiful country. Shitty politics. Hey, it's California."

As someone who visited Argentina (and loved it), and who lives in California, this is actually a very good comparison (though California to our credit still has a standard of living much greater than Argentina)

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The Californian decline started much later than the Argentinian decline. Wait a couple decades, and you'll barely recognize the place.

It is an apt comparison, though.

[Warty]

Did someone say Argentina???

[Calidissident]

I would say second, after Uruguayans.

[Francisco d Anconia]

The Argentines are probably the whitest people in South America.

It's all the Germans.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Lots of northern Italian migration to Argentina, as well -- plus a much smaller indigenous population than there was in, say, Peru or Central America.

[Francisco d Anconia]

I was referring to the Germans who previously wore the armbands.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

You know who else made positive references to the Germans with armbands?

That's right, it was the German Socialist Labour Front!

[Calidissident]

Most Argentines are Spanish and/or Italian primarily. Some German and other European ethnicities. Most people have some indigenous ancestry, but not that much, although there is a decent sized minority that is visibly mestizo

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Pretty large Jewish minority, too.

Amusingly, Peronist Argentina was both one of the countries that took in the most Jews prior to WWII, and which (famously) sheltered a good number of Nazis afterwards.

[A Serious Man]

Robert Reich: The Stealth Sequester, it's hurting America, we just don't know it yet!

The Sequester is like the Thing: it could be any one of us!

[NeonCat]

So if a bunch of Norwegians start yelling and pointing at Little Robbie Reich?

[gaijin]

Someone should toss him out of Berkeley.

[Libertarian]

Damn you, Serious Man! Another day in my limited life that I was forced to see the words, "Robert Reich."

I see that he could not help himself, and ended his screed with a mention of AUSTERITY!

[Francisco d Anconia]

Let me see your dental work.

[A Serious Man]

Salon chimes in with a most complimentary assessment of the late Baroness: she was not a feminist.

[John]

Leftism really is grotesque. It totally corrupts anything it touches. For that woman, "feminism", like every other thing in her life, is about the furthering of leftist politics.

[Irish]

When liberals insult someone, it makes me like them more.

[Virginian]

No, she rose through politics on her own merits, not a husband or father's merits. She had training in a difficult, technical field. Most importantly, she rejected Marxism in it's entirety.

[Stormy Dragon]

Was disappointed when I clicked the article and discovered you were not talking about the G. I. Joe villain.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

I'm going to go with a "no, thanks" on that one. I felt much the same way in 2008, shuddering when a female friend declared that even if Obama didn't win, we'd have a woman as a vice president ? and isn't that an advancement for women? (Spoiler: It is not.) Women in leadership who are frighteningly bad leaders are not a win for the team.

Yet I'm supposed to be enthralled by BO being the first (half) black president.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Some Thatcher quotes:

Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.

For every idealistic peacemaker willing to renounce his self-defense in favor of a weapons-free world, there is at least one war-maker anxious to exploit the other's good intentions.

Gentlemen, if we don't cut spending we will be bankrupt. Yes, the medicine is harsh, but the patient requires it in order to live. Should we withhold the medicine? No. We are not wrong. We did not seek election and win in order to manage the decline of a great nation.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

If you want to cut your own throat, don't come to me for a bandage.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

[cont]

It [politics] used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.

May I make plain my negotiating position? I will not negotiate with criminals or thugs.

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.

Socialists cry Power to the people, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean?power over people, power to the State.

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

What? What am I 'bound to be feeling?' People don't think anymore. They feel. 'How are you feeling? No, I don't feel comfortable. I'm sorry, we as a group we're feeling?.' One of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas. Thoughts and ideas. That interests me. Ask me what I'm thinking.

[Virginian]

What? What am I 'bound to be feeling?' People don't think anymore. They feel. 'How are you feeling? No, I don't feel comfortable. I'm sorry, we as a group we're feeling?.' One of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas. Thoughts and ideas. That interests me. Ask me what I'm thinking.

Imagine a politician saying that today. We've fallen so far in such a short time.

[Francisco d Anconia]

We've fallen so far in such a short time.

It started in 1933 and it's been accelerating ever since. On the bright side, it will be over soon.

[A Serious Man]

Socialists cry Power to the people, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean?power over people, power to the State.

Bingo. Socialism is by far the most misanthropic political philosophy every devised.

[I remember the '80s]

So beautiful. So very beautiful.

[Palin's Buttplug]

This Thatcher seems to have been earnestly a small government leader.

Why didn't we get any of them?

[Virginian]

Well see, they have a Parliamentary system, which means their PM automatically as a majority, barring a coalition government.

The last time there was a conservative President with two conservative houses of Congress was....hmm....the 20s? Maybe even before that.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yes, the Progressive Era in the USA spanned from TR to Nixon - both Republicans.

Carter began deregulating even before Thatcher took office.

[John]

The early 20s retard. When the entire country rejected progressivism as a failed ideology and it became a dirty word until retards like you brought it back.

[Xenocles]

TR founded the Progressive Party, you fool.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

The last time there was a conservative President with two conservative houses of Congress was

1953-54

[Virginian]

Eisenhower was not conservative. He was content to maintain the status quo of the New Deal. I mean, don't get me wrong..he's still one of the better Presidents of the century, leaving my own ideology out of it.

But he wasn't a conservative.

[Juice]

He even called himself a progressive.

[Coeus]

Check out this shit:

How long do you have? It depends on gender and geography. In the U.S., women live longer?81 years on average, 76 for men?but a recent study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reveals a troubling trend. Though men's life spans have increased by 4.6 years since 1989, women have gained only 2.7 years, perhaps because a larger percentage of women have lacked adequate treatment for high blood pressure and cholesterol. "This is a wake-up call," says study co-author Ali Mokdad.

Tha fuck?

[Pro Libertate]

Part of a male plot to exterminate women, men being too stupid to understand that we need women to perpetuate the species?

[Episiarch]

Stop giving it away, ProL, you idiot!

[Rich]

perhaps because a larger percentage of women have lacked adequate treatment for high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Or perhaps because a larger percentage of women have lacked adequate access to firearms.

[Virginian]

The grievance mongering never ends. It's not enough that women live longer. No no no, now they have to maintain or increase their lead or else WAR ON TEH WOMENZZZ!!!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Us males should demand higher SS payments based on "comparable payout" due to lower life spans.

[Brandon]

I actually like this idea. End the SS gender gap!

[Zeb]

Holy shit. Why the fuck is that troubling? Perhaps the things that cause men to live less long on average, like dangerous occupations and smoking and drinking more have been mitigated. Some people really think that everything is zero-sum, don't they? If men are living longer relative to women, it must must mean they are taking something from women.

[Virginian]

The men are taking YEARS of LIFE from the WOMEN. The PATRIARCHY never stops.

[JW]

The men are taking YEARS of LIFE from the WOMEN.

Turnabout, eh?

[Cavpitalist]

Womens' lifespans are being sequestered, and you don't see what's troubling?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I'd love to see this same reasoning applied to income brackets. "The top 10% incomes increased by 4.6%, but the top 1% only saw their incomes rise by 2.7%. This is a wake-up call!"

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

The day the wake-up call motif leaves the English language will be a happy day. Do people even get those anymore?

[Xenocles]

It was an option in at least 90% of hotels I've stayed at.

[Coeus]

When is a joke not a joke? Apparently whenever feminists say so. This is great:

To tell the end of the story first, Locus staff immediately apologized and took down the article and has since pulled Mr. Creepweans' posting privileges. As a reviewer, he had the ability to go onto the site and post material no one else had seen. He's trying to riff off an incident a few years ago in which an invited guest of honor said some Islamophobic things on her blog (not, as our joker says, "in the mildest possible terms"), deleted the comments when people showed their anger, and was disinvited as a guest. His April Fools' "story" relates how WisCon's "ruling committee" was going to force all attendees to wear burqas "in sizes small to 5X" to keep from offending Muslims by the "by the amount of sinful and wanton flesh" on display at WisCon, and also to "eliminate 'rampant looksism."

The collective was not pleased.

[Virginian]

Oh my god WisCon....stay away....stay far away. If there is a locus of pure reason and logic in the universe, WisCon is the place farthest from it.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Mr. Creepweans'

Uh, yeah...

[Thane of Whiterun]

Behold the "body-image expert" that co-wrote the post.

[Thane of Whiterun]

And whatever you do, don't look at this pic of her!

NSFW-ish. Non-pornographic nudity.

[mr simple]

This is what a real woman looks like.

/Feminist

[mr simple]

WisCon (the world's first and largest feminist science fiction convention

Pass. Must they taint everything with their intolerant tolerance politics?

[Coeus]

I have no problem with them starting their own conventions. The problem is that they're putting politics into every other sci/fi, technology and gaming conference they can find. Jesus, go check out the GDC coverage at Kotaku. It's sickening.

[Virginian]

Well, Gawker Media's Raison d'?tre is to inject leftwing politics into their coverage of everything.

[Coeus]

No, not the coverage. The fucking panels and presentations. I think only like 1/3 of them were not feminist boilerplate bullshit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dr. Krugnuts: Being forced to buy health insurance is the epitome freedom

In fact, it's hard to think of a proposition that has been more thoroughly refuted by history than the notion that social insurance undermines a free society. Almost 70 years have passed since Friedrich Hayek predicted (or at any rate was understood by his admirers to predict) that Britain's welfare state would put the nation on the slippery slope to Stalinism; 45 years have passed since Medicare went into effect; as far as most of us can tell, freedom hasn't died on either side of the Atlantic.

In fact, the real, lived experience of Obamacare is likely to be one of significantly increased individual freedom. For all our talk of being the land of liberty, those holding one of the dwindling number of jobs that carry decent health benefits often feel anything but free, knowing that if they leave or lose their job, for whatever reason, they may not be able to regain the coverage they need. Over time, as people come to realize that affordable coverage is now guaranteed, it will have a powerful liberating effect.

But what we still don't know is how many Americans will be denied that kind of liberation ? a denial all the crueler because it will be imposed in the name of freedom.

[A Serious Man]

In fact, the real, lived experience of Obamacare is likely to be one of significantly increased individual freedom. For all our talk of being the land of liberty, those holding one of the dwindling number of jobs that carry decent health benefits often feel anything but free, knowing that if they leave or lose their job, for whatever reason, they may not be able to regain the coverage they need.

And that's just a market failure, right Krugnuts? There's absolutely no way government is involved in creating the dysfunctional healthcare system we had prior to Obamacare. That's crazy talk.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

he dwindling number of jobs that carry decent health benefits

or allow you to work more than 29.5 hours, eh Paul?

[Virginian]

Nah, I have two jobs that get me to 55 hours....no healthcare. I'm sure that's coming any day now. FORWARD!

[Palin's Buttplug]

You're eligible to buy from a voluntary private exchange now.

[Virginian]

Yeah, and the chocolate ration has been increased to 25 grams.

[Virginian]

So this diplomat in Afghanistan was killed, and I'm seeing lots of stories about it in the media sphere. So is this:

1. Leftist media hacks care because she was one of them, not one of the knuckle dragging rednecks who get killed in Afghanistan every day.

2. "Cute white girl is dead" story.

3. Simple "man bites dog" media practice, no special angle.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Its #2 and with good reason. I can't help but look at killing articles with a hot chick pic attached.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Color me unsurprised by your necrophilia.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You're being dishonest if you say you never cared what really happened to Natalee Holloway.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

The one who worked in Conditt's office and was found naked in the park?

[Pro Libertate]

The Aruba girl, I think.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

No, that was JonBenet Ramsey.

[Pro Libertate]

That's the one who murdered her daughter in Florida, right?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

You're thinking of Charles Lindbergh's kid.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Probably some of all, but more 3 than the others. We've had few casualties in Afghanistan the last few months, and then we hit this spike with a novelty cherry on top.

[WomSom]

Sounds like a pretty good plan dude, I like it.

http://www.SurfPrivately.tk

[Coeus]

Japan does what Krugman says. Wonder how he's gonna back out of this shit now?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Same way he backed out of it when he gave Singapore bad advice in the 90s that led to the opposite of his predictions: he'll ignore it.

[Matrix]

It'll be because they did not do evey single detail of everything he said. If they miss one little point, it'll throw is whole prediction off. And if that happens, he'll say "see, if you'd have done this that way, like I said, it would all be perfect."

[A Serious Man]

Let's voyage into the comments section:

ScottColorado
Paul.... I watched This Week. You have the patience of a Saint. I don't have nearly the control you do when dealing with the right wing sound machine. I can't even talk to my siblings about politics. debt, etc anymore.

Thanks for all you do.

Bridget Hussein McCurryBeautiful Asheville, NC
Me either. My sister is a bagger because her husband's greatest accomplishment thus far in his 52 years is being born white, and my two older brothers carry guns everywhere. Perhaps I was adopted.

[Virginian]

Someone wasn't the favorite growing up, and someone is super jealous of her sister's husband.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

I'm sure ScottColorado's siblings are much happier now.

[Irish]

God, progressives are such whiny bitches. I have friends who disagree with me vehemently on politics, both from the left and the right, and I still have no problem talking with them about issues about which we disagree.

How do you get to that point? Does progressivism turn previously normal people into utter cowards, or are utter cowards drawn to progressivism?

[Virginian]

Both?

Plus you need to remember, progressives live in a fucking bubble. You go out to the country, or suburban areas, and it's mixed. Plenty of Democrats outside the beltways of our cities. They're more conservative socially, usually gun friendly, but they're big union guys or whatever.

But in the cities, you essentially have a whole bunch of leftwingers, representing different parts of the leftist coalition. Plus rightists hiding in plain sight, usually by nodding politely when lefties spout off.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

My own experience tells me leftoids are not at all shy about shoving their opinions down your throat.

[Virginian]

But only when they think they're in the majority.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

JELLICO: Lemec is a Cardassian, and Cardassians are like... timber wolves, predators - bold in large numbers, cautious by themselves, and with an instinctive need to establish a dominant position in any social gathering.

TROI: So you're trying to establish a dominant position by making him wait for *you*? The trouble with wolves is that... sometimes in the fight for dominance, one of them ends up dead.

JELLICO: In that case, the trick is... to be the wolf that's still standing at the end.

[Virginian]

Yeah, I'm not a big Star Wars fan. Is Troi the gay robot or the cool guy with the vest?

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

She's the one who can sense feelings others can't, especially on crowded turbolifts.

[Mickey Rat]

She's also the go to pilot when you want to crash your ship into something.

[Anonymous Coward]

Steve Lexington, MA
Re: your claim that "too much interference in the market" caused Japan's troubles ...

You are wrong! Japan caused its own ruin by failing to regulate its financial sector in the 1980s. Hence its big banks ran wild, causing an immense real estate bubble, causing economic calamity.

Regulation of finance is our friend. Those who oppose regulation of finance are our enemy.

Recent history demonstrates conclusively: the investment banks and mortgage lenders are grave threats to our national security. Our government should take all necessary steps to address this threat.

[Virginian]

Oh my fucking god. When Japan looked like the top dog in the 80s, it was all about how close cooperation between government and the private sector was out competing stupid American capitalism. Now that it's failed, all of a sudden the Japanese were the laissez-faire ones.

[Irish]

This is hilarious. Back in the '80s, all the leftists were enthralled by the genius of Japanese economic intervention. Go watch Friedman's arguments with leftists about protectionism, and the leftists will always bring up Japan as an example of the glorious potential of tariffs and subsidies.

Their economy collapses for 20 years.

Leftists claim they really weren't that interventionist.

[Episiarch]

There is no winning with such people, so I wouldn't bother trying. You're trying to figure out if the color of the sky in their world is the same as yours, but what you don't realize is their world doesn't even have a sky.

[Pro Libertate]

That's nonsense--of course it has a sky. What medium do you think drones fly through, anyway, magical space Jello?

[Episiarch]

I figured it was through your mom. I mean, everything else has been through her, after all.

[Pro Libertate]

Drone-striking the free market is the only rational step.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

"In other news, Lady Liberty and other conspirators were shot attempting to flee an undisclosed location. Government officials are declaring the incident to be a major victory in counter-insurgent operations."

[A Serious Man]

"I am unarmed. Pick up your drone, strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey to the Dark Side will be complete."

[Pro Libertate]

Drones don't work that way. They absolve you of guilt however you use them.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I seem to be misremembering the exact quote so it's not coming up at a glance on Google, but whoever in the aftermath of Sandy Hook quipped "if you want to murder children without causing political controversy, use a drone" was spot on.

[fish]

Krugman much like Shreeky will be just fine. Accountability....that's the other guys problem!

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

JC Penney CEO is OUT.

Last time I was there to pick up an online order of tan pants, I noticed they didn't have a customer service desk anymore. Walked all the way around the store and found precisely one cashier open. Told him about my order, he disappeared for 20 minutes looking for it in the back room. Didn't matter; no one came to pay for anything the whole time.

[Pro Libertate]

It's funny, because not all that many years ago, they really did a good job of improving their product and service. Now things seem to be falling apart.

This is not a good time for brick & mortar retail.

[Virginian]

I mean....I know my sizes. I can look at pictures. I can read descriptions.

The only thing I still buy in person is groceries. I fucking hate doing it.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

And it's not a good thing either. Day's gonna come when you're gonna be out of luck when you realize you need an item of clothing for a meeting this afternoon, cause all the B&M stores will be gone. One reason I support extending the sales tax to internet sales.

[Pro Libertate]

You and your social engineering. I'm glad that I voted against Romney now. Glad!

[Virginian]

LOL Tulpa you are hilarious.

[Generic Stranger]

Statist gonna state.

[Thane of Whiterun]

That day will probably coincide with the availability of same-day shipping to most of the population.

[Pro Libertate]

Same-day shipping and, a few years down the road, full-immersion virtual reality shopping.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Right, they'll teleport it into your closet. I saw it in that JJ Abrams show.

[Virginian]

Dude, I can get next day shipping for 4 bucks an item right now.

No teleporter needed.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Next day != same day

come on.

[Thane of Whiterun]

It's widely acknowledged that Amazon is ramping up its infrastructure for same-day shipping. This is why they want an online sales tax now -- it will soon apply to them anyway.

Google has announced a trial of its own same-day shipping service, and as discussed on HampR previously, Wal-Mart is at least flirting with the idea.

[Pro Libertate]

What Thane said--they're really trying to do it. And I've heard, too, Walmart is thinking about doing the same thing.

[Matrix]

Try to sleep tonight after this...
Face sized tarantuals discovered in Sri Lanka.

[A Serious Man]

Ron Paul launches his own school.

"We cannot expect a federal government controlled school system to provide the intellectual ammunition to combat the dangerous growth of government that threatens our liberties," Paul said during his farewell speech to Congress last November. Months later, he has launched his own online school to provide students with the education that he believes the government will never teach them.

The K-12 curriculum, which can be found at RonPaulCurriculum.com, provides free education through the fifth grade, after which it charges parents for courses. The program's aim is to provide "education in liberty like no other". Topics include Austrian economics, the basics of Western Civilization and Western liberty, American history, the US Constitution, and starting a home-based business. Students will also receive practical training for the modern age, including instructions on how to start a successful YouTube channel.

So right off the bat he's better than 95% of all academia.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I see one article by Paul on that site, but the rest is by Gary North. It sounds like it should be the "Gary North" curriculum to me.

[An0nB0t]

It's noted loon Gary North's school, unfortunately, with Paul's name attached.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You know, Ron Paul really needs to be more careful with whom he lends his name to for their projects.

Jus' sayin'

[Palin's Buttplug]

Why should he start now?

[fish]

For the same reason that your "handle" is linked to soros.org. Shreek....you're tarnishing the brand!

[Xenocles]

your "handle"

Make sure you grab the right end.

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

Is RP getting paid a million bucks for it this time? I would think the price would have gone up.

[Lan Lan]

It's real funny how the cosmos love Ron Paul but ignore everybody he associates with. What do you guys think of the newsletters?

[Thane of Whiterun]

Uh, one of the reasons "cosmos" get flack is for not being sufficiently enamored with Ron Paul.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Obama Wants to Be the President Who Rolled Back the New Deal

The president wants to cut Social Security and Medicare to protect the investor class.

http://www.alternet.org/news-a.....paging=off

[Virginian]

Well good thing you found a reliable source there Mr. Plug.

[Palin's Buttplug]

They are idiots who lie to themselves. Like the people who watch Fox News.

[fish]

CHRISTFAG

[Anonymous Coward]

Obama's "deep" cut to SS amounts to about 1 day of federal spending ($13 billion).

[Enough About Palin]

Where's John with the monkey video?

[Palin's Buttplug]

I post stupid progressive shit too.

John is probably working at his DC gloryhole.

[Heroic Mulatto]

THE MONKEY VIDEO

[A Serious Man]

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn chastises Rand Paul for filibuster threat on gun control.

[Anonymous Coward]

Coburn is working on compromise legislation that would expand background checks to all gun purchases, but would not require private sellers to keep a record of the transaction, which gun safety advocates say would ensure that checks are being properly conducted and allow the entire chain of custody to be reconstructed in the event the gun is later recovered in a crime.

It wouldn't matter if the seller kept the records if the government keeps its own records of the check. Second, background checks are a bill of attainder, despite what the ninth circuit thinks. Third, my right to self-defense ought not be subject to negotiation or "compromises."

I will not be impugned as a criminal for seeking the most efficient means of self-defense currently available.

[Juice]

I'm not seeing the bill of attainder angle. Can you explain it to me?

[mr simple]

Thirteen Republican senators have pledged to filibuster a senate debate about new gun safety measures

I thought the safeties on guns already worked pretty well.

[sloopyinca]

Banjos took the dog to the SPCA for those of you that might be wondering. I guess everybody wins.

[Pro Libertate]

What dog? And why are you impinging on his canine freedoms?

[sloopyinca]

This dog.

He's lucky he survived the morning. I almost hope they put the fucker to sleep at the end of the week.

[Pro Libertate]

Your antisocial lust for violence has been noted.

[sloopyinca]

I hope it has, Pro Lib. I hope it has.

[Pro Libertate]

Bet Banjos is comparing notes with Armstrong's widow right now.

[sloopyinca]

If so, it probably revolves around breakaway mailbox posts and the value of 4" cast iron pipe over 20 ga steel.

[Pro Libertate]

She's probably sending the Armstrong family your mailbox, in penance, now that she recognizes you for what you are.

I stopped paying attention to the pool when my bracket fell to pieces. Who is winning?

[sloopyinca]

Top ten:

Group Standings (Top 10 of 76)
Rank
Bracket
Correct Picks
Points
Possible Pts
1 If I Win Monocles for Everyone Aaron 42 of 62 72 72
2 Knutsack Knows KNCAA Dave 42 of 62 71 71
3 Restoras' Remington 1911 ThomasA 37 of 62 67 73
3 Goin'ForLastPlace TimR 40 of 62 67 73
5 Ermahgerd Ternahmernt butswagner 40 of 62 66 72
5 The Muffin Thief H. Rearden 38 of 62 66 66
7 The Derprider mattfenn 38 of 62 64 70
7 Emmer's Blind Guesses Emily Poe 39 of 62 64 64
9 Abraham10 Joe 39 of 62 63 63
9 March Banness butswagner 38 of 62 63 63

[Pro Libertate]

So much for repeating. I had no clue at all this year, except for Louisville.

[Loki]

The IRS has taken to poking through social media to sniff out folks who might not be complying with every jot and detail of the nation's extensive tax code.

I've never been more glad to not have a twitter account or a facebook page than I am right now.

Not content with letting the IRS hog all the creepy, the ATF is building a big database to track people's social connections.

Make that doubly so.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Fuck you, reason! Are they trying to get us all audited or thrown in prison for sedition?

[A Serious Man]

Fuck you, reason! Are they trying to get us all audited or thrown in prison for sedition?

IT'S A TRAP!!!

[Irish]

In memory of Thatcher, I give you this totally badass takedown of the socialist worldview.

"What the honorable member is saying, is that he would rather the poor were poorer, provided the rich were less rich."

Exactly. A left-wing utopia is a world in which the only difference between rich and poor is that the poor are in steel chains and the rich are in gold ones.

[sloopyinca]

She should have just referred him to the comment she had made some moments ago.

[A Serious Man]

If we could adopt one thing about the English parliamentary system it be jettisoning the faux-civility of the State of the Union and replacing it with an interactive speech before Congress like the PM has to do with the House of Commons.

[mr simple]

That was nice. I kind of want something like that in the US, but I'm sure it would be ruined by pre and post interviews and sideline reporting with human interest stories and so forth. Obviously I would be for all the rampant commercialism of such an event.

[Coeus]

Hillary Clinton makes and argument for total war that by now should familiar.:

But fighting to give women and girls a fighting chance isn't a nice thing to-do. It isn't some luxury that we get to when we have time on our hands to spend doing that . This is a core imperative for every human being and every society. If we do not complete a campaign for women's rights and opportunities the world we want to live in the country we all love and cherish will not be what it should be.
It's no coincidence that so many of the countries that threaten regional and global peace are the very places where women and girls are deprived of dignity and opportunity. Think of the young women from northern Mali to Afghanistan whose schools have been destroyed. Or the girls across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia who have been condemned to child marriage. Or the refugees of the conflicts from eastern Congo to Syria who endure rape and deprivation as a weapon of war.

[General Butt Naked]

I like how she mentions Afghanistan like we haven't been there for 12 years.

"There's a place, maybe you've heard of it, it's called AF-GAN-EYE-STAWN and girls can't go to school there. If only there were something we could do!"

[sloopyinca]

Somebody (like Rand Paul) ought to ask her why we can't use trade initiatives and preferences for countries with better human rights records instead of the murderdrone. I'd be curious to watch her stand there, mouth agape, with the wind whistling through that skull of hers.

[Lan Lan]

"Or the girls across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia who have been condemned to child marriage."

That's the latest moral panic "child marriage. The girls who get married typically would never be described as "children," 95% of the time they are 15-18. Our fifteen years old are fucking each other and we teach them how. Marriage to girls younger than 15 occurs but it is much rarer than they want you to think.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Yeah, there's nothing the matter with forcing 15-18 year olds into arrangements which will be in place for the rest of their lives, and where they are expected to subdue themselves to the male in the relationship, usually with legal sanctions or private violence if that expectation is not met.

[Lan Lan]

Why do you automatically assume the marriages are forced? Women has always been expected to be submissive to the man in the relationship. It is human nature.

[Irish]

Paging Reason. Whoever has the sad, depraved duty of deleting this racist moron, your time has come. Step up to the plate.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

First, children can't provide meaningful consent. YMMV as to whether a 15 year old is a child, but when it comes to sex and long-term relationships I'd say that it's difficult for most 15 year olds to provide consent.

More importantly, this question isn't even debated in those societies -- many times the decision is made without consulting the 15 year old in question, and that 15 year old sure as fuck doesn't have recourse once she's actually in the relationship.

I have no problem with traditional relationships with a man of the house who has final say -- my wife and I both prefer it that way in our relationship. I do have a problem with *forcing* that relationship on someone who doesn't want it.

[Lan Lan]

"when it comes to sex and long-term relationships I'd say that it's difficult for most 15 year olds to provide consent."

Whether women are really ever mentally developed enough to provide consent is an interesting question, but it is neccesary for human survival for it to happen. Age is not really a concept in these societies, in most whenever puberty hits the girl is considered an adult and able to give consent. I'm no feminist, and I don't buy their idiotic concept of consent. As long as the person is mentally an adult, I'd say they are able to give consent.

[Coeus]

SPLC is back with another hard-hitting report.

The Hysteria Mounts
Even before the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, gun and ammunition sales shot up in the wake of the re-election of the country's first black president, the result of shrill conspiracy theories about Obama's secret plans to confiscate Americans' guns. When the killings actually did spark gun control efforts that clearly had not been in the Obama administration's plans, the reaction on the political right was so harsh that it seemed to border on hysteria.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) proposed a law that would nullify any executive gun control actions by Obama, accusing the president of having a "king complex." U.S. Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) said the president could be impeached for those actions. State lawmakers in Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee proposed laws that sought to prevent federal gun control from applying to their states.

These fuckers are more biased left than NPR. Your tax dollars at work.

[Irish]

That's hilarious.

Even before the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, gun and ammunition sales shot up in the wake of the re-election of the country's first black president, the result of shrill conspiracy theories about Obama's secret plans to confiscate Americans' guns. When the killings actually did spark gun control efforts that clearly had not been in the Obama administration's plans, the reaction on the political right was so harsh that it seemed to border on hysteria.

They claimed he wanted to introduce new gun control laws. This was 'shrill conspiracy theories.' He ended up trying to introduce new gun laws. When they said 'we told you so' this was 'hysteria.'

[Virginian]

Yeah I especially liked their puzzlement that standard AR mags have shot up in price. Who would have thunk threatening a ban would cause people to buy up the supply?

[Tulpa (LAOL-PA)]

BO has publicly supported reinstating the 1994 AWB (which included a 10 round limit for magazines) since his first presidential campaign. You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist, or even a person with the capacity for speculation, to think it was very much in the administration's plans once the political climate was right.

[Virginian]

Yeah if you think he's a liar you're a racist, but if you take him at his word, you're paranoid.

[Lan Lan]

The definition of a hate group is a group the SPLC(stylized $PLC) hates. Even many leftists have attacked the $PLC, which has built up at least 256 million in assets.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....?nopager=1

[Mensan]

Imagine all the things scientists would never have learned without government funding. For example, this NAS study found that women prefer men with bigger penises.

[Warty]

Bullshit. My wang is gigantic, and women run screaming from it.

[jesse.in.mb]

One can be impressed by something and still terrified by it. Like Jon Hamm's trouser snake.

[Episiarch]

But that's because it's non-Euclidian and multi-dimensional.

[Warty]

Do you think I should add more barbs?

[Episiarch]

Can't hurt, righ...oh wait.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Pain don't hurt.

[Lan Lan]

The story will be retracted in due time. We all must believe in women's moral superiority. Else we're "misogynists."

[Lan Lan]

I think science funding is yet another program that made America the envy of the world. Libertarians can't ever stop talking about all the government's failures, all the government money going to scum who don't deserve it, but they forget that government is only as efficient as those who run it, and only as successful as what it is meant by them to be.

[Irish]

Why do you keep coming back here, knowing you'll just have your comments deleted?

[Warty]

Splappys gotta slap. "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!"

[jesse.in.mb]

I like it better when he has aggressively, 90's-gay-porn names like Chet Manley.

Lan Lan makes me think of a Beijing zoo panda.

[Warty]

Certainly a gay panda, though.

[jesse.in.mb]

Ah, the elusive Asian bear. A rare and treasured thing, especially in yaoi.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Can somebody link me to the bear thread? I skipped over it before but now I feel like I have some catching up to do.

[jesse.in.mb]

http://reason.com/blog/2013/04.....el#comment

[Thane of Whiterun]

No, this was a few days ago. It sounded like some kind of slang.

[jesse.in.mb]

Was that this weekend? I had thought it was crazy Epi was paying for skanks, Warty indicated that a harness and chaps wasn't that effective for straight men to attract women, I denied being a bear and then we started talking about cubs and whatnot?

I linked this, which is inadequate, but helpful.

[jesse.in.mb]

This perhaps?

[Thane of Whiterun]

Yep, that's the one.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Chet Manley was an Archer reference. I am disappoint.

[jesse.in.mb]

I iz sorry. I've seen all the episodes, don't have them memorized. Chet Manley is a ridiculously hypermasculine name though, which makes it really gay.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Uh, both "Skorpio" and "Honeypot" were totally gay, too.

[Lan Lan]

Are you going to address my point or not?

[Warty]

No, scum. Fuck off.

[Lan Lan]

I heard you the first time.

[Irish]

You're points fucking stupid. The Soviet Union and China both spent far more money as a percentage of their GDP than America, and yet, shockingly enough, we are a far more innovative nation.

You didn't bother providing any evidence that publicly funded science is the reason for American innovation, because you're a moron.

[Lan Lan]

No you're a fucking moron. Again, a government is only as good as the people and ideology that runs it. The Soviet Union was run by an atrocious ideology. Where's my evidence that publicly funded science is the reason for American innovation? Maybe the fact that much of American innovation was done by people who worked in publicly funded laboratories?

[Irish]

I can't find the study right now, but there was an OECD study that found that private investment in innovation drives virtually all economic growth and public investment is completely uncorrelated with scientific advancement. One moment, let me find this for you, fuckhead.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Actually Lan Lan, outside of some really salient examples (Lysenkoism, anyone?) the USSR's educational system was good to middling when it came to hard sciences (unlike the cultural dearth that it was when it came to arts and sciences). Some really good physicists and mathematicians came out of the USSR and Tsarist Russia. The people who worked on the USSR's space program and military research were not idiots.

The problem was that, as with so many other countries which make the mistake of funding their educational institutions at the expense of creating a good business climate, many of these well-educated scientists were unable to produce anything of value -- and those that were, were not compensated accordingly. Thus the phenomena where many of the USSR's best minds emigrated to the US, the UK, France or some other country where they could do something with their skills.

[Lan Lan]

Again, the political system and ideology of the Soviet Union were atrocious. That doesn't prove that you can't have publicly funded science an a good business climate.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Public funding of research does not get my goat like other government ventures, but outside of military research or things with a practical application it mostly translates to welfare for people with graduate degrees. I like physics as much as the next guy, but most of the government money funneled into physics is fairly useless, to use a random example.

Personally, I'd rather have us be the country that *employs* physicists and engineers, rather than the one that produces them. The latter is a nice bonus, but the former is abundantly more useful. Dubai doesn't produce engineers, scientists, or doctors -- yet it's chock full of really good ones. I'd rather be Dubai than the USSR.

[Lan Lan]

"most of the government money funneled into physics is fairly useless"

Our universities are useless? Do you have any idea how many "private sector" scientists and engineers give a large amount of credit to their universities for their successes?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Education =/= research.

And yes, lots of government-funded research has little to no practical application -- even in the hard sciences.

[Irish]

Also, if public funding drives innovation, then why was one of the most innovative times in American history the late 1800s, with virtually no public funding?

You know nothing about history and have the IQ of a small, very racist shrub, so I assume you'll hem and haw and say something weird about Mexicans. You know, your usual response.

[Lan Lan]

You know what else we had in the late 1800s, tarrifs. One of the most innovative times for America was between 1940 and 1975. And we had publicly funded science. And we also had tarrifs and limited immigration from mexico, meaning that non-geniuses could get a good job to support their families.(they ha those back then)

[Heroic Mulatto]

One of the most innovative times for America was between 1940 and 1975. ... And we also had tarrifs and limited immigration from mexico,

Actually, for 24 of those years, we had the Bracero Program.

[Lan Lan]

We also had Operation Wetback, but we all know deporting millions of people isn't possible.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

You mean, the country that had a continent-spanning free trade zone could outcompete the countries in Europe with trade situations that were fractured beyond repair?

No fucking way.

[Warty]

Dudes, why are you arguing with a no-shit Neo-Nazi?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Dunno about anyone else, but my government overlords ran out of things for me to do so I'm going between reading a book on my Kindle and arguing with idiots on the internet.

It's a living.

[Lan Lan]

"no-shit Neo-Naz"

You're a communist. Dirty communist. You see I know how to be clever, too.

[Heroic Mulatto]

"no-shit Neo-Naz"

NEO-NAZ

[Calidissident]

Oh look, American changed the subject when his argument was defeated.

And btw, arbitrary lines on a map don't override the laws of economics

[Almanian!]

"The Hunger Games". Son, I am disappoint. It sucked. Bad. Booooooooring.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Finally: RUSH trailer.

[Virginian]

That looks cool.

[Lan Lan]

A very successful 11th AmRen conference.

[Warty]

Fuck off, racist scum.

[Lan Lan]

Two minuets? Did you even read the link?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Why do you hate the Renaissance Fairs?

[Heroic Mulatto]

This is why.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Huzzah!

[jesse.in.mb]

Oh Jesus, that's the Irwindale Renfaire. The meat pies are delicious.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The meat pies are delicious.

Now I want some Jamaican beef patties, and the only (good) Caribbean place in my town went out of business a few months ago.

[jesse.in.mb]

Hmm, there's a decently rated Jamaican place in the relatively economically neighborhood I've never been to, but am going to tonight for a barebones ceramics class. I'll probably end up grabbing Peruvian just because I know what to order already.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

It never ceases to amaze me how often people will brag about crimes in social media. We just basically solved (huge lead) a rather vicious assault because one of the nimrods involved was bragging about it on twitter. We had very little leads-wise before this. It was a vicious assault and the guys are going to face some real jail or even prison time. But some people, in the words of Yosemite Sam, can't "shut up shuttin' up"

[sloopyinca]

I don't understand how they could solve a crime from this. Is bullshitting on social media grounds to get a search warrant? If all you have is the claim on Facebook that they fucked somebody up, how do you expect that to make it through even the preliminary hearing?

If there is no other evidence of wrongdoing, I don't understand what some bluster on a website is gonna do to secure a conviction. I kean, couldn't the guy just say it wasn't him that wrote it but was a friend playing a joke? How do you secure a warrant and other evidence based just on this?

Those are serious questions, by the way.

[Lan Lan]

"I kean, couldn't the guy just say it wasn't him that wrote it but was a friend playing a joke?"

Yeah. Wouldn't believe him. Would you?

[Dunphy (the real one)]

it doesn't matter. His bragging about it was what led us to be able to IDENTIFY him. That's what we needed to charge the crime. Prior to this we didn't know his name.

[Lan Lan]

I still don't understand your point. Would you believe him that he didn't write that, and that if he wrote that he didn't mean it?

[Dunphy (the real one)]

I'm not sure I get your point. We didn't know his name. Now we do. Two people identified him from a lineup. He's fucked. Not to mention the DNA evidence as mentioned below.

[Lan Lan]

I am sorry, that was more a response to sloopy. Do you think that him proclaiming on the internet that he committed the crime is enough to justify a warrant?

[Lan Lan]

I am sorry, that was more a response to sloopy. Do you think that him proclaiming on the internet that he committed the crime is enough to justify a warrant?

[Dunphy (the real one)]

A warrant for his NAME? Sure.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

He bragged about it. We were thus able to IDENTIFY him. Did a lineup. (montage motherfucking montage!) and two people positively identified him as the doer. Besides the fact that his admissions will be admittable hearsay (admission against interest), we now have him identified, which is what we needed to do.

And yes, if you brag about a crime on twitter, that is ample PC for us to get a search warrant to get your name.

[sloopyinca]

And yes, if you brag about a crime on twitter, that is ample PC for us to get a search warrant to get your name.

Thanks for that, as I wasn't sure it would be enough to get a warrant. I would imagine as noted below you, there had to be some specific detail of the crime to generate the PC.

Also, did the people who ID'd the guy do it before as well? Or did they give a description to a sketch artist and identify the picture, which also matched up with the guy in a lineup? Or did they just get brought in to see a lineup after this guy was pulled into the station? I ask because it's not unknown for officers to steer people in police lineups to the guy they suspect of committing the crime.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

They had no idea who the guy was. And it wasn't a live lineup. We do serial photo montage (preferred method).

We simply got the guy's picture from his DOL photo once we had a name, did up a photo lineup and both witnesses identified him as the doer. And he's going to be double fucked when we run his DNA (which we can get upon arrest), since we got a sample after the vict scratched him.

slam dunk.

[sloopyinca]

slam dunk.

Sounds like it. Thanks for the particulars.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Margaret Thatcher dies, sloopy and dunphy agree on something -- I take it that the Seventh Seal will be opened sometime this evening.

[Xenocles]

I was going to say, sloop and dunphy having a civil conversation and coming to the same conclusion. My word. You guys okay? Did sloopy spend the weekend celebrating his virility too hard or something?

[sloopyinca]

Well, I did recently make another baby, so there is that.

Soooooo, "Baby Naming Contest II: Electric Babyloo"

[Xenocles]

I think you missed the collective offering of "Tom Schembechler" over the weekend.

[sloopyinca]

I thought it was Lysander Schembechler Spicer. I could live with that, actually. He was a pretty good understudy to Woody.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

yw

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Are you serious? Are you serious? (No-Pelosi.) Of course that's enough for a warrant. He published a statement that he committed a crime. (Presumably, based on this vague description, the details or his location made it seem reasonable that it was this particular crime.) You get a change to rebut that evidence later, but it's sure as hell enough to get a warrant and search for yet more evidence.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

And to take the obvious example around here, there's a difference between posting on Twitter "smoked some good weed last night" and "oh shit, I think I left some of my weed at Joe Blow's house last night" when the police had in fact found some weed at Joe's domicile. This sounds like the latter case.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

And the vic scratched the perp, getting some skin under his fingernails which we almost certainly be able to DNA match to the doer. Slam dunk

[Lan Lan]

There are certain types of chicks(wink, wink) who dig criminals.

[An0nB0t]

Nothing about this tale is surprising, as everyone I've ever known to commit a violent crime has shared the singular trait of dumbshitness.

[Warty]

Cop serve and protects a guy for talking on his cell phone, but don't worry, his buddies have his back.

Here's the video.

[Episiarch]

He puts a guy on life support for talking loudly and gets a $15,000 bail?

Fuck this shit. Thugs gonna thug.

[Xenocles]

Dude, everyone hates loud cell-talkers.

[Episiarch]

Sure, but talking loud on your cell phone traditionally warrants a shocker, not life support.

[Xenocles]

I remember in some of Heinlein's societies they would convene a trial on the scene and execute people who cut in line. Might be a useful gesture pour encourager les autres.

[Xenocles]

And yes, I'm kidding.

[sloopyinca]

His trial started last week. I wonder why they didn't charge him with fleeing, ADW, a firearm enhancer and all the other charges a "civilian" would have been hit with if they'd done the same to a police officer.

By the way, the cop still has his job, which is to be the part of the monopoly on force the state enjoys.

[Warty]

What made me laugh is that he got a 3rd degree assault charge. Not, say, attempted murder.

[Coeus]

Jesus, the comments on the policeone version are sickening. I'm not even gonna link it.

[Juice]

There are two policeone articles on this story and both of them have pretty insane comments.

[Juice]

I wish someone would be able to pull off a troll of policeone with a fake story, a story where the roles were reversed. Where it was the "civilian" that got up and punched out an off duty cop. It's obvious how the comments would go.

[sloopyinca]

Comment: Posted by terruko on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 02:10 PM Pacific Report Abuse
We All have been in a Public Place where Some Iditot was on the Phone talking loud and using voger Words. But we didnt punch that person in the Head and then Run off like a Thug. He Needs to Loose his Dam Job No Matter what good he done in his Past in the past he wasnt punching people in the head and running off like a Thug either. Now he can go back to that same Pub and Apply for a Job. We all know what ahead for him Now the Sheriff and City Manger and Mayor has to make Example because he infrindge on this Man Freedom of speech. Goodluck a Bad way to go Out Sgt

I only wish this guy wrote every police report in the world, as any defense attorney worth his salt would destroy him on the stand for his inability to grasp the basic concepts of the English language.

[HazelMeade]

Breaking news:

Hakkens family appears to have made it safely to Cuba.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

[PapayaSF]

They're "anti-government" and went to Cuba? Boy, are they in for a shock.

[HazelMeade]

It might be the one country he could get to where he could avoid extradition, and given the Elian Gonzales case, they might even give him air time and let him tell his side of the story.