A.M. Links: Biden Calls GOP Gun Control Filibuster Threats "Embarrassing," Chavez's Office to Be a Museum, EPA Admits it Released Personal Info on Farmers

Credit: SS&SS / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

• Vice President Joe Biden has called Republican threats to filibuster gun control legislation "embarrassing." Yesterday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that the first procedural vote on the gun control bill in the Senate will take place tomorrow. 

• Hugo Chavez's office is to be converted into a museum. 

• The EPA has admitted that it released personal information on potentially thousands of farmers.

• Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq and a jihadist rebel group in Syria have joined forces. The new group is called The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. 

• New York City will pay more than $365,000 to those who had their property damaged when the NYPD evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park in November 2011.

• A mother in Vancouver is filing a complaint with Vancouver Police after her 17-year-old daughter had her arm broken while being arrested at a concert. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Vice President Joe Biden has called Republican threats to filibuster gun control legislation “embarrassing.”

I mean, they didn’t even invoke the images of any dead children.

[gaijin]

Hair Plug Wearin’, Plagiarizin’ Joe calling the other guys embarrassing…that’s rich

[Counterfly]

Hey, he should know!

[Raven Nation]

Run, Joe, run!

[AlmightyJB]

Run, Joey, Run has to be the worst song ever.

[Counterfly]

Every song by Dream Theater would like a word with you.

[LTC(ret) John]

Air Supply’s catalog is muscling up to the front of the line too.

[Counterfly]

Hey now, let’s not say things we can’t take back…

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Air Supply’s greatest hits was the first CD I ever purchased.

There was a girl involved.

She’s a lesbian now.

[mad libertarian guy]

Only a true prog metal nerd would have the ability to say something like that.

Reveal yourself! Embrace who you truly are and tell me of your prog metal preferences. Personally I’m a pre-Heritage Opeth kind of guy. One of my newer favorites is a band called Todtgelichter which is progressive black metal.

I’m also a huge Porcupine Tree fan. Katatonia too.

[Restoras]

Porcupine Tree is awesome.

[Trespassers W]

Dream Theater were great while Kevin Moore was on board. Given that, and given that OSI and Chroma Key are great, I conclude that he was the key factor in suppressing everyone else’s suckitude.

You know, like Tommy Shaw, only more successfully.

[Zeb]

Well, they are embarrassing. To him and the President. Ruining their narrative that the gun control that they want is common sense and universally popular.

[deified]

Clint Eastwood said Biden was a sort of smile with a vacant skull

…and, let’s be honest, he nailed it

[Virginian]

I hate him more then Obama. Obama has never pretended to be anything but an enemy of my right to bear arms. Biden pretends to be on my side.

[some guy]

But Biden might actually be an idiot. It’s harder to hate an idiot.

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah, that would be a lot of hate.

[Virginian]

It keeps me warm.

[sloopyinca]

Stay gold, Ponyboy.

[Loki]

Not for me. To paraphrase R. Lee Ermey: “Idiots, morons, simpletons, retards, dipshits, to me you are all equally worthless!”

[Loki]

Is it too much that one of the Republican senators say something like “You want to talk about embarassing? Asking a man in a wheel chair to ‘stand up so everyone can see you’, now that’s embarassing! I don’t think that word means the same thing to the Vice President as it does to everyone else. Apparently to him ’emabarassing’ means not going along in lock-step with the president.”

[mad libertarian guy]

Personally I’d like to see a vote. I want names. I’m sure the massive gun owning population would like to know who to vote out as well.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The EPA has admitted that it released personal information on potentially thousands of farmers.

Corporations can’t have personal information.

[Counterfly]

They’re farmers. What are you going to do? Steal their identity? You know how many chickens it takes to barter for one X-Box game.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You sound like a city slicker. Don’t you know this has the potential to be as bad as that time Facebook released personal information of all those Farmville users?

[Counterfly]

So we put them into witness protection in Mafia Wars.

[gaijin]

Why does the EPA have a database of everyone who plays Farmville.

[sarcasmic]

New York State Police are confiscating guns from people taking anti-anxiety medication.
http://www.infowars.com/new-yo…..edication/
HIPPA? 4A? FYTW

[$park?]

Is HIPPA related in any way to Pippa?

[Counterfly]

Well they’re both pretty and everyone ignores them.

[some guy]

I feel like I just read about this. Perhaps in another thread. Deja vu?

[Ted S.]

I thought I was the only fucking pedant allowed to point out when things had already been posted. :-p

Frankly, far more interesting is that Sarcasmic posted a link to something that’s not a seminude from the Daily Mail.

[$park?]

Dey terk yer jerb?

[some guy]

Sorry. Sorry. I didn’t mean to step on any toes.

[sarcasmic]

Some consider what I do to be a public service. If you don’t like pretty girls, don’t click the links.

[Ted S.]

Your words accompanying the links seem to imply that some of them are ugly girls.

[Counterfly]

Those are like the Brickbats that cover crap in Canada, Britain and Somalia.

[sarcasmic]

I do my best with the cards I’m dealt.

[Ted S.]

Surely HIPAA never was supposed to apply to the government!

I mean, we’ve got a police officer here who has no qualms about getting prescription records without a warrant to tell us so!

[Bee Tagger]

At least this means they can remove “paranoia” from their list of symptoms.

[sarcasmic]

Being paranoid that they’re going to take your guns is grounds for them to take your guns.

[Rich]

Of course it is. They only want to *help* you.

[WTF]

I’m sure this will never discourage anyone from seeking help for anxiety.

[sarcasmic]

How dare you question their pure intentions?!?

[Scarcity]

Or encourage anyone to own unregistered guns

[AuH20]

I mean, I know I need to, but it is seriously making me not want to so that I can at some point in my life own a gun (I’d have to learn to shoot it first, but both are/were on my to do list). I’m not in NY, but it basically seems that most people have no concept that “mental illness” is a really vaguely defined terms and isn’t just the James O’Keefe’s.

[Restoras]

It’s shit like this that makes me want to keep my new .30-06 loaded and hanging above the fireplace mantle.

[Bobarian]

I already keep my guns loaded and at the safe and ready.

It’s shit like this that makes me want to form a neighborhood militia and place barricades at the mouth of the cul-de-sac.

[Stormy Dragon]

Les Liberables

[Brett L]

Hmm. My neighborhood is on a privately maintained road…

[AuH20]

See, I’ve been having anxiety and depression stuff for years, but I’ve finally started to look for a psych to get it addressed.

But with this “background check” shit, I am legitimately worried. I have never been a violent person, but whatever diagnosis they stick me with will, I am sure, have some violent and/or socially unacceptable members who probably mean that, due to my trying to get help, I will be stripped of my second amendment rights.

And this is why, whatever psych I see, had better know that I neither trust nor like their profession as a whole.

[sloopyinca]

See, I’ve been having anxiety and depression stuff for years, but I’ve finally started to look for a psych to get it addressed.

My advice: find a cool bartender and a couple of buddies to play video games with. It’ll help preserve your sanity and your 2A Rights.

[mad libertarian guy]

Video games is key.

Seriously. I have both been helped through a very rough time (after I had a heart attack at fucking 33 years of age) and helped a friend through a very rough time with nothing more than weed and playing video games.

They were some of those evil video games. Ghost Recon. Splinter Cell. Rainbow 6. All shooters where my sole goal was to kill as many people as possible.

Seriously though, video games and a good friend is the key.

[LTC(ret) John]

Grah, I am not sure shooter video games are a help. I won’t play any of that stuff anymore.

I do like the bartender advice, however. Not sure about weed, as I have never had any.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I will strongly contra-indicate weed for use with treating depression. Anxiety or pain : yes. Depression : a big no. JMO.

[mad libertarian guy]

I had lots of depression issues when I was in my late teens and early 20s. I saw all kinds of psychologists and psychiatrists and tried the gamut of drugs they put me on. None of it worked.

Until I said “fuck you” (figuratively) to the docs, against their advice as you might imagine, and started self medicating with weed, I was fucking miserable. I wasn’t in to video games at this point, but did have a small handful of very good friends who helped me through it by simply being friends and doing the things that friends do.

All of my issues were essentially gone in a couple months time. Of course I may be atypical and YMMV, but quitting the various antidepressants and smoking weed and relying on true friends worked miracles for me.

When I had my heart attack I was very depressed. I was way too young for that kind of shit and it hit me hard. Weed and video games with friends pulled me through a very rough patch.

I can understand why a vet who has been in-theater wouldn’t want to play war shooters. I’d have a hard time understanding why one would want to. But there are certainly more than war shooters to play. Guitar hero is good therapy, as are sports games.

[Restoras]

Do we know if the cops/agents of the state are searching records for people on medication, or are they relying on the medical profession to turn people in?

[sarcasmic]

They’re relying upon voluntary compliance. For now.

[sarcasmic]

This whole “mental illness” is a clever angle, since most anyone can be diagnosed with some “mental illness” if the issue is pushed hard enough.

It’s only a matter of time before gun purchases will require a mental evaluation, and only a matter of time before the evaluation is such that only government employees can pass it.

[Restoras]

Yep. You were on an anti-depressant to help cope with the loss of a loved one? Hand over your guns. You were sad once becasue of (fill in the blank)? Hand over your guns.

[sarcasmic]

Africa’s first traditional gay wedding: Men make history as they marry in full tribal costume… and say they can’t wait to be parents

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..rents.html
[Insert bunga bunga joke here]

[Counterfly]

Oh you’ve already heard it?

/holsters gun

[Virginian]

I think I will sacrifice a cow at my wedding. That’s badass.

[Counterfly]

Hopefully not the one you’re marrying.

OH SNAP.

[gaijin]

For appropriate context, do it like they did in Apocalypse Now.

[LTC(ret) John]

“and say they can’t wait to be parents”

There may be one small flaw in their cunning plan.

[some guy]

I’m sure there are plenty of Africans who need adopting.

[db]

Actually, I think the Chinese are going to take care of this. You see, the reason for the increased Chinese interest in Africa is clearly as a dumping ground for all the unwanted female babies, and eventually a place for the excess males to emigrate.

[db]

Joke, of course.

[Counterfly]

A bunga bunga joke?

[Bobarian]

Bunga Bunga is no joke.

[Restoras]

The unwanted female babies were all murdured prior to birth, its all the extra males that are going to be the problem.

Siberia or Africa will be the dumping ground for them, and by dumping I mean conquering army.

[some guy]

This is why we need polygamy!

[jesse.in.mb]

Umm, if we have an excess of males we need polyandry.

[lap83]

oops slow on the draw.

[lap83]

Since the most practiced type of polygamy creates scarcity of women for most men, how would that help a country which already has a scarcity of women? Unless you mean polyandry – one woman with multiple husbands. That could work.

[some guy]

I had never heard of polyandry until today.

The more you know!

[DontShootMe]

^^This^^

[sloopyinca]

I’m sure there are plenty of Africans who need adopting.

Quick, call my agent!

-every single Hollywood starlet over 35

[Zeb]

But I’m sure they’ll give it a good try.

[sarcasmic]

Is that a bunga bunga joke?

[$park?]

With all of those pictures taken, wasn’t anyone afraid of losing their soul?

[Zeb]

That’s such a common trope in movies and such. I wonder if it really happens.

[$park?]

And if it’s more common than penis snatching.

[Bobarian]

Considering all the souless people in media, I think you can show a strong correlation.

[Loki]

I thought was more of a Native American belief, but whatever.

[LTC(ret) John]

Arab – that and radio was evil. They managed to get around the radio one by reading verses of the Koran – see, it is OK! Not sure how the photo thing got resolved.

[sloopyinca]

Africa’s first traditional gay wedding

How can something be a “first” and “traditional” at the same time?

[mad libertarian guy]

If the media wills it, they will make it so.

[jesse.in.mb]

Because the headline Africa’s first gay wedding officiated in the traditional style is cumbersome?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A mother in Vancouver is filing a complaint with Vancouver Police after her 17-year-old daughter had her arm broken while being arrested at a concert.

Mosh pits. What are you gonna do, eh?

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

Eh.

[Counterfly]

Those kids sure go crazy for that Bryan Adams, eh?

[a better weapon]

What concert was it?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

White Lung.

[a better weapon]

I love some of the comments from the linked article though

“Maybe you don’t resist arrest next time.”

“I fought the law and the law won. lol. grow up eh.”

and my personal favorite…

“The BC Civil Liberties Assocation is quick to complain about the actions of police, but when are they going to come up with a realistic better solution for dealing with the offenders that the police deal with on a daily basis. Our Judges keep throwing the offenders back on the streets for the police to deal with.”

[Ted S.]

Vancouver isn’t that far from Dunphy’s stomping grounds.

[mad libertarian guy]

It’s also the only city I’ve ever ben to where a Scottish guy will sing me a song from the highlands, then point me to where I can get weed at 1 am.

[generic Brand]

I fought the law and the law won. lol. grow up eh.

Somebody actually put the “eh” in written form? Come on, Canada! You’re making this too easy for us!

[jesse.in.mb]

I’m sure they’re soorry aboot that.

[sarcasmic]

Smoke stack resists demolition.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ition.html

One of the shareholders of the original PenPly, Vernon Reidel, 70, said he was not surprised that the tough concrete chimney withstood the blast.
‘There was one just like it, the same design, in Hiroshima, and the atomic bomb didn’t take it down,’ he told the paper.

[Counterfly]

Why didn’t they just show it a picture of Lena Dunham?

[LTC(ret) John]

Because they just want to knock it down, not vaporize its soul.

[fish]

+1 Internet winner!

[Lord Humungus]

Ignore Hysteria Over New ‘Monsanto’ Bill
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/…..-bill.html

The provision in question was part of a wide-ranging bill to keep the government funded that President Barack Obama signed into law in late March. Its horrified opponents think the legislation will furtively protect biotechnology companies, such as Monsanto Co., from legal action if they produce genetically modified organisms that have harmful side effects. They argue it would make federal courts “powerless to stop Monsanto,” and claim it was produced in a “hidden backroom deal” and “snuck” into budget legislation. Oh, and it also “shreds the Constitution.”

Actually, the law, which expires on Sept. 30, leaves both courts and federal regulators free to pull products they find dangerous. And the law’s real impact is modest.

[some guy]

and claim it was produced in a “hidden backroom deal” and “snuck” into budget legislation.

So… business as usual?

[generic Brand]

I had some friends complaining about this on Facebook. When I asked what the problem was–besides the corporate welfare–I was directed to a website that listed 5 things wrong with the Monsanto bill, 4 of which basically said “GMO’s are probably bad, but they haven’t been studied enough for us to prove our case that they are definitely bad.”

[mad libertarian guy]

The anti-GMO folk are some of the dumbest, most anti-science people on the planet (all while claiming themselves to be open-minded and part of the scientifically led, reality based community).

I belong to a forum for raising chickens, and some of the commentary about GMO there is mind bogglingly stupid. I never wade in to those waters, because they’re nothing more than parrots who wouldn’t believe in the science of GMO if it beat them to within an inch of death. But the ignorance is astounding.

[Bee Tagger]

New York City will pay more than $365,000 to those who had their property damaged when the NYPD evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park in November 2011.

The 1% pay a large part of the taxes that will go into that payout, so I suppose that’s a victory for the Occupy movement.

[sarcasmic]

‘People say I should be shot for having a beard, but I’ve never felt sexier’: Mother, 49, who sprouted FULL facial hair after birth of son 28 years ago is finally ready for love

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem…..exier.html
John?

[Matrix]

yikes!

[Counterfly]

Come on, at least grow a goatee. Full beards are so gay.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Only moms who drown their kids can pull off a goatee. EVIL MOM!

[Counterfly]

Her son’s 28, so if she can drown him she’d have to shave her head AND do the goatee thing. Like that guy in Breaking Bad. I think his name was Jean Luc Shatner.

[Matrix]

YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

[Zeb]

Full beards are gay? I would have thought goatees were the gay ones, what with the detailed grooming involved.

But what does that mean for a bearded woman? Gay men will be attracted to her?

[Counterfly]

Look, I haven’t thought this whole thing out.

[a better weapon]

She looks like Bam Margera

[Matrix]

I hadn’t thought about it, but you are right!

[Fatty Bolger]

What do you have against bearded ladies?

[Fatty Bolger]

Ten years on, the hair was growing thick enough for a full beard, and Mariam would laboriously tweeze out each hair every morning.

‘I asked my mother what to do and she told me to tweeze them, never to shave or wax. And then I visited my gynaecologist who said it happened to lots of other women so I shouldn’t worry. But they didn’t really give me a reason. Now I know it must be inherited.

These people never heard of laser hair removal? It’s only been around for what, 20 years or so?

[jesse.in.mb]

She should drink more spearmint tea. Research in Turkey has indicated that something in spearmint is an androgen blocker and decreases libido in men and curbs excessive body and facial hair in women. I think they recommended 5 strongly steeped cups per day.

[Matrix]

Time to ban assault knives
Dude goes on stabbing rampage at a Texas college campus

[Rich]

“But, of course, we wanna max it out.”

[sarcasmic]

Avril Lavigne and Tylor Momsen continue to wear way too much eye makeup.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..oeger.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..video.html

[Counterfly]

That’s to cover the black eyes she gets from punching herself in the face every time she hears one of her hustband’s ‘songs’.

[some guy]

When I saw that Matthew Yglesias’ new opinion piece was titled “Scrap the Corporate Income Tax” I thought, “Hey, maybe there’s more to this guy than I thought.”

Then I RTFA…

[a better weapon]

“Who ultimately pays those corporate income taxes? This is a fascinating question in the economics literature, and a bit of a black box, with nobody quite sure who’s paying or why.”

Why does anybody have to PAY for it? Deficits aren’t bad right? Well, unless they’re bigger on account of tax breaks or lower taxes, then they’re hamstringing the shit out of the economic recovery and we gotta PAY, PAY I SAY, for them

[KDN]

Rather than trying to mend the tax, we ought to end it and replace it with something else. My preference would be to structure its replacement to ensure that the costs are born by rich executives and wealthy shareholders rather than middle-class workers. That suggests curbing the current tax preference for dividend income over labor income.

If Yglesias’s preferred plan went into effect he would proceed to pillory corporate America for sitting on profits in order to invest them in whatever international market was expanding at the time and blame them instead of his stupid tax scheme for the decreased domestic investment and consumption it would leave in its wake.

[some guy]

I also like this jab: “A conservative might prefer to replace the corporate income tax with cuts to Medicaid or the EITC to make low-income families pay.”

Because conservatives are evil bastards who enjoy watching starvation and illness compete at killing poor people.

[KDN]

Yeah, and it’s doubly stupid considering how many Republicans quite like the EITC and think it should be expanded in lieu of entitlement or minimum wage increases.

[VG Zaytsev]

That suggests curbing the current tax preference for dividend income over labor income.

This is just plain ignorant.

Labor costs are expensable while dividend distributions are not. So the tax preference is exactly opposite of what he implies.

[sarcasmic]

What’s a day at the Daily Fail without pictures of Olivia Wilde?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..pants.html

[Bee Tagger]

The EPA has admitted that it released personal information on potentially thousands of farmers.

So, what you’re saying is that if the EPA released my personal information that I have the potential to be a farmer?

[LTC(ret) John]

You have the potential to be thousands of farmers. Isn’t that a Ben 10 kind of thing?

[Ted S.]

Ben 10?

[Counterfly]

In the reason thread system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: The commenters, who investigate crime, and the staff writers, interns and guests, who…well no one is sure exactly what they do. These are their stories.

Troll Free Wednesday.

You have the will. You have the skill. Now get out there and win me that festival!

[SugarFree]

Where was your god on the Ron Paul thread last night? WHERE WAS YOUR GOD?!?

[Counterfly]

Hooter’s, probably. That’s where he usually hangs out.

[LTC(ret) John]

Mine hangs at the Tilted Kilt – I like my YVWH better than yours.

[Counterfly]

Yeah, while the girls are prettier, the food is better, and the beer selection is much more varied, you can’t get a booth at Tilted Kilt.

And my god needs a booth. He likes to spread things out and have room, you know.

[Scarcity]

The Tilted Kilt in Chicago is depressing as hell. Actually, so is the Hooters and the strip clubs.

Damn I miss Kentucky girls.

[LTC(ret) John]

You have to come to the suburbs of Chicago…not so bad out here.

[mad libertarian guy]

But scarcity has hit on something. There is something in the water here that makes KY girls especially impressive.

They grow up to be hags just like everyone else, but when young, you’d be hard-pressed to find a place with the concentration of pretty that we have.

[generic Brand]

Damn it! Where was this post 2 weeks ago when I chose Chicago over Kentucky for law school??? Hot girls are always the deciding factor 🙁

[Scarcity]

Your have your priorities straight AND your research skills are clearly lacking. Not sure law is the right field for you.

[Tim]

Moses: If your God is Almighty, why does He leave you in bondage?
Joshua: He will choose the hour of our freedom and the man who will deliver us!

[some guy]

Without trolls this place would be so boring that I would have to start a 1000 comment abortion thread at least once a day. Do you really want that!?

[LTC(ret) John]

Throw in circumsized Kirk vs uncut Picard fighting over a deep dish pizza and you’d reach 1000 comments.

[WTF]

Deep dish is NOT PIZZA!

[Counterfly]

It’s got crust, sauce, cheese and toppings. You bake it or whatever you do with pizza.

It’s pizza. And it’s the best kind of pizza.

[sloopyinca]

It’s got crust, sauce, cheese and toppings. You bake it or whatever you do with pizza.

So does a calzone or a stromboli, you fucking imbecile!

[Auric Demonocles]

Those don’t have toppings, they have innards.

[sloopyinca]

Most of the toppings on deep-dish would be considered innards as well due to the thickness of the cheese and the fact that the sauce is placed on top of them.

Wait, I’ve got a great idea. Let’s just agree not to do this today, OK?

[Azathoth!!]

And what about Sicilian?

[LTC(ret) John]

See?

*gives evil chukle and slinks back into the shadows*

[Way Of The Crane]

Which one’s Picard?

[some guy]

Older, wiser, more boring one.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The free exchange of ideas ain’t free. Sometimes you need a dissenting voice to damp the echo. I AM THEIR CHAMPION.

[Auric Demonocles]

The writers are the ones who commit the crime. The crime of missing alt-text.

[LTC(ret) John]

Indeed – and such a …rich target/opportunity too.

[Auric Demonocles]

Also, who is P Brooks?

[Cdr Lytton]

David Brooks’ cranky MT brother?

Cue “you know who else had a brother in MT who refused to follow accepted societal norms?” replies.

[Restoras]

I scrolled through those comments and have to say, I am very disappointed in a lot of you.

[Fist of Etiquette]

New York City will pay more than $365,000 to those who had their property damaged when the NYPD evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park in November 2011.

That’s a lot of broken iPhones. Who gets the check in the case of communal property?

[Ted S.]

With the prices Apple charges for its iShit, it’s really not very many.

[a better weapon]

This has to be chock full of false claims. I doubt there was ever the much property owned by the Zuccotti Park protesters.

Did Peter Schiff drop his watch while he was down there?

[Lord Humungus]

Turn The North Korean Problem Over To North Korea’s Neighbors
http://www.forbes.com/sites/do…..neighbors/

Today Washington is essentially broke. The national debt exceeds $16.5 trillion. Toss in all of Uncle Sam’s obligations, including unfunded liabilities, and Americans are on the hook for more than $220 trillion, about 14 times the annual GDP. Yet U.S. troops remain in South Korea. International welfare continues to flow.

And Washington’s presence in the ROK has turned the U.S. into a target of North Korea’s wrath.

In practice, Pyongyang’s threats mean little. The North Korean leadership is evil, not stupid. Kim Jong-un & Co.?the regime is more like a collective family criminal enterprise than a traditional government?is focused on maintaining power over a population which is impoverished and malnourished. Ruling elites want their virgins in this world, not the next.

[Ptah-Hotep]

The North Korean leadership is evil, not stupid.

I think you can say the same for the Iranian government. The question for both is will they misjudge other countries responses to their own actions? It has happened in the past.

[LTC(ret) John]

But if you mix evil with end-timer beliefs….ungood. Double plus ungood.

[Atanarjuat]

Elon Musk has a twitter fight with Sarah Palin. And sadly, I’ve got to take her side on this one.

[Counterfly]

Twitter fights are even less masculine than ballroom dance fights.

[LTC(ret) John]

Elon is a smart dude most of the time, but nobody is going to confuse him with an MMA fighter or a Ghurka.

[Counterfly]

Actually, after I RTFA, it wasn’t even a fight. I mean one tweet each, and they were actually both, uh, right?

There’s got to be a different word than right. I guess they both had fair points is what I’m trying to say.

Also did you ever serve with Ghurkas? I have, and I’m not impressed. Although, maybe they send the crappy ones to Africa.

[LTC(ret) John]

Met some once – they seemed fairly tough. These were serving soldiers in the British Army, not contractors or such – is that who you see? Blue Hackle or some other Brit outfit?

[Lord Humungus]

Is Paul Krugman seriously not going to give Thatcherism credit for the UK turnaround?
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/…..urnaround/

1) Krugman acknowledges that 1970s Britain was a country with “huge economic problems.”

2) Krugman also acknowledges that there was a “huge turnaround.”

3) But Krugman is hesitant to credit Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies because “the big improvement in British performance doesn’t really show in the data until the mid-1990s. Does she get credit for a reward so long delayed?”

[Matrix]

cognitive dissonance is never pleasant

but sometimes it is hilarious to watch… well, it would be if it wasn’t so sad.

[some guy]

Yes, Krugman really is going to do that. It’s what Krugman does. He takes facts and twists them until they mean the opposite of reality. Not coincidentally, the opposite of reality is exactly how he sees things.

[$park?]

Good policies have an immediate effect, bad policies can take decades to undo. Or something.

[Raven Nation]

“doesn’t really show in the data until the mid-1990s.”

Is this the same guy who claimed that “data” in 2009 & 2010 that showed things getting worse was proof that Obama’s policies were working?

Tool.

[thom]

According to various Reddit comments that I’ve seen, Thatcher is worse than Satan because she closed some coal mines.

[sarcasmic]

A mother in Vancouver is filing a complaint with Vancouver Police after her 17-year-old daughter had her arm broken while being arrested at a concert.

STOP RESISTING

[SugarFree]

Man on lonely quest to be used as a Maxi-Pad.

This is not some elaborate, belated April Fool’s joke. Pad is totally serious about this. Daily Dot says that he kinda/sorta classifies as an Otherkin, which are people who identify as non-human. On May 1, he will begin his walk across America to “promote pad usage, and to prevent [Toxic Shock Syndrome] related to tampon use.”

[gaijin]

is he chronicling his journey on an iPad? is it a mini?

[SugarFree]

He didn’t say, but I think trying to be a panty liner is a more realistic goal. Those are going to have to be some big damn panties, though.

[deified]

Do you even lift?

[$park?]

kinda/sorta classifies as an Otherkin, which are people who identify as non-human

I think this dude may be a bit … confused.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Can it really be that hard for him to find some woman who is willing to just lie there on him overnight while she has her period? I think I should be more freaked out by the idea of someone being like, “Please bleed on me,” but I’m just not.

[LTC(ret) John]

6 billion humans – We are bound to find one of everything out there, right?

[$park?]

Yeah, but think of the smell.

[SugarFree]

Menophiliacs are not that uncommon. It think it’s the fantasizing about being an object when mixed with the menophilia that’s the weird part.

[Counterfly]

Well and also the fact that he’s being pretty damn public about it.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Right, well “fantasizing about being an object” is…interesting. Makes me wonder exactly what it is he wants to do physically (maybe this is in the video but I’m not going to watch it). But I’m going to put this somewhere near wanting to get peed on in the freakiness scale, and I know people are getting peed on all the time so I feel like this dude should be able to find a partner.

[SugarFree]

I don’t know what he has against tampons, though. I mean–besides the blood part–who hasn’t fantasized about being so loved by giant woman that you can sleep in her vagina like it was a sleeping bag?

[sloopyinca]

If he’s a hockey fan, does he pull for the Red Wings?

[nyuk-nyuk-nyuk]

[deified]

You are the reason libertarianism isn’t more popular.

[Way Of The Crane]

Funny, he’s also the reason Chicago style deep dish pizza isn’t more popular. Wonder what else we can blame on him…

[db]

“Otherkin?”

And I’m supposed to be the crazy one for bitterly clinging to my RKBA.

[db]

Don’t get me wrong; whatever floats your boat, as long as you’re not hurting anyone else–go for it. But wow.

[SugarFree]

Retro-Kabuki Belittled Alaskans?

[LTC(ret) John]

Real Kosher Barbequed Animals?

[Way Of The Crane]

Retarded Korean Breast Augmentations

[NeonCat]

Racist Kitten Badminton Association?

[trshmnstr]

No guys, it’s obviously

Rectum Kneading Butt Apes

[Loki]

he kinda/sorta classifies as an Otherkin, which are people who identify as non-human.

WTF??? How long until “Otherkin” becomes yet another protected class.

“The Sapien-normative biases of society others Otherkin.” Or something like that.

[LTC(ret) John]

“The Sapien-normative biases of society others Otherkin.”

Wow…its like you peered into the future and saw an EEOC complaint lying on a desk.

[Way Of The Crane]

What symbol will they use to designate their newly mandated public restrooms?

[Loki]

“Otherkin” has a vaguely Lovecraft-ian ring to it, so maybe this? Although that may be a little too cool. Perhaps a My Little Pony instead?

[Rich]

Senators to announce background check deal

Unfortunately, it doesn’t involve background checks for voting or holding public office.

[Matrix]

Seriously, voting and guns are constitutional rights. If you need a background check to own a gun, why not have one to vote?

[Rich]

Especially since “the ballot is more powerful than the bullet”.

[thom]

Someday some right-wing populist is going to take charge, start requiring background checks and police issued permits to publish web sites or newspapers, and justify it all using this anti-gun bullshit.

[NeonCat]

“When the 1A was proposed, if you wanted a bunch of people to hear you you’d have to yell real loud. The Founders had no conception of megaphones or public address systems.”

[Matrix]

what makes you think it will be a right-wing populist? There are calls on the left to reform freedom of speech.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq and a jihadist rebel group in Syria have joined forces.

Mission Accomplished.

[Lord Humungus]

The Obama Budget Proposal: Tax Increase on Charity
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ho…..n-charity/

President Obama’s long-awaited budget proposal, to be released today, does not come right out and say that intends to reduce contributions to charity?but that is almost certainly what would happen were it to become law. Here’s why. The White House has effectively doubled down on a tax change it has been pushing for four years that would limit the value of the charitable tax deduction. The Administration has, since 2009, pushed unsuccessfully to allow only 28 cents on a dollar donated to charity to be deducted?even though the top tax rate for the wealthy donors who make most use of the deduction has been 35 percent.

[robc]

PBS is boned if the Koch’s stop donating.

[Restoras]

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

[Jordan]

We can’t have people helping each other, now can we? Gotta keep people dependent on Uncle Scam.

[Pro Libertate]

I don’t see any other way to read this. It’s pretty evil, really.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq and a jihadist rebel group in Syria have joined forces. The new group is called The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

The new logo is even worse than the new name. Branding nightmare. Worst merger ever.

[Tim]

YIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYI!

Was too hard to pronounce.

[LTC(ret) John]

I expect them to be as successful as the Al Qaida Emirate of Iraq.

Oh wait, they are all dead.

Guess they won’t have an IP issues about naming rights then!

[Tim]

Hint: Don’t accept the number two position.

[Lord Humungus]

Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet
http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/0…..ty/shodan/

Unlike Google, which crawls the Web looking for websites, Shodan navigates the Internet’s back channels. It’s a kind of “dark” Google, looking for the servers, webcams, printers, routers and all the other stuff that is connected to and makes up the Internet. (Shodan’s site was slow to load Monday following the publication of this story.)

Shodan runs 24/7 and collects information on about 500 million connected devices and services each month.

It’s stunning what can be found with a simple search on Shodan. Countless traffic lights, security cameras, home automation devices and heating systems are connected to the Internet and easy to spot.

[Ptah-Hotep]

Shodan navigates the Internet’s back channels. It’s a kind of “dark” Google

Maybe they should have called it Shay??n.

[LTC(ret) John]

Shai-Hulud.

[fish]

Maybe they should have called it Tony.

[AuH20]

Why not just name our spaceship computers HAL while we’re at it?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

WaPo Readers mourn the demise of cursive writing:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..ctab=all_&

[Virginian]

Cursive should have been replaced with typing classes about a decade ago.

[LTC(ret) John]

Once the kids hit late grade school around here, they do get “keyboarding” classes. They do actually use a typewriter a few times, then move onto the computer keyboards.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Agree. I learned cursive in 3rd grade, forced to use it through 5th grade. 6th grade everyone switched back to writing in print except one or two asshole kids.

[Virginian]

Yeah I know….one person who writes everything in cursive. And of course no one can read what she writes.

[deified]

Cursive is faster, you cunt. Fucking cunt.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Who the fuck are you? Typing is even faster, and with most communication being short, electronic messages, no one gives a shit that you can write whatever the fuck you are writing in cursive.

[entropy]

Same thing. For 2 years they yelled at me I had to write in cursive, and then yelled they couldn’t read my cursive.

In 5th or 6th grade we finally finished with learning cursive, and my teachers promptly told me to never write in it again, which I was happy to oblige.

[Rhywun]

I can’t imagine writing anything longer than a couple sentences without cursive – my hand would cramp up because it’s just not that comfortable to print for that long.

[sloopyinca]

I’ll go one better: cursive should be replaced with a drafting class. That way kids not only learn to print properly, they learn a bit about math, construction and get to be creative all at the same time.

[WTF]

That would actually make sense. The whole reason for cursive was so that people could write words with quill pens and fountain pens without getting excessive drips and blotches from constantly picking the pen up off the paper.

[BuSab Agent]

Um no. I am a free-lance calligrapher and have done hundreds of pages with a quill pen. I also teach classes in calligraphy and quill pen manufacture and that is not why cursive emerged. Blots emerge from NOT taking the pen off the paper and drips emerge from not properly loading the pen or quill. Cursive hands have appeared, disappeared, and reappeared many times. In every case, cursive is used when SPEED of writing is more important the strict legibility. (And as an aside, my cursive is more legible than most people’s printing…and my printing is inhuman)

[db]

That makes perfect sense. I use cursive for speed when I’m taking notes. When I want to communicate to someone else, block printing is the way to go (my engineering training favors clarity in communication).

But I hated learning cursive writing. It was my worst subject as a 3rd grader. Partially because my mom had taught me to write when I was 3-1/2 and the kindergarten teachers fucked it by forcing me to write in huge block printing, all capitals, because I wasn’t supposed to be that far ahead of the other kids.

[Loki]

…cursive should be replaced with a drafting class. That way kids not only learn to print properly, they learn a bit about math, construction and get to be creative all at the same time.

But they would also be learning a potentially useful skill, and this is school we’re talking about here. We can’t have that, now can we?

[Loki]

That said, most drafting is done through CAD and now it occurs to me that you were probably talking about drafting by hand so that you’d have to actually print the nice neat block letters yourself.

Learning an archaic, outdated skill that no one in the “real world” actually uses would be par for the course for public schools, so ignore previous comment.

[sloopyinca]

Just because most drafting is done with CAD doesn’t men the fundamentals aren’t taught with pencils and vellum paper first.

Most engineering problems are solved by using computer models. That doesn’t mean the engineers didn’t have to learn first principles before they built bridges.

[entropy]

Why not? It works for environmental sciences.

[Loki]

I have B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. CAD was a required course, but I don’t recall ever having to produce a drawing by hand in school, and I’ve definitely never had to for work.

[trshmnstr]

We had 2 weeks of hand drawing in the basic CAD course prior to moving up to Catia. Something about “appreciating hard work, you little twits” or something.

[KDN]

Outside of my signature, the only time I used cursive in the last decade was on the honor statement for the FDNY entrance exam. It was the hardest part of the test.

[deified]

Do you ever write cheques, dipshit?

You think I’m supposed to respect you just because you run into burning buildings in order to save my life and those of my kittens? [laughs]

Seriously, it’s time to embrace loops and tails in your handwriting, you dingleberry.

[LTC(ret) John]

“Do you ever write cheques, dipshit?”

Around these here parts, we write checks. You ain’t from around here, are you?

[KDN]

I print on my cheques like God intended. And I’m no fireman, I never even got the chance to do the physical because of a disparate impact lawsuit (which is hilarious since 3/4 of the exam is a personality test). So it’s like I never even spent 3 hours taking that damn thing.

[VG Zaytsev]

What’s a cheque?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I just want my kids to be able to read cursive, I don’t care if they write that way.

[LTC(ret) John]

THIS.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I don’t care about its demise, but I’m always a little surprised when this comes up and most people seem to be really against writing in cursive in their normal daily lives. I find it much faster than printing, and whenever I print I end up getting impatient and slipping into a half-cursive that is much harder to read than either.

But I agree with sloopy: drafting classes all the way. I wish I could print like my engineer dad.

[Lord Humungus]

my writing is a mix of cursive and block letters. Of course it makes a doctor’s handwriting look perfectly cromulent.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I print in all caps. When I have to — had to, is more accurate — write quickly the letters ended up connected in a kind of pseudo-cursive. I haven’t written in cursive in so long it takes a conscious effort to do it.

On the other hand, when I was in school I wrote two lines of notes per college-ruled line using a 0.3mm drafting pencil, or a 0.5mm mechanical pencil when I couldn’t get lead for the 0.3mm one, so I was the only one who could read my writing anyway.

I have a really cool font of my printing but I couldn’t find an decent (free) way to adjust the kerning so everything was spaced so far away from my capital Ts that it just got too annoying to look at.

[SugarFree]

My job contains a lot of time spent deciphering cursive writing. It is so frustrating that as a profession we deprecate using cursive ourselves to the point that I can no longer write in it. Even bad printing is undesirable. I’ve had to submit handwriting samples during job interviews.

[AuH20]

I honestly simply can not remember what many cursive letters look like.

A cursive q? Capital G? Most capital letters?

I know the letters that make up my signature, a few more, and that is it.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Given, I am enough of a weirdo that in high school I made up my own personal shorthand so I could take notes faster, but I just never realized it was a thing people even forgot. Probably because I never stopped writing in cursive at all after I learned. My signature, of course, is just two squiggles, as God intended.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I took the bar exam & wrote all my essays in cursive. When I told the people who sat near me I always wrote faster that way, they looked at me like I was nuts.

[Way Of The Crane]

If they’re not teaching penmanship then teaching cursive is just counter productive. It’s 2013, cursive should be replaced with lessons on texting and instant messaging via smart phone.

[Rhywun]

I tried to teach myself S?tterlin just to mess with people.

[sloopyinca]

Cops kill naked suspect by sitting on him until he suffocated. Judges graciously say the civil trial can move forward.

That’s right, I said civil. Because none of the officers even faced a grand jury after their IA (read: co-workers) said they did a fine job.

[Ted S.]

Cops kill naked suspect by sitting on him until he suffocated.

For some people, this (minus the death part) would be a typical night of sex.

[sarcasmic]

And John wonders why I don’t care for fatties.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It’s the Dunkin Donuts that should be on trial!

[Xlotl]

Wasn’t that a scene in The Crucible?

[LTC(ret) John]

A fart on Thomas Putnam!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Three women testified against former Mount Carmel Vice-Mayor William Blakely, graphically recounting times he exposed himself while driving. News Channel 11 had the only reporter in court for Thursday’s preliminary hearing in Kingsport.

“At over 90 miles per hour, he had his penis out [the window]… he was masturbating… and that’s when it got really, really bad. I wouldn’t look over any more, and I wrote his tag number down on my hand, which I believe he noticed, and he exited very quickly,” Street said.

http://www.wjhl.com/Global/story.asp?S=21885502

[Lord Humungus]

I’m sorry to hear about your problems.

[sloopyinca]

Holy shit. So PB, were you elected to that position or were you appointed?

And from now on, I’m gonna call you by you first name, Bill.

[Lord Humungus]

I second this motion.

[LTC(ret) John]

Motion carries by voice vote.

[some guy]

Why was she driving beside this guy at 90 mph? If ever there is a time to just let the guy pass you, this is it.

[Drake]

I’m curious how a man can drive a car with while masturbating out a window. Cruise control?

[some guy]

Practice, apparently.

[sloopyinca]

It’s really not that hard if you have a minivan, but in a car it becomes more complicated. Basically, what you’ve got to do is set the cruise and then move the driver’s seat all the way….

Hey, wait a minute. Look over there, a unicorn! [runs off]

[The Dan]

Doorless Jeep?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Its women like that the ruin the fun for us speed jackers.

[sloopyinca]

Bill, I wouldn’t be too proud if I were you.

[Rich]

Weiner stands up to questioning, comes clean

[Rhywun]

I can’t believe he’s got the balls to show his face in public. What a dick.

[Lord Humungus]

TV’s First Interracial Kiss
http://www.neatorama.com/2013/…..cial-Kiss/

Does the The Shat lose out?

[Virginian]

I don’t think that counts. A kiss on the cheek and a kiss on the lips are not the same thing at all.

[Ptah-Hotep]

Well, since he is a white man kissing a black woman, it doesn’t count. But a black man kissing a white woman, well that is a whole other kettle of fish.

I vote for Kirk over Sammy as the first kisser. Go Shat!

[Pro Libertate]

Come on, Shat got tongue and grabbed tits. That’s got to count for something.

[sloopyinca]

Want to know what happens when you call the police to your house after being burglarized? Well, in Tehachapi, CA, it means you’re likely to be handcuffed and sexually assaulted by the investigating officer after the suspect has already been identified and arrested.

And just so you know you’ve been raped, that officer will come back to your house later that night and rape you once more.

[Ted S.]

Ooh, it’s Kern County again.

[sloopyinca]

Yes, they take their ass-kicking seriously in the Kern County Sheriff’s Department.

Fucking scum.

[some guy]

Bail was set at 60k$? That seems… low.

[sloopyinca]

For a pair of sexual assaults with a gun under color of the law? Why, they ought to let him go on his own recognizance. I mean he’s got a job paid administrative leave to get to.

[KDN]

I don’t know how it is in CA, but around here bail is supposed to be commensurate with the resources of the accused. My cousin got ROR’d after getting popped for burglary, kidnapping, aggravated battery, and grand theft auto due to this.

[LTC(ret) John]

ROR’d on kidnapping! WTF?!

[KDN]

It’s all because homeless junkies can afford neither cash nor bond regardless of the amount. All the charges stemmed from a rather elaborate carjacking whose proceeds were to be used on about a week’s worth of speedballs.

[some guy]

It’s not like homeless junkies really have the ability to flee the country. Worst case is that they don’t show up on the court date. Then, the next time they get nabbed for petty theft or something they end up doing a whole shitload of time.

[generic Brand]

ROR’d on kidnapping! WTF?!

The second Google result for ROR’d was “Raff Out Roud” on Urban Dictionary. Somehow I don’t think that’s what you meant.

[Lord Humungus]

related to Biden:

Wasserman Schultz: GOP Filibuster Is ‘Disgusting and Unconscionable’
http://www.nationalreview.com/…..ew-johnson

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) said that the 14 Republican senators who have vowed to filibuster upcoming gun-control legislation “don’t care about protecting people in America from people who would do them harm with a gun.”

“It’s disgusting and unconscionable,” Wasserman Schultz said on Piers Morgan Live last night, also calling it “immoral” and “cowardly.”

[Rich]

Time for this again.

[Ted S.]

The Cloture Club?

Do you really want to hurt them?

[LTC(ret) John]

I just…you…I mean…

*Gives up and decides to begin applause instead*

[Lord Humungus]

yes.

[robc]

When Schultz can come up with legislation that only targets the criminals and leaves law-abiding gun owners alone, then he can talk, until then SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Oh wait, we have those laws already, we arrest those that use their guns to harm others.

[SugarFree]

It’s a she. And she has some seriously fucked up teeth.

[robc]

I missed the Debbie.

I thought there was some dude whose parents named Wasserman.

I was kind of feeling bad for him.

[sloopyinca]

I thought there was some dude whose parents named Wasserman.

In a way, her parents names were prophetic, as she is nothing but a water carrier for the White House…in an old-school German sort of way.

[SugarFree]

Any man named “Wasserman” would have killed himself years ago from all the “Wassssssup, Man” jokes.

[sloopyinca]

But they’re right. The GOP needs to let this go to the floor and be voted on. And they need to let the Feinstein Amendment be voted onto it without complaint. And any other idiotic piece of shit legislation they want to get to the floor. It’s dead in the House anyway.

Then they need to play the video of the roll call vote in their campaign commercials against every Team Blue Senator up for reelection in a reddish state next year.

The Stupid Party is living up to their name on this one, because they’re playing national politics against a President that’s standing on the backs of dead children to deflect attention away from his poor job performance. What they fail to realize is the important fights are local or statewide in 2014 and the national opinions are irrelevant. Let em have their vote and then beat them over the head wth it where it matters.

[Virginian]

That’s real risky dude. Real real risky.

[sloopyinca]

How? This dies in the House, where it doesn’t get taken up. Hell, have a federal judge give guidance on why it won’t pass Constitutional muster and say you didn’t bring it up for that reason alone.

This is a net loser for any Dem in a red state. But the GOP insists on looking like the bad guys here.

Give em their goddamn vote (who knows if they’ll even have a majority in the Senate anyway), let em pack it with amendments like Feinstein’s and then use it every day for the next 18 months. It’s pretty fucking simple.

[Virginian]

I just worry….I mean I remember people saying the Blue Dog Democrats wouldn’t commit political suicide with Obamacare….and then they did.

I think that enough of them will take the hit. There are so many cushy big money jobs out there that they can slot the martyrs into. Hell, we have Warner and Kaine. Both have 2nd Amendment records which are supposedly strong. But I know for a fact Kaine would vote for a gun control bill, and I think Warner will too.

The Dems are willing to trade pieces for victory. That’s why they’ve spent the last century winning every single political battle.

[sloopyinca]

But they also controlled the House during the Obamacare voting and Obama’s approval rating was stratospheric. Neither apply today.

[Virginian]

I don’t know. I just wonder what they’re up to here. Do you think maybe they have polling that guns are a wedge issue in certain key suburban or blue leaning districts? Could this whole thing be a double bluff, trying to get some of the 2010 wave trimmed down?

They do a lot of stupid things, but they aren’t politically stupid things. Every time they make a move, their agenda advances. So what’s the real agenda here. They know they’re not going to get a sweeping gun control bill passed. So what are they really up to?

[sloopyinca]

They took a beating at the polls after Obamacare was voted on. And their agenda since then has been slowed down quite a bit. It’s time the Stupid Party taught them a lesson in the Senate as well.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I’m with Virginian on this. Too scary not to use every possible tactic to kill this.

I’m not sure about another actual talking filibuster …. as that’ll probably just be a delaying tactic. But should for sure make them get 60 to bring it to a vote.

[Bardas Phocas]

Gun owners are known for their short memories and forgiving nature.

[Cdr Lytton]

^this^

I don’t care if the bill gets filibustered or dragged out into the street and hung from a lamppost. It needs to get killed as soon as possible, even if it’s procedural. Hoping the House will stop it is foolhardy.

Wait till the press and gun grabbers start on that. “A small group of evil NRApublicans won’t allow a free vote on this!, they don’t care about the children”. “A majority of senators support this, public opinion polls support it, why are they blocking reasonable compromise? Its bipartisan!”

And if another Sandy Hook happened close to next election?….

[Cdr Lytton]

Also, fuck Pat Toomey with an infected rusty shovel for his caving in. Compromise? What fucking compromise? What are the gun grabbers giving up?

Mark my words. If this passes into law, they will be back at against the “family loophole” and “hunter loophole” that lets criminals get guns.

In yesterday’s AM links, someone posted supposed gun friendly legislators whining about hearing from their constituents on things that matter to them (like gun control). Fuck them too. That’s the job.

[Cdr Lytton]

And fuck the NRA’s vaunted rating system. They manipulate it by selecting which votes are counted and which aren’t to give higher ratings to candidates that don’t deserve it.

Here Cdr Lytton’s system
F: vote or voice any support for infringement
D: (passing) vote against infringement bill
C: introduce minor gun friendly legislation and vote against infringement
B: all of the above but introduce and advocate dismantling the big ones (1986, 1968 or 1934)
A: Get repeal of all of the big ones passed

[Drake]

Yes. Encourage Democrat Senators from Purple states commit political suicide for a bill that won’t go anywhere in the House.

[John]

You are right sloopy. At first I was pissed of they were not filibustering. Then I realized, my God they are actually doing something smart. When it comes to the floor one of two things will happen, either red state Senators up for election in 2014 like Bachus and Landreu sign their own political death warrants by voting for it or a they start a Dem civil war by voting against it.

[entropy]

You’re going to end up stuck with a law playing those games. You can’t trust the GOP house not to pass it.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Also, Primary all the Tead Red jerks who vote wrong on this.

[wareagle]

is there a more loathsome creature in congress than DWS?

[LTC(ret) John]

Pelosi.

[Ted S.]

Chuck Schumer and his moobs?

[Lord Humungus]

that counts as three.

[deified]

I’m going to say say this slow and simple, Ted S., so you can ponder and understand this statement.

Those moobs are succulent and perfect.

[Raven Nation]

Wasserman-Schultz keeps moving the intelligence Bell Curve to the left of the graph.

[Virginian]

http://hotair.com/archives/201…..in-public/

[LTC(ret) John]

Times Square will not be the same.

[Restoras]

Times Square will still blow chunks anyway. Hate it.

[Lord Humungus]

Dana Milbank: Obama’s intransigent backbench
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..ml?hpid=z5

The man triangulating him, President Obama, has proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare as part of an attempt to find a middle ground in the budget debate. For Sanders (I), a liberal member of the Senate Democratic caucus, the betrayal stung so badly that he literally took to the streets, joining left-wing activists for a protest Tuesday afternoon outside the White House.

“When Barack Obama was running for president in 2008, he said that he would not cut Social Security. We want the president to remember what he said and not go back on his word!” Sanders shouted into a microphone, as cops watched warily.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Progressives are calling Obama a traitor to the New Deal for this.

[wareagle]

progressives deserve the disappointment that Obama heaps on them. It’s the rest of us who did not ask for it.

[Xlotl]

as cops watched warily

LOL

[Drake]

He said he was cutting the deficit and not taking guns too. He read a lot of shit off the teleprompter he didn’t really mean.

[lap83]

Anyone who resists reform to SS hates young people and is evil. They probably feel sorry for themselves but nobody else with half a brain does.

[Loki]

Chinese man dies after his friends apparently try to reanact the chest burst scene from Alien using an eel.

[Rich]

With friends like that, who needs enemas?

[$park?]

What a shitty way to go.

[Ted S.]

I like eels,
Except as meals.
And the way they feels.

[Tim]

Wasn’t there an eel smuggler apprehended in New Hampshire in last night’s links? Is this a new thing?

[Scarcity]

Jesus, the thing was 20 inches long! How did they think that was going to go?

[db]

What. The. Fucking. Fuck?

[jesse.in.mb]

The correct thing to tell the authorities is “He slipped and fell on the eel and it went up his butt”

[Palin's Buttplug]

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has challenged a recent court ruling finding Virginia’s anti-sodomy law unconstitutional.

The appeal has gotten national attention as Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial bid ramps up.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..teen-case/

[Palin's Buttplug]

And the GOP obsession over outlawing blowjobs continues…

[John]

Congratulations on that video blog Slate gave you

http://www.slate.com/blogs/tre….._link.html

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

As you look around the world today, you see this country spurned, you see backs turned on this country. Well people, I’m gonna tell you something, this continent, North America, is the stronghold! This is where we’re gonna make our stand in this decade! I’ve got something to say to the state department. I say take that archaic Monroe Doctrine, and that Marshall Plan that says we’re supposed to police force the world, and throw ’em out! Let’s stay home for the next ten years people! Right here in North America and enjoy the music and culture that is ours.

– Elwood Blues (from Green Onions)

Just listened to this tune, and thought this was a great part of the lyrics.

[Matrix]

The most overrated OS of all time is about to die

I suspect it is because the government has switched to Windows 7 over a long, drawn out process.

[John]

XP was only overrated because it was such an improvement of 2000.

[Zeb]

And Vista was such a turd.

[Matrix]

I thought Vista was underrated, but I was a late comer in the system. I didn’t get it until 2009. I enjoyed it a lot more than XP.

[John]

I had a Vista machine for about three years in the 00s. It always worked well.

[Fatty Bolger]

It was sorta OK-ish on a brand new machine. Not something you would want to upgrade to, though.

As usual, MS can only do a decent job on every other version of their OS.

[Zeb]

Yeah, that was the biggest problem. I do a lot with embedded systems. XP pro worked fine, but Vista was a resource hog. The Windows embedded versions are pretty good, but I still say it’s dumb not to just use Linux in stuff like that. It amazes me how many people in computer science and robotics can only use Windows.

[Matrix]

I’m still convinced that Windows 7 is there best ever. Not sure about Windows 8, but I’ve heard more negatives than positives. Seems more suited for tablets than conventional PCs.

[KDN]

My user experience with it as a non-expert but competent operator is that it’s really the same thing as Windows 7 but they replaced the start menu with a tablet screen. After startup I really see no difference between my home PC and work PC. I’m not sure how they compare resource-wise (especially since I use them for vastly different things), but I’ve had no real complaints about Windows 8.

Then again, I seem to fall into the trap of getting the bad Windows OS (I’ve gone from ME to Vista to Windows 8), so my expectations could just be shot.

[jesse.in.mb]

it’s really the same thing as Windows 7 but they replaced the start menu with a tablet screen

I agree completely. 8 doesn’t feel much different than 7 besides a slightly faster boot time and lack of start menu. Although that took some getting used to.

2000 was a great operating system, rock solid and a serious improvement over 98 or ME. I have never had problems with computers like I’ve had with Vista computers. Installing and uninstalling programs and updates would take forever and end users would think the computer had frozen and reboot. For some of the system updates this would corrupt the installation and be essentially unrepeatable.

[Matrix]

2000 was not for home use. ME was. I still contend that ME was microsoft’s sick idea of a joke.

[Zeb]

We used to call it “Malignant Edition”.

[sarcasmic]

So does xkcd.
http://xkcd.com/323/

[Fatty Bolger]

It wasn’t overrated for a Microsoft OS.

[Pro Libertate]

XP was okay, but 7 is quite good. Really the first OS since the DOS days that could be said of.

[entropy]

XP deathwatch begins?

Hello Linux.

[Auric Demonocles]

Feeney’s filibuster or alt-text is embarrassing.

[DanD]

We haven’t talked about punchable faces in too long. Check this out:

Beat this

[SugarFree]

Try and resist.

[John]

Isn’t “activist and lifestyle blogger” just a polite way of saying “unemployed”?

[$park?]

Isn’t that one of the dudes from the North Korean video?

[Rich]

Given credentials like “Activist, Lifestyle Blogger” you don’t even have to see the face.

[Lord Humungus]

with the broken finger in my right hand, I’ll have to go all southpaw.

[Tim]

Where are all the chinese ass eels when you need one?

[Fatty Bolger]

PUNCH ME

[fish]

……so hard to resist…..must stop myself from punching a woman…..Rachel Maddow

[deified]

Chris Hayes has his MSNBC show right abutting RMaddow’s snot-fest. It looks and feels like one two-hour bloc.

Two fists, two faces, one awesome, simultaneous punch.

[fish]

Please! That guy couldn’t carry E.J. Dionnes jock in the Punchable Face League!

[sloopyinca]

Cop helps violent criminal escape by giving him his uniform and possibly his gun.

FTA: Police have identified the deputy as Matthew Andrews, a two-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, NBC affiliate 9News reported. Andrews, who was arrested late Sunday, stands accused of helping Felix Dino Trujillo, 24, escape Denver County Jail at about 7 p.m. MT that evening, according to the station.

Since when does working somewhere for two years make one a “veteran officer”?

His bail was set higher than the Kern County cop who is accused of raping a woman twice under color of law, by the way.

[Auric Demonocles]

I’m a veteran programmer!

[Fatty Bolger]

“Veteran, huh? We’re obviously paying you too much. Time to fire this guy and hire a kid still in college.”

[Auric Demonocles]

Good damn rookie pay scale.

[Mainer2]

As a sidebar to these police abuse stories, let’s keep track of the lowest number cited for a “veteran” officer. The bar is now set at two years.

[Mainer2]

As a sidebar to these police abuse stories, let’s keep track of the lowest number cited for a “veteran” officer. The bar is now set at two years.

[Auric Demonocles]

Do we really have to update the track every time a reference comes up when it is the same as the previous mark?

[Loki]

I saw this on the local news here in Denver. A couple of details the linked story leaves out:
1) the cop who helped him escape immediately turned himself in (not that that makes it any better, but the 2nd point might) and
2) the prisoner he helped escape supposedly threatened the cop’s family (I’m assuming he was going to have one of his “boys” on the outside do something since he was, well, in jail).

[John]

http://www.infowars.com/new-yo…..edication/

Police taking guns from people taking anti-anxiety medicine.

[sarcasmic]

Beat you to it.
https://reason.com/blog/2013/04…..nt_3666282
Twice.
https://reason.com/archives/201…..nt_3666246

[robc]

Currently stuck in my head.

You can thank me later.

[Alack]

Awesome song. Saw them in Boston last week for a Flood show, and it was quite entertaining. Highly recommend it if they come near you.

[robc]

They were here back in March. I didnt go due to some other conflicts.

[Numeromancer]

I saw a big dead possum in the road this morning; it might have been a giant. I didn’t hit it because I drove around it.

[XNor]

Among college-aged women,approximately 40% of rape victims report continuing to date their attackers (Wilson and Durrenberger 1982; Koss 1989).Women’s positive expectations for a relationship correlated to self-blame and reduced anger in response to coercion (Macy et al.2006).

But remember guys, never “blame the victim.”

[John]

I have seen several cases where the victim of an obvious and indisputable rape later slept with the perpetrator willingly.

[Counterfly]

I think the medical term for that is “bitches be crazy.”

[Matrix]

proof that women love assholes.

[Lord Humungus]

semi-related: I knew two girls who slept with a guy as “revenge” because he was a douchebag. Don’t quite understand the logic behind that… but damn, I wouldn’t mind that.

[LTC(ret) John]

Maybe they had STDs?

[Lord Humungus]

Long time ago but knowing one of them, I wouldn’t be surprised. The other — ?

[SugarFree]

DOUBLE HERPES!

[Auric Demonocles]

Girls are really dumb about sex. It’s one of the few things I’ve manage to figure out about them.

[deified]

So how did it go? I impatiently demand the graphic details of your night of passion!

[lap83]

Yeah, but guys are dumb about girls.

[Virginian]

I knew two girls who slept with a guy as “revenge” because he was a douchebag.
____

The hamster looms large.

[Virginian]

Anyone surprised by this has never spent ten minutes flipping through chick porn.

[Bardas Phocas]

A whole, massively profitable genre of it on sale at your supermarket.
Their not called ‘Bodice Rippers’ for nothing.

[Fatty Bolger]

No kidding. When I was a kid (around 13, I think), I read one of my Mom’s romance novels out of curiousity. What an eye-opener. And yeah, the plot was “barbarian captures girl, barbarian rapes girl, girl falls in love with barbarian.”

[robc]

Was it The Fountainhead?

[Fatty Bolger]

I don’t know. Did The Fountainhead ever have a cover featuring a bare chested man holding a scantily dressed large breasted woman?

[robc]

My copy has a bare chested man (you can only see his back, but I assume the chest is bare too) holding what appears to be a large glowing detached boob.

So, pretty much, yes.

[NeonCat]

It would sell better if it did?

[jesse.in.mb]

Swept Away (1974)

[John]

http://qctimes.com/news/local/…..963f4.html

The University of Iowa is leaving itself exposed to legal challenge based on discriminatory action by continuing to have a pink visitors locker room at Kinnick Stadium that jokingly conveys a ‘sexist and homophobic’ message, two attorneys told LGBTQ conference attendees Wednesday.

[a better weapon]

If I were UofI, I’d claim that its not that pink is sexist/homophobic, but its the first color we could think of that no other university uses and we didn’t want the visiting team to possibly feel at home should our choice of visiting room color scheme ever match theirs.

Mad that no school uses pink as their official color? Take it up with them.

[Auric Demonocles]

Or call the people claiming that pink is sexist and homophobic sexists and homophobes. Are they saying that girls and gays have to like and wear pink?

[fish]

Mad that no school uses pink as their official color?

Mills College: Home of the Fightin Vaginas

[Stormy Dragon]

Penn State’s official colors were pink and black up until 1890.

[LTC(ret) John]

Hayden Fry wept.

[kinnath]

yup, I managed to post in the wrong place.

[sloopyinca]

LGBTQ conference

Jesus, they’re adding letters faster than the ATF.

I’m gonna lodge a complaint on behalf of those of us who can be described by a different letter, until all sexualities are represented. Between the 90% of Heteros in the world and the Otherkin from above, we’ve got two more out of the way. Toss W for Warty in there and we’re over 1/4 of the way to real gender/sexual equality and representation.

[John]

I am assuming that is Lesbian, Bisexual, Tranny, and Queer. The first three make sense. But isn’t the forth redundant? What is a “queer” if not a homosexual of some sort? I don’t get it.

[Virginian]

I’ve seen it as questioning.

[Stormy Dragon]

I think in current terminology, Queer == homosexual that doesn’t act like their gender. e.g. Rock Hudson is gay, Liberace is queer.

[AuH20]

Queer has become the big catch all term to identify with if your not straight, without necessarily having to decide between gay, bi, or “Once, every two weeks, I like to leave my wife and family, drive four hours, go to a fetish club, and spend the night sucking off dudes out of glory hole.”

[Loki]

LGBTQ

I may have asked this before, but I don’t remember the answer: WTF does the Q stand for? And when are they going to add and O for Otherkin? The LGBTQ community needs to be more inclusive and stop othering the Otherkins!

[Loki]

Nevermind. I would’ve thought G for Gay would cover the Queers too, but I guess not. Also I should read the rest of the comments in the thread before posting stupid questions.

[John]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new…..-euro.html

Euro buyer’s remorse sets in. Thanks for fucking the people of Germany Helmut.

[Fatty Bolger]

But remember, when UKIP members point this out, it’s proof that they are a bunch of crazy right wing conspiracy theorists.

[LTC(ret) John]

You know who else acted like a dictator to the German people?

[$park?]

Napoleon?

[sloopyinca]

Charlie Chaplin?

[Restoras]

Fred?

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Eisenhower?

[Bobarian]

Marshall?

[John]

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2…..-this.html

Let’s face it, who does not love this music?” asked Obama, referring to Memphis soul…
… which apparently includes Justin Timberlake.

What a fucking dork.

[Loki]

Holy shit: Knifing suspect was subdued by other students before cops arrived. Nice going, not too many people would do that. Prog-tards losing shit over “vigilantism” in 3… 2… 1…

[Virginian]

Community college. Lot more people who know how use their hands. When I attended a CC there was a ton of vets and tattooed guys who could throw a bunch. Then there were the women….they were even scarier.

If I was going to go on a college killing spree, I’d pick Oberlin or some other kumbaya studies center.

[deified]

Comment of the day.

It’s not even 11am and I’m callin’ it.

reasonoids, the rest of y’all are invited to try again tomorrow.

[kinnath]

Fry had them painted pink. He was a psych major or something. He was aware of a psych study where they determined that pink was a calming color and that jails should paint the walls pink to reduce anxiety and violent tendencies in prisoners.

[John]

Best of the Web yesterday gives this rather interesting quote from a 32 year old article on abortion.

There is a wonderful irony here. It is this: The onset of individual life is not a dogma of the church but a fact of science. How much more convenient if we lived in the 13th century, when no one knew anything about microbiology and arguments about the onset of life were legitimate. Compared to a modern textbook of embryology, Thomas Aquinas sounds like an American Civil Liberties Union member. Nowadays it is not some misguided ecclesiastics who are trying to suppress an embarrassing scientific fact. It is the secular juridical-journalistic establishment.

Please indulge the novelist if he thinks in novelistic terms. Picture the scene. A Galileo trial in reverse. The Supreme Court is cross-examining a high school biology teacher and admonishing him that of course it is only his personal opinion that the fertilized human ovum is an individual human life. He is enjoined not to teach his private beliefs at a public school. Like Galileo he caves in, submits, but in turning away is heard to murmur, “But it’s still alive!”

To pro-abortionists: According to the opinion polls, it looks as if you may get your way. But you’re not going to have it both ways. You’re going to be told what you’re doing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/…..TopOpinion

[Auric Demonocles]

You can make an argument that a fetus isn’t a “person”. I would disagree with it, but it is a debate. If you call it not a human being then you’re wrong.

[John]

I think the point about the pro abortion people sounding like Aquinas is pretty dead on. In the age of microbiology and science, they are talking about “essences” and “personhood”.

[Zeb]

But isn’t that the real question? If one opposes abortion on moral grounds, isn’t the whole question whether or not the embryo or fetus or whatever is the same as a person morally speaking?

[John]

But the question is “is it a life”? And it seems biology has answered that question once and for all. Its alive. You can’t really debate that. You can only get into “how many angels on the head of a pin” type debates about “personhood and such”.

[db]

What is the legal basis for charging a person who assaults a pregnant woman with murder if her baby dies, or chargin two counts of murder for killing a pregnant woman? I’m really curious how the legal theories justify the difference between these cases and abortion. Does it all depend on the presumed value a fetus has to a pregnant woman?

[Virginian]

It’s the difference between me lighting my shed on fire and a stranger lighting my shed on fire.

[John]

There isn’t a basis. It is total incoherent nonsense. I don’t see how you square those two position other than by just saying we like abortion and don’t like murderers and thus want to charge them twice.

[Stormy Dragon]

Tinea pedis is life. That doesn’t mean Tinactin is murder.

[John]

Does Tinea pedis have human DNA? Again, what makes something human? We didn’t used to know the answer to that. Then in 1954 we discovered DNA and now we know. Again, from a scientific perspective, an embryo is a human being. It has human DNA. To say it is some third category that is not human but still has human DNA but somehow isn’t a human requires a lot of philosophical tap dancing that in the end is nothing but a self created justification for whatever side the speaker wants to believe.

[Stormy Dragon]

I cut myself shaving this morning. Am I allowed to clean my sink, or would that be violating the rights of the blood stain. It has human DNA after all.

[John]

Does your blood or the parts of you multiply and turn into anything but blood? No. So it is not a life.

Again, you are just left with bullshit philosophical arguments about what makes a “person” when we know scientifically exactly what a person is.

[Stormy Dragon]

1. Blood cells do multiply. Do you think you have the same blood you had when you were born?

2. The ability of a particular cell to turn into something else has nothing to do with the DNA itself. So now you’re also bringing in other criteria besides “Human DNA==Human”

[db]

Blood cells don’t multiply in the sense of cell division. The come from stem cells in bone marrow.

[Zeb]

There’s more than just blood cells in the menstrual discharge.
But I think that is beside the point. There is something special about the collection of cells that has the potential to grow into a human without special intervention. But science can’t determine whether it is special enough to have the full rights of a human being.

[Stormy Dragon]

There is something special about the collection of cells that has the potential to grow into a human without special intervention.

But they don’t grow into a human without special intervention. They require another human being to provide special intervention for up to nine months.

[Zeb]

But the question is “is it a life”?

No, I think that the question is “is it human?” You think that the genetics are sufficient. I don’t. Science can’t resolve that disagreement. That’s really my whole point. It is an interesting and important philosophical question. To say that science that has been well known for quite some time completely answers the question is just lazy. It is not self evident that human genes are what gives a human being special moral status.

[John]

It is not self evident that human genes are what gives a human being special moral status.

It isn’t? Do you have a better option? The problem is that if you start pointing to other things like thinking and reasoning or self sufficiency, since those things can vary, you end up saying some people are more and less human than others. If you are going to say an embryo is not human because it doesn’t think, then how can you then say that a disabled person who maybe thinks at a very low level is not less human than someone who does?

I don’t see how there can be degrees of being a human. Either you are or you are not. And picking out variable and often subjective characteristics necessarily leads to the idea that there are varying degrees of humanity.

Lastly, how is the discovery of DNA not the answer to the question “what is the essence of being human?” We all have it. It is the one thing that always distinguishes us from other forms of life. What is that if not an essence?

[Stormy Dragon]

If it’s the genes that make the person, are a pair of twins really one person? If I kill one, can I claim it’s only assualt and not murder as long as the other one is still alive?

[John]

No Dragon it is the genes in the organism. The genes are what make the organism human.

[Zeb]

We have rights because of the type of moral agents that we are, not because of genes. If that were not the case, then why don’t all animals have the same rights? The genetic difference between humans and other animals is pretty small. There has to be something bigger to justify the huge difference in how people and animals are treated morally.

You are right that what I think about this leads to some difficult questions about what exactly counts as human. But most questions about morality are difficult. What you are arguing also leads to some big problems. Should every fertilized egg be protected in the same way as a fully functioning person? Do we report all miscarriages to the police, so they can rule out foul play?

[Auric Demonocles]

Hence why I don’t make a distinction between “person” and “human”.

Or if I do, “person” encompasses all humans, and possibly some aliens that we haven’t discovered yet and AI that we haven’t invented yet.

[sloopyinca]

Was Data a person? How about Lore or Lal?

[$park?]

Wasn’t there an episode where Data was finally granted personhood by the Federation?

[Auric Demonocles]

There were a couple about it.

[sloopyinca]

I know Picard declared him a person to defy the order of the one guy who was gonna take him apart. I don’t know if it was definitive though.

But I was asking for reasonoids’ opinion on their personhood, not what that socialist dickbag Roddenberry thought.

[SugarFree]

“Does Data own himself?” is the better question.

Morally, it’s hard to argue he doesn’t, given that he has the trappings of free will, the rudiments of morality and interpersonal ethics and displays self-consciousness.

Legally is another matter. He is inarguably alienated from a traditional natural rights stance, and self-ownership comes down to there being no claims outstanding for his construction cost and upkeep (although, that is generally waived in humans when they reach majority and/or self-supporting, which Data clearly is.)

[db]

Data is the product of a deliberate campaingn to create a sentient being from raw materials collected by a sentient human, conceived and executed by a sentient human. Therefore he is the property of that human.

A human is the product of an automatic process evolved over billions of years to produce a sentient being from raw materials ingested by a sentient human. Therefore it is the property of–what, exactly?

Does this question mean anything? Does the sentience of the creator trump the rights of a sentient being? Does a parent “own” a child, the value being the amount of material and effort invested in its creation?

I’m rambling here, but this is such a complicated topic.

I will never be fully comfortable with abortion until it can be conclusively proven that there is a point in time where a fetus “quickens” into a sentient being.
At the same time, I am sympathetic to the rights of the woman to do with her body as she sees fit. It is an extremely difficult moral question and people who try to boil it down to simple terms without adequate evidence will fail to find a satisfactory answer.

Until science can prove that there is a point of quickening I will remain skeptical of both sides of the argument. Even then, can you not say tgat an unquickened fetus has the potential to quicken, and is thus a potential being endowed witg inherent rights?

[sloopyinca]

If Data has free will, how come Soong was able to initiate a homing signal that overrode all of Data’s programming to make him come home, at great risk to the rest of the Enterprise crew and the people they were trying to save?

Data is a complex piece of property.

[db]

Technically, no one in the Federation is self supporting since it’s a socialist utopia.

[Stormy Dragon]

Star Fleet didn’t pay those construction costs anyways. Data was privately built by Dr. Noonien Soong.

[LTC(ret) John]

Lal died and Lore is busy running AIG, so no answers there.

[Zeb]

I don’t think that really asks or answers the right question, though. Everyone knows that the fertilized egg is the beginning of an individual life as a genetically distinct organism. But the real question about abortion is at what point does the new organism become the moral equivalent of a human being. And that is not a question that can be answered scientifically.

[John]

What does that question even mean? From a scientific perspective, what makes a human being? I would say DNA wouldn’t you? The reason why you and I are human being and not dogs or cats or a Steve Smith or a Shrike is because we have human DNA.

[sarcasmic]

They know they’ll lose the argument over whether or not it’s a life, so they move the goalposts.

Remember that the game isn’t over until they win.

[Zeb]

Who the fuck are “they”? You have a terrible habit of lumping all people who happen to argue a certain point together. Who has ever claimed that a fertilized egg is not genetically human or is not the starting point of a human life? Maybe some people do, but they would be idiots.

The question (for me anyway) is not and has never been whether or not a developing embryo is genetically human. With the increasing practicality of cloning, every cell in your body is a potential person.
The question is absolutely not about life per se, but about what it is that gives a being rights. You might say that it is being a genetically distinct bunch of human cells. But that is a moral judgement, not a scientific one.

[AuH20]

Oh, sarc, if we want some goal post moving: With abortion illegal, how do you not create an inevitable police state where every miscarriage must be investigated by the police?

I mean, finding a miscarriage in this case is the same as finding a dead body- the police have to investigate. If a woman at my office was pregnant but miscarried, should I file a missing persons report? I mean- she could have had an abortion!

No, seriously, if abortion is illegal, then all miscarriages are suspect, and a miscarriage would be probable cause to believe that a woman had performed the illegal act of obtaining an abortion. So, we should get a warrant to search her home, financial records, etc.

Sarc, I really want to live in your libertarian utopia where gays can’t marry and any woman who miscarries gets her life taken apart, and self righteous assholes like you smugly go around boasting about how perfect society now is. Seriously, fuck you.

No, I mean it, your whole schtick has gone from pleasantly annoying to outright nasty. You have to be the king of libertarianism on every fucking issue.

Grow the fuck up.

[generic Brand]

The irony is that sarcasmic is vehemently anti-anarchy at the same time, even though that would seem to mesh best with your description of him (which I tend to agree with, to a point).

[Zeb]

I would say DNA makes it a member of the species Homo sapiens. The mind makes it a person.

[Gray Ghost]

Unfortunately Zeb, that way of thinking leads down the Singer road of allowing experimentation on retards. Or infanticide. How much “mind” does a newborn have, anyway? They’ve the potential for one, sure, but right at birth, they’re less smart than an adult chimp. And we can kill those.

I’m not ready to adopt those ethics. Really, I wish Science would hurry up with the artificial womb thing and we can set up something like Niven’s Embryadopt system.

[Zeb]

That is always an issue with it, I agree. But I think that there are other reasons why infanticide and experimenting on the retarded should not be tolerated. Which I’m not going to get into because I should probably be working.

But I’ll throw one more question out there. If genetically human life is what give us all of our rights as human beings, is it ever OK to pull the plug on a totally vegetative (let’s assume that there is no consciousness of higher brain function left in there) person? If so, how is that different from abortion at an early stage before there is significant brain development?

[Auric Demonocles]

Let’s all take a moment aside from this abortion argument to admire the brilliance of this line:

The reason why you and I are human being and not dogs or cats or a Steve Smith or a Shrike is because we have human DNA.

[John]

Thank you. I will be here all week.

[Stormy Dragon]

A used condom has human DNA. That doesn’t make it a person.

[John]

No it doesn’t. Sperm doesn’t have the full double helix, only half of it. The egg has the other half.

[Stormy Dragon]

Okay, a used tampon then.

[John]

Still doesn’t have it. You have to have a full double helix. The eggs and the sperm don’t have it. That takes an embryo.

[Stormy Dragon]

1. sperm and eggs most certainly do have full double helixes in them. They just don’t have the redundant copies of each chromosome that occur in a full cell.
2. the blood on a used tampon does have a full set of chromsomes. If DNA is the only basis, a pile of erythrocytes is indistinguishable from an embryo.

[LTC(ret) John]

Try again, only half.

It is like you are deliberately missing the point (or the math).

[Zeb]

Actually, it just has one from each pair of chromosomes. The DNA is fully intact. But I think your point still stands. There are no haploid humans as far as I know.

[lap83]

You know who else disagreed on the moral equivalence of human beings?

[Stormy Dragon]

Ayn Rand?

[AuH20]

See, I think that pro-life libertarians are presenting a false dichotomy to an extent.

If abortion is a crime, then we would have to find any number of perfectly natural miscarriages suspicious, and worthy of investigation. After all, a fetus has now risen to the level of human- when we find a dead body, we don’t just say, “natural causes”. So, if I found evidence of a miscarriage, I would presumably have to at least report it to the police, so they could take proper action.

And, of course, with this system, I am sure that there will be no room for proprietorial or police abuse, especially when you consider the fact that most miscarriages are natural (only heightening the possibility for a vindictive prosecutor to withhold evidence etc.)

See, you’re presenting the choice as “Murder vs. No Murder.” Sure, if I’m wrong, it’s murder. But if you’re wrong, you just massively expanded the police state, invited the government quite literally into the bedroom, and opened the door for a massive and pervasive surveilance state on a scale worse than even now (“Ma’am, we’ve had a report of a miscarriage at this address, and we have a warrant to search the premises.”)

So, its not “Murder v. No Murder”

Its “Murder v. Massive Orwellian Police State”.

[John]

But since miscarriages happen naturally all of the time, it would seem you would have to produce more evidence than just that a miscarriage happened. We don’t open a murder investigation every time someone has a heart attack do we?

[db]

Bitcoin is now going hyperbolic. Not going to turn out well for a lot of folks.

[robc]

While it does seem very Tulip-like, it also says a lot about the state of fiat currency too.

[db]

True, but regardless of the reasons, bitcoin is small enough that it could be destroyed by a sufficiently wealthy player willing to sacrifice a large sum to crash it in its infancy. Or it could simply be a cnventional bubble. But again, it was too small at the start of this to be a real bubble, wasn’t ir? It’s kot like there are hundreds of retirement funds and tens of tbousands of retail investors piling into it to cause this.

Another possibility is that there is an algorithmic investor out there manipulating the market. Is this possible with BTC? By that, I mean, can tge BTC markets be gamed by somethjng akin to HFT?

[John]

But the existence of a bubble doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the market. Aren’t booms and crashes pretty typical of a new market in something? So what if there is a bubble? It will pop, people will lose money and other people will be there to buy up the now cheap bitcoins hoping it goes back up again.

[db]

In a free market, maybe. Some people stand to lose such large sums on this that the regulations they will scream for after the crash have a real possibility of suffocating BTC in its crib.

[sloopyinca]

Some people stand to lose such large sums on this that the regulations they will scream for after the crash have a real possibility of suffocating BTC in its crib.

If you don’t want to get bucked, don’t climb on the bull.

[db]

Well, sure. But we don’t live in that world anymore, unfortunately.

[Virginian]

So I just found a 1964 US quarter in my pocket change. Current value of the metal? Around 5 dollars.

But remember, inflation isn’t real.

[John]

No shit? Were they silver back then or nickel?

[NeonCat]

Last year for silver.

[db]

90%, baby.

[Virginian]

People always wonder why I go through my pocket change.

[John]

Speaking of inflation, here is an interesting bit of trivia for you. Wilson and the original progtards gave us one of the worst bouts of inflation in US history. The inflation rate in 1916 through 1920 was 7%, 17%, 18%, and 15% in consecutive years. It basically wiped out all of the post civil war improvements in standard of living in just four years.

Here is the interesting part. in 1921, when Coolidge took over, we actually had real deflation. In 21 it was -10.5% and in 22 it was -6.1%. But remember deflation is horrible. It is worse than inflation. It destroys everything!!!

http://www.usinflationcalculat…..ion-rates/

[Auric Demonocles]

Well, deflation is horrible… if you are a debtor.

[db]

And who or what is the largest debtor?