Police Seek Boston Bombing Fugitive, Denver Smokeout, Boy Scouts Allow Gay Members: P.M. Links

• 

  FBI

  The father of the Tsarnaev brothers who apparently blew the hell out of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring scores more, insists his sons were framed and that the younger one, still on the run from a massive police search, is an "angel."

• Sixty people remain unaccounted for after the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas.
• In lighter news, Denver expects massive turnout for a marijuana smokeout. Attendees will need a smoke to get through the regulations.
• Venezuelan officials have agreed to a partial audit of results in the razor-thin presidential election.
• A 59-year-old Russian cosmonaut who waited two decades for the privilege became the world's oldest spacewalker.
• The Boy Scouts have agreed to allow gay members — but not leaders. Baby steps, folks.

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Comments

[A Serious Man]

A 59-year-old Russian cosmonaut who waited two decades for the privilege became the world's oldest spacewalker.

In Soviet Russia, space walks you!

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Who had ASM in the FoE sockpuppet pool?

[Kaptious Kristen]

I thought all of us were just Epi's sockpuppets?

[Episiarch]

Oh shit, some of you are becoming self-aware. Time to retire this one.

*BLAM*

[Kaptious Kristen]

You can't just unplug us!!!

[forestgombosi39]

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(Go to site and open "Home" for details)

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

John thought I was Mary's sockpuppet the first day I posted. Has he been wrong yet?

[Tonio]

I see what you did there, new guy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm virtually powerless when the trains don't run on time here, as I refuse to hit refresh randomly.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

You know who else cared about the trains running on time?

[hamilton]

Not Deval Patrick.

[RightNut]

insists his sons were framed

I'm sure the Alex Jones types will have a field day with this.

[Slumbrew]

They already are: '"Contractors" at Boston Marathon Stood Near Bomb, Left Before Detonation'

[Slumbrew]

er, or even "Father Of Boston Suspects: US Security Services Set Up My Sons"

[NeonCat]

Set them up the bomb!

[Jordan]

For great justice!

[AlmightyJB]

Who would want to believe that their sons are murderous pieces of shit? Also, I believe he's in Russi so who knows what kind of Information he's receiving?

[Paul.]

Apparently their Uncle... given his interview, he's not having any of it.

[C. Anacreon]

This whole thing has seemed right out of a season of "24," especially the chase scene with the bombs being tossed out the window, the innocent campus cop getting shot, and the younger brother getting away. Kiefer Sutherland is involved in this somehow, I'm sure.

[Gladstone]

Well it's not like they would have believed the Official Story anyway no matter what it ended up being.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Is this fuckin' Gladstone from Cracked.com?

[Irish]

Definitely not. Gladstone is a doctrinaire prog. I seriously doubt he'd be on a libertarian site.

[Trespassers W]

If this were a false flag op, wouldn't there be better people to frame?

[Gladstone]

Need to create an alien with Vlad I guess.

[OldMexican]

After dozens of protests from PM link-deprived Reasonoids, I give you: The PM Links!!

[deified]

it's motherfuckin' Bicycle Day, Bitches!

[Doktor Kapitalism]

That explains it.

[JW]

Oh, why didn't you say so?

[deified]

Beautiful.

[JW]

The father of the Tsarnaev brothers who apparently blew the hell out of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring scores more, insists his sons were framed and that the younger one, still on the run from a massive police search, is an "angel."

Not until after the interrogation.

[A Serious Man]

NBC pulls episode of serial killer drama 'Hannibal' due to 'Cultural Climate' in wake of bombings and Newtown.

Variety first reported news of the decision to shelve the episode, which centered on a storyline involving guest star Molly Shannon's character brainwashing children to murder other children.

[NeonCat]

FIGHT CULTURAL CLIMATE CHANGE!!!

[Slumbrew]

I've caught the first couple of episodes; it's really beautifully shot. And the dude they have playing Hannibal does super-creepy very well. Or is just super-creepy IRL.

[A Serious Man]

He did play a James Bond villain.

[Slumbrew]

Yeah - thinking back to that movie, I'm starting to think the creepy is a built-in.

[Bam!]

A James Bond villain that had a puffer.

[#HOLO YOLO]

NBC is also finally moving Grimm back out of its Friday hell-spot, to 10pm on Tuesdays (starting April 30).

[Ice Nine]

Sixty people remain unaccounted for after the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas.

I think they're fertilizer.

[Paul.]

Too soon.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...the younger one, still on the run from a massive police search, is an "angel."

Up heh chasin round this frickin lil queeah set those bahms ahf.

[Episiarch]

There he is! There he is! Ah...not so despondent as we were led to believe. So much the better!

[Caleb Turberville]

http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/0.....ore_sports

Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Southern terrorism.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Even before I clicked on that link, I knew it had something football related.

[OldMexican]

That's Tennessee for ya.

[SIV]

Those are the violent degenerates standing in the way of Georgia reclaiming her rightful shore of the Tennessee River.

[NeonCat]

I liked the History Channel's How the States Got Their Shapes which covered the issue very well.

[Caleb Turberville]

I didn't see this. Could someone enlighten me on the topic?

[NeonCat]

If you go back through the H n R there was a Ron White column about how great Tennessee is and how Georgia is trying to steal their water. Back when the borders were being drawn the surveyors got it wrong, Georgia should extend a few miles further north, which would put the GA border over the banks of the Tennessee River. Understandably TN doesn't want this to happen.

[SIV]

Especially because Georgia is an original state so our claim will legally extend to the far bank, not the middle of the river.

[cavalier973]

Q: What's Tennessee's favorite Whiskey?

A: Jack Daniels

Q: What's Tennessee's favorite wine?

A: "We're gonna beat Alabama next year!"

[Episiarch]

This is sort of anti-climatic, really. And to think the FoE is probably putting a gun in his mouth right now.

[Pro Libertate]

Really, how could he be poised to make the first comment with a gun--wait, he didn't make the first comment! Uh, oh.

[A Serious Man]

Fist, I'm laughing Fist. Laughing at the 'superior' commentator.

[JW]

Full...commenting power.

[I Dug It]

Aren't all libertarians anti-climatic?

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Our election turn-outs certainly are.

[General Butt Naked]

This is sort of anti-climatic, really. And to think the FoE is probably putting a gun in his mouth right now.

That's why we need a gun safe law. Can't have fisty murdering his inner-child, you glib cosmotarian.

[Fist of Etiquette]

There are many options available to the modern suicide.

[Pro Libertate]

Sixty people? Dear Jesus.

[NeonCat]

I know it was a "low-risk" plant but maybe, just maybe, having so many homes, etc. so close to a fertilizer plant wasn't such a great idea.

[deified]

What kind of control-freak busybody MONSTER are you, hmm?

[NeonCat]

I've been told I'm worse than Hitler, so, I guess that kind.

[mad libertarian guy]

Don't worry.

A bomb that killed two and a crazy guy making the police look afool in Boston are WAY MORE IMPORTANT than some dead folks from an industrial explosion in flyover country.

[Slumbrew]

To be fair, the fertilizer plant isn't hiding somewhere in the suburbs, threatening to blow up again.

[Irish]

Well, not that we know.

[Stormy Dragon]

Quick, get me Stephen King's agent on the phone!

[NeonCat]

FERT by Stephen King

[Coeus]

And the lies keep on comming.

The feminists just love that Tim Wise asshole. It's incredibly telling that they keep using McVeigh. And that they've apparently never heard of the SPLC.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

From the comments (because you keep linking to the top of the comments section on these and that's what I end up reading first): "the overwhelming maleness of terrorists." Is that supposed to mean they are like, super-duper masculine, or just that they are extremely likely to be male? Because the latter is not the same as "overwhelming maleness." God fuck stupid bitches.

[JW]

It has to do with all the dick bombs.

[Episiarch]

"Are you telling me I don't know dick?! If anybody knows how to build a ship out of dicks it is me!"

[JW]

"They're professional dick hunters. They crave dick... as we all do."

[Bobarian]

WONGBERG!!

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Tell me more...

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I just emailed you a schematic.

[JW]

Only over dinner and drinks.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Is it Bhangra Thursday yet?

[MJGreen]

It's definitely the latter.

They are not smart.

Besides, the obvious conclusion from that statistic is that, as with all other activities, males greatly outperform females. Don't get mad at us because we do terrorism better.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Any counter-example of Terror GRRRRLS one might post would be immediately dismissed by these idiots because be it Angela Davis, or the ladies of FARC or the PLO, or eco-terrorists,...they'll immediately claim they don't count because their cause is noble and just.

[NeonCat]

Duh, the only evil women are Republicans, traitors to the sisterhood.

[AuH20]

Come now, all evil women aren't Republicans.

However, they are all evil regressive sexists who oppose the new law I just drafted that will finally make all women equal by expanding the state!

[Tonio]

+1 Mark Knopfler for "noble and just"

[Paul.]

All the terror girls disappeared after the 70s when the Red Army Faction went mainstream.

[NeonCat]

I think it comes from this book from (relatively) back in the day: The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism

http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Lo.....0743452933

Never read it, only read RAW talking about it.

[mauricegirodias]

You... didn't miss much. But she called out the Irish as well in that thang, so I think that led to something of a tizzy (IRA being "different").

[Paul.]

): "the overwhelming maleness of terrorists." Is that supposed to mean they are like, super-duper masculine, or just that they are extremely likely to be male?

Janet Napolitano did say very early on that this "was no broad plot", so...

[Heroic Mulatto]

Only in the batshit-mind of feministing are people from the Caucasus region not "Caucasian".

Oh, and I love this one:

How rarely to do we hear about the overwhelming maleness of terrorists, or any attempts to betray [sic] men as people whose actions in the public sphere should be restricted due to the frequent instability of their gender.

Maybe that's because IT'S NOT FUCKING SO*!!!!

*Just one example out of the legion of them.

[Zeb]

They are definitely Caucasian and white Europeans are not.

[Paul.]

I know you are, but what am I?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

White privilege is knowing that since the Boston bombers have turned out to be white, we will not be asked to denounce them, so as to prove our own loyalties to the common national good.

It's almost like white privilege is the same as I-don't-fucking-play-identity-politics privilege.

[Irish]

Wait, who could look at those terrorists and come to the conclusion that they're white?

Honestly, this deeply confuses me. Do they just see that they're from the caucasus and go "OH, like caucasian!"

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

http://blogs.discovermagazine......ean-white/

[Heroic Mulatto]

I agree that it is a stupid term. It was coined by a dude from the 18th century who just decided that all White people come from the Caucasus Mountains because he had a fetish for Armenian chicks.

[C. Anacreon]

Wow, in that painting in the wikipedia link you provided "Inspection of the New Arrivals," thw woman has identical hindquarters to a thoroughbred. I wonder if the artist used a horse to model his ass-shot.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

You know who else liked the way other people treated Armenians?

[Heroic Mulatto]

You know who else liked the way other people treated Armenians?

Anyone who watched the part of Kim Kardashian's sex tape when she gets peed on?

[Virginian]

Wait did she really get pissed on?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Wait did she really get pissed on?

Yes.

[Coeus]

Yes.

I thought that the rumor was that they cut that part out as part of the deal. But no one has the unedited tape anywhere, so how can you know?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Easy. I peed on her.

Haven't you?

[Coeus]

Haven't you?

"Dammit, the toilet's clogged again!"

"Not a problem, just use Kim"

(actually, I was hoping you had found an unedited copy on the interwebs)

[Tonio]

Oh, tough one. Tsar Nicolas II?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

It's probably not Congress, although they can never seem to make up their minds formally.

[Paul.]

I agree that it is a stupid term. It was coined by a dude from the 18th century who just decided that all White people come from the Caucasus Mountains because he had a fetish for Armenian chicks.

If he came out of England, I can see why he had a thing for Armenian chicks... or any other chicks for that matter.

Because any country you visit after England...

[Heroic Mulatto]

If he came out of England,

He was German, actually.

[SIV]

WTF? I'll forgive the average person for not knowing the Maori are Caucasians but isn't that piece supposed to be written by some sort of science-person?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Yeah, he's a biologist and a software engineer...but he also writes for the Guardian, meaning he has the mental ability of a 5-year-old with fetal alcohol syndrome induced retardation.

[Sidd Finch]

notsureifserious

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

^^^ THIS. WTF?

Are you seriously suggesting that the Maori, the most geographically far flung Pacific Islanders in the world are clearly within reasonable bounds genetically of any normal persons' conception of "white"/"caucasian" race/ethnicity?

[SIV]

Dead serious.The Maori are Polynesian. Polynesians are Caucasian. Race as a social construct/legal category is politics, not science.

[Sidd Finch]

So are there two races, Caucasian and African, or is everybody now Caucasian?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Under which social and legal environments would that be? The legal arena of census forms that have a box for "Pacific islander?" The social opinions of the vast majority of Americans on their (inconsistent and intuitive) opinions of race?

From a scientific point of clustered gene groups it's clearly silly, but I hesitate to say it's MORE silly.

[SIV]

I know they don't teach this in undergrad classes anymore but physical anthropology isn't some sort of racist pseudoscience.

[Sidd Finch]

Perhaps they don't teach that anymore because it's completely retarded and logically demands that, at the very least, every single non-African is Caucasian.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Duh, later Caucasian theories added Negroids and Mongoloids before that fell out of favor. It's not his fault if you don't know which obsolete and overly broad classification system was particularly weak in dealing with extreme outliers.

[SIV]

It's not obsolete. You can classify populations of people by skeletal features. It is scientifically valid unlike stupid political categories.
Physical anthropology didn't throw all this stuff out or denounce it. They just watch what they say and publish and offer all sorts of disclaimers. You would too if you had to share a department with some of the PC dumbasses in cultural anthro.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

It's not obsolete. You can classify populations of people by skeletal features. It is scientifically valid unlike stupid political categories.

Eh. I learned something and concede "scientifically valid," but I think gene plots of populations makes it pretty obsolete. You can get much finer grained clumps down to the national level and sometimes regional based on historic migration/mating patterns.

[Sidd Finch]

It's not "scientifically valid," not anymore. A physical examination of Andaman Islanders and Hottentots would conclude that they're closely related even though they're about as unrelated as two groups can be.

[Sidd Finch]

In the age of population genetics, classifying groups by physical features is obsolete. For example, there used to be a popular theory that the Ainu were white, but they turned out to cluster with East Asians.

[SIV]

Genetics doesn't 'splain everything.
It's fashionable and they are overreaching, particularly in popular interpretations.Funny how they're sort of back to the "one drop rule".

[Calidissident]

"Genetics doesn't 'splain everything."

It's a much better basis for determining race than skeletal similarities.

"It's fashionable and they are overreaching, particularly in popular interpretations.Funny how they're sort of back to the "one drop rule"."

What does this even mean? I don't know how you can seriously argue that Maori and other Pacific Islanders are less related to East Asians ("Mongoloids") than Caucasians. There is literally no scientific basis to make that claim

[SIV]

Define race. After that explain why cranial anthropometry has no scientific basis.

[Calidissident]

"Define race."

A tough term to define, to be sure. I would say something along the lines of a group of populations that share a common ancestry, close genetic relatedness, and share distinct phenotypical traits.

"cranial anthropometry has no scientific basis."

Never said it had no scientific basis. Just that there is no reasons to define races based on it. Cranial shape, size, etc. is just one phenotypical trait out of countless traits. Why not define race by hair color? People (and populations) can have some similar traits despite having distant common ancestry and overall genetic relation. Pacific Islanders have much more recent common ancestry with Asians than they do with Europeans, and are much more similar genetically. It makes absolutely no scientific sense to consider them Caucasian.

[Zeb]

Most people say "caucasian" because they think it is a nicer way to say white. And by "white" most people mean European. Which Chechens happen to be.

Physical anthropology may be valid insofar as you can make classifications by skeletal features which are well defined and rigorous, but I think that at this point it is a meaningless way to classify people in groups. Population genetics is far more relevant and ahs shown that the old classifications are not very useful for understanding the origins of various groups of people.

[Rabban]

When I was in boot camp getting my paperwork in order to be a part of the US Navy's nuclear fleet, everyone had to fill out an antiquated form and indicate whether they were caucasoid, negroid, or mongoloid.

[SIV]

Most North Africans are Caucasian.You're leaving out Mongoloid and Australoid.
They don't teach it in undergrad anymore because race is such a political mess.

[Sidd Finch]

Most North Africans are Caucasian.

If we're using Caucasian to mean white or West and South Eurasian, sure. I'm not sure what your point is.

You're leaving out Mongoloid and Australoid.

No, you're leaving them out. Pacific Islanders are genetically much closer to Australians and East Asians than they are to "Caucasians."

[Tonio]

The Wikipedia says that they originated in Taiwan about 5,200 years ago and island hopped until they reached NZ, etc. So, Mongoloid according to the PA theories of SIV's day.

Genetics as much as political correctness has reshaped understandings of human origins.

[#HOLO YOLO]

Can you provide a link? I'm searching but so far I can't find anything particularly comprehensive or authoritative. All I have is the following:

http://www.users.on.net/~mkfen.....istory.htm (personal webpage that seems a bit ideologically motivated)

http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/.....p_79-84/p1 (90-year-old article)

[#HOLO YOLO]

http://books.google.com/books?.....page&q=are polynesians caucasian&f=false (speculative)

[#HOLO YOLO]

SF'd, try http://bit.ly/104NCev

[Sidd Finch]

He is well known for advocating Egyptian, Libyan, Celtic, and Phoenician ancestry for American Indians

LOL This is where "these people kinda look like those people therefore they are those people" logic inevitably ends up.

[SIV]

Maori and Samoans don't just "kinda look like" Caucasians. Race is nothing but a taxonomy.

[Calidissident]

To be correct, the terrorists are white. They're also Muslim. To whatever extent race is biologically valid, Chechens belong to the same race as Europeans, and their skin is not all that dark. However, I don't really get why Wise wrote this article when, white or not, the terrorists turned out to be Muslim. I do think he has a point in that in incidents like these, people (outside of lefty blogs and outlets that lump together "right-wing white males") tend to generalize the incident onto the entire group when it is done by a Muslim more so than when it's a non-Muslim white guy (to the point where there is verbal or even violent backlash against people who had absolutely nothing to do with the incident).

[Coeus]

They're as white as George Zimmerman. This shit is getting tiring.

[Calidissident]

"They're as white as George Zimmerman."

George Zimmerman has a white father and a mother of mixed race. If he was half white and half Asian, nobody would object to calling him "Asian." If he was half white and half black, nobody would object to calling him "black." The media only called him white to promote an agenda, true, but it does show how stupid our society still is when it comes to racially labeling people.

[Nazdrakke]

In other words: Your race is whatever the person with the megaphone and the agenda says it is.

[Tonio]

Your race is whatever the person with the megaphone and the agenda says it is.

Basically, yes. See one-drop rule.

[Coeus]

Basically, yes. See one-drop rule.

But the one drop rule is only used if it supports what the person with the megaphone wants.

[Coeus]

In other words: Your race is whatever the person with the megaphone and the agenda says it is.

Yep

[Sidd Finch]

but it does show how stupid our society still is when it comes to racially labeling people.

ITT We have people who think Maori are Caucasian and people who think Caucasians aren't Caucasian. It's fascinating, really.

[Bobarian]

Zimmerman was white because the Z was on the wrong end of his name

[Sidd Finch]

Zimmerman was white because the Z was on the wrong end of his name

mind blown

[Coeus]

Zimmerman was white because the Z was on the wrong end of his name

My point, which I should have articulated, was that unless these guys were insanely dark-skinned, they were going to be called white regardless. Just like Zimmerman, just like that Cherokee kid who shot a bunch of people, just like a dozen others. The fact that they're actually white this time was meaningless to what they were gonna call them.

[Sidd Finch]

Quiz: Can you pick out the "white Hispanic" amidst all the Hispanic Hispanics?

[Coeus]

Quiz: Can you pick out the "white Hispanic" amidst all the Hispanic Hispanics?

Nice. Even with the artificially lightened pic he's obviously mestizo.

[Calidissident]

Sidd, that's a good illustration of my point. People seem to ordinarily view "white" and "Hispanic" as mutually exclusive, and people are usually identified by or the other, though plenty are both. Zimmerman is far from the whitest Hispanic guy out there, so I do think the media calling him a white Hispanic was largely to feed the narrative. That said, unless his mother doesn't have a drop of Spanish ancestry (which is highly unlikely), the majority of his ancestry is white European, and I definitely think there's a double standard as to the point (by that I mean the amount of white ancestry) where people are ok with calling a person of mixed race just "white" compared to calling them just whatever their other race is.

[Bobarian]

The caption for Bob Menendez made me laugh

[Sidd Finch]

Cali, I think there's a lot of issues to that. Off the top of my head:

- White privilege isn't that privelege-y. Whiteness just isn't fashionable. In another thread you posted Census numbers showing how many Americans decided they weren't English anymore. This is something similar.

- PC makes everyone dumber. How many people even know what a quadroon is anymore? If all the words that describe something precisely disappear, then you get imprecise descriptions.

- Since some Marxists convinced all the Smart People that race is a social construct, you can be whatever you totally feel like you are.

[ant1sthenes]

"How many people even know what a quadroon is anymore?"

A lot of the people here, to judge by all the Archer quotes.

[Calidissident]

- "White privilege isn't that privelege-y. Whiteness just isn't fashionable. In another thread you posted Census numbers showing how many Americans decided they weren't English anymore. This is something similar."

I agree to an extent, at least regarding the fashionability. There are some elements of "privilege" that may be real (Personal example: I have several black and Latino friends that have been harassed in the past by cops in situations where I know I would never have been treated the way they were), but I agree being white by itself is a golden ticket to an awesome life or that being non-white in America guarantees misery as some try to make it out to be.

"Since some Marxists convinced all the Smart People that race is a social construct, you can be whatever you totally feel like you are."

I think race is a social construct to *some* extent, as we've seen by the debates in this thread over the classification of Hispanics and Middle Easterners

[Calidissident]

And to add to that last paragraph, I think that's especially true when we're talking about mixed race people

[Calidissident]

*In the second paragraph I meant to type, "being white by itself ISN'T a golden ticket"

[Sidd Finch]

In your personal example, I think that's statistical discrimination not white privilege per se. Asians (I assume) don't get harassed as much as whites, ergo the discrimination is based on group averages, not whiteness. That's bad news for people in relatively poor performing groups. But the good news is that during important life events (e.g. job interviews) the individual information swamps the group stereotype. Also, AA and disparate impact. So .... I think we basically agree on the importance of white privilege.

The Marxists were liars and morons. Now that that's out of the way, I have two beefs with "race is a social construct" mantra.

1. From the introduction to the "social construction" wiki:

The underlying assumptions on which social constructivism is typically seen to be based are reality, knowledge, and learning.[1][clarification needed]

clarification needed indeed. I've been reading about social constructs for 15 years and I still have no clue what they are.

2. Somehow, "ancestral population cluster" and "ethnicity" aren't social constructs, or at least not bad social constructs, even though they mean the same damn thing as "race." The first is the verbal analogue of a Rube Goldberg machine. I felt silly typing that just now. The second is a new definition for a formerly useful word.

[Calidissident]

"In your personal example, I think that's statistical discrimination not white privilege per se. Asians (I assume) don't get harassed as much as whites, ergo the discrimination is based on group averages, not whiteness."

I would agree with that. I go to college in California, so there are a lot Asians at my school, and that's generally not a problem for them. That said, if we're comparing me (or one of my Asian friends) to my black or Latino friends who also aren't criminals, then I (or we), due to my appearance, don't have to endure difficulties that they do because of their appearance, based on the actions of other people whom they have no control over. So I guess it could be more accurately called white/Asian privilege in this instance.

As I said, I agree with you generally on the social construct thing, but I think it's a valid argument in the examples I gave (Middle Easterners being considered a different race than Europeans, the resistance to calling white Hispanics white, the double standard in racially labeling mixed race people, etc.). That said, while race has a biological basis, all humans share a very recent (by the standards of Earth time and evolution) common origin and are certainly nowhere near different enough to be different species (not saying that's what you're arguing)

[Sidd Finch]

There's certainly differences between the social and genetic understanding of races. My beef is with those who think that because social beliefs are fluid and chaotic that genetic knowledge must be also.

"That said, while race has a biological basis, all humans share a very recent (by the standards of Earth time and evolution) common origin and are certainly nowhere near different enough to be different species (not saying that's what you're arguing)"

One of the things that got me interested in quantitative and population genetics (I'm an engineer) was a conversation I had with a couple grad students my junior year. At the time the closest I had come to evolutionary biology or paleoanthropolgy was a 9th grade biology class. I told them that I thought most non-Africans should be part Neanderthal, since they must've had useful adaptations to the new environment. They laughed and gave me the CW: Humans wouldn't have sex with Neanderthals, and if they did, they couldn't make babies. Because the first argument is insane, I checked out the latter. It turns out that was pretty nutty too (based on speciation rates). Conclusion: those who think modern continental races are different species aren't necessarily crazier than those who thought Neanderthals were a different species, which was most of 'em by count.

[Sidd Finch]

Do they just see that they're from the caucasus and go "OH, like caucasian!"

Why wouldn't they?

[jesse.in.mb]

As a white male, I'd like to denounce, on behalf of all good upstanding white males, bombings committed by my white, bepenised brethren. There are no words for the level of shame I feel right now at being white and male.

Is what I would say if I didn't think that that's the dumbest fucking thing I've heard today, and I was in that thread with "Ayn Rand" trying to explain the Bible.

[Irish]

Wait, where was this? Link?

[jesse.in.mb]

I was just bullshitting on the quote from nicole. I get pretty stabby when people start demanding keening from some community when an individual does something dickish. I think it's hilarious that they're bringing it around to implicate that white males should feel the need to denounce white terrorism since the terrorists were white(-ish)

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

They also had brown hair. Will all the brunets up in here please stand up and denounce your swarthy brethren, so as to prove your loyalties to the common national good?

I for one will not, because I don't know what the fuck the common national good is.

[JW]

The hoodie and backpack community better fucking step up. And if I don't see a warning label on the pressure cookers...

Anyone know what brand of sneakers they wore?

[Heroic Mulatto]

The hoodie ... community better fucking step up.

ZIMMERMAN IS VINDICATED!

[Xenocles]

They were bad sneakers, and he was drinking a pina colada, my friend.

[Jesus H. Christ]

"with a pressure cooker and some runners to rend."

Sorry, that was horrible.

[Pro Libertate]

I denounce this action by humans.

[JW]

Don't worry, jesse. Your gayness gives you special femspensation.

[Dagny T.]

Darling Nikki, maybe you can make sense of this, which I gather they're talking about in the comments on that feministing piece. I can't make head nor tails of it, but I have to assume that is just my white privilege talking.

[Irish]

procatstination asked: White man who sent the PRESIDENT poison described as "troubled" and "not taking his medicine" while minorities in Boston are getting prosecuted and attacked. WHY? How is this okay? AURGH.

You already know.

Must be a day that ends in y. Water is wet.

What.

[Slumbrew]

"privilege" is just Original Sin repackaged - you're guilty of it even if you didn't actually do anything, even if you're not aware of it. You must seek forgiveness...

[Irish]

I'd also like to point out that the white guy got arrested and went quietly, whereas the minorities getting 'prosecuted and attacked' went on a running gun battle through Watertown, MA.

I have a feeling that it would be equally as news worthy if the ricin sender were currently in a shootout with police.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Those ones seem mostly to be about a different kind of white privilege, the kind that really equals upper middle class privilege. I really hate those ones. Also these:

White Privilege is being able to complain Reverse Racism exists because you'll never have to experience it as a systematic institution, but instead were merely made uncomfortable for a few seconds because of your feelings of white guilt. White privilege is being able to use said white guilt to consistently silence the complaints of POC by saying racism is no longer real or there because you said so, and having the whole world now reluctant to discuss it because you said so.

Come to Chicago, motherfuckers, and try to get a driver's license and tell me there is no systematic institutional reverse racism.

[Irish]

#1455
White privilege is not having to feel uncomfortable while playing Bioshock Infinite. White privilege is not having to see demonized caricatures of your race in the game, or wandering around feeling trapped in a city that values "racial purity." Yes, it's just a game. But the context still has very real roots in life history.

They do realize that the racists were the bad guys in Bioshock Infinite, right?

[jesse.in.mb]

I was discriminated against at a DMV by a bureaucratic cog of color for being an Aquarius. She certainly taught me a lesson on being othered!

[Coeus]

Come to Chicago, motherfuckers, and try to get a driver's license and tell me there is no systematic institutional reverse racism. not get lynched by a mob for being white in the summer.

Watch your ass Nikki. They started early this year.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

It's cold again. It's a weather thing.

[#HOLO YOLO]

Educate yourself, Nicole.

[pmains]

Um.

What?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Wow, that's an even better collection of broken human beings than the "I am the 99 percent" tumblr was.

[Irish]

#1450
White privilege is being able to make or act in a film about any period in time and never having to show your entire race being oppressed solely for the sake of historical accuracy.

Submission from raymundorocket

I really want to make a movie set in the old Ottoman Empire in which the only white people who show up are slaves being held by various Ottoman lords. Because if I did that, I'm sure this person would claim such a thing was racist towards brown people.

No matter what happens, these people will bitch.

WHAT DO I MEAN 'THESE PEOPLE!' In before the obvious joke.

[Heroic Mulatto]

What race on Earth has ever been oppressed in its entirety?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

The human race? Well, I guess there are the boot-stompers, so not even them.

[Irish]

It gets worse:

#1449
White privilege is not having your own experiences with racism become minimized and twisted whenever you speak because you are "offending the caucasian male/female." White privilege is not having REAL pain and REAL experiences be caricatured and distorted so that you end up being blamed for speaking about racial experiences.

Horseshit. I once was doing charity work in inner city Chicago and multiple people told me to get out of 'their' neighborhood. I had someone tell me that the only reason he was poor was because 'people like me' took all the money.

If I told the writer of this tumblr post about that, he'd immediately minimize the racism and act like it didn't matter. He'd tell me that I can't really have been frightened by the fact that people threatened me while I was working at a food pantry, since my white privilege makes it impossible.

Fuck them. They're the ones who minimize the effects of racism by whining about fucking Bioshock instead of actual racial issues.

[NeonCat]

My white girlfriend and I were driving in south Atlanta many years ago (she was going to take a test at Spellman, IIRC). Man, the hateful glares we got while driving past the Nation of Islam temple and some weird Baptist church could have blistered paint.

[Irish]

Liberals don't like to admit that a huge reason inner city communities are in such bad shape is because of racism in the inner cities.

When people come to do charity work for poor people in your area, and you drive them off, the person doing charity isn't going to be hurt that badly. On the other hand, the poor people in your community are going to be hurt by it.

Likewise, the race riots in Los Angeles basically destroyed those communities for 20 years and counting.

[Virginian]

No, charity itself is destructive. It's why Africa is so fucked up. The best and the brightest Africans are either whisked off to foreign schools, or they're hired as drivers and translators for NGOs or the UN.

Trade is productive, charity ultimately destroys the recipient of it, assuming there is a capacity for production. The disabled, the old, the sick, those should be taken care of. But when you pat able bodied and intelligent people on the head and treat them like they can't shift for themselves, you're going to be hated. It's why the Chinese investments in Africa are bringing more success then decades of Western aid. The Chinese are treating the Africans as people to do business with, not a project to make their college students feel good over break.

[Irish]

Investment is better than charity =/= charity is destructive.

Clearly trade is better, but it isn't as if, were I not working at a food pantry, I'd magically have the capital to open a store in inner city Chicago.

Plus, inner city racism, particularly against Asians and Indians who come to America and open up stores in those communities, also drives away trade and investment. That's why parts of Detroit that suffered race riots 40 years ago are still decimated. People simply aren't willing to invest in those areas.

So the point still stands.

[Virginian]

In the long run, charity is worse then neglect. Because charity breeds dependence and resentment.

[Tonio]

There you go with your bourgeois facts and historical accuracy.

[Episiarch]

Complaining is their privilege.

[Paul.]

I think the left set themselves up so hard that the Boston thing was a disgruntled Fox News viewer pissed off about gun control. This is their tantrum.

[Tonio]

[Stands and claps]

[Coeus]

That link is hilarious Dagny.

8:26pm with 144 notes
Tim Wise ain't shit
And yo, white allies,
if you wanna know why we don't take your submissions anymore, it's because of people like Tim Wise. It's because of people who seek to use our discourse for their own personal gain. It's because of people who steal from us. It's because even the most famous of allies can't be trusted. Its because we are the ones who get abused and threatened for creating this space while you are the ones seen as worldly and enlightened when you appropriate it.

And then you have the nerve to message me and say I'm a reverse racist. I don't trust any of you. Not a single one.

And apparently they feel that they created the phrase "This is white privilege" in 2012.

[cavalier973]

Aw, crud. I read through several of the posts thinking that "PoC" meant "Pieces of Crap".

Seriously. It wasn't until I saw the acronym in an understandable context that I got what it really meant.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Conor Friedersdorf wonders why people didn't report rogue abortionist Kermit Gosnell to the Pennsylvania health authorities.

So he goes to their Web site and tries to figure out how you go about filing a complaint.

The Web site's designers seem to think Kafka's *The Castle* is an instruction manual.

http://bit.ly/13poyqk

[I Dug It]

People DID report him! Repeatedly! The authorities didn't care/gave him a pass.

(Anger aimed not at you.)

[Eduard van Haalen]

The agency did some inspections and then decided not to do routine inspections any more, meaning they would only inspect in response to complaints. The article quotes another article about women who wanted to file complaints, but "the women found the complaint process so onerous and the telling of their stories so personally difficult that they failed to complete the paperwork and abandoned the effort."

[OldMexican]

The Boy Scouts have agreed to allow gay members ? but not leaders. Baby steps, folks[...]

... towards "harassment" lawsuits.

"They were being mean to me!!! I want compensation!"

[I Dug It]

Not just harassment lawsuits....

[Tonio]

Not all homos are whiny little bitches, OM. Any more than mexicans are all [insert the anti-mexican slur most hateful to you here].

[Tonio]

Sorry, insert stereotype most hurtful

[Fist of Etiquette]

In lighter news, Denver expects massive turnout for a marijuana smokeout.

More like in lit news. Amirite people?

[NeonCat]

Seriously, lighter news needs to be about Bic, Colibri or Zippo.

[mad libertarian guy]

Anyone who smokes pot with a zippo shouldn't have the privilege of smoking pot.

[NeonCat]

(Outraged voice) If it was good enough for our forcibly conscripted soldiers in Vietnam?

Actually, I agree, why is burning naptha so damn nasty?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A 59-year-old Russian cosmonaut who waited two decades for the privilege became the world's oldest spacewalker.

But he didn't do what the previous record holder did, which was help Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck gas up their shuttles.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Huh, that must be in some movie I've never seen.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

It's been a long time since I watched Armageddon. Was that why they went to not-Mir?

[Gladstone]

You mean there were no spacewalks in Space Cowboys. Boo Hiss.

[Tonio]

I think there was a significant EVA, plus time on lunar surface. The ending wasn an homage to RAH.

[rts]

Ecstasy pills OK'd for Vancouver PTSD-treatment trial

Andrew Feldmar, a Vancouver psychologist who will help carry out the study with the synthetic drug ? said there was a "whole hullabaloo" to meet the "Fort Knox" pharmacy-storage requirements.

"It's as if the whole of Vancouver is waiting to see this drug and will rob the pharmacy to get it," Feldmar told CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

[PapayaSF]

Good. It's a damn shame that drugs with therapeutic potential get ignored because they are illegal.

[Coeus]

Finally, a college professor fights back against the bogus feminist statistics. This line from a dissenting article is priceless.

While I understand the importance of allowing healthy debate and recognize that it's not always appropriate to silence someone because their opinion is "not P.C.", this is not just about free speech, for multiple reasons.

[db]

Look, either freedom of speech is sacrosanct, or it isn't. Get that through your thick skulls, Progressives.

[Virginian]

Sexual assault is a problem. Jezbel just defines sexual assault as very broad.

[db]

I don't deny sexual assault is a problem. I do think that anytime someone thinks there is ever a proper time "to silence someone because their opinion is 'not P.C.'," there is a problem.

[A Serious Man]

So they have no idea what he's arguing in his lectures but they're positive he's advocating rape?

[OldMexican]

"He's wrong because we say so."

Pretty much the gist of the article.

[Nazdrakke]

"that it's not always appropriate to silence someone because their opinion is "not P.C.",

Wow.. just.. wow.

[Coeus]

The mask has slipped completely off and was discarded years ago.

[PapayaSF]

Firstly, rape culture is based in an ideology, and allowing someone in a position of pedagogical power to disseminate that ideology is irresponsible.

So, just invent a bullshit term like "rape culture" to define people who disagree with you, and then shut down anyone who "disseminates" it. Brilliant.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

he presentation of sexual assault as systemic to American culture rather than pathological behavior, together with the zero-tolerance mentality that it supports, both do more harm than good to college women, who in my view would benefit most from an honest, unpatronizing, genuinely respectful, and two-sided discussion of these issues than from indoctrination in one side's position only.

Mansplanation alert! Someone wants to honestly, unpatronizingly, and respectfully talk to me! Help!

[Episiarch]

Less talking, more flashing.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Verbal rape!

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

I don't think he's able to rape me, since I'm probably only his sockpuppet anyway.

[Episiarch]

Fuck, now this one is becoming self-aware! I'm going to have to retire all my female sockpuppets at this rate!

*BLAM*

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Finally, the true reason there are no female libertarians: you don't know how to make them up without their rising up against you!

[Coeus]

I don't like this:

He also stated to these students that a woman "is able to tell" if someone is a danger to her.

But considering the source, and how small the actual quoted material is, I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Irish]

Yeah, that's really sketchy. If that were the case, most women who get sexually assaulted wouldn't be sexually assaulted by men they knew and trusted.

Beyond that though, none of it's even mildly offensive.

[Old Man With Candy]

WTF is an MRA?

[Virginian]

Men's rights advocates. There are these crazy people who think that men shouldn't be forced to pay alimony in perpetuity when they didn't desire a divorce. They also think no one should be forced to pay child support for other men's children.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, that's not crazy. The craziness begins when MRAs discussion circumcision.

[jesse.in.mb]

*LIGHTS NIKKI FLARES*

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

I was actually curious about whether there was something I didn't know about MRAs and circumcision.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

You know, jesse, I think it's only fair at this point that you should weigh in on the matter, as I assume you're one of the few others who has an opinion on the matter based in concerns other than pure libertarian ones.

I mean don't get me wrong, my main concern is libertarian. But it's also sexual.

[jesse.in.mb]

I have mixed feelings about the issue. I'm circumcised, but have a moderate preference for uncircumcised guys (if I want to play with a cut dick, I just have to drop trou).

There is some evidence that circumcision could lower spread of some STDs including HIV and I know people who have had problems with phimosis, which required adult surgery (although the one I knew at the time chose plastic surgery to alter the foreskin rather than circumcisions).

That doesn't even touch on cultural issues like whether San Fran's circ ban protects individuals from barbaric customs or whether that's an imposition on religious freedoms.

The long and the short is I don't know that it matters all that much, except in cases where they botch the circumcision, or the mohel has the herp, or if someone decides that it's something worth freaking out about after the fact (I know a few of those types too).

[Coeus]

There is some evidence that circumcision could lower spread of some STDs including HIV

Those studies were done in a culture that fetishizes dry sex.

They sometimes use sand for lube, for fuck's sake. Of course you're gonna get more blood transmission when you've got sand in your foreskin.

[jesse.in.mb]

Ack, I was unaware of that. Most of the articles I read on it had theorized that due to lack of chaffing the skin under the foreskin was more permeable or something.

[Coeus]

Found this on my first google result:

"Dry sex." Studies from Zimbabwe,9,19,25 Zaire,13, Malawi,20 Zambia,26 The Central African Republic,30 and South Africa40,46 have documented the popular practice of drying and/or tightening the vagina by various methods of douching and/or application of leaves and powders to absorb the vaginal lubrication. Dry sex is a pervasive practice in sub-Saharan Africa. This practice is purported to increase sexual pleasure.

Reports indicate that dry sex dramatically increases HIV infection risk. Several reports document that dry sex causes various problems with condom usage.19,20,26 Dry sex is associated with an increased report of STDs in men.48 Several studies report increased HIV incidence among women.9,13,30,39 Vaginal dryness is associated with increased lesions,13 lacerations,19 peeling of the vagina,25, chlamydial infection,43 and epithelial trauma in both male and female,13 thus creating a portal of entry for HIV.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Dude. Dude.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I can't believe "dry sex" is a thing.

[Virginian]

Rule 34

[Episiarch]

Did you know that raping female babies because it's believed that having sex with a virgin cures HIV is a thing?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Yes.

[Tonio]

Well, yes, basically. Plus uncut is said to be more sensitive.

I come at this from an individual right to bodily integrity perspective. Which trumps the parents religious beliefs and statistics about disease control.

And there's nothing wrong with "a little off the top" where phimosis might be an issue.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

A preference for uncut is why there are no libertarian women.

[seguin]

I am uncut, I have had phimosis (actually, for several years, before I summed up the courage to go to the doctor for it), and it SUCKS. It feels like somebody wrapping tight bailing wire around the head of your Johnson.

[Virginian]

I mean, from a straight up self-ownership POV, I can see their point.

But like....I never felt like my lack of foreskin was a real problem.

[Irish]

I am TRAUMATIZED every day by the fact that useless skin was removed from my body so early in life that I can't even remember it.

Traumatized.

[Tonio]

Oh, so it's ok to mutilate others if you can by decree specify that the mutilation is inconsequential. Got it.

Also, not a rights-based argument, but the uncut lads probably experience things you never will. Don't get all cognitive dissonance on me.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Oh oh oh, lemme femsplain to you: it's a problem.

[Virginian]

I've seen you freak out passionately argue your viewpoint on this matter.

But to me, you're like a white guy calling for slavery reparations.

[Tonio]

Uh, no, Vag, it makes a difference to both the -er and the -ee.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Preach it, Tonio!

[Irish]

Wait, are you super pro-foreskin? This is a little weird.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

What's weird about being against child abuse and in favor of awesome sex? Come now.

[Virginian]

Wait? Awesome sex? What are you talking about?

[Irish]

Apparently Nicole has some bizarre foreskin fetish.

That's what I'm gathering from this.

[Episiarch]

Her point is that mutilating a baby is wrong, and that foreskins have sensation. I don't know how she can prove the latter, but I'm on board for the former.

[Coeus]

I don't know how she can prove the latter

Probably with a microscope. You can see nerve cells, can't you?

[Episiarch]

You have to use a microscope to look at your wang? Dude, are you sure you want to be saying that here?!?

[Coeus]

You have to use a microscope to look at your wang?

I don't have to. It just makes me feel better.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I'm always pissed when the anti-harelip lobby holds back the natural evolution of human beauty.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

It's better. It's just better.

Also, way easier to give handjobs, thus more handjobs.

It's better guys. For everyone.

[Coeus]

Also, way easier to give handjobs, thus more handjobs.

Yes, so much this. I fucking hate having to break out the lube just to get a handjob.

[Coeus]

Wait? Awesome sex? What are you talking about?

Well, for starters, condoms work way better if you have a foreskin. If I don't put a drop of lube inside one, I can't even get off. That lube causes the condom to slide like it would if you had more free skin.

Also, it allows less foreplay time, as she doesn't have to be as lubed up when you start if some of the give is coming from the skin on your body.

Of course, due to the wide range of tightness of circumcision techniques, YMMV. Mine happens to be pretty tight.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Yes, Coeus knows things. Also, take everything he says about the way condoms work and replace "condom" with "vagina" for an idea of the difference in mechanics.

[jesse.in.mb]

It would've been nice not having to have a bottle of lotion hidden someplace in my room at all times during middle school.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

The day I was like, "Oh so I don't have to spit on my hand anymore?" was the day I was like, "Oh HELL YEAH."

[Tonio]

See upthread. But the mutilation / integrity argument trumps all.

The diminished sensitivity argument is just something I throw out to win over those subject to utilitarian suasion.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Yes, I completely agree. But since I'm a girl I like to encourage guys who think we don't like it au naturel.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I think most of you don't like au natural.

[Old Man With Candy]

"It's like looking at an alien."

[Old Man With Candy]

I guess I'm an MRA, because I'm not happy that I'm paying a psycho cheating bitch for the rest of her life, as well as for the kid she had after fucking her lawyer.

The circumcision thing, I dunno, I'm not a fan of penises other than mine.

[Tonio]

I'm not a fan of penises other than mine.

Well, I'd go to bat for you for your rights even if I thought your exercise of those rights was silly, or even harmful to me.

[Old Man With Candy]

Trust me, dude, my penis is neither silly nor likely to be harmful to you. I can't say the same about my ex-wife.

[Coeus]

How would her penis be harmful to him?

[Tonio]

Beat me to it, Co. [high-fives]

[Old Man With Candy]

OK, now my penis is ready to harm you!

[Coeus]

Well now we see why your wife is an ex-wife. Not only did you not like her penis, you're actively harmful with your own.

[Old Man With Candy]

There's no assault quite like a penis assault.

[db]

Let's face it: the primary purpose of marijuana regulations is to weed out those who aren't really dedicated to smoking.

[JW]

It's just a token effort.

[db]

They're just going to have to roll will the paperwork.

[JW]

Maybe it's just not their baggie.

[db]

If they sit down and talk it over with their buds, they'll fill it out right.

[Dagny T.]

I predict that, with a *puff*, all this will pass.

[Coeus]

Indiana Sorority Girls Attend Homeless-Themed Party

Let the pearl-clutching begin.

[JW]

Pearls don't really go with those outfits.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Pearl necklaces do, however.

[JW]

I almost have my pearl brooch perfected. The Victorian detail is a bitch.

[AlmightyJB]

I've seen Jenna Jamison do some pretty interesting things with pearls:)

[Heroic Mulatto]

Poor Jenna...she got old.

[I Dug It]

That does have a tendency to happen.

[Virginian]

That industry is ravenous. It destroys those girls. I mean, obviously that's all fine, consenting adults and all that. But some of them just get consumed body and soul. Then discarded.

Alright, gonna go do my weekly downloads.

[C. Anacreon]

She did get to be a guest star on a "Family Guy" episode though. She'll always have that.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

That industry is ravenous. It destroys those girls. I mean, obviously that's all fine, consenting adults and all that.

The thing is also that it's damn hard to cross over into more mainstream professions once they've taken the plunge. They'll always be known as "porn star so-and-so" or "former porn star so-and-so" no matter what they try to do next.

Plus, if you've read Jenna's or Tera Patrick's bios, it's not hard to surmise that a lot of these girls are extremely fucked up in the head and it's nearly impossible for them to form stable relationships, intimate or otherwise. The ones who manage to create a semblance of a normal life after porn like Asia Carrera seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

[Virginian]

Yeah for sure. The relationship thing is particularly crazy. I mean, leaving aside guys who get off on it, who the hell wants to date a girl who is literally going to spend her days having sex with other people?

[Coeus]

They'll always be known as "porn star so-and-so" or "former porn star so-and-so" no matter what they try to do next.

Not necessarily. More people know which one of the chicks on game of thrones was in Harry Potter than know which one was in porno.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Which one of them was in Harry Potter? (Seriously, I am a HP fan and I know the porn one but not the HP one.)

[Virginian]

I have told all my friends that Shae was in porn.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Aaand I'm the opposite on this. Who was in Harry Potter?

[Episiarch]

Here.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Wow, I totally missed Ciar?n Hinds being in Harry Potter too.

[Virginian]

Osha....played Tonks in HP.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Well, that is boorish behavior. I'm not about to start a witch-hunt or lose my shit over it, but c'mon, now.

[Virginian]

College is basically about boorish behavior though.

[Coeus]

I attended an event like this during the 2 months in college I was living out of my car.

Years later, I attended a biker-themed one on my bike wearing my leathers.

Themed parties are great when you already have the costume.

[Episiarch]

"WILL TWERK FOR FOOD"

Ok, I now want to go back to college.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Twerk Tuesdays and Bhangra Thursdays....or is it the other way around?

[db]

I'm almost afraid to ask...

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

That is KILLER

[Heroic Mulatto]

Twerk Team Thursday

The decision was never in our hands to begin with.

It was in our rumps.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

It's IU? What do you expect?

[Doktor Kapitalism]

*.

[Tonio]

Sensitivity workshop where refreshments happened to be served.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Catholic high school fires lesbian

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus fired Bishop Watterson High School's much-beloved physical education teacher and coach after learning she was gay and living in sin. Is that even legal?

Yes it's legal, you fascist twat.

[MJGreen]

Well there oughta be a law!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

You'd think that being a female PE teacher applicant might have tipped them off.

[AuH20]

Homosexuality is not considered a protected class under discrimination law.

So, yes, it is legal. Semi-dick move, but the Catholic Church is pretty open about its position on gays.

...

Honestly, it is weird how hard the progs are going after the Catholics. I think it is because the Catholics are the ultimate example of a voluntary, successful, non-governmental civil societies. Think about it: They run better schools, at a cheaper price per pupil, than the state. They run hospitals which help the poor more and charge less than the State. Their Charities help anyone, including illegals, which the state is not allowed to do. The Catholic Church spends its time making the State look bad, and that is why they are hated.

[Tonio]

Why any gay or lesbian person would be dumb enough to be in the employ of the catholic church or any of its subsidiaries is beyond me.

[Joe M]

Question: how long can this total lockdown/manhunt continue? I mean, at a bare minimum, people will eventually need to leave their houses to buy food. Is the entire weekend canceled in Boston or what?

[Slumbrew]

That thought has occurred; along with "will I actually be arrested if I go outside or should I stay inside just so I don't get shot in the name of officer safety"?

[Nazdrakke]

I'm very curious about this. How close to de facto martial law is actually in place?

[Slumbrew]

It's unclear - where I am, at least (Somerville), they're "requesting" we stay off the streets. The official MEMA site says "should" (http://www.mass.gov/eopss/agencies/mema/) but I see the word "ordered" in some reports - but it's unclear if it's official.

[Slumbrew]

And they lifted all of that moments after I posted this.

[JW]

Don't worry, Dunkin Donuts stayed open, do to, you know, demand.

[I Dug It]

Law enforcement gets (more) reckless when the sun starts to go down.

1985 MOVE bombing

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Nice link.

[I Dug It]

Stupid Wikipedia. Try this.

[AuH20]

White people only understand beach houses.

I am talking about beach houses because sometimes I think it is the only example that upper class white people can easily understand when talking about issues of class. It's my hope that those conversations about class will lead to ones about race.

The best race conversations I have had with white people have been with those who understand class, acknowledge their privilege regardless of their experience, and listen. Even if they didn't understand my Black experience?which I only assure them they never will?they understand what it's like to be systemically disenfranchised. And they understand that even though they may have grown up poor, they still have privilege based on their white complexion.

...

Being a white, feminist ally is not about being recognized for one's good work, being congratulated or receiving an honorarium. It's about saying what needs to be said without any expectation of recognition, simply because it is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to stand up for voices missing in the room, the same voices that are easily ignored when they are present. The white allies I trust the most are the ones I know are talking about race not only for the benefit of the people of color in the room but for the benefit of their white peers.

[Virginian]

I guess the trailer parks on my NC island full of working class people on vacation don't actually exist.

[NeonCat]

There should be no vacation from the struggle for equality and recognition of their white privilege!

[mad libertarian guy]

The best race conversations I have had with white people have been with those who understand class, acknowledge their privilege regardless of their experience, and listen.

The best conversations about race are the ones in which the lectured already agree with me, and shut the fuck up while I lecture away.

How fucking convenient.

[Coeus]

Great hick minds think alike.

[I Dug It]

Or they're afraid to contradict a crazy perseon.

[Coeus]

The best race conversations I have had with white people have been with those who understand class, acknowledge their privilege regardless of their experience,

Of course he likes those conversations. They are allowing him to start it with his favorite false premise unchallenged.

[AuH20]

Written by a woman, bud. A lesbian at that, if you check the site.

[Coeus]

Should've used "ze".

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

That's completely bizarre and actually surprising to me. White people who have actually experienced class differences tend to think the "white privilege" thing is that much more bullshit because most of the examples of it are just examples of upper middle class privilege anyway.

[AuH20]

Well, if you read the whole article, here is the summary: In college, she, a black queer woman (I am using queer because it has become the preferred term and I don't know if she is lez or bi) was invited to her white friend's beach house, which was super nice and nicer than any place she had been. Her friend, however, knew of an even nicer beach house owned by another girl, and they were eventually invited over, and the girl acted a bit stuck up to them.

Now, because white people are just too blinded by racial privilege, she uses that class privilege to illustrate to the white people she knows racial privilege. Which, yes, does tell us that the only white people she knows are upper middle class at the very least, so basically ever since college she has swum in SWPL circles.

[AuH20]

This may have been relevant:

About the author: Ashley Young is a black feminist queer dyke; poet, non-fiction writer and teaching artist. She is a non-fiction 2011 Lambda Literary Foundation Fellow and a 2010 Poetry Fellow for Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation Retreat for Writers of Color. She is the author of a chapter in Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion edited by Virgie Tovar (Seal Press 2012) and her queer feminist prose and poetry has been featured on Elixher.com, Her Circle Ezine, Rkvry Quarterly Literary Journal and Shuomii Life. Ashley works as an editorial assistant at Riverdale Ave Books and is working on her first novel. She lives in New York City with her partner and family, including a pride of four cats.

[Adam.]

Rich old white dude knows better than you

What a bunch of babies. You lost, deal with it.

[Virginian]

"Our Congress has ceased to be representative. It is up to the citizens to remove those people who don't represent them."

They just keep lying and lying and lying.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

When was it ever representative, and how do you think whining on Twitter would change anything?

Loons.

[MJGreen]

Wait... isn't that how representation is supposed to work?

You remove people that no longer represent you/put in people that better represent you.

[mad libertarian guy]

Being a Kentuckian, I'm pretty sure that both of my Senators represented us pretty fucking well in their role in smacking down that dastardly bill.

Number of NICS checks ranked by state:

1, Kentucky
Population:4,314,113
NICS background checks per 100,000 residents (Dec. 2008 ? May 2010): 134,028

[The Late P Brooks]

The suspects' father doesn't (want to) believe his sons did it.

Okay. This is neither surprising nor problematic.

Presumably, the truth, whatever it may be, will be known eventually.

[The Late P Brooks]

I am talking about beach houses because

I am not listening, because I don't care.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Huff N'Puff's take on breastfeeding

Only linked because of this hilarious line:

"One thing that I heard a lot from a lot of moms in the community is that their partner did not want them to breastfeed because they wanted the breast back, and it kind of has to do with the over sexualization of the breast in the American culture," Ellis says.

When my wife had our kid, she went up two cup sizes. As far as I'm concerned, future babies can breastfeed anytime they're hungry.

And what's this "over-sexualization of the breast" nonsense? Apparently they missed their history class which shows that boobs have ALWAYS been considered sexual objects.

[AuH20]

History that does not conform to some half baked Marxist view isn't learning history!

Seriously, as a History/Poli Sci major, the fact that the Marxist view persists is so annoying, because we JOKED about it openly in class. It was tossed out on the first day by a freshman and everyone rolled their eyes at it. How it has so much resilience in popular history is astounding to me.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Shit like this happens in so many fields. My eyes would roll all the way back into my head listening to my BFF talk about semiotic theory bullshit that was based on theories of linguistics that had been abandoned like a hundred years earlier.

[Heroic Mulatto]

My eyes would roll all the way back into my head listening to my BFF talk about semiotic theory bullshit that was based on theories of linguistics that had been abandoned like a hundred years earlier.

^^^THIS IN SPADES^^^^^

Oh shit....

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

The worst is when they're like, "Oh, you'll know about this, because it's your field," and I'm like uh...it sure as hell is not.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Students come and go, but marxist professors stay tenured.

[A Serious Man]

A nice example of Paul Krugman's complete and utter lack of self-awareness:

Notice, however, that the problem with the original wasn't that it failed to convey the nuances. The problem was that it was just plain wrong ? wrong about America after the war, wrong about what a debt-growth correlation means. (It turns out that there was other wrongness too, but that was enough).

So the moral of the story should not be, "Don't take strong positions". It should instead be "Don't take a strong position that some people want to hear if the position isn't supported by theory and evidence". Or maybe, even more briefly, "Don't pander".

And two paragraphs later:

In particular, my hard-line views on policy in the current crisis ? it's a demand problem not a structural problem, there is no risk of crowding out, there is no risk of inflation from aggressive monetary expansion, there are large negative effects from austerity ? aren't simplifications of some more complex story, they are what my basic model and the lessons of history teach.

Sure, you totally don't fall into the former category Paul.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

A nice example of Paul Krugman's complete and utter lack of self-awareness

Amongst an embarrassment of riches, to be sure.

[AuH20]

In shocking news, that will not shock anyone who saw what she wore to the draft, Britteny Griner is gay.

Okay, seriously, why hasn't like a soccer or basketball player come out? I get why in football or hockey- a gay player could become a target for cheap shots in super physical sports where it is easy to get away with them. But if I were the 7th or 8th man on an NBA bench, and I were gay, I would totally come out. You are instantly going to get a ton of endorsements, get hailed as "courageous", and get ass into your 90s from people whose sexual preference is primarily based on politics.

Also, weird thing about women's basketball: As a UConn fan, I can not think of any significant player who has come out. I suppose Taurasi isn't married, but it is weird in a sport where there are a TON of lesbians, we haven't had a prominent one yet.

[Episiarch]

You're a UConn fan? I knew there was something off about you.

[AuH20]

You lived in Connecticut and didn't become a UConn fan?

Welp, that explains why you are the worst, Epi.

[Episiarch]

I went to high school with Calhoun's incredibly obnoxious son. I hate UConn basketball, I don't really care what gender. See? I'm an equal opportunity hater.

[AuH20]

It does not suprise me that Calhoun sired dick, or even probably was one.

Still, 3 championships, bitches. Also, Kemba Walker, who I am kind of gay for.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I suspect no soccer players have come out due more to being made a target of the various goon fan bases, rather than the players.

It is rather shocking that no basketball players have come out since what's-his-face a few years ago. Yeah, at away games you might get jeers, but you're ultimately going to have the media shield you from any serious criticism whatsoever, and the players are going to be forced to support you or seem boorish, at the very least, because ultimately it will come down to money. No way LeBron is going to risk his endorsement deals for being a homophobe if, say, Shane Battier decided to come out.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

And I'm amazed more WNBA players haven't come out considering half their fan base are lesbians.

[AuH20]

I can understand in Europe, but if an MLS player came out, people would be forced to pretend that the MLS was relevant for at least a year.

[Mike M.]

Honestly, how many "prominent" female basketball players have there been? I can think of maybe five or six.

[AuH20]

From Uconn?

Sue Bird, Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Tina Charles, Kelly Farris is going to be a friggin' bulldog, pain in the ass point guard (who, if I were a team who had to play Skylar Diggins in conference, I would draft, because she has been playing against Diggins since high school in Indiana, and I always love those weird basketball match ups- like when one player is super good at guarding another because they played in the same obscure conference in college) and probably soon to join that list Breanna Stewart unless she tears something vital.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I think he means "prominent" in the sense that people would know about them irrespective of ESPN's persistent coverage.

I can think of Nancy Lieberman, Cheryl Miller, Rebecca Lobo, Sheryl Swoopes, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, Chamique Holdsclaw, and Lisa Leslie who'd fit this bill. What set them apart was crossover star appeal, not just being good at bouncy-ball. Skylar Diggins is another that might fit this bill.

[AuH20]

I'd say Maya Moore was also pretty famous by the time she left. I think she was the first female athlete to sign with Jordan's shoe brand.

Also, how must much it suck to be Reggie Miller, and know that for her sport, your sister was WAY better than you?

[Not an Economist]

Considering at worst, Reggie was close to a hall of fame mens basketball player tells you how good his sister was.

[OldMexican]

Re: AuH2O,

In shocking news, that will not shock anyone who saw what she wore to the draft, Britteny Griner is gay.

Which is why the only women's sport I find inspiring is women's volleyball.

[AuH20]

Awww, broken link.

[OldMexican]

What? No, it's not!

But here's another one.

http://itsguycode.com/images/s.....rls-14.jpg

[db]

At lunch today one of the younger female engineers brought up the excitement in Boston, complete with one of the bombers on the run "with an IUD strapped to his body."

Hilarity ensued.

[Stormy Dragon]

Santorum warned us that birth control would lead to this!

[Stormy Dragon]

Guy who ran the Boston marathon and missed being blown up by seconds gets back to work in Texas just in time to be sent to a meeting near the fertilizer plant that blew up:

http://kikn.com/man-miraculous.....8E1B53F80-

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Still the champion in the luckiest unlucky guy in history. This man.

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

[Virginian]

He died at the age of 93 though.

Supposedly there was a sailor who was a crewman on the Titanic, the Empress of Ireland, and the Lusitania who survived all three sinkings. Probably an urban legend though.

[C. Anacreon]

I know a guy who was on the Bay Bridge when it collapsed in the 1989 earthquake (his car is the red one you see dangling over the water in famous pix, he escaped by crawling through the hatchback.) Then, he was in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and made it out just before the building collapsed.

After he escaped both, he basically figured his luck was done said fuck it, and moved to a "safe" small rural residence somewhere in Canada. Last I heard of him.

[seguin]

Eaten by wolves, no doubt. The destination is final.

[Stormy Dragon]

At 11 am on August 9, Yamaguchi was describing the blast in Hiroshima to his supervisor, when the American bomber Bockscar dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb onto Nagasaki.

"Actually, it was just like that blast there."

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

The first hipster.

[AuH20]

So, when do we find out he has super powers, like in the movie Unbreakable?

[Stormy Dragon]

Do you really want to find out you're living in an M. Knight Shaymalan movie?

[Coeus]

Now that would be a twist.

[Coeus]

States fight back against women experiencing consequences for their choices.

yippie

[mad libertarian guy]

But employers ? and some courts ? have not gotten the message. Women workers in states around the country won't stop until their right not to be forced off the job when pregnant is secure.

Yet somehow my right to not be infringed in my arms bearing, you know, a right that is actually written fucking down, is paramount.

There are NO SUCH THINGS AS POSITIVE RIGHTS, BITCH. Those are called privileges.

[SFRDe]

An interesting perspective on why the Republican party is embracing amnesty by Patrick Buchanan. I'm curious to hear a libertarian take on this. Why do you think the GOP has embraced amnesty?

[Virginian]

Because they are the party of big business and big business loves cheap labor.

[OldMexican]

Silicon Valley is not interested in middle-aged Americans who lost jobs in defense industries. They want young foreign students with newly minted advanced degrees, who will work for less.

Bargain-hunters! Why, those bastards!

What happened to putting our own country and people first?

Yes, it shouldn't be about freedom or economics, but about nationalism "patriotism".

Why, it's not like it is the employer's money!

By the way, Pat has been always wrong about economics. He's a Hamiltonian by his own admission.

[AuH20]

Um, they saw how badly they got killed among Hispanics in the last election?

Now, as to why Hispanics who are in the United States, legally, and can therefore vote, give such a shit about people who came here illegally, subverting the process that they went through?

Super good question. Don't have a great answer, expect that when politicians talk about immigration, it sounds like what they really mean is, "people who aren't white."

[Dunphy (the real one)]

Coeus, thanks for finding these links/stories... "Finally, a college professor fights back against the bogus feminist statistics. This line from a dissenting article is priceless."

The prof is right. These stats consider, for example, it to be sexual assault/rape if a woman is "verbally coerced" into sex. Iow, if the man convinces her to change her mind and have sex with him, that's RAPE. If the woman regrets having the sex afterwards. Seriously. So, the stats are totally twisted.

Similarly, a lot of the domestic violence stuff is similarly whack. I've read some of these 'dating violence" pamphlets. What's considered domestic violence according to these pamphlets? Name calling? Your partner keeping tabs on your whereabouts. Stuff like that.

[Virginian]

Name calling? Your partner keeping tabs on your whereabouts

So..I have both been abused and been abusive with every girl I've ever fucked.

Good deal.

[Coeus]

You're welcome. I also see "withholding money" as one of their domestic violence transgressions. I guess saying "go get a damn job if you want new living room furniture" is anti-feminist.

[Virginian]

Holy shit this. I let a girl stay with me for a month while she was between houses and between jobs. We were fucking at the time, and I also expected her to keep house, in exchange for the whole no rent thing. She was not happy about that, although she did listen to my reasoning and came around. It was a pretty good little month, although we realized at the end of it there wasn't going to be much of a future for us.

[OldMexican]

Sounds like a case I heard in a Judge Judy episode...

[Dunphy (the real one)]

Be careful with that. Laws vary state to state, but you let somebody stay and "visit" with you for even a few weeks and again (varies state to state), but they can argue they now have TENANCY. Iow, they are now a tenant. Doesn't matter if they pay rent or get mail. That stuff matters, but it's NOT dispositive. And once somebody has tenancy, it takes full eviction process (or a domestic violence protection order) to get them out if they refuse to leave.

As cops, we deal with this not infrequently -tenancy, eviction etc. issues and people fuck themselves over on many occasions. Not saying not to get a nice piece of ass when you can, but letting somebody shack up , especially when they don't have another permanent domicile can bite you in the ass.

Friendly advice from ofc. friendly.

[Coeus]

I turned down a deal like Virginian's for that reason. Plus, she didn't have citizenship, which added a whole other incentive for her to fuck me over.

[Virginian]

Oh yeah this was before I started reading up on the vast web of bullshit that is family law.

I would never allow that nowadays.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

fWIW, have you seen articles commentary from feministing/jezebel and that ilk regarding females and MMA? It would seem to create a conundrum for them. Just as they are anti-gun, even though guns are the great equalizers and empower women against (mostly) male violence that they need fear...

I am wondering what the Jezebelian/Feministing position is on the televising of and promotion of women in MMA. I would suspect a lot of handwringing about it "legitimizing" violence towards women, with others taking the opposite side.

Personally, I am a huge fan of athletes like Ronda Rousey (beautiful too doesn't hurt). One of my coworkers is a budding MMA fighter and I just love athletic strong women.

Considering jezebel/feministing so love to encourage the woman as victim meme, I see them having problems with women MMA stuff like "I find it highly problematic to have men cheering on women beating other women, making it acceptable to have images of violence perpetuated upon women, considering the history of their brutalization by their partners, this kind of thing just normalizes violence against women and will erode what little remains of the taboos against striking women" bla bla bla

[Irish]

That's what sickens me the most about modern feminism. They claim that they're in favor of 'strong' women but they heavily fetishize victimization, to the point where these strong and independent feminists end up constructing a worldview where women are incapable of defending themselves.

All the actually strong and independent women I know don't consider themselves feminists.

[Coeus]

I haven't seen any of that. But I wouldn't be surprised if a feminist starts a movement along those lines in order to make a name for herself.

Been seeing a lot of that lately.

[A Serious Man]

Heir to the Busch family brewing fortune resigns from organization.

[Pi Guy]

Bad politics, terrible beer.

Good riddance!

[Dunphy (the real one)]

Totally OT: But I think it's awesome that UFC is starting to include wimmins in its major events, like the TUF finale this past week (great fights - the one that determined the season winner was awesome although no kick Uriah highlight film knockout). Props to Gastelum, a LAST pick at the beginning of the season for defeating Uriah.

The women fighting were Cat Zingano and Miesha Tate and it was an EXCITING fight. You didn't feel like you were watching a watered down version of a man's sport, like with so many other sports. For example, women's surfing is just like watered down men's surfing. Ditto women's basketball. It's just like watching less athletic - slower, weaker, less-vert-having men play the sport.

When it comes to watching women fight other women in combat sports, the hits are just as impressive. When Zingano was slinging those knees into Tate's head, it didn't look like a watered down version of a man's sport. It looked like a badass vale tudo exhibition of bad-assery. If that's not redundant.

And for the record, I am totally looking forward to the fight between Zingano and Rousey for the title. Need I say that Rousey is BEAUTIFUL. Femininity and strength go hand in hand imo

I'd take a beautiful athlete like Rousey

http://www.rondamma.com/

over any # of skinny, muscleless models that are supposed to be epitome of beauty. Beauty is strong, flexible, functional...

Totally looking forward to Gina Carano's next movie btw.

[GILMORE]

The father of the Tsarnaev brothers who apparently blew the hell out of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring scores more, insists his sons were framed and that the younger one, still on the run from a massive police search, is an "angel."

"In related news, the Uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers countered that they were "losers""...

http://www.policymic.com/artic.....are-losers

Uncles always know better

Beck says, "...So why don't you kill him?"

[Stilgar]

I've heard a lot of interivews with those who went to school with him and/or did sports with him and on the face of it, yes he sounds like a pretty standup type of guy. Supposedly he even volunteered to help disabled kids. Not exactly your "terrorist" persona.

[Joe M]

Anyone see this yet?

Two hours after the Boston Marathon bombing, suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tweeted, "Ain't no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people" ? and a day later said he was "stress-free."

[Joe M]

Link: Suspect on Twitter after Boston bombing: 'Stay safe'

[DRM]

Dr. Fredric Wertham warned us about comics! Now we've got a guy named Joker terrorizing Boston!

[Kaptious Kristen]

Over/under on how many drug arrests the cops made in their sweep of Watertown residences?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Well that all depends on how many residences were searched...

[Kaptious Kristen]

They says ~20 streets. Some single family, some apartments from what I can see on TV. Let's say a conservative 200 residences.

[Episiarch]

Wait, I haven't been paying attention. Are these warrantless searches? Of homes in a blanket area?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Yes.

[Episiarch]

What the fuck? How is that even legal?

Oh, I forgot, we don't live under the rule of law. Oops!

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

How is that even legal?

It's not, and they won't be able to prosecute for anything incidentally found (this time). But I have no idea what actual consequences they could face suit/settlement wise for the home invasions that didn't receive consent. Your damages would be pretty low if you weren't home, most homeowners probably did consent if asked, and how many Boston juries are going to give you lots of money for actually upholding your rights, you crazy terrorist supporting assholes?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Sounds like there may have been a lot of kicked-in doors. Fortunately the cops never feel a need to pay for those, so they won't be out too much money I'm sure.

[Tonio]

I believe that where I live the governor can declare a "state of emergency" and basically declare martial law for a limited period under somewhat-defined circumstances. I think most states have something like this,but YMMV.

Not defending this, just acknowledging it.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Sounds like it. It's not a problem for prosecuting the perp (they don't need any evidence acquired in the house they catch him for a prosecution, I'm betting), but it might fuck over any person who foolishly gave consent. No idea how this might work for the later lawsuits.

[AuH20]

30,000 residents, not all of whom are home...

I am going to put the over/under at a possibly way too low 200, on the basis that maybe some cops actually give a shit about bigger issues than that.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

God that sounds low, but I have to hope they were busy with other things so maybe you are right.

[AuH20]

Well, I am also figuring that anyone who wasn't home wasn't charged, although in a few weeks they may be getting a knock at the door.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Yes, exactly.

[Nazdrakke]

Wondered about this. I'm guessing nothing now, but a number of "lucky breaks" in coming weeks. Worth keeping an eye on.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Something actually funny re: Boston bombers.

[A Serious Man]

That's a fat dildo.

[AuH20]

Why, as a dude, would you ever own a non-strap on dildo?

...

...

Y'know, as I typed that, I realized that the dude probably lives with a woman, and I had just revealed an awful lot about my kinks, but full steam ahead!

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

That was hilarious. But that's what we're here for!

[jesse.in.mb]

Better question is why you'd keep it on the fridge.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Sometimes they have a stopover on the way from the dishwasher to the bedroom...

[db]

That poor guy.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Hi, so uh what I miss today

[Richard Nixon]

John Derbyshire asks Why isn't racism cool? The man still has no idea why he was fired.

[#HOLO YOLO]

Stopped reading at

We all had a lot of fun at the American Renaissance bash the other weekend.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

Derby is like the Paleocon to trump all Paleocons. He just doesn't get it.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Again, please stop your anti Renfaire nerd hatred.

[#HOLO YOLO]

Don't worry Cheerwine, I only hate the American ones.

[Tonio]

Cheerwine beats out even my most outrageous take-offs on commenters' names. Bravo, Thane.

[Coeus]

I thought it was cool. I've read a dozen "what's the matter with white people" articles in the last few weeks alone.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

This site has made me lol many times... good stuff

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

[Human Being]

He's got a point though. This generation is as conformist as any, only whereas other generations trumpeted their conformism this generation tries to wrap it up in fake rebel attitudes. It reminds me of the Ayn Rand quote:

"There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist."

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Prince Harry and a race to a pole

[A Serious Man]

Prince Harry, building a bridge to the turn of the 20th century.

[jesse.in.mb]

At least post an appropriate picture. (Absolutely SFW)

[A Serious Man]

You think that's attractive?

[Episiarch]

(grabs popcorn)

[jesse.in.mb]

Harry is absolutely doable. He'll age poorly like his brother did though and it's starting to show around the edges. It's not the best picture of him I've seen (although by far not the worst). I just chose it because of the cold weather jacket he had on to go with the story.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I think he'll age really well. He'll get those rugged crags like Jonathan Goldsmith.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Yes, I think he'll age much better than Wills.

[jesse.in.mb]

Naw, he won't age well. He's already showing hints of aging like his brother.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

I don't know, he just looks stupid in that one. I mean WTF did someone do to his hair and eyebrows? Ugh.

[jesse.in.mb]

Nope, his brother was hot, then he hit a certain age, and now looks like his dad. Harry won't be as bad, but it's downhill from here. That doesn't mean he isn't fapworthy now, but future Harry will just be average.

[Tonio]

Mmmm, scruffy ginger cub...

[Kaptious Kristen]

Yuuuuuuummmmmm

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Am I the only one who feels shame and sorrow that when I was a kid, William was the much, much hotter one, and I spent my whole childhood wanting to marry him, but now he is not looking so great at all and Harry is adorbs?

[Kaptious Kristen]

I always thought William was cuter until about 10 years ago, but no need to feel guilt. Some people are just late bloomers, and some people peak early. Seems to have happened both ways in gthe Windsor family.

[Virginian]

You know what other American girl wanted to marry a British prince?

[Kaptious Kristen]

Marge Simpson?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

All of the straight ones?

[Episiarch]

Your mom?

[Tonio]

Wallis Simpson?

[A Serious Man]

They're all inbred, that alone would turn me off.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

That's because you're not thinking of the DRESSES AND HATS OMG.

[Episiarch]

Way to go, Serious, you got her started with the chick shit. THREAD RUINED.

I mean, we could have had a fascinating discussion about Virginian's mom, and now you've opened up a can of rainbows, unicorns, and shoes.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

I bet Virginian's mom likes shoes too. So there!

[Virginian]

Maybe she does. She ran off to live in a commune when I was four. I have an old picture though. Plus I got a letter on my 18th birthday.

So that was cool.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

She ran off to live in a commune when I was four.

Huh. I for some reason had you figured for daddy issues.

[A Serious Man]

At least she didn't name you Sue, right?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

You're only allowed to take Epi's side via glibness.

[Virginian]

Wait, can I join the Axis and have Tulpa demand my unconditional surrender?

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

I was thinking more that since he's now moved to your neck of the woods you could demand his.

[Virginian]

Pretty sure hes in NoVA, which is a place I do not go.

[Episiarch]

Like Scientology, joining the Axis requires a tremendous buy-in. You have a quarter of a million dollars lying around?

[Virginian]

How much of a discount will the skulls of five five and a half prostitutes get me?

[Episiarch]

None. What do you think Warty used for part of his buy-in? We have enough dead prostitutes for a lifetime. Well, not their lifetimes.

[Tonio]

Dude, I may have done your mom. Uh, you do know who your dad is, right?

[Tonio]

That was to vag @ 7:02.

[jesse.in.mb]

They're all inbred, that alone would turn me off.

He's only like, half-inbred. I don't see the problem. You aren't engaging in incest. You've seen what he looks like, so you aren't getting a surprise genetic bomb. I don't see why he should be judged solely for what his ancestors did.

[A Serious Man]

You've seen what he looks like, so you aren't getting a surprise genetic bomb. I don't see why he should be judged solely for what his ancestors did.

Well you wouldn't have to worry about that, I'm just trying to quash Nicole and Kristen's princess fantasies. That gene pool is too sketchy for my tastes.

[Virginian]

Which is why it needs fresh blood.

[Episiarch]

Serious is just pissed that nicole and Kristen think a ginger prince is hotter than him. Don't be pissed, dude. He's a ginger, so he's not even human. Let them have their bestiality fantasies.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

I'm sorry, I thought I was fantasizing about dresses and shoes?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

I'm sorry, I thought

So we're agreed.

[Episiarch]

I said "rainbows, unicorns, and shoes". Unicorns are animals. Therefore, bestiality. Does my mansplanation confuse you?

"Sex with animals?!? There's no time, man!"

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

Well, if unicorns are real, that changes everything.

[Episiarch]

Here you go.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Epi is a brony? That changes nothing

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

But...she was the last.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

"Songs performed by America."

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

And I can sing you each and every one of those songs.

[A Serious Man]

Being bi-racial I'm simply convinced of the fact of my superior genetic breeding.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Hybrid vigor!!!

[Apatheist ?_??]

Prince Harry

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Game show asks: Would you convert to Islam for Bieber tickets?

[Paul.]

+1 pressure cooker.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Tiny kitten vs Huge dog

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Bradley Cooper lives with his mom. And Episiarch's.

[Episiarch]

My mom is such a fame whore.

[Irish]

Ezra Klein says shots have been fired in Watertown.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Is he doing on site reporting?!? Please?

[A Serious Man]

Suspect is reportedly been downed by gunfire.

[A Serious Man]

Or he's cornered, getting conflicting reports from police sources.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

this guy almost beat 5 stars on GTA

[General Butt Naked]

Don't know if anyone has seen this before, but here is footage of the PEPCON explosion.

I remembered this after the recent explosion in Texas. They made ammonium perchlorate at PEPCON used as an oxidizer in rocket fuel. Amazingly only 2 people died from this explosion that registered 3.5 on the richter scale.

[Smith]

I disagree with the idea that middle easterners are somehow not white. It makes little sense from a genetic standpoint, at least. There is little genetic difference between the "white" peoples of southern Europe and the North Africans of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Nor is there much appreciable difference between Turkish people and the other Balkan people's, though the "Turks" originated in Central Asia most of their genetic contribution comes from people native to the area for thousands of year prior. Don't get me wrong, I'm no race-denier. There is definante biological difference between whites and blacks, or whites and east Asians. But the differentiation between Europeans and middle eastern Muslim people's is more based on culture than anything else. Assimilated Arabs who speak English are usually considered "white" at least in America.

[Calidissident]

I agree that genetically and scientifically, there really isn't much basis for it. However, because of the cultural differences, I think there's a resistance to lumping them in with white people. Also, people tend to include a lot of different groups (Arabs, Persians, Turks, Berbers, Pakistanis) in with Middle Easterners, even though there can be some pretty big differences in appearance between those groups. On average, though, Arabs, Persians, and Berbers look different enough from white Europeans to be considered (after the influence of culture, as I mentioned, has on racial classification, even though it shouldn't have any) "non-white" by society.

"Assimilated Arabs who speak English are usually considered "white" at least in America."

I think this depends on appearance. Some can, others probably can't, especially if they are Muslim.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Well obviously if they're a certain type of Muslim they're not assimilated. I'm not sure how far any of them have gone down the road to de facto cultural Protestantism they've gone like the American Catholics and non-Orthodox Jews.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Persians

??? Persians are an Indo-European culture. They're closer to, say, Celts than Hungarians are.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Christ, really? Yes, the Hungarians and the Finns have weird/isolated linguistic history, but that hardly has anything to do with practical cultural affinities today. Whose porn industry is most similar to Germany's, Hungary or Iran?

I'd like to see some Celtic porn, if anyone can tell me what the country suffix of Celtonia is. I'll bet it's not as dirty as the Picts.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Whose porn industry is most similar to Germany's, Hungary or Iran?

I really do wonder what Iranian porn is like.

[Calidissident]

Indo-European is, as you said, a cultural term, not a racial one. I agree that many, if not most Persians don't look all that different from Europeans, but you can definitely find some who would definitely stand out. And appearance-wise, I don't think you could say Persians look more like Celtic peoples (Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Bretons, etc.) than Hungarians do. And my main point was simply that in any case, they're included with other groups (Arabs, Pakistanis, Turks, Berbers, etc.) in the heterogeneous term "Middle Eastern"

[Heroic Mulatto]

But that's the thing. Hungarians are just as close to Turks and Persians are to Celtics, Latins, Germans, or Greeks.

And again, "European" is not just one look. Even the Persians who clearly have some Arab in their background, would fit in just fine in many places in Eastern Europe. After all, it wouldn't have been their first time there.

[Calidissident]

"But that's the thing. Hungarians are just as close to Turks and Persians are to Celtics, Latins, Germans, or Greeks."

I'm not disputing that from a historical culture or linguistic perspective, I'm just talking about physical appearance.

"And again, "European" is not just one look"

As someone who has dark hair and eyes, and tan skin, despite the fact that three of my grandparents were blond or red haired, blue eyed, and pale skinned, I'm well aware of that (my other grandparent is Italian). I'm just saying that a minority of Persians would stick out anywhere in Europe (compared to the native population, so ignoring the prevalence of immigrants from the ME). I agree with the broader point though, that there isn't any good scientific reason to not consider Persians, Arabs, Berbers, Turks, and most other Middle Eastern groups to be of the same race as white Europeans.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm just saying that a minority of Persians would stick out anywhere in Europe

I see. By Persian, do you mean the ethnic group or just "Iranian" in general. Because I would figure those Iranians who would "stand out" are not the Persian ones, but the Azerbaijani or Balochi Iranians.

[Calidissident]

I don't know enough Iranians (and what specific ethnicity they are) to say, but I do know that I've met a few Iranians (including some who I remember calling themselves Persian) who I think would stand out in a crowd anywhere in Europe. Perhaps they are all members of a minority ethnicity, but if that's the case, I've never heard them mention it.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

He's in a boat!

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

What's the point of these guys wearing desert-type camo in the middle of a Boston suburb?

[Virginian]

It makes them look cool. Like the cop who had his holo sight backwards.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

It makes them look feel cool

[Irish]

They're losers whose only knowledge of bombs and tactics come from movies.

[benji]

Stop attacking our heroes!

[Heroic Mulatto]

What's the point of these guys wearing desert-type camo in the middle of a Boston suburb?

IT'S MULTICAM YOU UNLETTERED BARBARIAN!

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

It's still not working.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I agree that Multicam does best in an arid grassland-type environment.

Urban digital camo is much more useful to big city cops, in my opinion.

Again, urban digital camo.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

No, this is urban digital camo.

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Is it multicam? If it's really "desert-type" she sees it's probably either the desert pattern of the MARPAT (current Marine uniform) or the obsolete DCU.

[Nikki makes the sign of a tsp]

The footage was pretty shitty so I really couldn't say. But it did look more like a desert pattern.

[Heroic Mulatto]

If she's watching the same news I'm watching, it's definitely Multicam.

[Redmanfms]

All the pics I've seen have them wearing MultiCam which actually works pretty well in most places, but yeah, cops wearing MultiCam is yet another example of what I see as the kind of guy who becomes a SWAT cop; a shitweasel who couldn't hack being a trigger puller in the Marines or Army and wants to play "operator" in an environment where he's as likely to be shot back at as he is to be struck by lightening.

[Redmanfms]

Fucking lightning, Jesus.

[Heroic Mulatto]

But Multicam goes so well with the black MRAP they're driving through the streets of Boston!

[benji]

NBC's Pete Williams: 'the telling word here is body. Body found in boat.'

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Remember that time when an Elvis impersonator sent Obama a poisoned letter it and it was the most boring story of the week?

[Virginian]

Alright you savages. I'm going over to crazy chick's house. If I don't come back, she probably cut off my dick and I bled out.

[Heroic Mulatto]

If I don't come back, she probably cut off my dick and I bled out.

She's S.E. Asian?

Yep, I know that situation well.

[Redmanfms]

In Virginia, probably Ecuadorian.....

[Tonio]

Good luck, Vag.

[BigT]

Got him, alive.

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[caroljonathan]

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