A.M. Links: UN Wants Team in Syria To Investigate Use of Chemical Weapons, Sen. Isakson Regrets Eric Holder Confirmation Vote, Last Boston Marathon Bombing Victim Leaves Hospital

Credit: Unknown Author/wikimedia

• The United Nations wants a team on the ground in Syria to investigate the possible use of chemical weapons, which could be tricky considering that such a team would need the Syrian government's permission to enter the country.

• Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has said that his vote to confirm Attorney General Eric Holder was "the worst vote I ever took in the United States Senate."

• The last Boston Marathon bombing victim has left hospital seven weeks after the attack.

• A 22-year-old man has been shot and killed during an anti-government demonstration in Turkey. The news comes after the Obama administration expressed concern over the recent protests.

• Around 140 people have been arrested during the most recent weekly anti-GOP protest held by the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP against the Republican-led General Assembly.

• A Mexican attorney who reportedly had connections to a Mexican drug cartel and was working as an informant for the Department of Homeland Security has been shot and killed in Texas.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The last Boston Marathon bombing victim has left hospital seven weeks after the attack.

And was promptly shot to death by the FBI.

[theamishcountry]

"That prosthetic hand looked like a gun!"

- FBI Agent

[Auric Demonocles]

He was suspiciously close to a terrorist attack. Reasonable fear for officer safety.

[Eduard van Haalen]

As the Calgary school system might put it, he was "involved in an incident."

[Lord Humungus]

New Jersey Man Who Named Son After Adolf Hitler Shows Up For Family Court Hearing Wearing Full Nazi Uniform
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/b.....urt-691243

Heath Campbell, founder of the Hitler's Order hate group, appeared this morning at a Flemington, New Jersey courthouse for a closed hearing on his request for visitation with his youngest child, a two-year-old boy.

In November 2011, the child (and his three siblings) were taken into custody by state welfare officials, who accused Campbell, 40, and his wife of child abuse. Campbell has contended that he never neglected his children, claiming that they were seized by the state solely due to the their names (one of his daughters is JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell).

You know who else wore a Nazi uniform?

[Brett L]

Prince Harry?

[Ted S.]

Max Moseley?

[theamishcountry]

Dennis & Dee's grandpa?

[Bee Tagger]

At this point, sincerity is his best defense, I imagine.

[invisible furry hand]

Dwight Shrute's grandparents?

[Brian D]

Sgt. Schultz?

[LTC(ret) John]

+1 I see nothing.

[SugarFree]

And his girlfriend came dressed as a caterer.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Mel Brooks.

[Ted S.]

Jack Benny was better.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Oh, this one is too easy.

[LTC(ret) John]

One of those pig things in "An American Werewolf in London"?

[a better weapon]

As unique as the name is, I've known a few guys named Heath in my life and every single one of them was a scumbag.

[Francisco d Anconia]

James T. Kirk?

[Fist of Etiquette]

No, that was a Nahzzie uniform, you Zeon pig.

[Flatulent Monkey]

Harrison Ford?

[Bobarian]

Lord Hummungus, on game night?

[Lord Humungus]

hey...

[CE]

James T. Kirk?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Around 140 people have been arrested during the most recent weekly anti-GOP protest held by the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP against the Republican-led General Assembly.

Can't we just stipulate that the NAACP is anti-GOP and dispense with the protests?

[gaijin]

Strikes me that they are engaged in treasonous behavior. What with their protests against a duly elected government. The government is, after all, us.

/derp

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ready the firing squad?

[gaijin]

A firing squad comprising M1 abrams and F22 raptors armed with hellfire missles even.

/double derp!

[Suthenboy]

C'mon guys, he apologized. From Swindle's facebook yesterday:

"Very important change of tune. When someone shared Mexico bans guns, I realized I was wrong. NRA members (I still disagree with leadership) are DEFENDING freedom. Not threatening it. Would you accept a recent convert's apology?"

[gaijin]

well, there's hope!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I wasn't parodying Professor Swindle but Ernesto Guevara.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Weekly protest, even.

[Bobarian]

Weakly protest?

[Killazontherun]

The local fishwrap had the story blaring on the front page. I found most amusing what the story reported as a coordinated effort agreed to before the protest by the Raleigh police and the NAACP that the arrests would be done in an orderly manner. In other words, a big fat waste of taxpayer's ill gotten monies so the protesters could relive the 1960s in a safe Disney ride like environment.

[Lord Humungus]

No heroes allowed: Calgary student, 13, reprimanded for defending his classmate against a knife-wielding bully
http://news.nationalpost.com/2.....at-school/

"They phoned me and said, 'Briar was involved in an incident today,'" she said. "That he decided to 'play hero' and jump in."

Ms. O'Donnell was politely informed the school did not "condone heroics," she said. Instead, Briar should have found a teacher to handle the situation.

[Matrix]

I think curb stomping school administrators is in order.

[SugarFree]

You sad fool. I was hat-tip on this last night. HAT-TIPPED! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

[Lord Humungus]

curses! foiled again by having a real life outside of H&R!

[Live Free or Diet]

Really gets in the way, doesn't it?

[Ted S.]

At least he included a working link.

[SugarFree]

Bailey included the link for me.

[LTC(ret) John]

That is cheating!

[Marshall Gill]

I feel ashamed that I led you to the preview button. How in the fuck can we make fun of your failed links if you can check them before posting?

My sincere apologies to the commentariat. The power that came with knowledge corrupted me, as it always does.

[SugarFree]

I'm unstoppable!

[T]

I got a 5 pound bag of sugar that says otherwise.

[Cdr Lytton]

Ready the krypto-sucrose!

[invisible furry hand]

Mr Free we can stop you any time we want by asking for chapter 2 of Watery Shits Future-Boy: A Warty Hugeman Time Travel Adventure

[Lord Humungus]

my god, after reading that blog, I feel like David Bowman as he travels down a tunnel of light, transforming into a Star Child.

[gaijin]

After perusing that, I have a newfound respect/disgust for SF. SF is sick. Long live SF.

[SugarFree]

Warty Hugeman will return in What the Fuck, Don't you Assholes have Toothbrushes Yet?

[Clich? Bandit]

You have driven away all the other hat tipped...I think you are REALLY the alter-ego of the jacket out to sabotage the commentariat.

You are dead to me.

[Ted S.]

Gotta love how the State tells us we're supposed to take a stand against bullying, and then punishes people who actually do so.

They're grooming the children to be subservient to the State.

[Live Free or Diet]

"Play hero," he is a hero. The school thinks Briar should have found a teacher to handle the square-meter blood stain that would have been there by then.

[Brett L]

I hope the principal dies in a fire whilst people stand outside, refusing to engage in the heroics she doesn't condone.

[Francisco d Anconia]

I hope the principal dies in a fire whilst people stand outside, refusing to engage in the heroics she doesn't condone looking for a teacher.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

This is the "progressive" mindset. They hate self-defense. They wanted the boy to use the "collective" solution, even if it would have failed.

[CE]

Intentions matter, procedures must be followed.

[BigT]

Many seem to encourage this kid to stand up to the bully. But how many of us want the US to stand up to bully governments - ie Syria, Libya, Egypt, Iran? Is it hypocritical to praise one and not the other?

[Zakalwe]

No. Any other easy questions I can field for you?

[Elspeth Flashman]

No, because one is about individuals doing things independently, the other is about the state taking action on the nation's behalf.

[wareagle]

any other false equivalencies today?

[LTC(ret) John]

I think they are two for one, all day - today only!!!!

[T]

Stock up, you never know when you might need one.

[Citizen Nothing]

If you want to go to Syria and join the anti-gov forces, BigT, knock yourself out.

[LTC(ret) John]

+1 Abraham Lincoln Brigade?

[BigT]

No interest, and I don't think we should be involved. I am just thinking about the core problem - at what point is it OK to interfere? So far I've just seen snarky comments. Par for the course on H&R, but not very thoughtful.

Is it ok to interfere when it's a single person as the bully - seems like most agree that's ok. How about a small gang intimidating a couple of innocents? Where, and WHY do we draw the line?

[tarran]

Big T,

It's up to everyone's conscience when they decide that they personally should intervene.

However, turning around and drafting your neighbor's son, forcing him to bear arms on your behalf and sending him to his death for your cause is not acceptable.

[AlexInCT]

You know what tarran, I am right there with you, but themilitary draft went away decades ago, so you are doing yourself a disservice using that term.

[tarran]

Oh, and what do you call it when some kid who volunteered to defend his country is forced to fight for al Queda in Syria? Sounds like he just got drafted to fight for someone else's cause. 😉

[Azathoth!!]

Technically, that kid applied for a job and was hired to do it.

We don't have a volunteer military--they don't take everyone. we have a professional military.

[CE]

No, go look for a teacher for help. Do not take up arms yourself against Assad.

[ant1sthenes]

There's a difference between stepping into a mugging, and stepping into a gang fight.

[BigT]

Sure, for the sake of safety. But on moral grounds? Is it somehow right to interfere with one-on-one bullying but not right to get involved with larger groups? What if you have a larger and better armed group? Does this degenerate into Afghanistan?

[CE]

What if both sides are bullies?

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Instead, Briar should have found a teacher to handle the situation.

And what, pray tell, would the teacher have done? Let me guess: informed the principal. Who would then have called the cops. Who would then have called the SWAT team and spent six or seven hours "sealing off the perimeter".

Government problem solving at its best.

[a better weapon]

If a teacher had done exactly what the student had, there would likely be newsweek spreads on him or her about how brave teachers are and how the care about their students and so forth.

The student does it though, so instead we get a flaccid prompting of questions by the newspapers: was it bravery or reckless abandon?

[gaijin]

Indeed, first responders = state certified

[Auric Demonocles]

On the way to Britain, where a couple guys can knife someone to death on the street while people stand around and wait for the cops.

[Bryan C]

Seem he wasn't playing.

[ant1sthenes]

Honestly, if you asked the kids, they'd probably just say that all they wanted was life beyond the Thunderdone.

[LTC(ret) John]

-1 hero?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has said that his vote to confirm Attorney General Eric Holder was "the worst vote I ever took in the United States Senate."

At least now Isakson can better relate with the sentiments of the constituents who voted for him.

[Tonio]

Why does the phrase "and fell upon his own sword" keep coming to mind?

[Rich]

*That* is "taking full responsibility".

[Brett L]

Brutus was a Stoic. Modern politicians are Hysterics.

[LTC(ret) John]

Or Sybarites.

[Pro Libertate]

That's one thing (some) aristocratic cultures have--a code of honor among aristocrats. We could use more of that in our political class, especially the duels and suicides. Well, maybe especially the honor part, but duels and suicides would be nice, too, when honor has been impinged.

[T]

The last suicide I can think of like that is ADM Boorda.

Vince Foster doesn't count, cuz he was murderated by the Clintonistas.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Don't forget my favorite, Bud Dwyer.

Hey, man, nice shot.

[T]

Who was the guy who did the Dwyer thing with a steak knife at the presser? Stabbed himself in the heart, IIRC.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Hadn't heard or seen that one. But that is hardcore.

[creech]

Well, at least his vote enabled him to escape several years of being denounced as a racist. As we all know, the only possible objection one can have to a person of color is that he or she is a person of color.

[KPres]

Uh, I'm pretty sure the phrase "person of color" is racist.

[Suthenboy]

He makes it sound like Holder, Obama, and their ilk were not very obviously what they are when he cast that vote.

Isakson: "Honest! I didnt know that rattlesnake would bite!"

[Brett L]

Well, being a snake himself, he probably just didn't realize that he wouldn't be immune.

[Hollywood]

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has said that his vote to confirm Attorney General Eric Holder was "the worst vote I ever took in the United States Senate."

It's ok Johnny, you're doin a heckuva job.

- Team red

[Bee Tagger]

The news comes after the Obama administration expressed concern over the recent protests.

Having just heard about it on the tv that morning.

[LTC(ret) John]

But having expressed "concern", they will certainly have calmed everything.

[Bryan C]

It might be time for another vaguely worded speech reiterating our super-frowny-face policy toward unspecified terrorist acts of violence in unspecified locations somewhere on the planet.

[invisible furry hand]

Miami Prostitutes Mistake New Jersey Mom for Rival Hooker, Beat Her Up

And the hotel allegedly gave the attackers a getaway vehicle!

[Matrix]

she's from Jersey... she probably deserved it anyway.

[Tonio]

Link to original article, with pictures of "mom" who doesn't look very hooker-y in the picture.

[BigT]

While there are several surveillance cameras in the hotel's lobby, Hernandez said Monday that investigators did not view or obtain copies of the video because the case was classified as a simple assault, a crime that is typically not investigated

[DJF]

""""simple assault, a crime that is typically not investigated""'

So when seconds count, the police are not even going to investigate.

[CE]

Hey, if the suspect isn't dealing contraband, where's the upside for the cops?

[a better weapon]

She looks like she could be Christina Ricci's sister.

[SugarFree]

The comments are a hoot!

Zachary Hagen ? 19 year old
I just received a new Fiat Multipla after having made $9019 this last 4 weeks and-even more than, ten k last-month. it's by-far the most rewarding Ive ever had. I actually started seven months/ago and straight away was bringing in minimum $70 per hour. I use the details on this website. . http://www.can99.c?m

[Pro Libertate]

That seems familiar to me somehow.

[invisible furry hand]

And completely believable. What cashed-up 19 year old doesn't blow it all on a Fiat Multipla?

[Francisco d Anconia]

If we could only make prostitution illegal all these problems would go away.

[Brett L]

Jasper, TX worst little cophouse in Texas.
A southeast Texas town with a history of racial unrest on Monday fired two white police officers recently captured on video slamming a black woman's head into a countertop and wrestling her to the ground.

[Bee Tagger]

OT, but because of the location:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5khWNgwr4c

Great ambient/noise artist.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Ahhh deep east Texas, what a shithole.

[T]

I used to play "who's relatives are the worst rednecks" with my wife. Then we went to visit some of hers out in the piney woods in East Texas and North Louisiana. We don't play anymore. She won, hands down.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama's Economic Triumph
It's increasingly clear that the president has steered the country back from the brink?and, in the process exposed (yet again) the central lie of conservative economics.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....iumph.html

[theamishcountry]

Basic tenants of economics can't be true. If they were, how would I keep getting reelected?

/derp

[Tonio]

Because real conservatives are owners not renters.

[Gbob]

I know we have our resident buttwipe troll who tries to sell this notion, but the left can't really believe it, can they? God knows the right in this country has believed in some crazy shit, but this seems like a simple matter of numbers. Low growth numbers, record unemployment, etc. These are tangible things they could look at and know that it's an unsupportable position.

I think I prefer to think of them as just liars rather than stupid. It comforts me a little more.

[VG Zaytsev]

but the left can't really believe it, can they

Sure they do.

The insiders, opinion makers, are doing just fine thanx to cronyism. And the followers are just morons that have been conditioned to reflexively hate rethuglicans and other enemies of the state.

It's the same trick that go poor whites in the south to support Jim Crow.

[Suthenboy]

I am not that savvy with econ.

Fuck the unemployment numbers. How does one find out what percentage of people in the country are actually full-time employed? What is the size of the workforce?

[Brett L]

You want the labor force participation rate.

[invisible furry hand]

Queen guitarist Dr Brian May routs English fascists with his sexy badger squad

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/artic.....adgers.htm

[Brett L]

I just feel like this should be an analogy for something more than Britain being a strange fucking place.

[T]

Obligatory: badgers.

[PS]

Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers

Funny, how I never read about far-left extremists.

[DJF]

No enemy to the left comrade

[Lord Humungus]

Pair of Japan melons fetch $15,700 at auction
http://www.nydailynews.com/lif.....-1.1355586

[Ted S.]

I'm sure there are women with melons worth much more than ,700.

[Live Free or Diet]

I thought sure they had to attached to a woman.

[Brett L]

WTF. There is a serious market failure going on here. I can grow cantaloupe by the fucking acre for nothing.

[theamishcountry]

But they wouldn't be 'Japanese', now would they

[Brett L]

Its a fucking cantaloupe.

[Zakalwe]

They went on display right next to his tulip collection.

[LTC(ret) John]

+1 Ottoman flower frenzy

[mad libertarian guy]

Yubari melons are considered a status symbol in Japan like a fine wine, with many buyers presenting them as a gift to friends and colleagues.

If someone gave me a fucking melon as a gift, I'd be pretty goddamned pissed.

[T]

It better come with a fifth of whiskey or some money hidden inside.

[KMA Too]

Methinks they aren't for eating...
NTTAWWT

[Rich]

Abandoned Pressure Cooker Leads To Bomb Scare At Mall

Again, why does anyone *need* a pressure cooker?

[SugarFree]

Chicken stock?

[Rasilio]

No fool, you don't use a pressue cooker to make stock, for stock you want a long low cook time just under a boil (~205 - 210 degrees), that is what best extracts the collagen from the bones.

Now you could get a nice broth from a pressure cooker but not a stock

[SugarFree]

Bah. 40 mnutes and I get enough collagen that my stock is a solid block after a night in the fridge!

What you really lose in the pressure cooker is clarity, but I have flour sack towels for a reason.

[PS]

Raw food diets for everyone! Cooking is for terrorists!

[Rich]

Exactly! Those terrorists are *always* talking about "rivers of blood engulfed in fire"!

[Tonio]

Well, guns and bombs both work using advanced forms of fire...

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Mexican attorney who reportedly had connections to a Mexican drug cartel and was working as an informant for the Department of Homeland Security has been shot and killed in Texas.

The Minutemen Project?

[LTC(ret) John]

TEABAGGERZZZZZ!!11!1!1eleventy!!

[Lord Humungus]

State lawmaker acknowledges making anonymous online posts, apologizes
http://triblive.com/news/admin.....z2VCnJO5IW

A state lawmaker on Thursday acknowledged making "anonymous" and "fictitious" online posts attacking constituents who support shale-gas drilling in Washington County and apologized to two people for any "offensive or hurtful" actions.

Residents and the industry group Energy In Depth accused Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil, of using aliases to call his critics "mouth breathers" and to call industry supporters, including senior citizens, "hucksters."

[gaijin]

By any means necessary!

[mad libertarian guy]

Step 1 in the progressive playbook is public shaming of any and everyone who doesn't agree with them.

[Bryan C]

Any adult using the word "hurtful" should be slapped.

[VG Zaytsev]

A state lawmaker on Thursday acknowledged making "anonymous" and "fictitious" online posts attacking constituents...

Who the fuck does that cracker think he is, Administrator of the EPA?

[Lord Humungus]

or shreek?

[Lord Humungus]

Fire at Chinese poultry plant kills 119 workers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

A fire at a poultry plant in northeastern China early Monday trapped workers inside the building and killed at least 119 people, government officials and state media said.

The fire at the poultry rendering facility in Jinlin province apparently was caused by a buildup of ammonia gas, local officials said online.

CHINESE FIREDRILL! (too soon?)

[Slammer]

I rike fired chicken

[Zakalwe]

General Tso could not be reached for comment.

[a better weapon]

This is clearly the fault of the free market half of China and not the communist half, obviously.

[Rich]

Ted Cruz: 'Abolish the IRS'

If only *Tom* Cruise would get on board ....

[Matrix]

how about Penelope?

[gaijin]

In Florida, they'd prefer Orlando.

[Brett L]

Nobody prefers Orlando. Its a Potemkin nuisance we put up to fleece tourists as efficiently as possible.

[Juice]

Ok, NOW I'm starting to like the guy.

[Lord Humungus]

The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center
http://www.wired.com/threatlev.....nter/all/1

Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world's communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails?parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital "pocket litter." It is, in some measure, the realization of the "total information awareness" program created during the first term of the Bush administration?an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans' privacy.

[Slammer]

A project of immense secrecy

How secret can it be if there's a friggin' article about it?

[Rich]

As of this minute it's a *Double Secret* Project!

[BigT]

Today Bluffdale is home to one of the nation's largest sects of polygamists, the Apostolic United Brethren, with upwards of 9,000 members. The brethren's complex includes a chapel, a school, a sports field, and an archive. Membership has doubled since 1978?and the number of plural marriages has tripled?so the sect has recently been looking for ways to purchase more land and expand throughout the town.

No wonder it's so secret.

[mad libertarian guy]

The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013.

So I'm gonna guess that the initial cost to build was somewhere around $750M and was supposed to be finished in 2010.

[LTC(ret) John]

$500M, 2009.

[mad libertarian guy]

Government is even worse than I thought. That's saying something.

[Raston Bot]

including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches

#1 lesson learned: EVERYBODY LOVES PRON!!

[Crackers Boy]

BOOOOOSSSHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

CB

[thom]

This will be helpful to identify and incarcerate pre-criminals.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Your morning stupid:

Remember the Alamo and the Astrodome: It's insanity to tear down Houston's iconic landmark
...The bottom line is this: Government is not a business. Likening a huge government budget to balancing your household checking account is absurd. Government exists to serve the collective needs of the citizens. That's why the people who work for government are known as public servants, and they do things that we cannot do as individuals. They build our roads, they save us from fires, and yes, they make our county and our city a better place to live...

[Longtorso, Johnny]

From the comments:

I went to the political powers that be with an idea to convert the dome into affordable housing for artists and entrepreneurs. I thought the city would find this idea viable and attractive as entrepreneurs create jobs (and Houston has a long history of entrepreneurship) and artists make our community more aesthetically pleasing. But, my idea was ignored along with all the other great ideas. It seems like our local government SAYS that they will consider dome options but, have already decided tearing it down will be the outcome.

[gaijin]

along with all the other great ideas.

A Legend...in his own mind.

[theamishcountry]

If those artists and entrepreneurs were, you know, actually creating wealth, they wouldn't need subsidized housing.

[mad libertarian guy]

If those artists and entrepreneurs were, you know, actually creating wealth, they wouldn't need subsidized housing.

There is no such thing as cause and effect in liberal-land.

[KPres]

If they were creating wealth, they'd be paying for that subsidized housing.

[SugarFree]

Turn it into a TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zone).

No law within THE ASTRODOME. Anyone may enter with anything, anyone may leave if they come out alone and unarmed. Keep the lights and power on by setting up cameras inside THE ASTRODOME and selling access to the feeds. Any food, weapons, or personal items may be sent into THE ASTRODOME by anyone. Any mass attempts to leave THE ASTRODOME results in sterilization by fire.

THE ASTRODOME, This Fall on NBC.

[BakedPenguin]

It wouldn't be on NBC - people would actually watch that.

[SugarFree]

FX?

[invisible furry hand]

straight to webisode

[John]

Make it like Kowloon used to be.

[Zakalwe]

HAHAHA! What is this conversion supposed to look like? Cheap partitions on the ground floor, a big useless empty space overhead, and adding some showers to the existing communal toilets? Who the fuck wants to live there?

[Brett L]

Jesus Christ, tear it down. Or sell it to Joel Osteen.

[John]

It is a piece of bad 60s architecture. Whatever charm it had, ended when Bud Adams made them tear out the big outfield scoreboard. Blow it up.

[PS]

We've got a similar white elephant here in Prague, the largest stadium in the world and totally useless except for the occasional mega concert and even those get swallowed up in it.

[John]

Holy shit, that thing looks like a commie Circus Maximus. It is oddly compelling.

[PS]

It was built for Spartakiada:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCK1wpg8ao8

[Slammer]

Now THAT'S a run on toilet paper!!

[PS]

Speaking of domes, I recently discovered the Pantheon is still the largest unreinforced solid concrete dome in the world, so been holding that record for 2000 years.

[John]

With steel there is no reason to ever build another one. It will hold that record forever.

[a better weapon]

I'm just shocked it wasn't torn down already. I really thought it was long gone.

[Apatheist ?_??]

The local government has pretty much decided to ignore it exists. They let local reporters in recently, the was place was flooded and left to rot. It is absolutely disgusting inside.

[Brett L]

But it makes a great overflow parking lot for the Rodeo.

[LTC(ret) John]

Maybe they should let the artistes squat there then!

[Lord Humungus]

Why Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects were more real than CGI
http://boingboing.net/2013/06/.....ke-fx.html

For the moment, we can tell the difference between computer-generated imagery and real live action photography. But as ILM's Huston himself admitted, the end is nigh. "As research continues and solutions and awareness develop," he said, "CG will become indistinguishable from actual photography." Movies such as Avatar, Transformers and Inception and keep pushing the boundaries, making the day that comes true arrive sooner.

But Ray Harryhausen's work endures. It contains gravity. Somewhere, there is a 10-inch-high seven-headed hydra, or ape, or octopus, or Kraken, or one of the seven skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts. And, to my mind, in my mind's eye, that monster feels as if it could still tremble, and walk, and come alive.

[LTC(ret) John]

I still love that skeleton scene from Jason and the Argonauts.

[Restoras]

So, I'm guessing Harryhausen is the namesake for the restaurant in Monsters, Inc.? Always wondered about that...

My other favorite is Mount Wannahokalugie in Finding Nemo.

[invisible furry hand]

My life sucks cos I'm so pretty. I get everything I want and am treated like a princess

http://www.news.com.au/enterta.....6656710996

[John]

First, she is not that pretty. Second, to the extent she is and can make a living on her looks rather than working, good for her. But she maybe ought to realize her good fortune and stop whining. There are people out there with no arms and legs, who have disfigured faces from accidents. This bitch whining about how hard life is being pretty is basically her pissing on them.

[Auric Demonocles]

Something about her face shape strikes me the wrong way. I can't quite put my finger on it.

[John]

Me either. She just looks trashy. She is not unattractive. But she doesn't do it for me.

[Restoras]

I think its her hairline - a little to far back. She looks pretty hot to me.

[Smells Like Tom Skerritt]

"There are people out there with no arms and legs"

I once complained about owning no shoes, until I met a man who owned a Maybach.

[Brett L]

She's like a solid 7. I could talk to 5 girls that pretty tonight in a college town in summer. And they'd be more interesting. Get over yourself, Barbie.

[John]

She is a 7 if your taste is trashy blonds, NTTAWWT. But yeah, even in northern colleges full of lesbians you can find five better looking girls in any bar on an off night.

[mad libertarian guy]

Bitch is a skank. I wouldn't fuck her with STEVE SMITH's dick.

[John]

Me either.

[LTC(ret) John]

NOT FUNNY. STEVE SMITH WOULD!

[Apatheist ?_??]

My wife just watched that episode of true life. Unsurprisingly she was half retarded as well. When her sister told her breast implants were a bad idea if she was looking to get let douchey guys giving her attention, she was dumbfounded.

[Live Free or Diet]

An act. Now every loser who thinks she's hot is dreaming "I'll be your girl ...uh... boyfriend!"

[Ted S.]

Good-looking Aussies??

[PS]

I've met a lot of hot Aussie women. I that must be where all the good looking English genes went.

[Kaptious Kristen]

She looks like she could be cast in one of the many ticky-tacky MTV Jersey Shore/teen mom shows.

[LTC(ret) John]

"I don't have to be smart, because I have my looks."

And as we all know, looks are forever.

[John]

She looks like one of those women who thinks she is hot but really isn't. Honey, a bad bleach job and fake tan are not hot.

[Auric Demonocles]

Her color is definitely off-putting.

[John]

Back in my 20s, I had a woman who looked a bit like that in that she had the bad bleach job and the fake tan tell me in a bar that she couldn't talk to me anymore because I clearly didn't have enough money for her to be interested. No kidding. I told her that well that was alright because her roots were showing, she was clearly passed her sell by date and she could really stand a lose a couple of pounds if she was going to wear that outfit. She went insane. Threw a drink on me. I just laughed at. It was amazing. She thought it was perfectly okay for her to insult me and I was supposed to just stand there and take it. When I look at the woman in this article, I can't help but think she is that woman's soul mate.

[Auric Demonocles]

If you insult her looks, you are just a shallow pig oppressing women. Or something. Heaven forbid if you suggested she was a whore after she said you needed to be rich for her to keep talking to you.

[John]

I was supposed to walk away knowing my place. If a guy had said that to me, I would have punched him. And truthfully, she deserved to have the shit slapped out of her for being that disrespectful and insulting to someone. You are not supposed to hit women and I get that and don't. But the flip side of that is women are not supposed to take advantage of that by acting in ways a man never could.

[Zeb]

But the flip side of that is women are not supposed to take advantage of that by acting in ways a man never could.

Someone should tell women about this.

[John]

Someone should Zeb. And their mothers used to. That whole, act like a lady thing. Then feminism came along and told women they could act like the worst trash man and yet still had the right to claim to be just a woman to get away with it.

[a better weapon]

I wonder how much she actually believes this. She said all this while on MTVs "True Life" and is an aspiring professional wrestler. The WWE loves a good foil and she's trying to fit the billing, or at least thats my guess.

She's scum for saying it, no matter the motivations, but other people have made it into wrestling by taking the low road before.

[Brett L]

Notice I never said she was stupid. I think she knows exactly what she's doing. No woman ever went broke playing the bitchy blonde that was looking for the right man to tame her.

[Suthenboy]

That aint gonna last honey.

[Rasilio]

I wonder if anyone has ever told her that there are numerous solutions to her problem

[KPres]

I don't see that she said anything wrong. The people that get in an uproar when pretty people, god forbid, have a legit complaint are the same as people that hate rich people. It's all reactionary envy and insecurity.

[John]

http://apnews.myway.com/articl.....PFHG2.html

Some of President Barack Obama's political appointees, including the Cabinet secretary for the Health and Human Services Department, are using secret government email accounts they say are necessary to prevent their inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages, according to a review by The Associated Press.

This is a very big deal. First, the idea that a cabinet secretary needs a secret email account because their normal inbox is overwhelmed, sounds good if you have no idea how these things work. If you do, it is totally ridiculous. Cabinet secretaries don't just sit down and shoot off emails. Everything they do is planned. The decisions they make affect so many people and so many different interests that everything is done in a meeting. There are entire staffs of people who do nothing but put together the daily meeting books of these officials. Yes, they have email, but their staff handle it. It is very analogous to that scene in Goodfellas where Henry is talking about how Pauli doesn't own a phone and how whenever there is a beef in the numbers there is always a sit down and only the top people are involved. That is how government works. Janet Napolitano doesn't just shoot off emails giving decisions. She makes decisions in meetings with the other top politicals in her department.
Also, FOIA and discovery is a huge deal in government. Everyone knows all of the emails can be FOIAed.

[John]

So these email accounts were created to do some kind of mischief. Everyone always says that we will never get a smoking gun linking Obama to this stuff. Well we might here. People write dumb things in emails, especially in private or secret accounts they don't think anyone will ever read. In the 70s we had tapes that brought down Nixon. In 2013, we have emails.

[Fist of Etiquette]

No, these accounts were created simply because users can't manage their inboxes and therefore need multiples. It's common sense.

[John]

Yeah. Because they don't have enormous staffs dedicated to their care and feeding. Yup. Katherine Sibelius goes to work every morning and goes through her own inbox just like any other working stiff.

I assume you are being sarcastic here.

[Rich]

I think what Fist is alluding to is that many VIPs have multiple accounts because they need to access their email in several widespread locations.

[John]

The government has a VPN system that allows you to access your email anywhere. And someone at that level of government service never has to access their email. Everything they need is given to them in predigested form by their staffs.

[Rich]

Good grief, John. Please take a break!

[LTC(ret) John]

Sarcasm meter recalibration is down the hall, right?

[inquisitionssuppositions]

I am pretty new here but I am fairly sure that FoE is never sarcastic.

[LTC(ret) John]

CORRECT!

[Floating Weightless]

Is that sarcasm?

[LTC(ret) John]

MAYBE!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sarcasm? Yeah, that's real useful.

[Bee Tagger]

It's possible these private accounts were created just to circumvent the normal government contracting process so they could buy a spam filter.

[John]

No it is really not. These people don't read their official email accounts. Their assistants do and then feed them the information they need. No one at that level even knows what SPAM is.

[Agammamon]

Not to mention that, at that level, if you have an inbox problem you snap your finger and the IT guys runs upstairs to your office to show you how to sort your mail and save it somewhere other than the email server itself.

[Brett L]

Lets run a thought experiment: If corporate officers of publicly held corporations were conducting business through private email addresses and telling their shareholders and the SEC it was no big deal, what would the reaction be?

[gaijin]

what would the reaction be?

The Washington Post and NYTimes would claim those making it a big deal were treasonous mouth breathers?

[creech]

It depends. Are we talking about the Koch Brothers or George Soros?

[MP]

I'm not seeing how this is an issue. The fraudulent EPA account is one thing. But maintaining a public account for a high profile individual vs. an internal account for priority communications seems perfectly normal to me.

This would only be an issue if such accounts were found to be excluded from subpoenaed information. THAT would be a problem.

[John]

This would only be an issue if such accounts were found to be excluded from subpoenaed information. THAT would be a problem.

And that is exactly what happened. Since it is all subject to FOIA, there is no such thing as a "secret email account". These accounts were created specifically so they wouldn't be subject to Congressional or public oversight.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Okay, lets get the terms straight.

When you say secret, what do you mean? A classified SIPR (or similar)account? Or just a secondary NIPR account (no classified information) that only select people know the address?

Using the word "secret" has different meanings to different people.

[John]

By secret, it means an email address they didn't tell anyone about and didn't get marked as responsive to FOIA or to Congressional inquiries. It wasn't "secret" in the national security context.

Anyone can and many people do, file FOIA requests for all emails in HHS relating to say Obamacare. And if they have the money to pay for it, HHS will cough it up including emails from Sabilius. What they did was create other accounts that were not known to the FOIA or the Congressional liaison people and thus were, until they were discovered, in no danger of ever being made public.

[John]

To give you an example Francisco, the head of the EPA had an email account that was joe.blow at USEPA.gov or whatever. And she used it for what purposes we don't know. But no one knew about it. So when Congress or a FOIA request asked for all of her emails about this or that subject, the ones from the Joe Blow email were technically non responsive and thus never got produced. No one knew she was using the account and thus never saw them as responsive.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

What they did was create other accounts that were not known to the FOIA or the Congressional liaison people

This is really the key to this being shady. The fact that they have multiple email accounts is not uncommon. When I worked in DC, my boss had 2 separate accounts, one for public use and one for internal. However, had we gotten a FOIA or subpoena, our lawyers knew about both accounts and would have searched both.

These accounts these VIPs are using are not known about by those who fulfil the FOIA requests, so they are not being released when requests come in. That's illegal.

[John]

Exactly. The created official email accounts using fake names. That is the crime. And that is why I suspect there are some very damaging things in those emails.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Are you sure these accounts were on government computers/servers?

If they were private accounts, I'm not sure there is an issue. If they weren't it's pretty much a crime. Congress has dictated all government correspondence be archived.

[Francisco d Anconia]

But hey, obeying laws is for the little people.

[John]

Tyhe EPA one was on government servers. The EPA gave the Administrator's fake account and employee an award.

http://freebeacon.com/richard-.....-employee/

And private email accounts are actually worse. You are not supposed to conduct official business on private email accounts because official business is subject to public and congressional oversight and such and your private email is not. Official business is supposed to be available to your superiors and the public no matter what. Private email requires a warrant. You can get in big trouble, if you are an ordinary employee and not a political hack, for using your private email account to do government business especially if the business contains sensitive information.

[AlexInCT]

So are you saying that if they were private accounts but they were used to conduct government business these people wanted to keep away from others, thay are fine? I certainly hope that it doesn't matter if the account was a government account or a private one if it was being used to conduct government business. And the issue is that the accounts exist specifically to circumvent FOIA requests or means of finding out what these people were doing behind closed doors.

[Rich]

Obama's political appointees, including the Cabinet secretary for the Health and Human Services Department, are using secret government email accounts

White House spokesman Eric Schultz declined to comment

but his alter ego posted a photo of his buttocks.

[John]

Beat you by a few seconds. Those email accounts are explosive.

[gaijin]

Those email accounts are explosive.

Smelling of sulfur even?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Those inboxes need to be taken out to the parking lot and detonated just to be sure.

[Rich]

Just wait 'til the Utah Data Center gets crunching on those accounts.

[Zakalwe]

Oh, Florida.

On Thursday, a jury in Tampa, Florida acquitted 70-year-old retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ralph Wald in the shooting death of his wife's lover. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Wald's attorney, Joe Episcopo, invoked Flordia's "Stand Your Ground" law in defense of his client, arguing that when Wald shot 32-year-old Walter Conley ? as Conley was engaged in an act of sexual congress with Wald's wife, Johnna Lynn Flores, 41 ? Wald thought the younger man was a rapist who had broken into his home..

Flores reportedly cried tears of joy when her husband was exonerated, saying to reporters outside the courtroom, "I am elated, absolutely elated."

When Wald is released from jail, Flores said, the couple plan a celebration. "Because my husband puts me first," she said, "he's taking me to Waffle House."

Waffle House is a southern chain of greasy spoon restaurants, famous for its "scattered, smothered and covered" hash browns, which means that they are made with onions and cheese.

Uh, thanks for clarifying. ONe of LTC John's cronies, you think?

[gaijin]

Sexual congress? Is that a southern expression?

[Rich]

It happens after making wooey eyes.

[Live Free or Diet]

There were 535 DC politicians on her?

[LTC(ret) John]

+1 bicameral screwing

[John]

I really wish some old guy like that whose son or daughter died in Afghanistan would take out a few Westboro Baptist Church bastards at a funeral sometime. If I were in my 70s and lost a kid and those bastards showed up, I think would shoot the leader and let the police come and arrest me. Claim temporary insanity. Even if I didn't get off, I would be a rock star in prison. There are enough veterans who are in prison or prison guards to ensure that no one touched me and I had access to all the drugs and booze i wanted. That and the knowledge that I put an end to those bastards wouldn't be that bad.

[Tejicano]

I would bet that a big part of what the Patriot Riders were formed and ride for is to prevent this. They probably don't want to see some grieving father or brother going to jail while providing additional PR for that sick group of false Christians.

[John]

If you notice, they never show up at funerals in small towns. There are funerals fairly regularly in the small towns around Topeka where they are located. Yet, they never show up to them. Instead they travel thousands of miles to cities and suburbs. The reason is that they know in a small town there would likely be a shooting and no one would see a thing. They really are the worst sorts of cowards. If you shot a couple of them, they would quit.

[creech]

I'm surprised someone hasn't started to follow them everywhere and announce
"these are the shitbags that protest at military funerals - are you going to let them eat/lodge/gas up at your place?"

[John]

That is a good idea. I would never serve them.

[tarran]

If you notice, they never show up at funerals in small towns.

Small towns don't have money.

Their antics are a money making scheme. They act offensively, the cops arrest them, then they sue for civil rights violations, and pocket the settlement when the lawyers explain to the city's financial committee that the city is going to lose the case.

They don't go after small towns for the same reason that Dilinger didn't rob orphanages. No money.

[thom]

I had to deal with these asshats briefly when I did security stuff during college, a decade or so ago. They were practically begging us to call the cops. Eventually they lit a flag on fire and started trying to pick fights with old men, so we called the cops to see if they wanted to do anything. They didn't. They didn't want anything to do with them.

[Brett L]

When Wald is released from jail, Flores said, the couple plan a celebration. "Because my husband puts me first," she said, "he's taking me to Waffle House."

This woman knows when to cut her losses and jump on board to join the winning team.

[BakedPenguin]

Yep.

[Live Free or Diet]

Waffle House?! You can get better food at a damn Wawa.

[Virginian]

My old place was close to a Wawa, then the next place was kinda far. Now I'm only 2 miles away again. It's awesome.

I wish their blackberry tea came in Diet though.

[John]

Wawas are the greatest convenience stores in the world. It is not even close really.

[Virginian]

I told my friend that the VA Wawas were better then the Jersey Wawas. He was like "How can you say that? NJ Wawas are the original and best, they do it right, the trucked stuff is fresher blah blah blah what could possibly be better?"

One word answer "beer". My Wawa lets me buy a hoagie and a twelve pack.

[creech]

PA Wawas are the original.

[KDN]

Point still stands. Ain't no beer in PA convenience stores.

Two major problems with Wawa (which is my favorite convenience store, AINEC): terrible iced coffee when they actually have any and lack of chicken options on their hoagies. Seriously guys, why do I have to go to the premade rack to get a piece of buffalo chicken? And no, just putting some hot sauce on the bread doesn't count.

[jamesrk]

"Wawas are the greatest convenience stores in the world. It is not even close really."

Buc-ee's would like to have a word with you.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

Why does tea need to be diet? It's sweetened? I can teach you to make your own tea, Virginian.

[LTC(ret) John]

Down "South" they sweeten tea ahead of time - bleargh.

[Live Free or Diet]

My old place was close to a Wawa ... It's awesome.

Nothing against Wawa. I eat there often when I'm traveling between appointments.
I just can't imagine the POV that says "he loves me" because we're going for food that doesn't live up to something from a good gas station.

[Lord Humungus]

mmmm... waffle house... of course Michigan doesn't have any WFs, so it's a "treat" to eat at one when traveling south.

[thom]

I feel the same way, as do many people I know who live in Waffle House-less places...

[Eduard van Haalen]

If she wanted to eat at a better restaurant, she shouldn't have cheated on her husband.

[Live Free or Diet]

Ah! Faithful wives can expect what, IHOP?

No wonder my wife's friends were all aflutter over me cooking a whole ham in the kettle grill last weekend (just to keep the heat out of the house).

[Eduard van Haalen]

Confining myself to restaurants, my personal experience is that my local IHOP is an order of magnitude better than the local Waffle House (though I haven't been back to the WH lately, so it may have gotten better).

[Matrix]

My old roommates refuse to go to IHOP because it seems like blasphemy to them when they can go to Waffle House instead.

Oh, and don't bring up Huddle House.

[Agammamon]

Look - we're going to Waffle House and you'll like it or I can do to you what I did to the guy you were boning.

[Matrix]

Don't say that kind of thing around people from Georgia. I think they shoot people for speaking ill of Waffle House.

[BigT]

Wald said that in spite of everything, he hopes to be able to salvage his marriage.

"That's my hope," he said during testimony. "I love my wife."

Wald even quipped that the combination of his impotence and his wife's alcoholism made them a good fit, maritally.

"In fact, she would joke a lot with me?that we were a perfect couple," Wald testified. "She didn't want to do it, and I couldn't do it."

[Nikki says you caddie well]

Wow, that's...sadder than the Waffle House thing.

[LTC(ret) John]

Too old to be one of my cohort, Allah be praised.

So the wife is cheating on the much older husband, and she is happy he will be out?

[Zakalwe]

She already lost her bang buddy, I'm sure she wants to keep her meal ticket.

[LTC(ret) John]

True, maybe she will be more discrete this time?

[Brett L]

Lesson of the episode: fuck at his place.

[Lord Humungus]

The Real Scandal at the IRS
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....e-irs.html

Robert Schriebman, a tax attorney based in Los Angeles who was involved in the last round of reform, believes that enforced tax collection -- liens, seizures and the like -- should be placed under the supervision of independent judges, so that the IRS is not its own "judge and jury." It should also be easier for taxpayers to record meetings with IRS officials.

Portman cautions against legislating before we know all the facts about the scandal: "We have to get to the bottom of this first to find out what happened, how it happened and why it happened."

That's right. But Congress shouldn't just investigate a political scandal. It should look at the larger threat of abusive behavior by a fearsomely powerful government agency.

[John]

The IRS is evil. They have been for years. It is amazing how stupid the Obama people are. The IRS has for decades had carte blanche to squeeze everything out of the proles possible. Now they may have fucked that up by making it political. When this is over the liberals are going to miss the IRS having that power and probably not think it was worth it to go after some Tea Party people.

[mad libertarian guy]

When this is over the liberals are going to miss the IRS having that power and probably not think it was worth it to go after some Tea Party people.

I can't believe that you actually believe these things, John. Your optimism about the fall of Team BLUE has no bounds.

[John]

I am not saying it will happen. I am just saying the Obama people risked it happening for what were really stupid and short term ends.

[mad libertarian guy]

That's no different than any politician. And they do it on the regular because they rarely get caught, and when they do they are punished even more rarely.

When the media is carrying your water for you, you have nothing to fear.

[Virginian]

So I just watched the Rains of Castamere episode. Wow, even though I read the books and new what was coming, that was still a hell of thing to see.

[Lord Humungus]

related:

Divorcing HBO: Sunday's Brutal Game of Thrones Goes Way Too Far
http://www.mediaite.com/online.....y-too-far/

But the episode just witnessed ("The Rains of Castamere")?the show that will go down as the most-talked-about-on-Twitter episode in the history of the program?went way, way (way) too far. And that's saying a lot considering everything we've seen on the hit HBO original series to this point.

Having said that, the following declaration comes without ambiguity: I am done with Thrones. Never again will I watch another episode. And with Entourage long gone and Curb Your Enthusiasm stuck in some kind of abyss, there's really no need to continue my subscription, particularly after the offensive and appalling display the show just put on.

[Live Free or Diet]

Loose one, and thousands more flock to them.

I love the appeal back to the books, as if GRRM must yield to his own canon. Reminds me of superannuated Trekkies crying about the reboot movie.

[Virginian]

I was kind of wondering why they changed the wife story. Now I know: because they decided to make the Red Wedding even more brutal and nut punchingly awful.

[Live Free or Diet]

I think it's the same reason Tom Bombadil was left out of LOTR. Time. Ten episodes a season requires vicious editing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Plenty of time for cutting off Theon's dick, though.

[Live Free or Diet]

My kid's English teacher even asked if anyone saw it. My kid was the only one of the bunch who had. (Now that all the standardized testing is finished there's nothing to do the last week of school.)

They built the tension nicely by dropping the clues without emphasis. Missed one detail? No big deal, there are more!

[Apatheist ?_??]

(Now that all the standardized testing is finished there's nothing to do the last week of school.)

Why not end school a week earlier?

[LTC(ret) John]

State. Aid.

Illinois has lots of final day half days (used to be 20 minutes) to tap into that gov$ one last time.

[John]

Having not read the books nor watched the show, exactly what was it?

[Lord Humungus]

a few "long arc" characters are killed off.

[Live Free or Diet]

Fictional Medieval power struggle with incredibly entertaining characters. Even the characters you think are two-dimensional are realistically driven into showing their other side.

Can you tell I'm a fan?

[John]

I know what the show is. But was wondering what the event was that shocked so many people.

[SugarFree]

The Red Wedding

[Virginian]

Google Red Wedding.

[mad libertarian guy]

The brutal slaughter of about a dozen characters on the show, and the only characters that deserve any semblance of sympathy.

At a fucking wedding, no less.

Hardest part to watch: pregnant queen having her belly (where her unborn baby resides) stabbed 5 times as her "wedding gift."

[John]

It is a dark world.

[mad libertarian guy]

Yes it is.

Even (especially?) those most deserving of happiness aren't safe.

[Raston Bot]

I liked the book version better where Spicer conspired with Tywin and kept Jeyne back at the Crag but allowed the seashell knight to accompany the king. There was a certain satisfaction knowing that cunt's son got himself killed freeing the wolf.

[tarran]

The Red Wedding was a betrayal based loosely on the Black Dinner and the Glencoe massacre.

It kills off most of the "good guys". What was supposed to be a marriage uniting the Stark and Frey clans, a marriage held in a Frey fortress is instead an ambush. The Frey's attack their guests and massacre them. It is the price demanded by the Lannisters in order to demonstrate their loyalty and to wipe clean the Frey's rebellion against the Lannister pretender to the throne.

[John]

I am not surprised both of those happened in Scotland. The Scots were brutal. They were Asian, mongol kind of brutal to each other. The English were brutal in their own way. But the kill everyone's family, invite the other guy in for peace and slit his throat kind of thing is really Scotland and Wales.

[creech]

That's kind of how Kamehameha became king of Hawai'i - called all his kin to a feast and then murdered them.

[Jerryskids]

The Borgias were Scots? Is that where Mario Puzo got the idea for the MacCorleone clan?

[LTC(ret) John]

"I hae an offer you dinna dare refuse!"

[Stormy Dragon]

"Everybody's dead, Dave."

[tarran]

Olaf Peterssen?

[invisible furry hand]

Wait. Are you trying to tell me everybody's dead?

[tarran]

Todd Hunter?

[Lord Humungus]

*eats white powder*

[Brett L]

Best Red Wedding commentary is, of course, from The Onion.

[Brett L]

Contains spoilers.

[robc]

Especially for those who have only read the books and not seen any of Season 3.

WTF? Robb takes his wife to the wedding? He was smarter than that in the book.

[John]

That is great Brett. And if that really was the author who wrote that, bully for him for having such a sense of humor about his books.

[robc]

No, that is the Onion. Its a fake. But I think Martin would probably laugh at that piece.

He is probably enjoying the outrage immensely. At least I hope so.

[tarran]

In the PM links yesterday, someone linked to a youtube clip of people reacting to the massacre. George RR Martin commented on the youtube clip saying he was enjoying it immensely.

[robc]

Good to here. From the commentaries he did on the episodes he wrote from season 1 and season 2, I got the feeling that he would.

Did he do this episode? He writes one per season and usually takes the big one. He did the Blackwater Battle from season 2, for example.

[robc]

hear

[Don Mynack]

I hope those people who watch the next few seasons enjoy watching nothing else happen. The story is just pointless.

[sarcasmic]

A bunch of trial lawyers kill themselves. I fail to see a problem here.
http://www.courier-journal.com.....colleagues

[Ted S.]

Fucking site doesn't seem to have a link to a single-page version. And you can't use the keyboard to navigate the links to the next pages.

[sarcasmic]

Hey Kitty. You're FIRED!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ks-on.html

[John]

It is the male cats. They just want to lay around and fornicate and fight other male cats. They don't need to hunt. That is what females are for. You have to kind of respect the life of a good tom cat. But if you want a mouser, get a female. They have to feed kittens and the lazy males that will come and take their food occasionally. Females are born killers.

[sarcasmic]

I've seen plenty of male cats that were good hunters. We have a male right now that tries really hard, but the only problem is that he's deaf as a haddock. So the moment he loses sight of his prey, be it a mouse or a fly, he sits back on his ass howls until one of the two females comes to help him out.

[Ted S.]

"ass howls"?

I presume there's either a misspelling or a missing AND. But I like the idea of "ass howls".

[sarcasmic]

Yes, there is a missing 'and' in there. Though that cat is the only cat I've ever had that had gas. So in a way he ass howls.

[Brett L]

Eh. My male was a true redneck. He'd lay around all day unless it was time to fight, fuck, or hunt. Little shit used to bring home his kills at 2am and eat them under my bed. Nothing like being awakened by the sounds of tearing flesh and crunching bone at oh dark thirty to make you appreciate your kitty. I hope that little bastard is being hand fed tuna by an old lady somewhere, he never did turn up again in going on 3 months.

[mad libertarian guy]

If he wasn't cut, I wouldn't worry.

There was a neighborhood tom cat (I live in a fairly rural area in farm country) that disappeared for nearly 9 months. Everyone thought he was dead. Then one day he showed up again out of nowhere. Since he was cut, he hasn't left again.

[Brett L]

I hope so. He's always welcome back at my house.

[Lord Humungus]

my last male cat was a natural born killer - very quick and athletic, even though he looked like an overweight Italian.

On the other hand, my current female cat - who is a tiny thang - managed to catch a chipmunk the first time she was outside. That natural killer instinct.

[Warty]

Intact alpha male cats are the sweetest, laziest creatures on earth. They'll kill stuff if they have to, but much prefer to sit around, receive adulation and free food, and wander off looking for fights and sex. It seems like a pretty awesome life, doesn't it?

[John]

It really does. One of the reasons I like cats. They live the life I always wanted to lead.

[SugarFree]

Takashi and Chloe are indoor only, but have managed to kill a mouse that got in a couple of winter's ago. There wasn't a mark on the poor little guy, so they might have just stared at it until it had a heart attack.

[John]

They probably played with him until he died of shock. When he stopped moving, all of the fun was gone.

[SugarFree]

I can see Chloe being a killer, but Takashi is a Maine Coon and not one the smart ones. Poor little kitty. Not only is he as hairy as a morgue full of hobos, but he's not even smart enough to know when he's being made fun of.

[John]

Some cats stay wild. Others just see the free food, comfy places and lay and such and give it all up.

[Warty]

"How many of them things you got now?"

"Cats? Oh, I dunno, several. It depends on what you mean by got. Some of 'em are half wild, some of 'em are just outlaws."

[LTC(ret) John]

"hairy as a morgue full of hobos"

*rises to applaud*

Also, stolen.

[SugarFree]

If I had it all over to do again, I would have named him "Scruffy."

[Live Free or Diet]

Sweetest, shyest little "baby" of a cat I ever had dashed off the porch, grabbed a chipmunk like an expert and ran inside.

I caught it with a coffee can only because it was completely paralyzed with fear. No kidding, it had its paws over its eyes. Once outside again it ran like hell.

[John]

I had a little tuxedo female for 12 years. Everyone loved her. She weighed about seven pounds. Loved people. Sweetest cat ever. And could kill a mouse rabbit or bird at the drop of a hat.

[sarcasmic]

I remember one day we heard this awful cry coming from the woods, and upon investigation we found our male black cat on a flicker like a backpack. His claws were on the bird's shoulders and he was trying to get his mouth around the bird's neck.
Flickers are not small birds. And they're woodpeckers, so the thing could have done some damage to the cat given the chance.
We pulled him off and the bird flew away.

This same cat would bat black widow spiders around the floor like marbles.

Sorry, but in my experience male cats can hunt right beside the lady cats.

[SugarFree]

"Say good-bye to your company, Michael. And say good-bye to these 'cause it's the last time!"

[invisible furry hand]

Oh, that is just great. Now I'm expected to climb back on top of Kitty and do my thing again

[mad libertarian guy]

All these restrictions are self-inflicted:
Let them be helpless.
Let them embrace symbols of commitment
To compensate for the lack of it.

If you like Tool, you should like The Ocean.

Enjoy!

[sarcasmic]

Sounds more like Sade than Tool.

[SugarFree]

Warty is the sweetest taboo.

[NebulousFocus]

Seriously, this is where I now come to find new music. (I picked up Anciients due to your link recently)
Thanks!

[mad libertarian guy]

I love finding new music. I seek it out voraciously. I'm glad my time will help someone else find something they dig too.

[sarcasmic]

Oh no! How dare these people take care of a deer without first asking permission! Better that the deer be taken and euthanized than to let people take care of it without permission! What the fuck? Do these people think it's a free country or something? Dumbshits!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....s-ago.html

[mad libertarian guy]

This story pissed me off greatly.

You can safely say that my day is fucked.

[Kaptious Kristen]

So the Islamists and the Commies are fightin' it out in Turkey, eh? Wish I had taken that vacation there a couple years ago.

[John]

Me too. I have always wanted to go there. But I worry it is going to turn into Egypt.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I'm lucky in that I have been there 3 times, but it's been a while and I was looking forward to leisure time there (each time I was there was for work or school).

[gaijin]

I wonder if the EU leaders(as stupid as it seems to be) is breathing a sigh of relief at the delays and hurdles they placed in the way of Turkey becoming a full member?

[gaijin]

note. I am actually better at grammar than that comment would indicate. Intelligence on the other hand...

*they
*are

If only there was an edit button...

[Live Free or Diet]

We all do it. I change what I'm saying in mid-sentence and the comment suddenly looks very strange after hitting submit.

[Auric Demonocles]

Hockey talk: Can we now stop saying that Pittsburgh is obviously more talented? I will say they are more talented offensively (though they aren't showing it this series), but Boston obviously is better defensively and in goal. Last time I checked, defense and goaltending still requires talent, and the past two games prove they still matter.

[John]

If being "less talented" means you run the other team's goalie in the first period, I would say talent is way overrated.

[The Late P Brooks]

Congress shouldn't just investigate a political scandal. It should look at the larger threat of abusive behavior by a fearsomely powerful government agency.

But that might force them to honestly inquire "how" the IRS became so fearsomely powerful and unaccountable.

The Swiss should declare war on us for the bullshit the IRS has pulled.

[Spoonman.]

How damn ballsy do you have to be to kill somebody in public in fucking Southlake, Texas? Who does that?

[Lord Humungus]

Transgender Navy SEAL 'Warrior Princess' Comes Out
http://gma.yahoo.com/transgend.....ories.html

that's a man, baby!

[Live Free or Diet]

She must have been overcompensating?

[Brett L]

Eh. Good for her. I'm glad we live in a country where doing 20 years as a special forces soldier buys you hormone therapy on the taxpayers' dime.

[np]

NSFW: Mikandi announces Tits & Glass for Google Glass, then Google kills the fun:

MiKandi became aware today that Google changed its policy over the weekend to ban adult content on all Glassware.
[ . . . ]
Although the app is still live and people are using it, at this point we must make changes to the app in order to comply with the new policies. Expect to see changes to the application tomorrow.

[T]

All adult content? I guess that's it for Twitter, then.

[John]

If they are going to ban porn, they might as well ban cats too and take away all reason to be connected to the internet.

[Brett L]

We can still argue with each other about politics.

[John]

And anonymously slander people. So there is that.

[tarran]

I read somewhere that you were part of a nefarious government plot to influence public opinion by registering as readers on the New York Times website. 😉

[robc]

Not without porn and cats.

[Thane of #HOLO]

Google's "policy"?

420 ROOT IT FAGGOT!

[Smells Like Tom Skerritt]

Got to thinking about the yesterday's discussion about uploading your consciousness into a cyborg just before you die and here's my take...

If you record me playing a song on the guitar just befor I die, you can listen to that recording all you want, but I'm no longer playing that song.

[John]

I agree. There is a difference between it being a copy of your consciousness and your consciousness. Now some would say that quantum theory would tell you that the copy is really the same. But I am not sure I buy that. It is the same in that the observational data is the same. But that just makes it the same to the rest of the world, not to the thing being observed.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

There's a huge difference in recording some digital audio for playback and uploading your entire consciousness into a computer.

Your brain is nothing more than a really really complex computer. When we are able to create a computer that is as, or more, complex than the brain, your consciousness would be able to make decisions and have independant, original thought. Not just a playback of your memories and past thoughts.

[sarcasmic]

Do some research into how computers work and you'll see that that will never happen.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

WTF are you talking about? I've been in IT for 20 years. I am intimately familiar with how computers work.

Computers, as they exist now, could not hold a human consciousness or have the complexity that even a simple brain has. However, to say that it will NEVER happen is just short sighted.

Scientists are making HUGE discoveries about how the brain processes information and are making inroads to direct neural interfaces. It's only a matter of time until we figure out how to make a synthetic computer that functions like a brain does.

[sarcasmic]

Computers are glorified adding machines. There will have to be some incredible and unforeseen breakthrough before they'll function remotely like a brain.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Trinary computing. It's the biggest difference between a glorified adding machine and a thinking machine.

The computer you're typing on is a binary system. Each circuit is either on or off. Your neurons have a 3rd, null, state that allows for exponentially more connections and configurations.

The plasticity of your brain also sets it apart from computers in that it can reconfigure itself and create new connections where none existed before. This isn't going to be possible with the silicon tech that we use today, but could very probably be possible using some other substances or artificial neurons. There's some really interesting research being done on Wetware computing.

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

[sarcasmic]

Looks like wasted federal grant money to me.

[AlexInCT]

SKYNET!

[Michael S. Langston]

Not only are we missing technological pieces, but even if we could build something which could hold the same amount of data as the brain and use it as effectively - we still have little clue to how the brain works.

Don't get me wrong - neuroscience is cool and all, but asking a person math questions while seeing what part of their brain lights up is really cool, but unbelievably simplistic.

Just for example, such a "lighting" up doesn't even begin to contemplate the multiple chemicals used in brain processes. & of course there are multiple chemicals doing different things and in many cases, we're not positive what they're doing.

As a side note - this is why a big myth of today is that antidepression meds are thought to "balanace" brain chemistry - we know it opens up certain chemicals in the brain which tends to affect people in certain ways - but we are not even close to knowing if chemical inblances are even possible and if so, what "balance" would be most beneficial.

It's almost like snake oil. How do you know the cocaine-opium drink you are using is working?

Don't you feel better?

Disclaimer: I am not Tom Cruise - just because we don't know it all, doesn't mean these drugs haven't been useful for those that have taken them.

Still doesn't mean we understand all of it though...

[robc]

Your brain is nothing more than a really really complex computer.

[citation needed]

Many CLAIM this, going back at least to Turing. I call BS.

[robc]

I posted it yesterday too, but its still appropriate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnxkfLe4G74

[Warty]

The claims that it's not all rely on a resort to the old mystical Cartesian dualism bullshit. Turing was right.

[robc]

I have yet to see any proof that Turing was right.

And I like having Rush on my side, who I dont think resort to old mystical Cartesian dualism bullshit.

Although, Im perfectly fine with the soul residing in the pineal gland.

[Warty]

Rush isn't on your side. Rush calls you an asshole behind your back all the time and Geddy Lee fucks your wife.

[robc]

Im single and Im getting a cut from everything he pays my "wife".

Also, behind my back? I call myself an asshole to my face.

[robc]

And it proves my point. Computers cant be assholes. That requires free will.

[Warty]

Computers right now can't be assholes. What the hell makes you think they can't ever be assholes. That dipshit Descarte, that's who.

[robc]

Dont forget Kant.

[Warty]

You're a Kant.

[Citizen Nothing]

You're a Kant.

This is why nobody takes libertarians seriously.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Your brain transmits electrical impulses down different paths to process, store, and retrieve information. Your brain uses electrical impulses to control the various parts of your body. The same as a CPU in a computer.

The major (and it's a biggy) difference is that your brain is a trinary computer, not a binary one. Also, your brain is able to change those paths and markers to suit the purpose it needs. It's a chemical process as well, not a purely electric like in a computer.

So no, your brain is not a computer like the one sitting on your desk. It has many differences, but the CPU/brain comparison still stands. Once we figure out trinary computing, we'll have computers that are capable of independent thought and capable of uploading human minds.

[Warty]

All number bases are exactly equivalent, and besides, neurons aren't digital. The major difference is that brains are massively decentralized and our computer architectures are not at all.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Neurons are partly digital, partly analog.

You are correct about the decentralization of our brains. Again, as I've said. Computers as we know them now are not capable of this level of complexity, but advances in DNI and wetware computing are rapidly changing the way we look at supercomputers. It's only a matter of time until we create a computer as complex or more so than the brain.

[Warty]

Correct.

I'm not sure where you got this idea that ternary computers have any special abilities, though. The ENIAC was decimal, not binary, and all it meant was that it was more complicated than it should have been. It horrified Turing.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Trinary computing, in and of itself, does not have special powers. That, mixed with the plasticity of neurons and the analog and digital signals, does.

[robc]

Binary and trinary are convertible to each other, there is no functional difference.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

When it comes to processing data in a circuit, yes, there is a functional difference.

[Warty]

Nope. Unless you mean that the circuit's bandwidth is higher, or something like that?

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Much, much, higher.

[robc]

your brain is able to change those paths and markers to suit the purpose it needs.

In the Turing view, that is no different that what a hypothetical Turing machine can do. Its still just calculations based on input.

Its a question of free will.

The whole concept of materialism is self-refuting.

[Warty]

Is the universe deterministic, or not? I suspect so, but we have no way to know yet. If yes, free will is an illusion, and if not, you're on to something. Not Descartes, though, his only contribution was to draw squares on paper.

[robc]

his only contribution was to draw squares on paper.

Only?

That alone deserves him that prize from Hitchhikers for extreme cleverness.

[robc]

Is the universe deterministic, or not?

If it is, then we would be proving it with our deterministic brains, which are only "proving" it because the chemicals said so.

If the universe is deterministic, then we can never prove it in a satisfactory way. My brain is deterministically programmed to point out this flaw.

Since my brain tells me that I have a choice, whether it really does or not, I choose free will.

[Warty]

If it is, then we would be proving it with our deterministic brains, which are only "proving" it because the chemicals said so.

This is incoherent.

[robc]

This is incoherent.

How does "If the universe is deterministic, then we can never prove it in a satisfactory way" in any way follow from "we would be proving it with our deterministic brains, which are only 'proving' it because the chemicals said so"?

How was that not fucking clear?

If the universe is deterministic, then anything I "think" is determined, and isnt "valid" in any meaningful sense.

[Warty]

Oh, you're complaining that consciousness is an illusion if the universe doesn't exist. Ok. Well, so what?

[Warty]

Er, *if the universe is deterministic*. I'm not sure where the "doesn't exist" came from.

[robc]

Well, so what?

The so what is that therefore determinism cant be proven in any satisfactory way.

It may be true, my consciousness may be an illusion. But as long as I have consciousness, real or false, Im going to believe in it.

I have no interest in being an automaton.

[Thane of #HOLO]

How does "If the universe is deterministic, then we can never prove it in a satisfactory way" in any way follow from "we would be proving it with our deterministic brains, which are only 'proving' it because the chemicals said so"?

[KPres]

We have no way of knowing ever. In order to analyze something, you have to observe it undisturbed. But we can't observe the future because we're a part of it. The act of observing it changes the outcome.

[Thane of #HOLO]

So, when are you and Searle going to show us where the special sauce is?

[KPres]

Your brain is a computer, but your "self" is not. Your self is a psychological concept, similar to the software...an idea that the brain constructs. But there needs to be continuity over time to create it. My guess is that people won't just "upload" themselves to a computer and be done with. Rather, they'll transition slowly, swapping out body parts for cybernetic parts, then replacing portions of the brain, piece by piece, with breaks in-between so that their mind can adjust to changes, recreating the "self" along the way while maintaining the continuity.

[Michael S. Langston]

Check this link out - EU funding an attempt to create a computer "brain" (here):

For decades, neuroscientists and computer scientists have debated whether a computer brain could ever be endowed with the intelligence of a human. It's not a hypothetical debate anymore. Markram is building it. Will he replicate consciousness? The EU has bet $1.3 billion on it.

Note - many people are (rightfully IMHO) betting against it...

[Smells Like Tom Skerritt]

EPA mandated device forces ambulance to shut down on the way to the hospital, man dies.

[Smells Like Tom Skerritt]

"Around 140 people have been arrested during the most recent weekly anti-GOP protest held by the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP against the Republican-led General Assembly."

Fucking brown shirts.

[John]

Yup. Does anyone on the Right ever pull this kind of shit?

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Not that I've heard of. Its an idiotic tactic that just makes them look like pretentious douchebags. They PLAN on getting arrested to "make a point". The arrest consists of them being zip tied, taken to a station, paying a fine, and leaving... that's it. These fuck heads think they are Rosa Parks or MLK, getting arrested for disobeying unjust laws or someshit.

I had some co-workers who called off specifically so they could go get arrested protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. They had arrest "kits" that was the amount of the fine in cash and some instructions on how to not get your ass beat down. I literally laughed in one of their faces when they showed me the kit and asked if I would be willing to protest with them.

[John]

I don't know about the NAACP. But Greenpeace, Sierra Club and such pay people to go to protests and pay them extra if they get arrested. No kidding.

[KPres]

"Markets in everything" or "They will sell us the rope we hang them with"?

[jesse.in.mb]

Civil Rights tourism is brilliant. It's like evangelism. You're sending people out to get REALLY invested in the cause even if it doesn't make any real difference.

[John]

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....to-go.html

Ann Althouse nails why we have a bullying problem in schools that is worse than it once was. The bullies don't care about getting in trouble. And they know that the kids they bully do. Everyone knows the way to stop a bully is to hit him back. But thanks to zero tolerance policies and making school fights criminal, any kid who has any concern for his future can't do that. And the bullies know it.

[sarcasmic]

My stepson got suspended a year or two ago because some kid started punching him. Zero tolerance. Everyone involved gets punished. He thought he was doing the right thing by pushing the kid away instead of punching him, but he got punished anyway. Next time, since he knows he'll get punished regardless, he's going to draw some blood.

[John]

Some kids come from bad backgrounds. Some kids hate school and don't care if they are suspended. So if you put them in an environment with kids like your step son who does care, they are going to be able to victimize the hell out of them. It literally becomes like prison where the lifers who can't be punished anymore terrorize the people doing three years who can't risk getting more time.

It goes back to liberals living in a fantasy world and having no idea of how things actually work. It sounds like such a great idea to stop school violence by having zero tolerance. That will fix it!!

[Smells Like Tom Skerritt]

" It sounds like such a great idea to stop school violence by having zero tolerance. That will fix it!!"

Zero tolerance, from the tolerant left.

[Auric Demonocles]

Fun fact: I once got suspended from my Catholic elementary school for fighting with a kid who put a trash can over my head while I was changing after gym class. The other guy was not punished at all (though he got expelled about 2 months later for threatening a girl with a knife). Prior to this I had no incidents and was the top of my class since 1st grade.

[Auric Demonocles]

At least the incident finally got my parents to let me switch to public school. The Catholic one had been circling the drain for about 3 years (after they got a new principal). All 8 of my aunts and uncles on my dad's side had gone there all the way through high school, and a decent percentage of my cousins and sisters went through 8th grade (which was all that was around by then), so they weren't too keen on me switching. The school closed by the time I was a sophomore in high school.

[John]

Some private schools are no better than public. What makes a school is the students. I had the misfortune of going to a school system that was about half white trash hillbillies. And there was no dealing with them. Hell, beating them up did you no good since most of their parents beat the shit out of them. So a beating wasn't much of a deterrent to them. Once I got in high school and the real criminals dropped out, school got much better.

[Auric Demonocles]

This one definitely was better, until that idiot principal took over. The school went from 200 kids in 1-8th (actually a bit larger than most of the public schools in the area) to closed 5 years after she took over. Driving away that many kids (and donating families) was retarded. My class there had like 20 kids. When we graduated from high school (almost 300 kids in one class), 10 of us were in the top 20.

[John]

I got suspended for two days in junior high once for beating the living shit out of a kid who had been torturing me for weeks and had stolen my gym clothes just to fuck with me. I finally lost my temper. First time in my life I ever really had. It was a bit like that scene in a Christmas Story. The other kid was not punished of course even though he was a shit bag criminal who did nothing but torture other students.

[Auric Demonocles]

This guy came up behind me while I was changing and slammed the trash can down over my head (like a hat). I took it off and started beating him with the can. The other 8 boys in the locker room all saw it go down just like that, but the administration didn't care.

[mad libertarian guy]

I was once suspended for punching a teacher in the face.

I was sitting in homeroom talking, as I was wont to do in order to deter boredom in school. The teacher came and pulled on my ear, telling me to shutup. I told him that if he ever pulled my ear again, I would punch him him in the face. He immediately pulled on my ear, and I immediately punched him in the face.

I was summarily punished and suspended for 3 days.

And nothing else happened.

My government school experience was pretty awful. I had drunk teachers, physically abusive teachers, verbally abusive teachers, mentally abusive teachers . . .

Of all the teachers I had in 13 years of government schooling, I can say that exactly 2 were good. Both band teachers.

Fuck government schools.

[Auric Demonocles]

My dad is terrified of snakes. When he was a kid his younger brother (by 5 years) thought it was funny, and it was the only way he could really get back at a guy that much older.

One day he's chasing my dad with a snake he found, and my dad grabs a baseball bat. He told my uncle "If you come any closer to me I'm going to break your arm." My uncle came closer, and my dad broke his arm. My grandmother refused to punish my dad because "He told you what was going to happen."

[Thane of #HOLO]

I was watching Discovery's North America the other day. They showed what was essentially a snake orgy. Thousands of snakes in one place, 10 males per 1 female. It was hilarious.

[mad libertarian guy]

Fucking Canada.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Too bad they are harmless.

[Warty]

In The Road, the main character has a flashback about seeing a snake orgy get doused with gasoline and set on fire. Fucking Cormac McCarthy and his ability to depress me.

[John]

I never understood the point of reading that book. Some say it is a love letter to normality. Well, I have been without and seen how the rest of the world lives. I get it. I totally appreciate living this lifestyle and how wonderful it is. I really see no reason to spend hours being horrified and depressed to have that idea reinforced.

[LTC(ret) John]

Tell me about it. I knew I had it good well before plunging into shitholes in the Balkans and Central and Southwest Asia.

[Juice]

Everyone knows the way to stop a bully is to hit him back.

Not every bully. Sometimes you just have to find someone bigger than him or her to give them the proper lesson.

[Warty]

Truthiness.

"Studies such as Flegal's are dangerous, Willett says, because they could confuse the public and doctors, and undermine public policies to curb rising obesity rates. 'There is going to be some percentage of physicians who will not counsel an overweight patient because of this,' he says. Worse, he says, these findings can be hijacked by powerful special-interest groups, such as the soft-drink and food lobbies, to influence policy-makers."

[robc]

Other than the reasons listed, the study is not rubbish for an obvious evolutionary reason. Someone just a bit "overweight" survives a poor hunting/gathering season better than someone at "optimal" weight.

[John]

In a state of nature our weight is going to vary quite a lot depending on how good of a year we have. So it is hard to believe that our health would be tied to weight in such a linear fashion. Meanwhile, we are and have been for thousands of years active creatures. So, how active you are affects your health a lot more than your weight.

[Warty]

This is true. Most of the big health problems that old people have are either because of, or made much worse by, muscle wasting due to not doing any damn thing with their bodies for years. The average fat slob loses something like 30 pounds of muscle between 30 and 60, which is just beyond my comprehension.

[John]

They did a ten year demographic study of 80 year old people. They did all of these tests on them at 80 and then came back and looked at the ones who were still alive at 90. The only statistically significant factor in predicting who was alive 10 years later, and I forget the number but it was huge, was whether the person could walk a quarter mile unaided. The ones who could almost all were alive at 90 and the ones who couldn't were all dead. Inactivity is what kills you. We are a bit like horses in that regard.

[robc]

My parents had a neighbor who at age 90, climbed on his roof to check out storm damage.

He only made it to 99. But he went down hill fast when he became immobile about age 95.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Was he on the roof for the whole 9 years?

[Warty]

I can't imagine being so feeble that I couldn't walk a quarter mile. What would even be the point of being alive?

[mad libertarian guy]

Finally being able to tell your wife to make you a sammich without hearing a bunch of shit?

[Archduke Pantsfan]

TAKE THE DAMN BUS

[John]

Shockingly he got smacked down for it by other researchers. It makes me feel a little better about the state of science. Gee, why does it not surprise me some political hack who is interested only in the revolutionary truth to advance the cause is at Harvard?