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Senators Say NSA Phone Monitoring Has Been Going on for Years, IRS Official Apologizes for Lavish Conference and Star Trek Spoof, Gitmo To Get More Guards: P.M. Links

Matthew Feeney | 6.6.2013 4:30 PM

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  • Credit: NSA

    Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) have said that the monitoring of Verizon phone calls by the National Security Agency has been going on for years and is nothing new, as if that should make us feel any better. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) defended the NSA's monitoring of the calls saying, "I'm glad the NSA is trying to find out what the terrorists are up to overseas and in our country."

  • An IRS official has apologized to Congress for organizing a $4.1 million conference and for his appearance in a Star Trek spoof which was one of two videos made for the event.
  • More guards are to be sent to the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay, where officials hope there will eventually be 2,000 staff for the 166 prisoners.  
  • Attorney General Eric Holder has promised that he won't prosecute journalists for their reporting.
  • Colorado regulators won't enforce a new law that requires marijuana-themed publications to be kept behind store counters.
  • Most Americans believe that the legal recognition of gay marriage is inevitable.

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NEXT: Patriot Act Author Jim Sensenbrenner "Disturbed" by NSA's Collection of Verizon Phone Records

Matthew Feeney is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

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  1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Attorney General Eric Holder has promised that he won't prosecute journalists for their reporting.

    And we appreciate his commitment to lying to us.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      No, wait, he might be telling the truth this time. DOJ won't prosecute.

      But the IRS will audit. Oh yes.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

        Hey! We don't need the criminal codes when we've got all of this administrative law just lying around! What good is all this paper for if we don't use it?

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          If the federal government really wanted to nail you, they could find you guilty of a hundred crimes and regulatory violations. That's freedom.

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

            Maybe Mel could redo Braveheart where instead of being disemboweled, he's flogged to death by a dozen bureaucrats with razor-sharp rolled-up regulations.

            1. Brandon   12 years ago

              "FREEEEEEEEEDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!"

              "Noise violation!"

          2. JW   12 years ago

            Don't forget OSHA and the EEOC. I'm sure they won't find anythig amiss.

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              The EPA, too. "Sir, you have water in your body. We've designated you a wetlands."

              1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

                +1. Not to mention a source of carbon emissions.

                1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  Excuse me, sir. Do you have carbon credits? No? I'm sorry, we have to remove the carbon from you, then.

                  1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

                    "STOP BREATHING, EARTHKILLER!"

    2. Ted S.   12 years ago

      He's telling the truth: he'll have other people at the DOJ do the prosecuting.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        See, look at all the truth we can squeeze out of Holder's statements!

  2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

    Star Trek spoof? The IRS produced Abrams' film? I did not know that.

    1. deified   12 years ago

      Say goodbye to my little friend ultra-low mortgage rates:

      http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/0.....?hpt=hp_t2

      General Cock-and-Balls is moving forward with his life to become a hedge fund macher:

      http://finance.fortune.cnn.com.....joins-kkr/

      1. Matrix   12 years ago

        guess I got my rate right on time. I closed on the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend with 3.375%

        1. CE   12 years ago

          30 year fixed? That's pretty good.

          1. Matrix   12 years ago

            yup. And I closed just in time too. My locked-in rate was going to expire that day.

            Damn builders kept pushing back the closing date. I was getting worried.

            1. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

              Write Bernanke a thank-you note.

            2. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

              Hopefully you don't have an early payoff penalty in the loan agreement.

              1. Matrix   12 years ago

                I don't.

  3. Zakalwe   12 years ago

    More guards are to be sent to the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay, where officials hope there will eventually be 2,000 staff for the 166 prisoners.

    The unclassified number is 666.

    1. Raston Bot   12 years ago

      3 teams of 3 working 8-hour shifts: 2 to hold em down, 1 to insert feeding tube

      1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        I may be heartless, but if Guantanamo prisoners want to starve themselves to death, let 'em.

        1. Homple   12 years ago

          I wonder if you get 72 virgins for starving yourself to death.

        2. Tonio   12 years ago

          It's a tricky situation, MangoLA. If they die from other than old age or execution while in custody then we open to charges of neglect or constructive execution, even if those charges are true.

          If allowed to go on, you'll see slow creep of prisoners "dying from hunger strikes"; that's the reality of bureacracy.

          And I'm sympathetic to the right of the prisoners to protest in this way, or choose to die rather than live in captivity.

  4. Sevo   12 years ago

    "Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) have said that the monitoring of Verizon phone calls by the National Security Agency has been going on for years and is nothing new, as if that should make us feel any better"

    Bush did it too!

    1. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

      The PATRIOT Spy on America Act left a greasy skidmark on American that will never be washed out.

      1. Sevo   12 years ago

        "The PATRIOT Spy on America Act left a greasy skidmark on American that will never be washed out."

        And your fave liar is doing his best to make sure it sticks around, right?

    2. CE   12 years ago

      If they knew about this, they are complicit. Round them up and start the people's tribunals.

  5. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Most Americans believe that the legal recognition of gay marriage is inevitable.

    Is that synonymous with cultural acceptance?

    1. CE   12 years ago

      No, it's a projection from current trends. Nothing is inevitable, not even death and taxes.

  6. db   12 years ago

    2000/166 = 12:1.

    1. Matrix   12 years ago

      I'm sure teachers would love those ratios.

    2. Zakalwe   12 years ago

      You have fixed manpower needs as baseline. The real crime is that we aren't putting more prisoners there to maximize per unit efficiency.

      1. CE   12 years ago

        You also have tropical cush job quotas to fill.

      2. Sevo   12 years ago

        "The real crime is that we aren't putting more prisoners there to maximize per unit efficiency."

        Keep your wet dreams to yourself.

  7. Matrix   12 years ago

    There's a fungus among us
    Company growing fungus to be used as insulation and packaging material

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

      I think I read a Crichton novel about that

      1. RBS   12 years ago

        The Great Train Robbery?

    2. Spoonman.   12 years ago

      That's pretty cool.

      1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        Yes, cool, but it makes me remember something from the '70s oil crisis. Some people thought they could replace styrofoam peanuts with popcorn. The problem: mice and rats like popcorn. So I'd worry that mycelium might be vermin food. Also, regarding its use as insulation: will it rot if it gets wet?

        1. Zeb   12 years ago

          There are still peanuts made of corn starch. They taste kind of like popcorn. I wonder if there is something on them that keeps mice from eating them and it was a bad idea to eat one.

          1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

            "In the early stages of the manufacturing process, the sugars and any food value are removed from the starch used to produce the peanuts, which eliminates the materials that are attractive to pests."

            So they aren't poisoned or anything, but then they aren't made in food-safe conditions, either.

  8. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

    Am I remembering this wrong? I thought the NSA was forbidden to listen into purely domestic calls, at least pre-9/11.

    1. Tonio   12 years ago

      Ha, ha. Dude, that piece of paper is like a hundred years old. And written by people who wore powdered wigs and owned slaves.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        And denied women the vote. Therefore, the Constitution is null and void. Of course. But I think this was in the enabling act for the NSA.

    2. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

      That was my recollection as well.

    3. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

      Listening in is not the same as collecting a record of numbers dialed.

      1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        Technically true. The argument is that for the government to get the content of the call from number X to number Y requires a warrant, but knowledge of the simple existence of the call is not protected, because it is "public" in the sense that the phone company knows it happened. I think something similar applies to mail: the government may not need a warrant to get the PO to say a package was delivered from address X to address Y.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          There's some exception for "pen registers." I think the Court said those aren't searches. But what's happening now is more insidious due to the huge scope and the fact that government is doing other things to compile large amounts of behavioral data on people suspected of no crime.

  9. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

    Please don't fix the typo in Lindsey Graham's name. He doesn't deserve it.

  10. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Sen. Linsdey Graham (R-S.C.) defended the NSA's monitoring of the calls saying, "I'm glad the NSA is trying to find out what the terrorists are up to overseas and in our country."

    1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

      I guess this is going to be my thing now.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.
        Tag on, tag off.

      2. Brett L   12 years ago

        Let go of the shift key. You're probably typing less than ?i

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          What a primitive culture we live in where we can't type symbols on a computer.

          1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

            It's not that we can't type symbols. It's that your lawyer brain isn't capable of understanding this math-related symbols. Here, look at this sweet equation:

            Pretty easy, right?

            1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

              It's obvious

            2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              It's a nullity.

              1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

                You know, Pro Libertate, there's a psychological concept known as denial that I think you're evincing. It's when a thought is so hateful that the mind literally rejects it.

                1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  Like global warming?

                  1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

                    If you're not going to say anything I can't help you.

                    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                      I don't need your help. I don't have a problem.

        2. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

          No, it's not a failure to close the tag. It submitted before I got to post my zinger. Apparently I'm hitting the tab key which tabs to the submit button and then with the next keystroke it's posting.

          1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

            It submitted before I got to post my zinger.

            Apparently the squirrels ate that, too.

            1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

              I take full responsibility for my comments. It's one of the things that makes me better than the rest of you.

              1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

                I guess the squirrels ate all evidence of those other things, too.

              2. CE   12 years ago

                Maybe that PM Links auto-detect-and-post software is finally messing up your keyboard.

            2. Rasilio   12 years ago

              Was it the chocolate kind or the red with coconut shaving kind?

    2. CE   12 years ago

      Graham cracker.

    3. RBS   12 years ago

      Zakalwe is Lindsay Graham?

  11. MJGreen   12 years ago

    Yay, I have contributions today! Of a sort.

    - We're why there are no libertarian women:

    And there are still some males (I hesitate to call the ones I have in mind "men," since they act like little boys) who attack what they imagine feminism to be, which is just another way of attacking women because it comes out of fear of women. Don't believe me? Just look at the crap we get on the Association of Libertarian Feminists page. Or at the comments on any Reason Online post that involves women or gender. Many comments ooze childish hostility.

    - And this is the best reaction to the Red Wedding: http://enoughisenoughgrrm.tumblr.com/

    This aggression against imaginary women will not stand, man!

    1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

      There are no libertarian women because you don't provide links to quote sources?

    2. AuH20   12 years ago

      If they're getting crap from the Association of Libertarian Feminist, that means they are getting crap... from other feminist.

      Oh? You mean that by not supporting national health care and other leftist policies, you consider them not to really be feminists? Well, I think you answered your own fucking question there.

      1. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

        A woman wrote a post at BHL wondering aloud why more libertarians didn't call themselves feminists. Some of the comments were pretty good.

        The conflict is encapsulated in the oft-heard feminist maxim "the personal is the political", when one of the main points of libertarianism (even for the EVUL COSMOTARIUNZ) is that the personal is not the political.

        1. JW   12 years ago

          BHL?

          Bithin' Hawt Libertarians?
          Biting His Littlefinger?
          Bathe Here Limey?

          1. hamilton   12 years ago

            bitchez h8tin libertards

          2. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

            Bleeding Heart Libertarians (it's a blog)

    3. Episiarch   12 years ago

      So much butthurt. So many lulz. The Red Wedding has given us these gifts.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        I must say that I now wish Martin and killed off everyone in that scene.

        1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

          I really don't get why you all get so much pleasure out of this.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            It's funny because there's more to come.

            1. Episiarch   12 years ago

              Yes, this as well. They have no idea what's in store for them.

              1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                I bet Martin commits suicide in penultimate episode. On screen, for reals. That's how he's built, I think.

          2. Irish   12 years ago

            The butthurt over dead T.V. show characters is funny, particularly when they try to make it about 'sexism' since a bunch of women died in that scene.

            In last season's battle scene, a guy's head was crushed by a falling rock and everyone around him was splattered with blood. The Hound then cut a man in half with a broadsword. Watching the lunatics rave about how the Red Wedding was anti-women is astonishing given that Game of Thrones has featured multiple graphic death scenes that involved men.

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              Wait, what? Are you serious? How do they squeeze that out of Martin's multi-book slaughterfest?

              1. Irish   12 years ago

                I posted this below:

                Oh don't even start that disposable male horse shit with me. Stabbing a pregnant woman in the belly is not okay. I'm sorry you love watching pregnant women die on screen you sadistic loser but most don't.

                Also, look at the construction of the scene. When Talisa is stabbed, the camera is one foot away. Same with Cat and Walder's wife. Most of the bannermen are killed off screen and the ones that are killed off screen are obscured by shadows, the camera is six meters away, and I'm done talking to someone so obsessed with watching women die.

                In other words, because this one scene had more women die graphically, that's proof of sexism. All that's required for you to believe this nonsense is a willingness to ignore everything else that happens throughout the entire show.

            2. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

              I get the part about trying to make it sexist. I don't get why prior to the Red Wedding people were licking their chops waiting for it to happen specifically because it would piss off other people (who were rational not to shoehorn in sexism).

              1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

                Making that more clear:

                "I get the part about [picking on the crazies] trying to make it sexist. "

                1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  I actually am only mildly amused at the outcry. Episiarch is aroused by it.

              2. Episiarch   12 years ago

                I actually didn't think it would piss people off, I just thought it would shock them. It pissing people off was just a reminder that people emotionally invest in things that aren't real, which is pretty fucking stupid. And in my opinion, if you hadn't figured out yet that Martin is pretty brutal to his characters, you're an idiot. Martin clearly has eschewed the usual happy ending/good characters survive/evil people get what's coming to them bullshit.

                1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  In the new Star Trek, it turns out Kirk and Spock are brothers. Their dad? Darth Vader, of course.

                  1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

                    Well, half-brothers.

                    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                      Right. Because how else could they be half-brothers with Uhura?

                2. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

                  It pissing people off was just a reminder that people emotionally invest in things that aren't real, which is pretty fucking stupid.

                  Too many overgrown children think real life is just like the movies they watch. I'm not that surprised a bunch of them are so emotionally distraught over a bunch of non-existent people dying.

                  1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                    I don't want to come off as completely detached from characters in fiction, because I get at least somewhat emotionally detached.

                    Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end? Nobody cried when Old Yeller got shot? I'm sure.

                    1. RBS   12 years ago

                      Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end?

                      Eh, I was more of a Where the Red Fern Growsfan myself.

                    2. Irish   12 years ago

                      I get emotionally attached to characters in that I care what happens to them.

                      I can't imagine getting so attached that I'd be whining about it on the internet days later though. At that point you should probably get a life.

                    3. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                      I tend to criticize things like this when I think they're poor moves in the dramatic sense. So, for instance, if and when Martin kills off Tyrion, I may have a comment or two to make about that. Unless it's at the very end.

                    4. Zeb   12 years ago

                      The fact that you get emotionally attached to the characters and get sad when they die means that it's good storytelling. That people get mad about it is just silly. Those things happen specifically to give the story that emotional weight.

                    5. Stormy Dragon   12 years ago

                      It actually isn't Old Yeller getting shot that gets me crying, it's the scene after where his dad comes home and goes to talk to him about it that always gets me.

          3. Episiarch   12 years ago

            Because anyone who is upset or angry about it is a retard. First of all, it's a TV show. Secondly, the reason they like the show so much in the first place is that Martin is a great writer who does crazy shit that no one else will do. That's what makes him special. No other show is going to maim main characters or kill everyone at a wedding or chop off the head of the guy who seems like the main character. And thirdly, if they had read the books they'd already know about it.

            So: lulz.

            1. Rasilio   12 years ago

              Rob never seemed like the main character to me, I always figured it was Tyrion, Bran, Jon, and Danaerys that were the main characters.

              I will say that one thing that is kind of bothering me is that while it is true that the "good guys" rarely get their happily ever after, the "bad guys" almost always get their comeuppance if for no other reason than they make too many enemies and to this point the only "bad guy" that has gotten his is Theon.

              Realistically the only ones I expect to survive relatively unscathed are the amoral pragmatists like the Hound and the Spider

              1. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

                No good guys. No bad guys. No justice. Just like real life!

                1. LTC(ret) John   12 years ago

                  Sam Peckinpah anyone?

                2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  I wouldn't go quite that far. Ned Stark was written as a pretty good guy.

                  At one point, I thought Tyrion might actually end up supporting the Starks to some extent.

              2. Zakalwe   12 years ago

                Littlefinger uber alles.

              3. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                Yeah, I won't go into future spoilers for those who haven't gotten as far, but I had a similar reaction.

              4. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

                Realistically the only ones I expect to survive relatively unscathed are the amoral pragmatists like the Hound and the Spider

                At this point I wouldn't be surprised if one of Dany's dragons turned on her and ate her.

                1. Gray Ghost   12 years ago

                  A la ProL above, I wonder if Tyrion'll be the next major character to get whacked in the next book?

                  I fully expect Walder Frey to make it through the end of the saga, or at least, die peacefully in bed.

                  What an utter crapsack world.

    4. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

      Or at the comments on any Reason Online post that involves women or gender. Many comments ooze childish hostility.

      The should see the comments on reason posts that don't involve women or gender.

    5. Brett L   12 years ago

      Association of Libertarian Feminists

      Nikki, Dagny, and IFH have their own group now?

      1. deified   12 years ago

        There's also Kristen. Never forget Kristen.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

          She's so.... kaptious...

      2. Irish   12 years ago

        Busab Agent would be in there too.

        1. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

          PACW
          Banjos
          Lady Bertrand (Bertrum?)
          SusanM
          hotsy totsy

          And maybe lap83 and SpartanGirl, I'm not sure if they're libertarians or not.

          1. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

            And waffles

            1. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

              I always got that vibe, but I wasn't sure.

            2. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

              and by corollary, pancakes

            3. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

              Are you sure nicole?

              waffles| 6.5.13 @ 12:40PM

              Then Catholic mass must be pornography, at least to my 13 year old self with a massively awkward boner.

              jesse.in.mb| 6.5.13 @ 12:46PM

              Were you in altar boy regalia?

              waffles| 6.5.13 @ 1:07PM

              Nope, Catholic school uniform. Size 14 slim, all my inches showed through and the girl to my left couldn't stop staring. Earned me the nickname "Mr. Bonus".

              1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

                Jesse is the reason no trans people are libertarians.

                1. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

                  jesse and me both, I guess.

              2. waffles   12 years ago

                I'm not even sure. I guess it's because I used the word partner instead of girlfriend once. But pancakes is totally my rad lesbian altar eggo.

                1. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

                  I guess it's because I used the word partner instead of girlfriend once.

                  You've caused me to prove right all my boyfriend's stupid objections to using the word "partner." DAMN YOU!

                  1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

                    But pancakes is totally my rad lesbian altar eggo

                    Really? a waffles PUN!?

                    You've caused me to prove right all my boyfriend's stupid objections to using the word "partner."

                    THAT'S OUR WORD! My ex's mother introduced me as his partner at a family wedding when we'd only been dating for 4 months and I started panicking.

                    1. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

                      He thinks its your word too. I want my own.

                    2. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

                      What's wrong with "significant other" beyond being horribly milquetoast?

                      Sidekick?

                    3. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

                      Well, it's six fucking syllables long for one thing.

                    4. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

                      Well, it's six fucking syllables long for one thing.

                      "He's my S.O." I dunno, you can probably have partner, you'd be about the only person who actually wants it, it sounds overly formal and businesslike.

                      Traditionally, you only bring spouses or fiances.

                      I usually don't expect to introduce a bf to immediate family until I've been dating 3-6 months. My family is cray-cray and overtly hostile to bfs, and I need to know that the bf can put on a charm offensive and not fold like a house of cards. Meeting my ex's immediate family after three weeks and extended family at 4 months was like driving at a brick wall and pressing hard on the gas.

                    5. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

                      Well this is all irrelevant, because I'm never going to get him to call me something else. Whatevs.

                      While Tonio is right, I do know a lot of people that seem to be going to weddings with their semi-long-term SO. My bff has gone to a bunch with her boyfriend, starting when they'd been dating maybe like six months?

                    6. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

                      I've been to 5 weddings in the last year including my own. At all of them it was entirely appropriate to bring whoever you want as your plus one. My best man brought a hot chick he wanted to hook up with.

                      But I guess that's just us youths of america ruining tradition.

                    7. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

                      Pretty much.

                    8. Tonio   12 years ago

                      Uh, going to a wedding is serious business. Traditionally, you only bring spouses or fiances.

                    9. waffles   12 years ago

                      I was seriously thinking about mentioning my partner in job interviews at certain employers where if they assumed I was gay it would be an advantage over other applicants. It would probably work like a charm.

          2. Brett L   12 years ago

            Banjos? Isn't she barefoot and pregnant? I'm not sure even libertarian feminists advocate that.

            1. Banjos   12 years ago

              Not only that, but I hung out on a libertarian website so I could find me a husband to knock me up, let me stay home to care for the chillunz, and buy me expensive purses.

          3. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

            Nobody has this saved in a text file yet, maybe a nice excel spreadsheet? Every time we reference the lack of libertarian women there is an enumeration of libertarian women.

            1. Brett L   12 years ago

              Well I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition for posting an incomplete list.

              1. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

                Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

            2. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

              I have one, which I am updating based on this discussion.

          4. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

            Shirley Knott

            No hugs for thugs.

            And sandi I guess

            1. Tonio   12 years ago

              Alice Bowie

              1. Banjos   12 years ago

                Alice Bowie is a guy. It is the name of a Cheech and Chong character. Stormy Dragon is also a guy. What kind of respectable male, straight or gay, gives himself that handle?

                1. Tonio   12 years ago

                  Damn you, Banjos! [shakes fist]

                  Hope you and the kid are doing well.

                2. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

                  Is Stormy a homotarian?

                3. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

                  An Ultima fan who chases tornados?

                4. Coeus   12 years ago

                  Wait, stormy's a guy? I thought stormy was a lesbian.

              2. Zeb   12 years ago

                I'm pretty sure Alice is a dude.

          5. RBS   12 years ago

            How could you forget Tulpa?

            1. JW   12 years ago

              Having a sandy vagina doesn't make you female per se.

      3. mad libertarian guy   12 years ago

        Lucy too.

        1. Brett L   12 years ago

          Never mention Lucy here.

          1. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

            I appreciated this comic she posted on her blog the other day.

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              Nice.

          2. Raston Bot   12 years ago

            What happened to Lucy?

            1. Brett L   12 years ago

              She Woke the Jacket. You don't ever want to Wake the Jacket.

              1. Raston Bot   12 years ago

                Are you kidding? Nick fired Lucy?

            2. Episiarch   12 years ago

              DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY

              1. hamilton   12 years ago

                Oh fuck here we go again.

            3. johnl   12 years ago

              We love Lucy. But now she's writing for thestagblog and antiwar.com instead of us.

            4. johnl   12 years ago

              We love Lucy. But now she's writing for thestagblog and antiwar.com instead of us.

    6. Bobarian   12 years ago

      Man, the amount of butt-hurt coming out of the Red Wedding is delicious.

      Makes me wish that that was the season ender, and make everyone wait another year for what should happen this week.

      When Tyrion strangles Sansa, people are gonna come unglued...

      /JK

      1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

        Looking at the finale teaser, the build up this season, and my memory of Storm, which is supposed to be split into two seasons, I don't think we're getting the third wedding until next season. One of the three slugs is dead; we still need the second before we get the third.

        1. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

          Imagine they will start next season with the iron isles, then the other wedding 4 or 5 episodes in.

          1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

            We might get the Balon Greyjoy in a quickie scene this episode. We'll definitely get a Castle Black scene, but I don't know if we'll get resolution or cliff hanger. I guess from previews we're getting the start of Danerys' completely boring storyline, and I imagine we'll see some Kings' Landing reactions, but probably no plot unless they make some up for the show.

            1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

              Oh, and we probably close on Stoneheart.

              1. Raston Bot   12 years ago

                My vindictive wife said she can't wait for Stoneheart.

                So, obviously Blackfish had to go piss on a tree so he could plausibly make a later appearance.

                1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

                  My vindictive wife said she can't wait for Stoneheart.

                  I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I found the Stoneheart angle to be ridiculously cheap on Martin's part.

            2. CE   12 years ago

              Yeah, for a show with 50 characters they wait a long time between killing them off, and tracking 10 storylines at once means they don't make much progress in the ridiculously short 10-episode seasons.

            3. JW   12 years ago

              I guess from previews we're getting the start of Danerys' completely boring storyline,

              I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this.

              1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

                I can't remember anything that happens during that part. I guess Jorah goes away, and...something, rebellion, yawn.

                1. JW   12 years ago

                  She may have shown us her tits and ass at one point, but even that's boring.

                  1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                    I don't much care for her as a character, and I find much of what she does implausible. And I don't mean the dragons and that crap.

                  2. Brandon   12 years ago

                    Are you sure you're not gay?

            4. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

              We'll definitely get a Castle Black scene, but I don't know if we'll get resolution or cliff hanger.

              I think, given the scope of what happens there, it will be in the penultimate episode.

              1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

                The last episode was the penultimate episode. Too late.

                1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

                  Sorry--misunderstood the post.

          2. Mickey Rat   12 years ago

            GRRM is writing S4 Ep2, so that's probably where next wedding falls.

    7. Irish   12 years ago

      This is wonderful

      SPOILERS BELOW!!! STOP READING IF YOU'RE ONE OF THREE PEOPLE ON THIS BLOG WHO DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE RED WEDDING!

      Oh don't even start that disposable male horse shit with me. Stabbing a pregnant woman in the belly is not okay. I'm sorry you love watching pregnant women die on screen you sadistic loser but most don't.

      Also, look at the construction of the scene. When Talisa is stabbed, the camera is one foot away. Same with Cat and Walder's wife. Most of the bannermen are killed off screen and the ones that are killed off screen are obscured by shadows, the camera is six meters away, and I'm done talking to someone so obsessed with watching women die.

      What? Game of Thrones has killed dozens of men with the camera right there, watching them die in the most horrifying ways possible. The Hound ripped a man's guts out. Theon had his balls cut off. Ned Stark was decapitated and we got to see his head on a spike. Whining about the one time a woman is killed in a similarly graphic way is completely absurd.

      1. B.P.   12 years ago

        Don't forget that George Bush had his head on a pike in one scene.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          Thank God it wasn't Obama's head. HBO would've gotten audited or something.

      2. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

        It's like they're realizing for the first time that a feudal society is extremely violent and no one gives a shit about "social justice" in such a world.

      3. alittlesense   12 years ago

        Uh-oh.....what about those of us who just don't care about Red Wedding or Game of Thrones generally? Are we to be cast into outer darkness to weep and gnash our teeth? I was going to make a joke about Game of Thrones being a bathroom remodel series on HGTV but I was afraid I would be rent limb from limb......

    8. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

      Link to the first part?

    9. Binjelli   12 years ago

      Oh please, what comments on the H&R blog contain "childish hostility"?

      Wait...

    10. CE   12 years ago

      Reason Online hits the bigtime! They're worried about us and what we think!

    11. PapayaSF   12 years ago

      Dramatic fiction, how does it work?

    12. Mickey Rat   12 years ago

      "Also, look at the construction of the scene. When Talisa is stabbed, the camera is one foot away. Same with Cat and Walder's wife. Most of the bannermen are killed off screen and the ones that are killed off screen are obscured by shadows,..."

      Focusing on the named characters who die in that scene, such a bizarre directorial choice, is it not?

      Also, Beinoff and Weiss are more to blame for Talisa's death (and existence)than Martin. Martin did not have Robb's wife even attend the Red Wedding.

  12. Sevo   12 years ago

    "Attorney General Eric Holder has promised that he won't prosecute journalists for their reporting."

    Did they keep the camera on him long enough to catch him giggling?

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Oh, I thought of another way he could be telling the truth. Legally defining journalist to exclude the ones they hunt down like vermin.

      1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

        This so-called man is not a journalist! He's a terrorist!

        1. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

          terrorist

      2. Rasilio   12 years ago

        Indeed, No True Scottsman is not just a fallacy anymore, it is a legal maxim.

        We do not prosecute journalists for what they write therefore if we prosecute you it is proof that you are not a journalsit

        1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

          doubleplus good! You get an extra "meat" ration!

      3. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

        Why do you think he gives a shit about telling the truth, other than the perverse joy in his own cleverness? I don't think he believes there will be any consequences for his actions, because his entire career has been built around helping the powerful evade consequences for their actions.

  13. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Sen. Linsdey Graham (R-S.C.) defended the NSA's monitoring of the calls saying, "I'm glad the NSA is trying to find out what the terrorists are up to overseas and in our country."

    WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO HIDE, AMERICA?

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

      Please Senator, share with us the details of your phone calls and emails.

      1. db   12 years ago

        Seriously. I would laugh my ass off if someone obtained and released the records (even just the metadata of who called whom and times and durations of calls) of all elected officials. I bet there's nothing at all to hide there.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

          Paging Anonymous, please pick up the white courtesy phone...

          1. CE   12 years ago

            You mean "anonymous page"...

        2. SweatingGin   12 years ago

          Could be a really fun big-data visualization. You've got a directed graph, from source to destination. Add thickness to that side of the graph for each call, and increase the size of the node (a phone number) for each call in or out.

          Then, game it a bit, if you can access real-time information. Start a campaign to war dial the whitehouse switchboard asking them to not seize phone records wholesale. See how big it can be.

    2. Rich   12 years ago

      Please Senator, share with us the details of your NSA-curtailed terrorist plots.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

        Classified.

  14. Brett L   12 years ago

    Even a blind dog can find a wall.

    So, Bordeaux started investigating what kind of aids exist to help blind dogs. Underwhelmed by her findings, she decided to develop her own product: Clear vinyl tubing, filled with wire and covered with plastic, to be worn around a blind dog's head to protect them from bumping into things.

    1. Ted S.   12 years ago

      Somehow I can't imagind dogs wanting to wear such a thing.

    2. rac3rx   12 years ago

      The rim acts as a barrier to help give a dog a sense of where he is before his nose face hits a wall.

      WTF is a "nose face"?

      1. Mickey Rat   12 years ago

        Apparently, the writer is unfamiliar with the term "snout".

  15. rts   12 years ago

    Canada's oil output to more than double by 2030

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

      They found a way to harvest the runoff from the hairy backed Saskatchewians

      1. Marshall Gill   12 years ago

        STEVE SMITH is Canadian? I did not know that.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

      I knew it! They're going to annex the Dakotas!

    3. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      It's all rapeseed oil.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

        So STEVE SMITH is Canadian!

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          Well, yeah.

        2. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

          STEVE SMITH KNOWS MANY HIKERS IN CANADA, EH?

  16. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Colorado regulators won't enforce a new law that requires marijuana-themed publications to be kept behind store counters.

    The best laws and regulations are those hanging over our heads, ready to be enforced at the slightest provocation of the bureaucracy.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      It's a shame that they can't just be automatically enforced. Say with a robot that walks with each of us, which knows all laws and regulations.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

        No robot has that storage capacity or processing power to know and enforce every law and regulation. There would have to be specialized automatons. Which, when you think about it, we have now in human form.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          Well, the robots could be linked to a massive mainframe. Naturally, since the robot would be an unimpeachable witness to the crimes or violations, it could take immediate punitive measures.

          1. CE   12 years ago

            Congress and the Executive Branch would be exempt, naturally.

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              Certainly. Like they're exempt from other laws. I mean, how can they rule us if they're treated as shitty as they treat us?

          2. Tejicano   12 years ago

            "a massive mainframe."

            Hhmm... I doubt you understand how useless that would be. IIRC - the last mainframe design (not upgrades to existing systems but original product) had less total memory than the smallest USB you could find in your desk. 512k of RAM for the DASD controller was top of the line.

            1. Brett L   12 years ago

              Eh. The big irons still have their uses. Heating water for steam, as an example.

              1. Tejicano   12 years ago

                I sometimes wonder if any of those old refridgerator-sized machines which I worked on developing are still running anywhere.

                I know a number of large corporations are too locked into legacy systems to transition to modern technology but as I understand it even most of those have been transfered to AS400-esque hardware.

      2. Rasilio   12 years ago

        Problem is the 37,000,000 cases where 2 laws/regulations are mutually exclusive, obeying one means breaking the other.

        That is how you get robot uprisings

        1. Generic Stranger   12 years ago

          They will be built with paradox-absorbing crumple-zones.

    2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

      The state may not prosecute the store owner, but that doesn't mean some state functionary won't wander into the store and cite them for 10 other petty violations.

  17. db   12 years ago

    As gay marriage is legitimized and the IRS allows them to file as married couples, it will become clear that the NSA has been monitoring all their phones for hot gay sexting, the reporting of which Eric Holder will not prosecute, however, those newspapers that do report on it will be held behind the counter at the Gitmo PX.

  18. Brett L   12 years ago

    Sometimes species are only mostly extinct.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      I got better.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

        NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU.

        1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

          Just the things about being old.

    2. Ted S.   12 years ago

      Extinct frog reappers in Israel?

      I blame the JOOOOOOOOOS!!!!!

      1. Sevo   12 years ago

        "I blame the JOOOOOOOOOS!!!!!"

        Nope. It's a suicide frog.

  19. John   12 years ago

    http://www.newrepublic.com/art.....as-arrived

    Have a daily laugh. There is going to be a new leaner meaner gun control movement that is going to take down the NRA. Good luck with that.

    1. John   12 years ago

      Their poster child is Joe Manchin. Because a Dem senator sold out on guns, the rest of the country is going to follow.

      1. Brett L   12 years ago

        Joe Manchin. The guy who ran against his DC-ized opponent by firing a rifle in a TV spot? The guy who is going to get spoofed by both primary and general election challengers (if they have competent campaign managers)? I hope it came with enough money to buy the seat.

    2. Irish   12 years ago

      This Is How the NRA Ends
      A bigger, richer, meaner gun-control movement has arrived

      Richer? I thought money in politics was bad.

      1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

        No. There is good Progressive money and evil Republican money.

  20. rts   12 years ago

    Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security

    We use comprehensive panel data collected over several years from farm households in India, where insect-resistant GM cotton has been widely adopted. Controlling for other factors, the adoption of GM cotton has significantly improved calorie consumption and dietary quality, resulting from increased family incomes. This technology has reduced food insecurity by 15?20% among cotton-producing households. GM crops alone will not solve the hunger problem, but they can be an important component in a broader food security strategy.

    1. mad libertarian guy   12 years ago

      But . . . but FRANEKENFOODZ and KKKORPORASHUNZ!!!!!!!!

    2. Rasilio   12 years ago

      ???

      I'm sorry but the problem this is solving is poverty, not hunger.

      The fact that said cotton farmers were able to buy more food with the extra income shows that the problem is not insufficient food production but insufficient wealth

      1. Sevo   12 years ago

        "I'm sorry but the problem this is solving is poverty, not hunger."

        Pretty sure they avoided the distinction with the phrase 'food security'.

  21. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

    Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)

    It's like they went out of their way to annoy right thinking Americans with this pairing.

  22. mad libertarian guy   12 years ago

    Lefty at HuffPo gets it right.

    For years during the Bush administration, many groups fought against the Patriot Act and its illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens. They screamed about pre-emptive war based on lies. They questioned illegal "detainment" of "enemy combatants." They were horrified by torture and extraordinary renditions. They fought for the sanctity and protection of whistleblowers. They spoke out against Cheney and Rumsfeld and their evil Executive Branch power-grab that threatened the very principles of democracy, our Constitution and our precious balance of powers.

    And yet, where are these people now?

    [. . .]

    We need to start asking questions and demanding answers.

    We need to rein in Obama's power. And the power of the Executive Branch.

    Because at this point, given the boundless parameters now put in place by our Nobel Peace Prize winning-former-community-organizer-of-a-President, none of us can afford to be innocent, benign bystanders.

    Of course when I brought up all of these points, I was called a paranoid loonie who should just put my tin foil hat back on.

    Fuck liberals. Neocons brought about the total surveillance state; liberals assured that it would be cemented forever.

    1. John   12 years ago

      Obama took everything Bush did and made it "bi partisan" and liberals stood by and let him do it and re-elected him for it. They can all go fuck themselves. I don't want to hear a single fucking word about how concerned they are.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        They had a really good opportunity to be the anti-Bush. Instead, they went Bush++.

      2. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

        Obama fooled no one paying attention. He voted for the Telecomm Retroactive Immunity Act of 2008 while Senator along with all 46 Republicans (giving the POTUS immunity too).

        30 or so Democrats voted against it.

        1. John   12 years ago

          Liberals knew it and didn't care. They love government abuse, as long as they are the ones doing it.

        2. mad libertarian guy   12 years ago

          Obama fooled no one paying attention.

          But Obama fooled you in to voting for him. So shut the fuck up.

          1. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

            I knew what the fuck he voted for. He is still miles better than the Bushpigs were.

            1. Scruffy Nerfherder   12 years ago

              Exactly, he doubled down on everything, what else could you have asked for?

              1. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

                Its funny how silly progressives think of Obama like you guys do.

                Progressive: "But we wanted single payer, not this privatized health insurance exchange system".

                Me: "You weren't paying attention. Obama cut a deal with the AMA and health insurers for a private-based exchange system. Pay attention next time."

                1. Sevo   12 years ago

                  Palin's Buttplug| 6.6.13 @ 5:04PM |#
                  "Its funny how silly progressives think of Obama like you guys do."

                  Dipshit: "Hey, look over there!"
                  Go fuck your daddy.

            2. Sevo   12 years ago

              Palin's Buttplug| 6.6.13 @ 4:53PM |#
              ...'He is still miles better than the Bushpigs were."

              Sol you continue to lie in support of the asshole?
              Good move, dipshit.

            3. Ben the Duck   12 years ago

              "YABBUT BUSH!!!"

        3. Binjelli   12 years ago

          If Obama fooled no one paying attention then there's a heckuva lot of voters out there incapable of realizing this.

        4. Sevo   12 years ago

          Palin's Buttplug| 6.6.13 @ 4:47PM |#
          "Obama fooled no one paying attention"

          So you weren't paying attention? You've done nothing buy make excuses and apologize for the asshole.

          1. Loki   12 years ago

            Buttplug is an actual fascist. He voted for Obama because he WAS paying attention, and knew exactly what kind of Mussolini wannabe shitheel he was voting for.

          2. PapayaSF   12 years ago

            Something I saw in a Slashdot discussion of the IRS scandal struck me. Someone claimed "Nixon did much worse," but is that really true? IIRC Nixon had some people audited, and tried to use the IRS for other political purposes, but was largely frustrated. From what I can tell, Obama's IRS has been easily 20 times worse than Nixon's, and maybe 50-100 times worse, in terms of sheer numbers of political enemies harassed. But I can't find much detail regarding exactly what Nixon's IRS did.

            1. Irish   12 years ago

              Nixon's IRS did virtually nothing because people in the IRS actually refused to cooperate with Nixon. I guess there was a time when the IRS wasn't totally corrupt.

              Obama's IRS has been worse than Nixon and his invasions of privacy have been worse than Bush. Hope and Change!

    2. Binjelli   12 years ago

      I've been informed that's it's okay when they do it. TOP MEN after all.

  23. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

    Last night while dreaming I had a dystopian vision:

    reason had done another site refresh, this time swapping out the orange color scheme for a blue one.

    Worse still, tired of our Epi's shenanigans, commenting on posts was disabled and replaced with a shitty phpBB2 forum, which was promptly hacked and plastered with porn.

    1. Episiarch   12 years ago

      I try every day to get all of us banned. It hasn't worked so far, but I'm not giving up!

      1. hamilton   12 years ago

        Oh, stop. You haven't yet proved you aren't a reason shill. HAVE YOU EPI OR SHOULD I SAY SUDERMAN?

      2. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        If they won't ban the spammers, why ban you? You are far less annoying.

    2. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

      That sounds kind of like Pro Lib's favorite day of commenting.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        You mean the day with the blink tags and inline porn? That day? What did you do then?

        1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

          I believe I went to class, and missed it.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            It's really too bad they couldn't have preserved all of the comments from that day, with all of their scripting and coding.

            1. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

              So I take it one day reason's anti-XSS filters were off?

              1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                Day of the Commenters.

                1. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

                  I skipped law school for the day to participate.

                2. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

                  I knew if I was lazy enough you would point Thane to your blog page about it.

                  1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                    Well, it's that or typing it. Sadly, the wiki I linked to that included some posts and video is no more.

                    1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

                      Hey, I didn't say I was complaining. I wanted you to point him there.

                  2. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

                    Upon further inspection, I was still about a week from starting grad school. I must have just missed it due to the inability to access Reason from the computers where I was interning, and presumably drinking as soon as the workday finished.

                    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                      I suppose they'll screw up and give us an exploit again.

                    2. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

                      I just want to live free for one day in my life. I don't want to be constrained by this unchanging text.

                    3. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                      I know. No blink tags, even.

                  3. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

                    The linked wiki page is down

                    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                      You know, the last time I looked at it, it was down, but it just loaded for me. With the animated gif that was so popular at the time.

                    2. waffles   12 years ago

                      I was there man. It was beautiful. My other fond H&R memory was when every one was named in that lawsuit by some guy who may or may not fuck sheep.

                    3. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

                      The other day I was trying to find the exhibits that went with the filing, but the PA court website wants money for them and Lexis-Nexis only has the 2010 lawsuit against Olson, not the one that names Reason among the defendants.

                    4. SweatingGin   12 years ago

                      Wasn't it linked on reason? Or maybe linked in the comment thread?

                    5. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

                      The "main" part or whatever you call it was, but I couldn't find the exhibits.

                    6. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

                      He named "The Gobbler" ffs.

                    7. PapayaSF   12 years ago

                      Ah, yes. I played a small part in that. I comment from a laptop and (less frequently) a desktop, and days later saw the bookmark I'd made on the desktop and checked to see if there were any replies. I saw all the comments were gone and mentioned it in the comments to a current article. Other commenters picked it up and the H+R overlords were forced to explain.

    3. CE   12 years ago

      What's the dystopian part?

      1. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

        phpBB2, for one

  24. Matrix   12 years ago

    Ted Cruz on why Holder won't resign: There are still some amendments in the Bill of Rights left unviolated

    owned

    1. Bobarian   12 years ago

      Fuck me...

      I have a new hero!

      1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        Leno had a good one about the recent Powerball winner. "Now, as for how much tax she's going to have to pay on that $590 million, the IRS said it's too soon to tell 'cause they don't know whether she's a Republican or a Democrat."

  25. Palin's Buttplug   12 years ago

    Get used to killer heat waves, CDC warns

    http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_new.....snhp&pos=1

    Time to thin the herd out.

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      Are you going to believe those dog fuckers?

      1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

        ^^TRUE STORY^^

    2. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

      Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia were the worst-hit, and CDC has documented 32 heat-related deaths during that time.

      Rofl. They ain't seen heat.

      1. Brett L   12 years ago

        So really, their problem isn't heat, its lack of A/C.

      2. Sevo   12 years ago

        "Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia were the worst-hit, and CDC has documented 32 heat-related deaths during that time."

        M. Bastiat asks how many deaths have been cold-related in the same period.

        1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

          32? That's all? What pikers. Europe had 70,000 die in 2003.

  26. Matrix   12 years ago

    Guy stabs himself on Today Show plaza.

    Guess the show really is that awful.

    Sometimes I feel like doing the same to my ears when I am subjected to most of the pop music out today.

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      Homicide is always the better solution.

  27. CE   12 years ago

    Dang Treason squirrels, back to the auto-logout every few minutes....

  28. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

    BLU Amour phone comes with crystal home button, gender stereotypes

  29. Thane of #HOLO   12 years ago

    Was 'Doug' And Its Central Character Doug Funnie Racist?

    Even the HuffPo commenters find this stupid.

    1. Matrix   12 years ago

      I'm sure even Doug Walker would find that article completely ridiculous.

  30. Loki   12 years ago

    Something tells me The Onion may have a drone coming its way.

    1. SweatingGin   12 years ago

      I love the way the onion has been hammering on drones. Almost as much as the Biden series ("has to cool his jets in Mexico until things die down", "like to fire up the trans am and listen to it purr")

      1. Loki   12 years ago

        I'll just leave this here.

  31. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

    Smoking Alcohol: The Dangerous Way People Are Getting Drunk

    1. Ted S.   12 years ago

      How long until Fuck Schumer bitches about this?

    2. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

      Vapor isn't smoke...

    3. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

      At first, I was like, why?

      It's popular among people who want to lose weight and don't want the calories that come from consuming alcohol.

      Then, I was like, oh shit lemme go vaporize some alcohol...

    4. Brett L   12 years ago

      What the fuck? How in the world could you possibly get alcohol poisoning without strapping on a mask? You'll be too drunk to huff on your second breath.

      1. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

        I don't know; maybe you should try it and report back.

        1. Brett L   12 years ago

          Please. I learned how to do this from a Dane who thought dumping a fifth of cheap vodka on the coals of a small sauna and block the door was the height of fun. At least with the masks you don't get your eyes burned.

          1. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

            Sounds like this is the perfect reason to apply your research to other delivery methods. I mean duh.

  32. Brett L   12 years ago

    For those of you who want to experiment with home electroshock.

    Overclock your brain using transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to increase the plasticity of your brain. Make your synapses fire faster.

    Faster Processor, Faster Graphics, Faster Brain

    1. Coeus   12 years ago

      I was looking into this the other day. It can be done cheaply, but the problem is that without using the 2,000 dollar controller you end up burning your skin.

  33. Archduke Pantsfan   12 years ago

    Can anyone describe the feasability of a targeted HERF machine to disable subwoofers in my neighbors automobile?
    Reasonable conversation between adults has failed.

    1. SweatingGin   12 years ago

      I've looked at it a bit. If I recall correctly, a properly setup HERF gun can stall a car... From a few inches away, with the hood up.

      You might be able to do an EMP bomb, though. Lots of capacitors, with an explosive to discharge them at once. Probably puts you on a list, though.

    2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

      Get a CB, a big amplifier, and a bottom loaded antenna. You can easily overpower the unshielded bits in the stereo and broadcast your signal through his speakers. If you broadcast a tone of just the right frequency, it'll blow his speakers out. All he'll hear is the tone, so he'll figure the stereo had a fault and blew everything up.

    3. PapayaSF   12 years ago

      Reminds me of the episode of Burn Notice in which Michael places a coffee can of thermite on the hood of a car, and it burns down through the hood and the engine block.

  34. Archduke Pantsfan   12 years ago

    Fuck the Bruins.
    Fuck Chara.

    That is all.

    1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

      DON'T.

      1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

        POKE.

        1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

          THE BEAR.

          1. hamilton   12 years ago

            🙂

  35. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

    Los Angeles, the city that hates when Obama visits because he snarls traffic.

    1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

      That sounds like most cities.

      1. NeonCat   12 years ago

        Ooh, maybe he could get contributions by promising not to visit. "Some may say that if I come to your city, your traffic will be snarled because my motorcade needs to be unencumbered by your cars getting in our way. If you feel this to be true, please send OFA a check, the MSA with the smallest per capita donation will host me for a week."

  36. Irish   12 years ago

    HAHAHAHAHA! Check out HuffPo's front page. When you've lost Huffington Post, you're probably fucked.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      That took how many years to figure out?

      1. Irish   12 years ago

        I was saying this four years ago, but that was back when I was a stupid, redneck, glibertarian teabagger.

        Now when I say it, I'm a right thinking liberal like the editors at HuffPo.

        1. Binjelli   12 years ago

          Does this mean many of us can enter the fabled "reality based community"?

          1. Tonio   12 years ago

            No, you were premature anti-obamaites.

            This is the level of complexity of the sundering of the elves in Tolkien.

            1. Irish   12 years ago

              Correct. If we were really part of the reality based community, we would have waited until the New York Times gave us permission to criticize Barack Obama.

              1. mad libertarian guy   12 years ago

                If we were really part of the reality based community, we would have waited until the New York Times gave us permission to criticize Barack Obama.

                This.

                Now libertarians are being accused of using all of the scandals for political pandering. See the criticisms of Rand Paul.

    2. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

      Putin's single!

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        I saw that. And he's hanging out with Steven Seagal. Russia is trying to become a TV series, I think.

        1. RBS   12 years ago

          I'd watch it.

    3. PapayaSF   12 years ago

      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." ?Friedrich Nietzsche

    4. Loki   12 years ago

      That's the best thing I've seen in a long time. Would have been nice if they'd figured it out sooner, but better late than never I guess.

  37. Coeus   12 years ago

    Interesting murder case in Texas. Apparently, you can shoot somebody in order to recover your property as long as it's at night.

    1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

      Damn it, I was coming over here to post this.

      But you're worse than Virginian for not putting a pull quote, namely that he shot a hooker who took his money and didn't perform.

      Gawker commenter:

      Now that's the Libertarian dream in action: that man paid good money to rent the body of another human being in the free market, and when she didn't deliver the promised services he asserted his property rights without appealing to the tyrannical state by shooting her. Texas ? the beacon of liberty!

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        The libertarians in their heads strike again!

      2. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

        I love how the commenter calls this "in the free market" when we all know that prostitution is illegal in that jurisdiction.

      3. Coeus   12 years ago

        But you're worse than Virginian for not putting a pull quote, namely that he shot a hooker who took his money and didn't perform.

        I wanted it to be a surprise. Figured I had enough pull in the description.

  38. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

    For latecomers, I posted on the NYT thread that there's been another development in the NSA story.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      How is that not totally illegal?

      1. Nikki says you caddie well   12 years ago

        I seriously have no fucking clue.

      2. Tonio   12 years ago

        How is that not totally illegal?

        LOL

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          It's like a scandal a day, anymore.

          1. Tonio   12 years ago

            Were you alive and politically aware during Watergate, PL?

            1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

              I thought the consensus was that ProL had been around and aware for everything.

            2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              I was just a kid, but I remember some of it.

          2. PapayaSF   12 years ago

            No kidding, and that should be a huge worry to Obama and the Democrats. Scandals can get momentum from other scandals, in part because they encourage people to speak up, and in part because they are often connected. These will go on for months, at least, and unless the GOP screws up massively (always possible), the 2014 midterms will be slaughter.

            1. Tonio   12 years ago

              You think? LOL

    2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

      "We are making every effort to be transparent," says president.

      1. Tonio   12 years ago

        Is that a shift in tense from his normal mode of speaking? Any hardcore O-watchers out there?

        1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

          Seems like just more bullshit from the chief bullshitter to me.

        2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

          That's not an actual Obama quote. It's an Onion article.

          1. Tonio   12 years ago

            *&^%$#@! Obviously, did not click or mouse-over. Damn you, MS! [shakes fist]

            1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

              I aim to please.

  39. WomSom   12 years ago

    Those dudes do indeed know whats going on over there.

    http://www.AnonStuff.tk

    1. Zakalwe   12 years ago

      Have we considered the possibility these leaks are just a stealth marketing ploy by anonbot?

  40. Sevo   12 years ago

    "Fans resent lack of public Obama events"
    Yes, the fawning masses in No. CA are distraught that the chosen one does not allow his radiance to fall upon the non-payers!
    http://www.sfgate.com/politics.....570355.php
    WIH should he? He shows up, vacuums SV money from various tech libs, wrecks traffic both ways, heads back to AF1 and jets off to the next campaign stop.
    The No CA libs'll vote for him if he pissed on them from the plane entrance; screw 'em.

    1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

      Even better: A community on the Peninsula may take the unprecedented action of slapping a lien against two homeowners who hosted an April fundraiser for President Barack Obama that cost the town $8,000 in security and cleanup costs. The Town of Atherton has been unable to recoup the money from the Democratic National Committee or Secret Service.

      1. Sevo   12 years ago

        ThanksPSF. I'd read that and sort of forgot it.
        Hope his 'supporters' find out what that support really costs.

  41. Coeus   12 years ago

    White Lady Heckles Michelle Obama ? What Happens Next is Something Black Women Know All Too Well

    If you make the choice to heckle a speaker, fine. But to interrupt a speech by the First Lady of the United States and then, when she confronts you, claim you feel threatened, is a fairly inane reaction. The First Lady is a person, like any of us, and she has the right to determine the way she is treated. She has the right to speak in her own defense, just as you have the right to speak in yours. And she should not be caricatured, lectured, and demonized as hyper-aggressive or overly sensitive, phrases that we are so quick to call out when directed at white women, for defending herself and setting boundaries.

    I'm sure she feels the same way about Tosh.

    1. Heroic Mulatto   12 years ago

      I can't help but think that if Hillary Clinton or Laura Bush had done the same, that we would all be nodding our heads in support of the First Lady defining how she wishes to be treated.

      You "can't help but think that," Ms. Rankin, because you're an idiot.

    2. PapayaSF   12 years ago

      "She came right down in my face. I was taken aback." Oh, the poor heckler!

    3. Tonio   12 years ago

      FTFA: Rutgers Anthropology Ph.D student Donna Auston emphasizes that Sturtz's word choice of "taken aback" is one of distinct privilege...

      There you have it, folks.

      1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        Jeebus, "privilege" is on track to be the most annoyingly overused and misused word of the decade.

    4. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

      There's nobody likeable in this story. Hecklers are obnoxious by nature, the FLotUS handled it childishly, and the media is trying to make this an issue of competing grievances. I thought it would be more fun to see the left eat itself, but it's just sad at this point.

      1. Coeus   12 years ago

        You're just sad because black ended up trumping gay.

        1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

          I have high hopes that the concepts of gay, lesbian and straight will fade away as discrete social constructions. Race will be with us a lot longer. Having "gay" become grievance trump card would be counter to that goal.

          I've had a strong distaste for ACT UP! style protesting since I first became politically aware. Trans folks throwing glitter at Dan Savage, hecklers interrupting speeches, it's pointless and grates on people's good will.

          1. Coeus   12 years ago

            Guess I should have put in a sarcasm tag.

            1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

              Gah, I'll recalibrate my sarcasm meter and try again tomorrow.

            2. Brett L   12 years ago

              Man, I need to report for sensitivity re-education. I read "sarcasm fag" and chuckled.

          2. Mickey Rat   12 years ago

            "I have high hopes that the concepts of gay, lesbian and straight will fade away as discrete social constructions."

            Er...what can that possibly mean?

            1. Coeus   12 years ago

              Google "Kinsey Scale".

              1. Mickey Rat   12 years ago

                See "flawed or biased research".

                1. Coeus   12 years ago

                  See "flawed or biased research".

                  Don't like Kinsey, eh?
                  How about Ron White?

            2. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

              Bentham sort of deals with the concept in Offences Against One's Self. I'm not finding the most salient quote, but essentially he indicates that if you look at historical epochs where homosexuality wasn't stigmatized people generally had sex with whomever they were most interested in and the sex of the other person didn't seem to matter. His view, which I find convincing, is that by proscribing homosexual behavior, someone who is more inclined to it, is forced to fortify an identity around it. Now, I'm not saying that everyone on earth will be truly bisexual, but removing the concept of stigma would make things more fluid (see college girls for an example of this already happening)

              1. Mickey Rat   12 years ago

                By that reasoning, engaging in homosexual acts is a choice, not an immutable inherent characteristic.

                As long as people have a definite preference for the sex of their partners, terms that indicate what those preferences are will be useful and will not fade away.

                1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

                  Engaging in any act is a choice. You could decide to go out and engage in a homosexual act right now against your inclination. I could choose to go out right now and engage in a heterosexual one against mine.

                  I don't think primary inclinations will disappear, just that their edges will get very fuzzy. Maybe those terms will continue, but fade in importance; we don't have (or need) a term for "I'm not into blonds." We know enough about historical cultures and their sexual behaviors to know that heterosexuality and homosexuality, as we see them now, fixed points. I'm not sure to what degree primary inclinations are outside of cultural construction.

                2. Coeus   12 years ago

                  By that reasoning, engaging in homosexual acts is a choice, not an immutable inherent characteristic.

                  Did you think you were going to get a disagreement with that on a libertarian board?

      2. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        Michelle Obama vs. obnoxious heckler is like the Shiite-Sunni conflict, isn't it? You want them both to lose.

        1. Tejicano   12 years ago

          Yeah, I want to know what caliber bullets we can ship them in bulk to accelerate resolution of their differences.

  42. Meerkatx   12 years ago

    A Bexar County jury on Wednesday acquitted Ezekiel Gilbert of murder in the death of a 23-year-old Craigslist escort.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/ne.....581027.php

  43. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

    And that Shirley Knott bitch who wants me to pay for her medical care.

  44. Sevo   12 years ago

    I'm supposed to feel better?

  45. Generic Stranger   12 years ago

    NOT what I thought it was going to be...

  46. Tonio   12 years ago

    SK is semi-libertarian at best.

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