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

• 

  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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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

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

And we appreciate his commitment to lying to us.

[Pro Libertate]

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

But the IRS will audit. Oh yes.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

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?

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

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.

[Brandon]

"FREEEEEEEEEDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!"

"Noise violation!"

[JW]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[PapayaSF]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[PapayaSF]

"STOP BREATHING, EARTHKILLER!"

[Ted S.]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[deified]

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/

[Matrix]

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

[CE]

30 year fixed? That's pretty good.

[Matrix]

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.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Write Bernanke a thank-you note.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

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

[Matrix]

I don't.

[Zakalwe]

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.

[Raston Bot]

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

[PapayaSF]

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

[Homple]

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

[Tonio]

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.

[Sevo]

"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!

[Palin's Buttplug]

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

[Sevo]

"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?

[CE]

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

[Fist of Etiquette]

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

Is that synonymous with cultural acceptance?

[CE]

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

[db]

2000/166 = 12:1.

[Matrix]

I'm sure teachers would love those ratios.

[Zakalwe]

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

[CE]

You also have tropical cush job quotas to fill.

[Sevo]

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

Keep your wet dreams to yourself.

[Matrix]

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

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I think I read a Crichton novel about that

[RBS]

The Great Train Robbery?

[Spoonman.]

That's pretty cool.

[PapayaSF]

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?

[Zeb]

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.

[PapayaSF]

"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.

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Tonio]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That was my recollection as well.

[Enough About Palin]

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

[PapayaSF]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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

[Fist of Etiquette]

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."

[Fist of Etiquette]

I guess this is going to be my thing now.

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[Brett L]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

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?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It's obvious

[Pro Libertate]

It's a nullity.

[Auric Demonocles]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

Like global warming?

[Auric Demonocles]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Fist of Etiquette]

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.

[Zakalwe]

It submitted before I got to post my zinger.

Apparently the squirrels ate that, too.

[Fist of Etiquette]

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

[Zakalwe]

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

[CE]

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

[Rasilio]

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

[CE]

Graham cracker.

[RBS]

Zakalwe is Lindsay Graham?

[MJGreen]

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!

[Zakalwe]

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

[AuH20]

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.

[Thane of #HOLO]

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.

[JW]

BHL?

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

[hamilton]

bitchez h8tin libertards

[Thane of #HOLO]

Bleeding Heart Libertarians (it's a blog)

[Episiarch]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Episiarch]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Irish]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Irish]

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.

[Auric Demonocles]

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).

[Auric Demonocles]

Making that more clear:

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Episiarch]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

Well, half-brothers.

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Red Rocks Rockin]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[RBS]

Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end?

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

[Irish]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[Zeb]

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.

[Stormy Dragon]

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.

[Episiarch]

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.

[Rasilio]

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

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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

[LTC(ret) John]

Sam Peckinpah anyone?

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[Zakalwe]

Littlefinger uber alles.

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Red Rocks Rockin]

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.

[Gray Ghost]

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.

[Thane of #HOLO]

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.

[Brett L]

Association of Libertarian Feminists

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

[deified]

There's also Kristen. Never forget Kristen.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

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

[Irish]

Busab Agent would be in there too.

[Thane of #HOLO]

PACW
Banjos
Lady Bertrand (Bertrum?)
SusanM
hotsy totsy

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

[Nikki says you caddie well]

And waffles

[Thane of #HOLO]

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

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

and by corollary, pancakes

[jesse.in.mb]

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".

[Zakalwe]

Jesse is the reason no trans people are libertarians.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

jesse and me both, I guess.

[waffles]

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.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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!

[jesse.in.mb]

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.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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

[jesse.in.mb]

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

Sidekick?

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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

[jesse.in.mb]

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.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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?

[Apatheist ?_??]

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.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

Pretty much.

[Tonio]

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

[waffles]

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.

[Brett L]

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

[Banjos]

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.

[jesse.in.mb]

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.

[Brett L]

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

[Apatheist ?_??]

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

[Thane of #HOLO]

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

[Apatheist ?_??]

Shirley Knott

No hugs for thugs.

And sandi I guess

[Tonio]

Alice Bowie

[Banjos]

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?

[Tonio]

Damn you, Banjos! [shakes fist]

Hope you and the kid are doing well.

[jesse.in.mb]

Is Stormy a homotarian?

[ant1sthenes]

An Ultima fan who chases tornados?

[Coeus]

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

[Zeb]

I'm pretty sure Alice is a dude.

[RBS]

How could you forget Tulpa?

[JW]

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

[mad libertarian guy]

Lucy too.

[Brett L]

Never mention Lucy here.

[Thane of #HOLO]

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

[Pro Libertate]

Nice.

[Raston Bot]

What happened to Lucy?

[Brett L]

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

[Raston Bot]

Are you kidding? Nick fired Lucy?

[Episiarch]

DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY

[hamilton]

Oh fuck here we go again.

[johnl]

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

[johnl]

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

[Bobarian]

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

[Zakalwe]

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.

[Apatheist ?_??]

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

[Zakalwe]

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.

[Zakalwe]

Oh, and we probably close on Stoneheart.

[Raston Bot]

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.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

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.

[CE]

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.

[JW]

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.

[Zakalwe]

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

[JW]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[Brandon]

Are you sure you're not gay?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

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.

[Zakalwe]

The last episode was the penultimate episode. Too late.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Sorry--misunderstood the post.

[Mickey Rat]

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

[Irish]

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.

[B.P.]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Red Rocks Rockin]

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.

[alittlesense]

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......

[Apatheist ?_??]

Link to the first part?

[Binjelli]

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

Wait...

[CE]

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

[PapayaSF]

Dramatic fiction, how does it work?

[Mickey Rat]

"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.

[Sevo]

"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?

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Mad Scientist]

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

[Thane of #HOLO]

terrorist

[Rasilio]

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

[Mad Scientist]

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

[ant1sthenes]

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.

[Fist of Etiquette]

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?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

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

[db]

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.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

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

[CE]

You mean "anonymous page"...

[SweatingGin]

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.

[Rich]

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

[Fist of Etiquette]

Classified.

[Brett L]

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.

[Ted S.]

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

[rac3rx]

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"?

[Mickey Rat]

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

[rts]

Canada's oil output to more than double by 2030

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

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

[Marshall Gill]

STEVE SMITH is Canadian? I did not know that.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

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

[Pro Libertate]

It's all rapeseed oil.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

So STEVE SMITH is Canadian!

[Pro Libertate]

Well, yeah.

[Enough About Palin]

STEVE SMITH KNOWS MANY HIKERS IN CANADA, EH?

[Fist of Etiquette]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[Fist of Etiquette]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[CE]

Congress and the Executive Branch would be exempt, naturally.

[Pro Libertate]

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?

[Tejicano]

"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.

[Brett L]

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

[Tejicano]

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.

[Rasilio]

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

[Generic Stranger]

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

[Mad Scientist]

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.

[db]

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.

[Brett L]

Sometimes species are only mostly extinct.

[Pro Libertate]

I got better.

[Fist of Etiquette]

NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU.

[Auric Demonocles]

Just the things about being old.

[Ted S.]

Extinct frog reappers in Israel?

I blame the JOOOOOOOOOS!!!!!

[Sevo]

"I blame the JOOOOOOOOOS!!!!!"

Nope. It's a suicide frog.

[John]

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.

[John]

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

[Brett L]

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.

[Irish]

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

Richer? I thought money in politics was bad.

[Enough About Palin]

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

[rts]

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.

[mad libertarian guy]

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

[Rasilio]

???

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

[Sevo]

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

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

[jesse.in.mb]

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.

[mad libertarian guy]

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.

[John]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Palin's Buttplug]

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.

[John]

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

[mad libertarian guy]

Obama fooled no one paying attention.

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

[Palin's Buttplug]

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

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

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

[Palin's Buttplug]

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."

[Sevo]

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.

[Sevo]

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.

[Ben the Duck]

"YABBUT BUSH!!!"

[Binjelli]

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

[Sevo]

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.

[Loki]

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.

[PapayaSF]

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.

[Irish]

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!

[Binjelli]

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

[Thane of #HOLO]

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.

[Episiarch]

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

[hamilton]

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

[PapayaSF]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

I believe I went to class, and missed it.

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Thane of #HOLO]

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

[Pro Libertate]

Day of the Commenters.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I skipped law school for the day to participate.

[Auric Demonocles]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

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.

[Pro Libertate]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

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

[Pro Libertate]

I know. No blink tags, even.

[Thane of #HOLO]

The linked wiki page is down

[Pro Libertate]

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.

[waffles]

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.

[Thane of #HOLO]

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.

[SweatingGin]

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

[Thane of #HOLO]

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

[Enough About Palin]

He named "The Gobbler" ffs.

[PapayaSF]

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.

[CE]

What's the dystopian part?

[Thane of #HOLO]

phpBB2, for one

[Matrix]

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

owned

[Bobarian]

Fuck me...

I have a new hero!

[PapayaSF]

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."

[Palin's Buttplug]

Get used to killer heat waves, CDC warns

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

Time to thin the herd out.

[Brett L]

Are you going to believe those dog fuckers?

[Enough About Palin]

^^TRUE STORY^^

[Apatheist ?_??]

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.

[Brett L]

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

[Sevo]

"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.

[PapayaSF]

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

[Matrix]

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.

[Brett L]

Homicide is always the better solution.

[CE]

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

[Thane of #HOLO]

BLU Amour phone comes with crystal home button, gender stereotypes

[Thane of #HOLO]

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

Even the HuffPo commenters find this stupid.

[Matrix]

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

[Loki]

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

[SweatingGin]

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")

[Loki]

I'll just leave this here.

[Enough About Palin]

Smoking Alcohol: The Dangerous Way People Are Getting Drunk

[Ted S.]

How long until Fuck Schumer bitches about this?

[Apatheist ?_??]

Vapor isn't smoke...

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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...

[Brett L]

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.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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

[Brett L]

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.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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

[Brett L]

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

[Coeus]

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.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

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

[SweatingGin]

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.

[Mad Scientist]

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.

[PapayaSF]

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.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Fuck the Bruins.
Fuck Chara.

That is all.

[Auric Demonocles]

DON'T.

[Auric Demonocles]

POKE.

[Auric Demonocles]

THE BEAR.

[hamilton]

🙂

[jesse.in.mb]

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

[Auric Demonocles]

That sounds like most cities.

[NeonCat]

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."

[Irish]

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

[Pro Libertate]

That took how many years to figure out?

[Irish]

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.

[Binjelli]

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

[Tonio]

No, you were premature anti-obamaites.

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

[Irish]

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.

[mad libertarian guy]

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.

[jesse.in.mb]

Putin's single!

[Pro Libertate]

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

[RBS]

I'd watch it.

[PapayaSF]

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

[Loki]

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.

[Coeus]

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

[Zakalwe]

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!

[Pro Libertate]

The libertarians in their heads strike again!

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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

[Coeus]

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.

[Nikki says you caddie well]

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

[Pro Libertate]

How is that not totally illegal?

[Nikki says you caddie well]

I seriously have no fucking clue.

[Tonio]

How is that not totally illegal?

LOL

[Pro Libertate]

It's like a scandal a day, anymore.

[Tonio]

Were you alive and politically aware during Watergate, PL?

[jesse.in.mb]

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

[Pro Libertate]

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

[PapayaSF]

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.

[Tonio]

You think? LOL

[Mad Scientist]

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

[Tonio]

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

[PapayaSF]

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

[Mad Scientist]

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

[Tonio]

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

[Mad Scientist]

I aim to please.

[WomSom]

Those dudes do indeed know whats going on over there.

http://www.AnonStuff.tk

[Zakalwe]

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

[Sevo]

"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.

[PapayaSF]

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.

[Sevo]

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

[Coeus]

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.

[Heroic Mulatto]

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.

[PapayaSF]

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

[Tonio]

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.

[PapayaSF]

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

[jesse.in.mb]

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.

[Coeus]

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

[jesse.in.mb]

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.

[Coeus]

Guess I should have put in a sarcasm tag.

[jesse.in.mb]

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

[Brett L]

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

[Mickey Rat]

"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?

[Coeus]

Google "Kinsey Scale".

[Mickey Rat]

See "flawed or biased research".

[Coeus]

See "flawed or biased research".

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

[jesse.in.mb]

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)

[Mickey Rat]

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.

[jesse.in.mb]

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.

[Coeus]

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?

[PapayaSF]

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

[Tejicano]

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

[Meerkatx]

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

[Enough About Palin]

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

[Sevo]

I'm supposed to feel better?

[Generic Stranger]

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

[Tonio]

SK is semi-libertarian at best.