Surveillance Sharing Between US and UK Goes Both Ways, Federal Employees Urged to Sniff Out Leakers or Else, FBI Denies Investigating Hastings: P.M. Links

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GCHQ logo The British government isn't just the recipient of the National Security Agency's phone and Internet data collections. They do it themselves as well and send what they gather back over to the NSA.
- The federal government has something called the Insider Threat Program that urges employees to report suspicious behavior by their coworkers that might indicate leakers. They also face potential criminal charges for failing to report such behavior.
- The FBI has denied it was investigating journalist Michael Hastings, who died earlier this week in a car crash in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Police Department has ruled out foul play.
- As George Zimmerman's trial for killing Trayvon Martin is set to open next week, a judge ruled that prosecutors can argue that Zimmerman profiled Martin for several reasons (age, clothing) but not over his race.
- A Federal Aviation Administration panel was supposed to weigh in on whether airlines should ease restrictions on a host of mobile devices in flight, but their recommendations will be delayed until September.
- France is looking to block Amazon from offering discounts and free shipping in the country because competition is evil, even (especially!) if it provides the state's residents with cheaper goods.
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The federal government has something called the Insider Threat Program that urges employees to report suspicious behavior by their coworkers that might indicate leakers.
Can't get any work done with all these whistles being blown.
The feds seem really worried that there are all these leakers. I wonder why that would concern them? I mean, if they aren't doing anything wrong, what do they have to fear?
Fascinating. Good. Good. He knows, Doctor. He has reasoned it out.
Recall your basic civics, Doctor.
Can he do it?
No, he doesn't have the time. And he's an idiot.
You mean Episiarch? Because I liked his comment, actually.
His comment seemed sarcastic. Sarcasm is the absolute worst thing ever. Next to hyperbole.
Or glibness, which is really hateful.
glibness
Around here we call that Tulpa's Bane.
Brain? Brain? What is brain?
They are mandated by law to do it. It is part of the whistleblower protection act that obama signed into law.
all these whistles being blown.
imagine all the saliva being accumulated.
Are any of these whistles dog-whistles? And why does whistle have so many unnecessary letters?
You? We got spies for that.
Leakers who try to tell you you're being spied on? We got spies for them, too.
ROCK. FLAG. EAGLE.
The British government isn't just the recipient of the National Security Agency's phone and Internet data collections. They do it themselves as well and send what they gather back over to the NSA.
Keep Calm, and Surveillance On.
On the plus side, apparently Obama hasn't totally poisoned that relationship.
Presidents and Prime Ministers come and go, the great Anglo-American intelligence services "us versus everybody else" remains.
All your data are belong to NSA.
...a judge ruled that prosecutors can argue that Zimmerman profiled Martin for several reasons (age, clothing) but not over his race.
Phew. And I was worried the trial wouldn't be a total farce.
Wait, wait a minute. How the fuck can a private citizen "profile" anyone in any way that is legally relevant?
That's what I keep wondering.
It's been legally relevant for a long time, see hate crimes and the Supreme Court holding in EEOC vs. Duke Energy (IIRC)
I hope the defense will be allowed to put on evidence showing that Zimmerman was not prejudiced against blacks.
But hate crimes are kinda different (although the theory is still stupid): X killed Y because X hates people like Y, so we have to be extra-special-punishy to X. "profiling" suggests more of "X suspected Y because of Y's race/appearance, which led X to jump to a stereoptypical conclusion and thus do something wrong.
Or:
Hate crime: "I hate Y's. I'm going to shoot that guy."
Profiling "Hey that's a Y. He must be a criminal. I'd better defend myself by shooting him".
I just don't get it.
OK, "race profile" is out.
"Mr. Zimmerman profiled Mr. Martin for his specific clothing, which is typically worn by young Black men."
"Exhibit A shows a silhouette of Mr. Martin's head as seen from the side."
This judge keeps increasing all the things that can't be discussed in the case. Pretty soon, it will be similar to the South Park school holiday program done by Philip Glass, devoid of anything.
Here's a wacky idea. How about both sides present whatever they think is relevant to their side of the argument?
Because some things that are relevant are too prejudicial to be admissible. Like if a rape accuser slept around a lot.
Stop blaming the victim!!!
/libtard
More minimum wage nonsense: $10 Minimum Wage Would Push More Than Half Of Working Poor Out Of Poverty: Study
They misspelled "jobs."
Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a national organization focusing on racial equity in the restaurant industry
Sounds reliable
I wonder if any of its members or employees have ever openned a restaurant ... or even worked at one?
I know it's been said before, but why stop at $10? Why not just mandate a minimum wage of $100 per hour. We'll all be rich and we'll all pay more taxes and the deficit will be cured!
$100!? Do you want all the poor people to starve? True equality can only be achieved when the minimum wage is set at the pay rate of the world's richest CEO!
Are you an idiot? With the ensuing inflation nobody could afford anything.
Twice the pay rate of the world's richest CEO!
You all have no conception of economics and advanced socially conscious politics. Everyone should be paid as much as the poorest person.
"True equality can only be achieved when the minimum wage is set at the pay rate of the world's richest CEO!"
There's a printing press for that.
/Ben Bernanke
The FBI has denied it was investigating journalist Michael Hastings, who died earlier this week in a car crash in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Police Department has ruled out foul play.
In unrelated news, the LAPD just received a HUGE grant from the DoJ.
Eight Toxic Foods: A Little Chemical Education
Obviously a shill for big chemistry š
Seriously though, the guy has a serious sense of humor:
But you know something? You can say the same thing for chlorine. After all, it's right next to bromine in the same column of the periodic table. And its use in World War I as a battlefield gas should be testimony enough. (They tried bromine, too, never fear). But chlorine is also the major part, by weight, of table salt. So which is it? Toxic death gas or universal table seasoning?
Yeah, and that Dihydrogen Monoxide stuff is killer, too.
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html
Awesome.
And here I am with a Diet Mountain Dew in my hand, and sure enough, BVO is on the ingredients list. Causes schizophrenia, eh? Wonder how everyone developed that prior to drinking several liters per day of Mountain Dew.
Does it still contain EDTA?
Yes!
"To Protect Flavor."
My brother is a PhD chemist (UCLA, Columbia) and years ago at a restaurant I asked him what is EDTA. He drew it out on a napkin.
The vodka I put in my Dew kills all that bad stuff, right?
I drink liters of diet Mt. Dew it a day, as I get it for free at work. I think I'll live.
The account of this guy's accident is very strange. You only speed through a red light like that if you think your life is in danger or if your car is malfunctioning (or you're dunphy).
Mercedes C classes don't blow up when they hit trees. If they did we would have heard about the recalls, 'merikan jerbs, flaying of CEOs etc.
Is that the engine lying on the ground a the 5:00 mark?
It's the engine and transmission.
HOLY CRAP!
NO SHIT My tinfoil hat just went to 11. AND I would now say drone.
Yep.
I had assumed a garden variety collision at an intersection or something.
Flying through red lights at 100 mph until hitting a tree is a little... odd.
If it is an assassination, it's pretty flamboyant.
Yes, I don't think that if someone tried to kill Hastings they'd do so by blowing up his car.
There have to be more low key ways to do that.
That's just what they want you to think!
Well, in their defense, polonium *has* been pretty hard to find these days.
It is possible that the guy had a heart attack or something, slammed his foot on the accelerator without realizing it, and launched himself into the tree.
He was in his thirties. Stranger things have happened, of course, but still... If he did have a heart attack, I wonder if his coroner will mysteriously die soon after examining him, if there's enough left to examine. Maybe the car was on auto-pilot and Hastings was already dead, but the people that killed him needed a reason for his body to be burned the fuck up.
I admit that when I first heard about the accident, I wondered if Hastings was going to be the administration's Vince Foster (in terms of conspiracy theories and so on). But, given that he was investigating the circumstances of General Petraeus' fall, which happened just before he was scheduled to testify on Benghazi, which could potentially damage or even criminally implicate State Department officials, for example Hillary Clinton, I can't help but wonder if he is another Vince Foster.
Anything with gasoline might if they hit something at 100 mph.
This is pure speculation (and I want to emphasize that), but supposedly he had drug and alcohol problems in the past. Maybe he fell of the wagon and his body reacted badly to something???
A Federal Aviation Administration panel was supposed to weigh in on whether airlines should ease restrictions on a host of mobile devices in flight, but their recommendations will be delayed until September.
The stewardesses keep hassling them to shut off their laptops as they're trying to write up their recommendations.
"You have to turn off your device, sir."
"It's a Kindle. You can't turn it off."
"You have to turn off your device, sir."
"But I can't...nevermind. See? It's 'off'."
"Thank you sir."
(goes back to reading)
You can so turn off a Kindle.
Or, failing that, give it the ol' Aaron Hernandez treatment.
Just tell it that it looks fat in that sleeve.
My old one only used power when flipping pages. The newer ones have a backlight you can't turn all the way off.
I have an older one. It can be completely shut down, though it usually is either totally on or in sleep mode.
From a "MUST TURN OFF" perspective, of course, it looks like it's on with the screen having an image on it, even when sleeping.
They are not off. They will still download purchased eBooks through Whispernet while "off", so they aren't off.
The only way to turn them off is to drain the battery or pull the battery.
This is incorrect. I have turned mine completely off (I figured out how to do it because of a problem I was having). Granted, that's the old model, so I have no idea how newer ones work.
Grab your fedora and bullwhip: Archaeologists discover lost Mayan city in rain forests of Mexico.
Archaeologists have found an ancient Maya city that remained hidden for centuries in the rain forests of eastern Mexico, a discovery in a remote nature reserve they hope will yield clues about how the civilization collapsed around 1,000 years ago.
The team, led by Ivan Sprajc, associate professor at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, found 15 pyramids - including one that stands 75 feet (23 metres) tall - ball courts, plazas and tall, sculpted stone shafts called stelae.
They named the city Chactun, meaning "Red Rock" or "Large Rock." Sprajc said it was likely slightly less populous than the large ancient Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala, and could have been home to as many as 30,000 or 40,000 people, though further research is necessary to determine an exact estimate.
Can't they just look on Google Earth for this stuff now?
Heck, yeah. That's been going on for about a decade now. Problem is resolution available to the public, but it's gotten a great deal better.
I've been tracking down old river beds in the hope of stumbling upon something interesting. No luck so far, but it's like prospecting.
Where's your sense of adventure?
Brilliant plan: divide the wide boulevards in upscale neighbourhoods in half, and build small affordable housing on them: the so-called thin street proposal:
IOW they are going to commit fiscal suicide by reducing the property values in upscale neighborhoods by building "affordable" (poor people) housing next to those properties. Then people will move out and tax revenues will go down.
Don't forget the brilliant masterstroke of increasing population while simultaneously reducing the number of cars that can get through. That won't be a headache or anything.
They probably view inconveniencing motorists as a feature, not a bug. You know, because we won't need cars in the bright, collectivist future.
And reducing parking spaces while increasing demand for parking. Perhaps it's all just a ruse to foist public transit on the evil richies.
Told you it was brilliant!
I'm pretty glad I live out in some of the more sane rural areas.
sane rural areas = flyover country
Public Censorship And Private Speech
Ken is dead on in that article. When people claim that private entities are 'censoring speech' I want to punch someone.
Actually they are censoring. That's why we qualify the term when we want to get more specific, like government censorship. See the TMZ "censored nipples" story below on private censorship (they could've release the original footage uncensored online if they wanted to at least).
It might be a loaded term, but it's disingenuous to say its definition only applies to government mandates. I agree with the rest of the article, but I think people miss the point: it's not about speech per se, the rights fundamentally come from property.
It's analogous to discrimination, which come with property rights. No need to avoid the term or trying to change its definition to limit it to discrimination by the state. In fact, censorship is a a form of discrimination by speech.
Better to change minds about property rights than to change definitions to shift the argument.
If pickup artist is two words, why does the acronym have three letters?
NJ Supreme Court Rules State Can Seek Custody Of Child Without Evidence Of Abuse
The Guy Who Used To Protect Your Facebook Data Now Works For The NSA
Autin says under the court's ruling, the state can get custody of a child with behavior problems if it proves that the parent can't provide the type of services the child needs and the services are in the child's best interest.
That will never be abused
You just need to adopt more of a mindset of community ownership of children.
You mean with "being a boy" most likely to be defined as a "behavior problem"?
That's one way to get all of the families with autistic parents to move out of state and lower the cost of public education.
"This boy clearly has a behavior problem as he's wearing an NRA shirt, and the parents won't provide him with re-education to tell him that his 1A rights can be curtailed because fuck you, that's why."
The Los Angeles Police Department has ruled out foul play. But shot him several times just to make sure he wasn't Dorner.
[removed][removed]
It's almost as if the Top Man of the USSR didn't have his comrade's best interests at heart.
More of the German Communist party leadership (and nearly as many rank-and-file members of the party) were murdered by Stalin's purges than by Nazi Germany.
Leaked NSA Doc Says It Can Collect And Keep Your Encrypted Data As Long As It Takes To Crack It
How else will the know what their probable cause is?
Good luck with that: Gabriola Island plans break from BC Hydro
I'm all for greater self-sufficiency, but come on...
They're going to die.
Woz - "PATRIOT Act dissolved Constitution".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....ce-snowden
Woz gets it.
He's always been on the side of angels. He was the one who hired notged phone phreak "Cap'n Crunch", John Draper, to design the first modem. (That, however, is kind of a sad story for those viewing technology as a tool to liberation. The feds totally won.)
A HuffPo user knows how to operate:
These would be the new Bill Maher talking points. Get used to them.
Rand Paul has the proglodytes scared shitless.
Someone on the right who could change the whole R/D dynamic. We must destroy at all costs!
So suddenly libertarians, who they never even seemed to notice before, are square in their sights.
I love how liberals, the living embodiment of the kind of people who think electricity comes from the light socket are always accusing Libertarians of being like children.
Anyone who doesn't believe the solution is more government just isn't serious.
The liberal Ayn Rand called libertarians childish several times.
Of course she hated pretty much everyone.
What does that have to do with liberals being childish? I know you are retarded shreek, but you need to keep your talking points straight. Try keeping them in separate word files rather than in stacks of post it notes in your box.
Liberals are not progressives. Two different things, pal.
Not in modern American parlance. I'd expect a progressive like you to understand that.
It must burn you conservatives up that at least half us classic liberals would vote D over R.
And we will as long as the GOP is insane.
It doesn't burn me up that you progressives vote for progressives and are too ashamed to admit that you're progressives.
Libertarians are classical liberals. People who slavishly defend the Democratic Party are Progressives. hth
You're full of shit if you think I defend Dems - I do acknowledge the fact that Obama is easily better than Bush and that is it.
I know "Libya=Iraq. EXACTLY the same!"
No they are not.
"I do acknowledge the fact that Obama is easily better than Bush and that is it."
Incontrovertible proof this useless cunt is just a troll.
And yes, this is the classically acceptable use of cunt".
The difference between liberals and progressives is that progressives think there is a difference.
That makes Hayek a progressive then.
The meaning of "liberal" was still in line with the original meaning during Hayek's time. Try again.
STOP DEBATING THE CRAZY HOMELESS GUY. HE'S SCREAMING AT A WALL AND IS IMPERVIOUS TO YOUR ARGUMENTS.
Seriously, he's even more worthy of blocking than Tulpa was.
Did Tulpa get blocked?
"Enough About Palin| 6.21.13 @ 5:43PM |#
"I do acknowledge the fact that Obama is easily better than Bush and that is it."
Incontrovertible proof this useless cunt is just a troll.
And yes, this is the classically acceptable use of cunt"."
**** so PB is a classical cunt, not classical liberal!
My god the projection is stunning. Every. Fucking. Time. Pure projection.
That's a wonderful response. Heaping contempt on that kind of person is probably more effective than trying to argue rationally with him.
Haha, please tell me this is the official libertarian response to people like progressivevictory.
We occasionally throw in a SOMALIA!1!, too.
Hmmm. Where do you even start with someone like that?
Dear progressivevictory,
My fire department is volunteer; young people are still of a type in my community they enjoy the challenge and excitement of that sort of work even if they have to pay out of pocket to do it. I donate to lessen the burden.
My local ambulance service is administered from the private hospital of which my wife is currently on shift.
As for the police, I am not the kind of person that calls the police for anything. I'm the other type, the type for whom the cops are a nuisance, and Officer McFriendly doesn't like very much.
As for your contempt for my spoiled, childish behavior. I started making money at twelve chopping wood. I started working in a factory at the age of fifteen to pay my way through college. From the day my dad smashed his truck into a Carolina pine my status changed from the assumption of well off working class to a more precarious position of having to work to secure my good fortune. It's from those experiences that I have acquired my libertarian outlook.
I'm sure that sounds childishly spoiled to you with the insurmountable odds someone who comes with your level of bitterness in life must, MUST, have faced. I'm just a person in a limited capacity to enjoy the few liberties he is given in life. You would not hold that against me, now would you?
France is looking to block Amazon from offering discounts and free shipping in the country...
So le fair competition would be everyone mandated to charge exactly the same amount and provide the exact same quality of service? I'm beginning to think socialists are idiots.
Yes, that is same country that regulates when stores are allowed to have sales, you know, for fairness.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....miere.html
Sandra Bulluck is 48. She has aged quite well for Hollywood.
Nice cans.
Everyone looks good in our school color purple.
Twerking to the sounds of classical music.
Panorama City school to be named after Michelle Obama
I'm eagerly awaiting the "So, it's going to be called 'Wookie Elementary'?" jokes.
For the love of Jesus. Tell me, what has she done again?
She helped save a 16-year-old, gold-medal Olympic gymnast from the evils of McDonald's.
What a hero!
She told a girl who had been starving herself and making unimaginable sacrifices for year that she couldn't have a cheeseburger.
BTW, you can thank Michelle for turning my kids into lifelong enemies of the Democratic party and progressivism in general.
The school lunches keep getting smaller and nastier, accompanied by announcements that Michelle has improved them. It's fucking orwellian, and even my eight year old daughter is now making jokes about the chocolate ration being increased to 20oz per month.
People fear that the progressive control of the school system is training people to be good little serfs. I think it's planting the seeds of rebellion.
I'm sorry, exactly what authority does she have to do that?
She doesn't. The school is using her as a convenient boogey man to deflect complaints as they cut funding to cafeteria services.
She is deeply involved.
So Michelle Obama is "deeply involved" in a law passed by congress? Exactly how many votes did she bring to the table?
Also note the schools are free to serve whatever they like for lunch. They just can't get federal funding for it. So this is yet more "Get the government out of my Medicare" style Tea Party whining.
No Stormy, it is not.
It is my kids - and their friends - reacting hostilely to propaganda. The school is making the lunches less wholesome and telling the kids to thank Michelle for it.
And they are thanking her, with their middle fingers. š
I'm sure that's what the school is telling them. I'm just saying that just because the school is saying that doesn't make it true.
I find it far more likely they cut back on spending for food services so that they can spend the money on bloated salaries and more administration and are just using the first lady as an excuse so the voters don't blame them for it.
It's not just for cost savings. The state education establishment has bought into it.
They track my kids' BMI. My ex and I both are endomorphs, so naturally our kids have a high BMI, and so I routinely get letters and notices hectoring me about their obesity.
It's marvelously dystopian.
And again, Michelle Obama does not secretly control your state's education department, so I don't see why she's responsible for the decisions your elected officials made.
She was put in charge of some anti-obesity task force.
I honestly don't understand what the educrats are thinking.
Whether they think tying their hot lunch program changes to her image makes will help them sell the lunches or whether she really put out the guidelines and the educrats think the kids love the food and will be grateful to her is irrelevant. My kids associate Michelle Obama with hunger and privation.
I think if the educrats ate that shit they would not be so enthusiastically tying the program to progressivism.
In the meantime, the kids are seething mad.
Her anti-obesity campaign is exactly that: an ad campaign. It has absolutely no effect on what anybody actually does. It's a waste of money to be sure, but anyone who claims that it is forcing them to cut back services is lying.
Stormy's right about that. The school COULD have decided to make changes to their lunch menu based on the ad campaign though, in which case it was still inspired by Michelle, and would explain why they credit her.
You can't blame her though.
he school COULD have decided to make changes to their lunch menu based on the ad campaign though.
Isn't that what happened with Jamie Oliver in the UK?
This raises an interesting point. Can Congress impeach a First Lady? If not, why not? They're increasingly involved in formal policy, which, by the way, is totally illegal.
That's one area where the English have it better. The parliament does get a say over who the king can be married to. š
These days, I think Parliament could technically toss a monarch out for any reason or no reason.
My kids' school in the people's republic of massachusetts isn't saying the Feds are forcing them to cut lunches.
No, they are cheerfully telling the kids that thanks to Michelle obama's wise leadership, the kids are getting less food.
It's absofuckinglutely beautiful.
Because educrats are really that stupid and really that ignorant of what kids want and need.
The other reality is that school lunches have always sucked. The difference is that when I was growing up I didn't complain to my parents about it because they'd have told me to quit my bitchin'. If I threw away my nasty ass brocolli and was hungry, it would have been my own dumb fault for being so picky.
Now a days we have all these spoiled kids who want expect to be catered to because their parents will raise a stink if everything isn't perfect for their special snowflake.
It still boggles my mind that the federal government is involved in education or what my kids eat at school.
For that matter, why is any level of government involved in education or what my kids eat?
It shouldn't be, but if you're going to force me to buy your kid lunch, I don't care how much he only likes chicken nuggets. Brussel sprouts are cheaper than chickens.
She was one of two creatures who made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs, dude.
Is it established that Chewie was with Han at the time? Show your work.
(waves hands)
There you are, ProL. See? How dare you question me!
So, you don't really know, do you? Maybe it was when Han and Lando were gay lovers?
Who's to say they didn't have a threesome with Chewie during that run? There's plenty of speculation to go around, pal!
You meant a threeposome, right?
Yes, in book 3 of the Han Solo trilogy, it does specify that Chewie was with him.
Citation
PWN'D
NONCANON.
*buzzer*
Sorry, you are incorrect. Check the site. It's canon rating is C. It's part of the official expanded universe and is only non-canon if something of G level canon overrides it.
Try again.
NONIONCANNON.
Sorry, sir. Your nonioncannon has no effect on my nerdsheild.
Grand Moff Geeken reporting for duty!
I never really got into the books. The only one I liked, and that was as a kid, was Splinter in the Mind's Eye.
Ahem, lots of people made that run who weren't wookies.
But in twelve parsecs?
She's done lots of important things, like reassembling C3PO.
How exactly does a wookie do delicate electronics with those fat paws?
Well, depending on what is convenient, she is either just a powerless woman married to the President, or a powerful, gracious and wonderful First Lady.
Wait, I thought you had to be out of office or dead to have a school named after you?!
An elegant policy for a more civilized age.
Just wait for the new Obama-head five dollar coin coming out next month.
The federal government has something called the Insider Threat Program that urges employees to report suspicious behavior by their coworkers that might indicate leakers.
"UNMUTUAL! UNMUTUAL!"
Irish MP calls Obama a "war criminal", accuses PM of kowtowing - asking if he will "deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark abject humiliation."
yesterday's news, but it was enjoyable
damn. I try so hard to be timely too. Now I'm just embarrassed.
I hadn't seen the story; and if you haven't read it, it's still news.
I liked the 'slobbering all over the Obama's' part.
Canada!
New Hampshire gun control rally gets ugly:
After Musso left the father alone, the police arresting Musso felt compelled to tase him despite outnumbering him at least three to one. Now he's facing a few charges ? including two counts of simple assault ? plus any neurological damage he may have sustained.
I saw this. Of course the comments will make you vomit. I'm consistently amazed by how cruelly violent the folks who bitch about gun violence can get.
They don't want people to have guns because they think everyone is as violent and impulse control challenged as them. As always, projection.
I have a facebook friend who constantly posts democratic pr bullshit about some asshole republican being an asshole. One of her other friends will inevitably comment on how such GOP assholes should be shot, beaten, raped in prison, etc. for being so cold-hearted and cruel. There is no sense of irony, and no humanity to them.
If they finally get total control, I fully expect to be living in a camp of some sort.
Also, they themselves are inherently violent, just too cowardly to do violence themselves. Hence the need for a state to that violence and an unarmed populace.
Well sure. The whole point is for them to be intolerant and insufferable without having to worry about blowback.
Rocket88
FRIDAY, JUN 21, 2013 12:59 PM PDT
You don't touch the cops. It's that simple. This was an entitled white guy learning what the less fortunate learn very early on.
Police have to deal with incredibly violent people in incredibly volatile situations and they are always outnumbered. (This did NOT depict three-on-one. It depicted an angry crowd against three.) They have to preserve this notion of their persons being essentially inviolate because it is that mental state that protects them. They want everyone in the crowd to know that really bad things happen to you if you touch one of them. That is what protects them and their fellow officers in the NEXT unruly crowd, which may not be a bunch of God-fearing white men, but rather a bunch of drunk MS-13 members.
It's okay when it happens to people we don't like.
Jonathan
FRIDAY, JUN 21, 2013 12:28 PM PDT
So apparently Musso's ability to own guns did not enable him to resist the tyranny of his government? Interesting...
See! You don't really believe in gun rights unless you assert the right to shoot a cop.
That last one sounds like a challenge...
I'm beginning to think socialists are idiots.
*backs slowly out of room*
Matty Yglesias Tweets that Rand Paul is a white supremacist, expresses hurt feelings at backlash from people with common sense.
He said people only think Bobby Jindal is smart because he is an Indian. He really is some kind of Aspy or Autistic or something. He is certainly not normal.
I don't think he has Asperger's or is Autistic.
I think he is really, really stupid and self-centered.
Can't he be both?
Then when people called him on it, he said 'Now that I know more about Jindal's educational history, he actually is a smart guy.'
All he had to do was fucking Google Bobby Jindal and he could have found that information without making an ass of himself. A person whose supposed job is journalism is apparently incapable of using a search engine.
'Now that I know more about Jindal's educational history, he actually is a smart guy.'
Yglesias really is retarded. That is the kind of thing someone who can't read social cues would do.
I saw that yesterday. The best part is that it was in a conversation with Conor Friedersdorf, and it was such an absurd statement that Friedersdorf basically just shook his head sadly and refused to engage.
Yglesias really has a problem reading social cues and understanding the mores of person interaction. He is like Sheldon on Big Bang Theory only with a very low IQ and none of the charm.
Yes, and Sista Sarah is some sort of scholar. You get everything backward.
Compared to Sad Beard and you for that matter yeah she is dipshit. What's it like to be a retarded cunt?
Are you saying that Yglesias is smart? Palin and Yglesias are both pretty stupid.
Witness the "classical liberal" desperately attempting to deflect criticism from Progressive Matt Yglesias.
Fuck Yqlesias. He supported the Iraq War.
But he can read and write a complete sentence.
Sarah is just stupid. I hate Newt Gingrich but the fucker can write and speak like a great Roman orator.
Beat me to it.
I was referring to Jordan....
You mean you don't think Gingrich can speak like a great Roman orator?!?!
I don't think Palin is stupid. She is of average or above average intelligence, from what I've been able to ascertain.
A progressive spreading prejudice by promoting hateful stereotypes?
It must be a day with a name ending with the letter "y". š
People misunderstand what Yglesias was trying to say: 'people assume Jindal is smart, but to me he looks like just another slack jaw yokel from the South.'
Which is kind of worse.
Now Matty is heroically defending the Civil Rights Act against white supremacists and Rand Paul:
Even if you take democracy to relatively narrowly mean majoritarian voting procedures this doesn't work. In the periods between the Civil War and World War II, African-Americans were a majority in quite a few southern states and would have been a large?and potentially decisive?voting bloc in the others. If, that is, they were allowed to vote. But instead of voting, African-Americans were disenfranchised via a systematic campaign of terrorist violence. The same campaign that gave us the Jim Crow social system. The point of the Civil Rights Act, including its provisions regulating private businesses, was to smash that social system. And it succeeded. It succeeded enormously. The amazing thing about retrospective opposition to the Civil Rights Act is that we know that it worked. It didn't lead to social and economic cataclism. In fact, the American south has done quite a bit better since the smashing of white supremacy than it was doing previously.
I think the Cook/Paul view that we should somehow regret this and pretend that everything would have worked itself out on its own is bizarre.
But it's not only bizarre. It seems to me that it necessarily has to stem from not taking the interests and history of African-Americans seriously to even be comprehensible. The "respectable" thing to say about people like Paul or the late Barry Goldwater, I suppose, is simply that they are ideologues rather than people driven by some kind of racial animosity. But I think it's selling free market ideology short to suggest that government regulations meant to undue the outcome of a century long campaign of terrorist violence is just a straightforward consequence of a general support for free enterprise. You need to combine that ideology with a sincere indifference to black people's welfare to reach that conclusion, just as you need to combine Paul's ideology with genuine indifference to the history of race in America to reach Paul's conclusion about democracy's relationship to Jim Crow.
I don't even care. It's Slate. It's Yglesias. Realistically, the only people who read Yglesias are the fever swamp dwellers at Slate, and people like us who mock him.
That's becoming their new go-to insult for people they don't agree with. I put up with the "racist" bullshit, but the next person who calls me that to my face is getting popped in the mouth (yes, it's already happened before, in a discussion about taxes. Fucking taxes.)
They'll claim that the only reason anyone could be in favor of small amounts of government is because they're racist. This is despite the fact that the history of anti-government agitators is basically a list of abolitionists and civil rights organizers.
Through what avenue do the worst types of racial prejudice express themselves? As in slavery, concentration camps, pogroms, Jim Crow, etc?
Through the government. That's why we need more of it, right?
But those were the wrong kinds of governments. We just need the right kind. Not the wrong kind, the right kind.
God libertarians are so stupid.
In fairness, there were a hell of a lot of abolitionists with views that are beyond retarded even in the context of modern political discourse (Prohibition, socialism, various utopian and religious scraps of nonsense). The Republican party almost balkanized after the Civil War for just that reason, and infighting in the party is partly to account for the Democratic party's resurgence.
It would be as if in the future, everyone was staunchly pro-life and saw the pro-lifers of today as heroes: sorry folks, but there are a lot of retards in the pro-life ranks and most of them believed lots of stupid things outside of that issue.
I can't be the only one who imagines Yglesias as the real-life Rod from Birdemic.
OUTRAGE: TMZ Won't Let the Internet See Kate Upton's Nipples Riding a Horse
Why are nipples the most titillating thing about a pair of tits? I mean we see the cleavage, their shapeliness, and everything else but we can't see the nipples because that's too risque?
Because it conforms to the FCC's "nudity guidelines" if I recall, though why TMZ would give the slightest shit about that is beyond me.
Why are nipples the most titillating thing about a pair of tits?
It's the mysterious part...are they big or small? Proportional or oddly shaped? A mouthful or a kissful? They are the final reveal required to burn the difference of the image into your brain. They are the detail that can't be inferred from the fit of a shirt or dress. Without them, it's all left to your imagination. Some dudes don;t have much of one.
I'm sympathetic, they did the same thing with Prince Harry.
"TMZ Won't Let the Internet See Kate Upton's Nipples Riding a Horse"
How do nipples ride a horse?
Kate's do.
Tell me, what has she done again?
Assembled a President from an random assortment of scrap parts?
No, Obama isn't an expert at communication. Bullshit, maybe, but that's about it.
Agents With Faces - What Can We Learn From LEGO Mini?gures? [PDF]
Breitbart writer characterizes slaughter of Rohingya Muslims as simply being the Buddhist way of defending Myanmar culture and history.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-P.....nmar-Islam
They were pissed that the police wouldn't let them lynch someone, so they got 'retribution' by murdering 10 Muslims who were not related to the crime.
Every time I want to like Breitbart.com for their attacks on Obama, they go and do something like this.
They have themselves to blame if they are mocked and cast to the margins. Of course they'll blame 'the elites'. Liberals lack all self-awareness but conservatives are such whiny babies.
Horseshit. That's a gross mischaracterization of the author's argument. Just like the campaign in the Western media (spearheaded by the BBC) to demonize the Buddhists of Rakhine State is a gross mischaracterization of events.
As I argued this morning:
Secondly, the hatchet job the media in the West are doing to the Burmese Buddhists of Rakhine State is insidious. When a monk points out that a lot of Burmese Muslim charities give money to radical Islamist groups in Bangladesh which in turn fund Rohingya incursions into Rakine and suggests a boycott, he is painted as a hate-monger. (Meanwhile the boycott of all things Israeli is just and noble.) Likewise, when a group of barely literate Burmese Buddhists form a mob to attack a Rohingya village it's painted as due to the Rohingya's status as a religious minority. There is never any mention that radical elements among the Muslim Rohingya have for years torched Buddhist temples, abducted and raped Buddhist girls and women, and killed Buddhist boys and men; all while the government does nothing. Nope, it's just the intolerant Buddhists and their holy war. No mention that the Rohingya seek refuge, in droves, in Buddhist temples. It doesn't fit the narrative, see.
Secular Post-Modern Westerns need to feel superior to those superstitious Third World Buddhists by playing up the misconception that Buddhism is pacifist and then calling it hypocrisy when actual Buddhists don't follow the precepts of their straw-man Buddhism. It's a good racket, just ask the odious Michael Jerryson, who's made an entire academic career of it.
The issue here is that 1) most Westerners don't know shit about Buddhism (even, or perhaps especially, self-described converts to Buddhism), 2) there is a vested interest in reporting on Our Friends in the Middle East in a certain way, and 3) religion and nationalism intersect in ways that are difficult for the Western press to appreciate and communicate. This is a problem, since there is an important distinction between the essentially religious and theologically-chartered character of Islamic violence in Southeast Asia, and the essentially nationalistic violence of ostensibly "Buddhist" protests against the Muslim minority.
Peasant violence is deplorable, but it's a disservice to characterize it as equivalent to the religious violence in the region.
Mind you, I only know enough about Buddhism to know that I don't know what I'm talking about outside of tenets and some medieval history -- and even then, I know more than the morons reporting on S-East Asia!
Lust Never Sleeps: An academic's sexual memoir puts the ire in desire
HAHAHAHAHA
World War Z is sexist because it depicts a mother staying behind with her children.
But never fear, Gerry isn't subject to internal conflict about stay-at-home dad-dom for long. The zombie apocalypse that snarls up his morning carpool may be awful for humanity?much of which ends up chomped and converted into speedy monsters?but it's terrific for Gerry, who is called back to duty by the U.N. and told that he must work to find a cure to the virus in order to keep his family under military protection. Restored by danger to what seems to be his proper role, Gerry thrives, saving Karin from looters, bashing zombies' heads in, performing emergency battlefield amputations, and generally being a badass, while occasionally remembering to check in with his family in their makeshift home on a naval carrier. Karin, meanwhile, started out the movie being sensible and forward-thinking enough to snag flares from a grocery store, but spends much of the rest of the film snuggling her girls and an adorable Latino boy named Tomas.
I understand why a complicated narrative had to be boiled down to a single main character and an simplified storyline for World War Z to make it to the screen. But having mom stay home with the kids while dad goes out and defends them to reclaim his manly honor seems unnecessarily old-fashioned.
Yeah, they should have left the kids behind to fend for themselves.
Yep, because thousands of years of evolutionary logic must be tossed out the window if it reeks of the patriarchy.
But really, in a disaster situation (let's put the zombies aside) what would you expect the mother of young children to do?
If the mother is Joan Crawford...
I can picture her now, in a gown and heels, pearls slinging around as she decapitates zombie after zombie with wire coat-hangers and a broken Pepsi bottle.
Sure, he's bigger, stronger, faster, more suited to warfare in almost every way, really. But does he have GIRL POWER!!????? No!
The problem with this argument is that I can't see Jessica Chastain as an action hero. During a zombie apocalypse, what is an untrained, petite woman going to do? If she were running around bashing zombie's heads in, it would have been almost as eye rolling as Maid Marion riding into battle during Russel Crowe's Robin Hood.
Jessica Chastain isn't in World War Z.
Somehow, I mistook this woman, who is much less attractive than Chastain and seems to have a lazy eye, for Jessica Chastain.
In my defense, I'm pretty sure she only shows up in the trailers for like 15 seconds.
Seriously though, that woman's lazy eye is freaking me out.
Too bad it wasn't really Chastain.
The FBI has denied it was investigating journalist Michael Hastings, who died earlier this week in a car crash in Los Angeles.
According to Dick Cheney and all the supposed liberals who agree with him, isn't this dereliction of duty on the FBI's part, if true?
Food Network cans Paula Deen for "Sambo burgers".
PC run amok.
What exactly did she say, anyway? I heard the N-word was used, which is surprising, since she's used to the spotlight, even if she's inclined to racism.
It came up in depositions for a civil suit involving Deen and an ex-employee claiming discrimination.
In it she admits to casually using the N-word and tolerating racist jokes and pornography in the workplace.
Uh, oh.
My brother just ate at her restaurant in Savannah. I'll ask if the waitstaff used that term.
It didn't help that Deen's defense was along the lines of "Well I don't use it to refer to all black people, just ones I don't like. Remember that time I hired all those black waiters for my plantation themed weddings? I didn't call any of them the n-word once!"
From my understanding she's being sued by one of her employees for racial and sexual harassment. During the deposition, she was asked a question about using the "n-word", and she said that she has used it.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/19/.....acial-slur
She grew up in the Jim Crow south. I would be shocked if she had never used it. Did she say she still uses it today?
She only uses it with her black lovers.
That's the *worst* (NSFW)
Paula Deen at one of her world famous restaurants.
My brother said her restaurant was pretty good, but he complained about something--think it was the lack of variety at the buffet or something.
Re: trshmnstr,
The funny part is when people read about the case and realize that the plaintiff is w-h-i-t-e.
So if you're white, you can't be bothered by your boss constantly using the n-word?
You can't be racially harassed by it. You can be offended, but not racially harassed.
A friend of mine has been reading the transcripts and sending snippets. It sounds like her brother was more directly at fault, but she definitely sounds unpleasant.
I have no doubt that she's unpleasant - you generally don't build up a brand to the size hers is if you aren't *very* open and freely express you displeasure everytime your staff's performance fall short of expectations.
I imagine that Oprah is a complete bitch behind the scenes.
On the other hand, these people kept taking that paycheck even after they knew the working conditions. I don't see why the law needs to get involved, even as a civil matter.
"As George Zimmerman's trial for killing Trayvon Martin is set to open next week, a judge ruled that prosecutors can argue that Zimmerman profiled Martin for several reasons (age, clothing) but not over his race."
I predict that regardless of the verdict, as soon as it is read, the riots will begin.
Yeah, I don't know if I will be hiding when the verdict comes down or leaving [American city with high crime rate and minority population] altogether to spend a few days in the country.
Stick around, it might be a good time to get a new computer or TV. just follow the "protestors" who are inadvertently looting as part of their demonstration.
Whenever this subject comes up I'm reminded of a SF resident I know who was absolutely convinced that "right-wing Tea Party race riots" were going to follow if Obama was reelected.
Proggies really inhabit an alternate reality, don't they?
This is worse than when they were all agreeing that no one made fun of Charlie Sheen.
They're defending someone who said that rape is the woman's fault entirely because that someone is black.
Women across the country wouldn't have to 'collude' since it was two fucking people. I think Roethlisberger probably did it, but the idea that we should all just assume he's guilty based on two accusations is ridiculous.
I am so lost trying to follow the logic of identity politics, which is so shot through with regular politics that it makes no sense at all.
The pinnacle of all of this was when feminists practically applauded Bill Clinton messing around with an intern. If he'd been a corporate CEO, they'd have had a cow.
The woman in Tahoe claims she was raped, yet her coworker filed a sworn affidavit stating that the alleged victim in fact bragged to her about having consensual sex with Roethlisberger.
So, gonna go ahead and say its just an attempt at a payday. In fact, my first assumption when any athlete gets a civil suit filed for sexual assault is that it's about the money.
If innocent, he should've had her sign a pre-fuck agreement, also signed by witnesses.
Ah yes, the Dave Chappelle love contract.
"The media all too often provides a negative portrayal of powerful and successful women, particularly black women like Serena. . ."
WTF! outside of the bitches in the state department (Albright, Rice, and Clinton) I can't think of any powerful and/or successful women the media negatively portrays - indeed its usually the opposite, these women get more leniency.
Oprah for example - everyone *loves Oprah. I hate Oprah and yet I still love Oprah.
"(The case was settled out of court, but there was enough evidence for him to be temporarily suspended by the NFL.)"
Being suspended by the NFL is almost as good as being convicted by a jury of your peers.
This was posted yesterday, but I noticed something in the comments.
Marcotte sounds like a few of the regulars here.
Ctrl-f for "sodalitas" and check out some of Marcott's responses to him. (you'll have to expand the comments a few times, there's been a lot of activity there since yesterday).
Can't find it.
Gotta expand the comments at least twice, from the button on the bottom.
More on the "A+" front.
Guy writes this in response to a dishonest article written about him at an atheist conference, and the feminists call for his head. When that doesn't happen, this does.
I'm sure they'll be sorry to see your constant demands for self abasement in response to imagined slights go.
Skepchick is one of the worst fever swamps of the 'skeptic' community. None of those people are actually skeptical. If you tell them anything and dress it up in enough left-wing pablum, they will believe it.
They are the most gullible human beings in the universe, but they hide their gullibility behind faux-skepticism. That way they can pretend they're smart, despite steadfastly refusing to behave like adults.
It would be one thing if they actually believed the bullshit they're spouting (still stupid, not actively evil), but there's this.
And also this.
Those are some yellow fucking teeth.
This is great.
So there are at least 119 people who also get kicks out of watching the feminists go bat-shit insane.
I should start a club.
HAHAHA I remember that.
So, I just got back from seeing the new "Superman" movie - oh lord.
Its kinda retarded. Not pants-on-head retarded like the last "Die Hard" but retarded nonetheless.
Apparently the writers think an "appellate courts" has any authority over who the military allows into their facilities, even when that facility is in another country. Oh and that the military files "injunctions" against people to deny them access.
There's a scene at the beginning where Kal, no Jor, you know whatever - Russel Crow is talking to the planetary governors of Krypton and the door the audience chamber blows up - everyone just sits there. Some soldiers come in and shoot the guards - everyone sits there without reacting. Zod comes in and arghargh Ima taking over and ur all under arrest narm narm and everyone just sits there.
Then he loses his coup because he has no commanders he can trust enough to delegate to while he goes off chasing Russel Crowe.
The fight scenes go on for-freaking-ever
Superman's father dies for no fucking reason whatsoever except to try to get a reaction from the audience.
Lois Lane is annoying. Elliot Stabler has apparently stopped chasing down sex crimes in New York and is a Colonel in the Army AND knows how to fly a C-5 Galaxy (which they call a C-17)
Did I mention that the fight scenes go on forever?
But are they good fight scenes?
Look, what Superman movies have been missing is two superpowered beings fighting it out with huge insane effects. Fuck the Luthor stories, I want Darkseid and Zod. I want Big Blue punching evil gods through skyscrapers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl_5UwS57X8
Uh, let me tell you - a fight scene -between two effectively invulnerable super-powered beings is boring as fuck.
Remember Neo fighting Smith in the 3rd matrix, how most of the fighting was pointless since neither could get the upper hand?
Same shit.
And you get all the "punching through skyscrapers" you want - they destroy half the freaking city.
And then its some stupid sappy incident that finally gives Superman the will to do what's necessary to end the fight.
He's so in love with humanity that he and Zod destroy a bunch of shit, kill a bunch of bystanders and then its this bit that pushes him over the edge to finish it off.
Its like the writers had TVTropes open and were reference as many clich?s as they could in this film.
Oh, and I was wrong about the Galaxy - It *is* a C-17. My mistake.
And you get all the "punching through skyscrapers" you want - they destroy half the freaking city.
So, Lex Luthor was in it - in the form of Krugman.
Well...now we know who the next villian should be.
He's who the first villain should have been.
Now let's debate on who should play Lex in the sequel.
I'm thinking Lawrence Fishburne - he can do an "acting for two" as Perry White and Lex Luther.
Ohh, they can be twin brothers.
Superhero movies are so fucking played out. Snyder just wanted to get his chance at making a Supernman movie because he's a comic nerd. I can't even muster up enough interest to even think about going to see this. Though it is playing at The Big Picture and they serve martinis during the movie...nah, I'll pass.
I feared this would be the case in the thread on Suderman's review. Think I'll wait for the TV debut.
But the fight scenes were good!
Everything else you said is true. Zod's characterization was great while Supe was a boring ass Ken Doll. Guess I'd be the same if I grew up in Kansas (BARF).
You know for all the advances in special effects, this movie s *isn't* any better than the first one.
Hell they even cast a guy who's the spitting image of Christopher Reeve.
The first wizard of special effects
C'mon, the military fucked up, no one would believe that a real C-17 is smaller than a C-5. 175, right?
Crusader Kings 2 is on sale, is it any good? Or is it a whole bunch of gimmicks and an incredibly clumsy interface? I think I played one of the games by that studio before, and it was just unplayable. It wasn't turn based, wasn't real time, more like "playing" a game on pause. Does stuff actually happen in this one?
Crusader Kings II is a hell of a lot of fun. It's a bit difficult to get into, but is by far more accessible and fun than previous Paradox titles, and is very stable. If you like strategy games, medieval history, or both, you have to give yourself the opportunity to play the game. I recommend trying one of the counts in Ireland if you want a slightly boring but easy start, or starting as the duchess of Tuscany or one of the Iberian kingdoms if you want something more difficult but with more immediate options available. The Byzantines are always fun, as well. I have an extra download code of CKII that I bought when the Republic DLC came out -- if you want it, it's all yours.
EU4 is another one to look out for, btw -- comes out in August and it looks fantastic.
/shill
Thanks for the generous offer. I went ahead and got the 75% off "complete" package. So far I have just poked around the interface, right now I'm trying to find a likely marriage. Then it looks like I'll have to purge some of my small council.
Dude, Rome II is due out in a month or so. RI hope they don't ruin it like they did with the Shogun II. Dear Total War makers: Quit making it so complex! I just want to kill the shit out of some fucking Gauls and Carthaginians and Greeks.
Apparently, meth makes you look like a zombie.
Good monkey.
Did he spank the monkey?
Yes, let us just say a Koch and be done with it.
Women don't love Koch?