NSA Still Collecting Tons of Data Despite Claiming Otherwise, Tsarnaev Indicted, Feds Meddle with School Snacks: P.M. Links

• 

  PiccoloNamek / Foter.com / CC BY-SA

  Even though the Obama Administration says mass collection of Americans' online metadata ended in 2011, documents show a significant amount of data is still being collected.

• Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces a 30-count indictment for his role in the Boston Marathon bombings, including charges of using a weapon of mass destruction.
• Paleo diet blogger Steve Cooksey can go forward with his lawsuit against North Carolina Board of Diatetics/Nutrition. The state is trying to block him from giving diet advice on the Internet because he's not licensed to give nutritional advice. He is claiming the First Amendment trumps such rules. The Institute for Justice is representing him.
• U.S.-based bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, notable for their anti-Muslim activism, have been banned from entering the United Kingdom to speak at an England Defence League march.
• The first of July brings about the implementation of new taxes in many states. Hungry for money, several new online tax systems are scheduled to start.
• Sorry, school children, the federal government nannies are finally coming for your delicious snacks, like we all knew they would.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Even though the Obama Administration says mass collection of Americans' online metadata ended in 2011, documents show a significant amount of data is still being collected.

It's okay, this is an entirely different program. PRASM.

[John]

And they are focusing on Republicans so it is okay.

[Episiarch]

PRIAPISM? The surveillance boner that won't go away?

[NeonCat]

"It's an unblinking eye, after all."

[Warrren]

+ hard one

[gaijin]

Consult a doctor for surveillance hard ons lasting more than 4 years.

[Pro Libertate]

Bob Dole tried to warn us.

[Rich]

Oh, ease up, Scott. "Mass collection" is *much larger* than "a significant amount of data".

[Pro Libertate]

What's really distressing about this is that we don't know a whole lot more than we know. In fact, we very likely don't know what we don't know. So this little bit means there's a whole lot of bad shit probably going on.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You're paranoid.

[Pro Libertate]

Origin: 1900?05; paranoi(a) + -oid, with base and suffix merged, perhaps by haplology from the expected *paranoioid

Yes, I wish we went around saying "paranoioid", too.

[Guy Laguy]

you are what you eat!

[Live Free or Diet]

Eat like a predator, not like prey.
or
Smoke grass, don't eat it!

[John]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-life.html

Remember, women never lie about rape.

[Rich]

Not about rape-rape, anyway.

[John]

And she got away with it. They didn't do anything to her. She picked too poor guys at random out of Facebook, lied to the police, ruined their lives, and walked away.

[tarran]

My ex walked away too. I think the guy she falsely accused must easily have spent $10,000 on his defense too.

[Live Free or Diet]

My ex knew if she took me to court I'd be getting the alimony.

[PapayaSF]

Wouldn't that sort of thing be grounds for a civil suit against her?

[tarran]

Wow, deja vu!

My ex wife did the same thing; she accused the janitor at our town's library of attacking her in order to get *my* sympathy.

She damn near ruined his life too.

[John]

Holy shit. What chance did a janitor have against the word of a respectable white women? None. How did they find her out?

[Tonio]

John, do you actually know the race of anyone involved in that?

[John]

I am pretty sure Tarran and his ex are white. He has talked about her before.

I have no idea about the janitors race. But it doesn't matter. A white janitor wouldn't have any better of a chance. The sad fact is that cops and or a prosecutor are more likely to take the word of a middle class white woman than pretty much anyone else. That is reality.

[tarran]

Actually, he's Hispanic and she's Micronesian.

It was so awful, his English is terrible, and when he went to the police station to give a witness statement, his daughter - who goes to our high-school(!), was his translator.

Even though his statement destroyed my ex's credibility, it made him a suspect; her description of her attacker's jewelry and physical features matched him to a T. And so his daughter saw her dad basically be accused of being a would-be rapist up close.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I thought tarran was turk or half turk or something.

[Episiarch]

tarran is Turk on the right side. All his people are Turk on the right side.

[Warrren]

Dr. Turk Turkleson.

[Spoonman.]

I am guessing you have never met a Turk. They are white.

[Warrren]

On the outside.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I have, just answering the question. I any case, the context John describes might be one where they don't count as white.

[Agammamon]

Some are - I've met Turks, in Turkey, who've confused chubby brown Mexicans for Turkish.

[tarran]

Basically, her story was full of holes, and he had a good defense attorney, and he got her to tell three different stories on the witness stand during two pretrial hearings.

The bit that pissed me off was that the detective who was investigating it asked me an hour before the first hearing if my ex had a history of lying because he saw the first hole in her story, and it was a big one. The janitor's testimony made it impossible for her initial complaint to be truthful; he had told the cops that he had talked to my ex, and knew details about her life that she had to have told him, and she was claiming that a total stranger had blitzed her from behind.

And yet they went ahead and issued a summons to the janitor anyway.

By the end of the first hearing, she was blatantly perjuring herself, and yet the magistrate refused to dismiss the charges. That happened when a judge heard the appeal to the magistrate's decision.

And no, she never faced any sanction whatsoever.

The good news is the janitor's lawyer made damn sure that his supervisors and the manager of the library were present for the appeal, and you could see in their eyes that they knew he was innocent at the end of the mess.

I made it a point to go to the man and apologize, since it was so clear that the whole story had been concocted so that my ex could get my sympathy, and I had dragged her to the cops and insisted that she file a report.

[SweatingGin]

That's absolutely gut wrenching to read, from all the perspectives.

[tarran]

I'm actually leaving out some really sordid details.

My ex wife is a profoundly ill person.

[Libertymike]

Sorry to read of your ordeal and, of course, that of the janitor.

Thank you for sharing this with us and for being a man and apologizing to the janitor.

[Episiarch]

I still cannot comprehend how people like that can get away with this shit. I mean, shouldn't the prosecutor and cops be pissed that she fooled them and wasted their time? Even if they don't care about justice, we know they're vindictive. So how does she walk away?

[John]

The thinking is that if you throw her dumb ass in jail the next crazy bitch who does it will not come forward and recant for fear of going to jail.

You do want these creatures to come clean at some point. That is the argument. I don't really buy it. But I can see why someone would think that way.

The other reason of course is that the prosecutor may have been some kind of fanatic who didn't think this woman did anything wrong. Such people are sadly common.

[Tonio]

Because prosecutors have political ambition and they don't want it coming back to haunt them later that they harshed on a "rape victim" or however feminists would spin it.

Remember, just because they couldn't prove it doesn't mean it didn't happen. /Jezzie

[Episiarch]

I guess you're right, but fuck. I'd sue the shit out of her.

[Tonio]

If you lost, you'd be truly SOL. If you won, the feminists would turn on you.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Suing someone for a genuine tort is, like, the ultimate mansplanation.

[gaijin]

So how does she walk away?

Because of the patriarchy. See, the Police Force do not take her seriously as a threat to law and order...because she is a woman. So, she is actually the victim of her victimization efforts because she can't even get the same treatment a man would get who did the same thing.

[Brandon]

Crazy eyes...

[Matrix]

Star Trek deflector shields in the works

[Warrren]

"I first learned of this, when like you all. I saw it on television."

[Mad Scientist]

Those won't be of much use after the NSA figures out your prefix code.

[Episiarch]

"Whose self destruct code is 1A2B3C?!?"

[Pro Libertate]

I do wonder what happens to encryption between now and then.

Also, what's to stop the Riddler from willing Kirk to shut up? I mean, he can fly a ship at warp speed with his willpower, but he can't shut up Capt. Kirk? Furthermore, Kirk kept saying "no force in the universe" could stop the self-destruct process once initiated. Really? No force in the universe?

[Episiarch]

Look, Kirk traveled through the Great Barrier, met god, and wasn't even impressed. You might want to listen to him when he says "no force in the universe".

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, but Belle wasn't a god, and Kirk has been known to bluff before.

[Episiarch]

If you comment again, ProL, my Corbomite Device will destroy us both.

[BakedPenguin]

"Have some tranya. I relish it, almost as much as heroin."

[Pro Libertate]

Seriously, that whole scene comes across now as a little man with a big addiction.

[Auric Demonocles]

I will accept that. Comment old man, comment!

[Pro Libertate]

Ha! I saw that episode. Set phasers to thrash!

[Episiarch]

KABOOOOOM

[Jon Lester]

I met Frank Gorshin once, at my last club job, about 3 years before he died. Of all the rock stars, has-beens and other "name" people I've met over the years, that topped them all.

[Pro Libertate]

He was great.

[Warrren]

???

[Joe M]

Remind me to change the combination on my luggage.

[Pro Libertate]

Is that to open it or to initiate a self-destruction process?

[Joe M]

Remind me to add a second combination to my luggage.

[Warrren]

So you do want fries with that?

[Generic Stranger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6iW-8xPw3k

[Fist of Etiquette]

Can they be reconfigured for secondary, off label uses?

[Auric Demonocles]

First, if they are Star Trek deflector shields they should protect against attacks too, not just radiation.

Second, radiation isn't this gigantic show stopper on a trip to Mars, even if you fail to get magnetic shielding working. Traditional shielding is only "too heavy" if you think you have to cover a gigantic ship and reduce the radiation to Earth levels. Just make a small shielded zone and accept an increase of lifetime cancer rates from the baseline 20% up to 21 percent and it's not hard to do.

[Pro Libertate]

Kinetic and energy weapons?

[Auric Demonocles]

Even sonic.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, clever to anticipate disruptors.

[Matrix]

Humans evolved to throw fastballs

[Matrix]

Oh snap!
In 2009, Snowden said leakers should be shot

[Tonio]

Dude, H-n-R covered that earlier this week.

[gaijin]

not just shot, but shot IN THE BALLS. Cause all leakers are dudes I guess.

[Tonio]

His is going to be a fascinating story if he ever gets to tell it. I'm thinking a naive, patriotic young man who really believed in the system, then became disillusioned.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

IOW, Anakin Skywalker?

[Warrren]

But with better acting. Admittedly, not a high bar to reach.

[ant1sthenes]

I think he said the people who leaked about Stuxnet should be shot (in the balls). Presumably he was horrified that the administration would disclose secret ops against Iran, potential starting a real war, just to gain a boost on national security issues in the run-up to the 2008 election.

He has maintained he withheld information about legitimate military ops (the cyber-attacks he disclosed were allegedly on civilian infrastructure), so I can see how he might not see himself as a hypocrite. Certainly he would probably view his motivations as much less cynical and self-serving.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Paleo diet blogger Steve Cooksey can go forward with his lawsuit against North Carolina Board of Diatetics/Nutrition The state is trying to block him from giving diet advice on the Internet because he's not licensed to give nutritional advice.

Not a certified caveman.

[Matrix]

gotta be a bureaucrat to be certified

[Matrix]

Kindergarten teacher admits to murder-for-hire plot against ex-husband
Only 8 grand to knock him off? Geez
Wonder if the union will back her up and make sure she keeps getting a salary.

[NeonCat]

"Who here would like an extra special task, if you can keep a BIG secret?"

[Brandon]

South Park did it.

[Brett L]

Seriously, if anyone says they can kill a person for you for less than what they would lose by going to prison for 10 years, don't use them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Neither the School of Education she attended nor her continuing education classes taught her to NOT initiate murder-for-hire.

Therefore, schools are underfunded and more training is needed.

Check and mate.

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.S.-based bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, notable for their anti-Muslim activism, have been banned from entering the United Kingdom to speak at an England Defence League march.

Words lead to beheadings.

[John]

That is right. Now if they were Muslims who advocated the execution of all Jews and homosexuals, they would have been granted citizenship and probably a knighthood.

[PapayaSF]

Apparently they give them asylum by the thousands. All Hail Diversity, and the Labor plan to change the electorate to their advantage!

[Tonio]

Actually, you're on to something, Fist. Given the pants-wetting hysterics that the english have become the authorities are probably just as afraid of UK muslims attacking Geller and Spencer as they are of Geller and Spencer saying something which would cause an anti-muslim riot.

[PapayaSF]

Spencer's book Did Muhammad Exist? is a fascinating read, by the way.

[Auric Demonocles]

Sorry, school children, the federal government nannies are finally coming for your delicious snacks, like we all knew they would.

Didn't this happen a long time ago? Or was that only state and local government nannies?

[John]

Even though the Obama Administration says mass collection of Americans' online metadata ended in 2011, documents show a significant amount of data is still being collected.

If the program ended in 2011, how is it that Snowden is a traitor who did so much damage to the country? I thought this was an ongoing program that was nabbing terrorists practically daily?

It is amazing how these people lie. They don't even try to give a consistent story. They just say whatever works at the time.

[Matrix]

Haven't some of these people testified under oath and lied?

[John]

Yes they have.

[Matrix]

and why aren't they being charged with perjury? FYTW?

[Rich]

"We scare because we care."

[mad libertarian guy]

It is amazing how these people lie. They don't even try to give a consistent story. They just say whatever works at the time.

If you have the media carrying the heavy buckets, it's no problem.

[Episiarch]

Because lying is literally what they do. And the media just helps them along.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sorry, school children, the federal government nannies are finally coming for your delicious snacks, like we all knew they would.

In their place, vending machines will now dispense calisthenics.

[Tim]

Frau Blucher!

[Warrren]

Whinnnnnney!

[PapayaSF]

Why are there vending machines in schools at all? When did this start? Right around the time the obesity epidemic started?

[Mad Scientist]

There were vending machines in the middle and high schools I attended in the '80s.

[AuH20]

Lindy West is not funny eating Watermelon Oreos. Cute kids, however, are kind of

HOW THE FUCK DOES SHE GET PAID FOR COMEDY?! ARRGGGGH!

Seriously, Epi, your Italian and you live in Seattle. Could you get one of your dago buddies to break the owner of The Stranger's knee caps, for paying her money for this bullshit? Just tell them that he (or she) said that there mother was a bitch, and you should be able to do it without money having to change hands.

[Warrren]

Epi owns a Dago?

[Episiarch]

The fact that she causes you pain makes her blather worth it. Also, she's really fat.

[playa manhattan]

The camera adds a few hundred pounds

[Episiarch]

So does eating a ton of watermelon Oreos. Which sound really, really gross, by the way.

[Anonymous Coward]

How many damn cameras do they have on her?

[Clich? Bandit]

serious inquiry Epi...I had an ex who was northern Italian from Chicago, said Dagos are northern and Wops are Sicilian...is this true? What are folk from napoli called in a derogatory manner?

[Episiarch]

To be honest, I've never known a distinction since those are racial slurs that were leveled by non-Italians, who don't care about the north/south/Sicilian divide. I mean, within the Italian-American community there is definitely a "oh, she's Sicilian" kind of thing but most Italian Americans I've ever known were of Sicilian or southern Italian origin, because those regions are historically poor and dry and that's why so many of them left for America.

They're all perfectly acceptable racial slurs.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Yeah, my understanding is the same as Epi's.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Same here. AFAIK, most northern Italian immigration was to places like Brazil and Argentina (since the governments there provided plenty of bonuses for high-skill Catholic immigrants to migrate), and southern Italians migrated to the US (since they were already treated like shit by the people who ruled them, so why not make some dough in the meantime).

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Same here. AFAIK, most northern Italian immigration was to places like Brazil and Argentina (since the governments there provided plenty of bonuses for high-skill Catholic immigrants to migrate), and southern Italians migrated to the US (since they were already treated like shit by the people who ruled them, so why not make some dough in the meantime).

[Enough About Palin]

"Watermelon Oreos"

How the fuck is this not racist?

[Mad Scientist]

Also, fried chicken.

[Warrren]

When done right is the food of the gods.

A lot of people think they can do it well but their offerings are merely average.

[Brett L]

Surprisingly hard to keep the oil the right temperature as it soaks up flour and buttermilk.

[Agammamon]

How the fuck has the mere mention of watermelons and oreos gotten to be considered racist nowadays?

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Shush! Your privilege is showing.

[Sidd Finch]

I'm not really familiar with the "manosphere" so I have no idea how awful a person Matt Forney is, but I saw this and there's a lot of truth.

If Lindy West didn't exist, the manosphere would have to invent her.

The mere fact that this shallow, talentless hack even has a writing career is proof that feminists simply don't care anymore. They've slid down the path into senility, drooling all over their bibs, shitting their pants, unable to tell their own children apart from the underpaid Mexican wage-slaves responsible for keeping them from tripping down the stairs and breaking their necks.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and all the rest are rolling in their graves.

...

Lindy West is a big fat fraud.

That was part of the reason why the Soviet Union collapsed; when you vet potential leaders exclusively on how well they can parrot slogans and polish asses with their tongues, you eventually end up with a bunch of incompetents and shysters running everything. Watching Lindy consistently try to jump the already low feminist bar and smack her face into it every time is hilarious, but the recent "rape joke" kerfuffle is the final nail in her coffin:

[RBS]

Reading this, I can't help but visualize Lindy splayed out on her sofa like Jabba the Hutt, slamming her hamfists down on her grease-stained Macbook and screaming at her boyfriend slave for sustenance. "LINDY THE FAT DEMANDS MORE PIES!

Awesome.

[mad libertarian guy]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces a 30-count indictment for his role in the Boston Marathon bombings, including charges of using a weapon of mass destruction.

Yet another term that has lost all meaning. At one time a WMD was a nuclear, chemical, or biological bomb that would cause mass casualties.

A fucking homemade pressure cooker bomb doesn't apply.

[John]

Yet another statute is misused. First, since murder is punishable by death in many states and life without parole in the federal system and conspiracy to commit such carries the same punishment, it was completely fucking idiotic to even write the statute. But now it is being misused and applied to ordinary murder cases. Great.

[gaijin]

They should charge him with a hate crime too

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm sure in the hundred plus victims we can find 1 minority.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He's literally Caucasian. It should be easy.

[Warrren]

Cock Asian?

[Brandon]

In Boston? I'm not so sure.

[John]

If it had happened before the election it would have been work place violence.

[Rich]

^THIS^

And *littering*, if they haven't.

[Generic Stranger]

Funnily enough, the definition for "Weapons of mass destruction" legally referring to small homemade bombs predates 9/11 for decades.

Actually, it may predate the use of WMD to mean nuclear weapons.

[AuH20]

Making this for myself for breakfast tomorrow: Machacado Con Huevos

This also sounds like it should be a much more common cheap street food in this country.

[Agammamon]

Uh, it is - if you live where I live.

Of course nowadays no-one wants (or needs) to dry out the beef so its usually just slow-cooked shredded beef labeled as machaca rather than the original stuff.

And if you make it, keep in mind that your going to need to soak the meat to soften it.

[gaijin]

a weapon of mass destruction.

I think the term has been cheapened or diluted or hyperbolated or whatever it is when you use a word to the point of having no specific meaning.

[gaijin]

clearly mad libertarian guy is of like mind...and quicker fingers

[Fist of Etiquette]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces a 30-count indictment for his role in the Boston Marathon bombings, including charges of using a weapon of mass destruction.

But he's so cute! How about hitting him with civil rights charges for his making everyone in Boston shelter in place?

[Pro Libertate]

You know, something just occurred to me. Why haven't we sued al Qaeda for damages for 9/11?

[gaijin]

and like bar tenders who get charged for their patrons drunken behavior, we could get us some free saudi oil as reparations!

[Pro Libertate]

I think we've just solved America's financial woes for the near term.

[Tonio]

Because that would lead to inconvenient public and judicial scrutiny over the legality of the lockdown.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I'm not sure if you fine folks have noticed, but, well, Amanda Marcotte is kind of an asshole.

the only way you could really believe that is if you or your spouse is a closeted gay person, and the escalating social and legal support for gay rights is making the closeted spouse antsy. It happens and has happened, over and over again: A deeply closeted gay person is waiting, usually subconsciously, for just the right level of social acceptance, and then when it happens, boom! They leave their opposite-sex spouse, put their real name on that Grindr account and start singing the praises of freedom. If you have one of these marriages, then yes, same-sex marriage may very well be a threat to your opposite-sex marriage. Other than that, however, you are full of shit. And even then, you should be ashamed of yourself for living a lie.

If you were born attracted to the same sex, married someone of the opposite gender, and are wary about destroying a marriage that may very well have kids... you're the asshole here, not the little lady who gets her kicks laughing at such people.

Anyhow, if you want to see if your computer (or your tolerance for cutsiness) can withstand the power of approximately 137 komedy GIFs, click the link above.

[John]

She is a horrible person. The thing is people like Marcotte do not give a shit about homosexuals. Homosexuals are a convenient tool to advance their totalitarian agenda. The moment homosexuals stop being useful, Marcotte and her ilk will turn on them.

[Andrew S.]

Equally shocking revelations to Amanda Marcotte being an asshole:

Water is wet.
Fire is hot.

[Tonio]

None of the gay men I know who have been married to women did so to be an asshole, or to deliberately hurt their spouses and families. All of them were just trying to do what their families, societies and religions expected of them. Most of them believed in the transformative power of love. This is just sad for everyone concerned, particularly the wives.

This is far less common among younger people who have grown up in a society more accepting of gay people.

[John]

I think you can forgive someone who came of age 30 years ago for going deep in the closet and marrying someone of the other sex. It is real easy for me or someone like Marcotte to say they should have stepped up and been disowned by their parents and such. It is a bad deal for everyone. But bad things happen.

Today, not quite as much.

[kinnath]

well, my brother is on his third marriage. The first two marriages to women didn't work out so well. It remains to be seen how long is marriage with his husband will last since they seem to have different ambitions in life.

[John]

Maybe your brother just isn't cut out to be married.I have a brother like that.

[kinnath]

Could well be. He and his husband have been a couple for nearly ten years. They got married shortly after the IA Supreme Court ruled that the IA DOMA law violated the IA constitution.

Since then, his husband has taken a really good job in a nearby city. So they now maintain two households. So their problems are totally because they are middle aged people with careers going in different directions at this time.

[kinnath]

That's if you consider 50+ to be middle-aged 😉

[John]

My brother is in his 50s, has been married twice and spends his entire life going from one woman to the next. He needs to just be honest and admit to himself that marriage is not for him.

[kinnath]

Nothing wrong with serial monogamy so long as every involved understands the situation.

[mad libertarian guy]

My brother is in his 50s, has been married twice and spends his entire life going from one woman to the next.

That's nothing. My dad's brother had 4 wives by the time he was in his 50s, and my mom's brother was on wife 4 in his early 40s.

[Enough About Palin]

My old man was married five times. I just don't get it.

[Brett L]

I just don't get it.

"Triumph of hope over experience."

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Exactly. I am good friends with someone who was gay and in the service. He and his wife agreed to maintain their marriage until their boys were raised and out of the house. He is one of the most honorable people I know: his word is gold, and he is honest almost to a fault. AFAIK, he's never cheated on his wife -- or if he has, he's been very discreet about it. Not that I am prescribing a course of action in such circumstances, but that is a level of self-sacrifice and nobility that people like Amanda will never, ever understand much less emulate.

[Ted S.]

What kind of asshole is she?

[Apatheist ?_??]

The leaky hairy kind.

[AuH20]

No, its not even the same sex attracted spouse. Its the opposite sex attracted spouse who should be ashamed...even though when they got married they probably had no idea that they were marrying a gay person.

Fuck Amanda.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

It seems like she's saying both ("if you or your spouse"), but as we all know, she's not the clearest of writers.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Or the clearest of thinkers, for that matter.

[Anonymous Coward]

You are more generous than, TIT, to call what Amanda Marcotte does "thinking."

[Auric Demonocles]

She actually seems to be suggesting that you are also an asshole if you were born attracted to someone of the opposite gender, married someone of the opposite gender, and are wary about them destroying your marriage.

[Brett L]

Goddammit. One of my best friends is in a long-term gay relationship and was married to a woman before that.

Funny how issues where she is less than ideal are complex and where other people experience real, difficult, competing, and complex paths happiness and satisfaction should be shamed.

Die in a fire you horrible twat.

[grrizzly]

I think I can clarify what Marcotte meant. The second part of her post mentions Michelle Bachmann. Marcotte and her ilk think that Bachmann's husband is gay. It appears that Marcotte had the Bachmann couple in mind when she wrote that.

[Apatheist ?_??]

So, any suggestions for replacing Google Reader? I just want something simple that works in Chrome and on Android.

[Andrew S.]

Digg Reader is apparently going to be good, once it's officially released.

[Mad Scientist]

I've been using feedly lately. It will auto-import your GR feeds if you get it up before Reader goes away. It does have some advantages over Reader, but overall I wish Reader was still an option.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yeah feedly is what I first looked into when I heard reader was going down and had the same feelings ya'll did. I figured I'd wait till the last minute and see if anybody came up with something better.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Also using feedly and agree it is no reader.

Fuck you Google.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

And for what it's worth, my wife uses Blog Lovin'

I hate the name, but when she showed me how her feeds are organized it didn't seem that bad.

[The DerpRider]

Feedly, but I really don't like it. Slow on my computer for some Reason.

[Ted S.]

Reason generally does seem to slow down computers. 🙁

[fried wylie]

NoScript.

[jesse.in.mb]

Good call, I used to have that on everything and I never reinstalled it, it probably works magic on the Reason site.

[fried wylie]

My browsing experience is quite satisfactory.

[jesse.in.mb]

Really? I've found Feedly to be more spry than greader was. I have a few issues with the way it interprets stray clicks, but otherwise have been very happy with it. I don't like their magazine style apps for Android though.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Yeah, the magaziney shit is shit. I don't know why no one seems to think anyone wants any data density anymore.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

I've been trying feedly, but far from loving it. I had signed up for beta announcements for Hive wayyyy back when Google decided to stick it to the sharebros, and it only opened up at all a couple weeks ago. Trying that out too. Have heard good things about Digg Reader but not tried it.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Tiny Tiny RSS. Ugh. Still hoping Google is going to reverse this retarded decision at the last minute before I feel the urge to strangle any more tech "journalists" who don't understand RSS and claim that Twitter is any kind of remotely acceptable substitute.

[Michael S. Langston]

netvibes

Digg when released maybe...

[Brian Combs]

Just signed up for FeedHQ so I can use it with Feeddler Pro on iOS. So far, it seems to work we. Imported my feed and folders easily, and is reasonably fast.

[Brian Combs]

Work well.

Give me edit or give me... Ok, I don't want death.

[Warrren]

Cake then?

[Andrew S.]

Does that school snack ban apply to stuff the students sell? When I was in High School, I'd go through a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts ($3) as a snack between breakfast and lunch. Would be a shame for that to not exist anymore.

(Oh, how I miss having a teenage boy's metabolism)

[Rhywun]

Sorry, school children, the federal government nannies are finally coming for your delicious snacks, like we all knew they would.

My schools didn't sell anything on the banned list, and that was in the 80s. For a second I thought they were going to try to apply this to stuff you bring yourself, but... that would just be crazy, right.

[mad libertarian guy]

For a second I thought they were going to try to apply this to stuff you bring yourself, but... that would just be crazy, right.

Yeah. Crazy.

[Matrix]

Gawker has gone full retard
It's okay to use racial pejoratives about whites, because some of them have done bad stuff to other people and every single one of them has it better than non-whites

[John]

Haven't Gawker been full retard since day one? They really are pathetic. I can see the writer getting his ass kicked by some black dude and then calmly explaining how he wasn't going to call the police because he really deserved the beating.

[Andrew S.]

Gawker and Jezebel were always full retard.

What has made me sad is that Gawker infected Deadspin, which used to be good.

[Pro Libertate]

I saw a thing yesterday on io9 about how the private sector was going to make space all icky.

[John]

What I hate about Gawker most is that they are so smug with so little reason to do so. They are the most conformist boring bastards on earth. But they think they are so smart and cool and subversive. If is wasn't so annoying it would be funny.

[Episiarch]

One of the hallmarks of groupthink is the surety that they're right about everything, because everyone they talk to tells them so. Plus, obviously, think of the kind of people drawn to partisanship and collectivism, and you know you're going to be getting severely insecure douchebags who love being able to think they're not douchebags because they joined a TEAM.

[John]

Yup. Remember "the personal is the political"? That was the siren call to douche bags everywhere. "Come be a progressive and use your political identity to overcome your personal insecurities'.

[Episiarch]

Indeed. There is so much psychology involved in what we have now that it's amazing. The endless projection, the casual hatred of The Other, the needing to show to everyone that they care so very much, and the endless desire for control, and they're so very much based on incredibly powerful insecurity. It would merely be pathetic, except there are a fucking ton of them.

[John]

Yup. And the worst part is that it is so easy. All you have to do is call yourself a prog and mouth a few platitudes and you are forgiven of all of your sins and told you are smarter and better than everyone else.

[Mad Scientist]

Racism, nationalism, and every other type of collectivism is all about personal insecurities.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It's like that RationalWiki link I posted yesterday. There's no reason in the world that being an atheist should have anything to do with the economic beliefs of a NYT columnist. Yet, for some reason there is a large enough body of received beliefs about Paul Krugman and various other aspects of the world that a user felt confident in posting an orthodox (and quite partisan) party line on his work and writings.

Some classical liberals in the past used to think that religion was what held people back from supporting a liberal state -- that if you remove religion, then you remove the source of received beliefs about the world. Given the ability of supposedly secular regimes to impart a series of received beliefs so thoroughly into the body politic, I wonder if religion is not itself an inoculation against the state monopoly of indoctrination that we see today.

[Episiarch]

It's just one form of "faith" versus another, dude. It's irrationality and non-reason, plain and simple. Whether they worship the state, or the sky daddy, or whatever, it's all the same shit.

[John]

It's irrationality and non-reason, plain and simple.

Except that communism and pretty much every other murderous ideology of the last 300 years has come cloaked in "science" and "reason". Just because someone is "scientific" and "rational" doesn't mean they cannot be a murderous fuck.

[Episiarch]

Bullshit, John. Total and absolute bullshit. Communism was complete faith in Marx and his philosophy, another cult of personality. So sell your tired anti-athiest bullshit somewhere else, it's far beyond tedious at this point.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Communism was complete faith in Marx and his philosophy, another cult of personality.

And that was the problem. Leftists have learned the lessons of Marxism's failure quite well:

Don't write down the articles of faith, or let people question received beliefs. It just makes you look like an ass in front of the hoi polloi.

[ant1sthenes]

He has a point. Rationality and rationalizing are similar words for a reason, and rationalizing is an excellent tool for inhumanity (viz, the near universal moral insanity of bioethicists).

Anyway, nothing says atheism has to be rational. Animists can be atheists.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

They're both forms of faith, but what makes it incredible is how well leftists have disguised the one while excoriating the other. I think John is right: if the leftists could co-opt religion as thoroughly as other institutions, they would. In places where the religion is poorly understood, that is exactly what they do (see Liberation Theology). The problem is that the established religions have a history, texts, and a body of beliefs that is hard to fit into the square peg they so badly want people to fit into. It's ingenious, really: they've "fixed" all the problems with religion.

They don't have a foundational text that believers can look at, thus calling into question either the faith or the preacher's adherence to the faith.

They have instituted their religion's articles of faith as part of education, and required that citizens study them in a supposedly secular country.

They have created all sorts of shaming techniques that prevent people from looking too closely at the internal inconsistencies or changes to orthodoxy.

It's the best of both organized religion and talismanic worship bundled in one big, "secular" friendly box.

[Episiarch]

TIT, you are correct, but it doesn't matter what they call it. They can call it atheism or secular all day long and it doesn't change what it actually is one bit: faith.

All they're doing is demonizing a rival kind of faith because it's competition for believers. What they call it is utterly irrelevant. It's all faith.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

There is a significant change in the leftist-liberal ideology of today, a difference between the old left and the new ? not in essential goals or fundamental motives, but in their forms ? and the Time article is an unusually eloquent demonstration of it?

The old left had spent years of effort, tons of print, billions of dollars and rivers of blood to maintain an Apollonian mask. Old-line Marxists claimed that they were champions of reason, that socialism or communism was a scientific social system? they predicted that the progress of Soviet technology would surpass that of the United States?

That mask crumbled in the aftermath of World War II...

In full view of the fate of industry and the standard of living in Soviet Russia, in socialist Britain, in the communist countries of Europe, no on can claim very loudly or very effectively the technological superiority of socialism over capitalism?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

There was a time when the necessity of industrialization was the crusading slogan of Western liberals, which justified anything and whitewashed any atrocity, including the wholesale slaughter in Soviet Russia. We do not hear that slogan any longer. Confronted with the choice of an industrial civilization or collectivism, it is an industrial civilization that the liberals discarded. Confronted with the choice of technology or dictatorship, it is technology that they discarded. Confronted with the choice of reason or whims, it is reason that they discarded.

And so today we see the spectacle of old Marxists blessing, aiding and abetting the young hoodlums (who are their products and heirs) who proclaim the superiority of feelings over reason, of faith over knowledge, of leisure over production, of spiritual concerns over material comforts, of primitive nature over technology, of astrology over science, of drugs over consciousness.
The old-line Marxists used to claim that a single modern factory could produce enough shoes to provide for the whole population of the world and that nothing but capitalism prevented it. When they discovered the facts of reality involved, they declared that going barefoot was superior to wearing shoes.
So much for their concern with poverty and with the improvement of human life on earth? --Ayn Rand

[John]

Religion can be if leftists haven't co-opted it. The thing is leftists co-op everything they touch into a tool for their politics.

Atheism is a good example. There is nothing about being an atheist that says anything one way or another about your views of government. But leftist atheists are working hard to make "atheist" just another way of saying "leftist" and co-opt atheism into a tool to advance their politics.

[SweatingGin]

Atheism is a good example. There is nothing about being an atheist that says anything one way or another about your views of government. But leftist atheists are working hard to make "atheist" just another way of saying "leftist" and co-opt atheism into a tool to advance their politics.

They even have a name for it: Atheism Plus!

Lots of overlap with RationalWiki, I'd imagine.

On the plus side, they also get a lot of infighting going on, breaking up into sects and excommunicating each other. Some fun drama.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

They even have a name for it: Atheism Plus!

Oh. My. Not-god. I am so not clicking that link.

[Episiarch]

No, nicole, the proper expression is "Oh. Your. God." You can thank Bender for it later.

[Coeus]

Oh. My. Not-god. I am so not clicking that link.

I'm disappointed in you nikki. I've been posting hilarious stuff from those guys for months. You're missing out.

[PapayaSF]

I wonder if religion is not itself an inoculation against the state monopoly of indoctrination that we see today.

"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing?they believe in anything." ?G. K. Chesterton

[AuH20]

Yeah. That Lindy West thing above was cross posted to Deadspin. Because Lindy West's audience and Deadspin's audience totally overlap

[Mad Scientist]

Racists gonna project.

[Warrren]

I feel privileged!

[Pro Libertate]

This kind of thinking has been dumb and morally wrong for some time. And it encourages some members of minorities to operate like they don't have to be accountable for their actions.

Such utter tripe.

[John]

The people at Gawker are total racist. It is okay for black people to use such words because unlike you they are not full human beings and accountable for their actions. To Gawker black people are like children or pets.

[Episiarch]

The only thing more pathetic than a racist collectivist is a sneering racist collectivist who is completely racist while bagging on racism.

[Pro Libertate]

Metametaracist.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I always like to ask such racists if the whites in Zimbabwe, or the Hispanics in the DR when Haiti occupied the whole of Hispaniola, might possibly have been victimized by blacks.

Alas, most are too historically ignorant to understand what is meant by those references.

[Ted S.]

Those whites deserved it, of course.

I actually heard somebody try to make that argument.

Another fun one is how Jamaican reggae is full of homophobic references, and watching progressive gays try to rationalize that.

[jesse.in.mb]

watching progressive gays try to rationalize that

Really? They call it murder music and froth about it when these artists are allowed play someplace. I personally haven't heard anyone try to justify it.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Is "cracker" an offensive term? Well, let's put it this way: if you are the type of white person who is greatly offended by being called a "cracker," you can always take heart in the knowledge that the Confederacy went down fighting bravely. They'll never take that away from you, by god.

What if you're the type of white person who was involved in race riots 40 years ago, during which people called you "the c-word"? Who had nothing to do with the Confederacy or the rest of the history of the US because you'd only been in the country for a few years at the time? What about then? I cannot believe I let Hamilton Nolan actually offend me (on behalf of a family member), but there it is.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Or if you're the type of person who has been called a "white cracker whore" to your face. I'm not supposed to get offended by that, but if I would have called the lady an ignorant nigger, I should be brought up on hate crimes.

I'm not racist, I just hate everyone equally.

[jesse.in.mb]

I ended up substitute teaching my little brother's 5th grade class. He's half-black/half-white. At one point he screamed at his mostly white, a little Mexican best friend: "YOU HONKY!" so I sent him to the office. The entire class was perplexed except his best friend who was laughing his ass off and my brother who didn't seem to realize I'd know what he was saying.

Anytime someone says honky I think of this 1975 SNL sketch.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

I love Mike Birbiglia's take on it.

"cracker, WHAT?"

"Cracker, please!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?f.....Xv4o#t=78s

[Heroic Mulatto]

Speaking of that, fuck all you jive-ass turkeys for not wishing me a happy (Brazilian) Mixed Race Day!

[jesse.in.mb]

Oh shit, I had totally circled it on my calendar and plum forgot!

[Warrren]

I thought it was on the 1st of Octoroon.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I thought it was on the 1st of Octoroon.

I just bust my spleen laughing.

Thanks to Obamacare, you will have to pay for my surgery.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

You know, I had that scheduled between "not giving a fuck" and "being fucking awesome", sorry got a little sidetracked.

I sincerely apologize for any insult you may have taken from my complete lack of sensitivity to your own internal diversity. Please accept my blood offering of Jesse as an apology.

[jesse.in.mb]

Please accept my blood offering of Jesse as an apology.

Be careful, with that. I derive my powers by mixing the blood of Christian babies in my matzoh sacrificing good Christian boy scouts on the altar of sodomy. Some deities get offended by such things (although since this is a Brazilian holiday, I'm sure it'll be fine).

[Heroic Mulatto]

sacrificing good Christian boy scouts on the altar of sodomy. Some deities get offended by such things (although since this is a Brazilian holiday, I'm sure it'll be fine).

Only if this music plays during the ritual.

[mad libertarian guy]

If you didn't know that this is exactly where so-called progressives want to take things, a place where it's perfectly okay to be racist against whites, you're an idiot.

And it's funny that not a single fucking person, including the author and EVERY SINGLE COMMENTER, knows the ACTUAL origins of that word when used like that. They all speculate, yet not a single one knows. Not one.

Fucking idiots, all of them.

[John]

PRogs need an other. In the first half of the 20th Century it was the Jews and the blacks. Now it is the Whites, especially rural and middle class whites.

The other thing to remember is that progs have very little in common culturally with blacks. A good number of blacks still live in rural areas. They join the military in large numbers. They are often religious and have very socially conservative views. If the day ever comes where progs lose the "all whites and Republicans are racist" narrative a good percentage of blacks will leave the Democratic Party, a party that is run by rich white people and mostly white unions. If that ever happens, the Dems are done. So racism against whites is a matter of life and death for the progs.

[Suthenboy]

I was thinking the same thing, they have no idea what the term means. Morons.

[Suthenboy]

"Despite the fact that white Americans have committed far more atrocities against the other races of the world than all of those races combined have committed against white people,.."

Total horse shit.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Considering that "white" was an effectively meaningless term before the Enlightenment, this means next to nothing.

Hell, if I had to take a guess I would guess that "white" vs "white" ethnic violence between Europeans is to account for more ethnically based violence than any other kind, though in the wake of the Second Congo War ("black" v "black"), that may no longer be the case.

[Suthenboy]

I can assure you that ethnic wars have raged nearly unceasingly since the beginning of time in asia, mesoamerica, africa, europe...etc. Atrocities committed by 'whites' account for a small fraction of the total...probably proportional to the number of whites vs everyone else.

One thing I will point out and plead guilty to is that whites, for the most part, appear to be far more effective at killing. There are some interesting cultural reasons for that, and that may also be mostly a thing of the past with everyone else catching up.

When the tutsi/hutu war got started in the 90's people gave me nothing but blank looks when I would point out that it was cyclical.....every other generation or so they do that. The last time was in....1979?. They will be due again in ten or fifteen years.

People suck. There you have it.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Basically this. "White" on "white" ethnic killings are so much higher because whites had the capacity, not because of an innate sense of evil.

The normal state of humanity is conflict. The US and countries without such are deviations from the norm.

[Matrix]

Cap'n Crunch defends himself agianst mutinous charges that he is not a real captain

[Warrren]

Great, another Obama scandal!

[Enough About Palin]

Oops!

(AP) Ecuador renounces trade benefits from US Congress
QUITO, Ecuador
Ecuador said Thursday it is renouncing tariff benefits on hundreds of millions of dollars in trade that are up for renewal by the U.S. Congress.

The announcement by Communications Minister Fernando Alvarez comes at a moment when Ecuador faces U.S. pressure to avoid granting asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Alvarez told a news conference that the trade deal had become "a new instrument of blackmail.

"In consequence, Ecuador unilaterally and irrevocably renounces said preferences."

[Andrew S.]

It's so refreshing to see a country tell the US government to go fuck itself. Well done, Ecuador.

[mad libertarian guy]

No one respects Obama and Co anymore.

When you have a 3rd world shithole like Ecuador giving up hundreds of millions of dollars in trade deals WILLINGLY because the administration used it as a threat, you aren't being respected. At all.

This entire administration is a joke. China claims that we didn't get the middle name right, so they denied our extradition request. Russia gives some line about him not actually being in the country because he hadn't passed through customs and therefore there's just nothing they can do to help. Ecuador says "No, FUCK YOU!" in response to the administration trying to use trade deals as articles in a blackmail campaign.

We're the laughing stock of the international community.

[Episiarch]

Good. Our government needs to be taken down a peg or twenty.

[John]

^^THIS^^

They may not have liked Bush, but they feared him. No one fears Obama. He is a total joke. No one likes him, respects him or fears him. He is everything the Progs accused Bush of being; a national embarrassment.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, yeah? Wait until Obama uses dronplomacy on Ecuador. They will learn to respect the power of the Nobel Peace Prize then!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just waiting for some brave legislator (and if I were a legislator with access to the Chosen One, I'd gladly do it myself), to get about a foot away from Obama, shake his hand, and with the cameras rolling tell him he is a tyrannical piece of shit and that he can go eat a bag of hairy horse dicks.

[Pro Libertate]

I think we may be approaching a time where he's going to have stuff thrown at him in public. Of course, the Secret Service will kill and kill again.

[Enough About Palin]

Um...I'm a city-boy, but I'm faily certain there's no hair on a horse dick.

[Pro Libertate]

I think he means for the hair to be added later. Like that chest hair coat that's making the rounds on the Internet.

[fried wylie]

Mammals have tiny hairs even on their hairless parts. Look REAL close, they're there.

(their/they're/there in one post. 420points.)

[The Immaculate Trouser]

If you're close enough to see the tiny hairs on the engorged horse dick... you're too close.

[fried wylie]

If you're close enough to see the tiny hairs on the engorged horse dick... you're too close.

And to think, it would probably be illegal to get that tattooed on your horse's dick, regardless of the hilarity that might ensue.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Received beliefs.

Bush was a failure at all aspects of foreign policy because he was unloved. Obama is a success because he is loved. Never mind that most foreign policy successes are not a result of warm feelings, or that even in the midst of failure Bush did have foreign policy successes such as a dramatic improvement of relations with India and better relations with Brazil, as well. Never mind that no leftist can point to any concrete Obama foreign policy successes resulting from his speechifying or supposed popularity abroad.

[Pro Libertate]

He's healed the wounds of a wounded world. Why else would he have received a prize for promoting peace just for being elected?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

But... but... greatest orator of our age!

[Brett L]

Is there anyone who isn't beating the US Dept of State like a rented mule?

[mad libertarian guy]

Yes.

The only people that matter. Our own people for being so goddamn incompetent.

[Brett L]

I'm tempted to ask whether people regret voting for Kerry in '04, but I doubt most are self aware enough to get it.

[fried wylie]

I'm not. Sheer laziness on my part though.

[ant1sthenes]

Michael Hastings?

[Brett L]

For my hard science friends

"Overly honest methods" -- what your journal articles would really say if you could be honest.

[fried wylie]

"Reagent became unavailable..."

For. Fucks. Sake.

WoSD/WoT: Impeding Scientific Progress To Keep You Safe!

[Warrren]

Awesome.

[Sidd Finch]

"All reagents were purchased from Fisher, because Fisher is like the Walmart of science."

I LOL'd

[PapayaSF]

Very funny. The one about dye reminds me of the reason bubble gum is pink: that was supposedly the only food coloring they had on hand at the time it was being developed.

[fried wylie]

I would assume pink coloring is just a result of low concentration of a red dye.

Like how "black" fabrics are usually just an excess of blue, green, or brown.

[Generic Stranger]

"We assume 50 ivy league kids represent the general population, b/c 'real people' can be sketchy or expensive."

[Episiarch]

Patriots have dropped Hernandez because of the murder investigation.

[Libertymike]

Ah, that happened yesterday, mr. au courant.

[Sidd Finch]

The new shit:

Aaron Hernandez investigated in 2012 double slaying

[fried wylie]

Increasing cig taxes because fewer people are smoking. Well, it's working great so far...oh wait, it's not.

In that same vein of genius:

Both Maryland and neighboring Virginia are trying to relieve congestion in their metro areas by using the gas tax to fund more transportation projects.

Funding projects that will reduce gas consumption with gas taxes. What could go wrong?

needed to raise the gas tax because more fuel-efficient vehicles are using less gasoline, thus lowering the revenue. Virginia seized on this idea as well, deciding to charge a $64 annual fee on hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles because they don't consume as much gasoline.

And are the purchasers of those hybrids still receiving subsidies to buy them? But hey, I'm sure it's another great idea.

I also have to object to this part:

She said "gimmick" taxes, such as those on cigarettes, have been raising less revenue in recent years (as fewer people smoke), leaving states in a bind for funds.

No, spending that revenue on new shit without considering the stability of that revenue stream is what left them in a bind for funds.

[mad libertarian guy]

No, spending that revenue on new shit without considering the stability of that revenue stream is what left them in a bind for funds.

SOMALIA. ROADZ!

[fried wylie]

PENSION EXPANSIONS! You don't want the bodies of impoverished pensioners piling up in the streets do you?!

[Warrren]

Well, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, which is why I'll seek a contract with the city to plow the dead bodies up on the side so that they don't impede traffic.

[fried wylie]

I'll seek a contract with the city to plow the dead bodies

Funded with the new cigarette taxes, I'm sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or penaltaxes from failure to buy insurance. I'm not picky about where the money comes from.

[fried wylie]

I'm not picky about where the money comes from.

As long as it's coerced from somebody else!

/proglitard

[fried wylie]

more to the point on this topic, any new revenue source will just be spent on new shit, leaving states in deficit while potentially generating MORE deficit down the line (when the new streams dry up).

If they could generate a new stream and get the budget in the black, I wouldn't mind so much. BUT THAT IS NEVER HOW IT WILL TURN OUT.

[Almanian!]

Just picked up 1000 rounds of 9mm for $270. First I've seen of ANY quantity in about a year or so.

New, not reloaded.

Fuck you, Mr. President!

[Warrren]

.27 a round? Not bad.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Where? How? I just picked up 350 at one time and thought I had won the lottery.

[fried wylie]

and thought I had won the lottery.

Because of the anticipated increase in gov't scrutiny, right?

[itsnotmeitsyou]

HA!

Although, if I'm not already on a govt watch list, I doubt that particular purchase qualified me for one.

[fried wylie]

Although, if I'm not already on a govt watch list, then my tax dollars are being misappropriated.

[Almanian!]

A friend of one of my peeps at work. Brand new, in a box. FMJ 115.

Looks real purty....

I'm gonna ask for another as soon as he can get it! Mrs. Almanian was like, "I think we have enough ammo...."

"That's why you're not in charge of buying the ammo, hon."

[itsnotmeitsyou]

"That's why you're not in charge of buying the ammo, hon."

Enough ammo?!?!? There is no such thing. It's like being too wealthy or too good looking.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Or too many shoes.

[fried wylie]

Too Much RAM.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

"Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks." - Heinlein

Couldn't agree more.

[fried wylie]

I'm not dying knowing I missed out.

[Suthenboy]

My wife once asked me "Really! How many rifles do you need?"

My answer: "Less than the number of shoes you need."

She never criticized my gun collection again.

[Sevo]

"Sorry, school children, the federal government nannies are finally coming for your delicious snacks, like we all knew they would."

Tell your mommy and daddy not to vote for such meddlesome assholes, kiddies!

[Warrren]

Oh they'll get it right the next time!

[Coeus]

Speaking of Marcotte...

Marcotte: LOL. That's the truth.
What I see with a lot of pick-up artists is not the sad, lonely thing, which affects a lot of people (including women!). I see a lot of anger and rage, rooted in a sense of entitlement: They are mad at women for not giving them enough sex and affection, and instead of asking if there's more they could do to earn it, they have created a community that validates this elaborate strategy of "getting one over" on women through sexual aggression.

I thought only asshole "Nice Guys" thought you could earn sex?

Also, this:

Marcotte: When I was a teenager, I was fairly certain no one would ever love me.

The whole damn thing is ridiculous.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

How about:

I just don't think pick-up culture is ever about casual sex or just getting better at meeting people.

followed in her next response by:

I certainly agree that most of them like to portray themselves simply as sad sacks who are drawn to this to patch up their loneliness, though the fact that it's rarely about getting a girlfriend and instead focused strictly on casual encounters should be the first clue that it's not like that at all.

[Coeus]

I've long wondered why many here takes the feminist description of PUAs as gospel truth, when they know they lie about everything else. And, as you've pointed out, they're not even consistent in their criticism.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Can't speak for anyone else, but I accidentally wandered onto a PUA site (Heariste, maybe?) and my assessment was that it is laughable juvenile idiocy and cult worship of man-children who self-describe as losers who are on-off unemployed. No feminist hags needed to convince me on that point. If you want to buy into it more power to you, but it didn't particularly impress me as insightful or healthy.

All I can say is that I'm glad I was born in a time and place where people didn't have ideas about gender conflict like feminism or PUA to pollute my dating experience.

[Coeus]

Can't speak for anyone else, but I accidentally wandered onto a PUA site (Heariste, maybe?) and my assessment was that it is laughable juvenile idiocy and cult worship of man-children who self-describe as losers who are on-off unemployed. No feminist hags needed to convince me on that point.

No feminist hags have tried. They call it misogynistic hate-mongering by rapists in training. And there's some genuine gold there, you just have to sift through. No different than Lew Rockwell's site.

It's been years since I've looked at any of it, but there was some absolutely great stuff there. Training you to look for revealed vs stated preference, social proof, posture and text messaging tips were all incredibly useful to someone who was trained growing up that women were just like men, except they loved flowers. And not a bit of any of that was juvenile or hateful.

Cult worship? Sure. Just like any other internet personality with a large following. There are always gonna be those people.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

They call it misogynistic hate-mongering by rapists in training.

That's just stupid. I definitely got some misogynistic whiffs from the site, but rape isn't advocated for at all AFAICT.

Training you to look for revealed vs stated preference, social proof, posture and text messaging tips were all incredibly useful to someone who was trained growing up that women were just like men, except they loved flowers.

I don't think men and women are exactly the same in temperment, and I would gladly give someone tips on posture, revealed prefs, and the like. That doesn't make me PUA. What tends to characterize PUA is a transactional approach to relationships and snubs against women cloaked in jargon. The site I found spoke positively about the Muslim model, which as someone who briefly lived in Saudi Arabia is not an encouraging sign.

As for juvenile, I do find yearning for medieval systems of oppression as a response to bad relationships to be a sign of emotional immaturity; same with not being able to hold a job and holding that out as a great lifestyle.

We may be talking about different sites here, but I wasn't impressed by what I saw.

[Coeus]

What tends to characterize PUA is a transactional approach to relationships and snubs against women cloaked in jargon.

Learning to deal with rejection is the biggest hurdle for most men. This is merely a method that works for men who have tried everything else.

The site I found spoke positively about the Muslim model, which as someone who briefly lived in Saudi Arabia is not an encouraging sign.

And most of the writers and commenters on the site who aren't dealing out specific advice are those who couldn't get past that first hurdle. Thus, the hatred remains. They've done everything that society has told them makes them good men, worthy of women, and they're still dateless. The best writers have no hate in them (and also less traffic, as there are many more who have tried and failed than have been sucessful).

[Coeus]

I don't think men and women are exactly the same in temperment, and I would gladly give someone tips on posture, revealed prefs, and the like.

But that information, at least when I was looking, wasn't anywhere else but on PUA sites. It's the core of what it is, and the reason it's been growing in popularity.

I lost a lot of weight several years ago, and put on a ton of muscle, but I was no more successful with women than when I was fat (less successful, even), but then I read not to lean in during a conversation, don't buy drinks and hold your drink by your waist. Those three things, and I started getting phone numbers. That's what links most of the stuff under the blanket of "PUA". Tips which allow the socially inept to mimic socially attractive behavior. Treat it like training wheels, fake it till you make it, etc.

The fact that feminists have declared it their greatest enemy says far more about them than it does about PUA. And the idiocy you see as defining it is people who have just stumbled into it.

You wouldn't judge the sport of basketball by watching people who are just learning to dribble, would you?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I haven't exactly researched the topic extensively; merely reporting what I've seen. I will say that good posture counts for a lot; learning an instrument and playing it helps too (same with singing). Back when I was in college and I was frontman for a band, I was startled by how many girls we could pick up without even trying.

[jesse.in.mb]

When I was traveling through Mostar a Norwegian girl told me and this other American guy to meet us back at her hostel and to bring our guitars.

We were both puzzled and she wanted to know why we didn't bring our guitars with us.

We were even more puzzled and she asked if we knew how to play the guitar. Neither of us did and she started trying to figure out how we were able to pick up girls if we didn't know how to play the guitar. According to her, all Norwegian men can play the guitar or they remain single forever.

She did not seem impressed when I asked how this was beneficial if EVERYONE was doing it.

[Coeus]

She did not seem impressed when I asked how this was beneficial if EVERYONE was doing it.

She doesn't even notice the existence of men she's not attracted to. It's a common condition. It's why I went to a bar with some friends a while back, and one of the women complained that no one talked to her all night. I had personally seen her shoot down at least 4 or 5 guys. I brought this up, and she stared at me blankly.

It's why feminists think men are so privileged. They only see the top of the pile. Their brains literally do not register the lesser males. I'm convinced that this condition is a prerequisite for modern feminism (for women, at least. Men take it up as a mating strategy).

[ant1sthenes]

That's just stupid. I definitely got some misogynistic whiffs from the site, but rape isn't advocated for at all AFAICT.

I think they mean according to the feminist definition of rape, where women exist somewhere between men and children mentally and emotionally, and so any influence, manipulation, or pressure negates their ability to consent and results in statutory rape.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Rosenberg: Well, they're not all like that, are they? Picking someone up and seducing her (or him) is not necessarily bad. Who am I to deny people meeting each other in bars or having one-night stands?

Marcotte: I certainly never would! I've had plenty of fun that way.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I seriously doubt whether Marcotte has ever had "fun", much less sex.

[PapayaSF]

Oh, she's not bad. She'd be kinda hot if she dolled herself up a bit. But Jeebus, when I think of the way the women I have known can be offended by poorly-chosen words or tone of voice, imagine the eggshells a guy would always be walking on around her.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Her SO must live in an age of terror not seen since Stalin exiled Trotsky.

[gaijin]

wasn't that the fat singer in Mountain?

[Ted S.]

I'm glad I'm not the only person to have this reaction.

[PapayaSF]

She's a "comic" who has gotten a lot of press recently for scolding other comics for telling jokes that offend her. Can you guess the topic? STEVE SMITH would know.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

It's because we do not go out of our way to raise our blood pressures by visiting jezebel.

[AuH20]

My doctor said I had too low blood pressure, all right?

[Brett L]

The Confederacy?

[trshmnstr]

Nikita Khrushchev?

[Pro Libertate]

I think right and wrong are simpler that they want us to believe and don't require knowing the ethnicity, race, or sex of the people involved before we know which is which.

[Warrren]

Activia!

[mad libertarian guy]

Yeah. This is all because of Bush. I know. Just ask Shreek.

[Almanian!]

It's Bush's fault? I blame Bush.

[jesse.in.mb]

One of the first organizers for the Mattachine Society was purged from the CPUSA because he came out to them. Then he was purged from the MS because he was too radical.

At least from what I've read his CPUSA leadership wasn't particularly opposed to him being gay, they just wanted a veneer of respectability in the US and felt that Harry Hay agitating for homosexual rights under their banner wouldn't be helpful.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Communists were quite the moral scolds and puritans in their day, for purely materialistic reasons and not any moral compunctions of course. One of the first things that Fidel Castro did on taking power was to institute laws against sodomy and prostitution, both of which had been decriminalized in the 20s and 30s.

[Episiarch]

People who like to have power over others like to control behavior, as we have amply seen.

[jesse.in.mb]

But Fidel has evolved now!

Mariela Castro actually has been pushing forward a lot of reform in Cuba, but it really doesn't make up for the fact that the Castro family oversaw abominable treatment of homosexuals in Cuba.

[PapayaSF]

The South African Communist Party was a driving force in the creation of apartheid, which you'd never know from most accounts.

[Marc F Cheney]

I'm glad I'm not the only person to have this reaction.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

In the interview with La Jornada, Mr Castro also spoke of the economic embargo against the island, which was imposed by the United States in 1961. He said it was just as damaging today as it was then.

"The biggest problem was always medicine and food, which is true even today," he said

Greatest healthcare sector ever.

[califernian]

that's crazy talk