A.M. Links: Secret Court Creates Secret Body of Law to Let NSA Loose, Internet Data Collection Challenged in British Court, Defense Department's Bin Laden Raid Files Purged

• 

  Microsoft

  A secret U.S. court has created an entire secret body of law to allow the NSA to collect data not just in the pursuit of terrorism but also to target other activities, like hacking, espionage, and nuclear proliferation.

• Privacy International filed a complaint in British court seeking to stop the use of data by British intelligence collected through the NSA's Prism program, as well as a British program, Tempora, that collects communication data going through undersea cables in and out of the country.
• Edward Snowden has also revealed intelligence agencies in Germany and New Zealand collude with the NSA's data collection programs.
• Western-backed Syrian rebels say they're expecting a shipment of advanced weapons from Saudi Arabia, and that they won't join a peace conference until their military position has improved.
• John Kerry was on a yacht while the crisis in Egypt was unfolding, and the State Department found it necessary to lie until photo evidence came out.
• Nearly 150 female inmates in California were sterilized without their consent between 2006 and 2010.
• The head of U.S. special operations ordered files related to the bin Laden raid be purged from Department of Defense computers and sent to the CIA to ensure they would not be made public.
• Pilots of an Asiana Airlines flight tried to abort the landing at San Francisco's airport just a second and a half before the plane crashed.
• Elliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York over a prostitution scandal, wants to run for comptroller in New York City.
• Did you write about liberty between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013? Reason welcomes you to enter this year's Bastiat Prize for Journalism, with a total prize purse of $16,000.

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Comments

[Matrix]

Not sure if this was already posted...

Judge finds cop not guilty of assault after refusing to watch video of assault
'Cause police cameras are meant to protect officers, not criminals.
Kicker is, the department fired him for this incident. Guess he'll get his job back.

Procedures were followed. Due process was given.

[DJF]

She did not want to be confused by facts

[froving39]

Start working at home with Google! It's by-far the best job Ive had. Last Monday I got a new Alfa Romeo from bringing in $7778. I started this 9 months ago and practically straight away started making more than $83 per hour. I work through this link,
http://goo.gl/yJQCa

[Ted S.]

Publicise the video, specifically mentioning the name of the assault-committing cop. I'm sure there's some lawyer out there willing to take the resulting libel case on a pro bono basis.

[sarcasmic]

That's messed up.

[Bryan C]

The judge says she can't comment because the investigation is closed. Uh huh.

[Fluffy]

I believe this is the video we discussed over the weekend - where the police released the kid and told him he had a get out of jail free card if he wasn't around to authenticate the video.

[Free Society]

I'm sure he wouldn't be able to comment if the investigation was ongoing. He's only able to comment during a millisecond of time between the investigation being open and then closed.

[Lord Humungus]

Ibiza firemen free tourist trapped in sex toy
http://www.thelocal.es/2013070.....armour-man

The firemen on hand needed two changes of battery and a second rotating blade for their buzz saw to free the man, local daily Diario de Mallorca reported on Friday.

There were "plenty of sparks" during the operation to remove the sex toy which measured 15cm in diameter.

The two-hour procedure was described as "very complex" because the man became "more swollen" with time.

what is up with the Germans?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"what is up with the Germans?"

The character limit, time available and typing endurance prohibit me from going into all the things up with them.

[KPres]

Moral hazard? Another reason fire departments should be private.

[NebulousFocus]

He was also said to have complained a lot.

[DJF]

Energy: the back-up bonanza (England)

Another folly from government mandated green energy. Because of the unreliability of wind and solar power, the British government started a program (STOR) to hook up emergency generators in factories, hospitals, etc to the grid in case of grid power shortages.

However like all top down ridged government incentive programs, companies are gaming the system and installing diesel generators not for emergency use but because of the STOR incentives. This is even though the diesel generators while great for emergency back up have much higher costs then conventional grid power.

So they are replacing cheaper reliable conventional power plants with subsidized/expensive but unreliable wind and solar with the hope that they can keep the lights on with subsidized/expensive but reliable diesel generators.

http://www.eureferendum.com/bl.....ogno=84095

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It's obviously a failure of the free market.

/Tony

[mad libertarian guy]

But didn't you know that the temperature rising a degree or so (maybe) will be far more harmful to the world than, the end of it in fact, than crippling the world's most stable and robust economies? Doing nothing has a cost!!

/Tony

[cavalier973]

I wish that I could dig up the corpses of Keynes and Karl Marx and make sweet love to their dessicated, decayed bodies.

/Tony

[Fluffy]

Obamacare exchanges to no longer require income verification.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....36918.html

Until now, the administration had proposed that exchanges verify whether new applicants receive employer-sponsored insurance benefits through random checks. It also sought to require marketplaces to verify each enrollee's income status.
But final regulations released quietly on Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) give 16 states and the District of Columbia, which are setting up their own exchanges, until 2015 to begin random sampling of enrollees' employer-insurance status. The rules also allow only random - rather than comprehensive - checks on income eligibility in 2014.

[John]

Don't you get subsidies if you can't afford it? But with no income verification, that would seem to be ripe for fraud.

[Fluffy]

I am tempted to defraud these fuckers myself.

Also, note that the feds have given the states hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to build these exchanges.

Supposedly, they were expensive to build because they needed to interface with all insurer systems and with the IRS and with state income tax departments.

Now, apparently, they are conceding that such interfaces won't exist.

So why did they give California (as just one example) hundreds of millions of dollars to build a catalog website I could build for you for ten bucks?

[Brett L]

BuSab!

[Pro Libertate]

They're so clever.

[BuSab Agent]

I can neither confirm nor deny that this is one of our operations.

[Bryan C]

How else to pay for the necessary bribes, kickbacks, and propaganda?

[wareagle]

oh, come now, John. We all know that people will tell the truth because they care deeply about wasted tax dollars and want little to do with the welfare state.

[NoVAHockey]

yanking the employer mandate is really pulling one of the legs off an already wobbly table. you do get subsidies if you 1) don't have access to "affordable" employer cover and 2) meet income requirements.

no, based on my quick read over the holiday, neither of those will be really enforced. so subsidies for all, I guess

[John]

I don't think the insurance mandate will ever be enforced. The whole thing is going to fall apart into just another welfare program.

[NoVAHockey]

agree. it's like single payer without any of the advertised benefits. but all of the problems.

[Ted S.]

Single payer legal care.

Because no lawyer does anything worth more than minimum wage.

[John]

You joke. But all of the arguments that are made for single payer health care can be made and really with more force to single payer legal care. Legal representation is a constitutional right. Thousands of people go bankrupt and slip into poverty every year because of legal fees associated with criminal cases or more often divorces.

Yet, progs never seem interested in single payer legal care despite wanting the government to take over every other industry. The ABA giving millions to the Dems might have something to do with that.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Thousands of people go bankrupt and slip into poverty every year because of legal fees associated with criminal cases or more often divorces.

So true. A buddy of mine made about $85K a year during the time he got divorced, and he still ended up having to declare bankruptcy at the end of it.

[Ted S.]

I think it's more down to the legislators being lawyers.

Bot of course, my point is that if the legislators rightly see what a horrible idea it is for lawyers, how can they think it's a good idea for doctors?

I can't believe I've been arguing this for 20 years, ever since the days of Hillary's "legal care alliances". She would have wound up writing wills for little old ladies in Watertown, NY.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Why refer to it by the PR rebranding of "single payer" and not just call it socialized medicine?

[KDN]

Why refer to it by the PR rebranding of "single payer" and not just call it socialized medicine?

To properly differentiate it from the other form of socialized medicine, single provider. The former is France, the latter England. But in the USA we have both, because we are the world's worst operators of bureaucracy.

[Auric Demonocles]

NO PROFIT IN LEGAL CARE!

[Gbob]

Single payer legal care.

I've been giving this one some serious thought. If there's one single group that has hurt the cause of freedom more than the inbred guild system of modern law, I can't think of it. There's not a single law written that doesn't benefit those blood suckers. Pushing for single payer legal representation might be the perfect way to blow that system up. It uses the progressives own arguments against them, while folks like me would cheer it for it's ability to screw with the bastards.

Look, if those bastards are going to craft a system (and since the majority of lawmakers are lawyers) that forces us to use a lawyer for every single mundane task, then by god let's draft the bastards and force them to do it for the kind of payment that British doctors get.

[VG Zaytsev]

I agree.

Enforcing the mandate with enough teeth to be effective will create a whole generation of government haters and the dems are just barely intelligent enough not to allow that to happen.

[John]

But without the mandate they are fucked. The whole thing depends on forcing young people to subsidize the care of old people and sick people.

[Auric Demonocles]

No, without the mandate private insurance companies are fucked. Then the Dems get to implement single payer due to the "market failure".

[mad libertarian guy]

No, without the mandate private insurance companies are fucked. Then the Dems get to implement single payer due to the "market failure".

It's almost like it was planned that way.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm seriously not sure if I'm retarded, or the general idea of exchanges are.

Can someone explain what the theoretical point of them was in the first place? So you don't have to go to 3 websites to compare prices, and you get subsides (which they could just send to everyone under the income threshold)?

[VG Zaytsev]

It's on of those juicebox mafia ideas that sounds great if you think about it for less than 5 seconds.

[tarran]

Here in MA the purpose was to have one location to get insurance that would collect information about your income or household, and then show you the insurance products that were subsidized for your economic situation.

The insurance companies don't want to touch this with a 10 foot pole. If they make any mistake on the subsidies, they are screwed; offer subsidies unnecessarily, they get sued for defrauding the state and that plutocrat Martha Coakley makes an example of you; fail to offer subsidies when warranted, and you are violating the Romneycare law and that plutocrat Martha Coakley makes an example of you.

So the insurance companies want the state to do the sorting, to have it tell them, "Person A, SSN 123-45-6789 is eligible for a Bronze plan and wants to purchase your Bronze HMO, sell it to them". They literally have no risk since any screw-up is the commonwealth's fault.

[Auric Demonocles]

That still doesn't answer it to me...

Why do you need to get the subsides at the point of purchase?

[tarran]

A couple of reasons:

1) The proles get access to different (less beneficial) products than the inner party. The exchanges help hide this fact.

2) The proles tend not to have the money to pay the insurance company the income the company gets from the product and wait for a check from the state- meaning that the subsidies have to kick in right from the get-go.

[Auric Demonocles]

Who said anything about the check coming after?

[Rasilio]

Think of it like this.

Obamacare requires you to purchase insurance or pay a penalty, so you go to a couple of websites and see every companies prices and coverage are pretty much identical but that the cheapest plan is $X, but you may qualify for a subsidy of some indeterminate amount. If $X is way out of your budget (which Obamacare all but guarantees it will be) then you are MUCH more likely to say "Screw It" and pay (or more likely work on trying to avoid) the penaltax. However by presenting the after subsidy price you will be much more likely to buy the plan and just as importantly the true cost of the insurance is masked to you making the whole Obamacare business look better.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Why do you need to get the subsides at the point of purchase?

The reason appears to be that it makes it seem as if you're getting discounted healthcare coverage.

It's not a perfect comparison, but a common sales tactic of department stores like Kohls (and JCPenney pre-Ron Johnson) is to buy stock, set the MSRP at 4-5 times what they paid for it, then offer rotating "sales" at 2-3 times the stock price. This fools people into thinking they're getting a great deal, making them more likely to purchase the item, and the store still makes money.

The health exchanges seem to be using a similar "discount and fool" business model.

[Auric Demonocles]

Okay, now this is bringing up an aspect I hadn't considered. That's what I get for just thinking about the end results instead of attempting to trick people for political gain.

[sloopyinca]

I'm seriously not sure if I'm retarded, or the general idea of exchanges are.

You're retarded, because everybody with half a brain knows the reason for the exchanges is "fuck you young people, old people vote in larger numbers than you".

[a better weapon]

John Kerry was on a yacht while the crisis in Egypt was unfolding, and the State Department found it necessary to lie until photo evidence came out.

Unless he was with Tony Hayward, what difference at this point does it make?

[Bee Tagger]

Congrats on getting 1st.

[a better weapon]

Fist doesn't seem to be hear today. It's meaningless to me now! MEANINGLESS!

[Fist of Etiquette]

a better weapon is just one of my sockpuppets anyway.

[Brett L]

I haven't seen a debacle like that on a boat since The Gang Buys a Boat epsiode of "Its Always Sunny"

[The DerpRider]

Well, it's the implication.

[Auric Demonocles]

That was possibly a top 5 episode.

[Pro Libertate]

If I ever own a yacht, I'm going to name it the Raymond Luxury Yacht.

[Brett L]

And pronounce it "Throat-warbler Mangove"?

[Pro Libertate]

Indeed. And my hovercraft? It's Full of Eels.

[Brett L]

I think the ex-parrot and the bookshop (which may be audio only) are the only funnier sketches than the random phrase-book.

[Pro Libertate]

I dunno, there are so many I love. But it's an excellent one, agreed.

[db]

Bouncy-bouncy!

[Lord Humungus]

Health insurance marketplaces will not be required to verify consumer claims
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

The Obama administration announced Friday that it would significantly scale back the health law's requirements that new insurance marketplaces verify consumers' income and health insurance status.

Instead, the federal government will rely more heavily on consumers' self-reported information until 2015, when it plans to have stronger verification systems in place.

The delay comes after a Tuesday announcement that the federal government would postpone for one year a requirement that employers with 50 or more full-time workers provide health coverage.

all is well! all is well!

[Bee Tagger]

It's really a good thing they wrote this healthcare law script with so many dynamic parameters.

[DJF]

1,500 page to come up with a law which could have simply said, "The government can do whatever it wants when it comes to health care"

[KPres]

Lawyers are an important demographic.

[Fatty Bolger]

It's like the bible. Pick out the parts you like, and ignore the rest.

[cavalier973]

Instead, the federal government will rely more heavily on consumers' self-reported information until 2015, when it plans to have stronger verification systems in place.

A verifications system provided by the NSA, of course ????

[Lord Humungus]

It's Jews all the way down:

'Muslim Brotherhood claims interim Egyptian president is Jewish'
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-Ea.....ish-318877

Egyptians believe Morsi in cahoots with US, Israel
http://www.ynetnews.com/articl.....89,00.html

[John]

I think the Egyptians may have a point. Not sure about Israel but out government seems to have an infatuation with Islamic fascists.

[Ted S.]

At least they're not blaming BOOOOOOOOOSH!!

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

That is shriek's job!

[sarcasmic]

Too much information! Courtney Love shares bizarre 'post sex' picture in Geisha girl make-up (but it's really for a magazine shoot)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....ke-up.html
B
A
R
F
!

[RBS]

Man, her daughter must have a weird life.

[VG Zaytsev]

Is there a post sex picture of the goat?

[Bryan C]

Why so serious?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

can't make me click that

[cavalier973]

It's just a picture of her face with some sort of cream slathered all over it.

[Enough About Palin]

How is that not racist?

[Bee Tagger]

a British program, Tempora, that collects communication data going through undersea cables in and out of the country.

The Looking Glass.
RIP Charlie.

[NeonCat]

You'd have thought people would have learned from the Zimmermann telegram but that was like 96 years ago.

[Jerryskids]

I think it's odd that The Guardian is all over the Tempora story instead of The Times.

[sarcasmic]

Inside the underwater world of America's last mermaid show: The women who swim in Florida's springs wearing sequined latex tails, sea shell bikini tops and seaweed crowns

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-wear.html
I don't know about anyone else, but the idea of swimming with my legs confined like that gives me the willies.

[Spoonman.]

Yeah. Shudders.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

With enough practice, the dolphin kick gets pretty easy.

[Pro Libertate]

We went to Weeki Wachee last year. Maybe the second time I've seen the show. The springs are very clear and nice. Not sure about the point of the mermaid show.

[Palin's Buttplug]

South Carolina likes adulterers, Spitzer.

[wareagle]

Sanford is engaged to his paramour. Spitzer is some guy paying for sex and abusing the women along the way. Totally the same.

[RBS]

Also, the alternative was a woman with nothing to her credit other than a somewhat famous brother.

[sarcasmic]

Shaking It Up! Disney princess Bella Thorne ups the glamour in metallic snakeskin trousers for photo shoot

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....shoot.html
Youth is wasted on the young.

[a better weapon]

That is one of the most mature looking 15 year olds ever.

[DJF]

Probably lost her baby fat due to extreme dieting

[robc]

Which usually results in aging far too fast.

[Rasilio]

yeah but we get to enjoy the show now and in 5 years there will be another just like her

[cavalier973]

Crud, what a depressing thought.

[Juice]

It's the make-up.

Which, by the way, shouldn't be used very much or at all by any girl under the age of 21. It usually makes them look worse, IMO.

[Lord Humungus]

French underpants designed to release 'sweet smell'
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/20.....373054174/

Le Slip Francais, which created the $45 briefs and $51 boxer shorts using funding from crowd-funding website My Major Company, announced the products officially went on sale this week, The Local.fr reported Friday.

"You get the underpants and they smell of nothing; you put on the underpants, they still don't smell, but when you start walking, the underpants smell good," the company posted on My Major Company.

The company labeled the sweet-smelling product "The Indomitable."

finally, a cure for Warty.

[Brett L]

Fucking bath-dodgers. Take a fucking shower more than once a year.

[Juice]

In Germany the little hotel didn't have soap. I went to the store looking for it. It was tough to find. Even tougher to find was plain soap that didn't have any perfume in it.

Listen, Europeans. Not stinking is very easy.

1. Take a shower every day. Why can't you do this? It doesn't take very long.

2. Wear deodorant. Why can't you do this? It's very inexpensive.

Half a bottle of shitty cologne will not cover your BO and will make you stink even worse.

[mad libertarian guy]

When in Junior High a friend and I came up with the idea of underwear with a patch that when farted upon would pass sweet smelling air and filter out the nast.

[cavalier973]

I'll take a dozen.

[mad libertarian guy]

We decided against the idea because, as junior high males, we felt that there are few things that one could be more proud of than a true stinker.

What am I talking about? I still feel that way!

[Juice]

Flatuscents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb4OffU8OwE

[sarcasmic]

Bikini-clad Taylor Swift spends Independence Day with her 'touring family' at her Rhode Island estate

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....state.html
Does she try to be un-sexy or does it come naturally?

[John]

It is the eyes I think. Objectively she is sexy as hell. She has a fantastic body and a nice face. But she always has this "I am so fucking bored to be here" look in her eyes and it just kills it. She should be sexy as hell. But for some reason she is not despite having all the parts to be so.

[mad libertarian guy]

You guys are fucking cray cray.

[Brett L]

I also come from an era where high-waisted shorts/swimsuits equal "girl is no fun".

[John]

I don't mind those. To me they scream fun 60s girl.

[sarcasmic]

To me they scream frumpy.

[John]

Nah. I like the 60s fashions. Less trashy.

[sarcasmic]

What's wrong with trashy?

[John]

Nothing. But I wouldn't want trashy all of the time.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

So you have become a Ke$ha fan now?!

[sarcasmic]

Megan Fox is trashy. Ke$ha is just trash.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Megan Fox is trashy. Ke$ha is just trash.

That's because Megan's body isn't built like a LEGO character.

[sarcasmic]

Somehow I doubt Megan drinks her own urine. I also doubt Megan would get on stage, hold a can of whipped cream to her crotch, and squirt it into the crowd.

It's the subtle differences, you know?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"hold a can of whipped cream to her crotch, and squirt it into the crowd"

Okay, subtlety...

[Brett L]

Now this looks like good old fashioned fun. (The first pic, I'm too lazy to click thru the whole show.)

[Enough About Palin]

My sister and her family spent Independence Day as a guest of the Louis M. Martini Winery. Does she have a great job or what?

[NoVAHockey]

Bizarre Taylor Swift photo

When Tyler Kennedy was traded Sunday, he became the final member of the bizarre picture to be gone from the Penguins.

[Ted S.]

The players should all write a song about how evil and bullying Penguins' management is. 🙂

[Rasilio]

Honestly, I think she really does try to be unsexy most of the time. Something about being a proper role model for millions of young girls.

The dating a new guy every few weeks just so she has song material we aren't supposed to think about

[SIV]

You're all gay.

[Brett L]

Grasshopper leaps to 1000 ft, hovers, then lands. SpaceX, you crazy bastards.

[Pro Libertate]

I've been following this. Wonder when they'll be ready to test this on an orbital launch?

[Brett L]

I'd think once they get the retractable legs done, they can do a major test. I think that's the last sub-system. Although they might have some parachutes or at least drogue chutes to help keep attitude during the unpowered part of the descent. A drop-test from 35k feet would be cool.

[Pro Libertate]

Glad to SpaceX continuing to succeed. Would be even gladder to see some more competition. Need to get those launch costs down, after all.

[mad libertarian guy]

Glad to SpaceX continuing to succeed. Would be even gladder to see some more competition. Need to get those launch costs down, after all.

Less subsidization would be nice too.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm sure SpaceX would like more clients than it has and is certainly acting like there's more to the market than the U.S. government. Once Dragon is operating on a manned basis, maybe Bigelow or some other private player will start buying some flights.

[Brett L]

Selling services to the government at prices beyond what a market would bear if there were a market is the least evil form of subsidy.

[sarcasmic]

Underground Antarctic lake sealed off for 15 million years reveals thousands of forms of life beneath ice two MILES thick

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

[Brett L]

Oh great. Doesn't anyone read their Lovecraft.

[Bee Tagger]

Will they be grateful when global warming unlocks their chains? Or will they be furious with us for letting it get that cold in the first place?

[SugarFree]

They will hunger. That's all that matters.

[T]

Tekeli-li!

[sarcasmic]

Metro rips out Phantom Planter's flowers at Dupont Circle station

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
Planting flowers without permission? I'm surprised he isn't in jail. I mean, that's like vandalism and stuff.

[Dweebston]

Charges will be brought. They expended resources weeding out all those flowers, right? And their lawyers need to demonstrate their usefulness somehow.

Seriously, the vibes of inviolability governments exude these days is surpassing creepy.

[cavalier973]

Without the government, who will plant the flowers? WHO WILL PLANT THE FLOWERS?

What? Oh...

[BigT]

Where have all the flowers gone?

[Lord Humungus]

Putnam County Sheriff's Office: 3 men towed, rode 600-lb. aluminum chicken
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/.....en-to-jail

The owner of the statue said he was getting ready for work Tuesday when he heard a commotion. He looked down the street and saw a pick up truck pulling his purple, 600-pound, aluminum chicken.

One of the men was mounted on the chicken, riding it down the road. They were identified through eyewitness accounts and video surveillance.

The chicken, which is valued at $2,300, sustained "a broken leg, broken claw and there was extensive damage to one side," according to the release.

[Brett L]

That's a big cock those boys were riding.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Why did the aluminum chicken travel down the road?

Sorry, that's the best I can do.

[Numeromancer]

To get to the other siding?

[John]

Is it really the case that our government wants the Muslim Brotherhood in charge in Egypt? I saw this weekend Obama whining about terrible it was the military took over. Then I see where McCain thinks now that they are gone we should cut off aid. WTF? I am starting to think these people are Islamist moles.

[sarcasmic]

Democracy!

The Will of the People!

Mob Rule!

Black Sabbath!

[Palin's Buttplug]

No, it is your fevered imagination.

Our government wants a stable leader in Egypt to pay off not to attack Israel.

[John]

Christfag!!! Or is it Jewfag when talking about the middle east?

[KPres]

Then why would Obama be upset about a military coup?

[wareagle]

not moles, but they do fancy themselves as shapers of the world. Remember when LaHood's kid, who was part of some NGO promoting "democracy", got held up in Egypt. McCain and Lindsey are big on groups like that. And we're the same country that gave Iran the Shah.

That Obama would be a sympathizer, given his upbringing, is almost to be expected. McCain has no excuse beyond some fairy tail clinging to the notion of the "arab spring" as something tantamount to Prague.

[Mike M.]

McCain is an idiot and a lunatic, but he's in pretty good company; Reason was right at the head of the cheerleader line promoting that fairy tale.

[T]

McCain has no excuse

Besides being a clueless old git, you mean?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

He can blame incipient senility. What is O!'s excuse?

[VG Zaytsev]

I am starting to think these people are Islamist moles.

Remember when McCain went ballistic defending Huma from any questions about her background.

[John]

Perhaps there is a reason why the media kissed McCain's ass for so many years.

[Fatty Bolger]

If you're expecting a coherent foreign policy from Obama, then you're going to be sorely disappointed. I'm convinced he's just playing it by ear as we move from one event to the next.

[Lord Humungus]

In Wyoming, a Cheney Run Worries G.O.P.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07.....e-gop.html

Ms. Cheney, 46, is showing up everywhere in the state, from chicken dinners to cattle growers' meetings, sometimes with her parents in tow. She has made it clear that she wants to run for the Senate seat now held by Michael B. Enzi, a soft-spoken Republican and onetime fly-fishing partner of her father.

But Ms. Cheney's move threatens to start a civil war within the state's Republican establishment, despite the reverence many hold for her family.

[Palin's Buttplug]

They love their chickenhawks in Wyoming.

[DontShootMe]

There's only like 6 people who live in Wyoming, why don't they just take turns being Senator?

[robc]

Thats what the worthless House seat is for.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I don't know much about Cheney, but Enzi doesn't sound like much of a prize:

"Enzi was also crucial in the passage of George W. Bush's controversial No Child Left Behind Act...He opposes all types of abortion and has voted in favor of proposals that would provide restrictions on the procedure for minors, those stationed on military bases, and other groups. He has voted in favor of failed constitutional amendments that suggested banning gay marriage and flag desecration....Enzi supports imposing a new sales tax on internet sales and other sales of interstate commerce...Enzi has voted to uphold the PATRIOT Act and is opposed to calls to cut down on wiretapping and to extend rights to Guantanamo Bay detainees. Enzi also rejected calls for a timetable for military withdrawal from Iraq..."

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

[KPres]

But also...

"Enzi opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009"

"In April 2013, Senator Enzi was one of forty-six senators to vote against the passing of a bill which would have expanded background checks for all gun buyers."

"Enzi has voted for the repeal of legislation governing such things as the estate tax and the "marriage penalty."

Sounds like a partisan, pretty much like you and shrike.

[Skip]

I don't really have an opinion about Liz Cheney but it is HILARIOUS to read the NYT morons complain about her only running because of her last name when they elected 2 Senators in the last 50 years based on it.

[KPres]

I'm sure they'll mention it during the next presidential election, too.

[Brett L]

This makes my eyes sweat. My life is easy. I have no real problems.

[Warty]

Fuck. Yup.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Obviously, the government made it possible for them to succeed. No private party would ever have stepped up without the government there.

/Tony

All sarcasm aside, those types of stories are what make the world a better place.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Holy Crap...what can one say about that?!

[Lord Humungus]

First-Ever Ex-Gay Pride Month to Be Held in DC This Month
http://global.christianpost.co.....nth-99184/

Members of the ex-gay community are celebrating the first-ever "Ex-Gay Pride Month" and have asked President Obama to issue a proclamation to recognize the rights of the ex-gay community and to commemorate their month, just as he's done for the LGBT community with "Gay Pride Month" in June.

In a letter sent to Obama on June 18 to request his action and acknowledgement of the tens of thousands of Americans who are seeking equality, Christopher Doyle, the co-founder of Voice of the Voiceless (VoV), requested a meeting with the president or a senior member of his civil rights staff to "discuss tolerance for the ex-gay community and how the White House can ensure equal access for ex-gays in the nation's capital, which is the only jurisdiction that recognizes ex-gays as a legally protected class."

[John]

That should be entertaining. Maybe pride and expride can start having dueling marches everywhere. Gay pride parades are kind of old at this point. A bunch of guys running around in butt chaps and others dressed like Judi Garland has pretty much been done to death. But dueling pride and expride parades? That is some made for TV entertainment.

[Palin's Buttplug]

How many have you marched in?

[John]

Typical liberal, throwing around homosexuality as an insult. Progs hate the people they try to help most of all.

[BakedPenguin]

Not hate, hold in contempt.

[UnCivilServant]

I hold everyone in contempt, but I don't pretend to try to help them. Mostly I guess I want people to fuck off and die so I can be left alone.

[Lord Humungus]

you've been reading my newsletter!

[Brett L]

Mostly I guess I want people to fuck off and die so I can be left alone.

After they fuck off, I don't care if they live or die.

[Enough About Palin]

Hey, Buttplug (if that's your real name), I've marched in a few and even used my truck to pull a float for a youth organization. And I'm with John. Men on roller-skates dressed-up like nuns has been done to death.

[Clich? Bandit]

Yeah but Starchild does fairy wings like no one else.

[paranoid android]

"We're here! We're not queer! And we're totally not in denial about it!"

[Lord Humungus]

Safe Streets Ahead?
Judicial rulings and anti-cop activists threaten the city's triumph over crime.
http://www.city-journal.org/20.....crime.html

The NYPD's support for such proactive policing, along with its sophisticated crime-data analysis and passion for accountability, is responsible for New York's unparalleled safety today. Indeed, suspects have told police that they're leaving their guns at home for fear of being stopped. The rate at which New York City teens carried guns in 2011 was at its lowest point ever and far lower than in any other major American city, according to the Centers for Disease Control?a finding that helps explain why the homicide rate for Chicago teens, for instance, is four times that of New York teens.

proactive policing?

[Fluffy]

Statistically, this is absolute crap.

NYC experienced nothing more than the standard crime drop experienced by pretty much every major urban area in the US for the last thirty years.

Especially when you consider the way the average income spiked in three out of five of the boroughs.

Their "sophisticated crime data" and "proactive policing" may have enhanced the public's feeling of safety, but it accomplished pretty much dick statistically in terms of reducing crime.

[John]

That is an interesting debate. The test is to look at the areas surrounding NYC. What happened to crime there. If your point is true, which it may be, what happened was large areas of the city gentrified removing the criminal element and thus lowering crime. In cities where this has happened, crime went up in surrounding areas because the criminal element was still criminal and had to go somewhere. For example, the crime rate in Washington DC dropped like a rock only to go way up in PG country. So if the criminal element was just moved out of NYC, where did they go?

I am sympathetic with your argument but I think it underestimates how bad NYC was under Dinkins. Part of the reason why the income spiked is because they started enforcing the laws again and people felt safe to move back into the city. Supposed Dinkins had stayed mayor forever, do you really think the crime would have dropped like it did? I don't. Quality of policing does have some effect on crime.

[KPres]

That's all fine and dandy in the abstract, but all the uproar about stop-and-frisk specifically, not Giuliani (or Dinkins, for that matter) hiring more cops.

[Ted S.]

It's the opposite of propassive policing.

[Lord Humungus]

Immigrant Gains and Native Losses In the Job Market, 2000 to 2013
http://cis.org/immigrant-gains.....00-to-2013

Between the first quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2013, the native-born population accounted for two-thirds of overall growth in the working-age population (16 to 65), but none of the net growth in employment among the working-age has gone to natives.

The overall size of the working-age native-born population increased by 16.4 million from 2000 to 2013, yet the number of natives actually holding a job was 1.3 million lower in 2013 than 2000.

The total number of working-age immigrants (legal and illegal) increased 8.8 million and the number working rose 5.3 million between 2000 and 2013.

[KPres]

So immigration has allowed natives to work less, probably thanks to lower prices, while the immigrants themselves get more money than they otherwise would have been able to make.

Where's the problem?

Oh, right. Jerbz!

[UnCivilServant]

I've not seen any sign of lower prices, since every expense has gone up while my income has remained at best static, and this year dropped. I'm fairly sure if we look into it, we'll also find the net loss in standard of living for the native born population. There were some articles on that posted a while back, I'll see if I can find them.

[KPres]

Good thing your personal anecdote doesn't matter. Real compensation per hour has risen, a figure which UNDERestimates the rise in standard of living for natives, since the immigrants, by virtue of their lower pay, bring the overall average down.

http://research.stlouisfed.org.....s/COMPRNFB

[UnCivilServant]

I'm glad the people who are hurt by this don't matter. Good to know where you stand.

[KPres]

I just showed you that compensation has risen. By definition, the gain was greater than whatever losses there may have been. Why do you want people to live poorer? Just to keep them damned wetbacks out?

[sgs]

"I just showed you that compensation has risen. "

AND HE TOLD YOU HIS HAS NOT.

AND YOU ACTED LIKE AN ASSHOLE BY SAYING " your personal anecdote doesn't matter".

Take a moment before you choose to respond and miss the point again, instead of just apologizing for being an asshole.

[KPres]

Really? What's being an asshole? Ignoring somebody's personal loss in a broader discussion where it's not relevant or blaming that loss on immigrants as if it's their fault?

[goneGalt]

Serious question:

If the immigrants themselves get more money than they otherwise would have been able to make, isn't it so that their compensation has risen as well? In which case the Fed chart is neither over nor under estimated?

Disclaimer: My grandparents came here for better economic opportunity. I have no problem with anyone else attempting the same.

[KPres]

"If the immigrants themselves get more money than they otherwise would have been able to make, isn't it so that their compensation has risen as well? In which case the Fed chart is neither over nor under estimated?"

Deserted island. 4 people each make $25/hour. New guy comes from another island where he was making $10 and now gets $20. The average for the island falls from $25 to $24, even though the average for the "natives" is still $25, and the new guy is $10 richer.

[goneGalt]

I see and agree with your example. But under this scenario our Fed chart should show a decrease in compensation.

The linked chart shows an increase over time. (With a nice spike during the Y2K/Internet/Security State build out.)

I guess what I am asking is do we actually have a breakdown of which populations are actually outpacing others in income growth?

[goneGalt]

Or to put it another way. 4 natives earn $25 each. My grandpa shows up and goes from $10 to $20. The due to improved network effects, specialization, comparative advantages, etc. the natives income climbs to $30 each.

Everybody is doing better. ($28 mean) But my grandpa gets (take your pick) a $10 or 100 percent increase. The natives see a $5 or 20 percent increase.

I am suggesting immigrants are not necessarily a drag on income. Unless, of course, there is a reliably sourced breakdown to show this.

BTW, Thanks grandpa!

[goneGalt]

Now I see where you were going. 100 percent for gramps, 20 percent for natives, 12 percent at the mean.

I was thrown by the example showing a decrease in the mean ($25 to $24).

[KPres]

"I am suggesting immigrants are not necessarily a drag on income. Unless, of course, there is a reliably sourced breakdown to show this."

In an efficient market, everybody benefits. Of course this isn't an efficient market, but that's the null hypothesis. But most people think "increase in supply of labor = decreased wages", but that's only true nominally. Prices also fall by an equivalent amount, since they determined by competition, not input costs like labor. A lot of people dismiss this as econ 101 oversimplification, which maybe it is, but that doesn't bother me since they're thinking on the same level, only getting econ 101 wrong.

[The Late P Brooks]

A secret U.S. court has created an entire secret body of law to allow the NSA to collect data not just in the pursuit of terrorism but also to target other activities, like hacking, espionage, and nuclear proliferation.

Much more sophisticated than, "If the President does it, it's not illegal."

[John]

Did you read the judges whining in the Washington Post last weekend about how unfair it was they are now considered rubber stamps?

It is bad enough that they raped the 4th Amendment in secret with no oversight. But they don't even have the decency to say "fuck you that is why". They are worse. They expect us to thank them for it.

[VG Zaytsev]

Meh,

It's probably better when the top men have fragile egos.

[John]

Maybe. I took great pleasure in that article. Having known a few federal judges, my experience is that they get a fucking hard on at being called "judge so and so" and having people kiss their ass in personal dealings because they are a federal judge. Losing that and having people go "oh you were one of those judges" is killing those assholes.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Substitute sophisticated for nuanced for that extra hopeychangey feel.

[VG Zaytsev]

U.S. Embassy official in Guyana removed in alleged sex-for-visas scandal

Secretary Clinton said that it's just boys being boys.

[Ted S.]

What difference, at this point, does it make?

[Enough About Palin]

I just hope she gets the Dem's nomination.

[Lord Humungus]

Breast milk drinking by rich adults provokes outrage in China
http://articles.timesofindia.i.....dia-breast

Rich adults in south China's Shenzhen city hiring wet nurses to drink breast milk has provoked disgust and outrage over the Chinese internet with thousands of micro blog users lashing out at this "latest game" of people who came to wealth overnight. The wet nurses are provided by an agency, which scouts for poor women who have recently given birth and would be happy with some financial support. The new mothers offer their services for a few days to weeks in a month with prices varying from $2,000 to $4,000.

"Adults (clients) can drink it directly through breastfeeding, or they can always drink it from a breast pump if they feel embarrassed," Lin Jun, owner of a wet nurse supplying agency, Xinxinyu, was quoted in the local media as saying.

ewww...

[Brett L]

Don't they know they're supposed to be drinking orphans' blood? Fucking noveau riche. I'll bet they bling out their monocles, too.

[a better weapon]

ewww is right. Shenzhen wet nurses?

Only 100% pure Cambodian breast milk for me.

[Spoonman.]

That is weird, but...job creators?

[Brett L]

The gf did not think it was funny when I told her she could make more money as a Chinese wet-nurse to adults than she does as a student advisor at a state university.

[Clich? Bandit]

i lol'd

[Floridian]

100% agree. As long as they aren't capturing and forcing these women to provide breast milk, I see no problem with this. Moar Jobz!

[Slammer]

Lose of Shalon.

[Gene]

These clients might otherwise be ingesting elephant tusks or bear bladders, as far as I see it this is a good thing.

[Lord Humungus]

The White House Hails a Zombie Jobs' Report
http://www.realclearmarkets.co.....00456.html

The White House is hailing the fact that the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE)* jobs in America went down by 56,000 in June? President Obama's merry band is hailing the fact that the economy replaced 272,000 full-time jobs with 432,000 part-time positions, thus eking out the reported 160,000 gain in total employment** for the month?

Presumably, the White House's enthusiasm extends to the 0.5 percentage point increase in the broad "U-6" unemployment rate, to 14.3%. And, the leap of the even broader "SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate" to a new record high of 23.4%. But how about the fact that America moved 169,000 FTE jobs away from full employment in June (to 15.9 million)?

[John]

I watched a documentary on Baroque art this weekend. In it they were talking about the Caravaggio painting "The Seven Acts of Mercy". I had seen the painting before but never really looked at it. Two of the acts of mercy are visiting someone in prison and feeding the hungry. Caravaggio covered both with one figure of a woman visiting her father in prison and letting him suck her breasts to feed himself.

All this in a religious painting hanging in a church. Even the presenter couldn't explain that one.

[Slammer]

I went to church in England where on the ceiling painting there was Mary bottle feeding Jesus. Apparently the Victorians didn't like the original breast feeding portrait.

[John]

Victorian Protestants. Catholics of any age would have never done that.

[Brett L]

The Houston MFA has a bunch of 16th and 17th C. Dutch Madonnas where, at least according to one guide, having gigantic tatas was a sign of plenty. She corroborated with a bunch of still-lifes from the same region and era that are tables overflowing with food.

[John]

I love the Dutch still lifes. Beyond being amazing painting, there is something so refreshingly unPC about incredibly realistic paintings of dead bunnys and pheasants.

[Auric Demonocles]

Did you write about liberty between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013? Reason welcomes you to enter this year's Bastiat Prize for Journalism, with a total prize purse of $16,000.

I have hundreds, if not thousands, or writings about liberty over this time period. Feel free to browse the Reason archives to find them. Please forgive any spelling mistakes, as I lack an editor, or even an EDIT BUTTON.

[Fluffy]

If they start considering H ampersand R posts, I will totally win this in a walk.

I promise to spend all 16 grand on drinks for everyone.

[Auric Demonocles]

On the one hand, I am angry at your first sentence.

On the other hand, I like free booze.

[SugarFree]

I think I should at least be considered for the Miss Congeniality prize.

[Auric Demonocles]

Neither of you has written nearly as eloquently and consistently in favor of liberty for picture captions as I have!

[SugarFree]

Hey, asshole... Who's more congenial than me? Go fist yourself, fuckpipe.

[Auric Demonocles]

I dispute the congenial half of that award, though I will grant you the other half.

[mad libertarian guy]

I don't use pipes anymore. Too harsh. How about fuckvaporizer?

[SugarFree]

Fuckvapes are little more than a fantasy at this point. They've been 5 years away for 20 years.

[robc]

Last year I submitted a link to one of my posts.

I think it was a very eloquent repeating COASE post.

[Auric Demonocles]

Pro Lib should submit his original "No, fuck you, cut spending" post.

[Pro Libertate]

They don't like fuck.

[Auric Demonocles]

It's edgy.

[Pro Libertate]

I told them they could substitute "screw." Or just go with "It's the spending, stupid" if they think that's friendlier.

[Auric Demonocles]

Sell out.

[Pro Libertate]

I have a confession to make. All I really care about is that the government cuts spending when I type that line.

[Auric Demonocles]

How could we have thought a guy like you had integrity, even for a second!

[Pro Libertate]

My shame is boundless.

[Lord Humungus]

There was a monk from Phuket
who...

Glue-huffing monk on holiday in Phuket also a thief
http://www.phuketgazette.net/p.....21571.html

When police arrived at the temple, they found Chaiyasit Janpetch, 33, sitting in the pavilion with a glue can and glue in a plastic bag beside him.

In his bag they found a tablet computer, a pocketknife, a mini DVD player and some cash, with a total value estimated at 7,000 baht, said Lt Col Prawit Engchuan of the Phuket City Police.

After Mr Chaiyasit confessed that he had been sniffing glue, he was taken to Buddha Mongkol Nimit Temple in Phuket Town to be defrocked and formally removed from the monkhood.

[mad libertarian guy]

a total value estimated at 7,000 baht

Is that like Monopoly money?

[Lord Humungus]

Metro rips out Phantom Planter's flowers at Dupont Circle station
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

The transit system regularly pleads poverty, yet employees devoted supposedly valuable time to remove more than 1,000 morning glories, cardinal flowers and cypress vines that Docter donated to the city ? albeit without permission. The plants would have bloomed from August to October in a patriotic display of red, white and blue.

Instead of greenery today and colors to come, the 176 flower boxes along the top stretch of the escalators at the station's north entrance now feature dirt, a few straggling stems and the occasional discarded soda can.

"It never occurred to me that Metro would think it was more efficient to rip out the plants than to let someone water them," Docter said.

[Fatty Bolger]

That's just evil. I guess they just couldn't tolerate the fact that a single middle aged man made them look like a bunch of lazy fucks.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Unsurprising. Bureaucrats can't fucking stand people showing initiative. Everything should be according to their plan.

[mad libertarian guy]

Unsurprising. Bureaucrats can't fucking stand people showing initiative. Everything should be according to their plan.

This cannot be said enough.

[Lord Humungus]

Buxom Blonde Banned For Isty Bitsy Bikini at Adventure Oasis Water Park Missouri
http://guardianlv.com/2013/07/.....-missouri/

Buxom blonde (Madelyn Scheaffer) banned for her itsy bitsy bikini at Adventure Oasis Water Park Missouri . 'Sexism & Ageism' demons reared their ugly heads at Adventure Oasis Water Park on Wednesday July 3, 2013. Madelyn Sheaffer is in her forties, healthy and proud to have lost a staggering 100 pounds. When her and her daughter decided to take a trip to the local water park to cool down, she wore a basic black bikini ruffled with white, and bikini briefs. There is no dress code or prohibited swim wear posted at the entrance to the park, according to the City Officials who were willing to speak to the media, many of them became inaccessible, they "trust the judgment of their management."

[Lord Humungus]

Turkish Man Wears Copper Wire Cage on His Head to Quit Smoking
http://www.odditycentral.com/n.....oking.html

?brahim Y?cel has been smoking for the last 26 years, and despite several attempts to quit he couldn't break his two-packs-a-day dirty habit. Every year, on his three children's birthdays and on his wedding anniversary he would give up cigarettes, but he never went more than a few days without them. His family, his friends and co-workers all tried to convince him to stop using tobacco cigarettes, but he just couldn't do it. After losing his father to smoking-induced lung cancer a few months ago, ?brahim realized smoking just wasn't worth losing his life over and putting his wife and children through the same hardships. But the Turkish technician also knew he lacked the willpower to quit by usual means, so he came up with a rather unusual solution. Inspired by motorcycle helmets, he decided to build a metal wire cage that would prevent him from lighting up no matter how badly he craved a cigarette.

[Fatty Bolger]

Horticultural Hate: The Mystery of the Forest Swastikas

Over 20 years ago, a landscaper in eastern Germany discovered a formation of trees in a forest in the shape of a swastika. Since then, a number of other forest swastikas have been found in Germany and beyond, but the mystery of their origins persist.

[Auric Demonocles]

Some Nazis planted saplings in the same of swastikas in the 30s or 40s. The trees grew up.

Mystery solved?

[Ted S.]

Damn you!

[Auric Demonocles]

If it makes you feel better, I will forever be haunted by the lack of EDIT BUTTON in that post.

[DJF]

ABC new should fire all their researchers and hire you. 🙂

Actually ABC news should fire everyone and hire random people off the streets, they would be more accurate.

[UnCivilServant]

Funny, I heard about those in a Cracked Article, and they already found the culprets. ABC is so lax they let themselves be scooped by Cracked?

[Lord Humungus]

some Aussie music - for fans of the Birthday Party

These Immortal Souls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKw5dRktWys

[mad libertarian guy]

There is only 1 Aussie band, goddammit.

[Slammer]

Artist uses naked women...

[Eduard van Haalen]

Now, naked woman uses artist - *that* would be news.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Boring - he should at least make a giant chicken.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Elliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York over a prostitution scandal, wants to run for comptroller in New York City.

Does NYC have some sort of rule that only lying hypocritical scumbags can run for office there?

Since I don't live in NYC, ordinarily I wouldn't care. But politicians who get elected to office in that city somehow get the idea that they're in charge of the whole fucking country.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"Does NYC have some sort of rule that only lying hypocritical scumbags can run for office there?"

That's not just a localized problem...

[Palin's Buttplug]

Newt "Swinger" Gingrich and Herman "Where de white wommens is?" Cain would have carried NY in the 2012 GOP primary then?

[Spoonman.]

Herman "Where de white wommens is?" Cain

Normally I wouldn't respond to Shriek, but I just wanted to point out the most racist thing I've ever seen on H&R. I mean, wow.

And yes, I have seen American's posts. He's racist, but this...wow.

[John]

Shreek is a horrible racist. Most progs are.

[tarran]

And comically unaware of it.

The most proggie of the progs at my work was thanking the hispanic girl in my department for "your people getting Obama elected" the day after the election.

It was incredibly cringe-worthy.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"and not only did you help elect Obama, you do a great job mowing my lawn."

[Jordan]

What do you expect from a progressive?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Apparently you missed Flava Cain's newsworthy penchant for white women during the 2102 GOP Klown Karnival.

[Slammer]

Unless you're a racist why would you fucking care if Cain likes white women?

[Palin's Buttplug]

The topic was philandering politicians.

Nice diversion though. You can't feign PC on me.

[Slammer]

No, your topic was a black man philandering with white women.

[KPres]

Then why did you point out that she was a white woman?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Then why did you point out that she was a white woman?

Shriek's probably still pissed that his last gf cucked on him with a black dude.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Because in the proggie mind, Cain is the "wrong kind" of black dude and a race traitor. Only the "right kind" can date white wimmins.

I posit that it's even more racist to think this way (as shriek obviously does) - it views black people as some sort of Democrat party property and also that whites are the superior race to date, in that dating a white person is some sort of Grand Prize for lowly blacks.

[John]

And as a black man him liking White Woman is against nature, right Shreek? He needs to know his place and stop chasing your women around.

God you are repulsive.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yeah, like when I criticize Clarence Thomas' SCOTUS decisions - you pull the "raciisssttt!" card.

Won't work, pal.

[Spoonman.]

BECAUSE YOU ARE A RACIST

[John]

thinking Herman Cain has no right to date or be attracted to white women is not the racist card, it is racist. You said it dumb ass.

[Spoonman.]

...

[Fluffy]

You chose to make reference to this by invoking a stereotype that's so out there that it was actually included in Blazing Saddles.

Because it's so racist that it's hysterical.

Next you'll be calling Clarence Thomas, "Clarence 'the Sheriff is near' Thomas".

[Palin's Buttplug]

So Mel Brooks is a racist?

[tarran]

Fluffy, the proper quote is: "The Sheriff is *a* near"

[Xenocles]

I thought it was "a nearin'" which gets you the two-syllable n-word.

[Spoonman.]

Flava Cain? What the fuck is wrong with you?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yeah, Herman Cain was a reality show freak for a few months - just like Flav.

A fucking joke of a candidate.

Again, don't feign PC on me. I know you fuckers.

[Michael]

Because Flava Flav is black too, right?

Wow, you're subtle.

[KPres]

"Again, don't feign PC on me."

Why not, you feign libertarian on us.

[SugarFree]

And yes, I have seen American's posts. He's racist, but this...wow.

Of course, American gets banned for his drivel. shrike just keeps getting to peddle his nonsense.

[John]

Shreek needs to be banned. I wouldn't ban Tony. But this is not the first time Shreek has put up really offensive racist stuff.

I think he thinks he is being funny because he is assuming that we are all really racist and therefore are hypocrites for not hating Cain for liking white women. But too bad. It says what it says.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

He has also admitted his bigotry against Muslims too.

He is Tolerance. He is Love.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Found a great Cyanide & Happiness comic that stars Shriek.

He's the one in blue

[a better weapon]

Oh right, because I had totally forgotten about how everyone here was a bunch of uncontrollable, fever pitched sycophants of the Newt and Cain primary runs.

Tu quoque only works when you're not making shit up, you know that right?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

It is all he has. He has been getting more bitter, mean and slimy lately. I suspect some personal problem has bloomed into a doozy, and he vents here.

[Lord Humungus]

It coincides with the declining polls of Obama. As PB's savior falls from grace... so does his "sanity".

[Palin's Buttplug]

Racist or Obama shill? Make up your fucking mind!

[Whahappan?]

Why can't it be both?

[Jordan]

Not mutually exclusive.

[Tejicano]

How about racist, Obama shill, and dumb as a bag of hair? Those are just the top three.

[Tejicano]

How about racist, Obama shill, and dumb as a bag of hair? Those are just the top three.

[Gbob]

I don't think it's a personal thing. Just trying to put myself in his shoes. If I trolled progressive sites all day, and then a libertarian became president (I'm already in the realm of complete fantasy here) how would I react if my candidate turned out to be every bit as much of a failure as the progressives had been saying for years? I mean, I would like to think I would be able to look at the evidence and say that I was wrong, but the more human reaction is to simply go more and more into denial.

Hell, even the Bush supporters were able to point to some justification of those years. Obama? Ugh. I voted for him the first time around, but I have to admit that pretty much everything bad folks predicted about him has turned out to be depressingly true.

So let's pity the little racist idiot. He's like a doomsday cultist after the world doesn't end.

[Bardas Phocas]

Newest Blood Sport: Soccer!
Brazilian soccer referee beheaded by angry fans who put his head on a stake after he stabbed player
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....layer.html

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Well, where would you *want* us to put the head?"

[T]

5 gallon buckets work nicely.

Uh, so I'm told.

[Lord Humungus]

Health Exchanges to Be 'Up and Running' by Oct. 1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100869500

The Obama administration has already delayed these insurance offerings for small businesses, and a recent report by the watchdog Government Accountability Office called into question whether new insurance marketplaces for millions of individuals would meet an Oct. 1 deadline for open enrollment.

But Park, the president's tech point-person, said in a "Squawk Box" interview, "They're going to be up and running on October 1." He said he's seen the testing on the Web technology to deliver these exchanges, and "things are on track to actually make that happen."

[Brett L]

Well, now that they don't have to do any interfacing with IRS, eVerify, DHS, or private insurance forms, they are basically a database with a web front-end. I could get that up and running by October 1 for them, too.

[Spoonman.]

"On the health exchanges, nobody knows you're a dog."

[John]

http://www.wbir.com/news/artic.....on-Youtube

The DUI video Reason linked to this weekend has gone viral on Youtube. God, I bet those cops are pissed.

[Ted S.]

But is it really going to amount to anything?

[Auric Demonocles]

Good looking newswoman.

"It's very difficult for someone who's coming across a police officer, who's ordering them to do certain things and try to invoke their rights," he said. "That should be left to the lawyer who is representing the person."

According to Oberman, if you do not follow an officer's orders you can actually violate another law. "And, that is failing to obey the lawful command of a police officer," he said. "That in it of itself is a crime."

If the command violates the person's rights, how is it classified as a "lawful" command?

[John]

So what they are saying is only those who can afford a lawyer should be able to invoke their rights. Why do they hate poor people.

And no, the command is not lawful. And your rights are very simple. You can't be detained without probable cause, you don't have to answer questions or consent to a search, and you can leave anytime unless they tell you are detained and have probable cause to do so.

Granted that is probably too complex for a cop to understand. But I think the public can do just fine without a lawyer.

[sgs]

"And no, the command is not lawful. And your rights are very simple. You can't be detained without probable cause, you don't have to answer questions or consent to a search, and you can leave anytime unless they tell you are detained and have probable cause to do so."

Sincerely, thank you for posting what should be reflexive knowledge for everyone. It's important, and as you say, very simple.

[sarcasmic]

If the command violates the person's rights, how is it classified as a "lawful" command?

Because it came from the mouth of a saintly first responder.

If you have a problem with it then take it up in court after the fact.

If you don't have the coin to hire an attorney, well then suck it up, Peasant.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

"That should be left to the lawyer who is representing the person."

Jesus Christ. Now you need a permit to argue for yourself.

[Auric Demonocles]

Yeah, I'm confused how you invoke your right to an attorney if you can't invoke your rights until your attorney is there.

[UnCivilServant]

You have to prove you yourself are an attorney to get rights. At least that's how lawyers think.

[sarcasmic]

Not only that, but the Supreme Nazgul rust ruled that silence without explicitly invoking the Fifth is an admission of guilt.

So you can't invoke your own rights without an attorney, and if you don't invoke your rights then you're guilty.

I guess they've got you either way.

[John]

White House officials vetoed all public airing of a video of President Obama thanking the American Library Association Sunday for helping inform the public about Obamacare.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....le/2532672

It is almost like he is embarrassed to be a fascist of something.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"The ALA, which is a tax-exempt 501(C)(3) foundation, agreed last weekend during its annual meeting in Chicago to help the president get the word out about Obamacare."

And of course the IRS will scrutinize the heck out of them, given their nonpartisan commitment to keep 501 groups in line.

[a better weapon]

Its not a partisan act if its promoting something that's good for people! HURR DURRR

[Fatty Bolger]

I DON'T WANT TO HAVE MY AWARENESS RAISED, THANKS

Hands up if you're fed up of experts thinking they're more 'aware' than us plebs.

[Auric Demonocles]

Have you heard of this thing called breast cancer? It's pretty bad.

[Ted S.]

What do you have against breasts?

[Auric Demonocles]

They tend to be covered up.

[KPres]

Also, smoking is bad for you. Most people don't know that because of BIG TOBACCOOZZ!!

[John]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....e-agitator

Balko has great fun with the Virgina ABC. Apparently, the Virginia ABC never got the memo that you harass black people and poor people. You don't harass top shelf white college girls. Doing that ends up in the media.

[T]

Well, if you're going to harass daddy's little princess, she'd better be guilty of more than buying bottled water.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Ugh, the comments. They weren't this bad the last time I read a HuffPo Balko piece.

[John]

It all boils down to if only Virginia were a one party Democratic state, because you know this shit never happens in places like California, Chicago or New York City. Never.

[KPres]

Virginia is a Democrat state. They vote Democrat is state elections and Republican (sometimes) in national elections.

[NoVAHockey]

apparently this is the governor's fault for accepting gifts.

[Spoonman.]

Got the 20-week ultrasound on Friday. Girl, looks like everything is forming properly.

Shit just got real.

[Slammer]

Congrats and Good Luck!!

[Auric Demonocles]

Man, we really took that lack of libertarian women seriously.

[Lord Humungus]

congrats ^2

[robc]

20-week...Shit just got real.

At least under proposed Texas law.

[sarcasmic]

Shit just got real.

Why do you think the pro-lifers want to force potential abortion clients to look at an ultrasound before removing that unwanted bit of flesh in their belly?

[Auric Demonocles]

Don't you mean "CLUMP OF CELLS"?

[Brett L]

Good on ya! Ours is definitely a boy. He wanted the ultrasound tech and everyone else to know last week. He kept rotating to point his outdoor plumbing at the probe. Do you have a name?

[Spoonman.]

Congrats! My wife has some candidates - I have a purely advisory role in the naming. I am not pushing a human out of me so I am OK with that.

[Brett L]

I picked the first name and retained a veto on the middle name, with the understanding that I would have no input on the next first name and limited input on the middle name. But we ended up with "William Becket", with the understanding that I will never, ever, EVER refer to him as "Billy Beck". I hope he will tell off authority, but not as fatally as his namesake.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

It appears to be custom to auction the name off, ne?

[The Late P Brooks]

"It never occurred to me that Metro would think it was more efficient to rip out the plants than to let someone water them," Docter said.

EVERYTHING NOT MANDATORY IS PROHIBITED

[Fatty Bolger]

Lisa Rinna is still hot

[John]

The face, the face. She looks like a freak. Those horrible lips, that strange pulled back skin. She is a two bagger.

[BakedPenguin]

Well, Canada and Mexico embarrassed themselves on the soccer field yesterday, which I found amusing.

[Brett L]

Hmm. We'd better take the Belize match seriously.

[BakedPenguin]

Well, they used to be British Honduras, and regular Honduras already beat the US team this year.

If the US find the form they had against Panama, though, it should be a good game.

[Brett L]

By "good game", I hope you mean, we roll over a team whose nation has fewer total people than we have male college soccer players.

[BakedPenguin]

Is there another definition?

[Brett L]

Well, I've been following the USMNT in soccer since 1990, so yeah. A "good game" used to be one where we were within 2 goals at full time.

[BakedPenguin]

I can relate. I started paying half-ass attention with the '94 WC. (I still remember Balboa just missing with a bicycle kick.)

The Panama game was the first one I can remember where the US totally dominated an opponent (that wasn't a total joke) - where they just refused to give them a chance to get back in the game.

[Brett L]

Honestly, if they can get past their penchant for spotting opponents goals in the first 20 mins, the US can play with anyone except Brazil and Spain.

[robc]

Im surprised Mexico hasnt been doing some whole scale firing.

The pathetic showing so far in the Hex, nothing in Confed Cup and then this.

[BakedPenguin]

Well, they get to play Guadaloupe and then Canada. If they don't get 6 opints out of those 2 games, I'm sure Chepo's gone.

[KDN]

Do they really care about the Gold Cup enough to fire anyone over it? I've been to a Gold Cup final, it's a mix of the U-23 and the senior team's C-squad; I doubt they'd fire their manager because the equivalent of spring training split squad lost to a lesser country's full team.

[robc]

In a vacuum, that would be true. But 5 draws in 6 matches in the Hex so far is another story.

[KDN]

If that's the direction they were leaning than it would make sense to make the change before the Gold Cup so the new guy can take his lumps in an essentially meaningless endeavor. I think it's a foregone conclusion that he gets fired if Mexico doesn't qualify for the WC, but Gold Cup results aren't going to matter either way.

[robc]

I think it's a foregone conclusion that he gets fired if Mexico doesn't qualify for the WC

I think its a foregone conclusion that he will be fired mid-qualifications if that ever becomes a serious possibility.

Im honestly surprised he made it to Confed Cup.

[The Late P Brooks]

I see the intestinal obstruction has backed himself into another corner.

Keep barking and snarling, you vicious little attack chihuahua.

[Enough About Palin]

Elliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York over a prostitution scandal, wants to run for comptroller in New York City.

Lust for power is a mental illness.

[Pro Libertate]

Hold on. Maybe comptroller in New York means the guy who oversees prostitution? I mean, I think we have to acknowledge his expertise in the area, whatever his other failings as a politician, lawyer, and human being.

[BakedPenguin]

Pimptroller!

[Pro Libertate]

He's a fucking pimptroller! Hey, I think you're on to something!

[BakedPenguin]

"The Pimptroller Steamroller."

[Pro Libertate]

You left out the fucking.

[BakedPenguin]

Then it would have to be "The fucking Steamroller Pimptroller."

[Pro Libertate]

There you go! He has my vote.

[Kaptious Kristen]

A cop (and a butch female one, at that) called me "sir" this weekend. That is all.

[Pro Libertate]

Bitch must pay.

[John]

She was just hoping to get your phone number.

[Kaptious Kristen]

If that's her approach, she ain't never gonna get laid.

[John]

Maybe you are just not the kind of girl she is looking for.

[sgs]

Scissor grind!

[Kaptious Kristen]

That's not all, actually. She claimed that the area I had stopped to water my dog in (parking lot of the Transit Po-Po HQ at Huntington Metro) was "private property" and that I should stick to the "perimeter" if I wanted to stop.

Remember when police stations used to be a safe haven for people? I'd feel more safe walking along the abandoned wooded road behind the station at this point.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

You took your dog near a police station???!?!?!? Do you hate your dog or something?

[Brett L]

We really should call the ASPCA. (Do they still no-kill when possible or are they like PETA now -- all fundraising, no services?)

[Kaptious Kristen]

They run those sad-sack commercials of animals in cages now, so I'd say they're more like PETA than anything. You could call Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescue, though! My dog is totally gonna be Mr. January for the 2014 calendar (mine is Franklin - duh!).

[Brett L]

I'm not much of pug fan, but he appears to be a fine specimen.

[Kaptious Kristen]

You monster!

[Brett L]

Its the snuffling. It drives me nuts. I realize that makes me accidentally monstrous.

[Brett L]

Isn't that how butches show respect? They call everyone they respect "sir" and everyone they think they can dominate "ma'am". Or have I drifted over to the "power bottom" straight-splanation of gay archetypes?

[Fatty Bolger]

So that's how Marcie ended up.

[John]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....ouble.html

Argentina now jailing bread hoarders. Remember, large parts of Argentina look a lot like Kansas and it is just as easy to grow wheat there. But the place is now worried about hoarders and bread shortages.

The only thing that ever causes hunger and starvation is socialism.

[BakedPenguin]

Like how North Korea is constantly blaming "drought" for food shortages. We had a massive drought in the mid-west, and prices rose a bit.

[John]

Droughts and floods. Of course North Korea really doesn't have much arable land. But it does have a lot of mineral wealth. But can't eat the minerals. And when you adopt an insane system of "self reliance" and refuse to trade your minerals for food, you starve.

Western environmentalists would do the same thing to the US. Here instead of Juche, it is called "eating locally". Taken to its logical conclusion, eating locally would produce the same problem.

[tarran]

No! Massachusetts could totally be self sufficient if we ate only locally grown food; after 400 years of agriculture, the ground is almost rock-free and totally not marginal!

[mad libertarian guy]

Eating local makes sense.

In the fucking summer when there are plenty of local things to eat when you live in an area where you can grow whatthefuckever.

In every other scenario eating local is fucking retarded.

[John]

Does it make sense to use large tracks of land to grow things in say Massachusetts rather than grow them in California and ship them? Not necessarily. Shipping is cheap and the land in California is a hundred times better than Massachusetts.

All eating local often does is put marginal land into production that really shouldn't be in production.

[Rasilio]

" Shipping is cheap and the land in California is a hundred times better than Massachusetts."

Actually you are misinformed on this point.

The soil in New England and upstate New York is some of the most fertile on the planet and the combination of weather and abundant groundwater makes drought pretty much a non issue.

The only issue with agriculture in New England is there is not enough arable land to support the population thanks to the interior of Maine being largely uninhabitable mountains/swamps

[KPres]

If they started farming in New England, wouldn't the hippies be all upset about the deforestation?

[Rasilio]

Lol believe it or not there is actually still quite a bit of farming that goes on here but more importantly if you drive around the state you notice something almost immediately, very few of the trees are more than 80 years old. Why is that? Because 80 years ago they were all farms.

Basically farming died off here largely because of the difficulty to find farm labor, the industrial factories in Boston and Lowell paid much better and offered better working conditions. So the farmers abandoned their fields and went to work in the factories allowing new forests to grow up where the fields used to be. There is actually more forested acreage here in Mass today than there was in 1776

[robc]

Exactly. Eating local makes sense in the product can be reasonably grown locally.

Comparative advantage and all that.

[Fatty Bolger]

In which case those local foods will likely be fresher and cheaper anyway, so there's really no need to "push" them.

[robc]

The only thing that ever causes hunger and starvation is socialism government.

FTFY.

Despots and etc also work, its not just socialism.

[John]

But not every despotic country starves. Only the ones who adopt socialism starve.

[robc]

Pre-socialism it happened.

I guess if you want to be technical, it takes the government controlling the means of production in some way, so, yeah, socialism.

But government famines have been happening for millennia and the term "socialism" is only a few centuries old.

But yeah, I guess as a platonic ideal its existed forever.

[John]

But famines used to happen because transportation was so poor. You couldn't get a steady supply of food from other places in the world. So if you had a bad harvest, you were in a lot of trouble. Famines ended in Europe once refrigeration and steam ships were invented. Absent a war or socialism, no one has starved in Europe since the 1850s. No one in the world today should be starving at all. The only reason they do is because of socialism. There is not a single place going hungry in the world today that doesn't have a socialist government.

[robc]

My point is that the old historical famines werent caused by nature conditions but by government action.

It may have taken a drought to kick them off, but that wasnt the cause.

[John]

My point is that the old historical famines werent caused by nature conditions but by government action.

No. Before transportation, they were caused by nature. The only reason nature stopped mattering is because of the ability to import food from areas that had good harvests.

[robc]

Before transportation, they were caused by nature.

False.

The research Ive seen suggests this has NEVER* been true. You have been brainwashed John.

*okay, maybe a few rare circumstances

[robc]

Of course "before transportation" needs to be defined, but you seem to be defining it as "refrigeration and steam ships".

Grain is transportable via donkey pulled cart, so you have to go a long, long way back to get pre-transportation in my book.

[John]

Grain is transportable via donkey pulled cart, so you have to go a long, long way back to get pre-transportation in my book.

But that is not the ability to transport huge amounts of food to feed a large number of people. What happens when an area the size of France and Spain all have bad harvests the same year? There has to be both a large enough surplus within a few hundred miles to cover the shortfall (or otherwise the locals won't sell the food) and the ability to transport it. Before railroads, steam ships and such that was unlikely.

Famine was a way of life and most people in the world lived under the threat of starvation before the 19th Century. That wasn't governments. That was nature.

[robc]

Bullshit.

Look at the history of famines.

All the large Chinese famines, areas much larger than France or Spain, were caused by government action. Enough food existed, enough food could be got to the right place. It wasnt done for political reasons.

Heck, even biblical famines in Egypt were basically do to government action. Even the counter-example of the famine prevented by the Pharoah listening to Joseph shows this. They saved up extra grain for YEARS to have enough for the lean times. Thats because grain is storable and transportable even in very primitive times.

[robc]

*due*

[John]

Just because governments caused some famines didn't mean they caused them all Rob. This may come as a shock to you, but bad shit does happen. Life sucked before the modern age.

And Egypt is a bad example. Because of the Nile floods, they had multiple growing seasons and never had to worry about droughts. Once in twenty years would the Nile not flood. Egypt is unlike about anywhere on earth.

[John]

I haven't been brianwashed. I have just read history. And the last thing governments wanted in any time was their people starving. That caused real problems and governments went to huge lengths to prevent it. But there was only so much that could be done before modern transportation.

[robc]

the last thing governments wanted in any time was their people starving.

No, quite often that is exactly what they wanted.

Certain groups of their people, anyway.

[Fluffy]

Holy shit, man, did you read the whole article?

Apparently the interior minister reacted to shortages of goods by...ordering stores to close.

"There are no shortages if stores aren't open! Yee-haw!"

And apparently they have export limits on wheat, and apply export duties to it as well.

So they are holding wheat for ransom.

And they are very, very surprised this is not working out for them.

And they have a 1974 law that allows them to freeze prices, and that prohibits producers from cutting production in response to the price freeze. Producers are required to make the same amount of goods available as before.

So they literally are applying Directive 10-289. IT ACTUALLY EXISTS.

Enjoy starvation, Argentina.

[robc]

Once again, anyone who thinks Rand villains arent realistic isnt paying any attention to the real world.

[KPres]

Yep. Her villains are absurd and over the top, but that's what makes them realistic.

[Brett L]

Apparently the interior minister reacted to shortages of goods by...ordering stores to close.

"There are no shortages if stores aren't open! Yee-haw!"

See: Bank Holiday

[John]

It is like rent control applied to food. If someone had wanted to starve the population, they couldn't have designed a more efficient system. Hell, burning down all of the wheat fields would have been really hard and taken a lot of effort. This achieved the same effect with the stroke of a pen.

[StacyKay]

If anyone here enjoys good sci-fi with a libertarian(ish) streak, I finished A Darkness In My Soul by Dean R. Koontz yesterday and my mind is feeling pretty blown today. It's kind of like LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness but way cooler.

[cavalier973]

Leaning in is for losers.

[cavalier973]

Ms. Bergfeld doesn't have children, but she has demanding responsibilities outside the office raising sheep and breeding Greater Swiss Mountain dogs. Around the time Ms. Uttech first asked permission to work from home, in fact, Ms. Bergfeld boldly left in the middle of a board meeting in Washington because of a family emergency of sorts: her very first puppy litter was about to be born earlier than expected, and her "city boy" husband at home "couldn't deal," she said.

[cavalier973]

Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book.

[cavalier973]

After overhearing the men wagering, Baucum befriended Culosi as a cover to begin investigating him. During the next several months, he talked Culosi into raising the stakes of what Culosi thought were just more fun wagers between friends to make watching sports more interesting. Eventually Culosi and Baucum bet more than $2,000 in a single day. Under Virginia law, that was enough for police to charge Culosi with running a gambling operation. And that's when they brought in the SWAT team.

[cavalier973]

On the night of January 24, 2006, Baucum called Culosi and arranged a time to drop by to collect his winnings. When Culosi, barefoot and clad in a T-shirt and jeans, stepped out of his house to meet the man he thought was a friend, the SWAT team began to move in. Seconds later, Det. Deval Bullock, who had been on duty since 4:00 AM and hadn't slept in seventeen hours, fired a bullet that pierced Culosi's heart. Sal Culosi's last words were to Baucum, the cop he thought was a friend: "Dude, what are you doing?"

[cavalier973]

Ron Paul has a new channel.