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Witness Says Manning's Guantanamo Leaks Were Harmless, Judge Admits FISA Court Is Flawed, GOP Wants To Slash IRS Funding: P.M. Links

J.D. Tuccille | 7.9.2013 4:30 PM

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    Testifying for the defense, a former Guantánamo Bay prosecutor told the court that secret detainee assessments that Bradley Manning gave to WikiLeaks did not threaten national security.

  • The lack of an adversarial process is a serious flaw in the FISA court, admits James Robertson, a former judge for that body. Be he still insists that it's not a rubber stamp. Of course not; even rubber stamps don't say "yes" with such consistency.
  • Edward Snowden accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum, claims a Russian lawmaker. I might have gone with Nicaragua, just for the beaches.
  • Slashing the IRS budget by $3 billion would be a nice way to start reining-in the out-of-control tax agency, say House Republicans.
  • The Emergency Alert System turns out to be very vulnerable to hacking. Which raises all sorts of cool possibilities.
  • Delaying Obamacare mandates for businesses was nice, but how about dropping them for everybody else, GOP leaders urge the White House.
  • In the ongoing trial of George Zimmerman, a forensics expert testified that Trayvon Martin was on top when Zimmerman fired his gun.
  • Mexico's obesity rate has now surpassed that of the United States. It's the guacamole. I can't resist it, either.

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NEXT: Illinois Becomes Last State to Legalize Concealed Carry

J.D. Tuccille is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    The lack of an adversarial process is a serious flaw in the FISA court, admits James Robertson, a former judge for that body.

    But it makes things go so much smoother.

    1. Dweebston   12 years ago

      Is it too much to hope for an oversight committee staffed by Paul, Amash et al?

      1. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

        Justice runs so much more smoothly when one side isn't allowed to defend itself.

        Streamline justice! Vote for secret courts!

    2. Mickey Rat   12 years ago

      Gul Dukat: In Cardassia, the verdict is always known before the trial begins; and it's always the same.

      Commander Sisko: In that case, why bother with a trial at all?

      Gul Dukat: Because the people demand it. They enjoy watching justice triumph over evil, every time. They find it comforting.

      Commander Sisko: Isn't there ever a chance you might try an innocent man by mistake?

      Gul Dukat: Cardassians don't make mistakes.

      Commander Sisko: I'll have to remember that.

      1. Omni   12 years ago

        Don't forget when they explain why they always try only the guilty...because bringing the innocent to trial would be wrong.

    3. Michael S. Langston   12 years ago

      The lack of an adversarial process is a serious flaw in the FISA court all government functions.

      Fixed

  2. Thane-kin   12 years ago

    The Emergency Alert System turns out to be very vulnerable to hacking. Which raises all sorts of cool possibilities.

    I am owed an H/T.

    1. JW   12 years ago

      JUST THE TIP.

      1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

        It's never just the tip.

    2. generic Brand   12 years ago

      You negated any possibility of a hat-tip when you used the wrong article to precede it.

      1. Thane-kin   12 years ago

        "an" is correct when you pronounce the letters rather than expand it into hat-tip

        1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

          What, are you Eliza fucking Doolittle now?

          "Can I git an 'at tip, guvnah?"

          1. Atanarjuat   12 years ago

            No, it's "Gimme a aytch-tee".

            1. Atanarjuat   12 years ago

              An. Whatever. I give up.

    3. Ted S.   12 years ago

      Would you settle for having your comment backdated so that you beat Fisty?

      1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

        Nothing is ever backdated on HnR!

        1. R C Dean   12 years ago

          I think you mean "an" HnR.

          1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

            I don't get it.

            Also are you back for good now?

            1. R C Dean   12 years ago

              Until some idiot screws the pooch around here and I have to scrape a knuckle on their skanky ass, sure. With the kind of paperwork that kicks up, my ability to duck out to an HnR will be limited.

      2. Thane-kin   12 years ago

        I'm pretty sure it's an inside job.

        1. Ted S.   12 years ago

          Perhaps if you ask Tucksilly nicely, he'll back-date it for you. 🙂

          1. Thane-kin   12 years ago

            Yeah, I mean, I was only 6 seconds behind Fist.

  3. generic Brand   12 years ago

    Slashing the IRS budget by $3 billion would be a nice way to start reining-in the out-of-control tax agency, say House Republicans.

    It looks like the Republican Party may have finally found a way to win some votes. I give them about 2 months to fuck this up, though.

    1. DontShootMe   12 years ago

      They're better than that. It won't take nearly as long as 2 months.

      1. Rich   12 years ago

        This. Some GOP congresscreature will propose using the $3B for anti-abortion education.

    2. John   12 years ago

      Give them two weeks before their friends in Washington shame them into backing down.

    3. Dweebston   12 years ago

      I predict $3 billion in cuts will become a $3 million reduction in projected spending increases, and even that will quietly fizzle before the midterms.

      1. R C Dean   12 years ago

        Too optimistic. It will be a reduction in out-year spending increases.

    4. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      The IRS suffers? That's a noble cause.

    5. Certified Public Asskicker   12 years ago

      I mean, fuck the IRS...but if you are going to have a convoluted way of raising taxes, shouldn't you keep enough people on payroll to ensure compliance?

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        No, kill it. Kill it with fire.

  4. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Slashing the IRS budget by $3 billion would be a nice way to start reining-in the out-of-control tax agency...

    THEN HOW ARE THEY GOING TO ENFORCE OBAMACARE??? Did Republicans even think of that?

  5. Thane-kin   12 years ago

    I was recently made aware of this awesome Google feature.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      I'm a three.

      1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

        I'm a one.

        I used to talk on the phone with Michael Jordan, who did Haines underwear commercials with Kevin Bacon.

        Which is why the generator is BS:

        Michael Jordan's Bacon number is 2
        Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson appeared in NBA Hardwood Classics: Superstars Collection.
        Magic Johnson and Kevin Bacon appeared in She's Having a Baby.

        They were on TV all the fucking time FFS.

        1. Ball-sac   12 years ago

          What were you doing talking to Michael Jordan?

        2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          Hey, I miscalculated (used the wrong celebrity)--I'm a two. Woo-hoo!

    2. Killazontherun   12 years ago

      I'm not even in the same universe it appears. No number given with my full name. Double check my middle -- fucking hate it -- make sure it spelled correctly.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        Have you met anyone famous? Use that person and add one.

        1. Juice   12 years ago

          Doing that, I'm a three.

          Darrell Hammond's Bacon number is 2
          Darrell Hammond and Alec Baldwin appeared in Saturday Night Live in the 2000s: Time and Again.
          Alec Baldwin and Kevin Bacon appeared in She's Having a Baby.

        2. Arkansaustrian Economics   12 years ago

          I'm in a John McCain-Tom Hanks sandwich situation (I have the same birthday as Hanks, today, and I met McCain in February).

          John McCain's Bacon number is 2
          John McCain and Tom Hanks appeared in Return With Honor.
          Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon appeared in Apollo 13.

  6. playa manhattan   12 years ago

    Torrance denies liability in Christopher Dorner-related confrontation with Redondo Beach surfer:
    http://www.presstelegram.com/n.....on-redondo

  7. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    Edward Snowden accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum, claims a Russian lawmaker. I might have gone with Nicaragua, just for the beaches.

    Better bring some toilet paper.

  8. generic Brand   12 years ago

    Trayvon Martin was on top when Zimmerman fired his gun.

    Hopefully at least one of them will get off from this unfortunate escapade.

    1. Rasilio   12 years ago

      Well if Zimmerman's "gun" already fired it sounds like someone already did get off

    2. Atanarjuat   12 years ago

      Kin-key.

  9. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Mexico's obesity rate has now surpassed that of the United States.

    Better build the fence with extra buttresses.

    1. John   12 years ago

      That is because only the skinny ones were fast enough to sneak across the border.

    2. JW   12 years ago

      It's because of all that high fructose agave syrup.

      1. Dweebston   12 years ago

        Have you tried a sugar-free margarita? Aspartame and tequila is an unholy union.

        1. JW   12 years ago

          That is the taste of Hell.

        2. Tonio   12 years ago

          Sugar? Dweebston, you gringo. Agave nectar, dude. Also, non-glycemic.

          1. Dweebston   12 years ago

            What. I need to look into this.

            1. Agammamon   12 years ago

              Why would you be adding sugar, no matter what type of sugar, to a margarita in the first place?

              1. Agammamon   12 years ago

                I mean c'mon, there's three ingredients to a margarita
                1 lime
                2 Cointreau
                3 tequila

                What is this, Auschwitz?

                1. Dweebston   12 years ago

                  I'm referring to the premixed stuff the bars use. It's not top-shelf, but it's serviceable.

                2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  Yeah, sugar? WTF?

          2. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

            I think it's low-glycemic, and everyone got weird on it after they found out its sugar composition was more similar to HFCS due to the way it's processed. I will grant that it is a delicious sweetener for a margarita though.

            1. Dweebston   12 years ago

              Not that it matters, I suppose. I tried the low-carb thing awhile back (I'm fairly scrawny as it is, but my brother needed to shed some weight). Now I'm content dispensing with sugar and refined wheat and saving my carb allowance for beer.

      2. some guy   12 years ago

        You mean tequila?

        1. Zeb   12 years ago

          Tequila that hasn't fermented yet.

  10. BakedPenguin   12 years ago

    ...Trayvon Martin was on top...

    Zimmerman's a power bottom.

    1. Tonio   12 years ago

      Heh.

  11. rts   12 years ago

    Canada Day bomb plot entrapment?

    Speaking outside the courtroom, Morino alluded to U.S. police forces being involved in the investigation and said there were "elements of entrapment" in the case.

    ...

    The couple's landlord described them as having limited means and questioned how they could have financed such a plot.

    Another terror case helped along by the cops?

    1. John   12 years ago

      I am starting to wonder if the Boston bombers were the only terrorists in North America not on the FBI terrorist grant program.

      1. Rich   12 years ago

        Sorry, John. That's classified.

      2. NeonCat   12 years ago

        Since the Russians warned us about them maybe they figured they didn't need any help.

      3. Andrew S.   12 years ago

        The conspiracy theorist in me still wonders whether the Boston bombers were on the FBI grant program, but something went wrong.

  12. Thane-kin   12 years ago

    Diversity: Where 'Justice League' Film Can Top 'The Avengers'

    How ironic that Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn II contains one of the very best super-powered mass battle scenes ever put on film.

    1. Eduard van Haalen   12 years ago

      Yeah, but it was all a dream.

      Oops, I mean *Spoiler Alert!*

    2. Brandon   12 years ago

      How ironic that Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn II contains one of the very best super-powered mass battle scenes ever put on film.

      I don't even know what this means.

      1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

        It's the power of glitter!

    3. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

      I've heard the fight scenes in the Twilight series are actually the only good part of those movies, but I really don't want to waste money on renting them just to watch about 15-20 minutes worth of film.

      1. Ruckus   12 years ago

        I've seen parts of enough of them with the wife to know there was only 1 fight scene in the entire series. And yes it a very good 6-8 minute scene the article referenced.

      2. Fatty Bolger   12 years ago

        Honest Trailers - Twilight

        Honest Trailers - Twilight 4: Breaking Dawn

    4. Killazontherun   12 years ago

      Diversity, because its a win-win!

      Fuck do I hate egalitarians.

    5. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

      Joss Whedon made headlines last month, as he does from time-to-time, criticizing the state of the superhero movie industry and the utter failure to craft a successful blockbuster superhero film featuring a female superhero.

      That's because stuff like Buffy the Feminist Wet Dream doesn't translate to a mass movie-going audience, as Whedon damn well should know. You'd think with the kind of stroke he has in the industry now that he could easily sell a Wonder Woman summer tentpole to studios.

      Black Widow will seemingly remain ever the supporting character

      It's not because Black Widow's not lead-character material (at least for a low-budget spy-thriller), it's because Scarlet Johanssen's a shitty actress that can't carry a movie.

      1. R C Dean   12 years ago

        a Wonder Woman summer tentpole

        With the right lead, I'm suspecting "tentpole" would be the right word.

        1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

          I really don't see anyone in the current crop of ACKSHUN GRRRRLZ that could pull it off without it turning into a ridiculous farce. You'd need someone with a statuesque physique and great curves, a decent athlete for fight scenes, plus enough acting ability to pull off what would inevitably be a groaner screenplay loaded with inverted Ahhnold-type girl-power one-liners.

          1. Episiarch   12 years ago

            What about Katheryn Winnick?

          2. A Secret Band of Robbers   12 years ago

            Whedon was lobbying for Cobie Smulders.

            1. SugarFree   12 years ago

              Gina Carano

            2. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

              Whedon was lobbying for Cobie Smulders.

              Man, once he gets his hard-on for certain women, he has a tough time letting go, doesn't he? I'm surprised he didn't suggest Dushku.

          3. JParker   12 years ago

            How about Chloe Grace Moretz?

      2. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

        From the comments, by Mark Hughes:
        And really, these boys need to spend a little more time in the real world, to become aware of the fact that there are plenty of women who could knock these fanboys on their butts in a heartbeat. Women are soldiers, women are cops, women are firefighters, women are martial artists and MMA fighters.

        LOL--yes, and most of these women would still get killed, literally and figuratively, by an average man with bad intentions, and they could do it with their bare hands.

        Yes, your typical pasty-skinned, Mountain Dew-guzzling nerd (i.e., Mark Hughes) would probably get beat up in a fight with an average woman. Apparently, he thinks acting like a simpering eunuch is going to get him laid.

        1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   12 years ago

          What a pussy.

      3. Agammamon   12 years ago

        What's Whedon's idea of a female superhero? *He's* only got one type - thin, attractive, 20ish waif, running around barefoot.

        1. Brett L   12 years ago

          Umm. Gina Torres?

          1. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

            We're talking about heroes, not eldritch horrors.

      4. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

        Maybe it's because fucking Wasp has more superpowers than Black Widow, but what do I know?

    6. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      "OMG! Were R teh blaq and wimminz soopurheroz?!"

      Mendelson, just admit you want Wonder Woman to tie you up and put a dildo up your ass. That's why she was created in the first place. To make BDSM acceptable to the squares.

      Superman should have proven that if the writers and directors treat a franchise with respect (as in, Superman: Deadbeat Dad feat. Lex Luthor's Wacky Real Estate Adventures), then you can print money at the box office.

      Treat Wonder Woman likewise. Give her a legit threat villain (like Ares) and a backstory.

      1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

        Mendelson, just admit you want Wonder Woman to tie you up and put a dildo up your ass. That's why she was created in the first place. To make BDSM acceptable to the squares.

        Pretty much. I doubt this guy's read much of the early Wonder Woman comics and his primary exposure to her was probably through the TV series.

      2. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

        Isn't that basically the plot of the animated WW movie? Which, for what it's worth, had Nathan Fillion doing VO for the male supporting role.

  13. SugarFree   12 years ago

    The Ripper Paranundrum: A Warty Hugeman Time Travel Adventure

    Warty Hugeman hated Victorian England. There was soot everywhere, the whores were particularly scabby, and the whole place smelled like disemboweled horse. But this is where his prey was to be found, and Warty Hugeman always got his man. Or woman. Or sexually ambiguous alien.

    "Where the hell is he?" Warty muttered to himself. This was the most thoroughly documented murder by Jack the Ripper and Warty meant to have him. He already had a place in the Menagerie picked out, right between Peter K?rten, The Vampire of D?sseldorf, and Jurgen Metzler, The Mad Butcher of Milwaukee. Ed Gein was once housed in the case, but Warty had gotten sick of his constant demands for salted vulvas and let him loose in Hitler's bunker, after making him watch Warty take Eva Braun's anal virginity. Hitler's bunker was such a time travel clich?, Warty hoped Gein would kill some of his rivals.

    1. SugarFree   12 years ago

      The Forstock twins kept going back the day before he stole Charlemagne's crown and stealing it first. He'd also seen those little bald fuckers sulking around Golgotha as well. Poseurs. He'd seen the Jew die a hundred times before they were even born, or would have been born if he hadn't kicked their mother to death. They were loose in the timestream now. If they ever returned to their place in the skein, they'd dissolve into fetal goo in seconds, erased from history. Warty had masturbated into a supervolcano on Pangea after that victory, his manly juices steaming into the primordial sky.

      Warty saw movement in the alley across from his vantage point. Pressure on his right incisor activated his infrared implant. The figure that was revealed was huge, tall and broad. It stepped out into the feeble gaslight. It was himself. Warty waved himself over. He was taller and more muscular. An biomechanical webbing covered most of his face.

      "What are you doing here?" Warty asked himself.

      "You don't get him on the first try," himself said to he. "I'm going to make sure you do it right this time."

      "What went wrong last time?"

      "I distracted you, but that's not going to happen his time."

      And even larger figure stepped up behind him. Warty went down in a defensive crouch as a large silvered hand dropped on Warty's shoulder.

      1. SugarFree   12 years ago

        "Yes, you do distract him," Warty said to hisselves. He was covered in a silver coating from head to toe. He looked like an enormous, monstrously sexy mannequin.

        "So when should I not be distracted?" Warty asked Warty.

        "In about three Earth minutes," Warty said.

        "So, um, how's it going?" Warty asked.

        "I can't tell you, you know that," they said, slightly out of sync like a cheap stereo.

        Warty sized up the two. "Do I just keep getting bigger and bigger? Cause you are huge, dude."

        "Yes," they both said.

        "So I'm definitely going to get him, right? You two cancel each other out?" Warty asked the Warties.

        Before they could answer, a gigantic shadow detached itself from the gloom of the alley and towered over them. "No," it said. "They both distract you when they start making out."

        "Well, that's just fucking great." Warty couldn't even make out the Warty swaddled in light-swallowing black, but he could hear his breathing, rumbling like distant thunder. How much bigger can I get, he thought? A small surge of blood flooded his penis. The giant shadow laughed knowingly.

        "OK, here he comes," said one of the Warties. Warty could see a lithe figure coming toward them. The familiar cape, the doctor's bag, a flash of white teeth.

        1. SugarFree   12 years ago

          "Get him!" Warty yelled. He tackled the figure and they wrestled briefly. Jack the Ripper was nothing to rippling bulk of the smallest Warty. The others cheered him on.

          Warty ripped away the hood of the subdued figure. It was his face, sickly, thin and grooved with pain.

          "I came back to stop you," wheezed the small Warty. "You cannot take Jack The Ripper from the timestream! Dire events unfold from this night. Dire!" He coughed feebly.

          Warty stood up and brushed the Victorian filth from his elegant clothes. He backed away from the assembled Warties.

          "You know what? Fuck this shit, I'm going home." He flashed out of existence as the others ran toward him.

          1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

            So do we get to see them making out or does that happen off screen?

            1. Dweebston   12 years ago

              This isn't the screenplay Hollywood wants, but the screenplay Hollywood needs. Instead, we're given reboots of reboots.

              1. Episiarch   12 years ago

                Michael Bay knows and fears the power of NutraSweet's writing, which is why he gave NutraSweet diabetes.

                1. Tim   12 years ago

                  Wait. Did the real Jack get away?

                  1. NeonCat   12 years ago

                    It will turn out that there never was a Jack per se, it was a splooge rag left by the assorted Wartys that gained sentience, evil, evil sentience.

                  2. Dweebston   12 years ago

                    You fools, there was no Jack the Ripper. At the end of the movie Warty discovers that he, unwittingly, is Jack the Ripper, after leaving a trail of dead prostitutes who are also Warties.

              2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                I can't decide whether this should be big-budget, James Cameron stuff, or small-budget, Werner Herzog material.

                1. Tim   12 years ago

                  Next up: Warty goes back in time to stop Mexicans from getting fatter than us.

                  1. SugarFree   12 years ago

                    Hmm...

                    1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

                      Rape, rape, rape yourself thinner with the "Rapercize With Warty" video series. Only $24.95 plus shipping and handling.

          2. Restoras   12 years ago

            This is the best thing I've read since the last time I read Little Red Caboose.

          3. JEP   12 years ago

            Every time you post something like this, it makes me think how awesome it would be if H&R wrote a play as an homage to the Sunny in Philadelphia episode where the gang puts on Charlie's play about the night man.

            Starring the commenters of course...

            1. Episiarch   12 years ago

              Warty is the Nightman?

              Mac: I mean the first half of that song was kind of cool, but what's with the second half?

              Charlie: It's about the Night Man, like you know, like filling me up and I become him--I become the spirit of the Night Man.

              Mac: But it sounds like a song where a man breaks into your house and rapes you.

            2. Warty   12 years ago

              Well, I am a master of karate.

              1. Irish   12 years ago

                Yeah, but you suck at friendship.

          4. Killazontherun   12 years ago

            after making him watch Warty take Eva Braun's anal virginity.

            I've been told she was a squatter.

    2. Tim   12 years ago

      The feel good hit of the summer.

    3. some guy   12 years ago

      So this is one of those things I've heard so much about. I smiled.

    4. Rich   12 years ago

      the Victorian filth

      Nice band name.

      1. NeonCat   12 years ago

        Especially if they start every performance by screaming "'Ello, Guvnah!" and spiting on the audience.

        While wearing top hats, naturally.

  14. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Delaying Obamacare mandates for businesses was nice, but how about dropping them for everybody else, GOP leaders urge the White House.

    They're going to keep delaying sections and at some point the White House is going to realize they have effectively repealed the whole thing.

    1. Overt   12 years ago

      Except for the funding part. Because that money is being spent on shit no matter whether people actually use it.

  15. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    Eliot Spitzer Never Should Have Resigned in the First Place

    Eliot Spitzer's resignation as governor of New York state has worked out all right for the world. He went on to write a bunch of good columns for Slate and?after the awkward David Patterson interregnum in New York?the state wound up with another effective governor in Andrew Cuomo. But now that he's trying to mount a political comeback by running for the relatively lowly office of New York city comptroller, it's worth stating the obvious: He never should have resigned in the first place, and the other people in New York State Democratic Party politics who pushed him to resign did the state and the country a disservice

    [snip]

    He's one of the few New York City officials to have focused in on the city's obscene infrastructure construction costs as a key problem holding back improved mass transit service. In fact, in Spitzer vs. Stringer you now have two quite solid candidates for a position that, unfortunately, is somewhat underpowered.
    But on a larger stage, Spitzer represented something quite important?a New York Democrat who was known for cracking down on Wall Street.

    Every time I think Amanda Marcotte is the stupidest twat on the internet, Matt Yglesias has to go and prove me wrong.

    1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

      Link here

    2. John   12 years ago

      In fairness, it is not surprising that Yglesias, a man whom no women would dream of sleeping with without a getting a certified check for at least five figures up front, would sympathize with a politician caught seeing a whore.

      1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

        No, it's not. What is surprising is that someone at Slate decided to pay hire on a 20-something Philosophy major who's never worked a real job in his life as their business and economics correspondent, and that someone thought the above brain droppings were worth paying for.

        Oh, I guess that's not all that surprising, either.

        1. John   12 years ago

          Why anyone hired Yglesias and Klein to do anything is fucking beyond me. They literally know nothing.

        2. Zeb   12 years ago

          The sad part is that he did turn out to be worth paying for. People actually pay to read that shit.

      2. Kaptious Kristen   12 years ago

        Five figures? Try 6+

        1. fish   12 years ago

          Five figures? Try 6+

          Nice to see someone here is trying to maintain her standards.

    3. itsnotmeitsyou   12 years ago

      good columns for Slate

      Couldn't even get past that line.

      1. JW   12 years ago

        Sad Beard is hoping for an appointment to the Spitzer Wall Street Flying Squad. NO ONE can perp walk a CEO with style, like Sad Beard can.

    4. Ted S.   12 years ago

      Spitzer sicced the state troopers on the Senate Majority Leader. Spitzer is a thoroughly evil monster.

    5. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Holy shit. The guy was a terrible AG. Terrible. Abused power in the worst way, with too many examples to name, and clearly lacking personal ethics as well. One of the worst, and his fall was physically pleasing to most around here.

    6. JW   12 years ago

      He's one of the few New York City officials to have focused in on the city's obscene infrastructure construction costs as a key problem holding back improved mass transit service.

      Just more bad luck. There's no possible way the current system could have created this situation.

    7. PapayaSF   12 years ago

      a New York Democrat who was known for cracking down on Wall Street.

      There's an industry they haven't driven out of the city yet? Sic 'em!

  16. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

    Damn Mexicans. I've got hundreds of Hass avocados growing on my tree this season. If they think they'll still be fatter than me next year, they're in for a big surprise!

    1. Tim   12 years ago

      They don't know who they're messing with.

    2. Brandon   12 years ago

      Do you actually have an avocado tree? Can I grow one of those in Colorado? How long does it take before I can harvest avocados?

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Avocados are green, right? And oddly rich in fat for something made from vegetation, huh? What else was green and supposedly not made from people?

        1. Restoras   12 years ago

          This will depend on your local permitting process...

          On a good, or at least better, note, yesterday I got a call from the pistol licensing office in my county. They are adding evening appointments to turn in paperwork because the backlog is so massive. So now my appointment, that I made in January, is in August instead of October. Woohoo.

          1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

            IT'S IN REVELATIONS, PEOPLE!!!!

        2. Brandon   12 years ago

          What the fuck are you talking about? Avocados are delicious, fairly expensive and almost impossible to store. I don't give a fuck where they come from, I just want to have them handy and cheap when I want some fucking guacamole, which is often.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            What I'm telling you is that Haas Green is pe-o-ple!

            1. Brandon   12 years ago

              Like I said, don't give a fuck.

          2. Overt   12 years ago

            Avocados will not survive Colorado's winter.

            Moving back here from CA, the loss of my Avocado tree was the ONLY thing I regret.

          3. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            Avocados expensive? They're practically giving them away right now out here. Maybe $.50/lb in the store and you can get a bout 5 lbs for $2 at the swap meets.

            In 2 months, they'll be $2.00/lb, but for now I'm enjoying the Mexican bumper crop they're having.

      2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

        The area where I live used to be nothing but avocado orchards, so I have one in my back yard. They're not at all frost tolerant so you couldn't grow one in CO unless you had it inside. I think it's several years before they mature and start producing fruit.

        1. Brandon   12 years ago

          Dammit.

        2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          They grow in Florida, no trouble. Like most stuff. Heck, I have a banana tree in my yard. No big deal.

          1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

            Sure. Sure. I keep a giraffe in mine.

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              You could. It's Florida. Everything can and does live here. That's how the pythons got started.

              1. Luddite   12 years ago

                Which one? Michael, John, Terry (x2), Eric, Graham? Inquiring minds must know.

        3. Killazontherun   12 years ago

          My fig trees are looking more awesome by the day. There's a fruit I can't get enough of.

    3. Rasilio   12 years ago

      America cannot and must not fall behind Mexico in the Obesity race

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        We won't, because I have a cunning plan: refried guacamole.

        1. Rasilio   12 years ago

          We need a strategic avacado reserve pronto

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            Yes, and we'd better start frying up the guacamole before DOJ starts giving away the idea to Mexican crimelords.

      2. Andrew S.   12 years ago

        I'm currently drinking a soda larger than 16 ounces. I'm doing my part!

    4. Brett L   12 years ago

      Testicolo trees!

  17. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    ...secret detainee assessments that Bradley Manning gave to WikiLeaks did not threaten national security.

    They were secret because, um... because of, uh... HIPAA! Yeah, that's it.

  18. itsnotmeitsyou   12 years ago

    Economic Development Agency destroys all computer equipment to get rid of virus

    There is so much derp here it hurts.

    First, $2.7m to remove a virus? $823k of which went to a contractor that could even do the damn job. Nothing left to cut.

    Second, talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Jeez, they only stopped destroying stuff because the couldn't afford to destroy any more stuff.

    Third, bested by NOAA?!?! really? those guys couldn't find their asshole if Warty handed it back to them.

    Aren't people who are in charge of economic development supposed to be good with money and figures and stuff?

    1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

      They had to spend $2.5 million on removing all the repeated links to the same stories.

      1. itsnotmeitsyou   12 years ago

        When was this posted? I must have missed that one. Dammit, it's still beyond idiotic.

        1. Auric Demonocles   12 years ago

          Earlier this afternoon.

    2. R C Dean   12 years ago

      Well, now they have to replace all that computer equipment.

      See? Economic development!

      1. VG Zaytsev   12 years ago

        Multiplyers.

  19. Coeus   12 years ago

    Of all the things to hate McCain for, these idiots pick this:

    Senator John McCain is the latest conservative politician to complain that the Department of Justice has "redefined the meaning of sexual harassment" at U.S. universities by cracking down on Title IX violations that protect students from intimidation and assault ? and he and his cronies think that's a bad thing.

    The tone of the article is something else. This person needs to be institutionalized. Tell her it's for the good of the collective, and and I'm sure she won't put up a fight.

    1. Thane-kin   12 years ago

      The tone of the article is something else.

      TONE POLICING!

    2. Thane-kin   12 years ago

      Also, the author repeats the lie that it pertains to "unwanted contact of a sexual nature" when the OCR agreement actually says conduct.

      FIRE already corrected a Think Progress post that made that mistake (assuming it was, after all, unintentional).

    3. Andrew S.   12 years ago

      Will you people stop linking to Gawker sites? Cripes. They make Slate and Salon and HuffPo look like excellent sources of journalism. Clicking on their stuff just gives them ad revenue and encourages them.

      (and I'm still pissed that the Gawker mentality infected and ruined Deadspin and io9)

  20. NeonCat   12 years ago

    Ford develops method for quick sheet metal prototypes.

    FTA:
    According to Ford, F3T introduces a high degree of flexibility into what is otherwise a time consuming process with the ability to produce a sheet metal prototype in three days. For some jobs, it can be a matter of hours.

    Ford sees a great deal of potential in F3T. The company claims that it can not only make design work faster and cheaper, it can also make custom orders much easier, so bespoke car bodies would be much more common. In addition, Ford sees applications in the aerospace, defense, transportation and appliance industries.

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      Yeah, but its all done at Ford quality. 🙁

      1. Matrix   12 years ago

        exactly...

  21. Thane-kin   12 years ago

    You can giggle if you want: Ainol Novo 10 Eternal is a 10 inch tablet with a big battery

    1. Agammamon   12 years ago

      Is, is this a spam link?

      1. Agammamon   12 years ago

        And only 1 anal/ainol joke and that's in the comments.

        1. Thane-kin   12 years ago

          Not spam. And the paucity of jokes is probably because most readers of that blog are likely already familiar with Ainol (I was, but I thought "eternal" and "big battery" made things a bit more funny).

  22. Caleb Turberville   12 years ago

    http://espn.go.com/espn/photos.....n-magazine

    NSFW: Anybody been checking out the new edition of ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue. There a lot of sexual appeal in the photos, but that pales in comparison to the sheer awe you receive from observing the masterfully sculpted bodies.

    1. John   12 years ago

      The drag racer is a butter face. But damn does she have a great body.

      1. Ted S.   12 years ago

        You probably like Agnieszka Radwa?ska?s face, too. 🙂

        At least the photo is from before she dyed her hair blonde. It looks terribly phony.

        And they should do Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli, if only to piss off the people who think women's sports should be about watching people who make them want to masturbate.

        1. John   12 years ago

          Bartoli is kind cute. She is just a short stocky Italian.

          And yes, that is what a lot of women's sports is about. If I wanted to see the best tennis players in the world, I would watch the men.

          1. Ted S.   12 years ago

            The women are so much better than everybody gives them credit for. Justine H?nin had a gorgeous backhand, and her beating both Williams sisters en route to the 2007 US Open title was a thing of beauty to watch. Of course, I watch (both genders, and doubles when they decide to show it and not just the fucking Bryan brothers) because I like the sport of tennis in general.

            I get extremely irritated both by the "I want to see people who make horny" people, and the people who think you should watch it for identity politics reasons.

          2. BakedPenguin   12 years ago

            Yeah, I don't think Bartoli is homely. Mauresmo is the go-to ugly female tennis player.

            1. Episiarch   12 years ago

              No, Schiavone is the go-to ugly in a big way. BIG way.

              And John, Bartoli is French.

              1. Ball-sac   12 years ago

                Eh, she's Corsican.

                Female tennis players, in general, are super-hot.

            2. SugarFree   12 years ago

              Bartoli is no great beauty, but when she's off court and doesn't have angrycrazy face, she's much better looking.

              She also has an IQ of 175.

              1. Ball-sac   12 years ago

                She also has an IQ of 175.

                * - self-reported. But if you listen to her in interviews, she really does sound smarter than the average bear.

    2. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      You failed to warn of pictures of naked dudes holding balls.

      I shun and abjure thee. Get thee behind me, Satan Turberville!

      1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

        Thank you. I wouldn't have clicked through otherwise.

      2. Brett L   12 years ago

        Honestly, no homo, but I want to look as good as Gary Player when I'm 70.

    3. Warty   12 years ago

      Mmm, Miesha Tate. I'd dislocate that elbow.

  23. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    More Matty stupidity

    This week everyone who cares about politics and lives in New York is talking about Mark Leibovich's new book This Town about how smarmy and terrible Washington, DC is. Just talking about the excerpt in The New York Times Magazine, what strikes me about Leibovich's focus is that the town he's profiling is dying.

    Now I'm not going to tell you that This Town is dead. TARP did pass. This Town very much brought us the 2007 energy bill[...]

    But it's dying. In a super-literal way, the city that I live in?where people live on the Green Line or in Bloomingdale/Eckington/LeDroit Park or out on H Street NE?is a very different city from the one Leibovich profiles. And the now-dominant political paradigm is one in which ideology and partisanship carry much more weight, and personal connections and relationships carry much less[...] It's in a lot of ways a town that's remedied the things people used to say they hated about Washington. It's become a city of principle, and a city where much less gets done in back-room deals. But it's also a city with much more vicious partisanship and much less of a spirit of "let's compromise for the public good."

    Huh.

    1. John   12 years ago

      Apparently some one must have told Yglesias what a fucking douche bag he is. I can't imagine anyone wanted to be near that creepy little bastard much less be friendly with him. What Yglesias calls "partisanship", the rest of us would call "look you little fucking wierdo we really don't want you to come around here anymore or call us anymore".

  24. Coeus   12 years ago

    This woman is dying for some excitement. Seriously, who tells a story like this? And with this title?

    1. califernian   12 years ago

      I don't how know you missed it but this one is way better

      But comedy has a serious gender problem, and I really can't stop complaining about it until it's fucking fixed. Comedy clubs are an overtly hostile space for women. Even just presuming we can talk about comedy gets women ripped to shreds by territorial dudes desperate to defend their authority over what's funny.

      Oh it just gets better and better as you read.

      More importantly, though:

      I have more experience doing comedy than you have being a woman.

      And it keeps going.. and going...

      1. Coeus   12 years ago

        Women are 50% of the population, but when it comes to our interests and grievances we're treated like a niche group. Think about how crazy that is.

        Agreed. Why the fuck do we need all the "minority" protections for you again?

        1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

          Women are 50% of the population, but when it comes to our interests and grievances we're treated like a niche group. Think about how crazy that is.

          That's because female comedians suck.

          "I just got through my period, which is great, because bla bla bla."

          "So ladies, men sure do have a hard time eating you out, amirite?"

          "My best friend said/did the craziest thing the other day!"

          "Why won't men take us more seriously?!"

          Seriously, listen to most female comedians and their acts are largely derivative of these four lines. Sarah Silverman's schtick revolves around bodily fluids and pet-fucking, yet she's considered one of the top comedians in the industry. Sam Kinison would have had a field day with overrated sacks of shit like her.

          1. Thane-kin   12 years ago

            Don't forget "Have you ever had sex with an uncircumcised guy? Ew gross right?"

            1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

              I should have modified the second line to, "So I was having sex with this guy the other night..."

              1. ant1sthenes   12 years ago

                But that line would actually be funny if Lindy West was delivering it...

        2. Coeus   12 years ago

          heart_of_pyriteULindy West131L
          "Women are 50% of the population, but when it comes to our interests and grievances we're treated like a niche group. Think about how crazy that is. You don't know what it feels like to be a part of the group that has never gotten to be the president."

          That is probably the best, most concise, most compelling, most logic-inducing statement for "why feminism is needed" I have ever heard. THANK YOU. 5/10/13 9:18pm

          MaryAnnUheart_of_pyrite31L
          This precisely expresses how I have felt my entire life. And guys don't have any idea how it feels to be part of a group that is not covered or protected by the Constitution. 5/11/13 10:57pm

      2. califernian   12 years ago

        Sorry, I jumped the gun on you. This is EVEN BETTER

        I think this may be the all time jezebel winner.

        Summary: Rape jokes are horrible except for these ones that I thought were funny.

        Not kidding, that's the piece.

      3. Coeus   12 years ago

        And then there's this:

        To paraphrase white male comic Derek Sheen (who was kind enough to let me pick his white male brain in the course of writing this article?big ups also to Guy Branum), you are more than welcome to style yourself the bloody, shit-covered G.G. Allin of comedy. But when people get mad at you for smearing feces on them, you don't get to feign outrage at those people, because FECES IS DISGUSTING.

        Only we can feign outrage. And you couldn't possibly be angry that we want to hold you to a different standard than we hold ourselves. You must be lying.

        1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

          Gads, the writing--it's like these women hit the peak of their intellectual and emotional development in the 7th grade, and then froze it in amber.

    2. General Butt Naked   12 years ago

      Jesus, what a load of bullshit.

      Is every single interaction with a (male) stranger now rape? It's rape all the way down now, isn't it?

      I say this with the anger of actually knowing women that have been raped and/or abused. This self-serving victim bullshit lessens what actual victims of violence go through and it pisses me right the fuck off. Fuck her, I hope she fucking dies alone (she will).

      1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

        Is every single interaction with a (male) stranger now rape? It's rape all the way down now, isn't it?

        And then they wonder why they have such a hard time finding a man they can respect--it's because no one with any self-worth would waste his time with them, knowing that they'd be more likely to ruin his life and leave him financially destitute after a messy divorce.

      2. Zeb   12 years ago

        "I say this with the anger of actually knowing women that have been raped and/or abused."
        That really is the worst thing about the "everything is rape" crowd. Not only is it stupid, it is fucking insulting and demeaning to people who have suffered the horror of actually being raped. Really upsets me.

    3. Warty   12 years ago

      Because of rules (thanks to unions),

      That leapt out at me. The rest was too boring to make it through.

  25. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    Did I mention that Matt Yglesias is dumb? Like, really, really dumb?

    That stuff's important because unless you know what the offsets are, you can't evaluate the proposal. In the House Republicans' most recent budget plan, tax cuts are rendered affordable by taking food and medicine away from poor children. That's rather different from a proposal where tax cuts are rendered affordable via higher taxes on dividend income.

    1. John   12 years ago

      He really is retarded. I am not sure how far up the Aspy scale he is, but it is far enough. He has a low IQ, intermittent grasp of reality, and absolutely no understanding of cause and effect and social cues.

      1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

        He may be a full blown Aspy, but he sure as shit doesn't have a low IQ.

        1. John   12 years ago

          I think he does. I think he got through life with a feral ability to parrot back what his teachers wanted to hear. No way does someone with anything but a low IQ believe the shit he does. It would be different if he were actually good at something. Lots of smart people believe dumb things. But you know they are smart because they are great at science or some other subject. Yglesias isn't good at anything. He is the dumbest person ever to write for a major publication.

          1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

            Nobody who gets into Harvard has a low IQ. You're being silly.

            1. John   12 years ago

              Yglesias did. You are begging the question. There are a few stupid people who go to Harvard.

              1. Restoras   12 years ago

                I think there are a lot of stupid people that go to Harvard. Interestingly, they all seem to end up working in the government.

                1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                  I think there are a lot of stupid people that go to Harvard. Interestingly, they all seem to end up working in the government.

                  "Stupid" is in the eye of the beholder. "Low IQ" is not.

              2. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                An IQ score of 85 translates to an SAT score of about 800 (out of 1600). How many 800 SAT scores do you imagine Harvard admits?

                1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                  I know someone with an SAT score of 950 who went to Yale on the strength of her parents' connections. It's certainly not outside the realm of possibility.

                  1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                    I know someone with an SAT score of 950 who went to Yale on the strength of her parents' connections.

                    1. I bet he's lying.

                    2. If not, I bet that's pre-1996 when 950 was about IQ 100.

                    3. If there's an "Yglesias" building at Harvard, I'll concede.

                    1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                      It's a she. Happened in '93, so you're right on that count.

                2. Episiarch   12 years ago

                  The top schools/ivy league cares very little for people's SAT scores. What they care about is GPA, extracurriculars, sports, and volunteer work. You aren't top 3 in your class? Go away.

                  1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                    Extracurriculars/volunteer work are a big deal to applications.

                    1. General Butt Naked   12 years ago

                      Extracurriculars/volunteer work are a big deal to applications.

                      Yup, it's a way to filter out the poor kids who have to work or can't afford to spend summers abroad "helping" brown people.

                    2. some guy   12 years ago

                      Extracurriculars/volunteer work are a big deal to applications.

                      Yup, it's a way to filter out the poor kids who have to work or can't afford to spend summers abroad "helping" brown people.

                      Jobs count as extracurriculars. They don't really care what you do in your free time so long as it looks like you spend it bettering yourself rather than sitting around smoking pot.

                  2. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                    The top schools/ivy league cares very little for people's SAT scores.

                    That's bizarre considering that the students accepted have really high average SAT scores.

                    1. Episiarch   12 years ago

                      There is obviously going to be a correlation between the highest GPAs and good SAT scores. However, if you have 1500 SATs but are 30th in your class, you are not getting in. But if you have 1100 SATs and are first in your class, you very well may get in, especially if your extracurriculars are strong.

                      Smart but lazy/uninterested in schoolwork is not what they are looking for. Too many of those types wash out and fuck with their stats. They want people who will work their asses off.

                    2. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                      Epi is right. Look at Yglesias' output -- it's all crap, but there's a lot of it. They want people who put out, heh.

                    3. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                      But if you have 1100 SATs and are first in your class, you very well may get in, especially if your extracurriculars are strong.

                      The 25th percentile at Harvard is 700/710/710 R/M/V.

                      Everybody* who gets into Harvard has high SAT scores and a high GPA and a bunch of extracurricular shit. The most prestigious schools in the world can afford to be that selective.

                      *with the obvious exceptions of celebrities, foreign dignitaries, and not-super-bright children of people who donate millions.

                      And you're overlooking the fact that philosophy at a school like Harvard is one of the most cognitively demanding majors.

                    4. shamalam   12 years ago

                      Didn't Michelle Obama go to Harvard?

                3. Irish   12 years ago

                  Yeah, saying Yglesias has a 'low IQ' is wrong. Saying he is grossly incompetent, willfully uninformed, and unwilling to do basic research is a more accurate argument.

                  He's smart but unbelievably lazy and lacking in basic common sense. I

                  still remember the time he asked if the only reason people think Bobby Jindal is smart is because he's Indian and then had to be informed that Jindal went to Oxford and Brown. He could have gotten this information from a Google search but was too incompetent and lazy to do so. That's pretty much his entire career in microcosm.

                  1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                    ^this

                    1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

                      Yglesias is not stupid. Ideology often makes smart people appear to be stupid.

                    2. General Butt Naked   12 years ago

                      What evidence do we have of his intelligence?

                      His degrees?

                      Wow, he went to the same schools as Bush and Obama.

                      Now, if he publishes a proof of the Hodge conjecture, I'll eat my words.

                    3. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                      Wow, he went to the same schools as Bush and Obama.

                      W's IQ is about 125. The only evidence of Obama's LSAT suggests it was pretty high. These are awful examples of low IQ people.

                    4. Irish   12 years ago

                      But W talks funny and Obama has views I don't agree with! They must be stupid.

                    5. General Butt Naked   12 years ago

                      I'm not so sure that IQ is a good test of intelligence. I think that the sort of intelligence that is quantified well by school work or IQ tests is of a very limited nature and that truly intelligent people have multiple high intelligences.

                      It's a sort of circular notion that academics deem what is intelligence and then associate it with the sort of things that academics are good at.

                      I know few people that barely finished high school that I'd call intelligent. They're smart on things that can't really be measured like sussing out people's intentions, fixing cars, writing awesome songs/stories, or doing something in the visual arts.

                    6. Gordilocks   12 years ago

                      'W's IQ is about 125.'

                      Can I get a citation or a link on that?

                    7. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                      Can I get a citation or a link on that?

                      Yes!

                      http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10......html?_r=0

                    8. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                      I got curious and started googling. This is the article that article is based on.

                  2. General Butt Naked   12 years ago

                    I think some people are just really good at doing school work, and I guess that's a sort of intelligence. I see it all the time.

                    But how can you say someone's smart when they can't put together a coherent thought and don't even have the excuse of spending their college years doing physics/math?

                    1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                      Rote learning and memorization is not difficult, at all. Neither is philosophy, if you take tracks focusing on history of philosophy or somesuch rather than classes which require rigorous logic.

                      I imagine that Yglesias is probably of average intelligence for the reasons given by Sidd, but not much more than that. He certainly can't process information worth a damn, judging by his columns.

                    2. General Butt Naked   12 years ago

                      It applies to all the shitty essay writing you have to do in college as well.

                      I've read papers by kids with A's and they're usually not as good as my papers*, but I can't get past an A- in my humanities classes. My grades did improve after I stopped writing from a libertarian perspective and put on my progtard hat. Maybe I'm not that good at faking it and a bit of anarchism shines through.

                      *I'm not bragging here, it's just that the papers I've read have been so unbelievably shitty that my mediocre ones shine in comparison. I'm also really hard on my writing, so I don't think I'm being delusional.

                    3. Irish   12 years ago

                      I've read papers by kids with A's and they're usually not as good as my papers*, but I can't get past an A- in my humanities classes.

                      I actually am a very good writer when I'm writing something other than posts in a comment section. I generally love the English language and am a massive dork who reads and re-reads books and essays about the language, like Orwell's Politics and the English Language or Mencken's The American Language.

                      I completely agree with you. I could always churn out A papers in about 2 hours before a class because writing comes naturally to me, but I would often read the papers of other people in the class, some of whom would get A's, some B's, and I was always bowled over by how bad most of them were. You get the general feeling from some of the people in even elite American colleges that they aren't able to express their thoughts in words. They don't seem capable of writing coherent sentences, a fact which makes me wonder if they're able to think coherently either, if their grasp of the language is so terrible.

                      This explains how Amanda Marcotte graduated with an English degree despite her posts reading like the ravings of a poorly educated 10th grader.

                    4. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                      But how can you say someone's smart

                      I'm not saying he's "smart," whatever that means. I'm saying there's not one shred of evidence that he has a "low IQ."

                4. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

                  "How many 800 SAT scores do you imagine Harvard admits?"

                  At least one, if you count our current POTUS.

                  1. SugarFree   12 years ago

                    SadBeard isn't an idiot. He's really quite smart, but he clearly suffers from severe depression and inside he teeters on the edge of a yawning abyss. Even though he feels it all means nothing, knows that he will never matter, he tries to feel like a good person by holding on to an ideology he dares not examine. Progressivism is not something SadBeard really believes in, but rather functions as a prayer he sends into the void of his own soul in hopes he can learn one day to not hate himself.

            2. Killazontherun   12 years ago

              You entirely overestimate Harvard. I tutored a dumbass who got into Harvard. He did not impress me in the least, except disgust me at what had to be unlearned. I've known graduates who couldn't hold their end of an intelligent conversation if you paid them.

              1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                LOL at this obviously made-up bullshit

                1. Michael S. Langston   12 years ago

                  Nothing about Ygelsias, Bush, or Obama, but I'm unsure why everyone seems to think it's impossible to get into Harvard and be of low IQ.

                  I think statistics would say no matter how hard Harvard tries, some idiots make it through.

                  As a theoretical example: Put a kid in a small private school, religious maybe, and possibly they get grade "bumps" for things other than class work (such as their volunteer work) which places them at the top of the class...

                  1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

                    Harvard admissions isn't full of retards. If somebody with perfect grades and an extremely low* SAT score comes across the desk, it's immediately discarded for the fucking obvious reasons. Harvard is perpetually in the 1st round of the NFL draft. They don't need to worry about potential.

                    *Extremely low by Harvard standards is still well above "low IQ."

          2. Zeb   12 years ago

            You have to be smart to peddle bullshit like that.

        2. Killazontherun   12 years ago

          He does for shit have a low IQ.

    2. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

      That's rather different from a proposal where tax cuts are rendered affordable via higher taxes on dividend income.

      The mind boggles.

  26. Rich   12 years ago

    "These DASDEC application servers are currently shipped with their root privileged SSH key as part of the firmware update package,"

    but fortunately the USPS tracks the shipments so we know who has access to the keys.

    1. Thane-kin   12 years ago

      These are not physical keys; they are numbers.

      1. Rich   12 years ago

        OK, the NSA, then.

  27. Coeus   12 years ago

    European politicians have realized that they've been judging austerity all wrong.

    Guess in which direction. Go ahead, guess.

    1. Ted S.   12 years ago

      Wasn't there a thread here a few months back that Spain doesn't really have 27% unemployment, but a lot of people working in the black market?

      1. Zeb   12 years ago

        I'd believe it. It's just the young college grads who can't get work because they don't know how to do anything. Though it has improved in many ways (especially in the being less poor and less fascist ways), it is sad how quickly they have turned into a bunch of whiny Eurofags.

    2. PapayaSF   12 years ago

      The inherent political problem with Keynesianism is that while it's easy to say "Times are tough, go into debt to help the needy," when times are good, people say "There's all this money around, let's spend it on the needy."

  28. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

    BREAKING NEWS:

    There's a very wealth man in Hong Kong named Dickson Poon.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Look, you can't say such things mere hours after Tokyo Sexwale lost his job as head of housing in South Africa.

    2. Brett L   12 years ago

      Yeah. Venus Poon is the character I remember from Noble House

  29. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

    tax cuts are rendered affordable via higher taxes on dividend income

    I'm not sure he understands what the word "cut" means.

  30. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    I hope you're noticing a trend in authorship, here...

    What Econ 101 Misses About Mercantilism

    My view is that the piece has a lot of problems, and that I fundamentally disagree with the key premise that over-familiarity with the basic principles of economics is a primary cause of bad public policy in the United States[...]

    The big issue that gets left out in pious lectures about comparative advantage is that Smith and Ricardo didn't believe that long-term economic growth was possible! This was the era of economics as the "dismal science", meaning that political economy was essentially the study of how to optimally allocate a fixed pool of resources.

    Business and economics correspondent, everyone.

    1. Metazoan   12 years ago

      for the love of god...

    2. Irish   12 years ago

      He doesn't seem to have read Smith or Ricardo. This is unsurprising, as I am not sure that Matthew Yglesias knows how to read books.

  31. wef   12 years ago

    Edward Snowden accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum, claims a Russian lawmaker. I might have gone with Nicaragua, just for the beaches.

    How about Isla Margaria?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.....nd#Tourism

  32. Archduke Trousersenthusiast   12 years ago

    Hipster farmers abandoning urban chickens because they're too much work

    1. John   12 years ago

      They need to conscript every single one of those fucking over grown children to go out and police up their chickens and transport them out to an actual adult.

      If there is one upshot of the coming economic collapse, it probably will result in those worthless fucks starving to death before they further pollute the gene pool.

    2. BuSab Agent   12 years ago

      WTF? They're dropping the chickens off at animal shelters?! I thought everyone knew that after the hen stops laying, she becomes tasty tasty dinner.

      1. Zeb   12 years ago

        This is why I wouldn't get laying chickens. By the time the novelty wears off, they're big enough to eat.

      2. sloopyinca   12 years ago

        By the time a layer stops producing, they're old as shit and likely not worth cooking. They're better as bait for foxes, coyotes or mountain lions, which can be shot and used for their furs/trophies.

        You want a chicken to eat, just get cornish crosses. They will be full eating-sized in about 8 weeks. By 12 weeks, they're fat as fuck and can't hardly move by 16.

        1. Brett L   12 years ago

          Send me a couple? I'll hit you on the paypal.

          1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            We're no longer chicken or duck farmers. We moved down to SoCal with my new job.

            Check cacklehatchery.com or efowl.com for the best prices. I prefer cackle, because the people there are awesome and their mystery box is the absolute bomb if you want to spend $75 and end up with a bunch of exotic hatchlings.

            1. Brett L   12 years ago

              Cool. Almost have the gf convinced that we could eat like kings.

  33. Coeus   12 years ago

    Tha fuck???

    If Texas women's options become so limited, many desperate and economically disadvantaged women may be forced to resort to dangerous measures to terminate a pregnancy. The women who patronized Kermit Gosnell's illegal Philadelphia-area clinic were driven there out of poverty; many of them likely felt like they had no other choice. Taking away Texas women's choices will allow future Gosnells to seize the same opportunity to prey on vulnerable women.

    Illegal? Wasn't it licensed?

    1. Rich   12 years ago

      Well, it obviously wasn't licensed-licensed.

      1. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

        Kermit Gosnell was licensed for years, even when the shitstorm fell down around his ears.

        But let's not let little things like facts get in the way of a good story.

        FAKE BUT ACCURATE FOREVER!

    2. Zeb   12 years ago

      I think it was both. Since he was convicted of various crimes, it clearly was illegal (at least in the sense that illegal immigrants are illegal). I believe it also was licensed.

  34. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    The Real Job Creation Champion Isn't Texas

    In a speech this afternoon announcing that he won't run for reelection (and hinting heavily that he's exploring a presidential campaign), Rick Perry touted Texas' robust record of job creation. The problem with the kind of statistics Perry was talking about is that, as they say, "everything's bigger in Texas"?it's a giant state and more stuff in the aggregate is bound to happen there, including job creation, than happens in a Utah or Nebraska[...]

    But even if you correct for state size by using an index measure as I've done above, the Texas job creation record is pretty stellar and has far outpaced the national average.

    IOW, you have no point and are grasping at straws to, in fact, come to the conclusion that something you would rather not have be true is, in fact, true. Does Matty Y have a quota of stupid, vapid nonsense that he has to meet every day?

    1. John   12 years ago

      It is well above the national average even after I do everything weight against it. You just have to laugh. It is gone long past exploitative that Slate allows him a forum.

    2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

      I have a cousin who thinks that guy is great. I don't even know how to respond to that. It's like that joke about carrying around a sign announcing how stupid you are.

      1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

        For some reason known only to Lucifer and his minions, Tyler Cowen likes to converse with this guy.

        1. Thane-kin   12 years ago

          Cowen is way too charitable.

          1. Irish   12 years ago

            I've noticed a tendency for libertarian and conservative economists to be far less mean spirited than Krugman and his minions. Cowen is willing to give anyone a fair shake, whereas Krugman has admitted that he doesn't even read his opponents' arguments and acts like this is somehow a point of pride.

            1. Tony   12 years ago

              It would be like biologists reading intelligent design tracts. There's simply no need.

              1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                I realize that your purpose on this board is to be incredibly, tediously mendacious... but you do realize that in the field of economics, what might be considered the "conservative and libertarian" schools of thought are -- by far -- intellectually dominant, do you not?

                Monetarists and Austrians are clearly in that camp, and even Keynesianism can only -- at best -- be considered center-left, and only in the context of American politics.

                "Post Keynesians" like Stiglitz and Krugman are in the overwhelming minority and have presented no rigorous framework for their ideas. They are, in effect, the creationists of the economic world.

              2. PapayaSF   12 years ago

                People who write intelligent design tracts don't win Nobels and other top prizes in their fields. Monetarists and Austrians do.

                1. Warty   12 years ago

                  Why play with the sockpuppet? At best, just call it names.

                  1. Zeb   12 years ago

                    Well, such a remarkably stupid comment just demands response, I guess.

                2. Irish   12 years ago

                  I have him blocked so that I don't have to read his blatant lies and distortion of the truth unless I really want to.

                  Did he really just argue that Monetarists are the creationists of the economic world? The Chicago School has won more Nobel Prizes than any other, and it's basically based on monetarist economic principle.

              3. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

                It would be like biologists reading intelligent design tracts. There's simply no need.

                Considering Krugnuts' intellectual stultification, and the retardation of academia in general over the last 20 years or so, this is a highly amusing retort.

                1. Irish   12 years ago

                  Especially given that people like Friedman are among the most respected people in the field and therefore have no similarity to intelligent design nut jobs.

    3. Irish   12 years ago

      it's a giant state and more stuff in the aggregate is bound to happen there, including job creation, than happens in a Utah or Nebraska[...]

      Which doesn't explain why Texas job creation has so far outpaced New York and California. California actually has 12 million more people than Texas.

      Gee, I wonder what the difference between Texas and the other two states might be.

      1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

        Must be that great Texan weather I'm always hearing so much about.

        1. Brett L   12 years ago

          Those people are lying to you. There are great things about Texas, but unless you're wearing shorts on Thanksgiving in Houston, the weather isn't one of them.

          1. Whahappan?   12 years ago

            Whooooooosh!!!

  35. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    BTW folks, I am not cherry picking. Every single Matt Yglesias link I've posted is from today and yesterday.

  36. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    After Taxes, Did Dwight Howard Take a Pay Cut By Moving to Houston?

    No, Matt, just... no.

    1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

      Slim Thug's twitter has better financial advice than Yglesias.

    2. Ted S.   12 years ago

      I was listening to sports radio this morning, and Boomer Esiason of all people had a "commentary" piece suggesting that Jerry Brown was partly to blame for Howard's leaving LA for Houston.

      If the "dumb jocks" can get it, the "smart" people should be able to too. But that would require them not to be mendacious fucks.

      1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

        Hell, Boomer Esiason's son could probably write a more coherent piece than Yglesias.

    3. Irish   12 years ago

      What an idiot. He only talks about California's income tax. What about the fact that every gallon of gas in California is seventy cents more than Texas, and is closer to a buck fifty more in Los Angeles? What about the higher cost of property? What about the much higher sales tax?

      California has higher taxes on EVERYTHING not just income tax. He can probably buy a bigger house in Texas than he had in California, and it will cost him far less. Somehow Yglesias doesn't take that into account.

      1. R C Dean   12 years ago

        According to this:

        http://www.bankrate.com/calcul.....lator.aspx

        The cost of living for a person earning $1mm is 27% lower in Houston than in LA.

      2. SFC B   12 years ago

        Howard possibly did cost himself some money in the long-term by signing with Houston instead of resigning w/ LA. The nature of the current NBA CBA allows a free agent's current team of offer larger and longer contracts for their star players. And he definitely cost himself guaranteeded money by signing with the Rockets.

        However Yglesias is making the same error I've seen in a lot of the analysis which tries to reduce the impact of CA's taxes. Howard won't only be hit by the "jock tax" when he plays road games if he remained with the Lakers. All of his NBA income will be taxed at CA's 13%, he just gets a credit for any taxes he pays on the games he plays out of CA. So even, as a Laker, when he plays in TX or FL, he still pays the 13% to CA. He is now going to get to play 45ish games a year where his NBA salary won't be subjected to any state income tax (41 games in Houston, 1 game each in Dallas, San Antonio, Miami, and Orlando). The tax considerations of TX vs CA result in a $1.7m loss per year for Howard. That is, to me, insane. And it exists at most income levels, not just for the elite athletes.

  37. Archduke Trousersenthusiast   12 years ago

    Wild elephants attacked and killed a woman in China before chasing police and investigators from the scene.

    1. NeonCat   12 years ago

      And elephants are symbols of the Republican Party and the Republican Party is anti-woman!

  38. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    I want to apologize. I know I've been rather harsh about police and their unions, but apparently I've been mistaken all along and they do serve a noble purpose. I mean, without them, this man would not still be on a paid vacation after being convicted for assault and arrested on a second occasion while awaiting sentencing.

    Please forgive me, all of you brave heroes in blue. The union is there to ensure that serial abusers like this man stay where they belong: in the thick blue wall and/or sucking the taxpayers dry while on "paid administrative leave" after being convicted of a violent crime.

  39. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    Oh, and don't worry my lovelies, Amanda hasn't forgotten about you:

    Crooks and Liars kindly transcribes, and I'm hear to translate.

    But this isn't the only part of Obamacare the social engineers are facing. The U.S. Catholic bishops and leaders of other faiths told the administration that the latest rewrite of the so-called contraception mandate is not acceptable. What the Obama people don't get is that forcing people to buy into a plan that subsidizes contraceptives, abortion inducing drugs and sterilization is a brazen violation of the separation between church and state.

    1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

      [Cont]

      So, with this handy guide, you can actually get a pretty good idea of what Liz Trotta's argument is:

      A major role of government is to enforce a specific, anti-sex, misogynist religious worldview on its citizens.
      One important way to do this is to allow fundamentalist Christian employers to discriminate and withhold earned pay and benefits from those who disagree with them.
      By banning religious discrimination in insurance benefits, and requiring employers to let employees use ALL their earned benefits, the cause of actual religious freedom is forwarded.
      This violates the first principle, which is that the government should do everything in its power to enforce Liz Trotta's religious views on the rest of us, using every angle of power they have over us.

      1. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

        One important way to do this is to allow fundamentalist Christian employers to discriminate and withhold earned pay and benefits from those who disagree with them.
        By banning religious discrimination in insurance benefits, and requiring employers to let employees use ALL their earned benefits, the cause of actual religious freedom is forwarded.

        The employer buys the insurance plan, the employer controls what's in the plan. Don't like it? Buy your own.

        1. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

          Oddly enough, ending employer-provided insurance would negate this little concern of hers, but Marcotte is perpetually stuck in the "SOMEONE ELSE BETTER PAY FOR ALL MY STUFF, FUCK YOU DAD!" mode, and isn't intelligent enough to see it.

      2. ChrisO   12 years ago

        Marcotte's not even trying very hard, there, but her idiotic followers lap it all up, if her comments section is any indication.

      3. R C Dean   12 years ago

        I like the way she says the government allowing something is the same as the government enforcing something.

      4. Omni   12 years ago

        And who in the hell is withholding "earned pay"? I think that's just thrown in there.

  40. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    This guy's boss is a great guy. Who else would "get their employees the help they need" when they fire their gun willy-nilly into the air, or for that matter, would they patiently talk to a civilian for 25 minutes and then take him in quietly?

    By the way, he was not placed on administrative leave...because he was already on it for a previous incident of going nuts with a gun.

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      See, this is where I'd start. Get the anti-gun and anti-cop people together on cops who get their gun on. Then start to tighten the restrictions.

  41. Coeus   12 years ago

    It's cute how they obfuscate the fact that the "conviction" is in a kangaroo court.

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      Why would you want to continue to attend after something like that?

  42. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    Maryland cop given sweet paid vacation after being charged with 2nd degree assault.

    FTA: The following is part of the message released from Howard County Police Chief William J. McMahon:
    As the prosecution is now pending, I am unable to comment on the details of this case. But I want
    Howard County citizens to have confidence that our detectives conducted a thorough criminal
    investigation into the allegations.

    TL/DR? I won't tell you what happened even though we routinely do with civilians. Oh, and we did our job, I promise you.

  43. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    The devil Dunphy went down to Georgia.

  44. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

    Apparently it's shit on Yglesias day. So here's my favorite sentence from my favorite post:

    In terms of frozen foods, they have the usual Hot Pockets dreck but also upscale brands like the Amy's Organic frozen burritos that I used to subsist on before I learned how to cook.

    1. Irish   12 years ago

      I love that article because even the mouth breathers at Slate were mocking him. One of the people in the comments asked if Yglesias wrote that piece on a dare to prove that Slate doesn't look at his work before publishing it.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        Amy's Organics are available at Walmart, which also sells all that other stuff and has clinics and the like.

      2. Episiarch   12 years ago

        Guys, guys, I can't take it any more so I'm going to tell you the truth. Yglesias is actually a character made up by NutraSweet who he uses to troll Slate (and you guys as well). I remember when he said to me "dude, I bet you I could write the dumbest, pussiest, most idiotic shit and get Slate to buy it". And I said "nu-uh", and he said "uh-huh", and then I double dog dared him to do it. And now he can't stop.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          I find this entirely plausible.

        2. SugarFree   12 years ago

          Don't blow my cover, dude. They've started paying me in fancy burritos.

        3. SugarFree   12 years ago

          Dude, don't blow my cover. They are paying me in super-fancy burritos at this point.

          1. Episiarch   12 years ago

            Maybe if you didn't double post I could take you seriously.

            1. SugarFree   12 years ago

              WTF? The first one didn't post through three or four refreshes on my end.

              1. Episiarch   12 years ago

                Not. Taking. You. Seriously.

              2. Zeb   12 years ago

                And the burritos got fancier in the mean time.

      3. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

        Today, before 3:00 PM, Yglesias wrote 6 articles -- all of them some combination of stupid, wrong, and misinformed.

        Slate probably gave up on checking his work after the third economist they hired for that purpose hanged himself in the men's room before the third posting of that day.

    2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Subsist? He knows nothing of subsistence, apparently.

    3. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

      Standing in line to buy Amy's Organic frozen burritos for their cats was Amanda Marcotte and Matt Yglesias first date.

      True story.

  45. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    Third time is a charm for piece of shit Florida jail deputy.

    They're not releasing the video because it's evidence. Yeah, just like all the cases in Florida where the evidence isn't released to the public to sway opinion. ::cough: Trayvon ::cough::

    By the way, both other instances were not pursued even with overwhelming physical evidence of violence and eyewitness testimony. Just like they would have been for a "civilian"...

  46. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    Filthy pervert cop gets two years probation for attempting to surreptitiously record a 17 year old girl getting in and out of a shower.

    He was allowed to resign the day before he was charged. No word on what part of his retirement he'll receive, but it's almost dead certain he'll get 60% of his pay in accordance with MN retirement guidelines.

  47. Agammamon   12 years ago

    "The Emergency Alert System turns out to be very vulnerable to hacking. Which raises all sorts of cool possibilities."

    1. Did anyone really expect a government developed app to be secure?

    2. How long before 'the president' issues a nationwide emergency alert for a zombie plague?

    1. Agammamon   12 years ago

      Farkin' autocorrect, that was *supposed* to be misspelt.

  48. sloopyinca   12 years ago

    You assholes can ignore me all you want. I won't stop posting.*

    *Because cops won't stop beating, stalking, raping and abusing their authority.

    1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

      We're not ignoring you. We're othering you.

      1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

        Fuck you. (Epi)
        Fuck you. (Pro Lib)
        Fuck you. (Mad Scientist)
        You cool (Looks at Brett L)
        And Fuck you (Ted S-for Buckeyes hate), I'm out!

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          I'm not ignoring you. I didn't know that you needed my encouragement. Please, sloopy, continue posting about police abuses.

          Though I will note that you're a tough guy when attacking the property of the one American who will be remembered ten thousand years from now, but I don't see you vandalizing the mailboxes of cops.

          1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            I'm an asshole, not an idiot.

          2. General Butt Naked   12 years ago

            Burn.

            1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

              This is where the end of indenting threaded comments makes us wonder what you meant.

            2. sloopyinca   12 years ago

              Nevermind. I now know that it was directed at me.

              Fuck you, too!

      2. Episiarch   12 years ago

        I'm ignoring him.

        1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

          Good, I hate you anyway.

          1. Episiarch   12 years ago

            I'm still ignoring you.

  49. GILMORE   12 years ago

    Edward Snowden accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum, claims a Russian lawmaker. I might have gone with Nicaragua, just for the beaches

    Ey, Gringo?? We have plenty Beaches in Venezhueala! Beautiful beaches! And cheap, and clean too! You can get them cook for you too afterward...

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Yeah, well, hope he likes wiping his ass with his hand.

      1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

        He's going to Venezuela, not Arkansas.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          I was referring to their recent toilet paper shortage.

          1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

            I know. I was just making a joke.

            You see, Arkansans are known to be moronic hill-folk and are also personified (not incorrectly) as poor, backwoods illiterates. And saying one will have to wipe his ass with his hand refers to the way most of the locals likely clean their bottom after defecating, based on the stereotypical Arkansan.

            I could have also said "Florida Panhandle", which may have made more sense to you.

            hth

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              The Panhandle? It's like hours from here. Florida goes on forever.

              1. sloopyinca   12 years ago

                Isn't there a giant septic tank somewhere down in the everglades that's considered the "end" of the state?

                1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  I know just what you're talking about. It's in Key West and has stuff painted on it.

    2. R C Dean   12 years ago

      Beaches? Are you crazy? Beaches are like highways for SEAL assassination teams!

      1. Brett L   12 years ago

        Fucking Beaches, mang.

  50. Mike M.   12 years ago

    Cameras catch mystery break-in at whistleblower's law firm.

    "The offices of a Dallas law firm representing a high-profile State Department whistleblower were broken into last weekend. Burglars stole three computers and broke into the firm's file cabinets. But silver bars, video equipment and other valuables were left untouched, according to local Fox affiliate KDFW, which aired security camera footage of the suspected burglars entering and leaving the offices around the time of the incident"...

    I swear, this Obama is the most vile and evil piece of shit ever to hold our presidency. He's capable of anything and everything.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Hey, this is just like some movie I saw. Fuck, what was it? Oh, I know, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

  51. Coeus   12 years ago

    Kotch brothers pour milllions into "obamacare misinformation" campaign.

    This is what they call a lie:

    JULIE: If we can't pick our own doctor, how do I know our family is going to get the care they need? And what am I getting in exchange for higher premiums and a smaller paycheck?

    And this is their explanation as to why it's a lie:

    Under these new contracts, "Hospitals will be paid less by the insurer, but will likely get more patients because those people will have fewer choices," the paper writes. The goal, for the insurer, is to increase transparency and value and please the consumer. Industry surveys show that premiums are "the most important factor in consumers' choices" and that more than half of those surveyed would opt for "a narrow-network product if it cost them at least 10% less than an equivalent with broader choice."

    The Congressional Budget Office also estimates that 19 million people ? the majority of enrollees ? will eventually receive subsidies to purchase comprehensive health care coverage from the exchanges, casting doubt on Julie's claim that she will be paying "higher premiums."

    None of that refutes the damn commercial. Jesus. How fucking stupid are their readers?

    1. R C Dean   12 years ago

      the goal, for the insurer, is to increase transparency and value and please the consumer.

      No, the goal for the insurer is to juice the bottom line.

      And how exactly does this support their case?:

      Hospitals will be paid less by the insurer, but will likely get more patients because those people will have fewer choices

    2. Juice   12 years ago

      The silliest part is that the whole Obamacare/Romneycare structure originated at the Heritage Foundation. If it had been passed under Bush and called Bushcare, the Center for American Progress would be putting out the exact same commercials that the Koch brothers are.

  52. Brett L   12 years ago

    What a sane feminist writes about men. Seriously. I feel like I could have an honest conversation.

    Sample:
    This starts young. I live in Seattle, which is, by any standard, a very progressive city. Many of us do a mommy / daughter sex-ed class at Seattle Children's Hospital as our daughters get close to starting menstruation. In the session of the class that is less about biology and more about navigating sexuality, the presenter offered the idea that girls would have to start learning how to say "no" to boys who were going to want to touch them sexually.

    I looked at my daughter, who sort of rolled her eyes at me. And the woman went on, listing the many ways that girls could rebuff boys. I looked at my daughter again, and she said, "go ahead mom." And I did. I raised my hand and said, "Can we also talk about how to teach girls to say 'yes' to sexuality. Can we teach them that sex is about pleasure for all parties involved, and that learning how to identify and say 'yes' to things that give them pleasure is how they learn to draw their boundaries and say 'no' to things that don't."

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Huh. For "all parties involved", eh?

    2. Fatty Bolger   12 years ago

      FAR better than usual, but why does the advice in these articles always remind me of articles for women in the 50's and early 60's? You know, "Have a drink ready for him when he gets home. Don't pester him with your little daily problems when he comes through the door. He works hard and needs some "down time" before dinner."

      At least this one is not complete nonsense, though a lot of it still boils down to "Interference with female hypergamy is wrong. Don't try to fool women into thinking your status is higher than it really is. Expose your weaknesses, and do not respond when you are rejected as an inferior man. Maybe someday you will meet a woman desperate enough to take you."

      1. Coeus   12 years ago

        "Interference with female hypergamy is wrong. Don't try to fool women into thinking your status is higher than it really is. Expose your weaknesses, and do not respond when you are rejected as an inferior man. Maybe someday you will meet a woman desperate enough to take you."

        Their greatest fear is accidentally banging a virgin instead of mocking him.

      2. Brett L   12 years ago

        Yeah, but at least she's dealing from a position of feminine honesty, as well. Which is way better than the usual female hypocrisy. "He should be honest, I should fool him into thinking I'm younger/thinner/a breeder because evolushunz!!"

        1. Coeus   12 years ago

          I thought it was "because patriarchy!!!"

    3. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

      "Can we also talk about how to teach girls to say 'yes' to sexuality. Can we teach them that sex is about pleasure for all parties involved, and that learning how to identify and say 'yes' to things that give them pleasure is how they learn to draw their boundaries and say 'no' to things that don't."

      What the mother fuck is this? Teaching per-pubescent girls to say "yes to sexuality" is a fantastic plan if you want to be a grandparent at 40.

      Can we teach them that sex is about pleasure for all parties involved

      If anyone tries to teach my per-pubescent daughter that "sex is about pleasure" I'll teach them that a "fist is about pain."

      1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

        How the fuck did misspell "pre" as "per"... twice?

        1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

          I... arrggggghhhhh

      2. cavalier973   12 years ago

        What is sex about, if not about pleasure?

        1. Sidd Finch   12 years ago

          Apparently a significant minority of raped women orgasm. If someone tells my pre-pubescent daughter that, they get the boot to the face. There's things minors aren't prepared to handle. The complications of sex are, at the least, near the top of that list.

  53. cavalier973   12 years ago

    There is the fairy tale about how because market transactions are always voluntary and always beneficial that trade, being simply a market transaction across borders, is always win-win.

    1. cavalier973   12 years ago

      But for most of the production of traded goods and services, comparative advantage is meaningless ? the Koreans and Japanese are not good at making flat panel displays because they have a lot of sand, they are good at it because their corporations and governments targeted it for competitive advantage. Moreover, corporations locate their subsidiaries in particular nation-states to take advantage of local government subsidies and tax breaks or increasingly because of government requirements to produce locally. Econ 101 to the contrary, the location of factories and innovative research complexes is not determined by comparative advantage. Increasingly it is the artificial outcome of negotiations among multinational corporations and territorial states. And the outcome of this "free trade" can be detrimental to the U.S. economy if it hurts, as it has, key U.S. high value-added industries.

      Grrrrr....

      1. cavalier973   12 years ago

        "Corporations AND governments". Get that subtle use of sophistry? Corporations don't "target" some industry for competitive advantage. They pursue profitable endeavors regardless what the eggheads think is the "next big thing." It was the industries that the Japanese gov't did NOT subsidize and coddle that became dominant, as I understand it. Besides that, when the loving gov't creates an "export economy", it basically screws its own citizens over in favor of foreigners.

      2. cavalier973   12 years ago

        One of the most exasperating pieces of anti-reality dogma that one encounters is that protectionism works. Well, it works for the lucky few chosen to be gov't's little catamites, but the economy as a whole gets to pay for it through lower quality and higher prices.

        1. cavalier973   12 years ago

          ^^^"Protectionism works" should be in quotes.

      3. cavalier973   12 years ago

        If one hates trade, one hates humanity.

      4. cavalier973   12 years ago

        When the U.S. economy faced little competition and was largely based on industrial mass production industries, it was perhaps not so bad that policymakers relied on Econ 101 as their guide to economic policy. But in a complex, global, technologically driven economy in which nation-states compete to capture markets and key links in global supply chains, relying on Econ 101 is like a physicist today relying on Newton.

        "Nation-states" compete to capture markets? I really thought it was individuals and firms that did that; nation-states compete to accrue the greatest number of people that they can throw on the ground to engage in surprise sex.

        This person needs to do the world a favor and shove a sharpened pencil up each of his nostrils and slam his head against the desk.

      5. cavalier973   12 years ago

        If the economy is a market, prices are what allow goods and services to be efficiently allocated. In Econ 101, because prices are set in "free markets," the price of something must be a reflection of its real value. This principle ? known as the efficient market hypothesis ? was the reason why, when in the run-up to the Great Recession real house prices increased 40 percent (a more than seven-fold increase from decades prior), virtually no economist sounded the alarm, precisely because those higher prices must have reflected higher value.

        Um...the prices did reflect the value of the houses, because value is subjective, and is based on the valuer's perceptions at the moment of purchase/sale. The ensuing collapse of prices accurately reflected the loss of the houses' value, because, again, value is subjective.

      6. cavalier973   12 years ago

        Myth 7: Low wages are good for the economy.

        Myth 7a: Low steel prices are good for the economy.

        Myth 7b: Low transportation prices are good for the economy.

        Myth 7c: You get the idea (but I bet the Salon Snotnoggin doesn't.)

    2. cavalier973   12 years ago

      Myth 8: "Industrial policy" is bad.

      Econ 101 tells us that letting markets determine how many "widgets" to produce maximizes efficiency....As former Bush economic adviser Gregory Mankiw stated: "Policymakers should not try to determine precisely which jobs are created, or which industries grow. If government bureaucrats were capable of such foresight, the Soviet Union would have succeeded."...In other words, how can government bureaucrats make better choices than business? Leaving aside the fact that banks issued trillions of dollars of bad loans leading to the financial crisis, for many investments private and public rates of return differ, often quite significantly. And unless society (through government) tilts investment to those activities where the public rate of return is higher (e.g., scientific research), growth will be less. If this is industrial policy, so be it.

      I bet these guys weep at night that Uncle Sam is not a real person and that they can each bear him a love child.

    3. VG Zaytsev   12 years ago

      Myth 2: The goal of economic policy is maximizing efficiency.

      Economists have one overarching principle that shapes their advice: maximize "efficiency." As economist and venture investor William Janeway notes, "Efficiency is the virtue of economics." But the goal of economic policy should not be to maximize static efficiency (the "right" allocation of widgets), but to create inefficiency

      A least he's an honest top man.

    4. VG Zaytsev   12 years ago

      Myth 4: Prices reflect value.

      In Econ 101, because prices are set in "free markets," the price of something must be a reflection of its real value. This principle ? known as the efficient market hypothesis ? was the reason why, when in the run-up to the Great Recession real house prices increased 40 percent (a more than seven-fold increase from decades prior), virtually no economist sounded the alarm,

      Except for the crazy Austrian kooks, who should obviously be ignored.

    5. VG Zaytsev   12 years ago

      Myth 5: All profitable activities are good for the economy.

      Another axiom of Econ 101 is the assumption that all profitable activities are good for the economy: After all, Adam Smith "proved" that pursuit of self-interest maximizes economic welfare. ...

      But the version of Econ 101 familiar to most politicians and pundits ignores the distinction between productive activities (e.g., making useful appliances or lifesaving vaccines) and pure rents (profiting from real estate appreciation, stock manipulation or the accident of owning mineral deposits that become more valuable).

      And this dumbfuck ignores the reality of economically destructive activity by governments and criminals.

      If the greatest fortunes are to be made in financial arbitrage, gambling in real estate or exploiting crony-capitalist political connections, the argument that private profit-seeking maximizes economic welfare and the public good is undermined.

      All of which are features of governments destructive activity.

      Assuming of course that by gambling in real estate he's not referring to productive entrepreneurial activity.

    6. VG Zaytsev   12 years ago

      Myth 6: Monopolies and oligopolies are always bad because they distort prices.

      In the abstract universe of Econ 101, monopolies and oligopolies are always bad because they distort prices. Here populism, often opposed to neoclassical economics, is allied with it. The neoclassical vision of the normal economy with multiple small yeoman producers resonates with Jeffersonian antitrust policy, with its suspicion that all large enterprises must be conspiracies against the public.

      In the real world, things are not that simple. Academic economics includes a well-developed literature about imperfect markets. But it is reserved for advanced students and is never encountered by those who are told only the simplicities of Econ 101. In manufacturing industries with increasing returns to scale, like semiconductor or airplane production, markets characterized by a few large producers are usually more productive and innovative than ones with many small producers.

      Straight up crony fellating bullshit.

    7. VG Zaytsev   12 years ago

      Myth 7: Low wages are good for the economy.

      According to Econ 101, high wages are bad for an economy and low wages are a blessing. James Dorn of the libertarian Cato Institute declares that higher wages, by causing less demand for workers, mean that "unemployment will increase ? No legislator has ever overturned the law of demand." High-wage countries, we are told, price themselves out of a supposed global labor market. And in the non-traded domestic service sector in which most Americans work, a higher minimum wage, Econ 101 claims, would lead to permanent higher unemployment.

      When it comes to traded goods and services, this ignores the effects of relative currency values being the major determinant of prices of exports and imports. It also ignores the fact that high-wage workers who are highly productive, thanks to their machines and skills, can produce more cheaply than poorly paid workers with inferior technologies and skills.

      Good thing those low wage countries will never get capital and expertise like the civilized countries.

    8. VG Zaytsev   12 years ago

      Myth 8: "Industrial policy" is bad.

      Econ 101 tells us that letting markets determine how many "widgets" to produce maximizes efficiency. The worst thing government can do is engage in "industrial policy" ? a catch-all pejorative used to discredit everything from funding solar energy companies to encouraging more college students to major in science. As former Bush economic adviser Gregory Mankiw stated: "Policymakers should not try to determine precisely which jobs are created, or which industries grow. If government bureaucrats were capable of such foresight, the Soviet Union would have succeeded." In other words, how can government bureaucrats make better choices than business? Leaving aside the fact that banks issued trillions of dollars of bad loans leading to the financial crisis, for many investments private and public rates of return differ, often quite significantly.

      Yes lets forget the actual results of recent national economic policy and instead focus on how our wants are more important than the wants of the rabble that actually risks their own fortunes by investing.

  54. cavalier973   12 years ago

    Leaving aside the fact that banks issued trillions of dollars of bad loans leading to the financial crisis...

    Trillions of dollars created by the Federal Government through it's "private" subsidiary, the Federal Reserve, in a remarkable example of bad industrial policy.

  55. cavalier973   12 years ago

    Crud, JD; you get a chance at the PM links, and you still can't get the necessary 500 posts to win that free toaster. Put something about same-sex marriage in your next thread, even if it's about, you know, baseball, or something, and I guarantee you'll get the magic number.

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