Tsarnaev Enters Not Guilty Plea, Lawmakers Seek To Ease Pot Businesses' Access to Banks, Anti-Snooping Bill Actually Restricts Challenges to Spying: P.M. Links

• 

  U.S. Government

  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev entered "not guilty" pleas to all charges, setting the ground for one of the more high-profile trials in a while.

• Lawmakers from Colorado and Washington want to remove the regulatory barriers that prevent legal marijuana businesses in their states from using banking services.
• The White House knew months ago that Obamacare implemention was floundering and would have to be severely scaled back.
• Before Bradley Manning leaked classified information, the U.S. military considered WikiLeaks to be a journalistic operation, an expert on media law told the court.
• Three lawsuits look to overturn state-level bans on same-sex marriage in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
• Legislation introduced by Sen. Leahy, supposedly to increase oversight of the NSA, actually makes it harder to challenge national security letters. Whoops!
• Hawthorne, California, police say a second video of a puppycide justifies the shooting, but many people still wonder why the stupid bust took place to begin with.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Legislation introduced by Sen. Leahy, supposedly to increase oversight of the NSA, actually makes it harder to challenge national security letters.

He really should stick to Batman cameos.

[Ted S.]

Was it even intended to increase oversight of the NSA?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Intentions, statements and actions... seldom do those things intersect on Capitol Hill.

[db]

You can be certain that any bill with the stated purpose of "protecting," "preserving," or "guaranteeing" any right or privilege of a citizen will have written into it clauses licensing, limiting, or prohibiting exercise of such.

[NeonCat]

Speaking of Batman, check out Julia Merfeld, wearing a Batman hoodie while hiring an undercover cop to kill her husband.

Murder is so not Batman, Julia.

[sloopyinca]

SF the link, why don't you.

[NeonCat]

Grr.

[Brett L]

I sent this to the fiancee with a message that said, "I will do whatever it takes to make divorce easier than murder."

(She tells the cop having her husband die would be less hassle than divorce and being judged.)

[NeonCat]

And the $400k life insurance policy had nothing to do with it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Murder is so not Batman, Julia.

Well, we now know that NeonCat has never read the Dark Knight Returns.

[NeonCat]

Revisionism! And anyway Julia's logo was classic "Oh no! Criminals must be put away only to escape again and again mo matter how much mayhem they engage in" Batman.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Nonsense. Golden Age Batman was a stone cold killer.

Yes, Batman started out in the first comics carrying a gun and regularly killing criminals by shooting them, strangling them, knocking them off buildings, knocking them into vats of acid (not the Joker, but another dude in the first Batman story), pits, etc.

[NeonCat]

I think no matter what version of Batman he would still be against murder for hire.

[Agammamon]

Well, it *is* better to be your own boss.

[Mickey Rat]

Batman could not quite bring himself to kill the Joker in the middle of a mass murder spree in that story.

However, murder is so Sons of Batman.

[Agammamon]

"Murder is so not Batman, Julia."

Whatchu talking about? Batman used to kill people all the time. He's probably got a bigger kill-list than the Joker.

[Gordilocks]

Whatchu talking about? Batman used to kill people all the time. He's probably got a bigger kill-list than the Joker.Obama.

[Marshall Gill]

Surely not that many!

[Auric Demonocles]

Where do you think he got the idea of someone spying on everyone's phone calls?

[A Serious Man]

Before Bradley Manning leaked classified information, the U.S. military considered WikiLeaks to be a journalistic operation, an expert on media law told the court.

If you don't like the rules, change them.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Posters that mimic the well-known "Don't be that guy" campaign against sexual assault have gone up around Edmonton bearing a very different message.

The "Don't be that girl" poster reads: "Just because you regret a one night stand, doesn't mean it wasn't consensual. Lying about sexual assault = a crime."

Posters say some women lie about sexual assault

[Bam!]

Canada? They'll probably classify the poster as hate speech.

[Outlaw]

"I want to make it clear that that is so inaccurate," said Karen Smith, executive director of the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton. "It just doesn't happen."

Julian Assange? Duke Lacrosse team?

[Zeb]

Even if it doesn't happen (which it does), the poster is still accurate. It is a crime to falsely accuse someone of a serious crime and it isn't rape if you change your mind later.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Voluntary activities are only voluntary if there is no component of regret.

That is why we need some entity or institution to oversee our behaviors, as would a stern but loving father. They will need to know our preferences better than we do, so naturally, they will need access to everything related to our persons in any way. But well-meaning people don't have anything to hide, especially from a parent...

[Anonymous Coward]

No woman has ever lied about sexual assault, just like there are no homosexuals in Iran.

Delusions are interesting.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Honest question for the commentariat:

Did you interpret that to mean, "Our nation is pure (holy)," or, "Our nation is purified (purged)"?

[Suthenboy]

"It just doesn't happen."

This is the left, those engaged in the politics of envy, of class warfare and of identity. They have a narrative and they stick to it no matter what reality is or what easily verified contrary facts are.

This is why you cant talk to them.

[Michael S. Langston]

Agreed: people who refuse to admit obvious and easily found/researched facts are not worth the time.

Though what happens if that becomes a voting majority?

[PapayaSF]

Though what happens if that becomes a voting majority?

President Obama.

[A Serious Man]

Legislation introduced by Sen. Leahy, supposedly to increase oversight of the NSA, actually makes it harder to challenge national security letters.

Having the Joker stick a blade in your mouth will make any man wary of hampering the security state.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hawthorne, California, police say a second video of a puppycide justifies the shooting...

Since for some reason people aren't accepting the badges as justification enough.

[Ted S.]

The more videos we make of it, the more it becomes justified.

At least, that seems to be the logic.

[sloopyinca]

You should read the P1 comments on the case. They want the guy charged with cruelty to animals for leaving it in a car with a window down. They also want him charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon since Rottweilers have killed before.

Nevermind the fact that the cops should have not been interfering with him in the first place.

[Outlaw]

And nevermind the fact those fucksticks leave their dogs in the patrol cars with the windows up on hot summer days on a fairly routine basis.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That initial youtube of the dog shoot is why there's violence in Egypt right now.

[CE]

They never were going to make a movie about killing dogs. It was just a trailer.

[SKR]

BS orthodox Muslims don't like dogs and think they are unclean. They have tried to get them banned from public in Europe. They would be cheering the officers.

[Generic Stranger]

Sarcasm isn't your thing, is it?

[SKR]

is that what that was supposed to be?

[Caleb Turberville]

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics.....eyre-hard/

Students find out too late that Math and Science majors are like really hard.

[Rich]

"Students knew science was hard to begin with, but for a lot of them it turned out to be much worse than what they expected."

"Like, my professor wouldn't let me just draw a picture expressing my feelings about differential equations!"

[Brett L]

Please, these people are probably failing pH (logarithms) in Chem I. Differential equations. Hah!

[Rich]

You are correct, Sir. Silly me!

"They never did this shit on CSI!"

[Warty]

Yeah, by the time you get to diff EQ, the chaff has pretty much all blown away.

[Michael S. Langston]

But diffEQ made calc worth it - seriously if you have to go thru a year of calc and had to have another math credit, I would suggest diffEQ.

But I would agree - most of those in engineering, science, etc, who change majors to poliSci because "it's more interesting" have usually changed majors before calc I.

[Spoonman.]

Yeah, DiffEq was fun.

[Bam!]

Math is hard! Lets ban soda!

[tarran]

One of the stunning things about my stint as a college professor was how unprepared the students were for college level math classes.

Very frequently, the struggling students would volunteer that they had done well in math all through primary, middle and high school.

I am convinced that over the past 20 years, the public school system has become completely derelict in its stated mission to teach the youth the skills and knowledge they need to function as productive adults.

It's appalling.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I am convinced that over the past 20 years, the public school system has become completely derelict in its stated mission to teach the youth the skills and knowledge they need to function as productive adults

Just the past 20 years? That pig-fucker Albert Shanker was around long before the 90s.

[AuH20]

I think it has a lot to do with struggling with abstract thinking. Like, X isn't tangible. It isn't real. It could be anything. That messes with a lot of people's heads.

Negative numbers are a bit of the same way. When you put it as, "Well, you OWE them 1 apple" a person goes "Oh, okay! I get that now that it connects to the real world!"

But as far as I can tell, high level math is very abstract thinking that is then later applied to the real world.

Then again, I say this as someone whose never even done Pre-Calc. I'm sure that statement will go over well with y'all aspy engineers and programmers and shit. Hey, some of us libertarians are humanities people. We somehow managed to be that way despite college.

[some guy]

You're dead on when it comes to abstraction. Then best description of an integral I can come up with is that it is a sum over infinitesimally small pieces. That's a lot harder to get than "Negative means I owe you something".

[AuH20]

Well to give a comparison, think of how much people of faith struggle with the concept of a God that they can't see or hear or touch but exists and watches over them invisibly.

Now, I get that math is arguably rational and faith irrational, but the idea of something that exists, but isn't something that you can really see or hear or feel except by breaking it down into component parts or by analogy is tough for a species that was evolved to kill wooly mammoths and didn't have time for much esoteric.

In fact, the rationality probably hurts math. Religion is comforting. Actuarial tables ain't.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Yeah, something like "you're kind of slicing the area into small enough pieces that you're basically figuring the area of a bunch of really small rectangles or triangles and then adding up all of those" got it across to 7th graders.

[BelowTheRim]

I would also say that it depends on the kind of math.

I got a C in Calc in college but I set the curve on my Stats probability exam.

Stats were way easier for me in College because I could look the answer up in the back of the textbook and follow my notes to figure out the process of solving the problem.

Integrals and other 'abstract' aspects of Calc are very very difficult to learn with that process.

[Suthenboy]

"Like, X isn't tangible. It isn't real. It could be anything. That messes with a lot of people's heads."

It messed with mine....when my father taught me some basic algebra during my 8th summer.

He finally got through to me by saying that math is a game, like checkers. Stop trying to figure it out and just move the pieces the way the rules tell you to.

Ding, the light went on and I said "Ahhhh....ok."

That is how you teach algebra to a 4th grader.

[AuH20]

That was a way better description of how to understand math than I ever got.

[Agammamon]

That's how I learned celestial navigation.

[Stormy Dragon]

Actually that's a terrible description. If your ability to function in math or science is limited to memorizing "the rules" without understand why those particular rules are the rules, you're not going to get very far in the subject.

[Michael S. Langston]

Excellent point - I have been always "good" at math and when people asked how I was so good at algebra (9th grade at the time), I always wondered "how not?" Just follow the rules.

[Spoonman.]

I had a long argument with my dad about algebra when I was a kid before I understood algebra. It is hard to think that way.

But calculus made a lot of sense to me for whatever reason. Just fancy multiplication.

[Numeromancer]

Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them. -- Jon von Neuman

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Disagree. Calc I, II, and III are highly applicable to the real world; ditto Differential Equations. That is all that most Engineers need to know to get their BSes. Physics requires more, but again the math that physicists, engineers, and most in the hard sciences do is highly applicable. We are not talking about number theory or the logic of mathematics or somesuch.

Schools are just terrible at teaching anything beyond rote memorization.

[BelowTheRim]

This times 100

Even in college few professors give a shit about applying critical thinking to facts and concepts they SHOULD already know.

It drove me crazy as I graduated college in '09 and found that I was not a wizard at memorization.

I loved understanding concepts and applying them to a case.

[Michael S. Langston]

Understanding concepts also allows for greater strength in all critical thinking needs by utilizing analogies for concepts known to help understand concepts unknown.

Of course analogies have issues - being married to bad ones for instance, but in general, understanding concepts is much better than simply understanding how.

As an adult now with several projects devling into new territory for me though... in some cases - I only need what works due to time constraints, even though I really want the theory, or "why" , as well.

[Sidd Finch]

I think it's weird that people make such a big deal about "good" teachers one year, and the next year nobody gives a shit that some 28 year old Bulgarian is reading the textbook to the 30% of the class that can wake up before 8am.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Personally, I believe by the time one enters university, one should be able to "teach oneself". American universities should follow more of the European model, where no one gives a shit if you attend the lectures or not. If you pass the exams, that's all that matters. The lectures are there for those students who need more help in understanding the text or problem.

[Sidd Finch]

I completely agree. I just think it's weird that high school seniors at somewhere like TJ have great calculus teachers and a few months later the calculus teacher can barely speak English. And nobody seems to have a problem with this. If it's about weeding out, why not start before so when they find out that STEM sucks their grades are good enough to go to their backup instead of being forced to major in economics.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The idea of weed-out is stupid as-is. Weed-out makes sense to remove people who Just Don't Get It or when you have little demand in a field or a lack of resources to properly accommodate teaching your STEM population, but many of the people who get weeded out would have made fine STEM majors, and are good conceptual thinkers. Hating your Bulgarian instructor and the textbook is not the same thing as being unable to understand concepts.

[Sidd Finch]

A friend who went to GT said they had to memorize all the equations for intro physics. For me that would've made physics II one of the 3 or so hardest classes. Hell, I probably would've been weeded out if I thought that was representative of engineering classes. And for what? The only thing I remember from that class is the thumb thing, and I forgot which hand it is.

[CatoTheElder]

You forgot about probability, statistics, and numerical analysis, which are all in my engineering curriculum.

Memorizing techniques to solve equations of a particular variety is a fairly useless skill until one understands why the solution techniques work, and how to set up equations to solve real-world problems.

Professionally the most useful maths for me have been elementary algebra, statistics, and applied mathematical modeling (LP, simulation, etc.) I've seldom used calculus outside of the simple concepts for statistics and modeling. Though I loved diff eq in college, I've entirely forgotten it.

[SKR]

I laugh every time I hear someone say that they never used algebra in real life. I think, "that is because you don't understand algebra at all." Once you understand it, the applications reveal themselves easily.

[Spoonman.]

I don't understand how you go through life NOT using algebra. It's just an efficient method for getting a number that you know exists but don't know what is.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

You forgot about probability, statistics, and numerical analysis, which are all in my engineering curriculum.

Ah, yes, right you are -- some engineering majors do require those classes.

[SKR]

I've had arguments with teachers about math education. They firmly believe that rote memorization is the only way to teach math and that math is not understandable. Well it may not be understandable to an innumerate monkey, but that doesn't mean that is the case for everyone.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Indeed. Conceptual thinking is far more important than abstract thinking or rote memorization, when it comes to the maths that almost anyone who's not either a math major or a philosopher will be using -- and that can be acquired as early as pre-Algebra.

[some guy]

Just because you can do trig doesn't mean you can do calc. There's a significant jump in abstraction there that a lot of people can't handle. If you didn't take calculus in high school, then you have no idea how well you're going to do on math in college.

[Caleb Turberville]

That's my biggest problem with Calculus and why it hasn't been standardized in the high school curriculum yet (last I checked, Alabama only requires you to go through Precalculus Algebra and Trig).

It's not hard to do, but it does necessitate a bit of mental exercise to get across the abstraction of the infinitesimal.

[Caleb Turberville]

Also, Statistics should be integrated into the high school curriculum.

[some guy]

I wouldn't say they should be standardized. If you're going to weld or work retail for the next 40 years you don't need to know calculus. Basic statistics would be good just so they'll know to ignore opinion polls.

[AuH20]

Yeah stats are important just to know how easy they can be manipulated.

[Brandon]

I only had to take through Algebra II.

[Sidd Finch]

That's my biggest problem with Calculus and why it hasn't been standardized in the high school curriculum yet

You're suggesting a law requiring all students to be smart?

[Caleb Turberville]

I'm suggesting that high schools shouldn't be able to get away with not requiring Calculus when any of the hard science majors in college will require it eventually.

[Sidd Finch]

Over here in reality, you're suggesting that Alabama cut its graduation rate in half.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Meh. Just do what Europe does and have more than one track once you hit secondary school.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

That wouldn't be equitable.

For shame!

[SKR]

HS calc was soo ridiculously easy, I don't understand why it hasn't been standardized.

[Heedless]

I'm guessing your IQ tops 120?

For the 50% of the population with IQ below 100, calculus is simply beyond their reach, other than as a set of laboriously memorized rules.

For a lot of people, even algebra is a stretch.

[John]

I don't know a single person under 30 who can long division. Long division!! Hell a lot of them can't do fractions or properly multiply non whole numbers.

Forget college math, they don't learn junior high math anymore.

[Outlaw]

I can and I'm 27. I'll long division your ass off, gramps.

[John]

Doubtful. Just because they gave everyone in your class an A doesn't mean anyone actually knew anything.

[Outlaw]

I went to a private school. 😀

[Hash Brown]

Unless John knows you, your comment is a non sequitur.

Just thought I'd point that out.

[kibby]

Me too! I used to do it for fun when I got bored at work!

[some guy]

Long division is worthless. If our civilization gets back to the point that we need to be able to do long division again we'll have a lot more pressing things to worry about. My problem is that so few people have a grasp of logical reasoning. Teach a kid to read, write and reason and he can teach himself anything else he wants to know.

[John]

If you don't understand long division, you probably don't understand how numbers work very well. Long division is not hard. And if you can't do it, it is a good sign your reasoning skills are not very good.

[Suthenboy]

Pick up any speed math handbook and you will see there are a zillion ways to do mathematical operations besides the standard ways taught in school.

But your larger point is correct. If they cant do long division they probably cant do any of the others either, and probably stink at reasoning.

[AuH20]

I think the standardization is a big part. Now that I'm an adult, I do addition by breaking it down into units of 10 or 100 or 1000 and then going smaller.

[AuH20]

Like if they let kids break it down however they want or use whatever method works best.

This can be said of American education in general. We refuse to accept that one size doesn't fit all and there are different kinds of learners, different methods to learn/complete problems.

Most of it is government funded schools, but I do think part of it is parents who have a tough time if their kid learns differently than they do. Like I totally get the revolt against New Math as one of the kids subjected to it, but it also doesn't help when people go, "It's different than how I learned in school so it's bad."

[Heroic Mulatto]

This can be said of American education in general. We refuse to accept that one size doesn't fit all and there are different kinds of learners, different methods to learn/complete problems.

God bless you. If I were the head of my department, I'd hire you for our language education faculty right now.

[AuH20]

Sadly I'm a klutz so far with languages. I've been meaning to Rosetta stone Spanish for a while, though.

My problem is that I didn't learn English as, "When saying this, use the past perfect subjunctive." I learned "This is how you speak properly." So I've found a lot of language classes tough.

[Heroic Mulatto]

My problem is that I didn't learn English as, "When saying this, use the past perfect subjunctive." I learned "This is how you speak properly."

That's how everyone learns their first language. A 5-year-old doesn't need to know before saying "I gave the ball to my friend." That "I" is a personal pronoun acting as the subject of the verb "give" which is in its irregular simple past active voice form and that "the ball" is a noun phrase that can be parsed into "the" the definite article, which due to the pragmatics of the sentence marks that the particular ball given is known to both speaker and listener, and that "ball" is a common noun acting as the direct object of the verb. "To my friend" is a prepositional phrase acting as the indirect object showing who benefits from the action of the verb, which can be parsed as.....

You get the idea. A knowledge of grammar does help when analyzing the differences between your first language and the language you are acquiring. But, plenty of people learn a second language without a good grammar background. The key is to listen to, practicing speaking and reading the language a lot, as much as physically possible. Your brain is designed to learn languages, you just need to give it enough input, with enough frequency, so it can parse the rules.

[Metazoan]

I don't know, I'm a computational biochemist and I don't do mental math or math by hand very well, but I wouldn't say I'm ignorant of the subject by any stretch (given it's my field).

[SKR]

really illiteracy is bad but innumeracy is A-OK?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

My daughters are under 30 and can find square roots (of perfect squares, granted, so far) by hand. They've been doing long division for 5 or 6 years. They can multiply and divide whole numbers, mixed numbers, and fractions.

They start Algebra I next month and I think I'm going to start letting them break out the TI's at that point.

[Suthenboy]

TIs suck.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

It's pretty much a standard, so that's the safe choice.

[Agammamon]

HP 48 FTW!

[Gray Ghost]

1 +

[Agammamon]

I've still got mine from 1994.

[Agammamon]

Oh, and an emulator for android.

[Sidd Finch]

I don't know a single person under 30 who can long division.

I don't know a single person under 60 who can use a slide rule.

[robc]

I can.

Not well, because I had a calculator for that shit.

But its a neat application of logarithms.

[robc]

Homework counts for too large of a percentage of the grade in High School, instead of quizzes and tests.

Note: its been 20 years since I dropped out of grad school and I still hate the entire concept of graded homework at any level. Im pretty sure that I never had a class (at least HS-level and onward), that my homework average didnt lower my grade. So Im biased. One of the things I loved about GT was that, especially in the core classes, homework was approximately 0% of the grade. Once you got up into you major junior and senior year, it came back.

[Michael S. Langston]

Agreed - I never did homework either - and in some classes, it may have helped, but it others, like algebra, I'd ace every single test with a high A or even 100%, and get a B in the class due to no homework...

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Thankfully, the one worthwhile class I had in high school was the one in which homework didn't count for jack shit.

It was tests and quizzes all the way down, and therefore, my favourite class.

[Andrew S.]

I did that about 18 years ago. Yeah, I'll admit it. I had done just fine in Calc I in High School, got a top score on the AP test, and went into college as a Computer Engineering Major... but I couldn't cut it in higher level math. Ended up a liberal arts (history) major and in law school.

[Zeb]

Math majors aren't hard. I did a math major just because I was going to complete about all of the requirements anyway because I felt like it.

Though I did have an unusual math program in high school that actually focused on proofs and abstract algebra and other things that you need to do college level math. So that probably helped. Too many people come out of high school thinking that math is about calculation. When you do real math, you use a lot more words than you do numbers.

[Suthenboy]

If hard means that you have to actually study and concentrate on the material instead of spending your time getting stoned and fucking around with your friends, then yeah, it is hard.

[SKR]

IDK, maths stoned can be quite fun.

[shamalam]

this^^.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....civil-war/

The libertarian civil war about the Civil War.

[Heroic Mulatto]

HOLY SHIT! "Cosmotarian" is now officially a word.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Oh, and fuck Rachel Weiner for not making "Yokeltarian" a word.

[John]

Yeah. And I stand behind no one in my dislike of Cosmotarians. But I can't stand the neo confederates either.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I stand behind no one in my dislike of Cosmotarians. But I can't stand the neo confederates either.

John, one of those two categories aren't real.

I'll let you puzzle out which one.

[tarran]

While most of the people who are smeared as being neo-confederates are assuredly not, there are a few of them around. I met one once.

They are, however, all but extinct.

[John]

Cosmotarians are real. Neo confederate is a slander. But it is a slander that is earned by people who are more horrified by Lincoln not allowing succession than they are by the South having slaves.

[Heroic Mulatto]

*sigh*

Really? C'mon, son.

[John]

It is true. Read the civil war threads. It is all about Lincoln and Lincoln was a tyrant and so forth. They are all so concerned about tyranny but never once will you hear them say shit about the Fugitive Slave Act, which is the worst act of Congress in American history. No sin of the South is too large to ignore.

[Heroic Mulatto]

No, John, I agree with you about the existence of Neo-Confederates. I take issue with the reality of "Cosmotarians" of which I have yet to discover any definitive definition.

[Killazontherun]

Cato Institution, when its people offer compromises to the gun banners even when all of the momentum is on our side. Also, any libertarian who supported the bail out is just swilling cocktails with the day traders. Fuck them, they are definitional cosmo.

Though, I don't think he qualifies as one, Nick G has his hiccups. I go full Bircher on his posts for a reason. Anyone that hung up about propriety deserves to be teased.

[crashland]

But if the south seceded that would have made the fugitive slave act null and void... Lincoln could have let the south go and then worked to help as many slaves as possible get over the mason dixon line.

[robc]

They are all so concerned about tyranny but never once will you hear them say shit about the Fugitive Slave Act

SLAVERY IS A SETTLED ISSUE, THERE IS NO REASON TO BRING IT UP.

[Zeb]

Cosmotarians are real because they are defined as anyone who John (or SIV or whoever) decides to call a cosmotarian.

[John]

It is my insult zeb, I can define who meets it.

[VG Zaytsev]

Cosmotarians are real because they are defined as anyone who John (or SIV or whoever) decides to call a cosmotarian.

No cosmos out themselves by flying into a rage whenever they see word. Even if it's not being used as a slur directed at them.

[Cancer]

I give it five(5)years max before a half-dead EJ Dionne is unironically using the word "yokeltarian" on Meet the Press.

Russert would've already been on that shit!

[CE]

Not allowing succession? Lincoln laid down his life so Johnson could succeed him.

[Brandon]

Succession?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The Lost Cause stupidity of many conservatives and libertarians is absolutely baffling to me, as is the Lincoln hate.

The guy was in office for three months working his ass off trying to conciliate the South before a federal fort was fired on by rebels who shortly thereafter were claimed as agents acting in the name of a new, hostile government. What was he supposed to do, say "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

As bad as the Civil War got, it really isn't the harbinger of progressive governance that people like to pretend that it is, nor were there any good options left to resolve the issue by the time that Lincoln was elected by less than half of the country.

[Eduard van Haalen]

In a famous letter, Lincoln justified his limitations on civil liberties by using the example of a sick patient - if someone's very sick, they may need radical surgery, but that doesn't set a precedent for when he's healthy or just has a cold. So, by analogy, the body politic was sick during the civil war and needed radical surgery (suspend habeas corpus, draft people, dilute the currency, etc.), but this would not pose a precedent for peacetime America (or for times of small-scale wars), so there was nothing to worry about.

The problem with Lincoln's comparison is that nowadays, the authorities are always claiming there's some kind of war, or if not a literal war then the moral equivalent, such as to justify limits on constitutional rights. In other words, following Lincoln's analogy, radical surgery has become the norm, and patient is *always* assumed to be seriously ill. So the Civil War precedents are more dangerous than Lincoln thought.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Perhaps (and I'm hardly going to excuse some of the lengths to which the Union went to win the war), but isn't that like blaming the doctor for performing lifesaving surgery on a patient who shortly thereafter becomes addicted to painkillers for said addiction?

Seems to me that the trouble lies with those who misinterpret Lincoln's wartime record in the bloodiest conflict in US history, with a grant of power for all seasons.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Seems to me that the trouble lies with those who misinterpret Lincoln's wartime record in the bloodiest conflict in US history, with a grant of power for all seasons."

That could be right - whenever there's something that can be remotely spun as a crisis, lots of people come out of the woodwork talking about Lincoln's Greatness and the Lessons for Today.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I've never understood why the issue is so divisive: Lincoln (or whoever) doing evil things, unconstitutional things, unlibertarian things, etc., does not necessarily invalidate the war or general war aims. There is no way to demonstrate that the typically enumerated abuses were *necessary* to the war effort, as opposed to being merely expeditious. In fact, many of the most vile abuses, be they violations of civil liberties or economic regulations, actually harmed the war effort, particularly in the long run. Banking regulations were a superb example of just that, although one of the few examples with a genuinely troubling post-war legacy.

As for the extreme libertarian argument about federal control and the death of the Constitution, how does one account for the necessity of the progressive movements to bring about the current manifestation of Leviathan? I can understand how the Civil War established certain precedents, laid certain groundwork, and so on, but the existence of the Gilded Age demolishes any linear narrative of tyrannical federal usurpation.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I've never understood why the issue is so divisive: Lincoln (or whoever) doing evil things, unconstitutional things, unlibertarian things, etc., does not necessarily invalidate the war or general war aims. There is no way to demonstrate that the typically enumerated abuses were *necessary* to the war effort, as opposed to being merely expeditious. In fact, many of the most vile abuses, be they violations of civil liberties or economic regulations, actually harmed the war effort, particularly in the long run. Banking regulations were a superb example of just that, although one of the few examples with a genuinely troubling post-war legacy.

As for the extreme libertarian argument about federal control and the death of the Constitution, how does one account for the necessity of the Progressive movements to bring about the current manifestation of Leviathan? I can understand how the Civil War established certain precedents, laid certain groundwork, and so on, but the existence of the Gilded Age demolishes any linear narrative of tyrannical federal usurpation. The Constitution itself also laid such groundwork, but it is often a holy sacrament amongst neo-Copperheads.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Bushy-tailed rat fuckers!

[Whahappan?]

The Lincoln hate isn't baffling to me. He did a lot of evil shit. Pointing that out doesn't excuse the Confederacy, nor does it imply that the CSA wasn't worse. I don't get the compulsion that many have to defend everything Lincoln did, just to show how much they oppose slavery and the CSA. He was an ego-maniacal, self aggrandizing, corrupt politician, just like pretty much every politician. Get over it. The CSA is reviled (properly so), the South won't rise again, and Jefferson Davis was worse than Lincoln. But that doesn't make Lincoln a saint.

[Episiarch]

And it's still just as fucking retarded.

[hamilton]

Jesus. This will just get the anti-libertarian types more confused.

[Hash Brown]

If by "confused" you mean "hard," then yes.

[jesse.in.mb]

neo-Confederates in turn see cosmotarians as intolerant, hypocritical and pro-war

Cosmos are pro-war? Or are they just pro-Civil War... I is confused.

[Heroic Mulatto]

It's the Cosmo Uncertainty Principle; they exhibit wave/particle duality.

I blame the cocktails.

[VG Zaytsev]

The divide is between so-called "neo-Confederates" and the "cosmotarians" or "liberaltarians" (all disputed terms) who oppose them.

I ain't no Cosmo and I think the neo-confederates are delusional.

[Jerry on the boat]

Plenty of Lincoln fanboys at National Review.

[Hash Brown]

Nobody who wants to be anybody disses Lincoln. And nobody wants to be somebody more than the nobodies at National Review.

[Suthenboy]

Jon Henke -"Why arent libertarians policing their own?"

The discussion earlier on how some just cant grasp the abstract thinking required for certain math is a good parallel for how some also cant grasp the reasoning required to understand liberty. It is stunning to me that anyone would have trouble with the concept.

[Andrew S.]

Legislation introduced by Sen. Leahy, supposedly to increase oversight of the NSA, actually makes it harder to challenge national security letters. Whoops!

Like that wasn't the point from the beginning.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The White House knew months ago that Obamacare implemention was floundering and would have to be severely scaled back.

Still months behind the rest of the country.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

They are just so far ahead of us that you dont understand their genius

[db]

This is going to end up as much of a success as the Canadian long gun Registry.

[Bam!]

Took them that long to read the bill.

[AuH20]

Obama's post-election inevitably jet-setting lifestyle should be funded by the Republicans.

The failure of this law is going to give them Congress for at least a decade.

[Suthenboy]

I wish I were as optimistic as you are.

A. Shitweasel is so slick he makes an eel look like sandpaper.

B. The party of stupid never seems to feel they have fully lived up to their name and so are constantly striving to do so.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev entered "not guilty" pleas to all charges, setting the ground for one of the more high-profile trials in a while.

He fired off WMD's! I can't believe he's not being force-fed Gitmo chow right now.

[Rich]

This.

Gitmo. GITMO. GITMO! *GITMO!!*

At least drone his ass.

[Pro Libertate]

Not guilty? Boy, I can't wait to see the defense on this one.

[Bam!]

I'd try a freedom of religion argument.

[Rich]

Or dust off the Twinkie defense.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, so in his religion, he needs to blow people up. So a free exercise argument.

[hamilton]

"It's Watertown, your Honor. People are found bleeding in boats all the time."

Not to mention there is no clear indication of Aaron Hernandez' whereabouts at the time, right? SUSPICIOUS.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, the Aaron-Did-It defense is probably his best course of action. He should wear Red Sox gear to court, too.

[Eduard van Haalen]

He should wear a low-cut skirt, I hear that works for some defendants.

[shamalam]

Put O'Mara on the case and Tsarniev will be sprung by spring.

[Brett L]

For those of you unfamiliar with Florida's, um, unique political scene.

As you drive toward downtown Tallahassee, Florida's state Capitol Building rises boldly from the horizon. First you see the 22-story executive branch building, known locally as the "Tower of Power," bluntly thrusting itself toward the sky. As you get closer you see that the tower is flanked by the domes of the House and Senate.

A few years ago an online poll overwhelmingly selected it as the most phallic building in the world.

[NeonCat]

Check out the size of that government erection!

[Dweebston]

I'm not looking at Tony's package, thanks.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

In middle school, the father of a friend of mine worked for a construction company that gave them t-shirts which said "Safe Erections" with the company name on them.

Goddamn, I miss the days before PC infected the social consciousness.

[Mad Scientist]

Some companies still have a sense of humor.

[hamilton]

Judicial Watch says the Department of Justice was involved in organizing protests against George Zimmermann and the Sanford police chief.

[tarran]

What's ironic is that the CRS charter is to soothe and dissipate racial tensions, not stoke them.

[Killazontherun]

Sickening. Just fucking sickening.

[Suthenboy]

Sickening? I hope that after Holder has been in there all this time, and all his over-the-top, politically motivated behavior, you dont still find his actions surprising.

Looking at the guy's record this should have been completely predictable.

[Killazontherun]

Even on the twentieth time through, strychnine is equally hard to digest.

[PapayaSF]

This surprised even me.

[Pro Libertate]

I said this earlier, but I'm saying it again: Where's the special prosecutor? Seriously, this administration is totally out of control. We may need fifty special prosecutors.

And I thought Bush was bad!

[Episiarch]

If no one has called for it yet, it ain't happening. Which just emboldens the administration.

The government is utterly corrupt and shows what a fucking sham "rule of law" is. Because if no one enforces the law, there is no fucking law.

[Pro Libertate]

I DEMAND A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR! I DEMAND IT!

[Episiarch]

Demand all you want. It seems no one cares, and they probably want the additional power for when their guy gets in.

This is what all governments become eventually.

[Pro Libertate]

[Stomps foot, hold breath, throws tantrum.]

[NeonCat]

No, no, the government is us only if we agree with the government. Now shut up and pay your taxes, citizen.

[Pro Libertate]

If I'm the government, then no. And fuck me, cut spending. And stop all of that meddling in the Middle East, me. Jesus, what's my problem?

[NeonCat]

Stop you before you drone again!

[Pro Libertate]

[Slaps self repeatedly.]

[John]

Bush was held accountable by the media and by a hostile Congress after 2007. Obama is held accountable by no one. There is literally nothing he could do that the media and the Dems in Congress wouldn't go to the mattresses defending. And in Washington, as long as Congress and the media are willing to cover for you, you have nothing to worry about.

The country is basically at his mercy at this point.

[crashland]

John why do you hate our first black president so much? He's trying so darn hard to help all of us. We should all work to support him just like the sycophants in the media. It's our patriotic duty to support our duly elected POTUS. Dissent in any form is tantamount to treason. John, why are you a traitor?

[Pro Libertate]

Second black president. Jesus. Me and Toni Morrison are spending all of our time lately correcting people.

[Rich]

*** takes a deep breath ***

When my blood pressure goes down, I'll read the documents.

[Hash Brown]

That would explain the "spontaneous" hoodie demonstration in the park outside my office shortly after l'affaire Zimmerman first made news. The only other demonstrations I've seen in the 10+ years I've been in this city are the 4-6 OWSers who occasionally march down the block shouting gibberish and banging a tambourine.

[Suthenboy]

I told that to a liberal acquaintance of mine earlier and she flew into a tizzy cussing zimmerman. She refused first to even acknowledge that this happened, and then that it had any significance whatsoever.

She firmly denies that this is fervor whipped up deliberately to promote a narrative.

[Mike M.]

More and more I'm starting to think that if Zimmermann gets off he might have to pull a Snowden and flee the country permanently.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Eric Holder and Block Yomomma, the two most vile cretins we've ever had at the reins of power, did to him what they did to Andrew Breitbart.

[Agammamon]

Is that a picture of Chevy Chase?

[A Serious Man]

House Democrats propose bill to make the Moon landings sites a national park.

Privatize that shit!

[Pro Libertate]

Let's pool our resources and commission a SpaceX mission to Mare Tranquillitatis and claim the Apollo 11 landing site. Under the Outer Space Treaty, we might be able to do that as private citizens. It would be illegal for the government to do so or to even challenge our claim, arguably.

[hamilton]

Libertopia Awaits!

[Auric Demonocles]

One of the reasons I want cheap access to orbit is that the only viable libertarian future I see is space colonization.

[hamilton]

"Oh yeah? How're you gonna build the ROADS.... uh, wait..."

[Pro Libertate]

Man, think about how fun four-wheeling would be on the Moon! Low gravity for big jumps, and thousands of miles of places to drive.

[hamilton]

Mudding would be problematic.

[Pro Libertate]

There's apparently quite a bit of water on the Moon. Just get a block and put in near the terminator (so it doesn't just turn to steam). I dunno if that would work, but maybe.

[Agammamon]

If the temp is high enough to melt ice, the ice will sublimate to vapor in no-atmosphere conditions.

[Pro Libertate]

How about a liquid other than water? What are our options?

[NeonCat]

Hydrocarbons? Mercury?

Man, imagine all the environmental impact forms you'd have to fill out...

[Pro Libertate]

See, this is the beauty of the Moon. I mean, what can you fuck up, other than the Apollo sites?

[Brandon]

No atmosphere = no environment. Loophole!

[Agammamon]

No, no, no - think of all the anti-terraforming loonies out there right now. They're like xenobiologists.

[Agammamon]

Mercury?

[CE]

Man, think about how fun four-wheeling would be on the Moon!

And think of how clearly everyone on Earth could see your giant "Rand Paul for President 2016" sign on the moon.

[PapayaSF]

One of the reasons I want cheap access to orbit is that the only viable libertarian future I see is space colonization.

Not that I'm against space colonies, but seasteading would be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier.

[Agammamon]

Except that government's like to expand their borders and as Sealand found out in 1987.

[PapayaSF]

Sealand was a fixed site, and rather close to the mainland. Ships in international waters should be safe, and you could buy a whole fleet for the price of getting one guy in a room-sized space station.

[Agammamon]

The point still stands - as nations decide to expand their 'ownership' of the sea, your seastead will be pushed out further and further away from land.

[A Serious Man]

What can they do about it anyway? We just need to find a suitably large rock and threaten to throw it at DC.

[Pro Libertate]

Exactly. Legally nothing, militarily nothing. I'm going to write my initials next to Armstrong's footprint.

[Auric Demonocles]

Finally somebody who agrees with me! In space nothing beats rock.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, rock plus gravity well. Or mass driver.

Given the huge military disadvantage Earth has against space-based societies, there's pretty much no chance we'll be calling the shots from here, once people are permanently established on other worlds in the system.

[Agammamon]

Except Earth has something incredibly important, militarily, that space based habitats don't - a huge fething heat sink.

Earth don't need to corral a rock from the asteroid belt and wait months to years for it to hit. Earth just build a huge array of mobile lasers and hides them on the surface. Earth don't like what you're doing, Earth shines the solar system's biggest flashlight at you until your habitat is slag.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, like the rock-throwers are going to sit still for that. And you could throw moonrock.

[Agammamon]

Even with the mythical torchship, your ability to dodge is significantly less than my ability to turn the focusing mirror.

And Earth can throw earthrock at the moonbase also.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, with a major gravity advantage to the Moon. And I'm not sure about your death lasers, either. That's a whole lot of power.

[Agammamon]

Earth's got a whole lot of power to spare. The real issue for lasers is heat dissipation and diffraction limits on how tightly you can focus the beam.

Well, and choosing a suitable frequency to go through the atmosphere without a huge loss through absorption.

[Pro Libertate]

Look, let's stop kidding around. Giant lasers heating up the atmosphere? Hello, AGW?

You lose.

[Agammamon]

You aren't going to dump the heat into the atmosphere, you dump it into the earth itself.

[Pro Libertate]

If it were that easy. we'd do that for asteroid defense. Instead, we're just waiting to get clobbered.

[Agammamon]

Nah, its the oil companies. They've already got the tech but the oil companies killed the guy who came up with it and have hidden it away. Exxon is counting on the next large asteroid strike to bury life on earth and start the oil production process again.

That's why they don't care about peak oil.

[Agammamon]

Or, you repurpose your orbital solar power generation system. Intead of beaming that energy to the surface you turn those masers onto another target.

The issue here is microwaves don't focus well so at long ranges you require long dwell times to destructively heat anything.

[seguin]

Venus. It's where it's at....best habitat for humanity, as long as you're floating in the cloud layer. Geoffrey Landis thinks so, and he's no slouch.

[AuH20]

Well, if you control the moon, you basically have the perfect orbital bombardment site ever. Moon is a Harsh Mistress showed this. If you own the moon and have a colony that can grow food, Earth can't really say shit.

[Pro Libertate]

Actually, you don't even need that. Just a willingness to bombard. Send us food, or we'll drop a rock on you. Now.

We're in quite a bit of trouble once humanity is in space in any numbers.

[Agammamon]

Its *easier* to throw a rock from the Moon to the Earth, but its not that much more difficult for the Earth to return the favor.

Heinlein was, uh, overstating the case for the Moon's gravitational advantage.

In any case, not only is the asteroid belt better suited for tossing rocks from (lots of rocks and no gravity well to toss them up from), once your out of Earth orbit there's really no reason to build a Moon base at all (assuming self-sufficiency in food of course). Best to just create a mobile habitat and use robots/tele-operation to mine what you need from the large astronomical objects.

[NeonCat]

Well, Earth has more gravitational pull and a pesky atmosphere.

[Agammamon]

Earth also has tall mountains that you can build mile long mass-drivers on.

[NeonCat]

Earth also has NIMBY lawsuits.

[Pro Libertate]

Personally, I'd establish my solar empire further out. The Moon is too close.

There's always the Oort cloud, though that's way far away by modern standards. Maybe less so in the future.

[Agammamon]

Oort is good (long term)

Jupiter isn't a bad near-term choice.

Far enough to not be easy to get to, still enough sun for decent solar energy along with easy access to the outer system's largest collection of hydrogen outside the sun itself.

Or, if you feel really adventurous, build floating cities inside Saturn's atmosphere at the 1g level. Plenty of helium to keep them afloat.

[CE]

Why not Titan? Plenty of liquid fuel, right on the surface.

[Pro Libertate]

I saw something about the ice on Europa being fifty-sixty miles thick. Maybe a habitat deep in the ice? All sorts of water, of course.

[Agammamon]

Except in all those cases you have people living at the bottom of a gravity well.

You don't need a large mass for gravity generation (spin your habitat). There's no advantage to living on a large rock other than that.

Plus a habitat is completely customizable to the inhabitants needs and isn't subject to pesky things like 'weather'.

I really don't see anyone seriously making a long-term colonization effort of any of the planets or similar objects here. Well, outside of government run vanity projects of course.

Anything you need to mine from a planet/moon can be done mostly remotely (with a temporary crew to handle the out of the ordinary).

[Mickey Rat]

"ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE" - HAL 9000

[Pro Libertate]

Turn Jupiter into a sun, and I might listen to you. Otherwise, Europa ho!

[Agammamon]

Uh, Europa is in *orbit* around Jupiter. If you can make it to Europa then all of jovian space is accessible.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

build floating cities inside Saturn's atmosphere at the 1g level

Methinks someone has a large misunderstanding about physics.

... Hobbit

[Agammamon]

What's the misunderstanding?

At the top of Saturn's atmosphere, if you were stationary you would feel a gravitational attraction of 1.07g.

Go down a little bit, hook your city up to big vacuum dirigibles (or even larger low density hydrogen filled dirigibles) and voila! Floating city.

[Ted S.]

I see someone can't be bothered to read the Morning Links....

[shamalam]

Not without an environmental impact statement!!!

[Killazontherun]

Satan. Worst. Dungeon Master. Ever.

http://io9.com/satan-is-a-hars.....-730011153

[hamilton]

Huh, I remember that time. My folks got all pissy about it. Explaining to them that Asmodeus was only a 14th-level assassin plus 25th-level fighter did not help much by way of explanation.

[AuH20]

Multiclassing is for losers!

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, what a dweeb.

[AuH20]

Pure Wizard build FTW! Time Stop kicks in at level 20. As does Wish. Worth it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Min-maxer.

True players are in it for the role play.

[Killazontherun]

One aspect of roll playing I wished Bethesda would adopt would be that a chosen path excludes others. One guild, one god, one side in a political conflict should be enough variaion for any character. Or at least, recognize that if the Archmage of the Winterhold college comes to you and expresses interest in your little association, you are wasting your time and resources as well as his to send him off to clobber rats.

[AuH20]

^That's why I'll probably hit up my Morrowind playthrough again.

You couldn't do the Fighters and Thieves guild. You had to choose which better represented your character at the end. Also, the religion aspect was fun because it was so well-detailed and if you played Dark Elf, you kinda had to go Temple exclusively if you read the source material.

[Agammamon]

You can do both - it requires you to juggle your stats and to look up the quests to know how far you can progress along one line before having to move the other along - and back and forth.

But its possible to be head of all houses, mage's guild, Thieve's guild, fighters's guild, and the morag tong in one playthrough.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I know, right? Though, in my experience it's more of a problem in TES than the Fallout series, as, for example, once you choose a certain faction in New Vegas, you've pretty much screwed your chances in dealing with the others.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, there's something weird in Skyrim about being the head of every guild.

[Killazontherun]

I don't know, my choices were still wide open up to Hoover Dam. I still had NCR, Mr. Hand and Wild Card as viable options on my last play through.

[Agammamon]

You're supposed to only be able to get so far along a single path before an irreversible decision has to be made.

I don't think its possible to *get to* HD without picking a faction.

I played the NCR against house (and completely destroyed the legion) until the last minute when I killed house, took over New Vegas and then assaulted the legion camp with my vertibird squadron and a company worth of troops.

Then I swept the legion off HD and told the NCR to leave of I'd throw their general off the top of the dam.

(mods are awesome - if you ever play again look op XRE's flyable vertibird mod, he's also got working cars to. And there's one that gives you callable air support and the ability to land troops to fight with you - like up to 18).

[Agammamon]

I do like that - but its never going to happen. Console players won't be having any of the immersion shit.

Its why Skyrim (unmodded) is full of brightly lit dungeons and fat loot.

It is weird to be thane of all nine holds, harbinger of the companions, archmage of the college at winterhold, head of the thieve's guild, listener of the dark brotherhood, and talos only knows what else. All with no particular effort.

At least in Morrowind you had to make a concerted effort to min-max stats and quests to be in charge of everything.

'Course I don't think you should be allowed to be the head of *any* organization in-game. Its not like you ever actually get to run them so why bother. Just have the questline run you up to a suitably prestigious but non-managerial position.

[CE]

Didn't we already know that?

[Brett L]

IRS agents not getting their performance bonuses. (Not because of poor performance, but TEH SEQUESTER O DUME!)

[db]

Yeah, like they won't get them double next time.

[PapayaSF]

Did you read that the IRS has 200 employees who don't do any IRS work, but just handle employee union business?

[Coeus]

The proggies, faced with the fact of regulatory capture, are trying to muddy the waters.

Bivens and Mishel show that the increase in the incomes of the top 1% over the past 30 years owes more to successful rent-seeking than it does to efficient and competitive markets rewarding education and skills.

What do economists mean by "rents"? Simply put, it's the income that's received over and above what would be required to induce the person to supply their labor or capital.

For instance, Bevins and Mishel say, "it seems likely that many top-level professional athletes would continue to supply essentially the same amount of labor to their sport, even if their salary was reduced by some substantial fraction, because even the reduced salary would be much higher than their next-best options."

Conflating rent-seeking with the market cost of attracting talent. Shameless fuckers, ain't they?

[John]

Yeah, Labron James making $25 million a year after increasing the value of the Miami Heat by several hundred million dollars is just like some crony getting a insider contract or getting regulators to put his competition out of business.

They are not shameless, they are evil and retarded.

[Auric Demonocles]

As much as I hate the guy, it's pretty obvious that getting him on the team has gotten then 2 more championships.

[John]

The value of the Cavs dropped by something like a quarter of a billion dollars the day he signed with the Heat.

James is one of the most under paid people in America.

[Andrew S.]

He really is. I've seen some numbers that say he's making 1/3rd to 1/4th (or less) than he actually deserves to get given his production, how much money he brings to the team, how much he ups the value of the team, etc.

Without a salary cap, I'd be really curious to see what happened next summer. I'd totally be able to see NY or LA offering him $80-$100 million a season.

[John]

Without a salary cap or a luxury tax, a hundred million a year would be a bargain for the Lakers or the Knicks.

[Gray Ghost]

Another advantage of no salary cap is that there's little chance you could form a superteam like Miami. Well, unless the Heat wanted to run their franchise the way the DeBartolo's used to run the Niners.

The wages of wins guys had LeBron's value at ~95M/yr, IIRC. Max deals really do screw the guys at the far end of the NBA bell curve.

[tarran]

The value of the Cavs dropped by something like a quarter of a billion dollars the day he signed with the Heat.

How much of that was due to James leaving, and how much of that was due to the CEO of the Cavs revealing showing himself to be a man of incredibly questionable judgement?

Dan Gilbert was so upset, in fact, that he wrote a very angry open letter to Cleveland fans, laden with surprising capitalizations and lines like "The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma," and "'I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER 'KING' WINS ONE' You can take it to the bank."

We will leave it to our sporting brethren at SportsGrid to parse the meaning and sporty implications of all of this to the world of people who care about sports. For our part, the most important thing to note about Dan Gilbert's letter is that it was written in Comic Sans. Comic Sans.

Would you buy stock in an entertainment company whose CEO used Comic Sans in serious missives?

[John]

It was all due to James leaving. Had James stayed, Gilber could have fucked a sheep at the press conference and the stock price wouldn't have gone anywhere. Without James, the Cavs no longer had anything to market outside Cleveland no matter who was the owner.

[Killazontherun]

Regulatory capture is an unavoidable mouse trap for all proggie economic solutions, but damn if they don't try to grease their tails to avoid it.

[Dweebston]

Theirs is a fire-and-forget mentality: who cares if the bill/law/department/agency actually works as intended, the important thing is getting it passed and moving onto the next feel-good pet project.

[MJGreen]

David R. Henderson:

But why do economists use the term "rent"? Unfortunately, there is no good reason. David Ricardo introduced the term "rent" in economics. It means the payment to a factor of production in excess of what is required to keep that factor in its present use. So, for example, if I am paid $150,000 in my current job but I would stay in that job for any salary over $130,000, I am making $20,000 in rent. What is wrong with rent seeking? Absolutely nothing. I would be rent seeking if I asked for a raise. My employer would then be free to decide if my services are worth it. Even though I am seeking rents by asking for a raise, this is not what economists mean by "rent seeking." They use the term to describe people's lobbying of government to give them special privileges. A much better term is "privilege seeking."

In other words, it basically means profit, but born in a time when there was thought to be a way to objectively determine value and the ideal economic transaction was one in which neither side is in better or worse condition.

And the application is obviously stupid. If the Patriots offer you $5 million instead of 10, your next best option is not to say, "Durr, I guess I won't play footballs no mores!" The next best option is to go to the Jets for $8 million. Simply aggregating all pro athletes and all pro teams into one supply/demand function doesn't tell you much.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Lawmakers from Colorado and Washington want to remove the regulatory barriers that prevent legal marijuana businesses in their states from using banking services.

Holy shite, what's next? I suppose they want them free from the constant threat of federal SWAT teams, too.

[Brett L]

You help 1000 special ed kids, do they call you an educator? No. But you fuck one dog...

[NeonCat]

It's not like she's trying to marry the dog, after all.

[PapayaSF]

What, are you against the next step in marriage equality??

[Heroic Mulatto]

Pics or it didn't happen.

Oh.

[Auric Demonocles]

The good news for the dog is that it was probably doggy style.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Human style

[Coeus]

Jesus:

Sensibly enough, there is no statute of limitations in Maryland for bestiality, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fine of $1000.

There is nothing sensible about any aspect of this story.

[Irish]

10 years in prison for bestiality? You could rape a person and get less time than that.

[Episiarch]

Shhhh! Don't tell Warty!

[Marshall Gill]

I just sent an e-mail to the California Dept of Tourism asking them if it was normal or acceptable for the police to shoot people's dogs. Perhaps I can generate some inter-bureaucratic hatred.

The e-mail address for the LA/Orange area is [e-mail]

[Rich]

GOP bill would defund schools with rules against playing with imaginary guns

Too bad the GOP won't defund agencies with stupid rules.

[John]

It is a start.

[Rich]

We'll see if it becomes law, *and* is enforced. 8-(

[NeonCat]

Even better, give them imaginary funding.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

Engineer blamed for rail blast

Plus he seems to have vanished!

[db]

Vaporized, more likely. He was supposedly staying at a hotel in the town that got incinerated.

[db]

Also, I read that firefighters shut down the locomotive that was supplying compressed air to the train's brakes during efforts to douse a fire prior to the train rolling downhill several miles into the doomed town.

[db]

Of course, I should refrain from speculation on this topic until all facts are in.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Too late.

[NeonCat]

I blame gravity.

[MJGreen]

I was too busy to say so yesterday: I want to commend the anti-trolling efforts this week. On Monday, you guys got shreek to go full blown racist. And on Tuesday, Tony called for the complete socialization of energy in the US.

So, great work, everyone.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

"Womens' rights in the Middle East? No time, man!"

What I don't understand, therefore, is how on earth flip-flops became ubiquitous. You'd think the foot pain in walking them would alone cause people to give up on them. It's not like high heels, where there's at least a cost-benefit analysis going on, however dubious, between feeling sexy and feeling like your feet aren't going to detach from your body and quit you if you don't stop torturing them. Flip-flops are ugly, however, which makes it a much harder phenomenon to understand.

Say what you will about Marcotte, she really focuses on the deep things in life.

[John]

You have to give her some slack. You can't go a mile a mile deep when you have a shot glass for a mind.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I fully expect commenters to show up to whine that the evidence at hand must be dismissed in favor of their long-standing belief that flip-flops are comfortable because we say they are. But they really, truly just aren't. I suspect the reason we see so many people kick off their flip-flops on the subway and even rub their feet is their feet really hurt. But you know what? I bet, because of their false beliefs about the "comfort" of flip-flops, they are blaming anything but their poor choices in footwear.

"You know what the internet really needs? A nagging bitch who pre-emptively screeches at random internet commenters about their footwear choices! Now, I wonder why I haven't been on a date or had meaningful human contact for the last ten years?"

[Pro Libertate]

Them fightin' words down here.

[Brett L]

Well, they do make fat girls with fat legs look like they have fat legs. I can see why she hates them.

[MJGreen]

So much for empowering women to feel sexy in their own way. Flip flops are ugly and you can't be sexy wearing them, that's that!

[Zeb]

You just need to find the right flip-flops.

[AuH20]

I picked up a copy of Marcotte's first book at the library recently. I plan to review it soon, but the amount of alcohol I need to read it is pretty high.

Let's just say that it was filed under "Feminism" and "humor". The book is what Marcotte thinks is clever and funny. It... holy shit. Words don't describe.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

"It's a Jungle Out There"?

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Do yourself a favor and check page 144 (entitled "The Argument Over Identity Politics, Summarized In A One-Act Play").

[PapayaSF]

The one with all the "racist imagery"?

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

Nothing says hockey heritage like a game in a Domed Stadium with a retractable roof!

[db]

What, the Civic Arena wasn't a hockey classic?

[AuH20]

Seriously, why haven't they re-split the conferences, with the advent of air travel, into American and Canadian, and make the Stanely Cup a nationalistic slug-fest?

How would that NOT help hockey, in both countries?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hockey doesn't need help in Canada. Hockey and Canadians are one and the same. That's how nutty and psycho we are about it here.

[sloopyinca]

That's nothing. I present to you the worst hockey idea since Fox highlighted the puck that one year and put flames behind it on slapshots .

[A Serious Man]

A solid look at the mendacity of Obamacare supporters.

Apparently the Koch Brothers think so and they are spending over a million dollars to tell their story.

Good, use your aggressive feelings boy, let the Koch hate flow through you!.

What about the claims in the ad?

1) "If we can't pick our own doctor"... Obamacare does NOT interfere with choosing your doctor. You only need to be sure the doctor you want is in the plan you choose. You will have a choice of several plans, so you will have more choice, not less.

Unless your doctor doesn't accept the payment level in the plan you can actually afford. In that case, fuck you.

2) "How do I know we will get the care we need?" The benefits in the health care marketplaces offered in your state will be better than what you have ever had before. So the "care you need" is likely to be significantly better.

Which is Obamaspeak for "you will be forced to pay for shit you neither need nor want". It goes on and on with more lies.

[John]

Sure, you will be paying a ton and won't be able to see a doctor without waiting for months. But you will get free birth control.

[Homple]

Free contraceptives if you're a woman; if you're a man, you get a poster showing Sandra Fluke wearing nothing but a Malthusian Belt.

[Ted S.]

Good, use your aggressive feelings boy, let the Koch hate flow through you!.

I didn't read the article, but the link is to "Linda Bergthold"'s section of Huffington Post. I suppose Linda could be a he....

[A Serious Man]

Take your cisgender patriarchal crap out the door!

[Coeus]

There is no way Krugnuts is this dumb.

Well, the trendy answer now is "libertarian populism" ? but the question is what that means. And for a lot of Republicans, as Mike Konczal notes, it seems to mean lower tax rates on the wealthy, tight money, and deregulation. And this is supposed to appeal to downscale whites because, um, because.

True believers will say that this kind of agenda is actually great for low-income workers because it would lead to wonderful economic growth. This happens to be a view contradicted by all the evidence,

Deregulation doesn't lead to economic growth? And all evidence backs up that assertion?

tha fuck?

[John]

Kruginutes is not dumb. He is just mendacious. His act is to say idiotic and outrageous things that idiotic progs want to hear. He has long since been performance art.

[Pro Libertate]

Lower tax rates on the wealthy? Yo, fuck you, Krugman. I'm not "wealthy" and I'm taxed through the nose.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

People like Krugman are the first to cherry pick parts of Roman history that support their claims. Like the part, you know, when Pax Romana and just tax policies SPURRED the Republic and Empire to an efficient and powerful society. Where tax was oppressive and unfair to support 'tax and spending' like under Diocletian it went down the shitter.

I'm pretty damn sure that's the case for ALL societies in the West.

The left supports FAILED EXAMPLES.

Is that enough evidence for him?

[Pro Libertate]

The Romans made money the old-fashioned way--from tribute and other wealth plundered from their provinces and conquered territories.

[Irish]

The average Roman had to work two days to meet their tax burden.

[seguin]

Under Tiberius they rioted at a doubling of the sales tax...to ONE PERCENT

[Ted S.]

There is no way Krugnuts is this dumb.

Really?

[Episiarch]

Considering that "libertarian populism" is an oxymoron, I'm just going to go on thinking that Pauly Krugnuts is also a moron.

[Pro Libertate]

It could have meaning, but it certainly doesn't the way he means it.

[Virginian]

Well when we talk about big government colludes with big business to fuck over the little guy, that's libertarian populism.

[AuH20]

Krugman makes a lot more sense when you read the New Yorker profile of him and his wife, and how his wife "helps" him with columns.

Dude's in it for the 'tang.

[Butts Wagner]

I'm not sure he can even give a coherent description of economic growth besides "MOAR MONEY"

[sloopyinca]

See if you can guess what Seattle cops did yesterday without reading the story. And see how they fucked up in the process but don't give a shit.

[Ted S.]

They got people's prescription information without a warrant?

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

They surfed the biggest wave while benching 300lbs?

[Hash Brown]

They perforated a suspect's intestine with a plunger handle?

[Andrew S.]

You just don't understand the totality of the circs. IDISPOPD and UUDDLRLRBABAS, it was a good shoot.

[sloopyinca]

Pennsylvania cop uses kids to steal groceries.

What a dick.

[Ted S.]

He was actually charged and not given a paid vacation??

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

Thugs will be thugs.

[Whahappan?]

Fagin!

[seguin]

F'thagn!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

If you ever wondered what it looks like when you give someone with simian intellect a couple of statistics and a typewriter, wonder no more. Take it away, Matty...

If you look at the DC metropolitan area it has one of the strongest labor markets in the country with just a 5.6 percent unemployment rate. That kind of low unemployment ought to be laying a foundation for rising wages. But unemployment in the District proper is much higher at 8.3 percent and that unemployment is broadly segmented by education level (PDF) with college graduates facing an unemployment rate of 3.4 percent or lower while those with no college education face an unemployment rate that's more like 20 percent.

That's a disaster. Clearly the local economy is not creating many job opportunities for working class people even at a time when the regional economy is doing well.

Gee, what could *possibly* be driving the economy of Washington, DC to be one of the strongest labor markets in the country? And how could the composition of government employment in the heart of the capital *possibly* be missing low-wage, blue collar workers? It boggles the mind!

[John]

And how could a city with mammoth regulations and a high and soon to get higher minimum wage ever have a problem creating decent low wage jobs?

I really hate that aspy fucker.

[NeonCat]

That's the problem, "low-wage". If all the wages were high everything would be terrific. /progtard

[John]

They actually believe that. I have no doubt that little retard thinks everyone should make $20 and hour and the only reason they don't is the evil corporations or the lack of government spending.

[crashland]

And then they'll bitch about the fact that their non-fat, skinny latte costs $50...

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

"Buy Now, Pay Later" promotions offered by two Canadian retailers would be more aptly called "Buy Now, Pay More," alleges a Canadian consumer watchdog agency

[CE]

It's called "credit".

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Of course buy now, pay later means pay more. Aren't the interest costs once you start paying high? My Home Depot card charges 29% or something. The trick is to make sure you actually, you know, start paying a little at a time so that when the charge kicks in it won't over whelm you.

Alas, people are too fucking stupid or lazy to even be bothered to be disciplined enough to do this.

[A Serious Man]

Self-pitying story about a woman who was homeschooled like a freak.

Sarah and I turned out OK. Unable to cling to each other, we were forced to make outside friendships. We even chose different majors ? she studied art history, and I, English and Marketing. Our social transformation was slow but steady. For a while, being forced to speak in groups made me feel like the blood was draining from my head. I felt panicked and paralyzed. But with enough practice, the fear diminished, and I feel at ease in social settings. I've stopped lying about my past, or trying to change the subject.

Now, if I tell anyone that I was home-schooled, they say, "Wow! I would have never guessed. I always thought home-schooled people had no social skills."

And it gives me a secret thrill to know: That person thinks I'm normal.

And she's a freelance writer living in Thailand. Sounds like she turned out okay.

[A Serious Man]

But stay for the comments:

This example is the rule - not the exception. Very few parents a qualified to teach a complete school curriculum. I have an Ivy League advanced science degree. I could teach the math, the science. My wife could teach the literature. Anything else - like history would need serious review by the parents. We could not properly teach a foreign language - which all good universities require.

Face it most home schooling is done by unqualified fundies who will produce unsocialized cripples to the welfare rolls.
The home schooled should be tested at least twice a year by the state - if they fail - back to pubic school they go.

Hoe schooling is usually child abuse and should be dealt with accordingly.

[John]

Very few parents are qualified to do it, but every education major is.

People like this guy live in complete bubbles. They are for lack of a better term hicks in the worst sort of way. They live in good neighborhoods, send their kids to expensive schools and have no idea what the rest of the world actually faces. That would be forgivable if they were not so comically ignorant and smug about it.

[Marshall Gill]

Very few parents are qualified to do it

Bzzzz. You mean very few parents are unqualified to do it. Except for the illiterate, any normally functioning adult can teach the basics. If you can read, you can teach reading. If you can multiply and divide, you can teach those too. You make lack the desire or patience, but primary education is not that hard to teach. Even the more advanced things can be taught through written material. With a little help from Khan Academy, almost anyone can do it.

[John]

Yup. And there are millions of home schooled kids that prove it.

[Bam!]

Face it: most schooling is done by unqualified progressives who will add unskilled cripples to the welfare rolls.

Also cleaned up the grammar.

[John]

Exactly. It is hilarious how ignorant these people are. Home schooled kids pretty much own things like the National Spelling Bee and the Nation Science Contest. Given how bad the schools are getting, they are going to own the future as well. They are going to be the only educated workforce left.

[shamalam]

yep.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Hoe schooling is usually child abuse and should be dealt with accordingly.

1. Holy shit. Fuck you.

2. I would hazard that most "Hoe schoolers" could spell "home".

[Marshall Gill]

The home schooled should be tested at least twice a year by the state

I will take this bet. If either of my children score at a level 2 years above their "grade" then I get the property taxes back which funded the shit public indoctrination centers to which I would never submit my children?

Funny how all of those stupid home schooled children place and win in the National Spelling Bees.

[John]

First place in that and a lot of other things. I don't know a single family who home schools whose kids are not grades ahead of where they would be in public school.

[Marshall Gill]

It is hard not to brag, so I will.

My son turns 12 in August. He has taken math through pre-Calculus including trig and Algebra II. Calculus is the one subject which I have deferred teaching him, especially since I haven't ever taken it. He just recently finished reading Bastiat's Essays on Political Economy. He has learned basic Chemistry and has memorized the Periodic Table. He is basically ready for College. His 8 year old sister is doing Algebra and just recently finished reading Anthem, which she quite liked.

[sloopyinca]

My son's 13 and has a 12" penis, so there.

[shamalam]

I LOLed

+1.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

My oldest daughter is the same way. She is 15, has taken math through Calc III (taking Differential Eq this fall), can speak Spanish, German, and English, (working on Portuguese) and can play piano, guitar, and drums at a high level.

She didn't get there just because she's smart (though she is), but because we pushed her and made sure to set up incentives that would compel her to push her intellect to its maximum. That wouldn't have happened in a public school.

[jesse.in.mb]

sloopyinca| 7.10.13 @ 5:34PM |#|?|filternamelinkcustom

My son's 13 and has a 12" penis, so there.
reply to this

The Immaculate Trouser| 7.10.13 @ 5:39PM |#|?|filternamelinkcustom

My oldest daughter is the same way.

Sorry, the way threading laid that out made me laugh.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Now my wife is asking me why I'm laughing...

Thanks.

[jesse.in.mb]

My pleasure. I had a coworker peer in with a raised eyebrow I when I first scrolled past it.

[CatoTheElder]

You say your daughter enjoyed Anthem. That's not a good argument for home schooling, even if she's an 8-year-old.

But, seriously, my two home-schooled kids completed their bachelors degrees at the University of Texas in two years instead of the industry-average five.

Texas runs a few charter schools in conjunction with community colleges that allow dual credit enrollment. If the kids are enrolled in the final two years of high school, they get an accredited hs diploma, an associates degree, and credits are transferable to college or university.

That saves a fortune when they're in college.

[Libertymike]

Is the principle universal, i.e., would the same hold true for Joe from Lowell's kids?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

We homeschool our kids, and in many of the states where we homeschooled we were required to take our kids once a year to get tested at the public school.

It was never a question of passing; it was a question of how badly my daughters would embarrass the others.

[Outlaw]

That person is a fucking liar and sounds like a bloodthirsty prog troll.

[John]

Just a guess, but I bet he doesn't really have an Ivy League science degree. Sort of like all of those "responsible gun owners" who troll for gun control don't really own guns.

[seguin]

I don't know of many people with "science" degrees that really give a #$@$ about the name of the university they went to. In fact, the poster said the opposite of what I find to be typical of people in STEM - we usually say what degree we have, and then if someone asks, we'll tell them the school. That's the great thing about learning objectively verifiable subjects - the name-dropping @#$@$ doesn't mean much.

[MJGreen]

What "good universities" require a foreign language? None of the schools I looked at required it.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Face it most home schooling is done by unqualified fundies who will produce unsocialized cripples to the welfare rolls.

The facts are a bit... different... from those fevered imaginings.

[Heroic Mulatto]

And just what's wrong with living in Thailand, pray tell?

[A Serious Man]

Nothing, I just mean she's going to great lengths to talk about how shitty homeschooling made her childhood and yet she seems to have turned out fine like the vast majority of other home school kids.

Which raises the question about why even writing the article if not to attract comments critical of homeschooling like the one I copied?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Dude, I gave you an opening for a prostitution joke and you squandered it.

It's gold, Serious Man, GOLD!

[A Serious Man]

You're surprised that I took your question, um, Seriously?

[Marshall Gill]

How is he supposed to know what kind of man you are?!

[Heroic Mulatto]

It's A Serious Man; I didn't realize he was The Serious Man.

[SeaCaptain(Yokeltarian)]

"social skills."

Thats right, send your kids to Public Schroolz to be bullied by fellow kids, teachers, and "administrators".

Fuck her and her shitty liberal arts degree.

[CatoTheElder]

Social skills = obedience to state authority and submission to illegitimate force.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Don't even pretend like you know what this sentence means:

A lot of high-end food rhetoric is very reactionary and backward looking, but culinary reality is of a progressive forward-thinking industry in which meaningful advances are made all the time.

"Colourless green ideas sleep furiously."

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Ah yes, link:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon.....ience.html

[Heroic Mulatto]

The sad thing is that he's right. The current Foodie obession with locovore-ism, "slow food" "organic", "heirloom varieties", blah, blah, blah would make any Luddite proud. Whereas, food technology is booming, partially driven by the molecular gastronomy movement.

Bonus link: Backyard chickens dumped at shelters when hipsters can't cope...

[John]

That is totally true. I am a complete luddite when it comes to food. The more rustic it is the better I like it. But that is my preference and nothing more.

[jesse.in.mb]

Let's be fair: heirloom tomatoes are objectively better than their more domesticated variety. I haven't had a non-heirloom tomato that didn't taste like carboard in a few years. Apparently they bred commercial varieties to not express clorophyll production in the fruit itself because without it they have a more uniform color.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I don't disagree at all, but like anything, many people who jump on the bandwagon take it too far.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

Britain has a CCTV camera for every 11 people, a security industry report disclosed, as privacy campaigners criticised the growth of the "surveillance state".

[Brett L]

Case Nightmare Green is imminent, yo. Don't you read the Laundry series?

[Episiarch]

He has no idea what SCORPION STARE is. Typical Canadian.

[KDN]

Urban farming is hard. Hipsters gonna retard.

[Heroic Mulatto]

HEY! You put your peanut butter in my chocolate!

[sloopyinca]

Want to get away?

Beat up your pregnant wife and get a paid vacation.

Calling Southwest is optional.

[Andrew S.]

Didn't you post this one this morning?

Between you and all the stuff Reason has posted today, and reading a couple of chapters of Balko's book while I was eating lunch, I'm a very angry person right now.

[sloopyinca]

No, that was Mississippi.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Another Glorious Example of that Progressive Love and Respect that We've All Come To Love and Respect:

But because Rick Perry is a forced birther and not "pro-life" at all, rest assured, he wants to make sure it's hard for you to prevent those pregnancies just as surely as he wants to make it hard for you to terminate them.

[Marshall Gill]

Either you favor the vast subsidization of birth control and abortion on demand or you are basically in favor of raping women and making them baby machine slaves?

[Gozer the Gozerian]

But raping them while they are baby machines is no fun... Can't we support the vast subsidization of birth control and abortion because we are in favour of raping women all of the time?

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

I didn't know FDR's wheelchair was a secret

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, yeah, they covered that up. The media, of course, helped.

[Michael S. Langston]

Yep - the "greatest American President ever" deliberately lied about his infirmities because that's how "great" he was.

[A Serious Man]

The Circle of Life: Impala escapes being eaten by two cheetahs by leaping into the vehicle of safari tourists.

[MJGreen]

The only reason humans are on top of the food chain is simply due to our numbers. You say that we're more intelligent than other animals on this planet, but there's intelligence, and there's intelligence. We may build, expand, and whatever else, but animals, especially predators have honed their instincts they're smarter than people like you could ever imagine. Fact of the matter is, if there wasn't so many of us humans, we'd be on the bottom rung of the food chain. It takes us 10 years to develop a true sense of awareness, it takes another 6-10 years for humans to fully physically develop. Meanwhile animals range between 6 months, and 3 years to reach physical maturity. Don't think for one minute our intelligence is what makes us the number one on the food chain, that's far from the truth.

A response:

Its true! The only reason humans are more dominant on this earth is sheer numbers and weapons! Put a man infront of a lion, No chance. Put a man with a gun infront of a lion,, u get my drift.

[Irish]

It takes us 10 years to develop a true sense of awareness, it takes another 6-10 years for humans to fully physically develop. Meanwhile animals range between 6 months, and 3 years to reach physical maturity. Don't think for one minute our intelligence is what makes us the number one on the food chain, that's far from the truth.

HAHAHAHAHA! It never occurs to this moron that the reason it takes humans so long to develop is because we're so smart that it takes that amount of time for our brains to reach their full capacity. It takes animals a few years to fully mature because they don't require the level of intellectual development that we do.

God, ever since I started coming to Reason and seeing the stuff you guys post, I've become incredibly depressed by how stupid most people are.

[sloopyinca]

It's OK. Once you accept the fact that Episiarch's stupidity is self-inflicted, you no longer feel sorry for him.

[Calidissident]

Well, I guess these people are Exhibit A in their own arguments.

Seriously, have they ever wondered why humans can use weapons? Or how we've been able to build such a large population, despite how long it takes us to develop (Hint: agriculture, among other things, is a big reason. That takes intelligence)

[Agammamon]

'The only reason humans are on top of the food chain is simply due to our numbers. . .'

So, insects rule the world then?

[Generic Stranger]

Poor fucking cheetah. I'd have tossed the impala back out of the fucking bus and given the cheetah another go at it. Those guys need all the help they can get; they're the Starvin' Marvins of the big cats.

[SeaCaptain(Yokeltarian)]

Anyone want to hear a really shitty cop story (no dogs shot, thankfully)?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well?

[A Serious Man]

Former Mississippi sheriff's deputy robbed at home while naked woman in his swimming pool distracted him.

CROSSVILLE, TN - (CNN) -- Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife. It can lead to some unexpected consequences.
A Tennessee man found this out the hard way when a woman dipped in his pool, naked, as her husband robbed his home.
As he gawked at the swimmer for a good 20 minutes, the burglar got to work.
He stole jewelry, medication and a firearm from the home in Crossville on June 27, CNN affiliate WKRN reported.
[snip]
The couple, who live nearby, approached Stephen Amaral, with the wife asking if she could swim in his pool.
The wife sent her husband to get her cigarettes, then asked Amaral if he would be bothered if she swam naked.
Not a problem, Amaral said.
"I went and got her a towel, she dried off and all of a sudden she was soaking wet again," Amaral told the affiliate. "I escorted her outside and invited her to church, but she said she didn't have time for that, she wasn't ready for that."

He was just trying to be a good Samaritan.

[NeonCat]

Was he gawking, or was he observing closely to make sure she didn't pee in it?

[sloopyinca]

This is really an indictment of the underfunding and poor pay/benefits the Minneapolis police get, not a complaint about the local cop that stole $1200 from an ATM Machine. I mean, if we paid these heroes a living wage, they'd never need to resort to thievery.

I just hope the union helps this officer in any way they can and a new CBA addresses the issues that led this cop to resort to stealing to feed his family that he's lucky to return home to every night after dealing with the scum of the earth at that state park.

[Brandon]

Police also accessed Cross's bank records which revealed substantial deposits in the weeks following the alleged theft.

Was he this stupid, this lazy, or does a guilty conscience just not allow you to leave cash around anywhere without thinking somebody else will steal it?

[sloopyinca]

Something, something...Cops
Something, something...Low IQ scores

[AuH20]

Lawyers of Reason: Is the Zimmerman prosecutor incompetent, or what?

I've been hearing lawyers say they've never seen a witness for the prosecution turn into a character witness for the defense, like the cop at the scene did. I thought the rule in real courtroom trials was to never ask a question you didn't know the answer to, but it's like seeing reverse Law and Order.

[John]

He is having a very bad day.

[Andrew S.]

I'm not sure if the prosecutor is incompetent. The prosecutor had a complete loser of a case that politics demanded be filed. There was never enough evidence to convict, no matter how well the prosecutor did.

But yes, in general, you should never ask a question in a courtroom that you don't already know the answer to.

[Pro Libertate]

I wouldn't be that surprised to learn (we never will, of course) that the guys trying the case aren't trying to win it at all.

[A Serious Man]

It's a shit case that they never had any chance of winning but had to try because the public demanded it.

[Hash Brown]

I might donate again if Reason offers a "Lawyers of Reason" mug.

[Libertymike]

As long as Pro Lib's mug is on the mug.

[Hash Brown]

You mean ... like this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Pakistan:Bin-Laden Raid Was An Act of War

The unilateral decision by the US to launch a military operation to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani territory constituted "an act of war", a Pakistani government investigation has found.

The report of the Abbottabad Commission, which investigated the circumstances around the raid and how the al-Qaeda leader came to live in the country for nine years without apparently being detected, was exclusively released by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit on Monday.

The report of the commission, formed in June 2011 to probe the circumstances around the killing of bin Laden by US forces in a unilateral raid on the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, had earlier been suppressed by the Pakistani government.

The raid illustrated Washington's "contemptuous disregard of Pakistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in the arrogant certainty of [?] unmatched military might", the report concluded in its "Findings" section.

I can just feel the love of the world for America since Barry took office.

[John]

That whole report is nothing but a show for their idiot population. They are not shedding any tears of being rid of Bin ladin.

[T]

Yeah, but the conclusion isn't wrong. If a foreign nation did that shit to somebody on our soil, we'd launch ICBMs before the night was over.

[John]

It pays to be a great power.

[Anonymous Coward]

So...are you arguing that might makes right? Or that Bin Laden made this a special circumstance and we can go assassinate foreigners if it's really, really, REALLY important?

[crashland]

In the real world, might does indeed make right. Just ask the cop after he shoots your dog and zaps you with his taser.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not right. That's just force. No different that Adam Lanza shooting up a classroom full of kids.

Oh dear, did I just compare our brave and selfless public servants to a mass murderer?

[Killazontherun]

Pakistan intelligence operating a secret war against the US going back to Bhutto's administration made it right. Those camps in Afghanistan. Whose were they really? Pakistan's. They were stationed in Afghanistan to keep them at an arms length from the benefactors who ran them. Whose interest the militants trained their served. Pakistan had much more to do with 9-11 than the Taliban, but there was no way in hell we were going to invade a nuclear state.

[John]

And I would hope we wouldn't be harboring the most wanted terrorist in the world.

[Libertymike]

We do.

[Brandon]

Bush?

[seguin]

John Leguizamo.

[Pro Libertate]

No, it was an act of war. Of course it was. Anyone who did that to us would be in massive trouble.

"For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretenses?either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us?and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Spartans, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

[John]

No. Harboring Bin Ladin was the act of war. If Pakistan can't control its borders, we have a right to act in self defense.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, that's assuming I believe anything this government says. While I agree it's likely the Pakistanis knew he was there, it's not like they've got everything under control there, either.

In any event, if this had been bin Laden in Germany or China, we don't do this.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

If bin Laden had been harbored by Germany, they would have cooperated with us in seizing him.

As far as China goes, the only reason we wouldn't go in for him is practical, and not out of some great love for China. If it came out that the US government did in fact extract bin Laden from Chinese custody, I doubt that any US citizen would have a problem with that.

[Pro Libertate]

It's still an act of war. Apparently, we didn't even ask them to turn him over (assuming for the moment that John isn't right about this actually be a co-op venture). We just ignored their sovereignty and went after him.

If they were indeed harboring bin Laden, that in itself could be viewed as an act of aggression against the U.S., but I don't think that changes the fact that Pakistan would be within its rights to take military action against the U.S. And it's entirely possible they didn't know.

We all know what the U.S. would do in a similar situation, so let's not pretend it's not an act of war. It most certainly was. Likely justifiable and also likely the correct action, but that's more because of the special mess that is Pakistan than because of any legal justification.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Pakistan would be within its rights to take military action against the U.S.

Sure. And if they did that, then we would be within our rights to beat them to an age when they were still part of the Hindusphere.

We had a legitimate casus belli against them for harboring a terrorist in their capitol, and perhaps they had one for us not going about the retrieval of said criminal in the most legalistic of ways. I still think that what was done was right, though.

[Pro Libertate]

I tend to agree. I certainly don't have a big problem with going after him without trying to go through diplomatic channels first. But that's more due to the realities of the situation and not due to some belief that what we did wasn't an act of war. It was. We just had a good reason for doing it, and we had a country that couldn't do much about it.

[Gray Ghost]

And this is why I've always maintained that ObL was sold out by an element of the Pakistani security apparatus. An element that incidentally was able to stop the Pakistani military from retaliating against India, and keep a very firm hand on any nukes.

Look at it from the Pakistani POV: some power is conducting an helicopter raid on the Pakistani equivalent of Bethesda. Gazillions of Pakistan VIPs have homes in the area, mainly because the weather in Islamabad sucks. And that's not counting any WMDs that might be stored around the area.

Is it not inconceivable that the Pakistanis would interpret the raid as a possible decapitating strike by India, and lash out? Who else would be doing it? The U.S? Why would the U.S. be there? (I doubt that their harboring ObL was something bandied about their Ministry of Defense.) The Chinese or Russians? Why would they do it? Nope, it'd be blamed on India.

Hey maybe the Obama Administration is so incompetent that they wouldn't mind precipitating a regional nuclear war? But I think instead that they wouldn't have done the raid unless that possibility was off the table. Which means we have a way to neutralize Pakistan's WMDs, or a few of the guys in power knew we were coming.

[Gray Ghost]

And again, I need to read the whole thread before responding.

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't see how a country might find American assassins coming and going as they please as an affront to their national sovereignty?

[John]

Not if the person they whacked was the most wanted man in the world who was presence in the country was both an international embarrassment and popular in with parts of the population. Bin Ladin being there screwed the Pakistanis. Harboring him would have made them international outcasts but turning him over would have outraged the population.

I personally think the whole Zero Dark Thirty story is a bullshit misinformation. We didn't find Bin Ladin. The Pakistanis got tired of him being there and told us where he was and the whole thing was an elaborate ruse to rid us both of our problems.

[Heroic Mulatto]

While I am against neo-imperialism in general, I think the cooperation between AQ/bin Laden and Pakistan's notoriously corrupt and Islamist-infested intelligence agency constituted an act of aggression against American in itself.

[John]

Yes it did.

[Pro Libertate]

Given the situation in Pakistan, I'm not sure the attack bothers me that much. But if it had been, say, France, I'd be very disturbed.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't shed any tears for Bin Laden as a person. I do think that it sets terrible precedent and further paints America as an imperialist power. As John has stated above, he, and those who find the assassination acceptable, think that failure to control or rule a nation in a way that the United States deems sufficient is justification for violating national sovereignty.

And as TIT has pointed out, which I agree with, if Canada or Mexico pulled this sort of shit on the United States, the federal government would shit a hot brick.

[Pro Libertate]

It's not like we haven't harbored our share of political fugitives before, you know.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't doubt other countries have conducted or at least seriously considered running a black op in the US on one of their fugitives. I would hope they would at least have the class not to hire Kathryn Bigelow to make a propaganda piece about it that rubs America's nose in it.

[Gray Ghost]

I don't doubt other countries have conducted or at least seriously considered running a black op in the US on one of their fugitives.

See, for example, the 1976 Letelier car bombing in D.C.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I think it's unfair to call the action an "assassination". From what the public has been told, the operators had orders to kill or capture depending on the tactical situation. I'm inclined to trust the instincts of the particular operator who fired the shot that killed bin Laden that he felt bin Laden was going for a weapon. Indeed, I believe that they were doing their best to not give bin Laden the opportunity for martyrdom, as a public capture (complete with Saddam-style shaving of the beard) and trial would have been more damaging to the image of AQ and bin Laden himself.

[Pro Libertate]

I have no problem at all, not even a little bit, with killing bin Laden. Even if it were planned that way.

[Gray Ghost]

Not a doubt in my mind that the orders were to kill him, period. If the Seals had wanted him alive, he'd have been taken alive. I think the U.S. and Pakistan (never mind any other interested parties; (cough, the Emirates, cough) really didn't want what ObL might've spilled in a public trial. Such as exactly who was funding his organization throughout its history. Or exactly how much all of the other parties knew about AQs activities throughout the 90s and beyond.

[Michael S. Langston]

& contemplate security - sure airline highjackings won't work the same today as they did on 9/11 due to situational awareness changing, but had we captured him - what kinds of operations would AQ put together to use as a bargaining chip to try to secure the release of an imprisoned Bin Laden?

[Anonymous Coward]

Reason already did something about the move, but could use a repost:

DoD moves Bin Laden raid files to CIA to thwart AP's FOIA request.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Obama campaigned on that "act of war" in 2008. Both McCain and Hillary said they were too chickenshit to run down OBL in Pakistan.

[Whahappan?]

But you're not an Obama shill. No siree.

[Mickey Rat]

"The raid illustrated Washington's "contemptuous disregard of Pakistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in the arrogant certainty of [?] unmatched military might"

Yes it was. Since Pakistan was harboring the author of an atrocity against American citizens, I do not see why the US government should not have held Pakistan's sovereignty in contempt.

[A Serious Man]

Jezebel mocks, criticizes church for saving fetus with Downs syndrome by finding willing adoptive couple.

Lo and behold, hundreds of people from all over the world volunteered! The church narrowed down the offers to three families, which the parents are reviewing with the help of an adoption agency, according to the paper. It's great that so many families were interested. But the woman in this story is still being coerced into carrying to term.

So many mistreated babies and kids with Downs live terrible lives. Instead of throwing resources at a nonviable fetus, why can't the church help children with Down syndrome that are already alive? Because anti-abortion folks care more about fetuses with fairytale narratives than actual babies.

So a fetus with Downs syndrome is 'non-viable' and undeserving of life? Um, why doesn't the same apply to any person who has such a disability?

[Andrew S.]

I'm pro choice... but fuck, this is stupid. The Jezzies are the types who will constantly screech about pro-lifers being hypocrites if they're not willing to adopt... and then they turn around and talk about shit like this.

[AuH20]

The pro-choice movement comes with a lot of fellow travelers that I wish I didn't have to deal with.

Like the idiots who think there should be totally different rules about the medical safety of abortion, than, say, orthopedic clinics or any fucking other place that sticks needles and scalpels into you.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The "pro-choice movement" is just absolutely wretched, from top to bottom. I cannot think of a single person in the movement who I can respect -- and when it comes down to it, the people you have to rub shoulders with in that movement limit the extent to which moral actors are willing to be involved in the movement.

(This is as opposed to people who are merely pro-choice as individuals outside of a movement.)

[VG Zaytsev]

Yeah, it's almost like they're a morally bankrupt group advocating the murder of children for profit.

[Mickey Rat]

Well, that's not a "pro-choice" argument. That is a pro-abortion eugenics argument.

[John]

I know a lot of Libertarians are pro choice. But I don't think they realize or will admit that the Feminists who are pro choice are actually pro death. They look at children as parasites who burden women and thus are worthy of murder.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Just admit that you are anti-freedom and be done with it.

[John]

Nothing says freedom like the right to murder children. Actually since you are a fascist little freak, I am sure you believe that. You are a progressive and it always comes down to murder with you people.

[Palin's Buttplug]

How large a police state do you Aborto-Freaks need to protect every snowflake?

Fascism is just a beginning for you Christo-Statists.

[John]

You are a fascist little murderous freak. They only don't ban you because your existence is so grotesque it discredits the other side.

[Palin's Buttplug]

They don't ban me because I am the epitome of 'Free Minds and Free Markets'.

Get down, bitch!

[Libertymike]

The epitome of Free Minds and Free Markets supports Obama!

Cognitive dissonance analysis to follow.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Free Market Capitalism has been on a fucking joyride since Obama was sworn in.

800ish to 1662 today (S/P 500) - largest point gain ever for any POTUS by miles.

Obama will even privatize Fannie and Freddie soon.

I know this shit. I know markets better than anyone here - HANDS DOWN.

[Marshall Gill]

Cognitive dissonance analysis to follow.

I don't know about the analysis, but you called the cognitive dissonance.

Free Market Capitalism has been on a fucking joyride since Obama was sworn in.

Nothing says Liberty and Free Markets like a health insurance mandate!!!

Shriek, pushing the daily limits of Peak Retard.

[Jordan]

Freedom!

The Federal Register finished 2012 at 78,961 pages. That's the fourth highest all time. The top two all-time are the 81,405 pages in 2010 and the 81,247 pages in 2011. Note, therefore, that three of the all-time high years happened under the Obama Administration.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Anyone who correlates high stock market returns to the overall health of the economy is making an error. In my lifetime the gap between market realities and the economy has gotten wider and wider.

Markets, from what I've observed in my own experiences, tend to be pragmatic and adjust to whatever rules, regulations, etc. control an economy.

So if a financial illiterate like Obama and his hordes of higher tax demons call for more regulations, the market won't fight it. They'll adjust because fighting the government is impossible because it's coercive in nature.

So you get a distorted situation where stock markets rise (because they're addicted to subsidies or bail outs to prevent long-term collapses) despite the core economic indicators being weak if not in a state of anarchy.

That's what I think is happening in the West. Just an opinion.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'because of its coercive nature.'

[Suthenboy]

"Free Market Capitalism has been on a fucking joyride since Obama was sworn in."

"Obama is an ardent defender of the second amendment"

Sometimes I have to look at your posts for a minute to let it sink in just how delusional you are. It takes a few minutes to come to grips with the reality of that kind of mendacity and stupidity written on the screen.

[califernian]

How large a police state do you Aborto-Freaks need to protect every snowflake?

You are the ultimate caricature of a the stupid-ass self-styled lefty who thinks the only freedoms are abortion and gay marriage.

[Hash Brown]

The right to have sex without consequences is just like the right to have a job you enjoy that pays well.

What's so hard to understand, John?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Besides, that feeble-minded freak-of-nature costs the state 60,000 Reichmarks dollars in his lifetime. Fellow Citizen, that's your money too!

[AuH20]

John, it's sort of like Greenwald and the National Security State. He's right on that.

But on everything else, he's a retarded socialists.

Feminists are somewhat right on abortion, although they often put "access" over "safety" which was supposed to be the original selling point.

Sadly, unlike Greenwald, they make the most retarded arguments in its favor. But then again, maybe Greenwald won't sound so valid when the government goes back to getting warrants and he's still screaming. I'm sure the feminists sounded more valid in the 50s when LA papers were publishing stories about women dying from unsanitary back alley abortions.

[John]

And before we had knew so much about how fetuses developed. Before ultrasounds and premature babies routinely surviving birth, the argument that life began at birth made sense. Now, with what we know, it makes no sense. You can still make an argument it doesn't begin at conception. But there is no rational argument that it doesn't begin some time before full term.

To me there is no rational argument for elective late term abortions.

[Suthenboy]

The arguments for late term abortions, barring ones where the life of the mother or both are in danger, are not just irrational, they are thoroughly evil.

[crashland]

Just think of all of the CO2 emissions we've reduced by killing off so many undesirable pre-born Americans. We have to kill our children to save the planet. Being an abortionist is really an effective "green" job.

[Anonymous Coward]

So many mistreated babies and kids with Downs live terrible lives. Instead of throwing resources at a nonviable fetus, why can't the church help children with Down syndrome that are already alive? Because anti-abortion folks care more about fetuses with fairytale narratives than actual babies.

This is a vain, eugenicist argument that I've seen more than once from the pro-abortion crowd. If you have Down's Syndrome, your life is not worth living. If your parents are on cocaine, your life isn't worth living. If your father was a rapist, your life isn't worth living. If you don't have two parents to raise you, your life isn't worth living. It's an argument that's equal parts an admission of vanity and weakness. They couldn't see themselves living that life, therefore, no one else should have to live that way either, even if it means killing them.

Karl Binder and Alfred Hoche reaching out from beyond the grave to declare the unfit lebensunwertes leben (life unworthy of life).

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It does get difficult to avoid the Nazi comparisons when you are actually declaring people unfit to live based on congenital conditions.

[Virginian]

Yeah it's not a Godwin if the jackboot fits.

[Brandon]

The author doesn't seem to know what the word "Coerced" means.

[jesse.in.mb]

I don't know if this came up earlier, but apparently Snowden got a marriage proposal from a Russian redheaded former spy Anna Chapman. I thought a few people might be interested in that story.

[NeonCat]

Honey pot!

[Heroic Mulatto]

If Snowden doesn't hit that, I take back every good thing I have ever said about him.

[A Serious Man]

Bozhe moi!

[sloopyinca]

After an exceptionally long wait, a Pascagoula police officer will finally stand trial for leaving the scene of an accident for hitting and killing a girl walking along the road.

FTA: "This is a sad day for law enforcement and a sad day for the community," Byrd said Wednesday in a press release. "This case took a long time to investigate because of the multiple witnesses and crime lab results. Nobody benefits from this."

Yes, cases against civilians with multiple eyewitnesses usually take this long to file as well.

[A Serious Man]

Hmm, Weigel is already using the phrase Jack Hunter-gate to describe the recent kerfuffle over the Southern Avenger working for Rand Paul.

Hunter has still not resigned or been asked to resign. It's almost as if Paul is not a real presidential candidate until the media has made him throw someone under the bus. Like a rite of passage.

[Hash Brown]

That's the only way to get "Made," paesan.

[Hash Brown]

Three lawsuits look to overturn state-level bans on same-sex marriage in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

This is what I hope happens when this mishegas makes its way up to SCOTUS: They hold (1) that the Constitution requires every State to honor a same-sex marriage that is valid in another State, and (2) that a State's refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples does not violate any constitutional right.

[John]

If there is no constitutional right to gay marriage, there is no reason why one state can't declare gay marriage against public policy and refuse to honor it. They can do that under the full faith and credit clause.

[Hash Brown]

This theory interests me.

[db]

Laying the groundwork for universal recognition of concealed carry permits?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Well, it didn't take long to forget about how the Supreme Court was upholding federalism and state autonomy.

[The Late P Brooks]

Having read none of the preceding comments he asked innocently, "Have the usual suspects unleashed a fusillade of 'That guy Kokesh is an attention whore, so we can totally ignore the incontrovertible fact of an armed assault of overwhelming force against his home!' apologias?"

[The Bearded Hobbit]

After a while the ongoing onslaught tends to make one numb.

NB: I had the opportunity to vote for him for Senator. He probably could have gathered more votes if he hadn't campaigned as an idiot.

... Hobbit

[Palin's Buttplug]

German intelligence voiced concern over the growing number of ultra-conservative Islamic extremists in the country, some of whom are swelling militant ranks abroad, while warning of an increasingly violent German extreme right.

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/d.....ng-ground/

Their conservatives suck ass too.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Did you write about liberty between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013?"

Is Reason in possession of a time machine and not telling?

[Brandon]

What?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

On behalf of all the little children across the world I'd like to apologize for my failed attempt at editing. I failed to notice '2012' and not '2013.'

Thanks Brandon for smacking me off the side of the head.

[AuH20]

It's not okay to hate someone because of their gender, which is just a social construct anyway. Unless of course you're a dude.

We shouldn't be getting trapped in this rhetoric anymore, but we are. We're trapped in it because the patriarchy says jump, and someone's trained us from birth to chime back with "How high?" Denying the existence of stereotypes is a slippery slope away from denying the validity of any number of identities and experiences. Even within feminism or queerness, when the patriarchy has condemned something as undesirable and negative, there is a sudden rhetorical rush to separate the movement from that thing. We don't just do it with butchness; the same thing is very obviously and violently happening with transwomen, with queer people of color, with any number of minorities who should be leading queer communities rather than cast out from them. This, to me, is actually the worst injustice we commit as a community, as being a group bound together by societal oppression means we should be the most sensitive to inclusion and rights associated with identity. The patriarchy shouldn't win in our circle, but it still pokes its ugly head where it doesn't belong, and I'm all for kicking it back out on its flat ass.

[Snip]

There's something about being a walking stereotype that's simultaneously wonderful and awful.

[AuH20]

I was scared of him, but he was scared of the me I would become in another two years. That me was there that night, too, forming a fist in my stomach, wanting to punch him through his scared boy face. But what had made me so quick to deny that part of myself? Why had this condemnation been so terrifying?

The feeling in the pit of my stomach would carry into the first years of presenting as butch. I felt shame in being something that was considered a stereotype. I heard the critiques of butch and femme as antiquated identities, and regardless of my intentions to do otherwise, I internalized them. My second girlfriend cheated on me with a man, and that man said of me that I was so ugly, he wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole. I remember that because it was right when I'd begun to explore masculine expressions. I internalized that, too, even though I'd told myself over and over again that I was still desirable. There are still times when I doubt my own validity, my own desirability, and any wide range of things simply because some small-minded person told me way back when that lesbians were ugly bulldaggers.

[Jeff]

This is the most neurotic shit I have ever read in my life. Fuck you for bringing it to my attention.

[Agammamon]

". . .that man said of me that I was so ugly, he wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole. . ."

Wait, what? Why would you care? I wouldn't care in the slightest if a gay guy said he thought I was ugly. I'd just go, "cool bro - I guess I don't have to worry about you hitting on me then."

". . .told me way back when that lesbians were ugly bulldaggers."

Uh, no-one ever told you that you were a 'bulldagger'. It *might* have been a word that sounds similar.

[Coeus]

Fark reaction to the new information about holder's involvement in the Trayvon Martin case.

There is some weapons grade stupid in there.

[Irish]

I hate you for posting these things. I always know I shouldn't look, but then I do. This is representative of what I always end up finding:

which is a totally unbiased and proper activity for the federal government

Uh, yeah. See the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The CRS was doing its job.

This fuckhead thinks that organizing marches around a partisan political issue is just the CRS obeying the Civil Rights act.

[Coeus]

The projection is out of control. Why is it that people who play identity politics believe that everyone else does too?

SixOfDLoC
2013-07-10 05:51:17 PM
Corvus:
Zimmerman was forcing an altercation, Martin MAYBE punched him because of it (if you believe someone still talks on their phone when they hide in bushes to punch someone and punches them still holding the phone). This is what the DEFENSE is saying.

Yes, but he was forcing an altercation with a black male, and they don't have any right to stand their ground and defend themselves against creepy weirdos who stalk them as they walk home from the store, certainly no right to defend themselves against some creepy weirdo who GETS OUT OF HIS VEHICLE AND CHASES THEM, because minorities are all on double-secret probation. But don't you dare call people who think this way "racist", or you're the real racist.

This case is conserviot jack-off fodder because they all fantasize about getting to shoot them some attractive and successful african americans. If Martin had been a white teenager, the current members of the Zimmerman fan club would all be howling for Zimmerman's blood and demanding that he be "sent back to Mexico in a bag". (Yes, I know he's not from Mexico)

[Eduard van Haalen]

A choicer man's perspective on the Texas prolife bill. After the usual dumb pro-abortion talking points, there's this gem (speaking to straight male readers):

"Your sex life is at stake. Can you think of anything that kills the vibe faster than a woman fearing a back-alley abortion? Making abortion essentially inaccessible in Texas will add an anxiety to sex that will drastically undercut its joys. And don't be surprised if casual sex outside of relationships becomes far more difficult to come by."

Yes, late-term abortions should be legal, otherwise "casual sex outside of relationships becomes far more difficult to come by."

You know, maybe the people who say men shouldn't talk about abortion have a point.

http://www.burntorangereport.c.....like-women

[sloopyinca]

Burnt Orange Report, or BOR for short, is Texas' largest group political blog, written from a progressive/liberal/Democratic standpoint. BOR began on April 24, 2003, as a live-journal site written by University of Texas students Byron LaMasters and Jim Dallas. The site focused on happenings at the Capitol and around Austin.

Fucking Longhorns and their retardation. I bet I could get an Aggie to write a better argument for why the Holocaust was a good idea than these dumbasses wrote for keeping abortion clinics health conditions substandard.

[seguin]

Yeah, but I don't wanna.

[gagster]

Hey, don't cut down my alma mater just because a couple of the 45,000 students are dim bulbs.

Keep in mind, when Paul Begala ran to be our student government President, we voted for a hallucination instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyebeam_(comic)

[Dunphy (the real one)]

In reference to the article about the correction officers being rehired after the arbitrator decision...

I found the arbitrator report. It's thorough, well reasoned, and a near perfect example of proper process analysis and conscientious investigative work.

Imo, and contrary to the implications in the reason article, the co's were correctly rehired because the reasons for their firings were bogus as Cavanaugh's report exhaustively details.

Justice has been served, ditto due process. The Corrections-o-crats who fired the CO's without proper cause should accept defeat. Arbitration works... yet again.

Great arb report. Well worth a read...

http://teamsters117.org/2013/DOC/DOC_Local 117 (MCC Arbitrations) Award 070713.pdf

[Agammamon]

Bullshit - those three were fired deservedly. If nothing else *more* people deserved to be fired, but you've got to start somewhere. Just because they didn't get rid of all the shitbags in one go is no excuse for forcing the ones they got rid back in.

And your link doesn't go anywhere.

[Agammamon]

1. Nobody noticed (including at EOS turnover where the shift sup should have done a headcount to ensure all his people were relieved - this is a basic responsibility that if you don't do this sort of thing automatically you don't deserve to be a sergeant) the dead CO for an hour and a half.

2. The three fired made false statements in their report.

3. CO Lyons lied in his log about the chapel being cleared.

4. CO Young was not on post during the 2030 recall and its very likely that he also lied in his statement

What I see in that report is that, even though there are grievous procedural deficiencies, the 4 CO's disciplined (3 fired and one demoted) had serious discipline and honesty issues brought to light in the aftermath of this incident. The sergeant didn't have what it takes to control his troops and the other three were lax in following procedures, one flat-out abandoned his post which was directly responsible for allowing the inmate access to murder the CO, and they lied about it afterwards.

[Agammamon]

As a matter of fact, I would say that CO Young's actions would have resulted in the murder of CO Biendl even if everything else was done properly. I think he really deserves to go to jail.

The other 2 fired - whatever institutional deficiencies (in training and procedure) existed, these two made false statements during the investigation. They don't have the integrity to be CO's and even though undoubtedly the are more like them at that prison, these were the two caught.

Sgt Johnson improperly (poorly) supervised his team, failed to correct/document disciplinary problems, and failed to show proper care for the welfare of his subordinates. His demotion is entirely justified and no level of institutional problems can counter that.

[Whahappan?]

Fuck you, accountability is for little people, not for sanctified agents of the state. CBA's trump everything.

[Libertymike]

Its hip to be yourself?

[sloopyinca]

Anything there for those of already enraged?

Yeah, there's a small ruler for the readers and a fold out, full size picture of John Holmes' member for comparison.

[shamalam]

Zing. You are just "the king" of schlong jokes today!