A.M. Links: US Sending Egypt F-16s, Navy Lands Drone on Aircraft Carrier, Florida Police Preparing for Riots After Zimmerman Trial

Credit: Staff Sgt. Cherie A. Thurlby/wikimedia

• The U.S. will send four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt as planned.

• Yesterday, the Navy landed a drone on an aircraft carrier for the first time.

• There is one surveillance camera for every 11 people in the U.K.

• The U.S. and China have agreed to cooperate on tackling climate change.

• Law enforcement officials in Orlando, Florida are preparing for riots after George Zimmerman's trial.

• Uranium prices have hit a seven-year low.

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Comments

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm not sure I've seen a team with a worse offseason in the NFL.

[robc]

They also signed Tebow, so it balances out.

[Auric Demonocles]

That was part of the 'bad'.

[Pro Libertate]

You must believe in Tebow.

[Auric Demonocles]

I believe in the invention of the forward pass.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Rubbish. Run, Quarterback, Run!

/The Ghost of Bobby Douglass

[Pro Libertate]

Your lack of faith will make the Patriots suffer.

[KDN]

Bill Belichick must surely understand that Ryan Mallett will never be an effective NFL quarterback. He is also mildly insane and no longer gives a fuck, so I can completely picture him formulating a separate playbook for Tebow and the other backups to use that will be unleashed if Brady gets a serious injury.

Hernandez's "When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong" momemnt must have put some damper on Operation Faith, however.

[Auric Demonocles]

Why would Mallett not be effective?

[KDN]

Horrifyingly poor footwork and a super long wind up / release like Vick. He's JaMarcus Russell without the purple drank. It's something that can be coached out, but I wouldn't bet on it; the Pats'll probably flip him before Brady retires.

[Auric Demonocles]

I don't expect him to take over for Brady; he'll hit the market before Brady retires. I think he'll end up competing somewhere else, and might win it. It's hard to say how much he's progressed in the years since college, which is why I don't think it's ruled out that he can be effective.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

No purple drank. But I'm guessing there is a drug/alcohol problem. Not meant as snark, I believe Mallett has been to rehab before.

[KDN]

Patriots defensive back Alfonzo Dennard was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence in Nebraska early Thursday morning, police told Omaha.com.

Dennard was stopped about 2 a.m. in Lincoln, Neb., the report said. He was alone, and apparently refused a chemical test. Lincoln police told Omaha.com Dennard was spotted straddling a lane line before he was stopped.

Dennard is on two years probation, must serve a 30-day jail sentence in 2014, and perform community service following his conviction on a felony assault charge stemming from a dispute outside a Lincoln bar in 2012. Dennard was convicted of assaulting a police officer during the April 21, 2012 incident.

I am suddenly rooting for this Patriots player to beat all charges and return to the team. Help me, I feel dirty.

[Auric Demonocles]

The "assault" of the police officer occurred when the cop was plains-clothed and came up behind Dennard, while he was arguing* with another guy, and got punched one time.

*fighting according to the cop, but neither of the people involved

[mnarayan]

Is "suspicion of driving under the influence" the actual crime?

[Auric Demonocles]

Probation violation, refusing to take a breathalyzer, and driving in 2 lanes at once.

[KDN]

Considering the location is the same one where he was arrested for fighting a cop and the time of the incident, I wouldn't be surprised if "straddling a lane" would be more accurately described as "changing lanes."

[mnarayan]

Cleveland fan requests Browns "let him down one last time".

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Awesome! How come I had not heard about this?!

[Auric Demonocles]

I knew the commenters wouldn't let me down again.

[Aloysious]

Curse you for posting this. Again.

[DontShootMe]

Tradition!

[Enough About Palin]

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

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Man wants Browns pallbearers so team 'can let him down one last time'

[mnarayan]

GSON

[Lord Humungus]

Is there someone I can report this comment to? You know, like a hitman?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Why did her link make 24/7 but not mine?

[mnarayan]

If reason thinks they can stop me from linking this on every ML from now to eternity with a h/t in 24/7, they need to think again.

Actually...my motivation to post this tomorrow has taken a precipitous blow. I don't know if I'll manage.

[Aloysious]

Thank God. All of them.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

If reason thinks they can stop me from linking this on every ML from now to eternity with a h/t in 24/7, they need to think again.

I once knew a young commenter who thought he'd post the same damn link over and over on the ML. He had to kill Suki to get out of the corner he had painted himself into.

I was that commenter.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yesterday, the Navy landed a drone on an aircraft carrier for the first time.

Regards to CAG Dunsel.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

If anyone here thinks this is really "the first time" a drone either landed or took off from a carrier... I would reexamine that position.

[Seriously?]

Total fucking bullshit on that. The USS Orleck (DD-886), was a Gearing-class destroyer in service with the United States Navy from 1945 to 1982. The destroyer was equipped with a radio operated drone that fired a machine gun and torpedoes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Then technically it wasn't classified as an aircraft carrier, was it? Remember, technically correct is the best kind of correct.

[Rasilio]

I think the distinction is that this time the drone was piloting itself as opposed to being a glorified RC aircraft

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

OK, that one I might buy.

[Pro Libertate]

I heard something last night while flipping through radio stations about drones being a potential threat to the U.S., in that once other countries have them, they're a whole lot cheaper than billion dollar aircraft and even more expensive naval vessels. I'm sure we can defend against that to some extent, but I wonder if there isn't some truth to that?

[Agammamon]

Cheap, fast, and expendable is a common tactic in naval warfare. Torpedo boats, missile boats, heck Iran has built a whole navy around swarm tactics and they give our commanders the shits when they come out to play chicken.

Multiple fast, small drones with warheads - really tele-operated missile can push through air defenses and saturate close-in defense systems. A bunch of 'kamikaze' strikes later and that carrier is mission-killed.

Though to be honest - that can be done *now* with regular missiles. Drone warfare is going to fuck up ground combat something fierce once these things get common. Its hard enough spotting IEDs, imagine trying to defend against a remote controlled helicopter tailing you from 300 feet.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Obligatory

[Pro Libertate]

Well, aren't drones a bigger problem as far as detection goes? It's really the precision remote control that makes these things dangerous, it seems to me.

[Agammamon]

Precision remote control *can* make them more dangerous, but in naval warfare you get to see them from a long way off and have plenty of opportunities to open fire. As such numbers are more important. One advantage they do have is being able to target specific parts of a ship (beyond the hottest or brightest radio emitter).

For *anti-infantry*, the tele-op link is a humungous advantage. You can outfit a small RC helicopter with a gun or a few rockets and a decently secure datalink and approach your target under cover of houses and then pop-up to launch a quick attack and be able to maneuver the drone in response to your targets evasion.

Or fit it with a GPS autopilot and have a forward observer to call in coordinates and you have a mini-cruise missile.

[Rasilio]

yes and no.

They certainly can neutralize some of our ability to project force and make our Southern Border less secure but they aren't much of a threat to the US Mainland

[Pro Libertate]

I was thinking more in our world cop role than here.

[Lord Humungus]

Great Tits Built to Survive Climate Change?
http://news.discovery.com/anim.....130709.htm

[Bee Tagger]

The comments to the story reveal to me the surprising fact that arguing about climate change is more vital to the health of the internet than sexual innuendo.

[gaijin]

Speaking of sexual innuendo, has anyone else seen the latest cover for Bloomberg's Business Week? My god! Link to online version

[invisible furry hand]

i like how the fantasy version is long, thick, erect and green. Men really want to be a sexy Spock?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hulk smash.

[KMA Too]

"...a sexy Spock"

Why does that remind me of Tina when I read it?

[Rich]

Where is the fucking FCC on *this*?!

[Pro Libertate]

Those aren't that great, if you ask me. I mean, what's with all of the feathers?

[Lord Humungus]

it's like a Vegas show. Minus the Vegas... and the show.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

The status of a FB acquaintance:

Parent emailed me about her kids math placement that she agreed to change in the spring. Apparently a tutor has caught her up in a matter of a few weeks and now she will be fine and wants to reverse her decision. She asked me to call her at my earliest convenience...hmmmm. What part of summer vacation do people not understand?

Teachers are underpaid, remember that.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Wait, a competent educator did in the matter of a few weeks what a glorious public educator couldn't do it in nine months? And an interrupted summer vacation is the fucking problem here?

[Auric Demonocles]

But the parent wanted her to call as soon as it was convenient. What a bitch.

[KDN]

It's probably not even true. Parents try to pull this shit all the time for math, particularly the Asian ones. My wife has probably gotten this same request 5 different times since school ended 3 weeks ago.

"M. Teacher,

My [son/daughter] that struggled to get D's in the honors Algebra 1 part 2 class that we overrode the school's recommendation to keep him out of is now COMPLETELY CAUGHT UP after three weeks with this amazing [Chinese / Indian] tutor from [Princeton / Rutgers] and is now completely ready to be inserted into the honors Algebra 2 program that you refused to recommend him for. [S/He] is also on track for a perfect score in the 6-week geometry program at Petty School that only 20% of all enrolled students pass. Please contact high school at earliest convenience and change recommendation.

Thanks,

Crazy parent"

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Hell, maybe it isn't true, I don't know. I do know that I taught my kids a year long pre-Algebra curriculum in about six weeks (during summer vacation!!!) so it's not exactly impossible, either.

[Auric Demonocles]

I did a pre-cal course on my own in about 4 weeks, from a nearby university. My high school refused to recognize it, and decided I needed to spend the next year 'learning' that again.

[thom]

High school is generally a joke. I can't imagine how I'm going to encourage my kids to take it seriously or respect their teachers once they get to that age.

[Spoonman.]

Many good colleges will accept you without a high school degree. I left after three years and still don't have a diploma, because who cares about high school when you have an engineering degree from Cornell?

[KDN]

It's completely possible and the teacher's reaction to it is scorn worthy, but she is right to take it with a grain of salt. Honestly though, she should verify the claim before bitching about it, or phrase the bitching to reflect that the likely occurrence bullshit is the problem instead of the fact that she is being forced to do her job.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Honestly though, she should verify the claim before bitching about it, or phrase the bitching to reflect that the likely occurrence bullshit is the problem instead of the fact that she is being forced to do her job.

If nothing else, it demonstrates that social media kills brain cells and good sense.

[Invisible Finger]

Teachers DESERVE crazy parents. What the fuck did they think compulsory education was going to bring them??

[Invisible Finger]

Sort of like cops and prison guards complaining that they have to deal with the dregs of society.

Whenever I hear the complaints I just laugh at them.

[DJF]

The tutor might be underpaid since the tutor managed to teach the child in a few weeks when the regular teacher failed.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Agreed, I really want to be the guy who points that out, but she has about 6 replies from fellow teachers so I would be waging war on facebook.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

If you can't handle the combined intelligence of seven teachers, just say so.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

It isn't the intelligence that's the problem. It's the Morlockian strength of their self-righteousness that is formidable. Never get between a teacher and her sense of entitlement.

[KDN]

Never get between a teacher and her sense of entitlement.

As the husband of a teacher, I can't emphasize following this man's recommendation enough.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

One of my friends on FB -- yeah, I have a FB account, fuck off -- is the former principal of my daughters' former private school. She has dozens of teachers from numerous schools as friends who post all kinds of NEA, educator bullshit.

After I kept handing them their heads for a while, they started sending the principal private messages which were almost uniformly of the type "I can't prove this guy wrong, but I feel like he is wrong. Can you unfriend him so I don't get subjected to his ideas."

It's been glorious, if utterly without effect on them.

[Ted S.]

I'm more surprised you have friends.

Outside of H&R, that is.

[mad libertarian guy]

Because TEACHERZ R HEROZE!!!!

Never forget the narrative.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

It would be too much stupid for me to overcome.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

It's like punching a tar baby.

[Floridian]

Racist!

[Night Elf Mohawk]

That's fair.

[Bobarian]

If you can't handle 'war on facebook', you should turn in your Reason Handle.

Certified?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I have a state issued license around here somewhere...

[BigT]

I'm not sure I'd place sole blame on the teacher, who might be facing 30 brats every day. Who knows what the discipline situation is in the classroom. The tutor had a 1-on-1 which is more effective.

I would blame the parent, however. If the parent spent time a few times a week helping her own kid she might not have needed that tutor.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Possible. Also possible is that the parent just isn't good with math.

[Xenocles]

Sounds to me like the parents did what they could to help by getting a tutor.

[Invisible Finger]

My niece got bad match grades, mostly D's, the bare minimum to pass. Of course, this was in an accelerated school that only the top 1% of applicants can get in based on test scores. But part of that was that ALL the courses were hard and math study to get C's was taking so much time her grades in other courses suffered. (She apparently DOES know math and logic to figure that out.)

My sister tried to get her OUT of the accelerated math classes. During the school year.

But the teachers and administrators were "TOO BUSY" to be bothered to adjust her schedule so that she could take a math course that went at the speed she could handle.

This is why people ask the teachers to do this shit ON SUMMER VACATION. Because they're "TOO BUSY" during the school year. So these pieces of shit are either "on summer vacation" or "too busy" to do their fucking jobs.

[Invisible Finger]

I'm not sure I'd place sole blame on the teacher, who might be facing 30 brats every day.

I would. It is exactly what she signed up for.

[wareagle]

my first thought was, you need a better class of FB acquaintance. My second thought was, no damn wonder the public ed system is such a cluster.

[Agammamon]

I don't know - the kid wasn't ready when the testing was done, *says* they're ready *now*. Screw 'em - here's some real world training for you, if you're not able to pass the exam when you sat for it then you can wait until the next scheduled exam to try again.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. will send four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt as planned.

We paid for them, we're going to get our money's worth out of them. But hopefully they have a good parts store in Cairo.

[Slammer]

The U.S. will send four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt as planned.

Send them to bomb?

[some guy]

Wait, I thought our government was legally barred from sending aid to countries that had just experienced a coup d'etat? Surely that law won't be ignored.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That's why we're not calling it a coup.

[Pro Libertate]

It wasn't that long ago that that kind of parsing wouldn't work, unless we all were winking at and nudging each other, saying "Say no more."

[Ramjet]

Hahahahahahahahahahaha...

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Look, hope and change was promised, and is getting partly delivered. Just don't look too hard at what kind of change.

[Lord Humungus]

Henninger: Big Government Implodes
ObamaCare's failures are not the only sign of a great public crack-up.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

Since at least 1789, America's conservatives and liberals have argued about the proper role of government. Home library shelves across the land splinter and creak beneath the weight of books arguing the case for individual liberty or for government-led social justice. World Wrestling smackdowns are nothing compared with Hayek vs. Rawls.

Maybe we have been listening to the wrong experts. Philosophers and pundits aren't going to tell us anything new about government. The one-year rollover of ObamaCare because of its "complexity" suggests it's time to call in the physicists, the people who study black holes and death stars. That's what the federal government looks like after expanding ever outward for the past 224 years.

[Fist of Etiquette]

There is one surveillance camera for every 11 people in the U.K.

Bloody hell no, I'm not sharing my CCTV camera with ten other blokes.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Isn't yours just tracking Epi? I am not sure any 10 others would want to share/see that.

[Auric Demonocles]

No, it's tracking Epi's mom.

[Lord Humungus]

You know who else is tracking Epi's mom?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

A T-2000?

[Fist of Etiquette]

If I was the type to make mom jokes, I would guess the CDC.

[Bobarian]

You don't need CCTV to track Epi's Mom, just subscribe to her webpage

http://WWW.MIWLF.XXX

[gaijin]

does that include the individual webcams attached to personal computers that the government can commandeer to spy on the computer's user?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Pikers. The Stasi had one informer per 6.5 people.

[Lord Humungus]

at least he is faithful...

Butler Co. man accused of having sex with pool float -- again
http://www.wlwt.com/news/local.....index.html

According a police report, on June 15, Tobergta "stepped out of his back door, naked, and was having sexual relations with a rubber pool float."

"This occurred in front of several children who saw his genitals and his actions with the float," the report states.

In 2011, Tobergta was accused of having sex with a neighbor's pool float. In 2002, a woman told police he did the same thing with an inflatable pumpkin in her yard.

[Auric Demonocles]

1) Butler County Ohio

2) Why are there kids in his back yard?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

"1) Butler County Ohio"

Hey, what the hell is your point?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Every state has a Butler County, but Ohio is the one full of perverts.

[Auric Demonocles]

That the original headline, and linked story, don't mention which state. So now you know which Butler county it's talking about.

[Rich]

a family member said Tobergta has mental issues and needed help. It's not known if he has undergone treatment.

Sheesh, just ask the pool float.

[NeonCat]

We can scoff but that pool float will never contract with a hitman to collect the insurance money.

[mad libertarian guy]

I'm not sure why the media goes apeshit about minors seeing sexual acts (even if those acts are unconventional). The default for most of human history is for families to live in the same room. Most of humanity still lives that way today. Kids have seen their parents fuck for millennia. Why it's such a huge deal in America baffles me. That isn't to say that I want my kids to have a front row seat while I'm chowing box, but criminal charges seems ridiculous.

[Rasilio]

Yeah I've kinda wondered this myself, I mean it was only what, 120 years ago that the majority of Americans stopped living in 1 or 2 room houses.

Hell moving out of that and "protecting" the kids from seeing their parents do the nasty every night probably lead to kids starting to have sex faster because they weren't being constantly grossed out by watching their parents do it anymore and it upping the mystery factor for it all.

[NeonCat]

Because children are supposed to be innocent. It's like the last Victorian-era taboo/fable compounded by radfem anti-sexuality.

[invisible furry hand]

Ron Paul launches Ron Paul Channel. Anybody signed up yet?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

I firs read that as "Ron Paul Chanel" - I am not sure that fragrance would sell particularly well.

[Rich]

It'd probably do better than "Herman Cain 999".

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Barack Noir

[Rich]

Nice.

"Smells like ... Victory."

[Pro Libertate]

Smells like nothing.

[Bobarian]

Smells of empty promises and broken dreams.

Is known to attract wookies.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

RACIST

[Rights-Minimalist Autocrat]

It smells of an OBGYN office and Tiger Balm.

[Auric Demonocles]

Uranium prices have hit a seven-year low.

Doomsday device? Aha! Now the ball's in Demonocles' court. I suppose I can part with one and still be feared.

[Zakalwe]

The bitter clingers relaxed after gun control's prospects faded. Substitutes, how do they work?

[Floridian]

I never go anywhere without my mutated anthrax. For duck hunting.

[NeonCat]

Do they make MOPP gear in hunter orange?

[Lord Humungus]

Zimmerman, a morality play that failed
http://www.politico.com/story/.....93994.html

Justice, in the sense of a deliberate, lawful judgment consistent with the facts, was never the driving passion of the Zimmerman-haters. They wanted a racial morality play. If Trayvon Martin had been shot by another black person, no one would have cared. Al Sharpton wouldn't have made him a cause. Lawrence O'Donnell wouldn't have batted an eyelash. No one outside his immediate family and friends would have ever known his name.

Trayvon Martin's shooting was an ideologically useful tragedy, and so the vultures did their worst.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

As if this wasn't completely obvious. VDH's observed that no one would have cared about this if Zimmerman had called himself Jorge Meza is dead-on accurate.

The Social Justice Warriors don't stay relevant unless they continue to ensure that people think lynchings and Jim Crow are always a repealed law or regulation away from being re-instituted.

[Bee Tagger]

Law enforcement officials in Orlando, Florida are preparing for riots after George Zimmerman's trial.

I need a ruling from Jesse Walker. Does this make them preppers?

[Floridian]

I'm not paranoid but I will be loading my ARs tonight since I live in Orlando. I guess you can call me a prepper on this one. I always keep tried food and water but I think that is reasonable in a hurricane prone state.

[Bobarian]

Tried food?

Who tried it?

[Bobarian]

Do you have a taster?

Because every libertarian should.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Just use the servant-orphans.

[Floridian]

Oops. Dried food. I have not tried my dried food so a taster would be handy.

[Pro Libertate]

I really don't get why every is talking about riots. Even race baiters can see at this point that the case was shit. However, the likelihood of a riot goes up when the media and "leaders" keep sending out invitations for one.

[Floridian]

I don't think it is likely, but I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

[Citizen Nothing]

Mountain House freeze-dried food. The stuff actually tastes good, and you can use it on camping/hiking trips when the apocalypse doesn't come.

[Citizen Nothing]

And the stuff in #10 cans has a 25-year minimum shelf life. You don't have to worry about stock rotation.

Prudent, not prepper. True story.

[invisible furry hand]

They thought it was burglar vomit. They were wrong

[Rich]

Ah, HA! It *was* you!

Also, (They thought it was) burglar vomit is a nice band name.

[invisible furry hand]

nice one, Rich!

[Bardas Phocas]

Apparently you can dust for vomit. But not a dna test yet.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"The snake had pooed in the St Vincent de Paul store in Ingham and left crockery, clothes and other goods smashed and scattered all over the floor."

No sneaky sending the cleaning bill to Mounty Python's.

[gaijin]

Mounty Python? Sounds like a hooker's come on in southeast asia.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

It is Florida's finest new fast food establishment. Features Python-on-a-stick.

[Pro Libertate]

It's Mountie Python, and I'll have you know that one of our locations is going to be featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives next month.

[RBS]

I would eat there, unless your conch fritters are more fritter that conch.

[Pro Libertate]

No, that's not how we operate. And the conch is freshly killed right in the store.

[RBS]

Also, imagining Guy Fieri trying to suck down a python in funny. You'll probably need Andrew Zimmern to stop by and eat all the leftover python penis though.

[gaijin]

yikes. That sounds...unappetizing

[Pro Libertate]

What? Python is tasty and has a challenging texture. It's also rich in protein and Vitamin M*.

* Also referred to in some circles as mercury.

[Numeromancer]

They thought it was burglar vomit.

I may write a novel just so I can use this as the first sentence.

[Rich]

signs of co-operation between the two big emitters could help unlock a global deal to cut emissions, Kerry suggested

Since "signs of co-operation" in other domains have had such great success in unlocking "global deals".

[sarcasmic]

Courtney Cox's puffy face on the set of her directorial debut gets tongues wagging

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....Going.html
Seems she's going to to the way of Meg Ryan and destroy her looks with plastic surgery. What a shame.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Look, time and gravity apply to overrated hacks from overrated sitcoms, too. Just cope.

[mad libertarian guy]

Look, time and gravity apply to overrated hacks from overrated sitcoms, too. Just cope.

This. People age. Some people fare worse than others. And Courtney Cox was NEVER much to look at to begin with.

[Marc F Cheney]

That's kind of a homosexual thing to say.

[sarcasmic]

He's not gay and neither is his boyfriend.

[mad libertarian guy]

Why would I have ever bothered with CC when, both in the 90s when she was relevant, and now, Jennifer Anniston was much better looking?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Why why why why?

[gaijin]

What a shame.

agree. It is always sad to see someone so stuck in a self image created decades earlier.

[RBS]

Why does David Arquette look like he just got out of jail?

[Lord Humungus]

Reading H&R, the device would explode

Authorities 'use analytics tool that recognises sarcasm'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23160583

French company Spotter has developed an analytics tool that claims to be able to identify sarcastic comments posted online.

[invisible furry hand]

yeah, right

[Fist of Etiquette]

A sarcasm detector? Yeah, that's real useful.

[some guy]

All it does is look for single words in italics or bold.

[invisible furry hand]

kinda like the sarcasmic detector, which looks for Daily Mail URLs

[Suthenboy]

Yeah, I just cant think of a single reason why anyone would want something like that......nope, not a one.

[Rich]

I suppose "sarcasm" will now be an indicator of Potential Terrorism.

[gaijin]

Potential Terrorism. I like that. We can all claim to suffer from PTSD.

[Rich]

"No guns for PTSD sufferers!"

[kinnath]

isn't it ironic

[Auric Demonocles]

How will it deal with Poe's law?

[sarcasmic]

Seems that the police chief of Sanford where the whole Zimmerman/Martin thing went down was fired for trying to be honest.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07.....index.html
It doesn't say that in so many words, but it's there if you read between the lines.
Comments are disturbing.

[Pro Libertate]

I heard him this morning. He said two commissioners and the city manager both asked him to arrest Zimmerman. He said he couldn't unless he had probable cause.

[sarcasmic]

This is why I don't believe in the myth of the good cop. Whenever I hear about a good cop, it's only because they were forced out of their job.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

It's inevitable moral corruption resulting in large part from enforcing laws against actions that potentially only harm yourself or other consenting adults--the war on some drugs, mere ownership/bearing of a firearm, etc. The utter and total lack of accountability once you've hired this group willing to imprison, maim and kill people "for their own/society's good" means there's a double self-selection process going on.

[Agammamon]

That and most times when you hear about a cop doing something praiseworthy its followed by news he's either being fired or his fellow cops can't stand him for his 'betrayal'.

[Bee Tagger]

There is one surveillance camera for every 11 people in the U.K.

This leads me to believe that a more realistic Ocean's movie franchise would have followed the Rockey pattern and had our heroic thieving criminals fail in Ocean's Eleven but then triumph in Ocean's Twelve.

[Ted S.]

The criminals fail in the original Ocean's Eleven, at least in the sense that they wind up without the money.

[mad libertarian guy]

They winded up without the money is the revisit of the franchise too. It's just that the characters and the money don't part ways until after Ocean's 12 when they had to pay it back.

[sarcasmic]

Physically mature 11yr old girl is charged with "sexting" topless photos of herself.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com.....ss-photos/
That's right. An 11yr old girl.
What. The. Fuck.

[Sy]

"She is also being charged under the new sexting law ? which makes it a summary offense."

What kind of moronic, bootlicking piece of shit would put their 11 year old child in jail for this?

[sarcasmic]

I wonder if she'll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

[Sy]

No, you don't. And no I don't, either.

[Metazoan]

Hey, the Party needs to know, comrade!

[Zakalwe]

I hope she respected the half your age plus seven rule and only sent them to boys eight years and younger.

[SugarFree]

Her half-plus-seven is 12 1/2.

[Zakalwe]

It's a guy only rule. Older women chasing younger men may be desperate and sometimes gross, but never creepy.

[SugarFree]

Man having sex with younger woman = gross
Woman having sex with younger man = empowering

The guy that Stella got her groove back with? Turned out to be gay.

[Spoonman.]

Wait, so if in 15 years my daughter tries to impress a boy in a way that I hope to raise her not to do, she's guilty of a misdemeanor?

Damn you Pennsylvania, WTF?

[Rasilio]

""Because kids have access to these social media, they're more likely to do that," said Dr. David Hefner."

Um, no kids do things like that because they get horny, same reason as adults. Sure not that many 11 year olds are getting all worked up like that but it is hardly a new phenomenon, I once read a book on sexuality in the Medieval period and there was a case that was actually brought to the kings attention around the 13th century where an 11 year old boy knocked up his 10 year old girlfriend and by all accounts it was entirely consensual on both parts.

Now of course the world is a bit different and sending out naked pics of yourself is probably not a smart idea but the idea that the behavior should be criminalized is just stupid, all she really needs is better parental supervision and to be taught why this is a bad idea for her

[Lord Humungus]

The truth about immigration reform and the Hispanic vote
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

In fact, the voting behavior of Latinos is such a muddle that Republicans are starting to wonder if these low-turnout voters are even worth fighting for. Over the last few weeks there have been multiple news stories about how House Republicans, in their safe, predominantly white districts, may not even need Hispanic support to keep their majority power intact.

What a shame that stories and data about the diversity of Hispanic political attitudes don't get the same play. A recent feature on Pacific Standard magazine's website titled "Hey GOP: Mexican Immigrants Aren't Necessarily Democrats" said it best: "New research suggests Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are all over the political spectrum ? and those on the right are more likely to vote."

[sarcasmic]

Inside the haunting poison-ivy clad remains of a New York home for the mentally disabled where patients - labelled as 'imbeciles, idiots and morons' - were forced into isolation

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....abled.html
Tony?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

That is more of a self imposed isolation, after de-institutionalization, no?

[SugarFree]

'imbeciles, idiots and morons'

All accepted medical terms at one point, like "retard" and "Warty."

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Three generations of Tonys are enough?

[SugarFree]

At least this will be the last.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. and China have agreed to cooperate on tackling climate change.

You capitalize Climate Change, dammit. Show some respect.

[Bee Tagger]

Do you capitalize Climate Change or capitalize on it? I have a hard time remembering the grammatical rules for that.

[crashland]

China: Our population is huge and largely dirt poor. We simply must continue burning coal.
Barry: Ok, we'll just have to take one for the earth.
China: Exactly. Plus we make all of your shit anyway. Why do you need to burn so much shit?

[Palin's Buttplug]

United Health, the largest insurer in the US, places $50 billion wager on a cost-cutting provision of Obamacare.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/br.....are-looms/

[Jordan]

The One True Libertarian defends a 10,000 piece of central planning and a government with the power to compel citizens to purchase insurance (i.e. a government with no restraint on its power).

[Metazoan]

I wonder what its actual purpose here is. I mean, it's not a particularly good troll; it usually just screams BUSHPIG CHRISTFAG!11!! which at worst is mildly annoying, and totally irrelevant. I don't think it is trying to convince us of anything (or if it is, it's on the wrong board).

Is it really here just to irritate? We used to have better trolls (some actually fostered intelligent conversation to the point that I wouldn't call them trolls...)

[Restoras]

Shreek is a clueless moron living in his mother's basement pretending to be a daytrader and economist with his yahoo! quote screen. It thinkx that b/c the link is to Forbes that it is libertarian, or something.

Like I said, clueless moron.

[Suthenboy]

Hey, he scored 5783% on the libertarian purity test.

(Actually, we really should not make fun of the mentally ill.)

[Restoras]

I always thought that's what the mentally ill were there for?

[sarcasmic]

Female college student, 19, dies in police custody after she 'panicked' and swallowed a bag of meth during traffic stop arrest
Madeleine Gene Richardson, 19, was pronounced dead at hospital in Texas in the early hours of Saturday
Her family described the college student as a 'beautiful young lady inside and out'

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

The 19-year-old, who was born in Humble, Texas, graduated from Kingwood High School last year and had been attending SFA University and Lone Star College.
She excelled at swimming in high school and had been coaching the MBW Marlins Swim Team while also working at a local Italian restaurant.

Yep. Only losers use drugs.

[Metazoan]

Thanks, prohibition!

[Ted S.]

I think they've redefined the terms so that by definition, anybody who uses drugs is a loser.

SLD: Of course, none of this would have happened if it weren't for the War on Drugs.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The opening of Super Troopers gone wrong.

[Lord Humungus]

We're going to need a bigger butter dish:

'Monster' Lobster Caught Off Gloucester
http://boston.cbslocal.com/201.....loucester/

alternative headline: Lobster girl gets a bigger boyfriend

[Tim]

They've caught bigger. They even caught a blue one once.

[Restoras]

And one with three claws. Mmmmmm...moar claw meat...

[Agammamon]

Revile the mutant!

[sarcasmic]

Taking omega-3 fish oil supplements may increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancer by 70%

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....er-70.html
But, but, but they said... Make up your mind!

[Pro Libertate]

Mother fucker.

[sarcasmic]

Obama accused of being an elitist - or just lying - after he says broccoli is his favorite food

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-food.html
Has he ever been seen with broccoli?

[Zeb]

It's probably not true, but I don't see how that makes him an elitist.
It's probably the first step down the road to mandatory broccoli eating.

[carol]

Does the arugula know about this?

[Matrix]

GTA V doesn't have a female lead character, so I'm not going to play!
Typical Jezzy shit.

[robc]

Tomb Raider doesnt have a male lead. So fucking what?

[robc]

Ditto for Portal.

[Metazoan]

Ok, so don't play. Now what?

[Ted S.]

Go and Scrabble don't have human characters at all. Why should anybody play them?

[SugarFree]

Aw, I made the poor dear something...

[Brett L]

I was hoping it was a juice box and a binkie.

[Pro Libertate]

I dunno, a female character beating up prostitutes to take the money back seems odd to me.

[Lord Humungus]

Dyke Pimp Daddy!

[Bobarian]

Interesting...

I might be drawn to play that game.

[crashland]

Beat them up? Shoot them, its faster and easier to get away from the pigs.

[MJGreen]

You run them over when they get out of the car. Duh.

[Lord Humungus]

Can Post-Constitutional America Recover Its Freedom And Prosperity?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bi.....rosperity/

The only reason why this planet can support 7 billion souls is that most are being fed, clothed, and housed by vast engines of commerce developed by market-centric economies fueled by free enterprise, sustained by the rule of law, and rescued from both fascist and communist tyranny by the might and the example of the United States. If we abandon that which made us great and collapse under an orgy of self-inflicted mismanagement, it is just a matter of time before everyone else goes down with us.

All of humanity is watching, for if a nation comprised of the world's most determined immigrants, raised in a melting pot unencumbered by Old World hatreds, and blessed with the most brilliant Constitution ever conceived cannot figure out how to effectively govern itself, who can?

[Matrix]

Church saves unborn child with downs syndrome from abortion, but Jezzies think that is just wrong
'Cause killing it is so much better than saving it. Inferior children should be aborted, so that we can focus on the inferior children already walking around. And being a child with downs is so bad that it's just better to kill it. Eugenics is wonderful!

[Auric Demonocles]

Jezzies just really like Kahn. Who can blame them?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

However, I don't really think they are offering the world ORDER...

[Auric Demonocles]

No, they want a big strong perfect looking alpha man to come along and do that for them.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The comments are pure gold-plated stupid:

Jesus freaks give no shits about anyone that is living.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

These people literally can't function without an enemy to rail against. They're basically just fundamentalists with secular sensibilities.

[Matrix]

Talk about concealed carry...
Woman hides gun in her hooha

[Auric Demonocles]

Did someone send this to that poet from yesterday?

[Lord Humungus]

this just hurts to even read:

The Scrotum Is Nuts
Why are testicles kept in a vulnerable dangling sac? It's not why you think.
http://www.slate.com/articles/....._else.html

[Lord Humungus]

Wisconsin mining company hires paramilitary to protect site from protesters
http://www.washingtontimes.com.....ry-protec/

A Wisconsin mining company has hired private paramilitary forces to defend and protect its property from environmentally minded protesters, on the heels of a confrontation with activists at the mine in June.

The troopers are uniformed and carry tactical gear and semi-automatic weapons, Wisconsin Watch reported. Their presence has generated quite a bit of outcry in the community among lawmakers and residents who say the security is over the top. But a company spokesman say the troops aren't leaving any time soon.

omg, PINKERTONS!

[Ted S.]

Their presence has generated quite a bit of outcry in the community among lawmakers and residents who say the security is over the top.

We should have the right to abuse your private property with impunity!

[invisible furry hand]

Dear Prudie

my ex is running for public office. He's a jerk. Should i reveal he was also a porn actor?

http://www.slate.com/articles/.....hat.2.html

[Matrix]

If he's running as a Democrat, no, because that atones for all sins. If he is running as a Republican, bury him in a mountain of scandals.

/progtard

[sarcasmic]

Not quite. If he's a Democrat, then it doesn't matter because the left has no morals or principles. Only principals.
If he's a Republican then of course it should be revealed because it will destroy his career.

[Ted S.]

What if he's running as a Libertarian?

[Gbob]

Then why bother? The Libertarian candidate could either rape a nun in public, or save the planet from an alien space tyrant. His total number of votes will remain the same within 2-3%

[Zeb]

It probably helps in that case.

[Citizen Nothing]

Then it can only help.

[Citizen Nothing]

I am old and slow.

[NoVAHockey]

"Do I anonymously get the information out to the public?"

Either stand up and say your piece or stuff it.

/anonymous commentator

[NoVAHockey]

Goddammit. Had the neighborhood civic association meeting last night. The crime prevention officer for our district was there for an update. Ran headfirst into the issue Balko used to right about -- no real information from NoVa area law enforcement. Got a very polite FYTW for any requests for incident reports, etc. we've had some break-ins and some theft from carports and all they could tell us is "lock your doors and get motion lights."

That said, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of neighbors who are armed.

[Rich]

researchers may have cracked a 70-year-old mystery as to why the Sun's surrounding corona is so much hotter than its surface.

For the Sun-geeks in the group.

[gaijin]

Interesting how the temperature goes from 15M degrees, to 6K, to 1M degrees from inside out. I've always wondered why Neptune's thermosphere is a balmy 500 C...perhaps there's a magnetic influence there too.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

New android app publishes home and business addresses of gun owners

The Walkingtools Gun Geo Marker has a simple goal: letting parents and community members mark, or geolocate, sites associated with potentially unsafe guns and gun owners. These locations are typically the homes or businesses of suspected unsafe gun owners, but might also be public lands or other locations where guns are not handled safely, or situations where proper rights to own or use any particular type of firearm may not exist.

What could possible go wrong?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

possibly

[BakedPenguin]

"Welcome to the theme park of the future, where nothing could possibli go wrong."

[Metazoan]

At least it's just a voluntary project.

[Bobarian]

So...

An app for burglers?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

As noted last night there's lots of "trust me guys I'm a gun owner and this is just a safety issue" in this with the author also simultaneously putting out such gems as:

Yes, I guess this is the same as "publicly geotag homes of people believed to belong to a particular religion". True enough, if your religion requires live child sacrifices to appease a cold, tubular god. Other than that special case which is 100% hypothetical, it is clear that the Gun Geo Marker is a simple gun-safety project that enables parents and neighbors to understand their geography of risk.

Don't worry, though, I think he's got tenure:

Brett Stalbaum is a C5 research theorist specializing in information theory, database, and software development. A serial collaborator, he was a co-founder of the Electronic Disturbance Theater in 1998, for which he co-developed software called FloodNet (http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/ecd.html), which has been used on behalf of the Zapatista movement against the websites of the Presidents of Mexico and the United States, as well as the Pentagon. As Forbes Magazine put it "Perhaps the first electronic attack against a target on American soil was the result of an art project." For EDT, this was all learned behavior taught by the example of the Zapatistas.

[The Dan]

so, guess we all download it and tag every house in our hometown? Once all are tagged, it will be useless

[SugarFree]

Uranium prices have hit a seven-year low

Haha. I told you Christfags that hyperinflation was just AM radio bullshit. Obama 4evah!

[Auric Demonocles]

Jokes on you. We used to be able to get a comment using italics for only a third of it. Now it's got to be the whole thing. Tell me that's not hyperinflation.

[SugarFree]

Chrome on my tablet won't run reasonable. #monocleproblems

[db]

Plus Reasonable sets all Youtube videos to autoplay. Simulfuckingtaneously.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Yowza. Mine doesn't. Autoplaying videos drive me into a rage.

[db]

Try right clicking and "open link in separate tab." Prepare for dismay.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Yeah, that's what I do every time. No problems. Well, I guess I can say that I empathize with your pain?

[db]

Empathize?!? Turn in your monocle, sir!

[mad libertarian guy]

Those obstructionist bi-partisans!

A bipartisan Senate coalition on Wednesday blocked a Democratic proposal to retroactively cut interest rates on higher education loans in half, leaving any student loan rescue in doubt and laying bare divisions among Democrats about how to resolve the dispute.

The bill pushed by the Democratic leadership would have renewed a subsidized 3.4 percent interest rate on Stafford loans, whose rates doubled to 6.8 percent on July 1. But a bipartisan group of senators ? led by Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia; Angus King, independent of Maine; and Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina ? had forged what they saw as a compromise measure that would have tied student loan rates to federal borrowing costs.

*snip*

The student loan issue was supposed to be a political bonanza for Democrats, who were convinced that Republicans would yield on legislation extending the subsidized rate. Instead, it has revealed the kinds of divisions usually on display with Republicans ? splitting rank-and-file Democrats from an emerging centrist group that has become increasingly willing to buck its leaders.

Even though it's usually the RethugliKKKans who won't show solidarity, it's apparent that some Democrats are willing to also act in a troubling manner by bucking the party leadership!

[Lord Humungus]

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/art.....r-critical

this guy wasn't really a friend of mine, but he was one of the local music scenesters who would routinely go to any show, big or small. By all measures he was a nice guy who didn't have an enemy in the world.

Anyway, he died yesterday. Brain hemorrhage... they took him off life support. Not sure if a helmet would have saved his life, but it would have helped.

[BakedPenguin]

I see tons of people riding scooters without helmets. I just don't get it. Admittedly, they can't go as fast as bikes, but they're also much smaller and harder to see. If a car hits you on one of those, it doesn't matter that you were only going 20 mph.(SLD)

[EDG reppin' LBC]

The driver was 94 years old. Some one needed to take grandpas keys away. Fuck...

[Tonio]

Maybe, maybe not. A helmet only protects the skull. There is nothing that can be done to protect the brain against deceleration. Nothing.

It is possible that he could have lived longer, but with severe brain damage, had he been wearing a helmet.

Strongly encourage everyone to have advance directives, and to work to support the right of people to have those directives enforced.

[tarran]

My dad's life was saved by his helmet; when we recovered his helmet from the accident scene, the road had abraded 3/4 through the shell before ripping the helmet off his head.

That damage would have been done to the skull if he hadn't had it on.

[Tonio]

OK, I was talking about impact. Yes, abrasion is different.

[Agammamon]

The helmet *does* protect against deceleration.

All that foam in there is to allow the head to decelerate in a fraction of a second and thereby reduce peak g-force experienced. Without it your head decelerated pretty much instantaneously.

Not to mention providing protection from secondary impacts.

Just that little bit is often the difference between death or serious brain damage and a massive headache.

[Tonio]

OK, yes. But they can only do so much.

And I'm all in favor of helmets. I do several helmet-recommended sports and always wear them.

[Fatty Bolger]

The CIA and a secret vacuum cleaner

Confined to the basement of a CIA secret prison in Romania about a decade ago, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the admitted mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, asked his jailers whether he could embark on an unusual project: Would the spy agency allow Mohammed, who had earned his bachelor's in mechanical engineering, to design a vacuum cleaner?

[Pro Libertate]

That's got supervillain written all over it. What he means to do is construct a small black hole.

[Agammamon]

Jeez, didn't those guys ever read 'Ironman' as a kid, did they ever watch 'The A-Team' even?

[db]

"CIA agent James Dyson allowed it. And now you know...the rest of the story."

[mad libertarian guy]

It's not just the Catholics that have problems with diddling boys and then using a powerful institution to cover it up.

A lawyer for 19 former students at Yeshiva University High School for Boys filed a federal lawsuit Monday claiming that two former rabbis there carried out hundreds of acts of sexual abuse during the 1970s and 80s, and that the university's leaders covered it up.

According to [the] complaint lodged in Federal District Court [. . .], the abuse included one case, in 1980, of a rabbi who sodomized a 16-year-old student with a toothbrush in his dormitory room in Upper Manhattan. [. . .]
[The p]laintiffs claim occurred between 1969 and 1989, did not come to light until The Jewish Daily Forward published articles about it beginning in December. The lawsuit, echoing The Forward's reporting, said administrators of Yeshiva University, which runs the high school, brushed off complaints about the two rabbis for years, and after they left the school, the university did not notify their future employers about the complaints. One of the men, Rabbi George Finkelstein, went on to work at a Jewish day school near Miami for several years.

It's almost like institutionalized religion is an elaborate scheme to cover up for pedophiles.

[Ted S.]

I always thought the rabbis didn't fonlde the boys; they killed them and used the blood to make matzoh.

/sarcasm

[Zeb]

That's what they do with Christian and Muslim boys. Jewish boys they diddle, apparently.

[Zeb]

Also sarcasm, in case that's not obvious.

[Tonio]

This problem has been known for some time, but has yet to gain traction. Smaller and more insular community. Tendency to use historical victimhood as a shield against any criticism, etc.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"It's almost like institutionalized religion is an elaborate scheme to cover up for pedophiles."

Public schools are institutionalized religion?

[mad libertarian guy]

Public schools are institutionalized religion?

In a manner of speaking, yes.

[mad libertarian guy]

Pants-shitting about guns isn't the only only argument against allowing teachers to carry guns in the classroom.

As more schools consider arming their employees, some districts are encountering a daunting economic hurdle: insurance carriers threatening to raise their premiums or revoke coverage entirely.

During legislative sessions this year, seven states enacted laws permitting teachers or administrators to carry guns in schools. Three of the measures ? in Kansas, South Dakota and Tennessee ? took effect last week.

But already, EMC Insurance Companies, the liability insurance provider for about 90 percent of Kansas school districts, has sent a letter to its agents saying that schools permitting employees to carry concealed handguns would be declined coverage.

"We are making this underwriting decision simply to protect the financial security of our company," the letter said.

I'm inclined to agree with the insurance carriers. Perhaps the number of horrific mass shootings would diminish if teachers carried, but I'd bet that accidental shootings would increase. I generally trust concealed weapons carriers to not shoot the general public. I don't trust teachers to not shoot their students.

[mad libertarian guy]

What a man wouldn't do for an edit button.

[Bobarian]

In a libertarian society, you have to live with your mistakes.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I don't have a problem with this. If the insurance companies consider it a higher risk and want to charge higher premiums, that's their prerogative.

[Ted S.]

Have any insurance companies dropped municipalities for having to pay out settlements for violence committed by police?

Somehow, I have a feeling the municipalities would have a shit fit about that.

[SugarFree]

Many of them end up "self-insured", i.e. fuck your whore mother in hell, taxpayer.

[Tonio]

That cuts both ways, Sug. If govt entities do insure themselves then the taxpayers bitch about the premiums (somewhat justifiably). If the government self-insures it encourages the government to use its various powers to cover things up, etc.

The only answer is individual liability.

[SugarFree]

Agreed.

[John]

That is an excellent point. The law firm I used to work for did a fair amount of business defending counties in law suits. As the partner who ran that section used to say "the county is always killing somebody". The idea that teachers carrying guns creates any significant increase in potential liability costs is nonsense. This is strictly a bunch of asshole insurance execs trying to dictate public policy.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

As long as they're not collaborating to set rates, what's the problem? Some enterprising insurance company could make some good money coming in and underwriting policies at a lower premium.

[John]

That is just it, they are colluding or some insurance company would be doing just that.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Nobody insures municipalities for that without either a Self Insured Retention that is somewhere north of infinity-1 or premiums that exceed the annual city budget.

Places like Chicago use the taxpayers as their insurance...er, self-insure.

[John]

At least in the mid1990s, that wasn't true. My lawfirm had several big clients who were in the business of providing liability insurance to counties and municipalities.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Not to municipalities that have killer police - try to keep an eye on the question, which was:

"Have any insurance companies dropped municipalities for having to pay out settlements for violence committed by police?"

[John]

Okay. It was all small towns and counties who couldn't afford to self insure and stick the taxpayers with the bill. And amazingly enough, they had idiot cops, but no killer cops.

[Bardas Phocas]

You know what the GOP fears? That Obamacare will work!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....ccess.html
But there is now plenty of evidence that if we as a nation want Obamacare to work, it will work
Clap you hands together and say you believe.
[note, he doesn't provide any actual evidence - other than faith - that it will work]
Why aren't you clapping!

[Metazoan]

Of course, that's why it didn't work! The people weren't good enough!

[Mike M.]

Sure it will work. If by work, you mean "permanently turn millions of full time jobs into part time jobs".

[BakedPenguin]

Like the prosecutor in Idiocracy: "We got, like, all this evidence and shit..."

[sloopyinca]

There's that fag talk we talked about.

[gaijin]

if we as a nation want Obamacare to work, it will work

If you can dream it you can do it!

[KMA Too]

So, it's healthcare via The Secret?

[Matrix]

They need to qualify the "it will work" comment. What, exactly, counts as it working?
Higher premiums?
Reduced hours/wages?
Longer wait times for care?
Reduced quality of care?

If those are what you qualify as "it working", then I'm sure the GOP are afraid of "it will work."

[mad libertarian guy]

Sometimes a guitar solo is all about the tone.

The first solo (2:30) is epic.

[The Last American Hero]

Can't go wrong with anything connected to Porcupine Tree.

[Mike M.]

The astonishing collapse of work in America.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

First: for U.S. financial and equity markets, there has already basically been a full recovery from the Great Recession. Key indicators of performance for these markets-the Dow30, S&P500;, Russell 2000, NASDAQ, etc--are all at higher nominal levels today than they were five years ago. Even after controlling for inflation, these indicators are ahead of where they were in early 2008. For wealth holders in these markets, the nightmare is over-at least for now

Mission accomplished, bitches /Bernanke

[Mike M.]

"The distorted financial markets are all that matter!" /Shrieking Idiot

[invisible furry hand]

Laibach seeks Volkskunst, gets Lego Laibach

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I laughed at "Laibach and Think of England".

[The Last American Hero]

Their EP with remixes of The Final Countdown is fantastic.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Check out the cassette and vinyl versions of Kapital; the mixes on those are exclusive to the formats are some are better than the CD versions in my opinion.

[DanD]

Anyone see the new APWU propaganda?

LOL

[DanD]

Crap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX_WasAnDcM

[Agammamon]

Yeah, it "doesn't cost me a single cent".

Except for covering that huge gap between income and expenses the Postal Service has.

[Fatty Bolger]

Huntington Bank cornering the market on free pens

The Columbus-based bank has given away more than 14.7 million pens ? and counting. If laid end-to-end, they would stretch from Columbus to Denver with a few to spare.

No word on whether the FTC is investigating this gross breach of the Sherman Act.

[Enough About Palin]

"Florida Police Preparing for Riots"

Brought to you by Barack Obama and the DOJ. Now a word from our sponsors.

Barack Obama: If I had a son, he'd be a looter, just like the old man.

[John]

It is fucking appalling. Our first black light worker President used DOJ to turn a local murder case into a national race issue for purpose of sowing racial hatred.

Obama's actions in the Zimmerman case are the worst of any President in my lifetime. Zimmerman is really America's Dryfus case. It is that bad.

[Mike M.]

Just imagine how disappointed these scumbags are going to be when the mass riots they're hoping for don't materialize.

[John]

They will be. The media is already near orgasm about the prospect. Maybe I am a hopeless optimist, but it takes a lot to get a real riot going. More than just a bunch of prog trolls on twitter (and I suspect that a lot of the "I am going to kill whitey" tweets are just nasty progs sockpuppeting). I bet it is a big fizzle.

[Zeb]

I'm putting my money on no riots as well. There will be protests and angry people saying very silly things. Some arrests too, I'm sure. But I don't think it'll be real rioting. All of the concern about this is way too ginned up and staged.
Could be wrong. Time will tell, I guess.

[John]

To have a riot you have to have a critical mass of people who are breaking the law and getting away with it. That takes a lot. An angry mob alone doesn't do it. Who wants to be the first guy to break a window and go to jail?

As much as the media wants to believe otherwise, the Zimmerman case is not Rodney King. And even the Rodney King case resulted in riots in LA and nowhere else. The last time there were actual nationwide race riots, instead of riots like the LA riot that were the result of a local event, was after the death of Martin Luther King. I find it extremely unlikely that a Zimmerman acquittal will have the same effect on the black community the assassination of MLK did.

[sloopyinca]

You want to get in on the bet?
There will be riots. Especially if they read the "not guilty" any time after 3:00 EDT on Friday.

I just wonder how excited Friedman and Krugnuts are at all the stimulus spending this is going to create. Hell, they might propose Obama receive a second Nobel Peace Prize and one in Economics for inciting them.

[John]

I will take that bet Slooopy. If there are riots, you can link to this post and gloat about how wrong I was.

[sloopyinca]

I'm willing to make the same bet with you that I did Epi.

And you guys can all get together and decide how you want to split up who gets me what.

[Suthenboy]

heh, I thought you were angling for another bottle of scotch.

[sloopyinca]

Nope. I've still got a good portion of the one you sent me. (Thanks, Doc) I could use a bottle of Vodka, though. I've been on a Bloody Mary kick lately.

[Suthenboy]

Understandable. My wife makes the best Bloody Mary in the world. She uses hot V-8 and loads of Tabasco. Your lips and mouth catch fire and you break out in sweat, but you cant quit drinking the damn thing.

I have tried using her recipe, but it is just never the same. She claims it is because food and drink is always better when someone makes it for you.

[RBS]

The best Bloody Mary I've ever had was at this bar in Charlotte on New Years morning 2012. The vodka was infused with assorted chilis,

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"A riot is an ugly thing....und, I think that it is just about time that ve had vun!"

[Zeb]

No. Too poor right now.

[Lord Humungus]

A few days ago Glenn Reynolds said the Zimmerman case was used to gin up black turnout during the election. At first I thought it was hyperbole, now I'm not so sure...

[John]

I don't see any other explanation for it. It is just not that interesting of a case. The national media never picks up on crimes that are not obvious hate crimes and involve two men. The only reason they did is because the White House told them to and the media sans Fox was acting as an arm of the campaign.

[sloopyinca]

Not that interesting? Tell that to Nancy fucking Grace. This is the greatest thing to come out of Florida in...well, in a year at least.

What was the over/under again on Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman ultimately shacking up together? I can't remember.

[John]

Now that would make a great reality show. I bet TLC has contracts on the table right now for that one.

[sloopyinca]

I'm only tuning in if they can get OJ to officiate the wedding.

[mad libertarian guy]

TLC used to be a great channel before it went on its Reality Show? binge during its journey to full retard.

[RBS]

All the cool science/history docs/shows keep getting pushed further away from the mainstream channels.

[John]

Worse, they are not even being made anymore. I find the ones that are made to be increasingly less cool and dumbed down.

[Rasilio]

I don't know Vikings was good and very historically accurate as far as tone and behavior even if the chronology is somewhat jumbled. The Men who Built America also looks interesting but I havn't had a chance to see it yet. It just seems that they have decided to move away from Documentaries and towards live action reenactments/adaptations

[John]

Vikings was great. And it had Katherine Winnick in it. Where has she been all these years? How was she not a star before now?

[mad libertarian guy]

How was she not a star before now?

She's not a very good actress? She's nice to look at, but I'm not convinced she could act her way out of a paper bag.

Besides, she's been busy running dojos in Canada and being a martial arts ass kicker.

Winnick was born in Etobicoke, Ontario and is of Ukrainian descent.[3] She spoke Ukrainian as her first language and did not begin speaking English until she was age 8.[1][4] Winnick began training in martial arts at age 7 and obtained her first black belt at 13.[5] By age 21, she had started three martial arts schools.[5]

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I think that's a function of the people who actually care about that sort of thing getting their information from the Internet, whereas the TV-watching demographic is quite a bit different.

[Suthenboy]

What? It is bad, but this is not the worst of shitweasel's behavior by a long shot.

[John]

I think it is the worst. He used the DOJ to start what he hopes is a race riot or in the alternative send an innocent man to prison for the purpose of ginning up votes. Nothing he has done has been that malicious.

[Citizen Nothing]

You gotta crumble a few crackers to top an omelet. Or something.

[Suthenboy]

Uh... supplying bloodthirsty foreign drug gangs with mucho firepower in the hopes of creating a river of innocent domestic and foreign blood to gin up support for unconstitutional gun control laws.....I am not sure anything is worse than that, short of ovens.

[John]

That was at least directed at Mexicans. This was directed at Americans. Fast and Furious was close. But this is worse. It is not like the drug gangs wouldn't have gotten their guns elsewhere. I don't think you can say that any extra murders occurred because of it.

This in contrast is directed at Americans, race relations in the country at large and very well may result in people dying who otherwise would not have.

[sloopyinca]

I don't know whether to label this comment xenophobic or just fall over laughing at the hilarity of it, John.

[Citizen Nothing]

That's our John! (Cue laugh track.)

[sloopyinca]

Hey, CN, when are you coming out to scout the Berkley/SF area for the football game?

[Citizen Nothing]

Aug. 17 -20 (with a couple days in Reno/C.C. area before that).

[sloopyinca]

Ha! I'm on my way to Reno right now. Doors closed. Gotta go.

[John]

CN,

My point is explained below and apparently went right over your head. And if you want to cue a laugh track, cue it over the Libertarian transnationalist idea that the President owes the same duty to Mexicans that he owes to Americans, you know the people who pay his salary.

Sadly, more than a few Libertarians actually think that. And that is why we can't have nice things.

[Citizen Nothing]

That's our John!

[John]

sloopy,

Maliciously attacking Americans is a worse action on the President's part than maliciously attacking foreigners. Whatever Obama has done to foreigners, he never took an oath or assumed any responsibility of protecting and defending foreigners. Americans in contrast he did.

For all of the bad and incompetent Presidents we have had, Obama is the first one who has actively sought to harm this country for the purpose of political advantage.

[Zeb]

So, what is the evidence that the DOJ had a hand in this? It seems plausible, but I haven't seen anything about that except in comments on here.

[John]

Here you go Zeb

Earlier on Wednesday, Judicial Watch released documents showing that the Department of Justice sent workers to Sanford, Florida to assist the Trayvon Martin protests taking place just prior to Zimmerman's arrest on second-degree murder charges.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G.....e-no-trial

[BakedPenguin]

DOJ.

[Zeb]

Thanks, John and Penguin man. That does look pretty bad.

[Agammamon]

He's far from the first.

FDR was destroying America long before any of us were around.

[sloopyinca]

Whatever Obama has done to foreigners, he never took an oath or assumed any responsibility of protecting and defending foreigners. Americans in contrast he did.

No, he swore an oath the defend and uphold the Constitution. And that includes not committing acts of war on foreign nations...like dronemurdering their people without a Declaration of War or flooding their country with guns you know to be illegal there, especially to known criminal gangs.

[Suthenboy]

I would grant it is at least equal in the malice behind it.

After all, what is a community organizer? They arent uniters. They are dividers. They stir up resentment based on perceived grievances rooted in race, culture, class and identity. Resentment and sense of entitlement are their stock in trade.

[Agammamon]

Authorizing the murder of (at best) iffily identified targets along with anyone who happens to be near them, like at a wedding?

If anything, this is one of his lesser reprehensible acts.

[John]

Authorizing the murder of (at best) iffily identified targets along with anyone who happens to be near them, like at a wedding?

In a war in an area that is harboring insurgents who are fighting that war? Hardly. More importantly, the only weddings that are ever hit are figments of the Taliban's propaganda machine.

The enemy's strategy is very simple. Put as many innocent targets around you as possible so that if the US does find you, killing you will result in as many other deaths as possible giving your side a propaganda advantage.

For some Reason Libertarians have decided that hiding amongst the civilian population and using it as human shield is completely legitimate form of warfare and in fact is so legitimate that doing so should make one immune from any attack and relieve your enemies of any ability to defend themselves/.

[invisible furry hand]

Trust The Nation not to suggest deregulation:

If cab drivers in Chicago win their lawsuit to become employees of the city, their jobs will become a lot less terrible...Recently, a federal judge in Chicago refused to dismiss the case, ruling that the extent to which the City of Chicago controls cabbies' day-to-day activities and livelihoods may be enough to create an employment relationship...

http://www.thenation.com/artic.....z2YkC8mtSO

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

WTF? Chicago ain't broke enough? That's freaking moronic.

[Suthenboy]

"That's freaking moronic."

Heh. How do you think they got where they are now?

[Matrix]

so, there will be fewer taxi cabs actually running at any given time. The rates will be much higher, and they will probably be restricted to running fares in certain areas at certain times.

Higher rates and shittier service with no competition? Definitely a win for customers!

[Zeb]

I just can't fathom how anyone can see restricted taxi licensing as anything but protection for established taxi companies.

I can understand why people would want taxis to be licensed (though I disagree that they should be required to be), but limiting the number of licenses is only done to keep prices high.

[Agammamon]

When I write the constitution for my breakaway republic this is one of the things I'll add in.

Licensing requirements will be limited to 'strict scrutiny', ie they must be narrowly tailored to fit an explicit government duty. Beyond the minimum requirements to qualify for a license, no additional restriction will be permitted (in other words you *must* issue if someone qualifies).

[Agammamon]

Customers have nothing to do with this. Its all about getting a good deal for the people bringing the suit.

Taxi drivers

Not even the city wants this - they'd rather have *de facto* control instead of official control. That way they can meddle all they want and blame the taxis for problems.

[Mike M.]

House republicans to pass new farm bill without money for food stamps, welfare loving democrats outraged.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The GOP did something half right. Who locked Boehner in the janitorial closet?

[robc]

If they pass neither, both farm subsidies and food stamps go to zero, right?

Right?

[Suthenboy]

If we went cold-turkey on food stamps the country would burn.

[Brett L]

This is the perfect way to torpedo Farm Aid and blame each other. This is how politics should work.

[sloopyinca]

Are they going to finish up closing arguments today, or will they stretch into tomorrow? Tomorrow would probably be better for me, gambling-wise.

I will thank both the rioters and Epi in advance.

[Fatty Bolger]

Prosecution today, defense tomorrow.

[sloopyinca]

So the jury can deliberate for an hour or so and read the verdict Friday afternoon? That's perfect riot-time, especially since we're not in football season yet and the NBA playoffs are done. This is the perfect storm of dog days/race hustlers/an idiot president stoking the flames/no sports going on.

I'm getting my popcorn.

[Floridian]

A question to the lawyers. Is infanticide in the lesser included charges with murder 2? I only ask because Martin was only 340 month old.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

+ ... a whole lot

[sloopyinca]

They're probably huddled up with the judge trying to add stalking, assault, brandishing, driving with a headlight out and as much other shit as they can throw at him prior to jury instructions.

After all, they gotta make sure their conviction rate stays solid.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

The prosecution is now arguing for felony murder because Zimmerman committed child abuse.

[John]

No way. Please tell me you are kidding.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Nope. He's standing there with a straight face arguing that this was felony child abuse and therefore felony murder 3 under Florida law.

[sloopyinca]

OK, now I really am expecting Ashton Kutcher to come out from behind the judge's bench and announce to the world that they've been punked.

[John]

The judge is apparently retarded or asleep. Where is the defense? You can't introduce a legal theory like that out of the blue. He is not charged with child abuse. You can't now in closing argument argue felony murder based on child abuse. You have to give the defense fair warning of your legal theory.

I haven't been watching this trial, but as far as I know child abuse has never been an issue in this trial. You can't just invent a charge in closing.

[tarran]

I'm pretty certain that the bar association has rules against this sort of misconduct. Perhaps someone should write a letter to Florida Bar (it won't go anywhere, but it can't hurt).

[RBS]

WTF, as if this case wasn't enough of a fucking clown show already. Disbar everyone involved except the defense attorneys and be done with it.

[John]

I never tried a case in Florida. I tried a few of them and have been thinking about this sort of thing for a long time. And it my understanding that in a criminal case the government has to tell the defense all of its legal theories before the trial. That whole constitutional right to know the charges against you thing.

[sloopyinca]

The work "Kangaroo" keeps coming to mind here...

[Night Elf Mohawk]

It's not the closing. They're arguing about the jury charge. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[John]

He is arguing to the judge for an instruction on that? Okay, that is not so egregious.

[RBS]

Yeah, that makes a little more sense, but the judge should absolutely not grant that request.

[crashland]

No he simply performed a very late term abortion using his handy abortion device.

[Floridian]

Wow, I only made the in fancied joke because free2booze and I were going round and round with a troll that kept saying Trayon was a child so he was not responsible for his actions yesterday.

[Gray Ghost]

I'm not seeing where child abuse falls under the standard jury instructions for second degree murder. If the crime they're asking to add to the jury charge isn't within the lesser included crimes of murder 2, then adding it at this point is so wrong it hurts.

Seriously, you spend most of the trial and your entire case in chief trying to throw the case, and you turn around and try to backdoor something like this? What the hell?

[Fatty Bolger]

Just to be clear, you're expecting white-hispanics to riot when Zimmerman is convicted, right?

[OldMexican]

Yes, bato.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Seems about par for the course that the prosecution would be allowed to give a non-rebutted closing for the jurors to think about all night.

[sloopyinca]

This whole process has come across as one-sided. With the exception of releasing Martin's toxicology report, every ruling has gone the prosecutions way. And the judge may have allowed that hoping the jurors understand the mellowing powers of the debbul weed.

I'm surprised they didn't pull out a set of really large scales and a duck yet, but that may be a part of the prosecution's closing.

[John]

There is no way that a conviction should survive on appeal. One of the legal professor bloggers had a great run down the other day of how the judge should have entered a directed verdict of not guilty before the defense even made its case. Even taking every fact at issue to the benefit of the prosecution, you still can't reasonably find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This case is embarrassingly weak.

[sloopyinca]

Were I Zimmerman, I would have almost certainly asked for a bench trial.

[tarran]

From that judge? Are you nuts? She has had her thumb on the scale for a conviction from the get-go.

[Gray Ghost]

If he was going to go for a bench trial, he probably would've had the SYG hearing before this. And he didn't, thinking along with tarran, and I, that this judge would've loved nothing more than to crush him.

FWIW, not letting in the TM texts about how he was "likes-to-fight guy" was helpful for GZ. But not much else coming from her was.

[Tonio]

The court can, I believe, delay announcing the verdict until a more auspicious time. Remember, it's not just Zimmerman that has to worry about violence; the judge and other court personnel would also be affected if a riot erupted around the courthouse.

[Fatty Bolger]

Robbery team uses naked swim ruse to distract homeowner

A Tennessee man was too distracted by a woman swimming naked in his pool to notice that a robbery was taking place inside his house, police say.

[The Late P Brooks]

If cab drivers in Chicago win their lawsuit to become employees of the city, their jobs will become a lot less terrible

Woohoo!

ps- tough shit, consumers; buy a bicycle.

[John]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/.....d/2507059/

This is disturbing. Asiana pilot says he was blinded just before landing. Maybe he is lying to cover his ass or has convinced himself of it to get over the guilt of fucking up and killing two people. That is entirely possible. But it is also possible he is telling the truth, which would likely mean someone took down that plane.

[tarran]

I don't think he is necessarily lying, but that shouldn't have taken down the plane.

My guess is that it's one of many elements of the accident:

1) It's apparent the autothrottle was not properly engaged to maintain air speed. The engines were idling and they were doing a powered glide into the airport gradually bleeding off airspeed. Inititally they would be able to stay on the proper glide path to land and the only indication would be a dropping air speed. When the airspeed dropped sufficiently low the angle of attack would increase and the plane would start to sink below the glide path.

2) The crew was overloaded: the instructor pilot was making one of his first flights as an instructor and focused on monitoring the pilot; the pilot was making his first landing on an A/C of this type.

3) The ILS was unavailable: they were making a visual approach using the PAPI (lighted indicators) to keep them on the appropriate glide slope. This is a relatively crude system, and when they initially departed the glide path, they wouldn't have been aware of it.

4) In all likelihood the first visual indications that they were in trouble were about 10 - 15 seconds before landing, and a blinding flash of light could cut that down by a good 3 - 5 seconds.

[tarran]

5) 8 seconds before impact they commanded full power and tried to abort the landing. The engines couldn't spool up to power in time to avert the crash.

My guess is that the lack of an ILS system coupled with an inexperienced (on that type) pilot and an inexperienced instructor resulted in the crew not detecting their error until it was too late. Absent those other conditions there's no way a flash of light would have brought down a plane.

[tarran]

One other thing. On most small aircraft, you raise or lower the nose to adjust your speed, and use the engines to control your descent.

If they were using autothrottle to maintain a fixed air speed, then the pilot would be lifting and lowering the nose to adjust his sink rate.

Obviously, if his engines are idling and the plane is falling out of the sky due to low airspeed, raising the nose is not going to help, you just bleed off speed faster.

[db]

PAPI may be simple but I wouldn't call it "crude." And it's quite clear when you see three or four red, you need to get back up on the slope.

[tarran]

I shouldn't have said crude so much as it's not as sensitive as the ILS glide slope indicator on an aircraft's instrument panel.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had 2 red, 2 white until they were quite close to the ground, and then suddenly it went to 3 then 4 red in very quick succession.

[db]

Yes the angular sensitivity depends on range. And with a high mass plane with jets that may take some time to spool up, there may not have been enough time to correct once the PAPI showed low.

[Thane-kin]

PSA: SyFy is currently having a straight-to-TV shark movie marathon in anticipation of tonight's premier of Sharknaodo featuring Tara Reid.

Megashark vs Giant Octopus, which is awesome, is on right now.

[John]

It can't be worse than Pacific Rim. Sharkanado at least knows what it is. Bad over the top B movie horror pictures have been around since silent films.

Pacific Rim in contrast seems to be a further devolution of movies in general. As bad as movies like Transformers and Battleship were, they at least had plots and rose to the level of a bad 70s TV movie. But Pacific Rim seems to not even do that. The trailers don't even try to show a plot. The point seems to be we filmed a lot of explosions and special effects in 3D.

[RBS]

I liked Pacific Rim better when it was called Neon Genesis Evangelion...

[Agammamon]

I would have loved it if it was "Cthulhutech".

Instead we get 'Robojox 2: From The Sea'.

[KDN]

Randomly catching Battleship on my free preview of HBO was one of the best things to happen to me over the past year. That movie is gloriously and perfectly terrible. There is absolutely nothing about it I would ever change.

[Ruckus]

Sharknaodo is another wonderful movie produced by Asylum entertainment. There are very few businesses I envy more than Asylum. They have found a small corner in the entertainment market and carved out a foothold. The best part, they ALWAYS make a profit on every movie they shoot.

"They give you a title, a poster, a cast, and a formula, and then we shoot it in 12 days. We go from the idea of the movie to release date in less than two months!"

[John]

It is like the company in the 1990s that made all of the soft core porn straight to video thrillers. You know all of the Joan Severance movies. They were terrible. But that company was the only one making them, they were cheap, and always made money.

[sloopyinca]

Now are we talking pre-fucked up boob job Tara Reid or post-fucked up boob job Tara Reid? Because, you know, it kinda matters.

[John]

Other than LILO, is there any actress in the last 20 years who wasn't so obviously going to turn into an aging skank than Reid?

[sloopyinca]

Oh, she's worse than LiLo. That girl would have been fine if the LAPD and LASD would have just treated her like any other convicted drunk driver an let her skip half of her probation appointments and do their own diversion program. They are actively ruining that woman's life by not taking their hooks out of her.

Think about it: all of her legal woes are still stemming from the initial offense, with the exception of that trumped-up jewelry theft charge.

[John]

For sure. Lilo is actually a very illustrative example of the justice system and the problems with it. LiLo is part of that about 30% of the population who for whatever reason can't comprehend cause and effect and thus has no understanding of the consiquences of her actions. People like that never get through supervised probation. They can't grasp the concept that "if I don't do what they say I will go to jail".

Lilo would have been better off doing a few months in jail with no probation. She would have gone to jail not been able to get in trouble and been done with it. People like her never get out of the system. This is why our jails and justice system are so clogged. We have created a system that sets up a large number of people for failure. We need to figure out an alternative way to deal with people like that and unclog the system so it can better deal with actual dangerous criminals instead of spending all its time and resources screwing with stupid people.

[sloopyinca]

We need to figure out an alternative way to deal with people like that and unclog the system so it can better deal with actual dangerous criminals instead of spending all its time and resources screwing with stupid people.

Well, not charging people for victimless crimes would be a start.

[John]

Yes it would be. And alternative forms of punishment would be another. Putting someone on supervised probation for months over a DUI is a complete waste of time. Either they are deterred from doing it again or they are not. Going to see a probation officer once a month and taking a piss test won't make any difference.

I think we should bring back forms of corporal punishment for minor crimes committed by first offenders. If someone is a multiple offender, they are a threat to society and you need to remove the threat. But a first time offender might learn their lesson and no longer be a threat. Do what a Singapore does and cane them in a way that is painful but does not result in permanent injury and send them on their way.

[sarcasmic]

Other than LILO, is there any actress in the last 20 years who wasn't so obviously going to turn into an aging skank than Reid?

Right here. She's only 15, yet she's got washed-up 30yr old skank written all over her.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....shoot.html

[John]

Damn. That is terrible. She is a beautiful young girl who is already half way to being an aging skank.

[sarcasmic]

Here she is in a bikini.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....iends.html
Control your dirty thoughts, old man! Control them!

[John]

My new neighbor is from Brazil. He has a teenage daughter who looks like that girl should look. She actually very nice. But everytime you see her you feel a little guilty.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I was going to say "save it for Penthouse Forum," but I remembered that we're talking about actual human beings and I felt guilty. Am I losing my edge?

[Raston Bot]

I liked it when it was called Sharkicane.

[Matrix]

GOP bill to defund schools that ban imaginary gun play
Rethuglikkkans are literally WORSE THAN HITLER!

[John]

Expect Reason to quickly publish an article explaining how Republicans are just hypocrites and really don't believe in federalism.

[mad libertarian guy]

Reason doesn't need to write an article for us to know that Team RED does't believe in federalism.

[John]

Sadly not. But this bill doesn't prove that.

[Zeb]

Well, they are. And at they don't (generally speaking). Doesn't mean they can't do good things from time to time.

[Metazoan]

Good first step, now extend it to defund schools that have any zero-tolerance policies at all.

[sloopyinca]

Hey, the GOP are still holding out hope that they can get those teachers to come over and vote for the "family values party". They're too fucking stoopid to realize the union teachers will never, ever return to them.

[sarcasmic]

I thought the libertarian thing to do would be to end the Dept of Education so that the feds could no longer blackmail schools by placing conditions on federal money.

[John]

It would be. And that is what should happen. That said, if you can't end it, nothing wrong with telling the states to knock it off. It is not like liberals don't use aid to force them to do any number of things.

[sarcasmic]

Two wrongs make a right. Gotcha.

[John]

If they are getting the money, how is it wrong to tell them how to spend it? It is the feds money isn't it?

The wrong in spending the money is spending the money. But once it is spent, ensuring it is not going to do harm is not wrong.

You are confusing the issue of "should we spend money" with "if money is spent, can we put strings on it". The answer to first one is no. But that doesn't mean the answer to the second isn't yes.

[sarcasmic]

It is the feds money isn't it?

I suppose. I think of it as money taken from property tax payers in the school district. Some is skimmed off the top to pay for useless bureaucrats who then put conditions on it being returned to the schools that would have otherwise been funded by property tax payers. The only ones who gain are the bureaucrats. Everyone else loses. The property tax payers lose, the schools lose, and the students lose.

[John]

The state money is property tax money. But the fed money is income tax money.

Here is the other thing. The liberals love spending federal money because they know that they can then put conditions on it and use it as a way to run the schools at the national level. Absent getting rid of the funding, which is not going to happen anytime soon, the only way to break them of that habit or at least limit the damage it does is to beat them at their own game and put your strings on the money as well.

If you opt out and say "I don't believe in even spending this money and I believe in federalism and therefore I will refuse to put any of my own strings on this", you acting with principle. But you are also giving up and allowing liberals to their worst with downside. In contrast if you step up and say "if we can't get rid of this funding, then we are going to put some of our strings on it", liberals either have to learn to live with rules like this or admit that playing political games with funding isn't so fun after all. They will never admit that latter. But with the former at least you limit some of the damage they do.

[sarcasmic]

But with the former at least you limit some of the damage they do.

"In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit."
-Any Rand

[sarcasmic]

*Ayn*

[John]

That sounds nice. But really all that is is a ticket martyrdom. And for Rand Martyrdom is a good thing. I can think of few better ways to affirm the self than with martyrdom. But from a practical standpoint, that attitude is pointless and counter productive.

You are never going to get perfection in this world. If you live in this world and want to have an effect, you have to get yourself dirty. If you don't, you can be a martyr and achieve maybe a long lasting effect sometime in the future and certainly achieve a lot of self fulfillment. But in the here and now, you are just going to squashed.

[sarcasmic]

I understand this John. I'm not stupid. However I realize that there is absolutely nothing I can do. Nothing at all. My vote doesn't count, my calls to my "representatives" don't count, nothing I can do will matter. I have no desire for power, but even if I did there are things in my past that would stop me anyway.
That leaves me with a choice. I can get worked up about things that I cannot change, or I can watch from the sidelines.
So I watch.

[mad libertarian guy]

If they are getting the money, how is it wrong to tell them how to spend it? It is the feds money isn't it?

Just because they stole it doesn't make it theirs.

[John]

MLG,

It isn't the state's money either. If your position is all taxes are theft, the states are just as much thieves as the feds are. And they therefore have no standing to complain about being told what to do with the money. It is not their money either.

[mad libertarian guy]

I recognize that the states MIGHT have a standing to spend on a education budget. I don't give the feds that same leeway as it isn't mentioned at all in the Constitution.

[SugarFree]

Jezzies make fun of pretentious pseudo-intellectuals without a trace of self-awareness.

Irony, they name is Jezebel.

Also, bonus two minute hate on libertarianism.

[Floridian]

There's Elissa Bassist's story about a male student in her graduate-level creative writing class who, in a workshop critique for a piece she submitted about sexual violence, told her she should invent a new phrase for her experience, like "Diet Rape," "Caffeine-Free Rape," or "I Can't Believe It's Not Rape."

I know this is suppose to be offensive but I found it hilarious. There might be something wrong with me.

[Thane-kin]

"Next bad date" implies that Jezzies have dates.

[Matrix]

there are a lot of self-hating guys out there of the liberal persuasion.

and there are some guys who have an iron will to put up with their BS and that just likes to hate-**** girls like this.

The first group tends to get FZ'd by the more girly feminists, but the more masculine among them might see him as a little slave.

The second group doesn't give a shit about FZing, and will attract the girly types like flies on shit.

[The Late P Brooks]

she should invent a new phrase for her experience, like "Diet Rape," "Caffeine-Free Rape," or "I Can't Believe It's Not Rape."

This makes me want to write a "Rape for Dummies" book.

[John]

Eliot Spitzer is as horrible as you would think he is

True story: Five years ago, a few months after Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace, I was having breakfast with a friend who'd just suffered a serious and painful loss when a civic project in which he deeply believed and in which he had sunk a great deal of capital went bust.

Spitzer, in jogging gear, came into the restaurant, spotted us, and ran over to the table. "So you're out of business?" said the ex-governor with a bizarre grin. "I mean, come on, it was never going to work, right? You knew that, right?"

His behavior was so glaringly inappropriate, so tonally deaf and such a weird assault for a man who had supposedly been humbled as he had been humbled, that I figured something out I had not understood until that moment: Eliot Spitzer is nuts.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/o.....ntent=Oped

[The Late P Brooks]

a friend who'd just suffered a serious and painful loss when a civic project in which he deeply believed and in which he had sunk a great deal of capital went bust.

He deserved a swift kick in the nuts. Fucking parasite.

[Tonio]

OK, over the holiday I was at a cookout hosted by proggies and one of them was bragging about how he discovered a "no guns at work" policy at his place of employment and then proceeded to rat-out some of his coworkers to HR. Apparently there was a search. I don't know if anyone was fired. Proggie-boy was of course preening for the masses about what a hero he was (vomit).

I think we're going to see more of this in the future. Please let the rest of us know if you hear of, or experience anything like this, especially in cases where there was no actual threat.

[John]

Sadly, our culture affects our freedom too. Think about drugs. As great as it would be to end prohibition, there would still be employers and people out there waging the cultural jihad against drugs.

This is what we are seeing with guns. Reaffirming the right to bear arms is great. But that doesn't stop people from being intolerant assholes in the private sphere. Yes, that is better than government oppression. But it still sucks.

[sarcasmic]

The Abolitionists have accepted they can't bring back Prohibition, but they're still hard at work. Zero tolerance this and that, bringing town the DUI threshold, banning alcoholic energy drinks...

"Political tags ? such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth ? are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort."
-Heinlein

While the latter would make for better government, they're not the ones who seek power.

[John]

The DUI war and things like DRAM shop laws and such are nothing but indirect efforts at prohibition. Even the founder of MADD, left the organization saying it was now just a prohibitionist organization rather than what she founded it to be.

Even if drugs are legalized, expect the drug warriors to continue the war by other means just like the prohibitionists have.

[Brett L]

In FL, only licensed fireworks manufacturers can prohibit their employees from keeping firearms in their personal vehicles on company property. The only such entity in FL: The Walt Disney Company.

[John]

So what you are saying is that Disney is sort of a law of its own in Florida.

[Floridian]

So what you are saying is that Disney is sort of a law of its own in Florida.

John, they run this town. I have been privy to some of the injuries that have happened at Disney and you never see anything in the media about it. Also their ticket policy states that if there is any litigation it must take place in Florida courts.

[Tonio]

Yes. Google Reedy Creek Improvement District. Basically, RCID is the equivalent of a county. RCID is Disney. There are only a few parcels of non-Disney owned land in RCID, and those are all owned by Disney execs.

[John]

Disney is so big and has been in Florida for 40 years. And Florida was not a very populous state in the 19070s when they came there. I would imagine there are few if any politicians in that state they don't own after such a long time of being there.

[Agammamon]

Walt draws a lot of water in Orlando, you don't draw shit John.

[BakedPenguin]

Even if they didn't have that, they control Reedy Creek, and could probably enforce a municipal ban.

[Floridian]

Disney doesn't even have no firearm signs. I thought about carrying in the park but decided against it luckily. Some dude lost his .380 on one the rides and was kicked out. He said he didn't see any signs and they told him it is on their website. I'm not sure if he was charged with anything. The Orlando sentinel wrote the article as menacing as possible, 6 HOLLOW point rounds, NO safety, One In The CHAMBER, OMG!!!!

[Somalian Road Corporation]

"Carried in exactly the same manner as a policeman's Glock" wouldn't have had the same zest, you know.

[mad libertarian guy]

I thought about carrying in the park but decided against it luckily.

Why? (SLD applies, of course) The chances of you having to use your gun at Disney (in a park) is less likely than you being able to go to the moon during your lifetime.

[mad libertarian guy]

There has only ever been one shooting incident at a Disney Park, and it happened AFTER the park closed in a domestic dispute gone awry.

The man killed himself in Epcot.

None of this is to say that it couldn't happen, but it appears that feeling the NEED to carry in a Disney park would be a symptom of unfounded-by-history paranoia.

[Floridian]

MLG what does SLD mean? I chose not to carry because I did not want to lose my firearm on a ride, like that one guy did. Also the security at Disney is pretty lax. If a group of terrorist wanted to kill a bunch of kids for shock effect it would not be difficult.

[mad libertarian guy]

SLD = Standard Libertarian Disclaimer.

If a group of terrorist wanted to kill a bunch of kids for shock effect it would not be difficult.

Which remains true whether people are allowed to carry there or not. I have no problem with concealed carry and sympathize with your position up until the point where bringing a weapon in Disney is an affront to their property ownership rights. It's their game. Either comply or don't go.

[Floridian]

I do comply. That is why I said they had no signs. Until the news article about the guy who lost his gun I was not aware of their policy. I respectfully disagree that ccw would not stop a mass shooting at Disney. If I was armed and a mass shooting began it is possible, although not guaranteed that I could stop a single shooter, and possibly multiple shooters. I know it is the real world and success is not certain but I would rather have the option and not just be another target.

[Agammamon]

Standard LIbertarian Disclaimer - I don't approve of this private entity's policy but I accept that private entity's right to have that policy.

[mad libertarian guy]

Standard LIbertarian Disclaimer - I don't approve of this private entity's policy but I accept that private entity's right to have that policy.

This couldn't be more on point.

[tarran]

OK, over the holiday I was at a cookout hosted by proggies and one of them was bragging about how he discovered a "no guns at work" policy at his place of employment and then proceeded to rat-out some of his coworkers to HR

I had the fortune to be chatting about security with our HR director and got a nice zinger in:

I had been locked out of the office when I had left to go to the bathroom at 4:58 the day before, so I asked why the doors were locked outside of 9-5 when the company effectively is running from 7 AM to 7PM. She told me that it was to protect the employees from getting attacked; no receptionist on duty = doors locked.

I cocked my head and asked "But we have that no weapons policy; if my ex comes to kill me, all [the receptionist] can do is absorb the first bullets. If you are concerned for our safety why not lock the doors all the time or allow us to bring weapons into work?"

There was a long awkward silence, and the HR director shrugged and walked away. I should point out that my current employer is one of the most laid back, least dysfunctional places I have worked, and the thought of coworkers violently attacking each other here is laughable.

I was being a bit of a jerk; I believe that it's liability insurance and the building management driving the whole affair, so the HR director would have little choice even is she agreed with me. Of course, I think she likes the no-weapons policy, and so was a legitimate target. 🙂

[Tonio]

There was a long awkward silence, and the HR director shrugged and walked away.

Pwned. Totally.

Bravo, Sir.

[John]

Liability is an interesting question. I think that there is a good case to be made that no guns policies make work places less safe and create liability.

At some point in the future, there is going to be a case where a lunatic ex spouse with a restraining order shows up and kills their ex at a "gun free" work place and the victim had left their weapon at home because of the policy. I think that would make for a very interesting lawsuit against the employer.

[tarran]

It's happened I believe, and it went nowhere;

IIRC the court reasoned that one is always free to find work at a place that allows concealed carry.

[John]

That is like saying you are always free to work at a place that bothers properly maintain its building and therefore your employer is not responsible when that ceiling falls on your head.

All that is is cultural bias against guns. That logic would never be applied to any other situation.

[The Late P Brooks]

Disney doesn't even have no firearm signs.

It's an Amusement Park. For children!

What kind of deranged monster would bring a gun into that setting?

[Floridian]

I considered it. So I guess me?

[The Late P Brooks]

The chances of you having to use your gun at Disney (in a park) is less likely than you being able to go to the moon during your lifetime.

I suspect the chances of having your pistol stolen out of your car while it's parked in Disney's lot are significantly higher.

[John]

True. But I would put the chances of some lunatic deciding to shoot up Disney at greater than zero. It is a a very high profile target and certainly the kind of place that some lunatic looking for everlasting infamy might decide to target.

[Floridian]

The reason I carry almost every where legal is because the chances of needing to use your firearm are extremely low, which means it is difficult to predict when you will need it. So the only way to have your fire arm available if that rare time does come is that carry often. If you knew when you are going to get in a catastrophic car accident you would only need to wear your seat belt then. As it is you never know when something might go bad. You have to be prepared.

[John]

It is a bit like wearing a seatbelt. Now that I am no longer a teenager, the chances of me being in a serious accident where my seatbelt will save my life are pretty small. It is possible, that I may never need a seat belt for the rest of my life. But it only takes once.

Same thing with guns, although with smaller probability. I have never so much as drawn a gun on someone outside of being at war. And I doubt I ever will. And frankly I don't really own anything in my house that is worth shooting anyone over. But my and my family's personal safety is certainly worth shooting someone over. And all it takes is one time to be in that situation and not be able to defend yourself. The consequences of having someone confront you meaning you serious harm and not having a gun to defend yourself are so large and cost of owning and carrying a gun so modest by comparison, it is in my opinion very imprudent not to own some kind of gun.

[tarran]

If you knew when you are going to get in a catastrophic car accident you would only need to wear your seat belt then.

My way of getting my kids to buckle: "Don't worry about your seat-belt; I promise I won't crash."

It was funny watching their expressions as they chewed that over in their minds before reaching for the seatbelts.

[John]

I like that. I will remember that. That is very clever.

[mad libertarian guy]

I suspect the chances of having your pistol stolen out of your car while it's parked in Disney's lot are significantly higher.

This is true. But if your concern for your weapon being stolen is so great while visiting a private establishment that doesn't allow weapons, perhaps leaving it at home in the safe is the best option.

I understand that we all have a right to carry when a property owner doesn't forbid it. But the whole "I feel the need to carry everywhere I go" sentiment is nothing but paranoia.

[Floridian]

It is paranoia until it isn't. Shootings have occurred in schools, banks, restaurants, churches, parking lots, and just about anywhere else you can think of. There is no way to predict it. The only option is for you to be armed a large percentage of the time. I respect business owners right to prohibit firearms and I comply with it or choose another location to do my business.

[John]

So is wearing your seat belt when going down the street to the 7-11 paranoia? What are the chances you will be in an accident during the course of a two block drive? And even if you are, what are the chances you would be injured in it even without a seat belt?

Unless you spend your time going to tough bars for fun, I don't see how you can judge the risk of needing a gun at any particular moment.

[The Late P Brooks]

the whole "I feel the need to carry everywhere I go" sentiment is nothing but paranoia.

I don't feel the need. And I realize a day could conceivably come which would see me saying, "Fuck. I wish I had brought one of my guns with me." I try to avoid places and situations likely to increase the need for armed self defense, but as we all know, sometimes those situations seek you out.

[Outlaw]

It's not paranoia. You just throw it in your pocket and go. I don't even think about it at this point and I definitely don't spend my life worrying about being attacked.

It's there if I need it. I probably never will, but it's nice to have the option of effectively fighting back against someone who wants to steal what I have and/or do me harm.

[The Late P Brooks]

And regarding this-

if your concern for your weapon being stolen is so great while visiting a private establishment that doesn't allow weapons, perhaps leaving it at home in the safe is the best option.

My point was if you carry routinely, and are doing bunch of different things and going a bunch of different places, at some point you will find yourself asking, "Should I lock this thing in the trunk (and hope nobody sees me doing it) or should I just keep it with me?"

If you are going from Point A (home) to gun-free zone Point B and directly back, the sensible course of action is probably to just leave your weapon at home.

[Floridian]

Many if not most people who visit Disney are not local. Asking them to leave it in the safe disarms them for the duration of their vacation. I never travel by car without my revolver.

[mad libertarian guy]

Many if not most people who visit Disney are not local. Asking them to leave it in the safe disarms them for the duration of their vacation.

Which is why every hotel room is Disney has a safe, and their weapons policy only applies to the parks.

[tarran]

There was a crash of a Boeing plane many years ago that was caused by an explosion in one engine, and the pilots idling the other engine under the mistaken belief that it had been the one to blow up. They crashed just short of the runway and the pilot was paralyzed in the crash.

Why did the pilots do such a seemingly stupid thing? Because (1) the new digital engine vibration indicators were hard to read, (2) they smelled smoke, which in older version of the A/C would have come from the engine they ended up idling since that engine alone compressed the cabin air (the newer version had been upgraded to allow both engines to compress the air). In reality they were doing what they thought was the smart thing but were unfamiliar with the changes to the A/C.

And there is no way to fix this sort of thing: a modern aircraft is a fucking amazingly complex combination of very sophisticated systems. It takes years of use to become familiar with them all, and sometimes people don't have years of usage before they face a crisis that tests that familiarity.

I'm looking forward to reading the accident report when it finally is completed.

[Gray Ghost]

Hasn't it come out that the plane was way above the glide slope until only a few miles away, then drastically cut its speed and increased its descent rate? Total WAG, but that makes me think he was diving for the deck, instead of just asking for a go-around.

Also, isn't the 777 much more sensitive to throttle settings than the 747 the CP (though inexperienced in this type) was used to?

Still no excuse, on that day, with those conditions, and another two pilots watching. (One was in the jumpseat behind the two guys up front.)