NSA Sued By Pretty Much Everybody, IRS Targeted Candidates and Donors, North Korea Really Likes Missiles: P.M. Links

• 

  Youtube/Team America

  Nineteen organizations from across the political spectrum are suing the NSA for violating their First Amendment right of association by illegally collecting their call records. Well, if they weren't being watched before…

• Accused of sexual harassment, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner responded, "I'm a hugger." It isn't the hugs, Bob; it's the feels you keep copping.
• In much of the world, traditional bankers using practices dating back centuries in the Middle East and Africa offer an effective way to escape the clutches of currency controls and tax collectors.
• The Treasury Department now admits that IRS targeting included candidates for office and political donors. Whoops.
• Britain's National Health Service, prominently celebrated at the Olympic games, keeps killing patients at an embarrassingly high rate.
• Turkish police arrested 30 people in a crackdown on protests, so keep Istanbul off your vacation itinerary just a bit longer.
• Panamanian officials intercepted a North Korean ship loaded with ballistic missiles and other weapons. Somebody tell Hans Blix!

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Comments

[jesse.in.mb]

Getting a hug from Filner would be incredibly creepy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Slugs not hugs.

[Rich]

No shit.

[playa manhattan]

No way he doesn't have a creepy boner in that picture.

[Mint Berry Crunch]

"What's with the stupid grin?"

"Life's been good to me."

[PapayaSF]

I think he might be one of the Lizard People that David Icke talks about.

[Silver Fox]

No lizard would produce anything that ugly.

[Paul41]

just before I looked at the check 4 $6952, I didnt believe that my cousin woz really earning money in there spare time on there computar.. there moms best frend haz done this 4 less than ten months and by now paid for the morgage on their cottage and bought themselves a Chevrolet Corvette. this is where I went... http://WWW.CNN13.COM

[G-dub]

As the song goes, "the times, they are a-changin'". Bob Filner had never heard that song...

[A Serious Man]

Britain's National Health Service, prominently celebrated at the Olympic games, keeps killing patients at an embarrassingly high rate.

Coming soon to a hospital near you!

[Episiarch]

When I was in a NHS hospital for 10 days, at least two people in my room (eight people to a room, folks!) died while I was there. It was a constant thing.

[NoVAHockey]

they hated you that much? and it was only 2. be honest.

[Episiarch]

Dude, you had to see that place to believe it. The MRI looked like something off the set of TOS. Their "computers" were greenscreen terminals. The food was...well, just think "Welsh hospital food" and you'll understand.

This was in late 1999.

[Tonio]

But you could get pints, right?

[Episiarch]

No way, dude, and their pain pills--they didn't use Vicodin--sucked massive ass and did basically nothing. But once I got back to Manhattan and had my heel surgery at HSS, I had a nice room with all the self-administered morphine I could want.

[Tonio]

That sucks, Dude.

And somehow proggies ignore all evidence as to why socializing medicing is a bad thing.

[Tonio]

medicine

[C. Anacreon]

Proglodytes will say it's all worth it, because otherwise someone they heard about from somebody wouldn't have gotten the medical care they needed. And corporations.

[Ted S.]

Doubt you can get the morphine any more.

/fucking War on Drugs

[Fatty Bolger]

I'm sure you can, as long as you're in the hospital.

[Kaptious Kristen]

You can - my Ma just had self-administered morphine a couple months ago.

[PapayaSF]

Pints? Hell, the NHS seems to have trouble providing patients with water.

[Pro Libertate]

In other words, for those of you who support nationalized healthcare because you think it will kill Episiarch, you are mistaken.

This, however, may finish the job:

Don't worry, I wont hurt u
I only want u 2 have some fun
I was dreamin when I wrote this
Forgive me if it goes astray
But when I woke up this mornin
Coulda sworn it was judgment day
The sky was all purple,
There were people runnin everywhere
Tryin 2 run from the destruction,
U know I didn't even care

Cuz they say two thousand zero zero party over,
Oops out of time
So tonight Im gonna party like it's 1999

[Killazontherun]

http://images.wikia.com/fallou.....cript5.ogg

[Ska]

The things we do for the MIRV mini nuke launcher.

[Killazontherun]

Damn right!

[Brett L]

Welsh hospital food

"Is that kidney pie I smell?"
"No, mate, that's the pisser."

[paranoid android]

I think it's hilarious that "it looked like something from the set of Star Trek" can now be used for deprecating something as looking crappy and outdated.

[hamilton]

Although he probably wishes the food were small brightly colored geometric shapes.

[Episiarch]

Anything would have been better. I survived on a care package that my company sent me that was filled with dry sausages, cheese, dolmas, nuts, etc. When they handed out the menu each dinner, I would only check off the vegetable and the fruit. I did not want hospital steak and kidney pie (yes, that was a real option sometimes).

[hamilton]

Lordy. I've had good steak-and-kidney pie (meaning, not made in England). I've had awful English versions too. An English hospital version must be approaching the nadir of human cooking, banging up against gefilte fish and pig anus.

[Pro Libertate]

I wonder what hospital food in England under nationalized healthcare would be like? Godawful seems too tepid a term.

Hospital haggis in Scotland?

[Mad Scientist]

It's a single celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs.

[Ska]

Then a Fratelli brother shoots you with an arc cannon.

[Lord at War]

+1 Cream of Wheat

[AuH20]

They only let you rape 2 to death?

The NHS is full of monsters!

[playa manhattan]

Lice outbreak at my kid's school today. What do I need to do?

[Rich]

Stock up on kerosene.

[playa manhattan]

I burned his clothes on the patio already, and then shampooed and hosed him off in the front yard. Just a precaution at this point (although he is best friends with one of the unhygienic little fucks who got sent home this morning).

[Brett L]

1. Remove all body hair
2. Think of all the fun things you can get him to do under the guise of "sorry, kiddo, lice treatments donchano?"

[The DerpRider]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?f.....VOf0#t=71s

Overreact!

[tarran]

? I would think immersing the clothes in boiling hot water would do the job much less destructively.

[playa manhattan]

I didn't want to bring the clothes inside. After a quick visit to WebMD, I realized that I overreacted by several orders of magnitude, and I probably should have just left him in school for the rest of the day.

I did learn something, though. Kids clothes are really, really, really flammable.

[Ted S.]

I did learn something, though. Kids clothes are really, really, really flammable.

This would have been more interesting.

And what good libertarian burns his child's clothes himself? Aren't you supposed to use your child as child labor and make him do it?

[RBS]

"I got out of school early and I got to burn my clothes!"

[Zeb]

Head lice are specialized and only live on the scalp, I believe. Body lice are different and that would be what would be in clothes. So if it is head lice, then yeah, burning the clothes was a bit overkill.

[hotsy totsy]

Having raised two kids in Puerto Rico I pretty much know about kids getting head lice in school.

Go into any supermarket or drugstore. They have special lice shampoo and foam. Follow the directions.

The only thing after that is you have to remember that he can get them BACK from the other kids if they haven't gotten rid of them.

But seriously, burning the clothes and hosing down with water and shampooing with ordinary shampoo doesn't do anything to get rid of lice.

[Tonio]

LOL. I think Rich is referring to how they used to "shampoo" you with kerosene to kill the lice. But yeah, also works for clothes burning.

[Rich]

Yep. Kerosene shampoo.

Smells like ... Victory over lice.

[Killazontherun]

Lol!

[Emmerson Biggins]

Male or female children?

If, male, how do they feel about flat-tops?

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yep, just shave his head and move on. Or get some of that special shampoo. It's just fucking lice.

[playa manhattan]

Boy. I'm OK with it, but my wife would be homicidally angry...

[Emmerson Biggins]

Shampoo isn't as effective as a really short haircut, from my experience. And once it spreads to somebody who doesn't have the "just shave your head" option, it sucks way worse. So make sure she weighs that part of the equation.

[Apatheist ?_??]

My parents opted for the home done buzz cut pretty early for my brother and I. Might have been an early lice scare. All I know is I never got lice and my sister had that nasty smelling shampoo.

[Mad Scientist]

Point fingers, assign blame, demand counseling. Or just get some of that anti-lice shampoo and forget about it.

[Bobarian]

Get new kids!

[NeonCat]

Make sure all the kids get lice so no one feels othered.

[Mickey Rat]

Invest in one of these:

http://www.grandin.com/design/.....ipvat.html

[fish]

Lice outbreak at my kid's school today. What do I need to do?

Dust off and nuke the clothes from orbit....the only way to be sure!

[Mike M.]

Nineteen organizations from across the political spectrum are suing the NSA for violating their First Amendment right of association by illegally collecting their call records. Well, if they weren't being watched before...

The easiest "No standing, case dismissed" prediction I'll ever make in my life.

[John]

Thanks to Snowden they can now say with certainty their calls were collected and thus will have standing.

[Michael S. Langston]

& wouldn't the government's charges against Snowden prove it's real?

IE - the government cannot say "we cannot confirm or deny whether we collect this info and therefore cannot be sued about something which doesn't necessarily exist".

Maybe?

[Rich]

The NSA also illegally collects IRS call records, so it evens out.

[John]

The Treasury Department now admits that IRS targeting included candidates for office and political donors. Whoops.

I am sure that had nothing to do with all of the accusations about Romney and the Koch's and other Republicans' tax paying habits during the 2010 and 2012 elections. No Dem hack ever was given access to such information I am sure.

[PapayaSF]

This just keep getting better and better, doesn't it?

[rts]

B.C. marijuana activist gets OK for pot decriminalization petition

Dana Larsen is using the province's unique initiative legislation to propose a law that would effectively decriminalize pot by preventing police from enforcing simple possession laws.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Golden Girl Betty White wants Homosexual Cleveland Browns as her pallbearers, so they can go down on her one last time.

[Mike M.]

+69.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

69? Oh, that's the "Beef and Broccori".

[hamilton]

Does it come with lice?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Racist, the bugs are pronounced 'rice'.

[Bobarian]

Homosexual Cleveland Browns?

Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.

NTTAWWT

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Attractive Bonobo Females Are More Likely to Win Conflicts Against Males

[Pro Libertate]

I challenge you to show me an attractive bonobo female. Attractive to me, I mean, not to Warty.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Attractive compared to who, Pelosi?

[tarran]

Would you settle for a moderately attractive ape?

[Episiarch]

"Why'd you open your bonghole, you smelly hippie? You'd sacrifice a beautiful woman to save a moderately attractive monkey? You must have smoked some bad granola!"

[Brett L]

Yeah, I learned to wrestle and lose with attractive girls pretty early on in puberty.

[A Serious Man]

Those attractive female bonobos need to check their beauty privilege!

//Aggrieved feminist bonobo

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Others think of an evolutionary scenario in which females prefer non-aggressive males which renders male aggressiveness to a non-adaptive trait.

This certainly explains the prevalence of ball-less beta males in the cultural elite.

[Rich]

Colorado town considers licensing bounty hunters to shoot down drones

"Licenses? We don't need no stinkin' licenses!"

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Colorado's going to become an interesting place over the next few years, given all the conflict emerging between its urban and rural populations.

[meta]

nor badgers and badges

[Pro Libertate]

Huh. Where were these ballistic missiles and weapons heading, anyway?

[JW]

What? These? Nowhere special. Just going for a walk.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Somebody tell Hans Blix!

Hans, ya breakin my barrs!

[C. Anacreon]

Amazing how much the former leader of Korea sounded like Eric Cartman.

[Brett L]

Boy Scouts take issue with Westboro Baptist Church, say the Bible really says God Hates Fatties

Extremely overweight Boy Scouts are banned this year from the scouts' annual Jamboree, which is expected to be the most physically-demanding in the organization's history.

[jesse.in.mb]

Wouldn't having them pass a fitness exam be a better indicator of ability to keep up with physically-demanding activities?

[hamilton]

This is such a dumb story; luckily the comments are not totally insane (odd for salon).

The Jamboree is in the hills. In summer. With at least a mile between camps and other activities. It counts as a High Adventure and so they're applying High Adventure rules to it - which mean you have to be fit enough to participate so you don't die. BMI is one of the indicators on the (standard) BSA med form.

[Ted S.]

Fuck BMI.

That is all.

[Mickey Rat]

And BMI, at best, only somewhat correlates with fitness, if that is what they are judging by.

[Virginian]

Yes yes we know BMI is kind of a shitty metric. But you do need one.

Summit is brand new, and next time they do the Jamboree I'm sure they'll have all the med support they need. At Fort AP Hill they had plenty of amenities. That's not true anymore, so yeah, they're taking precautions.

I mean, I was the fat Scout in my troop, and my BMI never topped 35. 40 is really really really fat.

[A Serious Man]

Accused of sexual harassment, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner responded, "I'm a hugger." It isn't the hugs, Bob; it's the feels you keep copping.

Well that depends on what the meaning of "isn't" is.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sorry. Imagine this hugging you. It's the hugs.

[NeonCat]

Damn, I thought people shot the undead.

[PapayaSF]

I say again: David Icke needs to know about this guy.

[kibby]

Did Parallax come back & the Lantern Corps missed it? Creeeeeepy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...keeps killing patients at an embarrassingly high rate.

In Britain they're called death councils.

[NeonCat]

Do they call cemeteries death council housing?

[Kaptious Kristen]

+40 quid

[Dweebston]

Britain's National Health Service, prominently celebrated at the Olympic games, keeps killing patients at an embarrassingly high rate.

Yes, yes, but at least they're not suffering through bankruptcies like American patients.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

As long as the govt never explicitly says "no", it's OK if you die on a waiting list or are killed outright by them.

[fish]

As long as the govt never explicitly says "no", it's OK if you die on a waiting list or are killed outright by them.

Coming to a medical plan near you!

[A Serious Man]

Indiana doctor has been arrested for the murder of four people over a five year period in an apparent revenge plot.

An Indiana doctor who was fired from a Nebraska medical school more than a decade ago has been arrested on suspicion of killing four people with ties to the school in two separate attacks five years apart.

Anthony Garcia was a medical resident at Creighton University when he was dismissed in 2001 for unspecified erratic behavior. He now stands accused in the killing of a pathology professor and his wife earlier this year, as well as the 2008 stabbings of another professor's son and housekeeper in a neighborhood near the home of billionaire Warren Buffett.

Probably a White Hispanic too.

[AuH20]

It wasn't really him! It was the one-armed man!

[Rich]

Why does anyone *need* more than one arm?

[NeonCat]

Shoelaces?

[Rich]

How quaint!

[Silver Fox]

Pfft. That's what velcro is for!

[NeonCat]

How exactly do you plan to garrote someone with Velcro?

[Silver Fox]

Don't know. But Macgyver would.

[A Serious Man]

We are two years away from 2015: that means flying cars, hover boards, and shoelaces that tie themselves.

[fish]

Masturbatory variety?!

[Ice Nine]

Looks like maybe Creighton was onto something.

[AuH20]

An Open Letter from 35 LBGT Organizations on Trayvon Martin

An Open Letter: Trayvon Deserves Justice

We cannot begin to imagine the continued pain and suffering endured by Trayvon Martin's family and friends. We stand in solidarity with them as they continue to fight for justice, civil rights and closure. And we thank everyone who has pushed and will continue to push for justice.

Trayvon Martin deserves justice and his civil rights. We support the organizations and community leaders who are urging the federal government to explore every option to ensure that justice is served for Trayvon and that his civil rights are honored and respected. But our work does not end there: we will honor Trayvon Martin by strengthening our commitment to end bias, hatred, profiling and violence across our communities.

Cont...

[AuH20]

We represent organizations with diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender constituencies. Our community has been targets of bigotry, bias, profiling and violence. We have experienced the heart-breaking despair of young people targeted for who they are, who they are presumed to be, or who they love: Rashawn Brazell, Lawrence King, Ali Forney, Brandon Teena, Brandon White, Matthew Shepard, Marco McMillian, Angie Zapata, Sakia Gunn, Gwen Araujo and countless others.

Every person, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, must be able to walk the streets without fear for their safety.

Justice delayed is justice denied and in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "a right delayed is a right denied." We honor Trayvon by seeking justice for all people.

[NeonCat]

I agree, Zimmerman should have been able to walk the streets without worrying about being attacked by Martin.

[C. Anacreon]

I think Brandon Teena was the transsexual (never had any surgery, still had all male equipment) who had anal sex with two jocks at a party, after he had them believing he was a girl. When they found out he was really a boy, they beat the crap out of him and IIRC he died as a result. Horrible story, but it always stunned me that so many news stories said the two guys beat him up "just because of who he was."

There was never any discussion whatsoever about the misrepresentation -- which absolutely, of course, didn't deserve a beating -- but was completely omitted from most reports, which would have had you believe they attacked him at random just because of his gender identification.

I'm not quite sure how so many apparently consensual acts on feminist websites can be called rape, but completely misrepresenting yourself in this fashion should be considered as innocent? Shouldn't there be some sort of disclosure before intercourse in a situation like this? Tell me if I'm missing the boat, I'm totally willing to be told I'm wrong on this; I'd appreciate a good explanation why. Again, not condoning the beating, just want to know what the rules should be before contact of this nature.

[Dingus]

You might want to Google before you rant. Brandon Teena was actually born Teena Brandon and had female parts but wanted to become a man. She was raped and murdered with no "fooling" of her assailants.

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

[C. Anacreon]

You are correct and my apologies, for some reason I remembered it wrong. The case I was referring to was the murder of Gwen Araujo.

[Coeus]

who had anal sex with two jocks at a party, after he had them believing he was a girl. When they found out he was really a boy, they beat the crap out of him and IIRC he died as a result.

That is quite simply not possible. You've been watching too much Maury. The distance between a woman's asshole and vagina is far too small for you to be able to see one and not the other when you're behind them maneuvering for insertion.

[C. Anacreon]

Here's what the wikipedia page says about her having anal sex without the partner figuring out:

"She allegedly claimed to be menstruating and during sex would push her partners' hands away from her private area to prevent them from discovering that she had male sex organs."

[rts]

Trayvon Martin deserves justice and his civil rights

I didn't know pounding people into the sidewalk as a civil right. Duly noted.

[NeonCat]

BBC World Service news was recently added to my Comcast line-up. Covering the after the verdict news the reporter said that Zimmerman tackled Martin. I guess he was too busy covering the news to actually pay attention to any coverage of the trial where no one said that's what happened.

My takeaway was that Brits think guns are so icky Zimmerman MUST have been guilty.

[AuH20]

Brits get insane about guns. Like, totally, pants shitting insane. If they ever try to reinvade us, we can just start waving pictures of guns at them and they'll retreat.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah but they're so proud of 1066. And their overhyped national soccer team.

It's okay. The Americans (and to a lesser extent drunken Canadians) will save them - and the whiny Frenchmen - again soon enough.

[Pro Libertate]

What, when the French took over the English government? Or, being more accurate, French-speaking Vikings?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Like, totally, pants shitting insane. If they ever try to reinvade us, we can just start waving pictures of guns at them and they'll retreat.

I suspect that same tactic would work with a lot of white American liberals as well.

[MJGreen]

I've talked with a Brit who ridiculed the idea of a peaceful gun owner. If you own guns, you must be deranged and violent and mean harm to others. Why else have a gun?

[NeonCat]

I hope you narrowed your eyes and said "Whatever, just don't invade, redcoat."

[rts]

The Queen owns guns.

Oh, wait...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

How low have the Brits sunk?

I own a side-by-side shot gun. Have a family. Home cook as much as we can. Own a business. We have friends. We socialize. Pay heavy coercive taxes. Watch Deadliest Catch.

Are we crazy by prog standards now?

Taxes, by the way, kill civilizations off just as effectively as guns I reckon.

[Brett L]

Just what sort of civil rights do you give a dead person? Burial in an integrated cemetary?

[ant1sthenes]

It is if you think they're gay rapists. I'm not sure that sort of paranoia is an attitude that libgat organizations should be encouraging, but what do I know?

[Pro Libertate]

I'm sorry the kid is dead, but what is wrong with people? The evidence isn't just that Zimmerman isn't guilty of murder or manslaughter. His self-defense argument was apparently pretty compelling to the jury, given the evidence presented. So they believed that he provided at least a plausible argument that he shot Martin because he reasonably felt he was in danger for his life. And the prosecution did nothing at all to counter that argument. Frankly, I think he's got a lot more evidence supporting the self-defense argument than the other way around.

A teenager is dead, which is awful, but in some ways the worse tragedy for those of us not personally affected is that people are rejecting something right with our justice system--the heavy burden of proof borne by the prosecution.

[derpules]

I'm on board with gays and lesbians but I'm pretty sure transgenders are mentally ill.

[Zeb]

It doesn't hurt anyone. If identifying as transgender is what makes them feel better, it's none of my business. I'd avoid calling it an illness. If you make that case too well, we'll all end up paying for their hormones and gender reassignment surgery.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Considering on the weird shit that can happen to the human body and brain I don't think that transgender is really all that weird.

[NeonCat]

If you like watches, WW2, code-breaking and are (really) well-heeled, why not buy a
Bremont Codebreaker watch made in part from an Enigma machine and with (a tiny bit of wood) from Bletchley Park?

[NeonCat]

(a tiny bit of)

[PapayaSF]

The NSA brought an Enigma machine to the last RSA Conference, and let people play with it. So of course I did.

[Pro Libertate]

Yuck, did you get Nazi on you?

[PapayaSF]

Can't tell. According to some Facebook friends, I'm already a Nazi for not supporting Obama.

[Pro Libertate]

You're not in or from Illinois, right?

[SKR]

I hate Illinois Nazis

[PapayaSF]

Nope. Never lived there.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Tangentially related: I am re-reading Operation Mincemeat. Good stuff. Would recommend. Has a beat and you can dance to it.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Matty tries (and fails) to use Bayesian inference to call us all racists...

Trolling the universe this morning, Richard Cohen wrote a column arguing that it wasn't racist of George Zimmerman to suspect Trayvon Martin of being a criminal because everyone knows that a disproportionate share of violent crimes are in fact committed by young black men.

I think what Cohen really means to be arguing isn't so much that neither he nor Zimmerman are racists, but that racism is the correct social and political posture. That white people have good reason to fear black men, and that therefore all black men should be put in a subordinate position.

Y'know, Matty, citing Bayes' theorem only works in your article if you leave out all other information given by Zimmerman *excepting* his profile of Trayvon Martin. Yes, if the only information you are given about a situation is that there is a black person in the vicinity it is unreasonable to suspect them of a crime. That was not the context that Zimmerman was placed in.

[Brett L]

It would shock me to find out that MattY could keep up with Bayesian theory. Finding out he only knows the pop-psych version? Not so much.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

P(A | B), do you speak it?!

[Brett L]

How to make my gf lose her shit. (slideshow warning)

I'm serious. I'm concerned about going home tonight. She was not amused. Luckily, she's pregnant, so she'll probably forget about it by the time I get home. Or be waiting with a large knife. 50/50

[JW]

I've 10 bucks on her not forgetting. Who wants in on the action?

[Ted S.]

Wouldn't you rather make her lose her shirt?

[JW]

He already did that, hence his problem. Well, I'm assuming that Brett was the one to knock her up.

[Brett L]

I'm assuming that Brett was the one to knock her up.

I am, too. But only because we were at SXSW and screwing regularly during the week that she probably caught.

[JW]

You see? Rock and roll is the Devil's music and it's making your children fornicate!

[Brett L]

She didn't particularly like clothes at home before they started fitting "wrong" during pregnancy. This wouldn't be hard.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

I don't get why she'd be upset. I mean, they're 90% ugly, but so are all wedding gowns.

[jesse.in.mb]

Maybe she's mad that all of the models have the frame of a 12 year old boy and she's full of baby?

[JW]

The ginger in the first 2 looks so happy for his upcoming special day.

[DJF]

Seems to be looking at the camera and saying, "what are you doing"?

[Brett L]

Apparently, it reminded her that she doesn't get a pretty wedding dress because she'll be 6 months pregnant and "a whale" when she gets married. Like this is somehow my fault.

[Mad Scientist]

You can always delay the wedding for 6 months. Presumably by then she'll be a bit thinner.

[Episiarch]

But then the kid is a bastard, like Jon Snow or FoE. Is that what Brett wants?

[Mad Scientist]

Brett is getting married to a pregnant woman. What Brett may or may not want is entirely irrelevant.

[Episiarch]

Hey, he agreed to it. He probably even suggested it. He deserves what he gets.

[Mad Scientist]

In my experience, pregnant women and the men who knock them up don't ever "agree" on things so much as the men shut up and do what they hell their told if they know what's good for them.

[Episiarch]

That sounds like a pretty shitty situation that I would not care to be in. Call me crazy, but I expect women to be able to be rational and not out of control even when they're having hormonal surges. If I can control myself, they can control themselves. It's called being a rational human being.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

I expect women to be able to be rational and not out of control even when they're having hormonal surges

It's a tall order, but not impossible. My wife has gotten much better at realizing when she's being irrational and needs to calm down.

If I can supress the urge to kill enemies/rivals and fuck everything with a vagina, she can supress her urge to scream and rant irrationally.

[Dweebston]

Thanks for your mansplaination, misogynist. Hormones are a natural and everyday part of life. You know what else is natural and surprisingly common? ARSENIC.

TIWTANFL.

[Brett L]

I'm pretty sure calling our fetus "the little bastard" sent her over the edge. She was holding out for just what Mad Scientist proposed.

[JW]

She was holding out for just what Mad Scientist proposed.

If you can live through her first pregnancy, and I do mean live, you can survive anything.

Be my hero and push for the I'll be in the waiting room while you deliver and I'll hand out cigars.

[SKR]

so go down to the courthouse and get married. Then have the wedding when she drops the baby weight.

[Brett L]

Fuck no, dude. Her dad is sending us on 1.5 honeymoons on a trade for our wedding (immediate family, a photographer, and an ordained family friend doing the vows) versus the one he would have paid for (she's an only child, imagine Bridezillas). So we get a long weekend on him in a nice suite after our wedding, then an actual honeymoon when the kid is old enough to stay with grandparents.

I fucking won big-time on this. Except for the little germ factory.

[hamilton]

I fucking won big-time on this.

...said the person who is not yet married.

[Brett L]

Well, I mean, I won on the wedding. I know the rest of it is a loss.

[JW]

Yeah, remember that screwing all the time at SXSW? Best to hold onto that memory, or at least don't record over it.

[Ted S.]

I figured her dad literally pointed a shotgun at you or something. 😉

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

That kinda makes it sound like it's her dad's fault. Should be an easy place to redirect blame.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

Have a quickie before the judge to make the baby "legal" then have the big extravaganza a year from now with her (hopefully) post-baby flat tummy.

... Hobbit

[A Serious Man]

Like this is somehow my fault.

It isn't? You sure you want to admit to that?

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Ah. Well...it's not your fault.

[SweatingGin]

This dress

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Like this is somehow my fault.

Unless she clamped her legs down on you so you couldn't pull out (which actually happened to a buddy of mine), you may wish to reconsider that position.

[FreeRoamer]

Odd for my first comment I realize, but as a female and designer, there is a dress style that I've found looks amazing on pregnant women - the original design is a Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent slip dress (http://bit.ly/12TPGbR). It has an empire waist that allows a nice drape over the belly, is very flattering to larger busts, and is incredibly slimming. I personally live in these in the summer, and if you're fiance is a DIY type or you know a good seamstress, the cut and style is easy to replicate and make your own with additional frills, flowers, fabrics, etc.

[Brett L]

Thanks.

[Banjos]

"she'll be 6 months pregnant and "a whale" when she gets married"

I have a perfect wedding cake for you.

[Raston Bot]

Luckily, she's pregnant, so she'll probably forget about it by the time I get home.

BAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA

When really she's had all this time to plot, scheme, and model the conversation and your rebuttal in her head hundreds of times.

[Brett L]

Just popping in to let everyone know I'm still alive. Luckily, she's too hungry to kill anything because it would take too long.

[Kaptious Kristen]

#14 and #17, I covet thee.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Strangest Zimmerman reaction I've seen:

"God ain't good all of the time," Butler declares. "In fact, sometimes, God is not for us. As a black woman in an [sic] nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a white man, and am not capable of taking care of my reproductive rights, or my voting rights, I know that this American god ain't my god."

Why the fuck would you believe in a racist god?

[Episiarch]

Because she's retarded?

[hamilton]

Because it makes it easier to do His bidding while fearing His wrath!

[jesse.in.mb]

Because you identify with the Israelites in Egypt and think God is just purifying you in fire for the time when you eventually take your rightful place in the Sun?

[Pro Libertate]

So she's taking up Satanism, then? Listening to "Stairway to Heaven" backwards?

[Apatheist ?_??]

Her bachelor of arts in marketing is from the University of Houston?Clear Lake.

Oh that explains it, she's a coog. And not even from the main campus. Well I'm glad UPenn took her off of Houston's hands. Bet she is best buddies with Sheila Jackson-Lee.

This is hilarious as well.

its an embarassment to the RS department that this loudmouth idiot with crazy Don King hair is the head chair. Worst Professor ive ever known or heard of. her opinions are poorly substantiated and academically unsound to say the least mostly due to her afrocentric presuppositional bias which makes her narrow-minded.Avoid her at all cost!

[B.P.]

Koch brothers... NRA...

It's as if everyone is reading off of the same script.

[PapayaSF]

The strangest I've seen is from a Facebook friend who's a 60+ white woman, who now claims to be afraid to go outside because she thinks some crazed Zimmerman-inspired vigilante is going to shoot her and get away with it.

[Mad Scientist]

More likely the old lady was already afraid to go outside, but now she has a convenient (if bizarre) excuse.

[PapayaSF]

There really are still lots of people who think Zimmerman was some sort of crazed stalker/murderer. On Facebook, pointing out the evidence that it was self-defense and that Martin's past indicates he probably threw the first punch can get you accused of being in the KKK.

[Michael S. Langston]

I heard somewhere today that a poll in 2009 said 42% of people considered facebook very important to their social world.

It's down to 30%.

Going the way of fark and huffpo and other sites forcibly controlled by group think.

[Episiarch]

Someone that stupid deserves to live their life in (imaginary) fear. Fuck her.

[PapayaSF]

She's otherwise fairly sane, just deranged by politics in this case.

[Heroic Mulatto]

some crazed Zimmerman-inspired vigilante is going to shoot her and get away with it.

Sad thing is. Zimmerman's vigilantism was inspired by cops. Tell Miss Daisy to put that in her pipe and smoke it.

[widget]

The strangest Zimmerman reaction I've seen is from myself. I thought that Zimmerman should have just stayed in his car and he was a fool to get out. But that means whenever I see a black teenager walking around in the rain, with a hoody, at night I should consider myself to be a guest at Florida's Lion Country Safari. Stay in the car at all times! It's racists all the way down.

[PapayaSF]

There is a hint of racism to the "Don't ask him what he's doing here! Stay in the car! Don't provoke him!" position, isn't there?

[Zeb]

Only if you would only react that way to people of certain races. I would have just minded my own damn business.

[widget]

"I would have just minded my own damn business."

Your in the security business I see.

[C. Anacreon]

But of course, if you are in the Neighborhood Watch, you aren't supposed to mind your own business.

[Zeb]

Because you don't fuck with God. If he's racist, or likes to destroy cities because of all the fags fornicating, that's his business and you'd better not question it.

[Juice]

Butler also complains about the Three-Fifths Compromise, which essentially treated slaves as three-fifths of a person

*facepalm*

[Zeb]

It is hilarious how many people react that way to the 3/5ths thing. Because the slaves would somehow better off if the slave owners got more representation in congress.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Given that she's a black woman, you'd figure that looking in the fucking mirror would be a sufficient reminder that she's not a white man.

[A Serious Man]

Without your space helmet Dave, you will find that rather difficult: Italian astronaut forced to abort space walk when water began building up into his helmet.

How weird would it be to have someone drown in space?

[Silver Fox]

Not anywhere as weird as being able to breathe in space.

Batman not withstanding...

[JW]

Britain's National Health Service, prominently celebrated at the Olympic games, keeps killing patients at an embarrassingly high rate.

Somehow, this is all Bush's fault.

[Mad Scientist]

Their stats would be better if they could exclude all those sick people.

[NeonCat]

Exactly, hospices lose patients all the time and no one calls them on it!

[AuH20]

PBS will air reruns of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

HIT IT ROCKAPELLA!

[Ted S.]

The headline says "probably".

I happen to like game shows, but the more hard-core members of the game show fan community can be extremely irritating. I mean Youtube comments-leve bad.

[SIV]

The cute redhead dancer from Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego seems to be suffering from a career slide. I'd still hit it

[The Immaculate Trouser]

From the Department of How the Hell Did That Happen...

Now don't get me wrong. I'm all for monogamous relationships and falling in love and getting married. I've done it myself. But I got married at the ripe old age of 30?long after I'd left college.

And from the Department of Who The Hell Would Take Your Romantic Advice, You Dumb Bint...

One sound option is casual sex[...] Young people should feel free to do what they want with their sex lives, but I think it's the people who are following neo-traditional visions of dating and romance who are operating with bad information and are more likely in need of guidance.

Great idea, Matty. Let's have the federal government encourage young folk who don't know dick about birth control to have sex with strangers -- it's not like single motherhood is a problem or anything. I can't wait to see the utopia that arises...

[AuH20]

If syphilis was good enough for Romantic Era composers, dammit its good enough for the youth of America!

[A Serious Man]

Some hipsters got HPV before it was cool.

[jesse.in.mb]

This is why all youth reproductive organs should be kept in cold storage until after said youths pass a life proficiency test. Then they can have them back.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I don't like that new-fangled "cold storage". Back in my day, we had chastity belts and convents, and we liked 'em!

[jesse.in.mb]

chastity belts and convents

You're into some pervy shit, TiT.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Hey, my corpophilia fetish is between me and my Asian masseuse!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Shit! That was you I saw at the Eden, man?

"Jasmine" is still crying after that night.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

How was I supposed to know that was her favorite goat?!

[fish]

....my corpophilia fetish

It's okay to like corporations of course but try not to make a fetish out of it!

[Anonymous Coward]

neo-traditional

Matt, can you teach me how to oxymoron?

[Episiarch]

Devo can!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I think it's the people who are following neo-traditional visions of dating and romance

What the fuck does this even mean? Yes, Matty, god forbid that Milennials might reject the hedonistic, casual attitudes of their boomer parents and grandparents towards relationships and try to establish something a little more stable and meaningful than a random drunken encounter every weekend.

Considering the prevalence of false rape charges and the current interpretation by feminists that anything approaching intimate contact without a signed legal contract signed in blood is rape, a guy keeping it in his pants and being traditional might be the one thing that keeps his ass out of jail.

[A Serious Man]

Giant Panda at Atlanta zoo gives birth to the first panda twins born in the US in 25 years.

Zoo Atlanta officials say two giant panda cubs are being rotated between their mother and an incubator to ensure the newborn twins are properly fed and getting an equal amount of nurturing.

Lun Lun, a 15-year-old giant panda, gave birth to the cubs Monday. An ultrasound confirmed her pregnancy in June, but officials say they were unaware she was having twins until the second cub was born minutes after the first.

The cubs are the first giant panda twins born in the U.S. since 1987.

Zoo Atlanta's deputy director, Dwight Lawson, says both cubs appear healthy. But officials are taking precautions because of a high infant mortality rate among baby pandas.

Lawson says the cubs won't be named until they are 100 days old, in keeping with a Chinese tradition.

Eats, shoots, and leaves.

[AuH20]

If Pandas care more about eating bamboo than fucking, why should I care if their species survives?

[SIV]

Why do American zoos pay outrageous rents to raise valuable pandas for the Chinese?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Why do American zoos pay outrageous rents to raise valuable pandas for the Chinese?

Seriously? You think the "money" exhibit that draws the kids in is the walrus pool or something?

[Zeb]

I would have thought so. Walrus are a lot more interesting than pandas. What the fuck do pandas do?

[C. Anacreon]

I've seen several in zoos and I've never seen them doing anything but sleeping.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Matt furrows his gently-sloped brow and comes up with a Deep Thought:

Today Goldman Sachs reported net earnings of $1.93 billion in the second quarter. Back on Friday, J.P. Morgan said its earnings soared 31 percent to $6.5 billion and Wells Fargo reported a 19 percent increase in earnings

And good for them. The only thing worse than giant banks posting giant profits is giant banks posting giant losses and provoking a system-wide panic. But this tells you a lot about how seriously you should take the past year and a half's worth of nonstop whining about overweening Dodd-Frank regulations?i.e., not seriously at all.

Ah. So accounting profit = no structural problems in an industry. I'll make sure to remember that when I build my time machine so I can inform Dutch tulip speculators...

[NeonCat]

Ha! You did that already and burst the bubble!

[PapayaSF]

So gigantic businesses aren't always visibly hobbled by regulations? Well then, obviously there's never any downside to regulations!

[Irish]

The argument most people are making against Dodd-Frank is that it hobbles smaller banks and that big banks actually gain more of an advantage.

A big bank posting massive profits is pretty much exactly what you'd expect in such a scenario.

[VG Zaytsev]

But this tells you a lot about how seriously you should take the past year and a half's worth of nonstop whining about overweening Dodd-Frank regulations?i.e., not seriously at all.

Not if your a fascist apologist anyway.

[A Serious Man]

Stevie Wonder to boycott Florida and other states with Stand Your Ground laws.

Yes, he'll be taking his armed bodyguards to states that don't allow the little people to defend themselves.

[tarran]

I wonder if that includes California which allows people to not only to stand their ground, but pursue their attackers.

[Killazontherun]

Really? Way to go California. I have something else besides fermented goods and ex-wives to like you for.

[Pro Libertate]

It's hard to remember, but California used to be filled with rugged, frontier folk. Yeah, I know. So I figure they must have some odd laws on the books, even today.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

Remember The Bhopal Disaster?

Well, forget most of what you were told...

...the standard accounts also omit to mention that the decision to use the hazardous chemical MIC was the Indian government's, not Union Carbide's; that government directives also required the building of larger rather smaller facilities; that the Indian government was also pursuing an affirmative action programme, replacing Union Carbide's foreign experts in engineering and agricultural chemistry with locals; and, finally, that the decision to situate the chemical plant in the middle of a residential community was the Indian government's, not Union Carbide's, exacerbated by a re-zoning policy that included giving thousands of construction loans to encourage Indians to build their homes near the chemical plant...

[Episiarch]

And Union Carbide was absolutely vilified over that too, I remember. Oh statists, is there no government crime you won't cover up?

[Pro Libertate]

No. It's amazing how often this happens, yet the popular perception is exactly the opposite. Protect us, government! Please! Shoot that hooded black kid so we don't have to! Or something like that.

[JW]

That sounds familiar.

[PapayaSF]

Actually, I think I read some of the Bhopal stuff in Reason at the time.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Always bet on black, and never bet on Yglesias writing the stupidest article on Slate...

Anna North at Salon has a crushing critique of the proliferation of trend stories about privileged, urban white women and the very serious concerns floating out there that all this liberation is just too much for them to handle[...]

It's tempting to imagine that men are ignored because of subconscious journalistic prejudice, the belief that men are the "default" and their behavior is static and uninteresting, unlike that of all these liberated ladies with all their awesome and bewildering choices. Regardless of the writer's intentions, however, hiding the men just ends up silencing uncomfortable questions about gender, power, and how free women's choices really are.

So, is freedom too much for women to handle, Amanduh? Because evidently, she thinks that women are too damn stupid or "unfree" to say no to a booty call... or something. A precise writer, she is not.

[Silver Fox]

very serious concerns floating out there that all this liberation is just too much for them to handle

Feminism has gone oroborus and has started swallowing its tail.

Apparently women can be too liberated.

[ant1sthenes]

Modern "feminism" (of the sort found at Jezebel or the grievance studies department) is just male chauvinism gussied up for the consumption of gullible women.*

*When it isn't a sales pitch for socialism focus-grouped for the female demographic.

[fish]

Feminism has gone oroborus and has started swallowing its tail.

You can watch that on xhamster.com if you are interested.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Confirming once again that Marcotte's grasp on reality is tenuous at best...

In theory, domestic homicide should be easy to prevent, since men who kill their wives or girlfriends (85 percent of victims are female) generally give us lots of warning by beating, stalking, and even raping their victims, usually for years before they finally kill. In reality, it's surprisingly hard to stop someone who really wants to murder you, especially if he has easy access to a gun.

Rachel Louise Snyder, writing for the New Yorker, details one solution that's being implemented in Massachusetts. Domestic violence social workers there developed a high-risk assessment team that, using statistical methods and employing the court system in creative ways, has figured out a way to target the men most likely to kill and take special care to make it that much harder for them to do so. Kelly Dunne started the Domestic Violence High Risk Team in 2005, and since then, not a single case she's taken on has ended in murder, and the men who have been sentenced to GPS tracking have not committed any future acts of violence.

I suspect that when Lisa Simpson starts her Tiger-repelling rock business in earnest, she'll have one eager customer in Amanda.

[A Serious Man]

Domestic violence social workers there developed a high-risk assessment team that, using statistical methods and employing the court system in creative ways, has figured out a way to target the men most likely to kill and take special care to make it that much harder for them to do so.

Pre-crime bitches!

[Brett L]

FTA: Dunne also notes that, of the hundred and six high-risk cases documented in the team's most recent report, only eight women were forced to seek refuge in shelters. She estimated that, before the formation of the high-risk team, ninety per cent of similar cases would have resulted in the women's going into shelters..

90% seems impossibly high unless one of their criteria was women who have been to shelters before.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Lovely.

Men who are rated high are then subject to heightened risk monitoring, and their victims are given extra resources to stay safe. If the abusers start acting up, they can have their child visitations terminated or be made to wear GPS trackers. They may even be put in jail or in a psychiatric hospital for violating probation or restraining orders?courtesy of a preventive detention program that was mostly used to prevent gang or drug violence in the past, a program that gives the government leeway to restrain you even if your behavior otherwise falls short of the threshold to charge you with further crimes.

The system works in no small part because it turns the logic of an abusive relationship on its head. ...The high-risk teams shift the burden of being surveilled from the victim to the abuser.

Thank you, Drug War! Yet again.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I wonder how many murders she had before? You know, to compare their effectiveness.

[BigT]

Domestic violence social workers there developed a high-risk assessment team that, using statistical methods and employing the court system in creative ways, has figured out a way to target the men most likely to kill and take special care to make it that much harder for them to do so.

Profiling for me, but not for thee!

[A Serious Man]

Another day, another loss for liberty in America: the city of Lewisville, Texas unanimously amended an ordinance about public nudity into response to complaints about a restaurant that featured topless waitresses in body paint.

The Lewisville City Council voted unanimously Monday night to change a city ordinance, which now says body paint and similar materials do not suitably cover body parts at local businesses.

The change was triggered by complaints to police about the outfits of waitresses at Lewisville's Redneck Heaven. On occasion, the restaurant has ABC days which mean "Anything But Clothes." Some girls wear body paint and pasties instead of bikini tops.

Before the change, the city ordinance said certain body parts need to have opaque covering. In this case, the female servers were wearing body paint.

Police went to investigate the complaints and decided not to cite the restaurant, but the police department still wanted clarification from the council on the wording of the ordinance.

Weep for America.

[Brett L]

FTA: "We're quite shocked to see these young ladies weren't dressed. They had very scant bottoms on and their tops were painted. It's a restaurant that's between two family restaurants," said Catherine Holliday.

OMG! Children! Being exposed to the fact that having young tits is worth good money?!

[Mickey Rat]

This is very upsetting to Joan Eunice Smith.

[Lord at War]

+.5 Heinlein was half brain-dead when he wrote that novel.

("I will Fear No Evil" was probably the first Heinlein I ever read in my life. I think I was twelve in 1976... I might have read some of his "shorts" before this without realizing it was "Heinlein".)

It also didn't stop me from reading everything he wrote.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

You Are Not Trayvon Martin

His death wasn't about race, guns, or your pet issue. It was about misjudgment and overreaction?exactly what we're doing now to the verdict.

[jesse.in.mb]

Has anybody asked you about the intersection of your handle and The Immaculate Trouser's handle yet?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

His Trousers and I were friends back in high school -- used to be almost as immaculate as me, but Archduke got a little too, eh, enthusiastic about the tight fit.

[Mad Scientist]

So, um, you were like a brotherhood of traveling trousers?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Exactly. A studio optioned the rights to our story, but at the last minute they decided that our coming-of-age in the Bronx exploits, while surprisingly tender at the end, were too dark and gritty for general audiences -- so they changed the whole thing in the final draft.

I haven't been so pissed since they changed Starbuck's gender for the BSG reboot.

[Andrew S.]

You will not badmouth Katee Sackhoff in my presence, do you hear me?

[PapayaSF]

Not a bad piece. I posted a comment.

[Andrew S.]

This is far too intelligent and logical to be from Slate. Did they get hacked or something?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Amanda Marcotte, once again providing the kind of insight that makes you wonder if liberals were on to something when they accused Reagan of cutting mental health funding...

Anti-racists, I think, have long understood that the cops are a real threat to young black men who can be randomly treated like criminals on the thinnest of excuses, but the possibility that any random white (or white-appearing, anyway) person can, if you're black, just chase you down and detain you arbitrarily or they now have the legal right to take your life? That's a cold bath of WTF. This tweet captures exactly what is bothering me so much:

I still don't understand what Trayvon was supposed to do.

Evidently going back to his dad's house was not an option.

[Episiarch]

If you keep reading her shit you're going to get stupider. It's unavoidable. Save yourself now.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It's too late for me. Save yourselves...

[Michael S. Langston]

Ditto - as media is consumed and you are what you consume...though it is helpful to know what opponents are thinkingfeeling and how they are thinkingfeeling it.

[widget]

Anti-racists, I think,...

It's the 'I think' that gets me from get go. I took an AP American History class in high school. I did horribly but learned something anyway. The teacher, Ms. White, would pay no attention to anyone in class who started answering a question with 'I think' or 'I believe'. I went through the whole year getting C's, D's and F's by spouting my 15yo opinion on this or that.

Something clicked in mind at the end of the year (a 2 year course) and wrote a paper about yellow journalism's contribution to the Spanish American war. I contributed nothing to scholarship on this subject but I did manage to organize my paper with a thesis, arguments, and conclusions. I got an 'A' on the paper, and probably a mercy 'A' at that. I still have it.

When all hell breaks loose I'll keep the kids, the wife, the gold coins, and that paper.

[Paul.]

Hans Brix, why you keep busting my barrs?!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Wow. That's a fairly good essay and I'm surprised that Slate, of all places, would deign to publish it.

[A Serious Man]

A nice piece of bass.

[Pro Libertate]

That's not a bass. This is a bass.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

I was expecting something more like this

[Coeus]

Dream defenders take over capitol demanding justice for trayvon.

"Together we are united in ensuring Trayvon's unjust death was not for nothing. Our anger in the face of gross injustice has led us to take action but it is the love of our people and our community that pushes us forward. We are here because Trayvon can't be."

[Killazontherun]

Dream Defenders, those DOJ sponsored agitators are trying to start a race riot?

http://www.judicialwatch.org/b.....as-killed/

Separately, in response to a Florida Sunshine Law request to the City of Sanford, Judicial Watch also obtained an audio recording of a "community meeting" held at Second Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Sanford on April 19, 2012. The meeting, which led to the ouster of Sanford's Police Chief Bill Lee, was scheduled after a group of college students calling themselves the "Dream Defenders" barricaded the entrance to the police department demanding Lee be fired. According to the Orlando Sentinel, DOJ employees with the CRS had arranged a 40-mile police escort for the students from Daytona Beach to Sanford.

Presidents have been impeached for less.

[NeonCat]

"But since he didn't do less we'll forget about it. And let's face it, activist presidents are the ones that historians swoon over."

[Paul41]

just before I looked at the check 4 $6952, I didnt believe that my cousin woz really earning money in there spare time on there computar.. there moms best frend haz done this 4 less than ten months and by now paid for the morgage on their cottage and bought themselves a Chevrolet Corvette. this is where I went... http://WWW.CNN13.COM

[A Serious Man]

Oy:

George Zimmerman, neighborhood watchman and wannabe cop, placed a bet on his whiteness; when he shot and killed a young, unarmed black teenager because they always get away, he spoke with an oppressor's voice, and for his service the oppressor's justice absolved him. But Zimmerman, liminal and of questionable loyalty, is not beyond betrayal ? if his victim had been blond and named Travis then Fox News would likely be crowing about immigrant intrusiveness, the dangers of Mexicans with guns, rather than celebrating his right to bear arms. (Zimmerman's mother is from Peru, but somehow the variegated rainbow of Latin identities always seem to collapse into Mexican-ness when under discussion, especially on Fox News.)

The Republican Party parades Marco Rubio not insincerely. The party of white supremacy sees Hispanics as possible constituents not only in a cynical electoral gamble, but because we are, more often than not, Christian and light-skinned enough to pass, just barely qualified to join the extended array of whiteness at its margins. We could never be generals, but they would be happy to have us as their foot soldiers ? and even such limited privilege promises less suffering and scrambling than the alternative, seems less difficult than standing proud and fighting in solidarity.

[A Serious Man]

It is not easy to reject the temptations of white privilege, not for genuine white allies and not for those of us who fit uneasily but usefully into the whole schematic. Regardless of skin color, we are all equally obligated to fight for justice for our oppressed brothers and sisters; this is a human responsibility, and an unconditional one. But those of us on the cusp of whiteness, those of us for whom every racial and ethnic data collection form is a negotiation ? whether deliberating between checking white or Hispanic or any other box, whether on an employment application or at a doctor's office or in the census ? well, we face a particular challenge, blurring carefully constructed categories simply by the fact of our existence. [...]

The outcome of George Zimmerman's trial is that he will go free, pardoned by a white supremacist society for acting like a white supremacist. But such a grant is, in fact, a gilded cage, entrapping Zimmerman in whiteness and a privilege that will never allow him to understand and accept the meaning of his own heritage in today's United States. Should he break the implicit contract he has signed with the lightness of his skin...he will find his privilege revoked, his financial support from strangers cut off, his celebration in conservative corners come to an abrupt end.

[Heroic Mulatto]

But such a grant is, in fact, a gilded cage, entrapping Zimmerman in whiteness and a privilege that will never allow him to understand and accept the meaning of his own heritage in today's United States. Should he break the implicit contract he has signed with the lightness of his skin

Oh! The "Tragic Mulatto" trope! My favorite goddamn thing in the world!

Thanks for looking out for us poor, confused multiracial folk, morbidly obese and homely-looking White lady!

[Killazontherun]

For white Hispanics, our privilege can always be undercut. Zimmerman bet on his whiteness -- and now he's entrapped

Bwahahaha!

What a goofy ass way to go about life worrying about a non-existent problem. I don't identify with a race, I identify with my family, and I'm positive that is more common among the population to do so than those obsessed with cultural and community identity.

[fish]

Thanks for looking out for us poor, confused multiracial folk, morbidly obese and homely-looking White lady!

SILENCE BLASPHEMER....HER PALE SKIN AND LARGER CARRIAGE INSULATES HER FROM YOUR IGNORANT SWARTHY (see you knew I would work that in didn't you) SNARK!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The outcome of George Zimmerman's trial is that he will go free, pardoned by a white supremacist society for acting like a white supremacist

If this gal wants to see real Latino racism against blacks, a quick trip south of the Rio Grande will provide her with plenty of examples.

[VG Zaytsev]

Of East LA

[A Serious Man]

As a fellow "White Hispanic" I have two comments: 1. Who the fuck is the "we" he keeps using in the article? 2. How can someone with such a significant degree of self-loathing function as a normal human being?

Good God I really wish I had not stumbled upon that.

[Episiarch]

Do you really think he's functioning as a normal human being? I'd bet good money he hates his life.

[Heroic Mulatto]

It's a she...and look at the pic I posted upthread.

[Episiarch]

My point still stands...

[fish]

It's a she...and look at the pic I posted upthread.

To be fair (again...there's that word) I'm not seeing much in the way of secondary sexual characteristics.

Just sayin......

(she's no lindy west)

[PapayaSF]

Zimmerman is pretty much as white (or Hispanic) as Obama is white (or black). The knots that progressives tie themselves into over race become clear when you look at how differently they consider those two cases.

[widget]

The Peruvian half of Zimmerman's genes would be hard to unravel.

[Anonymous Coward]

he spoke with an oppressor's voice, and for his service the oppressor's justice absolved him.

Zimmerman is a house nigga! Uh...house beaner? Court Jew?

What the fuck ever, he's a race traitor, or something.

[A Serious Man]

I'm not a violent person at all, but if this guy tried to give me the same lecture to my face--about how I'm selling out to white supremacy for believing Zimmerman was not guilty of murder--I would be tempted to punch him in the face.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah....it's a chick, dude. A white chick, so she knows all about all of that privilege you creepy ass hispanic-black-jew-crackas enjoy.

[Heroic Mulatto]

But..but...he's half-Cuban. You OTHER-ER!

[A Serious Man]

Eh, as Heroic Mulatto pointed out she is a woman, so never mind then. I would probably just tell her to go fuck herself in that case.

[Anonymous Coward]

How dare you not punch a woman as you would a man, you sexist pig!

[Heroic Mulatto]

I believe the proper term would be malinchista, no?

[Andrew S.]

If his "victim" had been white and named Travis, you never would have heard of the case, and even if you had (probably by reading the Orlando Sentinel), you wouldn't care about it at all.

[Coeus]

I know what you're going to be tempted to think, but this is not a parody article.

I couldn't watch the juror who signed (and then lost) a book deal speak on Anderson Cooper last night because I couldn't stomach it (that is privilege). To know that the reason George Zimmerman walks free is directly related to the cowardice of white women leaves me no choice but to acknowledge the failure and violence of people just like me.

[hamilton]

Yes! The author has gotten all the way down to self-hatred - another win for the progressive movement!

[PapayaSF]

So, white women are cowards for not going along with the politically-motivated railroading of an Hispanic guy...?

[Killazontherun]

The left is in a real bind with gun control. They can't even afford to defend the rights of women to protect themselves much less that of George Zimmerman who put himself out there to be a member of a community watch. Their mind set is so deviated from the norm they can't even acknowledge the value of community watch programs and if you are concerned for the safety of your person and effects it is blithely dismissed as vigilantism where you should trust the professionals* to handle it. But they will 'feel sorry for you' for being so fearful of the world around you and thinking you need a gun to protect yourself from it. I saw maybe a dozen or more iterations of that on their boards earlier today.

*I so fucking hate them all now.

[Mad Scientist]

They're statists first and foremost. Neighborhood Watch implies no need for a police force, so that's clearly got to go.

[NeonCat]

If only George Z had referred to himself as a "community organizer" instead of a neighborhood watch leader.

[fish]

Indeed...presidential timber!

[PapayaSF]

That's not quite it. Neighborhood watch is too decentralized and unofficial for them. It's not statist enough. Police are better because they involve unions and politicians, not just random locals who might be racists or something.

[VG Zaytsev]

Their mind set is so deviated from the norm they can't even acknowledge the value of community watch programs and if you are concerned for the safety of your person and effects it is blithely dismissed as vigilantism where you should trust the professionals* to handle it.

It gone mostly unnoted that there are literally hundreds of active case of serious police abuse of minorities (and crakkas) that they should be protesting. Anyone posting here could come up with a dozen in no time at all.

Instead they focus on this non case and lie to make it fit a narrative when there are numerous real examples all about them.

[Anonymous Coward]

I couldn't watch the juror who signed (and then lost) a book deal speak on Anderson Cooper last night because I couldn't stomach it (that is privilege).

A circular argument AND teh wite privilege? A heavyweight arguer.

The collusion of white womanhood and white supremacist patriarchy is clear.

???

Could somebody get this girl the address of Blacks on Blondes so she can get some black dick and get over her issues?

Amazing how she fails to address any of the facts presented to the court and how the prosecution failed to meet its burden of proof. Nope, the jury was sexist and racist, Zimmerman is a racist House Negro/Hispanic/Jew/White and any narrative to the contrary is racist/sexist/patriarchal/othering.

[Episiarch]

Well, the best part of this is that the buzz phrase is now "white supremacist". There literally was nothing to do with white supremacism at all...but now I see that term being constantly used just in the clips people have posted to this thread.

[Coeus]

I had someone call me that in a political argument a few months ago. I predicted here that it would be the new go-to "la-la-la-can't-hear-you" dismissive insult for proggies. Now that they've watered down "racist" so much in the obama years, it's all they've got.

What pisses me off is that it actually means something, and that thing is well defined and offensive. I submit that whenever someone calls you that, just call them "child molester". It makes as much sense.

[Episiarch]

I'll keep my response simpler: "fuck you, scumbag".

[PapayaSF]

The left loves to distort language when it suits their purposes, and make careful distinctions when it doesn't. Refer to the naked pictures of underage girls found on Martin's cell phone as "child porn," and you'll get a lecture about how young teens often have naked pictures of each other and that's not really child porn, even though people go to prison for exactly that.

On the other hand, they'll say that Zimmerman "stalked" Martin and "murdered" him, ignoring the clear definitions of those words.

[VG Zaytsev]

Wildebeast Corey would love to have been able to send Martin to prison for life as a kiddie porn distributor.

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, Zimmerman wasn't in the Klan? Are you sure about that?

[ant1sthenes]

You know, it isn't terribly relevant, but something I've been thinking about with all this stupid shit going on.

The British Empire was the result of white supremacist thought. They confidently believed in their superiority of the cultures they were out to "civilize". It caused a fair bit of shittiness, but in the grand scale of human shittiness, it's not too terrible.

Petty hate crimes and small scale pogroms were the result of white grievance or fear. They truly believed that Jews or witches (or what have you) were fucking them over or going to fuck them, typically in some way they couldn't understand (or that they incorrectly thought they understood). They were substantially shittier from an ethical perspective, but more limited in scope.

It was the combination of the two that led to the Nazis -- the simultaneous belief that you were superior to Jews, blacks, slavs, etc due to the power of your nation, but also that you were being completely fucked by your inferiors and were thus justified in avenging yourself.

So, not that "supremacist" is a good thing, but hate crimes are probably more likely to be driven by grievance/fear (dey turk er jorbs, they're outbreeding us, he was gonna kill me, etc.). But neither is as ugly as when you can convince a lot of people to hold both attitudes at once.

[widget]

"The British Empire was the result of white supremacist thought. They confidently believed in their superiority of the cultures they were out to "civilize". It caused a fair bit of shittiness, but in the grand scale of human shittiness, it's not too terrible."

The Brits brought cash-register honesty to Asians. I worked for Lebanese woman in LA for a couple of years who galsplianed this to me. You can't do business directly with the Chinese Chinese, but you can do business with the Hong Kong Chinese. The latter were trained by the Brits. I can't say I wouldn't bear with a 2 hour layover at Heathrow, but otherwise, I wouldn't set foot in that country now.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Could somebody get this girl the address of Blacks on Blondes so she can get some black dick and get over her issues?

Think she would settle for brown?

[A Serious Man]

You aren't tragic enough and I'm too white.

[Heroic Mulatto]

So what you're saying is "double-team".

All right.

[RBS]

You might want to google her first...

[fish]

Think she would settle for brown?

Taking one for the team HM....if you could only see the snappy salute I'm giving to you on my computer monitor!

[Dunphy (the real one)]

"They're statists first and foremost. Neighborhood Watch implies no need for a police force, so that's clearly got to go"

You'd have to be a pretty ignorant leftist to believe that Neighborhood Watch implies no need for a police force. Neighborhood Watches are encouraged by PD's and often representative from PD's are the ones who help kickstart NW's, help them with "rules of engagement" (observe and report) so to speak, etc. WE (LEO's) attend a lot of community meetings and when people complain of crime problems in their neighborhood, NW is one of the first suggestions we make. Btw, they work. One neighborhood had been getting slammed with burglaries and they did a neighborhood watch in response and ended up REALLY helping us with intel and we eventually caught 2 of the crew doing the burglaries because of the NW.

Something like Guardian Angels would be a lot closer to the no need for a PD thing, since they actually go hands on in fighting crime vs. doing the NW thing and just observing.

I strongly recommend people join their NW and if you don't have one in your neighborhood, form one. It's a great way to help reduce crime and help catch criminals. In speaking to criminals during interrogation, some of them actually take into consideration whether a neighborhood has a NW before deciding to do burgs and prowls there, since they want to choose neighborhoods where the swag is good AND they are less likely to get caught

[Pro Libertate]

When I lived in Chicago, they had some Guardian Angels on the train running through Rogers Park. Kind of weird, though less weird than the transit authority's ninja guards with ninja dogs.

[sticks]

Nancy Grace is the clumsy and ill-considered personification of frightened devotion to the will of the state.

[paranoid android]

Ken White tearing into Nancy Grace? Hold on, I'm gonna need some popcorn for this.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I'm watching a show in Science channel about whether it's possible to hypnotize someone into becoming an assassin. Guess the profession of the only person to pass all the test (including immersion in an ice water bath).

[Pro Libertate]

Puppeteer?

[Kaptious Kristen]

If only...

[Kaptious Kristen]

And he also successfully "killed" his target.

[Michael S. Langston]

I saw that too - not sure yet how much credence I give it... or rather whether it's meaningful outside of their specific test.

I say this because if you wanted to kill target X, you have a limited number of individuals with contact to choose from and they would have to be hypnotized without knowing or under duress, but forgotten.

But the fact they could look and find a person - raises some interesting questions.

Next up - outlawing of hypnosis.

[widget]

Guess the profession of the only person to pass all the test (including immersion in an ice water bath).

[widget]

Oops.

The rules aren't clear to me.

[cavalier973]

Baby faces

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Would it be remiss to note that Mormons don't seem to have this problem (or much of a single motherhood problem at all)?

It boggles the mind, don't it...

[Heroic Mulatto]

Did you mean Afghan?

[ant1sthenes]

That's what you get for letting gangs write laws.

[widget]

I wonder what our cultural marxists will have to say about the bacha bazi.

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

[DJF]

So the US has "nation built" a country so dangerous that the people closest to the US want to flee it?

Who is suppose to run and fight for the new Afghanistan if these ones are running to the US?

[Ted S.]

That's racist/sexist/othering in some way!!!!!!

[Apatheist ?_??]

I mean our rail system is bad but it's not that bad. Or we're you talking about something else?

[Ted S.]

Is it me or does the WaPo not have a link to the single-page version?

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

Has anyone ever played the crayon-rail games from Mayfair Games? I played Eurorails on the weekend and was intrigued.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Listen. Those illegals are taking up valuable train stowaway space that should go to native-born American hobos.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Has anyone ever played the crayon-rail games from Mayfair Games?

That's pretty much all I remember of college.

[hamilton]

We have a number of them; I played Eurorails when it first came out a couple of decades ago - I think it's the best of the lot as far as the maps go. The kids like to play them too, so they are in the small set of board games in my collection that I actually still get to play.

[Ted S.]

They'll say it's not as bad as sugar-freeing your links.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Or at least post the bacha bazi youtube link I reference all the time.