A.M. Links: Eric Holder, Lawmakers Continue to Link Zimmerman Case to Stand Your Ground, Bradley Manning Defense Attorneys Argue "Aiding the Enemy" Charge Meant to Scare Whistleblowers, Most Small Businesses Not Ready for Obamacare

• 

  Runs With Scissors/Foter.com

  Eric Holder called for an end to "Stand Your Ground" laws because they encourage situations like the altercation between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, and the Congressional Black Caucus is preparing legislation that would end Stand Your Ground laws in states that have them, as well as legislation that would provide more training to neighborhood watch volunteers and legislation which would in some unspecified manner curb racial profiling. A commitment to the Constitution would be the easiest, and least likely way for Congress to deal with the problem.  Jimmy Carter, meanwhile, said he agreed with the verdict in the Zimmerman case, noting the prosecutor had "inadvertently" set a high standard for conviction, and that the court settled a legal question, not a moral one.

• Bradley Manning's defense attorneys argued in court that his "aiding the enemy" charge was a slippery slope that would have a chilling effect on future potential whistleblowers.
• More than two-thirds of small businesses in America say they're not ready for Obamacare.
• Liz Cheney announced she's running for Senate in Wyoming. She will challenge incumbent Mike Enzi in the Republican primary next year.
• Vladimir Putin doesn't think US-Russian relations will be damaged if Russia grants Edward Snowden temporary asylum.
• This year's is shaping up to be the bloodiest Ramadan in Iraq since 2007, when U.S. forces were still in the country.
• The UN says the refugee crisis in Syria is the worst since Rwanda's in the 1990s. About 6,000 people are fleeing war-torn Syria every day.
• The Boy Scouts imposed a no fatties rule on their annual Jamboree, requiring both scouts and scout leaders to pass a fitness exam.

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Comments

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Liberals Are Becoming America's Worst 'Helicopter Parents'
...Generally, one might expect liberals who become parents to remain open-minded and flexible. After all, the very notion of liberality is bound up with freedom, while conservatism is ostensibly concerned with keeping things from breaking apart. But as Oppenheimer notes, it's today's liberal parent who has come to fear freedom...

[RBS]

Hahaha, this is not surprising at all.

[a better weapon]

Generally, one might expect

Well that was an extremely revealing introductory statement...

[Metazoan]

This. My parents are quite conservative and have generally been much less overbearing.

[Matrix]

they need to instill self-loathing and intolerance of non-liberal view points in their kids very early and often.

[darius404]

Might it be that the term "liberal" is a misnomer for the people it's applied to? Of course not, how bigoted of me.

[Zeb]

That was my reaction. Those people aren't liberal in any meaningful sense.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Untrue, they're very liberal with OPM.

[DontShootMe]

That's why they are called progressives. Progressing ever onward to a totalitarian state.

[Suellington]

I try not to ever use the word "liberal" to describe these type of people. They are as far from liberal as you get.

[John]

Is it too much to hope that their kids will grow to hate the intolerance and dogma of their parents?

[John]

After all, it wasn't conservatives who shot down Portland's fluoridation efforts for the fourth time, even though water fluoridation helps prevent tooth decay.

Fluorodation, it is a tea party plot to steal our purity of essence. Oh the irony it burns.

Seriously, a bunch of middle and upper middle class white people are arguing for poor kid's teeth to rot out. Middle class kids go to the dentist regularly. So not have flouridated water won't effect them as much. But poor kids whose parents can afford the dentist really benefit from flouridated water. Assholes

[Hyperion]

Not to mention the fact that middle class white folks do not drink water from the faucet.

Although, they do brush their teeth using that water, but most tooth paste already has fluoride.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Not guzzling juice and soda would probably be a better tooth decay preventive measure.

[John]

Sure. But Fluoridation works too. Tooth decay dropped dramatically when they started doing it.

[Raston Bot]

Is there a market for flouridated purple drank?

[DontShootMe]

Beat me to it. Pepsi "F" Now, with Fluoride!

[Zeb]

Huh. Fluoridation used to be a communist plot. When did the tea party take over?

[Emmerson Biggins]

Fluoridation is weird thing. On the one hand, I don't really give a crap that much.

On the other hand, as a matter of principle, I really thing the paranoid types are right. Making medical tradeoff decisions for me and my family and implementing them via the water supply isn't something the government should be doing. Esp, if it's not a for real life or death type decision with a real sense of urgency to it.

And I am a middle class white folk. And I drink out of the faucet all the time.

[Killazontherun]

You probably don't even notice the taste of fluoridated water if you have lived with your entire life, but as someone who has lived on water from the well so pure Sierra Nevada is building a brewery to tap into that very same source, I hate the taste of it when I come to the city and drink from a fountain. Well, hate is a little strong. It's just slightly gross.

I don't doubt the benefits at all like some people, but, this can't be stated nearly enough, but as a reason to fluoridate water, fuck the poor. I've been around them all my lifel, related to many, and have been myself at various times, and there is one non deniable truth, they are America's leisure class. They live at least as well as the lower working class, but have the extra benefit of a bounty of free hours. That created our crime problems after the Great Society kicked in. That created the restlessness that devolves into riots and extreme cognitive dissonant belief systems rife for exploiting the fools. Before TGS, the poor knew how to employ themselves and make valuable use of their time. Those days are long gone.

[ant1sthenes]

Generally, one might expect liberals... to remain open-minded

Don't you have to become something before you can remain it?

[Lord Humungus]

Bang! I accelerate': Quebec mayor forced to apologize for saying how much he enjoys killing kittens with his car
http://news.nationalpost.com/2.....h-his-car/

[a better weapon]

Between this and Vancouver's crack pipe mayor, I'm thinking that Canada's politico class is nearly as interesting as ours

[Gene]

I think you mean Toronto's Rob Ford.
http://www.google.ca/imgres?im.....Q&dur=2272

And yes in general we are retarded politically as anyone.

[Killazontherun]

Who would have thought. All this time I just thought of Canadians as an easy lay, but a boring lay.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Killing kittens is supposed to be a punch line about psychopaths, not something an elected official not only does, but boasts of doing.

[Brett L]

Seems like significant overlap in the population of elected officials and sociopathy, why wouldn't the occasional psychopath slip through?

[Ted S.]

'Bang! I accelerate'

With a heavy French accent, of course.

[Ted S.]

I should have closed my italics tag. 🙁

[fish]

Oh no Ted...italics is how French is represented in text.

Kudos.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Head Of Sasha And Malia Obama's Prestigious School Retires To Become An Organic Vegetable Farmer

[Atanarjuat]

Probably got a tip on a new handout being added to the farm bill.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

+1 subsidy

[Hash Brown]

I assume they mean a farmer who grows organic vegetables and not a ... you know.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"...Sidwell Friends is embroiled in a sex scandal involving a school psychologist that will go to trial next month. The prosecuting attorney has claimed that Sidwell officials were aware of the psychologist's alleged inappropriate behavior."

A well-timed resignation.

[Sevo]

Whew!
'Who, me? Why I'm just a sustainable, green, organic, tree-hugging...'

[fish]

The Head Of Sasha And Malia Obama's Prestigious School Retires To Become An Organic Vegetable Farmer

So a lateral move then?

[Lord Humungus]

Does Capitalism Destroy Culture?
http://www.intercollegiaterevi.....y-culture/

One of the most enduring critiques of capitalism is that it is morally and culturally corrosive. Even if we grant that capitalism is more efficient than planned economies, the question remains: are the economic gains worth the cultural cost? Now if the critique came only from a handful of Marxist academics who long for the good ol' days of the Soviet Union, it might tempting to ignore it. But since the cultural critique comes from political observers at almost every point on the political spectrum, and since the bureaucratic-capitalist economies of the world really are cultures in crisis, the criticism is worth attending to seriously.

and on and on the article goes...

[Auric Demonocles]

American culture is all over the planet thanks to capitalism.

[Zwak]

Yeah, but they hate American culture.

[Rhywun]

And they hate that.

[Rhywun]

Or, wut Zwak said.

[Suellington]

Ha! living in Brazil years ago I used to find it particularly funny when I would alternately hear "The US (never America) has no culture" and "it is horrible all this American culture that we is forced upon us." Especially nice to hear when the person then suggested a meal at McDonald's.

[Gbob]

Bastards. How many millions of people need to die of starvation and tyranny before they give it up? Apparently the number is over a hundred million.

[VG Zaytsev]

One of the most enduring critiques of capitalism is that it is morally and culturally corrosive.

It is definitely true that free markets are corrosive to pre-market cultures. And that is one of their good qualities.

You want to see an example of a pre-market society - look to the south during Jim Crow. Which was all about limiting market interactions, freedom of association, to maintain a rigid social and economic structure.

[VG Zaytsev]

And those rigid structures were not just detrimental to people of color by also to most whites. Limiting freedom of association limited economic activity, leading to slower rates of growth and general poverty relative to the rest of the country.

BTW the socially corrosive nature of capitalism has been a point of opposition from socialists and fascists everywhere for the last two hundred years.

[Suellington]

Yup. They were claiming that New Harmony would fight against that very thing a couple hundred years back. Didn't turn out so well.

[Tak Kak]

That would be a regulated market society.

Prices were still determined via exchanges, businesses not only existed but were in competition with one another, and there was a very elaborate division of labor.

You'd have to go back much further to find a pre-market Society.

[a better weapon]

are the economic gains worth the cultural cost?

Ah yes, just one more subjective, nebulous "measure" to add to the progressive's side of the scale

[NeonCat]

They need to make their thumb as big as possible to get the conclusion they want.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

It's really gonna hurt if they ever have to pull that thumb out.

[Fluffy]

The really contemptible part of this guy's argument is that on the one hand he laments western civilization's "solipsistic individualism", and longs for a time where there was less "illusionary automony" and wants people to be more rooted in their "culture"...

...but then laments the fact that capitalism dissolves the distinction between the individual and what the individual buys.

Guess what, fuckface? Individualism is either solipsistic and bad, or it isn't. All those things that people buy that supposedly dissolve their individuality? They're all part of the material culture. What you wear, what you read, what you listen to, what you eat - in any other non-western context, this asswipe would jizz all over himself about these critical "cultural products".

So in one paragraph he has a sad because capitalism disconnects people from their culture, and a couple of paragraphs later he has a sad because capitalism dissolves people into their culture.

And he's too fucking stupid to see that he does this.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"Cultures" can be awfully oppressive. Honor killings and female genital mutilation are two fun examples.

[Fluffy]

Absolutely.

But this guy is basically saying:

1. Capitalism is not around, and as a result you think that your daughter being killed for dishonoring the family is the right thing to do = good

2. Capitalism is around, and as a result your daughter thinks that makeup makes her pretty = bad

Because honor killings are a "legitimate" cultural product to be subordinated to, but lipstick is not.

[SKR]

well duh. one results in subservience to authority and the other results in questioning authority.

[Suellington]

The Samburu were big into little boy molestation as part of their traditional culture. That has faded fast with the appearance of Westerners in Papua.

[darius404]

Here's another gem from the geniuses at IR. "Breaking News: Christianity and Libertarianism Probably Incompatible":

These new principles [from the Enlightenment] teach man's ability to overcome limits, to progress until there is nothing left to progress toward, to climb the hill of life to the summit of paradise. The previous conception allowed for human free will and action but was always willing to acknowledge limits; it never allowed man to be the sole maker of history. Tell me that the American ethic of "you can do whatever you set your mind to" is capable of acknowledging any limit. You can't.

This denial of limit is not problematic at first. It is, in many ways, a good thing. It has allowed man to do many positive things. The problem is that the denial of practical limit has slowly, but surely, become the denial of metaphysical/moral limit. Now not only can man learn how to fly (may as well throw the Icarus myth out) but he can abort children because that is now a safe possibility; he can allow a doctor to kill his relative because there is no longer any notable value in a life that cannot be lived progressively. Why respect the elderly when they are no longer capable of being efficient breakers of limit and moving civilization closer to perfection?

[Swarley]

He is still proposing controlling others' morality which does not necessarily mean people will be moved to faith in God.

My wife is in seminary and unfortunately the non evangelical protestant denominations are teaching future pastors to pursue social justice and be little Bloombergs. At least she's libertarian. We don't see the point or the benefit of forcing others to follow our religion and the way we interpret religion impacts our lives.

[ant1sthenes]

I would like to grab one of those idiots by their collars and ask them what benefit they think they're doing for the Church by delegating its moral authority and its mission to Caesar. If Caesar cares for the poor and runs the schools and tells us what is right and wrong, what is the point of you?

Why do you think your religion is dying? Not because human beings have less of a religious impulse, but because they have a new God. And you're worshiping that God along with everyone else.

[Stormy Dragon]

I have to agree with this. Isn't Jesus really the Top. Man. to end all Top. Men.?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

And you are being compelled to love your neighbor, right?

[Rights-Minimalist Autocrat]

In the sense that I am being compelled to pay my taxes so I don't go to jail? Yes, unless you belong to a denomination that doesn't believe in Hell.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Jesus compels you to pay taxes?!

The Power of Christ Compels You! The Power of Christ Compels You!

[Emmerson Biggins]

Like any religion worth a crap, you can read what ever you want into it.

So here ya go:

Golden Rule = NAP. Boom.

Next Problem.

[Rights-Minimalist Autocrat]

Yup,

[Brett L]

Elvis, Jesus, Coca-cola, the title and punchline to a Kinky Friedman book. Two out of three ain't bad for capitalism.

[Hyperion]

One of the most enduring critiques of capitalism is that it is morally and culturally corrosive

Yes, but having people sit around idle and dirt poor, completely dependent upon the state, where only the elite ruling class have any wealth, is morally and culturally uplifting.

[Sevo]

'One of the most enduring critiques of PROSPERITY is that it is morally and culturally corrosive.'

Yeah, not being hungry and not spending your days staring at an ox's asshole has its appeal.

[Brett L]

Your ancestors has an ox whose asshole they could stare at?

[Fatty Bolger]

Yeah, do you know how much an ox cost? Damn one percenters, lording it over my filth farming ancestors.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

My shit-kicking ancestors had an ox-asshole to stare at...but no ox.

[General Butt Naked]

Yes, because socialist realism, the culture that was once enforced under the threat of the gulag, is so fucking wonderful and not boring at all.

Anyone ever read any soviet novels? Christ they're fucking boring. They remind me of Rand novels but more wooden, rigid and ideologically driven.

I've read many of these critiques of capitalist culture and how terrible it is, but have never been shown a socialist counterpart that stood up as anything more than state sponsored propaganda.

[Suellington]

They are as uplifting as the architecture.

[sarcasmic]

Outrage over 'sick' Rolling Stone cover accused of glamorizing Boston bomber by making him look like a rock star

The Aug 3 issue of the magazine features Boston bombing suspect Tsarnaev
The magazine's social media sites have been inundated with angry comments from people who claim the cover 'glamorizes' him

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rnaev.html
That magazine is like school at five in the morning. No class.

[RBS]

So it's his family that failed him? And here I thought he made those bombs himself.

[Rich]

"He's just a poor boy from a poor family!"

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Bismallah NO!

[tarran]

Will not let me go?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO!

[Enough About Palin]

Mama mia, Mama mia!

[Calvin Coolidge]

Oh, Ruby, will you ever tire of using that line? Hey, hey, hey!!

I cancelled my free subscription back in 2008, somewhee around the fifth or sixth cover story featuring a beaming Obama, complete with interview full of hard-hitting questions: "How would you begin to erase the stain of decades of anti-goverment sentiment from this nation?"

[sarcasmic]

Oh, Ruby, will you ever tire of using that line? Hey, hey, hey!!

You're the first to recognize the reference.

[a better weapon]

Oh god, please tell me you read the Bob Dylan feature piece last year!

It was a 5 page Q and A, pretty meaty pages too, but 1 and a half of the pages was the interviewer trying to get Bob Dylan to praise Obama or damn the House. Bob tried desperately to stay above the fray until he finally said "What the fuck do you want me to say?!"

It essentially boiled down to an embarrassing back and forth that I'm shocked the editor found fit to print. 1.5 pages of pleeeease say something nice about Obama. Its worth looking up if you get the chance.

[Clich? Bandit]

Found it, page 4, it was cringe inducing. BUT best quote I found was at the end

Do you accept the awards in part for your family, for your posterity?

I accept them for myself and myself only. And I don't think about it any other way, and I don't waste a lot of time over-thinking it. It's an incredible honor.

AWESOME. I think I may have to become a bigger Dylan fan.

[John]

Bob is alright in my book. He has spent 50 years telling hippies and communists who desperately wanted him to help their cause to fuck off. I don't know what his politics are. After 50 years in the music industry and God knows how many records, you can't tell. And that is a very good thing. Whatever Bob is doing, and clearly some of it is making money which is okay too, it is not shilling for some political dogma. And you really have to respect that. Bob is no one's trained seal.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I suspect at Bob's age, he couldn't give less of a shit about modern politics anymore, and he's smart enough to realize when some doe-eyed reporter is trying to artificially boost their own self-esteem.

"Whoa, Bob Dylan told me something so profound about those Evil Rethuglicans--this clearly means we should tax the rich at 99 percent of all their income!"

[Auric Demonocles]

Bradley Manning's defense attorneys argued in court that his "aiding the enemy" charge was a slippery slope that would have a chilling effect on future potential whistleblowers.

I don't think the administration will disagree with that assessment.

[Andrew S.]

Oh, they will. I mean, they know it's the truth, but at least publicly they'll disagree with it.

[Lord Humungus]

British scientists unveil the 'world's first' mobile phone powered by Urine
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....URINE.html

British scientists at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory have developed a way of using urine as a power source to generate electricity and claim to have created the world's first microbial fuel cells (MFC) powered mobile phone.

While many people might turn their noses up at the energy source, the researchers said that it is the 'ultimate waste product' and does not rely on the erratic nature of the wind or the sun.

[Calvin Coolidge]

What if the person you are calling tells you to piss off? Are they asking you to hang up, or to recharge your phone so you can keep talking?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"If you wish to continue this call, micturate at least 2 oz.

[Rich]

+3 oz

"Buddy, can you spare a few drops?"

[DJF]

This is what happens when you have scientists on the payroll and they run out of good ideas, they end up inventing the urine phone

[SugarFree]

I guess we'll have to figure out a way to keep Ke$ha from drinking it all.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Damn you! You beat me to it... Ke$haphone

[a better weapon]

Have we tried having everyone ignore her yet? I bet that would work.

[Clich? Bandit]

Like the evil goddess in that Merlin with Sam Neil? My favorite Merlin ever.

[AuH20]

No one ever talks about that Merlin anymore, probably because it was only a 2 part miniseries and not a full series like the Beeb's recent efforts.

But it was 2 parts of pure fucking awesome.

[Clich? Bandit]

I watch it once a quarter...like filings. It is on netflix.

[Fatty Bolger]

R. Kelly already has one on preorder.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

I believe you can fly!

[BelowTheRim]

Eric Holder called for an end to "Stand Your Ground" laws because they encourage situations like the altercation between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin.

The left isn't even trying anymore.

It's like work when things are slow or you get too many days off in a row. Doing real work like making sense becomes a real bitch

[RBS]

This case pretty much broke whatever part of the Left's collective brain that was still functioning.

[sarcasmic]

Saudi who became Al Qaeda second-in-command after he was freed from Guantanamo Bay is killed by U.S. drone strike in Yemen

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....Yemen.html

This is the fourth time the Saudi-born Al Qaeda official has been reported dead.

Third time's the charm. Oh, wait...

[Eduard van Haalen]

I can't be the first person to observe that being 2nd in command of Al Quaeda is like being drummer for Spinal Tap.

[alittlesense]

Or like General Franco.....he continues to be dead....

[Joe M]

Does anyone want a free copy of The Political Machine 2012? It's a presidential election type game. I have two extra copies on Steam and will give them to the first two people to reply.

[Outlaw]

Yes, plz.

Steam ID: thejackalx

Thanks!

[Joe M]

Great! I'll send it to you tonight when I get home from work.

[Outlaw]

Thanks again.

[SeaCaptain(Yokeltarian)]

Still have an extra copy?

[Joe M]

Yep.

[Lord Humungus]

Police seize pot plants growing outside Hamilton courthouse
http://www.therecord.com/news-.....ourthouse/

Hamilton police seized seven marijuana plants Thursday, planted brazenly outside Unified Family Court downtown.

"I couldn't believe my eyes," says the local woman who first spotted the plants and asked her name not be published because she was attending court at the time.

"I'm chuckling, but I think it's totally disrespectful," she said. "This is family court and kids don't need to be subjected to that."

[Matrix]

subjected to what? A plant that 99 kids out of 100 wouldn't be able to identify?

[RBS]

As opposed to being subjected to the tyranny of the Family Court...

[Hyperion]

subjected to what? A plant that 99 kids cops out of 100 wouldn't be able to identify?

FIFY

[tarran]

This is family court and kids don't need to be subjected to that."

Yes they do. The religious superstitions that underlie the war on (some minority) drug( user)s has no place in a court of law, and should be mocked at every turn.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

The Devil's Weed!

[Calvin Coolidge]

At least the offending plant was seized and, presumably, burned before it could poison the minds of small children who might inadvertently see its "leaves" and "stems" and "seeds".

[Bones]

Yeah, it was burned!

[Clich? Bandit]

how does one "seize" a plant this not in any one person's possession? I mean the plant wasn't running away was it? Are they claiming the court house had possession? While technically "seize" is a word that can be used I think it appears more as sensationalist reporting.

how about: Officers REMOVED some pot plants.

[SKR]

they grabbed them forcefully before removing them.

[Clich? Bandit]

follow up question, did they use a SWAT team?

(i just typo'd SWAT as SSWAT...methinks that is more apropos)

[Andrew S.]

This woman knows what pot looks like? Obviously she must be a grower. Major distributer. She'll be lucky if she avoids a SWAT raid. Hopefully she doesn't have any dogs...

[Hyperion]

Agree. Just knowing what the plant looks like should be a crime. Burn the witch!

[Gbob]

Instead of a citizens arrest they should do citizen' forfeiture and confiscate the courthouse using RICO.

[DJF]

""""Hagel orders 20 percent cut in Pentagon top brass, senior civilians"""

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z4

Don't be too surprised if this does not happened, Gates also tried it and I think he ended up with more top brass then when he started.

[Calvin Coolidge]

I'd recommend he put them up his brasshole.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

This year's is shaping up to be the bloodiest Ramadan in Iraq since 2007, when U.S. forces were still in the country.

Must have been little kids drinking water that set them off...

[Ted S.]

I see H&R disappeared the non-Brickbat version of the "Cool, Clear Water" article.

[Rich]

Damn it! Along with my scathing, witty comments!

[Auric Demonocles]

Orwell was a prophet.

[sarcasmic]

How McDonald's workers CAN'T live on their minimum wages: Fast food giant sets up website to help their employees budget better... and it recommends they get a second job

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

"If you get to be thirty-five and your job still involves wearing a name tag, you've probably made a serious vocational error." - Dennis Miller

*Yes I realize that people in the military wear name tags. Take that up with Dennis, not me.*

[tarran]

Ha!

At every steel mill I worked at, we all wore name tags embroidered in our uniforms - not only to make it easier to figure out who the guy wearing hard hat and face shields was, but I suspect also so that if we got killed it would be easier to ID the body.

And I was making money hand over fist. Sigh

[Zakalwe]

*Yes I realize that people in the military wear name tags. Take that up with Dennis, not me.*

I was doing a final weapon cleaning at the end of basic training while the drill sergeant played some standup comedian's CD. I was laughing pretty hard, then the guy got to his version of this joke and I did a double take. The DS was staring at me and tapping his chest.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

That is fookin' awesome. Fort Benning School for Lost Boys?

[Cdr Lytton]

Harmony Church or Sand Hill?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Harmony Chruch - Summer o' 1985. Just before they tore down all our lovely WWII barracks. So fookin' hot and so hard, I lost 27lbs at Basic alone.

[Cdr Lytton]

I figured you might have gone there, given a retired LTC's service length. I was there about 12 years after. The older sergeants would give us young guys shit about doing basic at Sand Hilton.

I went in fall/winter and man was that ever cold. Started in boiling humidity and ended with trying to position frozen sandbags. Lost 20 pounds there even while consuming every calorie I could get ahold of.

[WTF]

You mean minimum wage low-skilled workers can't support a family, or live as well as someone with experience and job skills?

The hell you say!

Personal life choices - how the fuck do they work?

[DontShootMe]

And 35 is about when I got out. Hmmmmm

[Ted S.]

Meh; I'm OK with not having quite so much deference to the military.

[sarcasmic]

I put that disclaimer in there whenever I post that quote because I receive outrage bordering on death threats when I don't.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

I was always glad of it...I am none to good with names, and appreciated the ability to look at someone and see rank and name.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Hell, the quote says "probably" not "definitely."

[Ted S.]

Oh, I'm used to that. I've told the story here a couple of times of how last Veterans' Day on another board I commented about my father's being a victim of the peacetime draft, and his service at White Sands keeping the Ernst Stavro Blofelds of the world from getting our missiles. You wouldn't believe how many bootlickers got pissed at me for "disrespecting" our military.

[sarcasmic]

It is a tenant of the Conservative faith to never ever under any circumstances say anything remotely disparaging about anyone in the military. They are to be worshiped for keeping us safe from those terrorists in Afghanistan who would be setting off IEDs in every single town in the United States if our troops weren't occupying their country.

[John]

It is a tenant of the Conservative faith to never ever under any circumstances say anything remotely disparaging about anyone in the military.

That is only among Conservatives who have never served in the military. Anyone who has ever actually served, be they liberal or conservative, has no problems disparaging the military, even if at heart they love it.

Basically, the phenomena you are talking about is a produce of guilt. Rich well educated conservative pundits who were too good to join when they are young feel a lot of guilt later in life for not doing so.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

They serve, who also sit and deter Blofeld!

God, I hate the idea much less the practice of a "draft".

[Rasilio]

"*Yes I realize that people in the military wear name tags. Take that up with Dennis, not me.*"

Eh, raise it to 40 and there's nothing wrong with the statement since your average career military enlists at 18 he should be retired and working as a civilian GS contractor by 40

[robc]

"If you get to be thirty-five and your job still involves wearing a name tag, you've probably made a serious vocational error." - Dennis Miller

*Yes I realize that people in the military wear name tags. Take that up with Dennis, not me.*

I fail to see the contradiction.

The military is a good job for 18 year olds.

[some guy]

If you get to be thirty five and your job still involves only unskilled labor, you probably made a serious vocational error.

[Hopfiend]

Beware of all ventures that require new clothes.

[Rhywun]

*Yes I realize that people in the military wear name tags. Take that up with Dennis, not me.*

Yes but that is a "calling", not a job. Like being a priest, or a politician. Or a journalist.

[Lord Humungus]

GLOBAL WARMING alert.

Central Park magically becomes cooler in July in the Dust Bowl years
http://wattsupwiththat.com/201.....owl-years/

As is clearly evident, adjustments made the dust bowl period cooler, while post 1995 had no adjustments applied. This results in a temperature trend that is steeper because the past is cooler than the present. The only problem is that it isn't what the data actually recorded then.

I think maybe we need to coin a new term for NOAA NCDC ? 'dust bowl deniers'. Yes it appears there is man made warming underway but the men are in Asheville, North Carolina at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.

lots of pretty charts in the link.

[Metazoan]

Given how hot it is here, when I read "Central Park magically becomes cooler" I almost ran to Central Park...

[Rhywun]

Yeah I saw the map and fucking DC down to Florida are colder than NYC for the last week. I am fed up with this shit.

[sarcasmic]

John pron!

[WTF]

They use that word "voluptuous". I do not think it means what they think it means.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Yeah, beat me to it WTF. I clicked on that thinking "I like voluptuous women" barf.

That's like women on dating sites describing themselves as "a few eztra pounds" when they're 400lbs. That's not a few extra pounds, thats a few extra people...

[Spoonman.]

That made me laugh out loud.

[DontShootMe]

ditto.

[Hopfiend]

what you are about to see....cannot be unseen.

[AlexInCT]

I wish i could unsee this... I am scarred now...

[SugarFree]

And the slow degradation of the word "voluptuous" is complete.

She not voluptuous or zaftig or rubenesque. She's fat. Fucking feminists.

[RBS]

All the right curves in all the wrong places.

[SugarFree]

Everyone hates on BMI, so I have an objective test. Take a look at the photos. If you open your knees as wide as your shoulders and someone opposite you still cannot see any part of your nethers, you are fat.

[Rich]

If you open your knees as wide as your shoulders and ... you still cannot see any part of your nethers, you are fat.

[SugarFree]

It you have to use any sort of implement to wipe your ass, you are fat.*

(Given you have a hand, ableism, blah, blah)

[Dagny T.]

That struck me as physiologically improbable too. What dark terror did that poor beleaguered bikini bottom contain?

[SugarFree]

Tentacles. Thousands. Writhing. So much writhing.

[sarcasmic]

We've found the Giant Squid!

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Do NOT release that Kraken!!

[Ted S.]

Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

GAH!!! Why did I click that?!

[Rich]

Probably some internet-hormone gene.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

+1 genetically predisposed, it is not your fault!

[sarcasmic]

Ha ha! Now you can't unsee it! Ha ha!

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

I have been....harmed.

[Hopfiend]

Not. Taking. The. Bait.

[AlexInCT]

You owe me new eyes.. I gauged mine out after looking at that.

[Atanarjuat]

Roads

[Hash Brown]

+ 1 Royale with Cheese

[Mike M.]

Housing Starts in U.S. Unexpectedly Fall to Lowest in a Year.

"Work began on 836,000 houses at an annualized rate last month, the least since August 2012 and down 9.9 percent from a revised 928,000 pace in May, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The reading was weaker than projected by any economist in a Bloomberg survey, and permits for future projects also declined."

[Palin's Buttplug]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) ? A gauge of home-builder confidence in July hit the highest level in more than seven years, according to data released Tuesday that showed the interest-rate spike has yet to dampen industry confidence.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing-market index rose in July for the third consecutive month, reaching 57 in July ? the highest level since January 2006 ? from 51 in June. The sentiment gauge is up 63% from a year ago.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

"Confidence" trumps reality. Good to know.

[Spoonman.]

He's Baghdad Bob.

[Jeff]

He's Buttplug Bob.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

NEW NAME!

[WTF]

I'm on board.

[Enough About Palin]

ABSOLUTELY!

[Hopfiend]

"Butt Plug Bob" a name you can get behind!

[DontShootMe]

"Butt Plug Boob?" Just a thought.

[Andrew S.]

When Obama was elected in '08, I remarked that I was waiting for the economy to recover (as it would naturally) and for the left to take credit for it happening. Especially since (a) this isn't really a recovery, and (b) the administration's economic policies have delayed any real recovery by years.

[Citizen Nothing]

It's quite remarkable that the economy isn't better than it is by now, no matter who is in charge. They must be working really hard in the W.H. to keep it down this long.

[Spoonman.]

TINKERBELL NEEDS YOU TO CLAP HARDER

[Rich]

Unexpectedly

So-called "experts" fuck up again.

[WTF]

Odd though, how they always fuck up in the same direction.

[Hash Brown]

More than two-thirds of small businesses in America say they're not ready for Obamacare.

And three-thirds of crony capitalists say that that's just the way they want it.

[Whahappan?]

Or, alternatively, one-third of small businesses have fewer than 50 employees.

[Rich]

Suicide attacks, car bombings and other violence have killed more than 160 Iraqis just seven days into the Islamic holy month.

I believe your link contains a typo, Ed.

Apparently this should read "Islamic *holey* month".

[a better weapon]

So is that above or below average for the rest of the year? I'm not sure how to feel about this without that information.

[Rich]

Well, that's just in *Chicago*.

[Lord Humungus]

I've had days like this:

2 charged with assaulting Mass. lifeguard
http://www.boston.com/news/loc.....story.html

Two people have been charged with assaulting a Salisbury Beach lifeguard, including a man police say asked the lifeguard to stop blowing his whistle because it was aggravating his hangover.

[Hash Brown]

What kind of a nut goes to a beach in the daytime when he has a hangover?

[tarran]

A fellow citizen of my state..... 😉

[Drake]

The paty was a wicked pissa.

[tarran]

It's not 'paty', it's 'paehtee'

[Calvin Coolidge]

Maybe he spent the night there and didn't want to be awakened?

[RBS]

Hair of the dog?

[SIV]

Every nut who drinks on vacation.

[Rich]

To be fair, he probably woke up on the beach.

[sarcasmic]

Vladimir Putin oversees largest display of Russia's military might since Cold War, using 160,000 troops, 5,000 tanks, and dozens of ships to send message of strength to the world

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....world.html
He's like a real life Bond villain.

[Slammer]

It's actually 4000 troops, 500 tanks, and a couple of ships. He's just sending them around the block over and over.

[tarran]

I see he read his Patton!

[Rasilio]

Wouldn't be the first time they did that.

I read an analysis of traffic flow into and out of Moscow back in the 60's that basically proved that Moscow's official population count was inflated by at least 25% because even of every train car and truck going into the city was fully loaded with food they could not be bringing in enough to feed that population.

[tarran]

Heinlein wrote something similar after his trip to Russia. IIRC Mrs. Heinlein had beein a WAVE who specialized in analyzing recon photos, and she thought they were padding the figures by 33% based on the rail capacity she observed.

[Brett L]

Virginia Heinlein deserves her own biographhy. She was one smart chick. Almost certainly smarter than Bob.

[Steve G]

Tanks? what are those??

[Zakalwe]

The UN says the refugee crisis in Syria is the worst since Rwanda's in the 1990s. About 6,000 people are fleeing war-torn Syria every day.

The Sudanese aren't sure if they should have tried harder or kept better records during the Darfur incident.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

The Sudanese died in greater numbers, thus alleviating the refugee problem!

[Lord Humungus]

Is Stand Your Ground Racist?

Lately, this chart from PBS has been making the rounds. It breaks down interracial justifiable-homicide data in states with and without Stand Your Ground laws:

(chart in link)

PBS itself was careful in presenting the data, noting that these patterns don't in themselves prove bias, and that the black-on-white data was based on just 25 cases in total. But others have treated them as a smoking gun that the American criminal-justice system is racist. In general, states are more likely to find white-on-black killings to be justifiable, and this tendency is exacerbated when a Stand Your Ground law is in effect.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Couldn't this be explained by the fact that 1. a higher % of minorities are the offender in these types of encounters and 2. a lower % of minorities own firearms, due probably in part to regulatory burdens on firearm purchase/ownership and the push for gun control within much black leadership?

[Robert]

It's like the Congressional Black Caucus is saying they want blacks to be able to take free shots at whites.

[Lord Humungus]

Fatties just can't help themselves:

Fat-boosting gene mystery 'solved'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23312712

A version of an obesity gene, called FTO, had been linked to a bigger belly, but the reason why was uncertain.

A study, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, showed it made fatty foods more tempting and altered levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin.

Obesity experts said drugs targeting ghrelin might reduce weight gain.

[WTF]

You know what else reduces weight gain?
Eat less; exercise more.

[Robert]

True, but the question is what makes people want to eat more. It's like saying, to avoid dehydration, drink more; but what makes people know how much to drink?

[a better weapon]

http://dailycaller.com/2013/07.....nate-rate/

Analysis shows Stand Your Ground laws in Florida benefit African-Americans who find their use of force justified at a higher rate than whites.

Here's the WTF part though... they include the Zimmerman case under the SYG law!

[darius404]

If you compare the white on nonwhite ratio to the black on nonblack ratio, it comes out as 58.8% justified for white on non-white shootings, and 54.5% justified for black on non-black shootings. That's not a big difference.

I'm not sure how reliable this is though, since they include the Zimmerman case. How many more non-SGY cases are skewing these numbers?

[Rich]

"It's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods," [said Holder.]

I thought the doctrine of preemptive strikes was a matter for the *Defense* Department.

[Slammer]

Well done, Rich

[Lord Humungus]

so yesterday I get an email from a good audiophile/record geek friend of mine. He's very liberal and voted for Obama both times. This was out of the blue, since we were discussing record stores and the rising price of vinyl.

Anyway -

... I blame Obama... (I couldn't resist saying that! Although in reality I HAVE been bitterly disappointed by Obama; IMHO he's about the same as Bush, really)

[Andrew S.]

And yet I'd bet a month's pay that if there was a Presidential election tomorrow, he'd vote for Obama again.

[Lord Humungus]

Probably... but we've had discussions about the drug war (he's very pro pot) and agrees that Obama is really messing that up. But I'm sure that's not enough for him to leave the safe confines of the Democrat party.

[WTF]

Well, he only had to vote for Obama last time because Romney was such an extremist monster.

[Old Man With Candy]

Coincidentally... a Dutch fellow I know from several audiophile tube designer conferences used to argue with me that Obama was going to be exactly what it would take to "civilize" the US and that we'd be thanking the various gods for sending him to us. He just couldn't wrap his head around the idea that there was no fucking difference between Obama and Bush. A bad case of the Europe Syndrome.

Got an email from him last week. "I hate to admit this, but you were absolutely right."

[Citizen Nothing]

...fellow I know from several audiophile tube designer conferences...

This is why nobody takes audiophile libertarians seriously.

[Metazoan]

Got an email from him last week. "I hate to admit this, but you were absolutely right."

Well, that's very respectable. It's not often that people admit they were wrong, especially when it comes to The One.

[The Late P Brooks]

the Congressional Black Caucus is preparing legislation that would end Stand Your Ground laws in states that have them

WTF? Exactly how do they propose to achieve this? Will they dissolve all the state legislatures and impose martial law?

[WTF]

*Hand wave* *abracadabra*
COMMERCE CLAUSE!

[Citizen Nothing]

How?
Fuck you. That's how.

[Pro Libertate]

No, that would be unconstitutional. What they can do legally is tax states that enact or have enacted SYG laws. $10 million/conviction, let's say.

[Citizen Nothing]

As I said...

[Pro Libertate]

No, no, no, the Supreme Court has made it clear that the tax power is unlimited. So, for instance, it's totally legally for the government to tax you for negative statements about the president. Your free speech rights remain intact, since it's merely a tax, not a penalty, criminal or civil.

[Brett L]

Please, please, FSM, wave your noodly appendage and let them open that Pandora's box. "Sure, abortion is a state issue, but the Federal tax on abortions is $1M a shot." "Gay marriage, no problem. $10000 a year penaltax."

[Spoonman.]

How in the hell does the CBC expect to change states' definitions of murder? SYG is incompatible with a "republican form of government"?

[tarran]

Based strictly on my observations, I think most of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are below the median congressman as far as knowledge of legal principles or public choice theory.

[RBS]

They're also pretty far up there as far a corruption goes.

[SugarFree]

Oh, Amanda... stick with bitching about teh horribl menz. You quickly get out of your depth in even the shallowest of other pools.

[Tim]

I'm never brave enough to click on your links. Sure, it sounds routine but I've read too much of your sick, perverted humor to trust you.

[SugarFree]

Don't be a coward, Tim. It's unbecoming of a bemonocled young monster such as yourself.

[Fluffy]

If she was remotely informed about how the different funding streams available to public school districts work, she could have saved herself the time required to write this article.

I guarantee you - absolutely guarantee - that the iPad funding comes from a state, federal or private source, in the form of a dedicated grant. They can't just take the iPad money and use it for busses. Maybe in Prince George's County that's what they'd do, but eventually somebody would end up in the pokey.

[ChrisO]

the slash-and-burn austerity era

Ahh, that explains it. Marcotte lives in a parallel reality from ours.

[SugarFree]

Let us close that rift.

[AuH20]

Today we are cancelling the derp-pocalypse!

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

hey did she scrub the story or what? I don't see anything in there about iPads.

[SugarFree]

Especially since the same school district that can't afford to get every kid to class still somehow has money to pay for iPads for the students that are able to find a ride.

[Rich]

Blacks benefit from Florida 'Stand Your Ground' law at disproportionate rate

Hah! Suck on *that*, Stevie Wonder!

[DJF]

But the other person involved in almost certainly black since most black victims have black perpetrators so blacks are the victims of the law.

[Rich]

Whoa. Impeccable logic. Sorry, Stevie.

[darius404]

I'll repeat my above comment:

"If you compare the white on nonwhite ratio to the black on nonblack ratio, it comes out as 58.8% justified for white on non-white shootings, and 54.5% justified for black on non-black shootings. That's not a big difference.

I'm not sure how reliable this is though, since they include the Zimmerman case. How many more non-SGY cases are skewing these numbers?"

I'll also add to this that hispanic on non-hispanic rate is similar: 57.1% justified. I should note that I excluded Zimmerman, since his case is improperly included in the database. With him (improperly) included the rate shoots up to 62.5%, which would (incorrectly) show hispanics as benefiting the most from the law.

[Fatty Bolger]

Eric Holder called for an end to "Stand Your Ground" laws because they encourage situations like the altercation between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin

Yep, that's what they announced on the radio this morning, followed with a comment that the Zimmerman jurors felt they had to vote not guilty because of how the law was written - implying that it was due to SYG that he got off.

And the disinformation campaign marches on.

[Andrew S.]

You know what's going to be fun?

In a few years, after the left gets done changing laws as a result of the Zimmerman trial, and those new laws end up sending more young black men to jail (as they likely will), we'll get to hear about how racist those laws are and how we have to change them.

[Fatty Bolger]

Eduard gave us the headlines already:

Eduard van Haalen| 7.16.13 @ 2:06PM |#|?|filternamelinkcustom

Think of the headlines in five years:

"James Jones, a black man in Florida, was in a bar minding his own business when a white man tried to stab him. Jones took his gun and shot the white man dead. Even though Jones was defending himself from a deadly attack, prosecutors have charged him with murder under Florida's infamous "Duty to Retreat" law.

"NAACP President Ben Jealous says that the duty-to-retreat laws, requiring people like Jones to flee the scene rather than fight back, are a legacy of racism. 'The black man isn't expected to fight when attacked by a white man,' said Jealous, 'the black man is expected to run away like a punk.'

"Demonstrators have protested the charging of Jones, marching through the streets with signs reading 'We don't have to run away,' and 'It's the racists who should be retreating, not us.'

"Jealous has called for a boycott against 'those tea Party fanatics' who supported the "duty to retreat" law in Florida and other states.

"President Michael Moore says his Justice Department is reviewing the case to see if there's a way to dig up the white guy and put him on trial."

[Mike M.]

Notorious far right wing racist cracker Jimmy Carter says that the jury made the right decision. He truly is history's greatest monster.

[Andrew S.]

Jimmy Carter says something that makes sense and Slate publishes a well reasoned rational article about the case. I'm now terrified of a coming apocalypse.

[Ted S.]

He had to stand his ground against rabbits.

[Fatty Bolger]

And his sister-in-law's cat.

[SIV]

Young Jimmy Carter had to stand his ground against his sister Gloria.

Her brother Jimmy shot her with a BB gun after she threw a wrench at him when they were children.

[NeonCat]

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge questions about lust in your heart."

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

+1 swimming killer bunny

[Rasilio]

Well yeah but they were magic rabbits that walked on water

[SugarFree]

You Should Always Sit at the Bar When You're on a Date.

The greatness of this seating arrangement cannot be overstated: The two of you are looking at something besides each other, which can provide conversational fodder. ("That bartender sure has moves." "Did you ever see the movie Cocktail?" "Ugh, what happened to Tom Cruise? He had so much promise!" And so on.) You are more likely to get away with having something stuck in your teeth, or quietly spilling water on yourself, or dropping your silverware, in the forgiving ambit of his peripheral vision. The side-by-side posture is both equalizing and intimate?and if he's a dud, you might be able to catch a glimpse of the game while pretending to "get to know him." (Or he might do the same to you, in which case, eating at the bar is bullshit.) But the best part of perching with your date at the bar is that it allows you to circumvent the gender seating wars.

Katy Waldman's next article will be about how hard it is to get a guy to call her back for a second date...

[RBS]

Gender seating wars? I know I've been out of the game for awhile but WTF?

[SugarFree]

Read it. It's incoherent. I have literally never heard of always seating a woman with her back against the wall. I usually sit back there because no happen how long we are there, I'm never going to have to go to the bathroom.

[robc]

I thought the rule was that whoever was most likely to be assassinated sat with their back to the wall.

Its just common sense.

[darius404]

Yeah, and if you're trying to GET someone assassinated, try and get them seated as close to the windows or restroom as possible, preferably in a restrictive booth to keep them from escaping easily.

[RBS]

Wow.

[Rich]

I usually sit back there because no happen how long we are there, I'm never going to have to go to the bathroom.

Yet another reason to sit at a table. 😉

[Lord Humungus]

I always sit with my back to the wall - it's the gunfighter rule.

[Seriously?]

It's the perv rule too -- provides the widest gaze.

[Lord Humungus]

*ahem* glaze.

[Rasilio]

I thought women objected to baby being put in a corner?

[WTF]

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"

[Dagny T.]

I just wanted to point out the SF'd beauty of "no happen." I want to find more uses for that.

[SugarFree]

"Damn girl, you gonna call me this weekend?"

"No happen."

[Floridian]

I always sit to the outside with the wife on the inside. Same thing when walking near traffic. I walk on the side with the cars and her away from the cars. The male should be in the closest proximity to danger. At least that is how I was raised.

[WTF]

But if your back is to the room, you won't see the danger in time to be able to effectively react to it.

[Floridian]

I mean when in a booth. When at a table I sit facing the door.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"Gender seating wars?"

I believe that comes on sometime between Storage Wars and Parking Wars.

[Spoonman.]

Goddamn I love being married.

[RBS]

Yeah, dating is apparently incredibly complicated these days.

[Clich? Bandit]

you should off shore your dating then. this is strictly an American Woman phenomenon.

[Clich? Bandit]

Kravitz, a visionary.

[SugarFree]

Seriously. Can you imagine being a young guy today. I usually hate the "back in my day / everything is worse now" arguments, but dating in a city must be like being forced to breakdance in a minefield.

[John]

I don't think women writing on the internet are representative of all single women. But they are representative of a certain portion of single women. And these women prove my theory that you should never date a woman over 35 who has never been married. Divorced ones can be okay. But if a woman is attractive and has never been married by 35, she is either a princess who thinks no one is good enough for her or she is nuts or both. The normal ones who are attractive and don't think the women you read on the internet almost always get married before 35.

[AlexInCT]

"And these women prove my theory that you should never date a woman over 35 who has never been married. Divorced ones can be okay."

Very liberal there with the word "can", John. My experience is that they are all fucking bat shit crazy.

When they start telling you they could see themselves married to you during the activities following your first or second date, you got to take off running.

[tarran]

It's worse when you are a single dad.... trust me.

The PYT's of course aren't interested, so we can safely ignore them.

*MY* dating pool are women in their late 30's who
1) Were married and the marriage failed:
a) and it was their personality that contributed
b) it wasn't their fault

2) Never were married because they
a) have serious emotional problems that drive every man they know away
b) are a sexual/lesbian and haven't realized it yet
c) are really really unattractive
d) are really really boring

The ones who haven't had kids yet but want them are desperate to move forward quickly and my kids are clearly in the way of that

The ones who haven't had kids yet and don't want them are discomfited by me having them

The ones who have had kids generally lost their husband/father because they're messed up.

It's like mining for gold in a cesspool.

[Citizen Nothing]

One word: Widow. Of course, that could indicate a whole 'nuther set of problems you'd be facing.

[tarran]

As I said, there is gold in the cesspool, but you have to find it.

[NoVAHockey]

you've described my wife's single friends. we're in the 34-36 age range for the most part. the super crazy one is about 40. her expectations were so unrealistic with stopped being funny and was just so sad to be around. She lost it when my wife told her she was pregnant. that was about 5 years ago . have not seen/heard from her since.

[Auric Demonocles]

Did you forget my series of posts a couple months back? Dating in a city is really easy. Don't be an idiot, vaguely have your life together and you are good to go.

And I'm an ugly gingerish guy too.

[tarran]

Yeah, but how old are you?

I'm in my mid 40's.

[Auric Demonocles]

I was responding to SugarFree's "Can you imagine being a young guy today".

[SugarFree]

It's because I'm too set in my ways. You grew up in a minefield. You know all the suspicious mounds to avoid.

DOUBLE ENTENDRE'D!

[Clich? Bandit]

you never cease to amaze.

[Clich? Bandit]

and how come you don't think the "naughty librarian" thing would work?

[SugarFree]

I'd do OK if I was that age, but dating girls that age at my age? [shudder] My only option would be to date a woman my own age or at least close, and that sounds apocalyptically dreadful. Divorced, widowed, crazy or I manage to find the female equivalent of a unicorn. Ugh. I'll end up old, bitter and alone, eating a handful of pills then rubberbanding a plastic bag over my face.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

I'll end up old, bitter and alone, eating a handful of pills then rubberbanding a plastic bag over my face.

Why do you think single women end up crazy?

[SugarFree]

Why do you think single women end up crazy?

If only I could find the kind of crazy I could be compatible with.

I think all the pity I would get if my wife died or divorced me would be the part I couldn't handle. I'd wrap up our financial affairs and then disappear. Maybe move to the desert. Be that sort of crazy for a while.

[Auric Demonocles]

You merely adopted the minefield. I born in it, molded by it.

[Spoonman.]

I am 24, but conveniently my wife picked me out in college.

Felt the baby kick for the first time last night.

[tarran]

Congrats, man.

It's going to be a hard road, at times one which seems really, really awful, but it's also going to pass through some really beautiful places.

This morning my son asked me "so what is anarcho-syndicalism anyway!" 😀

[Rich]

Just gotta ask -- How old is your son?

Also, best wishes to the growing Spoonman family!

[tarran]

He's 12... a precocious 12. He's at that age where their body odor acts as a natural form of birth control, and they veer between acting like adults and fourth graders.

[SugarFree]

and they veer between acting like adults and fourth graders

I'm 42.

[Brett L]

Awesome! The gf has an anterior placenta, so every day at least once she bitches about not feeling the baby kick.

[Mokers]

Gender seating wars?

[NoVAHockey]

circumvent the gender seating wars.

the what now?

[Ted S.]

Don't we have a commenter who likes Nordic death metal?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Warty, IIRC?

[Aloysious]

There's a couple of us. Not clicking that link. I smell a bait-and-switch.

[some guy]

American is racist at its core.

I don't even need to post quotes. Just read it... if you dare.

[John]

There is a book to be written about the projection and complete lack of self awareness of people like the writer. Everything he says in that article only makes sense if you assume with absolute certainty that it was Zimmerman who attack Martin and there is no realistic possibility that Zimmerman is telling the truth.

And after assuming that, he spends column inch after column inch accusing America of being racist because it automatically assumes the worst about black males. I guess part of thinking tribally is not knowing you are and projecting your thinking on everyone else.

[Ted S.]

I think we already knew American (and all his sock puppet aliases) is racist.

[some guy]

I meant America...

edit button

Blah blah blah

[a better weapon]

Comments to it aren't bad though.

Even if you accept the author's characterization of the injustice of the verdict, his premise that "America is racist to its core" apparently rests on two verdicts 21 years apart. You would've think such a rotten society would emit a continual stink.

[John]

You would think so.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

I was having a talk with my BF last night about the aftermath of the Zimmerman verdict, because he had finally gotten a chance to read some of the pants-wetting in the news about it. He and I are both 100% on the same page on the trial: no one knows what happened that night, George Zimmerman is probably going to feel really shitty for the rest of his life, and there is no way in hell the prosecution met the burden of proof--and none of this has to do with racism.

He said to me, as we were talking about that last, "Let's be real--aren't we all, all of us, just afraid of young men?" A point which the feminists we so often decry would definitely agree with, though I'm not talking in the "all men are rapists" sense. Just in the sense of, if I'm walking down the street and there's no one on the block but a group of 3-6 15- to 25-year-old guys, I'm going to be wary. Not because they will rape me, or because of their race (which could be anything), but because they are bigger and stronger than me and young men can get a bit wild and violent at times.
(cont'd)

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

And I said yeah, you know, I have spent a lot of time around people I was afraid of. Friends, family members, friends of family--I have been truly afraid for my life around my own brother, who is just such one violent, volatile young man. The bf has a nicer family than mine, so his experience didn't rise to that level, but I've just been thinking...do the folks who think this was all no big deal, that you don't have to worry about head trauma or violence from unarmed people--have they not had experience with this? Have they really not been afraid of people who were bigger and stronger than them and looked like they might decide to use that size and strength against them?

[Auric Demonocles]

I have yet to have that fear, but I am also in the 15-25 year old guy demo you are talking about.

[John]

They don't think Nikki or they have lived such sheltered lives they have no idea what real violence looks like. It is a traumatic experience to say the least to be the victim of violence. It is one of the worst most degrading and humiliating and mentally damaging things that can happen to you is getting beat up.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Yeah, it's just so hard for me to accept the "sheltered" explanation because, as NEM points out below, too many of these people are willing to admit the fear when it comes to more domestic violence type situations.

[John]

They admit fear but they don't feel it or understand it. I would bet no women who has ever actually been beaten up by someone is saying those things. The people who are have never experienced it. They only talk about the fear of women who are abused because that fits their life narrative not because they understand it or empathize with it in any meaningful way. Basically, it is just a talking point for them.

[Loki]

EVERYTHING is just a talking point to them. Progs are some of the least empathetic people I've ever met. Sure, they claim to "care" but they really don't. Or even if they do on some level "care" about the less fortunate, a lot of them have never had to survive on instant Ramen Noodles and a glass of tap water because they couldn't afford real food.

Many of them hardly ever left their gated suburban neighborhoods until after they turned 18, and then mommy and daddy paid for their college tuition and living expenses for 4 years while they pursued their BA in Business or Communications with a minor in Aggrieved Class Studies that was really more of a double major (guess which one their bourgeois parents pushed them into). IOW, they've never had to walk in the shoes of those less fortunate people they claim to care so much about, and sure as fuck can't empathize with them.

[John]

Look at someone like Marcotte. She grew up in a nice family in West Texas, went to a private Catholic rich kid party school and then moved to New York no doubt getting a nice check from mommy and daddy to help her get started. She hasn't even ever been fat or really homely. Her whole life she has been a pampered princess. But she really understand oppression and hardship. They basically never mature passed about the age of 14. They are, as the guy who used to write Die Hipster.com would say, Kdults.

[some guy]

Have they really not been afraid of people who were bigger and stronger than them and looked like they might decide to use that size and strength against them?

That could be it. We do tend to expect the worst in situations we can't control, (while expecting the best in situations we think we can control). It's probably an innate defensive trait. If it's possible for you to be overpowered then you need to be wary of being overpowered. We often respond to stereotypes too. If that group of young men you described were all clean cut and wearing suits you'd feel differently than if they were wearing tank tops, chugging beers and sporting a bunch of ugly tattoos. Anything that indicates poor impulse control and a lack of personal responsibility is suspect.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Yeah, for sure. Although those guys in business suits might be scary at 2am in an alley, drunk. But yeah, in my mind it's all just about being wary of the possibility of being overpowered. I don't want to give the impression I'm running around terrified, but I'm aware, and part of that awareness is "sometimes you should cross the fucking street," you know.

[KMA Too]

"Anything that indicates poor impulse control and a lack of personal responsibility is suspect."

My God, that's the most succinct, and trenchant, observation about situational awareness (for good or bad) I've seen in a long time.

Kudos, sg.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Have they really not been afraid of people who were bigger and stronger than them and looked like they might decide to use that size and strength against them?

They have, but that's different.

Women I know went batshit, stark raving batshit, when I mentioned that abusive husbands/boyfriends and rapists often don't do a lot of physical harm, so why should women be allowed to defend themselves with deadly force in those situations.

Most people, apparently, don't operate based on rules, even internal ones, they operate on how they feel about the facts of a given situation. Abusive boyfriend? That could turn deadly at any moment, of course you can shoot him. Guy banging Zimmerman's head on the concrete? Zimmerman should've toughed it out, he wasn't hurt that badly.

[John]

NEM,

Some of the worst abusers are mental abusers. Having your spouse or worse your parents tell you you are a piece of shit for years does as much or more permanent damage as getting beat up for years. Of course women are just as likely to engage in mental abuse as men. So feminists don't like to talk about that.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Unless they're going to argue in favor of deadly force for mental abuse, that's an entirely separate issue.

I'm talking about people who argued Zimmerman wasn't justified because his injuries weren't that bad arguing 15 minutes later that a woman can be in fear for her life and justified in shooting without being injured at all.

[John]

Yes. The same people who are totally okay with getting rid of the immediacy requirement for self defense in the case of abused women are now arguing that Zimmerman committed murder because he didn't just take his beating.

They don't think. They emote. And they don't judge, they make conclusions based on tribe.

[Matrix]

Has any of these writers ever had the back of their heads bashed into concrete? I haven't personally experienced that, as far as I can remember. But I have been clocked in the back of the head by a baseball bat. It is very disorienting, painful, and can make you fear for your life pretty quickly.

People posting these stupid articles apparently have never been in a potentially life threatening fight before. Bashing someone's head in can get real deadly, real quick.

[John]

The other think Niki is that these people think "scary" is driven by race. I guess they think that because they think everything is driven by race. They really seem to have no idea that someone can be of your same race and even sex and still be scary as shit.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I've been followed by cops and mall cops. I've been followed walking through my ex's Highland Park neighborhood on occasions too numerous to count. I've had people lock their car doors when I get close. I've had mothers take their kid's hand and step out between parked cars as I walk by.

These people know fuck-all if they think scariness is about race or that whites are magically seen as harmless. They're fucking morons.

[John]

They really are. There are some white neighborhoods and towns in this country I wouldn't walk through if you paid me. They seem to have this weird idea that white people are so obsessed with race they only victimize black people. Ah, no, not exactly.

[Mike M.]

The scariest dude I've ever talked to in my life was a white guy who did a stint in the joint for aggravated assault. He was one of those guys that within about ten minutes you could tell he was right on the edge of totally batshit insane and could fly off the handle at any given moment if you said the wrong thing or gave him the wrong kind of look regardless of your skin color.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Sounds not unlike one of my uncles. Another one is only like that when he's on a crack bender.

[Floridian]

I grew up in a poor neighborhood on the north side of Jacksonville. My wife grew up in a gated community. My view towards violence is completely different from my wife's. I see it as sometimes necessary to protect yourself. I think after our apartment got robbed it changed her view a lot. She is always armed in the house now. Life experience matters how you view the world.

[Rasilio]

I'm 6'3 400lbs, I think I've only encountered like 3 people in my life who were actually bigger than me and remained anything resembling scary.

That said now that I'm getting old and my knees are gone I do find myself being wary of groups of young men who are acting "rowdy" (and by rowdy I don't mean anything objectively bad, just active and energetic) because while I have little doubt I could handle myself against an average person my age (not a trained fighter) my size would do me no favors against a handful of 22 year olds

[SKR]

and at some point they could just be roughhousing with one another and accidentally run into you and take out a knee.

[Loki]

Have they really not been afraid of people who were bigger and stronger than them and looked like they might decide to use that size and strength against them?

Interesting thought. I know speaking for myself, I have. I was bullied in middle school and a little bit in HS. Although most of the really bad bullies either dropped out after ~10th grade or got shipped off to military school when their parents gave up on them. But the bullying is probably part of the reason I got into martial arts, so I don't have to be afraid of someone just because they're bigger than me (for the record, I'm about 5'9" and ~185 pounds now, in HS I was ~155 pounds as a senior).

The funny thing is, a lot of stereotypical prog-tards were most likely also bullied in school, but instead of going out and empowering themselves by learning how to fight back, they convinced themselves that they were really better all along than the bullies.

That's why they view themselves as "intellectuals" and believe they should be able to use the power of the state to force their preferences on the "mouth breathers" who they view as inferior. At least that's one possible explanation for the insufferable smugness and elitism that seems all to common amongst them.

[Floridian]

Most of the fights I was in or witnessed we're usually 3-5 guys jumping someone. That is why I carry a gun. No matter how much I work out or train I will never be able to out fight more than 1 person at a time.

[John]

Yup. That is the danger. If it is one guy, you can always retreat. Pretty hard for one guy to keep you from leaving if you really want to and don't want to fight. But with five guys you are fucked. And frankly, I hope more and more people carry and more and more of the assholes who think it is cool for five guys to jump one guy end up dead.

[Loki]

Acutally, you'd be surprised. While I've never been jumped by multiple attackers, I have sparred against 3-4 opponents at a time. The key is to keep moving so that they can't surround you, and try not to focus in on one guy for more than a few seconds, or you risk losing track of where everyone else is.

Of course, sparring and the real thing aren't totally the same. The key in a real fight is to take down the first guy as quickly and as brutally as possible, preferably in 5 seconds or less. If they're around you, basically "blow a hole" in the group and get outside of the circle where you can hopefully take them on one at a time, similar to sparring, except you're actually trying to take people out instead of stopping your strikes at the point of contact.

Then you take out the next guy in another 5 seconds. At that point, you've hopefully taken out 2 of them in under 10 seconds, which is going to start making the other guys question whether it's worth it to keep going. Hopefully they'll scatter, but if not just keep going until there's no one attacking.

Like I said, I've never had to do that for real, but my instructor has. He says in some ways it's easier than sparring for 2-3 minutes because you're reducing the number of opponents, and the remaining attackers become less and less committed to the fight. The adrenaline keeps you going and most real fights, even against multiple opponents only last ~90 seconds or less.

[John]

The problem with getting too good at self defense is that you one day use it and really screw someone over and wind up in prison for it. The good thing about a gun is that you don't have to use it to be effective. Letting the other person know you have one is usually enough to end the confrontation. Sadly, "I am a martial arts expert is unlikely to do that even if it is true and the clown you are telling it to is about to get his arm broke."

[Loki]

The problem with getting too good at self defense is that you one day use it and really screw someone over and wind up in prison for it.

That's why it's important to always make sure your response is appropriate and justifiable. For instance you wouldn't want to punch someone in the face for grabbing your wrist. If you know how to get out of the grab (always go towards the thumb), you can get out of it and then shout at them loud enough to cause a ruckus to "get away" or "back off" or something. Surrounded by multiple assailants though is a lot more serious, so you'd be justified in using more violence in that case.

The other thing is to never admit to the cops that you're a martial arts expert. You can say you've had "a little training," but never admit to being a black belt because they'll scrutinize your actions a lot harder.

[Loki]

Sadly, "I am a martial arts expert is unlikely to do that even if it is true and the clown you are telling it to is about to get his arm broke."

Actually it's worked for my wife. She was followed once on a business trip to San Fransisco. She saw the guy following her, so when she got to the next corner where there was a street light and a few other people* around, she waited for the guy to come around the corner and confronted the guy. Basically told him "I'm a martial artist and if you try anything I'll fight back" (paraphrasing since I wasn't there). She is a martial artist too, just not a black belt. The guy turned around and walked away.

*it's possible that he just walked away because at that point there were witnesses.

[Floridian]

I think it is worth training but I have know too many people that have been put in the hospital after an uneven fight.

[Loki]

Make no mistake it's always best to avoid fights and if you can get away, by all means try to escape, because you never really know what the other guy(s) know(s), or if one or more of them are armed and are just planning on beating you up for sport or some shit. Then when you start kicking their asses they decide "fuck it" and shoot you.

[AlexInCT]

The key in a fight where you are outnumbered by more than 3 to 1 is to switch from trying to hurt them so they back off, to causing as much damage as possible so they can not keep fighting. Worry about the consequences after, although based on the royal screwing given to Zimmerman, I can see why some might not take my advice.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

That is why I carry a gun. No matter how much I work out or train I will never be able to out fight more than 1 person at a time.

This times eleventybillion!

I have a few years of martial arts training. I'm no bruce lee, though. I might have a good chance against a single opponent of about the same size. Which for me, is rare, I'm really short. So when that group of 300lb bikers decides that they don't like the way I'm looking at them, or some punk teenager who's a foot taller than me decides to pick on the little guy, I'm fucked.

God may have created all men, but Sam Colt made them equal.

[darius404]

So Joe M., does that apply even if the recipient is unwilling? I'd reply directly, but I'm not willing to take the chance your answer is "yes".

[Joe M]

Heh, the reply has to include a request for the game. Anyway, I can't foist it upon you without your Steam ID, so you'd be safe anyway, unless it's the same as your name here.

[Citizen Nothing]

Got this from the ACLU. Even they are race-baiting the case. Disgusting.

[some guy]

The ACLU can get things so right at times and so very, very wrong at times.

[Rich]

I've had to teach my son how his racial identity can be an invitation for scorn and mistreatment.

Wow, Laura -- you have a *white* son?!

[Fatty Bolger]

That's just weird. I had to teach my son that his racial identity can be an invitation for scorn and mistreatment, because otherwise he might never notice?

[darius404]

They are, but I will tell you that on Facebook people are calling them out as racebaiters. Every time they post something like that on their page the majority of the comments say they're finding racial motives where there's no evidence for them. There are a lot of people who like the majority of the ACLU's work who just don't buy into this anti-civil rights bs.

[Loki]

Note to any would be convenience store robbers: Don't use a BB gun, the clerk might just pull a real one your ass.

Video from a newscast about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us0XcNcs-MY

[Fatty Bolger]

Pretty good, but I cringed when I saw how that clerk was holding the gun. A more athletic robber might have managed to grab it from him.

[NoVAHockey]

same thought.

[Loki]

Yeah, obviously someone who got most of his firearms "training" from watching Michael Bay flicks and rap videos.

[Enough About Palin]

The city of Minneapolis is considering municipalizing electricity. They would essentially condemn the electric grid (owned by Xcel), which has a 99.9% reliability record, so they can take it over and run it themselves. What a bunch of power hungry bastards.

[The Late P Brooks]

Speaking of The Carter Legacy, somebody on the teevee just said Lindsy Graham wants to boycott the Olympics if the Russkies don't hand Snowden over.

It's geniuses all the way down.

[Rich]

Well, it's probably better than making Airport Droning an Olympic sport.

[Fatty Bolger]

Shouldn't that be all the way up?

[BakedPenguin]

That worked so well when Carter did it. At least Carter got the right country.

[Silver Fox]

Woman DA who turned prosecution into persecution gets suspended, and has her sentence overturned.

Context? Sure.

[John]

Iowahawk put out a brutal tweet during an argument with various Martin supporters last night. It read

Of all the young black shooting victims in this country, you can name 1. Because you've been trained like a circus seal to bark on command.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/172529/

I increasingly stand in awe of that guy.

[NoVAHockey]

that guy is a national treasure.

[John]

I follow his facebook page. He builds these totally kick ass hotrods as a hobby. A couple of years ago he built and sold a 32 Ford he called the Coupe of Justice. His entire existence makes me feel unworthy.

[NoVAHockey]

i found photos. unworthy is about right.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/i.....ts/875229/

[Silver Fox]

Seriously. All the gang shootings involving young black men get overlooked, but if a guy who looks even vaguely white shoots some angel of a young black man it's a NATIONAL OUTRAGE! *cue the rabid frothing*

[darius404]

An earlier tweet:

David Burge ?@iowahawkblog 14h

18 different 17 y/o black males shot dead in Chicago since 2/16/12. You don't know their names because they don't serve a political end.

This guy rocks.

[The Late P Brooks]

If that group of young men you described were all clean cut and wearing suits you'd feel differently

Those fuckers terrify me. I'm afraid they'll get me boxed in and start asking about my relationship with JEEZISS.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

"It was a rough neighborhood - groups of young LDS, sitting around, drinking decaf beverages and discussing their missionary tours...the groups of Jehovah's Witnesses accosting strangers and getting all up in their grills about accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I don't even want to talk about the time I ran into a bunch of Seventh Day Adventists..."

[Lord Humungus]

Forensic science graduate has been stopped 70 TIMES by police 'after splitting from her PC lover'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....lover.html

Katie Bowman, who has never been convicted of a crime, claims police interest in her ? which saw her stopped 70 times for suspected offences ranging from drink-driving to assault ? meant she could 'barely leave the house'.

The 24-year-old alleges she was targeted over 28 months by Thames Valley Police officers from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, after splitting from Alexander Ash.

Miss Bowman says that despite never securing a conviction against her, the force has kept damaging intelligence reports on her which are stopping her getting a job.

[sarcasmic]

I just read that and was about to post it, but you beat me to it. Damn you. Damn you to Hell.

[darius404]

Man, she's cute.

[SIV]

Her teeth are the same color as her hair.
Other than that, she's smokin' hot.

[Silver Fox]

"Divorce my husband? Nah. Think I'll have him killed instead."

[Lord Humungus]

Smiley: Racial Tension Threatens American Democracy
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....-grudnicki

O'Reilly then questioned his guest on the specifics of the Zimmerman itself. Smiley admitted that though the trial was fair under the law, but "it's the law that I have a problem with," he explained. He believes the Zimmerman's right to "stand his ground" is rooted in the nation's prejudiced view of black men "as a menace to society."

[Rich]

the nation's prejudiced view of black men "as a menace to society."

Oh, come on, Tavis!

Everyone knows it's *young* men that are a menace to society.

[Hyperion]

Blacks benefit more from stand your ground laws

So why does Smiley and Holder hate the blacks?

[John]

These people are insane. Black people are much more likely to be the victims of violence than white people and therefore much likely to avail themselves of a self defense claim. I would love to see the statistics on the number of criminal defendants who claim self defense. I would bet money the claim is used by black males more than any other group.

These people are arguing for something that will send more black men to prison. It is insane.

[Hyperion]

I just cannot understand what the hell the goal of the left is anymore.

I don't know if they really ever had one, but lately, it just seems to be a mass confusion of insanity.

I don't think they have any real goals, they're just either unhappy souls who want to make everyone else as miserable as they are, are they are fucking nuts, one or the other, or both.

[John]

I think you are right. They don't even have an ideology anymore. See the post below on Zimmerman. Forget tribalism. Zimmerman was a member of the tribe. But it didn't matter.

[Jeff]

At this point they are driven purely by spite, nothing more.

[sarcasmic]

It's all emotion.

[darius404]

"Goal"? What makes you think they have a goal? They're just living moment to moment and latching onto anything that catches their momentary fancy.

When the personal TRULY becomes the political, when there is no meaningful distinction between who you are and what your political affiliations are, every issue becomes just another chance to burnish your identify and reputation the same way any politician would: by throwing a bunch of incoherent, but nice-sounding, rhetoric around and pushing for anything, ANYTHING, that sounds vaguely in line with that rhetoric. It's not about accomplishing anything. It's purely about group identity.

[Loki]

I just cannot understand what the hell the goal of the left is anymore.

Political power. That's always been their goal. So whatever course of action is most likely to increase their power is the course of action they'll take in any given circumstance. Understand that, and most of their bullshit makes sense, in a truly horrific and twisted way.

[ant1sthenes]

The unnecessary slaughter of children is the privilege of the State. Zimmerman is a poacher in Eric Holder's eyes.

[The Late P Brooks]

Punch that dumb bitch the next time she uses the term "civilian", Welch.

On MSNBC right now.

[Hyperion]

Or just do this:

Greek politician slaps opponent, on TV

[Eduard van Haalen]

I asked myself, "is it a guy from Golden Dawn?" and it was! I'm such a profiler!

[mad libertarian guy]

Even though Vikernes is a worthless piece of racist shit, I'm not sure that his French wife buying 4 rifles in France and having once had correspondence with Breivik is enough to arrest him on terrorism charges.

The French interior ministry said Kristian "Varg" Vikernes constituted "a potential threat to society".

He was arrested in central France after his wife bought four rifles.

Vikernes, described by French officials as a neo-Nazi, had in the past received a copy of a manifesto from Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.

Breivik planted a bomb in central Oslo and went on a shooting spree on the nearby island of Utoeya in July 2011. He was imprisoned for the maximum 21-year term last year.

An official at the Paris Prosecutor Office said Breivik sent a copy of a manifesto setting out his ideology to Vikernes, who is also a convicted murderer.

The official said: "There were several indications that made the services fear he could possibly carry out a violent act."

Guilty because his wife bought 4 rifles and he once received a copy of Breivik's manifesto. They thought he might possibly maybe think about perhaps committing an act of "terrorism" so they arrested him.

I'm no Varg Vikernes fan (though he hasn't gone by that name in 2 decades), but this is ludicrous. How anyone might defend this kind of shit, I don't know.

[John]

Remember, whatever happens in Western Europe liberals will quickly want to happen here. MLG, your wife once bought four rifles and you have a copy of some political thoughts we don't like. You are a threat to society.

[Loki]

Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. ... He was imprisoned for the maximum 21-year term last year.

21 years for killing for 77 people? WTF?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. They aren't into Texas-style punitive revenge justice. You Americans with your ten-gallon hats and your whining about how a multiple murderer should get more than 21 years in prison. Why are you Yankees so cruel and vindictive?

We are sophisticated Europeans who let a politician's mistress come to his funeral! Why are you bitching and moaning about our derisory sentences for violent crimes, our censorship of dissident views, and all of that stuff?

[Gleep Glop]

I think this letter might be Exhibit #1 at any future Zimmerman trial:

http://www.gzdocs.com/document.....letter.pdf

[John]

Zimmerman is mixed race, voted for Obama and unlike every jackass talking head on TV seems to have actually made an effort to help a black person who was victimized.

And none of that meant a God damned thing when it was convenient for Progs to go after him. They thought and think nothing of slandering him as racist killer who hunted down and murdered a black man for the crime of being black.

It is just sickening. They just hate everyone.

[sarcasmic]

They just hate everyone.

Not everyone. Just people who choose to think rather than emote.

[Hyperion]

I bet that him and his parents have been cured of voting for Democrats in the near future.

[John]

His parents in the interview seem like very nice people. His mother, looks like a nice grandmother from south side of San Antonio. I look at those poor people and my heart breaks. There son getting in a fight and shooting someone is bad enough. But thanks to the media and the evil mob that is progressive and tolerant America, those poor people will never have a normal life again. One day they are this nice older couple minding their own business in Florida. The next they are in hiding from a screaming mob of baboons. Just horrible.

[Floridian]

Baboons? RACIST!

[Sevo]

"I bet that him and his parents have been cured of voting for Democrats in the near future."

I dunno. The amount of denial in the Obots is amazing: 'He really wants to do the right thing, but he can't...'

[Hyperion]

Right. He really wanted to not stand up on national TV and try to incite racial based hatred towards Z and his parents, but he couldn't help it, the Republicans made him do it.

[ant1sthenes]

"We have found a racist! (A racist! a racist!) Burn him, burn him!"

"We have found a racist, may we burn him?"

"How do you known he is a racist?""

"He's a white Republican who profiled Trayvon because he was black!"

"Bring him forward."

"I'm not a racist! I'm not a racist!""

"Uh... but you have a white last name."

"They said I was white. I'm mixed race."

"Naah, no we didn't... no."

"And I'm not a Republican, I voted for Obama."

"Well?"

"Well we did make up the white Hispanic thing."

"The race?"

"And the party affiliation, but he is a racist!"

"Yeah, burn him, burn him!"

"Did you edit the tapes to make it look like he racially profiled Trayvon?"

"No! (no no... no) Yes. (yes yeah) a bit (a bit bit a bit) But he has got a history of calling the cops a lot!"

"What makes you think he is a racist?"

"Well, he lynched me!"

"Lynched you!?"

(pause)

"I got better."

[Joe M]

That is fucking brilliant. Well done.

[AuH20]

Because I hate you all: Love Sonnet to a Tampon, from Jezebel

When I was but a lass of ten and one

And innocent: not yet a woman grown,

My life was simple: really 'twas quite zen.

My dear Aunt Flo had not her fury shown.

But then, one day, whilst I did wear white shorts,

A crimson tide did come betwixt my thighs.

I was ashamed before all my cohorts;

This lady-flow did take me by surprise.

'Twas Providence did lead me then anon

To good School Nurse, whose smile shone like a badge.

She handed me my very first tampon.

And said "Here: stick this up your vag."

Thus did begin a pure and true romance:

My cotton chum who saves my underpants.

[Silver Fox]

Oh for God's sake...

At least she's not writing it like all this is empowering to women...

[Fatty Bolger]

The nurse gave her a tampon instead of a pad? Very unlikely.

[SugarFree]

I once shit out an entire opera, but no one stopped to listen.

#microaggressions

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

The Bowel Movement of Seville?

Crappi fan tutte?

La BM?

The Enema of Figaro?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Please, I'm trying to keep my food down here.

[SugarFree]

Die Poopermaus

[Fatty Bolger]

The Magic Chute

[KMA Too]

+2 Charmin

[Loki]

That's because your opera was about the adventures of STEVE SMITH. Very few people really dig on rape opera.

[Lord Humungus]

Due to Increased Regulations, Millions of Americans Abroad Forced to Reconsider U.S. Citizenship
http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....39896.html

"A particularly alarming aspect of Fatca is that it seeks to co-opt foreign banks as long-arm enforcement agencies of the Internal Revenue Service?even when it might contravene that country's own privacy or data-protection laws. If financial institutions don't report U.S. citizens holding accounts with them, these institutions face a 30% withholding tax on securities transactions that originate in the U.S."

Graffy argues that because of the difficulty in following this law -- it's easier and more attractive for Americans abroad to simply renounce their U.S. citizenship. "Given this threat, why allow an American, or even suspected American, to bank with you? The reporting costs, and the consequences of a mistake, are too onerous."

[John]

Taxes are the price of civilization. You know roads and all of that. Yet, our government is obsessed with collecting taxes from citizens who don't physically reside in the country and thus get no benefits from all of this "civilization" our taxes are providing. It is almost like taxes are more about robbing the public or something.

[Hyperion]

I head that McCain, Graham and Schumer are co-writing a bill that will label any American citizen who renounces their citizenship over Fatca, as terrorists, allowing them to be murder-droned. The bill has bipartisan support. Drone makers around the country, rejoice.

[Hyperion]

heard

[John]

Don't give them any ideas.

[Hyperion]

Don't give them any ideas

Well, we all know that they don't need anyone to give them ideas, they'll come up with something more awful than what I suggested, all on their own.

[ant1sthenes]

Forcing Americans To Cancel American citizenship. God, can't they abbreviate anything properly? It should be FATCAC.

[The Late P Brooks]

why allow an American, or even suspected American, to bank with you?

The system is working.

[John]

So Richard Cohen wrote a fairly senseible piece in the Washington Post pointing out the obvious fact that young black men can be dangerous. This of course produced howels of outrage about how racist he is. Resident Slate, Asberger's Syndrome victim, Matthew Yglesias jumped in with "Richard Cohen's not a racist, he just thinks it's reasonable to assume young black men are all criminals."

How long would that fat little retard last on a Saturday night in Southeast before he shit his pants and started crying? Ten minutes? Five?

[Emmerson Biggins]

Resident Slate, Asberger's Syndrome victim, Matthew Yglesias jumped in

Hey now. That is insulting to all of us with even Aspberger-leaning personalities. I demand a retraction.

[ant1sthenes]

It a fairly stupid thing to say in this context. When people are bitching about racism when there's little evidence of racism, saying "Well, uh, racism is cool!" is Not. Fucking. Helping.

[John]

http://rochester.ynn.com/conte.....ot-guilty/

Remember, self defense is just a racist policy thrust on America. It is just there to let white men kill black teenagers.

[John]

Scott says he shot Cervini twice when the victim charged toward him yelling he was going to get Scott.

"How can this happen to a beautiful, sweet child like that?" asked Cervini's aunt Carol Cervini. "All he wanted to do was go home. And then for them to say, he was saying, 'Please don't kill me. I'm just a kid,' and he just kept on shooting him."

Scott says the last seven months have been difficult for him and his family. If he could go back to the events in the early morning hours of April 4, there are things he says he would do differently.

"If it meant a person not losing their life, absolutely," he said. "Would I still have tried to stop what was going on? That I would have done. But if I knew ahead of time that I could do something to help somebody from losing their life, I don't want anyone to lose their life."

[Enough About Palin]

"This year's is shaping up to be the bloodiest Ramadan in Iraq since 2007, when U.S. forces were still in the country."

Religion of peace.

[Clich? Bandit]

I don't feel this got enough attention last night so here, I Spameth Thee!

OT: But,

W H A T ... T H E ... F U C K !!!!!!

Hastings Body (allegedly) cremated without family permission. They received an Urn. Dude was, without a doubt, murder droned. I am no longer thinking I am tinfoil hatting here...this shit just got real.

[Killazontherun]

Linked from above,

http://www.businessinsider.com.....nts-2013-7

On the right, these mental illnesses stem from fear of government. On the left, their origins are a bit harder to pin down, but as I see it, they stem from an old mix of righteousness and the fear of contamination?from what we might recognize as Puritanism.

Sorry, progtards, but that is false equivocation. Neurosis cannot stem from rational thinking, and there is nothing more rational than fearing the government. Trusting the government is irrational. If you see neurotic behavior coming from conservative, or libertarian parents, it may well exist, but you have misidentified the source.

[Pro Libertate]

"Thank you, sir, may I have another?" is not a rational response to abuse.

[Fatty Bolger]

Liberals have been pushing loony child rearing theories since at least the 60's.

Basically they have moved from "let your kids do whatever they want" to "force your kids do everything you want," while conservatives and libertarians have held the middle ground.

[Marc F Cheney]

Aren't you glad that Obama was elected so that we could finally put an end to the odious national discourse on race?

[Fatty Bolger]

What, you're not satisfied with our post-racial utopia?