A.M. Links: House to Vote on Amendments Limiting NSA Funding, Snowden Expects to Leave Moscow Soon, Morsi Family Claims Army Abducted Him

• 

  The Guardian

  The House Rules Committee voted last night to allow amendments limiting NSA funding to be considered by the full House.

• Edward Snowden's attorney expects Snowden to finally leave Moscow tomorrow.
• Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a jailbreak in Iraq that freed hundreds of prisoners.
• An 11-year-old Yemeni girl went to YouTube to object to an arranged marriage to an older man.
• Mohammed Morsi's family claims the former president has been abducted by the Egyptian army.
• The Brewers' Ryan Braun admitted to using steroids and was suspended without pay  for the rest of the season 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Edward Snowden's attorney expects Snowden to finally leave Moscow tomorrow.

The US should offer a spy trade. Do we still have that hot Commie redhead Anna Chapman?

[Zakalwe]

Yes, but if we're offering her we should get Gary Powers, too.

[Pro Libertate]

Lighten up, Francis.

[Rasilio]

Wait, I thought we were offering to take her back?

[Slammer]

An 11-year-old Yemeni girl went to YouTube to object to an arranged marriage to an older man.

Might these stories be related?

[Careless]

the headline:
Yemeni child speaks out against marriage

They might want to rewrite that one

[John]

No. We sent her home. Word is she proposed to Snowden. No kidding.

[NoVAHockey]

GTFO.

[Brett L]

True story.

[John]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1389534

There you go.

[NoVAHockey]

stranger than fiction. and i'll be in my bunk.

[Rich]

Don't do it, Edward! It's a trap!

[Marshall Gill]

A sticky, sweet, honey trap.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Yeah baby!

[Pro Libertate]

She's making a joke, of course, but I think she's getting flirty with our whistleblower, too. I bet it would help his case if he went there, because America loves a love affair.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I heard someone of Fox News saying Snowden was looking more and more like he was a Russian dupe. I don't know where they got that, but this kind of thing would just fuel that narrative.

[Pro Libertate]

Look, the guy is operating on borrowed time. He's either going to get captured by us or get dead. He already dumped his girlfriend to pursue a life of whistleblowing, so why not date Anna Chapman? A little limelight unrelated to his personal scandal might be good insurance, too.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The only good insurance he could generate for himself would be to pick Joe Biden as his second-in-command.

[Juice]

I think she has a jacked up face. There, I said it.

[Dave Krueger]

She's pretty hot. If she's going to start offering herself to everyone who leaks government secrets, then we should start seeing more of that, shouldn't we?

[Eduard van Haalen]

That first photo looks like something from the ComicCon link. As if she's cosplaying herself.

[anon]

There's no way I'd trade Anna Chapman for anything. Personal sex slave all the way.

[Lord Humungus]

for all the nerdalingers

The Most Creative and Sensational Cosplay From Comic-Con 2013
http://io9.com/the-most-creati.....-873215213

[Brett L]

Bryan Cranston going as Heisenberg has to win.

[mr simple]

It's always good to see someone practicing proper trigger safety.

[db]

DragonCon is even better, so I hear. Dr. Girlfriend usually goes each year. I've been to Comic-Con (San Diego) and was impressed too.

[Brett L]

Jesus. Only a Gawker site would give equal time to the uggos. I want my objectified sex objects!

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

Babe Scarlet Witch was fine. We could have done without Hairy Dude Scarlet Witch.

And why does there need to be a steampunk version of everything/anything?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

"Steampunk is what happens when goths discover brown"

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

I...rather like that.

[T]

It's one of the better snide comments ever made about the subject, yes.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Hal 9000 guy takes the gold medal for most inventive.

[db]

That was pretty good.

[db]

I liked Marvin the Martian. And of course The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend.

[a better weapon]

Went to this a few years ago and its a lot of fun if you're ever in San Diego at the time.

My suggestion is to find the guy dressed up as Cloud with a to scale broad sword and wait for him to not see someone coming and nail them in the face by accident.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Got a couple of Dannys and a Jamie, but no Ygritte?

I am dissapoint.

[Stormy Dragon]

You know nothing, GoT cosplayers!

[Zakalwe]

An 11-year-old Yemeni girl went to YouTube to object to an arranged marriage to an older man.

She's really in love with his twin brother.

[Matrix]

Firing an AK-47 under water

[Live Free or Diet]

Love how he has to chase the goats away from his computer. They really will try to eat anything they can get their teeth on. Chickens on the other hand -- just trying to prove their dinosaur heritage -- will peck anything to death. Even one of their own.

[Mock-star]

This is really awesome. I love the oscillating shock-bubble.

[Matrix]

One thing this shows is that bullets do not travel very far at all underwater and quickly lose momentum. I don't think bullets went more than 10 ft.

[Matrix]

Mythbusters shooting .50 cal into water

After just a few feet, the bullet comes apart and becomes nonlethal.

[The DerpRider]

Visit R'Lyeh!

[Lord Humungus]

The Free Market Plan To Save Detroit - Immigration!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mo.....e-detroit/

The good news is that unlike other areas of the world that are struggling to reverse a development decline, there are millions of people who would love a chance to move to Detroit: immigrants. Rather than focus on the sisyphean task of convincing people who currently don't want to move to Detroit, we should focus on how to allow in those who do. This is a far easier task for the government, even if it too requires significant policy change. What's more, letting people from around the world move to where they want also happens to be the closest thing to a free market plan that could actually make a big difference.

[Zakalwe]

And think of the jobs from building the wall around Detroit to keep them from moving somewhere else!

[Bobarian]

It would certainly cut down on the number of immigrants voluntarily entering the country...

[CampingInYourPark]

...there are millions of people who would love a chance to move to Detroit: immigrants.

I'd like to see the poll numbers supporting that statement.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Right. Just because they want into this country doesn't mean they want Detroit.

[Brett L]

Only the Somalis were desperate enough to live in Dearborn.

[Brett L]

If it doesn't involve turning cops into cyborgs, I'm not interested.

[Tak Kak]

I mean, it's working wonders for Baltimore!

[Scotticus Finch]

the sisyphean task of convincing people who currently don't want to move to Detroit

"Sisyphean" has evidently now just become a replacement for "really hard". Writing-by-thesaurus for the win.

[mr simple]

The House Rules Committee voted last night to allow amendments limiting NSA funding to be considered by the full House.

I know someone whose phone is tapped and email read.

[Ted S.]

I know someone whose phone is tapped and email read.

We all do. 🙁

[Rich]

One amendment would bar the NSA from collecting records, including telephone call records, unless the individual is the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Easily done.

/the administration

[Bobarian]

Yes, as soon as we collect your records, you are the subject.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The House Rules Committee voted last night to allow amendments limiting NSA funding to be considered by the full House.

Let the caving commence.

[Lord Humungus]

Sebelius Likens Obamacare Opponents to Segregationists
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....ew-johnson

"You showed it in the early fights against lynching and the fight for desegregation . . . you showed it by supporting a health law 100 years in the making," she said.

The Health and Human Services secretary also heralded "the voices of progress" that will mark the October 1 date on which the law's health-care exchanges open, comparing the event to the Emancipation Proclamation. "They echo from church bells rung at midnight 150 years ago to educate our nation of a people's emancipation," she said.

Hallelujah!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Bitch. Coarsening of the political culture indeed.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Only the bad guys use language to divide, remember?

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

a health law 100 years in the making

I thought it only felt like 100 years.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Does this mean that we get free government amputations and leeches?

[Raven Nation]

Hmm, so just to be clear...passing an amendment that makes it unconstitutional to own another human being and allows all human beings to live their own lives is the same as passing a law that makes it illegal to control your own life when it comes to healthcare. Gotcha.

Interesting how, despite all the claims of progress from the left in all areas of life, the only thing they ever claim as a victory is civil rights.

[robc]

Shorter version:

Fuck off, slaver!

[tarran]

And pathetically, the only reason why civil rights for blacks improved was that progressives stopped opposing them outright.

The progressives were quite happy to see the civil rights acts being proposed in the 1950's killed in committee.

[WTF]

Just don't mention that most of the lynching and segregation was done by democrats.

[Elspeth Flashman]

or that a Republican was the one who set them free.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The parties traded names in 1965. Didn't you hear?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a jailbreak in Iraq that freed hundreds of prisoners.

Michael Scofield was among them.

[Lord Humungus]

Police: UF linebacker Morrison arrested for barking at K-9
http://www.gainesville.com/art.....29971/1153

Antonio Morrison, a University of Florida linebacker who was arrested last month after police said he punched a bouncer, is in legal trouble again. This time deputies say he interfered with an investigation by barking at a police K-9.

wut?

[Slammer]

The dog barked first!!

[Brett L]

Jesus, we need to get our Criminole squad in shape. FSU may already be out of the running for stupidest/most police interactions in the State challenge.

[robc]

I wonder how Fulmer Cup is stacking up this year?

Ohio State is making a late run.

[Jordan]

Did he request the Cleveland Browns to appear at his arraignment so they can let him down one last time?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

They only do funerals, apparently.

[mr simple]

Bill Plaschke actually defended this arrest on ATH yesterday. We can't have people thinking they're as good as police dogs.

[Ted S.]

You actually watch Around the Horn? Eeewwww.

[a better weapon]

I quit watching when Max Kellerman replaced Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon's bitch boy.

[Greg]

I miss the disembodied voice too. My buddy and I were always joking that he probably got into fights with his wife and stuff cause he couldn't stop... like she'd be yelling "I just can't deal with this stuff anymore. Give me one good reason why I should keep you around!" and he'd mumble "...the horrrrrnnnnnn!!!" under his breath and she'd lose her shit.

[Prisoner Zero]

I heard that. Typical for Plaschke.

[Raven Nation]

Are there any sports commentators who aren't statists?

[Xenocles]

They're journalists first and sports people second.

[TANSTaaFL]

Surprisingly, Nate Silver actually looks like he might be open to liberty based on some of his writings and analysis. Funny thing happens when you train yourself to think logically.

BTW, I consider him a sports commentator due to his recent move to ESPN.

[Ted S.]

Toni Morrison is a linebacker?

[SugarFree]

She's big enough.

[robc]

Freedom of speech.

Should be open and shut.

[Emmerson Biggins]

The K9 officer's speech rights aren't being questioned. I don't see the issue.

[Lord Humungus]

US drone strikes more deadly to Afghan civilians than manned aircraft ? adviser
http://m.guardiannews.com/worl.....-civilians

A study conducted by a US military adviser has found that drone strikes in Afghanistan during a year of the protracted conflict caused 10 times more civilian casualties than strikes by manned fighter aircraft.

The new study, referred to in an official US military journal, contradicts claims by US officials that the robotic planes are more precise than their manned counterparts.

It appears to undermine the claim made by President Obama in a May speech that "conventional airpower or missiles are far less precise than drones, and likely to cause more civilian casualties and local outrage".

[Rasilio]

This...

"US drone strikes more deadly to Afghan civilians than manned aircraft"

does not support this...

"The new study, referred to in an official US military journal, contradicts claims by US officials that the robotic planes are more precise than their manned counterparts."

Since it is highly likely that the drones are used in a different manner than the manned aircraft and they certainly have different chains of command with the manned aircraft being under the command of the theater commander and the drones being controlled directly from Washington.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Won't somebody please post a link about the latest inbred to enjoy birthright nobility? I'm jonesing here.

[Ted S.]

We're letting you down, just like the Cleveland Browns.

[Brett L]

I have the Lastros to do it for me. Jesus. Pulling yourself from a no-hitter? Bedard is a fucking pussy.

[mauricegirodias]

Erik was ever thus.

But thanks, Seattle, for Adam Jones and Chris Tillman!

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Better?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I knew it was only a matter of time before this kind of thing happened.

[Zakalwe]

Edward Snowden's attorney expects Snowden to finally leave Moscow tomorrow.

That's not what the link says; he's expected to leave the Moscow airport tomorrow.

Honestly, with crap errors like this I had to check the byline to see if Lucy had come back.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Clever. You're like school in the summer.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Shh, NK. He has revealed himself. Now we all know whom to blame.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Yep!

[Gozer the Gozerian]

So this really is The Terminal?

[Lord Humungus]

Boomer Sex With Dementia Foreshadowed in Nursing Home
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....-home.html

At 8:30 p.m. on Christmas Day 2009, nurse Tiffany Gourley was called to a room at the Windmill Manor nursing home in Coralville, Iowa. She found a 78-year-old male resident who had just had intercourse with an 87-year-old woman. The man, a former college professor, was divorced. The woman, a retired secretary, was married. Both had dementia.

What followed illustrates one of the most complex and unexamined issues facing elderly care facilities as the Baby Boom generation enters old age: How to determine if residents with dementia have the mental capacity to consent to sex. The Windmill Manor incident and its lengthy aftermath also show that nursing homes, regulators and families are not prepared to deal with that question.

[Ted S.]

It's not as if either of them is going to remember it tomorrow.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Guess I'm going to a nursing home when I get old. Better start stockpiling Viagra now.

[Elspeth Flashman]

don't forget the condoms. Imagine taking your 80+ year old parent to the doctor to get them treated for a VD.

[Rich]

"Why does it hurt when I pee myself?"

[Enough About Palin]

HA!

[Ted S.]

I'd presume the doctors come to them in a nursing home.

[Zeb]

Only in the expensive ones.

[Live Free or Diet]

Guess I'm going to a nursing home when I get old. Better start stockpiling Viagra now.

Can'tscratchium implant, baby!

[Eduard van Haalen]

Rule 34!

[Careless]

" One nurse described the man as "going to town." "

[Careless]

wait, wtf?

"Windmill Manor still took steps to avoid more sexual encounters between the two. These included keeping them apart and prescribing drugs to curb the man's sexual urges"

[tarran]

Old people aren't supposed to want or enjoy sex! Thus if they appear to be violating these rules, we'll medicate them by golly till they stop!

[Enough About Palin]

78 and 87 are not boomers. The oldest boomer is just 67.

2013-1946=67

[Greg]

Still a little ink left in the old fountain pen I guess...

[I can't trust my fans]

Natalie Portman heads to Israel to scout film locations.

http://www.israelhayom.com/sit.....p?id=10865

Flying dragon attack

http://imgur.com/fYOlv8V

[Brett L]

Flying dragon attack

SQUEE!!

[John]

Portman is not aging well. She has developed a forehead of Giada like proportions. And she doesn't have Giada's tits to distract from it. The older she gets the more she looks like a bobblehead.

[Zakalwe]

Yep, she's really never looked very good since hitting her peak in Leon/The Professional.

[Lord Humungus]

*cough*sicko*cough*

[John]

Maybe I am cynical, but there are a ton of beautiful 12 year old girls who would like to be in a big movie. I have my suspicions why Portman, as opposed to the others, was chosen.

Yeah, I am that cynical and I think behind the scenes the movie industry is that sick. Maybe I have seen the Godfather too many times.

[Zakalwe]

Look, Portman looks fine for a 32 year old woman. It's just that most women start to crash hard somewhere in the 28-32 range.

[John]

I disagree. I think there are a lot of good looking 32 or even 42 year old women out there, especially in Hollywood. She is just not aging well. She looks increasingly tired and old. Portman is only four years older than the tall blond on Big Bang Theory and the Price Line commercials. She looks about 15 years older.

[Rasilio]

Comes from being too skinny.

Without a healthy body fat ratio the wrinkles and lines really stand out

[John]

That is very true Rasillio. Look at how well Selma Hayak has aged. She is in her late 40s. But she was never skelator skinny.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Portman was never a great beauty and only a decent actress at best (granted, Lucas' atrocious scripts did nothing to highlight her acting abilities). She was cute enough in Beautiful Girls, but her status as Geek Actress Queen has always been due primarily to the quasi-pedophilic fetishes of internet nerd shut-ins than it ever was for her actual looks or acting talent.

That she's one of the best of a largely mediocre collection of Gen-X/Millenial-cusp actors and actresses says a lot about why so many movie studios are using CGI and recycled scripts as a crutch these days.

When she hits 40, it's going to be damn tough for her to get any meaningful roles that don't involve her being a put-upon housewife.

[Pro Libertate]

She's attractive, an okay actor, and I think she has some popularity for being one of those celebrities who seems to live outside the scene.

[John]

She did win an Oscar for Black Swan. But that seemed to be as much for the media thinking she did the dancing, which she didn't and anyone who knows anything about ballet knew there is no way she could have, than anything else.

Yeah, I really don't see how she has much acting ability. At this point, she has already been replaced as Geek Actress Queen by the chick from Harry Potter, who is 12 years younger and pretty much does the same things Portman did.

I see her ending up on television in the future or maybe doing indie films. I don't see her being a top shelf movie star.

[Pro Libertate]

Watson seems a similar type to me, because she, too, appears to not be a traditional celebrity.

I've always found it weird how many actors date other actors. Some of that, sure, just like people date co-workers, but it's so common as to seem bizarre.

[John]

I think it is because they end up living such a sheltered life, they only meet other actors. Hard for someone like Portman or Watson to get out and meet men who are not in the film industry. Same thing with women singers who always seem to end up marrying some guy from their band.

[Pro Libertate]

Both of them didn't opt to drop out of (or never attend) college, which is something you can't say about most actors. That changes your perspective somewhat.

Beats the Lindsay Lohan lifestyle, that's for sure.

[Rasilio]

"I think it is because they end up living such a sheltered life, they only meet other actors. Hard for someone like Portman or Watson to get out and meet men who are not in the film industry. "

It's not even just that, think how hard it can be for them to ever really let their guard down around a "normal guy"? They have to wonder if he is really into them for who they are or for who they played in the past, then they have to wonder if he is sincere or if he's looking for his 15 minutes of fame Kevin Federline style. Then even if they did meet a normal guy who they liked who wasn't an obsessed fan or fame chaser they have to think about the media fallout and repercussions for both her and the guy as the paparazzi hound the two of them and dig into every element of the guys past and drag it through the mud.

Much easier to just stick with dating celebrities

[John]

All good point Rasilio. As fun as it would be to bang some Hollywood starlet, I am not sure I would really want to date one. The publicity would be brutal. And being a normal person would not benefit me in any way. Who other than someone who just wants to be famous wants that? Not me.

[Redmanfms]

I've always found it weird how many actors date other actors. Some of that, sure, just like people date co-workers, but it's so common as to seem bizarre.

I suppose it can be a little difficult to meet "normal" people once you've attained a certain level of fame.

Plus, I don't think most of them have much personality of their own so it is entirely unsurprising that they develop "chemistry" with a person their character is supposed to have a relationship with. Which also partially explains why Hollyweird relationships tend to be pretty brief.

That's my theory anyway.

[Pro Libertate]

Disproportionately sleazy, too. Both males and females.

[TANSTaaFL]

I give her props for doing "Your Highness". Plus, she was funny in it. Oh yeah, I give her much respect for her amazing ass in it too:
http://youtu.be/3qnHDY7_bgg

[Live Free or Diet]

Leon/The Professional.

I missed that movie until recently. I found Portman's character deeply disturbing, especially early in the movie. I have a few clues why, but it struck me harder than I would have thought.

[Live Free or Diet]

Portman is not aging well. She has developed a forehead of Giada like proportions.

Giada looks pretty good in stills, but not so much on TV.

Portman's hairline appears to me to be where it always has. And she looks better to me than all these vanilla-on-vanilla a la page movie girls. Maybe it's just everyone under 25 looks 12 to me anymore. I feel like they should still be dropping naked barbies all over the house, not drooled at by old men like me.

[John]

I am happy to drool on them. But actually I think most women's looks peak in their late 20s. I don't mind some age on a woman. But Portman peaked at about 19.

[Live Free or Diet]

That's what makes a horse race!

[Lord Humungus]

Pee-analyzing urinal spots drunks before they drive
The battle against drunk driving gets a urine-analyzing system that identifies club patrons through RFID.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1793.....hey-drive/

The Pee Analyser arrangement is pretty clever. Club-goers receive an RFID parking pass when they drop their cars off at valet. A device sitting in the urinal measures alcohol levels. An RFID reader near the urinal picks up each person's parking pass. If the urine clocks in above the legal limit, a sign at eye level suggests calling a cab to get home and the system takes note.

When the partied-out patron goes to retrieve his car, he has to hand his RFID parking card over to the valet. The valet scans it and an alert pops up if the customer tested high on his urine. Those customers are then asked to call a cab or take advantage of the club's drive-home service.

[Rich]

Yet another reason to piss in the alley.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Or the sink.

/6'8" and above

[Xenocles]

Just aim up, gravity will take care of the rest.

[sgs]

"/6' and above"

FTFY.

Seriously, you think you've got to be that tall? Really?

[Enough About Palin]

I went to a Molly Hatchet concert in the late 70's. The lines to pee at each sink were 6-8 people deep.

[John]

Yeah, I am going to go to a bar that requires a piss test to get out of real soon. That would just end people going out and drinking. No one would do that.

[Brett L]

Reminds me of my friend who was in the Army in the early 90s. Apparently he and his buddies had a bar with a breathalyzer machine. The guy with the lowest score had to drive home. Pretty sure that's not what the neo-prohibitionists intended.

[John]

Yeah. Those faded out of fashion because they quickly turned into a game of who could blow the highest score. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't create some liability potential for that.

[Pro Libertate]

Reminds me of WKRP, when Johnny's reaction time on a sobriety test improved the more he drank.

[Rasilio]

I've seen it happen In real life.

I used to drive for a courier service in Boston and most of the drivers were professional drunks putting away more than a 6 pack a day while on the road (then drinking more after work).

In a couple of their cases they much faster and better drivers after they got 2 - 3 beers into them because the hangover impaired them more than the booze

[Elspeth Flashman]

We're so close to being there already, if the limit goes under .08. Someone of smaller stature would never feel free to drink even mild amounts and then drive.

[John]

And every city keeps building downtown bar areas, which are quickly overrun with cops. And then they wonder why no one but teenagers ever go to them.

[a better weapon]

Wanna see how wasted I can get before I have to take a piss?

[The DerpRider]

We had a bar in KZoo that had $.10 drafts on Wednesdays. The only catch was that once someone had to use the bathroom, the price increased. Talk about peer pressure.

[SweatingGin]

KZoo as well as Detroit? Did one of us follow the other one around?

I never heard of that one, it might have been before my time in KZoo. Did have a number of $4 pitchers, and beer on tap in my house, though.

[The DerpRider]

Waldo's and $5 mixed drink pitchers. Those were some fun nights.

[SweatingGin]

I had a number of stumbles home from Waldo's. Used to live just the other side of the cemetary north of there, and wind up cutting through there.

good times.

[Brett L]

Also, my respect for Nate Silver continues to grow. I thought he was going to be dead wrong in 2012 and he basically hit the nail on the head in both the Senate and Presidential races. I am now a believer.

* I don't think Nate Silver ever really fit into the Times culture and I think he was aware of that. He was, in a word, disruptive. Much like the Brad Pitt character in the movie "Moneyball" disrupted the old model of how to scout baseball players, Nate disrupted the traditional model of how to cover politics.

Which I translate as "not in the bag for 'our' politicians".

[I can't trust my fans]

Silver said last year that he was somewhere between liberal and libertarian. I think he may have even mentioned Gary Johnson's name. So there's that.

[Ted S.]

Oh dear, not the liberaltarian crap.

Perhaps Silver was a cosmotarian, saying things the liberals want to hear so he can get invited to the "cool" parties.

[SugarFree]

This is where the "cosmotarian" meme breaks down. Since when do beltway liberals throw cool parties?

[Ted S.]

You'll note I put "cool" in sneer quotes.

[SugarFree]

Not directed at you, just a general observation. Don't get all shirty.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

I dunno - what does the bar look like? I could mouth PC platitudes for enough Laphroaig and Aardbeg.

[SugarFree]

Islay FTW!

[AuH20]

Well, do you think they smoke you out at the Republican parties, SF?

[SugarFree]

The liberals won't either. Beltway liberals are high school government types and crunchy do-gooders that haven't had the bucket of cold water water that is reality thrown in their face.

[Zeb]

"smoke you out"

So, you're one of those people.

[sgs]

""smoke you out"

So, you're one of those people."

Look who is jealous.

[Zeb]

No. The proper phrase is "smoke you up".

[Raven Nation]

"Which I translate as 'not in the bag for our politicians.'"

Not sure if that's it: the column argues that it was his reliance on statistical analysis rather than punditry which pissed people off.

She also notes that his decision was probably due to: "money, a broader variety of platforms and the opportunity to concentrate on sports and entertainment, as well as politics."

Plus, there's a better chance ESPN will have jobs in 10 years than the Times.

[John]

Yeah. Once the math started to go against the cause, Silver didn't fit into the culture anymore. He needs to take his bourgeois math and facts and go somewhere else. The Times is only interested in the Revolutionary Truth.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Holy shit, your idiocy knows no limit. Silver left the Times on his own and they tried to retain him. He was always a sports stat guy.

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

This is his first love.

[John]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnYUFKFs5As

CHRISTFAG!!! BUSHPIG!!!

You tell em shreek.

[sgs]

"Silver left the Times on his own and they tried to retain him. "

I love how you always make a claim, then link to unrelated useless shit, while totally failing to support your actual claim.

Whoever does you as a sock has it down.

[Fluffy]

WHERE DA WHITE WOMEN AT

[Mike M.]

Once again, the biggest reason why Silver was able to make such good predictions in both '08 and '12 is because he was given the privilege of having full access to the massive amounts of team Obama internal polling data. He then ran all this data through a Monte Carlo simulation program, the type of which anyone can download off the internet for free and use themselves. In the instances where he hasn't had that access to the internal polling data but simply the public data available to all of us, his prediction record has been average at best. His genius has been vastly overstated by the people who don't know all this.

But to be fair, I do have to give the guy his credit where it's due: he did finally manage to cash in a meaningful poker tournament this year for the first time.

[Brett L]

So he did what was necessary to get access to the actual data needed to have predictive results? Why would you run down someone who was doing the public a favor by posting the actual, statistically valid results?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Because Mike M. is a success-hating Team Red sycophant.

[John]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnYUFKFs5As

BUSHPIG!!

[Mike M.]

All he posted was a probability. Yes, it was accurate because of the massive data he had access to, but tons of reasonably smart people would have gotten the same exact probability results with the same data set.

My point is that some people have made him out to be this mathematical and scientific genius, and the case is greatly overstated. What he did really isn't very special or complicated at all.

[John]

No it is not. It is nothing that anyone with some college level math and statistics could not do. But remember, the people who read the Times generally are not bright. So they are very easily impressed.

[robc]

tons of reasonably smart people would have gotten the same exact probability results with the same data set.

a few smart people got the same results with less data.

[Rasilio]

Yes but a lot of other smart people didn't get the same results.

[sgs]

"Why would you run down someone who was doing the public a favor by posting the actual, statistically valid results?"

Because of what was necessary for him to get the info.

[sgs]

""Why would you run down someone who was doing the public a favor by posting the actual, statistically valid results?""

And because he could have simply provided the same inside info he had that everyone else was entitled to, but he didn't.

He didn't do the public any favors, no matter how you spin it.

[Azathoth!!]

Genius?

Monkeys knew that if the GOP put forth Romney, Obama was going to win.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised to find ameoba cashing in their correct bets against Romney.

Anyone who thought otherwise should have their head examined.

Nate Silver didn't do anything. He just turned on his TV, saw the nominees, and stated the obvious.

[robc]

He does have a tendency to overcomplicate things.

Both on the baseball side and politics side, people have been able to duplicate his work with much simpler models.

When he left BP, they screwed up the first run of using his spreadsheets the next year, because no one understood all the little tweaks he had to do by hand to make it work.

My understanding is they have greatly simplified the process (if not the model). Of course that is the difference between an analyst and a programmer.

[John]

I find his baseball analysis lacking. No sport can be totally understood via numbers. For example, the various stat geeks are always discounting RBIs. And there is a grain of truth to that because your RBIs are dependent on how often you come up with someone on base. That said, however, a high number of RBIs is still a very good indication of a hitters skill. It takes skill to hit a long fly ball, as opposed to a ground out, to get a guy home from third with less than two outs. It takes skill to hit the ball the other way into a fielder's choice to score a run. This is why hitters with high RBI totals are always also good hitters in general and why managers put their best hitters in spots in the lineup where they are most likely to have RBI opportunities. Silver and his ilk act like any hitter could get a ton of RBIs if he just hit behind the right people. And that is complete bunk.

[robc]

The point is that there are other metrics that measure the actual skill you are talking about better than raw RBI totals.

I can tell you how good a guy is at driving in runs without ever looking at his RBI numbers.

[John]

Sure. And I can tell you how good of a hitter a guy is by looking at his RBI totals. We are both getting to the same result different ways.

That is what annoys me about SABREMETRICS, they are just needlessly complicated ways of telling us things anyone watching the game and paying attention already knew. They act like no manager in history ever paid attention to on base percentage before they came along and showed them or that without their genius analysis no one would have realized Mike Trout being a really great defensive outfielder made him an overall more valuable player than Miquel Cabrera, despite Cabreer's greatness at the plate. I have yet to see the SABRMETRIC geeks do anything but tell me players I already knew were great or sucked were what I thought they were.

[robc]

Then you havent been paying attention.

Back in the 80s, for example, managers were regularly batting low OBP guys in the leadoff spot.

That is insane, no matter how good of a base stealer he is.

And lets not forget one run strategies like the sac bunt.

Sabrmetrics have greatly changed the way the game has played over the last 30 years. Sure, there were managers who had already figured it out. Earl Weaver, for example. But there were plenty who hadnt.

And I can tell you how good of a hitter a guy is by looking at his RBI totals. We are both getting to the same result different ways.

Using RBI you will be wrong more often than I will be using more accurate techniques.

An even better example?

Judging starting pitcher by wins instead of ERA. For most stats, the best indicator of that stat next year is what they did this year. Want to know how many home runs a guy will hit? Look at his past home run history. Ditto for strikeouts for a pitcher.

But, ERA-history is a better predictor of Wins than Wins-history is.

[John]

There has always been bad managers. And Weaver wasn't the first one to do that. And people always knew that wins was a deceptive stat. Nolan Ryan was a .500 pitcher in the 1970s, but he was still considered a great pitcher and not just because of his no hitters.

I have been watching baseball since the 1970s. And from day one in little league, the strategy was to have the guys who got on base a lot hit at the top of the order in front of the really good hitters. Number three has always been the spot for the best hitter in the lineup. Earle Combes, a career .317 hitter with little power, was the lead off hitter for the 27 Yankees. But no one knew that you wanted guys to set the table for the big hitters until Bill James told them.

[John]

And Steve Carlton once lost 20 games. But no one ever said Steve Carlton was a bad pitcher, at least not in the 1970s.

[robc]

Nolan Ryan didnt win the Cy Young (he probably deserved) the year he went 8-16 with a 2.76 ERA.

Funny thing is, Nolan Ryan is probably OVERRATED. As great a pitcher as he was, he is overrated because of the strikeouts.

[sgs]

"Back in the 80s, for example, managers were regularly batting low OBP guys in the leadoff spot."

???

Yeah, this never happened.

[robc]

Yeah, this never happened.

Yes it did. Heck, teams have done it with Juan Pierre in the last decade.

[sgs]

"managers were regularly batting low OBP guys in the leadoff spot."

No, this never happened.

Occasionally, some idiot managers did it, but MANAGERS NEVER REGULARLY put a low OBP player in leadoff.

"teams have done it with Juan Pierre "

Which does exactly fuckall to demonstrate your claim that MANAGERS PLURAL REGULARLY (as in all the time as a matter of general procedure) put low OBP batters at leadoff.

You WAY overstated your case, and got called on it. Your example isn't even relevant, as it's not from the fuckng 80's, and his OBP is around 350, which isn't bad at all.

Just shut the fuck up already, it's obvious you have no idea what the fuck you're talking about, hell your moron ass is claiming that before sabremetrics no one knew putting a good contact fast hitter up at leadoff was a good idea, despite 100 years of it being procedure.

[sgs]

I just checked. The historical average for OBP, and Juan Pierres OBP, are basically exactly the same.

[robc]

The historical average for OBP, and Juan Pierres OBP, are basically exactly the same.

Which means approximately 1/2 the starters on the team would have been better in the leadoff spot than him.

Okay, sure, you dont want Larry Fucking Walker batting leadoff, despite his better OBP. But they had someone else who could do it.

[robc]

Which does exactly fuckall to demonstrate your claim that MANAGERS PLURAL REGULARLY (as in all the time as a matter of general procedure) put low OBP batters at leadoff.

I looked at the 1985 NL West, pretty much randomly.

Two of the six teams had an obvious hole at leadoff, Atlanta and LA, with a .308 and .304 OBP guy. The LA guys stole 50 bases in the leadoff.

SF wasnt much better with a .316 leadoff, but their team OBP was a pathetic .300, so they were trying.

Cincy had .327 OBP with 64 stolen bases. They had plenty of options, the 2 spot was about 40 pts higher. Part of it was they experimented with Eric Davis at leadoff and he flopped.

SD and Hou had .336 and .359 leadoff OBPs, with 20 and 22 stolen bases. So they were playing for getting guys on base instead of for speed at the top.

I think there are plural examples of teams putting low OBP/high speed guys in the 1 spot in the 80s.

3 examples (2 here plus Vince Coleman) without looking too deep.

[BakedPenguin]

Back in the 80s, for example, managers were regularly batting low OBP guys in the leadoff spot.

That is insane, no matter how good of a base stealer he is.

Vince Coleman?

[robc]

Yep, good example.

Although, oddly, that was with a manager who was very smart about things. One of the few managers who have managed to make small ball work regularly.

In 1987, Vince did have a .363 OBP, but he surrounded it with a .301 and a .313.

STL 1986, obp by batting order:

1: .296 (ugh!)
2: .326
3: .322
4: .341
5: .307
6: .287
7: .333
8: .351 (wtf?!?)*

*Ozzie had a .441 obp in his 27 games batting 8th

[sloopyinca]

^^NERDS!!!!!^^

[BakedPenguin]

...oddly, that was with a manager who was very smart about things.

He was a protege of Branch Rickey, wasn't he? Because that would explain it. Rickey was fairly analytical, but was also a speed freak. He valued speed on the basepads & fielding more than it was probably worth.

[Greg]

Whitey never worked for Branch Rickey, he started working after his playing career with Charlie Finley's As I believe and made his early on-field mark with the Mets as a 3rd base coach. I think when Rickey retired Whitey was still trying to play major league baseball.

[Rasilio]

"That is what annoys me about SABREMETRICS, they are just needlessly complicated ways of telling us things anyone watching the game and paying attention already knew. "

Rob Deer would like a word with you

[Lord Humungus]

tendency to overcomplicate thing

Part of being a "guru" is to overcomplicate things, or somehow have some "special" knowledge.

eg - at my job, I'm considered the EDI "guru" who has this near-mystical knowledge on how (in their eyes) complicated systems work. I kind of shrug. Everything seems complicated if you're not familiar with it - like sailing a boat, brewing beer, or making your own speakers.

[robc]

brewing beer

Since you are getting more into this, let me give you a piece of advice.

Simple is better.

After a few batches, newbs thinking they arent newbs anymore (and I did this too) overcomplicate recipes. Too many malts, too many different hops. It makes a mess. Its one of the signs that someone still isnt experienced.

There is a time and a place to make a complicated recipe, but they are rare. One key thing to think about when putting together a recipe: You should be able to indentify WHY you are using each ingredient. If you cant tell someone why its in there, you probably dont need it.

[sgs]

"let me give you a piece of advice."

No thanks.

[Mike M.]

Yep. Glowing terms like "genius" should be reserved for guys like Einstein and Edison.

If Silver were really the predictive genius that his friends in the liberal media like to make him out to be, he wouldn't be working for a freaking media corporation. He would be managing a big Wall Street hedge fund, or he'd be another Billy Walters, out in Nevada making his living off the Vegas sports books.

[Careless]

I'm still annoyed I couldn't take his money on the global warming bet 4 years ago

[Lord Humungus]

Special report: How big tech stays offline on tax
http://www.reuters.com/article.....8W20130723

The principle of the system now is that companies often pay tax not on the basis of where they do business, but on where they finalize their business deals with customers. With a contract-stamping operation in a low-tax country such as Ireland as its "permanent establishment", a company can channel revenue from its major markets to be taxed at a lower rate.

The OECD calls that tactic "artificial avoidance of PE status", and it wants to change things so the international tax system more closely resembles economic reality. It aims to tweak the guidelines - which countries including France want to change - so that countries where companies make lots of money can claim a commensurate share of tax.

tax, tax, tax...

[Matrix]

Maybe everyone should just collect taxes on every purchase everywhere. Because we're all part of a global economy or whatever. So everyone should get a slice of the pie when I buy my McDouble from McDonalds

[Gozer the Gozerian]

My rule of thumb is that if France wants to do something, it is best to nuke that something (and France) from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure...

[Raven Nation]

If you're going to nuke France, would it be better to use neutron bombs? That way we could all go visit the historic sites in a few years.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

No: I want nuclear damnatio memoriae.

[Raven Nation]

Harsh. How about keeping the Maginot Line as a visual explanation of French culture?

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Integrate it into the containment wall!

[Raven Nation]

Winner!

[a better weapon]

it wants to change things so the international tax system more closely resembles economic reality.

The REALITY is that some places have lenient tax structures and other places have a shitty tax and regulatory environment.

which countries including France want to change

No shit.

[I can't trust my fans]

Adding iodine to salt gave the US a decade's worth of IQ gains

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

David Cameron's war on internet pr0n goes worse than French resistance to the NAZIs 🙁

http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....6991.html#

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

So Bloomberg is trying to drive NYC IQs down? Um, more.

[Brett L]

David Cameron's war on internet pr0n goes worse than French resistance to the NAZIs

Less successful than Harold's shield wall at Hastings?

[Raven Nation]

Less successful than Scott Pioli's innovations with the Chiefs?

[Pro Libertate]

So I should drink more iodine? I mean, more than I already am?

[Juice]

Wow, this looks like a classic case of correlation does not equal causation.

[Slammer]

As long as you're getting food stamps, why not send the food you collect back to your home country?

[Rich]

When the tubs are full, the welfare users call a shipping company to pick them up and send them to the Caribbean for about $70.

"FBI Shipping Company. How may I help you, Mon?"

[Brett L]

Oh, you use Food Benefits Inc, too?

[T]

No matter what system you set up, somebody out there is going to work out how to game it.

[Juice]

Ironically, some of that food was very likely imported from the Caribbean.

[Palin's Buttplug]

ATLANTA (AP) ? The number of people relying on food stamps in Georgia is rising.

The program a year ago provided food assistance to a record 1.91 million people in the state a year ago. Nearly a quarter of them were 6 years old or younger.

By this June, the program had added 40,000 more recipients.
(AB-H)

Georgia - reddest of the red states (SC and UT might argue), has created the most shitty jobs of anyone. 58% of the adults on food stamps are employed.

[Jordan]

And the vast majority of Georgia's population is located in the blue city of Atlanta.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Absolutely untrue. Atlanta has a population of less than 500,000.

Now suburban Cobb, Gwinnett, etc are deep red and dwarf Atlanta in size.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Atlanta metro is over, literally, 10x the size you claimed.

[WTF]

Shreeky the dishonest fucktard lied?!
Shocked, I am.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Atlanta METRO includes the Deep Red counties of Gwinnett and Cobb.

[Enough About Palin]

WTF???

[Marshall Gill]

You can't expect facts from an imbecile.

[Enough About Palin]

I lived there. 7-million.

[Ted S.]

A lot more states voted for Romney at a higher rate than Georgia did. 22, in fact, according to Wikipedia.

[prolefeed]

Population of Georgia -- about 10M people.

Population of Atlanta -- about 0.55M people.

Population of Metro Atlanta (a huge chunk of land -- 8,400 square miles) -- about 5.5M people.

So, not the "vast majority" by any measure.

[Zeb]

Is that the number of people relying on food stamps or the number of people receiving food stamps? The income threshold for it is high enough now that plenty of people who could provide for their own needs just fine can get it.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I'm just going to start using this every time it is relevant:

Causality!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I knew Microsoft was behind the violence inherent in the system.

[Zeb]

I like this one better: http://www.businessweek.com/ma.....1-gfx.html

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Violence has always been commited mostly by young men who now apparently are too busy using internet pr0n to kill each other. It makes sense.

[Emmerson Biggins]

see, all that DOJ anti-trust stuff did have some positive benefits!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Georgia - reddest of the red states (SC and UT might argue)

Wow, you can't even get this one correct.

[Juice]

He forgot Oklahoma.

[Tonio]

58% of the adults on food stamps are employed.

And that is a bad thing, why, exactly?

I don't see that as a problem. Every dollar a person on public assistance earns through gainful employment is a dollar we (those of us not on public assistance) have to subsidize through our tax dollars.

Also "employed" is not the same as full-time employed (consistent 40 hour weeks). Maybe the full-time jobs just don't exist, or maybe some of these people can't hold down f/t jobs because of health, caregiver responsibilities, etc.

This is typical shriek half-truths, misdirection and conflation.

[Tonio]

dollar we...DON'T have to subsidize

[TheTreeOfLiberty]

"Georgia - reddest of the red states (SC and UT might argue"

Yea this is def BS, I believe the usual ranking is WY, ID, UT, GA is a lot farther down due to ATL and it's large black and more liberal white population.

[Lord Humungus]

Dubai rape case Norwegian woman 'free to go'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl.....t-23404042

Interior designer Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, was on a business trip in Dubai when she says she was raped in March.

She reported the attack to the police, but was charged with perjury, having extramarital sex and drinking alcohol, receiving a 16-month prison sentence.

Ms Dalelv has had her passport returned and was free to leave the country, a Norwegian official told the BBC. She was not being deported, and was expected to return to Norway in the next few days.

[Metazoan]

Third world city with a first world facade.

[Rich]

Dogs CAN see in color

Son of a bitch!

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

Colorblindness necessarily doesn't mean black and white only. For dogs and most humans who have it, it just means the color red doesn't have its own cones.

There was a TERRIFIC Radiolab episode on this.

[Joe M]

Not sure if this is from last year or last week:

Henrico police shoot pet as they notify family of son's homicide

"Excuse me, ma'am? Your son is dead." *BANG!* "Your dog is dead too, btw."

[Brett L]

They were just demonstrating on the dog the condition of the son. New Professionalism!

[John]

They really are just sick fucks. All they know is terrorizing and degrading people. Even the fucking Checka didn't shoot people's dogs.

[Tim]

In fairness the people had already eaten their dogs.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

At least in Ukraine they had.

[db]

Talk about a kick in the balls.

[a better weapon]

Poor woman. 6 tickets from Cleveland to Richmond isn't going to be cheap... you know, for the pallbearers.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

12. 6 for the dog too.

[Lord Humungus]

Bono: Only Capitalism Can End Poverty
http://www.inquisitr.com/42883.....rty-video/

"Aid is just a stop-gap. Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid.

"In dealing with poverty here and around the world, welfare and foreign aid are a Band-Aid. Free enterprise is a cure.

"Entrepreneurship is the most sure way of development."

*faints*

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I guess he's not concerned about selling records anymore.

[Brett L]

Please. Their work in the 21st century makes clear they haven't been interested in a while.

[John]

I heard him once talk about the scourges of fascism and COMMUNISM in the 20th century. I mean he put them both on the same level of evil and in the same sentence. I am surprised they didn't pull his celebrity card for that.

[Palin's Buttplug]

To most of us capitalism means free trade, profit, and private property. Obama is a capitalist by that definition.

Now here at the Peanut Gallery where I read often I notice a different meaning. Here, capitalism = no regulations. NONE.

[Jordan]

To most of us capitalism means free trade, profit, and private property. Obama is a capitalist by that definition.

By that definition, Francois Mitterand was a capitalist.

Now here at the Peanut Gallery where I read often I notice a different meaning. Here, capitalism = no regulations. NONE.

Capitalism means free strawmans for everyone!

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Shreek!

[OldMexican]

Re: Palin's Buttwipw,

To most of us capitalism means free trade, profit, and private property. Obama is a capitalist by that definition.

Which tell me that you have the wrong conceptual image of what free trade, profit and property means so as to conclude that Barry "You Didn't Build That!" Soetoro is a capitalist.

Now here at the Peanut Gallery where I read often I notice a different meaning. Here, capitalism = no regulations. NONE.

No, capitalism means free trade of property for pretty much everybody who knows a little about economics. No regulations means, for us, no undue intrusion from government. NONE.

[Not a Libertarian]

Now here at the Peanut Gallery where I read often I notice a different meaning. Here, capitalism = no regulations. NONE.

But unless I was misinformed, is this not a libertarian website?

Is not a society of few or no regulations their raison d'?tre?

[CampingInYourPark]

To most of us capitalism means free trade, profit, and private property. Obama is a capitalist by that definition.

Sure...free trade is all about the government manipulating people to buy products against their will.

[Matrix]

well, of course... and when problems arise, they can call it MARKET FAILUREZZZ!!!

[R C Dean]

The massive regulatory state and its handmaiden the redistributive state, together with their enforcers at the IRS, are a constant imposition on free trade, profit, and private property.

Any supporter of Big State is no friend of capitalism, at least of the non-crony variety.

[Zeb]

Good for him. That increases my esteem for Boner.

[BakedPenguin]

Yep. It also means he may very well achieve something in the way of reducing poverty. It's impressive that he actually cares more about seeing people leave poverty than ideology.

[Juice]

He even used the dreaded term, "job creators."

[Lord Humungus]

the classic animation

Taiwan: Chicago's murder rate is falling, but it's still insanely high
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UDTfJ5QGic

[Eduard van Haalen]

Those NMA guys just get weirder and weirder.

[Joe M]

Man Wins Lawsuit Against Airport Security, Forces Them to Learn Fourth Amendment

Is this old news?

The details of the settlement read like an civili libertarian fantasy realized, and involve Richmond's airport security personnel being forced to brush up on American Government 101:

"Richmond International Airport officials announced this week that their security officers underwent a special two-hour training course on the First and Fourth Amendment rights of passengers as a part of a settlement with Mr. Tobey,"

[Rich]

navigators will have to take a 20?30 hour online course about how the 1,200-page law works, which, given its demonstrated complexity, is like giving someone a first-aid course and then making him a med-school professor. "I want to assure you and all Americans that, when they fill out their [health-insurance] marketplace applications, they can trust the information they're providing is protected," said Marilyn Tavenner, head of HHS's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The trainwreck continues.

[John]

It is like they designed it to allow criminals to take advantage of the maximum number of people.

[Brett L]

Oh, really? 3-4 days of trainingWhat the fuck could possibly go wrong? Nobody born after 1975 will have any faith in the FedGov by 2015.

[Rich]

To be fair, after the training they look like this.

[Brett L]

Nice.

[Matrix]

I was born in 1981, and haven't had faith in it in... well... as long as I can remember.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

They're just properly incenting us to stay healthy...

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I wonder if navigators work remotely.

[Clich? Bandit]

Well, after thousands of years of forced spice evolution they can fold space...and regulations.

[R C Dean]

The punch line, of course, is that the "navigators" who are being given the keys to the Biggest Database EVAR are community organizer/activist types. These are fundamentally political people, being given access to a vast database.

What. Could. Possibly. Go. Wrong?

[John]

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/new.....69041.html

The Democratic war on womenz continues. IN the mayor's defense, he was clearly not committing lookism in his harassment. He let the homely older broads in on the action too.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

He is one smarmy looking asshole.

[John]

And remember, a failed Senate Candidate in Missouri is representative of every Republican. But the Mayor of San Diago is in no way representative of Democrats. Trying to remember the last Republican to get in trouble for abusing women or banging hookers (which feminists claim is the same thing), that Senator back in the early 90s maybe?

[Spoonman.]

David Vitter was more recent than that, wasn't he?

[John]

07, yes I forgot about that. But he is out of public life.

[Azathoth!!]

David Vitter is a sitting Senator.

[Rasilio]

Jack Ryan

Not Hookers but basically spousal abuse (on Star Trek's 7 of 9 no less) bordering on rape forcing her to attend swingers parties and such.

And as a result we were left with the wonderful Barack Obama winning the Senate Seat.

[R C Dean]

"forcing" her? Was violence or the threat of violence involved?

If not, then I fail to see how it qualifies as abuse.

[Rasilio]

Going off of memory here but iirc her side of the story was that yes there was threats of violence involved.

[Azathoth!!]

Well, your memory is wrong.

He wabted to have sex at the sex clubs they went to, and she was screwing Brannon Braga. That was the big deal.

[ant1sthenes]

Smarmy? He looks like Aphex Twin did a political ad.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

I'm hoping to get some advice on online colleges. Has anyone here gotten a degree online? What did you think of the process? If it was an IT degree, would your recommend your school?

[Brett L]

Are you already in IT? Technical? If so, go get an underwater basket-weaving degree from the cheapest source possible.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Yeah, I'm in IT now. I'm a IT systems manager. One might think that 20 years in computers and references that include a senator's wife would be enough to get me a decent paying job in IT, but companies won't even talk to me because I don't have a fucking piece of paper.

Most of the places that I want to work at require a computer sciences degree, not just a general bachelors.

[Brett L]

I'm so glad credentialism has made it to IT.
/sarc

More seriously, I don't know of any credible online CS programs. A quick googling didn't turn anything up. Unfortunately, udacity.com isn't quite in the degree biz yet.

[Rich]

Skydiver Blindsides Shortstop, Crushes Him From Above

And ... he's SAFE!!

[Raven Nation]

I think you SF'd the link.

[Evan from Evansville]

I demand that this link work.

[Rich]

Oops! Hier.

[SugarFree]

The ultimate humiliation... link.

[Raven Nation]

Love the way the other players rushed to aid the short stop. /sarc

[Rich]

Oh, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

[Eduard van Haalen]

"What the video doesn't show is one skydiver who successfully landed and another landed fine after this mishap."

Booooring! When I go to Youtube, I don't want to see humiliating accidents that *don't* happen.

[Lord Humungus]

For some gays in America, a legal victory becomes a tax headache
http://www.reuters.com/article.....VZ20130722

Married Californians Jeremy Turpen and Randy Brock celebrated last month's U.S. Supreme Court rulings on gay marriage. Now they face a tax headache.

Living in a state that recognizes gay marriage, they are entitled under the rulings to federal tax breaks enjoyed by other U.S. married couples such as tax-free, employer-provided healthcare for a spouse.

But still unclear is how they are to report the business income Brock gets from Florida, where same-sex marriage is not recognized.

[John]

Wait until they find out about divorce court.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I believe this has been discussed before, but...

Will male couples get (metaphorically) fucked, and female couples get off easy (so to speak...)?

[John]

It is going to cause a lot of feminist family court judges' heads to explode. How is she supposed to fuck the man when both parties are men? Or worse when both parties are female?

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Take it out on the relevantly gendered children?

[robc]

Custody cases are going to be fun when you cant default to the Mom.

[Zeb]

That'll be rough. The judges might actually have to think about facts and stuff.

[John]

Never Zeb!! Never.

[Eduard van Haalen]

They'll defer to the femmy-acting one.

[Enough About Palin]

My sister and her partner had a baby. Her partner birthed it and my sister became the kid's legally adoptive parent. I figure in a divorce, the birth-mother trumps the adoptive parent.

[R C Dean]

It will be interesting to see if being forced to be gender neutral and not just reflexively privilege the "wife" will leak over into their non-gay divorce cases.

[Enough About Palin]

Where have you been? Haven't seen you here in ages.

[Azathoth!!]

They'll still default to the mother. Heather's other 'mommy' may be called that, but she isn't. She's mommy's spouse.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

As a newly minted divorce lawyer, this is going to be a beautiful thing.

[John]

Gay people tend to be better educated, have a higher income and more likely to own their own business than the average person. There is going to be some good money to be made doing gay divorces. If I were a solo practitioner in a state with gay marriage, I would be networking in the gay community like mad. The other thing is a lot of them are going to go out and get married just to do it. Give it a couple of years and most of those "we did it" marriages are going to end and both parties are going to need a lawyer.

[Tonio]

Citation needed.

[John]

http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/0.....index.html

They earn more, save more, have less debt and are better prepared for retirement, according to a Prudential survey of more than 1,000 LGBT respondents.

Respondents not only reported significantly higher annual incomes -- $61,500 compared with the national median of $50,054 -- but they also carried about $4,000 less in debt than the average American and had $6,000 more in household savings. They were even slightly more likely to have jobs in the first place, with an unemployment rate of 7% versus the national rate of 7.9%, Prudential found.

[John]

The average LGBT household earns $61,500 annually, which surpasses the average national household income by more than $10,000. Unemployment is also lower within the LGBT community. Only 7 percent of respondents reported to be out of a job, while the national average stands at 7.9 percent. When it comes to putting away money for the future, gay households save on average $6,000 more than the national average. Gay households also have $4,000 less in debt.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....49677.html

[John]

Google, how does it work Tonio?

[RBS]

I'm totally getting in the gay divorce business if SC ever recognizes gay marriage.

[John]

Gays have money. They can pay.

[Brett L]

Eh, I haven't seen my gay friends' long term relationships end particularly more sordidly than the straight ones. And there's really no new level of hatred or irrationality to be plumbed by humans.

[John]

Doesn't have to be sorted to require a lawyer. The fact is, unless they own very little property and things are totally amicable, they are going to have to hire two lawyers to break up. And that is good news for divorce attorneys.

[RBS]

Uncontested? Even better.

[sloopyinca]

I think the big issue here is that 1/2 of them will likely end the same way 1/2 of the heterosexual marriages end. Humans are humans, after all, and the rates of success of gay marriages will likely be the same as the rates of success of straight marriages, so there will be a need for lawyers.

And I base this statement on absolutely nothing.

[Brett L]

I think the big issue here is that 1/2 of them will likely end the same way 1/2 of the heterosexual marriages end.

I agree. Wait until the newest generation of gays decide to get married to prove they are grown up like their hetero friends already do. It has nothing to do with their sexuality and everything to do with the decision making ability of the average 23 year old.

[RBS]

Yep, pretty much every one of my friends who got married right after college are working on marriage number 2 at this point.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Eh, I haven't seen my gay friends' long term relationships end particularly more sordidly than the straight ones.

I think the point is that there will be a whole new base of clients in divorce law that never existed before. And as robc pointed out, it could turn family law on its head when judges can't reflexively default to the mother. One of the benefits of having gay marraige recognized is the potential for legal precedent regarding custody/support cases.

[Rasilio]

"I think the point is that there will be a whole new base of clients in divorce law that never existed before. "

Yeah but it is a tiny one with the entire Gay and Bi population equaling only 4 - 6% of the nation as a whole. Even if we assume that they eventually marry and then divorce at the same rate of the heterosexual population you'd only be looking at somewhere around 45,000 to 50,000 extra divorces each year nationwide, compare that to the total of around 2.5 million divorces that already occur and it is not really that big of a new market.

[Fatty Bolger]

You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him: Kirk Cameron's Unstoppable Promos Stay Up on YouTube

The Growing Pains actor-turned-evangelist is celebrating after YouTube and Facebook both reversed course and lifted their ban on the trailer for his new evangelical-themed documentary, Unstoppable, after the companies cited the promo for allegedly violating their respective policies concerning spam.

[Xenocles]

Why would you want to stop them? I bet they're hilarious. Do they run the clip with Ray Comfort inadvertently sexualizing a banana?

[sloopyinca]

When are the greedy taxpayers going to learn that we can't underpay our heroic first responders in blue? Why, this guy was so underpaid, he was practically forced to seek a second income so he could feed his family.

[thom]

It's curious that they don't seem to report his police income in that article.

[Xenocles]

Well, wouldn't you want your drug dealer to be a cop? Cops are so trustworthy, you know it would be safe.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I hear they collect the best drugs and store them in the evidence locker.

/fact I just made up

[UnCivilServant]

I trust the dealers more than the cops. Dealers don't pretend to be anything other than what they are.

[sloopyinca]

I don't do drugs, but I would have to say that I also trust drug dealers more than cops. Because a dealer is only as good as his word. He either provides what he says he will provide at an agreed-to cost or he doesn't and his customers go elsewhere. Cops routinely lie, deceive, entrap, scam and intentionally screw with their customers simply because they can and there is no alternative to their "services".

[Careless]

"After the money exchanged hands, a dozen FBI agents in SWAT gear entered the home"

[Clich? Bandit]

This guy has pulled me over before, i believe. Not totally unpleasant. Maybe we need to prescribe X to all cops.

I didn't hear about this. I will say though our Chief (Coogan) and her top lieutenant both "retired" about two or three months ago. I asked the mayor what was up and she said nothing out of the ordinary that she knew.

I can't believe I have to get my local news from SLOOPY
DAMNIT

(p.s. if I were to bid for middle name it would be, Locke...like Liberty Locke Spice? nice huh?)

[sloopyinca]

Remember that psycho cop in Ohio that was prone to road rage incidents, death threats to people he pulled over and all-around insane behavior?

Looks like him leaving the force hasn't quelled his road rage.

[Rich]

Mr. Warner said a 911 operator told him to "lose" Mr. Carr

WTF?

[sloopyinca]

Just like what they told Trayvon...

[thom]

Probably good advice. When somebody is seeking out confrontation with you while driving, the first impulse is to engage. But the safest thing to do is to disengage.

[Rich]

But attempting to disengage from a road-rager just escalates the situation. Indeed, it turns *you* into the aggressor.

[thom]

I disagree. Road rage only continues as long as there is feedback. Refuse to provide feedback and the road rage will die out quickly.

[John]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....iclMj1422H

Oddly, hammer wielding gangs never seem to strike places with civilized gun laws.

[Rich]

"That's not a hammer; *this* is a HAMMER!"

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Captain Hammer to the rescue!

[Eduard van Haalen]

MC Hammer is depressed at the bad publicity.

[Enough About Palin]

I used to talk with him on the phone.

[Francisco d Anconia]

The Brewers' Ryan Braun admitted to using steroids and was suspended without pay for the rest of the season.

So, he got punished worse than cops who shoot innocent people.

[John]

True. But he is also a total fucking shitbag. I don't care about the use of steroids. But when they caught him last year and it turned out that the guy who took the sample had taken it home before mailing it off to the lab, Braun used that to slander the guy for tampering with the sample and claim his innocence. He lied and got a bunch of people to believe that guy was dirty when in fact Braun knew all along he was really guilty. Fuck him.

[RBS]

I hate the steroids in sports bullshit so much. That being said, fuck Braun and fuck the Brewers.

/cubsfan

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Maybe they can revoke his ROY award and give it to Tulowitzki like they should have in the first place.

[KDN]

I was ready to rip this comment apart since Braun's hitting stats are so much better (plus no Coors boost), but I forgot what a black hole of suck Braun was at third. Yeah, Tulo deserved it.

But remember, awards voters don't care about defense or positional scarcity. Because they are sports journalists, and sports journalists live their lives raging against all modern developments that might help them to better perform their jobs.

[RBS]

I thought they lived their lives huddled in basements wiping cheetos dust on their sweatpants?

[KDN]

No, no, that's bloggers and amateur internet statisticians.

[sloopyinca]

I guess no matter how bad it could be to get pulled over here, being a woman pulled over by a cop in South Africa is a lot worse.

[AuH20]

Fuck you, MSNBC. The Crunk Feminist Collective isn't losing the retard trophy that easily

Every word they speak is another move in a historically scripted, finely choreographed, racist dance on Trayvon Martin's grave. And their comrades are right at their sides in the graveyard shoveling dirt over the freshly dug graves of the Voting Rights Act, Affirmative Action, Native Sovereignty, Abortion Rights, and Immigration Reform.

I seriously do not know how our ancestors endured this shit.

It is clear that these white boys have been upset with the way this thing has been going for a while now. And when they looked back, they located the source of the problem in the mid-twentieth century, when Americans more courageous (or more opportunistic) than they decided to "give us" our rights.

But the god of white supremacy giveth, and he (most definitely a HE) taketh away.

Here we were thinking that fifty years out, we'd be in a season of commemoration, not evisceration.

As the utter folly of such thinking dawns on us, perhaps in an earth-shattering sort of way as it did on Saturday night, scores of Black women felt a visceral need to find and hold on tightly to the Black men in their lives that they love, partners, sons, brothers, nephews, cousins, friends.

[Slammer]

Stakes is high.

[Brett L]

Eh. The idiots who are Occupying the FL Capitol (which will remain essentially unused until January) demanding the Governor call a special session are clearly the winners of the Trayvon Martin Bloody Shirt Derp Cup.

[John]

I seriously do not know how our ancestors endured this shit.

I am thinking your ancestors, if they were to come back to life today, would slap the stupid out of you for wasting opportunities they never had and pissing on their memories by pretending you are enduring anything like what they did. In fact, your very existence is so grotesque a few of them might question why they struggled for freedom at all if it meant producing the likes of you.

[AuH20]

This is why I got my ass beat?

[Gozer the Gozerian]

How far back are we going...?

...I ask because I am thinking that most of their ancestors would just try and kill their dumb asses.

[John]

I am thinking more of the ones say 50 to 150 years ago who actually suffered and sacrificed for her to have the right to be a moron in peace.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

So, they would at least be civilized enough to "demand satisfaction"?

[sloopyinca]

Looks like Gloria Allred is going for bronze. Her press conference yesterday doesn't even come close to that level of insanity.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Who is she representing this time?

[Xenocles]

Herself, just like always.

[sloopyinca]

Some lady that works for the San Diego mayor. You won't see it on any of the usual feminist-grievance outlets because the guy's a democrat.

http://www.politico.com/story/.....94566.html

[Eduard van Haalen]

Well, good Allred then. Can't believe I said that, but one must give credit where it's due.

[Eduard van Haalen]

good *for* Allred.

[sloopyinca]

The fucked up part of the story, and the part that's being missed by the local media, is that this lady took a $50k a year pay cut from the position "Deputy Chair of Public Policy" at the Port of San Diego to take the communications job she had in the mayor's office. She was making $175k at the Port Authority.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Invert the races here and you would have a screed worthy of Mein Kampf of the Klan. This is just naked bigotry on the part of these writers.

[AuH20]

Well, thank god they took sociology classes. According to sociology, black people can't be racist. Literally (as in that is actually written down in sociology books, thus a proper use of the phrase)

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Protocols of the Elders of Zion Zion

Oh, wait...

[Francisco d Anconia]

I am upset that a white hispanic didn't go to jail for protecting himself from getting a beating from a black guy.

Who cares that there wasn't one shred of evidence to convict on? He should be in prison, because, racism.

/ultimate derp

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

The sheer lack of objectivity in this matter is fucking staggering. It's like no one gives a shit about any of the facts, process, or standards of proof.

[Francisco d Anconia]

We should be able to pick and choose when the rule of law applies... We should be able to convict by popular opinion.

I haven't an ounce of respect for these fucking idiots.

[sloopyinca]

We should be able to pick and choose when the rule of law applies

I can only think of one group this applies to. Hint: they wear badges, have friends investigate their alleged crimes and have unions negotiate what passes for "due process".

[Eduard van Haalen]

Yeah, justice by mob has been such a *good thing* for minorities. Likewise prosecuting people for defending themselves. Keep doing it and racial justice will finally be achieved!

[Enough About Palin]

The Body of Trayvon

[Raven Nation]

Australian tax dollars at work, to benefit the whole world:

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=26485

[Gozer the Gozerian]

"Market failure!"

[UnCivilServant]

Now if they could produce edible avacados, we'd really have something.

[Raven Nation]

I used to dislike avocados in all forms. I still can't eat them by themselves but like the flavor in some sandwiches as well as some sushi.

[sloopyinca]

Baltimore police officers beat man to death after traffic infraction. Eyewitness testifies to what happened. Officers go home to their families. Nothing else happens.

[John]

The details are worth reading.

Shawanda Wilson, who lives nearby, said she saw the man put his hands up outside the car when two officers sprayed him with what appeared to be Mace or pepper spray and struck him. The man, who appeared to be in his 30s, ran a short distance to an alley, where officers caught up with him and started beating him with batons in his head and back, Wilson said.

The man ended up on the other side of the street, Wilson said, and numerous other officers, some from Morgan State University, arrived and began to beat the man.

At some point, the officers backed away and a policeman could be seen performing CPR on the man, Wilson said. She said he was bleeding from his mouth, and she called the beating "excessive."

It was "really bad," she said. "To the point where I got upset."

And we blame the urban black community for hating cops?

[Irish]

And we blame the urban black community for hating cops?

Well I sure don't.

[Spoonman.]

Nope, I don't understand how they couldn't.

[thom]

At least they made it home safely. That's the most important thing, right?

[sloopyinca]

They have a right to do that, you know. It's been ruled on.

[R C Dean]

An absolute right to it, overriding all legal and Constitutional concerns, and even basic morality.

There is basically nothing, not one single thing, not the rule of law, not human decency, nothing, that is more important than keeping a cop from taking any risk to his personal well-being.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

FTA:

"In September 2012, 46-year-old Anthony Anderson died after being thrown to the ground by officers during a drug arrest in East Baltimore. The state medical examiner ruled the cause of death was homicide, but prosecutors declined to pursue charges after determining that the officers did not use excessive force and followed police procedure."

Oh, well, if police procedures were followed, never mind then!

[John]

If the police procedure can result in death, maybe it is not lawful? If police procedure was to just shoot one of out every four arestees to keep the rest of them in line, I guess the Baltimore DA would have no problem with it.

[sloopyinca]

Hey, if they negotiate in in their CBA, who is the DA to challenge their due process rights to smoke any dumb bastard that refuses to follow orders. Looks like their union was strong enough to negotiate the right to beat people to death with impunity in Baltimore.

[Juice]

If the police procedure can result in death, maybe it is not lawful?

They were standing their ground.

[sloopyinca]

Unfortunately, those "procedures" also include them having a separate "due process" than "civilians" have, and afford them the luxury of getting a few days before being asked to testify as to what happened, and they of course have access to all evidence in the case so they are better able to frame their narrative.

Not in this story they escalated the stop because they "suspected there were drugs inside"...but those alleged drugs never appear anywhere else in the story. But that's ok, because fighting the scourge of drugs is a good thing, right? And if that guy had nothing to hide then why did he resist?

Fuck these pigs. Fuck every one of them. And fuck the comments made by cops, to cops in anonymity on policeone.

[John]

What is repulsive is that the people of Baltimore County elect that DA. So they must not give a shit either.

[sloopyinca]

What are they gonna do, John? Elect a Republican?

[Redmanfms]

I doubt any DA will ever develop an adversarial relationship with the police and hold cops under his jurisdiction to the letter of the law they are expected to enforce.

This goes doubly for the typically cop-fellating shitweasels in the GOP.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I get the impression Democratic politicians are more likely to prosecute if the cop-on-"civilian" violence is interracial - or the "wrong" kind of interracial.

Republican prosecutors are more likely to prosecute if...and I can't think of an ending to that sentence.

[John]

I think DAs of either party would be much more likely to prosecute it if a DA would ever get voted out of office for failure to prosecute. They all are craven fucks who would send their mother to jail if that is what it took to get ahead. Start sending a few to the unemployment line and the rest will get the message.

[sloopyinca]

I was speaking more to the lockstep-voting patterns of the typical Baltimorean, regardless of what it gets them. You're right, of course that the GOP DA's are at least as bad when it comes to prosecuting cops.

[Eduard van Haalen]

To be fair, even in one-party cities there are always primaries. Not that DAs get viable challengers very often.

[sloopyinca]

And since getting the support of the big PubSec unions is how their campaigns are finances, all of the candidates have to go in the pocket of the cops or their chances of getting elected are a big, fat zero.

[Fatty Bolger]

Elf electric pedal car: When 1 hp is enough

Prices just went up: the Elf costs $4,995, more if you want the backup battery, the continuously variable transmission rear hub or the better solar panels.

The Elf's capacity is 350 pounds; top assisted speed is 20 mph (it goes faster downhill); and the 10-amp-hour batteries offer a range of up to 30 miles, but the batteries last longer the more riders pedal. It takes one whole sunny day to charge a fully depleted battery with 60-watt roof-mounted solar panels.

Nobody needs more than 1 HP.

[Lord Humungus]

it goes faster downhill

most things do.

[sloopyinca]

They could solve that problem by affixing a magnet and steel plate on the back of it to push it uphill faster. Or maybe an electric fan.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Come on... Even Gary Gygax fixed that in Unearthed Arcana...

[Fatty Bolger]

I'm going to pretend I don't know what you're talking about.

[Clich? Bandit]

And we will pretend not to laugh at you...

[db]

Just ride a fucking horse.

[Slammer]

'Shut up before we lose your paper work and you won't be seen by a judge,'

[sloopyinca]

Cop accused of excessive force gets a paid vacation. But the real news here is the police spokesman's name.

FTA (emphasis mine): "As per our departmental policy, the use of force by members of law enforcement is a matter of critical concern both to the public and the law enforcement community and we believe that we have taken the necessary steps to preserve that trust regardless of the outcome of either investigation," said Lt. Cannon Ball, of the Wellton Police Department, speaking for the chief.

[Zeb]

I wonder if he is related to Crystal Ball.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Or Duyawanna Ball?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Or Canon Ball of the Church of England.

Don't forget Justoine Ball.

[Juice]

It's Krystal.

[Raven Nation]

Different game for most of you, but you may still appreciate the skill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V214niq-Gdc

[sloopyinca]

Unfortunately, for me, the referee's attire makes it hard to take that game seriously.

Great drop goal, though.

[robc]

More proof that League is better than Union?

[Raven Nation]

Hmm, I mostly watched League when I lived in Oz, so that's my preference. But I was born in NZ, so my blood carries All Black genes.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

I bet you prefer flag football to tackle.

[sloopyinca]

You mean like preferring today's NFL over that of 20 years ago?

[robc]

No, but Im not a fan of punting out of bounds.

Union rugby fans can never mock American football fans for lack of action. Union is all about standing in lines waiting for an inbounds throw.

[Raven Nation]

The problem Australians always had with the NFL was the length of the game with long periods of nothing seeming to happen. An 80 minute rugby game (either code) lasts about 105 minutes of air time. A 60 minute NFL game, about 195.

[Slammer]

Why do Australians hate beer ads?

[Raven Nation]

Umm, what?

[Slammer]

The problem Australians always had with the NFL was the length of the game

I was making joke on the NFL games are so long because of all the ads

[robc]

I was making joke

Its not really a joke. I remember when there were college games that werent televised at all (I guess there still are at lower levels). I attended some of them. You are talking 2:30 instead of over 3:15.

The extra 45 minutes is ads.

For anyone who attends games, the most hating guy in the stadium is the red hat official.

[robc]

*hated*

[Slammer]

I remember going to my first live NFL game. The weirdest thing was after a change of possession both teams running onto the field and then standing around watching the stadium TV until the ads were almost over, then huddling up.

[Raven Nation]

Ahh, thanks for the clarification: I'm a little slower than normal this morning.

[robc]

Beer ads is what fills the time when nothing is going on in American football.

[Greg]

Wow! That seemed like it would have been good from a few more metres out too, it didn't look like it just crept over the bar. Takes big brass ones to even attempt that kick.

[John]

http://www.breitbart.com/Insta.....d-Big-Time
The Steamroller reduced to begging New York for forgiveness so he can have second rate political job. No Elliot, you didn't fail. You were the complete scumbag you have always been. I really wish someone would ask him about why his pimp considered him to be a "problem client" who liked to be rough with the girls they sent him.

[VG Zaytsev]

In a morning Joe(k) interview, Mika asked him how he was different than the guy that hired hookers and why he deserved a 2nd chance.

His answer was that he'd felt a lot of pain in the last few years from what he'd done.

[Brett L]

Total fucking sociopath.

[sloopyinca]

His answer was that he'd felt a lot of pain in the last few years from what he'd done.

From the syphilis or the gonorrhea?

[Eduard van Haalen]

+69

[Fatty Bolger]

No, empathy for the hookers he roughed up.

[The Late P Brooks]

The man ended up on the other side of the street, Wilson said, and numerous other officers, some from Morgan State University, arrived and began to beat the man.

They all want cake blood.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

And I bet he was saying no, no, no too.

[John]

No Brooks, they smelled blood. Cops are like sharks. They can smell a good beating from miles away and instinctively follow the scent.

[sloopyinca]

Where's supercop Seattle to speak truth to power on this one?

[RBS]

Hearing that phrase sends me into a fit of rage.

[sloopyinca]

Him claiming an internal investigation or administrative court for criminal offenses is "due process" is what sets me off.

It's almost as if the term "equal protection under the law" is a foreign concept to a cop who operates with a union-negotiated CBA.

[RBS]

What pisses me off the most is his claiming hiring an attorney is tantamount to guilt.

[sloopyinca]

We should form a union of peasants where we're automatically afforded a union-appointed attorney to steer us through any investigation. Ooh, and we should also make sure we get to take taxpayer-funded classes in how to navigate the investigation process when we're accused of malfeasance and explain to us the exact verbiage to use in our reports to make our actions appear justified...to the coworkers and friends of ours that are tasked with investigating us in the rare case that makes it to the IA process.

[RBS]

Only if we call it Working Class Heroes.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"What pisses me off the most is his claiming hiring an attorney is tantamount to guilt."

Yes, not hiring an attorney right off and talking to police instead gave prosecutors the chance to call Zimmerman a liar with consciousness of guilt. Good thing the jury didn't buy it.

[Brett L]

"What pisses me off the most is his claiming hiring an attorney is tantamount to guilt."

That's funny. Most police unions won't let their officers attend an interview into their conduct without one.

[Raven Nation]

I'm not excusing the cops but this struck me as odd too. Perhaps he had a history of pissing them off and this was their chance for payback?

[John]

http://www.thegatewaypundit.co.....-activist/

Racist sign at Zimmerman rally actually false flag operation. What a fucking shock.

[Slammer]

For all their talk of fairness and morality, they're the scummiest people. Any means to justify their ends.

[VG Zaytsev]

Renee even has her photo linked to a far left environmental website.

Hey, she's being honest.
Environuts are racists.

[Brett L]

In their defense, it is the human race they hate.

[Raven Nation]

She did make the claim to someone who asked that she was being sarcastic rather than a plant. Regardless of which is true, that sign is either a weak plant or weak sarcasm.

[creech]

It would be funny as hell if her employer called her in tomorrow and fired her for admitting she was a racist by holding that sign.

[CampingInYourPark]

It would be funny as hell if her employer

Almost as funny as the prospect of the dipshit being employed.

[Irish]

If conservatives and libertarians are so racist then why do liberals have to lie about their racism like this? Why does Chris Matthews need to claim that any attack on the president is racist and other such nonsense?

If their opponents were really racist, surely they'd be able to find actual examples without lying.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The teabaggers conceal their racism so effectively that the people might be deceived. In fact, the chilling effectiveness by which they suppress the evidence of their racism just shows how dangerously efficient these racists are.

[ant1sthenes]

"If conservatives and libertarians are so racist then why do liberals have to lie about their racism like this?"

Because it's easier than reading the comments at Daily Caller or Breitbart?

[Apatheist ?_??]

Well duh. I thought that was obvious the first time I saw it on chron.com

[Apatheist ?_??]

The Breitbart article linked at the bottom shows that the original Houston Chronicle article I read identified that she was mocking the pro-Zimmerman protesters and then all the other newssites somehow missed it. She even admitted it. So it wasn't a false flag so much as lying media people.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Wow, the media are worse than the trolling lefty demonstrators! Who would have thought?

[Whahappan?]

That was my first thought when I heard about it.

[OldMexican]

Re: Palin's Buttwipe,

To most of us capitalism means free trade, profit, and private property. Obama is a capitalist by that definition.

Which tells me that you have the wrong conceptual image of what free trade, profit and property means so as to conclude that Barry "You Didn't Build That!" Soetoro is a capitalist.

Now here at the Peanut Gallery where I read often I notice a different meaning. Here, capitalism = no regulations. NONE.

No, capitalism means free trade of property for pretty much everybody who knows a little about economics. No regulations means, for us, no undue intrusion from government. NONE.

[The Late P Brooks]

Headline for Time Magazine article I did not read:

Fewer Hospitals May lead to Higher Prices

Hard hitting economic analysis from the legacy media.

[John]

If the Retuglicans hadn't kept Obama from repealing that damned law of supply and demand, this wouldn't be happening.

[Brett L]

You want a REAL 3D printed gun? Next year could be your year: key patents for laser sintering are expiring.

These patents cover a technology known as "laser sintering," the lowest-cost 3D-printing technology. Because of its high resolution in all three dimensions, laser sintering can produce goods that can be sold as finished products

[The Late P Brooks]

Him claiming an internal investigation or administrative court for criminal offenses is "due process" is what sets me off.

"He was running away, and he fell down and hit his had. Repeatedly. With a police issued baton. While his hands were handcuffed behind his back."

"Okay, then; get back to work, and let's see some more of that professionalism. And whatever you do, make sure you get home safely."

[db]

If the most important thing for police officers is to get home safely, why don't they stay there?

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

Release the Kraken!

[Dunphy (the real one)]

"Him claiming an internal investigation or administrative court for criminal offenses is "due process" is what sets me off."

It's PART of due process. If criminal charges are warranted, as they are in tons of police misconduct cases, that's part of due process too. But due process means DURING the criminal trial, the cop will be on leave WITH pay. That's part of due process. If they are found guilty or not guilty, usually the dept. investigation (as to whether to discipline them or fire them) will occur AFTER the criminal trial, so yes due process means they get a long paid vacation. In rare cases, a cop will and should get fired earlier in the process, but that's a rare situation.

In case after case, BEFORE the admin punishment is meted out, sloopy will claim a cop is getting off with no punishment, when quotes from the very article he cites explain that the dept, hasn't disciplined him yet because the dept,. investigation hasn't concluded.

I've had 3 friends charged with assault (they were all acquitted) in the last few years. Juries tend to trust and respect cops just like the general public. Prosecutors know they need a STRONG case to get a conviction, arguably stronger than when most "civilians" are being tried. That's not corruption on the prosecutor part, that's knowing that juries give cops the benefit of the doubt to a huge extent.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

Look at the paul schene trial. He was fired, but he got 2 hung juries for misdemeanor assault. That's a double standard because prosecutors almost never (in WA) retry for a hung jury in misdemeanor cases. Either way, he was fired but it didn't come right away.

Imo, he was guilty as fuck but the juries both hung. And there was ample evidenec of guilt to include video.

We deserve due process and due to CBA and sometimes state law, in most jurisdictions we get it. The system is fair.

Analogies are constantly drawn that are bogus. Like in the case of a cop who did an unlawful search of a residence (let's say he didn't have enough PC). That is not analogous to a burglary even though the cop technically entered illegally (without PC) because the mens rea, the intent is totally different. That's not a double standard. it's two different cases completely.

In most jurisdictions, the system works to hold cops accountable for misconduct. But it doesn't happen super fast and yes cops are going to get paid vacation WHILE the process works itself out. THAt is due process and we, as working class heroes ! 🙂 are entitled to it. You can suck on it all you want, but that's the way it works, and will continue to work in this great nation. It's fair and it properly balances the right of the public to hold cops accountable, with the right of cops to due process.

[sloopyinca]

And when a "civilian" gang forcibly removes someone from their vehicle, sprays a chemical agent in their face and proceeds to beat them to death, there are probably arrests and detentions made right then and there, not high-fives all around and promises of an "investigation". That Baltimore case above had eyewitness testimony, yet not a single cop/gang member was detained for immediate questioning, as any "civilian" involved would have been.

Or does your department routinely let people come in and interview at their leisure when a witness to their violence points at them and says, "those men there beat that other man to death and I saw all of it." Because if you say yes, then I'm gonna have to say you're full of fucking shit.

Go collect some more disability, you piece of shit leech on the ballsack of society. And bask in the praise of the ignorant, cowering masses you think love you but are really afraid to even approach one of your skinheaded ilk on the street to so much as ask for directions. You and your kind are filth and will one day be made to account for your actions.

[sloopyinca]

Or what about the total lack of accountability or transparency in Kern County, CA where cops confiscated every piece of video they could of their beating someone to a pulp. And their refusal to let people enter and/or exit their own homes until their video was confiscated. And their destruction of that video. And their threats of arrest and violence of witnesses. And their refusal to answer questions about what, if any, investigation they are expected to perform.

Just another isolated case, right?

[sloopyinca]

It's not part of due process if it's done in lieu of the process a "civilian" would have to go through. Administrative court, like what this cunt was given as an alternative to criminal court, which is where one of us ends up when we break into someone's house with bad intentions, is a way for cops to skirt getting a criminal record when they break the goddamn law. It's negotiated in their CBA and is a totally separate system of justice. How in the fucking hell can that be considered equal protection?

Now that fucking felon was given admin court and merely shipped to a new precinct, where he proceeded to commit felonies under color of law. And when he's caught, he ends up as a first offender serving less time than Lindsay fucking Lohan served. And his offenses warrant a decade behind bars. But he's a brave fucking public servant hero and all that bullshit, and he's trying to just get drugs off the street, and blah, blah, blah.

Fuck you, you common enabler of thugs.

[sloopyinca]

FTA: Julio Cuevas Jr., the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, reminded Justice Nunez that Mr. Alicea's record included a previous violation of someone's constitutional rights just months before the arrests. In that earlier case, Mr. Alicea pleaded guilty to administrative charges of unlawfully entering and searching a Brooklyn home. He was transferred to Manhattan soon after.

Where are these "administrative charges", and how can we "civilians" sign up or them and keep our jobs that give us the ability to use force against other classes of people when we commit a fucking felony like breaking into someone's home with the intent to steal shit.

[R C Dean]

But due process means DURING the criminal trial, the cop will be on leave WITH pay. That's part of due process.

No, its not. Your due process rights do not include paid leave at any point. We peasants can be, and frequently are, fired simply for being charged with a crime, or because defending a criminal case means we can't come to work.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

"What pisses me off the most is his claiming hiring an attorney is tantamount to guilt."

That's a lie. How typical. What I said was that hiring an attorney ALLOWS a guilty person time to fabricate a good story whereas giving a statement right away at the scene doesn't. I never said hiring an attorney is indicative of guilt. I said giving a summary statement BEFORE hiring an attorney (or not hiring one at all) is strongly suggestive of innocence.

Those are two totally different things.

If you are too bigoted to discern the difference and just jump to erroneous conclusions, that's your fault.

I see the trolls are in full force today, totally obsessed with me, post after post talking about me and of course as above misrepresenting my position.

I've investigated hundreds of cases. In many cases people who were totally innocent, hired attorneys before speaking with me. In many cases they didn't. The former is NOT indicative of guilt. It's neutral. But the latter *is* indicative of innocence.

If you can't grok that distinction, god help you.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"I said giving a summary statement BEFORE hiring an attorney (or not hiring one at all) is strongly suggestive of innocence."

That may be sociologically true - since innocent people are so eager to proclaim their innocence. Guilty people may be more cautious about talking to authorities.

But it such a good idea for innocent people to spill their guts?

Consider what happened to poor Zimmerman - you might deem him credible for not "lawyering up" and talking to police, but the prosecutor used his statements for the opposite purpose - calling him a liar because he didn't have 100% total recall about the circumstances of being ambushed and assaulted. That was presented as evidence of consciousness of guilt. Good thing the jury saw through it. I mean, I doubt Angela Corey would have total recall if she was suddenly assaulted (which God forbid, because by her own principles, she wouldn't be able to defend herself against the assault).

[The Late P Brooks]

Oh, look, our obsessive troll is here, begging us to love him.

Not gonna happen.

Go polish your boots, you pathetic little twerp.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

I wouldn't expect to be loved any more than postig as a black man, I would expect to be loved at stormfront.com

What is obvious is I make an impact, because while Im not even here, poster after poster obsess over me and misrepresents my opinion in post after post.

Deal with it. Go back to your sad petty life now and continue to obsess.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

"rtunately, those "procedures" also include them having a separate "due process" than "civilians" have, and afford them the luxury of getting a few days before being asked to testify as to what happened, and they of course have access to all evidence in the case so they are better able to frame their narrative."

Yet another bogus analogy. "civilians" cannot be compelled to testify. Cops can. In many jurisdictions, cops get a few days before they are COMPELLED to give a statement. Civilians don't get that because the situation doesn't exist in the first place. They aren't compelled to give a statement.

It may be bad POLICY to give cops three days before providing a compelled statement, but its still disanalogous to "civilian" proceedings, because they are not compelled to give a statement at all.

Most police shootings are blatantly justified. Society places cops in the situation where they are substantially more likely to have to use deadly force and society gives cops due process protections, many of which you may hate, but that give cops a fair shake.

[Juice]

Um, "civilians" are compelled to testify all the time. It's called a subpoena.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

"And we blame the urban black community for hating cops?"

A substantial %age of the urban black community likes cops.

Regardless, the urban black community overwhelmingly thinks Z is guilty as fuck too. So what? In both cases, the media helps provide the narrative that leads to that conclusion. Reasonoids are smart enough to recognize it in the case of Z hate, but not in the case of cop hate.

Regardless, the polling data shows inner city blacks disrespect cops at a much higher rate than suburban whites or blacks. That's sad, but a reality.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

Trolls out in full force. Post after post obsessing over me, and misrepresenting my opinions (my favorite was the one that said that I said that getting an attorney is indicative of guilt. That's a blatant lie they cannot support with a quote).

Deal with it. The american public overwhelmingly likes and respects cops because they recognize cops overwhelmingly do the right thing. Not everybody has been arrested ( I've been arrested. I've also been proned out at gunpoint. And the cops came to break up my band at least several dozen times. The ONLY time they were dicks was the one time I was a dick first. Lesson learned. Don't be a dick), but nearly everybody knows people who have been arrested or had all sorts of encounters with police. If police weren't doing the right thing, that would be reflected in the public's attitude towards cops, like it is in many countries where the cops are not held in high regard.

Every time we have a test date scheduled, we have hundreds of people apply for a few positions. Because so many people in this great nation WANT to be cops, it allows us to be super selective in who we choose and that's reflected by the great people we hire as cops.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

So, the trolls can wank all they want, but it's proof positive I'm making an impact on the trolls by all the posts you make misrepresenting my opinion. Get a life.

The american public is not rising up and demanding change. Suck on it. It's not going to happen. On the whole they support us, so things will continue. Cops will continue to do a great job . in the rare instances they don't, they will continue to be held accountable BUT given due process during the multipronged investigations.

And reason cop haters will continue to be a tiny minority that has no effect on public policy.

[Enough About Palin]

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU STUPID, USELESS CUNT? GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE.

[The Late P Brooks]

Come on Fosdick- tell us again how the best thing about the Boston Marathon bombing was how much overtime pay your noble, selfless working class hero brothers raked in as they were running around the Boston Metropolitan Area like chickens with their heads chopped off, trampling the Constitutional rights of the people who pay their salaries.