Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Politics

NSA Organizes Against Rep. Amash, Rep. Weiner's New Sexting Scandal, Obama Turns to Hollywood for ACA Help: P.M. Links

Scott Shackford | 7.23.2013 4:30 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests
Large image on homepages | Boss Tweed / Foter / CC BY
(Boss Tweed / Foter / CC BY)
  • "Look over there! It's San Diego Mayor Bob Filner!"
    Credit: Boss Tweed / Foter / CC BY

    Rep. Justin Amash's efforts to curtail the power of the National Security Agency to collect vast swaths of private communications information has prompted a top secret meeting by the NSA and certain members of Congress to try to stop him.

  • Think the Affordable Care Act entitles you to free birth control? It's not that simple.
  • Anthony Weiner's latest scandal to pop up emerge as he runs for mayor of New York is that, even a year after his last sexting scandal cost him his seat in Congress, he engaged in similar sexting with a 22-year-old. His handle is allegedly "Carlos Danger."
  • Researchers doubt whether sex addiction is a real thing, so Weiner won't be able to use that as an excuse.
  • President Barack Obama is asking celebrities like Amy Poehler and Oprah Winfrey to help him sell the Affordable Care Act. He needs them, as moderate and conservative Democrats are turning against it.
  • Dolphins apparently have their own names and unique whistles to identify each other. I bet none of them are called "Flipper."

Did you write about liberty between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013? Reason welcomes you to enter this year's Bastiat Prize for Journalism, with a total prize purse of $16,000.

Have a news tip for us? Send it to: 24_7@reason.com.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: CA Prison Officials Meet With Hunger-Striking Inmates

Scott Shackford is a policy research editor at Reason Foundation.

Politics
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Hide Comments (473)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

  1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    His handle is allegedly "Carlos Danger."

    I thought Danger was his middle name.

    1. A Serious Man   12 years ago

      Seriously Lana, call Kenny Loggins because you're in the Danger Zone. From Top Gun.

      1. Archduke Trousersenthusiast   12 years ago

        Lana..

        Lana...

        LANA!!!

        1. MJGreen   12 years ago

          I said, thank God for small miracles.

    2. Episiarch   12 years ago

      "Carlos Donger" would have been more appropriate.

      1. The DerpRider   12 years ago

        Lt. Dangle.

      2. Bobarian   12 years ago

        Donger... where's my automobile?

      3. Archduke Trousersenthusiast   12 years ago

        Ron Mexico was taken

      4. Paul.   12 years ago

        Carlos Dumber.

    3. Sudden   12 years ago

      Mike Vick already took the bite out of Ron Mexico

      1. Archduke Trousersenthusiast   12 years ago

        dammit

    4. Sudden   12 years ago

      The more Anthony Weiner sexting scandals come out, the more and more he actually begins to look like Glen Quagmire to me.

      1. playa manhattan   12 years ago

        Giggity!

        1. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

          My fellow Americans, I did gi googity that girl, I gishmogityed her giflavity with my googis, and I am sorry.

    5. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Manolo: I am Carlos, from Algeria. Have you heard of me?

      Heidi: Isn't there a terrorist named Carlos?

      Manolo: Shh! I need your help. I need you to walk with me to my hotel. I cannot walk the streets of Paris alone. Will you help me?

      Heidi: I don't know. . . .

      Manolo: Shh! Say no more. I shall return.

      Jonathan: What's goin' on?

      Manolo: I'm in!

      Jonathan: You're in.

      Manolo: Her name is Heidi.

      Jonathan: Heidi?

      Manolo: She's Swedish. We're goin' back to the hotel.

      Jonathan: Manolo, how'd you do that so quickly?

      Manolo: Told her my name was Carlos, man, and I just got back from Algeria. She thinks I'm a terrorist. Swedish chicks go crazy for that shit.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

        Is that from Gotcha!?

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          It sure is.

    6. Jordan   12 years ago

      Max Power couldn't be reached for comment.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

        Rembrandt Q. Einstein.

        1. Archduke Trousersenthusiast   12 years ago

          Chesty LaRue

  2. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    Think the Affordable Care Act entitles you to free birth control? It's not that simple.

    Paging Sandra Fluke. Sandra Fluke to the podium.

    1. Sudden   12 years ago

      Combine two stories and you have effective birth control: sext naked photos of Anthony Weiner to all girls under 30 and I would think their libidos would disappear.

      1. Tonio   12 years ago

        I would hope that women over thirty would also be thus affected.

      2. JW   12 years ago

        sext naked photos of Anthony Weiner to all girls under 30 and I would think their libidos would disappear.

        If only. I was gobsmacked by how many young women used to say that Clinton or Gore were "sexy." Bullshit, you starfuckers. If either of them weren't who they were, and hit on you in a bar, you'd be posting to your female friends about how this creepy old guy was talking to you and how repulsive it was.

        1. Virginian   12 years ago

          Power is sexy. Look at the tail Kissinger pulled.

          1. JW   12 years ago

            Oh, no question; money and/or fame too. Look at the Stones and the birds they pulled in over the years.

            The right amount of flaunted wealth will make any so-so 50-something man suddenly irresistible to many young women.

        2. Nooge.   12 years ago

          Sure. Gore is hot to a chick who likes pompous, superior, condescending know-it-alls. Hillary is hot for lesbians and warped guys who want to bang their mothers.

    2. Nooge.   12 years ago

      Paging Sandra Fluke. Sandra Fluke to the podium.

      I'm much in favor of her not breeding, actually. Anything we can do to get her all the birth control she wants is okay. Although any guys who actually want to bang that should maybe be pre-screened and sterilized.

  3. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Researchers doubt whether sex addiction is a real thing...

    But then, researchers naturally get more tail than they know what to do with.

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      I volunteer to see how often I can fuck beautiful women before I show any withdrawal symptoms.

    2. CampingInYourPark   12 years ago

      Sex addiction does exist. It's called proulgation of species, morons

      1. CampingInYourPark   12 years ago

        proulgation

        That or promulgation, moron

        1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

          Use both hands while typing.

          1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

            Then how is he suposed to palmurgate?

            1. Paul.   12 years ago

              You're soaking in it!

              1. Paul.   12 years ago

                Damn, nothing. I guess you have to be over 35 to get that joke.

                1. AlexInCT   12 years ago

                  Palmolive?

                  Or splooge?

              2. C. Anacreon   12 years ago

                dishwashing liquid?

                but you are right, I'm over 35, Madge.

    3. BuSab Agent   12 years ago

      Sex addiction is exactly as real an addiction as food addiction and air addiction.

      1. Pi Guy   12 years ago

        Quite frankly, I don't believe in addiction of any sort. It's simply a matter of how badly you want something

        1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

          I want to believe that so badly I'm addicted to it.

  4. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    Dolphins apparently have their own names and unique whistles to identify each other.

    Dolphin mashers use wolf whistles.

    1. Almanian!   12 years ago

      So Fah, Bee and Flipper aren't sufficient? Next they'll be wanting the fucking vote.

      FUCK YOU, DOLPHINS.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

        Anchor dolphins.

      2. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        ACORN has probably signed up a number of them already. Amazingly, they all vote Democratic.

        1. AlexInCT   12 years ago

          And work as hookers...

      3. Nooge.   12 years ago

        Mike and the bots learned what happens when you insult dolphins. Just sayin'.

        1. Nooge.   12 years ago

          God fucking dammit. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Rqu4ZEAtY

          1. Careless   12 years ago

            Humans rule! Dolphins can suck it!

    2. Eduard van Haalen   12 years ago

      [Insert joke about Miami Dolphins here]

  5. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    Dolphins apparently have their own names and unique whistles to identify each other. I bet none of them are called "Flipper."

    I guess having names would serve a useful porpoise.

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      Maybe they use Flipper as an ironic nickname. Like "Lefty".

    2. gaijin   12 years ago

      I guess having names would serve a useful porpoise.

      Which reminds me of this:

      I took my stingray in to get it serviced. The guy said I'd blown a seal. I told him to leave my personal life out of it and just fix the damn thing.

      1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

        Isn't there supposed to be a penguin and ice cream involved in that joke?

      2. Episiarch   12 years ago

        So there are other Kip Addotta fans out there...

        1. gaijin   12 years ago

          One of my favorites

        2. Voros McCracken   12 years ago

          Holy mackerel, this guy's gonna need a sturgeon!

      3. Gozer the Gozerian   12 years ago

        I know this only because of Dr. Demento...

        1. Live Free or Diet   12 years ago

          Dr. Demento

          Wowowow! 1970-somethings all over the place!

      4. Bobarian   12 years ago

        The way I heard it was:

        "Looks like you blew a seal."

        "no, no, I just ate some Ice Cream."

        1. gaijin   12 years ago

          That's good. I was extracting from this Kip Adotta song:

          (A Pun Lovers) Wet Dream

      5. Red Rocks Rockin   12 years ago

        Did you go across the street to that dive of an oyster bar?

    3. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      Flipper is a slave name.

      1. A Serious Man   12 years ago

        Nice.

  6. rts   12 years ago

    Paternalism meets environmentalism:

    Helmets pose challenge for Vancouver bike share program

    The province's tough helmet laws could jeopardize Vancouver's $6 million bike share program, the city's former planning director has warned.

    B.C. is one of the few jurisdictions in the world that require adult cyclists to wear helmets.

    1. Tonio   12 years ago

      Nice. I love it when they set themselves against each other.

      Disclaimer: I wear my helmet.

      1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

        "Disclaimer: I wear my helmet."

        Bad idea.

    2. Rich   12 years ago

      Head lice pose challenge for Vancouver helmet share program

      1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

        Head lice pose challenge for Vancouver helmet share program

        I suppose it's difficult sourcing a vendor who manufactures helmuts small enough for a head louse.

        1. kibby   12 years ago

          Stop that. I just choked on my water. =(

  7. Fist of Etiquette   12 years ago

    ...moderate and conservative Democrats are turning against it.

    Pelosi passed it only to find out what was in it was a bunch of Benedict Arnolds.

  8. Brett L   12 years ago

    Some horrible fuck tried to feed a kitten a vegan diet and nearly killed it.

    The horrific case at a North Melbourne animal hospital has prompted a warning about the dangers of people "forcing ideologies" on their pets.

    Lort Smith Animal Hospital veterinarian Leanne Pinfold said the kitten was brought in this month by its owners, who were believed to be vegan.

    Fucking animals.

    1. Rasilio   12 years ago

      No fucking your animals is much more humane that starving them

    2. Episiarch   12 years ago

      "We taught a lion to eat tofu!"

      1. tarran   12 years ago

        Just don't ask us to join in any swaying Episiarch!

      2. MJGreen   12 years ago

        "You can't own property, man."
        "I can. But that's because I'm not a penniless hippie."

      3. RightofCenter   12 years ago

        Rawr!

    3. thom   12 years ago

      Geez, they didn't even try to feed the thing any protein.

      It is possible to feed a cat a vegan diet, but it requires all sorts of synthetic additives and proteins.

      My cats eat meat.

      1. T   12 years ago

        Yeah, cats are obligate carnivores. They don't get taurine, they die. Of course, they go through a lovely spectrum of other unpleasant effects first.

  9. Rasilio   12 years ago

    I don't think this is when she meant when she said to screw her brains out...

    http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/ho.....broke.html

    1. NeonCat   12 years ago

      Terrible consequences of China's "one-pane" policy...

  10. rts   12 years ago

    Top. Men. plan a community around public transit:

    Metro Vancouver transit options not meeting demand, some say

    When Coquitlam began developing Burke Mountain four years ago, it had big plans for a transit-oriented community.

    Homes with one-car garages were packed tightly together on streets so narrow that parking was only allowed on one side. New families moving in were promised they could walk, take transit or share a car to get to work, school or other destinations.

    But there was a huge flaw in the city's otherwise sustainable plan: The buses never made it to Burke Mountain, and now those narrow streets are overrun with cars.

    1. Tonio   12 years ago

      And I'm really sorry for those people. I hope that their takeaway is to never trust the government to make good on its promises.

    2. BigT   12 years ago

      Isn't this an opportunity for a private bus service to develop? Can they see no solutions without the government?

      1. rts   12 years ago

        TransLink is a government granted monopoly. No private bus services allowed. All that competition and customer service and lower prices are icky stuff, man.

        1. MJGreen   12 years ago

          It's run by the public, so if a private carrier came in and offered better service at lower prices, it can only be because they're screwing someone, somehow.

      2. JW   12 years ago

        I had the same thought and figured it was exactly what rts answered.

        If any of those people moved there exclusively for the stated reason for that development, HA-HA! /muntz

        1. Agammamon   12 years ago

          I do not understand why you would move into a place where you're dependent upon public transportation - at least not a suburb, I can see (maybe) ultra-high density city with lot's of stuff to do on the street but not anything else.

    3. C. Anacreon   12 years ago

      How wonderful that this is the exact same thing passed this week in San Francisco called Plan Bay Area. Big difference is it is coercive to suburbs, forcing them to try to get people out of single-family homes and cars and into apartments and public transit.

      Of course the Bay Area plan won't fail, because THIS TIME they'll have the right people in charge.

  11. trshmnstr   12 years ago

    Anthony Weiner's latest scandal to pop up emerge as he runs for mayor of New York is that, even a year after his last sexting scandal cost him his seat in Congress, he engaged in similar sexting with a 22-year-old. His handle is allegedly "Carlos Danger."

    He seems to be erecting all sorts of barriers to his election. Somehow, though, he'll slide his way into the seat and become a rock hard fixture of the New York political climate.

    1. Rasilio   12 years ago

      And in a spasm of rulemaking he will coat the face of the city with the seeds of new growth.

      1. gaijin   12 years ago

        A stroke of genius!

    2. Rich   12 years ago

      I imagine he misses his days as a throbbing member of congress.

    3. Joe M   12 years ago

      Come on guys, haven't you already beat this one to death?

      1. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

        Yeah, they should let this one down.

        1. alittlesense   12 years ago

          What is wrong with this clown? He's married to one of the hottest women in NYC, and he's sending pictures of his junk to random women?

          1. playa manhattan   12 years ago

            " He's married to one of the hottest women in NYC"
            citation needed

        2. Entropy Void   12 years ago

          I bet he gets the Seamen vote!

  12. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    SEC busts Texas man for allegedly running a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme.

    The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges Tuesday against a Texas man for allegedly defrauding investors using Bitcoin. The SEC says 30-year-old Trendon Shavers of McKinney, Tx., took to the Internet to raise more than 700,000 bitcoins from investors between September 2011 and September 2012, a sum worth about $4.6 million based on the average daily value of the digital currency during that period.
    According to the complaint, Shavers promised investors up to 7% in interest per week, but in fact was using funds from new investors to pay out the promised returns. He is also accused of converting roughly $147,000 worth of bitcoins to cover personal expenses including rent, food and gambling.

    I still don't understand Bitcoins.

    1. robc   12 years ago

      Its fiat money based on the full faith and credit of encryption.

      Yeah, I dont get it either. But its better than the stuff the US government issues, which I dont get either.

      1. Juice   12 years ago

        But its better than the stuff the US government issues

        Um, yeah, imma have to disagree.

    2. Libertymike   12 years ago

      Not even a bit?

    3. R C Dean   12 years ago

      Bitcoins are exactly like US currency, except it is issued via a cooperative network rather than a sovereign government.

      Bitcoin has the advantage of an encrypted "untraceable" digital transfer mechanism, which can't be said for US currency.

      US currency has the advantage of also being available in physical form, for those untraceable transactions.

    4. Raston Bot   12 years ago

      I don't get people who give their money to people promising 7% interest per week.

    5. Warrren   12 years ago

      I don't understand people thinking 7% interest a week is possible.

      1. AlexInCT   12 years ago

        My uncle Mario and Luigi will disagree with that. They make more than that on some loans...

        1. Bobarian   12 years ago

          I thought they made their money hitting their heads on bricks and collecting the coins. Real gold-bugs, them boys.

  13. rts   12 years ago

    Salmon farming company wins defamation lawsuit

    An outspoken critic of B.C.'s salmon farming industry has been ordered to pay a major industry player $75,000 for claims he made online about the safety of farmed salmon.

  14. I can't trust my fans   12 years ago

    Oh Noes, Kate Upton appears to have accidentally moistened her t-shirt! Whatever shall be done?!? (NSFW. really, you'll get fired.)

    Liberal columnist: Obama needs a diaper change.

    1. robc   12 years ago

      Its been 13 years since Ive worked at anyplace that that would get me fired.

    2. gaijin   12 years ago

      Why does she even bother with that shirt?

    3. DesigNate   12 years ago

      Nice!

    4. BigT   12 years ago

      Obama baby not. Wookie too old.

    5. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      With the coming of Baby No. 3, your human side would burst through. New fathers are automatically likable, and you'd have a built-in excuse for not dining with members of Congress -- an exercise in futility by the next morning anyway. You're dining with an infant and have the pureed-pea stains to prove it.

      I love how Progressives are so open in their cynical plots to emotionally manipulate the plebes.

      "OMG baby! We love you Barry!"

      Fucking idiots.

      1. PH2050   12 years ago

        I need more Bread with my Circus.

    6. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

      In GIG form.

      1. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

        GIF.

        giggity

    7. PH2050   12 years ago

      I would shake your hand and buy you a beer if I believed in reciprocity.

    8. PapayaSF   12 years ago

      Before I read the link, I assumed that it was that Obama should offer free diapers.

  15. Brett L   12 years ago

    Someone suggested this as a way of defeating red light cameras. I'm just... passing it on. In no way would I do something quasi-legal that would take money from my fair city's coffers.

    1. KDN   12 years ago

      How exactly could my friend hook that up to his car to make it camera-resistant? Seems like it needs to be triggered rather than just running all the time.

      1. Brett L   12 years ago

        The flash of the red-light cam will trigger it. It goes off when it sees a flash. Like in the pro shoots when their little flash triggers the big ones.

      2. R C Dean   12 years ago

        That's the question: will the flash from the redlight camera trigger it?

        Do redlight cameras even flash during daylight?

        1. Nikkis enthusiastic dissent   12 years ago

          The ones here flash whenever they go off, day or night.

        2. Night Elf Mohawk   12 years ago

          They do around here.

    2. NeonCat   12 years ago

      What, you would have it mounted on your trunk, say, and it would flash when it detected a flash?

      I think it would be too late then. Plus, instead of a ticket for a red light, somebody might decide to beat the crap out of you for blinding them while driving - or sue you for blinding them, causing them to crash their vehicle.

      1. Brett L   12 years ago

        Its no brighter than the strobes on the flashers on city maintenance vehicles.

      2. Tonio   12 years ago

        1) The strobe does not have to be pointed at the camera; if it is pointed at the plate and causes the plate to "wash-out" it will be effective (theoretically).

        2) The "exposure" (image-taking interval) is longer than the duration of the flash.

        /Old photog

        1. NeonCat   12 years ago

          That sounds workable. If you were the only car with it, though, you might become a Person of Interest because of your efforts at revenue denial.

    3. Scooby   12 years ago

      Downside I see is if you get pulled over, and the flashing lights of the po-po triggers your slave strobe in a way that they can witness it- it'll buy you no slack on the first offense, and at least a second ticket for an equipment violation.

      1. Agammamon   12 years ago

        I can deal with a ticket from a real cop. As shitty as most traffic tickets are, I'd rather the cops were giving them out. As revenue grabby as police are, they still have to spend some time on real crimes, not so these auto-bots who do nothing but gin up tickets.

  16. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    Oy...

    Davis' primary focus in fleshing out his story is the crown jewel of Britain's colonial empire: India. Drought was the precipitating cause of the hardship faced by the Indian people. However, Davis demonstrates with statistics and anecdotes that it was the unregulated "free market" system imposed on India by Britain that led to the deaths of tens of millions in the mid-1870s and late 1880s.

    How did death and human suffering on such a massive scale happen? Following the English conquest of India in the early nineteenth century, economic relationships in the sub-continent underwent revolutionary changes. Thousands of miles of railroad track were laid. Telegraph wire was strung between outlying areas and the capitol city of Bombay (Mumbai today). Central grain collection depots were created and Indian grain was exported in massive quantities to the British Isles. Also, Indian subsistence farmers were gradually forced out in favor of large land enclosures. Within these new enclosures cash crops like cotton were planted, which supplied the textile mills of Lancashire, but which could not feed the Indian peasants who farmed the land. Finally, the tax burden upon the Indian peasantry was increased exorbitantly to pay for these "improvements". British authorities needed the revenue to finance war in neighboring Afghanistan.

    1. John   12 years ago

      Because subsistence farmers with no access to modern transportation would never starve thanks to a drought. Expect this little bit of sophistry to be endless flogged by the progtards. See, capitalism starved people just like we did and want to.

      1. SweatingGin   12 years ago

        Nothing says capitalism like enclosures.

        1. John   12 years ago

          The irony of a modern progtard bitching about taxing people to build railways is quite remarkable.

        2. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

          Or high taxation.

          Or tariffs.

        3. JW   12 years ago

          Central grain collection depots were created and Indian grain was exported in massive quantities to the British Isles. Also, Indian subsistence farmers were gradually forced out in favor of large land enclosures. Within these new enclosures cash crops like cotton were planted, which supplied the textile mills of Lancashire, but which could not feed the Indian peasants who farmed the land. Finally, the tax burden upon the Indian peasantry was increased exorbitantly to pay for these "improvements".

          The resemblance of this colonial authoritarianism nightmare, to a free market system that has none of those features, is uncanny.

          1. robc   12 years ago

            Sounds a lot like Ireland too.

            1. JW   12 years ago

              You just have to wonder, after reading so many of these screeds, is whether it's wanton incompetence or malice that drives these turds to write articles.

          2. andarm16   12 years ago

            Don't try to interfere in their attempt to redefine capitalism as anything nontraditional.

      2. robc   12 years ago

        Because subsistence farmers with no access to modern transportation would never starve thanks to a drought.

        Sigh...as Ive pointed out before, they wouldnt (well, rarely).

        You dont need modern transportation.

        1. John   12 years ago

          Sure you don't Rob. You can just magically transport the grain there.

          Sigh. No one ever starved in antiquity or before the development of central governments.

          1. robc   12 years ago

            Camels. Or carts, or whatever.

            Or move.

            Unless the people are tied to the land, you can move to where the food is. And if you are tied to the land, guess what? That is government's fault.

            Grain can be stored for long periods of time.

            You need civilization...maybe. But even in civilized antiquity, starvation was due to government action.

            1. John   12 years ago

              Bulshit. There is such a thing as freak climate change where huge areas of land have horrible harvests in the same year, like the great famines of the 14th Century in Europe. And when that happens, you are screwed. Beyond that, even if grain is available from somewhere else, subsistence farmers don' have the disposable incomes to buy it. All of their wealth comes from their harvest. When that goes bad, they don't have any money. Subsistence means just that, subsistence. You don't have any built in cushion to survive a bad year.

              You are just as dumb as White Indian on this. You seem incapable of understanding that bad things can happen that are not the result of the government. And you are re-writing history to affirm this bizarre belief of yours.

              1. robc   12 years ago

                Im not the anthropologist or archeologist or whatever who did the research into this. Take it up with him/them.

                Yes, bad things can happen without the government. But starvation is very rarely one of them.

                1. John   12 years ago

                  But starvation is very rarely one of them.

                  If you define "rarely" as common in nearly all of pre-modern human history, sure.

                2. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                  That's a tough claim to back up, rob, since there really weren't many places that qualified as free market prior to the industrial revolution. The places that came closest (Italian city-states, parts of Northern Germany, certain free cities) did better than most but they definitely had famines and problems feeding the population.

                  You have to have a certain level of organization to support banking conglomerates that can loan money and spread risk, as well as accept bankruptcy rather than the various forms of debt peonage that existed at the time. You also have to develop past a certain point agriculturally and logistically before it becomes viable to save and/or speculate on agricultural surplus by free market actors -- the technology for that doesn't just appear out of thin air. That doesn't magically appear just because you decide to have a free market.

                  1. Rrabbit   12 years ago

                    To some extend, France had a famine in 1768 because of free trade for grain - French merchants exported the grain to maximize profit.

        2. Agammamon   12 years ago

          Except that they wouldn't have had access transportation sufficient to move them (that's what modern transport can do).

          And they would have been moving to places where people already were - not a recipe for healthy living.

          Its transportation (especially modern) that has eliminated non-government caused famines.

    2. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      So, somehow, the groundwork laid by the British East India Company resulting in Indian famines is because of "religious adherence" to Adam Smith? The same Adam Smith who denounced the British East India Company in "The Wealth of Nations"?

      Since the establishment of the English East India company, for example, the other inhabitants of England, over and above being excluded from the trade, must have paid in the price of the East India goods which they have consumed, not only for all the extraordinary profits which the company may have made upon those goods in consequence of their monopoly, but for all the extraordinary waste which the fraud and abuse, inseparable from the management of the affairs of so great a company, must necessarily have occasioned. The absurdity of this second kind of monopoly, therefore, is much more manifest than that of the first.

  17. SweatingGin   12 years ago

    Wasn't me: Swimming across the Detroit River while drunk.

    1. Agammamon   12 years ago

      "Swimming across a river on an international border with heavy freighter traffic not only sounds especially reckless, but it violates the Canada Shipping Act."

      Yet another hammer in the coffin of freedom (and a smarter future for our species).

  18. SweatingGin   12 years ago

    In more Detroit news -- group of businesses donates police cars and ambulences to the city (with the condition that the group has to be responsible for maintenance, because the city will just let them rot.)

    Political consultant is outraged that the police cars have picutres of the downtown skyline and Renaissance Center on them.

    Maybe a better symbol would be the Packard Plant. Although, the Fist of Joe Louis might be pretty cool as a symbol.

    1. paranoid android   12 years ago

      The comments on that article are great and have restored a tiny sliver of my hope in humanity.

    2. Juice   12 years ago

      He complains about the Renaissance Center being on the police car. It's a symbol of corporatocracy! At the top of the blog is a picture of...

      Jesus.

    3. Agammamon   12 years ago

      Seriously? Detroit government has run that city into the ground with crony politics, giving well-connected players (political, corporate, and union) special privileges and sweet contracting and *now* he's worried?

      And anyway, given how well the 'civilian' government of Detroit has performed over the last, oh say 40 years, how bad do you really think it would be if OCP took over?

  19. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

    Jezebel writes up a study on AA, author takes to the comments to tell them off:

    I am the lead author (John Kelly) of the article cited in this editorial. I'm afraid to say that the piece written here is wrong and actually is the complete OPPOSITE of what we found in this study. Women benefited AS MUCH AS men from AA participation, BUT they benefited in DIFFERENT ways from AA. I would strongly encourage the author of this piece to seek out the original article before publishing such misleading information. Alcohol addiction is not a trivial matter; there are lives at stake.

    John F. Kelly, Ph.D. Associate Professor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      Nice.

    2. Irish   12 years ago

      Jezebel published inaccurate information in a desperate attempt to maintain their pre-conceived notions? No way.

    3. Ted S.   12 years ago

      The Jezebel writer needed the study mansplained to her.

      1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

        *Rimshot*

    4. rts   12 years ago

      You know nothing of my work.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        I love that scene.

    5. trshmnstr   12 years ago

      pulled from the comments:

      http://www.underearnersanonymous.org/symptoms.html

      Is this a joke? If so I've missed the punchline.

    6. Stormy Dragon   12 years ago

      This is way funnier if you assume that AA stands for Asian American.

      1. Brett L   12 years ago

        I thought it was African American.

  20. Brett L   12 years ago

    Stephen King, unsatisfied with having prostituted the gunslinger's world, writes a sequel to The Shining.

    Asshole.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      What? Danny goes back to the hotel and kills people?

      1. NeonCat   12 years ago

        A sinister chain of inexpensive hotels inspires torture, murder and madness across the country, while the breakfast bar encourages gluttony, girth and diabetes?

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          Ah, an evil corporate angle.

          1. Bobarian   12 years ago

            But I stayed at a Holiday inn last night.

        2. Gozer the Gozerian   12 years ago

          "They're all run by this "Patel" guy... Hmmm... Could he be The Man?"

        3. C. Anacreon   12 years ago

          I'm Tom Bodett and I'll cut your head off.

          1. Bobarian   12 years ago

            Thread winner

      2. Brett L   12 years ago

        The important part is: until King admits his sins and is flogged through the streets of his adoptive Sarasota, he'll never see another dime of my money, nor shall I read another word of his fiction.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          I like his earlier, scarier books.

        2. Episiarch   12 years ago

          Why? Why punish yourself by denying yourself some good reading? Because the writer's politics are stupid? That's...illogical.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            Yeah, I'm not going to stop reading his old stuff. But his newer books just seem, well, long.

            1. T   12 years ago

              Read the first hundred pages, skip the middle, read the last hundred pages. You'll get the point.

          2. Brett L   12 years ago

            Politics? No. He ruined the Gunslinger. And then went back and pissed on the corpse.

  21. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    FDA endorses study alleging that menthol cigarettes encourage smoking addiction, some speculate they may move to ban menthol cigarettes all together.

    Moving closer to a decision on whether to ban menthol in cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday released a scientific review that found the mint flavoring made it easier to start smoking and harder to quit, and solicited public comment on "potential regulation" of those products.

    These steps pleased smoking opponents who have been calling for F.D.A. action ever since 2009 when Congress exempted menthol from a ban on flavors in cigarettes unless the agency decided its use was a danger to public health. Menthol cigarettes account for about a third of all cigarettes sold in the United States and are particularly popular among African-American smokers, about four out of five of whom report smoking them, according to federal surveys.

    Why stop at cigarettes? The FDA should mandate that all unhealthy food be altered to taste like dog shit so people won't become addicted to them. For the children and the poor blacks, of course.

    1. Episiarch   12 years ago

      Don't worry, they'll get there eventually. Just think what people were saying only 10 years ago.

      1. Nikkis enthusiastic dissent   12 years ago

        Was it already ten years ago that they were saying we couldn't ban menthols because that would be racist, even as we banned every other flavor of cigarette?

        1. Episiarch   12 years ago

          Something like that. I'm thinking more of "what, are they going to ban soda?" said as a joke and stuff like that. The slippery slope was very sloped indeed.

          1. JW   12 years ago

            When do we hit the bottom of the slope? Ever?

            1. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

              The bottom of the slope is death.

            2. Mad Scientist   12 years ago

              The bottom of the slope is death.

              1. Entropy Void   12 years ago

                The bottom of the slope is Chuckie Schumer.

                See "Four Loko".

        2. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

          they were saying we couldn't ban menthols because that would be racist, because blacks need to die of cancer.

    2. Ted S.   12 years ago

      FDA endorses study alleging that menthol cigarettes encourage smoking addiction, some speculate they may move to ban menthol cigarettes all together.

      That's racist!

    3. playa manhattan   12 years ago

      raaaacist

    4. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

      Could be a big deal. Indonesia's (where almost all clove cigarettes come from) case against the US at the WTO rested largely on the fact that a "like" product, menthols, which are produced almost entirely domestically were treated differently than cloves and other flavors that are produced outside the US. The WTO rightly decided this and Indonesia won the appeal. The deadline for the US complying is tomorrow.

      To comply they at a minimum would have to ban menthols as well (if not cigarettes entirely if they are a "like" product to flavored ones). That law was an obviously blatant violation of trade agreements when it passed. The purpose was to protect domestic producers from foreign competition.

      The US has ignored the WTO before so it will be interesting to see what recompense Indonesia is given.

      1. Nikkis enthusiastic dissent   12 years ago

        Te purpose was to protect domestic producers from foreign competition.

        Was it? It's only the clove cigarette producers in Indonesia that were hurt, wasn't it? I always thought it was a purely bullshit anti-smoking initiative that had a special exemption because black people like menthols.

        1. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

          First of all it isn't necessary that it be their intention but yes I do think it was. The WTO allows exceptions for things like public health but they have to treat like products evenly. It is no coincidence that flavors were banned "for the children" but the most popular flavor by far was exempted. No coincidence that that flavor was produced almost entirely in the US while other flavors were produced mostly outside the US. It was part of a huge tobacco regulatory bill (the one that gave the FDA power over tobacco) and this was definitely something that domestic tobacco lobby negotiated.

  22. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    George Takei has is an Amazon reviewer page. It's fairly amusing:

    This shirt has changed my life! Before, I couldn't walk through the aisles at Wal-Mart, graze on the buffet at Sizzler, or even take in a round at my local miniature golf course, without people pointing and saying, "Hey, you're that Zulu guy from Star Wars, aren't you?" Even if I wore sunglasses, I'd still get mistaken for Yoko Ono.

    But with The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee, the SHIRT now draws the eye. One young teen even shyly approached me, and instead of asking for a picture or an autograph, simply smiled conspiratorially and whispered, "Team Jacob, right? Me, too. He's sooooooo dreamy."

    Yes he is, young lady. Yes. He. Is.

    1. Episiarch   12 years ago

      Oh my...

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        One of my favorite "Oh, my" moments: Blow'd Up.

        1. db   12 years ago

          "This movie's gonna blow..."

    2. Rasilio   12 years ago

      Is it wrong that I read that whole thing in his voice?

      1. Episiarch   12 years ago

        If that's wrong, I don't wanna be right.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          Huh. I read your comment in Commodore Decker's voice. Weird.

          1. JW   12 years ago

            And I'm reading your comment in Squire Trelane's voice.

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              Which, coincidentally, is also a Klingon voice.

              1. JW   12 years ago

                Makes frightened Tribble noise.

                1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  Runs screaming.

      2. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

        We all did, Ras. We all did.

      3. Stormy Dragon   12 years ago

        Now go back and read it in Morgan Freeman's voice.

        1. Gozer the Gozerian   12 years ago

          I'm partial to Claude Rains, myself.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            I just read your comment in Peter Ustinov's voice.

            1. JW   12 years ago

              I'm ordering you to not read my comment in Orson Well's voice.

              1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                Okay. So I read it in Geoffrey Holder's voice. Ah, ha, ha!

                1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                  Challenge:

                  Read it in Brian Blessed's voice.

                  You won't be able to.

                  Your brain is configured to use Brian's voice only for suitably epic tomes and the sayings of English kings.

                  1. Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)   12 years ago

                    If only I could play the part of Exeter in Henry V like he did, I could die happy.

                    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                      No kidding--he was great, as always. He's one of those guys who is always larger than life. And louder than life.

                  2. Agammamon   12 years ago

                    "Impetuous boy! Oh well, who wants to live forever? DIVE!"

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5HfDIwNI8w

                2. JW   12 years ago

                  Curses! The 7-Up gambit!

                  1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                    Crisp and clean and no caffeine. Never had it, never will.

            2. Entropy Void   12 years ago

              Funny.

              I read it in James Earl Jones' voice.

              "This ... is Hit and Run."

              1. Agammamon   12 years ago

                Funny, everytime I need to go back through the archives and hit the 'previous button' I hear him saying "Previously . . . On Hit and Run".

    3. Invisible Finger   12 years ago

      What loser webpage pointed you to send-up Amazon reviews that are several years old?

      1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

        Those reviews are all from within the last year. Some of us appreciate thoughtful t-shirt reviews from the former helmsman of the Enterprise.

        *Shrugs*

  23. db   12 years ago

    Think the Affordable Care Act entitles you to free birth control? It's not that simple.

    Free? Free, my ass! What are you, a commie?

  24. Brett L   12 years ago

    Hey, look whose name came up in a fraud complaint associated with Terry McAuliffe: one of the Rodham brothers. Last seen, I believe, stealing the White House silver.

    1. Virginian   12 years ago

      McAuliffe is such a scumbag. I feel like he's going to win now. Stupid corrupt Bob McDonnell. Did you think no one would find out?

  25. I can't trust my fans   12 years ago

    The McSuderman beast has been dragooned(yeah, I said it) into a career in policy analysis.

    Health Canada has privatized marijuana production. Sick fucks.

  26. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

    ZTE posts watermarked leaked press shots on its own website.

  27. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    Cincinnati zoo plans to incestuously mate rhino siblings to bolster population.

    See? One Ohio judge rules that a gay couple can be buried next to each other and then suddenly rhino incest is just hunky-dory!

    1. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

      Damn RINO perverts.

    2. Tonio   12 years ago

      At least it's not RINO-cest.

    3. Rich   12 years ago

      Great, just what the world needs: another web-horned rhino.

    4. BigT   12 years ago

      John Boehner is screwing his sister?? Wow!

      1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

        John Boehner is screwing everybody, dude.

  28. Libertymike   12 years ago

    Yesterday, in his Economic Policy Journal blog, Robert Wenzel enumerated 10 things that one could do in 1975 that one could not do today because of the ongoing dimunition of liberty. For example, in 1975, one could:

    (1) buy and sell gold coins, in any amount, without an ID;

    (2) purchase an airline ticket without an ID;

    (3) purchase cough syrup without an ID;

    (4) purchase cigarettes without an ID;

    (5) open a Swiss bank account with ease;

    (6) get a job without having to prove one is an American;

    (7) withdraw as much money from your bank account without the bank informing filing a report with the state and

    (8) open a stock brokerage account without having to explain the source of your money.

    As one commenter observed, "Man, you could go on forever with that list."

    1. John   12 years ago

      The top three are about having ID. You can still do it. So I am skeptical of those. The rest of them basically relate to measures put in to prosecute the drug war and the money laundering associated with it.

      The reality is that the drug war has taken more liberty than pretty much everything else combined.

      1. Andrew S.   12 years ago

        You can still purchase an airline ticket without ID. You cannot actually get on the plane without ID.

        You can't purchase cough syrup anymore without ID thanks to the idiotic anti-meth laws.

        And there are treasury regulations against purchasing gold without an ID.

        1. John   12 years ago

          Except the plane ID thing, all because of the drug war.

          1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

            #6 is due to massive amounts of illegal immigration.

        2. Careless   12 years ago

          You can purchase cough syrup without ID. Most of it no longer has pseudoephedrine (and sucks, as a result)

      2. Libertymike   12 years ago

        John, the point is that there are literally thousands of things that you could have done in 1975 that you can not do today.

        How about driving without a seatbelt?

        How about driving a bicycle without a helmet?

        How about being able to make telephone calls free from the ears of the NSA?

        How about being able to drive without big brother taking snap shots of your car during your travels?

        How about being able to sell real estate without the closing attorney informing the IRS that you just pocketed $78,000.00 in connection with the sale?

        How about being able to more freely engage in a give and take with a cop without having to be worried about being tazed or worse?

        1. John   12 years ago

          How about driving without a seatbelt?

          Some do it all of the time. And if that is the best you got, you don't have much.

          How about driving a bicycle without a helmet?

          You can in nearly every state if not all of them.

          How about being able to make telephone calls free from the ears of the NSA?

          The CIA was much worse before the Church Commission than it is now.

          How about being able to drive without big brother taking snap shots of your car during your travels?

          Do it all of the time. That practice is hardly universal.

          How about being able to sell real estate without the closing attorney informing the IRS that you just pocketed $78,000.00 in connection with the sale?

          And that is due to the money laundering provisions that were passed as a result of the drug war. You just proved my point.

          How about being able to more freely engage in a give and take with a cop without having to be worried about being tazed or worse?

          Do you think police brutality is something new? What a sheltered mind you have.

          1. Libertymike   12 years ago

            John, its as if you are doubting the fact that an American is far less free today than he was in 1975.

            Sure, you and I may choose not to wear seatbelts, but in most states, it is the law. Ever hear of "Click it or Ticket"? Cops do people over and routinely issue tickets which come with a fine.

            You and your kids may not wear a bicycle helmet and some of my nieces and nephews do not while others do. However, in some states, it is the law.

            Of course police brutality is not new. Your comment implies that the frequency and intensity of the brutality is the same today as it was in 1975. You know that is bat shit insane.

            Were there 80,000 SWAT raids conducted in 1975 as there are today per annum?

            1. Libertymike   12 years ago

              Could you board a plane in 1975 without having to be groped and grabbed?

              Were there more or less pages of regulations set forth in the registry of federal regulations?

              Were there drone strikes in 1975?

          2. R C Dean   12 years ago

            Do it all of the time. That practice is hardly universal.

            Close enough.

            http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1401956

    2. Agammamon   12 years ago

      Hell in 1975 you could buy cigarettes from a vending machine.

  29. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

    Don't call the royal baby a boy

    1. Episiarch   12 years ago

      Ah, the internet: concentrating stupid since day one.

      1. JW   12 years ago

        C'mon, it's some kind of 4chan meme going, right? RIGHT?

        1. Episiarch   12 years ago

          It's far, far worse out there than you think, dude. FAR worse.

          1. JW   12 years ago

            We are SO fucked.

            No wonder we've never been conquered by an violent alien race. We're not worth the trouble.

            1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

              [Jihadis rubbing hands together and smiling]

      2. Entropy Void   12 years ago

        As a libertarian, what can be done about this hyper-concentration of STOOOOOOPID? Ignore? Ridicule? Crush, Kill, Destroy?

    2. Irish   12 years ago

      "I think they should let the baby decide its own name and gender."

      So the baby won't have a name until he's three years old and decides that he wants to be named 'poop poop' and then giggles.

      1. NeonCat   12 years ago

        Well, he'd be a perfect commenter for most internet sites.

      2. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

        Poop Poop Giggles has a nice ring to it.

        1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

          "TLC is on the line. They want to buy your reality show idea."

    3. Andrew S.   12 years ago

      Another day of reposting the best of TumblrInAction on the links, eh?

      1. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

        Basically

    4. Raven Nation   12 years ago

      Seriously, this is why I opposed Twitter.

    5. Irish   12 years ago

      "Peculiar that when gender equality is gaining some momentum and no urgency to have a male heir to an obsolete throne, a male heir is born."

      Lol what?

      1. Nikkis enthusiastic dissent   12 years ago

        Well, that one's actually coherent, if "peculiar" is a poor word choice. They changed the law such that the first-born child of William and Kate would inherit regardless of sex, but a boy was born anyway, so it didn't matter.

        1. Irish   12 years ago

          I understand that, but this tweet reads like she thinks there was some conspiracy to have a male heir.

          1. Raven Nation   12 years ago

            Well, the royal family is part of the Bilderbergers, or the Trilaterilsts,or something. So they can probably control chromosones.

            1. Tonio   12 years ago

              Lizard people, RN. Sheesh, get with the program.

              1. Brett L   12 years ago

                Pentavirate.

                1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  Stuart Mackenzie: Well, it's a well known fact, Sonny Jim, that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as The Pentavirate, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows.

                  Tony Giardino: So who's in this Pentavirate?

                  Stuart Mackenzie: The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettys, The Rothschilds, *and* Colonel Sanders before he went tits up. Oh, I hated the Colonel with is wee *beady* eyes, and that smug look on his face. "Oh, you're gonna buy my chicken! Ohhhhh!"

                  Charlie Mackenzie: Dad, how can you hate "The Colonel"?

                  Stuart Mackenzie: Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes ya crave it fortnightly, smartass!

              2. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

                LIZARD PEOPLE ARE REAL!

              3. Libertymike   12 years ago

                No, just primogeniture.

              4. Raven Nation   12 years ago

                @ Tonio: NO! The Lizard People are a myth perpetrated for disinformation purposes by David Ickes who is secretly a leader of the Bilderbergers.

            2. BigT   12 years ago

              They are Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's. The name Windsor is a sham created in WW1.

              1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                That's correct. Fucking undercover Nazis ruling the UK.

              2. John   12 years ago

                What Big T said. They are nothing but a live in German family brought in because they were Protestant and sufficiently stupid not to have any ambitions of running the place.

                1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  The most accurate depiction of the family was performed by Hugh Laurie.

                  1. Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)   12 years ago

                    GEORGE: Why, only the other day I was out in the street, and they sang 'We hail Prince George! We hail Prince George!'

                    BLACKADDER: 'We hate Prince George', sire.

                    1. BiMonSciFiCon   12 years ago

                      If I understand this correctly, the Rand Corporation, in connection with the saucer people, and under the supervision of the reverse vampires, are enforcing the patriarchy and oppression of gender stereotypes by calling a baby boy a boy? Is that right?

      2. SweatingGin   12 years ago

        George Zimmerman made them have a boy.

    6. SweatingGin   12 years ago

      Sweet Zombie Jesus... I was not prepared for that.

      Note the name on the entry in the top left corner.

      1. DesigNate   12 years ago

        I guess he was able to gambol over to twitter.

    7. DesigNate   12 years ago

      That damn patriarchy, always getting in the way, forcing it's antiquated (and scientifically correct) views on the world.

    8. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      *Calmly goes to closet, removes a black flag, prepares to hoist it*

    9. Xenocles   12 years ago

      I like how Sharon J Dewitt thinks the mother determines the sex of the baby.

  30. Jordan   12 years ago

    From the NSA story:

    "In advance of anticipated action on amendments to the DoD Appropriations bill, Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of the House Intelligence Committee invites your Member to attend a question and answer session with General Keith B. Alexander of the National Security Agency," reads the invitation.

    "Dutch Ruppersberger invites your member"? The hell did I just read?

    1. Rich   12 years ago

      Ah, HA!!

  31. The Late P Brooks   12 years ago

    the Fist of Joe Louis might be pretty cool as a symbol.

    Only if can be depicted as being up the taxpayer's ass.

    1. gaijin   12 years ago

      what about the Fist of...Etiquette?

  32. Rich   12 years ago

    "I am going to spend every waking minute of every one of those days thinking about and then acting upon any good ideas out there that are going to help ordinary Americans succeed, that are going to make sure that the next generation believes in the American Dream because they've seen it in their own lives."

    Nope, no good ideas, so -- business as usual!

    Continuing to study Obamaese ....

    1. gaijin   12 years ago

      What about those minutes of those days where he is thinking about his golf swing?

      1. NeonCat   12 years ago

        He will employ Zen for his golf, all the while concentrating on what he can do to for the American people.

  33. Raven Nation   12 years ago

    "a top secret meeting by the NSA and certain members of Congress to try to stop him."

    Either the NSA chief, or the FBI person who was there said words to the affect that "even discussing the amendments on the floor of Congress severely curtails our ability to track terrorists."

    There you have it: free expressions must be curtailed in order to defend the country.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Sorry, no.

    2. Rich   12 years ago

      Must be the FBI guy.

  34. Stormy Dragon   12 years ago

    Tea Party begins the biennial process of looking for ways to keep the Democrats in control of the Senate:

    Republicans wait as O'Donnell weighs another campaign

  35. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    Assistant English professor: It's time to acknowledge white privilege.

    I was shocked, not just by the disparity between his experience of the world and mine, but also by the depths of my own ignorance that such a disparity existed. And also that his always-present awareness of the possibility of racist violence was so deeply ingrained in his life that his body had recoiled from potential public contact with my white-girl skin as automatically as if it had been fire.

    This sweet soul -- a man who had taught me the meaning of the word "cacophony" by reciting, laughing, a poem he had once written about birds -- had responded to public contact with me as if it could get him killed.

    This fear was so outside my experience that I had nowhere to put it in my imagination. Oh, like everyone else, I had read To Kill a Mockingbird and cried, but that story had presented itself to my mind as ancient history. Or, if not ancient, then having to do with my grandparents' generation, not mine. But ever since Trayvon Martin was killed, and particularly since the verdict that somehow let his killer go free, I have been asking myself what it means to be white in a society still so embroiled in racism.

    Like I said, assistant English professor. All it takes to get published in a liberal magazine is demonstrate sufficient ignorance and self-loathing.

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      Okay, so the heavy burden of proof on the state is racist? This guy realizes, I hope, that blacks make up a extremely disproportionate share of criminal defendants and might not want that to be changed.

      1. A Serious Man   12 years ago

        The author is a woman who was using the fact that she dated a black guy in college as evidence of her innate white privilege because the guy wasn't into public displays of affection and was worried her father might not like him.

        1. Episiarch   12 years ago

          You know that if you stare into the stupid, the stupid stares back into you, right?

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            "Well they are very frightening for me because their stupidity is so flat. You look into the eyes of a chicken and you lose yourself in a completely flat, frightening stupidity. They are like a great metaphor for me. . .I kind of love chicken, but they frighten me more than any other animal."

            1. Episiarch   12 years ago

              "Sometimes that stupid he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a stupid...he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he jabbers at ya, doesn't seem to be living...until he gets to the stupidest part, and those black eyes roll over white and then...ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'."

          2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            And, "Try to look a chicken in the eye with great intensity, and the intensity of stupidity that is looking back at you is just amazing."

        2. Agammamon   12 years ago

          Well, I guess her privilege was demanding too much PDA and not caring if *his* mother might not like her.

    2. Nikkis enthusiastic dissent   12 years ago

      Yeah, this is actually called "sheltered asshole privilege."

      1. John   12 years ago

        If he feels that guilty, why doesn't he move to Japan or the Middle East. I can assure him, he won't get any "white privilege" in those areas.

        1. Careless   12 years ago

          How could you read that and think the author was male?

    3. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

      Like I said, assistant English professor. All it takes to get published in a liberal magazine is demonstrate sufficient ignorance and self-loathing.

      You can also write a column complaining about your friends at school calling you a slut after you wrote in the school newspaper about (among other things) the time you had sex in the library.

    4. gaijin   12 years ago

      Perhaps this was posted already, but some proud racists are not what they seem:

      Proud Leftist Racist?

      1. C. Anacreon   12 years ago

        I'm surprised there aren't more agent provocateurs at any non-left event. The media always takes pictures of them as "proof" of the depraved views of anyone but progressives.

    5. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      But ever since Trayvon Martin was killed, and particularly since the verdict that somehow let his killer go free, I have been asking myself what it means to be white in a society still so embroiled in racism.

      Killing a person is not a crime. Unlawfully killing a person is a crime.

      1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

        We heard from several readers who thought we erred in Thursday's column by asserting that George Zimmerman continued pursuing Trayvon Martin after the 911 dispatcher urged him to stop. Here's a partial transcript of the call:

        Dispatcher: Are you following him?
        Zimmerman: Yeah.
        Dispatcher: Okay, we don't need you to do that.
        Zimmerman: Okay.
        Dispatcher: Alright, sir, what is your name?
        Zimmerman: George. He ran.
        Dispatcher: All right, George. What's your last name?
        Zimmerman: Zimmerman.
        The dispatcher goes on to ask Zimmerman his phone number and the two discuss logistics for meeting the police when they arrive. It seems our readers were right.

        http://online.wsj.com/article/.....06220.html

        1. Enough About Palin   12 years ago

          Add to that that Jeantel says Martin through the first punch, which would seem to indicate that the little thug wannabe doubled back and assaulted Zimmerman.

          1. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

            "You got a problem?"

            "No."

            "Well, you do now."

  36. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

    Does any masochist want to read this for me?

    Trigger Warning: art history major crying "silently and strongly" because her date disagreed with her on the Zimmerman case

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      It most definitely is first date conversation material, because it helps you find out quickly whether your date is a moron.

      1. Invisible Finger   12 years ago

        I think "art history major" is enough of a clue.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          It can be. However, I dated an art history PhD years ago who was actually pretty smart. Though many of her students and academic colleagues, well, it's best I don't state my opinion publicly.

          1. DesigNate   12 years ago

            Getting a PhD in something is a far cry from being majoring in it.

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              Fair enough. But some of her PhD colleagues. . .oh, yes, I'd better not comment.

        2. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

          And apparently she went to DePaul University, so not only did she get a useless degree, she didn't even get it at a prestigious university.

          1. Nikkis enthusiastic dissent   12 years ago

            Someone said something about this yesterday too. I don't think DePaul is like super great or anything, but it's got to be the #2 school in Chicago (Northwestern is not in Chicago). Is this some kind of coastal elitist thing? It's the largest Catholic (Jesuit) school in the country.

            1. Irish   12 years ago

              Loyola University is probably better than DePaul. That would make Depaul the third best college in the city. Not particularly impressive.

              1. Nikkis enthusiastic dissent   12 years ago

                Really? God I fucking hate Loyola. I can tell you the people who go there are severely retarded, at least based on the conversations they have around the neighborhood. At least they dress better than U of C students, I guess.

                1. Irish   12 years ago

                  I just looked up rankings and Loyola University is ranked 106 nationally and DePaul is ranked 134.

                  At least they dress better than U of C students, I guess.

                  This is one of the bitchiest sentences I have ever read. I found this way funnier than I should have.

            2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              Yeah, it is. Come on, Evanston isn't Chicago? I don't give a fuck about all their townships, villages, and cities. It's Chicago from Northbrook to Oak Forest.

              1. Irish   12 years ago

                I don't give a fuck about all their townships, villages, and cities. It's Chicago from Northbrook to Oak Forest.

                Don't let Chicagoans hear you talk like that. I used to get bitched at for saying I was from Chicago when I'm actually from a suburb.

                1. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

                  whoa whoa whoa, Irish people in Chicago?

                2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                  I actually lived in Chicago--the city part--and I never did give a crap about all of their little fake towns.

              2. C. Anacreon   12 years ago

                Also, most of Northwestern's graduate programs are in Chicago, at the downtown Lakeshore campus.

                Signed,
                Proud Member of Northwestern Medical School Alumni

            3. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

              I looked up rankings of the top 50 art history programs and it's not there. And it's #132 on US News, for what little that's worth.

              And in addition, as a matter of perception, a school being good doesn't make it prestigious or vice versa (which is unfortunate, but still true).

            4. trshmnstr   12 years ago

              It's a regional school at best. You get as far as Milwaukee or Indy and DePaul turns into "isn't that in Chicago?"

            5. EdWuncler   12 years ago

              DON'T SHIT ON MY SCHOOL!

              In all seriousness though, that place is a liberal cesspool.

            6. Careless   12 years ago

              DePaul isn't even Jesuit. And yeah, Loyola and UIC are roughly as "good" and Northwestern A) has a main campus about 2 miles from the Chicago border and b) has a couple of its schools in the city.

              DePaul female students are quite a bit hotter than NW, so they do have that.

    2. John   12 years ago

      That was posted on the morning links yesterday. Fluffy nailed it. This woman and women like her only understand male courtship behavior. They expect every man to want to sleep with them and act accordingly and kiss their ass. She was in total shock that her date treated her like a human being instead of someone he was there to fuck and actually gave her his honest opinion.

      1. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

        Really? I didn't notice it.

        Sorry to let you down, you know, like that one sports team... what was its name again?

        1. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

          The Detroit Lions?

        2. Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)   12 years ago

          The Cincinnati Pallbearers?

      2. Libertymike   12 years ago

        Is it fair to say that even the most hard core among us have demurred offering our opinions for the sake of keeping hope alive? The hope of striking gold down under?

        1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

          When I started dating back in ye olde high school, that was my strategy. By the time I got to college, "eh, fuck it" kicked in and my dating life started to get a whole lot more efficient.

          I'd highly recommend being an opinionated asshole as a way to suss out wheat from chaff.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            A girl I dated during law school and I met arguing in a bar about politics. She was a conservative and didn't care for my libertarian views and my trashing of something Rush Limbaugh said. Which played absolutely no role in whether we dated or not.

            1. Irish   12 years ago

              That's because normal people can disagree on politics and still like each other.

              1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                I think I looked at her chest during the argument.

              2. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                What Irish said. Whether or not someone is mature enough to have a difference of opinion without making it personal is something to look for in a relationship.

              3. Virginian   12 years ago

                Conservatives tend to me more civil and able to argue without getting all butthurt in my experience.

                Remember, for liberals the personal is definitely political all the way.

                1. Irish   12 years ago

                  Valid point. Even when I find a conservatives belief repugnant, they're generally much more rational than leftists. I've never seen a conservative throw a hissy fit the way liberals seem to.

                  1. Virginian   12 years ago

                    I've seen it, but it's much more common for a leftist. Actually, I don't think I've ever had a discussion with a leftist that didn't end in a nasty fashion.

                    1. JW   12 years ago

                      I've seen it, but it's much more common for a leftist. Actually, I don't think I've ever had a discussion with a leftist that didn't end in a nasty fashion.

                      I can echo this experience. The nastiness: chicken or egg?

                    2. Virginian   12 years ago

                      I think leftists are intensely moralistic. They think being a leftist makes you a good person, and that good people are leftwing. They genuinely believe their opponents are stupid, mean, racist, homophobic doubleplusbad people.

                    3. R C Dean   12 years ago

                      I think you mean "narcissistic", not "moralistic".

                    4. Emmerson Biggins   12 years ago

                      I've seen soccer mom suburban jeesuzy Republicans do it. Of course I was being a total asshole, but she was being a real moron and deserved it.

                  2. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                    It's probably a function of how politicized American society is, especially American media and pop culture.

                    My dating experience was mostly in Latin American countries, and I can say that some of the out-and-out socialists I dated were less politicized than my liberal female coworkers in the US.

                    *shrugs*

                2. Gbob   12 years ago

                  Conservatives tend to me more civil and able to argue without getting all butthurt in my experience.

                  Although I seem to recall that twenty five years ago the opposite was true. This may a subjective thing, but i think it's accurate.

                  I'll echo the above. I never had a conservitive friend walk away from me because they disagreed with me, but I can think of dozens on the left who became very upset and stormed off. I mean, I'm talking nutcase socons, and they have no problem when I argue in favor of sodomy and atheism. Mention a tax cut in front of a lefty, and expect the shouting to begin.

          2. Libertymike   12 years ago

            Agreed.

            Besides, being an opinionated asshole comes easy for me.

            1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

              Heh, same. I guess something about libertarianism attracts opinionated assholes...

              1. T   12 years ago

                No, really?

                1. Libertymike   12 years ago

                  Actually, some of us opinionated assholes have been able to use that attribute to our advantage by copping to it in order to demonstrate some self deprecation which, as you know, is one valuable tool to have in the toolbox.

    3. A Serious Man   12 years ago

      Dude got lucky, assuming this drove him away like it should any sane individual.

    4. Irish   12 years ago

      That being said, just because I enjoy obsessively mulling over the whos whats wheres whens and whys of our frustratingly racist society to myself in my own brain absolutely does not equate to: "Please, interrogate me about my feelings regarding the Trayvon Martin case in this dark people-filled bar on our first date while you stare at my chest."

      Good God. This is horribly written.

      It seems that the Marcotte Blight, a savage disease that distorts prose until it is barely readable, is spreading. A quarantine of some kind might be in order.

      1. Irish   12 years ago

        This aforementioned stress-dream of a situation occurred just a few days ago on a first date with a guy I met online and agreed to go out with.

        This aforementioned stress-dream of a situation. Why does a person with this poor a grasp of the English language choose to write a blog?

      2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        Staring at the chest is bad? Heck, I spent most of my first date with my wife doing that.

        1. NoVAHockey   12 years ago

          that's how I got a second date.

        2. Irish   12 years ago

          I also have a vague suspicion that the guy wasn't actually staring at her chest, and she's just desperately attempting to paint him as a creep due to the fact that he destroyed her argument and made her cry.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            I dunno, I guess it depends on her chest. I bet it sucks. Otherwise, she's not be complaining about it.

            1. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

              She looks pretty hot on her linked in profile (as much as you can tell from the picture, but its a better picture than the one from the OP).

              I also found her deviant art profile. Amazing what the internet can find. So glad both my names are nondescript and common and I haven't attached my name to anything someone could find.

              1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

                Did you look at her chest?

                1. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

                  Not enough of a view, my guess is her rack is smaller but could be nice.

                  Also, she quit her job at the Gap! Good for her.

      3. Brett L   12 years ago

        It is called lack of editor. Very few people can write well and consistently at lengths of more than 250 words without an editor.

      4. Nikkis enthusiastic dissent   12 years ago

        As I noted in the AM Links yesterday, Thought Catalog is definitely one of the worst-written sites on the internet. And the commenters think the writing is great, because FEELS.

        1. JurisCani   12 years ago

          That is one catalogue from which I'll never order.

    5. trshmnstr   12 years ago

      I do have to say that the comments are amazing!

      1. Irish   12 years ago

        Does she get owned? I'm reading the article, and I hope that she gets owned in the comments.

        1. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

          Yes. I am upvoting some of the better ones.

          1. Careless   12 years ago

            "clearly you never steped foot in a sociology class that would negate this entire rant you've bestowed upon us"

            Totally worth reading for gems like that.

        2. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

          It could just be a sock (actually it seems likely) but apparently the author is actually replying to some of them:

          Ethyl
          Minor nitpick: You're not an Art Historian, you have a degree in Art History, this is true, but until you are a professor, researcher, or other applied degree job, you should not use the title "Art Historian". The proper way to say "I have an Art History degree but do not work in that field" is "would you like fries with that?"

          Feeling like you are a thing and being a thing are two different ballgames.

          Sarah Baran
          Die cis scum! Your misogyny doesn't work on me!

        3. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

          Jamie
          I greatly appreciate you responding to the comments. It comforts me to know that the idiot you painted yourself to be in the story holds true. It also lets me know that there's no point to ever reading anything you ever write so you've saved me literally minutes in my life. Thank you

      2. A Serious Man   12 years ago

        Best comment:

        Look, Sarah, i'm sorry about what happened last night, I honestly thought you were a rational human being who would base their opinions on the facts instead of the liberal muh feelings rhetoric

        But I guess I thought wrong.

        By the way, I paid your bill anyway since you pretty much dined and dashed. Thank you for allowing me to fulfil my male gender role of logic and financial responsibility, while you followed the female gender role of being an insufferable, emotional, backwards cunt.

        Sincerely,

        Mark "The Shark" O'mara

        I really hope that was the actual guy she went out with.

    6. Irish   12 years ago

      He tried to turn the entire case into something out of a law textbook, completely divorcing it from real life, from the consequences and precedents and actions and reactions.

      He tried to explain to me how the rule of law works, but I was having none of it since people should go to jail based entirely on my emotions.

    7. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      Forgive me, O Great Law Student, for I am not as wise as thee and numbers and word problems make my brain hurt.

      Could you just have the grace to either A) admit defeat and change the subject, or B)finish the date, go home, and never deal with him again?

  37. The Late P Brooks   12 years ago

    free expressions must be curtailed in order to defend the country.

    FREE EXPRESSION IS SEDITIOUS

  38. The Late P Brooks   12 years ago

    I was shocked, not just by the disparity between his experience of the world and mine, but also by the depths of my own ignorance

    Not shocking. Not shocking at all.

  39. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    HBO is Dead: Long Live Aaron Sorkin and The Newsroom!

    Aaron Sorkin, who must have begun his wonderful show hoping he might persuade the news-apathetic to be less so, arrives too late. All his intelligent, animated characters who care about the news, about facts and conveying them truthfully and interestingly? In reality they're already gone, killed by management. There is no Sam Waterston pragmatically trying to protect the integrity of his staff and their profession. Instead there's a new boss fluffing up ratings (mildly and I'll bet temporarily) while sinking the last ship of serious TV news, this cargo that made you a better citizen, a better voter, a better person.

    The stories "Newsroom" tells are often a year old, dramatic license is taken, but you'll learn more about the world from an hour of this than from a week of CNN.

    I'm all for CNN bashing, but my God.

    1. John   12 years ago

      All his intelligent, animated characters

      Wow.

      1. gaijin   12 years ago

        All his intelligent, animated characters

        Wait, you mean its a cartoon?

    2. Episiarch   12 years ago

      Look, they just want to take another complete step away from reality, that's all. Is that so wrong, in a world full of Wartys and FoEs?

    3. Irish   12 years ago

      Good God. If you learn anything from the Newsroom you're a moron.

      1. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

        I learned something today: People in Sorkinland fast-talking, sexually-frustrated egomaniacs.

        Purge them with fire. Or a category 4 kaiju.

        1. JW   12 years ago

          Or a category 4 kaiju.

          We are cancelling the Derpocalypse!

    4. DesigNate   12 years ago

      All his intelligent, animated characters

      Which ones are those again?

  40. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

    OK, just two more TiA links for today

    1. literally thought-rape

    The patriarchy told my flatmate it was okay to masturbate to the thought of me without my permission. When I told him he was basically thought-raping me he laughed in my face. (Not only is he no longer my flatmate, he's not getting the 2 months rent I owe him either.)

    2. 'They are men for all intents and purposes'

    1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

      I'm trying to envision the process where a man seeks permission from a woman to masturbate to her. E-mail? Facebook?

      1. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

        I was once given that sort of permission, tho I did not ask for it.

        1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

          That's, um, forward.

          1. Libertymike   12 years ago

            Potentially explosive.

      2. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

        A fortnight of abstinence followed by a formal letter of intent.

        It's Emily Post-approved.

      3. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

        feneeq-k reblogged this from vellaevenlifts and added:

        legit flattered whenever anyone says they've had a tug over me i dont understand?

        Fantastic.

        1. R C Dean   12 years ago

          So, there are people who will actually walk up to their masturbation fantasies and say "I rubbed one out with you last night. You were great."?

      4. Emmerson Biggins   12 years ago

        Form mb-129. Pretty standard stuff. Don't you have all yours on file, ready for inspection by the matriarchy?

      5. PH2050   12 years ago

        "I'm trying to envision the process where a man seeks permission from a woman to masturbate to her. E-mail? Facebook?"

        Contract, duh.

    2. A Serious Man   12 years ago

      (Not only is he no longer my flatmate, he's not getting the 2 months rent I owe him either.)

      Oh please, take this idiot to court and let her make that argument in front of a judge. If there was ever a person I'd want to see on Judge Judy it would be this girl.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        Judge Judy would likely tell her that she masturbated looking at her ex-flatmate during the trial.

      2. John   12 years ago

        It is really a shame it was done anonymously and not by someone with a picture on her profile. Honey, I thought raped you after reading your post. I will be in my bunk doing it again in about ten minutes.

    3. Episiarch   12 years ago

      This is too silly to even comment on, so:

      Mac: You put your balls in my mouth while I was sleeping?

      Dennis: Yeah, man. Twice.

      Mac: That's rape! That is borderline rape!

    4. Invisible Finger   12 years ago

      It's only thought-rape if she said "no" IN the fantasy.

    5. BigT   12 years ago

      I once told a woman I jerked it to her photo - 10 minutes later I was playing with her double D's!

      1. Libertymike   12 years ago

        You naughty boy, you!

    6. Rasilio   12 years ago

      "The patriarchy told my flatmate it was okay to masturbate to the thought of me without my permission. "

      wait, she is claiming to own the rights to his thought processes about her?

      Damn then she hasn't got the right to be upset about him doing it without her permission.

    7. EdWuncler   12 years ago

      Then I am fucking serial rapist, especially during high school.

    8. Entropy Void   12 years ago

      Is "thought-rape" rape-rape, Goldberg-style?

  41. Bo Cara Esq.   12 years ago

    With that revelation Weiner will probably have to drop his mayoral campaign and run for comptroller instead.

  42. Thane of Whiterun   12 years ago

    #nojustice #notips

    1. gaijin   12 years ago

      haha! And in the first one the douche didn't even spell his martyr's name correctly.

  43. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

    Econ and business... Fuck it.

    I am by no means a Beijing Metro expert and cannot speak to how representative this is, but check out this mind-blowing video of crowding at one of Beijing's transfer stations:

    But this is the kind of thing that makes me a little bit skeptical of arguments about the Chinese growth slowdown that just point at some macroeconomic aggregates and say "overinvestment!"

    1. Irish   12 years ago

      How does one massively crowded train station have anything to do with China's growth slowdown? They actually have slowed down, as all of the GDP numbers indicate. They are growing at a slower rate, which means their economy has slowed down.

      Yglesias chooses to ignore the numbers and claim there is no slowdown based on overcrowding at a single train station.

      1. gaijin   12 years ago

        Perhaps the slowdown is why everyone is now taking the train.

      2. Episiarch   12 years ago

        Yes, because Yglesias makes mongoloids look brilliant. We've already established this.

        1. Irish   12 years ago

          If there was a train station that was this crowded in America, Yglesias would be claiming it was horrible because he doesn't have enough space to stretch out and read his dog eared copy of Critique of Pure Reason.

          1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

            You know that Yglesias is too lazy to read Critique of Pure Reason, much less dog-ear it.

            I bet reading half of the Wikipedia article before he masturbates himself to sleep is more his speed.

            1. Irish   12 years ago

              You know that Yglesias is too lazy to read Critique of Pure Reason, much less dog-ear it.

              Yes, but that wouldn't stop him from claiming he was reading it.

            2. John   12 years ago

              He was a "philosophy major" at Harvard. Why that qualifies him to opine economics of dog catching much less anything else involving the economy, I haven't yet heard explained.

              Beyond that, I seriously doubt he read that book outside a few excerpts in a survey class. He might have taken a specialized class reading just that. But I doubt it. Kant isn't leftwing enough and not as susptable to bullshitting your way through the class as other subjects would be.

              1. Gozer the Gozerian   12 years ago

                So, Hegel?

          2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            You mean Kritik der reinen Vernunft--he'd claim to be reading it in the original German.

          3. Episiarch   12 years ago

            Are we sure Yglesias can read?

            1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              No. Though the comment said he'd be claiming to have attempted to read.

        2. John   12 years ago

          Fuck you. I know a few mongoloids. Some of them are friends of mine. And Yglesias is no mongoloid. No one is that stupid.

          1. Episiarch   12 years ago

            Maybe he's a new species or something. Or possibly a really, really stupid alien.

            1. John   12 years ago

              If aliens did visit earth, he would certainly be worthy of being left behind.

              1. Episiarch   12 years ago

                Left Behind III: Moron Force

            2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              I just had the most awful thought. What if we're the smartest, most rational, and most advanced species in the galaxy?

              Hold me, I'm scared.

              1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

                What if Yglesias was our test? Perhaps the aliens wanted to see if the human race was reasonable enough to trample Yglesias to death in a justified rage at what he is doing to Lady Reason.

                1. Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)   12 years ago

                  Thanks, Trouser. I laughed at that. A lot.

              2. kibby   12 years ago

                Well that was a suicide-inducing idea. I'll be crying myself to sleep tonight now, thanks.

      3. jesse.in.mb   12 years ago

        Seriously, were Tokyo subway stations suddenly vacant during their lost decade?

    2. John   12 years ago

      I am not sure what is more sad; how dumb Yeglesias actually is or the fact that he thinks he is so smart and thoughtful.

      Slate's continuing to publish him is really gone past the point of being abusive towards him. How can they continue to publish him and let him embarrass himself like this?

    3. Agammamon   12 years ago

      I don't know, I've experienced as much crowding on a Japanese train during rush hour.

      China may not be over-infrastructuring but they certainly are infrastructuring in the wrong place, as evidence by the empty cities they've built.

      (infrastructuring - just my own little contribution to the murder of the English language).

    4. Tejicano   12 years ago

      Ho Li Fuk.

      Beijing is the capitol city (draws a lot of people to it) of a country which contains one quarter of the human race. That it might have a busy train station would be the result of so many factors that there is nothing to be drawn from a single photo without knowing a lot more of the situation.

      Even in Tokyo there are some lines which are sardine-can crowded while others at the same time of day are relatively much less crowded. Without knowing the background you can't say shit about the state of investment.

  44. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    A privately funded Ohio Holocaust memorial wins approval to be built on state grounds despite legal threats from the Freedom From Religion Foundation over the display of a Star of David in the memorial.

    New York artist Daniel Libeskind, the son of Holocaust survivors, designed the memorial. His plan features a split limestone path toward two, upright panels. Cutouts on the panels are positioned to reveal a broken, six-pointed Star of David. An account from an Auschwitz death camp survivor would be embossed on the panels, and a stone wall that sits along the path would have an engraved quote honoring the death camp liberators: "If you save one life, it is as if you saved the world."

    Joyce Garver Keller, executive director of the Ohio Jewish Communities, said she didn't think the depiction of the Star of David promotes any religion. She said it's appropriate for the memorial to be placed near a government institution.

    "The Holocaust did not begin in the camps," Keller said. "It did not begin with smokestacks and ovens. It began in the halls of government where legislation was passed that allowed the expulsion of Jews and others who the Nazis didn't support and the murder of millions of people."

    1. John   12 years ago

      despite legal threats from the Freedom From Religion Foundation over the display of a Star of David in the memorial.

      Would they not be allowed to mention it was Jews who were murdered? I really think the Freedom From Religion Foundation is a false flag group set up to make atheists look like ignorant assholes. They are the Westboro Baptist Church of atheism.

      1. Apatheist ?_??   12 years ago

        I agree and this is even worse that some of their "technically correct is the best kind of correct" arguments like 10th commandment or nativity scene stuff.

        There are perfectly good reasons to oppose the the government supporting this without it being a 1st amendment issue but FFRF probably doesn't like where that would lead.

      2. Libertymike   12 years ago

        John, they also happen to be an organization to which one of my aunts is leaving $10,000.00.

        I would rather give the money to an independent filmmaker to produce an hour long documentary entitled: A Day with dunphy.

  45. Bo Cara Esq.   12 years ago

    According to this it is far more expensive to deliver a baby in the US than in other nations. Why?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/...../?hpid=z15

    1. Brett L   12 years ago

      Because ours live more often? The millions spent on neo-natal care at Shands goes into the mix?

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        Yes, and that also plays into our inflated infant mortality figures. We fight to save babies (before birth) that other countries don't.

      2. Entropy Void   12 years ago

        Can I just say that the Gainesville Sun is THE WORST FUCKING NEWSPAPER IN THE WORLD !!!111!!!

    2. R C Dean   12 years ago

      We have vast sunk costs to cover, invested in trying to manage the very tail end of health-related risk.

      For babies, this shows up in the prevalence of highly trained (and thus expensive) physician specialists, and in very expensive neo-natal intensive care wards.

      Get rid of all that, and you can deliver a healthy baby a lot cheaper. Of course, you'll lose a fair number of the ones that aren't so healthy along the way.

  46. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    Joan Walsh's irony meter must be broken: Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly are race huckster making money off of stoking racial tensions.

    Monday night Fox's Bill O'Reilly accused Obama himself of making life worse for African Americans, because his speech showed he had "no clue" how to combat "gangsta culture."

    An unusually crazed, agitated O'Reilly declared that the plight of black America "has nothing to do with slavery. It has everything to do with you Hollywood people and you derelict parents? Race hustlers and the grievance industry," he went on, "have intimidated the so-called 'conversation,' turning any valid criticism of African-American culture into charges of racial bias," leaving African-Americans to "fend for themselves in violent neighborhoods." I can't wait to hear the ignorant O'Reilly generalize more about "African American culture."

    But I agree with O'Reilly about "race hustlers and the grievance industry" being the problem here ? only we define them differently. Bill-O himself is a consummate race hustler and grievance peddler, pushing the drug of racial grievance to white people, making himself rich by worsening racial tension. He's second only to Rush Limbaugh in terms of spewing ignorance to a vast, frightened audience.

    O'Reilly makes a perfectly sapient point and that's...racist?

    1. Episiarch   12 years ago

      Dude, once again...projection. She's projecting exactly what so many on TEAM BLUE are doing right now.

      It always comes down to projection.

    2. A Serious Man   12 years ago

      And what about the fact that liberals genuinely believe that George Zimmerman is a monster who hunted down and killed Trayvon Martin in a fit of racist hatred?

      What about the Martin protesters who repeatedly hit a grandmother in the face?

      They aren't living in a world of ignorance and fear fed by a massive persecution complex?

      1. Episiarch   12 years ago

        Projection.

      2. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

        Hey! They're in the reality-based community and you aren't! If their reality is that George Zimmerman hunted Trayvon Martin with a high-powered assault handgun and cut his poor, young body to pieces with his bullet-rounds of racial oppression, that's what happened! They don't need any of your so-called facts that Martin knocked Zimmerman down, repeatedly punched him in the head, then tried to kill Zimmerman with his own gun.

    3. John   12 years ago

      Hacks gotta hack. Walsh is the same person who wrote any number of column inches about the Bush twins drinking in college only to later write that it was an invasion of the Obamas' privacy to even report where the brats went on spring break. When confronted with her hypocrisy, she said that well she regretted so much about the Bush twins. I am sure she does.

      When your job is to defend Obama no matter how indefensible things are, you are going to write pretty stupid things.

      1. Gozer the Gozerian   12 years ago

        In case, somehow, anyone needs more evidence of her lunacy:

        http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/02/14/charles-murray

    4. Irish   12 years ago

      Strong words from a woman whose website recently published an article calling Holder Barack Obama's 'inner nigger.'

  47. Cytotoxic   12 years ago

    Syria's Kurds are rolling the Jihadists in Northern Syria.

    1. Cytotoxic   12 years ago

      http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Ne.....z2ZuGXvtQr

    2. John   12 years ago

      Give the Kurds their own country, arm the fuck out of them, and let them off their chain.

      1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

        I've long advocated doing exactly that. Heck, make them a state: Kurdlahoma!

        1. John   12 years ago

          If we did that, the Arabs would have way too much on their plate to worry about terrorizing us.

          1. Rasilio   12 years ago

            Yeah but Turkey would be displeased and Turkey has been a pretty solid ally for a while now.

            1. Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)   12 years ago

              Not so much anymore, as they slide downward. tarran can give you the sad details.

              1. PapayaSF   12 years ago

                Indeed. That used to be the case, but in recent years, no. So, screw 'em and arm the Kurds. Iraq and iran won't be happy, either, but....

            2. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

              How displeased can they be with our military base in our new state looking them right in the eye?

            3. R C Dean   12 years ago

              Turkey stopped being a solid ally when they laid the groundwork for the Iraqi insurgency by denying us transit for a northern front.

              Why would they do that? Well, that northern front would be a big help to the Kurds, and the Turks frickin' hate the Kurds.

        2. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

          Didn't a prominent Kurdish pol offer George HW Bush to make Kurdistan the 51st state?

          Would have been fun, heh.

          1. Pro Libertate   12 years ago

            Why not? I say we do it.

      2. Cytotoxic   12 years ago

        I love it, but this will create problem with the Turks, who are already talking of 'action' to prevent an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria. Fuck them. Israel should do for the Kurds what Iran does for Assad.

        1. Libertymike   12 years ago

          I have no problem with you offering your assistance to the Kurds. Heck, I may even be pulling for you - on that score.

          1. Cytotoxic   12 years ago

            GREATEST IDEA EVAR: Reason kickstarter for HandR Startup Rambos. Train and arm to the teeth John and me and whoever else wants to join in the fun. Put a Google glass video recorder live upload (that will also double as a handy HUD for whoever is wearing it). Instant reality TV hit freedom fighter merc army for Reason. God damn it I'm a genius.

            1. The Immaculate Trouser   12 years ago

              I thought that's what the next Reason cruise was gonna be...

            2. Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)   12 years ago

              I will train you, I will advise you...but I will not go over there, yet again. Just hook up with the Peshmerga north of Kirkuk.

  48. A Serious Man   12 years ago

    Hmm, Lena Dunham said something funny on Twitter:

    @lenadunham
    I'm worried I fucked Carlos Danger in college. 🙁

    1. Irish   12 years ago

      I'm sure Anthony Weiner shares the same fear.

  49. Gozer the Gozerian   12 years ago

    "Think P.M. Links entitles you to a substantive news piece? It's not that simple."

  50. Entropy Void   12 years ago

    Once a Weiner, always a Weiner ...

  51. Irish   12 years ago

    Chris Matthews: We all have a sex drive of different kinds.

    1. Cytotoxic   12 years ago

      Do not want.

    2. Anonymous Coward   12 years ago

      Chris Matthews: Would gladly close his eyes and imagine it was JFK in his ass.

  52. Archduke Trousersenthusiast   12 years ago

    Pale blue dot indeed.

  53. Sevo   12 years ago

    So why was it that Michelson got some heat about CA taxes? Well:
    "Report: Mickelson facing 61-percent tax rate on winnings"
    http://www.golfchannel.com/new.....-winnings/

  54. Archduke Trousersenthusiast   12 years ago

    New Royal baby 'is another blood-sucking British monarch' whose birth should not be celebrated, says Russian politiciansane people.

  55. Death Rock and Skull   12 years ago

    For anyone familiar with wiring gfci outlets, is it okay to replace standard outlets with gfci outlets if they are wired off of the load terminals of an existing gfci outlet? And if this is not okay, can I rewire the existing gfci outlet so that the existing wires only go to the corresponding hot or neutral line terminals, thereby wiring all outlets in question in a parallel arrangement?

    1. R C Dean   12 years ago

      As I understand it, the key to wiring gfci outlets is to strip all the insulation off of the wires. Otherwise the circuit breaker in the outlet won't work right.

    2. Juice   12 years ago

      Yes. Do it.

  56. MappRapp   12 years ago

    lol that dude is oh so full of himself.

    http://www.Webz-Anon.tk

Please log in to post comments

Mute this user?

  • Mute User
  • Cancel

Ban this user?

  • Ban User
  • Cancel

Un-ban this user?

  • Un-ban User
  • Cancel

Nuke this user?

  • Nuke User
  • Cancel

Un-nuke this user?

  • Un-nuke User
  • Cancel

Flag this comment?

  • Flag Comment
  • Cancel

Un-flag this comment?

  • Un-flag Comment
  • Cancel

Latest

69 Percent of Americans Say American Dream Is Not Dead

Autumn Billings | 7.4.2025 8:30 AM

With Environmental Regulatory Reform, California Gov. Gavin Newsom Finally Does Something Substantial

Steven Greenhut | 7.4.2025 7:30 AM

Celebrate Independence Day by Insulting a Politician

J.D. Tuccille | 7.4.2025 7:00 AM

Independence Day Reminds Us You Can Be American by Choice

Billy Binion | 7.4.2025 6:30 AM

Brickbat: Friends in High Places

Charles Oliver | 7.4.2025 4:00 AM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!