A.M. Links: Feds Raid Marijuana Dispensaries in Washington State, Bradley Manning Trial Coming to a Close, Majority of Voters Want Repeal of Obamacare

• 

  futureatlas.com/foter.com

  The DEA raided several medical marijuana dispensaries in the Puget Sound region of Washington, despite that state legalizing recreational marijuana by initiative last year.

• The Amash Amendment to the defense authorization act, which sought to limit the NSA's collection of Americans' data, failed in the House by a vote of 205-217.
• Both sides present closing arguments in the Bradley Manning trial today.
• 53 percent of voters would repeal Obamacare, according to a Fox News poll.
• A friend of Anthony Weiner's latest sexting target says the young woman was a committed Democrat who idealized Weiner even after he resigned from Congress in disgrace. The candidate insists he's not dropping out of the race for mayor of New York City, saying it was "too important to give up." In his pants.
• House Democrats will hold a hearing on "a conversation on race and justice" to be chaired by Nancy Pelosi in response to the George Zimmerman verdict. Rand Paul, meanwhile, says no one in Congress "has a stronger belief in minority rights" than he does.
• The family rescued by George Zimmerman from an overturned SUV has canceled a press conference and asked for privacy. They're worried about hate being directed at them for saying anything positive about Zimmerman. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The DEA raided several medical marijuana dispensaries in the Puget Sound region of Washington, despite that state legalizing recreational marijuana by initiative last year.

In Obama's defense, those were really easy targets and he's an asshole.

[Drake]

I thought the WA dispensaries were owned by the state? Am I misremembering?

[SugarFree]

They backed off of that in the implementation phase. They are merely regulated by the State Liquor Board.

[Ted S.]

Because Marijuana == Liquor.

Fucking bureaucracies never get smaller.

[Velcro Bootstraps]

Better under an existing bureaucracy then making up a whole new one, I guess.

[Zeb]

As far as I know, they haven't started the legal recreational sales yet. The dispensaries were probably medical.

[CampingInYourPark]

Medical marijuana was legalized in WA in 1998, so I wonder why the reference to recreational marijuana legalization?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I think maybe because it suggests that the will of the people of the state is moving in a direction on marijuana usage and that the Obama Administration is blatantly ignoring that.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Well, federalism is neo-Confederate. Why are you a racist?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I checked the wrong box on my college application.

[CampingInYourPark]

Washington was one of the first states to legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana last year. But it remains illegal under federal law, and Lee claimed one of the agents told him, "Things are going to be hell for you."
"One of the DEA agents said: 'This is your second raid and your third robbery. Why do you keep doing this?'" Lee said.
"I just told him it's because we just enjoy helping people, and he told us that he wasn't expecting that answer."

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new.....legal?lite

[Prisoner Zero]

The condemned should plead detrimental reliance and estoppel:

A legal principle that bars a party from denying or alleging a certain fact owing to that party's previous conduct, allegation, or denial.

The rationale behind estoppel is to prevent injustice owing to inconsistency or Fraud. There are two general types of estoppel: equitable and legal.

estoppel n. a bar or impediment (obstruction) which precludes a person from asserting a fact or a right, or prevents one from denying a fact. Such a hindrance is due to a person's actions, conduct, statements, admissions, failure to act, or judgment against the person in an identical legal case. Estoppel includes being barred by false representation or concealment (equitable estoppel), failure to take legal action until the other party is prejudiced by the delay (estoppel by laches), and a court ruling against the party on the same matter in a different case (collateral estoppel)

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Neither of those are colorable.

[Prisoner Zero]

Why no color? They would seem to fit the facts perfectly. These people relied upon representations by the federal govt that they were safe from prosecution. The feds committed fraud which induced the behavior.

Wham bam thank you ma'am. Next case.

[Aresen]

Didn't Dunphy promise us that Police in WA wouldn't allow the DEA to carry out raids in that state?

FEDERAL SUPREMACY!

[Careless]

I'm going to guess that no, he did not.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The candidate insists he's not dropping out of the race for mayor of New York City, saying it was "too important to give up."

Carlos doesn't do campaignus interruptus. He stays in until the job is done.

[Ted S.]

The candidate insists he's not dropping out of the race for mayor of New York City, saying it he was "too important to give up."

That's what Weiner really thinks.

[Rich]

He does not deny us his essence.

[JW]

Huma promised him that she'll put a bamboo skewer up his dick if he doesn't stay in. She's going to get the big house one way or another and since it doesn't look like Bill is going to let her marry Hillary, she'll stick with Plan B.

[Tejicano]

OK, now he's just being a dick about this.

[Francisco d Anconia]

ISWYDT

[Endless Mike]

I really hope he wins. Besides, how much worse than Bloomberg can he be?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Maybe we'll get to find out.

[AlexInCT]

Daily weiner tweets for all!

[Lord Humungus]

German tourists in naked fountain strip
http://web.orange.co.uk/articl.....tain_strip

A group of overweight German tourists raised eyebrows on a trip to Switzerland - when they stripped off and plunged into a fountain to cool down.

The tourists had been taking snaps in Lyss town centre when one of them took off his trousers and climbed into the fountain to cool off.

He was soon joined by his pals and when they realised the fountain had made all their clothes wet, they stripped off completely while they waited for their clothes to dry.

[MP]

So I was in Italy last week at Positano and our guide said "there's nowhere to change, so if you want to swim, you'll need to change on the beach. Just like the Germans."

Stereotype affirmed.

[Ted S.]

I don't get what the big deal is.

[Brett L]

Have you seen the average German tourist?

[pan fried wylie]

Have you seen the average German tourist?

[Hyperion]

Have you seen the average German tourist?

I have, while in Rio. You can spot them a mile away on the beach. They're the ones with soccer shorts held up by suspenders, and knee high white socks in sandals.

[Bobarian]

You know who else didn't care what Germans did in other European countries?

[pan fried wylie]

Mussolini?

[KPres]

The Catholic Church?

[Bobarian]

I was looking for FDR or Chamberlain

[Mickey Rat]

"A group of overweight German tourists..."

You don't get that it is an aesthetic nightmare?

[bostonaod]

and when they realised the fountain had made all their clothes wet

do you think they were surprised?

[Aresen]

The thought of a bunch of fat Germans running around naked.

*shudders*

[JW]

It cannot be unseen.

[Fist of Etiquette]

House Democrats will hold a hearing on "a conversation on race and justice" to be chaired by Nancy Pelosi in response to the George Zimmerman verdict.

The Dems need to stick their dick in the race baiting, maybe generate some heat off it for the midterms.

[Rich]

House Democrats will hold a hearing on "a conversation monologue on race and justice" to be chaired by Nancy Pelosi

FTFY

[WTF]

"If you don't elect democrats, more innocent black children will be murdered in the streets like Trayvon!"

These people really are vile.

[gaijin]

I'm guessing it won;t be as funny as the monologue on the Tonight Show.

[Bobarian]

It won't be as funny as the monologue in Hamlet.

[mad libertarian guy]

Which technically isn't a monologue, but a soliloquy. And everyone knows that technically correct is the best kind of correct.

[RightofCenter]

+ Bureaucrat 1.0

[John Galt]

Well, they have been loosing a little pull with the minorities lately. Nothing a little sticking their dick in won't fix.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Rep. Jackson Lee introduces bill to cut funds to stand-your-ground states
...Under the Justice Exists proposal, states that didn't amend their stand-your-ground laws and require a "duty to retreat" would face a 20 percent cut to previously allocated funds.

Additionally, to avoid the cut in funds, states would have to require local neighborhood watch programs to register with local law enforcement...

[Floridian]

Please let this happen. I hope it passes, FL keeps its laws and we get off the federal teat. It will be easier to tell the Feds to jump in a lake with less cash at stake.

[Juice]

You're not going to get a 20% discount on federal taxes.

But politically it's a dumb move. She obviously wants the poor to starve or hold workers hostage, or something.

[DJF]

"duty to retreat"

So this would mean that Trayvon Martin would be convicted of failing to retreat when he was on top of Zimmerman and beating his head?

[WTF]

No, Zimmerman would be convicted of failing to retreat when he was on his back getting his head pounded.

[Dweebston]

Zimmerman was duty-bound to retreat from consciousness via concussion and/or brain trauma.

[Spoonman.]

Given that she represents a SYG state, does she really want to introduce a bill that would cut funds to her own constituents? I doubt Annise Parker (Dem mayor of Houston) is too happy about this.

[gaijin]

does she really want to introduce a bill that would cut funds to her own constituents?

This is not about introducing a bill that might pass...this is race hustling.

[mad libertarian guy]

This is not about introducing a bill that might pass...this is race hustling.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

[Rich]

If this "duty to retreat" entails just taking a step backward and saying "Leave me the fuck alone", that *might* be OK.

[Bobarian]

I kind of like the "leave me the fuck alone" defense. Could we use it against the government?

[Live Free or Diet]

Under the Justice Exists proposal, states that didn't amend their stand-your-ground laws and require a "duty to retreat" would face a 20 percent cut to previously allocated funds.

As I read SYG/Castle Doctrine, that would cut something like 30 states.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Then when a black person is convicted of murdering some white person who attacked him, under the Duty to Retreat law, this Congresswoman will be the first to cry racism.

[Irish]

Given that the vast majority of people who defend themselves with self-defense and stand your ground are black, this would result in more black people going to jail.

Upper middle class white boys like me are very unlikely to ever have my life put in danger in my neighborhood. People in bad neighborhoods are the ones who might have to protect themselves. This would have a devastating effect on black people, but the Democrats don't care because they would sacrifice every black person in this country for political gain.

[Drake]

Can some smart fiscal conservative strip out the "duty to retreat" BS and just cut transfer payments 20% to all states? Lee is dumb enough not to notice.

[T]

If I get the house I'm looking at, I'll overlook I-45 and be in her district. We've toyed with the idea of starting a PAC solely to oppose her, because she's a goddamn embarassment to thinking humans. Having a place to put a billboard by 45 that says "Sheila Jackson Lee - Moron in Congress" would also work for me.

[Brett L]

Stupidest member of Congress.

Which section of 45? I thought Brady had it all the way from the Beltway out past Conroe.

[Spoonman.]

You moving to the Fifth Ward?

I guess the Heights is in her district as well.

[T]

All the way inside the loop, Brett. Just north of I-10 on the east side of 45. I'm making a long-term bet on gentrification.

[Bobarian]

Gentrification? Sounds like you might be better off investing in fortification.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I live in this area and I wouldn't bother with the sign, everybody seems to know she is a clown but somehow she keeps winning.

[R C Dean]

ACORN (under whatever nom du fraud they have adopted) can probably help with that.

[Brett L]

Cool. I hope that works out for you. As I am purchasing a $27000 child safety system (aka a new Honda CRV) to satisfy my wife, I think I'm out of real estate for a couple of years. In her defense, we do have only 2 door vehicles, and the premium on the first 25000 miles on CRVs is only about $3000. In my defense, there are a shitton of CRVs with 150k miles on the road, so given our projected driving habits, buying one with 75k miles for half price is the most cost effective one.

Apparently, the baby doesn't give a shit that he'll have no bequest.

[generic Brand]

"wife"? I didn't realize she'd been promoted from GF. Omedetou Gozaimasu!

[mad libertarian guy]

My brother has a CRV with 215k miles, and he maintains his like you think a dumbass would.

[Lord Humungus]

How the Muslim Brotherhood lost Egypt
http://www.reuters.com/article.....7H20130725

he stunning fall from power of President Mohamed Mursi, and the Muslim Brotherhood which backed him, has upended politics in the volatile Middle East for a second time after the Arab Spring uprisings toppled veteran autocrats.

Some of the principal causes were highlighted a month before the army intervened to remove Mursi, when two of Egypt's most senior power brokers met for a private dinner at the home of liberal politician Ayman Nour on the island of Zamalek, a lush bourgeois oasis in the midst of Cairo's seething megalopolis. It was seen by some as a last attempt to avert a showdown.

[Endless Mike]

Rebels generally make poor government leaders. I imagine that terrorists are straight up terrible at it.

[Jon Lester]

Witness Hamas, completely inept at providing basic services.

[Juice]

Hezbollah?

[Lord Humungus]

Louisiana duo throws stolen roosters from their car while deputies pursue them in Tuscaloosa
http://blog.al.com/tuscaloosa/.....ncart_2box

get them Duke Boys!

[Rich]

BUCK BUCK BUCKEE!

[gaijin]

Those darn cock shuckers!

[Rich]

Nice.

[Endless Mike]

HA!

[R C Dean]

Are you saying they tossed off their cocks?

[Floridian]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013.....zimmerman/

The U.S. Department of Justice has taken all the evidence from the trial, including the gun that killed Martin, as part of a civil rights investigation. But even if authorities eventually decide to give the gun back to Zimmerman, O'Mara said it should be destroyed.
"That gun will never be used again by Mr. Zimmerman or anybody else," O'Mara said.

I thought Zimmerman was going to mount his pistol on the wall above a picture of Trayvon. At least that is what Jessie Jackson told me.

[anon]

To be fair, I would, just to piss liberal race baiting fucks off.

[Floridian]

Seriously though, why has his pistol not been returned to him. If they want to keep it for a civil rights violation don't they need to charge him to deprive him of his property.

[Aresen]

"...don't they need to charge him to deprive him of his property."

*snort*

[R C Dean]

I'm baffled as to the relevance of the gun itself to a civil rights investigation.

[Zeb]

This is just getting too fucked. How is it even possible to charge a private citizen with civil rights violations? I really don't have a problem with extra federal civil rights charges being applied to police or other government agents who violate people's rights. State police and courts often don't do a very good job dealing with that sort of thing and I think that making sure state governments respect people's rights is a fine roll for the federal government. But this just seems absurd.

[SugarFree]

Zimmerman's gun is just like a cop's gun at this point: It failed to not discharge when it shot Martin.

[Rich]

How is it even possible to charge a private citizen with civil rights violations?

Just try using the wrong epithet against someone. You'll find out.

[Zeb]

I think you have to use the epithet while committing a crime, no? You dumb ass cracker.

[John]

How is it even possible to charge a private citizen with civil rights violations?

The theory is that if you are a private citizen and you act specifically to deprive someone of a federal civil right, you have committed a crime. The law was designed to go after cases where a mob showed up at a polling place and threatened any black person who showed up and tried to vote.

You could maybe charge Zimmerman with it if you could prove that the point of the neighborhood watch was to ensure no black people every entered the neighborhood. The right to travel freely is a federal right. And if say a gated community set up a goon squad who kicked the shit out of any black person who dared come in the neighborhood, you could see some logic to such a charge.

But there is no evidence whatsoever that Zimmerman did anything like that. Thinking a young black man cutting through yards might be a criminal is not violating a federal right.

[SugarFree]

The civil rights charge is going to be some interesting theater.

The smart thing would be to drag it out until it dies down, then claim they can't charge Zimmerman--their hands are tied! TIED!--timed to give a boost to Dem turn out for the mid-terms, but Obama doesn't seem to be interested in even doing smart things that are slimy and underhanded. Dumb, slimy and underhanded is his MO.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It would likely drive more counter voters to the polls for the midterms.

[SugarFree]

What would be their motivation? Zimmerman wasn't charged... vindication! It might trigger some violent protests, but for a lot of people it would be a reminder to vote than a spark of violence.

Someone should hire me to be their evil genius.

[Fist of Etiquette]

So you're saying they let the matter drop and make an announcement right before the midterms declaring their impotence against House Republicans on the matter? I just don't know about that.

But I can see a protracted "persecution" of a white Hispanic, even a failed one, motivating those who identify with him as an everyman.

But I'm not married to the idea.

[John]

I agree with SF. Not charging him will get the R base to forget about the issue while still allowing Obama to gin up black rage about Zimmerman walking free. Charging Zimmerman will turn a whole lot of whites and Hispanics off in a big way.

[John]

Right after the acquittal I was thinking there is no way Obama is actually going to charge Zimmerman. But I am starting to doubt that. Obama has gone all Sharpton. I think he might do it. I think he really might be that fucking stupid.

If he does it, he is going to murder the careers of a lot of Democrats who represent white and Hispanic areas. The black turnout only helps you if you have black voters in your district. The Dems in Congress not in the Congressional Black Caucus have to be sweating bullets over this.

[SugarFree]

He's gotten away with being an idiot so far. And the media isn't going to turn on him over this.

[John]

You are right they won't. He has never in his life been held accountable for anything. Everything he does is fawned over by the media and various camp followers he surrounds himself with.

When you think about it that way, he probably is going to get more stupid and more self destructive as time goes on. In two years, trying Zimmerman may be looked at as one of the least stupid things he did.

[Lord Humungus]

forgot where I read this, but some pundit (Glenn Reynolds?) said that Obama is going to "become more black" as his admin gets more mired in scandal or his popularity dips.

[RBS]

So they are going to fins bags of cash stashed in the white house freezer?

[Bobarian]

Dumb, slimy and underhanded is his MO.

I think 'the One' has clearly demonstrated that when it comes to dumb voters, dumb is the way to go.

[Mike Laursen]

That would be hard since a lot of the people in Zimmerman's gated community are black. I don't think a lot of people realize that.

[WTF]

"They wanted to thank him publicly," O'Mara said. "They thought that they could not, for the possibility of blowback against them."

Welcome to Obama's America.

[Redmanfms]

"That gun will never be used again by Mr. Zimmerman or anybody else," O'Mara said.

And gun grabbers keep claiming that firearms are totems for their owners. [cartman]I fucking hate these guys![/cartman]

[Ted S.]

Zimmerman's own attorney is saying that??

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I'd sell it at auction. I bet it goes for a good price.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"That gun will never be used again by Mr. Zimmerman or anybody else,"

He said *that* one.

I suppose it's acquired a bad spiritual aura, like Franz Ferdinand's death car.

[KMA Too]

Wait-why does Zimmerman's attorney think the his own client's property should be destroyed???

Shouldn't he be advocating strongly for him to get it back?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Nothing will penetrate the WienerCave. To the WeinerMobile!!

TheDirty.com founder: Weiner planned secret sex bunker

[anon]

I want a secret sex bunker damnit.

[I can't trust my fans]

I have a "special delivery" for your secret sex bunker.

[Doctor Whom]

I don't think the co-op board would let me have one.

[R C Dean]

Wouldn't asking the board for permission kind of ruin the whole secret part of the sex bunker?

[Fist of Etiquette]

They're worried about hate being directed at them for saying anything positive about Zimmerman.

Not entirely unfounded. MSNBC is likely looking into their finances and genealogy as we speak.

[anon]

Not entirely unfounded. MSNBC NSA is likely looking into their finances and genealogy as we speak.

ftfy

[Bryan C]

MSNBC, NSA, IRS. At this point, what difference does it make?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Think about how terrible this is: a family that was rescued is afraid to talk about it because it fears that hate directed toward the rescuer will be directed to them.

I wonder if such a sad fact about our society will be talked about in Pelosi's 'conversation on race and justice.' I will not hold my breath.

[John]

A family that was in an auto accident is now fearful for their safety. Awful doesn't even begin to describe it.

[Eduard van Haalen]

You now, it's almost as Zimmerman is getting a raw deal.

[Eduard van Haalen]

as *if* Zimmerman

[Lord Humungus]

Police Discover Swimming Pool on Wheels
http://www.spiegel.de/internat.....12799.html

A BMW convertible first aroused the suspicions of a motorcycle cop on patrol in the eastern German town of Eibenstock when water sloshed out of it as it drove around a curve. When the officer pulled the car over, he could hardly believe his eyes.

In a police report released on Monday, he described encountering an "a convertible of a slightly different kind." The car had been converted into a swimming pool on wheels complete with a wooden railing and cheap floral decoration that could have come out of a chintzy Hawaiian hotel.

[DJF]

"""cheap floral decoration that could have come out of a chintzy Hawaiian hotel"""

So Germany has style and fashion police?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Do you know who else had style and fashion police?

[SugarFree]

Jerry Brown?

[Apple]

Whatever happened to your uncool niece?

[BakedPenguin]

+1 suede / denim.

[Rich]

Sting?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

California (uber alles)?

[Redmanfms]

Based on how German men dress, it's probably the precise opposite of what we think.

[Doctor Whom]

Someone once gave me a book on men's fashion written by a German. Whatever the stereotype is, the reality is worse.

[Andrew S.]

Was Otto the bus driver driving it?

Did he fill it up with Epsom Salts and wheel it on down to the old folks home?

[Bobarian]

Simpsons did it?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"House Democrats will hold a hearing on "a conversation on race and justice" to be chaired by Nancy Pelosi in response to the George Zimmerman verdict."

I cannot imagine a bigger waste of time than this is going to be.

[anon]

I see you haven't visited an airport and been screened by the TSA lately.

[Rich]

Or watched a speech by the TOTUS lately.

[MP]

Steroid hearings.

[Zeb]

I am getting really sick of all these fucking "conversations".

[Rich]

What are the fuckign "calls for" and "invitations to" conversations, chopped liver?

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Shut up and let us tell you what to do."

[Bobarian]

"And how to think."

[Auric Demonocles]

I wonder if they are going to call out their President for injecting himself into the local justice system with racist comments.

[Lord Humungus]

Sex, money and lies: 'Culture of Corruption' boomerangs on Democrats as scandals blossom nationwide
http://www.washingtontimes.com.....#pagebreak

The Democratic Party is battling scandals from New York to San Diego and from city hall to Capitol Hill, as the party finds itself on the defensive over embarrassing lapses ranging from sexual misconduct to multiple scandals ensnaring the Obama administration.

President Obama on Wednesday denounced what he called "phony scandals" and "an endless parade of distractions" blocking progress on the economy and other issues, but critics say the controversies underscore the missed opportunities for the president and his party to live up to pledges to clean up politics and break traditional patterns of money, influence and privilege in government.

clean up politics - haha.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Democratic Party's War on Women
...Not only are these men sleazy hypocrites in their politics, they are deeply misogynistic in their behavior ? and yet the soi-disant "progressive" crew of female politicians (Hillary Clinton, Kirsten Gillibrand, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Warren, et al.) are strangely silent....

[Longtorso, Johnny]

More evidence of a long standing theory of mine - it's women who want patriarchy, not sexist men. They'd rather share the men at the top than marry some random 'slug'. Monogamy was the compromise w/ the mass of 'inferior' men to keep society going, but the average woman would rather be in Obama's harem than be married to an accountant. They scream "patriarchy!!" in order to shut up anyone arguing against it. Hence things like the average man supposedly being a potential rapist at heart, but their circling the wagons around Wiener, Clinton, etc.

[Zeb]

Seems like a rather broad generalization. I don't think "women" as a whole want anything. It's not even a meaningful thing to say.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Gut instinct. 'Men' want hot 20 somethings. That doesn't mean all men cheat, just that you can count on most men to at least get their heads turned when one walks by.

[Rich]

Dr. Freud?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Humans have instincts. Is that so freakish to think about?

[Rich]

Nope.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Is it a coincidence that "women," as a whole, often vote very differently than "men," as a whole?

Is it a meaningful thing to say that "men," as a whole, have more upper body strength than "women," as a whole, or is that invalid because some women are stronger than some men?

That a characteristic of a group can't accurately be applied to each and every member of that group doesn't mean the characteristic can't be meaningfully applied to the group. Or does it?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Is it a coincidence that "women," as a whole, often vote very differently than "men," as a whole?

That's mostly single women, isn't it?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Single women vote more differently, but a lower percentage of them vote.

I'm not saying that it's a great predictor or even the best predictor, but that doesn't change that women, as a group, see the world in a different way and they vote differently.

[Zeb]

"women, as a group, see the world in a different way"

No they don't they do so as individuals. There is no big meeting of women to decide how to see the world.

Yes, I am mostly just being picky about word choice.

[Eduard van Haalen]

They have meetings all right - they get together in the hair salons to gossip and plot the political takeover of the country.

[Numeromancer]

Yes, because married women had better god-dammed vote the way their told.

[gaijin]

I hear what you are saying. But I would suggest that an important distinction between physical characteristics (e.g., women, as a whole, have beigger breasts than men) and behavior (e.g., women, as a whole, vote this way or that)must be made when attempting to generalize.

[Zeb]

It's on average, not as a whole. I'm not trying to say that men and women are the same and differences are just social construction or anything like that. I'm just saying that different women want different things. It's a bit of a picky point. Almost everyone will acknowledge that. I just think that saying "women want this and men want that" is a lazy way to say something and leads less thoughtful people to view people as part of a collective rather than as individuals.

[T]

When you're talking about a country of 300 million people as a whole and how social/political/demographic trends are going, you have to collectivize and go with the statistics. At the same time, you have to treat everyone you encounter as an individual, not as an embodiment of group statistics. It's not really that hard to figure out.

[Zeb]

It's not really that hard to figure out.

You would think so, but an awful lot of people seem unable to do so. People inclined toward libertarian and individualist ideas figure it out, but others not so much.

[HellsBells]

I would argue that the extreme popularity of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" series gives some credence to the generalization of women being attracted to power.

[Michael]

Ha ha! You said "broad"!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

...cont. Who dies on the job? Who dies in wars? Not Alphas and not women - it's the average man who suffers under patriarchy - not women.

[Gbob]

So, just tossing this out there, has anyone ever met anyone who uses the term "alphas" in conversation who actually is one? Seems to me it's mostly folks sitting in front of a computer, or a couple of guys with silly hats. (Not directed as a personal insult, longtorso, just a general observation.)

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I readily admit to not being George Clooney, Clinton in the 90s, etc. You are right about 'alphas' never using the term tho.

[Acosmist]

Not alphas?

What is an alpha, exactly? They aren't having kids - the women are always on birth controls. It's the so-called betas who are raising the kids, their own kids. What exactly is the meaning of "alpha" at this point?

Darwinian deadend. There's a better term.

Even better - the alpha/beta garbage is meaningless pseudoscience.

[robc]

Its not a Brave New World reference?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Alpha means jack-shit and the people who use that term have just as much in the way of brains as that word has meaning.

[Numeromancer]

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

/Yertle the Turtle

[KPres]

"Alpha means jack-shit and the people who use that term have just as much in the way of brains as that word has meaning."

Of course it has meaning. It's the reason women love Jason Statham and not Matt Damon.

[Bobarian]

Real Alphas get betas to raise their offspring, while banging other hot women.

[John]

Sadly, there is a lot of truth to that statement. I would only alter it to say "some women". Not every woman is a star fucker. And some women are happy with their accountants. But the really craven fucked up ones, who tend to be the most overtly feminist, fit your description to a T. Guarantee you every writer on Jezebel and XX would happily be in the harem of a powerful leftist politician.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The majority of men get their heads turned by a hot 20 something. The majority of women get their heads turned by George Clooney. Nothing wrong with either if you can control yourself, but those are the instincts I meant.

[John]

Henry Kissenger got as much T&A as Frank Sinatra. Condi Rice and Jean Kirkpatrick in contrast were being chased by 20 something Hollywood actors. Women fucking love power and money.

[WTF]

That's because men's attractiveness to women is based on perceived status, while women's attractiveness to men is based primarily on looks.

[gaijin]

"some women". Not every woman is a star fucker.

imo, name names. Every other generalization diminishes the argument. Pelosi, Feinstein, Clinton...sure. My wife, your wife. Doubtful. Well, maybe your wife 😉

[lap83]

It's quite a stretch to say that the "average woman would be in Obama's harem", when only 55% of women who voted did so for Obama and only about 2/3 of women vote period.

Also, as long as we're inferring things about Obama voters, I think the men who voted for him would be just as likely to join the POTUS mile high club. i.e. Chris shivers up my leg Matthews.

[Irish]

White men tend to be the ones who are remaining truly worshipful of the Dear Leader. Black men and women can express criticism of Obama because no one will call them racist or sexist if they disagree with him. White boys like Chris Matthews are the only ones who still think he's beyond criticism.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Black men and women can express criticism of Obama because no one will call them racist or sexist if they disagree with him

Really? Have you ever seen what they say about people like Ben Carson or RG3?

[John]

I would love to know the psychology of someone like Wiener's wife. She is a western, educated and powerful woman who is rumored to be a lesbian. Yet, she has strong associations with the Muslim Brotherhood and various other nutbag radical Islamic groups going back to college. Does she think they wouldn't really rape her or treat her like they do every other woman? Does she secretly want that kind of treatment?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Muslim Brotherhood is 'authentic', unlike the desire for so called western 'freedom' we've imposed on the world with our soulless capitalist system.

[John]

It is radical chic. And my guess is that she would be the more shocked than anyone if she ever had to live with the consequences of the views she supports.

[Jon Lester]

I see two possibilities:

One, some of those things are not true, but were asserted by some of the sexist, racist and ethnocentric stars of conservative media.

Two, an education does not a smart woman make. She did marry Weiner, after all.

[R C Dean]

She knew, with her profoundly toxic Islamonutter background and connections, that she needed an inoculation to get ahead in American politics.

So she married a Jew. One with acceptable liberalish views, an agreeably lucrative future in one of the Dem machines, and national potential. Really ticked all the boxes, Weiner did.

[Atanarjuat]

Really ticked all the boxes, Weiner did.

Niiice.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

New paper finds global warming since the Little Ice Age explained by natural processes, not man-made CO2

Review finds the Medieval Warm Period was global & generally warmer than the present

[Floridian]

You lie! It was medieval SUVs.

[SugarFree]

I thought it was when Saruman told the orcs to cut down all the trees.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I thought it was when Saruman told the orcs to cut down all the trees.

What does McArdle's husband have to do with it?

[SugarFree]

He worships The Eye of Sullum.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I want Warty/Wiener sex bunker crossover slashfic.

[WTF]

Oh, hell yeah...I mean...

You sicko!

[SugarFree]

Not tonight, honey. I have a sucking chest wound.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I have a sucking chest wound.

Good, good, use that.....

[gaijin]

Sex Bunkers...like Archie and Edith?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

...And you knew where you were then.
Girls were girls and men were men. ...

[WTF]

But The Eye of Sullum does not share power.

[CampingInYourPark]

UK economy doubles rate of growth!!!

Britain's economy expanded at its fastest pace since early 2011 in the second quarter of 2013, showing growth of 0.6 percent from the first quarter, according to preliminary estimates. The data met analyst expectations.
A strengthening services sector helped to boost the official gross domestic product (GDP) figures, released on Thursday. It follows expansion of 0.3 percent in the first three months of the year.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....19540.html

[Redmanfms]

showing growth of 0.6 percent

Well whoopty-shit.

[Rich]

The data unexpectedly met analyst expectations.

FTFY

[Lord Humungus]

Japan: Silver Shoplifters Steal Bowls of Rice as Abe Cuts Welfare
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....-debt.html

Crimes committed by Japan's elderly have doubled in the past decade and shoplifters are now more likely to be over 65 than juvenile. With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe planning to cut welfare further in August to rein in the national debt, and some 4.47 million people set to join the ranks of retirees in the next 10 years, the senior citizens crime wave is a foretaste of the challenges Japan faces from a rapidly aging population.

"Crime is one of the problems regarding the elderly, along with pensions, nursing care, and the increased welfare burden," said Koichi Haji, executive research fellow at the NLI Research Institute in Tokyo, an affiliate of Nippon Life Insurance Co., Japan's biggest life insurer. "The government doesn't know what to do. There is no underlying idea of how to deal with the falling population."

[Zeb]

Death penalty for shoplifting.

[Irish]

Japan: Silver Shoplifters Steal Bowls of Rice as Abe Cuts Welfare

Wait...didn't Krugman tell me that Abe is some sort of progressive hero who is doing everything that a politician should do? Now I hear he's a filthy welfare cutting teabagger?

Crimes committed by Japan's elderly have doubled in the past decade and shoplifters are now more likely to be over 65 than juvenile.

Well, the percentage of Japan over 65 is much larger than the percentage under 18, so this isn't actually that surprising.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Gangs of old ladies terrorize city!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i25gZXQF2w

[thom]

Any other country would eventually buckle under pressure and increase immigration. Maybe this crisis will end up impacting Japanese culture in a way that makes foreigners more welcome?

[mr simple]

Good ol' Honest Abe.

[Lord Humungus]

ten foot tall he was, splittin' rails with only one hand on the ax handle.

[JW]

I thought it was Vigoda.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Amash Amendment to the defense authorization act, which sought to limit the NSA's collection of Americans' data, failed in the House by a vote of 205-217.

As disappointing as the defeat may be, that's a pretty close vote. Who knew there were so many people in Congress who are still living in a pre-9/11 world?

[Rich]

I keep waiting for someone to leak about those TS briefings on why it's essential to keep the collection programs alive.

I predict it'll be something like: The Lizard People are forcing us to do it.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Amash Amendment to the defense authorization act

What do they know about the NSA? They don't even use electricity and buttons.

[gaijin]

Why did the 12 abstain? What kind of strange dealings resulted in 12 people abstaining when the vote resulted in a 12 vote margin against?

[Brett L]

Considering it was 217-205-12 A/N/NV, the Republicans should think very hard about whether its worth turning what should be a clear win in the mid-terms in 2014 over the entire Obama agenda into a discussion on civil liberties. But they are the stupid party.

[mad libertarian guy]

Are you trying to insinuate that the mass collection of private data isn't central to the Obama agenda?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Can I ask a possibly na?ve question? Can't the House simply defund Obamacare? Why doesn't it?

[anon]

Uh, cause republicans want Obamacare too. At least Boehner does.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It's bizarre. If you're going to 'vote to repeal' it dozens of time why not actually use your constitutional powers to vote and defund it, which would actually do something. It's unpopular and you're already on record as being against it, so defund it. What in the world?

[anon]

It might make him look bad to other House Democrats.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Because they think their base is stupid and will be appeased by symbolic votes. You don't expect them to actually *do* anything or stand for something, do you? See the NSA vote.

[CampingInYourPark]

The Republican-led House voted to defund President Obama's health care overhaul on Friday during a sustained burst of floor activity, but with the White House and Senate Democrats vowing to block much of that activity, the government remains on a path to a shutdown if lawmakers can't reach a spending bill compromise in the coming weeks.

2011

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....z2a3yQEygG

[Auric Demonocles]

That would still have to pass the Senate.

What they *could* do is either attach a repeal bill to everything they pass or pass only budgets with no Obamacare money, forcing the Senate/President to either accept the repeal or get no funding or laws on anything. But that would take some big balls.

[gaijin]

But that would take some big balls.

So not gonna happen.

[Eduard van Haalen]

They look big if you use a powerful microscope.

[CampingInYourPark]

forcing the Senate/President to either accept the repeal or get no funding or laws on anything. But that would take some big balls.

Exactly the game of chicken they played with the gov't shutdown in 2011.

[CampingInYourPark]

The House has voted nearly 40 times to defund, dismantle or repeal the healthcare law, prompting frustration from Democrats who say the votes are aimed at sabotage.

http://thehill.com/video/house.....z2a3zETLMc

[robc]

Yes.

Yes.

They are a bunch of pussies.

Any other questions?

[CampingInYourPark]

Can't the House simply defund Obamacare?

The answer is no. They can not "simply" de-fund Obamacare. Legislation has to be passed by the Senate and signed into law by Obama, so the only way that is likely to happen is to attach it to something they just can't resist signing, like not defaulting on debt. The same game that's been played over and over again.

[robc]

Not true.

They can just not fund it.

Dont add it to any budgets period. Nothing the senate or the prez can do about that.

[CampingInYourPark]

They can just not fund it.

Dont add it to any budgets period. Nothing the senate or the prez can do about that.

In case you haven't heard, budgets have to be passed by the Senate and signed by the POTUS, and there hasn't been one passed in a few years. Your post makes no sense.

[robc]

Without a budget nothing gets funded.

I cant explain the last few years, however.

[Rasilio]

because that would only get rid of the government paid for parts of it.

So what you would then have is a mandate to have health insurance, expensive requirements on what that insurance must cover, but no expanded medicare or subsidies to help the poor and middle class buy that insurance.

That would play right into the Democrat propaganda of Republicans hating poor people and wanting grandma eating cat food.

[Lord Humungus]

The Inequality President
The rich have done fine under Obamanomics, not so the middle class.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

For four and a half years, Mr. Obama has focused his policies on reducing inequality rather than increasing growth. The predictable result has been more inequality and less growth. As even Mr. Obama conceded in his speech, the rich have done well in the last few years thanks to a rising stock market, but the middle class and poor have not. The President called his speech "A Better Bargain for the Middle Class," but no President has done worse by the middle class in modern times.

By now the lackluster growth figures are well known. The recovery that began four years ago has been one of the weakest on record, averaging a little more than 2%. And it has not gained speed. Growth in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 0.4%. It rose to a still anemic 1.8% in the first quarter but most economists are predicting even slower growth in the second quarter.

[Jordan]

Anybody who simultaneously bemoans inequality and worships the Federal Reserve and the regulatory state is an economic ignoramus of the highest caliber.

[KPres]

I love how the hidden premise behind Keynesianism is that it allows wages to fall in real terms without the average person realizing it. If you let the market do the work, people would KNOW it was happening.

So apparently deception is what primarily defines the "Conscience of a Liberal".

[KPres]

Same thing happened under Clinton. Massive explosion in inequality. In fact, the best of the recent presidents in terms of income inequality were Bush I and Bush II.

This should be more of a talking point. Let the occutards' heads explode.

http://b-i.forbesimg.com/louis.....032713.jpg

[Lord Humungus]

Giant mouse found in Tesco store was by sent by God as punishment for supporting gay rights
http://www.anorak.co.uk/363237.....ghts.html/

WHY did a "giant mouse" run amuck at a Tesco store in London's Covent Garden in 2012? One theory was that the mnouce had grown super fat on chicken and cakes.

Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, says the mouse was an act of God. Tesco had spent ?30,000 to support London Gay Pride.

well duh.

[anon]

Seems legit. First explanation I thought of was "Yeah, it's cause god hates fags" too.

[T]

When did God get all nancy-boy and sending a single mouse to do his dirty work? Where's the fire and brimstone and plagues of locusts and angels of death? Srsly, Jehovah, I expect more than a freaking big mouse from you. Shamefully poor work.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Don't question Him. He sent a plague of frogs, why not mice?

[Eduard van Haalen]

I mean like "ribbit, ribbit, fear the wrath of Jehovah!"

Note to God - I am just joshing You.

[Bobarian]

This was a plague of mouse not mice.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Yeah, but this is nae ordinary mouse, it's a horrible monster with big...sharp...teeth.

[NeonCat]

One mouse? Even post-Biblical plagues are affected by austerity!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rand Paul, meanwhile, says no one in Congress "has a stronger belief in minority rights" than he does.

Maddow's head just exploded.

[Floridian]

I'm sorry, I don't believe in minority rights. I believe in human rights. Equal treatment under the law - how does it work?

[Ted S.]

It doesn't. Our worses in Washington have always made themselves more equal.

[robc]

I think thats what Rand means too.

Minorities have rights, the exact same ones everyone else has.

So, if you support human rights, you are supporting minority rights.

[Floridian]

If that is what he means, then he should say I believe in equal rights for everyone, not minority rights.

[robc]

He is playing the game.

I dont particularly like it, but its what he is doing.

[CampingInYourPark]

"I'm not easily dissuaded, so it's not something that makes me shrink away, it makes me come out even stronger to say that I don't think there's anyone in Congress who has a stronger belief in minority rights than I do," Paul told Yahoo News. "Because my conception of justice is that there have been many times in our history when we have done things unfairly to Japanese Americans, to black Americans. I still think that the justice system does not treat African Americans fairly in regard to non-violent drug crime, with regard to felonies being on your record."

Sometimes it helps to read things in context. He would have been better to say something to the effect of: "I don't think anybody in congress is more determined to end discrimination than I am".

[Eduard van Haalen]

I like how he got in a dig at the criminal "justice" establishment, which so many Dems support.

[Hyperion]

Yes, Rand means well. We all know that. But as I have said many times before, the guy needs a little coaching in how to say things. If he's going to continue in campaign mode, he'd better get some advice.

He has said several things over the past few months, in attempt to pander to SoCons, that made me wince. He could have actually said something else, and had the same affect to placate the SoCons, while not offending Libertarians.

[mad libertarian guy]

Yes, Rand means well. We all know that. But as I have said many times before, the guy needs a little coaching in how to say things. If he's going to continue in campaign mode, he'd better get some advice.

Wrong.

He's doing it in exactly the right way. You or I, devoted libertarians who care about splitting hairs between "minority rights" and "discrimination of minorities" may see his language as faulty, but the vast majority of people do not split those hairs.

[Zeb]

I do. I believe members of minorities have exactly the same rights as everyone else.

[robc]

Exactly.

[gaijin]

the individual is the smallest minority on earth.

[T]

Quoting Ayn Rand gets you nowhere with proggies.

[Zeb]

I doubt Rand is the only person ever to have that insight.

[Eduard van Haalen]

What do you mean? Her ideas were totally original!

[Enough About Palin]

I always thought midgets were the smallest minority.

[ant1sthenes]

True, but I think the implication there is that the majority doesn't have to worry under a democratic system (which we don't really have, and I don't mean that in the positive sense of a constitutional republic), but the minority's rights can be abridged very easily. I think there is a least a subtext of snubbing non-Constitutionalists.

[Irish]

Rand Paul, meanwhile, says no one in Congress "has a stronger belief in minority rights" than he does.

That's because no one in Congress cares about minority rights. They care about 'equality.' If we all had no rights, most liberals would be fine with it, since we'd be slaves equally.

[Rasilio]

And the funny thing is it is probably objectively true

[John]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9899151-38.html

This is really scary. The FBI has taken to sending out hyperlinks that purport to be to child porn and then recording the IP addresses and raiding the home. In this case they never found any child porn in the guy's possession but convicted him of "attempt" anyway. That is just ignoring the burden of proof. Attempt is a specific intent crime. You have to prove he meant to click it with the intention of downloading the stuff beyond a reasonable doubt. Absent a confession, the possibility that he did it accidentally is reasonable doubt.

And lets not forget of course how easy wireless networks are to hack and spoof. It is getting to the point that other than goofing off at work, I really don't go on the internet anymore and I am seriously considering getting rid of my home wifi. I am one of the few straight men who doesn't particularly like hard core porn. I have my own kitty. So what exactly is the internet offering me, if I don't like porn and have no need to see someone's cat?

One other disturbing note in this story. Note that when they served the search warrant, not arrested him but served the search warrant, they showed up with an armed SWAT team, lured him outside, tackled and handcuffed him. That is to serve a search warrant on someone that they only knew someone using the IP address at that house had clicked a false hyperlink. They really are animals.

[sarcasmic]

This is why your wifi should be secure. Don't want to go to prison because your neighbor was downloading kiddie porn off your IP.

[John]

Mine is. But I am not sure it ever can be completely secure. You can hack anything. and my worry is that because it has a password, if some nut ever did hack it, I would play hell proving it wasn't me.

[sarcasmic]

Guilty until proven innocent.

[Seamus]

Actually, the fact that you secured your wifi will work against you when the pigs break down your door. "So you say you never downloaded kiddie porn? Well who did, smart guy? Aren't you the only one who knows your password?"

[John]

That is my fear as well. And it makes me think I should just leave it open and plead total ignorance.

[robc]

wifi "security" is a joke.

[John]

That is my impression as well. And it is starting to really bother me.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Hell, then hire someone to compromise the court's wifi during the trial. That should look a lot like reasonable doubt.

[John]

The problem is that people in general and thus juries in particular go insane when they hear the buzzword "child porn". 99% of the population loses all ability to think rationally when hearing that word.

[Lord Humungus]

one of my guilty pleasures in life is an old British sci-fi show called "Blake's 7".

In the early part of the show, Blake is sent to a moon prison colony. His supposed crime, to tarnish his image as a rebel, is child molestation.

The Federation in this series is incredibly brutish. Sure the FX were rotten, but as usual the British acting (of the 70s/early 80s) carry the series through. Plus the side character Avalon, who eventually takes over as the main role, really has one of the best television roles I've seen. /fanboy off

[John]

I will have to look that up. Thanks.

[Lord Humungus]

yeah, my meandering point was child molesation/pornography charges would be an easy way to bring down anyone - politically speaking.

[KPres]

I wouldn't. You'll probably end up in a database somewhere.

[DEG]

Warning: The last season is pretty crappy.

[tarran]

Holy shit!

They say it's available for free on Amazon Instant Video!

[Lord Humungus]

er - "Avalon" should be "Avon" - must have Roxy Music on my mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake's_7

warning, the FX is early Dr. Who levels.

[Bryan C]

Was Chris Hansen nearby?

[Jordan]

Mens rea is one of those anachronisms from the pre-Light-Bringer days.

I am one of the few straight men who doesn't particularly like hard core porn. I have my own kitty.

Sorry, I know what you meant here, but couldn't help but laugh.

[John]

The double entrdre was intended. Glad it had the desired effect.

[Ted S.]

I'm sure Dunphy will come along to tell us why all this is so virtuous.

[RBS]

This subthread is ripe for Tulpafication.

[John]

What do you have to worry about if you are not online looking for child porn?

Good enough for you RBS?

[Lord Humungus]

The good wife? Oh, give us a break!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....NNXg1kcz8H

It's also time to declare a moratorium on the line that Huma Abedin is the smartest, shrewdest, most level-headed and glamorous asset the Democratic Party has, and if she's OK with Anthony, we should be, too. Clearly, there is something very wrong with Abedin ? whether it's simply that she shares her husband's vaulting ambition or that she has a pathological need to be publicly humiliated, something's up. When The New York Times is calling for you to take your sad assemblage of sexual compulsions out the door, you should consider that a wake-up call. Silda may have stood by Eliot, but even she never opened her mouth in his defense.

insert Weiner joke here.

[John]

Imagine what they would say about a Republican's wife who excused that sort of behavior.

All they care about is having the right pedigree and politics. Nothing else matters. A woman like Abedin can totally humiliate and degrade herself before a national audience in support of an obviously uncaring and misogynistic husband and she is to be applauded. Any woman with the wrong politics or worse wrong pedigree, no matter how smart or how independent is once and forever not a real woman and a traitor to her gender.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Like pushing on a rope.

[Ted S.]

Silda may have stood by Eliot, but even she never opened her mouth in his defense.

I'm sick and tired of the idea that Eliot Spitzer's badness is all about the sex. He was an awful grandstanding bully as AG, and even worse as governor, what with trying to get the state troopers to spy on the Senate Majority Leader.

[KPres]

Politics is a shallow business. If you can indict the man, you generally indict his ideas in peoples' minds as well. Might as well take what you can get.

[sarcasmic]

Look out, he's behind you! Eight-ton orca leaps 15ft into the air to finally capture dolphin he wanted for dinner after two-hour chase

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

[Jordan]

SCUBA divers almost eaten by whale.

[robc]

They are laughing.

Clean sign of insanity.

[bostonaod]

comment from the SCUBA divers article:

You would think there might be some legislation in place to ensure divers were restricted from making a nuisance of themselves vis a vis a protected species. It does not take intelligence to steer clear of animals or mammals of this size and unpredictability.

Proof that MOAR LAWZ NEEDED

[Auric Demonocles]

He was about four metres in the air and heading right at us - I thought he was going to land on the boat but it turned mid-air and clattered into the sea beside us.

That's not how physics work, unless I missed the part where this whale had wings.

[robc]

Fins are kinda like wings.

[Zeb]

"I thought" is the key part there. He thought wrongly.

[gaijin]

That's not how physics work,

Unless you are Michael Bay

[Floridian]

Wow! I had no idea orcas are as fast as dolphins. I thought the dolphin would laugh and run away. Learn something new every day.

[Jordan]

Orcas are one of the fastest marine mammals. Probably one of the fastest sea creatures, period.

[Jordan]

Although, dolphins are slightly faster. But they can't swim forever. And orcas hunt in packs.

[RBS]

They are dolphins.

[sarcasmic]

'America's scariest police chief' keeps his job despite posting video threatening to shoot liberals and snarling they can 'take it in the a**' because mayor insists he was just exercising his freedom of speech

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ling-.html
Classy.

[Ted S.]

Worse than Joe Arpaio?

[Ted S.]

Mexico loses to Panama in Gold Cup Semifinal

[KDN]

Panama, doing jobs Mexicans won't do: beating the tar out of the US in a Gold Cup final.

[robc]

Has Mexico fired their coach yet?

Im still stunned he has lasted as long as he has.

[RBS]

Fired? Like with a firing squad?

[BakedPenguin]

If not, this'll do it.

[KDN]

The fans and pundits are ready to toss him, but he's tight with the federation. I still don't think a semifinal exit in a developmental tournament is going to get him fired, but if the A-team plays like shit in their next qualifier or two then he goes.

[robc]

They have played like shit in 5 of the 6 qualifiers so far.

[KDN]

Yeah, but they're still in the thick of things. I think at this point the federation is more nervous than furious; he's well-connected and he'll get a chance to redeem himself. National team coaches tend to get a lot of leeway and I can't recall a major team switching gears midway through the qualifying process.

I freely admit that this could just be wishful thinking on my part since I am thoroughly enjoying the spectacle of a flailing El Tri.

[robc]

At this point Mexico should be "effectively qualified" like the US, not "in the thick of things".

While I cant name any examples off the top of my head, Im pretty sure South American countries have changed coaches mid-qualifying.

5 draws in 6 matches in qualifying would get an Argentine or Brazilian coach fired for sure.

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah, Mexico is supposed to be the power in CONCACAF. I wonder if this is a fluke, or if we've reached a tipping point.

[John]

It is a happy thought this morning thinking of all of those Mexican fans waking up this morning angry and sad having to watch the hated Gringos go to the finals.

[Brett L]

5 draws in 6 matches in qualifying would get an Argentine or Brazilian coach fired for sure.

I think lynched pour encourager les autres is a more accurate scenario.

[gaijin]

The Train in Spain falls...

Deadly Train Crash captured on CCTV

[Zeb]

I don't know too much about the dynamics of trains, but I'd say the theory that it was taking that bend too fast seems pretty solid. That is scary.

[kinnath]

Interesting that the engine car didn't depart the rail first. It looks like the first passenger car took and hop and departed the rail, then dragged the engine car with it.

I'd guess there was a mechanical failure involved as well as the speed.

[gaijin]

yeah it sure seemed like something was up with the second or subsequent cars.

[Zeb]

Well, I imagine the engine weighs a hell of a lot more (or do the cars have their own propulsion now?) than the passenger cars, so it could be that the car lost it because of the speed and then caused the engine to tip over.

[kinnath]

Well, the heaviest part of the train has the most energy and momentum. So the heaviest part of the train wants to go straight more than the rest of the train.

If the accident was purely a result of excess speed, I would have expected the engine-car to depart the rails first.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I suppose so. Though I think you'd need to look at the vertical mass distribution of the engine and cars as well. It looks like it started when one car rolled.

[NeonCat]

You know, it could be that the aerodynamics of the engine pushed it down on the track, keeping it there while the cars following - lacking spoilers, etc. for downforce - were able to jump the track.

[Zeb]

That too. It was apparently going over 100 MPH.

And now that I've read a bit more about it, I think that the second car was a traction engine as well. SO perhaps it swayed and tipped or jumped the track, pulling the front unit with it.

[R C Dean]

Interesting that the engine car didn't depart the rail first.

Its a lot heavier, so I can see it sticking to the track when the passenger cars wouldn't. I think it comes down to center of gravity; if the CoG on the engine is lower, it won't tip as easily as the passenger cars.

[Byron]

It's plausible that the engine car has a lower center of gravity than the passenger cars, making it more resistant to tipping.

[Gray Ghost]

From what I've read elsewhere, it's a hybrid diesel-electric, different than the usual diesel-electric setup. The front engine has the electric motors to run the train off of catenary wires; the car behind has all of the diesel engine/generator setup, so it should be quite a bit heavier than the front engine.

Horrific footage. How in the hell an engineer takes an 80 KPH limited corner at 220 KPH is beyond me.

[sarcasmic]

Man who bought storage container contents blind for $100 and discovered James Bond's submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me prepares to sell it for $1m

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ll-1m.html

[sarcasmic]

World's first plastic 3D-printed rifle is successfully fired - but only once after it cracked under the pressure of the first shot

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....istol.html
I'd expect Reason to be all over this one.

[anon]

I see they're already making the "anarchist" link.

Same fucking story, different day.

[Greg83]

"Rand Paul, meanwhile, says no one in Congress "has a stronger belief in minority rights" than he does."

I'm too afraid to click the link; I'm just going to assume he means that in the Randian "The smallest minority is the individual" way.

[gaijin]

that's what I was thinking too. Which is why I posted that upthread, before realizing you already had it down here 🙂

[The Late P Brooks]

53 percent of voters would repeal Obamacare, according to a Fox News poll.

Another phony poll. If not for Obamacare, we'd all be dead of the plague.

[UnCivilServant]

Why do you hate us plaguebearers so?

[woodsy]

"Rand Paul, meanwhile, says no one in Congress 'has a stronger belief in minority rights' than he does."

What does this man mean by "minority rights"? Apparently he thinks reaching out to people who don't look like him means condescending to them. I had such high hopes for Rand, but I have a sinking feeling that his 2016 candidacy will be both a disappointing and deserved failure.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think this comment by Rand could be seen as brilliant. Notice he said "minority rights" not "black" or "Latino" or whatever rights, not race at all. A minority could mean property owners, or Episcopalians, or, yes, blacks or Latinos.

[anon]

It doesn't matter what the intended connotation was, the media will take it and twist it until Rand Hates Niggers.

[sarcasmic]

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
Ayn Rand

[John]

I have seen that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil, but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is the secret of its immortality. It can never by conquered. The more stupid, the more senseless, the more helpless it may seem, the vaster it is. Evil is impotent before it. The prophets, religious teachers, reformers, social and political leaders are impotent before it. This dumb, blind love is man's meaning. Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil, struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer.

Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

[sarcasmic]

Then why is the default state of man despotism?

[John]

Because evil is always monstrous and good always small and residing in the individual. Once you start forming governments and doing big things, it quickly becomes the monstrous evil Grossman is talking about. Thus, that natural state is despotism.

[John]

Here is another good quote that sums up his world view.

"Human groupings have one main purpose: to assert everyone's right to be different, to be special, to think, feel and live in his or her own way. People join together in order to win or defend this right. But this is where a terrible, fateful error is born: the belief that these groupings in the name of a race, a God, a party or a State are the very purpose of life and not simply a means to an end. No! The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and in his right to these peculiarities.

[The Late P Brooks]

Meanwhile, the Fundraiser-in-Chief has apparently named Caroline Kennedy to be Ambassadress to Japan.

I'm sure she is uniquely qualified.

[Rich]

NBC/CBS evening news last night cited as a reason -- twice, IIRC -- "the Japanese love the Kennedy name".

I am not making this up.

[Loki]

"the Japanese love the Kennedy name".

Is "Kennedy" in Japanes synonymous with "bukkake" or "tentacle porn"? Maybe that's why they love the name so much. Any reasonoids here fluent in Japanese?

[DJF]

Yep, she does not speak English or Japanese. "Umm, ah, you know......"

[Ted S.]

I'm sick and tired of the Kennedys.

November is going to be awful, what with the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

[Restoras]

Will there be a re-enactment?

[Loki]

Apologies if this has been posted already: The "Carlos Danger" name generator.

Mine was "Lorenzo Hazard." Maybe I should change my reason handle to that... Nah, too lame.

Bonus link: a bunch of celebrity and fictional characters Carlos Danger names.

[John]

Marcelino Stealth

[Bobarian]

Julio Cesar Evil

Why do I get a middle name?

[Enough About Palin]

Silvestre Gamble

[VG Zaytsev]

Andres Smash

[mad libertarian guy]

Mateo Covert

[Loki]

Found a Wu-Tang Clan name generator as well. Depending on whether I use my given name or my nick name I get either "E-ratic Bandit" (meh) or "Sarkastik Ninja."

Which I might seriously consider changing my handle to, but since there's already a sarcasmic here I think a lot of people who miss the morning links might assume that "Sarkastik Ninja" = "sarcasmic" instead of me.

[sarcasmic]

There can be only one.

[Loki]

"Wow. I feel like I'm Highlander!"

The real issue is that I just don't want to be mistaken for you. I keed, I keed... but seriously...

[RBS]

Wicked Genius.

[RBS]

Also, my Carlos Danger name was Jorge Catastrophe.

[tarran]

I'm Luis Death.

[tarran]

Oooh! I'm the smiling ninja!

[T]

I made my own: Karl Peligro.

[mr simple]

Annoyin' Genius? It's kind of apt, but what the hell kind of rap name is that?

[Enough About Palin]

Mine was Drunken Swami, which I then entered into the generator, which produced Shriekin' Dominator.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Victorino Badass.

[kinnath]

pablo risk

[Aloysious]

I got 'Raul Kill'.

I don't think panties are going to drop over that one.

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah, I got "Javier Distress", I'm in the same boat.

[sarcasmic]

Bernardo Covert

[Rasilio]

Pepe Menace

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Diego Peril

Sounds like a cutting edge Port distributor. I like that.

[Restoras]

Mateo Death

AWESOME!

[Evan from Evansville]

Pablo Trouble!

[NeonCat]

Esteban Violence

[NeonCat]

And my Wu-Tang name is Irate Genius.

Man, Esteban "Irate Genius" Violence is so much cooler than my real name. Thanks a lot, Mom and Dad.

[R C Dean]

Federico Adventure.

[R C Dean]

And, from Wu-Tang, "Vulgar Pupil."

[John Galt]

The failure of the Amash Amendment, while not unexpected, is disappointing.

[The Late P Brooks]

Silda may have stood by Eliot, but even she never opened her mouth in his defense.

That's funny. I saw video of the press conference, and Silda was standing behind him alright, staring grimly at the back of his head like she was trying to decide where to put the bullet.

[John]

Not divorcing him is her business. So I can't hold that against her. But she never got up and made excuses for him, which is all one can really expect from a woman in that situation, publicly at least.

[sarcasmic]

What choice does she have? She's damaged goods. Like Monica Lewinski or Katie Holmes.

[John]

Yup. And you can't judge someone's marriage. Who knows what goes on between them. But you can judge what someone says publicly.

[Loki]

Silda was standing behind him alright, staring grimly at the back of his head like she was trying to decide where to put the bullet.

Or she was trying to see if she could make his head explode.

[JW]

From the Weiner link:

The woman at the center of the Anthony Weiner scandal...Sydney Elaine Leathers actively posts about politics and her Democratic views on Facebook.

Everyone knows that leather and weiners go together.

[John Galt]

I thought we'd finally heard the last of Anthony's Weiner.

[JW]

Kristen and John--I bought my ticket last night, so I'm a go for Dick Dale. Any other DC'ers in?

[John]

I haven't yet, but I will. We should get together before.

[JW]

Sounds like a plan. I think Kristen said something about arriving around 6:30 (7:30 show), which works for me.

[sarcasmic]

The Amish Amendment failed? Whew. It's too dang hot for a beard.

[Lord Humungus]

okay - I've been working from home and haven't had the time to ask this:

BEER question

Looking at:
http://www.homebrewing.org/Beg.....c_205.html

I see multiple beginner kits - which one would best suit my needs - if I'm capping normal beer bottles.

Also, the Beer Recipe's have multiple options -
http://www.homebrewing.org/SS-Minnow-Mild-Ale_p_1217.html

or should I stick with something simpler the first time out.

again, it's the options that start to confuse me. I don't want to buy a starter kit... and then have to do a whole bunch more ordering to get the first batch going.

[John]

I have the $70 kit and have had great luck with it. I have a carboy as well. But have found that it improved things somewhat but is not essential.

[robc]

As far as carboys, I recommend Better Bottle over glass. I have two glass and one BB and use the glass ones, but Im very careful to avoid breakage and hospital trips.

Not to mention the cleanup involved with 5 gallons of liquid running everywhere.

[sarcasmic]

I've had two glass carbs break on me, but they were both empty. I learned to store them on the floor because they can fall off shelves.

[robc]

Mine ride in milk crates.

When full, carrying them any other way is folly.

[John]

I don't have a glass one either. Too heavy as well.

[robc]

The $70 is fine. Everything in it is something you need.

However, it doesnt have a brew kettle, but they rarely come with kits. Assuming you are starting out with extract brews (people do fine jumping straight into all-grain, but I did extract for about 6-8 batches, its a great way to learn).

The 5-gallon pot in upgrade #2 is fine, you can get that kit instead or go out and buy a pot yourself. However, a 5-gallon pot isnt big enough for All grain, you want an 8 gallon for it.

However, having a 5 gallon around if you, someday, upgrade to all-grain brewing isnt a big deal, they are handy.

[robc]

#5 is closer to what I started with, although I bought most of the parts myself, as opposed to a kit.

I had no interest in bottling and went straight to kegging.

[R C Dean]

If you are going to try to boil the entire 5-gallon batch, a 5 gallon pot isn't really big enough. Just sayin'.

[sarcasmic]

I'd go with #6. All-grain is the way to go. Seriously. I did extract for years and after my first all-grain batch I couldn't even drink extract beer anymore. It was like swilling Folgers crystals and then being introduced to freshly ground Gevalia. It takes more time to do all-grain, but it's not rocket science. And it's tons cheaper per batch.

[robc]

I disagree. Well, partly. Since my first AG batch in 2004 Ive never brewed an extract batch again, but Ive tasted some damn fine extract batches.

You dont have the flexibility with extract, even extract with steeping grains, but that analogy is entirely untrue.

Tons cheaper per batch is true. At the cost of a few more hours of work per batch, which is fine by me.

[sarcasmic]

Ive tasted some damn fine extract batches

You're not the first person to say that, but I can't agree. There's a subtle tang with extract brews that I just can't get past. I find extract beer to be unpalatable. I choke on it.

[robc]

The "tang" is from old extract, IMO.

A good brewer using fresh extract can avoid that.
---
Also, one piece of advice for extract brewing:

Dry extract only, dont use the liquid.

OK two:
One thing I never did was use premade kits. Buy your ingredients and put together your own recipes. Its more work, but it teaches you to think about your beers. Even if you steal the recipe off the internet (which is a good way to go), somehow assembling the malt and the hops and yeast makes for better beer. For one thing, wont be getting stale kits.

[Zeb]

What is the problem with liquid extracts? I know some are pre-hopped and stupid crap like that, but I have made some pretty good beer using liquid extracts from Williams Brewing.

[robc]

They have a tendency to go stale quicker.

From good sources with good turnover, probably nothing wrong. From your LHBS, its more of a problem.

[robc]

Also, dry is easier to measure.

You can use a partial bag and store the rest. Harder to do with liquid.

[Zeb]

That is certainly true. I haven't done any brewing for several years, but the Williams brewing liquid extracts were always of very good quality and were dated (and kept refrigerated).

I keep meaning to get into brewing again and get set up for mashing but other things keep coming up.

[sarcasmic]

Whatever you do, get a chiller or make one. Bringing five gallons of boiling sugar water down to a temperature that will not kill the yeast without a chiller just plain sucks, and that's all there is to it.

[robc]

Truth. Plus, you get to be paranoid about having a huge chunk of copper around your house! And more than one person has had the cops called because a chiller looks like a meth lab to idiot neighbors. In this case, however, I have to say good things about the cops, because in 100% of the stories Ive heard, the cops recognized a wort chiller and had a good laugh about it with the brewer.

And helpful hint: A snowbank doesnt work at all. It melts a layer around the pot and then insulates it from the snow.

[kinnath]

I have purchased and used these items.

I have been very happy with them.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ.....UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ.....UTF8&psc=1

[kinnath]

and this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ.....UTF8&psc=1

[Lord Humungus]

thanks, everyone.

[Gbob]

Go for the 70 dollar option to start. Everything else can be upgraded. You're still going to need a kettle, but everything else is fine. Keep in mind that switching to glass should be on your list, and without a doubt look into kegging. Bottling beer takes about three times as long as any other step, and disaster can happen on every bottle you work with (let's say you forget to sanitize a bottle. That bottle can get an infection and explode, taking some other beers with it.)

Extract is good to start with, since it teaches you the two biggest lessons of brewing...process and sanitation. Move from there to a partial mash, and then finally all grain. All grain takes a bit longer, but it saves you an incredible amount of money. Keep a spreadsheet to calculate costs and all of a sudden the cost of upgrades make a good deal of sense. Buying in bulk helps. I recommend nikobrew.com for bulk hops, and your local homebrew store for 50 lb bags of grain. 5 gallons of beer for under twenty bucks is a pretty signifigant savings if you're a thirsty bastard.

[robc]

Keep in mind that switching to glass should be on your list

The list of things not to do.

[Xenocles]

I did some homebrew a long time ago (now I'm creeping my way back, but in the wine realm). The $70 kit looks mostly fine, but I would be suspicious of the bucket's ability to hold pressure during fermentation. I'd rather go with a carboy and stopper setup.

Some of the stuff in the first upgrade is very nice to have - auto-siphons are awesome and a bottling wand is really helpful for doing small bottles like you will be doing. But they aren't necessary. That said, if you're starting out it is probably worth a little extra money to make it easier for you in your first few batches as you learn what works for you.

Don't forget to order bottles and caps.

[robc]

Buckets are fine for holding pressure. Plus, airlocks on primary are a generally bad idea, blow off tubes should be use.

Plus, plus, nothing wrong at all with open fermentation. Some swear its better for the beer.

[Xenocles]

I meant for secondary. Primary ferment should be open to provide the yeast with oxygen for reproduction. They don't need it to digest sugar, but they do need it for multiplication.

[SugarFree]

Oh, look... SadBeard is being a huge shitbag again.

There are few more cherished nostrums in American life than the importance of equal opportunities. Unfortunately, one of them is the importance of summer vacation. It's a cheap way of doing something nice for teachers, but summer vacation is a disaster for poor children and their parents, creating massive avoidable inequities in life outcomes and seriously undereducating the population.

[RBS]

That's the dumbest thing I've read this morning.

[John]

So the millions of children who do well in school and in life and enjoy their summer vacations and whose childhoods will be much poorer without them are supposed to give that up and go to an institution year around because prudish totalitarian fucks like Sad Beard think vacation is bad for poor children.

Beyond that, what an ignorant bigoted fuck he really is. What he is really saying is that poor people and poor children just can't handle the responsibility associated with three months of not being under state supervision. Because of his odd looks and general lack of understanding of manners and social cues, it is fun to make fun of Yglesias as being somewhere on the retardation scale. But actually, he is just an awful twisted little person.

[RBS]

Seriously, a lot of the poor kids in my city go to my gym because it's run by the city and really cheap for residents. They all seem to be having a pretty good time working out and going to the beach.

[John]

Yglesias is a piece of shit upper middle class white person who has no experience in the world outside of his own kind and thus has incredibly twisted and patronizing views of anyone not of his class. At heart he really doesn't see poor kids as full human beings. They are lesser things to be taken care of and enviably, if someone of his ilk ever obtained real power, murdered when they didn't properly transform themselves into what he wanted them to be.

[Irish]

They are lesser things to be taken care of and enviably, if someone of his ilk ever obtained real power, murdered when they didn't properly transform themselves into what he wanted them to be.

John, Yglesias is a moron, but let's not go crazy and accuse him of wanting murder.

There are progressives I could very easily imagine wanting to send their opponents to camp. Yglesias is just a pathetic dumbass, not a future Hitler.

[John]

He absolutely is. He is a moron and a silly sad person and thus will never do such a thing. But under different circumstances and in a different time, he absolutely would. The real killers of history from the French Revolution up through Pol Pot were always sad sack pathetic wannabe intellectuals like Yglesias. All of them were pathetic losers thrust by fate into positions of monstrous power. Put in a different time with different circumstances, people like Lenin and Hitler and Marat and such would be remarkably similar to Yglesias.

[Irish]

Yes, but they're also all charismatic and yearn for power themselves. Yglesias is a bootlicker with the charisma of a wet sock. He'd rather be a follower.

Yglesias isn't a leader, John. He's a court eunuch.

[John]

Yglesias isn't a leader, John. He's a court eunuch.

And those tend to me the very ones who do all of the dirty work for the leaders. Yglesias is not Hitler. But he absolutely would be one of the losers running the camps or writing propaganda cheering such on.

[tarran]

Yglesias isn't a leader, John. He's a court eunuch.

Himmler was an utterly uncharismatic chicken farmer, who fainted at the sight of gore.

Yet his directives sent millions up the chimneys or into mass graves.

[Floridian]

Al gore is pretty disturbing to look at, in his defense.

[Libertywolf78Z]

Yglesias isn't a leader, John. He's a court eunuch.

Hey, no need to insult Lord Varys by comparing Yglesias to him.

[Irish]

It's a cheap way of doing something nice for teachers

That's not why summer vacation exists you fucking idiot.

I think I'll put this here too:

Map of hours spent in school by country.

American children spend more hours in school than almost any other country in the world. We spend 400 hours more per year in school than Finland and Denmark, both of which have very good school systems. Simply making kids spend more time in school will make no difference.

I'd have no problem with replacing summer vacation with a system where you don't have a massive break but instead have a few different month long breaks throughout the year. 10 weeks on, 4 weeks off, or something. I think that would actually be a better system than what we have now. However, people like Yglesias seem to just want to maintain the same system while adding another three months of education, which is ridiculous.

[Matrix]

We need kids in school more hours and throw more money at schools. That'll fix the problems! Nevermind we spend more and kids are in school more hours than most other countries, especially ones that do much better in education. WE NEED MOAR!!! MOOOAAAARRRRR!!!

[John]

I wonder when dumb ass thinks kids should be able to see their extended family or take vacations with their parents or go to summer camp. Kids who are really gifted or heavily involved in an activity like basketball or baseball or music spend their summers going to camps for such. You couldn't do that with year around school.

That would actually fuck poor kids even more than middle class and rich kids. Imagine if you are too poor to send your kid to college, but he is a really gifted basketball player. Would you prefer him spending his summers at a Nike camp and playing on a traveling AAU team working to get a scholarship or sitting in a classroom getting his daily dose of self esteem and leftist dogma?

[Irish]

I wonder when dumb ass thinks kids should be able to see their extended family or take vacations with their parents or go to summer camp.

Probably never. The reason poor kids lose ground in the summer is because their parents aren't as well educated so they don't learn at home. Therefore, the more time kids spend with their parents, the more inequality occurs as poor kids don't learn at home and wealthy and middle class kids do.

The logical end point of this whole 'everyone must be equal' psychosis that has infected the left is that children must be made to spend as much time with state educators and state tutors as possible. Being with your parents increases inequality because some are better than others. To truly level the playing field, kids would essentially have to be made wards of the state.

Yglesias doesn't seem to realize where his argument is heading.

[John]

And you wonder why I say Yglesias would end up murdering people if he ever had any real power? They never realize where the argument is heading. Even the worst of the worse didn't start out intending to kill people. It always begins with the desire to remake the world into a better more equal and just place. And it always ends with people being shot or guillotined.

Since I am on a Grossman kick this morning, he said it better than I ever will.

There is a deep and undeniable sadness in all this: whenever we see the dawn of an eternal good that will never be overcome by evil ? an evil that is itself eternal but will never succeed in overcoming good ? whenever we see this dawn, the blood of old people and children is always shed.

[KPres]

"The reason poor kids lose ground in the summer is because their parents aren't as well educated so they don't learn at home."

Or, because their IQs are lower, which is generally also why they're poor in the first place.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

You're saying we need a big chunk of time off so kids can play sports? Come on, John, most kids play sports after school and on the weekends. This argument is crap.

[John]

You're saying we need a big chunk of time off so kids can play sports?

No. I am saying kids who pursue activities outside of school, like music or sports, deserve the time off from school to pursue those activities seriously.

And what the hell is wrong with letting kids time off to pursue sports? Sports is big business and gives thousands of kids a paid way to college every year. So what if only a few of them ever become professionals. Very few musicians ever make a living as musicians. But no one disses on band camp.

The point is that a lot of kids have interests and pursuits outside of school that would be severely hurt by year around school. And that is a very bad thing, whehter it means some kid can't play on an AAU traveling basketball team or some other kid can't go to a Julliard Summer camp to work on his violin.

[Bobarian]

C'mon John, everyone (who doesn't go to band camp) disses on band camp.

Were you a band fag? (NTTAWWT)

[HellsBells]

We have year-round school in my area. Nine weeks on, 3 weeks off. Each "track" has it's own staff. The school rotates 3 tracks in session, 1 track on vacation. We all like it better than the traditional calendar, especially my kids.

The big thing here is "track out camps" that cover everything from sports to law enforcement camp (I kid you not), but they're expensive. Not exactly something readily available to poor families.

[John]

If you are really good, the camps will give you aid. And regardless, kids whose parents have money have rights too. Who the fuck is Yglesias to tell them they can't go to camp because the collective demands it?

[KPres]

From the comments...

"I think year round school is a great option. It doesn't mean kids get less time off, they just get the time off in increments of time instead of one big chunk. I think that giving two week breaks at a time would be beneficial to give kids time off, and help them retain learning."

This, I think, is a pretty good idea...one which would have almost certainly been implemented decades ago by a private school system, given that summer vacation was set up to accommodate an agrarian lifestyle that was left behind almost a century ago. But, hey, that's about how long it takes for government to catch up with the times.

[Matrix]

"Poor Lighting" caused police to shoot 72 year old on his own property
Went to the wrong house to respond to burglary alarm.

[Redmanfms]

And nothing else happened.

[Redmanfms]

BTW, you SF'ed the link.

[Matrix]

fixed link

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Well I hope they are able to apprehend, try, and convict that lighting.

[Matrix]

Roger Waters apparently hates me
And here I really liked Pink Floyd too...

[Zeb]

His position on Israel is pretty stupid, but I think people are a bit quick to assume that someone hates Jews because they don't think Israel is great.

[Mike M.]

Yeah right. "I have no problem with the Jews, I just hate Israel" is the lefty version of "Some of my best friends are black."

[Zeb]

Well, some white people have black friends and some Jews hate Israel. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't believe that someone could disapprove of Israel for their actions and not because of the J-O-Os.

[Evan from Evansville]

That's really retarded.

Israel acts with impunity as a de facto protectorate of the its bigger bro, the US. Mossad does/has done horrifically evil things and Israel has broken more UN treaties than fucking Iran.

Fuck Israel. That doesn't mean it's the fault of the Jews/Palestinians/whomever live there. It's a fucked up country, that like LEOs, can't really be punished because "we" have got their back.

Fuck Israel.

[Irish]

^^^ Fact. Look at the things Israel got up to in the wake of the Munich terrorist attack. They killed several people that likely had no involvement and they set off bombs in pretty densely populated areas and didn't give a shit about collateral damage.

I think a lot of left-wing criticisms of Israel are a bit ridiculous and I also think that there ARE a good number of people who hate Israel out of anti-semetic hatred. There are very good reasons to dislike Israel though.

[KPres]

Compared to the other countries in the region? It's disingenuous to focus on Israel, which is what they do.

[Zeb]

I think that the special US relationship with Israel make some extra focus on Israel legitimate. It's when people pretend like all the surrounding countries are just innocent victims that it gets stupid.

[Whahappan?]

Exactly. Also, a lot of this is push-back. Nobody sings the praises of Egypt or Syria or Lebanon, so there's nothing to push back against.

[Matrix]

well, using showing a pig with a Magen David is more than just "I don't like the country of Israel". There are much better ways of protesting Israel without showing hatred towards Jews in general.

[Zeb]

Yeah, probably so. Waters has always seemed like a bit of a dick. I still like his music.

[The Late P Brooks]

summer vacation is a disaster for poor children and their parents, creating massive avoidable inequities in life outcomes and seriously undereducating the population.

It's ignoramuses, all the way down.

[Matrix]

Tampon Earrings pardody

[John]

http://www.washingtontimes.com.....8.facebook

I guess there will always people dumb enough to bring a knife to a gun fight. The gene pool owes that woman a debt.

[Matrix]

good thing she wasn't a WHITE hispanic.

[John]

She is a woman. I wonder if the feminists would throw a woman overboard if Obama ordered it?

[All-Seeing Monocle]

I don't think you really wonder about that.

[WTF]

I wonder if the feminists would throw a woman overboard if Obama ordered it?

Paula Jones says yes.

[John]

So does Juanita Broaderick. I thought women never lied about rape. I guess she was the one exception to that rule.

[KPres]

Linda Tripp got it worse. I've never heard such awful things said about a person's appearance as what all the "feminists" I knew in college said about her.

[T]

They threw a woman overboard for Clinton, and he had nowhere near the worship Obama does.

[John]

I know. I was being sarcastic.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Of course.

[Floridian]

Why do they need a grand jury?

[CampingInYourPark]

WASHINGTON ? Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced on Thursday that the Justice Department would ask a court to require Texas to get permission from the federal government before making voting changes in that state for the next decade.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07......html?_r=0

[John]

Didn't the Supreme Court just kill that provision?

[Mike M.]

Yep. You would think this piece of crap would eventually get tired and embarrassed of having his ass handed to him in court over and over and over again.

[Auric Demonocles]

Maybe that's the court he wants the Justice Department to ask?

[Sevo]

OT:
At this point, it's a hole in the ground, its final purpose is supposedly the terminus of moonbeam's choo-choo, and in character, it's $300M over budget already:
"Transbay project in $300 million hole"
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/.....685647.php
Not to worry; it's 'government' money.

[CampingInYourPark]

First time I've seen this planned "Transbay Transit Center". Looks a lot better than our local Amtrak station. Is it all just to park and get on the choo-choo?

[Matrix]

Any Braves fans on the H+R?
Hudson injured on one of his best games of the season
I was watching the game last night. Very troubling. I really hope this doesn't end his career.

Plus, Young seemd distraught. I probably would be too if I did that. But it was unavoidable on his part.

[mr simple]

That's awful. They have been riddled with injuries this year. It's a good thing the rest of the NL East sucks.

[NeonCat]

Yes, but it's two hours since you posted so you probably won't see this.

[Matrix]

they're saying he's out for the season, now. I figured as much. But I hope he can stage a comeback next season.

[Matrix]

Hasbro is getting rid of jails in Monopoly
What madness is this?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Now for former "Go to Jail" square says "you have committed a financial crime - go directly to the White House and join the administration."