Weiner Still Hard at It, Lewinsky Tape Leaked, Right-to-Die Defeat in UK: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: Talk Radio News Service / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

  Is today the day Anthony Weiner drops out of the New York City mayoral race? Nope.

• Speaking of sex scandal nostalgia, an audio tape of a sexually explicit message Monica Lewinsky recorded for President Bill Clinton has been leaked.
• A Saudi court has sentenced an activist to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for insulting Islam.
• In the U.K., a couple of right-to-die activists have lost their legal challenges to engage in assisted suicide. One of them died naturally last year, but his wife is continuing the fight on his behalf, and in behalf of others who may want to invoke the right to end their own suffering.
• The Bradley Manning case is in its sentencing phase now. Manning faces more than 130 years in prison, but the defense is trying to merge some of the convictions.
• A U.S. Bankruptcy judge is trying to stave off a drawn-out bankruptcy battle in Detroit, setting a deadline in mid-August for anybody attempting to block the claim to file their opposition.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Speaking of sex scandal nostalgia, an audio tape of a sexually explicit message Monica Lewinsky recorded for President Bill Clinton has been leaked.

Leaked, eh? Another trip for that blue dress to the cleaners.

[Jubal Early]

damn you

[Fist of Etiquette]

Am I a lion?

[Jubal Early]

That ain't no preacher!

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

Leave FoE alone, he's heroically fighting through a stroke.

[2Sirius]

Er...I think his arm was drifting downward for another reason. It didn't start until he thought of the blue dress.

[Jubal Early]

A U.S. Bankruptcy judge is trying to stave off a drawn-out bankruptcy battle in Detroit, setting a deadline in mid-August for anybody attempting to block the claim to file their opposition.

Does that seem right to you?

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yes, it isn't unusual for the Judge to encourage people work things out as a first step.

[Paul.]

Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

[Brian Combs]

Lots of Firefly references being missed...

[mad libertarian guy]

I'm ashamed of my fellow commentarians that they have missed these references.

[cavalier973]

Firefly was is the best show ever.

EVAR!!!

[cavalier973]

It's so gorram shiny

[A Serious Man]

A Saudi court has sentenced an activist to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for insulting Islam.

All he said was that his wife's dinner was good enough for Allah.

[Pro Libertate]

Six hundred lashes? Is that survivable?

[Episiarch]

Depends on how lashing the lashes are. In the "flog a sailor who did something wrong" lashings, I doubt even 50 (maybe way less) would be survivable. The skin would be too flayed off and infection would set in.

[Pro Libertate]

I expected a more precise answer from you, knowing how you enjoy rum, sodomy, and the lash.

[Episiarch]

The lash is my least favorite of the three. I'm less of an expert on it.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, okay. Who is our lashing expert, then?

[Sudden]

Warty charges extra for that.

[Zakalwe]

I think Nicole might have minored in it while majoring in sodomy.

[Sudden]

Her dissertation for her PhD in lashing actually provided the basis for 50 Shades of Grey. Therefore, she is aiding the enemy since they are now all reading that in Gitmo. I say we burn her.

[Episiarch]

I'm cool with that, though isn't being the worst punishment enough?

[Marshall Gill]

Punishment? I wanted to be the worst until I heard that Nikki had a Tiara. I don't do hats.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Oh Marshall. What kind of woman leaves the house without a hat on? What do you take me for?

[Zakalwe]

4 for a $1.

[Marshall Gill]

What do you take me for?

I have known for a long time that you were simply one of Epi's sockpuppets. Whenever he is felling less monstrously gay, he likes to play the woman.The fact that you claim Libertarians leaning AND being a woman is unpossible.

[Marshall Gill]

Libertarians leaning? Libertarian leanings. Need more whiskey.

[Sudden]

So the House of Saud is actually the House of Bolton?

[Damned Fool]

Rum, Saudami, and the lash.

[jesse.in.mb]

Maybe he's being lashed with kitten whiskers and fairy wings.

[Episiarch]

This isn't one of your Saturday nights, jesse, this is serious.

[Irish]

Maybe he's being lashed with kitten whiskers and fairy wings.

I didn't even know you guys had wings. NTTAWWT.

[Stormy Dragon]

Supposedly he gets it in four sessions of 150 each. Also, I'm sure it depends on what you're being lashed with.

[Heroic Mulatto]

They don't do all the lashes at once.

[Pro Libertate]

What, one a day?

[R C Dean]

I doubt that they give all 600 at one go. If you think about it, it would be really bad to get 30, wait for them to heal, get 30 more, etc.

[Damned Fool]

So basically it's a death sentence, right? Maybe they think they can avoid controversy this way.

[NeonCat]

Why should they care what the infidels think?

[Gus]

No, he said Allah was a furry.

[Michael]

That's dumb. Everybody knows he's a brony.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Manning faces more than 130 years in prison, but the defense is trying to merge some of the convictions.

Even without the aiding conviction, I'd say he's screwed.

[Episiarch]

Even if they cut the sentence in half it's still effectively life.

[Tonio]

Yes, but he can appeal.

[Tonio]

Also, it is possible that he could be pardoned.

[Andrew S.]

In that it's possible that Bill Gates could walk up to me tomorrow and hand me his entire fortune, yes.

(both events have the same chance of actually happening)

[Sudden]

If Rand wins POTUS, I can see him pardoning.

[crazyfingers]

Doubtful. Rand said that he had "no sympathy" for Manning during a radio interview this morning.

[dinkster]

Rand is riding the fence so hard that the only way to really tell what his politics are is to look back five years.

[Stormy Dragon]

So why are you so certain that when the time comes, he's gonna jump off the fence on our side of it?

[Zakalwe]

I'm so glad I put my glass down a few seconds ago. Well played.

[jesse.in.mb]

So an Amalekite comes to David and says "King Saul is dead, I killed him myself" and David instead of being glad that a man who had been intermittently hunting him for years has the Amalakite executed for laying a hand on the king, God's anointed.

We punish those who fuck with our predecessors to set the example that it's not ok to fuck with us.

[Zakalwe]

I watched Kings last week. I'm sorry it didn't get a second season, but not that sorry.

[A Serious Man]

TV needs more Ian McShane. I would have loved to see him lose his shit like Saul does as David grows in stature and power.

[jesse.in.mb]

I enjoyed it, they probably should've planned it as a miniseries and left it at that though. It felt like there was some story to wrap up, but not a ton of it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well that and one of God's commandments to the Jewish people is to kill every and any Amalakite you see.

From man unto woman, from infant unto suckling, from ox unto sheep, so that the name of Amalek not be mentioned even with reference to an animal by saying "This animal belonged to Amalek"

[Gus]

If He didn't want the name of Amalek to be mentioned, why did he put it in the Bible. I mean, here it is 2,500 years later and it's on the Internet, which means it's never going away. Omniscient? Really?

[Zeb]

That can't be true. Someone was saying just the other day that from beginning to end, the Bible consistently portrays God as a wholly good and loving being.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, the Amalekites were sons-of-bitches....

[NeonCat]

Someone who never read the Bible.

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

?Isaiah 45:7

[Duke]

God is also just, if that's what you prefer over mercy. Me, I prefer mercy. Besides, Jesus said to not love this world but to be focused on the heavenly kingdom.

[Don Mynack]

FWIW...the Amaleks were one of the founders of Mecca..and we all know how that turned out.

[Tonio]

Didn't mean pardoned anytime soon, I'm thinking like forty years or so down the road.

Barring the election of a true liberty president, of course.

[Paul.]

Also, it is possible that he could be pardoned.

By whom? Biden in 2016?

[A Serious Man]

Speaking of sex scandal nostalgia, an audio tape of a sexually explicit message Monica Lewinsky recorded for President Bill Clinton has been leaked.

There is something awesomely retro about having an audio sex tape.

[Eduard van Haalen]

There's also a phonograph recording of Warren Harding's mistress from the 1920s.

"23 skidoo, Mr. President, yes I have no bananas...and no clothes! I'm naked in a bathtub full of gin...I'd like to [static] with your [static]...I'm your hoochie-coochie mama! Like Cole Porter says, you're on top...[static] on the Presidential staff...[static] on your Teapot Dome..."

[Zakalwe]

Yeah, yeah, we all know the Bioshock Infinite DLC came out this week.

[Eduard van Haalen]

We have a note by Maria Cosway, Thomas Jefferson's mistress* in Paris.

"Oh, Thomas, I am fo in love with you...you can fcrape your bow acroff my violin any time...let uf declare independence from our inhibitionf...you've purchafed my love like you are going to purchafe Louifiana...you can juft ftick your feather in my cap and call me macaroni...if you were bitten by a rattlefnake, I would fuck the poison out..."

*You thought I would do Sally Hemmings, didn't you? I'm not quite that tasteless.

[Joe M]

Thomas and poison. Otherwise excellent.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I appreciate the conftructive criticifm.

[Stormy Dragon]

*watches the joke train blow through Joe M station without even slowing down*

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

[Stormy Dragon]

Oh crap, I suck.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I got your long "s" right here, bud!

[Paul.]

*golf clap*

[DJF]

More news from the world of government waste.

The Pentagon has been wanting to replace the old Presidential helicopters with new ones. Several yeas ago they chose the EH-101 and then turned it into a VH-71 with new engines and a lot of other things but then proceeded to load the helicopter with more equipment then it could lift. All at a price of more then $400 million per helicopter.

Instead of just beating on the heads of the Secret Service, Military, and others with a baseball bat until they realized that you can't put more on a helicopter then it can lift they instead cancelled the program at a cost of billions.

Now they have restarted the program but they have scared off all but one of the helicopter companies and it is offering a helicopters that lifts even less then the EH-101. So expect more billions to be wasted and everyone waiting decades for the helo to actually be replaced

http://www.aviationweek.com/Ar.....601954.xml

[Jordan]

BUT WE'VE ALREADY CUT TO THE BONE! THE BONE!!!1oneeleven

[NeonCat]

Could we just give Obama a propeller beanie and call it Marine One?

Ooh, a utility cap propeller beanie! It'll be perfect!

[Paul.]

This project sounds like it was managed by the company I work for.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Is today the day Anthony Weiner drops out of the New York City mayoral race?

Weiner remains firm!

[Bobarian]

You know, all these Weiner entendres will start to get old... in about 6 months.

This Weiner is unflagging!

[Sudden]

Weiner is a stiff opponent after all.

[Fist of Etiquette]

If it lasts more than another four hours we should consult someone.

[Paul.]

Hardly.

[PapayaSF]

Weiner sticks it out!

Weiner stays in!

[2Sirius]

He's out! He's in! He's out! He's in!

[Gus]

A southern California pornography studio has reached an agreement with Ben & Jerry's not to release DVDs and other X-rated products whose names pay homage to the company's ice cream flavors.

The agreement made public on Tuesday resolves a trademark infringement lawsuit that Ben & Jerry's filed last September against Caballero Video, also known as Rodax Distributors Inc.

It calls for Caballero to stop selling a variety of products including its "Ben & Cherry's" film series, which included 10 titles such as "Boston Cream Thighs," "Chocolate Fudge Babes" and "Peanut Butter D-Cups."

[db]

Companies that go soft on defending their trademarks seldom manage to dominate the market, in the final analysis.

[Tonio]

Yeah, but Boston Cream Pies were a thing before that ice cream company. Sounds like total parody. But that ice cream company has deep pockets for litigation.

[PapayaSF]

Ben & Jerry's is now a division of Unilever.

[paranoid android]

NEW CONSPIRACY THEORY:

What if the Weiner campaign is actually a continuing plot by Democratic strategists to divert attention from White House scandals?

I mean, the whole thing with his communications director is just too pricelessly funny to be real.

[db]

I proposed this the other day, jokingly.

[Tonio]

Or if not an actual plot, perhaps the in-progress event was co-opted. But, yeah, certainly possible.

[Episiarch]

If it's anything like that it's "hey Anthony, do us a solid and stay in the race and in the papers and we'll make sure you get a nice cushy job after you lose."

[db]

Also what I proposed the other day.

[Tonio]

OK, already. Database called this.

[db]

I'm just trying to combine Ted S's obsession with "old news" and Epi's obsession with being a giant flaming dick.

[Episiarch]

Flaming?!?

[db]

Think "Viking funeral" if it makes you feel better.

[Marshall Gill]

The gayest mayor of gaytown is surely flaming, isn't he? How in the hell would anyone know you were the gayest of the gay without ass chaps?

[Episiarch]

I'm not the gayest mayor since gay came to Gaytown, I'm the gayest monster since gay came to Gaytown. And monsters can't be flaming unless they're a dragon or a giant fire ant or something. It's just not dignified.

[Zakalwe]

Thinking about Episiarch's funeral makes us all feel better.

I imagine Sugar Free will give the eulogy.

[Aresen]

Unfortunately, Sugar Free will just link to it.

[seguin]

Well, try to, anyway.

[NeonCat]

I'm not sure about a conspiracy theory but I don't doubt it makes Jay Carney happier.

[PapayaSF]

The "dense pack" strategy. The trouble with that is that it damages the whole brand.

[R C Dean]

What, you think Obama cares about the brand?

[PapayaSF]

Only if he doesn't want the 2014 midterms to be a repeat of 2010.

[A Serious Man]

George Zimmerman, armed, pulled over for speeding in North Texas

The officer reportedly did not recognize Zimmerman, who was driving a Honda pickup. Zimmerman told the officer he was armed and was then told to put the weapon in his glove compartment, according to the station. The officer then told Zimmerman he could go on his way if he had no criminal issues.

The incident was captured on the officer's dashcam.

At some point during the traffic stop, Zimmerman asked the officer whether he recognized him from television and the officer said he did not, the station reports.

When asked where he was going, the 29-year-old Zimmerman reportedly told the officer, no place in particular. He was released on a warning.

So is Zimmerman just going to become a wandering vigilante like the Lone Ranger?

[Damned Fool]

Remember, when he helped with the car accident, that was a Koch-funded conspiracy, but this is definitely real.

[Irish]

HE WAS CLEARLY HUNTING SOME BLACK GUY!

/Prog

[Fist of Etiquette]

Texas is probably a good choice for him.

[Tonio]

A Honda pickup? That explains so much.

[Zakalwe]

My dad drove one of those.

[Tonio]

Sorry, bro.

[Zakalwe]

I found out as part of the fallout of him falling in the bathtub while under the influence of alcohol, PCP, and "opium." (I assume they meant "opiates," but maybe he was going old school.)

[Episiarch]

Your dad sounds like a fun guy.

[MJGreen]

"The Bronco's been discontinued. We're trying to shed that whole fugitive on the run thing. This is the Escape."

"What a fun name."

[mad libertarian guy]

All it is is a shitty Chevy Avalanche rebranded.

[Gus]

Ann Althouse suggests that the Zimmerman thing would make a great superhero origins story. He was falsely accused, vilified and heaped with death threats, so he has to hide his identity in order to do good.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

We already cleared him to slice "Z" into things.

[fish]

Two Bits! Four Bits! Six Bits! A Dollar! Everyone for the Zimmerman stand up and holler!

/Paul Lynde

[Agammamon]

Wait for him to disappear, snatched by a secret quasi-government agency run by Wilford Brimley.

A little plastic surgery and some training by a racist little Korean and voila! The next Destroyer series.

[Coeus]

Just gonna leave this here.

[Sidd Finch]

I was thinking a fatter, uglier Reno Raines.

[Stormy Dragon]

No, he's the new Elvis. Every week, a new tabloid story about the unexpected place he's been seem.

Next Week: ZIMMERMAN ABOARD INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AFTER SUSPICIOUS ALIEN SIGHTING

[Dr. Frankenstein]

US government hates poor people. Will sacrifice them on the altar of Gaia.

http://e2.ma/message/fli3d/j8qofe

[NeonCat]

I hadn't realized the govt banned people from trying to get grey market light bulbs (that's what this is, isn't it?) but it honestly doesn't surprise me.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

I'm not sure if its targeted at the light bulbs per se. But I can see them falling under this as well as any appliance that don't meet limousine liberal standards.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

doesn't meet. Yes I'm edumacated.

[Bobarian]

I hate poor people too, but not as much as I hate Gaia or the US Government.

So sacrifice them all on the altar of Bobarian!

[jesse.in.mb]

Look Epi, THIS is what a Saturday night looks like.

[Episiarch]

How about this?

[jesse.in.mb]

Closer, I usually don't include other houses in my Saturday plans though.

[A Serious Man]

Redlands, CA teacher gets jail time for having sexual relations with several underage students

After police publicized her July 1 arrest, saying they believed a 17-year-old student was the father of her weeks-old baby, two other ex-students came forward with allegations of past sexual relationships with her.

One victim was a 14-year-old student at the time the relationship began, and he had sex with Whitehurst in her English classroom, according to police.

Another victim spoke to news media about his experience with Whitehurst in 2007-2008.

"I didn't feel like a victim; I'm not scarred for life or anything," Michael Cooper told NBC4 earlier this month. "To be honest, I had a good time when it was going on."

Whitehurst was charged with sexual relations with all three boys, two of whom were students of hers at Redlands High School.

The sexual intercourse charges to which she pleaded guilty Wednesday were for the alleged father of her baby; the two oral copulation charges were for each of the other victims.

The alleged father of Whitehurst's baby was a 16-year-old student at Citrus Valley High School at the time the affair began between the pair, police said. The boy attended the birth of the baby girl on June 18, according to court documents.

[Tonio]

What about this: she loses her job for bad judgement, and the boys get a pass on the child support.

She'll never work in (K12) education again. (NOt a penalty, just a reality).

[Fist of Etiquette]

WHAT ABOUT YOU THINK OF THE CHILDREN.

[NeonCat]

"I had a good time when it was going on."

Clearly poor Michael is so traumatized he doesn't realize how exploited and traumatized he really is.

[Gus]

God damned matriarchy.

[Marshall Gill]

And they refer to them as "victims". What a heaping crock of shit. Of course, I haven't seen photos of the teacher.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Nope. If this were a man, they'd call him short-eyes and throw him in a hole for 20 years. She should get the same treatment.

[Marshall Gill]

No, men shouldn't get that treatment, either.

My point wasn't about the teacher but about the idea that getting laid by your teacher when you are 14 could make you a victim.

[Michael S. Langston]

Why isn't is obvious, regardless of the sex of the teacher, that teachers shouldn't sleep with their students?

Just as CEO's shouldn't sleep with interns....

One of the things that should be learned is that there are limits to relationships given certain particular dynamics - like being in charge should limit your romantic intentions to those you are in charge of...

[Gus]

http://wallpapersfly.com/wp-co.....lpaper.jpg

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

She seems somewhat legit.

[Auric Demonocles]

Good enough for high school, certainly.

[Episiarch]

Niiiiice.

[MJGreen]

"To be honest, I had a good time when it was going on."

We know, Mike. We know.

the two oral copulation charges

Nice.

[Auric Demonocles]

I am constantly amazed at how many women there are that are into these boys. Maybe I'm just biased, but it seems like it makes more sense the other way around. Girls at 17 are already feminine in appearance. Most of the boys that age are not very masculine. What's the appeal to these women of dating some stick figure boy? Wouldn't early twenties be a lot more appealing?

[Episiarch]

I would assume it's a power dynamic thing or an inexperience thing. What I want to know is where the hell were these teachers when I was in school?!?

[Auric Demonocles]

Just because they like young un-masculine boys, doesn't mean they like ugly young un-masculine boys.

[hotsy totsy]

It might be the sheer horniness of the 14 to 17 year olds that's the turn on.

[Auric Demonocles]

At 25 I am still waiting for that to die down.

[prolefeed]

What's the appeal to these women of dating some stick figure boy? Wouldn't early twenties be a lot more appealing?

I'm guessing the exact same appeal that dating a teenaged girl (or fucking twinks if one is gay) holds for an older man.

It's not like being female changes things that much.

[Auric Demonocles]

I already said why I think men wanting to screw teenaged girls is different (already feminine). But if you are attracted to males, why would you be into a group that is the most feminine of the males?

[PH2050]

If she was a guy they would have thrown that dude under the prison.

Where are all the feminists to complain about a woman being subjected to unequal treatment?

[Gus]

worst-of-black-bike-week-2013

[Heroic Mulatto]

Oh, hell naw!

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I refuse to support slideshows. It just encourages them.

[Juice]

Here:

http://deslide.clusterfake.net.....o-gallery/

[PapayaSF]

I like the donked golf cart.

[PH2050]

That golf cart was sick!

I see the "booty do" disease is spreading.

[NeonCat]

The dude with the "golf cart"=full of WIN.

[PH2050]

Haha! You can tell that first chick is mad someone is taking a photo.

[Coeus]

Yet another feminist proves that she can't read.

8 things you can do NOW for this domestic violence survivor in jail for shooting a wall to scare off her abuser

In addition to increased calls to repeal Stand Your Ground, Martin's case has highlighted other cases of injustice and double standards. A prime example of this is Marissa Alexander, an 32-year-old African-American mother of three, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for shooting at a wall to scare off her abusive husband. No one was killed. No one was even hurt. Alexander's husband, whom she had a restraining order, admitted to abusing Marissa, as well as "put[ting] [his] hands" on all his "baby mamas." Alexander attempted to use the Stand Your Ground law. But unbelievably, a jury took 12 minutes of deliberating to sentence Alexander to 20 years. (This, sadly, isn't unbelievable, given the racist application of Stand Your Ground.)

[MJGreen]

It's right there in the SYG law! "These provisions shall not apply to those persons of a skin tone darker than Beyonce."

[Tonio]

Haven't done a lot of research on this, but I wonder if she might benefit by appealing her case?

[Coeus]

It's all bullshit. She was at her ex's house, in violatiuon of the restraining order. Their kids were in the room with them. She wouldn't leave when he told her to, so she ran out and grabbed a gun from her car, came back in, and shot a bullet into the wall a few inches from his head while the kids were standing beside him.

The author states that she researched this case, which means that she cannot read.

[Auric Demonocles]

Yeah, but she was just trying to scare him off! Who cares if it was in his own home that he went into on her own, and in violation of a court order? That part doesn't matter!

[hotsy totsy]

Still, 20 years is pretty harsh. A couple years and probation with anger management classes should do it.

Now if her ex had grabbed the gun and shot her, he should be found not guilty, if he was even brought to trial. Also a clear case of self defense.

[mad libertarian guy]

Still, 20 years is pretty harsh. A couple years and probation with anger management classes should do it.

Agreed. But that only highlights the absurdity of the sentencing requirements (mandatory minimums), not the conviction.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Racist application of SYG? Citation needed.

[mad libertarian guy]

Racist application of SYG? Citation needed.

The let Zimmerman go!

/proggie

[AlexInCT]

"Weiner Still Hard at It

Huh huh huh....

I see what you did there.

[CE]

Better than "Weiner promises to bounce back, but campaign goes limp"...

[mr simple]

HuffPo says doubling wages of all McDonald's workers is easy according to "study" from KU "researcher". Later they update to say researcher is undergrad student and study is dubious at best. Seriously, the kid is supposed to be a econ major and can't apply lessons learned on the first day in either intro micro or macro, plus all the other glaring errors. Commenters say it's only greed that keeps people from getting living wages. I hope the reporter feels like an idiot.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Check out the responses to this nonsense over at the Volokh Conspiracy.

[Aresen]

Better yet: YOU check out the responses.

Then report back once your brain has recovered.

[Pro Libertate]

Easy for who, exactly? Not McDonald's, of course, nor for the consumers who would pick up the tab.

Frankly, if the wages really were forced up enough, I could see them automating more and more of the work.

[Zeb]

I could see McD's and similar places becoming almost completely automated pretty quickly if labor became too expensive. They could replace the people who take orders with touch screens in about 3 days right now if they really wanted to.

[Pro Libertate]

Which, let's face it, would be friggin' awesome.

[db]

Sheetz convenience stores already allow you to order a vast variety of fast food via touchscreen. It's perfect. You punch in what you want, somebody makes it, and then you pay for it. It's fast and you don't have to explain every little special request or topping you want to someone who's used to hitting a button for a pre-packaged value meal.

[Jam]

you see this automated order taking kiosk all time in a French McD's

[NeonCat]

I hope the commenters tell whomever they buy anything from always to keep the change but I'd bet cash money they do not.

[db]

Anybody have an idea of what fraction oc McDonald's expenses is non-salaried pay/payroll tax/benefits? Because I hope everyone who eats at McDonald's likes the idea of their food prices rising by that amount.

[paranoid android]

Well, she may be an idiot, but at least she'll be secure thanks to the living wage she must be getting from Huff--ohhh, right.

[Juice]

burn

[MJGreen]

Bravo for this guy. He's no doubt like those self-made economic gurus who felt themselves learned enough to protest Greg Mankiw's Intro to Econ class three weeks into the semester.

But really, if this kid is an econ major, I'd think he took AP Econ in high school. So he should have known not to try this before even entering college.

[Bobarian]

I hope the reporter feels like an idiot.

When you are a competent, intelligent person who makes a mistake, you 'feel like an idiot'.

When you write for the HuffPo, you 'feel normal'.

[mr simple]

I know it's asking too much for a reporter to spot the obvious math or econ errors, but she couldn't even be bothered to do a background check on the kid? Here's something that conforms to my beliefs; better run with it right away and not double check anything!

[paranoid android]

I picture Morelix giving Fairchild a presentation on his "study", dressed in an oversized lab coat (so you can tell he's a researcher) and excitedly showing her the figures he's scrawled in his trapper-keeper while she nods and takes studious notes.

"And these diagrams you have over here, what do they show?"
"Oh, that's Optimus Prime fighting Batman."

[hotsy totsy]

At least it's in a higher category than the 10 year olds giving speeches at hearings where they scold the school board for letting teachers go or closing schools down and "putting our futures in danger".

[Gus]

Taranto covered this today in McResearch.

[CE]

Yeah, just double the minimum wage, and all the burgers will be dispensed by vending machines, so no one will be getting underpaid.

[A Serious Man]

The Circumcision Wars: What's a parent to do?

That being said, the dads' concern might also be motivated by their interest in their sons getting laid?as absurd as that sounds. Almost half of our friends admitted that they considered the best way to help their sons procure oral sex as adults when making their "circumcision decision."

For example, one of my husband's ex-jock friends wrote a surprisingly thoughtful, persuasive, and well reasoned emailed argument to my husband in favor of circumcising our son. After the analysis though, his final?and key?factor was, "And it's hard enough for a guy to get blow jobs as it is." Shockingly, the misguided belief that uncircumcised men have more difficulties procuring oral sex is shared beyond the male college athlete demographic. An OBGYN mother-in-law asked my friend, who was carrying her grandson-to-be at the time: "Don't you want him to get blow jobs some day?"

Um, do circumcised guys get oral more?

[Episiarch]

How would anyone know? None of us have before-and-after experience to draw on.

[Coeus]

A friend of mine who's not circumcised tells me that for every one who's turned off by it, two more want to play with it.

[db]

IOW, a circumcised penis is 33% more likely to get played with?

[Episiarch]

That basically says that it's not about whether or not you're circumcised, it's about the chick. Which makes sense.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Unless the two more who want to play with it want to because they already know how much more awesome it is.

Yeah you bitches know this is my mission in life but IT IS MORE AWESOME FOR FUCKING and what is more awesome than that?

[Episiarch]

Anal sex?

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Ass fucking is still fucking, dude.

[Episiarch]

Really, really good cocaine?

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

I haven't yet tried heroin...

[jesse.in.mb]

This entire debate reminds me of that one scene in Gattaca where the doctor compliments his size and mentions that he'd wished his parents had been thoughtful enough to have requested something like that.

[db]

I intend to have my sons semicircumcised so they can answer this question. For science.

[mr simple]

Just get it hemmed, so they can get it let out if they want to.

[hotsy totsy]

In Puerto Rico, the older people would tell the new parents "Deja el pipi lindo", which means don't circumcise him, leave his pipi pretty. Boys were kind of encouraged to flaunt their dicks.

[Zakalwe]

Apparently the drop in circumcision rates is purely a western state phenomenon; it has stayed the same or increased in the rest of the US.

[KDN]

So is it an Asian thing or a hippie thing?

[Zakalwe]

I think it's a STEVE SMITH thing.

[Bobarian]

A prolapsed anus can kind of resemble an uncircumcised penis.

[Entropy Void]

Why oh why did you have to remind me of my ex-wife????

[hotsy totsy]

It's kind of a Latin thing.

[The Fatman]

According to Dan Savage, Cut Cock tastes better. Jesse, got anything to contribute?

[jesse.in.mb]

It doesn't inherently change the taste, it's just a fold of skin that can get funky if not kept clean. I've encountered folks who didn't care for their nether regions properly with either style.

I have a mild preference for uncut just because I can drop trou and play with a cut one whenever I want.

[db]

Wow...hey, is your employer hiring by any chance?

[Tonio]

In my world the intact guys are highly sought after.

[Zakalwe]

This is surprising given how anti-circumcision Andrew Sullivan, King of All the Internet Gays, is.

[Tonio]

Zak, Dude: Intact means unmutilated, uncut, au naturale.

[NeonCat]

For "docking"?

[jesse.in.mb]

Where do you kids come up with these things?

[Coeus]

The goddam categories on porn sites are too close together to click the intended one on your phone.

At least, that's what I told my mom.

[NeonCat]

I don't recall where I first heard the term.

It's on Urban Dictionary so it must be a real thing, right?

Dare to dock, Jesse, dare to dock.

[Tonio]

For everything, EarthtoneDog.

[jesse.in.mb]

I've known a few women who have expressed concern at having to deal with foreskin, but it's mostly because they're afraid they're going to do something wrong, not because they're put off by it. Out of the guys I know people seem to have a preference one way or another (sometimes to the point of excluding an options), but I don't know that being uncut would prevent anyone from getting a blowjob unless he had a strong aversion to bathing.

[NeonCat]

I think if you're that far along and it's a dealbreaker for the person giving the BJ, you're probably better off not putting your dick anywhere near them.

[grrizzly]

Outside of the US only Jews and Muslims are circumcised. Do you really think that French or Russian guys don't get oral? To even ask this question is to display your American provincialism. But whatever makes victims of male genital mutilation feel better...

[jesse.in.mb]

Anglo provincialism... rates of circumcision are generally declining in the anglophone world, but they have a higher rate than everyone else. Canadians are a coin toss maybe slightly favoring uncircumcised, Aussies prefer the snip. I only have one datapoint on the damn Kiwis and the only South African I can ask is a Jew and therefor not necessarily representative. The Brits gave it up a generation or two ago but the colonies are playing catch up.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

When you call it "genital mutilation", that's a good trigger not to take you seriously.

[grrizzly]

Truth hurts.

[Coeus]

It does fit the definition.

[Juice]

You see, when you mutilate someone's genitals that's called genital mutilation.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

What else can you possibly call it?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Circumcision?

[Zakalwe]

Yeah. A friend's wife just did some ear mutilation on their not quite six months old baby girl.

[Coeus]

While it doesn't affect function like the other example, this is also mutilation. tell her to buy a fucking cabbage patch kid if she wants to make permanent alterations on something for fashion.

[Tejicano]

When my dad re-married I ended up with a Jewish step-mother. One time while talking about circumcision I told her that "I made the cut but didn't join the team."

[DesigNate]

I wouldn't touch this subject with a 7 and a half inch pole.

Damn I'm disappointed in y'all for not enough penis jokes.

[Tejicano]

I read somewhere that there is this guy running for mayor in NYC...

[seguin]

I'm uncut. I also had phimosis. It sucked. That being said, nowadays I have no problems with it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-a couple of right-to-die activists have lost their legal challenges to engage in assisted suicide

Sad news. Laws barring assisted suicide strike me as some of the more heavy handed and tragic there are. On a better note I read that Vermont recently passed a law allowing it, so at least three states have some sanity on this issue.

[Sudden]

Agreed. Right to die was actually one of the biggest issues that brought me to libertarianism.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

If one of the fundamental questions of libertarianism is 'who owns you' then the libertarian answer on right to die is rather obvious.

[Marshall Gill]

Except for those who become wards of the State. The term "Right to die" was actually invented in the 30's.

An individual does not own himself if he can not choose when to end his life.

Right to die laws have nothing to do with killing yourself, but with having someone else kill you. Kevorkian being a perfect example of a fucking ghoul, rather than some kind of health provider.

There is no way I trust the government to pass a law making it legal for someone to kill me. The "right" to die, will soon afterward be "guaranteed" and even provided by a loving, caring government.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-Right to die laws have nothing to do with killing yourself, but with having someone else kill you.

With respect, that's hogwash. The law in the US simply allow a person to voluntarily exchange with a doctor to get a lethal dose of drugs from that doctor.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

With the doctor injecting you with those drugs, Bo. That's "someone else killing you" by definition.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

That's not how the law works. You get a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs from the doctor.

-Under the law, a competent adult Oregon resident who has been diagnosed, by a physician, with a terminal illness that will kill the patient within six months may request in writing, from his or her physician, a prescription for a lethal dose of medication for the purpose of ending the patient's life. Exercise of the option under this law is voluntary and the patient must initiate the request. Any physician, pharmacist or healthcare provider who has moral objections may refuse to participate.

From Wikipedia entry on Oregon Ballot Measure 16

[Jordan]

An individual does not own himself if he can not choose when to end his life.

An individual does not own himself if he can't contract with someone else to take his life, either.

[Coeus]

No way in hell.

Maryland's Climate Action Plan could actually lower electricity prices and boost job growth for the state's residents. That's according to two studies put together by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CEIR) and Towson University, which were commissioned by the Maryland state government when it passed the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act of 2009.

[Irish]

That's according to two studies put together by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CEIR) and Towson University, which were commissioned by the Maryland state government when it passed the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act of 2009.

If a single dollar from an oil company ends up in a study, liberals assure me that the study is tainted and not to be trusted.

Clearly there is no such conflict of interest in studies commissioned by the Maryland State Government.

[Almanian!]

could actually lower electricity prices and boost job growth

NO! IT'S A TRICK!!! RUUUUUN!!!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Is there anything more futile than a single state enacting restrictions in the name of climate change? Somehow the climate in Maryland will be protected by their noble sacrifice.

[Irish]

No. Here's what will happen. Maryland will enact some dumb law that doesn't do anything. They will then commission another study which claims that this dumb law didn't really hurt economic growth, therefore the whole country should enact the same dumb law.

[Almanian!]

Ima put the Mustang, the Ninja, the ZRX, the pickup and the tractor in the driveway tonight, turn 'em on, and let 'em idle till they run out of gas.

I'll do it again tomorrow. For California.

[KDN]

THINK GLOBALLY ACT LOCALLY

May Gaia smite you for your obstinance.

[Almanian!]

I took a shit on Gaia, once.

/Sandi

[Gus]

Sandi is a very classy lady, so I'm not sure that's true.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It's absurd. The only result would be to transfer jobs to some place without some restrictions. It reminds me of the people who oppose liberalized immigration based on environmental reasons, as if people moving here and using resources is somehow worse than if they stayed in their country of birth and did the same.

[KDN]

But if they stayed in their own poor country they'd use less, so it's better for the earth. Just run that to its logical conclusion and you'll see the entire point of the environmentalist movement cult.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Well, and I don't think it is necessarily true. Poor countries don't care one whit about the environment and are most likely to have the 'virgin' forests and other landscapes environmentalists so worry about.

[Tonio]

"could"

[JW]

Duh...Everyone knows that raising gas taxes and the cost of electrical generation causes the cost of energy to come down.

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

So we are currently in the States visiting the folks, first time in three years. Had some family friends over for a get-together last night, and I ended up in a two-hour-long beer-fueled argument with, well everyone else, about the importance and necessity of government.

No screaming or fisticuffs, though.

[Almanian!]

Ahhhh, family.

[NeonCat]

Did they have your junior TSA agent nephew arrest you for your obstinacy?

How do they expect him to advance to full agent if they don't let him fill his quotas?

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

That was my junior TSA agent son, thank you very much. And despite the night in jail I'm still proud of him.

[Almanian!]

He said "Weiner". Then he said "hard".

Weiner....huh huh...huh huh....huh huh...."hard"....uhhhhhh huh huh.... huh huh... huh huh....

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Smithsonian Institute Wants Trayvon Martin's 'Hoodie'

From the article
-"I get goose bumps just thinking about it," says Michael Skolnik, who sat next to Martin's parents on that morning, the day before the Fourth of July. Skolnik, the political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and a member of the Trayvon Martin Foundation board, felt as if he were in the presence of something as consequential and iconic as Babe Ruth's bat or the Declaration of Independence. "It's like this mythical garment," he says.

[Irish]

Remember: Liberals are the 'reality based party' and are in now way an icon worshiping cult.

[Almanian!]

It's amazing what a piece of the True Cross? can do to these martyrs.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-iconic as...the Declaration of Independence

That to me was the pinnacle of the lunacy in that selection.

[Sudden]

The Shroud of Turin Sanford?

[Sudden]

NM, should've looked down.

[Episiarch]

How many times have I said they are animists? Because they totally are.

[Almanian!]

Yeah, it's like the fucking Shroud of Turin or something.

Jesus fucking Christ fuck him in the ass with George Zimmerman's racist ahndgun. Unloaded of course...if you know what I'm sayin'...

[Zakalwe]

This makes sense. The Smithsonian has an appalling collection of worthless, embarassing kitsch. I laughed out loud at the trivial bullshit they had on display during my visit. It was all made even more cringeworthy by the number of replicas of inconsequential nonsense they had to settle for.

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

Didn't MNG always forget to add the link? I've got my eye on you, Boy!

[Sudden]

The strike through the y just barely prevents me from calling you out for your racist shenanigans

[Pro Libertate]

This whole business is so absurd.

[Almanian!]

RACIST!!!

*points at ProL*

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

*makes the body snatcher throat noise*

[Heroic Mulatto]

You know who else revered a piece of cloth stained with the blood of someone gunned down during a street fight?

[A Serious Man]

The Zodiac Killer?

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

The Lady In Red?

[PapayaSF]

The Archduke's bloody uniform is on display in a museum in Vienna.

[T]

I saw Emperor Maximillian I of Mexico's shirt in a museum once, bullet holes and all.

But they washed it first.

[PapayaSF]

The Archduke's still has his blood on it.

[Gus]

The shroud of Trayvon.

[NeonCat]

"Mythical"?

As opposed to "mystical"?

Well, he would seem to be an idiot...

[Agammamon]

Actually, he's more right than he knows - since the whole significance of this thing is from the false narrative woven around it, it really is mythical.

[Marc F Cheney]

OT: Which is the best Doctor Who: Kirk or Picard?

[db]

Imperial Star Destroyer.

[NeonCat]

Dipsy.

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

Picard, because he wasn't circumcised.

[A Serious Man]

In the 24th century they can replicate foreskins.

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

AND DEEP DISH PIZZA!!!!

[Coeus]

Those uniforms were too damn tight.

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

I was thinking of the time travel episode where he had to go through an airport rapescanner. Can't believe network TV got away with that.

[MJGreen]

Wash.

[Marc F Cheney]

Those are all "correct" answers.

[A Serious Man]

Matty Yglesias takes on Milton Friedman.

There is in fact no great mystery as to what would happen if the federal government ran a desert...Over 80 percent of Nevada is federally owned, along with 48 percent of Arizona, 42 percent of New Mexico, 57 percent of Utah, and 45.3 percent of California. There is no shortage of sand in these federally owned areas. In fact the landscapes are often quite beautiful...One could very plausibly argue that large-scale federal landownership in the Western United States has contributed to systematic shortages of water and to overgrazing in semi-arid grasslands. But to point that out would have challenged the self-conceptions of a lot of politically conservative Westerners, who imagine themselves hardy freedom-lovers but are in fact freeloaders on massive government subsidies to the rural economy.
[...]
The telling and disturbing thing here is not so much Friedman's rather obviously wrongheaded quip, but that this is the kind of thing the Heritage Foundation chooses to celebrate. If conservatives spent Friedman's 101st birthday thinking hard about his views on quantitative easing, we might be getting somewhere as a country. Instead, they found a joke that flatters their preconceptions but makes no sense whatsoever.

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

Oh you bastard, I succumbed and followed the link. So much stupid.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I often think he can't be as dumb as he comes off, but when he writes something like that, he definitely is.

[a better weapon]

Hahaha...................what?

That's my reaction to every Matt Yglesias piece.

[Marc F Cheney]

Matty Yglesias takes on Milton Friedman.

I'm going to play it safe and stop reading there.

[A Serious Man]

Yeglsias and Friedman. If there was ever a contrast in intellectual capacity.

[Agammamon]

Unfortunately what Yglesias fails to realize is that a good chunk of the 'desert' the federal government owns used to be *wetlands*.

[Irish]

Oh good Lord. I've thought that John is overstating the case when he says that Yglesias has aspergers, but I think he might be right. The 'government running a desert' quote is clearly just a snappy joke to highlight the inefficiency of government allocation of resources. Yglesias decides that this joke needs to be deconstructed in quite possibly the dumbest, most humorless way possible.

What a tool.

[JW]

Other people are catching on to the idea that SadBeard is kinda retarded, in much the same way that Courtney Stoddard is kinda slutty.

[Damned Fool]

Me duele la cabeza...

[MJGreen]

There really is something wrong with this man. It seems like he can rarely reason past one step.

"Taxes are paid on profits, so how can they affect the sale price?" Think for a few more seconds, Matt, and maybe you'll get it.

[PapayaSF]

I can barely believe it. I know lefties often have a poor grasp of economics, but for a big-name economics blogger to write that... just mind-boggling.

[Marc F Cheney]

That's the second most embarrassing thing I've read today.

The first, of course, being Tony's alternative timeline about the plague.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

And the Grand Jury Prize for Excellence in Un-Self Aware Pop Psychology Goes To...

You may laugh, but if you think about it, this fear of having to share spaces with "others" who have less money than they do?and who may be, gasp, different than they are?drives a whole shitload of conservative policy preferences and hang-ups. The hostility towards any attempt to improve public transportation is expressing a direct preference for unmanageable traffic over having to sit on a train or a bus with poor people (even though no one actually makes you use public transportation, but I guess the mere temptation of using the train is so serious that the rest of us have to give access). Hatred of immigrants and the ugly hostility towards cities? Same thing. There's a tendency on the right to see lower income people as inherently contaminating, as if their very presence degrades everything around them by the force of magic or something. Witness George Will blaming "culture"?which is a conservative code word for the presence of lower income people and definitely for lower income people of color?for the problems Detroit is facing. Pay special attention to his freak-out over reading and literacy rates.

Amanda really should know better than to ask her readers to "really think about it" when it comes to her column.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

- this fear of having to share spaces with "others" who have less money than they do?and who may be, gasp, different than they are?drives a whole shitload of conservative policy preferences

According to Charles Murray's latest book the people most isolated (geographically and culturally) from '"others" who have less money than they do?and who may be, gasp, different than they are' are rich, well educated liberal people.

[Damned Fool]

Bubbles do fuel delusions pretty nicely.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Hence the "what's the matter with Kansas" spiel that most educated liberals recite like it's the rosary.

[Episiarch]

Her articles should just be replaced with two words, every time: EPIC PROJECTION.

[NeonCat]

Yeah! Whai shud readn matr for yore econahmukee? Jus tax teh rich peeps, they got all the dam money!

[MJGreen]

A shitload, huh?

The hostility towards any attempt to improve public transportation is expressing a direct preference for unmanageable traffic over having to sit on a train or a bus with poor people (even though no one actually makes you use public transportation, but I guess the mere temptation of using the train is so serious that the rest of us have to give access).

You assign a motive to other people's positions. When that motive is contradicted by an obvious reason, don't question whether the motive is accurate; assume the people are that stupid and illogical!

Whatever it takes to keep the narrative going in her head.

[Coeus]

That is her most used rhetorical device.

[A Serious Man]

Band writes song and shoots video about their love for 'Asian Girlz'.

You can guess what the reaction is.

[Episiarch]

They also seem to love ink. A lot.

[mr simple]

Rage at the bland music and misspelling?

[Heroic Mulatto]

God that song sucked.

Replace it with
this.

"Kush make ya choke; you can call it SARS/Yeah we smokin L's, but we call em "R's

[JW]

It's so bad that it has to be a parody.

[Heroic Mulatto]

No, the Buckwheat Groats are reality and, we, my friend, are the mere parody.

[PH2050]

They can't be real. One dude has a penis and testicles on his chain.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Sometimes he has a pig on his chain.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Further confirming my theory that Matt Yglesias is actually Rod from Birdemic...

At Chinatown Express, for example, if you partake of the fresh noodles or the pork buns, you'll come away happy, but there's lots of nonsense on the menu. Great Wall Szechuan House has a solid roster of dishes on its ma la menu, but then tons of garbage. At Full Kee I love the spicy deep-fried head-on shrimp and the confusingly named salt fish chicken stir fried with chive flower (is it salt or is it chicken?), and at New Big Wong the dry scallop fried rice and eggplant with garlic are great.

"Sometimes the food at Chinese restaurant good, but sometimes not so good."

[MJGreen]

THIS IS THE GUY THAT PROGRESSIVES THINK SHOULD RUN OUR LIVES

[Jordan]

New Big Wong

Alrighty then.

[Juice]

They have excellent food (usually).

[Hash Brown]

Anybody got a transcript of the Lewinsky tape? Don't make me have to listen to it.

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

"Like ohmigod, he said, 'Cigars are for pussies.' I was all like, 'Whatevs.' But it was the Oval Office and it was totally rad and he's like the leader of the free world and stuff, still it was kind of ewwww."

[NeonCat]

"Mmummoph"

[Sudden]

Nom nom nom...... nom nom nom....

[NeonCat]

(slurrrrrpppp)

[The Immaculate Trouser]

In which Matt Yglesias confirms John's theory that he is somewhere on the Aspy spectrum...

[Milton Friedman] was apparently prone from time to time to make really dumb quips such as the one reproduced above and celebrated today by the Heritage Foundation.

There is in fact no great mystery as to what would happen if the federal government ran a desert since the federal government is the major landowner in arid Southwestern states. Over 80 percent of Nevada is federally owned, along with 48 percent of Arizona, 42 percent of New Mexico, 57 percent of Utah, and 45.3 percent of California.

The Friedman quote in question being, "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."

[paranoid android]

I hear he's plannning a followup post tarring William Jennings Bryan after his strenuous research shows that Grover Cleveland did not, in fact, plan to literally crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

[Damned Fool]

Aspies are supposed to be logical, though.

[NeonCat]

He's even a failure as an Aspy!

[Suthenboy]

That , I think, is a variation on a Russian joke about communism.

[Generic Stranger]

Over 80 percent of Nevada is federally owned

It's also massively over-grazed, and as noted above public works projects such as the Bureau of Reclamation-run Rye Patch Dam destroyed thousands of acres of wetlands. Federal control of land in Nevada has not exactly been a good thing.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Good News! Commerce Department Says the Recession Hasn't Been as Bad as We Thought and the Recovery's Been Stronger Than We Knew

Got that, guys? We've secretly been swimming in veritable vats of prosperity! Thank God we have people like Matty to point out this wealth we never knew we had...

[Hyperion]

Geez, I wish they would have told us this sooner, I could have already had that new SUV, camera, and tablet that I have been waiting to buy.

We need moar good newz, I want to go on a spending spree with all my new found prosperity.

[Gus]

"Oh, we're rolling in less, Sir."

[A Serious Man]

Just saw another trailer for MATT DAMON'S 'Elysium', which takes place in the future where the 1% have literally pillaged the Earth of its resources and built a giant luxury space station orbiting the planet while the 99% starve on the surface.

Is there anything more obnoxious than sci-fi that's so blatantly preachy and allegorical?

[Hyperion]

Are there any blue people in it?

[Episiarch]

The thing is that it's directed by the guy who did District 9, which was really good even though it had some race preachiness in it. So maybe it'll still be pretty good?

[Hyperion]

District 9 is a great flick.

It's almost impossible today to find a decent movie to watch these days, that doesn't have all sorts of leftist rhetoric spread throughout it. I think to really enjoy movies today, you need to be politically ignorant, or a leftist, which is sort of the same thing.

[Episiarch]

Or you can just ignore it and enjoy the story if it's good enough.

[A Serious Man]

Very few movies have enough respect for the audience to keep the story-telling subtle.

The very premise of this movie is so heavy-handed and obvious that it does not bode well for it being tolerable, especially if we have to listen to Damon pontificate on being a member of the 99% and fighting for their rights.

[Episiarch]

Agreed. When I saw the trailer a while back I just kept watching and going "I really want this to be good but I think I'm shit out of luck".

[robc]

It stars Matt Damon, thus it wont be good enough.

[paranoid android]

I saw a trailer the other day for this movie called "Still Mine" that's about this old guy who wants to build a house on his land for himself and his wife, and the villains are the EPA assholes who are trying to bury him with regulations and red tape.

Seemed pretty much tailor-made for the Reason crowd.

I saw the trailer before "Much Ado About Nothing" which is excellent unless you have a deep-seated hatred with original Shakespearean dialogue placed in a modernized setting.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm not particularly fond of modern dress, but I'm okay with it if well done. McKellen's Richard III, for instance.

[NeonCat]

My thoughts exactly. Great ensemble cast, very well thought out appearance, Ian made a great Richard.

[Stormy Dragon]

Ob Onion:

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended

[Pro Libertate]

That's funny. Frankly, I prefer plays that do that. I was a little miffed at Branagh when he left that reservation with Hamlet, because he'd avoided modern dress in his films before then.

[Episiarch]

I saw Much Ado About Nothing at the SIFF premiere this year, and it was pretty good. The Q&A session after with Joss Whedon, Amy Acker, Nathon Fillion, and Alexis Denisof was fun too. Nathon Fillion is as charismatic in person as one would suspect. The crowd just loved him.

[Pro Libertate]

He could become president by acclamation. He's like Bruce Campbell popular.

[Zakalwe]

Army of Darkness Bruce Campbell or Burn Notice Bruce Campbell? Because I've got some bad news for you.

[Pro Libertate]

I saw a few minutes of a Burn Notice panel with the leads and the creator. The audience adulation of Campbell was insane, but everyone on the panel seemed to agree. I mean, he's a supporting actor, and the star and the creator are practically kneeling before him.

[A Serious Man]

I really liked Ralph Fiennes adaptation of Coriolanus.

[Pro Libertate]

I want to see that.

[MJGreen]

Actually, I think "Still Mine" takes place in Canada. At least, I'm pretty sure it's a Canadian film.

[A Serious Man]

I liked District 9 because of the faux-documentary style it was shot in, it was very original in that regard.

I'm thinking this movie is more like that Justin Timberlake movie 'In Time' and its take on 'Darwinian capitalism'.

[Juice]

In Time was ok once you got past the fact that the entire premise of the movie is totally fucking stupid.

[JW]

It was also fairly anti-capitalist, going beyond preachiness. I liked District 9 greatly, but the surgery scene was so over the top that it almost blew the movie for me. The corporation, MNU, is shown as utterly ruthless and cold and everyone involved in cutting off the mutating arm has no problem at all in killing van de Merwe in the process.

Blomkamp could have done that scene very differently, but he took the cheap way out.

[MJGreen]

I don't know, there's not an obvious anti-capitalist reading to that scene. You could take it that way, but don't have to. I think it's freaky and funny. If I had to read it as a criticism of something, it'd be the apathy of scientists toward their living subjects, rather than profiteering.

[JW]

Maybe, but the evil, profiteering company was a recurring theme. The whole film spoke poorly of mankind in general. You ultimately felt bad for van de Merwe in his plight, but he was an unlikable and venal dick too, just like everyone else but the main alien. Was there one decent human in the entire film? I can't recall one.

Sure, you need a boogeyman, I get that, but the evil capitalist is a worn-out trope and with Elysium , Blomkamp is verging on being a leftist crank.

[PapayaSF]

District 9 had to have some race preachiness to cover the fact that the entire premise is a hugely politically incorrect allegory about blacks in South Africa.

[Zakalwe]

Yep.

[Damned Fool]

Everything Damon's done tends to be that way. Admittedly, I have a soft spot for the Bourne movies.

[Stormy Dragon]

He's done a lot of non-preachy stuff too. (Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, Rounders, Dogma, Legend of Bagger Vance, Ocean's Eleven, True Grit, The Adjustment Bureau)

[Damned Fool]

Everything recent, sorry.

[Redmanfms]

Good Will Hunting

Yeah, except for his "owning" the upper class Harvard guy, the "blue plate special" monologue, and his extolling the virtues of Howard Zinn, it wasn't preachy...

The rest of movies listed he wasn't involved in the production beyond acting, in several cases as support. If he is at all involved in the production or writing of a film it will be leftist hogwash.

[Stormy Dragon]

I don't count the "blue plate special" as being preachy, given the movie was basically saying it was a bunch of bullshit he came up with to rationalize staying in a completely unchallenging job and thus never having to risk failure.

[robc]

Good Will Hunting? non-preachy?

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

So you didn't like Damnation Alley?

[Zakalwe]

Amanda Marcotte?

[A Serious Man]

Oh great, the director has been quoted as saying:

When asked whether the film reveals how he sees Earth turning out in 140 years, director Blomkamp responded "No, no, no. This isn't science fiction. This is today. This is now."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film)

[Episiarch]

That does not bode well.

[JW]

That does not bode well.

It's looking painfully preachy.

[Fatty Bolger]

Actually, that doesn't sound bad at all. He's talking about worldwide wealth disparity, and the wealthy blocking the poor from getting in (immigration), ownership of personal data, transhumanism - all interesting subjects.

[PH2050]

Fatty, do we really want to listen to the fools who, again and again, cry about how the rich are going to ostracize/enslave/kill poor people due to technology when, in fact, history shows the complete opposite?

Transhumanism seems a very liberating idea to me yet there are a lot of people who think it means eugenics and elimination of the poor or disadvantaged. These jackasses don't see how the coming advancements in biotech, nanotech, etc, are going to empower individuals and radically decentralize political power.

I enjoyed District 9 with the realization that the director was probably commenting on contemporary South Africa but I will not go see Elysium.

[JW]

Most of what I've read about it makes it sound too much like zero-sum economic ignorance and just a plain old tedious class warfare morality play. I'd like to be wrong, but it's not looking that way. It's those mean, undeservedly rich people pissing on the poor again!

Gattica did the concept of a ruling class pissing on an underclass much better, without being tiresome.

I had a similar problem with Silent Running, despite it being directed by Douglas Trumbull, whom I like very much. The premise of "We chopped down all the trees!" is so detached from reality, such a bizarre and idiotic polemic, that it overwhelmed the film itself and I couldn't take it seriously.

[Suthenboy]

"It's those mean, undeservedly rich people pissing on the poor again!"

Yes, and in their movies it is always the evil corporations doing the pissing.

In reality it is always them. More projection....

[Tejicano]

I have spent over 20 years working at a few Forbes 50 global corporations and the "evil corporation" meme just makes me laugh.

While some top people at these companies may or may not be particularly moral I find they are generally not bright enough to actually be evil.

In a short conversation with a top VP who was managing the corporation's entry into the Chinese market about 10 years ago it became clear to me that she did not understand Chinese currency was not convertable - possibly did not even understand what that meant. Gobsmacked...

[Fatty Bolger]

It was obvious from the trailer that it's supposed to be an allegory for today, but it still looks really good.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Until Blomkamp deigns to make his primary residence the slums of Jo-burg, he needs to shut the fuck up.

[Pro Libertate]

Groan.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That story was better when it had a space-chick hitting on Spock.

[Mickey Rat]

Damn you

[Heroic Mulatto]

Great minds?

[Mickey Rat]

I'll accept that.

[Mickey Rat]

Spock: Extreme feminine beauty... is always... disturbing.

[Pro Libertate]

Yo, screw the seven-year cycle. Spock hungers.

[Episiarch]

Oh yeah.

I used to have that cued up on my computer at work, and every time the CTO came in with a change or an idea I'd start playing it.

[Pro Libertate]

Kroykah!

[A Serious Man]

Spock could have any woman he wanted. Only Khan was superior in that regard.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, please. Better than Kirk?

[A Serious Man]

If Spock had tried Kirk would have been relegated to his sloppy seconds.

[jesse.in.mb]

Like that would've slowed Kirk down. I'm surprised he wasn't caught fucking tribbles.

[Pro Libertate]

Your sole exposure to Star Trek is the reboot shit, isn't it?

[Pro Libertate]

The above comment was directed at A Serious Man, of course. Not jesse, who clearly understands Kirk. I mean, Kirk fucked aliens and robots. As well as human women. I'm surprised he didn't mess around with Cochrane's energy chick.

[Episiarch]

What some people fail to understand is that Kirk only put his phaser on stun when he was looking for sex.

[A Serious Man]

I think I've long established my TOS and TNG credentials Pro. L.

But my point was simply that Kirk did not have to compete with Spock for women. If he had, women would go for Spock.

[Pro Libertate]

It's possible to destroy your credibility in one moment. Like Episiarch as a foodie when he said he craved cats.

[Episiarch]

Don't worry, ProL, Serious is just admitting that he has a bowl cut and pointy ears and is capable of engaging in wishful thinking.

[jesse.in.mb]

I thought he was expressing his preference for emotionally distant men.

Or I'm projecting. Probably both.

[A Serious Man]

Moot argument, anyway. We all know DeForrest Kelley was the real sex symbol on that show.

[Pro Libertate]

I seem to recall seeing a chart with who scored the most. Kirk won by a light year, of course, but I think maybe Chekov came in second.

[jesse.in.mb]

I was a little concerned you were talking to me. You would've had a fight on your hands ProL.

[Pro Libertate]

It's a vicious insult, no doubt.

[Mickey Rat]

"Vanna: It's hard to believe that something which is neither seen nor felt can do so much harm.

James T. Kirk: That's true. But an idea can't be seen or felt. And that's what's kept the Troglytes in the mines all these centuries-- a mistaken idea."

-The Cloud Minders

It's been done

[Pro Libertate]

Like that's going to happen. What will really happen is whatever elites are in charge when we have the ability to send people to live in space will send everyone else somewhere else to live.

See, the Earth is the shit when it comes to the solar system.

[A Serious Man]

But at least "The Cloud Minders" had really hot women in it. This movie has Jodie Foster as the villain.

[Bobarian]

MATT DAMON!!

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

[califernian]

Damon loves message movies so this movie may be a steaming pile.

Blomkompf did District 9 which is one of the best sci fi movies this century if not the best.

Looks like a 50/50 shot for Elysium

[PH2050]

I had hopes for it at first but now it just looks like it's "Rich People Vs. Poor People, The Movie"

[Suthenboy]

Yeah, I saw that. What a disapointment.

So they think that without the elite the 99% would be unable to care for themselves? Unable to farm or manufacture?

I think their premise is that competent people are obligated to care for everyone else, in other words, slaves.

[Sidd Finch]

Editor's Note: In June's "Quotable Quotes," we misattributed a quote to Shaquille O'Neal. In fact, O'Neal was quoting the Greek philosopher Aristotle. We regret the error.

[Pro Libertate]

Five thousand years from now, because of this mistake, history will merge Aristotle and Shaq.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

He will be included among the great Zensunni philosophers.

[Pro Libertate]

His mastery of Zensunniball will long be remembered.

[Bam!]

First to the year 1939 when Charlie Chaplin and his evil Nazi regime enslaved Europe and tried to take over the world!

[NeonCat]

To be fair, we've never seen Aristotle getting into the Buick either.

[Pro Libertate]

Fine Corinthian leather.

[Gus]

Gay Athletes Could Be Prosecuted at 2014 Winter Olympics, Russian Lawmaker Suggests

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm really excited for this. Please let them cause an international incident when they jail every other country's male figure skaters.

[Gus]

Homeland Security loses track of 1 million foreigners

[Bobarian]

They were here just a minute ago. Did you guys see what happened to em?

[Gus]

The Chilling History of How Hollywood Helped Hitler

In devastating detail, an excerpt from a controversial new book reveals how the big studios, desperate to protect German business, let Nazis censor scripts, remove credits from Jews, get movies stopped and even force one MGM executive to divorce his Jewish wife.

[PapayaSF]

It is interesting, especially because Hollywood was full of Communists and sympathizers trying to get their ideas into movies at the same time. (Though they didn't really succeed until 1941-'45.)

[Pro Libertate]

Communist, Nazi, what's the difference?

[db]

You have this huge industry devoted to telling stories in a very compelling way to a willing and enthusiastic audience. Every political philosophy that depends on mass opinion is going to have a crack at trying to bring that industry under its control.

[PapayaSF]

Silly boy, don't you listen to progressives? International Socialism is the exact opposite of National Socialism. They have no similarities whatsoever.

[Pro Libertate]

I'll grant that they dress differently. And they killed Jews in different manners.

[PapayaSF]

You see, totally different.

[R C Dean]

Pretty much like how Hollywood truckles to the ChiComs today, then. Only with less Judenfrei.

[PapayaSF]

+1

[Coeus]

Social justice musings:

Why is "lived experience" no longer a valid criteria when white men talk about how it's not as awesome as everyone else has been told to be them?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

"Lived experience" is complete and utter BS. It contradicts 2000+ years of historiograpers' attempts to move past (or at least contextualize) subjective accounts as the source of our understanding of the past and the world as it stands today.

It is part of the pre-modern worldview of the New Left: Marxists for all their flaws would (and did) reject "lived experience" as unscientific horseshit.

[jesse.in.mb]

Bah, now I've got Ben Folds - Rockin' The Suburbs, stuck in my head. Thanks 🙁

[Sidd Finch]

White Dude

[jesse.in.mb]

Haha, that certainly works too.

[Coeus]

Yep, that's it. Exactly what I see on the SJ sites. No such thing as child support, no white guy ever goes to jail, no dress codes for men, and ugly men have it easy.

David Spears 6 hours ago
I'm a BLACK dude and I? LOVE this song - he's not racist he's simply being real GET THE FUCK OVER IT

[Coeus]

Orok Ukpong 1 week ago
I'm black and he's basically understanding that he has white privilege and making a joke about it. It's not condescending or anything, heck he's telling the? TRUTH! and this is FUNNY. I for one wasn't offended, just amused.
Reply ? 41

[Episiarch]

The entire purpose of grievance philosophy is to make the person who claims to be aggrieved (let's call them the claimant) morally superior, and the person they claim aggrieved them (let's call them the defendant) morally inferior. Part of this is achieved by attempting to delegitimize any perspective or opinion or even argument from the defendant.

So the grievance philosophers are constantly trying to come up with concepts like "lived experience" to make this possible. When a concept gets pummeled enough, they come up with new ones. It's an ever-shifting morass of intellectually dishonest themes and memes.

[PapayaSF]

Yup. Shifting terms and definitions is crucial in politics. It's like how the "Misery Index" or "homelessness" are important measurements when a Republican is President, but not while a Democrat is. Or how a rise in the stock market is a meaningless statistic under a Republican, but a feather in the cap of a Democrat.

Also, note how the term "progressive" was discredited after Wilson, so leftists adopted (stole) the term "liberal," which was discarded after becoming tainted by the '60s-'80s, leading to a revival of the term "progressive."

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

You have your moments Epi. This is one of them. Now don't let it go to your head, dick.

[MappRapp]

Wow man that makes a LOT of sense dude

http://www.Anon-Top.tk

[Don Mynack]

Small town Texas sheriff is tired of the drug war, doesn't care for feds sending him of small-time pot busts:

"Increasingly over the past ten years, West and his dozen deputies have been overwhelmed by a steady flow of small-time potheads arrested at the checkpoint. In the state of Texas, anything over four ounces is a felony; between two and four ounces is a Class A misdemeanor; and less than two ounces is a Class B misdemeanor. Both misdemeanor charges can result in jail time and the suspension of one's driver's license. But that little adobe courthouse couldn't begin to handle the caseload if the law were truly enforced. Hudspeth County doesn't even have a full-time prosecutor; it has to bring one over from El Paso twice a month.

West's solution is to write tickets for possession of "drug paraphernalia," a Class C misdemeanor that doesn't require a court appearance and imposes a fine of $500 (plus $27 in "court costs"). The fact that you were caught red-handed with actual pot is conveniently ignored. This paraphernalia ticket is offered to you by a smiling deputy who can get you out of those handcuffs and on your way again if you simply sign for it."

http://www.texasmonthly.com/st.....s/page/0/1

[CatoTheElder]

Snowden's attorney, Bruce Fein, writes letter to Obama. Obama Administration is "Orwellian", "cynical", "reprehensible", "scorn[ful] for due process, the rule of law, fairness, and the presumption of innocence".

http://www.libertycrier.com/le.....ent-obama/

[PapayaSF]

"Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this Presidency." ?Barack Obama, January, 2009.

[Render Unto Caesar]

"And by 'Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this Presidency' I mean fuck you, that's why." - Barack Obama, January, 2009, hot mic