NSA May Be Snooping on Most Emails, NYPD To Purge Stop-and-Frisk Database, Jeb Bush Slams Matt Damon: P.M. Links

Credit: NSA/wikimedia

• The NSA may be snooping on the content of most emails that are not related to specific targets.
• The NYPD has agreed to purge its stop-and-frisk database.

• Jeb Bush has criticized Matt Damon for sending his kids to private school.

• Greece's unemployment rate hit a record high in May. But wait, isn't the Euro-crisis was supposed to be over?
• A military judge has ruled that the "stand-by" defense team cannot abandon the Army psychiatrist accused of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, who has chosen to represent himself.  
• Two more women have accused San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment.

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Comments

[A Serious Man]

Jeb Bush has criticized Matt Damon for sending his kids to private school.

Typical Bush, intrinsically paternalistic!

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

I am ashamed for being surprised that Matt Damon is actually stupid enough to have done this. I used to think you were hot, Matt. God, I hate myself.

[Brett L]

Nikki, men have known for years that hot and smart are orthogonal. Who cares if their brain works?

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

I do.

[Brett L]

Huh. I’ll bet plenty of dudes on this board would’ve stuck it in Jenny McCarthy at the peak of her crazy. “What’s that? Yeah, letting kids die of preventable diseases gets me hot, too, Jenny! Let’s ball!”

[Almanian!]

*raises hand*

guilty

[Killazontherun]

I married because she is more fun and outgoing than I am. Completes me more than doubles me.

[Aloysious]

There are wimminz on this thread. I feel strange…

[Lady Bertrum]

I agree. I cried when I found out Jeremy Renner voted for Obama.

[Lady Bertrum]

Meaning, I agree with Nikki. Brains matter.

[The DerpRider]

I didn’t know he was American.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

It’s because as women we are crazy and want to talk afterward and shit.

[Lady Bertrum]

Or, even, you know, BEFORE.

[Almanian!]

even before

EW!

[Lady Bertrum]

talk before, TALK before, TALK BEFORE. never mind.

[Killazontherun]

Afterward would not be so bad if women would learn that deep does not equal personal. I don’t want to hear about things that you feel guilty about, cancer, being raped, being poor and temporarily doing prostitution; no, I’m not making any of this up. Those conversations still haunt me. Don’t turn the afterglow into the Lifetime channel, it is a goddamned bummer.

[Sudden]

I have no problem with shitting afterwards. It’s the talking that bothers me.

Maybe Sandi is my soulmate.

[Almanian!]

#WINNING

[Bobarian]

In women, hot and smart are orthogonal, but in men, Brett has just demonstrated a junior high propensity to collect wedgies for his proper use of the word orthogonal. As there is a strong negative correlation for the men category.

[Mickey Rat]

Unless his smarts correlates to a fat bank account.

[db]

He can’t be stupid! He went to an Ivy League school!

/credentialist moron

[Zeb]

He’s probably not stupid. Few people that go to Ivy League schools are. That’s no guarantee that they are not fools.

[C. Anacreon]

spoken like a true Ivy alum

[Ted S.]

If men can judge women on axes of hot and crazy, why can’t women do the same to men? 🙂

[db]

I thought their axes were girth vs. income?

[PapayaSF]

I am not surprised, given that his film anti-fracking film Promised Land was financed by the United Arab Emirates.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I watched that Matt Damon vs. Michelle Fields video with my girlfriend. My girlfriend is a liberal who, although smart, feels more than she thinks, but she gets it on school choice.

Nevertheless, she thought Matt Damon came out better in the video. Part of it was her general progressive feeling vs. thinking (“A teacher wants to teach!”) but I think part of it was that Michelle is, you know, pretty attractive.

[VG Zaytsev]

Fuck Jeb Booooosh

[CampingInYourPark]

Craig also said two officers from the Northeast District have been suspended without pay after they allegedly fired about 20 shots at a dog, killing it.

A first?

http://www.detroitnews.com/art…..z2bPX9tzMq

[Dweebston]

Are you joking? It’s a cost-cutting measure in disguise. Easier than justifying furloughs to the police union.

[Suthenboy]

One dog, twenty shots? For fuck’s sake.

[Invisible Finger]

Excactly. This is far beyond Detroit’s dog-shooting budget.

[Sudden]

When I jokingly posted the other day about a cop emptying an entire clip into a puppy and then reloading a second one to continue, I had no concept anyone would ever do such a thing, even a cop.

But suspension without pay? What’s that for, wasting ammo?

[Brett L]

Finally, an animals cops don’t shoot.

A Florida police officer saved nearly 100 baby sea turtles when he gathered the newly hatched creatures from a hotel parking lot and street and released them into the Gulf of Mexico.

[fish]

If only he’d had the scattergun!

[Sudden]

Bunderbuss.

[fish]

And I hate to be a dick but “happy ending” aside isn’t “interfering with a protected species a federal offense? It doesn’t matter if you help the animal, or claim ignorance of the law.

Refer to the story about the kid who extracted the woodpecker chick from the cats gullet for chuckles.

http://tinyurl.com/kjsm546

Sounds like the thin blue line is going back on vacation!

[Brett L]

I was wondering about this myself.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

How many were then eaten by sharks?

[Ted S.]

A Florida police officer saved nearly 100 baby sea turtles when he gathered the newly hatched creatures from a hotel parking lot and street and released them into the Gulf of Mexico.

Was he On vacation in Charleston?

[Mike M.]

Navy corpsemen stationed all along the Gulf of Mexico in places like Charleston and Savannah all agree that Block Yomomma is by far the most intelligent president in history.

[Atanarjuat]

Hey, he doesn’t have to know every geographic detail in the 57 states to be president.

[Atanarjuat]

I assume SNL will make as much hay from this as they did with “I can see Russia from my house”.

[CE]

Corpse men? Are you sure?

[Invisible Finger]

Something tells me the turtle is laying its eggs near the hotel parking lot because all the other good sites are taken due to the abundance of sea turtles.

[Zeb]

Or beach goers.

[Enough About Palin]

I believe the Kenedy family learned not to interfere with sea turtles. This cop should be arrested.

Kennedys’ sea turtle rescue violated federal law, officials say

[rts]

RCMP officer charged in Cranbrook shooting

Const. Richard Drought is charged with intentionally discharging a firearm into a motor vehicle, knowing another person was inside. He is also charged with intentionally discharging a firearm while being reckless as to the life or safety of another person.

[db]

That sounds like it would get most non-cops charged with at least attempted murder.

[A Serious Man]

The NSA may be snooping on the content of most emails that are not related to specific targets.

Because why not?

[jasno]

They’ve been doing a similar thing under the ECHELON program for years, right? Then(and now I’m sure) it was phone calls. Now it’s email.

While I think it’s an overreach, I’m much more concerned with domestic(in the US, i.e. *my* country) spying, both by the NSA and foreign governments.

[Raston Bot]

Timothy Edgar, a former intelligence official, told the Times that there had been much internal discussion in the government over the rule

Yeah, just like every word out of Clapper and Alexander’s mouths, this too is complete horse shit.

[Brett L]

Prohibitionists lose another useful idiot.

Well, I am here to apologize.

I apologize because I didn’t look hard enough, until now. I didn’t look far enough. I didn’t review papers from smaller labs in other countries doing some remarkable research, and I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.

Instead, I lumped them with the high-visibility malingerers, just looking to get high. I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific proof. Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most dangerous drugs that have “no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse.”

Oh, Sanjay. You poor fool.

[Zakalwe]

Does Shriek every feel bad for being a useless idiot?

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

He would if no one responded to his comments.

[Almanian!]

BURN!

[db]

I am trying harder than most to make him feel bad.

[fish]

Does Shriek every feel bad for being a useless idiot?

Please? It’s his sole reason for existence.

[Episiarch]

What’s sadder; that he was a prohibitionist in the first place, or that it took him this long to figure it out? What a moron.

[Zeb]

The saddest is that, even though it is getting a bit better when it comes to weed, most people are still pretty hardcore prohibitionists when it comes to drugs they don’t approve of.

[mr simple]

I lumped them with the high-visibility malingerers, just looking to get high.

Don’t worry, he’s still got his prohibition boner going for anyone who would want to use it in a non-approved way. He just admits it has some medicinal value.

[Zeb]

Don’t worry. I wasn’t worried.

[Gene]

That was basically what I took away from the piece, obviously he’s still a dick.

[jesse.in.mb]

We need to celebrate his conversion to non-idiocy loudly. Make it as socially acceptable for his sort to “come out” in favor of scaling back the war on drugs as we can. Beating him up over how long it took him is counter-productive even if correct.

[jasno]

Yeah but we’re great at counter-productivity. You must be new here.

[PapayaSF]

+1

[The DerpRider]

Your words sound strange and frighten me.

[Sudden]

You mean faggy with shit all retarded right?

[General Butt Naked]

I’ve already cancelled my subscription to Jesse’s newsletter.

[jesse.in.mb]

Damn it! Something something fleet-footed (dot) Indian physicians! Please come back…

*runs out of room sobbing*

[T]

Man up, nancy.

[Brett L]

I said “M” as in “Mancy”! Jeez, you of all people…

[jasno]

Is it paranoid of me to think that we’ll soon see the administration coming around on marijuana just in time to win back the youth vote in the wake of the NSA spying scandals?

[Almanian!]

no

[C. Anacreon]

Seemed to work for Obama with gay marriage…

[Brett L]

Obama, in nod to hipsters awards ironic Medal of Freedom to Woodward and Bernstein’s editor.

[A Serious Man]

Upon presenting the medal, the president laughed and said ‘Nowadays I’d have all of your asses in solitary.’

[Brett L]

This is interesting. Lavabit leaves cryptic goodbye, is suing the US government to be able to tell more.

[SweatingGin]

You beat me to it. For anyone else uninitiated, this was likely an email provider Snowden was using.

I didn’t see it as too cryptic. I saw it as “FedGov said tap this/give up this data/etc. and I said FY and walked”.

That might even mean they sent him an NSL, since he said he couldn’t talk about it.

[paranoid android]

That’s very strange, because Edward Snowden disclosed that he used lavabit for email communications, and invited journalists and lawyers to speak with him using lavabit about five or six weeks ago, which is the same amount of time that Levison claims he’s been tangling with the government.

What a crazy coincidence, huh?

[db]

Never heard of lavabit before. What is/was it?

[Thane of Whiterun]

An encrypted email service

[Thane of Whiterun]

The feds probably wanted a backdoor, like HushMail gave the Canadians.

I actually signed up recently, but I only used the address one place. Guess it’s a good thing I hadn’t gotten around to transitioning.

[Irish]

This is disgusting. Study finds that women commit physical violence in a relationship almost as much as boys, comment section results in women calling this ‘misogynistic whining’ and saying the boys ‘should have fought back.’

Here’s a good one:

Claire Simardcommented 7 days ago

#22
comment author avatar
Oh please, you really had to go a stretch to use name calling as a form of violence compared to rape, child molestation, seriel killers – all males, and this article is written by a male.

This woman clearly didn’t read the article, since it actually says the rates of physical violence is relatively close. I guess those guys just shouldn’t have dressed so slutty.

[Irish]

Note: Other criticisms of the study such as this one:

Abbie-2476749commented 7 days ago

#27
comment author avatar
It’s a “study” based on self-reported behavior from 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. The oldest made it to their junior years in high school by the time this “study” was concluded. What does this study want to prove? That people under the ages of 18 are immature and say mean things?

are totally valid. The study has massive methodological flaws. It’s just that many of the comments seem to think men should never complain about actual physical violence being done to them.

[Ted S.]

Of course, the same people will use self-reported statistics about people who “feel” “cyber-bullied” to call for a raft of anti-free-speech legislation.

[Brett L]

Oh, right. No woman is ever involved in child molestation.

[Michael S. Langston]

Not just that – but from recent news I think you could say the mantle of child molestation has moved from male clergy to female teachers.

[Almanian!]

Yeah, I love the butthurt. And it’s true. Cause most guys (THAT I’M AWARE OF, SO REALIZE IT’S LIMITED SAMPLE) are taught at and early age not to hit girls. But it’s OK for girls to hit you, cause they’re weak little girls.

MALE GAZE. PATERNONAZIISM!

[Apatheist ?_??]

In my observation abusive relationships are often two-way.

[Rasilio]

As a male of the species there is nothing a woman can do to get me to hit her (except beg nicely but that is something else entirely) because I know that regardless of the facts of the case the instant I lay a hand on her I am going to jail for it.

[Irish]

Hell, feminists were complaining recently when a woman went into a house and fired a gun into a wall near her husband.

Apparently women should be allowed to wildly fire a gun into the air without consequences during a domestic dispute.

[Ted S.]

As a male of the species there is nothing a woman can do to get me to hit her (except beg nicely but that is something else entirely)

What about paying for it? 😉

As long as you honor the safe word, of course.

[Enough About Palin]

While still married, I told my ex-wife that I could understand how some guys could get so frustrated that they might hit their spouse (the only woman I ever hit was my mother, back when I was three, and she slapped the sit out of me). She urged me to hit her. I suspect if I had, she’d have had me arrested. Threw the bitch out. That was 14 years ago. Smartest move I’ve ever made.

[CE]

Except that men can’t fight back.

[Azathoth!!]

But it’s not ‘relatively close’

More girls ? 43 percent ? than boys ? 28 percent ? reported committing an act of physical dating violence

That’s a 15 point difference.

And it is the direction opposite the one the article insinuates.

Girls don’t commit physical dating violence almost as much as boys–they are almost 1.5 times more likely to commit physical dating violence THAN boys.

Big difference.

[Almanian!]

MATT DAMON!

[Hugh Akston]

Jeb Bush has criticized Matt Damon for sending his kids to private school.

I found actual video of this happening.

[Almanian!]

South Park’s best scene ever!

“CRIPPLE FIGHT!!!”

[Hugh Akston]

Hey Al, thanks for ruining my joke. This is why I stay the hell out AM/PM Links threads. Well, that and nicole.

[Almanian!]

HAHAHA! PWND!

[A Serious Man]

Feminist writer is A-Okay with Eliot Spitzer

When women have access to reproductive healthcare, when they are supported in the workplace, when they can enjoy a dignified retirement, when they are protected from Wall Street predators, when they are economically secure, everyone wins.

Enter a candidate for New York City Comptroller who has an outstanding record on all of these issues. One who has shown an unmatched enthusiasm for challenging Wall Street abuses that disproportionately impact women, one who has championed women’s workplace rights and access to healthcare ? and one who even publicly calls himself a feminist.

Incredibly, some women, like NOW New York president Sonia Ossorio, have chosen to actually team up with business leaders to spend $1.5 million to skew the election and defeat Eliot Spitzer in his bid for office. Is Ossorio representing the National Organization for Women, or the National Organization for Wall Street? In a fit of apparent amnesia, Sasha Ahuja of Planned Parenthood’s New York City Action Fund dissed Spitzer by saying she’s backing Scott Stringer because she wants “candidates that don’t just give a nod to women’s issues.” Huh? Spitzer has given far more than a nod to women’s issues? in fact, he has been a vigorous defender of Ahuja’s own group.

[Almanian!]

Jesus Chr…what the FUCK? Holy shit.

Wow

[Brett L]

5 Things Women Should Know About Eliot Spitzer:
1. He cheated on his wife
2. With a prostitute
3. Then as a prosecutor went after Johns
4. And prostitutes
5. Which makes him a total feminist

[Sudden]

Even feminists, whether they care to admit it or not, all get the tingles for the man that “hits me because he loves me”. It is their nature to be subserviant to the man unashamed to be a fucking man.

[Lady Bertrum]

Yeah, no. It’s not in our nature, whether feminist or not, to be subservient.(I’m damned bossy). And, a man who hits isn’t “unashamed to be a fucking man”. He’s a dick.

[Sudden]

I didn’t mean literal violence (as that’s not what spitzer did). And yes, you may be bossy and think you want to reform your man, but the second he starts complying and doing what you ask, you’ll cease to be as attracted to him and consider him weaker for his compliance.

[Lady Bertrum]

You seriously need to stop visiting those pick-up artist sites. (walking away)

[Sudden]

Sorry darlin, my views are shaped by reality observed and experienced, not one dictated to me by others.

[Episiarch]

Uh, dude, if you arbitrarily ordered your girlfriend around and she meekly complied, would’t you lose respect for her?

This whole “subservient to a man unashamed to be a man” is absurd. Jesus Christ.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Men who hit women are giant pussies not real men.

[General Butt Naked]

Once when going across country with my buddy we stopped in a dive bar in the middle of nowhere Ohio. We were drinking peaceably and this couple were drunk and violently arguing.

The dude was a tiny mexican (five-three, maybe 120lb) and his lady was huge (six foot, 300 lb). Well, they took their little war to the parking lot and had an actual fight. She started pushing him and he retaliated by wailing on her. He looked like Sugar ray leonard out there. It was a really good fight.

Everybody in the bar had their noses pushed up against the window to watch. Then the police came and everyone returned to their seats.

I don’t know if I’d call that dude a pussy. Had he not known how to fight she could have probably pummeled him.

[tarran]

One thing that I absolutely love…

You will never find a more sociopathic hatchetman on behalf of the Wall Street establishment than Spitzer. All the firms he went after, all the guys like Boesky, where guys that were threatening the Wall St establishment’s business model and rents related to investing.

She’s probably one of those incredibly uneducated, clueless, intellectual yokels who thinks Obama ended Bush’s fascistic policies too.

[Almanian!]

Spitzer was utterly sociopathic with Wall Street. I first started hating him when he was shaking them down as prosecutor.

What a tool.

[Gladstone]

I recall Bill Maher saying that we need Spitzer to keep Wall Street under control.

[tarran]

Well, Maher *is* one of those uneducated clueless intellectual yokels.

His looks have taken him as far as they can, and his intellect is not going to be able to take up the slack. His downward arc will be awkward to watch.

[Warrren]

Ageist! Lookist!

[#]

Remember, it’s the feminist hierarchy. Just as was the case with Bill Clinton, as long as you support abortion, you can abuse women all you want.

[PapayaSF]

And look at Filner, who had a long rep for harassing women (including survivors of sexual abuse, because they are less likely to report it), but until recently was supported and protected by Pelosi et al, because he was a co-founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

[Raven Nation]

Is it a big deal that Spitzer used call girls? There seem to be almost an infinite number of other reasons to vote against him.

[Brett L]

No, but it should probably disqualify him from being called a feminist as the standard line among NY feminists is that female sex workers are universally exploited.

[PapayaSF]

^This.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

He was just doing research to prove how right they are.

[Ted S.]

What drives me nuts is that it’s the sex stuff that makes people think Spitzer is unfit for office.

[Generic Stranger]

I’d say it wasn’t the sex stuff and more the hypocrisy of using prostitutes while doggedly going after other prostitutes and johns.

[JW]

Feminist writer is A-Okay with Eliot Spitzer

Shorter Feminist writer: Just lie back and enjoy it.

[Atanarjuat]

Just lie back and think of abortion?

[Enough About Palin]

Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner has uncovered a fascinating document: an 80-page “talking points” monograph titled “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging,” written by a trio of Democratic political operatives.

The document, as Bedard writes, instructs politicians and advocates “to hype high-profile gun incidents like the Florida slaying of Trayvon Martin to win support for new gun control laws.” Essentially it’s a how-to book on inciting a moral panic.
“The most powerful time to communicate is when concern and emotions are running at their peak,” it advises. Antigun advocates are urged to seize opportunistically on horrific crimes: “The debate over gun violence in America is periodically punctuated by high-profile gun violence incidents including Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tucson, the Trayvon Martin killing, Aurora, and Oak Creek. When an incident such as these attracts sustained media attention, it creates a unique climate for our communications efforts.”
The booklet explicitly urges foes of the Second Amendment to abjure rationality in favor of the argumentum ad passiones, or appeal to emotion. “When talking to broader audiences, we want to meet them where they are,” the authors advise. “That means emphasizing emotion over policy prescriptions, keeping our facts and our case simple and direct, and avoiding arguments that leave people thinking they don’t know enough about the topic to weigh in.”

[Enough About Palin]

http://online.wsj.com/article/…..TopOpinion

[Almanian!]

Wow. I never would have guessed this from the tactics employed by supporters of stronger gun-control legislation since forever.

[Irish]

“That means emphasizing emotion over policy prescriptions, keeping our facts and our case simple and direct, and avoiding arguments that leave people thinking they don’t know enough about the topic to weigh in.“

Remember: Liberalism is TOTALLY NOT an anti-intellectual cult of unthinking children who fly into tantrums at the slightest provocation.

Totally not.

[PapayaSF]

+1

[Pro Libertate]

For the record, Florida did not slay Trayvon Martin.

[jesse.in.mb]

That’s patently ridiculous ProL, the ambient racial zeitgeist of Florida pulled Zimmerman’s trigger as much as Zimmerman pulled the gun’s trigger. Florida is the real killer here.

[Almanian!]

We are all Florida

[Sudden]

I thought guns pull their own triggers?

[A Serious Man]

Florida is shaped like a gun, although this happened in eastern Florida and Tampa Bay is the trigger.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, that’s problematic.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

The bloody shirt isn’t going to wave itself.

[Suthenboy]

Why oh why is the democratic party so anti-gun?

“We agree with Mao that power comes from the barrel of a gun.”

Must have been an evil republican who said that, wanting to take power away from the people.

[Mercutio]

“We agree with Mao that power comes from the barrel of a gun.”

Yes, and they want to be the only ones who have that power.

[CE]

How is a shooting in self defense similar to a rampage where a psychopath guns down dozens of innocent victims? I don’t get it.

[Michael S. Langston]

I think that’s the point – the only connection was firearm(s) were used. The attempt is to make every use of a firearm, even self defense, seem evil/crazy.

Then, all gun owners by definition become people who have a device that is only used in evil/crazy ways.

Just as some on that side attempted to make morally equivalent deaths in 9/11 & deaths in Afghanistan.

[Brett L]

The gf and I have been sharing sexually themed jokes about this all day:

It’s a Wednesday afternoon, and Kamakshi Zeidler, a 34-year-old plastic surgeon in Los Gatos, California, is explaining how to fill up a “love tank.”

We’re still torn on whether her love tank was filled too high in March, or whether it wont be full until early December.

[db]

I thought it was a rejected Aaron Spelling series from the ’70s.

[Pro Libertate]

What’s a love tank? Is that like an orgasmatron?

[tarran]

Yes….

It’s for when you want to have sex, but don’t have enough people.

[Eduard van Haalen]

You mean, like, only one?

[tarran]

No, eight I think.

[db]

It’s a little old place where we can swim together.

[mr simple]

+glitter on the flotation device

[JW]

I was going to go with “tin roof…rusted!”, but yours works too.

[Ted S.]

We’re still torn on whether her love tank was filled too high in March, or whether it wont be full until early December.

I assume you’re saying you knocked her up? Congratulations! Nine minutes of passion for you; nine months of work for her.

[Sudden]

18 years of hell for both!

[Enough About Palin]

A minimum of 18 years of hell for both!

[Atanarjuat]

Plus a few months of sweet, sweet pregnancy sex. (Seriously, it’s the bees knees).

[A Serious Man]

Watch this female professional surfer, Anastasia Ashley, warm up before heading into the water

You’re all welcome.

[DJF]

I’ll be in my bunk.

[DJF]

I wonder if she has a stripper pole attached to her surf board?

[Brett L]

Mmmm. Young and in shape.

[db]

“The owner of this content has not made this video available on mobile.”

Sad.

[Sidd Finch]

I’m more interested in the tall blonde at 0:35 giving her the stink eye.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

$100 says that “warmup routine” was designed specifically to try to gin up the kind of publicity that Jenneke got.

[General Butt Naked]

Yeah, do female athletes take some gif producing warm-up routine class, or something?

[MJGreen]

Definitely.

[DesigNate]

I love the blonde that looks over at her in disgust and then shakes her head as she walks towards the water.

[A Serious Man]

What I learned from trying out for Playboy

I arrived in a leotard, as I’d been instructed, and layers of pancake make up. A woman in the lobby directed me to an upper floor suite, where I met a small man with a few small dogs…Then he asked me why I wanted to be in Playboy.

Clearly I couldn’t announce that I was here to perform hard-hitting undercover reportage. Instead I mumbled something about “owning my sexuality” and “finding myself,” which were phrases I’d never used before and haven’t used since.
[…]
I don’t remember Playboy ever calling to reject me personally, but I do remember seeing the issue a few months later and feeling relieved I wasn’t in it. All those girls in unzipped varsity jackets, nipples peeking out, holding strategically placed college banners; even if I wasn’t sure who I was, I knew this was definitely who I wasn’t.

Besides, I’d written a funny article about the experience and had become, for a few glorious moments, a hero among the campus leftists. Which gave me the confidence to keep trying new things and writing about them. I wrote about the doughnut selection in the college cafeteria, about a new band I’d fallen in love with, about my junior year abroad in France. I even wrote about the dead white male situation, which I’d decided, heretically, wasn’t really too bad

What does that last part even mean?

[Eduard van Haalen]

“I wrote about the doughnut selection in the college cafeteria”

So why wasn’t Playboy interested in her?

Alternate joke: Maybe she should try the police academy.

[Sidd Finch]

Isn’t there a ‘tard whisperer among the commentariat?

[Brett L]

Its really okay that dead, white males invented everything. Except frequency jumping circuits used in homing torpedoes and cell phones. Which was invented by a hot woman.

[jesse.in.mb]

Why wouldn’t you post a picture?

This woman should be used as a STEM degree recruiting tool.

[tarran]

Which was invented by a hot woman.

But not by this guy.

[General Butt Naked]

I always thought it was this guy.

[tarran]

Curse your nimble fingers, General! Curse them to hell!

[General Butt Naked]

It’s the immediate reaction my mind makes to reading about Hedey. That movies just pops into my dang head.

[tarran]

Same here. 🙂

[Apatheist ?_??]

She wasn’t even Girls of the Ivy League material, that’s why she was rejected.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

She wrote something about how it wasn’t so bad that the only important people we study are dead white males, presumably.

[Raven Nation]

“What does that last part even mean?”

Guessing: standard leftist campus critique is that too much higher education focuses on dead white males (e.g. Jefferson, Locke, etc. etc.). Based on what she writes, the campus she was on was still teaching too much of this but she thought the situation was that bad which would make her a heretic to the other leftists.

[jesse.in.mb]

My favorite is when we try to democratize the Western canon with things like I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala and it turns out to be a historiographical nightmare.

Her book is full of truth even if it’s mostly not true!

[Eduard van Haalen]

full of *something.*

[jesse.in.mb]

Hmm that should’ve ended with a /sarc tag in case there was confusion.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I got it.

[General Butt Naked]

I’d joined the socialist-leaning college newspaper because I was too intimidated to join the Spectator, Columbia’s venerable daily; there, at least, I’d found a community that didn’t judge me for being an insecure, acne-covered Pizza Hut enthusiast.

I am sooo shocked by this. The red of a Che shirt goes so well with a pockmarked face, I guess.

[Enough About Palin]

I saw a kid on the bus a few weeks ago wearing the iconic Che t-shirt. But after a closer look, Che himself was wearing the iconic Che t-shirt. never saw that before. Kinda funny.

[General Butt Naked]

I’ve seen a few wearing them on campus, and they were always those weird, awkward, shooting-spree types.

[jesse.in.mb]

A friend of mine saw this shirt and thought it was hysterical.

I was making eyes at a guy across a bar and went over to chat him up, but noticed he had Che faces on his shoes and I turned around and went back to my drink.

[General Butt Naked]

Maybe he had che on his shoes so that he could walk on him all day, and to mitigate stepping in dog shit.

You might have really missed out there.

[JW]

he had Che faces on his shoes

Is that some sort of code? If not, you need to be hanging out with a better class of poofs.

[Warrren]

Perhaps it was a spoof. A poof’s spoof.

[Brandon]

*Slow clap*

[jesse.in.mb]

You might have really missed out there.

Che was on the tops of the shoes cushy and safe from the elements. I probably should’ve given him a chance though. I like Soviet kitsch because it reminds me just how great capitalism is compared to communism: I can buy propaganda items from our greatest existential threat, mass-produced and next day delivered.

you need to be hanging out with a better class of poofs.

Straight dive bar a few blocks from my house. As far as I can tell we were the only poofs there.

[General Butt Naked]

You’ve got to be absolutely loaded down with decoder rings by now.

Libertarian, gaydar, white male privilege. Can you combine these into some super decoder ring to rule them all?

[Warrren]

He can just buy one from Sauronco.

[jesse.in.mb]

The beauty of white male privilege is that I never have to think about it.

I usually just yell something about how much I hate ag subsidies and see if anyone perks up to see if libertarians are around.

The gay stuff keeps getting harder as hipsters start re-appropriating stuff (straight guys walking around with bandannas hanging out their pockets are particularly entertaining). I honestly can’t tell the difference between a hipster appreciating my beard and a gay guy making eyes at me across the bar until a few minutes into a conversation with them.

[General Butt Naked]

Around here the hipsters have appropriated much of the white trash look.

As in, is that dude with a mullet and a stained budweiser shirt a yinzer or a trust funder?

[jesse.in.mb]

We had that sort in Whittier when I was there for college with incredibly expensive pants sitting on the corner, smelling terrible and begging for change to buy some more pabst. We called them Townies. It was a bit before hipster became a thing.

/GET OFF MY LAWN!

[Warrren]

You’ll have to get your lawn of yourself, I don’t want to catch crabgrass.

[General Butt Naked]

We have those too, we call them faux gutter punks. The hipsters I’m talking about don’t have dreads or stink they just wear beat up nut huggers and beer shirts. This coupled with ’80s doos makes them look like trashy p-burghers.

It’s funny, all the spanging gutter kids buy beer from a place my buddy works. Half of them have credit cards and most of them are from the nicer areas of pittsburgh. Fucking kids.

[Tejicano]

Yeah, I bought a Russian Makarov once simply because 1) it was cheap, 2) I was buying 3 other guns at the time, and 3) it was what I think of as my war trophy from the Cold War.

I served four years in the Marine Infantry in the 1970’s so I figured I did some part in holding back international communism. Since we defeated them economically it seemed appropriate that I pick up my war trophy in US Dollars.

[Invisible Finger]

What does that last part even mean?

Salon is racist and sexist?

[Sidd Finch]

http://www.insidehighered.com/…..university

It may have taken Miller less than a minute to write out this message and hit the “Tweet” button: “Dear obese Ph.D. applicants: if you didn’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation #truth.” But the consequences of that tweet will last much longer….

Bringing training to the entire university is an important step, said Sondra Solovay, who is the director of an company that trains higher education clients in harassment and discrimination prevention and who is also a law professor at San Francisco Law School.

However, she noted that “obesity” is a word that may create stigma. Faculty members need to think about weight as a “diversity issue,” she said. Solovay hopes the university takes training a step further by incorporating weight-related stigma training into its other diversity or harassment prevention training programs.

[DJF]

That’s all well and good but what happens when the fatty PHD students eat all the donuts in the faculty dinning room and leave an empty box!!!!!!!

[Brett L]

There were no fat PhD candidates in the Chem E department. No food in the lab and no leaving the lab saw to that.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

If obesity is a diversity issue, can kids just spend all of high school cramming carbs to get into competitive schools?

[Sidd Finch]

Obesity is more Asian diverse than black diverse, so no.

[PapayaSF]

Thoughtcrime!

[In Time Of War]

He’s a psychology professor, so he’s obviously unaware that 99% of the technology he uses every day was created by fat, bearded guys in casual clothes.

[In Time Of War]

Oh, if only England had had a thin, disciplined guy in charge during WW2, they never would have been conquered by the Germans…

[CE]

Nope. The obese are not a federally protected class, so you can say whatever you want about them.

[Jam]

This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

Sincerely,
Ladar Levison
Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC
http://boingboing.net/2013/08/…..owden.html

[OldMexican]

Two more women have accused San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment.

I was sexually harassed by Major Bob Filner! His creepy smile was clearly undressing me, from a distance!

Where do I sign for the lawsuit?

[DJF]

I wasn’t sexually harassed by Mayor Bob Filner, I feel othered.

Where do I sign up for the lawsuit?

[Eduard van Haalen]

You’re in luck – as it happens, they’re only signing up Women who *weren’t* harassed by Filner, so the list can be manageable.

[Almanian!]

I keep reading about people who were sexually harassed by Bob Filner, and it’s rendered me unable to work from the rage and stress.

Where do I sign up for the lawsuit.

[paranoid android]

I saw a picture of Bob Filner and lost all desire to ever have sex again, am I eligible?

[jesse.in.mb]

Actually that’s not a bad idea. Last time I was down in San Diego to visit a friend all of his female friends were swapping their leered at by Bob Filner stories. It seems like every woman in SD was sexually harassed.

[The DerpRider]

Frankenfish caught in Virginia.

Three feet long and 17 pounds. Link with video!

[A Serious Man]

Study: 1 in 3 women use coitus interruptus as primary birth control method

Sandra Fluke was right! We need free birth control.

[Apatheist ?_??]

31% had used it at least once and I’m not sure if it specifies if all of those 31% used it as the only form of birth control rather than a secondary one.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Misleading link text alert…it’s only women ages 15 to 24, and they only had to have used it once, not as their primary method.

[Apatheist ?_??]

What’s the fun in statistics if you can’t manipulate them!

[A Serious Man]

You’re right, correction noted.

[A Serious Man]

This is why we need an EDIT BUTTON!

[Faceless Commenter]

Libertarians don’t get edit buttons. You have to let it all hang out and then post a correction.

[Sudden]

.it’s only women ages 15 to 24, and they only had to have used it once

Women 15-24 are the ones that don’t wanna have a kid, so it makes sense they actually use BC, even shitty methods. And if they used it once, that means they’ve used it multiple times. Women aged 30 want some fly by night asshole to impregnate them, at which point they spend a hour each day on match.com trying to find some loser to be the cuckold father and provider.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Bitter much?

[Sudden]

Nah.

Certainly a jaded former romantic post divorce. But not bitter, just a little more in tune with reality. And in the immediate aftermath of my divorce, I looked into the internet dating stuff, and sure as hell, there are a ton of never married single moms that list as their qualifications for a man 6’2″ althetic and toned, with at least $100k income, etc. There is such an entitlement mentality to these princesses. That’s when I stopped the match.com thing. I’m not bitter because I became the fly by night asshole (but one who insists on using condoms because I dont wanna be on the hook for child support, which most women actually won’t insist on). I just got sick of all these mediocre at best women (some flat out trashy and fat with tattoos galore) thinking that I would be interested in playing daddy to their bastard spawn and degrade myself into being with a woman nowhere near my value.

[Brett L]

“Its a trap!”

[widget]

From the article:

The investigators found that 31 percent of the women used withdrawal as a form of birth control at least once.

I’m so confused by that sentence I don’t where to begin.

[jesse.in.mb]

They probably just mean screaming “You’d better not cum in me I’M NOT ON THE PILL” right as the guy is about to go over the falls.

[Ted S.]

So cum on them instead. I hope they like facials. 🙂

[db]

I thought jesse already covered that?

[Tejicano]

I see what you did there…

[jesse.in.mb]

Can’t we all just agree to bust a nut on the small of someone’s back?

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

The other guys here might be interested in the front, jesse.

[DesigNate]

No, jesse has it right no matter your preferences.

[jesse.in.mb]

Somewhat appropriate NSFW webcomic

Read to page 4 to see why it’s somewhat appropriate.

It should be noted that I have nothing against facials, just don’t be shooting it in anyone’s eye. Unless, as I told Irish, you’re not in CODIS and you’ve can outrun someone.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

just don’t be shooting it in anyone’s eye

The government never makes the truly important PSAs.

[jesse.in.mb]

Exactly! This should show regularly during afterschool cartoons and specials.

[BigT]

Superman that ho!!

[Sudden]

And with some strange man they met that night too.

[db]

It’s shit like that that make all my sexy dreams end in some variation of “you didn’t bring a condom? Dammit. Well, see you tomorrow.”

Yes, I fail at wet dreams.

[Tejicano]

That was a common DI retort when noting some recruit who couldn’t get some task done correctly –

“Williams, you dumb shit! You’d screw up a wet dream!”

[mr simple]

Subhead: But new study confirms that it’s not good for preventing pregnancy

What? This is shocking news and an incredible medical breakthrough! It’s a good thing someone finally discovered this.

[The DerpRider]

Pit bull bites off man’s tongue. He survived so no Darwin nomination.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Still not clicking that. Nope.

[The DerpRider]

No photos. Not even of the dog.

“The dog bit off a substantial portion of the man’s tongue and ate it, according to authorities. The bit-off portion was not recovered and believed swallowed by the dog.”

[Eduard van Haalen]

“not recovered and believed swallowed by the dog”

Let’s not go out on a limb like that.

[Almanian!]

STOP! THIEF!

[Mad Scientist]

THOP! THIEF!

[Almanian!]

before/after

[Tejicano]

Something about “dumb enough to French kiss a pit bull” comes to mind.

[A Serious Man]

He’s painfully stupid, but there is something amusing about Michael Lind’s obsession with Ayn Rand

Rand’s conceited Nietzschean elitism was shared by another libertarian hero, Ludwig von Mises, who wrote to Rand: “You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told them: you are inferior and all the improvements in your conditions which you simply take for granted you owe to the efforts of men who are better than you.” (Hayek later confessed that he was defeated by “Atlas Shrugged”: “Although I tried seriously to read the book, I failed, because there was no romance in it. I tried even more diligently to read that fellow John Galt’s hundred-page declaration of independence, and I knew I’d be questioned on all that, but I just couldn’t get through it.”)

The mentality of Ayn Rand, as described by Chambers back in 1957 in the pages of the leading conservative magazine, is remarkably similar to the mentality of the Tea Party right that seeks to sabotage government (as Rand’s heroes sabotage the economy), no matter the consequences for the nation…

Yeah, how dare anyone question their duty to submit to society’s whims? Anyway, point being he’s just quoting conservative and left-wing icons of the mid 20th century to ‘prove’ his point that Rand is bunk. He, of course, can’t be bothered to read anything by her.

[Apatheist ?_??]

(as Rand’s heroes sabotage the economy)

I’ve seen this or similar (“burned down the country”) a lot but it is not what fucking happened. They stopped propping up a country that was sabotaging itself.

It’s just another form of “not taking is giving”.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I mean it’s in the title of the book for fucks sake.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

I’ve never been under the impression they understood the title.

[widget]

I didn’t finish reading Atlas Shrugged either. I got stuck on the engine that burns air. Rand and science didn’t mix well. I do like her essays and the novella Anthem though. I also like most of Gore Vidal’s writings. They are both iconoclasts. What’s wrong with me?

[Faceless Commenter]

Ayn Rand is not safe with English majors either.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rand’s conceited Nietzschean elitism

Slow down there, cowboy. Nietzsche opposed democracy in total because he saw it as an artificial means of enforcing equality on people of unequal abilities. Rand wrote that democracy should be subordinate to the rights of the people.

About the only things Rand and Nietzsche agree on are atheism and socialism (atheism good, socialism bad).

Ludwig von Mises, who wrote to Rand: “You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told them: you are inferior and all the improvements in your conditions which you simply take for granted you owe to the efforts of men who are better than you.”

Did I fall asleep and wake up in an America full of Einsteins, Oppenheimers, Hawkings, Marconis, Benzes, and other titans of science and engineering? If not, then I fail to see what is so controversial about that statement.

The mentality of Ayn Rand, as described by Chambers back in 1957 in the pages of the leading conservative magazine, is remarkably similar to the mentality of the Tea Party right that seeks to sabotage government (as Rand’s heroes sabotage the economy), no matter the consequences for the nation…

FatherGovernment Knows Best.

[widget]

The mentality of Ayn Rand, as described by Chambers back in 1957 in the pages of the leading conservative magazine

http://www.nationalreview.com/…../flashback

What, it’s my job now to add links?

[Gladstone]

Pike is the best Captain. He was Jesus and in the Searchers. Take that! Though being Jesus I guess that means that The Menagerie didn’t exist.

[A Serious Man]

He would have preached to the green skinned Orion girls rather than bed them.

[Gladstone]

Except there were no actual Orion girls in that episode, only one and that was imaginary. /pedant

[Almanian!]

I heard she was under 18

/pedo

[Mickey Rat]

Apparently, the actress was quite a renaissance woman, but she is most remembered for is a few minutes of screen time as a green-skinned stripper.

[Rasilio]

No way, the only real military captain ever shown in the entire Star Trek Universe lasted about 3 episodes and that was Captain Jellico

[Gladstone]

Well originally Starfleet was not supposed to be military and everyone was supposed to have equal ranks.

And I like Jellico better when he played Dueling Banjos. And his military prowess didn’t prevent him from getting shot, getting a decisive victory at Jutland or not colliding with the Camperdown.

[CE]

If everyone has equal rank, no one has any rank.

[A Serious Man]

I recall LaForge whining that Jellico was making his people work too hard. How the heck did the Federation ever win the Dominion War when their officers acted like that under pressure?

[Gladstone]

Funny that Federation officers weren’t supposed to disagree on anything.

[A Serious Man]

There’s disagreeing and then there’s deliberately acting to undercut the captain’s authority by bitching to Riker.

[Gladstone]

Oh I can see why Epi is opposed to the NSA. I mean his grandfather did write the bordereau after all.

[PapayaSF]

Drone delivers beer at South African music festival. See, drones aren’t all bad.

[Almanian!]

IT’S A TRICK!

Just getting the populace used to them – like luring deer into your back yard with a salt lick so you can shoot them from your patio at a later date.

[Michael S. Langston]

They’re just training people – like that dog that salivated at the bell…. they’ll keep sending drones dropping beer and when they need to kill some people, they’ll send drones dropping beer shaped explosives.

[Some call me Tim?]

So this is making the FaceBook rounds today:

This fast food wage issue isn’t so much about wanting more money as it is about an entire of group of people being devalued.

http://you-monsters-are-people…..igh-horse/

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Why is it that “we” are the ones who supposedly think the amount of money you make defines your value, but it’s always “the other side” who actually acts like that’s true?

[Episiarch]

Duh, nicole. Projection. It’s always projection.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

You ain’t kidding.

The more I read about this, the more it just feels like everyone hates the idea of someone doing better than they are, which makes human nature seem pretty lame.

[Enough About Palin]

Yup.

[Zeb]

Good god. What you get paid to work is not about your value as a person. It is about the value that your labor provides to your employer.

[Invisible Finger]

The self-esteem movement basically killed any economics instruction in high schools.

[Enough About Palin]

It’s very Marxist to conflate work with self.

[Zeb]

Which I suppose is also why they think that “society” as a whole (i.e. the state) owns all of your potential labor too.

[Mickey Rat]

It is the value of person’s work that is being judged by pay rates, not the person. Leftist thinking is really strange.

[Episiarch]

You guys, it’s projection again. They project their own worth onto what an employer offers them financially, because like nicole says above, they can’t separate “worth as a person” from “worth of your labor”.

It’s always projection.

[mr simple]

Wow, so much ignorant tripe followed by the proclaiming themselves intellectuals. This has to be a blog of college freshman.

[mr simple]

This has to be the dumbest thing I’ve read today:

Christopher says:
What I can never figure out is how anyone is surprised when people are upset that they don’t make enough to feed their families. Lots of people work in lots of different jobs for different reasons. Why they’re there shouldn’t matter. What matters is that they’re treated with respect and paid enough to live on. That’s it.

[JW]

If you want my take (and if you’ve read this far you probably do)

I read that far because I couldn’t figure out just what the fuck his point was, other than a long rambling word salad with vague hand-waving dressing.

[PapayaSF]

I love it that the guy links to an Atlantic article about how Australian McDonalds pay higher wages, but doesn’t mention the their lower-than-minimum teen wage, higher prices, and more automation.

[CE]

So jack up the fast food wage to 30 bucks an hour, and all the fast food joints will switch to vending machines, and there won’t be anyone in that group to be devalued.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I commented over there…

Let’s see if it survives moderation. (If, by some miracle, it does, guess who I am!)

[Thane of Whiterun]

It has been a very #HOLOYOLO week for me. I might have to revert my handle to celebrate.

[jesse.in.mb]

Nexus 7?

[Thane of Whiterun]

Yes, the new one

AOSP AOSP AOSP

[Zeb]

I have no idea what any of that means.

[Thane of Whiterun]

It’s /r/androidcirclejerk material

Holo is the name of the theme/look that Google officially endorses for Android and then OEMs replace with their terrible skins.

AOSP stands for Android Open Source Project; if you refer to a build of Android as “AOSP” it implies that it is close to vanilla Android without any OEM or carrier modifications, because for most parts of Android, the OEMs can keep their modified versions closed-source (and they do).

Google uses the “Nexus” brand for devices it produces in concert with OEMs (LG for the Nexus 4, Asus for both versions of the Nexus 7, Samsung for the Nexus 10) as exemplars for what Google thinks an Android device should be like. Hence they have AOSP* (aka vanilla Android) on them with Holo theming.

Anyway, most Android fanboys despise the OEMs’ custom versions of Android, especially because of their custom, non-Holo theming.

So #HOLOYOLO (Holo because You Only Live Once) is a tongue-in-cheek way self-aware Android fanboys (like myself) deprecate themselves and non-self-aware fellow fanboys.

It is weird and random and esoteric. You don’t need to know any of it.

*There are some arcane licensing matters that make it so this is not always true

[PapayaSF]

The main AOSP guy just resigned because the Nexus 7 isn’t as open source as it’s supposed to be.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Yeah, that’s what my note at the bottom is referring to; I decided delving into it would make for information overload.

[Zeb]

Well, I’m not completely uninterested. I like the whole open source thing and use GNU/Linux stuff a lot for work. I’m just not exactly what you would call an early adopter. I’ll give this whole smart phone/tablet thing a few more years to settle down.

[jesse.in.mb]

I’m trying to keep my jealousy in check by constantly reminding myself that I barely use my existing tablet and do not need a shinier one…it’s not as effective as I thought it would be.

[Thane of Whiterun]

BE JEALOUS

I got a Nook HD+ when it got marked down in June and flashed CyanogenMod on it.

The screen was nice but the SoC couldn’t really keep up with the high resolution; I found it too bulky as well.

So I flashed stock back on it and returned it. I looked at some of the various Chinese tablets but it’s hard to get reliable information on which ones are good. So I just decided to wait for the Nexus 7 or Asus MeMO HD.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I really like my Nexus 10.

[jesse.in.mb]

I have the original Kindle Fire (wasn’t sure how much I’d use a tablet so I went simple and cheap). Amazon’s interface is bland, but I like being able to watch Prime videos on it. Apparently the Fire HD is locked down to make it harder to load third party books on it. I’d definitely go Nexus were I to do it all again.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Yeah, I can (or at least could, haven’t tried in a while) watch Amazon videos via Plex, but of course that’s far from ideal.

[jesse.in.mb]

I was miffed when they made an iOS version of their video player but not an android one.

[A Serious Man]

In the Back to the Future movies, several cast members were given make-up to age themselves 30 years. Let’s see how they look today compared to their film counterparts now that’s it been almost 30 years.

Lea Thompson doesn’t look that bad. Biff, on the other hand…

[db]

Leah Thompson. *sigh*

[JW]

Lea Thompson doesn’t look that bad.

She’s not All the Right Moves material any longer, ::sigh:: but I’d happily take her.

[CE]

As if Tom Cruise was a football player.

[Cdr Lytton]

Or a fighter pilot.

[Thane of Whiterun]

Xerox scanners/photocopiers randomly alter numbers in scanned documents

Although it’s not actually “random”

[Warrren]

So maybe Bloody Stupid Johnson wasn’t tottaly at fault.

[PapayaSF]

Seems to be an artifact of the compression algorithm.

[Warrren]

Has anyone pointed out in this minimum wage debate that if a company did decide to pay double the minimum wage that the current employees will face a lot more competition for those jobs and may well lose out and thus go from earning 7.25 to earning nothing?

I can imagine that if Walmart or McDs went to $15-16 (starting) an hour they would get a lot of interest from unexpected parts of the population.

So even if the number of employees stayed the same they would be almost all different people.

[General Butt Naked]

That’s a good point.

If entry level positions at Wal-Mart were $16/hour, I’d be tempted to apply. I could work part-time and have enough time to do the shit I like to do.

[JW]

The concept of productive value is alien to those economic ignoramuses.

[creech]

This. An old college buddy owns several Burger Kings. Last time minimum wage went up, he saw job applications soar from high school kids who had not wanted to work at the lower wage but were now tempted. He found their work ethic, temperament, reliability was so much better than those he already had on board. Within a year, all the old employees had been replaced by new, better quality employees.

[CE]

Sonic Drive-Ins already figured this out. They paid a little over minimum wage and had enthusiastic, friendly employees. But if everyone had to pay the same, the effect would be lost.

[A Serious Man]

Poll: About 40 percent of white Americans and about 25 percent of non-white Americans are surrounded exclusively by friends of their own race

About one third of Americans under the age of 30 who have a partner or spouse are in a relationship with someone of a different race, compared to one tenth of Americans over 30. And only one in 10 adults under 30 say no one among their families, friends or coworkers is of a different race, less than half the rate for Americans as a whole.
[…]
These results were taken from the ongoing Reuters/Ipsos online poll and include the responses of 4,170 Americans between July 24th and August 6th. The credibility interval, a measure of precision, for these results is plus or minus about 2.7 percentage points for a five-day average on any given day during that period. Smaller subsets of the poll, such as blacks, Hispanics and adults under 30, have a credibility interval for that period ranging from about 3 percentage points to 11 percentage points.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I have a diverse body of friends – some of them are from Groton, others from Exeter. Some play polo, some golf.

And I asked Consuela, the housekeeper, if she considers herself a friend, and she said si.

[BigT]

No sailing or riding friends?

Darling, remember to remove EvH from the guest list!

[HazelMeade]

It’s sort of ambiguous whether “Hispanic” is a different race.
There are lots of people who have friends with hispanic last names, and lots of Hispanics for whom being hispanic isn’t much different than Irishness or Italianness for some “whites”.

[HazelMeade]

My guess is in 30 years, “Hispanic” will start to be regarded as more of an ethnicity than a race.
Plus lots of “white” Hispanics will start identifying as ethnically Peruvian/Chilean/Mexican, etc. instead of the broad “Hispanic”.

[Killazontherun]

My uncle Dyton is a leader in the identity movement to get recognition for our decent being differently recognized from nationalist Hispanic ones. He was even the guest of the Juan Carlos I on an official visit representing Isla?os-Americans, so identity politics pays. I got a few gifts out of it courtesy of the Spanish people so I can’t complain.

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

Certainly, my grandfather would have been considered by identity Hispanic, but my dad’s two models in life were Jack Kerouac and Burt Reynolds, he was not self conscious in the least. It’s kind of cool to know that distant ancestors were an offshoot tribe of Berbers who built temples to dogs two thousand years ago, but what does it say about me? Nothing.

[Calidissident]

“It’s kind of cool to know that distant ancestors were an offshoot tribe of Berbers who built temples to dogs two thousand years ago, but what does it say about me? Nothing.”

That you’re genetically coded to hate cops?

[Killazontherun]

That just hit me like a revelation. Makes sense now.

[Calidissident]

The question was phrased “different race or ethnicity” so Hispanic counts. It is an ethnicity and not a race. The reason it’s treated as a race is because most Hispanics are racially mixed to an extent that they have visible non-white ancestry. The one-drop rule might not strictly apply nowadays, but there is still a tendency to label anyone who shows any visible sign of non-white admixture as “non-white” but the same is not true of other races. In addition, Hispanic is a somewhat coherent (and I say this loosely, there are significant cultural differences between and even within different countries in Latin America, but the same is true for all racial and ethnic groups) cultural group, fostering a common identity in a new country

[Tejicano]

One point about the “white Hispanic” issue which I don’t believe to be well understood by many Americans (US-type).

The reason many Mexicans in times past (and still do in many places) grew mustaches was to prove that they did have some European blood and were not pure Indian. They may be as dark skinned and have hair as black as any Indian but the facial hair proves they have European blood – a big distinction in many parts of Mexico.

[Calidissident]

To be fair, the question specifies “close” friends. The meaning of that may vary from person to person and some people have a lot more close friends than others. Some people might just have one or two, if any, who they consider close. There are still a lot of states that are 90% white, or close to it

[CE]

Plus, people lie to pollsters.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Judge Janice Rogers Brown is hiring a reformed bank robber as a law clerk. Another judge – the one who sentenced the robber – says his sentencing instincts “sucked” for failing to predict how much the guy would reform.

http://www.volokh.com/2013/08/…..n-hopwood/

[Pro Libertate]

That should be Justice Janice Rogers Brown.

[Eduard van Haalen]

It should be *President* Brown, followed by Chief Justice Brown. Like Taft, but smaller.

[Pro Libertate]

I’d be fine with her on the Court. Obama should appoint her for diversity purposes [PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE LIBERTARIAN BEHIND THE SCREEN]. Yep, the daughter of Alabama sharecroppers. America needs healing.

[Eduard van Haalen]

And she’s blacker than Obama.

[Killazontherun]

Who isn’t blacker than Obama?

[General Butt Naked]

George Zimmerman.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Elmer Cline, the inventor of Wonder Bread?

[Killazontherun]

Racist.

[widget]

OT: Similar background to Condi Rice. Rice is a neocon, but she had cache. Are their any two people that Obama could have picked out of phone book that would less cache at international affairs, especially with Asia, than Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Heinz?

[Pro Libertate]

Rice is very intelligent, whether we agree with her or not. I don’t think the administration could hire her, due to the ceiling they have on IQs.

[Killazontherun]

She always rang my bells, super smart, talented, lady like demeanor and good looking. She reminds me of a high school classmate of mine who is now a bank branch president. In all my personal fantasies to see the Bush team wiped off the face of the planet, there was always a Condi exception.

[JW]

I used to run in to her occasionally, when I worked at the Watergate, while she was SoS. Nice lady, classy.

[Pro Libertate]

Did you bang her? I’m not asking for me; I’m asking for Killazontherun who apparently has a Rice fetish.

[Killazontherun]

Reminds me, I need to take my Rice pictures off the wall, and hide these wads of tissue paper, as well.

[JW]

My favorite experience was when a group of us was walking over to the local bar and encountered her, with SS agents and entourage, at a narrow choke point between the buildings.

I motioned that that we should hold up until she was out of the tunnel and one of the younger ones with me started whining about “why should we have to wait for her!?” I stood to the side and motioned to be my guest. No takers.

[Faceless Commenter]

Condi is now on the education cause, if her speech from 2012 is still applicable. DAYUM that was a fine speech. She could still do some good in politics.

[Gbob]

Yeah. Going to have yo echo some Coni love here. Brilliant, beautiful and talented. Hell, the story of her support for the 2nd bring based on watching her preacher dad chase off the Klan with a shotgun was pretty damn moving. She loves football, she’s a great musician and speaks a number of languages to boot. If she hadn’t had the courage of her convictions and became a liberal, she would have been worshiped as a goddess by the left.

On the other hand, fuck her foriegn policy views.

[CE]

She kind of sucked at being National Security Advisor though.

[Tejicano]

Yeah, Hillary could not have highlighted the capability gap better with her “reset button” flub.

Hillary could not get a proper translation for it into Russian. Condi is fluent in the language.

Totally outclassed like the Aztecs vs. the Conquistadors.

[A Serious Man]

The best part of President Rand Paul’s first term will be her nomination to replace Ginsburg.

[Pro Libertate]

That would be so awesome. Both of those things.

[PapayaSF]

I keep saying I think it will be Walker/Paul, but nobody listens….

[Pro Libertate]

Walker, Texas Ranger/Paul?

[PapayaSF]

Scott Walker. Governors usually do better as presidents because they have actual experience governing. He managed to stand up to the unions in a fairly lefty state, turn their economy around, and remain pretty popular.

[CE]

You know who else was a governor in a fairly lefty state who stood up to the unions and became fairly popular?

[PapayaSF]

Not one who’s still popular in his own party….

[BiMonSciFiCon]

It will not be Walker. Walker does not have a college degree. Whether that should disqualify him is one thing, but it definitely will.

[PapayaSF]

Meh, I think a lot of voters care more about economic results than credentials, especially after a president with a lot of credentials but with disappointing economic results.

[Killazontherun]

Not a bad call, still early though. Walker is a good bet for the prez slot because he doesn’t offend the delicate sensibilities of the Brooks, formerly Rockefeller, Wall Street wing, while being liked by the Tea Party. He would be a fusion candidate.

[PapayaSF]

There you go.

[Faceless Commenter]

Short Governor candidates don’t do well. Think T-Paw and Mitch Daniels.

[PapayaSF]

I liked Daniels. He might have had a chance, but apparently his wife once ran off with another guy and later returned, and they didn’t want all that dragged through the press.

Scott Walker is supposedly 6′ 3″. Biden is 6′ and Hilary is 5′ 7″.

[CE]

Just don’t leave your lunch money lying around.

[juris imprudent]

Who has the best pizza?

Not Chicago, not even New York. Eat your hearts out bitches!

[Eduard van Haalen]

“But that new delivery guy is older than usual, and his ogling made me uncomfortable.”

[Sudden]

*slow clap*

(not to be confused with THE clap)

[juris imprudent]

Epi got a new job?

[Episiarch]

I can ogle on my own time!

[Pro Libertate]

That’s bullshit. Jarred roasted red peppers? Ha!

[Episiarch]

TripAdvisor polls are like IMDB ratings: they’re fucking retarded.

[Pro Libertate]

I tried to use them on a local restaurant and found their reviews. . .wanting.

[Marc F Cheney]

There?

Look, we can go back and forth about Chicago vs. New York, deep dish vs. thin crust, but one thing we all can agree on is that California pizza isn’t pizza.

[Pro Libertate]

California isn’t California. It was replaced many decades ago with an exact duplicate.

[JW]

You can always tell it’s a replicant by the cities. They just can’t get those quite right.

[Pro Libertate]

I know. I mean, come on, it’s not quite believable, is it?

[PapayaSF]

Nonsense.

[Pro Libertate]

Who is the old guy with a mohawk? Is that some sort of American Indian pizza? What’s it got, buffalo on it?

[PapayaSF]

They are (IIRC) the parents or grandparents of the owner, wearing little party hats.

[Tejicano]

Where do you think tomatoes are from?

[mr simple]

I drove by a place the other day that advertised “Detroit style” pizza. I didn’t know such a thing existed. I think it means you have to make it yourself and it still doesn’t come with everything advertised.

[PapayaSF]

Never heard of such a thing.

[CE]

The vegetables were raised on an an urban farm on an abandoned lot. The pepperoni meat is actually from a possum. And the cheese was found in an abandoned warehouse.

[Michael S. Langston]

What is it?

Delivered by unions, tastes awful, arrives late, uncooked, and a small pizza costs $600.

& by signing the delivery receipt you agree to forfeit all future wages to government pension funds in perpetuity.

[PapayaSF]

I knew there was a pension joke in there somewhere.

[Faceless Commenter]

juris impudent, are you in San Diego?

Because I am, bitchez.

[A Serious Man]

Burglars who robbed a San Bernardino office that helps sex abuse victims return loot with an apology note

The burglar (or burglars) who broke into the offices of the San Bernardino County (Calif.) Sexual Assault Services on July 31 and stole several computers and monitors apparently had a change of heart after finding out that the people at the agency help victims of sexual violence.

The next night, someone returned the stolen goods and also left behind a note, as the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and local news outlets report. The note’s message:

“We had no idea what we were takeing. Here your stuff back. We hope that you guys can continue to make a difference in peoples live. God bless.”

Now they’re off to go rob someone else!

[Eduard van Haalen]

So, the local Tea Party?

[John]

http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/…..d-killings

Holy shit. What comes after crazy sexy?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Um, it’s a middle-aged male cheerleader (“dancer”).

[A Serious Man]

To be fair, the male Dallas Mavericks dancers are intended to be comedic.

[John]

That is a man? I saw Dancer and just assumed that it was a chick. They have male NBA dancers? Really? I had no idea.

Well that makes that story decidedly less fun.

Nevermind.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Middle-aged *ex* cheerleader.

I was fooled the first time I saw the headline. Then I realized IT’S A MAN, BABY!

[Sudden]

They only perform when Jason Collins is starting for the opposing team.

[John]

I assumed “Erbie” was a female name. What the fuck kind of name is Erbie?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Short for Herb?

[Calidissident]

It’s ok John, your secret’s safe with us.

Seriously, though didn’t Dirk Nowtizki, Dallas’s star, have a super crazy ex-fiance? Something in the water down in Dallas?

[CE]

She was from Oklahoma.

[Eduard van Haalen]

So she was from a flat state somewhere in the South, right? Let’s not sweat minor differences.

[PapayaSF]

Interesting that they claim he used a “grenade.” Unusual if true.

[PapayaSF]

RIP Karen Black.

[JW]

Bummer. I always had a soft spot for her, crazy eyes and all.

I learned something new about things named Karen Black today. NSFW.

[Warrren]

Why did I click on that? Jesus Christ it was so shambolic.

[Pro Libertate]

I remember her most from Five Easy Pieces.

[juris imprudent]

Chickenshit – you could’ve linked to Five Easy Pieces, instead of just referencing it.

[Eduard van Haalen]

“An ambulance arrived at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, at about 12:20 p.m. on Wednesday, August 7, and transported a female patient who emerged from the clinic in Mississippi on a gurney. The pale-skinned, brown-haired woman was covered head to toe with a blanket.

“Activists from Pro-Life Mississippi photographed the incident. Those photos and a brief video taken at the scene were provided to Operation Rescue.

“Abortion clinic volunteers aggressively surrounded pro-life activists and attempted to block their cameras with signs as the pro-lifers tried to document the event….

“[abortionist Bruce Elliot] Norman has no hospital privileges in Mississippi or in Alabama….

“Earlier this year, the Mississippi legislature passed a law requiring abortionists to maintain hospital privileges within 30 miles of abortion clinics where they work. That law has been blocked in court after [clinic owner Diane] Derzis challenged the constitutionality of the law…”

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/0…..ign=Buffer

[OldMexican]

“Abortion clinic volunteers aggressively surrounded pro-life activists and attempted to block their cameras with signs as the pro-lifers tried to document the event.

Because being pro-abortion means never having to say “I’m sorry I took your tax money and killed you and your baby.”

[Faceless Commenter]

Because photographing a patient being transported on a gurney to an ambulance is a violation of her privacy, I don’t care what she’d been doing in that clinic?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Isn’t it wonderful how much the clinic cares about the welfare of its patients?

[Coeus]

While I justifiably hate Reince,this is absurd.

GOP’s bully: Reince Priebus has a women problem
Milking his base’s Hillary-hatred, Priebus also manages to insult MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski. Way to go, tough guy

But can Priebus go too far? He visited the belly of the beast today, “liberal” MSNBC ? where I’m a political analyst ? but stayed on the relatively friendly terrain of “Morning Joe,” hosted by former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough. He told Scarborough he only went on his show because he knew he’d be treated fairly ? but then he went off on co-host Mika Brzezinski in a personal way, telling her, “I’m not going to have you moderate the Republican debate.”

Priebus went on: “Because you’re not actually interested in the future of the Republican Party and our nominees. That’s not a slam on you, Mika, but I have to choose moderators that are actually interested in the Republican Party and our nominees.”

[Irish]

Wait, Priebus saying he didn’t want Mika Bresinski to moderate a Republican debate makes him a bully, but Filner molesting multiple women who were raped in the military is unworthy of comment?

[Calidissident]

So criticizing a woman in any way means you have a “woman problem”

[Coeus]

You knew that this is where it was leading. In 15 years, that will be an accepted fact.

[Eduard van Haalen]

To Hillary’s core supporters, she is the Embodiment of the Aspirations of the American Woman. Any attack on her is necessarily an attack on womanhood.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I’m wrong – she represents all the women in the *world.* The slightest criticism of her is like supporting female genital mutilation, forcing women to wear burkhas, and excluding them from Atlanta golf clubs.

[Coeus]

Jesus. Girls commit dating violence as often as boys, studies show

O really?

More girls ? 43 percent ? than boys ? 28 percent ? reported committing an act of physical dating violence, said researchers who are presenting their findings beginning Wednesday at the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting.

tha fuck?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Smack my Dick Up?

[Calidissident]

I don’t find it that difficult to believe. It’s far more socially acceptable for a woman to hit a man than for a man to hit a woman (even if she hit him first). Also, frequency does not necessarily correlate with intensity

[Coeus]

Agreed. My “tha fuck?” was in relation to the title vs the first paragraph.

[Eduard van Haalen]

“A same sex couple is filing a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission against a Grimes wedding venue after the owners declined to host the ceremony based on their religious beliefs.

“And the advocacy group One Iowa issued a statement that Iowa businesses cannot deny service to someone because of sexual orientation….

“One Iowa Executive Director Donna Red Wing said in a statement:

“Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the so-called Defense of Marriage Act in June, and the Varnum v. Brien ruling over four years ago that paved the way for marriage equality in Iowa, we appreciate that this nation and the state of Iowa have experienced real change that may be challenging for some people.

“When the Jim Crow laws were overturned decades ago,” wank wank wank, “we need to separate our respect for the Odgaards’ religious beliefs from the Iowa civil rights code,” wank wank.

http://oneiowa.org/2013/08/gay…..ing-venue/

[Cdr Lytton]

The lack of self awareness in citing Jim Crow is hilarious.

[juris imprudent]

Donna Red Wing

Seriously?

[trudges off to PC/sensitivity re-education camp]

[MappRapp]

Come on man, roll that beautiful bean footage!

http://www.Global-Anon.com

[Faceless Commenter]

Has anyone seen ANY liberal commentary on the cool waiver that Congress and staffers got from paying their ObamaCare premiums? Do they even know about it?