San Diego Mayor Finishes Two-Week Training on Treating Women Like People

So far, 14 women have come forward to accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment. That's one for each day he has spent in therapy over his behavior. The latest news is that he's back from his two-week intensive training in not fondling women. Except that he isn't supposed to be back until next week. His chief of staff says he has completed the full training. He just started earlier than reported. From Scripps and 10News in San Diego:

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner's chief of staff confirmed to 10News that the mayor began his therapy a week early and has already completed the program, but a statement from his attorneys said he will finish his therapy Saturday.

On Friday afternoon, Chief of Staff Lee Burdick told 10News reporter Allison Ash that Filner began his two weeks of "intensive" therapy one week earlier due to "intense media coverage."

In a press conference in late July, Filner said he would begin his two-week therapy session on August 5.

He was originally scheduled to come back to work August 19, but Filner is reportedly coming back to San Diego Friday.

According to Filner's attorneys he will be taking "personal time" next week and will not be available. Also, the city changed the locks on his office while he was away in order to preserve evidence.

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Comments

[RBS]

By "personal time" he means watching secretary porn right?

[Fluffy]

Is there any other meaning?

[JW]

That's Step 1 of the program.

[Fluffy]

Confession Bear says:

I spent the entire time I was at Sexual Harassment training thinking how hot the 24 year old Latina sitting next to me was.

[Render Unto Caesar]

This title is awesome.

[Careless]

I was confused by it. Does Shackford (or whoever writes the titles) think that sexual fondling is for animals?

[CharlesWT]

I hadn't realized that there's training available for not being an asshole.

[GILMORE]

There's a terrible backlog of cases

[fish_remote]

I hadn't realized that there's training available for not being an asshole.

It rarely takes.

Filner will be fine. He'll get his "I'm cured" button and the left, staunch believers in the power of therapeutic self-denunciation, will forgive him and welcome him back into the fold. He'll play his role by acting contrite and praising the process.

After all Bob is doing important work....very important work for the party....err...I mean the people of San Diego.

Now can't you Mexicans learn to speak English.........?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Very similar to how right-wing nutcases "find Jesus" and cure all their sinful dalliances.

And the voters say all is well if Jesus says so.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Defending the left, dipshit? I'm astonished! I thought you were a libertarian?

[Sevo]

If it wasn't for mis-direction, he wouldn't have any direction at all.

[Lady Bertrum]

Yeah, like that right-wing nutcase Bill Clinton who after Lewinsky very publicly prayed with his minister.

[Old Man With Candy]

Jesse Jackson, too, in a fit of irony.

[Faceless Commenter]

Yup, very similar. Which is why I'm a libertarian skeptic who hates the lot of them and holds her nose almost every time she votes -- almost. I was genuinely happy to cast my vote for Carl DeMaio, but we know what became of that. (Hint: he lost to Filner.)

[Almanian!]

Wait - you're a female?

I'm a libertarian skeptic

I WAS TOLD THERE ARE NO FEMALE LIBERTARIANS!!! WHAT THE HELL!

[Faceless Commenter]

Well, that's why I'm "Faceless," so people won't be stunned into incredulity by my mere appearance.

[Agammamon]

So that mask *isn't* because you've got some Cobra Commander going on under there?

[Sy]

Reformed meth addicts that found Jesus under a rock didn't violate anyone else's rights... but hey they're totally the same.

[Sy]

Finding Jesus after a life time of alcoholism, Jethro Tull and David Allan Coe, and bad haircuts is bad.. but for some reason, you think that's just as bad as a man in a position of immense authority sexually harassing his employees in the workplace. In a Team Blue stronghold. And refusing to step down. Yeah, no double standard there, huh?

[VG Zaytsev]

After all Bob is doing important work....very important work for the party....err...I mean the people of San Diego.

Dem asses don't grab themselves.

[GILMORE]

"Filner will be fine. He'll get his "I'm cured" button and the left, staunch believers in the power of therapeutic self-denunciation, will forgive him and welcome him back into the fold.

when in doubt? = find jesus

[fish_remote]

I'm not sure Filner has found Jesus...in the larger sense.

[buybuydandavis]

The left believes in power, and that's it. All the other squawking is a load of eyewash.

Filner is on their team and helps their power, therefore they are fine with him. End of story.

[Boomer]

Useless therapy for politicians:

--Learn to stop kicking stray dogs!
--Stealing lollipops from babies IS wrong.
--Fund your campaign without the life savings from the elderly.

[Pathogen]

--Be inclusive, encourage the dead and other ineligibles to vote early and often... and resist the urge to 'other' them...

[John]

His attorney has actually claimed that the city of San Diego should be on the hook for any judgements against him because they never gave him the mandatory training. So, without this training he had no idea that you couldn't put strange women standing next to him in an elevator in headlocks telling them what he would like to do with a pair of handcuffs. Come on guys, this poor man is just the victim of the system.

[jesse.in.mb]

What's frightening is he'll probably successfully make that case. Feminists who aren't just partisan hacks should make a point of changing that rule to include a "just because you haven't taken the course does not mean being an extreme creeper is acceptable" clause.

[Faceless Commenter]

More familiarly stated as "ignorance of the law is no excuse." But you have to be reeeeally reeeeeeeeealllly specific when dealing with Your Betters.

[PapayaSF]

Feminists who aren't just partisan hacks [...]

So then, none of the prominent ones...?

[Sevo]

John| 8.11.13 @ 12:02PM |#
"His attorney has actually claimed that the city of San Diego should be on the hook for any judgements against him because they never gave him the mandatory training."

I read that, and figured the city can then go sue his parents (or their estate; HIM) for raising such an idiot.

[Faceless Commenter]

It gets better. Rumor is, he intends to hang in through December so he can get his pension. Then he'll have an attack of conscience and resign.

[VG Zaytsev]

That's the only rational reason that he's staying.

[Ted S.]

Riley Cooper ought to try the same thing.

[jesse.in.mb]

Oy, I've been trucking around with a website instead of an email address since that other thread. I've noticed that if I use preview, my posts tend seem to hang even when there isn't high traffic (this happens no matter what during peak PM Links time). If I hit stop and try to repost, I double post. If I do that with an email address it stops the whole posting process and single posts. Does this line up with your experience? Or are you getting a different set of errors?

[CharlesWT]

I haven't used preview in a while. Last few times I tried to use it, it would hang without giving a preview and I had to reload the page and post without a preview.

[jesse.in.mb]

Preview utterly fails for those with their email address publicly viewable. It seems to mostly work if you've got a website attached to your handle, but posts seem to hang a bit more frequently. No trouble has been reported for people with blue handles (no public email or website attached), but they don't get to feel as special as the rest of us with our orange names.

[GILMORE]

TYPICAL ANTI-ORANGE-NAMISM BY REASONOIDS

[JW]

For some reason, Preview hateses email addresses. He hates its!

[Ted S.]

I haven't noticed any pattern of when I get error messages on trying to post. It's that sometimes I'll try to post, and get the error message. If I hit the back key on my browser and then try to preview the message, I'll get a blank message in the preview.

But if I preemptively use the preview, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to when I get the blank message.

[jesse.in.mb]

Ok, I'll keep toying around with it. Some of it seems to be traffic related, but I've had odd problems even at low traffic posting times so I'm a little confused.

[CharlesWT]

Anyone who would argue that an asshole has no agency for being an asshole unless he's had formal training to not be an asshole is an asshole.

[John]

This is just great

Second, a lot of liberals agree that the 30-hour rule is bad policy, and should either be repealed or reformed. If conservatives were interested in making good policy, it would be pretty easy to team up with a bunch of Democrats and pass something that would improve the way the law works. But they aren't. They want horror stories, not good policy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....-hell.html

See, we just need to repeal the 30 hour rule and make it so that if you hire someone for 2 hours a week to watch your kid, you have to buy them health insurance or pay a $2000 fine. But Republicans won't do that because they don't want good policy.

The stupid continues to peak.

[fish_remote]

They want horror stories, not good policy.

See TEAM RED is still good for something.

[Palin's Buttplug]

That would only apply if you hired over 50 babysitters in a calender year, genius.

You will find peak stupid soon though, no doubt.

[fish_remote]

You will find peak stupid soon though, no doubt.

As you find it every morning in the bathroom mirror.

Oh shreeky you've done it again

/magoo

[Ken Shultz]

"They want horror stories, not good policy."

Speaking of horror stories, I saw Elysium last night.

The whole world is dying, and the entire solution?

*Spoiler Alert*

Consists of granting all the illegal aliens citizenship, and then giving them all the free healthcare they want.

No seriously. That fixes everything. Of course, it requires enormous sacrifices from the hero, who really wants that to happen--but that's what some of us are just born to do. It's our heroic destiny.

The hero becomes the hero--because he starts thinking globally, and because he wants friends. ...and it makes him make huge sacrifices for the rest of humanity.

It's the progs who love horror stories. They love stories about people dying for lack of healthcare-- they love horror stories that reenforce their worldview. If it wasn't for government overspending, America would be just like Somalia.

Why won't you accept their horror stories as the truth, John, you hateful bastard!

[A Serious Man]

Still haven't seen it, but I know a major plot point is the fact that on Elysium the rich have this special medical machines that can cure any illness.

Now do they ever explain why they don't share that with the proles on Earth? Is it just pure senseless elitist spite? Because when you think about it having a machine that could cure disease instantly would greatly increase productivity on Earth and would thus create an incentive for the owners to cure their workers at little cost to them.

[Ken Shultz]

It's tied up in the idea of citizenship.

You can't use one of the machines on Elysium unless you're a citizen. It's like you don't have any rights unless you're a citizen.

When I said that, "The entire solution consists of granting all the illegal aliens citizenship, and then giving them all the free healthcare they want.", I wasn't oversimplifying.

It's all tied to citizenship.

Actually, this is a point I harp on all the time around here--that anti-immigrant people are reenforcing a horrible idea: the idea that citizenship means a right to healthcare.

If you oppose illegal aliens coming here because that they use up all the "free" healthcare, public education resources, etc., then they will eventually come to believe that citizenship means free healthcare, and that's Elysium's starting point.

The machines that cure you of everything won't work on you unless you're a citizen.

[Faceless Commenter]

That's a reasonable harp, but in fairness, it's the libs who equate citizenship with entitlement -- well hell, they equate existence with entitlement. I don't see how we change the argument now that they've started it.

[Ken Shultz]

When an anti-immigrant type is complaining about illegal immigrants becasue they're crowding the ERs and filling up the public schools--because those illegal immigrants aren't citizens?

They are necessarily also arguing that citizenship equals the right to a free education and free healthcare.

Is it okay for American citizens to crowd the ERs and not pay? Is it okay for American citizens to send their children to public schools and hand me the bill? If not, then why single out the illegal aliens for what they do?

There isn't anything about being an American citizen that makes me feel better about having to pay for your healthcare and your childrens' education. So, all the anti-immigration people out there can shut up about that, already.

The solution to people sponging off of me for free healthcare and free education isn't to keep out the illegal aliens. It's to stop the government from handing out free healthcare and free educations--to everybody: illegal aliens and American citizens alike.

Due process, free speech, the right to a trial by jury, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure--illegal aliens have all those rights, too. Being an American citizen doesn't entitle you to anything special--except the right to enter the country and the right to vote.

[Hyperion]

I don't know why they want to be a citizen here.

Wait until they get citizenship and then decide they just want to go back to Mexico, or wherever, and then get the great surprise that they now have to file US tax returns for the rest of their life, or until the renounce that citizenship, even though they don't live or work here anymore.

This is the only reason why the US wants to give anyone citizenship. They want the revenue. Oh, and the other 99% of the bill that probably has absolutely nothing to do with immigration, what is it? Oh well, let's just pass it first, so we can see what's in it, later.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, in Mexico, laws are only enforced sporadically. There are laws against things, but they're generally not enforced.

I went around, for a while, looking to buy hotels down there, and a lot of them, when pressed... At first, I thought they were keeping two sets of books--but some of them, really, just weren't keeping books!

If you operated that way in the U.S., you'd be in jail within a couple of years. When the law impacts regular people in Mexico, it's generally really bad--but what the laws are don't generally impact regular people in Mexico.

[Ken Shultz]

"What the laws are don't generally impact regular people in Mexico."

It was against the law to ride a motorcycle or a scooter without a helmet when I was there.

But everyday? I would see dozens of families--a family of four can fit on a motorcycle! The dad's driving, and he's got a child against the tank in front of him. The mother sits behind dad (side saddle, because she's proper), and she's holding an infant on her lap!

None of them are wearing helmets, and they all rode through all the police checkpoints with me (four or five across town)--and nobody ever stopped them. I saw a dozens of families like that--every day. The cops don't generally enforce the law, not even the Federalies, and the cops that can't be trusted? Are the ones who won't take a bribe!

[Ken Shultz]

"I don't know why they want to be a citizen here."

Economic opportunity?

And that's the best reason of all.

[Faceless Commenter]

I see what you mean, and it's true, we do unfortunately signal certain assumptions by saying "We need to take care of our own before we start shelling out for half the population of Mexico."

Now when I make that argument, I'm referring to people like seriously wounded veterans who are too sick and poor to support themselves and are arguably entitled to at least subsistence-level taxpayer support.

Maybe we need to be more explicit about whom we want to take care of, although that gets us out of sound-bite territory, which is where people lose arguments. Crass as it sounds, maybe we could get ourselves a poster child so we can get it down to one phrase. What's the name of that brain-damaged female Marine whose governmental attention depended on her advocate's going on a date with Bob Filner?

"We need to take care of the Kathryn Raggazino's before we hand money to able-bodied men from foreign countries."

I'll work on it. "Kathryn Raggazino before illegal immigrants!"

I'll keep working on it.

[Careless]

"They are necessarily also arguing that citizenship equals the right to a free education and free healthcare."

Why do you think this is true? It's not, and it shouldn't be hard to figure out why.

[Ken Shultz]

Explain to me why I should differentiate between American living off of my tax dollars and non-Americans living off of my tax dollars.

I see no important difference whatsoever.

There is nothing about you being a native born American citizen that makes me feel any better about having to pay for you and your fucking children.

[Careless]

I'm not suggesting you should. I'm suggesting you should differentiate between more people living off your tax dollars and fewer.

[Ken Shultz]

Okay, MORE American citizens are living off of my paycheck than illegal immigrants.

Oh, and if I cut services for everybody--and not just illegal immigrants? It slashes "free" services for MORE people.

So, yeah, I'm thinking about more and less.

If we threw every single illegal immigrant out of the country, all the American born parasites would still be sucking tons of blood out of my back. In fact, the MORE American citizens come to imagine that being a citizen has something to do with being entitled to "free" government services? The MORE I'm gonna end up paying in taxes...

How's that for thinking about more and less?

[Careless]

Well, that's fine for wishful thinking. In the real world, keeping illegals from getting benefits is far more plausible than killing the whole welfare state

[Ken Shultz]

In the real world, you're contributing to Americans' false sense of entitlement by making a false distinction between illegal aliens and native born Americans.

[Careless]

I'm not really sure how pointing out that reality exists contributes to American's "false sense of entitlement"

Just as long as you admit that your open borders ideology will result in you paying much more in welfare checks, we can get along.

[Careless]

In the real world, you're paying for it and asking for more. It's not a subtle point.

[Careless]

Your favored policies will directly lead to more people sucking on your wallet, and you're complaining about it while you promote it, knowing that you won't have the votes to kill off the welfare state.

[Ken Shultz]

"Your favored policies will directly lead to more people sucking on your wallet."

What favored policies are you talking about?

The only policy I've talked about favoring is the one where we slash government services for everybody.

[Careless]

Ken, it looks like you're confusing someone who realizes that the present system does, in fact, exist, with someone arguing that the present system should exist.

[GSGP1]

Careless, you see, it's like crime. It wouldn't happen in libertopia, so we shouldn't worry about it happening in real life.

[Ken Shultz]

I'm not confused.

I'm saying that when you argue that non-citizens shouldn't be allowed to use up public services, ERs, or public schools, you're reenforcing in those people's minds that citizenship is about being entitled to public services.

Citizenship does not entitle you to free services--not even if the government says so. You're not entitled to free public services--even if the government is giving them away based on citizenship.

Things are wrong--even if the government is doing them. Even if everyone else in the world agreed that citizenship entitles you to live off of my paycheck--that will never, never, never, never, ever be true...

You're the one that seems to be confused between someone saying how things should be--and how they really are. And the way things really are? is that citizenship has never, does not, and never will make anyone entitled to government services.

You may be receiving a "free" education for your children, but that doesn't mean you're entitled to it.

That just means you're stealing it out of the paychecks of people like me, and the government is acting as your accomplice in this. It just means that your disgraceful theft is widely condoned by the grossly immoral society in which we live. You're not entitled to anything you didn't earn yourself or was freely given to you by someone else, and being a citizen of the United States doesn't make any difference in that equation whatsoever.

[KPres]

But most of the healthcare is free. Medicare and medicaid are something like 70% of healthcare dollars spent.

[Ken Shultz]

It's a weird word, "free". I mean, just because the taxpayers are paying for it, that doesn't make it "free".

It's free to some of the people who are using it, but many of us, at this point, will never get back out what we put in.

If I could opt out of Medicare today, I certainly would, and I financial planners would tell most people that it was in their best interests to opt out if they could.

I think it's "free" to some people, and I think a lot of illegal aliens see it that way. In Mexico, they really do have free clinics for the poor, a lot of those illegal immigrants were born in one. It's just that the free government clinics are separated entirely from the private ones--they don't require private hospitals to treat people "for free" (on Medicaid, for instance) like we do.

And, anyway, if that's the way it is--where Medicare and Medicaid make up 70% of healthcare dollars spent--then that's something that needs to be changed. Just because the government isn't charging Medicaid recipients for their healthcare doesn't make it right or better than a system where businesses compete to provide quality healthcare to poorer and poorer customers at lower and lower costs.

[Ken Shultz]

"I think it's "free" to some people, and I think a lot of illegal aliens see it that way."

One of my main insights garnered from living in Mexico had to do with their concept of greed.

Where I came from, "greed" meant people who helped themselves to things that didn't belong to them.

In Mexico, "greedy" is people who refuse to share what they have with others.

They imagine that there's this elite who don't pay much in taxes--just like it is in Mexico--and it's a never ending source of wealth. That the people who are being taxed have so much that they'll never miss it, etc., etc.

It doesn't really occur to them that the kids they send to public schools are being paid for by average people paying property taxes. It's just not within their sphere of awareness.

[Careless]

Healthcare is, apparently, 17% of the economy, and Medicare+Medicaid are less than $1 trillion, which makes them less than 40% of healthcare spending.

[Careless]

Medicare+Medicaid+veterans+all the other smaller federal/state/local programs add up to just over half, IIRC

[Faceless Commenter]

Your post caused me to go running around the internet looking for the very spoiler I was hoping for -- (spoiler below)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

YUP, Matt Damon plays Jesus Christ to the end.

Then I got stuck at IMDb posting back at a bunch of libtards.

[Ken Shultz]

Matt Damon's character was inspired as a child by a nun who told him he had a date with destiny, and that he should keep the whole world in mind.

Forcing individuals to make sacrifices for the benefit of everyone else is what being a progressive is all about.

It's just that they always portray the sacrifices they force us to make as a willing sacrifice...

If you're a Christian, you believe that Jesus went to the cross willingly. In this movie, Matt Damon's character makes his sacrifice willingly.

But the sacrifices Barack Obama and other progressives are forcing me to make--allegedly--for the benefit of the rest of society as a whole?

Those are made against my will. And they can never, ever get around that. All they can do is call us names.

[Faceless Commenter]

One of the posts I made at the libtards was the whole issue of coercing charity.

[Ken Shultz]

Inevitably, they fall back on representative democracy--the idea that 51% of the people voting to force you to do something in an election you participated in amounts to you giving your consent. (And that's a great reason to be a principled non-voter!)

But the fact is that neither I nor my rights exist for society's benefit. And I'm in no way conceding that they what they want to do is in society's benefit--certainly not if it's hurting as much as 49.9% of society. ...and the concept that individuals don't exist for society's benefit is crucial to being anti-authoritarian.

You know who else thought individuals and their rights only existed insofar as they benefited society as a whole?

Certainly, they shouldn't tell us that forcing individuals to make sacrifices for the benefit of society as a whole is okay out of one side of their mouths, and then tell us that they're sticking up for the little guy out of the other!

[VG Zaytsev]

The bigger difference is that almost all rich people in Mexico got that way by stealing or by inheriting stolen wealth. There's very little self made wealth, acquired by serving other people through voluntary transactions.

[General Butt Naked]

I'm sure there's some rich drug dealers there.

[GILMORE]

clearly 49% were deluded by the Faux News channel and teh Kochtopud

[GSGP1]

How do they think Los Angeles got the way it is? Overpopulated and wholly Non-White?(except, of course, for the hero) Immigration is how. Yet the solution lies in doing the exact same thing that created the problem. Perhaps the director means for this to be the case. He is the same guy, an Afrikaner, who created District 9. Perhaps he is secretly a rightist.

[GILMORE]

sounds more progtarded than Children of Men

[Ken Shultz]

The movie Children of Men wasn't as bad as the book.

The book "Children of Men" was the most anti-libertarian book made since Das Kapital and Mein Kampf.

I am really glad that movie didn't take more than a basic premise from the book. Because that could have been a really influential and, thus, destructive movie--destructive to the libertarian cause.

The most anti-libertarian book I can think of off the top of my head.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Repealing that would certainly cut down on the part time staffing, that's pretty certain. It won't be replaced with full time staffing, but hey, them's the breaks.

Washington doesn't get that they can't centrally plan everything. There are too many variables to keeping a business viable for them to keep piling on more mandates and think it won't negatively affect employment.

They have no idea. They don't interact with smaller businesses, only large ones with generous lobbies.

[fish_remote]

More Meg:

Unfortunately, if you set the limit at 35 hours a week, it will be comparatively easy for firms to evade the law by simply having everyone work 34 hours a week. So the law's drafters sought to make it really, really inconvenient to play those sorts of games by setting the limit very low, at 30 hours a week.

What is it about spending time with Ezra Klein that makes people stupid?

Set it at 20....people will get to work 1/2 time. Set it at 10 and every last thing that can be automated or off shored will be!

Set it at 0 and we'll get single payer...whoops....Harry Reid let the cat out of the bag yesterday by admitting that this was the plan all along.

As soon as we get there I'm just going to retire and live off the rest of you fuckers......suck it bitchez!!

[Francisco d Anconia]

Set it at 20....people will get to work 1/2 time. Set it at 10 and every last thing that can be automated or off shored will be!

It's almost as if people don't like it or something.

[fish_remote]

Shedlock hit the automation thing pretty hard a while back...Obamacare will merely hasten the process!

I am enjoying seeing the inside the beltway wonk brigade stomp their little feet though..."What do you mean people are changing their behavior in response to our edicts...? They're only supposed to do that in ways approved by TEAM BLUE!"

[Faceless Commenter]

I, for one, welcome our new ATM overlords.

[GILMORE]

i dont do ass-to-mouth, thank you

[db]

So far, 14 women have come forward to accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment. That's one for each day he has spent in therapy over his behavior. The latest news is that he's back from his two-week intensive training in not fondling women.

This is why there are no female Democrats.

[Mike M.]

Are there still as many homeless people living on the street in the Gaslamp Quarter as there were when I was last there about three years ago?

San Diego is an awesome city, but it seemed like there were hundreds of them. I thought to myself that I would be really embarrassed about the situation if I lived there.

[Ken Shultz]

The bad parts of San Diego gentrified really fast--and they were near the gaslamp district.

I used to check IDs at a club down there when it was kinda dangerous.

Anyway, within a period of about a year, a year and a half, all the areas that used to be flop houses, cheap weekly hotels, etc. suddenly turned into lofts and million dollar condos.

So, yeah, you had a time for a while there, when all those people who used to have nowhere to go--suddenly REALLY had nowhere to go. The trend was accelerated after the ballpark was built down there.

Most other cities wish they had that problem. If Detroit could turn all their flop houses into million dollar condos, they'd do it tomorrow.

[prolefeed]

Why would you be embarrassed that other people didn't have a roof over their head? Should THEY be embarrassed, if anyone is?

Or do you think someone else's misfortune imposes a collective duty on everyone else, even if those others don't agree with that duty?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Perhaps he was talking of the city government which surely intervenes in the economy and social landscape of the city and therefore in some sense 'owns' that problem.

I would also add that one can think we have moral duties to alleviate the misfortunes of others without violating the NAP. I think you and I should are about and try to help many less fortunate people, but I would never suggest coercing you to do so.

[Gahan]

There is still no scarcity of homeless people downtown (and everywhere else). Not to mention the tent cities under every freeway overpass. Rumor has it other cities actually pay for a one-way ticket to SD for their homeless, to "protect" them from the inclement weather in other parts of the country.

[Ken Shultz]

Vegas just got busted for putting all their really bad schizophrenia cases on a one way bus to San Francisco.

[Faceless Commenter]

"Busted"? They ought to ramp it up. Who's going to stop them?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Who would notice?

[Xenocles]

This is no longer a rumor but official policy in Hawaii.

[JW]

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner's chief of staff confirmed to 10News that the mayor began his therapy a week early and has already completed the program

Faith healing is real!

[jesse.in.mb]

Would this face ever lie to you, JW?

Of course it's real!

[fish_remote]

Jeez Jesse....don't use a Filner glamour shot! Pick one that reveals his true reptilian nature!

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sorry fish, I didn't want to break anyone with a delicate sensibility. You've shown me the error of my way. Please have this proof that reptilians walk among us.

[fish_remote]

No need to sugar coat it!

The man's a Goblin!

/Jackie Chiles

[jesse.in.mb]

That's just about the meanest thing I've ever heard said about goblins. You should be ashamed of your anti-goblin rhetoric. They are a hard-working if aesthetically challenged people who came to this country seeking opportunity and gold, and you just compared them to Bob fucking Filner. It's disgraceful.

[juris imprudent]

It's amazing that a ferret can have that same face and be cute.

[fish_remote]

I like to "other"!

[JW]

Please have this proof that reptilians walk among us.

"Nice boots. Snakeskin?"

"No. Filnerskin."

[fish_remote]

Filnerskin: Wears like Iron, Mohel approved!

[JW]

The rictus grin tells it's authentic.

[mr lizard]

Really? Seriously? No, he ain't our boy

[jesse.in.mb]

Maybe he's a roach alien from MiB?

[A Serious Man]

Vincent D'Onofrio should play him in the TV movie.

[GILMORE]

"D'Onofrio" actually means "titty pincher" in Italian.

or "cold penis". i forget.

[Xenocles]

Guys come on. He was taking serious training here. I'm sure this will never be an issue again.

[fish_remote]

He was taking serious training here.....

Excellent point....Serious High Intensity Training!

[juris imprudent]

This is exceptional, even for Thomas L. Friedman - I think I'll go drop some acid to see if I can't get my mind back to normal.

[AlmightyJB]

Western civilization is yucky. Must erase all traces of western progress and replace it with luddite retardedness.

[JW]

You can't trick me into lobotomizing myself!

[Faceless Commenter]

DON'T DO IT. I read the first sentence, which made part of my frontal lobe fall onto my keyboard. While I was reaching down to pick it up, I saw the phrase "fascinating journey" in the second sentence, and now I'm hoping this electrician's tape does the job until I can go on Obamacare and get first-class neurosurgery for free by strolling into Walter Reed.

[General Butt Naked]

Jackson maintains some original prairie vegetation. As we walk through it, he explains: This is nature's own "tree of life." This prairie, like a forest, "features material recycling, runs on sunlight, and does not have an epidemic that wipes it all out. You know during the Dust Bowl years of the '30s, the crops died, but the prairie survived." Then he points to his experimental perennial grain crops: "That's the tree of knowledge." Our challenge, and it will take years, he notes, is to find a way to blend the tree of life with the tree of knowledge to develop domestic prairies that could have high-yielding fields planted once every several years, whose crops would only need harvesting and species diversity could "take care of insects, pathogens and fertility."

Paging Dr. Barfman, paging Dr. Barfman...

[Agammamon]

Actually, over-the-top greenie rhetoric aside, what he's describing is sort of the holy grail of agriculture - high yield/no maintenance food production.

The only problem (from his point of view) is that it means a near complete genetically engineered ecosystem to achieve, which will displace the 'natural' life of course.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Define natural.

All things man does = unnatural = bad

I hate these idiots. How exactly is a species evolving to the point it can control its environment unnatural? Was there an instant in time we went from being animals in sync with mother Gaia to the scourge of the natural world?

[Xenocles]

So let me get this straight. We as libertarians believe that it's impossible to competently manage something man-made like the economy, but we're supposed to be enthusiastic about a different group of top men's ideas for managing something infinitely more complex like an ecosystem?

[mad libertarian guy]

No one is claiming that we should try and manage the ecosystem, but to use technology in order to adapt small parts of it so that it serves us better.

[Xenocles]

"Near complete genetically engineered ecosystem" implies a lot of things to me, but human management is near the top.

[Agammamon]

Management? No, design, yes.

A heavily simplified design that has, at its core, a focus on providing easy food for people.

Which is why I think that this guy would be very disappointed if his vision came to pass - it wouldn't be fields of grain with buffalo and other animals roaming the prairie. Where White Indian can set up his teepee and gambole about.

It'd be fields of genetically modified grain with a small selection of genetically engineered organisms to do the work that people do nowadays, more efficiently and with less supervision.

[mad libertarian guy]

"Near complete genetically engineered ecosystem" implies a lot of things to me, but human management is near the top.

Point taken.

But I would argue that it was a misuse of language, not a slip of the mask. Wanting to launch GMO crops that will minimize the use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and water in an effort to maximize production in agriculture is hardly wanting to manage the ecosystem. Managing the food supply does not comport to trying to control nature.

[Pathogen]

Yeah, all roadz seem to end there, don't they...

[Pathogen]

Response to: "..but human management is near the top."

[Agammamon]

That's why natural is in quotes - I don't hold with the artificial/natural divide that a lot of people do.

[Xenocles]

I don't either - but it's clear to me that we don't understand nearly as much about what we inherited as we think we do.

I don't think these changes are necessarily bad but I am skeptical that we know all the relevant details about them. We're talking about interactions so complicated that it could take lifetimes just to test the effects of a single change. When I see "engineered ecosystem" I think "new Soviet man" times a hundred. The fatal conceit and all that.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Sexual harassment training final exam:

(1) A woman engineer has just explained her proposal for wastewater treatment. You then admire her:
(a) Hard work and helpful suggestions
(b) Ass
(c) Tits
(d) Legs

(2) Women like to be
(a) Complimented
(b) Grabbed
(c) Groped
(d) Spanked

(3) It is appropriate to fondle a strange woman's breasts
(a) If their job depends on you
(b) If they have a nice rack
(c) Both a and b
(d) Neither a nor b

"Wow, Mr. Mayor, you got two out of three!"

"Yeah, I didn't know the right answers so I just filled in "a" for each question."

[Killazontherun]

1. Trick question. a) if her suggestions really are good, b) if she has a nice ass, c) or pair of tits, and d) ditto. You should probably always compliment d. It ain't hard to do so without innuendo. 'Hey, do you run? Quite an athletic pair of legs you have.' 'Good genes? Well, I certainly don't doubt that.'

2. Assuming women are not that different from myself and I like to be complimented, grabbed, groped, and spanked, I'll say all four as well. One caveat, I don't like unattractive women doing b, c, d. So, make sure you are not repulsive when you do those things. Check with others first.

3. Hmm, having had relations with two former female bosses, I liked it that in both cases they didn't mince words but got down to business. I don't know if it was appropriate but my dick was happy.

[Eduard van Haalen]

What if the female equivalent of the SD mayor hit on you?

[Killazontherun]

I'd blackmail her.

[Ken Shultz]

If I could get one point across to the people of San Diego about this, it'd be that stupid and horrible shit Filner got away with for so long? that kind of abuse is only making the news because it was directed at women.

But if somebody is arbitrary and capricious like that in his dealings with women, he's probably arbitrary and capricious like that in his dealings with small businesses, real estate developers, and everyone else he deals with as mayor, too.

Sexual harassment is bad, but you could see the same kind of behavior in his other dealings with people, too. When he does it to women, it makes the news, and he's a horrible villain. But when he's arbitrary and capricious to businesses, if it makes the news at all, then, what, he's just doing his job as mayor?

[juris imprudent]

Yes. I have friends who believe that Filner was finally putting some dick to the developers and these people were as happy as could be about it.

Environmentalist - someone who owns a nice piece of property and doesn't want their views spoiled.

[Faceless Commenter]

It was ALL well known to the press since Filner hit local politics in the 1970s. A San Diego reporter named Doug Curlee outed himself: not only the sexual complaints, but the general arrogance and meanness. He also admitted it's because Filner is Reptilicus Democraticus.

[Dave Krueger]

My woman is a beast.

[A Serious Man]

Star Trek's Las Vegas convention had the attendees voting on their fantasy crew of the best characters from every series. The results:

Captain: Janeway

First Officer: Spock

Engineer: Scotty

Doctor: The Doctor from 'Voyager'

Security: Odo

Helmsman: Jadiza Dax

Communications: Hoshi Sato

Tactical/Wildcard: Data

[PS wanders the Wasteland]

Captain: Janeway

What! Kind! Of! Monsters! Are! You! People!

[Xenocles]

...Janeway...

This was a vote that would have benefited from instant runoff, I bet.

[Episiarch]

Proving once again that Trekkies are retarded.

[jesse.in.mb]

Do you just lurk all day waiting for someone to make a Janeway reference?

I think the PC term is trekers now. Trekkies is considered derogatory. I know how important politically correct nomenclature is to you Episiarch.

[Xenocles]

I always thought a trekker was predominantly a TNG fan and a trekkie tilted toward TOS.

[jesse.in.mb]

A friend of mine worked on some movie about Star Trek characters and was the one that told me there was a difference. She could be wrong. Wikipedia seems to mention both theories.

[Episiarch]

Well, jesse, Comcast informs me that my internet will be restored at exactly 3:47 today. I'm not kidding, that's exactly what they said to me. At least I got credit for the outage. I hate typing on my phone.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

$3.97?

[General Butt Naked]

$86,753.09

[juris imprudent]

Even for Epi that's a lot of PPV porn.

[GILMORE]

Asian-American, dude

[A Serious Man]

Janeway is pretty egregious. Kirk saved the galaxy countless times, banged countless alien babes, met God, and wasn't even impressed.

Janeway just got lost and had to find her way home and even then she constantly needed to stop for directions.

That being said the only other change I'd make to that list is to put Bones as the doctor. Everyone else is fine.

[Agammamon]

I like Bones, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather have a doctor who saves my life while complaining than a doctor who has to keep looking shit up in textbooks.

[Agammamon]

"Captain: Janeway"

Do these people have a deathwish - serving under her is more dangerous than being the 6th member of Kirk's landing party.

[A Serious Man]

US State Department condemns Iraq bombings, declares perpetrators 'Enemies of Islam'

The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the cowardly attacks today in Baghdad. These attacks were aimed at families celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The terrorists who committed these acts are enemies of Islam and a shared enemy of the United States, Iraq, and the international community.
[snip]
The United States has offered a $10 million reward for information that helps authorities kill or capture Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This reward is second only to information leading to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief of Al Qaeda's network, and symbolizes our ongoing commitment to helping our partners in the region eliminate this threat from their territory.

Our government is issuing fatwas now?

[Agammamon]

Yeah, they decided that those Muslim chaplains the military has can be dual-purpose.

[triclops]

Remember how important Team is considering democrats supported a privileged white male sexual predator over a Hispanic gay mam who grew up dirt poor.

[lap83]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/c.....-paul.html
Sarah Palin: "I'm on Team Rand"

Cue concern trolling from usual idiots.
Also, will the anti-Team libertarians have to find a new word or is Rand Paul no different from any of the other Teams now?

[lap83]

*different from anyone in

[Francisco d Anconia]

Yeah, she has a history of ruining movements by claiming to be part of them.

Thanks Sarah, don't lend us your support.

[mad libertarian guy]

Yeah, she has a history of ruining movements by claiming to be part of them.

Thanks Sarah, don't lend us your support.

It's not that she ruins movements because of her policy positions (which aren't great, but they aren't anathema to allowing puppies to live either), but that movements she involves herself with get ruined because Team BLUEtards get themselves in a hissie and relentlessly attack that movement simply because she supports it.

She doesn't ruin shit, the media ruins it by reminding us that if it were VP Palin on the job, we'd be bombing more countries without congressional approval, droning innocent children around the world, executing the drug war with fervor, and continuing to wreck the economy.

[Francisco d Anconia]

She doesn't ruin shit, the media ruins it by reminding us that if it were VP Palin on the job, we'd be bombing more countries without congressional approval, droning innocent children around the world, executing the drug war with fervor, and continuing to wreck the economy.

Would they be wrong? She is nothing more than a socon and I blame her for ruining the Tea Party.

[The Late P Brooks]

Also, will the anti-Team libertarians have to find a new word or is Rand Paul no different from any of the other Teams now?

We're all TEAMsters, now.

[Nazdrakke]

Women, minorities, and Nick Gillespe hardest hit.

[DJF]

The Jacket has a sad.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

We expect so little from our politicians, yet still they manage to disappoint.

[The Late P Brooks]

Meanwhile, over at Concern Troll HQ...

Obama chose Desert Vista, home to some of Phoenix's best and brightest students, to present his ideas for repairing America's ailing mortgage finance apparatus. Some activists assembled to plead with the president to take more aggressive steps to combat climate change, such as renouncing the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Nevertheless, the overwhelming disposition of the angry horde was openly reminiscent of the Jim Crow South.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the anti-Obama protest was the inclination of some participants to fault the president for increased racial tensions. "We have gone back so many years," Judy Burris told the Republic, insisting that Obama's presence and policies have engendered a racist backlash. "He's divided all the races. I hate him for that."

This mind-bending perspective has become one of the leitmotifs of the racialized anti-Obama movement, which laments regressive race relations, but which attributes increased racial tensions in Obama's "disruptive" and "exotic" presence, rather than their own racial stereotypes, hateful rhetoric and divisive behavior. Despite myriad efforts to foster civil dialogue in Arizona, the state has proven to be fertile ground for the kind of chauvinistic crusading that greeted Obama this week.

"You're perfectly welcome to seek redress of grievances which I consider legitimate."

[The Late P Brooks]

As brazen as those in the Desert Vista crowd were, they are merely the most belligerent and public face of a legion of racist anti-Obama persons. These more discreet individuals are smart enough to cloak their racialized opposition in obstructionist maneuvering and public policy that does more damage to the lives of people of color than prejudiced banter. Still, the Desert Vista protest should give everyone pause and put us on high alert. The racist rhetoric heard there reflects inner beliefs and fears that have tremendous potential to do great harm.

Arizona leaders would be remiss in dismissing it as "fringe." As civil rights activist Pauli Murray once cautioned, "Racism is like a deadly snake coiled and ready to strike, and one only avoids its dangers by never-ending watchfulness."

If you don't love Obama, you're a RACIST, Whitey.

[fish_remote]

If you don't love Obama, you're a RACIST, Whitey.

Is it okay if we dislike his white half....and worship and cherish his black half?

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Racism is like a deadly snake coiled and ready to strike, and one only avoids its dangers by never-ending watchfulness."

Very deep. How about this:

"Moron who always sees racism everywhere will not be able to fight real racism anywhere."

[CharlesWT]

And from their point of view, any one who doesn't see racism everywhere is racist.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

and that's why Rafa Nadal is still Rafa Nadal.

[The Late P Brooks]

The Deltawing is leading at Elkhart.

[Hoff]

It's strange that Rand Paul now gets condemned for not being a "true libertarian" but Ron Paul wasn't. Ron Paul was never a true libertarian, if he started commenting here, he would be compared to the commenter "American."

[Francisco d Anconia]

if he started commenting here, he would be compared to the commenter "American."

And what do you base that on?

[Hoff]

Here is a source, an interview Paul conducted with Peter Brimelow:

http://www.vdare.com/articles/.....overeignty

If you have never seen this before, ask yourself why.

[Francisco d Anconia]

So you claim Ron is a racist because he believes in national sovereignty?

Please! Find me this "true" libertarian of which you speak.

[GSGP1]

I don't claim that, I'm saying that the people on this website ("true libertarians") would claim that. You've heard it before, "national sovereignty" is "statist" and "racist" and those who believe in it "hate brown people" and are "White nationalists," and "dey took er jerbs," and "migration is a fundamental human right."

[darius404]

You need to get your aliases straight, Merkin. Replying with one alias as if you are a different alias is a dead giveaway.

[anon]

Saying things repeatedly doesn't make them true.

[Francisco d Anconia]

So what?

Not all libertarians agree on all issues. Look at abortion. Look at circumcision, artisanal mayo and deep dish pizza.

If you are waiting for a "true" libertarian before you'll vote for a guy to be president, you're gonna have a long wait.

I'll take the 98% solution...thanks.

[mad libertarian guy]

artisanal mayo

All libertarians agree that "artisinal mayo" is a fucking sham. If you don't, you're no true libertarian.

[Pathogen]

I denounce this "artisanal mayo" as bourgeois and elitist, it's way too aspirational. Apprentice, or even proletariat miracle-whip is so much less pretentious...

[Francisco d Anconia]

For the record, I'm a Miracle Whip man.

[John C. Randolph]

That's nice, but we were talking about mayo.

-jcr

[Francisco d Anconia]

Right.

MW is significantly better than mayo. WHY are we even talking about it?

[Pathogen]

Mayo's for clinics, Miracle Whip's for food, that's what we are talking about... way to derail the thread, man.. and make it all about you..

[Calidissident]

American, you can't pretend like all you do is come here and support national sovereignty. You daily post screeds about the inferiority of blacks and Hispanics, and then go on and on about how the government should do everything in its power to "help" the "white working class" and then get mad when people call you a racist or not a libertarian

[A Serious Man]

Norwegian Prime Minister http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl.....ith voters

Mr Stoltenberg said he had wanted to hear from real Norwegian voters and that taxis were one of the few places where people shared their true views.

He wore sunglasses and an Oslo taxi driver's uniform for the shift in June, only revealing his identity once he was recognised by his passengers.

His exchanges with his passengers were captured on a hidden camera.

The footage - made in collaboration with an advertising company - has been posted on the prime minister's Facebook page and made into a film which will be used as part of his campaign for re-election in September.

What would you say if Obama was driving your taxi?

[Jordan]

I'd call the police and report that a black meth-head was trying to kidnap me.

[The Late P Brooks]

What would you say if Obama was driving your taxi?

"You're pretty clean and articulate, for a cab driver."

[Faceless Commenter]

"I see Obamacare has hit you, too."

[Faceless Commenter]

"Quit making left turns!"

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Heh

[Faceless Commenter]

"Hey, I think you just ran over a country."

[Faceless Commenter]

"Will you please stop at Chick Fil-A? I like to snack on fried food while I'm shopping at Wal-mart."

[Faceless Commenter]

"I really appreciate the ride. Some doctor amputated my feet for fun and profit."

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Wow, you sure talk a lot more than the average cab driver - and you make even less sense!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

"At least you're a better driver than that late colleague of yours from Massachusetts...he dumped me in the water near Cape Cod and drove off."

[mad libertarian guy]

Is that a teleprompter up on the dash?

[A Serious Man]

"What's that you say? I don't qualify for the cab fee waiver because I don't work for the government?"

[Fluffy]

"Why can't I ever find a cab driver born in this country?"

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

"The sign says No smoking"

[anon]

"I'd like to get out here, please."

[General Butt Naked]

Wow, how's it feel to finally have a real job?

[PapayaSF]

"Hey, I hired you to take me where I want to go, not to where you think I ought to go!"

[Killazontherun]

Bet she would prefer having her teeth pulled without anesthesia than to have to do this --
from her tweet:

Sen Dianne Feinstein ? @SenFeinstein

I will hold major Intelligence Committee hearings on NSA and other data-collection programs this fall. http://1.usa.gov/1cAr54H

I can imagine the earful she is getting from Silicon Valley with the reports of foreign users pulling out of US based services.

'Hey Bitch, you are correct usage of the word 'literally' destroying us here!'

[Thane of Whiterun]

If Snowden only accomplishes one thing I hope it will be to get DiFi out.

Pelosi would be a nice bonus.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"AP reports that U.S. Embassy officials in Chile have arranged for the flight back to the United States of 5 members of a northern Arizona family who were rescued after 2 months at sea in a failed attempt to sail their small boat from California to the island nation of Kiribati. According to Hannah Gastonguay, her family left the U.S. because they were fed up with government interference with religious independence. She said that as Christians they don't believe in "abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church," and objected to being "forced to pay these taxes that pay for abortions we don't agree with." The Gastonguays are not members of any church; their beliefs come through reading the Bible and prayer.""

http://religionclause.blogspot.....r-its.html

From the Kiribati tourism authorities:

http://www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki/

[Agammamon]

" . . .failed attempt to sail their small boat from California to the island nation of Kiribati."

They could afford a boat but they couldn't afford a plane ticket?

That place if further from CA than HI is.

[cw]

Also, the city changed the locks on his office while he was away in order to preserve evidence.

Eww.

[cw]

Also, the city changed the locks on his office while he was away in order to preserve evidence.

Eww.

[anon]

Now if only they had therapy for being a progressive.

[Nazdrakke]

Therapy for liberals.

[Pathogen]

Formica Davis:| Today @ Whenever|#
Well, news coverage started off boring and slow, with Filner trying to bullshit everyone with a bunch of prog talk: '"Blah blah blah. You gotta believe me!"' That part of the media coverage sucked! But then the city of S.D. just went off. They said, '"Man, whatever! The guy's guilty as shit! We all know that."' And then sentenced his ass to two weeks of rehabilitation.

Word is that Beef Supreme himself came out of retirement to kick the shit out of Filner...

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

This mayor should take lessons from the Mayor of Toronto.

[MappRapp]

Sometimes man, you jsut gotta rol lwith the punches.

http://www.Anon-Tactics.tk

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, but doesn't that require a web cam and doing all kinds of disgusting shit to themselves for frat boys?

[Faceless Commenter]

You know what's funny? I posted a similar retort to one of the spam posts at pjmedia and got banned! Probably got reported by a couple of people who can't read Snark.

Never mind. Skipping that place has increased my productivity, although I still click in at Vodkapundit.

[Agammamon]

Well, you both are un-self-aware idiots so that's at least one point of similarity.

[Calidissident]

New guy show up with the exact same talking points you always have, and multiple accounts? Yeah, sure I believe that's not you. Not like that fits your MO perfectly

"I think Paul is just another politician who relies more on sound bites than on policy solutions."

I think that's a consequence of what it takes to get elected. Voters like simple soundbites more than substantive proposals. I think Paul actually does have some serious solutions, but he tends to emphasize them less than the soundbites that play better with voters.

[Pathogen]

Ummm, check your privilege, bro...

[Pathogen]

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