A.M. Links: NSA Accused of Targeting Journalists as Government Tries to Narrow Definition, 92 Percent of Federal Workers Oppose Obamacare, Rodeo Clown Banned for Life Over Obama Mask

• 

  Jameson Hsieh

  Edward Snowden accused the NSA of targeting journalists critical of the US government after 9/11. Dianne Feinstein, meanwhile, would like a restrictive definition of "journalist" for protections offered under a proposed shield law legislation. The crackdown on journalists in Turkey continues.

• 92 percent of federal employees oppose Obamacare.
• The Secret Service has released the first 100 out of 14,500 pages of documents related to their investigation of Aaron Swartz.
• Michael Bloomberg says New York City will appeal a ruling that found the NYPD's stop and frisk program unconstitutional.
• Missouri State Fair officials have banned for life a rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask for a bit.
• Cory Booker and Steve Lonegan have won their respective party primaries and will face off against each other in the special election for Senate in New Jersey.
• A 30-year veteran cop in Rhode Island has been charged with stealing $700 worth of gas.
• A new wifi system at the British Museum inadvertently banned access to Hamlet because it was "violent content."

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Edward Snowden accused the NSA of targeting journalists critical of the US government after 9/11.

Nice try, traitor. No matter what you show them, the press will be back to humping Obama's leg in time for the midterms.

[Gbob]

Hell, if they didn't raise a stink over the DOJ wiretapping reporters phones, then there's no chance of them being up in arms over this. Every time I think the profession has hit a new low, they manage to find a deeper pit.

[VG Zaytsev]

Why?

Their propagandists, it's foolish to expect anything else from them. It's like expressing disappointment that Pravda didn't tell the truth in some story.

[mad libertarian guy]

Every time I think the profession has hit a new low, they manage to find a deeper pit.

You're assuming that they understand their job as gathering the news that might be important to regular, everyday people and disseminate it, whereas they understand their job is being a court stenographer, disseminating press releases as His Highness sees fit.

[CE]

In a just world, Dianne Feinstein and Michael Bloomberg would already be in prison.

[Aresen]

You think they would survive their round in the Colussseum?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Missouri State Fair officials have banned for life a rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask for a bit.

Yet that racist bull gets off scot-free.

[Loki]

Bull, Bull Connor. Coincidence, or were the rodeo organizers going all meta with their racism?

On a related note, I'm sure they would have done the same if the guy had donned a W. mask in 2005. 'Cause it's about "respecting the office" or something.

[VG Zaytsev]

Seriously WTF?

This is a great example of the progtards fascism. Someone losing their livlihood because he disrespected the president. WTF???

[Zeb]

Well, it is a rodeo in Missouri, so the clown with the W mask probably would have been driven out by members of the other TEAM.

[fish]

Team on Team violence?

That's a rodeo worth attending!

[Brandybuck]

Actually if you bothered to read the article, the same thing DID happen back in 1994 with G.H.W. Bush. The EXACT SAME SKIT. But being a white, or mostly white, president, no clowns were banned for life, no one had to go to reeducation camps, the crowds weren't castigated as racist rethuglicans, none of it.

[anon]

What article?

We don't read no stinkin' articles!

[CE]

Exactly. Here's the process:

Headline, picture, alt-text, comment away.

[Pro Libertate]

Banned for life? For wearing an Obama mask? What's next, hunting down and killing Rich Little?

[DontShootMe]

Nah, he did Nixon, that's ok. I just hope Obama hasn't read much Frank Herbert...

[Pro Libertate]

Must have, seeing his penchant for utilizing hunter-seekers.

[The Last American Hero]

I presume that Pearl Jam won't be allowed to perform in Missouri anymore either, since Vedder wears a Bush mask when they sing Bushleaguer?

[Aresen]

"Yet that racist bull gets off scot-free."

Actually, the mask was probably terrifying for the poor bull.

[Enough About Palin]

How is the mask not free speech (as in fuck that piece of shit Obama)? A state fair is a public even. He should sue.

[Homple]

Key issues of the American left

2007: war, deficits, civil liberties

2013: impertinent rodeo clowns

-From Twittermeister Iowahawk

[Lord Humungus]

(UK)

Beware of blue BMW drivers who really are the most aggressive and more prone to road rage when they get behind the wheel

around here, it's Pontiac Grand Prix drivers, though the Dodge Charger is quickly taking their place.

[Bam!]

Top Gear's Cock-O-Meter was right.

[Raston Bot]

what's the difference between a BMW and a porcupine? a porcupine has pricks on the outside.

[db]

Porsche drivers are pricks. BMW drivers are good drivers.

[Brett L]

Not the 700 series guys. Anyone driving a 700 series will find a way to cut me off at least twice.

[db]

To be fair, by the time most people can afford a 7-series, they're so old they can't drive.

But yeah, why anyone would buy a 7-series when they could be driving an M5 is beyond me. It's the cruiser boat of bimmers.

[thom]

5 series guys are worse. Can't afford the 7 series but they see themselves as asshole hot shots.

[CE]

And think they are good drivers.

[Zeb]

Are you trying to tell us you drive a BMW?

[db]

Yes. I am a vain and loathsome person.

[Lord Humungus]

well we knew that...

[db]

To be honest, it's a low bar to clear around here.

[Aresen]

There is a secret test you have to take to buy a Porsche.

You have to prove to the dealership that you are an asshole.

[Enough About Palin]

A
Car
Unquestionably
Relocating
Assholes

[Loki]

the Dodge Charger is quickly taking their place.

I'm sure that has nothing to do with more police departments switching to the Charger either. It's just a coincidence...

[Brandon]

I drive a blue BMW.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!

[Homple]

I'm carried in a sedan chair by liveried servants.

[CE]

Can yours walk 10 miles without a break? Mine are always griping about one thing or another.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

3 series drivers are all wannabe house flippers.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I'm back from overseas, miss me?

Guys just wanna have fun ? by stripping down and posing for sexy 'dudeoir' pec-torials

Which one is Epi?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

WILL. NOT. CLICK.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

You can't resist - you know it.

[invisible furry hand]

Jesus, as if more narcissism were needed in this world

Finance worker and former Marine Mark H, who asked The Post not to publish his last name for professional reasons

Publishing a picture of him looking like a tit however won't affect his professional standing.

[mad libertarian guy]

IFH!

You like Opeth. You NEED to hear Gris.

[invisible furry hand]

Thanks mate! Started listening and am intrigued

[Loki]

"The room's startin' to spin... 'cause of the gayness..."

[Francisco d Anconia]

And now the NSA is going to think I was surfing gay porn.

[mad libertarian guy]

You weren't?

[Bobarian]

I think the NSA knows the difference between surfing and downloading. Your post isn't gonna fool them.

[Lord Humungus]

research!! It's just research!

[fish]

Which one is Epi?

All of them are a little Epi. Or have a little Epi. I get confused.

[Aresen]

"I'm back from overseas, miss me?"

If you had to ask, you didn't have to ask.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Cory Booker and Steve Lonegan have won their respective party primaries and will face off against each other in the special election for Senate in New Jersey.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the next man to beat Hillary in a presidential primary.

[Drake]

I accidentally watched 15 seconds of one of the Dem primary debates. Booker was speaking in meaningless vagaries about "strengthening" Social Security.

I have no idea what he really meant but he sounded great - the low-information blues will eat it up.

[JW]

low-information blues

Wait, there's a another kind?

[invisible furry hand]

there's the too-much-information blues:

Woke up this morning
Got me the blues
Damn anal rash ain't cleared
Herpes ain't too
And that weird sort of jabby pain I had last night in my side, kind of near my appendix but not, you know where i mean, well it's not really cleared up even though I been takin' some ibuprofen for an hour or two

[Aresen]

I accidentally watched 15 seconds of one of the Dem primary debates. Booker was speaking in meaningless vagaries about "strengthening" Social Security.

I have no idea what he really meant but he sounded great - the low-information blues will eat it up.

The meaning is quite simple: "I want to throw more of other people's money at it."

[PapayaSF]

+Billions

[CE]

Easy. "Strengthening" Social Security means raising the taxable limit for high income workers, with no corresponding increase in benefits.

[anon]

No way, that's reserved for Chris Christie.

[Robert]

Didn't Booker say something libertarian-ish about 2 yrs. ago? That's good enough for me to be glad he won the Dem nom. And Lonegan had to have been by far the libertarianest Republican in the race, right?

[R C Dean]

Even for a union-hellhole-Dem-machine politician, Booker is unusually corrupt.

The latest I heard was that somebody had put his 14-year old nephew(?) on a board of directors, which I'm sure had a phat littel comp package to go with it.

[a better weapon]

A new wifi system at the British Museum inadvertently banned access to Hamlet because it was "violent content."

You have to opt-in for Shakespeare... for the childrenz.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

*golf clap*

[Pro Libertate]

I don't think the royal family is a good environment for children, either.

[Lord Humungus]

Instructor shoots student in Columbus gun safety class

3-year-old Terry J. Dunlap Sr. was demonstrating a handgun at a training facility on Saturday when he fired a bullet that ricocheted off a desk and into the right arm of 26-year-old Michael Piemonte.

The student says the .38-caliber bullet hit him between his elbow and armpit. He says many of the students in the class were nurses who helped stabilize him before he was transported to a Columbus hospital.

Piemonte tells the newspaper it appears Dunlap didn't know the gun was loaded. Dunlap hasn't responded to requests for comment.

[DJF]

73-year-old Terry J. Dunlap Sr

[Lord Humungus]

I blame FoE

[Fist of Etiquette]

It just goes to show, toddlers shouldn't be firearm safety instructors.

[mr simple]

Don't you tell me how to raise my kids.

[Gbob]

In fairness, his small fingers made it difficult to engage the safety.

[bmp1701]

3-year-old Terry J. Dunlap Sr.

He left the gun in the custody of his 1-year-old son, Terry J. Dunlap Jr.

[Enough About Palin]

Fun Fact: Both Dunlaps fuck cougars.

[Zeb]

Not much of a gun instructor. I seem to remember something about basic essential rules of safe gun handling.

[fish]

3-year-old Terry J. Dunlap Sr.

Shooting people in the arm....and a Sr. already!? That's one precocious kid!

[Brandon]

I wonder how much he's getting for his socks?

[CE]

Why was a 3-year-old the instructor anyway?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

A mathematician walks into a bar and asks for ten times the normal number of drinks anyone else has. "Wow," says the barkeep, "That's an order of magnitude."

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says "You're all idiots", and pours two beers.

Einstein, Pascal, and Newton are playing hide and go seek. Einstein is counting while Newton and Pascal hide. Pascal runs off and hides while Newton doesn't move an inch. Instead, he draws a square around himself in the dirt. After Einstein finishes counting, he opens his eyes and says, "Found you Newton! That was easy."
Newton says, "No you didn't. You found Pascal." He points down to the square in the dirt. "One Newton per meter squared."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

A mathematician and an engineer agreed to take part in a psychological test. They sat on one side of a room and waited not knowing what to expect. A door opened on the other side and a naked woman came in the room and stood on the far side. They were then instructed that every time they heard a beep they could move half the remaining distance to the woman. They heard a beep and the engineer jumped up and moved halfway across the room while the mathematician continued to sit, looking disgusted and bored. When the mathematician didn't move after the second beep he was asked why. "Because I know I will never reach the woman." The engineer was asked why he chose to move and replied, "Because I know that very soon I will be close enough for all practical purposes!"

[Doctor Whom]

An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician agree to take part in a psychological study. In the first part, each participant must move a book from the floor to a table. Each of them does so.

In the second part, each participant must move a book from a first table to a second table. The engineer and the physicist each do so. The mathematician throws the book on the floor, says in a triumphant tone, "There! I have reduced the problem to one for which a solution is known to exist," and walks out.

[sarcasmic]

It's a boring news day, so a bored reporter goes to the pub where he finds a computer scientist and a mathematician having some beers. So he decides to interview them. He asks "You're in the basement and you want a cup of tea, what do you do?"
The mathematician replies "Well, you go upstairs to the kitchen, fill the pot of water, heat it, put a bag into your cup, and fill the cup with hot water." The computer scientist concurs.
The reporter then asks "You want a cup of tea and your in the kitchen. What do you do?"
The mathematician says "Oh that's even easier. You fill your pot wit water..."
"No!" the computer scientist interrupts. "You go to the basement, and from there you already know how to solve the problem!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

So a horny guy goes to a brothel, but he doesn't have much money, so they put him in a room where he gets to make love to a duck.

The next week, he has a bit more money, so they let him sit in the balcony and watch one of the other customers make love to an ugly prostitute. The guy complains that wasn't much fun, and another guy in the audience says, "at least you weren't here last week - some guy was doing it with a duck!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

So a worker goes to a psychologist and says, "doc, I have this compulsion to stick my penis in the pickle-slicer."

The doctor says, "try to restrain yourself."

The next week they guy says, "I didn't take your advice. I couldn't restrain myself, and I &^%$ed her but good!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

So a priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender says, "is this some kind of joke?"

[invisible furry hand]

A woman walks into a bar and asks for a double entendre, so the barman gives her one

[Eduard van Haalen]

So a guy walks into a bar and tells the bartender, "I have this great Polish joke."

The bartender replies, "look, I'm polish, the bouncer over there is Polish, and the off-duty cop on the other end of the bar is Polish. Are you sure you want to tell that joke."

The guy says, "OK, but I'll tell it v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y."

[Eduard van Haalen]

So a Buddhist monk goes to the hot dog stand and tells the owner, "make me one with everything."

[Eduard van Haalen]

So a mathematician is hiring a secretary, and he interviews three candidates.

To test them, he asks them to solve Fermat's last theorem.

The first candidate says that if the great minds of history couldn't solve it she humbly excuses herself from trying.

The second gives it the old college try but can't solve it.

The third finds the square root of pi instead.

So which candidate does the mathematician hire?

The one with the big tits!

[sarcasmic]

A baby seal walks into a club. *BAM!*

[robc]

Andrew Wiles solved it.

[sarcasmic]

So a Buddhist monk goes to the hot dog stand and tells the owner, "make me one with everything."

That's funny. I'm stealing that one.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Too late, I stole it already.

[Eduard van Haalen]

A guy visits a physicist at his farm and says, "I have the gift of talking to animals."

The physicist says, "I believe in the scientific method, so prove your assertion."

The guy asks the physicist's dog, "what did you do today?"

The dog replies, "well, my master too me outside, gave me a walk, then fed me."

The physicist says, "wow that's impressive! But I warn you that my sheep are all liars."

[Eduard van Haalen]

A horny engineer goes to a brothel. The madam says, "you know, we've unionized since the last time you were here."

"That's OK," says the engineer, "does Nikki still work here."

"Yes," says the madam.

"Good," says the engineer, "I'll take her."

"Sorry, sir," says the madam, "Bertha here has seniority."

[Eduard van Haalen]

A guy visits a computer programmer at his farm. He notices a pig with a peg leg.

"That's Bess," says the programmer. "Last year she rescued me from a fire. Six months ago she solved a glitch in my software. And yesterday she solved a personnel problem with my graduate students."

"That's impressive," says the guy. "But why the peg leg."

"Well," says the programmer, "a pig like that you don't eat all at once."

[sarcasmic]

How many flies does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Two. But no one knows how they get in there.

[sarcasmic]

How many computer programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

None. That's a hardware issue.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Want to see a math problem?

How Long is a Chinese mathematician.

[sarcasmic]

How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

*wait for the person to start to answer and then interrupt with*

ONE GOD DAMMIT!

[SweatingGin]

How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

THAT'S NOT FUNNY!

[Atanarjuat]

How many Vietnam vets did it take to screw in that lightbulb...?

YOU DON'T KNOW, MAN, YOU WEREN'T THERE!

[Eduard van Haalen]

A physicist walks into a bar. He's really plastered, and he's leading an elephant on a leash.

"Sorry, sir," says the bartender, "we don't let elephants in the bar."

So the physicist comes back later, still with the elephant, but this time there are slices of bread on the elephant's head and belly.

"I told you we don't let elephants in here," said the bartender.

"Elephant?" says the physicist. "This is a *sandwich!*"

[anon]

A hydrogen atom loses an electron and goes down to the police department to file a report.

"Are you sure your electron is missing?"

"I'm positive!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

A brunette mathematician and a blonde biologist are in a car. The mathematician says, "is that cop car behind us flashing its lights?"

The biologist answers, "yes, no, yes, no, yes, no..."

[Eduard van Haalen]

An engineer in a panda costume comes into a bar. He orders a sandwich, fires his gun into the mirror, blows away several bottles of Scotch, and starts walking out the door.

"Hey," says the bartender, "what's the big deal?"

"I happen to have studied pandas," says the engineer, "and it says that a panda eats, shoots and leaves."

[R C Dean]

Give me a break. A union member would never "sir" a customer.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Give me a break. A union member would never "sir" a customer."

Ah, but the madam is management. By law, she *cannot* be a union member.

[Francisco d Anconia]

So a guy walks into a bar and tells the bartender, "I have this great Polish joke."

The bartender replies, "look, I'm polish, the bouncer over there is Polish, and the off-duty cop on the other end of the bar is Polish. Are you sure you want to tell that joke."

The guy says, "OK, but I'll tell it v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y."

Alternate punchline:

"Well, not if I'm going to need to explain it three times."

[anon]

The "explain it three times" punchline is way better.

[sarcasmic]

Three pregnant women are waiting to see the doctor.

A brunette giggles and says "He was on top so I'm going to have a boy."

Another brunette giggles and says "I was on top so I'm going to have a girl.

The blonde bursts into tears and cries "I'm going to have puppies!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

A physicist, a mathematician and a biologist are all sentenced to death by firing squad.

When they're about to shoot the mathematician, yells "hurricane!" and the firing squad disperses in panic, so the mathematician gets away.

When they're about the shoot the physicist, he shouts "stampeding bulls!" and the firing squad disperses in panic, so the physicist gets away.

When they're about the shoot the biologist, he yells "fire!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

An engineer, a computer programmer and a sociologist are being chased by the police, and they go into the woods and hide up in three trees.

The cops come to the tree where the engineer is, but the engineer imitates an owl - "who, who," and the cops are fooled and leave.

The cops come to the second tree, where the computer programmer imitates a nightingale, and the cops are fooled and leave.

The cops come to the third tree, and the sociologist says "mooooo!"

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ok, the Polish joke made me laugh. I miss those Newfie jokes.

A drunk Newfie was stumbling home one day when he got lost and found himself in the bush. He fell to the ground and noticed a lamp. He picked it up, and rubbed it, and out came a genie.

"You have three wishes, choose them wisely." says the Genie.

The Newfie, looking down at his last, and empty, bottle of beer, smashes it on some rocks and says, "I want a beer that will never run out."

A bottle appears in front of the Newfie. He takes it, looks at it, and downs it. He looks at it again, and to his surprise, it was still full. The Newfie being very content starts walking away.

"Where are you going," asks the Genie, "You still have two wishes left!"

"Well," replies the Newfie, "Give me TWO more of these!"

[Robert]

I thought the computer scientist would just say you call the mathematician and ask him to come up & make tea.

[CE]

As if either one would know what to do when they got to her.

[Marc F Cheney]

Math jokes are the worst.

Hitler told math jokes is what I'm saying.

[Doctor Whom]

The Buddha, Jesus, and Martin Luther King would all have posted math jokes on the Internet if they had been able to do so.

[Gbob]

Buddah's are all stupid Koans, though. Bunch of nonsense about one hand clapping or the shape of your face before you were born. Those are worse than math jokes.

[Eduard van Haalen]

How do you make a dead baby float?

Root beer, two scoops of ice cream, and a dead baby.

[Eduard van Haalen]

...so the hard-of-hearing genie gives the guy a 12-inch pianist.

[Eduard van Haalen]

So a guy with a chicken on his head goes to the doctor, and the chicken says, "doc, can you remove this ugly wart from my butt?"

[invisible furry hand]

Knock knock

Who's there?

Control freak. Now you say "control freak who?"

[kinnath]

Mrs. Johnson answers a knock at the door and finds one of the neighborhood kids there. Billy says, "Can Tommy come out to play baseball with us, Mrs. Johnson?". Mrs. Johnson replies, "That's not nice Billy. You know Tommy doesn't have any arms or legs.". Billy replies, "That's OK. We need a new third base."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

How do you get a nun pregnant?

Fuck her.

[bmp1701]

What's the best way to pick up a Jewish girl?

A Dust Buster.

[anon]

How do you make copper wire?

Throw a penny between two jews.

[sarcasmic]

What's the object of a Jewish football game?

To get the quarter back.

[sarcasmic]

How did the blonde get pregnant?

And you call us stupid?

[Slammer]

A priest and a rabbi are out for a walk. They walk past an elementary school at the end of the school day.

The priest says, "Hey, see that little boy over there? Let's take him in the bushes and fuck him."

The rabbi says, "Fuck him out of what?"

[mad libertarian guy]

How can you tell who the king of Ethiopia is?

He's the one with the watch around his waist.

[Zeb]

Starving Ethiopian jokes are a bit dated at this point.

[Bobarian]

What do you call a girl with one leg?

Ilene.

What do you call a chinese girl with one leg?

Irene

[Joe M]

Knock knock?

Who's there?

Secret Police.

Secret Police who?

VE vill ask zee questions here!

[Ptah-Hotep]

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the midst of the French Revolution the revolting citizens led a priest, a drunkard and an engineer to the guillotine. They ask the priest if he wants to face up or down when he meets his fate. The priest says he would like to face up so he will be looking towards heaven when he dies. They raise the blade of the guillotine and release it. It comes speeding down and suddenly stops just inches from his neck. The authorities take this as divine intervention and release the priest.

The drunkard comes to the guillotine next. He also decides to die face up, hoping that he will be as fortunate as the priest. They raise the blade of the guillotine and release it. It comes speeding down and suddenly stops just inches from his neck. Again, the authorities take this as a sign of divine intervention, and they release the drunkard as well.

Next is the engineer. He, too, decides to die facing up. As they slowly raise the blade of the guillotine, the engineer suddenly says, "Hey, I see what your problem is ..."

[Zeb]

Three Canadians are out in the Woods of Quebec on a hunting trip. After eating dinner they are just killing some time before it's time to go to sleep and they decide to play a game of twenty questions.
One of them says "OK, I've got one, go ahead and guess". His friends think for a bit and one asks "Can you eat it?". "Yes". The third man asks "Is it moose cock?" "Yep, you're right. Moose cock."

[Eduard van Haalen]

For a while there, I wasn't sure if I would breathe again. Good job.

[CampingInYourPark]

"Unease at Clinton Foundation Over Finances and Ambitions"

The review echoed criticism of Mr. Clinton's early years in the White House: For all of its successes, the Clinton Foundation had become a sprawling concern, supervised by a rotating board of old Clinton hands, vulnerable to distraction and threatened by conflicts of interest. It ran multimillion-dollar deficits for several years, despite vast amounts of money flowing in.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08.....tions.html

[DJF]

But look how good a job Clinton did rebuilding New Orleans and Haiti.

[Bam!]

He should hire Newt Gingrich.

[CampingInYourPark]

+1 Moonbase

[BardMetal]

Hey if the government is going to waste money then they should at least waste it on something as cool as a moon base.

[Pro Libertate]

With purple-haired women and cool spaceships.

[Francisco d Anconia]

+1 Skydiver

Wife just bought me the whole series.

[Pro Libertate]

I was also thinking the Space:1999 Eagle, but I loved the interceptors and other excellent spacecraft in U.F.O.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Were there purple haired chicks in Space 1999 too? Or did you confuse the two? I can't remember.

[Pro Libertate]

Purple hair is U.F.O. only.

[CE]

And sharks with laser beams on their heads.

[mad libertarian guy]

But not before I can get me some respectable internet access. The best I can get is a 3 mbit DSL line which absolutely blows.

[Zeb]

I'd take it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Listen, liberal inefficiencies, waste and corruption is perfectly normal since they mean well. The intent is good.

Conservative misbehavior on the other hand...evil! Hecubis!

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Secret Service has released the first 100 out of 14,500 pages of documents related to their investigation of Aaron Swartz.

MIT, that innocent dupe of the Justice Department, tried to block the release.

[John]

Why the hell would the Secret Service have been investigating Aaron Swartz. He wasn't counterfeiting or engaging in any financial fraud and never threatened the President. The mere fact that the Secret Service did anything is very strong evidence that the Administration is using law enforcement to go after political enemies.

[Andrew S.]

I don't know why anyone would think that's surprising, or that anyone would think that the Obama administration is the first to do so. What may be happening is the Obama administration is the first one stupid enough to make it look so obvious.

[John]

No. The secret Service are assholes and investigated people for making idle threats. But to my knowledge no President, not even Nixon has used them to go after people for political purposes. And understand, this wasn't even for the benefit of Obama. Swartz was a threat to big donors in the entertainment industry. This is the USS being used as an enforcer for big copyright. That is something very new and very scary.

[VG Zaytsev]

Never hear of Kim Dotcom?

[John]

And that was Obama.

[mad libertarian guy]

What may be happening is the Obama administration is the first one stupid enough to make it look so obvious.

Why is it stupid?

Obama has already shown that he can kill Americans with only after-the-fact powerpoint due process, run guns to some of the most dangerous criminals in the world who, in turn, kill Americans with said guns, drone innocent children around the world, and openly spy on Americans without so much as a challenge from the media. Why should he be worried about getting what he deserves with anything he does?

[UnCivilServant]

The Secret Service has jurisdiction over computer crimes. it's even on their website. I found that years ago, when it wasn't yet a dumb idea to visit a government website.

[John]

I did not know that. Wow.

[Lord Humungus]

Video: Top 10 William Shatner'??s Captain Kirk Fight Moves

[Fist of Etiquette]

It better be heavy with the shoulder rolls.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, Captain Tracy kicked his ass. A couple of times. I think they should do a new series based on Captain Tracy, before the whole violating-the-Prime-Directive thingee.

[invisible furry hand]

Starting this fall, people in Berlin who rent out apartment space for short periods could face steep fines. Politicians say the measure will help combat ballooning rents. But opponents counter that it is a gift to the hotel industry as it battles competition from companies like Airbnb.

more

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

You know who else had a dispute about Berlin real estate?

[UnCivilServant]

Stalin?

[bmp1701]

JFK?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Terri Nunn?

[mad libertarian guy]

AirBnB fucking rules.

[CE]

Isn't every hotel renting out apartment space for a short time?

[a better weapon]

The Secret Service has released the first 100 out of 14,500 pages of documents related to their investigation of Aaron Swartz.

The first 100 is just a sample. The other 14,400 pages are behind a paywall.

[Ted S.]

The other 14,400 pages have been redacted.

[Slammer]

University of Michigan study says just because people are smarter doesn't mean they're not racist, just better at hiding it. Conclusion: if you don't support affirmative action, you are racist.

[Steve G]

What/where was that recent factoid about people who are less PC are actually less racist?

[Knarf Yenrab (prev. An0nB0t)]

"High-ability whites are less likely to report prejudiced attitudes and more likely to say they support racial integration in principle," said Geoffrey Wodtke, a doctoral candidate in sociology. "But they are no more likely than lower-ability whites to support open housing laws and are less likely to support school busing and affirmative action programs."

I'm no doctoral candidate in sociology, but in my neck of the woods, this is called begging the question. In defense of sociology Ph.D.s, however, I have heard that they are quite good at taking dictation and organizing files.

[UnCivilServant]

But, school bussing and affrimitive action programs are rascist.

I have no clue what he means by "open housing laws", but guilt by association implies that there's something innately sinister about the precepts upon which it is wrought.

[UnCivilServant]

Yeah, I'm a bit slow today. I blame the massive management meeting coming up draining my ability to think.

[mad libertarian guy]

Nothing says intellectual honesty like starting with the conclusion that not supporting affirmative action is ipso facto racist.

[Francisco d Anconia]

There's a disconnect between the attitudes intelligent whites support in principle and their attitudes toward policies designed to realize racial equality in practice.

Um...which policies support equality, exactly?

"More intelligent members of the dominant group are just better at legitimizing and protecting their privileged position than less intelligent members," he said. "In modern America, where blacks are mobilized to challenge racial inequality, this means that intelligent whites say?and may in fact truly believe?all the right things about racial equality in principle, but they just don't actually do anything that would eliminate the privileges to which they have become accustomed.

Whites must sacrifice and suffer so that blacks can be more equal.

This bullshit was actually published?

[Homple]

"The purpose of a college education is to give you the correct view of minorities, and the means to live as far away from them as possible."
~Joseph Sobran

[R C Dean]

I see the "privilege" word, and I know I am dealing with someone who has marinated far too long in campus-lefty fantasyland where a homeless white person is ipso facto a benefeciary of racism and a wealthy black executive is a "victim".

[Fist of Etiquette]

92 percent of federal employees oppose Obamacare.

Leaking their own opinion to pollsters is grounds for investigation. 8% of them should be reporting their colleagues to Attack Watch right now.

[a better weapon]

They must really have trusted the anonymity of poll. I don't see how it could be that high 1) because they're all brown tongued worshipers of the state and 2) even if they have their doubts, should know damn well by now to keep it to themselves lest they be punished.

[Drizzle]

92 percent of federal employees are racist!!!11

[mad libertarian guy]

92 percent of federal employees oppose Obamacare.

That's not right.

92% of federal employees oppose having Obamacare apply to them. They're fucking fine with Obamacare for the rest of us.

[Fatty Bolger]

Yes, exactly. Inconvenient laws are supposed to be for their benefit, and only inconvenient for other people.

[Lord Humungus]

Jennifer Silva: Working-class youth are 'privatizing happiness'

When Jennifer M. Silva was a graduate student looking around for a dissertation topic, she began to notice a genre of self-help books targeted to people her age suffering from a "quarter-life crisis." The now-familiar premise was that privileged modern twentysomethings are overwhelmed with opportunities: Should they travel or marry, go back to school or settle down in a career? A first-generation college student herself, Silva had been tracing the country's growing income inequality in her sociology research at the University of Virginia, and it occurred to her that contemporary working-class adults were suffering from a very different kind of crisis: a complete absence of choices.

Silva, who is now at Harvard University on a postdoctoral fellowship, set out to talk with some of these young people about how they were managing the transition to adulthood in the post-industrial economy. In 100 in-depth, in-person interviews, she found a new working-class adult "bewildered in the labor market, betrayed by institutions, distrustful of love, disconnected from others, and committed to emotional growth."

[Bam!]

We need a World War to thin out the herd.

[Steve G]

No shit. Translation: First World Problems.

[Atanarjuat]

Nah, that would tend to kill off men who are brave, fit, and have integrity. In fact, the last few wars might have been the problem.

[VG Zaytsev]

The problem with that idea is that douchebags like Silva would be the ones to survive it.

[KMA Too]

Maybe just a series of small, controlled nuclear detonations in university areas?

[Bobarian]

A good cleansing plague?

[Marc F Cheney]

If anyone needs a job, they could start a waahmbulance service.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Can one be both "disconnected from others" and "committed to emotional growth?"

Seems to me these kids are a quarter of the way to nihilism. Nietzsche forward!

Or, that's why they like to strike in the streets like they did in Quebec with the student protests demanding "free" university education.

Either way, sell your bonds?

[SugarFree]

Nietzsche despised nihilism and nihilists.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I know. My reference was more to remind us of that.

[John]

Yes he did. It was his best quality.

[Slammer]

"What's a nihilist?"

"Shut the fuck up, Donnie"

[mad libertarian guy]

Silva, who is now at Harvard University on a postdoctoral fellowship

That's academic code for "couldn't get a job."

[R C Dean]

a new working-class adult "bewildered in the labor market, betrayed by institutions, distrustful of love, disconnected from others, and committed to emotional growth."

Based on my personal sample of working-class-type people, I can say that "emotional growth" is a concept that never crosses their minds. To their credit.

[a better weapon]

92 percent of federal employees oppose Obamacare.

Woah, that's actually very surprising.

[Ted S.]

They probably fear they'll be forced into inferior coverage than what they're currently getting at our expense.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Why? Because 8% would give up their gold plated benefits, or that they didn't know better?

[a better weapon]

I've never taken them for reasonable creatures, I guess.

Even if they are trading their current benefits for inferior ones, I assumed they'd still be cheering this shit on.

[Lord Humungus]

Man asked to clean up after dog pulls gun

When the victim asked the man to clean up after his dog defecated, he told police the man became upset.

A short time later. the man who had the dog returned and was very irate, according to the report.

He told the victim he was associated with the mafia and proceeded to raise his shirt, brandish a handgun and point it at the man, according to the report.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

My first thought was, "Whoah, a dog that can pull a gun? Nice trick!"

I'm disappointed now.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

No kidding - I was going to find out the breed that could draw down on someone, and go get one!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

That'd just give cops another excuse to shoot. "That dog was going for his gun!!"

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Hmmm.... good point, hadn't considered the po-po response.

[Post-Coital Rat]

That's a beautiful headline.

[Fatty Bolger]

Truly it is.

A picture of the perpetrator.

[CE]

"Dog Shoots Cop"?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hm. I was always under the impression real mobsters don't advertise.

[db]

And they don't appreciate non-mobsters using the brand.

[invisible furry hand]

We're billions in the red, so why not spunk away $350 million to buy back guns from people who won't commit crimes with them?

more

[a better weapon]

"We need strong action to reduce the number of handguns falling into the wrong hands. They have become the firearm of choice for criminals in Australia, especially in the drug trade and in gangs,"

Funny, the conclusion of my logic says it will drastically tip the balance in favor of those "wrong-handed" people who have guns or are hell bent on obtaining one.

From what, admittedly little, news I see from Australia, I've decided that it must be a very frustrating country to live in.

[UnCivilServant]

The wrong hands are those which have qualified immunity. Those hands must not carry arms.

[mad libertarian guy]

We need strong action to reduce the number of handguns falling into the wrong hands.

I thought they had already done that when they made handguns illegal.

[Lord Humungus]

Quiche thieves in five-hour police seige

The raiders broke into Cafe@Marshalls in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, in the early hours to get their hands on some food.

But when police surrounded the premises, they armed themselves with knives and a five-hour siege ensued.

Angela Marshall, who runs the cafe with her husband, said: ''Apparently they were hungry and wanted some quiche.

[Ted S.]

Oh, those wacky Kiwis....

'Sleep driver' travels 300km, sends texts

[mr simple]

"We have sought an urgent order forbidding her to drive and to seek medical advice on her suitability to remain holding her driver's licence," senior sergeant Dave Litton said.

Yeah, she definitely won't sleep drive if you take away her license. Fucking idiots.

[Knarf Yenrab (prev. An0nB0t)]

It is a little-known fact that in 2008, Kiwiland passed legislation establishing that all laws are to be considered descriptive rather than normative.

So, problem solved.

[invisible furry hand]

if driving without a licence is strict liability there, then it does, because it incentivizes her to get rid of her car and otherwise minimise the risk she will sleep-drive

[Lord Humungus]

What Papa John's doesn't want you to know about their food

By not disclosing what's in its food, Papa John's is revealing that it doesn't think too much of its customers. It is either asking customers for blind trust or assuming people are too stupid and complacent to ask questions. When we do ask questions, they refuse to answer. At least that was my experience, both when I approached Papa John's as a journalist and a customer. This strikes me as a foolish approach in an age when American eaters are demanding more transparency (see GMO labeling) when it comes to food, not less. For some reason, Papa John's has failed to realize that when you hoist your entire brand up on the idea of high-quality food, you'd better be able to back it up.

[John]

As long as I like the pizza and it doesn't make me sick, what do I care about all that is in it?

[Zeb]

And if you did care that much about what ingredients went into your food, you probably wouldn't be eating shitty pizza from a chain.

[a better weapon]

This strikes me as a foolish approach in an age when American eaters our editorial staffers are demanding more transparency (see GMO labeling) when it comes to food

[Andrew S.]

If only there was some way to show your dismay, by, say, not eating there. Alas. Papa John showed up himself at my house last night, held a gun to my head, and forced me to order a pizza.

[John]

But these people think everyone must cater to their tastes and values. Nothing can ever exist outside the collective.

[robc]

Papa John showed up himself at my house last night, held a gun to my head, and forced me to order a pizza.

We live in walking range (google maps says 2.1 miles) of each other, so he could easily do this to me.

[robc]

38.271911, -85.536885 if anyone cares.

[db]

Nice personal golf course.

[playa manhattan]

+1 monocle

[UnCivilServant]

The location near me went out of business mere months after opening - couldn't compete with the local pizzarias, who had actual quality food.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well, it's how I see it.

I just a place by the quality. If PJ's doesn't want to tell me if they use "parmesan" instead of the real stuff (parmiggiano) then I don't eat there.

I want true, legit ingredients on my pizza, dammit!

[Rasilio]

While I will readily agree that your local pizzaria is probably better (especially if you live northeast of Philly) I find Papa Johns to be by far the best of the national chain delivery pizza companies

[mad libertarian guy]

While I will readily agree that your local pizzaria is probably better (especially if you live northeast of Philly) I find Papa Johns to be by far the best of the national chain delivery pizza companies

Yes.

It's a bonus for me that PJs is 1 of but 2 places that will deliver to my house, and the 2nd place isn't pizza.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I like Dominos.

[The Last American Hero]

+1 80's Metal Pizza Tracker

[CE]

But Papa John himself says on TV they have "better ingredients" in every ad.

[RightofCenter]

By not disclosing how he's spying on his citizens, Obama is revealing that he doesn't think too much of his subjects. He is either asking subjects for blind trust or assuming people are too stupid and complacent to ask questions. When we do ask questions, he refuses to answer.

PFTFY

(partially fixed that for you. too lazy to retype the whole thing)

[John]

I remember when people used to write books fantasizing about killing the President and were lauded for it. I remember when wearing a Nixon mask was something people did at Halloween or in movies. And now, a rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask is a national scandal? Good thing electing a black President made our society so much more free and open.

[Bam!]

Really, it's an insult to rodeo clowns.

[Gbob]

That's when we elected mere mortals rather than a god king. Nixon never made the ocean levels lower, or made the world love us.

You racist.

[CampingInYourPark]

"Obama-mask clown gets lifetime Missouri fair ban."

An Obama-mask clown at the Missouri State Fair was banned for life, after photos and video asking a crowd if they wanted to see Obama 'run down by a bull' went viral. The crowd cheered. Fair officials dubbed the stunt 'unconscionable.'

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/D.....-too-harsh

[a better weapon]

I haven't even bothered asking why a Nixon mask is any different. I know I'll just get some stupid "but this is different" tripe.

Team Bluers gonna Team, unfortunately.

[The DerpRider]

They gave Patrick Swayze cancer for doing the same thing in Point Break.

[Zeb]

I imagine that the getting run down by a bull thing was more significant to the outraged than the mask by itself. Still stupid.

[Tim]

That guy should be ruined. His kids denied an education and everyone he knows publicly humiliated.

[mr simple]

Denied education? How can you even fathom allowing his genetic line to continue?

[mad libertarian guy]

Good point. Buck v Bell is still law of the land . . .

[Raven Nation]

In an e-mail exchange with a friend about this, he shot me a Voltaire quote I had not seen before:

"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."

On the other hand, as a Kansas grad, it is required of me to not be surprised by any level of stupidity emerging from the state of Missouri.

[invisible furry hand]

I had wondered if being banned from the Missouri State Fair was such a terrible punishment

[Raven Nation]

Anytime I drive through Missouri, I make sure to wash my car when I get out.

[CE]

Is it just the one Woolworth's, or the whole chain?

[John]

That is a great quote. The question is are they doing this out of strength or as a sign of weakness. I can see it being either. Maybe they really feel they now own society and can finally crack down they way they have always dreamed of doing. But it may also be that they are so weak and insecure that they feel they must overreact to every criticism or mockery no matter how small.

[Bardas Phocas]

They could make the arguement it is strength -- but, really - it's a Rodeo Clown making fun of a politician AND the redneck crowd joined in, heaping scorn and derision on the Emperor.

[Rasilio]

You want to know something REALLY stupid about this.

Obama's approaval ratings would go up by 5 points at a minimum if he came out with a strongly worded statement against this, something along the lines of...

"I think the Fair officals were wrong, They certainly have the right to set whatever terms they want for people working at their Fair but satire of public officials has always been one of the hallmarks of American society and just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean you should. People take politics too seriously, he's an entertainer and the crowd was obviously entertained so he was doing his job right and should not be punished for that just because some people take offense on my behalf.

As for me, I know that being the but of jokes comes with the job and if I wasn't big enough to handle that I'd have never run for office.

What I'd like to say to those who complained about this is to redirect your anger, stop being upset about trivial things, some people just won't like me and that is the same for every politician that has existed, save it for those cases where people are irrationally attacking my policies and even then make calm reasoned arguments in favor of them, don't waste your time and energy being upset because someone makes fun at my expense, I'm big enough to handle it and you should be too.

Finally, to the directors of the Missouri State Fair, I ask you to please do me a favor and rescind this decision in the name of free speech."

[John]

Yeah. If Obama had just been what he claimed to be, a black politician who didn't use racism as a political club, people would have loved him. Shit, I might have voted for him. But he could never be that. His white supporters would never have allowed it. For them racism is about feeling superior to other whites. And no way would they let any politician deprive them of their ability to feel smug.

[R C Dean]

They'd go up ten points if he delivered that statement wearing the mask.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

The state of Missery

[mr simple]

I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missouri.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon."
- Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals

[Homple]

The lefties understand this very well, hence their outrage and crackdown.

"The Rodeo Clown incident was all about Obama's skin. Not its color, its thinness."
-Iowahawk, twittering again

[PRX]

Kathryn Bigelow will never work in this town again.

[mr simple]

FTA:
Many people present clapped and cheered, according to one witness, Perry Beam.

"It was feeling like some kind of Klan rally," said Mr. Beam.

I just can't even...

[mad libertarian guy]

SOmeone needs to go kick Mr. Beam in the clam.

[VG Zaytsev]

And now, a rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask is a national scandal?

It's like something from Franco's Spain.

[CatoTheElder]

" And now, a rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask is a national scandal?"

Yes, indeed!

And it's not a phony scandal like those involving the IRS, Benghazi, F&F, Holder's factual misstatements, NSA surveillance, etc., etc.

This time it's the real thing!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Dianne Feinstein, meanwhile, would like a restrictive definition of "journalist" for protections offered under a proposed shield law legislation.

A new protected class based on profession. What could be fairer?

[John]

And the government would never use the power to define "journalist" to bully and intimidate people into not publishing things the government doesn't like. Never. I am not sure if Feinstein is just so stupid she doesn't understand that or if she understands it perfectly well and thinks it is a great idea.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Oh, she and Dick Durbin, while stupid, perfectly well understand what they are doing in this case.

[CatoTheElder]

Once the facts are established, it's time to quit giving them the benefit of doubt.

Feinstein and her lot are both stupid and evil.

[Tim]

I'll go with "Just Stupid" for $500 Alex.

[Knarf Yenrab (prev. An0nB0t)]

That's my chief DiFi problem: I can't tell whether she's a nominally well-intentioned, born-in-a-bubble Dem who stumbled into an office that allows her to redirect public funds to her hubby Biden-style or if she's just a sociopath.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

She's a sociopath or at least chooses not to learn which, in this instance, is indistinguishable.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yep, she's a power mad sociopath.

[R C Dean]

Personally, I go with born-in-the-bubble sociopathic Dem, etc.

[Robert]

So everyone just pair off with someone and trade a story a year with the other, saying $1 passed between you back & forth for the sale.

[CE]

So, you really do want to subscribe to my newsletter.

[Lord Humungus]

Death wish, the sequel

In a pair of decisions that ran 234 pages, Judge Shira Scheindlin found the stops of those people police deem suspicious unconstitutional. She blasted the NYPD for racial bias and for its "deliberate indifference to constitutional deprivations" of those who are stopped. Her remedies include a court-appointed monitor to institute the court-decreed reforms she believes necessary.

None of this comes as a surprise. Scheindlin has long been vocal about her opposition to stop-and-frisk. She has always harbored deep misgivings about the police. Even before the trial began, she cited "powerful evidence of a widespread pattern of unlawful stops" and blasted the NYPD's "deeply troubling apathy toward New Yorkers' most fundamental constitutional rights."

[John]

Here is the sad fact. The police have gotten so bad they have turned the very people who were watching Death Wish in 1982 and rooting for Bronson into bleeding heart liberals who want the police stopped. Great job LEO unions. You have managed to almost completely piss away the trust you had with the public.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I'm more or less one of them. I don't trust them to enforce even the few laws with which I agree, let alone those that are just an expansion of state power into private transactions.

[John]

I am one of them as well. And I have a father and two brothers who are the same way. It is like I said on another thread, if the police have lost my former Marine Vietnam vet Republican voting father, they have lost a whole lot of people.

Mostly, what turned people was the DUI bullshit and the gun bullshit. Everyone always hated drunks who killed innocent people. But when the started the crusade against it, they just ended up harassing and fucking with a bunch of law abiding people who before had never had any issue with the cops. And now in the last ten years the cops have jumped on the anti gun band wagon. That pretty much ended any support they had among a big section of the working class right.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I've seen Scheindlin speek, she's not half-bad.

[Robert]

That one, or Judge Judy? The latter is entirely different in radio interviews than the character she plays.

[Apatheist ?_??]

The Federal Judge at a conference. Why would it be Judge Judy?

[Robert]

Her name is Scheindlin too, and it's more likely someone would've seen her speak.

[mad libertarian guy]

The major problem with this ruling is that she didn't find a flaw with the program, but with how it was being administered. Had the number of whites being SnF'd been closer to the number of minorities, she would have been fine with the policy.

When we can see bullshit like SnF be framed as a 4a issue and not a racial issue we'll be making progress. Until then we're stuck in identity politics hell where only groups are recognized rather than individuals.

[sarcasmic]

Meet the unassuming mothers, librarians and church-goers behind some of the world's raunchiest reads: The very ordinary lives of erotic fiction writers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....llers.html
Which one is SugarFree?

[invisible furry hand]

My money is on the one who says 'I write because I never see people like myself in any kind of romantic or erotic book...I'm black, bisexual, a working-class fat woman with a disability.'

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

My head, it asplode!

[Raven Nation]

A black, bisexual, disabled woman SHOULD be able to get any job she wants. She would check off four boxes on the diversity scale.

[Rasilio]

No, she couldn't get fired from any job in the country. Getting hired is a different matter entirely. If I was an employer I would hire ANYONE else before her because she is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

[Raven Nation]

Good point. But then she could sue for not getting hired on any number of discrimination claims.

[R C Dean]

Those cases are nearly impossible to win.

Once you hiring a walking/rolling lawsuit, though, you are well and truly fucked.

[a better weapon]

I'm not convinced she sees people like herself anywhere, in any setting, in realms physical and fictional.

[SugarFree]

I have been discovered! I flee!

[invisible furry hand]

You can't flee, you're too fat and disabled. Thin Privilege strikes again

[SugarFree]

Curses! To the Rascal Scooter!

[Drizzle]

The Handicapper General needs to add weight to the thin ones.

[Marc F Cheney]

Robin Hanson on inequality (via Cafe Hayek):

http://www.overcomingbias.com/.....bbing.html

[sarcasmic]

The new 'witch of Salem'? Woman 'had an eight-month sexual relationship with son, 11, of family friend'

Sarah Beth Hopkins has been charged with 20 counts of rape and sodomy
Mother of victim grew suspicious of their close relationship
Allegedly started in February and finished two weeks ago when the boy moved
Police believe there may be other victims

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....riend.html
John would...

[Bam!]

Exactly how is he the victim?

[Gbob]

Well, she is really fat. That could mess a kid up, and make him a chubby chaser or something.

[bmp1701]

Exactly how is he the victim?

She's a fattie.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

He's eleven fucking years old. Try not to be a pervert.

[Rasilio]

In a lot of these cases I would agree with BAM, but here I gotta say yeah, 11 is way too young.

If he was 14 maybe

[Zeb]

Yikes. But I probably would have when I was 11.

[The Late P Brooks]

Missouri State Fair officials have banned for life a rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask for a bit.

Just don't call it a personality cult.

[CampingInYourPark]

"The man who's suing the United Nations for bringing cholera to Haiti"

Haiti is ground zero for the humanitarian aid system. An influx of international aid agencies dates back decades; today, there are more NGOs per capita in Haiti than in any other country, except possibly India.

Then why did a virulent cholera epidemic break out after the earthquake? Why are over a hundred thousand Haitians who lost their homes in the temblor still homeless?

The answer to the first question might surprise you: the very people sent to Haiti to protect the country ? United Nations peacekeepers - brought the disease with them.

http://www.humanosphere.org/20.....-in-haiti/

[some guy]

Nearly 10,000 dead and over 300,000 hospitalized. They think they will be fighting the disease for a decade or more. This cholera outbreak could end up rivaling the quake in damage done. Good job, UN. Good job.

[Steve G]

Please.. it coulda been a fuckin tourist in an alternate reality. I chose to blame the 4th world conditions in that shithole for making it fertile ground for any number of outbreaks.

[anon]

Maybe if those haitians got off their fucking asses and did something for themselves they wouldn't be in the mess they're in.

I hope cholera wipes out the entire fucking country.

[Atanarjuat]

Troll or stupid?

[invisible furry hand]

It's a shiny strap-on for God:

The Communion Host Dispenser offers a touch-free solution to preparing and serving communion, helping to prevent the passing of germs. The Dispenser can reduce the cost by as much as 50 percent by reducing the time and personnel needed to prepare and serve communion all year long.

more

[sarcasmic]

Man caught sleeping illegally on a Texas beach was 'brutally beaten by two cops and held underwater' as dash-cam rolled

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....olled.html
Five cops punch and kick an unarmed man while holding his face underwater, and the internal investigation of course says it was an appropriate use of force.

[a better weapon]

At around 1.45am, the 34-year-old man was allegedly awakened by officer Jose Santos Jr, who asked Davis to get out of his vehicle and place his hands on the hood of the police cruiser.

What? How was he able to run to the beach if officers were standing, presumably outside his car.

Also, later on it says the officers say they saw him grab a bag and stuff it into his pocket in the car. If they saw him try and hide something, then they DEFINITELY wouldn't have let him just run away.

I bet they thought he was a drunk and brought him to the water so they could "sober him up! huh hu hehe."

[Drake]

The internal investigation has become the final insult after the ass-beating.

[mad libertarian guy]

Cops getting off is always the creampie ending of an epic ass fucking.

[Enough About Palin]

Missouri State Fair officials have banned for life a rodeo clown who wore an fellate Obama mask for a bit.

Hey Obama...Fuck you and your god damned cult.

[Bardas Phocas]

Too Sexy for Ayatollah.
She is very sexy.
http://english.alarabiya.net/e.....looks.html

[Lord Humungus]

Another Child Molester Takes Cyanide Pill After Conviction

An Alabama businessman, who was just convicted of a child sex molestation charge, died after apparently swallowing a cyanide pill following the verdict, according to Tuscaloosa medical authorities revealing details to the media on Tuesday.

William Thomas Moore Jr., 42, was being booked into jail in Tuscaloosa on Monday when he told court officers he had swallowed the pill. He died minutes later before EMS paramedics could arrive at the scene.

This is the third incident in just the past few months in which defendants, just convicted of child molestation charges, have killed themselves in court by secreting a cyanide pill on their persons and taking it before being officially taken into custody and serving out a long jail sentence.

Child molestation aside, would you do something like this if you were about to get a long jail term or life?

[Loki]

If only more of those sickos would follow this guy's lead...

Although it could be argued that he got off easy considering what tends to happen child molesters in prison.

[Atanarjuat]

That's probably why he did it.

A friend of mine was in prison for 7 years. He saw a group of guys cut off a child molester's dick in the showers.

[Gbob]

Seems to me that locking a person up in a cage for the rest of their lives is one of the cruelest things people can do to each other. Yeah, I would rather go out on my own terms than face that.

Where the hell are they buying cyanide pills from though?

[CampingInYourPark]

Seems to me that locking a person up in a cage for the rest of their lives is one of the cruelest things people can do to each other.

Yeah, that's a whole lot worse than molesting a child.

[John]

Torturing someone for years or even decades? Yes it is. I will tell you the same thing I tell Dunnphy. We pay for this thing called government and for cops and prisons so that criminals are treated humanly and justly. If we just wanted them tortured and abused, we could get the mob to do that for free.

[anon]

Sadly, I think the mob probably does a better job of protecting communities than your family friendly LEO's.

[Gbob]

Yeah, that's a whole lot worse than molesting a child.

Don't believe I said that it wasn't. More importantly, just because one thing is bad doesn't mean that the other thing isn't bad as well.

The difference, in my mind, is that my taxes don't go to molesting children. They do, however, go to torturing millions of Americans every day in our prison system. There has to be a better way to approach the problem of crime than what we currently have in place.

[John]

No. But I could understand why someone in that position would. But I think the fact that this is happening shows something is seriously out of whack in our society. Child molesters are bad. But they are not the worst criminals. There are worse people out there and worse crimes. But we have become so obsessed with this single crime that we seem to have lost all perspective about it. I don't see that as being a good thing.

[Ted S.]

During the Jerry Sandusky thing, I mentioned on other boards the Baylor basketbal scandal that involved a murder, and suggested that it's easier to recover from being sexually assaulted than it is to recover from being a cadaver.

You wouldn't believe the hyperventilating responses I got.

[John]

I would. And you were right. Murder is worse than rape. That is why we don't execute rapists. Worse, the attitude that it is is horribly demeaning to the victims. The attitude is that molestation is such a horrible crime and the victim is now totally fucked up for life. Really? What would you think about that statement if you were a victim? I don't think I would like hearing that very much.

[mr simple]

I can't believe you people are defending child molestation as not that bad. You have obviously not even known anyone who has been through that. This line of reasoning is disgusting.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Who said "not that bad"? Maybe a remedial course in English is in order.

[mr simple]

Hilarious coming from you and your inability to make a cogent argument.

[John]

I never said it wasn't that bad. i said it was not the worst crime. And it is insulting and demeaning to victims to say that it is worse than murder. If molestation is worse than murder, that means the victims of such would be better off dead. So if that is true, why not just kill them and put them out of their misery?

[mr simple]

That's a bullshit argument, John. First, you can't make an absolute comparison between the crimes. You haven't been through both to really make that determination. Some molestation victims would rather be dead and do take their own lives. It is insulting and demeaning to these people to say "Well, at least you aren't dead." Second, the only thing you can think of for people having a hard time dealing with being molested is to kill them? As if anyone can make that decision for someone else? For some people rape is psychological murder.

[Zeb]

For some people rape is psychological murder.

No it's not. That's absurd. Murder means you are no more. You are dead. You have no chance to recover. Calling any extreme trauma "psychological murder" is silly and insulting to the victims. You are telling them that they are effectively not people, or at least not themselves anymore.

You do make one good point, though. Because of the existential implications of murder (it is not an experience that the victim can really "go through" as there is no coming out of it), it really is impossible to compare it to rape in terms of the vitim;s experience. In a way, the real victims of a murder are the people who care about the murdered person.

[John]

Second, the only thing you can think of for people having a hard time dealing with being molested is to kill them?

No you half wit. I don't think that at all. I think just the opposite. You are the one saying they would be better off dead not me. Stop projecting.

[Zeb]

Uh, I do know people (My wife for example) who have been through that. And being murdered is definitely worse.

[BakedPenguin]

It depends when it happens. If the child is five or under, schizophrenia is almost inevitable in the victim. Six or seven, they will most likely have lifelong problems.

[John]

Most likely is not quite the same certitude as dead. Dead people will still be dead in the future.

Rape is not murder.

[BakedPenguin]

I didn't say it was. I just pointed out that it very often leaves victims totally fucked up for life.

[Brandon]

And "Very often" is not the same as "always." Murder always leaves victims totally dead. Killing a person is taking everything from them, everything they've ever been and ever would have been, past, present and future.

[Gray Ghost]

If the child is five or under, schizophrenia is almost inevitable in the victim.

That is a surprising result, given I thought schizophrenia was primarily genetic in origin. Do you have a link to a recent study supporting your claim?

[Zeb]

Yeah, schizophrenia doesn't seem likely. More depression and PTSD.

[CampingInYourPark]

Child molesters are bad. But they are not the worst criminals.

Pretty funny, because even the criminals consider them the worst of criminals. Mainly because they violate the rights of practically defenseless people for kicks.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Is it hard to see the ground from atop your lofty equine?

[CampingInYourPark]

Do you have a point, other than the one on your head?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Seriously, how is what other criminals think in any way relevant?

[CampingInYourPark]

It's relevant because even without codification people have a sense of justice. Don't go raiding the cyanide cabinet now, please.

[John]

I really don't care what the other sociopaths tell themselves to feel better at night. Sorry, but murderers are worse. And since when are only children defenseless? I would say murdering an unarmed man is attacking the defenseless as well.

[CampingInYourPark]

Sorry, but murderers are worse. And since when are only children defenseless?

What are you sorry about and who said only children were defenseless? It wouldn't bother me if murderers are treated in the same manner they treat their victims any more than it bothers me if child molesters are preyed on as the weak in prison systems.

[anon]

I, for one, won't be shedding any tears at night for the way murderers and child molesters are treated in prison.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I don't see how that makes you any better than an animal.

[CampingInYourPark]

I don't see how that makes you any better than an animal

Did Gawd tell you that you're better than an animal? But seriously, you consider justice in kind to be sub-human? You have some examples of that in the animal kingdom?

[John]

You are no better than an animal CYP because you seem incapable of understanding not every case is the same and justice doesn't always demand an eye for an eye. You seem to completely lack any ability for compassion. So yes, that makes you an animal.

[CampingInYourPark]

You are no better than an animal CYP because you seem incapable of understanding not every case is the same

One straw man slain.

and justice doesn't always demand an eye for an eye. You seem to completely lack any ability for compassion. So yes, that makes you an animal.

Oh wise one, tell us Jew animals what justice requires!

[John]

Oh wise one, tell us Jew animals what justice requires!

Thanks for proving my point. First, even Jewish law doesn't demand an eye for an eye in every case. If it did, there would be no room for clemency or compassion. Second, even if it did, torturing someone for years is not really an eye for an eye even for child rape.

And it isn't a straw man. You want every child rapist victimized by the prison system. So who cares if you think the cases are different? You want them all treated the same.

[CampingInYourPark]

talion, Latin lex talionis, principle developed in early Babylonian law and present in both biblical and early Roman law that criminals should receive as punishment precisely those injuries and damages they had inflicted upon their victims. Many early societies applied this "eye-for-an-eye" principle literally.

http://www.britannica.com/EBch.....485/talion

And it isn't a straw man. You want every child rapist victimized by the prison system

That is a fucking straw man, because I never said anything about being victimized by the prison system.

I said it does not bother me that they are preyed on as the weak IN the prison system, exactly how they preyed on their victims outside it.

I'm not debating the prison system.

Also, fuck you and your sense of moral superiority. You fling that around like a monkey infatuated with it's own shit.

[John]

That is a fucking straw man, because I never said anything about being victimized by the prison system.

I said it does not bother me that they are preyed on as the weak IN the prison system, exactly how they preyed on their victims outside it.

You don't want them victimized, you are just happy if they are. Yeah, that is a real rational distinction there. Either you want it to happen or you don't. If you don't, you should be upset when it happens. No one deserves to be victimized in prison, I don't care what they did. The courts decide punishment, not the animals you are so proud to tell us don't like child molesters.

[CampingInYourPark]

Either you want it to happen or you don't. If you don't, you should be upset when it happens. No one deserves to be victimized in prison, I don't care what they did.

More shit flinging. You are not in a morally superior position to tell someone when they should be upset or not. You have an opinion, and it wasn't inspired by Gawd.

[CampingInYourPark]

The courts decide punishment, not the animals you are so proud to tell us don't like child molesters.

So, without courts there would be no justice. Sounds like a Tony argument.

And now criminals are animals too? Are they animals or victims of a justice system bent on torturing them for years? Which is it?

[John]

People who victimize others in prison are animals CYP.

[Atanarjuat]

Any tears for those who are falsely convicted of same?

[Raven Nation]

I've wondered about this. I'm not a suicidal person but, if I was facing a long term in prison I would probably at least consider jumping in front of a truck or off a roof or something.

[Raven Nation]

Which, of course, is an indictment on the primitive nature of our prison system.

[John]

Yes it is. If we want to start giving the death penalty for such crimes, we should do so. But what we shouldn't do is condemn people to fates worse than death because we don't have the courage to do what we really want to do.

This is why the overboard obsession with child molestation worries me so much. It is not that I don't think it is a terrible crime. It is that our obsession with it doesn't seem to have come from any rational thought process. It is just the mob going after some particularly loathsome people but without any real thought or sense of proportion or justice. The mob never stops with just really loathsome people. They always start there but then move on. And that scares the hell out of me. Today it is child molesters. Who will it be tomorrow?

[Raven Nation]

Agreed. If the punishment is to be locked up then so be it. It should not also be a sentence to anyone (not just child molesters) to also be beaten, raped, etc. while in prison. Unfortunately, a lot of people not only accept them but delight in it.

For sex crimes, I have a whole issue with making the names of those released public. Supposedly it's to protect others. Well, if the person is still a danger then keep them locked up. If they're not, it's nobody's business. In fact, I think there is a case for expunging all conviction records once someone has done time,

[John]

Exactly. And it is all theater anyway. It is one thing to say if you are a sex offender you shouldn't be allowed to work directly with kids. But the registration and especially the where you can live laws are just insanity and nothing but vindictiveness. Kids are not molested by the stranger at the park. They are molested by people close to them. Those laws do nothing to protect kids.

[bmp1701]

Today it is child molesters. Who will it be tomorrow?

A 17-year-old girl who sends a pic of her tits to her boyfriend. She is, after all, a "manufacturer of child pornography". The boyfriend, of course, will be burned at the stake.

[Raven Nation]

And there are anecdotes of kids getting drunk in college and flashing people in public. They get caught and, for the rest of their lives, are on a sex offender registry.

[Konima]

What the hell are you on about? You can't reasonably make a blanket statement contending that murder is worse than child molestation/rape. There are too many variables involved.

You believe that someone who ends up murdering someone in a moment of rage--say, someone who catches their lover in the act and gets in a confrontation with the one they're cheating with--or someone who accidentally kills someone--say, someone who gets in a bar fight and the other guy falls and hits his head after getting punched. Someone like one of the aforementioned is worse than a calculating molester who has permanently fucked up the minds of dozens of kids? Are there plenty of terrible murderers who are worse than child molesters? Certainly. Is every murderer necessarily objectively worse? I don't think so. Regardless, if there were a tier of severity of crimes considered to be the absolute worst; murder and molestation/rape would both be up there.

As for us making it worse for the victims by making a big deal out of it... There may be a grain of truth in that. Of course, none of us can say we know shit about it unless we've had experience with it or have known someone very well who has.

[John]

I never said murder was always worse than rape. I said child molestation is not the worst crime. And it is just not. And you guys seem to think it is great that society has decided that any punishment, even extra judicial ones administered by prison guards and other sociopaths in prison, is just fine for child molesters. If you are too foolish or fanatical to understand that that logic can be used in regards to any crime and that it won't just stop there, you are very foolish indeed. If you won't stand up for justice and legal due process for the people you don't like, you don't believe in such things.

[anon]

If you won't stand up for justice and legal due process for the people you don't like, you don't believe in such things.

And that is what the argument should be about rather than "WHICH ONES WORSE RAPE OR WARTY!?"

[Konima]

That is a more interesting philosophical question. I'm against the death penalty, so I'd be against the convicted being murdered in prison I suppose. However, a molester suffering from stress and ass-rapings whilst in prison? That's just karma.

Of course, our judicial system can suck sometimes, and relatively innocent people can still get labeled a sex offender and serve time. That is where the biggest problem would lie.

[Jordan]

Yep. Life in prison is worse than death.

[Floridian]

I would. There is no life after prison. I would lose my license and all my degrees would be useless. I fear I would be nothing more than a savage after jail, unleashing my rage against the world.

[Atanarjuat]

You could start over in another country. Papua New Guinea might look the other way for a once-licensed professional with a checkered past.

[Floridian]

Swinging moving to New Guinea would be difficult sale with wifey.

[Zeb]

I imagine suicide would be as well.

[Rasilio]

Depends on whether I was actually guilty and what the charge was.

But, if I really was a child molester and was about to get a sentence like that I would sure as hell consider it, not just because of the sentence but the way child molesters are treated behind bars and the fact that if I ever did get out I'd have no chance at ever having even a semi normal life thanks to the sex offender registry.

If the charge was child molestation but I knew I was innocent I can't see me doing it after being convicted, I'd be too pissed off at the injustice but after a decade behind bars it might start to look like a viable option.

[Bardas Phocas]

SEEKWESTOR! Not as scary as they said. This is my suprise face.
http://www.govexec.com/pay-ben.....ghs/68660/

[sarcasmic]

Olivia Wilde
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....juice.html
*drool*

[Marc F Cheney]

She sure is weird-lookin'.

[a better weapon]

You always come back to Olivia Wilde. At least cycle through some more beauties before bringing her back up.

Especially since she's really not a 10 as far as starlet standards.

[sarcasmic]

I go with what the DM gives me. You don't like it, complain to them.

[Ted S.]

She keeps him hanging on.

Oh wait, that's the wrong Wilde.

[Loki]

Dianne Feinstein, meanwhile, would like a restrictive definition of "journalist" for protections offered under a proposed shield law legislation.

journalist - n. A power fellating boot licker. See also, toady, stooge.

[The Late P Brooks]

In 100 in-depth, in-person interviews, she found a new working-class adult "bewildered in the labor market, betrayed by institutions, distrustful of love, disconnected from others, and committed to emotional growth."

We're all autistic, now.

[John]

http://www.theblaze.com/storie.....er-forget/

The media really is loathsome. Don't tell me that they covered the Zimmerman case because it was sensational. Bullshit. There are a lot more sensational cases than Zimmerman. The one above is a good example. Yet, it never got any national coverage. The reason why of course is that the perpetrators were black. Covering that case would have prevented the media from demonizing white people. The Zimmerman case in contrast allowed for that, even though they had to lie call Zimmerman a "white hispanic" whatever that is. And that is why it got covered.

[Mike M.]

The Whitey Bulger trial got almost no attention from the scum in the media whatsoever (even after the Zimmerman aftermath settled down), and for a considerable period of time he was the FBI's most wanted man in America!

[John]

And his case involved massive corruption in the FBI. That case is going to be a movie and a good movie some day. It has everything you want in a sensational case. But it doesn't push any narrative they like. And worse, it embarrasses the hell out of a lot of Democrats and powerful people.

[Drake]

It was massive in Boston, but not reported much outside New England. You would think it a big story - particularly with witnesses dropping dead.

[John]

And an FBI agent doing life for helping him.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Howie Carr on WKRO has covered and written books about Bulger. Fascinating stuff. Of course, Carr is conservative and not worth the time of day on libby networks. Too bad, they would have had a winner story to talk about. Instead, CNN poured all sorts of stupid energy on Zimmerman.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

WRKO.

[Floridian]

John,
That is a horrible story. I think the argument would be that those people were charged, where Zimmerman was initially allowed to walk. Then he was acquired of "murder". I don't agree but that would be the argument.

[John]

And so they kept covering it 24/7 after he was charged right?

[Floridian]

Not defending the media, but once they had the protest about charging they had a hook and kept playing it. Look how much we comment about the case on here. It sells so they played it.

[Floridian]

Acquitted not acquired

[John]

And they don't usually cover cases where the person is charged. You know they never covered the Scott Peterson case or the Andrea Yates case at all. Those were just local stories since the perps were charged and convicted. The media just wants justice I guess.

[Floridian]

They want to sell ad space. I don't think they really care about fair or just. The out rage machine was fired up and there is no turning that off. They still are having protest in Tallahassee about stand your ground even though that had nothing to do with the case.

[John]

No. They don't just want to sell ad space. If they did, they would cover cases like the above that are totally sensational and would drive ratings. They only cover cases that fit their narrative and demonize the right groups, which is always white people and generally but not always men and sometimes gun owners and other people deemed to be unacceptable.

They do not just want to sell ads. They are disgusting horrible people who want to push a narrative and choose stories and lie about stories based on pushing that narrative and what best demonizes the perceived opponents of that narrative. There is no excusing them or defending them or mitigating what they do. They are immoral garbage.

[Floridian]

I agree they have no morals, but what else is there to talk about in the rape case? There are no controversial laws. The people were caught and convicted. Why would people keep watching?

[John]

What else was there to talk about in the Casey Anthony or Scott Peterson cases? Why would people keep watching? They keep watching because trials involving horrible crimes make for great television, better television in fact than esoteric legal discussions about self defense law.

[Floridian]

I'm thinking more about how zimmerman's case is over and people are still talking about it. Nobody really cares about Casey Anthony anymore and that girl who shot and stabbed her boyfriend once the trial was over. Not many horrendous stories make the national news because they are too common. I agree with you that the MSM are garbage and ideology driven. The only reason the Z case made national news was for an agenda.

[John]

The only people still talking about Zimmerman are those people pushing a narrative.

[Gray Ghost]

but what else is there to talk about in the rape case?

You could talk about what it is in their culture that inspires five people to rob, rape, kill, and mutilate two people that they didn't know. You could ask whether whatever it is, is likely to infect someone else, and inspire them to a similar crime. You could try and determine the frequency of this sort of hate among members of their culture, and whether and what the rest of society can do about it.

All of those questions, however, are going to be very uncomfortable. So will the answers. To cap it off, the questioners will be viewed as stoking racial hatred. Racism is alive and well in the 'minority' community.

[Invisible Finger]

They want to sell ad space.

That's a funny way of doing it. Every day a few more people realize how useless the news business is and he ad rates slowly drop.

They cover Zimmerman more than Bulger because it doesn't take any effort. Lower and lower ratings and thinner and thinner newspapers are the just desserts for a hafl-assed job.

[Zeb]

A "white Hispanic" is a Hispanic person who is also white. It's not hard to understand. Hispanic is not a race.

It seems like it was probably not terribly accurate applied to Zimmerman, as he is mixed race, but it isn't a made up term.

[R C Dean]

A "white Hispanic" is a Hispanic person who is also white.

So, all of them?

[Rasilio]

"overing that case would have prevented the media from demonizing white people. "

Oh please, you underestimate them...

"After a life of oppression and being told they would never amount to anything, unable to break the cycle of crushing poverty they felt a need to lash out at something, someone and the unfortunate victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In a saner, less racist world they would have had jobs, education, families, and a community to keep their humanity grounded..."

And so on. Race pimps can shift blame from any minority to "society" or "white privlege" any time they want no matter how horrific the crime.

What they could not do with that case is turn it into a political issue and so it was not covered.

[Enough About Palin]

REPORT: Another Child Molester Takes Cyanide Pill After Conviction

I don't have a problem with this.

[Ted S.]

I don't follow the gossip media much, so I've never heard of her, but:

Some "reality" show person who John and/or Sarcasmic would like to fuck hospitalized in critical condition

[Brett L]

Holy shit, this chick's show came on last night just as I got home from work (the fiancee was watching Sex & the City reruns, which I love her in spite of) and I asked her, "do you think that chick eats every day?"

I knew she was pro-ana.

[Matrix]

Have a look at the stuff floating around in a drop of pond water

[Fist of Etiquette]

Bet you won't find that stuff in a drop of scotch.

[Ted S.]

That should be part of the middle-school science experiment. 🙂

[robc]

Which is why people drank booze instead of water for centuries.

[db]

I wonder if the increases in IQ reported over the last century can be partially credited to people not being partially intoxicated at all times.

[Gray Ghost]

It's an interesting theory, db. The amount of booze our forefathers put away is nothing less than amazing, if sources like American . Even if it was diluted to the level of the "Scotches" that Churchill used to nurse every day, you're talking what? A fifth every two weeks or so? Plus a beer or cider a day. And those were the official U.S. Gov't figures, or, IOW, what people were O.K. admitting to the tax man. God only knows how much other booze they drank that they weren't paying tax on.

[Gray Ghost]

And that should be, "if sources like The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition," are to be believed.

[R C Dean]

A fifth every two weeks or so?

That's not much at all. At about 26 ounces in a fifth, that would be two ounces a day. Not even a stiff drink, really.

[Rasilio]

I havn't heard that but I have seen evidence that it is at least in part related to much higher protein & fat diets when we are young.

[Ted S.]

Isn't this a standard middle-school science experiment?

[Marc F Cheney]

That was more or less my thought. Apparently Euglena and Hydra and Planaria are some kind of new discoveries to Gizmodo Guy.

[Matrix]

Stossel takes on the claim that women are victims of "salary discrimination"

Feminazis going to go critical in 3... 2... 1...

[Mike M.]

He had on that old hag Matha Burk, who the last time I saw her was trying to get everyone to boycott the Masters years ago.

[robc]

She singlehandedly delayed Augusta admitting women for at least a decade.

[Drake]

The fact is, people with children (male or female) are often at a career disadvantage these days.

[Ted S.]

Why should the childless be forced to take up the slack for those with children? Ingrateful parents wouldn't thank me anyway.

[Drake]

Why should my children be paying Social Security and Medicare taxes for you the day they enter the workforce?

[Floridian]

Uh, they shouldn't? I will be funding my own retirement.

[NoVAHockey]

which is unfair. that's why we are seizing your 401k.

[Floridian]

Hah, my money is sunk in blood diamond mines worked by orphans. Good luck seizing that!

[invisible furry hand]

All your orphan are belong to us

[Floridian]

Noooo! What am I suppose to do now? Pay a living wage? I hardly think so.

[Drake]

You are going to decline SS and Medicare?

[anon]

Are you not?

[Floridian]

If I could opt out I would. As far as SS and Medicare, I don't think they will be solvent by the time I will retire. I have at least 30 years left working. If I did collect SS it would be far less than I paid in. Kind of like finding a thief with your wallet a week later and half your cash is gone. I'm still gonna that the half back.

[R C Dean]

If I could have opted out on the front end, I would have. I see no reason to opt out midway through.

I have no confidence that SocSec will pay me any noticeable benefits, so when I look at my retirement plan, there's a zero in the line for SocSec.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

No one's forcing you to do anything.

[Ptah-Hotep]

The fact is, people with children (male or female) are often at a career disadvantage these days.

How so?

[Drake]

Inability to travel enough, particularly without a lot of lead-time. Restraints on hours - early or late - because we have to put kids on the bus, bring to camp, pick them up, sports practices, dinner, etc...

My wife and I are constantly trying to figure out who handles which tasks with getting fired.

[Tony]

John Stossel knows everything about everything.

[Floridian]

Finally you agree.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Tony!!

Wait. Let me get my San Benedetto Limonata.

Ok. Off you go.

[Lord Humungus]

Rubio: Obama will 'basically legalize' 11 million by executive order if immigration reform fails

"I have been saying now for over a year I believe that this president tempted, will be tempted, if nothing happens in Congress he will be tempted, to issue an executive order like he did for the DREAM Act kids a year ago, where he basically legalizes 11 million people by the sign of a pen," Rubio said. "We won't get an E-Verify, we won't get any border security ? but he'll legalize them. So what I have tried to do is come up with as best as possible, given who controls the Senate, a way to start this conversation to at least address some of these issues because it only gets worse as times goes on."

[Bam!]

Obama wants to be a dictator and your response, Mr. Rubio, is to do his leg work for him?

[John]

Bullshit. If doing that was in Obama's best interests, he would have already done it and wouldn't be dealing with you you half wit. I guess Rubio thinks that Obama is letting the Republicans in on this Amnesty thing rather than doing it bey executive order and taking all of the credit because he cares about them so much. God Rubio is a fucking moron.

[Tony]

Obviously the smart move for Republicans is to alienate Latinos forever.

What are the alternatives, btw? The status quo (de facto amnesty for those 11 million), or mass deportation? Prison camps perhaps?

[John]

Yeah becuase every Hispanic is an illegal alien and will only vote on opening the borders and nothing else. Good t hing you are not racist or anything Tony.

Beyond that, passing amnesty isn't going to get Hispanics to like Republicans. It will just let Obama take credit. Don't pass it and Hispanics will realize that Democrats are just using them and don't care either and they will vote on other issues.

Seriously Tony. You are a fascist who wants to create a one party state. Spare me your concern trolling about the future of the opposition you don't think should exist. Thanks for proving my point.

[Tony]

I don't want a one-party state, I want the Republican party to die because it is a regressive, destructive, kleptocratic movement of morons, frauds, and thieves. If that results in a one-party state, they will have no one to blame but themselves. I'd personally prefer two sane parties, or better yet no parties.

And what's being proposed isn't amnesty (like Reagan did); it's the status quo that is de facto amnesty.

[John]

You don't want a one party state. You just want two parties who think exactly the same way.

God you are comedy gold Tony. How dare people on here tell me not to respond to you and deprive me of reading this kind of idiocy.

[Tony]

I want a moderate party that (sanely) tilts toward favoring the private sector and a liberal party that tilts toward more socialism. The world has no use for arch-conservative religious fundamentalist anti-intellectual nativist proto-fascists who now control the inaptly named GOP.

[#]

"destructive,kleptocratic movement of morons, frauds, and thieves."

For a moment there, I thought he was talking about the Democrats.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

John, Don't you FUCKING DARE feed it.

[John]

Too late.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

*facepalm*

[anon]

Goddamnit John, It's troll-free Wednesday. We've unionized, remember?

[John]

Sorry.

[The Late P Brooks]

We won't get an E-Verify

And he's trying to tell me that's bad?

Fuck off, Rubio.

[John]

And we won't get all of these border security measures that won't work and won't be implemented anyway.

Fuck you Rubio. Face it you fucked up. You are done.

[anon]

Not sure if good thing; Santorum will fill his niche.

[John]

No he won't. Santorum will never fill anyone's niche. Cruz will fill his niche. Cruz is trying to be the new Romney. The Washington establishment guy.

[anon]

I challenge you to a duel!

[John]

That is why Rubio sold out for immigration. The Republican establishment loves open borders. They hate their base and are totally fine with fucking them on the issue. They know better and besides a lot of big donors want it. Rubio is just trying to be the new Post/NYT favorite Republican since that position is open.

[Fatty Bolger]

Cruz? Isn't he the one bucking the establishment by pushing for a government shutdown over Obamacare?

I think he's more of a traditional conservative than Rand Paul, but he hasn't (so far) acted like an establishment wannabe toady like Rubio.

[John]

You misunderstand. Cruz is going to replace Santorum as the SOCON guy. Rubio gave up that job and is now auditioning to be the establishment boot licker.

[Fatty Bolger]

Ah, I think I see the problem:

No he won't. Santorum will never fill anyone's niche. Cruz will fill his niche. Cruz Rubio is trying to be the new Romney. The Washington establishment guy.

Is that it?

[John]

Yes

[John]

http://dailycaller.com/2013/08.....-security/

Behold our political class. We are fucking different and can handle guns. You are a prole and can't. Now fuck off and go away.

[Slammer]

"Common-sense" . God, I hate that phrase so much now.

[John]

It is liberal speak for shut the fuck up and do what we tell you.

[anon]

They sure have a lot of different ways of saying that.

[John]

Yes. Free speech means "shut the fuck up and let me tell you why you are wrong".

[anon]

Oh my god; that pissed me off SO fucking bad in Breaking Bad (1st season) when they had the "sit down" and only the person with the pillow could talk.

I'm sitting there thinking "wait, so you're allowed to make whatever bullshit argument you want, and by the time the pillow gets to me I have no way to show you why your argument is wrong?"

It just struck me as the epitome of liberalism.

[anon]

Not to mention the fact that everyone's argument relied entirely on guilt.

[invisible furry hand]

you might enjoy this

[R C Dean]

I thought it was hilarious. This badass mofo meth manufacturer, who is about to freakin' bomb his distributor's pad to get better pricing, is watching a bunch of people pass a pillow around?

[VG Zaytsev]

Yes. Free speech means "shut the fuck up and let me tell you why you are wrong".

I thought that was the meaning of "we need to have a dialogue.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

no no..."national conversation" (that's entirely one-sided).

[sarcasmic]

It is liberal speak for shut the fuck up and do what we tell you.

Liberal-speak is like opposites day.

Tolerance: liberals don't tolerate anyone who disagrees.

Inclusiveness: liberals exclude anyone who disagrees.

Equality: liberals are superior to anyone who disagrees.

[Tony]

Whereas you have no such pretenses of tolerance, inclusiveness, and equality, so that makes you better.

You're still operating under the weird premise that tolerance and inclusiveness should extend to idiotic beliefs.

[Mike M.]

You're still operating under the weird premise that tolerance and inclusiveness should extend to idiotic beliefs.

Yes, that's why we allow a POS like you to comment here, unlike your crappy blog where your admins disappear all the comments that criticize you.

[sarcasmic]

unlike your crappy blog where your admins disappear all the comments that criticize you.

Tolerant people don't tolerate intolerance! We're the intolerant ones for not censoring those who disagree with us!

[Tony]

How very thoughtful that believers in unfettered freedom "allow" dissenting voices (not that you won't try your hardest to bully them into submission).

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

it has a blog? I need to see that. I know it had one at one time, but now it just posts on HuffPo, Slate and Salon...obsessively.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....n=comments

[John]

Yes Tony, we operate under the assumption that tolerance means allowing people to say and think things we don't like.

Wow. I really wish you were a sock puppet. But sadly I think you are real. People really are this stupid and nasty. You are a very scary person Tony.

[Tony]

Who is trying to silence anyone?

Perhaps you would be less of a frightened little titty baby if you stopped thinking that the strawmen in your head were real.

[sarcasmic]

People really are this stupid and nasty. You are a very scary person Tony.

Thieves and liars, John. Liberals are thieves and liars whose only morality is "Might makes right." This is why they use government to do their thieving and lying for them. Because with its monopoly on violence, they effectively are right because they've got might on their side.

[Tony]

We're right more often than you are because we believe in proportioning our claims to evidence, and you don't. "Might makes right" is not a liberal invention. Anyone who believes in private property assumes it.

[sarcasmic]

We're right more often than you are

*spit-take*

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Bravo, Tony! Bra-vo!

Hang on. This calls for another Limonata.

Off you go, again.

[Marc F Cheney]

You troll-feeders are all on notice.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

^THIS

Stop feeding it.

[General Butt Naked]

Stop feeding it.

I can't help thinking that the feeders really are interested in the limited message of our trolls. I mean, the trolls make the same posts over and over again and people keep coming back. That's the free market. We've just got a lot of people around here that have a masochistic interest in being called a Bushpig.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Like the theory I heard where Anthony Weiner's real fetish is getting caught, and we're all just fulfilling it every time we talk about it?

Hmmm.

[General Butt Naked]

Yeah. Like shrike. He's been calling people here bushpigs for four year now and that's all that he does. Nothing else. He says something about someone being a bushpig, they argue with him and he calls them a bushpig again. This happens over and over; all I can think is that certain people really, really like being called "bushpig".

[SugarFree]

Like the theory I heard where Anthony Weiner's real fetish is getting caught, and we're all just fulfilling it every time we talk about it?

That makes so much sense. Wow. And "ew."

[Tony]

Well nobody can hope to match libertarians in their constant churning of fresh ideas.

[#]

It would be really nice if we actually had a couple of intelligent liberals who were interested in having constructive arguments. Those kinds of exchanges are interetsing to read.

I thought MNG was decent at times back in the day (when he wasn't in a lovers quarrel with John), but now all we have are morons like Tony and Shriek.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well we do tolerate you, no?

[sarcasmic]

Well we do tolerate you, no?

Quit being so intolerant! True tolerant people don't tolerate opposing viewpoints! That's what makes libertarians so intolerant! Dammit!

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Force: The absence of force

Subsidy: The absence of taxation

[sarcasmic]

Giving: not taking

Taking: not giving

[General Butt Naked]

an idea that has the support of 90 percent of people in the United States.

Then do it. If 90% really want it, it should be very easy to pass. Unless you're just making that number up. I mean, if it were true you wouldn't need to keep repeating it like that.

[Sevo]

"92 percent of federal employees oppose Obamacare."

They WORK for the government. They KNOW what they're in for.

[Drake]

I think they oppose it because it didn't exempt them.

[robc]

Exactly.

They support it for the proles, but they have discovered they are proles to.

[John]

No. They supported it because they were idiot low information liberals who had no idea what the bill actually did.

[mad libertarian guy]

Dianne Feinstein, meanwhile, would like a restrictive definition of "journalist" for protections offered under a proposed shield law legislation.

Only those who pay exorbitant amounts of money in order to get a journalism degree and who are fortunate enough to get paid to be one of the king's scribes will be given the protection of free speech. Freedom!

Anyone who has ever told anyone else anything about something the other didn't see is a journalist. Fuck that authoritative cunt.

[CE]

There isn't enough money.

[John]

http://dailycaller.com/2013/08.....-security/

Willie for Congress. The beltway Conservatives at places like NRO are always bitching about the need for conservatives to take back the culture. Yet, they have completely missed the Duck Dynasty phenomena. That show is a cultural missile. The entire show is nothing but affirmation of conservative culture and ridiculing liberal secular culture. But beltway conservatives don't get it. They want the conservative culture but without the icky outside the beltway conservatives embarrassing them.

[General Butt Naked]

You pantsed the link.

[John]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1424764

There. Reason has so many scripts and widgets running, it is hard to paste a link since the browser freezes the entire computer every time the site reloads.

[General Butt Naked]

I thought duck dynasty was gonna be a chinese restaurant. I can't keep up with the reality show flavor of the week.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I do like that name for a restaurant, though.

[invisible furry hand]

Saw The Blue Man Group tonight. Someone brought their baby along to it. An actual tiny baby. It didn't sound too happy about being bombarded with loud noise either.

[John]

God people are fucking stupid. I actually like children. Children are cute. It is the parents I loath.

[CampingInYourPark]

I actually like children. Children are cute.

Not in the least surprising.

/sarc

[John]

Yes because belief in a justice system and anything but torture and death as punishment totally means I molest kids.

You do realize you are completely irrational fanatic?

[anon]

Hey now wait just a minute; if anyone tortures and molests kids on this board it's Warty.

And he calls it happy fun time.

[The Late P Brooks]

Sowell- what a crackpot.

Nothing is easier for third party busybodies than being "understanding" and "compassionate" at someone else's expense ? especially if the busybodies have their own children in private schools, as so many public school educators do.

Whether in housing, education or innumerable other aspects of life, the key to busybody politics, and its endlessly imposed "solutions," is that third parties pay no price for being wrong.

This not only presents opportunities for the busybodies to engage in moral preening, but also to flatter themselves that they know better what is good for other people than these other people know for themselves.

But the unwashed masses might make the wrong choices if we don't nudge them unrelentingly.

[John]

The guy who started Reason who died here a while back was credited with a great quote. It was something to the effect of the worse thing that can happen is for people who have no vested interest in a situation making decisions about that situation.

[Tony]

Like judges and juries?

[John]

They are deciding facts and justice about individual cases. They are not making decisions that affect thousands of people. The guy was talking about assholes like you making decisions about other people's lives that will never affect you.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

John, come on man.

[Tony]

"We tolerate a rainbow of diverse viewpoints!"

[Tony]

An inescapable reality of being in a society. Others make decisions that affect you. That's why we set up democracy, so that we have some measure of a stake in the matter.

The sentiment is just wrong, or at least incomplete. Sometimes, as in the case of trials, it is best to have a disinterested party making the decision.

[sarcasmic]

This isn't the same quote, but it's the first thing that came to mind when I read your post.

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." ? from Professor de la Paz's speech to Congress. 'The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress' by Robert A. Heinlein

[John]

The CS Lewis one about there is no worse tyrant than the tyrant who thinks he is doing good for you is another great one along those lines.

[Slammer]

Or Thoreau: "If ever I was sure that someone was coming to help me, I should run like hell."

[Tony]

You ever gonna start reading real thinkers? All tyrants think they are doing good.

[John]

LOL. Tony you are so ignorant you really make my morning sometimes. It really is bad of me to laugh at you so much. But I just can't help it. You are the most profoundly ignorant and poorly read person I have ever interacted with and are completely unaware of your own ignorance. You are a walking example of the perils of unknown unknowns.

[sarcasmic]

John, you should go to http://cafehayek.com/ sometime and read the comments there. They've got three Tony-type idiots there who honestly believe that they are profound in their idiocy. It would be comical if it wasn't so tiresome. Some people are incapable of learning. That's the only explanation I can think of.

[John]

It comes from getting your entire sense of self worth from your politics. People like you and I view politics as ideas. And if an idea is proven by facts or logic to be wrong, we discard it and move on. But people like that can't do that. Believing in that idea is how they get their sense of self worth. So, discarding the idea, no matter how wrong, is them giving up their self worth. That is why they go to such lengths defending ideas that are so obviously wrong. They have no choice.

[PRX]

Obama not stepping in to call the dogs off the rodeo clown shows what a petty small micro man he is.

[db]

Beer summit needed?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

This country's history is rich with mocking politicians. What's happening with this rodeo guy right now is downright un-American.

[The Late P Brooks]

What will happen to the guy who shows up at a D C protest march in a giant papier mache Obama head with blood-dripping fangs and devil horns?

Will he be torn limb from limb?

[anon]

And his family will be droned.

[Enough About Palin]

Where the fuck is Jesse Jackson?

[General Butt Naked]

Where the fuck is Jesse Jackson?

I don't know, maybe spitting in white people's food or saying anti-semitic things. Oooh ooh, maybe he's pissing his pants at the thought of being on a dark street with people of his own race.

[John]

And they will be tried as juveniles and walk out of jail when they are 21. Fucking animals.

[Floridian]

Whom is Jessie going to extort in the case? That is why he is not present. Also if he had profiled that group of youths he would have been fine. Also carry a gun everywhere legal.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I see people in the thread are still clinging to the notion that Zimmerman was racially motivated (established it wasn't) and killed an innocent black kid (with a growing troublesome track record with the most recent one being him looking to buy a gun) out to buy skittles (which he used to make 'lane').

Unbelievable. Inexcusable with ALL the evidence presented.

[sarcasmic]

Baltimore police officer ends up adopting 'vicious' pit bull said to be terrorizing the streets after it licked him and jumped in his cruiser

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

Meanwhile he is ridiculed behind his back: "Dumbshit is supposed to shoot the dog, not adopt it! What a fucking pussy!"

[SugarFree]

He'll be out on his ass in no time. I'm not even sure how he passed the psyche tests. Adorable dog, though.

[R C Dean]

Proving that dogs are not triggered into homicidal frenzies by a police uniform, and that it is possible for police to act like decent human beings around animals without having their faces torn off.

[General Butt Naked]

Castrated dads can't say no to newest pop sensation!

[John]

It is funny. The same women who want their castrated husbands go on to bitch and moan about their sexless marriage. Gee, could it be that if you make your husband into the emotional equivalent of your father or brother, you won't find him sexually attractive anymore? Who would have thought totally destroying gender roles in marriage and turning spouses into unisex partners might make for a lousy sex life?

[Apatheist ?_??]

It looks to me that the girls in those pictures are old enough to go to a concert by themselves. Why not just drop them off and pick them up afterwards?

[Floridian]

Rapist? Teh Drugz? War on womenz?

[Sevo]

Darn climate change:
..."has said the growth spurt is most likely caused by increased sunshine along the coast and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere."
"Ancient redwoods in growth spurt of a lifetime"...
http://www.sfgate.com/science/.....730759.php

[Sevo]

And, if you eat it, it's dangerous:
"11 most dangerous foods"
http://www.sfgate.com/life/hea.....-23078.php
They didn't leave out much, 'cept beer.

[General Butt Naked]

23 things not to say to a single parent.

Basically covers all things related to (not)having a spouse and having kids.

[SugarFree]

Shared parenting privilege is not having to bring your screaming baby into a meeting at a job you don't have to go to.

[John]

How about "your poor choices of sex partners is not my problem"? Is that okay?

[Outlaw]

Oh, cry me a fucking river.

[anon]

"'You need to find yourself a husband; girls raised without a father end up sexually promiscuous and boys end up being criminals.'
I've actually had a number of people say this to me."

That's because it's statistically true, you dumb bitch.

[The Late P Brooks]

Santorum will fill his niche.

There's never a teenage girl around when you need one.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Good news for them.

[General Butt Naked]

"Conservative" Kathleen Parker goes full retard.

We should vote for Hillary because vaginas.

[Pro Libertate]

Vaginas should fear her, not embrace her.

[General Butt Naked]

Whether one likes or dislikes Hillary, few dispute that she has matured in her public role.

What difference, at this point, does that make?

[PapayaSF]

And what, exactly, does "matured in her public role" even mean?

[anon]

Hopefully nothing to do with porn.

[Slammer]

Obama in a dress

[John]

Hillary, giving stupid people a stupid reason to cast their vote.

[John]

If Hillary doesn't win in 2016, the butt hurt from middle aged hags like Parker is going to be epic and wonderful. Women will now be lower than the black man. That is what they will think. And it will drive them even crazier than they already are.

[Outlaw]

My god, it would be glorious.

If I could harness all their butthurt and turn it into energy, I'd be able to power the doomsday device I've been working on in my secret basement beneath my cellar.

[sarcasmic]

2008 showed that Americans are more sexist than they are racist.

I don't think she'll win.

[Steve G]

She'll win despite the gigantic, growing pile of baggage. Just like '08, too many low-info, independent voters will just want to see it happen, to 'make history' in the hopeless attempt to 'move forward'. That and she's got the dems AND women vote locked up; a pretty potent venn diagram to put it visually.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Hodor.
Hodor Who?
Hodor."

[Eduard van Haalen]

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Doctor.
Doctor Who?
No, just a doctor making a house call.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Wow, that's even weirder than a time-travelling alien."