Republicans Seek to Be Anti-Romney for 2016, South Africa's Police Really, Really, Really Corrupt, $67 Million to Explain ObamaCare Decisions: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: davelawrence8 / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

  Romney who? Potential Republican candidates for president in 2016 have no idea who this Romney person you're talking about is.

• Here's some perspective on corrupt police forces: In South Africa, nearly 15,000 police officers have been convicted of serious crimes ranging from drug-trafficking all the way to murder. But they're still on the force.
• Due to a negative response, a school district in California is abandoning a social media policy that could have punished students for "liking" or retweeting something the school considered inappropriate.
• Syria's civil war continues to drift into Lebanon, as an explosion at a Hezbollah compound in Beirut killed 10 and wounded 120.
• Health and Human Services has released $67 million in grants to pay people to explain to other people how to actually make decisions under ObamaCare.
• Australia's largest bank has closed the accounts of a Bitcoin payment processor in the country.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Health and Human Services has released $67 million in grants to pay people to explain to other people how to actually make decisions under ObamaCare.

That's a lot of "fuck if I know"s.

[Warrren]

NOOOOOO! I was so close!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Were you, Warren? Were you?

[Warrren]

*sobs*

[Libertymike]

You, FoE, are the undisputed, unanimous, inter-continental, H&R First to Post champion.

Note, I did not include undefeated as there have been times, few and far between as they are, where you were not first to post. Whether Warren has ever beaten you, I do not know.

[Warrren]

*sobs harder*

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's the time it took you to type that extra r that did you in.

[gaijin]

*sobs harder*
what are you Mary Decker Slaney?

[Warrren]

To FoE's Zola Budd.

[Libertymike]

how dare you disparage the barefoot one!

[anon]

Warren may have won a battle, but not the war.

[Killazontherun]

Warren. In the future you might want to pullout the Notepad+, write down, 'That Obama, it's always something with that guy, isn't it'. Copy it, and when 4:30 rolls around you want have to type or read the report.

[Killazontherun]

when 4:30 rolls around you wont have to type or read the report.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

I won AM Links today.
And I don't even do AM links

[PapayaSF]

I want this stale, juvenile "first post" crap to DIE NOW. No disrespect to all the otherwise wonderful posters here, but CUT IT OUT.

/rant

[Marshall Gill]

No disrespect to all the otherwise wonderful posters here

I stopped reading after this.

[Sudden]

The only way to defeat it is to master it. You need to get to PM links first with a post that says: FoE may or may not fuck sheep.

[Warrren]

But he will put his toe in a lion. That's proven.

[Fist of Etiquette]

FoE may or may...

That only counts if it's relevant to one of the official links.

[db]

George Orwell writing about the concepts that would become Nineteen Eighty-Four:

He got so much right in his prescient work, and still was able to write this kind of crap:

As to the comparative immunity of Britain and the USA. Whatever the pacifists etc. may say, we have not gone totalitarian yet and this is a very hopeful symptom. I believe very deeply, as I explained in my book The Lion and the Unicorn, in the English people and in their capacity to centralise their economy without destroying freedom in doing so.

Orwell's blindness to the authoritarianism required by his preferred socialism/central planning is a terrible black mark on his record but should not diminish what else we can learn from his work. It's sad that Orwell's fellow leftists continue to have this blind spot.

[Irish]

Orwell's blindness to the authoritarianism required by his preferred socialism/central planning is a terrible black mark on his record but should not diminish what else we can learn from his work. It's sad that Orwell's fellow leftists continue to have this blind spot.

I don't know what you're talking about. What's authoritarian about giving politicians near total control over the economic fate of a country?

[PapayaSF]

Winner of this week's Tony Impersonation Award.

[paranoid android]

The real authoritarians are the ones who want to impose all that horrible, horrible freedom on people, don'cha know...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Orwell was one of those Western left-wing intellectuals who felt that the communist system was fine, it was just Stalin who went and ruined it.

One wonders how he would have reacted to Mao's experiments in China if he had live to see the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

[Irish]

Orwell was one of those Western left-wing intellectuals who felt that the communist system was fine, it was just Stalin who went and ruined it.

I disagree. Orwell grew to despise Communism and saw it for what it was. Read most of his articles about Communism and how it was used to manipulate people.

He just didn't realize that socialism can very easily be used to create a piece meal authoritarian state. Once he saw what happened in Spain he was in no way pro-Communist.

[Episiarch]

Uh, Orwell fucking hated communists. His experiences with them in Barcelona were terrible, to the point where I believe he feared for his and his wife's lives and that's why they left.

Orwell may have been an economic central planner, but he was no fucking communist. At all.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I stand corrected.

[Pro Libertate]

Socialist, communist, Nazi, what's the difference?

[Auric Demonocles]

I really do have a hard time seeing much difference between socialism and communism.

[Pro Libertate]

On paper, they seem significantly different, but I think they are paths to the same end--totalitarianism. One is just faster than the other.

[mgd]

Because communism gets there on purpose. Socialism arrives later, accidentally, but no less inevitably.

[Tejicano]

Communism is basically socialism without the foreplay.

[Voros McCracken]

I'm stealing this one.

[mad libertarian guy]

I really do have a hard time seeing much difference between socialism and communism.

It seems to me that socialism:communism as Obamacare:single payer: just a stepping stone on the way to a worser fate.

[NeonCat]

At least they're ethe.

[Warrren]

Different shapes of the decorative soaps in the bathroom.

[Irish]

His experiences with them in Barcelona were terrible, to the point where I believe he feared for his and his wife's lives and that's why they left.

They fled the country after some of Orwell's friends were arrested by Communists and eventually sentenced to execution. Some of the people he fought with disappeared into Communist camps and were never seen again.

If Orwell hadn't used his connections to slip out of the country, the Communists probably would have killed him.

[John]

And the other communists who escaped and would have died otherwise, hated Orwell's guts for telling the world that the party did that. It was insane.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

His experiences in Spain certainly gave him a hatred of Stalinism, but wasn't he more ambivalent about Trotsky?

Seems he had a complicated view towards the ideals of communism, which aren't that different from the centrally planned democratic socialism he supported.

[ThatSkepticGuy]

"His experiences in Spain certainly gave him a hatred of Stalinism, but wasn't he more ambivalent about Trotsky?"

I've read at least one article wherein he argued that Trotsky was fundamentally no different than Stalin and, given his "true believer" convictions, very possibly may have made for a far worse tyrant.

[Corning]

Orwell hated all socilism/facsism/communism that did not fit perfectly with his utopian view of fascism that he called socialism that only existed in some future fantasy of Brittan.

Of course none could exist. His "hatred" is more of a symptom of his attempt to justify his political beliefs in face of the reality that political systems he likes simply do not and cannot protect the freedoms he wished to preserve.

[Anonymous Coward]

Got to disagree. Orwell was an avowed "democratic socialist." Once we all recognized the benefits of socialism, we'd voluntarily embrace it and be nice to each other and collectivize. None of those messy social trials, or gulags, or secret police that the Russians were doing.

[CE]

The American Constitutional system was fine, until George Washington and John Adams ruined it.

[John]

Orwell was a Eaton elite. His great grandfather was part of the gentry. He never got over his love of "top men". He died a socialist firmly believing it would work if you just got the right sort of people in charge. Sad.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

do you mean Eton?
Eaton's was a Canadian department store.

[John]

Eton

[C. Anacreon]

As in "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields at Eton"

[fish]

As in "The Battle of Waterloo was won by the piano playing of Elton"

[Pro Libertate]

Sir Denis Eton-Hogg?

[Mike M.]

****ing poofter!

[anon]

I believe very deeply, as I explained in my book The Lion and the Unicorn, in the English people and in their capacity to centralise their economy without destroying freedom in doing so.

How can he not understand such a simple concept?

[db]

It's the same mistake today's leftists make when they fail to understand that economic freedom is an inseparable keystone of the concept of freedom.

[Invisible Finger]

Orwell's greatest failing: he substituted belief where knowledge is a better tool.

Not that I disagree with some vague "holy spirit", I believe in it myself. But it's because I believe in it that I see no reason to require central planning and excessive government, in fact it's why I prefer free markets.

Pardon my self-reference, but free markets are the "invisible hand" whereas government is a not-so-invisible finger. The is basically the history of civilization so there really isn't a whole lot of belief necessary.

[Lady Bertrum]

I think this was his mistake and one I share with him...

"I believe very deeply.... in the English people ..."

Somewhat out of context, but it's a common mistake. Believing that your fellow countrymen/women are basically decent and would never indulge in totalitarian tactics.

WE would never do THAT.

[John]

The funny thing is t hat the English did just that during the Commonwealth. Orwell had to be well acquainted with the history of the English reformation. Yet, he still believed that nonsense.

[Invisible Finger]

The thing is, individually 99% of the people WOULDN'T be totalitarian. But give them an organization to hide behind (and a half-assed moral code as its basis) and people suddenly enjoy some totalitarianism.

[BakedPenguin]

What? Impossible!

[mgd]

"There is an increasing tendency among modern men to imagine themselves ethical because they have delegated their vices to larger and larger groups." -- Reinhold Niebuhr, as quoted by F.A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom

[Corning]

Orwell was a fascist not a socialist.

He wanted a nationalistic Socialism that emphasized its Britishness and kept much of its British character...like the church and royalty. He showed no real sympathy for the international working class....only worrying about the British lowers.

He did have a wide eyed naive and utopian view of it...but that can be said about any socialist/fascist/communist/statist.

The point being that everything that distinguished socialism from fascism Orwell took the fascist view....and only called it socialism.

[Irish]

He showed no real sympathy for the international working class....only worrying about the British lowers.

Really? Have most of the people commenting in this thread even read Orwell? He specifically said that the reason working classes were unable to unite against the capitalists was because they were always getting bogged down with nationalistic concerns. He was opposed to nationalism and was in favor of the international socialist movement.

He literally wrote an article called Notes on Nationalism in which he argues that nationalism blinds people and causes them to disregard facts in service to a 'national ideal.' That hardly sounds like a nationalist to me.

[Corning]

In "on why i write" he lambasts every socialist/communist/fasict group in and outside of Britain then goes on to describe his own utopian solution and how British it will be and how Britain is so very very well suited for it and how no other nation can do it cuz they are not British and on and on and on.

Orwell was an snobbish little English bitch....and had the heap fulls of delusion that goes along with it.

[MJGreen]

Meh, he wasn't an economist. His review of Road to Serfdom is kind, but he just wasn't convinced that laissez-faire wouldn't lead to worse material comfort for the masses than central planning. Oddly, in that review, written in the same year as this piece, he says English intellectuals are disposed to totalitarianism and the country is in great trouble.

[Lady Bertrum]

Like many English of his day, he had a pretty tortured relationship to his class and class as it was defined then. He was poor but of the upper class. He served in India, I think, during the colonial period, and despised colonialism, but had a pretty poor opinion of Indians.

[Lady Bertrum]

He hated English intellectuals but was an English intellectual. Much self hatred there.

[John]

He was like every other English intellectual in the 20th Century, utterly broken by the First World War. That war pretty much killed all confidence the elite had in Western Civilization or their own nations.

[Overt]

"George Orwell writing about the concepts that would become 1984"

"Well, see, first there was this book called _We_. I took that book and copied it."

I mean seriously- how can you write an entire article about the genesis of 1984 and not mention Zamyatin's work?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Romney who? Potential Republican candidates for president in 2016 have no idea who this Romney person you're talking about is.

He'll remember this in the future when he's rewarded with his own planet to rule!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Potential Republican candidates for president in 2016 have no idea who this Romney person you're talking about is.

Yeah, why are we still hearing from McCain? Shouldn't he have dropped off the face of the earth, too?

[anon]

I was really hoping he'd have died by now.

[Irish]

John McCain's greatest sin is begetting that she-devil we call Megan McCain.

The only good thing about Megan McCain's existence is this hilarious book review.

[PapayaSF]

Wow, that's a classic.

[BakedPenguin]

No, she's also hot.

[ant1sthenes]

When she isn't in a fat phase, maybe.

[fish]

Shouldn't he have dropped off the face of the earth, too?

Into...."into the earth", is the phrase you were looking for here.

6 feet oughta be sufficient.

[Warrren]

15,000 criminal cops still on the force? Balderdash! That wouldn't happen here I say!

[Stormy Dragon]

Damn straigh it wouldn't happen here. There's no way prosecutors would indict enough cops for their to be 15,000 convictions.

[Warrren]

ZING!

[CE]

That's what I was thinking. Would the US have more than 15,000 if they had all been indicted for the crimes they committed?

[mad libertarian guy]

Would the US have more than 15,000 if they had all been indicted for the crimes they committed?

Absolutely. In fact, I'd bet that we would have far more than 15k were everything they've done wrong make it to court.

But in the interest of intellectual honesty I must note that the scales are much different. We have FAR MORE cops than South Africa. I want to know what percentage of cops that 15k represents. The raw number is useless.

Look at me: an English Lit MA asking for numbers and shit.

[Episiarch]

In South Africa, nearly 15,000 police officers have been convicted of serious crimes ranging from drug-trafficking all the way to murder. But they're still on the force.

Everything I've heard about South Africa is that it's corrupt as fucking hell. Just bribe your way out of everything.

[John]

Sadly, better than here where you are at their mercy. At least there you can buy your way out of things.

[Episiarch]

Unless you're a striking miner, and they just gun you down.

[John]

Here you get gunned down for being at home.

[mad libertarian guy]

Here you get gunned down for being at home getting a smoke from your car.

And any number of other things.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Not really, John.

Here's the thing about countries with massive corruption -- you are never guaranteed anything. You could end up with a LEO who "merely" asks for a bribe, or you could end up with an utter asshole who takes you and your family for a ride. Back when I was living in Colombia, it was not uncommon to hear stories of people getting pulled over and getting the living hell beat out of them by police officers in the middle of the day on a busy intersection.

The rule of law is frayed and becoming less fundamental in the US; it's completely broken in other parts of the world.

You don't want to see what happens when rule of law is completely broken.

[John]

True. Sadly, I worry we are about to find out.

[Warty]

Unless you shoot your girlfriend, and she's really hot. Make sure to only shoot ugly chicks.

[Warrren]

Is this why there are no libertarian women?

[C. Anacreon]

No, this is a primer for legless runners who shot their hot girlfriends "by accident".

[gaijin]

well, I have never received an email from a South African banker looking to transfer money...we're not droning anyone there...no missile attacks on their neighboring states...and they have roads. So, the gem of the continent!

[Pro Libertate]

I hate to ask this because it sounds racist, but was it corrupt like this before the fall of apartheid and no, for the love of God, I'm not saying things were otherwise better then because the shit was bad?

[Episiarch]

The ANC is breathtakingly corrupt, yes.

[Pro Libertate]

What the fuck is it with Africa and corruption? I mean, Nigeria, South Africa. . .it's not like they don't have resource wealth.

I'm willing to buy that some of this is due to colonialist shit, but it can't be the whole story. What a waste, and it must suck for the people there.

[Brett L]

Corruption is the natural state. It was the breath-taking arrogance of radical Christians who truly believed that everyone was an equal before God that lets the Anglosphere, and to a lesser extent the European Continentals, think corruption is something that can and should be eradicated.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It's partly cultural, but mostly a result of how decolonization was achieved. The US pressured the UK to get the hell out of Africa and India, and the broke-ass UK was only too happy to comply. Most of these countries were left with little in the way of governmental apparatus and fell into the hands of corrupt nationalist or ideological parties.

[CE]

So, more governmental apparati would fix things?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tribalism, colonialism and superstition. Motherfuckers in Africa are still butthurt over shit that happened a thousand years ago to their ancestors when the sacred mucky-mucky stick was stolen by the tribe two valleys over.

The Europeans exacerbated these tensions by picking favorites among the tribes in their imperial carve-outs, then elevating them above their enemies. When they left, fun-filled genocides like Rwanda happen.

[CE]

Americans still worry about what God promised the Israelites 3,000 years ago though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Jews are doing just fine.

[BigT]

Like the Balkans?

[Brett L]

Sipowitz: Oh great, now he's gonna put his people in there
[On finding out the new Lt. is black]
Simone: Hey Andy, there's a reason they call it Irish welfare.

[Ice Nine]

ProL, This is the coin of the realm in all of Africa - standard operating procedure, FWIW. I hitchhiked all over South Africa for three months just before the end of apartheid. Police were professional and I never heard about the shakedowns, etc. that I experienced knocking around the rest of Africa for a year. I got lots of lifts from black South Africans. Not a few of them were very concerned about black police and politicians running things.

[Pro Libertate]

I read David Lamb's The Africans years and years ago, and it describes the same situation. Ending that kind of corruption and establishing rule of law must be a real bitch.

[John]

You can't have a rule of law or functional legal institutions in a tribal society. In a tribal society, you can't treat other tribes fairly. Your own tribe will turn on you if you do. So you can't have fair cops or judges.

[Pro Libertate]

You'd think some sort of federalist system would help make that work. Or massive partitions, with each tribe its own little country. I dunno. It's a mess.

[Spoonman.]

Well, I got my CCW permit today. Super easy process, but finding the right room in the courthouse was hard.

Then I humiliated myself by driving my car on top of the curb between rows of parking spaces (who does that?) when I thought I could pull through at Costco and had to ask the tire center guys to help me out, which of course I did.

So, sending an email to Costco corporate to make sure those guys get a good mark.

[playa manhattan]

What state?

[Fist of Etiquette]

In South Africa, nearly 15,000 police officers have been convicted of serious crimes ranging from drug-trafficking all the way to murder. But they're still on the force.

That's why we don't try much less convict our coppers. We wouldn't be able to keep them on the job. For the most part.

[db]

Pentagon Has Plan to Combat Sexual Assault

COunter Inappropriate ToUcheS operations are key in the strategy.

[John]

Their real plan is to convict innocent men in hopes of satiating the feminist mob. Just send them a sacrifice and hopefully they will find someone else to go after.

[Libertymike]

Since when is coitus inappropriate?

[Lady Bertrum]

when it became interruptus

[fish]

Since when is coitus inappropriate?

Well one time during the weekly briefing....

[Ted S.]

Due to a negative response, a school district in California is abandoning a social media policy that could have punished students for "liking" or retweeting something the school considered inappropriate.

Of course, they should be dropping it because it's fucking unconstitutional.

[gaijin]

something the school considered inappropriate.

I wonder if the school had appointed a Committee for Determining Offensive Contents or if it was a single mullah, I mean administrator, who was responsible?

[CE]

I heard that most of the administrative staff volunteered to review all of the students' web browsing activities.

[Enough About Palin]

"Of course, they should be dropping it because it's fucking unconstitutional."

Best to teach them early that their electronic communications are the property of a government entity.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Records indicate that Bolivian shepherd may be the oldest person to have ever lived, currently age 123

Carmelo Flores Laura, a Bolivian cattle and sheep herder, was born in 1890 -- 123 years ago -- according to Bolivian public records. That's a year before the invention of the rotary-dial telephone and two years before the first Ferris wheel spun at the Chicago World's Fair.

If the records are accurate, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented.

Associated Press reporters recently visited Flores at his straw-roofed hut near Bolivia's Lake Titicaca. Although he has no teeth and is nearly deaf, Flores walks without a cane and speaks in a firm voice, the news agency reported.

"I see a bit dimly," Flores told the AP. "I had good vision before. But I saw you coming."

A Bolivian official presented as evidence of Flores' age a registry listing his birthdate as July 16, 1890. He said Flores' birth predates the existence of birth certificates in Bolivia by 50 years.

A Guinness World Records spokeswoman told the AP that she knew of no claim being filed for Flores. But if his age is correct, the Bolivian has bested by one year Jeanne Calment, a French woman who died in 1997 at the verified age of 122.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He shouldn't have admitted it. Being named that is a virtual death sentence!

[Brandon]

Being 123 is pretty much a death sentence.

[CE]

Being 10 is pretty much a death sentence too.

[Mickey Rat]

Being alive is a death sentence, the only question is how long it takes you to run out of appeals.

[BakedPenguin]

Pretty sure that was the joke.

[CE]

Oldest person ever documented? Did these people never hear of the best selling book of all time, The Bible? Methuselah, Noah, etc. were centuries older than that.

[fish]

C'mon the years were so much shorter back then.

[anon]

Due to a negative response, a school district in California is abandoning a social media policy that could have punished students for "liking" or retweeting something the school considered inappropriate.

Uh, wait, when did schools gain that power?

[Warty]

I'm amazed that kids these days even use Facebook. Why would they want to be on a social network that their parents use?

[John]

I think that is going to be what kills facebook. There is no way kids are going to want to be on the same system as their parents and grandparents. And really, it was a fad for kids anyway. What the hell do kids need with facebook? All of their friends are where they live. The only people who need facebook are old people with friends who live in far flung places.

[anon]

What the hell does anyone need with Facebook is my question.

[Mike M.]

It's one of the greatest things ever for people who are looking to cheat on their spouse. Facebook has helped to facilitate the breakup two of my friends' families in the last couple of years.

[anon]

It's one of the greatest things ever for people who are looking to cheat on their spouse. Facebook has helped to facilitate the breakup two of my friends' families in the last couple of years.

To me, that just means that if you want to cheat on your spouse and not get caught you definitely shouldn't use FB.

[Mad Scientist]

My wife uses it so that she can get updates about irritating relatives without having to actually interact with them. I told her my system is better since I don't get the updates or interact with them.

[John]

And that is why Facebook will never be all bad.

[hamilton]

That is entirely the point of Facebook, IMHO. The "Like" button is the greatest tool in the human social interaction toolkit ever, ever invented. It allows the communication of anything from a completely banal one-one-millionth better than a "meh" to exuberant love and ever-flowing support, with exactly no effort required on your part other than one click. And the recipient has to pretty much assume you're somewhere in the middle of the giving-a-shit spectrum which is in my experience the best bang-for-your-buck emotional display out there.

[CE]

I think of it as that annoying Christmas letter listing all of someone's kids greatest accomplishments for the year, and a chance to tell everyone how well they're doing, only sent out in daily excerpts.

Which is why I've never had an account.

[John]

But that is what is great. If you are not on Facebook those dumb ass letters end up in your mailbox rather than on a computer screen where they can be safely and easily ignored.

[anon]

But that is what is great. If you are not on Facebook those dumb ass letters end up in your mailbox rather than on a computer screen where they can be safely and easily ignored.

Or, you can just do like me and ignore both.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I think high schoolers don't really need it, but young adults venturing out of college into the real world are probably going to stick with it for networking purposes.

[John]

True. But high schoolers are going to leave it. You watch. And that is where the money is.

[Warty]

High schoolers will continue to use something like it, because it makes it easier to organize parties and getting laid. Even more reason they shouldn't want to use the same network as their parents and teachers.

[Episiarch]

Facebook is entrenched, because everyone is already on it. It's not going anywhere. Google learned that the hard way with Google+. For anyone to beat Facebook, you have to be willing to use both Facebook and the replacement for a while as enough people switch over, and no one wants to do that. They're already maintaining Facebook, Twitter feeds, their flickr account, and so on.

Facebook would have to get to MySpace levels of horrible and retarded to lose its position.

[gaijin]

It's not going anywhere.

That's what mySpace was saying a decade ago.

[Episiarch]

And then they got horrible. MySpace failed to realize that people want a homogenized experience, one that is familiar to them. People don't want to go to someone's page that is filled with blink tags and embedded music and a horrible color scheme. Plus, let's face it, Tom was an asshole.

[Pro Libertate]

I bet you FB loses a huge number of users within the next five years.

[CE]

Facebook is entrenched, because everyone is already on it. It's not going anywhere.

Ever hear of MySpace?

Facebook would have to get to MySpace levels of horrible and retarded to lose its position.

Oh, you did. Facebook is working on it.

[Episiarch]

People have been predicting Facebook's downfall for years. You'll have to excuse me if I don't take them seriously.

[Pro Libertate]

They're losing the younger users. I think that's a real sign of things to come. But with the network effect, they'll hang on for a long time, and, of course, have plenty of time to tweak things.

[meta]

like yahoo serious serious?

[Libertymike]

Agreed, but why do think that the 20 somethings will continue to use FB?

[hamilton]

From my limited exposure to upper-teens and 20-somethings, they don't.

[Enough About Palin]

True. Instagram and Twitter.

[guy in the back row]

My kids have all switched from facebook to instagram in the last 6 months.

[gaijin]

According to my teen something son Facebook is for drama queens and scene makers...in other words, mostly girls.

[John]

That makes sense. Facebook is no doubt an effective tool for teenage girls to torture one another and is thus popular with them.

[Sudden]

Facebook is the way girls seek validation. And its one of the primary reasons that even the fattest and most hideous monstrosities think they're the bona fide shit.

[Brett L]

So he only hangs out there because that's where the girls are, huh? That's totally why I saw The Crow 12 times in first run.

[gaijin]

So he only hangs out there because that's where the girls are, huh?

Exactly! That and fodder for his emergent 'othering' I suppose.

[Ted S.]

People who claim they get "cyber-bullied".

[Auric Demonocles]

In college it was useful for stalking girls you had met a party to determine if 1) she was single and 2) was attractive when you weren't drunk.

[C. Anacreon]

My 11-year-old son and all his classmates are on Instagram. They'd never even consider Facebook.

[CE]

Instagram is a drug? I thought an instagram was something you sent.

[C. Anacreon]

Nah, they have people they "follow" and who "follow" them, like on twitter. The Instagram screen reads a lot like a Facebook news feed -- you keep getting comments, photos, links and videos from your pals, but I don't think there is a homepage with all that crap about who you are dating and a picture of you with a dog.

[Pro Libertate]

I think they're already steering towards Instagram. And will continue to seek out social media their parents are unaware of.

[General Butt Naked]

I'm amazed that kids these days even use Facebook. Why would they want to be on a social network that their parents use?

My GF has two teen nephews and they don't use it for anything other than family stuff. They say nobody is really into it anymore (probably after a bunch of their classmates got busted posting stuff). They use instant messangers and texts.

[Sudden]

Snapchat for the sexting too.

[Warrren]

Fuck you, that's when.

[Coeus]

This article is a mastery of bullshit and dubious conflations.

Just to start:

To recap: 1) trolling, 2) doxing, 3) dos or Ddos attacks. Lather, rinse, repeat.

See the conflation?

And wait till you see the:

And indeed, the problem is bigger than the Heckler's Veto. Protesters and hecklers might succeed in drowning out a speaker ? as they did to Webb and Firestone at the New Left Counter-Inaugural and attempted to do to Meredith and Valles at the Glasgow Ancients ? but coordinated campaigns of trolling, doxing and Ddos attacks are explicitly designed not only to silence you, but also to embarrass you, scare you, harass you, get government agencies to investigate you, vandalize your property, make you move, get you fired, ruin your life.

Aren't these traditionally SJW tactics?

[Irish]

Basically all of the things that feminists and liberals do to silence opposition are okay when they do it but vile and terrible when it is done to them.

It's textbook totalitarian thinking.

[Coeus]

And I love the beginning where they pretend that proggies aren't the ones doing a "heckler's veto" 99.9% of the time.

[Auric Demonocles]

Find out how many other monocle polishers you have to destroy in this zero-sum game of life. I have fewer about 4 million people that are still on the list. At least that still leaves me with billions of people to exploit while I continue to rob my way to the top.

[gaijin]

You know who else had a few million people on his list?

[Auric Demonocles]

Not MNG. That guy probably had like 5 people on it.

[hamilton]

Ko-Ko?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Santa?

[gaijin]

+ two checks

[Brandon]

Mary Stack's personalities?

[CE]

Arya Stark?

[Lady Bertrum]

+1 (Geoffry, the Hound, Cersei.....)

[hamilton]

I'm only irritated that it doesn't give me names and addresses so I can implement my creative moving-up scheme.

[Auric Demonocles]

I've got to hurry up on this scheme. I imagine quite a few of the people on this list have tickets to the Pats games I haven't gotten my hands on yet.

[hamilton]

You know I'm here for you, right? You don't have to kill me for them. Starting with tomorrow if you're actually weird enough to go to preseason. Which you may be.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm going to preaseason already. They were part of the presale package I got.

Unfortunately the Bucs, Steelers, Broncos, and Saints were all gone by the time the presale happened. All that's come up on ticket exchange so far is two individual seats to the Bucs.

[hamilton]

Bucs may be one I miss this year unless I can get freed up early that Sunday. I'll let you know. Or we can get Pro Lib to come up and find a 4th from H&R, weartop hats and monocles and paint our chests gold with letters that spell out

RAND
PAUL

and whatever happens, happens.

[Pro Libertate]

I hardly go to games anymore. I was just talking to my brother about how long it's been since we went to a UF game, too--like seven years.

[Pro Libertate]

Sorry my team accidentally damaged your QB and everything. But Tebow healed him.

[hamilton]

In the midst of my abject horror yesterday, I actually had a brief moment of sunshine thinking about the lulz of a Tebow-led season. I think it was side-effect of the endorphins trying to keep me breathing.

[Auric Demonocles]

I seriously didn't complete any work yesterday for about 3 hours while I was freaking out about it.

I'm trying to get pissed at the Bucs in prep for the game tomorrow, but I can't. It's kind of like the Cup finals this year.

[hamilton]

Why Your Team Sucks 2013: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, I don't read Gawker for my sports news and opinions, but thanks.

[Auric Demonocles]

I don't fault them for playing until the whistle. IIRC, they even told the Giants they were coming for it.

Also Eli got knocked over.

[Pro Libertate]

I'd be high on the Bucs if Freeman weren't such a question mark (almost the only one on the offense, which otherwise looks excellent) and the D-line were settled. I think they made the right moves to fix the secondary.

They could be good, but it'll take some breaks this year. They're fairly thin at some positions, too, which means they'll need to avoid injuries.

[Corning]

i actually like this web app.

It shows the left how rich Americans are compared to the world....and how rich even "poor" Americans are by comparison.

[Coeus]

More SJW bullshit:

When social media CEO's abet stalking.

Yes, that's the title. Guess what she considers stalking?

[John]

Men she doesn't like daring to look her in the face or in anyway speak to her?

[Coeus]

Awesome.

[Libertymike]

satisfying and delicious.

[Brandon]

What's SJW?

[Warrren]

Social Justice Warriors.

Outrage pimps.

[C. Anacreon]

social justice warrior

[NeonCat]

Social justice wankers.

[Brandon]

Thank you. That is a new one for me.

[Pro Libertate]

Social Justice Whores.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The sad decline of Lisa Robin Kelly comes to an end

Lisa Robin Kelly, who rose to fame as Laurie Forman on "That '70s Show" died on Wednesday night, her manager told FOX411.

She was 43.

The actress died in a rehab facility, and her cause of death is still unknown.

"Unfortunately Lisa Robin Kelly passed away last evening. Lisa had voluntarily checked herself into a treatment facility early this week where she was battling the addiction problems that have plagued her these past few years," her manager Craig Wycoff said. "I spoke to her on Monday and she was hopeful and confident, looking forward to putting this part of her life behind her. Last night she lost the battle."

I wonder if it was suicide.

[Anonymous Coward]

Death by withdrawal is a possibility. If you hit the hard shit (opiates and tranquilizers) and suddenly try to go cold turkey, your body will have an adverse reaction.

[BakedPenguin]

Opiate withdrawal is not fun (from what I've heard), but is almost never life threatening unless there is a severe aggravating underlying condition. Alcohol and benzo withdrawal are both potentially lethal.

[BakedPenguin]

Yes, it was alcohol. Good thing it's a safe drug.

[BakedPenguin]

Looks like it was alcohol.

[BakedPenguin]

Goddamn fucking Internet.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Amanda Marcotte doubles down on the stupid...

Again, why is it that those without children are the ones most disposed to condescendingly offer advice about childrearing?

[John]

She is such a poor writer and incoherent thinker, I can't tell exactly what point she is making other than Twitchy was mean to her.

[Irish]

The title of that article is about the 'right wing outrage machine.'

How can a person attack someone else for their 'outrage machine' when her entire career is based on ginning up idiotic rage over stupid feminist bullshit? The only thing Marcotte is worse at than writing is self-awareness.

[PapayaSF]

Projection by leftists? Not surprising.

[trshmnstr]

In discussing why conservatives are "prudish"

No kidding. It's entirely about principles, and completely ignores outcomes (except, of course, when they can use or twist outcomes to support their principles).

I can't tell if that's supposed to be an insult or a compliment.

[Irish]

Fucking conservatives! Those principled bastards!

[Episiarch]

Well that's one hell of a tacit admission that she doesn't give a fuck about principles. Though of course, she then goes right into the projection with the not caring about outcomes. Stated intentions are the only thing that matters to her ilk.

[John]

The whole point is fairness Episiarch. She is building paradise here. She can't be bothered with worrying about how she does it.

[anon]

No kidding. It's entirely about principles,

If that's a bad thing, then we're already doomed.

[trshmnstr]

I also think it's funny that they bring up principles and outcomes. Principles are designed to produce certain outcomes. The conservatives' principles WRT sex are not, however, supposed to produce the outcomes that feminists want.

Conservatives don't want anything to do with the "normalization" of sex, defining yourself through sex, and giving teenagers a chance to become sexually self-actualized under their parents' roof, but the progs seem to think that conservatives want this, but can't get over their stupid principle stumbling blocs.

This is another example of the whole empathy v. projection thing. Progs can't legitimately empathize with others, and therefore must project their own motives on the situation.

[trshmnstr]

Apologies for the run on sentence. I submit myself to the squirrels for punishment.

[Warrren]

Are you sure? Because they just like to grab your nuts and run.

[PapayaSF]

It's entirely about principles, and completely ignores outcomes

Funny, in my view that sums up most of leftism.

[ant1sthenes]

Surely you meant "principals".

[Coeus]

Proggies are freaking out.

School boards searching for Obamacare loopholes to avoid paying some staff health care benefits

Angelo_Frank ? a day ago ?
The oligarchy has figured a work-around to implementing the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

"Employers around the country, from fast-food franchises to colleges, have told NBC News that they will be cutting workers' hours below 30 a week because they can't afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare."

http://investigations.nbcnews....
1 ?Reply?Share ?
Avatar
TheSailor Angelo_Frank ? a day ago
And republicans are in charge or owners of all of them. My uni put all new staff positions at less than 30 hours, even tho they're self insured. Why? Because the Board of Trustees was appointed by republicans (can you say "donors"?) and wants Obamacare to fail.
2 2 ?Reply?Share ?

[Warty]

People really believe in wreckers?

[Coeus]

It gets better:

Reggie Cooper Angelo_Frank ? a day ago ?
Papa John already warned us about this. He got lambasted over it.

Then the unions finally figured it out and wrote a letter to Obama griping about it... you know, AFTER they supported it through the legislature.
1 1 ?Reply?Share ?
Avatar
TheSailor Reggie Cooper ? a day ago
I call bullshit.
Citation needed.
As anyone who was paying attention would know, the ACA adds less cost to a pizza than PJ's giveaways.

It was a racist libertoonian who pulled that bullshit, and it's bullshit.

The ACA brings down the cost of health insurance for everyone.
[ETA]
Still waiting for the link, Reggie. 2 hours.
**crickets**

[John]

Yes, yes they do. And the worse Obamacare makes things, the more they are going to be looking for them. My favorite is the whole "if you can't afford to pay your employees a living wage with health insurance, you shouldn't be in business you God damned Tea bagger". There idiocy is nothing if not predictable and sometimes entertaining.

[Auric Demonocles]

Yeah dude. The only reason people don't want to pay more for the same product is that they hate Obama.

[General Butt Naked]

I'd pay a hunnert bucks for a pizza pie if they gave teh money to GeeDub Bush.

[Invisible Finger]

Leftist thinking: I would gladly pay $100 of your money for artisanal mayonnaise.

[Warrren]

Shut up, Middle Peasant.

[Irish]

And republicans are in charge or owners of all of them. My uni put all new staff positions at less than 30 hours, even tho they're self insured. Why? Because the Board of Trustees was appointed by republicans (can you say "donors"?) and wants Obamacare to fail.

This person honestly believes that people are purposefully sabotaging their own organizations just to spite Barack Obama.

[General Butt Naked]

Or that universities are controlled by a secret cabal of republican banksters.

[anon]

"Employers around the country, from fast-food franchises to colleges, have told NBC News that they will be cutting workers' hours below 30 a week because they can't afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare."

You point this shit out to them 1000000 times before the law passes, then they act surprised when it happens.

How fucking dumb do you have to be to not know this was going to happen?

[Episiarch]

How fucking dumb are partisan sheep? That fucking dumb.

[anon]

I'm really getting a headache trying to comprehend how dumb that is.

[Episiarch]

Just go slam your head in a car door a few dozen times and you'll get it.

[hamilton]

That isn't dumb. It's just LALALALACAN'THEARYOU

If you really want to pull your hair out try demonstrating to a blue-teamer the prior existence of articles that pointed out this very fact years ago and watch the denials begin.

[Irish]

One of the wonderful things about being a partisan is that you get to forget everything that happened prior to the current political battle. That way you can blame your opponent for not warning you about how bad your ideas are, even when they were actually warning you the whole time.

[anon]

Fuck, you've just summed up modern American politics.

[Invisible Finger]

That isn't dumb. It's just LALALALACAN'THEARYOU

Yep, IGNOREance.

(Spelled that way because progressives don't know the actual meaning of "ignorant".)

[Irish]

Yep, IGNOREance.

(Spelled that way because progressives don't know the actual meaning of "ignorant".)

Yeah, I think we got it. Thanks for explaining the joke.

[Ted S.]

That was the point. Fuck up the health care/health insurance system so that the "only" answer is more government intervention.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Progressive postmillenialist cult will tolerate no heresy. Paradise on Earth and the 1000-year kingdom can be achieved if we just pass enough laws.

[Enough About Palin]

I read somewhere that per ObamaCare if you have 49 full-time workers and 200 workers working 29 hour weeks, that they take 200 X 39 = 7800 and then divide that by 40 (195) and then add that to 49 to say that you have 244 full-time workers.

[Enough About Palin]

I meant that they take 200 X 29 = 5800 divided by 40 = 145 +49 = 194 full-time workers.

[Brett L]

Romney who? Potential Republican candidates for president in 2016 have no idea who this Romney person you're talking about is.

Someone tell Pete King and Chris Christie to GTFO of the pool.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pool's Closed

[CE]

When Christie jumps in, there's nothing left in the pool.

[Coeus]

More from the "everything is rape" files.

Jizzpants. Go ahead, you know you're curious.

[Warrren]

If not reading it means I've other-raped them then let me be quilty!

[Brett L]

So, as the professional stripper notes, this is a "solution" to a problem that doesn't exist.

[hamilton]

Lordy.

Dry lap dances can be quite painful. Many guys avoid lap dances for this reason.

Find a need and fill it, boys.

[Brett L]

I don't know anyone who has come home from the strip club complaining of friction burns from their undies as they dropped $20/dance.

[Corning]

From the comments

Seriously, what kind of "man" ejaculates into his pants?

huh?

IDK maybe the kind of man that does not want to get someone pregnant or pass on an STD or get an STD.

Jezabel attracts a very special kind of stupid.

Also i am pretty sure more of these kinds of panties will be sold to non-pro strippers then to pro-strippers.

But i guess the whole thing points to the assumption that male sex toys = bad while female sex toys = good....god forbid if a couple of lesbians use these things for their own play.

[Coeus]

The same people who demand the right for women to go topless have decided that boobs and dick are equivalent.

In other news, tons of awkward males are looking forward to wacking it at the gym with full SJW support.

[Corning]

I wonder how Jez would have felt if HBO had CGIed Theon's dick being cut off.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Another vat of 100% primo-grade insanity, bursting to goodness...

Threatening women with infertility if they wait "too long" has always been icky, because people making the threat never actually seem to be truly concerned that some women might miss out on the joys of motherhood. It's always been more rooted in anger at women for holding out for more. Women who feel they have to get married and start having babies by 25 are women you can bully into accepting less: Less respect from their husbands, less ability to compete with men in the public sphere, just less.

Q: How do you threaten someone with infertility? Does it involve nipple clamps? Inquiring minds, and all that...

[Auric Demonocles]

The same way you threaten them with old-age:

You use a ray gun you made.

[General Butt Naked]

You use a ray gun you made.

Lemme guess, it shoots time at the victim, thereby making time pass and the inevitable happen at the speed of time?

[anon]

You use a ray gun you made.

Hey, you didn't build that.

[CE]

No, I 3-D printed my ray gun.

[anon]

You use a ray gun you made.

Hey, you didn't build that.

[anon]

At least you didn't double post it like an asshole.

[John]

And has anyone ever met a man who was concerned about women's biological clocks? I haven't. I would love to see an example of these threats occurring besides the ones that happen inside Amanda's head.

There is a PHD thesis to be written about Amanda's neurosis over the conspiracies to control her fertility.

[Irish]

Saying 'eventually you will be less able to have children than you are now' is not threatening. It is a basic statement of fact.

If someone told me 'If you chain smoke you might get lung cancer,' this person is not threatening me with lung cancer.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I have the feeling that Marcotte gets threatened with mind-numbing stupidity a lot more than she's threatened with infertility, heh.

[Episiarch]

How can she threaten herself?

[anon]

If someone told me 'If you chain smoke you might get lung cancer,' this person is not threatening me with lung cancer.

but irish ur not looking at the totality of the circs, man.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I guess I don't respect my wife because she is 24, how dare she be married! It really holds her back as an engineer in the "male dominated" O&G industry instead of writing blabber in the feminosphere.

[Auric Demonocles]

All the girls I went to school with are plus or minus a couple years of your wife's age. So far I've seen much more evidence of them being women in engineering helping them than the other way around.

[Apatheist ?_??]

She got a "diversity" fellowship for her masters (though she did earn it over other women) and at her job they bend over backwards to make sure everything is equal. She does work for a very large company though and isn't a field engineer. She has class mates who are though, it just takes a thicker skin. All of the other women her age don't feel put upon, it is only the older women. Some have even bitched about the younger women just "not understanding."

[Pro Libertate]

I dated an engineering PhD a decade or so ago, and I think she reaped some rewards for being a female engineer. Made a shitload of money, too, but, to be fair, she was very bright and capable.

[trshmnstr]

from the comments

Scratch the surface of concern about fertility, and you'll find race panic lying underneath. It's never that "people" aren't breeding enough, it's that the "right kind" of people aren't.

Women become more infertile as they age because... RACISM!!!

[Irish]

Also, the people who are most vocally opposed to having kids tend to be progressive liberals from the cities.

I am absolutely fine with those people not breeding.

[MJGreen]

After reading this and recently playing Bioshock Infinite, I have the sudden urge to finally tackle Rand. I've always hesitated devoting much time or effort to her, partly because I like the cred of talking libertarianism or correcting lies about her while still saying, "I haven't even read Ayn Rand!" But, I think I should do it.

Any thoughts as to how to start? Begin with The Unknown Ideal? Try to get through her novels first? I'm not too interested in the broader, metaphysical or epistemological aspects of Objectivism, but I do want to see what she actually said about "selfishness," her conception of virtue, how it ties into Aristotle, etc.

[Warrren]

I started with AS but read all her other stuff except WtL before I finished it.

And I turned out fine, now pardon me while I pull up this ladder.

[anon]

recently playing Bioshock Infinite

That game was the most boring POS I've experienced recently. I am very happy that I didn't spend a dime on it, because it wasn't worth that.

[Cytotoxic]

Bioshlock 1 sucked as well. Was BS 2 any good?

[anon]

It was the most playable of the series, but I'd really rather play just about anything else.

[Cytotoxic]

Incredible how much head BS got. You'd have thought it was Half-life 3 FFS. Most overrated non-military game of all time.

[ant1sthenes]

It fixed a lot of the problems mechanically with the first game, IMO.

Politically (if you care) it was sort of a mirror opposite of Bioshock; collectivist idiocy run amok, with a main antagonist that makes Amanda Marcotte look like Ayn Rand, and the basic plot being a family values type of story of a Big Daddy rescuing his charge from a socialist group that wants to eradicate her individual identity (with the opportunity to provide some moral influence on the little one along the way).

[Brett L]

Look, do yourself a favor, read The Fountainhead. Its a slog, but not bad, and you'll be totally, painstakingly and excrutiatingly exposed to her philosophy.

[Brett L]

Oh and after reading it, stop. Atlas Shrugged is like The Fountainhead without any likeable characters and even less plot.

[Pro Libertate]

I liked Atlas Shrugged okay, but I'd skip the long speeches. Unless you're unusually dense, you'll have figured out everything said in them from the rest of the book.

And yes, go for The Fountainhead first. Or even Anthem, which is very short and not like her other books at all.

[CE]

But the long speeches were the best parts.

[Pro Libertate]

Then just read those and skip the rest. It really makes no difference to me.

[Marshall Gill]

No, don't read The Fountainhead watch the movie. It isn't a bad adaptation and does not require the head banging repetition, not to mention that Gary Cooper makes an excellent Howard Roark.

[Emmerson Biggins]

screw that. Just read Anthem and be done with it.

[Marshall Gill]

My eight year old daughter loved Anthem.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Ayn Rand's fiction is a waste of time, IMO. Very shallow philosophy, poorly written and conceptualized characters, limited narrative arc, and uninteresting dialogue all conspire to make her fiction some of the most ponderous,

Her non-fiction is not all bad, though. Her essays are far better than her books; the books just give her too much space to indulge in her worst writing tics.

[John]

Her essays on the Left and Communism are outstanding. If you read those, you get everything you need to get from Rand.

[anon]

I agree for the most part, but there are some things in her fiction writing that are worth reading; for example, Francisco's "money" speech.

[Lady Bertrum]

I agree that individual excerpts from the novels are outstanding.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yeah, Atlas Shrugged is a pile of shit with some real gems in it.

Overall it's totally worth reading to me.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Agreed. Rand was better at identifying her enemies than constructive philosophizing.

[Cytotoxic]

That is not true. Her fiction up until AS is good. She gives an excellent portrayal of early communist Russia in We the Living.

[Pro Libertate]

I liked We the Living.

I've never been remotely a Randroid, thinking that while she presented some ideas I agree with, more or less, she's far from my idea of the ideal libertarian, whether in philosophy or practice. She'd probably agree with that assessment.

[Cytotoxic]

There's no 'ideal' libertarian, and that's the problem Objectivism fixes.

[Pro Libertate]

What do you mean?

[Cytotoxic]

Libertarianism does not provide for logical structure to build a moral defense of libtery out of. Pulling the NAP out of thin air doesn't cut it.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm not sure I agree. At some point, everyone makes assumptions and builds from there. There's really no political philosophy that doesn't do that.

[Corning]

Actually i would say in practice it is the exact opposite.

The left shoots and scores when they criticize objectivists about how "selfish" it is.

They attempt the same thing with libertarianism but it tends not to stick as well.

They call Ron Paul crazy but they call Paul Ryan (and his Randism) selfish.

The Ryan criticism is a moral one while the Paul criticism is not.

[Cytotoxic]

You've just proven my point. Objectivism explains why selfishness is awesome. Altruists are gonna stick it to non-Altruists everytime otherwise.

[Suthenboy]

The NAP is a logical product of Self Ownership. Nothing thin air about it.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

We the Living was quite good, I agree.

It was also more grounded in her experiences than her other works, which is probably why it went down easier (at least for me).

[BakedPenguin]

I'd agree with this. WtL the most interesting of her novels from the perspective of someone who wants an interesting story. It's even more interesting if you read the sections she later dropped after she rejected Nietzsche.

Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are half fiction / half philosophy. They both have very interesting and very dull segments. Her essays are generally interesting, and very often on the mark.

[Marshall Gill]

My cousin is reading AS for the first time. I warned him that the book should have been edited down by a few.....hundred pages.

[MJGreen]

That's what I figure, thanks. I read maybe two essays of her years ago, and I assumed then that her essays were all I'd need to read.

[Mickey Rat]

"...poorly written and conceptualized characters, limited narrative arc, and uninteresting dialogue all conspire to make her fiction some of the most ponderous,"

Ufortunately, it is kinda of true to life.

[ant1sthenes]

She writes a pretty good evil statist, or else whoever is writing reality is a fan.

[db]

I started with Anthem.

[Warrren]

Uh oh you used the "I" word.

[1001001]

+ 73

[Lady Bertrum]

She said some truly interesting and insightful stuff, but her writings style is painful to read. Don't read her novels expecting an engrossing narrative. Read them for the insights.

[Cytotoxic]

She uses the passive voice a great deal it seems.

It should be noted that her early fiction and other writing was 'redone' after several years because she was writing in English while thinking in Russian, so it came out all funny. Maybe that's what got you.

[C. Anacreon]

I think The Fountainhead is the easiest way in if you want to read the novels. Even Hollywood liked the story at the time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Start with "The Virtue of Selfishness."

[The Last American Hero]

At the time I read AS, most of the ideas seemed to ring true, except for the rapey stuff. The success of 50 Shades of Grey shows I was apparently wrong about the rapey stuff.

[Coeus]

Tell me again how the unfairness of child support is all about the rights of the child.

Cause, while I agree with the ruling (unless the contract the guy alleges exists), I can't help but think that this is counter to family court doctrine.

[John]

I actually disagree with the ruling. Many men who are not the biological fathers of their children have been stuck with supporting them under the doctrine of "constructive parenthood". But now that this guy wants actual rights instead of just being a cash machine and the mother doesn't agree the courts are saying no. That is complete fucking horseshit. The family courts are utterly disgusting and nothing but criminal misandry.

[Libertymike]

You are right.

However, once in a great while, you might see a judge taking it out upon a pro se female family court litigant where the woman has repeatedly pissed him off. In such instances, the immediate impulse to exert power trumps the overall misandry.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Men,

Accept your place in family law as an ATM with a penis. Because that's all you are.

Love,

The Family Court System

[Pro Libertate]

There's plenty of truth to that, but there's also a good number of total scumbag deadbeats who try to avoid paying anything for their kids. At all. Because they hate the bitch.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't doubt it for a second. But the family court, being a court of equity, rarely distinguishes between the guy who wants to do right, but can't, and the guy who can do right, but won't.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, I agree. Part of that is just judges not really knowing what's going on or not understanding the law. There are lots of way for lawyers to drag things out, and the costs are astronomical.

I'm grateful that I've never been divorced and am glad that my wife and I get along so well.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Scientists discover adorable new mammal species. *Lights Nikki signal*

[Warty]

It's a possumkitty!!!! EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

[Pro Libertate]

I have a question. Do they make good pets? If not, are they tasty?

[Brett L]

Totally depends. Do like Chinese food better than pet cats?

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, that's a tough question.

[Corning]

Romney who? Potential Republican candidates for president in 2016 have no idea who this Romney person you're talking about is.

Kerry is no Obama and McCain is no Romney.

This is pretty much a frame story by democrats trying to ride the anti-Romney Wave for the next 4 years.

Note: Why the dems need to frame Republicans into the Romney party seems like a bit overkill. Republicans are very unpopular at the moment and have plenty of easy shots the dems can throw at them....of course the Dems are not very popular right now either...maybe that is it.

[Coeus]

Russel Simmons presents:

The Harriet Tubman Sex Tape.

[hamilton]

I am not ever, ever, ever clicking on that.

[Ted S.]

We already discussed it this mornoing (I think in the AM Links).

[hamilton]

I am not even clicking on the AM Links to see if I should have said I am not clicking on that.

[NeonCat]

He un-presented it, as reported in the morning links.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Stuntman who doubled for James Bond during the Olympics opening ceremony dies in wingsuit jump accident in Alps

Mark Sutton, 42, died when he crashed into a mountain ridge near Mont Blanc in the Alps at a speed of up to 150mph after jumping from a helicopter at 10,800ft (3,300m) on a wing-dive.

The former Army officer, who had worked in the City for more than 17 years, had been taking part in the first day of an event organised by French extreme sports online channel Epic TV.

He famously doubled for James Bond actor Daniel Craig for a section of the London Games curtain-raiser in which he and fellow stuntman Gary Connery, who was dressed as the Queen, jumped from a helicopter into the Olympic stadium using Union flag parachutes.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, too bad. I liked that Bond-Queenie bit, too.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

hehe bone tools

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Mindless class warfare, anyone?

Christina Caldwell, writing for Women's eNews, has a report up about the misery induced on Saturday mornings at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Saturdays are when a large percentage of abortion patients come in, so it's also a time when the large group of mostly male shouters shows up to yell invectives?including names like "whores" and "sluts"?to intimidate patients, volunteers, and clinic workers.

Methinks that Marcotte has never been to an anti-abortion rally before...

While it is something of a coincidence that harassers show up on the same day low-income women do?is anyone, anywhere enjoying their weekend??it's happening against a backdrop of increasing right-wing pressure to make sexual health a luxury only available to those who can pay up instead of a basic human right.

Yes, only the super-rich can afford to luxuriate in a pack of Trojans! Truly Amanda has seen through the banal notion that stuff costs money, to see just how it is only those jet-setting bastards who can afford to purchase a condom from a vending machine!

[John]

The funny thing is that the data shows more and more that kids are a luxury item that only the really poor who don't give a shit and the upper middle class are having.

[anon]

Idiocracy, in action.

[General Butt Naked]

Do the rich white people that believe this incredibly stupid shit really think that contraceptives are prohibitively expensive? I keep seeing this claim and it's patently untrue. Besides, it's not like anyone is forcing people to screw like bunnies, they could always, you know, not.

[Irish]

Not only are condoms unbelievably inexpensive, but in most low income neighborhoods there are already charities giving them away for free. If you don't use a condom, it's because you choose not to.

This is yet another example of the paternalistic, white (wo)man's burden garbage that the modern left seems to love. They deny poor people any agency and assume that if something bad happens to a poor person it's because not enough money was put into education/contraception/drug education. In truth, many poor people escape from poverty and many poor people who remain in poverty do so entirely as a result of their own decisions. The idea that poor people are thinking, intelligent beings who can make their own choices and succeed if they choose takes the onus away from neo-imperialist liberals, so any agency poor people possess must be denied for the sake of the movement.

[John]

Planned Parenthood will give exams and birth control pills to pretty much any woman that needs them.

[General Butt Naked]

The thing is that with every new big government boondoggle we incentivize people to breed. There are almost no negative consequences for someone with no money having multiple kids.

Guess what happens when you throw free shit at people for having kids? THEY HAVE KIDS! No amount of free abortion or rubbers or pills will ever change that.

[John]

Yup. More than a few poor girls have had kids as a way to get their own apartment and freedom. What 16 year old wouldn't want to leave their parents' or mother's house to live on their own? Welfare gave them a way to do just that. Without the stigma of being a single mom, that is exactly what they did and do.

[Cytotoxic]

Canada does not seem to do this as much.

[General Butt Naked]

Teen Mothers btw ages 15-19(per 1000)

Canada: 29.4 (2005)

U.S.: 31.3 (2011)

Pretty similar. I don't know if canadian benefits are so much different than ours or whether they have more abortions. This also doesn't tell us anything about how many children are of older mothers that are on assistance.

[Invisible Finger]

Ha ha! Joke's on them! Their kids have to pay the national debt!!

Oh wait, their kids ARE the national debt. Fuck.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Oh wait, their kids ARE the national debt. Fuck.

Welfare to teenage mothers is a drop in the ocean compared to SS and Medicare. Yeah we shouldn't be doing it but it's the geezers who are fucking me over not the teenage mothers.

[Killazontherun]

Ever used hot wax to seal it up because she thought it would be sexier and more romantic than a condom? Just asking, for a 'friend.'

[General Butt Naked]

Yeah, my prostate exploded and I painted the wall behind me in blood, shit and cum. It was awesome.

[Killazontherun]

Now, that does sound like it will enliven the routine up a bit.

[General Butt Naked]

I'll get a tarp for next time.

[Mickey Rat]

I don't think that will have the desired effect, unless the desired effect is to make your "friend" scream in agony and not want to have sex.

[PapayaSF]

It always strikes me how leftists love the idea of demonstrations and confrontations... up until the moment someone demonstrates against or confronts them. Suddenly it's just a really rude and downright oppressive thing to do.

[John]

See their suddenly discovered love of civility after the Tea Party arose.

[PapayaSF]

Or my ex-Facebook friend, an underground comic artist, who was outraged that I was "pissing on Trayvon Martin's grave" by bringing up facts about his life. This from a guy whose professional career includes many, many instances of pissing on graves.

[The Last American Hero]

They support teh gays and civil discourse, but sure loved using the word teabagger as an insult to their political opponents.

[Brett L]

Well, it looks like we're going to have to find new stereotypes for the Irish.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Are they still drunken louts who beat their wives and worship the Pope?

Because if not, we're going to have problems.

[Lady Bertrum]

This might be true because of the popularity of LCHF in Europe. Many Euro's cutting back on carbs.

[Archduke Trousersenthusiast]

yeah the French bakery industry is going to collapse soon.

[Ted S.]

The link includes the word "slideshow". How many clicks am I going to have to do before I find out what it is you're trying to say about the Irish?

[Corning]

It is amazing how many people think the potato originated in Ireland.

Why don't we call South Americans Potato eaters?

Or at least giving them credit for inventing the damn thing in the first place.

Poor bastards get more flack for not using the wheel then they credit for inventing the precursor for BBQ chips and fires.

[Corning]

Fries not fires.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Wisconsin woman faces charges after allegedly holding two men hostage and demanding sex

A Wausau woman faces charges after police say she held two men hostage and demanded sex.

According to court documents, Terry Boyd, 52, has been taken into custody. Those court records say Wausau Police responded to call on 6th Street early Monday morning.

When officials arrived, they say two men were yelling for help from an upstairs window. They told Wausau police that Boyd refused to let them leave, until one of them had sex with her.

According to court documents -- Boyd was combative when officers tried to arrest her for disorderly conduct.

Authorities say she was taken to Aspirus hospital and was cleared by doctors. Later that same day, officers were called back to the same home. Investigators say Boyd was not allowing one of the men to leave.

This time, police say she was arrested on charges of false imprisonment.

Boyd was charged in court Tuesday. A judge set her signature bond at $1,500. Boyd does not have a defense attorney listed for this case.

Weird, it doesn't mention any weapon being used to threaten the two guys.

[General Butt Naked]

Crazy bitch like that gives you only two choices if she's threatening you: kill her or call the cops.

If you knock her ass out and run away you'll be in jail and branded a domestic woman beater for the rest of your life.

[CE]

1500 for bond? If a guy had done that to 2 women, it would be 1.5 million.

[Corning]

We (men) can't get pregnant so no one gives a shit if we are raped.

I am not saying it is a good reason for the inequality....I am saying it is the reason.

[The Last American Hero]

There a lot of fertile 52-year old women in your part of the country?

[Enough About Palin]

Here's some perspective on corrupt police forces: In South Africa, nearly 15,000 police officers have been convicted of serious crimes ranging from drug-trafficking all the way to murder. But they're still on the force.

So just like here, then.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

They don't get convicted here.

[mad libertarian guy]

Due to a negative response, a school district in California is abandoning a social media policy that could have punished students for "liking" or retweeting something the school considered inappropriate.

Hopefully that negative response was a parent saying to the school board "Fuck you, you facist fucks! What my child does outside of school is not your fucking concern. Worry about teaching, I'll worry about what's inappropriate for him."

[John]

I hope so too.

[anon]

Hopefully that negative response was a parent saying to the school board "Fuck you...

Hah. You're wrong. It was lawyers.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Sadbeard is a sad little man -- really sad...

I was excited when a colleague proposed today that a bunch of us should all eat lunch together outside in Dupont Circle. It's a great idea. Sharing a meal with others is fun. And you get good ideas through casual conversation. For example, I mentioned that I thought the one flaw in this plan was the outside element of it. Why eat outside when the excellent option of inside is also available?

"And then I said, 'hey I know, I will write this on the internet and people will like me'. And then my colleagues laughed and walked away. And then I ate Taco Bell at my office by myself, like I have for the last 5 years."

[Irish]

I was excited when a colleague proposed today that a bunch of us should all eat lunch together outside in Dupont Circle.

I like that this person is a colleague rather than a friend. That single word says more about Yglesias' life than any article of his could ever hope to.

Also:

Why eat outside when the excellent option of inside is also available?

Matthew Yglesias: THE SUN! IT BURNS SAD BEARD! (Shields face with never opened copy of The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money)

[The Immaculate Trouser]

His column has to be some sly dadaist joke on the banality of the modern American editorialist, but I'll be damned if I can tell whether Yglesias is in on the joke.

It is a rule that Slate can only hire social cripples to write for it?

[Irish]

I think the American left just has a disproportionate number of social cripples.

[General Butt Naked]

Jesus. Did he really get paid for that?

What am I doing wrong?

[John]

He is not normal and probably has an extra chromosome and I would be surprised if his IQ is above 90. But he has an almost feral ability to sense what idiot liberals want to hear and tell them just that. As idiotic as Yglesias is, I have to admit, I could not do what he does. I am not sure anyone with even and average IQ and basic reasoning skills could.

[Cytotoxic]

Idiot savant signalling.

[General Butt Naked]

It's like when people say that Tony is a sockpuppet. Sure you may be able to imitate that for a post or two, but a real sustained stupidity takes a natural talent.

[John]

I really think Tony is a neurotic gay guy in Oklahoma. I think he is real. And I don't think Tony is a bad person. He is just horribly stupid and sheltered.

Shreek in contrast is a sock puppet run by asshole leftist who want to fuck up the board.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I don't even think that Tony is that stupid -- he is probably of above average intelligence, but is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is and is a woefully incurious person. Most of us on this board have academic interests and knowledge outside of libertarianism that we used to arrive at libertarian conclusions; Tony strikes me as the kind of person who read a little Ayn Rand, realized he didn't like it or that it wasn't popular, and went with the flow without any real examination of his philosophy or the broader world outside of it.

He's self-involved and doesn't want to change that.

[John]

True. I actually like Tony. I think outside of his politics, he is probably not a bad guy. He is just a snob and totally closed minded.

And yeah, saying outside of his politics he is not a bad guy is a bit like saying Germany is a great place except for that Hitler guy.

[anon]

Tony strikes me as the kind of person who read a little Ayn Rand, realized he didn't like it or that it wasn't popular,

Normal people don't spend that much time on things they hate.

Of course, that's normal people.

[Killazontherun]

My nephew will watch a show just to bitch about it.

He wanted to tell me about an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and I stopped him with a, 'you voluntarily did that to yourself, it is not my problem.'

[Irish]

My nephew will watch a show just to bitch about it.

He wanted to tell me about an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and I stopped him with a, 'you voluntarily did that to yourself, it is not my problem.'

I have to admit, I hate watched the shit out of the first season of Girls. After I finished I had enough self-control not to do that with the second season, but there is something to be said for laughing at an absolute piece of shit that somehow got made into a T.V. show.

[Killazontherun]

I'll admit I'm probably the odd man out when it comes to that sort of thing as he isn't the only one who does that that I know. A friend from work has been reading the Wheel of Time series over the Summer. Absolutely hates it, but he wont stop himself. He calls it, 'The Test.'

[ant1sthenes]

I once listened to the Spice Girls' Wannabe on loop for about an hour, but that was more about trying to see if I could break myself mentally. It worked, I was confessing all sorts of counterrevolutionary activity to myself by the end of the hour.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

That's where the neurotic personality comes into play.

Tony really is a more charming version of Mary, when it comes right down to it.

[Warrren]

Do...do you know the definition of "charming"?

[Invisible Finger]

Normal people don't spend that much time on things they hate.

Of course, that's normal people.

Meanwhile, the AM and PM Links comments are loaded with exactly that,

[General Butt Naked]

Meanwhile, the AM and PM Links comments are loaded with exactly that,

The sad thing is that we've all probably read an Atlas Shrugged worth of Marcotte articles.

[Tejicano]

You people are actually READING those articles?

Hell, the little quotes repeated here are more than enough for me to know that I will never click on that crap.

[Corning]

I don't think Tony is a bad person.

He wants government mandated contraception.

The only reason he is not a "bad" person is because he lacks any real power.

[Lady Bertrum]

or self-respect

[Cytotoxic]

This is parody, no? No one can actually write this and not be considered 'special'. This...there's a misunderstanding here right?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Sorry Cyto, your princess is in another castle. I'm afraid this is real life...

[Cytotoxic]

AhAHAHAHAHAHA FUCK FUFKC FJP(UJ

[General Butt Naked]

Not only that, but this dude makes 6 figures doing this (as estimated by a commenter).

Knowing that I'll probably never make Yglesias money has me contemplating putting a pistol in my mouth.

[anon]

Not only that, but this dude makes 6 figures doing this (as estimated by a commenter).

Yeah. I'm sure his commenters are just as bright as he is.

[General Butt Naked]

It was one of our own. I think it may have been the female one.

[Cytotoxic]

Your last 9 words contain more wit than anything ever written by Ygletard.

[Invisible Finger]

Knowing that I'll probably never make Yglesias money has me contemplating putting a pistol in my mouth.

Why not his mouth? Do you hate us?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Florida woman stabbed 32 times by ex-boyfriend, finds love with paramedic

A Florida woman who was stabbed 32 times by her former boyfriend says she doesn't see the near-fatal attack as "anything bad anymore" because the paramedic who saved her life is now the love of her life.

Melissa Dohme's unforgettable night in January 2012 is a story of endurance and love after ex-boyfriend Robert Lee Burton Jr. stabbed her repeatedly in Clearwater, Fla. Burton pleaded guilty to attempted murder in a Pinellas County courtroom Tuesday after he was ruled competent to stand trial.

Prior to Tuesday, Dohme, 21, had not seen Burton since Jan. 24, 2012, when he walked away from her lifeless body with a knife in his hand.

"The look in his eyes wasn't something I will ever forget," Dohme told ABC News Tampa, Fla., affiliate WFTS-TV. It was evil. He had my murder on his mind and I could see it."

Dohme appeared in court with her boyfriend, Cameron Hill, a Clearwater firefighter-paramedic. Dohme says she never would have met Hill if it not for the attack.

"I don't even want to be upset about what happened to me because I met Cameron out of it. So I can't even look at is as anything bad anymore," she said.

If only we all could be so lucky?

[CE]

How did her lifeless body have the life restored to it? Was Tim Tebow at the hospital visiting a sick child or something?

[Not an Economist]

The simple fact that Tim Tebow lived in the state for a period of time was enough to bring her back to life.

[Warrren]

I could you stab you a bunch of times and see if it works out for you.

[Eduard van Haalen]

That should be a romantic comedy starring, I don't know, Grynyth Paltrow of someone?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Feminists agree: Disney's 'Planes' is sexist

The actual race in Planes is totally dominated by male competitors. There are just two female racers: Ishani and Rochelle. Turbo has only one, and I missed her name. Both female racers in Planes are objects of lust for the males who have bigger parts. One scene is an extensive serenade/ mariachi sequence that sends Rochelle, the pink girl plane, into fits of desire. I thought I was going to throw up. Everyone else in the theater was laughing.

In both Planes and Turbo, there is an evil champion male rival who is the protagonist's major competition. In Planes, he's called Ripslinger, "the king of racing." In Turbo, the role is filled by the macho Guy Gagne. Why not do something wild and crazy and put a female in the evil champion role?
[snip]
There is actually a third movie about a competition this summer. Monster University is about rival fraternities. Rival fraternities. Not one of these movies shows kids that females can win. Even worse, as I began this post with, Planes mocks female competitors as losers.

Why do parents put up with this repeated sexism in movie after movie?

Uh, because they want to entertain their kids for a few hours?

[John]

It is totally a sexist myth that men can run faster than women or that, all things being equal, men would dominate world class athletics.

Serious man Disney needs to stop giving the bourgeois truth and stick with the revolutionary truth of equality.

[anon]

and stick with the revolutionary truth of equality.

Fuck you, John. Fuck you.

[General Butt Naked]

Serious man Disney needs to stop giving the bourgeois truth and stick with the revolutionary truth of equality.

You poke fun, but I actually had a class where we read papers by people making these very arguments. You should read some marxist shit on the 7 dwarves. You'll poop yer pants.

[John]

I have read some of that stuff. And it is scary. You realize where political correctness comes from and what it means. It is scary shit.

[General Butt Naked]

The scary thing is that when you start investigating marxist critique/writings you find the embryo of every pop-culture leftist (jezebel, slate, etc) and the politics of envy, identity and victimology. No one will admit they are marxist, of course, but goddamn if their writings don't dovetail nicely with east german intellectual papers.

[John]

And they are especially retarded Marxist. The stuff on Jezebel is what you get when a really stupid person reads that shit, believes it, but doesn't really understand it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank your good friends at the Frankfurt School for giving Jezzies and Progtards the necessary tools to overcome reason and logic.

[General Butt Naked]

Frankfurt School is exactly what I'm talking about.

[Anonymous Coward]

The pied piper of the Frankfurt School was Herbert Marcuse who wrote several screeds that I've had the displeasure of reading (I still own Eros and Civilization), but the most disturbing one thing I read by Marcuse was "Repressive Tolerance." In it, he argued that the liberal (classical liberal) definition of tolerance was a form of domination and that his new definition of tolerance meant tolerance only for socialist ideas, and intolerance for anything traditional or anti-socialist.

[Irish]

One scene is an extensive serenade/ mariachi sequence that sends Rochelle, the pink girl plane, into fits of desire. I thought I was going to throw up. Everyone else in the theater was laughing.

But you better not call feminists humorless!

[Warrren]

Planes sounds exactly like Cars.

However I noticed in one of the previews that there were some F4Us which means that at some point this country went to war with some other country.

I'd like to see them make a movie about that. All their fun little anthropomorphic vehicles just machine-gunning and bomb the shit out of one another. Show that to the kiddies.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I believe it takes place in the same world as 'Cars'.

It's telling that Disney has gone back to the 'Cars' well three times even though its by far their most uninspired work since the Pixar renaissance.

[John]

And still haven't made a sequel to the Incredibles, which was one of their better ones.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I don't want them to make a sequel to the Incredibles. Do you know how long it took before our kids let us watch anything other than that movie? I can still quote large parts of that movie chapter and verse...

Seriously though, it was a fantastic movie. I am surprised they haven't made a sequel.

[John]

It makes you wonder if the whole Randian spin people put on the movie made the liberals at Disney regret making it. It was a great movie and made a ton of money. It is really inexplicable that it didn't get a sequel like every other movie that fits that description.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Yeah, The Incredibles was a pretty sharp satire of a society that celebrate mediocrity and demands conformity. I can see some idiot academics and griefers making a fuss about how it promotes selfishness and elitism.

[John]

And that is exactly what they did.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I guess I was about...13 when that movie came out and I actually did pick up on that.

What I remember in particular was one scene where Mr. Incredible throws a fit over one of the kids getting a 'promotion ceremony' from the fifth to the sixth grade and he calls it just a ploy to liven up the mediocrity and make people feel special.

[John]

Best line of the movie

"Saying everyone is special is just a way of saying no one is"

[ant1sthenes]

Although that really isn't true. Everyone can't be "better", but they can certainly all be "different". Particularly for a superhero movie where each person, while superhuman, is different, it's a ridiculous assertion.

At any rate, ignoring the slogan, it's plotline was negatively anti-egalitarian. What I mean is, egalitarian can either meaning bringing the low up (positive) or bringing the high down (negative). Similarly, anti-egalitarianism can either involve the high refusing to lower themselves (typical Randian or objectivist fare) or it can involve the high refusing to let the low raise themselves, which is pretty much what Syndrome's plan would have resulted in.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It is puzzling.

[Irish]

That's because the Cars franchise, along with toys that go along with the movies, have made a metric fuckton of money without that much effort.

The first two Cars movies grossed over 1 billion dollars worldwide before you factor in the toys. They're also far easier to make more of because, as you said, they aren't as inspired and well done as Pixar's other movies.

[Warrren]

I know, which means if there are warplanes there must be sentient tanks, warships, rail runs, scud launchers and so forth.

C'mon Pixar, let's see the dark side of Car's World.

[John]

That is actually a really good idea.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I'd like to see a seering drama about the Enola Gay, wracked with guilt over dropping the bomb on Hiroshima who finds solace and hope in an unlikely friendship with a troubled young Japanese sports car.

[Warrren]

Who bond over seeing Grave of the Fireflies together. Only it's with vehicles instead of people.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The big question on my mind is whether the Enola Gay should be played by Adam Sandler (thus going for the eye-rolling bad buddy comedy angle), Clint Eastwood (rendering a touching yet entirely manly story of unlikely friendship a la Gran Torino), or Michael Cera (making the film twee indie bullshit that everyone except hipsters will hate)

[Warrren]

Fran Drescher.

[General Butt Naked]

R. Lee Ermey.

[Warrren]

*Rail guns. And it should be Cars' World.

[CE]

Wasn't Vanellope the fastest racer in Wreck-It Ralph? You can't expect females to win all the time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not do something wild and crazy and put a female in the evil champion role?

Because the feminists will then whine that a man beating a woman in a competition is sexism. And if the female character is evil and cheats to win, the studio is guilty of villifying women. Also, females would never lie or cheat unless some evil man made them do it because...PATREEARKEY.

[hamilton]

Why not do something wild and crazy and put a female in the evil champion role?

Oh, that totally would be OK with the jezzie audience.

[Warrren]

They've already had the Wicked Witch of the West. That's like a perfect representation of them. They should be honored.

[JeremyR]

If they wanted to make it like real life (Danica Patrick), they should have had the female planes crash all the time.

[Warrren]

She must move a lot of merch. Otherwise to keep her over Newman is insane.

Of course Tony let Darien Grubb go so he's used to questionable personnel decisions.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Summer of Recovery continues
Walmart Earnings Disaster Exposes a Collapsing Economy

Walmart (WMT) reported earnings of $1.24 a share this morning on revenues of $116.2 billion. Analysts had been expecting $1.25 on $118.5 billion. Sales in stores open more than a year declined 0.3%. Walmart also guided lower for the full year citing a "challenging sales and operating environment." The stock is off sharply and at risk of going negative for the last 52 weeks.

Those are the numbers, but not the whole story. Walmart is the thermometer of the American economy. Disregard the government data. Jobs and GDP and all the rest are at best inaccurate measures of the economy and at worst flat out corrupt. Walmart is capitalism writ large. The entire organization is focused on nothing but selling goods and services to Americans. It may be an empire in decline, but Walmart sells more than $1 billion worth of merchandise per day in a bad quarter. When Walmart misses estimates, it can only mean one of two things: either Walmart or the American economy is weaker than anyone thought.

[Irish]

Clearly the solution to Walmart's unbelievably slim margin of profit is to create a $15 minimum wage.

[John]

Obama didn't delay the employer mandate for nothing. You have to wonder if they realize that the specter of Obamacare becoming reality is going to be what causes the bottom to finally fall out.

[Pro Libertate]

If he had any political sense or ability, he'd push to massively amend the law. He'd win whatever came out of it, and he could probably spin it as a win, too.

Instead, he and his party want to play chicken with a healthcare and economic disaster they can see coming like the rest of us.

[anon]

Instead, he and his party want to play chicken with a healthcare and economic disaster they can see coming like the rest of us.

I'm not so convinced they believe it's coming; I mean, if he believes half the shit that comes out of his mouth, I can understand being blindsided.

[John]

In fairness, it is more likely that he has no idea what to do and is just living crisis to crisis.

[John]

But if he did that his base would kill him. I think his problem is that if the base ever leaves him, the Republicans will be able to actually investigate the stuff he has done. So he is totally at the mercy of the base. It prevents him from moving right and co-opting his opposition the way Clinton did.

There are any number of things he could do that would not only help but take away the Republicans justification for retaking power. But he can't do them without liberals deciding that maybe Bengazi and Fast and Furious and the NSA really are something to worry about.

[Pro Libertate]

Come on, Bill Clinton was practically a Republican for a term and some change. His base was fine, so long as he said things that made them happy.

[John]

Obama's base is significantly crazier than Clinton's. But yeah, Obmaa being black would have made it even harder. That is the sad thing. He really could have been a good President. It wouldn't have been that hard. But he is such a fucking moron, he wasn't up to it.

[Pro Libertate]

I was very surprised when I slowly came to realize in the early Aughts that the Democrats were lurching quite a bit to the left. I was actually shocked that a moderate wasn't named to as Speaker when they took over--I mean, Pelosi? Really?

It's funny, but for all the talk about the GOP being in trouble, I still think there is a core of economic conservatism in the country that is going to eventually recoil in horror at the left's growing insanity. When that happens, the Democrats are going to lose big. Not forever, because the GOP is dumb, but long enough to probably moderate the party somewhat. It's happened before.

[General Butt Naked]

I still think there is a core of economic conservatism in the country

Yes, conservative in the keep the status quo sense.

As in, "DOAN CUT MA DISBILTY CHEX!!"

Free shit always wins. Always.

[Cytotoxic]

He has certainly burnt his bridges. The real fun starts when Hitlary thinks Obama is a liability. I wonder how her fingernails feel on one's throat?

[Pro Libertate]

I think she's fucked, too. Benghazi is going to burn her, either as an incompetent or as someone who was part of the scandal.

[General Butt Naked]

Why do you guys think that Libya will sink hillary?

Dude, Obama made the worst economy in 50 years worse and was friends with marxists who blew people up, yet the FSA overcame and social justice was instituted. Do you really think the press is gonna grow a set and go after the POTENTIAL FIRST PRESIDENT WITH (APPROXIMATELY) LADY PARTS!?

[Pro Libertate]

I think she's sunk for other reasons, too, but we're collectively stupid enough for anything to happen.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hillary has already fallen on her sword for Benghazi. If Obama decides to loose his media catamites with tales of the State Department shipping weapons to Libya, which were then stolen from the Benghazi Consulate, her Presidential ambitions are finished.

[Lady Bertrum]

But banker bonuses are at an all time high, so everything is alright. See how that works?

[Irish]

Buffet made tons of money, which means that the rest of the economy is irrelevant. /Shrike

[Killazontherun]

But banker bonuses are at an all time high

A Cantillon transfer of wealth to the bankers from everyone else through monetary inflation, you don't say?

That example you use is not even an exaggeration of the bad faith he perpetuates.

[C. Anacreon]

I'm never quite sure why, when earnings come in "below analyst's expectations," it is an "earnings disaster" rather than, "gee, I guess the analysts guessed wrong."

[anon]

You've obviously never tried to sell news.

When's the last time you saw a headline stating that everything's just fine?

[PapayaSF]

"Worthwhile Canadian Initiative."

[Andrew S.]

Because stock is traded up or down based on those expectations. When reality doesn't quite match up to those expectations, the stock goes down to match reality.

[C. Anacreon]

Yesterday, Cisco came out very slightly ahead of analyst expectations, and the stock went down anyway.

I think the only true way to be able to predict a stock is this:
if I buy it, it is guaranteed to go down.

[JeremyR]

But why does it matter what a stock sells at?

People who trade stock are basically parasites. They didn't provide any of the original capital that the company needed when they first sold the sold. They came along later, after the people who took the risk sold it.

[ant1sthenes]

That doesn't make sense. It's not like risk of losing the capital represented by the stock evaporates just because a company weathered its IPO. When someone sells a stock, they're also selling off the risk associated with the stock.

[General Butt Naked]

Broken

[General Butt Naked]

What the hell?

Just lost 3 posts in a row.

[Pro Libertate]

Me, too. In responding to you somewhere above, coincidentally. NSA plot?

[Apatheist ?_??]

I did and then one randomly showed up.

[General Butt Naked]

ARRGGGHAAAAAAAYIIIIIEEE!

test...

[General Butt Naked]

and another...

[Pro Libertate]

I thought the comment above didn't post, yet now it is posted.

[CE]

Your comment went into a time warp, then reappeared. Either that or the squirrels hid it for a while.