A.M. Links: US Puts Hold on Military Aid to Egypt, UK Intelligence Officials Smashed Hard Drives at The Guardian's Offices, Cruz Will Renounce Any Canadian Citizenship He Might Have

Credit: Gage Skidmore/wikimedia

• The U.S. is temporarily putting a hold on some military aid to Egypt.
• Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, has said that two security experts from the U.K.'s GCHQ came to The Guardian's offices and destroyed hard drives after the paper published information leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, despite the fact that data was backed up around the world.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has said he will renounce any Canadian citizenship he might have after a Canadian newspaper reported that he was probably a dual Canadian/American citizen. Yesterday Cruz released his birth certificate, which revealed that he was born in Calgary, Alberta.
• Up to 50 percent of people in the north of North Korea are addicted to meth.
• Court documents reveal that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was shot multiple times, including in the mouth, before being captured by police.

• Officials from the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq have put a quota on the number of Syrian refugees fleeing over Iraq's northern border.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has said he will renounce any Canadian citizenship...

Canuckistan's loss is MSNBC's gain.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I doubt you will see any birther idiots among progressives.

[SIV]

lol!!1!

[Certified Public Asskicker]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....-birthers/

[Eduard van Haalen]

"there is no final word from the courts, because while foreign-born candidates have run ? including George Romney and John McCain ? none of them has actually won and had his eligibility challenged."

That's misleading - Congress counted their electoral votes - if these candidates were unqualified, Congress ought to have thrown out the votes. And there's a strong case that Congress has the final decision on who's been elected President, and how many electoral votes their rivals got.

[T]

If I recall the rule is natural born, not naturalized. Given jus sanguine, McCain was okay. I know nothing about George Romney, so I won't comment.

[CE]

McCain was not okay. Candidates born in the Panama Canal Zone only became legally considered "natural born" two years after McCain's birth. So he was Americanized by law, and wasn't born that way.

[Seamus]

Congress didn't count any electoral votes for George Romney. As for McCain, Congress wasn't about to waste its time in a debate over the validity of the electoral votes cast for him unless it would have made a difference. So the fact that they counted those votes doesn't mean diddly.

[R C Dean]

Still a precedent.

[Seamus]

No, because the issue wasn't joined.

[Careless]

Wow, was that ridiculously dishonest. It's easy to mock birthers. There's no reason to lie about them to do so.

[Atanarjuat]

Not just the stupidest thing Buttplug has ever said, but the stupidest thing ever said by anyone.

[Brett L]

Why must you challenge fate like this?

[Loki]

Actually I feel that our resident trolls have really been phoning it in recently. I don't know if maybe their hearts aren't in it any more or what, but I'm sure if they really put their minds to it they could reach levels of derp previously thought to be unimagineable.

[bmp1701]

I imagine that if (Horror of horrors) Cruz is elected, we'll see that proggies are just as nutty. We'll probably learn that Dubya staged the 9/11 attacks in order to destroy a secret archive which would have proved that Cruz is a Canadian citizen whose father carried out the JFK assassination under orders from the Koch brothers.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Look, as fucked up as Michael Moore is, even he did not jump on the Truther Bullshit Carousel.

Truthers were the paranoid Alex Jones CT types.

[bmp1701]

The most you can say is that polling suggests that Democrats are less nutty.

[bmp1701]

I buggered my link: http://washingtonindependent.c.....c-truthers

[CE]

Progressive Democrats were the ones thinking the Tea Party was an astroturf conspiracy engineered by the Koch brothers.

Conservative Republicans were the ones thinking Ron Paul's massive online support in 2007 was a conspiracy of bots started by a few tech-savvy Libertarians in their mother's basement, until he raised 6 million dollars in one day.

[Libertymike]

What is a "CT type".

[Palin's Buttplug]

Conspiracy Theory.

Libertarians are big on CT, unfortunately.

NAFTA superhighways, Fed Reserve stealing/running the world and not audited, Trutherism, Birtherism, Rothschilds electing US presidents, Fed had JFK killed, etc.

[wareagle]

Hillary was at the forefront of the birther thing. She is neither a conservative nor a libertarian.

[bmp1701]

Libertarians are big on CT, unfortunately.

As someone who trolls DU, the only thing I can say in response is "Kochtopus Monsanto BANKSTERS GMO Tealiban GrassyKnoll TheTruth JustAskingQuestions 9/11 TheChickenMeshDidn'tMelt NRA NRA NRA".

[Careless]

Conspiracy theorist

[Bill Dalasio]

Well, except the birther claim actually originated with Clinton supporters

http://www.politico.com/news/s.....53563.html

But, hey, don't let a few pesky facts interfere with a perfectly good narrative.

[Palin's Buttplug]

They didn't believe it.

[Lord Humungus]

psychic.

[R C Dean]

So they were just lying the whole time. That's OK, then.

[VG Zaytsev]

I doubt you will see any birther idiots among progressives

How much you wanna bet?

[fish]

I doubt you will see any birther idiots among progressives.

Let me just tighten that sentence up a bit shreeky.....there you go.

PS: CHRISTSHREEKBUSHFAGTASTIC

[Joe M]

I doubt you will see any birther idiots among progressives.

You blithering fucking idiot. Hillary Clinton's campaign started that shit in 2007 in the Democratic primaries.

[Enyap]

Yeah, it's not like the birther movement got it start in Hillary's primary campaign buttwipe.

[ant1sthenes]

He still can't have native Texan license plates.

[Cdr Lytton]

I was surprised by two of the plate options:

This and this.

From the $30 specialty plate fee, $22 goes to the state highway fund to acquire right-of-way, construct, maintain and police public roadways and to administer Texas traffic and safety laws on those roads.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Up to 50 percent of people in the north of North Korea are addicted to meth.

Hellooooooo, New Somalia!

[The DerpRider]

When is this crazed horde going to take over the country?

[Bardas Phocas]

So they have that going for them.

[Aloysious]

This is where the zombie apocalypse starts.

First, the Norks. Then China. Then, the rest of the world.

When it reaches our shores, we will battle the infestation with the Affordable Care Act.

[mr simple]

Not if those obstructionist rethuglicans get their way. They want to stop Obama from saving the world and turn us all into anti-gay, christian zombies!

[Rasilio]

Nuh uh.

Brad Pitt and Matt Damon will save us all

[Brett L]

Gotta have something to take the edge off their hunger.

[Dweebston]

Eugh.

[gaijin]

But at least they are not suffering from seasonal allergies. Right?

[fish]

Up to 50 percent of people in the north of North Korea are addicted to meth.

Well that explains where the teeth went.

[JW]

This is what happens when you don't put the pseudoephed behind the counter.

[R C Dean]

How can anyone possibly know how many people in NORK are meth-heads?

[CE]

You know who else ruined their country by blind adherence to communism?

[Lord Humungus]

Snail hatches in knee of 4-year-old boy

He had a wound that kept growing for a couple weeks, and doctors first called it a staph infection. They prescribed the boy antibiotics, but they didn't work, leaving a swollen black bump underneath the skin.

His mother, Rachael became tired of waiting. Against the wishes of doctors, she said once it got the size of an orange, she squeezed it with her fingers and a snail popped out.

*shudders*

[mad libertarian guy]

Against the wishes of doctors, she said once it got the size of an orange, she squeezed it with her fingers and a snail popped out.

I'll bet that hurt really fucking badly.

[Dweebston]

Eugh.

[Ted S.]

Anybody else disappointed that this isn't a story out of Australia?

[db]

I'll pass on stories of venomous snails growing under someone's skin, thanks very much.

[mr simple]

A) The size of an orange? What kind of orange? I guess any kind is too big compared to a 4yo's knee, but why wait that long before seeing what is inside of it?

B) A snail's egg grew and had babies inside.

The egg had babies?

[JW]

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Perhaps the British gubmint needs to rough up a few reporters there too, to weed out the rubbish editors and staff.

[Matrix]

Legal Site Groklaw Shuts Down Rather Than Face NSA in Heartrending Post
This cannot be said enough: Fuck the NSA!

[robc]

groklaw was a regular read of mine back in the sco days.

[Suthenboy]

Wow. The comments there are very disheartening.

[Ted S.]

What's up with Gizmodo's commenting system being a memory hog, too?

As much as some people hate on H&R's threading, what Gizmodo does is far more irritating if you ask me.

[a better weapon]

Bob Loblaw's Law Blog is next!

[Juice]

They tell us that if you send or receive an email from outside the US, it will be read. If it's encrypted, they keep it for five years, presumably in the hopes of tech advancing to be able to decrypt it against your will and without your knowledge.

Find a way to constantly send 1 GB encrypted gibberish back and forth. They'll sweep it up but it'll fill up their storage space pretty quickly.

[Brett L]

Just encrypt trollguy gifs and send them around.

[Raston Bot]

encrypt and reply to all incoming spam?

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was shot multiple times, including in the mouth, before being captured by police.

He ain't pretty no more, Rolling Stone.

[mr simple]

His eyes are wide open.

[Matrix]

Judge orders Daytona Beach PD to return veteran's illegally confiscated guns
But much of his property was damaged by the PD. Will they make restitution? Unlikely.

[Matrix]

Woman swallows tapeworm she ordered off the internet in order to lose weight

[Bam!]

This was a thing back in the 1920s.

[William of Purple]

ordering off the Internet?

[Matrix]

Yes. Al Gore went back in time and gave the Internet to the people in the early 20th Century, and he also slew Manbearpig

[bmp1701]

Swallowing?

[Lord Humungus]

enough of your mother...

[Dweebston]

Eugh.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Yeah, what's with the grossness today?

[Lord Humungus]

Mayor baffled by buried 'alien head'

A baffled mayor has asked scientists to examine the remains of what be believes to be the head of an alien dug up by workers in a graveyard in Croatia.

The twisted, soft-bodied remains - which seems to have a beak-like mouth in the centre - were unearthed in Medjimurje where gardeners were extending the local cemetery.

A second section - believed to contain what looks like a heart - was also recovered.

[Bam!]

Likely a publicity stunt for the new mall.

[Ebriosa]

It doesn't have wings, nobody cares!

[Fatty Bolger]

Looks like wood to me.

[CE]

Thanagarian, obviously.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...despite the fact that data was backed up around the world.

Oh, they'll get around to smashing up the world, don't you worry.

[Atanarjuat]

On the bright side, humanity will have another well-documented slide from liberty to government tyranny to look back on as something to be avoided when we finally decide we're tired of that shit. Gotta take the long view.

[WTF]

Oh, they'll get around to smashing up the world, don't you worry.

DRONEZ

[Palin's Buttplug]

Maine Gov: Obama "Hates White People"

Maine Gov. Paul LePage is one of the coarsest bits of flotsam washed ashore in the 2010 Tea Party wave election. He's often found comparing IRS agents to Gestapo and joking about sodomy as punishment. But this is something even for him. According to the Portland Press Herald, at a fundraiser last week, the Gov. told Republican supporters that President Obama "hates white people."

It was a private event. And there appears to be no recording. But two Republican lawmakers, who asked that their names be withheld for fear of political retribution, confirmed LePage's comment when asked directly. Others who spoke on the record said they had no memory of him saying, were distracted or simply refused to comment.

http://editors.talkingpointsme.....?ref=fpblg

[WTF]

CHRISTFAGS!!11!!!!BUSHPIGS!!11!!!!

[WTF]

And there appears to be no recording. But two Republican lawmakers, who asked that their names be withheld for fear of political retribution, confirmed LePage's comment when asked directly. Others who spoke on the record said they had no memory of him saying, were distracted or simply refused to comment.

Yeah, that sure is definitive proof!
Holy shit you're a mendacious moron.
Don't you ever tire of gobbling Obama cock?

[Mike M.]

If he did say it, he was only telling the truth.

Anyone who still hasn't read Dreams from my Father by now ought to do so. The anger and the hatred are unmistakable: they jump out of the pages at you again and again and again.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yeah it's amazing how self-loathing Bill Ayers is.

[sarcasmic]

LePage is as gaffe prone as Biden, yet I'll vote for him again.

[John]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnYUFKFs5As

BUSHPIGS!!

[Eduard van Haalen]

"He's often found comparing IRS agents to Gestapo and joking about sodomy as punishment."

The Gestapo thing is a low blow, since the Gestapo wasn't required by positive law to keep taxpayer records confidential and to avoid harassing taxpayers.

And while I can't find the link, I seem to recall a Dem Attorney-General of California rejoicing in the thought of certain alleged criminals getting raped in prison.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Bill Lockyer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lockyer

[Loki]

Talkingpointsmemo: yeah, that's a really reliable source there. How many times in the past have maligned others for posting shit from drudge or Breitbart or Glenn Beck's site? Dumbfuck.

[db]

The very title of "Talking Points Memo" is creepy. "Here is what you should be saying to people."

[Loki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuGtxt84wPQ

[mad libertarian guy]

Up to 50 percent of people in the north of North Korea are addicted to meth.

I know I'd be slamming meth if I were in NK.

[CatoTheElder]

The takeaway from this story is that the cost and difficulty of producing dope are less than producing basic foodstuffs.

The Norks are using meth therapy to combat food addiction because it is easier for produce meth than food.

[CE]

They probably don't get arrested for buying cold medicine in North Korea, like we do in the land of the free.

[BakedPenguin]

Other stories I've read about this say it's common for meth to be given as a birthday / special occasion present.

China is also a bit pissed at this, because it's spread over the border.

[a better weapon]

That's what they get for propping up that shit hole.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Happy birthday, honey!"

"Wow, another batch of meth! You're the greatest, Mom!"

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

[John]

The take away from that is that if the most oppressive police state maybe in human history can't stop drug use, the drug war is totally futile and stupid.

[WTF]

The take away from that is that if the most oppressive police state maybe in human history can't stop drug use, the drug war is totally futile and stupid.

No, John, the take away is obviously we have to try even harder. For the children.

[John]

Trying harder will clearly work.

[WTF]

It will work for the real goal; it just won't work for the stated goal.

[JW]

I've always said that with drugs, you have 2 choices: complete legalization or complete police state. Anything else is just jerking off.

So, at least we know now that we can throw the police state option out.

[Houkt Un Fanixs]

JW- Do you have a newsletter or journal of opinion I can subscribe to?

[CatoTheElder]

WRT the WOD: The takeaway is that the US is more totalitarian than North Korea when it comes to recreational pharmaceuticals.

[some guy]

I doubt the NORKs actually punish people for using meth. They probably secretly encourage it's use since addicts are easier to control.

[T]

But I thought addicts ran rampant destroying the world if they didn't get their fix. You mean the ONDCP has lied to me about the effects of drug use?

I'm shocked and dismayed.

[Brett L]

Except for the part where the "addicts" don't seem to go seeking for it once they get out of NK.

[Loki]

If they were allowed to watch western TV I bet Breaking Bad would get huge ratings in NK.

[prolefeed]

If they had electricity and TVs and the freedom to watch Western shows, they wouldn't be in anything like the current NK.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. is temporarily putting a hold on some military aid to Egypt.

Uh, throwing money at things is the sum total of what's in the State Department's bag of tricks. WHAT IS KERRY SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?

[DJF]

Isn't it kind of late to worry about Egypt being taken over by the military in a coup? The place has been run by the military since 1952. Even when Morsi was president the military actually ran most things.

[CatoTheElder]

Now that the US has suspended its 33-year-old tradition of bribing Egypt's ruling elite, the military will likely resort to Israel bashing to garner popular support.

[db]

I must have missed the part we we actually stopped sending them aid in addition to cancelling a "joint military exercise."

[WTF]

But the military in Egypt is opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood, who are enemies of the U.S., so, uh, wait, what?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Yeah, and if the MB gets back in the govt, watch for the aid to resume. Bizarre.

[R C Dean]

Its almost like this administration wants to support Muslim extremism in the Middle East. Certainly, if you look at cui bono from their post- Arab Spring policies, it generally seems to be the Islamonutters.

[Steve G]

"some" and "military" are two big qualifiers...

[Lord Humungus]

Christie, Establishment Darling

"I'm in this business to win," Christie told the RNC attendees, to approving cheers. "For our ideas to matter, we have to win, because if we don't win, we don't govern, and if we don't govern, all we do is shout into the wind." It wasn't an ideological overture but a pugnacious and pragmatic message directed to a group that's tired of losing. And they loved it, and Christie, too, since he increasingly looks like the only center-right governor and national star looking hard at a 2016 campaign. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is widely believed to be leaning against it, and senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, though popular with tea-party activists, are privately viewed with wariness by the Republican donor class.

I would prefer the snail in the knee.

[Bam!]

For us to win, our ideas have to not matter. Because if they mattered, we wouldn't win. And winning is all that matters.

Also: "Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is widely believed to be leaning against it..." -- Does anyone actually believe that?

[Pro Libertate]

I dunno, he's pretty hard to read. He could've walked right into the Senate but chose not to. And he didn't run for president last time.

If it weren't for his brother (and dad, for that matter), he'd be a decent candidate. He was a reasonably sane governor, with one or two notable exceptions.

[T]

My problem with that is George W. was a pretty decent governor, too, and look how that turned out.

[Brett L]

Texas got that one right. The Governorship of Texas is one of the weakest executive offices in the 50 states. So, he had a lot less power at his previous job.

[Pro Libertate]

Not really comparable. The Florida governor has lots of power and influence. The Texas governor does not.

Bush did a really good job of being a fiscal hawk. Of the large states, Florida is in the least trouble, in large part thanks to him pounding that drum. While we have a Republican legislature, they're pretty nuts on a lot of issues, so it took a decent governor to keep them focused.

[gaijin]

see what I don't understand is this idea that the Presidency is the definition of winning. I mean, aren't most of the governorships republican? Seems like the national Repubs have an inferiority complex.

[WTF]

Christie, too, since he increasingly looks like the only center-right governor and national star looking hard at a 2016 campaign.

They use this term, "center-right"; I do not think it means what they think it means.

[Pro Libertate]

Center-right usually means "right-socialist."

[WTF]

He's a New Jersey republican, which is the equivalent of a moderate Democrat in a sane state.

[CE]

I think this term "national star" does not mean what they think it means.

[Palin's Buttplug]

As I have been saying for years - GRIDLOCK is the best party allocation.

[Dweebston]

Sure, but for the frictional slides one way or another when enough bipartisan support coalesces around small groups of Congressional fuckwits acting in concert.

[John]

As long as Obama is Emperor. Shut up you little bootlicking lying piece of human garbage.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I don't trust political parties - you Team Red sycophant.

[John]

BUSHPIGS!!

Whatever you little monkey.

[Damned Fool]

The Buttplug projector is better than a movie theater's.

[John]

He is a classical liberal. He distrusts political parties!! He is good comedy.

[WTF]

Team Blue is not a party - it's a religion.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You will get Santorum and you will fucking like it.

Come 2016 you will be talking up his libertarian cred like the good little Red Tony that you are.

[John]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnYUFKFs5As

CHRISTFAGS!!!

Let it out shreek. Just let it out. The convulsions will pass at some point.

[Dweebston]

Eugh.

[Auric Demonocles]

Why should I care about you winning if your ideas suck?

[VG Zaytsev]

The funniest thing about the lame tirade is the Republican establishment excels at nothing but losing.

They have an uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[carol]

Agreed. The mere mention of his name makes my intestines kink.

[William of Purple]

Handpresso Solves Your In-Car Caffeine Needs

[Dweebston]

The Starbucks drive-through is too onerous?

McDonald's coffee ent bad, either.

[db]

McDonald's coffee is foul.

[Ebriosa]

McD's Americano is surprisingly good and cheap.

[db]

I drink only black coffee and Mc Donald's has the perfect combination of using too little coffee, too high extraction temperature, and low quality beans that makes every sip taste like burned shoes. The only way I imagine it could be tolerable would be to drown it in cream and sugar, and then it wouldn't be fit for human consumption anyway.

[Lord Humungus]

you just described the coffee at work.

[Eduard van Haalen]

At least if you pour McDonald's coffee your lap, you'll be badly burned and get set for life with the damage award. Or have they cooled off their coffee like wimps after that coffee-spill case?

[Fatty Bolger]

They did indeed lower the standing temperature of their coffee after that case.

[a better weapon]

I used to travel for work a lot and found McD's coffee to be drinkable when options are limited. Have you ever had Jack in the Box coffee? Now that's bad!

[Ted S.]

Is Handpresso coffee cheaper than Starbucks or Mickey D's?

[reads article]

1.79 fl oz. of coffee? Who the hell drinks that little? And the idiots in the comments who use those coffee pods. What a waste of money. They're the descendants of the people who drank the General Foods International Coffees.

[Nikkis enthusiastic dissent]

Sometimes, they're the same people (my parents).

[Brett L]

I had to lead a revolt at work against the Pod People. Our coffeemaker proudly stands next to their K-cup machine again. Aside from the one busybody who worries about "clutter" in the communal kitchen, it was fairly bloodless.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

The busybody's head was cut off, preserved in drip made-filter coffee, as a warning to the others, yes?

[JW]

"Handpresso" in the car has a entirely different meaning in my head.

[William of Purple]

Man, 70, has 10cm steel kitchen fork removed from inside his manhood after sex game goes wrong

[DJF]

You would think that by the age of 70 that someone would learn not to do certain things.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Or they forgot not to do certain things?

[T]

He forgot some basic safety precautions?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Hey, getting old is a bitch from what I hear.

[Lady Bertrum]

Things that should not have been forgotten were forgotten.

[T]

Things like don't stick a fork in your junk?

[Fist of Etiquette]

DO NOT WANT.

[Dweebston]

EUGH. FFS, what is wrong with you people.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Tapeworms, snails, forks - this must be National Gross-Out Day, lol!

ewwwwwgrosssss.com

[mr simple]

Stop it, just stop it.

[Lord Humungus]

Man jumps onto car of wife's underwear thief; holds on for 2.5 kilometers

According to police, the 32-year-old husband tied a fishing line and two bells to his wife's underwear to discover who had been stealing it from their balcony, Fuji TV reported. When the alleged thief returned at around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, the woman's husband chased him outside and jumped onto the roof of his car. The suspect, who has been identified as 53-year-old Hiroshi Ishikawa, attempted to flee the scene and drove 2.5 kilometers with the man clinging to his roof.

[bmp1701]

I see Benny Hill has been reincarnated as a Japanese man.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Which one of them, though?

[Lord Humungus]

Ethanol mandates creating an economic car-wreck

There are two iron laws of energy policy in the United States. Iron Law No. 1: A higher federal excise tax on fuel would efficiently reduce gasoline consumption and its negative side effects (air pollution, traffic congestion, carbon emissions, dependence on foreign oil).

Iron Law No. 2: Although economically rational, gas taxes are politically unpopular, so Congress will go to almost any length to avoid raising them, even if that means resorting to far less transparent policies.

...etc

[gaijin]

a boom in oil production that Congress and the Bush administration never anticipated.

Seems like the impact of most federal legislation can be summed up with those last two words. Top Men. Top Women.

[John]

Why are gas taxes any more or less economically rational than any other taxes?

[Dweebston]

Because in Progtopia, taxes inflict no sort of penalty mentality on their victims except for cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, and gasoline taxes.

[Rasilio]

Wait this is a progressive advocating for it?

Do they not realize that energy taxes are extremely regressive?

[CE]

Not to hippies who don't own cars.

[robc]

In general, they arent.

If they are specifically used for road maintenance and for nothing else, then they become a de facto user fee.

Probably not the best way to handle that, tolls make more sense, but in that case they are slightly more rational than other taxes.

[John]

They only rational if you suffer from the prog irrational hatred of cars and driving, which this clown clearly does.

[Brett L]

If they are specifically used for road maintenance and for nothing else

LBJ made sure that boat sailed.

[T]

Something else I can blame on that rat bastard? Sweet.

[John]

(air pollution, traffic congestion, carbon emissions, dependence on foreign oil).

Paging barfman. If we could just make driving so expensive no one but the rich could afford to do it, we wouldn't have any traffic congestion. I really hate these people.

[a better weapon]

That's probably extremely accurate. All the ruling elite heading south from Travilah and Great Falls to work and wonder "what could all these commoners possibly be doing out at this hour that is more important than me getting to the capital at a timely hour? What these plebes need is the proper incentive!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Officials from the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq have put a quota on the number of Syrian refugees fleeing over Iraq's northern border.

Hire them to build a border fence for you.

[Lord Humungus]

Walk-in vagina installed at old Women's Jail

"By creating this vagina which you walk into, it contains you as the viewer, but also screams and laughs, almost like a battle cry which revolts against the prison," the artist Reshma Chhiba told the Sunday Times.

The walkway - installed in section two of the jail - is 12 metres long and made up of red velvet and cotton. A soundtrack of laughter and screaming plays throughout.

[William of Purple]

hotdog... hallway...

[gaijin]

12 metres long

Too small

[Pro Libertate]

A vaginitorium?

[Eduard van Haalen]

OK, that's it, H&R has officially become grosser than South Park.

Well, maybe not, but still fricking gross.

[T]

Silence, or you'll go back in the Vaginitorium.

[Pro Libertate]

What's funny is the definition of a vomitorium is about the same: "[I]n a theater or stadium, esp. ancient, a passageway leading to and from the seating."

[JW]

The walkway - installed in section two of the jail - is 12 metres long and made up of red velvet and cotton. A soundtrack of laughter and screaming plays throughout.

How'd they find Lindy West's house? To be honest, it's mostly crying you hear.

[robc]

This has been the least appetizing morning links while eating breakfast ever.

[hamilton]

Though, really, by now you should have learned to stay away from any sort of civilized behaviors while reading HampersandR, like eating or caring for children.

[Ted S.]

1931's equivalent of Deadspin

(At least, as posited by Hollywood.)

[SIV]

Monocle kid

[Lord Humungus]

Using The Constitution To Arrest Federal Drift

Levin proposes to reform the federal government from its degenerate, bloated, imperial structure back to its (small r) republican roots. Even more interesting than his specific proposals is the mechanism.

There is a little-known "emergency cord" built into the Constitution by the Founders. Find it in Article V. It allows for the States, rather than just the Congress, to propose Constitutional amendments. It is obscure yet entirely legitimate ? and invaluable. It was extolled by James Madison in The Federalist No. 43.

[robc]

The states can call a constitutional convention for proposing amendments. But that can get entirely out of control. That is one of those pandora's box kind of things.

[Brett L]

Yeah. There's no telling what will come out of it, aside from a new Constitution.

[robc]

A new constitution that stood a snowballs chance of actually getting approved by the states afterword.

[Dweebston]

Could you imagine the special dealing, logrolling, and minutia baked into the result? The thing would make War and Peace look like an issue of Mad.

[Brett L]

Yeah, imagine passing a new Constitution to find out what's in it. 🙁

[Doctor Whom]

That's just why so many state constitutions look the way they do (and why they have to be amended in just about every general election).

[JW]

Is that where you tri-fold the back cover to see the real Constitution?

[Damned Fool]

Do we really want California voters calling for constitutional amendments?

[WTF]

Yeah, the "You have a right to free shit" amendments will be endless.

[ant1sthenes]

The problem is that, while conservatives love themselves some founders, they aren't necessarily well-read on primary sources, much less on the classical education that informed the founders' debates.

The best we can hope for is an ascendant anti-federalist movement that produces a couple of helpful amendments. I haven't read Levin's book, but I would recommend:
1) Making Senators appointees of state legislatures again, so we have actual statesmen in Congress.

2) Adding a third house of Congress, randomly selected from amongst registered voters for each session, who will have authority to remove laws on a majority vote and act as a permanent grand jury to indict federal officials and appoint special prosecutors in that regard.

3) Eliminating all federal tax and revenue authority and instead requiring that they directly charge the states in proportion to their representation in the Electoral College.

4) Finding a way to eliminate the principle-agent/public choice problems inherent with a permanent civil service, without introducing the problems associated with the spoils system. Probably the best approach would be to institute a draft from among registered voters, and then assign people based on qualifications. Not the most libertarian approach, but it still allows for non-participation at only the cost of the franchise. It also makes bureaucracy undesirable even for the bureaucrats, which should check its expansion somewhat.

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

1) Making Senators appointees of state legislatures again, so we have actual statesmen in Congress.

I always wonder why this is asserted - who would the IL or CA or NY or MA, etc state legislatures send? Utterly debased and owned creatures of people like Mike Madigan?

[tarran]

They would send really crappy people.

However, if the state legislators can replace Senators mid-term, it creates a very powerful check on federal power over the states.

[ant1sthenes]

The state legislators might be pendejos, but a) per the other recommendation, they're pendejos who foot Uncle Sam's bills, and b) the people they pick are more likely to have actual qualifications besides "good at winning elections", on account of they don't have to win an election.

[CE]

We know for sure that the Kentucky state legislature wouldn't have sent Rand Paul.

[Lord Humungus]

Ottawa testing $620K stealth snowmobile for Arctic

The Canadian military has been secretly test-driving a $620,000 stealth snowmobile in its quest to quietly whisk troops on clandestine operations in the Arctic.

The Canadian Press has learned that soldiers have taken the new hybrid-electric snowmobile prototype on trial runs to evaluate features such as speed, noise level, battery endurance and acceleration.

zomg, stealth snowmobile gap!

[Bam!]

In a related story, a Browns fan asked in his obituary to have six Browns pallbearers so the team can let him down one last time.

[CE]

I think you were scooped on that one.

[Atanarjuat]

Psh, I've been assured that the Arctic will be a tropical vacation destination in a few years.

[WTF]

Hudson Bay will be the new Caribbean.

[NeonCat]

Rastafarian Inuit.

[Ted S.]

Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, has said that two security experts from the U.K.'s GCHQ came to The Guardian's offices and destroyed hard drives after the paper published information leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, despite the fact that data was backed up around the world.

The above had a link to 24/7, even though H&R covered this last night. My goodness reason is desperate for people to click to 24/7.

[gaijin]

Didn't you post something similar about one of yesterday's HnR stories? Are you desperate for Reason to acknowledge your concern?

[Swiss Servator - past LTC(ret)]

Well, I am desperate to see Reason's reply to desperation!

[Brett L]

The Guardian should name everyone it had contact with from the government. It is illegal, sure. But once the names are out there, they can't be removed in the internet era. Give HM's government a reason to be afraid of fucking with you.

[Lord Humungus]

C'mon, just one more hit and I'll be fine.

Greece will need third aid deal, German Finance Minister admits

"There will have to be another programme in Greece," Wolfgang Schaeuble told a campaign audience in northern Germany, in comments that raised prospect of a step that could be deeply unpopular domestically just five weeks before national elections.

In Athens, a Greek finance ministry official told Reuters a new bailout would focus on plugging an expected funding shortfall over 2014-2016.

[Suthenboy]

"...an expected funding shortfall over 2014-2016"

Yep. Completely unexpected.

[Lord Humungus]

The Die Harder States
Minnesota has increased the incentive to move to Florida.

The grand prize for self-abuse goes to Minnesota, which this year enacted a new 10% gift tax with a $1 million exemption. A gift tax is a levy on money given away while still alive. This tax is in addition to Minnesota's 16% estate tax. The new law is all the more punitive because it applies the 16% estate tax (6% on top of the earlier 10% gift tax) to any gift within three years of death.

[John]

Retirees are a cash cow. They basically show up and spend money that usually has been earned and comes from out of state. Clearly the thing to do is tax them so they don't come.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I missed The Man with the 132-lb Scrotum, anyone else watch?

They played some good audio from the guy's aunt on the radio this morning, but I cannot find a link for it.

She blamed Satan for the big sack.

[gaijin]

She blamed Satan for the big sack.

Maybe she meant Santa?

[a better weapon]

+1 cookie

[Certified Public Asskicker]

It's possible, I really want to see video of this woman speaking.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Oh, for crying out loud, I said this thread wasn't as gross as South Park, but now it officially is worse. Please, no more of these kind of links today, or for that matter any other days. You've way used up your disgusting quota.

[CampingInYourPark]

"Three teens accused of murder of baseball player Chris Lane identified"

Earlier today, former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer has urged Australian tourists to boycott the US in the wake of the shooting murder of the Melbourne baseball star.

Mr Fischer said he was deeply angered by the latest tragedy and said turning our backs on America would help send a stern message about the need for tighter gun control.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ne.....6700172461

[John]

That or maybe we should do something about black on white hate crimes. Would the prime minister feel better if they had beat him to death?

[T]

Would it make you feel any better, little girl, if they was pushed out of windows?

[John]

A great line that never gets old or less relevant.

[BakedPenguin]

Not disagreeing with your point, but this looks totally random. These were scumbags who just wanted to kill someone.

[John]

And they choose a white guy for a reason. It was a black on white hate crime. The Australian prime minister is right, the US has a problem. But it is not guns, it is violent young black males.

[sarcasmic]

It was two black kids and one white kid who did the shooting if I remember correctly.

[John]

The pictures in the link show three black kids.

[sarcasmic]

I'm just going off what I read yesterday.

[CampingInYourPark]

None of the suspects are white.

[Seamus]

I figured this out must be the case yesterday when I read the news stories about the shooting, and none of them said bupkes about the race of the killers suspects.

[Palin's Buttplug]

So what is your remedy to the violent young black male problem, John?

[WTF]

CHRISTFAGS!!11!!!BUSHPIGS!!11!!!

[sarcasmic]

It's a boring day I've got nothing to do except to get a load of PBs and drive them to the zoo!

[T]

Leave black people alone to live their lives instead of trying to help them with the corrupting influence of the state? Just spitballing here.

Ending the war on drugs might be helpful, too.

[Atanarjuat]

Cut down on the zoning and licensing requirements that prevent inner-city folk from making a living. Lower taxes. Put a video and audio camera (that automatically uploads to somewhere not controlled by the police department) on every cop.

Almost every problem in America today is caused either by government meddling or people who think their shit doesn't stink.

[John]

So almost every problem in America is caused by people like Shreek and his handlers? Yeah. pretty much.

[Enough About Palin]

"So what is your remedy to the violent young black male problem, John?"

Going Zimmerman?

[Gray Ghost]

I forget who it was who originally posted the link here, but if you want to be absolutely appalled, look at the CDC/Vital Health Statistics' violent death rates. They publish them periodically, calling it something like Morbidity/Mortality monthly or something like that.

Anyway, they have a chart showing violent deaths/per thousand, with age/sex on one axis, and race on the other. The last I looked at it, Black males 75+ had a violent death rate equivalent to that of White males 15-18 and 19-24. IOW, your prime cohort for violent stupid shit. The Black male rate for 15-18 and 19-24 was something like 15 times that. Hispanics were a bit higher than whites, as were Native Americans, but it was nothing like the stats for blacks.

Now, this only shows the victims, not the perps, but if you assume that most violence is local and intraracial....damn.

I don't know how you solve it. US violent crime rates say nothing about Aussie's problems, of course.

[Brett L]

I don't know, but I vote we stop putting black men in jail or prison for drug related offenses and wait 25 years to see if that helps.

[John]

Young black males had, at least in the 1990s, not sure about now, a higher violent death rate than white males did during world war II. It is just tragic. But no one talks about it or will even call it a problem because all problems are the fault of white people. Blacks can never be called to account for anything.

[Marshall Gill]

Reducing the incentive for fatherless black families would be a start.

[WTF]

Mr Fischer said he was deeply angered by the latest tragedy and said turning our backs on America would help send a stern message about the need for tighter gun control.

Yep, losing all those Australian tourists will sure make me want to give up my right to effective self-defense.

[Ted S.]

With all due respect ot IFH, wouldn't losing Aussie tourists be, on average, a good thing?

Let them infest Kiwiland. Antipodean freaks. 🙂

[Suthenboy]

"This is the bitter harvest and legacy of the policies of the NRA that even blocked background checks for people buying guns at gunshows."

That is right Timmy, because a 16 year old jive-ass thug bought a pistol at a gun show using the gun show loophole. The mendacity of gun grabbers just takes the breath away.

I notice that nowhere in the article is it mentioned how those scum obtained a gun.

[sarcasmic]

But, but, but someone bought the gun legally before they got their paws on it!

[Brian D]

And if it were impossible for that someone to buy the gun, then this wouldn't have happened. Not that we want to take anyone's guns away or anything; that's just crazy talk by tinfoil-hat wearing lunatics.

[Ted S.]

If rounding up all the children and putting them into concentration camps could save even one life, don't we have an obligation to try?

[WTF]

Yeah, banning guns just did wonders for Australia, which has a higher rate of violent crime than the U.S.
And not surprisingly, the rate of crime jumped in Australia following the gun ban.

[sarcasmic]

You mean violent crime goes up when criminals can be confident that their victims are unable to defend themselves?

[WTF]

But it's okay, because the proglodytes intend for crime to go down. And intentions matter most of all.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Mr Fischer said he was deeply angered by the latest tragedy and said turning our backs on America would help send a stern message about the need for tighter gun control.

I understand being pissed, and this looks like a prime example of when I wouldn't have any issue with executing these fucks, but do we even know where or how they got the gun or whether any gun control short of confiscation and destruction of all guns could have prevented this?

[John]

They are under 18. Our robed overlords say we can't do that. Fuck the Supreme Court. Convict them and hang them from a tree as a warning to the next stupid fucker who thinks walking around shooting people is a good idea.

[Andrew S.]

Because the state is never wrong, never wrongfully convicts anybody, and has certainly never executed anybody wrongfully. Plus, as I always tell my daughter, two wrongs make a right.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Do you also tell her what begging the question is? Oh wait, you apparently don't know yourself.

[John]

So locking up an innocent man for decades is better? If you don't trust the state at all, you should object to the entire justice system, not just the death penalty.

And holding someone accountable for cold blooded murder is not a wrong. Letting them live a comfortable life in prison at tax payer expense is the wrong.

[Cyto]

I object to the death penalty on the grounds that killing is wrong. Not on the "they don't deserve it" argument. Execution is way less than what many deserve.

On the "got what they deserve" front: There was a story in Atlanta in the early 90's about teenage girl who was raped in the College Park area. Covered live on talk radio, the police "found" the perpetrator in the middle of the main road. Naked. Beaten. With severe damage to his junk from a set of vice grips and a nice case of road rash.

Apparently he was dragged down the street by his junk via said vice grips in broad daylight at lunchtime. Even though it is a very busy, very pedestrian heavy area - amazingly enough nobody saw anything. Police, prosecutors and reporters were shocked, shocked that such a thing could happen and promised to get right on investigating who could have done such a thing ... right after they solve that Lindbergh baby case.

Pretty much everyone involved would be life-long Democrats, being College Park. But on this one-off case, vigilante justice was OK with them. Bunch of closet libertarians if you ask me...

[bmp1701]

That assumes that executing someone who has a demonstrated history of cold-blooded murder is a "wrong".

[WTF]

do we even know where or how they got the gun or whether any gun control short of confiscation and destruction of all guns could have prevented this?

Well, since they are under 18 it is a certainty that they got the gun through illegal means.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Which was pretty much the point of "whether any gun control short of confiscation and destruction" would have changed anything. Laws against murder didn't stop them, why would more gun control?

[robc]

That doesnt follow.

Many youths possess guns legally.

[WTF]

They were under 18 carrying a handgun on a public street. Therefore they were in possession of it illegally.

[Suthenboy]

It has now been over 10 years since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own Government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars.

The statistics for the years following the ban are now in:

Accidental gun deaths are 300% higher than the pre-1997 ban rate

The assault rate has increased 800% since 1991, and increased 200% since the 1997 gun ban.

Robbery and armed robbery have increase 20% from the pre-97 ban rate.

From immediately after the ban was instituted in 1997 through 2002, the robbery and armed robbery rate was up 200% over the pre-ban rates.

In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 171 percent.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2974487/posts

Hey Timmy, how about you go fuck yourself. Oh.... you already have.

[John]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/n.....y0x5V9LDBL

Clinton foundation spent more the $50 million on travel.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm sure that was all CO2 free travel.

[db]

Of course it was. The Clintons are known for their commitment to pedal power.

[John]

I can't believe we are going to cut off the Egyptian military because they are crushing the Muslim Brotherhood. It would be one thing if we just wanted to walk away from the whole thing. But that is not it. If the Brotherhood took back over tomorrow, the US would be giving them aid. Obama and some in Congress seem to be committed to the idea that we will only aid our enemies in Egypt.

[WTF]

Obama and some in Congress seem to be committed to the idea that we will only aid our enemies in Egypt.

Stupidity, or is this their actual goal?

[John]

I think it might be obama's actual goal. Obama is really not very bright. But he is a faculty lounge leftist. So, he will support anyone or anything that he thinks is against imperialism.

[VG Zaytsev]

He's a Lew Rockwell fascist?

[John]

More of a self hating moron.

[Mike M.]

Yes, Obama wants the radical Islamists to take over the entire middle east, and he's surreptitiously doing everything he can to make it happen without making it obvious to the entire country that he's doing it (not very successfully to those of us who pay attention to what's going on).

[Ptah-Hotep]

I can't believe we are going to cut off the Egyptian military because they are crushing the Muslim Brotherhood.

Isn't it a law that we have to cut off aid? Isn't that what Paul has been saying?

[John]

Then change the law. What is happening is the military is crushing the very people that will make Egypt into a dangerous state.

[Andrew S.]

So we support the people who are murdering protesters, so long as they're not (openly) hostile to us?

[John]

I support people murdering radical Islamist fucks who want to take over the country and turn it into a hell hole. Those protesters are just violent and are torching buildings and killing people by the scores. So they are not really protestors they are a brown shirt mob. You make it sound like they are staging a sit in instead of terrorizing their enemies.

[Eduard van Haalen]

There may be some Sixties nostalgia going on here. Some people have warm fuzzies about a whitewashed version of the Sixties, where peaceful hippies put flowers in the gun-barrels of fascist pigs, then sat in at the Dean's office passing around the bong and getting beautiful insights on how to fix the world. So now every protest in another country is just a Sixties re-enactment, and anyone trying to repress the protest - even if it turns into a full-on rebellion, is a pig-dog fascist.

[Xenocles]

I don't doubt there's terrorizing going on, but there are certainly non-violent protests as well - and the military seems to have been crushing those even harder. The place is becoming like Stalingrad - I don't think I want anyone to win.

[tarran]

Because the US really needs to be giving money to guys like these.

I support people murdering radical Islamist fucks who want to take over the country and turn it into a hell hole.

Interestingly, it's precisely that attitude which Al Queda (formed from the merger of two organizations, one of which was an offshoot of the Moslem Brotherhood) claimed made Americans a legitimate target of its war against the Egyptian and Saudi governments.

[John]

claimed made Americans a legitimate target of its war against the Egyptian and Saudi governments.

Yeah and if we stop doing that Al Quada will totally stop attacking the US. That idea is so stupid you have to laugh. I guess the truth that some people just don't give a fuck what we do or don't do and have their own reasons for wanting to do bad things is just too horrible for some people to face. Better to live in a fantasy world were we will be left in peace if only we are peaceful enough.

[tarran]

My God, John, you seriously believe Al Queda is a threat to the US absent the US picking a fight with it?

Those bozos are so awful that every time they manage to capture a piece of territory, the populace rises in rebellion within months.

Their economic policies are as backward as the Somalian state of the 80's.

Yet they're a threat and anybody who observes differently is in a fantasy universe.

Does the army not test reservists for drugs anymore? Because that shit you are smoking has be some weapons-grade shit.

[John]

My God, John, you seriously believe Al Queda is a threat to the US absent the US picking a fight with it?

If you don't think there a threat, that is one thing. Maybe they are not anymore. But if you think their threat level is any way dependent on whether we pick a fight with them, you are a moron Tarran. I am sorry but that is just delusional. It is just typical narcissistic American bullshit that assumes that the US controls everyone's actions and everything that happens is because of us.

You need to stop taking the drugs, not me. They don't need a reason to hate the US. Hating the US is good business and suits their purposes.

[tarran]

The Somali state hated the U.S. too John.

How many attacks did their army launch against CONUS again?

[John]

What does that have to do with anything? Al Shabad or whatever it is doesn't have the international ideological following that Al Quada does. It thus doesn't have the reach. But if they did, they would happily attack us. And may well do so some day. The US has a pretty big Somalie population.

Again, just face reality, the world isn't all about you. Sometimes people have their own reasons for doing things. And Islamic radicals are always going to need an enemy and a force to blame their problems on. And that enemy is always going to be the US and Israel. Nothing we do is going to change that.

[tarran]

You're seriously saying that Marxist-Leninism had less of an international ideological following two-three decades ago than Al Queda did at it's height?

Seriously?

Did shriek hack your account and author your comments in an attempt to discredit you? Or are you a devotee of the Gerald Ford school of foreign policy?

I'll just leave these interesting sentences below, conveniently juxtaposed for the reader's consideration...

Again, just face reality, the world isn't all about you.

Islamic radicals are always going to need an enemy and a force to blame their problems on. And that enemy is always going to be the US and Israel.

[John]

What does Somalis terror have to do with the Cold War you half wit? You are not even reading the posts any more.

[VG Zaytsev]

So we support the people who are murdering protesters, so long as they're not (openly) hostile to us?

Meh,

Obama's alternative is to support the murderers that are openly hostile to us.

[Andrew S.]

And we're going to give aid to Egypt regardless of who's in charge. We're going to do it because we're paying them off so they don't become hostile to Israel.

[John]

Egypt is not a threat to Israel. The Israelis would murder them in a war. And Obama wants to cut off aid now that the military is in charge. His sympathies clearly lie with the MB. The disappointment that they are no longer in charge is palpable. Obama for whatever reason has a real soft spot for Islamic fascists. He is practically infatuated with the leader of Turkey. That is probably more out of jealousy than anything else though.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Quit lying, John. Obama has killed more Islamo-fascists than anyone.

[John]

LOL Only if you count weddings and US citizens. Comedy Gold skreek Comedy gold. Obama views the guy in Turkey and his systematic dismantling of the Turkish Democracy as a role model. And you love him for it, you boot licking little fascist.

[tarran]

Turkey isn't a democracy. The state controls which political parties are allowed to participate in elections.

It's a fascist state. The new guy is dismantling the secularist underpinnings, and going whole hog in the "I will reward my friends and punish my enemies" thing - governing like Obama on steroids.

It won't go full islamic unless they can hold power for another 15 years or so, and I think that they haven't defanged the military as much as they think they have.

[Atanarjuat]

I always hear this, and I'm sure there is some truth to it, but apparently the aid also ensures access to the Suez canal for U.S. military vessels.

[Ptah-Hotep]

Then change the law.

Yep, but until then, follow it.

[VG Zaytsev]

The law means exactly and only what Obama wants it to mean(at any point in time).

[Palin's Buttplug]

You are wrong yet again. Legally, aid cannot be given to a government established by coup.

Obama prefers the military to protect the Camp David Accords.

[sarcasmic]

They're good, fine people, Stuart. But they don't know ... what the queers are doing to the soil!

[John]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnYUFKFs5As

BUSHPIGS!!

Keep screaming and throwing shit. No one cares anymore. We have seen your act.

[WTF]

Yeah, we all know how big Obama is on following the rule of law. Holy shit you're an idiot.

[CE]

So Obama's breaking the law by not cutting off all aid to Egypt, got it.

[sarcasmic]

He's behind you! Krysten Ritter embraces her girlie side in print skater skirt and grey jumper for day out... as she gets photobombed by a hunky passer-by

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....er-by.html
Why'd they have to kill her off in Breaking Bad? She was the best eye candy in the show.

[sarcasmic]

Terrific in teal! Olivia Wilde accentuates her green eyes in a bold cut-out dress for screening of her new movie

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....movie.html
*drool*

[William of Purple]

Someone should ask her "Why Jason Sudekis?"

[Apatheist ?_??]

Her real name is Olivia Cockburn. True story.

[Marc F Cheney]

Her?

Horrible dress, awful makeup, weird-lookin' dame.

[sarcasmic]

Pitch perfect! Victoria Justice strikes 'em out with a tidy ceremonial throw at a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-game.html
Those jeans would look so nice on the floor next to my bed.

[a better weapon]

Cute girl. Can't wait to have kids so I can start watching Nickelodeon without being judged.

[CatoTheElder]

Her first pitch reminds me of Obama's.

[Brett L]

Except that despite throwing like a girl, she put it over the plate.

[Ted S.]

For a price, you can buy a pair of jeans that size and leave it on the floor next to your bed.

[sarcasmic]

Censored: The full frontal Australian tourism picture that was too saucy for the web

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....garoo.html
I don't know what's funnier. The picture or the reaction to it.

[sarcasmic]

The horror writer whose stories influenced Stephen King's novels, 'Prometheus,' Batman's Arkham Asylum and countless other works - and you may never have heard of him before

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....miCON.html
Interesting piece. Worth a read.

[T]

Anybody into horror who hasn't heard of Lovecraft is a retard.

[db]

Dude practically invented the idea of a 12-meter-long vagina that laughs and screams when you walk into it.

[SugarFree]

Lovecraft is completely unknown in academia. I once had a professor that did her dissertation on Poe and had been a speaker on Poe at dozens of academic conferences. She had never heard of Lovecraft.

[T]

Well, the academy has been slow to admit the existence of any kind of sci-fi or horror fiction from the 20th century.

Except dystopias that confirm their biases. They love them some Handmaid's Tale because Atwood played them like suckers by writing a book tailor-made for their neuroses.

[Gray Ghost]

Why do you think that is, SF? Is it his personal racism?

Still, to not have heard of him at all is just strange.

[sarcasmic]

It's the same kind of snobbery that kept Rush out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for so many years.

[John]

I agree. SF and fantasy writers are just looked down upon. The lit community would rather celebrate some boring piece of trash that confirms their prejudices and will be forgotten by next month than they would SF and Fantasy novels that are beloved by millions over decades.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Or maybe it's because despite his innovative ideas, his stilted, purple prose is damn painful to read?

And I say this as an HPL fan.

[tarran]

In my experience, academia is dominated by people who as kids read "serious" books in English class and thought science fiction and its fellow travelers were popular trash and not worth serious consideration.

[John]

And what is funny is that the books academia holds up as great, the modern ones anyway, are generally terrible, and forgotten very quickly.

[tarran]

I once read an editorial denouncing Charles Dickens, written shortly after Oliver Twist came out IIRC.

The editorialist was outraged that schoolchildren were wasting valuable time that could be spent on their studies and coins that were intended for their food and upkeep that instead were spent on purchasing and reading the magazines serializing Dickens' stories. He argued that the stories were a terrible influence on children, harming their education and ability to think.

It's really funny how its the commercially successful 'trash' of one generation that two - three generations later is venerated as high art.

I shudder to think what the influence of the Jersey Shore is going to be on 22nd century america. 😀

[John]

Shakespeare was almost forgotten until the 19th Century. Johnson was considered the great Elizabethan play write.

[Seamus]

Court documents reveal that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was shot multiple times, including in the mouth, before being captured by police.

Given that he and his brother had killed a cop, I figured there wasn't much chance he would live to face trial. The fact that he merely got multiple bullet wounds is a testimony to the unwonted restraint of the police in this case.

[Enough About Palin]

The fact that he merely got multiple bullet wounds is a testimony to the unwonted restraint piss-poor aim of the police in this case.

[Gladstone]

Eh by the 18th century he was already regarded as the supreme English writer. Before that Johnson and Beaumont and Fletcher where more well known.

[CE]

Dickens' stories are a horrible influence on children.

[Heroic Mulatto]

*shrugs*

My colleagues and I sit in the lounge and reminiscence about the glory days of the Sci-Fi Book Club and how much the new Battlestar Galactica sucked.

Maybe it's a linguist thing?

[tarran]

No... the new Battlestar Galactica did suck. All if had was decent CGI and some hot characters. The plot was insane.

My guess is that in 50 years it will have all the relevance of Ed Wood's lesser known works.

[SugarFree]

Not the racism as such, but because he comes out of the pulp tradition, and therefore isn't serious literature. The pulp tradition in Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard laid the foundation for the modern science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres. Since they discredit genre fiction in general, the roots of it lie examined.

We had an adjunct professor make his way to the archives because we have a modest amount of science fiction and fantasy (that has never undergone any collection development) and he was passed to me to give him an overview of what we have because he wanted to teach a very basic speculative fiction undergraduate course. Nice guy, young, enthusiastic about the subject, eager to teach it. In about ten minutes I realized he really knew nothing about the history of speculative fiction, the leading authors, the current state of genre fiction, none of it. And he was in a tooth and nail fight to teach the course against the rest of the department.

Outside of a few schools (UI Champagne-Urbana, Kent State, some of UC system), speculative fiction is barely on the radar of these places outside of where it intersects with gender or race studies. (Atwood, Butler, Tiptree, Le Guin, etc.)

[Heroic Mulatto]

If I remember correctly, Michigan State has a program in Spec Fic Studies, no?

[Tonio]

That Lovecraft was an unashamed pulp writer certainly has something to do with it.

But he also left a fairly miniscule body of work and that doesn't give academics much to go on. Much of the Cthulhu mythos was developed by writers other than Lovecraft (August Derleth, et als). Academics like to do psychoanalysis lit crit, and you can't do that effectively with multiple authors.

Lovecraft's biggest flaw IMO was that he discounted the Cthulhu mythos (his best idea) and was only interested in that as a backdrop for otherwise-traditional horror stories.

[Brett L]

I'm pretty sure Gary Gygax made sure that every nerd has heard of Lovecraft.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"you may never have heard of him before"

Never heard...never heard of H. P. Lovecraft...I don't even know what to say. You mean people can be that ignorant? *Sputters in indignation.*

[Rasilio]

I'm thinking the author must either be an idiot or think everyone else is an idiot.

When there is stuff like these on Youtube one can hardly argue that Lovecraft is obscure...

Hey There Cthulhu

Adventures of Little Cthulhu"

[BuSab Agent]

I know it's just inconceivable.
*wearing a Miskatonic University t-shirt while typing this*

[CampingInYourPark]

"Rural Coloradans to vote on breaking away as 51st state, angered by liberal policies on guns, energy"

Given the complexities involved with creating a state, Mr. Hare said, the Northern Colorado movement is considering two other options: asking Wyoming to annex Colorado's northern counties or requesting that the state legislature redraw its Senate districts to give a senator to each of the state's 64 counties, analogous to how the U.S. apportions seats by state, regardless of their populations.

http://www.washingtontimes.com.....new-state/

[Atanarjuat]

I hope they succeed. Decentralizing power is a good thing.

[Steve G]

This'll give eastern Oregon the same idea

[The Late P Brooks]

Mr Fischer said he was deeply angered by the latest tragedy and said turning our backs on America would help send a stern message about the need for tighter gun control.

That'll show us.

[a better weapon]

This might be motivation for some tourists to stay away, but very few would probably be willing to eat the investment or pay cancellation fees for flights and reservations they've probably already made.

By the time the current pipeline of incoming tourists have made their visit, this whole thing will be long forgotten. Any future loss in demand will be filled up pronto with some last minute travel deals for the less scrupulous travelers who don't have permanent grooves in their palms from all the pearl clutching.

[Lord Humungus]

Oh the joys of Facebook. I had an old HS friend "friend" me. I made the mistake of accepting. Back then, she and I had a one night stand sorta thing that afterward went nowhere. Now this was 24 years ago, but she was a little crazed about me, while I didn't really care for her at all. We were both part of the larger suburban punk rock scene - though she was more of a rich girl hanger on.

Now she's married and with two kids. But even after all this time, I feel like I'm being stalked. She comments on the majority of my posts - yesterday it was talk about "me coming over" and her "wearing hooker boots." Sheesh.

[John]

Is she still hot?

[Lord Humungus]

pretty much the 7/10 she was back then (adjusted for age)

[WTF]

(adjusted for age)

So, a 5/10?

[Libertymike]

What about the woman's poor husband? The guy is probably working his ass off with two jobs and wouldn't have the energy to chase skirt.

[Lord Humungus]

yes, if you're blinded by the patriarchy! (*guilty!*)

[Libertymike]

A friend of a friend is now dealing with a wife who will not work, will not curb her foolish, impulse shopping, will not become intellectually curious and who trolls for rich, older men on dating sites and on FB.

What a bitch. Well, karma is also a bitch because she has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I told my friend that his buddy should just have the divorce papers served upon her during her next doctor's appointment, Newt like.

[BakedPenguin]

We were both part of the larger suburban punk rock scene

"What about our relationship?"
"What?"
"What about our relationship?"
"Oh. ...Fuck that."

[db]

+1 Chevy Malibu

[Pro Libertate]

Plate o' shrimp.

[db]

This car's hot, man...no, I mean it's really hot!

[Mike M.]

Yep, this is exactly what Facebook has become: a tool to help crazy, unhappy married women cheat on their husbands.

I know two women who sound exactly like like your old high school friend, and both of them one day just packed up and walked out on their families with no advance warning at all for a Facebook "friend".

[Atanarjuat]

Huh. This happened to a coworker too. His now ex-wife said one of the reasons he left was because he worked all the time and "didn't use Facebook".

I won't look at the chicks from high school who 'friend' me the same again.

[NoVAHockey]

ha. same here. my wife's step mother, in the words of her father "took off like the Baltimore Colts" and had a van take her stuff out of the house while he was gone for the day. happened last weekend.

but nobody is sorry to see her go. the opposite actually.

[NoVAHockey]

ha. same here. my wife's step mother, in the words of her father "took off like the Baltimore Colts" and had a van take her stuff out of the house while he was gone for the day. happened last weekend.

but nobody is sorry to see her go. the opposite actually.

[CE]

So, she left twice?

[OldMexican]

Re: Lord Humungus,

But even after all this time, I feel like I'm being stalked.

Everybody feels that way when old acquaintances befriend you on Facebook. At least, that is what the acquaintances tell me after a while... before the threats.

[CampingInYourPark]

"If 4 Members of Congress were KILLED in Benghazi would we have a Watergate-style Select Committee today?" ask the billboards, which feature photos of Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). "Demand Justice for Benghazi."

http://tinyurl.com/kshhku4

[Bardas Phocas]

PHONY SCANDAL!
I have four words for you:
RO
DEE
O
CLOWN

[WTF]

Hey, at least Joffrey Obama didn't have the clown's tongue cut out.

[John]

He looked like Obama's son out there in that mask.

[The Late P Brooks]

the Northern Colorado movement

I would have expected this from the Western Slope.

Maybe the Denver Metro area could ask Iowa to annex them, with a West Berlin style corridor through hostile territory. And a big wall.

[The Late P Brooks]

do we even know where or how they got the gun or whether any gun control short of confiscation and destruction of all guns could have prevented this?

I'm absolutely certain confiscation and destruction are exactly what they want.

[sarcasmic]

Yup. Because nothing bad has ever happened after the government took away everyone's guns. Nope. Never ever ever.

[Damned Fool]

Well, since progs view complete centralization as the greatest good, no, nothing bad has happened.

[Brett L]

Top 5 movie car chase scenes, as it should be, there is Bullitt and everyone else. Although, one of my all-time favorites is the chase scene from Dead Pool where the sedan is running from the RC car.

[John]

Bullitt is just awesome.

[Lord Humungus]

this is a forgotten comedy movie, but has a good cop car chase scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE2i08S3YeY

(The detective in question thinks he is dying so is trying to collect insurance money for getting killed in the line of duty.)

[Lord Humungus]

action starts at the 1min mark

[Apple]

Good one. I can't really remember anything else about the movie.

[Lord Humungus]

Also To Live and Die in LA is just a great flick, much deeper than "buddy cops" formula popular at the time.

[PS]

Friedkin said he was disappointing that a big deal wasn't made of the Live and Die in LA chase scene as he thought it was better than the French Connection chase scene.

Technically perhaps, but the FC one is much more iconic. Plus Gene Hackman.

[sarcasmic]

"And there goes the Challenger, being chased by the blue, blue meanies on wheels. The vicious traffic squad cars are after our lone driver, the last American hero, the electric centaur, the, the demi-god, the super driver of the golden west! Two nasty Nazi cars are close behind the beautiful lone driver. The police numbers are gettin' closer, closer, closer to our soul hero, in his soul mobile, yeah baby! They about to strike. They gonna get him. Smash him. Rape... the last beautiful free soul on this planet."

[The Last American Hero]

+1

[The Late P Brooks]

I once had a professor that did her dissertation on Poe and had been a speaker on Poe at dozens of academic conferences. She had never heard of Lovecraft.

With fava beans, and a nice chianti?

[SugarFree]

I do not eat humans. These lies have been circulated for too long.

[Lady Bertrum]

Too many carbs in human.

[Loki]

Revenge is a dish best served with a nice heaping portion of manure.

[bmp1701]

After he was confronted with the stinking mess, The Montreal Gazette reports Daniel took off in his tractor, leading police on a chase at a little more than 10 mph. He was forcibly stopped and removed from the tractor less than a mile down the road.

GTA: Quebec

[CE]

I've been hoping for a GTA: Old West edition, where you can carjack horses, mules, stage coaches, and steam trains, and rob banks and fight the federales and various Indian tribes and stuff.

[Sevo]

"Up to 50 percent of people in the north of North Korea are addicted to meth."

Dunno. Click through all the links and you're going to find that 'somebody said...'

[John]

Note the weasel words "up to". That is another way of saying "we have no idea".

[CE]

Up to 100 percent of Iowa Republicans will vote for Rand Paul in the 2016 Iowa caucuses.

[John]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/.....TopStories

White House had advanced notice of Greenwald's boyfriend's detention. But they totally were not involved. The Brits just told them for the hell of it I guess. Does anyone other than Shreek and sad beard believe Obama about this? Why the hell would the UK be detaining him on their own? It is not the UK's secrets Greenwald is spilling.

[tarran]

The lies are so pathetically implausible that it's at Soviet levels of mendacity.

[The Late P Brooks]

PBS finds an acorn.

That was a big sort of surprise for me looking at this, is that these laws were really created, again, to go after kingpins or mafia people or Wall Street con men who, in those cases, you're able to actually take the proceeds of crime and give them in some cases back to victims, which is again a very kind of appealing idea.

Instead, often, I was seeing cases of like very petty drug crimes or cases where people were actually proven to have committed any crime at all, but simply had cash that they claimed was going to maybe buy a used car or they were paid in cash for whatever reason, and simply were pulled over on the side of the street, in some cases were even told -- in a case I mentioned in Tenaha, Tx., the main case I write about in The New Yorker, they were actually told -- some couples were told, we will either let you -- we will either take your money and you can go on down the road if you sign away your rights to it, or we will press money laundering charges and take your kids away from you and put them into child protective services.

Now, back to the Missouri State Fair, where private sector racism runs riot.

[John]

The running back for the Ravens Jamaal Lewis a few years back got nearly a year in federal prison for letting a friend use his cell phone to make a drug deal. They never alleged the guy sold drugs or was any part of the deal. He just let him use his cell phone. And the fucking scumbag sports writers had no problem with it. Never said a word in protest.

[Libertymike]

He is also one of the plaintiffs suing the NFL in one of the CTE cases.

[John]

What happened to him was horrible. He only got a few months in prison. But that you could get any at all for loaning someone a cell phone is appalling.

[William of Purple]

Fire in the HOle

Elmore Leonard, crime novelist, dies aged 87

[Brett L]

Goddammit. He better have left good notes for Justified. (Although after Boyd lived through the original episode, its been pretty off-script.)

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, too bad. RIP. I enjoyed several of his books--fun writing style.

[PS]

Ah hell, I've read just about everything he ever wrote. Almost always the same plot and and character types but always enjoyable.

[OldMexican]

Up to 50 percent of people in the north of North Korea are addicted to meth.

Ah, the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. Yes.

Court documents reveal that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was shot multiple times, including in the mouth, before being captured by police.

That should give them a clue that they need more practice time at the range...

Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, has said that two security experts from the U.K.'s GCHQ came to The Guardian's offices and destroyed hard drives [...] despite the fact that data was backed up around the world.

"Where are your 5-1/4" floppy drives, huh? Where are they?!?"

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Cops can do no wrong!

Remember those wonderful defenders of the public that cuffed that firefighter for waving at them... Procedures followed, policies observed. Nothing to see here citizen, move along.

[Jon Lester]

Cruz shouldn't bother running for president this time around, anyway, and in my view, only a fool would renounce dual citizenship. One of the most attractive considerations for marrying a foreign woman is knowing the children will belong to two countries.

[John]

And someone with the kind of wealth Dayton has will never pay a dime of inheritance taxes. His money is in a trust, which he just borrows against whenever he needs money. The trust never vests with him, so he never pays taxes. Borrowed money is not income, so no taxes on that. All he pays is the prime rate he gets on the money he borrows against his trust. Some day when he dies, the trust will pay off the debts he ran up during his lifetime and go to his children, rinse repeat.

[Ted S.]

Can't they make the shortfall up from electronic pull-tabs? 😉

[John]

All of them are at least 15 years old. Even with all of the improved special effects, they can't make a good car chase scene anymore.

[Libertymike]

How about the French Connection chase?

[WTF]

That's because they focus on over-the-top unrealistic special effects instead of a tense, somewhat realistic actual car chase. Top Gear did a show on that a while back, and it really drove the point home as to why the Bullitt chase scene is superior to the current flying cars and explosions crap.

[bmp1701]

I thought the car chase in Bourne Identity was pretty good. Of course, that didn't have any noticeable computer effects (Or even any explosions).

[Apple]

Those are all great, of course they all have in common that they're set in the city. I'm also partial to the big, open spaces chase scenes like Vanishing Point and Mad Max. Love that opening chase in Mad Max.

[sarcasmic]

Blues Brothers!

[John]

I saw that episode. And it is spot on. Without any sense of timing and rhythm the chase is no good and lacks suspense

[mr simple]

A more progressive mindset doesn't hurt, but it's obvious that incentives are a major driver of EV adoption. And more states need to realize that.

Translation: Governments need to do more to make people live the way we think is best.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, without a doubt. Number one. I eschew a list that omits it altogether.

[CE]

Are you going to Iowa Fair,
Christie, Bush, Santorum and Paul...

Remember me to one who lives there,
She once said she won't vote at all.