A.M. Links: War Crimes on Both Sides of Syrian Civil War, Hillary Clinton Backer Under Investigation, Breaking Bad Prequel Happening

Zenon Evans | 9.12.2013 9:00 AM

AMC

A United Nations rights panel presented detailed evidence on Wednesday of what it said were war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both pro-government forces and rebels in Syria. Salim Idriss, the head of the opposition's Supreme Military Council, rejected the Russian initiative to place chemical weapons under international custody. Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote an article in The New York Times, warning Americans that intervention in Syria could create a "new wave of terrorism."
D.C.-based businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson, under investigation for corruption, allegedly secretly funded get out the vote efforts for Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign.
NASA, which is suspiciously only one letter away from NSA, is using former military surveillance drones to study tropical storms.
American-born terrorist and amateur rapper, Omar Shafik Hammami, known as Al-Amriki, was killed in a gunfight with terrorist group Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu. Al-Amriki had a falling out with the Al Qaeda affiliate.
North and South Korea agreed to reopen a jointly-run industrial park within the North Korean border beginning next Monday.
The conflict in the Philippines is escalating as an Al Qaeda-linked group spread its attacks to a second city.
Television drama Breaking Bad may be ending, but AMC plans to launch a prequel focusing on the character of Saul Goodman.

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Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago

D.C.-based businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson, under investigation for corruption, allegedly secretly funded get out the vote efforts for Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign.

All together now: What difference at this point does it make?
1. gaijin 12 years ago
  
  or, modified slightly:
  
  What difference, at this point, will it make?
  1. DontShootMe 12 years ago
    
    None. Chris Matthews can't get that tingle by voting for a non-white president next time, he'll want to vote for a female...
    1. fish 12 years ago
      
      I'm sure that Chris...being Chris would get a similar tingle from wearing his little leather number...you know, the one with the ball gag accessory and submitting to any number of democratic candidates from previously oppressed groups.
      
      C'mon tingles....no need to limit yourself!
      1. Juice 12 years ago
        
        Bohemian Grove!
2. Bee Tagger 12 years ago
  
  Was that the ill-fated get-out-the-vote effort that called people at 3 am to see if they were up like Hillary was?
  1. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
    
    Except on Patriot Day. She likes to sleep in and not take any phone calls from places that don't matter like, say for instance, Libya.
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

Boxer: Rand Paul 'an Absolute Disgrace'

Rand Paul "owes the president a huge apology" for delivering a counter-response to President Obama's address to the nation last night, according to one of his colleagues.

California Democratic senator Barbara Boxer labeled Paul "an absolute disgrace" on MSNBC this afternoon for arguing that military strikes on the Assad regime would potentially align the United States with al-Qaeda-linked opposition forces in the country. "Twelve years after we were attacked by al-Qaeda, twelve years after 3,000 Americans were killed by al-Qaeda, President Obama now asks us to be allies with al-Qaeda," Paul said in his response last nigh
1. John 12 years ago
  
  Boxer is vile and evil but makes up for it by being craven and stupid.
2. Spoonman. 12 years ago
  
  Twelve years after we were attacked by al-Qaeda, twelve years after 3,000 Americans were killed by al-Qaeda, President Obama now asks us to be allies with al-Qaeda
  
  Does anybody contest the truth of this statement?
  1. wareagle 12 years ago
    
    not Boxer. She only contested Paul's daring to say it out loud.
    1. WTF 12 years ago
      
      L?se majest?, don't you know.
3. Rich 12 years ago
  
  With all due respect, Ma'am, you should be recalled.
  1. Duke 12 years ago
    
    Boxer: "I worked so hard to get that title."
    
    US Const. Article I, Section 9, Clause 8: "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States."
    1. Nazdrakke 12 years ago
      
      Something that seriously pisses me off is the way that people who get elected to congress, governorships, judges, etc. get addressed by their honorific for life. It's supposed to be a temporary job, not a title of nobility that sets you above all of the lesser peons.
4. Palin's Buttplug 12 years ago
  
  Rand Paul is lying.
  1. wareagle 12 years ago
    
    really? Where? Assad's opposition has no shortage of AQ types and there is a story out about the CIA having funneled weapons to the "rebels."
    1. Palin's Buttplug 12 years ago
      
      Among the many rebel factions there are some AQ types - is not the same as "seeking an alliance" with AQ.
      
      This is so fucking blatant a lie it is not worth discussion.
      
      Except redneck AM radio - where it will be played like gospel 24/7.
      1. Dweebston 12 years ago
        
        Agreed. Cheap political posturing. Still doesn't mean we should rain down holy terror from on high to shore up the president's fading legacy.
      2. John 12 years ago
        
        It is not like we are seeking an alliance. We are just going to fight on their side in a civil war.
        
        Peak retard is never reached.
        
        tarran 12 years ago
        
        It's not just fighting on their side.
        
        If the U.S. special forces fight alongside General Dostum, for example, they can still turn on him later, or depart the are and leave him to his own devices. The weapons stay under U.S. control
        
        When the U.S. gives him weapons, then they get employed how Gen Dostum wishes, not how the Central Command wishes. 😉
  2. SugarFree 12 years ago
    
    Please don't feed the troll.
    1. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
      
      ^CETTE
    2. WTF 12 years ago
      
      Seriously, it's just a dishonest, retarded, assnugget.
  3. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
    
    See, we're not actually going to be allies with them, we're going to independently engage in military activities which will probably enhance their military position. It's an important distinction. I think.
    1. VG Zaytsev 12 years ago
      
      And it's only coincidental that the group funding al Queda, the house of Saud, will also pay for us to get rid of Assad.
      
      At least that's the official Obama administration pov.
  4. fish 12 years ago
    
    Bowel Obstruction Rand Paul is lying.
    
    Oh it's Thursday again....shreek has computer privileges for the weekend again.
  5. Don Mynack 12 years ago
    
    Agreed. Clinton happily allied with AQ in the Balkans, but this is not a directly affiliated group.
    
    They are still chock full of other jihadi assholes, however.
    1. CatoTheElder 12 years ago
      
      Clinton allied with militant Islamists in the Balkans, but his chief accomplishment there was to alienate the Russians and the Chinese. Obama seems to have done the same sort of thing with Syria. Unlike the Balkans, however, there is nowhere for Christians and non-Wahhabi Muslims to go.
5. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
  
  How did Californians choose, out of literally tens of millions of people, a lightweight like Barbara Boxer for their junior Senator?
  1. wareagle 12 years ago
    
    same way they chose DiFi as their Senior Senator, Moonbeam as their governor, and those legislative super majorities. Beautiful state run by the ugliest people on the planet.
    1. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
      
      But Barbara Boxer was actually attractive in her youth, if a few pictures on Google Images are anything to go by.
    2. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
      
      Barbara Boxer has the same utility as a League of Women Voter's Voting Guide - both can tell me exactly where I stand on an issue.
  2. gaijin 12 years ago
    
    It's like having an election among the short bus riders to determine who will drive?
  3. Jon Lester 12 years ago
    
    Single-issue votes. Republicans invariably nominate someone terrible, so all DiFi or Boxer have to do is remind women voters that they're for "choice."
    1. # 12 years ago
      
      Personally, I'm actually more on the pro-life side, but regardless, I wish someday a avidly pro choice republican would run in a high profile race and just go on epic tirades about how the avidly "pro choice" dem doesn;t believe in choice for anything except some sex organs.
6. mr simple 12 years ago
  
  What a stupid cunt. Envy, thy name is Boxer.
7. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
  
  "You'd have to ask him, he's running for president," Boxer said of Paul's motivation to take on the president. "He was in the Senate for five-and-a-half minutes and that's what he wants to do now."
  
  Five and a half minutes in the Senate? Was she talking about Paul or Obama there?
  1. Nazdrakke 12 years ago
    
    Shame irony isn't painful sometimes.
  2. Virginian 12 years ago
    
    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
    
    She's either trolling or totally retarded.
    
    The moment I understood how bizarre things were, and how far in the tank the media was, were the constant memes of Palin's inexperience. Now, I think she probably was light on experience for VP. But if she was light for VP, there's no fucking way Obama was qualified to be POTUS. But the media and the left (redundancy alert) never saw it that way.
    
    If Rand runs, they will say with a straight face they don't think a one term Senator is qualified for POTUS.
    1. WTF 12 years ago
      
      If Rand runs, they will say with a straight face they don't think a one term Senator is qualified for POTUS.
      
      Well, they could point to Obama's disastrous tenure as proof, but I somehow doubt they will.
    2. Gadianton 12 years ago
      
      If Rand runs, they will say with a straight face they don't think a one term Senator is qualified for POTUS.
      
      And no Republican will have the testicular fortitude to call them on it.
Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago

NASA, which is suspiciously only one letter away from NSA, is using former military surveillance drones to study tropical storms.

Drone kill a hurricane? The ultimate redemption tale.
1. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  Obama will use them to send the storms to red states.
  1. Bardas Phocas 12 years ago
    
    No, he'll fire a few missles into them "to send them a message" that we (Obama) doesn't need anymore of this shit.
2. CE 12 years ago
  
  Do you know who else NASA is only one letter away from?
Slammer 12 years ago

American-born terrorist and amateur rapper, Omar Shafik Hammami, known as Al-Amriki, was killed in a gunfight with terrorist group Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu. Al-Amriki had a falling out with the Al Qaeda affiliate.

Not enough AL-'s in that sentence.
1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  Is that some sort of Somali rapper feud like the old East Coast - West Coast thing we had here years ago?
  1. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
    
    More accurately, "decades ago". Ponder that for a moment.
    1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
      
      OK, I am old.... that is what I get out of that pondering 🙁
  2. sloopyinca 12 years ago
    
    I never could get that whole East Coast-West Coast thing. It was foolins and nothing positive came out of it.
    
    And besides, we all know West Coast was so much better than that tinny-sounding shrill East Coast shit.
    1. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
      
      Bullshit. Biggie was the finest rapper of the era.
      1. sloopyinca 12 years ago
        
        Hahaha. Are you serious? Are you serious? While PE had their moments and the Beastie Boys "Paul's Boutique" was one of the finest albums ever put out by anybody, most of the entire East Coast scene was nothing but awful DJing full of inartful scratches and utilization of the most ear-piercing treble available accompanied by over-the-top Brooklyn accents saying nothing of substance.
        
        Meanwhile, on the left coast, smooth sampling was accompanied with the mellow sound of a south-central gangbanger-turned-artist, waxing about the harsh reality of growing up on the streets in a drug-culture.
        
        There's no comparison really.
        
        Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
        
        I almost have to think you weren't there. your statement here is not even wrong. I just don't know what to say.
        
        Brett L 12 years ago
        
        Pretty sure West Coast (aka Dre) won.
        
        Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
        
        By body count?
        
        CE 12 years ago
        
        The West Coast is better in pretty much everything that matters. The East Coast is too much like Europe.
        
        Furburguesa 12 years ago
        
        West coast is better but don't forget EPMD and the Clan, Wu Tang + exponential number of spinoffs.
    2. mr simple 12 years ago
      
      I mean, I guess you could consider it better if you only wanted to listen to canned, commercial sounds rather than the authentic sound of the struggle of life on the streets.
      
      /I-don't-know-I-heard-that-somewhere.
    3. Steve G 12 years ago
      
      I believe I speak for most rap listeners when I say, most of us don't give a flying flav about the east-west thing. I buy/pirate the music I like, ignore what I don't. The rest is just a silly soap opera that has no bearing on anything. Like I give a shit who won the "battle"...
      1. Butts Wagner 12 years ago
        
        You hear rappers who "survived" the war and they talk about how there was no east-west war and that it was all hype by the record labels, MTV, etc as a way to sell more records and get bigger ratings. And anyways, the Dirty South had the best artists....
Bee Tagger 12 years ago

NASA, which is suspiciously only one letter away from NSA, is using former military surveillance drones to study tropical storms.

Finally, we get to the heart of why tropical storms are named using the names of American citizens.
1. gaijin 12 years ago
  
  You just wait. There will be a leak that shows they can control the weather. And that Bush sent Katrina to New Orleans.
  1. Rasilio 12 years ago
    
    Did he send the waves along with her?
    1. WTF 12 years ago
      
      Why yes, yes he did.
      1. CE 12 years ago
        
        But there was no sunshine to dance on, except in the eye.
William of Purple 12 years ago

Terry Jones arrested
1. John 12 years ago
  
  Sheriff's deputies in Mulberry, Florida, arrested Terry Jones, 61, and his associate pastor, Marvin Sapp Jr, 44, on felony charges of unlawful conveyance of fuel as they travelled in a pickup truck towing a large barbecue-style grill filled with Qur'ans soaked in kerosene.
  
  Yeah that sounds like a totally legit charge. We really need to have a national everyone burn the Koran day. Free speech means just that.
  1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
    
    "felony charges of unlawful conveyance of fuel"
    
    Oh come on...
    1. tarran 12 years ago
      
      Three felonies a day, baby!
    2. Matrix 12 years ago
      
      wait... he was carrying a weapon in commission of a felony?!
      
      He should be put in jail forever!!
    3. Irish 12 years ago
      
      Eh. Having that much kerosene in the back of a truck is legitimately dangerous. I don't have a problem with the charge.
      1. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
        
        A felony?!
        
        Sorry, but conveying fuel is a victimless crime.
      2. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
        
        Felony dangerous? Like, pounded in the ass prison dangerous?
      3. CampingInYourPark 12 years ago
        
        Do you pucker when you fill your gas tank?
    4. db 12 years ago
      
      We need a public awareness campaign of the dangers and illegality on unlawful fuel conveyance, especially methane.
      
      "Before you go out, let it out!"
      
      "Don't drive bloated, cops will note it."
  2. BardMetal 12 years ago
    
    You know the sad lesson from this that nobody wants to talk about is that terrorism works.
    
    Muslims threaten violence over the slightest provocation, and we cave every time.
    
    It's just like the nonsense with those Danish cartoons, or that South Park episode.
    1. John 12 years ago
      
      Exactly. No one would care if he were burning bibles or copies of the Bagavad Gita. The lessen we are sending the world is that if you want your religion to be respected, start cutting off people's heads. Expect other religion to follow this increasingly successful model in the future. That will work out well won't it?
      1. mr simple 12 years ago
        
        It's pretty sad that our law enforcement have become enforcers for al Qaeda. Their demands now supplant our rights.
        
        CE 12 years ago
        
        Al Qaeda's air force in Syria, Al Qaeda's MPs in America...
      2. Bardas Phocas 12 years ago
        
        I fear for Parker and Stone.
        Mormons are fucking brutal.
        http://www.nyc.com/broadway_ti.....7AodzTsAWw
        
        Dweebston 12 years ago
        
        I stood in line three times for a chance to win discounted tickets while I was in New York. My one regret (disappointment, really) in visiting.
        
        rac3rx 12 years ago
        
        The LDS Church advertised in the Playbills.
        
        http://universe.byu.edu/2012/0.....n-musical/
        
        "You've seen the play, now read the book."
        
        Brilliant
        
        BakedPenguin 12 years ago
        
        That is awesome.
      3. Zeb 12 years ago
        
        Well, no one would threaten to murder anyone, anyway. I bet a few people would care. Especially if it was Bibles.
      4. WTF 12 years ago
        
        Expect other religion to follow this increasingly successful model in the future.
        
        Somehow I don't really see the Catholics going back to that strategy.
    2. Drake 12 years ago
      
      It has always worked until somebody fights back. It worked all the way through North Africa and up the Iberian Peninsula. Some of it was straight conquest, but much was raids, rapes, kidnapping, and murder - in other words Terrorism. Terrorizing people into submission.
      
      It worked until Europeans got organized and just started killing the fuckers. No coincidence that it marked the end of the "Golden Age of Islam" and the "Dark Ages of Europe.
  3. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
    
    I'd like to see the statistical breakdown for arrests on that particular charge to see if that's a typical use of police resources.
  4. CE 12 years ago
    
    Florida Man arrested, again?
2. Apatheist ?_?? 12 years ago
  
  I hate when government makes me sides with morons.
3. mr simple 12 years ago
  
  Jones was also charged with the unlawful open-carry of a firearm
  
  How can open carry ever be unlawful, especially if he was in his car?
  
  His congregation did burn the Muslim holy book in March 2011 and last year he promoted an anti-Muslim film. All three incidents sparked violence in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
  
  Bullshit. It wasn't the protests that sparked violence, it was the animals' inability to reason.
4. Snark Plissken 12 years ago
  
  There's no Messiah in here. There's a mess all right, but no Messiah. Now go away!
5. Zeb 12 years ago
  
  Oh, that Terry Jones. I was wondering what the other Terry Jones could have done to get himself arrested.
  1. BakedPenguin 12 years ago
    
    He was talking about anti-Muslim violence!
  2. Pro Libertate 12 years ago
    
    The Bishop!
6. CatoTheElder 12 years ago
  
  Alhamdulillah!
  
  Allah has confused the infidels such that even their authorities enforce sharia and punish blasphemy!
Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote an article in the New York Times, warning Americans that intervention in Syria could create a "new wave of terrorism."

Someone's been reading Ron Paul's newsletter.
1. MJGreen 12 years ago
  
  If you've ever chased and apprehended a Georgian for interrogation, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

Man tries to return cat he stole drunk

The ad says: "If anyone is missing a cat name Django (pronounced Jango the D is silent) I stole him last night.

"Not on purpose, I was extremely intoxicated and thought he was just some random stray I was rescuing.

"It was not until this morning when I was haphazardly going for a glass of water that I remembered I took the cat and noticed that he (had) a collar.

"Django is a very frisky black cat, he also has very sleepy eyes and appears to be stoned although I don't think he is."

insert "drunk man will do anything for pussy joke" here
1. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  I'm trying to figure from the headline whether the man was drunk, or the cat. 😉
2. Outlaw 12 years ago
  
  Black cat named Django that's wearing a collar?
  
  RACIST!
  1. CE 12 years ago
    
    Whatever you do, don't give that cat a gun.
William of Purple 12 years ago

Step aside Deep Dish, there's a new abomination in town: British Pizza.
1. gaijin 12 years ago
  
  any food preceded by the word 'British' is an abomination.
  1. Tejicano 12 years ago
    
    The only thing positive that you might assume about any food preceeded by the word "British" is that it probably won't kill you. Your taste buds, well, that's a different story.
    
    British food is to European cuisine what Philippine food is to Asian cuisine. One of these things is not like the others.
    1. gaijin 12 years ago
      
      Agree. Food does not equal cuisine.
    2. Ted S. 12 years ago
      
      The tragedy of Canada is that they could have had British culture, French cuisine, and the American work ethic. Instead, they wound up with British cuisine, American culture, and the French work ethic.
      1. Steve G 12 years ago
        
        You've been saving that for the right time for a while, haven't you?
  2. Zeb 12 years ago
    
    any food preceded by the word 'British' is an abomination.
    
    Except cheese. And fried breakfasts. And sausage rolls. Actually, I guess I sort of like British food. Certainly not a great cuisine of the world, but they do some things well enough.
    1. RBS 12 years ago
      
      I like it too, the is a pub near my house run by an actual Brit that has great food or at least great food for drinking.
    2. gaijin 12 years ago
      
      There's always this:
      
      "The English contribution to world cuisine. The chip."
      
      Link
      1. Zeb 12 years ago
        
        I still say their best contribution is cheese. Especially Stilton.
        
        Pro Libertate 12 years ago
        
        Wensleydale? Stilton? I don't know, lad. It's like no cheese I've ever tasted.
        
        lap83 12 years ago
        
        "No crackers, Gromit! We forgot the crackers!"
        
        Pro Libertate 12 years ago
        
        I wonder if NASA has similar problems?
      2. seguin 12 years ago
        
        The scone. I had a buttery, perfect scone in Stratford-on-Avon a long time ago, and I've ne'er forgotten it.
    3. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
      
      If you're careful, you can find good British food. Toad in the whole, some of the breakfast stuff.
    4. Juice 12 years ago
      
      Shepard's Pie, Yorkshire Pudding, stuff like that is awesome.
2. itsnotmeitsyou 12 years ago
  
  Jesus, the British can even fuck up Pizza. Seriously, let's just ship them all a lifetime supply of Soylent and melt every stove in England down to scrap.
  1. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
    
    In England, the best meal we had was at a Pizza Express in Oxford inside the Golden Cross.
    1. mr simple 12 years ago
      
      That's terrible. I was in London for two weeks a couple months back and had a lot of great food. Granted almost all of the good food was from some other ethnicity. There was a pub in Camden that had good British style food though.
      1. Pro Libertate 12 years ago
        
        I hear they have good Indian food.
        
        seguin 12 years ago
        
        It's true.
    2. Zeb 12 years ago
      
      I had the best hamburger I have ever had at a Turkish pita place in Cambridge. It was probably the horse that made it so good.
    3. Irish 12 years ago
      
      In England, the best meal we had was at a Pizza Express in Oxford inside the Golden Cross.
      
      You badly fucked up then. Even if British food isn't good, they have a ton of good restaurants serving other types of cuisine. The Indian food in London is great.
      1. Zeb 12 years ago
        
        Indian food is British cuisine.
3. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
  
  From Homeslice's oxtail and bone marrow pizzas to the Welsh lamb and mint pesto slice at Baravin in Aberystwyth, a new wave of restaurants is slipping the shackles of Italian orthodoxy and getting creative with toppings. In Manchester, at Artisan, you can even order a lamb doner kebab pizza. Yes, really.
  
  I like how the oxtail and bone marrow apparently wasn't outrageous enough for The Guardian. Yeah, it was that "lamb doner kebab" pizza that really put it over the top.
  1. Timon 19 12 years ago
    
    Turkish pide/lahmacun is one of the wonders of Turkish cuisine.
    
    It's not strictly "pizza", but Turks often call it "pizza" for the non-Turkish-speaking idiots they host.
    
    And that shit is good.
    1. Pro Libertate 12 years ago
      
      Most Mediterranean cuisine is good to excellent.
    2. General Butt Naked 12 years ago
      
      We used to eat those topped with goat at a place I once worked.
      
      Sooooo good.
      
      If you ever have a chance to eat goat, do it. I think it's one of the tastiest meats there are.
      1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
        
        "If you ever have a chance to eat goat, do it. I think it's one of the tastiest meats there are."
        
        Gah! Not when an Afghan makes it, apparently. Bleah! The only thing I didn't like in the whole place.
4. rac3rx 12 years ago
  
  OK, the toppings on some of these pizzas sound DELICIOUS.
Bee Tagger 12 years ago

financed an independent effort to reach urban voters on behalf of Clinton in Texas and at least three other states during the 2008 Democratic primaries, according to the interviews and documents.

And it would have worked had it not been for that meddling Citizens United!
1. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
  
  "urban voters"
  
  Does this mean they want to say "black" but are too freaked out to do so?
  
  Would you say "it's pitch urban outside" or "Back in Urban"?
2. CE 12 years ago
  
  and by "reach" they mean "ensure that voter turnout is north of 95 percent, even if half of them stay home".
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

How a Food-Delivery Company Found Love by Advertising on Adult Websites

Here's your curious advertising case study of the day. Food-delivery app Eat24 has written a lengthy blog post detailing, from start to finish, why and how it went "where no marketing team has gone before. Well, at least not without clearing their browser history afterward."

Eat24, which apparently had something of a following among porn stars already, decided to advertise on adult websites. Its rationale? Almost no mainstream brands want anything to do with the XXX world. And yet the traffic figures are through the roof, and the CPMs are low. What's not to like?
1. BakedPenguin 12 years ago
  
  That's a good idea. So long as your product is used by men. Also, Google is constantly fucking with - ah, improving - its algorithms, which means your SEM needs to be constantly watching your keywords to make sure the retain relevance and good placing.
  
  Of course, if they didn't do that, I'd probably be out of a job.
Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago

American-born terrorist and amateur rapper, Omar Shafik Hammami, known as Al-Amriki, was killed in a gunfight with terrorist group Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu. Al-Amriki had a falling out with the Al Qaeda affiliate.

East coast/west coast thing.
1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  Damn your speedy fingers!
  1. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
    
    Great. That just means I made an obvious joke.
    1. Ted S. 12 years ago
      
      You are an obvious joke. :-p
Snark Plissken 12 years ago

NASA, which is suspiciously only one letter away from NSA, is using former military surveillance drones to study tropical storms.

Meanwhile, the NSA is using former NASA satellites to surveille American citizens so it's a win-win.
Slammer 12 years ago

First lady wants people to drink more water.

FTA: Every bodily system depends on water, which makes up about 60 percent of a person's body weight, according to the Mayo Clinic. Water is also a calorie-free option for people concerned about weight control, and is largely inexpensive and available practically everywhere.

And:
Yet despite recent trends showing a rise in water consumption and declines in the amount of soda people drink, Larry Soler, the partnership's president and chief executive, says the "drink up" water campaign is still needed.
1. tarran 12 years ago
  
  Here's what will happen. The credulous personality cult followers will start drinking a lot more water, and some of them will go so overboard that they will upset the salt balance in their blood and kill themselves like Roebling (the architect of the Brooklyn Bridge)
  
  Sane people will ignore this.
  
  On the net, I think this is a good thing for society.
2. Rich 12 years ago
  
  Water is also a calorie-free option for people concerned about weight control
  
  "Water, a fat-free food."
  1. William of Purple 12 years ago
    
    it's also low in saturated fats, and gluten free!
  2. Elspeth Flashman 12 years ago
    
    So is dust.
  3. Jaybirdmojo 12 years ago
    
    I only drink organic water.
3. SugarFree 12 years ago
  
  Stop dumping so much goddamn clorine in it and I might start drinking out of the tap. That's why I drink out of bottles, you jerkfaced jerk.
  1. db 12 years ago
    
    Use a carbon filter.
    1. SugarFree 12 years ago
      
      I can still taste it, like the bile I feel rise whenever I see Obama on TV.
      1. db 12 years ago
        
        Do you live in an area that uses chloramine?
        
        SugarFree 12 years ago
        
        I doubt it. The water stinks like a city pool and burns my eyes.
        
        Of course, they might not need to dump so much in if the idiot city workers would stop breaking water mains.
4. BardMetal 12 years ago
  
  I drink mostly water. I mean beer is mostly water.
  1. gaijin 12 years ago
    
    I mean beer is mostly water.
    So is a banana. and so are...humans!
    1. BardMetal 12 years ago
      
      So does this mean that Michelle Obama is ok with drinking humans?
      1. Rich 12 years ago
        
        Well, I heard Chaz Bono got a juicer.
        
        Rich 12 years ago
        
        OK, SF, have at it.
        
        Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
        
        No, no, noooooo!
        
        SugarFree 12 years ago
        
        nope nope nope nope
      2. sloopyinca 12 years ago
        
        Banana...humans...and Michele Obama mentioned in simultaneous posts.
        
        Just proves that Reason readers are collaborative racists.
        
        Outlaw 12 years ago
        
        Banana, humans, Michelle Obama, Chaz Bono, and juicer.
        
        hawt
    2. db 12 years ago
      
      I'm going to start working on a soy-lentil beer.
      1. SugarFree 12 years ago
        
        I saw quinoa whiskey the other day. We are approaching maximum hipster at a rapid pace.
        
        seguin 12 years ago
        
        Peak Hipster: The point where vintage plaid suit jackets become so scarce their value exceeds the credit limit on hipsters' parents' credit cards.
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

U.S. weapons reaching Syrian rebels

The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear ? a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria's civil war.

The arms shipments, which are limited to light weapons and other munitions that can be tracked, began arriving in Syria at a moment of heightened tensions over threats by President Obama to order missile strikes to punish the regime of Bashar al-Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons in a deadly attack near Damascus last month.

I'm sure this will end well...
1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  Ah, an act of war against Syria. Take that, Putin! See, the O! is a tuff gai after all.
2. John 12 years ago
  
  Remember how leftist used to yap about how the US armed Bin Ladin? That is of course was complete bullshit. And to prove that God has a brutal sense of humor, the Kenyan light worker really is arming Al Quada.
3. gaijin 12 years ago
  
  light weapons and other munitions that can be tracked
  
  Where have we seen this before?
  1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
    
    That "botched" operation....Fast and Angry or something like that, wasn't it?
    1. gaijin 12 years ago
      
      yep. The one with Vin Diesel 😉
    2. db 12 years ago
      
      Sounds like sex between Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman.
      1. RBS 12 years ago
        
        Jesus.
      2. SugarFree 12 years ago
        
        It wasn't fast.
        
        db 12 years ago
        
        But it could be described, like Waxman's face, as "a botched operation."
        
        SugarFree 12 years ago
        
        The Emperor of the Mole People doesn't have time for your jibes, db. He has the entire Hollow Earth to rule. And the Fantastic Four have been hassling him a lot.
        
        db 12 years ago
        
        The Mole Emperor sighed, thinking of last night and the evening to come. His time in "The Box" was always limited, but oh so satisfyingly vigorous. Barbara had hinted at some new trick, probably gleaned from her girl-talk with Nancy, which made Henry's nose twitch expectantly.
        
        What new twist would she bring to their fleet encounter this evening? What perversion could be so obscure that Barbara's seventy-two years of pleasure spelunking would not yet have uncovered it?
        
        The Mole Emperor continued to brood, finding it hard to concentrate.
        
        SugarFree 12 years ago
        
        The twin anuses in his face ached to be pleasured.
        
        db 12 years ago
        
        Barbara's toes caressed the Mole Emperor's nasal sphincters with a lightness he would not have imagines possible. The fetid odor of sixteen hours of sockless confinement in her closed toe leather loafers imbued the nasal massage with an intensity Henry had not experienced in years. He had long since learned to control his hypersensitive olfactory nerves but this combination of sensations was beginning to make him lose control.
        
        The sweat-lubricated toes probed deeper and deeper until Barbara thrust them unexpectedly upward, pressing mercilessly against his septum. Simulataneously "The Box" enveloped his throbbing misshapen member, as he spasmed violently, spending himself in her while she bucked, momentarily uncontrolled by any sentient impulse.
        
        Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
        
        Thanks for that...I am going to nip out and shoot meself now.
        
        Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
        
        I'll be in my bunk...just kidding, I'll be in the bathroom throwing up.
4. BardMetal 12 years ago
  
  Remind me again. Why are arming rebels that hate the United States, and everything we (used to) stand for?
5. Teaching Student 12 years ago
  
  Begun.... yes.... begun.... just now
6. alittlesense 12 years ago
  
  Why don't we just send them lamb and mint pizza? That sounds pretty lethal.
  1. mr simple 12 years ago
    
    With all those carbs they definitely won't feel like engaging in a battle. Then we slowly kill them with heart disease.
Bee Tagger 12 years ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote an article in the New York Times, warning Americans that intervention in Syria could create a "new wave of terrorism."

I'm aware of no proof of this but I can't shake the notion that Putin is really enjoying himself right now.
1. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
  
  Apparently he's been tampering with Hillary's reset button.
  1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
    
    I...did you...that just...
    
    *shakes head and slowly shuffles away*
    1. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
      
      I'm not responsible for what you picture in your head.
      1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
        
        MAKE IT GO AWAY!!!
  2. DontShootMe 12 years ago
    
    ewwwwww
2. gaijin 12 years ago
  
  I saw a comment somewhere that described it as: 'now Putin is just doing donuts in Obama's front yard'.
William of Purple 12 years ago

Help a friend:

I think my 54-year-old boyfriend is a virgin
1. Rich 12 years ago
  
  What will it be like to have sexual intercourse with a 54-year-old male virgin?
  
  More horrible than you can possibly imagine.
2. SugarFree 12 years ago
  
  John Beohner is 54?
sarcasmic 12 years ago

'Eli keeps asking who he is going to kill next': Family devastated after Vietnam War veteran neighbor shoots dead beloved puppy as he ran to meet 8-year-old owner and his brother from school

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

Zimmerman has been criminally cited for injuring an animal, inducing panic and pointing and discharging firearms.

It's nothing a cop wouldn't have done, but here's no double standard.
1. Slammer 12 years ago
  
  Those dirty Zimmermans!
2. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  "inducing panic"
  
  Jeez, Warty better stay out of that jurisdiction.
John 12 years ago

Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook struck back on Wednesday at critics who have charged tech companies with doing too little to fight off NSA surveillance. Mayer said executives faced jail if they revealed government secrets.

http://www.theguardian.com/tec.....rveillance

So you mean to tell me they gave Mayer and Zumerberg security clearances? If not, how do they have any classified information to release? Either Mayer is lying to cover her sorry ass or the NSA is guilty of violating national security law.
1. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
  
  The NSA has a stake in their credibility. They are already invested in people trusting and using these companies for communications.
  1. John 12 years ago
    
    That is the untold aspect to this story. This is going to kill the US tech sector. Why would anyone use a US company like Yahoo or Google after this?
    1. mr simple 12 years ago
      
      How can they not? I mean, I would love to use email and web search services, etc., that do not give in to NSA demands, but where do you find them?
      1. Pro Libertate 12 years ago
        
        Hey, show the world your product is tainted, and they'll look for untainted alternatives. It's that simple.
        
        mad libertarian guy 12 years ago
        
        Hey, show the world your product is tainted, and they'll look for untainted alternatives. It's that simple.
        
        That's racist, yo!
        
        PD Scott 12 years ago
        
        All you have to do is find an email provider that isn't in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand or Israel. Or Russia or China, depending on whether you care if their intelligence services read your email. And that doesn't route any traffic through those countries. Of course, if you are an American citizen and you do that, you will probably become a person of interest because the NSA will wonder what you're trying to hide.
2. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  Technically, wouldn't those national security letters requiring them to turn over certain information be government secrets?
  1. John 12 years ago
    
    The letters would either have to be purged of classified data or anyone reading them would have to have a security clearance. There is no way around that. I don't think you can declassify data for just one party to see.
    1. tarran 12 years ago
      
      IIRC there is a class of subpoena to a party that demands information that isn't classified from a third party, but the recipient of the subpoena cannot reveal the information to anyone, not even their legal counsel.
      
      Its utterly incompatible with a free republic.
      1. John 12 years ago
        
        Yea that occurred to me after I wrote that post. And yes, it is utter incompatible with a free republic. So Meyerson is right.
  2. CatoTheElder 12 years ago
    
    National security letter
    
    A national security letter (NSL) is a letter from a U.S. government agency demanding information related to national security. It is independent of legal courts and therefore is different from a subpoena. It is used mainly by the FBI, when investigating matters related to national security. It is issued to a particular entity or organization to turn over records and data pertaining to individuals. They also contain a gag order, preventing the recipient of the letter from disclosing that the letter was ever issued. The gag order was ruled unconstitutional as an infringement of free speech in the Doe v. Gonzales case, but this decision was superseded by the Second Circuit Court after the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act gave recipients of NSL gag orders recourse in court.On March 14, 2013, Judge S. Illston struck down the law establishing NSLs, writing that the prohibition on disclosure of receipt of such an order made the statute "impermissibly overbroad" under the First Amendment. Illston's ruling also struck down a statute prohibiting legal challenges by recipients of the security letters, but stayed implementation of her ruling to allow the government to appeal the decision. From 2003 to 2006 the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued 192,499 national security letter requests.
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

The plumber vs. the billionaire

He printed and distributed them to local gun clubs to make people aware of an upcoming town hall meeting for Giron. Head got dozens of people there, but he felt Giron short-circuited the discussion. At the next town hall, he again handed out fliers to build a crowd, but this time Giron ruled that the discussion was to be exclusively about mortgages and barred Head from the room.

Head still got Giron to agree to hold one more town hall before the vote on guns, and this time roughly 1,000 people showed up. If Giron didn't realize then that she had a populist revolt on her hands, she needed to be in a different line of work ? and now she is.
1. John 12 years ago
  
  If I were this guy, I would be very concerned about the FBI and the FEC knocking on my door soon. The government does not like it when little people get involved in politics. He certainly violated some kind of law doing that.
  1. Ted S. 12 years ago
    
    The government does not like it when little people get involved in politics.
    
    Meh, they're OK with the correct little people getting involved. Of course, this isn't one of the correct little people.
2. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
  
  The plumber should eat a mushroom and jump on the billionaire's head. There, was that so hard?
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

Public Policy Polling: More on Colorado

In the case of the Giron recall, this was the first legislative recall election in Colorado history. There's been a lot of voter confusion. We decided to do a poll there over the weekend and decide whether to release it publicly depending on whether the results made sense or not.

When we got the results back, we found that 33% of Democrats in the district supported the recall. It might be normal for Democrats in Kentucky or West Virginia to abandon their party in those kinds of numbers, but that doesn't happen in Colorado or in most of the rest of the country. That finding made me think that respondents may not have understood what they were being asked, so I decided to hold onto it. I would have done the same thing if we'd found 33% of Republicans saying they opposed the recall.
1. gaijin 12 years ago
  
  Confirmation bias, the great deceiver.
2. Irish 12 years ago
  
  When we got the results back, we found that 33% of Democrats in the district supported the recall.
  
  This shows a good amount of incompetence. Colorado is not California. There are a good amount of Democratic gun owners, who very well could have supported this recall. I don't know how PPP could not know this.
  1. Virginian 12 years ago
    
    It might be normal for Democrats in Kentucky or West Virginia to abandon their party in those kinds of numbers, but that doesn't happen in Colorado or in most of the rest of the country.
    
    But all the Dems in CO that they know are CA transplants, and all 30 of them totally supported the new gun control. Thus, the poll must have been wrong.
  2. Red Rocks Rockin 12 years ago
    
    Actually, it's something of a surprise to me that she was recalled. Giron's district is in Pueblo, which has a ton of working-class Hispanic families who have been there since the heyday of Colorado Fuel and Iron, and tend to reflexively vote Democrat. Morse is less of a surprise, being from Colorado Springs, but even his particular area is considered a swing district there.
    
    As the article alludes to, it looks like they were both done in more by their refusal to at least acknowledge that their opponents had legitimate concerns.
    1. Virginian 12 years ago
      
      Eh, guns are quickly reaching third rail status. In any rural or suburban district, no matter what the demographics are, you're going to have a hard time overcoming being in favor of gun control.
      
      The only places gun control still plays are in the deep blue enclaves.
sarcasmic 12 years ago

Wind farms have killed 67 bald and golden eagles in five years and at least 85 in the past 15

Almost 70 golden and bald eagles have been killed by wind farms in the last five years
Wind association officials and conservation groups are trying to reduce casualties

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....years.html
Yay environmentalism!
1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  "Wind association officials and conservation groups are trying to reduce casualties"
  
  So they are dismantling the windmills then?
  1. db 12 years ago
    
    Job retraining programs for eagles, plus orphan benefits for orphaned chicks.
  2. Slammer 12 years ago
    
    Who do you think you are, Swiss? Don Quixote?
    1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
      
      Maybe...
      
      *looks for Sancho, horse and lance*
kinnath 12 years ago

Go ahead. You know you really want to.

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/1.....ypocrites/

11 questions to see if libertarians are hypocrites
1. RBS 12 years ago
  
  Libertarians have a problem. Their political philosophy all but died out in the mid- to late-20th century, but was revived by billionaires and corporations that found them politically useful. And yet libertarianism retains the qualities that led to its disappearance from the public stage, before its reanimation by people like the Koch brothers: It doesn't make any sense.
  
  That's a hell of a start...
  1. RBS 12 years ago
    
    Then the grand finale:
    
    Libertarianism would have died out as a philosophy if it weren't for the funding that's been lavished on the movement by billionaires like Thiel and the Kochs and corporations like ExxonMobil. So our final question is: If you believe in the free market, why weren't you willing to accept as final the judgment against libertarianism rendered decades ago in the free and unfettered marketplace of ideas?
    1. gaijin 12 years ago
      
      Derp logic in action:
      
      So our final question is: if you believe women should have the right to vote, why aren't you willing to accept as final the judgement against women's voting rights rendered decades ago in the free and unfettered marketplace of ideas?
  2. John 12 years ago
    
    The projection it burns. CATO and Reason are such second rate organizations in Washington. Organizations like the Sierra Club and the SEIU have these palatial headquarters and millions and millions of dollars to throw around. But it is the Libertarians who are the big guys.
    1. Irish 12 years ago
      
      It's not in D.C., but here's a picture of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
      
      Yeah, those liberals sure don't have any money, huh?
      1. RBS 12 years ago
        
        Did they ship that over here from Moscow?
      2. John 12 years ago
        
        The other funny thing is that liberal organizations are totally top heavy. Your typical low lever organizer at a place like the Sierra Club doesn't make dick and they rely on volunteers and unpaid interns like crazy But the top people make six and even seven figure salaries. But that fact is never mentioned and they are never called out for it.
        
        But you and I Irish are hypocrites for driving on the interstate.
      3. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
        
        Wow, that building just screams poverty.
    2. RBS 12 years ago
      
      When I lived in DC and dated a progtard every time we drove by CATO she would make this huge spectacle of flipping the bird to the building and shouting obscenities. It was crazy.
      1. Virginian 12 years ago
        
        Whenever I went to the Wendys across the street from ATF HQ, I made a point of attempting to blow it up with my mind.
        
        Scotticus Finch 12 years ago
        
        Why do you hate Wendy's?
    3. sarcasmic 12 years ago
      
      CATO and Reason are such second rate organizations in Washington.
      
      Of course they are. What politician is going to listen to some guy who wants to cut the politicians influence and power over other people? Fuck that. The politicians care only for expanding their influence and power. So they listen to people who want them to do just that.
2. John 12 years ago
  
  Let me guess, using a publicly funded good that you never supported, would eliminate if you could and are forced to by law to use, like say ROADZ or SKOOLZ, makes Libertarians hypocrites?
  
  You have to love that argument don't you? Because you use this various shit at the point of a gun, you are a hypocrite for objecting to government while getting all of these wonderful benefits the government just forced you to take and pay for.
  1. Irish 12 years ago
    
    It reminds me of that sociopath who wrote an article for the LA Times about getting her dying Republican father to throw away his Rush Limbaugh hats.
    
    She even called him a hypocrite in the article for saying that, even though he's in favor of small government, he still collects social security.
    
    His entire life he was REQUIRED to give a good amount of money out of his pay check to pay for social security. If he'd been allowed to keep that money, he could have invested it and been better off.
    
    There's nothing wrong with collecting social security even if you think the system is bad. They've taken money from you your entire life, and your quality of life has suffered as a result.
    1. John 12 years ago
      
      She was quite a piece of work. Her father dies and all she can remember about his life were his politics. The fact that he raised her, supporter her and did who knows how many great and kind things for her are not worth mentioning. All that mattered was his politics. What a sick way to live.
      1. Irish 12 years ago
        
        The best part was when she tried to spin her dying father's attempt to please her for getting rid of his Limbaugh hats as 'bipartisanship' and 'compromise.'
        
        That says so much about the left-wing mindset. Bipartisanship is when you do whatever I want.
        
        John 12 years ago
        
        Free speech to a leftist is shut up and let me tell you why you are wrong.
        
        Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
        
        Keep this in mind when proggies say they want a "conversation" on this or that. That just means a lengthy hectoring about how you have to do what they want, in the name of reaching across the aisle and *cooperating.*
3. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
  
  Alternate title: I Don't Understand Libertarianism and I Can Prove It.
4. a better weapon 12 years ago
  
  Libertarianism would have died out as a philosophy if it weren't for the funding that's been lavished on the movement by billionaires like Thiel and the Kochs and corporations like ExxonMobil.
  
  Funny, I never got my check.
5. BardMetal 12 years ago
  
  All these articles attacking libertarianism lately, they must really see libertarians as a growing threat. This is a good sign.
  1. # 12 years ago
    
    Exactly. We almost to the fighting stage yet?
6. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
  
  Go ahead. You know you really want to.
  
  Fuck no I don't. Joan Walsh and every other enabler of this kind of low-rent bullshit should be perpetually driven from the marketplace of ideas, sent into the wilderness for 40 years to ponder their nigh-on unforgivable sins.
  
  The thing that's most evil about this isn't that it attacks my politics. I don't care much about that, really. it's watching people maliciously and deliberately disengage their brains and pass of the resulting word emetics as "insightful".
  
  Never has the phrase, "die in a fire" been so on-point.
  1. KMA Too 12 years ago
    
    Never has the phrase, "die in a fire" been so on-point.
    
    "Your ideas intrigue me, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter."
    
    Truly, though, the intellectual dishonesty in that...shit is just too much.
7. a better weapon 12 years ago
  
  The rise of the Silicon Valley economy has also contributed to the libertarian resurgence. A lot of Internet billionaires are nerds who suddenly find themselves rich and powerful, and they're emotionally and intellectually inclined toward libertarianism's geeky and unrealistic vision of a free market.
  
  LOL! Nice to see that the echo chamber of the progressive movement is lamenting the rise of internet pioneers. They are so damn hilarious with their acceleration back in time, defending things like pre-automation work and an educational system built during the industrial revolution.
  1. RBS 12 years ago
    
    And trains, don't forget the trains.
  2. Irish 12 years ago
    
    I'd like to show them a list of campaign donors from Silicon valley. I think an awful lot more money went to the Democrats than the Libertarians.
  3. mr simple 12 years ago
    
    I like the projection that everyone makes their decisions based on emotion.
8. Juice 12 years ago
  
  And of course their cover picture of your typical libertarian is ... Rand fucking Paul. *eyeroll*
Matrix 12 years ago

News flash: Krispy Kreme donuts can make you fat

I now has a sad... I thought they were miracle diet pills.
1. Rich 12 years ago
  
  I confused. Aren't they mostly water?
  1. CE 12 years ago
    
    They're mostly air. And sugar. And grease. With just enough flour to hold them together.
2. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  Carb-loading can make you fat too, but the government has too much of a stake in subsidizing agriculture to make a big deal out of that.
  1. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
    
    Yeah, stop subsidizing those donut farms where the immigrant workers work in the hot sun picking donuts off the trees.
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

Since Benghazi attack, Libya worse off, families in lurch

In the United States, the families of those killed a year ago at the consulate say the Obama administration has yet to tell them what really happened, and why it is that none of the killers has been captured or killed.

"It's hard. I never expected this from my government," Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith, told Fox News. "All they have to do is tell me the truth."
1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  "All they have to do is tell me the truth."
  
  Oh, Mrs. Smith...so much have you to learn. What difference does it make?
  1. CatoTheElder 12 years ago
    
    I sympathize, Mrs. Smith, I really do, but if you expect government to tell you the truth, you're expecting too much.
2. John 12 years ago
  
  It would be nice if the media would ever talk about this "success" in Libya. We basically destroyed the government, left t he place in chaos, declared victory and went home leaving the population we claimed to be there to protect to the mercies of the militias. And all to a country that never attacked us and wasn't a threat to our interests.
  
  Obama launched what amounts to a punitive expedition in Libya. What he was avenging, is still unclear.
  1. tarran 12 years ago
    
    He was avenging the slur on his character raised by some militiamen they had on the news who - as they were being pounded by Libyan aircraft - where is President Obama who claimed he would save us?
    
    The narcissist can't stand to have anyone imply he is powerless. If he can't project that his stillness is a tactical ploy as he plays vulcan chess, he freaks out.
    
    Khaddafy drubbing the rebels and retaking Benghazi would have made him look powerless, so he acted.
    1. John 12 years ago
      
      Yeah. Stupidity and vanity are really can't miss explanations for anything he does. It is almost always one or both.
      1. tarran 12 years ago
        
        It goes back to Obama's speech in Cairo in 2009.
        
        In many ways it was a foreshadowing of the Red Line fiasco. He all but said that the U.S. would support popular uprisings.
        
        The idiot bound the U.S. government to support the Arab Spring actively.
        
        At least Bush had the guts to screw the Shiites over after they followed his call to rise up against Saddam (for the record, while I disagree with his call and would have sent the U.S. army to help them, I understand the huge costs and geopolitical headaches Bush sidestepped by betraying them). People understand betrayal out of self interest and can even forgive it.
        
        Obama is emotionally a child. He said this shit thinking how it would make the common-man-on-the-street feel about him as a person. He didn't think at all about how the various factions would react to such a speech. He obviously didn't consider how people could cash in the chip he had just given them and wasn't forehanded enough to deal with it.
        
        John 12 years ago
        
        It is like I said the other day. He is a faculty lounge liberal used to talking shit to stupid white people who never really listen to him and only tell him how smart he is. He can't function in an environment where his words mean something and are taken seriously by those around them.
        
        tarran 12 years ago
        
        The thing that pisses me off is that there were no grownups to stop him!
        
        Maybe it's my management style, but I don't do revolutionary changes without building a critical mass of institutional support. And sometimes that means really good ideas go unimplemented. But it assures that really bad new ideas are *never* implemented.
        
        It's one thing for a Senator to make speeches like that. A legislator is supposed to be stand out and stake independent positions and argue that the organization should adopt them.
        
        But the head of the executive has to be far more measured.
        
        Looking at the way Obama knifed Kerry repeatedly in the back, it's clear that he has no process for building consensus within his organization. It's the most important issue facing the admin; a crisis that is dominating their attention, and the two men are issuing mutually incompatible position statements!
        
        CatoTheElder 12 years ago
        
        Richard Epstein was at University of Chicago actually listened and says he was unimpressed.
        
        VG Zaytsev 12 years ago
        
        At least Bush had the guts to screw the Shiites over after they followed his call to rise up against Saddam
        
        Bush never did any such thing.
        
        There were musings after the Gulf War that Saddam would be overthrown for leading Iraq into that disaster, but Bush never advocated a Shiites revolution, let alone promised aid to them.
        
        tarran 12 years ago
        
        There were musings after the Gulf War that Saddam would be overthrown for leading Iraq into that disaster, but Bush never advocated a Shiites revolution, let alone promised aid to them.
        
        That's not correct. Bush did call for the overthrow of Saddam:
        
        There is another way for the bloodshed to stop: And that is for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside and then comply with the United Nations' resolutions and rejoin the family of peace-loving nations.
        
        Implicit in such a call was an offer of support, that the U.S. would diplomatically recognize such a coup and treat any rebels are legitimate.
        
        The problem was that the Saudis and Turks immediately told the U.S. not to support any revolt since it would be sectarian and create headaches. Had the Sunnis rebelled, I can guarantee that the U.S. government would have brutally, with international support, smashed the remnants of the Republican Guard. But nobody wanted to see a new Shiite state north of Saudi Arabia
        
        VG Zaytsev 12 years ago
        
        I don't disagree with your last point, but I also don't read that statement as an incitement for the Shia to revolt. Espcially when he explicitly says the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands which is a call for a coup, imo.
  2. VG Zaytsev 12 years ago
    
    Obama launched what amounts to a punitive expedition in Libya. What he was avenging, is still unclear.
    
    Qaddafi was going to start selling his oil for Euros.
    
    That's the reason we intervened.
3. Rich 12 years ago
  
  "All they have to do is tell me the truth."
  
  "If it were that simple, *everyone* would do it."
4. Palin's Buttplug 12 years ago
  
  "All they have to do is tell me the truth.
  
  CONFESS NOW! TO SOME CRIME FOX NEWS HAS CONJURED UP OUT OF THIN AIR!!!
5. robc 12 years ago
  
  I never expected this from my government
  
  Someone hasnt been paying attention.
6. Troy muy grande boner 12 years ago
  
  One of the Benghazi victims was an Eve player and apparently online when it happened.
  
  http://themittani.com/news/rip-vile-rat
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

Roma family is banished to Amsterdam's 'scum' village

A ROMA family has become the first to be forcibly evicted by Dutch authorities and moved to a "scum village" constructed out of shipping containers on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

The Dimitrovs are the first nuisance neighbours to be moved forcibly to police-supervised accommodation as crowded Amsterdam steps up measures against anti-social behaviour.
1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  You know who else stepped up measures against anti-social behavior?
  1. Ted S. 12 years ago
    
    Cass Sunstein?
    1. DontShootMe 12 years ago
      
      +1
  2. Rich 12 years ago
    
    Syst?me International d'Unit?s?
  3. gaijin 12 years ago
    
    FIFA?
  4. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
    
    The Ministry of Love?
  5. Cdr Lytton 12 years ago
    
    The hosts at any random tech conference?
    1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
      
      +1 dongle
2. db 12 years ago
  
  I saw that headline on Drudge and wondered why the Dutch cared enough about the Cowboys' prospects this year.
sarcasmic 12 years ago

Meat the pizzaburger - a 1,360 calorie bacon cheeseburger wrapped in a pepperoni pizza and cooked like a calzone

The burger packs 1,360 calories and 2,000 milligrams of sodium
It was created to capitalize on the celebrity baby obsession
Though unhealthy, it isn't the unhealthiest burger, that honor belongs to a notorious Las Vegas restaurant

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....lzone.html
Damn that looks good.
1. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  Though unhealthy,
  
  Proof by assertion.
2. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
  
  It was created to capitalize on the celebrity baby obsession
  
  Huh?
  1. Lord Humungus 12 years ago
    
    rich people eating celebrity babies?
    1. Bardas Phocas 12 years ago
      
      Is that a illegal supper club?
3. CE 12 years ago
  
  2,000 milligrams is only 2 grams.
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

Strippers have labor and wage rights, federal judge rules

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that strippers at one New York City club who sued over the owner's fee-for-work rule are correct ? they are entitled to protections under labor laws.

That means they are entitled to be paid at least minimum wage, the judge said, The Associated Press reported.

The suit started after strippers said their club manager at Rick's Cabaret International wrongfully forced them to pay numerous fees in order to perform at the facility. Moreover, they weren't paid any wages but only allowed to keep a certain portion of their tips from customers, they said
1. Matrix 12 years ago
  
  Okay, they'll get paid minimum wage, but all money they collect from patrons in tips will go to the clubs. Does that work?
  1. robc 12 years ago
    
    Depends if they are tips or service charges.
2. sloopyinca 12 years ago
  
  Does this mean that I can rent out the Disney Theater to put on a performance and then charge the Theater at least minimum wage for the hours I put into the performance?
  
  This is idiocy. Has this judge never heard of an independent contractor?
3. Zeb 12 years ago
  
  That seems silly. Performers pay to have a venue all the time.
4. Red Rocks Rockin 12 years ago
  
  What idiocy. Even a bad stripper in NYC should be able to pull in at least twice the minimum wage there, not to mention the fact that a good portion of that is probably not declared on taxes.
  
  I'd love to find out what the strippers who brought the suit spend their money on every month--I suspect that the reason they don't have enough money is because half their income is either going up their nose or being injected into their bloodstream.
DJF 12 years ago

"""North and South Korea agreed to reopen a jointly-run industrial park within the North Korean border beginning next Monday. ""'

So what is the call on this, triumph for capitalism or triumph for slave labor communism?
1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  Yes.
2. sloopyinca 12 years ago
  
  Is tliumph of both capitarism and srave rabor!
  
  Unified Korea is best Korea!
3. CE 12 years ago
  
  Dennis Rodman bringing peace to the world.
Rich 12 years ago

Pope Francis assures atheists: You don't have to believe in God to go to heaven

You do, however, have to be circumcised. 😉
1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
  
  And like deep dish pizza!
  
  *ducks and runs*
2. SugarFree 12 years ago
  
  Countdown to being declared an anti-pope in 3... 2...
3. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
  
  If he spoke ex cathedra on the subject, the logic loop would collapse the Universe.
  1. Rich 12 years ago
    
    "If God can do anything, can He make a rock so big He can't pick it up?"
    1. Alack 12 years ago
      
      This always struck me as a stupid piece of rhetoric.
      1. robc 12 years ago
        
        Thats because it is a stupid piece of rhetoric.
        
        Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
        
        No, actually, it isn't.
        
        Tim 12 years ago
        
        "Contemplate this on the tree of woe"
        
        SugarFree 12 years ago
        
        The really question is: "Can God create a burrito so big, that not even He can eat it?"
        
        Until this is answered to my satisfaction, I will drive around Florida with 3000 Bibles soaked in Grape Kool-Aid.
        
        You have been warned. There will be no further communication on this subject.
        
        Tim 12 years ago
        
        Can we talk about abortion now?
        
        SugarFree 12 years ago
        
        Eggs: Chicken Periods or Chicken Abortions?
        
        Tim 12 years ago
        
        "If meat is murder, are eggs rape?"
        -P.J. O'Rourke
        
        Zeb 12 years ago
        
        I don't really see how it is rhetoric at all. Seems like an interesting theological question. Or at least an interesting paradox to play with.
        
        CE 12 years ago
        
        Sort of like "what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object"?
        
        Answer: there are no immovable objects.
4. Tim 12 years ago
  
  "Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience."
  
  Good point.
5. robc 12 years ago
  
  Pope Francis assures atheists: You don't have to believe in God to go to heaven
  
  Reason #1 I am not Roman Catholic.
  1. db 12 years ago
    
    It is consistent with the Church's position that good works matter more than being "saved."
    1. robc 12 years ago
      
      As I said....
6. Slammer 12 years ago
  
  If I don't believe in God, why would I believe in heaven?
  1. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
    
    Maybe there is a heaven, but you only get to go there if you're an atheist.
    1. PD Scott 12 years ago
      
      And St Peter hits you in the face with a creme pie when you realize there's an afterlife.
7. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles 12 years ago
  
  I'm actually having trouble seeing the headline in the story. You can't "go to [God]" without believing in him.
  1. lap83 12 years ago
    
    What you said, sorry.
8. lap83 12 years ago
  
  He doesn't appear to be saying what the headline suggests at all. How could you "go to God" at all if you didn't believe in him? What he's saying is that even non-believers have a conscience and that it could lead them to God.
9. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
  
  This is not a departure from Church doctrine, which teaches that people who, through no fault of their own, haven't accepted the faith, can still get to heaven by conscientiously seeking the divine in thought and act.
  
  The difference with this Pope is that he's expressing traditional doctrines in a pastoral and compassionate manner. A quote in the article:
  
  ""Francis is a still a conservative," said [a Catholic journalist]. "But what this is all about is him seeking to have a more meaningful dialogue with the world.""
  
  When the media realizes he hasn't actually grown "more progressive" (ie, changed Church doctrine in a way the media likes), they may well turn on him. They're caught up in their own stereotypes that Catholic teachings cannot be expressed in a compassionate manner, so if someone does so, they're changing the doctrine!
gaijin 12 years ago

Anyone see the weekly initial jobless claims number? Down 31K from last week to the lowest level since 2006. Oh, except that BOL claims two states underreported due to 'computer issues'. So, we know the number is wrong, but we'll report it anyway.

Bloomberg link
a better weapon 12 years ago

Nothing left to cut

$800,000 spent on a new, very pedestrian looking, state logo.

I think it looks pretty good and would look nice stuck on the back of a Subaru, but that price tag is crazy!
sarcasmic 12 years ago

'Let me have my little girl back!' Man begs wildlife officials to return the bear cub he saved after it was abandoned by its mother

Robert Baysinger cried as he described the day Savannah was taken from this Arkansas home
'I saved the little bear's life and now I'm letting her down': Baysinger feels like a father to the animal he had for 6 months but official say he's not capable of raising it

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

Good luck with that.
1. John 12 years ago
  
  Did they show up with a SWAT team to take it?
  1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
    
    And shoot the bear in the process?
2. RBS 12 years ago
  
  he's not capable of raising it
  
  That is probably true.
3. CE 12 years ago
  
  'I saved the little bear's life and now I'm letting her down': Baysinger feels like a father to the animal he had for 6 months but official say he's not capable of raising it
  
  The Cleveland Browns, however, did offer him a tryout.
Floridian 12 years ago

Why does reason hate the phone app? It does not update. I get to the AM links 20 minutes late unless I go to the website. I will never beat FOE if this injustice goes uncorrected!
1. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
  
  You just want a level playing field, that's all.
  1. Floridian 12 years ago
    
    Also reason should randomize the post so that everyone gets a chance to be first. Sure the comments will be chaos and nobody will know who is responding to whom but its fair damnit.
    1. SugarFree 12 years ago
      
      We used to have a troll that argued this all the time. He thought all comments should be stripped of handles so that just the arguments would shine through.
      
      The worst thing you can do to some people is remember the dumb shit they said in the past. It will be a hate-crime some day.
2. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  It's all about driving up page views.
  1. CE 12 years ago
    
    So that's why I get logged out every 10 minutes.
Lord Humungus 12 years ago

On the electronics front, I'm working on two projects.

One is a restoration of a 1970-ish Sony TA-3120 amplifier. The power supply is acting wonky, producing 82 volts (music plays) and then cycling down to 64 volts (music stops). I've never seen this kind of behavior before - will start with replacing all the old electrolytic capacitors.
http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-TA-3120.html

The other project is the gathering of parts for a new stereo tube amplifier design. This will be an "Universal" single-ended amplifier that can run 6550s, EL34s, 6L6GCs, and even the new KT-120 or KT-150s. There will be current meters, purple voltage regulation tubes for the output tube screens, and using 1950s military 5687s as driver tubes. This is sort of a "dream amp" of mine that I've wanted to build for a long time. Build cost will be $800-$1000 depending on what output iron and capacitors I use.
sloopyinca 12 years ago

OK, 'm sort of poppping up like a gopher today, but I've been absolutely buried professionally for the last month or so.

Here's the deal: are there any Bay Area Buckeyes or Reasoniods that would become Buckeyes fans for the day that would like to go to the (The) Ohio State vs Cal football game Saturday? I'm gonna get the tix but I don't want to go by myself. I'm going to be in Suckramento tomorrow and Saturday morning and Banjos can't make the trip. I'm planning on driving over around 1 or so to get there and tailgate/get drunk before the game. I was either planning on staying in Pleasanton or SF after the game depending on how it all goes down. Game starts around 4:00.

My brother was going to fly in but he can't make it now and I really don't want to miss their only regular season game out here this year.* So e-mail me if interested. I'll be on here for a while this morning also.

*I can't wait until they play in the NCG or Rose Bowl to see them, even though I'm confident they'll be in one of those two this coming January.
1. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  With Urban Meyer as head coach, won't they be facing more sanctions by the end of the season? 😉
  1. Neoliberal Kochtopus 12 years ago
    
    I will send Maurice Clarett to shank you.
    1. RBS 12 years ago
      
      For those of you who don't remember
  2. sloopyinca 12 years ago
    
    Ted, you never fail to disappoint me with your racism against Ohio State.
sloopyinca 12 years ago

OK, 'm sort of poppping up like a gopher today, but I've been absolutely buried professionally for the last month or so.

Here's the deal: are there any Bay Area Buckeyes or Reasoniods that would become Buckeyes fans for the day that would like to go to the (The) Ohio State vs Cal football game Saturday? I'm gonna get the tix but I don't want to go by myself. I'm going to be in Suckramento tomorrow and Saturday morning and Banjos can't make the trip. I'm planning on driving over around 1 or so to get there and tailgate/get drunk before the game. I was either planning on staying in Pleasanton or SF after the game depending on how it all goes down. Game starts around 4:00.

My brother was going to fly in but he can't make it now and I really don't want to miss their only regular season game out here this year.* So e-mail me if interested. I'll be on here for a while this morning also.

*I can't wait until they play in the NCG or Rose Bowl to see them, even though I'm confident they'll be in one of those two this coming January.
1. sloopyinca 12 years ago
  
  What the fuck?
  
  Sorry.
  1. Ted S. 12 years ago
    
    You're not really sorry. You like hearing yourself talk about An Ohio State University.
    1. sloopyinca 12 years ago
      
      I guess my triple-post makes that hard to deny.
      1. Swiss Servator - Gnome Slave 12 years ago
        
        I like triple posts, I cannot deny...
sloopyinca 12 years ago

OK, 'm sort of poppping up like a gopher today, but I've been absolutely buried professionally for the last month or so.

Here's the deal: are there any Bay Area Buckeyes or Reasoniods that would become Buckeyes fans for the day that would like to go to the (The) Ohio State vs Cal football game Saturday? I'm gonna get the tix but I don't want to go by myself. I'm going to be in Suckramento tomorrow and Saturday morning and Banjos can't make the trip. I'm planning on driving over around 1 or so to get there and tailgate/get drunk before the game. I was either planning on staying in Pleasanton or SF after the game depending on how it all goes down. Game starts around 4:00.

My brother was going to fly in but he can't make it now and I really don't want to miss their only regular season game out here this year.* So e-mail me if interested. I'll be on here for a while this morning also.

*I can't wait until they play in the NCG or Rose Bowl to see them, even though I'm confident they'll be in one of those two this coming January.
1. RBS 12 years ago
  
  I know it's been awhile but try to control yourself...
  1. Lord Humungus 12 years ago
    
    third times the charm.
2. H. ReardEn 12 years ago
  
  Wack the gopher, sombody, please! It keeps popping up.
  1. CE 12 years ago
    
    Sort of like Reason-Rupe poll articles.
The Late P Brooks 12 years ago

Last night, because the ringing in my ears isn't already loud enough, I watched part of the Lying Larry Odonnell show. The segment title was "NRA against the People" and was about the Colorado recall election. What a sleazy lying shitbag. They framed it for the rubes as a vast conspiracy by the evil "outsiders" from the NRA to swoop in and run those poor noble politicians out of town on a rail, without ever mentioning the odd fact that Bloomberg, et al, spent about ten times as much and failed. Also, some evil yet unspecified (but not, one hopes, the NRA) bastards rigged the election by forcing the voters to show up in person- IN PERSON, for fucks sakes!- and vote.

They had the two victims on, and Larry repeatedly thanked them for their nobility and integrity for telling their constituents to go fuck themselves. I had seen that Morse guy (a former cop, btw) before, in an interview, and he comes across as a total self-righteous "I'll tell you what's good for you" asshole. He made sure to say something to the effect of, "You may be rid of me, but my shitty law is still here."
1. Rich 12 years ago
  
  He made sure to say something to the effect of, "You may be rid of me, but my shitty law is still here."
  
  Yeah, I saw that. It was like: "It was totally worth losing my job in order to impose my will on you yahoos."
2. John 12 years ago
  
  The NRA is a no shit grass roots, non partisan organization. They are exactly the kind of organization liberals tell themselves they want and are, but never manage to create.
  
  SEIU and Bloomburg astro-turf is real democracy. Millions of gun owners coming out and voting on their issue and holding politicians on both sides accountable is some evil conspiracy.
  
  Fuck those assholes. Let them die of butt hurt.
3. Irish 12 years ago
  
  Morse was on Chris Matthews too and is an utter scumbag. He's a former cop, which explains his tendency to respond to any obstacles to his rule by screaming STOP RESISTING.
  
  He referred to his opponent in an earlier interview as an 'unemployed plumber,' even though he RUNS A PLUMBING COMPANY with his brother. That should tell you a bit about Morse's honesty.
Apatheist ?_?? 12 years ago

Jonah Goldberg tears apart "social liberalism" on the left:

Seriously, who else do people think are behind efforts to ban big sodas or sue hairdressers for charging women more than men? Who harasses little kids for making toy guns out of sticks, Pop Tarts, or their own fingers? Who wants to regulate the air you breathe, the food you eat, and the beverages you drink? Who wants to control your thermostat? Take your guns? Your cigarettes? Heck, your candy cigarettes? Who's in favor of speech codes on campuses and "hate crime" laws everywhere? Who's in favor of free speech when it comes to taxpayer-subsidized "art" and pornography (so long as you use a condom, if liberals get their way) but then bang their spoons on their high chairs for strict regulations when it comes to political speech? Who loves meddling, finger-wagging billionaires like Michael Bloomberg when they use state power and taxpayer money to herd, bully, and nudge people but thinks billionaires like the Koch brothers who want to shrink government are the root of all tyranny?
1. John 12 years ago
  
  Goldberg is a really good polemic writer. He absolutely brutalizes liberals. Sadly, since they are immune to reason or any sort of rational persuasion, his attacks bounce right off of their thick skulls.
  1. Slammer 12 years ago
    
    bang their spoons on their high chairs
    
    I liked that a lot.
    1. # 12 years ago
      
      This was my favorite line:
      
      "Uh, sorry to tell you, but you are "they." Outside of a Law and Order script ? or an equally implausible MSNBC diatribe about who ruined Detroit ? conservatives have as much influence on big-city liberalism as the Knights of Malta do."
Matrix 12 years ago

Dear NRA: Are you really going to tell me that "guns don't kill children, children kill children"?

I'm not a member of the NRA, and I don't speak for them. But yes, some children do kill children. Adults kill children. Animals kill children.
sarcasmic 12 years ago

Queen guitarist Brian May angers Jews by describing cull of 5,000 badgers as 'genocide in the countryside'

Brian May made the comments during a protest visit to Gloucestershire
His words were described as 'dreadful' and 'inflammatory' online
Jewish leaders have since criticised his use of the phrase

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....yside.html
Peak derp?
1. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
  
  You have to press these kinds of things, or you lose your intellectual property in the word "genocide".
2. Apatheist ?_?? 12 years ago
  
  A lot of derp on both sides there but people using dumb hyperbole and other people over reacting to it is pretty common.
3. sloopyinca 12 years ago
  
  OK, so how come was can make AIDS jokes already but the words "Holocaust" or "Genocide" are still completely off limits after nearly 70 years?
  
  And I thought Jooz were supposed to be funny since an inordinate %age of comedians are Jooish.
  1. sarcasmic 12 years ago
    
    It's OK to poke fun at homosexuals and intravenous drug users. Well, not so much at homosexuals anymore since they've become a protected class, but drug users will never be protected. They're not even human. I mean, they use drugs.
  2. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
    
    And I thought Jooz were supposed to be funny since an inordinate %age of comedians are Jooish.
    
    Jews are funny, but the Holocaust is not. That level of catastrophe just can't be made funny.
    
    For me, this is personal. My great-grandfather died in Auschwitz.
    
    He tripped and fell out of his guard tower.
    1. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
      
      That's not [giggle] funny!
sarcasmic 12 years ago

Paris through a Nazi's lens: Propaganda pictures of Occupied France taken by photographer ordered to prove city was thriving under German rule

Andre Zucca's images of Paris in the Second World War have remained controversial
Appear to show Parisians carefree and jubilant under Nazi occupation and Vichy rule
Photojournalist took images of fashionable women, smiling soldiers and happy families in the capital

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-rule.html
1. SIV 12 years ago
  
  Hitler's progressive policies promoted Parisians driving alternative fueled vehicles.
Also Ran 12 years ago

Missouri lawmakers fail to override governor's gun bill veto

A controversial gun measure won't become law in Missouri after a push to override the governor's veto fell one vote short of approval in the state's Senate on Wednesday.
The measure, HB 436, would have essentially nullified federal gun laws in the state.
Senators voted 22-12 in favor of overriding Gov. Jay Nixon's veto, but the vote fell just short of the two thirds majority required to pass.
Earlier Wednesday, the state's House of Representatives voted 109-49 in favor of overriding the veto.
If it had passed, the law would have technically not only let residents own a machine gun but also arrested federal agents if they tried to take it away.

I was listening to the House proceedings just before they were about to vote. The pearl clutching was fucking hilarious. Of course they brought up the Wild West, and were freaking out about college kids open carrying at keg parties and it turning into a shootout. Blood in the streets! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
Palin's Buttplug 12 years ago

This is the five year anniversary of the Financial Crisis - when Hank Paulson began nationalizing the sector and TARP was just a bad idea that would never happen in the United States.

And our "leader" - the President, was nowhere to be found.
1. Ken Shultz 12 years ago
  
  It would have gone better if he'd just stayed lost, too.
  
  Can you imagine? What if they'd just let the investment banks go to the investment bank graveyard--like Bear and Lehman did?
  
  No Obama squandering $350 billion out of our future paychecks on bailing out his cronies on Wall Street and Detroit. No nationalization of GM. Oh what a beautiful world that would be!
  1. VG Zaytsev 12 years ago
    
    Yep, Bush's biggest fuckups were all bi-partisan and loved by the proggies.
    
    And his support of TARP was the abosolute worst of them all. He should have fired Paulson on the spot when the mendacious fuck came squealing to him about the end of the world.
2. CE 12 years ago
  
  And Obama and McCain both stopped campaigning to go back to DC to vote for TARP and make sure everyone knew they were all for it, even though it cost McCain the election?
The Late P Brooks 12 years ago

Also, Lying Larry was outraged- OUTRAGED- by the nerve of that guy Putin for having the audacity to comment on the actions of an American President.

It's a goddam affront, and we should bomb those motherfuckers, to show them what American Exceptionalism stands for.
sarcasmic 12 years ago

Some City Residents Being Fined For Parking In Their Own Driveway

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com.....-driveway/
Apparently some enterprising government employee dug out a previously unenforced law that says residents must park 30ft away from the road, and decided to bring in some revenue.
1. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  It's fucking yinzers. Tough to get arsed to care.
The Late P Brooks 12 years ago

But yes, some children do kill children. Adults kill children. Animals kill children.

What's the problem? They're making more every day.
1. John 12 years ago
  
  Daughter: Daddy Daddy, they killed the President
  
  Don Draper: Its okay honey, we will get another one.
  
  I never watched that show. But for my money that is one of the greatest lines in the history of television. It is so pithy, so subversive, and so true.
Ken Shultz 12 years ago

It'll be interesting to see how the press reacts to Obama's open humiliation on Syria. I doubt we'll see them condemn Obama for not going through with the missile strikes the MSM was screaming for just a few days ago; in fact, I bet we stop hearing about the atrocities perpetrated against the Syrian people so much anymore--seeing as they're an ongoing embarrassment to everything Obama said over the past few weeks.

It'll be interesting to see what this does to the Democrats' accusations against the Republicans for being warmongers and against the Tea Party for being extremists. Wake up and smell the coffee, America. Because of the Tea Party, Obama is somewhere to the right of the Republicans on warmongering. Well, he's to the right of everyone except John McCain, but nobody ever accused John McCain of being part of the Tea Party.
1. John 12 years ago
  
  The media is going to call it a triumph. It is what they do. Meanwhile, the people in Congress and the public for that matter knows what a weak dithering idiot this makes Obama. They also know that it shows six months into his term that Obama can't drive public opinion about anything. He is a President and he couldn't even get 40% of the people to support a war.
  
  I think you are going to see Congress start to reassert itself and Obama start to matter less and less. The guy is setting a record for longest time as a lame duck.
  1. Ken Shultz 12 years ago
    
    Yeah, he's walking like a duck already. He's quacking like a duck, too.
John 12 years ago

This is hysterical. After five years Bob Corker finally admits Obama is a terrible speaker who couldn't sell space heaters to Eskimos or convince anyone that the sun rises in the east. It is amazing how easily these rubes were conned. Obama hasn't given an even passable speech as a candidate or President. Never, they are all cliche ridden incoherent, dishonest pieces of crap. He is a horrible public speaker. And that is not a matter of taste. He has never moved the polls on any issue via a speech. Never. But clowns like David Brooks have spent years pretending he is.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....le/2535627
1. sarcasmic 12 years ago
  
  they are all cliche ridden incoherent, dishonest pieces of crap
  
  You mean he's a politician with a law degree? Who knew?
  1. Libertymike 12 years ago
    
    To be fair, the Chocolate Chief Executive can deliver good speeches - IF - he is reading from the teleprompter and the text was not authored by him.
    
    Extemporaneously, he stutters, he stammers and he would certainly qualify to be a contestant on Howie Carr's "The Wizard of Uhs". Some of you in the New England area may be familiar with Howie's lampooning of former Congressman Joe Kennedy and his dearly departed uncle Ted by asking his radio listeners to guess the number of times they would utter an "uh" during a 20 or 30 second clip.
    
    Off the cuff, Obama is not a model of mellifluosity.
    1. John 12 years ago
      
      You say that Mike. But he really can't. Go back and read his speeches. Read the Philadelphia race speech sometime. It is horrible. It is as bad and incoherent as the Syria speech.
      1. sarcasmic 12 years ago
        
        The speeches themselves may be incoherent, but he delivers them with such smarmy arrogance that it makes the average smarmy liberal swoon and faint.
      2. Libertymike 12 years ago
        
        John, its not as if I am being complimentary to him.
        
        I can't tell you how many times I have pointed out to various and sundry people that Obama as a public speaker is way overrated.
        
        Even my wife, who should know better, will point to his 2004 Democrat National Convention speech as a counter-factual.
        
        Bo Cara Esq. 12 years ago
        
        I think he delivers a speech quite well. The content of the speeches are doubtlessly the work of someone else these days. Of course people who disagree with him think the content of the speeches are incoherent, vacuous and such, but those who like what he is saying seem to really like the way he says it.
        
        VG Zaytsev 12 years ago
        
        The contents of his speeches have always been crap, internally inconsistent to the point that different people project their own desires onto Obama by latching onto different fragments of the same speech.
        
        Read any of them and they're just dreck.
        
        And yet he delivers them so well that he convinces a large percent of his listeners that his super smart and wise.
        
        That says something about human nature, and I don't mean just proggies but people in general.
        
        Clich? Bandit 12 years ago
        
        You want to see a speech? Watch Steve Jobs announce the iPhone. He not only follows every single effective sales technique but he includes a ton of CBT aspects into it.
    2. sarcasmic 12 years ago
      
      Is Howie back yet? That Hunt guy is a boring one-trick-pony.
    3. Irish 12 years ago
      
      To be fair, the Chocolate Chief Executive can deliver good speeches - IF - he is reading from the teleprompter and the text was not authored by him.
      
      And if there is no substance. Obama can speak well if he just gets to demagogue about hope and change, but he is incapable of speaking well about actual issues.
      1. Palin's Buttplug 12 years ago
        
        Obama debated the House leaders in 2010 and put them to shame - Fox News cut the live feed it was so bad.
        
        He reduced little Jeb Hensarling to a puddle.
        
        Roger Ailes went ballistic when he found out Fox televised it.
        
        John 12 years ago
        
        Obama debated the House leaders in 2010 and put them to shame
        
        He debated Nancy Pelosi? The Dems ran the house in 10 you lying little retard.
        
        Get his cock out of your mouth. Even he is tired of it being there.
        
        Irish 12 years ago
        
        Oh wow, he out debated Jeb Hensarling? The Jeb Hensarling? Well that changes everything. If he can beat a philosopher king like Jeb Hensarling in in argument, I retract all my criticism.
        
        Loki 12 years ago
        
        You forgot the /sarc tag. Careful, the stupid little retard might think he really won an argument for once in his sorry Obama-fluffing life.
      2. Libertymike 12 years ago
        
        Yes, good point, Irish.
2. Ken Shultz 12 years ago
  
  I'd only add that every time he speaks off the cuff, he gets himself in trouble.
  
  "You didn't build that"
  
  "Red line!"
  
  If he ever gave a five-minute speech telling people what he really thought, his approval ratings would drop by ten points.
  1. John 12 years ago
    
    He has and we got bitter clingers and energy prices need to skyrocket. The media just won't cover it. That is the other thing about him. He is not just stupid, he is totally undisciplined and prone to saying really stupid and offensive shit. It is amazing what a cult following in the media will do for you.
3. VG Zaytsev 12 years ago
  
  Obama's a fantastic speechifier, the problem is the content is always crap.
  
  It's like songs that sound great with lyrics that are meaningless word salad.
Palin's Buttplug 12 years ago

Sen. Ted Cruz: 'We Need A Hundred More Like Jesse Helms' In Senate

http://www.mediaite.com/online.....in-senate/
1. db 12 years ago
  
  So Cruz is retiring?
2. Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago
  
  What do you expect a Canadian to know about Helms? And one hundred? Wouldn't that put Cruz out of a job?
3. Virginian 12 years ago
  
  Is there anything more bullshit then writing "Many consider" or "many say" *something the author believes but isn't able to state as their opinion in a supposed news piece*
4. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
  
  A hundred more Senators who are dead? Sure, I could live with that.
The Late P Brooks 12 years ago

Oh, NOOOOOOOO!

Teh Waltons take advantage of a careful reading of United States tax laws to minimize their tax liabilities!

That's what's on my teevee right now.
1. Derpetologist 12 years ago
  
  According to MSLSD, it's not hypocrisy to call for higher taxes while at the same time taking advantage of every credit and deduction.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R23Z75fsfwI
  1. mr simple 12 years ago
    
    Only republicans are hypocrites and their arguments are false because they feel wrong.
2. Pro Libertate 12 years ago
  
  I bet they get farm subsidies, too. Though they don't seem to have that much money, unless John-Boy is raking it in with his writing.
3. Loki 12 years ago
  
  You know I used to laugh when people would tell me not to watch so much TV because it "rots your brain." Turns out they were right...
Ken Shultz 12 years ago

"D.C.-based businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson, under investigation for corruption, allegedly secretly funded get out the vote efforts for Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign."

You mean a Clinton's campaign may have been associated with some kind of corruption?!

How will her reputation ever recover?

She should have gone to jail with the McDougals.
Derpetologist 12 years ago

This is some good derp right here: Chris Matthews on gun laws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6TxdVEIurI
1. Tejicano 12 years ago
  
  Sorry, I'm getting ready for bed. No way am I clicking that and getting wound up for another hour or two. The only way I'd go to see Chris Matthews employ his oral skills would be in his debut in a Juarez donkey show - pretty much what he does now but more literally and a different venue.
  1. Derpetologist 12 years ago
    
    It's beautiful in a way. He runs through every single anti-gun strawman in a mere 9 minutes.
2. Loki 12 years ago
  
  Chris Mathews: "You don't have to prove you're sane or prove you're innocent to buy a gun."
  
  Well, no asshole, you don't and you shouldn't have to prove your innocence in order to do anything in this country. What a fuckwad.
  1. Irish 12 years ago
    
    Especially because I don't think Chris Matthews would be able to prove he's sane.
    1. Loki 12 years ago
      
      Of course he would. He has all the "right views". Not like those demented bitter clingers. What Mathews isn't telling you is that in his ideal world the standard for proving one's sanity would be:
      
      "Do you want to buy this scary looking rifle with a barrel shroud and a pistol grip and the ability to accept 30 round mags?"
      
      "Yes."
      
      "Sorry, I can't sell it to you, it says here you're insane."
      
      "What!?"
      
      "You want to buy this scary looking rifle, therefore you're crazy. Oh, and by the way, your name's now been added to a national database of the criminally insane. Have fun with that!"
      
      BTW, did anyone catch the part where he actually had the gall to mutter something like "I'm pretty libertarian myself" toward the end of the segment? I don't think I would have been to keep from laughing my ass off if I had been in Pratt's shoes.
Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago

Television drama "Breaking Bad" may be ending, but AMC plans to launch a prequel focusing on the character of Saul Goodman.

Saul would be a vastly better ex-lawyer President than any of the guys in recent memory.
1. BakedPenguin 12 years ago
  
  Yup. Also, I'm glad their doing the show, but I wonder if the fact it's a prequel speaks to Saul's mortality in BB.
  1. RBS 12 years ago
    
    Maybe not, post BB probably wouldn't be very interesting. I figure if he isn't killed off he at least goes into hiding or prison.
    1. RBS 12 years ago
      
      Although Saul Goodman: Jailhouse Lawyer could be fun.
    2. BakedPenguin 12 years ago
      
      Oh, I think he'll find a way to weasel out of it if he survives.
2. Bo Cara Esq. 12 years ago
  
  I will be interested in the show. Breaking Bad is a great show, but it at times has a bit heavy moralizing for my tastes. The character of Goodman is usually presented as comic relief, so I will be interested in if, and how, he might be cast in that light.
  1. CatoTheElder 12 years ago
    
    "Better Call Saul" could be a hilarious way to ridicule how government at levels only pays lip service to rule of law and the Constitution.
    
    It seems that the only people in the legal system who take the Constitution seriously are defense lawyers.
    
    Saul could serve as something like the nation's court jester.
Loki 12 years ago

Note to HnR'ers: if you plan on mooning a bus after a Kid Rock concert, hope there's not roided up assholes off duty cops on board.

You might get punched in the face by said roided up asshole off duty cop.

Although in this case the cop has actually been charged with aggravated assault. We'll see if that sticks or not.
1. Virginian 12 years ago
  
  A Greek Cypriot soldier mooned a Turkish Cypriot soldier across the Green Line once, and the Turk shot him.
  1. Hillary's Clitdong 12 years ago
    
    A Roman legionnaire's decision to moon worshippers at a temple was a cause of one of the Jewish Revolts.
    1. Loki 12 years ago
      
      Huh... I always assumed mooning was a more recent "invention". Who knew it had such long an storied tradition...
      1. sloopyinca 12 years ago
        
        Haven't you ever seen Braveheart?
        
        Loki 12 years ago
        
        I always assumed that scene was a historical inaccuracy. A funny inaccuracy, but still.
        
        Either that or the Scotts invented mooning in the 13th century as opposed to being around during biblical times.
  2. tarran 12 years ago
    
    My former countrymen are *very* homophobic. Or rather, they are very worried that people will question their manliness.
    
    If the Syrian rebels could somehow convince Turkish men to see Assad's continued existence as proof that Turkish men are effeminate, Assad would be dead within 72 hours.
    1. Virginian 12 years ago
      
      Didn't someone in Syria shell a Turkish village at some point in this dustup?
NoVAHockey 12 years ago

In a meeting going over Medicare projections. The program will consume 16% of general federal revenue by 2020. That does not count payroll taxes or premiums or deductibles. General revenue only. Medicare alone will be 5-6% of GDP by the mid 2020s.
John 12 years ago

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.....hp?ref=fpa

This is hysterical.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and Sen. Diane Feinstein have put federal prosecutors in quite a bind after they made public comments about the use of secret NSA surveillance in terrorism investigations.

Now defense attorneys in a Florida case are turning the words of those top officials against prosecutors, urging a federal court to force the federal government to disclose whether it obtained evidence against their client through a 2008 amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FAA, which has been at the center of the Edward Snowden leaks.

In a Tuesday filing (see below), attorneys for Raees Alam Qazi ? who was charged with planning to blow up a bomb in New York City last December ? argued that federal prosecutors were obligated to disclose to them if secret surveillance had been used in the investigation.

"This lack of candor is deeply troubling because it continues a pattern of cases in which government prosecutors have failed to provide notice of FAA surveillance to criminal defendants," the defense attorneys wrote. "Because of this lack of notice, the warrantless surveillance program has never been subjected to judicial review in any public courtroom."
1. John 12 years ago
  
  But the real conundrum for prosecutors: The defense is using the words of the top government attorney in the country and one of its foremost senators to make its case.
  
  They shot their mouths off and mentioned this guy's case as one the "terror attacks" the NSA saved us from and just gave him standing to challenge the program in court. Doh!!!
  1. Loki 12 years ago
    
    It's the "red line" crap all over again. Maybe years of being able to say pretty much any idiotic thing and never getting called out on anything has rotted their brains.
    
    Or more likely, their brains were already rotted to start with.
Virginian 12 years ago

Book Thread

So I reread Starship Troopers for what must be the 20th time. Such an excellent work. Now I'm rereading Fire by Sebastian Junger, which I highly recommend.

I haven't read any military history from the last couple years. Anything good come out?
1. Pro Libertate 12 years ago
  
  Does a book about Lawrence of Arabia count? I liked that.
2. John 12 years ago
  
  Read Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy. The final book came out this spring. It is An Army At Dawn, about the the US Army in North Africa, Day of Battle, about Sicily and Italy, and now Guns at Last Light, about France and the liberation of Germany.
  
  All three are excellent books. I am about done with Guns at Last Light. Atkinson is a much better writer than Steven Ambrose. He is very even handed and has a great eye for detail. I learned a ton of things that I didn't know in these books and I am a real geek about this kind of stuff.
  
  It is not new, but I always recommend The Great Siege. It is about the Ottoman Siege of Malta against the Knights of St. John under an incredible Frenchman named Lavollette. It is the most amazing story and told very well in that book.
  1. Virginian 12 years ago
    
    I read the An Army at Dawn when it first came out. I think I have those in Kindle format, I'll load them on my phone.
    
    I'll check it out the Malta one too. Any time severed heads are being fired from the walls, it's worth reading.
    1. John 12 years ago
      
      Severed flaming heads put on flaming wheels and hurled down the hill at the enemy. They still had Greek fire back then. The Knights fucking burned the Turks to death. It was this strange middle period where both sides had muskets and cannons and explosives but the weapons didn't have enough range or enough accuracy to make medieval hand to hand combat obsolete.
      1. Irish 12 years ago
        
        I love reading about siege warfare because it was always so unbelievably brutal. I read a book recently about the Siege of Vienna, the battle that really kind of started the ascendance of the West relative to the Ottomans. The Austrians caught a bunch of Turks alive, flayed them, and hung them from the city's walls. The Turks managed to get some captives, so they had them decapitated and launched their heads over the walls of the city with catapults.
        
        John 12 years ago
        
        I bet I read the same book. The name of it escapes me right now. But it is another good one. That is a great story as well. After you read it, you understand why the Austrian Habsburgs viewed themselves as the defenders of Europe and the Catholic faith against the Turks.
        
        Irish 12 years ago
        
        I think the one I read was called Enemy at the Gates or something equally cliche. There are probably a lot of books on the topic.
        
        John 12 years ago
        
        That is the book I read. And it is a good one.
  2. Slammer 12 years ago
    
    Have you read Max Hastings, John? Overlord (D-Day) and Retribution are especially good. And the single volume Inferno (all of WW2) was very good as well.
    1. John 12 years ago
      
      I have read Overlord. And it is good. What I like about Atkinson is that he doesn't cheer lead. You get about half way through the third book and you realize, the Allies didn't have a single decent Army commander. They were all either horrible and should have been relieved (Hodges and Clark), mediocrities (Bradly, Eisenhower or Montgomery) or occasionally brilliant but inconsistent and prone to devastating fuck ups as well as brilliance (Patton and Devers)
3. Derpetologist 12 years ago
  
  Embracing Defeat is about postwar Japan. I thought it was pretty good.
4. John 12 years ago
  
  Check out The Plantagenets, the Kings Who Made England by Dan Brown.
  
  I read that last year. It was one of the best books I had read in a while. Starts with the White Ship disaster and ends with Richard II being kicked off the throne by Henry of Bollingbrook. It is a great book, real medieval skullduggery kind of stuff.
  
  Two things stand out. One, England almost never had a good king. Henry II and Edward III are the only good ones in the whole period. Two, many of the myths about different kings are really wrong. John was a bad king but not really a tyrant all things considered, Henry III was a real tyrant and a flake to boot and Simon DeMonfort was a deadbeat political caniver who sort of fell into creating the first real Parliament.
  1. Pro Libertate 12 years ago
    
    I recommend this one, too. Very good.
  2. Scotticus Finch 12 years ago
    
    Dan Jones, not Dan Brown. (For any others who are adding all these to their Kindle!)
5. Lord Humungus 12 years ago
  
  I read the old books - one I visit at least once a year is "Miracle at Midway"
  http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-.....+at+midway
  1. John 12 years ago
    
    Nimitz was the one US commander in World War II who consistently won battles despite being outnumbered. He is really under appreciated.
  2. Tim 12 years ago
    
    You might like "Neptune's Inferno" about the naval battles in and around Guadacanal. Mostly fought by cruisers and destroyers, at night.
    Just prior to the first battle, the US had radar and the Japanese did not-but the US Admiral didn't understand the technology so he ordered the radar turned off and went to sleep as the Japanese fleet was closing in...
    1. Lord Humungus 12 years ago
      
      I'll check it out. I recently finished a book about the "half-sized" destroyer escort group taking on an entire Japanese fleet.
      
      http://www.amazon.com/For-Crew.....nd+country
      
      read the Wiki:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.....B._Roberts
      1. Lord Humungus 12 years ago
        
        The brunt of the Japanese attack fell on the northernmost of the escort carrier units, Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's Task Unit 77.4.3 (usually referred to by its radio call-sign "Taffy 3"). Ill-equipped to fight large-gunned warships, Taffy 3's escort carriers attempted to escape from the Japanese force, while its destroyers, destroyer escorts, and aircraft made sustained attacks on Kurita's ships. The destroyers and destroyer escorts only had torpedoes and guns of up to 5 in (130 mm) caliber; nonetheless, the destroyers (but not the DEs) had radar-assisted gun directors; the Japanese had heavy caliber weapons up to 18.1 in (460 mm), but they had less accurate optical rangefinders. The Americans also had large numbers of aircraft available which the Japanese lacked. The ordnance for the escort carriers' aircraft consisted mostly of high-explosive bombs used in ground support missions, and depth charges used in antisubmarine warfare, rather than the armor-piercing bombs and torpedoes which would have been more effective against heavily armored warships. Nevertheless, even when they were out of ammunition, the American aircraft continued to harass the enemy ships, making repeated mock attacks, which distracted their gunners and disrupted their formations.
        
        BakedPenguin 12 years ago
        
        I watched a History channel documentary about that battle. Jesus, what a cluster. Those American sailors had some balls.
      2. John 12 years ago
        
        If you like Naval history, Samuel Elliot Morrison's The Two Ocean War, all 10 volumes of it or whatever it is, is the gold standard. He was just a tremendous writer.
        
        tarran 12 years ago
        
        If you like Naval history, Samuel Elliot Morrison's The Two Ocean War,
        
        ^^^^THIS!!!!!
        
        Lord Humungus 12 years ago
        
        I'll check it out...
        
        I'm drawn to the sea with a life long interest in wrecks and fighting ships of all ages. Funny, considering I live in the midwest and have actually only been on the ocean three times.
  3. Sevo 12 years ago
    
    Lord Humungus| 9.12.13 @ 10:30AM |#
    "I read the old books - one I visit at least once a year is "Miracle at Midway""
    
    And a lot of that isn't true; Prange was gamed by Fuchida.
    Get "Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway"
    http://www.amazon.com/Shattere.....rds=midway
    What really happened is a better story.
    1. Dr. Frankenstein 12 years ago
      
      This is a great book on the battle. It really did a good job reconstructing the battle time lines.
    2. Lord Humungus 12 years ago
      
      interesting...
6. Bo Cara Esq. 12 years ago
  
  I am reading, and enjoying, American Gun: A History of the US in Ten Firearms by Chris Kyle.
  1. Lord Humungus 12 years ago
    
    I read that - quite a nice overview of American history intertwined with guns.
7. Dr. Frankenstein 12 years ago
  
  Invisible Armies by Max Boot is pretty decent. It came out earlier this year.
Derpetologist 12 years ago

Chris Matthews attempts to lecture Ron Paul; hilarity ensues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPwcGKmBsaw
Derpetologist 12 years ago

Chris Matthews losing on Jeopardy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kccPhiblpkM
1. Dr. Frankenstein 12 years ago
  
  My favorite Jeopardy was Ed Begley Jr. missing most of the questions on the environment.
Dave Krueger 12 years ago

The conflict in the Philippines is escalating as an Al Qaeda-linked group spread its attacks to a second city.

This reminds me of the cold war when everything bad that happened on the planet was a communist plot. Nowadays, everything bad is "linked to Al Qaeda". I'm beginning to think that the key to successful world-wide recruiting for a global cause is to get the U.S. to condemn it.
1. Bo Cara Esq. 12 years ago
  
  This is a good point. I think Al Qaeda replaced Communism for the American right. The right in America has always had various factions very tenuously held together, but what united them for decades was the perceived need to stand up to 'godless communism.' When the USSR fell and China turned towards capitalism something new was needed, and what might have been seen as a rag-tag terrorist group that got lucky and hit us hard on 9/11 was cast in the context of diffuse anti-Western sentiment in the Arab world and presented as a 'worldwide Islamo-fascist threat.' Think about how much money and liberties have been sacrificed in our following 'global struggle.'
  1. John 12 years ago
    
    The problem is that Americans always think everyone else thinks and acts like they do. If Americans ran Al Quaa, it would have an organized leadership and plan and such. So we think that is how Al Quada is run because that is how we would do it.
    
    The reality is there is no organization. Al Quada is a brand. It is a banner that any person can pick up and fight under. When we see "al quada associated" we think these guys were sent there by some planning cell in NW Pakistan. No. They are a bunch of local Islamic nuts who decided to fight in the name of Al Quada's ideology. They are bad guys and probably need killing. But they are not what we think they are.
    1. Slammer 12 years ago
      
      I seem to remember Bin laden saying something like, " All anyone has to do is some terrorism somewhere in the world, wave an Al-Qaeda flag around, and the Americans will go go crazy chasing this shit around the world every time, and it will weaken them"
    2. Bo Cara Esq. 12 years ago
      
      I agree, but rather than thinking of Al Qaeda as a brand I think they are more of an inspiration for some Muslim groups, and a convenient label for us. Lots of groups hate the US and the West in a diffuse, unorganized fashion. It has always been so. Now some of them look to Al Qaeda as an inspirational success story while on the other hand we augment their perceived scope by labeling them all 'Muslim extremists' or the shorthand 'Al Qaeda.'
SIV 12 years ago

Math class is tough!

Don't worry Barbie, just get a degree in Liberal Arts and Engineering
1. Brett L 12 years ago
  
  A BA in engineering? I want to see the 50 year old engineer laughing himself into a fit when he reads that on a resum.
  1. Loki 12 years ago
    
    How about a 35 year old engineer laughing himself into a fit at the very idea of a BA in engineering.
2. db 12 years ago
  
  It seems like this is guaranteed to turn out graduates who want to manage engineers without really knowing any engineering, and who will be even more universally disrespected among their engineer employees than if they had just been honest and got a business degree.
  1. John 12 years ago
    
    Maybe. The problem with not knowing a subject is not that the people who do won't respect you. If you know enough to respect their knowledge and bring something to the table, you can work with and manage technical people. You just have to convince them that your being there is a net positive. You do the technical stuff you love and I will make sure we have funding and fire the secretaries when needed and do the budget and so forth so you don't have to.
    
    The problem that the non technical person has is they can't tell who is any good and who is not. If you don't know the subject, you are easily bull shited. For example, I can tell you if someone is a decent lawyer and worth listening to in about five minutes of talking to them. But I couldn't tell you if someone was a good engineer or code writer. Someone who is dumb as post but a good talker could con me into thinking they were competent.
    
    So in some ways, I could almost see this working if the degree would teach you enough to be able to evaluate who actually knows what they are doing. But I bet it doesn't do that sadly.
    1. Matrix 12 years ago
      
      Someone who is dumb as post but a good talker could con me into thinking they were competent.
      
      That's how most people are. How do you think Obama got elected?
  2. Loki 12 years ago
    
    who will be even more universally disrespected among their engineer employees than if they had just been honest and got a business degree.
    
    Yep, they'll know just enough about engineering to be dangerous. Literally, if they're ever allowed anywhere near actual engineering work.
3. Bo Cara Esq. 12 years ago
  
  What they need now is a BS in Quantitative English Lit.
Mike M. 12 years ago

You've got to love how the diehard Obama lickspittles are now furiously spinning as though Russia's offer to get Assad under control was what Obama really had in mind all along. The claim is so laughably preposterous that even some lefty media types can't bring themselves to take the spin with a straight face.
Auric Demonocles 12 years ago

hamilton, you going to the game tonight?
Hawk Spitui 12 years ago

NSA shares raw intelligence with Israel, including American's data
1. Mike M. 12 years ago
  
  I'm sure Israel isn't the only ally getting virtually everything they have; I'd be shocked if the U.K. isn't getting everything as well.
  
  All a part of the slow move toward an oppressive global regime trying to rule over us all.
Enough About Palin 12 years ago

Some City Residents Being Fined For Parking In Their Own Driveway

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ? It sounds absurd: tickets and warning letters for parking in your own driveway.

But Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O'Connor says it's happened on two city streets ? one in the West End and one in Squirrel Hill. And he fears, it could happen elsewhere.

"This could happen tomorrow to any resident of the city of Pittsburgh," said O'Connor.

"This is where I've been parking for over 18 years," said Eileen Freedman, as she pointed at the driveway to her home on Hobart Street in Squirrel Hill.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com.....-driveway/
1. Drake 12 years ago
  
  Call the police to report a trespasser when the meter maid steps foot on your property.
Sevo 12 years ago

Moonbeam figures that CA employment is entirely too high, takes steps to reduce it quickly:
"Brown supports rise in minimum wage to $10"
http://www.sfgate.com/news/art.....807422.php
Matrix 12 years ago

ZOMG, guys!!!Video games are training kids to be mass killers!!!

"I did not understand that if I?pull out a gun and shoot you, there's a good chance you're not getting back up," Ramsey said in a 2007
You're too stupid to live.

But I know it was probably their lawyers coaching these people to blame video games.
1. John 12 years ago
  
  And they never understand that causality is always the opposite of what they think it is. Yes, crazy nuts who want to shoot people find violent video games fun. Who would have thought such a thing?
2. CE 12 years ago
  
  And crime rates continued to fall as video games became more popular.
  1. Rabban 12 years ago
    
    The murder rate has fallen considerable post-Mortal Kombat. Coincidence that cathartic release of violent impulses lowers actual violent actions? Probably the same way that the rise of internet porn has coincided with the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy in American history.

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