Taliban Attacks US Consulate in Afghanistan, McCain Hints at Retirement, Syrian Rebels Claim Another Chemical Attack: P.M. Links

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(Medill DC / Foter / CC BY)
  • Certianly being heckled by Arizona voters over Syrian warmongering did not play a role.
    Credit:Medill DC / Foter / CC BY

    The Taliban attacked a U.S. consulate in Afghanistan and were fended off. Two Afghan police and a security guard were killed.

  • Sen. John McCain is hinting around that this may be his last term in the Senate. He wouldn't want to overstay his welcome,  you know.
  • Syrian rebels claim there has been another chemical weapons attack in the suburb of Jobar in Damascus.
  • The Senate is pushing forward with a media shield law that still attempts to define who a "real journalist" is. Under the legislation, bloggers who report news will be covered, but sites like Wikileaks will not. The legal challenges to such legislation will certainly be interesting.
  • Michael Bloomberg is declining to formally endorse any candidate to succeed him as mayor of New York City. That probably comes as a relief to the candidates.
  • Thanks to the anti-vaccination folks, America is on its way to its worst measles outbreak in almost 20 years.

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  1. The Taliban attacked a U.S. consulate in Afghanistan and were fended off.

    They finally saw the Miley Cyrus youtube.

    1. Zakalwe

      Did they use a wrecking ball?

    2. Heroic Mulatto

      The Innocence of Mileys

      1. JW

        The Silence of the Mileys.

        1. Either way, toss her in jail.

          1. ?J?? de ?guila

            And the Old War-Monger McCain threatens to retire!!! Who now will step up alongside Graham and King to support any and all wars of any administration?

            Bush and Obama always counted on his support for meddling, intervention and bomb-dropping. Hillary will miss him in 2016 — hey, maybe he’ll run as VP on the Hillary ticket!!

    3. playa manhattan

      This must be one of the small attacks Al Qaeda has been talking about

    4. C. Anacreon

      They finally saw the Miley Cyrus youtube.

      What difference, at this point, does it make?

      1. It could be about that, you know. Afghanistan was once part of the Persian empire. The Persian empire was once led by a guy named Cyrus.

        1. Who was actually pretty cool for a warlord. If you were an ancient peasant, you could have done a lot worse than get conquered by the Persians under Cyrus.

          1. Jews love him.

        2. You know who killed him, don’t you? It was The Warriors!

    5. CE

      Are they sure it wasn’t just a spontaneous demonstration, and not an “attack” attack?

      1. ?J?? de ?guila

        They dumped their popcorn on the floor in the middle of a movie and stomped out.

  2. Archduke Trousersenthusiast

    I had something for this.

    1. Zakalwe

      Also, shut up.

      1. Archduke Trousersenthusiast

        Lana… Lana…

        LANA!

        1. Zakalwe

          Neeeeewp.

          1. Protagoronus

            your in the DAAAAANGA ZONE

            1. Protagoronus

              crap, you’re

              1. Zakalwe

                And that’s how you get ants.

  3. Thanks to the anti-vaccination folks, America is on its way to its worst measles outbreak in almost 20 years.

    We can’t have two measly decades without a major measles outbreak.

    1. Zakalwe

      It’s always going to pop up in certain spots.

      1. playa manhattan

        The westside of LA comes to mind…

        1. amelia

          So who’s excited that Jenny McCarthy is the latest host on “The View?”

          http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/09…..-wahlberg/

          They are despicable for giving that woman a forum.

          1. SForza

            Well, they are despicable for so many reasons. This is just the newest reason.

    2. playa manhattan

      This is one area where I can’t stop myself from forcing my beliefs on other people if they don’t believe the “right” thing. I found out that 32% of my son’s kindergarten class had waivers opting out of the required vaccinations for “reasons of conscience”.

      I shamed the parents through reason, debate, and most importantly, ridicule.

      The number is now down to 18%, so my work is not done yet, but at least the class is borderline covered by herd immunity now…

      1. JW

        Why should this matter to anyone in the herd who isn’t a gullible idiot?

        1. playa manhattan

          Because most of the vaccines are only 80-90% effective on any given child.
          So, without herd immunity, the gullible idiots are putting the vaccinated children at risk.

          1. Marshall Gill

            Nothing is more ironic than reading about “herd” anything on a website that is supposed to believe in the individual.

            1. playa manhattan

              I’ll call it a confession, then. I respect other people’s opinions and behavior that complies with the NAP in virtually every case. This is the one exception.

          2. JW

            People put me at increased risk every single day and there’s nothing I can do about it except to better protect myself from their stupidity or carelessness.

            Fuck the herd.

            1. JW

              That said, at least you are taking the right tack and persuading them.

              1. playa manhattan

                “Persuading” would be the right term, I think. Certainly no violence, obviously.

                I coach one of the 2 youth soccer teams that has players from his class. I deliberately picked the kids that I know are vaccinated to play on my team (which is probably in violation of at least 1 CA anti-discrimination law, but I don’t care).

                The parents have jokingly started calling the other team “Team Measles”.

      2. jesse.in.mb

        I know a surprising number of anti-vax people. A BiL had a very bad reaction to TDaP as a child, and so they won’t vaccinate any of their kids. I’m sympathetic for him not wanting his kids to have the TDaP, but he tolerated the rest of them just fine.

        I spend a lot of time trying to gently sway everyone else.

        1. playa manhattan

          This concerns you too, BTW. The school in question is a half block from your house…

        2. playa manhattan

          Does the BiL have chicken/egg allergies? If not, they can break TDaP up into 3 separate shots to figure out which one is the problem.

          There is no excuse not to to the Hep series, though. None.

          1. jesse.in.mb

            Didn’t one of your kids just bring lice home from that place? WTF is going on there?

            Hep wasn’t part of the standard series when I was a kid, I keep meaning to get it because I like to travel but am lazy and cheap. Also the age that they’re willing to give the HPV vaccine to is always a few years younger than I a am at the time, which is annoying, nobody’s got time for throat cancer.

            I don’t think he has poultry allergies, who would they test it on anyway? The left side of his body is withered which started at the point of injection and spread. He still doesn’t have use of his arm and drags his left leg when he walks 30 years later. It wasn’t just anaphylaxis or something.

            1. playa manhattan

              No, that’s a tainted vaccine.

              Lice was Pre-School, this is kindergarten. He’s the government’s problem for the next 13 years.

              1. jesse.in.mb

                It’s entirely possible.

                My little brother actually ended up with mumps because my dad is in the MMR causes autism camp (which is why I email him this a few times a year). I don’t think I’ll be able to prevail on my sister.

                1. playa manhattan

                  Hahaha! r=.9971 !
                  Can’t argue with the numbers!

                  1. playa manhattan

                    Can’t you just do the MMR later than age 2 to prevent the alleged risks of causing autism?

      3. Francisco d Anconia

        This is one area where I can’t stop myself from forcing my beliefs on other people if they don’t believe the “right” thing.

        Why do you care? Your kid is vaccinated, right?

        1. playa manhattan

          Yes, my kids are. See my above comment. In the areas where there are localized measles outbreaks, vaccinated kids are contracting measles too. The immunizations aren’t 100% effective.

  4. rts

    Vancouver officer charged with assaulting cyclist

    When the cyclist asked the officer if he didn’t have anything better to do, a video taken by an onlooker appears to show Bhabha winding up and punching Akhavan in the head, which he says he never saw coming ? and left him with a tooth through his lip.

    1. He’s not just getting a paid vacation?

      1. rts

        He’s still working, actually.

        1. ?J?? de ?guila

          Officer of the Year Candidate.

    2. Heroic Mulatto

      Bhabha is a common surname found in northern India, sometimes in found Parsi (Zoroastrian) families. Akhavan, on the other hand, is an Iranian surname. I wonder if there wasn’t some rivalry from the Old World that was behind Cons. Bhabha’s assaulting Mr. Akhavan.

    3. But union president Tom Stamatakis disagreed, saying officers had observed Akhavan riding his bicycle in a manner that “put a lot of people in some risk, whether it’s accident or injury.”

      “This was not just a person minding his own business on his way home, abiding by the rules of the road and complying with all the traffic-control devices,” Stamatakis told CBC News.

      The officers “did exactly what the public would expect them to do. They took enforcement action and this person made a number of decisions that I would argue probably escalated the situation beyond where it needed to go.”

      Canadians expect their officers to mete out punishment on the street?

      1. JW

        How do you think they got so peaceful and polite?

      2. Gbob

        The Canadian Jude Dredd wears a toque, asks permission before he shoots someone, and then apologizes later.

  5. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    Thanks to the anti-vaccination folks, America is on its way to its worst measles outbreak in almost 20 years.

    But corporations sit in their corporation buildings and act all corporation-y

  6. Protagoronus

    Don’t like it? Don’t do it. Or? do it and then claim your rights are being infringed.

    http://qz.com/123717/why-i-sue…..verywhere/

    1. rts

      Unpaid internships are news in these parts as well:

      Intern’s death after overnight shift sparks outcry

      The sudden death of a 22-year-old Alberta practicum student, who crashed while driving home after being made to work long hours, has his loved ones pushing for laws to protect unpaid interns from exploitation.

  7. Sen. John McCain is hinting around that this may be his last term in the Senate.

    Finally, someone from AZ recognizes that’s enough of McCain.

    1. Plopper

      Seriously.

  8. Archduke Trousersenthusiast

    Worst. Dad. Ever.

    1. hamilton

      Just wait till she starts using tampons.

    2. Apatheist ?_??

      More like best dad trolling ever.

    3. amelia

      His gams aren’t so bad. I think he’d find friends if he wore those shorts to the Castro.

  9. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

    I think we need HM’s input on this:

    This is where we get to the ducks. A traditional home is Thailand is elevated on pilings. This mean you get some airflow under the house, some relief from the heat, and being higher off the ground a little relief from bugs. But it also means that the under area beneath the house becomes the evening resting place for all your domesticated animals, like ducks and chickens, etc. So this means, and I quote:

    Thus, it is quite usual that an amputated penis is tossed out of an open window, where it may be captured by a duck.

    There is even a Thai saying, “I better get home or the ducks will have something to eat,” The Thai equivalent of “I better get home or the wife will eat me alive”, except in this case?she’ll cut off your penis in a fit of rage and accidentally feed it to the ducks.

    1. Protagoronus

      +1 foie gras

      1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

        I think I have found my niche. Now where do I find the severed penises?

    2. Heroic Mulatto

      As I’ve mentioned on this forum before, my wife keeps a straight razor on her vanity.

      She says it’s to shape her eyebrows.

      I know better.

      Yes, in Thailand, and from what I understand Vietnam too, crazy bitches* will cut off your dick. You read about it in the paper quite often. And sometimes it’s fed to the dog.

      *They’re all crazy.

      1. jesse.in.mb

        How emasculating.

      2. playa manhattan

        My wife shapes her eyebrows. With tweezers.

      3. JW

        There is a trade-off of crazy-good sex, worthy of song, right? RIGHT?

        1. Heroic Mulatto

          And crazy-good food.

          Today, I was home from work, so for lunch she made me fried som tam (papaya salad).

          Since we had no shrimp in the house, she used some pickled meat. I don’t know what it was; probably, one of her Thai friend’s husband’s penises.

          1. R C Dean

            one of her Thai friend’s husband’s penises.

            Let’s see, “friend” and “husband” look to be singular, so if I’m reading this right, that means the husband in question has multiple penises.

            1. Heroic Mulatto

              Well, who else would a double vaginae-ed woman marry?

              Stop othering, bro.

          2. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles

            I suppose you think carefully before telling anyone to eat you now, eh?

          3. jesse.in.mb

            I had nam sod for the first time this weekend and it was amazing. I’m thinking of bastardizing by rolling it in a Korean gimbap roll and packing a week’s worth for lunch.

            1. Heroic Mulatto

              Nam sod wrapped in seaweed….

              Interesting. Wrapping it up in leaves of lettuce or kale would be more authentically Thai.

  10. The Senate is pushing forward with a media shield law that still attempts to define who a “real journalist” is.

    Letting the government hand out special protections. Who would have thought it would get messy?

    1. It’s against many, many years of broadly defining journalism to the point of it being anybody communicating to others. Which means the courts should call it a tax.

      1. CE

        The First Amendment doesn’t say anything about “journalists” and doesn’t grant them any special rights. The First Amendment prohibits Congress from infringing on the freedoms of speech and “the press” (meaning anything published), freedoms held by everyone by natural (or Divine) right.

        1. Of course, and the courts have generally held that over the years. Even as effed up as everything is now, I don’t think this would survive judicial review.

  11. Long Range Boredom

    Salon’s ‘libertarians are hypocrites’ article, can you spot the ridiculous assumptions and strawmen? Everyone knows that what Cato says is WORD FROM LIBERTARIAN GOD.

    1. hamilton

      This is turning into a Browns funeral thingy.

      1. Zakalwe

        Voyager just carried an article on this beyond the solar system.

        1. CE

          Miley just made a new video where she took a wrecking ball to these strawmen.

      2. My campaign to get everybody to make fun of repeating links to posts is paying off!

        1. hamilton

          When Postrel was running things we didn’t need stupid blog rules to enforce order.

          1. C. Anacreon

            drink! And just in time on a Friday!

          2. ?J?? de ?guila

            I’m pissed because now I have to use my real name, Eagle Eyes.

        2. Long Range Boredom

          Dammit, in order to keep you guys I’m going to have to quit my job so I can spent hours monitoring Reason (I’ll admit I was super lazy and just searched for ‘Salon’ in the AM links).

    2. Cytotoxic

      I remember yesterday’s Salon pearl-clutching regarding…us. Couple points:

      1) This is an actual Salon guy. One of their esteemed Serious Men. My goad Salon is retarded and our enemies suck.

      2) Is anyone else tickled pink at how apparently powerful we are or at least appear to be? I mean that article yesterday made out the entire libertarian movement to be somewhere between The Knights Templar from AC and Al-Quaeda. We’re like the League of EVUL. On the flipside, where is my secret island base? Where are my henchmen? Hell I’d be a henchmen, even if it meant an unpaid internship as long as I get to work in the secret island base.

      In short, our enemies think we’re more awesome than we are.

      1. CE

        You don’t have henchmen? I thought we all had them already. I’ll send a few over, with some laser beams for your sharks.

      2. The Immaculate Trouser

        On the flipside, where is my secret island base?

        Why do you think we bankrupted Greece? Our island bases in the Aegean are coming, my lovelies… they are coming.

        *cackles insanely while stroking a cat*

      3. Long Range Boredom

        Libertarians are the new Freemasons apparently. Just wait til the ‘anti-Libertarian Leagues’ emerge and can’t find anyone to lynch.

        1. R C Dean

          I’m trying to imagine what could be more an anti-Libertarian League than either of our major parties.

    3. Warty

      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?

      I don’t see any bias here, dude.

      1. Is that what happened? I thought people in government just illegally seized power over the years.

        1. CE

          yes, but government declared itself legal retroactively.

      2. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

        You didn’t hear that Libertarianism, Inc. went out of business?

      3. hamilton

        “If you believe in democracy, why weren’t you willing to accept as final the judgment against women’s enfranchisement rendered decades ago by our democratic process?”

      4. Irish

        I love that argument because they’re essentially arguing that no new idea should ever be implemented. It’s the same as Michael Lind’s argument that libertarianism couldn’t work because it’s never been tried.

        By this logic, shouldn’t we have never allowed women to vote since the ‘free market of ideas’ had decided over a century earlier that they weren’t capable of doing so?

        1. hamilton

          That’s a great analogy, Irish!

          1. Irish

            I didn’t see your post. The Irish lose again.

            1. Is hamilton Austrian?

    4. Anonymous Coward

      I can spot question begging, compound questions, strawmen, well-poisoning, and bare assertions.

      Richard Eskow has done very well for himself, despite being unable to form a rational, cohesive argument.

  12. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    FRAK! Chinese news site attempts to pass off the Battlestar Galactica as design for aircraft carrier

    Design images of sci-fi favourite Battlestar Galactica were apparently used by a Chinese state website to illustrate an article about aircraft carriers.

    The Japanese-language version of the official China Internet Information Centre used the image under the headline Four Major Trends in Aircraft Carrier Development and it was spotted by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. The original article focuses on developments in carrier vessels’ missile defence systems, stealth fighters, automated drones and electromagnetic catapults.

    But readers questioned whether the graphics came from a video game or TV cartoons, before eventually tracing them to the visual effects studio responsible for visual effects in the hit TV show.

    Mr. President, we cannot allow a Battlestar gap!

    1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

      I think I would join the PLAN if this were real.

      1. Zakalwe

        Spoiler: they don’t really have a PLAN.

        1. I think they did until the writers wrote themselves out of it.

          1. CE

            They had many copies of Grace Park though. Nothing wrong with that plan.

            1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

              Racist!

          2. andarm16

            Exactly. I’m not exactly sure when it happened, (probably somewhere around the point where they introduced the missing “human” cylons most likely, although it may have happened earlier. Towards the end, it got to the point where Neon Genesis Evangelion made slightly more sense.)

            1. andarm16

              this should be threaded to Pro Libertate’s comment! Damn threading!

              1. Oh, yes, damn it. Damn it to hell.

    2. So it won’t be wired with network cabling?

      1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

        The starboard hangar deck will be a gift shop.

    3. CE

      yeah, but the joke is on them: Battlestar Galactica was a relic from the ’70s, with wired phones and barely any computers. It only survived the Cylon attack because it was immune to their computer viruses. Our Battlestars are light years ahead of theirs.

      1. R C Dean

        Interesting that the Chinese would take as their model a carrier that is immune to cyberattack, no?

    4. Briggie

      Mr. President, we cannot allow a Battlestar gap!

      The crew will have a female to male ratio of 10:1. Also, animals will be breed and SLAUGHTERED!

  13. db

    Thanks to the anti-vaccination folks, America is on its way to its worst measles outbreak in almost 20 years.

    The tragic near-extinction of the poliovirus may yet be reversed.

    1. andarm16

      Quick, we need to add it to the endangered species list!

      1. Instant poll!

        If Jean-Luc Picard encountered poliovirus in space he would:
        A. Eradicate it.
        B. Let it kill his crew.
        C. Use Data to isolate it and leave it to kill off whoever happened across it later.

        1. Marshall Gill

          First, who gives a shit what Picard would do.

          Kirk would take all of the virus inside himself and eradicate it with his super human immune system. Then he would go and bang an alien chick without protection!

          1. In all likelihood, Kirk was the cause of the virus. And I mean the real Kirk, not the Abrams Kirk.

    2. Killazontherun

      Millions dying, the overall human invader population decimated. It’s an environmentalist’s dream come true.

  14. Coeus

    Kotaku’s at it again:

    You’ve met a lot of great people, and you have a lot of friends that you like to work with. Sometimes you don’t feel lonely or like a novelty, like when you’re sitting around the lunch table, cracking jokes with your coworkers. You feel happy and included. But when one of your coworkers makes a joke that is crude, even though it doesn’t offend you at all and you haven’t even had time to laugh, he turns to you and apologizes, because you are the only woman at the table and your delicate sensibilities must have been affronted. You feel lonely again. You feel like you’re not supposed to be at the table.

    1. Coeus

      I wonder why they might be cautious?

    2. Corning

      2013 is the year women broke through into GAMER CULTURE!!!!

      They make games, they play games, they write about games. they are now recognized as full fledged respected members of the gaming community!!!

      …and so they then choose to cut and paste bat shit crazy feminist social critics from Jezebel.

    3. JW

      I made the comment of something going “tits up” in front of our female finance director today.

      I blurted out an “sorry” and corrected myself. I seriously doubt that she would even be offended, but considering the legal minefield that employment law is, and how utterly fucked you are if someone does complain, better safe than sorry.

      1. The statute of limitations on that is. . .FOREVER.

        1. JW

          It’s the Wife standard.

          1. ?J?? de ?guila

            Tits. Megatits

      2. Killazontherun

        Tits up. Like a cow. By cow, I mean a really fat woman. Who died from diabetic complications. Am I fired yet?

        1. JW

          Yer on fire tonight and surprisingly, doing it sober.

          1. Killazontherun

            Thank you! I’ve been quiet due to the guests, and the confessional mood that beer sometimes gets me in. BTW, how do you erase drunken post from Facebook? They never go away, do they?

    4. CE

      So now they’re complaining that people aren’t offending them outright without apologizing? How do we win?

      1. Coeus

        I think you know the answer to that.

  15. Archduke Trousersenthusiast

    Help a sister out.

    I’m 28, female, heterosexual, and have never had sex. For 12 years, my best friend has been a guy, but I’ve never felt any desire to take things further. I’ve never dated anyone because I am very shy. My mother seems unable to understand why we are not dating or to accept that a man and a woman can simply be friends. She has told me to either date him or stop being friends with him, because she thinks having him around convinces people that I’m taken.

    1. Corning

      HAHA!!!

      The friend-zone bites its own master!!!

      she thinks having him around convinces people that I’m taken.

      It also convinces women that he is taken…and therefor more attractive to them. I sure hope he is taking advantage of that.

  16. Rich

    “If [Tebow] was wearing a burqa, they wouldn’t dare say anything.”

    Well, maybe not them, but *they* probably would.

    1. I didn’t realize just how unhinged Gene Simmons is.

      (I actually read the whole article.)

  17. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) once lost to Vladimir Putin in a drunken arm wrestling contest

    Radio clip is on the left of the page.

  18. andarm16

    Thanks to the anti-vaccination folks, America is on its way to its worst measles outbreak in almost 20 years

    Perhaps the greatest problem with capitalism and the technology that it allows to be created is no one has how terrible life was before hand.

  19. Rich

    Syrian rebels claim there has been another chemical weapons attack in the suburb of Jobar in Damascus.

    Pictures you may find disturbing, or it didn’t happen.

  20. Archduke Trousersenthusiast

    A team of researchers who found that people think they are more attractive when drinking alcohol, have scooped an Ig Nobel prize for their work.

    1. Protagoronus

      It is even better – they think they are more attractive when they think they are drinking alcohol

    2. Eduard van Haalen

      “Will this affect the funding for our next binge-I mean research project?”

    3. Eduard van Haalen

      “Wait, which test-tube has the vodka, and which one has the acid? Why do we have to share research space with the real scientists?”

  21. Francisco d Anconia

    Fort Hood issues new policy after soldiers protest for open carry rights

    In an email outlining the policy, Fort Hood says, “There is a growing trend of soldiers assigned to fort hood openly carrying firearms in private business establishments.”

    When approached by police, they say soldiers have been refusing to cooperate with civilian police officers who try to assess if the guns are a threat to the public.

    The policy reads, “Soldiers are prohibited from refusing to present a driver’s license or military identification card to any law enforcement in the exercise of his or her official duties, upon request by the law enforcement officer.”

    Paperz pleeze!

    1. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles

      IANAL, but…

      It would seem that if a LEO requests identification and the citizen is not required by law to show it then the request cannot be considered to be made in the exercise of official duties.

      If you are required by law to show ID when asked then there’s no reason for the CO’s order, the police could just arrest some soldiers.

    2. Tejicano

      I read the article and still don’t see how the LEO’s need to see some ID to figure out if the guns are a threat or not. If the gun is in a holster and nobody or no object is putting pressure on the trigger how is the gun going to be a threat to the public? What possible effect could an ID have on the situation?

    3. Somalian Road Corporation

      Yeah, one of the reasons why I never joined the military is that I have extreme difficulties respecting chains of command, particularly when those in command are tyrannical morons more concerned with PR than the lives of those under their command that they’re supposedly responsible for.

  22. Winston

    So is it safe to say that in Portugal their constitution really is a suicide pact?

  23. Corning

    bloggers who report news will be covered, but sites like Wikileaks will not.

    So start a bloggerleaks site.

  24. paranoid android

    World ends, hippies hardest hit

    I’m feeling very vindicated for moving out of Boulder a couple years ago, or I’d be on a roof somewhere hoping a helicopter picks me up about now.

    Hopefully the city and university can use whatever aid/charity money comes in afterward to buy a half-decent football team.

    1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

      I’ve been meaning to ask, PA, are you named after the ROM?

      1. paranoid android

        Ha, no, but I should probably get it, it’d be pretty fitting.

        Really, it’s a reference to Marvin from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s also the name of a Radiohead song, so it’s sort of a twofer.

      2. hamilton

        You lose your libertarian science fiction fan cred, Thane.

        1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

          I never had any, unless seeing all three Starship Troopers movies counts.

          1. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles

            It does, but negatively.

    2. CE

      Like Oklahoma State did? Colorado would no doubt have better hostesses.

  25. andarm16

    The Senate is pushing forward with a media shield law that still attempts to define who a “real journalist” is. Under the legislation, bloggers who report news will be covered, but sites like Wikileaks will not. The legal challenges to such legislation will certainly be interesting.

    I’m shocked that they protected any bloggers at all, or didn’t include a licensing scheme. Probably isn’t to late for that.

    1. thom

      Permits for public protest. Gun licenses. I’m sure the guys in the black robes would sign off on licenses to exercise freedom of speech.

  26. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    And you thought your kids hated you: Scathing newspaper obituary for deceased woman written by her daughter makes news

    Instead of a celebration of life found in newspapers every day, the obituary for Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick was scathing. The daughter who submitted it held nothing back in the nine-sentence obit that ran in the Reno Gazette-Journal on Tuesday: “She is survived by six of her eight children whom she spent her lifetime torturing in every way possible…”

    The obituary, which appeared online and in the newspaper, was submitted through a self-service online portal. Since then, it has made national news, going viral online and in social media.

    “On behalf of her children who she so abrasively exposed to her evil and violent life, we celebrate her passing from this earth and hope she lives in the after-life reliving each gesture of violence, cruelty and shame that she delivered on her children,” her daughter, Katherine Reddick, 57, wrote.

    1. Winston

      I hope Epi and Warty’s kids will be more complimentary.

    2. db

      I know some folks were badly abused as kids. Upon hearing of their father’s death, the one’s immediate reaction was “finally.”

      1. jesse.in.mb

        A friend of mine’s bf called my friend in a panic when he found out his father had died and asked him to put salt on all the window sills to prevent his father from haunting their home. You know someone had a shitty childhood when…

        My friend called me baffled and asked what he should do. I thought he meant should I salt the windows or not, but to his credit he was willing to indulge his BF, but didn’t know if the type of salt mattered or if it had to be laid out a certain way.

        1. Warty

          Huh, apparently it’s a real thing. Well…”real”.

          1. jesse.in.mb

            Yeah, I convinced my devoutly evangelical parents that their house was haunted (new house, extremely faulty wiring) at one point and offered to do a sage smudging to drive away the spirits. My folks seriously considering the offer was delightful. I think they had a church group come and pray in every room anointing the corners with water from the river Jordan or something.

            100 years ago I would’ve been a great charlatan, sigh.

            1. CE

              You know who else was a great charlatan?

              1. Generic Stranger

                Al Gore?

    3. Has she never heard of Christina Crawford?

  27. Archduke Trousersenthusiast

    To pleat or not to pleat?

    1. Coeus

      I was one of the first people I knew to go to flat front pants when they started coming out. Love ’em. Plus, it gives me a weapon in the cleavage wars at work.

      1. Coeus

        they started coming out again.

    2. C. Anacreon

      I like pleated pants because it gives more room to put my hands in my front pockets — for, you know, the things you need to put your hands in your pockets for.

    3. Bam!

      “Pants today are like a little church in the valley ? no ballroom” — Roger Stone

  28. rts

    Largest Gun Study Ever: More Guns, More Murder

    The largest study of gun violence in the United States, released Thursday afternoon, confirms a point that should be obvious: widespread American gun ownership is fueling America’s gun violence epidemic.

    The math proves it, apparently.

    1. hamilton

      With all this preliminary work in hand, the authors ran a series of regressions to see what effect the overall national decline in firearm ownership from 1981 to 2010 had on gun homicides. The result was staggering: “for each 1 percentage point increase in proportion of household gun ownership,” Siegel et al. found, “firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9? percent.

      Astonishing. So that must explain the constant rise in the overall homicide rate over the past…um, never mind.

      1. John

        Because correlation always equals causation.

    2. Cytotoxic

      Lies with numbers! Can we get a Reason debunk please?

      1. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

        This looks like a job for Poll Girl!

        1. The Last American Hero

          If she’s not available, get Pole Girl!

      2. rts

        Now, I enjoy a good debunking as much as the next guy, but this is just laughable; it pretty much debunks itself, with any more than 5 seconds of thought.

        I just shared it since it’s making the lefty rounds, and I enjoy inflicting torture on people who don’t hover over URLs to see where they go before clicking.

    3. Rich

      So, guns really *do* kill people?

    4. playa manhattan

      If Think Progress says so….

    5. Heroic Mulatto

      In 100% percent of gun murders, the murder weapon was a firearm!

      1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

        That’s the thing. I don’t want to waste my life on reading a TP post, but do any of these morons realize the bar to clear is “gun ownership increases violence”, not “gun ownership increases gun violence”?

        1. rts

          No, no they don’t.

      2. Oh, I’m sure someone somewhere beat someone else to death with the stock at least once.

    6. Warty

      No good data on national rates of gun ownership exist (partly because of the NRA’s stranglehold on Congress), so the authors used the percentage of suicides that involve a firearm (FS/S) as a proxy. The theory, backed up by a wealth of data, is that the more guns there are any in any one place, the higher the percentage of people who commit suicide with guns as opposed to other mechanisms will be.
      With all this preliminary work in hand, the authors ran a series of regressions to see what effect the overall national decline in firearm ownership from 1981 to 2010 had on gun homicides. The result was staggering: “for each 1 percentage point increase in proportion of household gun ownership,” Siegel et al. found, “firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9? percent. A one standard deviation change in firearm ownership shifted gun murders by a staggering 12.9 percent.
      To put this in perspective, take the state of Mississippi. “All other factors being equal,” the authors write, “our model would predict that if the FS/S in Mississippi were 57.7% (the average for all states) instead of 76.8% (the highest of all states), its firearm homicide rate would be 17% lower.” Since 475 people were murdered with a gun in Mississippi in 2010, that drop in gun ownership would translate to 80 lives saved in that year alone.

      So they lovingly massaged data until they got the result they wanted, and it’s the NRA’s fault that they had to do the massaging.

      1. John

        No good data on national rates of gun ownership exist (partly because of the NRA’s stranglehold on Congress), so the authors used the percentage of suicides that involve a firearm (FS/S) as a proxy. The theory, backed up by a wealth of data,

        Am I cynical to think that what they think “wealth of data” means and what I think it means are totally different things?

      2. JW

        Holy shit. “We have no idea what the actual number is, so we’ll just guess and attribute that number as a fact.”

      3. Irish

        Wait. None of that seems to make any sense.

        The theory, backed up by a wealth of data, is that the more guns there are any in any one place, the higher the percentage of people who commit suicide with guns as opposed to other mechanisms will be.

        So more guns doesn’t result in more suicides, it just results in people using guns instead of other methods. Why is this a bad thing? If someone is going to kill themselves, a gun is less painful than hanging or cutting your wrists. Who cares if someone uses a gun when they just would have used something else otherwise?

        With all this preliminary work in hand, the authors ran a series of regressions to see what effect the overall national decline in firearm ownership from 1981 to 2010 had on gun homicides. The result was staggering: “for each 1 percentage point increase in proportion of household gun ownership,” Siegel et al. found, “firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9? percent. A one standard deviation change in firearm ownership shifted gun murders by a staggering 12.9 percent.

        How does that preliminary work in suicide have anything to do with this paragraph? How does saying ‘people in areas with lots of guns are more likely to shoot themselves than hang themselves’ in any way help with their regression analysis of gun HOMICIDES? They found evidence about suicides and assumed that this relates to homicide…somehow.

        Quite the study they got there.

        1. JW

          And one the proglodytes will be touting over and over, completely indifferent as to its utter shittness of methodology.

          1. Killazontherun

            Hey, they are pro-science. If you don’t believe them, just ask! You might have to wait until they have finished bowing before that full scale model of a prop cargo liner made out of straw first.

        2. Tejicano

          Wouldn’t this be like projecting the level of spoon owmership in an area based on the percentage of obese people and then linking that spoon ownership rate to the percentage of people in that region who are at their ideal BMI because a spoon can only hold a small amount of food so you couldn’t get fat eating with a spoon – right?

      4. I did a half ass Google-fu on this, and apparently there is at least one NIH study from around 2000 that uses the same metric.

        So it’s bullshit, but bullshit with precedence.

    7. Calidissident

      I’d be willing to bet that the gun ownership rate in inner cities, where the homicide rate is the highest, is a lot lower than it is in many areas with very low homicide rates

      1. Irish

        According to gallup, gun owners are more likely to be white, middle aged and older, married and Republican.

        Guess what group commits virtually no crime. Old white Republicans in stable marriages. The people committing crimes are those that, according to gallup, are actually LESS LIKELY to be gun owners. This seems to imply that gun ownership doesn’t result in more crime, since the demographic groups that own guns tend to be the least likely ones to be criminals.

        1. John

          Every time a white man buys a gun, a black child dies somewhere.

          1. Killazontherun

            Maybe these old white Republicans can handle the innate evil of firearms due to their long standing genetic disposition to causing so much evil in the world, but when a bright eyed and innocent black child of seventeen, a noble savage of artful language and a rhythmic disposition, gets his hands on one the young negro becomes possessed by the firearm’s evil soul. No fault of his own untainted soul, but by the carelessness and callousness of the old white man, people, other brown people, wind up dead.

        2. JW

          Guess what group commits virtually no crime. Old white Republicans in stable marriages.

          Nuh UH! I saw American Beauty. They’re the ones who do all the killing.

          1. Irish

            That guy was trying to bone a high schooler. Banging 17 year olds is not a hallmark of a stable marriage.

            1. JW

              Fancy dinners, flowers, jewelry, surprise trips to the tropics, trying to bang a 17-year old, it’s all the same formula to a successful marriage.

            2. Lady Bertrum

              Kevin Spacey’s character was the one trying to bone the teen but was the murder victim. The Murderer was a retired army officer who collected Nazi memorabilia and was also repressed homosexual – so a Republican, obviously.

        3. Calidissident

          I would change that to violent crime

    8. CE

      In a related study, car ownership was strongly linked to auto accident fatalities.

    9. Anonymous Coward

      No good data on national rates of gun ownership exist (partly because of the NRA’s stranglehold on Congress),

      WAH! Mommy! We want a gun registry NOW! Even it already exists (background check information that somehow doesn’t get destroyed), gun owners should have to tattoo their gun license number on their forearm! Because they’re evil!

  29. hamilton

    Steve Young to speak at Mormon conference about being supportive towards LGBT brethren.

    Troy Aikman was apparently unavailable.

    1. Troy Aikman is a Mormon?

      1. playa manhattan

        No, the other thing. Allegedly.

        1. Archduke Trousersenthusiast

          a quarterback?

          1. hamilton

            NTTAWWT

          2. Marshall Gill

            No, not that either.

        2. CE

          I doubt he’s L or T.

        3. You do realize it was Skippy Bayless who started that rumor, don’t you?

  30. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    GOP and the End of Government

    Like the Tea Partiers, the Boehner/Cantor crowd hates government. Their budgets have been slashing at its basic functions for years, and not just for classically liberal programs like education or aid to the poor. They’re eviscerating widely-supported programs like police work, disaster preparedness and extreme weather warning systems. Both GOP factions hate government.

    They hate governing, too. The process used to involve real dialog with your opposition, dialog which was based on certain shared assumptions – that government could occasionally do good things, for example, and that the legislators’ job had a certain decency to it.

    It’s true that politicians have always served their wealthy campaign contributors and potential future employers. But they didn’t assume that this was the sum total of their job, the way Boehner and Cantor do. And they didn’t enter the halls of government with the goal of tearing them apart, as the Tea Partiers do.

    They didn’t treat their opponents with contempt or open hatred. They negotiated with the other side of the aisle. They negotiated with their own side of the aisle. But today we’re seeing a new breed of anti-leader bent on smashing government into tiny pieces, and they’re the harbingers of a frightening new age.

    If only that were true.

    1. Winston

      THIS IS WHAT LEFTISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE!

    2. Lady Bertrum

      This is the third time this week some progressive compared Republicans to anarchists. Harry Reid, this guy Eskow, and Cohen did as well. Must be a talking point on some Journo-list serv.

      It would be nice if they were a bit more original.

    3. John

      Like the Tea Partiers, the Boehner/Cantor crowd hates government.

      How divorced from reality do you have to be to believe that? I don’t think this guy is being dishonest. I think they actually think that. It almost makes me feel bad for Boehner. You spend your entire career committed to government and being the chief tax collector for the welfare state and this is the thanks you get?

      1. JW

        the chief tax collector for the welfare state

        Isn’t that what Nuclear Titties called Bob Dole once?

        1. John

          I think so. And it was pretty accurate.

    4. Heroic Mulatto

      TEA BAG IS THA MOVEMENT!

    5. Warty

      They didn’t treat their opponents with contempt or open hatred.

      Lack of self awareness is unselfaware.

      1. Yeah, that comment was pretty lulzy.

    6. CE

      Boehner’s budgets have “slashed” at the “basic functions” of government? How, by merely doubling federal spending in 10 years?

      1. Winston

        Increasing spending by 5% instead of 6% is a “cut” and we can’t get people thinking that “cuts” of any sort are okay now can we?

    7. Anonymous Coward

      The mind reels.

      Judging from what Richard writes, I feel safe in presuming that his mind reels on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

    8. Red Rocks Rockin

      They didn’t treat their opponents with contempt or open hatred. They negotiated with the other side of the aisle. They negotiated with their own side of the aisle. But today we’re seeing a new breed of anti-leader bent on smashing government into tiny pieces, and they’re the harbingers of a frightening new age.

      None of the paragraphs previous to this have any connection with reality, but this passage is telling. It’s the cry of a confused demogogue that’s seeing the Age of Roosevelt reach its limits of scale and is desperately seeking a scapegoat for a phenomenon that was inevitable. It’s the wail of a control freak that just “knows” exactly how things should be done and expects not just people but nature itself to align with their desires.

      There’s nothing scarier to a worshipper of the Central State than a world where they might have to face the consequences of their own bad choices.

  31. Bo Cara Esq.

    SoCon Group Attacks Son’s of Anarchy Show, Calls for Federal Regulation of Cable Industry

    The Parents Television Council is at it again.

    The conservative watchdog group has taken issue with the season-six premiere of Kurt Sutter’s FX biker drama Sons of Anarchy, calling the episode — which featured a school shooting and rape scenes — “horrifically violent and disturbing material.”

    The PTC, which most recently was up in arms about MTV’s Video Music Awards — including Miley Cyrus’ racy performance — used the episode as a platform to further its push for a la carte networks. The group called on its members to contact Congress to express the need for a “consumer cable choice” in response to the episode.

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.c…..aws-628312

    1. Cytotoxic

      When was the last time these people mattered?

      1. Bo Cara Esq.

        I see its founder Brent Bozell on Fox quite a lot.

    2. Anonymous Coward

      The conservative watchdog group has taken issue with the season-six premiere of Kurt Sutter’s FX biker drama Sons of Anarchy, calling the episode — which featured a school shooting and rape scenes — “horrifically violent and disturbing material.”

      Those tele-screens do come with an “off” button.

      And when all else fails, unplug it.

  32. Archduke Trousersenthusiast

    Another win for Milos!

    1. I wsa rooting for Tipsarevi?. It’s always nice to see Canadians fail. :-p

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Thanks to the anti-vaccination folks, America is on its way to its worst measles outbreak in almost 20 years.

    But autism has been completely eradicated, so we’ve got that going for us.

    1. playa manhattan

      Seems like the prevailing treatment for Autism these days is a cold, hard cash infusion.

      Seriously, though. I dropped my son off for his first day of kindergarten at the local public school, and 4 of the kids in the class have personal “helpers” provided by the school district to assist with their “learning disabilities”.

      1. Marshall Gill

        I dropped my son off for his first day of kindergarten at the local public school

        Aaaand there is your problem, right there.

  34. Eduard van Haalen

    Who on earth finds Miley Cyrus attractive in her current get-up?

    She used to be good looking. I suppose she still could be.

    1. Bo Cara Esq.

      Her hair struck me as bizarre and hideous. Not sure what she was going for there.

      1. Rich

        I thought maybe it was an homage to her Disney days.

        1. hamilton

          This is probably closer to the Disney/Miley tribute thing.

          1. Rich

            Where *will* it all end?

    2. Tejicano

      Wouldn’t I have to actually look at a picture of her long enough to decide before answering that question? Ain’t gonna happen. The few micro-seconds it takes to scan past its image whenever it pops up in the news is bothersome enough.

  35. Cytotoxic

    In Alberta, some Mennonites were caught smuggling drugs. Apparently this is a Mennonite thing. FYI

  36. Fatty Bolger

    Life imitates The Onion:

    I’m single at 50. Why? Men hate me being brainier than them, says KATE MULVEY

    Most Men Are Too Intimidated To Date A Successful, Educated Gorgon

    1. Eduard van Haalen

      If she’s that smart, she could figure out a way not to be a jerk. Like maybe not conversing in a language her boyfriend doesn’t know in front of her boyfriend.

      Does Brainiac need a peer-reviewed study to show this is a bad idea?

    2. Lady Bertrum

      hmmmm….Almost every married woman I know is smarter than her husband*. My guess, Kate Mulvey is either hideous in personality or person or both.

      *Actually, I read somewhere that people typically choose a mate with an IQ within 5 points of their own.

    3. Lady Bertrum

      hmmmm….Almost every married woman I know is smarter than her husband*. My guess, Kate Mulvey is either hideous in personality or person or both.

      *Actually, I read somewhere that people typically choose a mate with an IQ within 5 points of their own.

      1. Lady Bertrum

        squirrels go away!!

      2. Are the married women you know smart enough not to double-post? :-p

        1. Lady Bertrum

          The married ones – yes. 😉

      3. John

        Some of the smartest women who ever lived managed to get husband. Actual smart women who have PHDs and won Nobel Prizes and such. But I am sure it is just them honey. It couldn’t be that you are a shrew who thinks no man is good enough for you.

    4. Red Rocks Rockin

      I grew into a bright and confident young woman, keen to flex my intellectual muscles and to never let a man get the last word just because of his sex

      As far as I’m concerned, a dinner party isn’t complete without a bit of an intellectual tussle during dessert

      Gee, why wouldn’t any successful man want to marry an argumentative bitch?

      Newsflash–men like women who don’t look to cut their balls off on a daily basis. Find yourself a neckbearded beta nerd with no self-respect–I hear Yglesias is single.

      1. Irish

        I love that. Her basic argument is ‘I never stop talking, get in arguments when people are trying to have a good time, and always feel the need to get the last word, no matter how inopportune the moment.’

        They hate me because I’m smart.

        1. Coeus

          Yeah, it’s stupid as hell. Most guys love a smart chick. When they can retort, they hit you less (seriously, the dumb ones hit you all the time).

    5. Troy muy grande boner

      My favorite response.

      The fact you look like a bloke might have something to do with it.

      – Sherliker-BritEx-Pat, Auckland New Zealand, 12/9/2013 2:59

      1. Anonymous Coward

        Leave to a Kiwi to skip the pretense of a rebuttal and move right to the blood-letting.

        1. Looks like he’s only a demi-Kiwi, if the “BritEx-Pat” is accurate.

          His comment certainly was.

    6. Gbob

      The fact that she looks like she’s 60 or 70 might have more to do with it. Must be the weather over there or something.

    7. hotsy totsy

      Mostly she’s not very pretty, and she looks even older than 50. A man doesn’t HATE you for being smart, but they can get intelligent from their buddies.

      She doesn’t GET this, somehow. She needs to do something about her skin, grow her hair longer, and dress sexier, if she wants a man. She’s lucky she even gets a date with what she’s offering. Sheesh.

  37. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    Paul Krugman on why he foregoes Twitter

    One reason is that I have better things to do with my time. Another is that I don’t think my instant reactions to things are especially interesting. But I have to admit that I’ve also been aware for some time how many people end up destroying themselves by tweeting something really offensive.

    Why do people do this? Well, it turns out that many prominent people have inner demons of one kind or another ? often homophobia, but also racism, sexism, or just some kind of generalized contempt for large numbers of other people. And social media make it all too easy for those demons to slip out in front of a large audience.

    I don’t think I have any demons like that, but who knows? And if I do make uncomfortable discoveries about myself, I’d like to do it in private, thank you.

    I think that’s actually wise on his part. Can’t have that mask slipping off after a few Long Island ice teas. Ugh, could you imagine Krugman Tweeting without any inhibitions?

    1. Certified Public Asskicker

      I don’t think I have any demons like that, but who knows? And if I do make uncomfortable discoveries about myself, I’d like to do it in private, thank you.

      Think about that everyone. Think about that.

      1. BWA HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

    2. Another is that I don’t think my instant reactions to things are especially interesting.

      Your non-instant reactions to things aren’t especially interesting either, Paulie.

    3. hamilton

      Ugh, could you imagine Krugman Tweeting without any inhibitions?

      Just put Doris the cat to sleep. Albert inconsolable. This is health care under the @GOP #deathpanels

      Woke up feeling frisky. Robin can’t find Eleanor Roosevelt mask. #needsmoarstimulus

      1. BiMonSciFiCon

        Gross. And true.

    4. Anonymous Coward

      But I have to admit that I’ve also been aware for some time how many people end up destroying themselves by tweeting something really offensive.

      Why do people do this? Well, it turns out that many prominent people have inner demons of one kind or another ? often homophobia, but also racism, sexism, or just some kind of generalized contempt for large numbers of other people. And social media make it all too easy for those demons to slip out in front of a large audience.

      What he writes is “cleaned-up Krugman”? Off the cuff Krugman must be weapons-grade stupid.

    5. Irish

      Well, it turns out that many prominent people have inner demons of one kind or another ? often homophobia, but also racism, sexism, or just some kind of generalized contempt for large numbers of other people.

      Well, thank God Krugman doesn’t have generalized contempt for a large group of people he’s never met.

  38. The Immaculate Trouser

    Amanduh tries the logic thing:

    It would be one thing if we were, say, disembodied brains that could float around in the air and move objects by telepathy. Then you might have a point about how evolution didn’t make us. But clearly we are walking around with a bunch of beings that totally look like we have a fairly recent common ancestor. Is their reasoning just that God lacks imagination and just made species like he was Mattel making Barbie dolls?use the same form over and over again, just tweak the hairstyle a little bit? What a lazy ass god, then. What kind of god makes millions of species but keeps them within a range of just a couple hundred basic templates? Is he too busy to make up new animals that have some genuinely cool, innovative shit? Like even just making an animal with wheels seems cool. Like I thought of that but your stupid god couldn’t? Clearly, there’s just some basic flaws beyond just the total rejection of all the prevailing evidence here.

    You make a good point: there are no animals with wheels, thus evolution. Well played, madam.

    1. The Immaculate Trouser

      Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/201…..cts-again/

    2. John

      As a committed theist, i would ask that the atheists please let Amanda be your spokes person. I can think of nothing that would drive people to God quicker.

      1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

        I’ll suggest it to the United Atheist League.

      2. Pi Guy

        And let Jeremiah Wright be yours.

        Just because someone believes in one god less than you doesn’t mean we want them.

        She’s an idiot. Wright’s an idiot. Theists and atheists alike would be so much better off if both of them just died in a fire.

        1. John

          Lighten up Francis. Is it the atheist code that you have to be totally defensive and humorless?

    3. Apatheist ?_??

      Well creationists are pretty dumb and the type who want it in text books deserve to be subjected to Amanduh.

      1. The Immaculate Trouser

        Creationists and feminists like Amanduh deserve to be caught up in an existential void, arguing at each other until the end of eternity or mental insanity overtakes them, whichever comes last.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Wait- a SKOOL SHOOTING? I turned it off too soon, apparently.

  40. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    Who says feminists don’t tackle egregious examples of sexism and Patriarchy in society?

    I welcome this Tumblr that shames men who take up too much space on public transportation with open arms (although not unreasonably open arms, because I am a thoughtful human being.)

    I recently left my wallet on an airplane because I was so distracted by the man sitting next to me. Not only did he take up the entire armrest with his beefy, fake-tanned arm ? a space meant to be communal! ? but he kept jabbing me with his elbow, even when I tried pressing my body up against the window to prove a point. When I glared back at him, he stared back as if to say, “I’m a dude, your space is my birthright.”

    I wish I would’ve taken his photo and submitted it to Men Taking Up 2 Much Space on the Train (Fine, we weren’t on a train, but same difference). I also wish I didn’t accidentally abandon my wallet in my haste to “beat him” off the airplane.

    Anyway, as we’ve stated previously: your dick is not that big.

    HorseEbooks is more coherent.

    1. Jordan

      So, instead of talking to the guy like a fucking adult, she sits there and seethes and fantasizes about passive aggressively posting his picture on the internet. Good lord. These people are emotional children.

    2. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

      Have they not heard of MTFOB?

    3. andarm16

      Wait, the man didn’t even say anything to her, and he’s still some agent of the patriarchy?

      1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

        You must be new to this.

      2. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

        He had that look about him.

      3. Anonymous Coward

        Everything is the PATREEARKEE.

    4. Lady Bertrum

      In her situation I suggest excessive farting, if you can manage it, and it works for both genders. I sat next to a women with excessive ass spread. her ass wedged itself underneath the arm rest and made itself comfortable on my cushion.

    5. Apatheist ?_??

      Not only did he take up the entire armrest with his beefy, fake-tanned arm ? a space meant to be communal! ? but he kept jabbing me with his elbow, even when I tried pressing my body up against the window to prove a point.

      I hate people who take up more than their seat too (they should pay for two seats) but if she was in the window seat then presumably he had a middle seat. No, that arm rest is NOT communal, both middle rests belong to the middle seat.

    6. Heroic Mulatto

      I’m going to start a Tumblr “Women Whose Fat Asses Take Up Too Much Room on the Train”.

      Goose, Gander.

    7. Coeus

      I found a tumblr a few weeks ago that had tons of pictures of women doing it as well. Bonus: it was made by a woman. Can’t seem to find it now.

    8. Troy muy grande boner

      Hey, some of us dudes have big balls and need all that extra room.

    9. Red Rocks Rockin

      When I glared back at him, he stared back as if to say, “I’m a dude, your space is my birthright.”

      LOL–fucking alpha’ed.

      1. Eduard van Haalen

        She’s oppressing him with her Thin Privilege!

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Anyway, as we’ve stated previously: your dick is not that big.

    Your ass, on the other hand…

  42. The Immaculate Trouser

    Pre-nups are a tool of capitalist oppression!

    GQ published a guide for how to convince your bride to sign a prenup[…]

    All very thought-provoking, I’m sure, in some alternate universe where there are enough Americans left with assets to bother protecting. In our universe, however, income inequality has hit rates that would have embarrassed the fat cats of the 1920s[…] Most of the canoodling lovebirds out there looking to make a lifetime commitment don’t have much more than an aging television set and a collection of illegally downloaded MP3s to protect. Rosen’s piece makes about as much sense to most of us as an article about how to talk your maid into polishing your brass toilet seat.

    Remember when our post-apocalyptic future made pre-nups a thing of the past enjoyed only by the super-rich, to be replaced by the Thunderdome and rended human flesh as our daily sustenance? Yeah, me neither.

    1. paranoid android

      Remember when our post-apocalyptic future made pre-nups a thing of the past enjoyed only by the super-rich, to be replaced by the Thunderdome and rended human flesh as our daily sustenance? Yeah, me neither.

      Come on, can’t we just get beyond Thunderdome?

      1. The Immaculate Trouser

        OK sure, but we have to remember to escape from New York first.

    2. Irish

      Does she really think that the Average American has fewer assets now than in the 1940s?

    3. Coeus

      The true motives always come out on pre-nup, child support, and sexual harassment articles.

  43. John

    http://www.slate.com/articles/…..heets.html

    This is an old article. But it never fails to amaze me what complete and total freaks members of the old line media often turn out to be. This woman keeps a spread sheet about every detail of her young daughter’s life, including the weight and consistency of her poop.

    It is also worth nothing that earlier this month she accused anyone who put pictures of their kids on facebook of being a bad parent.

    1. Heroic Mulatto

      This bitch has Asperger’s, right?

    2. Troy muy grande boner

      Most of my shits got to 11.

  44. CharlesWT

    “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

    11 questions to see if libertarians are hypocrites

    1. Winston

      I need the Cleveland Browns to let me down again.

    2. hamilton

      OK. I’m out.

    3. The Immaculate Trouser

      All this has happened before. All this will happen again.

      1. BiMonSciFiCon

        +1 ghostbuck

    4. thom

      They call themselves “realists” but rely on fanciful theories that have never predicted real-world behavior. They claim that selfishness makes things better for everybody, when history shows exactly the opposite is true. They claim that a mythical “free market” is better at everything than the government is, yet when they really need government protection, they’re the first to clamor for it.

      I consider myself a libertarian yet I don’t agree with any of this. Time to re-evaluate my life, I guess.

      1. CharlesWT

        Shortcut to winning an a argument: Define the other side’s argument, then argue against it.

      2. R C Dean

        They claim that selfishness makes things better for everybody,

        We do? I thought we argued that leaving people alone makes things better for everyone.

        when history shows exactly the opposite is true.

        It does? Then why do I keep reading about 6, 7, and 8 figure body counts run up by collectivist states?

        1. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles

          Well imagine how bad it would be if evil capitalists tried to kill all those people. You know how efficient the private sector is, it would be like nothing the world has ever seen.

        2. Somalian Road Corporation

          The rejoinder to this that I’ve heard from a (permastudent pushing 30) Marxist is that capitalism is responsible for the deaths of 1.2 billion people.

          That was when I smiled, nodded, and disengaged from the conversation.

      3. R C Dean

        They claim that a mythical “free market” is better at everything than the government is,

        OK, with an allowance for the “everything” since we’re libertarians, not anarchists, I can see this.

        yet when they really need government protection, they’re the first to clamor for it.

        We do? I thought we were the ones saying the government can’t protect you, so you better look out for yourself.

  45. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    Wal-Mart’s evil plot to provide affordable groceries to DC

    Yet, just as the D.C. City Council voted on a bill requiring very large retailers like Wal-Mart to pay their employees a wage of $12.50 an hour, the company’s lobbyists descended on city government offices.

    Faced with that demand, Wal-Mart has threatened to cancel all its plans to have stores in the city. The reason is simple: Wal-Mart’s secret to success is that it has fought unions, benefits and anything but the lowest possible pay rates, wherever it operates.
    […]
    Mayor Gray may justify his veto with the food desert trap. But it doesn’t hold up.

    The three stores in D.C. that are under construction are not in the city’s poor areas. They happen to be in places where many students and young professionals live. Wal-Mart has identified the college market as an attractive one. And it knows that reaching it will allow the store to build ties with a new generation of customers outside its traditional demographic.

    Call Wal-Mart cynical, smart or both: The fact is that it held back on breaking ground in the desperately poor areas of town, where the real food deserts are. That strategic delay now gives the company the momentum to demonstrate what it is really about: It gets its way, on its own terms and nobody else’s.

    Doesn’t DC have excellent mass transit for shoppers? And why is it bad that Wal-Mart helps college students?

    1. John

      I really hate these mother fuckers. I bet that shit bag has never had to worry about where he next week’s groceries are going to come from in his entire life. But that doesn’t stop him from fighting to ensure those who do have life just that much harder.

    2. Warty

      It gets its way, on its own terms and nobody else’s.

      Apart from everything else, these people really have trouble understanding what a business is for.

      1. It’s weird. I mean, you’d think they’d have worked for a company at some point, right? Because if you did, you’d have to have run across the wee little fact that companies are scared shitless of consumers.

        1. John

          No. They have never had real jobs in their lives. They go from mummsy and puppsies arms to some nonprofit or some money losing news pup. They are true upper class twits.

        2. I don’t think Chuck Schumer has held a productive job since he graduated from law school in 1974. He ran for the state legislature in 1974, moved to the US House in 1982, and then to the Senate in 1998.

        3. Somalian Road Corporation

          As I just mentioned above, the amount of permastudents pushing 30 that have literally never held a job in their lives that I run into nowadays is far too high for my liking.

    3. Bo Cara Esq.

      -Wal-Mart has identified the college market as an attractive one. And it knows that reaching it will allow the store to build ties with a new generation of customers outside its traditional demographic.

      Ah, Seduction of the Innocent!

      Hey young man, how about a little taste of Wal-Mart? Come on, everyone’s doing it!

  46. Fatty Bolger

    Not your typical personality types

    As you probably already know, the Jungian personality sorters are intended to be a general, universal personality ID that divides people into one of sixteen distinct personality types, along axes if introverted (I) or extroverted (E), Sensing (S) or Intuitive (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), and Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

    Now, there are many places which will tell you what this all means, but none of them are quite as…relevant to today’s modern civilization as this one…

    ENTJ: The Evil Overlord

    The ENTJ is best characterized by his charisma, his ability to grasp complex situations and to think flexibly and creatively, his keen and active intelligence, and his overwhelming desire to crush the world beneath his boot. ENTJs are naturally outgoing and love the company of other people, particulalry minions, henchmen, slaves, and the others they rule with ruthless efficiency.

    ENTJs usually die at the hand of secret government agents in a fiery cataclysm that destroys their entire underground fortress. Often, Evil Overlords will have a secret clone whose implanted memories contain all the knowledge and ambition of the original, stored in cryonic suspension in a safe location. The clone will appear in a sequel.

    1. John

      For the record, I am a strong ENTJ.

    2. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

      I bounce around between INTJ and INTP, and this sounds about right

      COMPATIBILITY: INTPs make ideal companions to INTJs, as neither of them notices they’re in a relationship.

      Of course, Myers-Briggs is BS, but it’s still fun.

      1. jesse.in.mb

        COMPATIBILITY: INTPs make ideal companions to INTJs, as neither of them notices they’re in a relationship.

        Yeah, that was the only thing in the list that sounded right for me, but I’d always just chalked it up to being an Aquarius. It has about the same validity.

        1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

          It has 100% reliability, though.

    3. jesse.in.mb

      Just because this came up recently on FB:

      Harry Potter Meyers Briggs types

      I’m INTP although I INFP is a close second.

      1. Apatheist ?_??

        That’s one of the problems with Myers-Briggs. MY I and T are strong but N and P are not, I’ve even scored S and J before. It would probably be best to not assign me to any of the four categories that would cover.

    4. R C Dean

      INTJ, all the way! Woooo!

  47. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    Report: NSA sold lawmakers on expanded surveillance program by building a replica of the bridge of the USS Enterprise-D

    How did the National Security Administration sell Congress on its controversial spying program? Apparently by building a replica of the U.S.S. Enterprise bridge and letting lawmakers sit in the big chair and “play Picard.” (Update: Added a picture.)

    As Foreign Policy’s profile of the NSA’s general Keith Alexander explains:

    When he was running the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command, Alexander brought many of his future allies down to Fort Belvoir for a tour of his base of operations, a facility known as the Information Dominance Center. It had been designed by a Hollywood set designer to mimic the bridge of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, complete with chrome panels, computer stations, a huge TV monitor on the forward wall, and doors that made a “whoosh” sound when they slid open and closed. Lawmakers and other important officials took turns sitting in a leather “captain’s chair” in the center of the room and watched as Alexander, a lover of science-fiction movies, showed off his data tools on the big screen.

    1. John

      Political people are uniformly morons who are easily fooled by bright lights and comfy chairs. The worst thing you can do as a program manager is let a contractor be alone with one of your political overlords. Political appointees will agree to buy anything. And once they do that, there is no stopping the purchase.

    2. You know, it’s like the government is on the ground, unable to get up and crying for help, and no one is listening.

    3. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

      Doors that made a ‘whoosh’ sound.

      Doors that made a ‘whoosh’ sound.

      I’m at a loss of words…

    4. Coeus

      Why is it that evil overlords all like star trek? Didn’t Pinochet have one that he intended to “run the economy” from?

      1. Winston

        Why is it that evil overlords all like star trek?

        Because it is utopian socialism?

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui6g23ygov8

        Didn’t Pinochet have one that he intended to “run the economy” from?

        Don’t you mean Allende?

      2. Didn’t Pinochet have one that he intended to “run the economy” from?

        That was Allendale, the guy whom he forced out of power.

        Behold, the power of CyberSyn! /Doofenschmirz voice

        1. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

          LOL:

          Chilean science fiction author Jorge Baradit published a Spanish-language science fiction novel Synco in 2008. It is an alternate history dystopia set in a 1979 where Allende’s government was not overthrown and Chile became a technocratic totalitarian state in which the Cybersyn system was used to control all aspects of Chilean life.

          1. Winston

            Was Baradit unpersonsed for daring to suggest that Allende was not a good guy?

            1. The Immaculate Trouser

              I always enjoy talking to clueless progs about Latin America. Yeah, Allende was so awesome, popular, and democratic — as is the case with all leaders elected with 36% of the vote who hike inflation to ~800%/year, who institute far-reaching Star Wars tech systems to control all aspects of economy, who hitch their star to a collapsing superpower, toss opposition and religious leaders in prison, and who ignore and overturn the decisions made by the legislative and judicial branches.

  48. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

    Los Angeles Dodgers announce first annual LGBT Night

    The Dodgers announced today the first annual LGBT Night Out at Dodger Stadium on Friday, September 27 (vs. COL, 7:10 p.m.). This special event was designed by the Dodgers in partnership with Tom Whitman and Flip Events. Fans can purchase tickets for LGBT Night Out at Dodger Stadium by visiting http://www.dodgers.com/out using the promotional code OUT. Groups of 20 or more will receive special recognition opportunities.

    “We welcome all fans to Dodger Stadium throughout each season,” said Dodger Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Lon Rosen. “We are especially proud to welcome and recognize the LGBT community of Los Angeles, an integral part of the city and of the Dodgers community.”

    LGBT Night Out at Dodger Stadium will feature a celebrity first pitch, the national anthem performed by a special guest with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. September 27 also includes Friday Night Fireworks with music by DJ Manny Lehman. Fans are invited on to the field immediately following the game for the fireworks show.

    Huh, does anyone know if other teams do that?

    1. Thane of the Candy Kingdom

      visiting http://www.dodgers.com/out using the promotional code OUT

      Seriously?

    2. John

      Good marketing to a small segment of the population who don’t normally come and have disposable income. And you get the added bonus of attracting progs out to show how tolerant they are.

      And isn’t the WNBA just one giant LGBT promotion?

  49. Coeus

    feminist logic on display:

    Rosin’s claims aren’t all wrong ? clearly, there is a lot of progress for women to celebrate. The past 50 years have seen stunning shifts in the distribution of economic, political, and social power across gender lines. But it is clear that the end of patriarchy is nowhere in sight as long as we have widespread abortion restrictions, a gender wage gap, pervasive slut-shaming, and the likes of Miley Cyrus using black women as props.

    My question for Ms. Rosin: If patriarchy is dead, why is there a young feminist movement?

    1. Red Rocks Rockin

      My question for Ms. Rosin: If patriarchy is dead, why is there a young feminist movement?

      Because gender studies professors would be picking aluminum cans out of the trash for booze money otherwise?

  50. Coeus

    Krugman pretends to not understand the “pave the way for single payer” strategy.

    But if the right really believed this, it should be happy to let Obamacare come into existence, then collapse. The last thing Republicans should want is to let Democrats snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by provoking confrontations over the budget and the debt ceiling before the American people get to experience the nightmare of expanded insurance coverage.

  51. The Senate is pushing forward with a media shield law that still attempts to define who a “real journalist” is. Under the legislation, bloggers who report news will be covered, but sites like Wikileaks will not. The legal challenges to such legislation will certainly be interesting.

    Nothing says freedom of speech like defining who can say what!

  52. Our pediatrician informed us of the standard immunization schedule and said he was not opposed to us slowing it down and/or breaking up that typical groupings into smaller shots. He even told us he would not charge for the additional visits incurred to give her the shots over a longer timeline.

    Unfortunately, we’re now with Kaiser and they dispense medicine with the predictable regularity and bedside manner of a WebMD page.

    1. jesse.in.mb

      Our pediatrician informed us of the standard immunization schedule and said he was not opposed to us slowing it down and/or breaking up that typical groupings into smaller shots. He even told us he would not charge for the additional visits incurred to give her the shots over a longer timeline.

      My friend’s pediatrician did that for her and it made all the difference in the world on her willingness to follow through on the schedule. She had to go through three or four who wouldn’t take her child on before she found that one first though.

    2. Winston

      You Know What Else the Kaiser did?

      1. Generic Stranger

        Create a delicious pastry?

  53. Coeus

    SJW are on the wrong side on almost every issue imaginable.

    Just as scary are the moves from profit-hungry broadband providers to interfere with and censor our Web traffic. This behavior is even more disturbing when you consider how critical the open Internet is for mobilizing dissent, closing the racial-wealth gap and providing a platform for our stories that can counter the racial stereotypes found in so much mainstream media.

    advocates had challenged the FCC to pass strong Net Neutrality protections that barred Internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against any online content. The Commission, however, attempted to placate the industry by approving watered-down rules. But Verizon wasn’t satisfied and wants to gut the Net Neutrality protections altogether.

    …
    What will happen if Verizon prevails in overturning the Net Neutrality rules? Internet service providers ? including those that have colluded with the government to spy on us ? will have the power to silence dissident voices fighting injustice and inequality.

  54. Coeus

    Yales new sexual assault guidelines:

    Sidney and Harper are dating. On several occasions they are physically intimate, but within
    limits set by Sidney, who is opposed to having sex at this stage of their relationship. One
    night, when they are being intimate within their mutually agreed upon boundaries, Harper
    beginsto cross them. Sidney expresses concern, but Harper is encouraging, saying “it will be
    okay just this once.” Sidney replies “we shouldn’t do this,” but continues to touch Harper in
    an intimate way. As Harper initiates sex, Sidney says “this is a bad idea” and begins to cry,
    but embraces Harper and the two proceed to have sex.
    Initial consent was followed by ambiguity. Sidney’s acquiescence to sexwas accompanied
    by too much dismay to constitute unambiguous agreement, especially given Sidney’s
    longstanding prior refusal to engage in sex. The UWC penalty would likely fall in the range
    of probation to suspension.

    1. Coeus

      . Morgan and Kai are friends who begin dancing and kissing at a party. They are both drunk,
      although not to the point of incapacitation. Together they decide to go to Kai’sroom. They
      undress each other and begin touching each other. Morgan moves as if to engage in oral sex
      and looks up at Kai questioningly. Kai nods in agreement and Morgan proceeds.
      Subsequently, without pausing to check for further agreement, Kai begins to perform oral sex
      on Morgan. Morgan lies still for a few minutes, then moves away, saying it is late and they
      should sleep.
      There was initial agreement, but the bounds of that agreement were not clear. Kai may have
      thought that Morgan had consented to reciprocal oral sex, but took no steps to obtain
      unambiguous agreement. The UWC penalty would likely be a reprimand.

      1. Heroic Mulatto

        Wow, they really worked hard to find all those gender-neutral names.

      2. db

        Honestly I have no answer to this crap. Why are universities in any way liable for this sort of thing? Are they so enamored of the idea of creating a law for every possible human encounter that they must police sexual behavior as well as damn near everything else? Are students who are too immature to understand something as simple as “no means no” or too insecure to say “no” firmly mature enough to be attending a university in the first place?

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