Navy Yard Area Reopens, ACLU Pushes for More Surveillance Declassification, Stephen Hawking Supports Assisted Suicide: P.M. Links

• 

  Source: Kristi Kinard Suthamtewakul

  The Washington Navy Yard and surrounding streets have re-opened following Aaron Alexis' deadly (and still unexplained) rampage. Despite his problematic work history and arrests, Alexis did get an honorable discharge from the Navy.

• Newtown gun control activists are returning to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress again. The timing is purely a coincidence (no sarcasm — it really is).
• The ACLU is pushing the FBI to declassify secret legal opinions justifying its various surveillance methods in order to determine whether they're in compliance with the Fourth Amendment. (Smart money is on "no" – both the FBI's response and the compliance.)
• Russia is refuting the allegedly "irrefutable" reports that Syrian President Bashar Assad played a direct role in chemical weapons attacks in his country and want an independent investigation.
• In an interview with the BBC, Professor Stephen Hawking declared his support for assisted suicide, logically pointing out that we don't allow animals to suffer the way we expect humans to suffer before they die.
• The porn industry in Los Angeles has lifted its moratorium on shooting adult films in the wake of a couple of HIV infections among actors, but they're mandating new tests every 14 days now instead of every 28 days.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Despite his problematic work history and arrests, Alexis did get an honorable discharge from the Navy.

It’s very hard to predict workplace violence.

[Jon Lester]

So the general discharge is one more inaccuracy in reporting. Still, the guy did have an arrest record, including a 2008 arrest in DeKalb County, Georgia.

[Mike M.]

And he was an ObamaBot. Not too shocking, I know.

At least he’s dead.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Russia is refuting the allegedly “irrefutable” reports that Syrian President Bashar Assad played a direct role in chemical weapons attacks in his country and want an independent investigation.

In Russia, proof refutes you!

[Anonymous Coward]

By “irrefutable”, Obama means speculative or nonexistent.

[Fist of Etiquette]

“Every economist I mean investigator agrees with me.”

[CE]

I think he called it “common sense” proof.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Newtown gun control activists are returning to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress again.

They couldn’t get anywhere standing on a stack of little coffins, I don’t see how this is going to gain the grabbers any ground. This coincidental timing could actually work against them.

[Being Waterboarded]

I do feel bad for those that lost loved ones at Newtown. Not much is more horrific than having your child slaughtered. I think some of the activists are driven by wanting to feel like SOMETHING positive can come out of their loved ones deaths. By doing SOMETHING as a response to their deaths, they feel better themselves, and are able to get past the guilt of not doing SOMETHING to prevent their own child from dying. They really don’t want the deaths to be in vain. What they are blocking out is the possibility that the SOMETHING of gun control has negative rather than positive consequences, and inflicts harm on other innocent people. Sad.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for the families, even as they work to damage some of the freedoms we enjoy. But the grabbers who are egging them on, putting them up to this, using them, I don’t have much use for those people.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

This cheerleader is why I’ll be in my bunk

[Auric Demonocles]

403/404 errors

[mad libertarian guy]

Link fail.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Try this one

[Juice]

I don’t see what’s attractive about bleached, fried hair and an inch-thick layer of makeup.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Really? I hope all other men agree with you.

[Mad Scientist]

And he’s too busy in his bunk to come back and fix the link! Damn you, cruel fate!

[Coeus]

It’s that time again. A Fark response to a reason article.

[Mad Scientist]

I don’t expect to find great apple pie recipes when I visit my mechanic. Likewise, I don’t expect insightful political commentary from the high schoolers at Fark.

[Warty]

I mean, I guess it’s good that you’re taking a break from your radical feminist sites, but, come on, Fark? Nothing worth reading has been said there since 2007.

[Coeus]

Sometimes they get something right. fark thread on e-cig second hand vapor.

[mnarayan]

The amount of time you spend browsing the gutter of the internet is almost disturbing.

[Coeus]

Remember:

Know your enemy.

[Coeus]

Also, if you read as fast as I do, it’s not really a big deal. Like 45 minutes a day and I can cover all of the most popular awful.

[SweatingGin]

I figure the demographic for Fark commenters is 45 year old divorced alcoholic.

Reddit is college sophomores.

[fish]

johnryan51: Cmon republicans make a jobs bill. Even a crappy one. Anything. Please start acting like adults.

This. And do something about the student loans!!!! That would help my generation out a lot.

When hard decisions have to be made regarding a “thinning” of the herd. I propose that we selected the first candidates from Fark commenters.

[Brandon]

kidgenius

Yeah, it seems some people forget the overarching goal of the Republican House have been to 1) Make Obama a one-term president, and when that failed to 2) Make Obama the worst president in history and tarnish his legacy.

When your goal is to hurt the president, as opposed to helping the country (and helping is however you see fit), then you’ve completely lost sight of what your job is in government and you should be removed.

They get worse from there.

[Brandon]

Wow. FarkedOver
2013-09-17 11:31:35 AM
Capitalism: Great in theory, terrible in practice.

/Actually it’s shiat in theory too.

Capitalism? Seriously?

[Mad Scientist]

Someone else has more stuff than him, so…

[Longtorso, Johnny]

U.S. History Textbook Guts The Second Amendment.

Also, same thing happened on the Phil Donahue show. 7:10 into the clip.

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

Notice anything missing?

[mad libertarian guy]

That’s some nice editing work right there. “Let’s omit a comma, the one that makes the dependent clause a dependent clause, and ‘of the people.’ No one will notice!”

[Brandon]

They also conveniently relocated the word “State.”

[MJGreen]

Works on contingency?

No, money down!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

In an interview with the BBC, Professor Stephen Hawking declared his support for assisted suicide, logically pointing out that we don’t allow animals to suffer the way we expect humans to suffer before they die.

No, we make the decision for the animal. I’m not sure that’s logical. Besides, how long till the state starts nudging people towards suicide?

[Tonio]

Well, honestly, someone else often makes the decision for dying people. Yeah, the state is a problem here, as with everything else. But also relatives hoping to maximize their inheritance or escape caretaking are a problem.

[Zeb]

No one should be denied the right to control their own fate because someday the government might possibly start nudging people toward suicide.

[fish]

Besides, how long till the state starts nudging people towards suicide?

Cass Sunstein approves where you’re going with this.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Freedoms might be abused or taken advantage of, so let us be stingy with them?

[CatoTheElder]

Hey, grandma, you don’t really need a pacemaker. Here, take this pain pill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

[Fist of Etiquette]

The porn industry in Los Angeles has lifted its moratorium on shooting adult films in the wake of a couple of HIV infections among actors…

Didn’t they come out with jimmy hats a few years ago that are nearly invisible on screen? Or did HD make that no longer the case? Or am I making things up?

[Tonio]

You know, they could ‘shop that stuff out of the picture with contemporary technology.

[playa manhattan]

But I would still know it was there.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You can’t CGI out the HIV. You should think before commenting.

[Tonio]

Lulz.

[PapayaSF]

Yeah, what porn makers want is higher production costs.

[Tonio]

Well, sometimes reality imposes those on you.

[playa manhattan]

Not really. There were no on set transmissions. See my link below.

Better yet, here it is again: http://fscpass.com

[playa manhattan]

Also, the moratorium is not lifted, yet.
http://fscpass.com

[Fist of Etiquette]

They should all convert to Catholicism.

[Anomalous]

Jimmy hat porn, and I don’t care.

[a better weapon]

HA!

[a better weapon]

HA!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Porn for Epi:

‘It’s like getting rid of horns on my head’: Transgender catwalk model born a man says sex swap op is something she ‘just has to do’ as she stars at Fashion Week

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Eh, even without knowing she’s trans there’s something masculine about her that seems just a bit off.

[jesse.in.mb]

Isn’t “something just a bit off” necessary to be a fashion model?

[PapayaSF]

What is going on with all the transgenders these days? Is it something in the water? I don’t believe that such “gender confusion” was equally common 50 years ago and we are only just hearing about it all now. It seems much more common….

[Brett L]

It used to be expensive to publish your stupidity to the world. Now its free.

[Brett L]

Sorry, that implies that I think trans-gendered people are stupid by definition. I don’t. I just don’t care.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I don’t believe that such “gender confusion” was equally common 50 years ago

Really? Considering that 50 years ago, openly stating one had such “gender confusion” would mean risking one’s friends, career, and possibly one’s life, I don’t think we can make such a comparison.

[Irish]

Yeah. I’ve heard dumbass conservatives make the same argument about gay people.

“Where did all these gay people come from? I don’t remember them from when I was a kid!”

You mean you didn’t know many people that admitted they were gay at a time when it could get you fired and possibly jailed? No way!

[PapayaSF]

Don’t be dense. I understand that. I live in San Francisco and have known gay people since the ’70s.

But gender reassignment has been around since Christine Jorgensen. It seems like it was quite rare for decades after that. Partly the increased visibility is social change, partly it may be the media pushing it, but even accounting for all that, now it seems like every public school has kids who “question their gender.”

[The Bearded Hobbit]

I think that it is due to several factors:

– There are more clinics and doctors willing to do the procedure.

– People can wheedle their insurance company or the government to pay the tab.

– More people are “outing” themselves as TG; however,

– It’s the latest fad.

It seems to me that the last point has a lot to do with it. Look at the “peanut allergy”, for example. Something like 25% of kids in grade school are listed as allergic and something like 3% actually are. But if “my special snowflake” has the latest allergy fad then she’s “special”.

No doubt some small percentage of the population are truly TG and this is certainly something that modern technology can correct. Back in the 80’s, however, when “Lesbian Chic” was all the rage, I knew fellow who was undergoing a sex change so that he could, “be a lesbian”.

… Hobbit

[jesse.in.mb]

WW2 U.S. Soldier Drag Show (1942)

I seem to recall these being pretty common. I also think there’s something that people can do about it now. Why put yourself out there if there’s nothing you can do to change things?

And the non-western cultural reference: berdache.

[SugarFree]

There were black drag shows in the 50s in little old Lexington. The cops busted them up and made sure to tip the newspaper off so they could get some choice pics.

[Bam!]

I doubt there are more now, it’s just that the media has a larger fixation on LBGT-related stuff.

[Coeus]

Good tuck job, though. Chaffing must be fierce.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I wonder if they’ll show him re-segregating the army.

Leonardo DiCaprio Will Play Woodrow Wilson, Because It’s Been a Minute Since He Did a Biopic
…But still, Wilson got married while in office, which is what made exchanges like this from The American President vaguely plausible! And he remains the only president to have a PhD. In all seriousness, no one doubts Wilson represents one of America’s most idealistic presidents, a great granddaddy to liberal progressives ? and the man sure knew how to wear a top hat! But does that mean Wilson can do the boffo box office of our other famously hat-savvy president? Only time, and Leo, will tell.

[Anonymous Coward]

Will Leonardo diWoodrow screen “Birth of a Nation” in the White House?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Confound it, AC, you stole my bit!

[PapayaSF]

And institute segregation for federal employees?

[andarm16]

You’ve gotta love Wilson. He’s the sociopath that keeps on giving.

[paranoid android]

Don’t forget arresting people for protesting the draft.

[PapayaSF]

Worse than that: arresting people for criticizing the draft in print.

[CatoTheElder]

He also gave us the Espionage Act of 1917, which is a favorite of Obama.

It also allowed Wilson to imprison CT Schenck for the crime of printing a pamphlet in Yiddish with such seditious statements as “Assert your rights”, “Do not submit to intimidation”, and the text of the 13th Amendment.

[Coeus]

Deep thoughts on gun control from a feminist:

A normal person with a brain that works would conclude, based on the prevalence of mass shootings by people who should not have access to guns, that maybe some measure should be taken to prevent that from happening. Background checks. Waiting periods. Registries. Assault weapons bans. Something! But the backlash of the gun lobby has been so virulent that in April, less than 6 months after twenty kids were fucking shot to death in Connecticut, the Democratic-controlled Senate failed to pass a law that would require background checks. A handful of Democrats voted against it, even though it seemed like a slam-dunk no brainer from Planet Obvious (Besides, if you’re not stable enough to mentally withstand the agony of waiting a few days to get your mitts on a gun, then maybe you are not mentally stable enough to own a gun). And just last week, two Colorado elected officials were successfully recalled because of a gun lobby vendetta against them; both dared vote in favor of background checks and limits on magazine size.

[Coeus]

Apparently the Second Amendment especially protects the rights of gun owners who need more than 15 rounds to hit the thing they were shooting at before reloading. A poll this summer found that 71% of Americans support basic national gun control. Congress was still too cravenly chickenshit to do anything proactive.
The right’s response to the DC shootings has been predictably awful, though not as awful as that Wayne LaPierre presser last December when the NRA head suggested that the only way to stop “a bad guy with a gun” was “a good guy with a gun” (curiously, no word yet on why there were apparently no “good guys with guns” at a Naval yard).

[PD Scott]

More like “not enough good guys with guns”, nitwit.

[PD Scott]

I like her potty mouth, too. It’s how I know she’s a deep and serious thinker.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

It’s the jezebel style we’ve come to know and love. Needs more all caps though.

[Tonio]

curiously, no word yet on why there were apparently no “good guys with guns” at a Naval yard

Plenty o’ words, she “just wasn’t paying attention.” TFIBHAW

[RBS]

Willful blindness.

[Irish]

That reminds me of the people who were wondering why the Fort Hood shooting wasn’t stopped sooner by armed soldiers.

They don’t seem to understand that you aren’t allowed to just walk around with your gun on a military base. The building that got shot up in D.C. was actually a gun free zone.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Wasn’t the Naval yard a “gun free” zone? Or am I mistaken?

[Irish]

It was.

[Zeb]

So, where did he get the handguns?

[Irish]

Apparently a security guard came in from outside or something.

It was definitely a gun free zone for people working there though. One of the women mentioned that she had a gun she wasn’t allowed to bring to work because of it.

[Raven Nation]

So, question for those who know more about guns & gun ownership (full disclaimer first: I’ve never owned a gun and have no plans to buy one. However, I support the rights of individuals to buy guns, as many as they want).

Question: I know that gun deaths are going down as are mass shootings. I also know that gun bans elsewhere have little affect on gun crime & actually raise other crime rates.

So, WHY are there mass shootings in the US and they are rare elsewhere. Switzerland, for example, has high levels of ownership but not mass shootings.

Again, not trolling here or arguing against gun ownership. Just trying to find out of there is any info out there.

[Zeb]

American Exceptionalism!!

I am semi serious here. The US also has more serial killers than the rest of the world. My theory is that the US is so large and culturally diverse that you get more of everything.

[Brett L]

The US catches and convicts more serial killers than the rest of the world.

[Zeb]

So either there are more or our police are really awesome and competent.

[playa manhattan]

True, Germany and Austria have a shitload of them. One of them came to LA for awhile:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Unterweger

[PD Scott]

It’s true, we have 300 million people, Switzerland has 8 million.

[PD Scott]

According to TIME (so take it with a grain of salt), Switzerland had two mass shootings earlier this year.

[Enough About Palin]

That would translate into 37.5 mass shootings in the USA.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

It’s that half-killing that worries me!

… Hobbit

[Brandon]

We have a more prevalent media.

[Isaac Bartram]

Actually, Switzerland does have mass shootings. They just don’t go into panic mode over them.

[Zeb]

Congress was still too cravenly chickenshit to do anything proactive.

Yeah. That has to be it. They couldn’t possibly not agree with whoever this ridiculous person is. Or realize that their constituents don’t. It’s just fear. Because the NRA will prevent them from being reelected even though 99% of the country hates the NRA and wants all guns banned.

[RBS]

Ridiculous Person

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

her whole profile is her Jezzie postings?

That’s now officially the saddest thing I’ve seen today.

[SugarFree]

That’s the commenter that they hired because she was so “funny.”

[Mad Scientist]

I think we should encourage this guy to vote out as many chickenshit congresspersons as he can.

[fish]

I stopped at “Jezebel”!

[Spoonman.]

This shooting is the perfect counterexample to the background check worshippers.

[Anonymous Coward]

And just last week, two Colorado elected officials were successfully recalled because of a gun lobby vendetta against them; both dared vote in favor of background checks and limits on magazine size.

They lost? Despite Morse outspending the recallers 8-to-1? You mean Daddy Bloombucks couldn’t save Little Orphan Giron?

I guess that’s what they get for using their positions to silence gun rights supporters who came to testify before the Colorado legislature (not because they “voted” for background checks).

[Irish]

Democracy is great unless Democrats lose and billionaires trying to buy elections is bad unless they’re trying to help Democrats.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

More like streetcar named A FAT DUDE!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Porn for John:

“This is a picture of a fat woman’s ass totally swallowing a concrete pillar right in front of a ton of traffic.”

[fish]

Christ…..get a room you two.

(Woman & pole…not John & Johnny)

[Enough About Palin]

Every day on the bus I see women twice as fat as the woman pictured and I wonder, how do you let that happen???

[Irish]

Detroit Free Press publishes gigantic article about Detroit’s financial history.

Scroll down about a third of the way to the chart they have showing Detroit’s taxes. By the time Detroit went bankrupt, they had the highest income tax in the state by almost half a percentage point and they had the highest property taxes in the state. A $100,000 house in Detroit would have cost almost $700 more in property taxes than it would have in the second place city in Michigan. It would have cost $3600 more than in Grand Rapids.

[PD Scott]

Are you implying people deserted the city because of high taxes, and not the correct answer which is racism, you racist?

[Protagoronus]

H&R discussion here: https://reason.com/blog/2013/09…..ion-leader

[SweatingGin]

Not many cities in Michigan have an income tax, either. Funny, most of them aren’t places I’d aim to live, either. Usually it’s just the city proper, and there are township or other areas without it.

Property taxes is a really good example. When you can live in Ann Arbor (suck it, OSU guys) for at 30% less on the property tax, save money on insurance because your car isn’t getting stolen all the time, and house isn’t getting broken into all the time…

Although you may have trouble finding a house worth 100k in Detroit. Probably goes up to about $45k, and then from there, nothing until about $200k (one particular neighborhood)

[Timon 19]

You almost got beat by AKRON.

AKRON!

[a better weapon]

The solution is obvious to me, as it should be to anybody with a modicum of economic sensibility: they should raise taxes more.

– Kruggie

[Auric Demonocles]

Pro lib, I just got a hold of tickets to Sunday’s game. You should come up and watch Freeman’s majestic performance. We might be able to find hamilton too, though he’ll be on the opposite side of the stadium.

[Pro Libertate]

Enjoy. Hope the Bucs get it together for this one, or the season is in big trouble. They do seem to have a pretty decent defense now, which is a plus.

[Auric Demonocles]

They probably won’t need a stellar one to handle the Patriots current offense, although there is a decent change Gronk will be back.

[Pro Libertate]

How is Blount doing? I wasn’t thrilled about losing him–he’s a decent back, and I’m not sure what we have after Martin.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Man gets 27 years for posting in online forums discussing kidnapping, raping, and cannibalizing children

A Massachusetts man who chatted online with other men about their desire to kidnap, rape, kill and eat children was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 27 years in prison after prosecutors showed photos of a basement dungeon he built, a child-sized coffin, butchering tools and metal restraints.

Geoffrey Portway, 40, of Worcester, was sentenced to 26 years and eight months behind bars, just under the 27-year, three-month sentence sought by prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacy Dawson Belf said chats recovered from Portway’s computer show he solicited people for help for a kidnapping with the intent of raping, killing and eating a child. She disputed claims by Portway’s attorney that he was merely fantasizing and did not intend to do the things he described online.

Belf read from one of his chats and said Portway had assembled everything he needed to carry out his plan, except for a child.

“I want to eat … the two boys you will bring me,” Belf quoted Portway as writing. “Perhaps not today, but it will happen. That is all I live for. … I am serious. It is the only thing that gets me up in the morning.”

Belf said Portway “can only claim fantasy here because he hadn’t done it yet.”

Yikes.

[John]

Wow. At first I thought of this as being government overreach. But I think he did enough to justify a conspiracy charge. What a freak.

[Irish]

Yeah. That guy clearly intended to actually do these things. A quarter century prison term seems justified.

[Coeus]

Yes, but look at the bright side. At least he made a tiny, tasteful coffin. He could have just gone with an beer cooler.

[John]

I don’t have to read your mind to convict you. I only have to conclude that you had a plan and took concrete actions to act upon it. He clearly did that.

If he was just playing around, oh well. It is the nature of conspiracy. Anytime we convict someone of planning to do something, they can always claim they were just fantasizing. If you want to fantasize about murdering people, don’t take concrete steps towards that end.

[tarran]

If you are building a dungeon, you’re pretty far gone…

[Brett L]

Yeah, this is on the line for me. But I think a jury trial is appropriate. If you can convince a group of your peers that this was just an elaborate but harmless fantasy, go forth and do it. But if a bunch of random yahoos think you were conspiring, go to prison.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. That sounds like conspiracy to commit murder.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Guys are we really arguing that a harmless expression of free speech should be enough to throw someone in jail? Sounds like fascism to me…

/weekend thread

[Plopper]

Nah, even this creeps me out.

But it still does sort of bug me from a purely ideological standpoint.

[Plopper]

Oops!

This even creeps me out.

Is what I meant.

[Scott S.]

He also had actual child porn and was distributing it, which for some reason got buried down at the end of the story.

[Tejicano]

“I want to eat … the two boys you will bring me,”

I have two sons – 4 and 2 years old. That brings this a bit too close to home for me.

I doubt he will live to see the light of day again so I’d say a quarter century in prison was the right sentence in this case.

[a better weapon]

How disturbing. That really shook up my morning.

[playa manhattan]

CNN reported that the shooter had an AR-15 Shotgun. We need to ban it now!
http://danaloeschradio.com/cnn…..5-shotgun/

[db]

Interesting. There is a Turkish made 410-bore shotgun that is modeled after the AR15 (available in the U.S.). I doubt it’s what he used but I wonder.

[andarm16]

Perhaps he had a saiga? To uneducated eyes, one could probably pass as an AR. (Of course, this is the media we’re dealin’ with here)

[playa manhattan]

In other news, I want a Saiga 12. Hard to find in these parts…

[db]

Also hard to find a reliable one. I know several people who have them for 3-gun competition. They take a fair amount of tuning to get the to run right.

I just use an 11/87 but for Open Division it’s hard to beat a Saiga that runs right.

I have seen a full auto Saiga at Knob Creek but it was so unreliable most shooters couldn’t get more than a four round burst out of it before a jam.

[Tejicano]

I haven’t had any problems with my Saiga-12 but then I’m not running it in a 3 gun competition.

[playa manhattan]

He used an 870. CNN is just fucking retarded.

[db]

No, I definitely read 870. I was just pointing out there is a shotgun patterned after the AR15.

[playa manhattan]

CNN got such a huge ban boner that they had to put “AR-15” in front of “Shotgun” to make sure the AR got the bad press it so richly deserved…

[andarm16]

Ouch. Does anyone in the MSM have any fact checkers that know anything about guns. That is if they aren’t doing it on purpose.

[Spoonman.]

I have shot an AK-47-based shotgun.

[playa manhattan]

Saiga?

[PapayaSF]

In the early Afghanistan war days, the SF Chronicle reported someone as having a “300mm pistol.” Must have been something straight out of a Tex Avery cartoon.

[jesse.in.mb]

Insufferable hipsters are cutting in on libertarian monocle hegemony with the dogocle.

Let slip the dogs of war…or something.

[NoVAHockey]

i read the link as “wartybarker” and got scared.

[Slammer]

Warty doesn’t bark, more like gurgling Lovecraftian roars

[Enough About Palin]

No. A wartybarker is a euphemism for one of his victims. They tend to bark during the process.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Meet the Last Four Doctors Who Perform Late Term Abortion in After Tiller

The directors’ statement for the upcoming documentary After Tiller, which follows the four remaining doctors in the country who perform third trimester abortions after the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, drives home how high the stakes are for the film’s subjects[…]

The filmmakers and doctors are very focused on getting the public to understand what we’re actually talking about when we talk about late term abortion[…]

As Dr. Shelley Sella of Southwestern Women’s Options in Albuquerque, New Mexico, explains, these very late abortions really are much more like delivering a stillborn baby than performing an abortion.

It really is a tragedy that people know so little about the people who make a living killing children, on that much Ms Marcotte and myself agree.

[John]

Something tells me that a truthful tell all depiction of what those guys do wouldn’t produce the public reaction Amanda thinks it would.

[Irish]

The directors’ statement for the upcoming documentary After Tiller, which follows the four remaining doctors in the country who perform third trimester abortions after the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, drives home how high the stakes are for the film’s subjects: “They thought that if more Americans could meet them, and hear where they were coming from?even if they still disagreed with the work that they did?they at least might not want to kill them.”

That’s the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. How many abortion clinic doctors have ever been murdered?

The left really does have an obsession with all of the supposed violence of the American right, most of it nonexistent. They’re fighting shadows and are too dumb to notice.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It’s concern trolling at its finest.

Expand the timeframe a bit, and the domestic violence is overwhelmingly on the left. I have yet to hear of a US President being killed by a right-wing nut; at least a couple have been killed by left-wing psychos.

FWIW, the right is pretty good at playing the concern troll game too, when it feels like it (see the treatment of American Muslims for more details).

[Tonio]

left-wing psychos

Not sure you want to go there, TIT. Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, left wing (sorta) and psycho. Hinkley, psycho but not left wing. My point is that sure you can claim a lot of psychos were left-wing but you then open the door to having any psycho who ever expressed a right of center though being labelled a right-wing psycho.

[John]

Fromme was part of the 60s counter culture. I don’t see how describing her as Left Wing is out of line. Hinkley was just a nut. He was apolitical.

Oswald of course was a communist.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It’s hard to read a history of the 19th and early 20th century without talking at least a bit about the domestic violence and “propaganda of the deed” committed by various anarchists, socialists, and “progressives”. There’s a lot of bloodshed (including a world war) that could have been avoided in lieu of those historically significant movements.

None of which justifies holding such things over the heads of what are on the whole non-violent leftists as a rhetorical tack, but what’s good for the goose is good for the gander…

[Irish]

Violence which is expressly political is usually left wing.

This is a post that mentions how rare Muslim terrorism in America actually is, but what I found to be most interesting is that left-wing violence is 24% of total attacks, Communist violence, which they list separately, is 5% of attacks, and right wing violence is so rare that it isn’t even listed. It makes up a segment of the 16% that they call ‘other.’

That’s from FBI statistics on terrorism in America, which seems to suggest the left is more frequently culpable for political violence than the right.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

You could be completely ignorant of the incidents of right-wing violence in this country without missing anything of importance.

Also, if that chart were being honest most of the “Latino” violence would also be classed as left-wing. The independista movement in Puerto Rico is explicitly left-wing (it has strong ties to the Cuban Communist party), and accounts for most of the violence in that category if I recall correctly.

[Irish]

In Wisconsin right now they had to hire ex-special forces agents in order to protect mines against eco-terrorists.

For some reason, eco-terrorists actively blowing up equipment, threatening miners, and putting workers’ lives at risk are not nearly as important as a death threat sent to an abortion clinic. You never even hear about this stuff on the news, even though it’s far more common than modern attacks on abortionists.

[Mad Scientist]

Or spiking trees in logging country.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

*independentista

God, hanging around you gringos is not doing good things for my written Spanish.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Since when is “they” one person? One person killed killer, and the killer was a stereotypical deranged loner.

Just to change the phraseology a bit, “if more Americans could meet [late-term babies in the womb], and hear [their heartbeats]?even if they still disagreed with [their existence]?they at least might not want to kill them”

[Tonio]

How many abortion clinic doctors have ever been murdered?

Eight clinic employees, the majority of whom were doctors, have been murdered in the US.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

And of course, scores of threats, vandalisms, assaults and other NAP violations.

[Irish]

Shitload of threats, certainly, and I’m not condoning that. Actual acts of violence are far less frequent than advertised, and they are specifically talking about murders.

There have been 2 murders in 15 years, which makes that fear more paranoia than fact.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Another thing to consider is, how many people work in the abortion providing field? If there are not that many then even a small number of threats and acts of violence are going to loom rather heavily over their heads.

[Irish]

According to statistics gathered by the National Abortion Federation (NAF), an organization of abortion providers, since 1977 in the United States and Canada, there have been 17 attempted murders, 383 death threats, 153 incidents of assault or battery, and 3 kidnappings committed against abortion providers.[12]

17 attempted murders and there were six incidents in which one or more was murdered. Weirdly enough, George Tiller was actually the victim of an attempted murder in 1993 as well.

The last murder prior to Tiller was 1998 though. That’s two murders in 15 years. Kind of goes to my point that their claim of rampant right wing violence may be a bit overblown.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Were they claiming ‘rampant right wing violence’ or simply that it is not unheard or uncommon for abortion providers to be the target of violence because of what they do?

[Irish]

“They thought that if more Americans could meet them, and hear where they were coming from?even if they still disagreed with the work that they did?they at least might not want to kill them.”

That makes it sound like they are absolutely concerned with many Americans wanting to kill them. Two murders in 15 years does not strike me as warranting this kind of statement.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I do not interpret it that way. Where do you get the ‘many’ from?

[Irish]

Really Bo? Okay, let’s say I made a movie about my political beliefs. As a reason for why I made this movie, I said that “I want more liberals to meet me and hear where I’m coming from, so at least they might not want to kill me.”

Based on that sentence, you can rationally assume that I think liberals wanting to kill me is a reasonable and active threat, right? Why would I bring up the potential of liberals murdering me if I didn’t think it was a reasonable possibility?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

You are still not addressing the ‘many.’ There could be a handful of liberals who may want to kill people in your profession, but you are mindful of them. Likewise the above statement is consistent with simply acknowledging that there are incidents of pro-life motivated violence toward their profession.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I find it more silly than anything else. I find that leftists tend to cloak didactics intended to shore up a certain viewpoint as a form of awareness prevention. The above video, for example, is in no way going to change the mindset of a murderous pro-lifer. A person already at that point is no more going to change his ways upon seeing a propaganda piece than GWB would have changed his mind on Iraq upon seeing a “War Sucks” bumper sticker slapped on a Prius.

The purpose of the film is to make leftists feel better about supporting and evangelizing late-term abortions. That is the audience of the film, and stating that the intent is to stop pro-lifers from murdering pro-choicers is classic concern trolling.

[PapayaSF]

The left really does have an obsession with all of the supposed violence of the American right, most of it nonexistent.

Indeed. Think of all the white racists who are always gunning down innocent black children like Trayvon Martin.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I await the documentaries on mafia hit men and how they live in fear that someone might shoot them.

[Slammer]

In an interview with the BBC, Professor Stephen Hawking declared his support for assisted suicide, logically pointing out that we don’t allow animals to suffer the way we expect humans to suffer before they die

Projection! He must be preparing for his own end.

[jesse.in.mb]

Hasn’t Terry Pratchett come out hard in favor of right to die?

[andarm16]

He is.

[PD Scott]

He’s going to a physics farm in the country, isn’t he? Where he’ll perform experiments and have discussions with all the other cuddly physicists?

[Zeb]

Hawking seems pretty happy to live a purely mental life. He’s already lived miraculously long for someone with ALS and I don’t think he’s getting any worse, so I doubt he plans to off himself.

[db]

Maybe they’ve programmed his chair not to let him hurt himself…

[Eduard van Haalen]

But his name isn’t Dave.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Econ and Business Correspondent, folks…

As I wrote when his retirement was announced, Steve Ballmer is an American hero who plunged Microsoft’s enormous Office/Windows profits into futile efforts to compete with Google, Sony, Apple, and others. Very few of those Ballmer investments paid off for Microsoft shareholders, but they generated huge amounts of consumer surplus by preventing other firms (and especially Google) from becoming predatory monopolists. The clear risk is that post-Ballmer Microsoft will be run along principles of narrowminded shareholder value maximization and the world will lose out as a result

Anyone want to guess how many days it would take for a company run by Beardo to declare bankruptcy? My guess is however long it takes for him to overcharge the company credit card while making bulk purchases of microwave burritos.

[Jordan]

About a year, assuming he ran the company’s finances like a good little Keynesian.

[Protagoronus]

Stop slandering Beardo’s good name by confusing his identity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsZYpSbzXIM

[Brett L]

Hey look, scientists are starting to agree that addiction has little to do with specific drugs.

“They didn’t fit the caricature of the drug addict who can’t stop once he gets a taste,” Dr. Hart said. “When they were given an alternative to crack, they made rational economic decisions.”

[playa manhattan]

John linked to that in another thread, and I posted a reply there, but better in the PM links:

My Sister in Law was one of Carl Hart’s research assistants before she went to Med School, and some of his work is truly ground breaking. He did a 3+ year study on meth addiction that produced some surprising results, but he got impatient and fudged some of the data. Now, Columbia might not let him publish….

[John]

I saw that. So what is your opinion? Should we dismiss his work entirely?

[playa manhattan]

No, he is fighting the good fight, and is guilty of poor judgment at worst.

[playa manhattan]

His studies involved getting actual pharmaceutical grade schedule I drugs from the DEA to provide to addicts and recreational users under controlled laboratory conditions. There are only a handful of licenses issued in the entire country to do this kind of research…

[playa manhattan]

One of the results his meth vs coke study was that low to medium doses of amphetamines markedly increase cognitive performance. On the other hand, low to medium doses of cocaine caused subjects to believe their performance had drastically improved when the opposite was true.

IIRC, there was a Discovery or National Geographic special that aired last month expanding on this experiment. Drug users were asked to put together an Ikea-like piece of furniture, and the cocaine guy left out half the screws and then went around hi-fiving everybody for a job well done…

[John]

Thus further proving cocaine makes you into an asshole.

[Mad Scientist]

I think it’s more likely that cocaine just highlighted the asshole that was already there.

[Tejicano]

I have heard that there was a study done on men who served in Vietnam who had engaged in hard drugs while over there – mostly heroin/opiates. From what I remember the overwhelming majority simply stopped doing those drugs once they left the area. Addiction was rare.

I also believe I have some degree of an addictive personality. So it seems to me that addiction has more to do with the person than the drug.

[Isaac Bartram]

I heard something similar. Basically based on reports of heroin use by GIs in Vietnam the VA was preparing for a flood of addicts that never materialized.

[Coeus]

Krugman: This is not a crisis.

It’s not even a picture of a crisis. The new CBO long-term budget projections are out, and while they’re not good, they don’t show crisis levels of debt even looking out a quarter-century. Unless, that is, you believe that debt of 100 percent of GDP is the end of the world even though Britain exceeded that level for a large part of its history:

[Brett L]

Unless, that is, you believe that debt of 100 percent of GDP is the end of the world even though Britain exceeded that level for a large part of its history:

Remind me again how they got out of that? I’m pretty sure change of government by killing people were involved. Or the Treaty of Versailles. We could go there.

[PD Scott]

I mean, Britain is doing great, still owns the oceans, tons of colonies, nobody on the dole at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

It’s certainly not as though anyone would dream of abusing the British dole.

[Irish]

Of course, the future debt levels would be much higher if we’d listened to Krugman and went on a spending spree.

I hate that Krugman frequently uses the positive outcomes of people not listening to him as evidence that he is right.

“See, our debt isn’t that high! You all should have listened to me so that it could have been!”

[PapayaSF]

And, of course, saying that high debt doesn’t matter is to assume that nothing unexpected happens in the future that might require more debt.

[jesse.in.mb]

Gay Iranian men face “humiliating” exams for military exemption

Examining officers and doctors are required to report those who display preliminary evidence of “queerness,” resulting in more extensive tests. Gay Iranians told Al-Monitor the tests are “humiliating and stressful,” involving rectal examinations looking for evidence of receptive anal intercourse.

Under Iranian military regulations, only a receptive male partner during anal intercourse is defined as homosexual.

John and HM, weren’t we just discussing this a few days ago?

[tarran]

This is true in Turkey too.

[Coeus]

Yeah, I remember someone talking about it in Turkey here a few months ago. But they don’t check the ass, you just need a picture of you getting plowed with your face visible. Also, you have to look like you enjoyed it.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yeah, I read that some of the Turkish examiners require a photograph of you being penetrated that clearly shows your face. People hand them over to get out of military service, but there’s growing concern that the photos are still on file someplace and could be used against them later.

[jesse.in.mb]

I’ve heard there was a similar sense in America before the gay rights movement really kicked off. It was a mild indiscretion to get the occasional blowjob from a guy, but it was terribly deviant behavior to be giving them. I have no idea how true that is. I’ve talked with a few British guys who seem to take that attitude, but flip the fuck out when you suggest they might just be bi.

[jesse.in.mb]

Whoops this was a response to Zeb at 5:05. Not sure how it got here.

[Coeus]

It’s still around, and on both sides of the isle. I remember a gay dude I used to know bragging about blowing “straight” guys.

[jesse.in.mb]

“Straight” (very intentional use of quote marks) guys are a minefield of mixed signals. I’ll go home with one if he’s good looking and friendly, but the sex is always an awkward combination of me not wanting to push his boundaries and him really wanting me to push his boundaries, BUT NO KISSING,* that’s gay, bro.

*seriously, it’s always a big fucking deal.

[John]

We were. And that is totally fucked up. Only the catcher is gay.

[Coeus]

Prison/pirate style

[Auric Demonocles]

If anything the catcher would be slightly less likely to be gay, as someone being raped is not going to pitching.

[Zeb]

Yeah, but if you are doing the penetrating you are still being all manly and dominant. And you might be imagining that you are fucking a woman.

That’s the best I can do to make sense of it.

[Mickey Rat]

Which was pretty much the attitude of the Ancient Romans and Greeks despite claims otherwise.

[Slammer]

In prison you should have heard all the excuses I heard for why someone’s not a homo.

[Anonymous Coward]

That’s pretty well the classic Semitic definition of homosexuality. The pitcher isn’t gay, because real men do the fucking. The catcher is gay because only women and gays take the dick.

Sounds like denial to me, but what do I know? I’m just being judgmental towards their ancient and beautiful culture of buttrape.

[Zeb]

Though the Sodom and Gomorrah thing seems to condemn the pitcher as well. “Lying with a man as you would a woman” or whatever it says.

[Anonymous Coward]

That’s kind of what happens when you try to butt rape an angel of the Lord.

Your city gets blown up.

[Coeus]

But if you offer up your virgin daughters to be gang raped instead, you get a free pass, since you’re obviously such a stand-up guy.

[Eduard van Haalen]

It’s like being forced to choose between two candidates at the polls, the Rape Your Daughter party and the Rape Your Guest Party.

Have you ever been in that situation, or anything analagous?

[Coeus]

I don’t believe he was given that choice. He went out and stumped for the Rape Your Daughter candidate, and got em on the ballot.

[Mickey Rat]

It is the hospitality thing. If you do not offer your daughters to the mob, then you might as well be named “Frey”.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Hebrews are a special case. The Jewish prohibition against homosexuality doesn’t appear until after the Egyptian Exodus. When the Egyptians conquered a people, they ritually sodomized the surviving soldiers as a further humiliation and sign that the people were vassalized in every way.

When the Hebrews were freed from the Egyptian yoke, they basically inverted every Egyptian cultural practice. The Egyptians shave off all their body hair? We’re going to grow these huge-ass beards! The Egyptians eat pigs? No pork for us! The Egyptians fuck their slaves up the ass?

[Zeb]

It’s only gay if you take it in the ass and like it. Interesting.

[Mad Scientist]

Right. And the guy who’s getting it up while looking at some dude’s ass is NOT GAY AT ALL.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Salon brings the impotent rage on gun control

While we know very little about the Navy Yard shootings, it’s likely that several of those on the scene ? including, potentially, several victims ? were highly trained and armed military police officers. After all, “gun free zones” only apply to civilians, not legitimate, armed security personnel. But more important, everything we know about recent mass shootings defeats this preposterous argument. According to a comprehensive study by Mother Jones magazine, in the past 30 years, not a single mass shooting has been stopped by an armed civilian. According to a study by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, less than a quarter of mass shootings in the last four years occurred in “gun free zones.”

Further, as Chris Hayes artfully pointed out in his response to the Navy Yard shootings, having more armed civilians in the vicinity of a mass shooting is likely to lead to more carnage, not less. According to a study by the New York Times, highly trained New York City police officers who discharged their guns in public hit their intended targets only 34 percent of the time. To put it differently, the police missed their targets ? and hit something else ? two out of every three shots. Now imagine even the best-trained amateur gun owners and what their record might be.

[NoVAHockey]

“not a single mass shooting has been stopped by an armed civilian”

bull-fucking-shit.

[Coeus]

in the past 30 years, not a single mass shooting has been stopped by an armed civilian.

Maybe it wasn’t a mass shooting was because it was stopped? Jesus, they aren’t even trying.

[NoVAHockey]

Salon is basically reduced to this: http://www.despair.com/hodor-s…..dness.html

[John]

According to a comprehensive study by Mother Jones magazine, in the past 30 years, not a single mass shooting has been stopped by an armed civilian.

Think about that for a second. And I don’t mean the laughable notion of the worlds “comprehensive study and Mother Jones” being in the same sentence.

If the shooter was stopped, it wouldn’t be a mass shooting now would it?

[Brett L]

Also, I’m pretty certain Appalachain State had one stopped before he went mass killing by another armed student.

[Irish]

There was an instance recently of an administrator in a school shooting someone who showed up with a gun to shoot students. It wasn’t a mass shooting because the guy got stopped.

They also fail to take into account that the vast majority of mass shootings take place in gun free zones. Of course civilians rarely stop a mass shooting, they occur in places where civilians aren’t allowed to have guns. If the only people with guns in an area are security guards, it isn’t shocking when security guards are the ones to stop a shooter. They’re the only ones with the opportunity.

[General Butt Naked]

There was one recently where a guy went into some christfag church and some bitter christfag stopped him. He didn’t kill anyone so, technically, a mass murderer wasn’t stopped.

[fish]

Foiled by school principal!

http://tinyurl.com/pvckbxl

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I like how they are arguing that the NYPD represents highly-trained government marksmen and that if they can fuck up and shoot innocent people imagine what a ‘gun-nut’ could do.

They really go off the rails on this issue.

[Mad Scientist]

To put it differently, the police missed their targets ? and hit something else ? two out of every three shots. Now imagine even the best-trained amateur gun owners and what their record might be.

Translation: If even emotionally unstable bullies with inferiority complexes can’t hit their targets in a stressful situation, just imagine what someone who didn’t have all those problems would do!

[General Butt Naked]

I’d take an averagely trained private gun owner over an NYPD goon any day.

[PD Scott]

While we know very little… it’s likely… everything we know… is preposterous.

FTFY.

[RBS]

Further, as Chris Hayes artfully pointed out in his response to the Navy Yard shootings

I lol’ed

[Jordan]

Now imagine even the best-trained amateur gun owners and what their record might be.

The best-trained amateur gun owners get way, way, way more trigger time than your any police department provides or requires.

[John]

To put it differently, the police missed their targets ? and hit something else ? two out of every three shots. Now imagine even the best-trained amateur gun owners and what their record might be.

It is so cute when lefty journolists think police actually have any training.

I love their butt hurt. The more of it the better.

[Auric Demonocles]

Dunphy is very fond of pointing out that police should not be considered firearms experts.

[John]

Even Dunphy admits they can’t shoot. The other thing is that a lot of private gun owners shoot as a hobby and shoot a lot more than your typical cop. The best shots in America are not in law enforcement.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-While we know very little about the Navy Yard shootings

we should still try to make political hay speculating!

[Anonymous Coward]

According to a study by the New York Times, highly trained New York City police officers who discharged their guns in public hit their intended targets only 34 percent of the time. To put it differently, the police missed their targets ? and hit something else ? two out of every three shots.

Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but this certainly raises my confidence in the police and their abilities to handle ASSAULTYMCKILLYDEATHWEAPONSOFWAR. But these “highly-trained” officers, how often are they on the range? How often are they drilled in simulated shooting situations?

Now imagine even the best-trained amateur gun owners and what their record might be.

Ah, sweet speculation. Okay, I speculate 35 percent or better, which means I win, you lose, suck it.

Or was that not the response you were looking fishing around for?

[CatoTheElder]

Cops don’t have to worry about personal liability if they shoot a bystander.

Ordinary citizens have much greater incentives to identify the correct target and take aim before firing.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

South Carolina woman arrested after stabbing a man who refused to stop playing music by The Eagles

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — A North Charleston woman was arrested late Monday night after she got into an argument that led to a stabbing — and it all started with classic rock.

According to a North Charleston police report, 54-year-old Vernett Bader was charged with criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature after officers showed up at her Brossy Circle home to investigate reports of an assault with a knife.

When officers arrived, Bader was standing outside the house with another man who told police the victim had several cuts on his arms and hands. Bader caused all of the cuts, the report states.

When police talked to the victim, he said he had been listening to The Eagles when Bader told him that she did not want to hear the classic rock band’s songs. So the man told her to shut up, the report states.

Bader responded by allegedly getting a 14-inch serrated bread knife and swung it at the man repeatedly, the report states. The victim wrestled the knife away from Bader, but she came back with another knife before the victim could run and lock himself in the bathroom.

You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

[RBS]

I hate the fucking Eagles, man

[mad libertarian guy]

That’s my thought too.

Someone refusing to stop playing the Eagles has already violated the NAP and is ripe for a good stabbing.

[Sidd Finch]

Get the fuck outta my cab.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

One of these nights
One of these crazy old nights…
We’re gonna find out pretty mama
What brings out the knife

[Jordan]

North Charleston, eh? Yep, not surprised.

[John]

Its another tequila sunrise.

[Brett L]

Put me on the jury, I’ll find her justified.

[Invisible Finger]

She didn’t kill ANY of the Eagles.

[db]

It’s a girl, my Lord
In a flatbed Ford
Slowin’ down to take a stab at me.

[JW]

Too bad she missed.

[Gbob]

Stabbing someone for playing the Eagles is pretty much the main reason jury nullification exists. (Don’t mind me. I think a defendant should be able to plead “guilty”, “not guilty” and “the dumb son of a bitch had it coming”)

[Slammer]

I’m with him. Shut up. I love The Eagles.

[Pro Libertate]

The band? I thought you meant the birds from The Lord of the Rings.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Lazy fuckers wouldn’t fly Bilbo and the Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain or fly Frodo to Mordor or close to it.

Fuck the Eagles.

[Pro Libertate]

Come on, you’re not being fair. Mordor, for instance, was fully equipped with anti-eagle defenses. I mean, they had to be, or Gandalf would’ve just flown with the Ring to Mount Doom.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Still doesn’t explain why they made them walk from Rivendale. They could have dropped them off at Osgilliath and thus shorten the journey (and the Ring’s corrupting influence on Frodo and Boromoir) by months and months.

[Eduard van Haalen]

And Saruman’s crows would have seen them even sooner.

[Pro Libertate]

I didn’t say they weren’t dicks. Besides, what do you think hairy-footed hobbits smell like?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Eagles, like most birds of prey, have a weak sense of smell. So that excuse won’t fly.

[Pro Libertate]

What, you’re an expert on magical talking giant eagles?

[Marshall Gill]

Talking?

[Pro Libertate]

Indeed, the Eagles did speak.

[Mickey Rat]

Pipeweed?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Enough with this lame criticism – the only way to get to Mount Doom was to avoid being noticed by Sauron and his agents. How would an eagle flying into Mordor meet those specifications? Frodo and Sam looked kind of like small orcs – what do eagles look like? Plus the Ringwraiths flying around on their fly-y things, with the ability to sniff out living flesh – yeah, brilliant idea! Why not just FedEx the Ring straight to Sauron?

[Pro Libertate]

It never occurred to me before, but that’s what they should’ve done–disguised Frodo as one of the Nine.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Plus the Ringwraiths flying around on their fly-y things, with the ability to sniff out living flesh – yeah, brilliant idea! Why not just FedEx the Ring straight to Sauron?

You only need to get one eagle into Mount Doom–the others couldn’t act as wingman?

(Kidding–I realize the nuances of aerial combat are pointless in an epic fantasy novel)

[The Last American Hero]

+1 dragonlance?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Meanwhile, in Russia…

A philosophical argument over views on Immanuel Kant descended into violent mayhem in southern Russia, leading to a man being shot several times.

The dispute occurred when two men waiting for a beer became involved in an increasingly fractious argument over the work of Kant ? the author of canonical philosophical text Critique of Pure Reason ? according to a police spokeswoman in Rostov-on-Don, the town where the argument broke out.

The row ended with one of the men producing an air gun and firing several rubber bullets at his opponent.

Police did not identify the men but said that the gunman had been detained after fleeing the scene, while the victim was in hospital with non-life-threatening wounds. The attacker now faces up to 10 years in prison for intentional infliction of serious bodily harm, police said.

I’d say this doesn’t gel with the categorical imperative, but it might apply to Russia.

[John]

That is the whole point. What do you mean violence is always wrong? I will show you when violence isn’t wrong. BASH!!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Maybe the shooter believed in the Dark Side of the Kant.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

This Kant be serious.

[db]

You should be locked up for that.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

No, no, you’re doing it wrong. Let me help:

“You should be Locke-d up for that.”

See? Much better.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Rousseau funny Trouser.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I wonder if these puns are causing the rest of the commentariat great Paine?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

They Montesquieu to stop with puns.

[db]

I’m usually abivalent about the whole “give away the pun in the text” thing but here I think you’re barkeleying up the wrong tree.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Eh, quit your Karpeing.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I agree. This is more than any humean can withstand.

[Eduard van Haalen]

If there’s a Russel in your hedge row, don’t be alarmed now…

[Eduard van Haalen]

I Nietzsche your looove, I really Nietzsche your loooove…

[Eduard van Haalen]

OK, enough of these puns, Compte me out.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Comte

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

These philosophy puns are so Thoreau in the names they drop.

[Gbob]

If a man makes himself a worm, he should not complain if he is trampled upon.

[Mickey Rat]

Kant WAS a real pissant, I say!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Jezebel swoons over Craigslist ‘Missed Connections’ post

So, that’s where we were. Me, minding my own business. You, apparently observing my ass. At that point you had options. You could have driven past me and said nothing. You could have turned up your radio and waved, ensconcing us in some beats and camaraderie. You could have shouted out, “Happy Friday! Yeehaw!” Any of those options would have been great. I probably would have waved, smiled, and started my weekend on the same high note as you.

Instead, you chose the most pathetic option available to you: You leaned out of your window and made some ridiculous series of leering comments about whether I was wearing a thong, right as the light changed and you peeled off, pleased with yourself and saved from any consequences.
[…]
Let me make this abundantly clear, to you and to the other men reading this: when you comment on a woman’s appearance, you are not doing it for her. You are doing it for you. It’s not some great way to make a woman feel sexy and appreciated. It’s not flattery, even if you mean for it to be. The only thing it is is a great way for you to create a shitty power dynamic, by which you have announced yourself as the arbiter of her value, and you’ve deemed her fuckable, and she is supposed to be happy or impressed by that.

Guy was a creep, but that last paragraph is hilarious.

[John]

The guy was a creep. But good God

when you comment on a woman’s appearance, you are not doing it for her.

Because I don’t know any women who ever like to be told they look good. The Jezzies really do live in their own reality don’t they?

[Gbob]

Let’s be fair. No Jezzy has that much experience in being called attractive.

[Mickey Rat]

Right, don’t you hate it when a woman deems you fuckable?

[Auric Demonocles]

Guy was a creep, but that last paragraph is hilarious.

You know what the best I’ve felt in the last week was? When a girl in a gym class I was in asked if I had lost weight.

[John]

She was just enforcing a power dynamic on you.

[Auric Demonocles]

Now I feel used and degraded.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

^SLUT!!!!

[RBS]

That’s an insult at my gym.

[mad libertarian guy]

You probably don’t even lift, bro.

[JW]

power dynamic

Being sane and not pulling my hair out in clumps, I’m completely at a loss here. Exactly what power was executed?

[Pro Libertate]

Wonder Twins?

[JW]

Well, I’m certainly not taking the form of a Warty.

[Pro Libertate]

Do you think the name of those superheroes was actually a reference to some woman’s bosom? I mean, where do writers come up with these ideas, anyway?

[Warty]

Well, I do look pretty much like Walder Frey. Heh.

[Pro Libertate]

I still think the Starks would never have fallen for that. I knew it was a trap all along, and I’m not raised to be paranoid like they were.

[Bobarian]

Form of Wonder Woman’s bath-water!

[Apatheist ?_??]

Meh, catcallers deserve any abuse Jezebel gives them.

[General Butt Naked]

Damn girl, that’s a lot of words to tell my you’ve got great ass. Just send pics next time and skip the humblebrag.

[Pro Libertate]

Men think women are hard to understand. Wrong. Because General Butt Naked has identified what this woman’s real message was, and I’m mostly not kidding. Blah, blah, blah, I have a great ass that gets this kind of outrageous attention, blah, blah, blah.

[General Butt Naked]

You’ll notice that it’s never about their friend getting sexually harassed in public.

[Pro Libertate]

This is no revelation to me, but it may be to some of our younger commenters.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-Professor Stephen Hawking declared his support for assisted suicide

I cannot think of a more fundamental liberty than being able to decide when I want to pass on, and having the freedom to contract with someone to assist in that. Core axioms of libertarianism are that you own yourself and you own what the property you create (or are given) from your labor. Owning yourself comes first, even before property.

[Anonymous Coward]

But does your bundle of rights include a right to destroy?

[Irish]

I agree. If you want to die, you should have the right to do so.

I do think there’s a danger of people being coaxed into dying so that they ‘stop being a burden’ and am a bit worried about that. It should still be legal though.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

That sounds to me too much like leftists talking about their worry that the poor/women/disabled/etc., will be ‘coaxed’ into this or that if they are granted a freedom (organ donation comes immediately to mind).

[Irish]

Which is why I’m still in favor of legalization but point out that we should be vigilant for possible abuses.

Leftists use that argument against prostitution, for example, but the difference is that they believe prostitution should be illegal. The correct answer is that prostitution should be legal so that people being coerced into the industry will have legal recourse.

[Apatheist ?_??]

If were talking about the mentally disabled then yeah, there is a legitimate concern when it comes to organ donation. Which is what we are talking about with older people on their deathbeds. The concern is that they are not mentally capable to consenting to suicide.

Doesn’t mean it should be illegal but it needs to be watched out for. Best case is for people to put their thoughts on the matter in their living will and grant medical power of attorney to someone who they trust.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

No one is going to see this comment, but I’m gonna post it anyway.

I discovered something when I got old. They no longer want your parts. I’ve been an organ donor for over 40 years and now I’ve learned that everything I have (except one thing, corneas I think) is too old. So the “kill off the oldsters and harvest their parts” is, basically, bullshit.

… Hobbit

[Certified Public Asskicker]

The great Piers Morgan tweets:

Britain/Australia/Germany/Japan all have mental health issues and violent video games. They just don’t have the guns. Do the math, America.

[Auric Demonocles]

You know who else didn’t have guns in Germany?

[jesse.in.mb]

Joooooos?

[fish]

Squirrels.

Fucking threading!

[Anonymous Coward]

Except all four of those countries don’t track “murders” in the same way as America, as Piers Morgan ought to know since in Limeytown, a “homicide” isn’t counted as a “murder” until the conviction comes down.

[Irish]

It is true that they don’t have mass shootings though.

Of course, Venezuela, Mexico and Russia all have very strong gun control and murder rates that dwarf the United States. For some reason Piers cherrypicks his countries a little bit.

[Anonymous Coward]

If Piers Morgan is any indication, there aren’t 12 Brits whose lives are worth the ammo.

[RBS]

Why is he still here? Didn’t he threaten to leave after the last round of gun control “debate”?

[JW]

We’re doing Jezza a favor by keeping him. I’ve been promised a lap in a Koenigsegg as payment.

[PD Scott]

You misunderstood, Jezza promised May would give you a lap-dance. Koenigsegg is May’s stripper name.

[JW]

Damn it! Foiled again by that indecipherable British slang!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Switzerland and Israel have the guns. Do the math, Piers.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

But no violent video games. Only tetris.

[JW]

We really need a Piers Morgan exception to the NAP.

[JW]

They also don’t have protections for many basic rights that Americans enjoy, such as the speech right that he’s using to shoot his useless gob off with.

He’s not very good at math.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

This is the kind of duplicity that infuriates me. Why pick Germany rather than Switzerland? Germany is no more culturally connected to us than Switzerland. The latter is ignored because they have high gun ownership and yet relative peacefulness.

[Pro Libertate]

I don’t know if this is still true, but I could swear that I read some years ago that German was the biggest single ancestry group in the U.S. Meaning more of us have German blood than anything else.

[Sidd Finch]

Most of the time I’ve seen people say this it’s a reference to the census. I’m guessing German ancestry is a lot higher now than in 1941.

[Pro Libertate]

It sounds like WWI was the war where everyone changed their names or stopped calling German foods by their German names. Seems like it was less of an issue by WWII, at least for well-established German-Americans. My grandfather served with a very German name during the war, no issues at all.

[Sidd Finch]

Calidissent had a comment with the specifics, but the short story is that claimed English ancestry has plummeted with German going the opposite direction over the last 50 years. The census is mostly a popularity contest.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, I see. So Nazis are okay now?

[Sidd Finch]

too soon

[Calidissident]

Sidd, that’s partially correct. If you look at the Census, self-identified English-Americans fell from 50 million in 1980 to 25 million in 2010. Self-identified German Americans were 49 million in 1980, 58 million in 1990, 43 million in 2000, and 50 million in 2010. Overall, the (self-identified) English population is half of what it was 30 years ago, while the German population is about the same, but 8 million less than what it was 20 years ago.

This doesn’t make sense, as the total white population has continued to (slowly) increase (despite little European immigration) in raw numbers and intermarriage between European ethnic groups should also increase the number of people partially descended from any one group. Of course, at the same time, intermarriage also decreases the number of people solely descended from one group. So even if you know how many people descended from one country to some extent, that doesn’t necessarily tell you the amount of that particular ancestry the average person in the group has. Most white Americans have multiple ancestries, some of which they’re probably not aware of. A lot of white Americans (especially in the South, where English is by far the largest European ancestry) simply identify as “American.”

[Calidissident]

I did some genealogy over the summer and discovered I’m probably somewhere around 20% English (I was unable to trace some lines back, but that’s a fairly good estimate), which I (as well as my dad, who I get it from) was completely unaware of. It’s my third biggest source of ancestry, slightly behind German, which is slightly behind Italian (which is 25%).

I’m not sure to what extent the Census numbers are driven by Census restrictions on identification (I believe in the past you could only select one, but I believe now that’s changed, although I don’t know if you’re allowed to choose as many as you want), and to what extent their driven by a lack of knowledge of ancestry, or a preference to either identify as just “American” or some other, more exotic, white ethnicity.

[Calidissident]

*they’re

[Sidd Finch]

Thanks! I searched for your comment but couldn’t find it. I knew that English had decreased rapidly and wrongly assumed that German must have somewhat absorbed that.

A lot of white Americans (especially in the South, where English is by far the largest European ancestry) simply identify as “American.”

Even in the South there’s some shenanigans. Melungeons don’t actually have much native blood. Having spent some time there, I’m pretty sure coonasses and central Texans vastly overrate their French and German ancestry.

which I (as well as my dad, who I get it from) was completely unaware
of.

The English, especially the Puritans, had a huge head start in populating the place. I know you’re aware of this, but it seems like most people don’t really understand the effect of compounding returns for the founding population. A German writer at openborders.info couldn’t wrap his head around a 30 fold increase in population in a few hundred years even though there’s several ethnic groups that did that in the Americas.

As to your final paragraph, I have to think all are significant contributors.

[Sidd Finch]

Chael Sonnen is finally funny and Deadspin is outraged.

So anyway, he went on Fox Sports Live last night to talk about Floyd Mayweather and, to emphasize a dumb point, said, “I’ve never seen anybody in the history of America get so rich and so famous off of having complete wimps throwing punch at their faces. I know what you’re saying. You’re saying, ‘Well, it’s happened before, what about Rihanna?'” …

I’d explain what the problem is here for Sonnen’s core fanbase of men’s rights activists, truthers, and racists, but the idea that anyone would have to do so is just unbelievably depressing.

[Irish]

Isn’t that more of an insult to Chris Brown than Rihanna?

Also:

I’d explain what the problem is here for Sonnen’s core fanbase of men’s rights activists, truthers, and racists, but the idea that anyone would have to do so is just unbelievably depressing.

Really? Why is Sonnen’s fanbase supposedly so evil? I assume it’s because Sonnen is a Republican and Deadspin simply cannot abide that.

[Sidd Finch]

In Gawker world there are two kinds of people: ‘Good’ and ‘mra, truther, and racist’ (which are all, more or less, the same thing).

[Calidissident]

Not that I agree with the outrage over this comment or generalizing his fanbase like that, but Chael Sonnen is a major douchebag.

[Sidd Finch]

That’s the first time I’ve found his shtick even remotely amusing. The joke really was well-timed.

[Anonymous Coward]

I’d explain what the problem is here…

That Chael Sonnen is a self-promoting attention-whore, fighter of middling skill on his best day, and most importantly, your panties are bunched up so tight that your balls are turning purple?

[Killazontherun]

He’s says whatever he wants to come out of his mouth and I have no control over it! — /butthurtderp

[Archduke of Pantsfan]

Organisers of the Grand Prix of America in New Jersey are unfazed at being left off the provisional 2014 calendar and stress that work is continuing for a race next year.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Ohio State students find secret roommate living in hidden room of their home

An incredibly odd story about off-campus housing at Ohio State University is rightfully earning attention and a growing number of web hits in Buckeye country and beyond.

According to The Lantern, OSU’s campus newspaper, a group of male students leasing a typical fixer-upper home near the school were also unknowingly rooming with “some random guy” ? in their basement.

As Lantern assistant multimedia editor Chelsea Spears reports, the students initially joked about having a ghost when they found the doors to their cupboards, ovens and microwaves open without explanation.

“The roommates thought a locked door in the basement led to a utility closet,” Lantern staffer Kathleen Martini confirms. “When maintenance workers knocked the door down, they found a bedroom complete with framed photographs and textbooks.”

The secret bedroom belonged to a young man named Jeremy, who apparently attends OSU. He was not home when the room was discovered and was quickly evicted ? although the students facilitated contact with him beforehand and allowed him to move out his stuff.

Jeremy sounds like the smartest man on campus.

[Pro Libertate]

Lazlo? I thought he was at Caltech (disguised as “Pacific Tech” to protect the guilty).

[JW]

Damn your quick fingers.

[Pro Libertate]

Lazlo replaced them with bio-enhanced digits when he lived in Gainesville briefly in the 80s.

[Sidd Finch]

the students initially joked about having a ghost when they found the doors to their cupboards, ovens and microwaves open without explanation.

Jeremy is no Lazlo.

[Auric Demonocles]

Why were the maintenance guys knocking the door down, anyway?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Excised to make the rest fit the word limit, they discovered noises like an alarm and music coming from behind the door.

[db]

Anyong.

[Archduke of Pantsfan]

Can Electric cars be the future of motorsport?

[Mad Scientist]

Please, no. I have no desire to watch a race that’s only 2 laps long before the participants have to pit for a 2-hour recharge.

[JW]

Not only no, but fuck no.

[fish]

Britain/Australia/Germany/Japan all have mental health issues and violent video games. They just don’t have the guns. Do the math, America. Go fuck yourself Piers!

There…that’s better!

[Isaac Bartram]

Actually, all of those countries have had mass killings, most of which involved firearms (except Japan).

Australia’s Port Arthur massacre, 34 dead IIRC, led to Australia’s current almost complete gun ban. In spite of two events since then they are pretending that they are less violent that the US, in spite of an assault rate that is nearly double.

[Gray Ghost]

Isaac,

Where are you finding good assault and other crime data for AUS? I’m in an argument elsewhere with some smug asshole from Australia about, “we gave up our guns and lived happily ever after, blah, blah, blah” and I’d like some good data to shove down his throat. Along with interpretation guidelines, like how murders aren’t murders there until they’re solved. Stuff like that.

Thanks.

[Archduke of Pantsfan]

Madonna’s Reddit AMA: 10 things we learned

[jesse.in.mb]

Feeling less enthusiastic about trousers today?

[Archduke of Pantsfan]

only slightly

[db]

So today I got an iPhone (old work Blackberry died) and I promptly went about disabling all the features of it. Siri? Bye-bye. Itunes? Nah, don’t bother. Location services? Fuck no.
I wish there were an option for a decent phone with a good screen that does email and calls and that’s it. What a waste of money for my company to buy an iPhone and data plan for me just for that. I’m sure as hell not going to browse the web on it or use it for personal stuff.

[Generic Stranger]

Why not get an Android based phone?

[Archduke of Pantsfan]

Brazil may Opt out of Internet

[jesse.in.mb]

Finally. The only thing that Brazilians should be doing on the internet is appearing scantily clad and generally look pretty

[Calidissident]

Knowing your orientation, I knew I was taking a risk clicking those links, and I was disappointed by the second one, but the first one more than made up for that. Definitely want to go there at some point while I’m still young and single

[jesse.in.mb]

I’m glad you liked; I googled hard to put that first link on the table. I think I was targeting “relieved” more than disappointed on the second one. He’s a handsome guy, and I think I went overly tasteful.

[Calidissident]

I would say both. Disappointed that it didn’t link to more hot Brazilian girls in bikinis, but relieved in the sense that it could have be much worse than just a guy’s face haha

[jesse.in.mb]

That’s entirely fair. I try to throw in a little eye candy for the homo- and lady-libertarian set. Speaking of lady libertarians, did they completely go on strike?

[Calidissident]

“That’s entirely fair. I try to throw in a little eye candy for the homo- and lady-libertarian set.”

Of course. And although it’s not my cup of tea, I don’t object at all.

“Speaking of lady libertarians, did they completely go on strike?”

Conspiracy theory of the day: All the “female libertarians” on this site are all the work of a single person?

[jesse.in.mb]

Nicole just invented them so that she wouldn’t feel like this place is a total sausage fest ALL THE TIME (NTTAWWT).

[Archduke of Pantsfan]

AMC will air Mad Men in 2 parts.

[General Butt Naked]

Hit and Run business meeting.

[Fist of Etiquette]

First.

[General Butt Naked]

Tits or GTFO

[Tonio]

Dick!

[Biden's Scroteplugs]

The only person shot by an AR-15 at the Navy Yard: Aaron Alexis.

[Killazontherun]

Is Brad Delong the Joe Biden of the economics profession? From a tweet:

WE SIMPLY DO NOT HAVE A DEFICIT PROBLEM FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT THREE PRESIDENTIAL TERMS

That is all.

The deficit is already a sizable wealth transfer away from the middle class to the politically connected classes, but for the most elite beneficiaries, academicians like Delong, it’s best you didn’t know that.

[Killazontherun]

For a more detailed scrutiny:

http://www.economicpolicyjourn…..least.html

Wenzel has been on the hunt for DeLong of late. He has a good nose for sensing weakness.

[Irish]

Most of that deficit is based on promised payments that have already been made to people. Even if you buy that we won’t have a debt problem for the next 12 years, a statement that itself is questionable, that doesn’t mean we should keep the current entitlement apparatus in place until it’s too late to change it.

It would be like arguing that I don’t have debt problems because I don’t have to pay for my credit card until the end of the month.

[Coeus]

Waving a dildo for social justice.

I just discovered that someone’s doing all the Athiesm+ mocking for me. The site’s great.

[Tonio]

Was arrested for videotaping a cop though. #FunTimes

Even though I may disagree with her message, I support her right to do this. Allies are not all people we would take home to dine with our harems, but they are still allies for specific causes and issues.

[Coeus]

But wait, how would it have been spun if someone tried to interview the feminists with a dildo?

[Coeus]

And you’re missing the best part of the article (on the page, there are links):

What is harassment? In particular, what is harassment, abuse or at the very least sexist to these social justice warriors?

The c-word. Definitely the c-word.
Asking someone for coffee in an elevator.
Sharing a dongle joke with a friend within earshot of a female.
Saying bad things about Islam.
Questioning whether or not “feminists” should be allowed to physically assault people on the bus.
Concocting a spaghetti-based parody of religion.
Only showing parts of a body (it’s objectification). Perhaps in this case, a dildo doesn’t qualify as an object.
Suggesting any activity might be a “guy thing”.
Storify. Documenting/mirroring the Twitter thoughts of Twitter social justice warriors counts as harassment.
Unmoderated blog comments and pseudonyms.
Rape jokes. Rape jokes are definitely harassment, unless they’re made by a sufficiently progressive person.

[Irish]

The guy who writes that is himself pretty stupid though.

It is not decidedly feminist to support women’s choices in all situations.

This runs the risk of infantilizing several groups, but it remains to be said that the best example of ignoring choices leading to better results is the case of children.

What does Little Bobby want for dinner? Ice cream. Are we abusing the rights of children by ignoring that choice?

Similarly when the rich and poor alike want to entirely disembowel the welfare state, (notably for different reasons) we should ignore them. Their desired action (axing the state) does not support their stated aim (more wealth for all).

To use a more specific ‘men’s rights’ topic to compare to feminist concerns – men often should be ignored for their own sake. For example, if a man says he is ‘happy’ with his circumcision, this subjective data point does not support the idea that routine infant circumcision is a good thing.

In short, women that choose to wear the hijab/niqab/burqa should be treated as if they are poor tax protestors or men pleased with their circumcised penises.

In other words, this man’s stated position is that anyone whose beliefs he disagrees with should be ignored and that all evidence in favor of scaling back the welfare state doesn’t actually exist. He falls into the same ludicrous arguments from assertion that feminists fall into, and he essentially treats anyone who disagrees with him as a stupid child.

[Coeus]

Where is that from?

[Irish]

It’s from the link to his article about Islam in the text that you just quoted. He basically just argued that we should ignore the stated opinions of any person if we assume we know better than they do.

The person writing that blog is an authoritarian twit with no problem arguing from assertion or lying, he just happens to be less insane than the A+ psychotics.

[Coeus]

Pity. It’s the first objectionable thing I’ve seen on the blog. I still maintain that finding it has just reduced my (admittedly meager) workload of scanning A+ bullshit.

[uberfeminist]

I responded to Irish’s comment about the post in another branch of this thread. Glad you enjoy the blog, also check out Twitter and the Against-A+ subreddit!

[Coeus]

Interesting. Stick around the blog. This place is a rare combination of infantile humor and indepth philosophical debate. If you can see through the SJW bullshit, it’s just a matter of study to see through the rest of the political drivel.

Argue in good faith, and you’ll find this place a great example of the all-inclusive community that the A+ crowd claims they want to foster. Athiests, christians, buddists, we got ’em in spades. The only intolerence we have is for those who want to force others to do things for their own good. And it never hurts to hone your debate skills.

[uberfeminist]

FWIW, the word chosen was “disembowel”. I’d be fine with “scaling back” to some degree.

Definitely not meant to be “let’s ignore the will of the people” although I understand how it may sound that way.

It was an attempt to illustrate that what is “good” for a particular group is not necessarily accurately drawn by their experiences, wants and biases.

[Irish]

Now I feel bad. I don’t normally expect people I talk shit about on random blogs to read it. I’m even more surprised when they’re cool about me being a dick behind their backs.

My apologies for being an asshole. I don’t know if it makes it better that I thought you’d never see this.

[Fatty Bolger]

Sophie Balmer: Two arrests over teenager’s death after taking rogue ecstasy tablet

Two men have been arrested over the sudden death of a teenager who died after taking a rogue ecstasy tablet nicknamed “rock star”.

Sophie Balmer, 18, took the lime-green pill emblazoned with a five-pointed star motif and died in hospital on Sunday after complaining of feeling unwell.

The drug is sold as ecstasy but is believed to contain a cocktail of other substances that are potentially deadly.

Police have since warned people to avoid the tablet.

So this pretty young girl is dead, because God Forbid anybody be allowed to get legally high on anything other than alcohol.

And sadly, she’s not alone.

[PapayaSF]

Is there no honor among black market chemists any more? If you are going to manufacture ecstasy, do that. Don’t make poisonous crap and call it ecstasy.

[LardoSardo]

Sometimes man, you just have to roll with it.

http://www.Anon-Werkz.tk