Senate Passes Budget Bill, Cream Found To Eradicate HIV, Obama Speaks To Rouhani: P.M. Links

Credit: Mariya Gencheva/wikimedia

• The Senate passed a budget bill to avoid a government shutdown in a 79-19 vote this afternoon. Republicans in the House have vowed to reject the bill.
• An antifungal cream has been shown to eradicate HIV in cultured cells.
• The first conversation between an American and Iranian president in over 30 years took place today.
• A New Jersey Superior Court judge has ruled that the Garden State must allow same-sex couples to marry in light of the Supreme Court's ruling on DOMA in June.
• Texas State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), who came to national prominence because of her filibuster of abortion legislation in June, will be running for governor in 2014.
• Eight people are being held in Kenya in connection to the Nairobi mall attack.

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Comments

[Clich? Bandit]

SHUT IT DOWN

[General Butt Naked]

FUCK YOU, CUT SPENDING SHUT IT DOWN!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Texas State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), who came to national prominence because of her filibuster of abortion legislation in June, will be running for governor in 2014.

Seems like a terrible choice of terrible single issue for a single issue candidate in the Lone Star state.

[DJF]

But I thought democrats said that filibusters were bad

[Eduard van Haalen]

They can't help it, filibustering civil-rights legislation is an acquired habit.

[Pathogen]

Good... +1

[Hopfiend]

She has a chance in Austin and some small enclaves in Dallas and Houston. Texans are not going to vote for her. She could probably get elected in CA though.

[Jon Lester]

She'll find out the emerging Hispanic plurality of the Texas electorate isn't driven much at all by her single issue.

[Clich? Bandit]

See FIST That was substantive

[Fist of Etiquette]

It was.

[Clich? Bandit]

I am still working on a blockquote with italics and a link.

THEN I WILL BE A GOD!

[CE]

And then your "first" will actually count.

[Clich? Bandit]

baby steps bitch

[seguin]

Commenting, yo.

[Snark Plissken]

"This one time, at band camp..."

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Texas State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), who came to national prominence because of her filibuster of abortion legislation in June, will be running for governor in 2014.

Birth control in every medicine cabinet and an abortion clinic on every corner!

[John]

Yeah that is really going to motivate the Hispanic voters.

[#]

If she gets the nomination, this may be a case where the Dems are even more stupid than the GOP.

Though I wouldn't rule out the GOP candidate fucking up royally or saying something stupid so that she actually wins.

[Gadianton]

Glenn Abbot, the nominee presumptive for the GOP, is the current AG for Texas. He's joined Holder in a lawsuit to block the American Airlines - U.S. Air merger.

[Apatheist ?_??]

If I bother to show up at the primary I might as well vote for Miriam Martinez so we can have a hottie in office.

[Brett L]

Come to Texas, where we only elect the beautiful to the governership in the 21st century!

[cavalier973]

But she was born in Mexico! She's not even an American!!!!

[Apatheist ?_??]

As Perry and Bush have shown, it doesn't really matter how stupid the GOP nominee is here. Governor isn't really that powerful so having some dope who pushes the right buttons works just fine.

[db]

Old Fire House Burns Down

Fuckin' EPA agents should've kept their hands off the power supply to the containment grid.

[PD Scott]

Melted the firehouse doors? That's a pretty intense fire.

[seguin]

That was the last movie ever made to have an EPA goon as a villain.

You'd think it'd be fertile soil for villains.

[Redmanfms]

Wasn't it the only movie made with an EPA goon as a villain?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Republicans in the House have vowed to reject the bill.

All of them?

[CE]

Some of them.

[Pro Libertate]

That's odd. So there are Republicans in the Senate that love Obamacare? Could I see a list of their names?

[Rich]

Akaka (D-HI), Alexander (R-TN), Barrasso (R-WY), Baucus (D-MT), Begich (D-AK), Bennet (D-CO), Bingaman (D-NM), Blumenthal (D-CT), Blunt (R-MO), Boozman (R-AR), Boxer (D-CA), Brown (D-OH), Brown (R-MA) Burr (R-NC), Cantwell (D-WA), Cardin (D-MD), Carper (D-DE), Casey (D-PA), Cochran (R-MS), Collins (R-ME), Conrad (D-ND), Coons (D-DE), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), Durbin (D-IL), Enzi (R-WY), Feinstein (D-CA), Franken (D-MN), Hagan (D-NC), Hoeven (R-ND), Hutchison (R-TX), Inouye (D-HI), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE, Johnson (D-SD), Kerry (D-MA), Kirk (R-IL), Klobuchar (D-MN), Kohl (D-WI), Kyl (R-AZ), Landrieu (D-LA), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), Lieberman (ID-CT), Lugar (R-IN), Manchin (D-WV), McCain (R-AZ), McCaskill (D-MO), McConnell (R-KY), Mikulski (D-MD), Murkowski (R-AK), Murray (D-WA), Nelson (D-FL), Portman (R-OH), Pryor (D-AR), Reed (D-RI), Reid (D-NV), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Rockefeller (D-WV), Schumer (D-NY), Shaheen (D-NH), Snowe (R-ME), Stabenow (D-MI), Tester (D-MT), Thune (R-SD), Udall (D-CO), Udall (D-NM), Warner (D-VA), Webb (D-VA), Whitehouse (D-RI), Wicker (R-MS), Wyden (D-OR).

[Brett L]

Kay Bailey Hutchison? Is she trying to fuck TX over for not wanting her as governor?

[Ted S.]

I'm not certain what specifically that list of Senators did, but it's from the previous Congress (the one from 2011 and 2012). Didn't Cruz replace Hutchison?

[Rich]

You are correct, Ted -- I made a mistake in attempting to scoop it.

*** slinks off, crying ***

[Brett L]

Okay, yeah. That's more likely. I thought I had misremembered her retiring to run for governor.

[Pro Libertate]

Here is how I feel about that:

Bluto: What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer--

Otter: Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic. . .but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!

[Brett L]

So you feel that the Senate action was like the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor?

[Pro Libertate]

Precisely.

[pmains]

What? Shouldn't it be Flake (R-AZ) instead of Kyl (R-AZ)?

[Rich]

The yeas, from the senate website

Baldwin (D-WI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Hirono (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

[Too_Big_to_Fail]

Those who voted for cloture:
Alexander (R-TN)Ayotte (R-NH)Baldwin (D-WI)Barrasso (R-WY)Baucus (D-MT)
Begich (D-AK)Bennet (D-CO)Blumenthal (D-CT)Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)Boxer (D-CA)Brown (D-OH)Burr (R-NC)Cantwell (D-WA)Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)Casey (D-PA)Chambliss (R-GA)Chiesa (R-NJ)Coats (R-IN)Coburn (R-OK)Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)Coons (D-DE)Corker (R-TN)Cornyn (R-TX)Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)Gillibrand (D-NY)Graham (R-SC)
Hagan (D-NC)Harkin (D-IA)Heinrich (D-NM)Heitkamp (D-ND)Hirono (D-HI)Hoeven (R-ND)
Isakson (R-GA)Johanns (R-NE)Johnson (D-SD)Johnson (R-WI)
Kaine (D-VA)King (I-ME)
Kirk (R-IL)Klobuchar (D-MN)Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)Levin (D-MI)Manchin (D-WV)Markey (D-MA)McCain (R-AZ)McCaskill (D-MO)McConnell (R-KY)Menendez (D-NJ)Merkley (D-OR)Mikulski (D-MD)Murkowski (R-AK)Murphy (D-CT)Murray (D-WA)Nelson (D-FL)Pryor (D-AR)Reed (D-RI)Reid (D-NV)Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)Schumer (D-NY)Shaheen (D-NH)Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD)Udall (D-CO)Udall (D-NM)Warner (D-VA)Warren (D-MA)Whitehouse (D-RI) Wicker (R-MS) Wyden (D-OR)

[Brett L]

Excellent. Its good to have a convenient list of the Washington Party in the Senate.

[Ted S.]

They're "grown-up" Republicans. Or idiots who go along to get along, but never get anything in return.

[CE]

Senators who are so independent and wise, they put government unity ahead of party unity, or the wishes of their constituents.

[Zeb]

OF course they get something in return. Federal money going to their states. Isn't that what senators are for?

[neoteny]

+1 barrel of pork

[Pro Libertate]

Well, perhaps it's time their constituents actually voted them out of office. Fuck this nonsense.

[Brian D]

The 79-19 vote was for cloture. The vote for the budget itself was 54-44, along party lines.

[Mike M.]

Fuck that bullshit and the entire no-balls wing of the republican party. If you really oppose something, you vote against cloture.

[Pro Libertate]

I know this is "how things are done," but I'd prefer a little more willingness to fight from the Republicans in the Senate.

[Rich]

I got confused about cloture, vice the budget itself ... Yeah, *that's* the ticket!

[Ted S.]

An antifungal cream has been shown to eradicate HIV in cultured cells.

Does it eradicate HIV in uncouth cells too?

[Aresen]

Dammit. I was coming here to post that.

[Enough About Palin]

Monkey fucking here I come!!!

[Snark Plissken]

HIV is so jejune.

[PapayaSF]

Now all you have to do is figure out how to rub a cream on every cell in your body.

[Brett L]

It puts the cream on its cells or it gets the hose again!

[sloopyinca]

Here's a lot of Cream.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Eat your heart out, Suderman.

Americans by a 2-to-1 ratio disagree with President Barack Obama's contention that Congress should raise the U.S. debt limit without conditions.

Instead, 61 percent say that it's "right to require spending cuts when the debt ceiling is raised even if it risks default," because Congress lacks spending discipline, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted Sept. 20-23.

That sentiment is shared by almost three-quarters of Republicans, two-thirds of independents, and a plurality of Democrats. Just 28 percent of respondents backed Obama's call for a clean bill that has no add-on provisions.

[a better weapon]

but, but... MANDATE!!!

[CE]

and obstructionist Republicans who won't raise the debt "ceiling" every time Obama wants to borrow more.

[Killazontherun]

The flashy mulatto who just went through the House's money at the slots, he thinks he is making 'investments'.

[C. Anacreon]

But amazingly enough, NBC News last night had a poll that said pretty much the opposite, with almost the same numbers! This one said that Americans by a 2-to-1 say Obamacare should be distanced from any negotiations on the debt ceiling,and that we should just raise the ceiling and move on. Of course, NBC didn't say how they phrased the question -- I'm sure it was completely unbiased, correct?

[Calidissident]

The poll TIT cites doesn't specifically mention Obamacare.

[Fist of Etiquette]

An antifungal cream has been shown to eradicate HIV in cultured cells.

Oh sure, but the poor slob Johnny Lunchpale cells are left to fend for themselves.

[Ted S.]

Woo-hoo! I beat Fisty to the lousy joke!

(And what's a lunchpale, anyway?)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Johnny Sixpack?

[Ted S.]

Go back and re-read your lousy spelling. :-p

[Fist of Etiquette]

John Q. Public?

[db]

No, it's a sixpack of a lunchpale ale.

[db]

Which, concidentally, is the name of the next beer I will brew.

[Tonio]

A very old-timey name for a lunchbox. Or perhaps they actually used pails at one time.

[BakedPenguin]

Yes, they did.

[Tonio]

Kewl. Thanks.

[Tonio]

Johnny Lunchpail = Johnny Sixpack = Pedestrian, Working Class

[Fist of Etiquette]

WRONG. It's Lunchpale. He's Italian.

[BakedPenguin]

Cytotic privilege! Also, viruses are small, so this also counts as a microaggression. Maybe even a picoaggression.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Femtoaggression!

[Clich? Bandit]

yattoaggression?

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I tried running a site for Planck aggressions but everyone thought I was asking for stories of people lying down in public.

[Tonio]

No Plancking here, Mr.

[Killazontherun]

Yeah, you keep those matrices to yourself. Had enough with your space-time shenanigans, Plank!

[Cytotoxic]

First, it's 'Cytotoxic'. Second, I don't think the article mentions the cream being cytotoxic-does it?

[a better weapon]

Working class cells are the backbone of this organism!

[CE]

See, now you're othering us single cell organisms, and invertebrates as well, with your macho "backbone" talk!

[a better weapon]

But if we legitimize single cells, what next? Its a slippery slope, my friend.

Next it'll be plant cells with their crazy cell walls and plastids!

[Tonio]

Um, viruses are not even proper cells. They're barely alive.

[CE]

The first conversation between an American and Iranian president in over 30 years took place today.

You know who else had a one-on-one meeting with an American president?

[Rich]

Monica?

/Captain Obvious

[a better weapon]

Annette Bening?

[Palin's Buttplug]

The 'Axis of Evil' just isn't what it used to be.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Roswell aliens.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

A New Jersey Superior Court judge has ruled that the Garden State must allow same-sex couples to marry in light of the Supreme Court's ruling on DOMA in June.

That doesn't solve the problem that they're getting married in New Jersey.

[John]

I seem to remember being told by all right thinking Reasonites that I was just a paranoid wingnut for saying that decision meant universal right to gay marriage.

It is almost like I was the only one who actually read the case and thought about it or something.

[Zeb]

I don't think many thought that it wouldn't be used this way. Some perhaps thought that it shouldn't, but what should be an what is often do not coincide.

[Cytotoxic]

I thought that was a good thing and still do.

[califernian]

there's nothing inconsistent or non-libertarian with a position that if the state is going to grant marriage (or other) rights the state should grant those rights to anyone without discriminating.

And also that state-enforced anti-discrimination laws are crap.

And also that the best case scenario is no state involvement whatsoever in the realm of marriage (or in fact most things).

[Lord at War]

califernian-

I love that you support my right to marry Ms Rand(my cat).

As she doesn't have an income, it cuts my income tax rate by ~20%.

Also, she now will be eligible to collect my Socialist InSecurity spousal benefits when I die.

Not to mention, her kitties are obviously eligible to collect my SS survivor benefits. Because "the state should grant those rights to anyone without discriminating.

[DesigNate]

Didn't the part that got struck down only apply to the fedgov?

[mad libertarian guy]

Yes. Which is why this ruling is the epitome of stupid.

[GayMarriageNow]

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/que.....52632.html

Sacha Baron Cohen drops out of Queen biopic due to wanting to portray Freddie Mercury "with warts and all", but the band apparently wants a more sterilized, family-friendly picture.

I'd like to see the political affiliation breakdown for victims of AIDS. It would seem that in the western world, the disease is largely a result of dangerous lifestyle decisions, advocated by liberals, namely, drug use and homosexuality. While it is my understanding that it is not this way in Africa, in the west, AIDS does indeed seem to target traditionally liberal demographics.

As such I recommend that we cease research into a cure for it, so that there will be fewer liberal voters in the future.

[Palin's Buttplug]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Why conservatives are losing Americans.

[John]

It is Mary Stack, the one person on here who is actually crazier than you.

Yeah fuckhead, we know the routine. Have one progtard sock puppet pretend to be from the Right, post idiotic shit, then have other progtard sock puppet concern troll about it.

I see they have you the job of concern trolling since you are so fucking stupid you would fuck up cutting and pasting the talking points.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Mary Stack, the one person on here who is actually crazier than you.

[Citation needed]

[Zeb]

Oh, she's definitely crazier. Weren't you around for all that?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I missed it. Or was she White Indian?

[Zeb]

Yeah, that's the prevalent theory anyway.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Go back to making your Santorum 2016 signs, you idiot.

[Cytotoxic]

Oh wow what a stinging comeback.

[Zeb]

Let me guess. You don't really want gay marriage now?

Anyway, it is too late for your evil plan to work. We've already gotten to the point where HIV infected people can pretty much live out their lives. And assholes like you are just going to make people get more political about it.

[Tonio]

It's "American," Zeb. Just a troll. Ignore it.

[Zeb]

Yeah, yeah, I should know better.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"the band apparently wants a more sterilized, family-friendly picture"

I can show you that movie now. Wanna see it?

Wanna see it again?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

If it's one thing that people think of when it comes to 70s rock bands, it's "sterilized and family-friendly."

[Brett L]

I blame the Bee-Gees and The Eagles.

[Zeb]

Though Queen was probably one of the more restrained and family friendly bands of the era.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Tallest midget?

[Brett L]

It was the 70s. Liberace was good, wholesome entertainment for the whole family.

[Boisfeuras]

I'll wait for the family friendly Mayhem movie.

[The Last American Hero]

If you haven't seen Anvil, the Story of Anvil, you are really missing out.

[Agammamon]

' . . .and homosexuality'

I feel bad about responding but . . .

Homosexuality is not a lifestyle, let alone a dangerous one.

*Promiscuity, coupled with failure to use known methods to reduce the risk of catching or transmitting a disease is a dangerous lifestyle - too bad for your narrative that such activities are very popular with *heterosexuals* also.

[Sudden]

Admittedly, HIV transmission is far more likely in homosexual sex, largely due to sodomy, which has a higher incidence of blood transfer due to the anus bleeding more easily than a vagina.

[Cytotoxic]

As insane as Mary is, it is true that HIV is, in the west, largely an MSM disease (Men who have sex with men). Gay men have different sex habits and that means more STDs.

[Tonio]

Yeah, but the way that Merkin pointed that out was mean-spirited.

The poster's willingness to sacrifice all those African AIDs patients, many of whom acquired the disease at birth, tells you all you need to know.

[Brandon]

You fucking asshole, you made me agree with Shreek. Fuck off, you worthless taint.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The People's Economy of Venezuela, Now With 100% More Graft (and somewhat less in the way of toilet paper)

"It is possible to travel abroad for free due to this exchange rate magic," said local economist Angel Garcia Banchs.

The profit is realized from an arbitrage process known locally as "el raspao," or "the scrape."

Credit cards are used abroad to get a cash advance ? rather than buying merchandise. The dollars are then carried back into Venezuela and sold on the black market for some seven times the original exchange rate.

The large profit margin easily absorbs the cost of flights and accommodation for a trip.

"I've been able to buy new clothes and give some cash to all my closest family members!" said one delighted Venezuelan lady, just back from a trip to Europe.

?Some Venezuelans do not even bother leaving the country, but merely send their credit cards to friends overseas, who swipe the cards and send the cash back to Venezuela.

[Ted S.]

Some Venezuelans do not even bother leaving the country, but merely send their credit cards to friends overseas, who swipe the cards and send the cash back to Venezuela.

Send cash through the mail???

[Doctor Whom]

So you see? Chaveznomics has actually worked. [/my liberal Facebook friends]

[Brandon]

So of course it will be impossible to get a credit card in Venezuela by next week.

[Warty]

Wait, so if I just make sure to jack off with Lotrimin every now and then, I'm immune to AIDS? FINALLY

Also, Carcass.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

That's different from your normal routine how?

[Warty]

That's what I'm saying. My hard work has finally paid off. BRB, Imma gonna go sodomize some bums.

[Tonio]

You said "bums."

[Warty]

Miss Bumbum Brasil

[hamilton]

Imma gonna go sodomize some bums.

I see what you did there.

[Not an Economist]

I thought you used artisanal mayo?

[Pathogen]

No..no..no, your secretary got this all screwed up here, it's "arty's anal mayo"... it's all about the un-used portion.

[MP]

Holy shit. They're still recording? I haven't bought a Carcass album since Heartwork.

Yes, and I used the words "bought" and "album" when referring to music.

[Warty]

And it's really good, too.

[Agammamon]

Its not so much the Lotrimin giving you immunity as its the jacking-off means you don't get close enough to someone to get infected.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Ted Kennedy: Economic Terrorist!

But it is bunk to suggest that the tactic of using the debt limit to gain legislative leverage is novel. Washington Post "fact checker" Glenn Kessler, who isn't exactly Obama's biggest critic, reaches back 40 years for a pertinent precedent:

In 1973, when Richard Nixon was president, Democrats in the Senate, including Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Walter Mondale (D-Minn.), sought to attach a campaign finance reform bill to the debt ceiling after the Watergate-era revelations about Nixon's fundraising during the 1972 election. Their efforts were defeated by a filibuster, but it took days of debate and the lawmakers were criticized by commentators (and fellow lawmakers) for using "shotgun" tactics to try to hitch their pet cause to emergency must-pass legislation.

President Obama said that GOP lawmakers now are trying to "extort" repeal of the health care law via the debt limit, but that's also what Democrats wanted to do with President Nixon, who opposed the campaign-finance reforms.

Kennedy and Mondale lost the battle, but they won the war. In 1974, after Nixon resigned, Congress passed sweeping new controls on political speech. President Ford signed the legislation on Oct. 15 of that year.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

This columnist was no admirer of Ted Kennedy, and we view government efforts to control political speech as an affront to the Constitution. But it would be ludicrous to suggest that Kennedy was a terrorist, even though that is the implication of the Pfeiffer-Times-Yglesias argument. Agree or not with its cause, it had significant popular support, in large part because of the corruption of the Nixon White House.

Here is where the analogy to the Nixon years gets very interesting. The Republicans did not sneak into Congress to stage a surprise attack. They were duly elected in 2010 precisely because of widespread public opposition to ObamaCare. That law was enacted by the requisite majorities, if bare ones, in both houses of Congress. Yet while it was not illegitimate, it felt that way, and it would be fair to characterize its enactment as a failure of democratic governance. Had members of the House and Senate responded to their constituents' wishes rather than presidential and partisan pressure, it would have gone down to defeat, probably overwhelmingly.

It's different when the right people do it.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

'My mind recoiled but my body betrayed me': Roman Polanski's rape victim describes sex attack in graphic detail for the first time

[John]

Come Johnny, it is not like Polanski is Sarah Palin or anything.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

But she still wants him back in America with all charges dropped. Huh.

[PD Scott]

So she can carry out her revenge?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Without reading the article, I'd guess to spare herself the limelight and the compassionate media accusations that she was a little whore bringing down a wonderful artiste.

[Clich? Bandit]

nope...read the article. rather disturbing.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Quite disturbing. Polanski said everyone wants to have sex with young girls. Maybe he was having a Pauline Kael moment? Everyone *he* knows is a perverted creep?

But the sneering at the victim seems out of line:

"Steve Cooley, the LA District Attorney who tried to extradite Polanski from Switzerland in 2009, said that Samantha had become an 'aider and abetter' in her efforts to portray a 'child molester' as a victim.

"'You may want to ask her the details of the settlement she reached with Polanski,' he said, referring to a 1993 out-of-court, six-figure settlement after she sued him in civil court.

"'And while you're at it, ask how she enjoyed walking down the red carpet at some of these events feting Polanski for his genius and accomplishments ? which she has done.'"

[Eduard van Haalen]

From the California Constitution's Victims' Rights provision

"(b) In order to preserve and protect a victim's rights to justice
and due process, a victim shall be entitled to the following rights:

"(1) To be treated with fairness and respect for his or her privacy
and dignity, and to be free from intimidation, harassment, and
abuse, throughout the criminal or juvenile justice process....

"(6) To reasonable notice of and to reasonably confer with the
prosecuting agency, upon request, regarding...the determination whether to extradite the defendant..."

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/const-toc.html

Is there a way to lock Polanski and this prosecutor in the same cell?

[Zeb]

Or maybe she is just a decent and forgiving sort of a person. It does happen, you know.

Anyway, nothing says that Polanski can't be a wonderful artiste and a vile rapist both.

[califernian]

Why is Polanski a vile rapist in California but not in Tennessee?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Or Spain?

[Marc F Cheney]

So she WAS not unresponsive.

[Brett L]

Ugh, I was going to post something from the Atlantic but today is all toadying to Hillary or character assassination of Congressional Republicans.

[CE]

I think you're reading yesterday's issue.

[Brett L]

Sometimes they get outside the fluffing and its interesting and well-written. Other times, its just public masturbation.

[Ted S.]

I think it was actually an advance copy of tomorrow's edition.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Experiment that convinced me online porn is the most pernicious threat facing children today: By ex-lads' mag editor MARTIN DAUBNEY
...But when Jonny pinned their lists on the board, it turned out that the children's extensive knowledge of porn terms was not only startling, it superseded that of every adult in the room - including the sex education consultant himself.

Martin was shocked by what the teenagers said

'Nugget, what's that?' asked Jonny.

'A nugget is a girl who has no arms or legs and has sex in a porno movie,' chortled one young, pimply boy, to an outburst of embarrassed laughter from some, and outright revulsion from others.

...But the more mundane answers were just as shocking. For example, the first word every single boy and girl in the group put on their list was 'anal'.

When questioned, they had all - every child in a class of 20 - seen sodomy acted out in porn videos. I was stunned they even knew about it - I certainly hadn't heard of it at that age - let alone had watched it and as a result may even have wanted to try it....

[Longtorso, Johnny]

...What we discovered was a revelation. When shown porn, the reward centre of normal volunteers barely reacted, but that of the compulsive porn users lit up like a Christmas tree.

The compulsive porn users' brains showed clear parallels with those with substance addictions.
Everybody on the project was astounded, even Dr Voon, who admitted she had been 'sceptical and ambivalent' about the study at the outset.

If porn does have the insidious power to be addictive, then letting our children consume it freely via the internet is like leaving heroin lying around the house, or handing out vodka at the school gates.
And this toxic effect is filtering down directly into young girls' lives.

The most shocking testament came from Professor Gail Dines. Regarded as the world's leading anti-pornography campaigner, she has interviewed thousands of men and women about sex and pornography.

'When you interview young women about their experiences of sex, you see an increased level of violence: rough, violent sex,' she says.

'That is directly because of porn, as young boys are getting their sexual cues from men in porn who are acting as if they're sexual psychopaths.

'Pornography is sexually traumatising an entire generation of boys.'...

[a better weapon]

If porn does have the insidious power to be addictive, then letting our children consume it freely via the internet is like leaving heroin lying around the house, or handing out vodka at the school gates.

...and then we'll get amazon.com banned, because we all know shopping is addictive. Then online games, cuz duh! It's just like crack cocaine. Social media? You bet your ass that electric drug-smut is gone! GONE! I CRAVE CONTROLLLL!!!!!!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

As long as they don't ban my German YouTube pron.

[Agammamon]

You know, while its GRIMDARK, 40k is almost a parody of the real world.

This sort of thinking is what shaped the Eldar society into what it is 'today'.

Rigid, humorless, and highly disciplined because they are too prone to becoming 'addicted' to their various pursuits and will allow those obsessions to destroy them.

Its a society designed and run by leftists.

[Enough About Palin]

"The most shocking testament came from Professor Gail Dines. Regarded as the world's leading anti-pornography campaigner, she has interviewed thousands of men and women about sex and pornography."

Why am I reminded of James Spader?

[Brandon]

Professor Gail Dines looks like Roseanne's ugly sister, so I'm her motives for hating pornography might not be completely pure and objective.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The interesting thing is that this is no Bible-thumping Savonarola or grumpy Mrs. Grundy, but a former editor of this magazine:

http://bit.ly/15zKICz

(NSFW)

So he is basically making a declaration against interest.

[Doctor Whom]

The compulsive porn users' brains showed clear parallels with those with substance addictions.

So that proves that porn is the cause. There couldn't possibly be another explanation, e.g., that some people are prone to addictions of whatever kind.

[oncogenesis]

If porn does have the insidious power to be addictive, then letting our children consume it freely via the internet ...

Fuck you, collectivist scumbag.

[mr lizard]

Proffessor Gail Dines????.... Oh does she now?

[Stormy Dragon]

'Nugget, what's that?' asked Jonny.

'A nugget is a girl who has no arms or legs and has sex in a porno movie,' chortled one young, pimply boy, to an outburst of embarrassed laughter from some, and outright revulsion from others.

I think the kids were just making up words to troll the reporter.

[Agammamon]

There's tons of 'concepts' that children have about the adult world that don't really exist. They here someone making a joke, its racy and shocking so they repeat it among their peers and the kids treat it like its a common phenomenon.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Refer to the discussion about kids who watch South Park....

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The best damned defense of ObamaCare you'll read all year*

*Assuming that you have been reading a straight diet of Pravda and the Guardian since 1996

It's already in the New York Times, but if you haven't seen it you have to read Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear making the case for why his state needs Obamacare and needs it as fast as possible. It's a bracing read, especially because we know that in the state of Kentucky you don't do yourself any favors by associating yourself with Barack Obama.

A really important point he makes is that he thinks the program will go well in Kentucky because he's been trying to make it go well.

Well done, Sadbeard -- you've written something more stupid and obvious than the script to a Transformers movie. Frankly, I didn't think it was possible.

[MJGreen]

When it doesn't go well, it will still be because the wrong people were implementing it.

[PD Scott]

"Capitalism is the root of all evil"

I would not be surprised if the young lady pretty much thought that.

[Doctor Whom]

I've known enough real-world examples. Never underestimate the power of doublethink.

[Coeus]

The real reason college education is expensive

You're gonna love this. It's completelly insane, and almost certainly written by someone with a worthless degree.

A sample:

If you are a pundit pushing MOOCs as the cure-all to the high cost of higher education, you probably are not making these kinds of distinctions--in which case, you are either missing the point, haven't done your homework, or are deliberately being deceptive in order to convince people that educators are too incompetent to keep their own costs under control and corporations would do it better. I have no way of knowing the intentions behind the "college is too expensive" drumroll but I am deeply suspicious of those who think simply privatizing higher education will solve "the problem." Especially when those same pundits haven't taken the time to really diagnose, explain, and address what the "high cost" problem actually is and what contributes to it, what caused it, and what it actually means for "the public" to have an affordable educational system.

[Coeus]

and the best:

Let me end this post with a few more facts and figures that must be included in any discussion of why college costs so much. These are simply "talking points" to keep in mind the next time someone raises the "college costs too much" argument.

Declining public funding of higher education: "One of the most important factors driving price (tuition) at public colleges and universities has been the decline in state support for higher education

[Pro Libertate]

It just goes to show that people can say and believe anything and not get torn to pieces by their fellow political travelers. Because it's truthy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Without higher education you won't be as well versed in economics as this person.

[Aresen]

My four-year-old horse is better versed in economics:

He knows he will be rewarded if he does what I ask and will get a boot if he slacks off. The funny thing is that the number of rewards is increasing over time and the number of boots is decreasing over time.

[Enough About Palin]

Do you kick your dog as well?

[General Butt Naked]

That might be because a normal horse only has 4 legs.

[Brandon]

Public funding is still funding. The cost is still the same whether it's being borne by individuals or taxpayers.

[Brett L]

Especially when those same pundits haven't taken the time to really diagnose, explain, and address what the "high cost" problem actually is and what contributes to it, what caused it, and what it actually means for "the public" to have an affordable educational system.

1% growth of faculty positions, 3000% (not a typo) growth of administrative positions. Anyone who isn't going to discuss the elephant in the room, is, I agree, not credible.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Plus the incredible expansion of the student body, mostly in useless degrees.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Coupled with a multi-decade spending spree of facilities that would make a Beverly Hills housewife weep with envy.

[General Butt Naked]

I just went to a career fair at my uni. They tore out all the stairs and front of the events center and are putting new ones in 50 feet from the door. It's a huge project.

The building is 10 years old.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Also when the faculty positions that do grow are in things like Marxist Agitation, it's not exactly helping the problem.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

One of the many reasons I don't bother donating to my alma mater. if they have enough money to devote resources to this shit, they don't need donations from me.

[Killazontherun]

this.

[Brandon]

"College costs too much, and I am not paid enough!"

-Marxist agitation professor.

[CE]

The real reason college costs keep going up is the student debt bubble enabled by federal guarantees.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I do agree that privatization of college won't do anything for costs. This is because both private and public schools alike are paid for by those free-flowing subsidized loans.

[John]

Last I looked it was largely privatized. There are private colleges right?

haven't done your homework, or are deliberately being deceptive in order to convince people that educators are too incompetent to keep their own costs under control and corporations would do it better.

That or maybe you understand that constantly providing subsidies gives colleges, public or private, no reason to control their costs.

[Brett L]

Is this sexual assault or just aggressive foreplay? Being a cismale heterosexual, I can't judge for myself.

But when Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi kissed Minnesota Lynx player Seimone Augustus in the middle of a WNBA playoff game, it was still a little odd.

[CE]

If I did that in the workplace, I'd be fired.

[Ted S.]

It depends: did you get off on watching them kiss?

[Brett L]

No, but I know people of my privilege level would get fired for sexual harrassment in the workplace if we did that. Was just wondering about the WNBA privilege level.

[BakedPenguin]

Funny, the thought of WNBA players not kissing women is what I'd find odd. NTTAWWT.

[Bam!]

Seymour Hersh lays into the American media.

[Winston]

The Media loves the government. So would they oppose anything it does? It might lead to *gasp* a budget cut!

[Brandon]

Fuck yeah, Seymour Hersh. I did not know he was still alive. I assume when he goes, it will not get nearly the media attention of, say, a Snookie dying.

[Rhywun]

a Snookie dying

Oh god, there's more than one?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Breaking Bad is not as smart as you think

Walter White has only two attributes: He wants to take care of his family and he is involved in the marketplace. In other words, he is exactly like everyone else in America. His need to take care of his family is a little more extreme maybe than for you and me, since he is in debt and has cancer. The market he chooses to enter ? meth in the Southwest ? is a little harsher than others. But ultimately the choices he faces are identical to those that anyone else involved in capitalism faces ? survive or don't. The key moment of the entire show was when Walt had to decide whether to kill Krazy-8. He has a long list of reasons not to kill him, including "murder is wrong," but then he has one reason to do it: "He'll kill your entire family if you let him go." Basically the show has been that choice, which isn't much of a choice, over and over and over again. Even earlier this season, Walt was willing to go to jail, to endure personal collapse, to save his brother-in-law's life. He cursed out his wife to protect his wife and then disappeared, never to see them again, in order to save his family. Walt's current circumstance is as "retiree," in a stage of the meth business that apparently involves a wood stove in a single room in New Hampshire. It also probably involves dying.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

That is one of the dumbest things I have ever read on Breaking Bad, and I read the AV Club.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

The problem is capitalism. We are quite used to blaming the people who happen to run things for the realities of the entire marketplace. After Walter blows up Gus Fring, and his wife asks him what happened, he says, "I won." He's as surprised as anybody, but if he's going to run the meth market of New Mexico, he's going to run it properly, which means he has to kill people. He deals with the situation exactly the same way he always has. The true face of evil in Breaking Bad is Todd ? perfectly polite, perfectly engaged with his work, perfectly willing to do whatever is required of him, an ideal creature of the marketplace.

Yeah, the real problem is the free market in drugs.

THIS IS WHAT ESQUIRE ACTUALLY BELIEVES

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Next on the AV Club:

Hamlet Was Just About Some Suicidal Asshole

PLOT HOLE -- Don Quixote Was A Moron

The Pilgrimage to Canterbury Is Just A Dumb Framing Device For Short Stories

[Brett L]

Actually, Don Quixote was just a near-sighted Alzheimer's dementia patient with waaay to indulgent caregivers.

[Pro Libertate]

That's, um, one reading of the book.

[BakedPenguin]

Right, only two attributes. His transformation and descent due to the choices he makes is totally irrelevant to the show.

What an idiot.

[MJGreen]

In Breaking Bad, a real question is whether meth or Madrigal, the fictional shipping conglomerate, is the true source of evil.

Sure, if you decide to create that question. The show certainly doesn't ask or say anything like that.

[MJGreen]

It's also pretty hilarious that he writes all this bullshit, trying to make you believe the show is this interested in criticizing "the marketplace," when the only person to talk like that in the show was Gale. The only libertarian, the only person in the show to say, "There's a demand for it, so I guess I'll satisfy it," was also portrayed as one of the more innocent victims.

Walter's attribute is his vanity, you dumb fuck. "His second attribute is that he's involved in the marketplace"? What the fuck does that even mean!?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

No, Pride, but I agree with the rest.

[MJGreen]

I guess that's more accurate, as he's proven to be as good as he thinks he is, so vanity may not apply.

[Brandon]

Esquire: Making Salon look like a bastion of intelligent criticism.

[wheelock]

A magazine that criticizes capitalism on one page and endorses shoes that cost 5k a pair as what you should be wearing on the next is pretty rich.

[Dweebston]

As both drugs are already approved for use in humans - both in the US and Europe - the researchers say this means the normally lengthy process of drug development should be less costly and time-consuming, bringing closer the prospect of global elimination of HIV and AIDS.

Excellent! The normal ten-year process can be pared down to seven or eight years.

[Brett L]

There will be fucking in the streets and I will be too married to be a part of it.

[Ted S.]

Train your wife to be kinkier.

[a better weapon]

***slowly reaches for pen and pad of paper without breaking eye contact***

Could I get you to elaborate on that?

[PD Scott]

Letting land lie fallow for a few years could raise crop yields by 2.5 billion tons globally.

Shocking statement from a United Nations University Assistant Director:
To turn theory into reality, Thomas says current ideas around corporate social responsibility need to be turned on their heads. Public relations priorities need to be dumped in favor of meaningful approaches to boosting "shared value." Those approaches could help enrich land owners, governments and the rural poor who so often work the land. Take fair trade as an example of a corporate social responsibility program that comes up short. "Fair trade just means dividing up the pie in different ways," Thomas said. "But shared value means expanding the pie. It's a slightly different concept, and one that can lead to economic growth at the same time as giving more equitable benefits to the communities."

[Brett L]

Umm... I guess I'm glad the UN has discovered crop rotation.

[CE]

And decided to enforce it at gunpoint, because private landowners would never do something that would make their assets more productive.

[db]

Fuck, they taught that in 4th grade History class when I was in school.

[Clich? Bandit]

it is like THE first thing you can do in CIV III to help food production.

[cavalier973]

You could also get XP in "Fallout" by telling one of the farmers about the technique.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Bill Maher: California proves liberalism works

It wasn't that long ago that pundits were calling California a failed state and saying it was ungovernable. But in 2010, when other states were busy electing whatever Tea Partier claimed to hate government the most, we elected a guy who actually liked it, Jerry Brown.

Since then, everything Republicans say can't or won't work -- gun control, immigration reform, high-speed rail -- California is making work. And everything conservatives claim will unravel the fabric of our society -- universal healthcare, higher taxes on the rich, gay marriage, medical marijuana -- has only made California stronger. And all we had to do to accomplish that was vote out every single Republican. Without a Republican governor and without a legislature being cock-blocked by Republicans, a $27 billion deficit was turned into a surplus, continuing the proud American tradition of Republicans blowing a huge hole in the budget and then Democrats coming in and cleaning it up.

How was Governor Moonbeam able to do this? It's amazing, really. We did something economists call cutting spending AND raising taxes. I know, it sounds like some crazy science fiction story, but you see, here in California, we're not just gluten-free and soy-free and peanut-free, we're Tea Party free!

My God.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

More:

It's so ironic -- the two things conservatives love the most, the free market and states rights -- are the two things that are going to bend this country into California's image as a socialist fagtopia. Maybe our constipated Congress can't pass gun control laws, but we just did. Lots of 'em. Because we don't give a shit about the NRA. Out here that stands for "Nuts, Racists, and Assholes." So while the rest of America is debating whether it's a good idea to allow guns in bars or a great idea to allow guns in bars, California banned lead bullets. Which is a no-brainer, because bullets don't need lead, and lead kills birds and gets into the food supply of people who hunt their own food. Which explains why Ted Nugent is such a raving lunatic.

Okay, I hereby rescind my support of the NAP and support gibbeting this asshole when the time comes.

[Warty]

Which is a no-brainer, because bullets don't need lead, and lead kills birds and gets into the food supply of people who hunt their own food.

No it fucking doesn't

Bill will issue a correction soon enough, just wait.

[Pro Libertate]

Besides that, where do we get the lead from in the first place?

[MP]

Pencils?

[Pro Libertate]

That must be it. We transmute the graphite into lead, which isn't found in nature.

[BakedPenguin]

MP was being silly. Republicans force third world children to mine lead, arsenic (to put in drinking water), carbon, and evil. It's only government regulation that ever stops them.

[Pro Libertate]

So no secret transmuters? Dangit.

[Marshall Gill]

Republicans force third world children to mine lead, arsenic (to put in drinking water), carbon, and evil.

Technically, the compound is called evilinium and it has higher number of eviltrons than any other compound, except petroleum.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Now there's a man who's going to get invited to some sick California cocktail parties.

[Winston]

Emphasis on "cock" and "tail." Not mention lots of Cocaine.

[Coeus]

34 Fans
One of the major reasons that it's hard to compare the policies of different states with each other is that states sabotage each other. California might raise its corporate income tax rate, but then Texas comes along and lowers theirs to try to poach business. That's like parents concluding that healthy eating is a failure because they offered their kids a nice salad and a big mac and the kids chose the big mac. But, even as California eats significantly healthier than other states, so too do many companies decide that other advantages are worth it.

Another example of this is that California tries to provide a great safety net for its people. A good idea, right? Yes, until other states literally start buying one-way bus tickets for their homeless population to move there. And then leaders in those states have the gall to say California isn't working because of the amount they're spending on the social safety net! This from the party of personal responsibility!

I'm not saying that all problems in California are caused by this, but it's certainly a major issue.

Keep rockin' it California. There's plenty of us who love the modern world you're helping to create.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Someone doesn't know how incentives work.

[Coeus]

The analogy used tells you all you need to know.

[cavalier973]

Nothing raises a state's bad cholesterol like government. It clogs the arteries and causes hypertension.

[Pro Libertate]

It just goes to show that the left is totally and irrevocably committed to the Big Lie. It's not just stupidity, and it's not just the people telling the Big Lie who are guilty.

[Winston]

OMG NOT FACTS

[John]

They are nuts. There is no point in even engaging these people. You hate to leave stuff like that unchallenged. But it is so counter factual that it is insane.

[Andrew S.]

Remember that Bill Maher, among other failings, is an idiot anti-vaxxer, and has made statements that would lead one to believe that he doesn't believe in the germ theory of disease.

Ergo, Bill Maher is an idiot, and should never be listened to.

[Winston]

Ergo, Bill Maher is an idiot, and should never be listened to.

Well Gillespie does:

http://reason.com/blog/2013/04.....tarians-ha

[Brandon]

I actually liked that Gillespie column.

[Bam!]

You don't get it, Andrew. He gets nominated for Emmy's, which means he speaks the truth.

What awards has Hollywood given you?

[Andrew S.]

I won a talent show in 6th grade...

[CE]

Apparently, "making [it] work" doesn't mean what they think it means, vis-a-vis high speed rail.

[MJGreen]

I can't believe people are this desperate for a win that they're jumping the gun on this. You're pointing to a low point of three years ago. Do you really want to declare victory now? You're absolutely sure that the state's finances won't plummet again?

[PapayaSF]

California's "surplus" is largely accounting gimmicks and rosy projections. They do this all the time. Later on many will be shocked when spending exceeds projections and income does the opposite. Plus, this does nothing about the state pension crisis.

It's basically the CA equivalent of what happened nationally years ago, when the Democrats proclaimed that Obama's economic policies "ended the recession."

[Marshall Gill]

And Bill Clinton either "balanced the budget" or "ran a surplus", all while the debt continued to increase.

[The Last American Hero]

To the extent he did either, it was a Team Red Congress that hated him, impeached him, and handed him reduced budgets. He followed, not led on the issue of spending.

[Brandon]

Really? He is giving California credit for HSR working? How many functional routes do they have up and running? How many trains?

[Andrew S.]

I have a friend who has been leading a charge against a Walmart opening. I've tried to sensibly talk to him about it and get an answer other than "WALMART BAD!", failed, and given up.

The city commission will soon be hearing an appeal on their grant of a zoning variance for Walmart. He's invited me to attend. I'm considering doing it so I can argue in favor...

(Walmart's bad, but the Target a few blocks away is apparently okay)

[Bam!]

Screen that South Park episode for the commission. And then the Penn & Teller Bullshit episode.

[The Late P Brooks]

But ultimately the choices he faces are identical to those that anyone else involved in capitalism faces ? survive or don't.

Dog-eat-dog kkkapitalismz!

[CE]

If only someone had outlined an "anti-dog-eat-dog" bill.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Jesus died to save us from taxes:

The Gospel According to Bill O'Reilly's New Book 'Killing Jesus'

http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....jesus.html

[Brett L]

I'm pretty sure Jesus advocated paying taxes if you were going to take part in the state. But I could be wrong. Render unto Caesar has been used many ways.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

What if what Jesus was saying is that nothing belonged to Caesar, though?

[CE]

I read it as "render unto Caesar (or your current government) the things that are [rightfully] Caesar's (or your current government's)," which would be nothing.

[Brett L]

Well, the government did mint the coins, so I guess they could be seen as the governments. Also, something, something ROADZ!

[Marshall Gill]

It should be read as "Our movement will die by crucifixion and fire if we don't declare our loyalty to Caesar" and nothing else.

[cavalier973]

Hmmm...crucifixion seemed to jump-start the movement, rather than end it.

[John]

Right after he saved California from the Republicans. Only the low sloped forehead easily lead retards pay any attention to Maher. So it is not surprising you, fitting that description, listen to him.

and one more thing

[John]

CHRISTFAG!!!!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Bill O'REILLY you idiot.

aka Mr. Conservative.

[John]

He is about as conservative as you are "libertarian".

[CE]

Now who's using the "True Scotsman" test?

[John]

I think saying a retarded fascist living in a box behind the 711 is not a "libertarian" is one no true scottsman statement that is okay to make.

[The Late P Brooks]

"Fair trade just means dividing up the pie in different ways," Thomas said. "But shared value means expanding the pie. It's a slightly different concept, and one that can lead to economic growth at the same time as giving more equitable benefits to the communities."

Could somebody run that through the translator for me?

[Warty]

Trade doesn't create value, government does.

[Brett L]

Fair trade means paying the same for the same amount of goods, only cutting the profits of the buyers/aggregators/wholesalers and raising the profits of the producers. Shared value means using science to produce more while being paid more without massively expanding demand, maybe? So, I guess... magic.

[Agammamon]

So . . . the free market then?

[Brett L]

I don't think so. Usually you get paid less when you produce more while demand is static, but that's okay because science lowers your cost so your per unit profit is static or rising. Standard supply and demand curves. So the "being paid more" is the magic.

[Pro Libertate]

Some people have more shit than others. They shouldn't, so we'll take it. Everything else is just random babble.

[PD Scott]

I was just shocked that anyone associated with the UN could concede that the pie can expand.

[a better weapon]

I noticed that too.

[sarcasmic]

"Fair trade just means dividing up the pie in different ways expanding the pie," Thomas said. "But shared value means expanding the pie dividing up the pie in different ways. It's a slightly different concept, and one that can lead to economic growth stagnation at the same time as giving more equitable benefits free shit to the communities."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Telegraph and the Guardian are on the same story (all over my Xian friends' FB feeds):

Brain scans of porn addicts: what's wrong with this picture?
The Cambridge University neuropsychiatrist Dr Valerie Voon has recently shown that men who describe themselves as addicted to porn (and who lost relationships because of it) develop changes in the same brain area ? the reward centre ? that changes in drug addicts. The study, not yet published, is featured next week in the Channel 4 TV show Porn on the Brain. Neurosceptics may argue that pictures of the brain lighting up in addicts tell us nothing new ? we already know they are addicted. But they do help: knowing the reward centre is changed explains some porn paradoxes.

In the mid-1990s I, and other psychiatrists, began to notice the following. An adult male, in a happy relationship, being seen for some non-romantic issue, might describe getting curious about porn on the burgeoning internet. Most sites bored him, but he soon noticed several that fascinated him to the point he was craving them. The more he used the porn, the more he wanted to....

[PapayaSF]

"Dr. Valerie Voon" is a name right out of a Stan Lee comic.

[mr lizard]

You what rhymes with Voon?...,

[Tonio]

Moon?

[cavalier973]

Bassoon!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Note to Ted Cruz: Green Eggs and Ham supports Obamacare

On Tuesday, during his 21-hour marathon "filibuster" against Obamacare, he read aloud to his daughters back home the Dr. Seuss book "Green Eggs and Ham." But he clearly missed its message.

In the Seuss tale, Sam-I-Am, a lover of green eggs and ham, tries to persuade a friend to try them. But the man resists. He resists so persistently and so adamantly that he ends up sounding a lot like the Republicans on Capitol Hill who are determined to defund President Obama's healthcare law. But in the Seuss story, the man is finally persuaded to try the offending eggs and ham, and, much to his surprise, he loves them.

If only the GOP would take a page from that book.

And if Sam I Am had to rob Yertle Turtle to pay for the green eggs and ham, well so be it!

[Pro Libertate]

Oddly, not everything in life is about TEAM politics.

[Brett L]

Great, make them defend Dr. Seuss's racist WWII-era drawings. Punch them right back in the mouth with their own poorly researched shit.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm a libertarian, right of Attila the Hun, and I read that book to my daughter. I'm certainly scarier than Cruz as far as my "radical" politics go.

The only message even the most crazed Marxist could squeeze out of that book is that one should try foods before rejecting them out of hand. You might like them! That, and maybe that the guy offering the green eggs and ham is a wasteful capitalist pig.

[Brett L]

Agreed. Kids often decide they don't like food that they probably do, I guess because that's one of the few ways of exercising control at a young age. Its universal and really written as a subversive pro-parent propaganda tract. But none of that has anything to do with Cruz, Obamacare, or politics.

[Pro Libertate]

Not the slightest thing. It's totally unreasonable and stupid to even criticize him for reading it--every filibuster or similar speaking marathon contains something of the sort. It has to. To his credit, he got in some very good criticisms of the ACA--interesting how these idiots aren't talking about those.

[Brett L]

When you having nothing to argue for, argue about nothing.

[Pro Libertate]

It's all so surreal these days. I bet the 1920s and 30s were like this.

[Killazontherun]

Criticizing Cruz for reading Green Eggs and Ham is petty, trivial and a complete deflection. Of course that is where they were going to go. I knew what they were going to say and write before their so clever remarks were even penned.

[Killazontherun]

The moment I heard him read from the book.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Libertarianism is not on the far "right" - fascism is.

That is why you are so clueless.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

You historically illiterate buffoon, neither the fascist parties, nor contemporaries would have considered them representatives of the "hard right", even in Euro contexts -- they have always been considered a "radical center" ideology.

In an American context (where there has never been a history of fascism as a mass political movement), libertarianism (or more accurately, classical liberalism) is certainly a "right wing" movement to the extent that the categories of right and left have relevance.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Pure garbage. Radical Islam is right-wing conservatism - the dead opposite of liberalism.

Every poly sci follower in the world knows the Middle East needs liberalism.

[Juice]

I, too, hate being labeled "right wing." It's completely inaccurate.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It is entirely accurate in the context of American politics. With brief interruptions, from the inception of the republic to around the time of New Deal politics, the country was governed by classically liberal parties and ideologies. If there is a tradition in American politics, it is that of free markets, broad toleration of religions and philosophies (admittedly this one gets a large asterisk), and restrained, Constitutional government.

This makes classical liberalism a "right-wing" ideology in America.

[ThatSkepticGuy]

"Radical Islam is right-wing conservatism - the dead opposite of liberalism."

Which is why the Left Wing has such a time-honored tradition of sucking Islamist cock, from deifying Palestinian suicide bombers and sociopathic shitbags like Leila Khaled, to inventing a whacky conspiracy theory about how Bush was really behind 9/11 so as to absolve the religious nutjobs responsible, to demanding we hand Salman Rushdie over to the Ayatollah as a human sacrifice, to demanding that we curtail free speech so as to not hurt the Islamists' pwecious feewings every time someone depicts Mohammed to Berkeley campus regressives showing up in droves to stamp their feet and hoot while Ahmadinejad denounces the Holocaust as a filthy Jew fabrication.

Get. Fucked. Preferably with something hot and sharp.

"Every poly sci follower"

Is just as worthless, dishonest, hypocritical, atavistic, sollipsistic, destructively wrongheaded and sexually gratified by totalitarianism as you are, fuckwad.

[Boisfeuras]

The left/right spectrum is not valid or meaningful. There really is no consistent way to categorize politics in a two-dimensional continuum, other than libertarian/authoritarian. Even the Nolan Chart is hopelessly flawed, because the authoritarian/libertarian dichotomy cannot be broken into economic and personal freedom; the two are inseparable.

A libertarian/authoritarian spectrum puts fascism and socialism precisely where they belong, on the same end. Peronism and other "third way" movements paint themselves as "centrist", but they are certainly authoritarian. Fascist corporatism has little substantive difference from socialism, as the business cartels are beholden to and controlled by the state. See Reisman's article on Nazism as socialism.

[Boisfeuras]

* I should have said "The traditional or commonly accepted left/right spectrum"

[Palin's Buttplug]

Agree, Boiseuras.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I think that right/left have some validity, but less as developed political ideologies and more as cultural stances, both of which have some elements which a libertarian or an authoritarian can appeal to.

As far as the United States goes, to the extent that we want to/can map these cultural stances onto the pre-political impulses that you describe (freedom/authoritarian), I think that the "right" is more amenable to the freedom ideologies and impulse than the left.

In other countries and times (19th-century Latin America, for example) the "left" cultural bucket was probably better for mapping freedom ideologies like classical liberalism onto it than the "right". Generally speaking, in the western world socialism and its various cousins and products have largely shifted such mapping such that the "left" is almost always more authoritarian than the right (though in many Euro countries it's a close contest between who can be more authoritarian).

[Boisfeuras]

T: I largely agree with you. If the terms were meaningful, American conservatism, by definition, should really be considered classical liberalism, which informed the Founders. (In this sense, I can understand libertarianism as "right-wing", in a U.S. context, as the modern successor to classic liberalism). I think framing it this way helps convert people from the "right" to libertarianism.

I agree American "rightists" are generally much more amenable to more libertarian planks (if, perhaps, not principles) than "leftists". My theory is it's because many self-defined conservatives (rank-and-file, not politicians) have a reverence for the Founders and Constitution. The reverence might be totemic, or not fully thought out, but since the Constitution was written on classical liberal principles, it is at least a good starting point.

On the other hand, liberals/progressives usually see those things as outmoded, and they are an obstacle to their political goals. I cannot think of a leftist platform that could be implemented if the Constitution was obeyed.

Comparing across countries and political systems muddies the water. At least for me?I don't know too much about other countries' politics. European-style conservatism seems to me a totally different animal, even from U.S. conservatism as commonly defined, as they seem to have traditionally sought to protect the privileges of the nobility.

[cavalier973]

It's a decidedly anti-vegan story.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Peter Dreier's just trying to rehab Occidental's one famous graduate.

Note to Dr. Dreier: your life is a failure. The honorable thing to do is to commit seppuku.

[MJGreen]

Let's try deregulating every industry and dissolving at least twenty executive agencies.

You might just love it!

[a better weapon]

Deregulation and a slim executive branch? We haven't done that since slavery was legal! So you like slavery, huh?

-DerpProg

[The Late P Brooks]

Since then, everything Republicans say can't or won't work -- gun control, immigration reform, high-speed rail -- California is making work.

*makes motorboat sound, falls down stairs*

[John]

That high speed rail is only going to cost 30 billion but it sure will be great for the six people who ride it. Choo Choo

[C. Anacreon]

$30 Billion? Try $100 Billion.

*makes motorboat sound, falls down stairs*

[#]

To liberal idiots passing laws in of themselves is success. Doesn't matter that we don't have a functioning train or lower gun crime. We passed laws that said we do!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Hey, Sadbeard will love it and that's all that matters.

[Coeus]

Krugman is completely clueless, ain't he?

Once upon a time there was a government official with a plan. He had become convinced that the way to fix the economy was to send out teams of saboteurs, who would systematically disrupt production around the country. Why did he believe this? Never mind; for some reason it was what all the Very Serious People were saying.

So the plan went into action, gradually ramping up over time. Eventually the saboteurs were doing a significant amount of damage ? the best guess is that they were destroying about 3 percent of the country's output. But after 3 years two things began to happen. First, the Rt. Honorable Saboteur stopped ramping up his efforts, and even began slacking off a bit. Second, the private sector got a little better at coping with the teams of saboteurs, thereby reducing the damage they were doing.

As a result, the economy began growing again ? in fact, somewhat faster than usual, as sabotaged factories managed to come back on line. And the Rt. Honorable took a victory lap. "See," he said, "my policies have been a triumph and my critics proved wrong."

It's a silly story, isn't it?

Yes it is. Tell us again how the regulatory state is the reason for our current (albiet slight) growth, and not because the tea party tied the hands of some of the major regulatory boards.

[John]

He is like shreek and tony. Everything is the government. They are all sick evil people.

[CE]

You know who else had a plan?

[hamilton]

Baldric?

[Pro Libertate]

Only cunning plans in his case.

[Brett L]

Mao, Pot, and Stalin all come to mind. Nixon's was secret... Black Adder?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The Cylons?

[Pro Libertate]

I'd say that was proved to not be the case.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

But it said so at the beginning of every episode!

[Clich? Bandit]

THEY DID NOT HAVE A FUCKING PLAN!!!!

I WANT MY HOURS BACK!!!!

AN ANGEL?????? REALLY??????

FUCKKKK!!!!

[Enough About Palin]

Papillon?

[Brett L]

Well played.

[Bam!]

"Once upon a time there was a government official with a plan. He had become convinced that the way to fix the economy was to send out teams of saboteurs, who would systematically disrupt production around the country."

His name was FDR.

(I could have linked to any number of FDR programs but the needless destruction of animals while people went hungry, in my mind, most vividly demonstrated FDR's utter incompetence.)

[Ted S.]

That's not incompetence; that's evil.

[Boisfeuras]

I prefer to give people benefit of the doubt, but it's not possible with FDR, knowing the things he was responsible for. I cannot think of any reasonable explanation other than the man was simply evil.

Such as, the forced repatriation of 2 million anti-communists to the USSR, and their certain death. This even happened on U.S. soil, such as this episode at Fort Dix (PDF):

First, they refused to leave their barracks when ordered to do so. The military police then used tear gas, and, half-dazed, the prisoners were driven under heavy guard to the harbor where they were forced to board a Soviet vessel. Here the two hundred immediately started to fight. They fought with their bare hands. They started ? with considerable success ? to destroy the ship's engines. . . . A sergeant . . . mixed barbiturates into their coffee. Soon, all of the prisoners fell into a deep, coma-like sleep. It was in this condition that the prisoners were brought to another Soviet boat for a speedy return to Stalin's hangmen.

[Boisfeuras]

And his collaboration with Stalin cannot be dismissed as naivete. His first Ambassador to the USSR, William Bullitt, was assigned there in 1933 as a Soviet sympathizer but became an ardent anti-communist after seeing the system firsthand. He persistently warned FDR about Stalin, and not to trust him. FDR once responded:

Bill... I don't dispute the logic of your reasoning. I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of man. Harry [Hopkins] says he's not and that he doesn't want anything but security for his country. And I think if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.

FDR replaced Bullitt with a political sycophant, Joseph Davies, the Walter Duranty of ambassadors.

[VG Zaytsev]

Holy shit, FDR sounds like a fucking retard in that quote.

[PapayaSF]

And now, of course we live with the legacy: we spend billions (mostly to agribusiness and rich "farmers" in cities) as farm subsidies to raise the cost of food, then spend billions more on food stamps because food is too expensive. A cunning plan!

[CE]

Or another variant of the silly story: if only there were a major hurricane every week, our economic growth rate would skyrocket!

[Ted S.]

Let's just blow Chicago to smithereens. Massive stimulus!

(Sorry, Nikki. We'll give you advance warning.)

[Jordan]

Um, sending out saboteurs to break windows would be an example of Keynesian stimulus.

[MJGreen]

I don't like to give Krugman traffic, so I'm missing his explanation, but...

How is that a silly story?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Why the new tech boom is bad

First, there is unsettling realization that the middle is losing economic ground while Silicon Valley execs babble on about "changing the world" for the better. Income inequality is growing ever worse, and it is increasingly clear that one of the forces fueling this trend is the technological innovation flowing out of the Bay Area...This is the new normal, and for those not lucky enough to have catered foodie gourmet lunches in brand-new downtown office complexes, the new normal sucks. Back in 1999-2000, the ridiculousness of what was happening was so obvious that it was hard to take it seriously...Sooner or later, the bubble would pop and sanity would be restored and all those annoying dot-commers crowding your favorite bar or restaurant would go back to where they came from. The traffic would finally ease up.
...A mature Internet economy is generating huge riches, and it is remaking the face of San Francisco and the larger Bay Area in the process. But unless you really, truly want a job chauffeuring the new rich around town, or delivering their same-day groceries, or pouring their flights of craft beers ? jobs that, incidentally, won't pay enough to afford you an apartment anywhere in San Francisco ? this new boom may not seem worth cheering about. Might as well root for it to fail.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, not all growth is a "bubble." It just goes to show how lost statists really are about economics. It's like magic to them.

[John]

Just a question of luck. That is honestly what they think.

[Brett L]

Hey, do you think the fact that there are no middle class jobs in the Bay Area has anything to do with Bay Aryan hostility to the working class?

[Pro Libertate]

I like how Democrats go around saying they're "protecting" the middle class. What crap. The middle class is taking most of the abuse, and they'll be defined into being "rich" for tax purposes if things keep going the way they are.

[Zeb]

The whole point of being middle class is that you can provide for yourself and don't need anyone to protect you or give you free shit. That's why it's a desirable thing to be.

[Pro Libertate]

It's also how things have gotten so out of whack. People could ignore all of the DC nonsense without getting hurt too badly. Until now, that is.

[C. Anacreon]

The new $10/hr minimum wage is going to solve that problem.

*makes motorboat sound, falls down stairs*

[Warty]

Might as well root for it to fail.

You know what, fuck this. I'm gonna quit reading depressing shit written by evil scum and concentrate on watching the Miss Bumbum contest.

[CE]

So many fallacies, so little time...

1. The middle class is wealthier than at any time in human history.

2. Silicon Valley execs aren't "babbling" about making the world better, they're out doing it.

3. Increasing income inequality just means that economically productive people are reaping the rewards of their innovation, further incentivizing others to try to do the same.

4. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs aren't just creating more service sector jobs catering to them (which is another plus), they are creating lots of high-skill high-tech high-paying jobs in their companies (further undermining the author's contentions concerning the first 3 fallacies listed above.)

[Palin's Buttplug]

All true. Why is high tech overwhelmingly liberal?

Your theory?

[C. Anacreon]

An incredibly high number the high-tech people I cross paths with out here are newly-minted libertarians. That includes I lot of folks I know that work at Google and Apple. Some of their prominent bosses still talk a good liberal game, but I'm sure that's just so they get invited to the right cocktail parties, and are probably more libertarian than they realize.

[#]

Its a cultural thing. Tech jobs just tend to be in urban areas. Urban areas are generally lefty.

I've noticed this in my industry. Peopel from urban areas are lefty. People from suburban/ rural are right.

[cavalier973]

People are smart about different things, and stupid about different things.

[General Butt Naked]

3. Increasing income inequality just means that economically productive people are reaping the rewards of their innovation, further incentivizing others to try to do the same.

Though it could be argued that government pumping dollars into the economy coupled with a favorable regulatory environment causes increasing income inequality.

[PapayaSF]

Importing tens of millions of Third World peasants might also have something to with it.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Income inequality is really a pointless statistic when you consider this. It would be like complaining that a charity becomes more income unequal when it admits the people it is meant to serve.

Well, yeah.

[General Butt Naked]

I can't really argue against inequality caused by increased market freedoms, but I can't see how bringing in a bunch of lettuce pickers means the end of the middle class.

Was there some golden age in america filled with middle class lettuce pickers? I must have missed that day in history class.

[Brett L]

You didn't have Cesar Chavez Day in your school? I was assured that when farmworkers unionized, it was the dawn of a great era. It was also about the time that guest worker programs got all fucked up and it got hard to be a seasonal immigrant worker, so people just stayed.

[General Butt Naked]

...and those farmworkers went on to have tens of millions of welfare and foodstamp receiving anchorbabies that stole all the good java programming and engineering jerbs from good honest white folk.

[VG Zaytsev]

Cesar Chavez opposed illegal and legal immigration.

[Marshall Gill]

Since the very poor have little by definition, increased inequality simply means that some people are getting more wealthy. The poor, who actually remain that way, don't have less because Bill Gates or Carlos Slim have more. Economics is not a zero sum game.

[General Butt Naked]

Never said it was a zero sum game. I was providing a counter to the claim that increasing income inequality is a reward for increased innovation and wealth creation.

If that were the case, then there'd be a convincing capitalist argument for increased regulation and federal reserve meddling as those two things seem to track most closely with rates of income inequality.

[VG Zaytsev]

Economics is not a zero sum game.

But it can be.

The sugar quotas, for example, are an example of government policy enriching a few at the expense of everyone else. To some extent the same is happening in tech because of the strong IP paradigm.

[califernian]

example of government policy

Therefore, not an example of economics

[VG Zaytsev]

It's economics but not free market.

[Winston]

Oh Bill Maher. He is everything Reason wants in a libertarian except he is a Democrat cocksucker. Was he ever a libertarian or is he a real life victim of Bush Derangement Syndrome?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

He wants cocaine and hookers to be legal because those are the things he personally has interest in and that's about it.

[Bam!]

He was never a libertarian. He just liked to smoke pot, fuck hookers, and thought Ann Coulter was kind of hot.

[Palin's Buttplug]

No one scores 100 on the LP Purity Test.

But wanting to end the Drug War and the War on Hookers is worth at least 60 more points than advocating a 2% tax cut.

[sarcasmic]

Is it true that your mommy taught you to carry an umbrella wherever you go because if you look up in a storm you'll drown?

[DesigNate]

Well none of us here can score higher than your 94%. I guess you should just leave and find a REAL libertarian website.

[califernian]

He is to stupid to understand what it means to be for ending the Drug War and positituion laws.

THat goes for you too

[Zeb]

He was a bit more of a libertarian when he had Politically Incorrect. But not much.

[VG Zaytsev]

Was he ever a libertarian or is he a real life victim of Bush Derangement Syndrome?

He got seriously twisted when he was fired from ABC post 9-11 for saying that the terrorist were not cowards. A point that he was correct in making.

[Virginian]

Some high level derp from my Facebook.

Original Post: "They won't call it Obamacare when they see how well it works"

Comment One

And of course, this is really the only reason they want to hold it back. If they thought it was going to be so unsuccessful, it'd be easy to let the law run for 2 years and get the votes to repeal it later. In the end, they're terrified that such a bill that goes so against their entire worldview might be beloved. I'm not sure I think that's what will happen, but I think that's what their fear is.

Comment Two

Great story told by Obama himself in a conference call with all nurses helping with the Affordable Care Act (AFCA). He said he was at a county fair where they were educating people about the new options they would have for insurance (AFCA), and some guy, after learning how the system worked and all his options said "Wow, this is so much better than Obamacare!"

[Pro Libertate]

Seriously, does anyone who isn't experiencing brain damage really think this law will work? I don't care if you pray to Obama, the bad news has been coming in a steady stream for years.

[John]

They are insane. They actually think this is going to work. When it doesn't, they are going to be devastated and a good number of them either suicidal or dangerous.

[sarcasmic]

Nah. They'll blame the evil corporations and their greedy profits. Or Republican obstructionism. Or the rich. You keep forgetting that when results don't match up with intentions, someone else is to blame.

Market failure! Bring on single payer!

[C. Anacreon]

Market failure! Bring on single payer!

Bingo. This has been the plan ALL ALONG and many are not even shy about saying it. Obamacare will fall flat, and next the consensus will be "we tried the free market with our exchanges and it failed. Now it's clear the only thing that will work is government control of all health care."

And then so much for the effective chemo I've been on, because I'm sure they'll say it's too expensive, and the manufacturer has a profit motive, so we should go back to the generic cancer treatments of 30 years ago, which are so cheap! (And of course ineffective, with less than a year life expectancy -- but at least they are not a product of capitalism!!)

[sarcasmic]

It's really sad, because all innovation will stop. In a hundred years they'll be using the same medical technology as today.

[Winston]

And good luck getting rid of socialized medicine once it happens. Reason's own Matt Welch is a fan of France's.

[Cytotoxic]

Socialized medicine ain't gonna happen. America is too broke the proggies are too late.

[VG Zaytsev]

France's system would actually be an improvement on the pre-Obamacare US system.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Single payer will never happen here. It has about 10% support in the general populace.

[sarcasmic]

Single payer will never happen here. It has about 10% support in the general populace.

No fucking shit, dipshit. That's why they're going to go with programs intentionally doomed to failure with plans to blame the (not-so) free market, with the only solution being more government, and the end game being single payer.

Are you really that stupid? Ah, yes. You are. I keep forgetting.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Predictions are not you wingnuts strong suit.

You are 0 for 36 this decade.

[Cytotoxic]

...what?

[VG Zaytsev]

Meh, he's correct in this case.

Single payer means that private medical transactions are criminalized. There's no fucking way that will happen in the US.

Either we'll have a public system with a private system for those that can afford it analogous to the primary and secondary education systems; or we will have a system of socialized catastrophic care with private sub-catastrophic care. Which isn't that different than the status quo ante before Obamacare.

[Redmanfms]

Single payer means that private medical transactions are criminalized. There's no fucking way that will happen in the US.

So, exactly what Britain has.

[BakedPenguin]

Britain actually does have urgent care type places that take cash payment.

Private medical care offers a back door exit to patients tired of the madness that is becoming the NHS. Constantly we are overwhelmed with horror stories of the length of waiting lists, the lack of resources and the understaffed nature of a number of hospitals.

[califernian]

Single payer means that private medical transactions are criminalized.

They already are.

[Warty]

Obama Himself. Is that the official way to refer to Him?

[Virginian]

Yeah she believes the bullshit anecdotes that spill from his lips. Like, believes in them as the Revelaed Word of the Lord.

Of course she loves to sneer at religious people though. Because her God is on TV every night, instead of invisible like all the other gods.

[John]

That is the funny thing about this. If the Republicans really were evil wreckers they would be quietly standing by waiting for this time bomb to go off. Instead, Cruz at least, is incredibly earnest and wants to disarm it.

Tony was derping on here about he just knows how wonderful it is going to be. When it turns into a complete disaster and the middle class finally rises up and demands something be done, I have a feeling it is going to crush a few souls. Tony and the derpers on your FB page are never going to forgive America for not loving their greatest achievement.

[Eduard van Haalen]

If it crashes that badly, the next step will be, "see, I *told* you we needed single-payer, but conservative fearmongering blocked it! Are you happy now, conservatives?"

[sarcasmic]

"Those greedy corporations are siphoning off profits that could be used to give care! Government doesn't waste money on profits, which makes government more efficient! That's why we need single payer!"

[Eduard van Haalen]

And they will pat themselves on the back for having the "courage" to tell these necessary truths.

[#]

John,

I would temper your expectations here. Yes this bill sucks and will create a lot of damage. But the world isn't literally coming to an end on Jan 1st.

Most people who have insurance through work or are on medicare are not going to see any drastic sudden effects.

So even if it's fucking over signifigant slices of the population most people will either shrug their shoulders or stick their fingers into their ears.

[Palin's Buttplug]

True. I have been trying to tell that moron that for months.

90% of America won't be affected by the ACA. Most of the other 10% will be positively affected.

[The Last American Hero]

some folks at UPS and most restaurant workers disagree.

[#]

No BP, 90% of people will get harmed. It's just not going to be an all of a sudden harsh thing in the short run. Maybe 10% of the population gets some kind of benefit, 10% -10% gets a varying degree of instant up front and the other 70% get gradual harms of high premiums/taxes, less choice and lower quality over time.

[Cytotoxic]

You're a lying retard.

[#]

And nice to know BP is in the stick his fingers into his ear camp.

[Marshall Gill]

You got your letters turned around. BP is Baked Penguin. The turd in human form is PB.

[BakedPenguin]

Thanks, Marshall.

[BakedPenguin]

There's also another actual libertarian commenter here who just goes by the initials BP.

[hamilton]

Seymour Hersch: "The Bush era, I felt it was much easier to be critical than it is [of] Obama. Much more difficult in the Obama era..."

[Winston]

BOOOOSH was a White Texan (sort of) Republican whereas as Obama is a black Northern Democrat. The former was everything the media hates while the latter is everything the media loves.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Anyone critical of Dumbya was called anti-American back then.

The poor Dixie Chicks were ostracized for merely stating they were ashamed of Bush.

[Winston]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REPoVfN-Ij4

[Virginian]

The Dixie Chicks forgot their audience.

True story: Toby Keith is an Obama supporter. Notice he doesn't say that at his concerts. He waves the Stars and Stripes, not the Big Blue O.

[#]

He WAS an Obama supporter in 2008/09. He's said stuff more recently thats not flattering.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Likewise Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are big Obama supporters.

The more intelligent, creative, or productive one is the more likely they support Obama.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Were you molested by the GOP party mascot as a child? Surely there is some reasonable explanation for your mindset.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I was repeatedly butt-fucked by the GOP 2001-09.

And I was a lucky one considering that 4500 Americans died for nothing in Iraq due to the GOP.

[The Last American Hero]

and fucksticks like your God-Emperor's Secretary John Kerry - who voted for the war. Good thing your God got us out of Iraq in 2009 like he promised. Good thing nobody died in His "good war" over the last five years either.

[Brett L]

And Tim McGraw is your support for this? I mean, he's quite productive, but I'm pretty sure most of the songs he sings are bought for him by the label. Same with his wife.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I don't know. The only country music I have is Johnny Cash.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Yachts are so passe: Private luxury submarines debuts in Monaco

Graham Hawkes, inventor of the "underwater plane," made his debut at the Monaco Yacht Show this week in a bid to entice billionaire boat owners to take the plunge.

"This is literally like flying underwater," Hawkes, a U.K.-born ocean engineer who has spent decades designing cutting-edge diving suits and submarines, said in an interview. "Once you've done that, you don't want to do anything else."
Hawkes is one of four submarine vendors who for the first time are all at the Monaco show -- one of the world's top yacht gatherings -- to display multimillion-dollar high-tech wizardry they say makes perfect accessories for the wealthy.

The first step towards world domination: build underwater lair.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

"Once you've done that, you don't want to do anything else."

Been there, done that, and he's dead wrong. Though there are some cool aspects of it.

[Zeb]

You've driven a new, private luxury submarine that just made its public debut?

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

No, just the "flying underwater" bit. I didn't know he was being that specific. Yeah, I could live with doing nothing but driving a luxury yacht of any kind for a while.

[sarcasmic]

I would imagine the difference between a "underwater plane" and a Navy submarine would be the difference between a sports car and a bus.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

There's the stench, too.

[sarcasmic]

There was a recent article in the paper about a local boy who was on the international space station. He said it stinks up there too. Described it as camping, with the only way to wash being wipes. Gross.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I bet. At least the boat can ventilate sometimes. Until then you're soaking in the recycled BO and farts of a hundred guys.

[sarcasmic]

At least on a boat you've got showers. No showers on the ISS. Just wipes. *shudders*

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

If they're similar though, you get used to it really quickly. We're talking hours here. But it only lasts while you're in the environment. My first deployment my wife picked me up and on the drive home I thought she had left a gallon of milk open in the back seat the whole time I was gone.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm stunned. I just learned that The Most Interesting Man in the World was a red shirt, and no, I'm not kidding.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Figures he learned how to be The Most Interesting Man in the World by being under Kirk's command.

[Auric Demonocles]

One of Kirk's best episodes, too.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, I know. Great episode, doesn't die. I'm overwhelmed.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

J.J. Abrams should adapt it for his next Star Trek movie.

Because that's boring old Trek, it needs more shooting, explosions, and LENS FLARES!!!

[Pro Libertate]

If I were directing any Trek at all right now, be it the stupid movies or a new series, I'd get him in it somehow.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Eh. Fanboys always focus on the wrong things for criticism in the new movies. The style and 'splosions are what's good about these new films. The actors are also quite good -- it's the poor characterization and lousy story that suck.

If they'd given the new film a story that made even a lick of sense and didn't rehash everything from the first movie, it would have been a good movie.

[Pro Libertate]

The new movies suck. That doesn't mean every single aspect of them sucks. For instance, I'm a fan of Cumberbatch's work, generally speaking.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The first movie was crap, but it was enjoyable crap.

The second one was too bad to suck. If MST3K were still on the air, it would be ripe for their treatment.

[Cytotoxic]

What was wrong with STID?

[Pro Libertate]

It all makes such perfect sense. He doesn't even die, despite being a redshirt.

I may have to rethink my position on Dos Equis.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I can see it. At every awesome Kirk moment, somewhere, off camera, he watches, quietly, learning what it means to be self-confident, assertive, and a good leader of men.

Also, spending time with Khan didn't hurt.

[Auric Demonocles]

Hey Pro Lib, I think I've got the answer to what to do for the final episode of our Kirk + Khan 70s sitcom.

[Pro Libertate]

Does it involve Mexican beer?

[Auric Demonocles]

It could. But I was thinking more generally that ensign what's-his-name shows up to save them, then decides to stay in the past because he likes it so much here. Might as well be he stays here because he likes the Mexican beer more than synthehol.

[Pro Libertate]

I think you need to read The Serious Man's treatment.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Khan fuses his and Kirk's DNA together to create a clone: the Most Interesting Man in the World.

Khan hopes this clone will represent the apex of human potential and while a success, he discovers that human nature and free will allow the clone to choose a jet-setting life of exploration and beer.

[Pro Libertate]

Oooh, I likeee. That's the Kirk side at work, I see.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Right. He has Khan's superior intellect, strength, and charisma, but personality wise has taken Kirk's geniality and love of adventure and exploration.

[Auric Demonocles]

Also he got Kirk's charisma too.

[Pro Libertate]

And his ability to sex up females of any species, on demand.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I don't always laugh at superior intellects, but when I do, I prefer being on the bridge of the Enterprise.

[sarcasmic]

You know who else was a red shirt?

[Juice]

Che Guevara?

[Auric Demonocles]

"I don't always go on away missions, but when I do, I prefer Colonial Penn."

[Cytotoxic]

And even he could not make old Trek good.

[Calidissident]

Comment I came across randomly on Reddit

"Haha, yeah definitely. Our attitudes about higher education have been skewed by the media; rather than a place for open debate and political action they've turned campuses into research/training centers for corporate donors. Why take the money and time to train someone when they'll pay, they'll cough up huge ammounts of cash and drive themselves into debt, just to have the opportunity of an internship. For most kids, Uni has become a means to and end and they'll take whichever course is most likely to get them a job.

As a result you're seeing those soft degrees like history, poli sci, sociology etc, being left behind. Sheldon Wolin explains basically what I'm saying here. Those soft subjects are the basis for a stable democracy (that and a sizeable middle class.)"

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Obama warns of 'economic shutdown' following government shutdown, media runs with that narrative

A three-to-four week impasse could reduce growth by 1.4 percentage points ? effectively cutting the economy's expected growth rate by half or more. About half of civilian government workers wouldn't be able to go to work, and their lost pay would represent about half of the short-term economic impact, Zandi estimated.

"Shutting the government down for three or four weeks would do significant economic damage,'' Zandi said. "Any interruption longer than a month would cause GDP to fall for the quarter, and one longer than two months would likely precipitate another recession.''

With Congress coming down to the wire on whether to fund the federal government after its fiscal year ends Sept. 30, non-essential government functions could begin a partial shutdown on Oct. 1. Entitlements such as Social Security and food-stamp benefits would continue to be paid, and most military functions would continue, but furloughs for non-essential workers would begin almost immediately, says the Congressional Research Service.

Hmm, to me an economic shutdown would result in something like the grocery store not taking my money or commerce in general being interrupted. Strangely I don't see that happening in the apocalyptic scenario described above.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, it would be great if someone in the media could sneak in a question about how Obama can say he supports free markets when he keeps making statements about how the government is the alpha and omega of the economy. That's exactly the opposite of any sane definition of "free markets" or "capitalism."

[Palin's Buttplug]

Hayek would have supported the market-based Obamacare law. He wrote:

"The successful use of competition as the principle of social organization precludes certain types of coercive interference with economic life, but it admits of others which sometimes may very considerably assist its work and even requires certain kinds of government action. ?. And it is essential that the entry into the different trades should be open to all on equal terms and that the law should not tolerate any attempts by individuals or groups to restrict this entry by open or concealed force."

in 'The Road to Serfdom'.

Meaning that it is the role of the government to supply a competitive framework for markets to compete in.

[Pro Libertate]

Is that Friedrich or Salma?

[Calidissident]

Obamacare is nothing like what Hayek describes

[Cytotoxic]

What does this have to do with Ocare?

[Juice]

Jesus, do you support Obamacare?

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

The predictions make sense, but the popular take-away is simply that we can't deal with a shutdown. Nobody seems too concerned about why we can't deal with a shutdown. To me, confronting a major potential problem includes looking at the possible structural causes of that problem. Why is nobody asking why air traffic controllers are federal employees? Why is nobody asking why a meat-packing plant can't function without continuous inspection by federal employees?

[DesigNate]

If only those furloughs meant people getting some of their tax money back. Too bad we're all just going to pay more next year so they can have this argument again instead of just cutting fucking spending.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

"Any interruption longer than a month would cause GDP to fall for the quarter, and one longer than two months would likely precipitate another recession.''

If you correct for the artificial support to GDP created by QEx and federal deficit spending, we've been in a recession since 2007.

[Agammamon]

"An antifungal cream has been shown to eradicate HIV in cultured cells."

Now here's your prescription, 1 pint daily, taken internally.

[Agammamon]

Which end you put it in is up to you.

[MJGreen]

Good news! It comes in a suppository.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Vanity Fair on all the wingnut lies concerning Obamacare:

http://www.vanityfair.com/onli.....-will-work

[MJGreen]

^ More libertarian than all you fuckers.

[Palin's Buttplug]

In the age of GOP mandatory vaginal probes it is incredibly ironic that the market-based Obamacare is considered "Big Gov".

[C. Anacreon]

Shriek, every time I read your posts today, I picture you doing this:
*makes motorboat sound, falls down stairs*

I must admit, it makes me laugh out loud, and it totally seems in character for you.

Perhaps there is a career for you in vaudeville.

[SugarFree]

Makes sense. He's already a puppet with someone's fist up in it. You can barely even tell the lips are moving most of the time.

[Marshall Gill]

Nothing says Liberty like a 2000+ page bill regulating the "health insurance industry" by a Central Planner.

[Jordan]

Yes, who could consider a bill 2.5 times longer than the Bible to be anything but the harbinger of libertopia?

Why would anybody think that granting the government the power to force people to purchase products represents anything but free market bliss?

[Juice]

"market based"

[DesigNate]

"Market-based"

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Fuck you're stupid.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahagaha

[General Butt Naked]

What matters is not the population of the United States, but the total number of insured and how the addition of these millions of insured will affect health-care usage?and believe me, the probability that health-care usage will increase as more and more people get accustomed to having insurance is 100 percent. And remember something else: using health-care services means more health-care services will be used. Medicine keeps people alive; the greater number of people who have access to it, the longer they will live, the more they will keep accessing health care.

"And it's all FREE!!"

[Cytotoxic]

Medicine keeps people alive; the greater number of people who have access to it, the longer they will live, the more they will keep accessing health care.

Was this written by a real adult and not a retard? Even the prose style suggests a stunted adult. Like Yglesias.

[General Butt Naked]

It reminds me of a lazy sentence I might use in a high school essay that would earn me the wrath of the red pen.

[Suthenboy]

I am just arriving and havent read any comments yet. I am sure someone else commented on this, and probably the same comment, but I cant resist.

"New research by an international team finds that Ciclopirox, an antifungal cream used all over the world, completely eradicates HIV - the virus that leads to AIDS - in cultured cells, and the virus does not return when the treatment stops.

The study also found Deferiprone, a systemic drug used to remove excess iron from the body in people who have beta-thalassaemia major, has the same effect."

HOLY SHIT. WOW. A magic bullet cure for aids, and we had it all along. Now that is good news. That just made my weekend.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I know you don't like me but I have to compliment you, Suthenboy. You seem genuinely pleased about this development.

Have a drink on me.

[SugarFree]

Fuck off, sockpuppet.

[paranoid android]

I think the fact that you evidently expected his attitude to be otherwise says a lot more about you than it does about Suthenboy...

[C. Anacreon]

Shriek: *makes motorboat sound, falls down stairs*

[Bam!]

"New research by an international team finds that Ciclopirox, an antifungal cream used all over the world, completely eradicates HIV - the virus that leads to AIDS - in cultured cells..."

How well does it work on my philistine cells?

[sloopyinca]

When is embezzlement not considered a crime?

I think we all know the answer to that question.

[Suthenboy]

Just caught a state employee here using her sick time to go off and secretly work at another job. In spite of my ranting and raving about having her prosecuted it looks like they are not even going to fire her.

[sloopyinca]

LA Water And Power employees found a loophole in the sick pay policy that let them fuck taxpayers out of $35M over the last 30 months.

You want fucked up? This shit is fucked up.

FTA: The records show one senior accountant averaged 49 extra sick days each year from 2010 to 2012. A security guard averaged 43 extra days. A customer service representative averaged 38 extra days. That's roughly two months off at full pay, per year, for each of the three employees. It doesn't include regular sick days, paid vacation days, holidays or "personal" days.

And not a single fucking person lost their job over it.

[Dweebston]

You don't seem to understand how difficult their jobs are, sloopy. It's a grueling ten months, like, every year.

[sloopyinca]

When is obstruction of justice and making a false official statement not considered a crime?

I think we all know the answer to that question as well.

[Ted S.]

At least the guy didn't get a paid vacation (if I read the URL correctly).

[sloopyinca]

When are details of potential criminal activities not deliberately fed to the media in order to stoke public opinion against a suspect?

Well, duh!

[sloopyinca]

Maybe he was just trying out for the ATF.

And yes, he got a sweet paid vacation out of the deal.

[sloopyinca]

And I'll tell you all what is not being impacted by the fucked-up government situation: heavy equipment values. I just concluded an auction a couple of hours ago and equipment values are as strong as they've been in 5 years. I sold $4.3M worth of gear today that would have sold for $3.5M a year ago.

And I owe it all to the dumbasses at Cat and Volvo that cut production levels so much over the past few years that old, used up shit is breaking the bank.

[Suthenboy]

The world is full of fantastic ideas and terrific companies, but infested with suits who have MBAs who manage to seriously fuck up all of it.

My apologies to anyone here who has an MBA, sorta.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Agreed, though the guys with JDs are even worse.

[Brandon]

Congratulations, Sloop. Soon we'll see how much middle names have increased in value over the last year.

[cavalier973]

Hey, it's the weekend. How about a little Joe Cuba?

[General Butt Naked]

How about a link?

[cavalier973]

Ahem...Joe! Cuba!

[cavalier973]

Ahem...Joe! Cuba!

[Dweebston]

I don't want to come and get it. I want it brought to me, served up on a platter, silver or otherwise. Hand it to me in a paper bag. I don't care. Just as long as I don't have to come and get it.

[Warrren]

So if, while fucking a pumpkin, A person strains their back, chips a tooth, and sprains a knee is that covered by the ACA?

What if this person waits a few days for the ACA to officially start to report it?

Just some hypothetical questions someone may need the answer to at some point.

[TondoJondo]

This dude seems to know whats going on over there.

http://www.Got-Privacy.com

[mike771]

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