Obama Meets with Congressional Leaders, NSA Collected Location Data, Tom Clancy Dies: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: magandafille / Foter / CC BY-NC

  President Barack Obama will be meeting with Congressional leaders today over this whole shutdown and reportedly will be folding in discussions about raising the debt ceiling.

• In the meantime, if you need any more evidence that the park shutdowns are a stunt, even park privatization can't stop it. Apparently the federal government has forced shut a park in Virginia it neither funds nor operates (but sits on federal land), to the dismay of the staff there.
• The NSA started a pilot project to mass collect data about Americans' locations via cellphones in 2010 and 2011 but did not continue it. (… or did they?)
• Blockbuster author Tom Clancy is dead at the age of 66.
• The war of drugs has resulted in narcotics that are cheaper and purer than they've been in the past 20 years. Good work, guys!
• A Gallup poll has a quarter of uninsured Americans willing to pay the Obamacare fine rather than get insurance.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Barack Obama will be meeting with Congressional leaders ...

The meeting will be filled with nonessential government employees.

[CE]

Quote of the day.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

A Gallup poll has a quarter of uninsured Americans willing to pay the Obamacare fine rather than get insurance.

This calls for a Team Obama Infographic!

[gaijin]

oh, so now it's a fine? I thought it was a penalty, er, I mean tax?

[Hyperion]

Penaltax.

Wait until more people find out what's in it, big fat juicy premiums and sky high deductibles. That number is going to rise, a lot.

[PapayaSF]

And one amusing thing is that Obamacare banned a lot of cheap high-deductible policies on the grounds that they weren't good enough. So now we get expensive high-deductible policies. Progress!

[Gilbert Martin]

Someone needs to immediately start running ads targeted at the people....

... to inform them that they don't actually have to pay any fine for not buying insurance. All they have to do is make sure to adjust their tax witholding allowance and/or estimated tax payments so that they are never due a tax refund.

Then the IRS can't make them pay it, as witholding the penalty from refunds is the only enforcement tool they have.

Of course if this becomes a widespread practive, the Dems will attempt to change the legislation to enable stricter enforcement whereupon their own current catchphrase of "its' the law!" can be thrown right back in their face.

After all, if its' a done deal and forevermore cannot be changed as they want everyone else to accept, then that principle applies to that aspect of it as well.

[Brett L]

Ugh. Had an argument with an idiot who doesn't know the difference between 300% and 300 times about the penaltax. No, your maximum fine is not $28500/year in 2014, its $285 or 1% of your income, whichever is higher, or the annual cost to you (including relevant subsidies) of the lowest bronze plan, whichever is smaller. The IRS example shows an unmarried individual who makes $120000 gross taxable income paying $2700/year instead of a $5000/year lowest bronze plan in their rule.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Blockbuster author Tom Clancy is dead at the age of 66.
His eulogy will be about 600 pages too long.

[Mad Scientist]

Only if it's the abridged version.

[Bobarian]

He was younger than I thought he was.

[PD Scott]

But thrilling! A top secret CIA coffin lowering mechanism will be employed.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Run by Cleveland Browns in disguise.

[Restoras]

That joke is going to be here forever, isn't it?

[Bobarian]

Only until the Browns start winning, so yes?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

The 2 and 2 Cleveland Browns

[mauricegirodias]

Given the shape of the AFC North, Cleveland could take the division this year. Though first place might be whoever gets to 7 wins.

[CE]

They're even letting down those of us who counted on them losing most weeks so we could continue this joke.

[PD Scott]

That's why the Browns are so bad, they're always exhausted/injured from carrying out thrilling black ops around the world. Why the jet lag alone costs them seven, eight games a season.

They maintain their cover, though, and for that every American should be grateful.

[Libertymike]

Why did they not change Brian Hoyer's name? Don't they know that people like us would ask questions about the quarterback's relationship with Stenny?

[PD Scott]

Disinformation campaign.

[Tejicano]

That's not quite what I was expecting... thought there was something more to it. I guess I'm feeling, well,....

[-Umbriel-]

I thought it highly ironic that his publisher announced his death without explaining the cause. Clearly it should have been explained in minute, step-by-step, and compellingly page-turning detail.

[The DerpRider]

GRRM's eulogy will be 1500 pages, not finished, and published 6 years after his death.

[Long Range Boredom]

And will include a twenty page description of the funeral buffet.

[CE]

Which you probably don't want to attend, even if they serve bread and salt first.

[mad libertarian guy]

Blockbuster author Tom Clancy is dead at the age of 66.

Clancy, via his many excellent video game franchises, has commandeered thousands of hours from my life. He is a true American hero.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I always found Jack Ryan to be the worst kind of monster. Arrogant, infallible, unctuous, sanctimonious. I only read two Jack Ryan novels (Red October and Patriot Games) and I spent every page hoping Ryan would DIE.

[CE]

He was a hero for essential government employees everywhere. Brave, honorable, and dutiful.

[Raven Nation]

The first Clancy book I read was "Cardinal of the Kremlin." There was twist in that that caught me so by surprise that I swore out loud on a public bus.

[Knarf Yenrab (prev. An0nB0t)]

On a PUBLIC BUS? Shame on you!

[Tejicano]

I was in the Marines during the period that Jack Ryan was supposedly a Marine - in real life we could probably have crossed paths.

But the biggest leap of faith Clancy's books expected me to take was believing a former military officer would go on to Wall Street and make a fortune. I have a buddy, former SOCOM officer, who has been in Wall Street/investment banking/equities trading for about 15 years and he tells me former military in that field are rare as hen's teeth.

[Enough About Palin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzLKe5KDz-4

[David Emami]

His eulogy will be about 600 pages too long.

And it will start with a scene where metal ore is dug out of the ground, following the process by which it ends up as the engine in the car driven by the man giving the eulogy.

[Tejicano]

Wait, but when did the earth cool first? Are they going to leave THAT part out?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Gallup poll has a quarter of uninsured Americans willing to pay the Obamacare fine rather than get insurance.

As intended.

[waffles]

Gallup poll has a quarter of uninsured Americans willing to pay the Obamacare fine rather than get insurance.

Sounds like a rational choice to me. When viewing a clusterfuck the only people diving headlong in are the one's expecting a pony. People with something to lose will exercise caution.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Norm MacDonald Thinks The 'Breaking Bad' Finale Was A Fantasy That Played Out In Walter White's Sick Mind

Oh yeah, Spoilers aplenty.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I like it, but there's no way that's what Gilligan intended.

[RBS]

That's a lot of tweets.

[JD the elder]

The only thing I think of when I read stuff like that is the Robot Chicken "Twist Endings" sketch.

"He's dead! She's got a dick! He was chasing himself! It was a dream! It wasn't a dream! He was a midget! He was TWO midgets!"

[Generic Stranger]

What a twist!

[Winston]

Am I the only one who finds the whole internet "it was all a fantasy" speculation on every media really annoying?

Personally I think the end of a Trip to the Moon was all an hallucination of the astronauts before they are killed by the G-forces of that giant cannon.

Oh and curse you Ambrose Bierce, Bob Newhart and St. Elsewhere.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The NSA started a pilot project to mass collect data about Americans' locations via cellphones in 2010 and 2011 but did not continue it.

This is why my phone is rotary-dialed, coil-corded and avocado green, the way God intended.

[gaijin]

This is why my phone is rotary-dialed, coil-corded and avocado green, the way God intended.

We used to prank office mates with such devices by taping down the little rods where the handset rested, then dialing the phone and watching them pick it up, baffled as it continued to ring while they said 'hello'.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

you sound old.

[gaijin]

haha. The organization I worked for sure was. This all took place in the 90s (the 1990s mr smartypantsfan)

[jesse.in.mb]

There is no indication that the pants he is a fan of are smart.

[Enough About Palin]

I respectfully disagree.

verb (used with object)
6. to cause a sharp pain to or in.
adjective, smart?er, smart?est.
7. quick or prompt in action, as persons.
8. having or showing quick intelligence or ready mental capability: a smart student.
9. shrewd or sharp, as a person in dealing with others or as in business dealings: a smart businessman.
10. clever, witty, or readily effective, as a speaker, speech, rejoinder, etc.
11. dashingly or impressively neat or trim in appearance, as persons, dress, etc.

[jesse.in.mb]

11. dashingly or impressively neat or trim in appearance, as persons, dress, etc.

That was the wordplay I was going for...

You are aware of the Canadian Tuxedo, are you not? Would you say this qualifies as 11?

[Knarf Yenrab (prev. An0nB0t)]

In my neck of the woods, we call those Texas Tuxedos or, because Texas doesn't deserve to have anything else named after it, Cowboy Tuxedos.

[Brett L]

Are you okay in Colorado, because I don't want to snark back if you just got your power back on.

[lafe.long]

Even better was to unscrew the mouthpiece cap, remove the transmitter and replace the cap. Hilarity ensues.

[gaijin]

+1 Office Rage Incident

[SweatingGin]

I like the piece of electrical tape over the sensor on an optical mouse.

[Pathogen]

I had seen one one-time that looked amusing...

Snapshot desktop (snipping tool)---? Save snapshot as DT Background---? Hide all desktop files/folders---? Hide taskbar---? LOLOLOL to the confusion over folders/files/quicklaunch icons don't execute...

Never tried it, looked plausible...

[jesse.in.mb]

It was popular (and effective) in 2000/XP.

[Pathogen]

Ahh... back when luddites were luddites, and computers
ran on pure sorcery...

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Free Beer Tapped as Football's Jaguars Seek Ticket Boost

Still not going to work.

[Warty]

Been tried before

[Bobarian]

Maybe letting the fans have glass bottles and batteries to throw at the players would help?

Isn't that how the Dawg Pound started?

[Brett L]

D Battery night in Phildelphia for the Eagles-Cowboys game was a bad idea? Who knew?

[CE]

Snow in Philadelphia with Santa Claus around was a bad idea. Don't give those goons anything.

[Pro Libertate]

Fucking moronic ownership. What they should've done was climb aboard the Tebow express, offering free beer and Bibles and a local favorite as the starting QB.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

New Jersey F1 race back on the 2014 calendar.

[Mad Scientist]

Ah, New Jersey in June.

[Restoras]

Smells like...(insert odor adjective here).

[Generic Stranger]

Burning tires and fecal matter?

[Troy muy grande boner]

Pabst Blue Ribbon vomit.

[Pathogen]

Thunderdome

[JW]

I don't have high hopes for that race and it sure as hell won't be the first one I go to.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Apparently the federal government has forced shut a park in Virginia it neither funds nor operates...

You WILL feel the effects of this shutdown, John Q. Public.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That's not the first time they've done that kind of thing. The state operated Jamestown museum in Virginia has a parking lot that is on land leased from the national park system. The last time a shutdown was threatened, the national park service came in and barricaded the parking lot.

Pay us or we'll fuck with you.

[mad libertarian guy]

The last time a shutdown was threatened, the national park service came in and barricaded the parking lot.

Knowing full well that the act of barricading the lot actually costs money, while just leaving it be costs nothing.

[mad libertarian guy]

You WILL feel the effects of this shutdown, John Q. Public.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Obama and Co. know full well that the public won't feel even a ripple due to the government "shutdown" so they have to manufacture ways to make the public feel the effects, hence the fucking clown show of closing national parks and monuments, including those that are neither funded by nor maintained by the federal government.

[C. Anacreon]

Worked so well with closing the White House to tours, why not extend it to all citizen-accessible parts of government? People want and respect more what they can't have, right? Plus, it keeps nosy people away.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Your afternoon Slacktivist idiocy:

A brief interruption to the ongoing white theology synchroblog
The Anarchist Reverend is hosting a Queer Theology synchroblog today on the theme of "Queer Creation." It looks like a big success, with more than two dozen contributions from a variety of religious traditions.

Queer Theology is a kind of contextual theology. Contextual theologies tend to make some people uncomfortable, scared or angry. Don't be scared and don't be angry. Go ahead and be uncomfortable, though ? that's part of what makes contextual theologies so valuable and necessary.

Most of the hostility toward contextual theologies comes from people under the false impression that they're not, themselves, also doing contextual theology. But there's no such thing as non-contextual theology ? only the contextual theology of people who are unable or unwilling to perceive their own contexts as contexts....

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Translation: "All theology, by which I mean all theology that comes to a conclusion I already agree with because it leads to increased govt power, is equally valid."

I wonder if a reading of the Bible that has moral responsibility on individuals and not govt, or that forbids what Clark wants permitted, is equal to his.....

[gaijin]

Queer Theology is a kind of contextual theology.

sounds...odd

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Wut

[Jordan]

Wat

[Ska]

wat

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Basically he is so tolerant that he won't just accept the victimhood claims of some non white hetero males, he will accept EVERY claim of victimhood.

[Slumbrew]

Wot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pqC563bX_w

[Tejicano]

How do I get across to these people that sometimes I think about doing different stuff with my junk too. Why should I make it everybody's issue?

[Eduard van Haalen]

If "scared and angry" is the same as "confused," then I guess I'm scared and angry.

Otherwise, I suggest I'd be better able to be scared or angry at contextual theology if he would *explain what it was!!"

Wait, I just felt angry right there...and now I'm feeling scared that people like this are probably in positions of authority...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The New Yorker has a few ideas about gun control

What we can learn from Canada is how to legislate common sense without violating anyone's liberty?unless you imagine that anyone's liberty depends on having as many weapons as he wants whenever he wants them.
[...]
In particular, there are four ideas agreed to by all the academic researchers involved in the project. First, fix the background-check system by doing small things such as giving the F.B.I. ten days, instead of three, to complete them; prohibiting "high-risk" individuals from getting their hands on guns (anyone with a restraining order filed against him for a threat of violence, for example); and accelerating federal legislation to keep the violent and mentally ill from having guns. Second, make the A.T.F. more effective through such simple measures as getting the agency a director. Third, encourage research on "personalized" guns and gun triggers. Fourth, ban assault weapons, carefully defined, and with them magazines that fire more than ten rounds. And finally?radical idea?fund research on what actually works to end gun violence.

[Warty]

unless you imagine that anyone's liberty depends on having as many weapons as he wants whenever he wants them.

...I'm on the same planet as this guy, I guess, but we're on different worlds.

[Mad Scientist]

Liberty means doing what your're told!

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

AND ASKING PERMISSION!!!

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

AND ASKING PERMISSION!!!

[Certified Public Asskicker]

If you received permission once, you better ask twice.

[G-dub]

Imagine if the first amendment meant you could say as many different things as you wanted whenever you wanted. Oh, wait...

[CE]

Actually, I imagine liberty depends on having as much of everything you want whenever you want it, as long as you don't harm someone else or take their stuff.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

end gun violence

Lets end gun violence by having armed cops breaking down doors at 3am to confiscate guns. If the homeowner winds up shot (he WAS armed, after all, hence the raid), that's one less violent armed citizen.

[CE]

And gun violence by government second responders isn't really gun violence.

[Fist of Etiquette]

And finally?radical idea?fund research on what actually works to end gun violence.

Ignoring all the other idiocy, shouldn't this be done before you started suggesting policy?

[Mad Scientist]

Let's not pretend the policy they suggested was ever intended to prevent gun violence. This is a whole new concept to them.

[Jordan]

Good news! The CDC has already done this and come to the conclusion that the gun grabbers are full of shit. Hence the reason Obama quietly swept it under the rug.

[Irish]

So did Harvard. They found no correlation between number of guns in a country and crime.

THESE STUDIES DON'T COUNT!

[Rich]

what actually works to end gun violence.

Nukes?

[BigT]

More guns.

[a better weapon]

And finally?radical idea?fund research on what actually works to end gun violence.

Why is that the last step?

[JW]

Why is that the last step?

It can't be. They haven't gotten to Profit! yet.

[PapayaSF]

They missed an earlier step: "Ignore all existing research that shows our recommendations will not reduce gun violence."

[JW]

fund research on what actually works to end gun violence.

Shooting back?

[Gray Ghost]

The researchers he mentions are listed in this publication from Johns Hopkins, REDUCING GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA, Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis, Edited by DANIEL W. WEBSTER and JON S. VERNICK. Link is to a .pdf of their work, if you've more time to waste than I do. I will go ad hominem, and note that Bloomberg write the Foreward. One of the first essays is titled, "The Limited Impact of the Brady Act." There is some high comedy with one of the essays talking about Brazil as a success story for gun control. Consider yourself warned.

Is it too much to ask that gun violence researchers actually talk to people in the firearms industry, or people who use firearms for a living, like cops or soldiers?

If these dumb sons (and daughters) of bitches actually do want the fascistic political violence that they seem to in their public statements (e.g., Yeltsin's tank), I can think of few better ways to start it than by trying to confiscate peoples' handguns or AR-pattern rifles. There will be a few Waco and Ruby Ridge type incidents, and then gunowners will figure out that the best defense is a good offense. God help us all when that happens.

[Generic Stranger]

First, fix the background-check system by doing small things such as giving the F.B.I. ten days, instead of three, to complete them;

There's this new thing called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that usually returns a "yes" or "no" in less than an hour. Perhaps you've heard of it. (Or, the vast majority of background checks don't even take three days and haven't since NICS was implemented in 1998). Seriously, three days is plenty of time for the FBI to do their work. Even those instances where someone is delayed usually has the FBI getting back to the dealer within a day or two.

prohibiting "high-risk" individuals from getting their hands on guns (anyone with a restraining order filed against him for a threat of violence, for example);

Individuals with restraining orders are already prohibited from buying or possessing firearms (illegally, IMO, given the tiny to non-existent amount of due process usually afforded to those subject to a restraining order).

Second, make the A.T.F. more effective through such simple measures as getting the agency a director.

Sure thing. I nominate Ted Nugent.

You know, this guy would be a lot more credible if he could get very basic facts right.

[mad libertarian guy]

and accelerating federal legislation to keep the violent and mentally ill from having guns.

And what, exactly, constitutes someone who is "violent" or "mentally ill?" Is having checked oneself in to a psychiatric hospital for depression 20 years ago qualify one as being mentally ill? Short of being found guilty in court, who gets to decide?

Third, encourage research on "personalized" guns and gun triggers.

Research what, exactly?

Second, make the A.T.F. more effective through such simple measures as getting the agency a director.

Seriously? Getting another deeply entrenched, unelected bureaucrat will make us safer? Fuck off, asshole.

Fourth, ban assault weapons, carefully defined, and with them magazines that fire more than ten rounds.

There already is a "carefully defined" meaning of assault weapon, and they are not easy at all to get, it's just that you prefer to ignore that definition in favor of your own which is little more than SKERRY BLAK GUNZ!!!!

And you can go fuck yourself on the magazine limit. I refuse to place myself at a legally mandated tactical disadvantage when defending my home because some academic who doesn't know the first thing about firearms would feel better if I did so.

These people know dick about guns, yet have the temerity to act as if they have the qualifications to end their use for nefarious purposes.

[Gray Ghost]

Third, encourage research on "personalized" guns and gun triggers.

Define "encourage". I'll put them on my weapons when the cops put them on theirs. Until then, they won't be reliable enough.

They (and Bob Levy) can stick their mag size limit where the sun doesn't shine. The cops are going to abide by those limits too, right? It still mystifies me that a president of a libertarian think tank thought that coming out publicly with supporting those limits was a good idea.

I completely agree with your point about their lack of knowledge in no way slowing them down from feeling qualified to make sweeping proscriptions. It's galling. Just galling. And you know those types are doing the same sort of crap in every other area of the economy and society that they similarly know little about.

[Pathogen]

Now, like all great plans, Adam Gopnik's strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it....

[Tejicano]

"make the A.T.F. more effective"

Sounds great. First lets get them off whatever path they are on that lead them to sell thousands of firearms directly to Mexican drug cartels, to call out an FBI SWAT team to kill the wife of some guy with his family out in the backwoods because he had a hacksaw, and basically focus on Joe Sixpack gun owner rather than violent thugs and high profile felons?

[Pathogen]

Or, take away their enforcement authorization, and send them back to the treasury department, as paper shufflers and stamp merchants, like they were originally intended...

[PD Scott]

Chinese netizens react to US govt "shutdown", suggest it proves the superiority of the US since if Chinese govt shutdown everything would screech to a halt.

Article includes a nice photoshopped picture of Obama as a Maoist.

[Brandon]

since if Chinese govt shutdown everything would screech to a halt.

China: Obama's dream country.

[Knarf Yenrab (prev. An0nB0t)]

Not to mention Ms. Maddow, who spent most of 2009 opining what great deeds an unfettered state could accomplish with proper vision and leadership.

[Generic Stranger]

photoshopped picture

Did they really need to photoshop it?

[Pro Libertate]

That's a good look for Barry.

[CE]

Not photoshopped.

[Max Power]

Philadelphia's City Tavern closed because of government shutdown.

I don't know what the arrangement between City Tavern and the parks is, but I can't imagine it's costing the government anything to keep the restaurant open. I mean, it's pretty popular.

[PD Scott]

At least the staff will have plenty of time to sign up for Obamacare.

[Pro Libertate]

Is that the one with the Founding Father dress and cuisine? If so, I've been there in my one and only visit to Philadelphia.

[Max Power]

Yep, that's the one. I couldn't really tell why it's closed. Maybe the government owns the building and the chef operates the restaurant?

[Pro Libertate]

I thought that place was pretty cool. I was there on business and wandered around to see the sights. I walked around in Independence Hall (by myself in the middle of the day), checked out Ben Franklin' house and visited his grave, etc. The only thing that was really crowded at all was the Liberty Bell, which I cared the least about.

[Pro Libertate]

What's screwy about that is that they seem to be doing this in a number of places, where the government only owns the property, not the operation. That's like a private landlord shutting down a tenant's operation because the landlord has a cashflow problem. That makes absolutely no sense at all.

[Max Power]

I think the common thread is "Shut Down Whatever Will Annoy People".

[mad libertarian guy]

That makes absolutely no sense at all.

Of course it doesn't. The point is to make sure that the "shutdown" is visible, because even Obama knows that the government could shut down virtually everything and no one would notice a goddamn thing.

[tarran]

Cole Lystra stokes the flames of Proggie Butthurt for Great Justice:

tarran

Democrats must not blink.

Now that the federal government is shut down, Republicans are furiously trying to deflect the blame away from their radical, burn-the-house-down strategy. Republican leadership knows that the extremist, Obamacare-obsessed rump of their caucus isn't actually going to defeat the new health care law with a temper tantrum.

That's why Republican leaders are trying to make a deal. They're asking Democrats to negotiate, offering to delay Obamacare instead of defunding it, and offering to keep one or two pieces of government from shutting down. Their dangerous strategy will only work if Democrats cave and play along in these tea party games.

So far, President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have stood strong, refusing to allow our government to be used as a bargaining tool.

Sign progressives' petition to show your support for President Obama and Senator Reid's refusal to give in to Republican demands.

Refusing to negotiate is especially critical right now because of what comes next -- the debt ceiling.

If Congress doesn't vote to raise the debt ceiling in the next two weeks, America will default on our bills, and our economy will likely crash. So Republicans are going to use that vote to commit extortion, insisting that Democrats give in to the radical tea party agenda, even though voters overwhelmingly rejected it in 2012.

[tarran]

Here's the problem: Republicans have resorted to manufacturing crisis after crisis, shutting down the government and threatening not to pay our bills. They think playing these dangerous games is how they will achieve cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits, and take away health insurance from millions.

Americans are overwhelmingly against cutting those benefits, shutting down the government, and not paying our bills.

But President Obama and Senator Reid have accepted bad deals in the past when their backs were up against the wall, even putting Social Security benefits on the table. Now that they're standing strong against Republican extortion attempts, let's show that progressives are standing with them.

Show you're standing with President Obama and Senator Reid against Republican extortion attempts. Sign progressives' petition today.

Let's be clear: Republicans are desperate. They are rightly taking the blame for the shutdown, they have no real leverage, and at this point they'll try anything to make it look like they got their way. We just have to make sure Democrats don't negotiate anything that should be non-negotiable.

Thanks for uniting as a progressive,

Cole Leystra
Executive Director
Progressives United

[Hyperion]

Progressives United

Forward Comrades!

[tarran]

These emails always end with a request that people sign a petition or give five bucks.

It's all about identifying really really credulous idiots and separating them from their money. 🙂

[Libertymike]

You know what they say about a fool and her money.

[Rich]

Republicans .... have no real leverage

A-HEM.

[tarran]

Whenever *I'm* engaging in brinksmanship with an opponent who has no real leverage, my allies don't seem to feel a need to encourage me not to blink.

Perhaps my balls are made of steel rather than the mere flesh that Obama and Reid have. 😀

[PD Scott]

Democrats must not blink.

Just stare at the sun. If you go blind, don't worry, it will be covered as a pre-existing condition. Plus, you'll finally be able to get past your sight privilege.

[Winston]

Isn't that Russ Feingold's outfit? If he really believes the stuff his group sends out I find it hard to believe he is one of the better Democrats. I mean that stuff is pretty mindless worship of the state.

[tarran]

It is Russ Feingold's outfit, and no I doubt they seriously believe the bullshit they put out...

Rather, they are quite straightforwardly separating rubes from their money.

[RBS]

So, I got some Discovery in today. If you've never had the pleasure of reading an Incident Report you are really missing out. I mean, if you enjoy reading things written at about a third grade level.

[Restoras]

I assume this is some paperwork filled out by a cop?

[RBS]

It was the third grade comment that tipped you off wasn't it?

[Libertymike]

Do you have an antipathy to anti-intellectual blue collar unintelligibility?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Blockbuster author Tom Clancy is dead at the age of 66.

I blame the lack of Obamacare.

Who wants to make a pall bearers joke?

[a better weapon]

With his latest work, you don't really get any indication that the Cleveland Browns are going to let him down again until about halfway through the book.

Even though you see it coming, the ending is still very good and worth the entire read.

[Libertymike]

Red Right 88.

[Warty]

Why did you forget to post F1 girls?

[Warty]

Shit, that was supposed to be in reply to Archduke.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

More

[jesse.in.mb]

No Mark Webber for the rest of us?

[JW]

I always pictured you as more of an Alonso guy.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

those eyebrows!

[jesse.in.mb]

Thumbing through photos I could see that, although generally Webber seems better looking.

Both of them look gangly and awkward shirtless though. Oh well.

[JW]

I thought this was his best look, from earlier in the season. It fits him.

[jesse.in.mb]

JW: For some reason he reminds me of a Sascha Baron Cohen character in that picture.

Archduke: Is that a samurai leaning against an oil derrick? I'm confused by it.

[JW]

Well, you could always go slumming with Dario Franchitti.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

I can't find an explanation in English and my Spanish stinks.

[JW]

Both of them look gangly and awkward shirtless though. Oh well.

Yep. FI wants them short-ish and light, but with incredible upper body strength, esp in the neck. Nico Hulkenberg was just dropped from the running with Mclaren, if he was even in it at all, as he's too "heavy" and tall for their 2014 chassis.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

do you like his tattoo?

[Kaptious Kristen]

Nope. Haggis Bolognese. And yes, I know he's not currently an F1 driver.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Daniel Ricciardo's nose

[jesse.in.mb]

Ooh, I approve KK.

I don't mind a bit of a schnozz on a guy Archduke.

[SweatingGin]

Aside from shady download sites (megaupload or whatever), can anyone think of ever having to wait in line at a website before?

Wondering if they put their resources into the throttling mechanism, rather than, say, bringing in cloudflare or something.

[gaijin]

to wait in line at a website before?

Crazy I know. They are preparing you for the future of rationed healthcare.

[Cytotoxic]

Update on the Silk Roadocolypse.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/an.....ck-market/

No mention of 'altoid' but there is something about pictures Ulbricht sent of himself with requests for server space. This may have been work that occurred after 'altoid' pointed the FBI in the right direction.

Interesting notes: First, the original SR operator is still out there. Also, SR competitor Atlantis stopped activities a week or so ago because of 'security concerns'. Black Market Reloaded is a competitor site that is not shutdown. SR has a recently added non-TOR version and it along with the forums are functioning.

Altoid, may you live forever.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Guess Who Said It!

That said, race is indisputably making the conservative temper tantrum over the fact that they don't actually have permanent control over the White House all the uglier. They hated Bill Clinton, absolutely. They impeached him! (They want to do that to Obama, too, but the Benghazi thing just doesn't have legs.) But the overwhelming anger and desire to punish the voters for putting Obama into office is much worse than I remember it in the 90s. The voter ID stuff is part of it. The increased attacks on abortion?and now contraception!?are part of it, since women voted for Obama more than men. The obsession with shutting down the government is absolutely part of it.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Not only is the use of "crack cocaine" a racially loaded term?since crack is associated with black people, whereas powder cocaine tends to be more associated with white people

Oh Jesus Fucking Christ. I think I need an internet/news detox for a month. Has anyone tried it?

[PapayaSF]

I guess "not wanting to pay for someone else's" equals an "attack on contraception."

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Why a sub-two-hour marathon won't happen anytime soon

[trshmnstr]

Please, please, please be an AGW article.

[mr lizard]

Meh, hate to dissapoint, but it's just a statistical explanation that should have been attempted with thermodynamics.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

One nation under a Teapublican shutdown

In an effort to understand the totality of the damage being inflicted by the government shutdown, The Huffington Post solicited reader feedback and surveyed hundreds of local news outlets in all 50 states. The results of our search -- illustrating a nation under shutdown -- are below.

Alabama:
The Cheaha Regional Head Start in Talladega was closed.
Alaska:
Some 1,900 civilian workers received furlough notices at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson
National Transportation Safety Board Investigators into plane crashes in Alaska were furloughed.
Arizona:
More than 30 people looking to raft on the Colorado river were turned away.
Arkansas:
More than 85,000 meals for Arkansas children were at risk of being ended. Some 2,000 newborn babies woud potentially not receive infant formula.
The Clinton Presidential Center closed permanent exhibits to walk-in visitors.
Federal workers earning $11,000-a-year to work at a shelter in Little Rock were forced to work without pay.

Madness.

[PD Scott]

How can any Federal workers make only $11k a year? Are they part time?

[Doctor Whom]

Good question. A GS-1, step 1, makes more than that.

[CE]

More importantly, I didn't realize the federal government made the rivers run.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

not just run, but run on time!

[PapayaSF]

Some 2,000 newborn babies woud potentially not receive infant formula.

If you can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Stevie Yzerman talking about eliminating fighting in hockey.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meh. I can take it or leave it.

[Restoras]

I'm fine with it but if it is "part of the game" then why isn't there an award at the end of the year for the best pugilist? They can call it the Paul Holmgren Award.

[Mickey Rat]

So Yzerman wants to increase the number of sticking incidents? Pro hockey without fighting gets unbearably chippy.

[Coeus]

Fark reaction to this headline:

Oh, you wanted to look at the NASA website? Sorry; Obama is too pissed off to let you

Jackson Herring

fark you, submitter

TeDDD

Just another instance of the Thanks, Obama attitude. The GOP shut down non-essentials? Thanks, Obama. The stop light near my house isn't nearly long enough? Thanks, Obama. Milk cartons are surprisingly hard to open? Thanks, Obama.

d23 [TotalFark]

Submitter is a farking spaz.

Sock Ruh Tease

Teamitter is probably more angry at the Spanish message than the English one.

born_yesterday

Does anyone know of a site where I can get political information and a discussion board free of bullshiat headlines like this?

I really like reading The Hill; have to see if they have a discussion board. They reported days before the shutdown exactly how things would play out, and their analysis regarding whether a shutdown would occur was spot-on. Something along those lines.

This "It's not news; it's desperate trollbait for clicks.com" bullshiat is always tiresome, but at a time like this, it's just boring and uninformative.

[Warty]

Boring and uninformative. Yes.

[The Last American Hero]

Maybe Putin can broker a deal between the House and the Senate. He seems willing to fill in whenever the President doesn't feel up to it.

[Hyperion]

What happened to the good ol days when Willy would just fill in for O at anytime, during the middle of a speech, you know?

If Comrade Hugey Bear were still alive, maybe he could cheer up Comrade O?

[Rich]

If Putin's not available, how about Dennis Rodman?

[Hyperion]

I hear that Dennis has insider knowledge of the full progressive playbook, as practiced by the masters.

[Long Range Boredom]

Last I heard he was going back to North Korea to train their basketball time. Man, can't wait for the feel-good movie about that.

[Long Range Boredom]

*Team.

[Pathogen]

Too late, we all saw it.... you'll never live it down now...

[C. Anacreon]

can't wait for the feel-good movie about that.

No doubt Rodman will be played by John Candy.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

John Candy's dead, dude.

[C. Anacreon]

Duh. You are missing the Cool Runnings reference

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

I thought Uncle Buck.

[Long Range Boredom]

Little bit of voodoo never hurt anybody.

[PapayaSF]

Zing!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Jerry Brown approves driving permits for illegals

Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday will hold signing ceremonies in Los Angeles and Fresno to approve AB 60, which will allow people in the country illegally to receive a permit to legally drive in California, his office announced Wednesday.

Brown will join immigrant rights advocates, community leaders, law enforcement officials and local lawmakers in the ceremonies to sign the bill, which the announcement said will "enable millions more Californians to legally drive on the state's roadways."

The bill by Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville) was changed at Brown's request to meet requirements of the federal Department of Homeland Security, including a distinguishing notation of DP, for driving privilege, on the permits, instead of the normal DL, for driver's license.

A notice on the cards will say: "This card is not acceptable for official federal purposes. This license is issued only as a license to drive a motor vehicle. It does not establish eligibility for employment, voter registration, or public benefits."

The DMV is given until no later than Jan. 1, 2015, to develop a process for accepting alternative documentation, but Alejo said officials with the agency told him they may be able to begin issuing the licenses in September or October of 2014.

[Hyperion]

They are doing the same thing in MD. If you are a legal immigrant you have to jump through all the hoops, and it's a major pain in the ass. If you're illegal, starting next year, you just say 'no speak English, no have papers' are you're good to go.

Sounds fair to me.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

What happens if they get pulled over? Do the cops have to call ICE?

[waffles]

The bounty hunter?

[mr simple]

No, the caterer.

[mr lizard]

.... I'm wearing spilled expensive beer thanks to you, but still worth it.

[Hyperion]

Hahahhahhaaa! This is the Peoples Republic of Murland, sanctuary state. They'll send you to court to extract some revenue, then you're free to go.

[Bobarian]

Are they gonna make em get insurance too?

[Hyperion]

I would assume so. You can't even leave a car parked on private property here without insurance.

[C. Anacreon]

But the insurance is for the car itself. You don't need car insurance to get a drivers license.

[Coeus]

I would assume so. You can't even leave a car parked on private property here without insurance.

good god.

[paranoid android]

So new layers of bureaucracy and government control must be added to help correct a problem that was created entirely by said bureaucracy and government control.

In other words, business as usual.

[jesse.in.mb]

Pretty much. Make it easy to get a work permit and legal (albeit temporary) status and this problem evaporates.

[Rich]

"This card is not acceptable for official federal purposes."

So, drive *only* on state, county, city, and private roads.

[PD Scott]

What happens if they drive on U.S. 101? Try to get their kicks on Route 66?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Irish politicians slam Bono over tax

Irish MP Roisin Shortall tells the Daily Mail newspaper, "Everybody needs to put their shoulder to the wheel in terms of bringing Ireland back to recovery and it would be great to see U2 and Bono play their full part in that."

[tarran]

Teh fact that he sells music and makes Irishmen feel better is all the part he needs to play, Roisin!

Jackass!

[Winston]

She's an independent former Labour member. Nice to see an independent leftist's hostility to statist and collectivism.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Remember kids, cutting any government subsidy is always and everywhere misogynist:

the amendment, pushed by Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, is clearly designed to cut off large numbers of women from getting their contraception benefits, but it could be used to terminate any of the laundry list of women's preventive services that are required by law to be offered co-pay-free. The amendment reflects an extremely creepy view of the employer-employee relationship, in which apparently your boss' beliefs and views are supposed to be in the mix when you're making personal decisions about how you have sex and procreate.

This is not the first time Republicans have tried to hold our government and economy hostage with their misogynist obsessions?in a 2011 spending bill, the GOP threatened to cut off family planning subsidies for places like Planned Parenthood.

[Doctor Whom]

Not subsidizing something = forbidding it.

[Long Range Boredom]

"The amendment reflects an extremely creepy view of the employer-employee relationship"

Meanwhile, forcing an employer to follow the beliefs and views of how their employees want to have sex and procreate is completely fine.

[Pathogen]

+1

[The Immaculate Trouser]

MATTY THINK REPUBLICANS ARE STOOPID

Republicans?shying away from the consequences of the government shutdown they provoked?have started rallying around the idea of addressing specific problems with a government shutdown by passing mini-appropriations to rescue particular agencies. Helping out veterans and reopening national parks, in particular, seem to be on the agenda.

Democrats, meanwhile, are resisting this approach for a mix of a few reasons. One is that this is basically a silly way to run the government.

Yes, because funding government through CRs rather than creating an actual budget is the serious approach to governance.

[Hyperion]

Democrats, meanwhile, are resisting this approach for a mix of a few reasons. One is that this is basically a silly way to run the government.

That's a brilliant argument right there, I don't care who you are.

The 'mix of a few reasons' and 'silly way' is what finally convinced me of what an intellectual giant that guy is.

[John]

He is the worst about pathetic appeals to nonexistent authority. Everything is "against what experts say" or "silly" or whatever. He is really incapable of making a rational argument.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I got to Marcotte for my engagement advice

The attempts of Americans to reconcile their infatuation with traditional wedding rituals and the realities of their daily lives are an endlessly amusing exercise in cognitive dissonance. Sure, let your dad give you away, even though you haven't answered to his paternal authority for more than a decade. Why not have a bachelorette party decorated with penises, as if we're teasing a virginal bride who has never seen one in real life? And, yes, the man should be responsible for buying that engagement ring, even though his wife-to-be makes more money.
Oh wait, what's that? Women are buying their own engagement rings, or at least splitting the costs?
Yes, according to the Cut and the Knot, there is an increasing willingness on the part of engaged couples to split the costs of the engagement ring, which comports generally with our 21st-century approach to family finances, in which both parties have jobs and therefore both contribute to the pot. Nearly half the respondents to a Today poll said they would share the costs of an engagement ring...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Of course, the entire thing brings up an uncomfortable existential dilemma: Is it really an engagement ring if you bought it yourself? The whole point of the engagement ring is that it's a gift, meant to demonstrate the level of a man's commitment. When you shake your hand meaningfully at people with your ring, you're showing off how invested he is, moneywise, in claiming you for his bride-to-be. (He doesn't need to demonstrate how committed you are to him. It's just assumed women's commitment is assured, and they are indeed slobberingly grateful to be selected for the high honor of being someone's personal sandwich-maker.)
[...]
What all this demonstrates is that it's high time to end the tradition of the engagement ring, along with other wedding rituals that are built on the assumption that a bride is dependent and virginal. The entire discourse about women having to "snag" a husband and obtain expensive totems of his commitment to hold him in place before the actual wedding is offensive to both genders. Women provide for themselves now. Instead of hanging onto these sexist, retrograde wedding traditions, why not make up some new ones that reflect our modern era? The new tradition of announcing your engagement through a photo shoot that emphasizes your already-enjoyable life together is a lot more cost-effective and reflects what people's actual romantic lives are like...

I dunno, maybe the appeal is that a gold ring won't tarnish and is pretty permanent?

[C. Anacreon]

NOW they come up with this. Where were they 20 years ago when I proposed to my wife. I was dumb enough then to buy into that "two months salary" idea. I wonder if she would have gone for each of us coughing up a month's salary (I don't think so).

But you know, she still wears it every day, and it is somewhat of a symbol of that lasting bond. Which I just can't see a "photo shoot" doing.

No doubt, Marcotte probably believes marriage is a stupid concept anyway -- and from this mindset, a photo shoot would better serve to fill an album of your time with each of your many partners as you go through life.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

When reading these articles it's imperative that you remember that Marcotte's husband is 37 cats.

[Brett L]

Thank god my wife wanted a sapphire, has skinny fingers, and doesn't like the bling look!

[Andrew S.]

I got engaged to my wife while I was a Junior in college, so she has a small stone (half a carat) on a fairly cheap ring. Even now 15 years later, when we're in better financial straits, she loves her ring and wouldn't dream of having a bigger one.

[PapayaSF]

There you go. If your fianc? is more concerned about the cost of the ring than the fact that you want to marry her, don't marry her.

[mad libertarian guy]

Ditto. Except my wife's is even smaller than .5 carat.

[Pathogen]

Tightwad... that better be a conflict diamond chip. Did you at least get her a respectable monocle? perhaps a baby seal fur lined top-hat?

[Coeus]

What all this demonstrates is that it's high time to end the tradition of the engagement ring, along with other wedding rituals that are built on the assumption that a bride is dependent and virginal.

I'm totally OK with this. For once, she's not being hypocritical about privileges and responsibilities. Though I'll note it only came up when she found out that women were starting to spend their own money.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I think she's unfairly castigating the value of getting an engagement ring.

It does not have to be a male gift but rather a symbol of commitment for others to see when the woman wears it, so going halves on it should not cheapen the meaning of the ring for that couple if that's what they want.

You can always get portraits done, rings are more unique and valuable.

[jesse.in.mb]

The whole point of the engagement ring is that it's a gift, meant to demonstrate the level of a man's commitment.

I thought it was to provide a two month financial buffer back when life insurance policies were non-existent. She actually does make a good point though. Engagement rings are a scam. They aren't worth anything near what you pay, the prices of diamonds are artificially inflated, and they don't serve the purpose for which they were originally intended.

[Apatheist ?_??]

They aren't worth anything near what you pay, the prices of diamonds are artificially inflated

This is mitigated somewhat when your best-man's dad is a jeweler who sold you the ring at practically wholesale and personally picked out the diamond in Antwerp. I actually hate the diamond industry but it's what she wanted and that's not really that hard of a compromise. I'm not the one wearing it everyday. There are practical benefits too, diamonds are the hardest stone and will deal with daily wear and tear.

I paid for it (and picked it out, cuz I was paying) but it wouldn't really make a difference. Now that we are married our money is ours, it really doesn't matter who paid for what beforehand, it is the same amount in the end.

[Long Range Boredom]

People who buy rings are suckers anyway.

[CE]

So, just come out and admit that your life isn't really going to change, just your tax status, and you want everyone to bring you gifts and waste half a day at your wedding?

[Aresen]

The war of drugs has resulted in narcotics that are cheaper and purer than they've been in the past 20 years.

See? Government regulation does result in better products.

;P

[Coeus]

Fark commentariat on a reason article.

Do not play the drinking game with this if you have to drive somewhere.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Jesus. That went off the reservation right out of the gate.

Is there anything else the GOP hasn't achieved through elections in the last 40 years that they'd like to extort through this mess they created?

[Hyperion]

Is there anything else the GOP hasn't achieved through elections in the last 40 years that they'd like to extort through this mess they created?

That is the dumbest fuck question I've heard in a long time. The GOPs full time job for decades now has been to gradually give the proggies across the aisle everything they want, while pretending to represent their constituents.

[C. Anacreon]

Not according to the people responding to this article -- you really wonder how anyone can perceive things this way? One drew a picture of typical negotiations between Rs and Ds -- where after each was supposed to meet in the middle, the Dems came 95% of the way to the GOP, only to hear the GOP shout "burn it down!"

Several other commenters also supported one guy's post, who said if the Rs win this one, next they will eliminate Medicare and Social Security. (At least two other people responded with "THIS".)

The evil Koch brothers are named several times.

And of course several posts about how stupid anyone is who watches Faux News. It reminded me of when the janitor at our hospital said he couldn't believe Bush was president because he was "such a moron."

[Pathogen]

This one's precious...

jayhawk88 [TotalFark] - 2013-10-02 08:36:03 AM

Zeno-25: Is there anything else the GOP hasn't achieved through elections in the last 40 years that they'd like to extort through this mess they created?

The concept of Feudal Lords really needs to be re-examined, I think.

The term "Feudal Lord" is so pass?, let's just call them...uhmm...Governors..

[Andrew S.]

You should know better than to look at Fark comments on a Reason article. Or on anything political for that matter.

One reason I stopped going to Fark (in favor of Reddit) is that while Reddit may have a high percentage of idiots on politics, at least I can unsubscribe from politics and political-related subreddits.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Casey Kasem is 81 now and in failing health with Parkinson's. According to broadcast industry insiders, his wife Jean, is apparently stopping Casey's family seeing him. His kids claim they haven't seen nor hear from him in months.

It got so weird and tense yesterday that police were called to the house in Holmby Hills (part of LA) when three of Casey's kids showed up at the gate and demanded to see dad.

[paranoid android]

All will be resolved when they pull the mask off of Jean to reveal that the whole time it was Old Man Withers, the owner of the haunted amusement park.

[PD Scott]

Zoinks!

[Pro Libertate]

That's too bad. He'll always be Shaggy to me.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Foodie/hipster trigger warning.

So we just started roasting our own coffee and it's working pretty well. About three or four minutes in an air popper yields more than enough for the day. Anyone have any experience or pointers?

[Brandon]

No, just a question: why?

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Part of it is to experience some more of the process - we have more of a maker attitude when it comes to food. If we can get any good at it, it turns out to be cheaper to buy quality green coffee than pre-roasted stuff for not a lot of effort.

[Hyperion]

You're still a faker until you start growing it.

[Gray Ghost]

Do you get a bunch of smoke? Is there any special preparation you have to do? I have some green Ethiopian coffee, but have been holding off on roasting it myself for fear of filling my place with black smoke. (I get enough of that from my grill pan.) How're the beans afterwards compared with those from a commercial roaster?

[Nephilium]

There will be smoke... the amount of smoke depends on the darkness of the roast and your ventilation. I never had a really black smoke come out, but when I was renting, I did have neighbors come by every once in a while to make sure that I didn't start a fire.

As for the taste, it depends on what beans your roasting, and what flavors you're looking to get out of them. I enjoyed my home roasted coffee more then any I got from a commercial roaster, and it's cheaper... by a lot.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I haven't seen any visible smoke yet, but there's certainly an invisible cloud of burnt coffee smell even when it's not burned. We've had the windows open and roasted next to the oven exhaust fan, so it's not a big deal.

We're still working on flavor. Nothing offensive, but nothing great yet. These guys have some good videos. We've been using the popcorn popper method, those things are all over thrift stores.

[Nephilium]

If you hit up the Coffee Project you can pick up a roaster which will give you a lot more control over the level of roast. One other note is to let the coffee degas for 12-24 hours after roasting, during that time it will be putting off CO2, which will change the flavor of the brewed coffee.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Thanks. We'll have to graduate to that someday. We read somewhere that 4 hrs rest is a sufficient minimum, but we may need to go to 12.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Uh-oh: Joan Walsh calls Matt Welch out again!

I got a lot of criticism for that piece, much of it from racist nut jobs, but I wanted to take a moment to respond to Welch's, because he makes a couple of good points. First, he notes that interracial marriage is on the rise, and libertarians like him support interracial marriage, and that's great news. Of course, in my piece, I said only a minority of Republicans were actual believers in white supremacy and black inferiority and desired to prevent the mixing of the races. But maybe I wasn't explicit enough.

Also, Welch takes me to task because the art in the piece includes Tea Party Sen. Rand Paul, and the article didn't explicitly mention Paul. That's totally fair. I could fault my editor for using a photo of Rand Paul to illustrate the story, but I really have to fault myself. How did I write a piece about the modern GOP's use of race and racism without talking about Rand (and Ron) Paul? What is the matter with me?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I have covered Paul's many disappointing moments on racial issues over the years, from telling Rachel Maddow he couldn't support the Civil Rights Act provisions that applied to private businesses back in 2010, and to his dishonest weaseling over his white neo-Confederate staffer Jack Hunter, aka Southern Avenger, to his own slurs against Abraham Lincoln drawn straight from the canon of neo-Confederacy. I can't believe I left Rand Paul out of the piece. I apologize for the omission. While I'm at it, I have to apologize for not writing about the history of GOP voter suppression, especially in the age of Barack Obama. I've written about that plenty of times. I'm sorry for the omission.

I can only conclude that this woman is some kind of idiot-savant that specializes in badly writing pieces that draw race into everything.

[Andrew S.]

Idiot savant implies that there's something she's exceptionally good at. The savant part doesn't apply to her at all.

[paranoid android]

That's a neat little trick she pulls there, where she says she's going to respond to the points Welch raised and then devotes several paragraphs to doing absolutely nothing of the kind.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Reason's Matt Welch is occasionally smart. Unfortunately, he's still mad at me for calling him out on a really dumb column he wrote three years ago. Oops: "Calling him out"; I shouldn't have said that. Because according to Welch, that's gangsta rap talk. But maybe that's only if Obama says it. Maybe it's OK because I'm a white woman?

No, seriously. Here's what happened. When the president warned "special interests" in a 2009 speech that if they continued to "misrepresent" what was in his healthcare plan, "we will call you out," Welch called it a "SnoopDoggesque display," and he linked to a video of Snoop's song "Shut U Down" to make his point. "Shut U Down," "call you out," same difference, to Welch anyway.

She's pretty much trolling Welch and throwing red meat to her fans rather than writing a rebuttal.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Reason's Matt Welch is occasionally smart. Unfortunately, he's still mad at me for calling him out on a really dumb column he wrote three years ago. Oops: "Calling him out"; I shouldn't have said that. Because according to Welch, that's gangsta rap talk. But maybe that's only if Obama says it. Maybe it's OK because I'm a white woman?

No, seriously. Here's what happened. When the president warned "special interests" in a 2009 speech that if they continued to "misrepresent" what was in his healthcare plan, "we will call you out," Welch called it a "SnoopDoggesque display," and he linked to a video of Snoop's song "Shut U Down" to make his point. "Shut U Down," "call you out," same difference, to Welch anyway.

She's pretty much trolling Welch and throwing red meat to her fans rather than writing a rebuttal.

[Killazontherun]

Who is this Joan Walsh? The ALgore of race alarmism, maybe? She has a name that sounds like it should be taken seriously, but based on the above quotes, why would anyone bother?

[FYTW]

She's a dessicated white harpy who's somehow able to convince people to pay her for writing endless idiotic screeds, all of them some permutation of "lol u racist bro".

[C. Anacreon]

She used to be a sportswriter in the local San Francisco paper awhile back. I guess she "graduated" to op-ed after too much time in the 49ers locker room, where perhaps she first noted subtle differences between races.

[Killazontherun]

She looks like the kind of white woman who would creep a brother out.

[JW]

She just can't kick the black snake and will do anything to maintain her street cred.

[PapayaSF]

Ha, I'll bet the closest she ever gets to black people is at $1,000/plate Obama fundraisers.

[JW]

No, I'm sure she gets very close to them when she condescends to them, reminding them how much they need her White Damsel help, since they aren't capable enough on their own.

[PapayaSF]

I doubt she ever gets too close to the ones she wants to "help." She's not an idiot. She knows conservatives are often liberals who have been mugged, and doesn't want that to happen to her.

But if she did get mugged, she'd probably be in agony at how she had failed the poor soul who mugged her.

[Long Range Boredom]

"Take up the White Man's burden?
Send forth the best ye breed?
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild?
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child."

[fish]

She looks like the kind of white woman who would creep a brother out.

If he has any standards at all....yes!

[Killazontherun]

Not so much standards, but knowing that just to do better, than that stalker looking bitch, all you gotta do is turn the next corner.

[Gray Ghost]

I thought I remembered her writing for the Mercury News awhile ago. She didn't seem batshit insane then, but working at Salon will do that to you, I guess.

[PD Scott]

What is the matter with me?

Hmm, let's add up all the factors:
You're wack, you're twisted,
you're agenda's a bore,
the US's broke, the kids ain't yours, and e'rybody know,
your old man say you stupid, you be like "So?
I love my Barry Obama, I never let him go."

[Gilbert Martin]

"In the meantime, if you need any more evidence that the park shutdowns are a stunt, even park privatization can't stop it. Apparently the federal government has forced shut a park in Virginia it neither funds nor operates (but sits on federal land), to the dismay of the staff there."

I hope this kind of thing gets the most media airplay possible to highlight the absolute mendacity of the administration.

It's not likely given the fact that most of the MSM are in the tank for Obama and the Democrats.

However, the office TV was tuned to CNN and I did see something on there about the WW2 Memorial closing stunt as I was walking by so maybe there is some hope.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Cancellation of Service Academy Football Games is About 'Optics'
..."We could run our entire athletics program and conduct events as we always do without any government funds," Gladchuk said. "In talking to the Air Force athletic director, their football team could execute the trip without government funding."

Asked why the Department of Defense was suspending intercollegiate athletic contests if government funds are not required, Gladchuk said he was told it was about "optics."

"It's a perception thing. Apparently it doesn't resonate with all the other government agencies that have been shut down," Gladchuk said....

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I wonder how the decision looks through the optics of losing major alumni donations. I know if I actually donated anything I'd be punishing them right now.

[Stormy Dragon]

I don't think the service academies rely on alumni donations (at least not any more than they rely on the mandatory non-alumni donations).

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Not to the same degree, but they do matter.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

"Private giving meets the growing need for enhanced and new programs, facilities and faculty over and above the basic sufficiency provided by federal funding. Whether designated for a capital project such as the renovated Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, a scholarship for a prospective midshipman through the Athletic & Scholarship Program or a Distinguished Visiting Professor, donations transform the Naval Academy from good to great and support the Brigade of Midshipmen."

[Bo Cara Esq.]

They are going to cancel their football games? That is (almost) beyond belief.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Is this a way for a military dude to confirm that Obama is a dick without directly dissing him or disobeying orders?

Or did he just screw up and accidentally tell the truth?

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Gladchuk is a very highly paid civilian. Not in the normal pay schedules, think like a state school's AD or football coach.

[Killazontherun]

What's the name of this splinter group? Al-Queda on the CIA Payroll?

Gunmen attack Russian embassy in Libya's Tripoli

http://rt.com/news/libya-russi.....ttack-651/

The Russian embassy in Tripoli, Libya, has come under fire and there were attempts to get into Russia's diplomatic compound, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"There has been an incident in Tripoli tonight, in which there was shelling and attempts to enter the territory of the Russian Embassy in this country," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich told RT

. . .

According to reports, around 10 attackers drove to the embassy in two cars. Libyan News Agency (LANA) reports that they first opened fire on a parked diplomatic vehicle.

A video still from Ruptly's exclusive footage shows a car burning in an almost deserted street outside the embassy.

. . .

A similar attack on Russia's Tripoli embassy took place in February 2012 when protesters stormed the compound, condemning Russian and Chinese decisions to block the UN resolution against Syria. No one was injured in that attack.

[PD Scott]

Damn Apple Maps!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

WWII vets see how government behaves when it faces irrelevance
...When bureaucrats are threatened with irrelevance or face appearing unneeded, they respond by inflicting as much pain as possible, in hopes that they can prove they're necessary and get their budgets increased. And even worse, an administration trying to make a political point ? as Obama's is ? has every incentive to make a shutdown felt as acutely as possible. So obviously, we need to cancel the Navy-Air Force game as quickly as possible, even if the event is a voluntary activity by students requiring no expenditure of taxpayer funds.

The barricading of the World War II Memorial has now become the most visible incident in this case ? and to be clear, it's not a "closing" because there's no such thing as "closing" an open-air stone memorial in the middle of a large field like the National Mall. People walk past and through this memorial unaccompanied at all hours of the day and night. (And really, if they're going to close that, why aren't they closing the entire National Mall?) ...

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

With his bright blue eyes and roguish good looks, Ronan Farrow has never much looked his father, Woody Allen. But he does bear an uncanny resemblance to Sinatra

[Killazontherun]

Sent it to my ma. She loved Mia up to the moment she heard Mia was with Woody. She always hated him with a passion. Easy to get her started on him. She never forgave him for some shitty movie from back in the 70s that wasted her time.

[PapayaSF]

OK, there was Interiors, but all his other movies back then were pretty good.

[BakedPenguin]

Possibly?

[jesse.in.mb]

I call shenanigans "roguish good looks"? I think not

I'm not saying he has a Warty-Time? dungeon in his basement, but there's something off there.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

speaking of "Warty-Time? dungeon", mine didn't come with the ground tarp

[jesse.in.mb]

If you have Warty-Time? come out they'll hospital tile the bottom half of the room and add a drain and hose hookup. The downside is that they generally like to demonstrate "best practices" on you while they're there.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

DB Cooper?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Gawker exposes Crossfit...as a libertarian cult?

Crossfit is an exercise program with pluses and minuses. On the plus side, it really will get you in good shape. On the minus side, its adherents sometimes resemble intolerably intense cultists, and also, it turns out, it's run by extreme libertarians who enjoy sharing pro-capitalist philosophies, to go with your squats.

Far be it from me to suggest that an exercise program focus on exercise. Different people respond to different types of training. Some people respond to distance running, or bodyweight movements, or powerlifting workouts; others respond better to, uh, rabid libertarian philosophies. Tim Mak's piece in the Washington Examiner (a week old, but hey) takes a look at the "deep libertarian ethos [that] runs through the entire CrossFit organization," ("Our leadership is pretty avowedly libertarian," says a spokesman) as evidenced by various non-fitnessy tweets Crossfit sends out now and again, such as "Minimum wage and "living wage" laws can reduce employment in several ways."

Listening to some Friedman lectures on monetary policy gets me pumped!

[paranoid android]

I like how the piece doesn't reveal any sort of corruption, or immoral activity on the part of CrossFit's leadership, or really anything of substance at all about CrossFit. It's just 100% "They're not like us! Stay away from the heretics!"

[JW]

It must be miserable and exhausting, going through life where every political affront is a personal attack that can't be ignored and must be attacked.

FWIW, I have always thought that it's stupid for a non-large business to mix politics with business. You're bound to piss some customer off.

[Killazontherun]

A Michael Jordon quote comes to mind.

[JW]

"Nothing but net?"

A little help here.

[Killazontherun]

Republicans buy his shoes, too.

[Brett L]

Yeah, I do like how we are the new Communists, with our shady tentacles spreading into the most mundane things, like pop music and fad fitness regimes.

[Pro Libertate]

It so fundamentally misses the point that I'm not sure how to respond. If we were to "win", "we" would have control of jack and shit. See, that's the whole point.

[Pathogen]

A world without the shameless use of contrived racial tension as a bulwark against a perceived populace of moral and social enemies, a PC first amendment minefield, used to advance obscure political objectives, malignant cronyism, ulterior motives, subterfuge, political skullduggery, and casually bending an entire populace to your political will, just to achieve some sort of arousal? Unpossible...

[CE]

But we would control people and prevent them from taking other people's money to do great things, and prevent them from regulating other people's behavior for those other people's own good.

[Lady Bertrum]

LEAVE CROSSFIT ALONE.

Really. Crossfit is a franchise organization. While the exercise philosophy is obviously consistent, the owners' politics aren't.

[SForza]

My apologies for the nit-pick, but it isn't a franchise organization. It's affiliates, so much less central control and much more open source. There are plenty of things CrossFit HQ has done to piss me off, but I love the affiliate structure.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-SoCons on the Scourge That is Porn

-Pornography is any form of text or media imagery designed to trigger sexual arousal. It can range from the inhumanely hard-core and violent videos found on the Internet to exploitative ads, like Victoria's Secret commercials. 100% of children growing up in America today are exposed to some form of pornography or sexually exploitative media by the time they are 12 years old. Use of pornography not only warps users' expectations for their relationships, it wreaks havoc on marriages and families, and ultimately contributes to human trafficking and child sexual abuse. Indeed, 94 percent of Americans believe a ban on Internet pornography should be legal.

http://w2.parentstv.org/blog/i.....-daughter/

[Apatheist ?_??]

Projection, not just for the left!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I cannot imagine the definition of 'pornography' which would make their claims that 100% of children below 12 are exposed to it and 94% of Americans want a law to ban it on the internet.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Indeed, 94 percent of Americans believe a ban on Internet pornography should be legal.

What a shitty sentence, and quite obviously pulled out of their ass. Surprising that they didn't give a source.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

90% of Americans couldn't agree that the moon landing was real. Anytime I see a result along those lines, it's almost invariably a bad poll, bad interpretation of results, or the result of poor group selection.

I suspect that the above is the result of an internet poll.

[Winston]

So I guess the mask has come off huh? The left is pretty mindlessly worshipful of the state and thinks the GOP are obstructionist terrorists. Seems they are laying the groundwork for a coup. Oh and the Right is well aware of this. We all know what happens when the Right thinks the Left are all communists intent on slaughtering them.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Stig?
A sports car worth ?400,000 has been seized by police in east London after the driver's policy was found not to cover him to get behind the wheel.

The Lamborghini Aventador was stopped in Newham because its front number plate was missing, causing police to carry out further checks.

[JW]

al Stig, more than likely.

[Coeus]

A relatively (compared to their usual bullshit) honest look at a PUA from a feminist.

But then there's this:

By his last night in Copenhagen, Roosh's game is not on point. His face is shining "a molten red" at the injustice of it all. He can't stop himself from calling his buddy's friend a "stupid, ugly, fat, cock-blocking bitch." He ends the night by lying his way into bed with an apprehensive eighteen-year-old virgin. The determined pick-up artist can switch from "proactive" to predatory at the drop of a fedora. Since the Community deploys the strategies of hypercompetitive "meritocratic" societies in which self-promotion is indispensable to survival, Roosh felt he was responsible for making his night a success. If the inexperienced teenager had been more reluctant, it seems doubtful he would have relented.

She thinks that taking control of your sexuality means you'd be a rapist if necessary. Apparently, the "it just happened" bullshit of not owning your own sexuality is a virtue in her mind.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Rand Paul:liberal hero?

"I have a lot of problems with Rand Paul," said David Sirota, the liberal author and blogger, citing his positions on the economy and on a woman's right to choose. "But I think that on issues concerning national security and the domestic security state he is as right as anybody in the Congress?and there aren't a lot of people in Congress who are good on those issues."
[...]
For liberals, the question of how to square this circle is a vexing one.
"It's boutique progressivism," said Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and the liberal standard bearer in the 2004 primaries. "To use the word 'progressivism' and Rand Paul together, it's an oxymoron. It's like saying 'Fox' and 'News.'"
Dean said that some of Paul's stances could point the way forward for the GOP if the Republicans hope to win over voters under 35, but did not think that very many of his own fellow travelers would be much persuaded.
"You can't be a progressive and turn your backs on women, you can't be a progressive and turn your back on immigrants," he said. "How is it progressive to stand up for the voting rights of felons but stand by while the Supreme Court destroys the Voting Rights Act?
"I have always thought Libertarians have a screw loose, anyway," Dean added

Hearing Dean say that warms my cold libertarian heart

[Killazontherun]

Howard Dean is a disingenuous fuck. The Teams thrive on leaving out the details of how laws they support destroy our liberties and game the system for their partisan purposes. His entire answer there was designed to omit what should be obvious to anyone.

[mad libertarian guy]

How is it progressive to decry war while cheering on Obama's war machine? How is it progressive to hate on unwarranted wiretaps, but provide cover for due process-less dronings?

Shut the fuck up, Dean. When you can show that your party isn't a bunch of hypocritical, mendacious fucks who care only about TEAM, get back to me. I won't hold my breath.

[Knarf Yenrab (prev. An0nB0t)]

Rand Paul:liberal hero?

He's more like a middle-of-the-road liberal, with Nozick and Block types populating the more ideologically pure elements of the liberal movement.

And so begins the long, slow march toward reclaiming our proper name.

[Gilbert Martin]

Obama is evidently peeved that investors are not sufficiently supportive of his hysteria and panic campaign.

Warning: the linked story contains actual Obama quotes so those of you who tend to get queasy (or violently ill) when subjected to the dear leader's non stop mendacity may not want to risk taking a look.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101081257

[Pro Libertate]

He must have never read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

[Andrew S.]

This being a NBC article, there's a bonus subtle accusation of racism:

On Obamacare, the president's most significant legislative accomplishment, Obama said that despite certain polls showing it was unpopular with specific segments of the population?namely white people?the law would ultimately be accepted by the population at large.

[Pro Libertate]

What? What? It's just the white people? I'm beyond getting pissed off by that kind of bullshit.

I heard something about how this was all about men vs. women. Because Obamacare somehow benefits women more than men.

[Coeus]

I heard something about how this was all about men vs. women. Because Obamacare somehow benefits women more than men.

It does force men to pay for women's birth control co-pays.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, but it's hard to extrapolate that to apply to the whole law, not to mention that I'm sure those co-pays were dirt-cheap to begin with. And I don't give a shit, because why I need to subsidize someone else's healthcare is beyond me.

[Mad Scientist]

The co-pay is about $30 a month for the pill, which, I shouldn't have to add, would cost about $5 a month over the counter if women didn't need to get a prescription for the stuff.

[Pro Libertate]

Fuck less. Why am I paying for women to fuck other people? Isn't that prostitution and illegal and stuff?

[Coeus]

Yes, but it's hard to extrapolate that to apply to the whole law,

Not if you're a feminist. They've been doing end-zone dances ever since they learned of it. They get to make the men pay.

Can you think of anything they'd like better?

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

You know who else wanted to make them pay?

[C. Anacreon]

They also think this is fair trade for insurance covering Viagra.

[Coeus]

Which is odd, considering the amount of viagra proscribed versus BC. I wonder what would happen if they made the co-pay the same for BC as viagra. Feminists would shit themselves.

[Eduard van Haalen]

So...I suppose feminists are admitting they're not the kind of women who benefit from Viagra? That could mean (a) they're virgins, (b) they all have virile young lovers, or (c) they play for the other team.

[Killazontherun]

Well, women have to pay for the joy of having a proctologist sticking his finger up my ass, so it pretty much evens out.

[Pro Libertate]

When do they start doing that? I fear I'm nearing the evil age, Fletch protect me.

[jesse.in.mb]

Mid-40s unless you have a family history or genetic risk factors.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm there, but my doctor said I have a little while yet. I just can't remember how long. How often do they torture men who achieve this age of pain and humiliation?

[jesse.in.mb]

Every three to five years I believe.

Preventative medical checkups infographic!

[Coeus]

No co-pay on that? And are there any medications that only men take that get the same deal?

[Killazontherun]

Medications where you avoid the finger plunge? The trick is turning it into a game. When his finger is up there, squeeze your sphincter tight and don't let go.

[Coeus]

Medications where you avoid the finger plunge?

Medications that women don't take and don't have a co-pay.

[Irish]

I heard something about how this was all about men vs. women. Because Obamacare somehow benefits women more than men.

Actually it fucks them both. The only difference is that women's premiums are going up by 60% and men's are going up by 100%.

[Gilbert Martin]

I heard the same sort of claim a day or so ago from John Harwood - CNBC's resident Obama sycophant who masquerades as a political reporter.

[Coeus]

One of these things is not like the other:

When talking about the undermining of female friendship, Maya mentioned that we live in a culture where sexual and familial relationships are prioritized over friendships. This is so true that sometimes are willing women devalue the friendships that we have for the sake of being good romantic partners. Have you noticed that messaging around good heterosexual relationships often includes letting men "hang out with the boys," but women's friends are portrayed as destined to be the bane of the relationship? This rhetoric is pervasive. I've had personal conversations with women who stand by the idea that once they're in a relationship, their partner comes first.

[Pathogen]

"When talking about the undermining of female friendship, Maya mentioned that we live in a culture where sexual and familial relationships are prioritized over friendships. This is so true that sometimes are willing women devalue the friendships that we have for the sake of being good romantic partners. Have you noticed that messaging around good heterosexual relationships often includes letting men "hang out with the boys," but women's friends are portrayed as destined to be the bane of the relationship? This rhetoric is pervasive. I've had personal conversations with ..women who stand by the idea that once they're in a relationship, their partners man's sammich comes first."

Fixed

[Coeus]

Norway's gender quota law has made boards more professional: state fund boss

Which means:

"You had to look more thoroughly to find females. This started a more professional process," said Svarva, who is also the head of the corporate assembly and the election committee at Statoil, the largest company in the Nordics.

Another effect has been that nomination committees have looked outside Norway's borders in the search for suitable candidates. "Boards have become more global," she said.

How long til the feminists become closed border supporters?

[Coeus]

Best fark comment of the day:

Bloody William
2013-10-01 09:18:19 AM
I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes I'm afraid that the extreme right is a mirror image of myself and my political views. It's very easy to be limited by your frame of reference and not understand how other people view things.

Then I listen to them and realize that they're ignorant reactionaries who would fail a 5th grade Civics class and who would respond to a sophomore economics class by trying to blow up the high school. Even if their opinions had a nugget of validity in them, they're coated in thick layers of misunderstanding and keyword hatred. They cannot support what they say. They can only create poor analogies and slogans that oversimplify complex issues and don't hold up to a milligram of scrutiny.

I really feel like the proggie's missing a concluding sentence there.

[tarran]

That is a fucking textbook example of pschological projection right there!

Psychological projection is a defense mechanism people subconsciously employ in order to cope with difficult feelings or emotions. Psychological projection involves projecting undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting to or dealing with the unwanted feelings.

He literally describes how he starts to question himself, and then comforts himself by using the rhetorical devices and illogical thinking that he ascribes to the "Right".

It's hysterically funny!

[Long Range Boredom]

*Bloody William sits in a cave*
"You know, maybe if I just turned around there might be a way out. Naw, the only thing that exists is this cave and the shadows on the wall."

[Pathogen]

"That is a fucking textbook example of pschological projection right there!...
....He literally describes how he starts to question himself, and then comforts himself by using the rhetorical devices and illogical thinking that he ascribes to the "Right".

Spot on....

Proglidytes taking to projection and cognitive dissonance, like cancer to a prostate? Perish the thought..

[Killazontherun]

It's pretty complete in being all they have to work with -- descriptive appeals to emotion while pretending to have a criteria that the subject is, of course, failing to meet. Where would they even start if they were to really have a criteria to work with? How a political ideology compares to their own on a scale of compassion? Too easy to refute as compassion is not something that can be accomplished with another person's money. If they make their ground game to explicit instead of this vague criteria affectation bullshit they always do, it becomes child's play to refute their most basic notions.

[PapayaSF]

OT: In the movie Here Comes the Boom (2012), a character is asked what the three branches of government are, and says "Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians."

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Zing

The Daily Show ?@TheDailyShow
No FDA? Let a homeless person taste your food. If he doesn't die of dysentary, you're safe and have done a good deed. #ShutdownSuggestions

[Ayn Random Variation]

Just heard the beginning of a rap song and couldn't believe what I heard so I looked it up to be sure. Gives me hope.

It's "Missing" by B.o.B. and starts out:

"Seems like since we got a black president
Black people stop questioning the government"

[Tejicano]

And it only took five years...

[Coeus]

CNN gives Reid a taste of his own medicine:

DANA BASH: You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials. The House is presumably going to pass a bill that funds at least the NIH. Given what you've said, will you at least pass that? And if not, aren't you playing the same political games that Republicans are?

HARRY REID: Listen, Sen. Durbin explained that very well, and he did it here, did it on the floor earlier, as did Sen. Schumer. What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded? It's obvious what's going on here. You talk about reckless and irresponsible. Wow. What this is all about is Obamacare. They are obsessed. I don't know what other word I can use. They're obsessed with this Obamacare. It's working now and it will continue to work and people will love it more than they do now by far. So they have no right to pick and choose.

BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?

REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. This is - to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you're irresponsible and reckless -

BASH: I'm just asking a question.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

"What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded?"

That is their major constitutional power. Does the Senator not know his institution's role?

[CE]

BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?

Excellent... use their own logic against them.

[Mad Scientist]

But the grid girls will ALSO be from Jersey.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

You can go to Austin next month.

[Mad Scientist]

I'd actually like to do that, but I've sunk so much cash into my "race" car this year that I can't afford any vacations.

[JW]

Austin or Montreal? Which is better?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I did the same during summer.

Stupid politicos and us radical anarchists will still be here waiting for you.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

You've convinced me. Missing out on all of this government shutdown bullshit seems like a good time to start.

Farewell Reason friends (and fuck you Shreek). I'll be back in November.

[JW]

I tend to avoid the news these days. Maybe an occasional peek on the phone, just to see what's happening.

I usually end it, disappointed.

[Mad Scientist]

It's my understanding that the track, and the view of the track, is better at COTA. But a weekend in Montreal is more fun than a weekend in Austin. COTA is certainly cheaper.

[Libertymike]

Eh, us real radical anarchists are here, too.

[JW]

I'd love to go to Montreal, but I bet I could find a good time in Austin, presuming I could ever get there in that traffic.