A.M. Links: NSA Gathering Email, IM Contacts Worldwide, Reid Says Talks With McConnell Have Made "Tremendous Progress," Teens Suspended For Wearing Confederate Flags

Credit: National Security Agency/wikimedia

• The Washington Post is reporting that the NSA has been collecting contacts from email address books and instant messaging accounts from around the world.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says that talks with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on ending the current fiscal stalemate have made "tremendous progress."
• Two teens have been suspended from Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington after wearing Confederate flags as clothing in response to a fellow student wearing a rainbow flag to mark LGBT History Month.
• An alleged pirate kingpin has been arrested after being lured to Belgium from Somalia to participate in a fake documentary.
• Inspectors working on destroying Syria's chemical weapons are facing numerous challenges including tight deadlines and a dangerous security situation.
• The second dry ice explosion in two days has been reported at LAX.

Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.  You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here. Have a news tip? Send it to us!

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The second dry ice explosion in two days has been reported at LAX.

I blame 90's rap musician names.

[Rich]

Investigators, however, aren't considering the blast to be connected to any terror plot.

Thank God!

But -- why does anyone *need* dry ice?

[UnCivilServant]

I bought carbon credits, I want them delivered in actual carbon.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm pretty sure it was AR-15 assault ice, at that.

[WTF]

It wasn't assault ice unless it had the shoulder thing that goes up.

[Snark Plissken]

Did they specify how many bullets and clips of dry ice there were?

[PM]

I believe it was an assault magazine drum clip.

[mr simple]

Dry ice, aka assault ice, can only be used to hurt children. Therefore, ban it.

[CatoTheElder]

Dry ice bomb

Guys at ground zero of dry ice bomb explosions, laughing

[Ted S.]

Those dry ice explosions are truly sublime.

[GILMORE]

they're a real gas!

[pan fried wylie]

Ideally.

[Clich? Bandit]

WOW...I mean, just...wow

[Emmerson Biggins]

I'll admit I wasn't gonna get it with out the follow ups. Well done.

[Lord Humungus]

FIST!

[WTF]

Missed it by that much!

[Lord Humungus]

that's what she said.

[Bee Tagger]

An alleged pirate kingpin has been arrested after being lured to Belgium from Somalia to participate in a fake documentary.

Is there anything Tom Hanks can't do well?

[UnCivilServant]

Produce insulin, apparently.

[Rich]

I laughed. Does that make me a type 2 bad person?

[pan fried wylie]

If you resisted laughing at that joke, yes. If you would've died had you not laughed at it, you'd be a type 1.

[Rich]

Nice. 😎

[Live Free or Diet]

Produce insulin, apparently.

Funny, but inaccurate.
Type 2 diabetes isn't a lack of insulin production, it's a resistance to insulin's action. Type 2 diabetics often produce much more insulin than non-diabetics.

[pan fried wylie]

Live Free of Diet is a type 3 bad person, aka "A Real Blast At Parties."

[Bardas Phocas]

Marketing tie in?

[CE]

If only Bush and Obama could be lured to Belgium and tried for their war crimes.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Physicist: There was no Fukushima nuclear disaster

From the comments, a couple Navy Nukes weigh in:

Matt Cash:

No one is immune from the hysteria.

I was stationed in Japan onboard the USS George Washington (in the reactor department) when the tsunami hit Fukushima. Our sensors are extremely sensitive, and the dust was able to set them off. Naturally, almost everyone not-nuclear trained started to panic about the potential contamination, which lead to the option of a mass evac from base. Of course, all of the nuclear trained workers just rolled their eyes and expected a massive influx of work to quell fears and start cleanup.

It was NOT fun.

David McFarland:

Essentially, being "in the plume," meant "DON'T LICK THE GROUND," and you'd be fine. Even if you did, you'd pretty much have to eat the dust on a regular basis to have an effect - that effect being you might set off a radiac. To get blood or blood effects, the first signs of radiation sickness, you'd have to have gone to extreme measures and it'd have to be quite intentional. It was actually to the point that it couldn't be guaranteed it wasn't coming from the Chinese Coal Plants, who regularly spew out trace amounts of uranium and other harmful elements and contaminate far more than Fukushima ever has.

[Jordan]

Very interesting article. Thanks.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Firstly let us get something clear. There was no Fukushima nuclear disaster. Total number of people killed by nuclear radiation at Fukushima was zero. Total injured by radiation was zero. Total private property damaged by radiation?.zero. There was no nuclear disaster. What there was, was a major media feeding frenzy fuelled by the rather remote possibility that there may have been a major radiation leak.

At the time, there was media frenzy that "reactors at Fukushima may suffer a core meltdown." Dire warnings were issued. Well the reactors did suffer a core meltdown. What happened? Nothing.

Certainly from the 'disaster' perspective there was a financial disaster for the owners of the Fukushima plant.

[robc]

The statistical number of extra cancer deaths due to the radiation release from Three Mile Island was approximately zero point five.

The stress from worrying about it, on the other hand....

[Root Boy]

You are really harshing ZeroHedge's mellow, plus I'm sure a lot of left wing sites are twisting their panties over three eyed fish.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I know some guys who were stationed on Guam when it happened. Some local NR reps went to Japan to help somehow. Apparently they tracked some contamination back to the boats on Guam, which made things difficult for everyone.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

So they detected some level of radiation? That is the great thing about radiation, it is very very easily detected down to incredibly low levels.

I guarantee you that any "contamination" they detected was not even remotely a danger to anybody.

People living around Fukushima should have been allowed back to their homes over 2 years ago. The only reason they are not is due to ridiculous radiation level standards promoted by an irrational fear of low level radiation.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Never said it was dangerous, but the engine rooms I'm talking about are normally quite clean as far as contamination goes. We're talking about levels that took a normally quiet radiac and pegged it during the normal survey - and that's after walking around for days before being measured (and thus depositing it everywhere). The difficulty I was talking about mostly was paperwork-oriented.

And you look like a fool with the scare quotes, that's the technical term for it.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

The paperwork issue tends to be the biggest issue that power plants have to deal when anything is detected. I understand what you mean. It provides non-trivial economic headaches for utilities with detections reports that are not reality based safety issues.

The scare quotes? I use quotes because most of the time people use contamination for anything from a Bq of detected radiation up to something actual dangerous. It has become an almost meaningless word in conversation.

[Randian filtered me, I WIN!]

"I use quotes because" you have an agenda.

Admittedly, it's to inform, and remove the stigma of radiation, but as eh said, you still look like a hyper partisan asshole and a fool when you use them.

Do you get that? That you look like a whacko too when you do what whackos do?

[CE]

Let me guess -- the guys in the reactor department faced more nuclear contamination daily than the plume exposed them to.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says that talks with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on ending the current fiscal stalemate have made "tremendous progress."

Tremendous progress in sowing the seeds of our next fiscal stalemate.

[a better weapon]

Two teens have been suspended from Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington after wearing Confederate flags as clothing in response to a fellow student wearing a rainbow flag to mark LGBT History Month.

Easy solution: Just wear a rainbow colored version of the ol' Stars and Bars

[Rich]

Awesome. Quick -- "patent" that!

[Bardas Phocas]

Already done.
http://burndownblog.files.word.....ainbow.jpg

[Bardas Phocas]

Awsome. There's a Gay Gadsen Flag:
http://www.1000flags.co.uk/ekm.....8[ekm].gif

[Rich]

Fabulous!

[Doctor Whom]

I've been using a rainbow Gadsden flag as my Facebook avatar for some time.

[WTF]

What possible problem could there be with a government entity banning a type of expression based on political viewpoint?

[CE]

None. It's for the children. And to prevent hate. Also, zero tolerance and to stop cyber bullying.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, that's an easy lawsuit.

[Stormy Dragon]

wearing Confederate flags as clothing in response to a fellow student wearing a rainbow flag to mark LGBT History Month

But remember, the Confederate Flag is ONLY about southern cultural heritage and should in no way be treated as an expression of intolerance. I mean it would be crazy to think that's what the people wearing it mean.

[DesigNate]

Yeah, cause collectivizing everyone that might wear or have a Confederate Battle Flag is totally productive and not the wrong thing to do at all.

[Randian filtered me, I WIN!]

"But remember, the Confederate Flag is ONLY about southern cultural heritage "

That's is exactly what your post shows, yes.

[CE]

I thought it meant they wanted out of this perpetual Union and rule from DC.

[Redmanfms]

Ahem

PROG BULLSHIT.

That is all.

[Jordan]

Jerry Brown lets us down one last time:

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a state online privacy bill that would have protected residents' electronic communications accounts from warrantless access by law enforcement agencies.

[Pro Libertate]

No, no, Californians have no problem with government doing anything it wants with their information, just so long as it doesn't shares its with nasssssty corporationssss.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...the NSA has been collecting contacts from email address books and instant messaging accounts from around the world.

And selling them to Nigerian princes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

(Speaking of the 90's...)

[Bee Tagger]

Is this the official declaration of your television show starring Reason commenters designed to compete with VH1's I Love The... series?

[CE]

No, that's Behind the Comments.

He started out as a run-of-the-mill conservative Republican. Then came the unexpected success, drugs, the inevitable infighting, and finally, wild anarchistic screeds with lots of capital letters and brackets.

But now, older and wiser, he just mocks Obama and Boehner.

[Lord Humungus]

What Does the Average American Man Look Like Compared to Other Countries?

The Dutch have some of the world's best healthcare, particularly at the stages of life that really make a difference for how tall we end up -- prenatal and the early years of childhood.

Second, they spread the health around. The most well-off Americans are tall, but less-privileged groups across all races bring down the average.

Our waistbands drag us down, as well. By eating so much, we produce too much growth hormone, too early in our lives. And so we stop growing earlier than the Dutch, who eat lots of protein like milk and cheese, but not too much.

ahh... I'm 100% Dutch and tall... all with good ol' Americun healthcare.

[Doctor Whom]

If diet has that much to do with it, then the only solution is single-payer food care.

[WTF]

You Sugarfreed the link.

[Lord Humungus]

so I did
http://www.mydeals.com/blog/wh.....tries/post

[mr simple]

Intentions trump genetics; don't mess with the narrative.

[Fluffy]

So let me get this straight.

Even though people hailing from the general vicinity of the Netherlands have had a reputation for hugeness that goes back to Tacitus' time...

And even though the US population contains large numbers of persons who are predisposed to shortness by their ethnicity...

...Dutch people are taller than Americans because of single payer health care.

Fuck you.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

TEAM FLUFFY

[Pro Libertate]

I'm tall and Scot-German--all on American healthcare.

[UnCivilServant]

6'3 and no healthcare growing up. Methinkgs its ignoring factors for the sake of their policy goal.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm merely 6'2. Clearly lost an inch due to American healthcare.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

According to WHO, France, Italy and San Marino have the toppest systems. Netherlands 17th - so if that makes you feel better about single payer.

Here in Canada, we're not that much healthier and we have single payer.

I don't know what to make of anything anymore.

[Griffin3]

Heredity. How does it work?

[Steve G]

I'd really love to see the research that formed their conclusion that 'eating so much' resulted in shortness. By that logic North Koreans should be taller than South Koreans. Would have been nice to see them dig into the content of the diet since there's far more evidence of grains affecting height than excess calories.

[CE]

The Dutch are taller because they are more free. Freedom is always equated to health and physical and mental well being. When the scurvy-ridden Europeans arrived in North America, they were shocked at how tall the natives were.

[Bee Tagger]

Two teens have been suspended from Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington after wearing Confederate flags as clothing in response to a fellow student wearing a rainbow flag to mark LGBT History Month.

Take that, confederate kids, you've just been emancipated from the slavery of school.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Two teens have been suspended from Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington after wearing Confederate flags as clothing in response to a fellow student wearing a rainbow flag to mark LGBT History Month.

The south's latently homosexual boner shall rise again.

[wareagle]

what part of the south is Washington state located in?

[Ebriosa]

South Canada.

[The Late P Brooks]

Two teens have been suspended from Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington after wearing Confederate flags as clothing in response to a fellow student wearing a rainbow flag to mark LGBT History Month.

Free speech is not actually, you know, free.

[Doctor Whom]

Right not to be offended!

[WTF]

But what if some students were offended by the rainbow flag?

[sarcasmic]

Anyone offended by the rainbow flag is intolerant and should be punished.

[UnCivilServant]

I don't tolerate the tolerent.

[Pro Libertate]

Actually, it's the right of the Confederate flag kids to get a nice settlement that we won't hear about. Their lawsuit is a slam dunk.

[PM]

On what grounds? Courts have ruled that schools have basically unlimited leeway to determine dress codes at their whim and pleasure; the right to free speech isn't unlimited in schools; etc.

[Pro Libertate]

It's viewpoint discrimination, and it is illegal if they don't apply these sorts of restrictions evenly.

[BigT]

Not so fast, cowboy. The school can censor based on written dress codes only, not arbitrarily on the political nature of the content.

[Lord Humungus]

One in a million, doc. One in a million.

Henan man gets 28cm wooden handle inserted into anus after jumping onto it (Warning: Graphic content)

In a fate we wouldn't wish upon even our worst enemy, a man in Henan province got the wooden handle of an iron rake stuck into his anus after accidentally jumping over a fence and onto it.

[Brett L]

"Rectum? Damn near killed 'im!"

[WTF]

"I swear to God, Doc, it was the wierdest accident!"

[The DerpRider]

Fusilli..er Cedar Jerry?

[a better weapon]

The Washington Post is reporting that the NSA has been collecting contacts from email address books and instant messaging accounts from around the world.

I was under the impression that the NSA already had everyone's contact. There was a time when these revelations would have been shocking, but my assumptions are way ahead of whats now coming out.

[Bee Tagger]

I'm just hoping they'll do a better job of keeping in touch with them. It'll relieve some guilt of mine.

[Root Boy]

I hope they can re-organize my gmail contacts, I think I have three versions of everybody I ever called or emailed due to Google's vacuuming skills.

[Clich? Bandit]

DO NOT DOWNLOAD/USE FULLCONTACT!!!
It will asspolode everything you have ever done to clean up your contacts.

[Bam!]

Jokes on them: Libertarians don't have any friends.

[PD Scott]

That just makes us seem suspicious - obviously we're hiding our true contacts, no one can be that a-/anti-social. We must be organized into cells intent on nefarious anti-governmental activities like sabotaging Obamacare exchanges.

[Lord Humungus]

93-year-old Ore. man crashes into 2 homes, says he will still drive

"My foot slipped off the brake and got stuck between the brake pedal and throttle," he said.

His car went right through a vacant mobile home and came to rest inside a mobile home that wasn't vacant. Denny Long just missed getting hit while he was sitting in his chair.

"It was like a bomb blowing up," he said. "The only good thing was that my grand kids weren't here. They were supposed to be here yesterday."

[Rich]

The NSA's director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, has defended "bulk" collection as an essential counterterrorism and foreign intelligence tool, saying, "You need the haystack to find the needle."

You know, if we *must* go with this analogy -- "If you have a powerful enough magnet you don't need the haystack."

[Bee Tagger]

Yes, my wife loves it when, just as she's about to start a sewing project, I dump a stack of hay over her needles.

[UnCivilServant]

"We're looking for bone needles, nonmetallic devices and such... DON'T TAKE OUR FUNDING!"

[Pro Libertate]

Except that they don't have a right to my haystack or needles without a warrant, which they can't get unless they have probable cause that I'm committing a crime.

[PD Scott]

The poison gas phosgene reputedly smells like freshly mown grass or hay? your haystack needs to be investigated to make sure you're not making WMDs. And as for needles, my God, man, they're *dangerous*, being all pointy and sharp. Clearly anyone with needles and a haystack is a dangerous madman? or completely innocent. Only careful investigation will reveal which it is at this time. Repeated investigation is required - the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, after all.

[Lord Humungus]

Scotland and the American Revolution

From the presence of Scots in congress, to the influence of common sense moral philosophy (Paine's phrase was not coincidental), to the still-debated influence of the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath on the 1776 Declaration of Independence, Scots were, and are, credited with a disproportionate impact on American independence.[1] One thing missing from Fleming's excellent article, however, is the inconvenient truth that eighteenth-century Scots largely disavowed the American Revolution. In both Scotland and America, the overwhelming majority of Scots rejected colonial theories about the rights of Englishmen and remained loyal to the British crown.

[Jordan]

In both Scotland and America, the overwhelming majority of Scots rejected colonial theories about the rights of Englishmen and remained loyal to the British crown.

That explains a lot, considering that Scotland is dominated by lunatic proglodytes now.

[Root Boy]

Yeah, doesn't Scotland have the (or one of the) highest rates of welfare in the western world? Bunch of badass picts are now a bunch of poofters.

[KDN]

Colonised by wankers.

[Restoras]

+1 Trainspotting

[sloopyinca]

+1 dose of smack.

[robc]

As of late 90s, Scottish were 1.7% of US households and 9.3% of US millionaire households.

[robc]

Germans, on the other hand, were 19.5% and 17.3%, respectively.

[Pro Libertate]

Those numbers have to be a little suspect, anyway. How many people of Scottish or German descent have recent immigrants as ancestors? I've read that a very large number of Americans have German blood.

[robc]

Self-designation of ancestry, according to footnote on table.

So they may not have any RECENT ancestry.

Although the group with the best ratio is probably mostly recent: Russian at 1.1% and 6.4%.

[Pro Libertate]

Russian mob money is still money.

The Scottish lines I know anything about both go back in the U.S. to before the Revolutionary War (one back to the late 1600s). One of the German lines (again, the one I know anything about) goes back to the early 1800s.

Whatever the case, I certainly don't think of myself as anything other than American and would answer that way in a survey, unless it asked specifically where most of my ancestors came from.

[robc]

Im only seeing the table, so looks like they asked "ancestry group/ethnic origin" so might not have accepted "mutt".

[Clich? Bandit]

WELSH FOR THE WIN BITCHES!!!

[BuSab Agent]

I lived in Wales for four years. Let me tell you of your ancestors. They are really, really short, however they like to sing, fight, and drink...generally simultaneously.

[Clich? Bandit]

Cardiff castle is evidence of this...JESUS CHRIST A HAND RAIL WOULDN'T KILL YOU!

[BuSab Agent]

The lack of handrails is a Darwinian method to eliminate the English tourists.

[CE]

But true Scotsmen all.

[Pro Libertate]

True, but if we're comparing with revolutionary times, I fear we're not doing any better in the comparison. If the Founders were alive today, they'd be seeking an injunction on our use of the name, United States of America.

[CE]

Back then it was the united States of America.

[Raven Nation]

Yeah, well, you know it was the Irish who saved civilization...

http://www.amazon.com/How-Iris.....vilization

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Raven Nation,

You do realize that "scholarly" work and theory is mostly exaggerated if not somewhat overblown, right?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wow. That was one piece of bad writing on my part. Anyway, the spirit of the argument remains.

Speaking of which, where's Tony?

[robc]

Scots largely disavowed the American Revolution

Tell that to:

Edward Rutledge
William Hooper
George Ross
Matthew Thornton
Thomas McKean
George Taylor
James Wilson
Phillip Livingston
and, of course, John Witherspoon.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, um, I'm descended from Scots that weren't loyalists. It might have something to do with where those Scots lived, I guess.

[robc]

Those 9 were spread across most of the colonies.

Off the top of my head, Rutledge was SC, McKean was DE, Wilson was PA, Livingston was NY, and Witherspoon was NJ.

We have mid Atlantic and South covered, and Im pretty sure 1 or 2 are from New England.

[robc]

Hooper was NC, Thornton was NH. Taylor and Ross were PA with Wilson.

So the 9 Scot signers covered 7 states.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

So if the claim is that a group of thousands "largely" opposed something, your comeback is a list of people you can count on both hands?

[robc]

Considering only 56 people signed the Declaration, 9 is a significant fucking percentage.

Unless you have some sort of weird argument that all of the pro-revolution Scotsmen were signers, Ive going to assume the were representative of their people.

[Seamus]

It's a significant fucking percentage of signers of the Declaration, but it's a pretty fucking insignificant percentage of Scotsmen, which is what we were talking about.

(I'm not even bothering to put the rabbit in the hat by arguing that no true Scotsman supported the American Revolution.)

[Seamus]

After all, 100% of the signers of the Declaration were supporters of the American Revolution, which tells you exactly nothing about how widely supported the Revolution among the population at large. (Well, I suppose it tells you that at least 56 people supported the Revolution, which is slightly more than "exactly nothing.")

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm disappointed. All this talk about the Scottish and no one said, "if it's not Scottish, it's crrrap!"

Anyway, I think there's something to the notion that there are a "disproportionate" amount of significant Scottish figures in history.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

The proposition is not "A lot of Scotsmen supported the Declaration," it was "A lot of Scotsmen did not support the Declaration." Given the conventional wisdom is that only as much as a third of colonials supported independence it seems like a stretch to say that a body that voted unanimously for independence was representative of the people.

At any rate it seems just as fallacious to say that those men were there representing their ethnicity. To even be there you had to be of a mind to oppose the king in the first place, so you're really just cherry-picking here.

[robc]

Given the conventional wisdom is that only as much as a third of colonials supported independence

Well yeah, and Im assuming that every demographic was roughly in that percentage, so to be a considerable supporter, you needed roughly that amount.

And ancestry of signers is probably a decent measure of ancestry of supporters.

I think the Scot colonists were probably MORE supportive of the revolution than the English colonists. Which still means a minority of the Scots, but its a relative measure, not an absolute one.

[Pro Libertate]

It's not like the Scottish were fond of the English at that time. Or most other times.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Again, the claim FTA is that

In both Scotland and America, the overwhelming majority of Scots rejected colonial theories about the rights of Englishmen and remained loyal to the British crown.

Your assumptions and hypotheses make sense to a certain degree, but the article claims actual evidence here:

Scottish emigrants, more often than not, became Loyalists and participated in large numbers in the armed provincial regiments. The most sophisticated retort to the Declaration of Independence, The Rights of Great Britain Asserted Against the Claims of America: being an Answer to the Declaration of the General Congress, was penned by James Macpherson, a Scottish member of parliament who, in addition to his well-known fabrications of Gaelic poetry, also wrote for the North government.

I'm not equipped to assess this claim but it needs to be answered, and "look as these 16% of Declaration signers" doesn't do it.

[robc]

English emigrants, more often than not, became Loyalists.

If you define Loyalist as "not a supporter of the revolution", that is clearly true for both groups.

We both agree that roughly only 1/3 of colonists were supporters of the revolution. If only 1/6 of Scots were supporters, I will buy that statement, if its in the 25-35% range, meh, no different than the English.

From trying to google around, the one impression I get is that the Scots had a lesser percentage of "indifferent" colonists.

Ive always heard the overall as 1/3 revolutionary, 1/3 loyalist, 1/3 didnt care.

The Scots also seem to have had a reputation for switching sides depending on who was winning.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

You're neglecting the "signed up for the army" part of the evidence above. I'd take that as a stronger indicator than a phone poll.

Again, I don't know the specific nature of the evidence but I think it makes a stronger case than your rebuttal, mostly because your rebuttals haven't answered it. Nor am I invested in the notion that one of my ethnicities was heavily into the Revolution. I'm just commenting on your rigor here.

[Pro Libertate]

What did they do, poll the Scots? I'm dubious about claims of "more often than not" that aren't backed by reasons why they're saying that. Not like there were polls or registration booths for Loyalists.

Not being defensive here--doesn't bother me whether Scots were for or against the Revolution and whatever Scottishness I have is hopelessly diluted. Just sounds a little fishy to me.

[robc]

Same here.

Im not of any Scot descent, as far as I know, I just dont buy the storyline.

The only evidence I seem to get is that the Scots were possibly more fickle.

There were two areas of strong Scot loyalist resistance, upstate NY and Cape Fear.

[Invisible Finger]

The only evidence I seem to get is that the Scots were possibly more fickle.

I'm pretty sure the Scots were more freckled.

[Pro Libertate]

It's a statistical sample. Sort of. A little nonrandom, but hey, they're all dead and stuff.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Trainspotting!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sorry. Hadn't 'spotted' someone - Restoras - mentioned it. Still...

[KDN]

Chevron's landmark lawsuit exposes 'greenmail'

Chevron is suing lawyer Steven Donziger and a number of activist environmental groups in a civil-racketeering suit, claiming that his landmark $19 billion award against the oil company in an Ecuadorean court was the product of a criminal conspiracy.

Ironically, much of the company's evidence comes from footage shot for "Crude," an award-winning pro-Donziger documentary that premiered with much publicity at the Sundance Film Festival.

But he had good intentions!

[a better weapon]

Chevron got a court order for more than 500 hours of footage from "Crude" that never made it into the documentary.

They show Donziger full of contempt for the country he says he cares about, openly boasting about how corrupt Ecuador's judicial system is and planning to intimidate the judge because "the only language . . . this judge is going to understand is one of pressure, intimidation and humiliation."

The filmmaker even recorded the lawyers lamenting that no pollution had spread from the original drilling sites and "right now all the reports are saying . . . nothing has spread anywhere at all" and how this lack of pollution was a serious problem.

I really look forward to seeing that footage, actually.

[UnCivilServant]

I fear I don't have 500 hours to spend, will you fill us in on the highlights?

[sloopyinca]

I fear I don't have 500 hours to spend,

So you won't be going to see the second Hobbit installment later this fall?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

That's just how long they spent on the endings!

[mad libertarian guy]

The filmmaker even recorded the lawyers lamenting that no pollution had spread from the original drilling sites and "right now all the reports are saying . . . nothing has spread anywhere at all" and how this lack of pollution was a serious problem.

The mask slips once again. This is the problem with watermelons: they can barely hide their disappointment when the earth isn't doomed, and the environment turns out to not to be in grave danger. They would rather be right than see the earth not be as fucked up as they predict it will be.

[Lord Humungus]

House Conservatives Revolt

In a few minutes, House Republicans will meet in the Capitol's basement. The chief topic of conversation: the emerging Senate deal. But before the meeting even begins, House conservatives are bashing it behind the scenes, and they're pushing the leadership to reject the compromise. A flurry of phone calls and meetings last night and early this morning led the consensus among the approximatley 50 Republicans who form the House GOP's right flank. They're furious with Senate Republicans for working with Democrats to craft what one leading Tea Party congressman calls a "mushy piece of s?t." Another House conservative warns, "If Boehner backs this, as is, he's in trouble."

[Palin's Buttplug]

Look for AM redneck radio to fully back the Tea Party Congressmen - giving them full cover for their extortion.

This is going down to the wire and Boehner is going away soon.

[WTF]

BUSHPIGS!!111!!!!CHRISTFAGS!!11!!!!

[Root Boy]

We can only hope.

[CE]

Extortion? The debt ceiling law is settled law, passed by both houses and signed by the president. Why should it be changed without any accompanying compromises?

[robc]

"If Boehner backs this, as is, he's in trouble."

I wonder who has been saying this for the last two weeks here on H&R?

Boehner is playing for his job right now.

[Brett L]

Well, you and I for sure. I actually think I got it from John.

[Pro Libertate]

It's fairly obvious, since Boehner on his own would never have done this. It's a good sign of positive change in the GOP, in any case.

He's not going to hold that job after the next election--that's my prediction--and not because the GOP doesn't control the House.

[robc]

He MIGHT, if he can hold strong now.

If he caves, he is toast.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, he'll cave. And I think the new representatives coming in for the GOP in 2014 will be less Boehner-tolerant, in any event.

[Lord Humungus]

Carpenter cuts own penis after fight with wife

Jun Suico, chairman of Barangay Tabok, said Federico Ilustrico, 46, a carpenter, cut his own penis using a shaving blade before noon on Sunday.

Suico said that Ilustrico has been having several verbal tussles with his wife, whom she suspects of having a lover.

He said that right after the couple's fight, the man rushed to the back of their house and cut his own manhood with the blade.

That will show her!

[Rich]

Without RTFA, Ima say alcohol was involved.

[SugarFree]

Jezebel body snarks a poor, helpless dog.

Check out the massive butthurt in the comments when someone calls them out about all their standard excuses for being ham planets.

popmollyimsweatULaura Beck271L
Wow a dog lost weight through diet and exercise? What is this witchcraft?
Yesterday 11:53pm

lolololllalUpopmollyimsweat341L
I HAVE A GENETIC CONDITION! I'M GENETICALLY PREDISPOSED TO NOT CONTROL MY PORTIONS AND EAT POORLY AND AT ALL HOURS OF THE DAY WAAAWAAAWAAA.

[Jordan]

Excellent.

[Brett L]

Awesome.

[Andrew S.]

thisisthinprivilege.tumblr.com

If you want something that makes Jezebel look intelligent on this subject, read that.

* DISCLAIMER: I HOLD NO RESPONSIBILITY TO DAMAGE DONE TO YOUR PHONE, TABLET, LAPTOP AND/OR MONITOR FROM THROWING AND/OR PUNCHING AS A RESULT OF READING THE ABOVE LINK.

[Zeb]

These people really have an overinflated sense of how much other people give a shit if they are fat. Yeah, that grocery store shelf stocker really cares about what kind of yougurt you prefer.

[Brett L]

Oh look, there's my dick. I can see it without a mirror. Am I flaunting my thin privilege?

[mr simple]

The writing on that site is so shitty. Even on articles where I could maybe see their point, I can't get through the overly sarcastic in a bad way vomiting of words and mixed metaphors by a 12 year old style writing. Aren't there any adults who can serve as editors in that organization?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I think that's a decent device that should be used sparingly. But Jezebel uses it in literally every article. "Like ZOMG YOU GUIZE SRSLY the fratdud Brohams said RAPE is TOTES kewl"

[SugarFree]

thisisthinprivilege writing is even worse. It's like they invented some sort of passive-aggressive second-person omniscience grammerweapon.

[mr simple]

I agree. I would never suggest that sarcasm and other mocking tones weren't viable and useful rhetorical devices. They're just all so bad at it, like you said, and all of their writers sound exactly the same.

[trshmnstr]

Aw, Obie. I know what it's like. Even though you're a product of your environment and you're happy the way you are, sometimes you have to do it for you. You must feel so much better now that you can live the life you were meant to live. (Just in case anyone has any doubts, I am projecting all my human emotions and experience upon this beautiful dog.)

This crapola doesn't even compute. At least the admits to being a master of porkjection.

[trshmnstr]

Gosh, I took a friggin break from clicking Jez links, because reading their comments drove me to ranting... Can't... resist... the... urge!

[The Late P Brooks]

You need the haystack to find the needle.

Translation:

"We know you're guilty of SOMETHING, we just don't know what. Yet."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Why we're creating a 'chickenosaurus'

[Lord Humungus]

Crovitz: ObamaCare's Serious Complications
For the IRS alone, implementing the law involves 47 different statutory provisions.

The Government Accountability Office last year calculated that for the IRS alone, implementing ObamaCare would be a "massive undertaking that involves 47 different statutory provisions and extensive coordination." Among them: "disclosure of taxpayer information for determining subsidy eligibility," "drug manufacturer tax" and "high-cost health plan tax." Senate staffers created a mind-boggling graphic showing ObamaCare's various agencies and regulators, which can be viewed at http://1.usa.gov/acamess.

Ironically, President Obama's former top regulator is among the best known proponents of less complexity. Cass Sunstein, who oversaw regulations for the White House in 2009-12, is the author of "Simpler: The Future of Government," published earlier this year.

[Raven Nation]

In case of doubt, the IRS will be right.

[Clich? Bandit]

i find it difficult to believe they see this as a bug instead of a feature. Simpler regulation means it is easier to digest and oppose on principle. Complex regulation can be enforced arbitrarily and is difficult to dismantle for fear of competing interests within.

[Brett L]

Has this roundup of the Obamacare fail been posted yet? Because it is full of awesome. I eagerly await the apologies from toadying statists now that every naysayer's expressed doubt has come true. Well, the doctor shortages, not yet. But only because the plans are so expensive.

[Jordan]

The result is a parody of an alternate, free-market model of reform. Rather than demand that consumers buy comprehensive insurance, the alternate model would have emphasized catastrophic coverage with high deductibles, which before ObamaCare were low-cost options for healthier consumers who wanted to indemnify themselves against unexpected major costs. Removing insurers from routine maintenance care would have restored price signals and competition to the family-practice market, which would have provided incentives for doctors to re-enter it. Consumers could then have used their HSAs, which are discouraged in the ACA system, to cover their own routine maintenance, and insurers could have returned to their proper role: Indemnifying people against major loss, not acting as wellness managers. That role properly belongs to patients and their physicians, not insurers and certainly not the government.

Thanks to the ACA, we have the worst of both worlds. Some consumers now have to pay enormous premiums for coverage they can't access until they pay enormous out-of-pocket expenses first, while insurers have to cover even more risk, and providers have to deal with even more red tape. When voters start paying through the nose in this system, they will soon recognize that the administration's ideas of reform are as workable in real life as their ObamaCare exchange website.

MARKET BASED!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yes, unfortunately the ACA was the only market-based system proposed that broke the back of the cartel.

The GOP was too stupid to propose anything reasonable at all besides the idiotic bromide of "sell acrost state lines!".

Now as flawed as the thing is it can be altered to scrape off the government stench.

[Jordan]

Nothing cartel-like about companies who don't have to compete across state lines and have to offer identical products.

Of course, your illiberal definition of cartel is that they were allowed to discriminate in who they sell products to. Because Real Classical Liberals don't believe in freedom of association.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The limited Open Enrollment period protected the insurers from the dreaded "they is all gonna wait til they get sick!" phenomena.

[Jordan]

What does this have to do with my comment?

[Lord Humungus]

nothing. It's PB's way of "arguing".

[Palin's Buttplug]

You referenced insurers who "discriminate".

I presume you meant based on pre-existing conditions and not race or sex. In that case the OE period prevents someone with a sudden sickness from suddenly enrolling based on a fast diagnosis of say, cancer.

[Jordan]

I presume you meant based on pre-existing conditions and not race or sex. In that case the OE period prevents someone with a sudden sickness from suddenly enrolling based on a fast diagnosis of say, cancer.

Which has fuckall to do with my comment, because they still can't refuse people with pre-existing conditions during open enrollment.

[Jordan]

Just come out and say it: you believe in a right to healthcare and you don't believe in freedom of association.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Which has fuckall to do with my comment, because they still can't refuse people with pre-existing conditions during open enrollment.

And the cartel saw high cholesterol or being female as a reason not to insure.

That is one thing cartels do - block entry into a market. Or collude on prices. It was not working given the way insurers exchange information with each other.

[Jordan]

And the cartel saw high cholesterol or being female as a reason not to insure.

And?

It was not working given the way insurers exchange information with each other.

So we can add freedom of speech to the list of freedoms you don't believe in.

[wareagle]

That is one thing cartels do - block entry into a market.

and who is the cartel's chief enabler in blocking, say, company X from selling in a given state?

[Juice]

And the cartel saw high cholesterol or being female as a reason not to insure.

You could still get a policy, just not one that covered high cholesterol. "Being female" is just hyperbole.

[Clich? Bandit]

PB Believe in slavery. Ultimately that is what his view of health care is. He wants to tell doctors what to do under penalty of law.

[tarran]

Jordan,

Why are you interacting with it?

It's the Internet equivalent of a homeless guy screaming at a wall.

If you ignore it, it will go back to screaming at a wall. But by interacting with it, you are encouraging it, because to a mind destroyed by years of having alcohol as its sole source of nutrition, the only thing better than screaming at a wall is when the wall screams back.

[Jordan]

I do it all for the lurkers. I remain hopeful that there are some lurkers who might otherwise be sympathetic to this lunatic's views but are not yet beyond saving like him.

[tarran]

Any lurker who is persuadable by the incoherent drivel that Shrike gibbers out daily is mentally ill. They'll follow anyone who can count to potato.

It's literally not worth your time.

[Restoras]

True story. The other day I was walking to get lunch in Manhattan, and some homeless guy politely asked me for a dollar. I politely declined. Then he spit at me, whereupon I turned and said, Fuck you, get a job. Said homeless guy then went raving on about my mother this, my mother that, I'magunna fuck you up, etc. etc.

I knew it was stupid, but I did it anyway and kinda enjoyed it.

This is exactly like engaging with Shriek and Tony.

[Palin's Buttplug]

OTOH, you do say "freedom of association" so you may condone race-based discrimination.

"Hey, we only insure whiate people!"

[Jordan]

OTOH, you do say "freedom of association" so you may condone race-based discrimination.

Haha. I'll remember this next time you complain about someone on here tarring you as a racist.

No, I don't condone racial discrimination anymore than I condone being a progressive. I just don't think either should be illegal because I'm not a fascist like you.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Once again, Palin "proves" his classical liberal credentials!

[GILMORE]

of course thats what he meant... see because = not like Teh Obamacares? YOU IS TEH RACISMS AND HATES THE CRIPPLES AND OLD PEOPLES AND POOR HATER JUST LIKE HATING THE HOMELESS AND HE WANTS THEM ALL TO DIE. because there is no middle ground.

[GILMORE]

I DOONT UNDERSTAND... BUSH NOT MAKE TEH BAD LAW SHRIKE?? ME THOUGHT BAD LAW IS TEH TEATHUGLICONS ALWAYS

[VG Zaytsev]

Yes, unfortunately the ACA was the only market-based system proposed that broke the back of the cartel.

ACA is all about creating a healthcare cartel you disingenuous piece of shit.

Slap a Blue Eagle Logo on it.

[GILMORE]

Blue Eagle??

BLUE FALCON!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-4A2JkwpAY

"Because Buddies Can't Fuck Themselves"

[2ndClassProle]

I had pretty good insurance until ACA kicked in several years ago.

10 dollars a week 1000 a year with 2500 deductible

then with requirements(pre-existing conditions, 26 for a kid)

20 dollars a week with 1000yr to spend with 2500 deductible

2013 went down on weekly payment of 15 dollars a week with 500yr to spend with 3500 deductible

I am apprehensive with upcoming enrollment in Nov.

[Juice]

If you're young and healthy you're about to get fucked in the ass.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Sorry John,

5 Reasons Fat People Are Evil

5 Reasons Fat Girls Don't Deserve Love

[kinnath]

unfunny

[wwhorton]

Plus, in the second one the guy mistakenly substituted "flower" for "flour", which, in my book, is a capital offense. If you're gonna write an big ol' blog post talking shit and implying that you're a badass, your grammar and spelling had better be goddamn flawless.

[Zeb]

Yeah, that's just being an asshole for no reason. The counterpoint in idiocy to the "thin privilege" morons.
If you are OK with being fat, then be OK with being fat. If you don't want to fuck fat girls, then don't fuck fat girls.

[Lord Humungus]

Deer With Basketball Stuck In Horns Spotted In Bethel Park

"They can be very playful, we've seen them running around trees, and doing all kinds of playful acts. He was probably was just playing and pushing that ball around."

Kovac says it appears the ball is deflating, so they aren't worried about it being stuck there too long.

He didn't call the game commission because it won't impede the deer's feeding ability.

[UnCivilServant]

It can't be stuck for too long, the only Deer in PA are whitetails, and they shed their antlers eventually. It will either deflate or come off then.

[PD Scott]

Maybe he's a hardcore Milwaukee Bucks fan.

[Lord Humungus]

Rogue kangaroo creating havoc at Bundaberg airport

A rogue bull kangaroo is creating havoc with aeroplanes landing at Bundaberg airport in south-eastern Queensland, with authorities preparing to shoot the animal.

The large Eastern Grey kangaroo has been hopping around the airport for two months, menacing landing aircraft and evading attempts to catch it.

The buck kangaroo began living at the airport with a couple of females, eating the grass growing on several patches of lawn adjacent to hangars and airport sheds.

The females have now been lured out through a fence, but a dog catcher failed to trap the male and already one attempt to shoot the animal has failed.

[Brett L]

Jesus. You have all these fucking aircraft and you can't shoot a fucking 'roo?

[Auric Demonocles]

It's smaller than a womprat!

[Eduard van Haalen]

And these guys are supposedly exempt from the aussie ban because they can handle firearms properly.

[wwhorton]

Sorry, but doesn't the comparative size mean that a kangaroo can never actually "menace" a 747?

[Restoras]

It could grip by the husk!

[PD Scott]

About like the 6'6" 300lb probation cop last week who shot the 12lb Jack Russell terrier that was "menacing" him.

Unless the 'roo jumped in front of an engine intake during take-off...

That could be bad, or at least very, very messy.

[Lord Humungus]

Third Party Would Keep Democrats In Power Indefinitely

When Tea Partiers behold a Republican Party so eager to surrender, and that doesn't even know "what we would insist upon," they can't be blamed for considering flying the coop.

And when Gallup's monthly tracking poll finds only 28% of Americans happy with the GOP ? the lowest for either party since 1992, when they first asked the question ? no one should be surprised at the media stirring up the idea of a centrist third party being formed by anti-Tea Party Republicans.

But in spite of the old political joke that those in the middle of the road end up getting run down by a truck, the biggest victim of a third party ? whether it be oriented toward the right or the middle ? is going to be the right, and possibly for a very long time.

The last third party movement, for instance, gave us Bill Clinton.

[Ted S.]

We really need the single transferrable vote, not first past the post.

Of course, STV is a problem when you have as many elections on one day as we do in the US.

[robc]

STV is a problem when you have as many elections on one day

???

[Clich? Bandit]

Dude...Approval voting is BY FAR the best and easiest understood system AND it is zero cost impact to county clerks. It is used in a limited capacity already and eliminates the wasted vote argument.

[Metazoan]

A centrist third party? I'm assuming this is the media definition of centrist, which is, "mildly apply the brakes on the left-wing agenda." What's the point?

[Palin's Buttplug]

We have two centrist parties now from an economic/tax perspective.

Haggling about a top rate +/- 3 points from a top marginal rate of 35% is definitely centrist. Both parties support $3.5 trillion spending with a hundred billion as well.

[Palin's Buttplug]

"Within" $100 billion rather.

Also both parties lavish us with new social programs like Medicare Welfare Part D.

I know - BOOOOSH.

Since I broke politesse here I will save someone the trouble.

[Andrew S.]

We have two leftist parties from a spending perspective, and one leftist and one slightly more centrist party from a tax perspective.

Otherwise, that post is a rare moment of half-intelligence from you. Good job.

[OldMexican]

Re: Andrew S.

Otherwise, that post is a rare moment of half-intelligence from you. Good job.

No kidding. When I read what the Buttwipe wrote, I suddenly became paranoid and looked outside the window for signs of falling frogs, or meteorites.

[Clich? Bandit]

the blood moon rises

[Invisible Finger]

Half-intelligence? Can't you do math? He got half right on TAX and zero right on SPENDING.

That's quarter-intelligence. By accident.

[CatoTheElder]

Blind squirrel. Acorn.

[Marshall Gill]

The last third party movement, for instance, gave us Bill Clinton.

Uh, no. The last meaningful third party movement was in Florida in 2000. Instead of voting for their fellow traveler in the Democrat party, tens of thousands of the Greens voted for Nader and Bush ultimately won.

[Bobarian]

Pat Buchanan got almost as many far right votes as Ralph Nader got on the Left.

[CatoTheElder]

What about 1980? Anderson took 7% of Carter's vote from independents (though I'm sure a few percentage points were from New England Republicans.)

Or, George Wallace in 1968, who took 14 points away from Humphrey.

It just depends on the third party movement. Going back further in history, the Republican Party was formed as a third party since the Whigs couldn't muster the will to oppose slavery.

[Rasilio]

"When Ross Perot ran on an anti-deficit platform in 1992, he got 19% and nearly 20 million votes. Clinton's margin of victory against President George H.W. Bush was less than 6 million votes, winning 43% to 37.5%."

The unsupported assertion here is that the majority of Perot voters would have voted for Bush had Perot not been running.

It is equally likely that significant numbers of Perot voters were voting "anyone but Bush" and would therefore have voted Clinton or just not voted.

Had the Perot support vote split 10% Bush, 5% Clinton, 4% abstain or vote other 3rd party then Clinton would still have won the popular vote 48% - 47.5%

[Bobarian]

I don't believe Clinton would have gotten many of the Perot votes, but the number of abstains would have likely been much higher.

I voted for that jug-eared fuck, but would have rather died than vote for Willy.

[CE]

I was a Perot voter in 1992. I would have voted Libertarian if he weren't running.

[CE]

An anecdote, sure, but we all know that the plural of anecdote = data.

[The Late P Brooks]

Ironically, President Obama's former top regulator is among the best known proponents of less complexity. Cass Sunstein, who oversaw regulations for the White House in 2009-12, is the author of "Simpler: The Future of Government," published earlier this year.

"Ironic."

[Rich]

11,588,500 Words: Obamacare Regs 30x as Long as Law

Ironically, the words have been counted without anyone having read them.

[Andrew S.]

You think that's bad? Try dealing with the tax code vs the tax regs. The code is bad enough. The regs never seem to end.

[Elspeth Flashman]

But I thought the regs were more helpful, because they have examples & explanations.

[Rasilio]

Well if you read them for 8 hours a day it'd only take you about a year and a half to get through them all

[PD Scott]

So, about enough time for you to get signed up through the exchanges?

[CatoTheElder]

By the time you had completed reading them, they would have changed and you'd have to start all over again.

[mad libertarian guy]

Ironically, the words have been counted without anyone having read them.

A word count program was literally the first thing we learned in a perl class I took in college.

[Lord Humungus]

72-Year-Old Man Survives in Wilderness by Eating Squirrels

On Sept. 24, Penaflor became separated from his hunting buddy in heavy fog. He stepped into a crevice and hurt his knee. "After that, all went dead ? I passed out, I don't know [for] how long," he told CNN. When Penaflor woke up, he was lost. In an effort to save energy, Penaflor said rather than trying to take down big game like deer, he survived on algae, a snake, three squirrels, and water from a creek. He made a fire of dry leaves and kept it going day and night until rescue crews could find him.

[Fatty Bolger]

The creek saved him, not the squirrels. Most people don't realize that you can survive a very long time without food, as long as you have shelter from the elements and a source of water.

[OldMexican]

Re: Fatty Bolger,

The creek saved him, not the squirrels. Most people don't realize that you can survive a very long time without food, as long as you have shelter from the elements and a source of water.

Yes, but without some source of nourishment, your body starts to consume itself, leading to a state of emaciation which lowers your chances of getting out alive. Indeed, water is essencial and without a nearby source, you're screwed; but without food, you will not have the energy to help you perform the necessary actions for survival, like gathering firewood.

[mad libertarian guy]

Though true, it takes about a week with no food to get to that point. Any more than about 2.5 or 3 days without water and you die.

[Clich? Bandit]

So there was this show/study that took 8 normal people and gave them skins and nothing else...dropped them in Canada (during summer ) and monitored them. The show was AWESOME. Ultimately 2 (i think if i remember) girls dropped out and left. The rest finally did bring down a caribou...WITH AN ATL ATL!!! One of the guys was a life long hunter and he sat down and cried like a baby after killing it. Anyway, they were talking about energy budgets and how important it was to to maintain sustenance...bugs, moss, some plants and roots, a rabbit.

Long and shot of it, subsistence living sucks ass.

[Fatty Bolger]

He very likely would have survived 19 days even without any food, as long as he had a water source and shelter. Ghandi was about the same age when he went on a hunger strike, and he survived longer with no food, even though he drank very little water.

But I guess the headline "72-Year-Old Man Survives in Wilderness by Drinking From Nearby Creek" doesn't have the same ring to it.

(Just to be clear, I'm not minimizing what he went through, just pointing out how most people have their priorities backwards when it comes to survival situations - and articles like this don't help.)

[Brett L]

New techniques to replace my liver and/or pancreas. Which is good.

[Lord Humungus]

"Why a liver is nothing but a bag of marshmallows" /obscure Mad Magazine reference

[SugarFree]

Excellent. I'll take three new pancreases.

[Brett L]

So, serious question, if you got a new pancreas grown, would it produce insulin in large enough amounts this time? I seem to remember you being a lot of Type I and a little of Type II.

[SugarFree]

Not really. The autoimmune effect that killed my pancreas would destroy the new one as well.* And I'm not sure it would be much use to TII because they produce plenty of insulin, they just can't use it properly.

*Unless getting shot is what prompted my pancreas to crap out. Both my parents had unusual presentation of TI as well.

[Troy muy grande boner]

I thought it was a virus from those Thailand teenage prostitutes from your bi-monthly visit that did your pancreas in. That and you have more girth than Warty's penis after viewing a Monica Sweetheart video.

[Brett L]

I hear fecal transplants are the new rage for fighting auto-immune diseases. You should steal some healthy shit and start self-injecting (into your colon, not your blood. Shit in the blood is never healthy).

[Marshall Gill]

I have been mailing him a fresh one on a daily basis. I didn't know he could actually do anything with it.

[Pro Libertate]

Hold out for robot pancreas.

[SugarFree]

"I will eat and digest you all with my system of mighty organs!"

[Pro Libertate]

Imagine, insulin on demand!

[UnCivilServant]

I know people who already have that with an external pump. It can be imporved.

[Lord Humungus]

The Final Insult in the Bush-Cheney Marriage

In March 2007, Libby, who had served as Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted of lying to federal officials who were investigating the leak of the identity of a C.I.A. officer. For the past two months Cheney had been pushing the president to grant Libby a full pardon before they left office. He would not let it go. Cheney brought it up again and again, first before Thanksgiving, then again around Christmas and finally throughout January 2009 as they prepared for the transition to the incoming Obama administration. His lobbying was so intense that the president made clear to his aides that he did not want to talk with Cheney about it anymore.

Troubled by the decision hanging over him, Bush had asked the White House lawyers to re-examine the case to see if a pardon was justified. Fred Fielding, the White House counsel, and his deputy, William Burck, pored over trial transcripts and studied evidence that Libby's lawyers had raised in his defense. Their conclusion was that the jury had ample reason to find Libby guilty.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Even Bush finally realized Cheney was wrong about everything. Too bad it was in the final stage of his presidency after his legacy was irrevocably soiled.

[VG Zaytsev]

Bush went full fascist progtard with TARP.

[CE]

With Obama and McCain both fully backing him on TARP.

[Rich]

Immigrant-rights protesters have chained themselves in front of an detention facility

"Undocumented ? unafraid," the protesters chanted

"Thanks for making out job easy," the Arizona police chanted.

[Rich]

*our*

[UnCivilServant]

Look, we have a mind-numbingly twisted and arcane procedure you have to follow if you want to be the kind of immigrant who gets to protest. If you're here to earn sub-minimum wage doing crap jobs, you gotta be quiet about it and not upset the townies.

[CE]

Shouldn't that be "a detention facility"?

[Brett L]

I stopped reading Powerline a while ago, but I do like the pic.

[Jordan]

You'll never be as badass as the Soviet surgeon who removed his own appendix in Antarctica. I imagine him as Peter Stormare.

[Brett L]

Wow. Yeah, he must be Putin's real father.

[Pro Libertate]

Wasn't that a House episode?

[Brett L]

Graphene, soon to keep the bubbles in your beer longer.

[UnCivilServant]

Look, when we asked for better carbonation, there was an understanding that there was going to be oxygen bonded to that carbon...

(And if the link worked I might be able to RTFA)

[Brett L]

Shit. I lost it.

[Clich? Bandit]

what you have a history proof NSA clean computer?

[Ted S.]

I hope there's more than one oxygen atom bonded to that carbon atom!

[UnCivilServant]

Monoxide Beer would be interesting as a new article, and outside of the brewery, there would be few places where it could release enough CO to hurt people.

[Clich? Bandit]

Nitrogen is better anyway.

[sarcasmic]

Was this necessary? Police officer sprays handcuffed football fan in the face with pepper spray from just inches away

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....l-fan.html

[Metazoan]

STOP RESISTING

[sarcasmic]

Need some help? Kate Beckinsale teeters down stairs in heels while carrying large shopping bag

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/uss.....g-bag.html

[CE]

I would help her with that.

[Ted S.]

I didn't see this in either the AM or PM Links yesterday:

Who the hell stole my Gumby sculpture?

[WARNING: Link includes a photo that should have been scaled down to thumbnail size, but wasn't]

WEST SAUGERTIES, N.Y. -- Gumby is missing from a Saugerties' lawn, and the owners are a little bent out of shape about it.

Bob Malkin and Barbara Pokras say the 7-foot-tall, 50-pound sculpture modeled after of the friendly clay television figure was stolen from their property on Burnett Road early Sunday.

[...]

His wife said they had a lot of company over the weekend, and some of their guests heard voices early on Sunday.

"There was some laughing, a male and a female voice and our dog barked," Pokras said.

The couple reported the incident to the Saugerties police and are offering a $100 reward for information leading to the safe return of Gumby.

"Who knows? Maybe it was a prank. I really can't say. All I know is we woke up, and he wasn't there and we miss Gumby," Pokras said.

Probably stolen by Prema Toys< for trademark infringement.

[Fluffy]

I think a Gumby statue constitutes an attactive nuisance and whoever stole it should due the Pokras' if they were injured while committing this crime.

I don't see how we can expect Saugerties area youth to NOT steal a 7 foot statue of Gumby.

[Ted S.]

According to the article, the people of Saugerties like the statue.

[Fluffy]

Not as much as some college kids like a 7 foot statue of Gumby in their frat house.

[UnCivilServant]

So much so that they wanted it for themselves.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm Gumby, dammit.

[Clich? Bandit]

You're Pokey dude. You can't deny it.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm Gumby, dammit.

[sarcasmic]

Yahoo Mail users furious over Marissa Mayer's redesign that wiped away key features and left interface looking like a 'Gmail knock-off' (except useless)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ckoff.html
It sucks so bad I'm thinking of ditching it.

[CE]

The utter destruction of all that used to be good about Yahoo is almost complete.

[Rich]

Amaze project aims to take 3D printing 'into metal age'

Tungsten alloy components that can withstand temperatures of 3,000C were unveiled

Pretty, um, cool.

[Brett L]

Fuck yeah.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

But the metal age was like three or four ages ago!

[OldMexican]

Re: Cascadian Ephor Xenocles,

But the metal age was like three or four ages ago!

You just don't want to abandon your forge, do you?

[sarcasmic]

Rasher of bacon a day can harm a man's fertility: Half portion of processed meat 'significantly harms sperm quality'

Men who ate half a portion of processed meat a day had 5.5 per cent 'normal' shaped sperm cells, compared to 7.2 per cent who ate less
Red meat is thought to contain high levels of pesticides and other substances that can interfere with hormones
The findings add to the growing evidence that a couple's chances of conceiving is governed by lifestyle ? smoking, alcohol and stress have a detrimental effect

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....ility.html

I smell bullshit.

[Lady Bertrum]

correlation vs. causation?

Was diet controlled for other variables?

[sarcasmic]

Meat is murder! Don't you know that? It must be bad because it must!

[UnCivilServant]

Can't you hear the carrot scream? Ripped from the comforting busom of the soil, waterboarded and carved up alive. I cannot bear to feed upon such torment. Now those Hogs, they totally had it coming.

[Restoras]

And hogs taste better too.

[The DerpRider]

I shall take a flayed carrot as my coat of arms.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

The Carrots are screaming!

[Clich? Bandit]

tell me this is a link to Tool?

[Ted S.]

I think if you ate that much bacon, your shit would smell like pigs.

[Clich? Bandit]

I eat 4 pieces or so every day.

[William of Purple]

"Give me all the bacon and eggs that you have"

[mad libertarian guy]

The findings add to the growing evidence that a couple's chances of conceiving is governed by lifestyle ? smoking, alcohol and stress have a detrimental effect

Of course I smoked both cigarettes and weed and ate metric cowtons of meat, and it took all of 2 fucks to get my wife pregnant 2 times after we made the decision to have children.

[Clich? Bandit]

Ahh the old "we have time, lets plan that trip to Napa." "AHH SHIT!"

[Zeb]

If there is an effect, it must be very small. There seems to be no shortage of children born to parents who drink and smoke and eat highly processed food.

[pan fried wylie]

What's that picture of a casino gotta do with the NSA?

[Rich]

"Seven, come 9/11!"

[Clich? Bandit]

nice

[Mokers]

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/15/.....ht-to-stay

Palo Alto, liberal haven, might actually let a private land owner sell his land as he sees fit. Perhaps the trailer park residents threatened the town with a tractor pull?

[Clich? Bandit]

well, the latest PHDs tell you how to deal with TRAKTOR PULLZ

[Lady Bertrum]

Two teens have been suspended from Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington after wearing Confederate flags as clothing in response to a fellow student wearing a rainbow flag to mark LGBT History Month.

Public education is child abuse.

[Matrix]

I have been saying that for years

[Protagoronus]

Not one mention of rent control. The article briefly mentions regulations that keep supply low, then non-sequiturs into a bunch of collectivist "we should" statements with no understanding of how the world works.

http://www.theatlanticcities.c.....xodus/7205

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I see Anonymous has decided to go full retard and brand a guy a rapist on very little evidence: http://www.kansascity.com/2013.....boils.html

[Andrew S.]

Meh. This is more or less equivalent to the Steubenville case, and the guy almost assuredly is a rapist who got away thanks to status and political connections. Without those he'd be in prison right now.

The prosecutor, especially, in that case is a special kind of scumbag.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

That's a lot of assumptions you're making.

Explain this timeline:
1. Girls meet with guys at 1 AM
2. Girls and guys drive to his home
3. Girl drinks so much at guys home she blacks out
4. Girl and guy have sex / a rape occurs
5. Guys drop girl off at home at 2 AM

You're telling me they met up, drove to his house, she drank so much she blacked out, they had sex, got dressed, dragged her out to the car, drove her back home and dropped her off in the course of 1 hour?

Who blacks out in 15-20 minutes flat?

[sarcasmic]

Sounds like my last date with your mom.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Niiiice.

High five.

[Lord Humungus]

that was my first date with his mom. So who got sloppy seconds?

[Andrew S.]

I'm not sure about the accuracy of that timeline, but she was likely tipsy before they met up; he just sealed the deal with additional alcohol. I'm not of the drunk sex = rape idea, because that's ridiculous. But passed out drunk? Yeah, that's rape.

(I've gotten far more pissed off about these kind of stories since I had a daughter.)

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

The timeline is confirmed by the KC Star and the girl's interview on NPR.

I get pissed off that a man is branded a rapist by an internet lynch mob on scant evidence. I don't want to see my *son* at the end of one of these things someday.

But like I said, plug-in "football" and "small town" and it's all scumbag this and rapist that.

[Rasilio]

Important question.

was he drinking too?

If he was how does her being drunk absolve her of responsibility for her actions but not absolve him of his?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

That's what I want to know too.

If this were a 14-year-old drunk male and a 17-year-old drunk female, we wouldn't hear a peep out of the Social Justice creeps who populate Anonymous and the rest of the clown show.

[Zeb]

It's important only if she was not, in fact, unconscious. Fucking someone who is passed out drunk is definitely rape.
The whole drunk sex is rape thing is terrible. Even putting aside the fact that it is almost exclusively applied to the man (if they are both drunk that would make it mutual rape, which doesn't make a lot of sense), it ignores the obvious fact that people of both sexes often go out drinking with the intention of finding someone to have sex with and see alcohol as a social lubricant that can help make that happen.

[Calidissident]

I agree with this in general, when a girl is conscious enough to be aware of what is going on, but if she was passed out, then it's not even a question of whether a rape occurred. (I don't know enough about the case to make a judgment on whether or not it was rape. Although between the confession of the other guy, the political connections, the house burning down, etc. it seems pretty shady at the very least).

[Rasilio]

Except she willingly met them at 1am, got into the car with them, and either drank a hell of a lot of alcohol in the next few minutes and passed out or was already drunk at the time.

It is entirely likely that she verbally consented prior to passing out and possibly may not have passed out until sometime after the sex occurred.

Yes, if she was simply passed out drunk and the guys had sex with her that is rape but assuming the timeline posted above is true that does not seem to be the case here.

Also, as far as the other guys admission, exactly what did he confess to and under what circumstances.

I am not saying that this case was not rape, but from the evidence posted so far you are not even up to preponderance of the evidence forget beyond reasonable doubt.

[Andrew S.]

(Plus whatever the rape, he dumped a passed out drunk 14 year old on a porch outside in 30 degree weather. He deserves to be nailed to the wall for that alone)

[OldMexican]

Re: Andrew S.

(Plus whatever the rape, he dumped a passed out drunk 14 year old on a porch outside in 30 degree weather. He deserves to be nailed to the wall for that alone)

Who lets a 14-year-old whatever drink to the point of stupor?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

She was probably already drunk when she got there. Which, I'll note, is a fact that is downplayed and underreported.

[Zeb]

Who lets a 14-year-old whatever drink to the point of stupor?

Other teenagers. It happens quite a lot. Have you always been old or do teens not drink in Mexico?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

This is more or less equivalent to the Steubenville case,

Right...it can't be equivalent to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Genarlow Winslow, the Duke Lacrosse case...because those things never happened?

[Andrew S.]

So all public rape accusations are phony because those were, right?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Nope, just pointing out that you leaped to the conclusion that this is Steubenville 2.0. It's fascinating how you can mention "small-town", "football" and "rape" and the same raggedy caricatures are going to come out of the woodwork each and every time. It's like half of America thinks Friday Night Lights was a documentary.

[Andrew S.]

I said status, not football. Less to do with his football player status, more to do with political connections.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

That's still just an assumption.

I wouldn't have taken it to trial. She couldn't even testify to anything.

[SugarFree]

His buddy admitted to raping the other girl and he wasn't taken to trial either, so there is something going on behind the scenes.

With a sealed police report and evidence, it's hard to judge what occurred.

[creech]

The book was a documentary. I knew a football coach in Odessa who coached many of the boys mentioned. He said the book was embarrassingly accurate.

[The Late P Brooks]

The last third party movement, for instance, gave us Bill Clinton.

All things considered...

[Brett L]

Its funny how they don't talk about how it also gave us the lowest spending and lower taxes and fewer people on the government teat.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Well said. Perot had issues, but it seems he helped bring spending and debt forward as major issues of focus.

I am also not sure his candidacy 'gave us' Bill Clinton (or that Bill Clinton was appreciably worse than George Bush the Elder).

[VG Zaytsev]

Bush the elder would have been worse - especially since there's no way in hell that the phants take congress in 1994 with Bush as pres.

[CE]

Because he actually cut military spending. At least the planned increases thereof.

[Andrew S.]

I'd take a repeat of the Clinton years many times over the two guys who followed him. At least when it comes to spending levels.

[CE]

Unfortunately when the Dems brag on Clinton, they never agree to go back to Clinton-era spending, which was half what spending is now.

[Andrew S.]

Things that will not get you suspended if you're a police officer: Most of you have been here long enough to know this is a very long list.

Things that will get you suspended if you're a police officer: Filling out a few joke comment cards

[Auric Demonocles]

Did the NSA collect the alt-text, too?

[Protagoronus]

alt-textes:

"all the facebook we stole turned us blue"

"thumping bass"

"time to double down... the fourth amendment was quaint, let's try smashing the eighth"

[Pro Libertate]

They do not collect it. They take it.

[Auric Demonocles]

They like to use the IRS definitions.

[Pro Libertate]

I saw Gravity last weekend. Pretty decent, and the effects are nuts. I caught some technical errors on my own, and I'm sure you'd catch more, but I thought it was reasonably well done.

[Auric Demonocles]

I plan on seeing it at some point, but first I need to find a night without any big sports events or dates (or go on enough dates with one girl that a movie isn't an awful waste of time).

I noticed in the trailer that the debris cloud made some noise as it was approaching. Did they do sound in space (or just when they were actually touching something that was hit)?

[Pro Libertate]

I don't remember any sound in space in this one, though I could've missed it.

For once, I think seeing it in 3-D is a good idea. We did it because that was the only one showing at our theater, but the effect is quite good. Might be a good IMAX film as well.

[Snark Plissken]

I always like to add my own sounds to movies with silent space scenes.

2001 is way better with me say *pew* *pew* even if there's no actual space lasers. My genius is not appreciated by my fellow theatre-goers, I'm afraid.

[OldMexican]

Re: Auric Demonocles,

I noticed in the trailer that the debris cloud made some noise as it was approaching.

No, there's no actual sound. The director does use ominous-sounding music to cue in some of the events, like for instance, the debris field.

[Pro Libertate]

I'd say that they tried to be reasonably accurate while still retaining some dramatic tension at the sacrifice of a little realism. It looks great, though. That alone is worth the price of admission.

[Auric Demonocles]

Music in space I am fine with, after all that makes as much sense as music in a battlefield. I don't like "whoosh" noises in space.

I am going on a second date with an engineer tomorrow. Maybe I can turn a 3rd into seeing the movie.

[robc]

Im going to see it a week from Friday.

Apparently we have had enough dates that it isnt an awful waste of time.

[Auric Demonocles]

Movies are great with a girlfriend or friend, but they are an awful way to get to know someone new.

[robc]

Exactly.

Date 7 for us, so we are past the "exactly who are you anyway" stage.

[Clich? Bandit]

My second date was the circus...ended up being prescient for my life. But in a good way.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"It should be more clear than ever, from the outlines of this "deal", that America is now a racket run exclusively for the benefit of the Ruling Class and its loyal foot soldiers. We mustn't inconvenience federal employees ? not a single member of that titanic army of non-essential personnel will lose his job, and they'll all receive full back pay, unlike you unemployed private-sector boobs whose livelihood and independence were a small price to pay for the glories of ObamaCare and Obamanomics. The private-sector workforce dies in silence, while the tiniest cut to the finger of the almighty State produces blood-curdling howls of agony.

"The minimal fiscal discipline imposed by the sequester will be erased, an unions will get another of those very special carve-outs from the Affordable Care Act monstrosity, which is entirely concerned with amassing government power and dispensing privileges, not improving health care. This "deal" is an act of submission from the American people to the aristocracy. Obama just dispatched his shock troops to barricade the Flight 93 memorial. How fitting that a monument to ordinary heroes rising in defiance against totalitarian evil should be the scene of the final indignity visited upon unruly serfs by their spiteful monarch!"

http://www.humanevents.com/201.....-in-sight/

[VG Zaytsev]

Yeah this 'deal' is worse than nothing - they might as well just pass the CR and DC like nothing happened.

Fuck McConnel.

[Clich? Bandit]

soooo...Pray he doesn't alter it further?

[Root Boy]

Said it before. Fuck those feds. I, and many friends were sucking wind during the recession and I didn't get back pay while the feds get raises and free BJs from the press.

Let them feel some pain for once.

[William of Purple]

BOB Costas is a leprechaun.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Priest challenges exclusion from military facility:

"The Thomas More Law Center announced yesterday that it has filed a suit on behalf of Catholic priest Fr. Ray Leonard, who is a civilian under contract with the Department of Defense to provide Catholic religious services at a naval submarine base. The suit was also filed on behalf of one of Leonard's congregants."

http://religionclause.blogspot.....tract.html

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

If he wants to minister to military so badly he can put on a uniform like a lot of priests I've known. Otherwise he can minister off-base in the mean time. Nobody would stop him from working out a deal with a local church to hold some services, or from performing Mass for small groups of sailors in their homes, or from doing it in a park near the base. Of all the shutdown stories this is the weakest in my opinion. It's not illegal for him to minister to sailors, he's simply being denied access to base the way any employee on furlough would be.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"If he wants to minister to military so badly he can put on a uniform like a lot of priests I've known."

That's not the law - they allow priests who aren't soldiers to minister on a "contract" basis. Now they're banning these "contract" priests from ministering even voluntarily.

I must be missing the part where banning priests from military facilities saves money.

Is is possible that you're simply reacting to what you see as the ickiness of religion?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

As I understand it, furloughed employees are prevented from volunteering their time because legal interpretations, long preceding the shutdown, have stated it may incur some obligation to pay them for it when the shutdown is resolved.

[robc]

Except that it has already been determined that they will be paid when it is resolved, so that isnt an issue.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Has it been determined? How?

[robc]

Has it been determined? How?

House passed a bill guaranteeing back pay on 10/5.

10 days ago.

I dont know if the Senate has ignored it or not, but both common sense and history suggest that it will happen.

Do you think the Senate wont pass it? And the Prez wont sign it?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Bo is still flogging the party line that the media would be totes in the Pres's grill but-for the silly Republicans?

Oh lordy.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

What is more interesting than your continuing deranged stalking of me is that in your derangement you posted this comment in the wrong subthread (none of my comments here have been about media deflection, that conversation is with Sevo elsewhere on the thread).

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Squirrel problem.

Where do you get this ridiculous notion I'm stalking you? Geez, get over yourself.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I see, you just wondered into this subthread to make a comment critical of my comments...on another subthread.

Perhaps I can get over myself, but when will get over me?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Squirrel problems, for the SECOND TIME. How did you pass law school without being able to read?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Of course, 'squirrel problems.' Obsession can make one quite 'squirrely' indeed.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Not for contractors.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Not for contractors, yes, but also I assume robc is talking about the fact that the House passed a bill for backpay. Of course current House passed bills are not final, and so no reputable legal advice would sensibly rest on them as if they were.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Since the bill only deals with civil service employees it is not relevant for this discussion, which is about a contractor.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

They aren't being treated differently here. If you're on furlough you don't come to work. The law prohibits you from doing your job voluntarily during a furlough. Same goes for services contracts. If the funding isn't there for the contract you don't do the job. It's likely there was a clause in his contract allowing the government to terminate it for convenience or otherwise shorten the period of performance. It's part of doing business with the government.

This story gets play because of the religious angle and of the tendency of certain people to seek persecution. There's no persecution here. A service your people can already get off base for free is not vital by any stretch of the imagination.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

SoCons cry persecution on a level matched only by progressives.

[Eduard van Haalen]

If you see below, the sailors are often too busy to go off base, especially since they are not assigned cars like their Congressional masters. That's why there's a chapel on the base in the first place, duh!

You seem to assume that a priest simply is a government worker. A contract priest "works" for the Church - the govt gives him a stipend for serving soldiers and sailors who lack access to chaplains. The govt's own acts limit sailor's access to the civilian services of their religion, so the courts have (perhaps wrongly) allowed govt to affirmatively provide soldiers and sailors with access to their religion. But this doesn't mean the govt gets to prevent priests from volunteering to serve their flock.

IMO it would be better not to have govt pay ministers for soldiers, but since it's done under the rationale of religious freedom, they can't use the fact of paying ministers as an excuse to prevent ministers from volunteering their services.

I think you're so hung up on religion being icky that you're unwilling to allow for the reality of religious persecution.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Here are a few of the things alleged in the complaint:

"The submarine base is remotely located. The closest Catholic Church is off base in the town of St. Mary's. This is roughly eight miles away from the Naval Base....

"The doors to the Kings Bay Chapel were locked on October 4, 2013, with theHoly Eucharist, Holy water, Catholic hymn books, and vessels all locked inside. Father Leonardand his parishioners, including Fred Naylor, were prohibited from entering.

"The Department of Defense placed a sign outside of the Kings Bay Chapel statingthat due to the government shutdown, there will be no Catholic Services until further notice.

"The Kings Bay Chapel remains open to other faiths and is being used for their religious services. The Department of Defense has allowed the Protestant community to continue their services in the chapel during the government shutdown, without threat of penalty.

[numbering of paragraphs omitted]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/1761.....-Complaint

[Eduard van Haalen]

Also, " Many of Father Leonard's parishioners live and work on the Naval Base and donot own a car or have access to other transportation. This makes a sixteen mile journey to andfrom church imp
ossible for many of Fr. Leonard's
parishioners, particularly sailors who are notgiven enough break time to walk sixteen miles and attend the Mass service."

[Bo Cara Esq.]

That last paragraph is the only one that to my mind gives the suit a leg to stand on, and, unless there are some other important facts introduced (remember a complaint is only one side's story), it seems pretty terrible to me, I will grant you.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

None of these complaints speaks to anything I said. Again, if your government work is not funded then you don't do it. After a certain point this is unenforceable; who can really stop you from working on a presentation at home, for instance? But they are following the law with respect to excluding an unfunded contractor from working in a government facility. There's no case there. Nor can he claim he's being discriminated against. Other chaplains are able to do their services because they are actually in the military. They don't exclude Catholic priests; they just haven't been signing up at sufficient rates.

None of those sailors has a priest underway (submarines don't bring chaplains along, just lay leaders taken from the crew), so it's not like they don't go without for half the year anyway. Frankly, having to drive eight miles to go to church is a pretty weak sort of martyrdom.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I didn't say martyrdom, you did. It's fairly weak to allege submariners are denied priests while underwater, therefore they should be denied priests while on land.

"having to drive eight miles to go to church"

I said many of them don't have govt-assigned cars, they have govt-assigned submarines, which aren't very useful for driving to church. And they are extremely busy and the very reason they have a chapel on the base is because it would be impractical to go to the civilian church.

"priests...just haven't been signing up at sufficient rates"

Then why is this case being filed at all, if not because the priest signed up to minister on the base for free* but was not allowed to do so.

*Of course, he's supported by the Church, I mean free to the taxpayers/bondholders.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I never said that they should be deprived of the chance to worship, just that one of the consequences of their service is that they often are. It's what they signed up for. If it's so all-fired important to them they can go the extra mile for this brief period.

This case came about because for various reasons with varying degrees of legitimacy you can't do volunteer work for the government. For non-military personnel every hour has to be accounted for, even if you're "exempt" under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Military chaplains are paid for under the recently-passed Pay Our Military Act. Contractor and civil-service personnel are not. It's just that simple. He had the chance to join up, put on a uniform and draw a fat paycheck in exchange for his ministry to sailors. He chose not to go that route. There's nothing wrong with that, but that choice has consequences.

Sometimes you have to suffer a little for what you believe in. Making alternate accommodations for a little while isn't all that much to suffer.

[Eduard van Haalen]

This is about government power, and whether the government can put a priest in prison for volunteering to perform Mass on a military base without charge to taxpayers and bondholders. If the Pay Our Military Act doesn't let priests volunteer for such service, then which prevails, the Act or the First Amendment?

Even under the Obama Administration's limited First Amendment as mere "freedom of worship," their behavior is wrong.
When you find yourself arguing that a minister of religion can only perform his functions if he's a govt employee, then you may have lost sight of your libertarian principles - perhaps because religious is icky to you?

[Eduard van Haalen]

And I agree that priests ought to suffer more for their faith - they should to onto the military bases to celebrate Mass - if the govt arrests them the govt can explain to a jury why it's so important to criminalize Mass. They better get a jury of Ian Paisleys, or they'll have trouble getting a conviction.

So, yes, there should be more self-sacrifice.

[Zeb]

It is a pretty obnoxious and unnecessary thing to do. Why not just let the priest come and do his thing. But I don't think that the religious freedom angle is a very strong one. Having the right to practice you religion doesn't oblige anyone to provide you the venue to do so.
And people in the military have their other first amendment rights limited all the time. If that is OK, then so it limiting when and where they can practice their religion.

[Sevo]

"The Washington Post is reporting that the NSA has been collecting contacts from email address books and instant messaging accounts from around the world."

But this is nothing to worry about 'cause rethuglicans and gov't shutdown!

[Pro Libertate]

See, you don't understand what's going on here. You haven't written [insert loved one] in a while. The NSA will identify key family members and friends, key dates (like the anniversary of that time you got so drunk your brother had to drag you in the house after you'd been dumped in the front yard), and send out letters and e-mails in your name. Later, they'll also run your social media pages.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Well, Sevo, this is one reason I have long cited for opposing the GOP strategy that le to shutdown: it has taken the focus off of things like the NSA scandal, which I think was hurting Obama where it counts-with his base.

[robc]

Everyone who was going to change their opinion of Obama due to the NSA scandal had already done it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Well, then let us and everyone else ignore it, including new disclosures, eh?

[robc]

Who is ignoring it? There can be more than one news story at a time.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Sure robc, no story has ever taken eyes off another. Everyone reads the entire paper, every day.

[robc]

Whats a paper?

[Pro Libertate]

I don't think the scandals have gone away. Who expected the media to focus on them day in, day out? There are lawsuits beginning to happen, and I'm sure Congress will continue to investigate that and other scandals.

It'll take years for anything big to happen, if it does.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Stories can take eyes off of other stories, especially when they are featured more and more prominently. Everyone seems to recognize this at times. People will say that this or that official released this or that story to upstage or deflect attention from another. I am betting at some time in your life you have said so as well, it is just that now you have to deny it because it might undermine a previous stance taken.

The revelations about the NSA continue to come out, new violations were released today. Guess what? On most paper's front page and websites those revelations were under and smaller than shut down headlines. If you want to pretend that does not matter because everyone reads everything, fine, but I still contend that is not true.

[Pro Libertate]

You're not addressing my point. My point is that the scandals never were going to displace all other news. That never happens for extended periods. They'll wax and wane as evidence is gathered. None of the major scandals have been forgotten and are all still being investigated (or even litigated).

[Seamus]

Two teens have been suspended from Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington after wearing Confederate flags as clothing in response to a fellow student wearing a rainbow flag to mark LGBT History Month.

Some Maple Valley, Washington, school administrators are about to learn a lesson about Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and its progeny.

[William of Purple]

The replies to this Obama tweet will be something else.

http://twitter.com/BarackObama.....2844803072

[Auric Demonocles]

First one I saw:

narwhal ?@riffymalik 3m

@BarackObama yeah you say that to all the muslims you kill with your drones

[SugarFree]

"Michelle and I extend our best wishes for a joyous Eid al-Adha to Muslims around the world." ?President Obama

"If it is his twitter feed then why is he quoting himself?"
-SugarFree

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

That's to let you know it's actually him and not his Twitter lackeys, which is normally the case.

[Auric Demonocles]

He needed to make sure that the "President" part was included to satisfy his ego.

[CE]

I thought he shut down his Twit feed because of the shutdown.

[OldMexican]

Re: Palin's Buttwipe,

Yes, unfortunately the ACA was the only market-based system proposed that broke the back of the cartel.

There's nothing that says "market" more than "government-run."

The GOP was too stupid to propose anything reasonable at all besides
the idiotic bromide[???] of "sell acrost [sic] state lines!".

God forbid people sell things across state lines. It would mean chaos. Dogs fucking cats and shit.

[GILMORE]

""the ACA was the only market-based system""

That forced participants to create products that no one wanted, and forced 'customers'* to buy them or else face a penalty. WHEEE MARKETS!!

*can you call anyone a 'customer' when they have no choice as to whether to use a service? (oh, sorry = they can be penalized if they don't. FREEDOMS!) I got irritated when the NYC subway started referring to people as 'customers' as opposed to 'passengers'... because = what? I might have taken the OTHER subway? Given that the same motherfuckers run the bus system too, its not like there's any escaping them...

[Invisible Finger]

Apparently proposing "free market" is "stupid" to shit-for-brains like shreek.

[Guy LaGuy]

Crises can make ideas feel urgent. For some young intellectuals, nothing is more urgent than rethinking capitalism

[Brett L]

Maybe they should read Wealth of Nations like Newton's Principia. Adam Smith didn't really like capitalists, but he very accurately described much of the most efficient way of allocating scarce resources that have alternate uses. If you ignore scarcity and valuation problems, its like ignoring gravity and inertia in ballistics problems.

[Pro Libertate]

One thing that always strikes me is how some conservatives are ex-Marxists. Not socialists, not progressives, open, full-blown Marxists. Like (working from memory here) David Horowitz or Thomas Sowell. What's weird is that people absorb that without much thought, whereas if they'd said they were ex-Nazis, people would freak the fuck out.

[Zeb]

Well, if you can ignore history or convince yourself that the actual Communist regimes weren't real Marxists, Marxism is a lot less obviously evil than Nazism.

[DesigNate]

You're the worst character ever Guy.