A.M. Links: Obama Hopeful House Will Go Along With Whatever Senate Deal, Walmart Defends Allowing No Limit EBT Shopping Spree, Moose Population on Decline Across America

• 

  Jay Ward Productions

  President Obama is hopeful the House will pass whatever deal the Senate comes up with to raise the debt limit, which is still scheduled to be hit by the federal government tomorrow. It's apparently his only plan. Fitch Ratings, meanwhile, wants the debt limit raised in a "timely manner" or it could downgrade its AAA credit rating of the United States.

• Closing the national parks costs more than keeping them open and the feds could be losing up to $76 million a day in lost revenue, according to the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.
• A Walmart spokesperson said the company "made the right choice" in allowing EBT users at a Louisiana store to keep shopping even though a glitch had suspended spending caps. Walmart will now be responsible to pay the difference, according to the state.
• A Shell gas station clerk was fired for using a gun to fend off a robber on the overnight shift; clerks are forbidden by store policy to carry guns.
• More than two dozen people with disabilities filed complaints in 2012 about TSA checkpoints and procedures at the Phoenix airport.
• Lawyers in the James Holmes Aurora theater shooting case are arguing over whether the two-hour delay in reading Holmes his Miranda rights falls under the public safety exception or not.
• From British Columbia to Minnesota to New Hampshire, the moose population is on a significant decline across North America and scientists aren't sure why.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Walmart spokesperson said the company "made the right choice" in allowing EBT users at a Louisiana store to keep shopping even though a glitch had suspended spending caps.

If they were in the business of refusing EBT cards they wouldn't be in business.

[Rich]

"States across the country are being told to stop the supplemental nutrition assistance program for the month of November, pending further notice."

Well, this could get *interesting*.

[mr lizard]

Well I hadn't expected to be proven right this soon. Well at least the Martial Law infrastructure might be caught off guard.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Oh, SNAP!!

[Fatty Bolger]

We'll still have plenty of money to pay guards to keep people out of parks and monuments, though, right? 'Cause that's "essential."

[WTF]

If they were in the business of refusing EBT cards they wouldn't be in business.

And if they refused those EBT cards they might have had a riot on their hands.

[SIV]

RACIST

[Brett L]

They weren't supposed to refuse them, just limit them to $90/card/day.

[R C Dean]

I don't think its Walmart's job to impose EBT caps.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that its against the law for a retailer who takes EBT to refuse to, well, take EBT.

[Brett L]

My understanding is that each state sets its own limits when the transactions fail, such as in this case or the case when the whole approval system is down. The limit in LA is $90/card/day when cards can't be verified. To which I believe this applies.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The 7 Worst Excuses Given by People Caught Being Perverts

[Troy muy grande boner]

I haven't read the article yet. I'm betting over half of them are represented by HnR commentarriat.

[Swiss Servator, Zurichmania!]

You mean other than Warty, Epi or SF?

[Troy muy grande boner]

Well no. But I didn't want to other them this morning.

[Atanarjuat]

Money quote:

Cats are assholes, is the point of my story, and they only love you in the way that you or I love porn, which is to say until we're finished with it.

[waffles]

From British Columbia to Minnesota to New Hampshire, the moose population is on a significant decline across North America and scientists aren't sure why.

Going the way of the unicorn. If only we could raise them on farms and eat them. Like how we saved the buffalo.

[Ted S.]

They're not trying to blame so-called global warming/climate change

[Ted S.]

There should have been a question mark at the end of that.

[Bardas Phocas]

6th paragraph.

What exactly has changed remains a mystery. Several factors are clearly at work. But a common thread in most hypotheses is climate change.

[Bones]

When I was a kid, my dad who is a veterinarian took part in a moose relocation program to increase the stateside population. They discovered that moose were trying to get busy with cows. This is how dumb they are. Perhaps the population decline is that moose are extremely stupid.

[Marc F Cheney]

Or maybe cows are just whores.

[Being Waterboarded]

Sexy, tasty whores.

[Ska]

Fuck a fat girl in your neighborhood right now!

[BakedPenguin]

What changed is they let in a suspicious Russian couple into the country. You watch, squirrels are next.

[gaijin]

+1 Natasha's sexy voice

[mad libertarian guy]

Then they go 4 paragraphs explaining all of the unproven guesses at why it's probably climate change, and 1 paragraph gently suggesting that there could be other causes too.

I can't explain the northeast, but from Michigan westward, I'd say that wolves have done their fair share of damage. They've decimated elk populations in parts Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

[R C Dean]

Again, we have people positing causation (global warming = fewer mooses) when there isn't even any causation (fewer mooses even though no global warming for 15 years)

[R C Dean]

I mean, correlation. There isn't even any correlation.

I blame the squirrels.

[Enough About Palin]

In Minnesota, it's the researchers that are likking them.

Of the 49 calves fitted with GPS collars in May shortly after they were born, four slipped their collars and 11 died of complications immediately following their capture, mostly because they were abandoned by their mothers, researchers said.

http://www.startribune.com/local/225487322.html

[Enough About Palin]

likking = killing

[Swiss Servator, Zurichmania!]

Is that Finnish? Swedish? Lapp?

[CE]

Even though the climate hasn't actually yet changed, it's the leading explanation?

[Jerryskids]

Well, duh. The national parks and WMAs have been shut down for over a week - all the meese have starved to death without the federal government there to feed them.

And you bastards caused this!

[Lord Humungus]

must have been a cop:

Price of donuts upsets man, threatens Spokane clerk with syringe

Officers said he robbed the owner of the 3rd Avenue Grocery after getting angry about the price of the woman's donuts. Witnesses said the man went bezerk when he found out the box of donuts was $3.99.

"He was all like, 'I'm going to hit her.' Said witness Christina Diperna.

[SugarFree]

Rampaging diabetics. Fear us, America.

[Jerryskids]

Meh. Diabetic rampages only last about 8 seconds before they crash.

[SugarFree]

The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I see someone let Gary Busey out of the asylum.

[waffles]

But four bucks isn't exactly an expensive box of donuts. Crazy, stupid, or low blood sugar isn't an excuse. Of course if this guy want's to get mad at someone or something over high prices he picked the wrong target.

[Swiss Servator, Zurichmania!]

Did the Shell clerk loan his gun to the donut place?

[John Jay.]

Crazy, stupid, and low blood sugar all sound like better excuses than "outraged over a four dollar box of donuts."

[Rich]

*Ranch dip* set this guy off.

[Byron]

"The angry customer mumbled something about having a knife, climbed on a purple bike and rode away."

Truth is stranger than fiction.

[Michael S. Langston]

Picture Stephen Root in Office Space mumbling... "I... I... I w.. I will burn this place to the ground."

[PD Scott]

Did any of you all see this link at the bottom of the article?

Man Beaten with Bong for Refusing Pot as Payment

(CBS Seattle) ? A man refused to accept a bag of marijuana as payment from a friend for a debt, and was subsequently hit in the face with a bong, KOMO News reported.

According to the police report obtained by KOMO, the victim was at the home of a friend's girlfriend in Crown Hill when the argument started. The friend apparently owed the victim $20 and offered to settle it with a $20 bag of pot. The two continued arguing and the friend told the victim to get out of the house. As the victim was grabbing the bag of pot, the friend hit him in the face with a glass bong, according to the report. The victim suffered cuts on his forehead, over his eye and on his nose, all of which required stitches.

The victim then pushed his friend down, and the friend yelled at his girlfriend to "get a knife." After seeing the victim's bloody face, the friend backed off and apologized. That's when the victim left the house and went to the hospital.

It's not clear if any charges will be filed.

[lap83]

his first mistake was lending to a guy with more pot than money

[Old Man With Candy]

"Bezerk"? Did KREM hire Lucy?

[Clich? Bandit]

Clearly John wrote the article...and

DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY!!!

[Jeff]

The price of donuts threatened a Spokane clerk with a syringe?

[H. ReardEn]

Jeff, meet Ted S.

Ted S., Jeff

[Fist of Etiquette]

Fitch Ratings, meanwhile, wants the debt limit raised in a "timely manner" or it could downgrade its AAA credit rating of the United States.

Nothing improves credit standing like spending well beyond your means.

[gaijin]

it should be a credit card rating...as in how much of a balance are you willing to carry.

[Pro Libertate]

If they were worth a shit, they'd threaten to downgrade if we didn't cut spending.

[Root Boy]

I'm sure the CEO of Fitch did not receive a call from Valerie Jarrett talking about horse heads in peoples beds.

[Juice]

I still can't believe, after the whole mess in 2008, that anyone takes these rating agencies seriously anymore.

[Invisible Finger]

Public Employee pensions depend on them.

There's a government employee born every minute.

[CE]

Yeah, if you don't borrow a lot more, we will label you a bad risk to default on your current debts.

[Bee Tagger]

More than two dozen people with disabilities filed complaints in 2012 about TSA checkpoints and procedures at the Phoenix airport.

From the frying pan of the Phoenix airport into the fire of Arpaio and Maricopa county.

[CE]

The whole area's a frying pan. Or more like a kiln.

[DJF]

Idiot Kerry is running around the Middle East still pushing regime change in Syria even though he still needs Assad cooperation to get rid of the chemical weapons there.

He does not realize that diplomacy is all about lying and he should stop talking about regime change until he gets the chemical weapons and then he betrays Assad and helps install in a best case a Islamist Sunni government controlled by the Saudis or in the worse case a Islamist Sunni government controlled by the terrorists

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-20.....onference/

[BakedPenguin]

Oh boy, the US government is going to set up another government in the mid-east. That always works out well.

[Lady Bertrum]

The US government isn't competent enough to set up a puppet anymore - not even CIA. The Saudis with a little help from Israel and Jordan would be the ones constructing a "government" out of what was once Syria.

[BakedPenguin]

It's in the article - Kerry is meeting with some ambassadors and others to set up a "transitional government." The delusion is incredible. Al Qaeda and the other Islamist terrorists are not going to give a shit, and they will target any international organized government.

[Hyperion]

They're only doing this because their attempts at regime change in Syria, and the middle east in genearl, have been working out so well over the past 60 years.

When something is working, aren't you supposed to keep doing the same?

All hail the Lurch Miser!

[CatoTheElder]

US involvement in setting up a government in a Muslim-majority nation is prima facie evidence that the government is illegitimate. This would be true even if Jefferson, Madison, and the rest happened to have been reincarnated as Muslims in some ME hellhole, and somehow became the beneficiaries of US support (which, of course, could not happen because the US only supports corrupt Muslim moderates who they can manipulate.)

So why bother? Not only will the militant Wahhabis reject the government, all reasonable Muslims will know that the government is illegimate. Some portion of the latter will ally with the former as takfiri to denounce the regime. The only supporters will be a corrupt, nominally Muslim ruling elite and a minority of fools.

[Lady Bertrum]

Your basic assumption that Kerry (or Obama) really give two shits are about chemical weapons is sweet.

"Chemical weapons" was the casus belli. They want to get rid of Assad - by whatever means necessary - to further isolate Iran. Or, that was the goal, with the Obama people goals shift with the wind.

The hunt for chemical weapons was a diversionary tactic Putin seized on because Kerry is such a idiot he cannot even start a war without fucking it up.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Idiot Progtard gets OCare bill
"I was laughing at Boehner ? until the mail came today," Waschura said, referring to House Speaker John Boehner, who is leading the Republican charge to defund Obamacare.

..."Of course, I want people to have health care," Vinson said. "I just didn't realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally."

[Drax the Destroyer]

I saw that the other day. Seeing these fuckheads realize the bag of shit they anointed as "The Solution" is in fact, a bag shit, warms the cockles of my evil, broken, cold heart.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.

I hate when hardcore liberals call themselves independents.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

^THIS

I don't just hate it - it makes me want to punch children.

[Clich? Bandit]

Like that cop in Berthoud? (see my post a the bottom)

[Sy]

Or "believers"

[Root Boy]

Ace has excerpts from a Daily Kos kid who is upset as well. The comments there don't like their bubble being pierced.

[JW]

My schadenfreude at their comeuppance is being tempered by the fact that I am also getting the gubmint they deserve.

Still, fuck 'em. Hopefully, this is a learning moment for them, though I seriously doubt that it is.

[fish]

I hate when hardcore liberals call themselves independents.

Remember they are only "independents" when the programs they endorse start to go south.

[CatoTheElder]

Doesn't bother me in the least. They are probably, in fact, quite independent from the Democrat Party in that they vote Green or Socialist unless they really, really like the Democrat candidate.

Heck, I'm independent in an opposite sort of way.

[BardMetal]

The biggest mistake that Obama made with Obamacare was not hiding the costs, like they do with every other socialist policy.

I wonder if any socialist idea would be popular if people actually realised they were paying for it, and not some nameless rich guy in a top hat?

[The Last American Hero]

It's not just socialist ideas. Imagine if W went on TV, explained his case for wanting to invade Iraq, and noted at the end that wars are expensive, so every citizen would be getting an invoice in 60 days equal to 1% of their previous year's gross income to cover the war. Would the Iraq war have had 60% support at the beginning?

[R C Dean]

But he did hide the cost, for as long as he needed to. Which is to say, until he won re-election. After he's won his last election, what makes you think he gives a fuck?

[Troy muy grande boner]

OMG. Some of the salty ham tears in the commments were delicious.

[robc]

Progtards:

ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME!

[Invisible Finger]

^This.

Progressives lie when they say they care about others because they are the most self-centered beings that exist.

They want to help people, just not personally. IOW, sociopaths.

[thom]

You can prove this with just one minute of conversation with a progressive. They'll start talking about themselves immediately. "Well I can't afford healthcare, and it's my human right. I am being denied my rights!" Seriously, within 30 seconds of the subject coming up.

[lap83]

behind every progressive there is a conservative being coerced into supporting them.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What an idiot that Frank Marino in the thread is.

Socialists are scary because they believe they see the 'big picture' which is why they tolerate - nay demand - coercive action to see through their ideas.

[gaijin]

Hey,don't be trashing Fran Marino!

The Answer

[Reverend Mayhem]

What an idiot that Frank Marino in the thread is.

-1 Mahogany Rush

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wow. You guys are good!

Marino lives right here in Montreal!

Mahogany Rush. Nice.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Shit, I hope it's not him in the threads.

That would be damn disappointing.

[The DerpRider]

Read up to the part that said independent voters and then just stared at the rack in the startup of the video.

[Hyperion]

..."Of course, I want people to have health care," Vinson said. "I just didn't realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally."

That has got to be one of the most classic examples of progderp that I have ever read.

Socialism is great, as long as I'm not paying for it!

[Fist of Etiquette]

...clerks are forbidden by store policy to carry guns.

"Dying in a robbery? No, I don't see anything in the policy manual against that..."

[Bill Dalasio]

I could support this policy. As long as the company accepts legal liability for their security on the job.

[SugarFree]

This place was so much better when there was nowhere to shop and people got stabbed all the time! Damn you, art!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Is there anything quite so stupid as complaints about gentrification?

Oh shit, it got nicer around here.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Would a Mr. Noble Savage please pick up the black courtesy phone?

[Doctor Whom]

I used to live in a gentrifying neighborhood. People complained that African-American retirees were being displaced. In that context, "being displaced" meant "selling their houses at profits that would make your head explode."

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Yes, when the same people who complain about gentrification also complain about "white flight".

[Lady Bertrum]

White people always do the wrong thing. Spike Lee should make a movie.

[Doctor Whom]

The High Council of Political Correctness hereby declares ex cathedra that the following people are racists:

*White people who live in the city, since they have committed the sin of gentrification, which is racist;

*White people who live outside of the city, since they have committed the sin of white flight, which is racist; and

*You, if you suspect that the game is rigged, since you have committed the sin of logic, which is racist.

[thom]

I live in a gentrifying neighborhood, but the people being displaced are poor white trash. Most of them move into the suburbs. So in my case, I am committing both sins, by gentrifying the neighborhood and causing white flight.

[Invisible Finger]

Gentrification is great. It's when the gentrification is nearly complete and the progtards start moving in that sucks.

[#]

^^ This ^^

[Apple]

Gentrification is too much work, and there's no place to park. I prefer white flight.

[Lady Bertrum]

+1. Fuck Restoration Hardware.

[Lord Humungus]

I just threw up a little:

The New American Center: Why our nation isn't as divided as we think

Pluralities believe that the political system is broken (49 percent), and the economy is bad (50 percent) and likely to stay that way a while (41 percent). Majorities fear another 9/11 or Boston-style bombing is likely (70 percent), and that their children's lives will be more difficult than their own (62 percent), which are either stuck in place or getting worse (84 percent) ? while the rich keep getting richer at the expense of everyone else (70 percent).

The new American center has a socially progressive streak, supporting gay marriage (64 percent), the right to an abortion for any reason within the first trimester (63 percent), and legalized marijuana (52 percent). Women, workers and the marginal would also benefit if the center had its way, supporting paid sick leave (62 percent); paid maternity leave (70 percent); tax-subsidized childcare to help women return to work (57 percent); and a federal minimum wage hike to no less than $10 per hour (67 percent).

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

The Center has been and always will be stupid.

[BardMetal]

Anyone else find it odd that abortion gets more support then legalized marijuana?

[Root Boy]

This was a poll by NBC News and Esquire mag - may want to dig into it a little more

[mad libertarian guy]

The new American center has a socially progressive streak, supporting gay marriage (64 percent), the right to an abortion for any reason within the first trimester (63 percent), and legalized marijuana (52 percent).

None of which have anything to do with progressivism. Socially liberal, perhaps, but NOT socially progressive. Progressive policy brought us prohibition and eugenics (which surely saw gays as inferior and worthy of "minimizing").

That said, abortion is progressive, but not for the "woman's rights" reason modern progs want to believe, but as a tool in eugenics to minimize the poor, black population. They've simply been fooled in to thinking that abortion isn't somehow racist in its origins.

[Snark Plissken]

From British Columbia to Minnesota to New Hampshire, the moose population is on a significant decline across North America and scientists aren't sure why.

Mynd you, m??se bites Kan be pretty nasti...

[gaijin]

Squirrels tired of playing second fiddle?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

*and there was much rejoicing*

[Restoras]

Thread winner. Well done, sir, and I doff my tophat in respect and admiration.

[Bee Tagger]

Closing the national parks costs more than keeping them open and the feds could be losing up to $76 million a day in lost revenue, according to the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.

We should be paying them to keep them open!

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's a small price to pay for a botched attempt at making a point.

[Lady Bertrum]

Whatever action the federal government takes or doesn't take will always cost more money. See how that works?

[CE]

There's a coalition of NPS retirees? I wonder what they want.

[Mike M.]

I'm seeing lots of reports in mainstream media outlets now that the fed has enough cash on hand to pay all the bills"another week or two".

In other words, the notion of midnight tonight as the absolute deadline is a bunch of B.S.

[gaijin]

You mean Jack Lew wasn't entirely truthful? Color me shocked.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I just had that realization this morning when the news said that the deadline was "according to Jacob Lew". WTF? We've been operating under this "deadline" that was set by a political appointee? How fucking stupid are we?

[Jordan]

Fuck Lew, cut spending.

[Swiss Servator, Zurichmania!]

*rises to applaud*

[R C Dean]

Hear, hear!

[Pro Libertate]

As it is written, so shall it be.

[Lady Bertrum]

Fuck Lew, cut spending.

But, if they cut spending it will cost us more money, so better not cut spending.

DON'T CUT SPENDING TO SAVE MONEY!

Do you ever feel like you're being lied to? Nawhhhh.

[Jordan]

DON'T CUT SPENDING TO SAVE MONEY!

THIS IS WHAT PROGRESSIVES ACTUALLY BELIEVE

[R C Dean]

The one tenet of capitalism they try to carry over into government (you have to spend money to make money), and its the one that doesn't work on that side of the fence.

[Juice]

Oh, yeah, what a coincidence it is that the Treasury totally runs out of all funds at exactly midnight.

[Cdr Lytton]

It's like Cinderella, their fiscal fantasy goes poof.

[CE]

And oddly, more money pours in every week from income tax withholding. If only there were some way to use those funds to pay the debt, while idling non-essential government workers without pay to avoid needing to borrow more cash!

[Lord Humungus]

I see a television show here:

ND farmer finds oil spill while harvesting wheat

A North Dakota farmer who discovered an oil spill the size of seven football fields while out harvesting wheat says that when he found it, crude was bubbling up out of the ground.

Farmer Steve Jensen says he smelled the crude for days before the tires on his combines were coated in it. At the apparent break in the Tesoro Corp.'s underground pipeline, the oil was "spewing and bubbling 6 inches high," he said in a telephone interview Thursday.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

He will be rich alright, once the lawsuits are over.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Great, now that song is running through my head...

[gaijin]

Great, now that song is running through my head...

And Ellie Mae is running through mine!

[JW]

This ought to get rid of her.

[Pro Libertate]

When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not, hmm?

It's crazy how old she and other young people from that era are. I mean, that was fifty years ago. Unreal.

[JW]

Young when I die. Good will I look.

I know, I still haven't gained the needed perspective of how long ago things from my childhood are. "Hey remember that thing? Yeah, that was 40 years ago. FUUUUUUCK."

[Pro Libertate]

It's distressing. I get that moment all of the time. Here's one. Remember how the 50s were some long ago thing when we were kids in the 70s? The 90s are almost as distant. The fucking 90s.

[robc]

Back in 1996 I was discussing the presidential election with a co-worker and I mentioned Bob Dole running for veep.

He had a confused look and I droned on and on about him running with Ford in 1976 and blah blah blah.

He stopped me and asked me when he was born. I said, ummm...1977...oh crap.

[robc]

Back in 1996 I was discussing the presidential election with a co-worker and I mentioned Bob Dole running for veep.

He had a confused look and I droned on and on about him running with Ford in 1976 and blah blah blah.

He stopped me and asked me when he was born. I said, ummm...1977...oh crap.

[R C Dean]

I hear ya, Pro Lib. I used to play that game all the time. As in, WWII is now 70 years ago. During WWII, the freaking Civil War was just over 70 years ago.

Or: during the Vietnam War, WWII was only 25 years ago. Just as long ago as the first Gulf War is now.

[Guy LaGuy]

You missed a War.
There were Civil War vets serving in WWI.

[johnl]

I would.

[CE]

How high's the oil momma?

Five feet high and risin'...

[CE]

It's already over all the wheat and oats, this boat's the only thing we got left that floats....

[Pro Libertate]

Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed.
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.
Then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground came a bubblin' crude.

Oil that is. Black gold; Texas tea.

Well the first thing you know ol' Jed's a millionaire,
Kinfolk said "Jed move away from there."
Said "Californy is the place you ought to be,"
So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly.

Hills, that is. Swimmin' pools, movie stars.

Well now its time to say good by to Jed and all his kin,
And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin' in.
You're all invited back again to this locality
To have a heapin' helpin of their hospitality.

Hillbilly that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off.

Y'all come back now, y'hear?

[JW]

My first thought as well. "When is he moving to Beverly?

[Pro Libertate]

After the kinfolk have a talk with him, I reckon.

[Elspeth Flashman]

+1. My dad always had to point out that their truck didn't really exist.

[Pro Libertate]

That's a damned lie!

[sarcasmic]

PICTURED: Footballer accused of raping 14-year-old girl who then tried to commit suicide before she and her family were burned out of town after charges were dropped

14-year-old 'victim' self-harmed and attempted suicide twice as a result of vicious victim-blaming
'Accused' Matthew Barnett, is the scion of a prominent political family in Maryville, Missouri
Friends tweeted support for Barnett while 'victim' Daisy Coleman was abused by online bullies
Mother, Melinda, says she and her family were driven out of town after intense local backlash that saw her lose her job
The family's home was later burned down
Daisy left intoxicated and without socks or shoes on front lawn as temperatures plummeted to -22 degrees
Hacktivists Anonymous shut down Nodaway County Sheriff's website in protest and call for a Twitter Storm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....tured.html

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

What they don't mention:

1. The house was abandoned. Abandoned houses tend to burn down. Insurance adjusters and the fire department were on scene and didn't find anything untoward (yet)
2. Daisy Coleman's timeline makes no sense.

[sarcasmic]

Abandoned houses tend to burn down.

That's one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Seriously. Stupid.

[Swiss Servator, Zurichmania!]

Things break, Colonel...

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

You're right, that was not well-written. What I should have said was "abandoned houses are at a much higher risk for burning down"

[sarcasmic]

Spontaneous combustion is a bitch.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Or, you know, rodents get in there and chew the wiring because no one is home.

Or because kids hang out in abandoned houses and smoke (what, you never did that?)

[sarcasmic]

Or, you know, rodents get in there and chew the wiring because no one is home.

I would think the electricity and gas are turned off. Utility companies do that when people stop paying the bill.

Or because kids hang out in abandoned houses and smoke (what, you never did that?)

That's not a house burning down. Houses don't burn themselves down. That's kids burning a house down. And no, I was raised better than that.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Yeah dude, but the point is that abandoned houses are at a greater risk for accidents or misfeasance without it being related to some greater town plan to run out the girl and her family.

[sarcasmic]

accidents or misfeasance

That's better. At first you made it sound like they just, well, catch fire.

[mad libertarian guy]

That's one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Seriously. Stupid.

It may sound stupid, but ask your insurance company if they will insure an unoccupied house. Then ask them why not.

I had this problem when I was in between renting a second house (renting sucks, don't do it) and the time we sold it. They insured it for 6 months, then the policy expired (they let me know that this would happen beforehand). The reason? An empty house is a fire hazard and underwriters wouldn't touch it.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Thank you very much.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

2. Daisy Coleman's timeline makes no sense.

How so?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

1. Girls say they slipped out at 1 AM and met the boys outside of girls' home
2. Girls and guys drive back to guys' hangout, three miles away.
3. Coleman then proceeds to somehow drink so much she blacks out
4. The two sex acts happen
5. Everybody gets dressed
6. Coleman is dragged out to the car and driven home
7. Everyone agrees she was back home by 2 AM

So she drank so much and blacked out in what, 15 minutes?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

If her BAC was still .13 7 hours after it happened, I can see how she is a little fuzzy on the details.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Well the key part is the 13-year-old friend is not fuzzy on the details. This is her timeline.

[Byron]

They're teenagers. Steps 2-5 could each easily have taken mere minutes.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I would like to see the biology behind getting blackout drunk in mere moments.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

The two girls were drinking before they left too.

I understand your skepticism with the house burning down. But I am not sure why you question the rape in this case.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

(A) Because the girl can't testify to it
(B) because it could have been consensual
(C) If alcohol can obviate her consent, why can't it obviate his?
(D) A he said/she said story with no "she said" is going nowhere.

The two girls were drinking before they left too.

A fact that gets quickly glossed over in most stories.

I've seen this play before: Duke, Strauss-Kahn...

[sarcasmic]

If it wasn't for date rape I'd never get laid

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I would also point out that these two had been texting back and forth for what appeared to be weeks. I understand that right at the moment none of their previous history really matters, but the possibility exists that the girl got drunk so she could get up the bravery to lose her virginity (?) to the high school football star and has buyer's remorse.

[Hyperion]

Arguing that a teenage girl, who would most likely have a very, very low tolerance to alcohol, could not pass out from drinking in very short amount of time is a not a solid argument.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

The whole timeline is virtually impossible. It just is. They met up, drove 10 minutes, got wasted in record time, sexual acts occurred (that were allegedly filmed), they dragged a passed out girl to a vehicle, drove 10 minutes back, all in the course of an hour?

There is just no way. Have you ever tried to get a drunk or passed-out person to do anything like walk?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I don't think it takes 10 minutes to drive 3 miles.

That aside, this is a freshman high school cheerleader. Does she even weigh 80 pounds? She was most likely drunk before she left, so it probably didn't take much to get her to black out.

And yes, I think football players can easily move around an 80 pound passed out girl.

Why was she left outside then?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

So, according to the the story, the guys told the 13-year-old that they would watch over Daisy Coleman while she sobered up. And then they allegedly just dumped her.

The problem is that her stuff was found in a lot some distance from the home, but she made it to the porch. My guess is she threw a drunken fit about wanting to go home inside the car, and the guys said "fuck this, we'll let you out then"

That's equally as plausible. I've seen drunk people throw these fits many, many times over.

I don't think it takes 10 minutes to drive 3 miles.

Unless you're either out in the country or Point A to Point B is all highway, it probably does.

[Drake]

Sounds like a bad 80's movie. Did a lonely martial arts expert drift into town and become her white knight?

[sarcasmic]

I'm sure her story will become a Lifetime Movie Special at some point.

[flye]

First step is to talk to Mr. Lee at the laundromat. Ignore the obvious disguise.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Lawyers in the James Holmes Aurora theater shooting case are arguing over whether the two-hour delay in reading Holmes his Miranda rights falls under the public safety exception or not.

The Batman didn't have to worry about Miranda rights, why should the coppers?

[Drax the Destroyer]

I think I'd rather have some Batmen (Free, punch-centric justice distributions, with a mantra of non-lethality) running around than the current militarized cadre of sociopaths we mistakenly call police.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Seriously. How hard can it be for someone to train to be Batman! There are 340 million North Americans and you mean to tell me there's not ONE guy thinking of becoming a modern Bat-Man?

Where are you!?

/stares back at commenters. Bites apple.

[Atanarjuat]

Phoenix Jones.

/stares back

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's so cool.

The police call him a 'deeply misguided individual.'

Duh! Like, as if super heroes never faced obstacles from law enforcement!

[CE]

What do you think the police would call Batman?

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

You kinda need to be a billionaire to pull it off right.

[Art Vandelay]

Hey, when I reach 7th degree black belt, I'll start my Batman career.

Unfortunately, I'll be about 80 years old, so I'll have to fit crime fighting between naps and frequent trips to the bathroom.

[sarcasmic]

Down and out in Beverly Hills? Nick Nolte, 72, channels his homeless character in Eighties classic as he dons ripped tracksuit bottoms and a pair of slippers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....ppers.html

[sarcasmic]

How not to attract the ladies? Seduction 'expert' claims women just need to be led by a handshake that lasts waaay to long

Video by 'Attraction Methods' suggests holding on as long as possible
Also advises men to slide their hand out of the shake, stroking the woman
Website run by man called 'Magic' promises tips to help men date women
Offers online tutorials, kits, coaching and 3 day boot camps
Promises men they can 'end every date with sex'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....adies.html

[gaijin]

Promises men they can 'end every date with sex'

Masturbation is possible after every date, so I guess they are telling the truth.

[Swiss Servator, Zurichmania!]

Does STEVE SMITH work at their "boot camp"?

[anon]

Women I know consider the lingering handshake creepy, not sexy.

[CE]

And now you know why.

[sarcasmic]

Fury as billboard appears in small town showing Obama with a Hitler mustache

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....tache.html

[Mike M.]

I'm no fan, but the Hitler comparisons are WAY out of line. He's far more like Mao Tse Tung.

[JW]

He's far more like Mao Tse Tung.

Mussolini or Franco.

[PD Scott]

Peron.

[R C Dean]

I agree. Hitler was your top-shelf fascist. Obama is more bargain bin.

[BakedPenguin]

Now watch as proglodytes come out to proclaim this ad by former Democratic Party and American Labor Party nutjob Lyndon LaRouche as the work of those awful Tea Partiers.

[mad libertarian guy]

Now watch as proglodytes come out to proclaim this ad by former Democratic Party and American Labor Party nutjob Lyndon LaRouche as the work of those awful Tea Partiers.

It's a certainty. Everything is blamed on tea partiers, even when the actors involves are as establishmentarian as they get.

[Isaac Bartram]

Well remember that Lyndon LaRouche is a Libertarian.

One commenter at one of those Google items "remembers" when LaRouche ran for the Libertarian Party in "the 80s". Sounds like a typical voter to me; that is, if the typical voter has even heard of the LP.

The Lyndon LaRouche is a Libertarian myth started with an NBC news report in the late 80s or early 90s. NBC not only identified LR as a candidate of the LP but refused to retract the story when the error ws pointed out to them by the LP NatCom.

[Isaac Bartram]

should be:

The "Lyndon LaRouche is a Libertarian" myth started...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Heh.

He looks good in a moustache.

Suits him just fine.

[Lord Humungus]

It looks like a bank robber convention:

The Latest Chinese Beach Craze ? Face-kini

A new kind of swimwear trend is sweeping the Chinese beaches in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong province. As the weather get hotter, both men and women are seen appearing on the beaches wearing full body suits that cover from head to toe. The upper part of the swimsuit has a ski-mask with holes cut out at appropriate places to leave the eyes, nose and mouth exposed, giving the wearer an odd Lucha libre look. The Netizens are calling the swimwear "face-kinis"

The mask are a way for Chinese bathers to protect their skin from the sunburn, but it turns out that they are equally handy at repelling insects and jellyfish.

[Ted S.]

I'm surprised nobody her posted that in the last 14 months since it was first published. 🙂

[Bee Tagger]

the moose population is on a significant decline across North America and scientists aren't sure why.

With the moose population's stubborn refusal to properly pluralize things, how do they properly execute the insult "why don't you call all of your friend and tell them about it?"

[Rich]

I blame Boris Badenov.

[waffles]

A Shell gas station clerk was fired for using a gun to fend off a robber on the overnight shift; clerks are forbidden by store policy to carry guns.

I was slinging pizzas for Dominos one lazy summer aand they had the same policy. One crusty career pizza driver used to always carry with his firearm in the pizza bag such that when the customer opened the door they would have a gun pointed at them. Crazy.

I questioned the "no resistance" to robbers policy by asking what if they put me on my knees unzip their trousers and force me to...you know. The manager was not pleased and fortunately it never came to that.

This is stupid. People should never be forbidden to protect themselves.

[Jordan]

When I worked at Wal-Mart, one of my coworkers delivered pizza at night. Some guy ambushed him with a knife one night. Fortunately, he managed to fight the guy off and wasn't too badly injured. All for a fucking pizza.

[Mike M.]

Pizza delivery is one of the most dangerous jobs there is. Seriously.

[Marshall Gill]

When I worked for Dominoes I was once robbed by a guy with a gun for 2 pizzas and 4 cokes. I don't think he pointed the gun at me, just showed me a loaded cylinder and clicked it shut. Didn't even ask for money.

[Nephilium]

In case Boehner goes limp, there's already a primary challenger. I think there must be something in the water down there, since he appears to be orange as well...

[SugarFree]

Hurr Gurr!

[BakedPenguin]

I wonder how much he'll get in donations after Boehner pusses out.

[Spoonman.]

That guy could really use a better website.

[sarcasmic]

Just when you think things couldn't get any worse for Fukishima: Firm unveils new mascot called 'Fukuppy'

Fukushima Industries apologised for 'worrying' customers with the name
The bizarre egg-shaped character became an unlikely internet star

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-firm.html

Yeah. You fuckuppied real good.

[Ted S.]

The bizarre egg-shaped character

So that's what happened to the Tamagotchi.

[sarcasmic]

Oh owl! Family discover perfect outline of bird on downstairs window after it flew into glass

Mother-of-two feared for owl's life when she discovered the imprint
But was reassured when she searched her garden
RSPB said it was likely caused by waterproofing residue found on feathers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....glass.html

[anon]

Obviously a slow news day over there.

[R C Dean]

I get those all the time. Hell, I've got a bird's faceplantprint on my kitchen window right now.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama plans immigration push after fiscal crisis ends

"Once that's done, you know, the day after, I'm going to be pushing to say, call a vote on immigration reform," he told the Los Angeles affiliate of Spanish-language television network Univision.

The president's domestic agenda has been sidetracked in his second term by one problem after another. As he coped with the revelation of domestic surveillance programs, chemical weapons in Syria, and a fiscal battle that has shut down the U.S. government and threatens a debt default, immigration has been relegated to the back burner.

[Drax the Destroyer]

"ends" = "is swept under the rug."

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

"Now that I've been saved by other countries foreign leadership, and swept our out-of-control spending problems under the rug, I can continue the distraction from The Worst Legislative Blunder of Our Time (tm) with immigration reform that will surely help nobody and result in nothing being accomplished because the bitter clingers wouldn't compromise." - THE POTUS

[Bardas Phocas]

They're just not mult-taskers at the Obama whitehouse. He should also go for the kill on gun control. The Republicans look weak.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Why does a person purported to be such a great orator say "you know" a lot?

Never mind the 'uhs' and annoying pauses.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

A bunch of people jerking themselves off about how tasteful they all all discussing the fine brocade on the emperor's new clothes.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

they all are

[sarcasmic]

Supremacist family who wanted to found whites-only nation is arrested on Arizona compound with massive weapons cache

Kirby Kehoe and his son Cheyne were arrested by ATF agents at their 40-acre Arizona ranch
Both men are convicted felons and were illegally in possession of dozens of weapons

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ested.html

[Swiss Servator, Zurichmania!]

So, no more comments from "American"?

[Steve G]

I love seeing LE's DoD gear-envy. I mean, multicam, really??? Even in the military, it's only been around a couple yrs. Did they need to trade whatever utility uniforms they had previously in for multicam? Is camoflage/stealth an important factor in raids?

[JW]

I mean, multicam, really???

LEELOO DALLAS MULTIPASS

[Steve G]

+1 supreme being

[Steve G]

+1 supreme being

[Palin's Buttplug]

Warren Buffett said Wednesday the threat to not raise the nation's debt limit "after you've already spent the money" is a "political weapon of mass destruction" comparable to poison gas and shouldn't be used by either party.

"I know it's been used in the past, but we used the atomic bomb back in 1945 but we decided we weren't going to do something like that again," he said hours before the government's midnight deadline to raise the debt limit or possibly default.

Buffett called on both sides to pledge not to use the debt limit as a weapon. "There are plenty of weapons that can be used," like filibusters, he said.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101115408

CNBC had three hours with the Oracle this morning. They also brought Sarah Blakely on (another self-made billionaire liberal). Conservative host Joe Kernan was twitching and jerking the whole time.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Hey Warren, you can always donate you fortune to your benevolent public servants. It should keep the entire duct-taped rusted machine running for another 45 minutes.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Warren has said many times that the government wastes too much money so that won't happen.

Looking at 2001-09 I have to agree with him.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Yeah 2009-2013 have been lessons in responsible government spending haven't they plug?

[Root Boy]

He also said the debt limit fight had no impact on his business decisions and shouldn't affect anybody elses.

Funny how they didn't print that. Saw him say it live this morning.

[Hillary's Clitdong]

They also brought Sarah Blakely on (another self-made billionaire liberal).

And obviously the final authority on government borrowing is an enormously successful Panty Baroness.

[Restoras]

Dave's not here, man.

[DJF]

""""threat to not raise the nation's debt limit "after you've already spent the money"""

But that is the point in not raising the debt limit, they have not yet spent the money and can't spend the money until they raise the debt limit.

[R C Dean]

They haven't spent the money, because they haven't borrowed it yet.

What they've done is promised to spend the money, but saying "the threat to not raise the nation's debt limit "after you've already spent promised to spend the money" is a "political weapon of mass destruction" just sounds stupid.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Warren Buffett said Wednesday the threat to not raise the nation's debt limit "after you've already spent the money"

Talk about disingenuous. The House doesn't need to commit money if we're at the debt limit. That's kind of the whole point. This is related to President Cornball admonishing the House to "pay its bills" while overseeing a bloated executive branch.

The answer, as always, is "No, fuck you, cut spending."

[Bill Dalasio]

So, the bottom line is that a billionaire with connections to the administration thinks the opposition should go along with what the administration wants.

And this is supposed to be persuasive how?

[CE]

Hey, that didn't stop the Air Force from dropping one on North Carolina.

[Rich]

Frying eggheads on a hot stove

"It's his whole way of presentation of self ? of a little self-deprecation in the argument and picking out a nuance here, which is all the ways that we overeducated people have been socialized in the same way. It's the way we carry on discourse. Along with [seeing] what was a very engaging personality, I kind of ignored things which ? a lot of working-class people glommed onto right away."

Piled higher and Deeper.

[gaijin]

that we overeducated people

I despise this linguistic technique. The royal 'we'. President Zero does this all the time when he reminds us about 'Rich people, like me,..."

[Lord Humungus]

Daniel Yergin: Why OPEC No Longer Calls the Shots
The oil embargo 40 years ago spurred an energy revolution. World production is 50% higher today than in 1973.

A lasting lesson of the crisis years is the power of markets and their ability to adjust to disruptions, if government allows them to. The iconic images of the 1970s?gas lines and angry motorists?are trotted out whenever some new disruption happens. Yet those gas lines weren't the result of markets. They were the largely self-inflicted result of government interference in markets with price controls and supply allocation. Today, the oil market is much more transparent owing to the development of futures markets.

The 1970s were also years of natural-gas shortages, which turned into a bitter political issue, particularly within the Democratic Party. Many at the time attributed these shortages to geology, but they too were the result of regulation and price controls. What solved the shortages wasn't more controls but their elimination, which resulted in an oversupply that became known as the "gas bubble." Today, abundant natural gas is the default fuel for new electricity generation. The lesson is that markets and price signals can work very efficiently, and surprisingly swiftly, even in crises, if they are allowed to.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Thank our most libertarian POTUS since Coolidge, Jimmy Carter, for his vast deregulatory emphasis.

Mises called him the "real architect of our current prosperity" in 2000.

http://mises.org/daily/535

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I thank Carter for setting back the nuclear industry decades with his moronic moratorium on reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.

[Isaac Bartram]

I'm not exactly sure how Ludwig von Mises could have called Carter the "real architect of our current prosperity" in 2000 considering that he died in 1973.

You really are a fucking asshole.

[CatoTheElder]

PB is an ass, and his Mises comment is ambiguous, but he's right about deregulation during the Carter Administration.

Carter's oil policies were indeed absurd (old oil/new oil, etc), but his administration did deregulate natural gas. And his administration did deregulate the airline industry and the trucking industry. Republicans like to talk about deregulation, but Democrat administrations actually do it. For example, Clinton got key provisions of Glass-Steagall repealed.

Carter's economic record as president was dismal, but you've got to give him credit for his deregulation record, for appointing Volcker to the Fed, and for avoiding hot war (aka kinetic military activity) better than in president in the last seventy years.

[Lord Humungus]

Take a trip through the Milky Way with this brilliant interactive map

Hey, who here wants to feel utterly insignificant? If that's you, then you'll love this interactive map showing you the location of 119,617 nearby stars.

It's called 100,000 Stars and it was compiled by Michael Chang and the Data Arts Team at Google's Chrome Experiments lab. Using the map, you can zoom right in to our solar system, and then pull back through our local star system, and then all the way outside the Milky Way for a spectacular view. The map also has an interactive tour to get you started.

via i09

[Drax the Destroyer]

i09's worship of Science-Statist Neil deGrasse Tyson has soured my opinion of the site. But what I should I expect from a sister-site of Jezebel?

[SugarFree]

Tyson soured you on io9? It took you that long?

[Drax the Destroyer]

You do have a point Splenda. I hated them long before they fan-wanked Tyson.

[Brett L]

Some people think reading sloppy blowjobs to Dr. Who every day are interesting. I mean, that's what turned me off it several years ago. I have no idea if they are still doing that. But I'll guess yes.

[SugarFree]

Yes. And desperately trying to inject Gawker politics and Jezebel nonsense into everything. And looking for the next big left-handed lesbian transgendered handicapped Eskimo writer of thoroughly mediocre "science fiction" to overpraise. Because it's not what you write, but who you are that matters.

[Brett L]

Because it's not what you write, but who you are that matters.

John Scalzi has bought into this theory 100%. He used to be fun, now he's just another moralistic scold, mailing it in.

[SugarFree]

Speaking as a failed writer... they should never have a blog. It is a huge timesuck and distraction. The whole internet is bad enough, but that immediate feedback for your off-the-cuff mutterings is writer crack. Then you start banning people who annoy you and you are left with an echo chamber of egostroke and another wasted day of not writing. And then another, and then another...

[Marshall Gill]

Speaking as a failed writer

Failed? You mean you didn't intend to horrify and disgust? From what I have read you are very successful, if not commercially so.

[SugarFree]

Failed in the sense that I'm not what I set out to be. My self-published erotic memoirs might bring me some measure of posthumous fame, but I won't be around to enjoy it.

[The DerpRider]

So, when are you finishing Winds of Winter?

[SugarFree]

So, when are you finishing Winds of Winter?

After I complete my collection of horrible-looking hats. Only 238 to go. Damn you, eBay!

[JW]

He used to be fun, now he's just another moralistic scold, mailing it in.

Pretty much this. He's an OK writer, but not one good enough to get over my distaste for his supreme douchebag proglodyte persona.

I know that Stross is a full on socialist, but he doesn't seem to open his big, stupid yap about things having nothing to do with his craft at anywhere near the rate that Scalzi does.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I try not to let my politics interfere with my science love, otherwise I'd never read anything but this site.

[Zeb]

I usually ignore the politics of hard scientists. I figure, they probably haven't put too much effort into thinking about that stuff as they have better things to think about.

[mad libertarian guy]

I usually ignore the politics of hard scientists. I figure, they probably haven't put too much effort into thinking about that stuff as they have better things to think about.

Even if they did it wouldn't matter. They are still scientists. What they have to say about anything outside their specialty is as meaningless as anyone else's ramblings. That is the big flaw of academics: they think that a Ph D in Art History makes them better able to speak about public policy because the are "smart."

[anon]

Hey, who here wants to feel utterly insignificant?

I'm a libertarian. I don't just feel utterly insignificant, I am utterly insignificant.

[Lord Humungus]

Americans' interest in hemorrhoids has skyrocketed

The number of Americans searching online for information on hemorrhoids and how to treat them seems to have skyrocketed since 2008.

Data gathered from Google searches show that interest in the term "hemorrhoids" more than doubled between 2008 and 2013, according to a LiveScience analysis using Google Trends, a tool that shows how often a particular search term is entered in the search engine, relative to the total search volume in a specific country.

I blame shreeek.

[Drax the Destroyer]

They took their money out of housing in 2008 and put it into the safest market known to man: hemorrhoid treatment.

[Ted S.]

Our politicians have always been pains in the ass.

[gaijin]

I suspect anything correlated to aging will show an increase in google searches. Now that google is old hat for old people.

[Steve G]

http://www.squattypotty.com/ !!

[Zeb]

I heard something earlier this year about moose having an unusually high number of ticks on them (like 30,000), which may be part of why the population is declining. I also wonder if there is some prion disease like so many whitetail deer have that is affecting moose.

[gaijin]

Sounds like the start to a promising federal research grant proposal!

[DJF]

I am going to go into debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars so I can count ticks on moose and get a doctorate!!!

[Lord Humungus]

The Wannabe Oppressed

What do America's college students want? They want to be oppressed. More precisely, a surprising number of students at America's finest colleges and universities wish to appear as victims ? to themselves, as well as to others ? without the discomfort of actually experiencing victimization. Here is where global warming comes in. The secret appeal of campus climate activism lies in its ability to turn otherwise happy, healthy, and prosperous young people into an oppressed class, at least in their own imaginings. Climate activists say to the world, "I'll save you." Yet deep down they're thinking, "Oppress me."

In his important new book, The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse: Save the Earth, Punish Human Beings, French intellectual gadfly Pascal Bruckner does the most thorough job yet of explaining the climate movement as a secular religion, an odd combination of deformed Christianity and reconstructed Marxism.

[Drax the Destroyer]

...French intellectual gadfly...

My new, shitty, Avant-garde rock band has just been named.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sounds like Quebec. It's good business to play the victim. You get all sorts of stuff when you stick a knife at someone's throat demanding 'justice' and restitution.

The student protests that garnered so much (unnecessary in my view) attention was basically attended by self-entitled hamballs.

[Lady Bertrum]

The desire to be of the Oppressed Class? goes way beyond global warming (err, I mean climate change).

Look at ads and you'll see women of every color and men who are obviously of color or gay, but you won't see white men(unless they're riding a bicycle and wearing a scarf. This is code for "right thinking" men). Aspirational means "I want to be".

Everyone wants an existential life purpose - a life with meaning. And human being can be incredibly retrospective. The last century was all about freeing oppressed classes (yeah!). But now it's all about nostalgia or envy. (I wish I was a member of an oppressed class like the little girl in Afghanistan trying to learn to read or like blacks during Jim Crow). Then my life would mean something. That's why the U.S. is now just an advertisement for the United Colors of Benetton.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Bingo. It's an extension of what you wear defining who you are. It's all signaling and bullshit.

[Butts Wagner]

As Dizzee Rascal once said, "Everybody wanna be ghetto, but nobody wanna be poor, all you follow fashion dummies ain't eating no more"

[Lord Humungus]

Toilet bowls galore: Magic Restroom Cafe opens in city of Industry

YoYo Li is a first-time restaurateur from China who was debating between opening a boba shop and a toilet-centric restaurant. She settled on the restroom theme after witnessing its success in parts of China and Taiwan.

[BardMetal]

Sometimes I just don't understand other cultures.

[Lord Humungus]

What Do Cats See?

We spend a lot of time looking at cat videos, cat photos, all things cat. But what do cats see when they look at us and the world around them?

The photos below hypothesize what human and cat vision looks like. Human vision is up top and cat vision is below.

[Ted S.]

But what do cats see when they look at us

They see gullible fools who will wait on them hand and foot.

[Steve G]

But wut does the fox see?!?

[SugarFree]

That song came on a Trader Joe's and when it it got to the "chorus" I wondered out-loud what that horrible noise was... My wife, dead serious, said "Be nice, I think a couple of slow kids are screaming the back of the store. Their poor parents probably have their hands full."

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Awesome.

[mad libertarian guy]

That's what you get for going to Trader Joes.

[JW]

I can hate that song in 3 notes.

[Brett L]

So, I have a question on the Senate budget deal. By my estimation, hindcasting to October 1, the $986B to January 15 is $3.36T annually. Is this more or less than the CR offered before?

[Brett L]

Ender's name worth $180M.

Andrew Wiggins has not yet played in a collegiate or professional basketball game. But somebody is already valuing the Kansas freshman as (at least) a $140 million product pitch man.

[robc]

He really should be spending this year in Europe instead of Lawrence.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

That's not even the right name.

[Brett L]

Minnesota man has terrible lawyer.

Tofstad told investigators that he had had a few drinks the previous night, and officers found suspected marijuana debris and four unopened beers in his car. The drinking age in Minnesota is 21.

In exchange for Tofstad's guilty plea to vehicular manslaughter, prosecutors dropped other charges of careless driving and underage DUI. As part of the agreement, Tofstad will be on probation for 10 years, during which he will have to check into jail over the weekend closest to the anniversary of Brendel's death.

[Lord Humungus]

Delaware Celebrates: First Person Finally Enrolls in Obamacare

"Department of Health and Social Service officials have declared 59-year-old Janice Baker of Selbyville the first confirmed resident to enroll in the marketplace. It opened Oct. 1 as part of the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act.

Baker said Tuesday that she started looking on Oct. 1 and, like many people, made several frustrated attempts to signup online and spent hours on the phone. But Baker says she had success once she cleared the browsing history, cookies and other temporary data on her computer.

[Swiss Servator, Zurichmania!]

SEE! IT WORKS!!!

/prog

[Rich]

Janice should be rewarded with free healthcare for life!

[Drax the Destroyer]

No, she should be awarded with free INSURANCE that (maybe?) pays for sub-par, over-regulated, and limited healthcare for the rest of her life.

[Rich]

Oh. Ohhhhhhhhh!

/Edith Bunker

[Ted S.]

I had to hover over the link to see whether this was a story from the Onion or not.

[The Late P Brooks]

A Shell gas station clerk was fired for using a gun to fend off a robber on the overnight shift; clerks are forbidden by store policy to carry guns.

Still a win for the clerk. Maybe he'll get an offer from somebody else.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Lawyer defending affirmative action in the Supreme Court:

"MS. DRIVER: We ask this Court to...bring the 14th Amendment back to its original purpose and meaning, which is to protect minority rights against a white majority, which did not occur in this case....

"JUSTICE SCALIA: Do you have any case of ours that propounds that view of the 14th Amendment, that it protects only minorities? Any case?

"MS. DRIVER: No case of yours."

http://joshblackman.com/blog/2.....r-couldnt/

[John]

So I guess white America is not entitled to equal protection under the law. Think about the full implications of what he is saying here. If the 14th Amendment doesn't protect Whites, that means none of the BOR provisions that have been incorporated into it protect Whites in regards to state action either. So, by his logic, a state could abolish the right to a jury trial or the right to free speech as long as they did it to benefit minorities and the rule only applied to whites.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Scalia implied that the 14th Amendment was written just for "the blacks" in an incredibly racist veil drop.

[Restoras]

Dave's not here, man.

[John]

No retard, the plaintiff's attorney did.

MS. DRIVER: We ask this Court to...bring the 14th Amendment back to its original purpose and meaning, which is to protect minority rights against a white majority, which did not occur in this case....

You lie and put the talking points out later. Not directly below the quote that disproves it. Jesus you are fucking incompetent griefer. My God, you are the most retarded troll in the history of the interwebs.

[tarran]

John,

This is getting irritating...

As long as you abuse it, it will keep coming back. It's the Internet equivalent of the crazy alcohol-soaked homeless guy screaming at a wall. And when you call it names it loves it because now the wall is screaming back.

I hate to see all the man-hours wasted on hammering out abuse for it's benefit. Frankly, I find the abuse unpleasant to read as well.

By acknowledging it's existence, you are wasting your time and making the site less pleasant.

It's not just you, obviously... lot's of people react to it. But I ask you just to let it go.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said the post-Civil War 14th Amendment protects everyone ? not "only the blacks" ? during a racially charged debate on affirmative action Tuesday.

http://nypost.com/2013/10/15/s.....he-blacks/

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

Oh, so rather than implying that it was "only for the blacks," as you said, he stated the opposite outright.

I guess it's true from a certain point of view.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

There is a large section of the populace that would have no problem with that.

[John]

Yes. Last I looked a lot of people voted Democrat.

[anon]

So I guess white America is not entitled to equal protection under the law.

Fuck John, it took you this long to realize that?

[John]

I thought that Cruz filibustered funding Obamacare because he thinks it will be a disaster and was trying to save the country from it. Instead, it is that he thinks it is going to be popular and thus will never be undone. Learning that makes me think a lot less of Cruz. First of all, if Obamacare actually is popular with the country, I am not sure you can make the argument it is so bad. Second, how in the world can Cruz think something this badly designed is ever going to be popular? It seems very odd to me to object to something because you think the people will like it and not want to get rid of it. Sure if you are talking about a straight up transfer payment. Then there is the moral hazard issue. But Obamacare doesn't seem to be benefiting many people at all and hurting a lot more.

[Brett L]

You posted this under your John account, not your shrike account.

[Restoras]

I would have guessed his Tony account. The only way he could be Shriek! is if he somehow OD's on PCP while still managing to control his other personality...I think this is medically impossible.

[Brett L]

There was an MNG in the comments yesterday. Maybe John's bringing MNG back.

John, I'm just joking with you, but I don't think Obamacare has ever cracked 50% popularity.

[John]

I think Obamacare is going to be a complete disaster and is going to discredit liberals and big government for a generation or more. For the reasons I have described many times on here, Obamcare is finally a liberal program that really sticks it to the country in a way that not even the lying media will be able to hide. 54% of the country voted to re-elect the village idiot. They really can't complain when said idiot now gets to implement his "signature achievement". At this point, the Republicans should just make absolutely sure Obama and the Dems own that achievement.

[Marshall Gill]

I would suggest you look at the British or Canadian systems. I wish it would discredit big government but I don't see any evidence that it has done so elsewhere.

[John]

Those systems are much older than ours. What people forget about the British system is that most people in Britain didn't have access to healthcare before the enacting of the NHS. So, it didn't matter how lousy the NHS was, it was better for most people than what they had.

The US now is totally different than post war UK. Most people do have access to good health care and the large majority of people were happy with both their insurance and their healthcare pre Obama. The moldy bread the party provides is not very appealing if the people getting it are used to the cake that the market provides.

To believe Obamacare is going to be popular, you have to believe that the middle class in this country are going to happily accept a real and significant cut in their standard of living an quality of health care. If you believe that, then you really believe the middle class is utterly stupid. I don't think they are. But if I did, I would give up anyway because if they are that stupid nothing is going to save them.

[CatoTheElder]

You're right that ObamaCare is going to be a complete disaster.

But the progressives' propaganda ministry (aka the MSM) will see to it that the hoi polloi think that the blame is due to ObamaCare's reliance upon "free markets".

The purpose of ObamaCare is bring about either single payer or socialized medicine.

[Drake]

Why can't it be both? Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are popular disasters.

[John]

Sure they are. And they are both essentially welfare programs. So I can see objecting there. But Obamacare isn't really a welfare program. I can't see the moral hazard going here. What I see is an incredibly fucked up piece of regulation. I think people like Cruz and others on the right who believe this piece of idiocy is ever going to be popular are deeply misinformed.

The only way Obamacare is ever going to be repealed is to let the public get what Obama wants for them good and hard. This thing is going to harm a lot more people than it will benefit. If those harmed by it are not willing to hold the people who enacted it accountable, then neither Ted Cruz nor I or anyone else can save them from themselves.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Obamacare will never, ever be repealed. Not unless there's a full scale rebellion as a result of premiums increasing.

You're stuck with it. Good luck, good-bye Bobby Jean.

Welcome to my world: Splendid mediocrity.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Nice Boss quote.

[robc]

But Obamacare isn't really a welfare program.

Sure it is. The subsidies are straight up transfer payments.

[John]

But very few people are eligible for the subsidies. And many many more people are directly made worse off by the act. You guys think this is going to be like every other welfare program. And you are dead wrong in that. Other welfare programs are popular because the costs are hidden and everyone thinks someone else is paying for them. Obamacare is not like that. Everyone knows they are paying for it. And no one is going to give a shit about those transfer recipients or the poor people with pre existing conditions. It is all great when you think someone else is paying for it. But not when you personally are.

You guys all think that you are apparently the only people in America with an IQ above 100. That the entire middle class is apparently too stupid to notice that their insurance rates are going to go up and if they do will just blame it on the insurance companies instead of Obamacare. I don't people are that stupid or that I or any of you guys are that fucking bright. If we know this, the rest of the country will know it too.

This is not SS or medicare. Those programs benefit the middle class. This program screws the middle class in an an obvious and attributable way. The political ramifications are thus going to be entirely different.

[Restoras]

You guys all think that you are apparently the only people in America with an IQ above 100

That is some quality derp right there.

[John]

Really? How do you think differently? Why do you think Obamacare is going to be popular? I say it will be unpopular because millions of middle class voters are going to lose their health insurance or see their premiums go through the roof.

Why is that not going to happen? Is is that you think those middle class people will be too stupid to understand what is screwing them? If so, aren't you saying they are all stupid? How could any intelligent person not see what a disaster this is?

[robc]

Where did I say I thought it would be popular?

Never have I said that. It is unpopular now, its going to get more unpopular in the future.

[John]

Rob,

If you admit it is unpopular, then why do you think it will never be repealed? And if it turns out to be unpopular, then why not let it get funded, provided you can hang the blame around the Dems necks?

[robc]

why do you think it will never be repealed?

Ive never said that.

then why not let it get funded, provided you can hang the blame around the Dems necks?

Because I dont care about blaming Dems. Thats a team action. I dont want it implemented for a single day, because every day its implemented its hurting people.

Im pissed at the House GOP for not going balls out in 2011 and attaching repeal to every fucking bill so we never got to this fucking point.

Im not willing to wait thru another election cycle. I want it dead now or preferably sooner.

[John]

Where did I say I thought it would be popular?

I wasn't talking to you. I was responding to Restoras. Calm down. If you are going to be pissed off, please be pissed about the posts that are actually addressed to you.

[robc]

I wasn't talking to you.

Your 9:49 post was in response to me. You were talking DIRECTLY to me.

Liar.

[John]

I wasn't responding to you when I wrote the quote you gave. I never said you said it was unpopular. I was restorus. And you came in here and started screaming. I still can't tell what you think. Everytime I think I know what your position is and point out why I think it is wrong, you come back and scream about how you don't really think that.

Maybe you would have an easier time on here and not be so angry if you would bother to pick a position and explain it rather than just screaming about how you didn't mean this or that.

[CatoTheElder]

The problem is that intelligence does not prevent people from believing bullshit.

I'm not even convinced that intelligence makes much difference at all after years of indoctrination in government schools and constant exposure to MSM.

[robc]

You guys think this is going to be like every other welfare program.

Will you shut the fuck up about telling me what I think?

You have been 100% wrong thruout history when trying that bullshit.

JUST FUCKING STOP IT.

[robc]

My entire post was: Obamacare is a welfare program. That is it. No other implications of comments.

And you go off on some rant about me comparing it to other welfare programs and blah blah blah, which i have NEVER done.

Go fuck yourself, John, until you learn how to fucking read and can post politely without lying about others' positions.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Go fuck yourself, John, until you learn how to fucking read and can post politely without lying about others' positions.

See also: The Heat Death of the Universe

[John]

So what if it is a welfare program Rob? If Obamacare is not like the other welfare programs, then the political lessons from those previous welfare programs don't apply here. The point of saying it is a welfare program is to say that because it is a welfare program it will be popular and never get repealed just like every other welfare program. Well, that is true, except that Obamacare is not like those other welfare programs for the reasons I say an thus the political fallout is not going to be the same.

[robc]

The point of saying it is a welfare program is to say that because it is a welfare program it will be popular and never get repealed just like every other welfare program.

FALSE. The point of saying it is a welfare program is because it is a welfare program.

[Restoras]

Go fuck yourself, John, until you learn how to fucking read and can post politely without lying about others' positions.

Thanks bro. This is what I wanted to say but for some stupid reason I thought being polite was the better way to go. My bad.

[robc]

Thanks bro. This is what I wanted to say but for some stupid reason I thought being polite was the better way to go. My bad.

And notice that John limps away instead of admitting to being a fucking tool.

[John]

I haven't limped away at all. And if anyone is a tool here, it is you Rob. I have had the same position this entire thread; that Obamacare is going to screw the middle class and that it, unlike every other big liberal program, will eventually get repealed as a result.

You are the one who is screaming at me and constantly claiming this or that is not your position but never explaining what your position actually is.

[robc]

never explaining what your position actually is.

I explained my position clearly in my 9:44 post.

[Restoras]

And notice that John limps away instead of admitting to being a fucking tool.

Yesh, it's almost like he's no better than a liberal.

[John]

Tell me why I am wrong Rob? Is it not the case that Obamacare is negatively affecting a huge number of people?

What is your position? Is it that Obamacare won't make things worse for a lot of people? If it is that, then maybe it isn't such a bad program. If it is not that and does make things a lot worse (which I think it does), explain to me why people won't be really angry about that and hate program and want it ended?

It seems to me that you either have to admit that the program won't cause much harm or that it will cause harm but that people will be too stupid or uninformed to realize what is causing the harm and thus won't hold Dems accountable for it.

If your position is that it is going to be popular, then explain why you think that is. I don't see how a program that makes so many people's lives so demonstrably worse is ever going to be popular.

[robc]

What is your position?

My position, in my 9:44 AM post is that Obamacare is a welfare program due to the subsidy component (and other reasons to, but that is enough to prove my point).

That is my entire position that you responded to.

If your position is that it is going to be popular

See my 10:05 post.

[John]

So you say it is a welfare program? So what? That doesn't mean it can't be ended does it? My point is not that it can't be considered a welfare program, it is that it is totally different than any other welfare program in that with Obamcare the people who are paying for it actually realize they are paying for it. Do you not think that is true? Do you have a position beyond the observation that it is a welfare program?

[robc]

So what?

You said it wasnt a welfare program. I said it was.

That is the entire fucking what! WHY THE FUCK DONT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT I HAVE NO POINT BEYOND THAT!

HAVE YOU NOT SEEN MY POSTING HISTORY? I LIKE PROVING YOU WRONG.

[robc]

Do you have a position beyond the observation that it is a welfare program?

NO!!!!

You fucking moron. If I had had a position beyond that, I would have fucking typed it in the box and hit submit, you fucking tool.

[robc]

Tell me why I am wrong Rob?

You are wrong because you said it wasnt a welfare program.

You are wrong because you inferred a position that I never implied.

You are wrong because you read way more into my post than was there.

You were wrong multiple times simultaneously. And you do it repeatedly.

[John]

Then you really don't disagree with me Rob. I don't think it is a welfare program because it does so many more things than just give out money. But that is semantics. Call it what you like. My point is more that it can and will end someday if it in fact turns out to be as big of a disaster as it appears it will be. If you don't disagree with that, than you really don't disagree with me.

[robc]

Then you really don't disagree with me Rob

I disagreed with you about 100% of the things I posted about in my 10:44 post.

[robc]

9:44.

[John]

I disagreed with you about 100% of the things I posted about in my 10:44 post.

Then please do us both a favor and explain what that is. I can't figure out what your position is. I really can't. Just tell me in a couple of sentence beyond "it is a welfare program" what exactly I am saying that you think is wrong.

[robc]

"It is a welfare program" is my entire position in this subthread.

Is that so fucking hard to understand?

Some of us are simple folk with simple straight forward positions.

[Invisible Finger]

Then you really don't disagree with me Rob.

OMG!!! John's turned into a progtard!!!

[wareagle]

and the middle class that sees itself being screwed is going to do what? There will never be enough votes to repeal O-care, absent GOP supermajorities in Congress, Repub POTUS, and maybe not even then.

Getting rid of a govt program, especially a big one, is monumentally difficult. Rational people know that neitehr SS nor Medicare is sustainable and O-care dwarfs both. Cruz could have used better wording but he's on the right track.

[John]

Wareagle,

You assume that no Democrat will ever vote to repeal it. I think that is a bad assumption. If Democrats actually lose elections because of this, the ones who are not from safe seats will decide real quick to get rid of it. Their own supporters are going to demand an end to it. You really think the union members who practically fund the Democratic party are going to be okay with losing their cushy health insurance because we "can't undo the black Jesus' signature achievement"? I don't. Nor do I think all of the upper middle class liberal gentry are going to quietly take it in the ass for the sake of the poor and the uninsured. The Democrats own constituents are going to turn on this thing. And when that happens, the GOP won't need a super majority to repeal it.

[robc]

If Democrats actually lose elections because of this

The election of 2010.

the ones who are not from safe seats will decide real quick to get rid of it.

I dont think after 2010 that there are many left that arent in safe seats.

[John]

Losing the House is only a third of government Rob. And Obamacare wasn't in effect in 2010. So the only people who were angry were conservatives. The liberal base were all thinking it was going to be great. Now that it is coming into effect and the entire middle class, conservative and liberal alike, are taking it up the ass, things are going to be a bit different.

The bottom line is what do you think the middle class is going to do. Do you think that all of the good Dem voting union members and middle class gentry are going to happily pay huge premiums for lousy coverage in the name of preserving Obamacare, or are they going to go through the roof and demand it be changed. I say they are going to do the latter. If you think the former, I would like to hear why.

[robc]

Losing the House is only a third of government Rob.

1/6.

It is 1/2 of 1/3.

[robc]

I think a lot of establishment GOPers are going to get replaced with Tea Partiers.

Some D's may lose some seats too, but the other effect will be a bigger deal.

[John]

The bottom line rob is how angry are people going to be about this. If they are angry enough, it will get repealed. The Dems will repeal it if that is what they think they have to do to stay in office.

Time will tell. Maybe the Democrats will be able to tell all of their middle class and union supporters to suck it up and give their health care in order to preserve Obama's great achievement. If they can, then yeah it will just go on and on. But if that is the case, I am pretty ambivalent about repealing it anyway. If those people want to screw themselves for their cause, what are you going to do?

[Biden's Scroteplugs]

if obamacare was popular the free shit army would hit it like a walmart with an ebt glitch. but even morons can recognize a shitty deal.

[Biden's Scroteplugs]

cash payments are popular. coupons for 90% off of a product that isn't worth 10% of the price are not popular.

[John]

Exactly Biden. And the other thing is that Social Security and Medicare are middle class entitlements. The middle class makes off like bandits from those programs. Given that, it is no surprise they are popular. Obamcare is not a middle class entitlement. It directly targets the middle class and makes them less well off. That is not going to be popular.

[wareagle]

john,
I think you are overestimating the willingness of reliable Dem constituencies, like unions, to turn anger into action and vote against their benefactors. I just don't see it.

The reason is this - you are looking at the issue rationally, how it affects you rather than with partisan interest. They look at Team first, Team always, Team only. Team has a way of fostering derpitude.

[John]

The difference wareagle is that you think people are stupid. I don't. I think people like to play team politics provided doing so doesn't cost them anything or benefits them. The moment they have to pay and things get worse for them, their attitude will change. Ultimately people are self interested and mostly rational.

[Restoras]

Funny, I don't see anything in wareagle's post about him thinking people are stupid.

To me he is implying that people in power care only about remaining in power and will hang onto it tooth an nail. I read his comment about reliable Dem constituencies as a prediction that said constituencies will throw all thier political weight in with the Dem congressmen so that those constituencies will remain well connected in Congress. In addition, those same constituencies will use whatever tactics at thier disposal to ensure that outcome.

You are correct to observe that people are self interested. However, your assertion that they are also rational is not born out by history, unless you imply that they rationalize their self-interest and behave in that manner.

[John]

Restoras,

What is the point of holding Congress if doing so fucks you anyway? Sure they want to stay connected. But they want that so they can get benefits.

In the end, you guys are arguing that people are going to support a program that makes their lives worse. I am sorry I don't believe that. I think your thinking that is a just you wanting to believe you are smarter than most people. No, we really aren't. We just pay a bit more attention. But the rest of the world is just as smart as we are. And they are not going to mindlessly accept something that makes their lives so much worse. They will demand it be changed and elect politicians who will do so.

The arrogance and the elitism on this site makes me want to vomit. I am so tired of listening to lectures about how most Americans are ignorant sheep will think any way or do anything the media tells them. No they are not. And they are not going to take this. If you think they will, then you have faith in them. And if you have no faith in the common sense and decency of the public, why do you believe in freedom? If they are all that dumb, maybe they do need to be managed by top men.

[Restoras]

John,

I beleive that what we are arguing is that once a welfare/transfer payment program is in place and entrenched it is virtually impossible to eliminate it.

When you speak of "people" you seem to be implying that the voting populace will rise up and demand repeal of this. That may be so, but that does not mean that constituencies of the Democratic Party that matter will go along with that. People in power wish to stay in power and they stay in power by placating thier constituencies! Why is that so hard for you to grasp?

And they are not going to mindlessly accept something that makes their lives so much worse

Really? Are you going to tell me whole populaces have never once in the history of man have never been duped into making their lives worse, and then lain there and taken it for generations?

You say this...

I am so tired of listening to lectures about how most Americans are ignorant sheep will think any way or do anything the media tells them

...and then say this...

We just pay a bit more attention

which I take to mean that people here are more informed.

Being less informed doesn't make you less smart. And just because you are smart doesn't mean you are incapable of not going along with the crowd.

[Restoras]

Perhaps you are right, when the reality that is Obamacare sinks in there will be a massive uprising against it and it will be completely repealed. I just wouldn't bet on that outcome.

You know who else was skeptical of the crowd? The Framers. That's why they created the Constitution the way they did. Becasue they knew that if Freedoms weren't guaranteed, and government not specifically limited, then we would indeed end up with a Tyranny of Top Men.

And finally, Jesus H. Christ what the fuck is with you and this obsession that I THINK I AM SMARTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE?

[wareagle]

it's not stupid, it's beholden to and driven by nothing but team. I see it every day. People are able to rationalize damn near anything on the basis of whether a D or R is behind it. And those people are likely to vote, more likely than someone willing to call bullshit on either party.

The media is full of stories re: O-care sticker shock, often involving Obama supporters. Someone pointing such a story on Kos and the reaction? Shooting the messenger. Problem is, the shooter types are in the media, in the party messaging apparatus, etc.

[CatoTheElder]

Obamcare is not a middle class entitlement. It directly targets the middle class and makes them less well off. That is not going to be popular.

You assume that the middle class will be large enough to make a difference after Obama completes his "fundamental transformation".

[Juice]

The exorbitant premiums placed on the young and healthy are also a huge transfer.

[Restoras]

First of all, if Obamacare actually is popular with the country, I am not sure you can make the argument it is so bad.

That is one of the dumbest things you've ever written.

Second, how in the world can Cruz think something this badly designed is ever going to be popular?

I am willing to bet that if Cruz, or anyone else opposed to Obamacare, knew it was going to implode on launch they would have just let it go as scheduled.

It seems very odd to me to object to something because you think the people will like it and not want to get rid of it.

Wasn't it De Tocqueville that said "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money"

And, can you name me one major Federal program that has been eliminated once implemented? I'll wait while you look that up.

[John]

Regulation of interstate trucking and the natural gas industry as well as federal wage and price controls.

I don't even have to look it up. And why is it dumb to argue that the people should have the country they want? If you think it is your duty to create or destroy programs based not on what the country wants but what you in your enlightened views think they should want, you are nothing but a top man asshole and are no better than a liberal.

If you want to argue Obamacare is unconstitutional, fine. That is a different argument. But if assume it is constitutional and say that the country has no right to have it even thought it wants it because you think it is bad, then you are no better than a liberal. You apparently think you know better what is good for them than they do. And if you believe that, I don't really see how you can believe in freedom. Believing in freedom necessarily implies having faith that people know what is best for themselves.

[sarcasmic]

Freedom means asking permission and obeying orders like a good slave.

[John]

Freedom means at some point letting society become things you don't like or want. It sucks, but it is their freedom to do what they like. Who am I to say they are wrong?

[sarcasmic]

Because "letting society become things" and "government forcing individuals to do things" are the same thing! Derpaliscious!

[Restoras]

Gee whiz, now I am no better than a liberal? Not sure how you get there but whatever.

I don't pretend to know what is best for my fellow citizens. But apparently opposing the confiscation of my wealth to give them something they aren't entitled to makes me a liberal. Again, not sure how you get there but fine.

The programs you cite weren't welfare programs or transfer payments. Try again.

[John]

Sure you can oppose it. But you are opposing it because you think it is a terrible plan. That is different than opposing it because you think the country will like it and you might lose a precious election.

Opposing it because it might give the other side a political advantage is just cynical bullshit. If Cruz had done this because he thinks it is horrible and he wants to save the country from themselves, I would respect him more. But it disappoints me that he apparently did it because he is afraid it might cause people to like the Democrats.

[Restoras]

Stop being such an obtuse jerk. It doesn't impress anyone. And who said anything about losing a precious election? Not me so stop telling me what I think. And since you clearly don't have a clue how I think you also clearly don't have a clue how Cruz thinks.

You aren't as smart as you think you are so maybe just take a break for awhile.

[John]

And since you clearly don't have a clue how I think you also clearly don't have a clue how Cruz thinks.

Is it not true that Cruz thinks Obamacare will end up being popular? That is what I have read. Am I wrong about that?

What does the fact that it might be popular have to do with anything? If he thinks it is a terrible program, why is he so worried about it being popular? I think that is bullshit. If it is that bad of a program, and it clearly is, I have faith that the American people will figure that out and want to end it. Apparently Cruz doesn't and that disappoints me. Apparently, he thinks the country is a bunch of idiots or welfare queens who are not smart enough to figure out a bad deal when they see one.

[sarcasmic]

It's as if Tony and Tulpa had a love child and named it John.

[wareagle]

john,

Opposing it because it's a bad program and one that people might like are not mutually exclusive. Lots of people still support public schools, at least the concept, even though they see a disaster.

[John]

Wareagle,

As bad as public schools are, if you made me God emperor tomorrow, I wouldn't end them. Why? Because you are right, most people like them. And if they like them, I am not going to unilaterally end them.

[Byron]

It is completely unconstitutional and would've been emphatically shat upon by every founding father ever.

[Fatty Bolger]

"NONE OF YOU [REPORTERS] WERE MATH MAJORS, WERE YOU?"

Another reporter asked Schweikert to respond to some doom-saying quotes from Chinese bankers. "I lay this at the steps of the administration and Jack Lew," said the congressman. "The unconscionable, unacceptable use of language, the word 'default,' when the borrowing we need for 2014 is we're 16 percent short on revenue. To use the word 'default,' to scare the markets?are politics really that important to this administration that it ignores basic math?"

Schweikert ticked off ways that he, as a county treasurer, had sought balance. "The basic repo desk, running your ladders on your debt?it's stunning that the politicians in the administration care more about keeping this as a wedge than the international markets. Even Geithner made it clear that he had the ability to prioritize?. [T]here is no such thing as default unless there is an actual evil attempt from the administration. When you have 18 percent of GDP coming in in cash, less than 2 percent going out in debt coverage?I'm stunned you all fall for it in the press. None of you were math majors, were you?"

[John]

No actually, no they were not.

[Drax the Destroyer]

From what I remember, the Journalism majors were drinking for the last two weeks of the school year, having submitted their poorly written and overly-emotional semester reports while the poor bastards in engineering were busy pumping out 7th order integrals in the vain hope of surviving impending doom/exams. I will say, the engineers in general seemed to have a better grasp of finances and were generally fiscally conservative. In other words, fuck (most) Journalism majors.

[Brett L]

Well, they made us design profitable processes with taxes, compliance costs, and future cost of money, so yeah, I got as much finance as a business major.

[robc]

Engineering Econ was a required course for me.

Learned all the future/present value stuff, comparing revenue streams to determine which is better option, etc etc.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Ditto. My eng economics course had us form teams and run a business competing with other teams in our class. We used this online program called Mikes Bikes. We manufactured and sold bicycles. We had to weigh design details such as weight vs. cost, how much to spend on advertising, how much to spend on R&D, quality control details, etc. Each week our decisions were updated and market share continuously changed between the 10ish teams in the class.

It was a great introduction to actually running a business.

I also took microeconomics and financial accounting as electives as they appeared to be some of the only beneficial non-technical electives available.

[Firework Surprise]

We did something similar, except we also partnered with the business school. The dude on our team was completely worthless, and I ended up writing the entire business plan.

[Loki]

Sounds a lot like the Air Science (pilot) majors at Embry Riddle.

the Journalism Air Science majors were drinking for the last two weeks of the school year, having submitted their poorly written and overly-emotional semester reports already done their check rides

Many of them are probably airline pilots by now. Have fun thinking of that the next time you fly.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

At Navy the pilots' major was political science. Many of them are now airline pilots too.

[JW]

From what I remember, the Journalism majors were drinking for the last two weeks of the school year,

My undergrad is in journalism; graduated in '90. I was regularly stunned at the morbidly daft, uncritically thinking idiots that filed in and out of that program. They didn't even understand current events, let alone actual science.

And now, the student has become the master.

[robc]

Republicans perhaps could have exposed the great default hoax if the debt limit issue had not been intertwined with the government shutdown.

The author of the story isnt a math major either, apparently.

The Math doesnt change because of other things going on.

[Fatty Bolger]

His comment is political calculus. He's saying they can't make an issue of the debt ceiling because it's become entwined with the shutdown, and is going to be "solved" as part of the shutdown resolution.

Of course, there's always another debt ceiling "crisis" right around the corner, so I don't really agree with his point that it's a lost opportunity.

[robc]

I took 5 calculus classes. Politics never came up.

[Brett L]

No, its like political "science". If you cloak your feelings in the language of facts, people have a more difficult time arguing with you.

[flye]

You sure? I seem to recall a lot of talk about integration.

[fish]

+1 second semester

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

You mean you never had the "if a politician is blowing statist shit out of their mouth at a given rate (in Figure B.S.), but also generating shit at the rate of 4x+3x^2*(4/3)x^3 (where x is the number of times they mention free shit in an average speech), determine the rate that said politician must consume tax dollars to form a steady state bullshit system." question?

[Lord Humungus]

Glenn Greenwald Will Leave Guardian To Create New News Organization

Politico reported later Tuesday that a "philanthropist" would fund the venture. A spokesman for George Soros, perhaps the most famous philanthropist of the American left, ruled Soros out as the backer. "They have had no contact," Soros spokesman Michael Vachon said of Greenwald.

"My role, aside from reporting and writing for it, is to create the entire journalism unit from the ground up by recruiting the journalists and editors who share the same journalistic ethos and shaping the whole thing ? but especially the political journalism part ? in the image of the journalism I respect most," he said.

Greenwald will continue to live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he said, and would bring some staff to Rio, but the new organization's main hubs will be New York City; Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco, he said.

[SugarFree]

A spokesman for George Soros, perhaps the most famous philanthropist of the American left, ruled Soros out as the backer.

Yeah, no shit. Soros isn't going to fund someone who spoke out against The Lightbringer.

[Marshall Gill]

But Soros is a Libertariannnnn!!!!1!!

/shriek

[Ted S.]

I'm surprised H&R didn't put up a post about this.

[Rich]

"The GOP's little rule change they hoped you wouldn't notice"

Congresscreatures working with *precision*.

[Brett L]

So we should really be primarying Eric Cantor if the House caves? Okay. I'm down. I don't believe this, but I'm down.

[robc]

"democracy has been suspended"

Ummm...huh? The majority changed the rule. Seem kind of whiny to complain about democracy in that case.

[Old Man With Candy]

I am ready to advocate nuking the Congo. After spending over 100 hours so far in the past two months doing reams of government-mandated paperwork under the Dodd-Frank act because of the 50 grams of tin my company uses every year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_minerals), I now find that I will have to spend the next couple of months dealing with a stunningly complex software system to track sources in our supply chain.

50. Fucking. Grams. Tin. In just my little business unit, there has to be close to $50k this year so far lost to dealing with these regulations for 50 Fucking Grams of Tin, not counting the opportunity cost because I'm dealing with this shit rather than developing new products. We aren't the only ones, I'm sure this is costing every SEC-registered company a fuckton of money. It has certainly provided a nice living to "sustainable materials" software providers and registries.

Seriously. Nuke the place.

[John]

Or Nuke Washington. It is not the Congo's fault Washington is insane. This whole "conflict" materials is an amazing piece of bullshit isn't it? So a place is riven with civil war. Clearly, the answer to that is to make it illegal to buy anything from there. I mean cutting the country off from all foreign trade and ending its ability to feed itself has to help right?

[Drax the Destroyer]

They basically just cost his business a decent paying job in order to fund 1/10th of a destructive government position.

.......

Sorry about that. I just puked a little.

[sarcasmic]

Why is that the Congo's fault?

[Old Man With Candy]

I don't care if it's their fault or not, they just need to go away so we can get back to doing productive things. Sadly, it's easier to turn the Congo and Rwanda into a glassy parking lot than it is to kill Dodd-Frank.

[Palin's Buttplug]

What do you do? Buy tin futures to hedge on that 50 grams of tin?

No way in hell that legislation requires all companies that use tin to file SEC documents.

[Old Man With Candy]

No, any company that is registered with the SEC is required to do this massive document chase. There is NO de minimus limit. If we used 50 micrograms a year, our bureaucracy requirements are the same as if we used 50 gigagrams a year.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Why do you need to buy that measly amount of tin from the Congo?

My company buys more tin than that every week in soda cans. We don't file like that.

[Old Man With Candy]

I guarantee your company is dealing with this. And no, you got it wrong again- ANYONE using tin (and several other materials) has to do this, regardless of where they source it.

[Old Man With Candy]

Interestingly, soda cans would be exempt- the tin has to be in the product, not the package, to trigger the paperwork requirements.

[BakedPenguin]

I suspect he's lying about the cans anyway. Very few US made cans use tin anymore.

[Old Man With Candy]

Soda cans are drawn aluminum. No tin. Some other food cans still use a small amount of tin in the seam seal.

[Loki]

Yeah, I thought soda cans were made from aluminum, not tin. At least as far back as I can remember they've always been referred to as "aluminum cans", not "tin cans". The only people I've ever heard call them "tin cans" were old people.

[Jordan]

Boy that was hard.

What a surprise that the financial wizkid doesn't understand a 1,000 page law that he vehemently defends.

[Palin's Buttplug]

It is not "tin", you doofus. It is some near rare earth minerals just from Central Africa.

Maybe a stupid embargo but much less stupid than banning Cuban cigars.

[Jordan]

From the first link:

The Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals Provision imposes new requirements on public companies that use tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold in any of their products.

Dipshit.

[Old Man With Candy]

It's tin, retard. Tungsten. Gold. These are not rare earth minerals, but perhaps you never actually took a chemistry class. And nice dishonest analogy, while you were at it- no tobacconist is required to do a huge supply chain audit to guarantee than none of their tobacco is sourced from Cuba.

[Cdr Lytton]

My company buys more tin than that every week in soda cans. We don't file like that.

Shreik's "company": Scavenging soda cans and returning them for the bottle deposit.

[fish]

My company buys more tin than that every week in soda cans. We don't file like that.

Shreeky...now we discussed this little problem of yours...you know...the constant embellishment of what you do.

My company buys I pick up more tin than that every week in soda cans from dumpsters and along the roadside. We don't file like that.

There now...isn't that better?

[#]

You don't. You need to prove that your supplier's supplier didn't buy any. The burder is on you to prove you haven't.

I'm sure that's very classically liberal.

[Restoras]

required to do this massive document chase

Dude, c'mon! This is a jobs program for bureaucrats!

[Fatty Bolger]

No, no, clearly you can stop working on this. The expert on all things has spoken!

[Ted S.]

WHo's going to run the risk of thinking they don't need to file those documents, only to find out later that they do?

[Old Man With Candy]

The law is clear- if you're a company registered with the SEC, you have to do it. Period. Compliance firms are cleaning up- given what a royal pain in the ass and totally useless gesture this is, how many companies are sucked into it, and how irrelevant this provision is to the purpose of Dodd-Frank, I'm surprised that it has received no news coverage.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Ok, it is section 1502 of Dodd-Frank and it has to do with "conflict minerals" and only applies to public companies (some 6000) according to he SEC.

[Old Man With Candy]

If you had bothered to read what I had written, you'd know this. BTW, there's more like 15,000 publicly traded companies that fall under this.

[Cyto]

you don't have to be Wal-Mart or Microsoft to be a publicly traded company. My company was publicly traded and only had 500-ish employees. More than 60 of which worked in the accounting department trying to comply with various financial regulations related to being a publicly traded company. That's up from about 20 before the decision to take the company public. Mostly due to SOX et. al.

The same goes for my department (IT). We went from under 10 to nearly 50, largely trying to meet regulatory requirements - maybe 20 of those employees were only there because of regulatory compliance. Full SDLC documentation and controls throughout the company consumed most of our IT budget.

[Old Man With Candy]

Bingo. I work for a small business unit within a megacorp, but the last company I took public had (at the time) 80 employees. This is true of a LOT of NASDAQ small cap and OTC stock companies.

Seriously, fuck the Congo.

[Jordan]

Still waiting on those quotes proving everyone here voted for Mitt Romney.

[Old Man With Candy]

I could have sworn that I voted for Gary Johnson, but perhaps the tin fumes are clouding my mind.

[Cyto]

Gary Johnson got my vote... imagine my surprise when he not only failed to carry my state, we didn't even get blamed for Obama getting elected. Dang.

[Lord Humungus]

tinned wire?

[Old Man With Candy]

Interesting conflict (so to speak) with RoHS, n'est-ce pas?

[Lord Humungus]

I'm still a lead solder man.

Ah, nothing like the smell of flux in the morning. It smells like victory.

[Old Man With Candy]

60-40, 63-37, or 2% silver?

[Lord Humungus]

can't remember - would have to check my mongo spool. I want to say 60/40

[Old Man With Candy]

John Curl says that 60/40 is terribly inferior. You must have a very small penis.

[BuSab Agent]

Eutectic is the only proper way to solder.

[Old Man With Candy]

A few hundred million electronic devices made with 60/40 say you're wrong.

[The Late P Brooks]

I hate when hardcore liberals call themselves independents.

No shit. I know a couple of people who would rather, as Tim Allen put it, "have their balls pounded flat with a wooden mallet" than vote for a Republican. But they're not Democrats, they're "Independents". No, YOU'RE A DEMOCRAT.

[Mike M.]

+1 Buttplug.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Oh, the current trend is for near-fascist conservatives to disown the GOP because of the "GOP elite". The liars at Fox News all claim to be "independent" or conservative and not GOP.

see O'Reilly, Hannity, the Beckerhead.

[Restoras]

fas?cism noun \?fa-?shi-z?m also ?fa-?si-\ : a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government.

I'm sorry, who more closely resembles the fascist given the facts?

[sarcasmic]

Fascism is Tolerance!

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I'm quite sure Hannity refers to himself as a Conservative. Quite regularly in fact.

[robc]

They could be members of the Green Party or the Communist Party.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Yeah, this was my point to Tulpa the other day. If you campaign for Team Red/Blue, and vote for Team Red/Blue, and support Team Red/Blue, you're not something else, you're Team Red/Blue

[Fatty Bolger]

Kos Kid sob story: Obamacare will double my monthly premium (according to Kaiser)

My wife and I just got our updates from Kaiser telling us what our 2014 rates will be. Her monthly has been $168 this year, mine $150. We have a high deductible. We are generally healthy people who don't go to the doctor often. I barely ever go. The insurance is in case of a major catastrophe.

Well, now, because of Obamacare, my wife's rate is gong to $302 per month and mine is jumping to $284.

I am canceling insurance for us and I am not paying any fucking penalty. What the hell kind of reform is this?

Oh, ok, if we qualify, we can get some government assistance. Great. So now I have to jump through another hoop to just chisel some of this off. And we don't qualify, anyway, so what's the point?

I never felt too good about how this was passed and what it entailed, but I figured if it saved Americans money, I could go along with it.

I don't know what to think now. This appears, in my experience, to not be a reform for the people.

What am I missing?

I realize I will probably get screamed at for posting this, but I can't imagine I am the only Californian who just received a rate increase from Kaiser based on these new laws.

[SugarFree]

Is this going to be the new "Cleveland Browns let man down again" story?

[John]

Best of the Web described it as the Obamacare believers going through the five stages of grief. They have been in denial, now they are moving onto anger or bargaining. They really believed in this program. They honestly thought it was going to work and they were not going to have to pay for it. If it wasn't affecting so many other people, it would be priceless watching their dreams being crushed.

[Fatty Bolger]

I have to say, this guy fits what you were describing perfectly. Middle class true believer loses his shit when he realizes he'll be the one paying for somebody else's free ride.

[John]

And there are already millions of them and there are going to be millions more. This is what the doomsayers on here are missing. Everyone loves welfare and helping the poor as long as someone else is paying for it. None of these people are going to give a shit about the poor or the sick once they realize Obamacare is expecting them to pay for it.

[Mike M.]

Where has he been his entire life? If he's just realizing that's the case now for the first time, he's so fucking low-information he probably gets all his news from the Daily Show.

[John]

All of that. And good chunk of the middle class don't pay a lot of federal income taxes. If you make less than 200K a year, have a mortgage and a kid or two, your tax bill is going to be pretty low. Most of these people are liberals because culturally that is the easiest thing to be and they don't think personally will ever have to pay for any of this shit. That second part is about to change.

[Fatty Bolger]

I sure hope so.

[Drax the Destroyer]

The tears are salty with this one.

[Loki]

"Mmmm, the tears of unfathomable sadness! Yummy you guys!" - Cartman

From the comments:

wah! wah! I hate Obamcare! You sound like Ted Cruz.

Sigh... there's really no hope in reaching some of these derptards is there.

[Fatty Bolger]

It's amazing how quickly they will turn on their own when the orthodoxy is questioned.

[Ruckus]

I love the comments, esp this one:

the reason is, your policy did not have the minimum provisions required in Obamacare. Therefore, that particular policy will no longer exist under the new law.

You can't blame Obamacare because you selected substandard insurance. And remember, those who have no insurance at all will be getting a 100% premium increase. However, the vast majority of them are grateful they can finally get insurance.

You likely qualify for subsidies, if you're too stubborn to take them, that's on you.

You can't blame obamacare for making the product you used to purchase illegal and forcing you to buy a more expensive product. it's your fault for buying the wrong product before hand.

[Mike M.]

Looks to me like the markets are starting off higher. Yeah, they're really terrified about the whole situation.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You idiot, news is out in the market that the GOP lost and is letting its hostages go.

[Mike M.]

Go fuck yourself in your earhole Weigel. Nothing has happened and no votes are even scheduled yet, you mendacious little guttersnipe.

[fish]

I thought T o n y was Weigel? Practicing "coming out" online before trying it in the real world.

[Mike M.]

No, Tony is Paul Krugman.

[Ken Shultz]

The stock market is higher on the hope that a deal will soon come through; meanwhile, the yield on the U.S. ten-year continues to climb meaning the prices are falling...

If higher interest rates (resulting from a missed payment) are the only thing that will slow Obama's insane, suicidal, spending compulsion, then whatever the fallout from missing a bond payment will be, the results won't be ALL bad.

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|10.16.13 @ 9:41AM|#
"You idiot, news is out in the market that the GOP lost and is letting its hostages go."

Yeah, and the fact that it's been pretty much flat is, well, 'cause stuff, right, dipshit?

[The Late P Brooks]

I am ready to advocate nuking the Congo.

Wrong target.

[The Late P Brooks]

I never felt too good about how this was passed and what it entailed, but I figured if it saved Americans money, I could go along with it.

"I thought they were ramming it up somebody else's ass! NO FAIR!"

[Rich]

Texas Lt. Gov. says Obama should be impeached

Texas should just start the secession bandwagon rolling.

[Palin's Buttplug]

That would be hilarious. Back to 1855!

[OldMexican]

Re: Palin's Buttwipe,

That would be hilarious. Back to 1855!

No, let's party like it's 1836!

[Loki]

Because secession = a return to pre-Civil War slavery. "Derp-de-derp, da Teedely derpty derty dum."

[Drax the Destroyer]

I think an argument could be made that 95% of all presidents (around the world, into the future, alternate realities, etc.) should have been/be impeached.

[Brett L]

Dewhurst is Perry-lite. I hope he doesn't get elected. Well, I hope he isn't the Republican candidate. I think he'd be better than Wendy Davis. But its the governorship, which Texas has thrived with thieves, crooks, and idiots for over a century, so I'm not too worried.

[Apatheist ?_??]

After the stomp-down Cruz gave him Dewhurst has decided to keep running for Lt. Governor. He's not running to upgrade this time.

[Brett L]

Ah. Its good to know your level of incompetence.

[Ken Shultz]

"Closing the national parks costs more than keeping them open".

And keeping the parks costs more than privatizing them or spinning them off to the states.

Any parks that are self-sustaining because of fees shouldn't be owned and operated by the federal government--from any perspective, not even a progressive one...

How dare they unnecessarily waste federal tax dollars when there are children out there starving for lack of government cheese!

[Drax the Destroyer]

I thought the enviro-progtards would prefer nature just to completely reclaim these places. By that token, shouldn't they be pushing for them to say closed FOREVER? Fire the staff and dissolve the pensions, I say. Their weeping children can work in my misery factories.

Get back to work Cratchit.

[Ken Shultz]

I love the parks. I use them all the time. I went off into the wilderness last summer in Zion NP and got up close and personal with some big horn sheep.

And I got semi-charged by a bear in Tahoe--at a state park. Yeah, a state park--doesn't cost the feds a dime, and the bear was just as awesome when the rest of country doesn't have to pay for me to see it.

Get the self-sustaining ones off budget. They can stipulate that certain standards be maintained--to private bidders or state governments--and they'll work the same way just fine.

[Lord Humungus]

I saw this yesterday:

Boehner to Tea Party: Shut Yourself Down

The meltdown on Capitol Hill doesn't mean the end of the Tea Party. In fact, most of those lawmakers accurately point out that they are doing what the constituents in their painfully drawn, one-sided, overwhelmingly white, aging, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, science-denying districts want. Still, there are emerging signs -- from declining poll numbers to the breach with the Republican Party's traditional business allies -- that the act is getting old. Mess with Democratic totems such as Social Security and nutritional programs for pregnant mothers, send Sarah Palin to Washington periodically to pour salt on open wounds, but don't mess with Treasury bills and the markets.

SqwUAAAK!

[John]

I am sure he would like that. As he heads into retirement in a couple of years, he can tell us about how those evil Tea Baggers ruined everything.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

so we have a mainstream news outlet that managed to propound the gerrymandering myth and call all Tea Partiers homophobic, racist, ignorant rubes in ONE SENTENCE.

This shutdown has been good for at least one thing: it ripped off the proggie mask.

[Steve G]

Wow. "white, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, science-denying" without a single mention of fiscal responsibility?? Some of us still associate the tea party with the Santelli rant about not paying for other people's bad decisions, and not the Palin/Beck socially conservative hijacked version.

[Clich? Bandit]

Uhh, I associate the beginning with some LP members telling everyone to mail a bag of "Earl Grey" to the white house hence "Tea Party" to work with the Taxed Enough Already slogan from years ago.

[Steve G]

Yeah, exactly. Both our versions have fook-all to do with gay rights, immigration, and traditional religious...stuff. The left's really done a good marketing campaign (with the far right's help of course) to morph the tea party into just a bunch of homophobic racists.

[The Late P Brooks]

Oh, the current trend is for near-fascist conservatives to disown the GOP because of the "GOP elite". The liars at Fox News all claim to be "independent" or conservative and not GOP.

This translates as,

ARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARFARF

[Ken Shultz]

"President Obama is hopeful the House will pass whatever deal the Senate comes up with to raise the debt limit, which is still scheduled to be hit by the federal government tomorrow. It's apparently his only plan."

Whatever happens, the Tea Party Republican will be responsible for what they did, and Barack Obama will be responsible for his total lack of leadership.

America deserves better leadership than that.

[Loki]

A Shell gas station clerk was fired for using a gun to fend off a robber on the overnight shift; clerks are forbidden by store policy to carry guns.

*dons ski mask, grabs Sig* I'm off to the nearest Shell station...

I keed, I keed.

[CampingInYourPark]

Closing the national parks costs more than keeping them open

Costs who more?

[Ken Shultz]

I'm pretty they're counting lost revenue as "cost", there.

They're treating terms funny as in lost revenue is "cost" like spending money is "cost". It's opportunity cost, I guess, but that's not the way accounting works.

If some parks are more than self-sustaining through fees, then there's no reason why they should be budget items at all.

[Ken Shultz]

In fact, if you're going to count the "costs" of lost revenue in your calculation of keeping the parks closed, then why aren't we including the "cost" of not selling them off to the highest bidder?

Do they have any idea how many billions and billion of dollars not privatizing just Yellowstone and Yosemite are "costing" us, alone?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

God, Howard Stern interviewed Piers Morgan this morning. Wanna impress me Howard? Interview fucking Rush Limbaugh instead of light-weight Brits with vapid thoughts about America. Show some real fucking balls or retire.

It doesn't help he's on this silly Redskins thing too. "Why keep the name if it offends so many people..." On one end you exploit the shit out of people and probably pay them shit but on the other you pull that syrupy crap?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Howard Stern is whining about something that offends people?

We're through the looking glass here people.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

*Whispers cocktail party into NK's ear*

*Runs away*

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Seriously. His whole career was based on fucking, you know, demeaning people (which is fine by me because I listened) but I hate it when he goes all soft-gay.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I never got into regularly listening to Stern but a few friends of mine were and they all concur that he's really lost his edge.

[John]

He should have never gone to satellite radio. I don't blame him. They paid him a fortune. But sometimes having rules to break help you. Stern benefited from having a few rules and then challenging himself with new ways to bend and break them. Once he was on satellite and could say or do anything he wanted, he quickly lost his edge.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I agree with that completely. I noticed the same sort of thing with some of the old Nicktoons. Being on what was nominally a kids' network forced them to be extraordinarily inventive with the off-color stuff, and the result was often brilliantly subversive. They moved "Ren and Stimpy" to an adult network and then the show just beat you over the head with raunchiness.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's psychomological or something. Once the threat of FCC paternalism was gone, he became paternalistic himself!

He's no punk-jock anymore. And it's a shame. He has his moments but by and large I agree he lost his edge. To say nothing of his confused political philosophy which clearly he hasn't pondered enough.

That's why he should have Limbaugh on to restore his fucking god damn edge.

[Marc F Cheney]

Here's news for you: Howard Stern's "edge" waswhat made the show famous. It was never what made the show great.

What (still) makess the show great are his ability to make dull people interesting in an interview, and the interpersonal dynamics between Howard, his colleagues and staff, and show regulars.

Personally, I think he's as entertaining as ever.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

It's funny, Brits hate Morgan too. Just yesterday I was watching some old clips from a Penn and Teller series over there, and this little bit slipped in (starts at about 3:00 if the timing doesn't work).

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I know. I've read that. His behavior during the gun-control debate was so sophomoric I can't believe any person with a reasonably intelligent mind would tune in and watch that crap on CNN.

[fish]

It's funny, Brits hate Morgan too.

Finally something that Britain and I agree on.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I might add dimwitted Brits with low ratings.

Rocky and Bullwinkle FOREVER!

Out.

[Pro Libertate]

Wossamotta U?

[Kaptious Kristen]

My random contribution for the day: saw a red tailed hawk trying for a squirrel's nest yesterday. Never seen any raptors in my neighborhood before.

[Fatty Bolger]

Video: Shriek posting a comment on Reason

[gaijin]

now that's funny!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I laughed.

[Brett L]

Engineering porn: Climbing into the belly of a fully fueled Saturn V on the pad to do some troubleshooting.

[Pro Libertate]

Whoa. That's like walking around a ticking timebomb.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

That is a great story.

[Mike M.]

Douchebag Colts owner takes an idiotic cheap shot at the best player he ever had and probably ever will have.

[Pro Libertate]

What a stupid thing to say. It's all the best QB in the NFL's fault.

[Ken Shultz]

I think he's under a lot of criticism from the fans in Indianapolis. Payton's on fuego, and Luck and company are doing--okay.

At the time, he made the right decision. In the salary cap era, he couldn't have paid PM all that cap space and fielded a decent team...and certainly not when it was unclear whether PM was even gonna be able to make it back! How many years was he supposed to go without all that cap space without even knowing?

That being said, I grew up halfway between DC and Baltimore, and the first Christmas present I ever remember getting was a Johnny Unitas uniform. It had the helmet, the jersey, the pads. I remember waking up to find they'd left in the middle of the night, and I remember when the Irsays refused to sell the team name back to the city of Baltimore.

I hope the Irsays all get cancer and die.

[Pro Libertate]

I thought the move was defensible, though I also thought he was moving on from Manning a little prematurely--as has been demonstrated by subsequent events.

Why be defensive about it? Manning isn't going to be doing this for six more years, and if they'd kept him, no way they get Luck and maybe not even a top-tier QB at all.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, but, you know, fans are mostly idiots. I mean, "fan" is short for fanatic, right?

He thinks Manning is gonna come into Indianapolis and make mincemeat of the Colts--which makes him look stupid to idiots.

They've already planned a tribute to Manning at halftime. When's the last a team did a tribute to an opposing player?

The correct answer is never.

The only other person I could have imagined anyone doing that for is Pat Tillman--if he'd played again. So why is Irsay doing that?

To try to ingratiate himself to the fans. To try to make what he did look less stupid in the eyes of his idiot fans. That's why he's saying this shit in the media, too.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

[John]

With the new bargaining agreement, Luck isn't making that much money in his rookie contract. They could have kept Manning and had Luck sit on the bench for two or three years.

If Manning were in Indy right now, the Colts would be 6-0 and would be the favorites. As it is, they are going to have a nice season and then watch probably Kansas City destroy the Colts O line and sack Luck 10 times and go down to defeat in the first round of the playoffs.

They cut the greatest player in franchise history whom we now know had at least two and probably three or four prime years left in him. Stupid is a pretty good word for it.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

The Colts do not have the talent that Denver has. They would not be 6-0. Probably 4-2, which is what they are now.

[John]

I am not convinced Denver has that much talent. Manning makes people look better than they are.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

IIRC at the time it wasn't clear he'd even be able to play again, let alone play well.

[Mike M.]

Furthermore, these pricks probably would have either sold the team or moved it out of Indianapolis by now if Manning hasn't arrived just in time to save their dead-as-a-doornail franchise.

He even got them a glorious new stadium built, so this is one of the last guys on earth who should be complaining about anything.

[Fatty Bolger]

That's low. So what did Fox say?

[John]

I don't think he took a cheap shot. What he is saying is that the pin ball machine offenses don't win championships. And that is largely true. The problem with the no huddle quick strike offenses is that they don't take up any time of possession and put their defenses under incredible stress. Part of the reason why the Colts always had lousy defensive numbers, despite having some very good players on defense, was that the Manning offenses were always giving the other team a huge number of possessions. Time and again, these sorts of offensive teams run into a team in the playoffs with a really good defense and an offense that can dominate possession and lose. That, not that Manning was not a great player, was Irsay's point. He was saying with Luck, they are going to run a slower more controlled offense than they did with Manning.

[BakedPenguin]

Then the Colts should have also gotten a running back. You know, like Denver has with Moreno.

[John]

Yeah but Denver has the same problem. I bet they don't win the Super Bowl. I bet they run into a team with a good defense and a solid offense that the Denver defense can't get off the field and Manning never gets into a rhythm and they lose.

Manning is the only great QB whose numbers are significantly worse in the playoffs than the regular season. Go look sometime. His numbers fall off a cliff in the playoffs. I think the reason for that is not because he is a choker. I think it is because in the playoffs he plays better teams that slow the game down and limit his possessions. I think the quick strike offenses really are hurt more than other offenses by long periods of inactivity during the game.

[Mike M.]

Manning is the only great QB whose numbers are significantly worse in the playoffs than the regular season. Go look sometime.

Dan Marino.

[John]

Not true. Marino didn't win a lot in the playoffs. But his personal numbers were just as good.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Marino didn't have much to work with. It was largely because of him Miami makes those SB appearances.

[Pro Libertate]

I don't agree. Except for a period under Dungy, the Colts were a pretty shitty defensive team. Ball control is a factor, but you have to have defense, too.

A classic example of that was when Parcells' Giants beat Buffalo in the Super Bowl. Good defense and ball control. Without both of those, the Giants lose.

[Ken Shultz]

I think one of the reasons the Colts had a crummy defense back then, too, was because PM was using up so much cap space, so they really didn't have the means to invest in their defense.

Getting rid of PM solved that problem.

[John]

Until Luck's rookie contract ends in four years, they won't have that problem. That is an interesting point. Just off the top of my head, it seems most of the elite quarterbacks have won their Super Bowls when they were younger and before they were able to cash in on the big contract. Eli Manning won his first under his rookie contract. His second one was after he signed for big money. But Brees won his before he signed a huge deal and so did Brady.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And some luck.

[Loki]

Good defense and ball control. Without both of those, the Giants lose.

...And they still needed Norwood to shank one.

[Pro Libertate]

That's true, too, but people forget just how high-powered Buffalo's offense was back then.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's what I was referring to.

Jim Kelley was a solid QB.

[Biden's Scroteplugs]

cut him some slack. his dad is a hero of mine. he Galted out of Maryland.

[John]

I don't know if leaving to go to a state that was willing to give you welfare qualified as Galting.

[Biden's Scroteplugs]

"On March 27, 1984, the Maryland Senate passed legislation giving the city of Baltimore the right to seize ownership of the Colts by eminent domain"

[John]

That is only because they thought he was going to leave. The reason he wanted to leave in the first place was that Maryland wouldn't give him his welfare check in the form of a new stadium. After he left of course, they ponied up to that great welfare queen Art Model.

All of the NFL owners are a bunch of leeches.

[Biden's Scroteplugs]

That is only because they thought he was going to leave.

that made theft OK?

[John]

No. But it doesn't change the fact that Irsay was a welfare queen looking for a handout

[Ken Shultz]

He left because they refused to build him a new stadium--because this was the pre-cap era, and he refused to invest in the team.

Oh, and threatening to use eminent domain sand actually doing it are two different things. No really.

I've been in bar fights. There's nothing quite like the look on a guy's face who actually got punched right after he threatened to punch you. Big difference!

And besides, didn't they only do that when it became clear the Colts were running away in the middle of the night?

Anyway, what the Irsays did was so fucked up, the NFL made it so no one can ever do it again. That's why it isn't the Baltimore Browns. That's why the "Browns" are still in Cleveland.

Meanwhile, last I heard, the Baltimore Colts marching band was still in existence--and always showed up to games when they could and cheered for the opposing team. One of their rookies once did a Lambeau leap into the band, and the band all jumped on him, pelted him with food and poured a beer into the earhole of his helmet.

He goes back to the sidelines and says, "What's up with the band?!", and a vet says, "That's the BALTIMORE Colts marching band".

[Ken Shultz]

Anyway, there ain't nothin' Galt about leaving becasue the city and state wouldn't build you a new stadium.

[Biden's Scroteplugs]

There's nothing quite like the look on a guy's face who actually got punched right after he threatened to punch you.

Maryland threatened to punch him. and I still love the look on Baltimore's face.

[Guy LaGuy]

WTF are 'scroteplugs'?
is that like hairplugs down there?

[Houkt Un Fanixs]

This isn't a cheap shot. Peyton has some amazing Regular Seasons and some terrible post seasons. You can say its a team effort, and the owner is looking to better the team.

[mad libertarian guy]

Lawyers in the James Holmes Aurora theater shooting case are arguing over whether the two-hour delay in reading Holmes his Miranda rights falls under the public safety exception or not.

It's quite obvious that Holmes is guilty.

But no, that kind of wait shouldn't fall under the safety exception, which is designed to be able to deal with immediate threats. Once he was in custody, and being that he was a shooter not a bomber or some such, the threat was over.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Uh, well, according to the suspect himself, he had rigged other bombs elsewhere, if I recall correctly.

[Kaptious Kristen]

BTW, you wouldn't know there was a shutdown going on, what with all the speaker, seminar, retirement party, and brown bag invitations I've been getting in my inbox.

[The Late P Brooks]

I just got a new phone. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

In less than twenty four hours, I have barely restrained myself from flinging it across the room more times than I can count. Fucking touchscreen. And there are "shortcut buttons" at the bottom of the face where my thumb naturally wants to land which send me off to who-knows-where as I am trying to reconstruct my contacts list. I think I'll put tape over them, and see if that helps.

[Jordan]

I'll remove myself from your lawn.

[Lord Humungus]

post-haste

[Brett L]

Heh. So it looked like this?

[Clich? Bandit]

Berthoud police officer accused of beating child and Chief accused of not doing anything. Now, in my best Dunphy, "we don't have all the facts" BUT if the Larimer Sher riff's Dept and the city council are on board this HAS to be bad.

[Sevo]

News Flash!
People in low-paying jobs don't make much money!
And since gov't hands out freebies, those folks take some! KORPORASHUNS AT FAULT!
"Study: Fast-food workers rely on $7 billion in aid"
http://www.sfgate.com/business.....898447.php
Hint: It's not a "study", it's a propaganda piece from a university.

[The Late P Brooks]

Do they have any idea how many billions and billion of dollars not privatizing just Yellowstone and Yosemite are "costing" us, alone?

But where will those billions of dollars go?

That's right. Straight into the pockets of rich people. It's better to waste an asset than to allow the wrong people to profit.

[Sevo]

"President Barack Obama and numerous other officials in government and finance have warned of severe economic consequences if federal obligations come due that can't be paid."

But the lying POS isn't going to do anything about it.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/pol.....895884.php

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm surprised no one's knocked on your door yet, Sevo.

Keep and rock on, brother.

[The Late P Brooks]

"Study: Fast-food workers rely on $7 billion in aid"

Imagine for a moment what might happen if the government "middlemen" responsible for taking money from those fast food businesses and then redistributing it to employees of those same businesses were cut out of the loop.

I bet that's not prominently featured in the study.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

All those jobs lost, it truly is frightening.

[BakedPenguin]

"See, I told you those Tea baggers and libertardians know nothing about economics. The loss of all that aggregate demand would be devastating."

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Of course, if fast food increased wages and then increased prices, they would be greedy fatcats gouging their customers.

If fast food companies raised some wages and then released excess labor, they would be passing their burden onto the People's Welfare system and we can't have that.

And we can't encourage impoverished people to get another job.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

The confidence gained when running a business in a climate where the politicians can change the rules at any moment to fuck you over. America the great!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I operate in such an economy. With a stroke of a pen the government can put me out of business. Which is why I want out. You can't rationally plunk down 200k to start a business and not be sure you'll be around over the long haul in order to pay off debt.

But this is the zeitgeist of our times I'm afraid there are more people like Tony around who really are too ignorant or indifferent to understand the unnecessary stress put on business.

The profit motive fear is irrational.

[Sevo]

"I bet that's not prominently featured in the study."

Nor is what the food would cost if all those workers got more pay.
Strictly BS.

[kbolino]

That $7 billion figure is meaningless unless it's paired with the total tax burden on all the fast food companies and their employees. Methinks the latter quantity exceeds the former.

[Jordan]

Just found out I've been registered for "Diversity and Inclusion Awareness Training." FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU...

At least its online, so I can just skip all the way through it.

[Ken Shultz]

Just be sure to embrace the heartbreak and make it your own.

[Brett L]

You should be fine. Include everyone in your insults, and use diverse curse words.

[Loki]

"I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless."

[Lord Humungus]

We have diversity training here too...

I managed to *cough* er, miss it several times. In fact I went seven years before they corralled me into it. And then I spent the entire time reading a Matt Helm novel.

[Ken Shultz]

Last time I went through that (when I was working for a big company), I was like the only Caucasian, straight non-management guy in the office. The rest of them were kinda scratching their heads about why they had to be there, and after working in an office like that for a few years, I kinda resented the hell out of being lectured--like I'm the only bigot/cracker in the room?

Not very inclusive.

[Tim]

See everyone? He's in denial!

[fish]

Not denial.....privileged.....

The term du jour.

[Bardas Phocas]

We had 'role-playing' scenarios in our training. I took the role of the rabid homophobe.

[Warty]

"My cousin was raped by a bunch of...guys."

"Some...guys' neighborhood just have liquor stores, and not proper supermarkets. Just guys!"

[Jordan]

Despite the frequency of nutpunches involving police dogs around here, this is pretty damn hilarious: Police Dog Fills Out Witness Report Like A Champ

[The Late P Brooks]

Heh. So it looked like this?

Pretty much.

I aspire to be as proficient as that monkey, one day.

[Stormy Dragon]

From British Columbia to Minnesota to New Hampshire, the moose population is on a significant decline across North America and scientists aren't sure why.

Isn't it obvious? All places that legalized same-sex marriage and now our traditional moose families are falling apart. Rick Santorum warned us this would happen! But we didn't listen!! WE DIDN'T LISTEN!!!

[OldMexican]

You have it all wrong! What's really happening is that the moose are turning in their passports and migrating to Singapore. Those liberal scientists simply can't bring themselves to believe that moose would be so unpatriotic. That's all.

[fish]

I hear Charles Schumer is preparing legislation.

[Lord Humungus]

10:50AM and no other H&R posts?

I imagine a stoned Reason crew fighting over the bong as the whiskey floweth.

[Tim]

The wretched reason intern is playing Candy Crush again.

[Root Boy]

Cats and dogs living together...we're at the precipice!

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs.....11102.html

[Enough About Palin]

Police smell meth, raid home, kill 80-year-old man, find no meth

The widow of an 80-year-old man who was shot dead by police during a drug raid on their home is suing for $50 million.

On the night of June 27th, Los Angeles County deputies raided the home of Eugene Mallory and Tonya Pate. Authorities claim they had probable cause to search the premises because they could smell chemicals used to make methamphetamine while standing outside the house. Police suspected Mallory of being involved in an illegal meth ring.

Mallory was asleep in bed when police entered his home. Pate said her husband has bad eyesight, and couldn't tell that the men entering the house were police officers without his glasses.

What happened next is disputed by police and Pate.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10.....z2htgz8H4w

[Root Boy]

They found some dope residue or a few seeds, so Sheriff says it's a good shoot.

[OldMexican]

I'm just going to hang in here and see the Buttwipe shoot down his own arguments or innuendo like a dumbass.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Only one minute left for AM links, so I better hurry up and post this.

Democrat politician utters remarkable gaffe, mainstream media say they'll be right on it:

"For the first time *since Reconstruction,* North Carolina has a General Assembly and governorship controlled by the extreme factions of the Republican Party..." [emphasis added]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....00573.html

[Eduard van Haalen]

Yeah, those Republican extremists during Reconstruction, if y'all know what I mean...wink wink...

Is how the progs would have spun a similar gaffe by a Republican.

[Root Boy]

Huffpo commenters are eating it up. It's kind of over their heads.