Big Government Saved, Yay!, Somebody Actually Buys Insurance, Medical Marijuana a Hit in Chicago: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: drewish / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

  By the time you read this, the United States government may well be back in the business of spending money it doesn't  have to pay bureaucrats to control how you may spend the money they haven't taken from you yet in order to buy health insurance you may not need (and can't actually buy anyway). Celebrate, everybody!

• Speaking of which, Delaware finally successfully signed up somebody to buy health insurance through an Obamacare exchange, 16 days after they opened. Congratulations!
• A Los Angeles International Airport employee has been arrested in connection with dry ice bombs planted there. That's the second LAX employee that has caused problems there recently.
• Illinois' recent authorization of medical marijuana use comes with significant restrictions. Nevertheless, the first clinic in Chicago is being inundated with requests and is creating an advocacy group.
• A lawsuit in Oregon is challenging the state's ban on recognizing same-sex marriages.
• British Royal Mail workers have voted to strike in November, partly in connection with the service's privatization.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

By the time you read this, the United States government may well be back in the business of spending money it doesn't have...

Will the next colossal fuckup who wants to be House Speaker please step forward. This one's done.

[Warrren]

Your evil is palpable.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Nice guys finish second.

[hamilton]

Or four hundred and thirty sixth.

But I'd say this was less "nice" and more "stupid". and I am always happy to see stupid lose. 1 down, 534 to go. In that branch.

[wareagle]

my guess is the next will actually be an obstructionist.

[robc]

I wonder what Amash's chances are? Probably not enough experience.

[Brett L]

Nah. Cantor is next in line, so he goes up. (Not my preference, just my prediction.)

[Fist of Etiquette]

On the other hand, apparently Boehner had the support of the powerful Go-Along-to-Get-Along Coalition, so who knows how long he can hang on with that.

[Marc F Cheney]

Georg Cantor? I thought he was dead.

[Almanian!]

George Cantor who wrote for the Detroit News is also dead (assuming it's a different George Cantor).

[Paul.]

What about Eddie Cantor?

[GILMORE]

no. no... the guitar player from Jefferson Airplane

[Warrren]

It's me I bought insurance with my EBT card.

[SIV]

I hope you had money left over for lobsters.

[pan fried wylie]

Look, my obamacare health administrator prescribed lobsters.

[Warrren]

For your crabs?

[pan fried wylie]

The lobsters eat the crabs, lobster-eating gorillas eat the crab-eating lobsters, and when winter arrives at my crotch, I just comb out the dead gorillas.

[Warrren]

Oddly the same process will happen with Mrs. Obama's unweeded patch.

[Austrian Anarchy]

Me too. By reflex, I almost tried Bitcoin. Saving the BTC for pot for the homeless at Christmas.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

British Royal Mail workers have voted to strike in November, partly in connection with the service's privatization.

They'll work for the Queen only!

[Austrian Anarchy]

Queen hasn't been the same without Freddie.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Delaware finally successfully signed up somebody to buy health insurance through an Obamacare exchange, 16 days after they opened.

If he's real, how long until we know everything about him? The White House is right now probably readying a leak of his name, address, ssn, medical history...

[PapayaSF]

"If Obamacare helps one person, it will be worth it!" /progtardwithnoeconomicsense

[Palin's Buttplug]

The Hawaii Health Connector's online health insurance exchange was up and running Tuesday, two weeks after a software issue delayed the launch of the site that allows consumers to view insurance provider plans and compare rates. But the site was offline several hours later before coming back up again.

The site was up as of 10:30 a.m., although users were required to first register for an account, and then fill out an online questionnaire ? which asked for home and mailing addresses, tax filing information, citizenship information, income information, household health coverage information, employer sponsored insurance information, household special circumstances and renewal information ? before they could browse the 95 health insurance plans being offered by the Hawaii Medical Service Association and Kaiser Permanente.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pac.....l-not.html

[PapayaSF]

Obviously the government needed to step in, because previously there was no way to buy health insurance online.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Only if one is perfectly healthy.

High cholesterol is a disqualifying condition until January 2014.

[PapayaSF]

And cheaper insurance was available for people without high cholesterol before January 2014. Now those people more.

[wareagle]

nothing says fierce competition quite like two outfits offering plans.

[Jordan]

Offering the same narrow selection of plans in the same narrow price range. But it's not a cartel anymore. Nope, no sir.

[#]

It's not a cartel when the government enforces it!

[Fatty Bolger]

Profits are only evil when you had to earn them.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

If Game of Thrones were a comedy set in a medieval theme park

[Fist of Etiquette]

NO SPOILERS.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Hodor is the Prince Who Was Promised.

[Marc F Cheney]

HODOR.

[Almanian!]

MATT DAMON!

[CE]

It's not?

[Paul.]

Are you here all week?

[Caleb Turberville]

http://www.southparkstudios.co.....p-blackout

The power went out at South Park Studios on Tuesday night, so they were not able to finish tonight's episode in time for airdate. It has been postponed until next Wednesday, and a repeat of "Scott Tenorman Must Die" will air tonight.

Judging from the photos, it probably would have been funnier if they had just recorded their reactions to the blackout last night and aired a short documentary about the experience for tonight.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It still impresses me they go that close to airtime without a finished product, where The Simpsons is something like nine months to do an episode.

[Caleb Turberville]

I think the minimum Comedy Central needs is 7 hours before airtime for satellite uplink. On Wednesday morning, they are still finishing scenes.

[Invisible Finger]

There's an Obamacare joke there somewhere.

[Zeb]

I doubt they could have gone on this long without the ability to be that immediately topical.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Perhaps they should purchase a generator?

[Brett L]

And halve their profit margin?

[Bam!]

High-end laptops could probably have done everything except the final render.

[MJGreen]

And recording, I'd think.

[pan fried wylie]

Hell, it's not like they do photorealistic rendering. A couple high-end laptops probably could do the job if you split it up into segments for each machine or have the renderfarm software setup on them.

I run LuxRender on my i3 laptop and it's not horrifically slow. (circa 2006 8core Xeon is still about 3x faster though, and the 8thread 3rd gen i7 about 5-6x faster)

[pan fried wylie]

have the renderfarm software setup on them.

long story short, it was probably licensing and not a power outage that really caused the delay.

[Bam!]

I remember some article about the tech South Park Studios uses to turn out an episode in a week. Most of their budget seemed to go into a storage cluster and a rendering farm. Their workstations seemed like off-the-shelf Macs.

[pan fried wylie]

I may dislike Apple, but they don't tend to skimp on the CPUs.

[JW]

Their CPUs are the same as in any PC now.

[pan fried wylie]

Their CPUs are the same as in any PC now.

I was referring to Apple not offering a MacBookPro with the i3. only i5 and i7. I was paying attention when they stopped using PPC.

[pan fried wylie]

And what the hell is with their marketing decision with the Retina displays? Give me a larger 1600x900 screen anyday over a smaller higher-density one.

[playa manhattan]

Yeah, I just got the macbook pro retina, and I'm not too impressed with the graphics. My macbook air had a larger screen size.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Great, another week to think about how awful the last episode was.

[Caleb Turberville]

"World War Zimmerman"? Yeah, I agree. So, far this season, I've only really liked the Minecraft episode.

"Let go, let gov" and "World War Zimmerman" both had decidedly non-libertarian point-of-view. I'm not one to require my entertainment match up with my politics, but even the jokes themselves were uninteresting.

[Generic Stranger]

Err...the part where Butters forms the Church of Government wasn't libertarian? We joke about that shit here all the time.

[Caleb Turberville]

Yeah. So, they might be considered "libertarianish" but I definitely interpreted the theme of that episode as saying the NSA is a necessary evil.

"World War Zimmerman" was just an depiction of the writer's ignorance about the topic of Stand Your Ground. Nothing embarrassing in today's world in which no one seems to have a reasonable grasp of SYG, but the episode takes on a smug tone with regards to SYG supporters with its depiction of Jimbo.

But none of the politics would have been that bad had the episodes at least been funny. The Minecraft episode "Informative Murder Porn", but this season pales in comparison to last season which had "Reverse Cowgirl," "Sarcastoball", and "A Nightmare on Facetime."

[Caleb Turberville]

Oops: "The Minecraft episode 'Informative Murder Porn' was good."

[Zeb]

I think that they are more interested in making people who have strong political views seem like idiots than promoting any particular point of view. Which is exactly how entertainment should be.

[Caleb Turberville]

Again, you can maybe take that position with "Let go, let gov" but "World War Zimmerman" was clearly taking the point of view that Stand Your Ground enabled Zimmerman to murder Trayvon Martin. They didn't play their usual tactic of keeping neutral on a hotly debated topic; they clearly took a side on the issue of SYG.

But all would be redeemable if the episode had at least been funny. And the World War Z references were just too tedious.

[pan fried wylie]

And the World War Z references were just too tedious.

That's WWZ's fault, not SouthPark's.

[Almanian!]

Sorry, but I thought it was funny when Cartman shot Token.

SUE ME

[Juice]

I never saw the movie so I didn't get any of the references, but I'm guessing there were pane crashes? And yeah, that episode was terrible.

[Zeb]

I haven't seen recent episodes and I have no idea what Wold War Z is.

[Coeus]

There is a new writer this season. It's not all matt and trey now.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Los Angeles International Airport employee has been arrested in connection with dry ice bombs planted there.

Are they certain this wasn't just viral marketing for carbon dioxide?

[Ted S.]

As I said yesterday, the explosions were sublime.

[PapayaSF]

OK, that was worth repeating. And you may appreciate this geek joke:

Q: What does the "B." in Beno?t B. Mandelbrot stand for?

A: Beno?t B. Mandelbrot.

[Juice]

I haven't heard that one before, but I'll now repeat it endlessly.

[pan fried wylie]

This joke is also worth retelling.

[Brett L]

"Benoit"
--"Balls"

[fish]

+1 phase change

[Enough About Palin]

Outrageously Themed Magic Restroom Cafe Soft Opens, Serving "Golden Poop" Rice

If the imported miniature toilet bowl ceramicware used extensively by the restaurant doesn't offend you, imagine it filled with goopy brown curry. If diarrhea-looking food swimming in a toilet bowl still doesn't offend, understand the dish is named signature "golden poop" rice. Order correctly (chicken wings, Taiwanese sausage, fried tofu), and the food arrives in a miniature floor commode which was the stuff of nightmares for Western backpackers in Asia in the past.

Sadly, not all chairs are toilet seats, and none of the toilets have water tanks attached. Thankfully, seat covers are employed, and no one's actually forced to cop a squat while downing dishes so lovingly named: "black poop" (chocolate sundae), "smells-like-poop" (braised pork over rice), "constipation" (zha jiang mian), "bloody number two" (vanilla-strawberry sundae). For an Alinea-esque multi-sensory dining experience, it's best to order the stinky tofu for the pleasant malodor.

http://la.eater.com/archives/2.....p_rice.php

[Ted S.]

Didn't this show up yesterday in PM Links, or was that a different scat-themed restaurant?

[Enough About Palin]

I was out yesterday, so maybe...

[Marshall Gill]

Ted, why don't you go ahead and change your nick to "Ted S. Thread Monitor"?

What if some poor fool missed the morning links, huh? What then, smart guy? Are they just supposed to go through life without the knowledge of toilet based eateries?!

[Brandon]

Why would anyone be offended by this? Grossed out, maybe, but "offended?" That seems really really excessive.

[Almanian!]

I'm offended that anyone would be offended. The nerve!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sexual assault and drinking: Teach women the connection

Let's be totally clear: Perpetrators are the ones responsible for committing their crimes, and they should be brought to justice. But we are failing to let women know that when they render themselves defenseless, terrible things can be done to them. Young women are getting a distorted message that their right to match men drink for drink is a feminist issue. The real feminist message should be that when you lose the ability to be responsible for yourself, you drastically increase the chances that you will attract the kinds of people who, shall we say, don't have your best interest at heart. That's not blaming the victim; that's trying to prevent more victims.

Experts I spoke to who wanted young women to get this information said they were aware of how loaded it has become to give warnings to women about their behavior. "I'm always feeling defensive that my main advice is: 'Protect yourself. Don't make yourself vulnerable to the point of losing your cognitive faculties,' " says Anne Coughlin, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, who has written on rape and teaches feminist jurisprudence. She adds that by not telling them the truth?that they are responsible for keeping their wits about them?she worries that we are "infantilizing women."

[Ted S.]

We're (well not us here at H&R, but a lot of society in general) infantilizing everybody, not just women.

[hamilton]

we are failing to let women know that when they render themselves defenseless, terrible things can be done to them.

Not like this argument could be made for anything else, of course. Like something used to defend.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

This doesn't seem that ridiculous to me.

To the comments!

Emily this is an EXTREMELY disappointing article. You may think that by writing this you are helping women avoid getting raped, but all you're really doing is telling sexual predators which women they should target, and which women can be raped with impunity

[John]

No one ever thought to get a woman drunk to sleep with her.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Not until this article was written John. All those rapists reading Slate now know exactly what to do to make the act easier.

[Invisible Finger]

So, both of their readers?

[Almanian!]

No, just the one - the other one is STEVE SMITH, so...

[Thane of Steelport]

Because right now rapists typically look for the most lucid woman in the room. Going after intoxicated ones will be a novel concept for them.

[PapayaSF]

I don't know, this sounds suspiciously like that "personal responsibility" thing that conservatives and libertarians are always using to blame victims. Heresy! Sober privilege!

[lap83]

I absolutely agree with that message, but ironically she still seems to think it's society's responsibility to teach it to women rather than the parents when she's growing up...or the women themselves, or even the woman's significant other or friends.

[lap83]

In fact, I don't know that we could ever expect society to teach responsibility. How could an impersonal entity teach something that is inherently personal? The reason parents teach responsibility is because they are personally affected when, say, their kid becomes pregnant in high school. What she really should have said in the article is "if you don't want your daughter to be assaulted, then for the love of God implore her not to drink with strange men."

[Bobarian]

Teaching them this lesson, isn't that the rapist's job?

[playa manhattan]

Speaking of which:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....mment=true

Girl bones down in public while drunk (including receiving oral sex), a group of bystanders takes pictures and tweets them. Embarrassed the next day, she goes to the police and claims she was raped. Campus community believes her.

[R C Dean]

So, if I follow the logic, you're not responsible for your actions when you are drunk, therefor:

(1) Consent given by drunk women is not valid, so their sex partners should be charged with rape; and

(2) Consent given by drunk men is not valid, so their sex partners should be charged with rape; and

(3) Sex by a drunk man with a drunk woman isn't rape, because he can't be held responsible for what he does when drunk, remember?

[wingnutx]

What I learned in military Sexual Assault Prevention class:

-A woman who has one drink in her cannot give consent. If you have sex with her then it is rape.

-This principle does not apply to men.

[Enough About Palin]

"British Royal Mail workers have voted to strike in November, partly in connection with the service's privatization."

Thank G-d it's not the Daily Mail workers that will be striking.

[Jordan]

For Stalin's Buttboy, from the SEC:

The term "conflict mineral" is defined in Section 1502(e)(4) of the Act as (A) columbite-tantalite, also known as coltan (the metal ore from which tantalum is extracted); cassiterite (the metal ore from which tin is extracted); gold; wolframite (the metal ore from which tungsten is extracted); or their derivatives; or (B) any other mineral or its derivatives determined by the Secretary of State to be financing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or an adjoining country.

And that excerpt you posted from Ernst and Young said the exact same thing, you mendacious cunt. That's twice today you've posted something which said exactly opposite of what you said.

[Ted S.]

People pay attention to Shreeky?

[fish]

People pay attention to Shreeky?

Only like they pay attention to that monkey trying to operate an Ipad.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Quit lying.

I said there were many sources of tin if one wanted to avoid the reporting requirements for conflict minerals.

[Jordan]

Palin's Buttplug|10.16.13 @ 1:31PM|#

Is tin a conflict mineral? Yes or no?

Tin is not a conflict mineral according to Ernst & Young.

[Palin's Buttplug]

E&Y states that cassiterite is a conflict mineral - not tin. The difference may be pedantic but take that up with them.

[Jordan]

Here's what you posted:

Dodd?Frank Section 1502 defines "conflict minerals" as cassiterite, columbite-tantalite,
gold and wolframite, as well as their derivatives and other minerals that the US Secretary of
State may designate in the future.

Learn to read, idiot.

[Jordan]

Let me spell it out so you don't try anymore bullshit: tin is a derivative of cassiterite.

[fish]

E&Y states that cassiterite is a conflict mineral - not tin. The difference may be pedantic but take that up with them.

I'm disappointed...you usually fling your poop farther than that.

[everyone]

It was a hole in one.

[#]

No Buttplug. You still don;t get what this thing is. It's not just a bad on buying from that county. It's that you have a burden to prove that you arent or that your supplier isnt or that your supplier's supplier's supplier isn't.

It means a random small company in the US needs to somehow figure out where it's tin came from 10 steps up the supply chain and be held accountable for some Australian firm with an African subsidiary that the firts firm didn't even know existed.

It's a very onorous and stupid regulation. Get your "classically liberal" head out of Obama's ass for a few seconds.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You mean Brownback:

In April 2009, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduced the Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009 (S. 819) to require electronics companies to verify and disclose their sources of cassiterite, wolframite, and tantalum. This legislation died in committee. However, Brownback added similar language as Section 1502 of the Dodd?Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which passed Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010

[#]

So your defense of this stupid regulation that you remain ignorant over how it works is that you now have your head in Brownback's ass?

[Palin's Buttplug]

See how Obama lets the GOP put in entire amendments?

And the myth here was that Obama ruled as a party line despot.

[robc]

filter him.

[Warrren]

FILTER HIM!!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Fuckin LOL.

Palin's Buttplug = never correct.

[Coeus]

another groupthink, and it pointed me to something awesome;

Sometimes There Are No Words
Just links. Stop Tech Feminism. Really. From the tumblr:

The tech workspace is under attack from the wholly destructive force of feminism. What it seeks is the antithesis of the open and safe work atmosphere we've all worked to create within our industry. It aims to divide and conquer, to turn people of all genders against each other on the basis of loyalty to the ideology.

It's an ideological trap masquerading as pursuance of social justice. Pretending to seek open dialog about gender issues within tech, it attacks and demoralizes any who have questions or opposing views.

I don't know if a rage gif or a facepalm picture is more appropriate here.

Here's a direct link.

[Eduard van Haalen]

NPR was doing a thing denouncing the tech industry for lack of diversity. Eventually they admitted that there weren't as many women as men getting the appropriate education, and that many women dropped out of the workforce to raise families. But it's still the industry's responsibility to *do something* so the numbers come out right.

[Invisible Finger]

There's an Obamacare joke there somewhere.

[Brett L]

Wait, I agree with the prompt. Does that make me a misogynist?

[wareagle]

probably. Even if you disagree with it. Male privilege, gaze, and all.

[Warrren]

That was beautiful.

[MJGreen]

This awesome piece was linked on TumblrInAction. This woman is someone to look up to.

[Brett L]

Yes. I would want to make super-smart autistic babies with her.

[Thane of Steelport]

Money quote: Feminism. The /r/athiesm of gender equality advocacy.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Remember the story about contract priests being threatened with arrest if they celebrate Mass on military bases (even on a volunteer basis)?

Here's a wrinkle I wasn't aware of: Congress passed a special law to pay the military during the sequester.

"That law provided that during a shutdown active duty military personnel would be paid, and that civilian Defense Department personnel and contractors would continue to serve and be paid if the secretary determined they are "providing support to members of the Armed Forces."

"After [secretary of Defense] Hagel determined that civilian Catholic priests did not meet his standard of "providing support" to military personnel, and thus could not return to work like civilian "family support" or "behavioral health" personal, DOD decided that the Anti-Deficiency Act barred civilian priests from even volunteering to administer the sacraments to Catholic military personnel at military facilities."

So they're banning priests from even volunteering their spiritual services based on a reading of a spending bill by which ministers of religion are *not* providing support to military personnel. Yet "behavioral health" specialists can get paid to sit in a chair while a soldier talks, write in notebooks, stroke their beards and go "mmm, hmm, and how did that make you feel?"

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/ar.....riest-sues

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Eduaard

Do you think paying Catholic priests to celebrate Mass on base, especially when there are privately funded Catholic churches performing such Mass in the area, is an essential use of taxpayer dollars? Or perhaps better put, what kind of civilian support staff would you have furloughed?

[Enough About Palin]

WHO FARTED?

[Brandon]

(even on a volunteer basis). Did your handler not read that far for you?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It does not matter whether it is volunteer or not under the current interpretation of the anti-deficiency act.

[R C Dean]

Really? The purpose of the anti-deficiency act is to stop spending on non-essential personnel.

How does that become a ban on volunteers, exactly? Does the Act actually say that functions performed by non-essential personnel become illegal for anyone to perform during a "shutdown"?

[Enough About Palin]

Don't. Talk. To. It.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Employees that volunteer could incur reimbursement claims later. That is what the OLC said in interpreting the law since back in the Carter administration.

[Brett L]

Wine for cats which you'll be totally shocked to find out, is brought to you by the Japanese.

[Eduard van Haalen]

That would make *Tome and Jerry* even funnier!

[hamilton]

Mousecadet?

[Ted S.]

Many years back, I gave bacon to two of my cats. The elderly one sniffed at the pinkie nail-sized piece for a long time before deciding it was safe to eat; the young one did the same thing.

So I offered each of them a second tiny piece. The elderly cat sniffed, figured it was the same stuff she just had, and quickly took the piece. The young one sniffed for a long time again, before finally taking the piece.

A minute after taking the second piece, the young cat was literally bouncing off the walls and running up door jambs. (The elderly cat was blas? about the whole thing.) Needless to say, I haven't tried offering cats bacon since. I can only imagine how they'd react to wine.

[PapayaSF]

Since bacon is not known to be a stimulant, that may have been a coincidence.

[Warrren]

It was bacocaine.

[Marshall Gill]

I just can't get enough of it!

[Mad Scientist]

For a good time, give your dog a couple of marshmallows. Be sure to put away anything fragile first.

[Enough About Palin]

My German shepherd dog took wine with her dinner starting from about the age of 12 years until she passed at just a few weeks shy of 15. Not a lot, just about 1-2 ounces, which for a human would be the equivelent of about 4-8 ounces for human her size. I think it was good for her. Didn't get her drunk at all.

[BakedPenguin]

If you're sick of your dog not eating dry dog food, pour the water from a tuna can on it.

...and step out of the way quick.

[Ted S.]

The alt-text is better suited to a picture of the 24/7 logo.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Rebuttal to drinking article above

1. Despite her assertions otherwise, Yoffe is, in fact "blaming the victim."
Have we lost so much faith in our male population that instead of publishing columns telling young men to stop raping tipsy women -- or encouraging the expansion of programs on college campuses that work to educate students about such matters and prevent sexual assault -- some of us believe it is most effective to tell women not to drink at all? We need to place the burden of blame for these assaults squarely where it belongs -- on the shoulder of those individuals who choose to commit them.

1. How does she leap from the suggestion 'don't get blackout drunk' to attacking the position 'women shouldn't drink at all?' 2. If men are committed to raping, how is telling them it's wrong going to stop them? They already don't care.

[Brett L]

So if I walk through a neighborhood where people don't eat regularly with a pack of 100 bills in my front pocket, will they not "blame the victim" when I get mugged? No. Because there is an obvious level of personal responsibility. Its not your fault if you get raped while blackout drunk, but its still injudicious to get in that condition around people you don't fully know and/or trust. (Really, its injudicious to get that way, period.)

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I clicked on your link, but I was immediately distracted by this article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....ostpopular

Top 10 Big Boob Problems:

*Under-boob sweat

*Your bras being mistaken for ass-holders and/or hats

*Budgeting to afford a bra that actually fits

*Finding the right specialty bra shop with a correctly-trained fitter you actually trust, or at the very least, just finding a store that actually carries your size

*Packing a larger suitcase just to fit your bras into

*Figuring out ways to get your insurance to pay for a breast reduction

*Demi-cup overspill

*Shopping for clothes based on whether or not you can wear a bra with them

*Wondering if a guy is actually looking at you or only interested in your chest

*How not to look crazy while holding your boobs to avoid black eyes during a run

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Having dated a girl with 38Gs, I can confirm this.

[Restoras]

I am not interested in 'chest'. I am, however, interested in tits.

[Warty]

These aren't big tit problems, they're fat girl problems.

[The Heresiarch]

Not always. There are implants, you may have heard.

[Enough About Palin]

"How not to look crazy while holding your boobs to avoid black eyes during a run"

RACIST!

[Zeb]

Even more racist if you read it out loud.

[Coeus]

1. How does she leap from the suggestion 'don't get blackout drunk' to attacking the position 'women shouldn't drink at all?' 2. If men are committed to raping, how is telling them it's wrong going to stop them? They already don't care.

Because it's not really about that. It's about reinforcing the constant meme that men are dangerous and had better be on their toes in order to keep from offending. There is nothing more annoying than a young man trying to find his confidence for the first time by hitting on women. They don't care that it can result in a dramatic increase in the quality of his life. It annoys them. In order to avoid being annoyed, they link everything uncomfortable to sexual harassment, and sexual harassment to rape.

[Coeus]

This can't be privelege. Nobody gave me anything or deferred to me!!!

Is This What It's Like Being In The Majority?
I had a hint of this feeling when I crossed a stand selling makeup. I saw a sea of browns that if I had the time, could easily find a match. Getting my hair done? Damn right everyone would know how to do my hair. Then, tonight, as my host mother, myself, and another American who lives in the house went to a local market for henna,it hit me: I am not the minority here. My other American friend realized, while getting her hands and feet designed,that she was the only white person there.I, however, could at least pass as African enough to be spoken in wolof by street peddlers. Our experiences, I noticed, have been different.

I wouldn't use privilege as the situation I am experiencing as opposed to my other American friend.I would call it being in the majority.it's a comfortable thing to be in the majority. People don't notice you and your differences so easily, and you can go through unencumbered if you play your cards right.It's looking the way people expect your average person to look like and not sticking out.

[MJGreen]

Haha, wow. I thought for sure that was precisely what privilege meant to these people.

[Brandon]

It is. Just not when it happens to them. Then it's just...something that's totally not privilege.

[Coeus]

That is what it means. But it's really hard to turn that into "all my personal failings are caused by white men", so they've expanded it in their mind. To them, white guys get the stoncutter treatment from that simpsons episode.

[Coeus]

For example:

llaalleellUElJay4211L
I really enjoyed reading your perspective on this. The distinction between privilege and being in the majority is spot on. It's a really important angle when talking about identity as you're moving amongst environments with divergent demographics.

[Juice]

And in the comments white people are saying shit like, "One time I was the only white person there and it was totally unnerving! How do you do it every day?"

Really?

[Cytotoxic]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ri.....o-know-it/

I found who Shriek might be. There's this retard over at Forbes named 'Rick Ungar' who makes several claims I would like HandR to comment on.

1) Did you know that the State of California?taking advantage of the expansion of Medicaid that is made possible by the ACA?has already signed up some 600,000 low income Californians?

2) According to Roy, a conscious decision was made at the Department of Health & Human Services to require people to first fill in an application before allowing them to peruse pricing so that those who are entitled to subsidies would not experience the sticker shock Roy claims awaits those who will not be entitled to subsidies.

And yet, if you go to the health exchange websites in California, Kentucky and Washington?along with the sites for a number of other states who took on the responsibility to build their own exchanges?visitors are perfectly free to shop for prices and policies without having to first file an application as one does on the federal offering...

3) Also claims that the exchanges work fine in states that built their own and didn't stubbornly refuse to, which 'forced' the feds to do it (evil red states).

This guy is more full of shit than his future colostomy bag but I would like to here it from you people.

[Tonio]

Hear, hear!

[Warrren]

There there!

[Cytotoxic]

I meant I would like you to take him apart.

[fish]

I found who Shriek might be. There's this retard over at Forbes named 'Rick Ungar' who makes several claims I would like HandR to comment on.

Leave 'Rick Ungar' in quotes....through diligent research I found that 'Anal Obstruction' is really named Steve Fecal.

[Juice]

How dare the states force the feds to do the thing the feds forced them to do?

[Invisible Finger]

I think someone posted this before.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

1) Did you know that the State of California?taking advantage of the expansion of Medicaid that is made possible by the ACA?has already signed up some 600,000 low income Californians?

Gee, all that tells me is that 600K more Californians are on Medicaid. I'm sure nothing negative could come of this!

2) According to Roy, a conscious decision was made at the Department of Health & Human Services to require people to first fill in an application before allowing them to peruse pricing so that those who are entitled to subsidies would not experience the sticker shock Roy claims awaits those who will not be entitled to subsidies.

Huh, opaque pricing mechanisms--why, this isn't a change from the previous system at all!

[Elspeth Flashman]

Speaking of same-sex marriages, a Federal District court judge delayed giving a ruling today in a Michigan case about whether the state's voter-ban on same-gender marriages is constitutional.
http://www.freep.com/article/2.....ban-today.

[Elspeth Flashman]

In the meantime, you county clerks, don't go issuing marriage licenses to same-gender couples, AG warns.

http://www.freep.com/article/2.....e-schuette

[Coeus]

Rape Allegations Follow Viral Photo of Public Sex at Ohio University

A viral photo of two people appearing to engage in a public sex act near the Ohio University campus in Athens has sparked rape allegation after the woman in the photo came forward to claim she had been sexually assaulted.

The photo, taken Saturday during the school's Homecoming celebrations, spread quickly across social media and was even tweeted by a number of prominent local accounts, including OU's nightlife blog Athens Tonight.

All have since scrubbed the photo from their feeds, but many copies remain. Photos and videos taken by other onlookers have also emerged.

Athens Police told OU student paper The Post that an investigation had been launched after the woman in the photo filed a rape complaint.

OU officials would not comment on the incident and refused to confirm whether the individuals in the photo were OU students.

A source who spoke with Total Frat Move said the "male participant" was a fraternity member, but that claim remains unverified.

Another source told the site that the photo's subjects "posed for pictures with each other and with several bystanders after they were finished."

[Coeus]

Not suprisingly, Jezebel ain't touched this one so far.

[SIV]

Charge her with filing a false report and sentence her to speak to groups of college women about the dangers of filing a false report.

[playa manhattan]

Whoops. Posted a link to NYDaily article about the same incident above in response to Serious's post. You got me beat on the timestamp.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sorry Libertarians, you're still hypocrites

Anecdote Break

Before we continue, an anecdote: I went on a talk show to discuss banking reform with one of the guys from Reason magazine, and in the kitchen afterward we were both surprised at how much we agreed. He was funny and imperturbable. We decided to air our differences over coffee.

I said "You people are 60 percent great, and 40 percent irrational."

"I'll take 60 percent," he cheerfully. "What else?"

"Talking with you guys is like being on a first date that's going really well, until all of a sudden she starts talking about her alien abduction and how space people are speaking to her through her fillings."

He said, "The existence of alien life is a very real possibility."

Like I said: Very funny.

Finally I said "Okay, I've told you what I think. What do you think about people like me?"

His answer: "Nice, but way too serious."

Wonder who the Reasonoid was.

[Coeus]

Love how he slew yet another mound of straw men with false dichotomies and braindead snark.

[Restoras]

Well this was over coffee, not cocktails, so not Suderman.

[hamilton]

Oh, god damn you Restoras.

[Ted S.]

Which one was on a show with the author in question recently?

(Do the research yourself.)

[Brett L]

"Talking with you guys is like being on a first date that's going really well, until all of a sudden she starts talking about her alien abduction and how space people are speaking to her through her fillings."

He said, "The existence of alien life is a very real possibility."

This is Grade A trolling. I like to imagine The Jacket said this.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Nah, sounds like Matt.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Yeah, that's got to be Matt. Gillespie's a hell of a lot more acerbic.

[Warrren]

Courts are a government entity...

They really have no clue.

[hamilton]

Ah RJ. Still a primo fucktard. He was probably hanging with Weigel and fucked up that reference, too. I'd like to think Nick would rhetorically rip him a new one.

And anyway he said they were airing their differences over "coffee" and not "fruity cocktails" so it can't be anyone from reason HQ.

[Warty]

Your democracy-loving friend,

Richard

PS: How about that whole Bitcoin thing, huh? Looks kinda bad for your side right now, don't you think? Talk to you soon.

Well, he doesn't seem punchable at all.

[Brett L]

I don't understand, Bitcoins are still appreciating against the dollar.

[Cytotoxic]

Richard doesn't understand either. Not just talking about BTC.

[Cytotoxic]

How about that whole Bitcoin thing, huh? Looks kinda bad for your side right now, don't you think?

How about BTC? Uh well it shrugged off the SR closure and just got adopted by Baidu for services, which means the Chinese government is down for BTC. That aspect, at least, looks pretty terrific for our side.

[Warty]

timeOday 3 hours ago
@thenumbere The big reason government tends to be inefficient is because we use it to address tough problems that markets do not solve efficiently. That is especially true for the major causes of our deficits - national defense, and health care for sickly old people who don't make any money.

Well then.

[Juice]

He's actually wrong. It's inefficient because the incentives are all wrong, but that's a whole other discussion.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The big reason government tends to be inefficient is because we use it to address tough problems that markets do not solve efficiently.

"WHAT WE DO IS REPLACE ONE INEFFICIENT ENTITY WITH A TAXPAYER-FUNDED INEFFICIENT ENTITY, RACIST!!"

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I imagine all of these questions were thoroughly answered by us and others but he can't acknowledge that:

Triumph of the Will?

Several of you told me that economic transactions, including the employer/employee relationship, should be based on "free will." But garment workers in early-20th-century New York or 21st-century Bangladesh aren't allowed to exercise their free will. They either accept poverty wages and lethal working conditions or they starve. Why does an employer's freedom to negotiate trump the employees' right to organize collectively? "Free will" is pretty narrowly defined.

One of you wrote that, "You have a right to the product of your labors, but you can't force someone to pay you more than what you are due." But you can force someone to accept less than what they're due, if the alternative is starvation. That's not a free and fair transaction.

You wrote that no transaction is immoral "as long as force is not involved." But what human forces are more brutal than hunger, privation and death?

False consciousness, haves and have-nots, etc.

[Warty]

Not to mention oh-so-slyly calling us Nazis. I'm continually amazed at how much hate we attract from this kind of scum. I guess that's good? Maybe?

[Juice]

Why does an employer's freedom to negotiate trump the employees' right to organize collectively?

Who said they didn't have the right to organize?

[R C Dean]

But what human forces are more brutal than hunger, privation and death?

How is your inability to feed yourself an assault by some third party who wants to give you a job?

[Mickey Rat]

"...you can't force someone to pay you more than what you are due." But you can force someone to accept less than what they're due..."

Correct, except substitute "your labor's value" for "due" and "negotiate" for "force".

[MJGreen]

Sounds like Welch. He's someone who cheerfully. I cheerfully too, at times.

[Warrren]

Cheerfully is my favorite cereal.

[Juice]

The Libertarian Experiment, 1776-1929

SRSLY?

[Palin's Buttplug]

They weren't the "good old days," at least not for most Americans. It was a time of robber barons, poverty wages, unsafe working conditions, and financial instability. To return to that level of deregulation in today's advanced industrial economy would be even worse. We'd see frequent BP-type environmental disasters, accelerated climate change, and financial crises that span the entire globe.

This is all true. Bank panics were a once a decade occurence. We have had one bank panic since 1940 and no depositor has lost all his money.

[Cytotoxic]

Actually it's wrong you fucking idiot. America saw nonpareil prosperity and it wasn't even a totally libertarian system. The reason for financial instability was BANK REGULATIONS that Canada didn't have and therefore didn't suffer the resultant instability.

We have had one bank panic since 1940 and no depositor has lost all his money.

Except through massive inflation.

[Juice]

Tony is in the comments arguing it out.

[Brandon]

Comments:

Zoomie 1 hour ago
Libertarians lost me almost 20 years ago when they nonsensically claimed "best products will always win" in the court of public opinion. This occurred at a time when the Clinton Admin was looking into charges of monopolism against Microsoft. At the time, the Internet was just taking off, and the first web browsers were introduced.

By far, the best (and initially only) browser was Netscape, which sold for $25. Initially, remember, Microsoft and Bill Gates mocked the idea that the internet would ever amount to anything, and generally ignored it.

But when it took off, Microsoft was quick to rush out Internet Explorer (IE) which was installed within Windows as a component you were required to install. For many years, IE was a vastly inferior product to Netscape, and under libertarian claims at the time, should have guaranteed Netscape's success.

Instead, they were pretty much driven into bankruptcy by Microsoft. Why? Because Microsoft didn't charge for IE, they included it within Windows. And of course, to most consumers, something for "free" always is more attractive that something that costs $25. Additionally, since it was already installed on their PC, why go out and try something else that costs money?

In short, libertarian claims were nonsense, and they were totally oblivious to the contradictions, steadfast in their refusal to see things do NOT work as they think they should in the real world.

-Posted via Chrome.

[Mad Scientist]

This is the sort of mindset that is going to be hardest for libertarians to overcome. This guy thinks the free market failed because people didn't make the "right" decision. I have no idea how to combat this sort of prejudice.

[Brandon]

Actually, it's pretty easy, for people who are not absolute zealots like this moron. Most people didn't feel that $25 was a fair price back when there really wasn't a whole lot of utility to be had on the internet. That was before Google Maps, widespread email, most online purchasing ability, etc. Once the internet became useful to the majority of people, other alternatives, like Chrome and Firefox, emerged that were also superior to IE while still being free. The market made the right choice.

[Thane of Steelport]

Also, the fact that the internet became more useful and popular is why Mozilla was able to financially sustain Firefox while giving it away for free (i.e., Google paid Mozilla millions of dollars to be their default search engine).

What's also funny about him bitching about Netscape is that Firefox is a descendant of it.

[Zeb]

Netscape, Mozilla, FireFox, Ice Weasel. It really never lost or went away.

[Mad Scientist]

Yeah, I completely agree with that. But this guy doesn't see it that way and I have no idea how to convey to him that sometimes the choices he makes will not be the same choices other people make, and that's OK.

[Brandon]

He spent that much time constructing a straw man to slay, he doesn't want to see it that way. He's made up his mind, libertarian claims didn't work out the way he wanted them to in a narrow window of time, therefore government should be unlimited forever.

[Thane of Steelport]

Also, his interpretation of history is wrong; IE was actually a decent browser for a while; it wasn't some stupendously inferior product that people only used because it was free.

[PapayaSF]

It was decent in the IE5 days, then it went to hell.

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

"By far, the best (and initially only) browser was Netscape, which sold for $25."

"Best" is a function of a lot of variables and most of them are weighted subjectively. One of those variables is price, and "free" goes a long way, especially when you couple it with convenience.

[JD the elder]

So, "I like some of what you guys say, but then you say stuff I don't agree with, so I will dismiss you as nuts, since you aren't 100% on my side."

But WE are the problem. Right-o.

[Thane of Steelport]

Meet the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 Hello Kitty edition

See also: HTC Makes The Butterfly S Hello Kitty Edition Official, In Taiwan

[Warty]

...And you haven't bought me one?

[hamilton]

Your room, I assume?

[Thane of Steelport]

Not available stateside.

[Brandon]

There's still hope for the country!

[Thane of Steelport]

indeed there is

[PapayaSF]

Hello Grumpy.

[Warty]

Oh god, a fucking California stock. Fuck, I hate what California has done to all those perfectly fine AR actions.

[Jordan]

So, I went on healthcare.gov to browse policies for North Carolina and discovered that BCBS is the only participating carrier. Wow, what a market!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Alabama SoCons Hate Gambling

-If you wonder how much difference there is in the Alabama State Legislature between the old Democrat majority and the new Republican majority that was elected in 2010, take a look at the bills that are on the agenda. From the early 1990s through the 2010 legislative session, gambling was the one issue that dominated the agenda of the Democrat-controlled State Legislature. During that time, gambling bills to legalize everything from full-scale casinos to video gambling machines posing as electronic bingo dominated practically every legislative session.

-While there were a number of issues and reasons why Alabama voters threw out the Democrat majority and replaced them with a Republican majority in 2010, the keys reasons were that voters wanted to put a stop to gambling kingpins tying up the Legislature and they were tired of them making a mockery of our state laws.

-By increasing the stakes for operating illegal gambling devices from misdemeanors to felonies that result in prison time and heavy fines, the State Legislature can significantly strengthen law enforcement's hand while also sending a strong, clear message to gambling interests that crime will no longer pay. In addition, it will also make it abundantly clear that there is a difference between the Legislature of the old Democrat majority and the Legislature under the new Republican majority.

http://www.alabamapolicy.org/p.....r-a-crime/

[Cytotoxic]

These guys will be as successful as the Utahns against pron: not at all.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It appears they harass and arrest quite a bit, but that the SoCons feel the penalties need to be tougher:

-As a result, state and local law enforcement expend manpower and resources to raid gambling joints and confiscate these slot machines only to have the same operators install more machines and reopen. Because the penalties for violating the law are so weak?mere misdemeanors?and because they are making so much money, having law enforcement periodically raid their joints and confiscate their machines is just the cost of doing business for the gambling joint operators.

In other words, the penalties for violating Alabama's laws against gambling are so weak that crime literally does pay.

It is time now for the Alabama State Legislature to stand up to law-breaking gambling operators and put some real teeth in our state law.

[SIV]

Alabama has done an admirable job of resisting the adoption of a state government lottery. They have dog tracks but I refuse to attend a dog race out of solidarity with the unemployed jockeys.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The article seems to target any type of gambling. But I am curious as to which state of affairs you think the better:

1. All gambling punished by the state
2. All gambling except state approved gambling punished by the state.

[Invisible Finger]

It might cut into football.

[Invisible Finger]

The Crimson Tide's sole purpose is to facilitate gambling.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Utah SoCons Hate Porn

-"Where Utah unites to fight pornography" was the battle cry for attendees of the 11th annual Utah Coalition Against Pornography (UCAP) conference in downtown Salt Lake City. More than 1,200 people from across the nation participated in the Utah conference, a number that continues to grow each year.

-The concluding keynote speaker was Patrick Trueman, former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. He served on a federal level 20 years ago and explained that pornography has changed a lot since that time. "Pornography has become America's pastime," he said. "It is more popular now than baseball." Trueman indicated that Utah has good state laws in place against pornography. "Back when we used to do raids on pornographers in California, we would consistently see a sign in the mail rooms that read, 'Do not ship to Utah,' " he said. He added that the proliferation of pornography today is due to the lack of enforcement of laws that are already on the books.

http://utahcoalition.org/content/?page=39

[Warrren]

So I can't get my porn gamblin' on in either state I suppose.

[Enough About Palin]

If someone figured out a way to meld porn with gambling, they'd be richer than Sam Walton's kids.

[Gbob]

I throw lots to determine what hooker I'm going to pick up, if that helps.

[Warrren]

Warty throws hookers into lots. Does that count?

[Stormy Dragon]

If someone figured out a way to meld porn with gambling

Haven't you ever heard of strip poker?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

More compelling proof that Amanda Marcotte is really Ann Coulter's attempt at trolling feminists...

There's a lot of hand-wringing over women who push back when you "disagree" with feminism, i.e. with the belief that women are full and equal human beings. A lot of anger that comments are "taken out of context", which is a euphemism we all know for sexual harassment.

We all know this, so it would be pointless to dispute the judgements of a group of people who are clearly pre-judging situations according to ideology and group blame.

If having to behave like a grown person who holds a real job makes you feel "unsafe", you might want to consider getting over yourself.

You know, the fact that Amanda Marcotte actually wrote this without a trace of self-awareness makes me feel better about the universe. If it can withstand those earth-shattering levels of cognitive dissonance, the Apocalypse will be a piece of cake.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

He starts with the assumption that male attention is so precious that women will and should subject themselves to any kind of degradation to get even a scrap of it, even if the man providing the attention is a terrible misogynist who sees women as subhumans whose only purpose is to clean after him and drain his cock without anything in return besides occasionally acknowledging her existence.

Helluva sentence!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Run on? More like Marathon!

[fish]

I'll make Scumanda a deal, she doesn't have to drain my cock....and I will continue to not acknowledge her "existence"!

[Coeus]

oldscrumby ? 5 hours ago ?
Number one is especially fun considering the history of computer programming. It used to be a woman's job, like being an operator. But male programmers didn't like that so they started discouraging the hiring of women, spread rumors about how women made more mistakes, and implemented hiring tests that gave men the advantage. In the "work atmosphere we've all worked to create within our industry" the work was deliberately shaping programming to be a male space.

Unless it was a test of your ability to pee upright, I call bullshit.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Tea Party candidate defends using Medicaid; critics miss the point anyway

How does he justify, then, covering his kids with taxpayer cash?

"Yes, I participate in government programs of which I adamantly oppose. Many of them, actually," he wrote. "Am I a hypocrite for participating in programs that I oppose? If it was that simple, and if participation demonstrated support, then of course. But, my reason for participation in government programs often is not directly related to that issue in and of itself, and it certainly does not demonstrate support."

In other words, Collett says, it is okay to take part in programs one opposes as long as one does not "support" those programs.

On the other hand, Collett does not support public education and he follows through by home-schooling his 10 kids.

I'll bet he drives on government roads and eats FDA inspected meat too!

[Warrren]

Technically the meat isn't inspected, more like glanced at.

[Brett L]

Imagine a world where salmonella sufferers could sue the USDA and its inspectors.

[Juice]

More like the factory is glanced at. Once a year or so, maybe.

[BuSab Agent]

Well that's better than when they poke it with a stick and then sniff the stick.

[Palin's Buttplug]

But he is still a hypocrite. Medicaid is particularly egregious.

[fish]

Hi Steve!

[The Late P Brooks]

We're saved!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"How I stumbled into ACA and bought Lada-health insurance." Dude in Delaware, can write a book and make some coin.

All that keeps playing in my mind about Obamacare is Krusty running those eastern European cartoons.

Whatever.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_.....craigslist

Cleveland Browns fans are really getting good at this.

Misery breeds great humor!

[Warty]

I was at the game on Sunday. There was a sense of doom in the stadium the whole time - everyone knew that Weeden was going to fail miserably and spectacularly. And then he failed so much worse than anyone thought possible.

[Warrren]

Goddamn. It's poetry.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well, they didn't exactly lose to a terrible team. Detroit can toss the ball around a little.

[Warty]

On the plus side, it was really fun watching Stafford do his patented MattyFace every time something went wrong. Almost as good as BradyFace.

[Almanian!]

Dude's a baller. But, yeah - kind of a pussy face sometimes.

[The Late P Brooks]

I found who Shriek might be. There's this retard over at Forbes named 'Rick Ungar' who makes several claims I would like HandR to comment on.

Holy fuck, is that guy stupid.

I read one of his articles one time, and it was so bad it gave me cancer.

[Cytotoxic]

He's the enemy. Progs are all like him at their core. They will believe ANYTHING to justify their authority fetish and they will repeat the 'FACT BASED COMMUNITY' lie over and over again to compensate for their mendacity.

[Sevo]

"Speaking of which, Delaware finally successfully signed up somebody to buy health insurance through an Obamacare exchange, 16 days after they opened. Congratulations!"

Hey, shreek! Tell us about that "150,000" and tell us again how this is a victory.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I never said Delaware signed up 150,000, dickhead. In fact I never mentioned Delaware.

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|10.16.13 @ 5:08PM|#
"I never said Delaware signed up 150,000, dickhead"

Very clever, you lying pile of shit.
You said "i50,000 have signed up through the state exchanges".
Well, dipshit, it looks like one (1) has signed up.
Go fuck your daddy.

[Palin's Buttplug]

California claims over 50,000 by itself.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-Delaware finally successfully signed up somebody to buy health insurance through an Obamacare exchange, 16 days after they opened.

Well, sometimes it takes Vice President Biden quite a while to figure out such complicated things, so perhaps we should cut him some slack.

[Jordan]

Did he fire a shotgun in the air in celebration afterward?

[Palin's Buttplug]

It was more like former Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. She was on unemployment insurance while investigating her failed campaign prospects.

[CE]

That's what I was thinking too. When you're busy waiting for tie Senate votes to break, you don't have much time to surf insurance exchanges.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Controversy after North Carolina school teaches 'awareness' by having school employee walk around with toy gun and ski mask

GOLDSBORO, N.C. ? Eastern Wayne Middle School students were terrified when they were told there was an armed robber in the school with a mask and a handgun Friday. However, they quickly learned it was all part of a school lesson.
Nonetheless, some parents are not happy with the exercise and school officials admit it was a bad move.
In a letter that was sent home to parents, the school said it was part of enrichment exercise trying to teach kids to be aware of their surroundings. A school employee dressed up in a ski mask and carrying a fake gun pretended to be a robber.
The school system admits ? in light of the school shootings making headlines around the country ? they should have been more sensitive.

Well what was the point?

[Jordan]

Goldsboro is the town the Air Force almost nuked. Those kids need to harden the fuck up if they're to confront the Super Mutant menace.

[Warrren]

What about the bees? One of the last X-Files I ever bothered watching was about mutant bees or some shit. Was that ever resolved?

[Enough About Palin]

"The school system"

System???

[Eduard van Haalen]

And the "school employee" was suspended under a "zero tolerance" policy, I suppose?

[The Late P Brooks]

Eastern Wayne Middle School students were terrified when they were told there was an armed robber in the school with a mask and a handgun Friday.

They didn't jump him and kick the shit out of him?

I am disappoint.

[Mad Scientist]

Fighting will get you suspended.

[Invisible Finger]

This is the inevitable result of school campus lockdown. A smart kid would have run out of the school immediately instead of remaining a sitting duck.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Well gee Matty, almost makes you think those eeeeevul Tea Partiers and even more eeeeeeevul libertarians were right about ObamaCare.

If only sick people buy insurance plans, then insurance plans have to be expensive, so there's even more reason that only sick people will buy them, so they get even more expensive. Hence the individual mandate. What Handel, Handel, and Whinston are saying is that the exact same adverse-selection spiral is going to repeat itself inside the exchanges. Instead of unraveling all the way down to a state of noninsurance, it will unravel all the way down to the regulatory minimum of the bronze plan.

It's almost like the people designing these exchanges had no idea where the incentives were leading or something.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon.....brium.html

[Adam330]

He also doesn't actually get the problem with the "regulatory minimum."

"one of the very most prominent conservative lines of criticism against the ACA is precisely that it sets the regulatory minimum too high. So on the merits, if the ACA really does work the way Handel, Hendel, and Whinston say it does, conservatives should be less unhappy about it."

It's not that it's too high or too low, but that it uses a stupid measure (actuarial value), imposes a bunch of routine services that have to be covered, and requires that certain routine services be "no cost" or low co-pays. That means that the "insurance" isn't actually insurance and it drives up underlying medical costs and premiums.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It's not that it's too high or too low, but that it uses a stupid measure

Exactly. Actuarial value is not that useful a measure for the consumer of health care. It is baffling that the ACA designers set up the system this way.

[Invisible Finger]

The purpose was to generate as high a penaltax as possible.

Prior to the ACA we had two kinds of states: ones where health insurance premiums were regulated - aka everybody pays the same, and the free market ones where you paid based on your risk level when you first got into the plan - aka the younger you get in the lower the premium.

Since ACA was devised by the economically ignorant - aka Democrats - they decided to make their new system exactly the same as the idiotic one-price-for-everyone states where the young were avoiding bullshit insurance rates like the plague.

I'm ripping on Democrats but its possible that some of them are not economically ignorant, it is possible some of them are just plain evil.

[Pro Libertate]

Ahem. "No, fuck you, cut spending."

I would like my Koch overlords to have that lasered on to the Moon. Thank you very much.

[Mad Scientist]

Has anyone heard from waffles today? I hope he didn't accidentally stumble across this beach.

[Brett L]

I think waffles identifies as female.

[Mad Scientist]

Impossible. We all know there are no libertarian women.

[playa manhattan]

waffles are a pregnancy food...

[Medical Physics Guy]

What does the hyphen / minus sign next to the post do in Reasonable. I click it, it turns to a plus and turns the thread gray. Can someone tell me what the point of this feature is. Does it just allow me to see the particular thread progression? Or is it adding the thread to some s**t list?

Overall good experience with Reasonable though. I just filtered Tony. Can I filter out any replies that feed him too?

[Cascadian Ephor Xenocles]

I think it's supposed to collapse all the entries in a thread between the post you click on and its parent, so you can see the reply/parent relationship more clearly. It used to work better; mine doesn't always work the first click.

[Adam330]

"Delaware finally successfully signed up somebody to buy health insurance through an Obamacare exchange, 16 days after they opened."

Linked article confirmed my suspicion that the person would be old and had existing health problems. Who else is going to spend 7 hours on the phone and computer attempting to bypass a buggy and screwed up system to buy expensive all-inclusive insurance? Certainly not some young health person.

[Almanian!]

Whoever posted ysterday that they're reading ALL CAPS as "Julia Child's voice instead of someone yelling"...best idea ever. It has...changed my life.

YOU BASTARD!

[Pro Libertate]

Is that Julia Child or Dan Aykroyd as Julia Child?

[Enough About Palin]

Wow!

[Warrren]

I WANT YOU TO FUCK THIS DISEASED MONKEY. THIS ONE RIGHT HERE, WITH THE MASSIVE OPEN SORES.

GET IN THERE GET YOUR COCK RIGHT UP IT'S ASS. GO ON. THAT'S IT. FUCK HIM BLOODY.

ALL RIGHT, THAT'S HOW THAT IS DONE. MONKEY FUCKING IS ALL RIGHT.

[Warrren]

IT'S ALL RIGHT.

[Enough About Palin]

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Mark Cuban, the flamboyant billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, did not engage in insider trading when he sold his stock in an Internet company in 2004, a Texas jury decided on Wednesday.

Cuban, 55, estimated by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $2.5 billion, was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of trading on non-public information when he sold his 600,000 shares in Internet search company Mamma.com - worth $7.9 million - and avoided a $750,000 loss.

Cuban nodded and smiled, and he blasted SEC lawyer Jan Folena in remarks after the verdict, saying she had tried to bully him and "lied" to the court.

"I'm the luckiest guy in the world and I'm glad I could stand up to them," Cuban told reporters.

SEC lawyers left the court quickly after the verdict was read without making extensive remarks.

http://in.reuters.com/article/.....0D20131016

[Warrren]

Occupy Cuban's Bank Account didn't go exactly to plan.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Cuban seems to be another liberaltarian judging from his guest spots on Real Time.

[Death Rock and Skull]

Does he set off anyone else's 'dar though?

[Palin's Buttplug]

GOP keeps rejecting budget conference.

That was the 21st time Senate Democrats have requested a budget conference only to be denied by Republicans. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) objected.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor.....z2hvN4D1i7
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

[Coeus]

Proggies play dumb about the difference between open air monuments and national parks in order to snark

During a joint committee hearing, the Republican congressman asked NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis why protesters associated with Occupy Wall Street were allowed to camp in McPherson Square in 2011 but World War II veterans were not allowed to visit open-air monuments amid the government shutdown.

Jarvis told Gowdy that D.C. parks and memorials must close during a shutdown under the Anti-deficiency Act, which prohibits federal employees from spending money that has not been authorized by Congress.

But Gowdy continued to ask for a specific statute that required the government to close memorials during a government shutdown.

National parks closed during the Clinton-era shutdowns of 1995 and 1996. The parks also closed during a brief government shutdown in October 1990.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Are the memorials run by the NPS?

[Coeus]

Doesn't matter. They weren't closed.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Democrats Resurrect Confederacy to Refight Civil War in Their Own Minds

"...These are statements of faith, but the congregants who subscribe to this belief structure are numerous. Some would argue that it is theirs ? a devotion to an ideal that delegitimizes their opponents and renders the internalization of their ideas and arguments unnecessary ? that is the truly dangerous ideology.

"Others would say that this effort on the part of Democrats is part of an elaborate effort to repent for past sins. The Republican Party having been historically the party of emancipation, suffragism, and civil rights.

"But these are questions to be resolved another day. Today, the battle is again joined in the minds of many Democrats as they seek to relive the glorious and horrible War Between the States."

http://www.mediaite.com/online.....own-minds/

[Death Rock and Skull]

They'll be back, and in greater numbers.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Busi.....-Govt.aspx

[Eduard van Haalen]

A nine-person jury? WTF?