NSA Expert Report Delayed by Two Weeks, White House Promises to Fix Obamacare Website by End of Next Month, Connecticut Man Arrested For Allegedly Threatening New York Mets Over Social Media: P.M. Links

• 

  spDuchamp/Foter.com

  A two week delay of the report from an "expert" review panel on the NSA's spying practices has been blamed on the partial government shutdown. Leaked memos, meanwhile, show the United Kingdom's intelligence service worrying about legal challenges in the wake of revelations about its cooperation with the NSA and its own surveillance practices.

• The Obama Administration says it'll have the Obamacare website "fixed" by November 30. An Obamacare subcontractor has been promoted to general contractor and charged with leading the effort. Democrats facing difficult re-election campaigns next year, meanwhile, are increasingly open to the idea of delaying Obamacare.
• There is an all-time high of 1.2 million homeless students in US public schools, according to new government data.
• Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. will sell his home to pay the fines associated with his corruption conviction. His two and half year prison sentence is set to begin November 1.
• A Connecticut man was arrested for allegedly threatening the New York Mets over social media.
• A mailman in Detroit fought a fire and saved a woman from the second floor of her house before returning to his route.
• A bitcoin ATM set to go live in Vancouver next week may be the first like it in the world.
• The mother of a blonde Roma girl seized from her presumptive parents in Greece was found to be a Roma woman in Bulgaria who says she left the child in Greece because she could not afford her.
• A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the eastern coast of Japan earlier today, triggering a tsunami warning.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

A two week delay of the report from an "expert" review panel on the NSA's spying practices has been blamed on the partial government shutdown.

When no one is around to redact, reports don't get made.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Obama Administration says it'll have the Obamacare website "fixed" by November 30.

If they don't meet that deadline, you just know the accountability is going to kick in.

[playa manhattan]

Otherwise Obama will be really really really angry!

[Austrian Anarchy]

There should be a major award in this for Obama. Something from the National Insurance Producer Registry.

[PapayaSF]

After he reads about the missed deadline in the newspaper.

[VG Zaytsev]

And he'll write a strongly wooded wettah to teh Congreth telling them how vewy, vewy, mad he is at his adminithtrathon.

[Ted S.]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!111!!!

[CE]

First and second, with quotes? Now you're just showing off.

[jesse.in.mb]

Not only that he has a life outside of the links!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, off to the Pens game now, jagoffs.

[Ted S.]

Fuck Sid the Twit.

[Generic Stranger]

[Citation Needed]

[Fist of Etiquette]

Cite.

[gaijin]

I read somewhere they have more than 500 million lines of code in this thing. Windows 8 has 80 million by comparison. I don't see 6 weeks being enough to get the job done....whatever the job is.

[Cyto]

If you wrote 500 million lines of code for an insurance comparison website, you did it wrong. I seriously doubt that e-surance has that kind of volume of code, and it does basically the same job, minus the subsidies.

[Generic Stranger]

And somehow none of those 80 million lines of code are a functioning start button.

[Agammamon]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/28

[Sevo]

'If they don't meet that deadline, you just know it's 'cause racist, teapartier, rethuglican, Bush, obstructionist,...'

[John Thacker]

There is zero chance that that's a real technical estimate, as opposed to a political deadline. They have no clue.

They just think that if they order the A-Team and Top Men on the project, it'll get done. Mythical Man Month.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Bullshit. You've never put anything out to bid with a timeline to meet. The bidders all complied with the deadline. That is what bidders do.

Cost will vary greatly.

[playa manhattan]

"Costs will vary greatly"
Especially if the companies have to comply with conflict mineral reporting requirements.

[Corning]

Yeah cuz a subcontractor (read: political ally of Obama that Obama required the contractor to hire) of the general contractor which just got promoted without bid to general contractor is always on time when doing work for government.

[Cyto]

Huh? There are deadlines, and then there are deadlines.... 30 days to do some unknown task may or may not be reasonable. At least it is one of the subcontractors, so maybe they have a clue as to the scope and nature of the problems.

I run into this problem all the time - "we want a firm commitment as to when it will be fixed!" Well, if you don't know what is broken, you certainly can't give an honest estimate. And until you know what is broken, you can't really give an honest estimate as to how long it will take to diagnose the problem. So you just make an educated guess - then pad that number.

There is a certain maximum velocity to projects like this. Adding more people will have a diminishing return after a certain point, then possibly turn negative. This is what is meant by the mythical man month. You can't hire 9 women to make a baby in a month, and you can't bring in 5,000 programmers to rebuild something in a week that would take 100 programmers a year.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Certainly an assessment was allowed beforehand.

Much of winning a contract like that will depend on how milestones are defined. I worked for the second largest software company in the world and worked out numerous contracts from the business side on these projects.

[Derpetologist]

What is Alaska?

Who is Brazil?

Isn't a volcano just an angry hill?

[Corning]

You are just making crap up.

There were no bids there were no milestones.

This is Obama's no bid contract no different then Bush's.

He just picked some people who support him and that he thinks are smart and threw money at them...then said "Nov 30th" on the news cuz it sounded nice.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Quit lying.

[plusafdotcom]

Just got THIS email....

Cronyism?

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10.....e-website/

Start the fan. Queue the shit.

[Marshall Gill]

I worked for the second largest software company in the world and worked out numerous contracts from the business side on these projects.

What does your job as a janitor have to do with any of this?

[Bryan C]

I think you're engaging in competency projection. You have personal experience with a particular field of expertise, and you probably do it pretty well. You see other people you rely on being entrusted with similar responsibilities and assume that they, too, are similarly competent. And when faced with the terrible reality, fear and denial are the natural reactions.

I feel your pain. I've done IT and web work for a long time, and I assumed that the folks the Obama administration hand-picked and gave huge sums of money could at least write JavaScript and build a functioning web site. They sure had me fooled.

[PR]

Functionality is just around the corner.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

A Connecticut man was arrested for allegedly threatening the New York Mets over social media.

Did they let him down one more time?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Democrats facing difficult re-election campaigns next year, meanwhile, are increasingly open to the idea of delaying Obamacare.

Sounds treasonous to me.

[Root Boy]

Also raciiiiist!

[rts]

Paying kidney donors could be 'less costly, more effective'

Paying living kidney donors $10,000 could boost donations and cost effectively improve quality of life for people who would otherwise be on dialysis, say Canadian doctors who modelled the idea.

Canadian doctors require "models" for basic economics. *sigh*

[Fist of Etiquette]

No way. I want my free kidney.

[Juice]

There was a story about people in China selling their kidneys to buy iPads. I have no idea how true that is, but if it's true...um damn.

[Cyto]

If there were really a market for organs, the price would settle in at some point, probably much less than $10k. In the west if you could part out your dear departed loved one for $50k, if you were an average income family you'd take it. That's heart, lungs, 2 kidneys, corneas, liver, skin, bone, ligaments, arteries... lots of parts that can be reused.

Add in 3rd world nations where average annual incomes are less than 10% of that number.... well, I think the price might come down even more. If nearly every cadaver were an organ donor feeding into a global distribution system, you might not need any live donors. It'd be a new jack city, baby!

[plusafdotcom]

and a whole new government-sponsored industry centered in China! Think about it!

And impossible to outsource or send offshore! Job security and income for The People!

[Brandon]

$10,000? No. $25K and I'm in.

[Bryan C]

Sick people deserve better than your filthy moneygrubbing capitalist kidneys.

[jesse.in.mb]

The mother of a blonde Roma girl seized from her presumptive parents in Greece was found to be a Roma woman in Bulgaria who says she left the child in Greece because she could not afford her.

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

[playa manhattan]

That's Genocide!

[Steve G]

I fail to see why one gypsy orphan is international news, even if she is blond

[Tonio]

Because it used to be a persistent trope that Roma stole babies. Also, since the Roma tend to have dark hair and eyes a blonde/blue baby was...suspicious.

[CE]

Recessive genes.... how do they work?

[pmains]

Oh, shut up and grab a pitch fork.

[R C Dean]

Recessive genes.... how do they work?

Not very often?

[Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic!]

Only together...or so I hear.

[PapayaSF]

Also the ("adoptive") parents involved were getting Greek welfare for (IIRC) 12 kids, and it's not clear if they ever all existed.

[Root Boy]

So, do the gypsies steal kids or is it now the (greek) government? I have to get up to date on the scary stories I tell my kids for Halloween.

[Ted S.]

So, do the gypsies steal

You forgot to mention the tramps.

[Tonio]

Also thieves. LOL.

[Ted S.]

I think thieves was covered by the verb "steal".

[Root Boy]

Bunch of Cher fans in this place. If I could turn back time you assholes!

[BakedPenguin]

What, them?

[Ted S.]

Those are TraMMps, not tramps. Big difference. 🙂

[jesse.in.mb]

Bah, I'm never going to get that song out of my head.

[Ted S.]

Replace it with a different song.

[jesse.in.mb]

Not helpful. Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves is a go to karaoke song for me. I'm not that familiar with this song.

Gordon Lightfoot will succeed where you have failed, Ted.

[Ted S.]

So that stereotype about gay guys being big Cher fans is accurate?

How about combining Chere and disco?

[playa manhattan]

Well, that youtube video was preceded by a fruit flavored vodka ad, so maybe...

[jesse.in.mb]

So that stereotype about gay guys being big Cher fans is accurate?

I wouldn't go so far as saying I'm a "fan" but she's certainly entertaining, and her early stuff is in my vocal range for karaoke purposes.

[Thane of Steelport]

This song

Hillary 2016!!!

[Eduard van Haalen]

"There was this country where the government persecuted its opponents, tried to seize the wealth, and passed down heavy tax burdens to the little children. And it's COMING TO GET YOU AHHHH! Sweet dreams."

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The Obama Administration says it'll have the Obamacare website "fixed" by November 30.

Remember, remember the 30th of November, the Obamacare treason and plot. I know of no reason why this website treason should ever be forgot.

[CE]

The mother of a blonde Roma girl seized from her presumptive parents in Greece was found to be a Roma woman in Bulgaria who says she left the child in Greece because she could not afford her.

International child trafficking concern trolls hardest hit.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....e15073935/

[Fist of Etiquette]

There is an all-time high of 1.2 million homeless students in US public schools...

Sounds like another pivot to the economy is in our future. Maybe? Perhaps?

[Root Boy]

Obama will concentrate on gun control and amnesty first. I am surprised the recent shootings (kid shooting teachers, cops shooting kids, kids bludgeoning teachers) has not caused statists to spring into action.

Add some war on women! shrieking and we'll be golden.

[Tonio]

This is as much a result of No Child Left Behind as a growing homeless population. Before NCLB it was difficult for homeless parents to register their children for school, having no fixed address and all.

[John]

Isn't them being able to go to school a good thing?

[tarran]

I would think it depends...

For most of the homeless kids, it's good.

For some of the non-homeless kids, it's a negative.

We have a small program to bus disadvantaged youth into my son's school. The worst troublemakers in his school come from that group. On the other hand, there are other kids in the group who will have a much better life as a result.

On the whole I think it's a good thing.

[Tonio]

John, I didn't address that either way. I was just providing information.

[John]

Yeah. I misunderstood you. Sorry about that.

[Marshall Gill]

There is an all-time high of 1.2 million homeless students in US public schools

This sounds like bullshit. How on Earth could you be homeless in America and not have the DHS take your children from you? Isn't section 8 specifically for poor people with children? You can really enroll into a public school as a homeless person and not have agents of the State descend upon you to force welfare or take the kids?

[Sudden]

Not to mention that at about 350 million Americans, assuming those school aged range somewhere around 20% of that number you have about 70 million school aged kids. 1.3 million would thus be nearly 2% of all kids that age being homeless. Not buying that.

[Cyto]

Not sure, but I think "homeless" includes crashing at mom's place, moving in with friends, etc. Any kind of temporary address, not just living under the overpass.

[C. Anacreon]

And I wonder how many of the so-called homeless are undocumented immigrant children who don't want to put down an address for fear of family deportation?

[PapayaSF]

Probably that, too. But the "number of homeless in America" is often just a number pulled out of some activist's butt.

[Agammamon]

Many, if not most of those kids are not long term homeless. Lots of people fall on hard times and have to live in the car for a few months before getting back on track.

And as such a good number of these families will go from living on the street to back in a home somewhere before the government can react.

Which, overall, I think is a good thing - as shitty as it is to be homeless as a kid, you don't need the hassle of government tracking your family over a couple of months of bad luck.

[Enough About Palin]

Former Minneapolis police officer Bradley Schnickel was sentenced Friday to a year in the Hennepin County workhouse for sending nude photographs of himself to two teenage girls.
The sentence was arranged in July when Schnickel pleaded guilty in July to two felony counts involving two girls under 16.
Schnickel, 33, also faces 14 charges in Anoka County for allegedly using social media to try to lure girls into sexual encounters. Authorities say he had sex with two of them. His trial there is scheduled for February.
Schnickel was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department in February 2013, and he didn't appeal his dismissal.
http://www.startribune.com/loc.....86611.html

[jesse.in.mb]

How old is Dora again?

[playa manhattan]

Of legal age next January:
http://www.babble.com/celebrit.....-millions/

[Ted S.]

This can't possibly be true! Cops getting fired for breaking the law?!?!?

Or were the minors children of elected officials?

[Enough About Palin]

Vikings fan kept beard 38-plus years, waiting for Super Bowl title that never came

From the comments section (wasn't me):

Maybe a few Vikings players could be his pallbearers so they could let him down one last time.

http://comments.startribune.co.....ments=true

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Okay, which one of you is canby1973?

[CE]

With the Ponder/Freeman/Cassel QB triumvirate, that beard is coming off any year now.

[John]

And the Viking fans on here called me crazy for saying they should have just signed Tebow and ran the option. Yeah, that would have turned out so much worse.

[Auric Demonocles]

He's worse than all 3 of them anyway.

[John]

Not running the option he isn't. He won't turn the ball over and he would actually help Adrian Peterson. That alone makes him better than any of those three. Cassel and Ponder are both turnover machines are two of the five or ten worst NFL quarterbacks of the last 20 years.

[Killazontherun]

Spot on, and if Tebow built up a consistent short pass, coupled with his and Peterson run option, that would be a hard combo to beat.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The 8-3 pro defense would destroy Peterson and Tebow.

The top running backs never win Super Bowls - Simpson, Campbell, Dickerson, and so many others.

Until Dallas put a bunch of All-Stars around Emmitt Smith it was a rule.

[Palin's Buttplug]

And yes, I know about Walter Peyton. Like the Bears really needed him to win that year - not.

[Warrren]

Jerome Bettis, Marcus Allen, Franco Harris x4, Marshall Faulk, John Riggins, Terrell Davis x2.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Jerome Bettis, Marcus Allen, Franco Harris x4, Marshall Faulk, John Riggins, Terrell Davis x2.

All second tier RBs. They could not sniff Earl Campbell's jockstrap.

[Warrren]

Allen, Harris, Faulk, and Riggins are all in the Hall of Fame. Bettis will probably make it and Davis has an outside chance. You are a fourth-tier troll.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

All second tier RBs.

Wow, you know less about football than you do about mathematics!!

[Brandon]

This is PB's usual argument, just applied to football. Say something stupid (The top running backs never win Super Bowls), get called on it, treat it as an axiom (I said the top RB's don't win Super Bowls, therefore any RB who won a Super Bowl is second tier), ignore any further argument. Stop feeding it.

[Warrren]

I wasn't feeding it, just leaving yet another example of it's mendacity.

[Cyto]

Dorsett? Csonka? Riggins? Harris? Craig? Allen?

[Warrren]

I'm ashamed that I forgot about Dorsett and Csonka.

Don't hate me!

[Warrren]

Both also in the HoF.

[Sudden]

Walter Payton

[Palin's Buttplug]

Barry Sanders - total bust in postseason - also Ladianlian Tomlinson.

RBs don't win games at all.

FACT!!

[Marshall Gill]

Imbecile claimed that the Bears would have won without Payton. Of course, you can set your watch by this moron being wrong. Amazing how the Bears were so good they didn't need 1500 yards rushing from Sweetness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Payton

[CE]

Jacksonville and Minnesota should both have Tebow on speed dial.

[Warrren]

I'm a run first guy and I would have signed Tebow in millisecond.

Plus he sells jerseys...

[Sudden]

He sells jerseys outside his market. NFL revenue sharing only lets you keep revenue from merch sold within 75 miles of the home stadium

[Bobarian]

Through the sheer weight of it tearing itself out by the roots?

[The Last American Hero]

I thought the Vikings did their burials at sea with a flaming arrow.

[PD Scott]

Yeah, but now you have to file an environmental impact statement, get Fish and Wildlife to sign off on it, Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA?

[Austrian Anarchy]

There is an all-time high of 1.2 million homeless students in US public schools, according to new government data.

Impossible under a Democrat!

Or

Look at Reagan's legacy!

[Tonio]

Bush's legacy. See my 4:43 post above.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Is there anything Bush didn't fuck up?

[Pathogen]

Palin's Buttplug|10.25.13 @ 5:26PM|#

Is there anything Bush didn't fuck up?

Undetermined, he's still in office... check back in 2016.

[gaijin]

Insurers dropping customers due to Obamacare

What's up with CBS News? Yesterday they had reports on Benghazi, Obama's lies about keeping your insurance...Dan Rather must be turning in his grave. He is dead, right?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Last I checked, he published a memoir defending his Bush National Guard reporting and giving a favorable blurb to a book suggesting OJ was innocent of murder.

[TheTreeOfLiberty]

I've been thinking the same thing, The link I posted right below this is from CBS as well.

That Sheryl Atkinson chic is good - she's the one that mysteriously had her account hacked for doing unfavorable reports about the administration. Hmmm.

Perhaps CBS figured out there's a market out there for people not interested in watching 30 minutes of Reporter on Obama fellatio.

[John]

And she is a babe too.

[TheTreeOfLiberty]

Yes of course there's that as well.

[Root Boy]

Milf-tastic!

[Pathogen]

"Perhaps CBS figured out there's a market out there for people not interested in watching 30 minutes of Reporter on Obama fellatio."

It's a saturated market.. Maybe their knees were hurting, or they just got tired of waiting in line... They'll be back, they always comeback, the allure of the chosen one frosting their faces with his manhood is just too irresistible for them...

[BigT]

What you are seeing is the development of the new prog meme: Obama was let down by his underlings and blocked by racist R's, so they need pale angel Hillary who can recruit the best and brightest and overcome R racism.

[Pathogen]

"That Sheryl Atkinson chic is good "

Yeah, she was the only one at CBS, and the entire MSM for that matter, that wanted to talk about the "ATF + Fast & Furious"..

[Palin's Buttplug]

Did she get in on MarineHAT-Gate too?

So many fake scandals!

[Pathogen]

Okay.. what is a "MarineHAT-Gate too?"

[Palin's Buttplug]

The Marines are ordering new hats this week and the wingnuts are blaming Obama for wanting a "unisex" one.

All untrue - except the fact that new hats are coming for females.

[Pathogen]

And that has what? to do with either Sheryl Atkinson, or an asinine and dangerously ill-conceived covert policy that armed enemies of both the Mexican and American governments, resulted in an untold number of deaths on the Mexican drug wars, at least two federal agents, and attempted to impugn the second amendment by blaming the resulting mayhem of American firearms enthusiasts, with no tangible benefit to anyone other than rip crews and drug mules... Yeah, I can see where " The Marines are ordering new hats this week and the wingnuts are blaming Obama for wanting a "unisex" one." might take a back seat to that...

[Palin's Buttplug]

You were the asshole who said this:

Yeah, she was the only one at CBS, and the entire MSM for that matter, that wanted to talk about the "ATF + Fast & Furious".

[Pathogen]

And you were the asshole who went off on an entirely unrelated hat-gate scandal tangent, and I still don't know or care what the fuck you are on about, so there... Shhh.. shhh...shhh.. Let Obamas cock rest easy in your gullet.. he'll tell you what scandals are worth his your rage and self-righteous indignation...

[Long Range Boredom]

It's a cheap ploy to discredit legitimate scandals. Point out something ridiculous, and try to infer that it is one and the same with a moronic program that armed cartels.

[PapayaSF]

I think they want the new hats for the men, as well.

[TheTreeOfLiberty]

she was the only one at CBS, and the entire MSM for that matter, that wanted to talk about the "ATF + Fast & Furious".

Yes and it looks like that was a part of the reason she warranted a "closer examination", likely by the administration. I guess they were just trying to help her understand what transparency is all about though.

they always comeback
Well once you go black...

[Enough About Palin]

There is an all-time high of 1.2 million homeless students in US public schools, according to new government data.

So Obama has fundamentally changed America!

[TheTreeOfLiberty]

All that success the administration is crowing about signing people up at the state level, yeah well the majority those people are signing up for Medicaid, not private insurance.

So I guess those stupid TEA THUGLICAN governors who didn't hold their hands out for more federal dollars in Medicaid matching funds weren't so foolish after all. To the rest: enjoy watching your state budgets blow up.

[TheTreeOfLiberty]

Dammit: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-50.....structure/

[CatoTheElder]

Concluding remark: "Supporters show there is demand" for health insurance.

Supporters are dismayed and don't understand why most signups are Medicaid? Seriously?

There's always going to be demand for free shit, genius, even if it's just free insurance.

[TheTreeOfLiberty]

Obama: Here's free Health insurance, if you don't take it I'm going to withhold $300 from your next tax refund.

Any rational human: okay

Reporter: Look!!! Demand for health insurance.

[TheTreeOfLiberty]

Best line: "Industry experts are uncertain why they're seeing these lopsided numbers". Huh, go figure. You mean when you give people shit for free they'll take it but not so much when it's something they don't want and they have to pay for it. Who would've thought.

[Pathogen]

As if 'Single Payer' wasn't part of this administrations cunning, Double-Secret? plan all the long...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

NSFW: Art school student plans to lose anal virginity live in front of entire class

On January 25, 2014, Pettet, a second-year student at London's Central Saint Martins art school (Jarvis Cocker went here!), is planning to exhibit a one-time-only performance art piece entitled "Art School Stole My Virginity," which will involve Pettet and a friend engaging in safe anal sex on stage at an art space in the London Borough of Hackney.

He expects between 50 and 100 classmates and other members of the public to attend.

"The key thing about performance art is that it should only be performed once, and this is the ultimate once-in-a-lifetime performance," Pettet told a local news agency.

The show will be followed by a Q&A wherein Pettet will ask the audience if they detect any change in his partner's attitude toward him.

"Since culturally we do hold quite a lot of value to the idea of virginity I have decided to use mine and the loss of it to create a piece that I think will stimulate interesting debate and questions regarding the subject," Pettet said.

Early "reviews" have been mostly negative, with one LGBT activist saying the stunt "cheapens our own sexual relationships."

And I bet he feels entitled to free 'education'.

[jesse.in.mb]

Pettet is going to be bummed when this is all over.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I've heard some great things about the ending.

[John]

So some guy ass fucking another guy is high art?

These are the things that make you think maybe Bin Ladin had a point.

[Pathogen]

!

[Juice]

Yeah man. What about all of Hitler's good ideas, huh?

[Bryan C]

Hey, you know who else had good ideas?

Oh. Wait.

[Enough About Palin]

From the comments:

Being an art teacher is tough these days. One of my roommates was a teacher at SFAI and one of his students made a cement dildo connected to a rocking chair and made a video of herself humping the chair until the floor was covered in blood. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do... give her an F... give her an A? Call the psych ward?

[Live Free or Diet]

Psych ward. Ambulance. Puke bag. Something.

[playa manhattan]

Was she hot?

[C. Anacreon]

Years ago I briefly dated a student at SFAI, and I can totally believe she could have done this rocking chair stunt. Art schools in general have some pretty wack students.

[Bam!]

"The key thing about performance art is that it should only be performed once, and this is the ultimate once-in-a-lifetime performance," Pettet told a local news agency.

Suicide would be better.

[Brian D]

It's been done.

[gaijin]

which will involve Pettet and a friend engaging in safe anal sex on stage

So, how is this not considered pornography? Does London also have heterosexual 'artists' clubs? Admission is free, but you bid on the bedsheets?

[Ted S.]

I can't be arsed to see this.

[playa manhattan]

"will ask the audience if they detect any change in his partner's attitude toward him"

Well, he might want a sandwich and a nap.

[Pathogen]

"will ask the audience if they detect any change in his partner's attitude toward him"

Failure to cuddle afterwards.. cigarette smoking...

[Cyto]

Nah, it ain't performance art if it isn't all bondage garb or rolling around in something gloopy. You can't cuddle if you are covered in 40 pounds of Skippy peanut butter.

[pmains]

Well, I guess we know where you stand on cuddling in peanut butter. Weirdo.

[Pathogen]

40 pounds of Skippy peanut butter? Philistine!.. Artisanal mayonnaise! (and/or Nutella).

[Warrren]

It's all Greek to me.

[jesse.in.mb]

You should really mix it up more.

[Warrren]

Can you give me a hand?

[jesse.in.mb]

Do you need tutoring in French?

[Corning]

I doubt she is a real anal virgin.

[playa manhattan]

She? Didn't see that anywhere in the article.

[jesse.in.mb]

Don't mind him, he just failed a hetero-privilege check.

[gaijin]

Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. will sell his home to pay the fines

Keep an eye on who buys it and how much they pay...they don't call it the Chicago way for nothing.

[Tonio]

^This.

[R C Dean]

And keep an eye on whether it gets sold or rented back to Jr. when he gets out of the slam.

[Sevo]

..."Democrats facing difficult re-election campaigns next year, meanwhile, are increasingly open to the idea of delaying Obamacare."

Uh, it *IS* delayed, but it's delayed by technical incompetence instead of legislative incompetence.

[Enough About Palin]

"Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. will sell his home to pay the fines associated with his corruption conviction. His two and half year prison sentence is set to begin November 1."

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[playa manhattan]

I don't understand how his dad was able to escape the same fate.

[Root Boy]

His dad didn't go into government. He scammed his millions the old fashioned way, by race shaming a bunch of corporations into funding his pimp lifestyle (and that of his mistresses).

[PD Scott]

At least they got more money than the Navy got for the Forrestal: Army sells blimp back to maker for $301,000, "only" spent $297 million on the program.

Near the height of the Afghanistan war, the Pentagon spent $297 million on a seven-story blimp-like aircraft ? as long as a football field ? that would hover over the war zone for weeks at a time, beaming back crucial intelligence.

But as the military wound down its presence in the Middle East, plans for the unmanned floating spy center deflated. The aircraft fell behind schedule, became 12,000 pounds overweight and was ultimately canceled after just one test flight.

Last month, the Pentagon quietly decided to sell back the sophisticated spyship to the British company that built it for $301,000 ? a fraction of its investment.

[CE]

You know who else had a blimp?

[John]

It was a dirigible.

[Tonio]

Dirigible is the collective term for elongated LTA craft. Zeppelins are fully rigid (full external frame) dirigibles, blimps are non-rigid dirigibles, semi-rigid dirigibles have a center pole.

[John]

Thanks. Learn something new every day.

[PD Scott]

I think you meant internal frame.

[Tonio]

I meant external frame, that is a frame external to the gas bag(s). Zeps had fabric skins on the outside of the frame, so I can see how you'd think the frame was internal. An internal frame (semi-rigid) has a center pole, but no ribbing outside the gasbag.

[Ted S.]

In which case the answer is Frank Capra.

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

Mary Pat Christie?

[Tonio]

Goodyear?

[Ted S.]

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger?

[Pathogen]

It's a rigid airship...

[PapayaSF]

Damn, I keep hoping for a dirigible comeback.

[jesse.in.mb]

I was just telling a coworker this morning that I want to convince the rich that strollers are for poor people and that all the cool parents are transporting their children in mini-zepplins. Maybe also roll out some bicycle powered mini zepplins for adults.

All of this will be hydrogen of course.

[John]

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013.....obamacare/

Cancer survivor loses insurance thanks to Obamacare.

So imagine Dr. Carpenter's shock when he received the news that he and his family were losing their health insurance at the end of this year.

"I was at my mother-in-law's birthday party last week when she asked me, 'What are you gonna do about health insurance?'" She told him that his wife's employer is sending out letters informing its staff that it is dropping their Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans.

Carpenter liked the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plan that he and his family were on. It was stable and provided excellent care for many years through several illnesses.

His wife's employer has dropped these plans due to Obamacare. "Yes, absolutely," Carpenter says.

These sorts of stories need to go viral. Shove them in the progs' faces at every opportunity. Make them show the world how little they give a fuck about actual people.

[Ted S.]

Kindly link to the single-page version next time. Or are you getting paid for the extra page views?

[John]

Don't get me started. I fucking hate that. And every site does it. Sorry about that.

[Ted S.]

At least you didn't link to a slideshow list.

[Jordan]

Carpenter liked the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plan that he and his family were on

Obviously false.

[SugarFree]

mumble mumble Home Depot mumble

[Juice]

hese sorts of stories need to go viral. Shove them in the progs' faces at every opportunity. Make them show the world how little they give a fuck about actual people.

Go to fark and they are saying the same thing about people who are loving it. "Find more stories and spread them. Rub it in the critics' faces."

And here are the glib responses you can expect to this story.

1. He had a pre-existing condition prior to Obamacare he would not be able to get a new policy once BCBS would have inevitably dropped him. So Obamacare actually saves him. Never mand that he'll now have to shell out way way more for worse coverage.

2. He was against Obamacare from the beginning so he's probably a plant and his story is total BS.

3. BCBS consciously chose to drop him so it's their fault, not Obamacare's.

[John]

In other words, what Sugarfree said above at 5:03.

[Mike M.]

Whining Patriots can't understand why their team and Tom Brady are so disliked.

The reason why so many people can't stand Brady is because he's the Block Yomomma of the NFL: greatly overrated, the beneficiary of a considerable amount of cheating (Spygate) and rule-bending (the now-defunct "Tuck Rule"), worshipped by a fawning and sycophantic media, constantly protected and coddled by enablers (especially the referees), and we're constantly told that everything bad that happens on his watch is always someone else's fault but his.

[John]

Take away the cheating part and you could be talking about Payton Manning. They really do deserve each other as rivals.

[CE]

I hate the Patriots and Bellicheck, but Tom Brady is one of the best QBs I've ever seen. I think people hate him because he's pretty.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

It's like Butters with Ben Affleck. If Tom Brady were married to Jennifer Garner instead of Gisele, people wouldn't hate him so much.

And yes, Brady is very good. Possibly a top 10 all-time guy by the time he hangs up his Uggs, if not already.

[Mike M.]

If only there was an alternate universe where we could get to see him have to spend years playing behind the Steelers or Giants current offensive line instead of one of the best offensive lines in history.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Mike M's latent homosexuality is his cause for Brady hate.

He hates that which he cannot have.

[Marshall Gill]

He hates that which he cannot have.

So instead of swallowing Obama's cock you really wish it was GWB's?

[gaijin]

I always thought it was because there were so many masshole fans scattered about the country.

[hamilton]

I'm just staying away from this for the sake of my sanity. It's Friday, so i am going home to drink now.

[Derpetologist]

The Marcotte Letters

Here is my letter in response to her debate challenge:

http://platedlizard.blogspot.c.....inism.html

[Tonio]

Just had to kick that ant-hill, didn't you. Please let us know here and on your blog if she responds.

[Live Free or Diet]

He delivered a rather good kick.

[Derpetologist]

I suspect she will ignore it as I do not have enough twitter followers* or some such.

*Actual excuse given to other challengers

[Corning]

1) the belief that women are equal to men in all ways except anatomy

feminists believe men and women have equal anatomies and the only reason men have larger upper body mass is because our misogynist culture encourages young boys to play in activities that develop their upper bodies more.

I am not even kidding abut this.

[Derpetologist]

That's a new one for me. I figured even the most hardcore ones would have noted that even the strongest women in the world are no match for men of even above-average strength.

[Derpetologist]

Dramatic readings of Amanda Marcotte's work by Michelle Malkin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcNbv-7sNLw

[John]

That is funny.

[CatoTheElder]

I'm no Malkin fan, but I laughed out loud when she did her dramatic reading of Amanda's announcement of her appointment as the blogmistress for the Edwards campaign.

[John]

We should send the link to Jezebel with the note

Hey maybe you guys are right. Women really are funnier than men.

[Derpetologist]

Feminists are masters of bathos.

[Tonio]

Bathos, for the win.

[Derpetologist]

Didn't Edwards get busted for cheating on his wife?

Odd that a feminist got suckered into supporting a shameless philander?

Did I say "odd"? I meant "predictable".

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Yep, and online feminist Marcotte's article for that was titled something along the lines of "OK, you got him -- can we talk about something else?"

A cheating man's greatest solace is the cadre of feminists at the ready to attack women who bring forth such allegations and who are well-supplied with excuses for the Big, Strong Man. Well, if he's a prog anyways.

[Troy muy grande boner]

She should have read it like the women in this video. WARNING!!! Women are having orgasms in this video but it is completely WORK SAFE and HOT!!!!

http://www.criminalwisdom.com/.....sm-as-art/

[The Immaculate Trouser]

My fellow women-haters, let us delve once more into the font of empathy, logic, and clarity of thought that is Amanda Marcotte's column

"20/20? keeps delaying the episode of their show dealing with the extensive, grassroots campaign to harass women, particularly feminists, online until they quit in terror and frustration.

Wait, so who exactly is quitting out of terror and frustration?

A) Women bloggers?
B) "20/20"?
C) The extensive, grassroots campaign to harass women?
D) Anyone trying to make sense of the cosmic riddle that is an Amanduh sentence?

(Well, I assume that's the imagined goal, though most anti-feminist harassers are men who get a lot of pleasure out of the direct act of berating and scaring women, so their campaign is really self-rewarding.)

I prefer to indirectly act to berate and terrify women, myself.

Unless you define the belief that you are entitled to have a submissive woman wait on you and worship you and take your abuse with a smile a "right", of course. They do. I don't.

There's a load off my mind.

[Cont.]

[CE]

Why?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

"Anti-feminist" comes to mind, but it doesn't fully capture the intense misogyny of the movement. Also, "anti-feminist" is a broad category encompassing most conservatives, many of whom have different approaches and goals, even if they agree with the broad view that women belong in a subservient position to men.

*rising applause*

[Pathogen]

"they agree with the broad view that women belong in a subservient position to men."

Doggy-style.. take that, you!

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

"An Obamacare subcontractor has been promoted to general contractor and charged with leading the effort."

Of course he has.

[The Last American Hero]

So the subcontractor was Captain Piett?

[Bobarian]

"A mailman in Detroit fought a fire and saved a woman from the second floor of her house before returning to his route"

He was later struck in the face with a brick and picketed as a scab by the detroit firefighters union.

[playa manhattan]

Detroit FD is famous for letting houses burn.

For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guYeUR04E4M

[PD Scott]

Some people take Bloodhound Gang way too seriously.

[Ted S.]

Whenever there's trouble, they're there on the double?

[Pathogen]

They were burning abandoned houses for practice, at the behest of the city, not too long ago.

[Long Range Boredom]

Russell Brand apparently 'starts a revolution'. What's the over-under on this 'revolution' just being another variation of 'GIMME'.

[PD Scott]

If only it was performance art where he stands on a chair, declaims all that he finds fault with in the world and how it has let him down, puts a rope around his neck, challenges all like-minded individuals "to shame the greedheads who run the world" to follow his lead and kicks over the chair.

Bloody stupid git.

[Reverend Mayhem]

If only it was performance art where he stands on a chair, declaims all that he finds fault with in the world and how it has let him down, puts a rope around his neck, challenges all like-minded individuals "to shame the greedheads who run the world" to follow his lead and kicks over the chair.

Or maybe he could just let another guy ass fuck him on stage.

[PD Scott]

Not now, that'd be derivative and stale. Now, if he did it while talking about Katy Perry, at least he'd get some buzz.

[Pathogen]

Now, if he paid another man to skull-fuck him on stage...

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-About the War on Illegal Pornography

The War on Illegal Pornography is being waged at a unique period in history. For nearly five decades, the battle to protect individuals and families from the devastating effects of pornography ? addiction, exploitation, family disintegration, violence against women and children, and increased crime ? has been fought.

In the 1980s, great gains were made as the United States Department of Justice began to prosecute violations of federal obscenity laws. Pornographers in many parts of the country responded to the threat of prosecution by self-regulating and pulling potentially illegal material off their shelves. Unfortunately, in the past twenty years we've seen pornography and its effects reach a pandemic level, only a handful of prosecutions of pornographers have occurred. In fact, the current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has now shut down the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force in the Criminal Division of the U. S. Department of Justice.

New social science research has emerged linking pornography to a plethora of society ills ? sex trafficking, child abuse, domestic violence, and divorce. Simultaneously, medical research documenting how pornography harms brain function is now available

These new causalities can be used to galvanize support for a renewed war on this harmful and illicit material.

http://waronillegalpornography.com/about/

[playa manhattan]

Free Speech, how the fuck does it work?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

You have to give them some credit for being up front about 'using casualties' to 'galvanize support' for their cause. Sheesh.

[playa manhattan]

And yet they seem to be unaware of the primary purpose of the internet.

[Pathogen]

Data mining?

[playa manhattan]

Yes. Data mining porn.

[Pathogen]

That would 'porn mining'.. and it's important work.

[playa manhattan]

I do my part.

[Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic!]

You, sir, are a good man and a patriot!

[jesse.in.mb]

I don't know if you really want a war on pornography. They have a supply chain advantage and a huge fifth column. Maybe we should have a do-over with Vietnam again instead.

[John]

And they have the entire interwebs to hide in just like the VC had the jungle.

[PD Scott]

The Ho Chi Minh Happy Trail?

[John]

Lots of secret landing strips.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I do not want to know what is going to be Agent Orange in this game.

[Warrren]

John Boner.

[Pathogen]

Good 1

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Dare to question rape culture

But getting caught up on Hitchens' laughable lack of understanding of what we mean when we say "rape culture" distracts from the worst part of her shitpile argument: that rape culture isn't real. Why? Because the statistics prove it's not!

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' "Violent Victimization of College Students" report tells a different and more plausible story about campus culture. During the years surveyed, 1995-2002, the DOJ found that there were six rapes or sexual assaults per thousand per year. Across the nation's four million female college students, that comes to about one victim in forty students. Other DOJ statistics show that the overall rape rate is in sharp decline: since 1995, the estimated rate of female rape or sexual assault victimizations has decreased by about 60 percent.

So, from a survey of "violent" victimization, Hitchens extrapolated that the "one-in-five college women will be raped" statistic is false. Check out these statistics that say statistics are crap, guys.

Heaven forbid we attempt to define terms.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

First, Hitchens demonstrates with this column that she doesn't know what rape is. Like Todd Akin and Whoopi Goldberg, the crime she describes is the eye rollingly cliched image of a woman walking down the street and being violently dragged into an alley by some guy with a dastardly mustache. But that's not an accurate picture of rape. According to RAINN, more than 2/3 of rapes are perpetrated by an offender known to the victim. Most take place within a mile of the victim's home. And in many cases of collegiate rape, the victim isn't overpowered by physical force or violence, but by alcohol. And, legally speaking, having sex with a person who is too intoxicated to consent constitutes "rape." Hell, of all the women I know who were raped in college, I can't think of one who has described it to me as "violent."

Wow, someone had a miserable existence in college. Of course there are instances where that is rape, and then there's that Ohio State bullshit which was definitely consensual.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-And in many cases of collegiate rape

Notice the qualifiers here: 'many' cases of 'collegiate rape', which is then used to somehow undercut the incredible gap between 1 in 5 and 1 in 40.

[Ted S.]

and then there's that Ohio State bullshit which was definitely consensual.

You're deliberately doing this to piss Sloopy off, aren't you? 🙂

[John]

Fluffy made a great point on here one time. Every time feminists talk about how the vast majority of rapes are not reported, they just tell rapists "go ahead and do it, chances are she won't even report it". Their lies actually harm women.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

My friend's sister wrote the U.S. News piece. I knew Jezebel, et al, would respond like that. It's sad, really.

[Thane of Steelport]

There's a Tumblr called fuckingrapeculture.tumblr.com.

I love it, because I always read it as "Fuckin Grape Culture".

related

[Thane of Steelport]

I posted this comment.

[Coeus]

Authorities don't understand that predatory men use alcohol as a weapon against women they wish to victimize, and they focus too much on the "women avoid rape!" message and not enough on the "men, don't rape!" message.

About that message:

An incredibly successful Vancouver-based campaign was implemented in Canada, Australia, and the U.S. in 2010 with the intention to educate the public on rape awareness. Battered Women's Support Services, in cooperation with the Vancouver Police department, Bar Watch, WAVAW, and BC Women's Hospital and Health Center, were the main organizations behind the behavioural marketing campaign. It campaign catered to young men between 18-25 and emphasized, unlike many other campaigns, that the responsibility to prevent rape is in the hands of those same young men.

They call it incredibly successful because after it started, sexual assault fell by 10% in Vancouver. What they don't say is that so did all violent crime in Vancouver. And in Edmonton, where they ran the exact same campaign, it rose by over 10%.

[Coeus]

I'm confused? I thought that, by their own rules, this wasn't racist?

In an interview with The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi, the Republican precinct chairman of Buncombe County, North Carolina, Don Yelton explained that the voting ID requirements he and his GOP cohorts are trying to pass wouldn't hurt black people per se, but rather democrats. In a way Yelton should be commended for his refreshing honestly. It's not everyday that someone admits on television to trying to intentionally disenfranchise people of a certain party. And on top of that, Yelton goes to make overtly racist comments:

The law is going to kick the Democrats in the butt. If it hurts a bunch of college kids that are too lazy to get up off their bohonkas and go get a photo ID, then so be it. If it hurts a bunch of whites, so be it. If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, then so be it.

I was assured, that for example, saying "fuck those racist white people" was only talking about the racists, and if you weren't racist, you couldn't be offended. Also, the "guy's, don't rape" campaign was only referring to rapists, and if you weren't a racist, you couldn't be offended. Shouldn't blacks only be offended if they're lazy?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Yes, how could 'bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything' possibly have any racist connotations? It is so clearly only talking about the lazy ones with that attitudes, not the 'good ones.'

[Coeus]

I'm just using feminist logic that they preach here. Don't jump on me.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Sure, but we are better than them. Of course nearly everyone is better than them.

Yelton's comments and motivations are abhorrent. I have long been skeptical of these ID laws for reasons he gives proof too.

[Coeus]

Followup on Rawstory, in which the a commenter drops this gem:

prius04 ? 34 minutes ago ?
If you go to any dictionary and look up almost any word, you will find multiple meanings for that word in most cases. And sometimes the different meanings can seem nearly the opposite of a prior meaning. The N word fits this in particular. When a white person says it it has one meaning, when a black person says it it has another. (There are exceptions to this rule, but then English is filled with exceptions for millions of words and phrases.)

Now this isn't racism. And you don't have to like this fact. But it's how the English language works.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I am not sure this is incorrect.

Think of your girlfriend saying 'aren't you handsome today.' Now think of the same thing said to you by a straight male co-worker. I bet they are not meaning the same thing, even though the words are exactly the same.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I bet they are not meaning the same thing, even though the words are exactly the same.

You are correct. It's called pragmatics, which is one of my research interests, actually.

[Coeus]

Interpersonal relationships are not skin color. For that to apply, you would be able to say it at work to friends with a greeting context and not get fired if someone overheard. And your example is odd. why wouldn't it mean the same thing? If the tone is not sarcastic, it's merely a compliment on your clothes. I have actually heard that from a straight coworker.

[Calidissident]

Really Coeus? I'm far from a PC doctrinaire, nor do I think black people should call each other the N word, but do you really not see how it can have a different connotation when a white person says it to a black person than when a black person says it to a black person?

[Coeus]

So the relationship doesn't matter? Listen, here's why I know it's bullshit. I travel all over the world for work. After a few weeks in a new place, you start using the standard greetings for that office with your co-workers. Whatever they say to you or each other. There is not a single place I've been where you can hear a word used as a greeting in a professional setting that it is inappropriate for you to use with other co-workers. New York just had a case about this, and it would seem that the courts agree with me. They pretty much had to, as there is no non-racist logic to back up this double-standard.

The connotation is in how it's used, not the skin color of the person using it. I've heard white people use it in greeting, and black people use it derogatorily.

[Calidissident]

"So the relationship doesn't matter?"

Not what I said. Ceteris paribus, though, the connotation is different coming from a white or black person. I mean sure, if a white guy calls another white guy that as a greeting, or if he says it to a black friend of his who has let him know that it doesn't bother him, the connotation is different than if he says it to a black guy he doesn't know. My point is that a white guy calling a black guy he doesn't know a "nigger" or "nigga" has a different connotation than a black guy saying the same thing to another black guy he doesn't know. Disagree with the rightness of that all you want, but you can't seriously think it isn't true.

[Max Power]

Man drives convertible down Philly art museum steps.

Is inexplicably not blasting Gonna Fly Now on the stereo.

[Rhywun]

There is an all-time high of 1.2 million homeless students in US public schools

I'm no expert, but this number sounds like bullshit to me.

[hamilton]

Given that USA Today reports only 632K homeless in the US in 2013, I think you're right.

[Bryan C]

That statistic obviously misses the additional 600k Canadian children who sneak across the border every day to enjoy a quality education in Detroit.

[Tonio]

I can't vouch for the numbers, but see my 4:43 post above.

[playa manhattan]

In this "study", students living with somebody other than a parent (to get into a better school district, for example) are "homeless".

[Sevo]

Sorta like the kid who missed breakfast this morning is numbered among those lacking 'food security'.

[R C Dean]

So, Will Smith living in a mansion with a butler and everything = homeless?

[Marshall Gill]

Got to get the numbers up some how.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

And the Grand Jury Prize for the Sentence Which Has Done the Most This Week To Embrace and Acknowledge the Two-Minutes' Hate Of Ayn Rand Which Unites Us All Goes To...

The shoddy research in [Ann Coulter's] books is not proof of some kind of Andy Kaufman-style performance art. It is simply evidence that she's willing to lie to her audience in order to sell more books. The Ayn Randian "every man for himself" philosophy that guides the modern right means that even exploiting your ideological brethren for profit is acceptable behavior. That's how megachurch pastors peddling miracles and conservative publishers selling snake oil sleep at night.

1) Ann Coulter's shoddy research was put in there by Ayn Rand's vengeful revenant? Who knew?

2) Megachurch pastors who believe in divine healing are adherents of an explicitly anti-religion, materialistic political philosopher? Who knew?

[John]

SOCONS, Objectivists, they all look the same man.

[Ted S.]

I just presume all megachurch pastors are con artists.

[Enough About Palin]

You do realize that when you presume, you make a pres out of u and me, right?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

OK, I hate to defend this woman (though I will say I find Coulter loathsome as well) who is so chronically silly, but I do not think she is saying in that last line that megachurch faith healing pastors =Randians but rather that they both exploit their 'ideological brethren.'

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Um, no. She's saying that "The Ayn Randian 'every man for himself' philosophy" helps "megachurch pastors peddling miracles and conservative publishers selling snake oil sleep at night". Marcotte is saying that Rand's philosophy enabled this behavior in some way, which is utterly stupid to anyone who has a smidge of knowledge concerning either corrupt televangelists or Ayn Rand herself.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Are we in disagreement? I said her point was that 'they both exploit their 'ideological brethren.' And she sees that attitude as springing from ideological egoism, a school of thought which she notes Rand is a well known figure within.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

1) I don't particularly care for philosophical egoism, but the behavior of TV evangelists doesn't spring from a mass adoption of philosophical egoism.

2) Philosophical egoism does not necessarily endorse ripping people off or misleading them.

3) Even if it did, philosophical egoism is not a political philosophy and has been acknowledged as a starting point for a variety of political views. Randians are a very small subset of egoists.

Anyways, it was just amusing to me that Amanda would be dumb enough to seriously suggest that Rand and TV evangelists can seriously be explained by the same phenomenology without even developing on that idea. It is a classic WTF non-sequitur that Marcotte excels at.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

But Rand is a very prominent egoist in our society, so I think it's forgivable for Marcotte to put her face on the movement.

Additionally, I do not see how your number 2 point can be correct (though I acknowledge that Rand many of her followers said it was). If an act is right in so much as it is selfish or self serving, to say 'unless it misleads' is to smuggle a non-egoist principle into the mix.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I do think though that Marcotte has a very, at the least, underdeveloped idea of the motivations of 'huckster' faith healers. She seems to see them all as the Bible salesman in that Flannery O'Connor story with the girl with the wooden leg. I would bet in real life things are more complex than that.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That's because you misunderstand rational egoism. It is against one's self-interest to engage in fraud, in that if one is caught, the damage to that person's reputation makes it less likely that others will do business with that person.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

If one can engage in fraud and not be caught, and it would gain one something, then an ethical egoist should do it. You are just introducing a kind of 'rule utilitarian egoism.'

[Heroic Mulatto]

Ethical egoism is different that Rand's "rational egoism", which was sort of rule utilitarian.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think the confusion was all Rand's.

[PapayaSF]

My impression was that Coulter was good at documenting her books with footnotes and references. No doubt people can take issue with some of it, but I think "shoddy research" is probably just partisan blather.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sarah Palin shoots bear, taunts Piers Morgan with picture

Sarah Palin found a novel way to turn down an interview request from Piers Morgan on Friday, posting a picture on Facebook of a bear she had shot dead and a note saying she was busy.
The former Alaska governor thanked chat show host Morgan for inviting her on his 'shambolic show' but added she was 'kind of busy right now'.
The Facebook message, which had been liked by nearly 3,000 of Palin's supporters within two hours of it being posted, is part of an online spat between the pair after Morgan poked fun at her intellect.

Earlier in the week the host of Piers Morgan Live tweeted 'And she's back' and linked to a satirical article from the Daily Currant claiming Palin believed Jesus had celebrated Easter.
According to conservative website Breitbart, Morgan was 'gleefully tweeting out a Currant story attacking Sarah Palin, without noting that the story was untrue'.

Got to love the way she trolls liberals.

[John]

They are all so convinced she is stupid, yet her presence makes them seem even more idiotic than usual.

[tarran]

I love how they taunt her with shit made up about her as if that makes some point against her.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Right? I mean the most common taunt directed at her, "I can see Russia from my house", was said by Tina Fey on SNL.

But apparently many progs honestly think she said that.

[John]

I meet them all of the time. I would say most if not a large majority of progs believe that.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think it is a silly question to ask her in the first place, and so the answer came out seeming silly. Of course someone whose highest elected office is governor is not going to have much foreign policy 'experience' since under our system their role in that area is circumscribed. Any answer a governor might give is going to come out seeming 'lame,' something to the effect of 'leading trade delegations' or 'being close to another country' for border states. SNL distorted what she said, but it was just capturing how silly the answer was. My problem was not noting how silly the question was. For example, how would a recently elected Senator, who after all was the Presidential, not VP, candidate, have any solid 'foreign policy' experience? He sat through some briefings and hearings? Sheesh.

[John]

The irony of the whole thing is that as Governor of Alaska she actually did have such experience and more so than a lot of other governors. Alaska shares a border with Canada and a sea border (which contains fishing and mineral rights) with Russia. And the state of Alaska is a player in all that. She just didn't think about her answer and her staff really let her down in preparation.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I have to disagree. It comes off as silly to say 'I have enough foreign policy experience because I am the governor of a state close to other countries.' The reason is because Governors are largely circumscribed in what foreign policy actions they can take.

I agree she did not think about her answer, that was a general problem with her if you ask me.

On the other hand, it seems to me that while a Governor is limited in their foreign policy experience a Senator, especially a new one, does not strike me as having much at all. And of course a Senator like Obama has no executive experience, while a governor like Palin would, and that seems to me to be a bigger deal.

[John]

'I have enough foreign policy experience because I am the governor of a state close to other countries.' The reason is because Governors are largely circumscribed in what foreign policy actions they can take.

I am just telling you how the border works. And the border state governors deal a lot with Canada and Mexico and Russia respectively. Don't what to tell you other than that.

[Root Boy]

Being governor of Alaska, neighbor to both Russia and Canada will, objectively, result in more foreign policy exposure than almost any Senator, especially Obama.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Most common taunt is that she could not name a newspaper (at all).

And it was caught in an interview.

Sarah is incredibly stupid. She could not answer a single Jeopardy question.

[John]

It is almost like she thought there were 57 states or didn't realize that Austrian is not a language or something.

It is really no surprise you like Obama so much Shreek. He has made it okay for America to elect a complete and obvious moron President. And you being a moron should be happy about that.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

In fairness to someone whom I detest policy wise, everyone, Palin and Obama, misspeaks, but Obama can point to certain commonly accepted indicators of intellectual accomplishment that Palin can not, and this is likely why his gaffes stuck less.

[Derpetologist]

Like what? He admits he goofed off in high and Occidental. How the hell did he get into Columbia and Harvard law? It wasn't his grades, that's for sure.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Who cares? Obama was Harvard Law Magna cum laude. Do you know how difficult that is?

And president of the Harvard Law Review.

His academic record is superlative based on Harvard alone. I don't care how he did in undergrad.

And he entered Harvard as legacy.

[Pathogen]

And he's still an incompetent fucking idiot...

[Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic!]

Oh, shriek has his Harvard Transcript - do tell!

[John]

And they believe all of the made up shit is true. But she is the one who is uninformed.

[tarran]

I dislike Sarah Palin for the way she entered politics (she was basically funded and directed by some businessmen who supported her run for mayor in exchange for a white elephant community center that benefitted them at the expense of local tax payers).

Of course, this exact same charge can be leveled against 20% of politicians in the United States (including numerous town council members in my home town), and is a pretty run of the mill objection.

The libel and unjustified libels and slanders the proggies spread about her have made me want to like her. I mean, she is clearly of at least average intelligence as a politician (compare her to the morons who worry about Guam tipping over and counsel firing warning shots into the air in built up areas), her skeletons are pretty chump change (how many sealed divorce records did she leak?).

And frankly, she is very smart to be a politician emeritus without portfolio. She plays the role of thorn in her enemies' side very, very well.

[John]

All of the Reason writers who snarked about Palin are not going to be so giddy in a year or two when the media goes after Rand Paul like they went after Palin.

What people on the right never got that the attacks on Palin were not about Palin. They were about the establishment destroying someone from the outside who dared to try to get elected. And they figured out with Palin, that if they just repeat enough lies loud enough and long enough, they can destroy anyone who dares stand up.

And sadly, a lot of people on the right helped them do it out of snobbery.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

There strikes me as being good reason to think she is at least as smart as Biden. That is not saying much, but Biden got much more of a pass than she during their 08 campaigns.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Biden could do two hours unaided on SCOTUS decisions extemporaneously.

Sarah can't name a SCOTUS case other than 'Roe'.

[Pathogen]

"Biden could do two hours unaided on SCOTUS decisions extemporaneously."

And he can tie his shoes all by himself... with no help. He can count to 10 without using his fingers, and will brush his teeth and go to bed on time, without having to be told...

[Troy muy grande boner]

I still kind of like her. Even if it is nothing more than how she pisses of proggies. At least she isn't a smug cocksucker like like the shitweasel in chief and his Harvard bullshit. You can't be smug like that if you went to the University of Idaho. IMHO, she is one of the more transparent politicians out there. I think she really does like shooting stuff for example.

Oh and that fucking Editor of HArvard Law review isn't that fucking impressive. oooooooOh so you know how to footnote really well. And since it is pretty likely, but not certain, that havard law students are at the top end of the bell curve, he probably never had to edit any particular note that often.

[Enough About Palin]

"Jesus had celebrated Easter"

If you were dead three days and came back to life, wouldn't you?

[Coeus]

Water into whisky, in that case.

[R C Dean]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Jesus did, in fact, celebrate the first Easter, as he visited his disciples after the resurrection. Busted in on a prayer meeting, in fact.

Close enough. Seems to me the ignorant ones are those claiming that the statement "Jesus celebrated Easter" is laughably stupid, even for a Christian.

[Enough About Palin]

"Busted in on a prayer meeting, in fact."

Kinda rude when you think about it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-Jesus did, in fact, celebrate the first Easter, as he visited his disciples after the resurrection.

The day of the Resurrection, or later?

[Warrren]

"Oh ME, who shoved a painted egg up my ass?"

[Juice]

I'm curious as to why the bear was shot.

[Generic Stranger]

There's this thing called hunting. Perhaps you've heard of it?

[playa manhattan]

Stop resisting.

[Eduard van Haalen]

" Opposing California's Co-Ed Bathroom Law

"The movement against the new "anti-discrimination" law is gathering steam.

"...[Governor] Brown signed AB 1266 on August 12. The law requires that "a pupil be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil's records."

"Perhaps surprisingly for those who see California as the bluest of deep blue states, proponents think the measure to repeal the law has a good shot at success, if it is put on the ballot.

"Frank Schubert of Mission Public Affairs, the former head of the (surprisingly) successful Proposition 8 campaign that briefly barred same-sex marriage in California, is leading the fight against AB 1266, informally called the "Co-Ed Bathroom Law." Having mounted successful campaigns in California, Maine, and North Carolina, Schubert has taken up his latest cause, coordinating the circulation of petitions to put AB 1266 on the ballot for the people of California to vote on directly."

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....lec-torres

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I am of mixed mind about this law.

On the one hand, I was raised in a rather traditional upbringing and it is frankly disturbing to think about biological boys in the girls locker room (and vice versa), especially for younger age children.

On the other, it seems to be mandated only in government schools, so it is a case of the government setting some use rules for its own buildings and programs, though public schools have a strong element of coercion in them, so that seems a draw to me.

Then on the other I know if must be hard for children that are truly confused about their gender, or convinced it is not in sync with their biology, and I can see how the law is supposed to make life easier for such kids.

[playa manhattan]

If they had this law when I was in High School, I would have made a point of showering with the girl's volleyball team. And soccer team.

[Gbob]

I wouldn't have minded showering naked as much either.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I would have identified as a nymphomaniac and joined their support group.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I know you are kidding some, but I highly doubt many young high school boys would declare themselves to really be females just for access to the women's locker room.

[Eduard van Haalen]

It just takes a few.

[playa manhattan]

If you went to my high school, you wouldn't be saying that. 90% of the girls volleyball team was 9 out of 10 or better, and they all played beach volleyball in the offseason to stay in shape.

The bleachers were filled with dirty old men who where only at the games to see nubile young women prance around in spandex.

[paranoid android]

Yeah, it's probably not nearly as cool and deep in real life as it was when Kevin Spacey did it in American Beauty.

[playa manhattan]

It never is. On the flip side, every girl on the team was way hotter than Mena Suvari.

[Troy muy grande boner]

It would be a great way to sell season tickets.

[Thane of Steelport]

They should just change the bathrooms to "has a Y chromosome" and "does not have a Y chromosome".

[Generic Stranger]

Just replace the signs with "XX" and "XY".

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Dave Weigel doubts the veracity of that story where a GOP congressman told Obama he couldn't stand the sight of him;

Check your white privilege, Dave.

[Palin's Buttplug]

It was Pete Sessions (TX). Durbin was correct, sad to say, and the Peanut Gallery here was wrong.

[R C Dean]

The White House admitted Thursday that it was the source of a phony quote attributed to a top House Republican, who had allegedly told President Obama during a tense Oct. 10 meeting that 'I cannot even stand to look at you.'

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

[Palin's Buttplug]

WASHINGTON ? Dallas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions has been identified by several senators and aides of senators as the GOP leader who told President Barack Obama, "I cannot even stand to look at you," during negotiations on the government shutdown, according to the Huffington Post.

But Sessions might be a victim of miscommunication, according to a statement the White House released this morning.

Sessions, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, was part of a group of House Republicans to meet with Obama during the shutdown. This week, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he had been told that a House Republican leader uttered the line to the president during the meeting.

http://trailblazersblog.dallas.....-you.html/

[Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic!]

Excellent - we have you on the record as actually believing this.

[R C Dean]

From the article above:

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged Thursday that 'there was a miscommunication when we read out that meeting to Senate Democrats and we regret that misunderstanding.'

So PB is still peddling the story that the WH was spreading, but has now admitted was false.

Try to catch up, Plugs.

[Coeus]

Jimmy Joe Meeker 1 hour ago
Except for racist Tea Baggers, I think most people agree that Obama has been our greatest president.

FlagShareLikeReply
Retired UN Helicopter Pilot
Retired UN Helicopter Pilot 1 hour ago
@Jimmy Joe Meeker He's definitely going to be recognized in history as the savior of representative democracy against the attempt to use coercive "negotiation" tactics.

That and he prevented a second depression and would've gone further if the conservatives weren't intent on making him a one term president and repealing Obamacare 40+ times and burning the whole United States to the ground.

No no no, don't worry, his place in the top 8 at least is safe and sound.

[Warrren]

Wow.

[PapayaSF]

It's astonishing that anyone can be so deluded in 2013.

[Warrren]

He's not even in the top eight of the last nine.

[Brandon]

Even his most devoted cultists can't name a single actual accomplishment, so they default to "it could've been worse." Yeah, greatest President ever.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I'm sure you will be shocked as I was to find an experienced economics and business correspondent such as Yglesias peddling the tripe below...

Real tax reform starts with taxing land value (which should include the value of mineral resources), taxing pollution, taxing traffic congestion, and taxing public health hazards (alcohol, soon-to-be-legal marijuana, Fritos) in order to drastically reduce taxes on labor.

The fix is to suspend the payroll tax that funds Social Security entirely, and replace the lost funding with money printed by the Federal Reserve. Promise that said printing will continue until nominal income catches up with its pre-crisis trend path, and that in the future the Federal Reserve will be targeting the level of nominal income and using this payroll tax swap as an instrument if needed to keep the target on track.

Remember: 85% of what economists say is utter crap. 110% of what Yglesias says is somewhere below that.

[John]

Promise that said printing will continue until nominal income catches up with its pre-crisis trend path,

With the resulting inflation, that will happen real soon. He is so profoundly ignorant. If he took econ 101 in college he clearly failed or forgot everything he learned. At what point does someone at Slate put a stop to him embarrassing himself like this? I sometimes think the owners of slate hate him more than I do.

[Coeus]

So, wait. Feminists are cool with me whipping it out on the subway now?

Perhaps the most interesting thing about these safer sex ads is that they don't show penises. What "disarms" the penis is making it visible as a part of the relaxed body. As Jonathan D. Katz says in Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes, "To see a penis is to know that it couldn't possibly be a phallus. If male power is premised on the cloaking of the male body, then it is to its uncloaking that we must turn for our collective liberation."

[PD Scott]

I wondered what happened to him after "Dr Katz Professional Therapist" went off the air.

[Coeus]

I always figured he died of Parkinson's.

[jesse.in.mb]

Fuck off Dr. Katz, what would Christmas be without unwrapping the presents one at a time?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I have a hunch that the good Dr. Katz is more of a Chanukah guy.

[jesse.in.mb]

Too true. Maybe I should've said birthdays and alienated the JWs

[Warrren]

"To see a penis is to know that it couldn't possibly be a phallus. If male power is premised on the cloaking of the male body, then it is to its uncloaking that we must turn for our collective liberation."

I have no idea what this means.

[Thane of Steelport]

I think he means "erect penis" when he says "phallus". So, "if you can see a guy's flaccid penis then you know he's not turned on". Which is still dumb on several levels.

[Suthenboy]

These people have a made up language of their own to describe the imaginary world they live in.

I have no idea what the fuck this guy is talking about.

[Corning]

So the statue of David is the reason why Renaissance Europe was so women friendly...

Also the ancient Greeks I hear had really good day care for working single moms.

[Troy muy grande boner]

I have no idea what the fuck this dildo is saying. So, if say Michelagelo's statute David had a boner, it would have been considered "armed." Armed with a friendly weapon we might say.

[Sigivald]

It's great how the "homeless students" piece didn't link (even at the CNN source) to the actual data at any point.

Experience makes me think that "homeless" here will mean "homeless for any length of time at all over the school year".

(Moving, and you were in the car overnight? "Homeless".

At a shelter for a few days, but with a place to live before and after for the entire year? "Homeless".

The relabeling tactics to make it seem like there's an explosion in chronic homelessness - what everyone tends to think of by the term - aren't new, and I simply assume they're being used unless data is provided to tell me otherwise.

Because every time I look into such a claim, that's what it's been.)

[Ted S.]

It's the same thing with hunger claims.

[Sigivald]

Indeed, a search of the Source Agency's website finds a document called "Who Is Homeless" (Here), which defines "homeless" (via the McKinney-Vento act) as including anyone who lacks permanent housing at any time.

If a kid's staying with a relative for a while, they're "homeless" - "children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason;"

This definition may be enshrined in law, but it is patently not what the term means in general usage.

The report the article points to appears to be this one.

Turns out, of course, that school districts and programs get more Federal money for having "homeless" students, too.

This could never result in the inflation of "homelessness", just as it never has in any other context (see learning disability inflation).

And their table show 75% of the "homeless" youth were "doubled up" rather than on the street or in shelters - living with relatives.

This might be an indicator of real economic distress, no mistake.

But it simply isn't what anyone else means by "homeless".

[Heroic Mulatto]

But it simply isn't what anyone else means by "homeless".

Agreed. When I was 12, our house burned down due to a problem with the boiler. We stayed in my grandmother's house down the road for a bit until we could find a rental. I guess technically we were "homeless" as it was my grandmother's house as opposed to our own, but such a definition is an insult to those that are actually freezing their ass off under a bridge somewhere.

[Heroic Mulatto]

If you're interested in looking at the data, here you go.

[CatoTheElder]

By the criteria used for this report, almost every kid is homeless at one time or another.

I'm not quite in the reviled 1%, and my kids have been homeless several times. One time it really was a hardship because the hotel had really slow room service.

[CatoTheElder]

Staying with parents temporarily living in motel or accommodation not their own = homeless
Staying with your grandparents= homeless (unless they are legal guardians)
Staying with your uncle/aunt = homeless (unless they are legal guardians)
Staying with your brother/sister = homeless (unless they are legal guardians)

etc.
Staying at temporary foster home = homeless

[Warrren]

Staying in STEVE SMITH'S THEME PARK OF FUNDAMENTAL FUN! = homeless

[Generic Stranger]

Also, rape.

[Derpetologist]

Got a letter from BCBS today saying my insurance goes bye-bye December 31st. Similar plan will cost me $50 more per month.

Obama Cares!

[Jordan]

That's okay; you didn't like your insurance.

[John]

This is what progs actually believe. They take it as an article of faith that everyone who didn't have insurance wants it and everyone who had insurance hated their policy.

[Warrren]

Can you imagine if they took over a restaurant and ran it on those principles?

[Derpetologist]

Obama Burger: Have it my way

[Pathogen]

Obama Burger: Have it my way

/FTFY

[John]

Waitress Here is your burger and five sides Warren

Warren: But I only ordered a burger and fries

Waitress: We don't have oppressive ala carte ordering here. We make sure you get everything you need.

Warren: But my bill is $100?

Waitress: What do you want charity?

[Warrren]

Why is there an estrogen supplement on my plate? And who serves Fiber One with a burger?

[Derpetologist]

It's a good thing I'll be starting a new job soon as it will soon be even harder to remain self-employed.

I'm 28. I was in the Peace Corps. I even voted for Obama in 2008 in the misguided belief that he would ease off the drug war and maybe not start any more wars.

Obamacare, Fast & Furious, Benghazi, IRS- is there no caboose on this clusterfuck train?

[Warrren]

I'm thinking there are going to be more self-employed people working only for cash and withdrawing from the banking system.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Only $50 increase?

Less than most any year previous.

[Derpetologist]

When you see something you don't like on TV, do you shake it up and down to punish the little people who live inside?

[R C Dean]

PB must work for the NSA. How else could he know how much Derpetologist's past premium increases have been?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Health insurance prices generally rise but for 2014 the only possible explanation will be the ACA.

But they usually rise.

So what is the cause? The usual one or the one-off?

[Juice]

Those rose steadily. This was due to market restrictions more than anything. Obamacare is causing a huge step increase in premiums for many many people. You know this.

[Juice]

Only $50? You lucky bastard. I'd kill for that.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Matthew Yglesias is on vacation.

The best sentence ever published by Slate magazine.

Anyways, Slate has hired some wannabe journalist to replace him until he comes back -- the replacement is classically clueless, but lacks that special Yglesias charm that makes him so worth reading. As my little effort in promoting Slate-Reason bilateral cooperation, I challenge all of you Sadbeard fans out there to rewrite the excerpt below as the Master himself would have penned it:

Brad Stone, author of the new book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, compared Amazon's pursuit of contracts to a cheetah pursuing a sickly gazelle. That sounds about right.

The most Yglesiasriffic entry will receive a free Matty-Approved Monopoly Money Printing Press, which produces 100% cruelty, usury, and value-free monopoly buxx!

[John]

Matthew Yglesias is hiding in the basement room he rents with the blinds shut playing with dolls this week.

If only Slate were honest.

[jesse.in.mb]

Rick Santorum: This is a tough business [...] we're stepping out. The Devil has for a long, long time, had these screens for a playground.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Of course, by "The Devil", he means Jews.

[Killazontherun]

I love goofy conspiracy shows like Ancient Aliens. They replayed a show from last Holloween that featured Mayan blood letting rituals and the idols and architecture that accompanied those occasions. I was thinking, if I were one my conquistador ancestors encountering that with all of the mythology and imagery depicting El Diablo I would certainly have been steeped in, I would have been convinced I had stumbled upon the House of Satan. It just looked so perfectly like you would imagine such a place.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That's a good point.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Why does he always sound so angry? I have never been able to understand that.

If you're going to be pants-crapping insane, at least smile every once in a while.

[John]

You would think he would have learned something from the success of Obama.

[R C Dean]

Like Boehner did. That spray-on tan he sports is straight-up Fake Mulatto. Best he could do. Imitation, flattery, you do the math.

[John]

It always amazes me how the people who have the least understanding of something are nearly always the ones who are obsessed with it. Progs worship government but have almost no understanding of how it works. Religious people like Santorum constantly claim to be fighting the devil and evil and have the most simple minded and idiotic conception of what evil actually is and how it works.

[Warrren]

You'd think Satan would have the smarts to come up with new ideas. Instead he recycles the same plots, characters, and beats.

Way to go Dark Lord, just fuck up our movie industry why don't you?

[Suthenboy]

Yes, the GOP put this guy up as a candidate for president.

It is not hard to see how people like shreek nurture such hatred for those fuckwits. If only they were not fuckwits themselves they would see that the team they shill for is even worse.

[John]

He didn't win the nomination. And shreek is a retarded idiot. I don't think you can pick your candidate based on the hope craven retards will like it.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Dubya was Santorum with a fake Texas show ranch.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Dammit, you've summoned him.

[R C Dean]

Dubya was Santorum with a fake eco-friendly Texas show ranch.

For example:

The 4,000-square-foot house is a model of environmental rectitude.
Geothermal heat pumps located in a central closet circulate water through pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground where the temperature is a constant 67 degrees; the water heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. Systems such as the one in this "eco-friendly" dwelling use about 25% of the electricity that traditional heating and cooling systems utilize.

A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof runs; wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers goes into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is used to irrigate the landscaping surrounding the four-bedroom home. Plants and flowers native to the high prairie area blend the structure into the surrounding ecosystem.

No, this is not the home of some eccentrically wealthy eco-freak trying to shame his fellow citizens into following the pristineness of his self-righteous example. And no, it is not the wilderness retreat of the Sierra Club or the Natural Resources Defense Council, a haven where tree-huggers plot political strategy.

This is President George W. Bush's "Texas White House" outside the small town of Crawford.

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0429-03.htm

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Perhaps Heinlein had his Nehemiah Scudder prediction off by a decade...

[Suthenboy]

Roma....? I thought the preferred term was Romi. Is Gypsy a dirty word these days?

[jesse.in.mb]

I think the preferred term is Roamani or Roma (sometimes with a double 'r'). Gypsy is derrogatory and the Romanians hate that they call themselves the Romani since Rom?ni can be used to refer to the Romanians.

[PD Scott]

"The thieving Roma stole our demonym!"

[Warrren]

Even their tomatoes are untrustworthy.

[Derpetologist]

Actual Mattew Yglesias column title: My five point plan for fixing everything

http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon.....thing.html

Not only is he brilliant, but so modest!

[Killazontherun]

I watched CNBC with my evening meal. They were blaming the sequester for recent economic slowdowns; they even had a lady in the defense contractor industry do a woe is me, 'we're losing talent' schtick. I am not even going to get into the unsound fundamentals of their thinking, that has been covered here extensively, I would just ask them one thing. Given the explosion of debt over the last few months, if their theory that the down tick of activity was the result of the sequester, and in accordance with their Keynesian based logic, would not the debt issuance more than make up for that loss, and by a huge factor?

[John]

If sequester shut the economy down, how is that contractor "losing talent"? Doesn't a down economy mean they can't leave?

[Killazontherun]

Maria certainly didn't bring that up.

'You would lose the talent to a more prosperous industry that is meeting consumer demand, how is that our problem?'

Is what I was thinking.

[John]

Maria is kind of a babe. But God she is a mendacious idiot.

[Killazontherun]

I love her in spite of myself.

[Root Boy]

Odierno is claiming none of his Brigades are trainin' (except for two getting ready to deploy). All due to sequester.

The BS is deep and wide among the flag ranks.

[Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic!]

That is sad...he was a half decent field commander - now just another politician in uniform.

[playa manhattan]

Since you seem to be a man of good taste, might I ask what you had for dinner?

[Killazontherun]

Thanks for the compliment. A half side of Cornish hen in Marsala sauce, wild rice (Uncle Ben's, I cheated there), and Brussels sprouts basted in butter, crumpled bacon, heavy creme and home made wine. If you've this fair before, I make it once a month. Leftovers from last night, in fact.

[Killazontherun]

I use to always make rolls to go along with this meal, but I've cut bread out extensively from my diet. As it conflicts with the beer part of it.

[playa manhattan]

Thanks, I'm looking for inspiration. It's Friday night, my wife isn't home, and I can have absolutely anything I want for dinner, but I am drawing a blank...

I just might do a vietnamese game hen if I can get it defrosted in time....

[Palin's Buttplug]

I usually watch or DVR Bill Maher's Real Time every Friday. Tonight he has on both Michael Moore and Al Sharpton - the two most vile hucksters among "progressives".

I may just watch the jokes at the start and end.

[Derpetologist]

Do you wonder why pants are different from shirts?

Do erasable pens make your head hurt?

[Eduard van Haalen]

The thin man inside Michael Moore has a thin man inside *him.*

[Almanian!]

I usually watch or DVR Bill Maher's Real Time every Friday.

Shriek, you didn't need to prove you're a retard. We believe you.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Bill Maher is one of our lone remaining political comedians. He is funny unless you get all defensive with his attacks on the silly Christian superstition.

[Coeus]

I'm an atheist, and I love that stuff. But he's so smugly wrong about just about everything else that I can't even enjoy that part.

[Long Range Boredom]

Yeah, his regular factually incorrect smugness really makes for decent political commentary.

[Skip]

Spoiler: They will talk about Socialism being superior and never donate their millions to actual charities.

[Enough About Palin]

REPORT: NSA WEBSITE DOWN IN HACK ATTACK

http://rt.com/usa/nsa-site-ddos-attack-754/

[PD Scott]

Surely they knew who was going to do it before they did it, right?

[Thane of Steelport]

Eh, it's kinda funny, but a DDoS attack isn't particularly impressive or sophisticated.

[Bam!]

Apropos

[Almanian!]

DOWN GOES FRASIER! DOWN GOES FRASIER!

/Cosell

[Almanian!]

I'm so old I remember Howard Cosell. And I miss him.

Fuck....

[Hyperion]

I remember him too, I just never liked that blowhard.

I do miss John Madden though, he was funny as hell. The best part about it was the comedians doing parodies of him. He was one of the best ever to parody.

[paranoid android]

Yeah, because he made such imbecilic, facile observations about the game he was commenting on.

"Well Chuck, see, here we have two great teams that can play both offense and defense, and at the end of the day, I think whichever one of them can get the ball to the other end of the field more often and put the most points on the board is going to win this football game."

[Hyperion]

"Well, you see.... the quarterback, he has the ball, and what he's gonna try to do is, he's gonna try to throw the ball to the receiver. And then, if the receiver, if the receiver, if he catches the ball and he's in the endzone, what you got right there, is, uhh, you ... that's a touchdown.

[Generic Stranger]

That guy sure could talk a lot without saying anything at all.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Howard, Don, and Frank.

They were a great tandem. Everyone hated Howard but you need that to make it work.

Notice how MASH sucked with no Frank Burns?

[Pathogen]

Sooo... you're the Frank Burns?

[Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic!]

That explains rather a lot.

[Troy muy grande boner]

I remember that it seemed Cosell was in about every other issue of MAD Magazine.

[Hyperion]

Has anyone posted this here, yet? It's been a busy day and my first opportunity to get on here.

Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness

At first I thought it was a joke. I mean, how can this not be a joke?

[paranoid android]

I'd love laugh at all of the people in America and elsewhere who have voiced such enthusiastic support of the Venezuelan government since Chavez originally came to power and rub stuff like this in their faces, but they've probably already selectively edited their memories to pretend that all just never happened, just like they did with Mugabe.

[Root Boy]

Venezuela is a joke (except for the hot womens).

Is Sophia Vergara from there, or Columbia? Love to hear her take on local politics (sorry ladies, I'd probably just stare at her mounds).

[Sudden]

Columbia

[Hyperion]

All South American countries have lots of hot women.

[PapayaSF]

And lots and lots and lots of not hot ones.

[Calidissident]

Is there a single country in the world for which that isn't true?

[PapayaSF]

There are hot women in any country, too. I just don't think the proportion of hot/not is especially good for South America.

[NebulousFocus]

Singapore.

[RightofCenter]

Colombia is the country.

/pedant

I once corrected a US journalist about the spelling when I was stationed in Bogot??. The correction was credited to "XXXXX, deployed to Bogot?, Columbia." There's no winning sometimes!

[Killazontherun]

To be fair, they get the coasts where Canadian cities lie switched as often as they get South American countries confused. Also, to be fair, there is a middle part of Canada I'd have trouble with as well.

[Hyperion]

In the middle part of Canuckistan, that's like... no one really knows what's there, and it's only a tundra with ... well, no one has ever been there, so we don't really know.

[Long Range Boredom]

I thought that was the part that is super flat and only has one gas station run by a hit-and-miss comedian?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Have you forgotten the Wendigo?

[CatoTheElder]

It's easy to spell Manitoba, but that other province is impossible to spell and there's nothing there but wheat and rapeseed fields.

[Generic Stranger]

rapeseed

STEVE SMITH's favorite crop.

[R C Dean]

I once corrected a US journalist about the spelling when I was stationed in Bogot??.

Pretty sure there aren't any spaces in Bogota. Pedant.

[Hyperion]

Comrade from Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness arrives at your door to make sure you are happy.

Citizen: 'Hello.'

Happiness Officer: 'Are you happy?'

Citizen: 'Well, I ...'

Happiness Officer: (pulls out club) *WHACK!* *WHACK!* *BAM* *SMACK!* *BAM!* 'ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!?'

Citizen: 'Ughhhh....'

Happiness Officer: 'When I come back, you better be happy! YOU WILL BE HAPPY!'

I bet Obama had a fit of jealousy when he heard about this on the teevee. 'Umm, let me be clear, uhhh, it's must easier to govern in Venezuela.'

[Generic Stranger]

THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORAL IMPROVES!

[Coeus]

Remember what I predicted after that chick got all that money from that reciept with a racist slur in the tip column written in a different colored pen?

It would seem that I was correct.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Do you mean this incident isn't genuine? It's being reported as such.

[Pathogen]

Unpossible..

[Coeus]

I merely predicted in increase in claims.

[Pathogen]

They only do this because they care...

[CatoTheElder]

Makes me proud to be an American.

[Troy muy grande boner]

IN case anyone missed this. Chicks having work safe orgasm on camera.

http://www.criminalwisdom.com/.....sm-as-art/

[Thane of Steelport]

Well, it's visually work safe. It's still chicks orgasming.

Reminds me of the roller coaster videos.

[Redmanfms]

Damn. Stoya's giggly, gasping, smiling orgasm is one of the hottest things I've ever seen on the internet.

Beautiful really.

[plusafdotcom]

My 31st Law...

"Wait for Rev. 3.0"

Really!

[Ted S.]

We Packer fans enjoy seeing the Vikes get destoryed, too.

[Warrren]

As a fan of the team that used to be in that division I enjoy watching any of those teams fail.

[carol]

We Bucs fans would just like to get close to a win.

[Warrren]

A what now?