Open Thead: Why the Hell Not? Plus: Subscibe or Die!

It's been a long time since we had an open thread. So here's one. Have at it.

And as long as you're hanging out here, why not:

• Like our Facebook page? We're at 110,000 likes but can always use more.
• Follow us on Twitter? The feed is lively and bursting with farm goodness.
• Follow Reason 24/7 on Twitter? It's the best news-aggregation feed EVAH.
• Follow Reason TV on Instagram? Now with more nudity. Or less. Whatever works for you. 
• Sign up for any or all of our super-fantastic newsletters? There's something for everyone.
• Subscribe to the print or electronic edition of Reason? It's $15 or less for year of the nation's only (and best!) magazine of "Free Minds and Free Markets." You'll get a handsomely designed magazine a month before the content gets posted en masse to the website.

Related: Reason's founders discuss 45 years of the magazine.

Comments

[Francisco d Anconia]

Because I don't do teh face thingy, tweeter, insta thingy and I hate junk mail.

Be happy with the donation I sent.

[GILMORE]

BUT YOU WILL LOVE CHECKING UP ON REASON 24/7 LIKE 12 TIMES A DAY OR ELSE YOU GET THE GENITAL SHOCK TREATMENTS

[juris imprudent]

That pitch only works on Warty.

[fish_remote]

Fist you really need to stop changing your handle so often....Francisco...yeah like that's a good choice!

[Eduard van Haalen]

Take the pledge! Do not discuss you-know what, you-know-what-I-mean, that other thing, or what's-its-name, and do not respond to those who bring them up!

[Eduard van Haalen]

Don't mention the war!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0

[Troy muy grande boner]

So, no abortion is wrong, pan pizza is eevyeeel, and Corona is the best beer ever?

[Snark Plissken]

Food trucks parking perpendicular, tractor pulls, voting Libertarian weakens good republicans, immigration, we have to wait for the evidence, gamboling, this is the worst chatroom ever, neocons, cosmotarians, left libertarians, IP laws, Michael Bay, soccer, football, parkour, gold standard, Nick Gillespie's jacket, Virginia Postrel's Golden Age and the Golden Girls...

[Longtorso, Johnny]

You left off the Cleveland Browns and not sugarcoating.

[PM]

There's no sugarcoating it, Longtorso has let me down one last time...

[Pathogen]

There's no sugarcoating it, Longtorso Artisanal Mayonnaise has let me down one last time...

[Marshall Gill]

There is no surgarcoating it, that will NOT be the last time.

[Snark Plissken]

I admit I haven't been keeping up like I should.

[Lady Bertrum]

Get with it and toe the lion.

[Isaac Bartram]

Someone's not towing the lion.

[PM]

Nick Gillespie's jacket

Gillespie belongs to the jacket, not the other way around.

[fish_remote]

So when Nick feeds and swallows whole a live reason.com summer intern....what do you do with the jacket shaped skin that he sheds?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY!!!

[fish_remote]

sigh....I could never wear a Lucy sized jacket.

[Brett L]

Jesus, when did we go all Hannibal Lector?

[fish_remote]

My prison therapist told me to look into hobbies.

[Troy muy grande boner]

circumcision

[PM]

Hey, cut that out.

[juris imprudent]

We are not going around that again.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Exactly. And nothing about how

"Two Vietnamese Catholics, whose arrest sparked mass protests in My Yen parish, Nghe An Province last month, were sentenced to six and seven months' imprisonment respectively on 23 October.

"Nguyen Van Hai and Ngo Van Khoi were arrested on 27 June and later charged with "disturbing public order", following an incident that occurred on 22 May, when men believed to be plainclothes police officers stopped and searched Catholics visiting a shrine and attending Mass at a church in Nghi Phuong Commune. As the police officers did not show any identification, there was confusion among the crowd as to their identity, and some people reportedly believed them to be robbers.

"It is unclear exactly why Nguyen Van Hai and Ngo Van Khoi were arrested: some sources say they were arguing with the plainclothes officers; others say they were simply being used as scapegoats for the unrest."

http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/arti.....ss&id=1599

Don't mention stuff like that.

[AlmightyJB]

Pan pizza is not evil, it's just not pizza. Nor is Corona beer. Abortion should be done by lottery.

[Snark Plissken]

But Epi's chilli is. His secret ingredient: conversation hearts.

[Brett L]

LOTS OF PEOPLE PUT BROCOLLI IN CHILI!

[Zakalwe]

If you put beans in chili, it's not chili but ABOMINATION.

Cut corn works surprisingly well.

[Brett L]

Agreed. Tomatoes and beans make it spicy beef soup. Chili has neither.

[Zakalwe]

Well, it has tomato paste/sauce. But actual tomatoes with chunks and stuff are verboten.

[Snark Plissken]

I grew up in NM I can put whatever I want into it. Fucking infidels...

Seriosuly, tomatoes? Next you'll be saying I can't put beer in there.

[Brett L]

I'm saying no beans and no tomatoes. Although the Terlingua rules permit tomatoes, I like it better without them.

Beer, coffee, and chocolate are all legit. And I just like to troll. My wife made something with beans and tomatoes and chili powder and ground beef that she calls chili.

[Snark Plissken]

Heh, I put beans in too sometimes, but I can't really make chili because of the kid, and if I use stew meat chunks instead of hamburger I call it goulash, but it's basically the same thing.

[fish_remote]

Abortion should be done by lottery.

Sometimes post delivery.....sometimes waaaaay post delivery.

[Ted S.]

Of course Corona beer isn't pizza.

[juris imprudent]

Aborted fetus deep dish pizza should only be washed down with Corona.

[Robert]

Did anybody think Corona beer was pizza?

[The Late P Brooks]

Isn't this New York Marathon weekend?

What are the odds the LAX shooting will be used to justify some vastly intrusive exercise in Security Kabuki covering the entire Metro New York area?

Full auto weapons, commando teams in the subways doing bag searches, sniffer dogs everywhere. Total Security State; better safe total intimidation and control than sorry!

[PM]

What are the odds the LAX shooting will be used to justify some vastly intrusive exercise in Security Kabuki covering the entire Metro New York area?

Who would notice anything different?

[Fist of Etiquette]

CLOSE THIS THREAD. Close it before it sucks us all into the abyss of libertarian infighting. Also, I'm right and everyone else is wrong.

[GILMORE]

You are just one of those Misesian Squishies (tm)

[PM]

SPLITTER!

[The Late P Brooks]

Some monomaniacal whiner has a sore butt.

[Zakalwe]

Gay marriage strikes again.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Additionally, is there some reason reason doesn't sell pants?

[Eduard van Haalen]

It seems someone is unclear on the concept of cosmotarianism..

[GILMORE]

Real Cosmotarians Freeball

[Sevo]

D'ja ever see a name plastered across someone's butt?
If you can read it, that person shouldn't be wearing it.

[Jon Lester]

Unless there's a volleyball game happening...

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Wait, what?

[darius404]

Because libertarians hate pants?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

*sniffle*

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why are there so many britches-related screen names here?

[General Butt Naked]

Charlie Crist to run as Dem...

Thoughts?

[Eduard van Haalen]

So is his opponent the anti-Crist?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Ughhh!

[Brett L]

Alex Sink in the primary? Probably not. She is actually rational. As state CFO, she actually proposed a plan to raise insurance rates high enough to significantly reduce the exposure of the state-backed "insurer of last resort" to something approaching the resources the state could actually bring to bear if we had another 2004-2006 spate of hurricanes.

If he makes it to the general? Rick Scott is believed to be the anti-Christ. at least among the state and university workers I meet.

[Ted S.]

Rick Scott is believed to be the anti-Christ. at least among the state and university workers I meet.

Does that make you more or less likely to want to vote for Scott?

[Pathogen]

Scott has his own baggage...

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah. Scott should have a sign on his desk that reads "pick your battles."

[BakedPenguin]

Having said that, Crist is the worst. As in, he makes Nikki look like the best.

[Brett L]

I'm going to take out radio ads: "Charlie Crist will let you sleep with his hot beard-wife if you'll vote for him. And probably her kids if that's more your thing."

Because I'm pretty sure that I can get his wife to admit that's not libel because its true.

[The Late P Brooks]

Real men don't wear pants

[Pope Jimbo]

Sorry. Wearing a skirt and a lacey blouse does not make you a manly man.

This is the reason that the Scots* had to become groundskeepers when they came to the USA.

*The people from Scotland, not Southern Culture on the Skids

[Francisco d Anconia]

My kinda gals!

[Eduard van Haalen]

Andrew Carnegie was a groundskeeper?

[GILMORE]

Yes. Grounds covered with piles of money.

[SusanM]

Auch aye!

[Brett L]

What you actually look like

[Pope Jimbo]

I'd rather be an Auto Top than an Auto Bottom like that dude.

NSFW

[Brett L]

You know, that just about sums up what I think England is like now.

[Irish]

I think it's cute that Reason thinks there's such a thing as a non-open thread on the weekends.

Whatever. I'll crosspost this from the other thread because I think it's just wonderful: An Obama Voter's Cry of Despair.

I'm reading a terribly sad book these days. It's a book that I thought would uplift me during the doldrums of second-year medical school, and renew in me a sense of hope. It's called "The Audacity to Win," and it's a memoir of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

The election turned out to be a landslide, and news anchors paused to reflect on the historic nature of the hour.

My classmates cried with joy, and my parents saved every newspaper they could find. A young team of visionaries was headed for the White House, and the nation was ready for change. During Obama's transition to office in 2008, he had an 82% approval rating. There was something in the air.

And George Bush had an approval rating of 90% after 9/11 and it jumped to almost 80% at the outset of the Iraq War. Also, explain to me how this bizarre tale of screaming, crying, and shouting in ecstasy is any different than what I would see at a religious revival.

Remember: It totally wasn't a cult.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Republican obstructionism cannot explain allowing the bugging of foreign leaders, nor having drones strike innocent children overseas. It cannot explain having the National Security Agency collect data on the private lives of Americans, nor prosecuting whistle-blowers who reveal government wrongdoing. It cannot account for assassinating Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, without a trial, nor shirking public funding and spending limits during presidential campaigns.

"It cannot justify the findings of a report that says the White House's efforts to silence the media are the "most aggressive ... since the Nixon Administration".

"And, most recently, it cannot excuse the failure to design a simple website more than three years since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law."

But guess who he voted for in 2012?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Banksy?

[Irish]

"Republican obstructionism cannot explain allowing the bugging of foreign leaders, nor having drones strike innocent children overseas. It cannot explain having the National Security Agency collect data on the private lives of Americans, nor prosecuting whistle-blowers who reveal government wrongdoing. It cannot account for assassinating Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, without a trial, nor shirking public funding and spending limits during presidential campaigns.

Probably because Republican obstructionism is largely a left-wing myth on the order of Soviet Kulaks and wreckers.

I especially love the last part about public funding in presidential campaigns. He put that on a list with serious civil rights violations, spying on American citizens, whistleblower prosecutions, and illegal assassinations.

One of these things is not like the others.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

If only he had used public money, then he none of those other things would have happened.

[General Butt Naked]

Or the fact that Obama's disdain for public financing was well known before Nov 2008.

Not that I'm for public financing, but c'mon, you fucking milky licker, get with the goddamn program.

[BakedPenguin]

Hey, at the very least, he's paying attention rather than playing "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" like so many proglodytes.

[GILMORE]

"Irish|11.2.13 @ 11:25AM|#

I think it's cute that Reason thinks there's such a thing as a non-open thread on the weekends."

"Because you can give us topics, but you will never take OUR FREEDOM!!!..."

....

cue talking about star trek and football.

[Lady Bertrum]

cue talking about star trek and football.

scroll down.....

scroll down.....

scroll down.....

[juris imprudent]

Hah! He actually expected THIS crowd to conform with his expectations?

[Brett L]

Man, I saw Morris in the URL and was hoping it was Dick Morris knifing Obama in the back so he could go work for the Clintons again in 2016.

[Irish]

This kid is an unbelievable idiot.

Still, as Obama's approval rating sank below 45% this week, returning to 2008 through that book has become that much harder. It makes me yearn for the many promises that disappeared.

Maybe you should stop waiting for a politician to ride in on his white horse and save you, dipshit.

[juris imprudent]

An awful lot of humanity needs to believe in some kind of savior. That said, the right-wing religious belief is slightly less annoying than the left-wing secular version.

[VG Zaytsev]

A perfect, non human savior whose existence cannot be proven is infinitely superior to a human 'savior' who cannot be denied.

[R C Dean]

The election turned out to be a landslide,

Err, no. Landslides typically mean the winner won the popular vote by more than 10% (at a minimum).

http://uspolitics.about.com/od.....dslide.htm

Obama won the popular vote by less than 4% (51.06% to 47.20%).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.....tion,_2012

Not even half a landslide by the most permissive definition.

[Irish]

He's talking about 2008. He's still wrong because 2008 was 52.9% to 45.7%. That's not a landslide. For historical comparisons:

1996:

Clinton: 49.2
Dole 40.7

1988:

Bush: 53.4
Dukakis: 45.7

1984

Reagan: 58.8
Mondale: 40.6

1980

Reagan: 50.8
Carter: 41.0

1972

Nixon: 60.7
McGovern: 37.5

I could go on. The majority of elections in the last 100 years have had larger margins of victory than Obama in 2008. The myth of the Obama mandate is based on a fraud.

[Jon Lester]

But when Bill Clinton won a 43% plurality, it was a "mandate."

[PapayaSF]

I remember that bit of rhetorical nonsense.

[cavalier973]

"I credit Obama with...our military exit from Iraq..."

Which had been already negotiated by Bush, as I understand it.

[Killazontherun]

With the Iraqis forcing him to keep to that agreed upon with the previous administration time table as well.

[Boisfeuras]

It is a pernicious lie. Obama wanted to keep troops in Iraq, but was forced to withdraw (on the Bush timetable), because of his administration's utter foreign policy incompetence. They failed miserably trying to negotiate a new Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq to allow troops to stay beyond the Bush timeline.

The "Obama got us out of Iraq" talking point is as absurd as claiming Big Brother raised chocolate rations by twenty grams.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

During Obama's transition to office in 2008, he had an 82% approval rating. There was something in the air.

Didn't the survivors of trench warfare in WWI say something similar?

explain to me how this bizarre tale of screaming, crying, and shouting in ecstasy is any different than what I would see at a religious revival.

At a religious revival they don't have to grab guns afterwards to get members of the community to put cash in the collection plate?

[Eduard van Haalen]

"The Internal Revenue Service shared highly confidential tax information of several Tea Party groups in the IRS scandal with the Federal Election Commission, a clear violation of federal law, according to newly obtained emails.

"The public watchdog group Judicial Watch told Secrets Thursday that it was former scandal boss Lois Lerner who shared the information on groups including the American Future Fund and the American Issues Project.

The emails obtained by Judicial Watch show that the IRS, which was considering the tax status of the groups, gave the FEC the tax returns of the groups, including income, expenditures and staff pay. The emails also revealed the exact working of the prying political questions the IRS wanted the groups to reveal, such as their goals and the requests for brochures and ads."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....le/2538263

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The FEC is way past it's expiration date.

[Suthenboy]

Jesus Eduard, are you still going on about that fake scandal?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Vatican looks into NIOFF violations:

"Following a wish expressed by Pope Francis, an international conference to examine human trafficking and modern slavery takes place in the Vatican on November 2 and 3.

"[The conference is] [d]escribed as a "preparatory workshop", organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences together with the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations...

"Each participant at the two-day conference will present a study shining the light on a particular perspective of human trafficking....

"Describing the phenomenon of human trafficking, [Dean Marcelo] Suarez-Oroaco [of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies] says it amounts to about a $30 billion enterprise ? that is larger than the GDP of Jordan, for example.

""He says the trafficking of human beings is the third-most profitable global criminal enterprise, after drugs and armaments.

""The professor highlights the fact that up to 75 per cent of all detected trafficked people are women and children. (There are about 27 million trafficked people in the world today) And he says that the percentage of children in increasing: "In the U.S., it is estimated that of all the detected trafficked people, 50 per cent are under age".""

http://en.radiovaticana.va/new.....en1-742628

[SweatingGin]

"says it amounts to about a $30 billion enterprise"

So you're saying there's money to be made in trafficking people....

[AlmightyJB]

Hate to break this to you but every thread is an open thread.

[Zakalwe]

Kneel before the post title.

[GILMORE]

Submit. Preview, then Submit.

[The Late P Brooks]

A young team of visionaries was headed for the White House

"First thing we do, we kill all the VISIONARIES."

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Visionary = Delusional

[Irish]

I don't know how someone can use the word visionary without realizing the religious connotations.

The arguments these people make are just drenched in religious imagery, but they never realize what a cult they are.

[General Butt Naked]

Are you an American?

Do you own a gun?

Chances are you are a racist that wants to kill black babies according to Australian researchers.

Golden shower quote of the day:

"As distant and dispassionate observers growing up in countries where there is 36 times less gun-related deaths?and gun ownership is extremely rare and well-regulated?we couldn't make sense of why there would be resistance to gun reform in the U.S.," O'Brien said. "Most of the logic for wanting to have a gun was illogical."

Oh, thank gawd we have Australians to tell us how terrible we are.

[Irish]

There are no demographic differences between Australia and America that could account for differences in crime rates.

None. It has to be the number of guns.

[Rich]

Hey! Australia has Black People, too!

/RACIST!

[Irish]

I was talking generally about low income regions in the inner cities and the poor areas where tons of low income immigrants live.

It's an issue of wealth. Australia has minimal immigration and most of the people living there have been there sometimes for centuries. It's just a vastly different situation from America and ignoring that fact seems to be the go to move for the anti-gun nitwits.

[Lady Bertrum]

If you want to drive leftie Australians (or Canadians for that matter) mad point out the income and educational inequality between those of European and Aboriginal populations in their nation state. Why do Australians and Canadians hate native populations?

[Irish]

Yeah. The primary reason that European countries, Australia and Canada have lower levels of wealth inequality is due to homogeneous populations. If Australia had the same percentage of Aboriginals in their country as America has of low-income Hispanics, for example, their income inequality would be gigantic.

The more diverse a country is, the higher the income inequality will be due to cultural differences. Finland isn't equal because of socialism, it's equal because almost everyone is Finnish.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The more diverse a country is, the higher the income inequality will be due to cultural differences.

While I see that as a general trend, there are some exceptions that need explaining. For example, Indonesia is pretty diverse, but has a fairly low Gini; likewise, Japan is extremely homogeneous, culturally, and has a fairly high Gini, and South Korea even more so.

Also compare the US to India. As far as number of ethnic groups, the US is more "diverse" than India, but culturally, India is much more fractious than the US, with several regions differing from each other linguistically and religiously, as well as ethnically. Yet, India has a 13 percent lower Gini than the US.

Again, I think you're correct as a rule of thumb, but it's not the whole picture.

[Irish]

Indonesia and India: I think poor countries tend to have a low Gini regardless of diversity. When the whole nation is poor, it's difficult to have much income inequality. There may be an upper class that is vastly richer than the rest of society, but that upper class will be small enough that it will be statistically insignificant when calculating Gini. The per capita GDP of India is like $1500 and Indonesia is a little over $3000. It's hard to have much income inequality when people are that poor.

India's Gini might be relatively low, but compare the richest person in India to the poorest. There's probably a far higher gap than there is in America. You've got penthouses in Mumbai that overlook the world's largest slums.

Japan is a better question. I'm not sure what the answer to that would be.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That's a good point about India, but as poor as India is, you'd expect it to have a much higher Gini, closer to China. However, India's Gini is similar to the dirt poor countries in Northern and Eastern Africa. Again, judging by demographics, politics, and history, you'd expect India to look like China and it doesn't, which is weird.

[Irish]

China's per capita GDP is 6 times what India's is. If my argument that it's hard to have a high Gini with massive poverty is correct, then it's not surprising that China would be far more unequal since they're a lot wealthier.

[Heroic Mulatto]

True. However, let's look toward the other direction then. India's total GDP is only slightly lower than Brazil's, a country that is also very diverse; however Brazil's GDP per capita is much higher and their Gini is too.

So the Brazilian economy and the Indian economy are generating the same amount of money, but the Brazilians are distributing more of it in an unequal fashion, even though they have far less people than India. Is it just that in Brazil, the money just gets eventually funneled to an elite group of plastic surgeons? I don't know, just thinking aloud.

[VG Zaytsev]

It's almost like the GINI is a bullshit stat skewed to reflect favorably for certain countries, or something.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

If you want to make them really mad point out that their pseudo-apartheid state policies ended in the 80s.

[juris imprudent]

Hell, Australians are mostly descended from criminals - of COURSE they shouldn't be trusted with guns.

[hotsy totsy]

Australia's population is only 23 million, only about 7% of the United States.

[Suthenboy]

He did not say crime rate Irish. He said gun-related deaths.

http://www.captainsjournal.com.....and-brits/

[Irish]

God knows the Australians take a solemn view of gun crime.

[2ndClassProle]

Yeah, like we want the U.S. to be all rapey like Australia.

[GILMORE]

That's not a rape.

[2ndClassProle]

Are we talking rape or rape-rape

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

[PM]

Legitimate rape

[BardMetal]

I would make a comment about how planned parenthood has killed way more black babies then I have, but that would bring up a subject that we're not mentioning today.

[PM]

This is basically like saying "There's more gay weddings in Massachusetts than there are in Oklahoma". Since the thing in reference is not legal in one place, but is legal in another, it kinda makes sense there's going to be more of it. The more relevant comparison if you want to make a useful statement about demographics would be to compare the per-capita number of homosexuals in Massachusetts vs Oklahoma. Or, in this case, perhaps the murder and/or violent crime rate. Contrary to popular belief in the countries still stuck under Elizabeth's skirt, getting beaten or knifed to death isn't any more pleasant than being shot.

[Troy muy grande boner]

From the first link:

Once safer guns are widely available, we need to start creating incentive programs to encourage owners to replace older, deadlier guns.

Because you know, a new 1911 is way less deadly than and old 1911.

[Pathogen]

New guns have no barrel, trigger, or magazine... and are generally milled out of a toasted jelly filled rectangular pastry, by ones own teeth...

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Gray wolf to lose endangered species protection as numbers rise
From the comments:

I'd like to address another, often overlooked aspect of this potentially devastating situation?the wolves themselves

They are, when not being harassed and menaced by humans, perhaps the noblest creatures on the planet?or at least in the top five?

Often called "nature's perfect parents" wolves take a communal view when rearing their young. Only the alpha male and female mate?the rest celibate and sharing in raising, feeding and protecting the pack and it's young. They don't overkill?taking only what they need (unlike certain species of bear, which will kill hungry or not?especially those coke-endorsing white ones who ARE the most carnivorous creatures on the North American continent?but they get the good PR, while wolves are vilified for their incredibly miniscule impact on cattle and other livestock

If man was as true to his essential, fundamental nature as wolves are?the world would be a far better place in many ways that really matter...

[Eduard van Haalen]

And there's a metaphor for the political agenda of a certain group of people...siding with the wolves against the humans.

[Terr]

It makes me smile because the hungry wolves would not hesitate to devour this person.

[PM]

Evil gets what evil wants

[Eduard van Haalen]

They used to hand out bounties to people who killed wolves.

[Brett L]

I hope this person gets hamstrung by a wolfpack and is used to teach the pups how to hunt and kill.

[Lady Bertrum]

+1 The circle of life.

[Francisco d Anconia]

They are, when not being harassed and menaced by humans, perhaps the noblest creatures on the planet

We spent 200 years getting rid of these fuckers and people think it's a good idea to bring them back?

We should transplant a pack to Central Park and see what they think of them then.

Where's little Johnny? He was on the swing just a second ago.

[Heroic Mulatto]

We should transplant a pack to Central Park and see what they think of them then.

Where's little Johnny? He was on the swing just a second ago.

A. The difference between a feral NYC dog and a wolf is muscle mass

B. The only wolf that's going to eat a kid is one on the brink of starvation

C. Read a zoology book

D. Drop the City Mouse/Country Mouse schtick, it's getting old.

[R C Dean]

The difference between a feral NYC dog and a wolf is muscle mass

I've looked into the eyes of wolves and dogs.

The difference is more than muscle mass.

[Francisco d Anconia]

A. Bullshit, NYC dogs don't hunt in packs.
B. Bullshit, wolves will eat whatever is available and often kill for sport
C. What Ev
D. Fuck you, by and large, the only people who want wolves reintroduced are those who don't have to deal with them.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Bullshit, NYC dogs don't hunt in packs.

They don't? Then explain how NYC dogs are different from every other fucking dog on the planet.

Bullshit, wolves will eat whatever is available and often kill for sport

Umm, the first link proves my point. Sheep are what wolves evolved to eat. Your second link is a myth.

D. Fuck you, by and large, the only people who want wolves reintroduced are those who don't have to deal with them.

Yes, it couldn't possibly be those farmers who are sick of deer breeding like rats and eating their crops, thus wanting a natural predator of deer to return to the food chain.

[PM]

Good to see that government trumps property rights as long as the farmers are pissed off. What else is new...

[Heroic Mulatto]

How so? By removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list, ranchers will be able to kill more wolves, to protect their herds. I'm not seeing the property rights conflict here.

[PM]

By removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list, ranchers will be able to kill more wolves, to protect their herds. I'm not seeing the property rights conflict here.

I was assuming you were in favor of not taking them off the endangered species list since you were arguing in favor of them being "reintroduced" so as farmers wouldn't have to deal with invasive deer.

In any case, the entire concept of a protected species shits on property rights, since the government disallows you from killing whatever species they're protecting, even on your own property. Which was what I was getting it. Farmers wanting wolves re-introduced to cut down on the deer population shouldn't even be a consideration in a world where the government doesn't tell you what animals you can and can't kill.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Then explain how NYC dogs are different from every other fucking dog on the planet.

NYC feral dogs aren't allowed to run in packs. People don't allow it for reasons of safety. But we are expected put up with packs of wolves that people in cities seem to be unable to live without.

Your second link is a myth.

3 Wolves kill 120 sheep and they aren't killing for sport? 3 Wolves couldn't eat 120 sheep in a year.

[VG Zaytsev]

Forget it Franco, a Cosmo's gotta worship Gaia.

[hotsy totsy]

They are, when not being harassed and menaced by humans, perhaps the noblest creatures on the planet...

I thought that was the dolphins!

[VG Zaytsev]

They're the noblest creatures because they are natural socialists.

[Pope Jimbo]

Sigh. We have been going through this here in Sunny Minnesota for the last several years because the DNR has opened a wolf season to try to manage the wolf population.

2012 set a record for compensation to farmers for loss of livestock. The taxpayers had to spend over $150K in 2012. It has been over $100K for several years now.

The good news is that this will be the second year of legal hunting for them.

[SweatingGin]

Michigan has the same thing going on, with some wolves in the western UP. Progs are going nuts about it, and the local Michigan Proletariat Radio covers wolf hunting about twice a week.

There's a ballot initiative to ban it, too, I believe.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Have a happy All Souls' Day!

"On All Souls Day, we not only remember the dead, but we apply our efforts, through prayer, almsgiving, and the Mass, to their release from Purgatory. There are two plenary indulgences attached to All Souls Day, one for visiting a church and another for visiting a cemetery. (The plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery can also be obtained every day from November 1-8, and, as a partial indulgence, on any day of the year.) While the actions are performed by the living, the merits of the indulgences are applicable only to the souls in Purgatory.

"Praying for the dead is a Christian obligation. In the modern world, when many have come to doubt the Church's teaching on Purgatory, the need for such prayers has only increased. The Church devotes the month of November to prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and participation in the Mass of All Souls Day is a good way to begin the month."

http://catholicism.about.com/o.....ls_Day.htm

[Snark Plissken]

If I ask him really, really nicely, the invisible man in the sky might let my unbaptized infant into the nicey place.

[juris imprudent]

Yeah, the really amusing part is the soul is fundamentally a Greek metaphysical concept completely unhinged from levant monotheism.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Ed

You do realize, this is hurting rather than helping your cause, right?

As a libertarian, I fully support your right to believe what you will and to voice your opinion, whether I agree with it or not. But it's getting old. If your goal is to win converts, you are achieving the opposite of your objective.

[Snark Plissken]

Agreed.

[Eduard van Haalen]

OK, OK. But I really was trying to avoid the forbidden topics. And I thought All Souls' Day would be an interesting human-interest story? Was I wrong? I'm sincerely sorry.

What about the Lois Lerner and slave-trafficking links? Would you prefer I avoid those?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Here - dog disperses fighting kittens.

How's that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dUTO7zWXzk

[Francisco d Anconia]

Needz moar Jeeezuz! 😉

[Eduard van Haalen]

If you insist:

Carrie Underwood answers the question, What Would Jesus Drive?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydBPm2KRaU

[Ted S.]

You want a human interest story?

Filipinos honor the dead on All Saints' Day by picnicking on their graves

The Christian tradition dates back to the ancient practice in Rome, which honors all saints and martyrs who died for the faith. All Souls' Day, the day after, is often when those wanting to avoid the crowds of All Saints' Day visit the cemeteries to pay their respects.

While the day of the dead is supposed to be solemn, Filipinos use it to plan family gatherings at the tombs, where drinking and even open-air karaoke singing sessions are held.

[What's up with sites including a link to their social-networking shit when you try to copy and paste text?]

But you have a hobby-horse of OH NO THEY'RE PERSECUTING TEH CHRISTIANZ ZOMG!!!111!!! and use it to post article after article after article in practically every weekend thread.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Jesus (so to speak), it was a *human interest* story - I stayed off the banned topics except for that Vietnamese police-abuse story.

OK, guess the hidden agenda of this video of a kitten fighting off an owner who tries to take away its cigarette:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9dc9wRztbQ

[Zakalwe]

I didn't know Michael Bloomberg had a cat.

[Acosmist]

Someone's butthurt.

[jesse.in.mb]

Holy Souls in Purgatory

ho?ly
?h?l?/
adjective
1. dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred.

Umm, if the Holy souls are ending up in purgatory aren't we all truly fucked anyway? Where's SweatingGin with his fake Chick Tracts? I would like to subscribe to his newsletter.

[darius404]

Isn't it possible that souls are considered automatically holy?

[jesse.in.mb]

My theology is a bit rusty, but souls are tainted by original sin from the get-go. Humans are fallen by nature and must be redeemed by Christ in order to achieve holiness.

Purgatory is a messy construction from the point of view of evangelicals (while not an evangelical myself, it's what I was raised) because salvation is a binary and not a spectrum. One is either "covered by the blood of Christ" and blemish-less in God's eyes (forgiven completely) or one is not saved.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith?and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God?not by works, so that no one can boast.

[hotsy totsy]

I was taught that any soul in Purgatory had died in the state of grace, but still had some things to make up for. They'd eventually get to heaven even if you didn't pray for them.

This teaching comes close to the concept of karma, but Christianity doesn't deal with the idea of rebirth, so they have to pay their karma back in Purgatory.

[hotsy totsy]

" While the actions are performed by the living, the merits of the indulgences are applicable only to the souls in Purgatory."

And if someone's already made it into heaven? Or hell? Where do those merits go? Like on a metaphysical debit card?

[Brett L]

Remember kids, you're a monster if you think gayness is something to be cured, but all right thinking people think Climate Change Deniers can be cured. I hear phrenology is coming back, too.

[Fatty Bolger]

First, you find out what their worst fear is.

[Brett L]

"You're going to talk at me until I believe in AGW. Holy shit, I'm cured. Now go away."

[Snark Plissken]

Kindle Price: $7.25 includes VAT* & free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet

Wow, they aren't going to charge me extra to download this book outside the US?

[Snark Plissken]

Oh, I guess that's for a 3G connection. Never mind.

[Brett L]

The Amazon Kindle "science" tag just keeps on giving

It's NOT Sleep Paralysis! The Global Nightmare of Nonhuman Intruders

[SusanM]

http://i1141.photobucket.com/a.....3fc2da.jpg

"Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure a working website or given you enough clairvoyance to retake the House of Repre...ack...ack..."

"Some would say I find your lack of faith disturbing."

[Fatty Bolger]

At least Vader had the sense to get rid of incompetent employees.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"apology accepted, Madame Secretary."

[LilDebbie]

+1 skywalker

[Zakalwe]

Say what you will about the tenets of Reason 24/7, at least it makes some sense as a Twitter feed.

[GILMORE]

IT BELIEVES IN NOSSING - NOSSING ZAKALWE!!

Also, uh, the amphibious rodent, uh, in city limits...

What's the point of it as a twitter feed if it fails to generate abundant/redundant click-throughs for Reason.com? The raison d'?tre, it is missing?

[The Late P Brooks]

"Most of the logic for wanting to have a gun was illogical."

So, anything he does not comprehend or agree with is "Illogical".

[Brett L]

Much like he conflates rationalization and rational.

[The Late P Brooks]

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I can tell, the Australians are not really in the best position to look down on the conduct of race relations in another country.

[Irish]

Well, at least there are some aborigines left on mainland Australia. They didn't got the route of the Tasmanians and commit flat out genocide.

I don't think there's a single aboriginal left in Tasmania.

[Isaac Bartram]

Actually, it's become quite the racket to establish yourself as a Tasmanian Aborigine these days. Gets you all kinds of benefits.

That said, the 19th century treatment of the indigenous population was disgraceful. OTOH, Just as with native populations in North America, the biggest killers of the indigenous Tasmanians were diseases to which they had no resistance.

Another factor that is overlooked is intermarriage, often quite involuntary. Whalers and sealers from as far away as the USA are known to have kept what amounted to harems of native women in their camps and they killed any native man who protested with impunity.

[Calidissident]

Irish is correct in that there are no full-blooded Tasmanian aborigines left. There are some mixed-race individuals, although I have no idea what the extent of their indigenous ancestry typically is.

[Sevo]

Yesterday, there was a review in the local rag about "12 Years a Slave", and it included 'ironic' comments on how the movie was "European" and how the Euros should lecture the US about that, ignoring that the slave trade was largely English.
BTW, I think the film is English, not Euro.

[PM]

I think the film is English, not Euro.

It's all the same horseshit.

If you don't like America, you can giiiiit out

[Snark Plissken]

British American according to Wiki, but the director & main actor are limeys.

[Gran]

Jews played a very disproportionate role in the slave trade, but you don't hear them feeling guilty about it.

[PM]

j00000000s

[Heroic Mulatto]

By "very disproportionate role" you mean, "They possessed far fewer slaves than non-Jews in every British territory in North America and the Caribbean, and in no period did they play a leading role as financiers, shipowners, or factors in the transatlantic or Caribbean slave trades", right?

[jesse.in.mb]

Look HM, if you're going to bring facts to bear on Gran's 2 minutes of J000 hate, you aren't welcome to participate. He was just getting to the good part where Jews steal our gentile babies and mash them up to make matzoh.

[Isaac Bartram]

In a good portion of the 19th century Quakers, in both America and England, were living down there complicity in the slave trade by being the leaders of the abolitionist movement.

[R C Dean]

Australians are not really in the best position to look down on the conduct of race relations in another country

I totally agree. They have gone bugfuck nuts with affirmative action, political correctness, and the rest of the panoply of lefty racism.

[Isaac Bartram]

On the other hand, they maintain an immigration system which is not much different from the old White Australia Policy.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-The White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week is intended to educate the public about the extent of the pornography problem and what can constitutionally be done about it. Fighting pornography, however, is a year-round challenge. Here are activities an individual or group can do during WRAP Week and during the year.

Make complaints to your U.S. Attorney and state prosecutor about possible violations of federal or state obscenity laws. You can find the name/address of your U.S. Attorney at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao. If you don't know who your state prosecutor is, check the phone book or contact your local police department. You can also make complaints to federal and state law enforcement agencies (e.g., the FBI, Postal Service and local police).

Alaska, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia do not have a state law that prohibits obscenity. Maine, New Mexico, and South Dakota, however, do allow local control of obscenity. In Hawaii and Oregon, the State Supreme Courts invalidated the laws. Morality in Media's legal department can help draft a new or amended state obscenity law or, if the State Supreme Court has invalidated the law, an amendment to a state constitution. Keep in mind that the Federal Obscenity Laws apply in each state!

http://www.catholicnewsagency......rnography/

[Rich]

the pornography problem

Nice band name.

[Brett L]

So much porn, so few Kleenexes?

[Gene]

White Ribbon

Even better.

[darius404]

What if I consider obscenity laws to be an obscenity? Can I report them?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

What's Up With Catholics and Birth Control?

-When 98% of Catholics and non-Catholic alike have used some form of birth control something has gone terribly wrong. Only Satan, himself, is clever enough to have worked his way into that many bedrooms.

Every act of sexual intercourse must be open to the transmission of human life. That is why barrier protection (condoms and spermicides), withdrawal before the completion of the act, and all forms of hormonal contraception and abortifacient drugs are forbidden. It also explains why the use of surrogate mothers, sperm banks, egg donation, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and certain fertility practices are forbidden by the Catholic Church as well.

If you apply the two basic elements, "procreative and unitive," to each one of these controversial practices today you will see that none of them exhibit both the Church-required "procreative and unitive" elements.

http://www.catholicnewsagency......php?id=638

[Rich]

Every act of sexual intercourse must be open to the transmission of human life.

Citation needed.

[PM]

Catholics actually do believe that. Although if you're not catholic I can't see how it would matter.

[Isaac Bartram]

Not so much North American Catholics, though.

[jesse.in.mb]

I believe Dan Savage jokes about not having been able to knock up his husband yet, but he's going to keep trying.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Dude, the right wing fanatics at the washington posts fact check blog, in an article by glen kessler, debunked this phony stat over a year ago, calling it a "media foul." Youre entitled to your own opinion, as daniel patrick moynihan said, but not to hour own facts.

[Snark Plissken]

Was this already posted this week?

Anti-Semites, racists and terrorist groups are loose on the blogging website, flooding Twitter with shocking, hate-spewing hashtags and handles that watchdogs want stopped.

The hugely popular social medium, credited with helping to topple dictators abroad, is now in the cross hairs of critics at home.

Twitter plans a global expansion after its $1.6 billion Goldman Sachs-led IPO, the most hyped since Facebook in 2012. Twitter's IPO could give the firm an $11 billion market cap.

Nice IPO you have there, shame if anything were to happen to it.

[Rich]

hate-spewing hashtags

Nice band name.

[Irish]

Has anyone explained what makes twitter worth 1.6 billion dollars? That seems like a ludicrously overpriced IPO.

Then again, VICE is supposedly worth 1.4 billion dollars. I think some of these internet properties are dramatically overpriced.

[PM]

"We'll monetize it later" seems to be the new mantra.

[Ted S.]

Hasn't that been a mantra since the original tech bubble?

[juris imprudent]

I'm gonna short anybody that has that phrase in their prospectus.

[Snark Plissken]

Preaching to the choir. I personally find Twitter to be more useful than FB so think FB is way more overvalued.

[Irish]

How 'useful' something is has nothing to do with value though. Facebook has a much higher capacity for targeted advertising and things like that. They've already got a much higher revenue stream than twitter does, and they've got far more users.

[PM]

How 'useful' something is has nothing to do with value though.

A lesson taught us by Pets.com in the 90's, and that seems to have been forgotten already.

[Snark Plissken]

But their P/E is 127 so the value is still based on the idea of a ton of future revenue growth. Whereas their actual growth curve seems to be slowing quite a bit and a lot of people like me just barely use their accounts these days.

My point was about "personal value" not intrinsic value, which is why I stated it that way. If I find Twitter more valuable, perhaps I'm ahead of the curve of middle-aged people who are abandoning FB for Twitter.

[Irish]

VICE is probably the most bizarre. There is no way on Earth that VICE is worth the 1.4 billion dollars that Rupert Murdoch's valuation put them at.

[Snark Plissken]

As PM said, how quickly Pets.com is forgotten...

[PM]

Bear in mind you're talking about the same guy who paid 600 million for MySpace, which was roughly double it's valuation at the time.

[Snark Plissken]

Christ, did he buy GeoCities also?

[Sevo]

Irish|11.2.13 @ 12:32PM|#
"Has anyone explained what makes twitter worth 1.6 billion dollars? That seems like a ludicrously overpriced IPO.

If you had personal info on some millions of people worldwide to target my advertising, I'd say that's worth a LOT.
Now all we need is folks whining that Twitter has that info after they gladly hand it over.

[PM]

If your platform sucks at serving ads that people actually click on and generate sales though...

[Sevo]

You mean it's 'Obamacared'?

[LynchPin1477]

I don't really get the internet ad model. I mean, I guess it works, since so many companies spend so much money on it. But I can think of maybe 2 or 3 times, total, that an internet ad led me to buy a product. I usually don't even notice them. Maybe I'm not typical in that regard.

[R C Dean]

There's no sugar coating it: I think some of these internet properties are dramatically overpriced.

C'mon, Irish. Tow the lion!

[Lady Bertrum]

Internet bubble 2.0. --- QE

[Gran]

Race and Fraternities, American Renaissance

[Irish]

Shut the fuck up, American.

[PM]

Although forcing frats to integrate is bullshit from a libertarian perspective. But I don't think that's quite what he took away from it.

[Irish]

Agreed, but read this from the article:

Greek organizations are some of the few remaining bastions of white identity?and they have deep roots. Their beginnings go back to the founding of the republic, and some of today's most popular fraternities and sororities were formed just after the Civil War. These groups are bound by longstanding traditions and a multigenerational alumni base that includes some of the most prominent members of American society.

Their argument isn't about freedom, it's about a deep and unyielding fear that those filthy Negroes will ruin the noble White Man's fraternities with their miscegenation and their rap music.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I fear arrhythmic White boys fucking up Stepping routines.

[PM]

Their argument isn't about freedom, it's about a deep and unyielding fear that those filthy Negroes will ruin the noble White Man's fraternities with their miscegenation and their rap music.

That's not particularly relevant.

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. - H.L. Mencken

For that matter, I'd need some more convincing before I could muster any moral outrage for race-based fraternities in the first place. They're already divided up by gender and then broken down into a billion retarded occupational and social classes. If you're the kind of person who so desperately needs an identity group to pigeonhole yourself into, you might as well throw race into the mix while you're at it.

[Irish]

I'll defend their freedom to have an all-white fraternity but that doesn't mean I can't criticize American Renaissance for the fact that their desire for all-white fraternities is based entirely on racism.

There shouldn't be a law against it, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't criticize them. Freedom to be an asshole =/= freedom from criticism for being an asshole.

[Sevo]

"Freedom to be an asshole =/= freedom from criticism for being an asshole."

This gets forgotten often enough. Similarly, free speech /= speech free of consequences.

[PM]

Like I said, I guess it's just because it's so consistent with the nature of fraternities in the first place that I can't seem to muster much moral outrage. Racist? Yeah, sure, I guess. So are all the minority-exclusive frats. Throw in sexist - frats and sororities cater to males and females, respectively. Certainly classist; you can only get into some frats if you are training for a particular occupation. Sometimes the exclusions all converge: http://thegrio.com/2013/10/30/.....means-now/

Whoopty doo as far as I'm concerned

[Heroic Mulatto]

So are all the minority-exclusive frats

As far as I know, there are no frats that are exclusive by race de jure, and I'm guessing that's due to the Civil Rights Act Title IV or VI...I don't know, legal eagles help me out here.

[PM]

I'm not fully competent to speak with authority on the matter, but I think because they are private membership organizations they would be able to skirt the CRA's requirements. In any case, they're de facto divided by race, if not de jure. And that's still to say nothing of the divisions on every other trifling criteria.

[Calidissident]

The "minority-exclusive" fraternities historically formed because minorities were usually excluded from the traditional fraternities. I'm sure it varies from school to school, but at least at my school, the minority fraternities and sororities are more than willing to accept anyone of any race, white people just usually aren't interested in joining.

I also don't really think a fraternity dedicated and exclusive to an occupation, or the fact that fraternities and sororities are gender-exclusive is the same thing as being race-exclusive, but that's another argument.

[PM]

...the minority fraternities and sororities are more than willing to accept anyone of any race, white people just usually aren't interested in joining.

Natch. Only teh evul white people could possibly have sinister motives in approving new pledges to their retarded circle jerk clubs. White frats are white because they're racist. Black frats are black because whites are racist. Hell, the white frat boys probably don't even rape black women they're so racist!

I also don't really think a fraternity dedicated and exclusive to an occupation, or the fact that fraternities and sororities are gender-exclusive is the same thing as being race-exclusive

Of course. Genitals being a choice while skin color is innate...

[Francisco d Anconia]

Hey, hey, hey...one can despise rap music without being racist.

[PapayaSF]

I certainly hope so.

[The Late P Brooks]

Anti-Semites, racists and terrorist groups are loose on the blogging website, flooding Twitter with shocking, hate-spewing hashtags and handles that watchdogs want stopped.

Something something "kill the TSA!"

[Gran]

I'm sure libertarians have a problem with this....

[Sevo]

I'm sure you're a racist asshole.

[Generic Stranger]

Irish|11.2.13 @ 12:42PM|#

Shut the fuck up, American.

[The Late P Brooks]

Drop the City Mouse/Country Mouse schtick

Conduct your ideologically motivated zoological experiments in your own back yard.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm only 25% Scottish!

[Ted S.]

Like our Facebook page?

No, I don't. I find that the anti-social networking widget shit causes H&R to slow down immensely. And if I try to stop loading a page after the relevant text is downloaded but not all the GDF widgets, the page will try to push the widgets at me again and again.

[Rhywun]

'Stylish' is your friend. No widgets here.

[jesse.in.mb]

They even make it for Opera, Ted!

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

thanks, Friend!

[Stevie OneLeg]

Having a Stanley Steamer on your carpet is a good thing - unless your name is Stanley.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Esquire on guns

There is nothing random about how we got where we are today, here in Terminal 7, where people have sought refuge from the bloodshed, four terminals over. There is nothing "random" at all. We have chosen insanity over reason. We have done it with our eyes open. It is time for me to walk out of the airport now. I am leaving behind a terrible event. But I am not leaving behind something accidental. I am leaving behind what America has determined must happen from time to time, if we are to be a free people. I am leaving behind what America has determined is part of the cost of being an American. I am leaving behind the blood that I am told I must accept as part of the price of being a member of a free society. I am leaving behind a place of death, and I am joining my fellow citizens, as we make an odd pilgrimage out of a place that is now another altar of the blood sacrifice that I am told we must make, regularly, in order to be truly free. I am a free citizen, I am told, of the Republic of Murder, my rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Moloch. I am leaving.

Praise be to Moloch!

[Irish]

I knew immediately it was Charles Pierce. Charles Pierce is one of the dumbest human beings on planet Earth. He actually wrote a book claiming that Americans are idiots, by which he essentially meant Americans who don't think exactly like Charles Pierce.

You read his ramblings though and it's difficult to see how he can call anyone else stupid. His writings read like the barely edited journal of a college Sophomore.

[Isaac Bartram]

He also wrote an article where he said that if only Mary Jo Kopechne had lived to be 65 that she would be grateful to Ted Kennedy for his untiring efforts to pass Medicare thus guaranteeing her healthcare in her declining years.

[juris imprudent]

That is beyond peak derp.

[Eduard van Haalen]

If he's leaving, what gun-free paradise is he moving to?

[Pathogen]

Mexico?

[PM]

It's ironic that this shooting took place in precisely the type of environment that the laws he favors would create nationwide: unarmed herds of people surrounded by every apparatus of the Total Security State, glove-wearing TSA nut grabbers and all. We must have come up just one security camera too short that fateful day, I guess...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The worst part is that the shooter appears to be a bona fide anti-government nut.

So prepare for the wave of condescension from the left.

[Irish]

I ignore it. They've lost the gun issue so completely that Democrat state senators in 65% Democrat counties lose seats for minor gun control legislation.

The Colorado whiplash over the gun issue, which could actually put the Republicans in control of the Senate if the next recall goes their way, pretty much eliminates the possibility of the Democrats getting their way over this issue. Since Democrats are petulant children that stamp their feet and fall into an orgy of concern trolling at the slightest setback, I find that it's entertaining to sit back and watch the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Left-wing misery is awesome not only because it's so extreme and childish, but because it is eternal. The leftist is a creature born in misery and who will die in misery, all of his dreams having gone to dust.

This makes me smile.

[Pathogen]

+1 Crisp and refreshing, salty ham-tear mineral water..

[Kid Xenocles]

"I am leaving."

Don't be like that. See if you can take one of your fellow-travelers with you.

[Troy muy grande boner]

I think the first problem with this paragraph is that this stupid cocksucker thinks he lives in a free society.

[jesse.in.mb]

Umm, Moloch accepted sacrifices of babies and wasn't explicitly a god of wanton violence. In fact invoking Moloch as emblematic of American society is a much better fit for the prolife crowd than it is for the anti-gun-violence crowd.

If you're going to invoke the myths of a people long dead, please do it correctly.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

What exactly is the demographic that Esquire is, ah, shooting for nowadays?

[Pathogen]

Whiny, effeminate, beta.. Hipster douche spigots..

[Pope Jimbo]

Ugh!

The comments are great. A lot of the John variety, "but if you didn't vote for them the Dems would win!"

[Brett L]

Exactly. And eventually these assholes will stop running shitbird candidates or their party will collapse. Either is more palatable to me than being associated with that fucking authoritarian ticket.

[Irish]

Oh good Lord. This isn't even like the Cuccinelli debate, since at least Cooch is decent on economic issues. This is the Republicans admitting that they would prefer Republican authoritarians over Democrat authoritarians even if there was no difference between them.

It's not surprising, it's just funny to hear them admit it.

[Irish]

In fairness, most of the people do say this would be a disgusting ticket and they might stay home.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Puppies and kittens freak out at seeing their reflections in the mirror:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dmkRsBm5ww

[Sevo]

More love for O'care:
"Sticker shock often follows insurance cancellation"
"The Griffins, who live near Philadelphia, pay $770 monthly for their soon-to-be-terminated health care plan with a $2,500 deductible. The cheapest plan they found on their state insurance exchange was a so-called bronze plan charging a $1,275 monthly premium with deductibles totaling $12,700."
Now, assuming the guy isn't lying, here's a commenter making it clear why MDs should have nothing to say about how they are paid:
"DOC_SF
Who was paying for the Griffins' hospitalizations, drugs, or whatever benefits the old plan wasn't covering? I WAS! WE ALL WERE! I don't want to pay for them anymore...Go ACA!"
http://www.sfgate.com/news/tex.....949117.php

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Look, get with the talking points:

Gun violence that affects .01% of Americans is a ghastly epidemic that requires all our attention and massive sweeping legislative remedies.

5-10% of Americans losing their coverage and getting fucked over by Obamacare? Eh, it's no big deal.

[Michael Ejercito]

Who made these talking points?

[LynchPin1477]

I don't want to pay for them anymore...Go ACA!

People like this absolutely deserve Obaama.

[Sevo]

"People like this absolutely deserve Obaama."

Yeah, but idjits like that inflict the POS on the rest of us.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Once the healthcare costs of your personal decisions are borne by others, they're going to wait to have a say in the matter. And their views might conflict with yours. Violently.

60000 RM
this is what this person suffering from hereditary defects costs the Community of Germans during his lifetime
Fellow Citizen, that is your money, too

Read '[A] New People'
The monthly magazines of the Office for Race Politics of the NSDAP

Man, I can't imagine where this "death panels" idea took root.

[Michael Ejercito]

I wonder if those "war on women" folks ever considered the idea that health insurers, since they have to cover contraception, now have to pry into the sex lives of women to calculate the cost of covering contraception.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Kitten meets hedgehog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D36JUfE1oYk

[jesse.in.mb]

I hope you're holding some of these cute animal videos in reserve for when Nicole makes her triumphant return.

[Pi Guy]

Hmmmm... Nobody mentioned raw milk collectives.

[Kid Xenocles]

I donated to the Reason Foundation and all I have to show for it is junk mail from lots of other groups. Though the free copy Atlas Foundation's primer on libertarianism is pretty okay.

[The Late P Brooks]

We have chosen insanity over reason.

Hey- don't look at me, you're the one who voted for him.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Trained pig doing tricks (no, the other kind of pig):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaZMAb6mc5E

[Plopper]

How do I "subscibe" ?

[Eduard van Haalen]

3-year-old girl riding on a pony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVprYs0sn_Q

[Kid Xenocles]

Footage from SNC's Dream Chaser landing test.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Was it always the Sun?

[PapayaSF]

Interesting.

[Rhywun]

Yes.

[VG Zaytsev]

Only deranged teabaggers think that the sun influences Earth's climate!!11

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

These couples met and got married on Instagram

[Eduard van Haalen]

People meet by conversing on the Internet, and then get married? That's something I hadn't heard of before!

[Sevo]

The peoples' republic of Venezuela forges ahead!:
"Venezuela's government seizes US-owned oil rigs"
Hmm, wonder why?
"Venezuela has quietly seized control of two oil rigs owned by a unit of Houston-based Superior Energy Services after the company shut them down because the state oil monopoly was months behind on payments."
The government was buying toilet tissue!
http://www.sfgate.com/news/tex.....948029.php

[Metazoan]

I didn't realize there were any privately-owned oil rigs in Venezuela anymore...

[Eduard van Haalen]

"British authorities claimed the domestic partner of reporter Glenn Greenwald was involved in "terrorism" when he tried to carry documents from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden through a London airport in August, according to police and intelligence documents....

"At a London court hearing this week for Miranda's lawsuit [about being detained at a London airport], a document called a "Ports Circulation Sheet" was read into the record. It was prepared by Scotland Yard - in consultation with the MI5 counterintelligence agency - and circulated to British border posts before Miranda's arrival. The precise date of the document is unclear.

""We assess that Miranda is knowingly carrying material the release of which would endanger people's lives," the document continued. "Additionally the disclosure, or threat of disclosure, is designed to influence a government and is made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause. This therefore falls within the definition of terrorism...""

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....99838.html

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Define all leaking as terrorism. Well, that's one way to try and handle things, I suppose.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

The sex lives of real people

[Eduard van Haalen]

Damn, it's hard out there for a troll.

Making a Chicago-style deep dish pizza:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIC7tvJf46I

[Troy muy grande boner]

That's obscene.

[Andrew S.]

Advertisement for a machine gun vest, circa 1929. I want one.

[Andrew S.]

Dammit, did I SF the link?

http://tinyurl.com/kgubsha

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Let's all watch the Crepes man.

[Eduard van Haalen]

It's nice to see a guy who's into his work.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Asthma Cigarettes

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Typically they contained stramonium and belladonna, but "no poisonous tobacco" (Marshall's advert 1893)."

And all this time I was smoking harmless belladonna!

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Since I've been taking Nervine, nothing bothers me.

[PapayaSF]

The active ingredient was bromide, no longer approved for that sort of use.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Anheuser-Bush's Malt-Nutrine

[PapayaSF]

SF'd the link, dude.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

it's for the best

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Great Hangover cure

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Women are teachable.

[cavalier973]

My favorite ghost story.

Mrs. Coleen Buterbaugh walked across the campus on an errand. She was trying to track down a visiting lecturer from Scotland who had been assigned an office on the second floor of the C.C. White building. The visiting professor, Thomas McCourt, had been given the two-room offices that had once belonged to Urania Mills. Mrs. Buterbaugh stepped through the open door and all of the sounds of students and music in the hallways abruptly ceased!
She took two steps into the room and a strange and powerful odor swept over her. She would later recall that it was like someone had left a gas jet open and let the odor escape. She became very aware of the death-like stillness of the building and then she felt a presence very nearby.... she knew that she was not alone.
Through the doorway to the next room, she saw the figure of a woman, standing with her back to her and reaching into a cabinet. She described the woman as being very tall and slender with dark hair that was pulled back into a bun. She also felt the woman was not alone and felt the presence of a man very near to her. She turned, but she saw no one.

[cavalier973]

She looked out the window and saw that all of the scenery outside had changed. There were no streets and the Willard Sorority Hall had vanished. "Nothing outside was modern," she said. Terrified, she ran from the room and straight to the office of the Academic Dean, Sam Dahl, who listened to her story and refused to dismiss it as her imagination. Her could see that she was telling the truth.
Dahl took Mrs. Buterbaugh to a social science instructor who had been at the college for many years. They rummaged through old year books until the instructor found the woman who he believed bast matched the description given by Mrs. Buterbaugh. It was Miss Urania Mills.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I'm like two trolls in one!

A circumcision device "similar to a pizza cutter"

http://www.improbable.com/2013.....za-cutter/

[Ayn Random Variation]

Are you ready for 3 years of the War on The Womenz thing? Well, ready or not, here she comes:

http://www.politico.com/story/.....99240.html

Hillary Clinton on Friday unveiled a new initiative designed to boost women and girls. The former secretary of state detailed the new effort, called "No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project," at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women.

"The great unfinished business of the 21st century is helping women and girls break through these ceilings and participate fully in every aspect of life once and for all," she said.

From the comments:

sandyhh kia48 ? a day ago
The GOP threatens to curtail the availability of birth control and downgrade rape to a mere misdemeanor and you say that there is no War on Women...as you hold an internal vagina horse prod in your hand?

All women are smarter than male Republican fools who think abusing females is a Christian Wrong-given right and we should appreciate your hypocrisy.

[Ayn Random Variation]

Holy shit:

Sarah Morison chatmandu7451 ? a day ago
Women are impregnated by MEN. Why shouldn't all of society pay for and provide contraception, so as to limit population growth (we are already exploiting the world's resources to the max) and also limit the number of unwanted or unaffordable children, and thereby reducing abortions? If you don't want to help pay for contraception in society, then perhaps you would like to post a bond for every time you have unprotected sex that would cover the costs of pregnancy, labor & birth, and the upbringing of any child that may result?

[juris imprudent]

I'll contribute to her permanent sterilization.

[Ayn Random Variation]

ROADZ!!!!!!!

Sarah Morison me2016 ? 16 minutes ago
My daughter pays $50 per month for birth control pills under our insurance -- that is not cheap for many people. And sex is frequently not "an elective activity". Men often get their way, regardless of how the woman feels, and that is especially true in marriage. And are you also opposed to mandatory car insurance, Social Security and Medicare, public highways, national parks, etc.?

[juris imprudent]

Ah, way too late I see.

[Kid Xenocles]

This is just to say: Fuck Notre Dame!

[Almanian!]

A grateful nation agrees with you. Except for those fucking Roman Catholics...

*quietly slips out of room*

[Eduard van Haalen]

+1 for the Gipper

[Kid Xenocles]

If by Catholics you exclude literally every other major Catholic college, then maybe, I guess.

[Ayn Random Variation]

PATRIARCHY!!!!

Sarah Morison ruffles1 ? an hour ago
Well, most of our presidents have been members of the good ol' boys club, and been presidents of "men and boys". They haven't been concerned about the needs and opinions of women -- who constitute more than 50% of the population. It's called patriarchy. Hillary is attempting to make a difference in the lives of women and girls and she should be commended. It certainly doesn't make her less qualified to be president of all of us.

[Ayn Random Variation]

I spotted shreek on there:

MoronEviscerator wttexas ? a day ago
Illiterate Christo-fascist from the Islamic Republic of Texas spotted.

MoronEviscerator Charles ? a day ago
And what would a Rick Warren-worshiping birther member of the Slaveholding Baptist Convention know about the sensibilities of the American people?

[Irish]

MoronEviscerator wttexas ? a day ago
Illiterate Christo-fascist from the Islamic Republic of Texas spotted.

MoronEviscerator Charles ? a day ago
And what would a Rick Warren-worshiping birther member of the Slaveholding Baptist Convention know about the sensibilities of the American people?

What does this mean? I didn't know the Baptists were still holding slaves.

[Eduard van Haalen]

In 1845, the Northern and Southern Baptists broke apart primarily over the slavery issue. Historically, that's why the S. Baptists are their own denomination.

Therefore, everything S. Baptists do today is because they love slavery.

http://www.baptisthistory.org/.....nnings.htm

[Almanian!]

Original sin. Come on - if the shackles fit....

[The Late P Brooks]

"The great unfinished business of the 21st century is helping women and girls break through these ceilings and participate fully in every aspect of life once and for all," she said.

Yup.

I predict a long, bumpy road.

[Rhywun]

So if we elect Hillary, all this talk about the "glass ceiling" and "internal vagina horse prods" will cease... right?

[Raven Nation]

Yep, just like all the racism disappeared in 2009.

[juris imprudent]

Sheesh Nick, all you needed was an 800-number and your pitch would be right in line with Obama and PPACA.

Operators are standing by!

[Sevo]

One more 'we know what insurance you should have' idjit:
"Most important, Tavenner delivers a clear explanation of what's happening. Insurers are changing policies to meet the higher standards and greater security of Obamacare and are increasing their fees as a result."
See, those insurers aren't "forced" to cancel your existing policy!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....=AG0002957

[Rhywun]

Well, pass a law that says they can't increase their fees. Duh.

[JidaKida]

Tehre is a dude that clearly knows what time it is.

http://www.PrivacyRoad.tk